Just what’s going on here, girls??
Ms. Takeuchi’s near obsessive attention to detail is just one of the many things that make Sailor Moon such a great series. No matter how many times you watch or read through it, there’s always something new to discover.
And yet, despite her impressive ability to get even the tiniest details right on matters ranging from mythology to astronomy — and in a pre-Wikipedia world, no less!! — even Ms. Takeuchi messed up at some pretty crucial points.
… or did she?
Today we’re going to take a look at the ancient Moonie myth surrounding just what is going on with the Great Pluto and Saturn Mix-up. I hope you like Greco-Roman history, because things are about to get mythical!
Aww, we’d never want you to change, Hotaru!
While I’m sure many of you are already chomping at the bit, waiting to get down to the meat of this important matter, allow me a moment to provide some of your fellow readers who may not be totally up to date on Sailor Moon drama with what the whole Pluto/Saturn mix-up is all about.
The whole problem with Pluto and Saturn basically boils down to the fact that most of the Sailor Soldiers are, at least to some degree, themed after the Greco-Roman gods that their respective planets are named after.
- Minako is the self-proclaimed goddess of love, much like her namesake1
- Makoto is big, powerful, and even throws lighting — just like Jupiter!2
- Haruka and Michiru have power over the sky and the sea respectively, not much unlike the gods Uranus and Neptune3
Not only do Setsuna and Hotaru buck this trend, they actually are reversed. And that’s what has caused so much confusion over the years.
They’ve both got staffs, too!
In contrast with our favorite Sailor Soldier of space and time, the Greek god Pluto — otherwise known as Hades — was known as the ruler of the underworld.4 Or, you know, death/the afterlife.
Where have I heard about a Senshi like that before? Oh, right! Sailor Moon‘s galactic reset button!
Hotaru’s planetary inspiration, Saturn, is named after the Roman god of the same name.5 While Saturn is essentially an anthropomorphic representation of time.
Now that we’ve got all the background out of the way, I’m sure you can see the conundrum we’re facing here.
Over the years, many fans have taken a crack at this issue and made some compelling arguments for how Ms. Takeuchi actually got it right, and that the god reversal issue is only surface deep.67
The general crux of the argument is as follows:
Setsuna is not technically the incarnation of Pluto, but rather identifies herself in the manga as the daughter of Chronos — the Greek god of Time.8 In the manga, she even uses an attack known as Chronos Typhoon, further strengthening her legitimacy as the Sailor Soldier of time.
Back in Hotaru’s camp, well, it turns out that a lot of historians much smarter than me are still not entirely convinced who Saturn’s Greek counterpart is: the aforementioned Chronos, or Cronus, an entirely different Greek god who is considered to be the patron of the harvest.9 Cronus is often depicted with a sickle, Hotaru has a glaive. One reaps crops, the other reaps souls. Practically the same thing!
I… suppose that makes sense?
While I think that these explanations make for compelling reads, to me they read more like solutions that have been shoehorned in to explain the unexplainable.10
Rather than being an explanation, Setsuna’s multiple connections to Chronos actually just compound the problem. It does nothing to explain away the Pluto/underworld/death connection and simply reinforces her ties with time, which is something we never doubted to begin with.
While it is true that Sailor Pluto’s attacks often reference elements of the underworld — Dead Scream and Dark Dome Close, specifically — that still seems pretty minor when you consider the major thematic elements of her character.
Not exactly what I’d call a Silence Scythe…
Things aren’t much better for Saturn, either. While the Cronus explanation is certainly interesting, it doesn’t help explain Hotaru’s character at all. Sailor Saturn has no attacks, abilities, or character elements that reference a harvest.
Many people make the argument that the Silence Glaive is a stand-in for a scythe, but not only is that connection loose at best, but it ignores the fact that Ms. Takeuchi originally envisioned Sailor Saturn with a decorative wooden staff.11
So now that I’ve finished discussing why I think everyone else is wrong, I should probably explain what I think is going on. Was Ms. Takeuchi crazy, or did she know a lot more about mythology than we’re giving her credit for?
Personally, as boring of an answer as this is, I think it all boils down to convenience.
You have to remember that Sailor Moon was a constant work in progress, and that pretty much every story arc was written as if it were the last. I highly doubt she knew that the series would be renewed until she was already well into her story. So when she started the Black Moon arc, she had no way of knowing that there would ever be a Sailor Saturn, or any of the dozens of other Sailor Soldiers for that matter.
My best guess is that when Ms. Takeuchi decided that she wanted to tell a story about time travel and needed to come up with a new Sailor Soldier, she opted to go with Pluto instead of Saturn for both practical and thematic reasons.
Practically speaking, if she had created a Sailor Saturn this early in the story, it would lead fans to the natural conclusion that more Sailor Senshi were coming up next. By making her the Soldier of literally the furthest planet12 in the Solar System, it neatly avoids that problem.
Sailor Pluto* (*not actually a planetary senshi)
Thematically, it also simply made sense to have the sixth Sailor Soldier be from Pluto. As I just mentioned, it was the planet13 furthest away from the sun, which added to the character’s sense of isolation and loneliness. It also put her out closest the Black Moon, who made their home on Nemesis, a theoretical “rogue star” at the outskirts of the Solar System that could possibly be to blame for all of the Earth’s major catastrophes.14
Once Sailor Moon was renewed for the Infinity arc and Ms. Takeuchi was charged with creating a Sailor Soldier to serve as Sailor Moon’s counterpoint in the struggle of life vs. death, I imagine she just made the obvious choice of pairing off Uranus and Neptune and then going with what was left — Saturn.
Much like Santa Claus, the Sailor Senshi stop existing if you don’t believe in them
So, where does this all leave us?
Well, as much as I’d love to reach some sort of dramatic conclusion on the Pluto/Saturn debacle, I honestly just think it’s a case where Ms. Takeuchi chose storytelling over references and internal consistency. She was writing the story as she went, and it made the most sense to tell a time traveling story with a Senshi from Pluto at that time. As the story continued, she already used Pluto and Saturn was her next best choice.
That’s not to imply that she’s infallible, of course. But for all of the intense research Ms. Takeuchi was known for, it’s incredibly hard to believe that she’d make such a rookie mistake, especially when there are easier explanations.
But that’s just my opinion! Why do you think that Hotaru and Setsuna don’t fit in with their planetary themes? Or do you think that they do? I’d love to hear different takes on the subject down below!
References:
- See Venus (Mythology) (Wikipedia) ↩
- See Jupiter (Mythology) (Wikipedia) ↩
- See Uranus (Mythology) (Wikipedia) and Neptune (Mythology) (Wikipedia) ↩
- See Pluto (Mythology) (Wikipedia) ↩
- See Saturn (Mythology) (Wikipedia) ↩
- See Why are the themes of Sailor Saturn and Sailor Pluto switched from their mythological counterparts? ↩
- See Pluto and Saturn Switched? An interesting argument. ↩
- See Chronos (Wikipedia) ↩
- See Cronus (Wikipedia) ↩
- Like 90% of what I write here on the blog…? ↩
- See page 49 of the Sailor Moon Material Collection ↩
- … at the time. Poor Pluto… ↩
- Yeah, I know… ↩
- See Nemesis (Hypothetical Star) (Wikipedia) ↩
I will say this for the planet Saturn atleast it has had a long association with Death and Rebirth along with time. Cronus or Saturn was seen as a God that held sway over creation and dissolution of all life and in many mythological systems Gods of Death were seen as associated with Time as well. However yeah really the problem with Saturn and Pluto is that these Deities being associated with creation and dissolution along with time really have very similar though not the same mythological functions. It is interesting though and I would love if you wrote an article on this however during the prototype stages of what Naoko Takeuchi envisioned for a Sailor V anime she gave Minako or Sailor V 4 team mates. One was Hikaru Sorano or Minako’s best friend from the Sailor V manga who was something of a prototype Ami. The next was a girl named Miyabi Yoruno who was a prototype Rei and the fourth was a girl named Mamoru Chino who was a prototype Makoto. On the page there were listed the names of 4 Greek Primordial Deities, Eros, Chaos, Nyx and Gaia. Besides that there were listed 6 planets with both their Greek and traditional Latin names along with what they were the Gods of. For instance you had Hermes/Mercury, Aphrodite/Venus, Ares/Mars, Zeus/Jupiter and Chronos/Saturn. Minako was linked to the primordial God Eros, Hikaru was liked to the primordial God Chaos, Miyabi aka prototype Rei was linked to Nyx and Mamoru or prototype Makoto was linked to Gaia. Of these four only 2 were linked to certain planetary Gods. Minako was liked to Aphrodite/Venus who Naoko described as the Goddess of Love and Beauty and Mamoru or prototype Makoto was liked to Chronos/Saturn who Naoko described as the God of Time. So it is interesting that on this prototype Sailor V anime she did link Saturn with being related to Time and Chronos.
Actually Harvest is a cycle of life and death. You plant seeds waiting for them to grow then you reap their lives and make the offspring share the same fate. Pluto, Hades WASN’T the god of death Thanatos was! Hades is often portrayed as evil when compared to his bros he’s actually a decent guy. But Hades was also known for wealth, his invisibility helmet, and getting the bad end of the stick when it came to domains (I guess could fit Plu). But if we still lean towards the death connection… Life, Death and Time are constantly linked throughout history.
As much as I’d like to argue about this just to keep the conversation going, I pretty much agree with you and came to the same conclusion years ago.
There’s no way she’d put so much detail into everyone else only to make a huge mistake like this unless it was something she meant to do.
In fact, in many ways, Kronos/Saturn as the harbinger of destruction may make more sense than initially appears.
He was even associated with a goddess of destruction at one point, though that destruction referred more to war. Her name was “Lua Mater” which means “Mother Destruction”.
It’s also interesting that Saturn had connections to Dis Pater (aka Pluto or Hades) and was owed an offering of souls or blood.
Saturn was more powerful than the other gods, initially, and even ate them. Sailor Saturn has the ability to destroy all of the senshi and perhaps also reincarnate them. (as well as the Solar System…)
As the god of the Harvest and agriculture he represent the cycle of death and rebirth.
There is also this:
Mercury is related to self-knowledge and Jupiter with philosophy, righteousness, and religious aspirations which are very different aspects of the Sun. Venus is the embodiment of happiness, an aspect of the Supreme. Saturn stands for the cause of destruction but then ultimate dissolution is also an aspect of the solar deity for its withdrawal of vital energy form the individual leads to dissolution or death.
Bepin Behari in:The Timing of Events, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1 January 2002, P.xxiii
It’s tenuous at best, but the destruction part could also be a play on “Satan”.
https://78.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1id6qx1FD1r35os6o1_500.png
Saturn’s ties to time came later and it’s possible she never intended her to be associated with time.
As for Pluto, well, she ain’t even a planet anymore so who cares? (I’m kidding, kidding!)
Pluto’s connection to time makes little sense mythologically speaking.
But Pluto is connected to a god called Aion (whom the Roman’s equated with Chronos, not Kronos ). Aion was even known as Aion Plutonius, and was a keeper of keys, just like Hades.
Aion was, as his name suggest, a time god and had a female counterpart known as Aeternitas.
But I do believe you’re right. It’s just if we go deep enough and obscure enough we can find connections.
I remember there being a detailed article on Dies Gaudii (Ian Andreas Miller’s site) back in the day that went into detail about why Pluto and Saturn’s associations were just fine, and you kind of touch on them here, but honestly; I don’t feel like they got switched, and the headline is misleading.
I found archival versions here: https://web.archive.org/web/20041026065241/http://antares7.absoludicrous.net:80/saturnpluto/index.html, https://web.archive.org/web/20050122211502/http://antares7.absoludicrous.net:80/saturnpluto/index2.html, https://web.archive.org/web/20071115225546/http://antares7.absoludicrous.net:80/saturnpluto/index3.html, http://antares7.absoludicrous.net:80/saturnpluto/index4.html
Basically, if we assume a switch happened, it’s not simply enough to claim that Hotaru should be Sailor Pluto and Setsuna should be Sailor Saturn; it would create more problems than it would solve. It’s a gross oversimplification to think that Pluto = Time and Saturn = Death, and they are only associated with Hades and Cronus, instead of their actual Roman counterparts.
Well, to be fair, the term used in the manga to refer to the Silence Glaive (w/ furigana) is 沈黙の鎌, or “the Sickle of Silence”, so there’s that. (Edition 2, vol.8, p.94, if you want a random reference.) Why is it called a “glaive”, of all the words that could be used to describe it, I’ve no idea; if we are going into the fan theories territory anyway, then グレイブ can also mean “grave”, but that’s a stretch. I’m betting Takeuchi simply referenced some specific object again and we just have to find it. 🙂
Also, what *is* that staff Saturn has in that picture? Is it based on something, too, or is it some random thing?
I’ve touched on it before, but some of the kanji choices that Naoko used for attack names and items in the series are a bit of a stretch. Basically, she applied kanji to fanciful attack names, and not the other way around.
So, at least in my opinion, “Glaive” is actually her first choice for the name of the item and “sickle” is just the best Japanese substitute she could probably find.
Fair enough, but that still seems a little too convenient… Oh, and it’s also called 沈黙の鎌 (this time w/ regular reading) in the second Nakayoshi Anime Album for Sailor Moon S, but that book was released way later.
And also this bit –
> “Sailor Saturn has no attacks, abilities, or character elements that reference a harvest.”
…if one links “harvest” with “cycle”, might make more sense. Because in the manga, the whole plot involving Saturn came from the fact that *she had already awakened and used her destructive powers once in the past*, and was about to do this again. And she even gets to revert to a baby and start over (though it doesn’t stick).
Or, you could link the scythe with the Grim Reaper image and go from there…
Pluto does make things really messy, though. Her only connection with “death” is her sacrificing herself at the end of the Black Moon arc… but then, Saturn kinda does the same in Infinity. In fact, contrasting Saturn, Pluto explicitly *prevents* the end of the world from happening. Though the scale is implied to be different in both cases.
And there’s one neat detail that *maybe* indicates the two senshi were meant to be linked, in a manner (you can interpret it as Takeuchi acknowledging the “mix-up”, or just as another interesting choice). Their designs contrast each other:
– Pluto: dark skin, long hair, the oldest of the team.
– Saturn: pale skin, short hair, the youngest of the team (minus Chibimoon).
…Unless Saturn’s short, dark hair and dark eyes are meant to make her look like *Usagi’s* opposite. Could be both, though!
A glaive is it’s own weapon, a usually curved blade on a staff or pole.
This is confusing. However, from all the things I’ve read things seem to be confusing also because there is a lot of mix up of who is who. For example I remember reading that Saturn is Cronus and not Chronos which people keep confusing each other for. Cronus is the god of harvest which makes sense in terms of Saturn and her destruction to me anyway. Pluto is related to the underworld which she does make the connection to. The time part I am not too sure about. I want to say they are correct as they are, but I would have to read more into it. However, I don’t see any readings about these specific things.
Sailor Saturn controls time!! Because she goes back in time (to the big bang) to start everything from scratch. Back (in time) before the beginning! BUT, we ended up calling it destruction by lack of understanding.
Pluto is the underworld guardian. She was chosen to guard the door of time (far far away). She eventually ended up controlling the door and it’s time related abilities. She ended up with the power of time, because of the door not because of her destiny.
Um.. um.. the guardian of the gate to the underworld happens to be a Titan Goddess named Hecate… I like to think that is who Pluto is portraying.
I’ve never heard of Hecate as the goddess/guardian of the underworld. That’s a new one to me. I mean, her HOME is in the place known as Hades (the Underworld), but she just lives there; she’s not the guardian of those gates. That’s Cereberus’ job. And Chiron is the ferryman that guides people across the river Styx. She is said to hang around the souls of the deceased, but that’s mostly a thing from later Greek writers.
Cf. https://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Hekate.html
I have a problem with you saying Minako is “self-proclaimed goddess of love” because it’s not true. She truly IS the reincarnation of Aphrodite as stated by Artemis IN THE FIRST VOLUME OF CODENAME: SAILOR V! Which came out before Sailor Moon.
None of the Sailor Senshi are “goddesses” in the traditional sense of the term, so I still wouldn’t count it personally.
I think Artemis was just waxing eloquent about Minako’s appearance… he was kind of snooping on her in the shower, after all. ^^;;
I believe that Sailor Saturn fits what the planet means in astrology to a T and her association with it was no accident. The movements of Saturn, also known as “The Great Malefic”, made ancient astrologers very nervous because of the intense fear, poverty, ill luck, and death they brought. At a personal astrological level, the planet brings misery and personal limitations. Hotaru had both of these in spades with the severe pain, disability, and loneliness she endured. The word “saturnine” even means depressed. The sufferings that Saturn inflict are meant to help people grow and persevere.
A few interesting articles on this:
https://www.thoughtco.com/saturn-in-astrology-206367
https://vicdicara.wordpress.com/2010/05/28/saturn-i-am-misery/
https://theoutline.com/post/2382/the-sadness-of-saturn?zd=1&zi=sxynwnny
In ancient times, BEFORE the discovery of the trans-Saturnian planets, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, Saturn was the final star that could be viewed with the naked eye. Thus, it was always viewed as the planet of boundaries, the planet of death, and endings. Ancients believed our universe or Heavenly sphere ended with Saturn. Ancient astrologers called Saturn the greater malefic. Basically, they believed, and still do believe, that Saturn is the “dark” planet, the heavy planet, the planet that brings extremely painful but necessary lessons and experiences. Not only was Takeuchi drawing from mythology, but she also drew heavily from astrology. And many astrologers do not even view Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto as particularly relevant, certainly not as relevant as the main 7 wandering stars (sun, moon, mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn). This is why it made sense for the three outer senshi to be more supporting characters rather than a part of the main squad. In ancient times, planet Saturn was feared and dreaded by all, not Pluto (no one even knew it existed). Think Voldemort, the one people dare not even speak his name. So knowing this, it makes perfect sense for Saturn to be the Senshi of destruction. Naoko didn’t screw that up, IMO.
The whole issue with Saturn being the furthest observable planet, however, leads to interesting questions as to why a Sailor Saturn was never added to the story sooner, and not as a member of the normal Sailor Team.
Though Saturn is kind of in a team of her own as it is, so it all kind of works out in the end.
I totally agree and always wondered about it myself. Perhaps it has something to do with the almost magical, tokusatsu recipe which (usually) always involves a strictly five-person team. So Saturn ended up being “sacrificed” until later given the opportunity to be included when she began creating other Sailors.
You described it much better than I could. I don’t know much about Pluto’s influences but Saturn comes up time and time again as a planet of very difficult but crucial life lessons and I’ve always felt as though Hotaru and Sailor Saturn are a good representation of the points you listed. Because of that, Pluto being designated more of a watcher and adviser role seems suitable.
Oh, I get it: Saturn/Chronos was NOT a benevolent god, he was an awful tyrant, humanity could only thrive because Jupiter/Zeus dethroned his father.
And Pluto/Hades? Well, he has the nasty job of keeping deads, but in classical myths (NOT in Disney’s Hercules), he’s actually one of the nicer gods.
if sailor pluto and saturn had their powers changed, pluto would take revenge of the others for not being a planet too!, after all she is of the sign of scorpio the sign of revenge and intense passions, Sailor Saturn in turn is stronger than sailor moon.
She could kill all the sailors and then she would be a new villain of the series that could indeed mark a new story.
I once talked about this with fan friends: if we had to rewrite a more consistent Sailor Moon, what would we change?
A friend proposed to switch Saturn and Pluto so they’d have:
* powers consistent with Greek gods
* heights consistent with planet’s size
* apparition order consistent with planet distance
OK, but now that Pluto isn’t a planet anymore, how do you justify her power? Well, Ceres and co are only asteroids or dwarf planets and have minor senshis. So, let’s imagine that during their previous lives, Sailor Sedna, Quaoar, Eris existed, and all of them sacrificed their lives and gave their powers to Pluto. That’s why this small dwarf planet has a senshi so powerful!
“Saturn” in Japanese could also be a pun for “Satan”?
Maybe I have an explanation, or at least theories.
At first the harvest thing: Someone who does agriculture and farming also decides about the death of plants, right? And before you can put in new seeds, you need to “destroy” the old ones first! This is exactly what Saturn does.
I also just looked up the Greek god Kronos/ Roman Saturn. There is the story where he eats all of his children – so pretty cruel. (But I think that applies for many gods in greek mythology.) The (German) Wikipedia also says about him that he stands for misfortune, but for order, too.
For Pluto: I think she might be based on Chronos and Hades. As you said, she has underwotld themed attacks and is the senshi of the underworld. She even has a musical song called “Forbidden Hades”. But why Chronos? Hades is the son of Kronos (Saturn). And many people mix him up with the god of time, Chronos. And even some antique sources say they are the same (but they actually aren’t). So maybe Naoko also thought they were the same and decided to give one of Kronoses/ Chronoses children time powers?
I just want to start by saying I love this blog so much. I’ve been on like a 3 hour rabbit hole and here I am. It reminds me of when the internet first came out and finding this about Sailor Moon that maybe weren’t necessarily factual, except this blog is totally researched and based on fact and it just really good material. Well done, I can’t wait for the book.
To weigh in on this topic though, I think that it would be problematic to switch powers with Pluto and Saturn, and while it may have just been process of elimination due to just going season by season on the fly, I think, and while I believe in and love astrology, like astrology we can apply what we know through hindsight and fit this circle peg into a square hole if you will.
I like the idea of Saturn, or Chronus, eating his children and we can equate that with the ingestion of daimon egg, although hers was implanted. If we think of Pluto as the daughter of CHRONOS though, we can maybe equate professor Tomoe as the father Chronus here, as he willfully ingested daimon.
Also I like what people said about there being a thin line between death and life and time. It does fit. Saturn still controls aspects of time and still death/silence/destruction/rebirth. Her attack Death reborn/ribbon revolution neatly encompasses all of that.
I also like the idea that Pluto is a guardian of the gate of time and gets her abilities from that position. She can stop time, yes, but perhaps that ability comes from her talisman? She can’t stop time indefinitely and doesn’t survive using that power so perhaps it is given to her as gaurding the gate and holding the keys? I like that she can close gate doesn’t really exist in the real world but another dimension altogether, or an underworld.
It is all very interesting but if you look at the fact that they are almost interrelated it makes sense to me.
“it was the planet furthest away from the sun, which added to the character’s sense of isolation and loneliness”
Yes, makes sense to have Pluto as the gatekeeper watching for this kind of outer ennemies. tvtropes pointed that outer senshi (Pluto, Uranus, Neptune) act basically as the CIA: they have to get their hands dirty, preemptively striking ennemies of out territories. Inner senshi, on the other hand, are the Secret Service: they protect Sailor Moon by always keeping their eyes on her.
So between them, what role does this leave for Saturn? Strategic Air Command. She’s the nuclear weapons.
Those who point out that in Japanese katakana, “Saturn” and “Satan” are spelled the same are right to do so. It is not a coincidence that Sailor Moon is the “messiah” and Sailor Saturn “Satan” is her supposed adversary (adversary is the actual meaning of the name of Satan). Hence all the imagery of death (the tarot card with the scythe) and Sailor Moon’s holy grail being the object of salvation (in the first communion, it held Christ’s blood) The third season and the infinity saga in the manga are very heavily influenced by the gospels.
There’s also interesting crossover between Pluto and Uranus. In the Infinity Arc, Pluto anticipates an impending earthquake, which would be a reference to Hades/Underworld but Uranus’ “World Shaking” is very much a rock/earth based attack. In fact in the American Sailor Moon RPG book refers to Uranus’ powers as “Earth” a la Captain Planet. Also “Chronos Typhoon” is depicted as a wind-based attack.
Also wonder about her pairing with Jupiter on the nefarious plant chapter in Infinity, perhaps another reference to her Chthonic powers or maybe even an allusion to Hades/Demeter.
Off topic: is there any basis for making Mercury’s powers more ice/fog bases as opposed to straight forward water? It seems like a deliberate distinction she made even before Neptune’s inception?
To me, Sailor Pluto is the reincarnation of Hecate. It all makes sense, the connection to Hades, her powers etc etc.
I had this thought brewing for years and had planned to write on it — little did I know it was already a major topic of debate! I appreciate your points on it.
I come from a background in astrology more than mythology, and find that the story arcs of Saturn and Pluto reflect each others planetary namesake more than their own, as you’ve laid out with myth. Death/rebirth, hidden secrets, manipulation, abuse, and power struggles are essential to astrological Pluto, but they’re essential to Saturn’s story. Time is essential to astrological Saturn, as is loneliness, difficult burdens and duties, which is what Pluto guards under those circumstances, and for breaking the rules of time — rules also essential to Saturn — she gets the ultimate consequence.
Anyways, it’s nice to know i’m not the only one who sees it and appreciate your perspective.
Sailor Pluto was one of the main caretakers, if not the lead caretaker of the unawakened Sailor Saturn. Since she has death related moves (Hades) and time related moves (Chronos), it could be interpreted as a metaphor of the unawakened Saturn learning from Pluto. It would also explain why Pluto is already pretty strong when we first meet her.
As we know, Kronos was the father of the Greek Gods, including Hades/Pluto. It would make sense that at least one of the strongest Sailor Senshi would have a mythology related father. The author herself stated that Sailor Pluto was to have a lonely, mysterious, and basically alienated existence from the rest of the Senshi.
I once had a discussion in a Sailor Moon group about this matter. And I remember I was resolute in saying that Sailor Pluto was simply the sailor of time. Period. But one of the people pointed out about the god Hades/Pluto also being the guardian of the underworld, which could be another dimension. That would make Pluto, not just a sailor of time but also, of another dimension: a guardian of a portal to other dimensions through time. I had found it very forced. But after a long time I took a time and thought about it.
I do believe that Naoko decided to skip stages by linking Chronos (time) with Sailor Pluto in the black moon Arc because, at that moment, there was no interest in creating Sailor Saturn. But later, when developing both in the Infinite Arc, she ended up adjusting the edges as best she could: well, if pluto was a guardian of another dimensions, why not make her a time/space sailor and link it to MODERN physics. Even with the name Setsuna which would mean “a moment” in a literal translation. The concept would never be recovered from the mistake of not directly relating to the souls or death itself, but it was a good move to contain damage.
Saturn, on the other hand, related to the titan Kronos (or cronus, or cronos), at some point in Greek literature joined the pre-Socratic concept of Chronos: the lord of time, the old man with the sickle, related to time and harvest. However, after this union of concepts, Cronos, the former young titan who castrated his father, Uranos, with a scythe, has now become the old tyrant who devours his children to stay in power longer (until the Zeus’ rebellion ). This generational question may refer to the time that devours everything, which always moves forward towards the end, because everything that begins, has its end of cycle. I study classical (Hellenistic) astrology, and in it, the connotation of the planet Saturn has in fact to do with time, the end, misfortune, calamity, disease, what spoils, destruction and death. Modern astrology not only uses the “time lord”, but a bit of the connotation of destruction. But Modern astrology tends to explain Saturn as the “limiter”, the “discipliner”, the one who “teaches lessons through restrictions”. As Pluto, it would be the great planet of “destruction”, “traumas” and “fears” (however, Pluto was not even known in Hellenistic times).
Sailor Saturn, with the role of doom, destruction and death itself (which also carries a blade, linked in other cultures to the Reaper), would not only have this concept part, which could have a connection with a Hellenistic connotation of Saturnian doom. Her blade may refer to the scythe of death, but it is clearly a reference to the Saturn’s glyph that refers to the Saturn’s sickle. The reality is that neither Hades nor Chronos were gods of death, one was the owner of the underworld (where dead souls are) and the other of time (which leads to the end). But returning to astrology, Saturn indicates the ends. So I think it’s interesting to appropriate this idea to talk about death (which is a concept impregnated in Hotaru’s life). The Moon, also for astrology, indicates the beginning of cycles. If Saturn is the end, the Moon is the beginning for classical astrology and both are linked in the concept of cycles. What I find interesting is that at the end of Infinite Arc, Saturn is rescued by Sailor Moon as a baby (returning to the beginning of its cycle instead of dying).
So, to be honest, I don’t know if there was quite a full exchange between the powers of the two sailors, but in fact, pluto seems a lot more out of place being related to Chronos. But I recently discovered that when Pluto was discovered (as a planet), it was suggested to it, the name Cronus by Thomas Jefferson Jackson See. There were claims that See was involved in plagiarism and had appropriated the work of others, and that why this idea was rejected. I strongly believe that it was from there that Naoko ended up weaving the ideas of Chronos, of Aion ( the keeper of keys) and subsequently, of time attributions, for Sailor Pluto.
Sorry for any grammar mistakes and my bad english o/
Traditionally in Hindu mythology Saturn is the planet of karma. You could say Saturn is the judge. Doesn’t really have to do with time. The reason it’s tied with time is because all karma is based on divine timing. During ancient times Pluto did not exist so Pluto being the keeper of time kinda makes sense.