Anime: Emotions on a Rollercoaster

[majestic]

I must admit, you're much less bothered about this season retreading plot points than I thought you would be after complaining about Ami's SuperS power up episode. I guess such things are less problematic when everything else is fun to watch.

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP said:

Insomnia watching got us to watch Sailor Moon episodes 187-192.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

There are a lot of fun moments here that I don't want to spoil Bartimaeus on, because I'm sure he reads the spoilers.

In broad strokes, the Sailors know each other's identities now, there's a new Metal Animal Sailor after Aluminum Siren got her bracelets removed, the Starlights got a backstory (no explanation why they change sex and gender when transforming, but I guess anime Sailor Moon is open minded) and Chibi-Chibi might be the Starlights' Princess. Looking at it I have eight more episodes to go, so I figure we're looking at two or three more fun filler episodes before going full story mode. I wonder if Sailor Galaxia is going to have a backstory where she willingly turned evil (or was a dark Sailor Guardian or something to begin with) or if it's going to be another evil energy being behind everything. I'll probably know by Saturday.

 

I metaphorically turn off my brain when reading spoilers. It's a 'power' that I have, I guess: right now, I'm literally trying my best to remember any of the spoilers that you or InsaneCommander have mentioned for this season, and I honestly don't remember a single thing from any of it except for when I mentioned the thing about the plane. Unless I'm spoiled something that makes my brain immediately snap to attention upon reading it to re-evaluate or re-frame how I feel about a character or story, I will not remember it unless I'm actively committing it to memory. It's not a thing I guess that most people can do, and it's why I'm generally not ever bothered by most spoilers unless it's actually very important, and for Sailor Moon, the story and characters are what they are, so there's basically nothing that can make my brain snap to attention if I don't want it to. If you start just making crap up like "and then Usagi literally ****ing cut this dude's head off with her new giant meteorite axe" or "Chibi-Usa pulled out her gun and blew Helios' brains out all over the walls and everyone clapped", that would probably get my attention - silly stuff or relatively inconsequential plot points, not so much, . So don't worry about it!

@majestic

If you ever are looking to play it again, look into DevilutionX - contrary to the cheesiness of its name, it's a shockingly competent engine update that changes almost literally nothing about the gameplay, and makes the game run and work so much better while having miscellaneous features like letting you turn the speed of the game up and down on the fly (playing at even a modest speed boost is seriously such a godsend after having put some time into other ARPGs like Diablo II and Path of Exile - the very slow pace of the game was always the biggest problem I had with it, and no more is that an issue). I have a great appreciation for D1 given that it seems to have been designed as a relatively tight and compact singleplayer game instead of an endless grind like almost every other ARPG that's come out in the last 15 years. That, and the gameplay still holds up relatively well.

SU:

Spoiler

Yes and no. Blue and Yellow were getting screwed over by White as well, but the "well I was only following orders" excuse only goes so far, especially when you're talking about destroying planets and extinguishing literal entire ecosystems - not to mention the shattering of thousands of gems and then forcibly experimenting upon them. That stuff is, well, pretty irredeemable. In most stories where the hero(es) triumphs, these 'dragons' would have been slain for their crimes, no matter their excuses for committing them. But that's the beauty of actually treating your villains like characters with their own problems, fears, and pains - they're more human, more relatable, and you can write different kinds of resolutions for them that don't feel completely unjustified, . Nevertheless, in an objective sense, they got a way with a lot...White Diamond most of all.

Speaking of White, holy crap, the literal physical scale of things in Steven Universe is so wacky sometimes - I mentioned how Peridot and Chibi-Usa randomly get chibi-fied, but now I'm thinking of White, whom I'm remembering basically looked like a thousand foot tall giant in her initial appearance and then during the final battle, and then looks so much smaller when she's next to Blue and Yellow afterwards. Weird scale stuff like that happens all the time in this show if you start paying close attention - but oh well, certainly not the hugest problem, .

Hey, there's still time - maybe you'll feel differently about RQ after The Movie, .

 

Edited April 9, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

2 hours ago, majestic said:

I must admit, you're much less bothered about this season retreading plot points than I thought you would be after complaining about Ami's SuperS power up episode. I guess such things are less problematic when everything else is fun to watch.

I think it's because I expect repetition from Sailor Moon that I can appreciate it for what it is. And it is much better and more fun than Super S, where even removing or editing the creepy stuff wouldn't save what is a very boring stretch in the series. I guess not every show can feature throwing Hamon infused balls at an Aztec gym god.

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

Chibi-Usa pulled out her gun and blew Helios' brains out all over the walls and everyone clapped

That would have been a significant improvement.

chomp chomp chomp the software had a snack

[Bartimaeus]

If Chibi-Usa can shoot Usagi in the face with a gun, I don't see why she can't do the same to Helios - you just need some kind of wacky episode plot where her gun somehow gets switched with one that fires actual bullets.

[majestic]

4 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I metaphorically turn off my brain when reading spoilers. It's a 'power' that I have, I guess: right now, I'm literally trying my best to remember any of the spoilers that you or InsaneCommander have mentioned for this season, and I honestly don't remember a single thing from any of it except for when I mentioned the thing about the plane. Unless I'm spoiled something that makes my brain immediately snap to attention upon reading it to re-evaluate or re-frame how I feel about a character or story, I will not remember it unless I'm actively committing it to memory. It's not a thing I guess that most people can do, and it's why I'm generally not ever bothered by most spoilers unless it's actually very important, and for Sailor Moon, the story and characters are what they are, so there's basically nothing that can make my brain snap to attention if I don't want it to. If you start just making crap up like "and then Usagi literally ****ing cut this dude's head off with her new giant meteorite axe" or "Chibi-Usa pulled out her gun and blew Helios' brains out all over the walls and everyone clapped", that would probably get my attention - silly stuff or relatively inconsequential plot points, not so much, . So don't worry about it!

Fun fact, if you take a certain scene at the end of the season, remove it a bit from the context it is set in, you could actually do something like that for Sailor Stars, namely when...

Spoiler

I mean, there really is a scene that could possibly do that, but I'm not going to talk about it.

 

4 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

IIf you ever are looking to play it again, look into DevilutionX - contrary to the cheesiness of its name, it's a shockingly competent engine update that changes almost literally nothing about the gameplay, and makes the game run and work so much better while having miscellaneous features like letting you turn the speed of the game up and down on the fly (playing at even a modest speed boost is seriously such a godsend after having put some time into other ARPGs like Diablo II and Path of Exile - the very slow pace of the game was always the biggest problem I had with it, and no more is that an issue). I have a great appreciation for D1 given that it seems to have been designed as a relatively tight and compact singleplayer game instead of an endless grind like almost every other ARPG that's come out in the last 15 years. That, and the gameplay still holds up relatively well.

SU:

  Hide contents

Yes and no. Blue and Yellow were getting screwed over by White as well, but the "well I was only following orders" excuse only goes so far, especially when you're talking about destroying planets and extinguishing literal entire ecosystems - not to mention the shattering of thousands of gems and then forcibly experimenting upon them. That stuff is, well, pretty irredeemable. In most stories where the hero(es) triumphs, these 'dragons' would have been slain for their crimes, no matter their excuses for committing them. But that's the beauty of actually treating your villains like characters with their own problems, fears, and pains - they're more human, more relatable, and you can write different kinds of resolutions for them that don't feel completely unjustified, . Nevertheless, in an objective sense, they got a way with a lot...White Diamond most of all.

Speaking of White, holy crap, the literal physical scale of things in Steven Universe is so wacky sometimes - I mentioned how Peridot and Chibi-Usa randomly get chibi-fied, but now I'm thinking of White, whom I'm remembering basically looked like a thousand foot tall giant in her initial appearance and then during the final battle, and then looks so much smaller when she's next to Blue and Yellow afterwards. Weird scale stuff like that happens all the time in this show if you start paying close attention - but oh well, certainly not the hugest problem, .

Hey, there's still time - maybe you'll feel differently about RQ after The Movie, .

 

Maybe I'll play Diablo again. I recently also bought the latest Grim Dawn addon, but I can't seem to get back into playing. I played a good deal of Path of Exile a while back during Blight league, that was fun, but I was eventually stumped by a lack of mapping progress. There's definitely a lack of grind as a means to extend playtime or make it more multiplayer viable in Diablo.

It's also full of hilarious bugs like infinite staff charges and item duping. Don't care much for the duping, because why bother, but finding a Staff of Apocalypse wins you the game assuming your magic stat is good enough to actually use it. I'm going to assume that the engine update fixes these issues...

SU:
 

Spoiler

 

I'm not trying to make a "just followed orders" excuse for Yellow or Blue, just outside of seeing shattering as a viable punishment (which we probably would agree is not on the table... and definitely not for Steven) there's no viable means to punish them in any meaningful way beyond what being subjected to White for such a long time already did. It's not supposed to excuse their behaviour as much as I would argue that it justifies them talking it out and agreeing to change their ways as enough to complete their arcs and begin their rehabilitation. It's the best possible outcome.

For White that's a little harder to do, but what alternative is there? Bubble her for ever and ever? That doesn't change anything, and that's assuming anyone can poof her first. Which really didn't look like it was possible in that final stretch of the show. In real life, you could hand out life without parole, obviously, but that's going to be hard for someone who is effectively immortal.

Eh, and I get it, I'm supposed to watch the movie, no need to look shifty.

 

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

4 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

If Chibi-Usa can shoot Usagi in the face with a gun, I don't see why she can't do the same to Helios - you just need some kind of wacky episode plot where her gun somehow gets switched with one that fires actual bullets.

And some people say Sailor Moon shouldn't be darker.

53 minutes ago, majestic said:

Fun fact, if you take a certain scene at the end of the season, remove it a bit from the context it is set in, you could actually do something like that for Sailor Stars, namely when...

  Reveal hidden contents

I mean, there really is a scene that could possibly do that, but I'm not going to talk about it.

 

Maybe I'll play Diablo again. I recently also bought the latest Grim Dawn addon, but I can't seem to get back into playing. I played a good deal of Path of Exile a while back during Blight league, that was fun, but I was eventually stumped by a lack of mapping progress. There's definitely a lack of grind as a means to extend playtime or make it more multiplayer viable in Diablo.

It's also full of hilarious bugs like infinite staff charges and item duping. Don't care much for the duping, because why bother, but finding a Staff of Apocalypse wins you the game assuming your magic stat is good enough to actually use it. I'm going to assume that the engine update fixes these issues...

SU:
 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I'm not trying to make a "just followed orders" excuse for Yellow or Blue, just outside of seeing shattering as a viable punishment (which we probably would agree is not on the table... and definitely not for Steven) there's no viable means to punish them in any meaningful way beyond what being subjected to White for such a long time already did. It's not supposed to excuse their behaviour as much as I would argue that it justifies them talking it out and agreeing to change their ways as enough to complete their arcs and begin their rehabilitation. It's the best possible outcome.

For White that's a little harder to do, but what alternative is there? Bubble her for ever and ever? That doesn't change anything, and that's assuming anyone can poof her first. Which really didn't look like it was possible in that final stretch of the show. In real life, you could hand out life without parole, obviously, but that's going to be hard for someone who is effectively immortal.

Eh, and I get it, I'm supposed to watch the movie, no need to look shifty.

 

 

Poor Dire, what a cold reception his ultimate technique got.

I have never played Diablo, but I sunk a huge amount of hours into Diablo 2 as a teenager. I remember next to nothing beyond cleansing the DEN OF EVIL and hunting for gems.

[majestic]

3 minutes ago, ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP said:

Poor Dire, what a cold reception his ultimate technique got.

Haha, that just made my day.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Haha, that just made my day.

I've been lying in wait to make that joke or one about Dio getting ahead.

[Bartimaeus]

13 hours ago, ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP said:

And some people say Sailor Moon shouldn't be darker.

Poor Dire, what a cold reception his ultimate technique got.

I have never played Diablo, but I sunk a huge amount of hours into Diablo 2 as a teenager. I remember next to nothing beyond cleansing the DEN OF EVIL and hunting for gems.

Diablo 2 is, of course, the ARPG that basically every AA or AAA-developed multiplayer ARPG copied for ten to fifteen years after it released - both its good points, as well as some of its (retrospectively) not so good points. Put hundreds of hours into it when I was younger, and I've occasionally revisited over the years when a new ladder has started on Battle.Net, though usually only for a week at most - I could probably still say what most every unique is just by the item type, and I still remember some of the most useful runeword combinations like Tal-Thul-Ort-Amn = Spirit, Ral-Tir-Tal-Sol = Insight, Eth-Lum = Splendor, Ort-Sol = Lore, Tal-Eth = Stealth...too much time put into that game, . Diablo 1, on the other hand, was one of the first games I ever played - played it in church on my aunt's terrible laptop back when I was 4 or 5. Good thing I knew how to keep my mouth shut - there could've been quite an outcry in our ultra-evangelical church otherwise.

14 hours ago, majestic said:

no need to look shifty

14 hours ago, majestic said:

Maybe I'll play Diablo again. I recently also bought the latest Grim Dawn addon, but I can't seem to get back into playing. I played a good deal of Path of Exile a while back during Blight league, that was fun, but I was eventually stumped by a lack of mapping progress. There's definitely a lack of grind as a means to extend playtime or make it more multiplayer viable in Diablo.

It's also full of hilarious bugs like infinite staff charges and item duping. Don't care much for the duping, because why bother, but finding a Staff of Apocalypse wins you the game assuming your magic stat is good enough to actually use it. I'm going to assume that the engine update fixes these issues...

Uh, I'm not sure about exploits - while I knew all the exploits in Diablo 2, I never played Diablo 1 religiously enough to figure those out or hear about them from other players, . But I am playing a sorcerer on Hellfire, and I actually just got Apocalypse as a learned spell after slaying the Hellfire end boss - a bit more difficult to use casting it properly, given it costs 90 mana every freaking cast as opposed to free with the staff charges. Need to get an Arch-Angel's Staff of the Apocalypse, I guess!

I'm pretty much totally off of ARPGs - can't do the constant clicking or grinding anymore, which is what I like about Diablo 1, particularly given that I can now competently play it with a controller. I'm into shorter, more novel experiences these days, . Though years back, I played through the main campaign of PoE (well, whatever the main campaign of PoE was back then - I believe the length has changed a number of times since then) on a hardcore character, got to the end, died from a lagspike on the final boss, and thought "yeah, that was a decent game", and felt absolutely no urge to keep playing. Grim Dawn I think I tried for like 5 minutes before I realized that no, I don't really want to play these types of games anymore, haha.

SU:

Spoiler

I agree. It all makes sense and was thematically fitting - I wonder if the fact that it felt very rushed due to developmental issues also played a part into some people not liking how neatly everything resolved. Although...well, I guess you still have SU:F to watch as well, don't you?

A little real talk about SU:F:

Spoiler

real talk

 

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

The software is bad on PC and worse on mobile lmao

Sailor Moon episodes 193-200

I'm finished.

 

I'm too tired to do a detailed write up of Sailor Stars right now.

These episodes were pretty much all story mode, the starlight princess gets found, Galaxia attacks, and then we get a six episode stretch of Usagi crying while all her friends get killed (including Mamo-chan in a flashback, he hasn't been communicating with her because he's dead) until she finally acts without people telling her what to do and frees Galaxia from the influence of THE CHAOS and everything returns to normal across the galaxy. Oh, and Chibi-Chibi is Galaxia.

I don't know how I feel about the ending, it is very Usagi after all and it was actually nice to see her do something without someone having to say "Now, Sailor Moon!". The big problem with it is that she ****ing cried for almost 5 episodes straight instead of doing anything while all of her friends got killed by Galaxia and the planet was being destroyed by evil energy without doing anything. It is in character for her I guess, but it doesn't make good TV and seems to conflict with how she previously handled the loss of her friends and Tuxedo Kamen way back in season 1, where she still went on to confront Queen Beryl's evil flower form without having a long breakdown.

I thought about watching the movies, but I think not. This is the last Sailor Moon I'll watch for a very long time.

 

@BartimaeusI don't really play ARPGs either, they tend to be grindy and (along with MMOs) built around doing endgame/aftergame content with constant crafting or mining. Whixh to me much feels like it's working a part-time job instead of playing a game and **** that.

Edited April 10, 2021 by ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP

[Bartimaeus]

That's my problem with "grindy" games like multiplayer ARPGs and MMOs as well. I've heard from people who habitually play them that they either play it to "relax" or because they're "attached" to their """characters""" (???) and don't want the game to end after all that time invested. If "relaxing" is the same as "mind-numbing", then sure, I guess I find those games relaxing, too.

[majestic]

3 hours ago, ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP said:

The software is bad on PC and worse on mobile lmao

Sailor Moon episodes 193-200

I'm finished.

  Hide contents

I'm too tired to do a detailed write up of Sailor Stars right now.

These episodes were pretty much all story mode, the starlight princess gets found, Galaxia attacks, and then we get a six episode stretch of Usagi crying while all her friends get killed (including Mamo-chan in a flashback, he hasn't been communicating with her because he's dead) until she finally acts without people telling her what to do and frees Galaxia from the influence of THE CHAOS and everything returns to normal across the galaxy. Oh, and Chibi-Chibi is Galaxia.

I don't know how I feel about the ending, it is very Usagi after all and it was actually nice to see her do something without someone having to say "Now, Sailor Moon!". The big problem with it is that she ****ing cried for almost 5 episodes straight instead of doing anything while all of her friends got killed by Galaxia and the planet was being destroyed by evil energy without doing anything. It is in character for her I guess, but it doesn't make good TV and seems to conflict with how she previously handled the loss of her friends and Tuxedo Kamen way back in season 1, where she still went on to confront Queen Beryl's evil flower form without having a long breakdown.

I thought about watching the movies, but I think not. This is the last Sailor Moon I'll watch for a very long time.

 

@BartimaeusI don't really play ARPGs either, they tend to be grindy and (along with MMOs) built around doing endgame/aftergame content with constant crafting or mining. Whixh to me much feels like it's working a part-time job instead of playing a game and **** that.

 

Spoiler

 

I think I made ten different posts about how the pacing of the finale is dreadful, and I guess that just confirms it. Six episodes is way too long to drag that out, with a bit of trimming you could easily make a worthwhile finale to the series out of it.

Nevertheless, the more I watch the final episode, the more I like the ending, thematically, at least. It stumbles, perhaps even falls due to pacing problems, but at least it tried. Or, let's say, it tried more than R and SuperS did in its endings. It's still behind the first season, that ended with Usagi accepting her role as Sailor Moon, but the first season was also the last one to be allowed to have a concise final stretch of episodes, instead of a long stretch of serious mode episodes that sometimes go nowhere, and sometimes even end with DEATH PHANTOM being a glowy skull that needs some Silver Crystal blasting, or Usagi skydiving after Chibi Moon on the hope that she can summon the flying powers of a pedo-horse.

There are three big moments for Usagi when it comes to season finales:

1. Accepting her role as a Guardian in the first season
2. Accepting being Princess Serenity (and future queen) in S
3. Embracing her role and destiny as messiah in Sailor Stars

You're right that she went through a similar ordeal in the first season with more grace (but also with four years less of an attachment and bonding with her friends and lover), but there's also something else. It's semi-hidden away in her dialogue with Galaxia and later Chaos Galaxia insofar as that Usagi hesitates because she's not facing an evil energy being (well, in a way, she is, AGAIN, but Chaos in the anime - unlike the manga - might as well be just interpreted as a concept of what happens when you try to solve violence with more violence) but a Sailor Guardian whose outlook on life, fighting and war is anathema to her own. Plus the pure form of Galaxia, or what's left of it, in the guise of Chibi-Chibi and later the sword, constantly eggs her on to BE like more like Galaxia.

That's why she rejects violence as solution at the end when she realizes what she needs to do. It should not have taken her five episodes of doing nothing and watching everyone die, or maybe the writers should have come up with some other way to tie everything up in the first place instead of falling back on the ol' everyone dies and gets resurrected that we already had in the show, but I get how and why they did it in order to underscore the point they were trying to make.

I liked the joke the finale ended with. Look guys, Usagi doesn't get it.

edit:

The three movies are just one hour long episodes where nothing of any consequence happens. They're fun rides, but not really necessary. The only thing that kind of bleeds through is the beginning of Luna's and Artemis' romance in the Sailor Moon S movie. That's really minor.

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

That's my problem with "grindy" games like multiplayer ARPGs and MMOs as well. I've heard from people who habitually play them that they either play it to "relax" or because they're "attached" to their """characters""" (???) and don't want the game to end after all that time invested. If "relaxing" is the same as "mind-numbing", then sure, I guess I find those games relaxing, too.

One does the grind because one must, in order to be either Conan in PVP (Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of the women!) or an achiever in PVE. It's a means to an end, not something you do for fun. The rest is people being attached to the feeling of doing something with their online friends and guild members and still playing trying to recapture that feeling that is probably long gone already.

It's okay to like any MMO game as interaction platform for you and your friends. Insofar I'm also attached to my World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic main characters - they're the avatar of memories of achievements and online interactions. Not sure what the rationalization is for. It's fine to like the games as they are. Lord knows I've spent literal years playing them (as in years of actual game time, not years of being active - but that too).

Edited April 10, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

That's my problem with "grindy" games like multiplayer ARPGs and MMOs as well. I've heard from people who habitually play them that they either play it to "relax" or because they're "attached" to their """characters""" (???) and don't want the game to end after all that time invested. If "relaxing" is the same as "mind-numbing", then sure, I guess I find those games relaxing, too.

Pretty much we're I'm at. Then again I have a bad case of rerollitis where I will spend hours crafting character concepts I will never really play.

@majesticI think the final episode was fine.

The issue is the episodes preceding it. Like you could have cut out so much Usagi crying and had room for an epilogue episode and probably a filler with the starlight princess. Usagi realizing she couldn't defeat Galaxia with violence is actually good, letting everything fall apart and everyone die while you mope is not good at all.

[InsaneCommander]

9 hours ago, ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP said:

The software is bad on PC and worse on mobile lmao

Sailor Moon episodes 193-200

I'm finished.

  Hide contents

I'm too tired to do a detailed write up of Sailor Stars right now.

These episodes were pretty much all story mode, the starlight princess gets found, Galaxia attacks, and then we get a six episode stretch of Usagi crying while all her friends get killed (including Mamo-chan in a flashback, he hasn't been communicating with her because he's dead) until she finally acts without people telling her what to do and frees Galaxia from the influence of THE CHAOS and everything returns to normal across the galaxy. Oh, and Chibi-Chibi is Galaxia.

I don't know how I feel about the ending, it is very Usagi after all and it was actually nice to see her do something without someone having to say "Now, Sailor Moon!". The big problem with it is that she ****ing cried for almost 5 episodes straight instead of doing anything while all of her friends got killed by Galaxia and the planet was being destroyed by evil energy without doing anything. It is in character for her I guess, but it doesn't make good TV and seems to conflict with how she previously handled the loss of her friends and Tuxedo Kamen way back in season 1, where she still went on to confront Queen Beryl's evil flower form without having a long breakdown.

I thought about watching the movies, but I think not. This is the last Sailor Moon I'll watch for a very long time.

 

@BartimaeusI don't really play ARPGs either, they tend to be grindy and (along with MMOs) built around doing endgame/aftergame content with constant crafting or mining. Whixh to me much feels like it's working a part-time job instead of playing a game and **** that.

I won't find the exact post now, but you

Spoiler

(Bartimaeus get out of here, this will be a more direct spoiler)

Spoiler

once wondered if Mamoru would be held captive by the villain and if there would be an evil energy or something. Touche!

 

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 minute ago, InsaneCommander said:

I won't find the exact post now, but you

  Hide contents

(Bartimaeus get out of here, this will be a more direct spoiler)

  Hide contents

once wondered if Mamoru would be held captive by the villain and if there would be an evil energy or something. Touche!

 

 

Spoiler

At least this time Mamoru wasn't being held as the victims sex slave. 

 

[majestic]

6 hours ago, ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP said:

Pretty much we're I'm at. Then again I have a bad case of rerollitis where I will spend hours crafting character concepts I will never really play.

@majesticI think the final episode was fine.

 

  Hide contents

The issue is the episodes preceding it. Like you could have cut out so much Usagi crying and had room for an epilogue episode and probably a filler with the starlight princess. Usagi realizing she couldn't defeat Galaxia with violence is actually good, letting everything fall apart and everyone die while you mope is not good at all.

 

Can't argue with that.

Spoiler

All the playing hide and seek was completely useless too. Would have been better to have everyone attack her, die in the process, maybe Usagi yelling "stop" at them to no avail, because that's one of the other annoying things this season, yeah, don't listen to Usagi, what does she know. That's a two or three parter. Could even have kept the Haruka and Michiru subplot.

Easy to fix in hindsight. Not that easy to come up when writing by the seat of your pants I guess.

But are you sure you're done? There's still the live action show left, or Crystal, or the manga...

Bwahahahaha. *evil cackle*

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 minute ago, majestic said:

But are you sure you're done?

Positive. After 200 episodes I need a break from Sailor Moon.

[majestic]

1 minute ago, ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP said:

Positive. After 200 episodes I need a break from Sailor Moon.

Awww. Tuxedo Mullet is waiting for you.

You know you want to. xD

Sorry, just playing around a bit. But I heard that PGSM is supposedly liked by both manga and 90ies anime fans. I fully plan on continuing it... after taking a break.

So, anything up? Aside from maybe checking out Puella Magi Madoka Magica because it's short?

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

2 minutes ago, majestic said:

So, anything up? Aside from maybe checking out Puella Magi Madoka Magica because it's short?

I think in terms of anime that and Great Pretender are on my list. Additionally I may try to finish up Star Trek Voyager, that is the only Trek I've tried that I stalled on more than once.

[majestic]

1 minute ago, ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP said:

I think in terms of anime that and Great Pretender are on my list. Additionally I may try to finish up Star Trek Voyager, that is the only Trek I've tried that I stalled on more than once.

Before the dark times. Before the Kelvin, Voyager was easily the worst of all the newer Star Trek shows except maybe Enterprise insofar as that it has more episodes that aren't actively trying to deforest your scalp by forcing you to pull your hair out, but that probably was only because Enterprise was cancelled after it showed a marked improvement over the first two seasons.

Seasons 4 or 5 are the closest to having runs of several good episodes, but even they suffer from Janeway having bipolar personality disorder and the writers having no idea what to do with Chakotay and the less said about Neelix the better. Or Naomi Wildman. Or even worse, both of them together in an epsiode. Go away, SuperS-level Chibi-Usa, just go away.

 

[majestic]

Hm, so there I was, reading a bit of the Sailor Moon manga again. Fourth act, the masquerade ball. Usagi has found Rei in the last one and Ami before that. And I was thinking, hey, this isn't so bad. It looks nice enough, unlike Crystal, and Rei actually senses something bad is about to happen in a meaningful way, she tells Ami to ditch Usagi at the ball because she's useless and I was actually having a decent time reading this.

But then the three girls see the princess of Kingdom D without glasses and wonder if Umino looks as good without them, then they think that there's no way that can be true, Sailor Moon accidentially drinks some "juice", falls asleep and Tuxedo Creep leans in for some sweet, non-consentual kissing action on a sleeping and drunk 14 year old girl.

Yeah. Why am I doing this again? Something's wrong with me, huh?

Oh, in the beginning of Act 5 Usagi is telling Luna that she's getting fat. No wonder Luna ribs on Usagi in the anime any time she gets. It's payback.

Edited April 11, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

@majestic Yeah, compared to DS9 Voyager doesn't look good at all. Chakotay is a bad caricature of tropes about indigenous people and pretty racist when you really look at it, and it's very awkward watching his episodes now.

And you're posting on a videogame forum so there's bound to be something wrong with you.

[majestic]

Motoki is really weird in the manga. Was he this weird in the anime? He thinks all of Usagi's friends are sexy, even though they, at this point, consist of social pariah Makoto who is too tall and has weird hair and quiet, demure Ami who is good for nothing but studying.

Well, and Rei, who really is said to be pretty in about every other panel, but that's neither here nor there.

Motokoi is posessed by the Dark Kingdom and starts seducing her. Did I complain about this while watching Crystal? Poor girl can't catch a break, can she?

Oh, and Tuxedo Creep jumps into Usagi's room without knocking. Yeah. Pretty sure I complained about that. Hello Juban disctrict police, there's a stalker creep following a 14 year old girl. Hello?

Edited April 11, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

@majestic

MMOs: That explanation I can at least understand. Though an MMO would probably be my absolute last choice of genre for it being the place to socialize with others, but that's just me. I guess the one positive about MMOs in that regard is there's a lot of downtime so you have *time* and focus to talk to others, which isn't often true of a lot of other games.

Voyager: Chakotay and that one brain lady from the first few seasons (...Nes...sa?) are the worst on that show. Janeway is insane, but at least she's not a complete drag.

Matoki: No, no he wasn't...didn't he once say that he considered all of the girls to be more like little sisters? I'm pretty sure he said that at some point in the anime. Naoko Takeuchi seems to have some unresolved problems with boys. Was Umino a huge creep in the manga too? He was of course, a weirdo with some bad ideas on manliness in the anime, but besides those couple of times he was possessed by The Dark Kingdom, he wasn't a creep.

Episode 8, fantastic episode, sorry for the wall of text, I even cut out some stuff because it was getting too long:

Spoiler

"Minako was all like, 'Oh my god, those three are so totally hot, I want to date all of them!'" Minako gets her revenge for this treacherous gossip by immediately following it up with, "I've heard that being absent from class makes the heart grow fonder!". That it does, Minako, that it does.

Poor Makoto got bullied onto the track team instead of cooking like she wanted while seemingly everyone else is getting to do what they want to do, . Why is it always her getting screwed? Meanwhile, Ami printed off this sheet of paper and claimed it was "information about aerospace engineering". Okay, Ami, sure - seems legit.

Guess it wasn't originally intended to be legible. And Minako is...uh, insane, as usual - delightfully insane, mind you. I get the feeling Cherami Leigh loved voicing Minako's crazier bits, it seems like there's always such glee in her voice when she's going off the walls. Hey, wait a second, why wasn't Rei a part of this "WE'RE UP TO NEW THINGS" montage? ...Oh, wait a second, I think...the previous episode (which I watched like a week ago) said something about her going to private school, so I guess she's not here? I don't really understand why she's going to private school when she's clearly not wealthy while Ami is and also obviously has top grades, but okay...

I kind of love Seiya so far - he(?) reminds me a lot of season 1 Mamoru (which, as I've said many times, was easily the best version of Mamoru)...combined with non-Sailor Guardian Haruka (Haruka, like Minako, has a bit of a different personality when she's attending to her Sailor Guardian duties, hence the distinction). He even stole the bunhead epithet from him! Meanwhile, Sailor Iron Mouse, who I've just now realized after pausing on a frame of her while typing this looks a bit like a white-haired, mouse-eared Chibi-Usa, seems a lot like Mimette, which is a good thing even though I know you and KP didn't particularly like Mimette. Although...uh, why are her mouse ears visible in her non-transformed state? Not really much of a disguise... lmao, I don't know why, but her reaching to grab the ringing phone, pausing, then going down into a drawer below to reveal ANOTHER phone made me laugh so hard - classic Witch's 5 stuff.

This poor season is so ugly character animation-wise, . I can ignore it most of the time, but seeing Galaxia up close was a mistake - I think you're right, majestic, this season looks a lot different even from SuperS, and it's definitely not a positive change!

I appreciate that it's the other girls going boy-crazy instead of Usagi, who is actually NOT trying to be a womanizer like she has been in the past (and ESPECIALLY in SuperS, where her hypocrisy reached all time highs while she yelled, screamed, and cried at anyone or anything that so much as looked at Mamoru...or when Mamoru attempted to talk to literally anyone but Usagi!). It's a lot more fun for both the other four as well as Usagi herself this way (and so far, reminds me a lot of some of season 1's silliness). Oh my gosh, I love Minako so much - just immediately standing up and pounding the table while screaming at them to sit by her. And then she interrupts the class to go talk to him...and you better watch out, because she's going to do it again!

The halfway bumper just played, and I just realized I've already written this much for just one half of one episode. Yowza! Well, if this episode follows the tried and true Sailor Moon formula, there'll likely be less to talk about in the second half at least. This episode is making me realize that we missed literal entire seasons of school hijinks that would've been so much fun with these goofballs.

There is something seriously wrong with Minako, . Oh man, she's already having her way with the tall one! It's about time your 'charm' worked on someone, Minako! Too bad the show is only letting it happen because that guy is...well, whatever he is, I'm still not entirely sure yet, but I know it ain't gonna work out for one reason or another!

Usagi about to be put on trial by her fellow Sailor Guardians here if her fights with Seiya get any worse. Uh, these "high school" football players all look like mountains chiseled out of granite. And Iron Mimette just slides into the episode out of nowhere in the middle of all of this, and...wait, did the football player immediately recognize her as being a villain and then just zerg rush her? He got wrecked afterwards, but at least he tried compare to almost literally everybody else in this entire show who always stands around and just let it happen.

WHAT IS THIS MINION? DEAR LORD! Okay, so yeah, I've just decided that I don't want to see...well, anything like that ever again. Uh. Um. Did I hear that right? Star Gentle...Uterus? dr_phil_seizure.gif

 

Edited April 11, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Bartimaeus]

Episode 9 (much shorter, thankfully):

Spoiler

lmao, what the hell, Minako? This is so messed up...but that's why you're the best.

Iron Mouse just apparating out of the shadowy corn. Very Mimette-like - she liked to do really weird stuff like that too.

Hey, Usagi didn't have to be told to transform again! Heck, she didn't even say anything herself - just kind of choked on her Cookie Cat or whatever it was that she was holding with her man-hand and off she goes. Man-hand, you say? Well, take a look at yourself if you don't believe me:

You can't tell me that ain't a man-hand! But yeah, her hands are not normally that big, .

The Sailor Star Lights as Sailor Guardians are totally ripping off of Sailors Uranus and Neptune's beats and style in pretty much every way except appearance. But eh, that's fine - we're having a lot of fun with the non-fighting bits, and that's the important stuff.

This episode kept playing something that sounded suspiciously like the Bremen March from Majora's Mask for Minako's ambitions. I am almost certain that the Bremen March must be based off of something else more classic, but I'm not certain what. Either way, it is the song by which the chickens inexplicably begin to organize and march in unison - very fitting for Minako here.

 

Episode 10:

Spoiler

"You read my mind, we're like soulmates!"
"We're in this together until the very end!"

Uh. Yeah. Or something, guys, .

I'm glad Rei keeps finding a "way" to at least appear - it's a little weird that she feels...cut off from the rest. Why didn't they just have her be at the same school, too - is there a meta reason for this? Rei complaining about Usagi crying too much...but Rei, Usagi basically hasn't cried this entire season yet! She's so much better than she was in SuperS, can't you see that?! And the director lady complains about the boys being "fawned over" by the girls, but actually, they were all having a pretty nice and normal conversation like a big group of friends would, which I thought was nice. Hey, wait a second - why did REI of all people know who 'Sister Angela' was? Rei is the one who has been most vocally anti-Christianity throughout the series (understandably so, on account of her own vague spiritualism and all), so why the heck would she know a random nun? (e): The show apparently heard me, and Usagi explained it's because she's a nun at Rei's school. Alright then.

lmao, Iron Mouse just keeps her LANDLINE phone in her purse all of the time, just in case she gets a call? Perhaps calling her simply Mimette-ish is an oversimplification - she hasn't shown to have the technical know-how of Eudial, but besides that, she's reminding me of a fusion between her and Mimette. A strange pre-occupation/obsession with talented people, yet clearly dedicated to her job, both posh as well as completely silly, kind of absurd-looking and some odd physical mannerisms that are Mimette-ish...you're in rare company, Iron Mouse.

There's something kind of mesmerizing about those spinning stars at the halfway mark in this season.

"That's right - we ALWAYS sing at the very top of our lungs when we perform at our shows. It's all for that one special person..." *pans to statue of Mary* Uh, okay, show, . There are moments when I'm amazed I watch this show (and almost have completed it!), and being forced to watch Seiya do his dance routine is one of those moments.

Hey, Seiya actually appreciated that Usagi could save the phage? I'm not really sure why he was so resistant to it when he literally already saw her do that the past couple of episodes, but okay.