From: chriskern99@gmail.com   
      
   Episode 125 - Shining shooting stars! Saturn and Messiah   
      
   This is one of my favorite episodes of the series. I still think the   
   Stars conclusion surpasses it, but this is a close second. There are   
   so many good things that come together to make the episode great --   
   Tomoe, Sailor Moon's increasingly desperate attempts to save Hotaru,   
   Uranus' shock and anger, Sailor Saturn, etc.   
      
   However, as far as I've seen on alt.fan.sailor-moon, this is by far   
   the most controversial episode of the series (with the next episode   
   being a close second). There are two main points of controversy. The   
   first one is simply a disappointment that the battle between Saturn   
   and Pharoah 90 is not shown. I personally don't think this would add   
   anything to the episode -- it would just be a scene exactly like the   
   ones at the end of Classic and R.   
      
   The second criticism which has a little more validity to it surrounds   
   whether or not Sailor Moon was stupid to give Mistress 9 the Sacred   
   Cup. The general opinion seems to be that it really was not the wisest   
   thing to do, but it was in character for her. You do wonder why Sailor   
   Moon seemed to be so emotionally invested in Hotaru's survival that   
   she would do almost literally anything (including giving her the   
   powerful Sacred Cup knowing that she was an enemy, following her into   
   the vortex knowing she might die).   
      
   The third criticism which is somewhat story external is that the   
   ending of the series is a writer cheat -- basically there is no   
   logical reason within the story why the good guys should have won   
   after Sailor Moon gave Mistress 9 the Sacred Cup. This I do not agree   
   with. I definitely agree that Sailor Moon did not have a clear picture   
   of what was going to happen. Her giving up of the Sacred Cup was not a   
   calculated maneuver designed to awaken Sailor Saturn -- it was just   
   her increasingly desperate actions designed to try to save Hotaru   
   above all else. One problem is that it's hard to say just from   
   watching this episode why Saturn appeared. She doesn't specify; she   
   just thanks Sailor Moon for protecting her body.   
      
   In any case, my opinion on the conclusion is that the failure of the   
   Death Busters and Pharoah 90's invasion was sealed when they chose   
   Sailor Saturn to be their Messiah of Silence. It's not clear how much   
   help she had from Usagi or Tomoe when breaking out of Mistress 9's   
   control, but Saturn's awakening and her defeat of Pharoah 90 seem to   
   have come about separate from Usagi's giving up of the Sacred Cup. But   
   it's kind of hard to say since there's a lot of stuff in this season   
   that is never really explained.   
      
   One interesting thing that some people miss is that Pharoah 90 would   
   not have been defeated if Sailor Moon had not given up the cup   
   (although of course she couldn't know this either). If they had just   
   gone in and killed Mistress 9, the invasion of Pharoah 90 would   
   probably have been stopped, but Pharoah 90 would have still been out   
   there and could have tried again later.   
      
   Another odd VKLL line -- the subs say "Omega Soldier recovery" which   
   never made sense to me; but what Uranus actually says is "The soldier   
   of destruction is going to revive..."   
      
   I said I was going to track what they said about Sailor Saturn -- here   
   what Saturn says is that she is called the "soldier of destruction"   
   because she was given the power to destroy planets. This is slightly   
   different from what Uranus and Neptune were saying earlier; they were   
   speaking almost as if Saturn was just some mindless destructive force   
   that would destroy whatever planet she happened to awaken on. Note   
   that Saturn simply equates her power with the power to destroy   
   planets. She doesn't say that the only power she has is one attack   
   that destroys a planet.   
      
   I have never seen the dub of this episode -- I wonder how the dub SM   
   dealt with the "Crisis make up!" part. Kotono Mitsuishi does such a   
   good job on this that I'm not sure I want to hear anyone else do it.   
      
   -Chris   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)