#usagi uses the moon stick to defeat queen beryl

[necromonica]

why do i have the urge to redraw a sailor moon scene as kirby characters. what part of the 2010s infected me.

[djprincessk]

Why Usagi being Sailor Cosmos would be a really bad god awful thing in the context of the series

Some people probably read the title and kept scrolling because they really really want Usagi to be Sailor Cosmos and that’s their thing and they want it. That’s totally fine.

Some people are still reading this because they really really wanna pick apart why I’m wrong and that’s fine too. So lemme start off with this:

Howdy! I’m a Sailor Moon nerd and I love the series and all its incarnations! This is not really a persuasive argument more than it is me sharing my opinion about why Sailor Cosmos being Usagi goes against everything the series stands for. I’ll present supporting context from the manga, and if you end up agreeing with me, cool! But if you don’t wanna be convinced and you wanna stick to your theory, rad! Do your thing! I’m not gonna fight that!

I’m going to leave out the arguments that I’ve seen a lot before: being unable to transform after becoming queen, the silver crystal only allowing a thousand years of life, etc. But here’s my opinion and I’ve been meaning to write this for a while, so here we go:

Sailor Moon is a series about breaking free of the past. The timeline of the story starts off with Queen Serenity reincarnating everyone (except herself) and sending them to the future in order to have a better life for her daughter and her friends. She doesn’t rebuild the fallen Earth and Moon Kingdoms and reset the timeline (probably because the Silver Crystal doesn’t have enough power for that, but LET’S NOT GOT THERE), she doesn’t send HERSELF forward with them. She stays behind and dies. Trusting the future to her daughter, despite knowing that Metallia and Beryl would likely return at some point due to Queen Serenity’s failure at completing the seal.

Queen Serenity fucked up and left Usagi with a dangerous mission because of her mistakes, but she also first and foremost wanted Usagi to be happy.

So point #1: Usagi being Sailor Cosmos means that Queen Serenity’s sacrifice failed.

Sailor Cosmos lost everything. The idea that Usagi will have to do that all over again is heartbreaking.Going by the manga, Usagi lost everything in the Silver Millennium and AGAIN when Galaxia came around (Galaxia even killed her cats, man). To lose her friends and family and loved ones for presumably a third time would be/should be unbearable. Usagi living long enough to become Sailor Cosmos, or reincarnating into Cosmos, would be tragic. Queen Serenity gave her life to give Usagi a chance at a peaceful life -- to have a chance to earn a peaceful life for her and her loved ones -- and failed. Because Usagi had to defy whole established canon to do what others in her own bloodline couldn’t.

And in a series that it from beginning to end about hope and securing the future for others, Usagi having to be the eternal martyr for the universe is FUCKED UP.

Speaking of securing the future...

Point #2: What about Chibiusa?

If the Dark Kingdom Arc was about resolving the past, the Black Moon Arc was about securing the future. Literally. I mean, they go to the future and fix it. You can’t get more literal than that. Not only does Sailor Moon defeat Death Phantom, but Neo Queen Serenity helps Chibiusa realize her own power gives her the ability to fight, and by the time we see Chibiusa in the Galaxia arc, she’s already in eternal form, along with her senshi team, bravely leading her team at a much younger age than Usagi was when she started out. And Chibimoon will eventually become Sailor Moon (they can’t all just be called Chibi Chibi Chibi Chibi Moon forever), and she’ll ascend to levels beyond eternal, and her descendants even more so, all of whom will strengthen the Silver Crystal as they grow as soldiers. Hell Chibiusa herself will make the eternal forms look like a joke by the time she’s done.

So why Usagi?

The idea that Usagi is Sailor Cosmos implies that no one else in the royal line could get it done. Queen Serenity is able to secure a peaceful future for her daughter...and that’s where it stops. The lack of hope is kind of crushing??? I don’t think that Sailor Moon isn’t allowed to fail, per se, my problem is that Usagi has to be the one to rise as Sailor Cosmos. In the time from the end of NQS’s reign to the time of Sailors Chaos and Cosmos, there was not a single Sailor Moon as good as Usagi, and as much as I love her, that’s not good!

This may be hurtful because I know some SM fans hate this show, but, if Usagi is Cosmos, you know what magical girl series does hope better? This one:  

LET ME EXPLAIN: By the end of the series (I’m leaving Rebellion out of this cause that’s a different discussion), thanks to Madoka’s sacrifice, magical girls are guaranteed to leave the world a better place than how they found it, rather than cause despair that cancels out the hope they gave to the world, making their battles meaningless. Even if the world never recognizes magical girls, the warriors themselves realize that they’re sacrificing themselves to make their world better. 

In the context of the Sailor Moon Manga, Usagi being Sailor Cosmos means that that did not happen. The future is so fucked that the original Sailor Moon had to come back and fix everything, while Madoka left the future of her world to future magical girls. 

Point #3:

IT’S A METAPHOR.

I know that you know that “You will always live eternally” is a metaphor. But yelling “it’s a metaphor” is fun, so there ya go. Try it sometime. Love yourself. Anyway, Usagi serves way better to the future of the story as a beacon of hope, rather than a literal eternal warrior. Usagi’s show of bravery and hope in the final chapters of the series inspires Cosmos to keep fighting Chaos in spite of her losing everything in her battle. Usagi gaining power and giving her power to the galaxy cauldron gave power to the future Sailor Moon without her having to be the one suffering. Usagi’s final act of bravery lived throughout the ages in a clearly tangible way, and affected the future and gave a distant future Sailor Moon hope to stand on her own like she did. All without having to deny growth in her own royal line by fighting herself. She has lived forever through the Silver Crystal’s power, and that’s far more important than literally living forever. Usagi living her thousand years as NQS and being with her family and friends and dying knowing she’s done all she could in her lifespan as Sailor Moon and Queen is a beautiful and fitting end for our princess, and one I think Queen Serenity would want for her daughter.

I’m actually quite fond of the idea of Sailor Moon being a reincarnation of OG Queen Serenity. And to me it makes a lot of sense. Serenity couldn’t seal Metallia completely because of her grief, so maybe Sailor Cosmos couldn’t properly use the Lambda Power because of her grief over her losses. Serenity having a chance to show the courage that we’ve already seen from Usagi would be way more interesting to just seeing another supe’d up Usagi. And this series is always about trying again in spite of everything, right? We’ve seen Usagi’s second chance, why couldn’t we get the same for Queen Serenity? 

In conclusion, I don’t think Usagi as Cosmos works on either a canon level or a theme level. And it wouldn’t fit within the hopeful theme of series. 

TL;DR - Usagi as Sailor Cosmos makes Queen Serenity’s sacrifice moot, Chibiusa and all her descendants useless, gives no reason for future Sailor Moons to exist because Usagi has to do it all herself, and it craps on the idea of power being instilled through hope instead of fighting. And it’s okay to disagree with me. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. 

[venusribbons]

Moon Tiara Action!

This scene is oddly satisfying. Just before that, Sailor Moon is at one of the lowest possible points in her life: she is defeated, at prone position with a useless weapon. All it takes is a reminder from Queen Beryl:

... to galvanize Sailor Moon, not really for herself but to honor her fallen comrades. She rises up to do the impossible: attacking the very man she loves. 

And it happens so unexpectedly. Nobody could see it coming, neither Queen Beryl nor Evil Endymion. Not even Sailor Moon herself could believe her very own eyes, as there is no way the Sailor Moon at D-Point or pre-D-Point could accomplish such a feat. We are now looking at a new Usagi, who would cry and whine a little less than before, and who can withstand anything battles can throw at her.

Last but not least, I have to say that the weapon choice is amazing. At first I was like “why is the tiara more powerful than the Moon Stick?”, then I realized I was comparing an apple to an orange: the Moon Stick’s main function (thus far from Sailor Moon) is to heal, while the tiara's sole purpose is to kill its opponent (beside the only use of Moon Tiara Stardust in episode 5). While the tiara does not kill Endymion, it is enough to turn the table around and leads the way to Sailor Moon’s eventual win.