Talk:Cinder Fall/@comment-35585801-20180514171634/@comment-4010415-20180514204255

The big bad doesn't have to go out and do something themselves to be interesting or a good big bad.

Salem and Ozpin are in a chess match with each other. What makes Salem different from Ozpin is that she is very, very clearly not human or Faunus, and that can be figured out from a mere glance. As such, she cannot simply walk around Remnant, doing whatever she wants, without drawing attention and attacks. Furthermore, like Qrow said in Volume 4, Salem works from the shadows in a way where, once she pulls off a plan, everyone is left pointing fingers at each other, not at her. 99% of the world's population has no idea she exists. Her goal involves mass death and destruction, and it's easier to pull that off without drawing fire to herself if she gets the societies she's trying to destroy to kill each other.

This has even been seen with the way Beacon fell. She chose to have the attack happen during the Vytal Festival because everyone around the world would be gathered at their TVs to watch the live broadcast. Cinder had Atlas' robots attack civilians, making it look like Atlas had instigated an attack on Vale, thus sowing confusion and distrust among the people of Remnant. No one, aside from Ozpin's group, is going to think "A monster lady did this." They all think Atlas did it and probably wonder if Mistral had any involvement, thanks to Cinder's speech.

Just because Salem hasn't gone out and done anything herself, that does not make her a disappointing big bad.