Mira and Wilf – Losers at Last
The 6th anniversary of Mike and Deanna’s fake wedding on September 15th is displayed on the main page of the For Better or For Worse website. It is interesting that this is the wedding celebrated, when the actual anniversary would have been December, the year prior. aprilp_katje reported over on the FOOBiverse’s Journal she was told that the reason this anniversary is the one celebrated by Mike and Deanna is because the Sobinskis still think this is Mike and Dee's wedding date.
I hadn’t thought about the Sobinskis in awhile, and I realized I had not seen them in a long time. They used to appear regularly back when Mike and Deanna lived in their old apartment. In fact, it seemed a little unusual for them not to appear, considering their character traits of being overly-involved in their children’s lives. The Sobinskis used to show up at all the kids’ birthday parties and the holiday gatherings. These were their last appearances:
January 9 – January 21, 2006 – The last daily strips featuring the Sobinskis ends with Deanna throwing Mira and Wilf out again due to Mira’s fight with Melville Kelpfroth scaring Meredith (the 3rd time the Pattersons ended a visit with the Sobinskis by asking them to leave) and with Deanna and Mike pillowtalking about how her parents were falling apart.
May 7 – May 14, 2006 – The last appearance of Mira Sobinski is in a Sunday colour strip, where Deanna complains about her giving the kids too many stickers. The interesting part of this sequence is the way this Sunday colour bookends the week of dailies with the Sunday colour on May 14, where Elly takes her grandkids on Mother’s Day. The dailies in between those two Sunday colours is the sequence where Elly Patterson made her one and only appearance in Mike and Deanna’s upstairs apartment, by showing up to help with Robin’s ear infection. At the end of the sequence, Meredith pretends to be sick so Elly will not leave.
Conclusion:
1. Mira Sobinski visits all the time, she is not helpful and has to be asked to leave because she is frightening Meredith.
2. Elly Patterson visits only when needed, she is very helpful, and Meredith wants her to stay.
Since then, there have been no Sobinski appearances in the strip. The last mention of them occurs in this strip, where Deanna informs her mother about the apartment fire at a time which appears to be days after it occurred and then tells her they are staying with John and Elly for an undetermined time. As is typical, the Sobinskis are always the last to know about things.
It is a subtle thing Lynn Johnston has put across. Mira always wanted the kids to move closer to her and she attempted to lure them closer with offers of good housing and gifts for the kids. Elly expressed the desire for the kids to live closer, only to John Patterson, and left the Toronto Pattersons alone and gave no gifts. Who will the Toronto Pattersons chose to live by, when they buy a house?
By having Mike and Dee moving in the Sharon Park Drive house after their apartment fire, the moral victory over the Sobinskis has occurred and occurred decisively. Mike and Dee don’t just live closer to John and Elly, but live in their old house and even try to emulate their old life while examining the photographic evidence of how that old life used to be. I don’t think Elly Patterson could have a greater victory over Mira Sobinski than that.
Moreover, since the Sobinskis no longer appear, this demonstrates that their affection for their kids and grandkids was based solely on the idea that they could, by lavishing gifts and by dropping by all the time, gain the approval of Mike and Deanna to move closer to them. Now the Pattersons are in Milborough, the true colours of the Sobinskis shine through. They’ve lost the battle and there is no reason for them to appear anymore.
Elly Patterson’s parenting reigns supreme!! More hybrid, mule! More! We can’t get enough of that great Elly parenting.
I hadn’t thought about the Sobinskis in awhile, and I realized I had not seen them in a long time. They used to appear regularly back when Mike and Deanna lived in their old apartment. In fact, it seemed a little unusual for them not to appear, considering their character traits of being overly-involved in their children’s lives. The Sobinskis used to show up at all the kids’ birthday parties and the holiday gatherings. These were their last appearances:
January 9 – January 21, 2006 – The last daily strips featuring the Sobinskis ends with Deanna throwing Mira and Wilf out again due to Mira’s fight with Melville Kelpfroth scaring Meredith (the 3rd time the Pattersons ended a visit with the Sobinskis by asking them to leave) and with Deanna and Mike pillowtalking about how her parents were falling apart.
May 7 – May 14, 2006 – The last appearance of Mira Sobinski is in a Sunday colour strip, where Deanna complains about her giving the kids too many stickers. The interesting part of this sequence is the way this Sunday colour bookends the week of dailies with the Sunday colour on May 14, where Elly takes her grandkids on Mother’s Day. The dailies in between those two Sunday colours is the sequence where Elly Patterson made her one and only appearance in Mike and Deanna’s upstairs apartment, by showing up to help with Robin’s ear infection. At the end of the sequence, Meredith pretends to be sick so Elly will not leave.
Conclusion:
1. Mira Sobinski visits all the time, she is not helpful and has to be asked to leave because she is frightening Meredith.
2. Elly Patterson visits only when needed, she is very helpful, and Meredith wants her to stay.
Since then, there have been no Sobinski appearances in the strip. The last mention of them occurs in this strip, where Deanna informs her mother about the apartment fire at a time which appears to be days after it occurred and then tells her they are staying with John and Elly for an undetermined time. As is typical, the Sobinskis are always the last to know about things.
It is a subtle thing Lynn Johnston has put across. Mira always wanted the kids to move closer to her and she attempted to lure them closer with offers of good housing and gifts for the kids. Elly expressed the desire for the kids to live closer, only to John Patterson, and left the Toronto Pattersons alone and gave no gifts. Who will the Toronto Pattersons chose to live by, when they buy a house?
By having Mike and Dee moving in the Sharon Park Drive house after their apartment fire, the moral victory over the Sobinskis has occurred and occurred decisively. Mike and Dee don’t just live closer to John and Elly, but live in their old house and even try to emulate their old life while examining the photographic evidence of how that old life used to be. I don’t think Elly Patterson could have a greater victory over Mira Sobinski than that.
Moreover, since the Sobinskis no longer appear, this demonstrates that their affection for their kids and grandkids was based solely on the idea that they could, by lavishing gifts and by dropping by all the time, gain the approval of Mike and Deanna to move closer to them. Now the Pattersons are in Milborough, the true colours of the Sobinskis shine through. They’ve lost the battle and there is no reason for them to appear anymore.
Elly Patterson’s parenting reigns supreme!! More hybrid, mule! More! We can’t get enough of that great Elly parenting.
posted by howard at 5:31 PM
7 Comments:
Maybe Lynn realized that she'd failed to render the Sobinskis convincingly villainous and decided to resort to "out of sight, out of mind"?
(FYI, I also added another comment to the previous entry. :) )
The only act of 'villainy' I can see her performing is standing between Mike, Deanna and something they want. Almighty Goldensprog, as always, wants respect without having to be a sucker and earn it. His wife, on the other hand, seems to be in the grip of an Electra complex. Daddy's Little Girl wants nothing more out of life than to punish her mother for telling people, Wilf especially, what do to.
aprilp_katje,
Maybe Lynn realized that she'd failed to render the Sobinskis convincingly villainous and decided to resort to "out of sight, out of mind"?
That's possible, I guess. Although sometimes, Lynn associates certain characters with certain locations and kind of forgets they exist. For example, Uncle Phil in Montreal, or Grandpa Will in Manitoba, or even Shawna-Marie in Milborough. She could be thinking of Mira and Wilf as Burlington / Toronto characters.
dreadedcandiru2,
Almighty Goldensprog, as always, wants respect without having to be a sucker and earn it.
I am not following this line. Was there a strip where Mike wanted respect from Mira Sobinski and he didn’t get it?
The 'Not Good Enough' exchange is what got me thinking along those lines. I also remember his following Weed's sage advice not to let Mira dictate to him, lest he lose hand. We know it would cost him nothing at all to talk to Wilf or accept gifts from Mira but his stupid macho pride gets in the way. He struts around like they're supposed to treat him as their equal when he hasn't earned the right.
dreadedcandiru2,
OK. I remember those strips. You're right. I think that is why I loved the strip where Mira wanted to buy them all new baby furniture and Mike turned her down, only to change his mind after talking to Deanna, but it was too late because Lovey had talked Mira into taking back her offer.
It's also not like he gives anyone, anywhere respect either. Nobody is gonna admire some jerk who thinks he's too cool to be bothered dealing with regular people. If they're rich enough, they may get what they think is due obeisance because they're too dim to realize that their alleged worshipers fear what they and their bank account will do to them.
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