"Wings of Love" is dubious
Apr. 24th, 2019 07:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
general_radixNot too long ago, I tried to resume reading Wings of Love, mostly out of curiosity for how the author envisioned the Silver Millennium. (I also saved every fic and poem, because my pack rat nature demands it and the site hasn't updated since 2011) I don't think I got far enough to definitely judge its quality, but man...
(IMPORTANT NOTE, as mentioned last time I discussed this series: it pairs canon lesbians Haruka and Michiru with dudes, and it's for this reason that I can't recommend it in good faith. I talk about this aspect some more under the cut.)
* I feel kinda bad bringing up the writing quality of the early stories, since those were written in the early '00s (or maybe even '99, since some of the other fics on the site date back that far) and it's possible that things improve later on/that Usagi Carter is a better author now...but it's so amateur-hour that it's a chore to read in parts. Especially the awakening of the last generation of Silver Millenium Sailor Guardians, with its borderline-repetitive structure and multiple POV switches.
* Everyone's families are expanded upon, which is nice, but the cohesion of their names is kinda scattershot: Minako's brother is Cupid, which fits her theme, but then you've got Haruka's brother Apollo, Hotaru's sister Juno, and Ami's father Vulcan. And that's when they're not bizarrely mundane--to name one example, Makoto's mother's name is Stephanie. I'm torn between "maybe these were people Usagi Carter knew in real life" and "this is really distracting".
* Remember Galen? "Moon Family Secrets" reveals that he's actually the brother of Princesses Selenity and Mayo (yes...); see, the future Queen Selenity had a child out of wedlock with her betrothed, King Solaris, and the law decrees that such children either be secretly placed with another family, or murdered. Queen Selenity's mother leaves baby Galen with Haruka's aunt and uncle and covers it by claiming that he died.
Galen being Haruka's lover is unacceptable. Galen being a secret Moon family member is fine. Galen being both of these things makes me want to punch him--or at least pair him up with Blair (Michiru's shouldn't-have-been-a-love-interest).
(I'm also not sure how much this mitigates the cousin-fucking issue since they're still legally related, though depending on the timeline, maybe this'd explain why Galen's and Haruka's parents didn't put up THAT much resistance...)
* One story addresses Setsuna's feelings for Endymion (as well as his and Rei's mutual attraction). I bring this up because 1) the Shitennou debut here and I'm not sure how in-character they are, and 2) I legit can't remember if Setsuna ever had feelings for Endymion/Mamorou in canon, or if that was something her haters invented to justify twisting her in a manipulative jerk. (Not that Setsuna gets character-assassinated in this story.)
* Apparently, stepping down as a Sailor Guardian means that your planet will never have another Sailor Guardian, because your Sailor Crystal won't be passed down to your daughter, which...seems flawed to me, but maybe that was intended to be seen as such? Still comes off as a bit arbitrary from a meta standpoint, as there's apparently a Sailor Sun/Sol (who also didn't exist in canon, unless that was supposed to be Galaxia).
* Something positive: I like the idea of Sailor Life, and while I haven't gotten to them yet, there's a whole lineup of Zodiac Senshi.
I guess that, if nothing else, "Wings of Love" inspired me to draw my own take of the previous generation of Sailor Guardians...
(IMPORTANT NOTE, as mentioned last time I discussed this series: it pairs canon lesbians Haruka and Michiru with dudes, and it's for this reason that I can't recommend it in good faith. I talk about this aspect some more under the cut.)
* I feel kinda bad bringing up the writing quality of the early stories, since those were written in the early '00s (or maybe even '99, since some of the other fics on the site date back that far) and it's possible that things improve later on/that Usagi Carter is a better author now...but it's so amateur-hour that it's a chore to read in parts. Especially the awakening of the last generation of Silver Millenium Sailor Guardians, with its borderline-repetitive structure and multiple POV switches.
* Everyone's families are expanded upon, which is nice, but the cohesion of their names is kinda scattershot: Minako's brother is Cupid, which fits her theme, but then you've got Haruka's brother Apollo, Hotaru's sister Juno, and Ami's father Vulcan. And that's when they're not bizarrely mundane--to name one example, Makoto's mother's name is Stephanie. I'm torn between "maybe these were people Usagi Carter knew in real life" and "this is really distracting".
* Remember Galen? "Moon Family Secrets" reveals that he's actually the brother of Princesses Selenity and Mayo (yes...); see, the future Queen Selenity had a child out of wedlock with her betrothed, King Solaris, and the law decrees that such children either be secretly placed with another family, or murdered. Queen Selenity's mother leaves baby Galen with Haruka's aunt and uncle and covers it by claiming that he died.
Galen being Haruka's lover is unacceptable. Galen being a secret Moon family member is fine. Galen being both of these things makes me want to punch him--or at least pair him up with Blair (Michiru's shouldn't-have-been-a-love-interest).
(I'm also not sure how much this mitigates the cousin-fucking issue since they're still legally related, though depending on the timeline, maybe this'd explain why Galen's and Haruka's parents didn't put up THAT much resistance...)
* One story addresses Setsuna's feelings for Endymion (as well as his and Rei's mutual attraction). I bring this up because 1) the Shitennou debut here and I'm not sure how in-character they are, and 2) I legit can't remember if Setsuna ever had feelings for Endymion/Mamorou in canon, or if that was something her haters invented to justify twisting her in a manipulative jerk. (Not that Setsuna gets character-assassinated in this story.)
* Apparently, stepping down as a Sailor Guardian means that your planet will never have another Sailor Guardian, because your Sailor Crystal won't be passed down to your daughter, which...seems flawed to me, but maybe that was intended to be seen as such? Still comes off as a bit arbitrary from a meta standpoint, as there's apparently a Sailor Sun/Sol (who also didn't exist in canon, unless that was supposed to be Galaxia).
* Something positive: I like the idea of Sailor Life, and while I haven't gotten to them yet, there's a whole lineup of Zodiac Senshi.
I guess that, if nothing else, "Wings of Love" inspired me to draw my own take of the previous generation of Sailor Guardians...
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