My Life with Thrill Kill Karl - Discussions, comments, etc.

[VladDamien]

Well, since Karl is done and over with as of June 27th 2004, I thought a section such as this one would be a nice addition to the forum... might get it going a bit too.

So as the title says: Discuss, comment, etc.

-Vlad D.

[Nsonic79]

I have to say that I am not sure what to say about the end of Thrill Kill Karl. It had a great run and it ended with a continuance but it still leaves alot of unanswered questions.

Was Karl arrested for killing the mother of his child?

the series still does not answer if the demon that possessed Karl was either good or evil though the metalphysical questions are very apparent.

I am sure that the second series might answer some of my questions and it makes me wonder if the maddness that causes young teens to kill is hereditary and will soon see such in his young child. Though I feel the ending could be better, I honestly cannot think of a better way of doing such since most of my ideas smack of the current trends in pop culture.

A fitting ending, if not an explosive one. But you did get one thing down. You left more questions and not enough answers.

[VladDamien]

Well, I wanted to leave a lot of unanswered questions so I could answer them with Pater Noster. After this one, there shouldn't be a single question left... well, apart from social commetary type of questions and all that stuff I want to share.

I was somewhat taking a chance with an open ending such as this one.

About Mephisto being good and evil, you first have to ask yourself was he real in the first place? Was a psychological disturbance or an actual spiritual entity? Is there really a difference between both, as belief shapes those things that go bump in the night?

As for Karl being arrested or not... you'll see soon enough

Thanks a ton for the imput, you know I always love it. Your comments are what keeps me going!

-Vlad D.

[Nsonic79]

I figured that was the case. AFterall that's what sequels are meant for. Gives someone wanting to come back for more.

Here is the deal that I still do not understand or see if your story is even aware of trying to develop and explain about Karl's dark little friend(s). despite it's reasoning and ability to make him see certain things about himself that eventually Karl MIGHT have come to terms with as he aged and matured, it eventually helped turn him to do the things that made him a thrill killer. Sure, outside stimuli and events helped him being to lose his ability to blurr the lines between right from wrong after his boss used him to her own designs, (from both sex and job advancement purposes.) But according to Karl, it was what drove him to do the things that are socially frowned upon.
That in itself would make it seem that Karl's ally is nothing more than a figment of his imagination. And yet during the times of his incarseration he does not speak of it. He doesn't even speak of it thru out the entire series, but only in the third person sence to the reader. (Since it's been awhile I am not totally sure on this. I could have sworn he said such in court but only after he pleaded the insanity plea.) He doesn't tell anyone else in or around him that such things are being seen and heard by him and only him. From how Karl interacts with other humans it doesn't seem he would care about ostrisation or being marked as one that needs mental help. So he does not speak of him to anyone else in the series, only to us readers. Why do I bring up this point you might ask...
Because demons would hardly want to advertise their presence to another besides the one they have a hold on.
Both of these concepts are hard to prove and disprove. One would not know much about that idea of demonic possession. (If Karl's friend is even such.) and the recent movies out in the pop culture also blurr this line all the more to show it more in the mind than an outside influence of the mentaphysical. (Both spider man movies come to mind, ie to the Green Goblin's character development.)
In reguards to your story, you blurr the lines even more for the sequal because both demonic posession and mental illness can be heretiary so the reader may never know who or what Karl's (and perhaps his daughter's) crainum companion might be.
But the point of the matter even without all that up top is if it's good or evil. You claim it could not be and yet, Karl's actions speak louder than words in the form of the killing he does thru out the series yet is perfectly calm and receptive after it all. Just because he might not think or claim he is insane (in himself) does not null the death he deals. He might see some twisted justification for the killing he does but it does not fit any "Ends that justfiy the means" even in his own mind. If he is in control of himself then why does he fall sway to the beings that seem to drive him to do things that do not bode well?
A teen killer he obviously he is but a Hannibal Lector (minus the eating people) he is not.

[VladDamien]

Obviously, it was one of the hard parts of the comic to blur the lines between mental illness and spiritual belief (if we can call it that to simplify the Mephisto situation).
Still, how far are one from another? In either case, a zealous believer or a mental patient will have make no discernment between good or evil.

In Karl's case, I wanted to let the reader decide in a way whether Karl believed in Mephisto or whether he was a figment of his imagination.

You say Mephisto only speaks to Karl... how many people say God speaks only to them? And how many out of that lot are mental or zealous?

Either explanation is good for Mephisto. The only two people who actually KNOW what Mephisto is (mental illness or spiritual entity) are Mephisto and Karl... well, and I.
But I won't give THAt away... as I said, I wanted to let the reader decide what he or she thought was the reason behind Karl's wanton acts of violence, lust, etc.

About Karl's descent into depravity, I wouldn't say only his boss made it go off, but as much mental illnesses, it's an accumulation of many things over a lapse of time which are then triggered by an event.

As for the insanity plea... well, what would you think an antisocial, misanthropic person like Karl would rather do? Go to prison with tons of killers and get ripped apart? Or plea insanity and stay alone, "acting out" his insanity... or his real insanity?
Karl simply thought out what was best for him...

If he was either a mentally ill person or a zealous believer, the story would have went the same way, as both would just act/think as one, not discerning about normal societal values.

-Vlad D.

[Toxic]

Mmm...human.