Kid Gun Treatment – Chapter 8, Act 2, Strip 95

Yeah, fictional characters live in a pretty starkly stratified society. There are, essentially, two things that can lift a character out of the ocean of faceless NPCs: having a name* and speaking lines.

Somewhat ironically, speaking lines also marks a pretty stark (financial) distinction for the actors who play a fictional character.

The twins’ names have never been mentioned (and I would have to check the script whether I even gave them any), but they’ve spoken plenty of lines, so they definitively can’t be treated (as badly) as easily replaceable extras. Their good looks add to that effect – but Gregory would perhaps felt awkward focusing on that under the prevailing circumstances.

Qualified for kid-glove-treatment, the twins aren’t confronted with an Eldritch Blast and a fully-loaded minigun aimed at them…but just with an Eldritch Blast and a Super Soaker. I guess technically the Eldritch Blast would be bad enough (or rather more than enough), but it doesn’t look like a gun, so there are no special rules/restrictions for it.

Gregory has little reason to feel bad about this set-up, though – let’s face it, the minigun would have clashed rather badly with the Alparka in terms of style, and the Alparka is obligatory. The Super Soaker gives off a playful vibe that fits in well with the rest of Gregory’s outfit. And it doesn’t look like the twins were about to offer a whole lot of resistance, anyway.

More on Monday.

* And only names mentioned on-screen qualify, in this regard. Having a name in the script or the end credits might be nice, but it does nothing for the level of empathy the audience feels towards a character.

4 Replies to “Kid Gun Treatment – Chapter 8, Act 2, Strip 95”

  1. Yes, a black minigun might have clashed with an alpaka outfit, even when it shoots hearts. That privilege seems to be reserved to (were)bears. Gregory might have claimed that being in a white full-body outfit means he wouldn’t hit with it anyway, because of stromtrooper syndrome, but that would come back to bite him later.
    As for the eldritch blast, it would be launched by a magical girl, so they should live. But they might feel an urge to switch sides afterwards.

    1. I’m not sure whether the Stormtrooper effect is really tied only to the color of the outfit, though. I think the helmet would also be a requirement, or something else to securely anchor the outfit in the henchman-of-evil territory…which is a place that would be somewhat difficult to reach in an alparka. Unless you’re working for some archvillain with a very idiosyncratic sense of humor.

      And the second thing I’m not sure off is whether the Stormtrooper effect would be enough to overcome the fact that a minigun’s high rate of fire (2000 to 6000 rounds per minute) makes aiming pretty much superfluous. A minigun might be the only hand-held weapon with which even a Stormtrooper wouldn’t be capable of missing his target. XD

  2. At least it’s not an invisible gun or some wacky hammer-spring-gun contraption.

    1. I’ve used the hammer-spring-gun variant before, but I felt it didn’t perfectly suit the alparka, either. An alparka calls for something cute/playful, the hammer-spring-gun is more like crazy/playful. Subtle, but noticeable. XD

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