SMD Read Me / FAQs / Credits
My README file / Frequently-Asked-Questions and Credits page. Please read this page before e-mailing me any questions. If you e-mail me asking me any of the questions answered here, I am most likely either going to point you back to this page, or just delete your e-mail (there's a reason why I made this page, ya know ~_^ ). A few of these questions have not actually been asked, but I knew someone would at some point (the internet's just like that), so I went ahead and took care of answering them.
My E-mail: Sailorhathor at gmail.com
Credits
Frequently Asked Questions
Fun Facts About SMD!
Some Concepts I Explore in SMD
Sailormoon Dark was created and is written by me, Laurel (Sailorhathor), the webmistress of this site. It is based on the Japanese animated series Pretty Soldier Sailormoon which is (c) to Toei Animation. Although it is based on the anime, it does contain elements of the manga by Naoko Takeuchi, (c) to Takeuchi and Kodansha Comics. This fanfic series may contradict the manga, though. I have worked not to contradict the anime. No copyright infringement is intended by the writing of this fanfic. This is simply a work of fan love and appreciation.
This fanseason contains some additional, minor ideas from my friends Karen and SailorCharon (Snow). All have helped me brainstorm on certain characters and/or helped with a little element research. Snow also helped me with some art shading and PSP tips. Any other inspirations will be noted in the story. Thanks to them! Thanks go out to Wulf for teaching me how to indent paragraphs in HTML. Most of the art for this series was done by my very good friend Nancy. Big mega thanks goes out to her! If it was not, it is credited to the artist who did it. Big thanks to the additional artists too. I'd also like to thank my friends at the Sailor Moon II board on AOL and LiveJournal for giving me feedback and support, and helping me figure out some of the Japanese for the fic. Thanks also goes out to Rekka for Japanese help (there's a bear in Rei's rice field!). Please do not use any of the art or graphics on this site in any way, except for the purpose of linking to this site. This includes not claiming that you drew/colored them, and not using them/modifying them to make your own art. This art was created for my use and the use of the artists only. If you want art to use to make your own fansenshi, please use graphics of the original senshi, find a fanartist looking for work, or check out a SM coloring book site. ^_^ Whatever works. If you want to borrow some of the art for fanart reference of my characters, or just because you like looking at it, that's fine. I just don't want people doing anything with the art that could be called stealing.
Please do not rip off my ideas. That having been said, I understand that we of the fansenshi community often inspire each other, and that's great. I just don't want my characters, civilian names, attacks, unique fukus, and weapons/talismans copied, as well as my basic story and ideas. If you were directly inspired by me, a little credit and a link would make me
happy. ^_^
Practically everything you see on my site was original (beyond the stuff that obviously came from the "Sailor Moon" series) when it popped into my little head. Any similarities to other fan senshi and fanfics is either coincidental, or we were inspired by the same Sailor Moon/mythological/space concepts.
The events of Sailormoon Dark take place about one or two years after Sailormoon Sailorstars.
FAQs:
1). Can I use these characters in my fanfics?
(See the note at the bottom of this question!) No, not at this time. Please make up your own. I am not saying that you are not allowed to have, for example, a Sailorsun; I cannot possibly claim something like that as my own. I'm simply saying that you should not steal *my* Sailorsun, Himinori Chochin, nor her history and such. I understand that coincidences can happen because I've run into them myself (similar fuku colorings, similar powers, so on), but it's usually obvious when something is a coincidence and when it's blatant stealing. I think that you can look around at my site and see that I am creative; I don't need to steal, and neither should you. The fact that this is fanfiction does not mean that I don't have intellectual property rights over my creations. It is much better if you create and develop your own ideas than if you steal from someone else; people will respect and praise you more, and you can truly feel proud of your work. Remember that there is a difference between inspiration and theft. If you draw ideas for your character's fuku from looking through fashion magazines, and you change and build upon the fashions you've seen, this is inspiration. But if you make your character's fuku look exactly like someone else's fansenshi's unique fuku, this is stealing. Someone is going to notice, and you are the one who will wind up looking bad. Also remember to make note on your webpage of where your big inspirations come from; it's just the right thing to do. Okay, down off my soapbox. :)
If we become friends, and you would enjoy it if one of my characters makes an appearance or cameo in your fic, I would like to write for my own character. Let's talk about it. ^_^
EXTRA NOTE: I've been getting this question A LOT lately, from not only people wanting to write fics with my characters in them, but for RPGs based on my ideas. Okay, I'm getting the message, and maybe I should allow some "fanfic of a fanfic" writing to be done. The main thing I'm concerned about is that people will use my characters without telling me, or that they will write things that will greatly contradict what I have planned for the characters. SO, let me put it this way: I would prefer that people wait until I have finished this story to write fics based on it. But, I know that will take a while. So, you CAN write fics with these characters in them or start an RPG based on my ideas as long as you abide by these rules:
- a). Do it with respect. If you're just going to have my characters stand around and "ooh" and "ah" over all the Godmoded ones you made up, don't bother. You might as well make up your own cheering section if that's what you think writing is about. Writing is not about stroking your ego. (Some oohing and ahhing is okay, but I don't want my characters to be there just to be made to look like creampuffs, mere window dressing.)
- b). You MUST tell me about it!!! I would like to link to your stories/RPGs so people can read them. Also, people will know you aren't stealing that way.
- c). You must, of course, give me credit for what's mine. I don't mean some tiny little blurb buried somewhere in your site; I mean some good, noticeable credit. You must also link to my site, identifying the link as the place where you got the characters and/or ideas from.
- d). You have to accept that if you write the fic now, something may happen later in the story that will blow your fic to pieces and make it impossible. For example, if you wrote a fic in which Nori (Sun) killed Sailor Moon and wound up with Mamoru, it's very unlikely that's how my story will end up. Which is fine, but some people get really upset at those things, so I just wanted to make sure you were aware that contradictions could happen. I have practically the whole story planned out already. Your fic cannot be accepted as canon SM Dark material unless you wrote something that I liked so much that I asked you if I could use it, with your permission. Otherwise, your story might wind up being an "alternate reality" story because it contradicted mine.
- e). Nancy is VERY protective over her art. Therefore, you can't use just any picture you feel like. Nancy will grant permission for some of her pictures to be used, but only under strict circumstances. Ask first. Under no circumstances will you be allowed to edit her work to make pics of your own senshi, so don't even ask. The pics were made for me. There are plenty of sources you can use to get pics of your characters; please use those! :)
- f). Please understand that I probably cannot host your stories on my site (unless they are short stories). I have to pay for everything on this site, including storage and bandwidth. Therefore, it would be helpful if you could find a place to host the stories you write (fanfiction.net, mediaminer.org, some other free server, or your own site). This policy may change in the future.
2). Will you use my character in your fic?
Have you seen how many characters I've got already?! There may not be room for mine!
:-D Seriously, I dunno. It's possible, but very unlikely at this point. Let's get to know each other's characters and we'll see what develops.
3). Speaking of how many fansenshi you've created, there are an awful lot. How are you going to be able to fit them all in your fic?
I might not be able to. I have ideas for all of them based on mythology, science, religion, and space, and I don't want to leave any good ideas out. If a character or idea can find its place in SMD, I want to put it there. Some characters have found their place in future fics that I have planned. Some only have a minor or one-episode role. All are necessary to tell the story. I actually think I have too many characters, but they run this show, not me, so I'm at their mercy. ;-D As long as they play their appointed role, I can make it all work out. Not every character is in every episode; each episode focuses on a certain chara, or a specific group of charas, or some such thing. Many of the characters will be developed slowly because of this. From what people are telling me, I'm keeping it interesting as I develop everyone, so goodie. ^_^
4). You've changed Sailorcosmos' identity! She was Chibichibi in the manga.
I know. :) Remember though that this series is based on the anime. Sailorcosmos did not
have much of a role in the original 1990s anime (she was just an implied shadow), and Chibichibi's identity was changed. So I'm playing with Sailorcosmos here; that's part of what fanfic is all about. ^_^ Trust me, I'll make it all work out in my series.
The same thing goes for any other ways in which I contradict the manga, such as Sailorjuno. In the manga, Jun-Jun of the Amazoness Quartet became Sailorjuno. Sailorjuno never appeared in the anime, so again, I'm playing around with the name.
5). Why don't you publish these stories?
The original story of Sailormoon is copyrighted to other people who are not me. I would have
to go through all sorts of legal mumbo jumbo to publish them. That would be really awesome, but at this point, I don't know how to go about doing it.
6). Have you ever thought of doing an audio drama of your fic?
Yep, sure have. I think it would be an extremely fun project. But at this point, I don't have the time to take on such a project. If there is a voice acting part you are just dying to audition for, I'd love to hear a wav or mp3 of a practice line from my fic. I can't promise I will ever get anything done on this project, though.
7). How often will you release new episodes?
Irregularly. I work 40 hours a week and have several other writing and artistic projects. Plus, many times when I write, I just go until I reach a good stopping point, and break them into episodes later. This means often I will write more than one episode at a time. There could be no updates for a while, then suddenly several new things go up at once. Or I might be able to get one episode up at a time on a regular basis (though I doubt it). I just can't say for sure.
8). Why are your male senshi called Soldiers instead of Sailors?
Naoko Takeuchi has said that there are no male Sailor senshi. That's *Sailor* senshi. There is
a male senshi, Tuxedo Kamen, but if a senshi is a *Sailor* senshi, they must be female. In order to be the type of senshi who always stays male, even when transformed, they must be a different type of senshi. I chose Soldier because it just sounded best to me. Yes, I am aware that a Soldier senshi would be a Soldier soldier, but it's the term that sounded best to me.
9). Is Sailorvulcan from the planet on "Star Trek"?
No. Vulcan was a Roman God centuries before television was even created. The name of Kitaeru's planet comes from this god. As a matter of fact, the planet on "Star Trek" was named after the constellation Vulcan, which is a constellation of this god, because Spock's planet was located within this constellation. Only the Earthlings called it Vulcan - Spock's people had their own name for it, so says my "Star Trek" fan friend Karen.
10). Why do you call him Elios instead of Helios?
Elios is an acceptable translation of his name--it is the name used in my VKLL fansubs and the manga translations I got off the internet. So that's what I have decided to go with. Calling him Helios would be perfectly acceptable too.
11). Why don't all of your characters have the big anime eyes?
I have absolutely nothing against them; in fact, I'd love to see more art of my charas with the anime look. Most of the art here, though, was done by Nancy, who does gorgeous portraits in a more realistic vein. That is her artistic strength. I think it gives my senshi a more pretty, distinctive look. ^_^ But like I said, I would love to see more anime-style art of them too. If you look through the art, you'll see I've made some anime art of some of my characters.
12). Why does your site have so many counters?
I'm not sure it has any at this point. They keep getting taken away.
13). Who is your favorite senshi?
Chibimoon. Second favorite is Saturn.
14). Will Nancy draw my characters?
I'm sorry, but Nancy does not take picture requests of this type. Truthfully, she doesn't even like anime, and just does this art for me because she is such a nice friend.
15). How long is your story going to be?
No idea. I was hoping for 40 episodes total, but that's not happening.
16). Why don't you call your future senshi (from Crystal Tokyo) "Neo" or "Chibi" senshi?
Because I'm trying to be original. When the idea of having future senshi in my story occurred to me, I wasn't even on the internet yet, so I had not seen any of the fics that used the term "Neo." The first idea that came to mind was to use a Japanese word for "future," so I found one--Mirai. I think that Neo is a great term to use, but I wanted to do something different. Please note that there are PLENTY of other Japanese words that also mean "future" or a variance of it; you could come up with your very own original title for future senshi if you want!
I don't use the term "chibi" (not even for Chibimoon!) because it sounds like something that would fit only child senshi. I just can't see naming a teenager Sailorchibi-anything.
17). Where can I watch episodes of Sailormoon Dark? What channel and time?
Errrr, nowhere. You can't because it's not a real TV series. SMD is fanfiction, which means it was created and is written by a fan of Sailor Moon, me. Call it a story I would love to see animated as part of the canon SM, but that's probably never going to happen. The only place you can find SMD is right here, on this website, so read, look, and enjoy!
18). Send me Sailor Moon stuff for free!
Clean my apartment for free. Hey, doesn't work, does it?
19). Where are the picture galleries of the original senshi? I want free pictures!
That's not the purpose of this site. However, one of these days, I would love to host a site of SM pics. Let's all keep hope alive!
20). Why do you call all of the senshi weapons Talismans? Only the Aqua Mirror, the Garnet Orb, and the Space Sword are Talismans.
Yeah I know, this is a mistake on my part. Just consider them to be the True Talismans, in that they are the only ones that when put together make the Sacred Cup appear, and the rest of them are sort of secondary Talismans.
21). Why do you spend so much time on everything that must go into this site?
This hasn't been asked a lot, but it has been asked. I thought the answer was obvious. ^_^ I do it because I love it. Being creative makes me feel alive; it helps me deal with all the unpleasant things we all must deal with in life. It's just something my soul must do. Everyone has a purpose, or just a favorite hobby that brings them joy. Creating is my purpose in life, and my favorite hobby. Even if I never make any money off of it, I would still do it.
22). Why don't you make such-and-such happen in the story? That would be cool!
I like listening to story suggestions (they prove to me that people are reading), but please remember that I cannot take them all to heart. The story knows where it wants to go. I must write the story to please itself first, myself second, and my audience third. That means that not all of the readers are going to be pleased, but that's the way a story should be written. If you try to write a story to please everyone, you'll ruin it.
23). Will you put the picture/profile of my fan senshi on your site?
I'm sorry, but that's not the purpose of this site. This site is for my fan senshi. There are plenty of places you can go to either make your own website or have someone else post your senshi profiles.
24). In the original anime, only the Moon Kingdom was attacked by Metallia, Beryl, and the army from Earth. You've got the whole solar system being attacked in this story. Huh?
Yup, I know. I wrote the extra attacks in. You'll see characters hinting to the fact that more armies not from the Earth went after the other planets at the same time that Silver Millenium was attacked. These other armies were in league with Metallia. All of this will come out in my story eventually.
25). What exactly was Silver Millenium?
In the original Japanese version, Silver Millenium was clearly the official name of the Moon Kingdom. It was NOT the name of the time period. The dub screwed that up (among other things...). All you have to do is watch a few key episodes of the first season in Japanese to confirm this.
26). How much of what is in your story is canon material, and how much is fanfic?
This question is impossible to answer with one nice, curt response. My story is crawling with stuff right out of SM mixed in with my own concepts. Therefore, if you have a question as to whether something in my story came out of SM or if I made it up, please ask.
27). Is there anything I can do to help you with this fanfic?
First of all, thanks to those who have offered this. There ARE ways you, the reader of SMD, can help ME. :-D First and foremost, linking to my site and telling your friends about it who like SM fanfic is the biggest way for me to get readers and feedback. I've found word of mouth to be crucial if you want people to read your stuff. People can't talk about it if they haven't seen it, so please keep linking and talking.
Second, giving me feedback really helps. I may not act on all of your suggestions, but I do listen and consider. Knowing what and who you like helps me decide who to write more about and what should happen to them (beyond the parts of the story already outlined).
Third, I could really use some help getting the episodes summarized for the Cliff's Notes page. I've got eps 1-5 summarized, but it takes a lot more time than I can put in to summarize and then type them all up. I'd rather write new episodes than spend hours summarizing the old ones. So if you like doing that kind of thing, I'd really appreciate it. Just type it up and send it to me, and I'll proof it. If I use your summaries, you'll of course get credit. They don't need to be excruciatingly detailed either, just a general summary of the events is fine. Speaking of proofing, I could also use some help proofing the episodes. I do proofread them, but sometimes I don't catch a misspelled word, or a minor continuity error. (Hey, for a while I had, in my outline, that a conversation would take place between Usagi and a character AFTER the character had died, as if she was still alive. You wouldn't believe how long it took me to catch that.) If you catch something I didn't, please let me know.
I have been asked if it would help for someone to fill in for me and write an episode once in a while. Er, no, that's really not possible, unless you know of a way to fully transfer ideas from my brain to yours. My outlines would really not make sense to you either, because, well, they're outlines. They contain only the barest of details. What you would write from those outlines would most likely be very little like what I had in my head, and that would leave me feeling unsatisfied and unhappy. I'm sorry, you'll just have to wait. ~_^
Finally, I always love getting pictures that illustrate scenes from the fic, transformations, attacks, and other portraits of the characters.
28). Where do you get your ideas?
I've been getting this question a lot lately, so I thought it'd be a good idea to put it up here. Geez, ideas come to me from everywhere. The entire world is up for grabs to Lo-chan! I have a very chatty creative daimon (muse) I've named Veruca Salt ("I want it NOOOOOOW!!"), and she sees story ideas all over the place. A lot of stuff comes from listening to music. While I'm hearing a song, a little movie often plays out in my head. If the "video" I have created has some good stuff in it, I work it into a story. I get a lot of ideas from dreams, too. One of the fuku designs from the SMD Movie came from a dream. Some Talismans have come from dreams. Then, there's always "Sailor Moon" itself; there were so many cool things the series did not have time to do that I want to explore. Also, many ideas come from watching tv, movies, and reading books. They can provide much inspiration to work into your own original ideas. (Notice that I did not say, "Take ideas from books and tv and use them verbatim." That's not what I do; there is a difference between inspiration and plagiarism.) The mythology behind Sailor Moon provides TONS of inspiration in and of itself; a little research and you've got some great ideas! Just living life and observing people can give you many, many sparks of creativity. People have no idea how much I sit back and just listen to them, the mind gears turning... you can usually tell because I get reeeeeal quiet. >:) Finally, I would credit God. Apparently my creator felt I should have the gift (curse?) of storytelling, as it often feels like I am tapped into something outside of myself when I write. I think, "Gee, what should happen next?" and often, sometimes immediately, I get an answer like someone is implanting the ideas in my head. Other times, it can take days, months, or even years. There's never any way to tell how long it will take for the answer to come.
29). What kind of Sailor Moon 'shipper are you?
I actually go more for the couples of Sailor Moon that are actually possible instead of forcing couples that just aren't there. I know couples like Usagi/Rei are popular, and that's fine, but personally, I don't think either character is gay. My favorite pairings are Usagi/Mamoru, Usagi/(anime) Seiya (if Mamoru died or something), Ami/(anime) Taiki, Yaten/Princess Fireball, Haruka/Michiru, Setsuna/Professor Tomoe, Adult Chibiusa/Adult Helios, Adult Chibiusa/Adult Hotaru (both seem possible to me), Nephlite/Naru, and Kunzite/Zoicite.
30). Will you teach me HTML?
Lesson One: HTML is like its own language. People take classes that last entire semesters or school years to learn HTML. It took me a year and a half to become comfortable with raw HTML instead of using a program to build my pages. In other words, do you still think such a thing can be taught over a few e-mails?
Lesson Two: The answer is no. :)
I'm happy that you like my pages, but it's really hard to teach someone how to make an entire site over e-mail. Learning and teaching HTML is a hands-on task that can take many hours. If you are a beginner and you really want to learn, I'd recommend you start with a program for building web pages, or get a book. HTML for Dummies was a big help to me!
31). Where can I watch "Sailor Moon" in my area? How can we get "Sailor Moon" back on tv?
Whadda I look like, the TV Guide? ;-D I don't know.
32). Are any of the characters based on you (the author)?
No. Some of them have quirks or qualities of mine, or like things that I like, or have qualities that I like to see in a person, but every author does that. It's all a part of writing what you know. However, none of the characters are based on myself. In fact, many of them are nothing like me. It's just more interesting to me to write about different types of people, who have done things or been through things that I've never dealt with, but can imagine believably. (After all, I've never killed anybody, but I can write about it!)
32). I saw where other people created powers for your characters. Can I do this too?
I would actually like for this to be kept to a minimum. I want the story to be mine, and I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. So, if you do submit any powers or story ideas or such things to me for consideration, you must realize the following things: I will give you credit for your contribution, but the idea becomes a part of my story for all time once it's used. The reason I say this is incase I have another falling out with someone, I don't have to rewrite my entire story to take the contributed ideas out unless I want to. Also, I reserve the right to tweak the ideas a bit if I feel they need a little something extra, or they need changes to fit into my story better. This could include changing the names of attacks. Third, I reserve the right NOT to use the ideas of others. It is MY story first and foremost. Suggestions must fit in to my story and I must like them, or I won't use them. This is where people's feelings come into it--I can guarantee you I am not going to like every idea presented to me. Either that, or the idea won't fit in with what I have planned for the characters and story, or I might find the idea to be too much like another one I'm already using. So please do not submit suggestions to me if you are really sensitive and cannot take rejection. Lastly, it would really bother me if my story became overrun with the ideas of other people. This isn't supposed to be a group effort, so I want to keep things balanced in my favor. All of this will be taken into consideration when I receive a new idea from one of my readers. That's not to say I don't appreciate people sharing their ideas with me, because I really do. :) I just want to make sure everyone understands how I feel on the matter.
Fun Facts About SMD!
- All of the Witches are named after famous real and fictional Witches, many of them from television. Samantha, Endora, and Tabitha come from Bewitched, Phoebe comes from Charmed, Sabrina comes from Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Laurie comes from Laurie Cabot (the author of Power of the Witch), and even Glen's sister Wilamina gets into the act; she's named after Wilamina W. Witchiepoo from H.R. Pufnstuf. The source of Glen's name is the funniest one--he's named after Glenda the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz! :D
- The weirdest search that ever lead to my site: Obviously someone was looking for Jon Bon Jovi lyrics, so they entered the following into a search engine, "Penny for your thoughts now baby, looks like the weight of the world's on your shoulders now..." and on. Because I have these lyrics on my splash page, my site came up! I just find it amusing. ^_^ I'm glad you found your way here!
- Most of the senshi guardians I created have a unique way of speaking. It's just a gimmick I thought would be cute, so it's been used since the very beginning of the story when Siggy came in with his speech impediment (which really exists). See if you can spot all their speaking quirks as you read the story!
Concepts Explored in SMD:
I'm a big fan of conceptual art (I actually get all this modern stuff that doesn't look good hanging over your couch!), so concepts are very important to me. Therefore, there are some I plan to write out in SMD, such as the following:
- A senshi who is so plagued with phobias that she is afraid of her own animal guardian.
- The concept that Sailoruranus would sacrifice her partner to save the world, yet Sailorneptune would sacrifice the world to save her partner (this comes from the original series, of course; I just love the idea).
- In their past lives, the senshi had romantic entanglements that continued until the day they died. But does that mean that they will feel the same love for each other in this life? What if one felt the love again, but the other didn't?
- Have you ever wondered if there is a force that governs senshi affairs? What if it had a name? A Boss?
- What if some senshi powers were so volatile that they made the senshi who possessed them insane? What if a senshi's powers were so dangerous that the senshi who possessed them could not be around other people, for fear their mere presence would make family and friends ill or perhaps kill them?
- The concept that all of the senshi are outcasts from society. This idea was presented strongly in the SM R movie. All of the Inner senshi recalled memories in which they were teased and made to feel like freaks by other, regular people. I really like this concept, that the outcasts of the world are the ones who are chosen to defend it (it's sort of ironic), and their only true friends are their fellow defenders. You will see this theme used with several characters in my fanfic, though they're not all total outcasts.
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