It’s time for my second-last recap of Sailor Moon! Last episode was a big one: EVERYONE DIED! Well okay, the entire Inner Senshi- Sailor Mars, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Jupiter & Sailor Venus- all perished saving the Sailor Starlights from Galaxia’s destructive attack- their Star Seeds were taken out (fatal to any Sailor), and they faded away, Mars doing so in a crying Usagi’s arms, teasing her (“Don’t be such a baby”) and telling her to fight on… just as Usagi realizes that her beloved Mamoru has ALSO been killed, his Star Seed taken.
So now we get the thing Sailor Moon does best: an emotionally-shattered heroine using the last of her willpower to fight. Oh, but the Sailors aren’t done dying just yet…
EPISODE #197:
We finally see the actual death of Mamoru here- the plane he was one was taken by Galaxia to her pocket dimension, and she announces her presence and her goals (“I rule the galaxy so I can do what I want with it”, essentially), and she one-shots him. His rose and mask fall to the ground as he is mortally-wounded… but he looks up at her, smirking at the fact that Sailor Moon and her friends will defeat her. When Usagi realizes that Mamo is DEFINITELY dead, she has another breakdown, but Chibi-Chibi teleports the survivors out of the battle. Meanwhile, the people of Earth are having their OWN Star Seeds harvested by Galaxia as global extinction draws near.
So now the Outer Sailors arrive, bemoaning how this was meant to be their fight, but the Inners came in anyhow (coming dangerously close to blaming them, but acknowledging that they should have been in first). But now it’s their turn against Galaxia… and their own stuff is utter weaksauce. Uranus whips out the Space Sword Blaster, but Galaxia one-hands it and actually cracks the sword’s red blade. Uranus actually cracks a joke and is teased by Neptune for it (“I think it’s getting dulled” “You’re blaming this on your weapon?” “Well I know I haven’t lost my edge” “Care to test that theory?” “Maybe when we’re alone together”), but Galaxia wrecks house. She even boasts that it was SHE who awoke Queen Nehalennia one more time, for the sole purpose of forcing Sailor Saturn to awaken early- “Why bother taking Star Seeds that haven’t yet ripened?”. So the whole first arc of Sailor Stars was her doing, and everyone knows it. Oh, and her next energy blasts wipe the floor with the girls, shattering Pluto’s Garnet Orb.
And then, in one of the all-time shockers (for those who didn’t read spoilers 25 years ago), Galaxia tells them to serve her or die… and Uranus & Neptune ACCEPT! They willingly give up their Star Seeds (and are given the necessary bracelets that let them survive without them), then turn on their own allies! The reasoning, at least, seems clear on the face of it, when Neptune clues in to what’s going on. The game now is to feign allegiance and turn on Galaxia later (with some grim, determinist “Let’s meet in hell” should they fail, of course). Neither of them SAY IT, but that’s their game. But their trademark ruthlessness finally proves itself to not be all talk, as they immediately turn on their allies and blast out their Star Seeds- Sailor Pluto & Sailor Saturn… are DEAD! And Sailor Galaxia just smiles, delighting in watching this- “Nothing excites me more than watching fellow Guardians, sworn to protect their planet, kill each other”. “Countless planets have succumbed to my power, and each time, their Guardians have brought about their own doom by betraying one another. Friendship is but an illusion”. Now THAT’s a mega-villain!
And so Sailor Moon and the Starlights, who’ve moved to redouble their efforts (the Lights being moved so by the death of Mars & co. to protect their loved ones), arrive to see Setsunah & Hotaru fade away, and Sailor Uranus & Neptune stand against them, ready to move in for the kill…
so yeah, another big one. Two Sailors die, and Neptune & Uranus turn “traitor”. Hopefully they’ll find that “Light of Hope” they need to stop Galaxia, which is so heavily telegraphed as benig Chibi-Chibi.
EPISODE #198:
Three more before the end! Sailor Moon’s still in denial- she’s still like “I still believe in you!” to Sailors Uranus & Neptune and Galaxia actually stops the fight to talk smack about how dumb that was:
“Are you really that stupid? Even after everything that has happened, you still believe in them? Hold on… surely you don’t think you can still protect this planet, do you?”
“I do.”
“… HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH!”
Then she tells the now-evil Sailors to toy with Moon instead of just taking her star seed, and walks away!
The subsequent scene features a World Shaking causing Sailor Moon to hallucinate that everyone’s alive and it’s all over, and the betrayal was just an act (as if to convince us fans that it’s not and just wishful thinking on her part)- this breaks her heart again once she wakes up. Uranus talks some supreme smack to Sailor Star Fighter about how weak they are “You’re just a bunch of amateurs- you don’t know your own limits. And that’s why you failed to protect your Princess” which is FIGHTING WOIDS and Sailor Star Fighter dives in for the attack. She throws several savage punches, and actually lands one to the gut, impressing Uranus. But a returning shot knocks Star Fighter back, and a combo World Shaking/Deep Submerge wipes out all three Starlights, and wrecks the area, leaving everyone on top of the TV building Galaxia used for a hide-out.
At this point, Usagi’s forced to look at the hell Galaxia is raising on Earth, pink lightning firing down from the sky. So Galaxia talks MORE smack, saying she controls the entire galaxy now, and demands Uranus & Neptune take the remaining Star Seeds. The blank-eyed Sailors stare down… raise their Bracelets to the sky… and their THEME SONG PLAYS, and they turn around and blast Galaxia with the attack instead! Oh shit, that was well done. Galaxia recoils, straining at the power, and it seems they’ve won… but nothing happens.
She just looks down, smirks, and praises their duplicity and willpower:
“I never thought there would be someone who could resist my bracelets’ control. In this vast universe I’ve never met Guardians quite like you”. “You took the Star Seeds from your friends and became my servants knowing you could die, all the while waiting for an opportunity to strike back? And I completely fell for it”.
And this AMUSES her- she’s impressed by their duplicitousness! Neptune is just BEATEN by all of this, realizing she’s killed her friends for nothing. “This is the end of the line, isn’t it?” Uranus finds their hands too bloodstained to “fly through the blue sky”, all waxing poetic about being damned to Hell. “I can endure it as long as I’m with you…” Neptune says, as their bracelets are removed and they fade away. Uranus commands Star Fighter to watch over their princess, and the two lovers still manage to bring their hands together as they die. “The light feels warm, doesn’t it?”. Those two and their hands, I just can’t…
So the next is pretty “typical Usagi” as she considers giving up, but the Starlights are like “Nu-uh! The reason they all fight the way they did is because they have FAITH in you!” and so they decide to show the same faith. They bring up the Light of Hope and the “Legendary Sailor Guardian”… at which point an emotionless Galaxia responds “That Legendary Sailor Guardian… is me“. SHE was the one who sealed Chaos within herself to end the “Sailor Wars”! Okay everyone had already figured that out by this point, I think. And she summons a giant blade and laughs as we’re out.
WELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL shit. Two episodes left, and every single Sailor is dead except for Sailor Moon and the three injured Starlights.
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