I don't like Jessica whitwell because she is a power-hungry bitch....Sorry. Nat is a BIT power hungry but the rest is just ambitions. Nat for the win!

Kicks butt, they both do.

HM HMM HMM HMM HM HM HM HM MMM!!! (Yoda laugh ftw)

hmmm.... Thought long and hard, I have. A difficult yet easy decision at oncem this was. And so speak normal I shall.

I believe that Nat would have had the capapbility to summon an Afrit and restrain him without tiring very much, if at all. John, thanks to his determination and skill, was the strongest at that table. Simple common sense. While Whitewell is older, meaning possible higher experience level, John's stamina and experience in hostile situations up to that point would have won out. These include the Lovelace Conspiracy; The Golem incident; Case of the Afrit, the Envelope, and the Ambassodor's Wife; the affair of the curiously heavy trunk; and the episode of the Anarchist and the Oyster.
Addmitedly, we don't know anything of Whitewell's Backgroud or experience, but it's still clear that John's been through much more, practically, if not Politically. Whitewell is known to keep at least one Afrit, Shubbit, who favors taking a bear form. The strength of this entity is unknown, but if was able to survive the encounter with Nouda, protecting Whitewell with a formidable shield, until she was killed, and he set free. I find it likely that she had at least one, probably two, Djinn for other tasks.
Her defiance was legendary, and no one on the Council dared defy her, something not spared to Nat, who was openly hated among the coucil. Perhaps not too openly; that risks upsetting the Prime Minister.
Nathaniel would have summoned his Four Greater Djinn, Ascobol, Cormocodran, Mwamba, and Hodge, and Bartimaeus for personal protection, using the others to attack. This is assuming he did not know the attack was coming.
Whitewell, on the other hand, would have summoned, oh, lets be optimistic and say her Afrit and three Djinn to defend herself. Nat would have sent Mwamba and Cormocodran, his two most powerful, after Shubbit, and have Ascobol and Hodge stay with Bartimaeus near him to fend off and kill Whitewell's three Djinn.
Assuming neither get the chance to run, I say that Shubbit kills Corocodran with a mighty Detonation, only to be felled by succesive detonations afterwords from Mwamba, then Pierced by a Silver-tipped spear Mwamba found on the wall.
Bartimaeus would kill one while narrowly avoiding the others, giving commands to Hodge and Ascobol all the while still trying to get Nat away.
Eventually, Ascobol and Hodge are seriously enough injured that Nat send them back, even though Mwamba comes back in time to kill another, leaving the four of them to finish off the weaker one Djinn left.
Nat turns, sees Whitewell leaving, gives an order-
And a particuallarily Power Joint-Detonation from Mwamba and Bartimaeus erase dear Jessica from the face of the planet.

I did not read that, but I'll just say that I agree with you, or rather, no, I do not. :D

I think that we just don't know enough to judge this. There are honestly too many variables.

As for magical talent, I'm guessing if Nat grew without Kitty's ideals interfereing and so on, he would almost definitely become better than Whitwell.

If they both knew they were to fight, and they could only fight with the spirits they had at hand, as a guess, Nat might win.

So true.
How are kitty's ideal interfering?
If anything, wouldn't kitty give Nat something more to fight for?
Ugh, I wish stroud would come on and provide some insight.
He hasn't been on in four months <.<

no. kitty's evil. She might kill Nat as he looked the other way.

Question Queezle, why do you hate Kitty so much? She's just like Ginny, except a non-Mary Sue version of her...

I see no connection bewteen Ginny and Kitty, but yeah why do you hate Kitty so much?
Cuz Barti talked to her more than you??

Dansariki wrote: Cuz Barti talked to her more than you??

He did not! I knew Barti for about 5000 years (or more) longer than Kitty.
He had a few conversations with that Kitty-person, but I talked with him waaay more. It just wasn't specifically mentioned in the book.

Kitty's just annoying. She's perfect, or when she's not, she makes mistakes that I wouldn't do. I would do something much more embarrassing. She's perfect even when she makes mistakes. Grr.
Of course, all the other characters in the trilogy are so amazing that it doesn't even matter.

Q7, Barti knew Queezle for closer to 500 years rather than 5000 years. Apparently they met at Prague.

And Dansariki, Kitty would want Nat to stop enslaving spirits, so therefore he wouldn't. If he was alive.

I see a lot of similarities between Ginny and Kitty. Both fiery, strong female characters, and both love intrests to the main (or main-ish, with Nat) character. If I had to choose who is better, although Kitty is a much deeper, realistic character, she loses out to Ginny 'cause its boring to read from her pespective. Yays.

SO two years' at Prague.
Grats.
In the books though, he talked to kitty more.

yeah, they had more oppertunities.

See, Queezle?

Qweezle7 just likes Qweezle. i guess there is nothing you can do to change it.

Well no, she likes everything thats not kitty.

Exactly.

But, see, Ginny's not a Mary-Sue and Kitty is. She has amazing powers, Bart likes her for no reason, she doesn't ever get embarrassed...

She does.

Queezle7 wrote:
But, see, Ginny's not a Mary-Sue and Kitty is.

....Mary-Sue?

Thas wat i sed.
No idea what a Mary-Sue is, and she hasn't found Mwambas post yet.