Dumbing of Age

Oops, dunno why i typed that one.

...I thought you were doing a joke on purpose.

I am willing to wager large amounts of money and vital parts of anatomy that this is NOT what Marcie meant when they last spoke of de-escalation.

I mean, I'm sure Marcie would be happy that Sal "stood down" here, but, well, yeah.

Well it is de-escalation eventually, but Marcie wouldn't approve of the fight happening in the first place. Like, "No, this isn't success, you haven't fully won, keep working on it."

I'm rather curious about Marcie's reaction to this entire thing. This IS the person who stabbed Sal in the hand, on some level she should want to go 12 rounds with her, even Marcie could see that.

I hope we don't get Marcie and Malaya suddenly standing there next comic. I'd rather Sal tell the whole damn story, start to "....end....it..." and let Marcie make up her own mind.

Hmm, I think a pertinent question from Marcie in that situation would be "What will you do the next time you see her?"

I'm not sure what's going on in the red panels here. Is it the aftermath of the two incidents, or Sal imagining how not being aggressive in those situations would have turned out?

Aftermath I think. She's rushing to Marcie's side after she got hurt, which is an obvious course of action. Similarly, she obviously did not eventually stab Ethan through the neck, so at some point she put the knife away and got arrested.

I think the most important question here is how is Amber going to react next time they see each other. Because Sal basically won and then had her epuphany, but Amber didn't.

Also, I'm pretty certain those panels are Sal noticing she was about to hurt someone like Leland hurt Marcie, leading to her giving up the robbery and possibly turning herself in.

I think their next interaction will simply be walking by each other in the hall. Amber will say "Hi, Sal" and keep walking.

No sudden deer in the headlights. No running off to change into her fighting gear. Maybe a satisfied, "you don't scare me anymore" smirk as she walks past. But that's it.

• ring announcer voice* LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE REFEREE'S OFFICIAL DECISION......HE HAS DECLARED THIS BOUT.......A DRAW!

Hopefully no rematch. Sal probably don't want it, Amber definitely don't need it.

I love this lampshading

So Ruth knows about Ethan finally doing some humpin around?

.......Dorothy told Ruth....?

No, Ruth called Ethan " toy boy" as in. Likes toys. And has them.

Ok, yeah. Otherwise she would've said "boytoy".

But what does she know about Sal and Amber's "extracurriculars"? Even if it looks like Sal is "giving up an elective" right now?

I mean they just finished trying to beat the shit out of one another

So is this a "SPIDER-MAN NO MORE" moment or a "Robin leaving Batman" moment?

And then of course, there's the possibility that someone she knows gets attacked while she's "retired".

I get "Amazi Girl and I are done working together", but "I'm done swinging at people"? That's pretty much a guarantee that you will NOT be done swinging at people.

Well it may be an honest attempt to stop seeking out fights.

We can talk, about robberies and stabbings

In the entire history of mankind, has any good news ever followed the phrase, "We need to talk"?

For some reason, I thought he was talking to Dorothy until I saw the character tags.

My brother got a promotion from his manager after that phrase, although he informed his manager at the meeting that a different phrase ought to be used, like "Hey, I've got some good news. Come to my office to discuss it." He blamed it on Software Engineers and stunted social skills.

Once I was called to the principal's office unexpectedly with no explanation, sat waiting for what felt like hours wondering what I was in trouble for, and then when the principal was ready, she came out and gave me a book my mother had loaned her that she was done with.

....oh wow I thought it was dorothy this entire time too.

I saw so many comments saying the same and I can't fathom how...I spotted her as Amber immediately.