#JW watches PGSM

[keyofjetwolf]

PGSM has, for the moment, just devolved into me screaming about Rei or screaming about knitting, there’s no inbetween.

[keyofjetwolf]

That shrug my god she’s such a bitch, I ADORE her.

And how beautifully dark! If Nephrite had killed her, as he looked about seconds away from doing before Rei showed up, she’d still have the last laugh.

[keyofjetwolf]

Okay, that explains the homework part and the double pointed needles part, but I still demand answers about the RIDONKULOUS length of your needles. WHO ARE THESE MITTENS FOR AMI

[keyofjetwolf]

I fail to understand your actions.

This scene between Rei and Minako, coming on the heels of a not insignificant amount of Other But Related Shit, has had me buzzing since the last liveblog. It’s one of those moments where it’s obvious there’s a lot going on, there’s stuff flying everyfuckingwhere, and I’m just that “What does it mean? What does it all mean??” gif.

So I’ve let it stew in my brain, breaking it all down until it’s tender and flakes easily with a fork. I’m still not sure if I’ve properly got the sense of it all, but I AM sure I need to move the fuck on, so here we are.

With Rei, things are generally unchanged. This isn’t a complaint, it’s one of the things I cherish most about Rei. She lacks insight, understanding, and encouragement, but she possesses all the self-certainty in the universe, and who needs anything more? NOT REI FUCKING HINO. She doesn’t get what Minako’s doing, she doesn’t get what Minako’s saying, but she also has no intention of applying the brakes even a little in her high speed pursuit of Minako and whatever the fuck she’s up to. That’s just the way it is and shall ever be, until Rei is presented with a more compelling reason to stop. (And even then it’s far from a guarantee.)

Did I mention how much I love that about Rei? I LOVE THAT ABOUT REI SO FUCKING MUCH. I lack whatever characteristic it is in the human condition that keeps one from adoring every single last drop of pure distilled Rei Hino. The harder she digs in, the more she bucks against any effort to rein her in, the more enchanted I become. Minako is being STUPID and making STUPID DECISIONS and that she may in fact have a meticulously reasoned explanation for everything she does is irrelevant. Rei doesn’t get it, so it doesn’t matter. You can’t bully her out of her chosen course of action, you can’t order her out, you can’t threaten. She’s completely immovable.

And Minako has NO IDEA how to handle that.

She can’t doubletalk her way out of this, it’s like commanding the Piccadilly Line to go be Bakerloo for a while. The train has one track and one track only, and there’s no shifting that without an inordinate cost of money, time, and manhours, or some magic power to warp the laws of reality as we know them.

Can you dissolve reality and rewrite it in accordance to your wishes, Minako? No? Then Rei’s going to press you about all this until the world explodes or she gets answers, sorry.

So Minako bends, however slightly, and gives Rei an opening. This brings me to my most brain-consuming question: Is this what Minako wanted? I’ve been batting that little catnip mouse around my head, and I’m still not completely sure how I feel about it. Quite probably because I’m not convinced Minako does either. She’s fixated on Rei far more than any of the other girls, even Usagi (IN A SAILOR MOON JOINT CAN YOU BELIEVE), and no small part of that is due to Rei just being 10,000% Rei at any given moment. Minako is invested in Rei beyond her being Mars, but also can’t (won’t?) separate Rei FROM Mars. So she’s trying to crowbar the things she’s loving about Rei – her shrewdness, tenacity, sense of duty, stubbornness – into Senshi tools Minako can wield, completely ignoring (or arrogantly assuming she can sidestep) how those exact qualities are what’s going to make this NIGH IMPOSSIBLE.

This scene is Minako’s admission that no amount of orders and downdressing are going to work on Rei, though of course Rei doesn’t get the satisfaction of knowing it. If she can’t keep Rei from trying to “solve” what’s up with the Princess, she’ll just redirect.

IT’S BRILLIANT. It may also be full of shit, I don’t know that part yet. (Reminder that I’m not looking for answers, please no spoilers!) I would’ve thought they HAVE “awakened as a Guardian”, but maybe it’s something to do with remembering the SilMil, even just knowing who the actual fucking princess is. Or maybe it’s Minako pulling it out of her ass, I’d believe that too. Either way, for our current discussion purposes, she’s stopped trying to pretend there’s nothing hinky going on, instead telling Rei that she’s not GOOD ENOUGH to know of Things Hink. Minako’s SMART, and hits Rei dead on target with something she can’t possibly resist: A CHALLENGE FOR SELF-IMPROVEMENT

Something else I can’t quite settle on though is why Minako’s doing all this. To make Rei stronger, to protect the princess, blah blah right got that. But with the dog situation, Minako was also trying to teach Rei to THINK. And here in this scene, she seems to have specific designs on Rei’s role on the team.

THEY HAVE A LEADER MINAKO IT’S YOU

Of course, that’s a sometimes food right now. Minako fucks off every other day without warning, so I get beefing up the home team to work just fine without you. That’s the thing, though, isn’t it? It doesn’t feel like Minako’s training her substitute, it feels like she’s training her replacement. Which, again, is smart disaster planning in the event of her death, I’m into it. But also I can’t stop thinking about how Minako is actively and consistently baiting the Dark Kingdom, how many close calls she’s had just in the handful of episodes we’ve seen, and I’m wondering more and more, does Minako have a plan where she SURVIVES? If she doesn’t, does even she realize it? And if these answers are no, oh Minako, you’ve never needed a hug more than you do right now.

Can you even imagine if Rei gets wind of that? “I fail to understand your actions,” Rei tells Minako, and maybe that’s more true than either of them could have thought.

[keyofjetwolf]

While I love and affirm Ami’s knitting subplot, I have absolutely NO idea how this child keeps her knitting area this clean. This is bordering on pathological, Ami, and I’m not only confused, but concerned.

In just a moment, I’m going to take a picture of my desk. This is my work desk, the desk from which I do work. I am sitting at it right now, entertaining you, as is my current profession. Additionally, I will note to you that not two weeks ago, I cleaned the hell out of this space. Tidied, reorganized, put away. People would be seeing it, and I wanted to spin the illusion that my shit was at least minorly together.

Keep those facts in mind. That this is my professional work space, not my private fuck around space, and that I cleaned this space just before Thanksgiving. So hold that, and I’ll take a picture or two and rejoin you in a moment where we will continue this discussion of Ami’s space of creation.

[keyofjetwolf]

WHAT’S THAT STILL NOT SOLD ON REI AND MINAKO’S MIRACLE TEAMMANCE OKAY FINE

Ami, Mako, and Usagi also try a bit of working together. They even talk it out first, with Ami suggesting they all attack together in the same spot. Except she doesn’t specify WHICH spot, and oops. It’s particularly striking given how Rei and Minako didn’t say a single word in their entire scene and it went off effortlessly.

But we can go another step further with this. While they had a quick exchange to get on the same page, that WAS all Mako and Ami needed. They aimed for the same place, they just weren’t strong enough together and needed Usagi’s power too.

It’s Usagi that’s all off though, making her the only one of the five Senshi to not get it. That makes sense, Usagi is often the fuck up when it comes to stuff like this, but if we factor in everything we the audience know, Usagi is ALSO the only one with nothing to pull from. She’s the princess, NOT a Senshi, and with PGSM lightly dabbing their previous lives around the edges of things, I wonder if this isn’t another hint that we’re going to Go There in a significant way.

[keyofjetwolf]

WELL YOU CAN’T SAY HE ISN’T A GRATEFUL GIFT RECEIVER. Motoki, you are an actual disaster child and I have no idea how you’ve managed to survive to this point, but you keep doing you.

Mako meanwhile, “Must be nice to be so fuck stupid”, and you know, you ALSO keep doing you, you are beautiful and need change nothing.

[keyofjetwolf]

Not pictured: Ami screaming “Why? Why?? USAGI I’M RIGHT HERE”

[keyofjetwolf]

FUCK ARE YOU DID WE JUST ADD CHIBI-USA IS THIS PGSM CHIBS HOLY SHIT

[keyofjetwolf]

Mako yelling at Rei’s back as she’s fucking off and Rei like, “Did I stutter?” is perfection in an imperfect universe. Even if this show does nothing else, I will love and cherish it forever for giving me absolutely everything I knew to be true in Rei and Mako’s relationship.

[keyofjetwolf]

I love this child with every fiber of my being.

[keyofjetwolf]

Nephrite with the look of a man who has finally FINALLY found the exact accessory to pull his prom outfit together.

[keyofjetwolf]

[keyofjetwolf]

“I’VE CERTAINLY LEFT THEM ENOUGH ROOM AT THE TABLE”

[keyofjetwolf]

A wild and lovely Doc appears in the desk pics!

I agree with half of this!

As you can see, she's thoroughly enjoying today's content, as selected by you, her loving audience!

[keyofjetwolf]

It’s because, dear Ami, you have made great strides on your new path of becoming a disaster lesbian, and Rei didn’t want to discourage you by how effortlessly she was going to crush those markers. You see, you are young and inexperienced, new to this world, but Rei?

REI HINO IS A PROFESSIONAL DISASTER LESBIAN