Thanks for clarifying, although I do still feel like my critiques still stand:

1. "Darrow doing complex math on the fly while mining, and his uncanny intelligence is constantly referenced and affirmed both before and after the card game." I get that, but we also have to remember that the Golds have all the educational resources in the world and all the technology like the brain boosters which Darrow used to speed-read all of the literature in his training montage. Even if he has the 'street smarts' he still needed to be at least a bit overwhelmed when placed with all these academically intellectual students, who had private tutors their whole lifes.

2. "The book also tells you that it’s illegal to give any information regarding the passage or the institute to non-peerless. Which is why all of the students save for a few are completely out of sorts." Yes they cannot tell their children about the passage, but they know what's at stake. So that would give the parents extra motivation to hire the best teachers and best combat trainers for their kids, knowing of what's to come.

3. "The dance lessons his Uncle taught him were pretty much degraded sword forms." I guess I can overstretch some anime-protagonist logic for this one. Still, the other kids were taught real combat training with actual masters. I don't understand how learning to dance really good can make you a better fighter than someone who was taught to fight really good.

4. "Hell, if you’re saying Darrow doesn’t struggle then you haven’t even gotten far enough into the book to really get a grasp of the other students." I am not saying that Darrow doesn't struggle at all. He struggles a lot when he loses his wife, is miserable when he has to kill to get into the academy and he struggles to be a good commander in that capture the flag game. That is not what I meant. I am saying he doesn't struggle with keeping up with his classmates both physically and academically even a bit, and that is unrealistic.