Dialogue Interpretation
The dialogue for today’s For Better or For Worse strip was just a little awkward, so I will translate for you:
Line: Oh, have I missed you!!
Translation: I’ve seen you several times every year since we last dated, so what I really mean is I haven’t kissed you in eight years.
Line: I’ve missed you, too.
Translation: I’ve been with a lot of guys, all of whom are better-looking than you are, so I am just saying this to be polite.
Line: Elizabeth, we’ve both fallen in love and broken up with other people…
Translation: Actually, I was never in love with Thérèse, since I was mooning over you within days of having proposed to Thérèse, so this is sort of a lie for me. I think you could tell I wasn't in love with Julia, so she doesn't count either.
Line: Don’t you think we should try again?…Falling in love, I mean.
Translation: Actually, given our track records in romance between us and with others, the expectation of falling in love and also breaking up would be more likely. Please ignore my little Freudian slip.
Line: Could we give it one more chance?
Translation: Now I am begging for the chance to fall in love. (Don’t think about it too hard.)
Line: Chances are…we could.
Translation: I am a Patterson, and I can’t say anything romantic without wordplay. Of course, because I am Elizabeth Patterson I can’t give a straightforward answer to anything, so all I am really telling you is that there is a chance we could try to fall in love again. That’s as much as I can commit to at this time.
As for me I am thinking, "After all this, the man is talking about asking for a chance to fall in love. Why can't he just say he's never been in love with any other woman than Elizabeth?" His tentativeness and passivity, while completely in character for him, is more tiresome than endearing to me. Why can't these people ever say, "I love you."
Line: Oh, have I missed you!!
Translation: I’ve seen you several times every year since we last dated, so what I really mean is I haven’t kissed you in eight years.
Line: I’ve missed you, too.
Translation: I’ve been with a lot of guys, all of whom are better-looking than you are, so I am just saying this to be polite.
Line: Elizabeth, we’ve both fallen in love and broken up with other people…
Translation: Actually, I was never in love with Thérèse, since I was mooning over you within days of having proposed to Thérèse, so this is sort of a lie for me. I think you could tell I wasn't in love with Julia, so she doesn't count either.
Line: Don’t you think we should try again?…Falling in love, I mean.
Translation: Actually, given our track records in romance between us and with others, the expectation of falling in love and also breaking up would be more likely. Please ignore my little Freudian slip.
Line: Could we give it one more chance?
Translation: Now I am begging for the chance to fall in love. (Don’t think about it too hard.)
Line: Chances are…we could.
Translation: I am a Patterson, and I can’t say anything romantic without wordplay. Of course, because I am Elizabeth Patterson I can’t give a straightforward answer to anything, so all I am really telling you is that there is a chance we could try to fall in love again. That’s as much as I can commit to at this time.
As for me I am thinking, "After all this, the man is talking about asking for a chance to fall in love. Why can't he just say he's never been in love with any other woman than Elizabeth?" His tentativeness and passivity, while completely in character for him, is more tiresome than endearing to me. Why can't these people ever say, "I love you."
posted by howard at 11:22 PM
11 Comments:
Yuck. How wishy washy and passionless can they be? At least there's the comfort that they deserve each other. I hope Chipper an' Suds are very happy together.
the last panel is pitiful...
aprilp_katje,
Chipper and Suds. It would have been so easy for her to steal him away from Liz. All she would have to do is respond to him.
After today's strip, I can see that Constable Paul Wright is pretty much the exact opposite of Anthony Caine. Paul confessed to Liz he was in love with her after dating her for a few months. It's been years, but Anthony still can't do it. And you know what, I doubt that he ever will.
anonymous,
I agree the last panel is pitiful, but it is completely in character for Elizabeth Patterson. The girl, who only confessed she loved Constable Paul Wright after she moved away from him, would be out of character if she ever gave a firm verbal response of affection to a man right in front of her.
Right. The "If this is love, I'm loving it!" strip for one.
I was interested in the comments to yesterdays blog. The "Anthony and Liz already know each other" is full of holes. They know the 18 year old people there were; they have not maintined any type of contact. In addition, they were always on-and-off in high school. This was never a case of passionate love, pulled apart. It was "well, see you around sometime". To me, that's what makes this "always cared for each other" a bunch of baloney.
DebJyn
My first thought was, if you have to try really hard to fall in love again, it's never gonna work out. I mean, falling in love and the emotional rush side of things is the EASY part of a romantic relationship. If you have to force that part of it, well cheeze, are you going to have any energy left for the hard stuff? Then again, these two seem to have very low expectations of marriage, so it could work, I guess.
I kind of wonder if Lynn WANTS to portray Anthony and Liz as "settling" for each other? Because that certainly is how it's being written.
If they would not have maintained any type of contact then Anthony might still be married. Jimmy Carter is not the only one who committed adultery in his heart.
Anonymous (not debjyn),
Anthony and Liz did pretty much stop socializing together after high school, and this led to their post-high school breakup. Certainly during the time in which Anthony was engaged or married to Thérèse, Anthony’s contact with Liz seemed to be limited to parties where they just happened be at the same place, Anthony’s wedding, and then those meetings with Anthony forced on Elizabeth by the well-meaning, but devious Mike and Dee, or Gordon Mayes, or John Patterson or even Anthony, himself. Liz was portrayed as actively trying not to keep in contact with Anthony during those times to avoid justifying the complaints of the jealous Thérèse. So you have a stretch of time from 1999 to 2006, where their meetings would have been superficial at best, even meetings not shown in the strip. It would inaccurate to say Anthony and Liz have not maintained any type of contact, as you have pointed out, but I think it would be accurate to say that thanks to Thérèse, they would not have spent any significant time with each other helping their relationship to grow.
What we didn’t get to see, and what might have helped, was conversations between Anthony and Liz starting from the Howard Bunt trial time frame that were not related to the trial or Anthony detailing a list of his home improvements. In particular, I think not showing the lunch Elizabeth had with Anthony and Françoise was a mistake. Lynn Johnston may not have wanted to tip her hand that Anthony was going to get the girl, but the net effect is that readers like debjyn have come to the conclusion that Anthony and Liz’s relationship has remained essentially stagnant since their high school years.
qnjones,
I kind of wonder if Lynn WANTS to portray Anthony and Liz as "settling" for each other? Because that certainly is how it's being written.
The way it is written, Liz is motivated for any man who is attractive to her and who gives her attention. She fell for Eric, Paul, and Warren on first sight. She was lusting over Mason a few weeks back the same way, without a thought or care that Anthony would be at the wedding. Then the thought balloon dialogue for her talked about how she noticed Anthony again only because of his new glasses and shaved moustache. The way it is written, if Mason hadn’t drunk himself into unconsciousness and given her a lot of attention and Julia had been so “Go get her, Anthony”, then I have doubts Anthony would have proposed the dance or she would have accepted.
The funny part about the way this is written is that Anthony and Elizabeth are not simply settling, they are actually being forced together by the other characters in the strip, and it has been going on for awhile now. This certainly is not the first time Anthony has been talked up to Elizabeth or Elizabeth has been led into a situation where she meets him.
Anthony was there when Liz broke her leg; Anthony was there when Liz was attacked. And what about that “chance” meeting at the magazine-stand in the bus terminal? The minute Liz heard that Anthony was divorced she left Paul and flew home. Anthony helped her buy a car; he was with her in court for days. Seems Liz has kept up with Anthony more than she has with any of her girlfriends. These two have been playing cat-and-mouse games for years. They know each other very well ‘cause they haven’t matured much since they were 18.
Anonymous,
These two have been playing cat-and-mouse games for years. They know each other very well ‘cause they haven’t matured much since they were 18.
You are so right. Liz and Anthony both know they are willing to play cat-and-mouse games. They know that they are not above destroying a marriage or destroying a relationship with a man willing to transfer jobs to make a relationship work, in order to keep playing those games. I would love to have seen the first meeting between Elizabeth and Thérèse, never shown in the strip. Thérèse went from a girl Anthony called “a wonderful girl” and Gordon Mayes called “a nice girl” to the girl Liz calls “a total iceberg” after meeting her once.
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