Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-11188061-20141008045121/@comment-10390252-20141031101352

The Black Queen Virus is the key. I think that Cinder's plan is to get Roman to tie Ironwood in strategic knots with misleading 'confessions' and, then when the Atlesians are at full stretch, attack the tournament and use the virus to ensure it is transmitted live on every channel and can't be cut off.

Why?

To discredit the miltiary in the same way as allowing the Grimm into Vale was meant to discredit the Huntsmen and turn White Fang into a universal all-purpose boogeyman. Cinder wants to knock away the three pillars of civilisation that Roman specified in that White Fang meeting. The attack on the credibility of the Huntsmen didn't go perfectly but Cinder probably hopes that she can finish it off if she handles the chaos at the Festival appropriately.