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So in Sailor Moon R, Sailor Moon Crystal and in the manga, our
introduction to Prince Demande (Or Prince Diamond if you're rocking the DiC
dub) is exactly the same. We have an alcoholic young man who looks like the
negative image of Chairman Kaga.
Are you suddenly thinking about the cast of Iron Chef
facing the Sailor Guardians? Good. Keep that. That thought is for you now.
The first couple of times we see Demande, he is on screen just long enough to
contribute to a plan with Wiseman, Saphir or Esmeraude, then he swills his
glass and starts musing about how much he wants Neo Queen Serenity, while
usually gazing at a digital image of her, totally giving away the spoiler
that this is Sailor Moon all grown up.
Unlike his younger brother Saphir and their cohorts, Demande wants world
domination and to bring death back to the Earth (since the crystal has
actually been prolonging lifespans left and right) but he wants domination
with Neo Queen Serenity subserviently at his side, while the others pretty
much need her to be dead in order to feel good about themselves.
That last part is important, because we establish over and over again that
the only time he has met her so far was way after Chibiusa was already born
and attending school, and Wiseman decided to fuck shit up. The only look Neo
Queen Serenity gave him was one of abject disdain, which was followed by her wanting
to banish these people the fuck off her planet. So he wants her to look at
him with something other than rejection, and he feels subjugating her is how
do to it.
Now in Sailor Moon R, her "get the fuck
off my planet" gaze exists because Wiseman and his ilk are trying to
take over the Earth and there's some slaughtering going on off screen. In Sailor Moon Crystal, this gaze is because Neo Queen
Serenity catches Prince Demande about to torture a little girl who looks very
similar to Chibiusa, and there is already a ton of dead bodies everywhere,
and she figures out mighty quick that these two things are linked.
As for the manga? (Credit to Miss Dream
by the way for the following scans.)
Her gaze? Oh, that was nothing. That's just because HE NUKED A CHILD IN FRONT
OF HER.
Yeah, before we go any forward, I want to point this out. If you ship Demande
X Usagi, you are literally shipping a child murderer to be with a 14 year old
girl.
And
keep in mind, Wiseman is nowhere during this. This is not an issue in which
Demande did something bad because he was possessed by Wiseman, oh no. He did
this of his own free will, completely aware that he grabbed a kindergartener
by the throat, strangled her and then nuked her alive with his bare hand.
And I'm
going to point this out too. In both anime shows, all of the stage plays and
in the manga, it is always made crystal clear (pun not intended) that unlike
Black Lady, who isn't thinking straight because Wiseman is manipulating her
mind, Prince Demande is NEVER POSSESSED BY WISEMAN. Never. Hell, Even DiC
made that clear in his final episode, that every single choice Demande has
made, he has made of his own, free will.
Oh what's that? Were you going to bring up episode 86 where we see a flashback
of teen Demande and tween Saphir, and they're all upset because flowers don't
grow on Nemesis? Were you going to use this as a way to make the sorrowful
claim that Demande was some sort of innocent, misguided youth we should all
feel sorry for?
Aww, poor little teen Demande who got chased off of Earth for being a
miscreant.
Oh yeah, did we skip a scene? Watch episode 85 again. What does King Endymion
tell us about Demande and his group?
Yeah, remember how teen Demande said they were chased off of the Earth? That
was because he and his gang were trying to take it over and wipe out Neo
Queen Serenity. Yeah, you just tried to feel sympathy for a kid who left
Earth on his own because he tried to kill people on it and couldn't take
being defeated. DEMANDE IS NOT MISGUIDED.
He knew what he was doing.
Yeah, he CHOSE to go to Nemesis, and then tried to blame Neo Queen Serenity
for it. Watch the episodes back. Demande again makes it clear he chose to join Wiseman. He was a teenager when he
made the choice and quite aware of right vs. wrong. Wiseman never had to
posses him.
Also, in both Crystal and in the manga, we see that Demande joined Wiseman as
an adult, so that whole "misguided youth" speech you were about to
make has seriously NO bearing here. Demande was not a "misguided"
or "troubled" youth. He was a bad man who already had his own power
and made his own choices. Wiseman only tagged along.
So let's go back to this spot in the manga, shall we? Demande earns the Neo
Queen Serenity "get the fuck off my planet gaze" after he has
already been part of what looks to be a mass genocide with Wiseman, and then
not only kills a kindergartener, but he burns and nukes alive a
kindergartener who looks and sounds a lot like Chibiusa, to the point where
Neo Queen Serenity freaks out, thinking at first that it might be her kid being slaughtered and not some unlucky, random,
pink haired tot out in the street that day. That's psychological torture
right there. It's not bad enough your planet is under attack, but here's this
guy with soccer mom hair just randomly toasting alive a kid that looks exactly like your daughter. Yeah, I'd want the frilly
bastard off my planet too.
So we know what happened next. Neo Queen Serenity is put on ice, (well,
crystal) Earth gets fucked up and Chibiusa goes back in time. We fast forward
to a little after Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask are told that Chibiusa is their
daughter, and before you know it, Creepo the
Magnificent shows up and kidnaps him a little moon princess.
And that is creepy as hell, btw. His third eye isn't even the same color as
the other two.
While the circumstances are slightly different as to when and how she gets
kidnapped, a few things stay the same. His Evil Eye attack prevents Sailor
Moon from being able to move, freezes her friends and Tuxedo Mask in their
tracks, and DUDE can you get your dick out of the camera??
A short time later, Usagi wakes up in Demande's
bedroom, in a fugly dress and completely de-transformed. She complains that
her head hurts and that her body feels strange and weak.
Prince Demande enters the room, and kinda lets it slip that the dress is his
idea.
ARE WE GETTING IT YET?? In all versions, Usagi wakes up in HIS bedroom, in
clothes HE chose for her, her head hurts and her body feels strange and weak.
HELLO!! Rape has just been implied here. This man has made unwanted physical
contact with a 14 year old kid. Do I have to explain to you that this is a
crime??
And this is VERY clear, folks. In all versions, the instant he tries to touch
her again, she uses what little strength she has left to try and fight him
off.
In all versions, he also makes it clear that she has been hit and infused
full force with his power and with the power of the Black Crystal, again just
screaming that at least some sort of sexual
assault has likely happened, which brings me to my next point.
WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU STILL
SHIPPING THEM??
Let's
just stop and review for a second here. We have just established that aside
from being a child killer, serial killer, member of a gang and a raging
drunk, we can also add that Prince Demande has used Sailor Moon's body
against her will in the most cruel way possible.
There
is nothing cute, misguided, misunderstood, troubled, adorable, kawaii or any
other excuse adjective going on here that can justify you shipping Demande
with Usagi. AT ALL.
When
you say you totally ship Demande X Usagi, you are basically saying that you
want a 14 year old child to be romantically tethered to a grown adult man who
raped her.
That is
fucking disgusting and evil.
And no,
the excuses are going to fall on deaf ears here. I don't want to hear that
you imagine him changing or her finding the good in him, fucking stop it. You
are trying to normalize and justify what is once again, a vile and horrifying
situation. I will say this again.
Prince
Demande is a grown assed adult man who raped a 14 year old child.
But
maybe it's the marketing department that screwed up your thinking a bit.
After all, this blatantly dark chapter in Usagi's life has been popularized
in the plays:
In Sailor Moon Drops as part of a special event where legit, his kidnapping
Usagi is his actual finishing move:
In a wait, what the unholy fuck??
IN A FUCKING BOARD BOOK?!?!
This is actually REAL. Toei licensed a series of Sailor Moon jumbo board
books way back in the 90's, and Usagi being sexually assaulted actually made
the fucking book!
 
They sold board books about her being kidnapped and assaulted by Demande to
tiny toddlers. WTF?? I guess so they can use Sailor Moon to teach tots about
stranger danger, but eh??
Well if
that didn't jack you up, maybe it is the anime that has warped you a little.
Let's keep going.
So in Sailor Moon R, right as Demande is
about to force his mouth onto Usagi, Tuxedo Mask arrives and says the above
phrase: How dare you use evil power to force yourself onto a woman. Yeah,
even Tuxedo Mask understands rape when he sees it. And keep in mind, this is
the same bastard who kissed a drunk and passed out Usagi last season.
Prince Demande tries to use his Evil Eye on Tuxedo Mask, but he uses his
cape, sending the energy back into Demande's eye,
distracting him long enough to rescue Usagi.
On a hang glider. Because 90's.
Oh, and just pointing this out, nobody thinks to go save her until AFTER
Tuxedo Mask has gotten her back and is carrying a limping Sailor Moon to the
palace.
And then Mars bitches her out for crying. Ah excuse me Rei, but aren't you
curious as to why Usagi is walking funny and has to be carried in by Tuxedo
Mask? She got raped! Let her cry, she's been through the literal WORST today,
okay you heartless, ice cold bitch? In case you forgot, Usagi is your FRIEND
and she is the MOON FUCKING PRINCESS you were supposed to protect and the
future fucking queen of oh I dunno, EVERYTHING, so right now if I was you,
I'd shut the fuck up and give Usagi-chan a hug, because she could just Moon
Tiara vaporize your insubordinate, mutinous ass right the fuck off her
planet. If I was supposed to protect her, and I fucked up THIS BADLY, I'd be
begging for forgiveness instead of bitching about a few little teardrops in
front of the guy who did my job for me. And
while I'm at it, didn't you used to date Tuxedo Mask and didn't he just
rescue his new woman from her rapist after finding out he's going to have a
child with her? You could totally be making this scene a LOT less awkward
right now.
Where was I? Oh yeah. Let's fast forward a bit. Episode 86, we see group
sympathy when Saphir is murdered by Wiseman, sending Demande into a state of
grief. Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask show way, way, way too much sympathy for
Prince Demande, with Sailor Moon even trying to reach out to him, which is
pissing me off because they are forgetting what he did to her, the fact that
he is using a possessed version of their daughter as a weapon against them,
and because Usagi does not need to show sympathy for a man who assaulted her.
And then in episode 87, guess what? He tries to kidnap and sexually assault
Sailor Moon AGAIN. He separates her from her friends, traps her inside a
giant Black Crystal, and then uses his Evil Eye to try and force her to kiss
him.
When she fights the oncoming possession off by crying and whispering Mamoru's
name, Demande shakes her violently.
And again, there is SO MUCH implied here.
And again, he makes it clear he is trying to rape her. And by the way, I'm
going to give DiC some credit here. Almost NONE of the dialogue from these
episodes was changed. If you can find the DiC edit, it's pretty clear they
are implying rape, sexual assault and a giant lack of consent is going on in
these episodes between Demande and Usagi. Nothing is censored. And
considering that the DiC cut is the most censored cut of Sailor Moon in
English, I am pretty damned shocked.
And let me make this clear again. HE DOESN'T CARE.
AT FUCKING ALL.
Sailor Moon fights out of his possession again, and for a split second, her
lip bruises. I don't even want to speculate.
And then we have some sort of weird Stockholm Syndrome thing going on. Sailor
Moon tries to plead with Demande that there is still a chance for his group
to live peacefully with everyone back on Earth, even going so far as to bring
in the fact that the Spectre Sisters are now living normal lives in the past,
(oh btw way to screw up time, because you know they will eventually meet
their past selves here since they are from the 30th Century, nice
going there) and then she convinces Demande that Wiseman is tricking him. Ah,
Usagi-chan? That's all nice and all, but DEMANDE IS TRYING TO SEXUALLY
ASSAULT YOU AGAIN. Maybe we should be past
the whole "making friends" with our enemies thing?
Well it looks like Stockholm Syndrome wins again, as after a brief battle
with Wiseman, Demande jumps in front of Sailor Moon, getting stabbed for her.
And the fact that he is at womb level is pissing me off for two reasons:
1. Even as he is dying, he is still trying to touch her
downstairs place.
2. Stupid, idiot, moron Demande X Usagi shippers have long since thought that
he is Chibiusa's father because of this scene, forgetting that it takes her
another two years to get pregnant with Chibiusa and that Mamoru is Chibiusa's
biological father, because when he bites it in the StarS arc, Chibiusa fades
out of existence, and only comes back to life after Mamoru is revived. Usagi
does not stay pregnant for two years, there is no time elapsed sperm in this
show. Demande is neither Chibiusa nor Kousagi's birth father, now get a life.
So
yeah, Demande gets stabbed protecting Sailor Moon while Wiseman was trying to
tell him to lay off of her. The idea that Wiseman was right about that will
haunt you tonight. Yeah. Think about it. Wiseman is a serial killer who tries
to kill Sailor Moon and is using her future daughter as a weapon against her,
and even HE is against Demande touching up on 14 year old girls.
Okay, so DiC did sorta cut this out. But all the rape talk was left in.
And we are back to Stockholm Syndrome as Sailor Moon is trying to keep Prince
Demande's rapey ass alive, after he has temporarily
busted up Wiseman.
He spins her a story about how *sniffy sniffy* all he wanted was for everyone
to live happily on Earth, and Sailor Moon again tries to encourage him to
live, with the idea that if everyone works together, bitch he raped you and
he tried to kill your daughter, suck them tears back up!!
Look at them wrinkly, dry assed hands. How fucking old is this pervert?
Oh no, go fuck yourself, Demande. After sexually assaulting her, his bitch
ass has the nerve to ask her to look after his people for him, you know, the
ones that didn't die yet. Ah didn’t all y'all try
to kill her daughter? And again, you put your body where it doesn't belong
all over this little girl. How about NO and you go fuck off?
And who
the fuck wrote this episode? Seriously, this is NOT how you address sexual
assault. You do NOT try to normalize it by making the victim sympathize with
the attacker, especially not when the rape victim is a fucking super hero who
rights wrongs and is supposed to be triumphing over evil right now. You do
not make Sailor Moon sympathize with the adult man who assaulted her and has
tried to outright murder people.
Well in Sailor Moon R, Demande's
story ends with him dying in Sailor Moon's arms and her trying to feel sorry
for him. Let's see how Sailor Moon Crystal
did.
So going back to Sailor Moon Crystal,
he gives her his life story and she shoots him that same "get the fuck
off my planet" glare we talked about before. He kisses her, she fights
him off, then he leaves her in his bedroom. All three versions he makes it
clear that the bedroom is her new home. In all three, she tries to transform,
but can't because of what he's done to her, and she and Mamoru have a slight
telepathic link, but not strong enough for her to keep contact with him.
Crystal gives us frightened bewbs, driving home what has happened.
She cries for a good while, feeling guilt that someone else has touched her
and thinking about that weird fight she had with Mamoru yesterday where she
got jealous of their daughter.
And by the way, Demande made a dress for her that shows A LOT off.
After thinking about Queen Serenity's words, Chibiusa, two of her friends'
butts (um why) and how Mamoru looked the other day when she stayed over at
his apartment, she decides to quit crying and figure a way out of Demande's bedroom.
She tries to get out on her own, but she is still weak, and ends up passing
out after going through about half of the castle and also while trying to use
her power to awaken her also kidnapped friends, who I should totally mention
are trapped in a gas laden basement with zombies. So we can add Nazi style
gas murder to the list of things Demande has done, and why are you still
shipping this couple? Anyway, Demande captures her again, having been
following Usagi this entire time.
He takes her to a stone couch and tries to put his hands on her.
And the pussy says no, as a combination of Usagi telepathically figuring out
where Mamoru is and her own downstairs power just rejects Demande and awakens
her.
She gets away from Demande, has a long fight with Saphir, decides she is
nobody's victim, brings out an incredible amount of her own power, breaks the
hold Demande's energy had on her and her Silver
Crystal, transforms into Sailor Moon and rescues Ami, Rei and Makoto, forcing
them to transform and blast a good few stories up.
Then she channels her future self as Neo Queen Serenity to make it clear that
if these people had never started committing crimes and shit, they could have
lived peacefully on Earth.
The girls team up to fight Demande dead on. He tries to use his Evil Eye
again, and Sailor Moon shoots a beam out from her tiara and right into his
eye.
Then while Demande is down, Sailor Moon, still switching between being Neo
Queen Serenity and herself, uses a new power to have Pluto transfer a time
key over so she can get her friends back to Sailor Venus and King Endymion,
getting herself out of danger.
Now for the next two episodes, when we do see Demande, it's usually in a
group setting as the show's focus shifts to Black Lady's dominance and her
mommy issues. But in episode 24, Demande again reveals that he's been acting
totally free of possession and that he realizes Wiseman is basically using
everyone.
Yeah! Even here in episode 23 where Wiseman has shot him with his power,
Demande reveals that he's been able to act on his own, free of Wiseman's
usual mind control. This is how he is able to question Wiseman without ever
needing a pep talk from Sailor Moon or anything. His mind is free.
Black Lady tries to send an actually possessed Saphir into combat against
Demande, and Demande kills his little brother with the Evil Eye. He then
tries to kill Wiseman, and we learn all about Wiseman's actual form being a
whole hell of a lot more dangerous.
And then a short time later, Demande flies quite off the handle, even trying
to destroy time and space by clicking together two versions of the Silver
Crystal.
Then in episode 25, we see that once again, he jumps in front of an attack
from Wiseman, which was meant to wipe out the entire team.
But this is only because he wants to kill Sailor Moon himself.
But this interaction doesn't last long, and Wiseman forces Demande's Evil Eye power back into him, killing him slowly.
He looks back at a confused Sailor Moon.
And then disintegrates all over Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask.
So in this ending, there is no Stockholm Syndrome going on, no victim's
guilt, and hell, Sailor Moon isn't even crying. She's just confused as to
what the hell is going on. Automatically a step up from Sailor Moon
R. Now let's see what happens in the manga.
Well a lot of similarities are here to Sailor Moon Crystal,
with a few changes. In the manga, Demande isn't right behind her right away,
and picks her up from the floor rather than catching her after she finds out
where her friends are.
He takes her back to his bedroom, drops her on the bed, tries to touch her,
but she thinks about Mamoru in her sleep, hearing him cry out while lost in
time. This causes a new power to awaken in her, zapping Demande and saving her.
She wakes up, again rebuking him.
She runs away from Demande, has a fight with Saphir, transforms into Sailor
Moon, finds her friends and similar to Crystal, she uses her power to fly
them up a few stories (sorry about the concussions, girls) but damn does she
look like a badass.
She briefly channels Neo Queen Serenity, but is back to being Sailor Moon mid
speech, as she and Demande banter back and forth with her basically telling
him that he will never kill her. Sadly, we don't get the cool battle sequence
we had in Sailor Moon Crystal, but Sailor Moon does get the girls together
and just before Demande can hit her with the Evil Eye again, she rescues her
friends, using the key to get them back to King Endymion.
And I just want to stop and say this. The manga and Sailor
Moon Crystal right here do the victim some justice. Instead of
having Usagi need to be rescued, she not only saves herself, but she also
rescues three of her friends and looks like a badass in the process.
In Act 24, again, similar to Sailor Moon Crystal,
Black Lady sends Saphir against Demande after Demande again reveals that he
has never been possessed by Wiseman. Now Crystal in season 2 was as you can
see, pretty damned close to the manga, which is a huge reason why I love it,
but for standards and practices, some changes had to be made. Demande nuking
a little girl alive and here, melting and ripping his brother's body to
shreds just isn't going to make the cut. But yeah, he does this to his only
known blood relative, ripping to pieces the little brother he was supposed to
take care of.
But maybe I shouldn't be all that surprised, seeing as how he beat and
bloodied his little brother in Act 17. But I digress, just as in Sailor Moon
Crystal, Demande's interactions are group based,
including that time he tried to end everything by clinking the past and
future Silver Crystals together. But Act 25 is when the final showdown
happens.
Wiseman's true form starts screwing with time and space big time. As everyone
is standing around confused, Demande goes batshit crazy, deciding that if
Wiseman isn't going to kill Sailor Moon fast enough for him (since he's
figured out she will never be with him) that he's just going to kill Sailor
Moon himself.
Tuxedo Mask jumps in the way, bringing Sailor Moon her beating stick
Cutie Moon Rod, now no longer damaged from that little "I was possessed
and accidently attacked you and smashed it" thing from a while back.
The rod reacts to the both of their powers, and lights up by itself.
The power of their love shreds Demande's body,
nuking and shredding him alive and mentally scarring Usagi and Mamoru for
life. The two embrace as they are covered in Demande's
remains while Wiseman laughs his ass off. Standards and practices might not
have been pleased with this little scene, but I for one am totally fine with
seeing Demande ripped to shreds. Fucking good riddance to rapey rubbish.
Sailor Moon rescues herself in the manga after Demande sexually assaults her,
and then she gets to destroy Demande, leaving him dying screaming as she
burns him from the inside out.
AND WHY ARE YOU STILL SHIPPING THIS??
This isn't about #MeToo though this does scream
that we have a serious and real problem with rape culture worldwide. This is
about just basic decency. If you head cannon involves mating off a 14 year
old girl – or any aged incarnation of her – to an adult man who has assaulted
her, it's fucking wrong, it's fucking disgusting, and you don't have any
excuses for it.
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