#( USAGI ) ┈┈ PLAYING HER PARCHMENT MOON

[flghtsldier-blog]

tag dump

( &.   visage  ‚    where the wind goes

( &.   aes  ‚    who has seen the wind

( &.   musing  ‚    caught by the sun i walk on fire

( &.   about  ‚    a temper at full spate

( rel.   michiru & haruka  ‚    wave of love and sound you take me

( rel.   o. senshi  ‚    like heaven’s own glorious stars

( ch.   michiru  ‚    where the sea whips and sings

( ch.   usagi  ‚    playing her parchment moon

( ch.   setsuna  ‚    with the past sitting warm on her knee

( ch.   hotaru  ‚    to a child dancing in the wind

[ladybuvelle]

// So. I recently was watching this video on Princess Peach actually being based on a goddess, and the concepts explained really got me thinking. It’s actually not the first time I’ve heard of mitama and the general concept of the different emotional states of spirits and their influence, but this video got me really thinking.

I’ve said for a long while now that Sona purposefully keeps herself calm because she’s “afraid of getting angry”. When she gets angry, bad things happen. Namely she becomes violent, whether intentionally or not. The Etwahl reacts to Sona’s emotional state - which in a way you could consider a magical influence - and through her playing she can channel those feelings to others. So if she’s happy and calm, things are fine. When she’s angry, she can make use of terribly violent magic. She can make people happy and she can make someone cry with only a few string plucks. With such extremes, it’s important for Sona to remain calm. She learned this the hard way when her mother ended up getting killed all because she felt a moment of anger and betrayal and let her anger go unchecked in the heat of the moment.

Now that said, I came up with that theme simply based off what we know about Sona and any extra information I could find (which admittedly is a lot of old lore). It just made sense to me that someone who could manipulate the emotions of others would have strong emotional responses herself - especially being a mute woman who can’t easily communicate with others. There has to be so much that’s been unable to express for so long before becoming a musician. A life like that surely builds a healthy amount of empathy.

And the more I started to think about it, the more I realized it shared parallels to the ideas behind Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon’s version of how the Silver Imperium Crystal works (and I don’t even like the live action show that much, but I guess it makes sense I’d draw some link to Sailor Moon somehow, eh?). The anime and manga do touch on the concept of Usagi’s swelling emotions of “love and friendship” and all that giving the crystal power, but it’s PGSM that explores the opposite direction. When Usagi/the Princess is upset or angry, the crystal’s power turns violent and terrible and destructive. With the right emotional state, the silver crystal has the power to even bring the dead back to life. But if the wielder is emotionally gutted and in despair, it can destroy everything.

I had figured for awhile I was subconsciously taking ques from this overall idea with Sona and the Etwahl - that her instrument, in effect, acts like the silver crystal, and that Sona’s feelings helped sway its power. But after seeing this video and doing a little more personal research, it makes more sense to say that Sailor Moon probably got the concept from Japanese culture in general. Which, I mean, makes sense enough. Obviously.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not immediately saying Sona is a goddess or divine being - but I am saying I’ve thought she might be for some time now. I mean, the groundwork is certainly there. She was mysteriously left on the doorstep of an orphanage. No explanation, and the perfect sort of setup for a folktale of a god being born a human in my eyes. She’s certainly presented like a heavenly maiden in her design, floating and with her long “scarf” (which I usually call a shawl because of it’s design) billowing around her. A few tweaks to her overall look and you could easily slap Sona on some parchment with watercolors and you’d have a classic ink painting of some divine lady from the moon or something like that (like Chang’e, for example).

And then looking up Chang’e and her various stories and I fuCKING

This rabbit hole goes too deep. *ba dum TISS*