9 Chickweed Lane

12-31-2022

I absolutely don't expect this strip to run at a real time pace. It's why the twin girls are somewhere between the ages of four and twelve, and not under the age of two. It's why Edda and Amos are in their late twenties (?) instead of their early to mid forties. It's why Gran and Kiesel are still alive. It's comic book time. Some things take much longer than they would in the real world, some things go much more quickly or happen off screen. That's fine, that's normal.

However.

However.

Edda asked her horrified-looking children on November 19th if they wanted a little brother, little sister, two little brothers, two little sisters, or a little sister and a little brother. Amos, peeking around the corner, looks like an appalled and stunned Moe Szyslak. Is this a surprise to him, too? Or is he terrified of his children's reaction? There's a clear parallel being drawn between their stunned and horrified faces and his, or at least that's how it reads to me. None of them anticipated this. Well, none of them anticipated this except for Edda. Was this an accident? Did she plan this without consulting Amos? Were they doing an "if it happens it happens" type of thing? Were they actively trying but she hadn't informed him yet? The first two account for his expression. The second two don't.

This little question is followed by thirteen or fourteen strips where she and Amos are shown in a flashback as children talking about Amos impregnating Edda; four strips featuring a slim Edda and Amos kissing under mistletoe; five strips of other couples kissing under mistletoe; one strip of a slim Edda and Amos kissing under mistletoe on top of a piano; four strips of Amos interacting with a talking cat; one strip of a slim Edda briskly walking a dog; a slim Edda seducing Amos with their children's Christmas stocking; a Sunday strip with a slender Edda dancing in silhouette; four strips of Amos and Edda in a childhood flashback where he asks if there's anything she wants for Christmas that she didn't get and vice versa; one strip of a slim Edda on top of a piano making out with Amos after he asks her the same question; and then a strip where Amos asks her the question again but this time she's massively pregnant. I'm not counting the Sunday strips here, although two of them featured small children discussing conception.

In this most recent strip she looks ten months pregnant with triplets, but just so we know she's not fat her back is arched and there's space between her upper torso and her arm.

Quick reminder for the conspiracy theorists out there: Amos didn't get a vasectomy because Edda loves being a mom so much and wanted to have 100 more kids to not-parent.

I guess we just straight up don't see the reactions to her question from either Amos or the kids, despite their horrified expressions. We skip her entire early pregnancy (there's a bit from her first pregnancy where she walks past a mirror, pauses, and presses her hands against her midsection because her tummy is starting to show and it's adorable) and the reactions of any family or friends. We have apparently missed Xiulan giving birth?

It feels like McEldowney has rushed us past all that early stuff so he could focus on her massive pregnant stomach.

And I'm feeling weirdly cheated, and weirded out, that he's spent so very much time featuring two small children discussing conceiving a child. This wasn't two kids playing house and spinning what-ifs about being a mommy and a daddy. This was bizarre and it just... kept... coming. And the whole "Is there anything I forgot/neglected to give you..." repeated questioning is not cute, actually! I hate it! The small-child flashbacks feel like they're really straddling a line when it comes to sexualizing children. He's not depicting them as sexy per se but having them talk again and again and again about conceiving a child? He's adultifying them, maybe?

Well, it looks like we're not going to be treated to a mother/daughter/granddaughter New Year's Leap and I'm pretty bummed about it.

(If this is a flashback also, one to her pregnancy with the twins, it's incredibly poorly done. It's possible, but it's so poorly done that I don't think it's probable. I guess time will tell.)