On ending points and how to have fun with them.

[dreadedcandiru2]

There's another advantage to having Liz and Anthony marry right after University that isn't "not totally turning them into colossal assholes" or "making the strip into an absurd bloody farce." Said advantage is that we can work in the need to make the last strip have the pay-off line "for better or for worse" with Elly's long-term desire to live a life without having to deal with what she sees as a host of people running around leaching off of her and never stopping to thank her.

The ending that makes the most sense to me in that instance is Elly talking to John about having to shepherd Liz and Anthony through some minor crisis with their first child and talking about how she feels like a spectator in life now that she's not the one on the spot all the time. It bothers her a lot that while she's still needed to an extent, she's not as needed in the same way as she was when the strip began despite being thanked more. In the scenario I have in mind, John would agree that it would have been really nice to have been appreciated back then, he knows for a fact that it took for him to have kids to appreciate what his folks did for him and, well, for better or for worse, that's just how life is. This would wrap everything up in a nice little bow and not totally turn the characters into horror monsters.