Grrl Power #1441 – Snatching victory from the fairy of defeat
Don’t worry about UMBRage. He’s a remote piloted bioroid. Like a mecha, only organic and the pilot is somewhere off-table in an advanced V.R. suite.
Was there a part of me that considered ending the tournament with Maxima losing and Cora and crew winding up in a tight money spot? (Despite having their own starforge, it is shared between several adventuring crews.) It wouldn’t ruin Cora, she’s not dumb enough to risk that much, but… she might need to take a questionable job that turns out to be a double cross, forcing her and the crew to survive as soldiers of fortune, and then people with problems that no one else can help with could contact them, assuming they could find them… maybe they could hire The C-Team.
…I mean, they already survive as Soldiers of Fortune/Adventurers, so…
So, yeah, there was a part of me that considered that route. I’m not sure I want to spend the next, what, 100 pages on arena battles? I do want to get better at drawing fights scenes, and as we saw with this round, it doesn’t all have to be just the fighty bits. Plus I think I have some amusing bits planned, so we’ll have to see how it all plays out.
Man, pixie sticks… Some candy inventors were sitting around some day trying to come up with a new candy and a theme to go with it, like “Oh, I know. There’s already Mars bars, why not have, like, a Saturn bar, and it’s all a bunch of different flavors of cotton candy all compressed into a bar, and we could do a Neptune one, and that could be like those horrible Nik-L-Lips, like a liquid candy, but we’d put it in plastic tubes so it doesn’t taste like, well, like Nik-L-Lips.”
“Uh huh. You want to do planet themed candy?”
“Yup!”
“What’re you going to do for the Uranus bar?”
“Uh… Chocolate covered raisins? In bar form?”
“How about we eschew a theme and just sell flavored sugar?”
“Like in… dime bags?”
“Eh, tubes. Whatever. Doesn’t matter. It’s sugar. Kids will eat it.”
“I guess. Is it possible to buy stocks in “Dentists?””
Ah! I thought I had more time till March. I’m bad at looking at dates apparently. The new one is underway.
Here is Gaxgy’s painting Maxima promised him. Weird how he draws almost exactly like me.
I did try and do an oil painting version of this, by actually re-painting over the whole thing with brush-strokey brushes, but what I figured out is that most brushy oil paintings are kind of low detail. Sure, a skilled painter like Bob Ross or whoever can dab a brush down a canvas and make a great looking tree or a shed with shingles, but in trying to preserve the detail of my picture (eyelashes, reflections, etc) was that I had to keep making the brush smaller and smaller, and the end result was that honestly, it didn’t really look all that oil-painted. I’ll post that version over at Patreon, just for fun, but I kind of quit on it after getting mostly done with re-painting Max.
Patreon has a no-dragon-bikini version of of the picture as well, naturally.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
Nightwing: “But … but … fey lords in their own domain can rewrite the rules of their reality! That shouldn’t be possible!”
Ixah: “Yes they can, but mostly they assume that they will have more than a tenth of a second to decide how. What can I say? He was wrong.”
Nightwing: “Oh. I guess I lose.”
Ixah: “Don’t feel too bad about this competition; there’s now an entire fey realm that’s free for the taking if you can get there first and manage that.”
Bluce: “And I don’t know what attack Ixah used there at the end, but Nightwing has literally disappeared!!!”
Gail: “No idea what happened to her, Bluce! She’s just suddenly gone!”
This seems unlikely for several reasons.
¤ Starting with the obvious, Ixha has no mouth. She has not been seen speaking in the arena. If she did intend to speak, she would probably need to speak Tolkien Elvish to hide the fact that she normally speaks Earth English. Unless we are assuming she spent enough time in the fey wild to learn an entire language.
¤ Maxima just spent an extended period in the fey wild. Odds are she didn’t have access to a hot shower. Any food or water (including a waterfall and associated bathing pool) would be highly suspect, hence best avoided. She may have also gone an extended period without sleep.
¤ Maxima might have had to deal diplomatically with a fey lord. While she is certainly capable of being diplomatic, she very much does not enjoy the process. Most fey lords would likely have a lot of personality traits in common with Deus, and we all know her opinions on that front.
The long and short of it is, Maxima (and thus Ixha) is probably VERY cranky at the moment.
Assuming the galaxy hasn’t already become privy to Tolkein and thus universal translators would easily tag it as being an Earth conlang. Goes for Klingon too. Huttese MIGHT pass because it’s not a true conlang, and so it likely wouldn’t be in any databases, but it is basically a mixture of various Earth languages and thus could plausibly have formed from one of the many colonies of abducted human slaves, but even then SOMEBODY is going to recognize it.
More likely the holo suit has an automatic translator into some language, likely Stygian given she’s still going with the Stygian eyes here.
max casually breaking out tolkien languae would be hilarious though.
My theory regarding language choice here is as follows:
{1} Maxima has already said she was very much into Lord of the Rings specifically.
{2} Given the existence of actual elves, Tolkien’s elven languages are probably derived from actual elven languages, and could be mistaken for a dialect thereof. Why invent a language for elves when they already have one?
{3} I have actually seen online discussions claiming that Middle Earth is ice age Europe; lower sea level resulted in significantly more exposed land mass around what is now the UK.
Time in the fey realms *usually* goes the other way, which is part of why it was considered highly unlikely that Ixah would make it out in the short time limit. Most people take longer than 30 seconds of time in our world to begin a blink, let alone finish one, in most fey lands. That time flow difference is deterministic for a given fey land, so it can usually be assumed a fey would send someone to someplace with a particularly unfavorable time flow when they’re wanting that person to be out of commission for a while. That’s why even Kenya, Gwen, Sydney, and Cora were talking like this was going to be a problem. Whatever Maxima did, she did it very fast.
I don’t think “time runs differently” works in a way that simple.
My take on it is that events that affect both realms have to happen in the same order. But the time between the events in different realms is otherwise entirely arbitrary.
Let’s say you go from Earth to Jageir, and then six (Jageiran) months later you go back to Earth. If no event has linked the two realms since you arrived, you can arrive back at Earth one (Earth) second after you left.
But let’s say that two (Jageiran) weeks after you arrived in Jageir, some Jageiran sorcerer traveled to Earth, spent three (Earth) years there, and then came back to Jageir ten (Jageiran) days after he left. These are linking events that constrain time. When he comes back to Jageir, that establishes that at least three (Earth) years passed in those ten (Jageiran) days between him leaving and arriving back. And you were in Jageir for those ten days, so now you can’t arrive back at Earth until at least three (Earth) years after you left.
Events that affect both realms have to happen in the same order. So no matter when you leave Jageir, the amount of Earth that’s passed since you left Earth just depends on what else has happened meanwhile. Even if you never heard of this guy and never find out why so much Earth time passed while you were gone.
You never watched DeepSpace 9, specifically, concerning Sisko and some Bajoran who entered the timestream thingie
I think she had destroyed the entire realm. Or at least nearly the the entire one. The way I see the portal, the other side is still burning…
spirit king be like “PLEASE TAKE HER, MAKE THE HURTING STOP!!”
Did Maxima find the fey wild leader and bribe him? Or beat him/her/it up?
A reccuring trickster antagonist targeting only Maxima would be good…
Considering how the Earth Elf reacted to her, a Fae Lord probably reacted with some mixture of intrigue and amusement. If that Fae Lord happened to be femme (at the time) and knew of Deus (likely), then it could easily be a matter of a few safe handshakes and nods to get Maxima back to keep the Prime Material Plane entertaining.
What’s more likely is that Arc already has contracts with The Lords and Ladies in case of emergency, and keep their “professional courtesy retainers” paid up.
Going bu the explosive exit, she might have just destroyed the pocket dimension from the inside, I assumen it was a pocket dimension and not a whole few planar realm, because I don’t think Maxima is okay with genocide to win money. Basicallybinthink she pulled a Gilgamesh vs Iskander and just deleted the pseudo-world she was trapped in
If only I had donated and gotten my eldritch fairy queen in here, this would have been a perfect cameo insert moment.
Maxima, *internal monologue*: “She made me attend a tea party. She tried to dress me up in doll clothes…tried make me her new…dolly…you are going to pay for that pixie”
Herne approves.
In reference to Dave’s comments about candy in the description section, cotton candy (originally called fairy floss) was created by a dentist.
Cotton Candy is just a regional name, along with Fairy Floss (the correct name is Candy Floss :P )
The real question is: which came first, Candy Floss or Pink Batts (ceiling insulation)?
I find it interesting how many of these “the real question” questions are quickly answered. 1897 versus 1933. So spun sugar came first by roughly 36 years.
To be fair, we had access to sugar long before we did to whatever the precursor for modern housing insulation was, so it makes sense we’d turn the former into tiny colorful strings first.
Deus is going to be so turned on….
Thirty seconds seems absolutely absurd to say that Bluce/Gail talking two pages ago, Sydney/Cora talking last page and Bluce talking this page could have occured in. Or heck just Bluce and Gail. The amount of words used should easily have hit one to two minutes.
I know it’s a comic, but it feels super out of place when considering the standards of “realism” you usually aim for.
1. All the talking occurred simultaneously. So Sydney/Cora were talking at the same time Bluce/Gail were talking.
2. The 30 seconds didn’t start until 5 seconds before Gail’s bottom-left comment 2 pages ago. So the first few bubbles of Bluce’s commentary occurred either before the portal was fully closed (but Ixah was still trapped), or else it took the judges(?) several seconds after closing to start the countdown timer. Or both. I’m guessing the former. Ixah was trapped, but still technically “on the field” for ~20 seconds while Bluce explained what was happening.
3. Even with all this it’s still somewhat of a stretch to get all the talking in, plus Pixie’s attack on Barney. How long did that tree take to grow?
4. Whatever, it’s a comic. Where monologue speeches routinely occur in the middle of fights. Sit back and enjoy!
1- “So Sydney/Cora were talking at the same time Bluce/Gail were talking.” Unlikely, considering they were a) Listening to the broadcast and b) Sydney’s panel two pages only makes sense if she was responding to what the broadcast was saying. She wouldn’t have known to be concerned that Max might lose or that she might be gone for years without Bluce saying so.
2- “The 30 seconds didn’t start until 5 seconds before Gail’s bottom-left comment 2 pages ago.”/”or else it took the judges(?) several seconds after closing to start the countdown timer” That seems weird, considering this is a highly advanced sci-fi location *with magic*(which means telling when Max was gone and having an automatic count would be simple(and it’d make some sense)). We can clearly see Max was gone in the fourth panel.
“So the first few bubbles of Bluce’s commentary occurred either before the portal was fully closed” in that case, when was the commentary of panels 1-3 on that page occurring? Those were happening simultaneously to the teleportation.
3- I’m not sure what you are trying to say here. It almost seems like you are supporting my side, but your other points seem intent on the opposite.
4- “Whatever, it’s a comic. Where monologue speeches routinely occur in the middle of fights.” Dave has repeatedly over the years made a point of highlighting these kinds of absurdities in comics(comics ignoring collateral, clean-up, characters aura farming/grandstanding, ignoring trauma)… “talking is a free action” seems well in line with that.(and this is the first time a time length has been put on a conversation)
As for monologues in the middle of fights, they generally have interrupted the action, leading to people standing still, “circling” or at best wrestling. They also generally occurred for reasons(e.g. setting up), have been allowed for reasons(e.g. letting people reveal their weaknesses) or have been interrupted, and, in each case, time was still progressing around in and around the scene.
All in all, it just doesn’t seem to fit what the comic has been doing since 2010(well, 2014 for actual combat)
3. You realize that normal people have the ability to understand and accept points that support multiple “sides”, right? That’s Debate 101; fully understand your “opponent’s” position, even incorporating some of their arguments if they have valid points.
4. If you’re still so upset about the apparent discrepancy between the 30-second timer and the different monologues going on across the different panels that you can no longer enjoy a fun, campy, web comic, don’t give up! Follow the standard set by XKCD, keep raising the issue, keep responding and making comments here. Make sure to also send multiple comments to the author. I’ve even give a tip, if you support him on Patreon it will give your comments and opinions much more weight.
“You realize that normal people have the ability to understand and accept point” I am aware, but usually they aren’t presented as a point(1, 2, 3, 4) among others going the other direction, but as an aside or addendum. The way you put it was atypical, and as such I figured there must be something I was missing.
“If you’re still so upset about the apparent discrepancy[…]” Disappointed, maybe, perplexed, certainly, but you are *way* overselling(the unneeded jabs are noticed, and dismissed). I like analysis, I like debate, and this stuck out.
The little bit at the bottom of the comic where Max got FeyWilds’d said “That’s thirty space seconds, or two New York Minutes, or 75 lamb-tail-shakes,” implying the amount of time involved wasn’t necessarily thirty Earth seconds. Also, Bluce and Gail aren’t speaking English, so it’s possible they’re using fewer syllables* than what we’re reading (although to be fair, they may also be using more). With this kind of fast-paced action they’re also likely speaking faster than in a typical conversation. Between all those factors, I think Dave has enough wiggle room. At least it’s not Frieza’s “5 minutes.”
I think there’s around 100 syllables of dialogue we can count on between the identification of 25 seconds left and Max escaping. A quick look online indicates that, during sportscasts of fast-pace action, the commentators often speak at 7-10 or more syllables per second. At the lower end, that means even if there’s still 100 syllables in whatever language Bluce and Gail are speaking, the on-screen comments only account for a bit under 15 seconds. If we want to really nerd out, we could assume the counter started when Bluce began explaining the Labyrinth. There’s around as many syllables between that and Gail identifying Max as only having 25 seconds left (I got tired of counting in both cases, but they look to be of comparable length), which implies they may have been able to get all their on-screen post-25-second-timer commentary done similarly in around 5 seconds, leaving around 20 seconds – or, rather, around twice the amount of time as we see them speaking (since these are space seconds) – for all the other stuff that happened. That doesn’t seem quite as far-fetched.
Does anyone remember Nixie Stix?
They were the caffeinated Pixie sticks that ThinkGeek RIP) used to sell.
Heh. kept a handfull in one of my cargo pockets (along with spare corset lacing. zipper wax, etc etc etc) when I worked as a goth club bouncer back in the before times.
ThinkGeek really loved their “possibly dangerous but PROBABLY not” methods of delivering caffeine to addicts. My favorite was the caffeinated soap, which IF it worked, was HORRIBLY dangerous since you’d have no way to judge how much you were absorbing except through trial and error.
Thankfully, I’m pretty sure it didn’t actually work, or the amount of caffeine in it was so low it might as well not have.
I have caffeinated shampoo made by Dove (under their men+care line). I sincerely doubt it does anything, but it’s honestly hard to tell because of my ADHD lack of response to caffeine.
Little pipsqueak gonna get her wings plucked out. If she’s lucky.
Knowing fae logic, it’s likely they won’t grow back by ANY means. At least until Ixah/Maxima decided to put them back for her.
That kind of thing makes those psychotically unstable little pricks more than a tad miffed.
Ignoring a sighting of the family out in the wild it looks like Max just kicked infinity to the curb. Row row fight the power.
Seeing as Maxima has superspeed, I knew she would get through the maze, but I was hoping it would be before 2 on the countdown.
im late… but the plant ripped the Dinosaurs head… i thought there was a “chance” to die, not a sure way to die in the fights… it was incapacited, weak and gave up…
i didnt read anyone talking about it…
The author’s note said U.M.B.rage is a bioroid (like the body Lapha had made) that’s remotely piloted. So the pilot is not dead, though probably not feeling great either.
so an EVA style? thats still alive!
The explanation from the author is that it a meat puppet. No “soul”, no memories, no reproduction to pass on DNA, no ability for any mental functions at all. It is “alive” in that it is composed of living cells, in the same way lab-grown cells are “alive” (consume energy, excrete waste, multiply) before being processed into meat for consumption. It is as “alive” as the root cells of a hair you pluck out before discarding, or the cells in the plants you eat, or the bacteria in your waste when you defecate.
Unless the Rebuild of Evangelion changed things, the EVA units were living creatures (cloned from Lilith IIRC) with (disjointed, chaotic) minds of their own (or in at least one case, merged with the mind of a previous pilot) that were basically enslaved and turned into mecha. U.M.B.Rage was essentially a robot made from lab-grown living tissue (or maybe self-assembling) and lacked any sort of consciousness, being entirely remotely piloted. It was more akin to the Avatars from the James Cameron movies than to EVA units.
Bioroid mecha with an offsite pilot. Non-fatality but an expensive loss.
Honestly, it’d be interesting if the feeder matches were more like the group round for various world cups (multiple matches to a requisite victory total) rather than a simple last-sophont-standing approach, as it would allow Max to lose her initial confrontation which a bunch of people here have an inexplicable hard-on for without getting knocked out of contention..
The author’s note said U.M.B.rage is a bioroid (like the body Lapha had made) that’s remotely piloted. So the pilot is not dead, though probably not feeling great either.
I was sure it had been established that time in the Fae realm was compressed so Max had less time to escape than the countdown implied but I can’t find any reference to it. I’d like to add another voice to the Max getting out on time isn’t a bad thing side of the debate, as others have said Max is fast enough to travel through a maze very quickly and if her speed is at the same level as her blasting then it should be easy enough for her to get through a mundane maze before her host finishes monologging, I realise Fae realm logic could complicate things but we haven’t actually seen magic that would do so in any significant way yet so that would be speculation.
It was the opposite. She had more time while in the Fae realm. The ratio wasn’t explicitly stated, but she could have had anywhere from minutes to weeks/months to get out. I’m assuming there will be a “debrief” after the fight where she explains what happened. Favorite fan theory so far is the Fae Lord was or knew the Fae Lord who had a crush on Max back when Sydney met the council.
Time in fæ realms is usually … unfavorable. Page 1439 talked about how time usually travels differently there, which is pretty standard language for talking about it. In some stories, people who have visited the fæ realms have spent a day there only to find possibly as many as 100 years passed in their world. In other tales, multiple trips were made to the fæ realms, with different amounts of time passing in the real world on the different trips. The one that most comes to mind on this topic had, if I recall correctly, three trips to the fæ realms. In the first, the protagonist travelled there on their request and helped them overcome a great struggle. He was there for several weeks, and arrived home to find not much time had passed; it was still apparently the day he’d left, but he had been gone long enough some had noticed he was missing. The fæ who had requested t help had told him he could return for a visit if he wanted, and after not much time, decided he wanted exactly that, as the normal world no longer held interest to him. On his second trip to the fæ realm, he was there for just one day, and years had passed in his world. On his third trip, he was basically told to leave immediately, yet despite leaving quickly he was in the fæ realm long enough that everyone he knew to have died of old age, and the older adults he could find who remembered any of them identified them as their great grandparents.
Then there’s Josepha Sherman’s “A Strange and Ancient Name”, which flips the perspective around and tells of a færie lord who travels multiple times to mortal lands, and that variable time passing is something of a plot point.
The announcer probably didn’t say something more concrete about the time difference on page 1439 because they don’t really know; who can really say but a fæ and not even all of them could.
Max: Puck says you owe him a favour.
Saravia: Squeak?
Max: If you surrender now you can probably get away before he turns up
Saravia: Squeaks out an immediate surrender
It has occurred to me within the past few hours that the reason we are not seeing more of Ixha’s glowing markings is because she is caked in mud and debris.
And slash or blood and other body parts
Do not poke the happy fun Maxima?
More like the fun sized mayhem dispenser.
(to paraphrase Castle Heterodyne)
That’s the guy from the Allstate commercials, right?
I came to a realization that has polarized my philosiphy on life. It is very simple yet profound.
All jobs are about helping people.
Try to prove me wrong.
This seems off-topic to the comic, but whom exactly does wrestling help?
Most sports-related entertainment jobs seem to be things that don’t help people, unless you’re using an expanded definition of help that encompasses people receiving money for doing their job or consider being an entertainer people can choose to watch if they want inherently helpful even for people who choose not to watch.
>>This seems off-topic to the comic, but whom exactly does wrestling help?
It helps someone in the same way any other sport or video game, or movie, etc. Fantasy, abnegation, something/one to support or believe in, even if temporary. To quote Pratchett, “Humans need fantasy to be human.” If that fantasy is dreaming they’re the ones who could be slamming someone against the ropes, landing that triple axle, or shooting that puck into the net, if only they’d been able to get into the sport at a younger age, that’s okay. It’s also worth noting that watching your favored team (or person, in the case of wrestling, snowboarding, etc) win does deliver a significant dopamine boost, acting as a “feel-good” chemical that stimulates the brain’s reward centers. This surge in neurotransmitters boosts mood, increases feelings of happiness, and reinforces positive emotions similar to personal achievement. (Which is probably why sports can be addictive, and why some sports fans are downright fanatical. ^^; )
In short, for wrestling fans, the wrestlers can be helping a lot. :)
>>All jobs are about helping people.
Try to prove me wrong.
…. I’m going to assume you live in a country with universal healthcare, because the USA has an entire industry devoted to trying to make sure some people live through hell, suffering from being denied literal life-saving medication and care, just to save the health insurance company (who the person being denied care has been paying into their entire career) a few bucks. Doctor says “my patient needs X,” insurance company says “lol–no they don’t! And this doctor [who happens to technically be a physical therapist, English major, or mathematician with a doctorate, not someone in a medical field] agrees with us after reviewing your case notes!” See also the current state of politics and abortion care in some states, and/or why Luigi M is in prison. :/
Brilliant Pratchett quote.
Abusive healthcare jobs are still helpful, just not to the patient, rather to some oligarch who owns an insurance company.
Or in the case of those misguided into denying healthcare via their job, like abortion or certain gender affirming care (hair plugs and T are never blocked for middle aged men but they are gender affirming), they are still helping some leader who wants those blocked for some motive other than alignment with the person seeking that healthcare.
When I saw Pickle’s post yesterday I thought long and hard on it, and fundamentally all jobs are someone doing work in exchange for money from someone else. Because money is fundamentally scarce people tend not to part with it without wanting what they think they will get for their finite resource. Even “useless” jobs like when Cards Against Humanity hired that backhoe and operator to just dig a hole for no reason, that guy was probably deeply unsatisfied digging and refilling that hole but it certainly helped CAH’s marketing team.
A lot of this is semantic. What a “job” is has and what “helping” is, matter here, and the rest that isn’t definitional has to do with economics. Much of it seems analagous to why we see no married bachelors, as soon as someone isn’t married they aren’t bachelors because of the semantics of our words and language. If someone isn’t “helping” their employer or at least some stakeholder they won’t stay employed at that “job” long.
That’s an amusing little golden duck.
Could be funny if the Fay Lord sees through her Glamour and is all “Hey there, beautiful”
Max, who is clearly not against doing things like this because she painted with the Dragon, makes a deal of coming back later if she’s let go now to not lose her arena fight.
Max: Do you yield? Oh, and good work disposing of the other four combatants for me.
S: I yield. Did you know they added doubles competitions? Our powers complement each other. Are you interested?
Max: Definitely not saying no. Lets see how this goes for me. Oh, here is your wand back.
Try again
Max: Do you yield, or do I do MAX CRUSH?
S: YIELD! YIELD! Oh, did you know about the new doubles matches? Our powers complement each other.
Try again
Max: Do you yield, or do I do MAX CRUSH?
S: YIELD! YIELD! Oh, did you know about the new doubles matches? Our powers complement each other.
I dare say that fairy is in big BIG trouble. Cause Max looks a bit miffed…… oh dear.
…Are they anything like Fish Sticks?
Nobody else noticed that Max’s leg is looking shiny and golden and undisguised? Just me? Okay.
You might be right, but it’s probably just the colour of the dust in the air between Max and the viewpoint/camera.
This battle might have been a victory for Maxima, but strategically it was expensive. She had to reveal not just her super strength and flight, but also her energy attacks, and now her speed. And that last one not in a small way. A lot of tricks she would have wanted to surprise future opponents with will now no longer be a surprise.
LMAO, the first thing I thought of when I saw the squeak was Goku in DBZ Abridged.
I assume Maxima just Majin Buu’ed her way out and just punched the pocket reality really really hard.
This page is a great example of how design guides both story and reader reaction.
Panel 1 – Set Up:
Sava is poised to win, and UMBrage gets a nod for lasting this long. But there’s a problem: Sava is a tiny, foul‑mouthed pixie who hasn’t actually hurt anyone on‑screen. If she gets smacked down, it risks feeling wrong.
Panel 2 – Reframing Sava:
Her premature victory dance happens as her veggie‑minion rips off UMBrage’s head. RIPS OFF THE HEAD!!! It’s shocking enough to need an author’s note clarifying UMBrage is ok-ish. More importantly, it shifts Sava from “cute gremlin” to “acceptable target.” The author is giving us permission to see violence bounce back her way.
Panel 3 – The Air Changes:
Sava’s expression does a ton of work here: eyes widening, posture freezing, that sudden awareness she’s no longer alone. It’s a tonal bridge between “chaotic gremlin” and “prey animal.”
Panel 4 – The Payoff:
Max is back and she attak—simultaneously disarming and capturing Sava. The bug‑eyed expression and crunched wing could have read as cruel, but Panels 2 and 3 have already repositioned our sympathy. Instead of “oh no, the tiny fairy got hurt,” it lands as righteous comeuppance.
And therefore funny. Neatly done.
As soon as the round is over Max will take the fairy to her support team for medical assessment.
Why? The tournament has its own high tech medical facility (remember Grey Anatomy?)
They were all “acceptable targets”, or they wouldn’t have been there
Not to put it cliche-y, but she started it by using that not-Black Hole
You thinking she’s a “cute gremlin” and, as such, not a threat, is on you (and clearly never saw “Labyrinth”)