User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 381: Where Demons Live, Review./@comment-17764746-20140418104148/@comment-7418318-20140418121531

If your definition of fodder is purely based on how much damage a being can take, fine be like that.

I strongly disagree though. For me fodder is neither able to tank nor able to do damage. One or the other already lifts someone or something above being just fodder.

How did it work on Sayla after the 2nd power-up? Simply. After finding out that she can't take Sayla over completely, she tried something else. And that something else just happened to work.

This is certainly far more logical than many other instances in the series where seemingly beaten Fairy Tail Mages pop back up after a motivational speech, with the most glaring example being the fight of the tripple Dragons against Dorma Anim.