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mlooney

Comic for Monday, Feb 7, 2022

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Here is.

Several key take aways from today's strip.
1) We see what Kevin will say to an awakened magic user.
2) Sarah gets some strength training, which should help her become awakened.
3) Tedd needs to study how Kevin blocks ambient magic which could be important in their research into magic resistance.

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So, Kevin, a wooden cylinder with a fancy paint job (presumably wooden), is once again rude, condescending, and egotistical. His primary function is to be a dead weight for strength training, a magical dumbbell, if you will. Yeah, that's kind of on point. Apparently, he also gives some sort of lessons.

Too bad no one has a dog, who could play fetch with Kevin.

The lines radiating from Kevin; actual radiance, doesn't have an 'inside voice', radiating ego, or just dramatic background? He does seem to shout all the time, I don't think 'inside voice' is part of his vocabulary, and I doubt he'd care to use it. Zero couth. (But what do you expect from a stick, right?)

Does Edward own a fireplace?

He seems to do his job well. I'm already learning patience from him, and I'm not even in the comic.

He's half a Jeff Dunham prop.

So, Kevin, the Wonder Cylinder. Kevin, the Magic Dumbbell. Kevin, the Fancy Stick.

Magus, add this to your list.

 

6 hours ago, mlooney said:

Here is.

Several key take aways from today's strip.
1) We see what Kevin will say to an awakened magic user.
2) Sarah gets some strength training, which should help her become awakened.
3) Tedd needs to study how Kevin blocks ambient magic which could be important in their research into magic resistance.

1. Yes, so it seems Sarah is not awakened.

2. Yes, also Ashley, who at this point seems less capable magically than Sarah.

3. Tedd should be able to observe Kevin functioning. He figured out the mirror.

You beat me by two minutes.

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59 minutes ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Yes, also Ashley, who at this point seems less capable magically than Sarah

Less magically capable right now, but should be more powerful when she finishes, unless Pandora some how makes Sarah into a wizard.  Granted Pandora just said she would help Sarah awaken, not become a wizard, but she also said things about training an apprentice,  which sounds more like wizard than "standard" EGS magic user.

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37 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:

The Moderator: Please do not make this sort of joke. It is disablist and not really funny.

Apologies. Do you mind if I edit it out?

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As a (technically) human type person who is borderline autistic and who has the benefit(?) of several decades of human interaction, I find Kevin's behaviour annoying mostly because I would want do the same thing in his situation but I could not get away with it

So what are the advantages and disadvantages of not being alive in the conventional sense?  Maybe I should consider the options?

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9 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Too bad no one has a dog, who could play fetch with Kevin.

Some cats will play fetch.  Jeremy is a large cat, and has jaw strong enough to open cat food cans.  That might work.  Of course we know that Kevin will float in the air if tossed, so it might be tricky to have any animal play fetch.

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3 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

As a (technically) human type person who is borderline autistic and who has the benefit(?) of several decades of human interaction, I find Kevin's behaviour annoying mostly because I would want do the same thing in his situation but I could not get away with it

If you don't mind elaborating, what aspects of Kevin's behavior do you wish you could emulate?

Personally, I have little interest in being loud and acting like I'm always the center of attention, however being able to cut straight to the point does have some appeal. As for ignoring people who don't interest me, I do that anyway, but I try not to be obvious about it (both because I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, and because some people take being ignored as a challenge).

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2 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

however being able to cut straight to the point does have some appeal.

Oh, yes.  This, so much this.  I've been accused of being blunt, but I think to myself "But I held back..." most of the time.

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I still think that Kevin, being newly and unintentionally sentient, simply has not learned any manners. He (?) somehow knows English, and about Magic, but those things could have been given him by Arthur when he was created. Which brings up another idea: Perhaps Kevin is what Arthur would be without socialization. Perhaps Arthur copied his knowledge, but not his social graces, into Kevin. They both demonstrate a certain ruthlessness.

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24 minutes ago, Amiable Dorsai said:

Perhaps Kevin is what Arthur would be without socialization.

Need to see if Kevin has Arthur's view on America and what America stands for.  Not that political discussions should come up in magic training, but they might.

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Kevin seems like badly designed software. I am reminded of the infuriating phone machines from their early era, or some really badly designed websites. If he was created to serve a purpose, he does not seem to serve it well. He took to this comic to describe his magic dumbbell function. Describing what his purpose is should have been a priority. His status displays are essentially cast as rudeness. What is the point? What purpose does the excessive ego and susceptibility to flattery serve, other than a bit of comic relief in the comic?

Arthur praised Tedd's relief valves on the mirror door, and said he (Arthur) would not have thought of that. I suppose in part this can all be chalked up to Arthur is simply not a designer, can't compose a system. But there are aspects that exceed that rationale.

 

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Kevin was in an alpha version when Arthur stopped development on the project due to not being able to get the wand to function. I am not surprised that he needs debugging.

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2 minutes ago, ijuin said:

Kevin was in an alpha version when Arthur stopped development on the project due to not being able to get the wand to function. I am not surprised that he needs debugging.

Kevin was made "sentient" by the blast of magical energy put out by the dewichery diamond.  Hard to debug that.  Unless and until they get a means of doing a similar blast of magic energy, Kevin will still be a one off project.  Which is too bad in a way, but good from a narrative standpoint.

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4 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

What purpose does the excessive ego and susceptibility to flattery serve, other than a bit of comic relief in the comic?

My guess is these aspects of his personality were not part of the original programming. From what I recall, Kevin was not intended to be sentient; that being the case the magic that brought him to life probably had to fill in some gaps in his mind (or encourage the mind to develop unnaturally fast), resulting in personality traits not necessarily conductive to his original function.

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13 minutes ago, ChronosCat said:

From what I recall, Kevin was not intended to be sentient;

Nope. Just talking.  I assumed that Arthur was trying for a magic AI driven system.  Then the AI "woke up" when the magic overload happened.

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The magic-dumbbell thing does not appear to be the limit of what Kevin is for. It seems to me that he will also be explaining how to use magic energy to craft spells.

Sarah isn't a wizard, so can't craft spells - she can only used the spells she's given. No point in explaining to her how to craft them. But she can benefit from the dumbbell effect because she doesn't have a lot of power.

Ashley, meanwhile, needs both aspects.

Tedd needs neither, because he's plenty powerful enough (and to spare!) and can see for himself how spells are crafted.

Elliot also needs neither, because he isn't a wizard but is sufficiently powerful for the spells he has or is likely to get.

Grace is, um, her own thing that Kevin doesn't know how to deal with.

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1 hour ago, Don Edwards said:

The magic-dumbbell thing does not appear to be the limit of what Kevin is for.

That seems to be the case, based on what Arthur said about him when he was talked about.  Training a wizard takes more then just building up strength, even if that is an important part of the training.

 

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11 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

The magic-dumbbell thing does not appear to be the limit of what Kevin is for. It seems to me that he will also be explaining how to use magic energy to craft spells.

Sarah isn't a wizard, so can't craft spells - she can only used the spells she's given. No point in explaining to her how to craft them. But she can benefit from the dumbbell effect because she doesn't have a lot of power.

Ashley, meanwhile, needs both aspects.

Tedd needs neither, because he's plenty powerful enough (and to spare!) and can see for himself how spells are crafted.

Elliot also needs neither, because he isn't a wizard but is sufficiently powerful for the spells he has or is likely to get.

Grace is, um, her own thing that Kevin doesn't know how to deal with.

Agree, though it seems that the magic dumbbell function is the primary function. That seems uniquely beneficial, especially with the apparent example of Sarah going nuts with her spell yet still not awakening. The 'splaining seems to have many potential sources, even books.

Which makes Kevin's lack of social skills and empathy even more puzzling, because one thing an instructor would be better at training is ethical considerations, and Arthur, knowing of his grand daughter, Jay, would be concerned about that.

Grace, though, might benefit. She found that she was able to also cast spells recently, after magic changed, if I recall correctly.

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Arthur said that he created the wand that became Kevin “decades ago”, which probably means that it was before Jay was born. It may be that Arthur’s daughter (Jay’s mother) is a wizard as well, but we have not been given any details about that as of yet.

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6 hours ago, ijuin said:

Arthur said that he created the wand that became Kevin “decades ago”, which probably means that it was before Jay was born. It may be that Arthur’s daughter (Jay’s mother) is a wizard as well, but we have not been given any details about that as of yet.

I agree.  I don't think that Kevin had any thing to do with Jay.  It might have had to do with her mother, but I'm wary of that at that as Arthur said it was for training agents.  Unless Jay's mother is an agent I'm not seeing Kevin as being for Arthur's family use.
 

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