On Tue, 18 Apr 2000, allyn yonge wrote:
Date:
Tue, 18 Apr 2000 20:38:57 -0500 (CDT)
From:
Scott Johnson <zagyg@io.com> | Block address
My personal concern is that suddenly everything and
the kitchen sink is
being thrown into the plot, and I think it's suffering
for it. The
premise from the beginning was a simple and
interesting one -- the
leaderless Sailor Senshi fighting a losing battle
against the Dark
Kingdom, with Soban now entering the picture to change
it in unforseen
ways. However, now we have the villains from just
about every Sailor
Moon
season running around simultaneously, allied with each
other,
##Errrr, actually this is a necessary part of the
plot. W/O SM to counteract the DK there
was nothing to stop the other Bad Guys from showing up
and staking a claim.
Well, yes, but there's nothing to require them to, either. Some of the
villains later on had very specific timing that I don't think much of this
would change much. And even if some of them were acting at the same time,
they might not necessarily even know of each other -- some have argued,
for instance, that the Death Busters may have been starting operations
while Queen Beryl was around, but the Dark Kingdom never seemed to know
about the Death Busters and vice versa.
(If you want to know the issues I've got with the timing and other issues
about having everyone active at once, I can send them to you privately --
a lot of it's technical nitpicking, and I'm not sure the list-at-large
would be interested. :-)
Beryl is the
only thing that stands between the earth and the
forces of evil. And she's not what you would consider
a force for good. It's rather like the Russians in
WWII protecting Jews from
Germans. Not because they _liked_ the Jews, but
because they hated the Germans
and because they had a use for the Jews as forced
labor. (this is a rather simplistic versions
of events, but it conveys the general idea)
So, in this case we have Beryl making alliances to
defend her _almost_ conquest of earth
against other invaders. And the other invaders forming
their own alliances. ^_^
Oh, I definitely got that impression -- that this was basically an
alliance of convenience that would collapse hopelessly once one of the
parties figured they didn't need the others any more. But still, I think
that Beryl's best defense, and the one she'd be most likely to think of,
would be to gather more energy faster, awaken her master Queen Metallia,
and use Metallia's power to wipe the annoyances off the face of the earth.
Inviting folks like Wiseman and Mistress 9 into her lair, so to speak,
strikes me as a little risky.
*plus*
we've
got the entire cast and plot of Blue Seed (which I
must admit I've
never
seen) thrown into the mix.
##Well, it didn't seem reasonable that the DK and
company would be the ONLY
problems. And BS seemed to fit into the mix very well.
There are a lot
of similarities between SM and BS, yet enough
differences to make a nice
contrast.
Well, true. (Or at least I'll take your word for it -- as I said, I
haven't seen Blue Seed.) But aside from the fact that I'd hardly
characterize four or five seasons worth of Sailor Moon villains as 'only',
I think this comes down to the eternal struggle between what a story *can*
support, and what it *needs* to support, and where in the ground between
them to put your plot. I've often thought that there's some amusing
similarities between, say, Sailor Moon and Revolutionary Girl Utena, or
even Sailor Moon and Ghostbusters, but a story focusing on, say, the
contrast between Ami's inner urges and outer face might not be the best
place to bring them in. Similarly, I've got no doubt that the Blue Seed
saga *can* fit in here, but *should* it? Or does it distract from the
focus of the story, which I percieve as Soban's tale first and foremost.
It's possible that you'll make it work, but I think it's important to at
least have the question in mind.
Sometimes, even the best authors (*especially* the best authors) find that
they can get a better story by cleaving away some of the excess baggage
they've grown attached to and making it into a tale of its own. Two
stories, summarized as 'A physically and mentally scarred Usagi turned
juvenile delinquent boss broadens the minds of the Senshi and comes to
terms with her powers' and 'Sailor Moon fights the aragami and finds
herself becoming a god-eater' might (*might*, mind you -- as the author,
you've got to decide) be better than one story summarized as 'A physically
and mentally scarred Usagi turned juvenile delinquent boss broadens the
minds of the senshi then turns into a god-eater and fights the aragami and
the Dark Kingdom and everyone else.' There's such a thing as too much.
Leaving aside the continuity problems
(would
Wiseman still be there without chasing Chibi-Usa into
the past? Where
is
Pegasus hiding?
##Two very interesting questions. You will be finding
out about
Pegasus in chapter 8. Wiseman . . .well, he's got
problems of his own that
will be revealed as the story progresses.
Well, I can't say I'm not looking forward to it. :-)
What's Fiore's story, if Mamoru's parents are still
alive?
##Another good question. Fiore plays a rather crucial
role in
chapter 9. I don't want to give any spoilers but I
assure you that
it _should_ make sense in the fullness of time. (no
pun intended)
Good to know. Just as long as you're thinking about all this. :-)
Why haven't the Senshi run into anyone but the Dark
Kingdom
yet,
if the others are out there taking Heart
Crystals/Dream
Mirrors/whatever?
##They have . . .to a limited degree. I haven't really
introduced any of the
villains until this chapter after all. And the Senshi
have limited knowledge of
their enemies. Without Usagi/SM/Super-SM/Princess
Serenity they've been on
the defensive for all this time so they haven't really
had time to do much except
survive.
Well, I can see that. But they've mentioned the Dark Generals and nobody
else to this point, which means they probably haven't seen any of the
Weird Sisters or the Witches Five or the Amazon Trio or whatnot. Which
implies that they've met very few droids, daimons, lemures, and so forth,
since they generally had their creators/masters hanging about. And people
like Mimette and Tiger's Eye are hard to forget. ;-) So at a guess,
either everyone but the Dark Kingdom's been fairly low-key up to this
point, or the Senshi just haven't chanced across them.
If Soban knows Queen Beryl by name, wouldn't she be
suspicious of
Mizuno-sama and co. knowing the real names of the
'Grey Princes'/Dark
Generals?), I have to raise the significant question
of 'Why?'
##Well, not really. After all Soban only knows bits
and pieces that
Zoicite & co might let slip after a few beers. And
she's not really interested
in knowing too much. (It's rather like running a mafia
bar. It doesn't
pay to appear to be too inquisitive.)
As for "the girls" letting things slip . . .they're
"game otaku". They know all
sorts of trivia. I'm following a SM tradition. Plus,
in real life it's only AFTER
the fact that people say . . . "I should have known."
I can think of several recent event on the news plus
countless examples from wars
(Napoleonic to Persian Gulf) where horrific crimes
were committed or
horrendous blunders occurred on the battlefield.
Yet it was only after the criminals were caught or the
battle lost that people saw that there
were clues all over the place.
And it's a genre cliche in Sailor Moon, too. :-) I can accept this.
Still, a thought at some point that the game designers really did their
research wouldn't be too amiss.
I _think_ that the "clues" that are scattered all over
the place are reasonable, especially in the
SM universe, but I will certainly go back and check.
They are partially in support of the plot,
partially an homage to the original amine.
A lot of it depends on what you're building up to, of course, and how you
have everyone react when they do realize it.
For the life of me, I can't yet see what adding all of
these elements
does
for the story aside from complicating it immensely.
##Ummm, it was NOT my idea. However it seemed to
follow logically
from the set-up. After all, in the original series,
Ali and Ann followed soon after the defeat
of Beryl. Then the Black Moon clan, the Death Busters,
Dead Moon Circus, etc. The fact
SM is missing would NOT stop them from coming. Quite
the contrary, she's not there to
stop them so they would be _stronger_. And they would
be falling over each other by this
time. ^_^
Well, what point in time is this, anyway? I generally go by the Sailor
Moon RPG timeline, which is pretty well-thought-out. In it, the Dark
Kingdom lasts for a bit under a year. Ail and Ann show up a few months
later, and the Black Moon a few months after that. Reasonably, though, if
things are stretching out long enough for the Dead Moon Circus to arrive,
with the Dark Kingdom doing as well as they are, I'd expect them to have
enough energy to revive Metallia several times over by that point. (By
the RPG timeline, that's from late March 1992 to January of 1995...)
For that matter,
I'm
not sure I like that Soban does not, in fact, become
Sailor Moon or
Princess Serenity or anything like it, as the ongoing
thrust of the
drama
would seem to have implied up to this point.
##Be patient. ^_^
I'll try. :-)
A scarred and wounded
Sailor
Moon would be interesting. So would a Sailor Moon who
had to deal with
suddenly *not* being scarred and wounded -- but only
when in her
magical
form.
##Actually that's what _I_ thought would happen.
However, when I started the transformation scene . .
.well
it didn't quite work out that way. ^_^
Well, I've had creations twist out from under me myself. But still, I
have to reiterate what I've said below...
There's dozens of variants that could work. But a
scarred
delinquent with a heart of gold who changes into
something bizarre and
goes hunting after the villains from Blue Seed while
the Sailor Team
watches from the background... I must confess, I'm
losing the focus of
the story.
##I'm afraid you're jumping to conclusions. ^_^
Just wait until chapter 9, things should be clearer
then.
(well, perhaps _part_ of 8 as well)
I'll try. Still, I can't shake the 'everything but the kitchen sink'
feeling I've got... I guess the crossover and the 'god-eater' form just
strike me as gratuitious at this point. I hope I'm wrong. :-)
I just think that the great core of the story is being
lost to some
stuff
I can't see as anything but extraneous. I'd love to
be proven wrong
and
have it all come together... but I just wanted to
voice my concerns.
##I'm glad to hear from you. And I don't blame you.
I was worried myself. However things are really much
clearer now. (at least to me) Several things that were
bothering
me about some later scenes now make perfect sense.
Well, I'm looking forward to seeing them.
Thanks so much for writing. I really appreciate the
C&C.
Glad to help.
--
Scott Johnson |
zagyg@io.com | This space intentionally left blank.