April and Gerald are Dunzo!!!
Well at least Lynn Johnston can end a romantic relationship in For Better or For Worse without having to resort to infidelity. Unfortunately, Lynn seems to be unaware of how relationships end, which don’t end with infidelity. This is how it should have happened:
The band 4Evah&Eva decide they are only going to play for fun. However, since there is no performance looming to encourage them to practise, their schedules for academics and other things which do have deadlines, take precedence, and the band can’t seem to find a time to get together. Gerald in the meantime, hooks up with another band, possibly with Rebecca, and starts performing with them regularly. He realizes the quality of the musicianship is so great with the professional group; he loses all motivation to do music for fun with 4Evah&Eva. Finally, after much time passes, 4Evah&Eva gets together to play music for fun. Very shortly into it, the band members who haven’t played in months, realize just how rusty they have gotten, and how bad they sound after an absence. It takes them most of the time together just to work one of their old numbers back up to satisfaction, which is a frustration to all involved. The playing together for fun never occurs again.
The Relationship Ends #1
In the meantime, Gerald and April, who rarely dated or did anything outside of the band start to find it difficult to find times to get together, because Gerald is always playing gigs on the weekends, and April doesn’t want to spend her time listening to him play. Gerald discovers there are girls who will come to hear him play every single weekend, and he finds the attention flattering. Eventually he decides to end things with April, so he can pursue a groupie. The guys I knew in high school, who played in bands on weekends, almost always ended up finding a girlfriend among their groupies.
The Relationship Ends #2
Without the band to draw them together, April finds she is spending more time with the kids who are on the same academic track she is. One of them, unaware of her relationship with Gerald, asks her out to something she wants to attend, which Gerald cannot attend due to his musical commitments. She accepts, and decides to break things off with Gerald.
These stories would take months to complete, and I know Lynn Johnston doesn’t have that kind of time, or does she? I am not certain any more. Anyway, it's much more fun to snark the way Lynn Johnston has chosen to end the relationship in a matter of a few panels.
The band 4Evah&Eva decide they are only going to play for fun. However, since there is no performance looming to encourage them to practise, their schedules for academics and other things which do have deadlines, take precedence, and the band can’t seem to find a time to get together. Gerald in the meantime, hooks up with another band, possibly with Rebecca, and starts performing with them regularly. He realizes the quality of the musicianship is so great with the professional group; he loses all motivation to do music for fun with 4Evah&Eva. Finally, after much time passes, 4Evah&Eva gets together to play music for fun. Very shortly into it, the band members who haven’t played in months, realize just how rusty they have gotten, and how bad they sound after an absence. It takes them most of the time together just to work one of their old numbers back up to satisfaction, which is a frustration to all involved. The playing together for fun never occurs again.
The Relationship Ends #1
In the meantime, Gerald and April, who rarely dated or did anything outside of the band start to find it difficult to find times to get together, because Gerald is always playing gigs on the weekends, and April doesn’t want to spend her time listening to him play. Gerald discovers there are girls who will come to hear him play every single weekend, and he finds the attention flattering. Eventually he decides to end things with April, so he can pursue a groupie. The guys I knew in high school, who played in bands on weekends, almost always ended up finding a girlfriend among their groupies.
The Relationship Ends #2
Without the band to draw them together, April finds she is spending more time with the kids who are on the same academic track she is. One of them, unaware of her relationship with Gerald, asks her out to something she wants to attend, which Gerald cannot attend due to his musical commitments. She accepts, and decides to break things off with Gerald.
These stories would take months to complete, and I know Lynn Johnston doesn’t have that kind of time, or does she? I am not certain any more. Anyway, it's much more fun to snark the way Lynn Johnston has chosen to end the relationship in a matter of a few panels.
posted by howard at 10:22 PM
7 Comments:
Lynn not only betrays the fact that she doesn't have the time to tell the story right, she only outs herself as being ignorant of life in the 21st century high school. It is as if she sees the populace divided into castes whose boundaries must not be violated. This also explains why she shut Becky out: April couldn't consort with a professional musician since she plays for fun. Dating one would be impossible. She may dally with Untouchables like Shannon but she must otherwise obey the Iron Laws of Speciation.
It could also explain why Elly never visits her professional musician brother in Montreal, and he only comes to visit when his dad has stroke, or someone graduates from university. Does this mean that April can only marry someone who is also in the medical profession?
The interesting thing about the scenarios you've depicted is that we'd have to consider the reactions of her idiot parents. As far as the collapse of the band goes, I can readily see a forced, insincere attempt by John and Elly to console her. If Gerald had decided to be the one to break things off, we could reasonably hope to see baffled noise about "Why would he do that?" If she were the aggressor, however, Elly would freak out unless she could be reassured that April and the new love interest had met in kindergarten.
April only being allowed to marry another professional in the medical field is a definite possibility. After all, Lynn has been hammering away at the 'Stick to your own kind' theme too long to stop now.
"Stick to your own kind" is true. However, now that I think about it, Rod Johnston is now with a woman who used to do dental hygiene for him. That fact will probably stand in the way of April marrying another professional in the medical field. However, she could have a nightmare about it.
As for Elly and John and the collapse of the band, they were almost completely indifferent to the loss of the band when Becky left. Only Grandpa Jim cared. I expect we will see the same thing again. I look forward to April seeking comfort from Shannon Lake, or a tearful visit to Grandpa Jim, or, if we are lucky, both. We have 3 more days in the week. She could even squeeze in a visit with Uncle Phil in that amount of time.
April will need to marry someone with a nice, steady, dependable job. You know, like a nice accountant or something. Someone who will "always be there" for her, with no professional demands or reason to "climb the ladder of success".
DJ
DJ,
I wonder if Anthony has a unambitious younger brother, preferably one who looks like John Patterson.
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