(seriously though, this page is great. Did Todd provoke him on purpose to get the truth? I just really hope Selkie isn’t still in listening radius of Scar…)
That is the question of: would you want to know. Scar is taking completely away the choice from Selkie, though it is hard saying how easy it is to present that information as a choice. I think the key point in this is that Scar thinks she deserves better. Todd is right that it is Selkie’s choice to know the truth and decide whether she wants Scar in her life or not. I think most kids would want the “I regret the horrible things that I did and you deserve better” dad over the “I don’t care” or “I am proud of the horrible things that I did” dad.
Maybe the best way to go about it is to have her watch the star wars movies at a separate time and make a discussion of character relationships (so as to hide the true point of the matter). Might get too close to homework for her liking, but discussing Luke and Darrh Vader’s relationship, how Luke ended up deciding he didn’t want to give up on his dad and how she feels about that. I have seen some interesting discussions on how Leia would have reacted if she was trained as a jedi instead.
I have ALL the respect for characters/people who use stories in this way, to get at the philosophy and feelings before the reality can be revealed (or not).
There’s a fanfic I can never find… let’s see, how could I describe this for those unfamiliar with the franchise? Before the show began, the main character faked his death to protect his fiancee, and he doesn’t get to interact with her again until the epilogue. And there’s a lot of angst to discuss about what he did and why, and how his choices affected her in various ways.
But in the fic, a character sends her a book that basically describes what happened to him, as though it were a fictional story. And she’s an illustrator, so it sent it to her as though it were just another job, where she was supposed to read the book and then make the cover art. But in reading the book, she figured out the matching details enough to realize that it was really about her (supposedly dead) fiance, and so by the time she found him (earlier than in the show), she knew enough to make sense of the situation.
It was a great way to handle that. I could definitely see that sort of thing working here. Except of course that Selkie is an inveterate eavesdropper—-
I wonder is it possible to do like a DNA test to see if Selkie is Scar’s biological daughter or not? Also how long does it take for a Sarnoth to begin showing signs of pregnancy and when do they lay their egg?
We really don’t know if they haven’t. They are pretty advanced, its not impossible for them to to do so.
And even if they haven’t, there is always the possibility they have some esoteric way to determine relations. Only way they wouldn’t is if they have very open views on family and clan, which I doubt based on the comic.
I wonder if this is hitting Todd too hard in HIS past as well. Was there a time that people lied to him about something to do with his bio-family because they thought they knew best?
Not really? We know from the flashback Todd had that he was old enough to remember his bio-parents and that at least one was abusive enough that he was taken away.
Not in the situation where he was the child in said bio-family. In terms of “lie relating to one’s bio-child” I can think one ONE particular example that involved Todd…
I’m not sure exactly how he’d connect the scenarios in his head, but having strong feelings come up around being lied to about family relations would make sense.
Yup, that’s the one. He looks at Scar and sees Andi, and despite some of his mixed feelings regarding Andi, he’s come to appreciate that she’s done what she could to make things right and has been doing her best to make a new start from a bad foundation.
And Amanda deserved better than to be left to strangers, and having to reintegrate with her mother is far more difficult now than it would’ve been when she was younger. The damage has been done, and the trauma will take a long time to work through.
And with Selkie, although she’s been brought into a very loving and supportive family, she still has abandonment issues, and she’s desperate to figure out where she belongs and how to balance her original heritage with her new family, and how that affects her powers and her future. She needs a fuller picture. And since the mom is missing, well, if the dad’s here then she should have a chance to get to know him.
And as they say, if the child is old enough to ask about a topic, they’re old enough to know about it (in an age-appropriate way).
He is afraid, not of paying the consequences for being what he was – I believe he is a better person now, of Selkie choosing not to see him as her father and being ashamed or afraid of him. He is afraid of what this vibrant little girl’s life and energy will become if she is acknowledged as the ‘daughter of the farmer.’ He is okay with being hated, but not okay with his daughter suffering for his mistakes. Lying is easy. Living in the truth and accepting what comes? That’s more courage than he may have.
I’ve just been getting this vibe from other things Scar has said to himself. Was Plo Kar cheating on him? It would fit with her “Me First” attitude. And might be a reason why Scar would be unsure. Maybe he really IS unsure, and has the double reason of “I don’t want her to have a father like me.” and “I don’t want to say I am, then she finds out later I’m not.”
I mean, if you go back and read it, it IS possible that Scar is paraphrasing Todd, rather than making a declaration. Written text lacks the all-important inflections. Maybe Scar is saying “Who are you to say ‘This wretched monster is what my daughter deserves’?”
“Tried to” is the important part of that. He *tried to* put a collar on Plo Quar and sell her for her bounty as a “war criminal.” Her failed on both counts, and Plo gave him his scars and took his arm in repayment.
Scar really does get a vote. Kids aren’t automatically superior to everyone else. Scar deserves rights over what he does with his story and whether he is going to leave a very mixed mark on Selkie’s life. He lost his status as Selkie’s father (or not?) as a result, but even if he’s being offered it back, he *can* refuse it.
Perhaps, but that can also come with revoking the privilege of being in her life as well. It really does seem that he wants to be a part of her life but doesn’t want to be honest with her as to why. I would be full on accepting him not wanting her to know the truth if he wanted nothing to do with her life. It becomes more complicated when you want “teacher”, “family friend” or “family” status. I don’t think you are allowed to dictate all the terms in that case.
I can understand where Scar is coming from. He did very monstrous things; he chose to do those monstrous things. He wasn’t coerced and he wasn’t unaware of what he was doing. As far as he’s concerned, he’s irredeemable and is actively trying to protect Selkie from the burden of knowing her (probable) birth father can never undo the terrible things he’s done, and he genuinely doesn’t feel he deserves to be in her life as anything more than an occasional tutor and “favorite uncle,” to use a trope.
And then there’s the threat from the village chief about if it’s ever confirmed Selkie is indeed Scar’s biological offspring. The onus of Scar’s debt will fall on her shoulders immediately and she WILL become an indentured servant in the eyes of others. And both Todd and Mr. Brown will quite literally go to war with them over it. *I* would, if it was my kid.
I want to Side with Scar for a moment on this one. He realizes what an ugly, deformed, black-hearted, monster he is. he’s done awful things, including wrecked something beautiful, for the sake of his own desires and greed.
he KNOWS this.
he sees the remains of that one BRIGHT, beautiful moment, before he went and screwed it all up. its not that he doesnt WANT to be a good man, he feels he destroyed every chance and right he had to BE that good man. he chased away a pregnant woman, she maimed and ravaged him, and now even his own body is no longer whole, reliant on echo machines.
More machine than man, twisted and Evil….
well. no. not totally. others have mentioned here, his feeling of tying Selkie to his failures, that his own actions will somehow *taint* her. (for all we know there may be something to this…after all, Dr. Terrorhammer may come from something besides Selkies imagination)
he is a man who is, well, drowning in his grief. knows his daughter is going to be used and manipulated, and doesnt know what to do to protect her, and perhaps feels he has no right to.
hence when Selkie asks he feels he must lie, to protect her.
maybe this is part of Todds plan too.
to show him he’s NOT a monster, if he doesnt choose to be.
that he can still be part of her life, even if it may not be the part he wishes he could be. or maybe she’ll luck out and have two daddies (and not in the usual way) who will make her stronger for it.
Selkie is a person. She is an adoptee. And so is her father. So he knows what it’s like to be one.
I ain’t budging on this. My mom was an adoptee. If a kid wants to know, they should have a right to know. Mind you, story wise, I love this and it makes total sense to be what’s happening. Man I love Todd
Scar is telling Selkie “zero chance I’m your biodad” and “your biodad must have been a good person”.
As someone who had shit bioparents, I think Todd wants to be able to acknowledge to Selkie that bioparents don’t have to “definitely have been good”, as part of this – and also that if the truth comes out later, she will have to both deal with the truth and being lied to, all at once.
Someone pushed the Scar button.
You shouldn’t a did that.
(seriously though, this page is great. Did Todd provoke him on purpose to get the truth? I just really hope Selkie isn’t still in listening radius of Scar…)
She likely us. Sound carries much farther in water than air.
He is indoors, though, so depending on whether those windows have glass in them, it could interrupt the medium enough to muffled the sound.
Seems like the voice device was not designed with enraged shouting in mind.
Or his translator doesn’t do swears.
‘ERROR: No English word found for person who has inappropriate relations with eels.’
“Her Father”
That is the question of: would you want to know. Scar is taking completely away the choice from Selkie, though it is hard saying how easy it is to present that information as a choice. I think the key point in this is that Scar thinks she deserves better. Todd is right that it is Selkie’s choice to know the truth and decide whether she wants Scar in her life or not. I think most kids would want the “I regret the horrible things that I did and you deserve better” dad over the “I don’t care” or “I am proud of the horrible things that I did” dad.
Maybe the best way to go about it is to have her watch the star wars movies at a separate time and make a discussion of character relationships (so as to hide the true point of the matter). Might get too close to homework for her liking, but discussing Luke and Darrh Vader’s relationship, how Luke ended up deciding he didn’t want to give up on his dad and how she feels about that. I have seen some interesting discussions on how Leia would have reacted if she was trained as a jedi instead.
I have ALL the respect for characters/people who use stories in this way, to get at the philosophy and feelings before the reality can be revealed (or not).
There’s a fanfic I can never find… let’s see, how could I describe this for those unfamiliar with the franchise? Before the show began, the main character faked his death to protect his fiancee, and he doesn’t get to interact with her again until the epilogue. And there’s a lot of angst to discuss about what he did and why, and how his choices affected her in various ways.
But in the fic, a character sends her a book that basically describes what happened to him, as though it were a fictional story. And she’s an illustrator, so it sent it to her as though it were just another job, where she was supposed to read the book and then make the cover art. But in reading the book, she figured out the matching details enough to realize that it was really about her (supposedly dead) fiance, and so by the time she found him (earlier than in the show), she knew enough to make sense of the situation.
It was a great way to handle that. I could definitely see that sort of thing working here. Except of course that Selkie is an inveterate eavesdropper—-
I wonder is it possible to do like a DNA test to see if Selkie is Scar’s biological daughter or not? Also how long does it take for a Sarnoth to begin showing signs of pregnancy and when do they lay their egg?
That would require them to have sequenced the Sarnothi genome in the first place, which I’m pretty sure they haven’t.
We really don’t know if they haven’t. They are pretty advanced, its not impossible for them to to do so.
And even if they haven’t, there is always the possibility they have some esoteric way to determine relations. Only way they wouldn’t is if they have very open views on family and clan, which I doubt based on the comic.
sequencing a genome isnt actually that slow of a process anymore.
Thought known an organism’s genome well enought to know how to use it to discern parentage would still take quite a few years still
I wonder if this is hitting Todd too hard in HIS past as well. Was there a time that people lied to him about something to do with his bio-family because they thought they knew best?
Not really? We know from the flashback Todd had that he was old enough to remember his bio-parents and that at least one was abusive enough that he was taken away.
I think they meant Andy, but thats also a really good point.
Not in the situation where he was the child in said bio-family. In terms of “lie relating to one’s bio-child” I can think one ONE particular example that involved Todd…
I’m not sure exactly how he’d connect the scenarios in his head, but having strong feelings come up around being lied to about family relations would make sense.
Yup, that’s the one. He looks at Scar and sees Andi, and despite some of his mixed feelings regarding Andi, he’s come to appreciate that she’s done what she could to make things right and has been doing her best to make a new start from a bad foundation.
And Amanda deserved better than to be left to strangers, and having to reintegrate with her mother is far more difficult now than it would’ve been when she was younger. The damage has been done, and the trauma will take a long time to work through.
And with Selkie, although she’s been brought into a very loving and supportive family, she still has abandonment issues, and she’s desperate to figure out where she belongs and how to balance her original heritage with her new family, and how that affects her powers and her future. She needs a fuller picture. And since the mom is missing, well, if the dad’s here then she should have a chance to get to know him.
And as they say, if the child is old enough to ask about a topic, they’re old enough to know about it (in an age-appropriate way).
Feeeeeeels bro. Feels.
Scar is afraid.
He is afraid, not of paying the consequences for being what he was – I believe he is a better person now, of Selkie choosing not to see him as her father and being ashamed or afraid of him. He is afraid of what this vibrant little girl’s life and energy will become if she is acknowledged as the ‘daughter of the farmer.’ He is okay with being hated, but not okay with his daughter suffering for his mistakes. Lying is easy. Living in the truth and accepting what comes? That’s more courage than he may have.
I hope she does hear… and I hope she gives him a hug and a talking to. Selkie is a lot more mature than she lets on.
And next comic, Selkie is in the doorway, heard Scar call her his daughter, and is upset that he didn’t tell her.
Do we know why Scar and Plo Kar broke up?
I’ve just been getting this vibe from other things Scar has said to himself. Was Plo Kar cheating on him? It would fit with her “Me First” attitude. And might be a reason why Scar would be unsure. Maybe he really IS unsure, and has the double reason of “I don’t want her to have a father like me.” and “I don’t want to say I am, then she finds out later I’m not.”
I mean, if you go back and read it, it IS possible that Scar is paraphrasing Todd, rather than making a declaration. Written text lacks the all-important inflections. Maybe Scar is saying “Who are you to say ‘This wretched monster is what my daughter deserves’?”
…he tried to put a collar on her and sell her into slavery…
“Tried to” is the important part of that. He *tried to* put a collar on Plo Quar and sell her for her bounty as a “war criminal.” Her failed on both counts, and Plo gave him his scars and took his arm in repayment.
he managed to get the collar on her, but as he said he wasn’t good at making clasps.
Well sure, but is there any reason the relationship can’t come back from that? (JOKE! JOKE!!!)
Which is generally a real relationship killer.
It was almost a Scar killer too…
Todd knows exactly what he did.
Scar really does get a vote. Kids aren’t automatically superior to everyone else. Scar deserves rights over what he does with his story and whether he is going to leave a very mixed mark on Selkie’s life. He lost his status as Selkie’s father (or not?) as a result, but even if he’s being offered it back, he *can* refuse it.
Perhaps, but that can also come with revoking the privilege of being in her life as well. It really does seem that he wants to be a part of her life but doesn’t want to be honest with her as to why. I would be full on accepting him not wanting her to know the truth if he wanted nothing to do with her life. It becomes more complicated when you want “teacher”, “family friend” or “family” status. I don’t think you are allowed to dictate all the terms in that case.
He gave the best answer he could. Leave it be Todd.
I can understand where Scar is coming from. He did very monstrous things; he chose to do those monstrous things. He wasn’t coerced and he wasn’t unaware of what he was doing. As far as he’s concerned, he’s irredeemable and is actively trying to protect Selkie from the burden of knowing her (probable) birth father can never undo the terrible things he’s done, and he genuinely doesn’t feel he deserves to be in her life as anything more than an occasional tutor and “favorite uncle,” to use a trope.
And then there’s the threat from the village chief about if it’s ever confirmed Selkie is indeed Scar’s biological offspring. The onus of Scar’s debt will fall on her shoulders immediately and she WILL become an indentured servant in the eyes of others. And both Todd and Mr. Brown will quite literally go to war with them over it. *I* would, if it was my kid.
The guilt of having left Selkie behind is getting to him?
I just knew he was her father.
In case some of you forgot WHY Scar is denying Selkie is hus daughter…
https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie995/
I want to Side with Scar for a moment on this one. He realizes what an ugly, deformed, black-hearted, monster he is. he’s done awful things, including wrecked something beautiful, for the sake of his own desires and greed.
he KNOWS this.
he sees the remains of that one BRIGHT, beautiful moment, before he went and screwed it all up. its not that he doesnt WANT to be a good man, he feels he destroyed every chance and right he had to BE that good man. he chased away a pregnant woman, she maimed and ravaged him, and now even his own body is no longer whole, reliant on echo machines.
More machine than man, twisted and Evil….
well. no. not totally. others have mentioned here, his feeling of tying Selkie to his failures, that his own actions will somehow *taint* her. (for all we know there may be something to this…after all, Dr. Terrorhammer may come from something besides Selkies imagination)
he is a man who is, well, drowning in his grief. knows his daughter is going to be used and manipulated, and doesnt know what to do to protect her, and perhaps feels he has no right to.
hence when Selkie asks he feels he must lie, to protect her.
maybe this is part of Todds plan too.
to show him he’s NOT a monster, if he doesnt choose to be.
that he can still be part of her life, even if it may not be the part he wishes he could be. or maybe she’ll luck out and have two daddies (and not in the usual way) who will make her stronger for it.
Yes, but.
Selkie is a person. She is an adoptee. And so is her father. So he knows what it’s like to be one.
I ain’t budging on this. My mom was an adoptee. If a kid wants to know, they should have a right to know. Mind you, story wise, I love this and it makes total sense to be what’s happening. Man I love Todd
Scar is telling Selkie “zero chance I’m your biodad” and “your biodad must have been a good person”.
As someone who had shit bioparents, I think Todd wants to be able to acknowledge to Selkie that bioparents don’t have to “definitely have been good”, as part of this – and also that if the truth comes out later, she will have to both deal with the truth and being lied to, all at once.