There’s something really quite tragic about the fact that if it really had only come down to the seconds then Radu trumps Ion completely even if he doesn’t realise it. I like to think that in that situation, under Süleyman’s tutelage, Radu might have even learned how to manipulate Ion consciously so that the real issue for Mirka wouldn’t even have been protecting her grandson but keeping him out of power and just fending off old age.
If it were Isaak vs. Mirka it would definitely have to be indirectly because while she has Methuselah strength and reflexes she may well not be combat trained and even if she were, Isaak seems to have the edge in any combat situation just due to his extra abilities. If Mirka were moving her pawns then there’s probably a good chance that she might just wear Isaak down because he personally doesn’t have that many people to manipulate directly and who have the means to go up against Mirka. Isaak’s limited to people he can draw in from outside the Orden and Dietrich where as Mirka has the entire weight of the Empire behind her and with it as many pawns as she wants to throw against the ramparts of Isaak’s defences. Mirka has the kind of numbers where skill may not even matter because she’s just got so many that Isaak will waste his time fending them off anyway. To go with the siege analogy, Mirka really can just keep throwing troops at the walls until either the walls collapse under the weight or the dead become a makeshift ramp for her to send the rest of her army up over. Isaak has himself, a wolf and a lieutenant of dubious loyalty who may not even stick around and instead just run off to chase after one of Mirka’s daughters (granted, it’s the taller one with the blue-black hair who hates her mother anyway but she’s pretty ineffectively in the matricide stakes when it really comes down to it and that’s before anyone gets into the trouble with that older boyfriend of hers). Traditionally speaking it should be a situation where Mirka’s empathy gets in the way but canon shows us that it doesn’t: she’s quite happy to throw people to the wolves for the greater good which has the same result as Isaak just using people without mercy in the end so they’re actually rather balanced when it comes to using others.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2009-10-31 06:08 pm (UTC)If it were Isaak vs. Mirka it would definitely have to be indirectly because while she has Methuselah strength and reflexes she may well not be combat trained and even if she were, Isaak seems to have the edge in any combat situation just due to his extra abilities. If Mirka were moving her pawns then there’s probably a good chance that she might just wear Isaak down because he personally doesn’t have that many people to manipulate directly and who have the means to go up against Mirka. Isaak’s limited to people he can draw in from outside the Orden and Dietrich where as Mirka has the entire weight of the Empire behind her and with it as many pawns as she wants to throw against the ramparts of Isaak’s defences. Mirka has the kind of numbers where skill may not even matter because she’s just got so many that Isaak will waste his time fending them off anyway. To go with the siege analogy, Mirka really can just keep throwing troops at the walls until either the walls collapse under the weight or the dead become a makeshift ramp for her to send the rest of her army up over. Isaak has himself, a wolf and a lieutenant of dubious loyalty who may not even stick around and instead just run off to chase after one of Mirka’s daughters (granted, it’s the taller one with the blue-black hair who hates her mother anyway but she’s pretty ineffectively in the matricide stakes when it really comes down to it
and that’s before anyone gets into the trouble with that older boyfriend of hers). Traditionally speaking it should be a situation where Mirka’s empathy gets in the way but canon shows us that it doesn’t: she’s quite happy to throw people to the wolves for the greater good which has the same result as Isaak just using people without mercy in the end so they’re actually rather balanced when it comes to using others.