Kenny was planned to die.

I figured if Kenny Chronicles is going to end, it makes sense for Kenny to end as well. I had been slightly concerned about that for a long time, though, because killing the main character isn’t always a good idea. However, it was at the end of the series, and his death would cement Death’s and Guy’s alliance in a way that couldn’t change because death is final. If one had an argument, the other could say, “Kenny would want it this way”, whether he would have or not. Also, both Kenny and Death grew up without ever knowing their fathers, and the child would have the same type of childhood.

However, in February of this year, my mom asked me why I was planning on killing Kenny at the end of the series(yeah, she’s known for a while), and I realized that my reasons were now obsolete. The main reason was that I wasn’t happy with his design, so Death and Guy were to replace him. He looked too much like Tails from Sonic The Hedgehog and people mistook him for a cat. However, Kenny’s design had improved considerably over time and continues to improve. I believe Kenny’s design is still more iconic than Death’s and Guy’s design. In fact, Guy keeps changing. Sometimes his stripe disappears between his eyes and he occasionally has cheek tufts. I need more practice drawing realistic ferret heads, and I’m certainly going to be drawing a variety of them over the next few years.

Kenny’s effect on peace between the two governments can still exist if he lives. In fact, their peace might hinge on his existence as a mutual friend and being a duke of both governments at the same time.

After I realized that Kenny had less reason to die, I decided to make up a list of benefits to both ideas(like the list I made when deciding if Funky Skunk should die), starting with benefits why he should live. I only got as far as “Fans won’t be mad”. I saw no reason to go any further.

Being February, I had plenty of time to modify the plot and any foreshadowing. I only had one tiny piece of foreshadowing of his death posted in the comic, and it was inconsequential. You see, his cause of death wasn’t going to be the dodgeballs. Sure, he was going to still get dodgeballs dropped on him, but the twist was going to be that his actual cause of death was going to be a heart attack. The falling balls were going to startle him to death. To facilitate this, Kenny was to have a heart condition which he kept secret. Basically, his heart was to be beating at the speed of a fennec fox’s heart(118 bpm resting, as if fennec foxes ever rest) because he’s part fennec. A human’s heart rests at 60bpm, not to exceed 100. Tarnekis basically have the body of a human, so this would be dangerous. One of the symptoms of a fast heart rate is shortness of breath after running. Of course, this is a common symptom of RUNNING, so when I had him be way too tired in this strip from April of last year, it could also just be regular fatigue. Yep, that was the foreshadowing to Kenny dying of a heart attack. Fatigue. So I felt I could dismiss that and go ahead without his heart condition. The other foreshadowing I had planned would have been Kenny taking a pill at lunch and making several funny faces from the taste, but that’s a throw-away gag. I think I did have Kenny tell somebody that his doctor told him to eat less raw meat, but I can’t find that at the moment(it may have just been in a first draft). That’s something else that didn’t require me to stick to the heart attack plan, since his doctor would tell him that anyway. (update: HERE’s the comic!)

And that’s the bonus feature for this week. Most likely the next bonus feature will be next Monday, but if I create enough, I might post something before then.