I have been watching Sailor Moon lately and I noticed that when ever she wants it to do something Usagi begs the Silver Crystal to do it. Now for years I just thought that it was her inner monologue, you know like when you REALLY don't want something to happen and you beg in your mind that it doesn't. But lately I have been thinking, what if the Silver Crystal is really sentient. Maybe not fully, but at least partly. Maybe it is responding to Usagi's begging, what do you think?

Its possible its more like she is praying to it, kind of like praying to God. The power could come from a god-like source, so maybe that is why.

Or it could be like when you are praying for your computer to please just finish rendering your project because its due in 20 minutes. XD

I never thought of the Silver Crystal as sentient. It appeared to respond to Usagi's emotional needs and states, and thus her "praying" to the Silver Crystal might simply have been a verbal description of her desire to use its power. The Silver Crystal literally came out of her in the manga, so there is likely a deeper connection between she and it than merely a powerful artifact at her disposal. And since incantations or special phrases were often used in many of the Senshi's powers, I would say it was the standard form of accessing its power (calling upon the Silver Crystal).

I tend to regard Usagi as the proper conduit for the Silver Crystal's power. If you had to focus its energy in the optimum manner, then doing so through her was the way to go. Because Usagi was the prime wielder of the Silver Crystal, she held an uncanny connection with it.

I suppose in some sense Usagi was a natural extension of the Silver Crystal and vice versa. If you want to describe the Silver Crystal as "sentient," then it would be due to Usagi's direction.

If I remember correctly, whenever the Silver Crystal was broken (in a Sailor Moon movie I believe) and when the crystal was taken from her body in the Stars season, her consciousness is gone and her eyes become empty... Which leads me to believe that the crystal isn't sentient, but more reliant on Usagi.

SailorBAMF wrote:

If I remember correctly, whenever the Silver Crystal was broken (in a Sailor Moon movie I believe) and when the crystal was taken from her body in the Stars season, her consciousness is gone and her eyes become empty... Which leads me to believe that the crystal isn't sentient, but more reliant on Usagi.

It's effectively her soul. That seems to be the heavy implication (if it isn't outright stated).

SailorBAMF wrote:

If I remember correctly, whenever the Silver Crystal was broken (in a Sailor Moon movie I believe) and when the crystal was taken from her body in the Stars season, her consciousness is gone and her eyes become empty... Which leads me to believe that the crystal isn't sentient, but more reliant on Usagi.

It shattered in the R movie, but apparently whenever you use the potential of the silver crystal like Usagi did in the R movie, it will kill you. Thats why at the end of the first season Luna didn't want Usagi to have to face Beryl because she would have to use the crystal and she knew Usagi would die. That is why Queen Serenity died when she used it to seal Metallia and send off everyone to be reincarnated.

I guess when you use it, since its so tied closely to you (as mentioned before essentially like your soul), you use up all of your power and life force to use it and that is why the user dies when its full potential is used.

I still kinda like to think of it as sentient, even if it isn't. It's almost like the Silver Crystal is watching over Usagi.

There's no evidence, it's just a romantic thought I have. XD

I agree with the its like she is praying to it. Also I believe Queen Serenity did it in the manga at one point also.

Sailor Cosmos wrote:

I still kinda like to think of it as sentient, even if it isn't. It's almost like the Silver Crystal is watching over Usagi.

There's no evidence, it's just a romantic thought I have. XD

Haha it's ok. We all have romantic thoughts that aren't always true. XD

I think there is definitely a chance that it has some level of sentience:

In the Anime:

- When Kunzite gathers all the Rainbow Crystals on their own they suddenly fly to Usagi and form the Silver Crystal.  Then it summons the Moon Stick and becomes a part of it.  Usagi was entirely focused on the dying Mamoru at the time and did not even know the Moon Stick existed.

- When Kunzite uses his power to banish the Senshi somewhere random thru his portal.  In the process Sailor Moon loses her grip on the Moon Stick.  the Silver Crystal attached to the Moon Stick glows before Kunzite can grab it.  The Moon Stick spins out of his grasp and enters the portal taking control sending everybody to the Moon.  It then returns then after they have learned what they needed to on its own surprising everyone including Sailor Moon.

- The moment Chibiusa touches the Silver Crystal it becomes part of her in the future.  That is not what she wanted or was thinking about happening.  It's also not what happens anytime someone touches the crystal.

- The Silver Crystal emerges from Chibiusas tears when she needed it to fight Wiseman.  This was not the first time she cried since the crystal entered her, nor it was it the first time that she thought about the Silver Crystal.  Seems too convenient to just be a coincidence.

- Honestly the Senshi encasing Neo-Queen Serenity in a crystal shell they can not remove never made much sense.  That's not how they shield something.  We saw them do it first back when Kunzite attacked her with his boomerang, and even in Crystal Tokyo when they protect the palace that they create an pure energy barrier calling upon their power.  It makes much more sense that they put up an energy shield at the same time that the Silver Crystal protected her from a far?  (For the record she is protected at the last second by the same crystal barrier in the manga, only the manga does not deny that the Silver Crystal did it).  The only remaining question is to whether the crystal acted on its own or unintentionally fulfilled Chibiusa's wish to protect her mother at that moment despite not being present?

- When disaster strikes and Sailor Moon is frozen over with the rest of the Earth does it not seem odd that she would suddenly come to on her own a thousand years later?   I mean I highly doubt she desired to stay in suspended animation that long that she would have given the Silver Crystal that kind of instruction?   So then I think it's quite possible that it was the Silver Crystal that woke her on its own after it had regained enough power to do what needed to be done?

- Honestly when you consider some of the broader wishes made on it doesn't there almost have to be some kind of sentience at work guiding it?  I mean consider Usagi's dying wish at the end of the first season to "go back to a normal life".  It's not simple time reset that happens as that would just mean the Dark Kingdom would happen all over again.  It's not a full retcon of the Dark Kingdom as we know that others retain knowledge of those events such as Naru and the Sailor Moon puppet show.  It's not simply wiping the Senshi's memories as their ages and school grade revert and others do not remember the Senshi being friends with each other.  (Usagi not remembering her Senshi friends or Mamoru is certainly not something she would have wanted either if her subconscious really controlled things).  Yet Makoto has already transferred to Usagi's school and Usagi does own Luna at the start.  Even the fact that Luna and Artemis mysteriously maintain their full knowledge and have ability to restore the girls memories as a fail-safe seems an awful lot like the reset details were pretty carefully guided by someone or something just in case Sailor Moon and her Senshi were needed again in the near future to protect the Earth...

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In the Manga.

- Usagi commits suicide.  She's dead and yet the Silver Crystal erects a crystal barrier around both hers and Endymion's bodies to protect them from being completely absorbed by Metalia along with itself.  That was not remotely what her dying words/thoughts were about.  So that seems like pretty strong evidence of possible sentience at work to me?

SailorBAMF wrote:

If I remember correctly, whenever the Silver Crystal was broken (in a Sailor Moon movie I believe) and when the crystal was taken from her body in the Stars season, her consciousness is gone and her eyes become empty... Which leads me to believe that the crystal isn't sentient, but more reliant on Usagi.

That's how I've taken it. She is the heir to inherit this powerful crystals power like a preistess to a holy emblem and she's the only one that can use it. Her "praying" to the crystal is the only way to get it to work-She's basically drawing power from it during desperate situations. It's also shown as her star seed in season 5, so therefor it's actually not sentient at all, but rather a part of her. Same can't be said for galaxia's star seed in season five of the classic anime but that's not what this thread is about lol

Xenox33 wrote:

- When Kunzite gathers all the Rainbow Crystals on their own they suddenly fly to Usagi and form the Silver Crystal.  Then it summons the Moon Stick and becomes a part of it.  Usagi was entirely focused on the dying Mamoru at the time and did not even know the Moon Stick existed.

- When Kunzite uses his power to banish the Senshi somewhere random thru his portal.  In the process Sailor Moon loses her grip on the Moon Stick.  the Silver Crystal attached to the Moon Stick glows before Kunzite can grab it.  The Moon Stick spins out of his grasp and enters the portal taking control sending everybody to the Moon.  It then returns then after they have learned what they needed to on its own surprising everyone including Sailor Moon.

Does that mean that Usagi and the Silver Crystal depend on each other ?

I like to think it is part of her soul. When it did break, she always "dies" or seems empty.
But yes, there are the points of when she is trouble, the Silver Crystal protects her by encasing her in crystal or transports her or whatever. 

Now the creepy part is maybe when is still speaking to it or able to act without it and her eyes are still dark and empty. And the fact that the brooch is always evolving... maybe it is a greater being that is trapped in the crystal??

I don't know.. this topic is picking at my brain now.

Actually I think for me one of the creepiest parts of considering the Silver Crystal as Usagi's actual soul is the fact that she has her dad take it to a jeweler to drill a freaking hole in it.  If the Silver Crystal is Usagi's soul how does that work... is she missing a tiny part of herself after that?