Oops
-EDIT- Patch 922.2 hotfix notes:
* replaced benny_face_spots.png
* minor text fixes
Thank you for the catches, Cipher and Mikael
Briefly considered an Evangelion joke about an "Accidental Terror Field", but would've been too convoluted to work in.
Starting to think Avery and Benny’s relationship might not be that good after all… I don’t think he was that much out of line. 🙁
And, new font? Think I preferred the old one, this one looks less crisp. Still readable though so more of a preference thing really. 🙂
yeah the old font was thicker and better to read.
I dunno. Benny was rude and teasing – aka being a 12-year-old. The family can tell that Amanda is having a hard time, so Avery calmly telling Benny to knock it off in public seems appropriate. Esp. if that’s all there is to it. I’m really hoping Avery doesn’t show to be super strict/mean/bad parent.
It’s certainly better than the forced, panicked whispers of “You be quiet RIGHT NOW you’re EMBARRASING ME stop it” that I used to get, which of course, only served to call MORE attention to things.
Do Not twit the stranger whose powers you cannot fathom the strength of, Benny, … and don’t meddle in the affairs of wizards, either, for ditto.
Todd really should be sorry. I’ve been thinking this for a while, but Todd *really* haven’t been very firm with Amanda about her racism, and I think she’s a bit past the age where being scared that other races are “dangerous” is something that should be handled with velvet gloves. This is at most defensible behaviour for a kindergartener, which Amanda is not.
inb4 Sarnothi are different species so it’s not racism
I don’t think being scared of someone should be called racism (or speciesm, if you want). There’s no indication she thinks humans are better or that sarnothi are inferior.
Sarnothi do look scary, and she’s just a kid who doesn’t know better, her reaction is natural. Forcing her to have a positive experience which shows that her first impression is actually wrong is all she needs.
honestly? amanda has been living with selkie for *years* so she knows very well that she´s *not* dangerous. heck, she´s been goading and teasing her mercilessly until todd put an end to it. thats not the behaviour of someone who is afraid.
moreover, amanda is everything but a scaredy-cat in general, so i think her suddenly being all ‘afraid’ is her way to demand attention from todd – though it might be subconsciously
To be fair, Selkie’s a child. Adults have the size and more developed claws and teeth going on. Ergo, it makes sense she’d be afraid of an adult, but not a child she can (somewhat) overpower.
wow, it’s almost like you read what Amanda said verbatim just a few pages ago…. oh wait…. Yeah, I think her explanation to Todd was just exactly that. she was being truthful. A being twice her size, that she KNOWS is stronger than her, that has BIG SHARP TEETH, coupled with the fact that she has first hand experience that adults CAN be evil… yeah, I’d be scared a bit too…
whoops… here I go getting caught up in the story… acting like its real…. Sorry Dave…
Friendly fire, mate. I’m on your side.
She doesn’t bully Selkie because of her species though. Until recently she did not even fully grasp that sarnothi are one.
I’m not saying she isn’t awful, she absolutely is, but racism in particular is being awful to others because of race, and in her case that’s not why she’s being this way.
She was scared of Pohl when she first saw him, don’t forget.
Actually that is likely why she is terrified. She tormented her child-mate for years and finally saw an adult with the full terror-effect and has freaked out ever since. That’s a guess. Interesting how she never felt that around a child Sarnothi. Either they have all the innocence features which makes humans want to protect and nurture young Sarnothi just like with young humans… or she teased Selkie her whole life because she is actually secretly afraid of her and it was a dominance thing.
Ooh, very possible! I didn’t think of that. 🙂
One of the REASONS Amanda hassles Selkie is because she’s an easy target because she’s different. This is why the nerds get persecuted by the other kids a lot of the time.
And, ya know, kids with developmental disorders, which is probably more of a thing than just “nerds”…
Amanda’s species has razor sharp teeth, their blood and saliva are poisonous and allergic to other beings, and has claws.
Why wouldn’t anyone be afraid of that?! Especially a young girl?
….. SELKIE’S SPECIES.
Ugh, cannot type today.
And despite being tormented for YEARS supposedly dangerous Selkie has not once struck out physically at Amanda. I don’t buy Amanda’s fear give that history.
We actually don’t know that that’s true. Amanda and Selkie probably got in some pretty rough fights over the last three years. They may not be tackling and hair-pulling now, as semi-civilized 8yos, but I wouldn’t doubt it if 5yo Selkie and Amanda had some shoving matches and growing pains. I imagine the orphanage staff put an end to that before it became a pattern, though, so now they just hurt each other with words.
Reptile Brain Instincts.
Imagine you go over to someone’s house, and they tell you they have a housecat. But when you get there, it’s a fully grown adult lion. Just… wandering around, putting its head in your lap for scratches, doing the purr-growl thing that big cats do, and otherwise being a cat.
Clearly, this is a pet. It’s not being dangerous right now. And it hasn’t been dangerous in the past, since your friend isn’t, you know, mauled to death.
BUT! It still has that capacity to EAT YOU, and so you are nervous and afraid of it that first time you go over there. And your friend isn’t nervous at all because they’ve lived with the lion for years, watching it grow up.
By the same token, if that had been a lion KITTEN, you wouldn’t be nearly so nervous, would you? It would still be a cat larger and more dangerous than any you’ve ever pet before, but your reptile brain instinctively classifies it as less dangerous, because it is smaller, and hasn’t been taught hunting skills or behaviours.
This can easily be applied to People then. Amanda is afraid of an Alpha predator TWICE HER SIZE that she has no personal experience with- one that is an adult, a “species” (adults, that is) that she has first-hand experience being in danger from.
Selkie, on the other hand, is smaller, and Amanda has first-hand experience of her being not-dangerous.
Things should calm down, especially once the food gets there, but any disasters will happen because of Amanda and/or Benny being brats, rather than them being afraid, I predict.
There’s a big difference between non-sapient wild animal and thinking, sapient, humanoid creature. Further, Amanda is not being put in a situation where she is SURPRISED by the presence of Sarnothi, she KNEW going in that they were going to be there. She’s met other adult Sarnothi before. She’s never been given any reason to believe they were genuinely dangerous or canibalistic.
Yes, people, especially children don’t always behave logically, and yes Amanda has trauma in her background that may lead her to think adults are less trustworthy than the seem, yet by the same token, shouldn’t she be more afraid of humans? You know the creatures at whose hands she has ACTUALLY suffered abuse and pain? Her only interaction with Sarnothi has so far involved tormenting one, one who we have no indication has ever done her significant physical harm. If Selkie HAD struck back at Amanda at somepoint wouldn’t she be less likely to have continued to bully her knowing what could happen? Also wouldn’t it have come up?
With the caveat that Dave is the essential “god” of this universe and therefore peoples behavior is whatever he wants it to be, if we’re treating the situation outside that sphere, and analyzing behavior based on real world human action/inaction, I just don’t find Amanda’s behavior to be reasonably based solely on fear. I continue to think there is/was a heavy element of her simply being difficult and deciding she doesn’t WANT to be in this situation because its more about Selkie than her. We have ample evidence to suggest Amanda will try and make situations about her, especially regarding Todd.
I think you’ve hit it right. Yes, there was a component of instinctive fear… but we are seeing on this page that it wasn’t by any means an overwhelming fear. It has been overridden already — first by anger, and now, intense mortification. Whatever she’s feeling by the last panel, physical fear is not part of it!
Sarnothi have big sharp teeth, black eyes with bright scary colors, and claws. How is this not a child’s nightmare even if you see it routinely? Just because I know what a bear is or I’ve seen a bear cub doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be terrified of Mama Bear if I saw her in the woods.
Please stop comparing sentient beings to wild animals. Especially in the context of a straight up racism parallel. It’s a bit of a faux pas.
I’m guessing this isn’t the first time Benny’s had to deal with someone being afraid of him due to his appearance. It would explain him being snarky and grumpy.
Actually, referring to my post above, I debate whether Sarnothi have those visual “protect and nurture” cutes that make humans want to help and/or protect them from harm. If so, I would say perhaps Benny is reacting to reactions his mother has had?
Psst Dave, you forgot Benny’s markings!
Also awww Carrie is so sweet and understanding! She gets that they can seem scary to kids, whereas Benny is probably just tired of people thinking they eat people. I’m kinda surprised he didn’t make a reference to the poor Sarnothi man who was ‘processed’…. “It was some of YOUR people that turned one of mine into seafood.”
IIRC — and I’m operating on low sleep so I could be TOTALLY wrong and mis-remembering — the Processed man was Benny’s dad. So that might be a liiiiiittle too close, even if Benny doesn’t have many memories of the guy.
That’s still up in the air at this point. In the flashback, Behn’s wife’s markings DO look very similar to Carrie’s, but it hasn’t been confirmed one way or the other, and personally I’m waiting until we have more information before I draw any conclusions. We still haven’t seen Carrie’s forearms, so we can’t compare those markings yet. Though the fact that they chose the human name of ‘Benny’ for the boy is making me lean in that direction, as it may have been with the intention of honouring his father. On the other hand, we still don’t know Benny and Carrie’s Sarnothi names, so their current names could just be variations of what they used to be.
I love Carrie in this. “Accidental terrors” is a new favorite phrase.
Apologizing for fear seems silly.
heh, I’m not trying to take away from the more serious conversation… I just want to say, Selkie’s “Great, way to embarrass me in front of the Sarnothi” expression is priceless!
Hmm… as for accidental terror. It’s hard enough dealing with the people who don’t understand when you don’t have fangs and claws.
A little example, I like to go to the zoo to draw and one of my favorite models is an orangutan who enjoys people watching. THere’s enough of a bond between my fellow hominid that I make a huge effort to keep a reassuring smile to myself since I know to everything else it’s a threat display… Imagine having to do that all the freaking time.
Ok, voices.
Avery has J.K. Simmon’s voice.
Carrie seems like about Fluttershy’s voice.
And Benny… I can’t place where I’ve heard it, but I can describe it. It sounds like Violet, from The Incredibles, but deeper. you know, a boy. That really nasal voice with all the syllables drawn out?
Vocal Fry? ((Example in my website URL. ))
Christopher Mintz-Plasse?
This further cements my feelings that Tod /really/ should not have brought Amanda to this meeting. It’s turning what should be ‘time for marginalized (in human society) people to bond/time for Selkie to learn more about her species and culture’ into ‘make marginalized people do the emotional labor of “helping” Amanda get over her racism’. Which is pretty darn icky.
Yes, Amanda should not be racist against Sarnothi, but I really think it’s inappropriate to put the work of that on Carrie and Benny and Selkie. Let Selkie celebrate her culture without turning this into yet another Amanda’s Feelings circus.
Well put. Especially since I still think selkie’s safe space being overtaken by her bully, and Amanda still acting nasty, just hasn’t been addressed. Selkie’s feelings should not be discounted because she isn’t an “abused child.” Frankly I just don’t think Amanda has been drawn up short enough on her inappropriate behavior, regardless of source. This would be a valid time for her to be afraid perhaps but after all the other incidents it’s hard to sympathize, especially when we have seen her manipulate, lie, and play adults before.
…a depressingly good point.
Reading some comments here regarding Amanda’s fear of adult sarnothi vs a lack of fear towards Selkie, and I hope this handy analogy will assist with understanding the difference from her viewpoint:
http://imgur.com/a/K1PGk
Hah, glad I found the same analogy!
I’ve been thinking, if Benny’s Sarnothi father was the unfortunate being caught in the trawlers net, and Carrie and Benny witnessed him being butchered like so much Chicken of the Sea, it must be an extra sharp slap in the face for Benny every time a human has an “accidental terror” and acts like he’s a movie monster come to eat THEM.
Benny knows that humans are the dangerous ones. (Oh! Not ALL humans…) I don’t know how you get over witnessing your parents murder, to be honest, but if I then had to live in a world where I had to walk in the world of those killers, and be cast as their villain, I’d be bitter. I’d have a hair trigger.
Amanda also has a hair trigger. Could be common ground for some understanding to grow.
I had that same thought with Benny and Carrie being the family of the sarnothi caught in the net (especially since the adult female’s markings seem to match Carrie’s), but if so then based on Comic #405 there’s a second child that seems to be missing. A casualty of the civil war, perhaps? Or maybe it’s a totally off-base idea but you’re not the only one whose mind went there!
We don’t have confirmation of that yet, but it would not be surprising if that were the case. Agent Brown would have been involved from the government side in the events after that tragic killing, and over time a relationship with the widow could indeed have slowly blossomed.
It’s so wrong…
BUT IT’S ALSO SO RIGHT