Malka Korman wrote:

Richard Lawson wrote:
Chris Willmore wrote:

The same thing happens with Arthurian legends.  The same story has
been told over and over again for hundreds of years.  What's left 
to say about it?  Yes, applying and merging the Sailor Moon mythos
with the Arthurian mythos is interesting, and well done by John, 
but the heavy reliance on the Arthurian side kind of dulls the
interest, I think.  We've just *been* there before, way too often.
We *know* how it's going to end, and no matter how moving and 
dramatic the story is, it just doesn't rouse our passions like it 
did the first time we heard it.

  I disagree for a few reasons.  First of all, I think most people are
much more familiar with the sword in the stone bit than any other
part.  (Probably because it's the happiest :-) ).  I doubt that I know
a dozen people who know anything about the quest for the grail (except
for the Monty Python movie).

I'm confused here.  I was only offering an opinion on why people haven't
read and responded to the story.  They don't have to be intimately
familiar with Arthurian legends to be bored by the same story told in
"The Sword in the Stone", "Excalibur", "First Knight", "Monty Python and
the Holy Grail"... need I go on?  I did not mean the stuff I wrote as
criticism; I did not mean to imply that John made a mistake in writing
it.  Chris was lamenting that no one was reading it.  I was offering an
opinion as to why.

So you disagree with my opinion.  What's your opinion as to why people
haven't read it?

My only exposure to Sailor Moon has been the dubbed episodes, but I
thought that it made much more sense for Usagi to be Arthur, rather
than Rei.  Rei would make an excellent Lancelot, so the 
juxtaposition confused me a little.

I sorta went back and forth on this one.  Since Mamoru ends up with
Usagi, I guess it made sense that Usagi is the Lancelot character.

Yeah, but Usagi (Serena to me) is the once and future Queen, not Rei. 
Also, Lancelot is the best knight.  Usagi is definitely not the most
skilled Senshi.  Oh, she has power galore, but if I give you a pistol
and use a machine gun myself, I'll bag more kills than you no matter how
skilled you are.  Rei isn't the most skilled, either; I think that
distinction goes to Minako.

I realize that all that screws up the love story.  Guinevere loved
Lancelot a lot more than she loved Arthur.  John had to make a
compromise, but to me it's very disappointing that Usagi is not Arthur;
her grandeur in the anime seems to demand it.  I would have preferred
the compromise in the other direction; Mamoru falling in love with Rei
or Minako while married to Usagi.

I also felt disappointed that the tragedy, the centerpiece of the
Arthurian legends, was muted.  Then again, John's way makes for a much
less depressing story.  :)

All of the above is just my opinion, of course.

Gavin Steyn

-- 
-Richard
sterman@sprynet.com

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