At 3:55 AM -0400 20/7/2002, Benjamin Goldberg wrote:
When I saw this bit:
"Yes. It's, er, your old one. I found it in the palace, after ...
well, you know. The one Iku has is Younger Mars', of course."
about the communicator, it stirred up some thoughts... IIRC, Iku is also
using the Younger Mars henshin pen, right?
Yup. Rei still has hers.
Would that have anything to do with why Iku's magical attacks don't work
quite right?
That is, they appear to work exactly correctly, just up to the point
where they would do damage to something -- the magical equivilant of a
paint ball gun; safe, harmless, but useful for training.
I was going to address this in the chapter (one of the pre-readers
suggested it too) and then forgot. Drat.
I've always thought that a senshi is a senshi is a senshi. The only
significant difference between an elder and a younger one is that the
latter is, well, younger and less experienced; she probably only has
her initial attack form.
After all, younger senshi are senshi being trained to assume the positions
of their elders. Sooner or later they need live-fire experience; they
have to learn to handle full-power attacks. In critical situations, they
might have to be able to back-up their elders, too.
(There is the contrary evidence of Chibi-Moon and her Pink Sugar Heart
Attack. But I suspect this was more a matter of Chibi-Usa's age, rather
than a Younger transformation.)
At least as far as SM4200 is concerned, then, the only real difference
between younger and elder henshin wands and communicators is in the name --
ie, purely ceremonial.
I'll update the chapter, somewhere or other, to make this clear. Thanks
for pointing it out.
Cheers,
Angus