Question about Sailor Pluto's role in most Ranma fuku-fics..

[Technocrat_30]

Ok, I've sat through all 200 episodes of Sailor Moon, and I've read through all the volumes of the manga. Suffice to say, I really loved them both, but the anime was much funnier than the manga.

I guess my question may have to do with how Sailor Pluto ends up being portrayed or just how she is interpreted for fanfiction. Granted, there were vast differences in the characters between the anime and manga. For example, I found it harder to stomach Haruka and Michiru in the anime when they first showed up. I mean, how can anyone be perfect at absolutely EVERYTHING they do?? They seemed to be far more human in the manga.

Anyways, I digress. Back to the subject at hand.

Let me preface this with some back history. I watched all Ranma 1/2's episodes and OVA's as well as read the 38 volumes of the manga about a year ago. For fanfiction, that whole universe is LOADED with material that makes it incredibly easy to further the characters development. Naturally, after coming down from my Ranma high, I began to peruse the various fanfiction available. I've come across some outstanding stories written by really brilliant authors. Suffice to say, I was blown away by the sheer amount of fanfiction out there. Then I discovered the Ranma/SailorMoon crossovers and I was hooked. Heck, the first story I read of that was "Sailor Ranko" by an amazing writer who called himself 'Fire' on fanfiction.net. The sequel stories written by BurgerBecky were also outstanding as well. I went on to read many more Ranma fuku-fics, of which my current favorite is "Aftermath: A Story of Blended Clichés" by Trimatter. Granted it's a Tenchi/SM/Ranma crossover, but I had to mention it.

Now here is the problem. I was reading all these SM/Ranma crossovers before I even watched a single episode of Sailor Moon. I basically had no clear idea of what happened in the actual episodes or manga. So I unintentionally based everything I knew of Sailor Moon on what I had read in fanfiction. Yeah I know, that's pretty silly.

Here is where I finally arrive at the question I've been itching to ask. Almost all the fanfiction ranma/sm crossovers that I've read seemed to have one thing in common. Specifically the characterization of Sailor Pluto. Ie Sailor Pluto is the mysterious mentor behind all the sailor scouts, that she will appear out of nowhere to warn the sailor scouts of impending doom, and that her primary function in life is to watch the Gates of Time and use them to guide history so that the creation of Crystal Tokyo is assured. Oh, and that she apparently is immortal and has existed as the Senshi of Time since Queen Serenity assigned her the task during the Silver Millenium.

After reading all the SM manga and watching all the SM anime, (haven't watched the OVAs yet, but thats on my ToDo list) I did not see Sailor Pluto perform any of these functions at all. Well, she did drop by a few times in the anime to warn the Senshi about stuff, but that seemed more like the voice of experience and less like the voice of someone who knew what was going to happen.

What it boils down to is that I'm wondering why this seems to be a recurring theme in Ranma/SM fanfics. I seriously took that as canon before experiencing the whole SM saga myself.

Can anyone answer this?

[P.H. Wise]

The short version: It's a very easy authorial crutch.

There's more to it than that, of course. Inherent in a lot of the portrayals of Sailor Pluto (and of Crystal Tokyo) is a cynical insistence that the idealism of the Sailor Moon series really is too good to be true, and is therefore concealing something dark and horrible. "If we could only get past the pleasant facade (and it must be a facade, of course), then we would discover what those Senshi are REALLY like," and all that rot.

[Dumbledork]

In my opinion fanfic writers use that simply as a plot device. After all, it's much more interesting to read the story where you don't know everything about the role of one of the good guys.

[lwf58]

It's also for the same reason why you see so many cardboard cutout versions of the characters from Ranma 1/2, like "Akane the Psychotic Bitch". Many fan authors have no more knowledge about Sailor Moon than you did when you first started reading R/SM crossovers.

They get their ideas about the series from reading fan fiction, and the authors that they read got their ideas about Sailor Moon from reading fan fiction.

The end result is that characters from various series end up with people swearing that their rendition is definitive, when in reality the portrayal started out as a "what-if" somebody wrote years or decades ago.

[Tovath]

Another reason is that it not known exactly the Gates of Time do. If you can see the future in them then it is easy to think that Pluto would use this power to change things.

[lwf58]

It's pretty well established in both the anime and manga that the Gates are not much more than a simple time-travel device. Pluto is forbidden from using them herself, and her only control over them is determining who, other than herself, can pass through them. She also has the ability to permanently close them.

The only other ability related to the Gates that she has is the ability to stop time for all but herself using the Garnet Rod. However, using that ability destroys her.

That's info that anyone who takes a short time doing research on the internet can find out, so if an author doesn't, it's because they couldn't be bothered to do their homework.

[TerraEpon]

Part of it is simply fanon, like many other things. Often what happens is one person writes a very prominent fic with an idea, and people who don't know canon rigidly take it as such, and write their own fics with it, etc etc.

And as a note, there's no SM OVAs, though there's three movies, and a couple 'special' episodes.


-Joshua

[Comartemis]

"If we could only get past the pleasant facade (and it must be a facade, of course), then we would discover what those Senshi are REALLY like," and all that rot.

This particular viewpoint is supported--to a limited extent--by the infamous "Evil Purge" that Neo-Queen Serenity apparently used during the creation of Crystal Tokyo. A lot of people assume that this means that NQS essentially brainwashed the entire population of Earth and rules over it as a fascist leader with the Senshi as her enforcers. What most people don't realize is that Usagi grows considerably between R and Stars, making Crystal Tokyo as it's portrayed in R extremely unlikely to take place.

Even if we assume for a moment that NQS did brainwash the Earth, that's not necessarily what Usagi will do. Usagi in R might do it and not consider the consequences, but by the end of the Nehelenia arc in Stars she's grown considerably as a person; notice that she is unable to fully assume her Eternal form until she accepts and forgives Nehelenia for what she's done: this Usagi will not banish the Black Moon Family from Earth; she is much more likely to reach out to them with compassion as she did with Nehelenia and Galaxia.

Note also the differences in Usagi's tactics at the end of each series; Beryl? Dusted. Death Phantom? Dusted. Mistress Nine? Oops, gave away the super weapon. Pharaoh 90? Dusted, but needed Saturn's help for that. Nehelenia round one? Trounced and sealed away. Nehelenia round 2? Healed. Galaxia? Healed. I rest my case.

Sorry if I'm drifting off topic, I just felt that I had to comment on the Evil Neo-Queen cliche.

Zwzn, if you're reading this, I think I just annihilated your arguements for the Nazi Neo-Queen.

[Rei-chan]

Part of why she is protrayed this way in Ranma/SM crosses is because no one in SM is a counterpart to Happosai/Cologne. People take what little they know of Pluto, which is mostly fanon, and put her in the position of the aged and mysterious advisor. One may argue that the elders in Ranma are not that, but I point out that over half the techniques used in the series come from the two of them and it seems as if they keep causing events at times just to see how well their little ones are doing.

Another is that a lot of people, myself included, really want to see that mysterious character in a story and Pluto is the most expediant way to it.

[Togashi Gaijin]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is the dynamics of the Sailor Moon viewing audience in the States. A lot of folks base their knowledge of the Sailor Moon universe on the first three seasons of the anime. Season 4, SuperS, was - in Japan - the most popular, whereas in the States it easily qualified as the *least* popular and is often ignored as 'canon' source material. Season 5, Stars, was only available in fansubs and not readily available to the general populace. As a result, the main characterizations of Pluto come from the S season, where she does indeed give a very good impression of the "benevolent all-knowing manipulator". There are far too many points in the S season anime which indicate that Pluto knows *exactly* what's going on to ignore.

From this, it takes a very very small shift to get to the Evil Manipulative Pluto characterization. All you have to do is embrace the Illuminati Greater Agenda Conspiracy mindset - something that happens all too often in real life.

[Technocrat_30]

And as a note, there's no SM OVAs, though there's three movies, and a couple 'special' episodes.


-Joshua

I actually meant the movies. I'm just used to referring to those types of specials or extras as OVAs, even if they were theatrically released.

You've all given me a lot of food for thought. I guess it would make sense to use Sailor Pluto as such a plot device. Usagi however always struck me as one of those types of people that would take a somewhat looser view of the future. Kind of like "whatever happens, happens. As long as I have my friends and Mamoru, I'll be happy". At least until she met Chibi-usa. Being faced with concrete proof of a future where she would indeed become queen would more than likely shake up her conceptions on just how predetermined her destiny was. If anything, it might even drive her to achieve that future, if only to make sure that this child she loves will come to be.

Usagi in the manga got more mature and experienced as time went on. Granted, she also had a few moments of bad-assery in the anime which kind of hinted at her growth as Sailor Moon. Her dodging all of Haruka's attacks at the end of episode 127 and then getting Michiru and Haruka to slam into each other sending them ass-over-teakettle kind of showed that her skillset had matured a little. It was at least better than how Usagi was normally portrayed every time she took on a villian. Ie, really cool Sailor Moon entrance followed by jumping around like a terrified jack-rabbit with its ass on fire avoiding the subsequent enemy attacks.

Anyways, I digress again. Getting back on track, at least insofar as fanfic portrayals of canon characters, I am curious about the handling of Mamoru. The thing I noticed about many Ranma/SM fukufics, aside from how Pluto is handled, is the general dislike of Mamoru Chiba AKA Tuxedo Mask. Ok, he wears a full tuxedo and top-hat to battle, which, as heroic costumes go, is kind of weird. However if you can accept the sailor-style cheerleader costumes that the senshi wore, you can be certain that his tux wasn't all that out of place, but maybe only slightly out of context. He also only threw roses like darts in the anime. I don't recall him using roses like that in the manga.

TM also had plenty of moments of bad-assery, in both the anime and the manga. Overall, I actually didn't mind him as a character. Granted, while watching the anime you kind of wish that he wouldn't help Usagi so much, since she started to depend on him always being there to pull her ass out of the fire. At any rate, in most fukufics Ranma tends to look down on Mamoru. They never get along and Mamoru tends to be relegated to the background. He is also shown to be haughty, arrogant, and pretty full of himself at times. These attributes would be the complete opposite end of the spectrum of what he was in canon context. More plot devices perhaps?

Any thoughts?

[P.H. Wise]

People tend to make the mistake of assuming that Mamoru is a Kuno clone because he speechifies and throws roses (which Kuno did... once, throwing a bouquet of roses to Onna-Ranma). The difference, of course, is that Kuno is a moron - a little boy playing dress up as a Samurai. Mamoru, on the other hand, is the genuine article. He isn't putting on airs: he really IS that noble. And if his speeches sound silly at times, well, everyone's speeches sound silly at times in Sailor Moon. That's the kind of show that it is.

[Comartemis]

It's because everyone loves Tux-bashing.

Seriously though, Tux did have his moments in the anime, but he really got the short end of the stick as far as powers go (see also Hotaru, who can't kill anything smaller than a city block); he's only really at his best in his Endymion form which he almost never takes. There's also the fact that he's supposedly the girls' guardian, yet he never takes action until it's almost too late to help the girls; he's a sideline fighter, a cheerleader at best who occasionally--very occasionally--gets into the action; I can totally see Ranma not liking Tux because of his reluctance to fight for the girls instead of with the girls in spite of his self-proclaimed role as the girls' protector.

Then of course, Tux probably picks up an inferiority complex as soon as a real Man Among Men shows up on the scene.

[claymade]

(which Kuno did... once, throwing a bouquet of roses to Onna-Ranma)

Twice, at least, actually--he tossed a rose to Akane at his first appearance as well.

Plus, the fact that his sister does use roses as weapons might tend to spill over to him a bit.

There's also the fact that he's supposedly the girls' guardian, yet he never takes action until it's almost too late to help the girls; he's a sideline fighter, a cheerleader at best who occasionally--very occasionally--gets into the action; I can totally see Ranma not liking Tux because of his reluctance to fight for the girls instead of with the girls in spite of his self-proclaimed role as the girls' protector.

That's actually one aspect of Tuxy that I find interesting to contrast to Ranma--namely his willingness to let the girls stand on their own two feet. It seems pretty obvious--especially given his showings against Zoiscite, a Dark General--that he probably could've taken the earlier youma pretty easily. But he almost always gives the Senshi only just as much help as they need--allowing them to gain combat experience for themselves.

Which, of course, pays off in spades by the end...

[Comartemis]

That's another very valid way of looking at it, but I still say he's a weenie.