serefan
Chibi Senshi
My Past Will Give Me Strength
Posts: 61
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Post by serefan on Aug 5, 2008 20:15:10 GMT -5
Interesting question! For another senshi to be able to "contest" Sailor Moon's authority, I suppose she would have to be a senshi from one of the celestial bodies (planets, asteroids, etc) within our Solar System, since that's the territory the Moon royals rule over and protect. That isn't so likely to happen, since many of the planets and asteroids already have a senshi, and it isn't every day that a senshi is born wit the galaxy's strongest sailor crystal, right? Someone who is more powerful than Sailor Moon/Neo Queen Serenity/etc in the manga would have to be, I don't know, someone like a fictional super deity... (remember they already refer to Neo Queen Serenity as "goddess" a few times in the manga). And even if such a senshi with that kind of super powerful sailor crystal showed up, they would have to be a senshi worth following (in other words, not someone like manga-Galaxia, definitely), someone who uses their power for good and doesn't turn evil, someone that isn't easily brainwashed, someone who can bring people back to life, and last, Sailor Moon would have to decide to serve *her* first, and only then would Sailor Moon's senshi follow. It would do no good to this new powerful senshi t try to overthrow Sailor Moon instead. Keep in mind loyalty is the main cuality of the warrior by Japanese standards. Even if a master is overthrown or something, the Japanese warrior or samurai would almost always consider his duty to stay loyal, no matter what, and even in some cases take revenge in the name of their old master.
I think the sailor crystal of the moon royals, which is the Silver Crystal, as such a powerful star seed or sailor crystal is what allowed the moon royals to protect the Solar System, therefore was probably part of the reason the senshi of the other planets "sensed" the strong light of the moon royal and chose to follow her (and because the inners were so young, that was probably why, as we see in a flashback in the Dream arc of the manga, Queen Serenity appointed them to serve and protect her daughter instead). The story made it look like someone as powerful and "good" as the moon royals isn't born every day in the SM universe.
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serefan
Chibi Senshi
My Past Will Give Me Strength
Posts: 61
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Post by serefan on Aug 2, 2008 16:31:34 GMT -5
I heard that too about Sailor Moon not supposed to exist, but I have begun to have my doubts now. I think the reasoning behind that is that Usagi, as Princess Serenity, should prepare herself for when she's Queen and concentrate on that while the senshi protect her, but how is not taking part in the fight supposed to help her become a better Queen? Or is she supposd to fight, just not as a senshi? I understand Neo Queen Serenity being too busy to be a senshi, because she has a Kingdom to rule and ruling takes a lot of energy, and on the other hand her Silver Crystal is what maintaines people's wellbeing long life spans in the 30th century, which if it's a process that must be kept up every day and not something that can be granted and be completed and done with in a moment, must take a lot of power and energy out of her per day.
On the other hand, Luna said something about how they sealed her memory (Luna's) so Sailor Venus could pose as the Princess and Luna coud awake Usagi as Sailor Moon, all to protect the Princess. But how is exactly making her a senshi, a way to protect the princess? Would the enemy never imagine a senshi could be the Princess, since she wasn't a senshi in the Moon Kingdom? Or was it a way to protect the Princess, because it trained her to make her ready to fight and better protect herself? Besides, if the enemy wasn't supposed to believe the Princess could be one of the sailor senshi, then why did Sailor Venus pose as the Princess while being a senshi? Why did she pose as the senshi Sailor V before, with a crescent moon mark on her forehead (those familiar with the manga of "Code Name: Sailor V" know that she had this fake moon sigil since she was Sailor V) and moon-related attacks like the crescent beam to fight the enemy, while trying to fool them?
On the other hand, I don't know how much significance this could have, but I've been reading books and stuf about Bushido, which is the code of the warrior in Japan (followed by the Samurai) and I read very interesting things that explain that even women of the higher classes who weren't warriors were always trained at least in the basics to be able protect themselves and their children in case an enemy threatened when their husbands and protectors weren't close by, and taught on the correct way to successfully commit suicide if their virginity or honor was at stake, or if they wanted to follow their husbands to the afterlife (remember Princess Serenity's suicide?). That may confirm the theory that she was made a senshi so she could protect herself if need be, as long as the other senshi didn't know she was their Princess.
On the other hand, while it is true that Emperors in Japan have usually had symbolic power and rarely assumed their role of Commander-in-chief of the forces on the field, leaving that to the Shoguns often, may be making the Princess a sailor senshi was a was a way for her to be the Commander-in-chief de facto and not just de jure, in a way uniting both the position of Emperor and Shogun which would sound logical considering how the Shoguns' figure has been in a way "romanticized" in Japanese popular culture.
What do you think?
EDIT: As for why she gets special treatment, well I think she *is* supposed to be the Japanese Emperor's "equivalent" in the SM world, as a way of saying, and as such chosen by Heaven, God, fate or whatever to lead all the people towards happiness. In the manga, she has the Solar System's (and galaxy's) strongest sailor crystal, therefore she's the strongest planetary guardian. Besides, her powers of bringing people back to life, etc, are unparalleled, so I can see why the others would follow her. I always understood the Silver Millenium included all the planets of the Solar System (with the exception of Earth) and not just the Moon, but the Moon was just the capital of the Kingdom, where the supreme monarch and protector, Queen Serenity, lived. In some translations of the manga, in the part of Stars where Sailor Pluto remembers how Queen Serenity gave her, Uranus and Neptune their castles at their birth, she refers to Queen Serenity as "Queen of the Solar System" while in others she calls her "Queen of the Silver Millenium" instead.
SM has also been based on some chinese mythology and culture as well (like for example, with Endymion's Shitteno). I also read in wiki: "In some cases, such as during the Southern Song dynasty, political power in East Asia was effectively split among several governments, however the political fiction that the head of one of these states was the legitimate emperor to which the other states owed allegiance was maintained"
Replace "governments" and "states" with "planets", and there you have the explanation of the SM hierarchy.
(source: http:// en . wikipedia . org / wiki / Emperor_of_China # Position_and_power )
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serefan
Chibi Senshi
My Past Will Give Me Strength
Posts: 61
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Post by serefan on Jul 25, 2008 22:17:07 GMT -5
Some people have the theory that the Silver Crystal bonded with Usagi's star seed, and then went and bonded with Chibiusa's starseed. I think it's a great theory, even if I don't completely share it. But I'm aware that it exists, so every time I write about the Silver Crystal in my fanfics I try to leave it ambiguous, just like the manga did.... That's even *more* fun than taking a position in favor of one theory (at least in fanfics), and it suits my purposes as a fanfic writer, of keeping the mystery. Seriously, I think we fans of Sailor Mon could even start our own pseudo-science with all the blank spaces both the anime and manga left out.
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serefan
Chibi Senshi
My Past Will Give Me Strength
Posts: 61
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Post by serefan on Jul 25, 2008 20:35:57 GMT -5
Oh. Well, the whole point of me mentioning the scene in episode 126 is that she didn't always need an item (staff or whatever), so may be you're right and her true powers were awakening, but who knows?
As for the star-seed thing -without trying to get into a heated debate, because it's just my point of view- sailor crystals are described as a kind of star seeds in the manga... meaning all sailor crystals are star seeds, and not all star seeds are sailor crystals (Phobos and Deimos', Luna's and Artemis' starseeds, for example, are described as not being sailor crystals, but close enough) If Takeuchi wanted us to believe the Silver Crystal was a sailor crystal, but not a star seed, I think she would have made a distinction. I understand if people have other opinion, and I in fact used to share that theory before I read the manga, but after reading it I started seeing the manga version as a completely different thing.
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serefan
Chibi Senshi
My Past Will Give Me Strength
Posts: 61
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Post by serefan on Jul 25, 2008 15:26:07 GMT -5
In that scene of the anime in Episode 126 she wasn't using the Silver Crystal, at least not that we could tell.
As for the manga, yes, it was inside her the whole time and that's why some fans think she was able to do things like creating that new tiara out of thin air (more like she was despairing at having lost her previous one, and then she felt very warm all of a sudden and the new tiara appeared suddenly on her forehead).
However, in the manga the Silver Crystal is certainly not just some object separate from her own powers (and I'm not even certain it is all that way either in the anime). It is her very star-seed, sailor crystal, soul, spirit or whatever. And all the other scouts/senshi also have their own, only they don't become the wiser about it until the Death Moon Circus saga (I don't think their guardians and Saturn "gave" them to them, they just made them come out of the girls' bodies IMO)... That's why I'm firmly convinced that, in the manga at least, Chibimoon has her own Silver Crystal, and not Neo Queen Serenity's (and I think it's more fun that way ;D)
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serefan
Chibi Senshi
My Past Will Give Me Strength
Posts: 61
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Post by serefan on Jul 24, 2008 23:51:00 GMT -5
It's a drug used to treat the itching caused by mosquito bites (Sailor V uses it to destroy the mosquito monster.... I had forgotten she says it before "Venus-Brand Anti-Mosquito Incense Typhoon";. *Both* phrases are part of *one* attack...GAH) Ok, now if only anyone could explain why she doesn't need an item or *something* to do that; and what it has to do with planet Venus, Aprodhite, greek mythology, LOVE, her element metal, her name, her crescent-shaped compact, her talking transformation pen, her cat...... *Is clueless* Definitely one heck of a random attack.
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serefan
Chibi Senshi
My Past Will Give Me Strength
Posts: 61
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Post by serefan on Jul 24, 2008 22:58:25 GMT -5
Hm, well there's always this scene in the anime at the end of Sailor Moon S, in episode 126. It's after they defeat Pharaoh 90, that they're standing at the crater left by Pharaoh 90, and Uranus and Neptune want to "test" if Moon is really the Messiah. So Neptune grabs her and twists her arms behind her back, holding her captive, and in front of them Uranus throws herlf at her like she's gonna kick her when they collide. But Moon (whose arms are being twisted behind her back so she can't pull out her staff or whatever) she suddenly looks up and radiates this whitish golden glow from her entire body, which pushes Neptune off of her and allows her to jump out of the way... resulting in Uranus colliding with Neptune, rather clumsily instead. Then Uranus and Neptune kneel before her and say: "Nothing less from the Princess. No... the future Neo Queen Serenity. We've finally been shown your true powers"
That as for the anime. As for the manga, she's always the one that "creates" new weapons: she even creates a new tiara in the first season/arc of the manga, before getting the Silver Crystal, cause she forgot to get back the previous one after throwing it at Jadeite. Then in Stars, she fends off Galaxia, who's sending huge waves of power at her, without even transforming to Sailor Moon. And later on, when her brainwashing scouts are attacking her, her staff breakes and she uses her power to mend it, brainwashed Venus sends her Love and Gallactica Shock at her and Sailor Moon opposes it with a blast of her own, coming out of her hands, and not her staff .
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serefan
Chibi Senshi
My Past Will Give Me Strength
Posts: 61
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Post by serefan on Jul 24, 2008 22:26:12 GMT -5
May be :
Sailor Moon - Leader Sailor Mercury - Intelligence Sailor Jupiter - Strength Sailor Venus - Second in command and most powerful after S.Moon
and
Sailor Mars - Spirit
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serefan
Chibi Senshi
My Past Will Give Me Strength
Posts: 61
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Post by serefan on Jul 21, 2008 11:03:41 GMT -5
Well, for one part, Sailor V's enemies were mostly very weak minions and/or monsters of the day -they didn't last more than one chapter each- and there was only one main boss, Kaitou Ace aka Danburite, who was rather easy to beat (nothing like Metalia, Paraoh 90 or all the other big bosses Sailor Moon had to beat). And Kaitou Ace aka Daburite himself was even just a minion of Kunzite, on of the four great Generals of the Negaverse. That's why I'm guessing Sailor V had to have fought the weakest minions in all the series, so may be her attacks then didn't have to be that strong, but wouldn't have been enough to beat any of the enemies that came after.
The only real explanation I can think though is not part of the story, but about Naoko Takeuchi: I read that even though she first began with "Code Name: Sailor V", she actually finished it after completing the sequel, Sailor Moon, first. There was a time she was drawing Sailor Moon at the same time she was making Sailor V, so a good bunch o Sailor V's attacks were created after Sailor Venus' own.
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serefan
Chibi Senshi
My Past Will Give Me Strength
Posts: 61
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Post by serefan on Jul 19, 2008 17:49:36 GMT -5
Eh? Where do they say she was born during an eclipse? I never heard that one before... I think you're right, Amy Rose... blonde hair makes her head look huge.
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serefan
Chibi Senshi
My Past Will Give Me Strength
Posts: 61
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Post by serefan on Jul 19, 2008 17:12:10 GMT -5
Oh, but Sailor Moon's got nothing on Sailor V in the manga of "Code Name: Sailor V", because Sailor V practically kept inventing new attacks every single ocasion... attacks that she never uses again.
Like...
"Venus Megaton Shower of Love!" (*blink* where did this come from? and where's her usual attack "Crescent Beam"?)
...or...
"Venus-Brand Anti-Mosquito Incense Typhoon!!" (used to destroy a mosquito monster),
...or...
"Sailor V Kick!" (no need to explain this one, now we know where Sailor Moon's kick came from)
...or...
"Sailor V chop!" (no need to explain this one either)
...or...
"Venus Ten Billion Volt Rock 'N' Rouge!!" (she sings with a special karaoke microphone that Artemis *just happened* to give her, and the sonic waves kill the enemy... just like Sailor Moon's wails),
...or...
"V-chan Rub Out Sailor V Chop!" ('Sailor V chop!' upgraded)
...or...
"Diphenhydramine Combo!" (um, what?),
...or... " V-chan Striking Katana!" (grabbing a katana sword laying around and using it on your enemy deserves a name all of its own)
...or...
"Crescent Slender Beam!" ('Crescent Beam' has just got upgraded...)
...or...
"Crescent Super Beam!" (Now she's like Goku with the 'Kame-hame-ha' move from Dragon Ball Z)
...or...
"Rolling Screw Sailor V Punch!" (she just... punches someone...)
...or...
"Venus Iron Muscle Punch!" (she just loves naming her punch)
...or...
"Venus Sulfur Smoke" (she uses it to bring on the horrible smell of sulfur of the atmosphere on planet Venus, to knock out the enemy's brainwashed cats... yes, CATS)
As for Moon Tiara Stardust, it's probably based on Sailor V's awfully loooooooong "Venus Power! Crescent Shower of Love! Shower down rain!"
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serefan
Chibi Senshi
My Past Will Give Me Strength
Posts: 61
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Post by serefan on Jul 10, 2008 11:48:53 GMT -5
They're being paranoid, I'm guessing. They probably don't want to risk it turning into a posting war...
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serefan
Chibi Senshi
My Past Will Give Me Strength
Posts: 61
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Post by serefan on Jul 8, 2008 23:55:02 GMT -5
Awesome motorcycle! But seriousy, I think may be they have Space Keys, just like Chibiusa had a Time key... only Time keys are obviously not available for the public outside the senshi and the royal family... And only keys which are both (Time-Space keys, like Chibiusa's) can take you as far as outer space or another planet, while Space keys only take you somewhere else on Earth.
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serefan
Chibi Senshi
My Past Will Give Me Strength
Posts: 61
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Post by serefan on Jul 8, 2008 18:41:09 GMT -5
I read enouh in this thread and now don't even want to go and read that, lest I be completely embarrased, as I suspect I'm going to be. No, Christianity isn't currently banned in Japan, but was in the past... like in the XVI century: (quoting from wiki pedia) "In 1597, twenty-six Christians were nailed to crosses at Nagasaki, Japan (...) The executions marked the beginning of a long history of persecution of Christianity in Japan, which continued until the United States of America and other Allies defeated Japan at war in 1945, ending World War II." (source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifixion#Japan) "Catholicism was subsequently repressed in several parts of the country, and Christianity was legally banned throughout Japan during the Edo period. It continued to be practised illicitly by some aristocrats, who often concealed Christian iconography within closed shrines, lanterns or inconspicuous parts of buildings." (source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Japan)So the Japanese have somewhat had periods of intolerance in their history, too.
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serefan
Chibi Senshi
My Past Will Give Me Strength
Posts: 61
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Post by serefan on Jul 8, 2008 17:44:02 GMT -5
I've thought of another possibility: may be Usagi and the others felt their families and friends were safer and would be able to lead "normal" lives if no one could make a connection between them and the Queen, King, and Sailor Senshi, so they erased the memories of them and Chibiusa that all those people had.
Sad, I know. But it's better than them being dead, and goes well with the hints the manga gives time and time again about the Senshi having to "truly" give up their normal lives to fully devote to their mission...
I just remembered, in Magic Knight Rayearth, Princess Emmeraude erases her brother's memory of her when she becomes the Pillar of Cephiro, too, for these reasons. But he eventualy remembers on his own, though, once after their paths are crossed enough times.
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