YMMV / Selkie

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Andi, to the point of basically being a Flame War. Did she reclaim Amanda out of little more than a selfish desire to set things right and fix her relationship with Todd, and out of her apparent perception that a child's only "real" parents are their biological ones, without considering what's best for anyone but herself? Are her intentions more noble than that, just carried out in a naive way expecting a fairy tale ending? Does her guilt and relative immaturity grant her some leeway for how she's been handling things? Is she at the mercy of her own manipulative mother, or is she acting of her own accord? Of course, it's still very early in the relevant arc.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Jessie the Wool-Mart sales clerk. Although she only appeared in a few strips, she became popular with the fans—so much so that the artist changed Wool-Mart to her summer job and brought her back as the student teacher for Selkie's class.
  • Inverted entirely with Gregori the C'est la Feet sales clerk. This reader's comment says it all.
• Fantastic Racism: The reason Selkie reacts so poorly to fish-related insults is because she's an obligate carnivore from a predatory species whose main food source is fish. To be called a fish is an implied threat, with the aggressive party calling you weak, helpless, and only good for being eaten.
• Fridge Horror: An In-Universe example here, when Theo pieces together the various hints that Agent Brown had dropped regarding Selkie's people.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • It hasn't happened yet, but it's been set up. Amanda snarls at Selkie for "stealing" a daddy from her, since Selkie got adopted and Amanda didn't, triggering serious resentment. "People would rather adopt a fish than me." It has since been revealed to the audience that Amanda is Todd's biological daughter, but Todd and her mother Andi were teenagers at the time and Andi didn't feel ready for/didn't want kids, so she gave Amanda up at birth before Todd even got to the hospital, and told Todd that the baby had died/was stillborn.
  • When first reading this strip, you figure Amanda busted out the Death Glare because it felt like Heather was rubbing her adoption in Amanda's face. Once you read the comic under Tear Jerker, though...
  • Ditto this strip, for the same reason.
• Jerkass Woobie: Amanda. She's a bit of a narcissistic bully. She also cannot get adopted despite several people being interested, and ends up watching Selkie and Heather get adopted instead.
  • And now it's been revealed that she was adopted, but they "dumped" her because their biological kids didn't like her. Or at least, that's the reasoning her friend picked up on.
  • And made even worse after her past with the family is elaborated on during a "Show-and-Tell" for class, and Mrs. Haversham-Zhang fills Andi in on her problems.
    Lillian: Amanda does have ongoing anger management issues, and empathizes with other children poorly. She was adopted out shortly after coming into our care. Five years later, the family brings her back, with welts on her arms and legs.^note Said welts were inflicted by her brothers, and her adoptive parents didn't believe here
    • The author's notes on that page say that originally, the third panel was going to show Amanda's welts on her limbs, but (in his words) "I couldn't, I just couldn't".
  • And she has an Alternative Character Interpretation for why she likes Cinderella that leaves her grandparents at a loss for words.
    Amanda: Cinderella makes SENSE, you know? She gets ditched, and everyone hates her.
• Tearjerker: Has its own page.