Jared Watches Sailor Moon Crystal: Episode 13 - Final Battle, Reincarnation

***Note: Yep. I'm back. It only took me a year and a half, but I FINALLY got to the next part. Hope people are still around to enjoy this.***

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Last time...

...oh yeah... that...

Me: She did get him in the chest.

Jared: Yeah, but not that deeply.

Quick montage of the princess and her prince and living new lives, falling in love.

Usagi (inner monologue): I know we will always find one another. And we will fall in love... all over again...

Jared: But you left the Crystal in the hands of the bad guy!

Eternal love, be together... blah, blah, blah...

Jared: That's gonna hurt when she lands on it...

CLANG!

Jared: What? That shouldn't have happened!

Anime physics? Meaning, there are none. Physics, I mean.

Me: You're analyzing the trajectory of where she jabbed the sword into her stomach?

Jared: ... yeah...?

Cue "Moon Pride" - and away we go!

The Guardians finally land and lament the pathetic repeat of history. Suddenly, the Silver Crystal appears and starts growing and engulfing Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask.

Sailor Mars: We can't allow it to grow! Not in the Dark Kingdom!

Jared: Okay... why? That's something new.

The Crystal grows and grows and grows - until it's so big that no one can do anything about it.

Jared: It's the size of a bus now. What are you going to do?

Queen Metalia begins to feed off the growing Crystal. And she even gloats about it.

Jared: HOOOOOOOOOSED!

Seriously - this Crystal is like a freaking nuclear bomb. It doesn't care where the power it feeds on is coming from. It's neither good nor evil. It just... is.

Which begs the question: Why is a fourteen-year-old girl its caretaker?

Queen Metalia: I have all the energy I need! And I shall have the Crystal too!

Luna (coming through a portal with Artemis): No you won't!

Jared: What are the cats going to do??

Queen Metalia: Foolish cat!

Jared: I'm going to have to agree with the bad guy here. I mean, you're a cat! Sure you can talk and type on keyboards and stuff. You're still a cat!

Flashback to Luna talking to Queen Serenity.

Queen Serenity: Luna, promise me that you'll watch over the Princess.

Jared: So is she actually a fairy, then?

Me: I think she just had a really big bow on her back. But maybe.

Back in Present Day, Queen Metalia disappears and leaves the Sailor Guardians and the cats to figure out what to do next. The girls then teleport away.

Jared: You left the sword! You know, the powerful thing?

Luna, injured from her fight with Queen Metalia, asks Artemis to take her to the Moon so she can be near the site of the palace ruins. And... they leave without the holy sword too.

Jared: You left the sword too! Honestly, people!

And cats.

The girls arrive at their destination. Sailor Venus has some... observations to make.

Sailor Venus: We're in the Arctic Circle. Shouldn't there be ice?

Jared: Wait, THERE'S NO LAND THERE! The Arctic Circle is in the middle of the ocean.

Queen Metalia shows up and acts evil.

Sailor Guardians: Queen Metalia!

Jared: Nah, it's the Easter Bunny.

Queen Metalia: Now I have the power of the Legendary Silver Crystal within me!

Jared: Hey look, she turned into a Haunter.

Queen Metalia continues to be menacing and evil. She spreads her evil power all over the earth. People react in various ways - shock, fear, disbelief, becoming Metalia-zombie-clones and attack others.

No, seriously. That happens.

Jared: Well, that was creepy.

Yeah, it's pretty bad all the way around. Even the Sailor Guardians have given up. But then - of course - the girls remember that Usagi is their best friend and she is Happiness and Hope Personified.

Jared: At least they're consistent with the whole "Power of Love" thing.

The girls decide to give up all their power to help Usagi beat Queen Metalia and it's very awe-inspiring and stuff. Usagi, still trapped inside Queen Metalia's evilness, wakes up and slowly realizes what is going on. More or less.

Sailor Moon: The Legendary Silver Crystal!

Jared: Got a lot smaller again.

Just beyond the Crystal, Usagi sees Mamoru who is still unconscious. Also, his pocketwatch is floating in the ether and it's broken.

Sailor Moon: His pocketwatch? It stopped the sword from running me through.

Jared: The sword that breaks diamonds. Uh-huh.

Queen Metalia starts doing something... really weird and disturbing. Usagi fights her off and a lot of sparkly things and choir music take over and push away Queen Metalia's power. Mamoru wakes up and he's not brainwashed anymore (yaaay). It all happens kind of fast.

Jared: That was fairly anti-climactic.

Queen Metalia: [growls, starts flying around in all her scary evil gloriousness]

Jared: There we go!

The Silver Crystal floats near Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask. Mamoru, showing a moment of clarity, reaches up and takes it before Metalia can capture it again.

Jared: Glad someone finally grabbed the stupid thing. Letting it hang about like that, pffft.

Then a lot of crazy stuff happens, including the Shitennou coming back to life and giving Mamoru an important info dump that I really wish could have been set up better. Sigh... they really didn't handle this Generals thing very well. I guess new story ideas for Sailor Moon doesn't sell purses or lip gloss or visits to fancy themed cake shops in Japan. Oh well...

Anyway, turns out the spirits of the guys were actually responsible for keeping the sword from killing Tuxedo Mask when Sailor Moon tried to stab him.

Mamoru: You stopped the sword from piercing my heart!

Jared: Yeah, from Sailor Moon! Seriously, what was her plan??

Sailor Moon is not known for her logic and reason.

Meanwhile, Usagi and Mamoru start to get all sweet and lovey all of a sudden. Their royal alter-egos take over for a bit, too. 

Jared: ... is there really time for this in the middle of a fight?

Me: There's always time for this, dear. Especially in magical girl anime.

Mamoru: Remember, aim for the star on Queen Metalia's forehead.

Jared: What do you mean "remember"? This is the first she's hearing of it!

Sailor Moon gears up to take out Queen Metalia for good... and then we get left on a cliffhanger. 

Jared: That's an interesting place to end!

Well... hopefully it doesn't take me another year and a half to get to the next one. #Oops.

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Next Time: Episode 14 - Conclusion and Commencement, Petite Etrangere

Previously: Episode 12 - Enemy, Queen Metalia

Seven Day Break From Fake

Last Sunday, President Russell M. Nelson challenged youth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to (among several other things) do a week-long "fast" from social media. The devotional where that challenge was issued is summarized in this video -



Here's President Nelson's full quote from his talk (the entire text of which can be read here) -

So, my first invitation to you today is to disengage from a constant reliance on social media by holding a seven-day fast from social media. I acknowledge that there are positives about social media. But if you are paying more attention to feeds from social media than you are to the whisperings of the Spirit, then you are putting yourself at spiritual risk—as well as the risk of experiencing intense loneliness and depression. You and I both know youth who have been influenced through social media to do and say things that they never would do or say in person. Bullying is one example.
Another downside of social media is that it creates a false reality. Everyone posts their most fun, adventurous, and exciting pictures, which create the erroneous impression that everyone except you is leading a fun, adventurous, and exciting life. Much of what appears in your various social media feeds is distorted, if not fake. So give yourself a seven-day break from fake!
Choose seven consecutive days and go for it! See if you notice any difference in how you feel and what you think, and even how you think, during those seven days. After seven days, notice if there are some things you want to stop doing and some things you now want to start doing.
This social media fast can be just between you and the Lord. It will be your sign to Him that you are willing to step away from the world[...] 

Now, if hundreds of thousands of 12-18 year olds can be challenged to give up Facebook and Twitter, there's no reason that I - a 30+ adult who did not grow up on the internet - couldn't do it too. When I heard of this challenge from President Nelson, I'd already been thinking of trying to find a way to scale back my social media usage.

Since Tiny was born 10 months ago (and since I was fired from COTR), I have taken the internet equivalent of a machete to my social media feeds - particularly Facebook and Twitter. But even with the mass unfollowing/unfriending of pages and people that just flat-out pissed me off, irritating crap still managed to get put up on my feeds. Even from people who are usually quite positive. Political talk is the worst offender, but it's also the idiotic click-bait stuff is a huge problem.

So, seven days. Could I do it?

One of my techniques was to move my Facebook and Twitter apps on my phone. I didn't delete them, but I just put them somewhere else. Not seeing them in their usual spot reminded me that I was working toward a goal. It was actually quite easy to remember to stay off Facebook and Twitter. Even when I was wondered what someone in my family was doing, I would just call or text them.

And I read a lot more, too. I'd use Kindle or Libby or Audible to read (or listen to) a book instead of finding the latest outrage hit being pushed by my Facebook feed. It was so much more calming.

The one night I had a hard time with it was Thursday night. I've also been fighting off a cold this past week and Thursday night is when it hit me the worst. I just wanted something mindless to distract me from being sick. Instead, I turned on Perfect Strangers reruns on Hulu (Tiny likes watching that show. Trust me - I tried to get him interested in a kids' show that night and he was not having it. But watching Larry and Balki's antics? Yep. That did the trick. Sometimes, I can't explain my child at all).

The best reflection I could come up with happened when I was checking Facebook and Twitter in the wee hours of the morning when I was up with Tiny (around 4:30, I think). I hadn’t been back on five minutes when I saw something that made me want to throttle somebody. That contrast, more than anything else, told me everything I needed to know about my relationship with social media.

All week, I didn't get mad about anything I couldn't control. I don't have regular TV, so I didn't watch the news. No headlines crafted to incite the anger junkies and keep them addicted to the click-bait sites and their insane pop-up ads. I was more present in my own life. I spent more time focused on my family and their needs. My mental health was so much better. More than anything, that was worth the effort.

Also - and this may lose me some librarian cred, but I don't care - being informed is hardly the virtue that it's made out to be anymore. Even if I kept up with all the current events in the world - what am I going to be able to do about it? All I'm going to do is sit and stew about it and lose sleep over it. And here's a dirty little secret I've gleaned from working in news (both recently and years ago) - but the news isn't about telling people what's going on. Even professional news outlets try to find the most outrageous and sensational gossip and maddening things they can report on. It gets hits and clicks and eyeballs and makes tons of money. There could be something worthwhile in that pile of garbage, but my motivation to find it has been completely shattered.

Sturgeon's Law is a thing for a reason, peeps.

Anyway, life without social media is lovely. I’m not beholden to some dopey curly-headed robot parading around as a college kid who thinks all his money entitles him to dictate the things I read and see in my feeds. My time is my own again. I’m more present for others. I’m not bound by the shallow scaremonger headlines and clickbait quizzes and inane crap that people think is a matter of Life and Death.

If I want to know something, I look it up specifically and get what I need. Pinterest - for all it’s froofy weirdness - is actually a handy organizational tool. Saving things on Facebook doesn’t work. But if I find a recipe (for example) that I want to try, I save it to my Pinterest board and I’ve actually tried a bunch of things there. I actually feel more personally enriched when I specifically look for a piece of information, than if I just sit back and let an arbitrary feed dump it into my brain.

I don't really care what other people decide to do with their social media presence. And I don't intend to completely get off social media - it does serve some positive purpose for me. I keep in touch with my family and friends, I do things for the podcast on social media, I keep track of events and things like that. But I can do without getting sucked into the pointless drama.