Actually, no. The real Sailor Venus has love as her element. The creator
of BSSM is quite consistant on that point.
Most of Venus's later attacks are pure emotion (Specifically Love)
attacks as are several of her early manga attacks.
Metal being Venus's element is a Fannon invention that I have only seen
floating around in the last few years.
Still, if people keep telling me she's like a combination of Venus and
Moon I may do something dire. c.c
Concidering that Venus was the prototype and all :)
I think that the Venus=metal bit came about because Jupiter's later attacks
are based on wood, which oddly enough is the element that Jupiter
represents. In a similar fashion, Venus's element is metal, however this
never makes an appearance in BSSM. You've got Venus Love and Beauty Shock,
rather than say, Venus Giant Anvil dropping out of the sky.
And I may be wrong, but wasn't Venus the 'commander' of the senshi in
cannon? With Moon not really supposing to be a senshi in the first place?
The whole sailor moon bit was caused by a Luna with really scrambled
memories wasn't it?
I am not really certain we are told if there ever was a Sailor Moon prior
to Usagi. Regardless, that does not negate the fact that Venus really was
and still is the leader of the Sailor Senshi. It just so happened that
her authority as leader was superceded by that of her Moon Princess.