User blog comment:GSFB/Athena (Tomorrowland) vs Terminator/@comment-27334870-20170920060945/@comment-5232784-20170921020820

Hello, thank you for your vote (very well thought out)

Not much is known about Athena's energy pistol, but nothing from the movie indicates that it is less reliable than a firearm or takes a while to charge (the energy weapons of the androids in the store melee scene did take a few seconds to charge between shots, but the energy weapons the other evil androids had didn't take time at all to charge between shots). But your right, it will do more damage to robotic beings than bullets will

The reason why the 1-kiloton sphere is a long range weapon is because Athena's superhuman strength gives her a heck of a throwing arm. A baseball pitcher wouldn't even come close to outranging an android strong enough to pry apart a giant robot's fingers or rip heads off super strong adult sized androids when it came to throwing, or indeed any other form of movement. The 1-kiloton sphere grenade also has vastly superior range to any other weapon in this battle due to its blast radius (has to be at least two miles or so, not counting the shockwave). And combined with Athena's throwing arm... it defintely will outdistance the effective range of a minigun.