Relationship with the Shitennou

The understanding between Mamoru and the Shitennou of present time is quite clear. In the 2 or 3 scenes that they are together, they interact like close friends and companions.

"My power...? I have no power...That's how I feel sometimes."

""Master... We believe in you. In your strength."¹

Knowing Mamoru's character, if he's able to share his deepest insecurities with them, his trust in them is absolute. Forget what happened in the Silver Millennium, consider all the horrible things that the Shitennou have done this lifetime; Mamoru has never reproved them. Perhaps, it's because he himself has been controlled by Beryl (the fact that he was killed and defenseless doesn't matter), that he doesn't feel he has the right to judge them. But then again, Mamoru wasn't never the judgmental type*. Being one of the most, if the most, sensitive and empathic character in the series, he has forgiven them the moment he was revived. There's no evidence to suggest otherwise. Furthermore, for someone as stubborn as Mamoru (think lungs, black blood and Usagi), if he didn't trust someone completely, I believe he would rather let his fears eat him up inside than to confess it to them. I like to think that this understanding of knowing what it felt like to be controlled by the enemy, only served to strengthen their relationship. Nobody understands what it feels like to be used to hurt the ones you love more than they do.

"The aura around our master is weakening...our powers, however, cannot help him any longer..."²

The Shitennou, after they have been freed from Metallia and Beryl's influence, reassume their places as Mamoru's guardians as gemstones -- or to put it more bluntly, as rocks. To be denied the chance to redeem yourself after realizing/remembering that you indirectly caused the death of your prince only to be revived to go against him again in another life, must really suck. Although without a body, they are doing everything in their power to make up for their mistakes including protecting, advising, reassuring and overseeing him.

The story never really touched on what kind of relationship Endymion shared with the four kings; it never says whether they were advisors to him, allies in battles, mere noblemen, kinsmen, bodyguards or personal guardians. The most common interpretation is they are indeed his guardians and as guardians, they also fill the roles of advisor, mentor, protector and the like. It is also the interpretation that sits best with me, but I like to take it further. Unlike the relationship Usagi has with her Senshi, the Shitennou seems to be more...respectful to Mamoru by referring to him as Endymion-sama or Master and kneeling before him. The fact that they never (seemed to have) had a modern-Tokyo life or their history of having served Beryl no doubt had something to do with it. Whether they addressed Mamoru in such a fashion in the Silver Millennium or it's because of their guilt that they can't bring themselves to be Mamoru's equal, this behaviour illustrates a kind of master-servant relationship (although one sided since Mamoru considers himself to be anything but royalty). Whatever it is, I refuse to believe that duty is the only thing that ties them together like it's the duty of the servant to serve the master**.

"Kunzite, Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite...You blocked the tip of the sword for me?"³

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon places a lot of weight on duty and example of such would be the Outer Senshi's unwavering belief that they must kill Hotaru to ensure that Senshi of Destruction would not awaken. You can kill because of duty. After being turned to stone, they used what little power they had left to take the sword for their master and revive him. You can die because of duty. But to die and to come back to resume aforementioned duties, to say that their actions were provoked by obligations to one's master alone, I find that hard to swallow.

Two instances in the manga shows that they have a rather close relationship -- a relationship that is much more than master&servants and king&subjects. The scene during where Mamoru calls and confides in them reflects his trust in them. The scene where the Shitennou appears without being called forth and hovers over Mamoru's deteriorating body suggests that they're quite protective of him.

"The memory of our past lives...? Yes...We were reincarnated to find our master, Prince Endymion."⁴

It's hard to delve into their relationship without bringing up the topic of betrayal. Are the kings considered traitors? A traitor is a person who betrays one's country, cause or trust. To betray is to give aid to an enemy, to change loyalties, to go against or to deceive.

Each character in BSSM has a lot of responsibilities, even the cats. Luna was told by Queen Serenity herself to "always protect your master. Even if time goes around and her form changes, always protect your only master." When Sailor Moon was fighting against Metallia, Luna thought she failed her "precious Usagi-chan." Throughout the series, there's this constant theme of duty and loyalty and intertwining love.

Sailor Pluto stopped time to save the world and in doing so, she betrayed her role as the guardian of time; hence, she forfeits her life. It was against the rules to stop time but it was for a noble cause. Say you were a cashier and you were responsible for keep an eye on the money. When a kid gets hurt, you leave your post to help him. While you were away, someone took all the cash. You betrayed your employer's trust; you turned your back on your responsibilities; you're fired. Traitors to one's cause.

The shitennou on the other hand, turned on their liege and lead his kingdom against him. Endymion, who trusted them even with his secret meetings with Serenity, was forced to fight against them. Bastards. What reasons can they possibly have to justifty the pain they caused to a man who trusted them so much? Traitors to one's trust.

Compare a man who stole for himself to a man who stole for his hungry family. Both are thieves according to the dictionary.

Traitors, thieves...they're all just labels. The circumstances in which the crimes are committed to earn one such titles need to be considered before judgement is passed. What I'm trying to say is, things are not always in black and white.

It was never revealed in either the manga or the anime how exactly Metallia or Beryl led the Shitennou astray.

I lean towards the speculation that they were deceived into believing that their actions were in the best interest of Endymion and the Earth. I don't think they were brainwashed, compared to the brainwashed Shitennou and Mamoru of the present day; however, I can't write off the possibility completely. Kunzite admits to selling themselves to slavery and Beryl claims he have sworn allegiance to Metallia***. Whatever happened, manipulation was involved.

"We cannot endure the ways of the Moon Kingdom! With their one-sided monitoring of us!"

"Monitoring, you say!? Who planted that in your mind? That infernal creature!?" ⁵

The Kunzite that walked in on Serenity and Endymion and the Kunzite that argued with Endymion about the Moon appear to be two different people. Whatever transpired between then and then no doubt convinced him that Endymion was going to get hurt and for "Earth's prosperity," Earth had to go to war with the Moon.

Now then, if the Shitennou were tricked into doing all these things, are they still traitors? It isn't their faults in the sense that they didn't want things to end the way they did in the Silver Millennium and joining the Dark Kingdom was completely against their will this lifetime. Of course, knowing their being tricked solves absolutely nothing but it's nice to know that they aren't deceptive, heartless, manipulative, back-stabbing, and whatever trait people generally associate with "traitors," bastards.

People are very vulnerable when it comes to things that they care about. Mamoru was sucked into becoming Black Lady's pawn because he loves her. He was vulnerable because she's his daughter and because of that, his defenses were down. Black Lady, or Wiseman it doesn't really matter, exploited that weakness. Another example would be the R-movie. Fiore's love for his childhood friend played him right into Kisenian Blossom's trap. Similarly, the only way Beryl could have "ensnarled" the Shitennou was to take advantage of their love and their loyalty to Endymion and to Earth, which once again hints at the closeness of their relationship.

It was pointed out that Kunzite seemed to be particularly more emotionless than the others which led me to question how thoroughly was Kunzite brainwashed, or how thoroughly did Beryl needed to brainwash him in order to keep him under her control? In the anime, the task of brainwashing a fatally wounded Mamoru took days and he still wasn't completely under their control; everytime Sailor Moon was in danger, he stepped in and the rose reverted from black to red. Mamoru's love for Usagi is black and white. It took a long while to semi-brainwash Mamoru who was very much in love with Usagi (which supposedly isn't a lot in either the manga or the anime) and we know that Kunzite cares very much about his prince. Having established that, it really makes you wonder how long it took to completely strip Kunzite of all his emotions.

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*He never looked down Asanuma who idolized him (Okay, not exactly strong evidence on the issue of judgmental-ity, but at least he doesn't have a superiority complex, right?); he never discouraged Chibi-Usa from wanting to be friends with Hotaru (more apparent in the anime than in the manga). Then again, Asauma and Hotaru (Okay, she's in the gray area) weren't exactly bent on taking over the world. Furthermore, the Amazon Quartet were once servants of the Dead Moon, no? But they were later revealed to be Chibi-Usa's future guardians. I can't exactly say an accurate comparison can be made between his daughter's Amazon Quartet and his Shitennou, but there is definately some sort of parallelism. If he had something against those who once served the darkness, surely he would have said something; his daughter's safety is at stake. Seeing how he considers his life to be insignificant compared to his loved ones, he certainly doesn't appear to have any problem with the Amazon Quartet being the future protectors of his daughter. Having said that, I fail to see why he would have any hard feelings towards his own set of protectors. One could argue that it's because he thinks so little of himself that he isn't as concerned about the Shitennou's past with the Dark Kingdom but that doesn't mean it doesn't bother him. I would say that's BS because he obviously doesn't seem to think himself better than the Shitennou either. But meh, maybe I'm just a fangirl who is reading too much into the subtext.

**In Lianne Sentar's "Blue Planet, White Moon," the Shitennou were brought up with Endymion since birth. One women breastfed them all making them siblings. It was believed that "if an heir is to be properly protected, it can't be duty alone that spurs protection. That can't always be counted on." By having them grow up with each other, they learn to love each other. I find that really interesting.

***It is unclear whether or not Beryl was referring to Kunzite alone or the shitennou as a whole when she claimed allegiance was sworn to Metallia:

"Don't forget that you swore allegiance to our great ruler,
and you relinquished that body to me.
No matter how many times you're reborn, you will be my follower, one of the
Four Heavenly Kings." -- Beryl. Sailor Moon Volume 2 (re-printed)

However, in the scene before this, Kunzite says:

"We were reincarnated to find our master, Prince Endymion.
But while our memories hadn't returned,
We were ensnared once more by that thing. We sold ourselves into slavery."

We're told that the Shitennou were reincarnated just like Mamoru, Usagi and the Senshi but the Dark Kingdom got to them before they remembered the past. They were snatched away from Endymion during the Silver Millenium. During the present, they were once again taken by the Dark Kingdom. They were all reborned and they all became the followers of Beryl again.

Furthermore, I think it says a lot when Kunzite says "we were ensared..." and "we sold ourselves...". Kunzite strikes me as the type of person who is very hard on himself and who is very intense when it comes to Mamoru. He is very honourable (see Peppermint Storm), responsible and conscientious even when he was under Metallia's influence. Being that kind of person, if he was the only one who submitted to Beryl and Metallia, not only will he admit to it but he'll never let himself forget either.

Although Beryl was speaking directly to Kunzite, she may have meant the Shitennou as a whole (which involves more angst, I say -- it's like saying, "not only have you sworn your allegiance to me, but you've also led your friends to do the same thing"), especially when she claims to own them all in the scene after:

"Now my lovely Four Heavenly Kings have all been destroyed and turned to stone."

For this article, I have chosen to intrepret that Beryl meant she owned all of them and they have all sworn allegiance to Metallia.

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¹ Dialogue between Mamoru and Kunzite with the rest of the Shitennou in the background. Sailor Moon Volume 4 (re-printed)
² Shitennou. Sailor Moon SuperS #2
³ Mamoru. Sailor Moon Volume 3 (re-printed)
⁴ Kunzte. Sailor Moon Volume 2 (re-printed)
⁵ Dialogue between Mamoru and Kunzite. Sailor Moon Volume 2 (re-printed)

Works Cited
- The Manga of Takeushi Naoko (http://www.kurozuki.com/takeuchi/)
- Peppermint Storm (http://shitennou.path-of-thorns.net/)

Many thanks to members the LiveJournal community, Mamorulovers