The anger. The righteous, cleansing anger of a child who has been harmed. Remember how Todd recalled himself as a child after his first meeting Selkie. He was one angry, hurt little boy.
I have hopes. Keisha’s smiling, so I’m hoping it will go well that her other friend is getting adopted. But Keisha’s already had the “hating your friends for getting adopted is stupid” talk. But love the mother+daughter interactions. You can tell their related from the massive amount of snark they both have. I just hope it’ll be okay. Having to deal with someone similar to you can make you frustrated.
Look at Amanda, trying to be all tough for Andi. ^^ “There’s nothing wrong with me, I’m great, I’m perfect, TAKE ME HOME WITH YOUUU~!” It’s sweet and a little sad, too. There’s a lot of fear underneath the snark and the anger…
Yep, she’s usually going for “super cute” rather than “super tough”, those two don’t align. She dropped the act and is being her usual self. Which /I/ think is cute. I guess she already knows Andi’s there for her which makes the act unnecessary, and brings out the sharp needles. Go little hedgehog!
There’s been some speculation about how Todd will react when he finds out. I don’t know if this is likely, but nobody seems to have considered it yet:
Todd’s entire extended family is based on adoption — when he says “Mom”, he’s referring to the woman who raised him, not the one who gave birth to him. Genetic contribution is simply NOT IMPORTANT to him. It’s true that as a teen he was excited about the idea of being a father, but he might have been equally excited by it if the woman he loved had been fertilized by someone else.
So how’s he going to react? “She has some of my genes, but she’s not my daughter. Selkie’s my daughter. I’m happy for you two, but I’ve moved on.”
No, I can’t see Todd rejecting Amanda like that. What, he’s going to think because he’s already got a daughter, Amanda’s just surplus? He’s a responsible adult, and a pretty good father. A father can love more than one child. He’ll want to be in her life.
It’s not Todd I’m wondering about, it’s Selkie. This kinda makes Amanda her half-sister by adoption… sorta. It’s a complicated situation for adults, imagine how mind-boggling and scary it has to be for a couple of eight-year-olds.
Oooo, and for Amanda there may be the “my dad looked right at me and then chose fish-face”
Agreed. Todd seems to me like the kind of person who’d go with “I have about 4 moms total and 12 siblings, 2 of whom I’m actually genetically related to. Don’t ask.” Summing every relationship into one big family that’s probably going to be really big.
(I’m still hoping for Amanda to show her teeth on the “adopt Keisha too” clause)
I also agree. In fact, I foresee a big emotional scene where Todd blames Andi for all the bad that befell Amanda a “If you didn’t want her I STILL DID and NONE OF THAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED TO HER IF YOU HADN’T LIED TO ME” moment with Andi breaking down and yelling something like “I know!” followed by lots of tears.
I also see Selkie needing lots of reassurance that she isn’t going to be dumped/replaced by Amanda. I think the biggest help there is going to be Grandma. If she can talk Selkie round to accepting Amanda as a sister with a talk about how Todd or one of his siblings felt when the last was adopted I think that would really help.
The option that i can see actually happening/WANT to see is: Todd accepts Amanda as Biodaughter, offers non-mandated child support(money if such is tight or advice for Andi, who kinda jumped in with both feet). This route offers a lot of dramatic moments. Andi and Todd finally having it out over the lie of Amanda Marie’s death. Selkie and Amanda being told. Selkie perhaps being scared that Biodaughter Amanda is going to get her put back…. which leads to Amanda either being exceptionally cruel, or realizing that she’s now the sibling who “cut off the princess’ legs” and dropping her enmity towards her bio-father’s adopted daughter a bit. Or an exchange to the effect of “MY REAL DAD PICKED THE FISH OVER ME!?” “At leasts your moms came backs for yous….” Todd just shoving Andi and Amanda out because he has an adopted daughter now, especially one that i’m SURE he’s heard is troubled from Selkie by now…. it doesn’t seem in his character. Angry at the possible percieved use of a child to try and crowbar back into his heart, though? that might be possible.
I’m gonna hedge my bets, and say: ALL of the above!….
Amanda will brag about it at school, or Selkie’s friend Georgie will bring the subject up to Selkie’s attention, with Selkie probably snarking a bit about how the mom doesn’t have a clue as to who she REALLY adopted (a Troublemaker that is, not ol’ “Miss Cute n’ Innocent” that she wants prospective parents to think she is) they’ll get into a fight, and of course BOTH parents will be called in… HILARIOUS Fireworks ensue as 1)Todd finds out that Andi adopted, but hasn’t told him yet (maybe?) 2) and she adopted her BIOLOGICAL daughter… one that supposedly DIED 8 years ago!; and consequently: 3) He flips out over the lie being revealed. which leads to: 4)Amanda AND Selkie finding out that TODD is her BIO-DAD!!! AND 5)Amanda remembers that he passed her up to in order to adopt “Fish-Face” Selkie instead of HER! 6)Selkie is gonna worry about getting sent back to the orphanage because the “real” mom and dad have adopted Amanda and that she’s extraneous now… 7)and also hoping that HER Bio-Mom will come and take her away from that fate…
I do hope that Amanda chills out a bit more once she realizes that she and Selkie have the same sort of relationship as the other adoptee parents and their two kids, that were the root cause behind her show n’ tell story… only that now, their relative positions (no pun intended) have been reversed, with Selkie acting out the Princess part, and SHE’s playing the part of the two Prince’s (in which she is ALREADY quite good at the bullying, and blame-shifting portions of the story!)…
i do see that Todd’s Mom and Dad will play a crucial role in keeping things …um, I’m not sure of a word that’s appropriate here… Civil? peaceful?, tolerant?… whatever… between all four of them. i agree that Todd will want to stay in Amanda’s life now that he knows about her, and that while it will put a HUGE strain on Andi and his relationship because of the lie, i think that HIS upbringing as an adoptee in a family of 5 will work in his favor, and that that background will sooth over the REALLY rough times ahead, for all four of them, and also unsurprising, in that 8)he will REALLY begin to hate Andi’s mom in turn, now that he finds out that SHE was the one behind the lie in the first place…
sorry for the wall o’ text, but it was needed for MY sanity, for me to get this out there… hopefully it makes sense and i don’t lose too many Moxana Points for any wrong guesses…
I’m banking on Todd making sure he gets to be part of Amanda’s life. Why? Because it will make for lots and lots of cool story material. That’s right, I went straight for the RL reason…
That little “You’re real!?!” just kills me. Amanda was SO fast to pass it off as a dream, and this makes me think that Amanda has had that dream before; someone comes to the orphanage, someone who is real ‘family’ somehow, and just when she’s happiest… she wakes up. So when she comes to in bed, she’s thinking oh, I did it again… except there’s her mother, actually sitting there waiting for her to come around, and it’s just so hard for her to accept that she’s awake this time, it’s all real now. It may be a lot to draw from just two words, but that’s really the impression that I get.
Hmmm… It’s like they are made for each other. 🙂
Indeed its clear which side of the gene pool she gets her snark from. Which then begs the question of what did she get from todd…
Fertilized.
Thanks Ian, I am now cleaning my drink off my computer screen.
Besides the rounder face and blue eyes, that is.
The anger. The righteous, cleansing anger of a child who has been harmed. Remember how Todd recalled himself as a child after his first meeting Selkie. He was one angry, hurt little boy.
Sounds a little like how my mom and I interact. Lots of love, lot’s of snark.
please let “fall in the hallway” nap be a thing that amanda will never be able to live down XD
On first glance, I thought Amanda’s feet at the end of the bed in panel 5 were actually her eyes bulging out at seeing Andi. I giggled. XD
I didn’t notice it until you mentioned it, so went back and looked.
Yep, made me giggle too. Or maybe I chuckled. Do crotchety old men giggle? 🙂
No. I’m afraid you’re going to have to hand in your COM (crotchety old man) license.
How about if I snorted, and coffee came out my nose?
If you’re willing to that for a license, I’d say you earn it.
I have hopes. Keisha’s smiling, so I’m hoping it will go well that her other friend is getting adopted. But Keisha’s already had the “hating your friends for getting adopted is stupid” talk. But love the mother+daughter interactions. You can tell their related from the massive amount of snark they both have. I just hope it’ll be okay. Having to deal with someone similar to you can make you frustrated.
Several people beat me to it, but yeah, it’s obvious Amanda gets her smart-alec nature from Andi.
Amanda: It was a “power nap” I tell you, a power nap.
ah, there she goes right back to snark-defense mode. poor kid is afraid to show her feelings.
Look at Amanda, trying to be all tough for Andi. ^^ “There’s nothing wrong with me, I’m great, I’m perfect, TAKE ME HOME WITH YOUUU~!” It’s sweet and a little sad, too. There’s a lot of fear underneath the snark and the anger…
I think right here Amanda’s trying to be all tough for Amanda. She’s got pride.
Yep, she’s usually going for “super cute” rather than “super tough”, those two don’t align. She dropped the act and is being her usual self. Which /I/ think is cute. I guess she already knows Andi’s there for her which makes the act unnecessary, and brings out the sharp needles. Go little hedgehog!
I find this mental image adorable and fitting.
*deep sigh of relief*
There’s been some speculation about how Todd will react when he finds out. I don’t know if this is likely, but nobody seems to have considered it yet:
Todd’s entire extended family is based on adoption — when he says “Mom”, he’s referring to the woman who raised him, not the one who gave birth to him. Genetic contribution is simply NOT IMPORTANT to him. It’s true that as a teen he was excited about the idea of being a father, but he might have been equally excited by it if the woman he loved had been fertilized by someone else.
So how’s he going to react? “She has some of my genes, but she’s not my daughter. Selkie’s my daughter. I’m happy for you two, but I’ve moved on.”
No, I can’t see Todd rejecting Amanda like that. What, he’s going to think because he’s already got a daughter, Amanda’s just surplus? He’s a responsible adult, and a pretty good father. A father can love more than one child. He’ll want to be in her life.
It’s not Todd I’m wondering about, it’s Selkie. This kinda makes Amanda her half-sister by adoption… sorta. It’s a complicated situation for adults, imagine how mind-boggling and scary it has to be for a couple of eight-year-olds.
Oooo, and for Amanda there may be the “my dad looked right at me and then chose fish-face”
Todd will never reject Amanda. However, the lie that Andi told him at Amanda’s birth will be a yet another strike against Andi.
Agreed. Todd seems to me like the kind of person who’d go with “I have about 4 moms total and 12 siblings, 2 of whom I’m actually genetically related to. Don’t ask.” Summing every relationship into one big family that’s probably going to be really big.
(I’m still hoping for Amanda to show her teeth on the “adopt Keisha too” clause)
I also agree. In fact, I foresee a big emotional scene where Todd blames Andi for all the bad that befell Amanda a “If you didn’t want her I STILL DID and NONE OF THAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED TO HER IF YOU HADN’T LIED TO ME” moment with Andi breaking down and yelling something like “I know!” followed by lots of tears.
I also see Selkie needing lots of reassurance that she isn’t going to be dumped/replaced by Amanda. I think the biggest help there is going to be Grandma. If she can talk Selkie round to accepting Amanda as a sister with a talk about how Todd or one of his siblings felt when the last was adopted I think that would really help.
The option that i can see actually happening/WANT to see is: Todd accepts Amanda as Biodaughter, offers non-mandated child support(money if such is tight or advice for Andi, who kinda jumped in with both feet). This route offers a lot of dramatic moments. Andi and Todd finally having it out over the lie of Amanda Marie’s death. Selkie and Amanda being told. Selkie perhaps being scared that Biodaughter Amanda is going to get her put back…. which leads to Amanda either being exceptionally cruel, or realizing that she’s now the sibling who “cut off the princess’ legs” and dropping her enmity towards her bio-father’s adopted daughter a bit. Or an exchange to the effect of “MY REAL DAD PICKED THE FISH OVER ME!?” “At leasts your moms came backs for yous….” Todd just shoving Andi and Amanda out because he has an adopted daughter now, especially one that i’m SURE he’s heard is troubled from Selkie by now…. it doesn’t seem in his character. Angry at the possible percieved use of a child to try and crowbar back into his heart, though? that might be possible.
I’m gonna shut up now, I’m rambling.
In Selkie’s case, having her biological mother reclaim her may not be possible because she may no longer be alive.
She doesn’t know that, though. Selkie thinks she’s still out there somewhere.
She’s alive as of strip #122; no reason to suppose that she’d died since then.
um… strip 122 was where Marta shows Antoine her engagement ring… are you sure you go the right strip number?
https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie122/
Look closely in panel 8.
I’m gonna hedge my bets, and say: ALL of the above!….
Amanda will brag about it at school, or Selkie’s friend Georgie will bring the subject up to Selkie’s attention, with Selkie probably snarking a bit about how the mom doesn’t have a clue as to who she REALLY adopted (a Troublemaker that is, not ol’ “Miss Cute n’ Innocent” that she wants prospective parents to think she is) they’ll get into a fight, and of course BOTH parents will be called in… HILARIOUS Fireworks ensue as 1)Todd finds out that Andi adopted, but hasn’t told him yet (maybe?) 2) and she adopted her BIOLOGICAL daughter… one that supposedly DIED 8 years ago!; and consequently: 3) He flips out over the lie being revealed. which leads to: 4)Amanda AND Selkie finding out that TODD is her BIO-DAD!!! AND 5)Amanda remembers that he passed her up to in order to adopt “Fish-Face” Selkie instead of HER! 6)Selkie is gonna worry about getting sent back to the orphanage because the “real” mom and dad have adopted Amanda and that she’s extraneous now… 7)and also hoping that HER Bio-Mom will come and take her away from that fate…
I do hope that Amanda chills out a bit more once she realizes that she and Selkie have the same sort of relationship as the other adoptee parents and their two kids, that were the root cause behind her show n’ tell story… only that now, their relative positions (no pun intended) have been reversed, with Selkie acting out the Princess part, and SHE’s playing the part of the two Prince’s (in which she is ALREADY quite good at the bullying, and blame-shifting portions of the story!)…
i do see that Todd’s Mom and Dad will play a crucial role in keeping things …um, I’m not sure of a word that’s appropriate here… Civil? peaceful?, tolerant?… whatever… between all four of them. i agree that Todd will want to stay in Amanda’s life now that he knows about her, and that while it will put a HUGE strain on Andi and his relationship because of the lie, i think that HIS upbringing as an adoptee in a family of 5 will work in his favor, and that that background will sooth over the REALLY rough times ahead, for all four of them, and also unsurprising, in that 8)he will REALLY begin to hate Andi’s mom in turn, now that he finds out that SHE was the one behind the lie in the first place…
sorry for the wall o’ text, but it was needed for MY sanity, for me to get this out there… hopefully it makes sense and i don’t lose too many Moxana Points for any wrong guesses…
I’m banking on Todd making sure he gets to be part of Amanda’s life. Why? Because it will make for lots and lots of cool story material. That’s right, I went straight for the RL reason…
That little “You’re real!?!” just kills me. Amanda was SO fast to pass it off as a dream, and this makes me think that Amanda has had that dream before; someone comes to the orphanage, someone who is real ‘family’ somehow, and just when she’s happiest… she wakes up. So when she comes to in bed, she’s thinking oh, I did it again… except there’s her mother, actually sitting there waiting for her to come around, and it’s just so hard for her to accept that she’s awake this time, it’s all real now. It may be a lot to draw from just two words, but that’s really the impression that I get.
Now all she needs is that pony she was dreaming about earlier!
Excellent time for a nap.
Aww Keisha laying over her bunck is just too cute. I’m glad she isn’t too upset but I wonder if that is because of their promise.