“Greater good? I am your wife! I am the greatest good you are ever going to get!”
– Frozone’s Wife, The Incredibles

Single best moment of the entire movie. 🙂

And we don’t even know her name, I think!

Setting aside the hilarity of this line and the entire scene surrounding it, it just rang true, and as something perfectly appropriate for Valentine’s Day, ya know?

How many times has it happened? How many? One or the other spouse feels undervalued, and things slowly go to crap. Something goes wrong, somehow, and eventually it all just falls apart. They leave, or they cheat, or what have you. Either way, a relationship, and the family built upon it, is allowed to decay until it finally breaks.

To avoid this, one must remember one’s priorities. One must remember what matters most. One must remember what is truly the best thing ever to happen to them.

To which end, it helps when both sides are aware of their own value and assert themselves. It’s far easier for someone to forget what you are worth when you do not remind them.

Not that one should be pushy or arrogant about it, but still!

Now, in most superhero stories, the hero’s significant other is obliged to share them with the world. Soldiers, officers, firemen and others risk their lives every day, and their families need to come to terms with that, right, so why not the heroes? And if the significant other is obviously conflicted and left wanting more, they also have to wrestle with their own selfishness until either they overcome it or it destroys them.

But not Frozone’s wife! 😉

In The Incredibles and other stories, like Black Lightning and Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’ve Got Henchmen, superheroes have had to make the choice of whether or not to be superheroes, and the world doesn’t have the right to demand anything automatically.

I’ve said before that sanity needs a little selfishness. Perhaps not right in the heat of the moment, mind you, when lives are at stake, but time must be made as appropriate in order to talk about these things. It’s worth it, for the sake of that greatest good one will ever get. 😉

So, to all the happy couples out there, Happy Valentine’s Day! And remember that you, individually and together, are worth it! 🙂