Blargl
↓ Transcript
POHL: Selkie, whatever is happening here, NO ONE knew about it. We're all going to have to work together to figure out what's best.
SELKIE: It's just nots FAIR. Why's she get to takes the Cool Thing for herself?
POHL: Selkie, no one has taken anything from you, and you aren't going to help YOURSELF by teling yourself that.
POHL: Whatever is causing this to happen to Amanda right now, I think I can safely say she didn't set out to do it, and she DOESN'T want it.
AMANDA (VO): BLEEARGH!
POHL: Because I'm pretty sure whatever it is... it's hurting her.
AMANDA (VO): BWAAARGLLL!!
SELKIE: It's just nots FAIR. Why's she get to takes the Cool Thing for herself?
POHL: Selkie, no one has taken anything from you, and you aren't going to help YOURSELF by teling yourself that.
POHL: Whatever is causing this to happen to Amanda right now, I think I can safely say she didn't set out to do it, and she DOESN'T want it.
AMANDA (VO): BLEEARGH!
POHL: Because I'm pretty sure whatever it is... it's hurting her.
AMANDA (VO): BWAAARGLLL!!
Beetlejuice Bubbles is what Ive started calling Amandas warpd text.
Poor Amanda, I hope it is only her motion-sickness reacting to too much swirly and not that the Echo resonance isn’t like radioactive or something to humans.
Yep. That would really suck. Amanda’s been struggling too, and she didn’t ask for this.
I hope so, too, but the Beetlejuice bubble makes me think it’s not just motion sickness đ
I’m thinking (hoping) that “Beetlejuice Bubble” is just a reference to the garish black and white stripes with fluorescent accents — kinda like his striped suit and yellow-green hair.
I swear if Selkie’s hurt and pain gets overlooked yet again for Amanda… there’s just way too many “selkie your feelings aren’t valid” lessons that repeat and it’s bugging me. Yes, I know that right now the sick kid needs priority but Pohl and Todd need to recognize there is serious, valid hurt and anger Selkie still has.
Also, comments on the last strip that Selkie is “learning how amanda felt back at the orphanage” make me sick. She was an abandoned child in the care of people who couldn’t even figure out how to feed her without making her ill. She doesn’t need to “understand” that Amanda was hurt, as if it somehow justifies years of bullying that led to incidents such as Truck physically injuring Selkie.
This. All of this. People here in the comments keep badgering me anytime I bring up Amanda’s bullying, because apparently all is well now that she’s not immediately doing it. And get being abused means Selkie’s feelings aren’t valid. And Amanda had it worse at the orphanage. That’s so wrong.
Dave can write whatever story he wants, but I’m Team Don’t Let Amanda Off The Hook.
I agree, I don’t want to make assumptions but it’s just too common that the bullied person always has to be the one to forgive and forget. Another common trope I’m starting to see is the favoritism of the bio kid over the adopted kid.
Another thing in the comments is the idea that the “disabled kid” or “special kid” in whatever fashion, is eating up the attention from those poor “normal kids” who have to suffer through being totally forgotten or whatever. Like, I know this happens, but it’s not the first child’s fault they have special needs. It doesn’t forgive any torment from the other kids.
Oh yeah, and also Pohl confirmed Amanda was “better at it.”
Selkie: “Why is she already BETTER AT IT than me?”
Polh: “I really don’t know.”
Flat out confirmation to a kid brain, even honestly to me as a reader. He probably didn’t mean it that way and just got his antecedents mixed up there (as it were), but I fully expect Selkie to see that as very condemning.
Pohl, the first step is denying that she’s “better at it” or you’ve lost this completely.
“She doesnât need to âunderstandâ that Amanda was hurt, as if it somehow justifies years of bullying that led to incidents such as Truck physically injuring Selkie.”
The two things are not mutually inclusive. And yes she does. Because learning to understand that people have pain and needs and issues, and that even the people who hurt us are still people with failings, rather than irredeemably evil demons, is part of growing up and learning to be a compassionate adult. That doesn’t make abuse OK, or excuse it, or even mean she has to forgive Amanda (personally I would have loved it if Dave had included some family therapy, in addition to mentioning Amanda’s therapist). Only that she might be able to say ‘OK, I get it’, to why a FIVE-YEAR-OLD reacted badly to being ignored, when she’s doing the same thing now, even if that doesn’t excuse the subsequent behavior. It’s the path to letting go of the fundamental attribution error.
Poor Amanda indeed. I canât imagine that constant screaming and movement is much fun for anybody. In all honesty, Iâd probably be throwing up too. I hope Pohl can figure out how to help her and I hope he does so quickly.
Not everyone who gets power wants it.
And besides, plenty of classic superpowered people have a slightly stronger rival and/or ally with similar powers to keep them on their toes.
Spiderman and Venom
Sonic and Shadow
Megaman and Bass
etc. etc.
Well, atleast she finally got her revenge.
Her reaction shows that even in her anger, Selkie does care for her sister. Doesn’t mean down the road she is not going to give Amanda the business about puking so much.
I think it’s also that while she can be as vindictive and bloodthirsty as any other eight-year-old, much like most other people who aren’t actively sociopathic, actually seeing someone they wished ill on suffer isn’t nearly as fulfilling as their fond imaginations made it seem out to be, and now she’s feeling guilty for wishing that on someone.
Exactly! Heck, I am 55 and I tend to experience guilt and sadness instead of Schadenfreude when stuff like this happens. Most of the time…
I’m guessing Amanda would want it if she could control it enough to not vomit every time it showed up lol. I mean who wouldn’t want magic powers? đ
All above comments aside, the last panel says volumes; I’ll let Dave take the strip where he intends it to go.
Website won’t let me reply to Alcor directly so I’m making a new thread
Alcor:
Oh yeah, and also Pohl confirmed Amanda was âbetter at it.â
Selkie: âWhy is she already BETTER AT IT than me?â
Polh: âI really donât know.â
Flat out confirmation to a kid brain, even honestly to me as a reader.
He probably didnât mean it that way and just got his antecedents
mixed up there (as it were), but I fully expect Selkie to see that as
very condemning.
Pohl, the first step is denying that sheâs âbetter at itâ or youâve lost
this completely.
I agree, Pohl absolutely shouldn’t have said that. I think both he and Selkie are forgetting that Selkie SHOULD have been able to do fire-eyes already if not for the suppressor. Amanda isn’t “better at it” in that sense.
Honestly – under strange new circumstances the adults around her donât understand, making her physically ill in the process? I feel like this is AMANDA getting a taste of what SELKIE experienced when they first got to the orphanage.
Also, yeah, I feel for Selkie here. I suspect this is going the âAmandaâs not the only one and the orphanage needs checkingâ route, which should at least change the tenor of her troubles – if it was Plo Quarâs inhibitor that did it as suspected, Selkieâs probably going to have some serious angst about accidentally making her friends sick as well. But either way, the âyour bully is your dadâs long-lost biological daughterâ situation is incredibly unfortunate for her, even as itâs forcing Amanda into making peace with her now. Theyâre never going to be totally rid of each other, and Selkie definitely has some trauma thatâs been going unaddressed around the bullying she experienced. Maybe now that itâs coming to the forefront, Todd will think about therapy for her as well?
(Incidentally, anyone else want to yell at the government redactors and the Sarnothi involved in her placement – and we know thereâs at least one whose name escapes me right now – for completely failing to give the orphanage adequate information on their new charge? You know your species are obligate carnivores and the species youâre putting her with are not. They would still have had to trial and error some things, and Selkie not speaking English would still have put that on a priority so she could communicate what she needed, but they could at least have skipped the part where they accidentally poisoned the poor kid. That situation wasnât on either of the girls, and while the orphanage contributed to Amandaâs trauma, Iâm certain it was in large part because they didnât have the manpower to do right by them in that moment and ânot poisoning or killing Selkieâ understandably took immediate priority. If they knew going in Selkie was another species and hereâs their requirements, that might have freed up at least a little bandwidth for Amandaâs serious troubles – and shutting the bullying down BEFORE it became an entrenched dynamic.)
Agreed that there was some *serious* irresponsibility in not preparing the orphanage for Selkie’s arrival. It’s almost as bad as not telling them about a life-threatening peanut allergy — at least Selkie just gets sick when she eats plants, rather than dies.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Selkie’s arrival not known by the govt until she was already there? They may have wanted to keep the not human thing a secret, but they couldn’t have known to give a list of forbidden foods and substances until they’d confirmed there was a Sarnothi there.
We know that her mom brought her to the surface, but we don’t know whether her mom gave her to the orphanage or to the government. It’s an interesting question.
Not certain, but I was operating under the assumption someone knew given that comic way back in the archives (which I canât find right now) talking about sending more Sarnothi refugee kids to the orphanage because they had experience now with Selkie, back before everything went public. It implies she was being used as a test case, but Iâd need to do a full archive binge of the earlier material to check.
I like the name.
And it looks like the flame eyes kicked in again, which is concerning.
Fast forward ten years I see signs saying, “Those With Echo Sensitivity Should NOT Proceed Past This Point” popping up around the country.