The Seiya-Mamoru Wars
alright everyone I’ve had enough.
So you ship Seiusa or Usamamo? And you hate the other ship? Because come on, how could people actually like that ship? He was a sleazy bastard, and they’re stupid for not seeing it, and ALSO —
Yeah, stop right there. This post is for you. Sorry, this essay is for you.
This is going to be the essay thats fuelled and conquered by love and I’m going to argue that you should stop this ridiculous fight between the two ships,
and here’s why!!!!
Part 1: Keep your interpretation
Part 2: I’m projecting — you’re projecting — we’re all projecting
Part 3: Mamoru is not a wet sock (reflecting on Mamoru’s role in the show, at a glance)
Part 4: Seiya is not a slimy snake (exploring the reasons for Seiya’s behaviour. Yes, in MY interpretation. I don’t know yours)
Part 5: Usagi deserves to be loved (and to LOVE, its not a goddamn SIN to have feelings for someone if you’re in a relationship, and I’ll die on this hill if I have to.)
Part 92832: how long is this essay Jesus Christ.
Part 420: my gay disclaimer
(Psst this is also on ao3)
Hahaha okay, now we can finally begin.
Part 1: Interpretation
Every fanwork represents a different character. Every time someone writes about Seiya Kou, we meet a new Seiya Kou. The same for every character ever.
If you’ve ever read a fanfic in this fandom about either of these two ships, or hell, any fanfic ever about any ship, you will know just how individual the relationship is to the author that wrote about it. The Seiya and Mamoru that you have in your brain are completely different from the Seiya and Mamoru that someone else has in their brain.
“Oh but in the anime Seiya/Mamoru is horrible because—“ Wake up. People have different experiences than you of the same world as you. The same anime we all watched, the same characters we all know and love. In each of us lives a different character, despite them all sharing the same name, Seiya Kou, or Mamoru Chiba, or Usagi Tsukino.
Key in this is that your experience is valid, and it’s real, and you have just as much cause to hate whatever character you want as the next guy. The Seiya or Mamoru you have in your head is as real as they have ever been.
But.
I’m sick of people taking such bold stances about these characters categorically as if you’ve experienced a truth beyond anyone else’s. I am not saying you’re not allowed to hate them, because you can do what you want. But what I am against is the way people express this categorical declaration that Seiya/Mamoru are, well, scum.
So…how am I going to make this defence of them, you might ask? Well, I’m going to take my stance because I don’t like seeing antagonism of any kind, and particularly when it feels so…pointless to me, when it comes to these characters.
TL;DR (Part 1): just because you hate Seiya/Mamoru because of an idea you have in your head, doesn’t mean that other people suck for loving that character because, they don’t have the same character in mind as you!!!
Part 2: I’m projecting — you’re projecting — we’re all projecting
My BIGGEST problem with this (—I think I say that a lot) is that people feel like if they like one character that means they have to hate the other. Where in the world did you get this idea? Is this also you subscribing to the idea that you should hate your ex? And that every ex is evil? And that if you like more than one person, you have to choose one, and somehow vilify the other? Because assflash newshole, you don’t have to hate people just because you used to be together and now you’re not (yes you can hate people who wronged you etc etc, but, based on the fact alone that you broke up? yeah sorry that’s not cool).
The people I loved who are not in my life anymore are still very precious to me and I wish the best for them always, and would be friends with them again if our lives crossed paths again. Yes my heart broke leaving them. Yes it hurt. Yes I love them. And YES I feel Usagi would be the same. Yes I’m projecting. Yes, you are all also projecting your experiences of people onto how you read characters.
So many tropes where there is more than one romantic interest, people feel the need to find a glaring negative thing about one of them, to make the choice easier. And, to put it simply, I think that’s stupid. I think that both Seiya and Mamoru can be appreciated for their many wonderful traits, and the many wonderful futures that Usagi might have with one or the other (or both;) ). So you might ask, how could we choose which one is better, Seiya or Mamoru? You know which one you prefer, just go with that. It is completely unnecessary to derisively ridicule the other.
And if you’re wondering how Usagi could choose, if there is no clear choice between Seiya and Mamoru, and one isn’t made out to be explicitly worse than the other? Well, choosing one can carry with it grieving the loss of the other, and that is beautiful and tragic and she can still be happy with her choice even if she grieves a future she can’t have. (But also, she can have it, if you just write a different timeline fic where she chose the other! Haha)
Life and love is more complicated and nuanced than finding one obvious soulmate. Love is something that you can create on your own, endlessly transforming it as your partnership and life changes like a kaleidoscope of tenderness, honesty, and love. And I repeat again, a relationship is choosing to love who you love, to love your partner over and over again, freely and honestly.
Okay okay, I promised we’d talk about Mamoru and Seiya. Let’s get INTO IT!
Part 3: The Mamoru Problem
Some genre of Seiya fans defend their stance using the argument that Mamoru suffered from a bad case of being a soggy wet sock. And that usually means things like “he wasn’t supportive”, “they had no chemistry”, “he was rude”, “he was neglectful”, etc. My argument for him stands on the base belief that Mamoru barely got ANY time during the entire show. Yes the first season was about him, but even that had less emphasis on their evolving dynamic and relationship than what the 5th season allowed for Seiya and Usagi.
Mamoru and Usagi were forced to (rather traumatically) go from being antagonistic towards each other because they pushed each other’s buttons, to finding out they’d died for one another a thousand years ago, and that Mamoru’s alter ego (that he just gained awareness of) has been protecting Usagi’s alter ego. Okay, thats complicated.
And then he gets brainwashed. Okay, that complicates it more.
And then…sadly, we don’t get to see much of their relationship after. Yeah, we see that they date again (and break up, and date again), but I never felt I got to see Mamoru for who he is, y’know? Please reply to this if you have more to say in support of Mamoru :)
But, I really feel like there is no room for the development of their relationship, because the story is big enough with its large epic history and history repeating itself. It’s the story about them, not with them, if you follow me. The reason they get together in the first season is only because they loved each other one thousand years ago. Just as Mamoru himself said in season two, that's kind of insufficient reason to be together.
We also see how Usgai is quite different from the Princess Serenity she used to be, and I would argue the same for Mamoru. We never saw Prince Endymion being so snarky and sharp like Mamoru was in the first season, which are very fun aspects of his character. These things point towards the fact that Usagi and Mamoru on Earth in the 20th century are different people, and it is a little irrational for them to get together based on the fact alone that their previous lifetimes had a love beautiful love between them. The love was between two very different people.
I understand people believe they are soulmates, (and if its not clear yet then it will become soon that I don't particularly subscribe to that idea. Relationships are an art that we get to partake in, and that is the greatest gift we have as humans) and Usagi and Mamoru being soulmates would be justification enough for them getting together in present day. Oh, how beautiful, their souls are tied together so tightly that throughout all of time they will always be brought together by one common thread...
There is so much beauty in that, that I think people rightfully recognize and cherish. I wish I could give an even more in depth account of the wonder of this trope, but I’m trying my hardest to write for both sides while personally being invested in one side than the other. If this is unconvincing enough, I will write more on this if need be.
Alternate to the long-lost soulmates story, someone might prefer the beauty of seeing two people meet and connect, and their relationship change into something incredible based on the people they are for each other now. Seeing the beauty of people choosing to love each other. There is something to the idea that someone being able to make you happy now is a better predictor of them being able to make you happy in the future, than someone who'd made you happy one thousand years ago, in a previous lifetime. The latter is no predictor at all.
To me, choice is so much more powerful than predestination. The latter might involve so little effort, but the former carries with it deliberation and a battle against reasons to fight to be together. Life has a way of pulling and pushing and tearing and binding, and to choose to fight against that torrent of everlasting change, just to be with someone?
My point in bringing this up is that Usagi and Mamoru's relationship in season one and all that follows, lies on this base assumption that to be soulmates is the highest form of love. This is antithetical to the idea that love is choice. To the idea that love is something that you might jump towards, might care for, might nourish and grow. Something you move deliberately towards when you meet someone with whom you are happy, safe, and burning with life.
I feel like the battle between people who love Mamoru versus people who love Seiya, is just a preference for a soulmates-view opposed to the found-love view. Usagi and Mamoru have been bound by fate since beyond time immemorial. That is eternal and beautiful and timeless, and people rightly see the beauty in that story. On the opposite end, Usagi and Seiya found something beautiful between each other, right then and there. People also rightly feel for the spark they had between each other, because they know what its like to meet someone and be captivated immediately, and yearn to be able to meet that person and get closer to that person and be able to love them and protect them, despite everything.
Usagi and Mamoru's relationship was based on the soulmates idea, and never had time to show their actual progression of going from strangers to enemies to friends, and that sweet, sweet, transition to realizing they like each other. We didn't get to see that in season one.
And then…the seasons that follow: the second season is entirely about Chibi-Usa. The third is about Chibi-usa and Hotaru (and Michiru and Haruka). The fourth season is about Chibi-usa. (This show should be called Chibi-Usa and her cool mom Sailor Moon). I loved Chibi-usa when I was a kid, and I won’t have any slander towards her. And if you have ever been around 3-6 year olds…yes they’re annoying, and yes they are deserving of love, and very fun little people. That’s who she is.
I digress.
So what’s left for the intricate romance chemistry explorations in this world? Not much, is what I’m getting at. Season 5 is the first time where we’re not focusing on the story about Sailor Moon, because she is already Sailor Moon, and she’s living her life now. She knows the routine, what-its-like-to-be-a-Sailor-Scout has (finally, mostly) been explored, and the pile of things to explore has reached relationships.
And Chibi-usa and Mamoru exit the scene. This story is about Usagi.
And in comes Seiya.
Part 4: Seiya and the arguments against him/her. (I use the pronouns interchangeably, hope it’s not confusing)
Some of these are almost valid. Almost.
I love this arc because Usagi wasn’t going to be swayed by looks and charm anymore — she has Mamoru, and more importantly she’s grown up. I’ve seen others mention this, but yes, I agree that if Seiya had appeared in season one that their story would’ve been so vastly different, because Usagi would be so easily captivated by his charm that Seiya wouldn’t have had to fight to get to know her, and I feel like Usagi wasn’t mature enough yet.
Season five Usagi not seeing Seiya as a charming boy she wants to date lets them have a progressive relationship in which they spend time together, and their dynamic becomes more defined. And this is just something that season one Usagi and Mamoru just didn’t have time to do. It’s not Mamoru’s fault, for christ’s sake!
The biggest points against Seiya: that he’s a stalker, and the moment in the rain.
My defences follow.
First of all, let’s review the facts: I’m assuming that ‘stalker’ refers to things like how Seiya waits for her after school just to talk to her, and he comes to her house in the evening one night. First of all, my biggest defence is: this is like, 1996. How else do you think he could’ve gotten in contact with her? On the first occasion, they don’t know each other that well, he hasn’t got her phone number. There ain’t no social media Seiya can use to contact her. Dude.
And the same is true for the night he comes to her house. They’ve lost contact because the Starlights aren’t going to school anymore. At this point, I believe he’s tried calling her, and she doesn’t reply because she’s trying to call Mamoru for hours. (Aka the saddest thing I’ve ever experienced. Oh my f*cking god, he’s literally dead. She’s trying to call him and he’s dead ;-;)
So what’s Seiya to do? It’s 1996.
A couple of years ago I was chatting with my dad when I asked him, hey wait a minute, how did you plan to hang out with your friends if you couldn’t message them ahead of time? Or call them? And he laughed, “you just go to their house, of course.” Yeah, this shocked me, because I’m blind to the many aspects of culture that I had no idea changed because of the internet, because I’ve grown up with it. But, think about it. What else could you do? It was much more normal then than it is now. Now if someone comes to your house without texting you first, you’re like ‘omg creepy, you didn’t tell me you were coming’, which, now is a good response! If someone comes to my house with no warning they better have a damn good reason for doing so.
But this? Seiya, a sad lad in 1996? It’s a different day and age.
Case closed.
The other problem: why did he have to go and say “aren’t I good enough?” when Usagi was crying about Mamoru in the rain?
Consider this: what is Seiya’s perspective here?
Seiya, a rash and emotional teenager, has seen Usagi, for the entire duration of the season, talk about, pine over, and cry over this dude, Mamoru.
This mystery Mamoru supposedly went to America to study, and not bothered to contact her at all. Seiya sees how Usagi glorifies him, how he’s supposedly the best person in the world, and— without any, any evidence, how is Seiya supposed to interpret this? As I understand it, Seiya, in her frustrated state and head-over-heels in love, doesn’t understand how someone supposedly so good would leave Usagi, the most wonderful and sweet person Seiya’s ever met and loves so deeply, hanging like this? With no attempt to contact her?! It’s been months! What the hell?!
TL;DR: Seiya has no idea Mamoru is dead (this is so fucking sad ;-;), has no idea Mamoru is good or kind or sweet or caring, all seiya knows is that Usagi deserves to be loved, and she doesn’t deserve to feel like this, and what if this Mamoru type isn’t who she thinks he is? How terrifying is that thought? What if Usagi's been tricked by a sleazy guy?
A million things could’ve run through Seiya’s mind, and Usagi could’ve said a million things to confirm Seiya’s fears. As I understand it, Seiya’s pain about the situation exploded, seeing Usagi cry like that in the rain.
Seiya had been trying to keep her cheered up for these many months of her being alone, and Seiya would do it forever if she had to (if only she could…). And it hurts because if Seiya has been able and successful in cheering Usagi up all this time, maybe Usagi could be happy with Seiya too?
In conclusion: Seiya has no idea who Mamoru is, and feels it’s unjust that Usagi is being treated like this. In comparison to this absence of Mamoru, isn’t Seiya good enough to cheer up Usagi for now? How would Seiya have known any better….
:(
We’ve almost made it to the end, but not quite.
Part 5: Oh my god have you come this far? (It’s time we think about how Usagi feels for once.)
My last argument comes from the point of view of Usagi, and my adamant opinion that both Seiya and Mamoru are lovely and deserve to be loved, and Usagi deserves to be loved by everyone.
What did Usagi experience?
I want to make the case that we shouldn’t hate Seiya for pursuing Usagi, because Usagi clearly liked Seiya. (See: she came to the Three Lights radio show to see Seiya. She came to Seiya’s concert. She asked Seiya to come to the school cafe event. I could go on.) And we shouldn’t hate Mamoru because Usagi liked Seiya — that’s ridiculous, I’m sorry, what, why would you decide to hate Mamoru for that?!
Here’s my big problem with this, which is also my hottest spiciest take:
People are allowed to like other people, to have crushes on other people, and even feel love towards other people when they’re in a relationship. The key is that you stay true to your relationship, as you and your partner defined it.
A relationship means choosing the person you’re with, despite everything else. It means being true to your relationship, it means discussing boundaries, it means being honest, open, and communicative with your partner -- “I’m having feelings for this person, how does this make you feel? I value you and your experience more, so if you feel uncomfortable, I can distance myself with this person. But I’m open to having a conversation about why I value our relationship, and don’t want you to feel threatened by my feelings for this other person. I have no desire to act on these feelings, it just felt wrong to keep something like this from you.”
And the emphasis of this is that, being unable to communicate with Mamoru to discuss any of her feelings and engage with him in trying to understand the emotional situation together, Usagi maintained the integrity of their relationship and never betrayed him once. Importantly, she didn’t blame Seiya at all for the situation.
And during this time, Seiya was shocked too about the situation, since Seiya’s goal had been to save Princess Kakyuu, and meeting Usagi turned Seiya’s entire world upside down. I think meeting Usagi changed the entire experience of life, and I hope is what made Seiya fall in love with the world.
All this means that I think Usagi is not in the wrong for having feelings for Seiya. It means that I think it’s beautiful that despite having feelings for Seiya, she stayed true to her relationship with Mamoru, because in their absence of communication she still valued him and his experience and being honest with him. It’s terribly tragic. And all the while, she didn’t vilify either of them or make a big deal out of choosing between the two of them. And I think it’s beautiful, and that Usagi deserves to love and to be loved as freely and openly as she might wish.
I believe that Seiya wasn’t wrong to try and be around Usagi as much as possible, because I think Usagi liked Seiya as well, and I like to think that Seiya could sense that and could feel the internal battle Usagi had raging inside her too.
PART 1,000,000: CONCLUSION
In conclusion, loving one ship shouldn’t have to mean that you have to hate the other. Usagi deserves to be loved and to love as much as she can and wants to, and it’s the beauty of our ability to tell a million stories about this world through fan fiction that she can experience exactly that.
This is why I’m writing my fanfic — because I’d like to create a world where Usagi doesn’t have the agonizing experience of having to balance Mamoru’s absence with her feelings for Seiya. I want her to experience her feelings for Seiya freely. And likewise, I want her to be able to love Mamoru, and I personally don’t want to ridicule Mamoru by creating a fantasy in which he is the scumbag Mamoru-haters wish he was.
I believe that if he knew he was going to die, he would have wanted Usagi to find love and happiness in this world without him, because he loves her and wants that for her more than anything. I would want that for the people in my life too.
I TRULY think the best take to have here is to love both of them, and burn the idea of exclusivity, and embrace polyamory xD Hahaha, it’s a joke but its also not a joke. I think that is a much better take than the antagonism has ever been.
THE END, GET OUT OF HERE
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