Morgan Hudson wrote:

Yeah, I was hoping someone would make the Aquaman/Shin comparison before I 
had to. In YST canon, Shin is known for having very low self-esteem because 
he thinks his armour is the wussiest of all the armours and that he cannot 
contribute to the team much. In other words, he is afraid that everyone else 
is the Justice League and he is Aquaman. ^_^

The explanation they give for this is that unlike most of the other armours 
(like Earth and Air), Shin has to do most of his fighting while out of 
contact with his element. That means he is usually fighting at about half 
strength when everyone else is at strength-and-a-half.

	Hm.  And you're hooking him up with Rei, IIRC, so no help there. 
What he needs is a teammate who can whip up a quick little 
thunderstorm for him to fight in.  :)  Or just a big gob of water. 
But Ami and Michiru are already taken...

   And frankly, I find the mental image of Rei meditating in this getup
simply delicious.  Although, is she wearing anything *else*?  :D

Well, in my head she was. In fact, I was thinking of an image that I have 
decided to crop down and stick on my website just so I can show it to you 
(she is so cute in her hat! :D) - the link is

http://dataraven_659.tripod.com/reihat.JPG

	"This Image is hosted by Tripod."  Nothing else there.  Must be the 
anti-deep-linking thing.

   Having their own helicopter must be awfully handy.  Now all they need
is some parachutes and green berets.  :)

Parachutes? I think you're forgetting just how badass the Outer Senshi 
really are. :D

	Yeah, but they wear HIGH HEELS.  Doing a thirty-meter free drop in 
high heels is just begging for a sprained ankle, no matter how badass 
you are.

Oh, and that helcopter got turned into scrap metal at least a season ago. 
I'm afraid the only way the Outer Senshi can fly to Yokohama is if Haruka 
hits a speed bump going 120 and pulls a "Dukes of Hazzard" routine on us.

	Yabbut, aren't the Kaiou and Ten'ou families, like, filthy stinking 
rich?  At least, I recall that from a snippet of the manga.  Buying a 
new chopper wouldn't seem to be out of their reach.
	Of course, there *would* be the little problem of settling the 
insurance claim on the *old* one....

Sailor Moon is losing her powers. That part's actually canon for this point 
in the series.

<snip>

Sailor Moon is fake. She is a construct of Usagi's mind - but IN Usagi's 
mind, Sailor Moon is as real as any other persona. So, when she is given the 
chance to transform herself into something more powerful (whether it be 
through the Crystal, the Locket, the Grail, or the Horsie) she always 
envisions herself as Sailor Moon again. Maybe a slightly different Sailor 
Moon, as Usagi's image of herself grows and matures, but always Sailor Moon 
at heart, because that is who Usagi wants to be. Unfortunately, her power to 
become Sailor Moon depends on outside sources (because there is no *real* 
Sailor Moon for her to become, like with the other Senshi). When those 
sources fade, so do her abilities.

	Yabbut... she's carrying around (one of) the most powerful artifacts 
going -- it just seems that she *ought* to be able to plug into it 
(after all, wasn't that what she was doing unconsciously during the 
first season?).
	I know, I know, I'm a nag.  But I'm an engineer -- power sources are 
meant to be plugged into, darn it!
	(And I criticize Touma's coffee maker....)

if he went into the ocean he would generate steam.

   Enough heat to melt one Senshi of Ice, surely.  :)

I can't help it. For some reason, the Ami in my head just keeps singing 
along with Bonne Tyler:

"Where have all the good men gone
And where are all the gods?
Where�s the street-wise Hercules
To fight the rising odds?

Isn�t there a white knight upon a fiery steed?
Late at night I toss and I turn and I dream of what I need

I need a hero!
I'm holding out for a hero, 'till the morning light...."

Come on, admit it: you know the song. ^_^

	Know it, love it, bought the album.  Of course, Ami would never let 
anyone *see* her singing it -- I bet she sings in the shower, and does 
the 'dance around her room singing into her haribrush' thing when 
she's sure the blinds are closed and there's no one else in the house.

Yeah, after all her years of acting like she was above it all, she's right 
in the thick of it. Of course, we always knew that there was more to Ami 
then she was letting on. I mean, she was member, what, FIVE of the Three 
Lights' fan club? And Minako was something like one hundred and fifteenth or 
something like that? Ami is a hopeless romantic; she's just too shy to ever 
do anything about it.

	The world's shyest genius falling head-over-heels for the world's 
most obvlivious hunk.  It's going to take an act of God and Congress 
to get them together...

   "All right, off you get," Shin said cheerfully, as Shuu clambered
off of the board and splashed his way over to the island with all of the
agility and grace of a wounded pelican. "If you ask me, you got the hard
duty on this one, mate: I'll bet Ryo's having the time of his life right
now."

   Yeah.  Not having any reaction at all to having one of the cutest,
smartest girls in existence go gaga over him.  Bastard.

Oh, come on, have a little pity. As far as Ryo is concerned, girls are like 
some kind of exotic form of bird, or something. He watches them from a 
distance, but their ways are strange and foreign to him. He can't be 
expected to pick up on things right away.

Christ, he *lived* with Nasuti for, what, two years? And he never even tried 
to make a move on her once. Not even flirting. Not even a "Wow, Nasuti, you 
look gorgeous today!" or something.

I think with that evidence, we might be able to declare him legally dead. 
^_^

	Below the waist, at least.
	Hm... I wonder if he ever had a head wound when he was growing up in 
the forest?  Shades of NewRanma (heh heh heh).
	Man, the explosion once the penny finally drops (on his head), and 
this sudden realization collides with Ami's many years' worth of 
stored-up repressed libido... oy.  I don't know whether to buy 
popcorn, or run for Minimum Safe Distance.  Central Greenland *might* 
be far enough away....

Seriously, the Troopers and the Senshi have a lot in common with each other, 
and one of those things is that they all tend to be very lonely people. 
Aside from their own teams, most of them have almost no friends, barely any 
family, and no signifigant others. Given Ami's active imagination, it's very 
easy for me to see her sighing over an episode of Power Rangers (or what 
have you) and dreaming of a real, live capital-H hero sweeping her off her 
feet.

	Or at least a boyfriend who isn't Hostage/MonsterChow straight out of 
Central Casting.  Which, admittedly, is a problem various genre heroes 
have always had...

Ami's song may be "Holding Out For A Hero", but in my head Ryo's song is 
"Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman," by Bryan Adams. Ryo is almost like 
Peter Pan - he grew up with no mother, an absent father, and only a pet 
tiger for company. In fact, he never really grew up at all: he just ran 
around in the woods playing for the last fifteen years. He has never known 
the love of a woman -not even a mother's love- and he has never really had 
anyone that he has loved before. He's a knight in shining armour with no 
princess to pledge himself to.

	Like I said... Minimum Safe Distance.

cut this short. It is nothing personal, I think you are very nice and
probably a Samurai Trooper, but those looks you keep giving me are 

making my brain fizz and I need to sit down soon. Is that how you look at

everybody? How do you avoid getting slapped? Or married? Anyone with

   Poor Ami.  Her self-control is really gone bai-bai.

It's all in the eyes. No matter what he may be doing, Ryo always has very 
intense eyes. It's part of the whole "primal force of the universe" thing. 
As they might say in Narnia, he's not a TAME samurai. ^_^

	The funny thing here is, he's not giving her *any* looks -- he really 
*does* look at everybody that way.  It's *her* reaction that's extreme.
	Heh.

eyes like that needed to be slapped or married on a regular basis before
they became a threat to all womankind. And enough with the sexy voice! A

   R...OTF...LMAO!

Ryo's voice in both shows was apparently very sexy (or so I am told). In the 
Japanese, he was voiced by Takeshi Kusao, who is also known for his roles as 
Trunks, from "Dragon Ball Z", Parn from "Record of Lodoss War", and Sho 
Fukamachi from "Bio-Booster Armour: Guyver".

	Again, the sheer *illogic* in Ami's thought process here ("slapped or 
married on a regular basis") is just so bloody *incongruous* coming 
from her, it really drives the point home just how badly she's 
falling, here.

(sigh) Sometimes a guy can be so noble and virtuous that you just want to 
kick him in the head.

	Especially when he's got the smartest, cutest girl within three 
parsecs going completely ga-ga over him... and he DOESN'T!  EVEN! 
NOTICE!  AAARRRRGGGGGHHH!!!!!
	I don't dislike Ryo, it's just that, well, like you said.

a determined look on her face. The youma turned back just in time to see
Sailor Moon rocketing through the air towards him, boot first.

   Oh, no.  Not THAT.

Oh, yes, THAT. Don't blame Usagi: she's too weak to use any of her magical 
attacks. The good old fashioned Boot To The Head is the only attack she can 
still pull off. At this rate, she'll have to resort to throwing her tiara at 
stuff, again. And that will be on a GOOD day.

	Or, there's always the "sream-amplifying odango jewels" attack from 
the first ep, which IIRC was never ever seen again.  :)

   When *I* design the powers for a group of magical warriors, the
attack-activation sequence won't leave a three-second gap for
counterattacks.  Hmph.

Oh, leave him alone. Everyone knows that talking is a free action. Ryo's 
just trying to drum up some roleplaying XP from this encounter. ^_^

	I've just got a little too much Reality in my design philosophy, I guess.
	Of course, I've always wanted to see Sailor Moon as done by Tom 
Clancy...  :)

The Samurai Troopers have astounding strength, but they do kind of lack 
finesse. The Sailor Senshi have less power, but more precision in their 
attacks. They came from a time when heroes could afford to be more careful 
about who they hit. The Troopers were built in an era where they needed to 
be able to handle vast hordes of demons at once, because the things were 
practically *everywhere*.

	Ah.  That explains a few things I was wondering about, concerning 
some of your other comments about relative power levels.

As Obi-Wan Kenobi might have put it: "The Sailor Senshi are the weapon of a 
more civilised age, not as clumsy or random as a Samurai Trooper."

	So, if we have a hostage situation, or a zombied-civilians incident, 
the Senshi are the weapon of choice, rather than the Troopers.
	Cue:  Fatboy Slim, "Weapon of Choice" (just b/c watching Christopher 
Walken dance is so surreally cool)

   We know where Makoto and Touma are now, thanks to Ch3.  I'm guessing
Ch4 will leave us hanging on that score, and take us to the first
meeting of Seiji and Minako...

Well, by this point you might have noticed that Ch4 actually did not feature 
Minako at all, and had Seiji in it only briefly. Most of Ch4 was devoted to 
the fallout of Ch3, and everyone scrambling to help Makoto. Much as it pains 
me to say it, Minako will not be in Ch5, either: Sailor Venus will not be 
making the scene until at least Ch6.

	Actually, I have Mina's agent on the phone right now.  Something 
about screen time, and contractual obligations, and... waxing your bass?



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