The Strange Saga of Warren Blackwood

Warren Blackwood in For Better or For Worse was shown to be interested in Liz at her university graduation and promised to visit her. Then he disappeared. Liz occasionally mentioned how she wondered where he was, but there were no scenes of e-mailing or attempted communication. That aspect of the relationship was handled only in the monthly letters, so when Warren shows up out of the blue 1½ years later and there is supposed to be tension in the strip over whether she will pick Paul or Warren, in fact there is no tension at all.

Lynn’s lesson: You have to show something between Liz and her supposed boyfriend because the stupid readers don’t seem to be able to keep a character in their mind for more than 1½ years.

Liz moves to Milborough and we get to see Liz keeping Constable Paul Wright in her mind with several strips. But she reintroduces Warren year later, and once again there is no tension between Paul Wright and Warren Blackwood at all.

Lynn’s lesson: You have to show something between Liz and her supposed boyfriend because the stupid readers don’t seem to be able to keep a character in their mind for more than 1 year.

Liz invites Warren to go to Mike’s Congratupalooza party.

A brief digression. Mike’s party was a solid plot idea which was completely wasted. There were so many characters who could have been revisited and even the ones which would make sense to be there (Lawrence Poirier, for example), were not there. A missed opportunity of the highest order. End of digression.

Liz invites Warren to go to Mike’s Congratupalooza party and Warren is so excited by Liz, he does his stupid “I’m flying” line and I’ll see you next week. Liz responds with nothing more passionate than “we’ll see what happens.”

Liz sends Warren a rambling text message about getting an apartment. Warren received Liz’s long and unfathomable text message and decided to call her directly instead of text messaging her back. Good for you, Warren.

Warren says his job is taking him to Yellowknife, so has to cancel. Liz pretends it doesn’t bother her, but then hangs up on Warren abruptly and spits at the phone.

Lynn’s lesson: If you make a character too nice, then when he becomes a lying cheater, the stupid readers believe the problem is the author’s fault. So, nice Warren barely has chance before he’s sacrificed to the God of distant boyfriends.

Although Warren and his actions with Paul were slimy, his enthusiasm about Liz is reasonably cute, and he seems to be genuinely interested in trying to keep things together with Liz this time, despite their distance. He is actually calling Liz to let her know what’s going on, unlike the one-sided calling with Liz and Constable Wright. To have such a strong negative reaction from Liz is out-of-character for her.