History YMMV / KevinAndKell

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: In the RedHerring situation at the start of their sophomore year at Beige University, the accepted assumption was that Fiona initially thought Greta ate her boyfriend, Todd. But a minority opinion of fans was the thought that Greta got pregnant with Todd, and was carrying an egg.

** I thought about this, but then I noticed that Ophelia transitioning to living as a turtle doesn't make her trans-diet. (George notices in one strip that she's eating fish.) Ophelia having an easy time transitioning to a turtle felt like someone who is transitioning to being agender, or is FTM or MTF without wanting surgery or HRT.

** At the end of 2021, he ran a brief arc where parents went against the school board regarding a student mask mandate, and seemed to utilize every known negative stereotype to vilify such parents. [[BrokenAesop The COVID-related storylines disappeared in 2022]].

* StrangledByTheRedString: Rhonda dumps Edgar, a character she had been dating exclusively for much of her history in the strip, for Quinn, a character the readers have just met, has had no build-up at all, and its supposed to be "true love". She would then be PutOnABus for several years before returning to join Kell's business.

*** This is just building off of a general issue in Holbrook's comic strips, where he inevitably gets bored with his current cast. Rather than naturally phase out characters he's lost interest in, he just starts inventing new character that he then devotes all of the strip to glorifying and expects the readers will carry about the new hotness as much as he does. We should be grateful he at least never changed the title of the strip to "Kevin and Kell, starring Desdemona" or paid a cosplayer to wear a Desdemona fursuit.

*** This is just building off of a general issues in Holbrook's comic strips, where he inevitably gets bored with his current cast. Rather than naturally phase out characters he's lost interest in, he just starts inventing new character that he then devotes all of the strip to glorifying and expects the readers will carry about the new hotness as much as he does. We should be grateful he at least never changed the title of the strip to "Kevin and Kell, starring Desdemona" or paid a cosplayer to wear a Desdemona fursuit.

* HarsherInHindsight:
** [[http://kevinandkell.com/2001/kk0217.html This strip]] falls under this trope when it's realized that, as a former human, [[https://web.archive.org/web/20091023131110/http://blog.kevinandkell.com/archives/195-DEALING-WITH-THE-FUTURE.html any children Lindesfarne bears would probably be human]] - which makes it unlikely her great-grandchildren would be hedgehogs.
** Related to this, any references to diapering flying hedgehogs.
** This, however, may be subject to a {{retcon}}. The original source above is now gone, and [[http://kevinandkell.com/2017/kk0301.html an ultrasound revealed Lindesfarne and Fenton's first daughter is a bat]]. It is possible that Lindesfarne has been on this side of the portal long enough that she will no longer have human offspring, or the fact that she went through puberty on this side may have an effect on things.
*** Definitely retconned - Turvy has been born and is a flying hedgehog.

* CluelessAesop: Holbrook has long used changing species or diet as a in-universe analogue for being transgender. While it’s always been a little awkward, in universe it’s explained that nobody cares about gender or sexuality that much due to species and diet classification being considered more important. The first storylines involving this revolves around a long storyline with Bruno, who initially surgically transitions to having an ungulate digestive tract and teeth and faces extreme discrimination and backlash for being a wolf who chose to be an herbivore. Many years later he finally felt more comfortable fully transitioning into a sheep like his wife. This one was generally well received due to the care put into his character growth over many years and finding as many in-universe analogues for transgender humans as possible. Flash forward to much later example in which Ophelia unironically became "trans-turtle" in literally a week. With no change except wearing an artificial turtle shell that she had donned only as an emergency disguise, she is almost immediately saying "I am a turtle". People are portrayed as extremely wrong for even mentioning that she's a weasel pretending to be a turtle. Completely ignorant that he’d just written a character that uses transphobic stereotypes suggesting trans people are easily influenced and change genders on a whim. She also faces none of the discrimination or difficulties Bruno did, seemingly either ignoring or retconning this. After [[https://kevinandkell.com/2023/kk0301.html a group of turtles convinced George Gopher to do so]] when he married Ophelia, even transgender fans began to feel like the allegory had been cheapened, with some fans comparing it to real-life experiences with cults. And again, it invokes another transphobic trope, portraying the turtles as essentially pressuring a non-turtle to transition to be accepted into his new relationship. A currently active tactic to pass anti-trans legislation involves claiming transgender people are “recruiting impressionable kids” or that cisgender lesbians are “forced into transitioning” to be accepted as heterosexual. Displaying a mixture of these as a good thing is incredibly reckless writing for a cisgender heterosexual writer regardless of probable good intentions.

** The pro-trans arguments get a little extreme when it's trans-species. One character became "trans-turtle" in literally a week. With no change except wearing an artificial turtle shell that she had donned only as an emergency disguise, she is almost immediately saying "I am a turtle". People are portrayed as extremely wrong for even mentioning that she's a weasel pretending to be a turtle. It's much more controversial than the early, well-done trans-species experience that Bruno took, which involved a surgery to change to an herbivore digestive system and involved long, emotional story arcs. Now, it's just pop on a disguise and demand that you are a turtle. It actively cheapens the prior story by how easy it is. After [[https://kevinandkell.com/2023/kk0301.html a group of turtles convinced George Gopher to do so]] when he married Ophelia, even transgender fans began to feel like the allegory had been cheapened, with some fans comparing it to real-life experiences with cults.

** There's also the matter of Kell pressuring Sheila to get more involved in Leona's wedding planning. Some fans claimed it became a selfish guilt trip when Kell [[https://kevinandkell.com/2019/kk1218.html began implying that a bad experience for Fiona as the maid of honor could ruin her relationship with Rudy]] by souring her opinion of marriage.
*** Then Kell topped it off by threatening blackmail, saying she would impersonate Sheila and "volunteer" her for everything if Sheila didn't.

* ArchiveBinge[=/=]ArchivePanic: Going back to ''1995'', this is one of the longest-running webcomics with over 9,000 strips and still counting. That's 27 years of DAILY strips.... You don't need to read the full archive to understand the newer strips but you have to read them if you want to get the full story.

* BrokenAesop: Nothing overarching about the situations of Carl and Ophelia seem to have major societal issue that, in the real world, most certainly apply. The obsession of certain hunters over Carl's horn and Ophelia's pelt could be extrapolated to a situation that in the real would trend toward extinction, but in a WorldOfFunnyAnimals would veer head-on into ''genocide''.

** The pro-trans arguments get a little extreme when it's trans-species. One character became "trans-turtle" in literally a week. With no change except wearing an artificial turtle shell that she had donned only as an emergency disguise, she is almost immediately saying "I am a turtle". People are portrayed as extremely wrong for even mentioning that she's a weasel pretending to be a turtle. It's much more controversial than the early, well-done trans-species experience that Bruno took, which involved a surgery to change to an herbivore digestive system and involved long, emotional story arcs. Now, it's just pop on a disguise and demand that you are a turtle. It actively cheapens the prior story by how easy it is. After [[https://kevinandkell.com/2023/kk0301.html a group of turtles convinced George Gopher to do so]] when he married Ophelia, even transgender fans began to feel like the allegory had been cheapened, with some fans seeing UnfortunateImplications comparing it to real-life experiences with cults.

** The pro-trans arguments get a little extreme when it's trans-species. One character became "trans-turtle" in literally a week. With no change except wearing an artificial turtle shell that she had donned only as an emergency disguise, she is almost immediately saying "I am a turtle". People are portrayed as extremely wrong for even mentioning that she's a weasel pretending to be a turtle. It's much more controversial than the early, well-done trans-species experience that Bruno took, which involved a surgery to change to an herbivore digestive system and involved long, emotional story arcs. Now, it's just pop on a disguise and demand that you are a turtle. It actively cheapens the prior story by how easy it is.

** At the end of 2021, he ran a brief arc where parents went against the school board regarding a student mask mandate, and seemed to utilize every known negative stereotype to vilify such parents.

* CriticalResearchFailure: Lindesfarne's {{squick}} over Human!Martha's sweat. Several animal species perspire (including primates). Particularly egregious given that Lindesfarne is a biologist and should've already have known what sweat was.
** This crops up constantly, such as the fact that Bill Holbrook does not know the difference between a hedgehog and a porcupine. He basically knows as much about animals in general as Creator/StanLee knew about [[Franchise/SpiderMan spiders]].

* IdiotPlot: Hockely wanting to participate as an Easter Bunny just to impress Lin. The flimsy excuse given for him participating was somehow [[https://kevinandkell.com/2018/kk0327.html "the paperwork being in his name"]] and he could request that despite the Rabbit Council being the one who decides who is the Easter Bunny and knowing full well that Hockley was just a cover story for Wendell. All this did was cause a plotline that took Dorothy, a character much more liked than the loudmouthed bully, out from being an Easter Bunny permanently. It appears Bill may have realized this idea wasn't as popular as he had hoped because Hockley has not appeared in a Easter Bunny storyline since then.

** While the comic eventually did include LGBT characters, the interracial allegory leans more into BrokenAesop territory with how whitebread it is with the lack of cities, art, foreign countries, etc. that often comes off more like a MonochromeCasting sitcom from decades ago.
* UnfortunateImplications: Some fans suspect that Bruno was made fully trans-species, and not merely trans-diet, because Bill wanted another trans-species character that wasn't evil. To that point, only Angelique was trans-species (a rabbit living as a rat). Though in the case of Angelique, although she presents as a rat, she still recognizes herself a really being a rabbit.

* ArchiveBinge[=/=]ArchivePanic: Going back to ''1995'', this is one of the longest-running webcomics with over 9,000 strips and still counting. That's 26.5 years of DAILY strips.... You don't need to read the full archive to understand the newer strips but you have to read them if you want to get the full story.