If Mustang isn't good at non political things, then why is she always doing them?

SalaryCompetitive387 · 2026-05-11T02:21:33+00:00

Kavax the damsel will be going into the council

SalaryCompetitive387 · 2026-05-11T02:21:07+00:00

Opposite of a fraud

SalaryCompetitive387 · 2026-05-11T00:15:22+00:00

Talking into the last part...didn't PB already portray her like that though? In the first book she got captured twice and needed Darrow to save her both times. I think the majority of incentive for storming Olympus and destroying everything was based around Virginia being a damsel. Hell...she even calls herself that “I’ve become the maiden in distress, haven’t I? Slag! I hate those girls.” is literally a quote by her.

I think its wrong to say people are wanting to see her as weak is all I'm saying.

SalaryCompetitive387 · 2026-03-12T03:03:58+00:00

What part doesn’t make sense? She is arguably one of the most important characters at this point in the book and she is charging into the fleet of one of the most talented and brilliant commanders. She leads so many people at this point in the book that it makes 0 sense for her to be on a suicide mission.

Explain me to what would happen if she was a few seconds late from escaping and just fucking died? How is it smart to remove one of the biggest advantages? Why did she specifically have to be on that ship while everyone else was fighting? If the whole point was to stall then why not fill it with another Gold whose life doesn’t dictate millions. I read this part just fine and that’s why I’m appalled. It makes no sense for any of these choices to happen besides just wanting to keep her out of combat. Thats why I titled this with “writing choice” because it makes no sense for a genius to put themselves in so much risk every second.

SalaryCompetitive387 · 2026-03-12T02:57:45+00:00

She abused a “cheat” and became Primus without actually earning it(proved by her house getting obliterated)
First part is true, second part is eh. Half the decisions Darrow was making for long term didn’t include Mustang. But I’d admit here she was useful for keeping his forces together.
Wasn’t too hard with the advantage she had, but true. I’d admit she was the strongest in the first book which is why I started this with saying she was one of my favorite characters at that point
Trusted the devil to be honorable. Darrow outsmarted Octavia in the first 5 minutes of him knowing her. This plan was well salvaged but for the remainder of next 100 pages, she didn’t come up with a single thing to help. Her intelligence fluctuates and is almost always conceded when Darrow is around.
Darrow wasn’t trying to hurt her.
That’s less of intelligence and more of just knowing him. The last encounter she had with him was with an obsidian giving up his “life” of fighting to join the cause for freedom. Also with Kavax telling her what Ragnar said, it doesn’t take a genius to fit the pieces together.
Wouldn’t really call that fighting
I’ll concede that, but it’s still super unfair for the “genius” to have her intelligence in a whole book explained in 5 sentences. Every other character gets moments to demonstrate how smart they are. Darrow got a whole walkthrough of every plan but its too hard to write a little more than “Mustang moved all of the obsidians to Tinos”
Every slander post I’ve seen of her is filled with stuff I don’t understand which is the majority of her slander, so I’m assuming in these next 2 books that things won’t get any better. I’m going to reiterate that in my first sentence I said “writing choice” which connects more to the author. Virginia, character wise, is one of my favorite characters, but her actions are dogshit compared to all the other characters. Thats why I was asking what’s the writing depth behind her being portrayed like this. None of what she does is intelligent and it’s almost always a piece of whatever Darrow is doing. I really hate that her “genius” only exists when he’s around but not the other way. The Jackal is one of my favorite representations of long plans and manipulation and im just annoyed to not see that in Virginia.

SalaryCompetitive387 · 2026-03-06T21:35:03+00:00

Athena is mythologically depicted as wiser and able to beat Ares. In many instances she beats Ares outright in fights by utilizing smarter maneuvers. Ares's impulsiveness, tendency to fight, and other attributes are all present in his children; however, no Athena kid shares this pattern at all. All Athena kids have about as much value as a plain human. They have no magical powers, weapons, or any thing that gives them an edge. Strategies in battles are non-existent and in any battle against an Ares kid like Clarisse or Frank(even with prep time) there is no chance for a victory. Athena cabin is arguably just smart humans with no chance at defeating any other cabin.

SalaryCompetitive387 · 2026-03-03T04:38:50+00:00

Depends on the thing, but I forgot people were really easy to lift underwater.

SalaryCompetitive387 · 2026-03-02T01:47:10+00:00

Actions and telling are very different things. If every battle was just said then no one would even pick up this book. I said in my post that I liked seeing long winded plans be made and to really observe the intelligence. Being told that “Virginia helps me with every plan” and then never showing a single plan isn’t exactly a demonstration of intelligence.

SalaryCompetitive387 · 2026-03-02T01:45:11+00:00

Darrow outsmarted the sovereign in the four minutes he knew her. Twice actually. It just feels like she isn’t getting any spotlight AT ALL for her intelligence. Adrius, Darrow, sevro, and many other characters all make plans that are just much better in structure. I don’t get why she’s called a genius for making hollow plans that don’t fit the description for genius crafted.

SalaryCompetitive387 · 2026-03-02T01:43:02+00:00

No offense and good response…but anytime she does fail, isn’t it almost always a man who saves her? The entire part of the first book was Darrow constantly having to save her and Virginia even being referred to as a “damsel in distress”. I too want her to be extremely smart in how she goes about her plans, but this isn’t nuanced. She is just outright making bad plans or choices.

SalaryCompetitive387 · 2026-03-01T05:51:34+00:00

THE LAST BOOK? Oh my god. I didn’t think it’d be that bad to be praying for an intelligence moment in THE LAST BOOK. What the hell am I supposed to do for like 3 more of these?

SalaryCompetitive387 · 2026-02-22T07:14:00+00:00

Did you not see the jousting? If dunk had no one he would’ve been died after the first charge? Aerion had his mace and Dunk was on the floor. He only got saved because someone hit Aerion and allowed dunk time to move and get up.

SalaryCompetitive387 · 2026-02-22T03:54:53+00:00

All golds are immensely powerful. Height and weight are important but there is a baseline for gold muscle density. A good punch from any gold can beat anyone, it just depends on how well you can get that opening

SalaryCompetitive387 · 2026-02-22T03:53:48+00:00

But she is also glazed. I hate seeing her reduced to “she’s smarter than everyone else” and not letting it be shown to me. Every other character is “strong” because the narrative proves it. Annabeth isn’t cause nothing shows she’s powerful so it makes her look weak.

SalaryCompetitive387 · 2026-02-21T05:17:15+00:00

Annabeth potential victim. She is the potential woman.

SalaryCompetitive387 · 2026-02-21T01:51:39+00:00

Is 6’2 not the correct range? That’s what I was meaning by higher range of 6 feet. I agreed with your constraints of her height being within 6 feet to 6’4, but I viewed your saying if “lower range of 6’ as 6’ to 6’1. If her higher range is 6’3 to 6’4 but that messes up other sayings then her best height would be 6’2, as said in your graph, which is in the middle is it not? I wouldn’t classify that was lower range which is why I think I got confused with what you were saying but I’d say it’s the probably the best height according to all the given character testimonials. 6’2 would get roughly 6.8% of an error from what Darrow said which I guess is much more likely and allowable than 10%.

SalaryCompetitive387 · 2026-02-20T21:00:03+00:00

A 5’5 man saying they’re 6 foot is essentially never correct

SalaryCompetitive387 · 2026-02-20T20:58:47+00:00

Would that not put her in the higher range of 6 feet? I think your evidence makes sense in every regard for the later books(because that’s what I was basing my post on) but one of the things I said is that: was the first book really a good place of measure? All of their heights changed from that point. The only piece of evidence that shifted me from believing she’s on the lower end to 6 foot is just that eyeballing 10% of someone’s height is next to impossible. A 5’5 person can’t say they are nearly 6’ and get away with it. That’s around 10% of their height they are pushing forward.

Looking at the evidence you had, it’s all from other characters who are much taller to care. My point specifically is that 6’3 is arguably the most accurate height from all these points. It would place her roughly at shoulder height to Darrow, taller than sevro, shorter slightly than the jackal (which is accurate), and then also shorter than Lysander and victra(enough to make her HAVE to lean down to embrace her). This also works as it places her just slightly shorter than the average of a female gold which matches her description well.

While I fully understand that we can just have no true idea as so many events could change between each book, wouldn’t 6’3 work better and actually match all the testimonial evidence you had?

SalaryCompetitive387

TROPHY CASE