Talk:Kunzite/Shitennou

For previous-life foo, see the Golden Kingdom page.

The reference to "Palaces": the Shitennou on M2 each have something like a pocket dimension placed between the real world and dreams. Each worldlet responds to its owner; the tie is two-way to some degree. These were made in SilMil, and were used as bases of operation in their areas of responsibility. What else they're for remains to be ICly discovered...

Overview: Nature

Mamoru refers to the Shitennou as parts of his soul, and it's not entirely clear whether that's hyperbole. In the Golden Kingdom, the Shitennou grew up alongside Endymion: Kunzite was recruited for the purpose when Endymion was three, the others about five years later, all of them at the time of recruitment about the ages of eight to ten. Endymion knew on sight who he wanted, and the others knew on sight or on contact that they agreed. And if that and shared history weren't enough to entangle them, the creation of their palaces -- little half-dream realms each controlled by one of the Four, each physically linked to the others and to a different part of the world, and mystically associated with that part of the world and with its owner's soul -- commingled their powers and Endymion's to connect them in a way that survived their deaths, the Fall, and their rebirths.

Rebirth held its problems. That latent connection, without the knowledge to understand it, left at least some of the reborn Four with significant trouble in the modern world, and certainly left them vulnerable to Beryl. But eventual exposure to Mamoru Chiba, and then to him in his Endymion persona again, cemented it and helped draw them out of the Dark Kingdom.

Now they're a handful of teenagers with the strengths and flaws of what amount to three different lives, with memories of a different time and often insufficient memories of this one, sharing the top floor of an apartment building and trying to find a way to work together that won't, this time, bring about the end of the world.

Third time's the charm, right?

Overview: Pre-Beryl

The Shitennou's present incarnations were born starting about seven and a half years before Mamoru's own birth; Kunzite was as usual the outlier, with Nephrite, Jadeite, and Zoisite born closer to Mamoru.

Locations of birth are not presently established, except for Kunzite, who was born in Tokyo. (Having them have been born in their characteristic regions is just fine, there is a plausible excuse for Kunzite to have been an exception rather than the rule.)

The Shitennou did not generally have their SilMil memories in this incarnation. However, they were still connected to Endymion. The connection was dormant and unfinished -- which meant that they were naggingly aware that they were missing something, that there was something they were supposed to be doing or finding, without being aware of what that was. Individual extent of this, and reaction to this, presumably varied.

If the Shitennou were in the vicinity of the palace entries, they were capable of remembering and navigating the entry areas without trouble (the building outside Jadeite's palace entry in Tokyo, the gardens under the catacombs in Paris, etc), and capable of making productive use of them, but remained unaware of the actual gateways to the palace; those were locked to the Senshi, and stayed imperceptible until the Senshi discovered them in-game.

There is some evidence that Beryl collected the Shitennou about 4-5 years before the Dark Kingdom's collapse.

Jadeite

The version of Jadeite previously played on Mahou draws, like most of the Shitennou, on various canons, but isn't derived specifically from any of them. While the joke is that Mamoru has a houseful of trolls, or collects murderous snarkmonsters, Jadeite is the gentlest of these; when people are calling Zoisite a cat or Nephrite a bear, Jadeite gets the reference of "golden retriever puppy" -- this version of Jadeite, while also a cheerful prankster, is probably the most decent a person of all of Mamoru's guys. (Possibly including Mamoru, at least some days.) In terms of specialty areas, with Kunzite as strategist, Zoisite as spy, Nephrite as seer, Jadeite is above all else the diplomat: his is the art of understanding what people want, and what people want to believe of themselves, and of using this to bring them around to agreement or alliance.

Jadeite's powerset, in the Dark Kingdom, involved ice, illusion, and the animation of clay sculptures as youma. He is known to have specifically retained ice and illusion after his redemption arc; none of the former Generals retained youma-creation abilities. This comes very close to Mercury's powerset, but historically the two characters have rarely been in the same fight at the same time, so duplication is not that much of a concern; if it is a concern for an apper, it's conceivably possible to swap things around.

Jadeite's skillset includes diplomacy, marketing, pop culture, melee combat training, and sculpture. It may include other things. His resources are presently unknown, though there is a running joke about Pokemon Go having been one of his Dark Kingdom plots that he hastily removed the energy-draining aspects from.

Jadeite's on-game history includes:

• having repeatedly started to break free from Beryl and had to be rebrainwashed, before game start
• establishing the identity of Saburo Yukimura, a high-school student, to investigate Mamoru Chiba
• being active in the Dark Kingdom at the same time that Kyouko Sakura was active as Apatite
• having defended Mamoru from attack even as a Dark General
• having cooperated with Kunzite in the latter's plan to kidnap Mamoru and replace him with a youma, then having fled before the plan's completion when he found out what it entailed
• being the first of the Generals to break free entirely and go to the Senshi for support
• pretending to still be working with the Dark Kingdom for a time, which culminated in the Dark Generals fighting Walpurgisnacht, and Zoisite "turning on" Jadeite and appearing to murder him (the death was one of Jadeite's illusions, but the lack of notice left Jadeite deeply wary of Zoisite for several months)
• hiding out for a few months, which included a surprising amount of hanging out with Usagi and watching movies; they have established ice cream-sharing protocols, and for a time Jadeite actually lived temporarily in the Tsukino residence
• helping defeat Dark Endymion and reclaim Mamoru
• being off-screen present at D-Point
• being present at Kunzite's resurrection from "ghost in a rock" status
• being peripherally present in the Earth Court Frat House, including during the Fiore plotline and the Nullheart Jupiter plotline, and including "Saburo Yukimura" continuing to attend school with Mamoru and Nephrite and Zoisite