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POHL: Do you remember what I've said before about Echoes in Sarnoth, Todd? Echoes are meant to serve.
POHL: We serve the interests of the people, of the city. Our abiliie are a gift form the Great Father, but they come with that responsibility attached to them. We serve the city.
POHL (VO): However, the weaponized potential of our abilities is NOT part of that. Echoes may only use that facet of the Resonance with the authorization of the Council or their direct subordinates. Well, FORMER Council now, I guess.
POHL (VO): That's one of the reasons Selkie's mother is listed as a war criminal: unsanctioned use of Resonance firepower.
POHL (VO): Echoes who don't obey the City's call to serve, or who threaten violence with their abilities, tend to be taken away for re-education. Some return... some don't.
POHL: But I want to stress, Selkie is in NO danger of that. She's outside the borders and authority of Sarnoth.
POHL: Besides, I don't think they're INTERESTED in reclaiming Echoes. Scar and I would have been the first ones they contacted if that were the case.
POHL: But if we WERE in Sarnoth, and she was making jokes about using lasers on people, drilling that habit out of her would be the first priority of her trainers.
POHL: We serve the interests of the people, of the city. Our abiliie are a gift form the Great Father, but they come with that responsibility attached to them. We serve the city.
POHL (VO): However, the weaponized potential of our abilities is NOT part of that. Echoes may only use that facet of the Resonance with the authorization of the Council or their direct subordinates. Well, FORMER Council now, I guess.
POHL (VO): That's one of the reasons Selkie's mother is listed as a war criminal: unsanctioned use of Resonance firepower.
POHL (VO): Echoes who don't obey the City's call to serve, or who threaten violence with their abilities, tend to be taken away for re-education. Some return... some don't.
POHL: But I want to stress, Selkie is in NO danger of that. She's outside the borders and authority of Sarnoth.
POHL: Besides, I don't think they're INTERESTED in reclaiming Echoes. Scar and I would have been the first ones they contacted if that were the case.
POHL: But if we WERE in Sarnoth, and she was making jokes about using lasers on people, drilling that habit out of her would be the first priority of her trainers.
Today's edition of the Secret Commentary is empty, because Dave failed to come up with something for it.
I like how he explains that as if it were both normal and correct. You have these abilities but you can only use them the way the government wants you to. And if you do something that the government does not authorize, they take you away to a re-education camp.
And this is how it should be.
I wonder how long it will take for him living on the surface in America before he learns about freedom?
This kind of reminds me of the mutant or superhero registration acts from marvel. Super heroes and villains seem so common place, but in reality do only make a small subset of the population. I mean In those universes, there are probably more politicians than super beings and politicians are A VERY small part of a population.
So you’re against people who threaten violence and/or commit the same being sent to prison, then? Because the thing that the government is not authorising in this case is weaponisation of Echo abilities. Essentially, this sounds a lot like the way use of firearms is governed in most states: You can use them in certain circumstances, but, aside from those, even firing a weapon is punishable by law.
“Echos who don’t obey the city’s call…” It’s not just about threatening or committing violence with their powers, they have no option to simply say ‘no thanks’ and live a quiet, private life. Their powers essentially make them the property of the government.
Nice straw man. That is absolutely NOT what Alpo said.
And it’s also not what the comic says. It says two things
1. Echoes MUST serve the city
2. Echoes can ONLY use certain aspects of their powers with explicit permission of the council.
Yes, part of that is violence, and I agree it would be wrong not to punish Echoes who abuse their powers, but that’s only part of what Pohl is saying. Nowhere did Alpo indicate they were ok with the use of violence. Nowhere. That’s a completely unfair accusation to make and frankly the right thing to do would be to apologize for such an accusation.
I understand that authoritarian control over people like that is bad, but if we had people with super powers or magic wouldn’t we want our government to make sure those people didn’t do anything too dangerous with them?
It isn’t something like gun control where everyone can have a gun so it is an even playing field more or less, we’re talking about an absolute minority of people having a power that can be used for incredible good or incredible bad, isn’t it like less than 5% of the population of the Sarnothi are Echos?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not in favour of authoritarian regimes or re-education camps or anything like that, it is horrific! But from a practical standpoint of a civilization, you need to do something to make sure those with the powers don’t become super villains, criminal masters or war lords. I’m not sure what the alternative is but anarchy is certainly not it.
The problem here is not only is the level of oversight and coercion IMO. Echoes MUST serve the city. They have no choice. That goes beyond attempting to limit dangerous potential.
Sometimes images convey the story best, sometimes it’s text. Don’t be afraid to use the suitable medium.
As for re-education camps… honestly depends on how they’re done. Call them a ‘rehabilitation center’ and suddenly they don’t sound so bad. And maybe they aren’t. Is a massive range in how they can be operated.
‘Re-education camps’ sound terrible to us, because we’ve ran some pretty awful camps. Maybe the Sarnothi have done better. Or maybe the propaganda is strong. We’ll see.
I’m noticing a distinct lack of “Besides, she’s only a kid.” That seems a tad important.
I think that was the role of the ending part. As a kid, her trainers would work to break that habit.
Because if they didn’t, it probably wouldn’t matter that she was a kid.
Typo in the second speech bubble: “abiliies”
(And in the transcript it’s “abiliie”.)
Another typo in Pohl’s second bubble (both in-comic and transcript):
“a gift form the Great Father” — “form” -> “from”
I am more alarmed that the concept of educating people when they threaten to harm others is looked at as trampling their freedom.
Who is saying that? No commenter I can see.
We are objecting to the idea of “re-education” camps for people who, and I quote “don’t obey the City’s call to serve or who threaten violence” followed by “some return some don’t”.
That’ is NOT objecting to the concept of educating people not to use violence. It’s objecting to a specific and quite disturbing method for possibly doing that and other highly questionable things.
Example: If a teacher beats a child because they told a lie, and that teacher is (rightly) fired as a result, it doesn’t mean the school or society condones lying, it’s because the method chosen to deal with it was dangerous and wrong.
I’m alarmed that people are ignoring the part about “Echoes who don’t obey the City’s call to serve…tend to be taken away for re-education”. Slavery, or at least forced public service sounds pretty bad to me.
I think we can all agree that threatening violence in modern times is bad and will get you in trouble. It seems a bit excessive though to have people disappeared, secret police style, to possibly never return.
Even Gien and Pohl seem to take it for granted that Selkie is obligated to do their bidding and follow their predetermined path for her future. Assuming this rigid caste system is normal to their culture I don’t see it meshing well with the US. They are antithetical to each other which is part of what causes such a jarring reaction when they describe what is “normal” in their country.
I just cannot grasp the idea of forcing someone into servitude just because of an accident of birth.
While I agree with your core message, accident of birth is the primary way someone is forced into servitude. Historically, by skin color and gender.
How did I not remember that Pohl is an echo? Where was that revealed?
Waayyy, way back in strip 418: https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie418/