Guess she decided to use the “water pump” after all.
(btw, for those that don’t knw about the semi-hidden director commentary, check the Transcript link for some… kind of out-there info.)
In early drafts of the story, all sarnothi were basically waterbenders. And just for extra super-crazy trivia, in that same VERY early draft, there were slated to be two OTHER races revealed to be living under humanity's notice on Earth at a later stage of the story: avian "airbenders" living in cities disguised as clouds, and fire-breathing dragonoids who consume stone and react to water as if it were acid. In this draft of the story, humans were to be eventually revealed as "fallen" earthbenders who forgot their elemental artform. Todd would have been the first human to regain the ability. This concept essentially evolved into the four Clans of Sarnoth, whose general personalities are very loosely based on the same four elements in terms of "feel" (Sar'Teri: Earth, Stoic. Jin'Sorai: Fire, Passionate. Mor'Kama: Air, Aloof. Tel'Dora: Water, Nurturing.)
That’s some neat concepts, for sure and curious to see where you go with the whole thing. I’m looking forward to seeing this in color. And I LOVE the little hearts from the happy baby, lol. The little happy face in bottom left reminds me of the little fish sisters from Ponyo. I’m adoring the chance to learn more about the Sarnothi…I’m a sucker for world building and alternate race/societal designs.
So Selkie will be a fire bender when she gets older? She’s going to be amazingly okay with that, I think.
But how much can Pohl and his family, as water benders, help a fire bender? Or is there a limit to how far that analogy goes?
Seems like it’s come a long way since that idea. It would be weird having four underwater races have bending powers that include things that can’t exist underwater….
I suppose if i wanted to do “underwater firebenders”, lava summoning would be a thing. But that’s more of a deep sea vibe.
Lava bending is a variant of earth bending actually
Dominant earth gene, with a recessive fire gene.
Well I suppose you could do magnesium bending. FOOFbending would be a bit much. 🙂
I should clarify that, the four Clans aren’t LITERALLY elementalists, it’s more of a personality theme. Earth Fire Air Water; Stoic Passionate Aloof Nurturing. That sort of thing.
Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification, Dave!
Underwater fire bending still sounds like an Olympic sport I’d actually watch. 😉
Underwater firebending would start as a rare artform that only the most disciplined and strongest firebenders can perform, but give it seventy years and it will be common enough to have underwater firebenders powering a city.
Until the Sar’Teri came along and ruined it for everyone else.
The closest things to underwater firebending would likely be lightning bending. I could imagine that powering a city.
I mean, if they do have some elemental magic, what would make the most sense is energy that the critters come into contact with. Water is definitely the strongest where they lived, so 2/3 of them probably can control that. Of the remaining 1/3, 2/3 of that control the wind. Of that remaining, most of them control earth.
Lightning/electricity bending potentially makes sense on account of electric eels.
Actually, though, it’d be possible to work with different elements. Like, lightbending (bioluminescence).
I thought about the Chinese elements (which splits Earth into Wood and Metal), but it doesn’t make sense underwater or with a four-element group.
Hahahahha I love that burn on Legend of Korra
So, just to clarify– she’s lifted the water out of the tank with Tai Li in it, and enveloped herself in the water so Tai Li can nurse?
So Sai Fen is using her gills right now, and is gonna come out of this soaked, and Tai Li is gonna have a full tummy and go nap somewhere.
Yep and yep!
You should make the underwater speech bubbles be different, because they’d certainly sound different, and it’d be easier to tell when the character is in the water and when they’re not.
the sarnothi used to live in peace until the Jin’Sorai attacked
i don’t care if it’s not true ( even if it is… been so long since i re-read the comic) im doing the damn reference!
Less like the entirety of Avatar: The Last Airbender and more like The Legend of Korra season 4.
Well this should put the magic or science debate to an end. 😀
Interesting background info, and interesting how (apparently? I suppose we don’t really know where this is all going yet) things evolved very differently.
I prefer this apparently-less-extreme-fantasy route, personally. In fact, I’d probably enjoy the whole thing more if there were absolutely no “supernatural” elements in it and the sarnothi were really just people living underwater.
Comes from my love of stories about really out-there creatures/people living banal, down-to-earth lives, which I think I’m in the significant minority on.
Heh… you ever read Doomsday, My Dear?
I got to a point in that story, and you’ll probably know it when you get there, when I went “Wait, I started reading a story, and you’ve bait-and-switched me here! I want the story I was reading back!” Not that I particularly hate the direction it’s taken, but it is certainly not at all the story I was expecting. Like a sudden genre shift.
But I can enjoy both, and here for Selkie I’m liking the way it’s going. Not a ton of magic, but enough to hint at things being not exactly what you expect.
I went looking… it seems Doomsday, My Dear is currently without a web site. There’s a tumblr post that suggests this may be a temporary setback; I do hope so, because you’ve caught my interest and I’d like to add it to my list.
Glad they’re not down for good; it’s an intriguing story with interesting characters and one of those “What the heck is going to happen?” sort of plots. Nice setup for the overall plot. Mature topics, though, too.
I’m a binge reader, so I’m not usually up on current events for most comics (Selkie is one of about three that I keep weekly current on, usually daily). I’ve been sad over a couple comics that went down, though usually it’s not disappearing so much as just no longer updating (No Rest for the Wicked is the one that immediately comes to mind… also Winters in Lavelle).
Also, it appears Doomsday is up on a Smackjeeves alternate for the moment: http://doomsdaymydear.smackjeeves.com/comics/1735998/title/
Oops, posted before I finished my thought. What I meant to say… if you have a working link to that comic that I didn’t find, please post it.
She’s like Katara. And wow. Aside from needing water,this isn’t different than human breastfeeding. Cool.
I can’t help but see this going bad. She turns around, sees Selkie, loses her concentration, drops a lot of the water, and even if Tai Li is fine, their flooring is screwed.
My money is on that she may ‘fumble’ slightly, but the water won’t hit the floor.
That was my thinking too.
As previous commenters mentioned, the combination of that egg tooth and breast feeding makes me think “ouch”.
I *wondered* how feeding was going to work with the relatively small tank! 😀
So Selkie really is a fire type…
That would explain why she wants to set Amanda on fire.
Now I’m reminded of The Abyss.
“Raise your hand if you think that was a *Russian* water tentacle.”
The thing I recall about that movie was putting the rat in a super-oxygenated-water cage. Freaky but cool.
Which in turn always reminds me of that episode of Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys where they run afoul of an entire planet of breathable water, pretty sure they even used the same term.
Super well done!!
This page and “Sometimes Momma’s gotta swim in the undertow” are why I love Sai Fen so so much.
This might explain some of Suko’s fascination with “airplane”.
……yes, and that is the most awesomely unexpected connection for that word.
dawwww <3 that's the cutest. This comic sometimes, i tell you.
As someone who is adopted I absolutely love these comics. Keep up the good work.
Looks like she didn’t grab just a bubble of water, but rather ALL of the water in the tank.
This makes no damn sense. It’s established that these are fish, right? How in the world can you justify lactating fish?
Now Selkie is going to want to learn magic.
If a species had a psychokinetic ability to manipulate water on a personal scale say 1 to 3 gallons would it not benefit them to make ability magnifiers. We have tools that allow us to see and hear things we could not do normally. This could be an extension of that. For humans who don’t have such an ability useless but makes them look super powered to those who don’t know.
So do they produce milk right from the egg being “laid” or does their body have a timer that only makes milk when the egg is near hatching?
The mother begins milk production around the time of hatching.
I’ve been going on the assumption that the devices aren’t magic, just different technology than what we are used to.