Dear GHR:

Hello again. I want to commend you on your current issue; I wish you had responded to the ''Teen Scene'' story, but I know how the holiday rush can be.

But after reading your reviews, I do have to disagree with you on the subject of Elizabeth. I don't think she is becoming a Robin-clone. I think the Carly/Robin and Carly/Liz dynamics are also very different.

The Liz/Carly debate has gone on for a long time. Practically ever since Liz came into Jason's life as his uncompromised friend, Carly has been jealous. This is somewhat understandable--but also quite unfair on Carly's part not to even talk to Jason. After Jason left, Carly fell for Sonny, whom I happen to believe sets limits with her that she both wants and needs.

People on many message boards talk constantly about whether or not Carly and Liz can be compared. Both Carly defenders and Liz defenders latch on to certain cruel, callous comments they each made:

Liz: ''Sonny lost a child--you lost a meal ticket.''

Carly: ''Obviously you didn't love your little boyfriend and now are trying to steal mine.'' (regarding to the then-dead Lucky).

They also can point out that the Liz who first showed up on the scene was really a lot like Carly (but to a much less serious extent). I think a major difference between Carly/Liz and Carly/Robin is that Robin has never truly understood what it is to be bad. She wasn't always depicted as ''perfect'' (which is why she became uninteresting, in my opinion), but she was really a headstrong teen. When she was in love with Stone she was bit more free-spirited and wild. She was sweet, but not to the point of good-hearted, and unintentional, but still apparent preachiness.

Liz is different. I think a part of Liz, the part that was the ''bad girl',' is still there, and still at times apparent. I think in many ways Liz sees versions of herself in Carly: the ''bad girl'," the insecure girl neglected by her parents and living in the shadow of her ''perfect'' sister Sarah. I've always wondered what Liz would have been like had she never been assaulted. I've always found it odd that GH took Liz on such a sudden transition from bad girl to sweetheart. After her rape, her journey was struggling to get over being assaulted; however, little of her past of the neglect or hidden hurt came to the surface. Instead she was just labeled the town's caring, gentle, sensitive' 'beloved'' heroine. But the problem is is that Liz IS NOT A SAINT.

It seems to me that Liz after the rape was weak. She was vulnerable, especially after Lucky died--because the relationship was so interdependent. The pull between these two people was so strong, so needy, and so true that when he left her rock, her core was, in a sense, gone. It's my belief that she is right now only playing a role. It is a role that everyone has created for her--Audrey, Luke, Nik--everyone she cared about was expecting her to be this pentagon of kindness. But it's my understanding that she still has some of the mean impulses, which were never truly explored, inside of her. I think, in a sense, Carly scares Liz as much as Liz scares Carly. I think although Liz will never admit it, she sees bits and pieces of herself in Carly--bits which no one else is willing to except, aside from Jason.

Robin never understood Carly, and so, in a sense, never understood a part of Jason. She never understood why an insecure woman like Carly NEEDED to feel loved and wanted--secure and needed. She had never experienced these feelings herself. She never understood why Jason would want a fiercely defensive, but not truly evil, woman like Carly for a friend. Liz, on the other hand, knows why a man like Jason would want to surround himself with a non-judgmental, flawed friend.

I also think the Sonny/Liz dynamic is something different than ''Carly being jealous at Sonny cooing all protective over a woman.'' I don't think Liz wants protection--and I don't think she came to Sonny's that day for it. I think Liz wants, in a sense, what Carly wants. I think she wants to be accepted and not judged. I think the whole ''Teen Scene'' foursome left Liz struggling about Lucky's callousness towards her, and her struggle to be who she was at the time of the original ''foursome.'' She wanted to be the healing girl--the girl who people expected to be afraid and hurt and at times angry and slightly mean--because she was recovering. She didn't want to be what she her loved ones thought she was now--a completely healed, accepted woman. She went to Sonny for help with the dead body, but also to be with someone non-judgmental and accepting.

I think Carly wants what she THINKS Liz has: respect. But Liz is different from Carly because she truly ISN'T a completely good person. Robin was good--Liz still has her bouts with evil. I think her sometimes short-temper, her anger, her need to be loved and respected mirrors Carly. I think she is a mix of good and evil, and pain and happiness. I think because she is not truly a saint but wants people to BELIEVE that she is separates her Robin, and puts her, truly, not too far away from Carly. I think no matter how much Liz may ACT like Robin, she will never, in a sense, ''replace'' her because she can't be good.

Thank you for reading.

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