Ivich makes it difficult for Dazzler to look at the Gladiators as a room full of anonymous opponents. Alison knows her. When she's in danger, that personal connection cuts strai…

Ivich makes it difficult for Dazzler to look at the Gladiators as a room full of anonymous opponents. Alison knows her. When she's in danger, that personal connection cuts straight through the rescue plan. The arena puts that friendship to work against everybody involved. Helping Ivich can interfere with helping the captured New Mutants. Fighting the Gladiators can mean hurting somebody Alison still cares about. Knowing one of the people in the pit doesn't make the violence easier to stop. Ivich is a capable, green-skinned fighter, but her relationship with Dazzler gives her more presence than a distinctive appearance could manage on its own. She's somebody Alison recognizes as a person outside the immediate contest. That's important in a setting designed to reduce people to whatever they can do for the crowd. The friendship doesn't make Ivich harmless. Nor does it give Alison an easy explanation for every choice made inside the Theatre. Affection, aggression and outside manipulation are tangled together here, and Dazzler has to respond to what's happening rather than to a clean division between friends and enemies. By the end of the arena confrontation, their parting still carries that uncomfortable familiarity. Alison can want her to survive without wanting to stay in the same life. Letting somebody walk away isn't the same thing as agreeing that nothing was wrong. Ivich gives this story a connection that would disappear if every Gladiator were just another body to knock down. There are people worth caring about inside the operation, even while the operation itself needs to be stopped.