Of all of the
Sailor Moon characters, Sailor Mercury's characterisation is most confusing from a purely mytho-symbological standpoint. Throughout the media, she is characterised as having two consistent attributes, one being exceptional
intelligence, and the other being
affiliation with
water, including mostly water-based
powers and
attacks. This water affiliation derives from a historic
Japanese mythological assignment of this
property to Mercury. And yet, she is given in the live action series a
harp (or a
lyre), significant only to the
Roman mythological assignment to the same
planet.
There are more muted examples of this mythos-confusion elsewhere in the series. The
love-based powers of
Sailor Venus reflect only the Roman mythos, while
Sailor Mars has fire-based powers, reflecting the Japanese mythos but not especially conflicting with the Roman vision of a
God of War. Though Sailor Jupiter has some wood-based powers reflecting the Japanese mythos, her most spectacular gifts (besides fabulous tatas) are
thunder-and-
lightning attacks drawn wholly from the Roman cognate to Greek
Zeus. Were Sailor Mercury to have a comparable Roman-mythos power basis, she ought to be portrayed, for example, with the swiftness of the Roman Mercury.
This
confusion ultimately leads to an odd power
divergence between the power given to Sailor Mercury and the Outer Guardian Sailor Neptune. Based, as well, solely on the Roman mythos, Sailor Neptune ought to be expected to have water-based powers. But, these having already been written into Sailor Mercury, the powers given to Sailor Neptune are further restricted by the characteristic of the Roman Ocean-God, Neptune -- and so, Sailor Neptune has no
generalised power over water, but may rely only on
ocean-based attacks, drawing strength from "deep waters." This restriction on Sailor Neptune is not reciprocated in treatment of Sailor Mercury, whose power over water is never described to have any limitations deriving from the source of the water. (I will also gratuitously mention here that Sailor Neptune is a
lesbian, but most translations out of the Japanese original and into the media of other cultures sadly doctor this characteristic out of her personality).
A last note is on Dark Sailor Mercury -- for a seven-episode stretch of the live action series, Sailor Mercury turns
teh evuls, accoutered with darker blues and hints of black, and relentlessly goes after Sailor Moon, even as the latter tries desperately to heal her former ally without harming her. Ultimately, bits and pieces of this effort have some effect, and Sailor Mercury's defeat of Sailor Moon triggers sufficient remorse to allow this healing to be culminated, restoring the good and wiping away the memories of the evil deeds (though Sailor Mercury remains haunted by her
knowledge that she had been evil and harmed her loved ones).