Time for a rant.
[spoiler=RANTING]I would really really like it if media featuring a decently sized cast of hero characters/friends that feature fighting or supernatural/sci-fi elements would completely discontinue usage of the "HEY GUYS JUST GONNA TAKE YOUR TEAMMATE(s) AWAY NO YOU CAN'T HAVE THEM BACK NOW BECAUSE I SAID SO HAR HAR HAR YOU CAN HAVE YOUR BUDDY BACK JUST BEFORE THE FINALE OKAY BYE
".
like [parasitic bomb], nothing says trite and overdone like taking characters away and throwing them out of the story for almost an entire season/series/etc. to focus on either the bland main character or somebody really annoying who you don't want to follow in the story. Like, it was done right in Empire Strikes Back because it didn't happen till the very end and it was resolved right at the start of Jedi so it wasn't like Han missed terribly much, films its not too too bad but in long-form it seems like its dragged out way too long.
Like, I look back at Geass R2, trainwreck that it was I realize how much of it was just so bleh because they felt the need to shake up the status quo so much (Moving from Japan to stupid [tornado fang]ing china only to immediately go back to Japan because china sucks. Kallen and her mech getting swallowed up in prision for 8 episodes, C.C. being an amnesiac for like 7 episodes.) Most of it could've easily have not happened and I feel the season wouldn't have really been as dumb as it was had they just... not did like two of those things? The manga didn't have mecha and the china thing was like over in a single chapter and its much stronger for that honestly.
The second arc of Sailor Moon (and by extension Crystal) did the same damn thing, having Crimson Rubeshit just kinda "grab" Mars, Mercury and Jupiter (and miraculously fail to capture Venus or Chibiusa, the latter being his ACTUAL [tornado fang]ing TARGET) in his "super spechial can't be broken bubbles i have plot armor you can't hurt me neener neener :^)" one per chapter, pretty much locking them out of the story (Mars in particular gets turbo-[tornado fang]'d over seeing as she's grabbed in that very first chapter of that arc and nobody gets out till like 2-3 chapters away from the end). The 90s anime version? They stick around but Chibiusa does her absolute shittiest thing out of spite and gets all the senshi save Usagi captured at the end of an episode, the next episode they're all freed. Some might say dramatic tension is lost but [tornado fang] that noise 2-3 episodes is enough for that [parasitic bomb] it shouldn't be dragged out over the entirety of a season of TV/Anime, its a [tornado fang]ing gyp.[/spoiler]
And now i'm sleepy. I gotta call work in the morning to get [parasitic bomb] set up for my transfer (which was accepted).