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Pyrotoad posted:Unfortunately it's one of those ones that gets effectively poisoned by his blog post where he very confidently asserts that the scammers he's personally friends with or that genuinely believe their own bullshit are good actually. I can't get over that. He clearly made the connection or else why bring them up at all in his blog post specifically about scammers. But I mean Mookie's philosophy and writing has always been good people's actions are always good, and bad people's actions are always bad. Billy Gnosis fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Apr 17, 2024 |
# ? Apr 17, 2024 20:06 |
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# ? May 6, 2024 04:30 |
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I'll change my tune if the spirit healing rocks that are all also scams end up being what saves the day. gently caress me it's going to be that isn't it.
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# ? Apr 17, 2024 20:36 |
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To be fair, it would be probably would be easier to scam people with magic crap in a world where magic exists, ironically. Since it's in the realm of possibility, more people would be receptive to it. And just look at all the people who get fooled by tech scams in the real world. You could write a whole story about scam wizards, it would be great.
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# ? Apr 17, 2024 22:03 |
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a cartoon duck posted:as much as his greatest hit is "people like to write sexy thieves, so why not write a sexy rapist?" They already existed, they're called vampires.
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# ? Apr 17, 2024 22:12 |
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Caphi posted:Also what does her relationship status have to do with any of this? (at this point I assume it's just a detail that he threw in so that he can end the arc with her meeting a boy who also loves rocks or whatever to make it look like a happy ending regardless of how much he bungles the actual central relationship dynamic) It seemed like Dad was pissed because she was pursuing her own interests instead of getting married and pumping out kids since he's the typical authoritarian patriarch, but he's actually angry she fell for multiple scams. Okay. Medenmath posted:Maybe she was buying healing rocks to try and cure whatever killed her dad Thing is, she didn't mention her dad died young or of some sudden illness, but judging by what she says here it looks like that's what happened -- she was searching for healing stones or precious gems to sell for treatment. Would've been nice to establish that before.
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# ? Apr 17, 2024 23:02 |
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Its still a generic thing though. Like the prediction posts from above demonstrated it's so easily predictable. A good story is a living thing. It breathes, it has a pulse. Mookie just makes an approximate shape of a comic. From a distance it might look like one but it's a dead mishappen thing with only the most superficial resemblances to a story. I really dislike this shallow fetid pond of a man.
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 04:01 |
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There's a new page and it's dumb thanks for reading
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 05:53 |
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1. That was easy 2. Lol at the lovingly drawn rear end 3. Teleported outside rudecyrus fucked around with this message at 06:31 on Apr 19, 2024 |
# ? Apr 19, 2024 06:27 |
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Magic is gentler. Except when it kills ghosts. Spirit shepherds are self-abnegating monks who exist to serve ghosts even at the expense of their own bodily autonomy. Except when the ghost is rude. 10/10, conflict negated.
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 06:31 |
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Man I was afraid there was going to be some conflict there for a minute.
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 06:31 |
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Well, so much for this story exploring topics. Am I surprised? No. Disappointed? ...almost always.
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 07:26 |
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This would be fine as like a 4 page comic you see on tumblr scrolling by and you click the heart button to mark that you've seen it, and never think about it again, at least. This is like. Going bowling and you hit a pin at last. You hit one pin. I can make fun of someone who rolls nothing but gutterballs constantly but someone who can hit at least one pin, it feels mean.
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 07:35 |
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the butt is terrible
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 08:04 |
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Oh so now you can just forcibly move them on without solving their underlying problem? And your moral is that's fine if you personally think they're an rear end in a top hat. And you're leaving the family there with no catharsis? Shout at them with dad's voice and then just kill him forever. I dread to think what's going to happen next week when she follows up with the daughter/son who are now going to thank her for this bullshit non-ending.
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 08:05 |
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Breadmaster posted:I'm just waiting for him to remove all tension/abruptly end this arc in the next page. well, now what do i do with the gift of prophecy?
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 08:25 |
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Breadmaster posted:well, now what do i do with the gift of prophecy? Move to a backwater town full of jocks who'll never appreciate you and sell your services as a prophet, an oracle for hire, if you will?
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 08:30 |
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Ah, there's the other shoe dropping with the story. A conflict between what the ghost needs to move on and what the bereaved need to move on? What if the ghost is kind of an rear end in a top hat? No problem, it turns out spirit shepherds are ghostbusters as well! Once again Mookie leaves interesting ideas on the table. What if the scammer guy went around banishing every ghost as fast as possible without any empathy, while the protagonist wanted to take the time and effort to understand them to give them peaceful closure, even if they were kind of rear end in a top hat like dad here. That'd be a much more interesting conflict than him just being a fraud.
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 08:55 |
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catlord posted:Move to a backwater town full of jocks who'll never appreciate you and sell your services as a prophet, an oracle for hire, if you will? And make bad puns and alliterative sentences.
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 08:57 |
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super sweet best pal posted:And make bad puns and alliterative sentences. If someone tells you they go to Alcoholics Anonymous, look disapprovingly to the side as if a camera was there
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 09:11 |
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So if the whole point of spirit shepherds is to guide ghosts into the generically spiritual "Great Cycle" is this one just straight up gone? Making her a murderer?
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 09:12 |
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Uhh so how much longer is this arc supposed to go?
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 09:25 |
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The next week is going to be three pages of her being satisfied with a job well done despite things not ending happily and any regret will be superficial. Mookie will consider this character growth. Optionally, she'll be sad that people are taking advantage of her profession but nothing will be done about this. Another shaggy dog story in the can.
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 09:37 |
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The thing that gets me is that by trying to tackle both the idea of someone being haunted by an rear end in a top hat family member as well as the need for consent to have your body possessed, the story ends in this situation where Spookie ends up coming across as a selfish egotist who makes the situation all about herself. She's not mad at Ghost Dad because he is a controlling rear end in a top hat who thinks she needs to get married to solve her problem, or that him haunting the daughter from beyond the grave is causing her stress, or that he can't respect his grown-rear end daughter to make her own mistakes. No, Spookie banished Ghost Dad for the crime of being mean to her, personally.Tesseraction posted:Oh so now you can just forcibly move them on without solving their underlying problem? And your moral is that's fine if you personally think they're an rear end in a top hat. It's hilarious how Pares manages to provide way more catharsis to the daughter than Spookie did.
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 09:41 |
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Maxwell Lord posted:Uhh so how much longer is this arc supposed to go? about 5 or 6 more pages
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 09:44 |
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amigolupus posted:The thing that gets me is that by trying to tackle both the idea of someone being haunted by an rear end in a top hat family member as well as the need for consent to have your body possessed, the story ends in this situation where Spookie ends up coming across as a selfish egotist who makes the situation all about herself. She's not mad at Ghost Dad because he is a controlling rear end in a top hat who thinks she needs to get married to solve her problem, or that him haunting the daughter from beyond the grave is causing her stress, or that he can't respect his grown-rear end daughter to make her own mistakes. No, Spookie banished Ghost Dad for the crime of being mean to her, personally. Thanks for articulating this, it was a dynamic I super wasn't into and this really makes things clear why
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 09:50 |
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Mordja posted:So if the whole point of spirit shepherds is to guide ghosts into the generically spiritual "Great Cycle" is this one just straight up gone? Making her a murderer? It's a real Calm Hitler situation. The ghost is bad because he breached and now the kind and patient Spirit Shepherd has to show what happens to people who go beyond the limits of her patience. Killing him is ok because it's a punitive measure.
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 10:15 |
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i'd like him to stop talking about consent
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 10:36 |
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 12:24 |
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So here are my notes - Once again, it’s too wordy. But more importantly - the conflict needs to have stakes. We need to be invested in the situation. Daughter is being haunted. Cool. Why do I care? Another major problem is that as soon as a conflict or complicating factor is introduced, you clear it up immediately. Ghost dad is angry. If she gets him out on the first try, there’s no challenge. There’s no tension. If he possessed his daughter or something like that, now we’re cooking. And what of Pares? Why is he here? You set up this really interesting show down, but instead, he brags, he gets humbled, he either runs away with his tail between his legs or he apologizes and gives up scamming people? This is why you need to write an outline! This is why you plan! You can see the threads that are just hanging out and doing nothing and either develop them or cut them.
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 13:33 |
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You cant ask mookie to have stakes! He's vegetarian!
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 13:37 |
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a cartoon duck posted:i'd like him to stop talking about consent
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 13:41 |
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catlord posted:Move to a backwater town full of jocks who'll never appreciate you and sell your services as a prophet, an oracle for hire, if you will? I just realized how hosed up it is that Mookie didn't name his comic Prophet for Profit.
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 14:14 |
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A shameful butt I also wear pants that are skin tight and show my rear end and all its contours
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 14:57 |
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He keeps emphasizing the importance of consent, why do you think he has something to prove about this subject as it is portrayed in his work?
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 18:54 |
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Roleplaying Larry posted:He keeps emphasizing the importance of consent, why do you think he has something to prove about this subject as it is portrayed in his work? I think he's just emulating the language that he sees getting used in queer spaces/vulnerable peoples spaces. There's a lot of traumatized people there and so you see a lot of caution around the idea of consent even in fiction? And I think he's just emptily aping that because he's naturally "drawn to queer spaces."
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 18:55 |
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a cartoon duck posted:i'd like him to stop talking about consent
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 22:32 |
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Hippocrass posted:Man I was afraid there was going to be some conflict there for a minute.
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# ? Apr 20, 2024 00:20 |
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It's not even technically an incorrect way to describe it, but it still carries some specific connotations I don't think he meant to invoke. Or if he did mean it then he fumbled the landing. "I didn't consent to you using my voice to abuse your daughter (understandable, I've seen possession as an allegory for intimacy and abuse before), so I'm gonna ignore your consent by forcibly banishing you (why would you frame it as both a consent violation and karmic revenge?)" On paper it's a good outline: Dead shithead continues to haunt his daughter both figuratively and literally, he throws her attempt to make peace with him in her face, third party has to exorcise him for good so his family can move on with their lives. But, amigolupus posted:The thing that gets me is that by trying to tackle both the idea of someone being haunted by an rear end in a top hat family member as well as the need for consent to have your body possessed, the story ends in this situation where Spookie ends up coming across as a selfish egotist who makes the situation all about herself. She's not mad at Ghost Dad because he is a controlling rear end in a top hat who thinks she needs to get married to solve her problem, or that him haunting the daughter from beyond the grave is causing her stress, or that he can't respect his grown-rear end daughter to make her own mistakes. No, Spookie banished Ghost Dad for the crime of being mean to her, personally. it goes down this way, with the medium being angry first about the possession and then about the abuse. Plus his children lack any sort of agency in the whole matter, not even getting to say a quick "gently caress off, dad". Yes, in the real world most people don't get that cathartic moment of telling off the abusive relative, many times they just never speak again and it's this open wound that doesn't heal cleanly. But I feel like once your story has brought the dead parent back as a tangible ghost that's throwing furniture around, you've set up the expectation of the children being the ones to lead the callout instead of a stranger they've known for five minutes. Overall though I still like this story better than the previous ones in Legacy, I guess? Maybe that can turn around after however many more weeks are left
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# ? Apr 20, 2024 00:26 |
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You're not stranded, you're stubborn. Wanting to protect your family? Pfft. Now, if you wanted to play a flute solo for random pedestrians, now that's a legitimate need binding you in perpetuity to the material plane.
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# ? Apr 20, 2024 01:12 |
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# ? May 6, 2024 04:30 |
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Or wanting to go on a walk.
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# ? Apr 20, 2024 03:06 |