Review: The Cyanide & Happiness Show “Lunk’s Awakening”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The great hero Lunk returns to his father’s goat farm after completing his latest quest, only for another to pull him away soon after. However, he quickly learns from an exasperated enemy that this quest, as well as every quest he’s been on, has only been diversions set up by his father to keep him busy. Now knowing the truth, Lunk finally turns on his father, closing the book on the Adventures of Lunk.

OUR TAKE

The character of Lunk is one of the more obvious parodies in the Cyanide & Happiness cast (I don’t need to tell you, but he’s clearly a send up of Donkey Kirby from the “Super Metroid Galaxy” series), which takes an established silent video game protagonist and adds more focus around the world’s reaction to his actions. Specifically, they turned him into a giant lumbering behemoth who follows the routine of rescuing the princess, no matter how crazy the tasks are or how often he must rescue her. It’s not a particularly original take on the subject, but I think they’ve managed to do some funny stuff with it.

Lunk has apparently been a prominent idea in the minds of the Explosm crew for many years, going back to around 2012 when they drew a picture of him sitting on a toilet punching a ghost and being angry that he couldn’t punch it. From there, they fleshed out the concept and created the destructive muscle-y hero that we’ve come to know who walks through obstacles like The Terminator meets Rambo meets Chuck Norris. His appearance prior to this actually turned things around and showed him as the antagonist to a kid sucked into his video game as the ostensible villain. Again, not super revolutionary, but still done pretty well in my opinion.

And this episode, which seems to continue the trend of wrapping up the stories of this show’s established recurring cast, continues to subvert Lunk’s role as a hero by revealing his previous adventure’s to be simply a ploy by a seemingly trusting father (voiced by anime veteran Chris Sabat!) in order to keep him away. Have to admit, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Truman Show like take on this series, so finally some points for originality there. You also can’t help but feel for Lunk when he’s finding out his efforts and shows of strength and loyalty are for people who don’t give a damn about him. Every goblin slain, every item retrieved, every successful rescue, all part of an endless cycle he was never meant to escape.

And now that he HAS gotten out of the loop, what does that mean for Lunk? Well, the end of this episode doesn’t make that quite clear. Maybe there’s another story for Lunk in the near future that can shed some light on that. But at least Lunk’s Awakening means he can finally grow as a person, and possibly save his game. Maybe a sequel?