Top 5 Meme Lists, part 1
Well, it's time for me to stop angsting, or try to. Right now I'm sore more than anything.
I finished that top 5 meme lists, with the exception of one. I still have the Top 5 Fanon Ships to do, but I'll post it later tonight or tomorrow. I might tweek the lists later. I don't know yet, we'll see.
Most of the fandoms include Sailor Moon, Nana, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and Avatar. I wanted to include more, but I'll think of something for the Top 5 Fanon Ships. If anyone still wishes to suggest something else, feel free!
Top Five Rants Against Sailor Moon
5. ANIME: Sailor Pluto
I hate that the anime downplays Pluto's importance. For example, her death occurs at different points in the anime and the manga. Her death's significance is nowhere near as important in the anime as it was in the manga series. In the anime, the uses her final attack to rescue Neptune and Uranus from crashing in their helicopter. Which is fine and all, I didn't WANT Uranus and Neptune to die, but it never struck an emotional cord with me. However, in the manga series, she uses her final attack to stop Prince Diamond from bringing the Silver Imperium Crystals of the past and the future together; her death is even more significant, because not only does she save the universe but her death awakens the good side of Chibiusa, who is Black Lady at the time. Also, how awesome is it that a woman whose existence was a mystery to the other Senshi was the one to save EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING IN EXISTENCE?
4. OVERALL: Sailor Earth
(THIS IS YOUR SAILOR EARTH, FANS)
Yeah, I'm not a fan of Mamoru being the "Sailor Earth" of the group when the others are women. I think the artist of Sailor Moon missed out on an opportunity. What if the female Sailor Earth had a history with Mamoru? Is she a hero or a villain? What's her personality like? THINK ABOUT THE POSSIBILITIES.
3. ANIME: Chibiusa/Helios
Helios/Pegasus is a creep in the anime.
HE PREFERS HER WHEN SHE'S A LITTLE GIRL. THAT WILL NEVER NOT BE GROSS. AT LEAST IN THE MANGA, HE FINDS HER ATTRACTIVE AS AN ADULT, BUT THE ANIME? HELL NO, HE LIKES THEM YOUNG. (DON'T TELL ME IT'S ABOUT A "BE YOURSELF" MESSAGE BECAUSE IT TOTALLY WASN'T.)
ALSO, HE IS A HORSE. A HORSE WHO GAVE CHIBIUSA HER FIRST KISS. AS A HORSE. SLJHGKA;LGJ'A. D8
2. ANIME: Rei/Sailor Mars
Uh, WHAT THE HELL, ANIME. What gives? In the manga, she is mature, practical, elegant, and hated men. She also longs to become the head priestess at Hikawa Shrine. Her personality and dreams were... drastically changed for the anime. In the anime, she's boy-crazy, hot-tempered, and shares the same dream as Minako: being a singer, dancer, and eventually becoming a wife. Don't misunderstand me, I don't HATE the anime counterpart of Sailor Mars, but I can't understand why they had to change this character so drastically.
1. FANDOM: Mamoru/Usagi
Fandom, I have a message for you:
Stop with the overpowered Mamoru and Usagi serving as the damsel in distress. The last time I checked, Mamoru is the one that's constantly hypnotized by the villains, not Usagi. (I can only count one time this has ever happened to Usagi, and Mamoru wasn't the one to save her.) Usagi is the one that constantly has to rescue him, not Mamoru rescuing Usagi. (Although he does his fair share of that in the series, and he dies quite often doing it, too!) Seeing an overpowered Mamoru and a weakened Usagi makes me wonder if we've read and watched the same series.
Top Five Senshi
5. Sailor Jupiter
I'm not sure how I feel about Makoto's drive to be more feminine and less intimidating when, really, she's fine the way she is. However, she's always going to be in the top five for me. She may be aggressive and she might scare people at school, but her loyalty is her best attribute. For one, in season one of the anime, when Rei and Ami got fed up with Usagi as the leader, Makoto was the only one that didn't lose her faith in Usagi. And what ultimately did it for me was her selfless sacrifice in season Stars - when Usagi fell into a dream state, and she blocks Usagi from getting attacked and nearly gets killed, and the rose earring she leaves behind snaps Usagi out of her hypnosis and reminds her that she needs to save Mamoru. That's a friend that doesn't come around too often.
4. Sailor Saturn
I realize that everyone has Sailor Saturn in their top five lists, because it's cool to like the one with the dark and angsty backstory. That doesn't change my opinion on her. I like Saturn because she stands out from the rest. She's the senshi whose mere existence can threaten the entire world because she can end it if she ever awakens as a soldier. You can't help but sympathize with a girl like that, especially when she's got other problems. (Her mom died in a lab accident, she's pretty much a cyborg in the manga series, she gets terrorized at school, her dad's a nutcase - though he's a lot more human in the anime, and she has an entity that's taken over her body to serve its master. And it's a little weird that the senshi that originally wanted to kill her? basically raise her when she's reborn. This poor fucking kid's gonna need a lot of therapy to work through her issues. Seriously.)
3. Sailor Mars
I'm not sure if I prefer Mars from the manga series, or the Mars from the anime series, because both of them have different personalities and different quirks, and I have major problems with the fact that her personality changed to begin with. I mean, I can't really bring myself to hate the anime version of Rei, considering she reminds me of an old friend of mine - we shared a friendship like the one Rei and Usagi had. Whatever, Mars in general is an awesome character.
2. Sailor Pluto
Back before a childhood friend and I realized the outer senshi even existed, we called each other by Saturn and Pluto. I was Pluto. Imagine our excitement when Sailor Pluto appeared in season R. It was AWESOME. (It was extra eerie for both of us, because said friend had the same damn haircut as Saturn, minus the bangs!)
Next to Sailor Saturn, I feel a lot of sympathy for Pluto.
She's the one that had to make the most sacrifices out of the entire group. She constantly had to guard the gates of time; she is forbidden from ever leaving the gates, not even to fight alongside the other senshi. Nobody's supposed to know she exists. She has unrequited love for King Endymion. She's what Luna refers to as a "lone warrior". Her ultimate attack - which is stopping time - can literally kill her. Even SCIENCE demoted Pluto from planet to dwarf planet, meaning she's technically not even supposed to be a Senshi. Her life sucks.
In the end, despite the fact she got the shitty end of the stick, all Pluto really wants to do is fight with the senshi rather than standing idly by and watching everything that's happened. To her, nothing is more important than her duty as a fighter. I love her for that.
1. Sailor Moon
I didn't really love this character until recently. I always liked her, but I had issues with her too. It's scary that I can watch the anime now, in its original Japanese form, and make it to season S, read the manga series, and realize how much I can relate to her so much now. I'm ... not sure if I have the amount of selfless love she has for others, even for her enemies, but I can relate to her clumsiness, procrastinating habits, and her wish to be a normal teenager and not have so much weight on her shoulders, but still sticking to her duty. She is easily my favorite character in the series. I love her so much.
Top Five Underrated Ships
5. NANA: Nana Osaki/Nana Komatsu
I hate the Nana fandom. The Hachi bashing and the glorification of Reira's character is horrible and the fans should be ashamed of themselves. (Only because, uh, Reira is no better than Hachi.)
What makes it worst is the lack of Nana/Hachi. The fandom seems to be concerned about Takumi/Hachi vs. Nobu/Hachi, but I can't help thinking the story is about Nana and Hachi pining for each other and realizing they need each other. I could really care less if Hachi ends up with Nobu or stays with Takumi, or if Nana ever finds another boyfriend, because they belong together, dammit. They better get back together and live happily ever after.
4. SAILOR MOON: Nephrite/Naru Osaka
I really have nothing intelligent to say about the ship, so excuse me while I copy and paste my TL;DR fannish squeeing from a previous entry/meme about them:
"It stems back to my love for the dynamics in villain/hero-ine pairings. I love how it can go either way: the villain can be redeemed or the hero-ine can be corrupted. With them ... she just had this faith in him that was so stupid at times but she was also right about him the entire time. And I liked how, eventually, he did start questioning his role - which is something that should've happened with the rest of the generals, as it did in the manga canon if I remember right - and wondering about his feelings for her. Another thing I liked about them was that both of them were willing to sacrifice their lives for the other; Naru stood up to the Senshi and attempted to pull out the thorns from his chest (even though it was physically impossible for an average human to do), and Nephrite, well, died because he saved her from getting stabbed with the thorns. Really, just their entire story breaks my heart, because I always hated how the entire fandom forgot about it and how she was paired off with Umino as lazy closure to her story - and I hate Umino. Like, he had a blown-up picture of Naru on the wall over his bed in an episode from season S. Which is kinda creepy, imho. :\"
3. FINAL FANTASY VII: Vincent Valentine/Yuffie Kisaragi
Instead of a picture, have a video of Yuffie getting flustered after Vincent thanks her in Dirge of Cerberus. Look, I know it was a shitty game (or reportedly; I never played it, because Vincent by himself doesn't interest me for a video game), but this game also came with enough Vincent/Yuffie context/subtext to make it work, so hey, who am I to argue?
Also, before you even attempt telling me it could never work - she's too young and he's too old, she's too chatty and he's so blah - read this fanfic: Sunshine In Winter, by Guardian1 on FanFiction.Net. It was impossible for me not to ship them after reading that story. Plus I'm a sucker for the OPPOSITES ATTRACT ships, it's so predictable for me.
2. KINGDOM HEARTS: Riku/Kairi
Do you know how underrated Riku/Kairi is? I couldn't find screenshots OR fanart on the two. :/ When I went on deviantART and looked for Riku and Kairi fanart, I kept getting KAIRI MUST DIE pictures. The Kingdom Hearts fandom frustrates me with the boy slash and Kairi being reduced to acting as a cheerleader for Riku and Sora. When you delve away from the slash, Sora/Kairi gets its respect but there's still a heavy lack of Riku/Kairi. While I OT3 Sora/Kairi/Riku anyway (and that in itself is a rare pairing), I don't like that. It'd be nice to see this ship by itself explored more often.
1. FINAL FANTASY VII: Barret/Tifa
Um, yeah, this is new.
Why is it #1? A few reasons. A) It's so underrated, fanart for this ship doesn't exist, and there's barely any fanfiction about the two by themselves. B) Barret is usually cast aside as comic relief or just out of the picture; his speech is also awkwardly stereotypical, which I do understand and even agree with, for the most part. C) Tifa and Cloud has a huge following, second after Cloud/Aerith. D) I guess I always shipped it - or at least, imagined it being one-sided, it's just kinda grew since I played the game a few weeks ago.
Why do I enjoy it? Because Barret admires her strength. Because Tifa acknowledges that she's no different from him - both of their hometowns burned down, for one. Because the two have been in Avalanche long before Cloud came along. Because it's remarkable for somebody like Barret, who barely ever trusts anyone, to have such a close friendship with Tifa. Because Barret is the only other guy I can see Tifa with. They have a history that's hardly ever explored in fandom, and I always suspected that Barret has an infatuation for Tifa that he'll never deal with and remain in denial about them because of her feelings for Cloud and the reasons why it couldn't work.
Sadly, there's no fanfiction. There's, like, one good one, but it was never continued, since 2005. And there's no fanart for them whatsoever, unless it's a group shot. I demand both. Right now.
I finished that top 5 meme lists, with the exception of one. I still have the Top 5 Fanon Ships to do, but I'll post it later tonight or tomorrow. I might tweek the lists later. I don't know yet, we'll see.
Most of the fandoms include Sailor Moon, Nana, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and Avatar. I wanted to include more, but I'll think of something for the Top 5 Fanon Ships. If anyone still wishes to suggest something else, feel free!
Top Five Rants Against Sailor Moon
5. ANIME: Sailor Pluto
I hate that the anime downplays Pluto's importance. For example, her death occurs at different points in the anime and the manga. Her death's significance is nowhere near as important in the anime as it was in the manga series. In the anime, the uses her final attack to rescue Neptune and Uranus from crashing in their helicopter. Which is fine and all, I didn't WANT Uranus and Neptune to die, but it never struck an emotional cord with me. However, in the manga series, she uses her final attack to stop Prince Diamond from bringing the Silver Imperium Crystals of the past and the future together; her death is even more significant, because not only does she save the universe but her death awakens the good side of Chibiusa, who is Black Lady at the time. Also, how awesome is it that a woman whose existence was a mystery to the other Senshi was the one to save EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING IN EXISTENCE?
4. OVERALL: Sailor Earth
(THIS IS YOUR SAILOR EARTH, FANS)
Yeah, I'm not a fan of Mamoru being the "Sailor Earth" of the group when the others are women. I think the artist of Sailor Moon missed out on an opportunity. What if the female Sailor Earth had a history with Mamoru? Is she a hero or a villain? What's her personality like? THINK ABOUT THE POSSIBILITIES.
3. ANIME: Chibiusa/Helios
Helios/Pegasus is a creep in the anime.
HE PREFERS HER WHEN SHE'S A LITTLE GIRL. THAT WILL NEVER NOT BE GROSS. AT LEAST IN THE MANGA, HE FINDS HER ATTRACTIVE AS AN ADULT, BUT THE ANIME? HELL NO, HE LIKES THEM YOUNG. (DON'T TELL ME IT'S ABOUT A "BE YOURSELF" MESSAGE BECAUSE IT TOTALLY WASN'T.)
ALSO, HE IS A HORSE. A HORSE WHO GAVE CHIBIUSA HER FIRST KISS. AS A HORSE. SLJHGKA;LGJ'A. D8
2. ANIME: Rei/Sailor Mars
Uh, WHAT THE HELL, ANIME. What gives? In the manga, she is mature, practical, elegant, and hated men. She also longs to become the head priestess at Hikawa Shrine. Her personality and dreams were... drastically changed for the anime. In the anime, she's boy-crazy, hot-tempered, and shares the same dream as Minako: being a singer, dancer, and eventually becoming a wife. Don't misunderstand me, I don't HATE the anime counterpart of Sailor Mars, but I can't understand why they had to change this character so drastically.
1. FANDOM: Mamoru/Usagi
Fandom, I have a message for you:
Stop with the overpowered Mamoru and Usagi serving as the damsel in distress. The last time I checked, Mamoru is the one that's constantly hypnotized by the villains, not Usagi. (I can only count one time this has ever happened to Usagi, and Mamoru wasn't the one to save her.) Usagi is the one that constantly has to rescue him, not Mamoru rescuing Usagi. (Although he does his fair share of that in the series, and he dies quite often doing it, too!) Seeing an overpowered Mamoru and a weakened Usagi makes me wonder if we've read and watched the same series.
Top Five Senshi
5. Sailor Jupiter
I'm not sure how I feel about Makoto's drive to be more feminine and less intimidating when, really, she's fine the way she is. However, she's always going to be in the top five for me. She may be aggressive and she might scare people at school, but her loyalty is her best attribute. For one, in season one of the anime, when Rei and Ami got fed up with Usagi as the leader, Makoto was the only one that didn't lose her faith in Usagi. And what ultimately did it for me was her selfless sacrifice in season Stars - when Usagi fell into a dream state, and she blocks Usagi from getting attacked and nearly gets killed, and the rose earring she leaves behind snaps Usagi out of her hypnosis and reminds her that she needs to save Mamoru. That's a friend that doesn't come around too often.
4. Sailor Saturn
I realize that everyone has Sailor Saturn in their top five lists, because it's cool to like the one with the dark and angsty backstory. That doesn't change my opinion on her. I like Saturn because she stands out from the rest. She's the senshi whose mere existence can threaten the entire world because she can end it if she ever awakens as a soldier. You can't help but sympathize with a girl like that, especially when she's got other problems. (Her mom died in a lab accident, she's pretty much a cyborg in the manga series, she gets terrorized at school, her dad's a nutcase - though he's a lot more human in the anime, and she has an entity that's taken over her body to serve its master. And it's a little weird that the senshi that originally wanted to kill her? basically raise her when she's reborn. This poor fucking kid's gonna need a lot of therapy to work through her issues. Seriously.)
3. Sailor Mars
I'm not sure if I prefer Mars from the manga series, or the Mars from the anime series, because both of them have different personalities and different quirks, and I have major problems with the fact that her personality changed to begin with. I mean, I can't really bring myself to hate the anime version of Rei, considering she reminds me of an old friend of mine - we shared a friendship like the one Rei and Usagi had. Whatever, Mars in general is an awesome character.
2. Sailor Pluto
Back before a childhood friend and I realized the outer senshi even existed, we called each other by Saturn and Pluto. I was Pluto. Imagine our excitement when Sailor Pluto appeared in season R. It was AWESOME. (It was extra eerie for both of us, because said friend had the same damn haircut as Saturn, minus the bangs!)
Next to Sailor Saturn, I feel a lot of sympathy for Pluto.
She's the one that had to make the most sacrifices out of the entire group. She constantly had to guard the gates of time; she is forbidden from ever leaving the gates, not even to fight alongside the other senshi. Nobody's supposed to know she exists. She has unrequited love for King Endymion. She's what Luna refers to as a "lone warrior". Her ultimate attack - which is stopping time - can literally kill her. Even SCIENCE demoted Pluto from planet to dwarf planet, meaning she's technically not even supposed to be a Senshi. Her life sucks.
In the end, despite the fact she got the shitty end of the stick, all Pluto really wants to do is fight with the senshi rather than standing idly by and watching everything that's happened. To her, nothing is more important than her duty as a fighter. I love her for that.
1. Sailor Moon
I didn't really love this character until recently. I always liked her, but I had issues with her too. It's scary that I can watch the anime now, in its original Japanese form, and make it to season S, read the manga series, and realize how much I can relate to her so much now. I'm ... not sure if I have the amount of selfless love she has for others, even for her enemies, but I can relate to her clumsiness, procrastinating habits, and her wish to be a normal teenager and not have so much weight on her shoulders, but still sticking to her duty. She is easily my favorite character in the series. I love her so much.
Top Five Underrated Ships
5. NANA: Nana Osaki/Nana Komatsu
I hate the Nana fandom. The Hachi bashing and the glorification of Reira's character is horrible and the fans should be ashamed of themselves. (Only because, uh, Reira is no better than Hachi.)
What makes it worst is the lack of Nana/Hachi. The fandom seems to be concerned about Takumi/Hachi vs. Nobu/Hachi, but I can't help thinking the story is about Nana and Hachi pining for each other and realizing they need each other. I could really care less if Hachi ends up with Nobu or stays with Takumi, or if Nana ever finds another boyfriend, because they belong together, dammit. They better get back together and live happily ever after.
4. SAILOR MOON: Nephrite/Naru Osaka
I really have nothing intelligent to say about the ship, so excuse me while I copy and paste my TL;DR fannish squeeing from a previous entry/meme about them:
"It stems back to my love for the dynamics in villain/hero-ine pairings. I love how it can go either way: the villain can be redeemed or the hero-ine can be corrupted. With them ... she just had this faith in him that was so stupid at times but she was also right about him the entire time. And I liked how, eventually, he did start questioning his role - which is something that should've happened with the rest of the generals, as it did in the manga canon if I remember right - and wondering about his feelings for her. Another thing I liked about them was that both of them were willing to sacrifice their lives for the other; Naru stood up to the Senshi and attempted to pull out the thorns from his chest (even though it was physically impossible for an average human to do), and Nephrite, well, died because he saved her from getting stabbed with the thorns. Really, just their entire story breaks my heart, because I always hated how the entire fandom forgot about it and how she was paired off with Umino as lazy closure to her story - and I hate Umino. Like, he had a blown-up picture of Naru on the wall over his bed in an episode from season S. Which is kinda creepy, imho. :\"
3. FINAL FANTASY VII: Vincent Valentine/Yuffie Kisaragi
Click to viewInstead of a picture, have a video of Yuffie getting flustered after Vincent thanks her in Dirge of Cerberus. Look, I know it was a shitty game (or reportedly; I never played it, because Vincent by himself doesn't interest me for a video game), but this game also came with enough Vincent/Yuffie context/subtext to make it work, so hey, who am I to argue?
Also, before you even attempt telling me it could never work - she's too young and he's too old, she's too chatty and he's so blah - read this fanfic: Sunshine In Winter, by Guardian1 on FanFiction.Net. It was impossible for me not to ship them after reading that story. Plus I'm a sucker for the OPPOSITES ATTRACT ships, it's so predictable for me.
2. KINGDOM HEARTS: Riku/Kairi
Do you know how underrated Riku/Kairi is? I couldn't find screenshots OR fanart on the two. :/ When I went on deviantART and looked for Riku and Kairi fanart, I kept getting KAIRI MUST DIE pictures. The Kingdom Hearts fandom frustrates me with the boy slash and Kairi being reduced to acting as a cheerleader for Riku and Sora. When you delve away from the slash, Sora/Kairi gets its respect but there's still a heavy lack of Riku/Kairi. While I OT3 Sora/Kairi/Riku anyway (and that in itself is a rare pairing), I don't like that. It'd be nice to see this ship by itself explored more often.
1. FINAL FANTASY VII: Barret/Tifa
Um, yeah, this is new.
Why is it #1? A few reasons. A) It's so underrated, fanart for this ship doesn't exist, and there's barely any fanfiction about the two by themselves. B) Barret is usually cast aside as comic relief or just out of the picture; his speech is also awkwardly stereotypical, which I do understand and even agree with, for the most part. C) Tifa and Cloud has a huge following, second after Cloud/Aerith. D) I guess I always shipped it - or at least, imagined it being one-sided, it's just kinda grew since I played the game a few weeks ago.
Why do I enjoy it? Because Barret admires her strength. Because Tifa acknowledges that she's no different from him - both of their hometowns burned down, for one. Because the two have been in Avalanche long before Cloud came along. Because it's remarkable for somebody like Barret, who barely ever trusts anyone, to have such a close friendship with Tifa. Because Barret is the only other guy I can see Tifa with. They have a history that's hardly ever explored in fandom, and I always suspected that Barret has an infatuation for Tifa that he'll never deal with and remain in denial about them because of her feelings for Cloud and the reasons why it couldn't work.
Sadly, there's no fanfiction. There's, like, one good one, but it was never continued, since 2005. And there's no fanart for them whatsoever, unless it's a group shot. I demand both. Right now.