In the manga, Professor Tomoe dies at the end of the S arc, so Haruka, Michiru, and Setsuna chose to raise her directly from there. Most of the cute Outers!family stuff is coming from their manga interactions. (The manga, in turn, doesn't have the face-heel-turn bluff plan at all.) The anime had Hotaru reunited with her father, so the out-of-universe explanation is that the writers had to do something to bring the plot closer to what the manga was giving them.
In-universe, Hotaru starts rapidly growing up and developing Saturn-powers right after Setsuna picks her up. It would make sense if it flat-out wasn't safe to leave her with an ordinary human caretaker -- even if her father was in top physical shape, and he isn't, he's still recovering from extensive injuries. (He was heavily bandaged, in a sling, and in a wheelchair at the end of S.)
And that's not the kind of thing you can arrange through legal channels. "Your Honor, we ask you to rule that this parent is an unfit caretaker, on the grounds that he isn't prepared for this infant to morph into a teenage magical warrior of destruction over the course of a week."
It's a shame we never get anything more about Hotaru and her father after that, but Stars is really low on Outers interaction in general. I don't think there's anything wrong with assuming it happened.
As for the final-battle stuff: My impression has always been that Pluto and Saturn were in on the plan. Anyone pretending to join Galaxia would have to do something really dramatic to make it convincing. Killing your teammates fits the bill.
IMO Setsuna and Hotaru have enough of that Outers mindset to agree this level of self-sacrifice is necessary...but wouldn't be convincing if they were actually playing the "ice-cold ruthless traitor" roles. Haruka and Michiru can steel themselves long enough to bluff their way through it.
Also relevant: Hotaru has aged up to 14-15 at this point, in mind as well as body. She's as old as the Inners were when they first decided to die protecting Usagi. Haruka and Michiru themselves are only 17-18! It's ridiculously young by real-world standards, but you gotta be able to look at them through the lens of Magical Action Anime Teenager standards, too.
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Date: 2015-01-01 06:07 am (UTC)In-universe, Hotaru starts rapidly growing up and developing Saturn-powers right after Setsuna picks her up. It would make sense if it flat-out wasn't safe to leave her with an ordinary human caretaker -- even if her father was in top physical shape, and he isn't, he's still recovering from extensive injuries. (He was heavily bandaged, in a sling, and in a wheelchair at the end of S.)
And that's not the kind of thing you can arrange through legal channels. "Your Honor, we ask you to rule that this parent is an unfit caretaker, on the grounds that he isn't prepared for this infant to morph into a teenage magical warrior of destruction over the course of a week."
It's a shame we never get anything more about Hotaru and her father after that, but Stars is really low on Outers interaction in general. I don't think there's anything wrong with assuming it happened.
As for the final-battle stuff: My impression has always been that Pluto and Saturn were in on the plan. Anyone pretending to join Galaxia would have to do something really dramatic to make it convincing. Killing your teammates fits the bill.
IMO Setsuna and Hotaru have enough of that Outers mindset to agree this level of self-sacrifice is necessary...but wouldn't be convincing if they were actually playing the "ice-cold ruthless traitor" roles. Haruka and Michiru can steel themselves long enough to bluff their way through it.
Also relevant: Hotaru has aged up to 14-15 at this point, in mind as well as body. She's as old as the Inners were when they first decided to die protecting Usagi. Haruka and Michiru themselves are only 17-18! It's ridiculously young by real-world standards, but you gotta be able to look at them through the lens of Magical Action Anime Teenager standards, too.