#there is always tragedies around‚ and this particular one didnt just start now appearing out of thin air

[loredwy]

Dont you all hate when historical events happen around you forcing you to only hear about tragedies and poverty and death for months non stop on loop

[kendrixtermina]

Well the unexpected return to quality after the lackluster first half of the season has continued. Very well-executed eerie atmosphere and intriguing dynamics.

Oddly enough I find the judgy attitude in "Mr. Universe" way worse than the accidental shattering, the difference being in quality not severity - its very clear that he didnt nean to do that and had never once used his full strenght before nor can I fault him for how the feelings he expressed upon finally cutting loose

Its the first episode that made me realize that if Steven were a real person I would probably not like him or want to be friends with him. Man did he grow up to be a jerk! Its not just thid moment its been building a while like acting like he knows best and being so dismissive, the sort who would turn things into a suffering contest and say Greg must have been making up his parents' abuse cause their furniture was nice and fancies himself the final arbiter of maturity. Clingy too. The exact sort of person id figure my life is too short for.

Now the progression in itself makes sense and I applaud their courage to give their MC edges like that - Also there is a tragedy cause he used to be someone who really loved his particular life and the people he was around and wanted to help out of genuine compassion, but somewhere along the way it became more of a chore/obligation and he started to look at people as problems to fix that he just wants to ve done with rather than any real communication and understanding happening anymore. But this is not unusual or unrealistic it happens all the time that people with naturally empathetic or social-oriented personalities get "worn out" / fatigued from caring.

I mean now the secrets are all out in the open, gems are common place in town but early on they barely interacted, no one knew what to do least of all Greg (whom the CGs were at the time lowkey pushing out of the picture anyways - only Garnet was on speaking terms), they had no idea how Steven was even going to age or how anything about him worked etc. Like how would they even begin to explain him to doctors, school etc. Nor did the CGs deliberately expose him to war at a tender age, they were refugees and the war just happened to them. You cant really fault the parents when someone else bombs your house.

I always did see PD as someone who overcompensated for strictness with laissez-faire (pretty clear with Amethyst) and to an extent this could be said of Greg as well - but much more than thst Steven's perhaps having the opposite overcompensation

Still I like how this explores the capicity for Lawful Evil on a personal level. Its often done with Chaotic evil or Neutral evil - Everyone understands wanting to smash when you get mad but repressed judgyness perhaps because your average artist is more suceptible to chaos or selfishness than judgyness. But this too comes from an emotional place and you get how someone who had a chaotic life might find order tempting. (I mean evil in the abstract conceptual sense or as flawedness not at all that Steven has crossed the line to "evil")

Even if Greg's parents' house is objectively a suburban 50s hell and they never opened the letters - this is definitely a situation of finding a bad thing tempting.

Still this does represent Steven losing or coming to doubt and not really be open in what was pretty much his last functional relationship that was previously never involved in the ambiguities of the others. Very much a breaking point - at this point hes tuning Greg out and seeing him as basically like the gems just another immature person to "handle"

Further comments:

- how is jasper so hot

- i like how hes manifested diamond eyes but theyre distinct from PD's in color sheme

- the grandparents dont appear at all its about the idea of them or what they represent