Poor Benny. Their situations are COMPLETELY different. He lost a dad from a loving family.
Selkie is a product of desperation and possibly manipulation, between a couple of war criminals (a rebel and a traitor manipulating the rebels) who had a fling. Who was then placed with humans as a baby, and never knew even WHAT she was. The only family she knows is humans, and she’s just trying to learn her truth… plus she’s untrusting of he who MIGHT be her bio-father, because he manipulated her mom!
I think that is maybe a little unfair, as there is nothing here that suggests that he doesn’t value his mother. His focus on his father is contextual and also, his relationship with his own mother (whatever it is actually like) will have its own context. Just because we as the viewer are more intimately familiar with Selkie’s circumstances, that doesn’t mean that all the other characters need to act with our working knowledge. And I doubt that Avery would divulge Selkie’s classified background to Benny.
your right, but the fact that she doesnt know anything about it is the blessing here. Benny got all the trauma because he was old enough to remember, and to an extent understand what was happening. If it was my kid, I’d much rather they get the Selkie package.
Speaking as an adoptive parent, I’m having a “what am I, chopped liver?” reaction to the discussion here. Not that the kids shouldn’t be interested in their biological parents, or grieve the loss of them whether through death or through abandonment, but it’s also true that both kids are in loving families with parents who care about them and do their best to take care of them. Benny knows that he can give Avery a hard time — even including a threat to kill him! — without being abandoned. That counts for a lot.
This is an interesting counter to what I see online, which is various adopted people saying that adoption isn’t a great answer for kids and that they still feel resentment that their families “abandoned them” and that not letting kids stay with especially their bio mom is inherently traumatizing because babies recognize their mom’s scent or something.
In fairness, it IS somewhat traumatic to babies to be removed from their bio mothers. That has been pretty well documented, scientifically. But sometimes that is definitely a better answer than letting them be traumatized MORE by a terribly unfit parent.
Adoption is absolutely a blessing. But it is also absolutely a challenge because of the child’s trauma, even if the child was take at birth.
Yes, exactly. There’s no doubt that it’s best if a kid’s birth family is intact. Second best is if the kid is adopted by a familiar relative. But sometimes that just doesn’t work, for whatever reason. I was my (now adult) kid’s 13th placement, and believe me, it was traumatic for both of us. But now he has a forever family, however imperfect.
Crunchy isn’t impossible underwater. It does rule out a lot of stuff though.
Soggy food is a bitch.
Selkie! How dare you spy on the things I was going to tell you anyway!
Poor Benny. Their situations are COMPLETELY different. He lost a dad from a loving family.
Selkie is a product of desperation and possibly manipulation, between a couple of war criminals (a rebel and a traitor manipulating the rebels) who had a fling. Who was then placed with humans as a baby, and never knew even WHAT she was. The only family she knows is humans, and she’s just trying to learn her truth… plus she’s untrusting of he who MIGHT be her bio-father, because he manipulated her mom!
Benny has his mom, and can’t even cherish or respect THAT. Selkie has neither.
I think that is maybe a little unfair, as there is nothing here that suggests that he doesn’t value his mother. His focus on his father is contextual and also, his relationship with his own mother (whatever it is actually like) will have its own context. Just because we as the viewer are more intimately familiar with Selkie’s circumstances, that doesn’t mean that all the other characters need to act with our working knowledge. And I doubt that Avery would divulge Selkie’s classified background to Benny.
your right, but the fact that she doesnt know anything about it is the blessing here. Benny got all the trauma because he was old enough to remember, and to an extent understand what was happening. If it was my kid, I’d much rather they get the Selkie package.
Exactly. And he’s attributing what he knows from HIS situation, into hers. Expecting that she would and should feel the same.
He’s a massive trauma survivor, but he needs a lesson in empathy. He’s projecting HARD onto an innocent party.
Panel 3, “their” ➞ there.
Speaking as an adoptive parent, I’m having a “what am I, chopped liver?” reaction to the discussion here. Not that the kids shouldn’t be interested in their biological parents, or grieve the loss of them whether through death or through abandonment, but it’s also true that both kids are in loving families with parents who care about them and do their best to take care of them. Benny knows that he can give Avery a hard time — even including a threat to kill him! — without being abandoned. That counts for a lot.
This is an interesting counter to what I see online, which is various adopted people saying that adoption isn’t a great answer for kids and that they still feel resentment that their families “abandoned them” and that not letting kids stay with especially their bio mom is inherently traumatizing because babies recognize their mom’s scent or something.
In fairness, it IS somewhat traumatic to babies to be removed from their bio mothers. That has been pretty well documented, scientifically. But sometimes that is definitely a better answer than letting them be traumatized MORE by a terribly unfit parent.
Adoption is absolutely a blessing. But it is also absolutely a challenge because of the child’s trauma, even if the child was take at birth.
Yes, exactly. There’s no doubt that it’s best if a kid’s birth family is intact. Second best is if the kid is adopted by a familiar relative. But sometimes that just doesn’t work, for whatever reason. I was my (now adult) kid’s 13th placement, and believe me, it was traumatic for both of us. But now he has a forever family, however imperfect.
Don’t worry, Selkie can’t be a spy. Just ask her sister if you don’t believe. After all, “Spies know how to be quiet.”
I love Selkie’s face in the last panel. She suddenly looks girly.
There’s your advertising, right there.
Her dad is down the way having a conversation with Scar.