Mandrake Omelette Leftovers

 How are those eggs cooking, Dungeon Meshi Maniacs?  Did you try your hand at Omurice?  Unless you managed to break the plate I know you did a far better job at presentation than I did!  Taste?  Now I'll put up a fight over better tasting but looks?  Oh no.  Like in mirror you have me beat when it comes in the looks department.

But listening to me complain about deformed eggs is not why you came here! No, you came to talk about the 4th chapter of Dungeon Meshi. Little secret, this was the chapter where the story "clicked" for me.  The first three were fun but it was 4 when everything lined up. I was locked in for the long haul.  The art was starting to jell, the jokes clicked and the characters settled into their voice.  The voice that spoke largest to me?  Marcille Donato!

So determined! Going to be honest, I've never been a big fan of elves.  Ever since I was a Dungeon and Dragons player way, waaaay, WAAAAAAAY back in High School (GO TIGERS) elves have always seemed boring to me.  Just too perfect and beautiful.  Everybody wanted to play an elf! Why?  Oh...I can hear you from here.  You said, "Duh. It's because of Legolas! The hot elf from the smash cinematic hit, Lord of the Rings Trilogy."  Sorry to say you are wrong.  Lord of the Rings the movies were several years away and the books had fallen into "that's what old nerds read."  Nope. In my day everyone was horny for elves because of one man, Drizzt Do'Urden.

There he is in all his sexy Drow glory!   And yes, I can hear you say, "Nih! Drizzt is a Drow. Not an elf!"  This is you.  This is you right now.

I'll need my shirt and helmet back when you're done with then, by the way.  If you're too young or too cool to know Drizzt he is a rebel Drow from the Forgotten Realms setting in Dungeons and Dragons. Super cool, heroic, uses TWO scimitars, and that panther?  Yeah, that's a little totem thing that can BECOME a panther! Portable murder machine. Drizzt's adventures are the stuff of many books that impressionable gamers devoured.  Drizzt was the coolest.  You can see the problem, though.  Suddenly every character was as close to Drizzt as possible. Suddenly your party would be all rebel Drow hunters with various large cats as familiars.  If everyone is Drizzt then no one is Drizzt.  So I got burned out on elves for a very long time.  That changed when I met Marcille.

Okay, maybe she has some personal image issues but one should always imagine themselves with fantastic hair.  Her story in this chapter really spoke to me.  Seeing someone struggle to prove to others that she is useful was both heart tugging as it was hilarious.  I just wanted her to get a win so badly!  Watching as she nearly kills herself to prove that worth comes to the one scene that sold the entire series for me.

Who hasn't nearly died when a giant bat crashed into you due to your own plan to prove you were right? *sniff* She's a saint! And was handsomely rewarded!

I could not breath when I first read this.  So rare that I see a scene on paper that I can hear.  That gasp of horror was everything to me!  Love it, love her, love all you DMMs!  Also, more comics should end with an iris out!

Beautiful. That's it for this week, DMMs!  Be sure to come back next Thursday as I attempt to cook in my most favorite style....Deep Frying!