#poor usagi

So instead of harping on tonal dissonance I’m going to point out that this moment actually says some stuff about Usagi. Usagi can come across as defeatist, but she isn’t really. She does want to improve herself. Earlier in the episode she thinks about how awesome it would be to be Sailor V because then she’d be cool and respected and better. She wants to be more attractive or do better on tests or fight crime.

The thing is that Usagi has this problem where if there is an easier way out, she’ll take it. Which isn’t a sin, it’s a human impulse. Hard things are hard. Studying isn’t fun, and I’m still feeling really down over my mother finding out about my test, so I’m not really in the mood. I’ll save it for later and take a nap now. And then later there’ll be another reason to save it for later. And another reason. And another reason.

And yeah, Usagi never exactly becomes Ami when it comes to school; she’s not super good at academics. The point isn’t that in itself; this is just a perfect case study of her mentality, and how easy she finds it to just... give in when faced with a challenge. Like I said, it’s a human thing to do, especially when you are far from ready to be grown up yet. It’s just a trap Usagi falls into very frequently, despite her own genuine desire to do better.

I mean, like, I was talking about Usagi sometimes giving up and wanting the easy way out? Like, that is what Tuxedo Mask treats it as here. Except, and the narrative basically agrees, here it’s really not. 

Like people will portray Usagi being all panicky and not knowing what she’s doing in her earliest fights as this harsh indictment of her character, and it is relevant to a genuine problem she has, but to say things like that in this sort of situation deprive everything of its context. 

But, especially here, it’s just not fair. Usagi didn’t sign up for this. She met up with a talking cat who said a bunch of stuff that didn’t really make that much sense out of context, and then told her that she could be a superheroine, that thing she was just thinking it’d be awesome to be. And then when she actually turned out to be one, her best friend was in mortal danger! Of course she isn’t going to ask any questions and leap into action. Naru’s her best (only) friend! 

But, like, she then sees this creepy demon thing and she doesn’t know what it is and she’s getting attacked by basically zombies and she’s told to use an attack but she has no idea what that attack actually IS, and this is a battle to the death and she had absolutely no idea her life would be at stake at all in this situation when she came into it. 

Like the issue here is that everyone is assuming that Usagi is battle ready when she has no reason to be. They may have their reasons for that assumption, but from an objective perspective it’s simply a ridiculously unfair standard to set her to.

They're just not gonna ignore him and the fact that they should return him home.

Like, one thing that is worth noting is that Luna is actually... really happy when she introduces herself to Usagi? Kinda giddy, almost. She actually giggles at one point. Like... she did it! She was looking for Usagi Tsukino, and she actually found her when things were looking super grim! 

Like, the disconnect here is actually kind of great. Luna is just kinda casually going on about being able to talk and having sensory powers and having this little monologue about finding Usagi, and Usagi meanwhile is kinda quietly freaking out because a cat is kinda talking. Like, you just have two completely inverted perceptions of what is “normal” going on here.