Andi is growing as a person and as a parent. I am pleasantly surprised and pleased at how much she has. I sincerely hope she, herself, doesn’t “regress.”
Dang. Andi is right. This is potentially a real problem.
Although in Amanda’s favor, she actively tried to hide her eyes and told Tehk that she was trying not to kill him. As long as her temper doesn’t get the best of her, Amanda herself seems to be aware of this problem.
And what happens if Amanda and Selkie get that angry at each other? That used to be a common theme although they’ve gotten so much better! But what if?
There could be a difference between fighting and obliteration with Amanda. She might still use her fists more if she loses her temper than going straight for her new powers. There can be a difference between “I feel pain so everyone else must feel pain” and “I feel pain so everyone else must die”.
I would also be cautious about making the girls too scared of their powers, especially Amanda (Selkie has more positive memories associated with it due to her mother that Amanda lacks). There is a lot of jokes about the movie Frozen, but it does make a point about how if you treat such special abilities as never to be seen by others and dangerous, it can have a mental impact on the child. It can be really hard to walk that fine line of stressing the importance of safety and secrecy vs not traumatizing the child in something like this. Grandma freaking out over the powers could actually go very poorly (aka if grandma thinks that the new thing that I can do is scary, then I am scary, then I am bad, type of spiral). You can’t expect the brain of a child to have an adult level understanding of things.
The solution for this moght be to have a set time and spot where they can show off the echo abilities to each other and people in the know. So far, most of what we have seen is them practicing by themselves. If they have a time when they have permission to go “hey, watch this” there might be less of that in the long run (though even adults do stuff like that). It gives them time to be proud and show off, rather than just lessons and practicing, but also does it in a safe space. Since the girls have been learning woodworking, and already dealing with the safety issues of practicing echo abilities in unsuitable environments, it wouldn’t be a new concept to them. Also, asking the government for a good room or building to practice in local area might be a good idea. If there are going to be more human echos, the government would probably want to figure out how to train them safely with their families without accidentally burning a building down. Sarnothi probably didn’t normally have the fire issue since they lived under water.
I really like your comment and if I could add something to it Todd and Andy should talk to Pohl and even Scar even though Scar and Todd aren’t exactly on speaking terms, both of those guys are echoes and we’re raised to be echoes so they probably have a, “hey we know places showed off our powers and its safe and secure manner.”
There is a foundational flow to that idea though. Echoes are common in sarnothi culture. There it did not need to be a secret, you either were an echo or not. Practicing echo powers would have been as common as a kid practicing baseball in their back yard
Now I’m seeing a parallel with Sarnothi never using their venom, even as children. even when she was genuinely angry Selkie never bit anyone, but I think Amanda would have (though I don’t think she would now, she really has come a long ways)
The consequences might have been a bit different, especially with the venom part (though with the orphanage not allowing any kissing, even on foreheads, they might have treated biting pretty hard too). Selkie already stands out in appearance from the other kids when people come to visit. If she gets labeled a “problem child” for biting on top of that, that puts her in a really deep hole for getting adopted. Her acting out draws a lot of attention to all the differences in biology that she has, and might make her seem more animalistic than human. She might uave picked up on that when she was younger and tried to blend in more through her behavior. Hard to say though.
One thing that has been missed here– Amanda HAS to be kept “under wraps” from the government ITSELF.
What happens when the military industrial complex gets wind of a HUMAN that can wield Sarnothi destructive technology? You can BET some general is gonna get a woody envisioning platoons of laser-wielding soldiers– and Amanda is key to figure out how to do it.
Next stop Amanda and her family is spirited away to some underground lab.
Andi is growing as a person and as a parent. I am pleasantly surprised and pleased at how much she has. I sincerely hope she, herself, doesn’t “regress.”
INCOMING ECHO FIGHT!!!1!!11!!!1???/ ?!?1?!?!?!?/?!!?!?!?/1/!?!!??
Dang. Andi is right. This is potentially a real problem.
Although in Amanda’s favor, she actively tried to hide her eyes and told Tehk that she was trying not to kill him. As long as her temper doesn’t get the best of her, Amanda herself seems to be aware of this problem.
And what happens if Amanda and Selkie get that angry at each other? That used to be a common theme although they’ve gotten so much better! But what if?
Dueling Echo kids could level the house.
Todd isn’t grasping this but I hope he does soon.
Yea, between her and Selkie, she does seem the more sensible of the two when it comes to hiding her power.
There could be a difference between fighting and obliteration with Amanda. She might still use her fists more if she loses her temper than going straight for her new powers. There can be a difference between “I feel pain so everyone else must feel pain” and “I feel pain so everyone else must die”.
I would also be cautious about making the girls too scared of their powers, especially Amanda (Selkie has more positive memories associated with it due to her mother that Amanda lacks). There is a lot of jokes about the movie Frozen, but it does make a point about how if you treat such special abilities as never to be seen by others and dangerous, it can have a mental impact on the child. It can be really hard to walk that fine line of stressing the importance of safety and secrecy vs not traumatizing the child in something like this. Grandma freaking out over the powers could actually go very poorly (aka if grandma thinks that the new thing that I can do is scary, then I am scary, then I am bad, type of spiral). You can’t expect the brain of a child to have an adult level understanding of things.
The solution for this moght be to have a set time and spot where they can show off the echo abilities to each other and people in the know. So far, most of what we have seen is them practicing by themselves. If they have a time when they have permission to go “hey, watch this” there might be less of that in the long run (though even adults do stuff like that). It gives them time to be proud and show off, rather than just lessons and practicing, but also does it in a safe space. Since the girls have been learning woodworking, and already dealing with the safety issues of practicing echo abilities in unsuitable environments, it wouldn’t be a new concept to them. Also, asking the government for a good room or building to practice in local area might be a good idea. If there are going to be more human echos, the government would probably want to figure out how to train them safely with their families without accidentally burning a building down. Sarnothi probably didn’t normally have the fire issue since they lived under water.
I really like your comment and if I could add something to it Todd and Andy should talk to Pohl and even Scar even though Scar and Todd aren’t exactly on speaking terms, both of those guys are echoes and we’re raised to be echoes so they probably have a, “hey we know places showed off our powers and its safe and secure manner.”
There is a foundational flow to that idea though. Echoes are common in sarnothi culture. There it did not need to be a secret, you either were an echo or not. Practicing echo powers would have been as common as a kid practicing baseball in their back yard
i meant flaw
Very, very good point.
Now I’m seeing a parallel with Sarnothi never using their venom, even as children. even when she was genuinely angry Selkie never bit anyone, but I think Amanda would have (though I don’t think she would now, she really has come a long ways)
The consequences might have been a bit different, especially with the venom part (though with the orphanage not allowing any kissing, even on foreheads, they might have treated biting pretty hard too). Selkie already stands out in appearance from the other kids when people come to visit. If she gets labeled a “problem child” for biting on top of that, that puts her in a really deep hole for getting adopted. Her acting out draws a lot of attention to all the differences in biology that she has, and might make her seem more animalistic than human. She might uave picked up on that when she was younger and tried to blend in more through her behavior. Hard to say though.
…nor anyone she’s looking at.
One thing that has been missed here– Amanda HAS to be kept “under wraps” from the government ITSELF.
What happens when the military industrial complex gets wind of a HUMAN that can wield Sarnothi destructive technology? You can BET some general is gonna get a woody envisioning platoons of laser-wielding soldiers– and Amanda is key to figure out how to do it.
Next stop Amanda and her family is spirited away to some underground lab.
Not good.