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toxicdogars · 4 years

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Clair + D&D! Excited to see what comes of this. :)

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Clair

Ah yes, Clair. The final gym leader you fight before reaching the League for the first time in all Johto games. And that’s generally all we really get of her in those games, aside from her rivalry with Lance and how much of a haughty sore loser she is. Though this is not the Clair we are looking at today, today we approach @draconscious and their interpretation of Clair, who I firmly believe has developed more into her own person and away from the second-place ruthless girl of old. Let’s start with a few goals. The obvious one is this- Dragons. It’s Clair’s type specialty and we need to put some of that into her D&D counterpart. Let’s also draw some focus toward her ruthless battling style and get some physical damage sources as well. On that same note, we should also make sure that she’s durable. This girl can take Pokemon attacks with ease. That’s gotta mean she’s got high hit points or defenses, right? Once again, we’ll be using Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition and all books and articles related to it.

Ability Scores

These ventures will use standard array, a set of numbers given as a sort of average stat pool. Feel free to roll for stats if you wanted to use this character, just treat this arrangement as a general order for what stats are most important. Make sure to keep some multiclassing minimums in mind but it shouldn’t be that difficult. Personally? I think Clair needs higher stats than what I have available here. So definitely consider rollling.

Strength: 13 (She’s pretty strong, but we just need other stats more) Dexterity: 14 (Will be needed for our armor and attacks) Constitution: 12 (A positive modifier is always good) Intelligence: 15 (A core stat) Wisdom: 10 (Definitely not the best at insight checks but I wouldn’t dump it) Charisma: 8 (She’s attractive, but not the best with people)

Race

In a surprise will be change of pace, I’m going to make Clair an Elf. She’s haughty, comes from a long line of respected warriors, and just look at her. She practically screams elven princess. On that note, let’s push further on that royalty aspect and make her a High Elf. High Elves get the typical 30 feet of movement and get +2 to their Dexterity and +1 to their Intelligence, bringing our core stats up to 16 each. She’d also get Darkvision and free proficiency in Perception to see well in the low light of the Dragon Den. Her Fey Ancestry would also give her advantage on charm saves and she wouldn’t be able to be put to sleep by magic, which is good, since elves don’t sleep anyway. Instead she has a Trance, which gives her the benefits of a long rest over four hours instead of eight. More time for training, right? As a High Elf, Clair would also have free proficiency in the longsword, shortsword,shortbow, and longbow, as well as an addition language of her choice in addition to the Common and Elvish she’d already know. Take Draconic, perhaps? And lastly, High Elves get a free cantrip to start that relies on Intelligence, which is going to be your casting modifier anyway so that’s excellent. Here’s a solid choice:

Green-Flame Blade: An evocation cantrip that uses a weapon attack to strike a foe, causing green flames to leap to another nearby foe. Cantrips scale by character level, not class level, so it will eventually grow stronger, adding extra fire damage to the initial strike. A bit of a substitute for Dragon Breath if you ask me.

Class and Background

Some might be expecting me to go Sorcerer again and take the Draconic Soul, but I wanted to highlight more than just her draconic connection and focus on her personality, what she would do if she was actually growing up in a fantasy world with magical creatures and teens traveling the world fighting monsters. Oh, wait, she does live in a world like that. Well, make it more medieval and then you’d get... a Fighter! Yes, I would say that Clair has plenty of martial experience. But I also think that she has plenty of focus on study and research- especially after realizing the errors of her ways. So we also will stack in a couple levels of Wizard For now, let’s start with some Fighter levels..

Fighters start with a d10 hit die (excellent), proficiency in Strength and Constitution saving throws, simple weapons, martial weapons, light armor, medium armor, heavy armor, shields, and two skills from a short list. Of the options listed, Acrobatics and Athletics will reflect her athletic ability pretty darn well. Gonna need both if she’s running around ancient caverns looking for the rarest of Dragon Pokemon. Toss on some light armor, I’d recommend studded leather. As for what weapons to focus on, I’d suggest any Finesse weapon to pair well with her Dexterity. Could be a dagger or a rapier, but I personally think a whip is the most appropriate for her character.

As for her background, let’s focus on training with the Blackthorn Dragon Clan and call her a Noble. Let’s adapt the background a bit and give her History and Intimidation instead of Persuasion, another language of her choice, and a gaming set of her choice. My bet is chess, she’s probably challenged the Elder to many games to get in his favor.

We’ll start with some early Fighter levels and then proceed to her levels in Wizard, and then go back to Fighter to round off the build. At Fighter 1, Clair can pick a Fighting Style. She’s got some options, but what I would recommend is:

Dueling: When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.

This means that whip of hers deals 1d4 + 3 (from Dexterity) + 2, which is already the maximum damage of a whip in the hands of someone with 20 Dexterity. This should make up for the lower damage of the whip pretty well. Fighter 1 also nets her a recovery ability in the form of the following feature, which will help when she’s taking those Pokemon attacks:

Second Wind: On your turn, you can use a bonus action to regain hit points equal to 1d10 + your fighter level. Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again.

At Fighter 2, she gets a nifty feature called Action Surge:

Action Surge: On your turn, you can take one additional action on top of your regular action and a possible bonus action. Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again.

By the way, this is the second reason we’re starting Fighter. The first is getting proficiency in Constitution saving throws to make her concentration saves to maintain her wizard spells really damn good. Speaking of magic, let’s get some more. Spamming that Green-Flame Blade can’t be all ya wanna do, right?

At Fighter 3, Clair can pick a martial archetype, and we’re going to get that magic going with Eldritch Knight. Eldritch Knights gain the ability to cast wizard spells, relying on their Intelligence modifier just like her cantrip from High Elf. This means her Intelligence modifier is added to the attack rolls of spells and the difficulty check of saving throws her spells require. She gains two cantrips from the wizard list and three first spells, two of which must be evocation or abjuration with the third being free of that restriction. In case someone doesn’t know the difference, cantrips are simple magical tricks you can pull off at will, while leveled spells require expending one of your spell slots of a level equal to or higher than the spell’s level. Here’s some options:

Fire Bolt: An evocation cantrip that deals fire damage from a distance- a pretty solid Ember attack, if you ask me. Her Salamence likely knew it when it was a Bagon after all. Lightning Lure: An evocation cantrip that forces a Strength saving throw lest the target be drawn up to 10 feet closer, and deals lightning damage if the target is pulled within 5 feet of her. A handy Thundershock if you ask me. Earth Tremor: A first level evocation spell that forces a Dexterity save by shaking up the ground in a localized quake, dealing bludgeoning damage if they fail the save. A solid Bulldoze. Shield: A first level abjuration spell that increases your armor class by 5 for a round of combat as a reaction. Pretty good use of Protect if you ask me. Feather Fall: A first level transmutation spell that basically saves people from a falling damage up to a point. Rather handy if she falls off a dragon.

Additionally, she gets a nice ribbon ability from the EK, which can be applied to her whip so that she always has access to a weapon:

Weapon Bond: Over the course of 1 hour short rest, you can bond a weapon to you. Once bonded, you cannot be disarmed unless you are incapacitated and if the weapon is on the same plane of existence, you can summon it to your hand as a bonus action. You can bond up to two weapons at once.

At Fighter 4, Calir gets her first Ability Score Improvement (ASI) and let’s dump the +2 into Dexterity to make her weapon attacks all the better. She also gets another spell from the wizard list, which must also be either evocation or abjuration. Here’s a good choice:

Burning Hands: A first level evocation spell that releases a gout of flame, burning a line of foes if they fail a Dexterity saving throw. A solid Flamethrower if you ask me.

At Fighter 5 she gains a simple level that gives you the most useful skill a martial character can have, the ability to hit more times with her weapon:

Extra Attack: You can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

It should be noted that this wouldn’t stack with Green-Flame Blade, as casting the spell is not taking the attack action. However, we will gain a way around that restriction soon. But first, let’s lean in to Clair’s dragon research with some levels in Wizard.

At Fighter 5/Wizard 1, Calir gains some buffs to her spellcasting. Since we’re multiclassing two separate casters, it’s worth mentioning that the spell slots Clair has will be modified a bit, since wizard is a full caster and eldritch knights are 1/3 casters, she’ll have a slightly higher amount and level of spell slots. Just look up the effects of this online or in the player’s handbook. The modified spell slots do not change what each of her classes could learn normally, so we will proceed as if she only had the slots of her respective classes. Wizards, unlike Eldritch Knights, can use a spellcasting focus to ignore material components- let’s make that a Dragon Fang or Dragon Scale- as well as cast spells tagged as rituals without using a spell slot as long as she takes extra time doing so. With the caveat that those spells have to be within the Spellbook, a tome of knowledge that the wizard has filled out with their magical secrets. The Dragon Pokedex, perhaps? Wizards can prepare a number of spells from their spell book equal to their Intelligence modifier plus their wizard levels, which will cap out for her at seven. She starts with six of these spells and can add more to her book if she finds them and has the time and money to do so. For every additional level in Wizard she takes, she also gets two more added. Since all these spells will be first level, use it to hold the spells she can’t grab due to the restrictions on Eldritch Knight. Here’s six solid options to add to her book:

Comprehend Languages: A first level divination ritual spell that lets the caster understand any spoken or written language while it’s in effect. Pretty handy when investigating old sites. Find Familiar: A first level conjuration ritual spell that, to reduce the massive amount of rules around familiars to a few sentences, basically allows the summoning a special pet that can do a number of things for her in and out of battle. Use this to summon a snake, perhaps, and make a baby Dratini! Absorb Elements: A first level abjuration spell that uses a reaction to deflect elemental damage that you take and apply it to your next attack. Handy for adding some extra damage to her whip, I’d say. Fog Cloud: A first level conjuration spell that requires concentration to throw up a cloud of mist, which can be used to hide from enemies. Handy. Ice Knife: A first level conjuration spell that deals cold damage by hurling icy shards, almost like the move Ice Shard. It also has the fun side effect of forcing a Dexterity save for extra piercing damage in an as the knife explodes. Detect Magic: A first level divination ritual spell that does what it says on the tin, requires concentration to sense magical auras. Could be useful in locating all manners of old relics and the like.

Clair also gains a nifty Wizard feature at this level that helps with the brunt of the spell slots she’ll be spending when casting leveled spells so frequently:

Arcane Recovery: Once per day when you finish a short rest, you can choose expended spell slots to recover. The spell slots can have a combined level that is equal to or less than half your wizard level (rounded up), and none of the slots can be 6th level or higher.

At Fighter 5/Wizard 2, Clair gains an Arcane Tradition, and I don’t know if she as trained in folk music as a kid, but we’re giving her the Bladesong tradition anyway to make her martial skills even more magical. The Training in War and Song feature nets her proficiency in light armor, a one handed weapon of her choice, and in the Performance skill. Two of those things she’s already got, but that’s not why we dipped wizard. This is:

Bladesong: You can invoke a secret elven magic called the Bladesong, provided that you aren't wearing medium or heavy armor or using a shield. You can use a bonus action to start the Bladesong, which lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if you are incapacitated, if you don medium or heavy armor or a shield, or if you use two hands to make an attack with a single weapon. You can also dismiss the Bladesong at any time you choose. While your Bladesong is active, you gain the following benefits: -You gain a bonus to your AC equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of +1). -Your walking speed increases by 10 feet. -You have advantage on Dexterity (Acrobatics) checks. -You gain a bonus to any Constitution saving throw you make to maintain your concentration on a spell. The bonus equals your Intelligence modifier (minimum of +1).

You can use this feature twice. You regain these uses each time you complete a short or long rest.

She’d also gain two more first level wizard spells to toss into her book, and really any of those first level spells have some use. Especially if it’s a ritual spell.

At Fighter 6/Wizard 2 she gets another ASI, cap her Dexterity at 20 for +7 additional damage every time she strikes with her d4 whip.

At Fighter 7/Wizard 2 Clair unlocks second level spells, and gains a feature that finally lets her cast a spell like Green-Flame Blade and also strike with her whip in the same turn without having to rely on Action Surge. Let’s also take a second level spell:

War Magic: You can use your action to cast a cantrip and make one weapon attack as a bonus action. Chromatic Orb: A first level evocation spell that hurls a ball of elemental energy for big damage. Nice because she can choose the type of energy from a small list of acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, or thunder.

At Fighter 8/Wizard 2 she gets another ASI, use it to bring up her Intelligence to 18, which as a reminder will let her prepare more wizard spells and enhance her spells’ power. The spell she learns at this level can come from any school, so I suggest one that finally gets us some real dragon representation:

Dragon’s Breath: A second level transmutation spell that is actually Dragon Pulse, not Dragon Breath. A creature she touches, say, herself or her Familiar, can release blasts of elemental force (acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison damage) from their mouths for the spell’s duration. Pretty damn awesome if ya ask me.

At Fighter 9/Wizard 2 she gains a feature that helps with her durability, making her insanely hard to take down. She also gets another spell:

Indomitable: You can reroll a saving throw that you fail. If you do so, you must use the new roll, and you can't use this feature again until you finish a long rest.

At Fighter 10/Wizard 2 she gains a handy ability that will make decimating her foes all the easier as well as another spell.

Eldritch Strike: Any creature you hit with a weapon attack has disadvantage on its next save it makes against a spell you cast before the end of your next turn. Scorching Ray: A second level evocation spell that launches off a multitude of rays of fiery energy, which can strike one or multiple targets. A solid spell and a great interpretation of Flame Burst or other Fire moves.

At Fighter 11/Wizard 2 she gains another attack as a part of her Extra Attack feature, bringing her total attack when she takes the attack action up to three, dealing 24 damage minimum. Not the best with the d4 whip, but definitely pretty terrifying, especially if she’s got other boosts up. Or uses Action Surge for another three attacks, bringing her total up to a minimum of 48, and very likely over 50 damage in one turn. Not better than others with stronger weapons, but pretty darn good for a whip. And let’s pick another spell:

Gust of Wind: A second level evocation spell that can force a Strength save on her foes to push them around with lines of wind. Seems like a good representation of her Dragonite’s Hurricane, I’d say.

At Fighter 12/Wizard 2 she gets another ASI, use that to cap her Intelligence for the best spell saves and attacks possible and some handy bonuses from her Bladesong.

At Fighter 13/Wizard 2 Clair gains another use of Indomitable, now able to use it twice before a long rest. She also unlocks third level spells, let’s take a classic one, one that every madlad wizard takes:

Fireball: A third level evocation spell that deals insane fire damage in an area. It’s stupidly strong, and forcing a foe to make the save at disadvantage through her Eldritch Strike feature is pretty terrifying. Sounds like a good representation of her Pokemons’ Fire Blast move, no?

At Fighter 14/Wizard 2 she gains another ASI (Fighters get a ton of these) but her stats look pretty good, so let’s exchange that for a Feat that will make her hit point pool pretty damn crazy. Her spell this level can come from any school, and there’s some pretty dang good stuff in there, but she should take:

Tough: Your hit point maximum increases by an amount equal to twice your level when you gain this feat. Whenever you gain a level thereafter, your hit point maximum increases by an additional 2 hit points. Haste: A third level transmutation spell that offers a whole slew of bonuses including an additional +2 to AC, advantage on Dexterity saving throws, and the ability to use an additional action for another attack, dash, disengage, hide, or use an object actions. It’s concentration for one minute, but that’s still ten rounds of combat if it lasts the whole duration. When the spell ends, the target can’t move or take actions until after its next turn as a wave of lethargy sweeps over them. This stacks really well with Bladesong, but it should be mentioned that you can only have one concentration spell going at a time. Choose carefully.

At Fighter 15/Wizard 2 Clair gains the rather inaccurate ability to be incredibly scary and teleport right in front of her foes. While it doesn’t really fit her, it certainly fits the dark presence she’s got:

Arcane Charge: You can teleport up to 30 feet to a space you can see when using your Action Surge. The teleport can take place before or after the Action Surge.

At Fighter 16/Wizard 2 she gets the last ASI of the build, and lets drop that into Constitution to further buffen-up our girl. Increasing Constitution buffs hit points retroactively, so she’ll actually gain 16 hit points this level instead of an additional one. She also gains her last spell:

Lightning Bolt: A third level evocation spell that is the Fireball of the lightning damage type, blasting foes in a straight line with electrical power for massive damage if they fail a Dexterity saving throw. A terrifying Thunderbolt attack. It also pairs extremely well with her Eldritch Strike, since she wouldn’t be in the blast radius like she’d likely be with Fireball.

At Fighter 17/Wizard 2 she gains a third use of Indomitable. Should be mentioned that this feature can be used to reroll death saves, which is incredibly handy. Though with her beef, she might not need it.

Fighter 18/Wizard 2 is our capstone, a feature that pairs well with the number of spells she’s got, especially like Fireball and Haste.

Improved War Magic: You can make one weapon attack as a bonus action whenever you use your action to cast a spell.

Final Thoughts

Clair is terrifying. I feel like that needs to be said. Fighters are really good, with their ridiculous physical damage potential and the ungodly amount of ASIs, it was easy to load her up with all the stats she needed. If you rolled well, it might even be possible to cap her Dexterity, Constitution, and Intelligence at 20, instead of only two of them. Then we have that Bladesong to make her even harder to hit and make it easier to maintain her concentration spells. Add in all the damage types she has access to with her spells and the versatility she has in when she can cast them, and you have a recipe for an absolutely terrifying foe. Probably my favorite build so far. Can we talk hit points for a second? Fighters start with 10 base hit points from their d10 hit die, and if we take the average for every level, she’d get 6 x 17. Even with the wizard levels giving her two d6 hit dice that yield a 4 x 2 bonus to hit points, that’s still 110 hit points before we even add in Constitution or the Tough feat. Adding Constitution at a modifier of +2 for every level bumps it to 150 and adding Tough gives a +40 bonus bumping her to 190 hit points. If you rolled well on the hit dice, it’s entirely possible- actually, very probable- that she’d have over 200 hit points. That’s really freaking good. And how about AC? Studded leather + dexterity mod gives her a base AC of 17, Bladesong bumps that to 22, Haste brings it to 24, and Shield would temporarily kick it to 29. You do realize that that is really hard to hit, right? Even if a foe had a +12 bonus to their attack, they would still need to roll a 17 or higher on the d20 if they wanted to actually hit. That’s terrifying.

There’s not many cons. I mean... spell slots are a limited resource, I guess? While you can get a second level spell back during a short rest thanks to wizard’s Arcane Recovery, the wizard dip might not have been all that handy. Dropping the wizard levels would give her more hit points and another ASI as well as the option to attack four times in one turn. It would make her a terrifying martial powerhouse if we dropped the wizard levels entirely.

Just. I do not want to run into this Clair in a dark alley. She’d obliterate everything in her past for sure. And if anything dared to stand up after the blasting, she can just smash them harder.

I hope you enjoyed this. Feel free to tell me how wrong I am with my choices

#[Memes]#draconscious

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ganymedesclock · 7 years

Text

koolerestkid said:

Hey Clockie! I just read your recent Lapis post, and while I do think your theories about her are cool, I don’t agree with them and I hope you won’t mind if I just poke at it a little.

Your biggest piece of evidence currently is her raw power, and people’s reaction to it. Personally, I thought her being revealed as a terraformer explained it, but you feel differently, likening a terraformer to a “construction worker” or a “bulldozer”. Which… is not what a terraformer is. Bismuth was a construction worker. A terraformer (which literally means “Earth Shaper”) is someone who reconstructs planets and small moons to make them more habitable. So the scale of Lapis’ power is perfectly in line with her job description.

Of course, that doesn’t explain why everybody reacts as though her power is unusual. However, I’d point you towards the scene we see of Bismuth poofing Lapis with a single punch. Homeworld clearly doesn’t go in for “squishy wizards” for its fighters, and that scene is the most likely reason why. Lapis wasn’t meant for combat, she had no training in it. Before the mirror, she was not formidable.

So where did her combat prowess come from? Time. She had five thousand years to do nothing but think, stew, and plot. It doesn’t really surprise me that she came up with a slew of new combat-capable techniques with the tools she had to get revenge on her captors when she finally got out.

Somewhat related is the fact that we NEVER see her do anything on the scale of her first appearance again, not even as Malachite. We’ve seen before that Gem abilities - especially but not exclusively Steven - rely on emotions. It’s highly possible that Lapis’ heightened emotional state immediatly after leaving the mirror boosted her powers to a level she simply couldn’t reach afterwards due to emotional exhaustion.

As a final point, directed at what she was doing on a battlefield - war does not take place in designated battle zones. It happens wherever a major interest to one side happens to be located. Lapis’ narration implies the battle came on suddenly, which could indicate a sudden sneak attack by the Crystal Gems. And given that a presumably rare terraforming Gem was present, my guess would be that the target of the raid was some kind of major construction site that warranted the presence of somebody capable of shaping (at least) small chunks of a planet. Maybe even the headquarters of the entire colonization effort.

Let me wrap all this up by saying I love your theories and do not in any way mean to say you’re wrong for having them. I have a lot of fun reading them! But any good theory should be able to stand rigorous examination, right?

So I may have misstated here in the allegory of Lapis as a construction worker. That said, I still find it very hard to believe Lapis as a terraformer explains what she’s capable of.

Here’s the thing. Pearl came to Earth with the people who were initially colonizing it. This means she would see, and be familiar with, the Gems who would be sent to make Earth more habitable. We are led to believe this is exactly what Lapis’s job is.

Pearl was also able to study Lapis’s gem in detail via the mirror. Meaning, Pearl would know Lapis is a Lapis by looking at her.

With both of these as given, doesn’t it seem odd that Pearl states “I had no idea the Gem in the mirror could be so powerful.” in Ocean Gem?

Doesn’t it seem very odd that even Lapis’s very simple attacks are able to effortlessly blow away Jasper, who is not only a warrior, but, we’re led to believe, a consummate martial paragon?

It would seem very unusual indeed, especially, that Jasper seemed to have no expectation for Lapis to carry her own weight in The Return when she had zero qualms calling on Peridot, another ostensible noncombatant, to do what she does best. “Peridot, you’re a tech Gem, there’s a heap of technology right there, do something.” But never once, even when she’s stressed by the situation, does Jasper say “Lazuli, you’re a water Gem, we’re literally standing on a beach, do something.”

This, and Jasper’s willingness to push Lapis around in an environment where Lapis has a massive advantage on Jasper, would suggest not that Jasper doesn’t think of Lapis as a fighter, but that she doesn’t think Lapis could fight back- either against Jasper, or against the Crystal Gems. Again, if it were simply that Lazuli are noncombatants- that they’re too fragile physically to hold up to direct attacks- we would expect consistency between how Jasper treats Lapis vs. how Jasper treats Peridot, at least in terms of enlisting them to fight. However, Jasper doesn’t. In fact Jasper seems to specifically try to provoke Lapis- not just push her around- to see what Lapis will do. Someone like Jasper, who is very high-strung and concerned with defense when she feels threatened, is not the kind of person who would deliberately antagonize someone who can utterly destroy her the way Lapis has shown to be able to on multiple occasions.

I also can’t believe it’s as simple as Lapis plotted ways to fight back in the mirror. For this, I’d compare Lapis to Peridot.

Peridot knew exactly how to form the blaster in her arm enhancer. This tells us she knew it was there the entire time. However...

First, she fails to think of it several times when it would really come in handy, both before (Jailbreak, Keeping It Together) and after (late in Friend Ship when Steven is hanging onto her foot) she unveils that particular ability. And when she does? She’s completely thrown off her feet by the recoil.

It makes it very clear Peridot knows, on paper, what she’s capable of, but has not experienced it in practice.

Even though Lapis is much less “goofy” than Peridot as a combatant, I feel like if Mirror Gem and Ocean Gem were the first times Lapis had ever plied her abilities, or at least new tactics, offensively, we would see her reacting. Perhaps testing the water clones initially, observing the result, and then tossing more of them out.

This is not what we see. The moment the water clones take the field, they are ready to fight and fully capable of what they leave. By this theory, Lapis would have to say, with unflinching confidence “If you won’t leave, I’ll make you leave” with only the foggiest theory that she could actually back that up. She would have to have, in Mirror Gem, put her back to Garnet and basically flaunted her exposed, cracked gem, right where she’d been hit before, to Garnet, not knowing if her parting attack could stop a charging fusion.

I can’t see Lapis doing that.

Let’s also talk about Bismuth.

Bismuth’s fist is not a light little tap. We’ve watched her cleave boulders in half. Her hands are literally her weapons. They’re rock-hard lava-proof smelting mitts.

So there’s a couple of things about Same Old World that stand out to me.

1. Bismuth is not a bully.

She doesn’t have qualms with the use of lethal force, but she was advocating this in a wartime environment against soldiers. She only attacks Steven when she believes he is Rose, and that he was trying to manipulate her the entire time. She relents when Steven proves that he’s unlike Rose.

Bismuth is not the kind of person, in short, who would see a bewildered civilian wandering onto the battlefield and leap in to attack. Which she had to have approached Lapis at near a dead sprint to be able to get the jump on her before Lapis could fly away. Consider how far a single flap of Lapis’s wings could take her in Ocean Gem.

Furthermore, Bismuth had to have been fighting smart to survive and succeed. She believed in her cause. She had very specific targets. Diverting firepower from higher priority targets to assault a seemingly defenseless person is not a logical move Bismuth would make. Again, it’s a bully tactic- someone who feels vindicated by going after someone who seems defenseless to pump themselves up on “I’m strong and you’re weak.”

This is completely inconsistent with Bismuth’s behavior in Bismuth.

There has to be a reason Bismuth targeted Lapis. And we don’t know what that was. We also don’t know what Lapis was so focused on that she didn’t see Bismuth coming. Lapis’s recollection shows her cowering, however...

2. Lapis in Same Old World was recounting how she felt, and was obscuring details.

“I was only supposed to be on Earth for a short time,” she says, without explaining why or what she was doing. She also doesn’t explain why she was away from Blue Diamond’s court, or why none of them would recognize her- or why she couldn’t say she wasn’t a Crystal Gem.

Lapis’s narrative in that episode is entirely under her control. And we know that Lapis likes Steven, and wants him to like her. Lapis also knows that Steven likes the Crystal Gems. The reason why she’s telling him all of this is she wants to explain why she reacted to the Galaxy Warp, out of remorse for nearly dropping him.

And Lapis, historically, is not someone to cower. That battle can’t have erupted as quickly as it did, considering how starkly it changes from the peaceful forest to a completely different setting. Even if it was an ambush, there has to be a reason Lapis didn’t split as soon as the Crystal Gems hit the scene. Unless we assume Bismuth had her eye on Lapis literally from the start and came right at her first thing- which doesn’t seem to hold up considering how everyone else we see on the battlefield is taken out before Lapis is.

Lapis states that the Crystal Gems are horrible because they don’t care about other Gems in Ocean Gem. That tells us that Lapis thinks it’s important to care about other Gems. She does, in fact, feel remorse for hurting the people that she has, even if at the time she thinks of herself as vindicated.

So as unlikely as it is Bismuth would just suckerpunch Lapis for no reason when she would almost certainly have bigger, quartz-shaped fish to fry, it’s even more unlikely Lapis would watch what seemed like a horribly one-sided slaughter of a bunch of Jaspers and just stand there not batting an eye.

(Was it actually one-sided? Were they actually just being blasted to pieces, including the one on her knees, seemingly injured, that wasn’t even charging? We don’t know for sure, but we know that was how Lapis felt it was.)

3. Thanks to Bismuth being rebubbled so quickly, and never seeing Lapis during that time, Crewniverse is deliberately hiding Bismuth and Lapis from each other- and from us, the audience, their reactions to each other.

That alone tells me there’s more to this story than what we’ve seen.

4. Bismuth went for the kill

Bismuth aims directly at the center of Lapis’s back. Again, Bismuth’s fists can split boulders.

Keep in mind Lapis isn’t exactly fragile. Like Jasper, the hand ship collapsed on her without any shield whatsoever, and Lapis fished herself out of the rubble, scuffed up, but not seriously injured from what we see considering almost immediately afterwards she was able to stand on her own without difficulty, fuse with Jasper, and then immediately drag both of them into Malachite- which, Lapis was able to hold for months.

The fact that Lapis collapses with one hit tells us Bismuth wasn’t holding back. It affirms what we later see in Bismuth’s title episode- that she is very strong, strong enough to cross her bare fists with Garnet’s gauntlets.

So you know what scares me out of all that?

That much force didn’t crack Lapis’s gem at all.

It took, in fact, seemingly a good-sized Gem at a dead sprint stomping on Lapis’s gem with all of her weight to crack it.

So basically, Same Old World tells us that for some reason, in a crowded battlefield, and one the Crystal Gems seemed to have the upper hand on, Bismuth singled out Lapis, and tried to kill her, without holding back. She was so motivated to do so that she attacked very quickly, faster than Lapis- who is very lightfooted- could fly away.

Lapis also very likely misled Steven. She had a reason not to leave that battlefield even though she ended up there by accident- there was something she was focused on that she didn’t see Bismuth. Playing into the narrative of “I was a victim of the war” helps absolve her from scrutiny, but we know, in practice, Lapis is not anybody’s victim. She cooperated with Jasper as part of a calculated move to minimize the damage and smooth things over with Homeworld.

If Lapis was never a combatant before Mirror Gem, why would Bismuth be that desperate to get at her, and that determined to take her out?

#Steven Universe #Lapis #Bismuth #theory #readmore #submission

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