Technically I think Heather already HAD an “I Have Parents” party.
– – – – –
Anyone else read A Redtail’s Dream? I was introduced to it from another webcomic, and it’s close to ending (I think), so I am sad to only find it now.
And speaking of good webcomics that are close to ending, Spacetrawler. This one is R rated for language and violence and a few bits are probably NSFW. But it’s really engaging story and characters, which I am a fan of. 😀
Had to give the dialogue a few passes to give Heather the right words to say without it sounding too far beyond her years.
She should have said ass.
She’s a good kid. Good kids don’t say ass.
At that age, I literally only knew the definition of “ass” as “donkey” thanks to King James’ royally commissioned team of scripture translators. If someone told me to “kiss their ass” I just would have been confused.
I was similar with a lot of words. ‘Gay’ was still ‘bright, happy’.
Until late highschool I still thought of ‘fa**ot’ as being a coal brick.
Or, if you’re British, fag can mean cigarette.
Pretty sure a Faggot is a bundle of sticks …
It’s also a kind of food made up of ground meat. As wikipedia explains: “It is made from meat off-cuts and offal, especially pork. A faggot is traditionally made from pig’s heart, liver and fatty belly meat or bacon minced together, with herbs added for flavouring and sometimes bread crumbs.”
…Now I’m hungry.
🙂
Also, on mature webcomics:
You+Me:Dream
is one of my favorites! It was finished ages ago, and it’s got an awesome story. So pretty.
I’ll check the ones you mentioned.
Yu+Me: Dream was great! I read it years ago. :d
Do you follow her new work, Meaty Yogurt? I kind of lost track awhile ago but what I read was really good.
btw props for not flipping out and banning ppl for mentioning things not made by you ^_^
not that id ever think you would, i just think considering how many people DO do that, those who dont deserve the shout out <3
stay the best!
People do that? I need to read more comment threads.
Er, I mean… PURGE THY LINKS FOR THERE SHALT BE NO COMIC BEFORE DAVE’S!
Am I doing it right?
Dave started it, Kotih LOL
Also, for everyone, the times have changed and I have heard kids saying a whole lot worse but, like Dave for Selkie, I prefer to write what MY childhood was like and not the belligerency of this age.
ohhh right, im supposed to read those author comments too *facesmack*
to my credit that only earns him MORE props so i still save face here >.>
not at all, but your adorable for trying!
A faggot (or dulcian or curtal) is also a half-length bass shalm. Bass shalms, a form of oboe on steroids, were originally gargantuan monstrosities so long that when you marched with them, you had to bend over double and get a small boy to march behind you carrying the bell. But then some brilliant shalm-maker made a shalm with two holes that were then joined into a U-bend. This gave all the depth with only half the length. The backs of bass shalmists everywhere rejoiced.
This instrument was the meaning I first thought that “faggot” would mean, since in Finnish it’s “fagotti”, whereas the word for homosexual is, simply, “homo”. So my dual language confusion made it a bit baffling at first. 😛
She’s a good kid. Good kids don’t swear.
more than that – she’s an orphanage kid (yes, she’s been adopted, but psychologically she’s still an orphanage kid, and will be for a long time). Orphanage kids get in major trouble if they swear.
These kids have thoroughly internalized the use of minced oaths, possibly more so than most third-graders; when Amanda threw her tantrum and smashed the GameKid (https://selkiecomic.com/selkie36/), she said that she didn’t “freaking” care (and note that Keisha swears “cheese and rice”).
(Amanda’s use of “BULLSHIT!” in strip #35 is a result of, at the very least, her intense shock.)
{I am posting in a discussion about whether fictional 8-year-olds swear enough.)
Swearing or not swearing is much the result of the punishment (or lack thereof) inflicted if one is heard doing so. From my own experience, I didn’t take to swearing out loud until well into my 20s (for that matter, nearly 30). Getting beat on and having to bite a bar of soap was more than enough incentive not to get into the habit of verbalizing it…especially not in front of people inclined to go rushing back to tattle just to see me get into trouble. So, for me, the swearing involved here seems just about right for somebody who doesn’t always think through the consequences of their actions but likely lives in a strict environment.
I don’t really believe that, almost everyone is prone to swearing at one point or another, even the best of us.
It was a pretty intensive conversation, it was highly heated, the fact she didn’t curse surprises me more then what her actual response was.
By 3rd grade I was well aware of most if not all curse words and used them a my leisure. Are you suggesting I was not a “good kid”? I didn’t steal, I listened to my parents and I did my school work. But when a situation came up where I swore, I swore.
Swearing is a matter of opinion, based on personal bias. She stole a girls clothes for fucks sake to try and fit in, that’s “good”? You can try and play the peer pressure as much as you want, but no one actually drove her to such actions, she did that all on her own.
Your analysis of her behavior is off.
My own impression was that – well, look at Heather’s earlier speech patterns on this page. She’s flustered and stammering, her sentences are stilted, and her vocabulary seems to have simplified a bit. Some people become surprisingly eloquent when angry; others become nearly inarticulate. Depending on a variety of factors – including her own pre-existing vocabulary – it might simply not have occurred to Heather to say “ass”.
Heather *is* a good girl. She’s a good girl that showed bad behavior. Those things can exist seperately. Heather made a mistake, was punished for it, and learned from it.
Yes, but it takes more provocation for some people than others.
I don’t think I would be swearing in that situation. Some of the people I know would be, others probably not.
I don’t think Amanda expected her bluff to be called. Never bet what you don’t want to lose…even if you’re sure you’re going to win.
Good words to remember. 🙂
I’ve heard people talk a lot about such situations (bad kids in hard times) and a number of times I’ve heard “some people aren’t worth the time/energy”. My stand is that everyone can be supported onto a better head space; it’s a matter not of weather ‘they’ are worth it, but if you have the energy to spare. How much are ‘you’ willing to give?
Heather has reached her limit apparently. Well done for trying so long though!
I’m pretty sure she wasn’t bluffing. People say things sometimes without realizing that they are screwed up and need to be told off and it is a big shock when they get at the reason why, or as Heather just did have it told straight-out.
I believe the bluff of which Too Old speaks is the party invitation. Amanda really wasn’t expecting Heather to give Selkie the nod and cut Amanda out, which does make sense given how long they’ve been friends and how long they have been united in their dislike of Selkie. But Heather seems to be having some personal growth.
Correct – and Amanda’s shocked reaction in panel 6 is her reaction to that bluff being called.
I would agree that it wasn’t intended as a bluff, I don’t think she was thinking anything like “I know you won’t” or “I dare you, cross that line”.
The expressions suggest to me that she was throwing it out as another hurtful comment. It never crossed her mind that it was within realms of possibility.
I don’t know if that’s what Dave intended, but it’s what I read, and I know he loves reading our analyses. (I had to look up the plural for that)
^_^
I think it was a good decision, script-wise, that Heather still refers to Selkie as “weird and gross.” Existing reactions don’t disappear just because the parties involved are relatively at peace with each other. She might have the sense not to say it to Selkie’s face or where authority figures can hear them, but she’s still thinking it.
Thank you, Dave, for having child characters who are not completely without prejudice, but are still portrayed as good people.
To clarify, I do think there is validity to Amanda’s point – no one made Heather take the shirt. That was a cruel and mean-spirited act. However, what I was commenting on was not Heather’s personal moral character, but that fact that the characters in this comic are, more often than not, multi-faceted.
True, no one made Heather take Selkie’s shirt – but there was a reason she did it. Just because she had been adopted her “friends” disowned her, and she tried to get back in by doing what they were doing – namely being mean to Selkie.
Kinda curious about how she slammed the girls’-room door.
Elementary school bathrooms were many many years ago, but I seem to remember them having hydraulic door closers. This was to ensure you did not leave ’em open, but it also prevented someone from slamming them.
Artistic license, I suppose. 😀
You must’ve gone to a much fancier school than me. 😛
Either that, or the hydraulics have long since lost their juice and they’re just decorations now.
Some schools don’t have bathroom doors and instead have a bent hallway(this is more sanitary than a door to open and close, because not everyone washes their hands).
Careful there, Heather; your spine might burst through your back.
I’m really glad that Amanda is hearing all this from a peer: adults’ comments you can shrug off, but your (previous) best friend’s comments you can’t.
Also: cue MASSIVE EXPLODING FIREBALL OF RAGE in 3… 2… 1…
Amanda looks more about to cry than rage explode. After a good cry, maybe, but she’s ego-centric enough to make this REALLY hurt.
As for Heather, she may have just learned something that takes many people far longer… that relationships have to go both ways. My guess is that she will enjoy time spent with Selkie far more.
And this leaves Amanda alone in the bathroom with the girls waiting to ambush her, on the verge of a reactor core meltdown. I predict either somebody winds up in the hospital or they recruit her.
Not to mention even more angry/frustrated than before. Im a little worried that when the Trunchbulls take Selkies behavior up at the meeting (and especially after Dave learns Truck’s behavior was dismissed) things will heat up a little. I have no idea if they’d call Amanda up to hear what happened since she witnesses the whole episode, but if they did it’s possible she’ll lie just because I imagine thisll make her dislike Selkie even more. Especially if the girls in the stall do decide to gang up on her.
Then again, who knows Oo That scenario may not come up at all, and Amanda seems more prone to anger management than being dishonst, anyway.
Amanda ran away before any adults could see her. Yes, Truck, Selkie, or Tony could mention she was a witness, but it’s just as likely no adults will ever know she was there.
Ah, a good point. Well, at least I can be relieved that that won’t happen.
Hey, wouldn’t it make a nice plot twist if, when those girls attack, it was Heather who turns around to rescue Amanda?
on the subject of Heather’s vocabulary being too advanced for her age — I’d really suggest “turn into” instead of “become”, in panel 2.
“Become” bothered me too. Just a little too mature. I might even say “are” in that case — Heather is probably too mad and young to make the mature distinction that Amanda’s jerk level changes depending on how much she gets her own way; she is just thinking about what Amanda is like right now and all the instances in the past where she has been a jerk, she’s not about to give Amanda the credit for ever being not a jerk.
oh, and in panel #7, “Selkie may be, like, weird and gross” — I think it would be more age-appropriate to say ” *might* be, like, weird and gross”
I really like these observations and it’s good “food-for-thought” for future strips. Although to be honest I am probably not going to amend the dialogue, because I really like the way it reads now. But thanks both for the offers. 🙂
Have I mentioned how much I love this comic? Interesting, multifaceted characters, drama, suspense, humor, regular updates, complex plots, etc., etc., etc.?
Not to mention English lessons in the comments. 😀
CALLED IT! So Heather *is* going to invite Selkie to her party.
I didn´t foresee Amanda suggesting it, though.
That is, if Selkie is not spending time in the Hospital convalescing; or maybe Selkie dies, and the rest of the story is about how She touched peoples lives in Her short time…
And then the aqua-people revolt, and take account upon the land-people for their incredibly short sighted, selfish stewardship of the planet.
I, for one, welcome our new semi-aquatic overlords.
Chaos, you owe me a new keyboard. Did not see that one coming.
ALL HAIL THE PISCANTHROPIC EMPIRE!
Surely they’ll do a better job than us.
Yes! Emotional growth and an alpha outburst! Go, Heather! Go!
Sometimes my co-workers affectionately call me “weird”. I tell them I prefer the term “unique”. 🙂
As I told the guy I share my office with the other day, anyone can be normal. To be really crazy, on the other hand, is an art form.
That was in response to him calling be crazy, which itself was in response to me declaring that he was Don Quixote and I was Sancho Pansa.
And, yes, that actually made sense in context.
I like the word exuberant.
have I mentioned that I hate that the girl with so many problems is named Amanda….that’s my name. But I also find it very ironic that is her name because it means in latin “worthy of love” and the character she wants more then anything is just to have that love but no one really gives it to her.
Anyone remember that the girl with the pink jacket, and pigtail braids and the girl with the blond fluffy hair ran into the bathroom and are hiding. They just heard all of this!
I remember and worry incessantly.
I really think Heather’s showing alot of wisdom with the, “You make me a bad kid” comment. Sometimes you make friends or get boyfriend or the like with someone who makes you a worse person than you would be otherwise. Not so much, “I don’t like you” as “I don’t like the person I am when I’m with you” which can be a difficult concept for a kid.
Well written explanation!
Also, your avatar, is that Aeris with a chainsaw? o_0
Yes. Yes it is Aeris with a Chainsaw.