Well, lots of folks seem to know; the Evil Emperor (Gien?), Then, Scar, Plo Quar, maybe Pohl. And possibly the two loose cannons: Trunchie-poo and Ms. Lilian Haversham-Zhang.
Todd has probably guessed that Scar is Selkie’s father. That doesn’t mean he has to ask about it, that he wants to confirm the knowledge that a man who just fully admitted to betraying people and handing them over to make a profit (Selkie’s mother included) is the biological father of his adopted child. It’s bad enough that Selkie has to deal with her clan being almost wiped out in a civil war and her mother leaving her with humans and then just up and disappearing. If Todd could have protected Selkie from the knowledge that her biological father is also a traitor who tried to turn in her mother–or perhaps just ‘someone she thought was nice’ tried to turn her mom in–I’m sure he would have.
Hmm, something I’ve been wondering about. Echos are already rare, and Sarnoth is only for the Sar Teri now. Which would mean that any non-Sar Teri Echoes would have been exiled as well…or, more likely, killed outright. So does that mean that aside from any nondisclosed Sar Teri Echoes in Sarnoth or perhaps a few children whose parents hid them while fleeing, there are no more Echoes other than the three adults and Selkie? …Which kind of does make her one of the last of her people in a sense, just not in terms of her clan.
Sai Fen uses tools that Pohl made for her. That’s why Echos are so important to the Sarnoth in general: because they’re capable of producing extraordinary tools and machines that non-Echos can use but are unable to create themselves.
Kind of like how human society has scientists and engineers who make devices like computers and smartphones which people can use without being able to make. That’s why scientists and engineers are held in such high esteem by . . . wait.
I don’t feel bad for Scar. He could have done great things and instead he allowed greed to blind him. He deserves what he got then and he deserves what he got now.
He certainly deserves fallout for what he’s done, no question. Being sorry later doesn’t undo the harm done or the repercussions.
That said, Selkie has repeatedly come across people who started out bad and then changed. Truck. Her sister, and her sister’s little gang. Maybe there’s more I’m not thinking of. Point is, she’s had practice in the awareness that what a person was in the past is not what they have to be in the present, and that forgiveness is possible, and getting to a better relationship is possible.
(I do think it’s useful that Scar tried to avoid lying, earlier. That might help.)
So now it might be time to become aware that people are not all good or all bad, and that judging people as Black Hats and White Hats is simplifying to an unhealthy degree. Which might be a key insight for later, when she comes to an awareness of what her mom had been up to — and has to adjust to her mom having some dark in her as well.
To me, I believe a person should be judged by their actions over the course of their lifetime. Let’s say a person in their 20’s kills someone, outright murder. It could have been so they could defend someone, killing for money to feed their starving child at home or to make a name for themselves like in a gang.
Regardless of whether they are caught or not, they may come to regret that action. That means they decide to turn their life around, they try to atone for the mistake they made. A life isn’t one they can return but they could from then on work their entire life to the service of man, working for non-profits, work in soup kitchens, donate every penny they have to charity. Do you believe that one bad mistake (whether its an intentional one or not) cannot be overturn a life of good? Life is not black and white, each of us has made bad decisions.
The only true bad people are those who commit bad things and never realize they are bad. Those who do bad things and then realize it and try to change are not “Good” but neither are they bad. They are just trying to become better.
There are truly bad people, people who do serious evil to other people and never regret their actions or care about the harm done.
Most of the people you encounter throughout your life are not that type of people. And it is dangerous to think of them in that way. It creates an “us vs. them” mentality that makes it far to easy to ascribe all the bad, evil, or unworthy actions to Them and all the good, laudable, or virtuous actions to Us… which is actually a setting that allows evil to flourish in the cracks.
Consider if you have known a guy for a long time, as a friend, and you get along well with him. And then you learn that someone has accused him of rape. It is fairly natural to assume that a guy who is this good a friend couldn’t possibly also be a rapist, and therefore you are torn over whether to assign him the Us (Good) category or the Them (Bad) category. If you assign him to the Us category, then you have to believe that the rape accusation is a false one, at worst a misunderstanding — that he can’t possibly have done something so wrong. But if you assign him to the Them category, then you have to believe that the friendship itself, however long, however positive it has seemed, has been a lie.
People are not that black-and-white, and it puts an undue burden on our psyches to think of them that way. “My dad couldn’t possibly have abused a child, because he has always been a good father.” “My daughter couldn’t possibly have sold drugs, because she has always been a respectful daughter.” “My boss couldn’t possibly have faked evidence to get an innocent man sent to prison, because he has always been a supportive boss.” And so on.
The revelation of a single act of evil, or a small pattern of evil, might be enough to sever a friendship or even a family relationship, especially if the person doesn’t seem to think it’s that big a deal or show any remorse for it. However, it shouldn’t be enough to have you judge 100% of their former actions as suddenly shady and evil, because humans are complicated.
It’s beneficial to have heroes who are shown to overcome their own prejudices over time. Harry Potter, which is bound up in prejudice across every single book, is great about this (see John Granger’s work, such as “The Hidden Key to Harry Potter”).
When you go the other way, and have the heroic characters free of prejudice from the get-go — when prejudice is a trait only of negative characters — then you send the message that you can tell in advance who will be good or bad based on whether they start off with good or bad mindsets.
Which is not only ridiculous, but a serious problem, since we’ve established scientifically that babies are taught racism (specifically “they all look alike to me”) before they’re old enough to walk; it’s a neutral trait, just a factor of the way our brains deal with information overload. If it’s a problem that we start off with bias, well, we’re all doomed.
And it’s all too easy to think “I’m a good guy, I’ve got good intentions, therefore I would never do anything seriously wrong” and thus fail to be vigilant against our own biases.
That’s why the Us vs. Them mindset is such a problem. Or a big part of it, at any rate.
For another such part, look up Jonathan Haidt’s discussion on the moral roots of Liberals and Conservatives — he goes over the way that groupthink shuts down the logic center of your brain.
The way Selkie delivers that line with tears in her eyes and her body language, “I wish I coulds zap you.” I don’t think she could zap him even if she had full control over her power. It’s almost a trembling, defiant, “!@#$ you, I wish it was as easy as just zapping you.”
What I find interesting is that Scar never really lied. Even when he first met Selkie he told her that her mother was the one who maimed him and that he had been a bad enough person to have deserved it. Later when she asked him if he was “the farmer” she had heard bad things about he didn’t deny it and even said that there was a seed of truth to the stories.
Scar may not have outright said “I’m your father and I sold out your mother and her people for money” but he never tried to hide that he had done terrible things in his past. I understand Selkie and others being upset but they really shouldn’t be all that surprised. I also respect Scar for being so upfront about what kind of person he is: a flawed person with a horrible past that he’s trying to make amends for.
Woah.
If looks could maim, Scar would be leaving in a basket.
Or a zip-lock bag.
Aw, she’s crying…
I… don’t know if that’s crying or… those maturity marks like on the adults’ faces?
Was anyone else expecting her to be the one to put 2 and 2 together and ask if he’s her father?
Yes, Was a thing that was by me expecting it, but am not knowings how minds from eight-years-olds are workings? Mysterious, yes?
The bigger question is why has NOBODY figured out that Scar is her father
Well, lots of folks seem to know; the Evil Emperor (Gien?), Then, Scar, Plo Quar, maybe Pohl. And possibly the two loose cannons: Trunchie-poo and Ms. Lilian Haversham-Zhang.
Pohl definitely knows.
Todd has probably guessed that Scar is Selkie’s father. That doesn’t mean he has to ask about it, that he wants to confirm the knowledge that a man who just fully admitted to betraying people and handing them over to make a profit (Selkie’s mother included) is the biological father of his adopted child. It’s bad enough that Selkie has to deal with her clan being almost wiped out in a civil war and her mother leaving her with humans and then just up and disappearing. If Todd could have protected Selkie from the knowledge that her biological father is also a traitor who tried to turn in her mother–or perhaps just ‘someone she thought was nice’ tried to turn her mom in–I’m sure he would have.
Hmm, something I’ve been wondering about. Echos are already rare, and Sarnoth is only for the Sar Teri now. Which would mean that any non-Sar Teri Echoes would have been exiled as well…or, more likely, killed outright. So does that mean that aside from any nondisclosed Sar Teri Echoes in Sarnoth or perhaps a few children whose parents hid them while fleeing, there are no more Echoes other than the three adults and Selkie? …Which kind of does make her one of the last of her people in a sense, just not in terms of her clan.
have the feeling “echoes” are a spectrum among the sarnoth. most have *some* ability only a few pass a threshold required to earn the title of echo.
Phol’s wife seems to use something along the echo abilities with her sculpting for example.
Sai Fen uses tools that Pohl made for her. That’s why Echos are so important to the Sarnoth in general: because they’re capable of producing extraordinary tools and machines that non-Echos can use but are unable to create themselves.
Kind of like how human society has scientists and engineers who make devices like computers and smartphones which people can use without being able to make. That’s why scientists and engineers are held in such high esteem by . . . wait.
I don’t feel bad for Scar. He could have done great things and instead he allowed greed to blind him. He deserves what he got then and he deserves what he got now.
He certainly deserves fallout for what he’s done, no question. Being sorry later doesn’t undo the harm done or the repercussions.
That said, Selkie has repeatedly come across people who started out bad and then changed. Truck. Her sister, and her sister’s little gang. Maybe there’s more I’m not thinking of. Point is, she’s had practice in the awareness that what a person was in the past is not what they have to be in the present, and that forgiveness is possible, and getting to a better relationship is possible.
(I do think it’s useful that Scar tried to avoid lying, earlier. That might help.)
So now it might be time to become aware that people are not all good or all bad, and that judging people as Black Hats and White Hats is simplifying to an unhealthy degree. Which might be a key insight for later, when she comes to an awareness of what her mom had been up to — and has to adjust to her mom having some dark in her as well.
Bad people will always be bad people. They only regret being caught. Especially when it comes to trafficking.
To me, I believe a person should be judged by their actions over the course of their lifetime. Let’s say a person in their 20’s kills someone, outright murder. It could have been so they could defend someone, killing for money to feed their starving child at home or to make a name for themselves like in a gang.
Regardless of whether they are caught or not, they may come to regret that action. That means they decide to turn their life around, they try to atone for the mistake they made. A life isn’t one they can return but they could from then on work their entire life to the service of man, working for non-profits, work in soup kitchens, donate every penny they have to charity. Do you believe that one bad mistake (whether its an intentional one or not) cannot be overturn a life of good? Life is not black and white, each of us has made bad decisions.
The only true bad people are those who commit bad things and never realize they are bad. Those who do bad things and then realize it and try to change are not “Good” but neither are they bad. They are just trying to become better.
There are truly bad people, people who do serious evil to other people and never regret their actions or care about the harm done.
Most of the people you encounter throughout your life are not that type of people. And it is dangerous to think of them in that way. It creates an “us vs. them” mentality that makes it far to easy to ascribe all the bad, evil, or unworthy actions to Them and all the good, laudable, or virtuous actions to Us… which is actually a setting that allows evil to flourish in the cracks.
Consider if you have known a guy for a long time, as a friend, and you get along well with him. And then you learn that someone has accused him of rape. It is fairly natural to assume that a guy who is this good a friend couldn’t possibly also be a rapist, and therefore you are torn over whether to assign him the Us (Good) category or the Them (Bad) category. If you assign him to the Us category, then you have to believe that the rape accusation is a false one, at worst a misunderstanding — that he can’t possibly have done something so wrong. But if you assign him to the Them category, then you have to believe that the friendship itself, however long, however positive it has seemed, has been a lie.
People are not that black-and-white, and it puts an undue burden on our psyches to think of them that way. “My dad couldn’t possibly have abused a child, because he has always been a good father.” “My daughter couldn’t possibly have sold drugs, because she has always been a respectful daughter.” “My boss couldn’t possibly have faked evidence to get an innocent man sent to prison, because he has always been a supportive boss.” And so on.
The revelation of a single act of evil, or a small pattern of evil, might be enough to sever a friendship or even a family relationship, especially if the person doesn’t seem to think it’s that big a deal or show any remorse for it. However, it shouldn’t be enough to have you judge 100% of their former actions as suddenly shady and evil, because humans are complicated.
Related:
It’s beneficial to have heroes who are shown to overcome their own prejudices over time. Harry Potter, which is bound up in prejudice across every single book, is great about this (see John Granger’s work, such as “The Hidden Key to Harry Potter”).
When you go the other way, and have the heroic characters free of prejudice from the get-go — when prejudice is a trait only of negative characters — then you send the message that you can tell in advance who will be good or bad based on whether they start off with good or bad mindsets.
Which is not only ridiculous, but a serious problem, since we’ve established scientifically that babies are taught racism (specifically “they all look alike to me”) before they’re old enough to walk; it’s a neutral trait, just a factor of the way our brains deal with information overload. If it’s a problem that we start off with bias, well, we’re all doomed.
And it’s all too easy to think “I’m a good guy, I’ve got good intentions, therefore I would never do anything seriously wrong” and thus fail to be vigilant against our own biases.
That’s why the Us vs. Them mindset is such a problem. Or a big part of it, at any rate.
For another such part, look up Jonathan Haidt’s discussion on the moral roots of Liberals and Conservatives — he goes over the way that groupthink shuts down the logic center of your brain.
The way Selkie delivers that line with tears in her eyes and her body language, “I wish I coulds zap you.” I don’t think she could zap him even if she had full control over her power. It’s almost a trembling, defiant, “!@#$ you, I wish it was as easy as just zapping you.”
Something about the way she says “mom” and not “MY mom” to jails tells me that part of her already knows he’s her father.
What I find interesting is that Scar never really lied. Even when he first met Selkie he told her that her mother was the one who maimed him and that he had been a bad enough person to have deserved it. Later when she asked him if he was “the farmer” she had heard bad things about he didn’t deny it and even said that there was a seed of truth to the stories.
Scar may not have outright said “I’m your father and I sold out your mother and her people for money” but he never tried to hide that he had done terrible things in his past. I understand Selkie and others being upset but they really shouldn’t be all that surprised. I also respect Scar for being so upfront about what kind of person he is: a flawed person with a horrible past that he’s trying to make amends for.
Just my two cents worth.