The Sailor Moon manga has five arcs. The middle three of them have always felt a little bit different to the first and final arcs to me. They feel a little less universal in their themes and their genre elements, more specific. They feel much more like Naoko had the suspicion that there would be more Sailor Moon after, and so each, especially the third and fourth, feel a bit like Naoko didn't want to write a conclusive "ultimate" arc of Sailor Moon but was instead writing "Sailor Moon meets this plot element", whether it be Time Travel, an Evil Silver Crystal, Antihero Sailor Senshi, Mad Scientists, A Lovecraftian Alien, Dreams, a Creepy Circus etc. This is as opposed to the first and final arcs which read to me as moreso thinking she needed to capture the greatest as well as the most timeless universal appeal of Sailor Moon in an attempt to create an ultimate Sailor Moon arc.
Which you prefer is obviously a matter of taste, and both have their advantages. For the middle arcs, it can be quite fun to see the I guess "Sailor Moon" take on a particular genre element. For the second arc you get to see all kinds of random occult and Sailor Moon's version including time travel, crop circles, dowsing, ESP, spontaneous combustion, robots replacing people, channeling, haunted location stories, and so forth. On the downside this means it can feel a little bit more gimmicky and lack the feeling of timeless grandiosity, which I can say is what I would prefer.
Every Sailor Moon arc is fantastic to me, and the second arc is no exception. Even compared to the other Sailor Moon arcs, it has its advantages. It has probably the most consistently good cast of villains; Saphir being probably Naoko's most realistic villain, Demande being a great hate sink, Black Lady being one of the most popular villains in the entire franchise history, Death Phantom being this fantastic modernization of the ghost story on a cosmic scale, and more.
The second arc also has some of the best "cute moments" in the entire series, if you're interested in that kind of thing. It introduces Diana who is basically cuteness defined, as well as basically introduces Chibiusa, the cute Senshi who gets plenty of cute moments in the series such as when realizes Usagi was just a crybaby like her once, or the way she gives Neo-Queen Serenity a determined little nod when she's asked if she can go help Sailor Moon. Tuxedo Puppet. The romance between Usagi and Mamoru is great as always, and this arc probably the most balanced in how much the romance between the two is important to the arc, less centralizing than the first and fourth arcs, but more relevant than the second and third arcs.
This arc has the same themes as the rest of the series; the pain of isolation (demonstrated through Sailor Pluto's desire to join the others and aid her king and queen, Chibiusa's sense of alienation from others, and Death Phantom being called the solitary king, the lone being of Nemesis) as well as the ennobling power of love (as shown when Chibiusa's love for Sailor Pluto allows her to finally transform for the first time, Usagi and Mamoru's love making Usagi grow stronger and summoning Chibi-Moon, Usagi's love for her friends returning her spirit on Nemesis and then her ability to transform, and so forth.)
The unique themes for this arc are responsibility and maturity. The Black Moon Clan regularly renounces their own responsibility, attributing it to others. Conversely the Heroes regularly take responsibility for themselves, sometimes too much, and the climax of the second sub-arc is Usagi telling Demande that she is not responsible for his evils. This ties into what I believe are the best part of the arc, which is Usagi and Chibiusa's paralleling character arcs.
Usagi is obviously the most important character in Sailor Moon. Chibiusa is either the second or third most important. Their relationship is extremely important to the arc and while the fighting over Mamoru was not that entertaining, realistic though it may be, and the brainwashed Mamoru felt repetitive of the first arc, overall I thought it was really well done. Chibiusa had always been kept from responsibility as the princess, and so couldn't deal with it when it arose, and ran away to the creepy man offering her a lifetime of indulgence and responsibility-ness. Basically "Honest" John from Pinchocchio bringing him to Pleasure Island. Conversely Usagi's arc is pretty clearly metaphoric for the responsibility of having a child, particularly when one was not expecting. She's jealous at first of the attention and doesn't deal with it, but as the arc goes she develops in maturity and in her maternal side and by the end of the arc is protective and loving of Chibiusa, who through seeing her mother's own development in her younger years comes to appreciate the parallel journeys. All this comes to the head when Chibiusa is able to make the Silver Crystal her own and go and help her mother, a representation of generations mutually sharing responsibility to save the world.
Plus there's some other really good parts of the arc. Usagi telling off Demande. Diana taking the responsibility as guardian of spacetime from Sailor Pluto. Ikuko commenting that Usagi is beginning to look more like an adult woman. Usagi and Mamoru's implied intimacy. Chibiusa's goodbye to Usagi and Mamoru. It's not my favorite arc of Sailor Moon, but I still adore it as an expression of development of the parental instinct, and the need to share responsibility across generations, to work alongside each other to save the world. Even if the time travel stuff still causes my head to ache with all the plot holes.
Arc Ranking:
12: Act 16: Has some cute parts like Tuxedo Puppet and some development of Usagi and Mamoru's relationship, but Berthier's plan is weird and doesn't really make sense to me, and the ending is kind of a disappointing surprise. Not bad, but far from the arc's best.
11: Act 17: Pretty formulaic, to the same extent as Act 16. Also has some cute parts like Makoto and Asanuma developing a cute little friendship/relationship thing. Its pacing is kind of janky as it darts back and forth a lot, and it has a bit of a repetition problem. That said I liked Petz and her plan more than Berthier and it has the AWESOME moment of a nearly unconscious Makoto destroying a robot assassin sent to kill her with her bare hands.
10: Act 20: This act is mostly just exposition. It's mostly here to set up later acts in the arc so on its own its not really exciting until the end. Usagi getting kidnapped is a neat enough quadruple subversion of expectations. It introduced Diana whose really cute, and it has the atmosphere buildup around Sailor Pluto. It's also got the exposition about Neo-Queen Serenity turning the Earth into a Utopia and I'm all for Heroes who have the agency to positively change the world around them. It's pretty good but still on the lower end of the arc.
9: Act 15: An interesting start to the arc, this act is jam-packed with stuff. It's introduces like a dozen characters including all the villains, starts the main plot of the arc, starts the sub-plot, has its own subplot and jokes. It's a little bit cramped. That said at the very least all its parts are memorable. Koan is memorable as a villainess for being a twisted villain, even by Black Moon Clan standards, there's the funny joke about Rei speaking like Usagi, and the interesting character development that implies. Naoko does a pretty good job juggling all these elements at once.
8: Act 18: The conclusion to the Invasion sub-arc and definitely my favorite act from it. It's for pretty simple reasons overall. Calaveras is my favorite of the Ayakashi, having the best reasons for her actiosn and the coolest powers and modus operandi, plus both Minako and Mamoru have really cool moments this act and I love Mamoru and Minako. More than any other act of the Invasion sub-arc, it's focused. It knows what its objective is and it doesn't clutter it. I do think it maybe goes too quick at the start, which is a new one for Naoko who usually ramps up in speed as the story progresses.
7: Act 19: Act 19 is an act of contrasts. It has scenes of an adorable cute kitten and Usagi and Mamoru's intimacy...and also the ruins of Crystal Tokyo. Similarly it has all those scenes which I would consider great and it also has the whole Chiral-Achiral which is...I mean it's fine I guess but it feels like kind of a pointless diversion, as though Naoko has to include a fight scene in every act contractually something. Except it also takes a weirdly long amount of time, mostly to try and explain Chiral-Achiral's powers, which it never really does. But the great parts of Act 19 are REALLY good, and I definitely think put it over the acts before it.
6: Act 23: Act 23 is another act that is basically two separate parts that converge near the end, something Naoko seems to like to do. You have Black Lady taking Demande and Saphir to the end of spacetime where Wiseman finally reveals his aim, and you have Usagi missing Chibiusa and developing into a more maternal state. These come to a head with them meeting Black Lady for the first time at the end of the Act. Both sections are great and they support each other well which is why it's in the top half of acts for the arc. My one reservation really is that as mentioned the Dark Endymion stuff feels repetitive of the first arc.
5: Act 21: Moving from the really good acts to the great acts. It's another act with two sections; the first is the Chibiusa section where we get the really sweet and thematically important, then tragic scene with Chibiusa expressing how she found that her seemingly perfect mother used to be just like her before being lured away by the Wiseman due to not being able to take her guilt. The second is the section where Usagi is trapped on Nemesis with Demande, and while it's kind of another exposition-heavy section, Usagi just gets to be really cool, defying the Dictator Sexual Harraser and show her courage and character development for her loved ones.
4: Act 26: The Epilogue Act. Neo-Queen Serenity and Chibiusa's reunion is incredibly sweet, as is the entire sequence back in the past of Usagi and Mamoru saying goodbye to Chibiusa. I have minor reservations on how the climax could have been thematically more potent, but it was still great seeing Usagi and Mamoru's love again, and Chibi-Moon fighting alongside her mother to defeat Death Phantom. Just a really feel-good act.
3: Act 25: The top three are all somewhat comparable, Act 25 is not that much weaker than the top acts. This act has perhaps a little bit of an odd pacing and logic in places, but Sailor Pluto's death leading to Chibiusa's re-awakening is a fantastic scene capturing the beauty and tragedy of the fact that a Child may be sheltered without developing for 900 years, but someday they will eventually encounter tragedy and for better and worse, take on responsibility. The death of Demande is really poetic and Death Phantom is in one of his best appearances in this act.
I went back and forth between the top two acts a lot, these two are both fantastic acts and I will probably change my mind again at some point on which I like more. As of right now the order is
2: Act 22: This act is mostly one long sequence of awesome. Saphir is one of Naoko's most complex villains, and he serves as the catalyst for a fantastical metaphor for victim-blaming that ends with one of the most triumphant moments in the entire series as Usagi transforms even when it should be impossible on Nemesis, channeling the spirit of her future self. This act teaches through dramatic demonstration the self-destructive tendency of the dictatorships, though they chain the body through atrocities, they can not chain the spirit which is invigorated against them by their actions. The scene where Usagi has the spirit of the Queen behind her calls back amazingly to the first arc, and this arc will have repercussions all the way to the last acts of the manga. You also have the fantastic lovecraftian feel of the conversation where Saphir speaks of the planet's intent towards them shifting, hinting towards its true nature, and ironic how it uses them as objects the way they use others, or the scene where Mamoru plunges into the space-time storm to save Chibiusa. This act could very easily be the best act in the arc, but there's one that is competitive with it.
1: Act 24: Act 24 is, in my mind, the best representative of what's good about the second arc as a whole. Death Phantom, Black Lady, and Demande are all agents in this arc and show the individual styles of villains whether it be cold and otherworldly, a spoilt brat, or a mad obsessive king. Sailor Moon channeling the spirit of the Queen again this act, but this time deliberately, not falling into it through the queen's help to bring down the oppressor, but deliberately in love for her people and her home. This is a fantastic act for Sailor Moon and her conversation with Black Lady is so evocative if only because what Black Lady says is, like so many teenage rants, true and not true and it doesn't even matter if it's true all at the same time, it's an expression of their resentment. This act has the reveal of Death Phantom and villains fighting, a true rarity for Sailor Moon, and Death Phantom for all his intelligence being shown to not be able to intercept the suicide recklessness of human evil. And best of all, this act has little kitten Diana taking on the duty of protecting the space-time door so Sailor Pluto could go save the world, the perfect encapsulation of this arc's theme, as this tiny kitten that no one noticed taking on responsibility helped save the universe showing the importance of everyone and anyone being able to make the difference. It's not as potent in its goodness as Act 22, but more varied. It wants to be good in more ways, and while none are as individually potent, the diversity of emotions is a quality all its own.
Sub-Arc Ranking:
3: Invasion Sub-Arc (Acts 15-18): I like all Sailor Moon sub-arcs and this has its points of interest for sure. There's plenty of cute elements, and cool atmospheric stuff, particularly if you're more of a science-fiction type person or into all these occult mysteries. With that said I thought it was pretty repetitive, and the Ayakashi Sisters are only really decent villains of the month. The main plot is also not especially surprising for an adult reading this, though Chibiusa is a fun addition to the cast.
2: Crystal Tokyo Sub-Arc (Acts 19-22): Some divide this into two two-parters, Acts 19-20, and 21-22, but I like the symmetry of them all having four acts. Really good sub-arc with a fantastic finale, this sub-arc starts out a little slow but it does an overall excellent job introducing Sailor Pluto and Crystal Tokyo, and further developing the Black Moon Clan. Exposition-heavy, but that's not really a deal-breaker and it's got a lot of really good parts.
1: Death Phantom Sub-Arc (Acts 23-26): Great sub-arc and makes for a amazing finale to the arc. Every act here is at least really good, and brings Usagi and Chibiusa's paralleling arcs together and to a really good resolution. Demande not being in charge and his rivalry with Black Lady and eventually Death Phantom are a fairly unique subplot for Sailor Moon, and I think even though it doesn't have Act 22 which might have the best moment from the Second Arc, it holistically better represents the better parts of the second arc, especially with Diana taking on Sailor Pluto's duty. It has cutesy moments, dark moments, cosmic moments, personal moments, goofy moments, and mature moments.
The final act of the Black Moon Clan arc begins. Sailor Moon casts magic missile at the darkness, and she and Death Phantom completely disappear. Everyone is terrified that Sailor Moon somehow destroyed both of them with her attack.
However their worrying is interrupted when Tuxedo Kamen feels his hands grow warm, feeling Usagi's power and suddenly disappearing.
Meanwhile in the palace itself, the Queen finally awakens and rises.
Wordlessly she goes over to the sleeping body of King Endymion and in mirror to the end of the first arc, kisses his comatose form. The Senshi outside notice King Endymion's spirit disappear as he awakens again in his body.
The King and Queen exit the palace and Chibiusa is finally reunited with her mother in a very sweet moment
Neo-Queen Serenity tells Chibiusa that her awakening as Chibi-Moon awoke the queen, her power is greater than even the Black Crystal. Chibiusa finally gets to say the apology she's wanted to say since the original fall of Crystal Tokyo, taking full responsibility on herself, telling the queen all that she did, that she is so regretful. That it's her fault Pluto is dead. While she takes more responsibility here than she should, it is an important moment showing she's grown as a person.
Neo-Queen Serenity comforts her daughter, calming her raging conscience and commending her, saying she's gone through so much, and grown more mature as a result. In an extremely sweet exchange Neo-Queen Serenity tells Chibi-Moon now they can protect this world together. Chibi-Moon comments she was worried that her perfect mother had no need of her, and if she can help her now, even if only a little? Neo-Queen Serenity tells her daughter that she's always been precious to her, and she will be the one to replace her.
This is one of the most beautiful things about the parental relationship to me, the way that the child goes from being helpless and protected to standing alongside their parent in protection of the world, and even one day taking their place.
Neo-Queen Serenity addresses the Guardian Senshi telling them she lost her ability to fight as a Senshi,. which I think is because the Silver Crystal was passed down to Chibiusa. She promises that Sailor Pluto will sleep peacefully forever in the Crystal Tokyo which um........ if you've read the series you know.....
Neo-Queen Serenity and King Endymion comment that the Nemesis they fought was just an illusion, and that Sailor Moon's attack blasted her all the way to Nemesis' real self...and that somehow Mamoru was drawn there with her.....it's kind of weird and out of nowhere to be honest. They tell Chibi-Moon she's the only one that can help them. Neo-Queen Serenity asks Chibi-Moon to use the time key to warp out to their fight and help Sailor Moon seal away Nemesis. Chibi-Moon gives an adorable little determined nod
Neo-Queen Serenity grants Chibi-Moon power and her Cutie Moon Rod, and invoking the power of Sailor Pluto teleports off to go aid Sailor Moon. The Guardian Senshi want to go off to help them, but Neo-Queen Serenity says they should wait here. It's kind of a weird thing to bring up. I imagine in universe given Nemesis' energy absorption it would just be a pointless risk for them, but it's just sort of brought up that the Senshi could go after to help them and then just un-ceremonially dropped. They don't even say they could emotionally support their princess.
Meanwhile, far away in space, Sailor Moon awakens in the arms of Tuxedo Kamen. As the two float in the cold quiet void, they see far away the cursed world of Nemesis
Death Phantom goes on a villain gloating monologue, proclaiming that he will soon absorb the whole Solar System, and that with the Silver Crystal which infinitely produces energy and the Black Crystal which infinitely absorbs energy, he will have dominion over the universe. It does give a pretty cool image of the Phantom's face imposed over the entire world of Nemesis showing the spiritual possession.
In worry that Nemesis will get the Silver Crystal and change all history, Sailor Moon's confidence wavers, and she briefly wonders if it would be better if she and the Silver Crystal didn't exist, remembering the Black Moon Clan's words that the Silver Crystal has thrown history off-course. Tuxedo Kamen won't let her think that way however and reminds her of all the many lives saved by the Silver Crystal, expressing to her his devotion, how she filled him with strength and how he would give every bit of that life energy back to help her fight. Because Usagi rescued Mamoru who was alone and without purpose and returned life to him.
Sailor Moon responds that it was because of Mamoru she was first able to use the power of the Silver Crystal, that it was because of him that she was able to be her, referring to the unification of her identities in the first arc, and as the two kiss she thinks that they became as one, that their power became as one.
I love Usagi and Mamoru's relationship so much. The two are always so supportive of each other. The two constantly improve each other. They make each other their truest self, yet at the same time more than they were. There are beautiful asymmetries in their relationship, in the different ways they've saved each other, but there is a beautiful symmetry in the way they want to come together, that they share the same purpose and wish to become as one for that purpose.
As they embrace, Usagi asks Mamoru if he can feel it, that his power is as infinite as hers. Dream Arc Foreshadowing.
From their embrace, the unification of their powers, Usagi feels a warm light in her arms, the light of creation from which emerges Sailor Chibi-Moon.
I think the symbolism on that one is pretty clear. The Female Heroine and the Male Hero coming together brings about the child, representing the future and potential. More literally it's the "newborn light", aka the newly awoken Sailor Senshi.
Chibi-Moon tells Sailor Moon she's there to help fight, and Sailor Moon asks Chibi-Moon to pray upon the Silver Crystal, to draw it's great power out. Together the two use Moon Princess Halation on Death Phantom and DEATH STAR THE PLANET
I feel like the theme and the symbolism could have been made more apparent, particularly if Naoko made it clear the Silver Moon Crystal of the Future had already begun to transform into the Pink Moon Crystal and if the rules were more consistently stated. Because while it's not clear, I do think there is a theme here as thematically powerful as the First Arc's.
The Moon Crystal is the most powerful force in the universe, its stated its power doesn't change depending on the era. But it cancels out if two are in the same time. Chibi-Moon couldn't use the Crystal until she began to develop herself, to move out from her mother's shadow, and change the Crystal to her own, the Pink Moon Crystal. The power to change the world is passed down from generation to generation. Each generation must make it her own, but it will always have the same power and the same essence, the way each generation is unique yet also carries the spirit of the generations before her. This ties the theme of responsibility, because the princess Chibusa being unable to develop is connected to her inability to take on any responsibility inside the coddled palace of Crystal Tokyo. It is in letting your children take on responsibility themselves that they can inherit the power to change the world and to save the world. It is in generations working together across time, that the power to change the world can compound, that they can do things neither could alone. It is the love that passes between the generations, that transcends time, that can finally defeat that "spirit of chaos." While much of that sentiment is in the arc, I feel it could have been stronger if these themes were presented more consistently and clearly.
Oh yeah, and planet Nemesis exploding is also pretty cool. 😋
Meanwhile back on Earth Neo-Queen Serenity casually restores Crystal Tokyo, just as Sailor Moon did back at the end of the first arc with the entire Earth
Death doesn't really have consequences in this universe. It does kind of make you wonder why she didn't just resurrect Sailor Pluto. The narrative reason is Sailor Moon was given this power by Naoko before she knew there was going to be multiple arcs and that she might need the main character to not have the power to resurrect whoever she wanted.
Neo-Queen Serenity tells the Guardian Senshi that Sailor Moon combined her powers with Mamoru and Chibiusa and then destroyed Nemesis. The Guardians are happy to hear Usagi is ok. The queen then grants them all stronger powers so they will always be able to fight alongside Sailor Moon with ease.....
Yeahhhhh, that's not going to age very well.
The Queens tells the Senshi they can go to the Time Gate and return home. She grants her younger self more power from afar, but can't meet her past self as it would cause paradox. Sailor Moon awakens with a new brooch created by the Queen giving her power. She finally meets up with the Guardian Senshi with Chibi-Moon preparing to take them back to the present.
Sailor Moon is obviously happy everything turned out okay but wishes she could have met her future self but recognizes it might change the course of history....except Neo-Queen Serenity then decides "screw it" and runs, literally physically runs, to go see her past self.
Because I guess the rules mean nothing if you're the queen. Or maybe the guardian of time is no longer there to tell her "No."
The two thank each other for all their help, which is sweetly poetic the way that from each of their perspective they are thanking their past or future self. King Endymion and the Future Senshi come to the Queen's side and Sailor Moon in another poetic statements states that she'll meet her again in the future, that she knows someday she'll meet "the future me." If there's one person you know you'll always have with you and meet again, it's yourself.
Usagi awakens in her bed, and briefly wonders if it was all a dream before Chibiusa comes in. Chibiusa tells Usagi it's time for her to go home. Usagi makes up an excuse and goes back to the house, thinking to herself she can't watch Chibiusa go. Chibiusa goes back and apologizes for making Usagi cry, asking "hasn't it been annoying having me around" but Usagi tearfully tells her that despite all their fighting, that Chibiusa isn't annoying and the two girls end up crying and hugging
Usagi sadly tells Chibiusa not to go away, that she'll be so lonely without her around. Of course Usagi knows Chibiusa has to go, but she still can hardly bear it. It's the pain of every parent, to someday see their child go away and a culmination to this arc that's had Chibiusa's adolescent acting out and tranformation into a greater degree of maturity. In both times Chibusa's mother wished to protect her and keep her close, but Chibiusa will gain more independence as she grows. It's emotionally moving to me seeing the love between Usagi and Chibiusa.
Usagi admits to herself and Chibiusa that she knows Chibiusa needs to go and Usagi shouldn't cry about it, needing to be responsible about it. They go to where Chibiusa first appeared, where Usagi and Mamoru kissed at the end of the first arc.
Mamoru is waiting there for them and gives Chibiusa Tuxedo Puppet as a gift. Chibiusa holds the puppet close and gets teary but Mamoru lovingly and paternally puts his hand on her head and tells her not to cry. Chibiusa tells Mamoru he was her prince
It's so sweet and loving!
Chibiusa prepares to go giving Usagi her new wand from Neo-Queen Serenity, Chibiusa says a little before going, saying that despite her initial annoyance at it, she likes when they call her Chibiusa, showing she's finally not struggling to create a false image of herself. She says living here with them was really fun, and she's happy she came.
She waves goodbye and as she leaves tells Usagi she loves her to the greatest extent. Usagi cries as Mamoru holds her, commenting on the way Chibiusa seems to disappear right in front of their eyes. Mamoru tells Usagi he knows they will meet again, as that's their daughter. Meanwhile we see a photo of them having a fun day at the circus, and a montage of the Senshi reuniting with people who care about them.
An unspecified time later, possibly immediately, Usagi and Mamoru are sitting together on the park bench where Chibiusa appeared and disappeared, talking about the craziness of the future with Usagi commenting it feels like a long dream. Usagi thinks to herself that so many crazy things are going to happen, but she has no need to be anxious, for she will always have Mamoru by her side.
The two kiss only to be interrupted in a very familiar way...
Well you know what they say about history repeating.
Chibiusa is back, and she hands them a letter written from Neo-Queen Serenity asking them to train her daughter to be a Sailor Senshi written entirely without Kanji, causing Mamoru to comment this is definitely the future Usagi's writing. Usagi annoyed ends this arc by yelling "CHIBIUSAAAAAAA"
Act 26 is a really good act for similar reasons as Act 14 back in the first arc. It's an epilogue act that's mostly just really sweet and you can read to feel nice. I love all the stuff with Usagi and Chibiusa as as the stuff between both of them and Mamoru. The three of them are probably the most important characters in the Sailor Moon and this act I think really shows the dynamic between the three of them.
On a similar vein I also really enjoy the interactions between Usagi and Mamoru earlier when they're facing down Death Phantom as well as the interaction between Chibi-Moon and Neo-Queen Serenity. Once again I think this act is really good at showing the dynamic between the three most important characters in the manga. Also fourth arc foreshadowing!
What I don't like about this act is basically what I haven't liked about the arc overall; some logical plot holes and the looseness of the theme. The first is one I don't care as much about, it's sort of universal in time travel stories, but the latter is more pressing. The second arc does have themes that could be as strong to me as the first arc's. It's themes are about responsibility and the interactions between generations. In a way this could even tie into the first arc's theme of identity given so much of the arc revolves around Chibiusa's sense of self. But the themes are less tightly connected this arc, it's not set up so clearly early on, nor expressed as clearly in the latter part.
That's not to reflect that badly on this act specifically. I think this act makes for a great ending to the second arc which is still a Sailor Moon arc, and still very dear to me. The final battle with Death Phantom is pretty short if you just include the ending, but really the battle has been spread out over the last 2-3 acts considering it really starts with Wiseman's invasion of the Earth. The act takes the time travel arc to its logical conclusion with Usagi meeting her future self and saving the entire timeline. Chibiusa is also a really good addition to the cast. Naoko does kind of have a problem of having too many characters for the story length, but having a secondary protagonist like Chibiusa does help make the story a little less purely Usagi focused. Usagi's my favorite character of all time, but still it's nice to have a little more variety.
As more minor notes I really liked the little montage of the Senshi returning to the various civilian characters who care for them, as well as Chibiusa's little determined not when the queen asks her if she can help Sailor Moon fight. Overall the act is really cute and sweet, has some really cool elements, and is a very fitting conclusion to the second arc.
Happy Halloween! A classic Halloween costume archetype is the Scary Nurse. Nurses are meant to be wholesome figures of health and wellness, though some nurses in fiction are anything but; and can be sadistic, sexualized, and pseudo-villainess examples of mad science and occult sorceries, creating figures of terror like the two combatants today.
Valentine, the culmination of Last Hope
or Nightmare Nurse, the Mystic M. D.
Long ago humanity was cursed with the emergence of the sentient mystical artifact called the Skullheart who through Faustian Bargains turns women with wishes of imperfect purity into the dreaded Skullgirl, a monstrous entity created to bring about the end of the world. In the face of such a terror it would seem humanity should be doomed, but humans are nothing is not resilient, resourceful and ruthless in the face of certain devastation. Where there is a will, there is a way. A sentiment most perfectly materialized in the form of Valentine.
Valerie was once a normal nurse and scientific researcher working under the royally supported program, the Anti-Skullgirls Lab, a secret organization dedicated to finding some way to ending the Skullgirl threat that hung over the world. Times grew more and more desperate, and in order to prepare some line of defense against the Skullgirls, the members of the Anti-Skullgirls Lab experimented on themselves, causing strange physiological changes such as grey skin and cross pupils. With their new abilities they began to train themselves into an elite squad known as "The Last Hope," each receiving a codename based on one of the holidays. Despite being born on Christmas, Valerie was given the codename "Valentine," and served as the group's second-in-command.
However their successes were to be brought short. When the new Skullgirl, Marie Korbel, was newly transformed, their leader Christmas led them into attack her while she was still relatively weak. But the shapeshifter Double had infiltrated the Last Hope's ranks. The entire squad ended up sacrificing themselves to give Valentine, their best agent, the chance to defeat Marie and....she failed.
She was strong and smart, but Marie's regenerative power was too much for Valentine alone. However the Skullgirl offered Valentine a choice; join her or die. Valentine, above all a pragmatist, allied herself to the Skullgirl, solely for the purposes of getting information about her and eventually finding a way to kill her and avenge her fallen comrades.
Superhuman Physical Capabilities:
As part of the experimentation done on her, Valentine gained massively superhuman physical capabilities. This includes:
She is an extremely skilled fighter, being a veteran of the great war. In combat she often uses her Kunoichi skills of stealth, agility, and using her sexuality to distract her opponents in order to throw her enemies off guard and find their weaknesses. She has developed many techniques mostly taking advantage of her enhanced agility and stealth or knocking an enemy into the air to disorient them.
She's also developed special special techniques that give her supernatural type abilities.
Enhanced Mobility:
Valentine has developed the ability to double jump or glide through the air slowly. This is used for one of her iconic techniques:
EKG Flatliner:
Valentine darts back and forth at faster speed than normal, even in midair, ripping into her enemy with her Ripsaw.
Valentine has also demonstrated the ability to stop time for a couple of moments, leaving her opponents immobile, and allow her to attack them freely. Due to the briefness of the power, she generally only uses it as a last resort, when her enemy is going to get a hit in to turn the tide of battle. Valentine uses it for her most iconic move:
Command Code (Potential Mind and Memory Manipulation):
Valentine's most famous move, she stops time, traps her opponent in a bodybag and performs an impromptu surgery designed to empty their body of blood and cause presumably excruciating pain.
Valentine has a wide array of medical equipment on her person at any time, which she uses in combat. This includes ripsaws, stethoscopes, knives, knock-out gas, calipers, hammers, and of course the most famous medical equipment
cross-shaped shuriken which she can throw or use as an extended melee weapon with bindings. You didn't have that at your hospitals?
She also carries the primary weapons of her fallen comrades, so that she is truly the representation of The Last Hope. This includes the scalpels of Christmas used for slicing and dicing
The Naginata of Patty for ladylike slashing and dashing
The bodybags of Easter which can be used to restrain an enemy, or as a parachute for even further aerial ability.
as well as Hallow's syringes including purple which which can be used to poison, green to cause paralysis, and orange to weaken their reaction times.
Valentine also has on her a Defibrillator which can be used to shock enemies or resurrect the recently deceased and dark chocolate to amp her regeneration.... somehow.
Intelligence:
Valentine is a scientific supergenius by real world standards, having, along with Brain Drain, created Painwheel, a rage-powered monster using two synthetic parasites capable of threatening the Skullgirl, a threat to the world. As the utilization of parasites is one of the most important weapons in the Skullgirls-universe, this can be viewed as being the leader master of arms development in a world where characters can create esoteric type weapons that can affect higher planes. As the two worked together on this goal, this might suggest she's actually comparable to Brain Drain in intelligence which is especially impressive given he created Robo-Fortune, a fourth-wall breaking super-machine as well other ASG agents that have created time travel, which suggests overall she'd be a Type 3 intellect.
Valentine is especially a master of medicine, a unique fighting style called Medical Ninjutsu of which she is a master, and manipulation. She is infamously good at finding the weaknesses of other entities and exploiting them. She even manipulated Double into thinking they were on the same side, Double being a monster of likely 4,000 years old who has spent that timeframe learning to manipulate and deceive others and regularly tricks the rest of the Skullgirls cast.
Weaknesses:
Valentine doesn't have too many weaknesses. The biggest of which however is that she seems to be on the lower end of the power distribution for the verse, and has been overpowered by almost the entirety of the Skullgirls cast.
Beyond that Valentine can be a bit overconfident and has the biggest fault of hyperintelligent people, an extreme ability to convince herself of that she is right, leading her to do horrible things totally contrary to her overall goal because she can justify it to herself. She is a villain not because of her goal, but because her ambition blinded herself to realizing her noble goal is the opposite of the villainous means she uses to get there.
Personality:
Valentine is pragmatic and utilitarian to a fault. She has little concern for whom she deems to be "crybabies" and is more than willing to murder or torture the innocent in the pursuit of a higher good. In her hobbies, her career, and her general lifestyle, she seems to fashion herself as entirely results-based. What gets the optimal result is de facto justified and all else is meaningless sentimentality.
With that said behind those cold eyes is a broken heart. She showed a noticeable affection for her companions and in an interview Alex Ahad stated Valentine acts like a jerk to disguise her good intentions and her emotions. Valentine is constantly trying to find or make the greatest skullgirls weapon, even torturing one young girl to try and force it to be as with Painwheel. But she accidentally allowed the true greatest skullgirls weapons to be born ironically when she disobeyed an order and worked to preserve a young refugee girl's life, who would become Lab 8's greatest Anti-Skullgirl weapon, Peacock, expressly Painwheel's superior despite both having two synthetic parasites. It was not a ruthless merciless utilitarian approach that created the hero to save humanity, it was a moment of sentimentality.
This is the true tragedy of Valentine, that she can not see that in her desperate drive to honor the sacrifices of her comrades, she pushed herself to sacrifice what they were fighting for. Valentine is a woman of many masks, but while a mask can hide oneself from the world, it can also hide the world from oneself. Poetically, Valentine's own route ends in her becoming the Skullgirl herself and allowing herself to be destroyed by her own creation, her own monster, to save the world. Valentine's grand ambition, intelligence, and ruthlessness may someday allow her to save the world, but the real question is can she save herself?
Nobody's perfect. Every Hero has a failing, every Achilles a hell, every Superman a kryptonite. Of course when you are a demon, your idea of moral failings might be...a little bit different. Asa was by all appearances a paragon of demons; violent, perverted, arrogant, power-hungry. But though she tried to hide it, the demon Asa had the most contemptible trait one can have in Hell; compassion and kindness. The Greek Deities long ago, seeing this hidden trait, forced her into the Hippocratic Oath; to preserve life, to do no harm
Bound to the gods will, the Demon made her way from Hell to the living universe, forced to work as a healing specialist. She traveled by possessing humans and would work on healing magics on those she came across. In the guise of an old woman she worked as the nurse for a young woman named Alice Winter. Alice grew increasingly sick from a disease eating at her body and soul. Minutes before Alice would die, Asa, knowing there was no other way to preserve Alice, possessed the girl.
Thus was born the Nightmare Nurse, the Healer from Hell. Asa piloted Alice's body into various magical journeys, most often as the lover or ally of John Constantine of the Justice League Dark. Most don't understand Asa's motivations and falsely suspect Asa gave Alice the disease herself. The truth is the Nightmare Nurse is one of creation's most confounding entities, a mixture of the vile sins of a Demon, and the compassion of an Angel that confuses even the wisest entities of Creation
Demons commonly show the ability to sense despair and fear. Some demons have also shown other enhanced senses, but it is unknown if those are standard for demons.
More then that, Nightmare Nurse is characterized by massive psychological weaknesses and insanity. She is a reckless, perverted, arrogant sadist who plays around if she doesn't feel immediately in danger. However her biggest psychological weakness is her compassion, that forced her into the Hippocratic Oath.
Nightmare Nurse is one of the strangest "heroes" of the DCU. She is arrogant, sexually perverted, rash, and every other vice you can attribute to a mortal woman. She is, as a demon, a representation of humanity's failings and weaknesses. She is seemingly a hero only because she is bound by an oath forced on her by the gods. That is what people who don't know her think. Yet those who do know her regard her as something far more complicated.
The thing that is brought up most about the Nightmare Nurse is what a strange confusing creature she is. Sadistic but compassionate. A megalomaniac but a hero. The Nightmare Nurse is a lover to some, and a horrid killer to others. Just like the medicines she wields she can be used to save lives and ease pain, or to bring people to an agonizing death. It's all just based on ratios and quantities you get of her injected into your life.
Asa is to her own people a tragic entity, a demon of all the gloriously wicked traits of demon-kind brought low by her own "damning virtue." For this she ended up helping to save the multiverse against Blight and all of creation against Pralaya. Nightmare Nurse is an indication that just as a hero only needs one sin to fall and bring down the world with them, even someone villainous in every regard only needs that one virtue to save the world.
Beneath the streets of New Meridian, Valentine worked diligently at her latest creation, her brow furrowed in concentration. Little did she know, far above the city skyline, a demon hovered over the city, knowing her prey was in this dimension. The demon known as the Nightmare Nurse disappeared in a smoke.
Valentine finished her calculations on the page in front of her. If her theory was right, this serum may be the key to neutralizing the Skullgirl's regenerative properties. Valentine turned only to find, to her shock, that the serum was gone. A creaking noise caused the Ninja Nurse to tilt her gaze upwards where, in the lab doorway, was a figure dressed as if to mock her, in a sexualized nurse outfit, and with two eyes blazing with otherworldly energy. In her hand, she held the serum.
Valentine immediately took a defensive crouch. "If you know what's good for you..." she said "You'll hand that back."
Nightmare Nurse shook her head. This was the villain she had heard of experimenting on people? She sensed a despair from her...but moreover Asa liked the revealing nurse outfit...such a sexy style wasted on such a serious person. "Tsk tsk tsk" Nightmare Nurse responded. "All work and no play...makes a nurse a frigid virgin."
"Hmph." that got a little laugh out of Valentine. "Frigid huh?" Valentine prepared herself for combat, already thinking up plans to retrieve the vial without damage. "How about I show you....just how hot-blooded I can be?" Valentine adjusted her position to emphasize her chest's size, and make herself seem smaller, watching her foe's reaction and studying it.
"Ooooh." Nightmare Nurse thought. "Maybe she WILL be some fun..."
Fight!
With a shining flash in the lab's pale light, Valentine launched several scalpels at the Nightmare Nurse. With a vain laugh, the Nightmare Nurse casually raised her hand creating a barrier to protect against the attack. However this was only a part of the kunoichi's plan, as she teleported next to the demon and kicked the vial from her hand.
The two girls saw the vial go flying through the air and smoke filled the lab as both teleported after it, the two grabbing for it in the same moment. Asa grinned at the intimate position and swiftly launched a kick at Valentine's midsection. The blow caught, and it was though the demon had kicked as Kryptonian, her blow glancing off harmlessly. Valentine's eye lowered slightly in annoyance before attempting to shock away the Nightmare Nurse with her defibrillator.
Nightmare Nurse made an unearthly moan as horrid electricity ran through her and made her hair stand up. "ooooooh, harder mommy!" she said in mocking ecstasy.
Nightmare Nurse, acting quick, teleported herself and the vial in a puff of smoke away from Valentine, but Valentine smoothly glided towards her, slamming to Nightmare Nurse's arm. A sickening noise was heard, as Valentine's heel dug into the arm ripping through a chunk. Asa cried out in pain and dropped the vial causing the kunoichi to teleport to the bottom and grab it. She hadn't expected her blow to do such damage, and she certainly wasn't expecting what she saw next.
Quickly the arm of the MD from Hell regenerated, flesh and bone and blood squelching together in disgusting detail. With an angry twitch of her hand, the levitating demon sent down a rain of mystical scalpels. With expert skill, Valentine darted to and fro avoiding the scalpels however behind her the demon nurse teleported, striking her with demon lightning. Valentine instinctively moved to shield the vial with her body.
Valentine's teeth clenched. That....stung. Valentine turned with surgical precision and uppercut the demon, knocking her into the air and cratering Asa's midsection. Valentine was not content to leave it at that and jumped into the air and with a quickdraw of her hacksaw, slashed off the limbs of the Nightmare Nurse.
Nightmare Nurse cried out in horrific agony before smoke engulfed at them and she teleported again at the edge of the room, her body already recovering.
"Just Kidding!" she said with a sinister grin. She held up with her telekinetic powers the vial throwing it to get caught on the ceiling girder, a clear challenge to Valentine's ability to stop her.
Valentine felt her heart catch in her heart. Memories flooded back to her. That day. She recalled another monster who refused to die despite the wounds she dealt to it... that day seemed to stretch eternal.
The bloody romantic surged forth to strike at Asa but giving an exaggerated yawn, she brought up a shield. Valentine tried to quickly shift and teleport to attack her from behind but Asa simply produced another shield to guard her. Asa gave an exaggerated yawn. "Just give up." she said with a grin, "my shield is absorbing your energy."
Valentine stopped to catch her breath, her chest heaving, her skin red and flushed, stooped over in exhaustion. The demon licked her lips watching her exquisite body. Her concentration broken, her shield dropped and in a swift motion, a vial of orange liquid came from Valentine. Asa found suddenly Alice's body unable to move quickly.
"Wha....what did you do?!" she demanded, her body sluggish as though she were a drunk. Valentine smiled under her mask. "You reminded me of someone." and with a single strike, Valentine knocked the Nightmare Nurse out the building onto the busy streets, laying on her back on the New Meridian streets.
Slipping some dark chocolate into her mouth to aid her regeneration, Valentine quickly leapt out of the building, but she couldn't find remains of her enemy. She crouched and took a defensive position, knowing her enemy could be anywhere. Civilians ran scared in all directions, not knowing what was going on. The loud noise was deafening.... almost too deafening for Val to hear...
At the last moment she turned to the side as one of the "civilians" threw a scalpel that just grazed the size of Valentine's ripping the edge of her outfit.
"Hahaha" Nightmare Nurse laughed as she floated up into the air and released her disguise. "Good reflexes." Telling peoples psychological states was a major part of Valentine's job and while this strange being's psyche was still oddly guarded, she could tell that the slowing agent she had used was still active. It was a bluff.
Valentine leapt into the air at Nightmare Nurse. The demon smirked. How predictable could these mortals be? Valentine however did not just leap once, but leapt again further into the air catapulting over Asa and slicing downwards with the hacksaw towards the demons brain.
In a flash however the Demon was gone. Thoughts raced through Valentine's mind rapidly as she realized that the slowness had been a bluff, a double bluff! In the distance she heard the real Asa call out words in some arcane tongue "parT, gremE!" and on the ground an iron maiden appeared on the ground to brutalize the ninja.
But as she flipped over in the are, Valentine launched a cross shuriken, throwing herself off course of the flashy trap.
The cross dug into the demon's side, and she screeched, feeling REAL pain for the first time in ages. Valentine landed safely on the other side of the trap, kicking it aside with ease. "Maybe try something less over dramatic less time." Valentine suggested "The plan was sound, but far too theatric inefficient."
But Asa was in a rage from the pain. "You hurt me, you bitch!" she yelled in a fury. The rage in those eyes...the two girls blazing eyes met, and their anger reflected. The demon waved her hand and mystic pyramids appeared, the first digging into Valentine's hand and making her shake from sudden pain.
A demonic smile crept across Asa's face and she summoned more and more. Valentine in recognition used the scalpels of her leader and blocked projectile after projectile, memories of practice long gone coming to mind. She saw the demon's eyes blaze and felt a pulling at her scalpels. But her strength was greater.
Still all these strange spells worried Valentine. Whatever this demon was, it presented a real threat. Her eyes shifted as time came to a stop and teleported to a side of the demon, writing down a prescription for DEATH on her clipboard and injecting her with a purple fluid.
The Nightmare Nurse seemed to crumple on the ground. Valentine fell to the ground beside her. She spoke.
"You can stop acting, I know you aren't actually dead." Asa levitated. "Ah, spoilsport!" she complained. "Ruining my trick. And on Ol' Hallow's Eve too!" Nightmare Nurse waved her hand. "Well let's see if I can't REALLY make you cross-eyed!"
Down deep underground the two combatants appeared, in the pitch black. Valentine had scarcely collected herself as the world turned to blank when she felt an aching lightning fast slash of Asa's blade. The demon could easily sense the nurse's inner despair, and was used to the pitch black pits of Hell.
Valentine attempted to strike back but by the time the blade bit into her flesh, and she lunged with her scalpel to strike at the demon, she was already gone from her position. Valentine didn't know where they were, seemingly a deep cavern apart from the light, dampness covering the ground, she attempted to take to the air only to smash immediately into the cavern wall.
Nightmare Nurse laughed at Valentine's misfortune. She was fun to play with and get some vengeance for the pain earlier. "I know it's tight..." she said with an invisible sneer in the dark "but that's what makes it..." and as she appeared behind Valentine to slash at her from behind. "funnnn."
However with a single backwards strike, Valentine brought the cross extension from her foot outwards, spreading from her foot bindings. This tore into Asa's stomach, causing blood to spurt out onto both of them, as Nightmare Nurse was kicked, screaming a devil-banshee shriek to the end of the cavern.
Valentine attempted to lunge onto her, but her hands collided only with smoke and stone.
Thinking fast, the bloody romantic took her cross shuriken into her hands, knowing even the threat of them would keep her enemy off guard and less confident. Val had never been a particularly devout woman, knowing the Trinity were the true threat to the world. But time truly makes strange bedfellows of us all.
Asa tries to regain the advantage and attempted to scalpel at Valentine again. However the slight tinge of fear of Valentine's crosses kept the Mystic MD moving ever so slightly slower, and Valentine was able to block her blows, but before she could counter-attack, Asa escaped again. The two were at something of a standstill.
Valentine's eye blazed, and suddenly the Nightmare Nurse felt the burning cross attack her brain. Valentine quickly tried to implant a command code, but Asa simply grinned as her psychic shield warded off such an attack. But in the meantime...she was wide open. Nightmare Nurse conjured an orange and black magic spiral to stylishly finish off this nuisance.
However, this created a brief light which shone throughout the cavern. Val knew this would only last a brief time and leapt over the magic blast. Asa prepared to teleport out of the way of Val's scalpels at the last minute again, but Val switched to her naginata and impaled the demon girl through the arm, tearing it off with one motion. Val brought the cross closer and closer to Asa, weakening the writhing demon.
Thinking quickly, Asa created a portal back to the surface, beneath her and sunk into the ground, followed in quick pursuit by Valentine.
The two girls appeared back on the surface, both severely bruised and battered from the fight. Both quickly took to healing themselves and patching their bodies together. Asa was briefly distracted by Valentine's ripped clothing barely hiding her curvaceous form. Val noticed her distraction and quickly threw a cross shuriken at Asa, who was only just able to teleport away in time.
"You're a real tease, you know that...." the Nightmare Nurse said with a laugh.
"What can I say?" Valentine responded "I use whatever I can." As Valentine made a quick lunge for the Nightmare Nurse, who teleported away in the last second, Asa commented "I wonder what drives a villainess like you..." Asa raised her hands which produced a light as she sifted through Val's memories....
One memory was clearly paramount.
Friends, comrades, innocence, slaughter, betrayed. A girl, a monster, a lady of death standing above her...
"Get out, get out of my head!" Valentine said. She threw some scalpels at the Nightmare Nurse, and though they penetrated Alice's soft skin, it seemed to make no difference to her.
"Bit hypocritical, don't ya think? Pot asking the kettle to stop being black." as the image of Carol on the experimenting table appeared.
Valentine breathed hard from the exhaustion of fighting, fighting for minutes, fighting for years. "I am doing what must be done."
With her words Valentine glided over the street to Asa's position kicking at a precise angle, but Asa dodged out of the way again.
"What do you even think you're doing then?" Asa asked, her voice a mix of sarcasm and concern.
"This." Valentine said, her voice more sinister than the Nightmare Nurse had heard her the entire time as Valentine quickly froze time around her and charged right into the Nightmare Nurse sending them crashing into the building behind her that Valentine had so meticulously angled for her to be in front off.
Asa came to awareness again outside fully of Valentine's head.....her body burned. Her magic felt weak. The building was large and old and formal.
"Welcome to the temple to the trinity." Valentine said. "This is where all sinners are judged...and given your reaction to the cross earlier.... the prognosis looks grim."
Nightmare Nurse tried to teleport away, but the building's holy aura diminished her powers and she watched helpless as the woman once known as Valerie walked right up to her and engulfed her in a bodybag.
"One chance!" Asa thought as she cast the dun-kon-wei......
Later Valentine had the Demon's body strapped to the operating table. She wanted to study her but she also didn't want to take any chances. She took the cross and prepared to lower it to the demon heart but the Rod of Asclepius, sensing the threat to her, revitalized the Mystic MD who levitated off the table.
"Impossible!" said Valentine, her eye wide. "You were dead!" Unseen to the Nightmare Nurse, Valentine held a syringe in her hand.
Nightmare Nurse laughed at her masterful deception and summoned mystic scalpels throwing them with infernal precision at the kunoichi. However expecting this, Valentine leapt over the scalpels and threw the syringe which embedded itself into Alice's shoulder.
"Wha...WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Nightmare Nurse roared in agony, more than she had ever felt.
"Obviously you wouldn't die so easily, and if you did I have the sense that this sequence would be finished." said Valentine calmly. "That right there is a syringe of concentrated opium. Did you know the Egyptians revered Opium for its ability to bring painless death? You could call it a...holy poison."
Asa had no choice but to flee Alice's body. She watched as the girl she had watched across these years finally pass into the other world, unable to come to her body, warding her away as it was with its toxic holiness.
Valentine stood there, watching and expecting this to be the end of the fight, but instead bent over, hands on her head as she felt a malevolent spirit enter her, and horrid memories come to mind.
Endless darkness passed Valentine by as she felt the world race around her. Memories of times long gone by bubbled along like a river, melancholy of times long since thought passed.
Her mental form laid upon the ground, a barren ground like the Moon. The world was cold and dark. She rose to her feet unsteadily, looking out into the black sky out unto the horizon onto a blue world like the Earth, only to find it suddenly be engulfed. A massive face resembling Alice's emerged from the darkness, holding it like a jewel in her hands.
Valentine felt the ground shift beneath her and become the purple of her enemy's garment, mountains and valleys becoming her body, as she stood upon the giant Nightmare Nurse. Valentine tried to strike back, tried to run to cover, but there was no weapons, no land that was not hateful to her, that was not part of the grinning demon's form.
Hands the size of continents gripped her and brought her into the air dropping her into a gaping laughing mouth, giving the laughing chorus of demons in mockery of angels and virtues and sacrifices.
"Beyond space....Beyond time.... Not even your trinity can help you now. But that's okay because..."
Valentine came to awareness again in the blackness, as she felt her limbs affixed to a cross. Standing in front of her were three Nightmare Nurse, each slightly different, each more bloodied and wounded than the last. The middle one's head changed into a horrific demon head.
"You know you belong here!"
The world swarmed around Valentine, as though SHE were the one intoxicated by opium, shaking and twisting. The demons laughed and prepared their scalpels to dig deep into Valentine's mind, into her soul, until there was nothing left.
However as the first one moved to stab her, suddenly a shadowy silhouette holding two scalpels blocked the Nurse's with one hand and knocked her back with the other. She with expertise and precision pinned the demon with her blades.
A second smaller silhouette jumped in, energetic, darting and dashing, appeared and with a long naginata knocked another Demon Nurse down, flipping around her blow and pushing her down with her Naginata.
A third silhouette, large and stoic grabbed the final Nightmare Nurse, restraining her and dropping her lower section into a bad, holding her still.
The three demons came together forming one Nightmare Nurse again, who knocked the shadows aside with a demonic roar, shifting into her demon form.
However the binds on Valentine were broken by a final silhouette, a woman with claws for fingers, slashing through Valentine's bind. She helped the Valentine to her feet and gave Valentine a kiss on her cheek, making Asa's eyes flash in shock. The silhouettes disappeared entering Valentine. Val's eye blazed with a red intensity, and Asa covered her face from the cross in her eye. The gaze of the two met briefly, and in that scant moment recognition filled their gaze. Valentine closed her eye briefly.
"I am beyond the trinity's help. But I am something more. All I have, and all I am is something that which withstands this Hell" Valentine's eye snapped open "A LAST HOPE!"
As this mental reality moved to trap the Nightmare Nurse, she quickly conjured a Pyramid of Thoth to protect her from the shadowy breaking of perceptions. Knowing her shield couldn't last forever she summoned a portal back to the physical plane to escape, quickly followed by the ninja.
The two landed back on the streets of New Meridian above Valentine's secret laboratory. However this time Asa was in her demonic form. She spoke with a guttural growl. "I'm done playing around with you Valerie. I've seen the blackness of your soul and your self-righteous hypocrisy. It's time for this game to end."
The demon darted forwards fast as lightning only for Nightmare Nurse to teleport away at the last second. She threw some scalpels at the Demon which entered her flesh...and was immediately regenerated. Asa looked into Valentine's eye with mockery.
Nightmare Nurse swung her clawed arm down and Val once again just barely managed to avoid the strike, Asa's fist striking the ground sending shockwaves across the Canopy Kingdom, and indenting the entire city of New Meridian into the ground. Across the world, the power of the unleashed demon sent alarms everywhere warning of a threat on the level of the Skullgirl.
The Skullgirl. Memories flooded into both their minds...that day...that day had come again. As Valentine tried to paralyze Nightmare Nurse with one of her syringes only for her demon flesh to reform around the syringe, memories of that day flooded into her mind, the eternity trapping her.
Asa knew what she was thinking.
"We both know how this is going to end. Your Hell calls for you." Valentine could swear she heard a tinge of...sadness in the demon's voice.
Nightmare Nurse breathed fire, a fire that could burn Valentine's whole world to ash. Rising above, Valentine soared on thermals using the body bag as a glider. From the smoke, Asa's demon form leapt. The ninja quickly threw some syringes into the distance. The slight collision of the demon with Valentine broke her glider, and dislocated her arm, sending pain coursing through her body.
But Asa was thrown off as she saw the green syringes headed towards civilians. She teleported away, bound by the Hippocratic Oath to save them. Valentine knew that a single moment more and the demon would have rent her in two.
As the demon appeared in great fire and smoke, knocking aside the green syringes, Valentine appeared behind her and trapped her in a bodybag, raising the Mystic MD into the air and slamming the two back down to the ground quickly in a slew of blood, the collision sending them through the ground and into Valentine's laboratory.
However Nightmare Nurse simply burst out of the bag, with a demon roar, knocking Valentine to the ground, with enough force to shake the city again, and behind her, Valentine could see the anti-regenerative vial knocked free from the ceiling girder.
Asa performed a final swipe at Valentine's midsection but Valentine, one arm dislocated, leapt up into the air and in a stolen moment, a stolen eternity, dashed forwards with surgical precision, slashing at the demon with the cross on her boot until she was sliced to bits. The bloody romantic fell to the ground and raised her still active arm to grab the vial.
She struggled to catch her breath, as the insanity of what just transpired all caught up to her at once, making her feel like she wanted to vomit.
Her mind raced. Memories of that final slash. "That last attack...." she thought "it was too slow....she would have killed me first... but she pulled back at the last moment." The nurse thought back to Hell, of the recognition in their eyes....of the sorrow and compassion she had seen in those eyes and the friends she thought were long lost....
The nurse looked out through the hole they had made unto the skyline. "Who would have thought..." she asked herself "that when a demon falls...she keeps her heart."
KO!
This matchup is a matchup where one character has a lot more versatility but also a lot more weaknesses.
Comparing the two characters in power, Nightmare Nurse is either in the low tons of tnt range from shaking the house of mystery, or kiloton level from creating a mushroom cloud explosion. Meanwhile Valentine is either upper kilotons to lower megatons from scaling to Double maintaining a dimension, and downscaling to other characters or upper megatons scaling from Hungern devouring cities and megacities and a higher interpretation of Double's dimension feat. This means that most likely Val is either thousands or millions of times stronger and more durable than Nightmare Nurse. The only way to get them to be similar is to highball Nightmare Nurse and lowball Valentine, and even then she'd be tens to hundreds of times stronger.
What this means is that any strike from Valentine can incapacitate Nightmare Nurse, while Valentine can tank the elemental/magic attacks from Nightmare Nurse. However this isn't as big a deal as it might sound. Defensively, Nightmare Nurse typically utilizes her forcefield and regeneration and doesn't rely on raw durability. Valentine can hypothetically get around either of those. She can teleport to one side of a forcefield or within it and she can use her cross weapons to nullify Nightmare Nurse's regeneration, though both would be certainly annoying to get around. Conversely, Asa typically relies on her scalpels for offense rather then elemental attacks, which negate durability. While Valentine can regen using dark chocolate, and can heal herself, she has nowhere near the regenerative properties and healing of Asa. If Asa goes for a lethal or disabling strike, Val can't really recover very well. However if Valentine hits Asa with a cross weapon, she would have to abandon Alice's body to survive, and if it's demon body she would just die. This means that functionally both sides CAN kill the other one out of nowhere very fast, despite this being seemingly a fight between healers. Asa's demon side doesn't really change the equation as while her attack potency and durability are massively higher than Valentine, she would have the same hypothetical capacity to one-shot and the same weakness to holy weapons. The only real difference is Valentine would not be able to incapacitate her even temporarily with non-holy attacks.
As a quick aside, one may quarrel on whether or not Valentine's cross weapons would be considered holy in the Skullgirls universe that has its own deities and work on Nightmare Nurse. However Etrigan harmed Lucifer with the Cross while they were in Hell, outside the mortal universes. Plus Christianity does actually seem to exist in Skullgirls. Double disguised herself as a Nun, and all the members of the Last Hope are named after Holidays with Christian Origins (Christmas, St. Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, and All-Saint's Day)
In terms of speed, Nightmare Nurse is likely a few times faster than Valentine as Valentine scales most likely somewhere in the middle double digit mach, while Nightmare Nurse scales likely somewhere in the lower triple digit mach. This is notable, though given the immense skill difference Valentine should be able to compensate, especially if Nightmare Nurse is just playing around. Nightmare Nurse is an immensely skilled magic-user, but she has basically no combat skill feats, given she is a healing specialist. Conversely Valentine is a master Kunoichi who is considered a highly skilled fighter in a world where people can perform superhuman feats from combat skill. A difference of a few times in speed would be pretty reasonable for Valentine to match.
If you compare both fighters ability to quickly kill each other, Nightmare Nurse could hypothetically do it far easier if she was fighting 100% optimally.
Most of Valentine's weapons can hypothetically incapacitate non-demon form Asa but could not permanently kill her. Her command code, may help rid memories of Nightmare Nurse from herself, but it's definitely not working on Asa herself, even if she can use it in combat, given her willpower which has far greater feats than Painwheel, and has mental guarding magic of her own. Knockout gas and standard poisons are more unlikely to work given how much Nightmare Nurse has inoculated herself against. Her only surefire way to kill Nightmare Nurse is her cross weapons. It's not like this would take her very long to figure out. This is one of her more standard weapons, she is good at reading people and Asa is not especially subtle about pain. What Valentine DOES have is lots of ways to temporarily incap Asa including just beating her up with her normal weapons, using paralyzing and slowing syringes, and outright freezing time. While Asa can maybe freeze time by herself, Val can also maybe resist time stop, so you'd once again really have to give Asa the benefit of the doubt to say she could do the same.
Conversely Asa could hypothetically kill Valentine in plenty of ways. A scalpel to her wrists or her throat at any time would immediately kill her. She could also just teleport her into a pit of acid. She could go into her demon form at which point even a grazing blow from her, strong enough to hurt Blight could probably vaporize Valentine. She also doesn't have that many offensive options being a healing specialist. While her elemental/energy attacks wouldn't do anything, most of her options would be an immediate threat. While Asa DOES have a large arsenal of abilities that wouldn't help here, most are things she wouldn't really think to use in most situations. Even if Asa tried to control Valentine, she would probably find it difficult to do anything as Valentine's internal drives are incredibly strong, as are her inner demons. While she could probably protect herself in Valentine's mind, it's unlikely she could puppet Valentine.
However this fight has several other factors that really change the dynamic. Both characters can travel through the air pretty freely, and both can teleport. What that means is both can adjust the range at will. This is interesting because at long range, Nightmare Nurse has a massive advantage in that her shield can block any of Val's attacks, but at close range Valentine has the advantage, due to her vastly superior physical strength, combat skill, and the fact that even a normal attack would force Asa to regenerate. That means this is a fight where the two would keep teleporting around to get into a better position. Nightmare Nurse technically has the advantage that she can teleport Valentine as well, but unless she uses it offensively to teleport Valentine somewhere her fighting is hindered, this isn't different then just teleporting herself away.
With two characters that can both one-shot each other, teleportation, and similar-ish speed, this really became a match-up about who would land a one-shot strike first. And that's where Nightmare Nurse's weaknesses are crippling in this match-up. While she has arguably a stronger powerset in general, Valentine counters Nightmare Nurse's biggest weaknesses in basically every way. Not only is a holy weapon one of her most commonly attacks, she regularly uses sex appeal to distract her opponents which would break Asa's concentration and her magicks, she is a skilled manipulator while Asa is characteristically arrogant and reckless, and Valentine a secretly despairing girl who is violent and sexual is exactly the type of girl that Nightmare Nurse would want to play with. While Nightmare Nurse can kill Valentine any time, and in a way that would be fairly intuitive, she wouldn't and even couldn't kill Valentine quickly. She's only ever used lethal force against non-humans threatening the world due to the Oath of Asclepius, while Valentine is actually working towards the saving of humanity.
In fairness, Valentine is a bit arrogant herself and Nightmare Nurse is hyped as one of the most dangerous manipulators in the DCU so maybe Asa could prolong things that way? While Valentine is overconfident she's also brutally efficient and Asa wouldn't have much to manipulate.
I think you could argue that as the fight went on Nightmare Nurse would be able to get past Valetine's standard manipulation; realizing this human is tricky, realizing she uses sex appeal to distract, that Valentine is, willingly or not, aiding the biggest force of destruction in the setting. That seems plausible but it seems like Valentine would be able to find her weaknesses much quicker including her biggest weakness; her compassion.
Valentine is treated as probably the best manipulator among the normal Skullgirls characters, regularly finding out everyone's weaknesses. Meanwhile Nightmare Nurse is treated as this huge mystery as to her motives in the DCU. So how can one figure if Valentine would figure out Nightmare Nurse's weakness, arguably the central point of this debate, literally and thematically.
While humans, even clever humans like Zatanna fail to see Nightmare Nurse's hidden compassion, such WAS seen by Blight, embodiment of human sins, and Pandora, embodiment of human virtues. These are cosmic entities but they don't particularly have intelligence feats outside their domains, suggesting their intelligence would be comparable to half each of Modern Humanity's collective intelligence. This has a term in DC, a 6th Level Intellect, someone with the intelligence of modern humanity collectively, or the intellect of a Type 0.73 civilization roughly. Does Valentine pass this marker? Easily. Valentine is considered a top intellect in a world where technology that can break the fourth wall and time travel are invented. This would put her at relatively speaking a Type 3 intelligence which in DC terms would be closer to a 9th Level Intellect than a 6th.
You might argue this would at least take time, but Pandora didn't say that Nightmare Nurse's compassion was some mysterious deep thing, but claimed it was "barely hidden" suggesting if anything Valentine would be able to quickly figure it out and deliberately manipulate it via playing up her own tragedy, taking civilians hostage, threatening them and so forth. While the Phantom Stranger did comment on Nightmare Nurse's confusing-ness, this was only in regards to the strange mixture of compassion and "demonic" traits within her, not that he couldn't tell she had compassion in her at all, in fact it demonstrates he DID see it in her. Valentine has even manipulated Double, a thousands of years old demonic entity who deceives people it meets, exactly like Nightmare Nurse and with far less obvious personality-based weaknesses.
This is a fight where one character CAN kill the other anytime, but wouldn't for a while at least, while the other couldn't initially, but would as soon as she figured out how too. And it seems far more likely that Valentine would figure out how to given her intelligence and how relatively common this type of attack is for her, before Nightmare Nurse is able to convince herself that killing Valentine is for the greater good AND decides to stop playing with her AND gets past Valentine's own manipulation.
The winner is....Valentine.
Next Time:
Big thanks to my friend ThorGundersen1058 for making this excellent next time trailer and for providing the soundtrack and some of the GIFs for this blog.
