Hi!
Hello, I read through this and you've azttributed some passage to me that I
never said. I'll indicating them within my responds.
Just a few words on the subject of Mamoru in this story...before our
happy MSTers get too carried away with condemnation, ask yourself this,
and be honest: "If I were in the same situation, with the same bad
information as Mamoru, how much less suspiciously would I be acting?"
I asked myself that, and the answer is: "Not less suspiciously enough."
Indeed, there are few actions Mamoru could take at the point in the
story I last saw that wouldn't be at least a little suspicious. (His
confrontation with Shingo...)
It's important to remember that Mamoru has been accused of crimes he has
not yet committed, has not even considered committing, indeed crimes he
would cheerfully join in punishing the perpetrator of. But he has not
been allowed to learn the specifics or even the nature of his supposed
offense, and people (Usagi, mostly) get evasive whenever he tries a
direct question. It's very Kafkaesque. Is it any wonder he's acting
oddly, especially when you factor in those dreams?
Kafkaesque? I think I know what your driving at. I decided that Usagi was
going to be willing to set aside her almost obsessive possesion over Mamoru
for Chibi-Usa's safety. Aslo she has to consider her Parent's pressureing
influences. Also she wants to protect Mamoru from the Senshi in a way. In
#19/20 one respondent pointed out that I might have the timing off slightly
and that's quite a possibility. Under undue tremendous pressure and a real
desire to clear Mamoru's name Usagi tried to look through it with her
emtions rather then objectivity... and I don't blame her. I do think that
if Mamoru had stayed away from Usagi she would have been more likely to
follow her heart and try to clear Mamoru more varaciously. Mamoru hasn't
because of the dreams that the evil Endymion is sending.
(Doug, you may want to make it a bit more explicit, say a broken and
bleeding "future Usagi" asking why Mamoru wasn't there for her.)
That's a possible suggestion... I'll try and see if I can work it in.
While Mr. Davies was...ungenerous...in his criticisms, he did have a
point in that the assault conviction isn't supported by anything in the
anime or manga. Indeed, it tends to contradict what we know of Mamoru's
character (more on that later.) Heck, it stinks like week-old fish.
It occurs to me that if you were a time-traveler with computer skills
and a good firsthand knowledge of how the Senshi think, this would be an
ideal frameup. Simply pop in a couple of weeks before the incident
you're planning to provoke, and insert the false data into the police
department's computer banks.
When Mercury checks the police records, she discovers the "conviction".
Since it's supposed to be a juvenile offense, the records are sealed
(conveniently enough) and attempting to get further information would
require Mercury to do some things that would dangerously expose her
interest in the case. And she won't ask Mamoru about it, since if he
really is a bad guy, he'd just lie anyway. And one of Ami's weaknesses,
quite frankly, is that she tends to believe anything her computer tells
her.
Yes that's one of her weaknesses. She won't ask Mamoru either because she
see's Usagi as having that decision and at the time she does the search she
isn't willing to tell Usagi about it. Then when things come to a head
Mercury does tell Usagi about this but she had this information at least a
week or so before. Enough time for Usagi to ask Mamoru. Also at the time
that Mercury does her search Usagi deosn't know that Mamoru is the
biological father or she the biological mother. Mamoru would want to know
what was going on and taht would have put Mercury into a even more akward
position.
Of course, a further search might uncover traces of Mamoru being
elsewhere when he was supposedly in prison, but Mercury is unlikely to
look farther once she's had her suspicions confirmed. And since old
juvie records aren't looked at unless something comes up in the present,
the time traveler can simply pop in a couple of weeks after the incident
and erase the false evidence before the next database cleanup.
OTOH, the conviction might be real...but "assault" can be a pretty vague
term, and the circumstances quite understandable.
That's why I never specifically said anything about the assult charges.
They could be trumpt up, they coiuld be real. I'll allow the reader to
determine what they wish to read into that particular element. I have my
own thoery but I'll keep that to myself.
<snippage>
Now, about Mamoru's behavior towards Chibi-Usa... Remember, he doesn't
see her as an abused child reacting to what she thinks is her tormentor,
but a little girl whose father is for some reason absent, who misses her
father very much and is willing to accept him as a substitute. And this
is very appealing to him.
While there are some rather large holes in Mamoru's background,
(especially if you are using the creepily older Mamoru of the early
anime, rather than the 17-year-old of the manga or the fuzzily-defined
one of the R movie and beyond...), enough to put in a short prison term
if you really wanted to, we do know that Mamoru lost his family when he
was quite young. Not just physically, but the brain damage apparently
took most of his memories of his parents as well.
Since adoption of children w/o close relatives is relatively rare in
Japan, it is quite probable that Mamoru grew up without anything
approximating a "real" family, or the memory of one. So when a "family"
is offered to him, however artificial, he has a strong interest.
Certainly he doesn't want Chibi-Usa to grow up as he did, without a
father. From his perspective, his motives are love and protectiveness.
That's my thinking. Mamoru doesn't see Chibi-Usa as an abused child and
there has been *no* indications that he was ever told that, although one
might assume that he was told everything outside of Chibi-Usa's hearing.
Before things start to go terribly wrong Usagi is happy that Chibi-Usa is
so "attatched" to Mamoru and Mamoru seems to like it and his protective
nature makes him a great person to be a father to her except... Anyway when
hell breaks loose and Usagi's parents step in Usagi's shove head first into
a realm of emtions that she really never had to choose for.
Doug, you mentioned "Bitter End" and "Ill Met", and asked (more or less)
what the difference between those and "Mama's Hand" is (outside the
obvious plot contingencies.)
No that wasn't me.
"Bitter End" is, *if* you accept the author's interpretation of certain
events in the manga, a reasonably plausible extension of Akane's
characterization in a new circumstance. (Other characters' actions and
attitudes are less plausible, but not terribly relevant to the issue at
hand.) "Ill Met", from its beginning, shows us that this is *not* the
Ranma from the manga, and we are given strong clues as to why. "Mama's
Hand", conversely, apparently asks us to believe that everything is
identical to the anime up to the end of the Moonlight Knight plotline.
Thus, some readers find it difficult to believe that the rather passive,
minimum-force only (even when a bad guy!) Mamoru has somehow mutated
into the casually violent and abusive Endymion.
Well that's your perception. I'm not asking the reader to believe
everything and I've never gave any indication that it was identical. I also
never gave any indication taht it wasn't either; I'm being vague for a
reason and a purpose. It deviates far from the canon but at what point is
again left upto the imagination of the reader. I don't like to force
details unless they are centerally critical. I also wouldn't call Endymion
casually violent more like constantly violent. But Mamoru is possible of
mental cruelty, he proved that within the SMR canon. He is the silent quiet
type and any perceptions your reading into him must be more from the manga
which I tend not to base characters on.
I have a thoery... If I wanted to take the easy way out I could but I
won't. The theory is this, Endymion during the first SM season wasn't
healed when SM defeated Beryl; he died before that point, so there could be
a kernal of evil still within him. A kernal of darkness that grew over the
years. I could use that, but I won't because it's a standard cop-out.
Also, in both "Bitter End" and "Ill Met", the abusive characters are
treated at least somewhat sympathetically. BE's Akane is shown as
suffering from a mental condition that by its very nature prevents her
>from acknowledging that she has a problem and must seek help, and we see
chance after chance for someone to make her get help slip by. IM's
Ranma is shown to have suffered a terrible trauma that leaves him broken
and afraid, as well as murderous. While their actions make them
monstrous, we can also feel pity for them. MH's Endymion, on the other
hand, is not depicted as anything but a monster, so much so that we
suspect possession.
I never set out to make Endymion pittied, I never wanted him to be. He's a
monster and over the years the monster grew, day-by-day. You also have to
look that Endymion was feeling in control and that rush of power isn't
something to be given up. Is he demon possesed? Not quite, however his
entrapment within the "Soul Catcher" gem has certainly skewed his
perceptions of reality but not enough to make him not culpable (sp?) for
his own actions. He knows what he's doing, he might even delude himself
into thinking that Serenity likes it rough and that he's doing nothing
wrong but I think somewhere inside him, Endymion has a good part left.
My suspicion is that whatever event turned Mamoru into bad Endymion, it
took place *after* the time period of SMR, simply because I don't think
Sailor Pluto would risk sending Chibi-Usa to a point at which Mamoru was
already murderous...
I won't comment on this specifically but most likely happened *after*
Mamoru and Usagi marry.
And I must admit that I see as most likely a rather melancholy future
where Serenity and Endymion still love each other very much, but can
never trust that love and assuage their loneliness, because of a
poisoned shadow of "might be."
As this will be covered in the ending parts I can not say. One reader knows
specifically what will happen. However I will say this. Another person
commented that they were looking for a show down between Mamoru and
Endymion... it's a possibilty, a very strong one.
I appreciate your comments.
Doug
"It is major decisions that change the course of our future but it
is the minor decisions that shape the being who we are."
"I write in broad tapestries, interweaving characters lives leaving
the little details to the reader unless the detials are important."
- Anne McCaffrey
From the book "Get off the White Unicorn"
"I am Sailor Chibi-Earth! And I will sit you in the corner!"
- Tsukino Misako, ToYV#6
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