Here are the drawings I did for chapter 27.

You can read the fic here

Compilation of all my Witches 0 arts here

Chapter 29 of Witches 0 is up! Here are the drawings I did for chapter 28.

You can read the fic here

Compilation of all my Witches 0 arts here

I'm more active on twitter if any of you would like to follow me there! You can find me at @autistic_rick or click here ^^

problematic things Mimete has done: A very much needed thread

Original thread

Chapter 28 of Fallen Stars is up! Here is the drawing for chapter 27.

You can read the fic here

Compilation of all my Fallen Stars art here

Sailor Aluminum Seiren analysis

Hey there, after doing an extensive Mimete analysis, I decided to do one for my other silly fav villain, Seiren. And just like with Mimete, I think there is more to her than what meets the eye.

When we are first introduced to Seiren it is alongside Crow as shadow figures, sneering at Iron Mouse getting scolded and punished by Galaxia for her repetitive failures. This does seem to paint both of them as callous and eager to see their supposed ally fail so they can take over.

So threatening! I bet they will be actually villainous

But when they are officially introduced, they seem wildly inconsistent with this first portrayal. Seiren is seen crying and mourning Mouse’s death, and saying how it’s so sad that it makes her hungry. This moment happens when she is alone so unlikely that she’s faking it.

Very villainous imma right

Crow does mention Mouse’s death by using it as a warning against what could happen to Seiren if she doesn’t take her job seriously, but neither of them seems to hold any hostility towards their departed ally, so either this is just inconsistent writing, or they were just acting callous previously under Galaxia’s influence to give more impact to her threat towards Mouse.

Rip Mouse

Moving on, Seiren is mostly depicted as an airhead, she seems more interested in eating snacks than taking her job seriously, she’s very polite and is easily distracted. It makes her look relatively more harmless and innocent compared to her fellow Animamates, too dumb to genuinely be a threat… and I’m here to tell you it couldn’t be farther from the truth. What if I tell you this was mostly just a facade? That Seiren is actually the most competent, cunning and dangerous member of the Animamates? I would go as far as to say she’s even the smartest of the group. You’d probably think I was kidding but I assure you, I am not. This woman is a conniving, deceitful and ruthless person who should be taken seriously, and I’m here to prove it. I have all the receipts.

Don't let her fool you, she's actually evil (kinda)

First off, most of the time Seiren is shown acting in a particularly silly way, she’s with Crow. Am I saying that her airhead demeanour is an act solely for the sake of Crow? Kinda, yeah. A bold claim, I know, but let me explain. Whenever Seiren acts on her own, she has none of her usual silly quirks. She doesn’t lose time eating, or introducing herself and is actually very quick and efficient with the target. Her attitude almost comes off as cold and callous compared to her mild-mannered and airhead behaviours with Crow. Sure, one could blame inconsistencies in the writing, but it seems too on purpose to portray her a certain way whether she’s with Crow or not to be a coincidence. It seems deliberate to me. This shows that Seiren is not as innocent or dumb as she seems to be when she is around Crow and she’s quite the capable person when she wants to be. But then, that begs the question: Why is she acting like an airhead when she’s around Crow? How much of it is even an act? Let’s find out.

"Rival" yeah sure, Crow

I think part of this act is for the sake of using Crow for her own benefit. Not necessarily as an active manipulation scheme, since Crow does genuinely care and want to help Seiren, but I believe Seiren is aware of that and is using that to her own advantage. I mean, Crow clearly stated she came to Earth because she was worried about her “rival”, so there’s no reason for Seiren to not be aware of that. Acting more innocent and silly than she actually is is a good way to worry Crow even more and make her do most of the heavy lifting. Crow is the one picking the targets for her and is willing to do most of the work and still let Seiren get all the credits. This is something Crow explicitly stated to Seiren so it’s not even a secret. So all Seiren has to do is sit back and let Crow do most of the work for her.

You sneaky little siren, you know what you're doing aren't you

Another interpretation would be that Seiren is simply more comfortable whenever she’s around Crow, she’s more relaxed so she feels more at ease to rely on Crow. This would be a far more favourable interpretation of Seiren’s different behaviours whether she’s with Crow or not. It still remains that Seiren has a darker, more cunning and sinister side she only reveals when Crow isn’t around. She’s far from being some harmless and innocent goofball.

She looked so smug (and pretty) here

Let’s not forget she sent a passive-aggressive threatening letter to Usagi’s home, lured her into a flying plane, took all the passenger’s hostages just so she could get her hand on Sailor Moon’s starseed. She was anything but harmless in that episode and very much ruthless. So regardless if she’s acting as an airhead to deceive Crow or because she’s at ease around her, the fact of the matter is, she still is absolutely a menace whenever Crow isn’t around. And I still think she might be exaggerating her airhead antics around Crow for her own benefit, even if I also believe she feels more relaxed around her partner.

She might be threatening hundreds of lives, but at least she's polite

Seiren had a lot of ruthless and downright callous moments. Even in her first appearance, before leaving with Crow, she tells the senshi they will meet again only if they survive the phage she created, clearly showing she knows they might die as a result of her actions. When she targeted Rei’s cousin and ended up turning him into a phage, she grinned, despite this being a failure for her, seeming simply amused by his fate (let’s not forget, phages are usually believed to be a permanent transformation). She targeted a doctor on his way to perform life-saving surgery on an ill child (though one could argue Seiren didn’t know, but given how she deceived him, she knew why he was at the hospital). The way she attacked Sailor Moon once she realized she had a true starseed was pretty brutal and savage, and then we end up with her taking a whole plane hostage. And let’s not forget how she treated Mouse when the latter was still alive.

I always wondered where Seiren got that nurse outfit and why

I do have another possibility to explain the dichotomy in Seiren’s behaviours. As I theorized in my previous Seiren analysis post, I believe she might be a “stress eater”. We do not know exactly in which circumstances Seiren joined Shadow Galactica. We do know, from what was revealed about Nyanko, that the bracelets corrupt and brainwash them and that they used to be good Sailor Senshi. I do not necessarily think the bracelets made Seiren “evil” (based on another of my analysis on the matter), but I do think Seiren feels a certain amount of guilt and anxiety regarding her situation. We don’t know if she betrayed her planet or was forced to join Shadow Galactica, but we do know she did give her star seed to Galaxia. Whatever the circumstances were that led to this decision, it’s reasonable to think it was quite dark. So it’s possible it left some emotional scar in Seiren that she is unable to process. She might be avoiding thinking about the situation she’s in and therefore, when she’s with Crow, she leaves all the thinking to her.

It's always time for pizza, Crow

That would be some sort of dissociative state she only comes out from when she has no other choice but to take matters into her own hands. That might explain her more passive and distracted behaviours when she’s with Crow if she is dissociating from what is happening around her, and her more aggressive and calculating demeanour when she is on her own and no longer dissociating. That could also explain why she often seems disconnected from what’s happening around her and not realize how serious the situation she is in actually is. Galaxia threatened her life multiple times, Crow also reminded her multiple times that her life was on the line, and Seiren didn’t seem particularly fazed by that until she was about to be killed. It actually took this far for her to realize her life was threatened. I might elaborate on this in another post since it might start to go more into theory and headcanon territory.

Famous last words

Seiren, sweaty, do you not realize you're about to get killed?

I also mentioned how I believed Seiren was the smartest among the Animamates. Well, to start off, she’s the first one to actually find someone with a true starseed (Usagi). Mouse didn’t even think Sailor Moon could have a true starseed, Crow only knew because she read Seiren's notes and Nyanko because she spied on Crow. Only Seiren learned the truth by herself (and I believe that’s what got her killed but that’s another theory). Seiren also seemed to question the targets Crow was picking for her. When Crow picks the policeman, Seiren says “this old man has a starseed?” almost in disbelief, which makes sense, given only sailor senshi can have true starseeds (which are typically only women). So her making a comment about the target being an old man might be her feeling something was off. One could say Seiren did target men on her own, but I’d argue those were probably still targets Crow picked up for her.

It's not like there are any men with a true Star Seed *cough* Mamoru

When Seiren targeted the doctor, she dressed as a nurse so she could lure him into an isolated place and attack him without being disturbed. Then finally, her whole scheme to get Usagi’s starseed was very calculated. She learned her secret identity, where she lived, managed to get her on the plane and took everyone hostage to corner her. If it wasn’t that the other sailor senshi were also on the plane, her plan might have worked. There’s also the fact that Seiren is the only Animamate who ever thought of turning people into phages in order to use them as minions and fight for her, not simply as failed targets.

Behold, the smartest Animamate

Despite her intelligence and more cunning side, Seiren can also be quite childish. When she has her airhead attitude with Crow she can act pretty childlike and almost innocent, but when she's on her own and cannot get what she wants and feels cornered, she might throw a tantrum. Now that she cannot rely on Crow or even put the responsibility for their failure on her, she's the only one left to face the consequences, and it doesn't seem like she's great at that.

At least she admits it

When she failed to retrieve Sailor Moon's starseed she refused to apologize or take any blame for her failure, not even realizing how serious the situation was. And let's not forget how she reacted to the Sailor Senshi suddenly foiling her plan. I don't think she has the emotional maturity to deal with more complex situations. She might be calm and polite in most situations, but if things go off-script, it will break that facade. And that immaturity might be why she joined Shadow Galactica in the first place, she didn't think of the consequences her actions would have. That recklessness does make her more dangerous and unpredictable.

If we add some symbolism, her name itself seems to confirm most of what I said about her. "Seiren", the Greek word for siren (ignore the subs her name is Seiren not Siren), directly relates to the Greek myth of the sirens, who were originally half-women, half-birds. They lured sailors on the sea with their songs in order to make their boats sink. Another myth about the Nordic mermaids has the same premise, but instead, it's with half-women, half-fish creatures. It led to both the terms sirens and mermaids being used as synonyms (whether Seirens is meant to be a Greek siren or a mermaid is up for debate and a discussion for another post). Regardless, in both cases, sirens and mermaids are seen as alluring but ultimately deceptive, with their intent to harm sailors (not unlike Seiren's actual targets, the Sailor Senshi). So her name being a direct reference to the mythological sirens does relate to her innocent appearance that actually hides a more sinister side that seeks harm against the Sailor Senshi.

So, regardless of the reason why Seiren is acting differently when she’s with Crow (which I believe might be a mix of all three potential explanations I mention above), it stands that she is far from being a naive, innocent and harmless airhead. She’s actually quite smart, competent, resourceful, calculating, ruthless and dangerous. She’s not someone who should be underestimated and she deserves way more credit than people are willing to give her (and she deserves so much better than the fate she got, but you can check my fic "Fallen Stars" for that xD)

What Your Favorite Akuma no Riddle Ship Says About You (Eldena Doubleca5...

For @sailormoonrarepairweek ! (Day 7 - Free)

Based on an older drawing I did of them for my fics (Fallen Stars). The context was Rei and Minako doing a photo shoot for a GL magazine.

After an argument, Nyanko tries to make up with a failed attempt to "rizzing up" Mouse.

Drawn for the @sailormoonrarepairweek ! (Day 6 - Theme “make up”)

Based on this meme (which is in return based on this text message)