Starlights, Senshi Style

Here you will find a description of the various powers and abilities that the Sailor Starlights use in the anime. Large sections of this page are composed mostly of my own guesses and hypotheses, so proceed with caution, and take everything at its face value.

  Attacks

Sailor Starfighter: Star Serious Laser

Sailor Starmaker: Star Gentle Uterus

Sailor Starhealer: Star Sensitive Inferno

What they do: It is implied in episodes 173, 176, and 177 that any one of the three Starlights' attacks would be powerful enough to actually kill a phage. However, during the normal anime episodes, the Starlights tone down their attacks until they only drain the phage of energy, weakening it enough so that Sailor Moon can turn it back into a normal person.

In episode 173, the Starlights appear for the first time, and attack the phage (formerly Alice Itsuki) that threatens Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon, of course, protests. "Don't kill Alice!" she begs them. Healer answers, sadly, "It's too late." Maker explains, "Once humans become phages, we can't save them."

The implication? Oh yes, they are going to kill Alice. However, Fighter adds a very interesting comment as she agrees with Maker: "Right... except that person..." There's another hidden implication here, too. Did Princess Kakyuu have the power to heal the phages? Regardless, Sailor Moon eventually uses her Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss, and heals the phage.

In episode 176, Fighter is confronted with a phage, and hesitates to attack it. "I should do it... until I can find her! Please forgive me!" she cries out as she attacks. (Again, hinting that Kakyuu might share the same power that Sailor Moon has, the power to heal the phages.) But then Moon and Mars appear, and pretty much order Fighter to stop attacking the phage. Fighter protests, saying, "You'll never know our hardship and the sorrow of the survivors! This is our way to fight!" Now, you can read into that statement whatever you want, but it almost sounds as if Fighter has killed phages in the past, perhaps on other planets, and regrets it very much. Later Fighter says to Sailor Moon, "I'll pray that you're not our enemy."

The most direct evidence appears in episode 177. Maker is going to attack the phage that was formerly Ami's teacher, and Mercury begs her not to do so. But she unleashes a Star Gentle Uterus anyway, although it only stuns and weakens the phage. "Don't worry. I reduced its power to half," Maker comforts Mercury. "He's your teacher, isn't he?" At that moment, Sailor Moon heals the phage and turns it back into a human.

Combined Attacks. In episode 199, when the three Starlights combine their attacks together and fight against Galaxia, they are strong enough to actually bring the Golden Senshi to her knees, and even make her bleed. (Well, just a little bit.)

  Teleportation

All three Starlights, and Kakyuu, just kind of *poof* disappear at the end of the season, when they return to their home planet of Kinmoku. Observe the evidence in this GIF edited by Akaiko:

That's pretty obviously some form of teleportation, or something similar at least. Well, come on, they have to get back to Kinmoku *somehow*. And since there's no giant spaceship or anything that swings by to pick them up and spirit them away, we can only assume that they use some form of teleportation to travel across space. Sailor Teleport!

  Telepathy

In episode 190, Seiya sends Usagi both verbal and visual messages through the power of his song. As Usagi sits, listening to the Three Lights sing "Nagareboshi He," Seiya sends her mental images of the destruction of Kinmoku, and tells her about Galaxia's quest for all the starseeds in the galaxy. "Can you see it, Odango? Everything was Galaxia's work. She's going to destroy all the stars and planets in the entire galaxy! Her goal is to collect the energy of each star and planet in the galaxy, the real starseed. If she gets them all, the whole galaxy will belong to her! Our planet was destroyed by her . . . Our last hope, our Princess, escaped Galaxia's evil hand and headed for Earth. Following her, we have arrived on this rural planet." As Usagi listens to this, her mind is filled with visions of the destruction of Kinmoku.

Of course, this entire conversation occurs inside Usagi's head. At the end of the performance, Seiya thinks, "Did you get my message, Odango?" And then he faints onstage, exhausted.

I'm not exactly sure what you would call a form of mental communication like that, although I think it's something very similar to good, old-fashioned telepathy.

But it's probably very draining for Seiya to do, and even though at the time of the concert he *is* already suffering from an injury inflicted by Tin Nyanko earlier, it still appears as though communicating with Usagi finally drained away the last of Seiya's energy, causing him to faint.

Now, as the Lunar Archivist has pointed out, Seiya isn't the only one of the Three Lights who exhibits telepathic ability. All three of them search for Princess Kakyuu by singing together, and broadcasting some sort of mental message meant for her in their song. Lunar says:

If I remember correctly, I think that either all three of the Sailor Star Lights needed to sing together in order to be heard by Princess Kakyuu or singing together would increase their chances of being heard. There was a quite a bit of internal conflict amongst the group members when Taiki grew discouraged and wanted to sit out one of their concerts in Episode 185 (the one with the hospitalized sick little girl who drew a picture of Princess Kakyuu in her notebook), so I'm guessing their sticking together was somehow crucial to their success somehow... I have no idea exactly what the Three Lights did when they sang to try and get Princess Kakyuu's attention, but whatever it was, it evidently required all three of them to do it. The hospitalized girl in Episode 185 said something to the effect that she couldn't finish her drawing of Princess Kakyuu because the image she was receiving wasn't clear, in a manner of speaking. At this point, only Taiki was not contributing to the group effort, and this girl already noticed it, even though the other two thirds of the "transmitter" were still in place. That's a lot of "signal degradation" right there.

Now, if it is true that all three Starlights need to sing together in order to reach Kakyuu, how is it that Seiya is still able to send an individual telepathic message to Usagi, alone and unaided, while already injured and weakened? Lunar answers:

As for Seiya's message to Usagi... Personally, I think proximity might be the solution to this problem. Seiya was badly injured and was broadcasting a specific message to a single person. Yes, it was successful, but 1) took a lot out of him and 2) required Usagi to be in close proximity to him for her to receive it. Had this not been the case, he might've just as easily told her to watch a live broadcast of the concert, but he didn't.

Well, that answer makes perfect sense to me.

  Empathy / Sixth Sense

Yaten only, and very loosely implied in the anime. Actually, I'm not sure exactly what you would label this talent - some sort of "sixth sense," at least - but the most commonly accepted fan-label seems to be "empathy," so I'll stick with that.

In episode 173, Yaten senses it the moment that Galaxia attacks and kills Mamoru. The Three Lights are sitting together, moping around in a dark room, when Yaten suddenly gasps and says, "Another light of a star has just disappeared." None of the other Sailor Senshi seem to be able to sense this. Again, in episode 197, Healer senses the deaths of Pluto and Saturn. "The shines of more stars have gone out."

Now, the rest of this talent is revealed more subtly in the anime. Yaten always seems to know exactly how the other characters are thinking and feeling, what their motivations are, and what their goals are. It's difficult to describe, but the more you watch certain episodes (especially 178 and 192), the more evident that it becomes. If nothing else, Yaten seems to know *exactly* which buttons to push to get the other characters riled up. Either Yaten possesses an uncanny ability to understand a character's personality at a glance, or there's something a bit weirder at work.

I think that Jennifer Wand's fanfics first described Yaten as being an empath, meaning that he can "sense" the emotions of others. This is not ever verified in the anime canon. The anime just seems to point out that Yaten/Healer has a more highly developed sixth sense than the others. But describing Yaten as an empath wouldn't exactly conflict with canon material, either.

  Disguise Power!

In case you haven't figured this out already, those flat chests, deep voices, and manly genitalia are all part of a temporary disguise that the Starlights assume only while on Earth. Granted, that's a really, really, really, REALLY good disguise. Too good, in fact, to be accomplished by anything other than magical means. So how, exactly, do our heroes (uh, I mean, heroines) pull it off?

My theory is that they use something similar to the Disguise Pen that Usagi could use in the earlier seasons. You know, the Disguise Pen that could totally change her appearance, clothing, and hairstyle, even to the point where she appeared (or actually was) much older than a junior high school student? Well, the Starlights might have something like the Disguise Pen, although their version creates an almost permanent/perpetual disguise, therefore it must be a bit more powerful than Usagi's was.

Also, the disguise dissolves during the Starlights' henshin sequence. The same thing happened to Usagi when she transformed into Sailor Moon from one of her disguised states. The difference is that when Usagi shed her Sailor Moon transformation afterwards, she was back to normal old Usagi. The Starlights, on the other hand, de-transform back into their disguised bodies.

  Wings and Flight

In the manga, the Starlights and their princess can sprout angelic wings and fly through even the vacuum of space. That's either a very powerful visual metaphor for a more ordinary teleportation, or a way cool magical ability. I wish they'd done that in the anime. Healer looks hot with wings.

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