Foobonia and Points West.

Of course, Michael isn't the only one undergoing a sea change in the next year. We know that adding a female contemporary in the mix to impress turns him from a dim-witted accepter of foolish dares into a clueless but better-behaved moron boyfriend. Lizzie starts to mutate into Liz in about five months' time when she declares that she looks stooooopid and ugly and because of that, no one can or should like her. As I've said before, the strip that explains why this might be is the one in which, after having her hair braided and receiving compliments from a lot of friendly people who like her hair that way, she tearfully takes them out and wailed that everyone everywhere tore her down because Random McAssbucket made the same sort of massive flapping anus of himself Trash Bag Johnny did when, after cheerfully insulting her to show her who's boss, declared that she was too young to feel good about who she was as a person.

What this tells us is that Liz is one of those horribly depressing people we all have to deal with in our lives: the person who needs to feel like an ugly monster no one should like and who seeks out damaging idiots who make her feel like shit so she can be proven right about how hideous she is. The Liz Pattersons of the world can't allow themselves to listen to advice from people who wanna help them or take honest compliments seriously because to do that would mean that the looming shapes of malice in their lives that can't fucking get over having a kid sister, asswipe fathers who get to decide when she can feel good and mothers who see her as a rival for her husband's affections aren't worth powder and shot and certainly aren't worth marrying Blandthony for.