For Better or For Worse

[Portia]

Ohhh, we are. You don't really get it from an occasional reading, but if you read FBORFW regularly, the drama sucks you in.

[Portia]

(May 28th strip)

Like, no one understands you, April. Fer shure.

Oh, first Becky goes "roadside,"* and now she's having a "gig" with Gerald? So that's what the Canadian kids are calling it these days.

At least this is more interesting than weeks of old people.

*This strip

http://joshreads.com/?p=206

might provide further explanation. I am not to be held responsible for any view/comments/things you find objectionable on this website. Maybe that's why BYU blocks YouTube: the asinine comments.

[Avocado]

Portia, that is EXACTLY what I thought of when I read the strip! Finally, after 2 1/2 weeks of stroke-recovery puns (did she just copy the same strip with blank speech bubbles and fill them in with various sappy speeches?), we're back to the Canadian soap opera drama we love!

Based on our last encounter with Gerald, the boy is looking for action. He's not getting it from April, even after boozing her up - so he's taking a trip to the "road side"...and once he's "been there," he ain't comin' back!

Of course, just when it looked like something was finally going to happen in FBOFW-land, we jump back to one of the horribly uninteresting plotlines...the house...yawn. Hurry up and get married, Shawna-Marie.

[Portia]

"Going on the road"? "Stomping"?

This metaphor is quite . . . interesting, when extended to today's (May 31) strip.

[Avocado]

What are we supposed to call him now? Certainly not just plain "Anthony"...

[Portia]

I have seen various options, from "Antoinette"[1] to "TV,D,FEOUL" (short for The Vast, Disconcerting, Fleshy Expanse Of Upper Lip) [2]. I see no reason why he still couldn't be "Granthony." He still acts old, among other things. And why the new twists of Mason and/or Julia? Sigh.

[1] http://community.livejournal.com/binky_ ... 007/06/13/
[2] http://joshreads.com/?p=1114

[Avocado]

Those are fantastic sites. I especially liked this link:

http://home.comcast.net/~jfgelber/anthobeth.jpg

[Portia]

Wooooooo-O-o-O-ah.

If there were some sort of "best posts" collection in this forum, that gets my vote.

[Avocado]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

My goodness. LJ uses a week for Shannon to to finish her cafeteria speech, but it only takes 2 days for Liz and Botox-Gran to move from "Hi, can we dance?" to making out somewhere. Well, at least it finally happened. When's their wedding, tomorrow?

[Portia]

Know what bugs me about fictional romances? They always have to end up with their One True Love, no matter how unreasonable or silly that relationship may be.

I mean, Anthony has a child: it can't be like it was in high school! Besides, don't most people want to move on from high school?

As to your question, oh, before September. At least the emgagement, anyway. I'm not sure I can handle another wedding with an actual dress inspired by it.

I like what Quandary told me: "they hijacked someone else's wedding." Um, yeah. Glad to see you only care about yourself, Liz. Mason will probably be glad she's gone when he wakes up sober. Heh heh.

[Portia]

I'm glad to know that Lizthony go 20 yards away to make out.

[Dark Chocolate]

http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showCo ... r_Or_Worse

Those shorts do look ridiculous. And it isn't very polite to shove an entire baguette in your mouth.

I think a notion of a relationship in which neither party can change, that any concerns cannot be voiced is a dangerous one.

[A Mom, but not yours]

Baguette? Isn't it a sub sandwich?

True on the dangerous relationship thing. But going into any relationship, especially marriage, with the expectation that your partner will change only in the ways you want them to is equally dangerous. Stereotypes say that men marry hoping their wives won't change at all and women marrying intending to change their husbands. Both of those are really BAD ideas. People are going to change. In ways we may or may not expect. But definitely in ways we cannot control.

[Avocado]

DC, I agree with you. Liz's examples of "trying to change him" were that Therese tried to help him dress better and politely asked him to eat more politely? Oh, the horror. In my opinion, dressing and table manners aren't really intrinsic parts of someone's personality. In fact, I think its worse when people get hung up on stuff like that, whether they are the subject of change or the suggester.

So Therese thought that Anthony's ugly shorts were ugly. I assume she told him so - but rather than change a little thing like ugly shorts, and appreciate that she was trying to help him not look goofy, he got offended that she didn't love him "the way he was."

So Therese suggested that he have better table manners. Isn't having good table manners a good thing? Wouldn't it be better for him to have good table manners instead of bad table manners? Isn't that an easy thing to change?

A Mom is right that people shouldn't go into a relationship expecting the other person to change. But, I think they SHOULD go into relationships expecting to adapt and better themselves in order to please their partner. One of my pet peeves is excusing one's failings by saying "That's just the way I am." Isn't the whole point of existence to grow and better ourselves?

Anyway, all this to say that today's strip did not convince me of Anthony's being ill-treated in the relationship. If anything, it makes it seem like Anthony was just stubborn and blew little things out of proportion. Rather than make himself a victim, why didn't he appreciate the help and become more genteel?

[Portia]

So what does everyone think of the new hybrid format?

[A Mom, but not yours]

Um, what new hybrid format? Did I miss something?

[Portia]

http://fborfw.com/news/002696.php

Lynn Johnston’s popular comic strip “For Better or For Worse” begins a new phase Monday, Sept. 3, as character Michael Patterson looks through a family photo album with his 5-year-old daughter, Meredith. With this strip, Michael begins retelling the Patterson family story by recounting the courtship of his parents, John and Elly, the central characters in the 28-year-old comic strip read by millions each day.

In a mixture of new, old and retouched work, readers will begin to see scenes of the past -- Elly reading in the library at college and catching the eye of the young dental student who will one day become her husband.

[Avocado]

So far, I've actually liked it. At least it's better than 2 straight weeks of poor-Iris-and-stroke-puns or LJ's trademark last-panel-repeats-second-to-last-panel-with-a-gaggy-twist. Some of the flashback ones have done that, I guess, but they've felt fresher than anything else LJ's done for a while.

I am glad that she's going to keep up the current storylines--or rather, the only current storyline that I care about, Lizthony. I hope she does some flashback strips to their high school courtship. I remember one where Liz and the pre-'stache got caught fogging up the car windows. That's pretty much all I remember about their dating history, so I would like to be reminded of what it was like, and hopefully get a better-rounded vision of Anthony.

(Isn't it interesting that the only strip that stands out from their past is their making out in the car...and their current relationship is pretty much defined by their making out at Shawna-Marie's wedding. I guess we know where they stand on the whole VL issue!)

[Portia]

So, apparently there are new strips as well? Who knows. At any rate, the book-signing arc is rather vomitous, though I will admit that I laughed at November 28th's. Does anyone else think that Liz is being her usual self-centered self? I wish this Lizthony business would wrap up already: just get married, or something! It's becoming painfully obvious that it's inevitable.

[Avocado]

Holy wowzer-oos - Lizthony is engaged. Shock, shock, shock.