I’m going to chalk this up to Grandpa Theo being worried about the girls for all of the obvious reasons. Because this strikes me as being very un-Grandpa-like of him otherwise.
Could you extrapolate? I feel like while he’s reacting with a bit more ire than is typical of him, that stems from some fairly obvious issues with how things are being handled, and it’s in keeping with his motivations — family safety, for example, which also includes avoiding public scrutiny and keeping the government interference to a minimum.
And I’ve got some of his same irritation regarding the way Todd and Andi are failing to anticipate many of the problems that stem from, well, basically kids being kids and not grasping how serious these issues are.
Which, to be fair, is partly because neither Todd nor Andi has had the formative years of parenting. They got thrown in with adolescents and have to deal with that life stage without having gotten the years leading up to that, so it’s unreasonable to expect them to be as skilled as parents who started with babies. Plus, they’re dealing with kids who have trauma and now also have powers that humans are not used to dealing with.
So maybe it’s just my Genre Savviness that’s making me judge them more harshly. Hmm. But yeah, I’d like to see those two step up a bit in how they prepare the kids — not just hand them some basic rules and expect them to abide by the rules 100% of the time and be logical and reasonable and consistent (things that not even adults can be).
Grandpa has always struck me as a snarky smartass. He’ll stir the pot to see what comes up – like he did with that board game way back when Amanda & Selkie were first together in the family. “Wanted to find out, found out” (paraphrasing) about how they interact at that point.
Or snarky about calling Echo ability “hellfire” like he did in the last strip.
We’ve just never seen him angry and in “blaming the parents” mode before and to me it just seems off.
I totally understand all the reasons that others are saying it’s about time someone called Todd & Andi out on this, but seeing this reaction coming from Grandpa Theo just seems strange. Grandma Mari has always seemed more like the “brooks no nonsense” grandparent to me. I could see it coming from her. Grandpa also brooks no nonsense but he has up to this point done it in an almost humorous way. The girls knew they were in trouble but that Grandpa wasn’t angry so much as trying to teach them a lesson in a way that doesn’t make them afraid.
I dunno. Maybe someone does need to drive home to the girls that they should be afraid of the consequences of others finding out about their Echo abilities. I think he’s mostly worried about the girls and it’s expressing itself as anger (and yes, I understand that it’s justified) at their parents.
That’s exactly what it is. My kids have the same disability that my brother did, and Theo is acting EXACTLY like my father did early on. He’s pissed now, he will calm down before having a agitating heart-to-heart with his son later, I’ll guarantee.
Theo is kinda saying what I’ve been thinking for awhile. Todd is obsessed with “getting back to normalcy” any time something flares up and Anddy while she will deal with what’s in front of her well enough if she can avoid conflict she will. And it just feels like there is no real follow up with the kids outside of crisis mode from any parent outside of scolding them when they act out the same as if they had stolen a pudding.
This reminds me in some ways of some material in Stephen Kings’ “Firestarter”.
At least these kids are a lot older than Charlie was when she started to manifest her abilities.
This whole arc really feels why many super hero writers avoid letting the goverment or even parents know the abilites of their teenage super heroes.
Because normally, the super powered teen is learning their powers but the parent is not taking direct control or responsiblity of their child’s powers
But now the girls arent even allowed that pace of self discovery
And the responsibility of controling their powers is not even theirs anymore, but mom and dad. The mom and dad who dont have powers, and who also have the goverment breathing down their necks now.
Most writers keep it simple, but this complicated web really hits home of why secret indetities, even for people loke batman and superman, are actually important
Though one of the things that most superhero stories with teenage protagonists don’t show (even if they reference it- X-men references it, for instance, and Worm straight up shows it) are all the kids and teens who, while figuring out their powers, kill themselves and/or others. If a 10 year old figures out they can fly, and it’s not Kryptonian unlimited; they’re gonna go RIGHT up, and get exhausted at 10,000 feet, and plummet to their death.
Give me a break, kids do what kids what to do. When I was a kid I was honestly a little asshole. I just didn’t get caught doing the stuff I did. She always thought I was an “easy” kid, but she wasn’t around for stuff like when I was shooting out street lamps with a wrist rocket.
Children cannot have mystical power and be expected to respect it or it’s rules. Just like my Father should not have given an 8 year old a wrist rocket and told to “have fun”.
That would be why, in this particular situation, it’s crucial for the parents (and other adults) to take more effort to impress upon the girls the consequences. That, or move to a commune somewhere where the only people in the area are already secret keepers, but that doesn’t sound optimal, especially given the stated aim of seeing how to integrate the two communities.
If a kid somehow gets their hands on a dangerous weapon, you don’t just shrug and go “hey, kids’ll be kids.” Even if the dangerous weapon happens to be a superpower that can’t be taken away.
Heck, that’s part of why Selkie was given the suppression device — it was a useful way to lock her powers away until such time as she was old enough to use them responsibly.
Shit… This…. This hits a little close to home. A grandfather not fully understanding what the parents are going through…. However from what we’ve seen this is more Andi’s lack of comprehension than Todd’s. I hope that Todd can help them see that.
I wonder what Todd thinks of firearms. I mean, this could be compared to teaching children how to shoot, which in some communities (farming/hunting areas) gets taught early on, even as a rite of passage, either to protect the farm (scare off predators, kill rats) or to bring in sustenance (learning to hunt, bagging your first buck, etc.).
But as we learned back when we took the firearms training class as teens: You don’t ever practice firearms close to a house. You go to a dedicated place where there’s a solid backdrop and no shots are going to harm anything they’re not intended to hit. (A lesson later drummed home when my brother used a bb gun near our house and shot out our neighbor’s car window — IIRC, the foliage was dense enough between us and the neighbor that we didn’t even know he was aiming toward a car in the first place.)
On that comparison, it could be impressed upon the girls that in order to work on their powers, they need to go to a specific place, and the parents could prioritize getting to that place multiple times a week. Or perhaps they’re allowed to practice *certain* abilities in their room, but other abilities need to be in the safe location.
Wow. Okay.
I’m going to chalk this up to Grandpa Theo being worried about the girls for all of the obvious reasons. Because this strikes me as being very un-Grandpa-like of him otherwise.
Could you extrapolate? I feel like while he’s reacting with a bit more ire than is typical of him, that stems from some fairly obvious issues with how things are being handled, and it’s in keeping with his motivations — family safety, for example, which also includes avoiding public scrutiny and keeping the government interference to a minimum.
And I’ve got some of his same irritation regarding the way Todd and Andi are failing to anticipate many of the problems that stem from, well, basically kids being kids and not grasping how serious these issues are.
Which, to be fair, is partly because neither Todd nor Andi has had the formative years of parenting. They got thrown in with adolescents and have to deal with that life stage without having gotten the years leading up to that, so it’s unreasonable to expect them to be as skilled as parents who started with babies. Plus, they’re dealing with kids who have trauma and now also have powers that humans are not used to dealing with.
So maybe it’s just my Genre Savviness that’s making me judge them more harshly. Hmm. But yeah, I’d like to see those two step up a bit in how they prepare the kids — not just hand them some basic rules and expect them to abide by the rules 100% of the time and be logical and reasonable and consistent (things that not even adults can be).
Grandpa has always struck me as a snarky smartass. He’ll stir the pot to see what comes up – like he did with that board game way back when Amanda & Selkie were first together in the family. “Wanted to find out, found out” (paraphrasing) about how they interact at that point.
Or snarky about calling Echo ability “hellfire” like he did in the last strip.
We’ve just never seen him angry and in “blaming the parents” mode before and to me it just seems off.
I totally understand all the reasons that others are saying it’s about time someone called Todd & Andi out on this, but seeing this reaction coming from Grandpa Theo just seems strange. Grandma Mari has always seemed more like the “brooks no nonsense” grandparent to me. I could see it coming from her. Grandpa also brooks no nonsense but he has up to this point done it in an almost humorous way. The girls knew they were in trouble but that Grandpa wasn’t angry so much as trying to teach them a lesson in a way that doesn’t make them afraid.
I dunno. Maybe someone does need to drive home to the girls that they should be afraid of the consequences of others finding out about their Echo abilities. I think he’s mostly worried about the girls and it’s expressing itself as anger (and yes, I understand that it’s justified) at their parents.
That’s exactly what it is. My kids have the same disability that my brother did, and Theo is acting EXACTLY like my father did early on. He’s pissed now, he will calm down before having a agitating heart-to-heart with his son later, I’ll guarantee.
grandpa is of an age where he was probably drafted and had a security clearance. He KNOWS the deal from personal experience.
Theo is kinda saying what I’ve been thinking for awhile. Todd is obsessed with “getting back to normalcy” any time something flares up and Anddy while she will deal with what’s in front of her well enough if she can avoid conflict she will. And it just feels like there is no real follow up with the kids outside of crisis mode from any parent outside of scolding them when they act out the same as if they had stolen a pudding.
This reminds me in some ways of some material in Stephen Kings’ “Firestarter”.
At least these kids are a lot older than Charlie was when she started to manifest her abilities.
This whole arc really feels why many super hero writers avoid letting the goverment or even parents know the abilites of their teenage super heroes.
Because normally, the super powered teen is learning their powers but the parent is not taking direct control or responsiblity of their child’s powers
But now the girls arent even allowed that pace of self discovery
And the responsibility of controling their powers is not even theirs anymore, but mom and dad. The mom and dad who dont have powers, and who also have the goverment breathing down their necks now.
Most writers keep it simple, but this complicated web really hits home of why secret indetities, even for people loke batman and superman, are actually important
Though one of the things that most superhero stories with teenage protagonists don’t show (even if they reference it- X-men references it, for instance, and Worm straight up shows it) are all the kids and teens who, while figuring out their powers, kill themselves and/or others. If a 10 year old figures out they can fly, and it’s not Kryptonian unlimited; they’re gonna go RIGHT up, and get exhausted at 10,000 feet, and plummet to their death.
Give me a break, kids do what kids what to do. When I was a kid I was honestly a little asshole. I just didn’t get caught doing the stuff I did. She always thought I was an “easy” kid, but she wasn’t around for stuff like when I was shooting out street lamps with a wrist rocket.
Children cannot have mystical power and be expected to respect it or it’s rules. Just like my Father should not have given an 8 year old a wrist rocket and told to “have fun”.
That would be why, in this particular situation, it’s crucial for the parents (and other adults) to take more effort to impress upon the girls the consequences. That, or move to a commune somewhere where the only people in the area are already secret keepers, but that doesn’t sound optimal, especially given the stated aim of seeing how to integrate the two communities.
If a kid somehow gets their hands on a dangerous weapon, you don’t just shrug and go “hey, kids’ll be kids.” Even if the dangerous weapon happens to be a superpower that can’t be taken away.
Heck, that’s part of why Selkie was given the suppression device — it was a useful way to lock her powers away until such time as she was old enough to use them responsibly.
Shit… This…. This hits a little close to home. A grandfather not fully understanding what the parents are going through…. However from what we’ve seen this is more Andi’s lack of comprehension than Todd’s. I hope that Todd can help them see that.
id argue that he DOES know. my guess is you dont have family that were draftees do you.
Not what I meant… There is a reason I said that it hits close to home.
They really need a relatively safe space to explore their powers without getting too weapon-y.
I wonder what Todd thinks of firearms. I mean, this could be compared to teaching children how to shoot, which in some communities (farming/hunting areas) gets taught early on, even as a rite of passage, either to protect the farm (scare off predators, kill rats) or to bring in sustenance (learning to hunt, bagging your first buck, etc.).
But as we learned back when we took the firearms training class as teens: You don’t ever practice firearms close to a house. You go to a dedicated place where there’s a solid backdrop and no shots are going to harm anything they’re not intended to hit. (A lesson later drummed home when my brother used a bb gun near our house and shot out our neighbor’s car window — IIRC, the foliage was dense enough between us and the neighbor that we didn’t even know he was aiming toward a car in the first place.)
On that comparison, it could be impressed upon the girls that in order to work on their powers, they need to go to a specific place, and the parents could prioritize getting to that place multiple times a week. Or perhaps they’re allowed to practice *certain* abilities in their room, but other abilities need to be in the safe location.
Is Andi’s full name pronounced ANN-dree-uh or ahn-DRAY-uh?