Top 5 Problems with Sailor Moon

I am, as most people who are vaguely aware of me know, a huge Sailor Moon fan. An absolutely massive Sailor Moon Fan. I love it's characters, it's plot, it's themes, it's imagery, etc. The series has had a massive influence on me and I could honestly say that a day hasn't gone by that I haven't had at least a passing thought about it. But that said it certainly has it's share of flaws, in fact a lot of the series I only rate 9/10 I consider less flawed then SM. Of course having a higher rating doesn't mean you have less bad points, it mean the series is able to better get you to overlook those bad points. So this is my list of the top 5 problems with Sailor Moon.

Note this is going to be based on the manga. The manga is my favorite version and it would be cheating to say "I don't like the adaptation as much but the 'REAL' version is just flawless." That would be missing the point

5: Slight repetitiveness and slow arc starts
Sailor Moon has a fairly noticeable pattern. In the middle three arcs of the story there is 1 chapter focused on each of the 4 guardian senshi either immediately or after an introductory chapter. During this time the series introduces most of the plot elements that will be important later on and the series ramps up. This allows the series to get the exposition done mostly upfront, set up plot elements, and develop it's secondary cast, the guardian senshi. The first and final arcs do a modified form of this.

The problem with it is, is that it can be rather repetitive and predictable. Each arc starts the same basic way, and each chapter has some similarity to the point that you will be able to know some of what's going to happen before it happens. This isn't a huge deal which is why it's at the bottom of this list but the start of each arc can be a little slow, the middle speeds up and the finale of each arc are generally my favorite parts.

4: Time Travel plot holes
I am not a big fan of Time Travel, mostly because it tends to open huge plot holes, and Sailor Moon really isn't an exception to this. Sailor Moon Time Travel makes very little sense when you try and think about it.

I know this is possibly just a personal thing, but it is personally a really annoying thing for me, namely that the time travel in the series suggests that the characters should do things they simply don't do, and that it opens up lots of plot holes like why the Future Senshi were in their base form and easily beaten by the Black Moon Clan. If time travel plots and their plot holes don't bother you this probably won't either but for me it's basically the single reason Arc 2, the arc with the most time travel, is my least favorite.

3: Poor Fight Choreography
Sailor Moon is not a "fighting" series. It has fights in it, but they are not the focus of the series like say Dragon Ball Z. Sailor Moon's genre can be hard to figure out but most arcs plot are essentially a Lovecraftian Mystery of, some dark weird stuff is going on and the Sailor Senshi have to get to the bottom of it and find the horrific eldritch creature causing it.

That said when they are fighting the "cultists" in this analogy, the fights are really simple. The characters have impressive movesets but really rarely use them notably because most fights end in a few pages at most. They are overly simple and yet at times confuse the reader as well. I've gotten used to them but they're not the best. It's telling one of the things most fanfiction rewritings of SM try and do is rewrite the fights to be more dynamic and interesting.

This isn't a death toll for the series because again it's not really a story about fighting. It's a series that happens to have fighting in it.

2: Unexplored Concepts
Naoko Takeuchi has a very particular style of writing. She tends to write allusions or small references to a lot of concepts or will very briefly include a concept. Then later if she needs to, she connects the current events with the concept she briefly introduced. The upside of this style of writing is it makes the series seem more integrated and connected. The SM Universe feels big and like lots of things are happening in it.

The downside is that a lot of the concepts aren't brought back up so there's a lot in SM that simply isn't explored despite being brought up because it simply wasn't expanded on. It's a universe that feels like alot is going on but you only ever see a tiny part of it.

I have a lot of complaint about a lot of fiction that it feels slow. Like they take a concept and they spend so long on it that it feels boring. The SM Manga is not that but it perhaps goes a little bit too far in the other direction moving so quickly that some of it's concepts are rendered almost complete speculation.

1: Deus Ex Machina
The other things on this list are things that don't REALLY bother me that much. I concede their problems but I'm happy to read past them. This is the one thing about Sailor Moon that really does bother me. You'd think with all the concepts Naoko introduces that she wouldn't pull powerups out of nowhere to resolve a conflict but guess what?

If you're lucky she'll introduce the solution to a concept earlier the chapter, and if you're not she introduces it AS IT'S BEING USED. This is the one thing that does really bother me, I don't want there to be Deus Ex Machina and if I was rewriting SM I would certainly try to explain things before they become important.

The biggest problem for SM to me is when it resolves a conflict by introducing a new thing right then and there. It's sort of like in Silver Age DC when Superman would simply create a new power on the fly to solve a conflict but even that is almost more honest because SM will pretend it's justified by using emotional language like "our hearts are being unified" but if that is going to be a possibility, you need to tell your audience beforehand or it feels like the victory is completely unearned.

How they compare: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

Magneto was born Max Eisenhardt as a Jew in Germany...in the last 1920s....you can probably tell where things are going from here. He and his family attempted to escape from the Nazi Regime to Poland only to be betrayed and given to the Nazis. His whole family was murdered in front of him by the Nazis though he survived, possibly due to his latent abilities. This caused Magneto to hold an understandable repressed rage within him towards the whole of humanity. Following the war he married a gypsy girl who was also a survivor of the Camps called Magda, the two having a daughter named Anya.

However Max was a mutant, a genetic anomaly born with inhuman capacities, in particular he was born with the capacity to manipulate the electromagnetic spectrum. Following a demonstration of his abilities, an angry mob scared of his abilities burned down his house killing Anya. Magneto released his repressed killing the mob and a large part of the city.

Determined to protect mutantkind, from further atrocities, and convinced that they would always be feared, Magneto launched a violent aggressive campaign to cause terror and destruction among the homo sapiens so they would be always be afraid of them as their untouchable superiors and not afraid of them as vermin to be extinguished.

Magneto physically is superior to all but the greatest of humans, due to his intense physical training and the natural genetic predisposition towards endurance given by his mutant nature. He has numerous feats of fighting physically powerful Marvel Street Levels including beating the Nazi Supervillain Red Skull to death with his bare hands. He has physically defeated an Asgardian Troll, the Asgardians on average being as strong as Spider-Man who scales to Deadpool and Luke Cage's feats of surviving with extreme damage nuclear missiles, suggesting that Magneto should scale to Multi-City Block Level physically.

Even more impressive is his incredible endurance. Magneto is infamous for his will to survive which has given an ability to survive incredible even for his strength. The mighty punches of Namor who can hold up large islands and the optic blasts of Cyclops that can tear the top of mountains and is said to even be able to rip a small planet in half have failed to bring down the Master of Magnetism. He has survived winds so cold as to render unconsciousness for any normal man, continued fighting after being deeply slashed by Wolverine's Adamantium Claws, and was even able to continue after most of his blood was turned into lead by the sheer power of his will. 

Magneto bolsters his attack power and defenses with his control of the electromagnetic spectrum which spans to control the entire electromagnetic spectrum of the planet Earth. This has allowed him to perform cosmic level feats, able to stop and reverse the kinetic energy of a planet destroying bullet, as well as controlling planetary sized asteroids and with his full concentration created a shield that blocked a weapon designed to destroy planets.

His barriers have taken attacks from even stronger beings like Thor, Captain Universe Spider-Man, and Phoenix though this drains them massively faster and is highly taxing to his power reserve.

In terms of speed, Magneto scales to numerous lightning timing feats of Marvel Street Levels. His reactions are even greater, able to percieve photons moving at lightspeed and able to catch the mutant Northstar and with great effort caught his son Quicksilver who can run faster then the speed of light.

Magneto is most famous for his mutant ability to control magnetism. He has complete control over the Earth's electromagnetic field and can use it to create a planetary scale EMP disrupting the magnetosphere. In space he has absorbed the magnetic energy of even larger planets and many planets at once to amp himself even further. His control of electromagnetism is so great that he can use it to do such things as negate earthquakes, cause volcanic eruptions, rip adamantium Sentinels apart, and throw the planetoid sized asteroid Avalon into space. He could control technology across the planet and he was even able to control the enchanted metal of Thor's hammer Mjolnir and could fling it away, though he was unable to physically touch it without being pinned. 

He can affect objects as far as outside the solar system, such as moving the Breakworld Bullet, a city-sized bullet moving at relativistic or higher speed and bringing it to Earth, though this effort nearly killed him and his precision is so good that he can affect iron on an atomic level, in fact his helmet's edge is shaped to the nanoedge, and he was able to cause volcanic destruction of a city without killing a single person within. 

Magneto can use his electromagnetism for flight, even causing numerous people to levitate. He can create a pseudo atmosphere around himself to survive in space, and can magnetize objects in sight, causing all nearby metal to race towards the object. He can use his EM manipulation to create lightning and laser blasts strong enough to hurt Meta Level entities like Namor and Iron Man. He can manipulate light well enough to turn Dazzler's lasers back on her or create holograms of himself.

Magneto is so linked up to the electromagnetism of the planet he can sense any change down to individual particles moving. This allows him to sense invisible entities, or to know the destination of teleporters based on the direction and momentum of the particles left behind. He can detect dimensional rifts or even the destruction of planets, as though millions of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced, by feeling the rush of particles nearby.

Magneto can perform a few other tricks with his EM control. He can bend light around him to turn invisible or somehow create a wormhole, an inter-dimensional portal with it. He can control the trace amounts of metal in the blood to control peoples bodies, even able to incapacitate the Avengers. He can manipulate the electromagnetism in the brain to control peoples thoughts or disperse the electromagnetism making up someone's consciousness, causing instant death for any entity up to the consciousness plane of reality.  He can also create a magnetism vortex removing the heat from an area freezing the area down to near absolute zero.

Magneto compliments his EM control with his high level of technology intellect, amplified by his control of technology, to the point that he can create advanced bases, his famous helmet that cancels out mind manipulation, robots and advanced space stations. He is a clever tactician that can lead his generally weaker mutants against Xavier's X-Men to victories, as well as whole nations and is a skilled enough fighter to beat 14 men without his powers.

Finally his greatest strength is his sheer willpower. Magneto has an indomitable will to persist, a will said to be "second to none". His will is so strong he can contend mentally with Charles Xavier, a planetary+ level psychic and defend his mind. Even when Psylocke was amped and tried to attack Magneto's mind, his will was strong enough to not only defend himself but reverse her psychic attack back onto her. Magneto's will is so strong it can actually act as a form of psionics itself, allowing him to perceive the dreams of others, astral project, and forcefully put two people to sleep by manipulating their brains. It's implied his true mental might could extend even further as when Xavier helped him release his full will it was strong enough to boost Xavier enough to mentally contact Galactus.

In terms of weaknesses, he can be overconfident and can't control non magnetic materials. Also manipulating to his full extent is exerting on his mind and his EM control is dependent on the state of his body, meaning if he is injured or exhausted his ability to manipulate EM won't be at full capacity. He can also be very stubborn, his own will driving him to single-mindedness. 

Name: Magneto, Max Eisenhardt, Magnus

Origin: Marvel Comics

Classification: Mutant Supervillain

Powers and Abilities: Superhuman physical capacities, Electromagnetism manipulation, invisibility (activated), light manipulation, can create wormholes, can disperse consciousness, can magnetize objects, energy-matter manipulation (atomic), freezing (near absolute zero), technopathy, can control peoples bodies and minds via the blood in their bodies, flight (can also levitate others), can create a pseudo atmosphere, lightning and energy projection, superhuman willpower and mental resistance (planetary), psionic (astral projection, can induce sleep, can perceive dreams)

Weaknesses: Can be overconfident and arrogant. His abilities are dependent on his physical condition. 

Destructive Capacity: Multi-City Block Level physically, Planetary with EM Manipulation

Range: Planetary normally, can reach as high as inter-stellar

Speed: Massively Hypersonic, Lightspeed attack/reaction speed

Durability: Planetary+ with shields, possibly higher for briefer periods of time (shields have withstood the blows of Thor, Cosmic Spider-Man, and Phoenix)

Stamina: Can fight for hours at a time, a superhuman level of will

Intelligence: Superhuman (Can create advanced tech like robots and space stations)

So how would he do in other verses?

In DC Comics, Magneto would be a low mid tier. Magneto is sometimes called a "mini-Green Lantern" due to his versatility and type of powers. Magneto would likely be able to beat a normal Kryptonian in a one on one fight, despite their ability to bust planets and move faster then light, due to being able to rival their stats with massively higher versatility. Also say most Kryptonians probably aren't trained in Torquasm Vo meaning Magneto's psionics, which would probably honestly rank as mid tier in DC, would completely work.

Magneto would probably be relative to one of the agents of the Reach in terms of power, versatility, and hax, meaning he would be a threat on most planets and capable of conquering via stealth and subterfuge along with raw ability. Magneto could likely grow stronger if he could gain access to DC tech like a motherbox.

In Image Comics, Magneto would be relative to most powerful bricks who scale to Allen, Omni-Man and Invincible destroying a planet. He would be at a disadvantage in terms of speed given most of these beings can traverse inter-stellar space but given his range and sheer versatility/hax he could likely beat a number of them, particularly with prep or via a surprise attack.

That said, Magneto wouldn't be able to go any further since after that is lots of powerful solar system and even universal entities with the same speed but also with versatility and hax rivaling him.

In the Champions Universe, Magneto would fit in very well as a Mid to High Tier villain who are generally planetary scaling off Gravitar who is stated to be able to accidentally tear the world apart. The Champions High Tiers are generally relativistic scaling off the lightspeed travel travel power which most villains can somewhat move comparable too, despite being lightspeed travel meaning he would have higher reaction speed but lower movement speed. 

While stats are similar, Magneto could very well be an even bigger threat then any of the similarly powered villains, due to having a similar level of average hax but a greater variety of abilities and hax, as well as a nigh uncontested range. This would be especially true if he got Kinematik, the Magneto Homage Master Villain, as his ally. That said Magneto probably wouldn't beat a Top Tier Master Villain comparable to a King of Edom and thus Universal via scaling from Takofanes due to significantly less power and comparable to lesser versatility or hax. Overall Magneto would be a mif to high High Tier of the verse. 

However he ironically might beat the big bad of the entire setting Doctor Destroyer, since Dr Destroyer is a Power Armor based villain who relies on his power armor to stay alive, which Magneto could likely remove. While Shadow Destroyer could not remove Doctor Destroyer's armor, Magneto's EM control has far greater feats then Shadow Destroyer's magic for telekinesis. Magneto can actually match the god tier intelligence of Doctor Destroyer, able to create comparable advanced sci-fi technology, can match his skill, and might become enraged and overwhelm him if he learns that in this reality Doctor Destroyer was the scientist behind the Third Reich's science. 

In the One-Punch Man Universe, Magneto would be near the top of the verse. He has performed planetary feats more casually then Lord Boros' Collapsing Star Roar Cannon but not as casually as Saitama punched it away. As said his raw power is likely somewhere between Lord Boros and Serious Saitama. His speed would be somewhat similar as the verse scales to numerous near lightspeed feats with Saitama viewing them as "a bad joke".

Given his massive versatility, Magneto could be a threat to the whole of the setting, especially if he is bloodlusted and going for the complete kill. However if he is being overconfident Saitama could potentially one-shot him, especially if he is distracted by Boros or Garou. Overall Magneto would be a Top Tier threat and it would be very dangerous and hard to beat him for the verse, though not impossible. 

In the Guyver-verse, Magneto would be roughly equal to the power of the strongest being in the verse Alkanphel (outside maybe Apollon and the Creators) who was able to shatter an asteroid the size of Mars which could destroy the planet. His speed on average would be fairly normal for the verse with Zoaloads being able to move fast enough to disappear from Guyver's sight despite his ability to react to lasers.

Magneto in the Guyver-verse would be a real fight of electromagnetism vs gravity manipulation considering the high amount of gravity manipulation in Guyver. As such the verse may be able to compete against him despite the gap in power for most given spacetime distortions, common in the verse and caused by gravity, distort electromagnetic charges, which is why light can't escape black holes despite having no matter. It would be similar to him finding that his attacks are veering off target based on mathematical equations. 

That said Magneto is highly intelligent, skilled and versatile for the verse meaning it wouldn't be one-sided in the direction.

Overall Magneto would be an extremely interesting fighter in the Guyver-verse, comparable in raw abilities to one of the Zoaloads, or to Guyver Exceed/Gigantic Dark Exceed (against those two in particular however Magneto would be at a massive advantage, able to just take the control metal out of their heads) but not quite the capacities of Alkanphel though he could be a threat to the whole verse over time given his intellect, suggesting he would be a viable third faction against both the Guyvers and the Zoalords.

General differences between Marvel and DC, vs-wise

DC Comics and Marvel Comics. The two largest franchises in terms of sheer amount of content. The two truly run the gamut of power, hax and types of powerset and content. However I do believe the two have differences tactically in what they are best at and wanted to make a blog on the differences as I perceive them.

Thing Marvel Comics is stronger at:

1: Street Level Stats: Any decent Marvel Street Leveler scales to way higher stats then most DC Street Levelers. I think this is because Marvel Comics has more characters in the range between humans and the planetaries and they absolutely allow scaling meaning you've got a lot of clearly metahuman feats, things like lightning timing and surviving massive explosions that scale to Marvel Street Tiers.

2: Higher Level of Supergeniuses: From what I can tell it's fairly well agreed that Lex Luthor and Dr. Doom are rivals intellect wise, but Lex is the smartest person on the DC Earth with only Batman being an intellectual rival, while Victor has numerous rivaling intellects as well as an intellectual superior: Reed Richards. Basically it seems DC intelligences are in various tiers while Marvel supergeniuses can rival each other far more. As the top Earthly intellects of both can rival this suggests most Marvel supergenius intellects in general are a bit below the Top DC Superintellects but above most DC Superintellects in a lower tier.

3: Better Mind Hax and Psionics: Saturn Girl is considered a significant DC psychic, and she can only read surface thoughts and has to really concentrate to control one person. Being able to control numerous people is usually the sign of a really high tier psychic in DC along the lines of what it takes someone like Despero or Raven to do. The Top Tier Psychics can control a planet, and this rivals threats that take the Justice League to handle like Starro. In contrast Karma is just one of the X-Men members and can easily possess numerous people and can rival Professor Xavier who is a planetary telepath. A random Spider-Man villain could control an entire circus. A random deviant who couldn't mind hax the Avengers could mindhax whole civilizations. I think because the mind in DC can warp reality, it's more broken in universe and so it is given less often and at a lower level then in Marvel where. In addition psychics seem to be more common.

4: Easier Inter-Dimensional Travel. A lot of cosmic villains in DC are dimensionally sealed, in the Phantom Zone for instance, or Trigon in his Hell dimensions. This is because traveling dimensions in DC is actually really hard. Conversely in Marvel dimensional travel is so common there are organizations and councils like the Council of Reeds whose purpose is to monitor the dimensions. Bear in mind the closest equivalent in DC is the Monitors who are some of the strongest cosmic beings, which should give an idea how high end inter-dimensional travel is treated. Only the Mages and strongest beings in a universe really have access to it.

5: Better supertech: This isn't to say stronger supertech per se, it's closer to more versatile supertech. Characters like Batman have created supersuits to bolster their stats a lot. But usually that's all it does, or most of what it does. DC supertech doesn't actually seem that crazy as often. Compare to Marvel which has some of the best tech in fiction. Things like adamantium, a cosmically powerful metal is sometimes used even by street levels with some amount of consistency. There are more power armor heroes in the Marvel Universe, and their tech is a lot more complex. Advanced AI in DC is almost always either future tech like Booster Gold's or alien tech like the Lantern Rings. Conversely in Marvel AI is regularly used by the supergenius intellects to aid them. I should also note that Marvel tech includes things like the Ultimate Nullifier, which is technology notably beyond anything I've seen DC Humanity create. Overall DC entities rely a lot more on learned or biological abilities then technology for their versatility. The closest thing to Marvel level tech in DC is the Lantern Rings which are the most advanced technology and computers in the universe made by the literal guardians of the universe.

Things DC Comics is stronger at:

1: More Higher Plane Entities: DC Comics has a lot more beings that exist on higher planes of reality then Marvel does. For the most part Marvel has physical space where most beings, even godly beings are, and conceptual space where the strongest beings interact until they create m-bodies to interact with physical space. DC on the other hand has a complex series of planes of reality ranging from the sub-physical to the physical to the conceptual to the meta-conceptual to the absolute as well as numerous realms of existence on every plane of existence. Marvel Comics for the most part, almost archetypal fitting it's nature as the more "realistic" one is focused on physical reality while DC very often deals with metaphysical or even metafictional concepts.

2: More Magic: DC Magic-users are absolutely insane, even compared to Marvel Mages. In Marvel magic is generally gained by years of study and by invoking the power of cosmic entities. In DC magic is often genetic, a large population being homo magi, and come far more easily almost the diametric opposite of the psychic situation. Most Marvel Mages can use levitation, hypnosis, spatial/dimensional manipulation on a local scale but Zachary Zatara is a normal DC Mage and he has the same cosmic reality warping Zatanna has with the sole limitation that he can't affect living beings. DC Mages regularly have access to the magic of whole dimensions and can warp reality or seal conceptual entities with it. DC Magic Users have regular access to and are considered notable to the greatest cosmic entities like the Spectre, Lucifer Morningstar, and so forth. In Marvel that is only the case with the Top Tier Magic Users and Most Magicians would be seen as party tricks to the great cosmics.

3: Ridiculous Speed: DC has more ridiculous speed feats in general then Marvel. Most Herald to Skyfather level entities need time travel and acausality to not get blitzed by anyone who scales to even a moderate speedforce user. Speed in general is emphasized a lot more in DC.

4: Easier Time Travel: In Marvel Comics Time Travel while possible seems to be a difficult feat that even exhausts the Dread Dormammu. In DC it is literally just a matter of running fast enough and not hugely difficult. In addition in Marvel, even if you do travel in time you can't make a change to your original timeline as traveling back in time canonically puts you in a new timeline. In DC it is completely possibly to use time travel to get an advantage against an opponent. In other words Acausal Time Travel is also more common.

5: More Cosmic "Species": In Marvel comics there are lots of planets with species around high street level with champions that are herald to skyfather level or above. The Kree, the Shi'ar, Asgard, etc. Until you get to the Cosmic Cubes, most species as a rule are not cosmically strong and it's only really the champions of each species or world that is. DC has in contrast a lot more numbers with numerous species that are independently cosmically strong such as the Kryptonians, Daxamites, Martians, The emanations of the New Gods, etc.




Anyway, I hope this blog has given you a good idea of the two verses relative strengths and weaknesses compared to each other and which characters would be stronger or weaker in each of the two verses. Truthfully I like to think it fits their natures as franchises. DC Comics comes from the Golden Age, from the 1930s. Marvel Comics (specifically Marvel as opposed to earlier iterations of the company like Timely) comes from the 1960s. DC has a bit more of an occult/mystic as well as a more abstract/metafictional feel to it, that it's a world of archetypes. Marvel meanwhile has more of a science-fiction and a realism feel to it, that it's a world of real humans given fantastic powers. The strengths they have seem generally to fit these feels.

Layers of Fundamentality

This will be my attempt to categorize the hypothetical layers of reality that become relevant in vs debating when discussing whether two characters can at all interact with each other. This is how I view things as default though a verse can obviously always use it's own definitions and have it's own ordering.

The fundamental assumption is that some entities or objects are more or less "fundamental" to reality, the most common demonstration being the conceptual entity, representing an abstract form of existence that represents a fundamental law or pattern of reality.

You can have hypothetically any number of planes of reality in a series, describing the same underlying structure the same way you can divide a rainbow into any number of colors and still refer to same wavelengths ranging from too long to too short to be perceived by the human eye.

Each plane of reality is seen as the force which informs and which transcend the realities below.

At the hypothetical bottom, there are hypothetical realities less fundamental then physical reality. These don't show up very often either in fiction or in real life mystic practices since they would seem to be irrelevant to physical beings like humans though it's perfectly logical coherent. At the bottom we have Transient Shadowy Realities that our human reality inform. The classic cave description of concepts by Plato uses Shadows as a metaphor for how conceptual reality informs physical reality so applying the same metaphor, we can say such lower realities would be like our shadows, essentially non-existence compared to humans, incapable of affecting us, and completely informed by the conditions of physical reality.

Above this is the physical reality, consisting of energy, matter, space and time, the relations between forming what we know as the fundamental forces. You can hypothetically have multiple physical planes of reality, most commonly the Etheric plane which is where the mystics claim the aura resides and will linger on Earth after the soul has departed the physical reality. This was supposedly traditionally the domain of the supernatural fey folk. An example from fiction would be the "Unseen World" from Lord of the Rings. I have also seen one theory suggesting that there infinite physical realities, where higher physical realities are more likely quantum probabilities. This can be combined with the concept of the multiverse to say that the highest physical realities are those things that exist in all possible universes, whether this is for instance the fundamental forces or other all encompassing physical forces, where at the bottom are incredibly unlikely brief occurrences. This was used in an attempt to reconcile the notion that things exist in different probabilities with the notion that there are infinite universes.

Transcending the physical is by definition the Soul, which is defined as the non-physical part of a person. As such everything from this point may be considered part of the Soul but general Soul Manipulation can not be assumed to be higher due to the relatively general definition of soul. The religious hypothesis is that the soul has a separate existence from the body and persists after death. The Soul's plane of being after leaving the physical plane is traditionally called the Astral Plane, and according to one account is divided into 7 planes, though this is not corroborated.

So as we go up, we must ask what informs physical motion? What part of the person causes the physical body to move? It seems the answer is Will. Will is what we call the non-physical force that moves the body.

What moves the Will? Well the passions and desires, or in other words emotions. Emotions cause the individual to will something. Here we see perhaps the start of the mental plane as well as when one talks of mind manipulation, this can involve the manipulation of the emotions or the thoughts of the individual. As such Emotion Manipulation may be seen as the border of the Astral and Mental Plane.

A quick sidenote: It seems that the Astral Part of the Emotion Manipulation may be where Dream Manipulation is to be seen as Dream Manipulation is nigh universally seen by the mystics as part of the Astral Plane though intuitively it seems like it should exist as part of the Mental Plane or Higher.

What moves the Emotions? It seems the answer is Thoughts, so above emotions would be thoughts, and as such thought manipulation or conventional mind manipulation would definitely be here as it is said that "that which belongs to consciousness working as thought".

Above this is the "Buddhic Plane" though more neutrally towards religions it is described as a realm of pure consciousness. This is consistent as consciousness seems like it would cause thoughts. This can be seen as awareness or in more common vs vernacular perception manipulation.

An alternate view of the plane above mental calls it the supermind referring to the notion of a greater consciousness that all minds are part of, a collective consciousness that manifests the higher realities of the three higher planes into the three lower planes representing individual lives existing in the universe.

What informs and moves this? Above this is traditionally the spiritual plane, supposedly divided into many subplanes, though spirit is used to refer to two separate things.

The former, is spirit in it's traditional meaning referring to the hypothetical "breath" of life, that distinguishes living beings and non-living beings. Life is known and in fact defined by it's tendency to maintain and replicate itself among others, and so it's goal would necessarily move the awareness or consciousness. Life/Lifeforce and Death manipulation would thus seem to be here.

However spirit has a more general meaning that can be seen as the higher planar equivalent and which applies to all forms of lower being, including living or non-living. This is seen in such ideas as "his spirit is still with us", "spirit of the era", the "spirit of the law", in other words the presence and essence of the thing.

This also seems to be the border with the abstract plane of reality, as the lower bound of abstract existence is the Aristotelian concept, a concept made up of all instances of itself, in other words it's presence in lower realities and has no separate existence. Thus the higher spirit/presence can be seen to be equivalent to lower conceptual.

This is also where I think information manipulation would be, as information in the cosmological sense refers to the resolution of an uncertainty, the collapse of possibilities and establishment of actuality. As one's information is spread across the universe formed of the tiny influences one on all other things, it can be said to one's ultimate presence and thus equivalent.

The higher form of concept is the Classical Platonic Concept, a concept that views non-abstract reality as a shadow of itself, and not at all dependent on it's continued existence.

There is some notion that concepts have an internal hierarchy where more transient concepts dependent on other concepts are lower. For instance the concept of the sword of Alexander the Great, is lower and dependent on the concept of sword, dependent on the concept of weapon, dependent on the concept of tools.

By this logic this would continue upwards until one gets to the concepts describing concepts themselves, meta-concepts or hyper(over)-concepts. These would view hypothetically normal concepts that they define as those concepts would view physical reality and we view the aforementioned transient shadowy reality.

This could hypothetically go infinitely with meta-meta-concepts and so forth. However we can simply define a maximally fundamental reality as a logical rule, this being Being itself, or what I call the Absolute. This is defined as that which is maximally fundamental, the most real form of something. Being itself is the necessary sum total of all things, it is existence in itself. For a fictional being the fiction they are composed off would be being itself. Paper and Pencil, Pieces of Paper, Computer Data, though a verse could have a form of Absolute that is not defined as metafictional, just by saying it is absolute.

The hypothetical exception is that a verse could hypothetically could have multiple layers of metafiction, which would still be necessarily above any form of abstract as they would still be able to manipulate the being that the concepts are made of but would not be maximally metafictional or fundamental. This fits the earlier definition as well since metafiction, the narrative or plot, moves even concepts.


The hypothetical hierarchy of forms of manipulation:
Absolute
(Other) Forms of Metafiction
Meta-Concepts
Platonic Concept
Aristolean Concept/Upper Spirit/Presence/Information/Essence: Border between spiritual and conceptual
Lower Spirit/Life and Death: Start of Spiritual
Collective Consciousness/Unconsciousness/Dream (possibly)
Awareness/Perception/Consciousness
Thought
Emotion: Border between Astral and Mental
Dream (Possibly)
Will: Start of Astral
Etheric
Physical (Matter-Energy, Spacetime)
Hypothetical transient planes of reality

Hypothetically speaking, a being on one plane of reality can be affected by nothing less then an ability on the same or higher plane of reality.

How they compare: Jadis the White Witch (The Chronicles of Narnia)

Once there was a world referred to now by it's capital city Charn, much older then either ours or the world of Narnia; it's skies so dark a blue as to be almost black and it's sun massive and red for hundreds of thousands of years, populated by a species of very tall humanoids believed by some to be descended from giants. 

As the Charn royalty degenerated from nobility to savagery, mirroring the degeneration of the world, the world grew closer and closer to civil war. Born last and most intimidating and degenerated of the royalty of Charn was Jadis. While all the nobility of Charn had access to magic, Jadis delved into far darker magic then was considered acceptable, even learning the forbidden magic hidden away by her ancestors "the deplorable word". Jadis and her sister engaged in civil war with each other. While the two had both sworn off the usage of magic according to Jadis, her sister broke the pact first. The armies of Jadis' sister proved stronger and after their final battle her sister said her final word declaring victory when in spite and hatred Jadis used the Deplorable Word destroying her own world.

Jadis alone then masterminded a plan to be eventually freed from the dead world of Charn and find another world to conquer over. She would find her way to Narnia and become the infamous White Witch, she who would mastermind rebellion in Narnia against Aslan.

Befitting her large stature as a native of Charn, Jadis has physical capacities beyond what a human from Earth might be capable off.

Jadis is strong enough that she could easily break the bones or kill a human and in the brief period she was on Earth she demonstrated that she could "break an iron bar as easily as barely sugar" and easily snapped off part of an iron lamppost. This would take energy in the ranges of thousands to millions of joules, which is wall level.

Her durability is similar as she has fought against and survived the blows of beings that were her equals including her sister in the civil war and Peter Pevensie, the future King Peter, in the war for Narnia.

In terms of speed, Jadis is fast enough to move that during her fight with Peter Pevensie it appeared that the one blade she wielded was actually three blades to onlookers, showing she was creating afterimages with her speed, requiring subsonic speed.

Jadis as a skilled magic-user, has a varied arsenal of magic abilities. She famously was able to trap the nation of Narnia in eternal winter, covering it in snow for 100 years as she ruled it. This was not a normal winter either, it was a winter where it was never Christmas. This was not a fancy was of saying she royally kept it from being Christmas, she was able to magically bar Father Christmas from coming to the world of Narnia. This suggests she has planetary scale wards (a ward being the opposite of a seal, keeping characters from entering as opposed to keeping them from leaving like a seal)

While she was in Charn she was able to cause giant palace door to turns to dust. Conversely, she can also create from nothing, as she created food and drink that was actually enchanted to cause whoever consumed it to become obsessively addicted to consume even if it killed them. Speaking of mental affects, Jadis has the ability to passive hear the thoughts of others and was able to create an illusion to disguise herself and her dwarf servant as a boulder and a stump.

Jadis also has numerous ways of ceasing motion. She was able to turn her enemies to stone, even numerous at once (such as turning a gathering of people to stone). She was also able to put herself in suspended animation, freezing herself in time, for 1,000 years until someone entered Charn so she could escape from the dying world.

Witches are also known for their immorality, such that even if they are killed their "essence" (likely spirit) remain and linger around rather then going to Tash's country such that they would surely go. While this is obviously a highly reduced state, it is also possible for them to manipulate others into resurrecting them once more. This aids her ageless immortality gained by biting the silver apple of life

However Jadis has one more spell, her most infamous spell, the accursed Deplorable Word, a word that killed every single living thing in all of Charn. "Worlds" in Narnia seem to be able to be applied to either planets or universes, so this should be seen as planetary, possibly universal death hax. This was so powerful that once Jadis left Charn, the world itself dried up and disappeared from the wood between the worlds.

Jadis besides her magic is also a skilled melee fighter to the point of equaling a skilled swordsman with just her stone knife, as well as veteran commander of the Charn civil wars. She is also a skilled manipulator being famously a temptress aided by her "hypnotic" beauty.

In terms of weaknesses, Jadis is vain, arrogant and easily enraged as well as afraid of Aslan. In addition she is reliant on her wand to cast her spells, her magic seems to depend on the world she is in, as she was unable to her use her magic properly while on Earth, and it's implied the Deplorable Word takes a bit of prep requiring the "right ceremonies".

Name: Jadis, The White Witch, Empress of Charn, Queen of Queen and Terror of Charn
Origin: The Chronicles of Narnia
Classification: Witch, Potentially giant-blooded royal of Charn
Powers and Abilities: Superhuman physical capacity, agelessness, country scale snow manipulation (covered Narnia in Winter for 100 years), planetary possibly universal warding (kept Father Christmas from entering Narnia for 100 years), can persist as just an essence, can freeze individuals in time (as she did to herself), petrification (numerous people), illusions, creation (can create enchanted food and drink that mindhaxes opponents into obsession), transmutation (turned giant palace doors to dust), death manipulation (planetary, possibly universal)
Weaknesses: Vain, arrogant, easily enraged, afraid of Aslan. Reliant on wand and magic in the world to cast spells. Deplorable Word may require prep time.
Destructive Capacity: Wall Level physically (snapped iron as though it were sugar), higher with magic
Range: Planetary, possibly universal
Speed: Subsonic (Moved fast enough that she seemed to be wielding 3 blades, instead of one blade)
Durability: Wall Level (survived blows from her physical equals)
Stamina: Massively superhuman (Maintained her magic for a century)
Intelligence: Clever (manipulative and a skilled fighter)

So how would she do in other verses?

In the Marvel Universe, Jadis could hypothetically be much stronger since her magic is dependent on the world she's in and the Marvel Universe has lots and lots of magic in it to the point it's called "universal energies". That said it's speculation so this is just how strong she would be normally.

Physically speaking Jadis is basically human level, as Marvel Street Levels regularly scale to feats massively above what she has displayed.

That said her magic would be incredibly dangerous. Her ability to create eternal winter and ward off entities would be hard for the verse to get through without getting into herald or higher level entities. And the Deplorable Word, from what I know, would absolutely wreck the universe if she got it off. It would be like if Thanos snapped twice. You could argue beings that can't die such as robots like Vision or undead like the vampires Blade regularly fights wouldn't be affected but given that the Deplorable Word caused the world of Charn itself to die I am not sure I would agree with this assessment. I don't even think most Herald Tiers could survive the Deplorable Word. The best case scenario is that one of the marvel telepaths or sorcerers notices the threat and stops her before she completes it. 

I'm just gonna come out and say it, I don't think I've ever seen a character so uniquely unsuited to fight a verse then Jadis in DC. First of all while Jadis might be stronger in DC for same reason as Marvel, it's also possible she could have literally no magic like Narnia-verse Earth because DC magic is as far as I know always stated to reside within a person (like the Homo Magi) or within an object (like the Helm of Fate) or to be derived from other realms like the shadowlands and magic doesn't just exist everywhere. I do think Jadis would be a bit more of a physical threat in DC then she would be in Marvel. With her combat tricks like mind-reading, petrification and transmutation, illusions etc. she could probably fight decently against DC characters around the level of strength of average amazons and atlanteans. 

But all of Jadis bigger abilities can be countered pretty confidently. You can persist as a essence? Well guess what the verse magicians love to seal intangible entities away. You can create planetary, possibly universal and possibly conceptual wards? Well how about 7 DC mages being able to seal DREAM OF THE ENDLESS. Oh you can kill everything in a universe except yourself. One of the easiest spells to cast, to the point Superman after temporarily gaining Zatanna was easily able to cast it, returns a magic to it's source or inverting a spell causing it to just kill ya. There's also the fact that speedsters that are fast enough can return a magic to it's caster by spinning or the White Lanterns who reversed the death manipulation of Nekron, Universal Embodiment of Death. Post-Crisis Superman without any of this was attacked by the embodiment of death of an entire universe and punched him in the face. How about the fact that DC mages love to take fighs to other dimensions, you know where Jadis explicitly can't escape from?

Jadis is uniquely UNsuited to fight DC. She'd be a decent fighter with a good variety of abilities against fodder tier fighters but her big abilities are more likely to get her killed by calling the attention of one of the most competitive magic-wielding verses in existence. 

Tolkien and Lewis were good friends and the Chronicles of Narnia are often compared to the Lord of the Rings. In Middle-Earth Jadis would do oddly. Her power would depend on the age she's in, as magic slowly left the world over the ages, but again it's speculative how this would affect her overall power level.

Statwise, Jadis would be above human tier, who only ever get up to somewhat superhuman due to their status. That said she would be a lot weaker in most regards compared to the general wizards and supernatural entities like the Elf Lords given they scale to massive feats she simply can't compare to like splitting the sides of mountains, crumbling fortresses, causing the Earth to shake and whatnot.

She would do pretty interestingly against the Nazgul. Her snow manipulation may trigger their weakness to water but their fear aura may cause her to see visions of Aslan. She likely has higher reaction speed and if she could probably find some way to kill them with her trickery (especially since she can ward against them or suspend them hypothetically in time), though if they do kill her they would be able to hypothetically to permanently kill her as the black breath of the Nazgul drains life-energy and they would be able to see through illusions given their nature as beings existing in the unseen world. Though she would be at least able to know their presence and detect them given her mind-reading.

Beyond all that Jadis warding and eternal winter could cause significant trouble for Middle-Earth, particularly if she knew to bar the access to the Valar and Maiar though it's probably impossible for her to ward off the strongest entities in the universe like Morgoth. Her Deplorable Word would hypothetically kill anyone currently existing in Middle-Earth though the Valar and Maiar would likely reform in their true forms in the timeless halls.

In the Inferno, another old Christian literary verse that associates evil with eternal ice, Jadis would be relatively comparable to the damned who can survive such tortures as boiling blood and would be a little slower given the damned can go to the horizon in the time it takes to say "amen".

Against the damned themselves, Jadis would do interestingly able to potentially counter their ability to see the future, but not the past, with her mind-reading and general intellect. While most of her abilities would not affect the damned given their nature as "shades", the Deplorable Word and her ability to induce suspended animation arguably should. While the monsters of Inferno like the Harpies and the Centaurs are more powerful and versatile then the damned, Jadis powerful abilities like her ability to induce petrification (already noted to be strong in the verse with the Gorgons), her ice manipulation, transmutation, illusions and so forth should give her a strong advantage. She may even be able to defeat the bigger physical threats of the intermediate tier like Geryon or even the giants and Satan if they are trapped via her hax abilities (though if they are free it's possible they could blitz though even then she could ward them off and perform the Deplorable Word)

That said, the ascended made of Actus Purus would be immune to even Jadis' wards and the Deplorable Word and would be so much more powerful, fast and hax that Jadis would have no chance.

Look I know Jadis vs Elsa is a thematic fight, it's a VERY thematic fight, but that doesn't make it fair. 

Elsa can compete with Jadis physically as she can survive wall level attacks from The Nokk and has subsonic reactions from tagging a crossbow bolt in midair. The two have fairly even levels of ice manipulation in terms of scale, with Jadis having maintained it a lot longer while Elsa has more versatility.

But besides that Jadis has a large grab-bag of haxes, including the ability to ward Elsa off and kill everything in the universe. Even if Elsa does manage to get a lucky shot off on Jadis, Jadis can eventually manipulate her own resurrection. 

Not that she's gonna get it. Jadis can read Elsa's mind, create illusions, turn her to stone, turn her to dust, freeze her in time, or just stab her with a weapon being a far superior physical warrior. She has plenty of one-shot options, haxes comically and drastically superior to anything in the verse, and is a better fighter. Elsa at best can summon minions and constructs out of ice that Jadis can casually reduce to dust or stone

Jadis 99/100s with the other 1/100 being Elsa gets a lucky shot in immediately and Jadis has no way to manipulate her way back into being somehow or other. 

This has been why Jadis vs Elsa is not a good matchup idea. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.  

Difference between Occult Fiction, Dark Fantasy, and Gothic Horror

So I noticed a trend that of my favorite series 26 out of 32 can be categorized or more of 4 fairly specific genres

1: Magical Girl: A series starring a girl who possesses magic that is in some way linked to or associated with her status as a young girl either thematically or plot-wise (examples include Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, and Puella Magi Madoka Magicka)

2: Superhero Fiction: A series where the protagonist(s) have superhuman capacity in some form and take a costumed alter ego in order to do good. (examples include DC Comics, Freedom Force, and The Powerpuff Girls)

3: Mythological Fantasy (more formerly "Mythopoeia" though I use Mythological Fantasy to be more inclusive of things not traditionally Mythopoeia such as Wuxia): A form of fantasy that attempts to recreate a mythological or folkloric worldview via it's themes or imagery (examples include God of War, Okami, or Xiaolin Showdown)

4: Occult Fiction

However when looking up traditional definitions of Occult Fiction I saw it often conflated as being the same genre works that while I like (for instance Dracula), I don't believe they really share the same genre. This is my attempt to give what I think is the distinction. More specifically I feel like their are two separate genres; gothic horror and occult fiction that are both being addressed under the umbrella term "Dark Fantasy", ie a work with supernatural elements that is dark in tone/subject matter however I don't feel like the two genres are different enough that they should be considered separately.

Gothic Horror in this case is the subgenre of horror that Dracula or Masque of the Red Death. As a horror work it has the purpose of eliciting fear but gothic horror genre is defined as also being romantic, even surreal in tone. The monsters of Gothic Horror were the mysterious nebulous forces like demons, ghosts and vampires; creatures that could be displayed as elegant civilized monsters.

Occult Fiction I think is somewhat different, if connected. Examples of this genre would be xxxHolic, Bayonetta (Occult Fiction/Spectacle Fighter), and Yu-Gi-Oh! (Occult Fiction/Sports (Tabletop Games) Shonen/Mythological Fantasy (Ancient Egypt)).

If Gothic Horror is on one side of Occult Fiction, on the other side is the Occult Mystery (mystery stories where the detective must investiage mysteries involving the supernatural) and Urban Fantasy (stories taking place in the modern day (or equivalent) civilized areas but nonetheless have supernatural elements).

To be between those the Occult Fiction genre is a genre taking place in civilized society but involve characters using the supernatural that is in content or mood dark and mysterious. It is not a Gothic Horror as it is not a horror story; it is not attempting to scare the viewer per se. But unlike an Urban Fantasy, the magical world is still hidden away and somewhat threatening in tone, and unlike Occult Mystery, it is generally the protagonists or those affiliated with them using the magical forces (at the very least both sides possess said capacities) and it is not a mystery story.

Anyway that was my attempt to codify the Occult Fiction genre. A better name may be required to differentiate it from the Occult Mystery but I hope I've given a strong enough impression on what this genre entails.