Fall of the Sailor Guardians - Sailor Mars (Reflection)

It's been a while since the last reflection and I've actually had this in the back burner to share, but omg I've been so busy so I just lost track of sharing this, but I NEED to share this updated version, but as with my usual reflections, I want to share some behind-the-scenes thoughts while making this that I remember and what I think about it now.

So as I think I've stated before, aside from Sailor Pluto, I think Sailor Mars is the most attractive Sailor Scout, or at least fits most with my taste. On top of that, Rei is the most fiercely independent of all the Sailor Scouts, so the idea of Rei falling under Esmerelda's power and becoming her utterly loving and submissive slave was too good to pass up. So after making the first chapter of my favorite Guardian, Sailor Venus, I immediately got to thinking of what to do next.

Reading fanfic throughout my life, I feel like I've seen multiple hypno fics do the club setting, and I love it every time. It's such a prime setting for hypnosis. Pulsating music and lights, drinks, people getting pushed closer together, lots of distractions for the heroines to get distracted or for the villainess to sneak around: it's SUCH a good setting. So with Rei's chapter, I knew I wanted to do that, especially since Rei seems like the character who would be very susceptible to all of those things due to how more withdrawn she is.

The first thing that I liked is the idea that Minako is essentially "priming" Rei by getting her used to the pulsating music and lights so that her defenses were lowered by the time Esmerelda popped up. But before that, it is nice to see Minako and Rei have some nice moments together, even if it was just Minako trying to lead and prep Rei towards their Mistress haha. That stuff I'm always a sucker for as well, as you are well aware of from my other stories like The Doctor Is In.

Putting Rei in a gorgeous, form-fitting backless dress was something that actually came from the image above. I forget when I came across this official image, but I absolutely love how all the Guardians look in this. Actually, the golden halter top dress that I describe Minako wearing in the beginning of chapter one before she transforms into Sailor Venus is supposed to be the dress you see here as well, as I thought she looked so gorgeous. In hindsight, it would have made more sense for Minako to wear this dress in THIS chapter, but I hadn't had the idea of what Rei's chapter would be at the time. And since I had that dress in chapter one, I knew I probably had to do something else for chapter two. By this chapter, I actually had the idea of each Guardian wearing these outfits in each of their respective chapters, but by Ami's chapter, I decided to scrap that.

But speaking of, I think because all of the Guardians look older and more mature in this artstyle for season one of Crystal and just this picture in general, that gave me the idea to add the section of Rei being more "developed", so to speak. Like Rei def doesn't look that "mature" in any other version of her design haha whether its the manga or other seasons of the anime. However, in this art, I think she looks rather gorgeous with more defined curves so I decided to make that canon in this fic. The idea wasn't to give her this MASSIVE chest with this ridiculous like Jennifer Lopez type body lol, but just to make her more developed and mature in those aspects that I think Rei would develop into as she got older, and of course, Esmerelda would just LOVE.

But when Esmerelda shows up as Katrina, right as Rei's alarms are about to go off, that's when the real fun of the fic begins. Her resistance had been "worn down" a bit already by the lights and the music, and having some alcohol in her, but don't get it twisted, this is the strength of Esmerelda's power that she is able to capture Rei's gaze immediately, everything else just let her break through her defenses so to speak, on top of not allowing Rei to recognize what is happening to her. I will say, the image of Rei being wide-eyed before this new visitor, as she feels pulled to this woman, not understanding its because she's being hypnotized *chef's kiss. The fact that Rei is normally so inexperienced regarding these matters so she has even less defense against this kind of attack makes the whole thing even better <3 and I just love the dialogue between the two here. I had so much fun writing it. And same thing with the dance scene, where Esmerelda takes hold of Rei, keeping her tight and close, lovingly caressing her all while Rei can do nothing but stare into her eyes.

I love the image of the crowd pushing them closer and closer, them feeling the increasing warmth of each other's bodies, as Rei becomes more and more entranced. The particular lines from Esmerelda saying, "Here, I got you," after Rei starts to feel dizzy and when she compliments how great Rei looks in her dress always makes me melt.

I honestly just had a blast writing the teasing from Esmerelda. Some of the most fun I've ever had writing.

Then, we eventually get to when Rei snaps out of it and Esmerelda reveals her true colors and how the entire club and all the people in it were an illusion. I know some people were thinking it was a little too inplausible that the whole club was an illusion or just that it didn't make 100% full-proof sense. In my head I did try to come up with some things that might explain it more like how it was in an abandoned district or something like that, but then I thought it wouldn't make sense for Minako of all people, since, even though she can want to have a good time, she is very smart and responsible and probably wouldn't bring just her and Rei to a shady part of town like that just to go to a club. I don't think Rei would buy that from her friend, and definitely wouldn't agree to that. Then I thought maybe have it be an actual existing club, but have it revealed that Esmerelda has put everybody in the club, i.e. all the customers, workers, etc., under her spell, but with THAT, I actually thought that that feat was way too much to give Esmerelda at this point. Since the beginning, I always tried to make sure that Esmerelda had a building up of her power in each chapter so I felt like the feat of creating a fake illusion of an entire club full of people, while still very powerful, was less of a feat of enslaving at least over a hundred people. Because then why wouldn't she have trouble enslaving the Guardians, or at the very least Rei, even with her psychic powers? That was just me though. But I decided that thinking of a 100% full proof explanation of everything would really just bog down the fic overall so I just went with not doing that. It's fanfiction and also magic so while I do try to explain things as best I can, I can't always explain everything, you know?

But anyways, despite Esmerelda's illusion feat and summoning that fearsome purple dragon showcasing that she is at a power level where she should be reckoned with, I really wanted to showcase Sailor Mars' strength and how she is still more powerful than Esmerelda. I think that it's probably accepted by the fanbase that Mars Flame Sniper is the most powerful move of all the Inner Guardians just because of how concentrated it is, so I loved the image of it just shredding through Esmerelda's dragon attack. Again, I wanted to showcase that Esmerelda at her current power is not more powerful than the Guardians. Throughout these chapters, I def wanted at least one chapter where a Guardian just trounces Esmerelda and, again, showcases that disparity in power. In my head, Minako could have defeated Esmerelda in the first chapter, it's just that Esmerelda managed to trick her, which left Minako bound in her own unbreakable chain, but in terms of raw strength, she definitely had the means. Sailor Mars is a freaking badass in general so it felt awesome having Rei be the one to showcase that strength.

By extension, I love when Rei has complete power over Esmerelda. It's such a cool image! Esmerelda on the ground with Rei standing over her, her fist clad in fire. Ah, so sick! One of my favorite touches is when Rei demands information from Esmerelda and she stomps her heel on the ground, generating small sparks of fire, so freaking cool hahaha. But sadly, that position of power doesn't last long, as Minako comes over and switches that on Rei, binding her in her chain. I always love that kind of power reversal when the heroine is on top only for the rug to get pulled from under them and now the villainess is on top, so seeing that for a character like Rei was amazing to write.

Sailor Venus is my fav Guardian which was a big reason why I made her the first character to get enslaved to Esmerelda, however, another reason is because I thought that having Minako's chain as a weapon to subdue the other Guardians would be incredibly useful to use in future chapters, and it sure did in this one. I think Minako and Rei both have the nicest legs among all the characters. I enjoyed writing the scene in the first chapter where Minako is tied up in her chain and Esmerelda runs her hands along her body, including her beautiful legs, so I knew I just had to do the same for Rei, who I think has the nicest legs of all the Guardians. It was also just fun to see Rei become completely shocked when Minako wraps her up, leaving her completely defenseless on the ground before Esmerelda, and of course, seeing Esmerelda standing over the powerful and sexy Sailor Mars, with HER now the one in power.

I also liked the idea of Minako essentially being a more exaggerated version of herself as Esmerelda's slave, essentially like a lovestruck schoolgirl which is very on-brand for Minako. Having her run up to Esmerelda, wrap her arms around her, one leg up, lovingly looking into her Mistress' eyes is one of my fav images that I've written. And then that clashing with Rei hating the situation, glaring at Esmerelda for what she's done to her friend is also something I just loved writing. I'm trying not to just glaze everything I did in this chapter lol, but this chapter is one of my fav chapters I've ever written. The scenario with Minako and Rei and how I used them both with Esmerelda was such a blast haha. I love all of Esmerelda's lovely teasing of Rei here, with both her body and her mind.

With Rei, because of her greater resistance due to her power and just her strength of will, especially if she knew it was coming, I figured Rei might not immediately fall to Esmerelda's power, so I wanted to come up with a different way of her falling, and while watching Sailor Moon, the idea of Sailor Mars' talismans came to mind, and I thought them being used against her sounded VERY fun. I figured a more direct point of contact with Rei to infuse Esmerelda's power into her, and I thought the image of Esmerelda pouring her power into Rei's talismans, then placing it on Rei, as her face goes lax was a hot one to say the least.

In terms of the reflection that's about it. This is still one of my favorite things that I've written for sure haha and I had a great time revisiting it and improving on some things to make it even better :D