Copying and pasting it may be wise. Might help avoid letting the giant eels loose in the future by forgetting to draw the /back/ side of the cage.
Unless that was intentional, and the “no further harm” was less foreshadowing and more “now-shadowing.”
so the identity of selkie´s birth father is a mystery – probably for exact this reason. imagine if the enemy learned that there´s a potential echo-prodigy of their most hated clan, they´d send killers after her for sure.
sending her daughter to live among humans makes more and more sense – what better place to hide her?
I am casting my vote that the Eel known as Pants be made into a cape and Tiara for Dr. Princess Terrorhammer to be given to her upon her assumption of her throne.
Ah, but there’s the irony of it! The only thing which I AM PANTS /doesn’t/ get fashioned in to will be pants. Not even a skirt. No. Only many, many capes and (wait, seriously?) tiaras.
These eels must be pretty quick learners- how many times would Ow My Hand have heard someone say that? Once, hopefully? And s/he’s already learned to repeat it?
If the eels are just mimicing, then why do they say “I am pants” instead of what they’ve probably heard people say to them e.g. “You are pants”. I find it unlikely that anybody would say “I am pants” about themselves whilst in their presence.
Back when I was in high school the girl next door had a baby. I’m sure she knew who the father was. Her mother and father probably knew who the father was.
I never knew. Wasn’t any of my business, so I was never told.
Unless you (or they) live in some type of society that knowledge of the father is REQUIRED (many feudal societies, or societies where inheritance can only go through bloodlines), why would EVERYONE know who the father of any kid is?
And even then, you really only know who the mother SAYS the father is.
Old, old saying – It’s a wise man who knows his own father.
My reasoning had been that if Plo Quar was such a strong warrior/echo, her clan would have made her a huge celebrity. And it seems unlikely that the political machinations of that society would not keep close tabs on the activities that someone like her would be doing. Further, if Sarnothi are a very societal people, the only way that Selkie’s father is this unknown is if NOBODY could keep tabs on Plo for close to a year AND the father was somebody that NOBODY else knew and would notice had gone missing.
Or someone who has faked his death beforehand and has gone into hiding. But even then I find it hard to believe that not even Gien or anybody who practically worships her knows for sure. That was my logic.
Or Dave pulled a “Star Wars” and she was immaculately conceived by the Force… I mean the Echo field. 😛
Aria, you’re assuming that it takes close to a year for gestation (as in humans) and that there are visible signs of the female being pregnant. We’ve already seen that Selkie’s people lay eggs (Pohl’s daughter). We have no idea how soon after (or before) conception this occurs. For all we know Plo Quar only had to be off the radar for a few hours to conceive and hide Selkie’s egg with a trusted friend. She could then reclaim Selkie prior to hatching with no one else knowing precisely when Selkie was conceived. In those circumstances it’s near impossible to pin down precisely who the father is.
Has it ever been addressed just how long the Sarnothi have been on Earth? Because now I’m wondering about those eels interacting with humans, heck with our ecosystem in general if they got loose. And the longer they’ve been around, the more opportunities for that to happen…
An apex predator with mimicry like that would sure give the orcas of Newfounland Sound something to think about, for one. Not to mention the other cetaceans. Or the fishermen of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence…
I would guess that the Sarnothi have been on Earth the entire time humans have been here, it’s just that you don’t see them because they’ve been under the ocean. It has actually been a fairly common trope for millennia, that even after accurate knowledge of above-sea-level geography became common enough that everyone stopped believing in fairies, that some people still believed in, or at least liked to make up stories about, mermaids and sea-dwelling people. It’s so ubiquitous that it’s the origin of both Namor the Sub-Mariner and Aquaman.
It’s like how some people still believe in the possibility of space aliens because even though everyone knows there aren’t any in our solar system, we don’t yet have comprehensive surface maps of every possible planet in the universe.
I suppose I should point out for those who may be confused by my last assertion: it’s not just known astronomical facts, but the theory of General Relativity that killed the possibility of space aliens ever being in physical proximity to Earth. Although it’s not impossible, given what we know, for some aliens on some planet out there to exist, it’s not physically possible for them to have ever been to Earth because of the problems with accelerating close to light-speed and the sheer distances involved. Likewise, you’re never going to meet a space alien in your lifetime because it’s simply physically impossible, whether they exist elsewhere in our universe or not. That’s why SETI may have some scientific merit but the entire Ancient Aliens series is provably nonsense.
This doesn’t mean you can’t write about space aliens in a fictional context, just as no one is going to stop you from writing about elves in a fictional context. It just means that a lot of the speculation has been settled in a disappointingly anticlimactic fashion. Sometimes reality is a killjoy.
(I know that’s how I felt when I found out I was never going to meet space aliens.)
Well, these Sarnothi are apparently living in a Great Lake, not The Ocean…
And, depending on what Dave knows of biology… creatures that live in salt water tend to die in fresh water, and vice-versa.
But the Giant Moray Eel (largest known eel species) is actually about as big as these Sarnothi eels. Assuming these things can’t use their mimicry above water (which is entirely reasonable to believe- I doubt parrots do well underwater), and prefer staying in the depths (like the Moray)… there’d be nothing about them that humans haven’t already seen.
And they’d only be “alpha predators” in the kelp forests and reefs… out in the open ocean, there are much scarier beasts…
Also keep in mind how quickly humans can create new breeds of animals – modern dog breeds have only been around since the 19th century despite what a kennel club will say; and most have been around much shorter than that. Same with cattle, cats, and most other domesticated animals.
So these types of eels don’t have to have been around very long. It doesn’t take much to breed for a specific trait such as size, skin/fur features, etc.
I hadn’t even thought of that, but it’s a good point.
Of a similar point- animals that “go wild” tend to lose those traits rather quickly. Take the Dingo, as an example. They’re wild dogs descended from domestic dogs that settlers brought with them.
Today… they look and behave an awful lot like wolves. Well… the wolves that live in warm climates, at any rate.
So if the eels did get loose, they’d return to “normal” for their species in a generation or two.
Did you mean the original, aboriginal settlers or the European settlers? Because dingoes have been around a lot longer than Australia has existed as an European-settled country. Sources I’m finding suggest ~4,000 years ago. In which case it’s entirely possible that the ancestor to the dingo wasn’t much removed from the wolf.
Who says humans haven’t? Ever play Telephone? Who is to say some had a near deadly run in with them or watched someone approach water and just disappear? Stories of mimicry could easily become the Will O’ Wisp.
Hoorah!
I am so glad the site is back. You have a wonderful comic.
Now I wonder if you will be posting all the new pages while it was down at once (and confusing those who missed them), or just posting via your regular schedule from here……
I am uploading and back-dating the post-meltdown strips, doing that right now actually. I’ll have to find a way to resolve my buffer problems that isn’t three weeks of disappearing off the face of the earth. ;P
(Bunch of people have already seen them anyway. XD)
Wait when was the father mentioned? Also PANTS
Gien tried to bury the lead here: https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie967/
so are we to take it there is no official confirmation of who the father is?
Copying and pasting it may be wise. Might help avoid letting the giant eels loose in the future by forgetting to draw the /back/ side of the cage.
Unless that was intentional, and the “no further harm” was less foreshadowing and more “now-shadowing.”
… invisible net? >_>
Someone needs to run all this by Todd, if not Selkie herself.
so the identity of selkie´s birth father is a mystery – probably for exact this reason. imagine if the enemy learned that there´s a potential echo-prodigy of their most hated clan, they´d send killers after her for sure.
sending her daughter to live among humans makes more and more sense – what better place to hide her?
I am casting my vote that the Eel known as Pants be made into a cape and Tiara for Dr. Princess Terrorhammer to be given to her upon her assumption of her throne.
Dr. QUEEN Terrorhammer.
But the Eel known as Pants is already destined to be Terrorhammer’s PANTS!
Ah, but there’s the irony of it! The only thing which I AM PANTS /doesn’t/ get fashioned in to will be pants. Not even a skirt. No. Only many, many capes and (wait, seriously?) tiaras.
These eels must be pretty quick learners- how many times would Ow My Hand have heard someone say that? Once, hopefully? And s/he’s already learned to repeat it?
or they used to hear it when they were little. Being nipped by hatchlings would probaly be a common thing for nursery handlers.
I have a feeling it might have something to do with this page: https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie958/
If the eels are just mimicing, then why do they say “I am pants” instead of what they’ve probably heard people say to them e.g. “You are pants”. I find it unlikely that anybody would say “I am pants” about themselves whilst in their presence.
The keepers probably taught them – people teach parrots to say silly things on purpose too.
it could well be a way to identify them without using brandings
give each one a slightly different phrase.
Probably for the same reason parrots say “I’m a pretty bird.”
Because someone taught them to say it.
Valid point.
I wonder if Selkie’s wild dreams have something to do with her Echo suppression — and it’s a tell that she’s actually going to inherit her powers.
I dunno, I’m spitballin’.
How… do they not know who the father is? That is really disconcerting. I can understand that anyone outside the Clan wouldn’t immediately know.
Then again… I think this is strong evidence for the father to be dead. Dead men tell no tales.
Why would they?
Back when I was in high school the girl next door had a baby. I’m sure she knew who the father was. Her mother and father probably knew who the father was.
I never knew. Wasn’t any of my business, so I was never told.
Unless you (or they) live in some type of society that knowledge of the father is REQUIRED (many feudal societies, or societies where inheritance can only go through bloodlines), why would EVERYONE know who the father of any kid is?
And even then, you really only know who the mother SAYS the father is.
Old, old saying – It’s a wise man who knows his own father.
My reasoning had been that if Plo Quar was such a strong warrior/echo, her clan would have made her a huge celebrity. And it seems unlikely that the political machinations of that society would not keep close tabs on the activities that someone like her would be doing. Further, if Sarnothi are a very societal people, the only way that Selkie’s father is this unknown is if NOBODY could keep tabs on Plo for close to a year AND the father was somebody that NOBODY else knew and would notice had gone missing.
Or someone who has faked his death beforehand and has gone into hiding. But even then I find it hard to believe that not even Gien or anybody who practically worships her knows for sure. That was my logic.
Or Dave pulled a “Star Wars” and she was immaculately conceived by the Force… I mean the Echo field. 😛
Aria, you’re assuming that it takes close to a year for gestation (as in humans) and that there are visible signs of the female being pregnant. We’ve already seen that Selkie’s people lay eggs (Pohl’s daughter). We have no idea how soon after (or before) conception this occurs. For all we know Plo Quar only had to be off the radar for a few hours to conceive and hide Selkie’s egg with a trusted friend. She could then reclaim Selkie prior to hatching with no one else knowing precisely when Selkie was conceived. In those circumstances it’s near impossible to pin down precisely who the father is.
I love the eels!
I wonder if the reason her emitter turned on and wouldn’t stop is that it could no longer detect her – the last of her echo ability was gone.
That would support Pohl’s belief that the bow was tuned incorrectly and not intentionally to permanently remove her abilities.
I seem to remember that was because she bit into it.
Has it ever been addressed just how long the Sarnothi have been on Earth? Because now I’m wondering about those eels interacting with humans, heck with our ecosystem in general if they got loose. And the longer they’ve been around, the more opportunities for that to happen…
An apex predator with mimicry like that would sure give the orcas of Newfounland Sound something to think about, for one. Not to mention the other cetaceans. Or the fishermen of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence…
I would guess that the Sarnothi have been on Earth the entire time humans have been here, it’s just that you don’t see them because they’ve been under the ocean. It has actually been a fairly common trope for millennia, that even after accurate knowledge of above-sea-level geography became common enough that everyone stopped believing in fairies, that some people still believed in, or at least liked to make up stories about, mermaids and sea-dwelling people. It’s so ubiquitous that it’s the origin of both Namor the Sub-Mariner and Aquaman.
It’s like how some people still believe in the possibility of space aliens because even though everyone knows there aren’t any in our solar system, we don’t yet have comprehensive surface maps of every possible planet in the universe.
I suppose I should point out for those who may be confused by my last assertion: it’s not just known astronomical facts, but the theory of General Relativity that killed the possibility of space aliens ever being in physical proximity to Earth. Although it’s not impossible, given what we know, for some aliens on some planet out there to exist, it’s not physically possible for them to have ever been to Earth because of the problems with accelerating close to light-speed and the sheer distances involved. Likewise, you’re never going to meet a space alien in your lifetime because it’s simply physically impossible, whether they exist elsewhere in our universe or not. That’s why SETI may have some scientific merit but the entire Ancient Aliens series is provably nonsense.
This doesn’t mean you can’t write about space aliens in a fictional context, just as no one is going to stop you from writing about elves in a fictional context. It just means that a lot of the speculation has been settled in a disappointingly anticlimactic fashion. Sometimes reality is a killjoy.
(I know that’s how I felt when I found out I was never going to meet space aliens.)
I think that some of your assumptions are not established facts.
Well, these Sarnothi are apparently living in a Great Lake, not The Ocean…
And, depending on what Dave knows of biology… creatures that live in salt water tend to die in fresh water, and vice-versa.
But the Giant Moray Eel (largest known eel species) is actually about as big as these Sarnothi eels. Assuming these things can’t use their mimicry above water (which is entirely reasonable to believe- I doubt parrots do well underwater), and prefer staying in the depths (like the Moray)… there’d be nothing about them that humans haven’t already seen.
And they’d only be “alpha predators” in the kelp forests and reefs… out in the open ocean, there are much scarier beasts…
Also keep in mind how quickly humans can create new breeds of animals – modern dog breeds have only been around since the 19th century despite what a kennel club will say; and most have been around much shorter than that. Same with cattle, cats, and most other domesticated animals.
So these types of eels don’t have to have been around very long. It doesn’t take much to breed for a specific trait such as size, skin/fur features, etc.
I hadn’t even thought of that, but it’s a good point.
Of a similar point- animals that “go wild” tend to lose those traits rather quickly. Take the Dingo, as an example. They’re wild dogs descended from domestic dogs that settlers brought with them.
Today… they look and behave an awful lot like wolves. Well… the wolves that live in warm climates, at any rate.
So if the eels did get loose, they’d return to “normal” for their species in a generation or two.
Did you mean the original, aboriginal settlers or the European settlers? Because dingoes have been around a lot longer than Australia has existed as an European-settled country. Sources I’m finding suggest ~4,000 years ago. In which case it’s entirely possible that the ancestor to the dingo wasn’t much removed from the wolf.
Which really I guess domestic dogs aren’t either.
Who says humans haven’t? Ever play Telephone? Who is to say some had a near deadly run in with them or watched someone approach water and just disappear? Stories of mimicry could easily become the Will O’ Wisp.
♫ If you swim in the sea
And an eel bites your knee,
That’s A MORAYYYYY… ♫
We’re Back!
YAY! You’re BACK! As a non-FB’er, I’m SO HAPPY!
Ayyyy, the site exists again! Swell.
Hoorah!
I am so glad the site is back. You have a wonderful comic.
Now I wonder if you will be posting all the new pages while it was down at once (and confusing those who missed them), or just posting via your regular schedule from here……
I am uploading and back-dating the post-meltdown strips, doing that right now actually. I’ll have to find a way to resolve my buffer problems that isn’t three weeks of disappearing off the face of the earth. ;P
(Bunch of people have already seen them anyway. XD)