Quickshot0 wrote:Crescent, I'm not quite sure why you are certain the Great Freeze had to have happened after Galaxia.
The answer to that is easy: everything of importance that happened, and made it possible for the story to be what it was, was shown to us. Beyond princess Kaguya, who was taken care of, there was no "great freeze" that took place before Galaxia. It can't because it'd contradict the time that we know Galaxia arrived on Earth. Especially since we know that the "great freeze", no matter when it starts, lasts until the thirtieth century. What are you going to do, spit in the face of the canon's reality by throwing out an entire story arc or two?
Trying to say that time traveling interventions makes it possible is wrong, because there's only three instances of time travel intervention and we know of their effects on the timeline already. (The three I'm referring to, of course, is the time travel in the second season, Chibi-Usa's routine time travel between the past and the future, and Chibi-Chibi time traveling to the past in the last season.) You can't make up just any time travel intervention without regard to the facts of what happened in canon. To do so is for an alternate universe in fan-fiction. And since this forum is not for the creation of things that don't exist, and is meant to refer to every official medium of the Sailor Moon universe (anime, manga, live-action, et cetera), I'm absolutely certain that the "great freeze" didn't happen before Galaxia.
Pusakuronu wrote:Assuming that it WAS a significant event, and not just them dying from old age after a long and prosperous life. We know that the ancient Lunarians had a long lifespan, but the reborn senshi are human.
No, they're all human to begin with, regardless of what moon or planet they're from. What makes them different is their star seeds. While their bodies are expendable, they live forever as senshi, since star seeds can only be destroyed in the galaxy cauldron, where they were formed. In the manga, before the last story arc, the explanation for anyone being long-lived was due to the power of the ginzuishou. I don't think the age aspect of it ever came up in the anime and, frankly, I'd rather not have to watch through several episodes to find out.
But, let's put it like this: which sounds right, within the context of the Sailor Moon universe?
1: after peaceful lives, absent of any strife, the senshi die, and just happen to be reborn when they're needed again.
2: after a dramatic defeat, or a great struggle that seems endless, the senshi regroup in the next life to conquer the foe that had, ultimately, been victorious after their sacrifice.
The answer is clear. Such a thing happened... at least five times. (All of the senshi, plus Endymion, at the very beginning. All of the senshi, after the defeat of Metallia. Pluto, after sacrificing herself to stop time. Saturn, after destroying Pharoah 90. And all of the senshi in the galaxy (at least; I'm not sure about any other star seeds) after Chaos was defeated by Usagi in the galaxy cauldron.) Dying peacefully never happened. In reality, sure, such an idea is a possibility. But it wouldn't in this universe because that's just not how
Sailor Moon stories are told.
The first part especially seem very specific about it being the Earth that was affected, rather than a more far-reaching problem. Similarly, a "long, long time" could mean a century as easily as a millenium. There's also no mention at all about what exactly happened to the people.
The absence of people being mentioned means that "earth" was likely meant to include its inhabitants as well. I mean, with such a "great calamity", one would expect someone to mention what happened to the people, if they had been spared from what happened: "Fortunately, we were able to relocate the people of earth in time, et cetera, et cetera."
As for how long a "long, long time" is, it's more likely closer to one-thousand years than a hundred. Not only because there was a Silver
Millennium (in the past and future), but for the fact that the story drops at the end of the twentieth century (a millennium) and picks back up at the thirtieth century (another millennium). It could have been any other date, one of nine other numbers that weren't zero, but they weren't. Especially in the anime is this number made more significant, since the Silver Millennium of the past was said to have existed/ended
one-thousand years ago. It's not a number of coincidence; it's design.
To get back to the thread topic, the sequence showing Neo-Queen Serenity turning back the Earth from a white ball completely covered in ice to its normal state took less than ten seconds for the entire planet to revert back to normal. From that, we know that whatever caused the planet was still completely frozen after all this time, and hadn't started to thaw out on its own. This means that either some ongoing effect was keeping it frozen, or the conditions in the solar system had been altered. It was no permanent alteration, otherwise it should have refrozen when the silver crystal was lost (unless Serenity reverted that too). Thus, either there was some long-duration astronomical change that she decided to wait out before reviving the world, or it was some ongoing effect, indicating enemy action.
The problem with that is, by the time it's possible for the "great freeze" to happen, there's really nothing that Usagi can't do with the power of the ginzuishou. We know this because the world in the future, after being all but destroyed by the Dark Moon (including the inhabitants), is completely reversed. And if it was because of an enemy, something like that would have been mentioned as the cause of the delay. Again, the mistake being made, here, is thinking that it's alright to make up things just because an explanation isn't specific enough, and coming up with them without any basis for what has happened in the story before. For instance, we know that Neo Queen Serenity didn't get around to resolving the issue with the Dark Moon because, due to an enemy attack, she was encased in the same crystal as the ginzuishou. But we know that a great calamity happened to cause the whole of Earth to become frozen over, not an enemy. As for something ongoing on the planet, that's nothing that the ginzuishou can't solve. As for something changing in the solar system, to make the Earth that cold... what would it be? For the most part, there are only two sides to this equation: the condition of the Earth (which can be fixed with the ginzuishou), and the condition of the sun (which, in all likelihood, can also be fixed with the ginzuishou; though I doubt it'd be an issue with the sun since it's never mentioned and over its lifespan its condition has been fairly consistent). The only other idea that comes to mind is the Earth somehow drifting into an orbit further from the sun, but that'd take much longer than a thousand years to make any significant impact, and I don't see how the ginzuishou can't be used to solve that problem, too.
And there's another thing, which I just thought of. I can't remember if their lifespan was ever addressed in the anime (much less mentioned), like it was in the manga, but everyone being frozen into a state of stasis would explain why everyone doesn't look much older than they did in the twentieth century, and it would also account for Chibi-Usa's age. Which would also offer a nice tie-in with the estimated time that the "great freeze" took place. The only remaining problem, as it has always been, is why it's not until the thirtieth century that Usagi is able to fix things up.