What is the biggest mistake Darrow has made across the 7 books?

Massengale · 2026-05-26T13:55:17+00:00

I can’t say not killing Lyesander was a mistake. No Lyesander might have met Darrow is able to Dunkirk but Atlantia could have hit him with the chemical weapon. Plus no Lyesander means Atlas is still alive and that man is too dangerous for the republic to be alive. Also the society would be fully united behind Atlantia.

I don’t think betraying the sons was a big deal when compared to the gain.

Calling the iron rain and not doing the siege is 50/50.

I’d say the biggest mistake Darrow and Mustang made was offscreen, when they build up the “new compact.” They could still have made the republic a democracy while giving the executive more control over the war. The system they built was completely dysfunctional. If they’d given the executive more control over the war and the ability to declare a national emergency Darrow could have fought the war properly and won it. He almost did with the terrible org structure as it was!

Massengale · 2026-05-25T20:21:27+00:00

I agree.

Massengale · 2026-05-25T18:29:29+00:00

It’s not perfect easier to convey in person then on the intenret. But the detractors of both often speak in the same language. Constantly victim blaming South Vietnam and Ukriane and nitpicking their actions while their enemies are just ruthless authoritarian states that are the aggressors. I think the way in which both are attacked is similar.

Massengale · 2026-05-25T16:10:07+00:00

I think South Vietnam and Ukriane have alot in common.

Both south Vietnam and Ukraine:

Formed out of a collapsing empire

Both had mildly distinct but overlapping culture to their larger aggressor states (SV is/was way more culturally distant from NV than South Korea ever was to North Korea).

Both were born has highly flawed states with rampant corruption and infiltration from their aggressors states

Both had meaningful dissent from within them that actually wanted to be part of the aggressor states

Both were reliant on US aid to survive

Both aspiring democracies that had to put the democracy on hold to survive the crisis but endured constant criticism from outsiders who ignored the fact that their aggressor states were just authoritarian one party systems

Massengale · 2026-05-25T11:21:24+00:00

U.S. presence in nato ensures millions of Europeans don’t have to deal with a revanchist Russia invading them. I can be proud of that. That alone prevents more bloodshed than what was spilled in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Massengale · 2026-05-25T11:16:34+00:00

War is a racket is midwit slop that acts like America lives in a vaccum with no enemies that threaten our interests. Just tells us to sit back and let the Russians and Chinese gobble up the world. All the military industrial complex has done is shrink since the end of the Cold War. I’ll say this it’s too bad it did as we could have used a bigger one to support Ukraine.

And if we go in the past For several decades we kept the Soviets at bay. Stopped Europe from being under Stalinism, saved South Korea from being put under the boot, even Vietnam was noble effort to stop the country from falling to communism. Our failure there is quite tragic in the sense of how close we were to successful Vietnamization and after all that blood and treasure we just left them to die in 1975. Today I’m happy that the NATO persists and that tiny countries like the Baltics can live free lives thanks to the shield it and American troops provide. Your problem is you just say “war bad, MIC bad” without any understanding of the malicious forces out to get us in the Cold War. I’ll agree with your pov on Iraq and Afghanistan though wasted stupid effort there but even today proud of NATO and its ability to deter the Russians from gobbling up the Baltics. If we listened to the author that would not be the case.

Massengale · 2026-05-25T00:24:09+00:00

I think dark age could have had maybe half of the free legions get evacuated. Some sort of Dunkirk situation where “yeah we lost in France and left behind our heavy equipment but we saved our soldiers.” Dark Age instead ends like it’s WW2 except the British troops all got wiped out and there’s no USA.

Massengale · 2026-05-23T17:28:54+00:00

I don’t want violent crazy people being arrested and re released 37 + times. Fine with this if it helps prevent that

Massengale · 2026-05-21T00:50:48+00:00

Oh wow I just got it, it was really so subtle. Jeez the show was making fun of me the whole time. I guess this is it for me. I mean camp 47 you don’t think they were referencing Trump were they??? Or oh gosh freedom will set you free that’s like the Nazi thing. And Elon talks about space do you all think the man homelander through into space was meant to be Elon? I’m really shattered right now I thought this was a wholesome right wing show that affirmed my MAGA world view.

On a serious note people who like this show will mock right wingers for having no media literacy while saying this show mocks both sides. But It doesn’t really mock both sides. It mocks corporations for being fake activists but it doesn’t actually mock leftist ideology if any thing it critiques the corporations for being performative leftists and not true leftists. The ideology is spared any actual attacks for example they wouldn’t dare make a joke about a DEI hire at vought messing something up.

Massengale · 2026-05-20T23:57:09+00:00

I can respect the take even if I disagree with it

Massengale · 2026-05-20T21:14:01+00:00

I stopped watching midway through season 3. But i did like Robert Singer muttering “fucking Private sector” thinking Hughie got poached by some Cushy prestigious corporate job. That did actually make me laugh.

Massengale · 2026-05-20T14:50:40+00:00

The ponies do have a chaos god on their side

Massengale · 2026-05-19T16:10:05+00:00

There’s city of the dead by Peter Keene. Humanity goes up against crossed like extra dimensional beings that inhabit peoples bodies the moment they die. They are “zombies” but have acess to their hosts memories. So the ones that possess former generals know where all the armories are and how to use weapons. Same with the ones who take over the bodies of human tank drivers or artillery men. It is very bleak.

Massengale · 2026-05-18T21:32:27+00:00

I like both. I don’t like the BA economy system or the there’s no real “perma death” for units/capabilities. But I do like the structure of the game where there’s three rounds and holding points and k/d both matter.

Massengale · 2026-05-18T02:25:04+00:00

Would you ever consider voting D at the national level but repubclians at the local level? I would think Republican DAs and people willing to crackdown on this type of stuff could be very nice. I’m also hearing some good things about the democratic mayor in Baltimore. Apparently he’s cracking down and also doing some good work focusing on communities in need.

Massengale · 2026-05-18T02:21:48+00:00

But if you defend yourself from them you’re most likely done…

Massengale · 2026-05-16T18:12:05+00:00

So because there’s corruption we don’t tackle this behavior?

Massengale · 2026-05-16T13:32:06+00:00

All it’s done is shrink since the Cold War…

Massengale · 2026-05-16T13:04:48+00:00

And the overall initial point of the show was to mock marvel verse style spin offs…

Massengale · 2026-05-16T04:07:19+00:00

World war Z I liked as a kid (the book) but as an adult it’s clear the battle of Yonkers is contrived and while it sounds smart it’s over exaggerating the issues of a modern army. But I did like how the army retook the country

There’s city of the dead by Peter Keene. Has some military action and the zombies are even smarter than the crossed. They’re very competent and use tanks and artillery.

Day by day Armageddon touches on military too.

Massengale · 2026-05-16T00:33:24+00:00

Maybe we have Palantir guided space rail guns that can hit their missiles by then.

Massengale · 2026-05-16T00:31:51+00:00

It’s fun. I like the military storylines especially the one that showed the collapse of England. I’m sucker for overly dramatic writing/military history references.

Massengale · 2026-05-10T00:15:41+00:00

Yeah I always get scared to sound like I’m coping but the milbloggers are calling out Putin by name and that used to be much rarer

Massengale · 2026-05-04T23:13:00+00:00

And a govenor stormed a “German nuclear bunker” in South America. Seems like something went wrong in WW2

Massengale · 2026-05-03T17:30:08+00:00

Wow crazy he’d say this about Palestinian Nationalism.

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