Check
It is highly unusual for a Sunday colour strip to push the storyline significantly forward, and yet, in today’s For Better or For Worse, that is what happened. Unless I am misreading this, Anthony asked Elizabeth to make a lifelong commitment, and Liz kissed him a “Yes” response. With the hurried departure from the restaurant after the kiss, it is also possible to assume that Liz and Anthony are sexually active, and consider a verbal engagement enough of a commitment to satisfy whatever they feel morally about that situation.
The daily strips may be very different from this, and may try to weasel out of it. Does “lifelong commitment” actually constitute a marriage proposal, particularly if there is no ring? Does a kiss constitute a “yes" answer? Does any of it count as romance, when they resort to using generic checklists and reading them to each other without including a question like, “Do you want to have children?”
The daily strips may be very different from this, and may try to weasel out of it. Does “lifelong commitment” actually constitute a marriage proposal, particularly if there is no ring? Does a kiss constitute a “yes" answer? Does any of it count as romance, when they resort to using generic checklists and reading them to each other without including a question like, “Do you want to have children?”
posted by howard at 1:07 AM
7 Comments:
Weirdest date ever. I think the kiss is Liz practicing evasion. Anthony's so distracted by the physical affection, he fails to notice that Liz never answered that question. ;)
aprilp_katje,
You are going for the "weaseling out of it" option. If I were a passerby, unaccustomed to reading For Better or For Worse, I would think they were now engaged. However, I do not disagree with you that it is a weird date. Anthony and Liz have to say to each other, "Let's go out to a restaurant, and compare our list of characteristics we would like to have in a mate." Then both of them would actually have to prepare those lists and go through with it on the date, without either of them cracking up and saying, "This is st00pid. What are we, 12?"
Unfortunately, that is the way Lynn has always written the Liz/Ant storyline--at a high school level.
And you would think Liz and Anthony had just met online through a dating service. What happened to the "best friend" line they have used for years? You don't even know if your best friend smokes?? Give me a break.
Lynn is trying to force this story so hard, she is just throwing out random strips showing them together.
DebJyn
I loved the Sunday strip with Paul and Liz in the park on that gorgeous autumn day on 9/24/06. However, P and L were not seen together in the weekday strips until that fateful day. Today’s strip seems to imply that Anthony will have the opportunity to score a home run. Yet, we already know that these two have agreed to take it slow.
Seems obvious that today’s strip was written before LJ realized that she has not done a satisfactory job in developing the Liz-Anthony story. I’m still waiting for LJ to portray a warm and loving relationship that we’ve seen with Paul and that we often see between Iris and Jim.
And today’s strip misses by a mile.
Anon
Debjyn,
I agree it is ridiculous that Liz and Anthony don't know if they smoke or not. However, with their grand list of items, I don't think they are trying to convince each other. It seems much more like they are trying to convince the reader they are compatible.
Anon,
I loved the Sunday strip with Paul and Liz in the park too. It was so nicely drawn.
In order to understand the Sunday strips, it is often necessary to take them just by themselves, since Lynn is trying to tell a story to the people whose papers only carry the Sunday For Better or For Worse. What you have then is the Anthony and Liz in the park with Francoise strip. This shows Elizabeth accepts Anthony and Francoise together. Skip 2 weeks. Then you have Anthony and Liz and Francoise at the family picnic get together. The message is that the family accepts Anthony and Francoise. Then this week. Anthony has practically proposed and Liz has practically accepted, after they show the Sunday readers that they are the most compatible couple ever. Maybe this strip was written before Lynn decided the Anthony / Liz love story was going to go slow. I hate to bring this up; but there is the possibility that Lynn considers this to be slow.
Wow Howard, you are so right! I just checked out the Sunday strips for the last three years. They tell a very different story than the weekday strips. The Sunday world is cool and calm. Everyone is happy and there is no tension. Paul appears only once and Anthony (Handsome Anthony) appears just three times, as you point out.
Anon
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