I will admit that I have a similar sort of revenge fantasy about blowing off companies that refused to even consider me when I was a no-experience recent graduate.
With her having Amanda’s name tattooed on her arm, for the past several years, didn’t Todd ever wonder just WHO Amanda Marie was, and why she meant so much to Andi?
Quick question though… Wouldn’t Todd at least know (baby) Amanda’s name? Every parent I know who’s lost a baby has named him/her and given Todd ended up with an urn with fake ashes it seems like Andi would at least tell him their baby’s name—unless she made that up, too.
oh boy the train wreck has begun and I don’t see it ending soon… mostly because I see todd assuming andi cheated on him long before he draws the conclusion that amanda is his daughter…
meaning he has already put two and two together
and realized that Amanda is his daughter
and that Andi lied when he was told it was a stillbirth
that Amanda was secretly put up for adoption
when Todd gladly would have raised her instead.
and that Andi has committed a very personal betrayal of his trust
I will give her the one point of credit I’m willing to give her: I totally understand the fact that she would freak the hell out about having a baby and not being ready, and be afraid to tell this to Todd after he got all into it.
But how she dealt with that… oooooooh boy, she picked the absolute WORST way possible.
the biggest problem was that Todd was willing to be a father, while Andi was basically forced by her mother to put Amanda up for adoption. Andi should have stood up to her mother or given custody to Todd from the beginning. Andi giving in to her mother’s unreasonable demand, and then lying to Todd about giving Amanda up, by claiming Amanda had died in childbirth.
Todd Might have understood Andi’s reasons for giving Amanda away, but she never even tried to explain herself. She’s been lying to Todd for years, to the point it destroyed the relationship they shared.
all she had to do was at some point tell Todd the truth, and they could have tried to get Amanda back and started a family. perhaps they might have been able to adopt selkie earlier too. but that’s an alternate history.
From the stories my mom’s told me about having kids — she had 4 — the hormonal situation during the process is such that people can be really emotionally vulnerable. (As well as physically so.) It’s one reason why doulas are around, to run interference between medical people and the parent(s) when they’re busy with everything else.
Add to that whatever emotional baggage already existed between Andi and her mother.
Add to that, Andi was not 100% on-board with being a mom then, and her body was doing strange and pretty near uncontrollable things.
Add to that, no one was running interference between Andi and her mom; there was no Todd there, there was no reassurance that he was going to be there for her, etc. (And they hadn’t gotten married. Which, in all truth, is kind of a big thing, because it puts some legal teeth into the whole “no, really, I am going to be here for you and the kid” promise.)
Honestly, I think anyone blaming Andi for not standing up to her mom right then and there needs to realize that it’s not that simple. If she were someone who could’ve stood up to her mom most of the time, her mom would not have been in that room in the first place because Andi would’ve been going, “GET THE %^$%$ OUT OF MY ROOM! NURSE, GET THIS WOMAN OUT OF MY ROOM! I AM HAVING A BABY HERE!”
…I may dislike Andi’s mother rather a lot here. She’s the proximate cause of the Big Lie happening in the first place. Instead of asking Andi what Andi wanted to do, and promising support either way, she decided she Knew Best, and pressured Andi into that course. (Which gives a strong implication of how she’s treated Andi all of Andi’s life. Mom Knows Best. …any wonder why Andi is having trouble finding a backbone? I bet it was nagged (or worse) out of her long ago…)
Yeah, Andi was not in the emotional place to be making that decision while LITERALLY GIVING BIRTH, and Todd not being there meant she didn’t really have ANY support for “we CAN do this if you want to.”
And of course that conversation should have been had a LONG time before it happened, but I also have a strong suspicion Andi’s mom was not intending to have a long, reasoned discussion with Todd and the Smiths and Andi about their options and the relative merits thereof so much as she wanted this whole issue out of her life ASAP.
The other option (though I don’t think it will happen) Is that Todd thinks Andi lost her marbles and adopted a girl with the name of their dead child as a way of trying to make things better with him.
I can’t even imagine how he’d react if he thought Andi was filling some poor girls head with crazy lies.
look at his face in panel 5
can you honestly say that is the look
of someone confusing the situation?
he knows exactly what happened
and he is mad as hell.
My guess it’s that he’s not mad…yet. It looks to me like he’s still in shock. I think you’re right that he’s figured it out, but I don’t think he’s hit anger yet.
From panic attack to insufferable little harpy in less than ten seconds.
To someone who was nothing but kind to her while she was panicking.
I hate people who hate people who say they told you so, so I’ll just point out that I f’n called it.
Yes, Amanda’s got a lot of trauma in her background, and I suppose we should feel sorry for her, but I can’t bring myself to sympathize with her overly much, mostly because this seems to be her default behavior whenever she’s not frightened or lonely.
I’m definitely in that “wipe that smarmy little look off her face” camp. Gosh she’s an insufferable cock. I knew plenty of kids who were not massive assholes.
Remember, this isn’t just a common occurrence for her; a huge source of her bitterness is that every potential parent who didn’t want her she perceived as rejecting her. Heck, Todd was even her biological father, and even he passed her up. This has been a long running fantasy in her head for a long time, and not just typical behavior.
Given how much of an irredeemable little shit she’s been towards Selkie at almost every opportunity so far I can’t say I’m surprised every prospective parent picked a *nice* child instead.
Well… I guess maybe we should look at it this way, too: At least she didn’t inherit her mother’s propensity to run at the first sign of anything uncomfortable. Andi appears to either run away or pretend nothing is wrong and let it stew until it erupts. Neither one handles stuff in a healthy way but I dare say Amanda has one up on Andi and I like her way better than her mom. Still don’t like Andi at all, and Amanda a little more than that.:) Which is likely the intent of the writer.
Todd’s mind is now officially blown. He’s gonna spend the whole presentation wondering how to break this to Selkie, and how he’s gonna deal with Andi’s body.
I predict a long talk with grandma and grandpa, and lots of beef jerky (because Selkie can’t have ice cream)
Some zoos will freeze cow’s blood into a “bloodsicle” and give it to their carnivorous animals as a hot-weather treat. Perhaps something like that would be possible for Selkie?
Here’s an article about it, complete with the recipe:
Selkie can eat cheese and drink milk, and Todd fries her chicken nuggets in butter. Dairy is not a problem for her. They’d just have to come up with some with no sugar. But Dave told us some time ago that she does not like “sweet”, so that’s not a problem. Just make a milk-and-egg custard, and then freeze it.
Where to put it after he kills her, is how I took that. I can appreciate the sentiment, but I doubt Dave’s planning on quite that level of drama. At least I hope not. My heart can’t handle much more.
Amanda has no idea how true the strike was.
Still no regrets for adopting Selkie, probably. But shit.
I like Andi, but I’m still looking forward to her THOROUGH DESTRUCTION. Which has already started. And I’m ejoying it.
Todd didn’t deserve this shit though )=
I don’t like Amanda, and I’m looking forward to her getting her comeuppance distinctly more.
Andi’s suffering from an acute case of all bad decisions coming back to haunt her… But the thing is, she already *knows* they were bad decisions and she’s at least trying to atone for them — and apparently the reward for trying to make things right is *more* of her past sins hitting home.
Amanda, on the other hand, is just being a vicious, spiteful little twit.
Hopefully, with a positive role model she identifies with and model herself after, she can start making the right changes.
Again, this scene wasn’t just Amanda’s SOP; every time she’s been passed up by a potential parent, she’s perceived it as a rejection. She’s been waiting for a moment like this for a looooong time.
5th panel. Todd is broken and about to erupt. Good thing the kids are there or this would get ugly much faster. Amanda probably thinks she’s “won,” but I can’t wait until she finds out her relation to Todd. Should be quite a humbling experience for both girls. XD
Just realized what Amanda said in the last panel… For some weird reason, I have a feeling some of that hate to Selkie isn’t just jealousy and fear (though it’s certainly there), but other unprocessed emotions. Not a big surprise as children who have come from abusive environments can have a really hard time detangling affection/love from all the fear of being hurt/rejected. Makes for some really complicated experiences after adulthood—especially with intimate relationships.
Mmmph. Based on her track record… yeah, it’s going to be a body blow, but her response isn’t going to be panic attacks and depression. It’s going to be a sparking of that hair-trigger temper of hers, and Selkie is going to be squarely in the crosshairs.
You think Amanda’s been mean so far? That’s nothing on what’ll be headed Selkie’s way when Amanda twigs that ‘fishface stole her daddy’
I’m personally hoping that Amanda settles on being the sort of ‘big sister’ she wishes she had, instead of the ‘princes’ who ‘cut off her arms and legs’ she got.
Argh, Andi should tell Amanda the truth first, then wait for her to go to school and go talk to Todd, then Todd should process this for a good long time, then talk to Selkie about it when she comes home, then maaaaybe possibly try and talk to Amanda later. Much later. Maybe when she’s secure and stable at home and less of a prat (so her early 30s?)
If Andi had anything CLOSE to decently functioning confrontation skills, she probably wouldn’t have lied about Amanda’s death in the first place. Granted, she was a teenager back then, but that element of her personality is still there.
Considering adult Andi doesn’t seem to have grown much from teen Andi, I’m not surprised that her big strategy is “Put it off for as long as possible”. What would have even been better? Telling Todd BEFORE she brought Amanda home.
…Or maybe just not lying in the first place. That would have been super, too.
On the subject of “still being a teenager”a lot of people aren’t giving Andi the credit of ‘and an authority figure(Mommie Dearest) was whispering poison in her ear when she was emotionally vulnerable after giving birth.”
I respectfully disagree: I think that Andi and Todd have to talk and come to terms with the situation BEFORE either tells Amanda (or Selkie) about their relationship. They really need to process their own emotions, separately and together, then come up with a plan for how their “family” is going to work. God know Amanda isn’t mature enough to deal with this “it’s complicated” fiasco right now.
You’re right, but I think Todd may slip up and say something explosive the parents will have to explain at home to their respective children. Cue all four getting kicked out of the aquarium in 3…2…1
do you guys n’ gals remember Selkie’s reaction to the stream/river when they went to the camping spot?… for some strange reason i see that happening to Suko… and that ALL of them will be kicked out, with EXTREME publicity being brought forth over it, what with Todd trying to stop them, and Andi getting uppity about him and Amanda, who is going at it with Selkie… Yup… Agent Brown will have a cow trying to suppress this one in the news… but then again, maybe there IS some GOOD NEWS?…
Selkie and Amanda will both have IMPECCABLE proof that they were at the Aquarium in order to get that extra credit !!
Yeah, she should have had that talk somewhere private loooooooong before now, and had an explanation for Amanda before bringing her home. (For instance, “your dad and I aren’t together anymore, but he wants to be a part of your life as well.” And hopefully they’d realized beforehand the Amanda-Selkie connection and had something prepared for that.)
To your point, I agree that things would be very different if they were going to happen as they SHOULD. My hope now lies with Todd: now that the saber-toothed tiger is out of the bag, I hope he will be able to keep his own emotions under wraps for the sake of his children and confront Andi at a later, more private opportunity.
That would be a terrible idea because there is no way in hell that Amanda would be able to keep that secret. When Selkie finds out, it should be her dad who tells her. Not her childhood nemesis.
Amanda and Todd should figure this out on their own/together and then, individually, tell the two children. Separately. And then let things go from there.
Not tell her exactly who, but explain what happened with her dad. Then talk to Todd and see if he even WANTS to deal with this mess (at which point he can talk to Selkie who will be all “HELLS NOS!!”). The potential damage to be done to these girls by one selfish adoption… I’m thinking somebody’s going to drop the bomb soon though for dramatic effect. It would then be a fight to the death on the playground no doubt…
So…I am trying to find other times when Amanda was out and out rude to an adult. Yes, she has issues. Yes, she can be AWFUL, but I really am having a hard time with how she is disrespecting an adult, being out and out rude to another parent. She seems more the type to talk smack behind his back and smile sweetly to his face.
And Andi has been too scared of the Todd situation to address it, but she’s letting her kid talk to an adult like a playground bully. Shouldn’t fly.
I’m… not sure that Todd registers as an adult to Amanda. I think it’s more, “Selkie’s Dad Who Is A Jerk Because He Adopted A Fish” than “Todd The Adult”.
Some people here are interpreting Todd’s expression in panel five as anger or fury, but I’m not sure of this. One, there’s his expression in panel six, which lacks the lines around his eyes that seem to indicate anger. Two, there’s no other sign of anger, such as flushed face, knitted eyebrows or quivering.
My read on the situation: Todd still hasn’t completely processed the information he just received. The sheer magnitude of the truth hitting him is huge, and I would liken his attempt to grapple with it to a snake attempting to eat a cow: it’s a slow process. Though in Todd’s case, the world is trying to force feed him his metaphorical cow, and he’s going to have a hell of a stomach ache.
On another note: that announcement was impeccably timed, and likely saved Amanda from prematurely learning her father’s identity. It’s also good that she and Selkie are too wrapped up in their own rivalry to notice that their parents seem to know each other.
First impression of biological daughter: spiteful, nasty, vengeful, smug.
Followup thought: this is the girl who bullies my daughter.
Second followup thought: and she’s been bullying my daughter for years *because Andi gave her away and told me she was dead*.
I really hope Todd is capable of less-impulsive reactions than we’ve seen him have in the past, or I foresee a very high chance of him reacting to Amanda in a way that would be… immensely satisfying for the reader, and horribly traumatic for Amanda.
Andi, I’m not worried about; she can dish it out, if she can’t take it, that’s her problem.
…well, immensely satisfying for this reader, at least.
No, I don’t like Amanda. Yes, I understand that there are extenuating circumstances for her behavior. No, I don’t care. She’s a bully, and I would like to see her get her comeuppance.
…which might actually do her some good as a human being. Nah, I’m not gonna justify it. I just want to see Amanda get back what she’s been dishing out. I know that’s an unworthy impulse. I don’t care about that, either.
“C’mon, Dads, get in the game.”
Oh, Emm, Gee, Selkie, you are sans clue, here. You think this is Chutes and Ladders, but Hon, this is LivePeople-Player Chess, … With Ninjas, and live steel!
You skirmishing Amanda with your little dirk, while Andi with her claybeg accidentally slays your Daddy Dragon’s heart. Never in your fins and flukes fantasies did you ever dream of a bit on a stage this grand, or in a fable this fraught with fear and deceit, nor tangled in a tale this twisted. Dave has surprises in store for your story.
I just wanted to say, Dave, the more you tackle really tough problems like adoption and racism and bullying and lying on this scale, the more I love the comic. It shows that the problems aren’t all one dimensional- like that Amanda isn’t just the bully, and neither was Truck. Don’t stop. Never stop. This page is breaking my heart, and by the way that’s a good thing. Congratulations.
Oh darn why did I catch up right here at this moment!! I really like this comic for portraying so many delicate subjects in a cute yet telling manner, and the ambiguous morality of so many characters provides both realism and drama. Very well done.
Todd’s face in the next-to-last panel……just one picometer away from detonation there.
I don’t know if anyone made the observation yet, but the situation between Todd and Andi and Amanda just totally reminds me of The Memory Keeper’s Daughter — with several crucial differences, of course, but the Big Lie and how it slowly eats away the relationship is really imaginable.
Will Todd assume Andi lied, or will he assume that Andi was lied to? What does Todd know of, and think of, Andi’s mom? Would he jump to the conclusion that Andi’s mom got the doctors to tell Andi the baby died? (Admittedly, if Andi was 18+ — can’t remember — then she would’ve needed to sign the adoption papers… But if she was any younger, or if he could believe that her mom would’ve shaved a year or two off her age…)
Mind, this still leaves the “why didn’t you tell me when you found out?!” side of things, but it would be… interesting to know if he’s going to jump to the correct assumption, or if he will jump slightly off-base.
(Still don’t like Andi’s mom, who not only pressured her into doing this, but didn’t have the spine herself to be the one who met Todd and fed him the lie — or the truth — before he went in. If she’s going to sabotage her daughter’s relationship, she ought to at least run interference as well. Feh.)
It begins.
I will admit that I have a similar sort of revenge fantasy about blowing off companies that refused to even consider me when I was a no-experience recent graduate.
I would totally do that if I was Amanda.
poor, poor todd
Cliffhanger!!!
By the way, Mr. Dave, I came here after reading a comment made on your comment on dumbing of age. And I love your comic. Selkie is really cute.
Thank you!
With her having Amanda’s name tattooed on her arm, for the past several years, didn’t Todd ever wonder just WHO Amanda Marie was, and why she meant so much to Andi?
The Amanda Marie tattoo is a new addition. She didn’t have it the last time Todd saw her.
https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie147/
Quick question though… Wouldn’t Todd at least know (baby) Amanda’s name? Every parent I know who’s lost a baby has named him/her and given Todd ended up with an urn with fake ashes it seems like Andi would at least tell him their baby’s name—unless she made that up, too.
Todd has an urn?
Yes, I believe it was shown during Andi’s birth flashback, and I believe Dave mentioned the ashes in it were from the fireplace.
Even so, Amanda is not an uncommon name (it’s not like Selkie or Moonbeam) … and, Todd only found out now (for certain) that Andi is Amanda’s mother.
Oh my god I can’t wait for Monday, I love this comic so much. Your facial expressions are just the greatest!
It’s amazing how Amanda and Selkie are already sibling rivals without realizing it.
oh boy the train wreck has begun and I don’t see it ending soon… mostly because I see todd assuming andi cheated on him long before he draws the conclusion that amanda is his daughter…
Even if she did, he would have noticed her being pregnant in that time frame. There was only the one occasion Amanda could have been born.
meaning he has already put two and two together
and realized that Amanda is his daughter
and that Andi lied when he was told it was a stillbirth
that Amanda was secretly put up for adoption
when Todd gladly would have raised her instead.
and that Andi has committed a very personal betrayal of his trust
I will give her the one point of credit I’m willing to give her: I totally understand the fact that she would freak the hell out about having a baby and not being ready, and be afraid to tell this to Todd after he got all into it.
But how she dealt with that… oooooooh boy, she picked the absolute WORST way possible.
the biggest problem was that Todd was willing to be a father, while Andi was basically forced by her mother to put Amanda up for adoption. Andi should have stood up to her mother or given custody to Todd from the beginning. Andi giving in to her mother’s unreasonable demand, and then lying to Todd about giving Amanda up, by claiming Amanda had died in childbirth.
Todd Might have understood Andi’s reasons for giving Amanda away, but she never even tried to explain herself. She’s been lying to Todd for years, to the point it destroyed the relationship they shared.
all she had to do was at some point tell Todd the truth, and they could have tried to get Amanda back and started a family. perhaps they might have been able to adopt selkie earlier too. but that’s an alternate history.
From the stories my mom’s told me about having kids — she had 4 — the hormonal situation during the process is such that people can be really emotionally vulnerable. (As well as physically so.) It’s one reason why doulas are around, to run interference between medical people and the parent(s) when they’re busy with everything else.
Add to that whatever emotional baggage already existed between Andi and her mother.
Add to that, Andi was not 100% on-board with being a mom then, and her body was doing strange and pretty near uncontrollable things.
Add to that, no one was running interference between Andi and her mom; there was no Todd there, there was no reassurance that he was going to be there for her, etc. (And they hadn’t gotten married. Which, in all truth, is kind of a big thing, because it puts some legal teeth into the whole “no, really, I am going to be here for you and the kid” promise.)
Honestly, I think anyone blaming Andi for not standing up to her mom right then and there needs to realize that it’s not that simple. If she were someone who could’ve stood up to her mom most of the time, her mom would not have been in that room in the first place because Andi would’ve been going, “GET THE %^$%$ OUT OF MY ROOM! NURSE, GET THIS WOMAN OUT OF MY ROOM! I AM HAVING A BABY HERE!”
…I may dislike Andi’s mother rather a lot here. She’s the proximate cause of the Big Lie happening in the first place. Instead of asking Andi what Andi wanted to do, and promising support either way, she decided she Knew Best, and pressured Andi into that course. (Which gives a strong implication of how she’s treated Andi all of Andi’s life. Mom Knows Best. …any wonder why Andi is having trouble finding a backbone? I bet it was nagged (or worse) out of her long ago…)
An excellent and compassionate analysis.
Yeah, Andi was not in the emotional place to be making that decision while LITERALLY GIVING BIRTH, and Todd not being there meant she didn’t really have ANY support for “we CAN do this if you want to.”
And of course that conversation should have been had a LONG time before it happened, but I also have a strong suspicion Andi’s mom was not intending to have a long, reasoned discussion with Todd and the Smiths and Andi about their options and the relative merits thereof so much as she wanted this whole issue out of her life ASAP.
The other option (though I don’t think it will happen) Is that Todd thinks Andi lost her marbles and adopted a girl with the name of their dead child as a way of trying to make things better with him.
I can’t even imagine how he’d react if he thought Andi was filling some poor girls head with crazy lies.
look at his face in panel 5
can you honestly say that is the look
of someone confusing the situation?
he knows exactly what happened
and he is mad as hell.
My guess it’s that he’s not mad…yet. It looks to me like he’s still in shock. I think you’re right that he’s figured it out, but I don’t think he’s hit anger yet.
Welcome to real life; the mind-shattering news that changes your life often comes with no buildup or fanfare whatsoever.
As well as inbetween a bunch of other events of life that demand to be juggled simultaneously.
Oh Andi Andi Andi, why did you not have a talk with your daughter.
Exactly what was she supposed to say? Honestly, there was no way this was ending well from the beginning.
Aaaand bomb dropped
*was about to drop the drama bomb* Darn! Ya beat me to it! XD 😛
http://rosalarian.com/yume/?p=917
From panic attack to insufferable little harpy in less than ten seconds.
To someone who was nothing but kind to her while she was panicking.
I hate people who hate people who say they told you so, so I’ll just point out that I f’n called it.
Yes, Amanda’s got a lot of trauma in her background, and I suppose we should feel sorry for her, but I can’t bring myself to sympathize with her overly much, mostly because this seems to be her default behavior whenever she’s not frightened or lonely.
I’m definitely in that “wipe that smarmy little look off her face” camp. Gosh she’s an insufferable cock. I knew plenty of kids who were not massive assholes.
Remember, this isn’t just a common occurrence for her; a huge source of her bitterness is that every potential parent who didn’t want her she perceived as rejecting her. Heck, Todd was even her biological father, and even he passed her up. This has been a long running fantasy in her head for a long time, and not just typical behavior.
Given how much of an irredeemable little shit she’s been towards Selkie at almost every opportunity so far I can’t say I’m surprised every prospective parent picked a *nice* child instead.
Well… I guess maybe we should look at it this way, too: At least she didn’t inherit her mother’s propensity to run at the first sign of anything uncomfortable. Andi appears to either run away or pretend nothing is wrong and let it stew until it erupts. Neither one handles stuff in a healthy way but I dare say Amanda has one up on Andi and I like her way better than her mom. Still don’t like Andi at all, and Amanda a little more than that.:) Which is likely the intent of the writer.
Todd’s mind is now officially blown. He’s gonna spend the whole presentation wondering how to break this to Selkie, and how he’s gonna deal with Andi’s body.
I predict a long talk with grandma and grandpa, and lots of beef jerky (because Selkie can’t have ice cream)
Some zoos will freeze cow’s blood into a “bloodsicle” and give it to their carnivorous animals as a hot-weather treat. Perhaps something like that would be possible for Selkie?
Here’s an article about it, complete with the recipe:
http://dcist.com/2012/06/fruit_pops_wading_pools_and_bloodsi.php#photo-1
Selkie can eat cheese and drink milk, and Todd fries her chicken nuggets in butter. Dairy is not a problem for her. They’d just have to come up with some with no sugar. But Dave told us some time ago that she does not like “sweet”, so that’s not a problem. Just make a milk-and-egg custard, and then freeze it.
I am confused. What about “Andi’s body”?
Where to put it after he kills her, is how I took that. I can appreciate the sentiment, but I doubt Dave’s planning on quite that level of drama. At least I hope not. My heart can’t handle much more.
Amanda has no idea how true the strike was.
Still no regrets for adopting Selkie, probably. But shit.
I like Andi, but I’m still looking forward to her THOROUGH DESTRUCTION. Which has already started. And I’m ejoying it.
Todd didn’t deserve this shit though )=
I don’t like Amanda, and I’m looking forward to her getting her comeuppance distinctly more.
Andi’s suffering from an acute case of all bad decisions coming back to haunt her… But the thing is, she already *knows* they were bad decisions and she’s at least trying to atone for them — and apparently the reward for trying to make things right is *more* of her past sins hitting home.
Amanda, on the other hand, is just being a vicious, spiteful little twit.
Gosh how much I agree. Amanda needs a major wakeup call. To reality. Who does not approve of her being a jackass.
Hopefully, with a positive role model she identifies with and model herself after, she can start making the right changes.
Again, this scene wasn’t just Amanda’s SOP; every time she’s been passed up by a potential parent, she’s perceived it as a rejection. She’s been waiting for a moment like this for a looooong time.
Good move, making Amanda spill the beans.
I don’t think she planned it that way. Amanda accomplished in ignorance what Andi couldn’t accomplish because of fear.
I love the way you phrased this comment: kudos!
I like Todd’s expression in panel 5. It’s like “I’m not too shell-shocked to be pissed at you!”
Todd doesn’t need Amanda’s or Andi’s expressive hair to show how furious is he.
You can see Todd’s mind snapping in the second to last panel XD
I’m eager to see how this plays out. I don’t know if Todd will be able to forgive Andi, but if he does, I think it will take some time before he can.
As for Selkie and Amanda, I’d imagine they’d be disgusted by the fact they are now technically sisters.
5th panel. Todd is broken and about to erupt. Good thing the kids are there or this would get ugly much faster. Amanda probably thinks she’s “won,” but I can’t wait until she finds out her relation to Todd. Should be quite a humbling experience for both girls. XD
Just realized what Amanda said in the last panel… For some weird reason, I have a feeling some of that hate to Selkie isn’t just jealousy and fear (though it’s certainly there), but other unprocessed emotions. Not a big surprise as children who have come from abusive environments can have a really hard time detangling affection/love from all the fear of being hurt/rejected. Makes for some really complicated experiences after adulthood—especially with intimate relationships.
Oh poooo-….
So, it did happened!
I’m eager to see how this continue now that the beans having been spilled!!
you called it
I don’t know how Dave is going to play this out but I do know Todd is great dad material. He is going to put the welfare of the kids first.
Amanda is going to be CRUSHED when she realizes her real dad passed on adopting her. I hope Andi is strong enough to handle that.
Mmmph. Based on her track record… yeah, it’s going to be a body blow, but her response isn’t going to be panic attacks and depression. It’s going to be a sparking of that hair-trigger temper of hers, and Selkie is going to be squarely in the crosshairs.
You think Amanda’s been mean so far? That’s nothing on what’ll be headed Selkie’s way when Amanda twigs that ‘fishface stole her daddy’
I’m personally hoping that Amanda settles on being the sort of ‘big sister’ she wishes she had, instead of the ‘princes’ who ‘cut off her arms and legs’ she got.
I get the feeling that the octo-fishie isn’t going to be the most interesting thing in this particular show.
{gets the huge bucket of popcorn, huge drink, small cup of “cheese” sauce for dipping of popcorn and a box of sno-caps} dis gon be gud.
Argh, Andi should tell Amanda the truth first, then wait for her to go to school and go talk to Todd, then Todd should process this for a good long time, then talk to Selkie about it when she comes home, then maaaaybe possibly try and talk to Amanda later. Much later. Maybe when she’s secure and stable at home and less of a prat (so her early 30s?)
If Andi had anything CLOSE to decently functioning confrontation skills, she probably wouldn’t have lied about Amanda’s death in the first place. Granted, she was a teenager back then, but that element of her personality is still there.
Considering adult Andi doesn’t seem to have grown much from teen Andi, I’m not surprised that her big strategy is “Put it off for as long as possible”. What would have even been better? Telling Todd BEFORE she brought Amanda home.
…Or maybe just not lying in the first place. That would have been super, too.
On the subject of “still being a teenager”a lot of people aren’t giving Andi the credit of ‘and an authority figure(Mommie Dearest) was whispering poison in her ear when she was emotionally vulnerable after giving birth.”
I respectfully disagree: I think that Andi and Todd have to talk and come to terms with the situation BEFORE either tells Amanda (or Selkie) about their relationship. They really need to process their own emotions, separately and together, then come up with a plan for how their “family” is going to work. God know Amanda isn’t mature enough to deal with this “it’s complicated” fiasco right now.
You’re right, but I think Todd may slip up and say something explosive the parents will have to explain at home to their respective children. Cue all four getting kicked out of the aquarium in 3…2…1
do you guys n’ gals remember Selkie’s reaction to the stream/river when they went to the camping spot?… for some strange reason i see that happening to Suko… and that ALL of them will be kicked out, with EXTREME publicity being brought forth over it, what with Todd trying to stop them, and Andi getting uppity about him and Amanda, who is going at it with Selkie… Yup… Agent Brown will have a cow trying to suppress this one in the news… but then again, maybe there IS some GOOD NEWS?…
Selkie and Amanda will both have IMPECCABLE proof that they were at the Aquarium in order to get that extra credit !!
Yeah, she should have had that talk somewhere private loooooooong before now, and had an explanation for Amanda before bringing her home. (For instance, “your dad and I aren’t together anymore, but he wants to be a part of your life as well.” And hopefully they’d realized beforehand the Amanda-Selkie connection and had something prepared for that.)
To your point, I agree that things would be very different if they were going to happen as they SHOULD. My hope now lies with Todd: now that the saber-toothed tiger is out of the bag, I hope he will be able to keep his own emotions under wraps for the sake of his children and confront Andi at a later, more private opportunity.
That would be a terrible idea because there is no way in hell that Amanda would be able to keep that secret. When Selkie finds out, it should be her dad who tells her. Not her childhood nemesis.
Amanda and Todd should figure this out on their own/together and then, individually, tell the two children. Separately. And then let things go from there.
Not tell her exactly who, but explain what happened with her dad. Then talk to Todd and see if he even WANTS to deal with this mess (at which point he can talk to Selkie who will be all “HELLS NOS!!”). The potential damage to be done to these girls by one selfish adoption… I’m thinking somebody’s going to drop the bomb soon though for dramatic effect. It would then be a fight to the death on the playground no doubt…
LAWDHAMMERCY!!!
lawl:)
I too think he dids fines!
So…I am trying to find other times when Amanda was out and out rude to an adult. Yes, she has issues. Yes, she can be AWFUL, but I really am having a hard time with how she is disrespecting an adult, being out and out rude to another parent. She seems more the type to talk smack behind his back and smile sweetly to his face.
And Andi has been too scared of the Todd situation to address it, but she’s letting her kid talk to an adult like a playground bully. Shouldn’t fly.
I’m… not sure that Todd registers as an adult to Amanda. I think it’s more, “Selkie’s Dad Who Is A Jerk Because He Adopted A Fish” than “Todd The Adult”.
These are the moments I’m glad I’m just an audience member and not an actual character in the storyline.
Some people here are interpreting Todd’s expression in panel five as anger or fury, but I’m not sure of this. One, there’s his expression in panel six, which lacks the lines around his eyes that seem to indicate anger. Two, there’s no other sign of anger, such as flushed face, knitted eyebrows or quivering.
My read on the situation: Todd still hasn’t completely processed the information he just received. The sheer magnitude of the truth hitting him is huge, and I would liken his attempt to grapple with it to a snake attempting to eat a cow: it’s a slow process. Though in Todd’s case, the world is trying to force feed him his metaphorical cow, and he’s going to have a hell of a stomach ache.
On another note: that announcement was impeccably timed, and likely saved Amanda from prematurely learning her father’s identity. It’s also good that she and Selkie are too wrapped up in their own rivalry to notice that their parents seem to know each other.
That last part. Exactly. Amanda nor Selkie notice they know each other… Hm.
First impression of biological daughter: spiteful, nasty, vengeful, smug.
Followup thought: this is the girl who bullies my daughter.
Second followup thought: and she’s been bullying my daughter for years *because Andi gave her away and told me she was dead*.
I really hope Todd is capable of less-impulsive reactions than we’ve seen him have in the past, or I foresee a very high chance of him reacting to Amanda in a way that would be… immensely satisfying for the reader, and horribly traumatic for Amanda.
Andi, I’m not worried about; she can dish it out, if she can’t take it, that’s her problem.
…well, immensely satisfying for this reader, at least.
No, I don’t like Amanda. Yes, I understand that there are extenuating circumstances for her behavior. No, I don’t care. She’s a bully, and I would like to see her get her comeuppance.
…which might actually do her some good as a human being. Nah, I’m not gonna justify it. I just want to see Amanda get back what she’s been dishing out. I know that’s an unworthy impulse. I don’t care about that, either.
“C’mon, Dads, get in the game.”
Oh, Emm, Gee, Selkie, you are sans clue, here. You think this is Chutes and Ladders, but Hon, this is LivePeople-Player Chess, … With Ninjas, and live steel!
You skirmishing Amanda with your little dirk, while Andi with her claybeg accidentally slays your Daddy Dragon’s heart. Never in your fins and flukes fantasies did you ever dream of a bit on a stage this grand, or in a fable this fraught with fear and deceit, nor tangled in a tale this twisted. Dave has surprises in store for your story.
Not to mention the whole last-of-my-clan civil-war-under-water bit, of course.
I just wanted to say, Dave, the more you tackle really tough problems like adoption and racism and bullying and lying on this scale, the more I love the comic. It shows that the problems aren’t all one dimensional- like that Amanda isn’t just the bully, and neither was Truck. Don’t stop. Never stop. This page is breaking my heart, and by the way that’s a good thing. Congratulations.
Oh darn why did I catch up right here at this moment!! I really like this comic for portraying so many delicate subjects in a cute yet telling manner, and the ambiguous morality of so many characters provides both realism and drama. Very well done.
Todd’s face in the next-to-last panel……just one picometer away from detonation there.
I don’t know if anyone made the observation yet, but the situation between Todd and Andi and Amanda just totally reminds me of The Memory Keeper’s Daughter — with several crucial differences, of course, but the Big Lie and how it slowly eats away the relationship is really imaginable.
Here’s an interesting question…
Will Todd assume Andi lied, or will he assume that Andi was lied to? What does Todd know of, and think of, Andi’s mom? Would he jump to the conclusion that Andi’s mom got the doctors to tell Andi the baby died? (Admittedly, if Andi was 18+ — can’t remember — then she would’ve needed to sign the adoption papers… But if she was any younger, or if he could believe that her mom would’ve shaved a year or two off her age…)
Mind, this still leaves the “why didn’t you tell me when you found out?!” side of things, but it would be… interesting to know if he’s going to jump to the correct assumption, or if he will jump slightly off-base.
(Still don’t like Andi’s mom, who not only pressured her into doing this, but didn’t have the spine herself to be the one who met Todd and fed him the lie — or the truth — before he went in. If she’s going to sabotage her daughter’s relationship, she ought to at least run interference as well. Feh.)
Yeah, “jumping to Conclusions” is easy… it’s the swim BACK that’s hard.
for those of you that have read “The Phantom Tollbooth” you’ll know exactly what that means.
So this is the face of a man who’s brain is crashing.
War isn’t the time for Revelations