The Expanded Universe explanation as to why some people could not see Skull was that they were not ready to have their entire world view blown by the existence of a giant, blue, magical, troll.
[Webcomic] PVP Discussion
- Thread starter Dei
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GasBandit
Staff member
The explanation that came back from the mouth of Kurtz was that Max couldn't see skull because he was incapable of accepting a reality that had something like skull in it, so his psyche just kind of "edited out" skull. After some personal growth, that didn't happen any more.
So...it had nothing to do with Skull being imaginary? That is a bit hard to swallow, but I guess it makes sense.
Also on the topic of Skull being imaginary, Skulls most recent origin is that he was supposed to be Brent's imaginary mentor who as hinted by his mother has been around him since Brent was a kid. However thats impossible as the "Origin of PvP" storyline stated that they first met when PvP was just starting out as a magazine and Skull got an internship because he to work with Quake as well as all of the cast of Samwise. Why is Skull the epicenter of so many damn continuity errors?
Simple. Kurtz is a hack.
When Kurtz gets bored, his latest 'awesome' idea is definitely is definitely more important than what he has previously defined, and since Skull is the fantastic character that's fun to play with, he's at the center of many of these ideas.
Man... who else is excited for Table Titans!
I'm stoked!!! Wow, I mean Val is such an interesting character I can't see this being anything but total awesomesauce...
I'm stoked!!! Wow, I mean Val is such an interesting character I can't see this being anything but total awesomesauce...
North_Ranger
Staff member
Please... Dwarves love EVERYTHING. Damn hippies...
Okay I'm going through the PvP archives, and apparently Brent switched from being a die-hard Amiga fan to being a die-hard Apple fan- IN THE SAME YEAR! No explanation either!
... Let's not talk about that... It's too painful.
Aaaaaaah, possible repressed memory. Wish that was the official explanation, that'd be funny as hell!
I'm gonna be honest here, if Val didn't have awesome cleavage I wouldn't be paying her any attention at all. She'd be just another member of that random D&D group, with those other two (or was it three) guys whose names I can't recall.Man... who else is excited for Table Titans!
I'm stoked!!! Wow, I mean Val is such an interesting character I can't see this being anything but total awesomesauce...
Val's introduction as a character was WAY too damn sappy. Makes out with Skull than cries, mentions how she wishes dwarves were real-SWEET SATAN ITS JUST YOUR FIRST ARC! Also her introduction was POORLY paced after Sonia Powers coming back into the story to tell Skull she's dating someone new( had more emotion than Marcy and Francis's break-up even). She was obviously going to be a love-interest, and her being introduced in such a manner is the cliche level of sitcoms and lesser web-comics...which PvP is now I guess*sigh*.
With a side of Skinemax.
If you've ever watched a telenovella, that's basically all it is: A Mexican Soap Opera with tons of skin.
Tons of nekkid skin does not sound very enticing.
I will admit it was actually kinda funny.
I never like strips that require information from another strip. Good writing should mean a strip is self-contained. All the info you need is present. Unlike today's PvP.
GasBandit
Staff member
Eh, I disagree, when it's a running arc. And if this is the last strip in the arc, I think I'll have to give props to kurtz for bringing it full circle with closure.
If it was all part of one big strip, it would be fine. As it is, you have to divine what the hell Brent is talking about, including the punchline. The format of the joke relies on information not present in the strip at all. Closure? Sure, I guess, but the humor was certainly killed. He traded off funny for continuity.
Both require knowledge of the previous comics. The sex in the office joke would make no sense to someone who had not read the previous ones. I challenge someone who hasn't read PVP in a while to go and read today's comic and see if it makes any sense to you at all.
Dave
Staff member
But isn't that what arcs are? I mean, yesterday's had Brent and Francis watching security footage of the cleaning staff. Had you not been paying attention you;d have thought it was Telemundo - which was the actual joke. So you needed background.
I have no problems with the way today's was written and I disagree with your assessment.
I have no problems with the way today's was written and I disagree with your assessment.
Sure, but we're talking about the humor. As a story, it is fine. Let the plot span many strips. Reference them to your heart's content. But the joke relies on past comics and that to me breaks the rules. Humor requires a setup and then a punchline. The set up was yesterday.
GasBandit
Staff member
I have to tell you, I really disagree. I'm a big fan of the brick joke, and humorous references to previous parts of plot are really good to me, in all forms of media. Plus, it is not uncommon for PVP to have arcs, and it is not uncommon for comics with arcs to do extended setups for payoffs in later strips. I could see where you were coming from if we were talking a joke-a-day format like Far Side or Garfield, but this is really a different beast.
If the joke was all encompassing, Jade would know that there are sex-tapes of her floating around... and that would make it less funny.
GasBandit
Staff member
Depends. A lot of those video surveillance systems re-record over their own tapes if you don't pull them within a week or two.
He's basically created an in-joke. In-jokes by definition will appeal to a smaller segment of the audience than strips that contain the set-up for the punchline.
GasBandit
Staff member
Well, you have a point there, but that's actually the case with everything regarding arcs vs joke-a-days. The guy over at Nerf Now has noticed that although his forum users clamor for more arcs, especially TF2 arcs, his hits/readership stays stagnant on days when he is putting out arc strips, and only grows when he puts out single-serving punchline strips. Thus, it hurts his business model to do lots of arcs even though there is a vocal portion of his readership that really, really likes plot arcs.
But that's a different argument than what is better. McDonald's sells more food than Ruth's Chris.
Popular CAN also be better. Let's not get into any false equivalencies.
GasBandit
Staff member
It CAN, but it doesn't necessarily follow, which is what I was interpreting your assertion to be - that making a joke that requires previous strips to have been read hurts popularity, and is thus a worse joke.Popular CAN also be better. Let's not get into any false equivalencies.
Actually, my contention is that it is a worse joke and therefore hurts popularity. Popularity is an affected variable rather than the defining characteristic.