For the record I haven't "made up my mind". Let me clarify my history in this debate since I'm from AS (mostly) and I doubt you read my posts on AS. I'll be kind from here on and simply clarify that on AS I, for a long time, debated Cassandra would end up being the strongest and or was (hell for a while I debated she'd end up being the new almost Teresa level character but she just failed to deliver time and again). My read of the situation is based on facts found in the manga and subject to change as more info is released, as Cassandra slowly became a flipping all over the place in terms of her power I changed my read on the situation with her power almost every chapter. By the end of her fight I just viewed it as I do now. I'm willing to debate my thesis, yet so far no one on any forum has been able to disprove it or provide me with a better thesis (mostly no one has bothered to try and like you just "substituted my reality for their own" and acted like they where so cleaver after that... *sigh).
However let me also supply a post I made on animesuki about a common mistake I believe people make for Roxanne's motivation for attacking Cassandra when they where both warriors. It wasn't that solely that she was a coward as many assume.
This was further evidenced by Roxanne charging the awakened Cassandra all by herself... she wasn't a bloody coward though she was a bit cautious by nature, and there is a difference there.
A coward would have brought Miria into her fight against Cassandra or tried to get Hysteria involved too so she could flee. Yet Roxanne took her on head by herself without a second thought and was laughing like a psycho about it, her hatred of Cassandra outweighed any self preservation instinct she had. Roxanne's nature was love and hate, both to insane levels and little else. Yes, she was a weak warrior in the past clinging to stronger warriors to survive but like Deneve she is was no longer that person by the time we got to know her.
Most argue Roxanne was weaker since she didn't kill Cassandra by herself and assume it was since she was weaker and scared of her (yet we have plenty of examples to counter both assumptions both there and by her later actions in the series). Or because she was defeated so easily in the end and you read my read on that above (Cassandra herself said Roxanne lost due to her nature not her power). Sorry but both are likely untrue, do you have something else to add here or where you just trying to be witty and kneejerkingly reacting to an opinion you disagreed with? I supported my argument fully and why I believe "This is a perfect example of what I meant about people just reading what they want to with Cassandra vs Roxanne."
Oh btw, you took that quote out of context since it showed someone only evidencing the ranged rod attack failing upclose but ignored/overlooked the short ranged whip like attack holding Cassandra off 2 pages later... yet concluding Roxanne then had a disadvantage at close ranges. Which is akin to arguing since Isley could shoot arrows he logically was a weak close ranged fighter and failing to mention his arms ability to become a sword, lance, or axe. Good job at a comical strawman argument though

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