#i think pearl's base is just very pretty this season

[froganni]

It's 4 am but wanted to post more Solar-punk Pearl :D

Reblogs appreciated!

[love-takes-work]

WHAT WAS THIS SHOW ABOUT?

One thing I really love about Steven Universe is that each of the four major characters kind of got a chance to be What The Show Was About. I would have LOVED spending more time with all of them and delving into who they were and who they became beyond what we got, but what we got was . . . actually pretty special.

STEVEN

As the ACTUAL main character and the show's literal namesake, it's obvious he's the protagonist. Our man has been through a lot and I don't suppose anyone would say he never got his moment considering he was there for the whole show. But except for some pretty important identity stuff that depended on his choices in the last episode of the OG show, a LOT of Steven Universe is stuff that happened to and around Steven. There was so much history and so much baggage that a lot of the story was about how he fended it off, dealt with it, fought it, reasoned with it, and managed everyone's emotions in the process.

Steven is set apart from the others in extraordinary ways: being half human, being extremely young, being Rose Quartz's son, and having Diamond-level powers and a claim to the Pink Diamond throne.

We had to wait for Steven Universe Future before the show was entirely focused on him, his development, his trauma, and his healing.

Some episodes from the original show focused on Steven's mental health and growth as a person--most notably "Mindful Education"--but we just didn't get to linger very long with his development until the epilogue show because plot stuff was always happening, other people's feelings were taking center stage, and worlds needed saving. I'm really glad we got Steven Universe Future for that reason. Some people disagreed, but I felt like it was a long overdue look into the soul of who he is--how his central defining character trait was his selflessness, and how desperately he needed to address that without having it manifest in a toxic way in the tradition of Jasper, White Diamond, or Pink Diamond.

AMETHYST

It could be argued that Amethyst had the most careful, nuanced, significant character growth of the three supporting Gems in the show. And it started immediately in the first season, when she constantly squabbled with Pearl and revealed that she felt judged and stifled and treated like a misbehaving child as early as "Tiger Millionaire."

Amethyst is set apart from the others in extraordinary ways: She's the clear outsider as the one who didn't fight in the war, the only full Gem from Earth in the group, the only Gem who grew up with no Homeworld dogma but also no roots, the only Gem who'd never met another one of her own and longed on some level for that connection.

The show continues to check in with Amethyst's self-worth issues throughout, giving us "An Indirect Kiss," "On the Run," "Maximum Capacity," "Reformed," and even "Cry For Help" (which seemed like an Amethyst episode until Pearl did her thing). We get "Onion Friend" when Amethyst shows us she thinks she's boring and that nobody values her. And we get "Too Far" when Amethyst really starts to internalize her inferiority based on Peridot's assessment of her and revelations of her origin.

With her cooking on that, we end up spending a string of episodes with Amethyst as the focus character. She's still shaking off dust about not doing what she's supposedly made for when a fight with Jasper twists the knife. She's beaten and insulted and almost physically destroyed, having to be rescued by Stevonnie. Steven misguidedly tries to cheer her up by letting her win at video games and she reveals that she thinks she's "the worst Crystal Gem." She finds an ally in him but still wrestles with her inferiority to Jasper. And when she still can't beat her in a rematch, she breaks down and realizes her strength is in togetherness. From there, she begins the process of healing, helped along by additional support from her family and finding some connection with meeting the Famethyst. When "Tiger Philanthropist" comes along and reveals that Amethyst doesn't need the outlet of wrestling anymore because she DOES feel she's good enough, we can reflect on what she's been through and how far she's come, and how that leads to her being the one who doesn't fall apart on Steven in the face of huge revelations about his mother.

GARNET

Garnet kind of peaked early, which is not to say it wasn't great. The final episode of Season 1 revealed her identity as a Fusion and further that she was "made of love," and then everyone was on the "Garnet is awesome" train.

Garnet is set apart from the others in extraordinary ways: being a Fusion all the time, leading the team and generally holding the others at an emotional distance, never asking questions, offering resources to the others for stability and balance, being the only Gem with Future Vision and a massive responsibility to use it well.

"Jailbreak" was a huge defining moment for Garnet, and as the "stable" character whose worst problems were mostly other people's problems, she did not seem to need a character arc. She was the culmination of a love story, always awesome and strong and dependable and everyone leaned on her, and in "Jailbreak" we found out why she has such an amazing foundation. But the show was not done with Garnet. Not by a long shot.

Pearl hurt her badly in "Cry For Help." Garnet's breakdown and subsequent focus on building Pearl back up was a significant look into how Ruby and Sapphire operate as a couple. Garnet is amazing partly because she is the result of all that work, but who is she as a person? As an individual who isn't an individual?

We see some of her struggle with leadership as the show moves on--most notably "Pool Hopping," and some of the last episodes when she can't make decisions in the Diamonds' shadow because everything's become about Steven's choices. But Garnet gets a spotlight again when Ruby and Sapphire feel differently about the Pink Diamond revelations and they worry Garnet only exists because of a lie. Digging into the real answers of who they are together through finally asking "The Question," and defining their fusion in their own image, was a move toward more authentic stability for Garnet. Her wedding made headlines, and watching her spearhead the immediate fight against the Diamonds on the beach was awe-inspiring.

PEARL

Pearl is initially presented as "the perfect one"--she's persnickety, she's organized, she's hyper-competent, and she's all about rules. But something else is going on with her not far beneath the surface. The first Gem to die onscreen--because of overconfidence and a silly mistake. The first (full) Gem to cry onscreen (and then over and over and over), the first to have a breakdown (and then over and over and over), the only one of the four to have faced an impossible choice, a relationship that nearly destroyed her, and a secret that ate her up from the inside. She was the only one who had (nearly) the whole story. All along.

Pearl is set apart from the others in extraordinary ways: the oldest Gem of the group by far, the one who served a Diamond and kept Rose Quartz's secret against her own will, the one who doesn't eat, sleep, or shapeshift. The one who both sat at royalty's right hand and existed as the lowest form of Gem life--created to be a servant, with programming no other type of Gem must live with. Her anxiety, grief, and desperate loneliness makes her one of the most multifaceted and interesting characters in animation history.

We see some minor wigging out from Pearl in "An Indirect Kiss" and a more intense version of it in "Space Race," but we get a much clearer picture that Pearl is Not Okay in "Rose's Scabbard." At that point we assume she thought she was closer to Rose than she really was--that she thought herself special and partial to secrets no one else knew, but that it wasn't true. "Rose's Scabbard" is a different episode on rewatch. Pearl is right that she alone was the one Rose "told everything." She did have a special relationship with her that the others did not.

Pearl's insecurity continues to bite us in the face as the show goes on. She tries to mold Connie into a self-sacrificial super-soldier after her own image in "Sworn to the Sword." Her deep need for someone strong to tell her what to do leads her to betray Garnet in "Cry For Help." Her inability to appropriately make it up to Garnet further complicates our understanding of how she can be so lost. Her jealousy, inertia, and angst frustrate her relationships, with some nice resolution in "Mr. Greg." Peridot's lore drop about Pearls' slave status sheds light on this, and seeing her get underestimated and bossed around by other Homeworld Gems is disheartening as we move on, but when we finally find out that she was Rose's secret accomplice in a false murder that poisoned thousands of their own citizens and led to massive waves of death, and that Pearl's free will to speak about it was also ripped away from her, we finally know, we know why she's been so brittle she could snap all along. She's been trapped inside herself all this time--in an almost literal way--and it's a wonder she's managed to carry on. Pearl's arcs have often been deemed the most emotionally fraught and tinged with gray morality.

These characters all got some very important story arcs focused on them in the midst of moving the plot along. I think the show did a phenomenal job with not only emotional development but with fallout for the other characters. We got to see the Gems' (and other loved ones') reactions when Steven's mental health took a nosedive, and watched them learn more about how to be there for him. We got to see Steven's initially misguided attempts to hype Amethyst up when she was spiraling, leading to him offering her what she actually did need, along with Garnet and Pearl (as Sardonyx) misfiring a bit when they wanted to celebrate Smoky Quartz. We got to see Steven's curiosities and misgivings about Garnet's life as a Fusion, and how Garnet affects others when she does crack under the strain, and how Steven must step up to leadership when Ruby and Sapphire are separated and how Amethyst tries to take care of him while Pearl has a guilt spiral. And we see how Pearl's choices led to Garnet's silent treatment, Amethyst's sulky helplessness, and Steven's attempt to hold the family together; we see how Pearl's confession reformats everyone's understanding of who the Crystal Gems are and why they're even here.

And even when the show is taking careful turns with each character to paint their nuanced feelings and troubles on the screen, it still managed to give us such a worthwhile overall story, with action and backstory and worldbuilding and everything. What's different about it is that the center was always its people--their relationships, their psyches, their evolution and education. I truly love the balance these creators chose, and I remain grateful that we got to experience this story.

[sherlockggrian]

we talk a lot about desert duo character development, but I wanna talk about shiny duo for a second because I think it’s fucking INCREDIBLE

(disclaimer, a lot of this is made up lore and headcanons lol)

Pearl and Gem were always pretty close, even though I think? they met in season 8? They’ve always been a duo but Gem was generally the more energetic, smily and over excited one. I think Pearl’s been more reserved even in her ridiculous moments, whereas Gem tended to wear her heart on her sleeve and have a very straightforward, “lets fix it” approach to things. I do think Pearl was the one that fell in love with Gem first, but sort of pushed it away, while Gem was very forward with her attention and did love and cling to Pearl a lot. The life games, especially Double Life, affected Pearl a lot and I think she sort of pulled away from Gem for a bit. Pearl was the killer at this point and Gem was sort of still playing the character of wanting to make everything better, being nice and bubbly and not understanding what Pearl was feeling.

But Gem being in Secret Life really took them to the next level in my opinion. They were close all throughout season 9 obviously, but I see Gem being in the life series as her own choice - she loved Pearl and so desperately wanted to help her and the others and to understand them. Gem at this point is a lot more of a fighter and a little crazier than she used to be, and Secret Life just feeds that and preys on it. At the same time, she trusts Pearl. She wants to be her friend. Pearl knows how the games end, and that there’s no avoiding the ending and no avoiding death. They leave Secret Life with Pearl feeling relieved that she didn’t at least have to kill Gem herself, and Gem feeling bitter and angry that Pearl betrayed her.

And their relationship after Secret Life really gets me tbh. Gem has visibly gone for a darker, more serious vibe to her base and clothing, leaving behind the usual, sunny cottage-corey theme. Pearl is finally trying to heal herself, but has based a little ways away from Impulse and Gem and her older friends. Gem trains for the next life series, she’s determined and she’s angry and Pearl is rejecting it. In a way their characters kind of flipped, from Pearl being the furious killer one to Gem being it. They fight like crazy and they still love each other. They are absolutely my favourite duo at the moment and I cannot wait to see what happens further with them and how their story turns out. Again I’ve made most of this up but it’s based off of canon events so I don’t really care. Goodnight

[chickinscratch]

The second hermit affected was, shockingly, not Jevin.

The small group arrived below the large slimy pig, at the home of the not-as-large slimy slime, and cautiously knocked. Within a few moments, Jevin arrived at the door, eyeing the four that stood before him.

“Hey guys,” he greeted. “What’s up?”

“Oh good, you’re not more of a pile of goo than usual.” Cleo noted.

“...Was that a concern that we were having?”

“Surprisingly, yes.”

Zedaph recounted the situation thus-far, pausing for Jevin to react appropriately with a variety of “hmms,” “mhms,” and “That explains the death messages”s. “-So that leaves the question, why aren’t you more, erm, slimy than usual?”

Jevin shrugged. “Mimicking other mobs is pretty standard slime behavior. I guess if I am affected by whatever this is, I already act enough like any other slime that it doesn’t matter? Though if any of you get too close I will probably absorb you for nutrients, and that won’t be too pleasant.”

“Noted. Keep us posted if you notice yourself becoming concerningly more viscous or anything of the like. We should probably go check on some more of the others to make sure no one else is exploding or absorbing other Hermits for nutrients.”

“Good luck with that - who were you going to check on next?”

“We were thinking Grian,” Cleo produced the list they had compiled from her inventory. “Then probably Gem, since we already have Doc and Zed accounted for. Have you seen either of them?”

Jevin tapped his chin thoughtfully, which was only moderately successful given his consistency. “I haven’t seen Gem - She’d probably be working on her megabase with Impulse and Pearl. I did see Grian flying around here earlier - I think he was pecking at Scar and pushed him into a hole? But that’s pretty average for them so I dunno if it was related to whatever’s going on. Pretty sure he flew off back towards his rift thing though.”

“We should definitely check there first, then, I think.” Cleo returned the list to their inventory. “In the nicest way possible, I don’t trust Grian messing with weird eldritch whatever on a good day, let alone potentially in some kind of full bird-brain mode.”

“I do believe eldritch interference under the influence of avian is illegal in several states.” Joe added.

“Then you should probably all get to dealing with that.” Jevin waved. “Good luck!”

The band of Hermits arrived at the tor that Grian had claimed for his megabase, scouting for any signs of him. Instead, they found Mumbo. “Hello,” Mumbo greeted as the group landed atop one of the giant rocks that formed the landscape.

“Mumbo,” Cleo greeted in return. “Why are you laying on top of a boulder?”

“Grian has decided I’m actually a stick, and also part of his nest.”

“What?”

“I guess I look kind of twiggish?” Mumbo sighed, awkwardly shuffling from the large pile of miscellaneous sticks and branches he was stuck within. “I knew I was spindly and all, but I didn’t think Grian would literally use me as a stick. He was very insistent on it, too.”

“Why is Grian building a nest?” Zedaph eyed the construction eagerly.

“I think he’s trying to hatch his base.”

“What?!” Cleo repeated.

“And also those easter egg things.” Mumbo added. “Those are definitely in this pile somewhere.”

“Why is he trying to hatch his base?” Cleo’s voice pitched. “Isn’t he messing with interdimensional junk this season? Should we be concerned?”

“I think he just thinks the boulder is an egg, honestly.” Mumbo shrugged, which was quite awkward to accomplish from his position betwixt the twigs. “It is kind of egg-shaped. Also he keeps giving boulders heartbeats, which probably doesn’t help. Not that I’m opposed to bases with heartbeats; I’m quite familiar with those.”

“Y’know,” Zedaph mused, “That does explain how he talked about The Entity like it was alive. Maybe he thought that was an egg too.” “It is another decently egg-shaped boulder.” Mumbo agreed.

Joe peered at the pile of sticks composing Grian’s ‘nest’. As Mumbo had described, the easter eggs were indeed nestled inside the Grian-sized entrance. “I would have expected Grian to nest in a tree, given parrots are arboreal. In fact, especially because they usually nest in pre-existing spaces. I wonder why he didn’t just move into Scar’s base or something?”

“I guess he just decided it was easier to build a nest here rather than try to move a boulder.” Mumbo craned his neck to face Joe with limited success.

“That is perfectly logical.”

“So we can safely say Grian also caught whatever bug Doc has, right?” Cleo said.

Ren shrugged. “Honestly, I could see Grian doing this normally.”

“There’s a bug going around?” Mumbo strained to look above shoe-level.

“Cleo, snakes eat eggs, right?” Joe asked.

“There are very much no eggs here, but yes.” Cleo huffed.

“Are you noticing any of those instinct things Zedaph had mentioned?”

“Again, there are no eggs, so no, I am not. In fact, I’m pretty sure those easter eggs are just more rocks painted to look like Grian. I like to consider myself a pretty reliable expert on rocks.”

“Can your expertise determine how egg-like a rock is?” Mumbo asked from the ground.

A few of Cleo’s hair-snakes hissed exasperatedly. “Shape-wise, that’s more of an opinion, though yes, these rocks are approximately egg-shaped. Physically, the most egg-like rock would probably be limestone or something, since it’s calcium carbonate.”

“Is this limestone?”

“No, it’s not.”

“Not a very eggy egg-shaped boulder then.” Mumbo huffed.

“Has Grian been here recently?” Zedaph interjected again.

“He comes and goes from here every few minutes. He’s mostly just been collecting sticks.”

“Out of curiosity, would you say he’s been acting at all any more, perhaps, parrotish?”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he’s built me into a nest.”

“Honestly, that could also just as easily be perfectly normal Grian behavior.” Joe noted.

“I am actively being used as building material!”

“Again, not necessarily out of the ordinary. Maybe he mistook you for a redstone block or torch, given how much redstone you usually consume?”

“Honestly, fair enough. I wouldn’t be surprised if I actually emitted a signal at this point-”

Zedaphs ears perked up. “Can we test that?”

“-But I think there are bigger concerns to focus on right now.”

A shrill squawk interrupted their slightly derailed conversation as a very puffed-up Grian landed on top of his nest. And by extension, Mumbo. “Ow.” Mumbo mumbled. Grian ignored him, flaring his wings and tail feathers at the collected group and hissing. Cleo’s snakes helpfully hissed back.

“Huh, I forgot that parrots hiss.” Zedaph said.

“Leave.”

“Oh, fantastic! You’re still verbal. We were having issues communicating with Doc-”

“LEAVE.” Grian fluttered to atop Mumbo’s head, which prompted a new bout of complaints from the designated-stick-and-now-perch. Grian pecked at him a few times until he quieted.

“Mumbo,” Joe sidestepped to stand between the nest and other Hermits. “Since Grian has apparently accepted you as part of his nest, perhaps you could help explain the situation to him?”

“I can try my best,” Mumbo grumbled, Grian’s talons tapping at his head each time he made a noise. “But I make no promises.”

“We appreciate any effort you can provide.”

“Grian-” Mumbo winced at another round of pecks. “Grian. Hey, buddy-” he whistled, which Grian rightened and quirked his head at, giving some reprieve to the pecking. “It’s okay. They’re not here to mess with your definitely, totally real eggs that are not rocks. They’re just here to talk to you.”

Grian squinted suspiciously at the collected group, but seemed to at least calm down enough to listen. He ducked inside the nest, settling delicately atop the easter eggs of himself as if it were a throne, and glared out at the group. “Fine. Continue.”

“They mentioned some kind of bug, or something…? What was the bug thing?”

“Ah, yes,” Zedaph clapped. “You see, earlier Ren found Doc behaving strangely, which resulted in both of them exploding a few times. I had also been feeling a bit strangely this morning, and Jevin and Cleo mentioned potential behavioral changes as well, so I propose a theory that whatever cause Doc’s current condition may be impacting some of the other less humanoid members of the server.”

“Well I feel perfectly fine.”

Cleo’s hair-snakes bristled. “Grian. You are using Mumbo as a stick.”

“He is a stick.”

“You’re nesting on top of painted rocks.”

“Eggs.”

“Those are very much rocks.”

“Your snake tricks won’t work on me. I won’t let you eat them.”

“I am literally a geologist, Grian.”

“And these are eggs.”

“Can we go back to Doc?” Cleo sighed. “He was much easier to reason with.”

“I kind of prefer not blowing up. Again.” Ren added.

“I can still blow you up if you want.” Grian offered.

“No thank you.”

“Probably for the best.” Grian preened at his feathers. “Wouldn’t want the nest to get damaged.”

“As the nest, I appreciate that.” Mumbo said.

“Quiet, stick.”

“Grian,” Cleo took a deep breath, “Maybe you could let Mumbo stop being a stick for a little bit?”

Grian gasped. “Mumbo is an integral stick to the nest! The entire thing would be destroyed if he left! I smell your snakey tricks! You can’t fool me!”

“I am not trying to eat your dumb- rrrgh!”

“This is rather uncomfortable, Grian.” Mumbo whined. “I have splinters.”

“Well of course you do. That’s how sticks work.”

“Griaaan-”

“Don’t tell me you’ve sided with them!”

“Listen, Grian, I will accept being classified as a redstone component, but I think I’ve decided being a stick is a bit much for me! It’s a lot of commitment!”

“Well you’ve got to at least wait until they’ve hatched.”

Cleo made a strangled noise. “They’re ROCKS-!”

“Hey!” Grian squawked. “I’m the egg expert here.”

“SNAKES LAY EGGS TOO!”

“Yeah, but snake eggs are all squishy and gross. My eggs are strong and beautiful. It’s no wonder you think they’re stone. I forgive you for your confusion; it’s a very easy mistake to make.”

Cleo shouted indistinctly, though not indecipherably. Joe found it very decipherable. After all, he was very familiar with Cleo’s miscellaneous grumbles of exasperation and frustration. Many of them were often directed towards him. “What if we came to a compromise?’ Joe offered. “I notice the top of this here boulder-”

“Egg.”

“-Egg, yes, is quite barren and cold.”

Grian nodded. “That’s why Mumbo is such an important stick. He helps keep the nest warm.”

“I’m cold.” Mumbo grumbled.

“What if we helped you relocate your eggs somewhere nice and warm, and perhaps more enclosed? They’d be much safer than up here, and Mumbo could take a break for a little bit.”

Grian shuffled thoughtfully. “...And Cleo wouldn’t eat them?”

“I know just the place where Cleo will absolutely never go.”

"I’m gonna need more convincing.”

“Joe, Mumbo, and I can help carry your eggs, so you don’t have to worry about Cleo or Ren eating them.” Zedaph added. “And I’ll even throw in some of my wool.”

“What about the big egg? I can’t move that one.”

“We could shrink it.”

“You can shrink it?” Grian tilted his head curiously.

“You can shrink it?” Cleo repeated.

“I am a scientist and procurer of extravagant devices; Of course I can shrink it- though we will need to remove your nest and the other eggs from it first.”

“Deal. But if you’re tricking me I’ll kill you.”

“No tricks, my feathered friend.” Zedaph placed a solemn hoof-hand to his heart. “I am entirely invested in the safety of your eggs. Now, you, Mumbo, and Joe take your eggs to ground-level while I prepare for The Shrinkening.”

“And Ren and I will just… stand a reasonable distance away, I suppose.” Cleo muttered, already launching off. Ren and Zedaph took off following her, leaving Joe to help untangle Mumbo from his stick prison. 

Grian watched the process like a hawk (or, like a parrot?), cradling his eggs and intensely micromanaging the careful dissection of his nest around Mumbo as to preserve as much as possible (rather than allow Mumbo to simply sit upright). Once Mumbo was free, Grian gingerly distributed the “eggs” as though they were the most precious cargo in the world. Upon close inspection, Joe could confirm they were in fact just some painted rocks Jevin had used in the egg hunt. One at least seemed to be potentially made of limestone, so it probably scored closer to being a real egg than any of the rest.

The trio landed in the forest a little ways from the foot of the main tor. Mumbo stretched liberally, making an assortment of cracking noises that made Joe consider some truth to Grian’s observations of Mumbo being a stick. “I was laying there for hours.” Mumbo sighed. “This is so much better.”

“How would you rate your experience on a scale of ‘minorly’ to ‘quite pants?’” Joe asked.

“I can kill this season, you know.”

“Okay, but how would you rate it?” Ren asked, trotting up to join them. Cleo followed closely behind.

“... It was at least decently pants.”

“Hah, you said the thing.” Cleo smirked.

“This is just not my day, is it?”

Zedaph emerged from the trees, hurrying to join the gaggle of Hermits. “Alright, everyone! Who’s ready for The Shrinkening?”

“You’re certain this is entirely safe, right?” Grian drew his eggs closer to his chest.

“Of course. I would never put your absolutely gargantuan egg in any danger. Now, the process will be a bit strange, but you must trust me, alright?”

“Alright…” Grian cradled his eggs with blatant uncertainty.

“Now, you’ll all have to face away, because witnessing The Shrinkening would be very bad for your retinas, but when I count to three the egg will be shrunk! And also, conveniently replaced with an identical boulder of equivalent size and mass, so as to not disrupt the environment.” Cleo stifled a snicker.

“...This sounds like a trick.” Grian squinted at Zedaph.

“No, no, no! You must trust The Shrinkening. Now, everybody turn around.” The collected Hermits obliged.

“One,” Zedaph counted. “Two… THREE!”

They collectively turned back, Grian practically whipping around to face whatever Zedaph had done. Nothing looked different, save for Zedaph holding aloft… a small, ovoid rock, the same colors as the boulder behind him. Cleo doubled over, wheezing quietly in an effort not to cackle aloud. Grian simply inched cautiously towards Zed, reaching out for the “egg.” Zedaph ceremoniously placed it into his awaiting palm. “One shrunken egg, perfectly transportable and safe.”

Grian stared at the “egg.” Joe could practically see avian and player halves of his brain at war, trying to decide if they had been fooled or not. Finally, Grian gave the rock a gentle kiss and nestled it with the rest of the clutch. Cleo wheezed loudly off to the side.

“Alright,” Grian huffed, turning to Joe. “You promised me a better nest spot. Where is it.”

“Of course, right this way.”

[adickaboutspoons]

As threatened promised, a rough rundown of Ed’s timeline in s2 based on his make-up/facial wound/neckwear/hairstyle situation in the teaser/trailer/promo pics:

Almost certainly we’ll start the season seeing Ed in his Kraken drag. It looks like we’re going to get a montage of raids, because I’m seeing at least two distinct ships in the background when he’s all Krakened up.

It’s hard to tell, but it looks like he’s not wearing either the cravat OR the pearls at first, but we see the pearls peeking out from his jacket lapel when he’s saying “Fuck you Stede Bonnet” to the little groom dolly, so my money is on his snatching a strand from someone’s throat at the wedding raid. If it’s from the throat of the bride herself, I wil EAT. MY. OWN. HANDS.

Incidentally, we seem to have gone back to fingerless gloves for all the Kraken/pre-reunion shots, rather than the full gloves from the end of season 1, so RIP to the “full gloves mean he’s cut himself off from human contact/emotion” metaphor (but more on that in a minute).

So if I had to guess, I’d say next we get playing with the dollies and having a good cry about it

Followed by a manic moodswing to babygirl princess cleaning mode with the hair up and the pearls and the gloves, but a little bit of kohl still smudged around the eyes. I think he enlists Frenchie’s help, since they both seem to be carrying around containers full of bottles while he’s sporting this look, and I think it’s the back of Frenchie’s coat we see when Ed starts his “No more” list.

After that, since the lighting is soft and sunset-esque, I’d say we have the helm scene where it looks like babygirl is daydreaming

I’m wondering if the daydream goes wrong, though (maybe he’s cross because he let himself think about Stede again at all. Maybe the daydream goes sour and dashing, swashbuckling, Bearded Stede fights his way through Izzy to Ed only to say “Just in case it wasn’t clear when I left you, I wanted to make sure you knew that I don’t love you and never did.” or something equally gutting) because guess where else we see the babygirl princess updo

(and we know this has to be after the raid montage, because the big ass treasure chest in the background on the right was carried off the ship where Ed shot his gun in the scene where Fang smashes two guys heads together).

So I’m kind of wondering - since Ed was at the helm, did he steer the ship into an oncoming storm on purpose?

So then we FINALLY see the cravat, but he’s also wearing the pearls, so we know this has to be after all the raiding stuffs.

And the only other place we see it in any of the promotional stuff is when he wakes up and head-bonks Stede.

And looking at how banged up he is - blood on his temple, puffy cut on his cheek and lip, that these wounds are pretty fresh. My guess is he sustained them in the storm, and something goes Very Badly, resulting in him either getting swept overboard, or the crew having to abandon ship, and being rescued by the Chinese junk, where the crews will reunite (based on Stede’s costuming during the headbonk scene, and the fact that Frenchie, Archie, and Jim are with the Revenge crew during the crossbow scene, when everyone is dressed in the Chinese ru).

I have toyed with the thought that all the blue-filtered shots are a fever-dream/hallucination while Ed is laying injured, but I’m not 100% sure on that. For one, Ed doesn’t have his coat, his boots, or even his gloves

But he for sure has the pearl necklace, and it looks like maybe his lip is split (though it’s hard to tell if that’s a shadow or not), which are peculiar details to include in a fantasy sequence.

If it is, I’m guessing it ends when Ed ties a rock around his waist and leaps from the cliff - it’s hard to see, but there’s a rock with a rope around it on the ground near the rag man (Hornigold?), and you can see the rope going down into the water when he first hits. You can also see his feet are bare, just like they were in the gunshot scene.

If not? IDK. The pearls and the lack of gloves place it after the reunion. Remember how I said we were going to come back to the gloves-as-a-metaphor-for-emotional-openness-and-connection? Ed DOESN’T WEAR GLOVES AT ALL ANYMORE after the Kraken scenes are done. I can’t tell if he has them on in the headbonk scene, but after he meets back up with Stede, our babygirl’s hands are NAKED and VULNERABLE (and ready to touch his boyfriend. In a world where I get everything I want, after the reunion, they go to the Significant Cave, and Ed leaves Stede and his gloves behind, and Stede shows up at Anne and Mary’s because “You left these (and me) behind,” but Ed doesn’t WANT them (Stede) anymore, can’t he take a HINT? Thank you for indulging in parenthetical fanfic that almost certainly won’t actually happen this way) But the fact that the wounds are so hard to see that they might not even actually be there? Would put it later in the season.

Because boy howdy do they still look fresh when he shows up at Anne and Mary’s.

But everything else must come later, because the wounds looks progressively more healed. When he’s wearing the sackcloth shirt, his lip still has a little mark on it (but significantly smaller than it was at Anne and Mary’s)

But that mark goes away before the one on his cheek does. It’s not there at Spanish Jackie’s or when he’s talking to the bunny, or in the scene when the VO says it feels like there’s a storm coming.

So I’m not really sure where to put those in relation to one another. Vibes alone, I’d say “Storm’s coming” (followed by beach battle, where there also aren’t noticeable facial wounds or gloves, but Ed is clutching his side as though still recovering from cracked ribs or something).

Then bunny talk, since he’s still wearing the same clothes, then Spanish Jackie/the docks where, since he looks so chill and relaxed, the “something new” he’s trying is he and Stede actually retiring from piracy together.

[legally-allowed-to-slime]

hey. @mcybree here. can i get those “every time scott tries to imply pearl isnt trustworthy” transcripts if possible (<- guy who loves having traffic scott transcripts to use in posts)

non-exhaustive but there wouldn’t be much anyway because gem and pearl only teamed up pretty late into the season, these are just the ones that got me going huh

Scott: So… this is where we’re going to be hoping that all of my social games have paid off well! And that people don’t come and try and kill me.

-

Scott, five minutes later: Gem, Gem. Gem: Uh-huh? Scott: I want you to remember that both of us [Impulse was there] let us kill— let you kill us so that you can… Gem: I’m not gonna kill you! Scott: You have to make sure that no matter what other alliances you have, this is the top one. Gem: Scott, you can’t be lecturing me on having other alliances, you’re friends with everyone, you’re friends with the apocalypse! Scott: Yeah, I’m friends with everyone, but I mean— you’re still number one! I would never go for— Gem: I’ve never been in one of these, but I think it’s getting down to the wire, like we are going to have to pick and choose. And I think if we’re going to pick and choose, I think being with the Mounders who are right there and against the Heart Foundation…

(and both povs cut off here or earlier so)

-

Gem: What do you think, Scott? [talking about base locations or some trival thing] Scott: You’re the one who made the alliance. [pause] Gem: Oh my god, it’s so complicated, I don’t wanna be in charge of people anymore. Pearl (overlapping): Wow.

-

Cleo: We’re mostly talking about how stacked that team is over there. Scott: What, the Mounders? Cleo: Yeah. Incredibly stacked right now. Scott (overlapping): Yeah… Gem: They’re my besties! Cleo, skeptical: Are they? Gem: I murdered them and they decided to be my friend. Scott: Yeah, I don’t quite get it either, but… Cleo: I mean, Gem doesn’t know quite how this goes on red. Not really. Scott, again: Yeah… Cleo: So, um. Okay! You go be besties, that’s, um, cool. Scott: See you later! Cleo, to Gem: I’m telling you now. I’m telling you now, that team’s loyalty is at best, uh… Grian: Tenuous. Cleo: Scott can tell you, Scott can tell you rather than me. You’ll believe Scott about their loyalty rather than, you know. [very short, almost imperceptible pause] Gem: What about your loyalty? Cleo: Ask Scott about my loyalty! […]

quick aside here but i love how “the mounders” in this context clearly refers to “pearl”. like gem says “i murdered them”. wrong. she murdered pearl. cleo says scott can tell you about “their loyalty”. wrong. the only occasion where someone in the mounders made a perceived slight on both cleo AND scott was pearl.

-

Scott: At what point do we betray the alliance with the Mounders? […] Gem: Grian needs to go first. Impulse: Grian first and then, right then? Gem: Yeah. Impulse (jokingly): Don’t take any time to celebrate, just turn right away. Scott: I know [the Mounders] will [turn], that’s the thing. […] Gem: (sighs) Yeah. Kill Joel and Bdubs first, though. Scott: Okay.

-

Gem: (gets hit) Pearl, no! Team, Pearl, team. Scott: Can’t team with her.

-

Gem: (hit by arrow) Ow. Scott, automatically: That was Pearl. Gem: Pearl! Scott: Just remember that. Gem: How rude.

-

[Joel dies] Scott: Nice, Gem! Gem: Nice, nice. That wasn’t me, that wasn’t me. Scott: It wasn’t you? That means it was Pearl! [it was not] Or— Gem: Scar! [it was not] Scar’s here.

[saphssapphire]

my s9 boatem designs!! enormous load of design details, notes, and headcanons under the cut

Pearl is a Cleansing Alien- combining the Cleaner Lady and Alien Base aspects of her s9 together! Also I took the baby yoda ears she wore for like one episode and integrated it into her design because it does fit the look she’s going for this season The little ends of her hair are curves, so they look a bit like crescent moons or something!

Impulse is a dwarf :P he’s small, but it’s pretty fun to draw him with an oversized battle-axe lmao I uh don’t draw impulse as often, his design’s a little more work-in-progress compared to the other ones, but I like what I did with his i-shaped eyes

I headcanon Scar to have mixed allay/vex genetics that can shift in dominance, weird funky magic stuff I suppose :P during s9 his allay genes would have taken a bit of a stronger hold, which would be why he made the cookie empire However you choose to look at scar and cub’s dynamic, I think they do deserve to have similar looking hair, and yeah I’m doing that! Should probably post a Cub doodle soon to show that

Mumbo is a copper vampire, because A) copper’s one of his primary building blocks right now and B) that one interaction where he wore Scar’s elf ears and looked like a vampire He’s always slowly oxidizing and enters a sort of sleep state when oxidized almost fully, and that would be why he went into the long hiatus His design looks more geometric compared to the others because his bases tend to have very geometric shapes, and he reflects that, I suppose

Grian is part cod, part parrot, and the parrot part is depicted here because I couldn’t be any more original with this /j His wing-ears morph into cod fins when he’s in water and he’ll gain wavier hair and a tail Most of the time you just see his eyes as sort of an idle expression, but his mouth does appear whenever he needs to speak, it’s just really well hidden I guess and his design is meant to look a little bit “flatter” (unsure how well it gets across here) as if he himself has no back, cause hermits reflecting their bases? maybe that’s just a Grian and Mumbo thing, who knows

[pickastitch]

Hai i want to listen to you talk about gem again. Any thoughts on empires s1 gem ? (If u already told me then tell me again plz n thank u <3 )

confession time, the s1 e!gem that is always brainrotting is pretty different from canon s1 e!gem (from what i can remember) so i'm going to talk about my pantheon au version of gem

i like to think gem would say, "it's free to be a hater" after sausage or fwhip does some stupid shit. on a more serious note, i feel there has to be some genuine resentment towards them two for dragging her into their bs, even if it's not a lot it is there. gem killing sausage in that one important lore bit was so cathartic to her

gem really admires katherine mainly because of how non involved she is with everything. she always feels the need to help everyone (see my gem character analysis post), and the fact that katherine just steps back is enviable to her

in my head, gem also uses a lot more fire magic than she does in the series; this contracts nicely with katherine's nature magic. gandalf, her cat, will decide if they like a person or not, and that will be gem's first impression of a person. it's quite hard to break from it too

now i'm going to dip in to some hc s8 territory, but it will come back to esmp s1. at the start of the series, gem has no clue she is bi and false is actually her gay awakening. gem looks up to her a lot, and she watches her run away and leave her friends behind. this leads to her reaction during the rapture (season ending), where she only takes fwhip because he directly asked, instead of helping out everybody. like come on, they both fly away on their base defining organic

fwhip and gem were royalty, but because gender roles, their parents were forcing gem to be king (trans roseblings tust), gem felt like her only option was to run away. when she finds out about the crown made by fwhip, she is a little uncomfortable with the concept but doesn't say anything. though when others try to convince her she should get it gem is beyond pissed

before she ran away, pearl showed her all about rifts (it has something to do with amethyst shards, but that's a whole different post) and offers to take her to hermitcraft, which she refuses. until she wants to run away and then goes to the place she wants to set up her village and then goes to another world while everyone is searching for her

gem's relationship with shrub is very unique because she so wants to just yell at them for bringing xornoth to the overworld and then spreading it across her place. on the other hand, she sees herself in them as someone who also ran away from home. but then that gets ruined when she is infected with xornoth via shrub

when she still lived with her family, pearl and sausage lived in neighboring empires, and they all grew up together. gem and sausage dated a bit when they were really young, so they are exs on technicality. most of her romantic feelings have gone away, but whenever sausage firts with her, a crush appears for a day and then goes away. she hates this more than anything else. then they grow up, and gem realizes she likes women and then realize she likes pearl specifically. and then pearl and sausage get together (actually qpr, but gem doesn't know that), and she swears off of romance

and the connection to the void and the end and all that stuff is a pretty important part of this au but ehhhh y'know

[suspicious-septopus]

The life series relationship between Joel and Scott is so interesting to me and I just need to gush about it for a minute. Like, it’s a rivalry that’s almost one-sided, but not completely. It also just continues to progress throughout the whole series, through every season with pretty much the same dynamic throughout.

I think the place it really starts is in third life, with Joel’s burning of the wall. Before this there’s still some conflict between them, like when Joel decides to steal Scott’s cows with Martyn, but that was more Martyn’s idea than his so I don’t count it. The wall was the true catalyst for everything. Not much else really happens between them in third life besides just an overall distrust of each other, so I’ll move on.

In last life, most of their interactions involve Joel trying to kill Scott with varying levels of success. He manages to get a boogey kill on him in the second episode but gets killed by Pearl right after, turning him to red. As a red name, he often tries to kill Scott but it never really works, though he does manage to destroy the Scottage with tnt. Eventually, when Scott becomes red as well, they make a tentative red alliance. They still don’t trust or like each other though and plan to separate at the soonest possible convenience. In one of my favorite exchanges between the two, Scott asks Joel why he doesn’t like him when he’s the one doing everything to him and Joel answers that Scott just looked at him funny one day. I think I’ve talked about last life enough but now though, so the gist of how it ends is that Scott and his allies hunt down Joel and Grian and Scott gets the final kill on both.

So now it’s double life, the season where they’re probably the most friendly to each other. They’re neighbors and they have a good relationship for the most part. Joel is the one to get the first two kills on the Scott and Pearl soulmate duo, but the first one isn’t personal to Scott, it was just because Pearl decided to make bad decisions. The second one was definitely personal, however. Joel wanted to kill Scott, so he got all the reds to help him kill Scott. Before this though, something interesting happened. Scott set Joel’s relation ship on fire and Joel burns down every other base in return. I think that’s mostly it for double life, so let’s move on.

Limited life is where it gets really interesting, because this is when Scott finally snaps. Joel tries to kill Scott so many times and while I don’t remember every single death in this series since there are so many, I’m pretty sure he never succeeds. At one point, he even gathers everyone but Scott’s allies and gets them to chase and try to kill Scott. This seems to be becoming a pattern now. Anyways, Scott eventually has enough and switches it. Now, he’s the one hunting Joel down, but unlike his rival, Scott succeeds. He kills Joel again and again and again, and in the end, ends Joel’s series and making him the third one out.

Now I know that’s a lot of raw information, so let’s review. Joel tries to kill Scott a lot. He sometimes manages to do it, but most of the time he fails. He also destroys all of Scott’s bases except for the coral isles in limited life. Scott, though, does not go out of his way to kill or harm Joel, at least not until the end. Most of the things he does against Joel are revenge, and usually not even equal revenge at that. As the series goes on, though, Joel gets more and more determined to kill him and Scott gets more and more frustrated at these attempts. This all culminates in the end of Joel’s limited life series, where Scott kills him a bunch of times.

All this is why, in my totally correct opinion, Scott and Joel should team up in the next life series. Think about it. It would wrap up their relationship arc well while changing things up in the dynamic. It’s also very likely that Joel would end up betraying Scott, adding angst fuel to both their overarching stories with Scott being betrayed again and Joel being alone again. Also, on a purely statistical level, they would make a great team. Joel’s problem is that he’s really reckless. We’ve seen before with Etho that when Joel is with someone who’s more level-headed and practical than him, he can do very well. Scott definitely fits the bill for this. They’re also both very good at pvp. This would make them something of a power duo, and I would love to see that with them.

[andyling]

Heyyyyy so session 5 sure was a time SO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!

BOOGEYMAN 2 ELECTRIC BOOGALOO WITH TANGO OF THE TEK

Team Ties really woke up and chose violence this session

were they even trying to kill anyone? i think they just wanted chaos

TANGO BOOGEY TWICE IN A ROW HELL YEAH LET’S GO

TEAM BEST FLASHBACKS TEAM BEST FLASHBACKS 

soooo Team Bites hmmm, let’s see how long that lasts

Skizz I’m sorry, but Bdubs betrayed y’all before in Last Life and he sure as hell will do it again

EVERYONE STEALS THE MEAN GILLS’ SUGARCANE LMAO

I think the whole reason Team Ties blew up the bread bridge was because they had too much TNT and all of them are obsessed with blowing shit up

Like they didn’t go for anyone’s actual bases, they weren’t trying to destroy resources, and they weren’t trying to kill anyone

motherfuckers just wanted to make things go boom

AND I AM IN FULL SUPPORT OF THAT WOO GO TEAM TIES

Tango’s toaster PSA caught me so off guard WHO GAVE HIM THAT IDEA?!?!? WHY IS HE LIKE THIS?!?!?

the fact that Tango had already accepted that their tower was gonna get destroyed, mans may be insane but he’s fair that’s for sure

awwwwww them chanting MVP to Etho is so sweet

tango’s the server resident professional warden wrangler now

good to know Tango still remembers every person that’s wronged him

TANGO FINALLY GOT REVENGE ON BDUBS FOR LAST LIFE HAHAHAHA WOOOOOOO ABOUT FUCKING TIME!!!! >:D

also Tango getting an effective trap out of tnt minecarts is character development, good for him! :D

soooo does Tango have the most time out of everyone on the server now?

team bites did not last long askdghajsghkjadkdsak

Nosy Neighbors and Team Ties becoming allies is not something I expected to happen, but it is very welcomed

Team Ties are actually pretty great to have as allies as long as you don’t spite them, then honey you got a big storm coming

THE SATISFACTION I FELT WHEN TANGO BROUGHT UP LAST LIFE TO BDUBS IS IMMESURABLE HELL YEAH BABY REVENGE IS SWEET

Jimmy “sad boi” Solidarity everyone

Love how Jimmy spends most of Limited Life acting as though he’s in a Let’s Play series

mans is in the middle of a death game and he’s like “Alright gang, today we’re getting sheep!”

gotta love how the title for “most antagonistic team on the server” keeps bouncing between the Bad Bois and Team Ties 

Flower Husbands and their never-ending divorce

bye bye bad bois bread bridge

why is Joel specifically blaming Tango akjfjhdkasghkadjs

it’s hilarious how they’re all questioning why Team Ties blew up the bread bridge when the actual answer is probably “they like blowing things up”

no thoughts, head empty, just boom boom

WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT GRIAN’S ALLIANCE WITH SKIZZ THAT SEEMS LIKE IT SHOULD BE IMPORTANT IS IT STILL INTACT???

BRUH JIMMY IS SO EMOTIONALLY ATTACHED TO THAT FROG DO YOU HEAR HIS VOICE GODDAMN

awwww judge judy and executioner jumped to Jimmy that’s cute

PEARL NO

poor judge judy and executioner :(

Grian is so appalled at the carrot cake oh my gosh

GRIAN CALLING THE FROG CONFLICT A SIDE PLOT, THAT’S CANON

dude Grian is so done with everything 

the Bad Bois and the Clockers are family now, this family tree is wack

Scar you can’t call them Boomers when Bdubs was literally on a team called the Boomers on Hermitcraft with Impulse and Tango

AMAZING HOW THE BAD BOIS WENT INTO THE TIES BASE AND JOEL AND JIMMY HAD NO IDEA WHY

this is why we all think Grian’s gonna betray them

GRIAN’S SHEER PANIC WHEN GETTING ATTACKED BY THE ENDERMAN MY MAN WAS LOSING HIS MIND

everyone is so nonchalant about reds this season 

Zombiecleo watches her children make poor decisions for 40 minutes

Cleo packing snacks for Bdubs and Scar and then sending them to be supervised elsewhere is so funny

sending them to Etho was probably not a great idea though considering Team Ties need supervision themselves 

they don’t have any which is why they’re constantly going off the rails

LMAO CLEO OVERHEARD TEAM BITES ENTIRE CONVERSATION

I LOVE THE SUBTITLES THAT CLEO PUTS IN HER VIDEOS THEY’RE SO FUNNY

ooooooooh Bdubs is in troubleeeeee

it really does feel like he’s being scolded by his mother LMAO

Scar really decided to make up a whole ass holiday and not tell anyone else on the server except for his family and only to give them presents

BDUBS WHAT DO YOU MEAN ETHO STARTED SMOKING HELLO???

love how aware Cleo is of whatever the fuck is going on with Bdubs and Etho throughout the life series

THE ENDERMAN ARE REALLY GOING OFF THIS SESSION

honestly i think Cleo dislikes Team Ties because of Etho and Etho specifically, like she seems pretty chill with Tango

“if you’re gonna be an absent father could you at least be absent” GOES SO HARD HOLY SHIT CLEO GO OFF QUEEN

Bdubs is so close to being disowned by his family

CLEO AND SCAR KNOWING FULLY WELL THAT BDUBS IS ABOUT TO BE BOOGEY KILLED AND SAYING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO HIM

whelp Team Bites is dead

THE AWKWARD FAMILY DINNER OH MY FUCKING GOD

“Bdubs, how was your day?” Etho asks fully aware that his teammate blew Bdubs up because of Boogey and a two season long grudge

“This episode is weirder than the one with the fever” IT REALLY IS

ETHO DIDN’T EVEN FLINCH WHEN BDUBS PLACED THAT TNT DOWN MANS JUST CARRYING ON AS IF NOTHING HAPPENED

“wth is this dynamic?” YOU TELL ME CLEO YOU’RE THE ONE PLAYING INTO IT DON’T ACT LIKE YOU AREN’T

mom and dad are fighting

WHY ARE THEY PLAYING CATCH WITH A TNT MINECART WHAT IS WRONG WITH THEM 

“sometimes children only learn the hard way” THEY NEVER LEARN

i don’t even think Etho was trying to kill them, all of them are just insane

this is the reason that skizzle didn’t go red first, THIS IS THE REASON

Etho is definitely losing the custody battle

CLEO’S PANIC UPON HEARING SCAR’S ABOUT TO GO RED

i’m getting flashbacks with “the red army rises” goddammit

what the fuck is wrong with Skizz

In conclusion, next session is gonna be WILD

[majestic-ruiqing]

Hermits as Songs from the Mario Kart Wii OST

(yes specifically Wii, not mariokart 8. Their rendition of moo moo meadows is bad)

Bdubs- Maple Treeway (pretty song for the man with pretty builds. who am I kidding, all their builds are pretty lol. still think this one is vibey and suits him)

Beef- Moo Moo Meadows (yes, I think the chill vibes fit him, it's not just because there are cows. It's maybe a little bit just because there are cows)

Cleo- Luigi Circuit and Mario Circuit (first off, can't believe they used the same song for two courses. second off, nice song with interesting stuff going on throughout. she can have two courses, as a treat)

Cub- GBA Battle Course 3 (funky beat with higher energy and also just plain fun)

Doc- Grumble Volcano (spooky ominous song for the man who insists on playing a villain lol, but there's still more to it to make the song interesting)

Etho- N64 DK's Jungle Parkway (can't believe this man always builds in a jungle. same tune all the way through reflects his consistency in content [I mean this in a good way lol, his videos are great])

False- Rainbow Road (pretty song, gives me the sort of grand feeling that reminds me of her s9 base)

Grian- Chain Chomp Roulette (I don't know how to explain it but half the tune sounds like it's a satire of the funky chicken dance. Kinda baffling but still a good time)

Gem- Coconut Mall (a lot of fun but not overwhelmingly chaotic, iconic)

Hypno- SNES Battle Course 4 (look man idk, it's literally past midnight and this is what I'm doing. it fits his vibe I think)

Impulse- DS Delphino Square (good song with a lot going on, but balances it all very well)

Iskall- GCN Mario Circuit (great song with just the right amount of funk to it to keep things interesting)

Jevin- GBA Shy Guy Beach (got me boppin my head man, very pleasant tunes)

Joe- SNES Ghost Valley 2 (less a song and more like two minutes of spooky noises being strung together, which sounds like the kind of bit he'd commit to. Beetlejhost)

Joel- Moonview Highway (high energy, kinda crazy, lots of fun and great vibes)

Keralis- GCN Peach Beach (matches his tropical vibe this season)

Mumbo- Koopa Cape (kinda weird. kinda funky. half of it sounds like it's underwater, who comes up with this stuff)

Pearl- Mushroom Gorge (bouncy, lots of personality, lots of layers to the music and lots of layers to the detailing in her builds)

Ren- Aqua Resort (a banger, keeps things insteresting all the way through, a lot of fun)

Scar- GCN Cookie Land (not just because of the cookie shop lol. bouncy tune, a good time for Mr. Goodtimes)

Skizz- Finished Race [First Place] Results (not a course related song but still a banger, giving it to him because he deserves first place, and because I've only got good memories associated with it)

Stress- Daisy Circuit (pretty song, fairly chill with just a bit of a kick to it, reminds me of her brand of chaos)

Tango- Toads Factory (very industrial, fits his base this season. I was tempted to give it to Doc though)

TFC- Wario's Gold Mine (while a chiller track would probably fit him better, we're settling for the Mine One. Still a good song though)

Wels- N64 Mario Raceway (a bit calmer as far as some of these songs go, but no less interesting and fun for it)

xB- DK Snowboard Cross (calm. vibey. could have half his house blown up in demise and still be cool about it)

Xisuma- Block Plaza (fun, and the blocky noise reminds me of tech-related kinda stuff. not exactly reflective of his more naturey build style, but does relate a bit to his minecraft update videos or redstone work)

Zed- Dry Dry Ruins (much like this song randomly switching to a completely different song halfway through, I never know what he'll be doing next)

Playlist of the songs if anyone cares enough to listen to it and tell me why I'm wrong lol, but given I spent several hours on this and most people don't listen to the mario kart wii soundtrack for fun, I'm willing to assume I'm in safe waters

[leo-crafts-theories]

How the Hermits escaped the Moon

I have very specific thoughts on the ways each hermit got from s8 to s9 and I've never had the chance to put them all together, or even mention most of them... I've categorized them and after each list I'll put some explanations of the more specific/less intuitive situations.

Space Travel (up)

Cub*

Jevin*

Doc and Ren

Beef

Wels

xB and Keralis

False

Cub and Jevin... they tried. They're in another section of this list that I'll explain there. I don't buy the simulation thing, so Doc and Ren just had access to a ship - Renbob still gets to be their pilot, but it's just them. (They stopped over at some place Bob knew to get Ren some proper and disguised cybernetics instead of the haphazard spare-parts job he'd been dealing with all s8.) xB, False, and Wels are basically just following canon, with the note that Keralis doesn't technically need a ship to survive in space and probably got onto xB's ship by clinging to the outside until xB noticed. Beef didn't have a canon exit - but his base for the entire season was an unearthed alien spaceship, so it's only logical that that would be his mode of escape!

Xisuma Rescue

Bdubs (forcibly)

Hypno

TFC

Etho

Zedaph

Anyone who was planetside and didn't canonically Leave, would have had to be rescued by an admin. Hypno helped out, speeding up the evac process and coming up with a way of keeping these hermits safe and in some sort of stasis until a hospitable planet 9 could be found. Bdubs went kicking and screaming, but the others were understandably glad to have the way out.

Dimensional Shift

Gem

Xisuma

Cleo

We don't actually know from canon where Gem went. Despite Wizard Gem supposedly being a different character, the amethyst and timing would make Empires 1 make sense as a destination. Plus, Gem and Pearl flew in from Empires in the first place. Xisuma and Cleo are pretty much just what's seen in canon. Cleo might have gotten some help from the resident Voidling - see the last section.

Void Travel (down)

Boatem. Void travel is similar to space travel, but a little more wormhole-y. And unlike a couple of the spacefarers, Boatem had both spacesuits and a pretty good method of transport in Pearl, whose natural dragon form is just about big enough to carry four friends - two on her back, and two in her claws.

Was off-world at the time

Iskall and Stress had been taking an extended stay in their Vault Hunting world while all this went down. They didn't find out immediately, but as soon as they did, Stress volunteered herself to help bring hermits to safety.

Joe

Joe

Yeah I don't know either. I haven't decided whether to headcanon an Xisuma rescue/some other logical method, or have "fly away from the problem, in atmosphere, on elytra" actually work. The latter option is very Joe, and the cartoon logic is very tempting.

Stress Rescue

Cub

Jevin

Tango

I've talked about Voidling Stress recently; she's by far the best-equipped hermit for space travel. She would have also zipped around to direct Pearl and the various spacecraft in the right direction, but three hermits found themselves adrift in space... Cub. Did you really think a llama would get you anywhere?? So Cub might have dug out his old Vex mask for some magical air assist, but that thing's meant more for high-atmosphere than no atmosphere. It fed him enough air to keep him alive, barely, but barely conscious and without a ship, he wasn't going much of anywhere. (Stress was quite distressed to realize that the llama hadn't made it.) Jevin fared only slightly better. He'd been banking on not actually needing to breathe at all, and on his flying machine doing all the moving, but hadn't factored in the fact that space is COLD. And also he does occasionally need air, he just doesn't always realize it... Stress found him in a frozen torpor, clinging to a slimeblock flying machine that was very slowly trundling off in slightly the wrong direction. And Tango... well. We know what happened to Tango. Ironically, he was the only one of the three who was semi-conscious when Stress found him... until his rescue, he mostly wished he wasn't.

This is going under the cut because I couldn't fit it in the flow of the rest. I've written one fic with all of this in mind - just, instead of listing things directly, it's about the emotional aftermath of a few of the hermits who may have had it worst, and Stress still helping them out even after they've been safely rescued.

[pinkandpurple360]

[leaked storyboard spoilers from last year]

bro i havent seen any leaks other than the ghostf*ckers millie and the sinsmas octavia tantrum one. iirc nothing has been leaked for blitzfizz although fizz and robo fizz are both confirmed to return for season three. we know alex brightman recording at least twice for season 3 (one of them being a session with james iglehart so we’re prob getting more fizzarozzie) and the only audio released was in his solo session using his fizz voice to loud yell “fuck.”

honestly based on the way brandon and viv talk it sounds like the remainder of fizz’s story (at least in helluva) is going to be him and ozzie facing the aftermath of mammon (but it’s unclear what that entails), and something involving the robo fizzes that may or may not be tied into that (evil robo fizzes fnaf style? or some clone wars individuality arc?). there hasnt been anything said on how/if blitz fits into this, but my guess is he’d be less directly interacting with fizz and more watching him (the problem that comes with blitz being the stephen universe protag who needs to be the main in every episode even if he dors nothing for its plot)

this sounds bleak but considering how brandon said blitz is done reconciling with fizz and they’re amicably parting ways while still supporting each other, i honestly dont think there’s much left for blitzfizz. other than those eps where fizz is a guest star i think the remainder of helluva will be the Stolas Show with fizz being segregated to the Fozzie show.

Are you sure Octavias sing isn’t mastermind? That’s make more sense. And anon it’s hardly a tantrum but a mental breakdown….

That is all really sad and tragic news. I’ll never recover. Lol. Honestly…ships aside, I haven’t seen anything that’s making me want to keep watching. IMP aren’t a thing anymore. My favourite characters get hurt (Via, Blitz, Millie) over and over for angst bait, there’s zero over arching plot left. Any development is just angst and very bad depictions of mental health. Or some amatonormative nonsense…IMP has abandoned their premise for good. Honestly? If something isn’t changing soon.

Shows dead.

Is that what Brandon said? Because that doesn’t seem to be the case with all the plot setup in Oops. Who separated them, was Fizz setup to be with Mammon and even Ozzie? Does fizz have parents? They haven’t unpacked really…anything? And fizz doesn’t forgive him, yet, he just said he’ll tolerate him. Blitz played an important part to the continuity of the episode but he wasn’t allowed to do anything but parrot Asmodeus, and I feel like Oz was just kindve shoved in at the end as a romantic saviour.

Viv threw away such a great character, with so much in depth story, who could have connections and dynamics with pretty much all the main cast…just for stolas to cry some more. And we all know he’ll get what he wants. At the cost of the premise, and a good story.

I don’t know how blitz and fizz could possibly be finished. It seems cruel to pull him away from Fizz and force him with stolas instead because of someone else’s machinations. Idk where Barbie is. I’m almost more interested in Barb talking to Fizz than I am Blitz. I also have no idea what’s left for the stolas show, his contributions are mute, and his dynamics with the characters are mute.

Fizz just angrily screams a curse word. ok.

What do we think the robot fizz is about?

Also anon I disagree really hard, about the Steven thing. With Steven, he hogged screen time away from stories about Pearl garnet, amethyst etc, and they are also main character. Sad as it feels to admit, and all of his potential to the themes of helluva boss. Fizz isn’t a main character, without Blitz or at least one of the main characters there, Fizz has absolutely nothing to do with the main story. At all. His ship even less so.

Idgaf about fizzozzie (in canon) anymore either they’re just… so emptily written. The only interesting thing left is a breakup. Not a wedding. It feels like Fizz ditched imps to upgrade himself to royals and hellborn and now he’s a “royal imp” implicitly treated as superior to other imps, because of talent. They don’t have enough going on for a separate show, Fizz is fine where he is. When he’s away from Asmodeus he shines as a character. With him…he’s just empty.

I cant keep lying to myself. Within this overarching story—They bore me, they add nothing to it, unless the worst thing possible is true and they’re just stolitz fuel…which makes no sense…the two relationships have zero in opposite nor the same.

I think that’s why people preferred Oops to Mammons special…the latter is filler and nothing more. The protagonist wasn’t in it enough, and in Oops they introduced a brand new and interesting relationship, and potential to start a love triangle plot, hell even a love square or polyamory, but….it just doesn’t. They stick to the status quo. Very disappointing.

Lastly no offence but I hope the speculations don’t turn out to be true….I hate them ^^;

[chernikastan]

I keep seeing people believe, quite firmly so, that Gou is gonna leave the series once Scarlet and Violet release. But... the only reasonings I ever see for that boil down to "because that's what it's always been like". So now I decided I will list all the reasons why I don't think so and why Anipoke fans should consider the fact that yes, the series is perfectly capable of not sticking to status quo, which PM even repeatedly proved throughout its run so far. Have fun reading my rambling xhfhfhfgf

- Shortly before the announcement of PM, anipoke_pr was created to advertise the new series. While also just a sensible decision in the online world, this marks a notable difference in the marketing of the series.

- Among the advertisements, the sentiment of this time there being two protagonists got highlighted. Gou was the first new character to be introduced. Back in Diamond and Pearl, Dawn was advertised as the second protagonist too though and she visibly took over that role.

- When he got announced, anipoke_pr also showed a concept art from Ken Sugimori, the main character and Pokémon designer for the games since the beginning. Although not all of them have been designed by him, every canon character and Pokémon in the main games has an official artwork by him. Alongside Gou, the only anime-only characters to have that are Team Rocket. As far as I know, the post never specified if Sugimori also designed him, but the artwork does look like a (at least finalised) concept artwork, so it's pretty likely.

- Due to the begin of the Reiwa period in Japan, the directors of the anime said that the series went back to just being called Pocket Monsters to mark the new period. The last time the series was just called Pocket Monsters was the very first season. (Thus why I call it PM in this text instead of Journeys)

- Ever since PM, the anime had a couple notable changes to the storytelling: Satoshi (Ash) does not own any of the new starters, he did not catch the regional bird Pokémon of SwSh (Rokidee), the story takes place over all regions, not just Galar, he owns Pokémon that fans have been hoping for him to have in a long time (like Lucario), he doesn't take on the regional gym challenge, despite Galar emphasizing on gyms more than ever.

- Notably, the episode about how Gou and Tokio (Horace) met is the first episode in the entire series that doesn't even mention Satoshi or Pikachu. Keep in mind this never happened before in over a thousand episodes.

- Gou is, very boldly so, based on Pokémon Go. So unlike any of the previous companions, he is not based on something specific to the new mainline games, but a massively popular mobile game that exists alongside them. Since Pokémon Go adds a new generation each year, by 2024 it will be the only game that lets you catch every Pokémon. Just like Gou's goal. His sweater is by the way a permanently available clothing option that you don't have to buy extra in the game. Him being based on an unrelated game also means one should question why, if he leaves at all, it should be tied to the mainline games' releases.

- On the 25th anniversary date, anipoke_pr uploaded a special video focusing on Satoshi. In it they showed, in chromological order, every moment at which he met one of his Pokémon. Then at the end it highlights the moment he met Gou. Gou is the only other human character to appear, let alone be highlighted, in that video.

- There's a bunch of notable storytelling aspects: The series focuses mainly on showcasing and developing the relationship between the two. They very boldly want you to know that Satoshi and Gou have become very close friends that desire to share a future together (v gay btw heheh). The end of the Mewtwo episode shoves it into your face with Satoshi correcting Gou and saying the future lies in both their hands whilst crossing them. Aside from that being a blessing for shippers, it makes it very clear that this is meant to tell others these characters come in a pack now. There's no Satoshi without Gou and no Gou without Satoshi, they both take the main role together and keep it. Alongside that, we have episodes highlighting and paralleling their goals. That happens in the one where they have to lead a group of younger kids through town as well as in the Project Mew episode with Drake. Back in AG, Drake's advise to Satoshi was very important for the story. Same here, when Drake inspires them by saying that once he reached a goal, he'll just look for another one, because the journey is what matters, not the goal.

- I've seen a lot of people say Project Mew is a means to write Gou out of the series. Why exactly that should be the case, I'm not sure. He has joined the project now, yet has still more than enough time to watch Satoshi's tournament. It has been shown that the next thing Project Mew has to face is Regigigas, with Mew still not in sight. Dropping Gou at this point would mean dropping the entire plotline of at least facing Mew, which would be an incredibly strange decision after having hyped it up for so long.

- Talking about weird decisions, anipoke first and foremost exists as a big advertisement to sell the games and merchandise. It's part of why Pokémon is such an enourmous franchise. Creating a character to advertise their super popular and lucrative mobile game is a pretty smart idea. Dropping that character again after three years after having deliberately designed him for that purpose isn't. I've heard people argue that "Pokémon Go is popular enough, it doesn't need advertising", but by that logic something like McDonald's can stop advertising too because everyone knows McDonald's. However the fact that they keep advertising is how they make sure they keep driving in new customers as well as maintaining the ones they already have. Same with Pokémon. The franchise is so extremely successful exactly because they keep advertising towards new kids (and people in general) despite the already existing success. In other words, from a marketing perspective, it makes no sense to create a character to advertise a game, then drop him just because despite said game still being relevant. More likely than not, Gou will exist for as long as Pokémon Go is a thing that's getting updates etc. So good luck getting rid of him, haters, the gay cartoon boy you hate so much is here to stay.

Idk if I have missed anything now. If so I might just add it to the list. But yeah, I've wanted to do an extensive post about this for a long time. Because we know people who hate Gou try to find any excuse under the sun why he's gonna leave because they want it to happen so badly. But I am also mildly disappointed in the people that do love the character, but instead of doing their research just blindly believe the haters when it comes to this. Because I've really tried to find reasons to believe him leaving so strongly, but all that happened is that I found out how much the "Gou stays" arguments outweigh the other side lol. I guess thanks for encouraging me to do research to make me prove my point.

Now granted, of course it could still, despite everything, be the case. But I just want people to know that it's not the obvious outcome that many think it is. So I'll just keep sticking to my points and if they drop him after all... I'll go on with my life and keep drawing whatever I like, what do you expect me to do dgdgcgdgsg

Thanks for reading my little rant to the very end ugu nya

[siena-sevenwits]

OK, I was tagged to spell out my url in songs I like by a few people (I am sorry, I have already lost track of who - I am pretty sure @saxifrage-wreath was one, but thank you to all of you!) So here we go.

S - "Shy" by Sarah Jessica Parker

Not a fan of the musical as a whole, but this song is bursting with good humour and fun for an alto. The fact that you get to blast the phrase, "I've always been SHYYYYYYYYYY" at the top of your lungs like a brass band going by really is the best.

I -"Inventor's Daughter" by Branches

I love the imagery and storytelling of this one - it's really only capturing about thirty seconds of their lives and yet I can imagine both him and her so clearly.

E - "England" by Great Big Sea

A lovely little song about some of the first Englishmen to arrive in Newfoundland.

N - "Now and For Always" from the Lord of the Rings Musical

When I was a little kid there was a period where I more or less knew the story of LOTR, but only as far as the end of the 1978 animated film. The last we see of Frodo and Sam, Sam has just expressed that he doubt they have rations for a return journey, and "after that..." Frodo, to the most poignant music has grasped Sam by the shoulders and said, "Oh Sam, Samwise Gamgee. My dearest Hobbit, friend of friends. After that? If the Ring goes into the fire, and we are at hand? After that, dear Sam. I wouldn't worry." (He turns away) Just to get there. Just to get there. The Ring is so heavy now, Sam." And then Gollum shows up, and leads them off over the ridge in search fo the winding stair. And I had no idea what happened to them after that. But that VHS was well worn, even more worn into my heart that into the tape, and to me it was like some kind of neverending myth. As though Frodo and Sam were still journeying to Mount Doom - eternal wanderers on their way to save the world in spite of weariness and suffering. This song, based on another conversation in the book, makes me feel the same way that moment in the movie did so long ago, when I didn't know how it ended.

A - "Augustine" by Vienna Tang

Ring for an Augustine tonight.

S- "The Show" by Lenka

Because it makes me think of a dear friend who considered this her theme song in one season of her life.

E - "Eight Days a Week" by the Beatles

I used to do quite a lot of ballroom dancing, and this one was a favourite for the foxtrot.

V - "Voice in My Throat" by Pearl and the Beard

A friend put this on a very sweet character playlist, and so it's associated with both her and with Gwendolyn from KQ.

E - "Emile et Raoul" from the "A Monster in Paris" soundtrack

Just a lovely little instrumental in a frankly outstanding soundtrack. (Almost all the songs are fantastic, though the instrumentals are nice too.)

N - "Neck of the Woods" by Maisie Peters

Lyrical, joyful, confident, all about closeness and growth.

W -"Will I Find My Home in You" (acoustic version) by Juniper Veil.

I put it in my Portland Row playlist, and have since fallen in love with it.

I - "I Love Rossini" by Andrea Boccelli

I do love Rossini, this one was a favourite when I was fifteen or so, and it now makes me think of my secondary lead character.

T - "The Tower" by Alana Henderson

A song about healing and patience, and I also associate it with Berlyne Alvarado.

S - "She's With Me" by High Valley

High energy, sheer devotion, makes me think of Mary if I listen selectively to the lyrics.

[trashie-nerd]

being very smart does not stop ImpulseSV from being a complete dumbass. i think that's the best decsription i've ever seen about that man because. let's focus on the life series context: he met up with bdubs, his soulmate, pretty early on and gave him a shield in case he was his. it took them additional 20 minutes to realize they're bound. but ok maybe that's bdubs' obliviousness. i could say that if there weren't more. when he and bdubs were hunted to death by ren and bigb, the first thing that man did was change the disc on the jukebox so that the background was ominous. who does that. and he just, kept running away but it was such a sad attempt. he punched pearl's dog later (i think)

now the previous season. i can't get over the boogey attempt scott had on him. impulse used up all his resources and survived, somehow, against all odds. and what does he do next? not tell anyone he had just been almost murdered and proceed to make a trap in his base. unmuted. so he dies. his next death, he was prepared for mumbo. he knew he was coming up and so he prepared a boat to not fall and die. yet he stood at the corners of the cobble bridge and then fails to boat clutch. and sure,that happens, it's a hard trick, i could say that, if HE HADN'T HAD AN ENDER PEARL IN HIS HOTBAR ARE YOU KIDDING ME-

TLDR; my man's a dumbass. that's it