When I first created Astros, I didn't know very much about writing, creating characters, or much less creating senshi.  I knew even less about Sailormoon in general.  I didn't realize that the names of the characters were supposed to mean something.  I didn't realize that the senshi's fuku colors/element/senshi name should make sense and that all three of those and their personal name should somehow relate to each other.  I made the characters into boring stereotypes (Sara the ditz, Dani the tomboy, Nova the bitch, Spica the genius, blah), and they had no personality development.  The villains didn't have any motivation except "We're evil, so we'll destroy this planet just for fun."  And the King and Queen, small parts though they were, didn't have any personalities either.  The fuku were bland too, they were all the same old senshi fuku with no modifications except for the colors.  And the plot, or lack thereof, sucked.  Mostly because the villans were so blah, partially because a lot of the eps were fillers and didn't actually contribute anything to the plot as a whole.

Whereas now, I know lots more about senshi creation.  I realize that the senshi's element and name and colors should all go together and sorta "fit."  And my writing style is better too, I think.  And I'm gonna redo the plot so that it's not so boring and unoriginal.  In the rewrite, the villains are actually going to have a real motivation too, imagine that!  I mean (about the villans), no sane person would want to call themselves "evil."  The bad guys probably think the Astros are evil, as the Astros think they're evil.  Plus there's no real "good" or "evil," and I'm going to have this more in the rewrite.  Such as the King and Queen, whom I mentioned above, are going to have a bit of evil in them also (whereas in the original they were just the all-benevolent rulers, almost god-like, and that's boring).  The characters personalities have been slightly improved throughout the series so far, and I'm going to make them a bit more complicated in the rewrite (and try to get them away from the stereotypes).  Plus, that damned Sapphire Star was too powerful.  I mean, the final battle of the first series was basically just like okay, we're combining our powers and hey, they're dead now.  In the rewrite, they aren't all-powerful, they have weaknesses like normal people.

And since I'm re-writing the series, heck, why don't I re-draw it too?  No, I'm serious.  My drawing style has improved this past year more than my writing style, I'd say.  I mean, I can actually draw anime eyes correctly now, and I can do lots of other different things that I couldn't do before.  I'm designing a new fuku for them too, and a pic of it is up now.  And did I mention that in the rewrite Orion will no longer be a sailor?  Yep, I thought it was stupid so now he's gonna be Soldier Orion and his fuku is going to undergo a change also. 

And the senshi's names will be totally different.  Most of them, anyway.  Such as Nova, who will be re-christened as Ciara Frost (Ciara means dark, frost should be obvious).  Spica will be Aisling Quinn (Aisling means vision, and Quinn means wise leader).  Nebula's name will be Estelle Hesperos (both of those names mean star in some way or another).  Zephyr will keep her first name (just because I like the way it sounds), but her last name will be Starr for obvious reasons.  Orion's name will be Hunter Rostislav (Hunter because Orion (whom his constellation is named after) is a hunter, and Rostislav means "one who became glorious").  Sara's name will be changed to Mariah Storms (Mariah is from a song called "They call the wind Mariah," and Storms is obvious), and her sister Chrysta's first name will be Misty (for obvious reasons again).  Inferno's name will be Anala Kazan (Anala meaning flame, and Kazan is an English name which sounds like the Japanese word for volcano (which happens to be spelled the same way).  And then Andromeda will be Viola Orpheus (Viola is a musical instrument, and Orpheus is from the Greek legends, and he was a musician). I'm going for non-conventional, non-mainstream names. (as you can see, I mean, how many people know someone with a last name of Hesperos or first name Anala?  Uh-huh.)

I'm also moving the senshi to a different location, and making them more international too. They're gonna live in Dublin, Ireland, because it's a place I'm familiar with and I've visited a lot. But they won't all be Irish, they'll be from different countries: Zephyr's from California, Inferno's from Australia, Andromeda's from England, Io and Arcturus are from Canada, Nebula's from Greece, and Orion is half-Russian (the rest are Irish). I just got bored of writing about Catalina Island, while I know a lot about it, it's not a fabulous place to base a story. It's a really tiny little island, about half of it is a nature preserve and only a teeny little area is urban, and there's no college and very few schools (which kinda shoots the idea of Shisou and Estelle going to college). They even only allow a certain number of cars on the island, everyone else drives golf carts (no really, I'm serious). Plus, I know much more about Dublin and I've visited there more and lived there at one point, so I'd be more familiar with it than Catalina (although Catalina is a cool place).
 
Also, there are plot changes all over the place.  In the rewrite, Nova was originally from a planet called Okouri, but it went nova and that's why that's her senshi name.  And Zephyr is kinda like a virgin birth...this will be explained in the prologue, don't worry.  I changed the planet name, because Astro sounded like a dumb planet name so now it's called Labyrinth.  The King's name is Styx (from the River Styx), and the queen is Pasiphae (named after the queen of Crete in Greek legends, and that's why the planet is called Labyrinth after the Labyrinth on Crete).  And Astro...I mean, Labyrinth, is far from being the "perfect society" the Silver Millennium was.  There's racism, slavery, corruption...kinda like the American Civil War, as Dani says in the second rewritten ep.  There's more too, and the characters have more complex backgrounds that help shape their personality.

So I'm hoping this re-written version will be lots better.  It should be with the changes I'm making.  I've started rewriting it already, and I've got a few episodes and more will come...I just don't know when yet.  The fanfic is changing, expect some changes (sorry, that's from a commercial I always hear on the radio).

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