I'd like to emphasize again that I like Haruka and Michiru despite my opinion of their ethics/not-so-heroicness. And I did post this in the
unpopular opinions thread, because I know most people don't seem to have this stance on them and simply think they're great heroes.
IFurther more in Sailor Stars they only feigned betrayal of Pluto and Saturn as a way to get Sailor Galaxia's bracelets to turn them against her. It didn't work but their hearts were in the right place.
Their nominal reason for doing it is noble in theory, BUT:
- It's not really 'feigning' if they have to actually disintegrate Pluto and Saturn to do it! Which they totally did!
- There's the not-so-subtle ulterior motive that it was a "join me or die" situation.
- Pluto, who comes the closest to being a leader of the Outer team, didn't seem to think this plan was a good idea, and they didn't care about her opinion and did their own thing.
- If this plan could possibly work, why had nobody ever done it? Why didn't Sailor Iron Mouse or Sailor Alluminum Siren try it? This plan assumes that millions(?) of other Senshi across the Galaxy didn't already try this and have it fail in the exact same way.
- This is not remotely what Usagi would've done, which by this point maybe should've been a red flag to them instead of a reason to double down yet again.
My problem whenever people say that Haruka and Michiru are better than the inners because they're so grown up and sophisticated while the inners are childish, is that that seems like just looking at the surface and not at the actual depths of what happens. In episode 45, or the R movie, or countless other situations, the inners were heroic and self sacrificing, whenever things got serious,
they were serious. Even Usagi.
Especially Usagi.
Does nobody remember Usagi going out in the snow alone to fight Beryl when all she wanted to do was run home and hide- because she knows she needs to or everyone will die? That's raw courage and maturity. Usagi does the heroic thing, over and over and over in every series finale. She almost kills herself to stop an asteroid from hitting Earth. She refuses to give up on saving Hotaru when Haruka and Michiru already had. She takes a miles-long dive because it's the only shot at saving her daughter's life. Usagi is actually VERY mature when push comes to shove, she's just a goofball in the day to day life stuff
when it's not important. And Usagi also starts taking monsters of the week pretty seriously after about episode 5 when one attacks Shingo and she realizes how real this problem is.
As far as them being like military officers... they don't respect any authority whatsoever
They disregard Pluto's instructions in stars, they disregard their Princess in every single situation (even though she is almost always right and saves the day when their "hard choices" approach inevitably fails- dismissing that Usagi is herself usually making a hard choice to be selfless and to forgive).
And it's not like Usagi just trusts EVERYONE. She does blow up lots of monsters at the end of the day because it's what she needs to do. Keeping an eye out for the rare cases where she doesn't have to isn't weakness, it's strength.
Haruka and Michiru are fascinating characters and they mean well and they are helpful and they're definitely cool. They really are doing their best to save the Earth and do what they honestly believe is necessary and right. They are noble in that way.
But over and over they come to the conclusion that
someone else's sacrifice is necessary (the pure heart victims; Hotaru; Pluto and
Hotaru again, nevermind that Hotaru was literally calling them mama and papa!), that there's no way to save these people.
They leap to the assumption that the Starlights not only shouldn't be fully trusted, but that it's better to pre-emptively SHOOT them; they refuse the entire possibility of peace for basically no reason. It's not like "Oh, you should be more careful," it's like, "Outsiders must die and we don't care
what you think, you're just a dumb kid Usagi"...
Also, I think at the end of the day they are, quite understandably, terrified of dying and not so willing to sacrifice
each other the way they throw so many others under the bus- and being unwilling to sacrifice each other is absolutely reasonable and sane, but that they dismiss everyone else so easily, I find not heroic, and even a little bit hypocritical.
Sure they look suave, they don't have silly little kid style fights in their free time over who reads their books or whatever. Michiru can bounce a lemon on a violin while still playing it accurately (somehow). Haruka can drive every sports car/helicopter/motorcycle/you name it. That's neat, but it's surface style, no better than Masato Sanjoin's style factor; but style isn't what made Nephrite a sympathetic villain.
Haruka and Michiru are legitimately friendly when you get to know them, and they truly love one another every bit as deeply (if not more so?) than Usagi and Mamoru. They do care immensely about Hotaru even if they've made terrible decisions about her in the clutch (
in the anime version). They're good people... to a point.
But I cannot respect their casual dismissal of Usagi and the Inners when I remember what happened at D-Point, in the R movie, and on so many other occasions; the snobbish condescension with which they dismiss the virtues, self sacrifice, and hard-work of these
younger heroes who have saved the world over and over. It is Haruka and Michiru who are the immature ones, in my eyes.
Plus I always figured that Sailor Pluto and Sailor Saturn knew about their plan and were willing to sacrifice themselves to make the plan work.
Eh? Maaaaaaaaaaaybe but I saw no sign of this. Sure they were nice to each other in the end but that was the series wrap-up and we only got a brief scene of them... I saw no sign of them knowing about this plan at the outset. Seemed the plan was to go and blow Galaxia up with their regular powers and hope the Silence Glaive or whatever could cut the mustard, and when it didn't they seemed to have their back against the wall and make up this plan on the fly. Because if they HAD been planning it from the get-go, why not have all four of them surrender to Galaxia and act like they want to join her? Or why not have Haruka and Michiru go to face her alone to join her? It makes very little sense to me that Hotaru or Pluto knew about this going in. I saw it as a breakdown in the team.
And, honestly, I also saw it as a gutsy bit of writing that followed off the continuity quite naturally. There always seemed to be a terrible rift separating the rest of the Sailor Senshi from Uranus and Neptune, and instead of mending, the crack finally ran deeper. That's how it came off to me.
Further more I could actually argue that Seiya aka Sailor Star Fighter was arguably more villainous then the Outers even though again I do not consider the Starlights to be villainous either.
Those are all valid points, and you're right, Star Fighter should've known better by this point. She does get the message after this episode, but she should've already been willing to let Sailor Moon try her thing first since it obviously works. The Starlights are far from perfect and, as we see when they have that backstage fistfight (or when Star Maker and Star Healer start blaming Sailor Moon when Star Fighter gets injured), their teamwork has serious issues too. Their survival and helpfulness in the end is one part dumb luck of being the last ones left, and one part willingness to trust Sailor Moon's decisions in the clutch (and I think on a grand level by that point, they DID trust her more than Haruka and Michiru did.)
But Sailor Star Fighter is a true outsider to this situation with no knowledge of Sailor Moon's past deeds, whereas by the time of Sailor Stars, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, if they ever listened and if anyone tried to tell them (I don't know what Sailor Pluto tells them, but have they ever sat down to talk to the cats? To Ami? To Mamoru?), should have some idea of her capabilities and responsibility in these matters,
and some kind of respect for her judgement. Both because she's vindicated her methods many times, and because technically
they work for her unless they are dismissing the validity of the old Moon Kingdom altogether, which starts to sound like a civil war to me.
Also, why did the outers so readily rule out the idea of all 9 Sailor Senshi facing Galaxia together? They didn't really give Sailor Moon a choice about that, either. Haruka and Michiru never,
ever trust her judgement about how to deal with the "final boss" of a season regardless of her past successes, and that's a serious problem.
So I regard them as characters in the vein of the Shitennou or one of the many other excellent sympathetic antagonist groups in the series, where I like them and care about them and find them sympathetic, I can totally see from their side and their perspective on what's wrong- but
something is still terribly wrong.
But again, this
isn't a popular opinion as far as I've seen. I posted it in this thread
because I don't expect people to agree, and it's absolutely fine that you don't; it's just how
I feel about it. Everyone sees things their own way.
Variants of this idea always intrigue me. (Though from an astronomical standpoint I wonder how Chiron weighs in, since it is very comparable to Pluto.)
But then the animation staff of SuperS must be leg lovers. lol
(BTW, if that's what Takeuchi really intended, perhaps that (in)famous insect-like arm of Haruka were also intentional rather than an error