#also permafusions in SU

[kraviolis]

*clings onto any and all characters who show both subtle or explicit signs of plurality from all of my various interests and hyperfixations consistently throughout my entire life* no no its all a coincidence im just fascinated with the concept i certainly dont relate to it haha

#krav talks #princess luna + nightmare moon #oscar pine + ozpin #greed + ling #otto octavius + his actuators #anakin skywalker + darth vader #steven universe's human + gem halves #also permafusions in SU #widowmaker sort of #bucky barnes + the winter soldier #kris deltarune + their soul #asriel dreemurr + flowey #frisk + chara (in some headcanons/AUs) #bill cipher + dipper/ford #The Gravity Falls Hive AU #oh my god remember that. that was actually so fun #when everyone in our little corner of the GF fandom read this one GF fic and then one by one we all edited our icons to have neon green eye #and began preaching about how nice it is to be a part of the hive and it jumped from discord to tumblr and spread even further #im counting cleo shaw here even tho she just dissociates heavily and has amnesia but doesnt really experience plurality #im also counting james randal even tho his plurality manifests more physically than mentally. as in there r several different james randals #he has like the opposite of DID. theyre all the same james randal but just in different places at once #ALSO. unfortunately in my youth i clung so hard to MKR and fake AH crew vagabond. rip #*insert joke about crushing on an internet man as a teen and only finding out as an adult that i actually had a chance*

[spooky-somewhere]

what headcanons for Gemcyt au do you have also what is your favorite thing about it

Also have you seen Steven universe it’s ok if you haven’t

i was very embarrassing about steven universe in middle school and im currently almost finished with a rewatch (on the ruby/sapphire split arc in season 5 rn) so i have definitely seen it

as far as headcanons go... i have a lot but i can give you some of my favs?

mint emerald (grian and mumbo) as a permafusion, because of how... clingy?? they are??

buttercup calcite is around sometimes, but i imagine bcal as sort of like... a sardonyx type. i can't imagine scar likes being fused for long, although i love the idea of mint emerald + scar hanging out, with scar climbing on mint emerald's arms and sitting on his shoulder and stuff. mint emerald is the bad bitch scar pulled by being silly.

the bad boys don't fuse because they're sort of like sugilite in that, once they fuse, they get lost in it and can't unfuse. (they're also voiced by nikki minaj)

grian and scar don't fuse on their own anymore, for the same reason as the bad boys. they don't like to talk about it. but even though they're not super stable, bcal is one of the most stable three-gem fusions to exist.

if lizzie is dead (because she's pink diamond), i think joel blames scott for it in the same way that pearl blames greg for rose's "death". maybe it's because scott saw it happening and didn't do anything about it? im not sure on the finer details

pearl (as in pearlescentmoon) was scott's pearl (as in the gem) but scott didn't want her to be, because it was obvious that she could be so much more than just a sapphire's pearl. their escape (scott had to escape homeworld too, he couldn't just say "i let my pearl out and she's never coming back") involved them being fused for a time and pearl doesn't really do fusion anymore, in the same way that su pearl doesn't really do shapeshifting anymore.

hope that's what you were looking for! :3

#spooky.txt #gemcyt #i have drawings in my head for all of these #but esp the bcal stuff

[cottoncandysprite]

Hello! I had a question abt ur wwdits Steven universe au

If Laszlo and nadja are a permafusion now, how does that work w their polyamory? Will they both fuse/go on dates w someone if only one of them likes the person? (Ex: nadja and Gregor) Will they unfuse and do their own separate things for a while?

Also this is giving me delicious ideas of all ways the Ruby/sapphire episodes could work with them. The one where they fight at the motel abt sardonyx and then have that beautiful make up scene on the lawn is like their fight abt moving to England and laszlos beautiful declaration of love. Or the Ruby rider episode is the Jackie Daytona episode. And I know we never saw them get married but the wedding episode would be so,,,, cute,,,,,,

Idk you’ve awaken my love for su and now I have thoughts lol

Ah yes! They'd unfuse a lot more often in this au. Probably not in season 1 (the plot more closely follows su than wwdits) but maybe they'd be more strained? Then once it's revealed that they're a fusion they feel more comfortable unfusing (and flirting with others). I also feel like if one strongly supports the other's object of affection (the Baron, Sean eventually?) they may stay fused lol

Ruby Rider being Jackie Daytona would be genius lmao, and I already discussed the Sardonyx arc w some others as being w Nandor instead of Pearl/Guillermo, so implementing the London fiasco would actually make it even better! Another idea I've discussed is having the "I think you're pretty great" moment be with an unfused Laszlo instead. Like, Ladja would unfuse and Laszlo would run away after baby Colin discovers Colin’s glasses or something, leading to that moment in the VC library (which would be a common location I think).

#asks #colin universe au #little-cereal-draws

[crystaltoa]

Which two-Toa fusion do you think has the highest potential to stay fused indefinitely/permafuse? Like Garnet from SU

My money is on a Tahu-Gali fusion or a Nuju-Whenua one. Although I could see a Pohatu-Takanuva fusion being surprisingly stable because both of them have very similar personalities (even though I don’t ship them).

Hmm… It depends what makes a stable fusion.. Is it having stuff in common, or is it being able to balance each other out? I’m guessing you need both for the fusion to be stable in both senses of the word (stable as in sustainable over time but also stable as in… not too fucked up).

I’ll confess that I’m not overly fond of the idea of characters fusing on a near-permanent basis in Bionicle, Not many characters really seem like they’d want that level of intimacy 24/7, and most Toa seem to like having time and space to themselves. Even among characters I ship, I see personal space and time away from each other as being important in most of their relationships.

The one exception might be Varian and Norik, since they were close to the point of near codependency and Varian obviously likes spending time in his brain. Downside: Can’t pull pranks on your partner while fused with him.

Other reasonably stable ( but not necessarily permanent) fusions that come to mind are Gali/Takanuva, Lewa/Onua and Nokama/Vakama or Nokama/Nuju. I don’t ship most of those except Lewa/Onua but they seem like relationships where the people involved have both the trust and compatibility to hold the fusion together for a while.

#Bionicle

[hall0wedwyrm]

Hello I have never watched Steven Universe.

Anyway here's some Gem OCs I made

Basically, the premise is that theres a group of gems who are very pro-fusion and take in other misfits or malfunctioning gems. These three are the main members of the group. I wanna doodle the rest of the group soon but all of this SU research and doodle practice was so much fun omg.

I doodled DS and Mags' components. Verdite is a permafusion and its very rare to see her unfused so i haven't drawn her components yet.

Mags is an Amethyst and a Rose Quartz. They met while doing their roles on Earth and eventually ran away together. RQ avoided capture because of Amy. (also these doodles are semi-old but i still think they portray Amy and RQ very well)

The Sapphires!! I really really like them lol. I dubbed them Blueberry and Bluebird to define them (and also I had the idea of them calling eachother those nicknames too and its very sweet). I know that the whole thing of Sapphires is "they read the future" but i had the very smart and very original idea of "what if... one didnt??" and thats how i made Blueberry. She CAN use her future vision, but it takes a bit of time to unlike other Sapphires. I wanted to draw them as their fusion because I liked the idea I had for them so i had to draw it lol

I have other ideas for members of the group and I have an idea for one of the members that I think is funny.

#Why did this take such a grip on me. Its all ive been doing literally all week #Like from Sunday to today and probably next week too #All of my knowledge is from the Wikia and also from watching clips of it when it was at its peak #so if some stuff is inaccurate its because ive literally never seen an episode #I was gonna watch it when it was on Netflix... but why the hell does it start at season 5 on there???? #i also know you can rent shows on Youtube but idk if i even want to actually watch it now lol #im totally gonna go draw more gems now bye bye #steven universe #steven universe oc

[angelicgarnet]

tho its not always inaccurate because ruby and sapphire’s relationship is definitely romantic so u could compare them to human (lesbian) relationships in that sense. howEver trying to find a human parallel to fusion just isnt gonna make sense because theyre aliens my dude sometimes things in scifi are supposed to be cool and not a consistent metaphor for something 

#woof #i guesss you could somewhat compare permafusions to marriage but even then its not 100% consistent #also if u compare fusion to s*x i will eat a nature valley granola bar in ur bed and leave crumbs all over ur sheets #su tag

[we-gems-are-coolio]

Just another Au :v

#steven universe #su #su steven #fan fusion #moldavite #white diamond #my art #and my art style changed a little bit #but still hey guys #im back #and ready to draw Su again #au #also this is my permafusion au

[doesromandoart]

“If you aren’t into SU, why do you make so many OC’s?”

Me: “hnnggg rock lesbians”

okay so I made these OC’s awhile ago but I never shared them for some reason?

so here they are, Rubellite, Almandine, and their fusion, Rhodolite. I have a whole story thought out for these two but Im honestly not sure how I could share it quite yet, so don’t look forward to it lol.

edit: changed their gem placements because the old ones seemed a little too on the nose. (Almandines is on her mid/lower back if that wasn’t clear)

#rubellite #almandine #rhodolite #SU #SU OC's #oc's #why is the SU style so difficult?? #ugh #arties #gem ocs #I have one other permafusion in mind but I haven't designed them yet so #yea #also I have school shit to do so yeER #*yeET

[pocket-gems]

It feels like an eternity since I posted something SU related that wasn't a request. Anyway, here are some adopts I got a while ago and that I finally drew! There's still some gems adopted left to draw too haha

Emerald Sapphire is strict but caring. She has a soft spot for Zoisite Ruby, who is very childish and playful, who happens to be defective and overcooked. Emerald didn't want Zoisite to be shattered. It kinda worked for years until they accidentally fused, forced them to escape. It sooner or later had to happen.

Uvarovite is very defensive and a bit unstable, but still caring. She's lost most of the time on her mind. She lacks future vision, just like Emerald does. She's just a permafusion of difficult access...

Also did a quick height reference between my garnet fusions to compare them

Sapphires have standard sapphire size. So is Star Ruby while Zoisite is smaller. Rhodolite is also standard garnet size while Uvarovite is a bit bigger with also bigger arms. Mostly to show she's more unstable haha.

Kinda curious on how would it be if the components were changed but for now that's all ^ ^

#emerald sapphire #zoisite ruby #uvarovite #writting about them here so i dont forget later #i also should mention that i call zoisite ruby froggy #pink sapphire #star ruby #rhodolite #garnet #gemsona #su #su future #sketch #fusion #character design #i kinda wanna do a garnet were both components are overcooked to make a chibi garnet

[redrockbluerock]

1,3, 8!

Ok this is going under a readmore due to the whole. massive amount of WIPS thing. and this is just the SU ones

1-give short descriptions of all your current WIPs. -(Mega) Pearl AU Meeting Permafusion Mega Pearl- snippets from the moment Star (pink pearl) was damaged in Pink’s outburst, to the end of the war -Amber A fic exploring my oc gem Jackpot Amber- a gem type linked via a hivemind- rebelling and struggling with her newfound individuality -Bispearl Pokemon AU Ex-Steel Gym Leader Pearl Ginkgo is recovering from an accident that left her team scarred and herself unable to look at, let alone battle with Steel type pokemon. -Cometpov fanfic from the perspective of Comet Pearl, and the events that led her to freedom -Corrupted Pearl au Mothhawk (centi/pearl swap au) re-writes of all the centipeetle episodes of su -Deep Diving Pearl and Volley visit the unfinished Earth Reef to see what became of it -Dreams of a Pale Rose ASPR but for the Mothhawk au -Gliding A now healed Lonely makes the best of her corruption scars -greg gets pegged and rose’s pussy gets spun: a love story You know. i wrote this title as a joke and never actually planned on making a fic out of it -Heart Transplant Bismuth follows some local rumors about a beast living in the woods -Hibiscus and Moonblossoms Pearl loves Rose-but Rose’s feelings could never match the depth of her own. Bismuth loves Pearl- but knows her heart belongs to another. Non-fatal Hanahaki Disease -I Don’t Have The Right to Ask Where You Go at Night Supervillain Pearl, Superhero Bismuth. Steven finds out what Pearl’s “Job” entails. -I have no clue Yellow Pearl accidentally puts Pearl back into her gem while learning to fight. Stress baking ensues. -irritation old egg hell fic. Pearl takes a warm bath -Lapis and Pearl (and Garnet) get arrested for streaking exactly what it says on the tin. why did i write this? -Lonely Pearl Sequel A sequel to Not So Lonely Anymore. A pearl’s nickname is the one thing they have. Lonely rediscovers hers. -Memento Mori medival au. A young knight finds the remains of a kingdom long forgotten. -Mint Oil oc stuff. Mint Sapphire cracks her gem. -Moths on Roses Mothhawk Au. Rose reminesces about an old friend. -Not Exactly a Live Stream From possibly the weirdest human au i have- Sapphire livestreams a necroromantic ritual to bring her back to life. -pearl purring sometimes these wips are just what the title is -Pearl stuff bunch of my pearl ocs hangin out. you know -Please Step Up Pearl deals with survivors guilt about being the only gem in her batch to not be shattered. -Rosepearl i dont actually know what my plan for this was its just me playing with phrasing -SU/Skylanders crossover this is me having fun and mushing two of my fixations together. I don’t even know if this has a coherent plot -Sun and Moon Yellow Diamond resets her pearl. Blue pearl risks everything to get the one she loved back -The Roles We Play Hinge Pearl becomes White Spinel. -Zora Pearl drabbles I guess a collection of scenes taking place in the Age of Calamity timeline 3-what makes you love writing? Writing for me is a way to express myself; different than visual art. drawings will have a set way they appear, but the fun in writing is trying to create an image similar to the one in my head also like. its way easier to write a long scene than make it a comic. i’ll do both though and its fun to see what i focus on in each.

8-which of your own projects have shaped your writing the most? in what way? I think collectively it would be something i’ve been calling A Slice of Curiosity Really Makes You Think. Ive lost the original drafts years ago but it was inspired by House of Leaves- at least formatting wise. One character used first person perspective compared to most using 3rd person, wanting to look for the right words to describe really specific things and have them sound right, color coding things within the text. While I usually don’t push it as far as ASoCRMYT did, i still like messing around with formatting- bolding italics and font changes to show voice effects, a few fics where all the dialog is in rhyme, pronoun usage depending on whose in the scene... Its So Fun!

#writing ask meme

[penname-artist]

Planes/Steven Universe Crossover Stuffs

I’ve actually seen some other people making crossovers of SU with like, Cars stuff, which is awesome!!! And since I have seen it it fired me up to go back to an AU I had devised like a month ago and I *have* concept art floating around somewhere, I just...can’t find it. It’s cool. I’ll unbury it one day. :’)

Anyways a collection of Alternate Universes for Blade and Nick that I may or may not drabble one day!

AU 1: Two Gems in Love

My first concept was to make both Blade and Nick gems. Let me tell you, picking gems for them was NO easy task! But I think I’m satisfied with the ones I’ve picked. Nick is a Dalmatian Jasper, which is not only a spotted stone elluding to his heavy freckling, but it’s also primarily mined in Mexico (just a cool fun fact) and it is among the quartz family if I remember correctly. (Here is a photo also)

That being the case, he was most likely formed on earth in the Beta Kindergarden with the other Jaspers. His gem is also located on his torso, though silly me has actually forgotten where ON his torso. I’m gonna take a stab in the dark and say I drew it in the middle, between his chest and his navel. I think.

And Blade, meanwhile, is a type of stone called hematite. Now, I’m gonna say STONE because I am fairly sure just by reading up on it that hematite is not actually considered a gem, it’s a bit more on the ‘mineral’ side of things. BUT, nevertheless, it is a beautiful stone and it looks gem-ish enough to me. (Update: Google tells me that they do also call it a gem. Huh.) Anyways looky:

I would say that Blade would more likely be formed on Homeworld, and because the shininess of hematite reminds me of armor plating, he is likely an armored guardian of the Diamonds (the kinds that guard very close to them and only fight when an immidiate threat is posed to them. It’s more likely that he drags gems away to be shattered than actually fighting them himself). His gem is located higher up on his torso, I think it’s against his would-be collar bone. Again, if I had my concept art around I could actually definitively tell you where, but I do not possess it at the moment. Much sad.

And the last thing I got on this all-gems AU is their fusion. I do declare their fusion gem to be the wonderful jaspilite! Funny reason why is because jaspilite is typically “a banded mixture of hematite and quartz” so, Dalmatian Jasper is totally close enough, right? Don’t really know much else about this gem though, other than the fact that it is gorgeous. I presume their fusion would go with four arms and probably four eyes as well, but the concept of jaspilite I made is a bit “eh” so I’ll need to go back and rework it some time. Anyways behold the banded beauty!

There’s not really any big plan I have for this concept, I just found pretty gems and behold Blade and Nick have gem types and a fusion now. I might work up a story, probably something akin to Garnet’s with the “forbidden love” storyline since one of them is a Homeworld guard and the other is an Earth soldier.

AU 2: But One of Them was Human...

I was more interested in making at least one of them human for the purpose of them having a more humanoid but ultimately more unpredictable kind of fusion. And why is that you might ask? I had a very random idea that while they would definitely enjoy finding out they could fuse for a while, that joy would fizzle out into fear and eventually panic if they accidentally got stuck. Blade, being human, wouldn’t be used to the idea of fusing on any level (though it’s hard to tell if Nick would be experienced either) and since he had fallen for Nick he really would rather have the ability to hold him and touch him as opposed to literally being permafused to him. Blade and Nick might, after too much time has gone by, start to kind of bicker and need to separate, but for whatever reason they can’t unfuse (be it the power of Shenanigans or something of a situation wherein they can’t risk being unfused), until Blade eventually falls into an all-out panic attack, leading them to make up to one another, and eventually figuring out how to UN-fuse through that experience. It’s called chemistry and character development, dammit!

Also the main reason I would say Blade is human and Nick is a gem here is because 1) Nick would be ON earth, as opposed to Blade who would have still been on homeworld, 2) Nick is curious by nature and may have an adoration of humans similar to Rose Quartz, and 3) Blade would have a fascination with Nick being such an alien being, and I think he’d be more inclined to all the gem questions and understanding than Nick might be.

Not to say I couldn’t make an AU 3: But the Other Way Around, where Nick is human and Blade is back to being a hematite gem, buuuut I haven’t got any cool ideas for something like that, except for maybe Blade teaching Nick how to swordfight or somethin’.

Might make more later! For now I must go forth and work :’) Enjoy my weird AU ideas y’all!

#Steven Universe #Steven Universe crossover #disney planes #disneyplanes #planes fire and rescue #disney planes 2 #blade ranger #bladexnick #nick lopez #nick loopin lopez #Planes Steven Universe crossover

[tortilla-of-courage]

I realize now, upon remembering Greg Universe is a character in SU, I should explain the Greg thing.

'Greg' is a silly nickname my best friend and another of our mutual friends gave Ganondorf a LONG time ago. I don't even remember why. By Greg in the first ask, I simply mean Ganondorf.

Time is Rose Quartz, and Malon is Greg Universe. Wild is Steven because why not.

Four is a permafusion like Garnet because I cannot think of something more fitting. It's perfect! Four's already a permafusion anyway!

Warriors and Legend have a super strong and useful fusion, but he can't stay for long because they start bickering the second that the goal has been completed.

Warriors and Twilight have a pretty stable fusion, and someone nicknamed it 'Big Brother Prime', and then it stuck. Much to both of their chagrin.

Flora is Connie. Zelda get Master Sword. (Direct quote from my best friend.)

Also, they suggest a potential fusion of Wild and Malon being called 'Mild', and I'm convinced Wild would want to try exclusively for the pun.

Also, I thought you should know, they call you 'the tortilla'. Exclusively. Like it's a title. I thought you'd enjoy that.

Will let you know as we come up with more.

-Attllhak

OH I LOVE THESE SOSOSO MUCH and the nicknaming Ganondorf Greg thing reminds me of me and my cousins nicknaming him "sock" in spanish akjsdfnkajsdfn

THE TORTILLA... i shall carry this title with honor

#attllhak #tortilla asks #tortilla's lu tag

[curls-cat]

for the headcanon thing: that sisters grimm/steven universe au you mentioned a while ago

(send me an au and i'll give you some headcanons) also this is unfair you already got all my headcanons on the sg discord

Brief overview of the au, since it's an established one i have: su canon may have happened but like only the part before steven was born who cares otherwise. homeworld is doing fusion experiments, and sabrina and daphne (a green epidote and pink feldspar, respectively) are their first successful attempt at a permafusion. they shattered two separate gems and welded all their pieces together. Granny rescued them.

1. red is a halfway corrupted gem. Kinda like when centipeedle makes friends with Steven? And kinda like when Jasper starts to get corrupted and Steven wanted to try to heal her? So she's still herself, but she's also definitely corrupted.

2. Puck is still a garbage trash boy. Just now he's way more trans. He met people with genders other than female and went 'oh wow that sounds neat' and became transmasc.

3. the sabrina/daphne fusion that is Unakite is like. So heckin passionate? All of Daphne's excitement and all of Sabrina's rage means this girl goes into everything with 110% effort and Opinions.

4. Granny and Snow are leading a gem rebellion, but it's not like, an all-out war? It's attacks on experimental facilities, for the most part, and trying to find a planet that they can make their own and just be left alone.

5. No diamonds involved in this AU. If they were, Bunny and Baba Yaga would definitely BE diamonds. But while like. It made total sense for SU to have Rose be Pink Diamond in a story way (can't have an all-powerful governing body without making your main character NEED to interact with them, and in a story like su it's not gonna be a battle to the death), i'm not interested in exploring anything canon's already covered. I'm mostly interested in su's focus on healing from trauma and just. Rock Ladies Cool. Also fusion as a concept is just the greatest.

#sisters grimm #the sisters grimm

[mx-mystic]

SU theory: The Ruby in Rhodonite is actually Navy. It accounts for her personality and soft voice and it doesn't seem like much of a stretch to me. She had failed her mission, so she'd be an outcast (if not a gem on the run from the law) who stumbled upon a pearl and they ended up fusing to save their lives.

#who knows it might even be pink diamond's pearl #su spoilers #su rhodonite #su theory #also noting that rubies seem to have a penchant for permafusing

[monarch-blue]

My Thoughts On SU Future’s Episode “VolleyBall”

⚠️ Spoiler Warning Ahead! ⚠️

Just watched the volleypearl episode. It was great.

A couple things I would like to note:

1) I ship Volleyball and Pearl. Pearlfriends/Volleypearl

2) Notice how at the end of the episode we only got to see one of Volleyballs eyes. We didn’t get to see what the eye looked like after Mega Pearl finally unfused. When the two pearls looked at each other we saw all of Pearls face but not volleyballs. I wonder why that is? (I know her scar from trauma is still there, but it also makes me question if it isn’t.) Just thought that was weird that they wouldn’t show her whole face.

3) Steven is acting more and more like PD as time goes on and I don’t like it, his new found powers are getting harder to control, he is clearly emotionally exhausted and depressed and that is finally catching up with him. This causing his anger to get out of control; hence is new found powers continuing to go haywire.

He clearly scared Volleyball everytime he went pink, clearly causing her to remember some trauma with PD!

Did you see the way she hunched behind Pearl (btw Pearl immediately going into overprotective mode and standing over her like: ahhhh) when he turned pink clearly afraid of the teen boy who stood before her. The son of the person she loved with the same uncontrollable powers.

She mentioned to Steven that he was “just like her” and honestly I agree slightly. It may have bothered him and he may want to deny it, but he is acting more and more like Pink!

4) I wished the two pearls permafused, because they literally had a perfect fusion! Two arms and two eyes! Although Volleyball’s eye still had the scar, but honestly I would have been upset if it didn’t. That was emotional trauma. It won’t go away that fast!

5) When the two pearls held hands at first, it was clearly because Pearl felt the need and kinda in my opinion correct me if I’m wrong, some high and mighty aura to her. Then they got into the groove of it, and so when Volleyvall let go, Pearl makes this face, like wtf I was enjoying this.

6) The fact they grab onto each other when they were being visibly ripped apart at the seems in the shell, in the reef!

7) Volleyball leaning her head against Pearls shoulder!

8) This fusion finally starting to give both of PD’s pearls the closure they need!

9) MEGA PEARL! They fact we get a NEW fusion so fast into this new series! Yes just yes!

I had more- maybe an ad on in another post, but my brain is tired and blanking so I can’t finish what I had to say!

#su volleypearl #su future #su #steven universe #steven universe future #volleypearl #steven universe future volleyball #pearlfriends #steven universe future spoilers #steven universe spoilers #volleyball spoilers #pearl #su pearl #su volleyball #su pearlfriends #lesbians #su lesbians #space rocks #gems #girlfriend space rocks

[popculturebuffet]

Jake Reviews Stuff: Steven Universe: The Answer

Happy pride everyone and naturally, it just wouldn’t feel like a celebration of pride in animation without one of the frontrunners of LBGTQ represintation in Children’s television, as well as quality in storytelling in general: Steven Universe.  Since your seeing this you probably know the gist but as my idol peter parker would say let’s do this one last time:  The story of Steven, a 14 year old, though he dosen’t look it, boy with a boundless amount of love, compassion and empathy,  lives in beach city with his borderline homeless dad , surrogate moms and surrogate until we find out they actually are kinda related sister: Garnet, a fusion of two gems in love and thus the sum total of both them and their feelings, Peal, an emotional but loving gem who grew from a servant to Rose’s right hand, sometimes lover, and confidant, and Amythest, a gem born long after the war that brought everyone else here who acts like a 20 something or teenager half the time. Steven soon finds himself fighting alongside themt o protect earth both from the monsters caused by the final battle of the war his mother fought to save earth from distruction and let her army live life how they choose, and the gem homeworld as it starts to take an intrest in earth again. And as the fight goes on Steven also starts to see just how flawed his family is and how much they haven’t moved on from his moms death and finds himself forced to help them past it while grappling with his mom’s terrible and complicated legacy, everyone expecitng him to basically be her, and what it means to be a  being that’s truly one of a kind.  I absolutley love the show: it’s not without flaws; Characters tend to be ingnored for seasons or episodes at a time,some arcs are really weirdly paced and the slice of life episodes can be jammed in the weirdest places. But the show’s strength: a devotion to having emotional resolution be even more important, and sometimes just as powerful animated and framed, than fighting, though the show’s fight scene’s are incredible, incredibly deep characters with fully fleshed out arcs and growth, and a love for tackling deep, heavy subjects through metaphor or even directly, taking on things such as gender identity, societal conformity, ptsd, grief, gender identity and many many more with grace and weight and helping kids with them in the process.  The show is also the frontrunner for LBGTQ+ representation in cartoons in the 2010′s. While other shows had bits nad pieces, series creator Rebecca Sugar was the one responsible for making Marcline and Princess Bubblegum ex-lovers and making it obvious as possible without saying it because standards were bullshit, Steven Unvierse decided to say fuck subtley and thus had PLENTY OF gay content: Garnet is a fusion of two women and the embodiment of their love and relationship, and when the two show up their very affectionate with one another to the point of bullcrap censorship in less tolerant countries such as india and russia, while Pearl out and out had a CENTURIES LONG romantic relationship with Steven’s mother who was explictly pansexual, and that’s just the main cast!  But I genuinely believe that it’s thanks to Steven Universe that children’s animation is as LBGTQ+ positive as it is now. SU wasn’t the first to have gay leads but it was one of the few kids shows with the balls and, at least in the us, network support to explictily have gay characters as some of the main cast, and I feel the show’s success softend execs at CN and other companies to let more representation too. Since SU”s airing, most CN shows have had gay content great and small, Nick has had gay parents and a bisexual lead, not to mention the korra ending kicking it all off, and Netflix has said hold my beer, having not only multiple gay main characters, but having the finale of she ra be built on a decleration of love between two women saving the universe and being the climax of the entire series.  Not that those crews likely still didn’t have to FIGHT for most of that, i’m not bilind and NOelle Stevenson has outright admitted she had to be sneaky about catradora for season 1 as to not get it shut down, but I feel SU”s sucess and Rebecca and crew’s own likely fights put the various studio goon’s reflector shields down and got more representation into children’s media. And that’s a wonderful thing.  So naturally the show was a lock for this month and for coverage here.. i’ts just given the show’s heavily seralized nature and the fact it dosen’t really have any long romantic story arcs. Sure ther’es plenty of romance, but it’s mostly either in the past or between an already married couple that’s also a person. The show’s arcs were more focused on worldbuilding and character building, which I do prefer and will be doing one in July.  But it did make it tricky to find an episode to spotlight the character I wanted to spotlight: Garnet Garnet is easily my faviorite character, with pearl a very close second: she has a great dynamic, is a decent if flawed mother and leader, and is also damn funny with her deadpanned reactions to things being utterly divine. As well as whatever the hell this is. 

The problem is I also wanted to spotlight the parts making up her: Ruby and Sapphire, their relationship etc as they themselves are fantastic and i’m 100% convinced were the inspriation for one mr mc skat kat and one paula abdul’s magnum opus in steven’s unvierse

The problem is most rupphire episodes are tangled in bigger arcs. They debuted at the end of the invasion arc, they had the baseball episdoe together shortly after another arc, and their wedding is tied up in the reveal rose was pink diamond and the reception is crashed by the climactic battle with Yellow and Blue that sets up the final arc of the whole series. But thankfully season two gave us The Answer to my problem.. ironically named the Answer, basically Garnet Year One as Garnet tells steven how she came to be, a story so beauitful they made a storybook out of it.. and it’s my honor to present it here after the cut. 

We open at the Barn... as a refresher at this point the Gems and Steven have been staying at Greg’s old family farm in order to have the  space and suplies to build a drill to stop the cluster from hatching and destroying earth, with Peridot reluctantly working with them. So as such Steven’s sleeping there when Garnet wakes her.. and in a notable departure for her it’s san’s shade, which shows her adorable excitment as she wakes Steven. Turns out it’s his birthday! And.. I don’t really begrudge the show for takin ga break for two episodes to celebrate it: besides being the only time steven went up a year, on screen, it was a nice break from the peridot/cluster storyline for a second, and this and the following episode are pretty great and both add a lot to the world as a whole. It’s why i don’t MIND when SU takes a break from the plot, as long as they do it for good reason. 

IN a great callback steven asks if garent’s going to tell him she’s a fusion, as Jailbreak revealed the reason she hadn’t yet is she was saving it for his birthday, which is a good joke and a great callback. Garnet cheerfully tells him know but has clearly found a backup: While steven knows she’s a fusion now.. she never told him how she came to be and how ruby and sapphire met after all.  So we journey back about 5000 years to, as we’d learn much later with the pink diamond reveal, the start of the gem war. Earth was to be the next great colony, as we’d learn next season for pink diamond, but something was in the way: The rebel rose quartz and her brutal right hand pearl were causing tons of distruption, so the rest of the diamonds had come to snuff out the rebellion personally.  So that’s where Ruby and Sapphire came in. Sapphire is a higher class gem, and befiting her caste is a precog, with Sapphires brought in to tell the diamonds the future so they can either make sure it happens or change it’s course. Garnet neaturally has this ablility too but vastly improved to see multiple timelines. She’s proper and distant.  Ruby meanwhile is a shy, if more intellgent then her peers grunt soldier. Rubies as we learned here are basically made in groups to fuse. To homeworld, Fusion is simply a tactic to create a slightly stronger gem out of three other gems, and basically creates one giant person. In Contrast up to this point the series has shown fusion as something important to the crystal gems and requriing more work: It requires all parties to be in sync to even happen much less stay together, and requires an emotional connection; Freindship, romance, kinship... whatever it is it’s needed to hold the fusion together. It’s part of what MAKES garnet so impressive: Garnet is a permafusion, only unfusing either when her two halves are needed. or when thier personal conflict is so great they CAN’T stay fused. It also means due to said emotional resonance and combining the best traits of two gems rather than creating just one big gem, that the crystal fusions we’ve seen are vastly more powerful and versitale.. evne if they dont’ speak much because Rebecca made the mistake of getting big artist to do the role and apparently refused to just you know.. recast? It’s something that always baffled me. There’s no shortage of talented poc performers who can sing out there.  Anyways, that’s part of what makes this intresting: up till now, we’d only seen one form of fusion.. we hadn’t seen what homeworld thought of it and used it for, and to the show’s credit it was hinted back during the return arc when Jasper called fusion a “tactic for making weak gems stronger”, since as far as homeworld used it, that’s what it was and it’s a stark contrast to the crystal gems harder to maintain but much more intresting and unique fusions. 

We’ll get more into this later. The two front rubies argue about whose going to punch people whie our ruby just points out the obvious: Their just going to fuse into a really big ruby and punch together. This gets her shoved into sapphire, which despite not being her fault gets gasps and monocle pops from the gems around them. And it’s about time I dug into the episodes unique animation style: instead of the usual, only a handful of characters, the rubies, sapphire, and later rose and pearl, are animated normally and even then, at least for the first half, are brightly lit in their primary colors, while the rest of the gems present are just barely animated sytlistic shadows. It’s a really intresting choice and a clever way to save on budget, while still looking gorgeous. 

Sapphire, while refusing Ruby’s help getting up, is understanding if monotone, but as w’eve seen in the present, tha’ts mostly just a side effect from seeing where everything’s going, and likely the reason garnet’s own emotional process is much like that; Stoic but willing to emote when necessary. Sapphire however has a reason for brushing her ruby off: the reason she was called here.. Blue Diamond.  This is intresting as it’s not only the first time we HEARD of blue, as before this we only heard of Yellow, who’d make her proper debut at the end of this season, but the first time we saw a diamond in any way shape of form. Sure we had murals and such, but given the lack of info about the diamonds this early on it was impossible to tell whow as who and the only giveway there was more than was diamond was the symbols: the era 1 symbols in temples and at the arena showing all 4, hinting at pink, and the modern one shown in jailbreak that was a triforce. We do only see Blue in a hood, covered by her palquin and her voice done by Garnet, but it’s still the first tiem we’d see any of the diamonds in any onscreen form. The Garnet voice is also notcable as every other voice in the flashabck, including characters who aren’t either part of garnet or the same gem type as part of her, is normal.. it’s only blue Garnet does a voice for.. and a clever way of covering for the fact they likely hadn’t cast her voice actress yet. It’s also notable for the introduction of Blue Pearl, who silently stands by her Diamond teh whole time.. it’s weird thinking back to the fact that this was the first time we’d really SEEN other versions of our main cast: other rubies and another pearl. Sure we knew they were all part of one type or another with the obvious exception of garnet.. but this episode is notable, and weird to think about giiven how many variants we see as the series goes on, for being the FIRST time we see this on screen. 

Sapphire reveals that while she, and two of her rubies, will poof the rebllion will end here, and Blue is releaved to here this, thanks sapphire and dismisses her. As Garnet explains, Sapphire had no issue with this as she simply saw her life as one straight line: No choice no, option: Fate would just come as it may. Sapphire also muses to Our Ruby on the fact that she finds this planet a wonderful place for a colony.. and that she wishes she could’ve seen more of it. While Our Ruby says theirs more time, Sapphire, while appricating the sentiment gently shoots it down.  This little moment is interuptted however as Rose shouts out, signaling her and Pearl’s arrival. The battle has begun. And I do like the clever use of storytelling here.. not in presetnation but in what we’d learn muchhhh later with the big reveal: To a first time watcher, we just thought that it was only rose and pearl for story purposes or it was a small attack. After all the rest of the characters we’d seen were just shadows, so I, and I presume many others just assumed the rest were off screen or failing that this was just a small strike. As we’d learn once we got the full story of Pink Diamond becoming rose.. it was indeed JUST them, and only them at the time. it’s probably why in the future sapphire saw the rebellion ended her: Pink while powerful had to reign it in as not to be found out and pearl, while as we see her is already utterly badass and an ace with a sword as she mows down Quartz soldiers, is still one gem going up against a literal army.  Another noticable thing, that hints at when this takes place is the fact that when Rose takes down the fused rubies, poofing two of them and leaving ours to flump to the ground.. she uses her fists. At this point her iconic sword is well established and it’s assumed it was just left out for artistic purpose.. but since we meet who made it next season with Bismuth, it’s another clever hint this is before there was a proper army. Bismuth wasn’t a gem yet so Rose/Pink just had her natural strength and shield to protect her, which wasn’t nothing, but the sword probably made it far easier to hold back. 

And thus we come to the moment of truth: Pearl has come back and is about to mow down sapphire.. when Ruby realizes just waht Sapphire meant and waht she’s about to do and thus.. the future changed. Ruby tackles her out of the way. And Garnet is born. 

I absolutley love Garnet’s cotton candy design, both as a sensible evolution, as this is a garnet formed in a moment of passion and accidently versus the one we see in the present or even in flashbacks: a person formed by choice and love and thus having a more stable form. Naturally, Rose and Pearl are baffled by this.. and it’s even more understandable.. as the above mentioned pink diamond origin episode explained.. they had never SEEN this kind of fusion before. While i’m sure this isn’t the first time this happend in gem history, any others were likely killed as soon as it were over or went into hiding as we saw with the off colors. And Pink being sheltered and Pearl being created for her, probalby simply never thought of something like this existing. But they also realize this never before seen to them miracle is their cue to skidoo and book it out of there.  Naturally Blue is pissed and the court are disgusted as the two defuse and both have about the same reacation. 

Before Blue can murder Ruby for you know, doing her fucking job, Sapphire ttakes her by the hand and books it off the sky arena and the two plummet to earth  while ruby screams no a lot. The foundation of any good relationship. 

They float down to earth.. because she’s Mary Poppins Ya’ll. Ruby reveals why she’s upset: Because as she sees it, there’s dozens of her. She’s not WORTH this. Sapphire has no reaction because for the first time, she has no idea what the future brings, what it means and the future she saw was just shattered. She’s frozen. 

Jokes aside I really love that pun. Ruby worries and quickly scoops her up bridal carry style and quickly finds the two a cave. In the cave the two light that flame get that and Ruby continues to freak out over what happened,  upset with her self that she’s supposed to save sapphire.. with Sapphire gently reassuring her “you already did.”  It’s also intresting as it shows even garnet, or at least half of her, had to go through what peridot did.. it went down a bit easier since exile happened right away, but Ruby still had to shake off the homeworld conceived notion that she was WRONG for saving sapphire simply because it lost them the fight and got them fused and all that. It’s also a nice metaphor for someone whose been told, for a nightmarish rainbow assortment of bullshit resaons, that being gay is wrong only to discover they are and having to realize there’s nothing wrong with who they are. 

After a breif flash the two finally talk about their fusion, with Sapphire being suprised considering she figured fusion wasn’t anything like they experinced.. only for Ruby to chime in that sh’es RIGHT: Their fusion wasn’t anything like Ruby’s normal “me but bigger’ fusion.. they lost htemselves.. and both clearly enjoyed it, expressing it through having a third eye for ruby and more than one for sapphi 

We then get the utterly adorable musical number: “Something Entirely New”Which takes the so far mildly subtle “This is like two people who had sex with the oppsite gender for the first time “ metaphor.. and just makes it texual as the song basically screams of two people talking over an unfamiliar sexual experince, but in a cute, well done, and intentionally awkward way that’s still approraite for the kids. it’s a real beautiful song and also shows the burgoning couple bond on earth. This is important as a previous episode had garent and out and out say that love takes time and work, accurate and that love at first sight simply dosen’t exist.. and we also see she practices waht she preaches as the montage does show some time past and even before that the two genuiely bonded. Sure they FUSED on the spur of the moment.. but actually loving each other took time and bonding. 

As the song ends, the two dance romantically,deciding to be Garnet for good as we get some nice callbacks to jailbreak: the two hum the tune to stronger than you, now revealed to be their song and spin similarilty to the way they have when they’ve fused, a nice callback that also add’s weight to those previous moments.. and thus two become one and Garnet is reborn. 

Garnet narrates as her past self gets used to her strange new form.. and just as she does she falls down a ditch. Eh could’ve been worse. 

Garnet finds herself face to sword with Pearl. Pearl backs off a bit once she realizes who their dealing with, and Garnet panickedly offers to unfuse.. only for Rose to enter. Garnet narrates them as Rose Quartz and her terrifying renegade pearl. 

Truly a force to be reckoned with. Rose dosen’t care about her own feelings though “What you feel is bound to be more intresting” It’s a good moment both because Garnet , up to this point hasn’t had to think about what they are or how they feel.. but more notably... no one but the two gems makingthem up ever cared, not before they were garnet and after all the homeworld gems wanted was to kill her. We also get a great line from garnet: “Why am I sure that i’d rather be this than anything else and that i’d rather do this than anything else i’m supposed to do? “  Rose’s response.. to give a giant grin while saying welcome to earth. As Garnet continues to question things, Rose tells her to never question this, never question what you are... which is a damn good message for a kids show to give out. The metaphor is crystal clear: no matter where you are on that beautiful lbgtq+ rainbow: NEVER be ashamed of who you are, never question it.. just enjoy it. Be who your meant to be and love that person. It’s a damn good message and one badly needed in a medium that for way too fucking long was SCARED to tell messages like this: Of sponsors, of foreign markets, and of idiots like one million moms. it took people like rebecca and her crew to say “fuck that”, to say that queer kids NEED these kinds of stories to know they aren’t alone, they are beautiful how they are. They shoudln’t have to wait to find out what they are.. is okay. And that’s beautiful. 

As Rose Tells Garnet that she is the answer, and as we cut back to the present, Steven asks what the answer is. Garnet simply answers: Love. And we close on one great exchange Steven: I knew it Garnet; (wistfully) So did I. 

Final Thoughts: While I remembered the episode being good, hence part of the reason I choose it I forgot just HOW great this episode was, especially post reveal. The art direction is goregous, shot like a fairy tail and rightfully so since this episode is told as one, the story is heartwarming and erica and charlene really act their hearts out as ruby and sapphire while Estelle kills it as both present garnet narrating and past garnet, a garnet ENTIRELY diffrent from what we’ve seen but acted beautifully. It’s espcially noticable since unlike the other two lead gems, we obviously wouldn’t see more garnets like we would amythests and pearls, so unlike her contepraries estelle really didn’t get to flex her vocal range as much playing alternate versions as the seasons went on, with this being the closest she got.  The episode is beautiful, has a wonderful message, and is just utterly charming and is agian why I DON’T mind that every su episode dosen’t advance the plot: Sometimes it dosen’t need to. And even so this one ended up being WAY more important than I remembered, introducing blue diamond and turning out to be MASSIVELY important once the reveal kicked it: For it was Garnet, and the love dthat forged her that changed Pink’s direction. Before the rebellion was simply a way to stop the occupation of earth and would’ve been snuffed out if not for ruby’s actions.. but seeing garnet, seeing how earth and being free from homeworld’s restraints could positvely impact someone.. it changed rose. Besides bringing her and Pearl together, it also made her realize just what her rebellion could bring to people and what a gem could be and even more how precious her future home was. By forming in an act of Love, garnet changed the entire future of gemkind. By staying that way she did so once more. And that’s beautifully. overall an underated, even by me, little masterwork with once again a damn fine message.  We’ll get back to SU soon enough, as I plan to cover the series first full arc as we meet peridot, and see into the souls of our heroines. But first Pride isn’t over yet, and I have one last card on the table as we todd it up a bit with my first look at bojack horseman. Like this if you enjoyed it, comments subscirbe etc etc and don’t be afraid to comission a review for 3 bucks, and until we meet agian, later days. 

#steven universe #garnet #ruby #sapphire #rupphire #pearl #rose quartz #pink diamond #blue diamond #the answer #fusion #review #lbtqia #lbtq+ #lbtqa #pride month #pride #reviews