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love-takes-work · 6 years

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Steven Universe Podcast MiniRecaps: Now We're Only Falling Apart, What's Your Problem, & The Question (Volume 3, Episode 1)

This is the first episode of the official Steven Universe podcast Volume 3, approaching new episodes with behind-the-scenes peeks into the show. This episode covers “Now We're Only Falling Apart," "What's Your Problem,” and “The Question” together, and includes three Crewniverse members (one board artist, one board supervisor, and one voice actor). The official description:

There is nothing "mini" about this fullsized episode! Storyboard Supervisor Hilary Florido, Storyboard Artist Lamar Abrams, and Michaela Dietz, the voice of Amethyst, have the inside scoop on "Now We're Only Falling Apart," "What's Your Problem," and "The Question." Discover what inspired Amethyst shapeshifting into a horse, what it was like writing that beautiful proposal, and how Michaela feels about Amethyst's newfound maturity. Plus, you'll hear why communication is key and everybody should have a good support system.

McKenzie opens with an introduction; Lamar, Hilary, and Michaela say hi, and they jump right into "Now We're Only Falling Apart."

McKenzie's first question for the board team is about Sapphire: she can see the future, so how exactly do they approach writing for her?

Lamar jumps in to say they're used to it at this point--she can't see so clearly that there's no story to write and no way to surprise her; she still has the capacity to interact with others and have emotions despite that she can see things coming or be aware of stuff out of sight. Hilary points out that Sapphire sees possibilities and avenues, considering she knows the future can be changed. McKenzie brings up the fact that Sapphire used to see the future as one inevitable eventuality, but Ruby has brought chaos into the picture since she's "zany." Before Sapphire met Ruby, everyone fell into their role, and it was much more predictable, but now everyone breaks rules. Lamar thinks Sapphire's really interesting because she can still be surprised and it manifests in ways the others can't experience.

Michaela thought it was super cool to watch Sapphire using ice to separate herself from others, until after she's spent the whole episode mostly listening, and then the ice and snow softens and melts.

McKenzie points out that it's easy to sympathize with both Gems in this episode, but that Sapphire is so hard to surprise and reacts more extremely to it when it happens to her, leading her to blame herself. Hilary says the other characters were used to putting their choices on Rose, but once they had to accept responsibility for their own futures, their roles in their own lives became more active. (The guests jokingly whisper some life lessons and goof around a little about hidden messages in the show.) McKenzie then asks the guests to discuss how the episode was really mostly focused on the backstory for Pink Diamond and Pearl, and asks for details on approaching that.

Lamar loved "humanizing" Pink Diamond in his boards, making her goofy, and loving to say "welcome to Earth!" He liked showing that she didn't like everyone saluting her and flipping out over her presence, and he thinks that made her more likable. He also liked their tour of Earth and all their discoveries of nature and humans. Michaela jokes that maybe she saw the baby in that family and wanted one.

Michaela thought this is really the first time you see how much like Steven Pink Diamond is. She loved the "Zach-influenced laugh." McKenzie points out that she's got a duality, that she has two sides of her personality. She loved seeing Pink and Pearl being nerds. Hilary points out that they don't have responsibilities really, so they had time to just goof around, and Michaela understands how living the life Pink led would lead her to want to treasure her time on Earth. McKenzie was amazed that Garnet influenced the fate of the Earth. If not for Garnet, Rose would have scared all the Gems away instead of fighting for Gems too. Hilary says it's a bit circular. Pink and Pearl had fun on Earth exploring their agency, while Garnet's components had also exercised agency in wanting to be who they are. Michaela brings up the way Garnet was so unsure and didn't even want to admit that her fusion was intentional at first. Hilary says of course cross-Gem fusion is "bad," but McKenzie brings up how Rose said it was okay, making it harder to look back on that as positive.

Next episode up for discussion is "What's Your Problem."

McKenzie prompts Michaela to discuss Amethyst's newfound maturity in the episode. She identifies with bottling things up, pretending things are okay, deflecting, and wanting to take care of another person so you don't have to deal with your own feelings, so she related very easily to what Amethyst went through. McKenzie says she relates too: she doesn't want to confront everything, so why not focus on someone else's problems? Michaela loved seeing Amethyst's relationship with Steven, and she thinks everyone needs a person like Steven in their lives who can handle the hard conversations honestly, freely. McKenzie jokes that we all need that person who'll wrangle our fleeing helicopter form to force discussion about our feelings.

The group then discusses how Amethyst was REALLY trying to get Steven off her during that scene, and Hilary says she wasn't worried because he could float and land safely. Hilary loves the idea that you can both support your buddy and also express your own feelings. Amethyst is trying to be there for Steven legitimately; she's not doing it just so he'll pay attention to HER. Michaela asks the boarder folks how they decide what Amethyst will shapeshift into in any given scene, and Lamar says it's ALWAYS a helicopter as a first choice. Hilary thinks nothing will ever outdo that carseat shapeshift. Michaela remembers from recording that the underwater scene required her to gargle to make the underwater bubble noise.

McKenzie brings up how Amethyst didn't want to dump more old issues on Steven and wanted to shield him a little, and she asks whether that was really a good move. Shielding him from his mother's legacy won’t necessarily help because it'll catch up to him, but dumping it on him at once is cruel. Hilary points out that he knows the backstory; it's the emotional fallout that she doesn't want to force him to carry. Michaela says it's not really good or bad. She did it out of love. Hilary thinks it's unhealthy to bottle up your feelings for someone else's sake; she's still a strong person even if she admits that the situation is really bothering her. McKenzie also says they don't have to deal with it immediately. Steven fixated on the finding Ruby task, and Amethyst just wanted to cheer Steven up. The pizza scene comes up and they discuss what the heck is on the pizza. Michaela says she now wants to eat pizza with a spoon someday. (They goof around about having a fish stuffed with pizza.)

McKenzie brings up another scene she loved: Pearl descending into tears with Sapphire toward the beginning. She thought it was so funny. Michaela loved Deedee's "ugly cry," while for McKenzie it's more about the face Pearl makes. Lamar says during pitching if the discussion leads to "and then they cry," everyone just laughs. It's not FUNNY that someone's sad, he clarifies, but when they get to decide whether it will happen and control the action, crying is funny. Michaela also loved that Pearl was trying to comfort Sapphire but kept saying the totally wrong things.

And then they lead into discussing Amethyst's maturity and how she had a little temper tantrum about whether she was mature. She asks for the group's thoughts on that, and Michaela's very interested in the boarders' thoughts because she wants to know if they foresaw where Amethyst's emotional arc would go. Lamar thinks it fell into place easily with Rebecca's ideas because Amethyst, as the "baby," has the most room for growth and the good examples of the other Gems to bring herself up to. Hilary adds that Amethyst feels more like a sibling with Steven than Pearl and Garnet are, and has a lot of parallels with him. Michaela loves their friendship and thinks Smoky Quartz is "hashtag best Fusion."

Next, they go into "The Question."

McKenzie wants to start off discussing coping styles, contrasting everyone else's with Ruby's as shown in this episode. Hilary relates to burying your feelings by reading comics. Ruby's reaction is kind of a "fun" version of soul-searching, and Lamar was glad Ruby got time to herself. Michaela liked that Greg and Steven supported her (even though Garnet is Steven's favorite couple). McKenzie just LOVES Greg and how amazing he was at being there for Ruby. Michaela loves also that he doesn't take himself too seriously but does understand the weight of things properly. They also really enjoyed how he related Rose being Pink Diamond to himself being Gregory DeMayo.

Discussing the really great visuals on this episode, they give the credit to Miki Brewster and Jeff Liu (and this is one of Miki's early episodes). Lamar thinks it was a perfect episode for them. Michaela admits to laughing, crying, and learning a lot. Hilary brings up the comic book art in the episode (drawn by Angie Wang), which used a dry brush. Rebecca had a specific comic they referenced, and Angie replicated it so well. Angie generally does props and effects on the show. Hilary thinks drawings inside a drawing are so interesting. Lamar remembers Muppet Babies mixing styles like that. You have to do a different style on fictional comics and cartoons to make them look different from the style of the cartoon itself, or you won't be able to tell if it's supposed to be live action.

Then McKenzie prompts them to discuss the song, and Michaela goes first, saying she received the demo with just Jeff singing on it. He writes everything with a bit of a twang, so for this he just turned it up. They also all loved Charlyne Yi's performance. McKenzie thinks the song is a little reminiscent of "On the Run," and Michaela points out that every song she's sung as Amethyst has been by Jeff Liu.

McKenzie loves that Ruby ran right to being a cowboy to explore her individuality. Hilary's a little sad she didn't pick the dolphin comic. They joke about how that would've been done in a “wet brush." Michaela wants to talk about the Amethyst horse! They loved the transformation and discussed whether there was an overlay on the horse sounds she recorded. Michaela thinks there's a little bit of her voice and mostly real horse in there. They joke about the voice actor for the horse being Mr. Ed's apprentice, "Li'l Ed."

One thing that Michaela loved about this Ruby episode is that you can't know what's going on with someone from the outside. You can't assume they're perfectly content even if they seemed like it. Communication is important. And they all loved the resolution--especially the proposal. Hilary says she likes the acknowledgment that Ruby doesn't HAVE to be with someone; she WANTS to be with someone. Miki did the boarding for the proposal scene and she was clearly super into it.

[Archive of Steven Universe Podcast Summaries]

#steven universe podcast #su spoilers #long post #mckenzie atwood #lamar abrams #hilary florido #michaela dietz #the question #now we're only falling apart #what's your problem #myblog

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