Steven Universe - General Discussion

[theatremouse]

I really enjoyed tonight's episodes, even though it seemed a little too easy to convince the other diamonds...and they still didn't really deal with the whole "I'm not my mom/I am my mom" thing. If they were going to keep bringing it up I wanted something less ambiguous. If they wanted to keep it ambiguous they could've just left it instead of seeming like they were digging deeper into it only to basically conclude "nope, it just is".

[Noneofyourbusiness]

I think Pink Glow Steven shouting "SHE'S GONE!!!" and literally shattering the ground with it was fairly unambiguous.

[theatremouse]

To me it wasn't because he has the gem, and while they've previously established the whole "retreat inside the gem" concept, they also sort of say the gem IS the person. And he was able to be separated from the gem without dying. So sure, she's gone, but how/why? The same thing they said from basically the beginning? She gave up her physical form to allow him to be born? It doesn't explain how he does seem to have some of her memories, which they brought up during the episode. Or is that because he's psychic? But he seemed to be psychic because he had the gem, which starts to feel a bit circular. She's gone, which I took as confirmation that it's not possible for her to "come back" (which I thought for half a second might happen when White removed the gem). But it doesn't explain anything new about the gem construct. He has her gem but isn't her, but with all the other gems they don't distinguish between having a gem and being a gem. But that's because they're not human? So is he half-human, or he's totally human but just has a gem. How does he do that?  Do the other gems think that's not possible because it's not something they ever considered or tried, or because it actually shouldn't be possible. Is he basically a permafusion also? These are all my questions I've had since pretty much S1 and other than telling me not to expect Pink to ever show up as Pink or Rose, I got nothing new on the "Why" front.

[possibilities]

This felt like a series finale.

I think Steven being a gem-human hybrid means he'd have some characteristics of each, which has been shown to be true. He needs to eat and sleep. But he also has some "powers". If he has some of Rose's memories, that strikes me as possible, while still being a separate entity, since he has her gem but also a human component. They can of course write it any way they want, but I have been taking at face value what they've told us, which to me was reinforced this time, which is that he isn't Rose, he's partly her and partly from his dad.

I liked the Obsidian family fusion. I was wondering if EVERYONE was going to fuse (including Lapis, Topaz, Connie, and Bismuth) when they needed more power than even Steven-Pearl-Garnet-Amethyst could produce.

Pearl chose different "clothing" and style. I wonder if her personality will be different, too. A pants suit instead of a miniskirt!

[johntfs]

I think a Hillary-style pantsuit fits Pearl's personality better than a mini-skirt. 

As for Steven's powers, think a little bit about that silly-ass "theory" that human never use more than 10% of their brain.  That might be true consciously, but unconsciously/autonomically that other 90% keeps us breathing, digesting replacing cells and generally performing the trillions of operations per second that keep us alive.  For Gems their "90%" is required to keep/maintain their hard-light physical form which allow them to physically interact with their environment.

Steven is different.  Because he has an organic, physical body that mostly works like a human's, he uses far, far less of his "Gem bandwidth" and can potential do a whole lot of other things (psychic powers, fuse with humans, etc.)

Figure if Gem even figure out that effect, we might see a second invasion of Earth because HOMEWORLD NEEDS MEN.

[possibilities]

Why does Homeworld need men?

The 90% of the brain unused business is absurd. I've heard it said, but it's the kind of thing that makes no sense even on a casual examination. Does anyone think you could remove 90% of someone's brain and not have any repercussions from that?

[johntfs]

3 hours ago, possibilities said:

Why does Homeworld need men?

I was riffing on

 

My main point was that Gems could potentially become much more powerful by fusing/blending with human organic forms such that the humans provide bodies so that the Gems would have more energy/bandwidth to use on innate abilities. 

Plus the idea of a bunch of Gems coming to Earth to sign up for dating sites was a little hilarious to me.

[possibilities]

I wanted to see what a Lapis-Topaz fusion would be like.

But heh-- gems on Tinder would be something to behold.

Edited January 22, 2019 by possibilities

[johntfs]

13 minutes ago, possibilities said:

But heh-- gems on Tinder would be something to behold.

Though figure Lapis Lazuli's reaction to the idea of human-style sex would probably be "Thanks, but I'm not putting that in my body."

[possibilities]

I think I've been calling someone Topaz whose name is actually Peridot.

[johntfs]

This cute, adorkable green bundle of wackiness is Peridot

 

This kind of horrifying monstrosity with human beings sticking out of her body?  That's Topaz.

[possibilities]

Yep, I was thinking Peridot and saying Topaz. Whew! No idea how that happened!!

[johntfs]

That kind of baffles me as well - especially since Topaz only showed up in maybe 2-3 episodes while Peridot has been a pretty consistent presence since the end of Season One.

[possibilities]

Yeah, I have no idea. My brain is clearly mush.

[johntfs]

Coolest scenes were these two:

 

[johntfs]

I kind of want the Homeworld Gems to recognize that Connie going to space and helping Steven subvert and effectively "overthrow" the Diamond Authority was considered by her parents to fall under the category of "play time" and now they expect her to resume focus on more serious work.

Just file that under Humans are Terrifying.

[Quickbeam]

New to show, binge watching but had no idea how long this had been on. I am team Amethyst. 

[possibilities]

Watched the new Steven Universe Movie tonight. At first, I was disappointed that there was conflict again. I am tired of war. But by the end of the movie I had changed my mind.

[johntfs]

New Lapis poster

[Miles]

Watched the movie.

Man Pink Diamond can be a real piece of shit. And that poor Spinel, standing on exactly the same spot for 6000 years. Woof, that's gonna drive anybody insane, even if it's relatively short in a gems lifetime.

That Universe-vision though. Whooo Mamma. What else do you think that guy has doubled?

Was this the end of the show? If so, I think I'm fine with it. I would be a really good ending. But I'd like to know. My heart needs closure.

Edited September 14, 2019 by Miles

[possibilities]

All the Diamonds are kind of awful. But I think it's interesting that they've leaned so hard into Pink being just so awful, after the first few seasons idealized her so much.

[theatremouse]

EIther the show contradicted itself or it's a litttttttle bit too in love with its own ambiguity for my liking. At various points, Pearl was like "I haven't seen her in 6000 years" as if that were a reasonably long time to have not seen or thought about someone. And then the other diamonds were all "6000 years is nothing to a gem!" And the montage made Spinel seem SO SAD and left behind that she snapped.

So what's the math here? Was she ditched for human-equivalent of a few days? Weeks? Months? Years? All not cool. Pink Diamond's an asshole. But was this on the level of bad-friend move or serious torment abandonment? 

[johntfs]

11 hours ago, theatremouse said:

EIther the show contradicted itself or it's a litttttttle bit too in love with its own ambiguity for my liking. At various points, Pearl was like "I haven't seen her in 6000 years" as if that were a reasonably long time to have not seen or thought about someone. And then the other diamonds were all "6000 years is nothing to a gem!" And the montage made Spinel seem SO SAD and left behind that she snapped.

So what's the math here? Was she ditched for human-equivalent of a few days? Weeks? Months? Years? All not cool. Pink Diamond's an asshole. But was this on the level of bad-friend move or serious torment abandonment? 

The Diamonds seem to be much, much older than other Gems, so that might be part of it.  Also, do me one of two favors.  First favor: just mess around on your computer and live your life for hour.  Second favor:  Stand on one leg on your tiptoes, other leg behind you and arms outstretched.  Hold that pose for an hour.  Do nothing else.  Don't speak.  Don't move.  Hold that pose for an hour.  I'll be that second hour will be a whole lot longer to you than the first one.

Pink told Spinel to stand still and wait for her.  Even worse, she didn't use her "Diamond command" to do it.  She made it a "game."  She turned Spinel into the "jailer" for Spinel.  All that effort.  All that isolation.  And for nothing.  It's not surprising that Spinel had a murderous psychotic break in the face of that.

[possibilities]

I thought the show had been cancelled-- it seemed like they were wrapping up the major stories. But according to this, a new season starts next week:

https://tvdateswatch.com/steven-universe-season-6-the-future-release-date-cartoon-network-premiere

[Quickbeam]

On 11/28/2019 at 11:25 AM, possibilities said:

I thought the show had been cancelled-- it seemed like they were wrapping up the major stories. But according to this, a new season starts next week:

https://tvdateswatch.com/steven-universe-season-6-the-future-release-date-cartoon-network-premiere

Wow, thanks for posting that! I really thought the show was over. I was not all that in love with the movie but I do enjoy the series. 

[Harvey]

The latest 4 episodes were lit. And there are more coming this Saturday.

Amethyst becoming a guidance counsellor is a surprisingly appropriate fit for her.

However, I couldn't suppress the perception that Garnet was under utilized in these episodes, which is interesting since the new series is named after her signature ability. (future sight)

[possibilities]

10 more episodes to air in March

https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwtv/article/Steven-Universe-Returns-for-Final-Season-on-March-6-20200220

[Harvey]

Well, this is done.

[possibilities]

I cried because I'll miss it so much.

[Prower]

I somehow didn't realise that this final season had started in December. The big plus side about that is that I got to binge the entirety of it today and I have to say it was pretty much perfect.

Maybe we could have seen a bit more about how the diamonds and homeworld devolped but this show has always mainly been about Steven, his feelings and his relationships.

It certainly does make sense that Steven isn't fine after all he's been through. All of that felt very real. I'm glad he seems to be working through it and his future seems bright.

This left me with a very good feeling. Not many shows can stick the landing, if they even get there and not prematurely cancalled (even though afaik Steven Universe kinda did, since the writers had a few more seasons in them). I can't wait to see what Rebecca Sugar has planned next. She was the driving force behind the good things in Adventure Time and she made an amazing show with Steven Universe. I hope somebody throws all the money at her for her next project.

[Quickbeam]

I just bought the complete collection on DVD. It has everything…the 5 seasons, the movie, the Future episodes. It’s a really nice set, I highly recommend it.