(Diff anon) Hmm, Cartman is in constant need of attention; if Kyle, Butters or Kenny don't provide it, he'll likely go to Stan. Kyle's moral complex is either grounded with Stan or destructive with Cartman. (With Kenny, probably neutral) Stan with Kyle offers contrasting views. (Stan and Kenny dissociate Kyman antics) And Kenny, while he enjoys his friends, he's the definite loner. (Cartman's extroverted nature causes him to respond more. Kyle and Stan don't quite give the same effort)
Yeah, probably. In the specific circumstance where Stan is the only one willing to hang with Cartman, I feel like Cartman would hang out with Stan then. Though, I don’t see that happening, because if even Kyle has had enough that he doesn’t want to hang out with Cartman (keeping in mind, Kyle already puts up with a lot of Cartman’s bullshit and even seems to seek it out most days for the sake of an argument), then Stan (who is pretty passive and has a zero-tolerance policy on anyone’s bullshit, except his own) is even less likely than Kyle to give Cartman a chance. Likewise if Kenny’s not giving his BFF the time of day either, even being as tolerant of Cartman as he is, then it’s not likely that Stan is. Like, just because Stan is the only person who can give Cartman any attention in a situation where everyone else is too mad at him to, it doesn’t mean Stan will. He’d only do that if he, too, had no one else to go to. So the scenario would have to be not only that Kyle and Kenny are both done with Cartman’s bullshit while Stan is not (which is already unlikely), but also that Kyle and Kenny (and probably Wendy, too) have fallen out with Stan at the same time as well (which is just even more unlikely). If it happens, it happens once in a blue moon. Saying that, an episode where Stan and Cartman only have each other because they’ve gone and pissed off all their other friends would be interesting to see. Kind of like when we got to see Butters and Cartman work together in S09E06 The Death of Eric Cartman.
I have to agree, Kenny doesn’t seem to affect Kyle one way or the other. Mostly because Kyle likes hearing himself talk, let’s be real, and Kenny’s just too quiet to bat a real, riveting conversation off. Not the kind of conversations Kyle likes to have, at least. As you said, it’s contrasting views. For example, Kyle likes to get at Stan for being too sensitive, or at Cartman for being too insensitive. And then there’s Kenny who’s just…there. A comfortable middle-ground. And Kyle doesn’t know what to throw at that. So, love him as he may, he just never knows what to say to Kenny. That’s how I feel about their relationship. So I agree when you say that Kyle - and Stan, too - don’t give quite the same efforts to Kenny as Cartman does. But I’ve always felt that Cartman can see more of himself in Kenny than the other two can. Kyle and Stan’s families are fractured, but whole. (See what I did there?) Still kind of fucked, with Kyle’s domineering mother and disingenuous father, and Stan’s unstable parents and bullying sister; but, I feel like they can at least still make it out okay. Cartman and Kenny’s families are just broken.
One has a struggling single mother who is naive and incompetent and probably pretty neglectful. The lack of structure or discipline in Cartman’s life tells us that. She’s got to leave him home alone a lot to go to work, I’d wager, so he must feel lonely and abandoned. And when she is home, she’s just pacifying him with food and toys, and letting him get away with saying and doing whatever he wants, so that he will stay with her and keep her loneliness at bay, her one and only friend. Even when she’s had enough, she can’t stop him. She’s stood up to him so little, she has no idea how to now. When she tries, he can easily turn it around on her. He rules his mother. And she ruins him. And Kenny, well. His parents drink and smoke and can’t keep a job and beat each other up as well as their children. He lives with little electricity, no heating, and barely any food, stuck in a crappy and cramped house that’s falling apart, with a family that already has. Kenny has no respect for his parents, and seems to tolerate them more than love them. He’s not close with his big brother, it doesn’t seem, and can’t rely on him. He has so little. And whatever he has, he gives everything away to Karen, because she is everything to him. Yet, try as he might, he knows he can’t protect her from that place, no matter how many capes he dons. She’s starving, and cold, and hears abuse every day. She doesn’t even have a window in her room to let the light in. And that’s worse than anything to him.
Cartman and Kenny both have it absolutely shit. So I feel like they can relate to each other, in that way - in a way that Stan and Kyle, with their full, cosy houses where mom and dad always come home to feed them and teach them right from wrong and tuck them safely into bed, can’t relate. And maybe it’s why Cartman’s more willing to meet Kenny halfway, as quiet and tepid as he is. And I’m glad he does, because I don’t know if Kenny would’ve had anybody otherwise, if not the boys. And when he’s with the boys, he can spontaneously break into happy jigs at pan flute music on the street. He is that comfortable around them. And I’m happy he has that comfortable place in them that he can escape to, when the rest of his world is so bleak and confusing and scary. And I’m sure all the boys feel the same. Even if they don’t always get each other, or know what to say to each other, or want to hang out with each other. They’re friends. They’re family. They’re home.
…Gosh, I really went on something there, didn’t I? I’m sorry, I get carried away talking about my boys, heh! Anyway, yeah, I think you’re onto something, Anon. Thanks for offering your insights! uwu
