Last week, the unstoppable train wreck that was the reunification of eldest For Better of For Worse daughter Elizabeth with her childhood boyfriend, the extremely creepy and formerly mustachioed Anthony, finally reached its nauseating nadir. The online reaction has not been kind, to put it charitably.
What’s interesting about the online reaction is, as Tom noted, it’s probably the first time in recent memory that any group of people, online or otherwise, got involved in the daily goings-on of a newspaper comic strip. People haven’t held this sort of anticipation regarding a storyline, negative or otherwise, since Lil’ Abner was still in the papers.
To understand why this storyline has sparked so much disgust and outrage, read Shaenon Garrity’s hilarious rant:
It’s like the strip has become a FBOFW fanfic written by Anthony. In every storyline in which he appears, at least one Patterson is sure to launch into a speech about how great Anthony is. Maybe it’ll be Elly, commenting wistfully that she’s sorry Liz broke up with him (you know, ten years ago, when they were in high school). Maybe it’ll be John, pontificating on the many virtues of Anthony, most of which are visible only to John. Maybe it’ll be Liz herself, reflecting wide-eyed on how much Anthony has accomplished. Which makes sense, since Anthony, an accountant with a small suburban ranch house and a failed starter marriage, has clearly achieved much, much more in life than Liz, who went straight from university to teaching underprivileged Native American children in the remote north. I mean, there’s no comparison.
Seriously Elizabeth, you’ve let us all down.
July 9th, 2007 at 9:24 am
Maybe Lynn Johnston’s real-life daughter got back together with her high school sweetheart.
July 9th, 2007 at 10:00 am
Man, I remember when April was born. She’s totally hot now.
July 9th, 2007 at 10:37 am
What II can’t understand is the sheer venom involved in this. Would they be saying Rowling lost it if she hooked up two of her characters?
July 9th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
If it’s revealed in the afterword of Deathly Hallows that Hermione Granger went back to London after two years teaching at Durmstrang and married Dudley Dursley, you will likely hear many of the same complaints.
July 9th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Allen: I wouldn’t doubt it one bit. HP fans can be an incredibly frightening bunch.
As for FOOB, I just gotta say this: Thank God for the Comics Curmudgeon and the people there for their FOOB snark.
July 9th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
Chris: Apparently that’s not the case. So much so that I’ve seen fanfic strips where Johnston’s own daughter tells her to knock it off. It’s weird.
July 9th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
On one hand, I’m sorta happy that Elizbeth is happy, but fuck, c’mon, lets move on in life. Anthony is… well… a loser.
July 10th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
I’m pretty sure that if any creator has earned the right to do what they want with their characters it’s Lynn Johnston. Whether you think it’s a bad idea or not doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme because it’s still HER story to tell how she wants and one thing that’s a constant theme of this strip is that things don’t always wind up how you’d like them to be. Also I somehow doubt she’s reading any of our opinions so she probably doesn’t give a crap. She’s retiring after a lifetime of storytelling. Let her leave her characters how she’d like.