Theory: Basics of Soldier Team Positions

Star Seed

This may or may not always apply to all "team(s)" — be in from the manga or the anime, enemies or allies — in the Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon series. Each time I think about the separate teams in BSSM, I've found that are at least four positions for the team, with four extra positions. Oh, and do read all of this, please.

These eight positions are:
» Leader
» Strategist
» Bodyguard
» Spiritualist
» Royal
» Adviser
» Commander
» Apprentice

Now, the four primary positions are the first four listed — let me explain that these titles came about from a bit of trial and error because I had originally planned on naming the primary positions something along the lines of Water, Fire, Wind, and Nature — that was thrown out the window when I began to line up the team members with their respective counterparts. The last four listed are only secondary positions — they are not necessary but would be more likely to flesh the team out — and may be combined in some cases. You will see what I mean by this later.

Each position also has associated qualities, some of these may not be immediately obvious. Not all of them have associated qualities — only a quick description; I'll list them for you, each position is in bold:

Leader:
The Leader takes commander of his or her unit, he or she often the one in charge of the team. A tough decision that the must be made is often one that the Leader must make. He or she often has abilities that deal with either the Air or Metal in terms of the element. The color orange or white is often the primary color on the Leader's team uniform.

Spiritualist:
The Spiritualist may also be known as the Medium. He or she is often psychic in some fashion. The main element is often Fire, but he or she might also or only have a different element altogether — Time-Space; the other attributes for this position are prediction, the abilities of the Spiritualist may relate to spiritualism as well. The Spiritualist has the color red somewhere in the team uniform.

Strategist:
The Strategist is often the one who comes up with strategies or plans of action that the Leader or Royal might listen to. He or she may have abilities that are useful fore strategist but not for direct combat. He or she has some shade of blue somewhere in the team uniform. The Strategist may use Water as their main element, he or she might have a secondary element like musical sounds. The main attribute is their intelligence; the other team members protect the Strategist.

Bodyguard:
The Bodyguard might also be known as simply Guard, their main concern is protecting his or her team mates. He or she often has the element of Nature in their abilities; the Nature element includes thunder & lightning, soil, and others. The color green, brown, or even purple may be on their team uniform somewhere.

Royal:
The Royal is the one who is protected by the primary team members. He or she may or may not command the team. They have no set color, as for the element that the Royal has — that element might be Aether. He or she may or may not be a primary combatant — he or she might know how to fight, but he or she may or may know the same type of combat that the rest of his or her team deals with.

Commander:
The Adviser my be a person, or they may be a talking creature — such as a cat — who commands the team in place of the Royal or a missing Leader. No set color or element. He or she may or may not be a primary combatant — the Commander might know how to fight, but he or she will not often participate in the same type of combat that the rest of his or her team deals with.

Adviser:
The Adviser my be a person, or they may be a talking creature — such as a cat — who advises the team Leader or the Royal. No set color or element. He or she may or may not be a primary combatant — the Adviser might know how to fight, but he or she will not often participate in the same type
of combat that the rest of his or her team deals with.

Apprentice:
The number may be more then one, which is all that we see in the official series. The Apprentice is trained by the four primary team members, sometimes they are trained by the other team members. No set color or element.

When I put the team positions in line with the official teams, I have a good solid basis for each team. With the four known teams: the Guardians, the Sailor Quartetto, the Shiten'nō, and the External Guardians (that is my term for the team more commonly known as the Outer Senshi).

The Guardians have Luna and Artemis as the Adviser and Commander, these two tend to switch whom is the Commander and whom is the Adviser — personally, I view Luna as the usual Adviser and Artemis as the main Commander. This team is led by Sailor Venus, who is the Leader. The Strategist is non other the Sailor Mercury, her abilities concentrate on strategy more then on offense. Sailor Jupiter takes the position of the team Bodyguard while Sailor Mars is the Spiritualist. Their Royal is primarily Sailor Moon and the Apprentice is Sailor Chibi-Moon.

The External Guardians have only four soldiers. The Strategist is Sailor Neptune whose lover, Sailor Uranus, is the team Leader. Sailor Pluto is the team Spiritualist, and Sailor Saturn is the team Bodyguard. This is only true for the twentieth century and forward — not the Silver Millennium of the past.

The Shiten'nō have Tuxedo Mask as their Royal, Kunzite is the team Leader while Nephrite is the Bodyguard and Zoisite is the Strategist, the team Spiritualist is Jadeite. The team Apprentice is Danburite — you only find this out in the Code Name is Sailor V prequel manga. Helios is both the Commander and the Adviser, this is my personal view. This is true mainly for the manga, the positions of these men are kept, only Danburite is missing in the anime, and Tuxedo Mask may or may not have a personal connection besides being brainwashed by Queen Beryl (and Queen Metaria).

The Sailor Quartetto had Diana as the Adviser to Sailor Chibi-Moon whom is the Royal. Sailor Saturn can be seen as this team's Commander. Sailor Juno is most likely the Bodyguard, Sailor Ceres is the best candidate for the team Leader, the team Strategist is Sailor Pallas while Sailor Vesta takes the position of Spiritualist. Please note, that this team has the least amount of information as a unit — this is primarily my personal take on their positions.

I'll get a picture with individual teams and the positions that I feel are the best that the individual team members as soon as I can. Here are some links to what I already have up on dA: Four-Person Team and this is similar to the image I'm going to post here when I get the chance.

Lotus Crystal

I think this site is relevant:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Franchise/SailorMoon?from=Main.SailorMoon

Star Seed

Even other magical girl series like Tokyo Mew Mew seem to fit into this mold.

Lotus Crystal

This is nicely thought out and explained! But, what are we theorizing? Very Happy

Lotus Crystal

Neon Genesis wrote:: Even other magical girl series like Tokyo Mew Mew seem to fit into this mold.

To a extent. Lettuce was the smart one, but she was green.

Star Seed

Lady Tuxedo wrote:: This is nicely thought out and explained! But, what are we theorizing?

Honestly, I used "Theory" as it is not a "Debate". I would like to talk about the team positions, perhaps discuss others.

Lotus Crystal

Okay, gotcha Smile

just make sure that while you discuss them, you state the 'why's of your beliefs on what you discuss (i.e. how/why Lettuce from Tokyo Mew Mew is the strategist even though she's green rather than blue/contrast this with Ami/Mercury, etc., who you think is better suited, etc. ^^ that'll make it more 'theory')

Star Seed

Ah, okay. That helps me understand the rule of "Theory" or "Debate" before the topic title.
--------------------------------
The Guardians and the External Guardians (or the Inner Team and the Outer Team) should be obvious. I guess I should start with the reason why I gave the Shiten'nō and the Quartetto the team positions they have.

The Shiten'nō the team positions they have; other then Tuxedo Mask, Danburite, and Helios whose positions are pretty set in my mind. Before they could act as allies for Sailor Moon, the Shiten'nō had these positions — which to me, carried over from their previous life as "Generals" of the Earth Kingdom — in both the anime and the manga, Kunzite is the Leader while Zoisite is the one to have use plans that where pretty effective (which would depend on the amount of energy gathered): for example, in the anime he was the one to bring up the idea of acting as Sailor Moon to draw out Tuxedo Mask for the Rainbow Crystals, in the manga he was the one to cross-dress as a woman to talk about the Phantom Silver Crystal which in turn had caused a good deal of thievery (I think), so Zoisite received the position of Strategist. Nephrite, to me, was the Shiten'nō who was more in tune with nature so I gave him the position of being the Bodyguard. Jadeite, an oddball for me, seemed more in line with the Spiritualist... I can not say why, maybe because he was more likely to use the element of fire and had hints of prediction. Although, each of them could easily make effective plans, each of them could have some sense of prediction in general terms.

In the anime and the manga, Palla-Palla is set up as the Strategist, she is the one who targets more the one person to see Dream Mirrors in the anime, in the manga she was the one to transform the Amazon Trio into animals, in both she was the one to switch the physical ages of Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi-Moon. Jun-Jun was more in tune with nature, at least to me, so she is the Bodyguard. Nearly every fan believes that Cere-Cere is the Leader, and so do I — the reason why... it might be because she is the one who makes more decisions the the others. Ves-Ves is the one, for me at least, who is more likely to use the fire element if she could so she would fit the Spiritualist. Out of the Quartetto, only Ves-Ves could easily fit another spot — the Bodyguard position. Once these four become the Sailor Quartetto, they attack as a team unit. In the anime and the manga it is a bit difficult for me to figure out the correct position for Ves-Ves.

That should be it.

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Theory: Basics of Soldier Team Positions

Theory: Basics of Soldier Team Positions

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