Click to enlarge.
Fear not--we'll also be checking in with other characters, and there will be more follow-up/aftermath. This is pretty much the moment after the ::poof:: of the spell, in which we see where the characters find themselves (kind of like when your pre-empted TV show comes back "in progress"). :)
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Whoa, JEEEEEEEZ!!! You don't kid around, do you? I should think that most of the characters that aren't are going to use their experiences in the alternate world to reinforce why their current lives are better. As an example, John has rediscovered what he loves about his job and Mike has admitted that he isn't supposed to be the Saviour of Canadian Literature. As for Liz, I hope this means that she's going to be satisfied with the family she has.
Finally, I think that Elly has gotten the punsihment Godozo has predicted; people are simply going to ignore from now on because she's finally had her nose rubbed in the fact that she was meant to be who she was and can no longer claim otherwise.
Yes, I'd expect those experiences in warpworld to affect the way these characters relate to the present. They're in a doubly jarring situation, since not only have they just come back from that alternative timeline, but they're also returned to wherever they would have been if it had never happened--based on who they were/where they were going at the end of August, 2008. Now they have to figure out what needs to change, based on what they just got zapped from.
And Elly--irrelevance could be the most devastating and well deserved outcome.
Elly and John I notice end up the same way Lynn and Rod did. I am not sure why you retconned out the birth of baby James with Liz and Anthony, or decided April was going to give up on veterinary work. I would think a cause-and-effect from being warped back in time would be the natural outcome. "Elizabeth, now remembering very clearly how mistreated she had been as a child, decides not to imitate her mother and becomes overly protective of both her children" for example.
I am not sure why you retconned out the birth of baby James with Liz and Anthony, or decided April was going to give up on veterinary work. I would think a cause-and-effect from being warped back in time would be the natural outcome. "Elizabeth, now remembering very clearly how mistreated she had been as a child, decides not to imitate her mother and becomes overly protective of both her children" for example.
The cause and effect will come, but at the moment they've all been dropped in medias res and they have yet to process their time-travel experiences.
As for the changes for Liz and April, one element is that I wanted to reject the destiny Lynn dropped in that final Sunday strip. Dee is also not going to ever open a sewing school, small or otherwise! With Liz, I wanted to go against the foob presumption that everyone in the family will automatically and effortlessly have one boy and one girl. With April, I am also fighting against the foob conceit that her destiny has always been pre-ordained: Because she loved animals from toddlerhood on, she was going to be a veterinarian. Most of us don't become what we thought we would when we were three. That's why there are professions other than fire fighter, ballerina, cowboy, movie star, and marine biologist.
Also, April could at some point change her mind back. She'd have just completed her first year in a BSc program at Guelph, and as we have seen in our monthly retconverse, it's a very science-heavy year. Maybe she cools off over the summer and decides to stick with science. Maybe she decides to take a year of courses in a variety of other areas to see if something else appeals to her. There's a lot of room for change.
Holy cow, what a lot of changes! I'm curious to see what the rest of the fallout entails.
Dee is also not going to ever open a sewing school, small or otherwise!
Bless you! And I completely agree with the rejection of the "destiny" aspect of the final strip - because I think that the whole time-travel/magicks stuff should have shown everyone that relying on fate and/or destiny just doesn't work in the real lifes :)
I'm curious to see what the rest of the fallout entails.
I'm having fun plotting it out. :)
Bless you! And I completely agree with the rejection of the "destiny" aspect of the final strip - because I think that the whole time-travel/magicks stuff should have shown everyone that relying on fate and/or destiny just doesn't work in the real lifes :)
Thanks--I'm glad you agree on the "destiny" stuff. :)
Hoo! How about that. I completely misinterpreted the last few strips. I tend to do that sometimes, my brain's all backwards.
When April said everyone would remember "what would have happened," I thought she meant "what would have happened if the time warp had continued." Here I was thinking how weird it would be for them all to have memories of growing up again under rule of Elly's crazy, foolish whims.
By the end of it I imagine they'd be trapped in some dystopian world where Elly has made herself a godlike dictator for life, forcing every person on Earth to read her manifesto and give it glowing reviews. The kids would be married to each other, John would model romance novel covers, electric can opener technology would be light years beyond the norm, instruction booklets would be written by child psychologists and Lizzie would still be a baby! Imagine zapping out of that.
"Hahahaheehoohahee! And from this day forth, I decree that all sweaters will be made from the velvety skin ofZAP!
...Oh. Uh. D-does anyone want coffee?"
Immediate impressions:
John: Where is he? Is he with someone?
Michael: What was his third novel? is Dee still there? Is he still "straight?"
Liz: After all the stuff heard about in the Foobiverse blog, is/are Liz and/or Anthony sterile?
And finally: It would appear that the characters have popped back into the original timestream, with only the memories showing what might have happened. Wonder how the memories will affect their lives from here.
I confess to some of Joe's confusion, too. I gather now that the characters remember a) the events during the time warp, b) the events that originally took place 30-odd years ago, and c) the events that would have taken/did take (not sure if that's subjunctive of indicative!) place from August 2008 to now. If I'm off on any of that, I'd welcome correction.
Innnnnterestinggg.
Now with John leaving Elly, one wonders: is another woman involved? Or will Elly just want to believe there is, as opposed to it being some natural fallout from her hideously self-absorbed actions? (I like that "I'm alone!" moment where she seems to be staring at the empty space beside her; given her behavior in the past, she's probably far more alone than she realizes...)
So Michael got three books published, and the third was blasted for the crap it most likely is. Wonder how the second was recieved. Was he a one-hit wonder whose popularity waned when fans realized just how one-note and miserable his work was?
So Baby James never came to be... This is why messing with the timeline can have such dire conseqeunces. You don't see it acknowledged very often just how exact the timing has to be for everyone to be concieved, and Elly did snatch Liz away on the night of her honeymoon...
I wonder if Liz is even planning to stay with Anthony now. Something like this can put a lot of strain on a perfectly good marriage -- and the circumstances behind this are even worse. (Especially if they remember the original pre-magicks timeline, where their son was born... I can see Anthony desperately clinging to and pursuing that image, believing that they can fix everything if they just have their son, while Liz pulls further and further away, reminded of how he thought Francoise would fix his first marriage, too.)
As for April, it's not surprising that she's reconsidering her career. That's only natural, particularly given what she's been through. She might have believed at some point that becoming a vet was her 'destiny', but she's likely sick of 'destiny' crap at this point.
I should probably have specified that characters have three sets of parallel memories--at least those who are old enough to have been through the original version of what we saw during the new-ruin era: (1) Events as they occurred in the strip as it ran from September 1979-through Elly's confrontation with her can opener in April of 1981; (2) The new-ruin version of those events, in which certain things happened as they did at first and certain ones were altered; (3) Everything that would have happened in 2008-2010 if Elly hadn't discovered magicks.
The characters know, intellectually, that (3) didn't happen--but they experience the emotions attached to whatever happened. Events that happened in (2) will affect how they proceed from now on. They will have a different perspective on (3) than they would have had if (3) had happened uninterrupted. (1) provides a basis of comparison and may cause them to question why new-ruin changes happened.
I know it's confusing... I hope I manage to do a decent job unravelling it all. :)
I thought she meant "what would have happened if the time warp had continued."
Oh, now that is a terrifying thought!
Godozo, I think I'll be answering all of those questions soon. :)
Heh. Maybe Lizzie doesn't want to have a child anymore because she's just sick and tired of baby stuff. I imagine it's a relief to finally get away from the smell of pablum.
Three of my sisters loved animals all their lives and all three of them headed off for college bound and determined to be a veterinarian. One became a horticulturalist, another became a landscape designer, and the third got married, had two kids, divorced, eventually owned and operated a popular bar and now does title searches for oil companies with her kids on the payroll too. And as far as I know, none of them regrets not becoming a vet in the least.
Anonymous: I only just saw your post now--I think you posted it while I was composing mine that came in just below it....
Now with John leaving Elly, one wonders: is another woman involved? Or will Elly just want to believe there is, as opposed to it being some natural fallout from her hideously self-absorbed actions?
Don't worry--there will be more follow-up with John.
(I like that "I'm alone!" moment where she seems to be staring at the empty space beside her; given her behavior in the past, she's probably far more alone than she realizes...)
Thanks--I thought this was fitting.
So Michael got three books published, and the third was blasted for the crap it most likely is. Wonder how the second was recieved. Was he a one-hit wonder whose popularity waned when fans realized just how one-note and miserable his work was?
I kind of figure book #2 was meh and #3 was going to be do-or-die for him.
I wonder if Liz is even planning to stay with Anthony now. Something like this can put a lot of strain on a perfectly good marriage -- and the circumstances behind this are even worse. (Especially if they remember the original pre-magicks timeline, where their son was born... I can see Anthony desperately clinging to and pursuing that image, believing that they can fix everything if they just have their son, while Liz pulls further and further away, reminded of how he thought Francoise would fix his first marriage, too.)
In my FOOBar continuities, there's never been a James Allen (except maybe as a name that's been discussed)--though your interpretation is interesting.
As for April, it's not surprising that she's reconsidering her career. That's only natural, particularly given what she's been through. She might have believed at some point that becoming a vet was her 'destiny', but she's likely sick of 'destiny' crap at this point.
I think this makes a lot of sense for her.
I imagine it's a relief to finally get away from the smell of pablum.
I would imagine so--and the nasty peas-and-mashed-"spuds" glop Elly tried to feed her recently.
Three of my sisters loved animals all their lives and all three of them headed off for college bound and determined to be a veterinarian. One became a horticulturalist, another became a landscape designer, and the third got married, had two kids, divorced, eventually owned and operated a popular bar and now does title searches for oil companies with her kids on the payroll too. And as far as I know, none of them regrets not becoming a vet in the least.
Yes--and I've encountered other stories like this from people who were sure they were going to be veterinarians. It seems more likely than not that she'd end up on a different path than she'd originally expected.
John remembered to wear a face mask: a sign of competent dentistry! Perhaps the time travel wasn't all bad if it made him review his working habits and discover that he really needed to update them.
I can't wait to see what happens next! :) (And I mean that sincerely.)
John remembered to wear a face mask: a sign of competent dentistry! Perhaps the time travel wasn't all bad if it made him review his working habits and discover that he really needed to update them.
Heh. To be fair, I used this strip as a reference, after doing a search on "dentist." In late-day strips, he did wear a mask. Maybe Rod at a certain point convinced Lynn to draw them in.
I can't wait to see what happens next! :) (And I mean that sincerely.)
Thanks. :)
I think that Michael looks much better the way you drew him than he does in the actual FBOFW comic.
I think that Michael looks much better the way you drew him than he does in the actual FBOFW comic.
Thanks. :)
Yeah, necroposting but I'm catching up. Re the vet thing--I still wish I'd gone for it rather than liberal arts, but it IS very hard. People who take up vet med "because I love the sweet animals soooo much!" are most likely to wash out. It's harder to get into a DVM program than an MD, plus you have to be okay with things like, oh, killing your patients on purpose. It's a long, hard, sci-intensive degree as well. There are LOTS of jobs with animals. Heck, if April loves living on the farm, she could study agricultural science or land management or soil consevation or wildlife biology/management or any one of a hundred careers that would have her outdoors, working with animals or the people who raise them, and not be "vet". Or she could ditch college and become a working student for a horse trainer of some kind, though it's a little late in life for that. She could get a job hotwalking and grooming at the racetrack and busking with her guitar on the side to make extra money (heck, if she avoids the greaseburger diet she could be the next Chantal Sutherland.) She could go into nonprofit management and open a no-kill shelter for Fe-Leuk positive cats. She could become a site inspector for the Canadian department of Agriculture. She could become a forest ranger and give wildlife tours in national parks. Fisheries management. Whitewater guide. About four million jobs with animals and/or the outdoors that do not involve being a veterinarian.
But Lynn apparently didn't evolve past the stage of vet/doctor/firefighter/movie star as career options.
julietvalcouer, those are definitely viable options. It's also possible that April could come back around to wanting to go into veterinary medicine, but after exploring other areas. I think she's been so locked into the "destiny" mindset that the realization that she could do something else is a bit of a revelation.
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