She’ll be designing a glittery unicorn-skull fort next thing you know.
—-
Got more fanart to share! Carrie posted these Teen Selkie interpretations to the discord server, and I wanted to share them with everyone:
Thank you, Carrie!
I feel like Amanda would share Selkie's enjoyment of adventure fiction, just not quite as voraciously.
And she’s clearly a good influence on you.
I was just about to say.
I see these two growing closer as they begin to understand each other more.
Well at least so far this does seem to have the desired effect on Amanda.
Can kids learn to scuba?
“To enroll in a PADI Open Water Diver course or Junior Open Water Diver course, you must be 10 years old or older.”
https://www.padi.com/padi-courses/open-water-diver
Yea, I wouldn’t mind Amanda not getting her way for just once and for Selkie to get to have something special she does not have to share.
The point here is to teach Amanda a lesson about acceptance, not just to simply punish her. Taking her along, even if she now *wants* to go, would go far into teaching her about the Sarnoth and their culture and, maybe, help her along with Selkie.
I’m just being petty probably, I expect if she does go the trip will somehow end up being all about her rather than Selkie again so I’m glad there’s a legit reason why she can’t go.
That legit reason being she isnt cleared for security. Even if you really want to teach them a nice life lesson, the Feds are usually not one to just let random people into protected areas.
While quark’s reaction is the better one, I admit i’m with you Mikael in that my initial reaction is to be anti-Amanda getting what she wants.
Well, that’s in our world. If the PADI age limit would interfere with Dave’s story, then in Dave’s world, perhaps as a consequence of the existence of the Sarnothi, they’ve found a way to teach younger kids safely.
Amanda clearly can’t go right now, anyway. She has neither the clearance nor the skill. Given time, she could acquire both. I expect the first step would be for her to be given instruction resembling this Bubblemaker program, which is open to kids age 8 or older:
https://www.padi.com/padi-courses/youth-scuba-diving-programs
If she does well with that, she may be allowed more advanced instruction with a view to letting her visit, and by then, the legal obstacles may also have been overcome.
Yup. PADI/NAMI certification notwithstanding, I’ve been told of 6 year olds being able to do it, with assistance. Never met one, but apparently it can be done.
“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown” ~ H.P Lovecraft.
Learning more about what can seem scary at first, however, is a good way to become less scared of it.
go, amanda! a bit more rubbing off, and you´ll make a worthy acomplice for ‘doctor (selkie) terrorhammer’….how about codename ‘red menace’? 😉
Love! ❤❤❤
I feel like Amanda is going to fall in love with Benny.
I like the first art 😀
Thanks! Worked Hard on it
I think part of Benny likes Avery. Moments like this where Avery starts treating him with some respect and shows he wants to help the Sarnothi. And I like Benny’s expression when talking to Amanda. No accusational tone, no intimidating toothy grin, no snarky joke. Just taking part in the conversation. He might be angry at the world, and justly so, but he is not totally without reason.
Agreed. This makes me think Avery’s scolding in the last page was due to his tone and his mocking his mother’s point of view. Disagreeing is different than squashing someone. And Avery obviously agrees with Benny on what the refugee camp is like (although, can anyone point out a refugee camp in history that wasn’t bad?)
He wasn’t mocking his mother’s view point, he was giving a completely legitimate opinion of the place,
Avery is a cock and I hope he gets colorectal cancer.
When he started giving a completely legitimate opinion, Avery let him talk, and even said he had a point.
When all he was doing was– yet again– telling his mother that she was wrong (the “come on” adds, if not mocking, hostility), that’s when Avery stepped in to say “cut it out.” But when he started giving an opinion without belittling his mother’s, then he was allowed to talk, and supported in his thinking.
He was giving an opinion, its validity is debatable. However he was doing so in an incredibly rude manner.
Thank you. Carrie is acting as if she probably has PTSD – very meek, backs away from conflicts. I got the impression that Avery was trying to protect her, not necessarily squashing Benny. He stopped him after the kid said something about it being a hole, and then, didn’t really stop him, just told him to knock off talking over his mother But he didn’t stop Benny from actually saying what he thought and why, or that he supported the idea that Benny was saying.
Or maybe he took offense to hole – weird too but some folks have a thing about words like damn or crap, so who knows.
I can see Benny growing up to become an advocate for his people. Tone aside, he obviously feels strongly for their welfare and wants something better for them. We gotta remember, he might say stuff about video game characters some people don’t like but this does not necessarily reflect how he views the people around him.
I can see this angst mixing with concern and maturing into action. With his stepfather being a government agent, and one sympathetic to his cause, he does have the resources to do something when he opens his eyes and sees it.
I can imagine in a future, Amanda and Selkie being on opposite bands: “Sister, I’ve come for you…”.
But I’m not sure if Amanda would be a hero just to oppose her sister, or simply a rival villian…
What’s wrong with a glittery unicorn-skull fort? The horn makes for a great lookout tower.
God, I hate Amanda. One can only hope that she gets to go along on this trip and she either drowns to death or is eaten by a large underwater animal.
Christ, dude. Chill out. She’s just a kid. One who has been through some traumatic experiences that has left her scarred. She’s still struggling, still growing. Yeah, she can be bratty, but all kids can and we’ve even seen it in Selkie. That’s no reason to wish upon her a gruesome death. It’s not like she’s an adult who is fully aware of the consequences of her actions and the impact that those actions have on others. She’s still just a kid whose biggest concerns are currently homework and tests and trying to adjust to her new family life. The fact that Amanda is actually expressing interest in a different culture when moments ago she was freaking out about the Sarnothi people has shown that she’s grown a lot as a person since the beginning of the story. If she can get the chance to learn about Selkie’s people and what they’ve been through and get to interact more with other Sarnothi, it could actually help Amanda and Selkie grow closer. It’s not like she’s really a close-minded kid either. She’s never shown prejudice toward other races or toward people of a different sexual orientation. The only reason she ever started ragging on Selkie in the first place is because when they arrived at the orphanage, Selkie, who was the oddest child they had ever seen and didn’t even speak their language, seemed to be the focal point of the adults’ attention which meant that Amanda, who was scared and lonely and who had very likely been abused, kinda just fell to the wayside. Amanda needed attention at that point as much as Selkie did, but she didn’t receive it and she blamed Selkie for it, which led her to hold a grudge and act out toward her for all these years. Had Selkie been just another human child who could speak the language, Amanada likely would have gotten more help and probably wouldn’t have turned out as mean as we’ve seen her. As is, things happened the way they happened, but now Selkie and Amanda both have a loving family that are trying to help them to adjust to their new lives and to let go of their old issues and slowly the kids are starting to grow.
You also have to keep in mind that even though it’s been several years since this comic has started, in-comic it hasn’t even been a full year since Todd adopted Selkie. It’s been an even shorter time since Andi took Amanda back. To us it may seem like everything should have fallen into place by now and that Amanda should be acting like a ‘good’ human being, but that’s not how it is because humans grow slowly and neither of the kids have been out of the orphanage for longer than six to seven months. It’s going to be a long time (outside of the comic) before things really fall into place for them.
Dial it back a bit, Cartman.
I wish we could give points to comments. I’d give you as many as I could, Dave. Granted, it would only be one per comment, but since one out of one is all I’d give you all my points.
I thought I was the only one that felt like Kyle reading his cancer.
There’s something to be said for declaring yourself “Mighty” in terms of confidence boosters.
She and The Tick will get along just fine.
“We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty.” — Mal Reynolds, Firefly
Maybe Avery and Benny need to talk to someone? Cuz they’ve got some issues with each other. I don’t see them going away anytime soon.
XD Benny and Amanda make for an interesting rivals. I bet when they’re older they’ll be vitrolic best friends. But hopefully with Selkie as the moderator in case things get too bad.
A lot of people here are complaining that Amanda shouldn’t be allowed to go on the trip because it would either take the focus off of Selkie or provide a way for Amanda to act out; she shouldn’t be allowed to go because of her behavior.
Has everyone forgotten that
1) Amanda is a WOUNDED child. She has been abused. She needs understanding.
2) This is the a POSITIVE reaction to Selkie and her kind. One that should NOT be discouraged.
3) This may be a way towards Selkie and Amanda LEARNING to get along with each other; understanding is the main thing that will help their relationship.
Remember, you are judging a traumatized 8 year old as if she was a healthy adult.
I award you many internets and a cookie. 😉
Also, Amanda and Selkie are family now. I think it’s a step in the right direction that Amanda is starting to take some interest in Selkie’s culture and background. Even the fact that she recognizes that she is starting to copy Selkie’s language patterns is, IMHO, pretty cute…
I hope she gets to visit at some point, if not now. Looking WAY ahead, Amanda is in an unique position to maybe be a “diplomat” between the two species.
Let’s not forget Todd forced her to go on this family outing so that she’d become more comfortable with Selkie and her people. It’s not all about Selkie, just like how it’s not all about Amanda. Both of them need to learn to get along and understand each other.
Amanda has every right to ask if she can come along. If you’re gonna take a child somewhere and then the all about the alkaline your other child somewhere else, it’d be incredibly cruel to tell the first child, “No. This is for your sibling and JUST your sibling. We just decided to talk about it in front of you anyways.”
And then talk about the somewhere*
Then the all about the alkaline
Phone. Pls. Wtf.
It is my theory that cell phones hate us and are being passive aggressive with crap autocorrect until the time comes where they can rise up against us all.
Well first, no she is a character, how we treat characters and how we treat real live people are going to be different for many reasons.
Second, even as a “wounded” child, she’s also shown a propensity for wounding others, particularly Selkie. Its one thing to try and help Amanda, its another to make Selkie suffer because of it. Todd trying to build a situation where both girls can be happy together is, of course, preferred, but he needs to do a better job (and lately he has been) of remembering that Selkie needs to be his priority as she has no one else, while Amanda has her mother. Hopefully the times where he is forced to make that choice are few and far between, but sometimes there is no option.
Third, while yes, Todd can/should take in to consideration possible upsides from allowing Amanda to join them, he also needs to consider the consequences as well. Amanda DEMANDED to go with them the first time, its a good sign that she’s ASKING this time around. Also, is this Amanda actually showing an openness to Sarnothi things or just wanting to go along on a cool trip where she will insult Selkie and her people even more?
Fourth, Selkie needs to have SOME things that are just for her. Right now Amanda has everything with her mother PLUS with Todd, Selkie doesn’t have much of anything of her own to speak of.
Horse skulls are pretty creepy looking, by skull standards … not as disturbing as hippo skulls, but a unicorn-skull fortress would probably not be made less creepy by glittering. Also the elongated shape might mean it was more spacious.
The commenters who are saying it’s not good to make Selkie share everything with Amanda are very right, but I don’t think not letting Amanda go period is the solution. She’s displaying interest and non-hostility, and if it’s discouraged it’s going to wane real fast.
One solution could be “alright, Amanda, start taking scuba classes, and we’ll bring you photos, but right now you literally can’t go with Selkie because she can live underwater and you can’t” – postpone it and keep dangling it in front of her as a possibility that grows ever closer.
Also, SISTERS!!!
Also, this isn’t something Todd can grant. Agent Brown is the only one who can say yes or no, and even if he wants to say yes, he probably has people above him that he has to clear it with, first. Or… at the very least, procedures he’s required to go through.
It’s possible that not even Agent Brown can grant it– if you recall, they were invited not by Agent Brown, but Agent Then Til’Raeda.
However, looking at the dialogue (admittedly one-sided) when Todd asked Avery about Amanda attending this dinner, it is also possible that her participating in the dive might have also been intended/brought up.
No way to tell, but I think that it’s not out of the question; Agent Then wants relations between Sarnothi and humans to be accelerated so having Amanda “in the know” might facilitate HIS aims.