My rule of thumb for Amanda is that she is a jerk and a bully, but she’s also an eight year old kid. When you’re that young, you feel things a lot more intensely than you do as a grown up.
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I am happy to announce a new item for your Selkie experience. I have decided to start doing monthly Donation Incentive extra images. If I may direct your attention to the right side of the site, you will see a purple Donation button, and above it a small sample of the Donation Incentive. A donation of any amount will recieve the full-size image. For the time being I will need to mail the images manually, so I will apologize in advance for the lack of immediacy.
I also wish to address a concern that is very important to me: those of you who have ALREADY made a donation, before there was an additional incentive to do so. I have not forgotten your generosity, so those of you who have already made a donation, keep an eye on your inboxes. Over the next day I will scour my Paypal records and performing a one-time retroactive gifting of the new Incentive. I’m not going to tell you NOT to donate again, but it is not necessary to make a second donation to receive the new image.
And even if you are unable to make a donation, I want you all to know that I am thankful to everyone for your readership and continued support. You all make my Mondays and Thursdays AMAZING. 😀 Thank you!
Dangit Dave why’d you have to make me sad. Comics aren’t supposed to make me sad.
Ugh. That hits hard, right in the chest.
huh.. Yours is a medic. Mine is a middle school teacher. Weird.
This actually made me cry a bit…
i…i feel BAD…for AMANDA
D: Why do you confuse me so?!
Lots of awesome stuff, and great comic… talk about heartfelt~
Dave, do you know about how many people read Selkie?
I love the way her pigtails droop in the last panel.
Some children are bullies through insecurity. This could make Amanda a lot worse.
How good are the staff? They impressed me with Selkie- will someone be there for Amanda?
This is just so compelling.
aaaand here it is…. that part where everyone kinda realizes exactly what it is that they’re wishing on an 8 year old girl for the crime of being a brat >_>
You make my Mondays and Thursdays amazing, too.
My thoughts EXACTLY!!!
I understand the feelings of “am I not good enough?” and “what’s wrong with me that no-body wants me?”, but as I was one of the bullied ones (clinical depression sucks), I still find it hard to actually look at her like the abandoned little kid.
Is there any chance we could learn of the reasons why these kids are in the orphanage? Were they given away or did their parents die or what?
I’ll be revealing the kid’s backgrounds over time.
I’m glad that you write characters like this. They’re multidimensional, instead of just “this one’s the bitch character”. I do feel really bad for her now! I hope that Amanda, Heather, and Keisha will still be able to hang out.
On a side note, I looked up one of my childhood bullies recently. She’s single and has a kid or two, and looks really strung out, while I’m living the fabulous childless college life with my boyfriend! 🙂
I’m thinking that Amanda’s getting her dose of karma here.
At the risk of insulting the U.S Milatary… but it seems as though bullies typically join the milatary…as medics….quite odd.
Multiple cases I can think of.
😛
Mayhap they’re hoping for salvation? Y’know, they hurt people previously, so now they’re trying to help people?
Most I knew joined the police force.
I never felt angry at her, I always saw her as just an upset kid. I didn’t even see her as a bully. I work for teenagers who have been through this kind of thing, and the feelings of rejection can carry through intently.
She is, simply put, a little girl who feels very rejected and feels she has to become “top dog” in the care home.
(Professional mode over)
Been reading this comic since It started, and it’s a very sweet story. Loving the art progressions too! I’m impressed!
that is sad… Why did you do this? T.T
It’s cuz Amanda is a bitch lol.
No, she isn’t! She’s an eight year old kid without a family! She’s just kind of depressed because all the kids around her keep getting adopted but she’s left all alone.
Ah, the wonders of the coping mechanism…
Reminds me of when I found out the girl who beat me black and blue had emotionally and physically abusive parents. I was seven when I realized it and she moved away the next day, so I never got to patch things up with her.
I’m sorry you never got that chance.
Yes, she is. Just because she has a good reason doesn’t mean she’s not one; it just means she has a good reason to be one.
Realizing there’s a problem is the first step. And with that goes calling it what it is. THEN you can work on the why and how to fix it.
Aww, now I feel so bad for Amanda!! Poor kid…
Aw… poor Amanda… I’d adopt her! T.T
It seems like she is comparing herself to everyone who gets adopted. That doesn’t seem healthy.
Oh poor little Amanda…it’s not that no one doesn’t want you….it could be just bad luck. Poor baby. DX I just wanna give her a hug and a plate of cookies.
I’m probably one of the few people here that doesn’t feel that bad for her. I was a huge brat when I was younger and I got rejected all the time by people I wanted to be friends with. I was trying hard to stand out as the alpha when really I was just lonely and craving attention. There are so many kids I bullied that I feel bad for now. In the long run it taught me to be humble and thankful for what I do have. This will either make her better or make her even more resentful toward the people that have what she doesn’t. Either way it’s what has to happen in order for her to grow up. She has to face the fact that she won’t always get her way.
I was exactly the same way, My parents had a nasty divorce when I was 9. My dad went to jail while my mom was hosptalized. I was a royal pain in the butt and always fought and stole and pushed people away. I even got expelled in the first week of the 4th grade for swearing and throwing books at the teacher. I eventually got the help and the attention I really needed. I got one on one help from the schools special needs group and got a little bit of threapy. I still push people away even now as an adult and still try to act like the big dog and act all tough. I’m 25 and I still dont have freinds and I dont socialize.
I realized after all of the stupid stuff I did as a kid I grew up quickly and started being responsible. I’m sure Amanda will be much better after she gets the help she needs. Hopefully Keisha lets the adults know about this little breakdown and doesnt just hide it to save her tough girl rep.
Do Amanda’s pigtails droop when she’s sad?
People keep saying Amanda is being a jerk or selfish or whatever, but how would you feel if every kid around you got parents and a real family, and no one wanted you? People say that Amanda has some sort of mental issue, but I think she’s just a sad, lonely eight year old kid that needs a mom and dad. Honestly, I probably would’ve reacted just about the same way she did.
Maybe I’m in the minority, but those last three panels make me fear Amanda, rather than fear FOR her.
Also, self-fulfilling prophecy much? 😐
That poor girl. Well all of them, really. I WILL TAKE THEM ALL HOME!
I don’t think it’s that adults feel things less intensely than children, I think we just deal with them better. Sometimes. :p
I just thought of something peculiar. Wasn’t part of the reason Todd adopted selkie because he understood her feelings of being the “unadoptable” kid: the same feelings that Amanda is having right now? Maybe Selkie and Amanda have more in common than we think. They were both sad little girls in need of love, but where Selkie deals with the disappointment of not being adopted inwardly, Amanda projects it outwardly pushing it off on someone in a very similar situation. If she hadn’t made selkie and enemy, she might have been her closest friend.
Keep up the good work Dave.
This comic is offensive. Allah will punish you for this mockery.
You DO know that I can see your email and IP addresses, and know fully well that you and the Dale person who just COMPLIMENTED me are the same person, right?
They are the same? That’s bizarre!
Randooom
DUDE and you offend me. By pushing your religion on other people, and/or by mocking other people’s religions.
This is pretty realistic behavior for a troubled child. Amanda probably will need some therapy or help, and it’s surprising that the watchful orphanage staff hasn’t noticed her distress (one would think this would be a common issue in an orphanage).
I wonder, though…is it normal for a state orphanage to allow prospective adoptive parents to visit and pick out a child like they do for a puppy at the shelter? That seems like a rather outdated and cruel system, for reasons exactly like what Amanda’s going through (and the ominous situation that Heather seems to be entering).
Short answer: yes, it is outdated.
Long answer: When I wrote the earlier chapters I did some google research on adoption laws, but (apparently) not enough research on how adoptions are actually carried out. That’s why I intentionally did not include a “line-up” in this mini-story. I actually stumbled on an adoption forum a few weeks ago where the contributors were upset at how adoption is portrayed in the media, with the “line-up of kids” being a major point of irritation.
I wrote in Heather’s adoption because I had already hinted at it earlier, but I wanna do more adoption process research before I give the other kid’s homes. Just wish I had thought of it earlier than I did.
Might be not the same person
Could be a library or dorm computer. I wouldn’t jump the gun too quickly Dave.
You raise a very good point, and if it is not what it looks like then I offer my apologies.
And it could be that the “Mackenzie Alfredo Smith O’Connor” who just posted only one minute after Dave isn’t a real Muslim.
And if he IS a real Muslim, he’s doing a bad job of acting fundamentalist; that’s a pretty tame threat compared to most.
I guess I’m another of the few people who doesn’t feel bad for Amanda. I don’t see any reason to feel bad for her, but there’s no reason to say she deserves it either. I can’t say I was ever really bullied or bullied other kids, so in that respect I can’t sympathize. But in terms of being a kid who kept losing friends and being lonely, sure. But when you get older, you learn that’s just the way things are. I don’t feel bad for Amanda, but I don’t think she deserves rotten treatment for being a brat. All kids are brats to one extent or another.
A kid like Amanda is something I’m familiar with. Won’t say what; that’s a wee bit personal. I will say that I am one of those who can’t truly hate her. However, her actions may be condemnable. Not sure how she’ll ultimately handle everything, but she could handle it REALLY badly.
Huh, I hadn’t even thought of my bullies in more than 20 years. I can’t remember their names well enough to even look them up on facebook.
I do know, though, as a reaction to having been bullied, I’m now intolerant of bullying to the point of becoming a bully against bullies. I sometimes need to work on that.
Ouch. Amanda may be long overdue for a paddling (or two, or three) but she IS still a kid who is just smart enough to be painfully aware of what she’s missing.