Also, the chaos eyeball that Dominic recently scryed on isn't an evil demon beast intent on destroying everything, he's a cute little monster who just wants hugs.
The ACI for Dominic Deegan is whether or not he's as pious as the writer makes him out to be or the ultimate manipulative Jerkass. It's the idea the entire Hatedom is built upon. Of course, Luna shares the spotlight. Is she a victim slowly overcoming years of emotional torture at the hands of a scheming mother and evil sisters or an incurable psychopath who'll murder anyone who makes her feel bad about herself?
Then there's the tone of the comic overall. Is it a chronicle of events that can be taken at face value and seen as a legitimate work of fantasy or does it shift between a gritty tone and a more cartoon-y feel for the sake of entertainment? Which side you prefer tends to automatically place you on one side the comic's very large love-hate war.
Something from the snarkdom: The Orcs: Noble Savages unjustly and excessivelypersecuted by the Callanians, or a bunch of vicious barbarians that are not undeserving of the derision and hatred they receive as large portions of their species really do engage in casual brutality and worse. Or a race as diverse as any other, with both its heroes and monsters, just like the Callanians, but unfortunately the writing doesn't do a good job of presenting it.
Or some combination of the two, e.g. the Orc culture is as validly a culture as any other but the conflicts with Callan are legitimately not reconcilable by non-violent means. It's not hard to imagine the Orcs finding the human political organization, with its absence of family-based tribes and roaming lawkeepers capable of unilaterally handing out death penalties, to be just as abhorrent as humanity finds the idea of automatically murdering anyone that looks sideways at your land and legalized marital rape, without either side being necessarily "wrong".
Was Milov's praising of Nimmela blatant shill, or a sign that Nimmel hassuccessfully pulled the wool over Milov. A third interpretation that came up occasionally was that Milov did not sincerely believe what he said to Nimmel, but was either laying it on thick to make the outsider in their culture feel welcomed or letting his "opinion" become known to use Nimmel to shame the rowdy Jerkass younger werewolves into upholding their cultural ideals. Part of which seems more likely depends on if you feel that Nimmel clearly feels he's better than werewolves or if his own internal monologue in which he calls the brawlers "emotion-crazed beast-people" was simply him being bitter about their culture during a moment of anger that had been building up for the entire time he'd been living in the Winter Archipelago.
Angst? What Angst?: Luna's rather philosophical reaction after finding out she's been rendered sterile via Maltak's restoration. She mentions she's just not thinking about it to not spoil the good things that happened, but later it hits her hard.
Neilen looked as though he was going to be the real Big Bad of the Maltak arc, but then he vanished from the story for a few months. Cut towards the end where he comes out of nowhere to stop the heroes ... and promptly gets his ass handed to him horribly. TWICE.
The Beast from beyond the planes of reality (or at least the parts of it that we've seen) is a lot less scary now that its been defeated TWICE, first by Dom creating a teddy bear in the Plane on Destruction and planting it on ole Beasty (creation is a big no-no there), and then when it ran away after Dom disguised himself as the "crab cop" that attacked it in the Plane of Destruction. It's become a lot more threatening and dangerous as the comic gears up for its Grand Finale, however.
The Big Bad ain't doing so well either: he created The Beast but calls it Master so he can use its power, he's way too fond of his Worthy Opponent Miranda, he doesn't kill Dom when the beast has its tentacles inside his brain, and his personal army has been revealed to be incredibly fragile.
Arc Fatigue: The Maltak arc, which took just over a year from start to finish. It got to the point that the forums started a small scale meme replacing "Are They Still On Namek" (as that trope had once been named) with "Are They Still In Maltak".
To many, Siegfried's murderous racism just came out of nowhere. The argument goes that he would have treated Luna a whole lot worse if he were as racist as he was depicted later on in the comic. It can be argued that it was implied earlier in a not very obvious way, such as Siggy being repulsed by Luna's tusks because they make her look like an orc. Also, he's pronounced the word "orc" in bold and used it as an insult even before the racism was ramped up to much more obvious levels. Of course, that sort of thing is commonplace in the general population of Callan.
The out-of-nowhere reveal that Donovon Deegan's sword is actually a super-powerful magic sword.
Badass Decay: Jacob, who went from destroying five members of a death cult highhandedly, to having his arse kicked by Huk Thak, The Shintula Chief, and Neilen, all fights were essentially ended with one move. Reversed, however, when he reappears to defend Jayden at Aberthast Cathedral. Justified in that after the fight with the cult, he was significantly weakened by Rillian.
Luna danced around with this for a while. After Maltak, her Pet status has pretty much been cemented in the fandom, largely due to her being little more than a MacGuffin during the arc and taking the credit despite mainly being led by the hand by The Powers That Be. It really did not help that during the "War in Hell" arc, many fans were praying she would be the chosen victim, and when Mookie found out, he killed off the fan-beloved Siegfried instead just to spite the fanbase.
Dominic has some, ah, interesting methods at his disposal. And for that matter, some rather dubious motives at times.
All of Luna's contributions to the salvation of Maltak were accidental, as she was manipulated by higher powers the entire time. That doesn't stop her from taking the credit.
Nimmel reveals that one of the reasons he transferred over to Coldfire Academy was because of the ego boost he could get by knowing he had the ability to beat up all the werewolves because the spells he specializes in are stronger there.
Readers have their own set of nicknames for most of their favorite minor characters, including Warlord Mustache, Punchy McStonefist, Outrage Chief, and Snuggly/Squiggly, while Celesto earned the moniker "Collateral Damage Man" during the battle in Lynn's Brook. Meanwhile, snobby werewolf girl gets called "prejutits", the nameless mongrelwoman is dubbed "Bortette", and the unpleasant head tour lady is called "Vasquez"note Mookie picked up on this one, and officially named her "Vazkes".
The fans were likewise responsible for deciding the name of the "A Nimmel House" story arc.
In (real-life) December, an important event is heralded across the land by the appearance of a brilliant star. No, it's not the messiah's birth, it's Dom and Luna's marriage.
Also, Karnak (the name of the Lord of Hell) is the Orcish word for "The Morning Star".
Hollywood Homely: Aside from the tusks, Luna is really not a bad-looking girl, as far as you can tell. Siegfried specifically found her quite attractive when her mouth was covered by a veil. When the tusks are visible, everyone acts as though she's thoroughly hideous. Most of those who find her ugly are portrayed as prejudiced or evil in other ways as well, such as the idiot villagers who were also unkind to then-crippled Greg, the fantastically racist Lord Siegfried, or her poor excuse for a family who spent a good chunk of time off screen attempting to drive her specifically to suicide.
Ho Yay: From the moment Stunt and Bumper were first introduced fans everywhere got gay vibes from them.
Jerkass Woobie: Rillian's demeanor really rubs Dominic the wrong way, but Dominic comes to sympathize with the loss and tiredness that has characterized Rilian's life. The audience gets it even more when we realize the fat, jolly man he pretended to be while checking in on Dominic was his original persona; his long, long life has beaten him down so much he is no longer recognizable in form or personality.
Due to Word of God, this now extends to pretty much every important character.
For a specific example, Luna's dying. Yeah, right.
And lo and behold, she's alive, while technically dead for a few strips, everyone predicted she'd be brought back.
Lowest Common Denominator: Mocked in one strip's author comments, when the first (in the comic's six year history) instances of dick and fart jokes, done by the title character. It Makes Sense in Context, as Dominic was in a Battle in the Center of the Mind with a virus-spell that was taking swings at his mind and screwing up his bodily functions.
Also Warlord Mustache, who, after killing almost all the orcs, went into the Nakta. Then he killed the Nakta and assumed its place, devouring the souls of all orcs ever, and using the fuel this gave him to kill more orcs. As a final insult, he led a group of piggart-loving Callanians around on a pointless sidequest for weeks, then tricked them into letting him steal all the orcs' powers and use them to turn all the orc souls into fertilizer. Then he did it all again, and laughed about it.
During the search for Celesto arc, some of the Playground snarkers reimagined Gerald as a stoic, hard-drinking Cowboy Cop badass working with Quilt who could have solved the case in minutes if Luna had let him. Like Scarf, he comes and goes from this.
Among some 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.
The last panel from the infamous "Orc-rape" comic has gotten widely known as "Jazzhands!"
The panel is also frequently edited into other comics for Black Comedy.
A woman's misplaced hatred caused her to attempt to kill several people by slowly freezing them to death. She is thwarted by the protagonist's brother, who channels his magic into becoming SuperGreg, modeled on his comic book hero SuperMage, himself a Captain Ersatz for Superman. The Mood Whiplash never settled.
Jacob's revelation that "Death is not zombies" could have been worded better.
When Cthulhu-TIM and Celesto were tearing up Lynn's Brook for some time, there's a scene where Dex and his ex-wife are desperately cowering behind a piece of rubble as people all around them are getting slaughtered. It would have been a much more emotionally powerful scene if the people getting slaughtered looked more like they were desperately running for cover and less like they were out for a casual morning stroll.
Stonewater does have a character beyond "raped Melna once", and he didn't enter the situation willingly. To hear some tell it, he's Doctor Light, only an orc.
Bashers will never let the Supergreg storyline go.
A lot of readers root for the bad guys due to Dominic and Luna doing some very questionable things while becoming more and more insufferably Sue-ish. Besides, Celesto Morgan is cooler.
Some persons find Warlord Mustache to be completely awesome for trying to exterminate the Orcs, due to a widely-held disbelief of the official line that the Orcs are really Noble Savages who only live in murderous barbarism because of Mustache.
The Scrappy: Fans didn't like Gregory very much when his white magic seemed too powerful, but things got worse when Greg started a band and ceased to listen much to what others have to say.
The deaths of the archmagi, particularly Alduraithel, mourning the fact he had to kill his possessed translator Snert just before Nimmel destroys him, and Masutel, reduced to a tiny fraction of his strength within the vast darkness of his mind, begging Miranda ("little mage") to kill him, which she does in a completely dark panel during a Moment of Silence.
Dominic's reaction when Rilian tells him that Quilt is dead. Even the Prophet Luana herself takes a moment to hold him in her arms so he can cry.
Two in fact. By going with the much safer option of killing Siggy instead of Luna, Mookie wasted two potentially interesting storylines. Namely Dominic coping after losing his love and a redemption arc for Siggy.
Dominic losing his leg. Aside from a couple of cheap gags and one or two mentions later on, our hero deals with this life changing injury like he'd just got a splinter or something!
True Art: Greg's music is very complex and creative; unfortunately his hastily-assembled band can't keep up with him and after he dumbs it down it sounds awful and they fire him ("I changed all my music for you guys! It was the only way you could keep up with it! If anything you brought my music down!").
Neilen, at least until his and Runcible Spoon's backstories are revealed. See Unintentionally Unsympathetic for details.
Siggy could be the poster child for this. On the one hand, he's an unapologetic racist who brutally beats anyone who gets in his way or simply irritates him (including literally saving his life by telling him he would lose a duel). On the other hand, he genuinely despises corruption and doesn't hesitate to arrest corrupt members of his own order despite being outnumbered four to one, and seems to be at least trying to become a better person. By the time he is killed, the readers are meant to hate him or at the very least be glad it was him rather than Luna that got the axe. The fact that he was always seen as an interesting, tragic character while his murderous racism was considered a complete Ass Pull is what did this. There's also the parallel with the treated-as-heroic Melna (see below); both are extremely violent towards legitimate offenses (often merely perceived), both have a hair-trigger temper even when that's not the case, both have a Freudian Excuse, and both are trying to become better people. However, the difference here is one of degree: even ignoring Siggy's racism and genocidal tendencies, Melna delivers a single punch (once followed by snow down the pants), while Siggy delivers sustained and brutal beatings that are remarked on In-Universe as being over-the-top.
Melna. Her past shows that she's a rape victim with a tragic history but her violent personality and constant acts of Disproportionate Retribution towards male characters has left considerable portions of the comic's audience calling for her blood. It doesn't help that the last character to be shown in this exactly light was Siggy, and unlike her he was frequently called out on his actions. Not to mention being turned into a demonic slave.
Runcible Spoon due to Mookie bungling his and Neilen's introductions. We're meant to like and feel bad for Spoon and hate Neilen because he ruined Spoon's marriage by making his wife think he was cheating on her. Easy, right? Wrong. For a long time, the audience is never told what Neilen did beyond some very vague hinting which makes Spoon's constant picking on him quite grating. Especially since Neilen never seems to be able to defend himself bar yelling insults at Spoon after he hits him in the head with rocks. It really doesn't help that Neilen is introduced as one of the very few people to be kind to Luna and not shun her because of her tusks. Sure he's just doing it because he wants to sleep with her, which we find out later along with both his and Spoon's shared backstory. But by then it's often too little too late and Spoon was never as popular as he could have been because of it.
It bears mentioning that Jacob was forcibly depowered by Rilian earlier in the series, and that it's mentioned that Thuen Gor, and the rest of the Shintula, were stronger than they ever were because of the state of Maltak, so there's an in-story reason for it.
Wangst: Luna toward the beginning of the comic—getting over it is her major Character Development arc. Snowsong also falls into this.
a blatant shill, or a sign that Nimmel has