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hermirrorsimage · 1 year

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session 4

- like i said about the dynamic among the crystal gems in the first season, probably the true crime in season 5 is that when steven introduces garnet to the off colors, she’s introduced as the leader. i believe this is the first time she’s explicitly stated as the leader (which she isn’t & shouldn’t be) & it really marks the end of an era for me. i felt the same about adventure time, once it divulged from its expected path & began to lead to the end/given end, it literally devolves into madness. (back to SU but also AT went severely bad like anything past around season 4-6 it just becomes a bad watch. after the marceline marathon (i love you marceline lesbian jesus) the show is over. it’s no longer worth watching however in a universe where the later seasons are axed, the marceline marathon & the finale kiss still happens. for SU where everything past S1 is deleted, jinkx monsoon mother of this shit queen of queens still appears) ANYWAYS SU. a few episodes into season 5 it’s just a mess of bringing up old plot holes & plot devices. the show genuinely feels so foreign. especially the gemcation episode when we finally get like all of the crystal gems + greg together again after so long & after all they’ve been through, seeing them now they all feel like empty husks being puppeted by something sinister. god i’m so sad. i just want everything past season 1 erased from existence. jinkx monsoon as emerald keeps me going

- i forgot til just now but i genuinely loved the idea back in season 1 that the gems watched steven sleep one at a time & rotated & i love that the moment steven catches them, it’s pearl he catches. the writing was just not in-your-face, & so well thought out. it made the world feel fuller, like stuff was happening we weren’t seeing (garnet and then amethyst watching steven & this later explains that moment where amethyst wakes steven up because she wanted dry cheese mix from the fridge where it was being stored for some reason. i’m still not over that. like it’s just fucking funny & it just wraps itself all up OMG i love season 1)

- i think lapis seriously furthers the plot in ways the show needed. an exploitive turn on fusion (later furthered by jasper that also shows us more about corruption), gems dealing with trauma in the way she does, & avoidant response to most anything. that’s what kinda hurts about the other side of her being unserious, “i like farming in the field and also binging shows with my girlfriend and our cat(-adjacent animal)” because it’s not satisfying, not really interesting, & with how i like what they did with peridot too, there’s like 0 redeeming anything about the barn going from being used by pearl to take steven off earth (such a good moment) to being where peridot performs gremlin behavior while lapis’ personality divulges to “haha ok.” i’m currently on the moment where steven catches lapis on the moon base using the scrying orb (whatever the fuck) & it’s such a good scene & i see this being in-character with season 1. i’m getting the looming feeling that they really really urged to ride a similar wave to season 1 & really stay on top of consistency & it’s showing but it’s not redeeming. i’m sorry

- i like the idea of pearl being revealed to be a class status + servant gem. one thing never really touched on (or so far(?)) is dance & technique. pearl is clearly very well-trained in ballet, and the way we see the pearls of blue & yellow perform together on a whim (vocals included like ok!) i wanna believe that pearls (either all or at least just those belonging to diamonds) are trained in performance, which makes sense given the status of pearls & how yellow so casually just asks them to start singing. it’d make sense that such a high status gem, used mainly for service (opening doors, record keeping), it’d make sense they could also be used for entertainment? think of them also serving as a jester. anyways, onto dance

- it makes sense why everyone else is sort of just rhythmically dancing: following a feeling, or following steps they learned by watching others, but pearl is always doing actual ballet moves that you can literally call out by name, she evens wears ballet slippers, like i love her i’m sorry. however, the main reason i bring this up is lapis has a little song performance she does for steven on the moon & she turns in a way that sort of looked like there was technique to it. my immediate thought was gems are all associated with a certain genre of dance (i mean everybody is fucking singing so why not) but. maybe not. that would be so cool though

- if gems are formed basically into their full, adult form then why is pink so small. did blue & yellow grow? i assume pink is roughly the same size as rose, but even if one is bigger, it’s not the same scale as pink forming to blue/yellow’s size. something to think about

me telepathically telling my dog i’d do anything for him

- the diamonds all have pearls that match their color, like the pearls are all monotone. but our pearl’s main color is peach (a shade of pink sure) & her secondary & tertiary colors are blue & pale yellow respectively. i remember a theory explaining this saying that yellow possibly lent her a pearl from HER court (there was way more explanation but i swear like i was so deep in the #steven universe theory tag that almost every episode i had a theory i could tell you like verbatim & walk you throw. like jesus fuck). but my main question is if they create pearls til one comes out monotone, or if their pearl changes with time. i suppose CLOTHING color doesn’t matter but pearl still isn’t a perfect shade of pink. like so back to the question, would pearl get thrown out in place of a new, pink pearl (if aesthetics matter that much.. but like the way white diamond is serving pure cunt IDK it’s not too far out there), or would she naturally change?

- seeing pearl next to blue & yellow’s pearls, she honestly has the motif of all three. a dress with a yellow torso, blue sleeves, & pink skirt? adding onto the performance training, i’m imagining some sort of pearl “farm”, specifically for the diamonds, where they just learn, train, & become obedient & can be sent to either yellow, blue, or pink’s court

steven universe theory megathread

so i’ve been rewatching steven universe & will update as i go. i had the idea to do this several episodes in but it became like my nightly thing to watch SU before bed so i’m at like season 3 now.. but anyways.

i wanna preface this by saying that i genuinely believe SU season 1 is entirely different & had a way different outcome than season 2 takes it, to the point where i’m going to regard it as a different show. as it stands now, most of my theories come from a season 1 outlook. i genuinely believe season 1 is its own, self-contained story that has no ending & instead can only be theorized on. i believe season 2 onward as somewhat of a spin-off that aligns SOMETIMES with season 1′s plan for the story, but overall takes it in a severely different direction. not sure the reasoning why, but from the looks of it & the theories i’ve come up with, it seems to have taken it in a darker/grim look & CN might not have liked that. or that a white woman was handling topics such as colonization & essentially a race war :) maybe that’s me.

general notes:

- although steven is the titular character, garnet pushes the story forward. the real stories lies in the gem’s backgrounds, & the only one doing that really is garnet. she’s the one that mainly sends them on missions, with a vague plan of what to do.

although she’s funneled into the leader archetype in season 2, it wasn’t where her character was meant to go. the amazing dynamic between the gems is that they’re all rough, stranded, & flawed in their own ways. garnet’s being (& it isn’t really said plainly enough) is that she’s sporadic, enigmatic, you can’t tell what she’s thinking, and she just possesses knowledge. they might use her like a compass but she is not meant to be the leader. she’s made into that role especially after we first meet sardonyx & that storyline plays out, but it ruins the dynamic. the dynamic of them being stranded, far from home, without their true leader, and that they don’t necessarily mesh well, but they come together for steven. that’s where the powerful storytelling lies in this show. i didn’t mean to take this bullet this route, but it needs to be said. anyways,

- garnet’s future vision

before it’s ever mentioned to us, and before we really get a handle on the dynamic, garnet is seen as this dauntless leader setting the team out on missions. as we come to learn her, we find out about future vision, and that’s what the show hinges on, i believe.

early season 1, the gems are just entirely out running quests & chores, all at the behest of garnet, who never shows where she gets her information. then we’re introduced to future vision.

through this lens, it’s safe to say that the quests she has the gems completing are all through the followings of future vision. look back on season 1 & you’ll wonder just where all the gems they’re fighting came from, how they knew about them, and quests such as the moon spire, the desert glass, etc. vs. season 2 & 3 where these new gem monsters are sparse & now only focused on expanding what’s already been established, such as the forced fusions, the diamonds, peridot, & lapis.

season 2 ruins this, and turns future vision into some sort of gimmick, with garnet plainly stating “i knew you would do that.” & i think at one point genuinely saying “my future vision told me” vs. how we were introduced to it, as flowing rivers & opportunities. you can argue that she just knows steven, or steven’s possibilities all mainly end up in the same way, but it’s too jarring & honestly it just fits my fantasy to blame it on the writers. what i will say though, is what feels like natural growth is garnet being more open, more personable, and more emotional. that i understand & genuinely enjoy, such as the random moments she shows her love for steven.

- season 2 ruination

like i said, it seems like season 1 is self-contained. season 1 establishes many old locations & characters & an overarching problem. the gems are fighting other gem monsters, corrupted versions of their old selves, while steven develops his powers. then it’s revealed that homeworld is still interested in the earth colony & we’re introduced to peridot & lapis, this opens up an entirely new conflict & location. i feel like partway into season 1 is where things branch off, although i feel like the jail break finale is a perfect way to end things & miiiiight’ve been what the season was leading up to anyways (garnet being a fusion is hinted at in like the beginning episodes), it still feels like the scope was lowered IMMENSELY. from here, there’s many options. a second war, steven becoming more powerful than the gems combined, the introduction of another friendly gem (not necessarily bismuth), etc. but it feels like it was ushered into a different age with season 2 & i dislike it because i think from 2 onward, the cringe content skyrockets.

- organic matter

i think, like future vision, this is one thing that the entire show hinges on & treats very importantly. steven is part gem, part organic matter, and he’s able to fuse with connie, and also heal her. organic matter is treated very sensitively in the show, and the episode i’m on now, (the centipeedle healing episode in season 3) shows steven repairing his torn stuffed animal, despite it not being organic matter. this can kinda go off in 2 ways, one weird one being M.C. bear bear IS made of organic matter, whether uncannily or just “technically the MATERIAL is organic”, or that steven is just able to heal things he sees broken & repairing them to his image. i don’t like this at all. i think steven’s handling of organic matter is something they wanted to open up later, such as his fingers turning into actual cats & fusing with connie, but was ditched entirely. you could say this has something to do with steven being a fusion (i forgot that entire scene tbh) but i think it was going to take a more darker look onto it. also steven being a fusion is pretty dark & pretty metal. but i mean it could’ve been darker as in like more grim. something weird.

- the government

i’ve been thinking more about immersion & IPs, & if you impose SU on the real world, obviously the government would know about the homeworld aircrafts, melon/mask island, & the gems in general, but they don’t. you could “it’s a cartoon” it away but i genuinely want to get into it

my theory is that beach city is some sort of ghost town, untouched by the government or, alternatively, allowed free reign, as in the government doesn’t interfere, and that would explain why mayor dewey is incompetent & mostly does nothing all day, he’s just a fake mayor there to save face, just to sit in a position so people know that beach city has a mayor & therefore a government system in place.

one fun thought is that the ronaldo “snake people” storyline (have no idea why they even thought it was ok to do that) was foreshadowing—cause they LOVE to do that—that the government might be run by gems, deep undercover, or some shit. idk. it has holes it’s just a fun what-if

alternatively, what’s really happening is the government in SU works differently than our own & is nothing like our preconceived notion of what our modern government WOULD do, but i think it’s worth pointing out. i really respect that the show doesn’t bother giving an excuse & is just operating on a “just go with it” but i love thinking about the ins & outs, and this was one of them.

i’ll continue to update this every session i have that ends in theorycrafting

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hermirrorsimage · 1 year

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- in the season 4 onion hangout episode, steven goes through his phone & has 3 contacts for lars. i’m sure the number of lars contacts is consistent with the amount of times we’ve seen his phone lost/destroyed/damaged & that makes me happy. i also have an intrusive thought that lars got annoyed with steven & was just giving him fake numbers whenever he asked but i don’t believe lars is genuinely cruel, just hyperchaotic & i kinned him when i was 17

- everyone immediately recognizes garnet as a fusion, is it because she resembles a ruby/sapphire, or do they see her gems first? part of my brain is telling me gems are just immediately able to recognize other gems, almost like a sort of sixth sense or grapevine, or maybe that since every gem is recognizable (every pearl/ruby/sapphire/amethyst/jasper/etc. follows a set sort of design) they’re able to immediately recognize a fusion because they don’t follow their preconceived notion? that would make sense why gems get addressed by name without introduction (mentions of rose with her renegade pearl) & garnet is reserved to just “the fusion”. it serves a double entendre of disrespect, “i wont say your name, i don’t respect your existence” & then also as a way to show they don’t know her name. something to think about

- this ties a bit back into garnet getting hit with the destabilizer in season 1 & you see her face as she looks back at steven. can you even imagine how she felt in that moment? steven would know she’s a fusion, she would be separated from her other half against her own will, & she wouldn’t be there to protect them. she looked so helpless

steven universe theory megathread

general notes:

- garnet’s future vision

early season 1, the gems are just entirely out running quests & chores, all at the behest of garnet, who never shows where she gets her information. then we’re introduced to future vision.

- season 2 ruination

- organic matter

- the government

i’ll continue to update this every session i have that ends in theorycrafting

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hermirrorsimage · 1 year

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session 2

the show’s entire story for season 2 onwards is genuinely uncovering that rose is a horrible being, and it’s plain to see her 0 compassion towards others affected them in negative ways, mainly we see this through pearl. we’re told she cared for earth & its people, & her tear fountain was described as along the lines of “rose felt real pain when she saw others suffering” and that genuinely could be true, although (of course) this dynamic changes in season 2. i can’t be sure if it was purposefully framed this way, as rose being pure & innocent only to change later, but it’s weird. it’s hard to say. but anways, in season 2, they make her out as this sort of dollmaster, pulling the strings, leading people along, all while having her own agenda. she sees humans as funny, interesting, but never of having importance, which is why i feel she found greg wanting to fuse so amusing and walked it off. which leads me to: i genuinely believed that rose & greg would have fused if she was willing. but she’s a soulless husk so it didn’t work ^_^.

i’ve read spoilers so i know gems end up living alongside humans, steven is a fusion, etc. and it feels like that might’ve been hinted at here. stevonnie being possible, steven essentially being a fusion of organic matter & gem (which was talked about a bit & able to be assumed), & assuming greg & rose could have fused, the show might’ve been going that route to begin with.

but so far it’s Rose Is A Shithead show for now

- they really bastardized lapis. i hate her being watered down into emo & her entire brand just being “victim”. even the “i’ve felt worse” didn’t even feel like any sort of payoff. just lapis doing her victim song & dance. i hate her just being stuck to peridot & their dynamic being stern/energetic. and speaking of peridot, it’s hard to find her gremlin-ification anything other than fanservice. it makes sense for a new-age, bound to tech gem being a gremlin irl but the joke is played out. i dislike it. i didn’t want this to be the end goal. many decisions lead to “the payoff isn’t worth it” but peridot calling yellow diamond a clod was tv gold

- through the lens of future vision, it genuinely feels as though everything happens because garnet says. garnet allowing steven to carry the moon spire statuette despite losing it, holding the test despite knowing steven might find out about it, etc. like it feels like garnet lets it happen/doesn’t stop it because she knows it’ll lead steven down the right path.

“greg was hot when he was younger” .....yeah................

- connie’s mom believing up & down, along with all staff workers at the hospital, that the forced fusions were human kind of makes me want to believe that they look different to them than steven & connie are seeing. to the point where she’s calling a 12 limbed, headless, eyeless being “sir”. there’s a weird relationship with monsters, like also believing possessed frybo was peedee, even as he had fries for feet & was spewing endless fries into people’s mouths. are monstrous/corrupted gems unknowable if you aren’t familiar with them?

- so i’m high now. but the story is, during the rebellion, when the “damage from the diamonds” hit the earth, rose was only able to save pearl and garnet, out of everyone in the rebellion. her closest pearl, who had been by her side from the beginning, and her heart of the rebellion, the new fusion, the hope for the future. somehow i feel like she knew to have utter faith in the two she saved.

steven universe theory megathread

general notes:

- garnet’s future vision

early season 1, the gems are just entirely out running quests & chores, all at the behest of garnet, who never shows where she gets her information. then we’re introduced to future vision.

- season 2 ruination

- organic matter

- the government

i’ll continue to update this every session i have that ends in theorycrafting

10 notes · View notes

hermirrorsimage · 1 year

Text

steven universe theory megathread

general notes:

- garnet’s future vision

early season 1, the gems are just entirely out running quests & chores, all at the behest of garnet, who never shows where she gets her information. then we’re introduced to future vision.

- season 2 ruination

- organic matter

- the government

i’ll continue to update this every session i have that ends in theorycrafting

10 notes · View notes