so i had a thought while helping with a profile. every fan knows and enjoys making fun of the pathetic Pink Sugar Heart Attack, which does zero against enemies. which totally doesn't compute, with her being the daughter of the brightest star in the universe! with Sailor Moon as her mother, she should be able to at least knock opponents on their butts!

but she can't. which makes me wonder, the Silver Crystal is extremely powerful. but maybe that also means it's difficult to master? perhaps that's the reason Chibiusa is unable to manage more powerful attacks! the same could be said in the manga, when the only attack we see Chibi Moon doing is the "Pink Ladies Freezing Kiss", which has to be done with the Amazon senshi. and she has her Pink Moon crystal at this point!

which defeats the whole possibility of "maybe she's just not emotionally mature enough to control her emotions to tap into the power" so any thoughts?

That is an interesting idea, and perfectly possible. I tend to view magic in a fantasy setting as something that requires practice like any other skill. Some things may be natural, but that doesn't mean the manipulation of magical energy, especially in precise and complex ways, doesn't require practice or isn't difficult. So it is possible Chibiusa just hasn't gotten the hang of her powers yet.

My thoughts on the subject were that perhaps her powers still had some bugs in them. Their powers may come from magical crystals, but I view their transformation devices as a piece of technology. And since her status as Chibi Moon only appeared when she was sent to the past for training, that means it was an identity that was recently created, and for the very purpose of training. So her weakness could be problems with her transformation and the mechanisms behind it.

But I do concede that her weakness could be equally rooted in her not having the hang of them yet. I suppose you could say that was part of the point of training.

true, but look at all the other senshi, or perhaps best, Usagi herself. she was not a senshi in her past life, and the first time she transformed, it was indeed the first time! yet her first attack, the Moon Tiara, was quite capable of destroying monsters. yet Chibiusa can only...well...smack monsters with her first attack. and Usagi had zero training at the point of her first attack.

Good point. Perhaps the solution is a mix of inexperience and the newness of her Chibi Moon identity and/or the Pink Moon Crystal?

but that still doesn't apply when you consider Usagi. she was in experienced, and that was the first time she'd been a senshi of the moon. as far as we can tell, in the Silver Millennium, the queen and princess could not transform. as 2nd generation moon senshi, Chibiusa should actually be stronger because she's always had these powers and they are more focused, rather than Usagi's general power from the silver crystal.

I'm a little confused. How are Chibiusa's powers more focused?

i'm saying they SHOULD be more focused.

Maybe she's not FULLY "awakened" yet or whatever? In the manga and PGSM each senshi had a little moment where they became more powerful. Also, Chibiusa has to go back to the past for training, which I guess she wouldn't have to do if the was really that powerful yet.

Giving it some more thought, I think that part of her problem was perhaps a lack of practice with her attacks or a glitch in her transformation. I remember a part of the anime where her attack didn't even work at first. I was watching the English version and I recall her saying something like "Oh come on, you worked before!"

But even when the thing did work, the attack wasn't all that powerful. And that's strange because even as a way to help train Chibiusa, her powers as Chibi Moon should be more effective than that. Okay, a training tool wouldn't let her, say, blow away a mountain or something, but she should definitely be more effective. And whether you go with the idea that the Pink Moon Crystal came into being on its own or was spawned off of the Silver Crystal, it should be more powerful than that. It's the engine for a Senshi after all.

Perhaps it's not so much that she's unused to using magic, as she is unused to her magic, the magic of the Pink Crystal. Let me explain.

It is not unreasonable to say that Chibiusa has always had magic in her blood. Her mother uses the Silver Crystal, and her father uses the Golden Crystal. Some of that energy probably rubbed off. And that sort of powerful magical connection is what probably allowed her to stop aging in the single digits, because there's no way that was normal for the children of Crystal Tokyo.

Later, she had the Silver Crystal. But as Chibi Moon, she has the Pink Moon Crystal, something we can say is similar to the Silver, but not exactly the same. It's powers would not be exactly the same, would not feel the same. The weakness of the attack might be because her body is still adjusting to this new magical energy. She's had the magic of the Silver and Gold Crystals working in her body all her life, but the Pink Moon Crystal is new.

You mentioned Usagi earlier and her first transformation. You could argue that she was fine because as the reincarnation of the Moon princess, the power of the Silver Crystal felt more natural, familiar. She may not have directly used it in her past life, but she was supposed to inherit it.

Or something like that. Does that make sense at all. You make very good points and I'm just trying to figure it out.

brandi has a good point with the "not fully awakened yet" idea. a possibility. and phantom, you're right about the whole Usagi is attuned to the silver crystal. very good point.

but the bothersome thing is even when her training is over, which NQS even says in the manga, when Chibiusa still goes back to the past in Stars, along with the amazon senshi who have finally appeared because she "stands by herself as a senshi" we don't see any singular attacks. we see her senshi group attack, and the amazoness senshi attack.

now since the Moon is so predominant in this series, why wouldn't Chibi Moon throw in an attack herself? if her training is over, she should have at least decent control over her Pink Moon crystal.

I've only started reading a translation of the manga in the last...month or two I think, and I haven't gotten very far since the manga is quite dense and I read slowly to digest the details, so I can't really vouch for that. But for her to not throw in an attack, or a more powerful attack (I remember in the anime that her attack did cause a monster some pain), that is quite strange.

I'm not sure there's a in-universe answer for that one. It may just need to be chalked up to a pure writing error, something Sailor Moon isn't immune to in any medium, and something that may need correcting in headcanon/fanfic.

I think that because the owner of the realy Moon Star Seed (The Silver Moon Crystal) is still alive, and that Chibi Moon's Pink Moon Crystal is heavily relying on the Silver Moon crystal itself. (The one of the timeline she's in. Hence why Usagi and Chibiusa depend so much on each others in SuperS)

Chibiusa's crystal is still immature. It isn't (yet) the true Star Seed of the moon. When Neo Queen Serenity passes away, Chibiusa will most likely grow to become Sailor Moon herself. So yeah, I love the "not awakened yet" theory a lot.

Plus, even if her power is just "partial", it's still pretty powerfull. (Well, not in the anime) Look: Even though she couldn't do anything to Tellulu when she fought her, she was able to destroy some low-class youmas in the Picture Diary stories!

You're basically asking "why can't a baby use her full powers already?" or "why can't this baby do calculus like her mother?".

Chibiusa is a child and powers aren't yet awakened/she is still learning. At least, that's how I've always seen it. Why would she be equally powerful to her mother and friends when she is like, what...about...10 when she first transforms? (My theory is that she is like 10 in Super and about 12 in SuperS)

Yes, the other senshi are able to transform and use their powers more or less effortlessly, but they are also older and are fully representing their respective planets. Chibiusa is to take on the Sailor Moon position with her pink moon crystal one day. And I am in agreement with Mayo with Chibiusa's starseed still being immature and all of that.

Plus, you can't really have two powerful fully fledged moon soldiers now can you? That wouldn't make sense. You already have Usagi tapping into all of the moon's power. When Usagi...goes, Chibiusa will be able to access all the power of the moon (and possibly then some) through her fully matured pink moon crystal.

All in all, if there was a Sailor Chibi Mars running around, she'd be in the same place as Chibiusa because Rei is tapping into all of the Mars power as a full fledged, mature, soldier and Chibi Mars would still be a child and learning and not fully representing Mars.

I agree with what a lot of people say, but the lines blur a bit when you're comparing the anime to the manga.

In the manga they can not die due to the power of the silver crystal. I feel as though she will awaken more and more as a Warrior the more Usagi becomes Neo Queen Serenity and being Sailor Moon was a distant memory. To me it seems the Silver Crystal throughout the series adapts and changes regularly. (Such as her fuku changing) To me, there will be a time where the Silver Crystal fully focuses on using the power of the Earth to keep everyone living and that's when her Pink Crystal can then start using the power of the Moon completely. 

There is also a point in time where Chibiusa's guardians will be by her side as well where she will fight off evil with the Asteroid Senshi to protect the Earth. She is the next generation and to be powerful in a past generation doesn't make sense.

Lust wrote:

I agree with what a lot of people say, but the lines blur a bit when you're comparing the anime to the manga.

In the manga they can not die due to the power of the silver crystal. I feel as though she will awaken more and more as a Warrior the more Usagi becomes Neo Queen Serenity and being Sailor Moon was a distant memory. To me it seems the Silver Crystal throughout the series adapts and changes regularly. (Such as her fuku changing) To me, there will be a time where the Silver Crystal fully focuses on using the power of the Earth to keep everyone living and that's when her Pink Crystal can then start using the power of the Moon completely. 

There is also a point in time where Chibiusa's guardians will be by her side as well where she will fight off evil with the Asteroid Senshi to protect the Earth. She is the next generation and to be powerful in a past generation doesn't make sense.

^ good points!

I have always thought that Chibiusa's powers are really weak because she is putting all of her energy into becoming like her mother.  She is trying to hard to emulate Sailor Moon's powers that she has trouble tapping into her own.

Sailor Mars wrote:

You're basically asking "why can't a baby use her full powers already?" or "why can't this baby do calculus like her mother?".

Chibiusa is a child and powers aren't yet awakened/she is still learning. At least, that's how I've always seen it. Why would she be equally powerful to her mother and friends when she is like, what...about...10 when she first transforms? (My theory is that she is like 10 in Super and about 12 in SuperS)

Yes, the other senshi are able to transform and use their powers more or less effortlessly, but they are also older and are fully representing their respective planets. Chibiusa is to take on the Sailor Moon position with her pink moon crystal one day. And I am in agreement with Mayo with Chibiusa's starseed still being immature and all of that.

Yeah, I was about to say nearly all of this. It'd be one thing if saw a separate scenario where Usagi also became a scout as a child so we could compare, but we'll never get that. It's pretty much known that Chibiusa (at least from what we know in the manga) will never be as powerful as Usagi, but it's likely she'll gain a burst of power when she is the only protector of the moon, as many of you have suggested.