howtheduck (howtheduck) wrote in binky_betsy,
howtheduck
howtheduck
binky_betsy

Monday, May 29, 2006

The beginning of the break-up, or The One Where Paul Realizes Elizabeth Has Not Paid Attention to a Word He’s Said All Year.

Panel 1:
Paul: You haven’t signed your contract?
Interpretation: I suddenly have this feeling I have been stabbed in the back. Ouch!

Elizabeth: I don’t know what to do, Paul. I miss my home so much.
Interpretation: I’m going home, but I am enjoying feigning indecision so much, I am just going to keep on doing it.

Panel 2:
Paul: This is home, Elizabeth. I thought we’d live here.
Interpretation: What do you mean this isn’t home? I thought after last January, you made a huge deal about how Milborough wasn’t your home anymore. Besides, I have all these plans for us to have a long term relationship here, since you used to say you loved Mtigwaki so much.

Elizabeth: We?
Interpretation: What do you mean we, Kemosabe?

Panel 3:
Paul: You know I want to be with you. I put in for a transfer so I could be closer!—Please sign your contract!
Interpretation: Have you been hiding under a rock the whole time we’ve been together? Putting in for a job transfer to be closer to your girlfriend is a big deal. But just to show you how whipped I am, I will now start begging.

Elizabeth: And then what?
Interpretation: This is a lead-in to the next panel. Wait for it.

Panel 4:
Elizabeth: A year from now I’d still want to move home.
Interpretation: I have made my decision to move and there is nothing you can say that will get me to change my mind. I am totally not impressed with the begging. Jewelry might have worked, but not begging.

Paul: Why didn’t you tell me this before?
Interpretation: Why didn’t you tell me this before I put in for a transfer? I had a pretty sweet deal in a new detachment in Otter County, and now I am going to be in the tiny logging town of Spruce Narrows, even further away from where you plan to go.

Elizabeth: It’s something I just realized.
Interpretation: I think I realized it right when you said the phrase “We’d live here.” I suddenly realized that you want to have a long term relationship and get married and live in this Godforsaken part of the country for the rest of our lives. I have never told you even once I love you. Take the hint, idiot.

Panel 5:
Paul: Then, you should talk to yourself more often.
Interpretation: If you talked to yourself more often, then you might have realized you wanted to move home earlier. That doesn’t make any sense, I know. Why did I say it? I am talking to a woman who gets a single e-mail from her sister and decides she’s homesick because she isn’t up-to-date on gossip in her hometown. She could talk to herself everyday and not know what she wants. I am so upset, I think I am going to put on my “almost about to cry” face. I am so whipped.

Elizabeth: [Mad look on face]
Interpretation: How dare you say something mean to me! You are going to get an earful in tomorrow’s strip. Nobody talks to me like that, except Vivian Crane, of course. By the time I am done with you, everyone reading this strip will realize you are a total heel, and I can unleash my “Mr. Wright is Mr. Wrong” pun. Then everyone will love me again, and they will root for me when I start back with Anthony Caine.

General Strip Interpretation: This was pretty well-drawn aside from the usual problems with drawing hands and cats. I liked the fact that the perspective of the panel came from a lower and lower point as each panel progressed. I also like the symbolic holding of Shiimsa in a defensive pattern and her release just as Liz makes a statement which pretty clearly defines that she has officially made a decision to drop Mtigwaki and consequently Paul. I also liked Paul’s exasperated facial expressions compared to Liz’s matter-of-fact complacent expressions.
Tags: howtheduck, liz an' paul, paul is toast, paul's transfer(s), previous strips, white goose flies south
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  • Tuesday, 13 April 2010

    Today, we get more of Elly ranting about how John is pissing away their money on a toy for himself; John's reaction is to sort of think that he's…

  • Monday, 12 April 2010

    We are, of course, in for the strip that has John back-pedal and admit that he should, after all, have consulted Elly about what he does with with is…

  • Sunday, 18 October 2009

    Let's see what nonsense awaits us today; since the Pattersons are low-down vermin who are pretty much a disgrace, it'll be a painful thing to watch.…