A continuation of this post, where they find out that Luna is from the Moon, that Luna was the one who awakened them (rather than being triggered by coming across her, I assume), and that the Moon princess is from Moon royalty. And I started eying Luna suspiciously.
Here, though, is where I start to really give Luna the side-eye, because she seems very mum about what she knows, only just now admitting to a lot of stuff (the power of the Silver Crystal, the Moon kingdom stuff, the ancient enemy, how much Luna was responsible for awakening them, etc.) and then there’s that Sailor V game.
It’s never explicitly said how the game came about or where it came from or what exactly it does to them, but there definitely seems to be something hinky about it, whether it’s just simply a training exercise for them, that it’s testing their focus or their memories for when they need a power up, or if it’s influencing them somehow. Or if it’s just somehow slowly getting them used to the idea of fighting enemies and Luna’s using it to plant the idea of Minako as the princess, so that Usagi could be protected a little while later.
It’s not ully clear how much Luna remembered or what she knows—she later says that she never expected that Tuxedo Mask might be Endymion, as well as later says that the reason Venus was presented as a double for Serenity was because Usagi-chan to keep her hidden and protect her awhile longer, but it doesn’t explicitly say that Luna knew Usagi was the princess before that, but she never expresses direct surprise at the fact that Usagi is Serenity, only surprise when it happens.
She also says, “…we were hoping we could deceive the enemy a little longer than we did.” so, yeah, Luna totally knew and didn’t tell them. She encouraged Usagi to investigate things, to get stronger in her fighting, but planted the decoy (which Minako was in on, as well as Artemis) to give her time to get stronger, because Serenity would have no memories of fighting to draw on.
I guess I never really gave much thought to Luna’s part in all of this, how much she knew when she knew it, but her memories may be fuzzy (she slept for a really long time) and not totally clear, so not all of it is direct manipulation. And it’s for the greater good, it’s necessary to give Usagi a chance to get stronger, but still. I’m a little surprised at just how much Luna was hiding from them and it gives a new layer of intrigue to the character for me, because you can feel just how much she loves Usagi and why she did it.
Especially knowing that Usagi’s full awakening—all of the girls’ full awakenings, really—meant the end of their carefree human lives. That’s got to be a heavy burden for a little cat.
(Note: I’m aware that this gets commented on more directly later, but this is my first time through these early chapters again since I first read them in a wild rush all at once because I was so hooked, so a lot of stuff I’m only just picking up on now. But that’s what the reread is for! It just means that sometimes I’m going to go WHOA WAIT A MINUTE to stuff that’s explicitly explained later, that I’d forgotten about.)
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