*Spoiler*Episode 170 and a typical Ami-chan tactic

[Pila Flammae, Vola]

Castle in the Sky Sailor Moon Episode Summaries
Sailor Stars Queen Nehelenia Arc Part 4 of 6
The Fated Night! The Trial of the Sailor Senshi!

Link: www.sailorsystem.com/sm170/sm170b.htm

After watching this episode and seeing that a minority group seems to have a habit of bashing Ami-chan, I will now use the summary to disprove the all "Mercury is weak" nonsense. The summary involving Sailor Mercury, Uranus and a mirror statue of Nehelenia quite - in my opinion - destroys the brute force is best myth. Mercury and Uranus is trapped in a dream world and tries to find the exit, the crystal statue appears, Uranus kicks it and misses, Mercury Aqua Rhapsody is rebounded, so is Uranus' second attempt with World Shaking. Ami is getting desperate; she then - in the wake of an old memory in helping her friends win a basket ball game by planning the game - flips up visor and computer and starts analysing. Nehelenia - seeing the unrelenting eyes in Ami - blasts her, Uranus takes it and urges Ami to finish the analys. Which she does moments later, the source of the dream world is located and two World Shakings later, the illusionary world - together with the mirror shard - is destroyed. Uranus then realises that Ami-chan don't prefer the brute force approach.

In conclusion: Ami is not weak, she just have another way of fighting evil, if Ami had not fought in her own way in the above scenario, they both would have fought the mirror shard with attack after attack, with every attack rebounded, the chances of victory using that approach would have been very slim.

Pila

[moonprince804]

I feel Sailor Mercury is a vital addition to the Sailor Senshi. She has a genius-level IQ, and she has gadgets that no other senshi has that very much come in handy while fighting an enemy. Without Sailor Mercury, the Sailor Senshi (or at least the Inners) would undoubtebly be lost.

[nekosenshi]

I agree. Though I'm pretty sure the Outer Senshi are geniuses too.

[PowerPC]

I sincerely appreciate your comments with regard to Mercury. I have in the past been rebuffed by close minded people. They've even gone so far as to stereotype my prosecution of the "Mercury is weak" accusation, by declaring me someone who places things on a pedestal and doesn't truly understand the Mercury paradigm. I started an argument with regard to this subject years ago and I backed down too soon.

Mercury has always been just as strong as all the others. Her real strength is her incredible brain and knowledge along with the number of different water attacks she has. Being able to control the states of water she can combine them all to come up with a defense and an offense which actually makes her more well rounded and more desirable as a fighter and teammate. While it is true that she has many defensive tactics, that doesn't negate her ability to go on the offense. I argued that if Mercury were to fight Neptune they would be on par or she may actually beat Neptune.

Why? Because degree of power does not mean victory it means degree of power. Neptune has very little options. If she can't kill them with Deep Submerge or Violin Tide she has nowhere else to go. Mercury would outsmart her and combine her attacks into a strategy that can win. Not to mention Mercury would be able to form a water defense against Deep Submerge possibly creating an icy igloo like protective cover as the wave bears down on her. She used Shabon Spray to actually survive in lava right after she solidified a wave of lava. That kind of power is pretty ridiculous and you know Neptune wouldn't have been able to survive in lava.

People like to look at the wave that Deep Submerge makes and just assume that makes Mercury weak. These people do not truly understand combat, they don't realize that intelligence wins. Yes a human fighting a Tiger head on will result in quick defeat, but we don't need their level of strength we're smarter than them, that's why we're at the top and can cage tigers. Neptune was completely humbled by Mars showing how Neptune's method of just washing away everything with a wave isn't always effective or useful. Mercury showed Uranus how inexperienced she truly is, and Venus made Pluto look foolish.

The Outer Senshi are incredibly powerful, and yet so are the inner senshi. There is a reason why the inners protect the princess directly. Their attacks are very effective when combined. Say Pluto can't stop the enemy, then Neptune can't, then Uranus can't, Saturn is defense until the very end when forced to use her true power, what are you left with to protect the princess after that? A team of versatile powerful and effective soldiers. They don't need to be as powerful individually as the Outers, they can combine their attacks to get the job done.

This was made very clear during the battle with Cyprin. All of them combined their weakest attacks to overpower both her and her double to win. Most of the enemies claim that Shabon Spray's blinding mist won't stop them and yet they are stopped, combine that with Aqua Mirage or Aqua Rhapsody and well you can see where this is going. I would hate to be up against either Neptune or Mercury's water attacks. They are both terrifyingly powerful. Neptune can immediately overpower her enemies and Mercury can blind them, create a blizzard making their abilities to move or even know where they are next to impossible, turn them into an iceberg, have them explode trapped inside a wave of cold water, blast them at ridiculous pressures, and of course completely create or open up an alternate dimension of distorted space with Hyperspace Area Formation, of course nobody seems to remember that Mercury can do this.

It is a good thing and an important thing that Mercury is as levelheaded and timid as she is. If she weren't she'd be way too much to handle.