Jab’s Builds! (Miss Piggy! The Swedish Chef! Sweetums! Gonzo!)

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
Jabroniville
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Elsa Bloodstone

Post by Jabroniville »

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From bimbo Buffy rip-off to snarling angry bad-ass. Comics are weird.

ELSA BLOODSTONE
Created By:
Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning & Michael Lopez
First Appearance: Bloodstone #1 (Dec. 2001)
Role: Monster Hunter, Buffy Knock-Off
Group Affiliations: The Valkyrior
PL 9 (183)
STRENGTH
7 STAMINA 7 AGILITY 6
FIGHTING 10 DEXTERITY 5
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 1

Skills:
Athletics 6 (+13)
Deception 3 (+4)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 1 (+11)
Expertise (Monsters) 10 (+12)
Expertise (History) 4 (+6)
Insight 1 (+4)
Intimidation 6 (+7)
Investigation 7 (+10)
Perception 8 (+11)
Stealth 6 (+12)
Treatment 3 (+5)
Vehicles 3 (+8)

Advantages:
Accurate Attack, Beginner's Luck, Benefit 2 (Wealth), Chokehold, Diehard, Equipment 7 (Huge Arsenal), Favoured Foe (Monsters), Great Endurance, Improved Critical 2 (Firearms, Swords), Improved Initiative, Jack-of-All-Trades, Languages 3 (Numerous), Quick Draw, Ranged Attack 6, Tracking

Powers:
"Immortal" Immunity 11 (Aging, Life Support) [11]
Regeneration 6 (Feats: Regrows Limbs) [7]
Speed 2 (8 mph) [2]
Leaping 1 (15 feet) [1]
Power-Lifting 1 (6 tons) [1]

Immunity 1 (Vampire Bites) [1]
"Her Blood is Anathema to Vampires" Damage 5 (Extras: Reaction +3, Progressive +2) (Flaws: Limited to When Blood is Drunk -2, Limited to Vampires -2) [10]

Equipment:
"Huge Arsenal"
"Swords" Strength-Damage +1 (Feats: Improved Critical, Penetrating 4) (7)
"Knives" Strength-Damage +0 (Feats: Improved Critical) (1)
"Firearms" Blast 6 (12)
"Sawed-Off Shotgun With Exploding Shells" Blast 7 (14)

Offense:
Unarmed +11 (+7 Damage, DC 22)
Swords +10 (+8 Damage, DC 23)
Firearms +11 (+6-7 Ranged Damage, DC 21-22)
Initiative +10

Defenses:
Dodge +11 (DC 11), Parry +11 (DC 21), Toughness +7, Fortitude +7, Will +6

Complications:
Motivation (Hunting Monsters)- It's pretty much all she talks about in Fearless Defenders, anyways...

Total: Abilities: 82 / Skills: 58--29 / Advantages: 30 / Powers: 33 / Defenses: 9 (183)

-Bloodstone was one of apparently several projects at Marvel in the late '90s/early 2000s era that was basically a rip-off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer- Marvel execs saw the attention the show was getting, and wanted a female-focused & targetting project that mimicked it. Charmed got a similar rip-off with Tarot, and they also eventually added a Sex & the City knock-off to complete these weird attempts at "Getting female readers just means copying chick shows, right?". Written by DnA of Annihilation fame, it was pretty tongue-in-cheek (her buddies included a Vampire Lawyer, and she fought Nosferatu while writing an online blog and monster encyclopedia). She also appeared in Nextwave, a deliberately-silly book that may or may not be in continuity (several characters were acting WAY out of their old personae).

-Elsa Bloodstone is the daughter of Ulysses Bloodstone (and no, she was never mentioned in the DECADES of that character's existence until 2001), and was trained from childhood to become a monster hunter in a manner that's typically shown as comically-abusive, as he forces her to fight monsters and gives her inadequate weaponry to do so. She started off fairly silly, but like a lot of Nextwave characters, she sort of co-opted that version's persona, this one being a more snarly, angry type of intense character. She's later shown teaching at The Braddock Academy, and has joined Valkyrie's Fearless Defenders team, which is the only place *I* know her from. Unfortunately, she's bland as HELL in that, basically being yet another snide character in a team full of them, and just talks about wanting to fight monsters all the time. I mean, she literally only has a few snippets of dialogue, despite being an actual TEAM MEMBER of the namesake group.

-She later shows up in A-Force, showcasing a never-before-seen and never-seen-again power (an energy blast from a hand her father had replaced with a cybernetic prosthesis). She then appears in Monsters Unleashed, as it's generally her BRAND to, you know, kill monsters- she helps out the heroes and is central to showing "Monster-Fighting Tactics" and protecting Kei "Kid Kaiju" Kawade from the Mother of Monsters.

-Elsa's basically a lesser verison of her father, minus some Bloodstone Powers, plus some Anti-Vampire powers (10 points seems fair for something that kills Vampires, but ONLY if they bite you first- no Vampire would try it after the first time, or if they'd heard about the power). Overall, she's a PL 9 background character, but still rather handy (check out the points-cost- she's smart AND versatile). Her powers may be the result of the Bloodstone Choker around her neck- at least they once were- this would make her a bit cheaper.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Mon Jun 20, 2022 3:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Tagak! Gargoyle! Cloud! Moondragon!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Skavenger wrote: Wed Mar 31, 2021 12:38 am
Batgirl III wrote: Tue Mar 30, 2021 9:25 pm I won’t lie, when I was introduced Phylla-Vell originally I really dug her costume and it was enough to get me reading the book. I normally don’t like “cosmic” books very much, but was intrigued by her whole “Space Knight” aesthetic... and the plot was the typical confusing mishmash of nonsense that most “cosmic” books are. So I quickly lost interest...
I'll admit, I got into the cosmic series due to Nova's solo series, got further into it when Cosmo became a thing, and then expended back into Annihilation and forward into the GotG. There was some fun stuff in there, and some interesting powers and usages thereof, but in the end it just sort of...sputtered. I don't know what happened, but the sudden murder of Phyla by Thanos, the huge push for the Cancerverse, it all just felt so rushed.

I don't know if anybody's even touched on the fact that Namorita is alive again as of the end of Nova's title.
The whole Cancerverse story ended up killing the Cosmic Scene until the Guardians of the Galaxy movie came out and they had to revamp it again- the arc was a MESS. You could see the cracks forming in War of Kings, with the writers having way too much fun with the "Crazy Villain" Vulcan (Note: NEVER EVER write a "Crazy Villain" like that) and that story ending up being disappointing, so it seems to me like Abnett & Lanning were just losing the game as time went on. They shot their best shot in the first two Annihilation stories, and the rest of it was "okay, now what?". Things like killing off the Guardians and then going "WHOOPS NOPE!" via time-travel was kind of an ass-pull, messing about with the roster wasn't great, and more... by by the Cancerverse, it was like the wheels had come off.

That Abnett & Lanning were Warhammer writers, and the Cancerverse was essentially "The Warp" and behaved the same way, also made it seem like they were falling back to old ideas.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Fearless Defenders- Dr. Riggs! Elsa Bloodstone!)

Post by Batgirl III »

I like my gun-totin’ immortal monster hunter better. I wasn’t trying to rip-off Buffy, I was trying to rip-off Highlander and Doc Savage.
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Re: Elsa Bloodstone

Post by Ares »

Jabroniville wrote: Fri Apr 02, 2021 5:29 am Image
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From bimbo Buffy rip-off to snarling angry bad-ass. Comics are weird.
That's less "comics are weird" and more "Warren Ellis only knows how to write characters who are slightly different variants 'snarky asshole' ". It's why I kind of prefer he, Mark Millar and Garth Ennis stay away from established characters.

That said, I think the version of Elsa that showed up in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 3 was actually kind of fun. Since it's a Nintendo Switch game it tones down and profanity and her comic-book bitchiness is toned down to be simply a bit of playful British snark and wit, and she sounds like someone who actually has a lot of fun fighting monsters while also prioritizing saving people. So, you know, a hero rather than the kind of unlikable a-holes Ellis tends to write.
"My heart is as light as a child's, a feeling I'd nearly forgotten. And by helping those in need, I will be able to keep that feeling alive."
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Fearless Defenders- Dr. Riggs! Elsa Bloodstone!)

Post by Skavenger »

As someone who bought the original Bloodstone miniseries (I was...young and stupid then. Fortunately, I got older. ...wait) I was excited and then confused to see her show up again in Nextwave. Different hair color, different attitude, different origin. And then Marvel embraced that version of the character and kept adding more and more ridiculous stuff to her backstory and abilities. I like the character, it's just...hard to figure out where she fits in to things since people go "oh, she's the best monster hunter we know" and yet she isn't on a premiere team.

Also, she's hooking up with Deadpool now. Which is...ew. Not because of the skin tumors, but because I'm pretty sure when she premiered she was still in high school and Deadpool was already in his 30s.

Though, looking back, it is rather amusing that DnA decided to have their artist go full sexploitation in her original miniseries. A book meant to cash in on a strong, female character in their push for "things girls like" and almost every page that has Elsa makes her ultra-sexualized. It's like they were trying to sabotage their own efforts.

(...and yes, I might have also bought the Witches miniseries and liked it. Like I said. Young and stupid.)

Unrelated note, I realized last night something that always bothered me about Dr. Strange. I know he travels dimensions like it's nothing, but until the recent Galactus/Dormammu storyline, did he regularly travel to other worlds in the same universe? I'm wracking my brain, but I never remember reading about Mephisto/Dormammu/Shuma-Gorath ever trying anything with the Shi-Ar, Kree, or Skrulls.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Fearless Defenders- Dr. Riggs! Elsa Bloodstone!)

Post by Goldar »

Elsa Bloodstone....yeah, I don't know this chick.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Fearless Defenders- Dr. Riggs! Elsa Bloodstone!)

Post by Ares »

It's honestly a shame they killed off Ulysses Bloodstone. While having Elsa around as a badass monster hunter is fun, Ulysses had some history to him, being this immortal monster hunter who had existed since pre-historic times. Characters like Ulysses are actually kind of integral for settings like Marvel, DC and others that have these ancient conspiracies that have been around forever, or who have had monsters at times when other heroes weren't around. Guys like Ulysses are an easy way to explain why "Ancient Conspiracy X" didn't take over the world 500 years ago: namely he showed up and punched them in the face.

It's definitely less stupid than deciding the Avengers have existed since pre-historic times and are some weird legacy team.

Elsa is a fun concept, but the comics stuff I've read of her seems . . . really dumb. Like, trying to be some weird deconstruction edgelord quirky comedy book, like a bad British version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Elsa seems like a character with some potential that could exist without comically demonizing her father. It seems like you could have some Highlander-style fun where Elsa has modern adventures where she references past adventures her dad had or lessons about monster fighting that she uses. And what separates her from someone like Blade is that Blade basically just specializes in vampires, while Elsa hunts pretty much everything. She's more like a superpowered version of the Winchester brothers, but with boobs and a British accent.
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Celestia Denton

Post by Jabroniville »

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CELESTIA DENTON
Created By:
Steve Gerber & George Tuska
First Appearance: Marvel Two-In-One #6
Role: Demon-Summoner
Group Affiliations: None

-Celestia Denton was only around for four months- she is the mother of Barabara Norriss- the woman who would have her body merged with the Valkyrie in The Defenders and other books. She was badly injured and disfigured in a car crash, and was saved by the Nameless One. She prepared to sacrifice her own daughter to the Nameless One in exchange for eternal youth and beauty, bringing him to Earth. However, the Thing took a mystical harmonica that was the focus for the Nameless One's energies and broke it- Celestia turned to ash and died.

-Celestia is a nobody in the grand scheme of things- just someone's evil mother who may have summoning power (but any human could have likely done that ritual).
Last edited by Jabroniville on Mon Jun 20, 2022 3:32 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Candy Southern

Post by Jabroniville »

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CANDY SOUTHERN (Candice Southern)
Created By:
Roy Thomas & Werner Roth
First Appearance: The X-Men #31 (May 1967)
Role: Generic Superhero Girlfriend, Constant Hostage
Group Affiliations: None
PL 5 (36)
STRENGTH
0 STAMINA 0 AGILITY 1
FIGHTING 0 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Athletics 2 (+2)
Expertise (Business) 7 (+9)
Insight 1 (+3)

Advantages:
Benefit (Wealth), Equipment 2 (Pistol), Ranged Attack 3

Offense:
Unarmed +0 (+0 Damage, DC 15)
Pistol +5 (+5 Ranged Damage, DC 20)
Initiative +14

Defenses:
Dodge +4 (DC 14), Parry +2 (DC 12), Toughness +0, Fortitude +1, Will +3

Complications:
Relationship (Warren Worthington III)- Candy and Warren were together for years, though she often resented his constant running-off to be a super-hero.

Total: Abilities: 18 / Skills: 10--5 / Advantages: 6 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 7 (36)

-A lot of heroes ended up with "Generic Girlfriend Characters" in the 1960s, and Candy was The Angel's. She was a bit clever and a wealthy heiress, yet worked hard and went to school and all that stuff (for the late '60s, that was a tad unusual). She stuck around with him for a LONG time, even appearing with him in The Defenders and X-Factor (though he spent a lot of time pining over Moondragon in one, and Jean Grey in the other)- something like a twenty-year run as his main squeeze. Usually, she was used sparingly- she appeared for a second in Claremont's X-Men to warn of his being kidnapped by the Morlocks, and she was a somewhat jealous, annoyed woman in The Defenders thanks to Warren basically deciding to allow the ENTIRE TEAM to use his personal home (which she shared) as a Team Base. Plus, all the kidnappings (something she shared with their housekeeper- Patsy Walker's old housekeeper Dolly). Apparently, however, she started seeing real use, and was the "Brains Behind The Defenders", helping them out at their base, and working on non-combat operations.

-In X-Factor, she still ran Worthington Industries for the busy Warren, but they split up when she felt him drifting away, and felt he was trying to get into Jean's pants. Years later, she was finally shoved into the refrigerator by Cameron Hodge as he revealed himself as a member of the mutant-hating "Right". And this was no MINOR death, either- he TORTURED Candy, for MONTHS, refusing to let her die, and hooking her up to life-support systems. That would be some MESSED-UP Torture Porn in the wrong hands, and would have gotten a writer lynched if he'd tried it today. Of course, this was the female Louise Simonson writing, and was in a less-dark era, so it might seem worse in writing than it was on-paper- less like a male writer was getting his rocks off on it, and in a time period where that would be as shocking as hell instead of the usual "Conga Line of Disgusting Bat-Villain Antics" that sees things like Selina Kyle's sister go insane after being force-fed her husband's eyes. Candy was semi-resurrected by Hodge as a member of The Phalanx, but she killed herself rather than be Hodge's pawn, confessing that she still loved Warren. One of the more tragic & forgotten "Comic Book Girlfriend" characters.

-A basic Bystander with some credible Skills, Candy is a good businesswoman and apparently a half-decent shot with a gun. Still, she's a near-permanent hostage, so she's not anywhere above PL 5.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Mon Jun 20, 2022 3:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Fearless Defenders- Dr. Riggs! Elsa Bloodstone!)

Post by Jabroniville »

And that does it for my Defenders builds! With that and Doctor Strange, I'm a couple steps closer to finally translating over all my Marvel builds to Echoes! I still got, like, Iron Man, Daredevil, Guardians of the Galaxy, Space Heroes, Runaways, and most importantly, the Craptacular B-Sides, but I'm way closer to then end than I am to the beginning! By the time I finish there'll be a FOURTH edition of M&M :)!

Next up... now that we have Batgirl, Macyn, AND Skavenger back, what better time to force you all to indulge me than by finally finishing what's been 4-5 years of attempts at doing Sailor Moon!
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Fearless Defenders- Dr. Riggs! Elsa Bloodstone!)

Post by Batgirl III »

Just skip to the Sailor Starlights, Jab. They’re the important ones.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Fearless Defenders- Dr. Riggs! Elsa Bloodstone!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Batgirl III wrote: Fri Apr 02, 2021 8:08 pm Just skip to the Sailor Starlights, Jab. They’re the important ones.
oh you're gonna find my take on them interesting, that's for sure :D
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Re: Elsa Bloodstone

Post by Ken »

Ares wrote: Fri Apr 02, 2021 2:27 pm unlikable a-holes Ellis tends to write.
And tends to be.
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Sailor Moon (Full Retrospective)

Post by Jabroniville »

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Art from official SM art & Tsutaya.

SAILOR MOON:

Sailor Moon- Series Overview:
-And now we finally reach the end of my Sailor Moon sets, as I've finally reached the end of my 200-episode-long watch-through. I can actually give a more thorough review of the series at this point, detailing the qualities and flaws of the show.

Was it good? Well let's just say that Sailor Moon kicks the ever-loving shit out of Dragon Ball Z on every possible level, and leave it at that. Sailor Moon even has good FILLER. You LOOK FORWARD to Sailor Moon filler. For... like three seasons. 2/3 of the show is kick-ass, with only a few minor flaws. The last two seasons are pretty dire- Seasonal Rot is a harsh mistress.

Sailor Moon got its start as Sailor V, a solo book about a sailor-dressed girl named Minako Aino, written by a trained pharmacist named Naoko Takeuchi, who largely based the character and her family off of herself and her own family life. The manga did well, and people were interested- Naoko, her editor, and a toy company all got together and ideas congealed into "Hey, why not make a TEAM SHOW out of this?" And so characters were shifted around, and the "Sailor V" character was modified. A new girl with the same personality but a more "iconic" appearance was created, and Usagi Tsukino became "Sailor Moon", with other girls being created to fill out some of the planets of the solar system- a smart girl for Mercury, mysterious magical girl for Mars, tough girl for Jupiter, and Sailor V was made "Sailor Venus". And so a "Shoujo" action series was merged with the Power Rangers "Sentai" genre, and it set the world on fire.

Sailor Moon went on to be an international hit, and was there for the early days of the "Anime Boom" of the '90s. Though the Shonen shows became a lot more popular, and the show itself wasn't that big a hit in America, it had a very big "online fandom" back when those were becoming a thing, and so you saw a lot of obsessive fans like me traipse around and find everything they could. So much of what I think of as "Anime Tropes" were things I first saw here. Sailor Mercury's inexplicable blue hair (Robotech did this as well). The "sweat drops" when characters were worried or embarrassed. Still frames of people's staring eyes. "Limited Animation" disguised in a more artful way, as opposed to Hanna-Barbera Half-Assing. Transformation Sequences. "Filler Episodes" where they do Monster of the Day and Victim of the Day to fill time between the chapters of Naoko's book.

The show seemed simple at first, but soon got complicated, with a very huge, epic backstory. Usagi was a normal, everyday girl- not a big role model like other heroes. She was a crybaby, a big klutz, and did "normal girl" things like have a crush on a slightly older boy, struggle with her studies, and hang out with her friends. And then one day a friggin' talking black cat appears to her and tells her she's the "Pretty Guardian" known as Sailor Moon, and she has to help find the "Moon Princess". A handsome stranger named Tuxedo Mask rescues her on her first mission, setting off ANOTHER big crush. Oh, but she gathers a team of other girls with similar powers, and it turns out that SHE'S the Moon Princess after all! She and her one true love (Tuxedo Mask's alter ego) were lovers in Earth's ancient history, but were killed in a massive struggle against Queen Metalia, who twisted many other humans into destroying the Moon Kingdom. Everyone was reborn into modern times, and Metalia threatens to destroy the entire world once more! Last time, Usagi's mother Queen Serenity sacrificed her life to save everyone- will Usagi have to do the same thing now?

Certain things changed between manga and anime, as the anime was mostly staffed by men who wanted to see the stuff they liked, versus Naoko's more ethereal approach. Since the manga & anime ran more or less simultaneously (something that has produced a TON of problems over the years for other shows), "Filler" was added, as the energy-sucking monsters Sailor Moon fought at first were turned into "Monsters of the Week", and most episodes had a "Victim of the Week"- typically someone the girls would befriend for just that day, get to know, detail their personal problems, then ultimately save from one of the bad guys. This "Filler" would last for 5-8 episodes until Naoko wrote some new thing, at which point the plot would rev up again and we'd gain a revelation or two.

Each season would typically have a "Big Bad", who would slowly reveal a BIGGER bad behind them. They'd have a group of subordinate "Generals" who would either take turns or be the current "main bad guy"- in the manga, these would be one-offs who would die after a single mini-arc in the bigger story, while the anime expanded the characters and gave them arcs that didn't exist in the manga (such as the second general of Metalia's, Nephrite, getting an arc where he Discovered the Human Value Known As Love thanks to Usagi's friend Naru, dying heroically to save her life). Once the manga's first chapter ended and it was gonna be wrapped up... Naoko was told to keep it going, and so we got an arc where her future daughter arrives, chased by the Black Moon Clan, giving us ANOTHER big story. And after that, Naoko finally filled out the rest of the Solar System, as Sailor Uranus & Neptune, the most famous lesbian couple in anime, arrive and mercilessly hunt the villains and act unhelpful towards our heroines. And Sailor Saturn, Guardian of Destruction, is awakened to help Sailor Moon fight this Eldritch Abomination. And after THAT, mysterious villains come hunting human dreams, and we finally end things with Sailor Galaxia and her "Star Seed" hunters, destroying worlds so that only Galaxia remains.

The manga & anime end up immensely different. I find the girls more "generic" in the manga, with Usagi & Mamoru (the love interest) getting far more development instead. The fights are stranger in the manga, and the villains typically just easily-killed nobodies with good designs. The anime, left to fill time, actually did a LOT of inventive stuff to make them more interesting. I find myself preferring the anime a lot.

So Why Was It Awesome?:
-But while the backstory is a huge part of things, the REAL reason why people loved the show was the characters. Usagi was endearing to the young girls reading, who probably saw a lot of themselves in the flawed heroine. Ami (Sailor Mercury) was a brilliant mega-genius, but had a romantic's heart that got developed over the course of the show. Rei (Sailor Mars) was mysterious powers, but is a gigantic grouch who finds Usagi's character flaws tremendously annoying, and the two bicker like sisters, Rei's maturity giving way to childish outbursts and competitiveness that belies just how close their relationship really was. Makoto (Jupiter) is a tough, violent girl whom Usagi befriends despite the urgings of others, and turns into her biggest defender, and has an easily-broken heart despite her aggressive exterior. And Minako (Venus)... is kinda like Usagi and they struggle a bit with that, but she gets more and more insane with each passing season.

The first season is completely epic, gains some tremendous villains, and even has good arcs for them. The villainous Nephrite grows attached to Naru, and yet is honest with her that he'll probably just keep on lying to her. And he dies in a horribly-violent scene where villains impale him on thorns and he bleeds out before Naru's horrified eyes. Kunzite & Zoisite are evil, but are also in love with each other (a rare gay couple in villainy- Zoisite is infamously a female in North America for this reason), and Kunzite mourns his lover when Queen Beryl- their leader- kills him for disobedience. The stuff where we learn Usagi's backstory in the Moon Kingdom is just remarkable storytelling, seeming SO tragic and beyond anything- this is what hooked me on the show for good.

And ultimately we get this amazing Season Finale, where Usagi has to watch in horror as her dear friends die one by one protecting her. Ultimately it's just her & Mars, who confesses that "all our fighting was kinda fun" and bravely opposes the last two villains, immolating one before she can hurt Usagi, and falling to the other. The villain prepares to attack, but Mars turns, body broken, saying "I'm not done yet" and calls out her attack, burning the screaming villain alive with the last of her strength. And then poor Usagi has to kill her one true love (who was mind-controlled into loving Beryl), then call upon her dead friends to empower her to destroy the evil Queen once and for all.

This was INSANE and then they just kept going- . Sailor Moon R wasn't quite as great, but has a lot of phenomenal moments- Mamoru breaking up with Usagi, done to add more "filler" to the manga's story, is treated as this heart-wrenching thing that gives us a lot of perfect moments, like a smiling Usagi in denial over what's happening, and of course REI being the one person who eggs Usagi on to "go to him". Sailor Moon S is arguably the best season ever, as the fascinating Uranus & Neptune (a masculine tough chick and her "perfect" feminine girlfriend) arrive and prepare to sacrifice anyone they can to ensure the survival of the world. And then Sailor Moon's future-daughter arrives for "training" and befriends this poor, innocent little sickly girl... who has the friggin' devil inside of her, and the gang has to prevent Uranus & Neptune from executing the little girl until she becomes Sailor Saturn and helps save the day.

By the end of things, this show has the greatest cast of characters ever assembled in a team. Any of the five main characters could run a show on their own, and they all strengthen each other. Of the new Sailors, three of the four are just as good, and make up truly unique characters in fiction. Now, using them PROPERLY is the trick (read on). Also the fact that many were mega-hot (Shut up they don't actually look as young as they're supposed to be!) was a big help- Mercury seems better and better with time, Jupiter's talents are famous, and Mars is an all-time Dream Girl- a sardonic, argumentative, hard-to-please-but-deep-down-feels-the-most grouch with ankle-length black hair? HELL YES.

The Infamous Dub:
-OK, speaking of the Original Dub (which was originally just called "The Dub"): It wasn't THAT bad. It gets a short shrift by a lot of fans, namely because of "it's foreign so it must be better" and the general anti-dubbing wars that were FAR more intense back before there were many decent companies actually dubbing things. It was... heavily flawed, but decent considering the rules. Zoisite was changed from a gay man to a female for obvious reasons (and really, you'd have NEVER known without the 'net telling you back then), ie. it would NEVER have passed any censors, and this was the mid-90s. A lot of episodes were cut, especially side-ones that didn't involve the main plot. Sailors Uranus & Neptune were changed from not-so-subtle lesbian lovers to cousins (though leaving in enough relationship stuff to still make it weird). The Dark Messiah had its name changed. The Dark Kingdom is just changed to "The Negaverse", and later villains from Nemesis are also given that name, as if it's still full of evil people. Queen Metallia is called "The Negaforce". Character names were changed, back in the days before it was cool to leave everyone's names sounding Japanese (still, four of them retained near-exact names, like Ami/Amy & Rei/Raye). The team are called "Sailor Scouts" instead of "Sailor Senshi/Warriors", though both names don't make a lot of sense (the latter is QUITE redundant- Sailors ARE Warriors, y'know?- plus, they almost never fight on the frickin' water, so nitpicking over the "Scouts" thing is dumb as hell). These things were either necessary, or a bit minor.

More important changes were to plot points. The Season One finale was merged into a single episode from two ultra-violent ones, and implied the heroines didn't die. At one point, it's made to look like Sailor Mars STOLE the Silver Crystal when the original makes it clear she was given it by Sailor Moon to keep safe, which is a deplorable change that REALLY altered Sailor Mars's character.

So some were pretty big, annoying changes. But the main plot's still all there, and most of this really hardly changes anything too major. The most spectacularly bad example of Dub Fail is when Sailor Moon begs Prince Darien to "remember your name is DARIEN!" and he's all like "WUT?" and recognizes the name. Which is the name he's currently using. That's mainly because the dub somehow decided to rename "Prince Endymion" and just leave the normal guy's name in it's place. Just a temporary funny/bizarre moment, though- some people act as if this was a giant plot hole that ruined everything. The voice acting was iffy, but truth be told... people overrate original Japanese VAs all the freaking time- the original Japanese had a ton of REALLY squeaky-voiced girls, and the dub matched this with really annoying girls for the most part as well. Susan Roman was so good that even Dub-Haters enjoyed her performance as Sailor Jupiter. And despite the dub's occasional snafus, the show was still bad-ass, and more than worth getting into just with the dub. Is the original better? Yes, no question. But the dub is still a fine show if that's all you can get (and for 99% of the people on earth, it is- this show is infamously the worst-case scenario for additional DVD releases, matched only by Jem and the Holograms having an eternal lock-up regarding the rights- both shows took so long to get fully DVD releases that it was almost too late, and nostalgic potential had passed them by.

You have to keep in mind this was YEARS before anime dubbing became common, and "whole cloth" dubs became the norm- many of these changes were quite strictly ordered from above, so you can't blame the dubbers for censorship and little things like that. Nowadays, all the girls would have their original names, there'd be no English stuff, no "Sailor Says" segment, etc. C'est la vie.

Oh, and the MUSIC. WAS. AWESOME. Seriously, you will not find better "Mid-90s Power Rock You-Can-Do-It Ballad"-type stuff anywhere else. Think Transformers: The Movie in general tone and "believe in yourself!" attitude and you've about got it. You've Got The Power is defined by it's name (and actually written and performed by Stan Bush, of Transformers fame), and Carry On is just EPIC Final Boss Battle stuff for girls. Must-listen stuff, no matter how bad the anti-dub crowd whined about soundtrack changes. And honestly... the original anime soundtrack is complete garbage. All "soft jazz" & "synth-crap" nonsense.

My Sailor Moon Story:
-Bold statement: Nobody has ever loved anything as teenaged Jab loved Sailor Moon.

I LOVED this show when I was in High School. In a time when it was massively uncool for a boy to watch a "show for girls", I was like openly talking about this to several of my male friends at the time. I remember seeing snippets of it at first, glossing it over as a silly, powdery girl show, and making fun of it with my buddies at school. Then one day I was SUPER-bored after school (it aired at 4:30 on YTV in Canada I believe) and caught an episode... it ended up being the EPIC story where the Scouts met up with the spirit of Queen Serenity, who showed them their entire history with the Moon Kingdom, and then they subsequently killed the villainous Malachite. THEN, the next episode was the major "Them (vs) Beryl and the Doom & Gloom Girls" story. Bam. Hooked. Just like that. What a series of episodes to run through to start my fandom with this show (not in any way diminished by learning just HOW edited and hacked-up that finale was- they took two ultraviolent episodes- even for JAPAN- and merged them into one where you couldn't see the girls die, and everything was shortened in general). Plus, all the ladies in it (especially one Raye Hino... *sigh*...) were extremely hot, and I was like fifteen.

I became a HUGE fan of the series, and told my best friend at the time about it- he was hesitant to like it at first, but pretty soon we were a couple of secret Sailor Moon marks, hiding it from our ultra-macho High School buddies. This was my first major introduction to anime fandom (I loved Astro Boy and Saber Rider & the Star Sheriffs as a kid, but never realized they were Japanese, being like seven or something), and I became one of those classic mid-90s teenage anime fans, who had no outlet for the love aside from what was shown on TV at the time- VHS tapes cost a FORTUNE at that time, meaning I could only look wistfully at them at the local HMV store. Season Boxed Sets? HAH- not even a thing. So this meant watching Sailor Moon and Hello Kitty for my anime fix, pretty much, as the Animesplosion that Dragon Ball Z started (and Naruto & Bleach later ultimized) was YEARS away.

I watched Sailor Moon R (the Japanese name for the second season), then the ACTUAL start of Sailor Moon R (infamously, North American TV stations aired the seasons out of order for no apparent reason), then the actual original season... then became enraged because the magic 65 episode number (the amount needed for syndication) was ALL THEY EVER DUBBED. Yeah, they cancelled the series due to low ratings (it was big in Canada, but not in the States), and I had to go onto the internet (something not every household had way back in 1996-97) to find out the fate of the show- THEN I was introduced to the fandom proper.

I discovered there were Sailors OTHER than the Main Five, that there were five seasons overall, and that we'd almost never get the new episodes without a "Save Our Sailors" campaign, back in the day when every single website ever was part of a Webring and full of Shrines to individual favourite characters... I almost kinda miss that form of the internet (before perversion and 4channishness had created its own unique "culture"), but it was pretty chaotic and hard to find good stuff back in the day. You were lucky to cycle through the Anime Web Turnpike and find one or two good "Rei Hino Shrines" which mostly copied information from each other, and were written in the third person.

So yeah- I was a monster Sailor Moon fan right here. By the time they FINALLY got the last episodes of Sailor Moon R dubbed, I was sadly out of the fandom by that point (it was about TWO YEARS; an eternity in teenage years) and mostly glossed it over, though I caught most of it. I saw Sailor Moon S for the most part, but found it utterly boring and full of lame villains (despite the added Sailors and the lesbian subtext). Super S got dubbed as well I believe, but I was so out of the fandom that I didn't even care.

Nonetheless, now that I'm older (and wiser?), I can look back with a fresh mind at all these old episodes and characters, and I really appreciate it. I find myself more tired of the goofy antics, "Crying Girl" faces, occasional bad dubbing and the eventual sameness and stupidity of the villain designs, but the villains in the first two seasons are AWESOME (among the best General-type characters ever in anime or animation in general- I seek to copy this mentality every chance I get), the action is occasionally pretty sweet (the Tidus fight, the occasional times the Scouts took REAL Battle Damage, the Season One Finale, and of course Nephlite's infamous last stand), and there are some GREAT characters and unusual archetypes here, from back before every anime seemed to be a crappy shonen anime about "getting stronger".

The New Dub:
-Some professional anime-voiceover people are responsible for the New Dub, and it's pretty decent. Hearing Frankie Stein as Sailor Mercury, and Madeline Hatter as Queen Beryl & Berthier is a hoot. Though sadly their attempts at matching the dialogue as closely as possible (tragically, we lose lines like "Silence, you self-righteous prick!" from Prince Demande) means that we lose a lot of emotion from some of the dialogue. Though it's easy to make fun of the Original Dub, it seemed like the actors had more talent and impact. Sailor Mars sounds much older these days (though oddly, the actress- the cutest of the bunch, naturally- looks of a pretty normal age), Jupiter isn't as good as when she was Susan Roman, etc. Ami is definitely better, though- the previous one had a REALLY squeaky voice. Stephanie Sheh does pretty good as Usagi (who is supposed to be annoying- she's about 1/5th as annoying as the actual Japanese V.A.), but part of me will always enjoy the Canadian girl who played her before (if only because she used the same voice for the ultra-vulgar John Callahan's Quads).

The Show's Flaws:
-There's assorted other Flaws that you'll find in the series, however:

Lack of Character Development After a Point: The non-Moon Sailors get NO character development or focus after a point! This is the worst flaw of the entire show, and one that most later series wouldn't make- you actually learn almost NOTHING about the daily lives of the girls in the anime (the manga shows a bit more). We never find out why Rei lives with her Grandfather, or what Makoto & Minako's parents are like- we literally never see them, nor hear about them. In TWO-HUNDRED EPISODES, four of the main six characters never have their family appear at all, and we never meet the parents of Uranus & Neptune either. Hell, none of them even hook up with guys, or actually deal with personal things except for a one-episode-focus per season! And even THOSE eventually lead nowhere! The show creates these fantastic, interesting supporting characters (like Ami's love interest Urawa, or Mako's "Platonic Male Friend"), and then lets them wither on the vine with no mention once they've outlived their usefulness to the immediate. This is indefensible- the manga sidesteps this by having all the girls declare vows of chastity to Sailor Moon, but this creates the same problem (a bland, non-moving supporting cast).

And honestly, it's so fix-able. And would NEVER happen nowadays- writers are usually much better about showcasing the other characters and making sure that everyone at least gets backstory.

Part of what irks me is that it would be amazing to do, like... a Mars/Jupiter episode. Explore the contrasts between them (the two toughest Inner Sailors, but both with a lot of human frailty and fragility to them), deal with a conflict between them, etc. Or pair Mars & Mercury up like the old days. Or Mercury/Venus- can she corral the extra-insane "Usagi but more" Venus? The first Sailor Stars arc actually features a ton of fun bits in the Nehalennia story by pairing up oddball combinations like Pluto/Venus and Mars/Neptune, and the novelty is AMAZING. These characters are so fully-formed that you can get a lot out of things like that (in many ways, Neptune is what most of the girls WANT to be, but moreso, is what Mars PRETENDS to be- there's a lot to unpack, there!).

Repetitive Filler: The whole "Villain creates a new craze and tries to drain energy" thing gets cliched FAST, especially with three different sets of villains doing it.

Dumb Villains Running Away: What with the Generals usually being more powerful than the Sailors, you'd think they'd actually stick around and KILL THEM before they became too big a threat. But no- every General creates a monster and then runs away. This is especially bad for guys like Jadeite & Nephrite, who could probably curbstomp the tiny early groups of Sailors.

Weak Early Animation: The animation is classic Early Nineties Anime- kind of crappy. They'll have moments here or there, but usually it's very jerky, and the show is REALLY big on "sudden frame jump" stuff where they go from neutral to a big crazy pose without any frames in between. One of the directors is particularly horrible- you can spot him a mile away because he draws "Triangle Eyes", giving everyone some odd looks. Even five years later, animation in the business would drastically improve- if there was ever an anime that needed an upgrade into a shiny new version, it was this one. By the last few seasons of the show, the animation is far improved- the "watercolor painted backgrounds" fade away and we get real focus on that aspect.

It Can Be... Pretty Silly: Too much goofiness for my tastes, especially as I got older. It's a little funny for the girls to stick their tongues out at each other or be bratty, but nowadays it looks like something for little kids (technically speaking, it kind of was originally, but was meant to have a more branching fanbase as well)- especially with the fountains of tears, the excessive "pratfall" reactions, etc. They use the anime slapstick cliches in OVERDRIVE here.

Interesting Story... Ruined By Fighting!: Interesting characters and ideas are often left by the wayside so that we can get a standard-issue fight scene, which, to be honest, were never the show's strong suit.

Jupiter & Venus Get Shafted: Several, SEVERAL times, all-important "Sailor Focus" episodes are compressed so that Jupiter & Venus have to share. Even in seasons full of ridiculous one-off stories (that damn kid and his POMMEL HORSE!).

My Builds:
-I did my first set of Sailor Moon builds WAY, way back, and they were heavily flawed, classic cases of "early builds gone wrong". It took me QUITE a while to get this system, apparently (makes me want to be more supportive of rookies without dashing their hopes right out of the gate by pointing out mistakes)- each Scout had most of their powers built individually (ie. without Alternate Powers/Effects, which would make more sense), were PL 10 without actually fitting the mark in a few instances, the set-ups looked ugly, and most of their powers were flawed to the point of uselessness, being Tiring or Distracting, among other things. So I figured it was time to re-do them, with builds I could be proud of- my second set of 2e Builds. And then after Mike5000 (an old commenter on the ATT) suggested it, I kinda realized I wanted to re-build them proper in 3e, using my more modern sensibilities.

For Power Levels, I ultimately went with the idea that all the Senshi (except Moon when she goes balls-out with power) would be PL 10, like I originally intended. They're actually kinda hard to figure out PL-wise, since they only fought supervillains in their own universe, and never crossed-over, or fought standard Mooks like most heroes do (some heroes are easy to determine by watching them fight Soldiers and Thugs). For example, there's very few official Power Feats that AREN'T just blowing up villains. Some of the few instances I can think of: Sailor Jupiter blowing a hole in an apartment building so the Senshi could get in, and the Senshi looked SHOCKED at her power level (at barely a PL 8-worthy Power Attack usage). Things like falling trees are still devastating, and every Snare you can think of outright SCREWED the entire team. A few of the villains did more impressive things (Jadeite mentally moves some AIRPLANES into slowly running down the girls; Nephlite demolishes twenty feet of sidewalk casually), but really, most everyone in this universe is rather vulnerable, and focuses a tad more on accuracy than damage output. A Season Two enemy Koan lets out a MASSIVE fireball that merely severely injures the poor human it hits (Chad/Yuuichiro), and badly burns Sailor Mars, so very few people are EXTREMELY powerful, even in later seasons.

I would gather that the Senshi are PL 8 in Season One, and PL 9 in Sailor Moon R. They're PL 10 by the end of the series. Their powers were supposedly "upgraded" in each season, as they got new Power Sticks or what have you, but anyone other than Sailor Moon only had two power-ups each at best (and one of those was a one-use only type of deal), and it was more of a "say, don't show" level of power upgrade, so I don't buy that they're any stronger than necessary to match up with the heroes of Marvel of DC. This isn't the Manga, where they were tearing apart the entire planet with each fight or something (no, really)- they're just very powerful teenage girls.

For powers, I'll stick with the anime (as I'm most familiar with it), but I might throw in some powers from Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (the so-bad-it's-good ultra-pink Power Rangers-style sentai live-action show) for the hell of it.

The Basic Story:
Sailor Moon:
The Dark Kingdom/Negaverse shows up, being led by Queen Metalia and her minion Queen Beryl (no idea why they needed TWO Queens, though). Beryl uses four Generals (all named after a type of green precious metal ending in "-ite"). They need Energy for Metalia to take over the planet. Young teenager Usagi is contacted by a talking cat named Luna, and turned into Sailor Moon. After going solo for a few episodes (with the mysterious Tuxedo Mask helping), she quickly forms a trio with Sailors Mercury & Mars. They are soon joined by Sailors Jupiter & Venus. The Dark Kingdom tries to get the Seven Rainbow Crystals while everyone's searching for "The Moon Princess", which turns out to be Sailor Moon. The Crystals form the Silver Crystal (given some long-ass name in Japan), and all the Generals end up getting killed. In a final, epic battle, all the Sailors die saving Sailor Moon, who goes on to unlock the full power of the Crystal, vaporizing both Evil Queens, and dying. Her final act is to resurrect everybody, with no memories of their past.

Sailor Moon R- Part 1: The memory loss lasts exactly one episode, as Ail & An, two weird aliens, come to Earth to steal energy for their Doom Tree. The Sailors reform, and the whole gang realizes that the Aliens and their Tree are good.
Sailor Moon R- Part 2: The Black Moon Family arrives, trying to darken various points of Tokyo, in order to weaken it. They're from the future, when Neo-Queen Serenity rules the world, and they want their piece of it. We also meet a certain Pink Spore named Chibi-Usa, who turns out to be Usagi & Tuxedo Mask's child from the future. Sailor Pluto also debuts as a background character.

Sailor Moon S: Sailors Neptune & Uranus debut, working on their own to stop The Witches 5, Professor Tomoe, and Master Pharaoh 90, some weird alien intelligence looking for the Holy Grail (three items of power) and The Dark Messiah, who will end the world. There's a ton of pseudo-religious stuff going on, and it's all very confusing. Sailor Saturn debuts at the end to do the "I die using my powers, but then am resurrected" bit. Sailor Moon is, of course, The Messiah who saves everyone. Tragically, Chibi-Usa becomes Sailor Chibi/Mini-Moon.

Sailor Moon SuperS: The Dead Circus or whatever attacks with their goofy-looking henchmen. Queen Nehellenia wants to gaze into people's Dream Mirrors to find out who's holding Pegasus. Sailor Chibi-Moon is of course integral to the plot, in one of the silliest, and most-hated, seasons.

Sailor Stars: Sailor Galaxia, an evil Sailor, and her band of Sailors from across the stars, come to Earth to mess everyone up. The Sailor Starlights, a band of three women who transform into male singers, make their debut. Sailor Moon becomes godly-powerful, and resurrects everyone once they die.
Skavenger
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Fearless Defenders- Dr. Riggs! Elsa Bloodstone!)

Post by Skavenger »

Candy Southern is the embodiment of what infuriates me about what Hickman is doing with the X-Men. X-Men decide "screw you all, we're building our own nation. With hookers! And blackjack!" Fine. I can dig that. They sorta did that before off California, but making it more official? Neat. Working to improve the world while maintaining "we're tired of being treated as lessers when we're so much more capable?" Good for them. Own being powerful beings. It never stopped the Asgardians. "Anybody who's a mutant, regardless of what horrible crimes they've committed, is welcome, while all humans can GTFO." Wait. Wait. What?

So, they'd rather have Mr. Sinister, Emplate, Dark Beast, Selene, Apocalypse, the Strucker twins, and every other mutant serial killer/murderer/monster around and have gates that ban people like Candy Southern, Trish Trilby, Captain Britain (Brian), Kid Gladiator, Cain Marko (who keeps trying to be a hero until the X-Men ditch him again and again and again), Peter Parker...

Of course there's also the characters acting horribly out of character, the fact that they'll just randomly decide "let's take over an entire alternate world and install our own ruler," and the fact that I can't quite figure out what the POINT of the storyline is yet...but the "evil characters yay, good humans boo" drives me nuts.
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