A couple people get face-blasted, and new laws tend to spring up.
↓ Transcript
TE FAHN: Turn that off! TURN THAT OFF!
SELKIE: Aaah!
AMANDA: Ugh, thank you.
TE FAHN: Y-you can't, you CAN'T do that at school, Selkie!
SELKIE: Aaw, no one saw.
TE FAHN: When they were preparings us to come here, they told us we can't ever ever EVER talks about Echoes. Its will make people scared of us.
TE FAHN: A-And I know I made the joke first, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have. But you can'ts EVER jokes about hurting people with Echo powers.
SELKIE (VO): Why nots?
TE FAHN (VO): The... the city made rules for the Echoes. Because of the war. If they t-think you're going to hurts people... they'll kill you.
SELKIE: Aaah!
AMANDA: Ugh, thank you.
TE FAHN: Y-you can't, you CAN'T do that at school, Selkie!
SELKIE: Aaw, no one saw.
TE FAHN: When they were preparings us to come here, they told us we can't ever ever EVER talks about Echoes. Its will make people scared of us.
TE FAHN: A-And I know I made the joke first, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have. But you can'ts EVER jokes about hurting people with Echo powers.
SELKIE (VO): Why nots?
TE FAHN (VO): The... the city made rules for the Echoes. Because of the war. If they t-think you're going to hurts people... they'll kill you.
*Law not applicable to Echoes working on State-Sponsored laser projects.
This is such a heavy topic for a child to realize and I’ve been wondering how it was going to play out in the story – the fact that Selkie really is tied to a lot of threatening factors (her mother and father, her lineage, her abilities) that she hasn’t been taking very seriously at all. And with good reason! She’s just a kid. I don’t think anyone wants her to grow up before her time.
But on the other side, we have Te Fahn and Tehk, who HAVE been forced to grow up fast because of the war, so… it’s just a very interesting story that’s getting woven and I’m very into it. It’s hard being a kid in general, but Selkie’s got a lot to worry about. I’m glad she’s got a good family structure to weather it with.
This just smells of a gun confiscation campaign like what happened in Germany before World War 2. (From what I hear anyway; I wasn’t there)
Makes me wonder if Cern yi’Sar’Teri (I had to archive trawl to remember his name) was trying to eliminate the competition before becoming Emperor.
Good Comic Dave!
I’d really hope they wouldn’t hurt a child over a joke. D= Man…that’s terrifying. I hope she asks a certain doctor about that.
This isn’t gun control. Superpowers like this are a fundamental part of the being, they can’t be confiscated. And when it comes down to it, you don’t need a gun to hurt someone, pretty much everything can be used to hurt/kill someone, even your empty hand. What do you do, chop everyone’s hands off? No.
That said, power like this naturally raises moral and ethical questions about it’s use. It’s crazy heavy to lay this on a child, but it has to be done. With all the joking Selkie does about becoming an evil mastermind, if she doesn’t think about this right now, she is going to mess up and do something permanent without intending to.
Wait, which city?
The Sarnothi city? which shouldn’t have any power over her?
Or the city they actually live? as in a municipal government is creating new death penalty laws?
Actually, for that matter, has it been established yet whether or not Sarnothi count as legal persons? I vaguely remember Selkie having US citizenship, is that right?
its possible to marry a sarnothi so for the time being that requires you to be a “person” still in the US.
the more interesting question is do the sarnothi fall under US laws or have their own courts, at least in reference to internal sarnothi affairs.
would assume they technically count as refugees, but not exactly the normal kind.
Since Te Fahn is talking about Echoes and “The War”… i’m pretty sure that “the city” she’s referring to is Sarnoth, not the USA (or Canada either) i’ll bet that it’s more like what Sonny said a few comments above… that Cern was talking about oppressing those Echoes that were considered “a threat to society”, kinda like the movie “The Running Man” with Arnold Schwarzenegger and this is the result, filtered thru a kids eyes…
And while it may be Sarnoth, and she may be a US citizen, I’m sure if they determined her to be enough of a threat some people (Sarnothi) might not be above her having an “unfortunate accident” during an underwater visit.
I’m +1ing this because I was just about to ask the same questions.
There’s the possibility that Te Fahn doesn’t know that these things require laws and edicts and what have you and is just… repeating what she’s heard, even if it’s not exactly right
joking about hurting people was not allowed in my house. It was a simple rule. We saw people lose their jobs or get scraped bald in HR over joking about hurting or killing someone. I get she’s a child needing validation, but there are other ways to get it. Wow, I sound old and boring here.
I’m definitely getting the feeling that Amanda is reacting to the Echo powers.
I’m gonna guess Selkie’s heart skipped a beat for a second there. :-/
Childhood innocence is nice and all but there comes a time for everyone to rip the bandaid off and start growing the hell up. I think about the time you realize you have the potential for face zappy superpowers is when that time is. Take it seriously, Selkie! It’s not a toy!
Well that seems drastic.
I just hope this won’t make her scared of her powers… she’s having enough trouble getting them working as it is; a revelation like this might just make her want to give up altogether.
Especially if she can’t even make supervillain jokes…
Common-sense assault retinas control.