April Retcon
In today’s For Better or For Worse, April has a conversation with Grandpa Jim that is essentially a recounting of all the things that have happened to her in the last year that we have not seen. There are quite a few things.
1. April’s summer job is going to be at a veterinary clinic in Milborough. This serves a number of purposes. We make jokes about April getting her degree and coming back to Milborough to work and marry Gerald Delaney-Forsythe, because all the other Patterson siblings have married their childhood sweethearts and moved back to Milborough to work. Apparently this is not a joke to Lynn Johnston. The appearance of a veterinary clinic in Milborough sets the stage for April to do just this. In some respects, it is a good thing the strip is ending, because this setup is so obvious, it would be painful to watch Lynn take April through vet school and back to Milborough to make Gerald babies. April would embrace one animal (as Elizabeth concentrated on bad, boy Dylan), who would basically treat her the way the horse, Tawny, did back in Winnipeg; and make her appear as though she were a bumbling incompetent. Gerald would take up with Becky McGuire, but he and April would have passionate hugs every summer when April would go back to Milborough to work for the same veterinary clinic, etc. Who would want to watch the Elizabeth story over again with April? Certainly not me.
Supposedly April has been continuing her work at Lilliput’s book store even after her mother sold the business, but we have neither seen nor heard that mentioned in the strip, only the monthly letters; so my guess is that this is not an official part of the For Better or For Worse canon. After all, if that were the case, then April could just as easily have been working at the veterinary clinic in town for the last year during after school or weekend hours. It’s not like cage-cleaning has to be done during regular business hours. Or for that matter, after hours animal care. The main reason for this to be mentioned now is because Lynn Johnston just realized she can’t take April back to Winnipeg in August, because that is when Liz’s wedding is going to take place. Lynn Johnston is notorious for plotting things as if the character knows something is going to happen before it happens. This does not quite qualify, but it's pretty close. The natural question to ask would be why April is going local when she went to Winnipeg the last 3 years, especially when you would think she would really want to check out the University of Manitoba pre-vet program, from which her aunt and cousin are alums.
2. Awards in music, performance and composition. April has not taken a music class since before high school. She has only done her band; so it is amusing that she mentions it for the first time here. What we have is pretty clearly a Lynn Johnston reaction to the criticism that April had to give up her music in order to concentrate on her academic studies. There were quite a few people (myself included), who found the idea that you could not do both music and academics to be insulting. As it turns out, April has been taking a music class all along, so she was only giving up her band and her boyfriend. Criticism answered in one panel.
3. The driver’s licence. aprilp_katje complained bitterly that if April had gotten her G1 licence when she said she was going to get it, then she would have already had her G2 by the time Lynn Johnston got around to doing her “Elly teaches April to drive” strip back in the Spring. Apparently Lynn listened and retconned her into a full licence. Congratulations, aprilp_katje. You are all powerful.
On a side note, I still don't see Dixie the dog, and I am afraid the answer this time, lies in April's driver's licence. Before, when she took Dixie to visit Grandpa Jim, someone else was driving. Now, it's probably April at the wheel. This could mean that April doesn't feel comfortable driving Dixie in the car with no one to handle her. Or Dixie may have gone the route of other characters in the strip, who simply disappear and never return, like Fiona Brass or Shannon Lake.
1. April’s summer job is going to be at a veterinary clinic in Milborough. This serves a number of purposes. We make jokes about April getting her degree and coming back to Milborough to work and marry Gerald Delaney-Forsythe, because all the other Patterson siblings have married their childhood sweethearts and moved back to Milborough to work. Apparently this is not a joke to Lynn Johnston. The appearance of a veterinary clinic in Milborough sets the stage for April to do just this. In some respects, it is a good thing the strip is ending, because this setup is so obvious, it would be painful to watch Lynn take April through vet school and back to Milborough to make Gerald babies. April would embrace one animal (as Elizabeth concentrated on bad, boy Dylan), who would basically treat her the way the horse, Tawny, did back in Winnipeg; and make her appear as though she were a bumbling incompetent. Gerald would take up with Becky McGuire, but he and April would have passionate hugs every summer when April would go back to Milborough to work for the same veterinary clinic, etc. Who would want to watch the Elizabeth story over again with April? Certainly not me.
Supposedly April has been continuing her work at Lilliput’s book store even after her mother sold the business, but we have neither seen nor heard that mentioned in the strip, only the monthly letters; so my guess is that this is not an official part of the For Better or For Worse canon. After all, if that were the case, then April could just as easily have been working at the veterinary clinic in town for the last year during after school or weekend hours. It’s not like cage-cleaning has to be done during regular business hours. Or for that matter, after hours animal care. The main reason for this to be mentioned now is because Lynn Johnston just realized she can’t take April back to Winnipeg in August, because that is when Liz’s wedding is going to take place. Lynn Johnston is notorious for plotting things as if the character knows something is going to happen before it happens. This does not quite qualify, but it's pretty close. The natural question to ask would be why April is going local when she went to Winnipeg the last 3 years, especially when you would think she would really want to check out the University of Manitoba pre-vet program, from which her aunt and cousin are alums.
2. Awards in music, performance and composition. April has not taken a music class since before high school. She has only done her band; so it is amusing that she mentions it for the first time here. What we have is pretty clearly a Lynn Johnston reaction to the criticism that April had to give up her music in order to concentrate on her academic studies. There were quite a few people (myself included), who found the idea that you could not do both music and academics to be insulting. As it turns out, April has been taking a music class all along, so she was only giving up her band and her boyfriend. Criticism answered in one panel.
3. The driver’s licence. aprilp_katje complained bitterly that if April had gotten her G1 licence when she said she was going to get it, then she would have already had her G2 by the time Lynn Johnston got around to doing her “Elly teaches April to drive” strip back in the Spring. Apparently Lynn listened and retconned her into a full licence. Congratulations, aprilp_katje. You are all powerful.
On a side note, I still don't see Dixie the dog, and I am afraid the answer this time, lies in April's driver's licence. Before, when she took Dixie to visit Grandpa Jim, someone else was driving. Now, it's probably April at the wheel. This could mean that April doesn't feel comfortable driving Dixie in the car with no one to handle her. Or Dixie may have gone the route of other characters in the strip, who simply disappear and never return, like Fiona Brass or Shannon Lake.
posted by howard at 10:09 PM
13 Comments:
howard:
Or Dixie may have gone the route of other characters in the strip, who simply disappear and never return, like Fiona Brass or Shannon Lake.
That's probably what happened. Dxie still exists but she does so off camera along with all the other people you've mentioned. Perhaps if enough people were to ask after her, Lynn would show somebody walking her to show us she's still around.
Apparently Lynn listened and retconned her into a full licence. Congratulations, aprilp_katje. You are all powerful.
Whee! Go, me! :)
dreadedcandiru2,
Perhaps if enough people were to ask after her, Lynn would show somebody walking her to show us she's still around.
Or maybe Dixie could be one of those obscure characters that show up at a Michael Patterson book-signing
howard:
Or maybe Dixie could be one of those obscure characters that show up at a Michael Patterson book-signing.
Leaving us to wonder whose dog that is.
dreadedcandiru2,
Leaving us to wonder whose dog that is.
Unless we checked the on-line Who's Who and discovered a long biography on Dixie and how she aspired to be a sheep dog in her youth, but was forced to live with the Pattersons, until one day she realized that Elly and John Patterson occasionally wore wool.
howard:
Add in some verbiage about how Farley died because a four year old was naughty and that's pretty much what we'll see.
dreadedcandiru2,
True. We cannot forget the tragic death of a beloved parent, and how the son watched his father die before him, and needed Dixie to help him understand the true meaning of life.
howard:
Let us also not forget that Edgar and Dixie are more sympathetic than most of the cast.
The Lame List says: lame lame lame lame lame lame lame.......LAME!
You say, "On a side note, I still don't see Dixie the dog, and I am afraid the answer this time, lies in April's driver's licence."
This sounds morbid of me, but at first, I thought that what you meant by that was that April had run over Dixie while driving.
This comment has been removed by the author.
My theory: Dixie hasn't appeared lately because she's a female dog, and therefore it's not as easy to make urination jokes about her as it is with the male dog.
Muzition,
My theory: Dixie hasn't appeared lately because she's a female dog, and therefore it's not as easy to make urination jokes about her as it is with the male dog.
Well, Lynn has done a urination joke with Dixie before. I seem to remember a Sunday strip where Elly could tell Dixie was guilty of making a mess in the house. However, it has been awhile, and now that I think about it, we have not had any urine jokes with the female rabbit or the female cat either.
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