WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Sailor Moon Eternal: The Movie, now available on Netflix.
Chibi Usa has come a long way since her debut in the finale of Sailor Moon Crystal Season 1. From the moment audiences learned she was the future daughter of Usagi Tsukino and Mamoru Chiba to the time she awakened as a Sailor Guardian, Chibi Usa's journey to this point has been about self-discovery. Having been a child for 900 years, she lived in her parents' shadow with no real sense of identity or purpose apart from being Crystal Tokyo's little princess.
After battling the Black Moon Clan and the Death Busters as Sailor Chibi Moon, Chibi Usa starts developing a better sense of who she is as a person, which is the focal point of her storyline in Sailor Moon Eternal. From understanding her own values, internalized fears, hopes and dreams, Chibi Usa starts to form a more solid identity, and more importantly, starts deciding her own future.
Chibi Usa's Nightmare in Sailor Moon Eternal
One of the first internal conflicts addressed in Sailor Moon Eternal is how Chibi Usa feels about her place in her parents' legacy. She's more than aware of her mother's powerful influence on the lives of others, and she's certainly no stranger to the immense power of her mother's Legendary Silver Crystal. While Chibi Usa does love her mother -- the future Neo Queen Serenity -- she also feels overwhelmed by her all-encompassing legacy.
There is nothing Chibi Usa wants more than to be able to live up to her mother's legend but she also fears she doesn't have what it takes to achieve that. As the product of her parents' love, Chibi Usa feels there is nothing special about her and struggles to identify her own unique qualities. She knows she wants to be as influential and beautiful as her mother, but also wants something that is uniquely hers. Around the time she starts having these thoughts, she meets a winged unicorn named Helios who claims to need her help.
Chibi Usa Meets Helios In a Dream
Chibi Usa first encounters Helios while she is dreaming. Within it, the unicorn informs her of the existence of her father's Golden Crystal. He needs her help to locate it and gives her a miniature bell to use in summoning him. At first, Chibi Usa is surprised -- even flattered -- that a mythological horse would seek her help in finding such an important crystal and not her more powerful mother. She then starts to have doubts that Helios really means her when he keeps referring to her as "young maiden," meaning someone slightly older. All the same, she decides to help Helios with or without her mother's help.
Meeting Helios proves to be an important first step in Chibi Usa defining her own values and self-worth. She can't bear to see anyone in pain, so she goes out of her way to help, indicating empathy as one of her strongest traits. She's also quick to love and trust Helios once she identifies him as a non-threat, showing good judgment of character but also the innocence of a child. By having someone important to save and protect, Chibi Usa becomes more strongly motivated to develop her strength and skills as a Sailor Guardian.
Chibi Usa's Future
When Chibi Usa learns Helios is not a winged unicorn but a humanoid entity who is also the priest of Elysion, she starts to identify the kinds of traits she wants in a romantic partner. She's immediately attracted by Helios treating her with kindness and respect -- which she's been craving from her own friends and family. Whereas her parents and Sailor Guardians all treat her like a small child, Helios is the first to acknowledge and respect her personhood, which motivates her future self to see him again as a young woman.
In addition to romance, learning the real identities of the Amazoness Quartet also provides Chibi Usa with greater hopes for her own future. As the Sailor Quartet, Sailors Pallas, Ceres, Vesta and Juno are among the first confirmation of the existence of other Sailor Guardians in the galaxy. They are also the Guardians fated to become Sailor Chibi Moon's future protectors in a similar capacity to her mother's Inner Guardians, giving Chibi Usa another layer of happiness.
Chibi Usa's Pink Moon Crystal
Knowing she'll have a romance with Helios and her own group of friends in the Sailor Quartet, Chibi Usa starts feeling more positive about her own future, leading to the revelation of her own Sailor Crystal, the Pink Moon Crystal. In many ways, Chibi Usa's storyline since Season 2 of Sailor Moon Crystal has always been building to this moment in Sailor Moon Eternal. She's come a long way, from being the vulnerable little kid who got manipulated into serving the Black Moon Clan as Black Lady to becoming a true Sailor Guardian of her own standing.
This positive growth is what the Pink Moon Crystal's emergence in Sailor Moon Eternal ultimately symbolizes. More than fully graduating into her Sailor Guardian identity, it's also about understanding herself as a person and her own values and life goals. These are the tools that will ultimately allow Chibi Usa to break free of her parents' legacy and be in charge of her own destiny.
