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.
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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