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14 Nov 2026 – 15 Nov 2026
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31 Jul 2027 – 1 Aug 2027
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Sick colonial burn
:O I LOVE her! She’s LOVELY!
This is exactly what I was going to say! And her name too :)
Nyree...
There's Nyree a thing to worry about!
Sarcastic & friendly. I like her already.
Huh. No part of this came across to me as remotely sarcastic.
Giant cheerful Maori witches for the win!
I like that she seems to be in between Mal and the Mountain Witch in age - there are a few strands of grey in her hair (although given Mal’s hair, that may not be a reliable indicator) and crow’s feet at the corners of her eyes. It seems fitting to have one young witch, one middle-aged, and one elderly.
One maiden, one mother, one crone, so the saying goes (if memory serves).
(Mal: "Whadd'yer call me!?")
I mean, in a general way, most asexual people will be virgins, which is most of what maiden means. Apart from the gendered part, at least.
👀 witches grey hair conspiracy
In fairness, isn't Harry shorter than average, so Nyree just looks tall by comparison? Or am I thinking of something else? (It'd go way back, but there was a running gag about Gort being really short.)
Harry is short, but Nyree looks to me like she’s built on big lines as well. Maybe we’ll see her standing next to someone else later - that would help clarify the size question.
I guess if you say "giant" to me, I automatically infer tall, regardless of whether "built like a rugby/American football player" is also a factor or not (thought the latter definitely helps sell the impression, no doubt).
Back in the 1980's I heard a former professional rugby player say, "I look at American football players and think, 'What a high center of gravity.'" He was not very tall.
I believe the correct term for Nyree is 'traditionally built'.
And Ms Barber is not short. She is just the right amount of compact.
[https://widdershinscomic.co...](https://widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/january-21st-2013 "https://widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/january-21st-2013")
"Built on big lines" -- Good choice of words. We're used to seeing Harry next to Sid, who is tall but beanpole-esque. Island witch, on the other hand, is definitely, impressively, larger overall. Even her hair is impressive! I love its flowy-ness.
Harry never met Ms. Superbia, I think the size difference would be similar.
And a witch not yet born?
Harry is at her least... Harry-ish, as it were, right about now.
Also, I'm getting some serious Yoda vibes right now. ("For the witches, it is time to eat as well, hmm?")
Not really getting a Yoda thing off of her. Just casual language usage (dropping off "Are" in "Are you hungry?" or "I've" in "I've got a boil up on, if you're interested.") If anything, the fact that it reads as so natural suggests she's truly fluent in English.
It's not the language. (Indeed, Nyree is about as anti-Yoda as you can get, all things considered: tall (or at least not very short), strongly built, personable, and smoothly fluent.)
It's the stranger who (we the audience suspect) is highly magical, who happens to be offering a stew-like meal, and, (I suspect) might fulfill a bit of a mentor/old magician/mystical assistance archetype (in the Campbellian sense) - possibly to Harry, possibly (directly or indirectly) to Mal.
I don't know why, but now I'm imaging her smacking Mal over the head with the ladle for saying something stupid.
And I imagine Wolfe's and Ben's reactions at that. :)
No, that;s standard Kiwi (and to some extent Aussie) English usage
Apart from "boil up" as a noun, it seems pretty general English-as-used-by-someone-fluent-enough-to-be-super-casual. I can absolutely imagine the line coming from, say, an American (except the aforementioned "boil up" part, but in the words of the Don Bot "It is clear from the context what you mean.")
Boil up is a term in general use in New Zealand for a type of kai (food) that is traditional for Maori. Basically there are two stereotypical Maori meals: the Hangi (cooked in an underground oven with heated stones) and boil up (which is pretty much what it sounds like).
Incidentally her name should be Ngaire rather than Nyree.
i went with the phonetic version in the end just cus comics are silent and it's a bit of a shame to have a lot of folks mentally mispronouncing a character's name (did that with wolfe and it bothers me to this day), as far as I could tell both spellings are in use though!
Dagnabbit, I'm giving Nyree the accent of the social worker in "Hunt for the Wilderpeople"
I LOVE that movie (and that character) :D
the seane when Luke and yoda meet
Not a lot of people can keep their smile with a gun pointed at 'em
Sid did, so maybe it's just what happens when Harry points a gun at people
It was two different guns, too !
Harry has knack for pointing guns at people who are not easily fazed?
It was mentioned to be Harry's form of "Hi", so people who read body-language easier can pick it up and just say "Hi to you too" back. :D
Sid wasn't even sure it was a real gun, plus it could have been a nervous smile once he realized it was real.
Nyree doesn't strike me as being at all nervous.
Is she cooking fush?
You can tell she's powerful 'cause a gun pointed at her doesn't phase her at all.
Yeah, in this situation I think you can eat first, ask questions later, Harry.
I see that your country's reputation continues to precede you, madam.
And now I know what a boil-up is: [https://www.rnz.co.nz/colle...](https://www.rnz.co.nz/collections/recipes/boil--up "https://www.rnz.co.nz/collections/recipes/boil--up")
So she's the one whose been running around in a big old fur. Now I wonder...does she live in this house all the time, or does she just make regular visits to her anchor? (Or is there some twist and she has a small child living with her who is the real witch?)
Is it fur? Because I'm thinking it might be a feather cloak. A witch would surely be a highly revered individual (something also suggested by the lavishly decorated house), thus certainly worthy of one.
yes, it's kiwi!
:O kiwi kahu! The fanciest of fancy!
Prior to the arrival of Europeans, New Zealand didn't have any resident land mammals at all to make fur from. Just a few species of seals and bats. So a feather coat would make more sense!
Bats are mammals. Some of them get big. I've heard of a rabbit-fur cloak - would a bat-fur cloak be any stranger?
We also had dogs (which were brought here by the Maori). Unlike bats these were sometimes used for making cloaks. Ngaire's looks to be feathers though.
> A witch would surely be a highly revered individual
The phrase I imagine Jack O'Malley would hate so much... :)
Mal: "Whadd'yer call me?! I ain't no rev'rend!"
Ben: "No, revered, it's completely diff - oh, never mind!"
Harriet: Thanks for the help
Nyree: What can I say except you're welcome
It's going to be a long time before we stop getting that reference in these comments, isn't it?
Hmm, probably ;D
MAKE IT STAHP XD
Still gonna need that boat. :D
According to Google Translate, Nyree’s saying “Who are you?” in the first panel.
So they're familiar with the english, even with the altered timeline and the disuse of the term New Zealand...let's just hope that the arms race the brits brought historically, isn't a thing here. A thriving trade in kitchen implements seems much more wholesome.
Also...
"I've got to learn to stop pointing guns at people!"
~John Crichton
Well it looks like she took a boat to get there, so maybe she doesn't live on the island or near the anchor full time and does live somewhere closer to civilization.
Or maybe there is actually a nearby city just over the hill and Harry has been wandering round in circles for the last month.
Or maybe she lives on the island but goes to other islands regularly: to visit the friends or to help people?
Well, I think she's referring to the language, not the race.
Maybe she just decided, "Okay, this person is lost and confused and has obviously been having a hard time - better feed her before trying to ask her questions."
Soooo...looks like she found the Island Witch that can get her back into the nexus, but Mal has gone walkabout, so no one is there to open the door to the Widdershins anchor. ponders Methinks she is still stranded for a bit.
Or she's in for a looong boat ride home.
Actually if the witches were enterprising, they could easily make a ton of money with their portals of instantaneous travel to the opposite side of the world
Given the barrier around the island and that the Mountain Anchor lays on the top of Everest, not so much, I think.
Of course, the Island Witch might be able to put down the barrier, not only to pass through it themselves.
Nyree's unfazed good cheer vs. Harry's utter bafflement is a dynamic I'm loving already, I must say.
New friends
Hopefully Harry doesn't actually have to shoot that thing, revolver rifles were a short-lived phenomenon due to really nasty tendency towards blowing up with catastrophic consequences for the shooter's leading hand.
All you English-types are the same. Just look at Trump and Johnson. Different land, exactly same guy. :D
"That's a magic wand to you, tauhou, and I'm about to cast some grub into your tummy with it."
Hey, that my name😀 🥰- or at least how I spell it when people need to pronounce it.
Ah! Her blue tattoo!! The uh uh dammit. The uhm... Her Haka! Yeah! That's so neat!
Her Moko! in person they're more of a deep green, they're very beautiful
Thank you for educating me!