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Dominic Deegan: Oracle For Hire is a webcomic started by Michael "Mookie" Terracciano in 2002. It follows the life and times of Dominic Deegan, a messianic yet pessimistic seer who travels about with Spark, his feline comic relief and assorted companions. Originally a lighter strip based on puns and wordplay, it came down with an in-/famous case of Cerebus Syndrome, arguably starting with the "Visions of Doom" arc. Though some fans have bemoaned subsequent Moral Dissonance and the Flanderization of characters, Dominic Deegan has always maintained some level of its earlier whimsy.
The "Storm of Souls" story arc is a notable example of Dominic Deegan's Cerebus Syndrome. It deconstructs Order Versus Chaos while also providing expanded Character Development. Additionally, it was rife with Heroic Sacrifices and someone being Killed Off For Real - though all except for Dominic's teeth and leg were eventually reversed, resulting in Battle Royale With Cheese... making future Heroic Sacrifices liable to result in Narm.
Opinions are deeply and sometimes loudly divided about the quality of the comic. The three main fan forums are classically characterized as cheerleaders, critics, and snarkers, and the comic has a substantial Hatedom. For an illustration of the difference, consider this comic: from the intended viewpoint, cartoon slapstick violence. Creatively misinterpreted, a main character spurned by a trickster murdering him and a number of bystanders, which she has every right to do because she's a main character. As this is a polarizing subject, please allow the page to be somewhat neutral and refrain from making a Justifying Edit.
List of Major Arcs
Tropes used include:
- Aerith And Bob
- Aloof Big Brother - Jacob. Because Gregory is the youngest of the three Deegan boys, Dominic sometimes comes off as this to Gregory.
- Animesque
- Attack Hello - Luna admitted their first encounter with Jacob scared the hell out of her. Their (rather, his) last meeting together, well...
- Author Appeal - In his news posts, Mookie's often admitted his love for certain elements in the comic.
- He's more recently admitted that he likes drawing muscular orc girls because, well, he likes muscular orc girls.
- Annoying Arrows - Dominic gets an arrowhead embedded into his arm without even flinching. He sports a dressing that afternoon, and walks with a cane using that arm the following day.
- Arc Fatigue - The Maltak arc. To the point where the forums have started a small scale meme replacing "Are They Still On Namek" with "Are They Still In Maltak".
- Arrow Catch - Melna pulls this off, to the shock and amazement of her companions in this strip.
- Author Avatar - Not Dominic, as you might have thought; Many have asked Mookie if Dominic was supposed to be him; Mookie has stated (in his third book) that Dominic's father Donovan is who he considers to be most like himself.
- The confusion largely stems from the fact that, when he draws himself, Mookie's self-portrait is virtually identical to Dominic. This is partly due to a serious case of Only Six Faces.
- Beat Panel - A pun will frequently be followed by the victim staring at the "camera" with a sour expression.
- Behind The Black - One of the greater problems voiced about the plains of Maltak is that they have a visibility of five meters. Characters in this vast, featureless wasteland run into each other by accident and don't hear conversations and see events until they enter the scene. This was taken to be because the plains are the size of a sandbox or because of Random Encounters. The current explanation is just Alien Geometry: when two guards do spot a character as a speck in the distance, she walks past them before they recognize her and decide to do some guarding. There's no evidence of sonic booms. (Incidentally, the movie Lawrence of Arabia has a scene where a rider approached from a desert for minutes on end. It's a marvellous way to establish the scale.)
- Berserker Tears - Used fairly regularly, most notably by Sigfried in the War in Hell story arc.
- Blessed With Suck - Being a Resistant (immune to ALL magic) sounds cool, but remember that while they can't be hurt by magic, they can't be healed by magic either.
- Blood From The Mouth - Used in its most classic sense, as visual shorthand for a fatal injury when the characterhasn't injured her GI tract, head or lungs.
- Break The Cutie - Inverted; Luna is introduced at the climax of her mother's year-long campaign of breaking her, and saved from suicide by Dominic. We learn more about the process in various flashbacks. Most of her character development revolves around the slow recovery of her sense of self-worth. Gregory is also somewhat subject to this trope, particularly in a couple of the later story arcs.
- Breather Episode - Rather, a breather story arc — the "Around the World" arc, to be precise.
- Call A Rabbit A Smeerp - "Mavpel" candy, the sap of a mavpel tree allowed to solidify. It's directly based on real life candy made from maple sap.
- Canon Sue - Several characters have mutated into this over the course of the comic, most strikingly Dominic Deegan himself and his lover Luna Travoria, who alternate between Canon Sue and Anti Sue.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Rachel's face > magical steroids.
- Cheeky Mouth
- Chosen One - Luna, in the current arc.
- Christianity Is Catholic- There is only one true church and all of the Kingdom of Callan appears to fall under its banner. Like Dungeons And Dragons with racial religions.
- Contractual Immortality - Celesto,
Klo Tark, The Infernomancer. In the Infernomancer's case, this is literal as his contract with Karnak makes him immune to all wounds.
- Cept them giant holes in his face.
- Crossing The Desert - The Maltak arc consists of trekking through a vast, featureless wasteland, in the daytime, without pack animals and with no more consumables than what the party can fit in one, ordinary-sized backpack per person, and they apparently keep their tents in those as well. (Bags of holding have been mentioned once — the wind kind of went out of this argument when one gag hinged on a character being able to turn on a torch.) They're also not taking care to cover their heads, and one character is in a dress. They do hire an experienced guide, but this guide is the same one who would've gone through and okayed all of that, and who built a stone fire ring miles upon miles from plant life.
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome - Man on his deathbed finding the willpower to keep from dying... 'nuff said.
- Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming - Dominic and Luna tend to share one of these at the denouement of each major story arc. (See here for one of the best examples.) As always with this trope, Your Mileage May Vary; this troper happens to have something of a sweet tooth for geek romance, and sees enough parallels in these characters to his own two long-term relationships that he still finds them heartwarming rather than Narmful or diabetes-flavored.
- Stunt, of all folks, gets one here.
- Curb Stomp Battle - In this corner, Jacob Deegan, necromancer and mad scientist who's in the past slaughtered several of the Chosen, beat a spellwolf in single combat, and has been a serious antagonist throughout the comic. In this corner, is the Shintula Chief, whose son Jacob just brutally attacked. Jacob didn't stand a chance.
- Curse Cut Short - Subverted in this strip.
- Cursed With Awesome - Dominic has complained since the very first strip about the burdens of being a seer.
- It's not so much being a seer, it's that his gift of random visions (coupled with he and his family attacked right in their home by one of mom's old nemeses) which led him to focus on studying Second Sight. He wanted to help people with his gift; instead the comic opens In Medias Res with him being a fortune teller for a town of complete idiots.
- Another example: Dex Garrett. He's a resistant, a 1/200,000 condition which is completely immune to magic (good and bad). It also makes it very difficult for him to find stable work, because employers have to pay heavy taxes and rifle through ridiculous amounts of paperwork to hire one.
- Darker And Edgier - Spoofed with Dominic's favorite comic being Ret Conned into the character "discovering" he's half demon...much to Dominic's dismay.
- Dark Is Not Evil - Klo Tark's companion, Rilian, who is a walking skeleton and a master necromancer.
- Deal With The Devil - Infernomancers
- Death By Materialism - Amelia
- Death Is Cheap - Death is always dramatic, as the trope requires, but doesn't ever seem to stick for major characters. Unless your soul gets destroyed, in which case you're pretty much fucked. This could be a result of the comic spending so much time in dreams and mindscapes. Also, Necromancers as a general rule tend to come back when they die, so you have to make sure they're really dead.
- Deliberately Monochrome - When the strips are released in print collections, colorized strips are made gray scale. As Mookie notes in the 4th collection, "Color printing is expensive. Very expensive."
- Depraved Bisexual - Szark, Celesto. Szark even comes out as gay rather than bi after his Heel Face Turn.
- Determinator - Dex Garrett
- Designated Hero - Dominic has some, ah, interesting methods at his disposal. And for that matter, some rather dubious motives at times.
- Did Not Do The Research - On all kinds of subjects, even trivial ones; this is how, for example, a wooden door gets cracked like glass or clay by a dagger stuck in it.
- Discretion Shot - Various, including Shadow Discretion Shot.
- Dis Continuity Nod - Quilt, the necromantic golem; before he was given a name, forum regulars named him "Patches." Quilt himself rejected it, saying it made him sound like a dog.
- Disproportionate Retribution - See the fireball strip linked above. For those who subscribe to the latter interpretation, that sort of thing happens all the time.
- Given that Luna's fireballs have been shown to cause nothing worse than blown-back hair and a sooty face several times over the history of the strip, that interpretation is untenable. It's also conclusively disproven at the end of that story arc, when the target of the fireball is seen alive and well consulting with Rilian.
- Draco In Leather Pants - Lord Siegfried "Siggy" Damaske.
- The murderous racism coming practically out of nowhere was a likely cause of this. Some argue he would have treated Luna a whole lot differently earlier when he met her.
- Writer Revolt - Siegfried's involvement in The War in Hell and Shadow of Siegfried arcs.
- Drop What You Are Doing - Upon harsh shocks, things get dropped.
- Evil Eye / Death Glare - Miranda Deegan's willpower-eroding, thought-derailing gaze, which has a range of half a mile and can strike targets around corners.
- Evil Is Sexy - Many lowcut bustiers and skintight outfits for the female villains in particular, but men get their share as well.
- Eye Scream
- Fanon - Many anti-fans devote more attention to extensive Alternate Character Interpretations than to the actual canon. Some examples: When a halfling is smitten by a main character right after meeting her, they claim that the halfling was Brain Washed by a "Deegandrug" that her body releases into the air—and that it is not a neurotoxin, as the enslavement's speed is affected by body mass. Non Mammal Mammaries led to the coining of the "nipple fairies," then to speculation about their life cycle and effects on civilization. The newest threat, a writhing mass of tentacles around a giant eye, is instantly declared the cutest thing ever, named Snuggles (Full name Sn'gl'euth'u McCornia the Third, AKA Sightless McHuggingtons), and explained as being a childlike being who just wants hugs.
- Fantastic Racism - Whom Mookie destroys, he first makes racist. This first came to light when Siggy, a dark-but-troubled knight, was revealed to be a serial murderer and lyncher of Orcs in order to make him killable. Then Jacob, a necromancer with an established dispassionate attitude towards everything but his work, started spouting supremacist propaganda and was killed off two strips later. This was dubbed a Genre Savvy form of suicide and an attempt to escape the comic.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink - Previously the comic featured knights, wizards, dryads, werewolves, undead, slimes, orks, dragons etc., but ever since the Dominic's and Luna's 'round-the-world trip story arc, this trope has gone into overdrive, with the author showing a ton of new races, i.e. merfolk, sea monsters, hobgolins, halflings, dwarves, mongrelfolk and whatnot in rapid appearance.
- Flanderization - Szark's crush on Dominic. Siggy's racism. Quilt's stupidity. Dominic's ability to plan ahead. Luna's bids for independence. Dex's timing for Big Damn Hero moments, heck, pretty much everyone.
- Fridge Logic - If Maltak is a magic dead zone, then how are Jacob's and Adrak's spell wards still working? Also applies to the magic Jacob used to kill Adrak.
- Adrak is one of the Shintula, who use the Nakta, and the Nakta in Maltak is currently stronger than it ever was. Jacob, likewise, had been studying the Nakta extensively before he arrived in Maltak, so presumably he figured something out. Alternatively, necromancy possibly works on a different set of rules from "normal" magic like Dominic and Luna use.
- Filler - The Vacation arc is considered this, also one of the main criticisms of the current Maltak arc (It's been going on for a year afterall)
- Fun With Foreign Languages - Donovan Deegan speaks comically bad orcish. Also a direct Homage to the Monty Python "Naughty Hungarian Phrasebook" sketch.
- Gender Bender - Male misogynist Stunt was subjected to a (very brief) gender bender in the Wild Edge territories story arc, before being turned into a half dozen other critters, and eventually changed back.
- Genius Bonus - In the form of knock-knock joke
- Also, there is a professor at Miranda Deegan's academy named Runcible Spoon. 'Runcible Spoon' is the original name for a spork. Doubles as a Punny Name. Runcible is also kind of 'spoony'.
- Genre Savvy - Donovan, though it's not always appreciated.
- Get Out Of Jail Free Card - No Heel Face Turn is complete without one (lampshaded at least once, by Celesto regarding Amelia's brutal murder vs Szark's redemption, but even still...)
- Green Rocks - Illusion spells, good for trapping all-powerful foes and calming friends by faking your death at their hands!
- Good People Have Good Sex - Donovan and Miranda Deegan
- Good Scars Evil Scars - Subverted with Nimmel, a good-natured graduate of the School of Arcane Arts. His scar (encompassing his right eye and a good chunk of flesh around it) was deliberately made to look as nasty as possible.
- Groin Attack - "There's no need for — " Yes there is.
- Hard Head: Rachel Hart. "I break things with my face."
- Hatedom - So much so that "If you don't like it, then don't read it" arguments will get turned around to "If you don't like us complaining, then don't read the forums," and "We snark because we care."
- Scapegoat Creator - The snarkers don't just go after the webcomic—they go after Mookie himself. Some of the things said on the classic "snarkers" forum (ironically the once-official Dominic Deegan forum) get downright nasty.
- Head Tiltingly Kinky - Hobgoblin mating season sex.
- Hollywood Homely - Aside from the tusks, Luna is really not a bad-looking girl, yet everyone acts as though she's thoroughly hideous.
- It's only because of the tusks that anyone has ever called her ugly. Recall Siggy's first reaction to seeing her before she took off her veil.
- Hurricane Of Puns - Lots of them. Sometimes one-sided, sometimes a volley between two characters, and sometimes the entire on-panel cast will join in.
- Incredibly Lame Pun - Most, if not all, of the hurricaned puns, at a bare minimum, make people rolls their eyes. In other cases...
- I Always Wanted To Say That (see image above)
- I Am Not Right Handed - Szark
- Ice Cream Koan: "Crying is like puking for the soul."
- I Got Better Dex, though a reason as to why could still emerge.
- If I Can't Have You
- I Just Knew
- Improbable Aiming Skills (The Rhazgala are apparently such good archers that they can fire volleys into the air into a melee with such accuracy as to only score non-lethal hits, a pretty much impossible feat in real life)
- Insistent Terminology (Inverted. Brett Taggerty called Gregory a faggot and Rachel a dyke at about every opportunity. Neither, especially Rachel, would put up with his crap.)
- Jerkass - Lord Siegfried Damaske, Stunt
- Jumping The Shark - Depending on who you ask, the comic has already jumped long ago—but those who say it has are divided over the exact point, citing a specific story arc or even a specific comic strip.
- The current interminable Maltak storyline is causing even more actual fans to give up and become snarkers.
- Kick The Dog - Often invoked to prevent the protagonists from looking too gray. Unless a villain is immediately painted as sympathetic and merely confused, expect some detail to turn up that justifies doing horrible things to them.
- Mad Scientist - Jacob Deegan the necromancer.
- Made Of Iron - Rachel "I Break Things With My Face" Hart
- Magitek / Functional Magic - What starts out as a pseudo-medieval fantasy world turns out to be a world with advanced arcane laboratories, magical electric guitars, heavy metal bands ... and, apparently, spandex.
- Manipulative Bastard - Dominic gets dangerously close to being one during the Super-Greg arc. He's far from the worst example though.
- Mama Bear - Go ahead and piss off Miranda Deegan. See what happens.
- Mary Sue - One of the criticisms most often levied against the strip is that the protagonists are all Mary Sues.
- Meaningful Name - Donovan's orcish name, for one. For two, Stonewater.
- Memetic Badass - Scarf, Dominic's scarf.
- Memetic Mutation - Among anti-fans, Dominic Deegan is referred to as "Lord Dominus," an amoral overlord who uses his second sight to control all of his friends and loved ones.
- "Curse you Runcible Spoon!"
- Messianic Archetype - Luna has become this in the newest arc, becoming essentially the Jesus of the orcs. She sprouts plant life wherever she walks, can pull water from nowhere, and is literally powered by the gods of Maltak.
- Mighty Whitey - Luna, saving the orcs from themselves, with Dominic now taking her place.
- Mind Rape - And they may not be so far off the mark. Very little of this is perpetrated by the villains, and there's plenty to go around.
- Moral Dissonance - See the fireball at the beginning of this article.
- My Hovercraft Is Full Of Eels - Donovan's attempts at speaking orcish.
- Narm - Klo Tark's second death and also Siegfried's death
- Nerd - Dominic was a huge nerd as a kid. So is Prento Fallin, one of Dominic's students. Mookie proudly proclaims he is one in real life.
- Never Live It Down - For Mookie, the Hatedom will make sure that nobody ever forgets the SuperGreg or War in Hell arcs.
- Nice Job Breaking It Hero - Several examples, including:
- Jacob tries to kill Gregory by ripping the Blight of the Undead out of Gregory's body (through his unaffected parts). Turns out he just removed the Restraining Bolt that hampered his white magical abilities.
- A twofer Nice Job Breaking It Hero, involving Gregory and Brett Taggerty. First, a wasted Brett punches out Pamela, whom Gregory has a crush on, and dares him to fight back using his white magic. Gregory erupts into a geyser of white fire. Oops. The resulting tidal wave of White Magic heals everyone in the hospital...with the unintended side effect of powering up Brett and the rest of his Slaughterball team, and sobers them up, too. Oops.
- Overlapping with Oh Crap: The Infernomancer's response when Dominic tells him the demon lord he was supposedly bound to serve didn't have control over him: "Now I get to kill you the way I've always wanted to — slowly!"
- Something the Shintula Chieftan is experincing right now in the form of Luna's above mentioned Mighty Whitey apperance, which would never have happened if he hadn't cursed the Callanians with the affliction that would lead Luna to being born with 'Tusk-Mouth' in the first place.
- Noble Demon - Averted. Word Of God is that incarnations of evil are actually evil for once.
- Noble Savage - Orcs.
- Non Lethal Warfare - They're beating us up with their arrow volleys! The idealism is adorable. Apparently the idea is the orcs were shooting to wound but...well, Arrow Volleys Do Not Work That Way.
- Offhand Backhand - With plants
- Oh Crap - The Shintula Chief tells Luna to choose her words carefully...She does indeed.
- And the Shintula gives Jacob a good one here.
- Only Six Faces - Lampshaded here. There are other occassions where it's clear the authors aware of it. Dex Garrit and Dominic Deegan look alike because they share similar hair. And in the Oracle Hunter arc, it only worked on keeping the reader guessing because of this trope.
- Omniscient Morality License
- Open The Iris - They're anime style characters. The sizes of their irises/pupils change with their emotions.
- Papa Wolf - Though not as rabid as Miranda, when you're around Donovan, it's really not a good idea to screw with Dominic or Gregory.
- Pardon My Klingon - Ilka Tuk Tak, as well as "Kegak," which seems to be more of a direct insult.
- This strip gets funnier if you imagine the phrase means "motherfucker", although anything with fuck in it is probably broad enough for the number of places "Ilka Tuk Tak" get's used.
- Parent Ex Machina - Miranda, somewhat exceptional in that the main character is (ostensibly) no longer a child. Actually lampshaded at one point when Miranda refers to herself as "Mama ex Machina"...or at least tries to, but can't get the wording right and eventually settles for, "I'm his mother, and I'm going to fix everything."
- Pimped Out Dress - Amelia's dresses
- Porn Stash - You never guess WHOSE porn stash it's referring to...
- Pretty In Mink - One of Amelia's dresses. Miranda's mother had a fur muff.
- Psychic Nosebleed - Dominic gets one after banishing a demon overlord with his mind.
- Put On A Bus - Szark and Snowsong are sent to the "Aberthast Cathedral" to await their Heel Face Turn.
- Rape As Comedy / Rape Is OK When It Is Female On Male - Here.
- Rape Is Love - Melna was raped by Stonewater (as a child!) to save her life, but after meeting him again some years later, she realized that she loves him. On further rumination, Melna loves what Stonewater has come to stand for... which is not that surprising given Stonewater tried to model himself after Melna's father, horrible traumatization aside.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Dominic's father, Donovan, is the Trope Namer.
- Rule Of Cool: Why does Melna's hammer have lightning coming from it (as opposed to other possible elements) when she kills the Doma chief? Because "it's pretty f*cking metal."
Mookie: Okay, I know in yesterday's strip that the Rhazgala archers all had their bows pointed up and today those arrows are flying horizontally past Suyan's head. This "continuity error" is just a dramatic choice on my part because I felt the arrows flying straight on past him looked cooler.
- Sadist Teacher, subverted. During his tenure as a teacher, Dominic gained a reputation of being a hardass before the first day of class even began. He admits that Second Sight (the course he was teaching) would be hard, as there is a lot of history and heavy reading involved. Despite this, he has a positive relationship with his students, and vice versa.
- Scarf Of Ass Kicking - Dominic's never without his scarf, not even in psychic battles.
- Scry Vs Scry - Dominic and Celesto, several times.
- Shout Out - A few visual references to Guilty Gear, among others.
- Shut Up And Save Me - The Trope Namer, here.
- Snark Bait - And how. Most of the major forums are now dominated by people who are in it just for the snark.
- Snarky Non Human Sidekick - Spark
- Sophisticated As Hell - Dominic and Luna, during their vacation after meeting a dragon:
Luna's narration: Dominic and I, having just been in the presence of such a majestic creature, reacted the way any pair of intellectuals would have...
(Dominic and Luna stare at each other)
Dominic and Luna: (bouncing up and down) DRAGONDRAGONOHMYGODDRAGONOHGODOHWOWDRAGONDRAGON!
- Strange Minds Think Alike - In the first story arc, both Sigfried and Spark use the phrase, "In my defense, it had tusks" to describe Luna (which Dominic catches right away when Spark says it). The two instances occur several days apart. Subverted in the second case, as it turns out Spark wasn't referring to Luna, but to a seamonster that also had tusks.
- Strawman Political - Heavily abused, to the point of being Anvilicious more often than not. If you don't embrace multiculturalism and tolerance, not only are you a idiotic bigot incapable of reading or thinking for yourself, but you're also just plain evil, going to die, and going to Hell.
- Superhero Episode - SuperGreg
- Suspiciously Idle Knights - The knights on Serk's take during Scarlatti's duel with Sturtz.
- Talk To The Fist - The only thing stopping this from being a Click Hello moment is that there's no guns in this world. But it's still awesome.
- Ted Baxter - "Look, ball-for-brains, just use your vision to tell me how awesome I am.
- That Night Felt Like Months This early strip, among other times.
- The Chessmaster: Dominic, especially during the Super-Greg arc. This is one of the reasons Dominic sometimes comes off as a Designated Hero. It's hard to come off as completely heroic when manipulating people, even if it's for the Greater Good and with the power of foresight.
- The Masochism Tango: Dom and Luna.
- Took A Level In Badass: Luna's taken a few over the course of the strip. Starting with this exchange: When the hell did *Luna* gain self-confidence?!
- Trademark Favorite Food: Dom's "Mapvel Candies". Also, Spark really loves fish. But he is, after all, a cat. And, uh...yeah.
- Unpleasable Fanbase - Although there are plenty of legitimate objections to raise, sometimes the critics and snarkers get a little too into it, as seen when Celesto kills Serk Brakkis shortly before he skips out of jail. A man exploding from chaos magic is probably just as likely to have three spines as one, and gratuitous gore + Smug Snake Karma Houdini getting pasted = beautiful.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee - Constantly.
- Unusual Euphemism - Dominic's term for large breasts is "lower back problems." Luna also wrote about her crush on Sigfried in her journal, and makes mention of his "great big sword".
- Utopia Justifies The Means - Celesto.
- Violation Of Common Sense - "I think we should stop trying to rob someone who can see the future."
- Well Intentioned Extremist: Celesto Morgan, who first wanted to cleanse the world with Chaos after deciding the people in it were all assholes, and who now says he's trying to save the world from The Infernomancer while incidentally destroying Lynn's Brook, which he calls "a small price to pay."
- Wall Banger: Several moments qualify, depending on how long you've followed the comic. Some really dislike the aforementioned Rape Is Love scenario (due to the misogyny of orc culture, Stonewater had to rape Melna to save her from being outright killed as her mother had just been), but the Super-Greg storyline gets a much more intense reaction from its detractors.
- What Do You Mean Its Not Heinous: To listen to some people, the Super-Greg arc is the worst thing to ever happen, and is so clearly and utterly wrong that just mentioning the name is explanation enough for how bad it is. Others, however, don't see what the big deal is.
- What The Hell Hero: Invoked (and promptly dismissed) on occasion—except for Pam at the end of the Snowsong arc. She actually called out Gregory and Dominic for their actions. And punished them for it. The fact that this almost never happens with any of the other characters made that instance rather refreshing.
- White Magic: White magic can manifest in white mages in the form of light, or in more exceptional mages, (e.g. Gregory) white fire.
- Who Wants To Be A Superhero - Gregory's alter-ego Super-Greg, and Dominic's childhood love for The Adventures of Mighty Man.
- Who Wants To Live Forever: The Aliak
- Xanatos Gambit / Xanatos Roulette: Dominic uses his Second Sight to pull off Gambits that would be Roulettes for anyone else. Other characters comment on it — but they're not being Genre Savvy. Dominic likes to do The Reveal when his plans have come to fruition — or is occasionally forced to reveal his intentions when one of his plans goes awry. It's the major source of friction in his relationship with Luna (who spent most of her life getting abusively manipulated by her mother and sister).
- Some of the villains like to pull gambits of their own, leading to insane Thirty Xanatos Pileups in at least two story arcs.
- Yin Yang Bomb: Luna in the current story arc. Also a case of Light Is Not Good and Dark Is Not Evil.
- Earlier, there was Dominic as the Avatar Of Balance in the "Storm of Souls" arc. It seems to be a recurring theme in the comic.
- You Know What You Did: Neilan attempts to pull this on Dominic and Luna. It fails miserably.
- Your Mileage May Vary: Other webcomic writers such as Phil Fogilo, Tim Buckley and Brian Clevinger enjoy Dominic Deegan (with the latter two friends with Mookie himself). Others, not so much.
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