Usagi Tsukino is fourteen years old. She's clumsy and prone to tears... not good traits for the daughter of a hard-working politician. No matter how hard she tries, she just can't seem to prove herself worthy of his attention, or his love...
...and then she crosses paths with a black cat and life gets even more complicated.
Blackbournen's A Brief History of Histories
reinterprets and reimagines the '90's anime version of Sailor Moon, exploring an Alternate Universe where each of the girls' civilian backgrounds have been switched around. For instance, instead of growing up in a loving family, this Usagi has to deal with a distant father and a mother who passed away while she was still very young, much like Rei's original Backstory. It has not been updated since 2015, though.
This Sailor Moon Fan Fic contains examples of:
- Adaptation Personality Change: As a result of growing up in much more bleak circumstances with a cold, unloving father and dealing with the loss of her mother, Usagi is a Shrinking Violet who struggles with standing up for herself, a far cry from the Genki Girl she was in canon.
- Alternate Universe Fic: Contextual Reassignment version, switching up the heroines' backstories.
- Ambiguous Situation:
- Whether or not Tsukino-san recognized Sailor Moon. While Luna claims that Sailor Moon's identity is magically obscured, she secretly admits to herself that she doesn't know whether or not that's true, and that based on her observations of his character it's entirely possible he'd lie to save face.
- His later actions have only added to the ambiguity: are the increased restrictions he's placed upon his daughter born out of a fatherly concern due to the recent incidents, part of his attempts to mold her into a 'proper' daughter, or because he's aware of her Secret Identity?
- Chapter 10 confirms that there is some form of disguise that Makoto was unable to see through until Usagi told her.
- An Ice Person: Jadeite, inspired by his counterpart from Crystal to make him a Foil to Rei.
- Apologizes a Lot: Usagi makes frequent apologies due to her Guilt Complex.
- Beneath the Mask: Usagi gets extremely frustrated with her situation, and almost lets it come out when Mamoru comments on her poor test score. However, the shame and embarrassment keep drowning out her other feelings, and she keeps directing all that negativity inward rather than letting it out.
- Big Eater: Usagi still loves all kinds of food. Unfortunately, she tends to binge eat when upset, then feel guilty about it and punish herself.
- A Birthday, Not a Break: Usagi reveals at the end of Episode 6 that it's her birthday. Not only has she had to deal with a youma, but her father's away on a business trip and hasn't contacted her or acknowledged it in any way.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Ami having Rei practice setting small fires comes in handy when they need a distraction at the airport, as well as helping them thaw out.
- Conveniently an Orphan: Ami's parents were killed in a plane crash when she was younger. While Canon never specified how Makoto was able to live on her own, Ami explains that her aunt and uncle have guardianship. However, they live in another city and aren't wealthy enough to fully support her financially, so she works as a tutor.
- Death by Origin Story:
- In this 'verse, Usagi's mother passed away when she was young, and her father grew distant, focusing upon his career over dealing with his daughter. This was originally Rei's Canon backstory. Unfortunately, while she also has a loving grandfather, her father has forbidden her from having any contact with him.
- Similarly, Ami now has Makoto's original history: her parents were both killed in a plane crash.
- Mamoru's parents still died in a car crash when he was younger.
- Deer in the Headlights: Mercury freezes up when Jadeite animates a plane and sends it after them in Episode 7.
- Dude, She's Like in a Coma: Downplayed, Tuxedo Mask kisses Usagi on the hand when she fell unconscious after the ballroom mission. Luna is furious at him, thinking that Tuxedo Mask is trying to take advantage of her while Usagi is defenseless.
- Early-Bird Cameo:
- Kenji Hino is among the attendees of the press conference.
- Makoto appears in Episode 4 as one of the students at the cooking class.
- Education Mama: Chairman Tsukino is a male version, enrolling his daughter at T.A. Private Girls' School and pushing for her to excel... from a distance.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Despite rarely interacting with his daughter personally, Chairman Tsukino dictates a great deal about her life, and doesn't appear to want her to have a life outside of her studies.
- Foreshadowing:
- When writing to her father to apologize for her poor marks on a test, she asks him not to punish her tutor Kotono. Kotono is eventually let go, with Ami becoming her new tutor.
- There's a photographer at Chairman Tsukino's press conference when it's attacked by a youma. Usagi notes that his name tag says "Kenji Hino".
- Ami is visibly uncomfortable about the location of their showdown with Jadeite, eventually leading up to her Deer in the Headlights moment.
- The stress she's under causes Usagi's grades to start flagging again around Episode 7.
- Friendless Background: Usagi had no friends prior to becoming a Sailor Scout.
- Guilt Complex: Usagi's convinced herself that it's her own fault that her father doesn't want to spend any time with her, and this bleeds over into blaming herself for just about anything bad that happens. For instance, upon uncovering Luna's crescent moon mark, she frets that she's just accidentally given the poor kitty a bald spot.
- He Cleans Up Nicely: Usagi notes that Mamoru looks very nice in a suit.
- Healing Factor: Transforming and de-transforming helps heal the senshi. In Episode 2, it's stated that this effect is stronger early on in their career, as each transformation is treated as an emergency situation.
- Heartbreak and Ice Cream: When her father won't even try the cake she made for him, Usagi tearfully gorges on her piece up in her room, trying to eat as quietly as possible to avoid disturbing him.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Where Usagi was originally a Type A and the others were Type B, now all the senshi we've seen are Type Bs without many other people close to them.
- Rei may actually be a Type A, as she's very popular at school and involved in numerous club activities. But her mention of rumors about her cursing people suggest that she may also have Stepford Smiler elements to her.
- An Ice Person: Jadeite is powerful enough to completely encase his victims with it, and threatens to do this to the whole city if the girls don't show up.
- Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Mamoru is described frequently wearing horrible clothes. Usagi comments that he looks like he picks his clothes with his eyes shut.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Sailor V is still active, but Luna is Locked Out of the Loop concerning her.
- Luna still keeps in touch with a contact through a game at the Crown Arcade. However, in this 'verse, it's not a popular Sailor V game, but a Bullet Hell only kept around because it was the first game at the arcade.
- Rei Hino still works at Hikawa Shrine, though she's not related to its caretaker; he's Usagi's grandfather instead.
- Mamoru's parents still died in a car crash when he was younger.
- Insistent Terminology: Despite the fact that they aren't actually related in this universe Rei still works at the shrine and refers to the priest (Usagi's grandfather) as "Grandpa", which is also what Usagi calls him. No one seems to mind, yet.
- Locked Out of the Loop: For some reason, Luna's mysterious contact does not want her to ask any questions about Sailor V, and has not informed her about the Silver Crystal.
- Lonely Rich Kid: Poor Usagi...
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Discussed by Usagi and Luna after Sailor Moon saves Chairman Tsukino. Luna suggests that he didn't recognize her because her transformation contains magic meant to protect her identity. Usagi thinks he did recognize her, and simply lied to protect his reputation.
- Mundane Utility:
- Luna's description of the Luna Pen.
Luna: "It always writes smoothly and never runs out of ink, but you can erase what you write as if it was never there using the other end. More importantly right now, though, it also lets you disguise yourself!"- Usagi briefly wonders if Rei has developed enough finer control over her Fire Soul that she'd be able to toast marshmellows with it.
- My God, You Are Serious!: Rei does when she realizes through questioning Luna that Luna has no way of identifying the Moon Princess when they are supposed to be looking for her.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Jadeite learned Mars' secret identity thanks to his work at the shrine. However, rather than taking this information straight to his Queen, he keeps it to himself to make it potent bait. As a result, Queen Beryl doesn't find out even when he offers to tell her, stating simply "I don't believe you."
- Parental Abandonment: Usagi's mother died when she was younger, and her father's so wrapped up in his career that he won't spend any time with her.
- Parental Substitute: Luna serves as a mother figure to Usagi. She offers emotional support and guidance, shown when she gives Usagi oranges and tissues and for to take a bath when Usagi is soaked from a youma fight.If Minister Tsukino couldn't be bothered to love his daughter, Luna was going to do it enough for the both of them.
- Private Tutor: Usagi has gone through a series of tutors. Ami also works as a tutor in order to help support herself.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Jadeite gloats about the girls being 'weak', and takes particular time to mock Mercury for freezing up when faced with a giant plane bearing down on her. The girls won't have any of that.
- Secret Identity: The girls have a magically reinforced one, though it can still be pierced. When Jadeite calls them out for their final showdown, he threatens to expose Mars' identity to the world if they don't show up.
- Shout-Out: Kotono is probably an obvious reference
- In chapter 3, Jadeite [[Series/Blackadder a cunning plan that cannot fail]].
- Shrinking Violet: Usagi, particularly when dealing with anyone she thinks is disappointed in her.
- Scholarship Student/Starving Student: Ami is on scholarship at her school like in canon, but she actually needs it as she cannot afford the tuition. She constantly has to give tutoring session instead of going to cram school.
- Terms of Endangerment: During their final battle, Jadeite makes a point of addressing Mars by her real name.
- Took a Level in Kindness:
- While Mamoru meets Usagi in much the same way and starts off by insulting her grades, he's taken aback when she swallows her pain and meekly asks for her test back. He then starts awkwardly offering encouragement.
- Along similar lines, Luna quickly picks up on how emotionally fragile her new charge is and tailors her approach accordingly, not wanting to do even more damage to her.
- Trap Is the Only Option: In Episode 7, the girls know that Jadeite has every advantage, having chosen the time and place for their confrontation. However, if they don't go, he'll expose Mars' identity to the world, and cover the whole city in ice.
- We Need a Distraction: In order to sneak into the airport for their 'appointment', Ami suggests that Rei set a small fire to distract the guards.
- Averted at the D Kingdom Ball. The girls are prepared to do this, but then the guards just let them in.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Usagi desperately wants her father's approval, believing that if she can just be good enough, she'll earn his love.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Luna tears strips out of mission control for not filling in some of her missing memories.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Ami's terrified of airplanes due to her parents' fatal plane accident. Which leads to her Deer in the Headlights moment.
- Wrecked Weapon: Usagi loses the Tiara attack after it gets wrecked in Jadeite's final fight.
- Yank the Dog's Chain:
- After Sailor Moon saves her father, he actually seems proud of his daughter for once... before asking who she is.
- With the help of her new tutor Ami, Usagi actually gets a good grade! But when Luna explains her suspicions about her, Usagi immediately questions whether that means her grade is a lie, too.
- Usagi's father is coming home early, and she makes a cake to celebrate! ...Which he ignores, along with her. As an extra kick, she finds out the next morning that there were plenty of things he could have easily discussed with her — matters directly concerning her — but instead chose to pass on through their housekeeper instead.
- Despite Ami's tutelage helping immensely, Usagi finds her grades starting to flag again from all the stress she's been under as Sailor Moon, and worries that she's going to end up losing all the ground she's gained, not to mention disappointing everyone.
