Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-410526-20160109160106/@comment-4010415-20160111191110

Yang was literally the best person in the singles for the trick they wanted to pull.

If they had tried playing a trick to make someone other than Yang "injure" Mercury, it would have played out entirely differently.

Pyrrha would have put her shield up to block the kick because she has trained herself to reflexively block, so that wouldn't work.

There's no telling what Sun would do - maybe dodge.

Can Emerald's Semblance even affect machines? Besides, Cinder had other plans for Penny, as we see now.

The other singles competitors don't have actual models...

Yang was the only one Cinder could use for that trick. Yang reflexively counterattacks whenever she perceives a threat. Cinder knew that. She knew that, if Yang thought Mercury was attacking her, she would attack.