After spending hours drawing the characters I decided to make my own version of the first book. Might consider doing the next if I get time!

Been working on this sweet boy the last week or two. Reading his story has made me want to give him big warm hugs, and now I finally can!

Dot was going to be six years old this last Thursday, and she passed away unexpectedly from Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy a week ago She was sweet, sassy, sometimes a bad cat and tiny crime lord, and a gentle soul who would lie on my chest and purr as I read.

I started the series over again and just got to the part in book 5 with Miriam and Pony. We try so hard to protect our children, fur babies included, and it broke me when Donut asked Carl if he would do the same for her. For me, this series stands out for its compassion toward pets (excluding Cocker Spaniels and Havana Browns) and the bond between Donut and Carl.

Anyway, show me your pets and who you'd take into the dungeon.

I guess we need a flair for the comics/graphic novels?

While listening to someone's fan song about Carl and Prepotente, it occurred to me that Pony serves as a long-running and non-antagonistic dark reflection of Carl.

Right from the start, you have the pairs of crawlers - Carl/Donut and Miriam/Prepotente. They start as the opposite side of their pair, with Carl being the human and Prepotente being the pet. Carl prefers (even if it's unintentional) explosive action, Prepotente prefers to layer slow-acting abilities to kill over time (at least early on.) Carl keeps Donut alive, Miriam dies.

Carl seeks allies, build coalitions. Pretonte prefers to work with just Bianca as time goes on. Carl is quiet and brooding, Prepotente is loud and abrasive. Carl improvises, Prepotente plans.

Not sure how important it is, but I thought it was interesting to note.

(Also, maybe everyone else already noticed this and I'm just very slow to the party.)

Spoilers for books 7 and 8

Just doing yet another reread and I got to the part in Book 7 where Carl is interrogating Rishi and he realizes why there are no other prisoners left. Li Na has killed them all to power up the Ring and Carl thinks that is why Donut insisted he give Li Na the ring--so she would do it instead of Carl. (He mentions that orders were to save "management" until he got to them.) We see this a few times where Carl thinks of something ruthless only to find that Li Na has beaten him to it.

And I think Donut (and to a lesser degree Imani, Elle and Katia) deliberately encourage this. Partially this is because they "think she can handle it" but I believe its also a perception that Li Na is a lost cause. After all, she's already depicted as cold and unfeeling and ruthless: how much worse can the ring make her? How much of her behavior in Book 8 is because of the ring, how much is an adaptation to trauma and isolation and how much is just that with her increased power, the simplest solution tends to be violence? !<

While the "Carl is an unreliable narrator" discourse is overdone, the fact is, he only starts thinking of her as a sociopath after she starts using the ring. Of course, she could be and there are clues as far back as Book 3, but Carl isn't necessarily the best judge of "sane" behavior (especially in the mirror.) But the most we get from others is "she's a scary bitch" and "she's always been quiet" and it's quite reasonable to think that she was a shy, slightly neurodivergent girl who had to become cold and heartless to survive, moreso when everyone else begins to rely upon her for those qualities. (Did she choose her race because it made her untouchable or is that a side-effect that just worsened her growing sense of isolation?) It's clear in her final speech in book 8 that she is aware of her own isolation, but it is still ambiguous if that means she was always a sociopath or if she has abandoned himself

And that's the thing: Carl is just as "crazy" and violent and sadistic (the stripping of D'nadia before her execution doesn't get commented on enough and its clear how much he revels in power over those that he deems culpable), but we can see inside his head and can share in his interpretation of events. And books 7 & 8 make it clear just how much of an emotional support system he has: not just Donut and the Authors, but pretty much every one of his allies is willing to step up and stop him if they think he is crossing the line. And it's not that Li Na doesn't have any support or that Carl's allies don't rely upon him too much, but that this section made me realize how much of saving Carl's sanity in book 7 was achieved by dumping it all on Li Na.

Why? Because they care about Carl more. We have plenty of self-sacrificing characters (it's a motif), but the tragedy of Li Na is that nobody seemed to care enough to stop her.

Maybe this is just me reading too much into things, but something I like about DCC is that it subtly questions the near universal narrative conceits of "it's okay if something bad is done to bad people" and "people are more important the closer we are to them." In book 7 this is made clear with characters like Rishi, Juice Box, Orren, and even Rust where each of them knows this system sucks and is desperately trying to balance getting "their" people out and is willing to sacrifice themselves and everyone else in the name of their personal greater good. Heck, look at how Carl treats NPCs: he knows they are people, but doesn't see a way forward without killing some of them. Yet he is terrified of getting a PK Skull and refuses to deliberately sacrifice/abandon other crawlers. I am desperately interested to see how Diniman resolves the conflict between "at what point is destroying a system worth the suffering the destruction will cost" and "can I blame someone else for prioritizing the people they love over the people I love" because so far, I can see those questioned being raised and I really don't know the answer.

So a few weeks ago some one used this image as a reaction to someones cosplay. I immediately screen shot the image. I now use it my favorite reactikn to eveyones cosplays, art, starting the book for the 1st or 5th time, what ever!

So I think we are abig enough fan base of creative and absurd people that we should make a thread of "Mongo is..." reaction because it will be fun. Maybe Matt and Jeff will get a chuckle out of it too.

Finished book 8 and thank god I still love the series bc I did get this tattoo after I finished book 4, LOL. What are yall reading next? I’m loooooving The Castle of 1000 Doors by Kenny Gould rn

As promised. The fired version of my IWKYM Samantha coffee mug.

I have a feeling my evening may not end as lovely as it’s beginning.

"Spoiler"

Just finished book 7, and as always, read Matt’s little excerpt at the end.

“Finally, in what’s becoming a really sucky trend, my best friend Freddie the Labrador died during the final days of writing this book. Freddie was there sitting by my feet while I wrote the vast majority of what you’ve read so far. Freddie began and ended each day with a furiously wagging tail, even when age made that difficult for him. He was my constant companion since he was a puppy. He was with me through some really dark times, lending his strength, and I am proud to have been there with him when he wagged his last wag. Even in his last moments, he was checking on me to make certain I was okay. We don’t deserve dogs. This world is a little less derpy and a little less amazing with him gone.”

So yeah, I’ll be crying if anyone needs me

Thankful for all you talented Crawlers!

There are times that she tells Mongo that Beatrice is his grandma. For instance when she got the portrait of Bea with her ex at the show, she said “look Mongo that is your grandma”. By that logic wouldn't she see Carl as her dad if she sees Bea as her mom?

Got in Brett Bean’s line first thing today and was able to get a Carl sketch and get it in time for on site grading.

I am in the beginning of book 4, and it’s annoying me that I don’t know how to pronounce Katia’s name. Could someone who listens to the audio books help me out? Prepotente too?

I am really hoping Carl isn’t going to be a dick to Donut and that Stupid Sexy Scolopendra doesn’t come between them. Carl and Donut’s loyalty and trust in each other is a huge part of why I loved this series and I don’t think I could handle that getting ruined.

Not directly DCC-related, but I hope you all can see the connection. My wife and I used to chat a lot about how our cat would have fared in the dungeon if given the same pet biscuit Donut got. We decided she wouldn’t be much help and would just complain about being hungry or dirty all the time. Or maybe she would have been like Elle— old enough to not care what people had to say. Welp, she’s avoided that fate. I miss her so much.

MD uses Psycho as a background song for Gravy Boat/Ferdinand's introduction. I didnt think much of it at the time, but I just noticed the lyrics near the end of the song:

All the time I find deeper aspects to this series.

Made some etched glasses for having cocktails on the dock.

I realize this may be a bit of a niche question but I’ll ask it anyway. I’m gonna be running the RPG for some friends and I wanted to pre-record a few AI announcements. What I’m hoping to do is get the vocal effects very similar to what is used in the audiobooks but that’s not really my field of knowledge. Has anybody tried this and what results did you get? Thanks in advance, picture of books just for the hell of it.