As Triumph the Insult Dog says: I kid, I kid.

The Reader's Guide to

THE GREAT MATTER

or, a Soldier's Hope is Indestructible: a Tale

Part II

There are a lot of questions regarding The Great Matter...as I've looked through the reviews on have been asked many questions, and have been tested by my beta-readers on several points regarding the story. So, I will do my best to answer the questions, as well as to explain The Great Matter as I had developed it.

1. STORY DEVELOPMENT

I started the development of The Great Matter sometime around January of 2004. I was developing a sequel to The Sonic Wind, which I had titled The Sonic Boom, and was living at home, on winter break from college. However, by the end of the break, I ended up abandoning TSB, as the premise I was going to use turned out to be implausible.

On the other hand, I was becoming a pretty big fan of Law & Order, but in particular I was (and am, in my own way) a fan of Criminal Intent. My sister had me watching Special Victims Unit when she came on Friday nights, and my mother always watches the original on TNT. As I was watching all of these shows and movies, I wondered: what if it happened to the Sailor Senshi?

I wasn't thinking a crossover a la Empire of the Sun. I was thinking what if, the Sailor Senshi was arrested, charged with a crime they may or may not have committed, and they had to face a court of their own peers - of other Sailor Senshi? Senshi judges, Senshi prosecutors, Senshi defenders, Senshi everyone. And, of course, the defendant. Sailor Moon became the ideal defendant because of all of the things she had done - in essence, the Senshi trying her would be a corrupt government - and anti-utopia of sorts.

So it would have to take place after Stars. The Stars manga, since Usagi being pregnant was developed very early in my ideas, and she is pregnant at the end of Stars. (One of my betas mentioned that she looked further in the manga along than what I had made her to be, but my defense is that she seems to have a puffed out dress to begin with.)

And, being someone who was a history major, almost at the moment of the idea's inception I found the perfect name for my story: the Great Matter, the codename used by diplomatic channels to refer to the divorce between Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. And, in a way, it's also a big divorce story, so I think the name fits.

The idea to make it first person was at the same time as the title inception. I felt it would be an interesting idea, since its not an idea that's done often or well, and I wanted to do it. I also decided that, since the main character would be alien, that the style of writing should seem alien. (The concept of it being a first person account that I "translated" came in later in the development, where I found I had accidentally misspelled some things throughout the chapters - I type fast, so misspelling words is commonplace for me. I decided that the misspellings and the footnotes at the end would add a little humor and uniqueness to the story as well.)

2: CHARACTERS

The name Themis - as it denotes a goddess of Justice in Greek mythology - was there from the very beginning. Since Themis was an alien, I decided to give her many tentacles. With later development, Themis became a combination between an amoeba and a rape-tentacle monster...with a sailor top and choker. I wanted Themis to be different from other sailors used in fanfiction, especially the ones with the fan pictures that are just recolorings of the original Sailor Senshi. Those annoy me, as I had grown out of that stage of fandom many, many years ago. Themis' slightly sad (and ironic) but not completely tragic past was also developed early. Her love for chocolate/coocor, I felt, would give Themis a certain type of way to identify with Earth (among some other ways) even though she herself is not from Earth - and even though she doesn't actually realize she is humanizing herself.

Dyka was also a Greek goddess of Justice, so I used that name as well for Themis' boss. I didn't really describe her very well, save for her gimp leg, but I wanted an air of mystery to accompany Dyka, since she is extremely shady and not all that she seems to be. The connections between Dyka and Galaxia came when I decided that Galaxia would be TGM's main enemy.

Kepe (prounounced KAY-pay) and Bora (pronounced BO-rah) are inspired by two real life individuals. I know, inserting real life people into a fanfiction is bad. But in my defense, no, they're not people who made me angry in high school or beat me up or what not; no, I'm not jealous of them; no, they're not even girls. And no, I am not saying who they are and what they did. But I will say that around the time I was developing this fic, these individuals had rubbed me very much in the wrong way, for doing things that I simply cannot and do not condone regardless of age. So simply put, my inability to do anything about them was what caused me to write them into. When I brought Galaxia into the story, I decided that Bora would be the alter ego of Galaxia - as Kepe would have been too obvious. Also, Bora's name scrambled is "boar" - hence her horse design.

Allecto, Phainon and Savitri are the names of creator gods taken from different sets of mythology. I felt creator names would fit the Judges, as they are considered the "creators" of the Seemarin. The name "Seemarin" is a combination of "see" and "mariner" as the government is in control of everything and knows all. Asgerd was the Scandinavian abode of the gods. The Astramort comes from "star death" in Latin (or my corruption of it thereof).

Galaxia's new design was inspired by "Phoenix: The End?" I liked the black costume and her skin on fire, and thought that Galaxia - being a woman of infinite resourcefulness and power - would have the ability to change form, and even change powers if needed. I wanted to reflect that part of Galaxia, as Galaxia was hinted to have great powers and a mysterious past in the manga - but it was barely touched on. The horse design of Galaxia's foot was in connection to Bora.

Varuna is the name of a Hindu sky god - I originally was going to have her be Haruka in disguise as an Astramort in disguise, but that complicated things more than it needed to be. Kastalle I named after a forumer on A Sailor Moon Romance, named Kastallia - the name seemed to fit for some reason. Michag I got from the state of Michagan. Zra I made up. Poena was another Greek goddess of Justice, and "gorde" - corruption of "fat" - was added to her. Maggai is from "maggot", so one can imagine what Poenagorde's species looks like...

3. F.A.Q.

Are you going to make a sequel? Let's get this one out of the way. No. TGM will be the only one of its kind.

What is the Great Matter? The Great Matter is the trial of Usagi Tsukino and the events that influenced its conclusion. It raised the question of accountability of the Seemarin in what happened at the Galaxy Cauldron, as well as raised the issue of its corruption.

Is this story based on the manga or anime? Manga.

Why did you use dashes and not quotation marks? I wanted to give the story an alien feel, and I felt that aliens probably don't know what quotation marks are when I started writing - at least, quotations in the way we know them. Also, the dashes were inspired by the book Cold Mountain, which, other than using dashes to replace quotation marks, wasn't very good at all. (Unfortunately, for users, around Chapter twentysomething the site decided to be funny and get rid of a lot of the dashes.)

Where are Usagi's Sailor Senshi? You're going to have to read the fic for that. ;)

Why "But I digress"? Why not:) The three words have been in the story since its inception. Themis tends to go off (or believes that she is going off) tangent, and is apologetic about that. I felt it showed a small bit of her character - she can be annoying and stupid at times. Judging by people reactions to my using it (would it have been the same if I had changed it?) I think it worked.

Usagi died in "Humbugger and Freys". Couldn't Chibi-Usa be caught in a time paradox in "Sailor Soldiers"? No. Dyka resurrected Usagi, and in turn Chibi-Usa, so the potential of a time paradox was erased. Also, in terms of the manga's theory of existing at the same time causing problems, I would say that, because Chibi-Usa is still inside of Usagi and is connected to Usagi via umbilical cord, she is actually a part of Usagi until she is born. That's how the time paradox is solved; unborn babies don't cause them.

Yo...what took so long? School and work. I worked on this fanfiction for about a year. That seems to be the average for my super long fics (with the exception of HYBRID Aftermath, which took a paltry four months),

Why was Usagi's name written "Tsukinousagi"? That is how names are said in the "civilized" galaxies; Floritiuse's name unmixed is "Floriti Use". However, because of how the Japanese say their names (last name first) it was thought her name was said "Tsukinousagi", instead of "Usagitsukino".

How do you pronounce "Floritiuse"? Flo-ree-tee-OO-sah.

can u continue? fast? please? Not too fast; my panties were getting bunched up.

Are the World Crushers real? Yes, they are real. Galaxia fought them and won, as she said in "Faltering". Whether they really can destroy a world in the same fashion as, say, Galaxia can is debatable, however; it is possible that the legends of Galaxia/Melkweg and the Blood Thirsters may have been mixed.

How did the Sailor Senshi learn of the World Crushers? Themis doesn't know how they learned of them. One could assume, however, that they learned of them as they came into the civilized countries and assumed the black cloaks to hide their presence and to scare off people from attacking them.

What were the ingredients for the 'humbuggers and freys'? They were: beef patties, hamburger buns, bottle of catsip, bottle of mustard, onion, tomatoes, lettuce leaves, jar of pickles, Worschestershire sauce, two potatoes, cheddar cheese, jar of mayonnaise, and condiments. Apparently Dyka can't spell all that great, either.

What was the giant purple ball? The reviewers on guessed correctly is all I will say.

Why didn't the Seemarin stop Galaxia? It is explained in the last several chapters.

What do the last words mean? "jd, 3.6.05. hb michiru"? My initials, the day I actually finished TGM in its enirety as you see online (except for HTML conversion) and the fact that Michiru Kaiou's birthday happened to be that same day.

I would really, really like to thank Laura for being my primary beta, and Dejana for being my other beta that I almost never used (I'm sowwy ;;). I also want to thank my CD player - music to my ears as I banged on my keyboard - Dick Wolf and Co., Gregory Peck, Craig, Ashley, Ben, Dossy Doe, Kats, Rachel, Jen, Franz Ferdinand, Godzilla, Spellcheck and the Coca Cola Company.

And you. The reader. Whoever you are, whether you reviewed on whether you saw the first couple of chapters on ASMR, whether you're finding this on my site, or whether I IMed you and said, "Hey! Wanna read?"

Thank you. You guys rock.

Catch you on the flip side.

Cooki, 5/5/05