Like the anime version of stars is super important BUUUUT everyone was handled so poorly and there’s so few scenes where any one shines ((though i must say, the Rei whistle gets me every time)). I actually have yet to watch the whole thing all the way through cause everyone is so OFF. It was handled so much better in the manga and the new musical, but then you have so little time with everyone and characters like the starlights are just so under developed. I love stars,but man…

This isn’t what you asked but if I had the ambition/attention span/commitment I’d love to rewrite Stars with the best of each version and new stuff brought in (I am married to the idea of Kakyuu being dead the whole time now)

Like, I was thinking today about how if you want Usagi to be reluctant to fight, and great way to bring that in is to have the central question of the season be “What do we fight for?” Usagi, if we keep the Nehelania arc, has just seen how EASILY the future she’s relied on having can be erased, and now Mamoru is gone again. How easily could she lose the others? Would it be better to stop fighting altogether? What’s the point of any of it?

And the question is different for the inners, who protect their princess and protect Usagi and see nothing else ahead of them sometimes, sometimes it feels like they’re just fighting so that they can fight another day. (We get some of this for Minako already, which I love.) For the outers, they fight for the world, supposedly, but the world barely has places for them. AND THE STARLIGHTS ARE INTERESTING FOILS TO BOTH. They fight to restore their world, to find their princess, and when they find out she’s gone they have to redefine everything.

And I think honing the season on one main question would give it the focus it needs for such a large cast. It also gives the Starlights a Reason to be there, besides “we need to sell more dolls.” They can represent the sol senshi’s fears that it’s all for nothing, and give their darkest thoughts something to bounce off of.

(I also think it could take Galaxia and the animamates to an interesting place, I love what LMF did with the animamates’ motives and getting into why Galaxia got where she is would be GOOD STUFF)