#In general I think this moment will be the emotional resolution of Ruby's arc

[thoughtspresso]

Predictions for Oshi No Ko Ending

1. Anemone will be the one to find Katayose Yura's dead body.

In Japanese flower symbolism, Anemones or Windflowers represent death, bad luck, and forsaken love. And it just so happens we have a character named exactly that, who happens to be the only other character apart from Katayose Yura who loves being in the mountains.

Anemone will likely be climbing the same mountains on Yura's wishlist, and just like before, The Crow might lead Anemone to the dead body.

It's like Akasaka-sensei decided Spider Lilies are already too obvious a deathflag so he chose a different flower.

I'm taking the bet that Akane might be the person who figures out the connection between Yura and Kamiki, or Miki-san might simply show up on the news as a statement about his "dear friend Yura" who "disappeared".

Akane might also give the head's up to Aqua that she thinks Kamiki murdered Yura, and that would be a reason for the two to spend more time with each other again. (Might shove a wedge between Kana and Aqua again, if Aqua isn't already doing that himself lmao.) Either way, it'd be a convenient way for Akane to attempt to both "save" Aqua and also help him accomplish his goals without killing himself.

2. The person who texted Frill Shiranui is Miki-san.

Sylvanes made a fairly solid guess that Frill Shiranui works for Kamiki Productions. Whether or not he was necessarily correct on this, I'm making the bet that Yura's "best drinking buddy" Miki-san is connected to Frill professionally, and goaded Frill into pushing Ruby into the spotlight.

Some speculators say this might have been Aqua's ploy, but I I think this was incorrect. Aqua agreed with Kaburagi that money comes first and Frill was a more reasonable choice commercially. He even said that Gotanda should "grow up" and not choose Ruby just because of his artistic integrity.

Apart from the friendly, casual tone of the text message that really sounds like the "Miki-san" persona and the image of decanted whiskey as his profile picture, I think Kamiki is actually praying for Ruby's success as a star.

In fact, I think people misunderstood why he killed Katayose Yura. He didn't kill Yura because his serial killer MO was simply because he liked killing up and coming megastars who shone brightly. He killed Yura because:

(a) He hates Stars who lie, who sell a persona to their fans that is vastly different from who they are as people, which is why he hated Himekawa Airi and Hoshino Ai.

(b) He killed Yura because he knew that the project being offered to her was the lead role in The 15-Year Lie. And simply, he wanted Ruby to play Ai's role.

In a twisted way, I think Kamiki believes he is protecting his children, and the public in general, from being lied to any further by celebrities like Yura who deceive the public with their feigned innocence.

Honestly? I think the reason he killed their mothers was to protect them from growing up with mothers who lie and abuse their kids.

3. Kana might play Hoshino Ai in The 15-Year Lie.

Okay, okay, okay, okay. I know. I know. Unhinged fan theory. I get it.

Even AquaKana stans think this is majorly unlikely to happen. I agree in that, I think it's insane. But I keep coming back to what Aqua meant when he said that, "Kana is so easy to manipulate", and "It's more convenient for me to build a good relationship with Arima right now."

People tend to say, he's making silly convoluted excuses again, he just wants to spend more time with her. But I think a man who is resolute in his goal to off himself by proxy of martyrdom doesn't care to date the person he was protecting from a love scandal anyway.

There are a few key reasons why I think Aqua's "using" of Kana will result in her playing Ai's role.

First of all, I think Aqua's plan is to play Kamiki, to portray him in the worst possible way, and expose him as the murderer through the film. Through this, Aqua will bait his father into murdering him too, and thus Aqua's death can be used as legal grounds for charging Hikaru Kamiki with Homicide.

As established above, I think Aqua doesn't agree that Ruby is the best choice for Ai's role. There are a lot of parallelisms baked in between Kana and Ai. Apart from the shot-by-shot remake of Sign is B, Kana is also the best person to get stabbed and deliver the lines, "Some day I hoped the lies would become true. / I did my best. I worked hard. I lied with all my heart. / To me, lies are love. In my own way, I thought I was showing my love."

Besides, you saw anyone else say these same things?

Uhuh, you guessed it:

So is Kana gonna get stabbed? Hopefully in a movie, yeah.

I think it could happen as a result of Kaburagi's dissatisfaction with Ruby's performance.

Kaburagi's "finalized" casting isn't final-final yet, really. We can see that he swapped Aqua to play Kamiki instead of Himekawa who will now play Ryosuke the university student/stalker here:

Which makes sense! Aqua looks like his father, is closer to his age during the time of the events, and Taiki's age and height also better matches Ryosuke.

And even though the paper says finalized on Ruby's casting, Kaburagi's still not completely sold:

I think the swap will come as a result of Ruby being severely overworked and unable to keep up with the demands of her role, and the Dome performance that she might want to prioritize. She may even outright collapse from exhaustion, as foreshadowed by Kana:

Apart from Akasaka-sensei absolutely trolling us to death by Ai x Kamiki on-screen romance being portrayed by twins, then just outright pulling the plug on that for fun, I think it'd just make sense for Kaburagi to say it's better if we pair Aqua with Kana for this role.

Ruby doesn't even have to collapse or anything. She's so loved up with the idea of Gorou-sensei right now, Aqua could literally just tell her "this is what's best for the plan, you trust me, don't you?" And she would absolutely just go with it.

I said before that I think up until Mem-cho pointed it out, Aqua was wholly unaware that Kana had a crush on him and joined B-Komachi just because of him. I think now that he has the awareness, he'll ask Kana to do it, first to help Ruby, but also because he can only trust Kana to play this role because she is "Special" to him.

A repeat of:

It really is the only way that this scene therefore makes sense to me:

Bonus: if the Shima D masterpiece film doesn't draw Kamiki's attention to her, Kana playing the role of Ai definitely will. And if she delivers the role with so much honesty, it might change the trajectory of the story altogether.

4. Aqua's plan will backfire.

I explained a little above and in a previous post that Aqua misunderstands Kamiki's motives.

While we all like to shit on Aqua for being the World's Nicest Master Manipulator, we have to give him credit for the fact that when it's used for saving other people, he's been really effective at spinning a public narrative in his favor. Like in the cases of Akane's suicide attempt and Kana's Love Scandal.

If the goal is to get Kamiki to stab him in plain view of the public, villify his father, and make it easy to convict him for homicide once and for all, I think he will fail.

Kamiki will not kill him or go after him. In fact, I think Kamiki will shed his Miki-san persona and reveal the truth: he was Himekawa Airi's rape victim, and Hoshino Ai was a manipulative person who seduced him with the prospect of true love, then abandoned him when she got what she wanted, which was a family.

In the absence of any evidence that he had anything to do with their deaths, Kamiki might even use this momentum of propaganda to make the public believe that he's happy to finally be reunited with his children that these terrible mothers took away from him.

Heck, Taiki might hate Uehara so much that he'd be relieved to learn about Kamiki? And if he really is connected to Frill, and if Kindaichi still cares about him, there might be real people who would back him up.

Then, it won't be until Akane works with Aqua and everyone to bring the murder of Katayose Yura to light that Kamiki would actually be brought to justice.

[aihoshiino]

How do you think Aqua will react to Ruby's inner turmoil & to how Ruby is performing Ai's role?

Honestly lol I have no idea. The writing around Aqua lately has been really weird, especially vis-a-vis Ruby and her role in the movie. There's been a good handful of moments that felt like braindead obvious setups for big reactions or emotions from Aqua and we've had basically nothing. I'm not against other characters taking the POV role and being spotlighted especially given how much page time is weighted towards Aqua focus, it just feels exceptionally weird to be this locked out of his head and with so few insights into what's up with him. The movie arc in general has been really hard to predict with the way threads get picked up and dropped seemingly at random and I don't think I'll be able to make a proper call on it until it's done.

That said, what I would hope is that Ruby and Aqua continue to conflict on their respective interpretations of Ai as a person and the ways that the 15 Year Lie movie is using and exploiting her name and image. This conflict reopens the holes in their relationship that the past life reveal had papered over and the two of them have to finally, properly have it out with each other about all the tension and unresolved issues that have gone unaddressed.

The resolution I'd want would be twofold: that they properly reconcile and resolve the lingering Gorou & Sarina elephants in the room so to speak and that once they've done that, they can reconcile their opposing images of Ai into something more nuanced. Not the pure and flawless idol Aqua still wants to believe in or the tortured tragic heroine that Ruby sees - but just a normal person doing her best to find normal happiness and fulfilment in an abnormal life.Again, this isn't strictly a prediction because the inner machinations of Aka Akasaka's mind are a mystery but this is more or less the emotional arc I'd hope to see.

[nellie-elizabeth]

Doctor Who: Boom (14x03)

I regret to inform you that this was a very good episode of Doctor Who. Fucking Moffat, knock it off with being an occasionally very good writer. I hate this dude.

Cons:

I thought the romance arc between Mundy and the random dude whose name I can't remember was probably the least memorable part of the episode? It just felt a little flat and proscribed, and it fell into some cliche writing tropes. Why is it always that an oblivious woman is being pined after by her long-suffering martyr of a best friend? It's giving Rory and Amy, it's giving... Joss Whedon. I don't know. I didn't hate this, but it didn't add a ton to the story, it almost felt like more of a distraction to the core relationships that we should have been focusing on.

This was the most I've enjoyed Ruby and the Doctor's relationship on the show yet, but there was this one moment that I had a problem with in the writing. The Doctor is calling out to a dying Ruby and basically says "I need to talk out loud in order to think, and you're the only person I can talk to." I think I get what the goal was here, but it read a little strange to me. Because the point of the Doctor is kind of that he can make friends with most people, isn't it? He finds the connection, and the adventurous spirit, and the bravery, in all sorts of people he comes across. We even see him forming connections with the other people he's meeting in this very episode. So I do wish the sentiment had been adjusted just slightly. Ruby shouldn't be valued and loved simply because she is uniquely able to provide the Doctor with companionship. You know?

I thought the resolution felt a little rushed, with the father's love saving the day. Very sweet or what have you, but I could have used a bit more build-up to it? As is Moffat's MO both as a writer and as a show-runner, he's always better at the setup than he is at the payoff.

Pros:

I think when Doctor Who is at its very best, it takes a simple concept, a small group of people, and it plays out the complications of the scenario over the course of the hour. This was an episode with a small core cast, basically only one setting with just a few cut-aways to the camp where the soldiers were staying, and there's a pretty simple problem to solve: the Doctor is standing on a landmine. If it goes off, because of his special Time Lord-y-ness, he could blow up half the planet they're on. So the stakes are higher than simply the Doctor's life, and they're on a timer.

And from there it's really just a lot of intense stakes-raising, alarming moments of tension as the Doctor tries to keep his emotional reaction to a minimum so as not to trip the sensor. I loved the scene when the Doctor is begging Ruby to back away and she's insisting on staying close to help. Great relationship building, great classic rapport between the Doctor and his companion. She's brave, he's worried about her, but together they thwart catastrophe.

As is often true with this show, and with sci-fi more in general, this episode has some not so subtle political messages baked into it. I think it was brilliantly and disturbingly done, showing us first the soldiers and the way their lives hang in a delicate balance, then starting to learn about the for-profit model of this weapons manufacture, and then the gradual and chilling revelation that these people are not at war with anyone at all. It's an empty planet, and they're fighting nothing, letting themselves be killed for the benefit of a corporation running on auto-pilot designed to maximize profits. Yeesh. That's a thought, isn't it.

There's also the lovely detail that all of the soldiers are part of the church. Ruby talks about how strange this is, and the Doctor points out that the military and the church are usually hand in hand, and that her current reality is really just a blip in the pattern.

The gasp-out-loud moment of this episode is of course when Ruby gets shot. I love the way the scenario is set up here, where Ruby is going to shoot Mundy with her consent, in order to draw the ambulance's attention away from the Doctor, but Mundy's love interest dude sees Ruby pointing a gun at her and misinterprets. And then the Doctor, forced for the sake of this whole planet to stay frozen in place and just watch it happen... great face acting from Gatwa here as he reacts with horror while simultaneously trying to tamp down on his reaction.

This was a good episode, with a lot of good moments. I think tamping down into a more tragic story allowed for the Doctor and Ruby to have some exchanges that didn't feel so... manic, the way the first two episodes were? And that was a big help to make them feel like they have a more grounded relationship. Ruby begging to know her next of kin in the final moments of her life is going to haunt me, that was so tragic! And while maybe a little bit trite, the father's love saving the day thing did still work okay for me, all things told.

I'm hoping we can get some motion on the Ruby mystery in the coming weeks, and hopefully preserve a bit more of the naturalistic bond between our main characters as we move forward.

8.5/10

[pilot-boi]

Fifth Wheel

In my version of what happens post-Atlas, Jaune and Marrow have a talk about things that should be simple, but actually aren’t. Boats and sunsets and feelings galore, and maybe Marrow learning that it’s okay to belong to something.

AO3 LINK

It’s been about a week. Not that long in the grand scheme of things, but after Marrow’s whole world managed to fall down in a couple of hours, a week was a long time.

A week since Ironwood was arrested. A week since Atlas fell. A week since Marrow gave up on pretending that siding with Atlas was anything short of horrible.

He’d given up on following the orders of people who didn’t care about the people they were supposed to be protecting. He’d given up on the people who thought that a “shoot to kill” order against a bunch of kids was an okay order to follow.

A bunch of kids, ha. What a joke. He wasn’t much older than these so-called kids. And Marrow didn’t doubt for a second that if he’d been on the wrong side of that order, his former comrades wouldn’t have hesitated to fire on him, too.

They’d allowed those three to storm that whale. By themselves. How could he possibly claim that they were on the right side of history after Arc had to beg to be allowed to march straight into enemy territory? All to rescue a friend that the General had written off as “an acceptable loss.”

So he’d left. Without much fanfare, what with the whole world falling down around everyone’s ears in more ways than one. Marrow had helped them in the end, and they’d welcomed him with mostly open arms. Some animosity was expected, and he didn’t begrudge them of it for a second.

Team RWBY, as they’d been known at Beacon, were mostly amicable but still distant. He hadn’t really been friends with them before martial law was declared, at least not past casual coworkers. So they were kind and friendly, but mostly left him alone.

However Team ALPN, as they’d dubbed themselves, added him to their little family faster than he could blink. The supposedly professionally-clinical friendship that he’d had with Arc before wasn’t nearly as professionally-clinical as he’d thought. Jaune smoothed the transition by simply accepting him without a second glance, and Marrow couldn’t be more grateful.

He did wish he could stop feeling guilty though.

Every time Oscar winced when he moved wrong and one of his still healing injuries twinged, Marrow had to fight to stop his traitorous tail from drooping. Every time he caught sight of Nora’s scars he had to hide a flinch. Every time he was in a room with Ren, Marrow froze, certain that the kid was somehow going to find out more of the things he was trying to keep hidden.

And every time Jaune so much as glanced his way, Marrow had to avert his eyes to avoid eye contact and the damn feeling that the kid was x-raying him. His black-haired teammate was supposed to be the one who could read feelings, why was Jaune the one who he couldn’t keep eye contact with without feeling like he was reading him like an open book?

And always it ended with a look of sort of understanding, sort of pity, and more and more of the concerned glances. With how many of them Jaune kept giving him, he probably wasn’t hiding any of it as well as he’d hoped. That kid was too much of a worrier for his own good.

A message over the faulty CCT. Some of the kid’s friends were in trouble in Vacuo. With another Relic in tow, they’d set out at once, and Marrow had been allowed to tag along. That was a week ago.

A week of traveling, of worry for the future and fear of the past, and of trying to figure out where he fit in his new “team”. A week of slowly building up the courage to just talk to these kids like the friends they clearly saw him as.

After the events of a few days ago, everyone had been needing their space. Marrow could understand that, so he’d made himself scarce in the central gathering areas. He might not have been at the Fall of Beacon, but he’d seen enough of the footage and read enough of the reports to know that this had to have opened some old wounds for the kids.

Wandering the deck of their ship had become a pastime of his. He’d never really seen much of the world outside of Atlas, and seeing the water look more green and warm than steely and cold was more odd than he could put into words.

It was like his hair had decided to become liquid, which was the weirdest thought he’d had in years. Although judging by the sort of passing comments he’d heard from Nora and Ruby, it appeared that thinking irrationally came with the territory of associating (read: being almost friends) with these kids.

Currently, he was sitting perched on the railing of the ship, uniform jacket lying abandoned beside him. Double insulated, top of the line, silver buttons, expertly tailored. The mark of an Ace-Op.

A former Ace-Op. He’d defected and so no longer legally had the right to wear the uniform, but he had no other clothes. On a different note, he felt more than a little awkward wearing the uniform of the military that had knowingly abandoned the majority of its civilian population, and had instigated a retreat plan that involved leaving said civilian population to the proverbial dogs.

Plus it was just too freaking hot to wear right now. The ocean from Solitas to Sanus was no tundra, that was for sure.

“Mind if I join you?” came a voice to his left, shocking Marrow out of his thoughts. Only years of training kept him from pitching over the side of the ship into the frothy water below.

It was just Jaune, out of his armor for once, and looking like his smile had only just now been wiped away by Marrow probably looking like he was having a heart attack. They stared at each other for a few seconds, time ticking irrevocably onwards, Marrow’s brain simply refusing to process whatever the hell Jaune had just said.

A few more seconds passed, mostly consisting of Jaune just staring at him like he expected some kind of response. “Did you need something?” Marrow eventually asked, wincing at the edge that he hadn’t meant to put into his voice.

“Can I join you.”

“Oh. Oh yeah! Yeah sure, whatever,” Marrow replied quickly, “I mean if you want.”

“Thanks.” Jaune leant his forearms on the railing, wrists crossed, one ankle hooked around the other. He would’ve seemed perfectly casual if Marrow couldn’t see the tension in his shoulders and the dark circles under his eyes as clear as day. Kid wasn’t taking this any better than the rest of them.

The wind over the ocean ruffled his blonde hair and caught the red sash at his waist. Eyes that seemed to reflect both the sky above and the sea below stared out over the waves. Freckles that could never have been caused by the harsh cold sun of Solitas dusted their way across his cheeks and down his arms and-

-And Marrow abruptly realized he was staring and returned to gazing determinedly out over the waves.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, simply existing in each other’s presence. Jaune didn’t attempt to start a conversation, for which Marrow was supremely grateful. He honestly didn’t know what he would say in response even if a conversation started.

It was an awkward comfortable kind of silence. Teetering on the edge of concerning and companionable. But eventually Marrow found himself relaxing and settling back into the semi-slumped over posture he’d been in before Jaune walked up. His tail started to sway with the rhythm of the boat, but he put a stop to that as soon as it began moving.

“Ya know,” Jaune suddenly spoke, and Marrow froze. Still not taking his eyes off the ocean, he said “You don’t hafta do that.”

“Do what?” he couldn’t help asking, looking over at him in confusion.

“Your tail, you don’t have to stop it from… doing whatever it does or whatever,” Jaune explained vaguely, glancing away from the ocean to meet his gaze. Eyes too wide and too discerning, Marrow could only maintain eye contact for a second before returning his gaze to the waves.

“Yeah well, maybe I want to,” he replied, a little defensively. No, wait he wasn't getting defensive. Why would he be getting defensive? “Why do you care anyway? It’s not like it affects you.”

“That’s true,” Jaune conceded, shifting so his weight was resting on his other foot. “It just seems like it might get irritating after a while, to have to think about it all the time.”

Marrow resolutely kept his eyes on the ocean, not acknowledging what Jaune had said. “It’s fine.” He sighed, slumping a little. “I’ve gotten used to it.” This time he couldn’t keep the tinge of dejection out of his voice.

“Hey,” Jaune said sharply all of a sudden, voice more hard than it had been before. “Just because you’ve gotten used to it doesn’t mean you should’ve had to.”

Marrow hesitated at that, brow furrowing in confusion. “What?” he asked, turning to face the other. “What the heck does that mean?”

Jaune’s determined expression faltered slightly and he grinned sheepishly for a moment. “Yeah, wasn’t my best line I have to admit,” he shrugged, returning his gaze to the ocean and rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. Marrow didn’t turn away.

“So?” he prompted after a moment of silence.

“What?”

“What did you mean?”

“Oh! I guess…” Jaune paused to collect his thoughts, something that Marrow had already seen do several times. Even after only a couple weeks of knowing each other, Marrow could already tell that sometimes Jaune’s mouth went faster than his brain could keep up with.

“I guess what I meant was…” He kept his eyes trained on the waves, brow furrowed in some emotion that Marrow couldn’t identify. “...Was that Atlas freaking sucks for making you feel like you had to suppress a signal of how you’re feeling, just to fit in.”

Oh.

That was anger.

That expression was anger, anger on Marrow’s behalf.

Like the righteous anger Jaune had shown on the tundra when they’d refused to help the citizens of Mantle escape the river of Grimm. Like the desperate anger Jaune had expressed after nearly being denied permission to rescue Oscar. Like the raging anger Jaune had screamed at Ironwood after finding out that his friends had been injured and hunted on the General’s orders.

All in defense of someone or something the blonde cared about. Jaune wore his emotions on his sleeve, as far as Marrow could tell. He’d never seen someone’s face be so expressive, without even a hint that Jaune was trying to hide anything he felt.

But now that anger was targeted at someone else, and Marrow was the one who was being defended. With that same fire in his eyes.

“Sorry if I’m overstepping!” Jaune started backpedaling after Marrow didn’t respond. “Jeez, I probably just shouldn't have said anything, right?”

“No!” Marrow interjected. “No. It’s fine.” He unhooked his ankles around the railing beneath him and slumped slightly. “You’re right,” Marrow admitted reluctantly, kicking his feet and staring at the water below.

“I am?” Jaune asked, sounding astounded, and even without looking, Marrow could tell that Jaune had looked away from the waves.

Yeah, he was right, and that was a whole different thing he needed to unpack at a later date. But for now… for now he needed to ask…

“Why do you even care?” Marrow refused to look away from the water now, certain that Jaune was giving him one of those wide-eyed looks that he didn’t know what to do with. “It’s my tail after all, not yours.” My feelings, not yours. My institutionalized suppression, not yours.

“I guess I don’t really care,” Jaune admitted, and Marrow had to admit that hurt. He didn’t really know why it hurt, but it was definitely going on the pile of things not to unpack later. If he slumped any further, he was going to fall off the damn boat, and honestly he didn’t know if that was a bad outcome. “It is your tail, so it’s by all rights your business.”

“I guess partially I relate a little bit, but...” he admitted and hesitated again. A little astonished that they could possibly share common ground on something like this, Marrow risked a glance at him. That same damned look of sort of understanding, sort of pity.

“But man it’s not your tail I care about,” Jaune clarified, smiling softly at him, and Marrow didn’t know what exactly he’d done to earn that smile, “I couldn’t care less about that, I care about you.”

Gods above what the sweet hell was Marrow supposed to do with that?!

“Why?” Marrow heard himself ask from wherever the shock had sent his brain.

Jaune looked honestly taken aback by that, mouth slightly agape, eyes wide, eyebrows raised high enough that they were threatening to escape into his hairline. In any other situation Marrow might have laughed.

While Jaune pondered his question, Marrow’s brain struggled to process Jaune’s frankly ridiculous claim.

They were on the same team, fine. He’d been pleased to find that they didn’t insist on keeping the kind of distant professionalism that the Ace-Ops had always enforced. But Marrow clearly didn’t fit into the dynamic the four of them had set up.

He was the odd one out, the Atlesian defective, adopted into team ALPN because he had nowhere else to go. Academy teams were made up of four people: five was right out. It was just logical that with them already having bonds forged from fighting for their freaking lives, that Marrow be the odd one out.

On top of all that, they’d barely known each other for a month. A month during which Marrow had actively aided the former leader of the Atlesian military stage a coup and hunt down any and all of Jaune’s friends for treason.

And now Jaune was claiming to care about him? All with that damned smile on his face.

“Why wouldn’t I care about you?” Jaune eventually asked, not even bothering to hide the confusion in his voice.

“Answering with a question,” Marrow noted, a ghost of a smile on his lips for the first time in this conversation that had gone nowhere near where he thought it was going.

“Yeah shut up.” Jaune rolled his eyes. “Asking why I care is like…” he fumbled for the words for a moment. “...is like asking why the sun comes up in the morning, or why water is wet, or why the moon is shattered.”

“But you know why the moon is shattered.”

“Yes! Still shut up!” Jaune waved away his comments, the look of worried confusion finally being replaced by the sort of sad smile again. “I care because I do, okay? It’s just who I am.”

But that wasn’t the answer Marrow wanted to hear, because he needed concrete reasons and evidence. Wishy-washy “Because” wasn’t going to do, he needed to know the reasons why.

“But if it helps,” Jaune amended, and Marrow perked up unconsciously. “I care because you’re a great guy, and because quite honestly I think you need someone to just care about you without strings attached.”

That… maybe Marrow could work with that. No strings attached sounded nice.

“And I also care because you’re part of my team, and ‘round here that means something,” Jaune said, the ‘not like in Atlas’ going unspoken. “So you’re just gonna have to deal with it, because it’s not going away any time soon!”

His eyes were shining again. That same fire from when he’d been angry on Marrow’s behalf, angry at people who weren’t even here to see his expression. His eyes were shining, his shoulders were set defiantly, and even still leaning on the railing he looked like he was prepared to keep arguing the point until Marrow conceded. Fighting until he understood.

But he didn’t understand it. And he also didn’t understand why Jaune looked so upset. The silence stretched on. Marrow had no words, and it seemed like Jaune had nothing more to say. What was he supposed to say to all of that? What kind of response was an appropriate freaking follow up?

Marrow dropped Jaune’s gaze and went back to staring out over the waves. The sun was starting to set. Had they really been out here for that long?

“Thank you,” Marrow eventually said, voice quiet enough that he half hoped that Jaune wouldn’t hear. He may not understand it, but he could accept that for whatever reason, Jaune Arc had chosen to care about him.

Even though that was not how it was supposed to work. And even though that was not how it was supposed to work, somehow all of Marrow’s carefully built defenses had been chipped away. X-rayed away by eyes that reflected the sky and the sea.

Out of the corner of his eye Marrow could see Jaune un-tense. “No problem,” the blonde responded, matching Marrow’s volume. Relief was coloring his words, and Marrow had to wonder why. It was like Jaune had half-expected Marrow to fight him at the end of his heartfelt speech or something.

The sun sank lower to the horizon, and the two of them lapsed back into the companionable silence that they’d started the conversation with. But now the awkwardness was gone, and Marrow frankly had no idea why. It was like some invisible wall had come down.

“I meant it ya know,” Jaune murmured, some unknown amount of time later. “What I said before, I wasn’t just saying it. I meant it.”

Marrow glanced over at him. The wind ruffled his hair and caught his sash. Freckles danced their way across his cheeks and speckled the arms he was resting his chin on. His eyes were on the horizon, watching the sun sink into the ocean, blue eyes alight with the fire from the distant star.

He looked worried. Brows pushed together, eyes intent on the sinking sun. The bags were still under his eyes and the tension still hadn’t left his friend’s posture. Marrow realized with a start that he was one of Jaune’s worries.

The realization didn’t send him spiraling into confusion like it might have done earlier in the day.

“I know you meant it.” And although Marrow didn’t know what the little bundle of emotions he felt in the pit of his stomach meant, he knew with every fiber of his being that Jaune Arc meant it when he said that he cared.

And if a soft smile crossed his lips and if his tail swayed a little faster than the rhythm of the boat, who was to say?

[jade-marie]

GG 2x04 Rewatch

Not gonna lie, this is probably going to be the only episode I rewatch. The rest has been kinda tainted by 2x13 and s3.

Generally, my opinions tend not to line up with the majority of the fandom - sorry, not sorry. 

1. What was your favourite scene of the episode? Tell us why!

It’s a tie between the bathroom break and the vette smash. Bathroom break - for obvious reasons - I’m a hoe and I live for that shit. The vette smash - I just vibe with Rio’s petty energy and the way you could see how much he was enjoying himself, Dean being metaphorically castrated by the guy who just fucked his wife... chef’s kiss. 

2. Was there any scene that missed the mark for you? And if so, how?

I WISH beth would’ve bit back when Dean brought up the shooting. It irks me so much that she contnually rolls over for him. She spitefully gets payback, but rarely puts him in his place (if it were up to me, his place would be by boomer-jeff’s side in the dumpster)

3. This episode starts with each of the girls trying to make amends in their own way – Beth through her family, Ruby through charity and Annie through Marion. What do you think this tells us about each of them?

I feel like Beth and Ruby’s attempts at making amends always feel incredibly shallow and I can never tell if it’s down to shitty writing or if its because they genuinely don’t feel guilty. If’it’s the former - I’m not surprised. If it’s the latter - I hope the girls own their lack of remorse, in future. 

Annie strikes me as the one who feels genuine guilt over a lot of this, and it’s been pretty consistent - even when Lucy died in S3. I think it makes sense for her to be the most cut up about it because she always struck me as someone who’s ruled by her emotions - she doesn’t exactly think before she acts, and is typically pretty impulsive.

4. Rio offers Beth the keys to the kingdom! This scene is always hotly debated in the fandom! What do you think he meant in the moment of it? Do you think he ever actually saw or even wanted Beth as a partner?

Straying from the general consensus, as usual - I don’t think he was playing her and I don’t think he planned to take a cut of whatever Beth came up with. 

Personally, I don’t think it makes much sense. He’s already learnt that he gets further with Beth through praise and reward, as opposed to intimidation - more flies with honey, yada yada yada. 

If the whole thing was just a manipulation it would have made more sense for him to convince her that he had faith in her and offer her a 25% cut of any cash washing operation she could come up with. She would’ve bit his hand off at the opportunity.  

I think he was telling the truth when he said that he was done, I think he was genuinely flipping his game from cash to pills. At this point, Turner was looking closely and so it would make sense for Rio to want to distance himself from the counterfeit operation. He literally explained back in season one that it’s how he avoids being caught, he flips his game before the feds get too close. 

I get the feeling that he probably didn’t intend to have much contact with Beth going forward and was going to leave her to do whatever she wanted with the rest of the money. It’s not that I think he wouldn’t manipulate her, he absolutely would. I just don’t really think it makes sense in this context. 

5. Do you think Marion had any idea that Boomer was taking advantage of her?

I think it was probably similar to the situation with Beth, regarding Dean’s cheating: the thought was there, but she never really confronted the idea and lived in a comfy little denial bubble.

6. Dean’s attachment to the corvette is played in many different ways in s2! How do you interpret this?

I think it’s the perfect display of his narcissism and toxic masculinity. The car is as grandiose as his ego and he thinks it’s going to save the dealership, much like he thinks he’s going to be the one to save his family from ruin.

7. Why do you think Beth kept the money from Ruby and Annie?

I think she’s hugely manipulative and likes to be the be the one holding the cards. She only wanted to rob the store when she had her own problems to worry about and then convinced the girls to go along with it, she went to Rio to ask for more work back in season 1, she asked him to up their drops, the list goes on.

She tends to call the shots and drag them along for the ride, so it seems consistent with her personality that she’d keep the money to herself until she needed it, and then inform the girls. 

8. The birth of the cars for cash business! Is this Beth’s best idea? Her worst? How do you rank it, both in general and among the girls’ other schemes? And do you think it could’ve worked longterm if Turner wasn’t so fixated on Beth?

Probably the best idea she came up with tbh. The others were pretty poorly thought through, as far as long term strategising goes. It could’ve worked really well if they had an accountant keeping the books looking kosher. 

9. The Beth and Dean arc this episode is perhaps one of their most frustrating (in spite of the extremely cathartic resolution, haha). Do you think Dean’s belittling of Beth and his feelings of Beth emasculating him are new to their relationship or have been around for a long time? How do you think they really see each other?

I think they lived in a state of blissful ignorance and their initial interaction (love you, tunafish) was really indicative of that. Him belittling her was probably prevalent in the beginning of the relationship, but I think she probably just placated him and got on with her life. Now she’s clearly growing tired of his shit, just not. fast. enough.

I don’t think they’re in love though. I think Dean’s feelings for her are fuelled by narcissim. She’s obviously good looking and from the outside, he has it all. The house in the burbs, kids, hot wife, family business etc. That’s what he cares about - the image. I don’t think Beth is too dissimilar. I think she probably looked up to Judith as a teenager and idiolised that life, which Dean could provide. I don’t think she ever had deep, romantic, feelings for him. But she probaly does care for him, to an extent.

10. The Annie and Beth arc is also pretty telling of the characters’ history. It’s also one of the few times we’ve deliberately seen Beth seek out Annie for comfort (often it’s incidental that Annie’s there). What do you think this tells us about their relationship, both historically, and where they are at this point in the series?

I think it’s one of the few moments that their sibling bond is believable. It’s pretty accurate that, as Annie is maturing, she becomes less of a fuckup baby sister who needs everyone to clean up after her and grows into someone that beth can turn to for comfort/advice. Makes sense that this happens later in life, considering the significant age gap.

11. Ruby’s scene at the Quick Cash with JT is really significant – both in terms of it being a generally delightful scene, but also as a touchstone demonstration of Ruby’s increasing unwillingness to swallow her pride. Do you think Ruby prior to the series commencing would’ve reacted to JT’s goading in this way? And how do you think this scene compliments the scene earlier in the episode with Stan admitting he’s taken another loan too?

I thinks she would’ve wanted to, but literally couldn’t afford to. She had the means and opportunity to give him a dose of karma. But it’s always been in her nature to talk shit - diner dickweed in season 1. She refused to swallow her pride and apologise.

That, along with Stan taking another loan, seems to fit in well with the Hill’s entire arc of trying to be good people and being consistently shit on for it.

12. THE. BATHROOM. BREAK. That’s it. That’s the question. Please elaborate on your thoughts and feelings.

Am i supposed to be able to form thoughts or sentences that adequately express my feelings?

Petty king is also king of consent, he let beth take the lead - love it.

Judging from the papertowel dispenser, stroke game was strong.

Penis levitation is now a part of my vocab, thank you for your service, Rio.

10/10 - would definitely recommend being railed in a bathroom by this man.

13. Greg and Annie have what’s their last break-up in this episode (at least up until now). Why do you think this particular one stuck? And do you see any sort of future for them?  

I feel like the key difference was Annie putting her foot down and saying “no”. Idk if I can see them getting back together, becasue I don’t think she’d have another affair when there’s a child in the mix and he’s too much of a pussy to divorce Nancy unless he has a guaranteed backup plan aka Annie. Still kinda ship it though.

14. Annnnd lastly, what do you make of the final scene at Boland Motors? What do you think Rio thought following both the bathroom break and this moment?

I think that Rio was genuinely flipping his game and moving away from cash and, in turn, Beth. But the bathroom break changed his mind, so he got curious and wanted to know what she came up with for the money, only to find out that she gave it to Dean. Given how possessive Rio is of his money, in combination with the feelings for Beth which had just been stirred up, I think his jealous side came out and he took back the money. 

Up until this point, the entire Brio dynamic was him holding the power and exerting it whenever he saw fit. The second he followed her into that bathroom, he gave up whatever semblance of control or power he had left. The man is a very obvious control freak and so I don’t think he does well or feels secure in those situations. Him smashing up the car was basically an attempt to re-establish dominance and convince himself (and Beth) that he was still in control; with the added bonus of emasculating dean and making money.

And daaaayyyyyyyuuuuuuummmmm if I don’t enjoy watching that scene. The emasculation of Dean, Rio being petty, Beth malfunctioning at the possibility of Dean finding out she got dicked down in the bathroom, while he sat outside trying (and failing) to get the waiter’s attention. I DIE

[helihi]

The Good, The Bad, and the Dirty: RWBY Vol 6 Ep 13

#GayForSummerRose

#BeesConfirmed #RenoraStyle #RTWhatAreYouDoingWithMyEmotions #ThisShitIsIllegal.

Overall rating: 8/10.

A.N.: RT provided us with an official “Look how far we’ve come.”

The Good:

Okay, I can definitely say I love this season finale more than the vol 5 finale. yes, even if Vol 6′s greatest tragedy is having no Raven in it, I have to say, the rollercoaster of emotions the last 16 gave me were a thrill.

Where to start?

Let’s kick it chronologically. Watched it 2 more times for this.

"Yes, and we just ruined the only thing capable of stopping it.”

I want to applaud Kara for her delivery of this line. It was cold, in a very Grimm tone. Loved it!

I think the structure of the episode was well thought as most of the contents of this episode belong in this section:

Set up:

This whole episode is mainly centered around Ruby. She is the one the camera will follow and point and for reactions, this is crucial for the emotional beat of this episode.

Cordovin’s redemption is set up at the beginning of the episode and follows a good narrative in the next 16 minutes. 

Blake’s state and struggle is acknowledged by those around her, specially Yang and Ruby. This scene is great, not only because it cements that what Blake went through is not something to be shrugged off, but because also provides with one of the most wholesome moments of the whole episode: Ruby looks at Yang and she knows.

Maria comes in and paints an objective: 

The utilitarian route - They take the chaos as an opportunity to run.

The idealist route - They stay and fight, even if they are at a disadvantage.

Camera focuses on Ruby for choice —> Team for back up —> Back to Ruby for confirmation. She is the one who makes the call.

Strategy one: Doomed to fail.

Ruby states that she HAS to do this.

Build up:

Cordovin reaches her breaking point as she listens to Ruby’s resolution.

Cool flight sequence.

Plan fails.

New strategy which focuses a lot more on team effort. I love the scene were Blake goes over to Weiss. We are Weiss stans first, RWBY fans second. The fact that everything feels connected, shows you this was more thought out than the Vol 5 ending battle sequence (With the exception of Cinder vs. Raven vs. Yang). Ren and Jaune are out of the game, no aura. Yang and Nora are to distract the Leviathan. Blake is there for emotional support, she has no aura and Gambol Shroud is broken. Weiss is giving Ruby method of transportation.

Ruby faces the Leaviathan: This is the official RT RWBY “Look how far we’ve come” montage, I say this not only because this is meant to show Ruby’s memories, but because most of the time, the clear point of view of these is not Ruby, but the audience.

Toddler Yang + Young Taiyang: Emotional connection to childhood from Ruby/ Reminder of the fan favorite Burning the Candle episode.

Zwei joins the team: highlight of the time at beacon/everyone’s fav corgi.

Food fight: call back to the ‘good ol’ days’/ Everyone’s favorite fight sequence.

Blake loves tuna: nice team building/One of the funniest scenes for the FNDM.

Penny: scene were she tells Ruby she wants to leave Atlas.

Vomit boy: First time Ruby saw Jaune/Some old FNDM nicknames.

Team JNPR at the noodle station.

Pyrrha —> ANGST TRIGGER.

Jaune training at night: Ruby was woken up every night by this/Sad Arkos moment that hit everyone.

Yang losing an arm: scarring memory for Ruby to see her sister like that/one of the most telling shots of Vol 3 ending.

Yang closing up: see above.

Pyrrha dying.

Penny dead.

Ruby’s powers don’t work, focus on the Leviathan noticing her. Zoom to the lamp.

Pay off:

JINN INTERVENTION! Set up for future volumes, probably one of the smartest moves Ruby pulled up ever. And it’s perfect tied in to the way Ruby react after being reminded of the relic’s existence and how it affect Grimm, established in earlier episodes.

Continuation of montage:

Team RWBY ready for mission: fond memory/of of the iconic moments of the first volumes.

Weiss apologizing: Official beginning of their friendship/Iconic moment of vol 1.

Blake cheering: old classes/meme’d image.

Yang telling Ruby she will always be there for her: emotional contrast to the last Yang flashback/connection of Yang’s short to her self-sacrificial nature/mother hen attitude.

Vol 2 Ending: crisis avoided when the bad guys were easy to deal with.

Dance: Another excellent scene from vol 2.

Team JNPR together.

Qrow’s first appearance: emotional core of Ruby/Qrow relationship.

Oscar hopeful.

María giving Ruby lessons.

Penny when she confirms they are friends.

SUMMER ROSE OMFG

Gotta say, I wasn’t expecting to see her this soon, but I am so fucking glad to see her! I can finally draw all the Team STRQ I’ve wanted to draw! She's so fucking pretty aaaaaaaaaa

Does this confirm STRQ backstory soon?

Ruby is able to stop the Leviathan momentarily.

Cordovin redeems herself.

Now, we get to skip all the fight, which I find to be a great choice. After the last 3 episodes of constant action, we need a breather. We need interactions, a slow down of the pace and some discussion.

We get the small closing scene for the Qrow and Ruby arc. She restates her love for him and Qrow realizes he has someone new to inspire him. It’s very important that he hesitates before taking a drink, and actually pouts his flask down down.

María is also inspired by Ruby. After patting Qrow in the back (metaphorically), we get a reinforcement of team RWBY + JN_R + Oscar as the new generation who take on the mission of saving the world and protecting others as huntsmen.

We got some wholesome and organic exchanges between the kiddos. It’s so refreshing and welcome to see them interact, even if it seems like something so ordinary and miniscule.

Bees get confirmation Renora style. Volume 7 will be filled with filled with Bumblebee y’all! Happy to see they will explore their feelings for each other after they settle the Adam fiasco. They can move on and build a healthy relationship together.

When the Renora kiss tho.

Oscar reveals that Ozpin helped him land the ship. This is super important! Ozpin shows that he has faith in them, and instead of taking over, he shows his support and guides Oscar. This is a very good sign, even if it leaves a sour taste in everyone’s mouth.

Good for the Ozpin arc.

I love the way Atlas looks! It’s an interesting way to protect the city from oncoming Grimm attacks after what happened to Matle. I wonder however, how they keep the city up and what plan of evacuation/defense they have for the impending invasion.

It’s clear the set up for the next season is more political and I’m all here for it!

The Bad

The way Yang and Blake to join the others at the beginning of the episode has me face palming. How the fuck could they have gotten there in time when they were both tired, with no aura left and shocked after what they went through?

That was cheap as fuck, I’d rather they fly to pick them up, that woudl have added what? 1 minute to the 16 minute chapter?

The Dirty

The first scene of the whole episode is completely disconnected for everything else, and though it’s a clear set up for volume 7, I feel it would have been a better post credits scene than the one we got with Salem that was a huge meh.

I will make a Vol 6 review in the future (cause I can’t decide if I like it better or worse than Volume 5), but for sure, the Cinder scenes are completely out of place and only serve for set up for volume 7. They are so clumsily implemented, I can’t believe they couldn’t set up a theme to have them make sense.

Anyways, this is here for the following reasons:

Good callback to Pyrrha’s death. That exchange clearly triggered the audience because boi we’re not over that.

Cool new outfits, kind old how the CRWBY keeps pulling these outfits change to indicate a new arc and make it so obvious.

WHERE ARE MY RWBY ALTAS OUTFITS. I NEED THEM NOW.

Nice to see Neo’s Semblance being explored. She has limits, and we know more of how it works.

Still disappointed Neo doesn’t use sign language. I’m pretty sure Cinder would be able to get some context or read her lips, but whatever. I guess it’s too complicated to animate.

Overall rating: 8/10.

A.N.: Okay I am very gay for Summer someone body please help me the thirst—

[love-takes-work]

Steven Universe Podcast: Volume 2, Episode 10: Garnet

Season 2, Episode 10 of the Steven Universe Podcast, released March 29, 2018, is about Garnet. The official description:

Garnet finally gets her due on the Steven Universe Podcast! Creator Rebecca Sugar and former Executive Producer Ian Jones-Quartey return to reveal why Garnet is especially meaningful to them personally, what hints they deliberately included in the pilot pointing to Garnet being a fusion, and how it ended up that she never asks questions... ever! Co-Executive Producer Joe Johnston and Storyboard Supervisor Hilary Florido also return to speak to writing for Garnet versus Ruby and Sapphire individually, and some of their favorite Garnet moments. Plus, Erica Luttrell, the voice of Sapphire, recalls her audition and offers a great behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like working the voice over booth with Rebecca Sugar!

Since as usual my summary is long, I will provide a highlights list followed by a cut which you can follow for a more in-depth narrative. Enjoy!

Highlights:

Garnet represents Ian Jones-Quartey and Rebecca Sugar's relationship. Like her, they had to maintain their union AND run the show simultaneously.

Rebecca is Ruby and Ian is Sapphire.

Plans to have Ruby or Sapphire show up in "Together Breakfast" were scrapped, though they kept the red and blue lights on the door as Garnet went into her room.

Rebecca and Ian loved checking out fan theories about whether Garnet was a Fusion before it was revealed. Fans once worried that Garnet would unfuse and never come back, or that their fusion was necessary for some dark or desperate reason, but they don't remember seeing anyone conclude that they were simply in love.

Ruby and Sapphire are a classic cartoon couple in many ways and were designed to be adorable together.

A good analogy for understanding Garnet is to think of her a bit like Ruby and Sapphire's child, with attributes of both but completely different from both as her own person.

According to Ian, Garnet is the most impulsive and it's hardest to predict what her reaction to any given situation might be.

Garnet's Future Vision is not the same as Sapphire's. Sapphire's is passive and singular, and with Ruby's impulsive influence, Garnet is able to imagine interfering in the path of fate and creating multiple futures.

Garnet's difficulty in connecting to the present is rooted in her fixation on what might happen and what she'll do or say next. She sometimes deals with feelings of being overwhelmed by blowing off steam with unexpected outbursts.

Garnet's tendency to not ask questions is a reversal of the character trope where a character constantly asks questions to move the story along.

Rebecca describes a pact with Rose associated with her lack of question-asking, which we will get into "very soon."

"Three Gems and a Baby" had an important scene where Garnet unfusing upset baby Steven, which made Garnet worry that Steven wouldn't accept her. The episode once had lines featuring her worrying that she'd showed him too soon.

Garnet's experience in "Arcade Mania" was described by Ian as "soothing" for her--a whole series of predictable futures that she could escape into.

Garnet's stoicism is largely derived from her being frozen into inaction by overload of input from her Future Vision. She can find refuge in her trust and love for someone else, and her warmth in those moments is when she is genuinely present.

A favorite Garnet line from Ian: "We can't fight these things forever. Well, we can, but I don't want to."

One of the most challenging aspects of writing Garnet for Joe Johnston and Hilary Florido is dealing with her no-questions rule.

Joe thinks Garnet is the Gem mom most likely to say something embarrassing.

Joe loved having a chance to look outside Steven's direct POV with "Garnet's Universe."

The Sardonyx arc had to be handled very carefully since it was an episode explicitly about consent in general, but using fusion as a very specific vehicle in the show. Showing how Pearl caused a serious breach by violating Garnet's consent was important, but it was also important to depict a satisfactory resolution for characters who have been through this.

Erica Luttrell originally auditioned to play Garnet.

Sometimes Rebecca has to ask Erica to be more chill in playing Sapphire because she has a tendency to use more emotional, animated delivery sometimes.

Erica gets into character with help from the storyboard images shown during the recording sessions. Her speaking voice is quite different from Sapphire’s voice.

Volume 2 is completed with this episode. The podcast will be back with more mini-recaps in a couple weeks.

You can read the detailed summary below!

[Archive of Steven Universe Podcast Summaries]

McKenzie opens the podcast by acknowledging that everyone's been asking for a Garnet episode, and brings up how Garnet's status as a Fusion was hinted at as far back as the pilot. She gives us an overview of the guests for this week and what they'll be talking about, and then she begins with Rebecca and Ian.

Rebecca Sugar and Ian Jones-Quartey:

Kicking off the discussion of Garnet, Rebecca and Ian start with Garnet's origin as they conceived her character at the beginning. Garnet represents Ian and Rebecca's relationship, so she is a mashup of what the two of them wanted. As they began to make the show together, Ruby was Rebecca's avatar of sorts, while Sapphire was Ian's. Since they were together 24/7 as they put the show together, they got very in sync so they felt they were thinking as a unit, and the way they handled it was very much like Garnet because they had to maintain their relationship's stability WHILE also being in charge of this huge creative process.

Ruby and Sapphire were always a planned aspect of Garnet, though they evolved as characters behind the scenes before they were put on the show. They had initially intended Garnet to split up more often than she does, and wanted to show Steven seeing one of them in the Temple as far back as "Together Breakfast" but not knowing who she was. They dropped that plan, but still included the red and blue lights on the Temple door as an early clue. They really enjoyed watching people try to figure that out, and try to figure out the silhouettes in "Fusion Cuisine."

Ian and Rebecca were pretty amused by how dark the theories were about whether Garnet was a Fusion and what that meant for her character. Many worried that if she were revealed as a Fusion, she would unfuse at some point and not come back, or that maybe there was a terrible reason Ruby and Sapphire stayed fused (like, to keep one of them alive or something). No one seemed to hit on the right answer--that they fused because they were in love. They were actually kind of surprised no one seemed to pick up on it since they showed Garnet being so ecstatic about Stevonnie in "Alone Together." 

In Ian's imagination, Ruby and Sapphire are totally classic cartoon characters, like the adorable characters of "Love Is..." or an angel/devil, ice/fire dynamic. Rebecca brings up characters that are designed to be a couple, like a Mickey/Minnie combo where they look identical except one has eyelashes and a bow. She wanted her characters to still have that classic totally-in-love vibe without having that look. They're super cute.

Ian enjoyed getting to explore Ruby and Sapphire's extremes in "Keystone Motel," and they discuss how this was their last episode they finished together, which felt really cathartic. They tiptoe around discussing the way Ruby and Sapphire fight, warning against going too deep since this does represent their relationship as well, but so much of what they fight about is caused by external factors and the way they try to make something bigger than themselves work smoothly. McKenzie points out that the focus on Ruby and Sapphire has distracted them from talking about Garnet herself, who is after all the intended focus character of this episode!

Ian begins by contrasting Garnet with Opal; Opal is a fragile union because the characters who form her can't keep their balance for long, while Garnet is a much more balanced relationship. Rebecca emphasizes that she is her own person, and Ian suggests she holds so much responsibility as an individual. Rebecca says it helps to think of Garnet as sort of a child of Ruby and Sapphire, with aspects of both of them but functioning as a separate entity. Rebecca says the Gems all struggle with their sense of self, but for Garnet it's a specific type of struggle and when she's on top of it it's more stable than anyone. Ian thinks she's the most impulsive, the most mysterious, and the most difficult to predict her actions. Rebecca says her inner world is very complex.

In discussing Garnet's Future Vision, Rebecca says it's different from Sapphire's ability because Sapphire sees "one future" and is a passive player in that future. Ruby is so impulsive that her actions can interrupt those predictions. So Garnet can see options of what will happen if she interferes. She's always caught up in her own mind pondering these things. She's often overwhelmed by this, and that's why sometimes you'll see her blow off steam doing weird things or being unable to connect with the present. But love keeps her in the here and now when she works on it, and she can bring it forward with warmth and focus.

One "rule" for Garnet is that she does not ask questions (in her present state, that is; she certainly asked many questions in "The Answer," before she was sure of anything). Ian and Rebecca knew about the character trope of someone who's there to ask questions and push the narrative along, and they wanted her to be the opposite. She acknowledges that the phrase "Can't you see that my relationship is stable?" counts as a rhetorical question and she takes responsibility for that.

(Chronicler's note: Garnet HAS asked several other questions that are sort of like this, but like Rebecca is saying here, they are in some way not exactly questions. In "Laser Light Cannon," Garnet says "Ready?" to Amethyst and she nods as if answering before getting thrown at the Red Eye, but you could take that to mean she's telling her to be ready. In "Cheeseburger Backpack," Garnet asks "What've you got?" to Steven as an invitation for him to pull out his raft, but you could see that as a prompt for him to show her. In "Rose's Room," she says "Guess what?" but immediately answers her own question with "We have time to hang out now." In "Watermelon Steven," she's included in the couple of "What??" reactions the Gems have when Steven bursts in with his news about his living watermelons, but it’s not really a question so much as an exclamation of surprise. And besides "Can't you see that my relationship is stable?" there is also the recent episode "Pool Hopping" which features Garnet saying "Who knows?" when Steven asks how long they'll be posing for, but she’s not really asking for a who.)

Garnet's refusal to ask questions is an expression of her sureness, but it is also representative of a pact with Rose--we saw it in "The Answer" ("never question this! you already are the answer!") but Rebecca says we'll learn more about the pact "very soon."

McKenzie brings up Garnet's visor and under what conditions she tends to take it off, and asks what this has to do with Steven being slowly let into Garnet's world. Rebecca says that Garnet is so much happier now that Steven knows she's a Fusion, and that before she was always guarding the secret, worried about upsetting him. They bring up "Three Gems and a Baby," when Garnet unfused for baby Steven and he cried, which made her worry that the truth about her will upset him and she needs to keep it hidden. Originally Rebecca thinks there were lines about Garnet being hurt that Steven as a baby couldn't handle that revelation and that she showed him too soon. His opinion of fusion is really important to her, and she worried about it a lot, but for a long time Steven didn't truly understand fusion. He just thought it was something exciting they could do. But she loves that fusion makes Steven happy, since it's got such negative connotations on Homeworld.

Ian brings up how Garnet sees things differently than any other character; similar to how they discussed Stevonnie's hallucinations in the podcast about fusion, Garnet is always seeing these splitting realities and possibilities, and in "Arcade Mania" that's one reason Garnet found the game "soothing." It was full of predictable futures she could master, allowing her a comfort and an escape. 

Her way of being socially awkward, in contrast to the other Gems, is in her hyperawareness; she's so focused on how others might react to what she says that she will often say nothing. She's frequently drowning in all the input and seeming stoic because it's paralyzing, but what brings her out of those loops is trusting and loving someone else. That love and trust can cut through all the potential ways something can go wrong. It's really hard for her when she's wrong because she so wants to believe in someone, like when she believed Steven wouldn't go on the roof in the episode "Future Vision" and then he did.

One of Ian's favorite Garnet lines is from "Marble Madness": "We can't fight these things forever. Well, we can, but I don't want to."

Joe Johnston and Hilary Florido:

McKenzie welcomes her next guests and asks them to discuss how they approach writing for Garnet. Hilary pipes in about how she actually doesn't get many Garnet episodes because her specialty is the characters who are self-deprecating and Garnet is so the opposite. Joe says Garnet is straightforward but soft-spoken, and ready to dive into any situation on impulse if that's needed. Joe brings up the "no questions" rule as a challenge in writing Garnet. Joe says it's more than just a wordplay issue with writing her dialogue; it forces them to keep her direct and definitive. They've sometimes spent a lot of time trying to get Garnet's lines clear of questions.

They move on to discussing writing for Ruby and Sapphire. Hilary again tends not to write for them. Joe says Sapphire is the calm and collected aspects of Garnet, while Ruby's the impulsive and direct parts of her. Hilary says Fusions are always those parts plus more. Because they didn't reveal Ruby and Sapphire for a long time, Garnet as a gestalt was established as an individual far before they started deconstructing Ruby and Sapphire's personalities on screen. Joe felt it was "a fun time" to explore them. Joe actually compares the situation to writing for Opal, who's an "amazing superhero" like Garnet made up of two almost complete opposites. The balance makes a really impressive combination.

In a convoluted discussion of how "fire and ice" (Ruby and Sapphire) sound cool but also sounds like a bad school dance theme, they conclude that Garnet also has the potential to be the coolest mom but also the most embarrassing mom, considering how goofy she gets when she's happy. She completely can't talk on the phone and really can't interact with humans.

McKenzie brings up "Garnet's Universe" and how it revealed the way Steven thinks about his most mysterious mom. Joe really enjoyed the change of making a "different show." Breaking out of Steven's POV is fun. They also bring up, as an aside, how it was fun to have Michaela and Deedee as sidekicks in that episode, but swapping them so Michaela got to play the cool one and Deedee was silly. They proceed to express confusion over whether Hoppy is the frog or the bunny, and the same for Hopper. (Yes, they got it backwards. Hopper's the frog, played by Deedee; Hoppy's the bunny, played by Michaela. Considering Garnet got it confused once in the episode itself, this is awesome.)

McKenzie moves on to "heavier" episodes, invoking the Sardonyx arc. Hilary said the pitch for "Cry for Help" was handled very carefully. How to "honor" all the characters was very important in trying to do something acceptable with this episode. Joe refers to fusion as a "visual allegory for relationships," which Hilary specifies are "of any kind." Joe wanted to make sure their focus on the importance of consent was handled appropriately for a show that can be consumed by kids, and he felt very gratified by how people totally understood why Garnet was so upset with Pearl. 

Hilary said it was important to get it to work within the show's framework as well as making it resonate with people on a level relatable to their own lives. And then, of course, they had to create a resolution--to show how the characters dealt with mending the break. Having an actual fissure in the team so it can't work was huge for Joe. Hilary really wanted to emphasize that this was not a simple mistake, and that you really have to face mistakes of this magnitude while still figuring out how to move forward.

Erica Luttrell:

McKenzie introduces Erica, voice of Sapphire, and asks her how she got the part. Erica says she actually originally auditioned to play Garnet. Rebecca had seen her singing videos on YouTube, which surprised her; she likes to sing but doesn't like to do it in front of people live. Those videos only exist because a friend insisted she should make them so people would tell her she could sing.

Then Erica discusses her initial understanding of Sapphire, saying she interpreted her as feeling a bit heavy because of that burden of knowing the future, and also that she would read as a little cold and icy, and reserved because of her aristocrat background. But Sapphire comes to fall in love with someone who serves her, and Erica thinks that must have been sort of a relief. And she agrees with McKenzie's assessment that it must have been great to have something unexpected happen.

In discussing fusion, Erica says she really loves that fusion increases positive attributes for Gems who combine, but that for Garnet specifically, it's about love and Estelle's delivery conveys so much peace--evidence of genuine love.

Then McKenzie asks Erica to discuss the difficulty of portraying a character who's cold like Sapphire but also imbue the role with emotion. She sometimes has to be told by Rebecca to chill Sapphire out because she thinks she might be letting some goofiness and emotion creep in.

In portraying a character who can see the future, Erica says it can be challenging--humans can have intuition but can't see the future like Sapphire can, and it must be a totally different life to have a voice in your head that is always telling the truth.

And then McKenzie points out that Erica's speaking voice is quite different from Sapphire's and asks how she gets in character. Reading the script helps, and they can get the tone from the storyboards up on a monitor while they record.

Outro:

McKenzie lets us know that this is the last episode of Volume 2, and we'll return with some more mini-recap episodes in a couple weeks.

[Archive of Steven Universe Podcast Summaries]

[theonceoverthinker]

OUAT 2X13 - Tiny

Hey, reader! Your TINY-ing couldn’t be better to check out my latest review! XD

Yeah, not my best pun, but it’s not too GIANT of a misstep! XD

COMEBACK!

Now go under the cut and read my review!

Press Release

Kidnapped and brought to Storybrooke by Cora, the Giant unleashes his vengeance on the town when a case of mistaken identity leads him to try and settle an old score with David; Mr. Gold, accompanied by Emma and Henry, attempts to depart Storybrooke - hoping to keep his memory intact when he crosses the town line – and heads to the airport in search of his son Bae; and Greg (Ethan Embry) questions Belle as to what she saw on the night of his car accident. Meanwhile, in the fairytale land that was and against his brothers’ wishes, Anton, the Giant, climbs down the beanstalk and attempts to befriend some humans - whose intentions may not be so noble. General Thoughts - Characters/Stories/Themes and Their Effectiveness Past I really like the conflict in this episode and how it relates to the present later on. We clearly know the outcome of Anton’s voyage to the human world, but Anton never feels like he’s being foolish in this flashback. Anton’s research, kind heart, and inquisitive nature are not being satisfied (And as often implied, even mocked and bullied) by his siblings. But, in that same token, they are not completely cast as bad either. Anton clearly cares for them, and his oldest sibling is shown to be wise in many ways and it’s his lesson of seeking another land that proves to be the key to Anton’s eventual happiness and livelihood in the present.

James’ and Jack’s plan is a great one. That plotting is devious. The staging of it all was well done enough that it doesn’t feel contrived, but understanding of the kind of person Anton is and malleable enough account for missteps. Just go back and watch the bar scene. James has his outburst at the guard just loud enough so that Anton hears him, and of course, Anton, the curious guy that he is, would ask about why. Jack just happens to bring up the subject of beans and while Anton can’t help her in that regard, what else are giants known for? Their treasure, something Anton can be far more generous with. And give him enough motivation and he’ll go right over there with the bare minimum security. It’s honestly one of the best and most underrated evil plans on the show. It’s simple, but intelligently suited to its victim. Present I love the Storybrooke section of this episode! Anton, while the antagonist in this segment to David’s protagonist story, is never made to be a bad guy because the entire time we’re with him attacking, we’re aware of his plight. Because of that, we want him to pull through and get along with everyone and the episode gives that emotional payoff while still ensuring that Anton does learn his lesson about humans. David is in his best form throughout the episode, kind and compassionate but not without his limits and Snow acts as a great source of support and friendship while Leroy rounds out the trio with his comedy and everyman presence in town (And later on, surprising amount of heart).

It’s so great to see the people of Storybrooke acting as a unit again during the rescue and aftermath of Anton. It reminds me of the efforts made in episodes like “A Still Small Voice” and it fits into the story well as a bulk of humans are able to prove themselves to Anton at once.

Also, let’s talk about the airport scenes, but it helps make this episode so memorable. The security scene is both so hysterical at first and so tense and terrifying once the shawl comes off, even after the safe resolution. That having been said, I will say, I wish things were a little bit clearer as to why Rumple was freaking out even after he retained his memories. I can’t help but feel like they were almost going to go for a different angle like actually having Rumple at one point revert to his cursed self (Note how Rumple places so much emphasis on how important it was for him to keep his true identity), but it was abandoned. Otherwise, what was the purpose of the freakouts because we only got a few seconds of waviness as he was crossing through security before getting the shawl back? I like the idea of Rumple freaking out over not having his magic for the first time since the curse broke and realizing that his mortality is back, but what brought it on and how it was handled was weird. All Encompassing This segment is also notable in the fact that not only is it Anton’s first and only centric, but it is the first time that we really see the distinctions between David and James. Before, we saw a bit of James before his death, but while bits of him can be understood with the aid of hindsight, but this is where the character was truly defined for the first time. Whereas David so often acts for the betterment of his people and even those who oppose him (to the point where he attempts to sacrifice himself for Storybrooke’s safety and then later endangers himself for Anton’s sake), James is only interested in himself and won’t lift so much as a finger to help someone if it puts him in danger. Insights - Stream of Consciousness -”I think layers are always a good idea!” Nice subtle showing of Mama Swan! -I don’t know why, but it cracks me up how Rumple’s covering the expenses of their trip! XD Charming summed it up best: “You’re a real gentleman, aren’t you?” -”This isn’t a threat, it’s a request. Take care of them.” Aww! I love that extra bit of Sheep Bros! And Rumple actually responds to it! -I like also how Rumple’s being much more overt to Emma and co about who it is he’s looking for. I’m going to call that a slight development in his emotional honesty. -David, I am with Snow. That holster looks great on you! -Regina needs to join the Storybrooke acting troupe alongside Killian, Cora, and Rumple. Actually, someone make a fic out of this! Please? -”And we’re sorry.” I love how Snow completely follows through on her resolve from the previous episode. -First Captain Charming scene! Yayyyyy!! Honestly, it’s just as perfect as I’d hoped it would be! -Not gonna lie, I don’t even think it’s a shipping thing, but seeing Killian flirt with Snow like he does by the cops doesn’t flow with me at all. It’s just creepy, and I feel bad saying that, but it just is for me. -I never realized before that The Jolly Roger is made from Enchanted Wood. That’s pretty cool! -Anton is an adorable little bean! -I just realized: Now that the realms are merged, is Anton essentially out of a job, or are the beans the equivalent of teleportation now? Like, if I want to visit Elsa from Granny’s, can I just throw a bean and be right there? And if so, then Anton is now a multi-millionaire and I just couldn’t be happier for the guy! -Watching this flashback makes me hate the flashback in “Flower Child” so forking much. Everything that is done wrong there is done right here. -Holy shirt! Anton can punch! Like, get him on the main team! -The set up of the mystery of why Anton hates David is a very well done one for as brief as it is. It gives the audience a moment to establish how Emma’s actions have shown Anton that some humans aren’t evil as well as the fact that Anton isn’t a bad guy, but showing a clear snapping point for him. -Red Beauty! Yayyyyyy! -Hospital staff: It’s probably not a great idea to have “Good Morning Storybrooke” playing when you have two patients who aren’t supposed to know about magic. -Awww! Ruby loves books too, and reads from Belle’s favorite author! She’s just too sweet! -”Why does everyone keep calling me that?” ...Because it’s your name and you haven’t said anything along the lines of “my name is Lacey.” Introduce yourself! -James just has no shame! He’s about to have sex, his dad comes in, and he’s practically about to continue on! -I feel so bad for Anton! He so has a crush on Jack, and Jack’s just...well, not the worst, but definitely in the top 50 worst. -”How terribly uncivilized.” Rumple, you used to live in a world without indoor plumbing. You’re one to talk! -”Have you ever been on a plane before?” Have you ever been impaled upon a cane before?” That is forking hysterical and will never not be! XD -”You father?” Rumple, you are close to a century older than Emma! Yeah, you could be her dad! XD -Has anyone ever commented on how there’s literally no reason for the shawl to go into the bin. It’s not metal. Am I missing something here? -I want that roasted pig so badly! -”You’re human. I hate humans.” Part of me is thrown a little off base with this line. On one hand, Anton does what humans, but when David, Snow, and Leroy found him, he was more relaxed. However, I’m willing to waive it off to him getting his bearings upon waking up in a strange land. -Oh, shirt! Rumple can’t heal himself! BLOODY HELL! XD -That light is so unflattering for Robert right in the bathroom scene. -The entire conversation between Anton, David, and Snow concerning Emma and James is hysterical. As far as miscommunication scenarios go on this show, this is one of the best. And the follow up conversation between David, Snow, and Leroy over David’s name is equally so! XD -Don’t worry, Anton! Just HOLE-d on! XD -Awww! Look at Anton learning how to use a pickaxe! Anton, never change! Arcs - How are These Storylines Progressing? Regina’s Redemption - It is so hard to watch as Regina double crosses everyone in this episode. I don’t think it’s poorly done, and MM and David’s lines about not needing Regina’s say about Henry make the betrayal a well set up ad effective one. It builds well off of the last couple of episodes and while a touch accelerated around this part, I do think that the overall pacing works here. The People of Storybrooke Going Home - So this arc was really introduced during “The Cricket Game,” I believe. So far, I’m not sure how well it’s being set up, but I will say that this is the clearest the the arc itself has been defined since its inception. Favorite Dynamic David and Anton - David’s interactions with Anton are a true testament to his kindness and leadership abilities. Anton punches him in the face and refuses to cooperate with any attempts David makes to reason with him and yet David simply doesn’t give up on helping him the right way because of who he is. Additionally, how he rallies the entire town together for that same cause is inspiring. He knows the damage his “father” did and he wants those affected by him in any way (even through his progeny) to be helped, no matter what it takes. And on Anton’s side, just like with Emma, he’s receptive to that kindness and the belief in David doesn’t come from just simple information or evidence, but from David’s straight-up actions of offering himself up as a sacrifice and later saving him, and that’s so amazing! Writer Christine Boylan and Kalinda Vazquez are “Tiny’s” writers, and this is a great team up. The pacing of this episode feels very good, moving so that things aren’t rushed, but the stories remain flowing. Additionally, the framing of the writing is quite intricate, careful to not make anyone a bad guy but to also direct the sympathy where it is deserved. Additionally, the manner of Anton’s forgiveness (Both to him and from him) is expertly handled through the actions of the entire town saving Anton from the hole and him helping everyone grow beans. Rating 10/10. I love this episode’s story. Anton is a likable and layered character to follow and his journey with Ruth’s twins across the two timelines is equally layered. The story itself is very lowkey in comparison to some of our previous episodes, and it’s a welcome change of pace! It’s a super simple, yet quite detailed character story that allows for a lot to be done with James, Snow, Charming, and Leroy’s characters. Seeing all of these characters build off one another is what Once Upon a Time does best and the hearty story makes it all the better. While I didn’t find the storytelling at the airport to be as airtight (pun always intended) as the other segments (Ergo, why this isn’t a Golden Apple), the scenes on their own can be super entertaining (Especially EVERYTHING with Rumple in the first half of the security scene). Flip My Ship - Home of All Things “Shippy Goodness” Snowing - It’s just really nice seeing Snow and David working together! They’re so supportive and protective of each other, ranging from hugs to verbally helping each other during discussions with Anton, Hook, and each other over the differences between David and James. Snow and Charming are always expressing their love in some way, and it’s so subtly heartwarming. And hearing Snow talk about how she had fun today and missed their little adventures as she dances around him and the sidewalk is just great! Grumpy Giant - Freakin’ hollythecurious got me into the swing of this ship, and I love it and her for introducing it to me! XD Look at Grumpy’s adoring looks as he helps Anton get settled in to life in Storybrooke and how forward he is with his assistance. This is Grumpy we’re talking about and he’s rarely as likely to take the initiative in regards to introducing people to the town. And dammit, it’s so cute! Hell, he even moves the dwarves’ entire workforce to help Anton grow beans and calls them “our crop!” ()()()()()()()()() Thanks for reading and to the fine and fantastic folks at @watchingfairytales for their continued support and the project!

Wow! this season’s going great, but wow am I tired! Writing these long ash reviews is exhausting! You know what I could use? A drink. How about a Manhattan? ;)

See you next time.

Season 2 Tally (114/220) Writer Tally for Season 2: Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis: (29/60) Jane Espenson (25/50) Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg (24/50) David Goodman (16/30) Robert Hull (16/30) Christine Boylan (17/30) Kalinda Vazquez (20/30) Daniel Thomsen (10/20)

Operation Rewatch Archives

[parrotbeak]

I wrote that Steven Universe-The Simpsons comparison with the decision to not mention the colonial angle. But it’s become difficult to read posts, some critical, some not, relating to any of the Earth-made gems and spot the same indifference that’s interwoven with my life as Indo. Hopefully this post educates a little on what it means (or can mean; I only speak for myself) to be caught in-between. I normally couldn’t care less, but in this one case, don’t interact if anti-crit or non-crit.

The don’t-think-this-is-all short of the Indo experience is that the Dutch way back figured it’d be nifty if the Dutch East Indies had a supply of loyal people with a reason to stay right where they are. Marriages between Dutch men and Indonesian women were motivated in order to produce a new identity of people that’d be invested in serving the DEI because that, the colony holding both roots, was their home. The duality of being Indo plays a role to this day, past the violence of 1940-1949, the unwelcome by the Netherlands to which the arrival of Indos (and Moluccans) was inconvenient as well as never supposed to happen, and the undealt-with trauma that followed when quietly adapting was all there was to do. I’m not going into detail, but for me, having been born decades after the end of the DEI, I miss the place. Rationally and morally that’s ridiculous, but emotionally it promises so many answers I’ll never get. A lot of my life perspectives are based on considerations of what being in-between means. And though I love the Netherlands dearly (culturally), being part Asian also makes me different and alerts me of just how much my country still hasn’t given its DEI history a place.

So, for me the theme of home in colonial and war context is big and SU lines that stand out to me include “I never asked for it to be this way. I never asked to be made!”, “I don't have memories of it, just feelings. I know I can never go back to Homeworld, but it's hard not to have some feelings for where you came from.”, “I've been fighting from the second I broke free of the Earth's crust, because of what YOU did to my colony! Because of what YOU did to my planet!”, “Who knows what they would do to me back home after what I did to Jasper? I can't go back to Homeworld and I can't stay here.” I’m going to go ahead requesting that if the urge comes to throw a “you’re projecting”, don’t, because odds are I know better just how much SU fails at all of this. These quotes are just a selection reminding what the show could've been and that the writers do have an understanding of what they’re pretending to dig into before disingenuously scrambling back to the Status Quo of everybody getting along because nothing has meaning. I could’ve done without them shoving that nonsense out to a worldwide audience.

With “On the Run”, I don’t see a tale of “just” abuse as I get the impression generally is interpreted. What I see is a child stolen from her destroyed heritage who is given nothing to cope with that and forge herself a new identity. The happy resolution of what Pearl in particular has done to her isn’t giving her better access to the story she belongs to, but eradicating her psychological ties to it. Like, I know what it’s like to have to think about this stuff and I can’t imagine external judgement and disassociation would’ve helped me figure things out. And that would've come from my own parent, not an ugly outsider like Pearl, let alone an outsider responsible for the loss. That’s the bizarre part of “On the Run”. It knows there’s an inherent attachment difference between Amethyst and Pearl, but it lies around it because otherwise Pearl can’t be easily forgiven. The rebellion was right, of course, but sometimes in doing the right thing you can’t avoid causing harm and your moral compass is still on display in how you deal with the aftermath of your actions. Although it is insult to injury to me that RPG are conditional freedom fighters. Each one of them was ultimately motivated by own gain. Ruby and Sapphire wanted each other, Pearl wanted Rose, and Rose wanted human men. This isn’t something I fault them for, but it’d be nice if the show was honest about it and acknowledged the current passivity. The only original CG who is pure and operates by ideology and who could’ve pulled off shutting out Amethyst’s ordeal while still not being insensitive is Bismuth. Instead, she gave Amethyst a kind of support Amethyst usually only gives, never receives. She even shared a non-judgy detail what amethysts are like, which we’ve never seen RPG do! How come Bismuth is the one whom we’re supposed to believe is bad?

Where Amethyst has meaning to me in direct likeness, Jasper is a bit more complex, falling into my sympathy through my grandfather and the (violence-induced) personality traits that have been passed on, being mine and also not. Notwithstanding what I judge, I cannot disapprove of Jasper on the whole. I’ve grown up knowing of a man who was overly dedicated to his role as soldier, who couldn’t keep his home, whose successes were of lesser meaning than his non-whiteness, and who in response only became more dedicated. Pride’s funny like that. I’m not against NPD and child soldier interpretations for Jasper, though I don’t share them, but I experience frustration that the nature of her existence in relation to her uncomfortable place in society is not picked up on as a possibility too. I wondered for a while why Lapis’s lack of (consistent) characterization does not stop peeps from acknowledging the potential she has (had) while Jasper gets more of a “either/or” treatment, until I realized that with Lapis too the home angle barely gets talked about. Ditto for Peridot; my main problem with her redemption is that it wasn’t completed. We only got to see how she came to love Earth, not how she disconnected from Homeworld. I’ve only twice seen a post bring that up. Same disregard is reason #~4 I’m not dealing with HBA fans anymore.

I dislike posts that suggest Amethyst owes RPG anything. I dislike posts that pose that Amethyst feels impure for not being a CG by choice. I dislike posts that place Amethyst and Jasper on incompatible ends as if they’re not different expressions of the same duality conflict. I do not tell what to ship or not, but from the above it should be clear that I hold a negative opinion of ships involving any member of the Famethyst with anyone who has proven not to understand (do the people who ship understand?). A particular thing that’s been on my mind with Jasper and Lapis ever since “a lapis terraforms” is the theory -- a miniscule possibility that makes my hair stand on end -- that Lapis was involved with the creation of Beta. Roughly the only reason I want her arc to continue is to have confirmation that that theory is wrong. It needs to be wrong. And on a final matter, trying to put this as delicately as I can: I hope all who have compared Homeworld to Nazi Germany come from a place where they own those words. Because there’s a distinct lack of other (and at times more fitting) comparisons. Like, I’ve only ever seen one person compare Homeworld’s deal to the invasion of the Americas and nothing on any other. Just in general, I’m not comfortable with understanding evil only as an externalized condition. 

If possible, I’d like to see some more consideration whenever an Earth-made gem is the topic. A loss like theirs is a bad one, and even if you’d argue SU deals with it horribly in a way that can be ignored, both Amethyst and Jasper have made references to their troubles as a result of the loss. I may as well add, to any (future) writers, a piece of advice. When your worldbuilding requires you to create societal details, keep in mind that life’s stranger than fiction and nothing you can come up with doesn’t have a real-life parallel, sometimes with memory still fresh (there’s nothing colonial in SU that’s new to me) or even ongoing. It’s pointless to tell you to educate yourself because you can’t always do that if you don’t know what to look for (and as I can attest, even with a lead it can be difficult), but you can always be a decent person about what you try to do. If you decide on certain themes, carry them full and sincere instead of suddenly hiding behind claims of intentional naivity. It’s not difficult to think of how a certain event ought to affect each character and either reject the event if it gets in the way of the goal or plan for the outcome.

To end on a constructive note, these are specific things I would’ve liked SU to do instead:

Be clear about the place of imperfect gems in society, including the occurence of beta productions. We’ve got, like, five random sources right now and they’re contradicting and vague at best.

Be clear whether Rose (and any others of the pink court) is from Earth or not. It matters.

It creeps me out how the show refuses to decide whether Amethyst is an adult or a child and pretty much lets it depend on whether it wants Steven alone or not. Especially creepy given that Amethyst is stolen while Steven is the grand heir.

Be thorough on gem names. I never thought that moment where Peridot calls herself “Peridot” instead of her code was a moment for her, because in order to be “Peridot”, no other peridots may be around. No other peridots may share in what she has. That’s not “d’awww!”, that’s horrible. It bugs me with the Ruby Squad that we know them only by names Steven’s given them and I don’t get why we haven’t got a gem yet who chose their own name as a way to reject Homeworld’s identity rules. Only Amethyst’s scene of discovering her code made sense. (Needless to say, this non-commitment to name significance is why the DeMayo/Universe and Steven/Nora deals are laughable at best.)

Any plot necessity for Steven and Amethyst not to ask questions is dealt with by focussing on why they don’t ask questions. Fear of what emotions they might unleash? Fear of conflict between the teller and the not-teller? Fear of losing certainties? Fear of being unable to handle the answer? Fear of having to ask more questions? Or maybe they know the answers they need but not the questions to get at them. Stuff like this is like a sudoku; you have some answers and you know there’s more, but you can’t formulate a means to get those answers without finding the starter points first.

Garnet would’ve never said “For Amethyst to be herself“ in “Bubbled”, because, holy heckles, that’s rich coming from Ms. “We kept Amethyst”.

Going back to “Stronger Than You” after “Earthlings” leaves me with distaste. Jasper vaguely seems to respond to “And I won’t let you hurt my planet!”, a line that ought to hurt and infuriate her from what we know now, but it’s barely noticeable and gets contextually hidden by a closeup slasher smile. Either [my planet] should not be there or Jasper’s response should get focus. Yes, it’s Garnet’s song, but you can’t play over this like that. (I despise how the crewniverse hid an ethnicity context behind a sexuality one.) 

Malachite would’ve gotten Sugilite’s deal (and Sugilite something much better). Lapis would’ve fused with the aim to trap the fusion and give the CGs a clean shot, having nothing better to hope for than that Steven would save her from whatever fate would be Jasper’s. But the unexpected happens when the two fuse, Lapis’s knowledge that this one act locks her from her home for good and Jasper’s resurfaced trauma of the loss of her home mixing into a singlemindedness neither could’ve foreseen or can control. Malachite would’ve escaped and periodically resurfaced as a break from the Cluster plotline and something fresh in the gem recovery narrative.

The moment Peridot brings up the plans for the Earth colony in "It Could've Been Great", Amethyst would not respond identical to Garnet and Pearl, but rather with a hint of wonder. She was made for it and it was supposed to be made for her; shameful but her story nonetheless. Peridot becomes the person she tries to get more information from what happened and what things could’ve been like after all this time of RPG proving untrustworthy. That ableist nonsense of “Beta” does not occur.

Amethyst and Jasper “bond” after one or the other figures out the other’s identity, if only by playing into Jasper’s anger. Amethyst later defects (though never betrays), resulting in her own time of learning on HW and later visiting/being sent to the pink station, where her story can overlap with whatever is the equivalent of the abduction arc. Consequences of Amethyst leaving are progress in Garnet’s growth into leadership, major self-reflection by Pearl, probs something like Peridot boosting the ranks (Lapis and Bismuth deserve time to themselves), and, since I want Amethyst and Lars to be BFFs over Purple Puma, for this to be a hit on Lars that later helps Amethyst understand RPG’s choices and for which she’d apologize/make up in the equivalent of “Wanted” or thereafter. It could probably also be incorporated in Lars reflecting on his lost friendship with Ronaldo and the choices he made there.

I’m not sure what I want for Jasper. Her getting corrupted is fine by me, especially if she’d be crucial in developing a healing process, but I really wish SU had handled corruption better. Finding peace with her peers would be nice. I’d also like her being able to empathize with HBA (while not tolerating her actions) in a “I’m not where I’m supposed to be and neither are you” sense.

SU avoids talking about it, but it stands to reason some of HW’s planets were populated. You don’t have an army if you don’t have wars. It’s been my interpretation for a long time that Yellowtail is fully alien, Vidalia possibly part alien, and Onion at least half alien, all survivors or descendents thereof from another colonized planet. And after that odd scene between Topaz and Onion, I like to think Topaz is from that colony and that her encounter on Earth makes her think and spread the anti-colonialism beyond Earth.