Did Usagi Commit Murder-Suicide?

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Memento

Stella Nova
Mar 8, 2012
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#1
At the end of Act 12, Usagi makes the heart-wrenching decision to slay Evil!Mamoru (who has taken possession of the Silver Crystal) with the Legendary Sword. She then kisses him (as one does) before turning the sword on herself. The two collapse, presumably dead, and are then engulfed by the Silver Crystal, which has grown enormous (and is then, in turn, engulfed by Metalia). To give the Silver Crystal a chance to defeat Metalia, Venus and company sacrifice their transformation pens (and their lives), ostensibly to revive Usagi. They all fall down dead, and after some Silver Millennium flashbacks that are confusingly narrated (it's really hard to parse what narration should be attributed to what character), Usagi wakes up inside the Silver Crystal, but also with the Silver Crystal, which then takes on its lotus form. Usagi holds Mamoru's hand and he revives.

Or so it all seems.

Now, with the magic of visual aids, let's go back through all that because things do not make sense and I have questions.



Here it looks like Usagi merely swiped at Mamoru with the sword; she didn't run him through with the blade - she slashed at him. But did she even do that? Yes Mamoru's clutching at his chest, and it kind of looks like that grayish-blue substance that is supposedly blood but just looks like gone off grape soda is coming out of his chest, but his shirt isn't torn, and the sword is completely clean. I know, I know: it's foolish to expect attention to detail in the manga (or any facet of this franchise), so let's continue.



This is supposed to be depicting Usagi's suicide, but the sword doesn't appear to be piercing her body. She certainly didn't run herself through with it. At most she poked herself with it. Hardly a mortal wound. And what's up with that corner panel? If *that* panel is meant to convey her suicide, with the rest of the pages showing her pulling the sword out of her chest (which: A) Why? B) Ow) then why does Usagi not appear to have any physical wounds? And if that panel isn't meant to convey her suicide, then why is the sword surrounded by that fluid? Is that stuff *not* blood after all?



"Blood" seems to be spilling out of Usagi's chest here, suggesting she did stab herself. But why is the sword clean? Is that stuff blood or isn't it? Did she stab herself or didn't she?



If that stuff *is* blood, I feel like that's a cartoonish amount for them to be lying in, but I guess...what else could that stuff be?



Venus and company sacrifice their transformation pens (to bring Usagi back to life(?)) and then die.
1. The transformation pens may be sources of great power, but they are not the girls' life sources. Sacrificing those pens should result in their detransformation and inability to transform and use their powers again. It makes no sense that this kills them. (But I guess it's just meant to be metaphorical and they're *actually* sacrificing their life force?)
2. Why do they end up in pools of their "blood"? Did Metalia slash at them? Because again, they have no apparent physical injuries, so I don't know what's responsible for the blood loss, unless sacrificing pens causes mass hemorrhaging.



Princess Serenity's suicide just looks a lot less ambiguous than Usagi's.



And here we arrive at the heart of the matter: When Usagi wakes up and realizes she's neither dead nor injured, she looks at Mamoru's pocket watch and thinks to herself that it must have stopped the blade of the Legendary Sword. Questions of where, exactly, she was keeping the watch on her person aside, the watch is clearly more damaged than it was previously, which would seem to prove it did come in contact with the sword. But could a pocket watch really deflect a sword? (Of course, is Usagi strong enough to ram a sword through a metal watch? Probably not.) If the pocket watch *did* deflect the sword, then Usagi didn't commit suicide. But then where did all that "blood" come from? Why did she pass out? Stress? Doesn't this mean the Inners died for nothing?



The same thing happens when Mamoru wakes up after Usagi rubs his hand: he finds a kunzite stone in his pocket and concludes it spared him from the sword. But then where did *his* "blood" come from, and why did he pass out?

It just doesn't make any sense. Either Usagi did kill Evil!Mamoru and then herself, and the Inners didn't die in vain, and these pocket watch and stone bits are just space-killing pointless nonsense, or the watch and rock did prevent Usagi and Mamoru from dying and the Inners sacrificed their lives for nothing.

In either case...

If Usagi killed herself, she came back to life without benefit of reincarnation. That makes her a zombie.
If Usagi killed Mamoru, he came back to life without benefit of reincarnation. That makes him a zombie.
If Usagi *didn't* kill Mamoru, he still most likely died as result of Kunzite's attack at the end of Act 8, and was revived by Beryl with Metalia's power. Mamoru may now no longer be under Metalia's evil thrall, but he still died and came back without benefit of reincarnation. That makes him a zombie.

I know this fandom is at b*tch eating crackers with the franchise, and especially Dark Kingdom adaptations at the moment, but I would LOVE an adaptation that really committed to making Usagi and Mamoru zombies from that point forward. There's so much potential for horror and humor in that and it could be so incredible.
 
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Dec 7, 2009
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#4
Yeah I never really got that either. It's so weird. I guess it was going for the Romeo and Juliet thing with the inners, think they're dead and kill themselves but turns out they only *appeared* dead. It's so weird x_x I can't even put a positive spin on it, it was just weird.
 

Memento

Stella Nova
Mar 8, 2012
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#5
This why im not such a big fan of this arc in the manga. It has its moments but overall it ends on such a bizarre and sour note. Good thing is that after first arc Naoko really got so much better with story telling and planning (except Stars)
The DK arc in the manga is pretty solid through Act 10. And then it gets.... Well, let's just say choices were made and leave it at that.
 

Starlight

Aurorae Lunares
May 31, 2009
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#6
Trying to come up with an in-universe explanation here. What if the pocket watch and the kunzite stone only deflected the blows partially? The sword may have wounded them (hence the blood), but the items prevented it from inflicting a mortal wound (like piercing vital organs and whatnot) and the Inners' life force simply healed them.
 
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Jun 6, 2006
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#7
Wait... is it not a murder suicide? Doesn’t Queen Serenity even clearly mention Serenity killed her self?

They probably didn’t make the blood red as a form of creative censorship (probably the same reason why Nephrite bleeds green in the anime)
 
Sep 13, 2008
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In the shadows throwing roses at you
#8
they tried to do the tragic romance thing like Romeo/Juliet but it came out sloppily done almost for shock value like they want the reader to go "OMG is she really gonna sacrifice herself again??" I never liked this idea
I suppose in Usagi's mind she thought her next life she'd meet chiba again and set things right


90s anime gets it right showing Usagi going it alone with nothing to lose after everyone was taken away from her by Beryl and her MOTD's
and then you get the inners spirits in that final battle it's so awesome then you get the wish it's so much better to me
 

Memento

Stella Nova
Mar 8, 2012
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#9
they tried to do the tragic romance thing like Romeo/Juliet but it came out sloppily done almost for shock value like they want the reader to go "OMG is she really gonna sacrifice herself again??" I never liked this idea
And then Naoko referenced Rapunzel by having Mamoru be blind for like three pages, which is another element of the manga that has not aged well.

Wait... is it not a murder suicide? Doesn’t Queen Serenity even clearly mention Serenity killed her self?
Princess Serenity committed suicide. Queen Serenity only appears in flashbacks in Act 13 and never says anything about whether Usagi committed suicide.
 

Nadia

Aurorae Lunares
Jun 30, 2010
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#12
I'm cutting the post because I just waned to address this part and Takeuchi's shortcomings as a sequential storyteller are evident through this breakdown.

If Usagi killed herself, she came back to life without benefit of reincarnation. That makes her a zombie.
If Usagi killed Mamoru, he came back to life without benefit of reincarnation. That makes him a zombie.
If Usagi *didn't* kill Mamoru, he still most likely died as result of Kunzite's attack at the end of Act 8, and was revived by Beryl with Metalia's power. Mamoru may now no longer be under Metalia's evil thrall, but he still died and came back without benefit of reincarnation. That makes him a zombie.

I know this fandom is at b*tch eating crackers with the franchise, and especially Dark Kingdom adaptations at the moment, but I would LOVE an adaptation that really committed to making Usagi and Mamoru zombies from that point forward. There's so much potential for horror and humor in that and it could be so incredible.
Sailor Zombies definitely has a nice ring to it.

You're right in the Mamoru is literally a dead man no matter how you spin it. Given that he doesn't even have powers of his own until after dying, maybe getting killed was the best thing for him.

I'm evil and would like to see the consequences played out seriously, this would add to the existing body horror of Usagi already having her body revert to her Silver Millennium self. Now she has to deal with being undead. Even if it's the benign form of zombie, this should give her a crisis on top of everything else she has been through.

This also could serve to have severe consequences later on down the road?. What if when she uses the Silver Crystal to extend the life of humans, instead she ends up turning humans into immortal revenants? This would catapult Death Phantom's plans from being evil to truly being morally gray, as restoring death to a world of of undeath would be a more clear restoration of the natural way of things. The Black Moon Clan, instead of being rebels without a clue would actually be outright freedom fighters.
 
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Onuzim Ima

Aurorae Lunares
Aug 11, 2010
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#13
What if when she uses the Silver Crystal to extend the life of humans, instead she ends up turning humans into immortal revenants? […]The Black Moon Clan, instead of being rebels without a clue would actually be outright freedom fighters.
Even then, this wouldn't excuse their actions (Killing innocent civillians, threatening a child, collateral & property damage). IMHO, Terrorism in ANY form is NEVER, EVER justified, under any circumstances. Total No-Go. :x

Sailors Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were willing to kill Hotaru Tomoe in the manga because if she awakened into Sailor Saturn, she had the power to destroy the world. Does that make them terrorists?
Technically speaking, yes. As the unforgettable James T. Kirk said: The needs of a single person weighs exactly as much as the needs of the many. Now put that in your pipes and smoke it, Vulcans. :happy:

P. S.: Only my personal Naught Point Naught Two Dollars, of course. Your Mileage may vary. :ami:
 
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Jun 6, 2006
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#14
Princess Serenity committed suicide. Queen Serenity only appears in flashbacks in Act 13 and never says anything about whether Usagi committed suicide.
I’m losing it. I could’ve sworn in the Tokyopop edition she says “in your grief, you committed suicide”
 
Jun 6, 2006
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#16
Doesn’t that imply Usagi does the same thing in the present? I don’t think it’s suppose to be as ambiguous as you’ve read it.
 
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Memento

Stella Nova
Mar 8, 2012
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#17
In terms of what Naoko intended, you're right that it's not *meant* to be ambiguous - present day Usagi committed suicide.

But in terms of what Naoko actually wrote and drew...? The manga doesn't match what she had in mind. Things just don't add up for me. Pushing authorial intent aside and focusing on the text as is, there's room for doubt.
 
Jun 6, 2006
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#18
In terms of what Naoko intended, you're right that it's not *meant* to be ambiguous - present day Usagi committed suicide.

But in terms of what Naoko actually wrote and drew...? The manga doesn't match what she had in mind. Things just don't add up for me. Pushing authorial intent aside and focusing on the text as is, there's room for doubt.
She’s just a bad artist idk what else to say
 

Nadia

Aurorae Lunares
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#20
She’s just a bad artist idk what else to say
I wouldn't go that far, and she actually is a good (although not great) artist as her covers and standalone art pieces show. Even the panels themselves aren't poorly drawn, but inconsistent in terms of content. Takeuchi is just not a good sequential storyteller, which is a completely different skillset. Unfortunately to have a good manga, being a good sequential storyteller is essential, even moreso than being a good artist. If you don't know how panels work and you don't know how to tell a story with the space on the page...you get pages make no sense.

Even then, this wouldn't justify their actions (Killing innocent civilians, threatening a child, collateral & property damage). IMHO, Terrorism in ANY form is NEVER, EVER okay. Total No-Go. :x
So you're saying if an I Am Legend/Daybreakers-style scenario took place where most if the living beings were turned into undead against their will, and the only way to even possibly change anything would be to go to the past and kill people, you would think that these were the villains? I'm pro-human, so I'm going to disagree.

I'm not saying they'd be good (again, zombiehood can be as benign as living normally, but just with a few restrictions; it doesn't necessarily mean being a flesh-eater). They'd be morally gray since as you mention, they would kill innocents, but in their defense, they come from a world where people possibly can't die. Heck, who knows? Maybe despite rejecting the philosophy of Crystal Tokyo, since they were still zombies (of the pro-humanist kind) and that warped their thinking since forced immortality has a way of warping perspective. Congratulations, Neo-Queen Serenity, you doomed the humanity you tried to save!

Plus, these guys don't know who Neo-Queen Serenity is in the past, so they have to flush her out somehow. What better way to force the "heroes" to show their hands by becoming "villains" and causing chaos? Kill the cheerleader. Save the world.

Sailors Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were willing to kill Hotaru Tomoe in the manga because if she awakened into Sailor Saturn, she had the power to destroy the world. Does that make them terrorists?

Edit: I need to finish sentences.
 
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