The Return of Uncle Phil Part II
Today in For Better or For Worse, Uncle Phil refuses to stay with Elly and tortures another couple in the hotel with his mouthpiece playing. There were many strange things about that, not the least was the fact that it made it seem like Phil was avoiding spending any more time with Elly than he wanted to. It seemed doubly odd considering in the prior day’s strip, Phil made a big deal about his dad not recognizing him. In tomorrow’s strip, Liz calls attention to the fact also. The subtext is that Phil is a lone wolf, who doesn’t want to be around his family and that even his father’s lack of recognition of him is not going to change his ways. I had my main characters talk about the strip, and then launched in to the plotline for the day, “Zandra Larson confronting Eva about Duncan.” In April’s Real Blog, we had been playing on the idea that Eva could control men by smirking and making them look at her breasts, because of a series of strips which showed Eva smirking and the boys looking at her breasts. the_berserker and susannamoodie, who post for Duncan and Zandra Larson respectively, introduced the idea that Duncan’s dating Eva in the strip and the monthly letters was not really dating but a hypnosis/mind control by Eva. And that Duncan had actually continued to see his real girlfriend Zandra, when mind control wasn’t happening.
The problem with this situation for the long term is that:
a. In the strip and monthly letters, Duncan is in fact dating Eva and will continue to do so.
b. It would be difficult for any other characters to interact with mind-controlling Eva as a regular student
c. It still leaves the problem of which girl Duncan is going have as his girlfriend.
the_berserker and susannamoodie have been adamantly opposed to Duncan and Eva having a relationship with each other, due to issues of race, since Lynn Johnston dredged up the idea that Eva and Duncan would be together. I suppose technically, Duncan is from Barbados, and Eva probably has her ancestry from Kenya (considering the similarity of her last name Abuya to the capital city of Nigeria, Abuja); so they are from different races. But I understand what they mean.
So I waited 4 awhile for susannamoodie to drop in & post and I gave her a lead-in line. But the end of the day, nothing was there from susannamoodie, so I went ahead with a story which I hope was not too far from the direction susannamoodie was planning to take it. The story set up the idea that Eva is not supposed to use her mind control powers with her friends, by order of her father, to return her back to normal girl characteristics and eliminate problem (b) above. I then left it open for either susannamoodie or the_berserker to establish the status quo, either Duncan with Eva or Duncan with Zandra. So far that still has not happened.
Tomorrow’s strip: Liz mentions the stroke for the very first time and reiterates her position relative to Grandpa Jim in the monthly letters (younger Elly). The melancholy feel to the strips discussing Grandpa Jim were leading me to believe his death is imminent, but Elly’s description of what improvements are occurring with Grandpa Jim, are taking me back to my original opinion, stating that a stroke is just a minor development for Grandpa Jim.
The problem with this situation for the long term is that:
a. In the strip and monthly letters, Duncan is in fact dating Eva and will continue to do so.
b. It would be difficult for any other characters to interact with mind-controlling Eva as a regular student
c. It still leaves the problem of which girl Duncan is going have as his girlfriend.
the_berserker and susannamoodie have been adamantly opposed to Duncan and Eva having a relationship with each other, due to issues of race, since Lynn Johnston dredged up the idea that Eva and Duncan would be together. I suppose technically, Duncan is from Barbados, and Eva probably has her ancestry from Kenya (considering the similarity of her last name Abuya to the capital city of Nigeria, Abuja); so they are from different races. But I understand what they mean.
So I waited 4 awhile for susannamoodie to drop in & post and I gave her a lead-in line. But the end of the day, nothing was there from susannamoodie, so I went ahead with a story which I hope was not too far from the direction susannamoodie was planning to take it. The story set up the idea that Eva is not supposed to use her mind control powers with her friends, by order of her father, to return her back to normal girl characteristics and eliminate problem (b) above. I then left it open for either susannamoodie or the_berserker to establish the status quo, either Duncan with Eva or Duncan with Zandra. So far that still has not happened.
Tomorrow’s strip: Liz mentions the stroke for the very first time and reiterates her position relative to Grandpa Jim in the monthly letters (younger Elly). The melancholy feel to the strips discussing Grandpa Jim were leading me to believe his death is imminent, but Elly’s description of what improvements are occurring with Grandpa Jim, are taking me back to my original opinion, stating that a stroke is just a minor development for Grandpa Jim.
posted by howard at 11:51 PM
4 Comments:
Sorry I took so long to chip in on the evolving story--I was working in the library all day.
The thing about the Eva-Duncan pairing that's really annoying is that Lynn's pairing them off more or less because they're the lone visible minorities among April's friends. It's so token, you can mail it away for free towels.
And another thing while I'm getting steamed at LJ: way to name a half-Nigerian, Lynn. What's Luis's surname--Mexico Districto Federal?
No need to apologize. I hope my direction with the story met with your satisfaction.
Lynn didn't used to do the token matching. aprilp_katje recently referenced a Time Capsule strip on the FBoFW website which featured Liz' friend Dawn Enjo interested in Candace Halloran's older brother, and the Lawrence Poirier / Nick Browne pairing crosses racial boundaries. We know that Liz won't pair off with Paul Wright ultimately, and from the way the characters have been written, Duncan would have been a much better choice for April than Gerald. So, the trend toward pairing off the main character's friends by skin colour is relatively recent. It's one of those things that makes me wonder if Lynn is still writing this strip.
To answer your question, according to the FBoFW website, Guzmán is Luis' surname. There is a relatively-well known (meaning I have seen some movies he has been in) Puerto Rican actor named Luis Guzmán. My guess is this is the reference, but it's hard to tell with Lynn and names. The Mtigwaki people were named after people she knows in the Nipissing First Nation for example. Lynn has never called Eva half-Nigerian, just biracial. Nigerian is just a guess on my part based on her last name.
Yes, you're right about Duncan and April: April's all over Duncan in the monthly letters. Gerald didn't help her paint her room, for one thing.
I'd say a committee is writing the comic now, with LJ only responsible for the main story arcs (or arc: maybe the only thing she's demanded is that Liz get married at the end of the strip).
April's monthly letters are a strange thing when it comes to Duncan particularly in the recent ones. The October set of monthly letters were quite evidently written while someone was looking at the strips coming up, and it made me really wonder if April going to develop an interest in Duncan. After all, the strip will not last long enough for us to see April do anything, so Lynn could pair April off with Duncan without any fear of wrecking any kind of long-developed storyline.
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