By: Emelyn Woodbury
This is going to be interesting. I am responding to somebody else's
response to an article.
Be that as it may, there are a few little comments that need to be
addressed.
For the record, I hate Sailor Sun, Sailor Earth, and so forth. Without
exception, every
story I've ever read involving these characters has been mediocre or
derivative. They're
usually the all-powerful ones who can solve anyone's problem with a
wave of
their hand.
I actually read a story where the person made her character Sailor
Earth and
Sailor Universe
all in one! (Fortunately it was a tandem story and I managed to kill
her
"universe" part.
The Sympathetic Law of Magic and the theory of the Big Bang/ Big Crunch
work
surprisingly
well together.)
Azurite posted a response to Athena's article. Azurite quotes her as
saying
that, "Sailor
Senshi come from planets, asteroids or moons. Not some gem, emotion or
prefix." Azurite
then tries to refute this by saying that Kakyuu does not have a planet,
or
the Starlights,
or LeadCrow and so forth, or Galaxia, or ChibiChibi, or Cosmos.
Athena's quote does seem a little limited, as Sailor Galaxia and Sailor
Cosmos are in not what she stated. However, they are astronomical/
astrological ideas or objects, and thus havesome justification. The
planet
Princess Kakyuu comes from is actually called Kinmokusei and, if you
look at
Princess Kakyuu's speech when she introduces herself, there seem to
be several kingdoms and orders implicated. (Starlight Pops at
http://www.kinmoku.net/pops/ has a site on the character. Look it up
there.) Perhaps there is a Sailor Kinmoku or Kinmokuseihigher up in
the
command list. Heck, Princess Kakyuu does have a planet she hails from,
and
nowhere is it stated that Soldiers to have the same name as their
patron
object. The Starlights might have had their own planets. In the
anime,
Leadcrow and the others were
soldiers of planets, apparently, before Galaxia enslaved them. In the
manga, they had
stolen Sailor crystals from the original Sailors such as Sailor Coronis
and
so forth, who
did have planets. After all, Luna and Artemis said they were from the
same
PLANET as
Sailor Mau. Presumably Chi, Phi, Lethe, Mnemosyne and so forth are
senshi
by the same
method of taking starseeds.
ChibiChibi in the anime was the..soul? of a Sailor Soldier and
therefore
could take perhaps
a senshi form, but even as Sailor ChibiChibi, she had no attacks. She
can
barely be counted
as a Sailor Soldier at all, and only by virtue of being part of Sailor
Galaxia. Sailor
Cosmos embodies the universe, but that is still, as I said,
astronomical/astrological.
The point that the planets were named after gods is valid but has no
relevance to the
subject of making up new senshi. According to the logic Naoko set up,
all
senshi still
have to take power from something or someone concrete and
astronomical/astrological.
Therefore Sailor Flame or Sailor Rainbow or Sailor Chibi Pearl are NOT
reasonable.
Azurite states that, "Besides, if we did stick to the rule of
"asteroids,
planets and
moons" then authors would run out of ideas." Only the bad or
unoriginal
authors would not
have anything to write about. There are still so many ideas free using
Sailor Moon or
Sailormoon canon characters! The Outer Senshi weren't shown in the
future.
Were they dead?
Exiled? Did they take up their old posts again, and how would they
react to
that isolation after their experiences and camaraderie on Earth?
Sailor
Saturn stopped trying to destroy the world. Is that temporary?
Permanent?
A trick? Do the Sailor Senshi always owe their loyalty to their
princess or
queen, even if the royalty's corrupt? I have two fics planned, using
nothing but established characters. (Well, mostly...the only exception
is a
reinterpretation of Queen Serenity, but there will be no otaku senshi.)
In
the anime, what did ChibiChibi do after SailorStars? What did she
become?
Other than that, I really have no issue with Athena's or Azurite's
ideas.
Both have
valid points and objections to each other. Figure out what works or
not
yourself. Be
original, but remember: it is fanfiction, a story set up in someone
else's
universe and
logic. If you're going to write in their world, remember what they've
done
with it, and
play by their rules. In this case, ideas in the Sailormoon/ Sailor
Moon
universe need to
fit the established continuity and logic. Succeeding in that is the
real
artform and the
best kind of story to read.
One more thing: another article on the subject of fanfiction dicussed
villians. December of 2001, Tatl posted an opinion. (Yeah, that was
far
back. I was too lazy to
write something then, but I might as well throw it in now.) The way I
see
it, villians usually have varied motivations. They can be clinically
insane. They can be out for revenge. They can be impressing or
protecting
someone.
But Tatl claimed that:
"Bad guys dont just WANT to kill unless they were brought up that way.
But
sometimes, people make them want to kill for the dumbest reason. Like
someone teased them too much or avoided them because of their looks or
likes. Ok, that is pretty mean but you're not going to go KILL someone
for
that!"
Ah, but they might. Columbine should be proof enough of that. Anyone
could
snap given the provocation. Someone is teased enough, their people are
persecuted enough...it has happened.
Comments on this article can be sent to: Emelyn Woodbury.
