[MonkeyDude]

Originally Posted by Shinji103

You're still missing part of my point; even if she's not useful (I'd still argue that she's not as useless as you say), it doesn't make sense that she wouldn't contribute. The Amakusa members and all those other characters don't have IB to cancel out the Front Seat members' broken abilities, yet they still help whenever they're around to.
And you're trying to limit the scope to just the broken bad guys; for example, what about Sherry Cromwell? The only reason Mikoto missed out on that fight was because of "convenient" (read, plot hole) reasons for her being absent at just the right time to miss the fight.

I'm not saying that she's completely useless as she does serve her purpose of defeating opponents with a rather staggering gap in power, but all she will accomplish "contributing" to the opponents Touma typically end up fighting would be at best getting somewhat injured (correct me if I'm wrong, but all she's experienced so far are minor cuts and bruises right?), at worst death since she's facing opponents far beyond the scope of her abilities.

The Amakusa is around 50 strong and with Itsuwa at the center challenged Acqua and still lost. Even with the support of Kanzaki they still lost. How the hell do you expect Mikoto to "contribute" here? The only logical conclusion here is that at best she'll become a liability and at worst...well someone will have to become a meat shield for her because she is someone to be protected (go go plot armor).

You keep bringing up Sherry and yeah you're right she could have contributed in that fight. I'm not exactly sure how that fight will end up given that Mikoto doesn't fight to kill and Sherry can pretty much endlessly reconstruct Ellis. Will including Mikoto really contribute anything to the plot if she were involved is the question at hand. We are at an impasse concerning this question so let's just say we agree to disagree.

And you really need to look up the definition of a plot hole. There was no such thing because while convenient, it was explained in a way that no such plot holes exist. So let's go over some simple vocabulary shall we? Convenient does not equal plot hole okay?

I know you've missed my point entirely there, because your whole first line sided with me. You're talking about Divine Punishment being a reason for why Mikoto wouldn't be in a fight; how so? Is she going to go "Oh crap, this guy has an ability that the readers know I can't beat" or something? So she's not going to know that she should stay out of a fight; she's not reading/watching a title called Toaru Index like us.
As for if she could get around DP, I'd be willing to bet Mikoto would actually bee a good match for Vento. Bad guys not caring for peope around is nothing new for any hero/heroine.

So I can't even consider valid points you've made without it invalidating my argument? What's the point of even discussing this in the first place when one side doesn't even listen to valid points made by the other?

I'm not saying DP is a reason why Mikoto "wouldn't be in a fight" but I'm saying it's why she would serve no purpose even if she was involved in the fight. DP would just instantly KO her out of the fight since she would probably display some form of enmity against Vento if she witnesses a scene of say Vento attacking that building with innocent civilians in it. So DP kicks in and we just wasted pages just to see Mikoto get knocked out and become a liability to Touma.

You are just reiterating my statement of how I mentioned that if she could get around DP, then yes she can actually fight Vento to a degree. But since DP exists, it's a moot point so no real reason to dwell on it.

The Railgun manga would like to have a word with you.
Mikoto has displayed she is fully capable of not only using great strategy and tactics to fight powerful opponents, but can also fend off multiple powerful opponents in succession while severely exhausted both mentally and physically. She took on Mugino immediately after Frenda, after already having been running around the city blowing up labs in the Railgun side of the SISTERS arc. She's far more capable than you think; like other things, the Index series just has a way of making Mikoto look dumber than she is.

Powerful opponents that are still weaker than her even in her weakened state (except Mugino, but wouldn't you say that it's rather convenient that she can form a shield to deflect her attacks?)...The only true opponent she has faced that was beyond her league is Accelerator and guess what happened? I can also say that the Railgun series has a way of over-glorifying her battle capabilities because hey...she's the damn protagonist. You can't really expect the protagonist to lose right? And hey she sure has a hard time fighting her opponents...with barely getting injured and all.

"Horrid writing to keep including her for fanservice?" How does the Amakasua church members contribute to Touma fighting off Acqua any more than Mikoto would? What's horrid writing, is force-feeding us contrived and forced reasons to keep Mikoto out, which has been happening in Index for a long time. Teleporting a Level 5 out of danger before a helpless civilian? (or so they believed at the time, anyway) Sphinx running off just before the bad guy attacks? Bleh.
I also again submit that you far underestimate Mikoto.

Please read Volume 16 in its entirety again. Actually no forget it. Reading through v16 again won't destroy your illusion of how Mikoto would be more useful than the Amakusa. Read this again...the entire Amakusa organization with their Supreme Pontiff. If you think that Mikoto would be able to contribute any more than the organization THAT ACTUALLY FOUGHT AND DEFEATED ACQUA...then not even IB can destroy that illusion of yours. Don't forget that Touma didn't do much of anything besides blocking Acqua's final attack.

And I submit that you far overestimate Mikoto. At least use that line when you were referring to Sherry or hell even Vento. But Acqua? And it's the novel where Mikoto actually got some great development...not exactly sure what you want anymore really.

Erm, I strongly dispute this; Kuroko is a responsible member of Judgement who is tasked with upholding the peace and protecting the citizenry. So much so, that she clearly and specifically told Mikoto that she would fight against her if Mikoto became an enemy of Academy City; yet she decides to leave a (assumed) Level 0 in danger to get the Level 5 out? Plot hole.

Again you need to look up what plot hole means since you love to use it incorrectly. Mikoto isn't exactly causing any problems to AC so why would Kuroko fight her? This means that no sense of duty for Judgment would supersede her desire to protect her Onee-sama. Add in the fact that she's not exactly too keen on the idea of leaving "that brute" and her Onee-sama alone together even for a brief period of time and hey she's easily candidate #1 of 2 for that teleport slot.

*sigh* I don't even know why I'm bothering replying to this since you aren't even considering OUR points at all. You have at least 4 guys rebutting you and you are still rather steadfast in your beliefs. I'm not exactly sure whether I should commend you or call you delusional, but I wanna go back to lurking so please don't even bother replying to my 'rant' so I won't be compelled to make a reply.

Hell I want to see more Itsuwa, but you don't see me raising a storm as to how and why she deserves more screen time. Though actually I'm wanting to see more of Index since her character and importance recently just clicked in my head and it all suddenly makes sense now...anyway, /lurks