Is there something about Mercury that I’m missing? The fandom seems to like him a lot, yet to me he seems to be one of the most shallow and uninteresting characters in all of RWBY.
Now before you write your angry comments/reblogs, please note that there was a point in time where I was interested in Mercury. V3 was the best for all villains involved, I liked his tag team battle with Emerald against Coco and Yatsuhashi. I really enjoyed his fight against Yang too. Unfortunately this is where the positives end for me, because V4 onwards the focus seemed to be mostly on Cinder and Emerald. Mercury just seemed like the token asshole just doesn’t do anything of note until V6.
You know how I said the positives ended in the last paragraph? Well I lied, because I actually enjoyed the part in V6 where we see what’s encouraging him to stay on Salem’s side. It was obvious that Emerald was there because of Cinder, but Mercury was a complete mystery. His logic makes sense, especially if Salem’s real goal was to take over the world.
However as Tyrian points out, Mercury has only known pain and violence and is just too afraid to leave it. Tyrian also makes it clear to Mercury that he is out of his league. After that, the direction of his character is left pretty up in the air, he seems to be in the same boat as Emerald.
Now the reason I ask if I’m missing something about Mercury is because I see him praised for essentially doing nothing of note in the story aside from V3. He’s had some decent character moments here and there, but by and large he hasn’t had the same character development as Cinder or Emerald. And after being promoted to Salem’s inner circle, he’s whisked away faster than he was reintroduced into the story. At least Cinder got her own character arc, at least Emerald has something going on for herself. I’m sorry if I sound mean or whatever but what is it about Mercury that I’m supposed to care about? I just don’t get why he’s so popular despite barely being relevant as it is. Now personally, I believe you’re allowed to like or dislike any character for any reason, but with Mercury he seems so hollow in comparison to the other villains.
The main reason I don’t like Mercury is because he seems to have this “No one has had it harder than me!” mindset, and honestly I can’t stand it. What he went through was messed up, no doubt about it, but that doesn’t mean others don’t have their own pain.
Now I do think there are things that can be improved or expanded upon in future volumes. Like his relationship with Cinder, I feel he unfairly projects his father onto her to some degree. I also feel Cinder is one of the few characters who could actually relate to Mercury, they both killed their abusers after all. Add on the fact that they’re both connected to Emerald, there’s a lot of potential for development in that area. I’d love a scene where Mercury implies that Cinder was probably a spoiled brat who just wants more power, imagine how mad she’d get when he gets her story all wrong and it turns out they have more in common than he thought. And maybe they kill Tyrian together? Who knows?
Anyway as of now, I’m not a huge fan of Mercury, however I’m of the opinion that it’s never too late to improve a character. I’m not one of the “Sorry, too little too late” type of person. Truthfully I don’t want to hate or dislike any character, it’s just that it’s hard for me to like Mercury for some reason (ironic coming from a Cinder stan I know). If you’re a Mercury fan and you haven’t blocked me already, I’m interested in discussing and talking about him.
