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jainaism · 2 months ago

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Chapter 2: Echoes of the Past

Beware of spoilers!

“My name is Jaina Proudmoore, Lord Admiral of the allied kingdom of Kul Tiras. This is Thrall, orc representative to the Horde Council, who is gravely wounded. We are both here at the direction of Danath Trollbane on a mission of peace, and we have urgent business with your regent. I demand you open these gates!

The guard in front of them simply shook his head. “I don’t think you understand,” Jaina said through gritted teeth, her staff glowing as she channeled the arcane. “I ask permission only as a courtesy—” She felt Thrall’s big yet gentle hand on her forearm. “Danath’s message may not yet have arrived, Jaina.” Jaina drew breath to argue, but Thrall pushed himself away from her. “We have a job to do, and I am a hindrance.” He nodded at the guard. “Do not make a mistake today. The Lord Admiral is here to meet your regent. I suggest you let her in.”

All looked afraid—a common response to a battle happening outside the city walls perhaps, though Jaina couldn’t help but sense there was something strange afoot. The people scattered before her, dragging children with them, slamming doors and windows behind as if she were the enemy. Beware the Daughter of the Sea. The unhappy memory sprang unbidden into Jaina’s mind. She dismissed it as quickly as it arrived, but it did nothing to improve her mood.

“Dalaran?” Marran cut in. She cocked her head at that, as if she hadn’t heard right. Then the regent moved around Jaina and sat in a more austere high-backed chair behind her desk before settling her elbows atop a mess of parchments. “I know you’ve seen a lot of war, Lord Admiral. I know how long you’ve ruled Kul Tiras.” She rifled through the pages on her desk until she found the one she sought. “But do you know how many bushels of grain your kingdom needs for the winter?” She held up another parchment. “How many horses plow the fields of Stormsong Valley?” Another scrap of paper. “The cost per hundredweight of iron ore?” She shook her head. “For years, Stromgarde has lost too many battles and cared too little for its people.” Jaina felt stung—she was losing her. “Of course,” said Jaina. “But there is another fight coming, one that threatens more than just our small kingdoms. It is a fight we must join against, orc and human alike. Fighting each other only diminishes the strength we must show, united. Let the 7th Legion and the Kor’kron fight side by side,” she said. “And perhaps in doing so, an understanding—a peace—can be found between your people and the Mag’har.”

Marran nodded, but now she looked at her desk. “I see. Now I see.” She looked up. “You’re not here to reinforce our borders, to help us . . . You’re here to lead the Auxiliary off on another grand adventure, aren’t you? Another foe to dispatch, another glorious war, the heroes saving us, one and all.” Marran’s expression hardened. Jaina’s heart thudded in her chest as the regent’s face flushed, her words almost hissed through clenched teeth.

Despite her concerns, Jaina could understand Marran’s position, even if it was illadvised. Stromgarde was ever at the mercy of the hostile forces that surrounded it, and it had been a major battlefront in the Fourth War. Jaina knew all too well what it was like to inherit a kingdom in distress, to have enemies lurking around every corner—to discover that your family’s greatest ally had betrayed you. Marran was only doing what she thought best for her people, but she desperately needed guidance. Her uncle’s, Jaina hoped, but she feared Danath’s return to Stromgarde was more likely to start a power struggle than calm tensions. In the end, she had opted to be prudent and penned the letter. But as Jaina crossed the city, she became acutely aware of just how little time she had. Danath might come, yes, but he might come too late. Jaina was here, now. It was up to her to find the right way forward.

Chapter 3: Bloodlines

“Talk,” said Thrall. He gestured to Eitrigg. “Diplomacy. Negotiation. Even now, Lady Jaina Proudmoore is at Stromgarde, on the same mission as I.” “And good luck to her,” said Geya’rah. “Marran Trollbane is not one for conversation. She far prefers to let her archers do the talking. Besides, as I told you—she isn’t finished.” “Explain,” said Thrall. “We know that Stromgarde is planning an attack,” said Talgar. “No mere skirmish this time: they intend to capture territory and expand their borders.”

After returning to the keep, Jaina brooded in her chambers, knowing she would need to leave on the morrow unless she could convince Danath’s kin to see reason. As the hours grew small, she heaved a sigh and resolved on seeking out Marran herself. Today had been filled with bloodshed for Stromgarde, and Marran’s emotions were naturally running high. As the sun sank low on the horizon, Jaina hoped her chance hadn’t come and gone. But as she opened the door to her chambers, she was stunned to see Marran herself, looking exhausted and somewhat embarrassed.

Marran stopped and held her torch aloft. “We walk in Arathor,” she said. “This is all that remains of that ancient place, the last echo of an old world. A fitting place for us to speak freely.” Jaina nodded. “I grew up learning the legend, how Thoradin saw the vision of his father, clad in the pelt of a black wolf, and how he founded the first kingdom of humans.” But Marran shook her head. “Not legend. History. One that I have been trusted to uplift and enrich through my own contributions. One that must not be forgotten.” She sighed as she turned to the other woman. “I am eager to continue our earlier conversation, but first I wanted to speak with you, about this.”

Jaina clenched her jaw as she thought. Every word from now on had to count. “The Mag’har are a people forged in battle,” she said, “and the Kor’kron are the most elite warriors in the Horde. Continue to escalate tensions with the Mag’har and you will lose. You say you wish to honor your people, care for them. Forge a pact with Geya’rah and enrich both your peoples, through friendship.” Marran took a moment to think. “Yet I stand in the same room as the most powerful mage in all Azeroth, the one who tipped the Battle for Lordaeron to the Alliance. And you tell me still that I will lose?” At this, Jaina sighed. “I came to offer you my advice, Marran, not my magic.”

Marran stood and, placing her torch in a wall sconce, pulled a short knife with a curved blade from her belt. She grabbed the wolf’s fur at the back of its head and lifted. The creature’s jaw hung open, revealing dagger-sharp white teeth. “Our people are broken,” Marran said as she got to work. “I learned that facing every conflict that struck Stromgarde; settling into this castle for a time, only to be spirited away to the country or shuttled about our allies’ holdfasts. Through it all, I read nothing but our glorious histories, watching as my parents died and my uncle rode to war again and again. I sat in this keep feeling helpless, realizing what precious little remained of the legacy of Arathor.” Jaina could only watch in horrified fascination as Marran began to skin the wolf, sickened by what she knew this ritual represented. “Dalaran’s fall marks the passing of yet another human kingdom, though it had become unrecognizable in recent times. Gilneas succumbed for so long to blight, and we do not speak of what transpired in Alterac . . . or Lordaeron.”

Jaina felt her heart sink as she realized the truth. Marran was more than just an inexperienced ruler, an idealist. She was a believer. A believer in a glorious past that Jaina also knew to be fantasy. Marran worshipped a misguided, even dangerous nostalgia for a golden age she had never experienced herself. Marran looked at Jaina. “The Arathi Highlands belong to humanity. They are the heart of a great empire whose blood runs in our veins even now, Jaina. We must purge them of all invaders and take back our kingdom. It is our birthright. It is what Thoradin fought for. And we are—I am—destined to continue his legacy.” Jaina struggled to contain her disdain as she spoke. “Marran, you are set on a path of annihilation.” “Will you help me, Jaina?”

Jaina’s hand flew to her neck, and her fingertips came away bloodied. She turned and saw an archer step out of the shadowed corridor behind them. A woman in a long black hooded cloak—the same bowman, Zatacia, who had shot Thrall and intercepted Jaina’s letter. And then Jaina collapsed, hitting the hard floor, her staff rolling out of her grip. She looked up, tried to focus on Marranas the world began to gray around her. Marran ducked down and picked up a dart from the floor before collecting the wolf pelt. “That won’t kill her, right? I can’t have the entire Alliance at us too.” The archer smirked. “The Daughter of the Sea will sleep well tonight.” And then Jaina was lost to the darkness.

Chapter 4: Marran's Choice

As twilight fell on the Highlands, Thrall looked out over the dusky landscape fromhis position atop one of Hammerfall’s many watchtowers. In the distance, the vague shadow of Stromgarde’s tallest tower was quickly swallowed by the falling night. Thrall wondered how Jaina’s mission was going. It couldn’t be any worse than his. (tsk tsk)

Jaina woke with a start. The room was dark and eerily quiet. She sat up, only for the thundering pain in her head to almost send her back to oblivion. Closing her eyes, she counted to ten, then tried again—slower this time.

She gingerly felt her neck. Zatacia’s dart had only just grazed her, but it had been enough to deliver a knockout dose of sleeping poison. Or had it? Because now Jaina was awake, and while it was night, she realized that the effects of the poison had worn off far sooner than Marran had planned. She moved to the window and opened the drapes, revealing a city brightly lit by two moons high in the night. A city that was quiet and still—far too still.

Jaina wasted no time. She had to stop Marran before it was too late. Picking up her staff from the floor, Jaina focused her power and teleported out of the room.

Racing up the slope, already conjuring another elemental, Jaina saw a troop of warriors engaged in a fierce melee. Staff alight, Jaina channeled the arcane. She might not be able to stop the battle single-handedly, but she could do her best to keep the combatants apart and casualties low.

With a battle cry, Geya’rah kicked her heels into her mount and rode off toward the mage, but as she crested the next hill, she realized all too late that she had charged straight into an attack. She saw the flash of light, bright as the morning sun’s first shard, and then the water elemental, summoned by Jaina, barreling toward her, growing in size until it filled her entire vision. Geya’rah knew it was too late to even try to outrun it, but she still pulled the reins of her mount, turning the beast, which howled in protest in a last-ditch attempt to avoid contact. The elemental struck her like a runaway kodo, and as the magical creature vanished in a splash of purple light, Geya’rah found herself thrown from her mount.

Chapter 5: The Battle of Go'Shek Farm

This is hopeless, thought Jaina as she raced across the battlefield. While she was doing her best to keep fighters away from each other with arcane magic, she knew she couldn’t be everywhere at once, and she had seen enough fighting to know which side was going to win. Marran had gambled, and she had lost. Now Jaina had to find her before it was too late.

Marran got to her feet, but Jaina was faster, aiming her staff squarely at the regent.“Is this how the Alliance treats its own, Lord Admiral? Compliance by force?” Jaina approached, ready to subdue the regent if necessary. “Open your eyes, Marran! For all your talk of the Alliance chasing meaningless battles, you’ve started the most meaningless one of all.” Arcane energy crackled down her staff. “You’ve lost. I won’t let you inflict further damage on your kingdom or the Alliance.” Above them, the sky flared red, blinding in the failing night. Jaina gasped in surprise and stepped back, turning her focus from Marran as she shielded her eyes. The two women looked to the north.

“If you would permit me a word with my regent, Lord Admiral?” Jaina stepped to one side as Danath Trollbane walked out onto the field, leaders of the Stromic army following close behind. Marran’s eyes thinned to slits, locking with Jaina’s as her uncle approached. “I showed you mercy beneath the keep. I don’t make the same mistake twice.” Jaina joined Danath’s side.“Neither do I. I didn’t trust the situation in Stromgarde from the moment I passed under its gates. For all I knew, that courier would deliver the letter straight to you anyway.”

He turned to Jaina. “Kurdran and Turalyon wait for us at Stromgarde. I suggest we join them.” Dawn broke as the party, now joined by Talgar, Eitrigg, the Kor’kron, and the 7th Legion, arrived at Stromgarde. Kurdran Wildhammer and Turalyon were waiting in the square outside the main keep. Turalyon shook Jaina’s hand. “Lord Admiral, the Sons of Lothar will answer your call.” Kurdran coughed. “Little dramatic, Turalyon? We’ve not gone by that name in . . . What? Two decades? More?” The paladin grinned. “Maybe it’s time we reclaim it.” He turned to Jaina. “Once Danath gave me his report on the summit at Boralus, I realized the gravity of the situation. You’ll have to forgive my absence at your council.” “Of course,” Jaina said. “But tell me, what of the Radiant Song? How does Stormwind fare?” Turalyon pursed his lips. “The troubles still weigh on my mind, but I’ve left Genn to rule—he’ll keep a tight rein on things in my absence.”

Although the subject of the story is rather hackneyed, I liked it. I really liked the way Jaina is written here, much better than in Shadows rising, and I'm glad that she finally got the novella.

#jaina proudmoore #world of warcraft #warcraft #jaina #jaina proudmoore daily #alliance #wow #thrall #tww #war witnin

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paladin-of-nerd-fandom65 · 1 year ago

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Happy New Year’s Eve to you too! :D I can’t wait for that “crossover” with the duo. I bet it’s young avengers or something (I’m more DC than marvel to be honest)

1: what is something the duo will never forget? Like Clark telling Chris you belong here; a El instead of a zod.

2: what’s their favorite YouTubers to watch?

3: I know you answer this already but every character in mortal kombat have two fatalities, so what other fatality would you give them? How about friendship move? I can Jake using his sticks to create firework sparklers.

4: when Chris use his darkness powers, is it like energy balls/blast or flames?

5: if it’s flames can he use it setting his farts on fire? or have Kon-El do the farting while Chris have his darkness near his butt XD

6: how would you write Superman & Lois? I definitely need more time to write more seasons lol

Just for a minor spoiler, that crossover for the Starburst Duo I had in mind (at least for the idea stage) is with Dragon Ball and given my liking of Son Gohan….I think you can piece together something from there lol

Anyways in celebration of the New Year, my last ask for 2023….

1) Aside that talk he has with Clark in reconciling on the Moon looking at a sight over the Earth, Chris’ most memorable moment would be the first ever time Jon finally had full flight which meant he joins Chris in the air, first the first time ever playing sky tag.

Meanwhile for Jake, besides that fateful duel with Zsasz and subsequent comfort he got in the hospital from Chris and his loved ones, his first ever patrol at the age of 8 years alongside Batman which invoked taking on both Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy at Bludhaven Stadium is one he’d always treasure and for good reasons.

2) I lean on Linkara of Atop of The Fourth Wall, The Blockbuster Buster and Angry Joe as their main go tos, otherwise the Duo would find both Nightwing and Superman channels which are highlights of their amazing feats captured from their smart phone cameras and more.

3) Chris; One other Fatality I can see him do would be a combination of sorts of Both Superman’s and Supergirl’s Injustice finishers. First, punching his opponent across the atmosphere in rapid succession, followed with a clear uppercut right into Earth’s Orbit finalized with a huge blast of heat vision that zaps into said opponent accelerating their fall to Earth and crashing in a massive asteroid sized explosion.

As for a Friendship, he’d use his shadowy aura to create flowers for giving while offering a free hand to pick up his beaten opponent of the ground

Jake; First he’d use a Starbolt charged Thunderclap blast his opponent back straight into the nearest wall, following it up with speed rushing to their face and laying down savage punch after right in the face, then grabbing them by the color, slamming them back first onto the ground and finally using a overcharged Starbolt on his escrima to slam it on the opponent head, the subsequent explosive discharge shaped like a massive lightning bolt.

For his Friendship, as you said, he’d use his sticks and starbolts to create sparkles while giving a respectful bow to his dazed and confused opponent.

4) Visually speaking, if not for his shadow based powers, they’d resemble energy blasts and balls akin to Dragon Ball’s Ki blasts and charge ups

5) As for the old flatulence stunt….I actually see both Conner and Chris not exactly going for it albeit for differing reasons; Conner as he thinks doing that is so 2000s, it’s no longer cool while Chris simply thinks it’s gross

6) Well, I’ll freely admit it has been quite some long time since I’ve seen enough clips of the show itself but I will give this.

Since Jon’s ten years old and likely attending Middle School, he’d instead take part in the baseball team as opposed to football. That said, I can see for see Clark being one of the coaches and during one game, Jon gets hit in the face with a ball when batting, the pain involuntarily causing his developing heat vision to burn up so Clark would use a hand to catch said heat cain on it so it doesn’t create a massive fire while calming down his hurt son. Jon feels real bad about it afterwards and locks himself in his room out of fear and anxiety about his loss of control. Not helping of his super hearing picking up on things all over the place and struggling to control it.

He’d mumble to his parents and brother something around the lines of “it’s too much….too big”. Then Clark would remember what his mother Martha told him once “Try making it little small” which help calm his senses down and allows the family to come in and comfort him

So yeah a bit of both the show and even Man of Steel 2015 (one of the actual gold scenes) thrown in if anything lol

#chris kent #jake grayson #starburst duo #son gohan #dragon ball #youtube #mortal kombat #connor kent #jonathan samuel kent #clark kent #superman & lois #dc cinematic universe #man of steel

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landofvinesandmonoliths · 1 year ago

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I just made a post focusing on the fourth chapter of my fanfic and some quotes from it, but I'm actually really proud of my work so I'm just gonna go through and put some of my favorite parts into this post.

Spoilers for my fanfic below!

From chapter one, Jiang Cheng: Waking Up

The man in the driver’s seat turns to face you and you gasp. You are not normally the type to be taken off-guard by a pretty face, but this face isn’t normal. There’s something unreal about the perfection of his soft features, his bright eyes, his dark and shining hair. Atop his head bloom perfect white peonies. And yet…

Your eyes chase the stems of the flowers down to where they wrap around his neck, too tight to be comfortable. Then back up to his forehead, where more peonies bloom out of a crack in his skull.

You are at your breaking point. “All right, who slipped me acid,” you growl.

(I'm both very pleased with the prose for the description and also love the way Jiang Cheng's dialogue shifts the tone)

Wei Wuxian’s expression darkens, fists clenching. He closes his eyes, breathes in, breathes out. Eyes open. “I suppose I should start at the beginning. You know the tenement on Qiongqi Way?” Enough people nod for him to continue. “One of my deliveries was taking me in that direction when I noticed a lot of cops just waiting around. I evesdropped and heard that there was going to be a mass eviction, but they were waiting for the apartment super to get back to them with some paperwork. So I ran and beat the super back to the office, got in through the window, and started burning every relevant piece of paper I could find.”

Lan Xichen slowly pinches the bridge of his nose. “You could have reached out.”

“Yeah, because the Winter Court loves it when I connect myself to a crime via text.”

Luo Qingyang snickers.

“Cool, great.” Wei Wuxian grins. “Buckle up because that’s the last time any of this will be funny.

(fuck cops! Also keep in mind that you gotta have good infosec)

“Lan Xichen, or, Zewu-jun,” you’re not sure what you’re supposed to call him. “I’m sorry for my behavior earlier. And for putting a hole in your wall.”

He loads a towel and a change of clothes into your arms. “Your behavior was understandable and not reflective, I’m sure, of who you are on your better days. But I am not the one you need to apologize to. After all, sometimes being court leader means knowing how to patch drywall.” He gives you a smile.

(this line is literally so important to me it makes me want to bite things. Yes this is my own writing. Yes i am insane about it)

It feels real, like nothing else today has. You’re in your body and you’re here. Your feet carry your weight and root you down to the square tiles beneath them. You curl your toes over the grout lines. Beneath the tile is the story below, then the one below that, until you reach the foundation. You can imagine your feet supported by the skeleton of the building, all the trusses and studs, beams and posts. Rooted, down to the earth. Everything eventually returns to solid ground. Everything makes it to the bottom.

(Isn't comforting, that there's always a bottom?)

Chapter 2, Lan Qiren: Haunted

You sit together at your coffee table. They seem too solid to be ghosts. But what do you know about ghosts—the real kind. You’re a high school principal, not a wackjob with dousing rods and a camcorder. Or whatever ghost hunters are using these days.

It is 8:29pm. You will not be getting eight hours of sleep tonight.

“Are you two aware that you’re dead?” you ask.

A-Huan’s eyes are too deep as he holds your gaze. “We’re not dead.”

Your voice shakes. “A-Huan, I’m sorry but I saw you die. You and A-Zhan both died eight years ago.”

He shakes his head. “No we didn’t. That wasn’t us.”

“Then what are you?” Fear creeps down the back of your neck.

“We’re the real ones.”

(frankly given that this is a no cultivation urban fantasy au, Lan Qiren's doing pretty well)

The clock on the wall says 9:10 and you step outside. How many years has it been since you left your house this late? You don’t remember. Long enough that the night air is unfamiliar. The darkness and rain just beyond your porch form a wall. Behind you is all you’ve grown familiar with. Your routines, your comforts, your griefs. Ahead of you is something wild and unknown. Your nephews came to you through that world. If they can face it, so can you.

The three of you set out. You don’t own a car (never needed one) so it’s going to be a long walk.

The surface of the street is all streaks of color. Gold and white from streetlights, ruby and emerald from the traffic signals, and all else is jet black and polished. You have never found the city beautiful before. Beauty is found in mountains, in deep forests, in the natural world, in art. The city is a grimy thing packed too tight, blood vessels ready to pop in a large scale aneurysm of congestion and human folly. You didn’t expect a rainy night to transform the harsh greys into a jewelry box. You expected it to be cold and uncomfortable and you were right, but the reality is far stranger and far more precious.

(my love letter to the city on a rainy night)

There’s so much of this city you don’t recognize. More than once you turn a corner expecting to see a familiar restaurant or store, only to find new construction. Each change brings with it a pang of regret. You haven’t thought of that bookstore in years, haven’t gone out for hotpot in this neighborhood since the last time you tried dating. It is foolish to suddenly miss these places that you’d let disappear from your memory.

Maybe ghosts are not just memories, but also absence made physical. You invited this haunting in and your life grew small around it. Home and work, work and home. Books and solitary music practice on the weekends. Instructional yoga videos to stave off the back pain. You don’t have any friends, just coworkers you get along with. How easy it is to mistake complacency for comfort and loneliness for self sufficiency!

(I'm really proud of those two paragraphs)

You usher everyone back under the dubious shelter of the dumpster and pull out your phone. The time on the screen flashes 1:32am. Funny that this is what makes you wonder if you’ve lost your mind. Magic? Other worlds? Your family back from the dead? All that’s fine, but god forbid you stay up late.

(He's so grumpy :))

Chapter 3, Wei Wuxian: (Re)United

You finish the shower and change into the clothes Zewu-jun set out for you. They’re definitely Lan Zhan’s. You know this for a number of reasons. 1: they’re blue and white. 2: they mostly fit you but are a bit long. 3: they smell like him. Sandalwood and ice.

Ha! You’re wearing Lan Zhan’s underwear. That’s funny and a very normal thing to spend several minutes thinking about.

(IT BEGINS)

“Lan Qiren?” he clarifies. “Oh! But you called him Principal Lan! Does that mean you’re in high school?” His eyes are wide with wonder.

“Yes? You’re not?”

“Well, I’m only 13, but I won’t be able to go to high school. Which is a bummer because there’s no drama in a three person study group. No good gossip, and certainly no shenanigans.” He looks mournfully at you.

You stare at him. “How did you guess that I’m great for shenanigans?”

“Oh!” he claps. “I didn’t, but I was hoping!” He looks like he’s about to say something, but pauses. “What’s your name?”

“Wei Wuxian.”

“Well, Wei Wuxian, we simply have to be friends."

(THEY ARE BABIES)

Lan Zhan strides past the kitchen door and you count all your blessings that he’s not going in there to confront them. He stops at the front door and looks around, calculating. With grace and precision he reaches out and pushes over the coat rack.

No one is going to believe you.

It hits the ground with a crash. The argument in the kitchen stops.

The two of them look out into the hallway. Jiang Fengmian looks guilty (doubly so when he sees you and Jiang Cheng) while Yu-furen looks furious.

Before either can speak, Lan Zhan clears his throat. “I will be leaving now. Thank you for your hospitality.”

(15ish year old lan zhan knows how to end an argument like a cat)

“That has some fascinating implications that we don’t have time to get into,” says Zewu-jun.

“Yeah!” you say like your motley mates haven’t already been treated to your rambling conjectures on the topic while you were running for your lives.

(in any au, wwx is still wwx)

Chapter 4, Lan Wangji: Observing a Change

“If it wasn’t for the fact that we’re both going to remember this, I’d sit on you.”

A sound, unbidden, starts to rise in your throat. You choke it off.

“Wow!” he laughs. “No need to sound that disgusted.”

“Wei Ying.” There is an uncontrolled tremor in your voice. “You are naked.”

He laughs again. “Lan Zhan, you’re so funny. What does it matter? We’re both boys. I’ve got nothing you haven’t seen before.”

But it wasn’t yours! You look at the ceiling.

(i am so meany to lan zhan >:))

Despite everything, you can feel yourself relaxing bit by bit as his warmth seeps through your shirt. Oh how this is everything you’ve wanted but nothing like how you wanted it!

Yet you will take it. You are greedy. If he offers, you will take. Hand in hand, heart in hand, head resting against shoulder. None of these gestures mean to him what they mean to you. Even though it feels close to lying (lying is forbidden) you will take it all.

You were never as poor a fit for Spring as everyone believed.

(spring is the court of desire. The longing, the aching of it! My heart!)

As its jaw unhinges and meaningless syllables echo through the halls, you wonder if you should feel anything other than calm focus. This is undoubtedly one of the most dangerous fights you’ve ever been in. You are young, untested. Is your confidence unwarranted?

No. It is not. You drive Bichen into the roof of the monster’s mouth. Your confidence is based in your skill and faith in your training. You pull free before the jaws snap shut. The end of your sleave shreds on the teeth.

(He's so cool!!!! Also yes I am cutting that sleeve on purpose)

In the dark windows of the train you can see your reflection. Unlike any mortal surface, this dream-reflection comes back true. You are monotone, and your cheeks catch the light, reflecting it back. You and the window toss light back and forth, creating a dizzying hole of endless repetition. Images copied from one surface and returned to the other until they are too small to be distinct. Yet even then the light continues on.

(I like this passage)

When the lights come back they come with a vengeance. Bright, multicolored, dazzling. Torches, neon, paper lanterns, streetlamps, candles, LED strings. Cacophony of technologies all bent on driving out the darkness.

As your eyes adjust, you find your surroundings match the lights. You stand in the middle of a narrow street paved with dark brick, and all around you the buildings tower. Thousands of years of architectural styles stacked on each other, eating one another. They lean and twist, blocking out the sky. Above you bridges crisscross the street, random as cobwebs.

Wei Ying is still beside you, taking in the sights. “Nightless City,” he observes eventually. “Yeah, I can see how living here would drive you mad.”

You agree, though you wonder if he’s noticed the details. Above you the buildings shine. Gilded wood, clean windows. But down here at the bottom everything feels abandoned. Paint peels, concrete crumbles. The windows are boarded up, the neon flickers. The empty gravity is hard to stand under. How often does the whale fall? When does the very bottom receive nourishment?

(my love letter to the city when it will eat you alive)

Wen Ruohan may appear aged, but now that you are inside the mist with him, you feel his power.

“The key to fighting,” Luo Qingyang told you once, impishly, “is don’t get into fights you won’t win.”

Wei Ying, along with several others, had laughed. But then she went on to show you exactly what she meant. How to read your opponents strengths and avoid them, how to find their weaknesses and exploit them.

The two of you circle one another. Wielding a soft weapon requires of him the same level of precision the situation demands of you. You are matched there. Committing to a strike would leave you open, but the same goes for him.

You have an advantage though. This is not Wen Ruohan: this is Wen Chao’s image of Wen Ruohan. And you are Lan Wangji. If Wen Chao knows anything about you, he knows that you are cold, emotionless, and that you never lie (lying is forbidden).

You feint left.

He falls for it.

(LAN ZHAN IS SO COOL HE MEANS SO MUCH TO ME)

#the untamed #mdzs #my fanfiction #untamed fanfiction #changeling the lost

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allseeinganalyst · 2 years ago

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Sailor Moon Crystal - Season 2 Review

I'll spare you the Grandpa Simpson rambling intro this time, as I think I got that mostly out of the way as of my previous review. As of 15/04/2023 I completed the second "season" of Sailor Moon Crystal.

I don't actually know if these things count as "seasons" in the typical sense. Crystal was released as an Original Net Animation on streaming services and the end of season 1 was pretty much a direct lead in to season 2. They can be watched back-to-back without it feeling like a "season break" has occurred. Still according to Wikipedia, there was a two week gap between the end of "season 1" and the start of "season 2" - And also, Wikipedia does count them as separate seasons, so that's how I'm referring to them. Sorry if that pisses off any really specific streaming fans out there.

So, I'm still finding the style I want to use when writing out these review/semi-kinda-not-really analysis things. I have read a number of blogs now, and I noticed most of them tend to go for the same kind of approach you see on YouTube channels like Atop the Fourth Wall: A recap of the episode/issue/chapter/whatever, mixed with thoughts, analysis, jokes and commentary as they go.

This style is great! I very much enjoy watching it. It's very thorough, and allows for a complete breakdown without bringing the whole review to a grinding halt. It's also an approach that I do not feel works for me here, not one bit.

I actually did try and do this with my Nanoha post, which is... still taking a while, partly because I tried to do it this way and dear god… I can not. There are many reasons, but the most notable is as follows:

The way I like to consume media is a "semi-binge" style. I like to really watch something, and then continue watching that thing. (Or reading or playing or whatever is appropriate). While I don't tend to consume whole series in a single day, mostly for time related reasons, it's rare for me to stop at a single episode of something, and while I'm watching something I don't like to stop-start. If I do that, I find I struggle to get invested in what I'm watching. I also can't properly write out every thought and nitpick and breakdown of something while I'm watching it, lest I miss the next thing, or miss a detail or scene... Bottom line is, trying to watch and write at the same time for me allows me to do no justice to either. So bare with me while I find an approach that does work.

Anyway, I'm eager to actually talk about this, because I have some things to say, so lets shout "MOON CRYSTAL POWER, MAKE UP", get into our colour coordinated Sailor Suits again, and have a chat about Sailor Moon Crystal - Season 2! Spoiler ahead!

I feel like I spent a lot of the first review talking about what Crystal wasn't. Comparing it to the original 1992 anime, and discussing what it did differently, for better or for worse.

And like it or not, I absolutely. 100% maintain my stance comparisons to previous Sailor Moon media are necessary to get the best experience from Crystal. Normally any form of media, no matter whether it's an adaptation of something, a remake, or something wholly original should be able to be taken on its own merits, not being weighed down by the standards, high or low of the past - But there are exceptions to every rule, and Crystal is one such exception. Prior knowledge of Sailor Moon is, in my opinion, required reading for a full enjoyment of Crystal. In my case, that’s the original 1992 anime.

But given that a lot of those comparisons are out of the way, I feel that I should be able to focus more on Crystal as an anime for this “review”.

And with that being said…

Let’s get this out of the way…

I HATE this season.

That’s not purely a Crystal thing, I felt the same way about this stuff back when I watched Sailor Moon R, the corresponding second season of the original 92 anime, but for all the changes, good and bad, that Crystal has made, it has failed to change my feelings of disappointment and rage at this god damn stupid season. And a lot of that hatred stems from almost every scene involving THIS pink haired pustule…

Pictured here, ready to fire off a perfectly aimed shot at the show's kneecaps.

I despise Chibiusa in this arc. I have never liked her — I’m not particularly fond of the “token mini moe” type of character in general — and I find just about everything she says and does profoundly annoying. I realize it’s part of her character, I realize she’s supposed to be like that, for a number of reasons, but to me it’s the total lack of endearing traits to counter it out that grates me. She takes over almost every scene she appears in, and she constantly acts weird and creepy. Like a disease, she infects other characters, making them behave annoyingly around her, and while I understand that at least one character has a reason for that, it’s still SUPER annoying to see characters unhesitatingly praise and coddle this IDIOT CHILD. This is without mentioning the effect she has on Usagi, which is quite frankly disturbing. I’ll get to all of this shortly, but my thoughts are going to be clouded by my dislike for this character, who is essentially the main focus, and indeed arguably the main character, of this arc.

Unfortunately, she sticks around from here on in. I have plenty to say about say about her role in the series going forth, but I’ll try and keep my thoughts relevant to the season we’re discussing, especially since I’m not sure how Crystal will handle its new adaptations of those stories.

So! The plot!

I don’t really want to summarise the plot in any detail (I feel it bloats my posts, and they’re already pretty bloated) but I feel that perhaps a general gist is fine. It’ll also let me lead into some other stuff.

Season 2 of Crystal picks up straight away from the end of Season 1. Chibiusa — she first identifies herself as “Usagi” and gets the nickname later — falls from the sky to threaten our heroes with a gun and brainwash their friends and family!

She’s actually Usagi and Mamoru’s daughter from The Future™ who’s traveled back in time, fleeing a powerful and mysterious enemy, desperate to get help from the legendary Sailor Moon, basically the superhero of her bedtime stories. Unfortunately, said powerful and mysterious enemy has followed her back in time and now, it’s up to our heroes to stop them!

Just to side track a bit: This should be a fantastic plot. I LOVE time travel stories. I have since I was a kid. I have memories of watching Back to the Future before I could even remember school. I have consumed so much Doctor Who, both classic and revival, that I could talk about it all day and still have more to say! I love The Terminator movies, all two of them! (Okay look, the others have their place, but c’mon, 1 & 2 are in a different league). I would DEARLY LOVE to go back and listen to Ars Paradoxica again because I LOVED it, and I wish it had more recognition than it does, (seriously go listen to Ars Paradoxica. It’s better than reading this.)

So time travel? That’s a check! And to add onto this, how does this sound:

The child of two main characters, witnessing terrifying and borderline unstoppable antagonists destroy their world, travels back in time to enlist the help of younger versions of their parents and allies.

They even have similar HAIR!!

The whole Androids/Cell/Future Trunks arc(s) were my favourite in Dragon Ball Z — so when I saw a similar set up in Sailor Moon R, you better believe I was excited!!

Yeah that didn’t… pan out so well.

(Urgh. Can’t believe I’m comparing that pink snot-face to my boy Trunks. ANYWAY…)

Getting back to the point of this post though, how does Crystal handle this arc?

Not so good.

Unfortunately, even leaving Chibiusa aside for the moment (where she BELONGS) the series does not do well in this arc.

I'm struggling to thing of a way to properly launch into what I want to discuss here. I think it's important to clarify that, despite it's flaws, I really did enjoy the first season. Using the pre-knowledge I have of Sailor Moon, I felt like Crystal addressed a lot of what I wanted to see when I watched the '92 anime. There's a trade off, of course - less episodes, less focus on secondary characters etc, but what we got was a good, fast paced story that hit the major beats of Sailor Moon: Introducing the Senshi, facing off against the Four Heavenly Kings, Usagi and Mamoru's past, fighting Queen Beryl and Metalia... It's good stuff!

Season 2... Does not do that. Despite flying at the same pace as Season 1, it somehow feels both too slow and too fast. A lot of this has to do with it's characters - Specifically the villains. I wanted to save this until I got more into the character piece, but every time I tried to begin explaining my issues with Season 2's pacing, I kept coming around to them, so I just have to discuss them here....

The villains of Season 2 are the Black Moon Clan, ostensibly led by the white haired Prince Demande, but really being manipulated by the enigmatic Wiseman.

Just quickly as an aside - I've always liked Wiseman's design, but it cracks me up how he basically looks exactly like No Heart from Care Bears:

The “Red eyes, piercing through a Featureless Void, enshrouded in an all concealing hooded cloak” look, paired with the “gnarled inhuman talon hands” was in vogue at the time.

In general, Sailor Moon villains have a pattern. If you’re familiar with any Super Sentai or Power Rangers shows, you’ll recognise it:

There is a Villain. Sometimes a group, but there’s always a “leader”

That “leader” will then have a set of “generals”, each with a distinct quirk or personality.

These “Generals” will then have their own “foot-soldiers”, which function as the “Monster of the Week”

You can squeeze a few sub-groups between those categories (And Sailor Moon always seems to have an additional “Higher Villain” above the “leader”) — but this is the patterns for most sentai-type shows. And Sailor Moon is basically a Sentai show, or at least heavily inspired by them. Coloured outfits, themed names, transformation sequences, roll calls… you get the idea.

The original series REALLY played this format for all its worth. It’s how it squeezed 200+ episodes out of the manga. It just kept adding more “Monsters-of-the-Week”

Crystal does not have 30+ filler episodes per season with which it can fuck around with random monsters and one-shot characters, so it has to shrink that roster. So for season 2, our “Foot-Soldiers” are what would normally be a seperate subgroup. The “Specter Sisters”

You might notice that there’s four sisters! That’s one for each senshi, minus Sailor Moon. Could this be deliberate?

Yeah of course it is.

I’m trying really hard to keep my thoughts on some kind of track here, so the review doesn’t become as much of a word salad as the first one did, so I really don’t want to talk about them as characters yet and explain why they make the plot feel slow.

The Black Moon Clan also come from The Future™, you see. They’re the terrible enemy that Chibiusa is fleeing from. They’ve already won, having destroyed much of the utopian Earth. They've also incapacitated Neo Queen Serenity, the future self of our very own Usagi, along with her Sailor Guardians and King Endymion — you guessed it, the future version of Mamoru. We’ll get into why the Black Moon Clan do this later, but the point is, the only thing keeping their victory from being absolute is Chibiusa, who, with the knowledge from a very special friend, escaped into the past, bringing with her the Legendary Silver Crystal from her own time.

However, even if Chibiusa escaped, thanks to the machinations of Wiseman, the Black Moon Clan are able to follow her. After they realize that their target has managed to enlist help, Prince Demand and his generals launch their plan

Their general gist starts out with each of the Specter Sisters concoct an Evil Plan, which targets one of the senshi specifically, playing on their interests on personality, while also angling to capture Chibiusa. Mars, Mercury and Jupiter are all captured, but their respective sister is destroyed in the process. (Venus successfully evades being captured by her respective Specter Sister)

This part isn't the worst... The sisters are bland and they don't leave any real impact, but that's to be expected... but the fights are somewhat engaging and even provide some focus to those who missed out last season (Mercury especially benefits). The issue is when the “foot-soliders” (not really the right word for them but best I’ve got) are defeated, we’re left with the “Generals” and…

Yeah they’re just so boring.

There’s an attempt to make them interesting. We get information about them like…

… Esme is a woman and might love Prince Demande

… Rubeus is… uh… well he exists...

And Saphir, brother of Prince Demande thinks maybe his brother has gone too far and betrayed their ideals because he's been corrupted by Wiseman and also he's a massive simp.

Yeah no, I'm not kidding, that's Prince Demande's thing. He's a huge fucking simp for Neo Queen Serenity, obsessed with making her submit to him et cetra....

That dramatic wind blew the fedora right off his head.

He even forcibly kisses Usagi at one point. Demande is just the Sailor Moon version of those incels that try and shoot up places because they think they deserve to get laid by their lust object.

Without going on too much about it, these four villains are boring as all hell, and yet we spend a lot of time with them. Their motivations suck - Basically they're anarchists who reject the long life and utopia of The Future™ because they believe it makes humans greedy or stagnate or something. I know I made that "Demande is an Incel", but in all honesty these guys come off as a group of 4Chan weirdos, rallying against "society" and thinking they're cool by quoting the Joker from The Dark Knight. They're dumb, and they're not compelling in the slightest, and every time they were on screen, I found myself zoning out. Crystal speeds the plot forward with all the grace of a car manufacturer's crash test, but this season it feels like it drags because we spend so much of that time with these fucks.

They're not like other Sailor Moon characters. They're edgy and different!

Wiseman is better, but only marginally. His backstory as the original terrorist that Neo Queen Serenity defeated and banished to Nemesis is kind of cool here, and it actually gives him a less stupid explanation for his villainy. Sure, revenge is basic, but basic works. Sure, his motivations back when he was Death Phantom are basically the same anarchist bullshit, but by now, that's faded away and he's consumed by revenge. I found his scenes entertaining, and I liked him as the shadowy force, moving everything toward his own ends. His scenes where he whispers to Chibiusa are genuinely creepy, and I like his focus on manipulation and trickery.

He's happy because he finished Darth Sidious's self-help book "100 Ways to Manipulate Horny Men who Think they're Special (plus Hooded Cloak Style Tips)"

Even the final battle with him involves him tricking everyone into thinking that he's first about to destroy everything, and then that he himself has been destroyed. He's probably more engaging of a villain that Queen Metalia, if only because he actually has somewhat of a character beyond "I am a dark energy being, gimmie the Legendary Silver Crystal".

(Side note, we're gonna get to Sailor Moon's tendency to have it's villains become planet sized energy monsters in the next review, but it's a thing that happens really, really often in this series, and I don't know why...)

Anyway, I'm making an effort to keep this short, so I'm going to summarize.

The Villains in Sailor Moon Crystal Season 2 are boring, and we spend way too much time with them.

It's not all bad though. There are parts of this plot I genuienly like. I think the scenes with King Endymion are cool, and once we finally get to the last battle, I think the story flows nicely. The stretch of the last 3-4 episodes is solid, as things move toward their conclusion, the final confrontation against Wiseman by Usagi is genuinely epic, and overall, I think it managed to "stick the landing" well enough.

So, now I should probably talk about the characters on our heroes side. And since you all already know it's coming, I might as well get Chibiusa out of the way.

Look, I know “man rants and makes jokes” is a popular review format. I’m doing it now. But I also don’t want this entire review to be “Analyst writes 100 pages on why he hates child character”.

I’ve already said I don’t like her. I don’t want to go on about it for 127 years, but I do want to talk about why I hate this character so much, because she is a big reason of I think this arc is so poor.

Chibiusa — or rather, “Small Lady” as she’s actually known (Jesus Usagi, you and Mamoru SUCK at names in the future! What, were you aiming for “exotic”?)

Ahem.

Chibiusa is basically Usagi, with all her annoying traits turned up. This is probably intentional, she is after all an actual child, but just because it makes sense doesn’t make it any fun to watch. We’re already watching a lot of the bratty, kind-of selfish traits in Usagi anyway (although they are pretty subdued in a lot of Crystal due to its rapid pace), but Usagi has a lot of positives to balance it out, and her negative traits are usually still entertaining to watch. As Usagi herself reminds us, she’s a klutz and a crybaby, but these make her feel more genuine, and as a result, I’ve always thought she was pretty endearing.

That “endearing” trait just gets missed completely with Chibiusa. She starts out by pointing a gun at Usagi to try and rob her (it turns out it’s a fake gun, but still…), follows that up by brainwashing Usagi’s parents into loving her and letting her live in their home, then forcefully inserting herself into Usagi’s life, invading her personal space, insulting her, and behaving in a way to her boyfriend that makes Usagi uncomfortable…

And she just… gets away with this?! There’s a bit of suspicion about her early on, but it doesn’t last and everyone, everyone except Usagi instantly believes they need to protect this child.

And look, I get it, she is a helpless child. She’s been through trauma and that can affect the way you behave. There is ONE moment where I feel genuinely bad for her, even. But that doesn’t make it okay for her to go out of her way to make Usagi’s life miserable. I can understand a character being a brat, but she suffers no real consequences for her behavior. Not even comedically! You’d think that once their relationship was revealed and smoothed out a bit, there’d be ripe potential for Usagi making a “You’re grounded” crack or something, but… nope.

Like I said, I get that Chibiusa is traumatized and whatever, but I can not stress enough that she just acts like a huge pain in the ass, with Usagi being the only one who kinda sorta calls her on her bullshit. If it were just all this, she’d just be another “annoying kid” type character. I wouldn’t like her, but I wouldn’t despise her the way I do. No, the absolute worst parts of her character comes in the way she interacts with Mamoru.

Did you know the counterpart to an Oidipus Complex is an "Electra Complex"? I do now, because of this fuck.

YEEEEEEEEEAHHHHH… There’s no real easy way to get around this. Chibiusa has a crush on the younger version of her father, and she frequently acts on that crush.

This is creepy in so many ways that trancend the usual "SIGH, anime..." mentality you sometimes need to adopt when watching anime. First off, while there has always been a weird thing in Sailor Moon where The Future™ versions of the characters are considered somewhat separate characters to the "main" versions, it's not like Mamoru actually looks any different to King Endymion. Chibiusa should clearly be able to see that this man his her father. She does know it's her father! She just persists with the crush for some reason!

And while the lip-lock pictured above, cringe-inducing as it may be, is ultimately accidental, it doesn't stop Chibiusa from generally acting as if she is trying to steal Mamoru from Usagi, clinging to him, shoving her out of the way, generally being inappropriate.

And frustratingly, while Mamoru does brush off her affections as "she's just a kid" to a degree (This is like a weird, reverse version of Back to the Future where Loraine is coming on to Marty...), he also doesn't shut down the crush. He doesn't make any "don't be inappropriate" comments to her. Instead, he feels an innate instinct to protect her - I get it, he's her father - and just allows her behavior to continue, despite the fact that his prioritization to Chibiusa is clearly bothering Usagi.

This is arguably the worst part of this whole fucked up thing. Usagi is actively jealous of Chibiusa, getting frustrated and upset when she takes her boyfriends affection away, and the way she shows it and words she uses clearly show she does consider Mamoru giving Chibiusa (who looks about FIVE-TO-EIGHT YEARS OLD) attention similar to how she'd consider him giving attention to another girl. Usagi is JEALOUS, and it pisses me off. Usagi may not be the brightest bulb, but I'm pretty sure she should know that a fucking child isn't a threat to her relationship.

This drives a lot of needless and creepy angst and no-one comes off as likeable in this fucked up triangle. Chibiusa is being weird-as-all-fuck, Mamoru is letting it happen and not talking to his girlfriend about her feelings, and Usagi is getting jealous of a toddler.

This all gets so, so much worse when Wiseman is able to exploit Chibiusa's weaknesses and trauma to brainwash her, transforming her into the aged up "Black Lady" - A form closer to what Chibiusa theoretically "should" be. (She's said to be a couple hundred years old, but her physical and mental growth have stagnated for some reason).

Black Lady is able to do a bit of her own brainwashing, in order to realize the now corrupted and twisted desires from her true self. And so, she snatches away Tuxedo Mask and...

THIS ONE IS NOT AN ACCIDENT. NOT AN ACCIDENT.

YeeeeeeeeaHHHHH...

Look, I can give anime a fair bit of leeway in the "this is actually fairly creepy" department. But everyone has a line and Chibiusa was already stepping over it with her crush on Mamoru. The whole thing with her keeping her father as her brainwashed lover is just.... ick.

I could talk about how these things affect the plot but... I just don't want to? There was no need for the incest-y subplot. Chibiusa's whole thing would've worked the same without the weird way she gets Usagi and Mamoru acting around her, and the Black Lady development should have more relied on the concept of "Evil Princess Usagi" and the shock that came from the fact that the ideals passed down from Neo Queen Serenity could become so twisted.

I'm done. I'm done with Chibiusa. I really don't want to think about this part anymore. I'm moving onto the other characters so I can be done with this whole thing.

Mamoru has more to do in this season than last. He gains access to his "Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber" attack, which is actually pretty cool, and gets to participate in a few fights. Chibiusa's weird interactions with him aside, we also get to see him be a bit more of a loving boyfriend to Usagi in parts, and explore how he really does feel weak compared to her.

I like seeing his interactions with his future self, King Endymion, and I really like how he fights Death Phantom side by side with Usagi at the end. That was just straight up cool, and one of the few highlights from this season.

(Also, just as a quick aside, from here on in, Tuxedo Mask appears with his snazzy top hat less and less. I like the top hat, man, bring it back!)

The senshi are a mixed bag. They do continue to feel like a group of genuine best friends though.

(I particularly love this moment, where Rei has her arm around Usagi while all the senshi tease her about it being time for them to protect their Princess again. It's so fucking sweet to see them treat Usagi like that.)

Some of the characters who got left a bit by the wayside in Season 1 get a little more focus.

Mercury and Jupiter each get a focus episode that fleshes them out a bit more, something they kind of lacked in Season 1. It's nothing too new on either count... Mercury gets to play chess (she's smart you see...) and Jupiter has a boy who has a little crush on her, and she likes him back. She even tells him about her secret identity. Also she gets sick and fights while she has a cold...

It's nothing we haven't seen before for this characters but it's nice to spend some more time with them

Arguably, Venus gets the most "development" here. She's the only Senshi to escape capture by her respective Specter Sister, and thus, gets to team up with Usagi and Mamoru as they travel to The Future™ and speak with King Endymion... She kind of works as mission control in some capacity and while in Crystal Tokyo, she's doing research on The Future™ and their enemy.

Mind you, the time travel nerd in me wants to start yelling about how you can't know too much about your own future, but Venus appears to stay away from Sports Almanacs and future diaries, so it's probably alright.

I liked Venus in this arc. She gets to be both a bit of a goofball and show off how competent she is. This season introduces some of the comedy that the original anime had, but the first season lacked, and it's nice. Venus provides some of the best.

Oh yeah, this season also introduces Diana, future daughter of Luna and Artemis...

I haven't talked about the cats much - I love Luna and Artemis and all like any Sailor Moon fan does - but a running joke I had with my partner while we were watching this is that the cats suck at their jobs. A lot of problems could be avoided if Luna and/or Artemis was more forthcoming with information, or stopped to think a situation though.

Diana's a bit of a nothing character... She doesn't get a lot to do, although she does have one important moment we'll get to in a moment. She is, however, a small grey kitten, which makes her adorable, so she gets a pass. Her English voice is also kind of weird, with an accent I can't place. The way she says "Small Lady" drives me insane.

The last character I want to talk about is... Well probably my favourite character introduced in this arc. Getting a new Sailor senshi is always a pleasure, and it's time to meet the poor gal who, at the time this series was ending, couldn't even call herself a planet anymore. Please give a drumroll and a warm welcome toooooo...

SAILOR PLUTO!

The guardian of space and time is introduced this season, and she's just great. She steals almost every scene she's in, just on her visual's alone. I've always liked Pluto - the quiet elegance and more refined facial features, plus the whole space-time powers thing make her very appealing to me. To the best of my understanding, Pluto is the only one of the senshi who hasn't been "reborn", having been guarding the "door of space and time" for... well, basically forever. Since Queen Serenity's day, so at least since Silver Millennium which makes it a few thousand years at a bare minimum. God, what was she doing for fun all that time? It's a miracle she's not insane.

Imagine this. Every day. For thousands of years. And you don't get a bathroom break.

Anyway, Pluto is the very special friend I alluded to earlier. Her friendship with "Small Lady"/Chibiusa (probably some of the only human interaction the poor woman's gotten in the last couple of millennia, not counting the King or Queen...) is what leads to the little piss-child being able to travel back in time, when she steals one of Pluto's keys and uses it to escape after the Black Moon clan's attack. Not sure if Pluto was even aware the attack was taking place...

There's something inherently cool about Pluto. She's more mature in every sense compared to, well, almost every other character. She takes her duty so seriously that the instant the protagonist's come through to the future, they're immediately attacked by her. Which, by the way, is hilarious when you think about later events, which I'll get to in a bit, but after they sort out the misunderstanding she immediately goes back to being kind and caring.

Pluto is, in many ways, a parallel to Chibiusa - Both of them are connected to important people (the Sailor senshi and the Royal Family, respectively) but feel distant from them for their own reasons. They're both "timeless" - as I mentioned, Pluto has been her 18-ish year old self for eons and Chibiusa is stuck as a child, no matter how many hundreds of years pass. Also, the appearance of Chibiusa gives Pluto someone to act motherly toward, showing the same kindness that Queen Serenity showed to her. This motherly side of Pluto is going to be important in a season or so...

Anyway, Pluto is, bound by the nature of her duties to guard that damned door, out of action for most of the series, only intervening at the end (Diana offers to watch the door for her... Making me wonder that if a tiny kitten is sufficient to watch over the door, why the fuck did they give the job to a human in the first place!?), where she gets to prevent a paradox, stopping time to prevent Prince Demande destroying everything by bringing the past and future versions of the Legendary Silver Crystal together. (I really don't want to get into why that’s apparently dangerous, yet later on, Usagi will have physical contact with Neo Queen Serentiy which is the SAME CONCEPT but time travel in Sailor Moon breaks my brain...)

In the process.... Pluto fucking dies... But this is Sailor Moon so don't stress too much about that...

Pluto gets a lot to do in the short time we know her. I've mentioned Cystal having pacing issues about a million times, and it's really hard for characters to be distinguished from each other once their introductions are over. There's no filler episodes to show their personalities off, and there's no time for slice-of-life or normal life scenes between all the action, so a lot of the characters who are not A: Usagi, B: Dating Usagi or C: Came from Usagi get short-changed. Pluto manages to mostly avoid these problems, partly because of the nature of her duties. She exists in a timeless void with a door, which she refuses to leave. Scenes with her are very dialogue and flashback heavy, which lets us learn a lot about her. Granted a decent chunk of it is "telling", not exactly "showing", but we still learn things about her. Like her aforementioned motherly nature, or the fact that she might have a crush on King Endymion.

Office romances are a bad idea Pluto, especially when he's married and his wife's the goddess-queen of mankind.

The scenes with Pluto are a real highlight to what's otherwise a kind of crappy season. I really like her, as you might have been able to tell by the time I spent talking about her.

Moving on, because I want to wrap this up...

I can't get to the end of this without talking about the actual main character

This season's not without it's strong points and although they are few and far between, I should mention that it does continue the improvements for Usagi that Season 1 established (her bizarre fear that a toddler might steal her man not withstanding) - That Usagi is not useless. Once again, she's crippled into inaction by villains taking her off guard and attacking her emotions. Separating her from those she loves, making her question her ability to protect them, etc... But once she overcomes that, she starts kicking ass. There's an awesome moment where, alone in the enemy fortress, Usagi gives herself a pep talk into not giving up, and overcomes the evil powers and fear preventing her from transforming.

She then proceeds to become Sailor Moon, telepathically find the captured Mercury, Mars and Jupiter, give them a pep talk about not giving into fear or despair, power them up to be able to transform, and then call them to her.

Effectively, it's a princess summoning her knights to her side, and it's awesome. It perfectly encapsulates Usagi's real strength: her ability to care for and connect to others. It's moments like that where we see a glimpse of what I can assume is fully developed in Neo Queen Serenity, and we understand how this ditz comes to rule the world in its golden Utopia.

That's not the only time in the season where Usagi kicks ass either. She really just has amazing moments with most of the characters. We really get to see her love for all of her friends (some of the funniest and sweetest moments are her interactions with them) and her relationship with Mamoru gets to progress. Again, weird things with Chibiusa aside, they really do feel like a couple. It's nice stuff.

For all the high points this series has though, for me, it was still a let down.

The great scenes I've just talked about are wedged between a lot of crappy scenes of nothing happening, especially when the villains are involved, and Chibiusa is really not a part of this season you can ignore at all, which means everything is - for me at least - tainted by her presence. I admit, I was relieved when I got to the final episode.

There are good moments in this arc, but overall, it's definitely weaker than season 1. I'd call it better than the original Sailor Moon R anime series for the sole value that this one is shorter, but in reality, that just means the bad parts are more concentrated.... Urgh.

So, one final thing.

Like I mentioned before, time travel in this show is WEIRD.

See, as I mentioned right back at the beginning, I'm something of Time Travel Media Connoisseur. So I always enjoy trying to figure out how time travel works whenever it shows up.

Doctor Who plays with all forms, but Back to the Future is a straight "what happened, happened until you changed it, and if you change it you create an alternate timeline, which can effect your personal history". Ars Paradoxica follows a similar, but more developed and complex path where you can change the past but not your past, although it does permanently change the timeline.

Dragon Ball Z uses the version where you can travel back in time to your past, but changes simply create an alternate timeline, and you can only return to your personal timeline, so you can only travel back to the future you came from, you can't change the history of your timeline...

(And yeah, that's the same time travel as Avengers Endgame, by the way... Yeah, the movie that thinks it's being so clever and "realistic" about time travel that it calls Back to the Future "bullshit" uses the same form of time travel as DRAGON BALL Z.)

There are plenty of other examples. The point is, I can not, for the life of me, work out how in the actual fuck the time travel works in Sailor Moon. At first it seems like Chibiusa's travel back to the past created an alternate timeline, so when Mamoru and Venus and all visit The Future™ and meet King Endymion, it's the "first time" all of this happened for all characters involved, but also, King Endymion is the one who guides Mamoru to learning things like his "Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber" attack, which makes me wonder where he learned it from in the first place to be able to teach his younger self...

And in the next season, there's a comment from Chibiusa that actually suggests everything here is a Stable Time Loop, where Neo Queen Serenity and the others actually remember the events of their past exactly how they happened, including Chibiusa being present, which complicates things because if everything that's going to happen has already happened from their perspective, then why are they shocked or surprised when certain things happen?

Then again, Diana does mention that the reason Neo Queen Serenity doesn't emerge from her hibernation in the Silver Crystal until the situation is most dire, and maybe that's because she knew that her younger self would get involved and took the chance to take a long nap, which actually does seem like something Usagi would do now that I think of it.

And finally, at the very end, as the characters leave, the senshi see Neo Queen Serenity, King Endymion and the future Sailor Guardians, and comment that "one day, that will be us" - but they could mean that less than literally.

The time travel thing is only going to get weirder as we move forward, I promise you... It's really hard to tell if there are alternate timelines or not...

At any rate, if I keep talking about this, I'm going to spill over into talking about Season 3 and Sailor Moon Eternal, so I'll save my thoughts for them later on.

Sailor Moon Crystal Season 2 is a step down from Season 1 in almost every respect, but it does have a few highlights that make it somewhat more tolerable in places. I imagine that a lot of younger fans, especially those who participate in modern fandom, are going to take issues with this season. And honestly, fair enough... Whilst I do think that media shouldn’t be labeled “The Bad Evil” just for including controversial topics, as I mentioned, this season includes subjects that cross the line even for me… But lets not give up hope just yet!!

As of writing I've now completed both Season 3 and the Sailor Moon Eternal movies (on Netflix) and I’m keen to discuss my feelings about them, so we’ll get into that on my next post.

For now, farewell!

*The Analyst has now sealed himself in the Legendary Bronze Crystal until such time he is needed again*

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