Thursday, April 24, 2008

OK, I am caught up.

So, I admit that I had read Maternal Obligations before going out of town, but it depressed me, so I procrastinated posting about it.

"How could I let you marry a man I've never met."

That. That's what did it. It's a new addition to the "most unbelievable reasons for canceling a wedding" list, along with the "poorest excuse for a plot twist ever" list.

I have about 300 more words to write on this, but I think it's best if I just get over it.

Mommy Issues did nothing to lessen my funk, but I did like Brent's grimace in the fourth panel. I have a whole essay written called "PVP Characters Spend Far Too Much Time With Their Mouths Open." Ok, not really, but I wish I did.

(A non-critical note to Scott: there is a typo in the first panel.)

Breaking Point is what it is. I'm glad that we're breaking away from the mother dramatics.

One comment on the script:



If their parents are divorced, why is Miranda looking for him? I assume he's invited to the wedding, but why would he show up with the mother? In addition, "Where else?" implies that the mother is expected to know where the father is, which, seeing as they are divorced, doesn't make sense. "Who knows?" would have been a more likely response. I was confused for a sec -- she seemed to be awfully blasé about her husband traveling and womanizing.



Mr. Fixxit: Holy crap -- this is bizarre but Brent in the first panel was something of a revelation. He's smiling. Smiling! Surely he has smiled before, but I honestly don't feel like I've seen that look on his face before. He usually has this droopy mouth that implies his world-weariness (see every other panel in this strip), and the glasses usually do nothing but add a cynical edge to whatever look he has on.

I really don't know why, but he looks like a whole new Brent in panel one.

Deus Ex Machina: I'm not sure how the title relates, but whatever. I don't really have anything to say about this one; it's needed transition.

The Wedding Planner is very well done. I am back on board with the storyline with this strip. The mother was a painful road to take to get here, and it's still kind of corny, but it works.

(I forgot to mention: Hooray for double strips! More!)

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know what Kurtz was trying to get at when he titled the comic "deus ex machina", though I suppose it is literally inappropriate. Calling Rob was an entirely logical solution given the situation, so it doesn't really qualify.

Brett Schiller (Sage) said...

Hey FSM good to have you back. It was good you didn't write those additional 300 words or Scott might accuse you of flailing again. :) Yeah the mother storyline was going off the track, save for Jade going off on her mother (but the question is where did she go in the next strip?)

With Deus Ex Machina, to clarify is it that you don't know what the term means, or don't know if there is a deus ex machina in the strip?

Brett Schiller (Sage) said...

YEah a deus ex machina would be if Robbie called them to say, "hey why don't you have the wedding here" without being prompted.

tim said...

@Sage:

I know what it means, it just doesn't seem to apply. At best it's a stretch.

Brett Schiller (Sage) said...

Yeah, just clarifying, I didn't want to fully put my foot in my mouth. I agree it doesn't match, like 47, it was a logical option.

Anonymous said...

I think Robbie is a bit of a deus ex machina just because he's got so much money. Yeah, it's a logical step but just having Robbie about with all the money to say, "Hey, everything's canceled but suddenly *whoosh* I fix it with my money!" And Butler being an ordained minister? That's just the capstone to the whole thing.

Honestly though, it's not that bad of a deus ex. Frankly, my real complaint would be why they didn't have it at Robbie's house in the first place. That would have been my first thought. Now on with the show!

sinnick said...

Hey Fake Scott McCloud - I know you're trying to stick to a regular posting schedule, but these one-line reviews of the strips aren't really turning my crank.

I'm not a pvp fan acting facetious here. I far prefer your longer essays about overall themes: story, art, etc.

On the Mother's reason for cancelling the wedding: it seems obvious to me that this is just the reason she's GIVING to Jade. It isn't the real reason.

I think it's clear that Jade's Dad will turn out to be some sort of rebellious artistic type, and the mother is worried Jade will make the same mistakes that she made.

I don't mean this as a compliment, by the way. One of the big problems I have with the mother storyline is how predictable it is, and how much of a shallow stereotype the mother is.

Anonymous said...

Holy crap, how much time do you guys spend on this comic strip?? I'm am in awe. No, really. Are you all frustrated web comic writers? Do you really have THAT much ownership in PVP?? Reading this website is like discovering that there was a massive community of people who discussed garfield every day. I mean, there isn't one....is there?

algeya said...

Deus ex machina
Would be something like Brent
got a phone call from MTV so won a contest and he can a tv wedding

Anonymous said...

Ps by they way can we have Penny arcade, octupus pie, cad , pilli Adventure makes me sad.
WHEN THERE`S nothing to say about Pvp.

Unknown said...

@p

Yes. I am absolutely sure that if you looked hard enough, you'd find one.

Also: A paragraph or so from each person is what? A minute? Half a minute? Unless they're bad typists. I guess the time:money ratio has really gone out of whack.

Anonymous said...

You married a man you had never met, FSM? Scanadalous.

If you take the phrase "deus ex machina" in the literal sense over the conventional sense, it applies quite neatly. The extraordinarily rich pair sit out of the workings of the strip most of the time, but are always there to alter fate when it's convenient to the narrative. Scott was probably just pre-empting complaints about taking the easy way out, and as it has gotten people here stuck on a less important point I guess it worked.

Anonymous said...

Nick,

If that were the case, I would expect Jade and/or Miranda to say, "But mother, daddy is an artist..." or something along those lines when the mother started the rant.

Brett Schiller (Sage) said...

@ P.

I guess you're right, i've never heard of a group of people discussing a subject every day. I guess, news, politics, books, sports, and other comics (such as DC/Marvel) have never been discussed or disected like we do here.

Its actually not too bad here the only over the top responsed you get is usually a random anonymus person, that or Scott himself :P

(phew did that in 1.5 min while watching Daily Show, man that bumps my time on the site to about 10 for the day)

Blog Archive