Why, Kurtz, why?!?

[cearalaith]

Am I the only one who found today's PVP really kinda squicky?

craymore pointed out that the same strip wouldn't have even prompted an eyebrow raise from me if it had appeared in Penny Arcade. And it's true. But that's because random nonsensical violence is central to PA's schtick, and it's... well, completely antithical to PVP. It just feels wrongIf

Comments

[cork_dork]

Not unlike Bruce Willis says in my favorite Quentin Tarintino film... Kev's dead, baby. Kev's dead.

Or at least I hope so -- he's a one-dimensional character. I just hope Brent gets Skull back.

[kevinbunny]

Well, I will point out PVP does hold the record for 'Most Random Panda Maulings', but yes, it is more PA's thing.

[akumadaimyo]

Kev's a punk kid and he's not real. I don't care if he dies. He was indeed one dimensional. I agree with cork_dork. I'm strange in that I think I honestly do care more about animals than I do the lives of strangers. Especially cruel or stupid strangers.

[evilpheemy]

My problem is that the storyline was so short that I never got the chance to invest in Kevin at all. Killing him was similar to watching a Red Shirted Security Dude die in Star Trek. Had the time been taken to develop Kevin a little more, perhaps enough that when he buys it we hate him enough to be happy to see him go, or on the other side, if we were to start liking the kid, then there would be more meaning to his demise. Instead we get a resounding awkward uncomfortable feeling.

Finally, there's the "Calvin and Hobbes" imagery in that last cartoon. Which, to me, makes the strip a little *too* disturbing. Thankfully (and hopefully) this is one of those expiraments in PvP that will be forgotten next month

[morlith]

My problem is that the storyline was so short that I never got the chance to invest in Kevin at all.

The storyline, I do believe, is not over. This is part of Skull's experiences away from the rest of the PVP gang. Kurtz wrote on his Twitter the night before that "I have just written the most morbid strip in the history of PVP". As cerelaith said, Kurtz doesn't do this sort of thing every often, so breaking from the norm this much makes it a very important plot point in my mind.

[hoobajoo]

I personally found this to be one of the two strips a year of PvP I find genuinely funny. This is probably because it's much closer to PA's sense of humor, and I have a general inability to find much of anything funny without it hurting someone, real or imagined.

Thanks post-modernity, for fucking me up so totally.

[akumadaimyo]

I think I have to agree. I hate Kevin. He's a jerk kid. That and maybe I'm screwed up but I hate people who hurt animals and him tossing that kitten over the fence to possibly be torn to bits by a dog pissed me off. So if the kid dies all the better. Kids die all the time via their own stupid actions, just like adults. But this is a webcomic, not a real kid so it's not something that bothers me much.

[hoobajoo]

No, I don't read PvP, so I have no clue who this kid is. I only read this strip because of this LJ post, you see. I have absolutely no ill will, it's just funny because it's a mimicry of Calvin and Hobbes, except it ends with someone dead. And that's hilarious. If Kevin was a good and virtuous person, or a well-developed character, it wouldn't be any less funny.

[akumadaimyo]

Ah, I thought you did read it. I think I'd find it sad if he were a good and virtuous person or well-developed but funny at the same time. Sort of like when someone like that dies in a comedic movie but the death is in a funny manner.