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Only 16 (Feels Like Decades)
Mar. 25th, 2010 01:21 amSo, bad girl that I am, I've been working more on the revisions for Only 16 than I have been WDKY27. For shame. But it certainly helps that Only 16 is already written, has been written, and I've had years to stew over what I hate about it.
Namely, the appearance of the three "Sue-Senshi," the Fates. They're going buh-bye, and I don't mind telling you so. I normally would strive harder so that any "New Senshi" fics would somehow work out without them taking over the story, but "Only 16" was never about them in the first place, so it makes sense not to let the story end with them. It actually makes the MOST sense to never let them enter the story in the first place, since the story can be told without them, and having them in it was just a cheap way of tying up loose ends.
Getting rid of them altogether, however, means a whole new ending, and a lot of new emotional twists to get the story there. I've been thinking of a few that have been driving me crazy (along the lines of "Are you nuts? What fandom there is left will rip you a new one!") but I'm almost tempted just to try it and see if I can do it well enough to be considered "a good fic." It would be especially awesome to have some of the ladies that originally read O16 give me their opinions of the revision as I work my way through it; Chapter One is already up at FFnet and AO3 and I'm working on a version that will display properly on MMorg (the other chapters are still up on FFnet, but they're the fugly old ones; read at your own risk).
Anyway, all this planning for a new, proper ending of Only 16 has had me thinking about a few things, namely:
The differences between the Sailor Moon anime and manga, especially starting with my favorite arc, Sailor Moon R (Part 2 in the anime, because Part 1 was that "filler arc" featuring Ail and Ann, the aliens that never showed up in the manga because that arc was made explicitly so Naoko had more time to work on the manga).
More specifically, the huge, canon-impacting differences toward the end of the series: not just the Starlights being MTFs in the anime (so to speak), but the fact that there is no Galaxy Cauldron! In the last episode of the anime, Serenity chooses NOT to fight and that becomes her strength: her willpower to not give up but not fight is very different from the Eternal Sailor Moon that willingly gave up her life to reboot the Cauldron and "be one" with her former enemies in the manga.
You know how I love time travel and such? I thought since Pluto plays a role in Sailor Moon R, she could feature more heavily in Only 16 and still not rely on outsiders like the "Fates," and there'd be more of a big message (because my best stories, IMO, tend to have explicit messages like that in them, even if others don't realize it necessarily) about our decisions and things like regret.
I got to thinking HOW I could pull it off, but I remembered the differences between the anime (in which Only 16 takes place, because the break-up never occurs in the manga, and that's really the crux of Only 16) and the manga, and now I'm wondering how it could ever take place in the anime-verse. In the anime, we don't see Sailor Cosmos (explicitly; the Light of Hope certainly seems to resemble her, but it's also said that the Light of Hope IS Galaxia's Star Seed, meaning Sailor Moon herself is NOT the Light of Hope, but Galaxia is! Kind of odd, actually...), there's no Guardian Cosmos, no Cauldron, no decision to live "as we are" instead of birthing a new star, and no travel into the 30th century for a conception and a wedding!
All that being said, it may still be possible to pull off the idea I have, but I wonder if combining in elements from the manga might make it easier than trying to wrap the different anime canon around the facts I already have. It could still work, just...weirder, slightly different. And I'm being vague, I know, because I'm excited about this potential plot twist and don't want to ruin it entirely.
Anyone want to beta the revisions?
Namely, the appearance of the three "Sue-Senshi," the Fates. They're going buh-bye, and I don't mind telling you so. I normally would strive harder so that any "New Senshi" fics would somehow work out without them taking over the story, but "Only 16" was never about them in the first place, so it makes sense not to let the story end with them. It actually makes the MOST sense to never let them enter the story in the first place, since the story can be told without them, and having them in it was just a cheap way of tying up loose ends.
Getting rid of them altogether, however, means a whole new ending, and a lot of new emotional twists to get the story there. I've been thinking of a few that have been driving me crazy (along the lines of "Are you nuts? What fandom there is left will rip you a new one!") but I'm almost tempted just to try it and see if I can do it well enough to be considered "a good fic." It would be especially awesome to have some of the ladies that originally read O16 give me their opinions of the revision as I work my way through it; Chapter One is already up at FFnet and AO3 and I'm working on a version that will display properly on MMorg (the other chapters are still up on FFnet, but they're the fugly old ones; read at your own risk).
Anyway, all this planning for a new, proper ending of Only 16 has had me thinking about a few things, namely:
The differences between the Sailor Moon anime and manga, especially starting with my favorite arc, Sailor Moon R (Part 2 in the anime, because Part 1 was that "filler arc" featuring Ail and Ann, the aliens that never showed up in the manga because that arc was made explicitly so Naoko had more time to work on the manga).
More specifically, the huge, canon-impacting differences toward the end of the series: not just the Starlights being MTFs in the anime (so to speak), but the fact that there is no Galaxy Cauldron! In the last episode of the anime, Serenity chooses NOT to fight and that becomes her strength: her willpower to not give up but not fight is very different from the Eternal Sailor Moon that willingly gave up her life to reboot the Cauldron and "be one" with her former enemies in the manga.
You know how I love time travel and such? I thought since Pluto plays a role in Sailor Moon R, she could feature more heavily in Only 16 and still not rely on outsiders like the "Fates," and there'd be more of a big message (because my best stories, IMO, tend to have explicit messages like that in them, even if others don't realize it necessarily) about our decisions and things like regret.
I got to thinking HOW I could pull it off, but I remembered the differences between the anime (in which Only 16 takes place, because the break-up never occurs in the manga, and that's really the crux of Only 16) and the manga, and now I'm wondering how it could ever take place in the anime-verse. In the anime, we don't see Sailor Cosmos (explicitly; the Light of Hope certainly seems to resemble her, but it's also said that the Light of Hope IS Galaxia's Star Seed, meaning Sailor Moon herself is NOT the Light of Hope, but Galaxia is! Kind of odd, actually...), there's no Guardian Cosmos, no Cauldron, no decision to live "as we are" instead of birthing a new star, and no travel into the 30th century for a conception and a wedding!
All that being said, it may still be possible to pull off the idea I have, but I wonder if combining in elements from the manga might make it easier than trying to wrap the different anime canon around the facts I already have. It could still work, just...weirder, slightly different. And I'm being vague, I know, because I'm excited about this potential plot twist and don't want to ruin it entirely.
Anyone want to beta the revisions?
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