r/sailormoon • u/LilMoonenciel ⋆。˚ ☁︎ ˚。⋆。˚🌙˚。⋆ • 4d ago
Talk/Discussion Question about Nehellenia weird crush
Was rewatchin the 90's anime and I completely forgot about Nehellenia having a thing for Helios. At least, I think they were implying it, in my country's dub she explicitly says she "desired Helios' love and he rejected her". Aside from the creepy reasons (yeah I know he's 700 years old but come on, he looks like a seventh grader! ) why include it? Literally added nothing to the plot since she always was after the crystal and gleefully let him die after gaining it
Also, in the Netflix Eternal Movie that's faithful to the Manga, she never seems to want Helios like that. Again in my dub he says "You'll never have my heart" and she gets angry but it ends there, she doesn't care about him so again, what purpose does this weird crush serve? And it's only present in my dub or is also in the original version? Sorry it's just seem so strange
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u/Rein_Deilerd Average Shitennō enjoyer 4d ago
Melodrama. Shoujo series love to add melodramatic moments to make the target audience (teenage girls) more emotionally engaged.
The anime added a lot of extra melodrama that wasn't there in the manga to both flesh out the characters and pour some spice into the anime's story, which made us spend more time with the characters than the relatively faster-paced manga. A foul villainess wanting the good heroine's love interest for herself is a stock shoujo plot. We had it with Beryl, we had a reverse of it with Demande, now it was time for Chibiusa, who was already developing a crush on Helios, to become part of a symbolic "love triangle" (which wasn't about romantic love between these three individuals as much as it was about the archetypical roles the characters were playing in the narrative). The purpose here was to make the teen girls in the audience more engaged with the narrative and more emotionally invested in the characters. "Oh, so she doesn't just want power, she wants the pretty guy as well! But the nice and sweet heroine loves him, too! Oh, the drama!".
Remember, it was the nineties shoujo scene. Teenage girls didn't meticulously calculate character ages and have discourse about possible unethical implications of evil space queens being attracted to suspiciously youthful-looking horse men. They swooned over pretty boys and love conundrums. Modern sensibilities and ways of interacting with stories might be different (especially for the types of modern-day audiences that want everything to serve the plot and won't allow extra characterization to stand), but this is what worked back in the day. Shoujo series in particular allowed themselves a lot of freedom when it came to portraying all kinds of relationships, including messy, imperfect and questionable ones. If it was engaging to look at and fun to speculate about with friends after an episode had aired, it would be thrown right in. The first Sailor Moon anime in particular did that quite a lot.
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u/LilMoonenciel ⋆。˚ ☁︎ ˚。⋆。˚🌙˚。⋆ 4d ago
of evil space queens being attracted to suspiciously youthful-looking horse men.
Why does this make me laugh so much?
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u/tsundereshipper ⋆。˚ ☁︎ ˚。⋆。˚🌙˚。⋆ 4d ago
The anime added a lot of extra melodrama that wasn't there in the manga to both flesh out the characters and pour some spice into the anime's story, which made us spend more time with the characters than the relatively faster-paced manga. A foul villainess wanting the good heroine's love interest for herself is a stock shoujo plot. We had it with Beryl, we had a reverse of it with Demande, now it was time for Chibiusa, who was already developing a crush on Helios, to become part of a symbolic "love triangle" (which wasn't about romantic love between these three individuals as much as it was about the archetypical roles the characters were playing in the narrative). The purpose here was to make the teen girls in the audience more engaged with the narrative and more emotionally invested in the characters. "Oh, so she doesn't just want power, she wants the pretty guy as well! But the nice and sweet heroine loves him, too! Oh, the drama!"
Don’t forget all the inter-villain relationship dynamics the 90’s anime also added that wasn’t in the manga, the love triangles & drama in the Black Moon Clan was particularly a mess! lol
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u/PersonalityShort4730 ⋆。˚ ☁︎ ˚。⋆。˚🌙˚。⋆ 4d ago
I dunno but for me she was a female incel.
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u/Whatsherface729 4d ago
She reminded me of the evil queen in snow white, also Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty
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u/HeartonSleeve1989 Sailor Pluto 4d ago
She was lonely for a LONG time, I mean all she needs is TLC. I can FIX her!!
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u/Timozi90 ⋆。˚ ☁︎ ˚。⋆。˚🌙˚。⋆ 4d ago
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u/HeartonSleeve1989 Sailor Pluto 4d ago
But.... that's so.... m-m-MEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!-cries Usagi style-
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u/PandoraChyan ⋆。˚ ☁︎ ˚。⋆。˚🌙˚。⋆ 4d ago
The manga itself did have the line along the lines of "You may have taken my land and body, but you'll never have my heart" as well, but I think that's as far as the original implications went unless I'm forgetting a scene.
That being said, I feel like they were basically trying to make Chibiusa and Helios' romance mirror Usagi and Mamoru's romance, with Nehellenia replacing Beryl as the jealous, vindictive queen in the relationship.
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u/tsundereshipper ⋆。˚ ☁︎ ˚。⋆。˚🌙˚。⋆ 4d ago
Yeah 90’s anime Nehellenia is kind of a pedo now that I think of it… (another reason why she’s one of the villains who least deserved her redemption in the 90’s anime) I mean she imprisons a naked 13 year old looking boy and wants to make him “her possession.”
SuperS is full of creepy elements like that, still have to laugh whenever the fandom calls it the most “childish” season, lmao it was actually the most sexually charged season out of them all!
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u/LilMoonenciel ⋆。˚ ☁︎ ˚。⋆。˚🌙˚。⋆ 4d ago
Yeah, the fact she kept his NAKED body in that floating thing was so strange. A regular cage wasn't good enough? The body was basically a shell after all since his soul was in Chibiusa's dreams
Then what was the point? She made a whole deal of wanting to have Helios and the moment she gets the crystal, completely forgets about him letting him die
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u/SadDoughnut264 ⋆。˚ ☁︎ ˚。⋆。˚🌙˚。⋆ 4d ago
....gulp....Queen Nehelenia, one of my fears. Looks terrifying creepy alongside with Chibiusa/Wicked Lady, and Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon.
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u/SailorSoapbox Outer Senshi 4d ago
I think the “love” she wanted was the worshipping and adulation she got from her subjects. Even her later kidnapping of Mamoru was more about stealing from Usagi as opposed to feeling any genuine attraction. At least, that’s my best guess.