Love Will Keep Us Together (and by that, I mean in close proximity)
In today’s For Better or For Worse, Liz and Anthony are practically falling into each other’s arms while John and Elly watch approvingly. Of course in tomorrow’s strip they step from silent admiration of Anthony to the most overt demonstration of support for Anthony I have ever seen them give in the strip. That’s quite a step for the normally passive Pattersons.
We have seen a pretty consistent theme of relationships destroyed by distance in this strip and established by convenience of location. Michael Patterson married Deanna who went to the university he did, and broke up with Rhetta who went to a different one. Anthony Caine, upon discovering that Elizabeth had moved in with Eric Chamberlain, not only took up with Thérèse, a girl who worked for his father, but proposed to her, in middle of his second year in university in 2001 and married her 2 years later before he graduated. School is tough enough to add that kind of complication in. Aside from Eric Chamberlain, each and every one of Elizabeth’s relationships is going to be ended by her moving some place else. We also saw Uncle Phil’s relationship with his dad damaged when he moved away. It just goes to show that when you are a Patterson, the only people who matter to you are the ones who live close to you.
With Constable Paul Wright, his great deficiency is not getting his job transfer. And at the same time, Michael Patterson continues to work at Portrait Magazine, even though his wife wants him to quit. Obviously, the issue is not work. The issue is distance, and the implication is that Constable Paul Wright is not trying hard enough to transfer and he never planned to. Elly and John’s slam of Paul in tomorrow’s strip automatically shunts him into Warren Blackwood territory. What is not so clear is how Lynn can draw Elizabeth and Anthony, obviously flirting with each other, and expect her readers to have any sympathy for her. If Paul had been there in Milborough, would Elizabeth have done that full body hug with Anthony, or touched his chest, or said the things she said about him always being there? The answer is no, and yet it is OK, when he is not there.
A real-life Elly and John would say to Elizabeth in tomorrow’s strip, “Liz. You have a boyfriend, and you know Anthony still carries a torch for you, since his marriage ended because of his fixation with you. Flirting with him like that, is just being plain mean and cruel both to Anthony and to your boyfriend Paul. We know that Eric Chamberlain was unfaithful to you, but that is not a good reason to run around ruining people’s lives.”
Well, in other news, eeknight on the FOOBiverse's Journal bowed out of doing Anthony posts for right now due being busy with his actual business of being a professional writer. This is a shame because he is a lot funnier than I am, and nobody snarks Anthony like eeknight. So, I took it upon myself to write the Anthony testimony. It won’t be as a good as eeknight’s but there is really no other character to write it up than Howard. In tomorrow’s strip, Elizabeth says she plans to come back for the verdict, so this means the strip can wander off and do something with Michael for a week, and then come back for the verdict and more lovey-dovey with Anthony and Liz. If we follow the Mike – Deanna – Rhetta pattern, I predict:
1. A week of Mike and Deanna discussing Mike’s upcoming bestseller and its title. It will be something gloriously awful.
2. Liz and Anthony back at the courthouse for the verdict, which will be “Guilty” and some ludicrous number of years sentence, given by the sunglasses-wearing, sashless judge.
3. Liz will finally admit to herself she is in love with Anthony, and feel some remorse that she wants to break up with Paul.
4. Liz has to be relieved of her guilt in ditching Paul somehow. The only question is whether she is going to travel to visit him and find him with Susan, or whether she is going to call him up and find him with Susan. Based on the Mike/Deanna/Rhetta pattern and the theory that Lynn Johnston has no original ideas left, my money is on phone call.
5. Proposal on New Years Eve
We have seen a pretty consistent theme of relationships destroyed by distance in this strip and established by convenience of location. Michael Patterson married Deanna who went to the university he did, and broke up with Rhetta who went to a different one. Anthony Caine, upon discovering that Elizabeth had moved in with Eric Chamberlain, not only took up with Thérèse, a girl who worked for his father, but proposed to her, in middle of his second year in university in 2001 and married her 2 years later before he graduated. School is tough enough to add that kind of complication in. Aside from Eric Chamberlain, each and every one of Elizabeth’s relationships is going to be ended by her moving some place else. We also saw Uncle Phil’s relationship with his dad damaged when he moved away. It just goes to show that when you are a Patterson, the only people who matter to you are the ones who live close to you.
With Constable Paul Wright, his great deficiency is not getting his job transfer. And at the same time, Michael Patterson continues to work at Portrait Magazine, even though his wife wants him to quit. Obviously, the issue is not work. The issue is distance, and the implication is that Constable Paul Wright is not trying hard enough to transfer and he never planned to. Elly and John’s slam of Paul in tomorrow’s strip automatically shunts him into Warren Blackwood territory. What is not so clear is how Lynn can draw Elizabeth and Anthony, obviously flirting with each other, and expect her readers to have any sympathy for her. If Paul had been there in Milborough, would Elizabeth have done that full body hug with Anthony, or touched his chest, or said the things she said about him always being there? The answer is no, and yet it is OK, when he is not there.
A real-life Elly and John would say to Elizabeth in tomorrow’s strip, “Liz. You have a boyfriend, and you know Anthony still carries a torch for you, since his marriage ended because of his fixation with you. Flirting with him like that, is just being plain mean and cruel both to Anthony and to your boyfriend Paul. We know that Eric Chamberlain was unfaithful to you, but that is not a good reason to run around ruining people’s lives.”
Well, in other news, eeknight on the FOOBiverse's Journal bowed out of doing Anthony posts for right now due being busy with his actual business of being a professional writer. This is a shame because he is a lot funnier than I am, and nobody snarks Anthony like eeknight. So, I took it upon myself to write the Anthony testimony. It won’t be as a good as eeknight’s but there is really no other character to write it up than Howard. In tomorrow’s strip, Elizabeth says she plans to come back for the verdict, so this means the strip can wander off and do something with Michael for a week, and then come back for the verdict and more lovey-dovey with Anthony and Liz. If we follow the Mike – Deanna – Rhetta pattern, I predict:
1. A week of Mike and Deanna discussing Mike’s upcoming bestseller and its title. It will be something gloriously awful.
2. Liz and Anthony back at the courthouse for the verdict, which will be “Guilty” and some ludicrous number of years sentence, given by the sunglasses-wearing, sashless judge.
3. Liz will finally admit to herself she is in love with Anthony, and feel some remorse that she wants to break up with Paul.
4. Liz has to be relieved of her guilt in ditching Paul somehow. The only question is whether she is going to travel to visit him and find him with Susan, or whether she is going to call him up and find him with Susan. Based on the Mike/Deanna/Rhetta pattern and the theory that Lynn Johnston has no original ideas left, my money is on phone call.
5. Proposal on New Years Eve
posted by howard at 10:48 PM
5 Comments:
I've been reading FBorFW faithfully for the past four years.
Today's strip (http://www.fborfw.com/strip_fix/archives/002162.php) almost makes me feel nauseated.
It is nauseating, but it is also consistent with the way the strip has played the strip characters' beliefs about Elizabeth and Anthony. When Anthony's wife was pregnant, Elly pushed Anthony on to Elizabeth. Gordon Mayes took Elizabeth by Anthony's house when he was home with the baby and practically said, "His marriage is failing, come and save him." April made a big deal about Anthony supporting Liz during the trial. Michael Patterson said Constable Paul Wright would be messing around on Elizabeth. In fact, if you go back far enough, the other characters have been pushing Elizabeth and Anthony together ever since Anthony got engaged to Therese back in 2001.
The big difference is in the way Therese and Constable Paul Wright have been portrayed.
Therese was played as a jealous woman from the very start, and given the villainous attributes of having an affair and abandoning her child and not taking care of her child after she was born.
Constable Paul Wright however, was played as being a good guy. He wanted to live closer to her, he was not shy with telling Elizabeth about his feelings for her, and since he has been to Milborough, we know that he is not afraid of making that journey.
The feelings of nausea for me have to do with what I know is coming--a retcon to make Mr. Wright into Mr. Wrong, and to make Anthony Caine look better in comparison.
The phoniest, weirdest, most awful thing of all is that Anthony had a clear shot at Liz between the time she broke up with Eric and his wedding day. He could have told Liz that he was only engaged to Therese because Liz had not been available. Granted, at that point, Liz might have turned him down--though I rather doubt Lynn would ever have a Patterson girl turn down a proposal from a childhood sweetheart, even if she is in the midst of pretending to be an adventurous modern woman. But it's inexplicable that Anthony didn't speak up before the wedding, given what his motivations obviously were/are. It's such a big plot hole. Not that Lynn cares about such things.
I read something interesting today, and I'm going to try to broach this topic in as non-jerky a way as possible. :) TIME Magazine has a cover story on how people are bad at assessing risk. It made me think of you and that babyproofing conversation in which I made myself look like a total ass. Anyway, I read the article and I thought it was not only a really good explanation of where I was coming from, but also addresses the topic of "humans as bad risk assessors" in a surprisingly non-melodramatic way.
Particularly, there is an interesting breakdown in there of what kills people every year, and they break the "accident" category down further. It's very interesting reading, especially when one thinks about our conversation of a month or two ago. They're so specific that they get right down to "3 deaths due to playground equipment." It vindicates parts of both our arguments. :)
Last but not least: Your trial transcript from today was HILARIOUS!
qnjones,
Thanks for the compliment on the trial transcript. I was worried no one read it.
I agree with you 100% about Anthony and Liz. News Years Eve 2002, when he was freshly engaged and she was doubting Eric, they were dancing way too close for people involved with other people. The majour issue with both Anthony and Liz is that for all their closeness and desire for each other, they never actually talk to each other about the way they feel. Even in the more recent strips, there are those final panel double-entendres or wanting thought balloons. It bodes poorly for their future that after literally a decade of being around each other, Liz and Anthony cannot speak about the most basic element of their relationship.
The thing I liked about Constable Paul Wright, which made him different from all the other Liz suitors, was he told her up front and immediately how he felt. There was no second-guessing or last panel thought balloons with Paul, until she betrayed him by moving to Milborough and he had a final panel thought that he was not going to try too hard to transfer. Symbolically, Liz had broken him then, and turned him into all her other suitors with their unspoken words of love.
As for Time Magazine, which issue?
I understand your fear about not being read. I didn't post something I was working on last night because late-night posts sometimes get ignored. But I don't think it's possible for anyone to ignore one of your trial transcripts.
It's the current TIME issue that's on newsstands now. It's hard to miss because risk assessment is the cover story.
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