thedogmanarchives

[thedogmanarchives]

How often does Oliver shower?

i'd guess fairly often. he strikes me as the kind of person who gets carried away listening to music in the shower and probably showers more often than he should just so he has an excuse to belt out 80s hits without neighbours hearing him. plus, working with filth/grime everywhere (plus, the building is mentioned as being really humid in his route), i'd imagine he'd sorta have to, y'know?

obviously his custom head isn't exactly waterproofed, so he has to cover his face... hence the grime on there.

[thedogmanarchives]

Can we have a bit more characterization on Lola? do you have a personality in mind for her

Sure, she did have another scene in the game, but it was cut with a few other Dietown scenes. (If Markiplier ever plays Dialtown, I lose a bet with Nathan and have to add it to the game + offer Michael Rosen a wad of cash to voice Nathan. Sorry. Off topic.)

Lola's very headstrong and stubborn. She bores easily and is always always looking for something new to do due to her restlessness. She's someone who has to keep moving and other characters often struggle to keep up with her. She's really into music (it's part of her job, after all) and listens to crazy avant-garde music bc she's burned through/gotten bored of anything standard. There was a tiny connection to this in that cut Dietown scene.

She's also pretty unflappable for the most part and generally is pretty desensitized to just about everything. She has a very blunt way of speaking that causes her to come into conflict with other people sometimes, though there's rarely intended malice on her part (due to how hard it is to offend her, she assumes naturally that everyone else is the same and then is shocked when it isn't the case.) That disconnect between her thoughts/words is partly what inspired her name, as the name Lola sounds quite cheery/pretty, but means 'sorrows'.

The scenes I wrote didn't show her too much but did touch on the above characterization slightly, because Randy's cowardice REALLY bores her on their date (prompting the Madame Mediocre event) and her cut Dietown scene involved her being really unfazed about the world ending and there being demons everywhere, and she delivers the twist ending line pretty cheerfully, despite how horrifying it is.

Another tiny nugget I mentioned earlier, a scrapped scene from the basegame was gonna mention that Lola and Karen had previously dated briefly, since both are shown to be single/looking to date not that long before DT takes place.

Basically, I figured her tendency to use very blunt/literal language would make her (on the surface) compatible with Karen, but that it'd also eventually drive Karen nuts (like Gingi is able to during the earlier scenes in Karen's route) and lead to them breaking up. The result was gonna be a strange scene where both Randy and Karen encountered her, she greeted them both, and they each simultaneously realized that they shared a past partner, who they might've even mentioned to each other, but never realized was the same person.

[thedogmanarchives]

how did theoroar end up in disltown of all places?

His father moved to Dialtown from England back when Crown was still in the picture. Theoroar's been around the whole world, but Dialtown is home to him.

[thedogmanarchives]

thank you for making dialtown mr dog it fills me with much joy. how would randy feel about being thrown into a really really deep hole

"well, i've kinda felt like ive been in free-fall for most of my life, so that wouldn't be SO bad, b-but there's always the landing... every hole has a rock-bottom at the end, that's something that i- WAIT! You're gonna throw me into a HOLE?! WHAT DID I DO?!"

[thedogmanarchives]

Howdy, hey dogman! I have a question about Yorick!

So, I know on its wiki page it's said to be a reference to a Hamlet character by the same name, but I also wanted to ask about the similarities to a Muppet character by the same name.

It's a purple, er... rock thing, I think? But it's basically just depicted as a head most of the time from what I've seen, which makes me wonder if Dialtown Yorick was partly inspired by Muppet Yorick since ya know. Both character heads puppeted by someone with the same name and all.

Complete coincidence! I'm vaguely familiar with muppets, but i'd never seen that character. I just took the whole 'gingi holding disembodied head' thing right from hamlet and given gingi's tendency to project consciousness onto things out of loneliness, it felt right that gingi could make yorick talk :)

[thedogmanarchives]

Hihihi dogman!!

I just have a small question abt Randy, is one of the reasons he maybe stutters due to neurogenic stuttering because of his serious brain trauma? I love him so much and I've been wondering this.

Sorry for the short ask, Have a nice day!!! :)

Good catch! He always stuttered somewhat due to his nervousness, but the head injury certainly doesn't help.

[thedogmanarchives]

went back & tagged all of tangos posts as tango chapman. left the original tango tag on because uhh. just in case?

[thedogmanarchives]

HELLO THERE DOG! :^]

I was wondering if Rebecca in Dialtown also used to have some job equivalent to a hair stylist/hair dresser but for object heads or still does something like that as a side job or something?

Also curious about Steven and Walt… what kinda jobs did they get after quitting?

Zzthanku FOR UR TIME !

Yeah before getting a job at the plant, Becca also did detailing on object heads. It's a small detail, but her head in-game is shown to be an original crown-era model and the paint on it is very well maintained. just a small nod towards her backstory :) she doesn't still really do it outside of a few odd jobs here and there that friends give her for the extra cash since she works full time at the plant.

Steven got a job at Bunny's, tragically. Walt wound up coming back to work shortly after the route ended and Peter let him pretend nothing happened (like that time Larry David quit his job and then came back to work the next day like nothing happened)

[thedogmanarchives]

HI HI MR DOGMAN!!! I have a question.

You mentioned that Karen has a sister, and I was wondering if you have any more information on her, like her age and what kind of object head she has (*´∀`)' ANYHOO THATS ALL, THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME

She's a few years younger + has a typewriter head!

[thedogmanarchives]

A little nugget of Crown + Milt characterization:

I had a long talk the other night (I was putting off sending an important email. I'm very responsible) and revealed a bit about Crown + Milt's characters. It's a lil long, but figured I should put a slightly touched up version of it here for everyone to see:

Crown was born disabled and was rejected VERY harshly when he tried to join the army, even after building his own set of mechanical legs. He was used to those in power mistreating him. As such, he never felt like he really belonged in power deep down because it was an environment he was unfamiliar with, surrounded by people who reminded him of those he'd always despised.

That's how he felt around 'real' politicians. He felt like he was in a joke + was waiting for the punchline. He felt he HAD to fight to keep what he had because those in power didn't WANT him there. He didn't belong. Here, there or anywhere. A freak only around by happenstance. He didn't just disagree with the motives/actions of others in power, he despised them for what they were. People who would never understand where he came from, what he had to overcome to get there and because of all that: what was at stake if his plans failed - that a world would never exist where he could've lived a full and happy life if he'd never had the opportunity to leave his garage.

He looked at the public as well-meaning, but somewhat dim. People who only knew enough to know what affected them personally. But he didn't hold it against them. They were products of their environment, of the systems that he was trying to undo. What he wanted was a mass revolution. A highly educated, dedicated and at times aggressive population that would recognize when their rights were being trampled and do something about it. He saw himself as a wolf on the side of sheep, and he wanted to make the public more like himself, so the fight for justice would never die. Every man a protagonist!

Milt's upbringing wasn't like Crown's. He didn't suffer from disability and his true sexual orientation wasn't known, so he faced little adversity for it, outside of the odd accusatory remark, which he was able to tolerate (as taking it personally would've given him away and put him in danger.) His family were well off, unlike Crown's.

He never understood Crown's mentality, as a result. He knew they had to fight to enact change, that the powerful fight to keep things the same because they benefit from it. But, the idea of seeing those around him as different (be it other people in power or the population themselves) - Milt couldn't fully grasp that part of Crown and at times, struggled to come to terms with the fact that the partner of his revolution, that aimed to create class awareness and solidarity - saw people as different to himself.

Marla understood Crown's perspective though. Despite perhaps sharing more ethical values with Milt, growing up poor + with a disability of her own (Mingus' cane was originally hers, after all), she saw eye to eye with Crown more in this regard. She viewed those who held onto power + failed to wield it for the good of others with a deep, searing contempt, which she was felt just as intensely as he did.

Of course, Milt never had Crown's insecurity. Just different inner demons of his own from the war, which haunted him in a very different way.

Crown believed that because he was able to change his own destiny, he HAD to change the destiny of others. He couldn't waste the opportunity he had. That the stars themselves had aligned in a one of a kind freakish accident, that their journey was one way and that nobody would ever get the chance to recreate their strategy, because those in power would know what to watch for next time it was tried. Crown couldn't have it be for nothing. he couldn't let everyone down.

While Milt looked at his past with survivor's guilt. The things he had to do to survive during the war. The faces of men he'd killed haunted him in his sleep. And he never forgot that he was alive because others were not. If he made mistakes, made the world a worse place… then the deaths of those he fought alongside who didn't come back were for nothing. He'd know for sure that the voice in his head was telling the truth - that he should've taken each and every bullet that felled his comrades. If he'd been braver, done more, generations of good families would've stemmed from the men he fought with who never made it home.

Crown and Milt had so much in common and their connection was quite deep - but as much as they knew about each other, neither could fully understand this one difference in the other and it wound up being the thing that ultimately killed their relationship.

[thedogmanarchives]

Will we ever learn about the time line and enc0unter deal? Any DLCs to explain about it? Also how many DLCs are you planning to make, if there's even an order for it. . .

maybe one day! there's only one character in-game who could ever really reveal what's going on and it would take very specific events for him to do so!

[thedogmanarchives]

What kind of class would the cast of Dialtown be in DnD? (Ie, Druid, Rouge, Paladin… etc)

Oh, I did a whole DnD Dialtown thing ages ago that conveniently mentions some classes in it with some rewritten backstories for the characters in this new universe. I'll paste it below (preamble is important for the character descriptions, so sorry for the lore:)

The story is set in a fictional landmass, with parts of it based on a fucked up Alaska, parts resembling the Swiss Alps, a desert zone and nuked carnival wastes. In the present era, an evil empire rules over the whole map, ran by an evil necromancer, Callum Crown. Him and his partner, Milton, took over the entire continent in a bloody conquest together that ended with Crown dropping an arcane nuke on the clown territory, ending the war, but turning Milt against him, leading to a civil war, in which Crown destroyed Milt.

Crown has a phone head made from scraps of the metals of the heroes who've failed to vanquish him, and has a lich body, which he reinforces with the same metal he used to build his head, gaining a gradual suit of armor in order to stop himself from physically falling apart. He has a powerful arcane gauntlet which he uses to cast devastating spells. His undead empire sells death to people with a snazzy sales pitch. Basically, you sign a waiver that gives you benefits within his empire while you're alive, but once you die, your corpse is resurrected to serve Crown until your remains degrade beyond use.

The plot of the game is that Crown is trying to unravel reality to remove an ancient arcane law of magic from the fabric of reality as old as life itself: necromancy cannot resurrect a life that has taken itself. Crown, despite presiding over the whole world and everything in it, cannot bear the loss of his friend, Milt, who he beat in the civil war, which ended with Milt drinking poison before Crown could reach his throne room in the final assault of milt's base.

Crown would tell you that he wishes to resurrect Milt so he can finally have Milt answer for his betrayal, but in reality, he just really misses Milt. To revive Milt, because he specifically took his own life, would require the fabric of reality be altered... something that could potentially end the world. Gingi is a non-human monster (not considered a person, starts the game as a low level enemy) who gets caught up in a complex socioeconomic conflict/conspiracy by being in the wrong place at the wrong time and has to travel with a band of companions in order to resolve the conflict and eventually, once powerful entities begin to take notice of you, in order to survive.

The plot involves Crown's pursuit of the final piece of the puzzle: gaining the ability to rewrite universal law, and eventually, Gingi either has to choose to help him achieve this power, prevent the power from being accessed by anyone, or taking it and using it however they decide to. Basically, Crown wants to rewrite universal law because he can't accept that he owns everything, is all powerful, but cannot revive one specific person.

Now onto the companions with classes mentioned:

Randy Jade: You meet him in one of the cities in Crown's empire. He approaches you to ask you for a cigarette, and if you give him one, he then asks you for a lighter too. He explains that he had a string of jobs in Crown's empire, but kept screwing them up and getting fired, and at this point, he's stealing to eat.

If you recruit him, Randy will fight for you. Randy's a rogue, uses small blades (starting item are some house keys he found poking out through his knuckle), he's a glass cannon (good DPS, low health) and is politically neutral.

Oliver Swift: He's a traveling bard/performer who's going on a journey to raise enough money so his old mentor, Mr Dickens, can gift a sword to a young hero in his village and order him to go forth and vanquish Callum Crown (a yearly tradition for the village that always ends with crown getting another scrap of metal for his head/armor)

If you agree to give him a share of the loot to send home, he will join the party. He attacks with blunt weapons (metal lute, wrench). Ironically, despite Randy being the rogue, Oliver has the better lockpicking skill. Politically, he dislikes Crown, and without a high speech skill, will leave the party if you align with Crown.

Karen Dunn: A bureaucrat in Crown's empire. A talented mage, she works in Crown's deathdealers headquarters. She's the person at the line for mages looking to sell their souls to Crown. She really doesn't care for this job, allowing the player to convince her to ditch it + join the party. Karen uses fire magic offensively but starts with a few healing spells too.

Karen is politically neutral, though she has a personal distaste for Crown's empire as an employer.

Bigfoot: Can be admitted into the party. He's a melee tank, but has a few forest magic spells that buff himself and other party members, giving him support capabilities. Bigfoot will become frightened and leave the party during some cutscenes when loud noises/conflict occurs, if you do not equip earmuffs onto him.

Norm Allen: A former sheriff (now fugitive) in the annexed desert territory. Formerly an avid supporter of the order that Crown brought, and one of Crown's enforcers in his home town of [desert zone], Norm is hellbent on putting a bullet in Crown's head and dismantling his empire.

If you become friendly with Norm, you find out that the thing that Norm specifically bolted from Crown over... was the overreach of justice, and selling tyranny to his people as justice. Norm's a tank. His defense stat is middling, but his attack accuracy is locked at 100%, which is valuable in bad weather conditions or if the team gets blinded.

Norm will turn on the player if they do anything BUT prevent universal power from entering anyone's hands.

Mingus: Mingus is Crown's key enforcer/assassin. At the start of the game, she's trying to track down and execute Norm for betraying Crown, and as the plot progresses, eventually targets the player.

A stealthy cat woman, she strikes from the shadows, always, and usually after wetting the tips of her claws with a devastating poison. The poison she uses has no known antidote.

Politically, she's a fanatic, found abandoned as a kitten by Callum Crown many cycles ago. While Crown is cold with her, speaking to her like a tool, he keeps her in his service with his false promise to rewrite reality so other people like Mingus and to erase her abandonment from the timeline. Mingus secretly pines for his approval/kindness above all else, believing that helping Crown achieve her goals is the only way she'll ever feel loved. She's a potential late-game companion, being recruitable during the lategame, if you're doing Crown's ending.

There's more, but that's the gist of it. Hope this was interesting!

[thedogmanarchives]

if you were to give mingus a voice, do you think she would have any accent?

I've always pictured neutral-american, probably somewhat well-spoken given her vocabulary!

[thedogmanarchives]

how would the dialtown cast feel abt their respective theme songs, especially with the context that its meant to represent them? do any of them feel like the song accurately represents them?? ive wondered abt this a lot

Off the top of my head, most would find their themes fitting, I think.

Oliver would consider his theme a jam. Karen would agree hers is fitting and like the mechanical bits. In one ending, Gingi DOES describe Randy's theme to him and his reaction is more or less like "...Huh." I think he'd be the most insecure about his theme of the datables, wondering why it sounds sorta comical ("Do people laugh at me and see me as a fuckup?! My fears ARE real!")

Bigfoot would listen to his theme and seem at peace, maybe give a thumbs up if you asked if he liked it.

Norm would 100% be happy about his theme since it's very western-sounding and sounds like it commands respect, but post chapter 3, probably worry it sounds too serious and worry his friends are intimidated by him.

I'm not sure what Mingus would think of her theme. Probably find the cat presence overwhelming, like "I'm the MAYOR of a city, I feel like all I hear in this is the cat. The bugle's nice, though." ironically preferring the Crown bit of the theme to the bit that's actually about herself, which is quite fitting now that I think of it.

God would hear his theme and think "heh... yep, that's me alright!"

Stabby + Shooty would find out they don't have a theme in the basegame and insist they write their own and play it and it would likely sound like ed edd n eddy background music. just chaotic avant garde jazz.

Roger would probably be like "...wait. this music sounds silly. don't people see me as an authority figure? are you sure this is my theme? it's okay if you played the wrong one, we all make mistakes. can you please check again?"

[thedogmanarchives]

What kind of class would the cast of Dialtown be in DnD? (Ie, Druid, Rouge, Paladin… etc)

Oh, I did a whole DnD Dialtown thing ages ago that conveniently mentions some classes in it with some rewritten backstories for the characters in this new universe. I'll paste it below (preamble is important for the character descriptions, so sorry for the lore:)

The story is set in a fictional landmass, with parts of it based on a fucked up Alaska, parts resembling the Swiss Alps, a desert zone and nuked carnival wastes. In the present era, an evil empire rules over the whole map, ran by an evil necromancer, Callum Crown. Him and his partner, Milton, took over the entire continent in a bloody conquest together that ended with Crown dropping an arcane nuke on the clown territory, ending the war, but turning Milt against him, leading to a civil war, in which Crown destroyed Milt.

Crown has a phone head made from scraps of the metals of the heroes who've failed to vanquish him, and has a lich body, which he reinforces with the same metal he used to build his head, gaining a gradual suit of armor in order to stop himself from physically falling apart. He has a powerful arcane gauntlet which he uses to cast devastating spells. His undead empire sells death to people with a snazzy sales pitch. Basically, you sign a waiver that gives you benefits within his empire while you're alive, but once you die, your corpse is resurrected to serve Crown until your remains degrade beyond use.

The plot of the game is that Crown is trying to unravel reality to remove an ancient arcane law of magic from the fabric of reality as old as life itself: necromancy cannot resurrect a life that has taken itself. Crown, despite presiding over the whole world and everything in it, cannot bear the loss of his friend, Milt, who he beat in the civil war, which ended with Milt drinking poison before Crown could reach his throne room in the final assault of milt's base.

Crown would tell you that he wishes to resurrect Milt so he can finally have Milt answer for his betrayal, but in reality, he just really misses Milt. To revive Milt, because he specifically took his own life, would require the fabric of reality be altered... something that could potentially end the world. Gingi is a non-human monster (not considered a person, starts the game as a low level enemy) who gets caught up in a complex socioeconomic conflict/conspiracy by being in the wrong place at the wrong time and has to travel with a band of companions in order to resolve the conflict and eventually, once powerful entities begin to take notice of you, in order to survive.

The plot involves Crown's pursuit of the final piece of the puzzle: gaining the ability to rewrite universal law, and eventually, Gingi either has to choose to help him achieve this power, prevent the power from being accessed by anyone, or taking it and using it however they decide to. Basically, Crown wants to rewrite universal law because he can't accept that he owns everything, is all powerful, but cannot revive one specific person.

Now onto the companions with classes mentioned:

Randy Jade: You meet him in one of the cities in Crown's empire. He approaches you to ask you for a cigarette, and if you give him one, he then asks you for a lighter too. He explains that he had a string of jobs in Crown's empire, but kept screwing them up and getting fired, and at this point, he's stealing to eat.

If you recruit him, Randy will fight for you. Randy's a rogue, uses small blades (starting item are some house keys he found poking out through his knuckle), he's a glass cannon (good DPS, low health) and is politically neutral.

Oliver Swift: He's a traveling bard/performer who's going on a journey to raise enough money so his old mentor, Mr Dickens, can gift a sword to a young hero in his village and order him to go forth and vanquish Callum Crown (a yearly tradition for the village that always ends with crown getting another scrap of metal for his head/armor)

If you agree to give him a share of the loot to send home, he will join the party. He attacks with blunt weapons (metal lute, wrench). Ironically, despite Randy being the rogue, Oliver has the better lockpicking skill. Politically, he dislikes Crown, and without a high speech skill, will leave the party if you align with Crown.

Karen Dunn: A bureaucrat in Crown's empire. A talented mage, she works in Crown's deathdealers headquarters. She's the person at the line for mages looking to sell their souls to Crown. She really doesn't care for this job, allowing the player to convince her to ditch it + join the party. Karen uses fire magic offensively but starts with a few healing spells too.

Karen is politically neutral, though she has a personal distaste for Crown's empire as an employer.

Bigfoot: Can be admitted into the party. He's a melee tank, but has a few forest magic spells that buff himself and other party members, giving him support capabilities. Bigfoot will become frightened and leave the party during some cutscenes when loud noises/conflict occurs, if you do not equip earmuffs onto him.

Norm Allen: A former sheriff (now fugitive) in the annexed desert territory. Formerly an avid supporter of the order that Crown brought, and one of Crown's enforcers in his home town of [desert zone], Norm is hellbent on putting a bullet in Crown's head and dismantling his empire.

If you become friendly with Norm, you find out that the thing that Norm specifically bolted from Crown over... was the overreach of justice, and selling tyranny to his people as justice. Norm's a tank. His defense stat is middling, but his attack accuracy is locked at 100%, which is valuable in bad weather conditions or if the team gets blinded.

Norm will turn on the player if they do anything BUT prevent universal power from entering anyone's hands.

Mingus: Mingus is Crown's key enforcer/assassin. At the start of the game, she's trying to track down and execute Norm for betraying Crown, and as the plot progresses, eventually targets the player.

A stealthy cat woman, she strikes from the shadows, always, and usually after wetting the tips of her claws with a devastating poison. The poison she uses has no known antidote.

Politically, she's a fanatic, found abandoned as a kitten by Callum Crown many cycles ago. While Crown is cold with her, speaking to her like a tool, he keeps her in his service with his false promise to rewrite reality so other people like Mingus and to erase her abandonment from the timeline. Mingus secretly pines for his approval/kindness above all else, believing that helping Crown achieve her goals is the only way she'll ever feel loved. She's a potential late-game companion, being recruitable during the lategame, if you're doing Crown's ending.

There's more, but that's the gist of it. Hope this was interesting!

[thedogmanarchives]

Your stickers have eyes under the dial. Is this canon are their optic sensors below the dial I always thought it was the dial that had their optic sensors

Yeah, it's just the artist's stylization. Obviously the canon heads don't have actual eyes, so where they're placed is something you could play with. Gingi doesn't have a forked tongue in canon either (though it's a sick idea.)

[thedogmanarchives]

CAN SOMEONE REBLOG THIS WITH THE MILTON AND CALLUM SCREENSHOTS (I THINK THE PERSON WHO SHOWED ME THEM FIRST IS @daylightwarriorfan05 !!) IVE LOST THEM AND NEED TO READ THEM AGAIN BECAUSE THE BRAINROT IS REAL