I have a 10 and 13 year old. They were able to make connections of this sort around 6. This is completely believable to me. Children have much deeper and more insightful conversations than we adults like to give them credit for. Every time someone tries to tell me a child is “too young” to talk about/think about a subject I just remember conversations I had at age 4. My best friend died of leukemia the summer before we were to start kindergarten. He knew he was dying for close to a year. He knew that grownups would cry or get upset if he talked about it so he would talk to me. We discussed whether people in heaven got homesick and how he didn’t want to die alone. Lots of other weighty stuff. Dave, this isn’t a “Lisa Simpson problem”. This is an accurate representation of kids who have had heavy stuff in their lives.
All you have to do is be in an adjacent room, and listen in on their chatter. It’s stupid, and then it’s so insightful that your heart hurts like you’ve been Stabbed, and you want to cry,… and then it’s either really funny, or just stupid again. Do NOT underestimate the understandings of the 5–8 year old set. Or at your own peril.
I personally hate the whole style of games which made “Aggro” a common slang term; and I had to read through almost to the bottom of the comments to figure out which word was unknown.
I do have children who play (and claim they enjoy) those games. I am also an avid RPGer. I once told people, “I [took] aggregated damage when setting foot on BYU campus.” So it wasn’t a stretch to figure out when “the youngens” started using it.
I disagree with you, Mm. I’ve been a foster parent and I work with children. Some of the things I’ve heard come out of four-year-old mouths can be incredibly insightful. Selkie sounds like she’s repeating a lesson/explanation that Todd and her grandparents have given her: ‘sometimes people are so scared and angry that they hurt other people because that’s how they’ve learned to protect themselves; it takes time, love, and practice to learn to make better choices about big feelings.’
Nah, they got that one too. Clayton in Tarzan, or Frollo in Hunchback… there’s others too. Heck, Gaston himself is an example! It’s just that… those are the ones that tend to get hoist on their own petard, and fall to their deaths. Usually because they refuse aid after the Hero shows that they’re still willing to forgive.
I disagree. I’ve heard much more sophisticated conversations out of 8 year olds. She might have gotten the idea from Grandpa Theo or Todd but the phrasing is what I would expect.
Selkie is literally spitting out the moral of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.
Beast (Amanda) was angry and hurt people around her until Belle (Andi) came in and brought out Beast’s inner goodness. Proving that just because someone is a jerk doesn’t mean they’re evil.
This is something I learned at the age of 8. This is from a cartoon movie that was MADE for kids. People have seem to forgotten that emotional maturity is something that kids are supposed to learn early on, and have forgotten that children’s shows and cartoons used to help parents teach this stuff so they know it as early as possible, and not when they’re a teenager rebelling against their parents.
Eight-year-old me understood that “daddy doesn’t love me” per old therapy records. Before that, six-year-old me understood that I was treated differently from my younger sister and was better off not visiting his household, despite his claims to the contrary. It took the other adults in my life until I had graduated university over a decade later to even start to understand just how accurate this assessment was.
Of course, eight-year-old me also thought that God was going to send the dinosaurs back to earth to punish humanity, sooooooooo…
So when does Te Fahn accidentally reveal Tehk is also a Beast, suffering trauma that caused him to become a horrible person? Someone living with their uncle instead of their parents obviously had something bad happen to them.
I had to go look it up. Not sure whether it’s because I’m old – at least two generations older than them – or because I think video games are a major waste of time.
The dictionary says it’s British English. Where would three 8-year-old children in middle America pick up a British English term?
The dictionary also says that it is used in MMORPGA. What few video games they had in the orphanage were all completely non-violent. Selkie would not have been playing World of Warcraft.
Also, video games being a “waste of time” is pretty insulting to those who game with their friends as a hobby. It’s like saying reading is a waste of time. Yes, games and reading are similar. They’re both passively consuming a thing containing narrative and literary value. Just like there are lightweight novels, there are story-lite video games, but some are very deep in both categories.
I read something many many years ago. It said you could only be insulted if you let yourself be insulted. If someone says something that is not the truth, why should you be insulted by a lie? And if what they say is the truth, how could the truth be an insult?
In case that was too deep, my point is, why should my opinion on video games matter to you at all?
As for “they learned it on the internet”, I’ve been wandering around the “world wide web” since about 96 or 97. This is the first time I ever heard the term.
“If someone says something that is not the truth, why should you be insulted by a lie?”
Because it affects how people treat you. Ask anyone who had lies told about them in school, or anyone that has had to deal with enduring lies like ‘oh, those people don’t feel pain like we do’ or ‘they’re hysterical, they exaggerate everything’ instead of being taken seriously about health issues. Lies are insulting not for the untruth itself, but for their effects. Someone going around saying that elephants are pink and tiny is laughed at. Someone going around insisting that cats tools of the devil and companions to witches can influence themselves and others to hateful and harmful action.
You are welcome to your opinion about video games– I don’t really care one way or another. But I would suggest that the bit you read many many years ago needs some updating. Insults and lies are not nearly as harmless as those telling them would like us to believe.
Alcor’s correct though. The logic that would mark video games as a waste of time equally applies to, say, reading webcomics.
Or watching football. Consuming fiction in any media (books, movies, TV). Consuming non-fiction that has no relevance to your life just because you enjoy it. Recreational fishing or hunting, when you tally the cost of your time vs. the cost of store-bought meat. The list goes on. Unless you live a very grey-minded life (and we know otherwise, since you’re here reading webcomics), you indulge in many activities that are, by your own logic, every bit as much a waste of time.
The judgement you’re making isn’t rational. You don’t think video games are a waste of time: you feel they’re a waste of time. And that feeling is based on whether or not you personally enjoy them.
It’s a simple statement that in context unpacks to hating other people’s stuff for not being your stuff. You bothered to manufacture an excuse to judge, but didn’t bother to ensure it actually made sense, rather than simply shrugging off the fact that different people like different things.
Then you tried to shift responsibility: blaming others for taking offense to an idea you manufactured specifically as an excuse to crap on other people, in order to dodge examining your own beliefs or behavior. It’s the conversational equivalent of Bart Simpson swinging his arms in circles and saying “I’m just gonna walk forward like this, and if you get hit, it’s your fault”.
As to why you’ve never heard the term “aggro” before: by your own admission you dislike video games. It’s not strange to think you avoid video-game related stuff on the net, and may likely have fewer video game people in your preferred social groups would result in fewer opportunities to encounter gamer slang. It’s a lot easier than people think to “slip through the net” on popular slang and memes if you’re only skimming through the relevant social spheres.
It also implies you may not actually be familiar with video games in general. Your mental image for “video games” may be any degree of inaccurate. Not just for all we know, but for all you know as well.
Like I said, I’m two generations older than those kids are. My grandchildren are older than them. And the only “aggro” I’ve ever heard of referred to agriculture. What used to be known as crop dusters are now called agro pilots.
Aggro is a common term used in video games, mainly MMOs, to refer to an enemy artificial intelligence aggressivly targeting your player. The term is pretty old in gaming circles, coined likely by those in your age bracket since it dates to the days of the old text multiplayer games before web browsers existed. I’m two generations removed from Selkie and learned this term on a BBS MUD.
Your version of agro, one g, is more a region specific slang to the US midwest.
Do you mean “aggro?” Because that has become so common that it’s entered modern slang. Even at that age, kids in the US would be familiar with that word.
I think it shows you’re old since majority of the comments are “what term do you mean?” since even I had to reread over and over again, until I figured out the only term that someone might not know is aggro. It’s a very common slang by people mid-30s and younger. It’s also not British, no matter what the internet says. It could have possibly started there, but it’s definitely a common American slang at this point, possibly just english speaking countries in general.
I think that others have covered the dialog very well, so I’m going to comment on the Transcript.
You know, Dave, that by not having the possessive appostrophe in the word “writers”, it completely changes the meaning of the sentence. With it, the word “block” is a noun; without it, it is a verb.
Aren’t these kids 8?
All of this dialogue feels so unrealistic. Especially the part about Amanda.
I struggle with a bit of a “Lisa Simpson Problem” sometimes, I admit.
I have a 10 and 13 year old. They were able to make connections of this sort around 6. This is completely believable to me. Children have much deeper and more insightful conversations than we adults like to give them credit for. Every time someone tries to tell me a child is “too young” to talk about/think about a subject I just remember conversations I had at age 4. My best friend died of leukemia the summer before we were to start kindergarten. He knew he was dying for close to a year. He knew that grownups would cry or get upset if he talked about it so he would talk to me. We discussed whether people in heaven got homesick and how he didn’t want to die alone. Lots of other weighty stuff. Dave, this isn’t a “Lisa Simpson problem”. This is an accurate representation of kids who have had heavy stuff in their lives.
All you have to do is be in an adjacent room, and listen in on their chatter. It’s stupid, and then it’s so insightful that your heart hurts like you’ve been Stabbed, and you want to cry,… and then it’s either really funny, or just stupid again. Do NOT underestimate the understandings of the 5–8 year old set. Or at your own peril.
I personally hate the whole style of games which made “Aggro” a common slang term; and I had to read through almost to the bottom of the comments to figure out which word was unknown.
I do have children who play (and claim they enjoy) those games. I am also an avid RPGer. I once told people, “I [took] aggregated damage when setting foot on BYU campus.” So it wasn’t a stretch to figure out when “the youngens” started using it.
I actually like your unusually accurate portrayal of young children.
Selkie’s a nonhuman wizard though, so she can get a pass. Te Fahn, meanwhile, just comes across as smart/gifted to me.
I disagree with you, Mm. I’ve been a foster parent and I work with children. Some of the things I’ve heard come out of four-year-old mouths can be incredibly insightful. Selkie sounds like she’s repeating a lesson/explanation that Todd and her grandparents have given her: ‘sometimes people are so scared and angry that they hurt other people because that’s how they’ve learned to protect themselves; it takes time, love, and practice to learn to make better choices about big feelings.’
I agree, after Amanda and Truck, it’s not surprising that Selkie has learned something about bullies and how they can become better people.
Now the real hard lesson, and the one Disney doesn’t teach often, is that some people really are too selfish and lacking in empathy to be “redeemed”.
Nah, they got that one too. Clayton in Tarzan, or Frollo in Hunchback… there’s others too. Heck, Gaston himself is an example! It’s just that… those are the ones that tend to get hoist on their own petard, and fall to their deaths. Usually because they refuse aid after the Hero shows that they’re still willing to forgive.
I disagree. I’ve heard much more sophisticated conversations out of 8 year olds. She might have gotten the idea from Grandpa Theo or Todd but the phrasing is what I would expect.
Oh sure, children having intelligent conversations is unrealistic, but aquatic humanoids is a-ok?
Selkie is literally spitting out the moral of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.
Beast (Amanda) was angry and hurt people around her until Belle (Andi) came in and brought out Beast’s inner goodness. Proving that just because someone is a jerk doesn’t mean they’re evil.
This is something I learned at the age of 8. This is from a cartoon movie that was MADE for kids. People have seem to forgotten that emotional maturity is something that kids are supposed to learn early on, and have forgotten that children’s shows and cartoons used to help parents teach this stuff so they know it as early as possible, and not when they’re a teenager rebelling against their parents.
Eight-year-old me understood that “daddy doesn’t love me” per old therapy records. Before that, six-year-old me understood that I was treated differently from my younger sister and was better off not visiting his household, despite his claims to the contrary. It took the other adults in my life until I had graduated university over a decade later to even start to understand just how accurate this assessment was.
Of course, eight-year-old me also thought that God was going to send the dinosaurs back to earth to punish humanity, sooooooooo…
Love Selkie’s new hair style. Very insightful kid too.
I’m so proud of Selkie’s growth!
So when does Te Fahn accidentally reveal Tehk is also a Beast, suffering trauma that caused him to become a horrible person? Someone living with their uncle instead of their parents obviously had something bad happen to them.
Where did those children learn that term?
I had to go look it up. Not sure whether it’s because I’m old – at least two generations older than them – or because I think video games are a major waste of time.
The dictionary says it’s British English. Where would three 8-year-old children in middle America pick up a British English term?
The dictionary also says that it is used in MMORPGA. What few video games they had in the orphanage were all completely non-violent. Selkie would not have been playing World of Warcraft.
Easy: the Internet.
Also, video games being a “waste of time” is pretty insulting to those who game with their friends as a hobby. It’s like saying reading is a waste of time. Yes, games and reading are similar. They’re both passively consuming a thing containing narrative and literary value. Just like there are lightweight novels, there are story-lite video games, but some are very deep in both categories.
I read something many many years ago. It said you could only be insulted if you let yourself be insulted. If someone says something that is not the truth, why should you be insulted by a lie? And if what they say is the truth, how could the truth be an insult?
In case that was too deep, my point is, why should my opinion on video games matter to you at all?
As for “they learned it on the internet”, I’ve been wandering around the “world wide web” since about 96 or 97. This is the first time I ever heard the term.
“If someone says something that is not the truth, why should you be insulted by a lie?”
Because it affects how people treat you. Ask anyone who had lies told about them in school, or anyone that has had to deal with enduring lies like ‘oh, those people don’t feel pain like we do’ or ‘they’re hysterical, they exaggerate everything’ instead of being taken seriously about health issues. Lies are insulting not for the untruth itself, but for their effects. Someone going around saying that elephants are pink and tiny is laughed at. Someone going around insisting that cats tools of the devil and companions to witches can influence themselves and others to hateful and harmful action.
You are welcome to your opinion about video games– I don’t really care one way or another. But I would suggest that the bit you read many many years ago needs some updating. Insults and lies are not nearly as harmless as those telling them would like us to believe.
Alcor’s correct though. The logic that would mark video games as a waste of time equally applies to, say, reading webcomics.
Or watching football. Consuming fiction in any media (books, movies, TV). Consuming non-fiction that has no relevance to your life just because you enjoy it. Recreational fishing or hunting, when you tally the cost of your time vs. the cost of store-bought meat. The list goes on. Unless you live a very grey-minded life (and we know otherwise, since you’re here reading webcomics), you indulge in many activities that are, by your own logic, every bit as much a waste of time.
The judgement you’re making isn’t rational. You don’t think video games are a waste of time: you feel they’re a waste of time. And that feeling is based on whether or not you personally enjoy them.
It’s a simple statement that in context unpacks to hating other people’s stuff for not being your stuff. You bothered to manufacture an excuse to judge, but didn’t bother to ensure it actually made sense, rather than simply shrugging off the fact that different people like different things.
Then you tried to shift responsibility: blaming others for taking offense to an idea you manufactured specifically as an excuse to crap on other people, in order to dodge examining your own beliefs or behavior. It’s the conversational equivalent of Bart Simpson swinging his arms in circles and saying “I’m just gonna walk forward like this, and if you get hit, it’s your fault”.
As to why you’ve never heard the term “aggro” before: by your own admission you dislike video games. It’s not strange to think you avoid video-game related stuff on the net, and may likely have fewer video game people in your preferred social groups would result in fewer opportunities to encounter gamer slang. It’s a lot easier than people think to “slip through the net” on popular slang and memes if you’re only skimming through the relevant social spheres.
It also implies you may not actually be familiar with video games in general. Your mental image for “video games” may be any degree of inaccurate. Not just for all we know, but for all you know as well.
Which term are you referring too?
Like I said, I’m two generations older than those kids are. My grandchildren are older than them. And the only “aggro” I’ve ever heard of referred to agriculture. What used to be known as crop dusters are now called agro pilots.
Aggro is a common term used in video games, mainly MMOs, to refer to an enemy artificial intelligence aggressivly targeting your player. The term is pretty old in gaming circles, coined likely by those in your age bracket since it dates to the days of the old text multiplayer games before web browsers existed. I’m two generations removed from Selkie and learned this term on a BBS MUD.
Your version of agro, one g, is more a region specific slang to the US midwest.
Aah. It’s just shorthand for “aggressive”, basically.
Do you mean “aggro?” Because that has become so common that it’s entered modern slang. Even at that age, kids in the US would be familiar with that word.
I think it shows you’re old since majority of the comments are “what term do you mean?” since even I had to reread over and over again, until I figured out the only term that someone might not know is aggro. It’s a very common slang by people mid-30s and younger. It’s also not British, no matter what the internet says. It could have possibly started there, but it’s definitely a common American slang at this point, possibly just english speaking countries in general.
I think that others have covered the dialog very well, so I’m going to comment on the Transcript.
You know, Dave, that by not having the possessive appostrophe in the word “writers”, it completely changes the meaning of the sentence. With it, the word “block” is a noun; without it, it is a verb.