Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon Act 59 Review

 

I have considered how I was going to write this blog every week, possibly every day, since I started this blog project. Act 59 is an act everytime I read or even think about it, I find new meaning, an act which I never seem to be able to exhaust what I can understand from it. But I will try to express what I feel from this act. 

Sailor Moon and Sailor Galaxia clash, their power equaling. Chibi-Chibi protects Chibi-Moon from the power surge with a barrier

Chibi-Moon asks Chibi-Chibi if Chibi-Chibi is her younger sister or daughter or something, that means the future will come to pass, they will beat this threat, and that's why she asked Chibi-Moon to trust in Sailor Moon, right? They are meant to win this fight? Chibi-Chibi just looks back at Chibi-Moon, her eyes vacant and empty. Chibi-Moon asks "Chibi-Chibi, who are you, really?"

Galaxia pins Eternal Sailor Moon to the ground, choking her. As she does, Galaxia relates her backstory. She was born alone as trash to a world that was trash, trash here meaning without value. Everyday she wandered in solitude, a Hellish existence, until one day she awoke as a Chosen Guardian. But an ordinary Sailor Senshi is no better than trash, and Galaxia sought the ultimate goal, the planet with the greatest power, the star with the greatest shine, a world worthy of her.

 

This is the origin of Galaxia's worldview, born to shifting sands to a world full of meaningless chaos she awoke to an eternal identity, unable to believe that one as great as her would have a destiny so humble as to protect a world of shifting sands. This is the heart of what she feels, and is compelling in a sense. It is true that it seems strange that the strongest Sailor Senshi would have a destiny of protecting something so humble as a world. Though Galaxia is arrogant, it is a conflict that has plagued the philosophically minded since the dawn of time, the yearning to find the eternal and meaningful even in the sometimes dim and dismal world of arbitrariness we find ourselves in. 

Galaxia brings her face so close to Sailor Moon's they almost touch, her eyes monotone and alien, otherworldly and reflecting her gnostic worldview, while Sailor Moon's are human, reflective of her role as the everygirl. She tells Sailor Moon that she found it, that world worthy of her, but that to obtain it she needed the strongest power in the galaxy... Sailor Moon repels Galaxia off her, telling her that a Sailor Senshi's power is made to protect peace and justice in the galaxy, to protect one's loved ones. 

Galaxia scoffs at this notion, saying that to gather together is a sign one is trash, that the only thing one can believe in is their own strength, the power of one Sailor's Crystal. She continues the idea by saying that through the Sailor Crystal, the body can be remade and broken again endlessly like toys. And then in an odd line Galaxia insists that Sailor Moon already knows this, that the things she trusts are fleeting illusions.

On the surface, this may seem just like a Galaxia form of standard villain dialogue. "Friendship is weak, Rah." But this is actually a really revealing two pages as to Galaxia's mental state. This is her expressing her own Gnostic philosophy to Sailor Moon, that the only thing important is ones strength, which she connects to the eternal component of oneself, the Sailor Crystal, and that the temporal and cyclical parts of the world are irrelevant tools to be used. That those who are strong shine alone in the universe, and ones who gather together are a sign they can't shine alone. But she frames this all in the context of "trust." "The only thing you can trust is your own strength" and "you still insist on trusting these fleeting illusions?" Galaxia insists that Sailor Moon knows what Galaxia is, that with her great power, she is like Galaxia. This is the act where Galaxia reveals her goal, yet this is the first action in the arc that doesn't lead to her goal. If anything it leads away from it. Her expressing to Sailor Moon that she should acknowledge the things she believes in are illusions, calling back to when she asked Usagi earlier if she was really confident the future she believed it would come to pass, does not advance her plan at all, so the question is...why does she ask it? Why does she believe it about Sailor Moon?

Maybe you can say this is meant purely to demoralize Sailor Moon but that's not consistent with what happens next. Sailor Moon rebuffs Galaxia's claim, saying that Sailor Galaxia is a Soldier of Destruction and so can never understand the power the hands, the words, the bodies one's loved ones and comrades can give. In the complete antithesis of Galaxia's worldview and the claim Galaxia insists that Sailor Moon admit, Sailor Moon says that it is BECAUSE of her friends and loved ones that she's made it this far. Galaxia is taken aback by the notion.

This is the first time in the series Galaxia seems unsettled. The only negative reactions she has had in the arc up to this point is when Chibi-Chibi's power repelled her, which only seemed to annoy her and her aimless wandering looking for her purpose. However, this seems to actually anger her. When Sailor Moon appeared before her, Galaxia thought that Sailor Moon's shining power was hatred for Galaxia. But Sailor Moon's power is not hatred, it's love, a possibility Galaxia can't truly understand. Galaxia prides herself on her strength yet admits she needs the greatest of powers, Sailor Moon's. She has tried to make Sailor Moon slowly more and more like her, yet Sailor Moon keeps insisting that the illusions, the thing Galaxia dispossesses as meaningless is where her power comes from.

Galaxia teleports the Sailor Crystals away before running off, Sailor Moon in hot pursuit. As Galaxia leaves she wonders to herself why Sailor Moon is the one with the most powerful Sailor Crystal, ignorant scum that she is, however acquiring it is essential to defeat Chaos.

This part is so incredibly revealing, such a good subtle character moment for Galaxia. On the one hand it's literally revealing, this is the first point where Galaxia's true motive is suggested. While she pretends to work with Chaos she really wants to use the Silver Crystal to defeat Chaos and that by itself is a pretty fun twist, not dissimilar to Beryl revealing she never had any intention of freeing Metaria but was just trying to get the Silver Crystal for herself. But what's so much more interesting here is Galaxia's...anger. Galaxia had no companions, lived on a meaningless world, and sought her entire lifetime for the ultimate answer, doing everything in her power to find the world worthy of her, to find something meaningful and eternal. This girl who, as far as Galaxia knows, has always had companions and lived in peace, never even trying to find the eternal comes in and after all, Galaxia has done to show her the truth, still says to her face that it's those very things that give her that power. You can feel the sting of resentment in Galaxia's words, the feeling of unfairness that Usagi who seems to have sacrificed nothing and pursued nothing is not just as strong as Galaxia but has a power in her that's even stronger. 

Galaxia brings Sailor Moon behind her palace towards Sagittarius A Star itself, the Galaxy Cauldron, source of all stars which Galaxia calls "the holy land of the stars." As Eternal Sailor Moon catches up to her, the light of that most holy star bathing Galaxia's body in shadow, Galaxia speaks to Sailor Moon about the Galaxy Cauldron. She tells her it is where all stars are born, whether they are strong or weak. It is where all common trash and Sailor Senshi are born, a holy land with the greatest potential in the galaxy. Galaxia declares this to be the area of their final battle, the place where everything will soon cease to exist.

And as she says this, Galaxia takes the Star Seed cluster of Usagi's friends...and drops it into the Galaxy Cauldron, erasing them.

This was Sailor Moon's objective the entire arc, even before she counciously understood what Galaxia had done to Mamoru. The recovery of the Sailor Crystals meant that with the Silver Crystal she could resurrect her friends. But Galaxia both tactically and emotionally needs Usagi to understand the illusory temporary nature of all the things she put her trust in, and now her friends can't be recovered, pushing her to finally be alone like Galaxia is. 

Usagi stands there shocked for a moment. She knows what this means, that Galaxia has just erased her friends for good. That her hopes were for naught. And for the first time in the entire series, the Heroine Usagi declares she won't forgive someone, preparing to kill Galaxia charging the psychopathic queen as she inspects her nails for insignificant dust. Galaxia feels Eternal Sailor Moon's power and encourages it saying, in one of my favorite lines in the entire series "Fuel your fiery rage with your hatred. Feel true solitude Sailor Moon. It will awaken your true infinite power that lies deep within you."

One of the overarching themes of Sailor Moon as a story is the pain of isolation. Every Single Senshi Sailor Moon has befriended suffered from social alienation. Here that theme is brought to its climax at the same time it's vocalized. Galaxia contends it's not love for her friends that gives Sailor Moon her power, but anger at Galaxia for taking them away as part of her philosophy that the temporal and mundane parts of the world are trash that are meaningless and all that matters it the eternal. She is seeking to prove this here by bringing Sailor Moon to her ultimate power at the same time as she is isolating her. At the same time, Galaxia, even as she doesn't realize it, is admitting the emptiness in her own heart. She expresses her desire for Usagi to feel the pain of "true solitude" yet also wants to awaken Usagi to the reality she sees meaning the pain of true solitude is something she sees.

To complete her plan, to bring Sailor Moon to the zenith of her power and make her experience "true solitude" Galaxia knocks Mamoru into the Galaxy Cauldron, erasing him to Sailor Moon's horror. Chibi-Moon reaches for her mother but disappears from history. The ghastly sight is so horrible that even Chibi-Chibi can't bear to watch, which is more meaningful when you find out who she is. As this happens Galaxia declares that once Sailor Moon understands the truth Chaos will reveal to her, her power will explode and she along with Chaos will cease to exist.

There's so much to unpack in two short pages without even much dialogue but firstly.... GALAXIA....what a villain. She erases the second and third most important characters in the story without any aplomb as basic tools to her plan. There are two plots that extend over the course of the entire story from Act 1 to the end; Usagi's transformation from a cowardly crybaby to the Champion of Love and Usagi and Mamoru's romance. Here Galaxia, for her own reasons, uses the latter plot, sacrificing it to the former which interestingly enough parallels the climax of Takeuchi-Sensei's prequel manga Codename: Sailor V where Minako, the Champion of Love, ironically cannot have her own love because she must sacrifice her own chance at love to protect the world. In the deletion of Mamoru, the embodiment of that world, that crystal ball shining with the blue light of hope and possibility Princess Serenity saw from the Moon along with Chibi-Moon, the embodiment of the happy future Usagi was fighting for, Galaxia is attacking Usagi's hope itself, her sense of present and future. This arc is meant to take Usagi as a character to her maximum extent, to bring her to her breaking point. She wants to protect the ones she loved but what happens if they are all taken away, how can she stand up to the tragedies and horrors of the world when alone.

We also finally learn Galaxia's intent though it's implied over the course of the arc and this act specifically. Sailor Galaxia has been deliberately emotionally torturing Sailor Moon this arc because the Silver Crystal responds to Usagi's heart, trying to raise her power so she and Chaos will wipe each other out. After discovering Chaos, the painful truth at the heart of being, Galaxia was willing to make any sacrifice of this temporal world in order to destroy Chaos and find that perfect world. It makes sense in theory and explains almost all of Galaxia's past actions; her killing of Usagi's loved ones in front of her, attacking her when she's vulnerable to take away her sense of safety, kissing Mamoru, teleporting her castle around to troll Sailor Moon. The one action it doesn't explain is earlier this own act when Galaxia tries to get Sailor Moon to admit that the things she believes in are illusions, an act done because though Galaxia doesn't realize it, she wants Sailor Moon to understand her. 

Sailor Moon wails in horror and Chaos goes on the move from the sudden increase in power, likely from the Golden Crystal. Galaxia prepares to finish her master plan attacking Sailor Moon with a cosmic wave of force while declaring to Sailor Moon to unleash her great power in the Cauldron wiping out herself and Chaos. However, Chibi-Chibi intercepts the blow, to Galaxia's shock. Galaxia tries to pivot and tell Chaos that she has brought Sailor Moon as a present, thinking to herself that the time has finally come for the two to wipe each other, for her to gain the entire universe. However, Chaos betrays Galaxia, possibly because it heard her telling Sailor Moon to wipe Chaos out along with herself. Chaos drags Sailor Galaxia towards the Galaxy Cauldron but a hand reaches out and grabs Galaxia's. Sailor Moons pull Galaxia to safety and protects her from Chaos. 

The artwork puts special emphasis on their hands clasping. Earlier Usagi wished that their bodies of ours would last forever, these hands that clasp together and make us stronger. This imagery is repeated constantly this arc, with the Senshi holding hands as they travel into Galaxia's territory, the way Lethe and Mnesmonye grasp each other's hands as they perish together, Sailor Moon saying that as a Soldier of Destruction Galaxia can't understand the power one's companions hands bring, holding hands is a visual imagery all throughout this act of expressing love through our bodies. It is what Galaxia disdains as an illusion Sailor Moon clings to, but it is what Sailor Moon uses to save Galaxia. 

Chaos looms ominously over Sailor Moon and Galaxia's unconscious body, the power of its presence causes Sailor Moon to shrink back in a defensive stance. Chaos is surprised at the power of Sailor Moon, commenting that the white brilliance has finally made its way to it. Chaos introduces itself to Sailor Moon as Chaos, the one who never became a star and instead became ruler of the dark stars within the cauldron. Chaos addresses Sailor Moon, calling her the heir to the Cauldron's beautiful light and with that power she evil heavenly bodies of darkness, fellow siblings born of the same sea, her radiance growing from their blood splatters and her name thundering across the galaxy.

I love this part of this series so much. Everywhere abstract images and words and concepts are floating filled with meaning. Some of them like Sailor Moon inheriting the power of the Cauldron and that they were born from the same sea will be explained more next act, but some are immediate recontextualizations of the past. Chaos describes Sailor Moon's power growing from her past fights as her radiance growing from the blood splatters of the evil heavenly bodies of darkness, the past enemies, a manipulative way of making Sailor Moon sound like she was in the wrong and a macabre image, Chaos expressing that word of Sailor Moon has reached it in such a cool way like "your name has thundered across the Milky Way." We also learn of the true enemy of the entire series, Chaos, that which never became a star, lord of the dark heavenly bodies. Possibly important for the symbolism in Japanese the word for star can sometimes mean planet or world, and so the perfect world that Galaxia is looking for and the world Usagi inhabits are referred to with the same term as these past enemies, who are depicted in contrast as worlds or stars of darkness, whole microcosm worlds of their own.

Sailor Moon interrogates Chaos' statement and Chaos states that incarnations of evil darkness roam the galaxy searching for the light, all of them naught but manifestations of Chaos itself. Chaos says with her light she destroyed her own siblings, born as they were of the same Galaxy Cauldron, the source of all. Sailor Moon realizes who Chaos speaks of; Metaria, Death Phantom, Pharaoh 90, Nehelenia...they were all manifestations of Chaos searching space and time for the Silver Crystal, the ultimate light. Chaos proclaims this her destiny, to return here, for light and darkness call for each other, summon each other, until they are all as one again just as they once were. 

Stretching back to the beginning of recorded human stories the great enemy was Chaos, the embodiment of all that is unknown, dating back to Tiamat the Mother of all Monsters, just as Chaos here is the mother of all enemies. Chaos here references both the Greek Mythological Entity Chaos, the precursor to the Cosmos, representing the original undifferentiated being before order and patterns emerged into the universe and the Japanese concept of Amatsu-Mikaboshi, the Dark Star of Heaven, representing the nebulous and unnamable, suggested by some to be the void from before things whose presence still somehow lingers. Chaos in Sailor Moon is a combination of these, the original darkness who wishes to become as one again with the light, undifferentiated being. Chaos is the ultimate enemy, that all others are merely the manifestations of. Sailor Moon has until this point been fighting shadows of the real enemy, the temporal aspects, but now is seeing the reality Galaxia sees, the eternal enemy Chaos. Chaos refers to Sailor Moon as her brilliance, her light, showing it views her Silver Crystal as the real her, which I think explains why Nehelenia said Sailor Moon is the spitting image of her mother Queen Serenity and even earlier why Metaria confused the Queen and the Princess. They are part of Chaos who only sees the Light it seeks to reunite with, the Silver Crystal. 

Chaos says the time has come for the light and dark to clasp hands again, once again referring to the recurring imagery of clasping hands to become stronger, and says its desire will finally come to be, to gain the Silver Crystal and replace the Galaxy Cauldron which will be an important plot element soon. Meanwhile, Galaxia wakes up. She asks Sailor Moon why Sailor Moon saved her saying Sailor Moon should just kill her, that she could never win against such a gigantic power as Chaos', saying in sadness that this place too was not where she belonged too. But then Sailor Moon responds in one of my favorite panels in the entire series and indeed one of my favorite moments in fiction

There's so much I want to say about this singular panel. This right here shows the difference between Galaxia and Usagi. These two I understand so well, they're both in my top 5 characters of all time, and their conflict is one I understand intuitively as it's a conflict I have had internally but this here is the ultimate victory of Usagi's ideals over Galaxia's. Galaxia couldn't stand the seeming meaninglessness of life, to the point she thinks now that her plan has failed Sailor Moon should just kill her. She projected unto Usagi and assumed Usagi would feel the same way as her. She insisted that Usagi's rising in power was just Usagi's hatred for Galaxia and got mad when Usagi continued to insist her power came from her friends, from the seemingly meaningless things Galaxia brushed aside. She wanted to make Usagi like her, alone, and seeing the truth of the universe because she assumed that would bring her hatred to the ultimate level to the point of being able to destroy the final enemy. But she made the mistake in thinking Usagi would feel identical to her. Usagi's greatest strength is and always has been her love, her empathy that lets her understand others and in making them more alike, Galaxia actually gave Usagi the tool to understand Galaxia, which ironically is what Galaxia secretly wanted even if she didn't realize or know how to express it. Galaxia thought that if Usagi saw the same as Galaxia, that Usagi would hate Galaxia as much as Galaxia hated her own meaningless life, that she'd be driven to be the same homicidal hatred that led Galaxia to destroy world after world, to become a fellow Soldier of Destruction. But for Usagi these temporalities are valuable and while the why of it will be explained this act, Usagi knows that even if they fade away that these temporary lives we lead are important. She doesn't even say she did it, she says her hand did so, so automatic a thing was it. Even put in the same situation as Galaxia, Usagi doesn't want to end Galaxia's current existence, doesn't think Galaxia's life isn't worth existing. Usagi wonders at Galaxia's heart, while Galaxia assuming Usagi's heart is like hers. Usagi was able to understand Galaxia while Galaxia was unable to understand Usagi.

I feel this intuitively internally. I have both the gnostic impulse and love within me. Both are incredibly strong emotions, the perception of things as having a transcendental value and the dislike for the arbitrariness when things feel empty and meaningless. But the Gnostic Impulse in all people is Totalizing, it seeks to go to the absolute, to the extreme, to the point of being self-destructive as it destroys your life, as it makes you sacrifice anything that isn't immediately meaningful, the rejection of any world that doesn't reach the impossible zenith of perfection. But the path of Love is different, it isn't totalizing, it seeks to connect things within oneself and between things. Love contains empathy and it seeks to understand and take into all account all human needs inside of us INCLUDING our Gnostic Impulse. This asymmetry is true externally; a loving empathetic person will understand the Gnostic when the Gnostic will be not be able to do the same in reverse. And it's true internally, our sense of love will give the Gnostic Part of our soul its due, it will look for what is most meaningful but it won't let the Gnostic part totalize our soul, while the Gnostic Part of our soul can't understand Love, unconditioned and given freely as it is. I know this may seem very abstract but in this moment in Sailor Moon I see a reflection of a battle that has been fought and won many times in my heart; part of me wishing to focus only on the most important matters and reject all seemingly meaningless temporal things and the part of me asking myself to trust the temporal, treat it as bearer of the divine image. In that battle I listen to the latter impulse, born of love, because I know it properly takes into account all parts of my soul including the former. 

Sailor Moon says she doesn't want to lose any more companions but Galaxia contends that Galaxia is her enemy, that they are at war. But Sailor Moon says that she can't keep fighting, that all her friends have disappeared. And then in possibly the most important statement in the manga, Usagi says that all this time she has never fought for peace and justice, but only for the sake of her friends and loved ones.

I don't know how Takeuchi-Sensei does it, write a final arc that is somehow both the ultimate expression of Usagi's character and a breaking down of her character at the same time. I almost don't feel equipped to talk about this line here because it means so much. Usagi's original character concept was to write a Heroine normal girls could relate to. A crybaby who acts brave for the sake of her loved ones. Usagi has been a superheroine and even an outright messianic figure in this manga, yet here her humanity is being highlighted, it's breaking down the idea of Usagi being an exceptional person that...lives in the spiritual realm, the conceptual realm of pure virtues. Usagi doesn't live in the same world as the ideas she claims she fights for. Peace is important but it doesn't hug you when you're crying. Justice is important but it doesn't laugh with you at your jokes. Courage is important but you can't eat lunch with it. Love is important but it doesn't hold your hand. Usagi as a person doesn't inhabit the world of the ideals, she's a person who needs the physically manifested people around her to live and to fight for those ideals. She sees the eternal but she sees it in that imperfect world of temporals, of particulars. Ever since at least the days of Plato speaking of a perfect eternal world of forms, we've wondered and searched in our spirits to live in that world, but to live in such is inhuman. There's something important for us in the particular, in the material. We learn not just through the lesson in abstract but the lessons incarnated in the form of stories. The great triumphs and tragedies of humanity may escape our heart but the minor ills and successes of our loved ones can feel like the whole world. Sages even say to speak to us, God himself took human form. Be this literally or metaphorically true, or both, this notion shakes me. 

And for Usagi herself, this is a massive character moment. If the penultimate Act of Arc 1 elevated Usagi as an identity to the level of Sailor Moon, the penultimate Act of Arc 5 reduces the identity of Sailor Moon to Usagi, showing that the seemingly invincible heroine is just a normal girl, no truly greater in spirit than any of us. It's a fantastical analogy to plenty of real world examples of the great people showing their failings or vulnerabilities, moments both empowering and terrifying in that it reveals the fragility of our world and the power we hold in ourselves to rise to the level of our heroes. It's a painful moment for Sailor Moon, a moment of humility in the face of eternity, admitting she is still just silly Usagi.

Usagi asks if everyone's gone, that what purpose is there even in fighting anymore and here we see finally the opposite extreme of Gnosticism reveal itself fully, Nihilism. Nihilism is the sense that nothing has particular meaning and is associated with hedonism and in its excess self-destructive emotions like this. Galaxia gives a bitter laugh and comments that they are the last two Sailor Senshi, and if neither of them can fight then she guess that means the war is about to end. Sailor Moon wonders to herself that the ending of the war is what she wanted, but she didn't expect to get it like this. However Chibi-Chibi intervenes saying that the war won't end, that the battle will continue forever but that Sailor Moon can stop it here by destroying the Cauldron and Chaos at once. She explains the Cauldron and Chaos have merged into in one and that Sailor Moon can destroy Chaos by destroying them both. However Sailor Moon protests that if she does this, no new stars will be made, the future of the galaxy will end. 

In the history of storytelling, Chaos is the historical enemy but Chaos is also something else, potential. In Sailor Moon the source of all potential is the Galaxy Cauldron and Chaos fusing with it is symbolic of the fact that all potential comes from Chaos. All newness comes from Chaos, from the unknown. Chaos is the mother of all monsters, all enemies are creations of Chaos, yet this is because its fused with that which creates in general. It's also just a really cool image that the Galaxy Cauldron created stars and Chaos fused with it to create stars of darkness, the major enemies so far. Chibi-Chibi's sentiment here is the opposite of Galaxia's. Galaxia represented ambition in extreme wishing to use the Cauldron to find a perfect world. Chibi-Chibi's represents surrender, cosmic suicide. Galaxia's extreme is that of Gnosticism, of sacrificing everything to the ideal while Chibi-Chibi's here is the opposite, the Nihilistic sense that nothing matters so if the pain is too large, you may as well just let everything end, a fixation on the material imperfect world of pain and loss. 

Chibi-Chibi insists that she must, that so long as stars are still born, war shall continue. And it is true that being in this universe we find ourselves entails conflict and pain shall persist until the end of all that is currently. Sailor Moon wonders if this truly is the will of the galaxy, remembering the words of Chaos and its child Nehelenia, that the darkness calls out for the light and the light calls out for the darkness. Sailor Moon wonders if this means that she will be the one to lower the Glaive this time.

I don't have much to add here, this is just really cool imagery and an excellent call back. 

Galaxia speaks up and contradicts Chibi-Chibi saying that even if the Milky Way is destroyed, a new Galaxy Cauldron would just appear elsewhere. A new future will be born, with light and darkness saying the end of the war will not come without hardship. Galaxia wonders at how strange it is that she can still say such things with such sincerity. 

However, Sailor Moon agrees with the sentiment, saying that new futures will be born, and there will be light and darkness, war and hope, life and death, and happiness and sadness. Sailor Moon affirms she is sure it will all appear again, because that's what the universe is.

It's fitting I think that it's Galaxia, embodiment of the opposite of what Chibi-Chibi is suggesting that first expresses the problem with her suggestion, that though we may wish for an end to pain and suffering, we presume that's an even option, but conflict is a part of the universe, an ideal whether we like it or not and in some sense is eternal or at least relatively speaking. The universe doesn't just refer to the physical structure we call the universe but on the dichotomies by which conflict emerges as Usagi expresses and that dichotomy painful as it may be, simply is the universe. This is also the first time since they were broken Usagi is drawn with angel wings, as her feelings of love are returning to her, love for this complex and painful universe that nonetheless is so much better than infinite silence.

Galaxia hears Usagi's words and is shocked. She wanted to bring an end to the war with Chaos, to find the perfect form of being, and this is how she justified her sacrifice and struggles. But here Usagi is making a statement even more ambitious, a statement Galaxia could never have imagined, that she's willing to fight a war with Chaos forever. Looking at her Galaxia asks "You'd even believe in such a distant future? Sailor Moon are you the soldier who embraces all?" Galaxia reaches for Sailor Moon, saying she finally found it, the world she wants but her bracelets come undone, for she no longer is a Soldier of Destruction. Galaxia says to herself it's too bright, she can't reach it. She says to herself that THIS is the star that will shine eternally in the universe and perishes to Usagi's shock.

This is such an amazing moment, it moves me everytime I see it. In the Inferno written by Dante, we learn of the fate of Ulysses, representing human thirst for knowledge without regard for morality and in his final doomed voyage, sailing to the other end of the world, where man was forbidden to go, only to perish just after seeing it, when anyone virtuous will reach it in time. I feel the echos of this legendary imagery in Sailor Moon here. Sailor Galaxia was always searching for the eternal perfect form of being, even contending with Chaos itself, when it's freely available to all who seek it, and she dies tragically beautifully having finally found it but it forever being just out of reach. Galaxia is technically an alien, but this is not just her most human moment, but one of the most defining measures of humanity both in its grandeur and stupidity that they will seek something so obvious, moving Heaven and Earth, and even manage to glimpse it only to never actually reach it.

What is this perfect thing that Galaxia was truly seeking for? Galaxia was seeking a form of being that never dies, that carries all meaning with it, the peace to the gnostic soul. Though she didn't know it, what was she was searching for... was Love. Sailor Moon is my favorite series and it's partially because it showed me the way I want to live. There is a path that is between Gnosticism and Nihilism yet somehow opposite both of them, the path of Love. To walk the path of love is to see the imperfect things of this world in all the imperfect and treat them still as containing the eternal within them. I would describe this as one of the central feelings undergirding my worldview:

The world will sometimes be untrustworthy. Trust anyway.

The world will sometimes seem not worth fighting for. Fight for it anyway.

The world will sometimes seem to waste your love. Love anyway.

Because if you reject the world in search for perfection you will find nothing, only Chaos without and only the empty void within.

But if you embrace the world in spite of its imperfections, you will find that perfect existence we call Love. 

Sailor Moon is saddened at Galaxia's death but refuses to give up hope, saying she will create a future with everyone. She asks Chibi-Chibi not to give up hope, saying that as soon as their star of hope is still shining, they won't lose. I personally believe that this is a continuation of Galaxia's statement that she finally found a star or world that shine eternally, that star being Love itself. Chibi-Chibi begins to lightly tear up and transforms into an adult woman with a very familiar hairstyle who kisses Sailor Moon's cheek.

That's right, Sailor Moon reinvigorated the spirit of the Future Sailor Moon. This is a way love shines eternally metaphorically speaking. It transcends time and allow our messages and our hearts to reach the hearts of people who we didn't even know who come after us.

Sailor Moon and this other Sailor Senshi hold hands, giving each other strength. However Chaos interrupts saying that now that it has fused with the Galaxy Cauldron it is time for the emergence of the universe's greatest star, Chaos, declaring that the Mother Galaxy Cauldron all come will be here grave. 

Sailor Moon faces down Chaos, a radiance coming off her that impresses Chaos. Sailor Moon thinks to herself to all her past enemies: Metaria, Death Phantom, Pharaoh 90, Nehelenia, and Galaxia, along with Chaos itself, that she now understands why they all wanted her Silver Crystal. It's for the same reason she sought out her friends and loved ones. She says that we, all of us, are lonely stars. That's why we pursue each other, because we want to be together.

We are each worlds within ourselves, our soul an eternity somewhat detached from all the strangeness of the outside world. Like stars emanate light, we try to emanate of ourselves, we speak our thoughts and write our stories and perform actions with our bodies that are meant to externalize into that vast external cosmos all the expressions of our souls, that our light may reach perhaps one of those distant other stars and that seemingly infinite distance between our inner worlds and the outer world may be bridged.  This whole world of experiences and memories, this swirling storm of colors and sounds and strange occurrences... it is my opinion that these too are the light from some far greater star of the absolute, ordering the cosmos, perhaps that Star of Hope called Love, that the whole of the universe and our perceptions within are a language called Wisdom we may pick up a word or two off. 

Sailor Moon addresses Chaos saying that we all start as one and for that reason she is going to embrace them all in the Galaxy Cauldron before jumping directly into the Galaxy Cauldron

The Galaxy Cauldron and Chaos together represent chaos and potentiality. People were thrown in and were erased completely. However now a new thing happens, Sailor Moon voluntarily embraced it. Sailor Moon is my favorite series and this is my favorite moment in Sailor Moon. It is the perfect merger of the literal and the symbolic that this series is so good at. Chaos is the ultimate enemy, it shows up unexpectedly and consumes people. Yet if someone embraces it willingly... if we humans truly do bear something divine within us, I believe it is that we can understand the Chaos of being, we have the abstract reasoning to understand all the horrendous fates may befall us, all the tragedies that make up material experience, yet somehow bear that responsibility, that we can keep moving into the chaotic unknown tomorrow.

Since the known beginning of legend, the great enemy was Chaos, and it would be slain by some masculine ideal, a warrior hero dating back to Marduk slaying the Great Monster Tiamat. In such times men were considered superior to women. A few thousand years ago, there was a revolution in thought, an enlightenment as the warrior culture began to subside and the power of love became known. In time the role of women began to be elevated in society. Female Heroes emerged, but since the Modern Times began they were often warrior heroes of old. Naoko sought to create a heroine that normal girls could relate to with Usagi and all the stereotypical traits of femininity were exalted in her. It is not just the Hero's Journey gender-swapped, but the Heroine's Journey. And what at the climax of her story, she comes across that most ancient of enemies, the one we've struggled with since we were wise enough to tell stories, she does not slay it with violence, she embraces it with love. What I see when I see this section is the beginning of the collective unconsciousness of an understanding of the Heroine Ideal, a representation of the development of humanity to realize the power of love greater than violence, an elevation of feminine traits as equal in value to masculine traits, the final grand sweep of Usagi's character development, an expression of the most noble traits of all humans (our ability to bear the conceptual weight of Chaos), and a perfect synchronicity of the literal and the symbolic.

I tend to have mixed feelings on most things I see. When I see a bad series, I find it easy to find the silver linings and the relative strong points. When I see a good series, I find it easy to point out its weak points and what I think could be improved. Even with the Acts of Sailor Moon I generally find it easy to express where I think there could have been improvement despite this being my favorite series. Yet Act 59 is a perfect act. I can't think of a single way it could be improved for me. Other series reach this zenith for maybe a scene of animation, or a couple of pages in a story, but this entire act is one giant perfect scene. It's not just my favorite act of Sailor Moon, it's my favorite chapter of any story.

I honestly don't know how to even talk about this act for all its greatness. Like, where do I even start talking about it? I guess I'll start with the plot. On a basic plot level, this is the climax of the entire series and it delivers, incorporating the two biggest themes of the series; the pain of solitude and the ennobling power of love and brings them together in a new way with Galaxia using the pain of solitude to try and bring out Usagi's real power, while also not just expanding on the themes but taking that central theme of the ennobling power of love and taking it to its absolute conceptual limit as Usagi reaches the zenith of this universe's hierarchy via the development of her love to encompass all. Galaxia secretly having been trying to destroy Chaos the entire time and doing everything this act to emotionally torment Usagi in the aim of that goal is a really cool plot twist that adds a lot to her character while also making sense and recontextualizing so much of the arc prior. Every past villain being a manifestation of Chaos explains why they all wanted the same thing and thematically helps establish Chaos as the meta-threat, the threat of potentiality always spawning new threats and enemies. The climax of the act is absolutely perfect and is the exact culmination of Usagi's character arc both in this arc specifically and over the entire manga. 

Usagi's arc over the entire story has been to show the ennobling power of love that can turn a crybaby into a Champion of Justice. I don't know how Takuechi-sensei does it, how it's so clear that Usagi is the same person as she was in Act 1 and you can see it so very clearly, yet at the same time she's developed so incredibly much. I think it's because in Act 1 we saw Usagi not just as a static person but as a trend and here that trend is finally taken to the absolute pinnacle. At the very start of the story we saw that Usagi represents that strange trait about humanity that we can be so clearly evidently flawed yet rise into heroism for the people we love. For her loved ones Usagi has developed as a Heroine over the course of the series yet she has always still been that crybaby Usagi. This arc asks Usagi who she will fight for if everyone she loves is consumed by Chaos. But that pattern Usagi represents is taken to its conceptual extreme as she acts here not just in the name of loved ones who are or are not here now, but in the name of all the people she ever will love and this chaotic universe that gave her the chance to love in the first place. Sailor Moon's statement about never really fighting for peace and justice but for her loved ones is a monumental statement breaking down the physicality of our Heroine, her expression that we are all lonely stars seeking to gather together as one breaks my heart everytime for how paradoxically esoterically relatable it is, and her statement that she saved Galaxia because she saw her lonely self in her is fantastic in how it so effortlessly shows the superiority of Usagi's ideals over Galaxia's ideals. Speaking off...

This act is the culmination of Galaxia's character arc and it's breathtakingly good, and it makes Galaxia my favorite villain in fiction. She has so many layers this act, the resentment towards Usagi for not facing the truth of the universe as she sees it, the seemingly unconscious need for validation and understanding, the way she sadly comments that the war can't be stopped so easily. Galaxia's death is tragic and beautiful and speaks to something both wonderful and demented in the human psyche. Learning Galaxia's origin helps to explain how she ended us so skeptical of the material world as she is, and her ability to be a continued presence is impressive. 

This act functionally reveals two more characters, the secret villain Chaos who really is more an embodiment of the ultimate enemy, of the chaos of being as a concept and the way it is the same as the potentiality that is worth fighting for, and Chibi-Chibi's true form. Chibi-Chibi's true intent becomes clear this act, acting as the surprise opposite extreme of Galaxia. Instead of the height of ambition, she represents the abyss of giving up, of thinking it's not worth it and that peaceful silence of oblivion is preferable to the painful chaos of living. But love has a strange power that transcends time and her spirit was restored by the love of none other than her past equivalent. Chibi-Chibi's role here is to give agent to Sailor Moon, to make it so she doesn't just passively become the embodiment of love's redemptive power, but has to actively make the choice that allows that to happen by choosing to confront the future and all the pain that entails because of her love giving ther the power to do so, instead of avoiding that pain by choosing to destroy the potential for any future.

If I had to sum up what makes Act 59 so great, it's that it sets the highest possible ambition it can for itself, commenting on the very nature and purpose of being, of humanity's eternal struggle with Chaos and how to progress in it, and taking the universe's lore and characters to their highest conceptual limit, and actually accomplishes what it set out to do. It comments on the themes and emotions most important to me and expressed them in a way that influenced who I am. 

There are also smaller parts of the act I love as well though. I love the ideas it presents, I think they are really cool. I love the artwork this act, when Galaxia is atop Sailor Moon, Galaxia's eyes being alien and distant while Usagi's are drawn in and human, or when Sailor Moon wonders if its her role to bring about the death of everything with Sailor Saturn drawn above her, or the majesty of the images in Sailor Moon's address to Chaos before diving into the Galaxy Cauldron and she regrows her angel wings, all of it beautiful. The atmosphere is perfect, paradoxically so mystical and esoteric it's relatable as it conveys the facets of existence and love.

I love this act and I hope I've been able to convey at least some of why I feel that intuitively, or to put in the way of this act, I hope the light of my star has reached you. 

Ranking the Dark Army

 

During the Dark Crisis, Pariah gathered 10 of DC's most prominent villains to be the leaders of his dark army and kill the Justice League. Since then it's been a bit of a trend to rank these ten in terms of how strong you think they are relative to each other. So I decided to give it a try with my opinion based on what I currently know of them.

I'd like to quickly say that putting someone "low" on this list means nothing. Pariah was gathering the greatest villains, the team consisting of many of the strongest villains in DC Comics' history. There's also a certain level of relative-ness between the characters and some of these placements are ones where either side could win, it's just a matter of who'd win more often in my estimation. Nine out of these Ten characters could solo the vast majority of fictional settings even excluding ones without powers. Which does sort of lead to the obvious tenth spot.

10: Deathstroke the Terminator:

• Beta Metahuman Tier Stats
• S Tier Skill and Supergenius Level Intelligence (Directly compared to Batman repeatedly)
• Various powerful pieces of technology including the Ikon Suit that gives him virtual immunity to kinetic energy and a Godkiller Sword that was a threat to Rebirth Superman and Wonder Woman
• Regen (Regenerated from being shot in the head)

Probably the single truly uncontroversial choice. Deathstroke was added to the team for his tactical prowess being a counterpart to Batman. While Deathstroke's weaponry and armor, along with his extreme degree of intelligence and skill can allow him to hit outside his super weight class, he's on the lower level physically for a DC metahuman, most commonly treated as a pier to Batman and Beta Metahumans like himself. Given he was the Tactician of the Dark Army, and was only kind of a member along with just clearly being the weakest member I don't think there's any real contention about Deathstroke being the weakest of the Dark Army.

 After this point, every single one of the Dark Army has people who think they are near the top so this is where it gets a bit controversial.

9: Doomsday

• Kryptonian Tier Physical Stats
  
• Rapid Adaption and Evolution
• Resurrection
• Biological Decay Aura
• Energy Absorption

So while Doomsday is an extremally dangerous physical threat being able to easily withstand over 4,000 strikes from Rebirth Superman and doing physically the best against Jon Kent when Jon faced more than half the Dark Army's leaders by himself. That said everyone else in this list besides Doomsday and Deathstroke are beings from higher planes of reality. If they entered the physical realm and attempted to fight Doomsday hand to hand Doomsday would probably win. But if Doomsday was trying to fight their natural form then he's fighting conceptual entities bigger than then the mortal universes so it's more a case of...what do you expect him to do? Even if someone used a Boom Tube to send Doomsday into the Godsphere, Doomsday would be less focused then normal due to not having any Kryptonians to hunt down, and lacking the cosmic awareness everyone else has to know where they are, meaning pretty mcuh anyone else here could teleport to another Godsphere realm and plan a way to stop Doomsday as he vainly rips his way through the worlds looking for his opponent. Doomsday's adaptation ability is very strong, but the characters here are not just raw power, but all of them are masters of hax and most of them are highly intelligent entities that would almost certainly find a way to stop Doomsday.

That said, obviously Doomsday stomps Deathstroke. You'd have to make it Plot-Amped Wild Outlier Identity Crisis Deathstroke that beat Zatanna, Green Lantern, and the Flash vs original Death of Superman Doomsday for that to be an at-all interesting fight and even then Doomsday would probably win having tanked the entire Justice League attacking him. Even if surprisingly enough Deathstroke's Ikon Suit would actually let him withstand a physical blow from Doomsday, which is possible as it was able to withstand blows from Superman, Doomsday's passive biological decay aura would simply kill Deathstroke, let alone Doomsday simply adapting beyond the suit's defensive capability.

8: Ares

• A Platonic Concept of War
• High S Tier Skill and War Manipulation
• Conceptual Universal Power (Relative power to Hades who controls and maintains the Greek Afterlife)
• Various Divine Powers
• Manipulation of the Godwave

Ares is one of the Conceptual entities of the Godsphere, specifically the Greek concept of warfare having the ability to become stronger from conflict and attacks used against him. He's only number 8 because he doesn't really have the feats to compare to most of these entities who can manipulate entire Spheres of the Godsphere instead only being relative to Hades who can control a single universe within one of the realms. He's decently intelligent and hax as well, though nothing special on either regard. He was able to deceive Highfather and has various divine magical powers such as time manipulation, war empowerment, and summoning the spirits of dead soldiers but he and Doomsday are moreso treated like threats for a single high ranking member of the Justice League, Superman and Wonder Woman respectively, rather than a crisis tier threat like most of the strongest villains. His strongest power is probably that he can manipulate the Godwave to temporarily amp his stats which would be threatening definitely but I don't think he's really on par with the people above him.

Ares vs Doomsday however is sort of an example of the gap between Godsphere entities and non-Godsphere entities as Doomsday really has no way to fight the platonic concept of war across the multiverse. Even if Doomsday was Boom Tube-d up to Olympus to battle Ares, Ares' war empowerment means that any blow from Doomsday would merely empower Ares. Meanwhile, Ares could either use the godwave to amp himself to the level to dust Doomsday or use his time manipulation to send Doomsday to the end of time where he canonically can't return from. 

7: Neron

• The Lord of Lies, the Howling One, the Snake. One of the strongest Hell Lords, a Hell Lord able to control all of Hell, and easily beat Lord Satanus, another Hell Lord that can control all of Hell
• Free Will Manipulation that can affect all of Hell
• Spiritual Corruption
• Immersion
• Desire Sensing and Wish Granting
• Speedforce

Neron's an immensely powerful Hell Lord, one of the strongest that has existed. His power is great enough that not only was he passively controlling all of Hell, but another Hell Lord he was easily beating, Lord Satanus, was also able to control and warp all of Hell into his image, Hell being one of the 8 realms of the Godsphere, all infinitely sized conceptual realms. I'd like to say there's some reason he's this low, but there really isn't, everyone else is just so incredibly powerful. For being number 7, Neron is a freakishly strong entity that caused his own minor Crisis, Underworld Unleashed. He's also got numerous powerful abilities including immersion, conceptual mind manipulation on an infinite scale and stole the Speedforce from the Flash so he could return to Heaven an infinite conceptual distance away, meaning he'd probably be faster than most of the people here, especially if they fought in a physical realm. 

If Neron fought Ares, I feel pretty safe saying Neron would win. Not that Ares has no chance whatsoever, after charging his power he was able to kill Highfather who should be on the power level of Neron or higher as well as a similar conceptual entity governing intelligence. That said most of the time Ares is only considered as strong as someone controlling a single conceptual universe within a Godsphere Realm like Hades while Neron is stronger than Satanus that can control an entire godsphere realm. Neron's powers are also probably more versatile and while Ares is vastly more skilled and would probably win a direct confrontation, it's very in-character for Neron to escape, which he could via the Speedforce and Immersion, and battle more subtly. 

6: Eclipso

• Is the prior spirit of God's wrath fallen from Grace for enjoying his job too much
• Possession/Mind Control to the extent of controlling entire galaxies
• Corruption/Darkness Manipulation
• Conceptual Manipulation
• Hypergenius equal to Darkseid. Is the only entity in Creation who Darkseid is aware of that knows the Anti-Life Equation
• Magic Consumption
• Infinite Conceptual Power (Equal to the Spectre)

 Eclipso is a Spectre threat, Spectre during his normal adventures having infinite conceptual power that can affect all of Hell such as causing it to quake or freeze it, Hell being one of the 8 infinitely sized conceptual realms of the Godsphere. Spectre also seemed to be pretty directly comparable to Neron when they fought and Eclipso is Spectre's equal. Eclipso was also originally created to be a Kryptonite to Hecate, the first Deity of the Godsphere and Goddess of Magic with his ability to absorb all magic used against him, and cut off people from the collective subconscious deriving Gods from their power. Eclipso's powerset isn't AS versatile as some of the other characters here, but he still has a fairly hax arsenal including the ability to use the infamous Anti-Life Equation. He's also one of the three smartest characters here, regularly stalemating Darkseid at chess, and arguably being even smarter than him given he actually knows the ALE. 

Eclipso vs Neron would be a fairly good matchup, both being around as strong as the normal Spectre, with Neron probably having a bit of a power advantage. I'm not totally sure on who'd win with both having some advantages such as Eclipso being able to erase Neron with Anti-Life, consume any powers Neron that are magical and being smarter while Neron would have a general stat avantage, having immersion, and greater mind hax. However Lord Satanus beat Neron by using a magical drug to turn the demons of Hell into normal people, deriving Neron of his power source. I think Eclipso could so something similar by separating Neron from the collective unconscious. Also just broadly, Eclipso is the prior Spirit of Wrath of the Presence, the spirit of wrath having to regularly face down powerful Hell Lords so I feel like Eclipso would have a better idea how to handle Neron then the inverse, but that's more speculative. 

5: Upside-Down Man

• Embodiment of Chaos Magic, Hecate's counterpart from the Dark Multiverse
• Infinite Metafictional Chaos Manipulation (warps the rules of reality with his presence, even messing up the comic panels)
• Realm Infection (Can infect a realm with chaos magic, turning it into more of his realm)
• Magic Resistance (Outside the normal bounds of magic)
• Summoning (Summoned various chaotic twisted monsters to fight the Justice League)
• Even mention of the Upside-Down Man or seeing its true form can drive mortals mad

The first goddess of the Sphere of the Gods was Hecate, the goddess of magic who formed the Sphere of the Gods, around the Multiverse but she was mirrored by the Upside-Down Man, embodiment of chaos magic who formed the Otherplace, the Dark Multiverse's equivalent to the Godsphere, around the Dark Multiverse. The two were exactly even but Hecate managed to BFR UDM downwards into the darkness. Upside-Down Man sort of lacks intelligence and versatility on this list, but good luck trying to trick it when its true aims are incomprehensible, and its one ability, Chaos Magic is so extreme that it's the opposite of Hecate, stated to be stronger then any other God of the Godsphere. 

UDM vs Eclipso depends a lot on whether you think Eclipso's magic consumption which was created to be Hecate's Kryptonite, would work on her opposite's Chaos Magic. If it does, then Eclipso should be able to simply negate UDM's powers the way he did to Hecate. However, I don't think it would since Chaos Magic in DC isn't really a type of Normal Magic, which is formed of belief, but a dark opposite, which is why UDM is resistant to normal magic. Eclipso would have little other recourse against a being whose a threat to someone that can make the entire Godsphere. UDM does not rely on belief the way Godsphere beings do so he can't sever its connection to the Collective Unconscious. At best, maybe the Anti-Life Equation would work on UDM, but it would be hard to effect hit him with it as his presence wraps metafictional space and UDM could pretty easily warp Eclipso into a jumbled chaotic mess due to the power gap.

4: Nekron

• Is the Multiversal concept of Death and Darkness, The Blackness which is devoid of all the colors of emotions
• Can summon and control everyone who had ever died
• Absorption
• Lord of and controls the Purgatory Realm between Heaven and Hell
• Infinite Conceptual Death Manipulation
• Infinite Conceptual Darkness Manipulation

Nekron is probably the hardest villain to scale for me. He could be significantly lower, and there's an argument for him to be even higher.  However, I think Nekron should roughly be here. He and UDM are sort of implied to be on a similar scale recently, and both are meant to represent the dark opposite to one of the Seven Foundational Forces, UDM being a representation of Chaos Magic, the dark opposite to Magic and the power of Belief, while Nekron represents the dark opposite of the Emotional-Electromagnetic Spectrum. 

For Nekron vs UDM specifically, Nekron is definitely more versatile. If the fight took place in an empty void, I think UDM would probably win since his chaos manipulation is metafictional and would affect the panel the empty void is drawn on, but assuming this fight takes place within the DC Multiverse or the Dark Multiverse Nekron can summon an army vastly larger than Upside-Down Man, some of which would be a credible threat to UDM while none of UDM's chaos monsters would really be relevant to Nekron's. However this is another match I feel could go either way.

3: Darkseid

• A Platonic Concept of Evil, New God Tyrant of Apokolips
• Cosmic Hypergenius (Created contingencies to survive the threat of Perpetua and usurp the power of the Source. Can understand the Anti-Life Equation which is the dark half of the Source.)
• Omega Effect and Anti-Life Equation currently (Conceptual Existence Erasure, Mind Manipulation and Consciousness Manipulation)
• Spacetime Manipulation
• Power-Drain and Life-Drain
• Conceptual Manipulation (The other New Gods of Apokolips are extensions of Darkseid's will)

So I want to say immediately that Darkseid is definitely weaker than UDM and Nekron in raw power. UDM is equal to Hecate who is the strongest of the Godsphere Gods and Darkseid explicitly wanted Nekron's power for his goal, plus Nekron raised zombie Darkseid from the Otherplace as one of his Black Lanterns. However Darkseid currently is implied to at least relative to them in power, and is probably the most well-balanced character on this list having a high degree of power, hax, versatility, and intelligence, having a wide range of conceptual abilities relevant to this group as well as being possibly the smartest character known for his technological prowess and extremely long-term plans. As an overarching villain for DC he balances all these different threat types.

Comparing Darkseid to Nekron, while Nekron is stronger, Darkseid is definitely relative in my opinion and could win in a variety of ways such as erasing Nekron's concept with the Omega Effect, changing his concept, draining his power like he did to Zeus, or freezing time around him like he did to Godwave Ares. While Darkseid does think Nekron is stronger, he also planned on just usurping Nekron's power suggesting he's not scared of a confrontation with him despite being a hyper-practical supergenius who constantly gauges other entities by what level of threat they pose to him.

2: Aztar

• The Wrath of God disembodied from its host, a fallen angel stripped of identity and given new purpose by the Presence
• Spiritual Judgement for one's sins
• Infinite Conceptual Freezing/Sealing
• Reality-Warping
• Power Nullification
• Can channel and connect to the Logoz, an aspect of the Presence

Probably the most controversial placement of this entire ranking because Normal Spectre kind of has a reputation for being a jobber. However, Aztar's human host usually constrains his power. During Day of Vengeance Aztar rid Mr. Mxyzptlk of his power, a 5D Imp capable of making the entire fifth dimension disappear, a dramatically better feat then any of Darkseid's and arguably anyone below save some interpretations of Nekron and Godwave Ares. This means he could probably power-null and spiritually judge pretty much anyone of the Dark Army and can channel the power of the Logoz for a similar boost. He's also called the most powerful being in creation and was considered an equivalent to Marvel's The Living Tribunal.

The Spectre and Darkseid have encountered each other a few times, with both believing they are stronger than each other. Most likely this means Darkseid is stronger than normal Spectre but unbound Aztar or Spectre channeling the Logoz are greater than Darkseid. Spectre has overcome Darkseid by challenging the Logoz before, and while Darkseid has grown stronger since then, I don't think a rematch would be particularly different. Again, Aztar power nullified Mr. Mxyzptlk in Day of Vengeance with Darkseid by pretty much all accounts being much weaker than the 5D Imp, and it's not the only time Spectre has overcome the power of 5D Imps. 

1: Empty Hand

• Is one of the hands of the Great Darkness, specifically the one that shook the Presence's hand of light back during the original Great Darkness encounter.
• Metafictional existence (Represents the hand of the reader when he puts down the book, the darkness of the story ending)
• Metafictional Corruption, Awareness, and Manipulation (Aware of the readers' comments about him and adapts in response, growing stronger and able to brainwash or corrupt other entities on a metafictional level)
• Metafictional Regen (Is a lifeform that uses its presence in the minds of readers observing it to spread awareness of it similar to a fungi controlling an ant to spread it)
• Can build an Oblivion Machine, a machine that will result in the end of all the stories within DC Comics

Empty Hand is the strongest of the Dark Army and to be honest, that seems a generally uncontroversial position, though there's still mild contention. He's explicitly called the strongest of the Great Darkness' aspects which includes most of the other characters on this list. Empty Hand is the entity Darkseid was threatened by and schemed a plan to use the tear in the multiverse the Flash made in Infinite Frontier to fight him with only for Empty Hand to easily win anyway. For the other members of the Dark Army, comparing to a being from the fifth-dimensional realm in their true form is a good feat yet Empty Hand has an army of them, called the Gentry, at his disposal. Nobody here on their own save maybe Upside-Down Man and potentially Darkseid with prep have any way of permanently killing Empty Hand due to his metafictional regen and none of them have any real resistance to his power. Most of these people are considered threats to "creation" but Empty Hand seems to be an equivalent of the Great Darkness' to one of the Hands of the Presence like Perpetua who themselves make Creations out in the void with their power.

If Empty Hand fought Aztar, Empty Hand would probably just stomp right away. I don't even think if Aztar channeled the Logoz he'd really have the capacity to stop Empty Hand. The Entire Forces of Heaven and Hell united including Spectre as well as being stronger than Spectre could do nothing at all to GEB during the original battle with him, and even though Empty Hand is just a hand of his, it would probably tank Aztar's powers similarly. 

Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon Act 58 Review

 

Act 58, and this is quite possibly going to be the shortest review blog of all these as this act is mostly... very straightforward.

As might be expected, Sailor Moon and company are shocked to see the Sol System senshi again, seemingly alive. Sailor Moon doesn't register what they said but Chibi-Moon and Chibi-Chibi notice the Galactica Bracelets on their arms. However emerging from the shadows is the leader of Galaxia's Sol Senshi, the single most impactful person Usagi could see

This isn't a critique of this arc per se, but I do think this would have been more impactful if Mamoru hadn't been brainwashed in the Black Moon Clan Arc so this plot point hadn't been done since the First Arc. As it stands however it's still a very impactful moment. Mamoru emerging from the shadows is drawn beautifully, the blending in of Mamoru into the darkness being a visual representation of him emerging from the realm of what Usagi thought was lost. Mamoru's death is what triggered the conflict of this arc, it represented the painful reality represented by Galaxia that Usagi struggled to even acknowledge for several acts. If you know Galaxia's plan, you know why she's doing this, why she is showing Usagi her loved ones opposed to her.

Sailor Moon is shocked, bringing her hands to her mouth. Chibi-Chibi tries to cling to Sailor Moon's leg trying to stop her, knowing how much this is going to hurt her. But Sailor Moon bears her no mind running forth to be with her friends again. But Usagi's heart shatters again as Mamoru tells them to kill Sailor Moon and take her Silver Crystal. Mercury and Mars attack Sailor Moon but their attacks are blocked by the Amazon Senshi, though it knocks them out.

I am not sure if it could really have been narratively justified, maybe if Usagi and Chibi-Moon had to fight Mamoru and/or the Outer Senshi but I really would have liked if the Galactica Guardian Senshi had actually fought the Amazon Senshi. We previously had the hyping of the legendary strength of the Guardian Senshi, seeing them being able to fight the Animamates that went through Star Systems killing normal Senshi so there would have been immediate threat and drama. I think it would have been a really cool symbolic moment seeing Chibi-Moon's Senshi have to rise to equal Sailor Moon's Senshi, a representation of Chibiusa's desire last arc to have friends like Usagi's. And maybe they could have won via something like teamwork to show that the thing that makes the Guardian Senshi so powerful is their friendship. It would also be a dramatic reversal of the Dream Arc where the Guardian Senshi had to stop the Amazoness Quartet. Just my speculation, I know there wasn't really time but if I was trying to expand the story of Sailor Moon that's one thing I might try. 

Chibi-Moon tells Sailor Moon it's the bracelets that must be controlling them and if Sailor Moon destroys the bracelets, they'll return to normal. However Chibi-Chibi takes her hand and shakes her head vigorously, showing her visions of the Senshi and Mamoru being reduced to dust. She's trying to tell her these aren't really the Senshi that Usagi and Chibiusa love. This may be their bodies and their powers but their minds aren't here.

Jupiter attacks Sailor Moon next, knocking her back. Chibi-Moon tries to relay to Sailor Moon what Chibi-Chibi told her, these aren't the Sol Senshi, they're "imposters" but Sailor Moon can't believe it, because it's their power, their attacks.

The Outer Senshi attack next, Sailor Pluto knocking back Sailor Moon with her Garnet Orb. The other Outers draw down more power from Galaxia with Uranus one-shotting Chibi-Moon. Sailor Saturn attacks Sailor Moon but Chibi-Moon blocks it. Then Neptune attacks Sailor Moon and....she actually blocks it, proclaiming that she's not Neptune.

Sailor Moon's power is that of the Silver Crystal which changes with her heart, with how resolute her heart is, her emotional state. The Galactica Senshi have been knocking her around so casually because she can't bring herself to fight her friends, but with the surge of her conviction she equals Neptune even after she's been amped. 

Saturn and Pluto use a combined attack enhanced by Galaxia knocking back even Chibi-Chibi. Venus uses her attack on Sailor Moon who equals it with her own. Tuxedo Kamen, seeing this battle is not going as wanted. Sailor Moon pursues, seeing in Tuxedo Kamen's eyes that he's not Mamoru, it doesn't have that blue glow that she fell in love with. 

The Four Guardian Senshi all attack Sailor Moon at once, and she blocks and equals all four of them. Chibi-Moon lays next to the Amazon Senshi knocked out, worried that if Sailor Moon is beaten, they'll all be killed and the Earth will be doomed, yelling out for her to protect the galaxy and the future.

Sailor Moon tries to take these words to heart and uses her Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss, an attack that so far has never once failed to kill an enemy instantly. Sailor Venus catches the attack in her hand, mocking the power and comparing it to a gentle breeze. Sailor Moon says to herself that she can't do it, she can't beat overcome them, a vision of a smiling joke-y Minako playing in her mind. It's not said but this is because they are her power, and now her own power is against her. She can't summon the conviction in her heart to see destroy them.

 The Galactica Sol Senshi attack Sailor Moon all together. Her wings are destroyed, and her tiare is broken.

Usagi's angel wings are a visual imagery that appears several times this arc. They represent Usagi's love. Normally they give her the power ro fly through the Heavens, to rise above the bounds of gravity, to ascend into the eternal world. Yet with the loss of her loved ones, the wings became heavy and ironically dragged us down, just as the love that should uplift us can fill us with sorrow, and can bind us to painful duties. But now facing her loved ones, Usagi's wings are broken outright, a symbol of her heart breaking. Now Usagi is without her wings and her tiare showing the same thing as her attack being tanked by Sailor Venus prior, that her power is gone, that the passion of her heart is broken, for she now is expected to destroy the very thing she's trying to save.  

Chibi-Moon painfully rises wanting to come to her mother's aid, but to her shock Chibi-Chibi grabs her hand, holding her back. Chibi-Chibi tells her that this is Sailor Moon's "personal fight", upon which the fate of the galaxy resides. I believe what Chibi-Chibi means when she says it's Sailor Moon's personal fight, is that this is an internal fight of Usagi's, or primarily an internal battle and the fate of the galaxy requires Usagi to have the conviction she will gain from this fight, though I admit it could be clearer. Chibi-Chibi asks Chibi-Moon to trust in Sailor Moon.

The Galactica Senshi approach Sailor Moon with Mamoru declaring it is time for them to end Sailor Moon. However Sailor Moon proclaims she can't let things end here, and from her power the tiara is restored, which she uses to while still lying on the ground broken, one-shot all the other Senshis' bodies returning them to Sailor Crystals

Conceptually this is a really cool moment. It is Sailor Moon regaining her conviction not from her love for her friends specifically but from a deeper principle within as exemplified by the restoration of her tiare but not her wings, but I don't think it's explained nearly well enough. Once again if I was expanding I think this could be added on, in particular something like hearing Chibi-Moon talking and thinking that even if she loses her friends again here and now, there is a future worth fighting for Chibi-Moon represents, the future world they all swore to protect together. As it stands it's not bad per se, it represents the next move in Galaxia's plan and symbolically makes sense from that perspective, but this moment does come rather suddenly. 

The final 10 pages of this act have an immense mood change and pace change. Sailor Moon sees the Sailor Crystals and reaches for them but they disappear before her eyes, just as the Starlights did to Princess Kakyuu. Sailor Moon quietly walks into the Galactica Palace where at the apex she stands. Sailor Galaxia welcomes Sailor Moon to her castle, commenting that she hopes her golems put on a good show. 

Galaxia has such a cool presence. She's imposing and somehow larger than life yet somehow also subdued about it, as though it's all still meaningless and little effort, speaking of the past emotional encounter for Usagi as though it was some kind of little show. 

Sailor Moon thinks she "finally reached you, Galaxia." Galaxia comments that they broke Sailor Moon's wings, saying with a sick delight that Sailor Moon's power radiant and ever-rising, is from her hatred for Galaxia. However Sailor Moon rebuffs this statement, saying her power is not from hatred. Sailor Moon stands up to Galaxia, the first time anyone probably ever has, saying what she normally says, that her power comes from her friends, because she has faith in them. However she then adds a new addition, that it is because she believes in her own power. With Kakyuu's words in her heart, Sailor Moon proclaims she has faith in the future they will find together, a tear welling in her eye. As she does she thinks to herself "I can do this!"

Usagi began this series as a coward and a crybaby, someone without any self-confidence, whose greatest fear was loneliness, who rise to heroism was allowed only because she could hear someone she loved in peril. Here we see the depth of Usagi's development as a character, able to face down Sailor Galaxia, the top of the hierarchy of Sailor Senshi, whose very presence can paralyze other Senshi, who stood supreme over the galaxy and directly her she's wrong, that Sailor Moon's ideals are right and she will prove it. Usagi telling she believes in her own power, that she believes in the future we're going to build, even expressing to Galaxia that Usagi has reached her, are meant to express this conviction within Usagi, that her "star is burning brightly." 

Of course this is just what Galaxia expected, what she wanted. She summons Mamoru from the darkness again and makes him kiss her purely to hurt Usagi. You can tell from the dead look in Galaxia's eyes as she does so that unlike a Beryl she doesn't give a damn about Mamoru. She only knows this will hurt Usagi. She makes Mamoru kiss her chestpiece and boot to show her control over him while Usagi is in despair at the sight. Galaxia then tells Usagi that this man and the entire galaxy belong to her, and if Sailor Moon wants them, she's gonna have to fight her for them. Sailor Moon replies she will fight and end this war once and for all.

And the single most hyped fight in the entire manga begins

Act 58 is a short act. It's 40 pages, 30 of which are spent on the battle with the Galactica Sol Senshi, the last 10 on Sailor Moon and Galaxia's confrontation. And beyond that it's a very direct act relatively speaking. It ties into the symbolism of other acts but it doesn't have that much of its own that isn't expressed directly but I'm still going to discuss the emotional narrative going on behind the literal events as best as I can.

Overall this act is pretty good. I think the main section of the act could have been strengthened but the last section was great. The main section of the act, the first 3/4ths is a very direct, it's Sailor Moon fighting her friends brought back by Galaxia. I get very clearly what the aim of this scene was. It was made to make Sailor Moon question what she's fighting for which is important for the next act. Up to this point, Sailor Moon's entire focus for the arc has been to recover the Sailor Crystals of her friends. It has been her love that has given Sailor Moon her determination and her conviction. In life in general, that will be sufficient usually but it won't elevate you. If you're only ever to rise to an occasion because other people need you to be at that moment, sure you'll have a momentary rise in competence when the time comes but what happens when you need to have had to build your will in advance and what happens.... when you're by yourself?

This act Usagi has to transition from just wanting to protect her friends to believing in herself and her ability to protect the future they wished to create together. I know this sounds abstract but it really is important to the distinction made the next act during the climax of the story. Even in this act however the distinction can be felt. Sailor Moon is fighting to preserve her friends, yet she is fighting her friends to do so, a contradiction so immediate and emotionally apparent that it breaks her resolve entirely leading to the destruction  of her wings and her tiare, her sense of devotion and confidence outright. In order to progress Usagi had to abstract the ideal from the people the ideal represents; the ideal of the future world she wants from the people she thinks makes that world what it is. And what's great about that is...that's what Galaxia wants. Galaxia in representing the Gnostic Impulse taken to its extreme, the disdain for all the temporal, mundane, seemingly arbitrary things is trying to make Usagi detach those things in her mind, is trying to show her that the people around her are temporary and not the ideal itself but where Galaxia is wrong here is that Usagi also doesn't completely detach those things. When Usagi finally reaches Galaxia, Galaxia presumes the feelings of Usagi, her radiant power, is Usagi's hatred for Galaxia, but Usagi reaffirms that she still fights for her friends and loved ones. 

Where I think the main part falters is actually that I don't think the idea was pushed far enough, and maybe due to time. Most of the pages are just various people hitting Sailor Moon with attacks or the two shooting attacks at each other that equal. There's, by Sailor Moon standards, relatively little dialogue or thought bubbles. This should an emotional breaking point for Usagi, this should be Usagi remembering the good times she's had with everyone, wondering how she's come to this place where she's fighting these people, thinking to herself that she doesn't want to fight, she wants to live in a peaceful world, and doesn't understand why she's here, the entire sequence with Sailor Moon realizing that the future they swore to protect together is something she will fight for because their spirits are still with her or something to that effect. If you wanna really be interesting about it, have Usagi wonder as she's destroying the bodies of her friends if she is coming to resemble Galaxia. As it stands, and this is a really weird complaint, I think Usagi is too stoic in this act. The Silver Crystal fluctuates in power based on Usagi's heart, and it would have been really cool to see her relative go up and down sporadically over the fight mapped to their change in her psychological state as the battle goes on. Maybe I'm asking for too much especially given this is done in one act, and it's against eight opponents so there is definitely not a lot of time. I still think it's alright and I understand the narrative-emotional intent of the scene is, it just doesn't feel as strong as it could.

The last 10 pages are great. Galaxia has such a huge presence in the scene and yet Usagi faces off against her confidently in the first time, showing her progression over the arc. Their conversation where Galaxia prides herself on the power within Usagi, wondering if it's hatred for her, and Usagi responds that her power comes from her belief in herself and her friends and the future they are going to make together is amazing. It's a highlight of the arc and really the series. It speaks so well to the two's emotional states, their priorities, both speaking sort of past each other as they look to confirm what they already believe. Galaxia believes that attachment to temporal things is meaningless and negative, deliberately trolling Usagi about it afterwards and being so proud of herself that she, in her mind, made Usagi hate her so much that her power is so high, even breaking her angel wings, a symbol of breaking her pride, bringing her down to Earth. Meanwhile Usagi is here to vindicate her ideals, to tell the tyrant to her face that her friends and all they believed in, all they died for mattered. This leads into the a clash that is the single most built up clash over the entire series, having been built since the first act of Stars. 

Act 58 is 75% pretty good but could have been strong, a fight scene that is sort of intrinsically interesting and emotional but which a bit underdone and the potential isn't fully realized, and 25% great, a verbal clash of ideals of two of my favorite characters in fiction that flows directly into my favorite act in the entire series. Overall I'd say it's a good act, maybe not one of the top ones in Stars, but definitely would be a good act in any arc of the series.