Todd, Professor, let’s stop right there. Professor, the fact of the matter is that you already know that you are wrong, you just refuse to admit it. You are using her reaction to you as evidence to argue against them, but let’s look at this objectively:
WHY would she react that way, when you KNOW she couldn’t possibly be going around poisoning people? You KNOW you would have heard. She probably wouldn’t even be allowed in public, let alone a school full of human kids, if she had a habit of spitting venom at people. So WHY did she react that way to YOU. What could POSSIBLY be the reason.
You already know you are at least partly wrong, Mister Trunchbull. You’re just too damn stubborn to admit it.
You have to realize he’s not actually a “reasonable” man. He is what “reasonable men” most often actually are, a terrible sociopath that uses “reason” to bend and break people. He doesn’t care what his son, or what ANYONE actually does, so long as he feels that he is shown the “proper respect” that he feels he deserves. Todd is NOT treating him the way he believes that he should be treated and must therefore have it made very clear to him that he WILL “respect” Mr Trunchbull whether he likes it or not.
The thing is Mr. Trunchbull has made it clear that he knows what is going on, but he doesn’t have any actual proof. He’s shaken Todd but once Todd gets control of his fear he will realize that Mr. Trunchbull doesn’t have a full hand of cards to play against him, he only holds a single ace and depending on the rules that card can either be the highest or lowest in value. If Mr. Trunchbull is part of the conspiracy to keep Selkie’s people a secret then he has become a major liability by defending the actions of his son and this thinly veiled threat. He knows what Selkie is. The only way that matters is if he is willing to reveal that knowledge. That means once Agent Brown finds out all of the details (if he ever does) Mr. Trunchbull will at best get a blatant threat that if he jeopardizes this he and probably his entire family will vanish with little more than the memories of people who hate them that they ever existed at all. Also… this runs the risk of being a major diplomatic incident that would eradicate any leverage or tenure he may have because of his knowledge. Allies from both sides of this will betray him, abandon him, or begin seriously reconsidering their association with him and his value.
If he isn’t part of the conspiracy then revealing the information will make him seem like a nut even if he has evidence. There is a medical condition that causes children to resemble fish when born, they just don’t survive very long. Any photographic evidence can be easily explained away as an incredibly rare survivor of this condition and take care of any unusual medical issues since, in reality, the disease they can use as a cover leads to death in at most months after being born. Todd has a full hand here. The only way Mr. Trunchbull can pull this off is the believable scenario of Todd believing his one card is enough.
No matter what, though, it is definitely time to call Agent Brown. Selkie’s well-being demands it no matter what the consequences for himself or their relationship.
I gotta say, I get up at five on Mon/wed/Fri, but sitting here waiting for your comic to update keeps me Awake. Why couldn’t you update of western time, so
I could go to bed 2 hours earlier :P. Ah, the troubles of central time.
I’ve been on a college faculty, and I know what huge egos some of those jerks have. I know this is just a cartoon, a made-up story, but Trunchbull makes me angry all the same.
I detect he’ll be getting a visit from a certain agent in the near future even if Todd doesn’t call him.(I can’t be the only one who thinks that his phones been tapped “just in case” by the government already.)
Time to call Agent Brown. Immediately. This man knows too much and Brown needs to know about it. He also needs to be taken down a peg, preferably with a hammer.
Trunchbull is an ass but I can think he is being honest, I can understand believing his kid, especially if everyone is too afraid to argue. Todd is complaining to the wrong person, he should be lawyering up and going after the school.
I agree! This man wasn’t given the same story as Todd was. The principal wasn’t man enough to do so. The guy believes his kid likeany parent would and he saw an angry, dangerous girl to boot that reinforced his belief in his own child. To him, perhaps SELKIE seems like the bully. This man is an ass who is full of himself, yes, but he seems to be being honest here in believing his son due to a combination of things. He is in no way wrong for it. Misguided, yes, but not wrong.
I bet if Todd went to a lawyer and got the school to REALLY tell what happened that day, Prof. Trumchbull would begrudgingly see the error of his ways and (half-heartedly) apologize. He’d still be a jerk, but he seems smart enough to listen to reason when presente with facts he can see.
To further this point – Trunchbull hasn’t outright said at any point that Todd is wrong, merely that Todd’s account isn’t matching up with the story Trunchbull heard. He didn’t say there were no witnesses, he said he didn’t talk to any.
I don’t think that’s the case, just look up the conversation in the below comic. Seems like he’d very much have a problem with Truck attacking Selkie, he just doesn’t believe he would do such a thing.
You know, when I first read that line in the last panel I read *between* the line too. I thought ‘this is a guy who knows his son COULD attack someone.’
And note how, in the next page after Todd says it was his little girl who was attacked, the Prof changes his stance; https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie339/ and starts provoking Selkie to attack him so he’ll have some leverage for later.
To me it read like he is a sexist biggot. Though the fact that after he insults Selkie she tries to attack him would just prove that she’s the likely aggressor from his point of view.
But remember, he has knowledge of Selkie: He knew what she is and how she might react – he set up her up to attack.
Also remember that Dave gave the Prof the name “Trunchbull” for a reason. He wants us to see this character through the filter of that other Trunchbull.
I didn’t read sexism I read basic biology. Put aside all the political correctness and a little girl around Selkie’s age is physically weaker than a boy Truck’s age. It isn’t sexist to recognize and acknowledge basic biological differences.
The thing is, he didn’t make any attempt to find out the truth. He walked into the office having decided what ‘really’ happened and screamed at the principal until he got his way.
I can understand the impulse not to judge the character because what he ‘knows’ is not the same as what we know. But you have to understand that abusers and other evil people often behave in very specific ways calculated to make rationalizing those behaviors easy. “He just had a bad day”, “He thought I was flirting with that guy”, etc. The truth is, Prof. Trunchbull’s general attitude and behaviors, ‘I get my way OR ELSE’, are VERY in-line with what you would expect from an abuser. He doesn’t want the truth, he wants his way. And it doesn’t matter if the person not giving him his way is his son or the principle or Todd, whoever he deems as being in his way or an annoyance, in an abuser’s mind, NEEDS to suffer until they fall in line.
I agree with Mikael and many others above. So far there have been a lot of “shades of grey” characters in this comic. Just because Trunchbull comes off as personally offensive doesn’t mean he’s evil.
At this point I do not think that Trunchbull’s part of some anti-Sarnothi conspiracy or complicit in the abuse and oppression of her people. It wouldn’t be possible to keep the existence of the Sarnothi a secret, as we’ve already seen. Trunchbull is a professional and an academic so it’s frankly really likely that he’d come across information on them that would not be available to the general public.
Evil? Maybe not. Depends on how you define evil. But that doesn’t mean he’s not a bully and an abuser. Chug makes a valid point: He went into the office with his mind already made up. He (and his wife) yelled until he got his way. There may be a reason he’s what he is. Probably there is. Usually there is. We may even find out what that reason is. But reasons are not excuses.
Sigh. Once again a story where the bullies get to win. Just once I’d like to see them get their comeuppance.
Yeah, it’s not realistic to have the little guy win one occasionally, but if I wanted realism, I wouldn’t be reading a story about a cute little fishgirl.
But the bullies haven’t won yet. This is the part of the story where it looks like the bad guys have won and everything is about to fall apart before it pulls together.
Frankly, I would start giving him enough rope to hang himself. If you get an ultimatum that you do anything or Trunchy will reveal your daughter’s identity to the world, the feds can move in on him. The masquerade is a valuable weapon people.
Todd to the good doctor: If you know what she is then you understand the importance of keeping her warm. Your son picked her up, pinned her to a wall and shook her till every heating pack she had fell out. He contenued to alternate between taunts and shakes untill she was in such poor shape she had to be taken to a hospital. She did not do anything to deserve this treatment. She has been now punished for freeing herself from someone who was essentially attempting to kill her. This was witnessed by the faculty. This was done by YOUR son. You then proceeded to insult her in the hallway by calling her a weak little girl.
::phone slams down::
Hello, Agent Brown!
Bad move Trunchbull. By letting Todd know that he knows what Selkie is the Professor has in fact released Todd from the constraint of protecting Selkie’s secret – Todd doesn’t have to pull any punches now.
Mister Trunchbull, if that’s not the story you received, you need to update your story.
And this may surprise you, but I’m going to believe the educational professionals who actually witnessed the event in question over the hysterical father of the monster who hospitalized my child.
Also, you’re now accusing her of something you think she tried to do. Meanwhile, I’m accusing your son of something that happened, and for which there are hospital records.
Please please please pleeeeeeease give us the satisfaction of Trunchbull being hoist upon his own petard…from a former bullied kid, I beg you pleeeeeease…
*pulls up in large VW van plastered with stickers screeching for social reforms* Get in, guys! We’re on a trip to Comeuppance Island, and we need to pick up a passenger on the way!
Even if Trunchbull knows that Selkie’s venomous, there’s little evidence that Selkie herself knows that she is, seeing as how she only really learned with the kissing incidents (and that one time Todd’s cat bit her). It’s possible that she was acting on instinct/too delirious to keep herself from salivating.
For the love of all that is fishy Todd, hoist this douche with his own petard and CALL AGENT BROWN. (Of course, Todd himself will never read this and I doubt a ton of begging in the comments will sway Dave’s vision of the story away from what it’s meant to be, but…)
I’m not exactly sure what Todd wants – a lame-o apology would be the BEST one could hope for from people like the Trunchbulls (and honestly it isn’t worth it) so why is he making such a huge fuss over this?
Yes, your daughter was injured, that’s what lawyers are for. Forget calling and bitching, I’ll get my apology in court in cash!
Has it been established *how* Trunchbull knows about “what Selkie is” because he’s not once referenced Sarnothi in his comments. The way he talks about her is much the way we’d discuss a dangerous animal.
I wonder. Could the body of the Sarnothi man who was caught by those fishermen have ended up on his slab for dissection? It’s just that he seems to know a lot about “what” but not “who” Selkie’s people are.
It’s possible that the venom gets more potent as they get older. He may or may not have done the dissection of the man who was captured and is basing his assumptions on her based on what he knows about an adult male of her species. Perhaps males or adults or more toxic.
It is amazing how people can become so emotionally invested in a comic strip. Yet here we all are hoping for justice to prevail. Poor Selkie, the last of her clan facing the bigotry of a certain academic, the protection of a shadow agency of the government and the love of an adopted father who cares so much for his little girl. What an amazing trip this is. Too bad Selkie isn’t a daily strip. Selkie rocks!
If he knows that it was venomous, then he also knows that it was completely harmless, since he had no open wounds.
“Venom” refers only to toxins that are injected (deriving from the same root word as “vein”).
Now, if the substance had been poisonous, he would’ve been in danger, as poisons are toxic outside the bloodstream. But venom? Nah.
Well, from what I remember it is also irritant, as it gave Tod a nasty rash when Selkie kissed him. That would imply that it is poisonous rather than venomous.
Of course, it could be both venomous and poisonous, but then you’d just say poisonous. And he calls himself a Professor!
*frowns* I can’t help but look at those earlier pages, where Trunchbull is in a red jacket, and then the later images of that nightmare truck… Metaphor/symbolism?
And your response is just rude. Maybe some people are not nearly as fast on the uptake, or maybe they’re just slow with reading the comic. That’s no reason to come off as demeaning as you just did.
It’s killing me waiting for updates as this problem is suddenly coming to a head right now. While I would love to see Trunchbull and company (meaning all 3 immediate family members) get their comeuppance (in a big, bad and fairly nasty way – unemployment, ostracization, manipulation and assault brought to the public’s attention), I’m worried that nothing will come of it until Truck commits his second planned orphan assault.
Tood please please please, end the call and phone agent brown immediately.
Todd, Professor, let’s stop right there. Professor, the fact of the matter is that you already know that you are wrong, you just refuse to admit it. You are using her reaction to you as evidence to argue against them, but let’s look at this objectively:
WHY would she react that way, when you KNOW she couldn’t possibly be going around poisoning people? You KNOW you would have heard. She probably wouldn’t even be allowed in public, let alone a school full of human kids, if she had a habit of spitting venom at people. So WHY did she react that way to YOU. What could POSSIBLY be the reason.
You already know you are at least partly wrong, Mister Trunchbull. You’re just too damn stubborn to admit it.
You have to realize he’s not actually a “reasonable” man. He is what “reasonable men” most often actually are, a terrible sociopath that uses “reason” to bend and break people. He doesn’t care what his son, or what ANYONE actually does, so long as he feels that he is shown the “proper respect” that he feels he deserves. Todd is NOT treating him the way he believes that he should be treated and must therefore have it made very clear to him that he WILL “respect” Mr Trunchbull whether he likes it or not.
The thing is Mr. Trunchbull has made it clear that he knows what is going on, but he doesn’t have any actual proof. He’s shaken Todd but once Todd gets control of his fear he will realize that Mr. Trunchbull doesn’t have a full hand of cards to play against him, he only holds a single ace and depending on the rules that card can either be the highest or lowest in value. If Mr. Trunchbull is part of the conspiracy to keep Selkie’s people a secret then he has become a major liability by defending the actions of his son and this thinly veiled threat. He knows what Selkie is. The only way that matters is if he is willing to reveal that knowledge. That means once Agent Brown finds out all of the details (if he ever does) Mr. Trunchbull will at best get a blatant threat that if he jeopardizes this he and probably his entire family will vanish with little more than the memories of people who hate them that they ever existed at all. Also… this runs the risk of being a major diplomatic incident that would eradicate any leverage or tenure he may have because of his knowledge. Allies from both sides of this will betray him, abandon him, or begin seriously reconsidering their association with him and his value.
If he isn’t part of the conspiracy then revealing the information will make him seem like a nut even if he has evidence. There is a medical condition that causes children to resemble fish when born, they just don’t survive very long. Any photographic evidence can be easily explained away as an incredibly rare survivor of this condition and take care of any unusual medical issues since, in reality, the disease they can use as a cover leads to death in at most months after being born. Todd has a full hand here. The only way Mr. Trunchbull can pull this off is the believable scenario of Todd believing his one card is enough.
No matter what, though, it is definitely time to call Agent Brown. Selkie’s well-being demands it no matter what the consequences for himself or their relationship.
Oh, you saved me the trouble and did it better. Thanks.
Ultimatum from Trunchbull inbound.
I gotta say, I get up at five on Mon/wed/Fri, but sitting here waiting for your comic to update keeps me Awake. Why couldn’t you update of western time, so
I could go to bed 2 hours earlier :P. Ah, the troubles of central time.
I’ve been on a college faculty, and I know what huge egos some of those jerks have. I know this is just a cartoon, a made-up story, but Trunchbull makes me angry all the same.
I detect he’ll be getting a visit from a certain agent in the near future even if Todd doesn’t call him.(I can’t be the only one who thinks that his phones been tapped “just in case” by the government already.)
Oh, yeah. Didn’t think of that before, but that makes perfect sense.
Get ’em, Agent Brown. You want to get on Todd’s good side, you help him take this jerk down a peg or two.
I’m pretty sure he believes himself to be so important, knowing this. Good for you, pr Trunchbull, I hope you’re now ready for an a**load of problems.
Time to call Agent Brown. Immediately. This man knows too much and Brown needs to know about it. He also needs to be taken down a peg, preferably with a hammer.
Trunchbull is an ass but I can think he is being honest, I can understand believing his kid, especially if everyone is too afraid to argue. Todd is complaining to the wrong person, he should be lawyering up and going after the school.
I agree! This man wasn’t given the same story as Todd was. The principal wasn’t man enough to do so. The guy believes his kid likeany parent would and he saw an angry, dangerous girl to boot that reinforced his belief in his own child. To him, perhaps SELKIE seems like the bully. This man is an ass who is full of himself, yes, but he seems to be being honest here in believing his son due to a combination of things. He is in no way wrong for it. Misguided, yes, but not wrong.
I bet if Todd went to a lawyer and got the school to REALLY tell what happened that day, Prof. Trumchbull would begrudgingly see the error of his ways and (half-heartedly) apologize. He’d still be a jerk, but he seems smart enough to listen to reason when presente with facts he can see.
To further this point – Trunchbull hasn’t outright said at any point that Todd is wrong, merely that Todd’s account isn’t matching up with the story Trunchbull heard. He didn’t say there were no witnesses, he said he didn’t talk to any.
I’ve known people who could knowingly lie safely by doing this: They would state the “letter” of the truth while breaking the “spirit” of it.
I don’t think that’s the case, just look up the conversation in the below comic. Seems like he’d very much have a problem with Truck attacking Selkie, he just doesn’t believe he would do such a thing.
https://selkiecomic.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/2013-06-28-Selkie338.png
You know, when I first read that line in the last panel I read *between* the line too. I thought ‘this is a guy who knows his son COULD attack someone.’
And note how, in the next page after Todd says it was his little girl who was attacked, the Prof changes his stance; https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie339/ and starts provoking Selkie to attack him so he’ll have some leverage for later.
To me it read like he is a sexist biggot. Though the fact that after he insults Selkie she tries to attack him would just prove that she’s the likely aggressor from his point of view.
But remember, he has knowledge of Selkie: He knew what she is and how she might react – he set up her up to attack.
Also remember that Dave gave the Prof the name “Trunchbull” for a reason. He wants us to see this character through the filter of that other Trunchbull.
I didn’t read sexism I read basic biology. Put aside all the political correctness and a little girl around Selkie’s age is physically weaker than a boy Truck’s age. It isn’t sexist to recognize and acknowledge basic biological differences.
The thing is, he didn’t make any attempt to find out the truth. He walked into the office having decided what ‘really’ happened and screamed at the principal until he got his way.
I can understand the impulse not to judge the character because what he ‘knows’ is not the same as what we know. But you have to understand that abusers and other evil people often behave in very specific ways calculated to make rationalizing those behaviors easy. “He just had a bad day”, “He thought I was flirting with that guy”, etc. The truth is, Prof. Trunchbull’s general attitude and behaviors, ‘I get my way OR ELSE’, are VERY in-line with what you would expect from an abuser. He doesn’t want the truth, he wants his way. And it doesn’t matter if the person not giving him his way is his son or the principle or Todd, whoever he deems as being in his way or an annoyance, in an abuser’s mind, NEEDS to suffer until they fall in line.
I agree with Mikael and many others above. So far there have been a lot of “shades of grey” characters in this comic. Just because Trunchbull comes off as personally offensive doesn’t mean he’s evil.
At this point I do not think that Trunchbull’s part of some anti-Sarnothi conspiracy or complicit in the abuse and oppression of her people. It wouldn’t be possible to keep the existence of the Sarnothi a secret, as we’ve already seen. Trunchbull is a professional and an academic so it’s frankly really likely that he’d come across information on them that would not be available to the general public.
Evil? Maybe not. Depends on how you define evil. But that doesn’t mean he’s not a bully and an abuser. Chug makes a valid point: He went into the office with his mind already made up. He (and his wife) yelled until he got his way. There may be a reason he’s what he is. Probably there is. Usually there is. We may even find out what that reason is. But reasons are not excuses.
“Few people see themselves as truelly evil. It is for their victims to decide.”
*Internal screaming forever* I can’t breathe. Monday can’t come soon enough I CAN’T DEAL
God what an idiot. Here’s hoping the SOB gets blacklisted by Agent Brown.
You say “listed”, I say “bagged”…
HSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! MREOWR! FFT! FFT! HSSSS!
ditto!
And we know what you are, Mister Trunchbull.
Sigh. Once again a story where the bullies get to win. Just once I’d like to see them get their comeuppance.
Yeah, it’s not realistic to have the little guy win one occasionally, but if I wanted realism, I wouldn’t be reading a story about a cute little fishgirl.
But the bullies haven’t won yet. This is the part of the story where it looks like the bad guys have won and everything is about to fall apart before it pulls together.
Frankly, I would start giving him enough rope to hang himself. If you get an ultimatum that you do anything or Trunchy will reveal your daughter’s identity to the world, the feds can move in on him. The masquerade is a valuable weapon people.
Todd to the good doctor: If you know what she is then you understand the importance of keeping her warm. Your son picked her up, pinned her to a wall and shook her till every heating pack she had fell out. He contenued to alternate between taunts and shakes untill she was in such poor shape she had to be taken to a hospital. She did not do anything to deserve this treatment. She has been now punished for freeing herself from someone who was essentially attempting to kill her. This was witnessed by the faculty. This was done by YOUR son. You then proceeded to insult her in the hallway by calling her a weak little girl.
::phone slams down::
Hello, Agent Brown!
Bad move Trunchbull. By letting Todd know that he knows what Selkie is the Professor has in fact released Todd from the constraint of protecting Selkie’s secret – Todd doesn’t have to pull any punches now.
Mister Trunchbull, if that’s not the story you received, you need to update your story.
And this may surprise you, but I’m going to believe the educational professionals who actually witnessed the event in question over the hysterical father of the monster who hospitalized my child.
Also, you’re now accusing her of something you think she tried to do. Meanwhile, I’m accusing your son of something that happened, and for which there are hospital records.
Best reply so far! (IMHO)
Please please please pleeeeeeease give us the satisfaction of Trunchbull being hoist upon his own petard…from a former bullied kid, I beg you pleeeeeease…
Seconded.
Count me in.
*pulls up in large VW van plastered with stickers screeching for social reforms* Get in, guys! We’re on a trip to Comeuppance Island, and we need to pick up a passenger on the way!
Even if Trunchbull knows that Selkie’s venomous, there’s little evidence that Selkie herself knows that she is, seeing as how she only really learned with the kissing incidents (and that one time Todd’s cat bit her). It’s possible that she was acting on instinct/too delirious to keep herself from salivating.
For the love of all that is fishy Todd, hoist this douche with his own petard and CALL AGENT BROWN. (Of course, Todd himself will never read this and I doubt a ton of begging in the comments will sway Dave’s vision of the story away from what it’s meant to be, but…)
I’m not exactly sure what Todd wants – a lame-o apology would be the BEST one could hope for from people like the Trunchbulls (and honestly it isn’t worth it) so why is he making such a huge fuss over this?
Yes, your daughter was injured, that’s what lawyers are for. Forget calling and bitching, I’ll get my apology in court in cash!
If he knows that much about her, then he knows about the temperature crash issue.
Has it been established *how* Trunchbull knows about “what Selkie is” because he’s not once referenced Sarnothi in his comments. The way he talks about her is much the way we’d discuss a dangerous animal.
I wonder. Could the body of the Sarnothi man who was caught by those fishermen have ended up on his slab for dissection? It’s just that he seems to know a lot about “what” but not “who” Selkie’s people are.
It’s only MILDLY Venomous… No worth worrying about, really!
It’s possible that the venom gets more potent as they get older. He may or may not have done the dissection of the man who was captured and is basing his assumptions on her based on what he knows about an adult male of her species. Perhaps males or adults or more toxic.
It is amazing how people can become so emotionally invested in a comic strip. Yet here we all are hoping for justice to prevail. Poor Selkie, the last of her clan facing the bigotry of a certain academic, the protection of a shadow agency of the government and the love of an adopted father who cares so much for his little girl. What an amazing trip this is. Too bad Selkie isn’t a daily strip. Selkie rocks!
If he knows that it was venomous, then he also knows that it was completely harmless, since he had no open wounds.
“Venom” refers only to toxins that are injected (deriving from the same root word as “vein”).
Now, if the substance had been poisonous, he would’ve been in danger, as poisons are toxic outside the bloodstream. But venom? Nah.
Well, from what I remember it is also irritant, as it gave Tod a nasty rash when Selkie kissed him. That would imply that it is poisonous rather than venomous.
Of course, it could be both venomous and poisonous, but then you’d just say poisonous. And he calls himself a Professor!
“There is no justice, in or out of court.” Attributed to Clarence Darrow.
Watch now as Todd holds the idiot ball and panics instead of calling on the person whose job it is to make sure none of this happens!
*frowns* I can’t help but look at those earlier pages, where Trunchbull is in a red jacket, and then the later images of that nightmare truck… Metaphor/symbolism?
… You’re just now noticing this?
Sorry, but a lot of people, including myself, have noticed the Truck/truck correspondence and noted it in the comments earlier.
And your response is just rude. Maybe some people are not nearly as fast on the uptake, or maybe they’re just slow with reading the comic. That’s no reason to come off as demeaning as you just did.
It’s killing me waiting for updates as this problem is suddenly coming to a head right now. While I would love to see Trunchbull and company (meaning all 3 immediate family members) get their comeuppance (in a big, bad and fairly nasty way – unemployment, ostracization, manipulation and assault brought to the public’s attention), I’m worried that nothing will come of it until Truck commits his second planned orphan assault.
Apropos…
http://www.fox4now.com/features/4inyourcorner/Student-suspended-for-breaking-up-a-fight-says-he-would-do-it-again-244578101.html
Good for him.