About Raye & Serena

I see it all the time, in the newsgroup and in many pages, “Raye is so mean to Serena”, “Sailor Mars and Sailor Moon don’t get on very well”, I remember last Christmas there was a thread about what present the newsgroup people would like to give to each scout. One girl wrote “I don’t think I will give anything to Rei (note her spelling!) because she’s so mean to Serena! I was very annoyed by this but I didn’t want to write to her. Most of these Raye haters seem to have seen only DiC's version of Sailor Moon, and I have often read that the character portrayal is very different from the original Japanese characterization, basically many people are saying that the dubbers made Raye look really mean! A real b*tch in fact!
Well, I have seen only DiC's Sailor Moon but even with whatever changes the dubbers have made I can still see how close Raye and Serena really are, I'd say they are best friends! Perhaps you have to watch the show more attentively but there is plenty of evidence of their friendship. I mean, I'm not the brightest of souls but their friendship seems pretty obvious to me!

Any way, Raye (not Rei, that’s the Japanese name!) most certainly does not hate Serena! And while she may have been mean to Serena (especially in the first few episodes) that all changed by the end of Season 1. No, I don’t mean she stopped bickering with Serena (T think they both bicker just for fun) but by then but she has helped her time and time again and she’s often very nice to Serena when nobody’s looking! :-)

Why people think Raye hates Serena

"Raye wants to be the leader!"

Well, in the early days Raye just couldn’t believe that someone as ditzy as Serena is a Sailor Scout and she has to work with her, that was before she knew Serena is the princess! So may be Raye did want to be the leader in those early days, why not? She believes in herself, what’s wrong with wanting to lead if you think you can do a better job? If your leadership will help your group attain its objectives? This is a serious job the Scout are doing, saving the world, so if she wanted to be the leader there is nothing bad or selfish about that, she wanted to save the world! If you were in a group that has a weak leader and you can do a better job how would you feel?

So is Serena a weak leader? Not really, as shown in the end of the first season, she did saved the day (and continued to do so in the other seasons), but she needed Raye’s and the others’ help and encouragement to bring out the best in her. You see, deep inside Serena is very brave but she needed a bit of cajoling to reach that part of herself! Any way, in the early days Raye didn’t know anything about this, she saw Serena the cry baby and she reacted according to her fiery nature, so sue her!

"Raye tried to steal Serena’s Boyfriend"

Hello?? I have seen the above statement before. Whoever thinks this really haven’t been paying attention! Raye went out with Darien before Serena ever did! Serena hated Darien in those days! Any way, when Raye found out that Serena is the princess and was destined to marry Darien she had no problem with acceptance. In the skiing episode where she bonded with Serena as they were stranded alone she came even right out and said so! She wanted Serena and Darien to be happy together. Not once has she ever tried to Steal Darien from Serena.
Why would she, when she can have Chad? :-) (link to a Chad homepage).

"Raye is always mean to Serena"

Now we come to the crux of the matter. Have you ever heard the phrase “you have to be cruel to be kind”? That is the case here and Serena appreciates it! Raye just wants to push Serena to become a better leader, you don’t push someone towards their potential by being nice! Even Amy slapped Serena in that last battle at the end of Season 1, I have never heard anybody complain about that!

It’s true that they are always bickering about little things that have nothing to do with making Serena a better person, sometimes Raye just make snide remark for the hell of it. Again, what’s wrong with that? Serena is not afraid of Raye’s snide remarks, she gives as good as she get, and it seems that they enjoy doing that, and Serena wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s just two very close friends teasing each other, we al do it (but not with so much energy perhaps :-)

Raye & Serena moments

I don’t want to make a list of my favorite Are & Serena moments as Psyber has already done a great job of that in his page and I agree with all his choices (yes, including the episodes I have never seen! :-) but I just wanted to mention that I was moved in the Sailormoon R movie when Sailor Mars was panicking over Sailormoon’s death. She did the same panicking thing in that Sailormoon R episode when a nightmare monster went into Serena and she wouldn’t wake up! I also felt sad when Raye had to show Jupiter that Serena gave her the Moon Crescent wand for safe keeping (though I have heard that DiC did a poor translation of that episode).