Friday, July 01, 2005

Now I can't even figure out character motivation in the COMICS

So...9 Chickweed Lane.

Just last Saturday, Edda tells Amos, "I know I'll always want you, I'm just not ready to have you yet." This says to me that she intends to have a romantic relationship with him in the future, and that she loves him romantically, just doesn't feel grown-up enough to deal with that yet.

Today, she seems to be on a date with some anonymous guy. (Yes, she fell asleep in the middle of it, but she's still on a date, and went through all the trouble of making/accepting a date and putting on a dress and wearing her hair differently, all while she was really tired from dancing and working out all day.) And this is the second or third time she's been on a date with an anonymous guy since moving to New York (although the first one before she told us that she is definitely going to want to be with Amos in the indefinite future.

So why is she going on dates with people who aren't Amos? She knows she's going to want to be with Amos eventually. So if this date does work out and lead to a relationship, she's going to have to end the relationship when the time comes for her to be with Amos. Why would she go through all the trouble of attempting to build a relationship when she knows she's going to have to end it eventually? Why would she do something so cruel as to date someone when she's can say to herself with certainty, "I am going to have to leave him when..."

We know Edda isn't stupid. We know she's a bit clueless, but she certainly isn't cruel, she has a definite sense of the long-term consequences of hurting someone in a relationship as a result of her father leaving her mother, and she has the good sense to reject the biggest cads outright.

So what's she doing dating when she already knows who she is in love with for the long-term? If she needs an escort to an event or for appearances or to avoid being hit on, either Amos or Seth or, I'm sure, one of her other male co-workers who is as harmless as Seth would be willing to help her out. If she needs a good snog, I'm sure Amos would be more than willing to help her out there. If she's just socializing, surely she can do that without the expectations of eventual romance. So does she not love Amos as much as she says/thinks she does? But why would she do that to her best friend? Does she have this random idea that "People date. That's what we do. Therefore I have to go on dates with people."? If so, why not go on dates with Amos? Is she going to run around repeatedly breaking Amos' heart until she's ready for a nice safe husband? But why would she emulate her father like that? Or has she just been reading Dear Ellie?

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