#them poofing her and basically saying that she's not even worth mourning?

[azuresquirrel]

Today I watched a large chunk of old Steven Universe episodes. I had the thought to rewatch the whole series from the beginning and do some blogging about it, primarily in light of the reveal in “A Single Pale Rose” to see all of the foreshadowing present and how that knowledge changes past events, but additionally to observe how the series laid out its various reveals and developments of both plot and characters throughout. Today though was largely a casual watch as I played mobile games at the same time, and really there was something quite nice about revisiting the earlier, simpler episodes even with my current knowledge of the series, but one particular moment in “Ocean Gem” stood out to me that I wanted to talk about immediately.

Lapis: “Don’t you know anything, Steven? Your friends, they don’t really care about other gems. All they care about is the Earth. But I never believed in this place.”

So with that quote in mind I have a lot of thoughts on how the story has proceeded from there (along with fandom speculation), how Lapis was in a way more right than we truly knew at the time, and how we still have so many questions left about gems, maybe about Earth, and certainly about Lapis Lazuli and her still not quite complete Tragic Anime Backstory. Put a pin in that line, we’re coming back to it.

I must say, I am genuinely glad that I have followed this show from the very beginning (literally from the premiere of the first episode). That is simply because I feel like I got to be fully on the ride of both myself and the wider “fandom” in terms of following the story, taking each reveal and trying to guess and speculate and theorize what things meant, and how such ideas turned out to either be correct or wrong (or be correct in ways that we did not expect to be correct).

The first two-parter of “Mirror Gem”/”Ocean Gem” was one of the huge game-changers for both story and the fandom, much like later two-parters like “The Return”/”Jailbreak” and the current source of chaos, “Can’t Go Back”/A Single Pale Rose.” While many episodes before Mirror/Ocean gem offered breadcrumbs in terms of details and world-building, these two episodes were a major shift in terms of information, how it recontextualized what came before, how it changed what was to come in the story, and in many fans’ theories with the show.

I say this because I think that now so far ahead (note “A Single Pale Rose” was episode number 146, Mirror/Ocean Gem was episodes 25 and 26), it can be hard to remember the shocks that episodes brought with them at the time. It was the first time it was explicitly confirmed that the gems were aliens who came from another planet. It was not a huge surprise, as many fans had guessed that, but it was still the first time it was fully confirmed. Additionally, many other fans had surmised that the “monsters” the crystal gems had been fighting in early episodes were also gems, and that also got confirmation, although the full nature of said monsters was still a ways away in revelation.

And of course there was the biggie – now in Steven Universe we are awash in gems, but Lapis Lazuli was the very first gem outside of the main three (plus the deceased “Rose Quartz”) that we met. And was also the first time it was really confirmed that not all gems are “crystal gems.”

(hence at the time there was a crapload of pretty damn annoying “omg the crystal gems are EVUL” nonsense going around that I’m glad is largely left to the past. Why yes, even back then any shades of gray introduced by the narrative meant that characters were now PURE EVUL instead of complicated people, which given that the show’s basic thesis statement of compassion was hammered in early on . . . yeah it felt like people were watching some different show for a long time. What’s now really hilarious was at the time there were PLENTY who took Lapis’s pain and imprisonment and blaming of the crystal gems at her word, whereas now it seems people will try to find excuses to make ANY of Lapis’s behavior into a sign that SHE’S pure evul . . . *sigh* different times indeed)

So now it finally brings me again to the quote that caught my ear today: “Don’t you know anything, Steven? Your friends, they don’t really care about other gems. All they care about is the Earth. But I never believed in this place.”

Now when this episode aired, this particular line of course fueled all kinds of speculation. For a while it wasn’t clear what Lapis entirely meant here. Then as other developments arose, plus learning more about Homeworld and other gems, this nugget sort of fell to the wayside. For myself, I took this not as OMG THE CRYSTAL GEMS ARE EVUL, but rather that Lapis was on the other side of whatever conflict this was, and that she wasn’t entirely correct in her biases – I saw no reason to believe her assertion that they “don’t care about other gems” and her “all they care about is Earth” was her simply being dismissive of something she didn’t understand and far from the full story.

. . . well here we are and . . . Lapis kind of was way more right that previously assumed. Way more right than MOST of us previously assumed, truly. Really, you want to talk massive foreshadowing? Here you go.

I mean wow, we should have seen it coming huh? We got this line from Lapis way before we met any other non-crystal gems or learned anything else about Homeworld, before anyone even mentioned “the rebellion” or “the Diamond Authority.” And . . . it’s not NOT wrong.

In terms of speaking personally about our surviving crystal gems (well . . . let’s say Amethyst and Garnet at least), it’s not fully true. Of course they care about other gems. And they believe in the principles that were PUBLICLY stated by the rebellion, principles that clearly were not invented out of nowhere given Garnet’s and Bismuth’s motivations for being in the rebellion – for the personal individual freedom of gems to define their own identities outside of their main “purpose” and freedom from Homeworld’s hierarchy and the tyranny of the Diamond Authority. That’s what Bismuth and Garnet, and presumably many other crystal gems believed they were fighting for. There were gems who held those values as true and worth fighting for.

Ha ha ha, but for the founder of said crystal gems, for the supposed rebellious “Rose Quartz” . . . it was right. All she cared about was Earth. That was only what it was for.

It was stated right there in “A Single Pale Rose” – what “Rose Quartz” wanted was for the other Diamonds to simply leave Earth alone. That was all. She wanted to live freely on Earth, shedding her born Diamond identity (ahhh, let us truly weep for poor poor Pink Diamond in her gilded cage). True, she also wanted Earth and its living organic inhabitants to be free too, and any other gems who lived on Earth, so I suppose that’s something.

But that didn’t take into account a lot of other beings (oh like say ALL THOSE HUMANS NOT ON EARTH? IN A ZOO? *PINK DIAMOND’S* ZOO). It didn’t take into account Homeworld gems and gems on other planets, who would not be afforded the freedom of the precious Earth, certainly not the off-colors and defectives that we saw are hunted and destroyed. It didn’t take into account the other planets that the other Diamonds would colonize, stripping those planets of all their life until they were left as dried-out shells. It didn’t take into account that it would do nothing to break the tyranny the other Diamonds held over all other gems and their empire.

To “Rose Quartz” none of that mattered, truly. What mattered was Earth. *Her* planet. If Earth had been freed and the Diamonds truly left it alone, she’d be happy, she’d have gotten everything she wanted (god how profoundly short-sighted to think that they’d simply accept the MURDER of another DIAMOND. Even if they had not the slightest personal feeling for Pink, tyrants cannot let others think them weak and able to be destroyed. To think they would have NO retaliation, NO punishment? Oh “Rose Quartz” the myths about you really weren’t true, you weren’t a great leader at all).

Who cares about all those other planets and other gems, right? Who cares about their freedom, their liberation? Fuck ‘em, not the “compassionate Rose Quartz.”

I wonder what her followers like Garnet and Bismuth would’ve done then, huh?

So in a way . . . Lapis kind of was right all along.

Now here’s a piece of the puzzle that still remains unclear – “But I never believed in this place.” After which Lapis says she “just wants to go home.”

HUH.

We still don’t know precisely why Lapis was on Earth in the middle of the war, to be poofed by Bismuth, and falsely taken prisoner by Homeworld forces before the final retreat/corruption by the Diamonds. The most that we have is one lyric from Yellow Diamond’s song to the mournful Blue Diamond – “What’s the Use of Feeling Blue” in “That Will Be All.” In the bridge where Yellow explains the uses that different types of gems have for their leaders we get this quick, almost tossed-off bit:

“An Agate terrifies/a Lapis terraforms”

Now plenty of people noticed and latched on to that lyric (YOU USED ME FOR LAND DEVELOPMENT) . . . but that’s all we’ve gotten. We’ve heard nothing else from other gems on what Lapises are “meant” for (for example, our resident Homeworld exposition-spouter Peridot confirmed for us things like Pearls being “fancy servants” and quartzes like Amethyst being big, strong warriors, but she does not offer insight into Lapises in the same fashion). We have not met any other Lapises than the one that we know as Steven’s friend. And Lapis herself is not quick to share information, particularly on past traumatic events for her, like the war.

And the thing is . . . our understanding is still woefully incomplete. To “terraform” a planet literally means to make a planet more resemble EARTH so that terrestrial (i.e. earth-based) lifeforms can live on it, generally referring to things like an oxygen-rich atmosphere, potable water, and land that can be farmed. In the context of gem life, this makes no goddamn sense. So we can assume that for gems, “terraforming” has a different meaning. The assumption then is that “terraforming” would be the precise opposite of what we think of it – it’s making a planet more hospitable to gem life, which would then have the opposite, adverse effect on Earth and its native inhabitants. A reasonable assumption based on the context? Absolutely. But still an assumption.

After all, there must be a reason for Lapis’s profound and unusual power. With her ability to control any and all water (including WHOLE OCEANS), on Earth or another water-based planet Lapis has the strength and power to present an incredible threat, even to a Diamond. But water is meaningless to gems. Gems are not organic matter, not water-based matter. They do not need water to survive in the slightest. Does Homeworld even have oceans? Even have water? We have still seen so little of it, but we can reasonably assume that since gems do not need food or water to sustain life, they did not need it to originate.

Since gems are made with specific purposes in mind, we can also reasonably assume that any other Lapises would have the same power over water. The only other gem we’ve seen exert any such power over water is Aquamarine, who can at least summon similar water wings in order to fly, but we don’t see her use any other power over water.

And as for powers relating to other organic-matter issues, the only gem that has displayed those is the gem of “Rose Quartz” – in actuality not a Rose Quartz at all but a Diamond. Steven inherited his mother’s truly odd and unique affinity for plants, even able to bring them to life like Steven’s watermelons. This too is still odd – while Rose’s, and by extension Steven’s, absurdly wide skillset is now largely explained by the fact that her gem was a Diamond and not a normal quartz warrior, this power over organic matter is still odd. Is this a “Diamond power”? A power unique only to the gem of Pink Diamond because Earth was “her” planet? A power that other Diamonds COULD develop if they bothered to do so? But anyway, that’s a tangent.

The point being, Lapis’s profound control of water is pretty singular among gems, and must be related to the reason why she was on Earth at all during the rebellion war since there is little reason to assume that Lapises are made with combat in mind (her build more resembles a Pearl, a decorative status symbol, than the wide and muscular Rubies and Quartzes that seemed to make up the bulk of the armies. Even her “weapon” is her water wings – a mode of transportation and escape, not a means to fight or even defend). The only other thing we have to go on is that she was a part of Blue Diamond’s court, due to both the familiar silhouette we see in the court in “The Answer” and her freakout in “Raising the Barn” when Steven specifically mentioned Blue Diamond.

So this brings me back yet again to “But I never believed in this place.” Why would we ever expect Lapis to “believe” in the Earth? Only crystal gems could be said to “believe” in the Earth. MAYBE the gems under Pink Diamond could as well, but that seems to be really stretching the definition of “belief.” What is Earth to the gems who served under the other three Diamonds but yet another colony? Or was there to be something more to Earth to them as well?

Did the crystal gems . . . try to recruit Lapis Lazuli at some point?

Why would Lapis phrase it in that way? “But I never believed in this place.” Why would any gem who wasn’t a crystal gem “believe” in Earth? Really, why would even those under Pink Diamond “believe” in Earth? Jasper, our one known antagonistic gem who was confirmed to be serving under Pink Diamond states no allegiance to Earth other than that it was the place she was made – her allegiance is to her Diamond, not her birth planet.

So . . . truly . . . what the fuck is the deal here?

Did the crystal gems appeal to Lapis specifically because of her power? Because they had a purpose in mind for her that would aid against Homeworld and the Diamond Authority (at the very least her powers would make her a fearsome warrior that Homeworld forces would likely not expect, again, Lapises are seemingly not designed to be fighters, but on a planet mostly comprised of water . . .)? Did they have even grander ideas of how to use such power for the purposes of Earth and the rebellion? Why else would Lapis even consider “believing” in Earth to be an option?

Or is there yet still more that we don’t know about gems and Earth? After the rebellion Yellow Diamond was more than happy to implant the Cluster and let it destroy the planet, destroy the site of no doubt their greatest failure, where one of the supposedly strongest of all gems fell. But was there something more before Pink Diamond was “shattered”? Did the Earth ever mean something to gems other than “Rose Quartz”? What in the world could that be?

As of this moment, post “Can’t Go Back”/“A Single Pale Rose” we have received information that drastically changes our understanding of the story of Steven Universe, of the rebellion and why it truly happened, and answered many questions that we had specifically regarding “Rose Quartz”, Pink Diamond, and Pearl. But there are still plenty of unanswered questions. And also at this moment, Lapis Lazuli’s whereabouts are yet again unknown.

When we see Lapis, she is so often trying to leave, trying to escape, trying to find true freedom. She thought maybe it could have been at Homeworld, but when she does return there it has “changed.” Changed in a way that disturbs and terrifies her, in a way that she does not wish to return there again. Also when we see Lapis, we tend to get major revelations. Her first appearance in the show marked a major turning point. Her most recent appearance did as well, since if Steven had not gone to see her at the Moon base, he would not have had that disturbing Diamond dream that led him to question Pearl and then receive the revelation of his true gem origins.

But of course, traumatized Lapis, fearing a Diamond, fled again, unaware that she had been happily sharing the presence of a Diamond gem for quite some time.

Lapis still truly has no allegiance. She never had allegiance to Earth or the crystal gems. She seemed to have allegiance to Homeworld when she first appeared in the show, but that was quickly broken once she actually returned there to find it drastically changed after her thousands of years of imprisonment. Even when she takes up residence at the barn, she is not truly aligned with the crystal gems. Perhaps for a while she was aligned to her family of Peridot and Pumpkin, but at the threat of potential Diamond action, that was easily broken, even as Peridot stated her faith in Lapis’s power to fight for the Earth. And still she continues, travelling alone, not trusting herself nor really any other team, even those she cares for like Steven and Peridot.

It could just be a coincidence that Lapis is close to such big revelations in the story. After all, her dark and moody countenance leads her to compliment the heavier revelations quite well. But maybe there will be more to Lapis and the endgame than simply really awesome ocean powers.

“But I never believed in this place.”

For what reason would she have even considered that a possibility?

#Steven Universe #SU spoilers #meta #Lapis Lazuli #so this is a LONG-ASS POST #my usual disclaimer here that I am far from a professional SU theorist #so don't come here expecting answers as usual I only have more questions #this is like really INDULGENTLY long