Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-67.70.92.41-20151228204640/@comment-27402462-20160222032138

I don't see how it would be "much much worse" because either way, when she attacks him, it's bad behavior and that was the complaints of the people watching. One person's comment was something like "I thought they were teaching them better than to act like that". It's unsportman like conduct and vicious. There was no honor in it and there would never be in attacking another huntsman outside a match, especially when their guard is down. Actually, had it been the other way around, it would have seemed more believable to her friends and probably the people watching. In the context of what the audience saw, it just looks like she's crazy.

And about the "riskiness" of the situation, if he was taken down, he couldn't help if something came up that endangered the plan (things came up like that, such as Qrow's arrival). Had he not been there to stop Ruby, she would have stopped the last match. And before you comment on Neo doing it, she was already in position aboard one of Atlas' ships, ready to free Torchwick and infect the Atlas' army with the virus (and them having control of a major ship threatened all the other ships in the area, preventing people from evacuating). Besides this, if Yang attacked Mercury when he was knocked out, he wouldn't have reacted to having his leg hit point blank (which might have made people question the authencity of the injury), nor would he be able to milk it for the audience of how painful it was and how innocent he was.

Lastly, he didn't smirk when she did her explosion. In fact, when she charged at him after activating her semblance, he looked surprised. And there are moments during the fight where he looks annoyed and ticked off, the kind of reaction you have when someone gets a hit in on you you weren't expecting.