Selkie (Webcomic) - TV Tropes

A webcomic, written by Dave Warren, about adoption... with a twist.

Selkie follows the adventures of an amphibious young girl, and the man who adopts her. No one knows exactly what she is, but somehow she ended up in the municipal orphanage, where she was recently adopted by Todd Smith. The comic follows her trying to adapt to her new life... and Todd and his family trying to adapt to her.

Also see The Adventures of Sue and Kathryn!, another webcomic by Warren that also happens to be a Show Within a Show cartoon franchise in this one.

This webcomic provides examples of:

Abuse Mistake: Briefly teased when Miss Lillian is cheerfully told by Selkie that her shades are "sos nobodys sees what happeneds to my eyes."
Lillian: I'm sure that statement isn't as much of a red flag as it sounds, but maybe I should go say hello to Mister Smith all the same.
Adults Are Useless: Sometimes played straight, but mostly averted - the faculty at the school do try their best, but sometimes the situation can get out of hand for them. To their credit, they tend to recover admirably afterward.
- And in regards to Selkie, it's justified since they're being intentionally kept in the dark on the matter, and/or are just oblivious.
Adult Fear: In-universe. The grown-ups of the story seem much more disturbed when Selkie's shirt gets stolen than the children do. Justified for some of the children, who lived with her in the orphanage and may have known about Selkie's gill routine, which requires her removing her shirt.
All Crimes Are Equal: Selkie runs afoul of the school's No Tolerance Policy when she kicked a boy in the groin in self-defense.

All There in the Manual: There are several physiology sketches, and Dave was nice enough to actually type up a couple pages of Selkie's case file, print them out and scan them for us. Also, reading through the comments reveals a wealth of information from replies to reader questions.
Alt Text: Called Secret Director Commentary, it's basically little facts about either the making of the strip or the continuity. Later altered to be viewable below the comic, because some browsers were having trouble viewing it.
Analogy Backfire: Theo states "You can't choose your family", despite he and his wife adopting three children, which Mari is quick to point out.
Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better: Amanda has one hell of a competitive streak, especially in regards to Selkie.
Art Evolution: The comic started out with hand-drawn black and white lines. Over the course of its run, it has gained smooth vector lines, followed by color, and then, finally, shading. The skill at which the art is drawn has also increased noticeably.
- At one point Dave even did an experiment with no outlines, but it was dismissed by both him and most of the fans.

Artificial Limbs: Scar has one.
Ascended Extra: Thanks to her popularity with both the readers and Dave himself, Jessie the Wool-Mart clerk is now Jessie the third grade student teacher.
Bait-and-Switch Comment: Todd's landlady delivers a good one to establish herself as the Cool Old Lady.
Euphemia: Is [the boardgame] Satanic?
Mary: Oh good lord! No!
Euphemia: Well then, how is it a horror story?
Barbie Doll Anatomy: A sculpture in-universe has this, leading to Selkie asking why it doesn't have "girl-parts".
Berserk Button: Do not call Selkie a fish (or anything implying such). She will not be happy.
- Also, it's not a good idea to yell "Smear the orphans!" while working alongside 3 of them.
- Calling Heather stupid generally seems like a bad idea, and don't even mention Amanda's pre-orphanage past...
Big "WHAT?!": Amanda's reaction to finding out Heather got adopted.
Bilingual Bonus: Anything that comes out of Tony's mouth.
Big Eater: Selkie herself, especially when it comes to fish and other seafood.
Bizarre Alien Biology: Selkie herself. Blue blood, gills, no external ears, a flattened nose with slit-like nostrils, an obligate carnivore with a healthy appetite for seafood and who "pukes purple" if she consumes plant matter ... and poisonous saliva to boot.
Bland-Name Product: Apparently Selkie enjoys watching movies on Flixnet. Dave also enjoys a nice cold "Dew of the mountains".
- Not to mention Wool-Mart.
Body Horror: In the Show Within a Show superhero cartoon, the character Web-Spitter has a spider for a head (complete with legs) after eating radioactive spider eggs, and also pukes webbing. Selkie finds this more disgusting than disturbing.
The Bully: Tommy Trunchbull. Unlike many fictional cases, Tommy comes from a loving household albeit with a father whose forceful personality naturally steamrolls most opposition.
Bunny Ears Doctor: Dr. Pohl De'Madiea. Literally. Subverted since Dr. De'Madiea has a legitimate reason for wearing the ears: they're a disgust decoy.
Dr. De'Madiea: I use these to place patients' children at ease. I look very scary, you see.
Bring My Brown Pants: Tommy the bully has such a moment here.
Cassandra Truth: According to Amanda, the other orphanage kids put together that Selkie wasn't human a while ago but the adults would brush them off and rationalise that she just has a genetic condition.
Cat Smile: Grigori gets one of these after talking Todd into buying an array of custom-order shoes... each of which generates a 9% commission for him.
- Which promptly gets topped as a Cheshire Cat Grin on par with The Grinch by his coworker Annabeth.
Cats Are Mean: The first thing Todd's cat, Crook, does upon meeting Selkie is to bite her.
- Which bites him in the butt, since he immediately starts horking up a hairball.
Chekhov's Gun: In a blink and you'll miss moment, when Theo is trying to learn more about what Selkie's true species is the bottom of the webpage has an article about two fishermen who claim to have caught a merman on the great lakes. Later we learn that this is not only true but it's the inciting incident that eventually led to the Sarnothi civil war.
- For a smaller scale one, Todd's mysterious present to Selkie turns out to be a phone that she uses to record Tommy in the act of bullying her friends, her, and then threatening a teacher. Justice is served!
Cloud Cuckoo Lander: George.
Cool Old Lady: Lillian—no, sorry, Mrs. Haversham-Zhang.
Cool Old Guy: Todd's father, as it turns out. He has parenting advice for Todd, and has no problem trying Selkies rather...odd...favorite food. He's also the first to really forgive Andi for her massive lie regarding Amanda, as he was the first to extend an olive branch.
Curse Cut Short: "Someone stole her SHIRT?! What the f-" "Marta, Swear Jar" "...fudge. Fudge ripple."
Cute Monster Girl: Coupled with Ugly Cute (at least compared to humans) with Selkie. The last panel here is the first instance to capitalize on it.
Deadpan Snarker: Marta.
Department of Redundancy Department: As a Funny Background Event in the last panel.
Rule 6: No spitting.
Rule 10: Seriously. No spitting.
Rule 11: Actually, that bears repeating. NO. SPITTING.
Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Said word-for-word by the Principal after he says "[Selkie]'s lucky not to be sent [to the hospital] every other week!" In front of the assembled PTA.
Dirty Old Woman: Downplayed, but Todd's landlady's reply to Todd mentioning he's not her husband? "Yet."
Does Not Like Shoes: Selkie, due to her having webbed feet and being unable to find shoes that fit without hurting. She changes her mind after Todd gets her shoes custom designed to fit her feet.
Do Not Adjust Your Set: From strip 1050 through 1052, Cern, the new Emperor of Sarnoth, hijacks the TV broadcast and pulls down The Masquerade and summarily exiles any Sarnothi not belonging to Clan Sar'teri.
Drama Queen: Selkie gets called one, and responds about as well as you'd expect.
Giselle: "I rule with an iron fist." Literally you. Literally two minutes ago.
Drowning My Sorrows: At the art exhibit, Amanda, having just been called "awful" by her former best friend's father, decides to go drink some "juice" - downing 3 shots of wine before the attendants can intervene.
Enfant Terrible: Amanda. Torments Selkie with the idea she'll never be adopted (before Todd does, which sends her into hysterical anger), and introduces her to a new kid as the school's 'pet monster'.
- However, as mentioned in the YMMV page, she has a massive Freudian Excuse as to why.
Epic Fail: Jess' reaction upon realizing that Keisha really didn't steal Selkie's shirt.
- Benny tries to ask both twins, Ke Ban and Ke Nan Be'Mara, out on a date. They are extremely ammused.
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Selkie. Due to the orphanage not being able to understand Sarnothi, they thought her name is "Sel Kie" or "Selkie". Her given name is actually Nei Li.
Fangs Are Evil: Averted. Selkie has a mouth full of sharp fangs prominently displayed when speaking and/or smiling, but is not evil or (completely) malicious.
Fantastic Racism: Mr. Trunchbull doesn't seem to have much concern over the safety of the frightened sarnothi children and is insinuating that they are a danger to the human students.
Fashion-Shop Fashion Show: Selkie gets one on their initial trip to Wool Mart.
Fish Person: The title character. So is Dr. De'Madiea. They are sarnothi, a species that follows this trope.
Flipping the Bird: Selkie herself, doing it to taunt some other kids in a snowball fight.
Freaky Is Cool: Selkie was always passed over for more "normal" kids by prospective adopters, until Todd showed up and was drawn to her.
Freudian Excuse: Amanda's treatment of Selkie first seems like either Fantastic Racism or her being a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, until it's shown that she hates Selkie because her arrival at the orphanage meant Amanda had no help in figuring out why her adoptive parents would dump her.
Full-Name Ultimatum: Professor Trunchbull finally learns what his son has been doing.
Genki Girl: Sandy, best evidenced here.
Genre Savvy: When Todd's father finds out Selkie is a mysterious non-human species, he quickly things to asks whether they need to worry about The Men in Black kicking down their door.
Getting Suspended Is Awesome: When Selkie is told that being suspended means that you have to stay home from school, she is overjoyed. The principal isn't pleased.
The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Though it predates their actually becoming sisters, this strip encapsulates Selkie and Amanda's personalities quite well.
Grandma Mari: Oh my Lord, you two are going to be those kids, I can already tell.
Good Angel, Bad Angel: The eternal internal dialogue.
Gratuitous Foreign Language: Selkie's currently unknown language has briefly appeared, although so far it's spoken only by her and Mrs. Haversham-Zhang. And her mother too.
Happily Adopted: Selkie, of course.
- And as it turns out, Todd himself. It seems to be a family trait.
Harmful to Minors: Selkie got banned from watching spy movies after asking Todd how the chair and rope scene in Casino Royale (2006) worked.
Head Desk: Selkie pulls one while trying to play matchmaker - she concludes that it hurts when doing it for real.
Heel Realization: Always tough when it's a 9-year-old kid having this realization.
- Giselle has this realization in detention.
Hellish Pupils: Subverted. She has black sclera and slit pupils, but Selkie is a good girl.
Heterochromia: Both Sandy and Moonsong have a case of this. Word of God confirms that Moonsong is blind in his left eye.
Improbable Aiming Skills: To help a friend.
- And later with the hated pink shoes.
Incredibly Lame Pun: The shoe store "C'est la Feet".
Innocently Insensitive: Amanda, post-adoption, manages to pull this with Selkie after remembering that "Your mom left, too."
Selkie: Oh for craps sake... This is whys I don'ts helps you. GO!
Insistent Terminology: Selkie isn't blue - she's periwinkle.
Interspecies Adoption: The basis of the comic.
Interspecies Romance: Agent Brown is married to a sarnothi woman and is her son's stepfather.
Iron Lady: Lillian Haversham-Zhang. "I study judo for a reason." Kind of crosses over with Mama Bear.
Lethal Chef: Sai Fen is actually a very good cook. But she doesn't understand vegitarian cuisine.
Limited Wardrobe: Word of God says he's going to avert this.
Long-Lost Relative: As it turns out, Amanda is Todd and Andi's daughter, whom Todd thought had died at birth.
Mad Scientist: Aside from the Show Within a Show having one, Selkie also fantasizes about being one.
Meaningful Name: A selkie is a creature from Irish mythology that can change from a seal into a person and back again-in other words, it can live both on land and in the water. This may also explain why she likes seals.
- The Trunchbull's last name indeed comes from that Trunchbull, as reflected by their venomous personalities.
The Men in Black: Todd's father expresses worry about the possibility of them showing up because of Selkie. Todd points out that Selkie has public records, including a medical one, meaning that such an event would be unlikely. Of course, that was before the reveal of one Agent Brown...
My Friends... and Zoidberg: Clyde doesn't count.
Moment Killer: Practically name-dropped by Selkie during a heart-to-heart with her dad.
Mood Whiplash: The fallout of Heather taking Selkie's shirt shifts from Tearjerker to Heartwarming before crossing into Funny with the last panel.
- The comic rapidly shifts from the war that's nearly wiped out Selkie's clan to a hilarious discussion of artistic nudity. It's Sai Fen's line at the end that really sells it.
- When Amanda finally meets her mother, Andi, it goes from a stressful moment to awkwardly-hilarious when the revelation makes her pass out in shock.
More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Selkie's species.
My New Gift Is Lame: Amanda receives some very nice gifts at her birthday party, but Keisha's Peek-At-You backpack earns a very stilted "I. Love... this." Then Keisha reveals the real present is inside - a self-written short story, carrying on a tradition they'd had at the orphanage.
NEET: Shinji from one of the nearby apartments.
No, You: Amanda creates some Mood Whiplash when her Show & Tell story is criticized.
Non-Mammalian Hair: Downplayed with the sarnothi, they have hair on their heads like humans but according to Dave, he intended for Scar to have a large beard before deciding against giving them facial hair.
Non-Mammal Mammaries: Selkie's species has them. She was also depicted as such in aged-up fanart before Dave posted the physiology sketch that proved it. Justified in that the reason they develop breasts is because they nurse their young for a few weeks until teeth develop.
Noodle Incident: Did ya hear the one about the frog and the cigar? Well, it earned Tony a week with no dessert...
- We actually get a good idea of what it was, given that the original outline for one strip had Selkie reciting it to Todd as they left the orphanage. Although she got cut off by Todd, it was fairly obvious where it was leading too...
Obfuscating Stupidity: Agent Brown proves that Dr. De'Madiea isn't as slick as he thinks he is.
Oh, Crap!: Todd's realization in this comic that things may not be going well between her and Amanda, her arch-antagonist and recently-discovered adoptive half-sister.
One-Word Title: Protagonist Title
Orphanage of Love: The Calumet City Municipal Orphanage.
Papa Wolf: Todd slowly grows into one over the course of the story.
Pluralses: A feature of Selkie's speech. Fans initially speculated whether it was a side effect of trying to speak English through fangs. It's actually because her native tongue has different rules for pluralization, and she learned English through 'crash-course immersion'. Selkie does not take kindly to having it implied to be a speech impediment.
- This eventually leads to Todd worriedly asking what Selkie just bought and breathing a sigh of relief when she tells him "Paninis" - she actually meant the pluralized version.
- As of 2019, she's now in speech therapy to help train her out of it.
Possession Presumes Guilt: Keisha grabs Selkie's shirt from Heather, who stole it, at the same time Mina and Jess walk into the classroom, making them think that she did it.
Potty Failure: Played for Drama (mildly) when Selkie literally scares the piss out of her friend.
- And borders on Cringe Comedy when the entire apartment complex finds out.
Pragmatic Villainy: A low-scale variety with the Principal strictly adhering to the No Tolerance Policy. It's less that he thinks Selkie deserves punishment, and more that he doesn't want to deal with the Trunchbulls giving him grief over it.
- Unfortunately, they still do, getting their son off scot-free while Selkie gets suspended for the week.
Protagonist Title
Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "Ares. Yous. Fulls. Ofs. Craps?"
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Heather gives Amanda a withering one after Amanda hits her for telling Selkie a secret.
The Reveal: The name of Selkie's species is sarnothi.
Retcon: Originally, in the background of Todd's room there was a book clearly labeled The Secret Kingdom, named so because it sounds like the title of a generic kids novel series, right? Turns out there was a book already written under the same title by Pat Robertson, "the person who blamed Hurricane Katrina and the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks on homosexuality and abortion." Needless to say, a new title was quickly substituted.
Rhymes on a Dime: Todd's family seems to have a knack for it.
Shipper on Deck: Jess with Todd and Mina, in the same strip that started the Ship Tease.
Ship Tease: Between Todd and Mina. The snowball fight and Selkie getting suspended for a week for defending herself have scuttled that ship, though.
- And back into smooth waters with a "strategy meeting" over coffee to discuss the upcoming PTA meeting. And subsequently tabled when Todd is reminded that getting romantically-involved with his daughter's (current) teacher might not be the best idea, with the ship officially sunk by Mina, but with a mild Hope Spot.
  Mina: Allah grant me wisdom, because I am making terrible choices.
- And of the Puppy Love variety, April 2019 brought us Georgie and Te Fan having an impromptu Meet Cute moment.
  Keisha: (Looking on) Heh. I think the movie's starting.
  Heather: Is it? The TV's still off...
Shout-Out: Several.
- Asuka and Shinji live in Unit 02 of the apartment complex.
- Two of Selkie's friends from the orphanage are Sandy and Wu.
- The kids at the orphanage play a video game called "Cabbage Patch Commandos", which includes playing as animal snipers, spies, and engineers.
- There are many shoutouts to Calvin and Hobbes, including "Dr. Calvin and the Gooey Hamsters".
- And with The Reveal of the name of Selkie's species, there's one to H. P. Lovecraft, as the author mentions he took the name from "The Doom That Came To Sarnath".
- One of the questions Selkie has about the sarnothi doctor is "Wills they teach mes mermaid karates?"
Slippery as an Eel: There is a species of giant eel that inhabit the same lake as the sarnothi that can mimic their language in order to lure them into attack range and eat them. The Sarnothi farm them for meat and eelskin clothing.
Spoiled Brat: Truck's parents, The Trunchbulls, firmly believe that their son can do no wrong. This line of thinking led to Truck declaring "When I tell you to do something, you gotta do it" to the victim of his bullying.
- This is later given some depth, as Professor Trunchbull had legitimately never seen his son behave the way he does around others, and goes so far as to take him to a psychologist that very night when he learns about Tommy's issues.
Show Within a Show: Selkie loves The Adventures of Sue and Kathryn, which is a television cartoon about the misadventures of a ten-year-old zombie and wraith, respectively. There's even in-universe merchandise, as Selkie at one point wants a pair of Sue and Kathryn shoes. (He later spun it off into its own webcomic.)
Squee!: Some of the kids (usually Selkie) tend to squeal with delight when they're really happy about something.
Straight Gay: Todd's brother, Antoine.
Stunned Silence: A background example is seen here, in which a parent wants more peanut butter added to the lunch menu because it helps brain growth. Asked about a source for the dubious claim, they proudly state that they added it to Wikipedia earlier.
PTA Member: I don't even know how to respond to that.
Supernatural Soap Opera: The comic features a mysterious amphibian humanoid, and is primarily about the chaos, drama, and wacky plans of the cast's social lives.
Symbol Swearing: The author's preferred way of dealing with cursing. It comes either as a Fun with Acronyms version (Star House Ice-cream Turtle) or short-hand symbols (Such as crossed gender-symbols to illustrate a Precision F-Strike).
- With this strip, one of his replies to reader comments is that he loves the "figuring it out stage" people go through with those symbols.
That Came Out Wrong: Due to the language barrier, Te Fahn proudly proclaims that she's going to be part of Selkie's harem. One whispered conversation later...
Te Fahn: FRIEND! I meants "friend". I dids nots use the rights words. AT. ALLS.
They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: It's Professor Trunchbull.
This Is Gonna Suck: Said word-for-word in this strip. Given what they're discussing - yes. Yes it will suck.
Time Skip: A four month one, during which the adoption process takes place.
Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Selkie may actually be poisonous to even bite, judging by the reaction of aforementioned cat to biting her.
Unishment: Selkie's in tears over getting suspended for a week. Then she finds out what suspension means.
Georgie: Dude! If I kick a kid in the nuts, I get to skip school for a whole WEEK?!
Principal: It's not a reward!
The Unmasqued World: The most recent arc reveals Sarnoth to the world.
The Unsmile: Sai Fen suggests giving bullies a "big, friendly smile" if Selkie's threatened by Truck again.
Selkie: Okays, I have my owns fangs, and I stills poopeds myself a little.
Sai Fen: Gentle discouragement of aggression through implications of gruesome carnage. Also works with in-laws!
- Selkie later uses it on Truck.
Verbal Tic: Selkie frequently adds unnecessary esses to her words. It's apparently a common issue with Sarnothi, and demonstrative of the differences between their language and English, as Pohl and his wife learned to overcome it.
Webcomic Time: Ignoring the Time Skip, the entire comic so far has covered just a few days in-universe, with strips released over nearly a year in real time.
Wham Episode: The Reveal that Amanda is Todd and Andi's daughter.
- And the trip to the hospital, featuring several Wham Scenes in short order: The formal reveal of Dr. Gillman, Pohl De'Madiea, followed shortly by his wife and family; the name of Selkie's species, sarnothi; and, both in one page, the reveal that there was a civil war and that Selkie is from "Clan Jin'Sorai", a line that's followed by a major Reaction Shot of despair from the listener.
- And most recently, though this is more of an in-story 'Wham' for the characters, since the readers already knew, The reveal to Todd that Amanda is his daughter. The child he thought he had lost at birth is well and alive, has a bucket full of issues, and has been known to terrorize his adopted daughter. Wham.
- Sarnoth being forcibly revealed to the world.
Wham Line: "Todd...how aware were you that Selkie's been carrying a hidden message from a war criminal?"