Also plot hole.
Mercury mentions that Pyrrha had to come in contact with his boots in order to manipulate them.
She throws around Jaune's shield, and we never see her touch his shield. Not once.
I thought he meant it that she employs her power so that it seems to everyone that they are just barely getting in contact, to avoid spilling out her advantage. In the actual fight scene when she uses her semblance, I didn't see her actually touching his boot.
Let me just rewatch to make sure ...
Okay, rewatched:
There was one definitive contact during which she used her semblance. Once where she blocked a kick (where I merely assume she may have used her semblance to reduce the power of his kick) and once when she steered his kick away without touching (obviously using her semblance).
He surmised that she needed to touch him at least once to use her semblance in him. The question is, is that really true, or is he just assuming that previous contact is a requirement? I'm leaning towards the latter.
And even if the former is true, we don't know if she has to touch whatever stuff she wants to manipulate just recently. She may have touched Jaune's shield a couple times during off-screen sparring and it could have been enough.
Questions, so many questions.