Why would finding out that his high school girlfriend lied to him about their baby dying put Mina off Todd? So he has a kid he didn’t know about. She already knew he had Selkie, so him just having a kid wouldn’t bother her. It’s not even like he lied about it, because he didn’t know himself.
It’s not that. It’s the fact that he got his high school girlfriend pregnant and had a out of wedlock child. But that won’t be the primary reason but it may be the one that seals the deal. Mina has been warned by the owner of the restaurant to watch herself combined with the fact that Todd planted a kiss on her lips which you should never do to a Muslim woman unless you happen to be married or at least betrothed to her. Add to that the comments made by one of the other student’s parent and the future between them, baring them throwing caution an good sense to the wind, looks dim.
Why would him being Amanda’s father even come up in conversation? I doubt Todd would bring it up on his own, and there’s no way Mina could start that conversation.
This, and also that the situation calls for a huge amount of preparation and sensitivity. Not really something you’d just discuss over dinner, especially with so much tension still between the kids.
It’s pretty over the top, isn’t it? Andi is not TRASH, she is a human being who made a mistake. A huge mistake, but surely anyone with a shed of empathy could see that the lie she told was of the kind that is increasingly difficult to admit to every day she lets it be. It would have been so much easier to avoid the fight and hurt by just not talking about it.
Todd is completely justified in being angry at Andi and wanting her out of his life, but if he wants Amanda IN his life, then he’s going to have to compromise on that last one.
Imagine that YOU had a mother who was weak, cowardly, dominated utterly by her own mother, and that YOU, the child, suffered greatly for all those things.
You’d see the shadow of your own parent in Andi and hate her just as much as we do. Yes, you would.
Lots of divorced parents act that way, yes. Lots of divorced parents do not. It remains to be seen whether these two act like the former or the latter.
She’s also the mother of his other daughter, if he wants any kind of relationship with Amanda he can’t cut off Andi, sucks but that’s how life is sometime.
It’s like watching a slow-motion car crash… It moves horrifyingly slowly and I know how it’s gonna end and I’m not going to like the looks of it, yet I can’t for the life of me avert my eyes.
Also, I’m relieved to see Todd does, indeed, remember previous encounters with Amanda (namely the “grounds the craps out of hers!” moment and surrounding talks with Selkie about Amanda), because I was starting to wonder if maybe he really was going into this without knowing about all the antagonism between these two.
Angler fish are epic-ly creepy on multiple levels. That’s why we love them. I wonder if Sarnothi ever use the glowy-magic-stuff to lure in fish the way that Angler females do with their bio-luminescent antenna. I mean, if Selkie is typical, then they won’t want to miss out on the thrill of the hunt, but it might be less enjoyable if you get a chance to do it more than a few times per summer.
Selkie’s final line is great because it’s ambiguous if she’s threatening to gore Todd for inviting Amanda into their home or Amanda for insulting their home.
I had the same scene in my head, almost. The girls fighting and Todd saying, “Amanda, Selkie, stop it”, and Amanda saying, “I don’t have to listen to you. You’re ot my father”, and Andi saying, “Weeeeeellllllll, actually…”
Andi’s hair has been getting more and more vertical. We’re rapidly approaching perfectly straight-up. After that I predict it will start pointing toward the front of her head.
Who doesn’t love looking at anglerfish on an empty stomach?
Well, IMAO, better on an empty stomach, than on a full stomach.
Cliff Side Park sounds too dangerous for children to be rivals at, and Lake Side Park would give Selkie too much of an advantage in a fight with Amanda. I think Todds’s house is the best idea, other than in the woods at dawn, at 20 paces. Yeah, Todd’s house.
Todd’s off-the-cuff reveal to Andi that Selkie and Amanda hate each other is a far better approach than any angry reaction/outburst. It’s not targeted at Andi beyond being information she ought to know before visiting. Still, it feels like a sort-of attack in that Andi has to now deal with the fact that these two DO NOT get along, so finding out they’re sisters will be quite the…event.
That was an awesome line. And it’s, like, the icing on the noxious cake of Revealed Lies, that their respective (and shared…) kids hate each other.
On the other hand, even if Andi’s dream of Making It All Better is never going to work (never was gonna work, honestly)… Let’s hope a form of better can be established.
I think Todd’s natural niceness is winning over his passionate pissed-offedness. Being mad-as-hell at Andi is not going to help any during the Great Reveal. “It happened. It was wrong, but it happened. It’s in the past. Get over it and go on with life.” That’s what I see in his face and his attitude, now.
Indeed. Nice to see Todd taking the high road here. While it’s true he’s allowed All The Angry under the circumstances, it won’t help the girls one bit when stuff is explained. Just goes to show that he’s a good dad.
“Oh, by the way, Andi, they hate each other, and I figure I’d better tell you this since you’re clearly OBLIVIOUS to everything that happens around you that doesn’t directly concern you and only you.”
Welcome to parenthood, Andi. Enjoy it for the short time you have it, before you decide that it’s “too hard”, dump Amanda on Todd, and run away back to your own mommy.
Okay… that’s a lot of talking and explaining coming soon…
I would bet the two girls aren’t going to take it pretty well, that they’re sisters.
Is anyone else afraid, that Amanda will try to make Todd giving Selkie back to the orphanage? (She actually knows it’s possible and she thought earlier that Selkie did “steal” a Daddy. She could try it, considering she believes Selkie stole her real Dad)
hmm… do we “really” know that Amanda knows it’s possible?
personally, i am assuming that the Sandersons adopted her as a baby, right out of the orphanage, probably very quickly, and raised her as their own… with her POSSIBLY NOT even knowing that she was adopted AT ALL… that is, right up until they had the two boys naturally (i guess) that’s when things started to go downhill for Amanda… to me it looks like the “Princes” in her story were younger than her and that the parents spoiled them rotten, possibly it’s at this point in time that they probably told her she was adopted. otherwise how would she know about the difference between her and the REAL kids (the Princes) in her story?… but… what does that actually MEAN to a 5 year old kid who (IF… I’m correct in my theory) has ZERO recollection of anyone OTHER than the Sandersons AS HER PARENTS… therefore it kinda passed her right by emotionally, all she REALLY has to go on is that HER PARENTS DUMPED HER!!! (in favor of the brats) it was only after she was there at the orphanage for a while that she learned the truth (as WE currently know it) in that she was let out for adoption as a baby, got the Sandersons real early, Dumped at the orphanage, and then she got RE-adopted by her REAL MOM…
sorry if I’m not clear in trying to explain my theory
I have no idea about the Sandersons, but I was adopted when I was a baby and my folks didn’t hide it, so I knew at 5 (and even 3) what being adopted was and that my parents weren’t my bio-parents. When in pre-school and younger, kids ask questions like “Tell me about the day I was born” – or in my case “the day I came home from the hospital” Which is also how I knew the Sandersons spent a HUGE amount of $$ to adopt an infant – There’s usually a 3 or 4 year waiting list for infants if through the state; or if it was private then Andi (or her mother since she was a minor) would have gotten a chunk of money. It also might be why her mother won’t acknowledge Amanda – Andi’s mother may have signed things that she would have to give $$ back to the Sandersons if she ever attempted to find or claim her.
I’d be really surprised if she did—and I kind of hope it doesn’t take that route. Amanda has shown she’s capable of way more empathy (and intelligence) than that. I think they will both be PO’d together and that will be the start of their sibling bonding—though the seed has always been there as they’ve lived like sisters together for years. 🙂
It’s Dave’s story, not yours. But I wouldn’t worry. Given where the characters are now, and what we know about them, I don’t foresee any romance in their futures. That’s dead. There will instead be a lot of necessary cooperation between them, for the sake of two eight year old girls.
A long, long time from now? Like, at the end of the storyline, after many, many ups and downs and major learning experiences for both of them? Well, who knows. Can’t predict that far in the future. I agree with you that Andi would have go through a whole lot of character development for that to be a satisfying outcome. At the moment I am rooting for Todd to end up with Mina.
Right now? Kiss and make up right now? Nah. It would be cheap and unbelievable, and Dave’s a better storyteller than that. So I am confident it’s not in the cards.
I think Todd might have been better off not knowing. Amanda’s issues… If there’s any chance of her growing up to be a functional and emotionally healthy adult, which I seriously doubt, it sure as hell doesn’t lie with Andi. And there’s no way she could live under the same roof as Selkie; that would end in someone getting stabbed.
So we have Sunday to think of how handle the Sister Reveal. Good luck, Todd and Andi.
And, Todd? Scheduling this meetup for right after your talk with Mina miiiight not be the best idea…
Actually I think Mina is going to break it off with him. Finding out he is Amanda’s father probably won’t score many points with her either.
Why would finding out that his high school girlfriend lied to him about their baby dying put Mina off Todd? So he has a kid he didn’t know about. She already knew he had Selkie, so him just having a kid wouldn’t bother her. It’s not even like he lied about it, because he didn’t know himself.
It’s not that. It’s the fact that he got his high school girlfriend pregnant and had a out of wedlock child. But that won’t be the primary reason but it may be the one that seals the deal. Mina has been warned by the owner of the restaurant to watch herself combined with the fact that Todd planted a kiss on her lips which you should never do to a Muslim woman unless you happen to be married or at least betrothed to her. Add to that the comments made by one of the other student’s parent and the future between them, baring them throwing caution an good sense to the wind, looks dim.
I was thinking more how the afternoon is going to affect Todd’s mood come the meetup with Andi and Amanda in the evening.
Why would him being Amanda’s father even come up in conversation? I doubt Todd would bring it up on his own, and there’s no way Mina could start that conversation.
Todd,no. No. Andi is trash. You shouldn’t have her in your home. She doesn’t actually care about you.
I think it is more the fact that this is something that needs to be revealed, and a public forum is a poor choice. Glad he backtracked that plan.
This, and also that the situation calls for a huge amount of preparation and sensitivity. Not really something you’d just discuss over dinner, especially with so much tension still between the kids.
I will never ceased to be amazed by the sheer virulence of the hatred directed at Andi. Never.
It’s pretty over the top, isn’t it? Andi is not TRASH, she is a human being who made a mistake. A huge mistake, but surely anyone with a shed of empathy could see that the lie she told was of the kind that is increasingly difficult to admit to every day she lets it be. It would have been so much easier to avoid the fight and hurt by just not talking about it.
Todd is completely justified in being angry at Andi and wanting her out of his life, but if he wants Amanda IN his life, then he’s going to have to compromise on that last one.
Imagine that YOU had a mother who was weak, cowardly, dominated utterly by her own mother, and that YOU, the child, suffered greatly for all those things.
You’d see the shadow of your own parent in Andi and hate her just as much as we do. Yes, you would.
Anna, I have a dad who is weak, cowardly, dominated by his mother, and I have suffered GREATLY for those things.
I hate him, but so far I DO NOT hate Andi.
So, no, I would and DON’T hate her as much as you do.
Ahem . . . *would not
You would. Some of us have the capacity for forgiveness.
I think Todd said it best, the Andi he “thought” he knew would never have done what the real Andi did.
In short, he has discovered he shouldn’t have been with her in the first place.
It’s not about Andi. It’s about Amanda. They can be civil for the sake of the child without actually caring about each other.
Lots of divorced parents act that way, yes. Lots of divorced parents do not. It remains to be seen whether these two act like the former or the latter.
She’s also the mother of his other daughter, if he wants any kind of relationship with Amanda he can’t cut off Andi, sucks but that’s how life is sometime.
It’s like watching a slow-motion car crash… It moves horrifyingly slowly and I know how it’s gonna end and I’m not going to like the looks of it, yet I can’t for the life of me avert my eyes.
I’m tempted to make “slow-motion car crash” the title of the book that contains this arc, when I eventually get to this one.
Do it! Or “slow-motion train wreck”.
Also, I’m relieved to see Todd does, indeed, remember previous encounters with Amanda (namely the “grounds the craps out of hers!” moment and surrounding talks with Selkie about Amanda), because I was starting to wonder if maybe he really was going into this without knowing about all the antagonism between these two.
Angler fish are epic-ly creepy on multiple levels. That’s why we love them. I wonder if Sarnothi ever use the glowy-magic-stuff to lure in fish the way that Angler females do with their bio-luminescent antenna. I mean, if Selkie is typical, then they won’t want to miss out on the thrill of the hunt, but it might be less enjoyable if you get a chance to do it more than a few times per summer.
Dave, Panel 4 Selkie reminds me of the blue screen of death.
Selkie’s final line is great because it’s ambiguous if she’s threatening to gore Todd for inviting Amanda into their home or Amanda for insulting their home.
Prediction:
Todd: Amanda-Marie, you going to calm down and listen.
Amanda: You can’t tell me what to do! Your not my dad!
Todd: Actually…
I had the same scene in my head, almost. The girls fighting and Todd saying, “Amanda, Selkie, stop it”, and Amanda saying, “I don’t have to listen to you. You’re ot my father”, and Andi saying, “Weeeeeellllllll, actually…”
well at least they’re acting like sisters already
Ah, good ol’ Miyazaki hair.
Andi’s hair has been getting more and more vertical. We’re rapidly approaching perfectly straight-up. After that I predict it will start pointing toward the front of her head.
And then they’ll become “pigtails on the fronts of hers faces” like Andi’s, as Selkie put it. :3
Who doesn’t love looking at anglerfish on an empty stomach?
Well, IMAO, better on an empty stomach, than on a full stomach.
Cliff Side Park sounds too dangerous for children to be rivals at, and Lake Side Park would give Selkie too much of an advantage in a fight with Amanda. I think Todds’s house is the best idea, other than in the woods at dawn, at 20 paces. Yeah, Todd’s house.
And Muppet Beaker Amanda returns. 8C
“Oh, by the way, they hate each other. So…prepare for that”
I just laughed when I read that. 😀
Todd’s off-the-cuff reveal to Andi that Selkie and Amanda hate each other is a far better approach than any angry reaction/outburst. It’s not targeted at Andi beyond being information she ought to know before visiting. Still, it feels like a sort-of attack in that Andi has to now deal with the fact that these two DO NOT get along, so finding out they’re sisters will be quite the…event.
That was an awesome line. And it’s, like, the icing on the noxious cake of Revealed Lies, that their respective (and shared…) kids hate each other.
On the other hand, even if Andi’s dream of Making It All Better is never going to work (never was gonna work, honestly)… Let’s hope a form of better can be established.
I absolutely love Todd’s last line.
I think Todd’s natural niceness is winning over his passionate pissed-offedness. Being mad-as-hell at Andi is not going to help any during the Great Reveal. “It happened. It was wrong, but it happened. It’s in the past. Get over it and go on with life.” That’s what I see in his face and his attitude, now.
Indeed. Nice to see Todd taking the high road here. While it’s true he’s allowed All The Angry under the circumstances, it won’t help the girls one bit when stuff is explained. Just goes to show that he’s a good dad.
I know, I am so proud of him right now for being so cool for his daughters’ sakes ;.;
“Oh, by the way, Andi, they hate each other, and I figure I’d better tell you this since you’re clearly OBLIVIOUS to everything that happens around you that doesn’t directly concern you and only you.”
Welcome to parenthood, Andi. Enjoy it for the short time you have it, before you decide that it’s “too hard”, dump Amanda on Todd, and run away back to your own mommy.
WORD.
Selkie tugging her dad’s arm in panel 5 is the cutest :3
in the top bar, Ancilliary art and extra art link to the same place, and most of those image links are broken.
Okay… that’s a lot of talking and explaining coming soon…
I would bet the two girls aren’t going to take it pretty well, that they’re sisters.
Is anyone else afraid, that Amanda will try to make Todd giving Selkie back to the orphanage? (She actually knows it’s possible and she thought earlier that Selkie did “steal” a Daddy. She could try it, considering she believes Selkie stole her real Dad)
She could try it, but I doubt Todd would go through with it.
She could try it, sure, but no need to be afraid — it isn’t going to impress Todd one bit.
hmm… do we “really” know that Amanda knows it’s possible?
personally, i am assuming that the Sandersons adopted her as a baby, right out of the orphanage, probably very quickly, and raised her as their own… with her POSSIBLY NOT even knowing that she was adopted AT ALL… that is, right up until they had the two boys naturally (i guess) that’s when things started to go downhill for Amanda… to me it looks like the “Princes” in her story were younger than her and that the parents spoiled them rotten, possibly it’s at this point in time that they probably told her she was adopted. otherwise how would she know about the difference between her and the REAL kids (the Princes) in her story?… but… what does that actually MEAN to a 5 year old kid who (IF… I’m correct in my theory) has ZERO recollection of anyone OTHER than the Sandersons AS HER PARENTS… therefore it kinda passed her right by emotionally, all she REALLY has to go on is that HER PARENTS DUMPED HER!!! (in favor of the brats) it was only after she was there at the orphanage for a while that she learned the truth (as WE currently know it) in that she was let out for adoption as a baby, got the Sandersons real early, Dumped at the orphanage, and then she got RE-adopted by her REAL MOM…
sorry if I’m not clear in trying to explain my theory
I have no idea about the Sandersons, but I was adopted when I was a baby and my folks didn’t hide it, so I knew at 5 (and even 3) what being adopted was and that my parents weren’t my bio-parents. When in pre-school and younger, kids ask questions like “Tell me about the day I was born” – or in my case “the day I came home from the hospital” Which is also how I knew the Sandersons spent a HUGE amount of $$ to adopt an infant – There’s usually a 3 or 4 year waiting list for infants if through the state; or if it was private then Andi (or her mother since she was a minor) would have gotten a chunk of money. It also might be why her mother won’t acknowledge Amanda – Andi’s mother may have signed things that she would have to give $$ back to the Sandersons if she ever attempted to find or claim her.
I’d be really surprised if she did—and I kind of hope it doesn’t take that route. Amanda has shown she’s capable of way more empathy (and intelligence) than that. I think they will both be PO’d together and that will be the start of their sibling bonding—though the seed has always been there as they’ve lived like sisters together for years. 🙂
If those two get back together, I will go mad. Andi did something unforgivable.
Nice to know your life has been so perfect that you can sit in judgement of everyone else.
One doesn’t need a perfect life to know when someone has crossed a line.
It’s Dave’s story, not yours. But I wouldn’t worry. Given where the characters are now, and what we know about them, I don’t foresee any romance in their futures. That’s dead. There will instead be a lot of necessary cooperation between them, for the sake of two eight year old girls.
A long, long time from now? Like, at the end of the storyline, after many, many ups and downs and major learning experiences for both of them? Well, who knows. Can’t predict that far in the future. I agree with you that Andi would have go through a whole lot of character development for that to be a satisfying outcome. At the moment I am rooting for Todd to end up with Mina.
Right now? Kiss and make up right now? Nah. It would be cheap and unbelievable, and Dave’s a better storyteller than that. So I am confident it’s not in the cards.
I think Todd might have been better off not knowing. Amanda’s issues… If there’s any chance of her growing up to be a functional and emotionally healthy adult, which I seriously doubt, it sure as hell doesn’t lie with Andi. And there’s no way she could live under the same roof as Selkie; that would end in someone getting stabbed.
Scampers off to make more popcorn for Wednesday.
I love seeing every moment of Andi’s twitching. Twist that knife, Todd. Hard.