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neroushalvaus · 4 years ago

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Top 10 favourite characters from any fandom

I was tagged by @limalepakko , thank you! Since I have recently listed male characters here (or you know, in August, but we all know time hasn't been a thing for many moons), I took the liberty to list characters in general this time. I also went with which characters feel right at the moment, so does not show all my favourites. I also try to keep these short. (edit: okay so these are not remotely short, I will post a list first and have the explanations be under the cut, read if you want to hear my ramblings c': )

1. Fantine, Les Misérables 2. Javert / Jean Valjean, Les Misérables (yes i am cheating) 3. Carrie "Big Boo" Black, Orange Is the New Black 4. Jane Marple, Agatha Christie's Marple 5. Aunt Lydia, The Handmaid's Tale 6. Bridget Jones, Bridget Jones books & movies 7. Rock Lee, Naruto 8. Sarah O'Brien, Downton Abbey 9. Marilla Cuthbert, Anne of Green Gables / Anne with an E 10. Sister Monica Joan, Call the Midwife

1. Fantine, Les Misérables

I love Fantine with all my heart. I remember reading Les Mis for the first time and her story sending chills down my spine. Her character development makes me so sad, from a girl who falls hard and fast and won't deny anything from her lover, to a woman who is so beaten down by society that she can't do anything but laugh at her fate. But I love how she doesn't lose her pride or her fighting spirit and how she still has the guts to spit in Valjean's face when she sees him after being arrested. And I love how all she does is for her daughter and how despite selling "the gold on her head and the pearls in her mouth" she is content, because all that matters to her is that Cosette will live.

2. Javert & Jean Valjean, Les Misérables

I was really trying to limit this list to one character per fandom, but alas, I am but a weak little person. Thus, I am cheating already. The thing is that when it comes to Les Mis characters, Fantine, Javert and Valjean are the eternal top 3 for me, but I'm never quite able to say who I love the most. Last time I picked Javert for the male character meme because I love the symbolism and critique of society his character embodies, but let it be known that Jean Valjean is the best character in all of literature and I will fight you on this. The original soft on crime icon (aside from Jesus Christ but they're the same and you know it). Valjean's character journey is such a complicated one from an ordinary man (no worse than any man) to a person, who had been shaped by society and criminal justice system to be a very dangerous man, to someone you could compare to a saint if you wanted to... To an ordinary man, who would do anything for his daughter. He has so many character-defining moments, the biggest ones being in my opinion the trial of Champmathieu and letting Javert go instead of killing him. I just love Jean Valjean so much and could speak about him for hours.

3. Carrie "Big Boo" Black, Orange Is the New Black

Hopping away from the Les Mis hole and into a OITNB hole. I was debating on whether I'd put Boo or Pennsatucky on this list since I love them both so much, but I've been feeling so much love for my angry butch king that it had to be her. First of all, I'm just so happy to see butch lesbian representation where the butch identity is not just a joke. I know OITNB sometimes uses Boo questionably, but in general she is a nuanced character and one of the most interesting ones in the series in my opinion. I'm so sad they forgot all about her on the last seasons. I love everything about her, how she has trouble with feelings besides anger and often deflects serious stuff through humor, how fiercely protective she is of those she loves (boosatucky otp forever fucking fight me), how proud she is of her butch identity ("i refuse to be invisible")... Also, not to express attraction, but... Mama I'm in love with a criminal. And not to be a slut for how characters view religion/spirituality/God, but the relieved smile she has in one of her flashbacks when she says "there's no God... there's nothing", like you can't just do stuff like that and expect me not to love the character to bits.

4. Jane Marple, Agatha Christie's Marple

Last time I listed Poirot and was a bit frustrated I couldn't list Marple, but now it's time to right that wrong! I love this little old lady so much. I love Agatha Christie so much for just going "you know who is the person who knows everything that's going on in a community, and thus would make the perfect detective for a detective story? the nosy old woman". As she is introduced in The Murder at the Vicarage: "Miss Marple is a white-haired old lady with a gentle, appealing manner — Miss Weatherby is a mixture of vinegar and gush. Of the two Miss Marple is much more dangerous." She is so likable and witty, you can't help but love her. My favourite portrayal of her is by Geraldine McEwan, she looks so gentle but has such a sharp gaze. I would spill all my secrets to her any day. I also am compelled to tell you that when I was a child we had a costume party at my school and I dressed up as Marple and learned some old lady things in English (it was before third grade so I didn't know much English back then) just for the occasion (such as "thank you, my dear", "what a lovely necklace you are wearing" or "there has been a murder"). Teacher might have thought me rather morbid but I remember that day being quite good.

5. Aunt Lydia, The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale is such a great series and a book and Aunt Lydia is such a great character. The way she's capable of being absolutely cruel and vicious, but how she is also protective and caring in her own way. One of my favourite scenes in this series is when Serena Joy (my other favourite, can you tell) tells Lydia to "remove the damaged ones" from a line of handmaids and Lydia tries to argue with her. Sure, she is responsible for some of the punishments these women are now "damaged" by, but she truly believes those punishments were for a greater good and now the handmaids deserve their place with the others as much as anyone else. It is chilling and the character is such a dark shade of morally gray, but I can't get enough of it. The actress who plays her, Ann Dowd, has so interesting thoughts about her, like here. I just love this character so much I could scream.

6. Bridget Jones, Bridget Jones books & movies

I'm mostly talking about the movies here because Renée Zellweger's performance is iconic. Plus the movies are what made me love this character first. But I'll give it to the books, they're one of the few books I've laughed out loud while reading. Anyway, how do you even begin explaining the love I have for Bridget Jones... I love how she is a character so many people can relate but who would be a comic relief side character in some other story. Yes, yes, it is really bad that she is constantly described as fat when she really is not, but when I was growing up she gave me hope that people who are viewed as fat and/or unattractive by other people can be admired and appreciated, and they don't have to be super talented at everything and highly intelligent and some kind of a super smooth social butterfly to "make up" for what they "lack". And also that they can have standards (i once dodged a bullet by rejecting someone by pretty much subconsciously quoting Bridget Jones so..). I also love how the comedic tone of everything does not dismiss Bridget's feelings. For example in some other movie we maybe would concentrate on how "stupid" Bridget was to trust that Daniel was in love with her, but in Bridget Jones we concentrate on how Bridget was hurt by Daniel cheating on her, how he is the one who did wrong. Idk I just love Bridget Jones so very much can you tell.

7. Rock Lee, Naruto

Aka the boy who would have kicked Madara in the balls if Kishimoto had any sense of drama and good storytelling. I think I robbed Lee by not putting him on the fav male characters list. You know that post that goes like "gays be like 'these are my comfort characters', 1 literal ray of sunshine, 2 war criminal" etc? This child is the sunshine. I've been reading and watching Naruto again ( @hapanmaitogai is my sideblog for that nonsense) and I'm so ready to adopt Lee and/or Gai. Rock Lee is just such an earnest character, he has a goal he will give anything to achieve and he's the one true underdog in this manga. I love how he's so kind and polite (it's not so clear in English but in the Finnish translation he speaks as formally as he does in Japanese, he uses singular polite "you", calls Sakura "Sakura-neiti" = "Miss Sakura" etc... i love one polite boy). Also, he has the best fights in the series. Like Lee vs Gaara is a Classic, but we simply can't forget that time Lee absolutely crushed Sasuke in just a few minutes, or that time he politely asked Kimimaro not to kill him while he drinks his medicine. The best boy. I love that boy so much.

8. Sarah O'Brien, Downton Abbey

Last time it was Thomas' turn, so now I must talk about the snakiest snake, the queen of weaponized handmaidenry, Miss O'Brien. She is such a great character especially in the first two seasons (I obviously love her on season three as well but Julian Fellowes really tried to make it hard by not explaining her actions at all, didn't he. Well, luckily I am ready to stuff the gaps with my headcanons). She has some of the best comebacks in the series and brings some needed realism in some conversations. I also love how she uses her position as a lady's maid for her advantage and how she is proud of her profession despite being highly aware of the power structures in the Abbey. And then there is the soap. That is such a good character moment, because for a character who always plans ahead, who is ruthless and cunning and intelligent... I don't think O'Brien thought about the soap thing at all before she left the room ("Sarah O'Brien, this is not who you are" hit me like a train). Just once she did something with nothing but anger motivating her and that became one of the defining moments of her character. And one of the defining things of the future relationship between her and Cora. That's why I find the Sarah/Cora ship so interesting, because there will always be the undercurrent of bitter regret. Also Sarah O'Brien and Thomas Barrow are the greatest brotp and Fellowes was a coward for driving the smoking scheming gay best friends apart, and

9. Marilla Cuthbert, Anne of Green Gables / Anne with an E

I'm not saying L.M. Montgomery is entirely responsible for me having a fondness for strict, older women who first act unkind but have a heart of gold, but she most certainly did not help. Between characters like Marilla Cuthbert and Elizabeth Murray, how can you not fall in love with the type? It's been a while since I read the Anne series, but I really love how Marilla's character has been adapted into the Anne with an E tv series. Geraldine James looks like she was born to play her, she has me in tears so often. She has the ability to portray someone like Marilla, who is a very hard and stern person but feels deeply for her loved ones. I was watching the episode that dealt with Matthew's heart attack and Marilla berating her brother while hugging herself like she was trying so hard to hold herself together absolutely destroyed my heart.

10. Sister Monica Joan, Call the Midwife

It was a tough choice between her and Sister Evangelina. I just love these nuns very much. Sister Monica Joan is such a lovable and wise character. She is so knowledgeable of many subjects, from the Bible to astrology, and I feel like her unspecified memory problems and confusion are handled very tastefully. I also love how she's such an important part of her community despite not working as a midwife anymore. She is such a kind woman and gets visibly upset when others are treated poorly. And how could I not mention her saying "I do not believe in weeds. A weed is simply a flower that someone decides is in the wrong place", like... I love her so so much.

I won't tag anyone, but if you read this and you want to do this, consider yourself tagged and you're no allowed to mark me as the one who tagged you!

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leah-ocarina · 5 years ago

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Rant warning:

I have feelings. I have STRONG feelings, and I’m gonna guess they’re gonna be unpopular because the hot, ‘in’ thing to do right now is end stories like this. But this was a really unsatisfying way to end this saga in my personal opinion. If you liked the way it ended, I think that’s great! I’m not trying to take your satisfaction away from you; I’m just one of the people that it aggressively doesn’t resonate with.

They set everything up to look like he was becoming Pink Diamond and they never addressed it. They had him running from his problems which he spent quite a bit of time hating his mother for. They even had him look like Pink and they never let him have an aha moment of “Oh. Mom had trauma too. That’s why she was the way she was as Pink Diamond and was so desperate to change.” They left the audience with no closure on Rose. No signs that Steven would try to forgive her, no showing us what was in the chest, no reminder that she died as a good, changed person, nothing.

I also hate this idea that permeates current media where you have to leave your family forever so you can be who you truly are. It feels like it goes against what the whole show stands for. Even in just Future, the whole thing revolved around Steven feeling unfulfilled and alone because his family wasn’t there for him and then he was like “wait I don’t need you anymore lol bye. See you on FaceTime! Btw I might literally never come back even though I can just take Lion and come back to see you in literal seconds. Could be too much trouble, idk yet 🤷‍♂️.” And on that note, how dare he not tell the gems until he was out the door! After they tried their best to raise him, that’s how he treats them? If they had known, they could have spent some extra time together doing stuff for old times sake, but nah. “Bye. I might never come back.” Also as someone who also has PTSD I can tell you losing your support group while going through treatment is uhhh certainly a decision. A decision they already addressed was a bad idea, but like.... okay, I guess it’s not a problem anymore lmao

They also just pretended like Rose never existed. They never resolved any of that. Pearl was the only one who got any kind of resolution. Rose was such a huge part of the show and she was never even mentioned at the end but the once and it wasn’t even about her. Steven’s got a therapist though, so I’m sure all the Mommy issues that they’ve been setting up forever will finally get resolved off camera because the audience doesn’t need closure on one of the most important plot lines of the entire series. I’m no writer, but I feel like there was a missed opportunity for another Steven stress-dream flashback. They could have even had a dream-flashback of Rose talking to baby Amethyst about how moving forward after mistakes is important or maybe talking to herself in a mirror after almost having a diamond outburst after the war. Like in the reflection was Pink and Rose was looking at it telling her “I’m not like that anymore. I have a family that loves me now. I was hurt, I still hurt, but I’m moving past it” etc. which could have helped Steven start to make peace with her and himself. Even like I said before with just one moment of “Mom hurt too.” Instead we as the audience get no closure and just have to hope Steven’s therapist can help him work it out.

But yeah, moving away forever is a real disappointing ending from a franchise whose main characters have spend the whole time trying to build a healthy, happy family. Yeah yeah, I know. ‘Change’ and ‘finding yourself’ and all that, but I feel like it would have been more true to the core of the show if the gems could have helped him reach that. (Not to mention CPS is gonna be like ‘wtf’ the second he tries to rent a place lol)

Like I said in the beginning, that’s my opinion and it’s totally fine if you disagree.

Also, minor thing, but why they never addressed Onion after building so much suspense I’ll never understand. I still think he’s half sneople.

#steven universe future #steven universe #steven universe ending #steven universe future ending #steven universe future spoilers #rose quartz #pink diamond

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stevenuniversallyreviews · 5 years ago

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Episode 141: Your Mother and Mine

”You have it all wrong!”

We already know the story of Rose Quartz. We know she was a rebel who battled for many years against the forces of Pink Diamond. We know that she was “just another quartz soldier, made right here in the dirt” and rose to greatness by rallying fellow Gems to join her cause. We know that she was drawn to Gems that Homeworld shunned, wanting to make sure everyone had a place. We know that she ended the war by shattering Pink Diamond. And we know that after the war, her shield could only save two of her friends. So on paper, an episode that recaps this information is redundant.

But Your Mother and Mind isn’t about Rose Quartz’s history, it’s about her story. And the story is told by a character that can only reach her audience by impersonating the bearer of Pink Diamond’s gem.

Your Mother and Mine is a simple episode made fascinating by its proximity to the truth. It combines all the pieces of Rose’s story that we’ve heard over the course of the series to give us a definitive take on the narrative just in time for it to be undermined. We’re five episodes away from learning that Rose Quartz was Pink Diamond, and the episode after that is about Pearl correcting the version of events we hear right now. Which means that the episode’s major theme of truth versus fiction is something we can’t even comprehend fully without retrospect. Even if you already suspect that Rose is Pink when you watch it for the first time, the fact that it’s not written in stone yet means there’s still a possibility that Garnet’s story is true, and the episode only becomes great when you know for sure that it isn’t.

Garnet is the perfect narrator for the final depiction of Rose as we knew her before A Single Pale Rose. She’s one of the two remaining Crystal Gems that survived the war and isn’t bubbled, and we’ll soon learn that the other is bound to silence, so Garnet is the most capable character to tell this story and believe it. And her introduction in Your Mother and Mine hammers down why she believes it: when she’s excited about a cause that’s close to home, her enthusiasm overwhelms her usual calm. She’s so happy with the idea of misfit Homeworlders escaping oppression that she can’t step back and see that they aren’t handling her praise well until Padparadscha says it outright (for the second time in three episodes, she displays her ability to “predict” the emotions of the recent past on top of the events). And when she really gets going with her story, Garnet shows the exact same level of breathless, blinding glee. It can be hard to look for flaws in something you’re actively rooting for, that you’ve tied your whole identity to, so she doesn’t.

The distortion of truth that defines the episode is established by the Off Colors, who parrot three variants of Homeworld propaganda that mythologize Rose Quartz in the same way Garnet does, albeit for opposite reasons. They can’t even get their own stories straight, adding to the mystery of a figure that Homeworld would do anything to disavow and vilify, but the three main Gems in Steven’s life also have different concepts of Rose. Pearl’s is the most accurate, but she can’t tell anyone. Garnet’s is what she saw with her own three eyes, so she thinks it’s accurate, but she’s missing critical information. And Amethyst only knew Rose from after the war, so like Steven she had to learn about it secondhand.

And so, a question presents itself: what’s the value of a story that isn’t true? In this episode, Garnet’s false narrative galvanizes the Off Colors in the same way it galvanized her for thousands of years. It gives Steven a version of the shattering that paints Rose’s actions as heroic—Lars, whose first huge character moment with Steven involved insulting his “weird mom,” thinks she’s awesome for doing it. Regardless of the facts, it’s a great story, an honest-to-goodness legend presented gorgeously. So how much does it matter that much of it is wrong?

To Steven and Garnet, it matters quite a bit. But to the Off Colors? They need a confidence boost both in their general lives and in a moment of floating in space with a broken engine, and the story of Rose Quartz concretely helps them. That’s the tricky thing about legendary figures: if you model yourself off a literal interpretation of their actions, as Steven and Garnet do, it can only end in disappointment, but if you just view it as a story, it can do a lot of good. Fiction can be a wonderful thing—Steven Universe is itself an untrue story that has made the world a better place—but it gets rougher when the boundaries between fiction and reality are muddled.

While Rebecca Sugar has many times confirmed that the three lead Gems are based off elements of her personality, Steven is based off her brother, and characteristics of other real people are found throughout the show in the way fiction writers often flesh out their casts, Rose Quartz is different. In an early conversation with Hellboy creator Mike Mignola of all people, she was inspired by Babylonian mythology, especially Ishtar, in developing the show’s backstory, and Era 1 Rose Quartz feels more like an ancient goddess of love and war than a grounded human at this point in the show.

So Garnet tells us a creation myth. She introduces the Diamonds as gods, calling them “unique in their flawlessness” without an ounce of sarcasm, but like most ancient mythological gods, they do indeed have flaws: in this case, according to Garnet, Pink’s cruelty and cowardice. From these gods came Gems in their image, and for an untold sweep of time there was stagnation as all went according to plan, until a disrupting hero shifted this status quo to create the world we know today. Rose Quartz went from questioning her god to arguing with her god to warring with her god to destroying and supplanting her god, but because this is a pantheon, her hubris is punished by the other gods. It’s a story that works as well thousands of years ago as it does today.

And befitting that story, we get the most stylized flashback in the series, expanding heavily from the silhouettes of The Answer. Even if nothing else here worked, this would remain a beautiful episode, with simple but effective techniques to marry narration with aesthetic: transitioning from widescreen to fullscreen as Rose’s worldview expands, using stained glass backgrounds to keep the focus on characters instead of environment, and reducing colors in the foreground to make those colors pop. Eyes are out of the picture, a major handicap for showing how characters feel, but seasoned pros Katie Mitroff and Paul Villeco can convey emotion through body language and mouths alone.

Estelle certainly helps. Her commanding voice could make any story enthralling, even as she shifts from the fairy tale of her own origin to the legend of Rose. While she largely uses the same techniques here as in The Answer, the one noticeable change speaks volumes about Pink Diamond. When speaking for Blue, a far more personal foe for Garnet, she continues to narrate in her usual tone, and when speaking for Rose, her voice raises a little but it still sounds like Garnet. But when speaking for Pink, Estelle does something new: for the first and only time in the series, she vocally impersonates another character.

This is the second episode in a row featuring Pink Diamond, and the second in a row where she’s voiced by someone who isn’t Pink Diamond. Stevonnie shows the true version (a child), while Garnet shows the legend (a tyrant). And both halves of the Mindful Education duo are great at it! All Estelle needs is a few lines to shift that British accent into full evil aristocrat mode, and the special attention she gives to this voice highlights just how different this take on Pink is from the tantrum AJ Michalka provided. Even before we know the full truth, something is off about this cruel but newly confident version of Pink.

While the whole story gains new meaning when we hear the truth, the most compelling part in retrospect is Garnet’s stance on Pink Diamond calling for help. On top of providing the stunning header image as we pan from revolutionaries up to their oppressors, it’s this brilliant, awful moment where Garnet gets so close to the truth without grasping it, Blue Zircon style. Yes, Pink summoned other Diamonds to Earth, but it was part of her plan to save the planet: to make a big enough fuss that Homeworld would decide her colony wasn’t worth it. Garnet’s take is in line with the Pink we saw in our last episode, immature and seeking approval from her elders, and focusing on it here highlights how these negative traits could be aimed to help others when we see her real motives in Now We’re Only Falling Apart.

That said, Pink isn’t the only Diamond we see here.

White Diamond is different. She’s the only Diamond who isn’t named until her debut episode, existing only as a suggestion that fills in a massive gap. We’re restricted to her glimpses of her, mere hints of her ominous presence, like a monster in the shadows. The mural on the moon, the distant view of her ship on Homeworld, the actual white diamond that tops the insignia, that’s all we’ve gotten until now.

Here we get three images of her, even if she still goes unmentioned: the first shot of the four Diamonds together, the shot of the remaining three Diamonds after the shattering, and the Corruption. She remains obscured, more an idea than a character, but it’s clearer than ever that she’s the head of the group, and that she’s enormous, even compared to Yellow and Blue. Her absence is as captivating as her presence, as we see more of her than ever but still get the impression that Pink was only able to appeal to the middle sisters. It’s a great hook, a second mystery that overlaps Pink Diamond’s to show the audience that there’s more to this story than we might think, and even when we inevitably unravel Pink’s history, there’s a bigger threat behind the curtain.

The story ends with a brief scene in our regular style, showing that even if everything else was wrong, Rose Quartz did use her shield to save her friends. We return to a downcast ship, but Garnet supplements the power of fiction with the power of truth: that despite all the lies from Homeworld (and the lies from Rose, it turns out), the Crystal Gems and the Off Colors persist. No matter how much authority figures might try to hide it, diversity of lifestyle and identity is everywhere, because queer folks are normal folks. That’s the sort of thing a good story can make clear, especially when society constantly repeats a brutal and bald-faced lie.

And so the Off Colors trilogy of sorts draws to a close, with another call to adventure aboard the Sun Incinerator. But not before Steven and Garnet have a sit-down away from the celebrating crew, and the downside of a good story peeks out. It’s refreshing to see Steven verbalize his theory about Stevonnie’s dream so soon, given the necessary gap between The Trial and Jungle Moon to focus on his immediate concerns, but because Garnet only knows the story instead of the history, she replies with two truths and a lie: that his powers come from empathy, that his differences are something to be celebrated, and that Rose Quartz definitely killed Pink Diamond.

Steven will thus need another push to find the truth, rather than pursuing it on his own. Rose’s story does a lot of good, but it keeps Steven in the dark on his heritage and his inheritance, and makes him doubt the gut that he should be learning to trust by now. Self-doubt is just one of the many issues plaguing him in Steven Universe Future, but it remains a major factor in his identity crisis, and it’s rooted in moments like this: when a loved one who means well repeats a lie that makes him question what he knows in his heart.

The truth can be a dangerous thing, and fiction can comfort and inspire. The truth leads to clarity, and fiction can distort. This isn’t a convenient dichotomy, and Garnet herself will soon be ripped apart by the realization that the story she tells right here was a lie, but she wouldn’t be who she is today without that story, and for better and worse, neither would Steven. I’m not saying it isn’t important to seek the truth, and I’m certainly not saying that this show is telling us that. But I appreciate so much that the value of stories isn’t lost in that message.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

Without the upcoming reveal, this is just an episode that I like. Great visuals and a well-told story, but still feels like a recap. But that reveal amps up Your Mother and Mine by both justifying the recap itself and by making the actual point of the episode clear. So up it goes!

Top Twenty-Five

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Jungle Moon

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Lars of the Stars

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Back to the Kindergarten

Steven’s Dream

Kevin Party

When It Rains

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Storm in the Room

Room for Ruby

Lion 4: Alternate Ending

Doug Out

The Good Lars

Are You My Dad?

I Am My Mom

Stuck Together

The Trial

Off Colors

Lars’s Head

Gemcation

Raising the Barn

Sadie Killer

Your Mother and Mine

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Rocknaldo

Dewey Wins

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

Tiger Philanthropist

No Thanks!

6. Horror Club 5. Fusion Cuisine 4. House Guest 3. Onion Gang 2. Sadie’s Song 1. Island Adventure

#your mother and mine #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

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dogcopter · 5 years ago

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character arc in unreverse

“Incomprehensible if you don’t think RQ is alive” Rose Quartz Steven Universe thoughts, a first pass. This is about a bunch of suspicious ghosts who are probably Rose, excluding Lion (see rose is lion 2020 tag for that)

I am certain to be missing some appearances and ideas still, but here’s some lore, assuming the Steven Universe writing process is (steven universe production voice) “every weird animal and dream is clearly just Rose. it will secretly be really funny every time and it will all pay off approximately 180 episodes into the series when we learn it was an intertwined Steven/Rose POV and character arc the whole time. we love lore.”

Rose’s Room Tiny Floating Whale appears when summoned, also asks Steven “what do you want”, has Rose’s voice even tho Steven hasn’t heard it yet.

This episode is preceded by Beach Party, in which Steven convinces two bickering families to cooperate, and that episode is preceded by Lion 2, in which Lion goes to the movies with Steven and Connie and also makes them fight a killer robot.

Watermelon Steven This episode is preceded by Garnet’s Universe which telegraphs the endgame. Steven brings melons to life, including his best friend Baby Melon, who is briefly kidnapped by Onion. (Onion wants Baby Melon. Can Onion perceive Rose Quartz or other astral projectors? Is Onion an agent of Evil Cookie Cat?) He comes to life to escape Onion and winks at Steven when rejoining him. When the watermelons go to war and Steven wants the fighting to stop, Baby Melon sacrifices his life to stop the fighting by punching Steven. Baby Melon dies. RQ kill count +1

(Relevant Dogcopter lore: In Lion 2, Lion attends the Dogcopter 3 movie with Steven and Connie. In Dogcopter 3, Dogcopter beats an evil army of robots. Connie and Steven both love Dogcopter. )

Lion 3: Straight to Video After Lion tries and fails to get Steven into the mane the first time, Steven dreams of Dogcopter. Dogcopter says some hippie nonsense about art, including the ironic “Just be true to yourself, and people will appreciate your honesty.” Dogcopter then says “take a deep breath” before Steven wakes up in Lion’s mane. This ep is preceded by Watermelon Steven.

Open Book The room manifests a Tiny Floating Whale again for a highfive. Idk if the rest of the room shenanigans are the room as its own entity or at all related to Rose or Evil Cookie Cat Rose (I’m going to gloss over the Rose’s room episodes because there’s a lot of good meta out there and they probably need their own post just in general) but the room’s Connie does ultimately force Steven to be honest with his feelings instead of hiding them.

This episode is preceded by Rose’s Scabbard, in which Steven learns a bit about Rose’s secrets and her relationship with Pearl.

Chille Tid Steven exhausts himself on the search for Malachite and the Gems try to make him rest. After a dream vision of Lapis, Steven tells Pearl about a dream he had involving Lion and puts them both to sleep. Dogcopter appears in his dream, but doesn’t talk to him. Dogcopter meows, and leads him in the direction of Lapis. This is the ep where Steven’s astral projection is explicitly revealed. This episode is preceded by “We Need to Talk”.

(In Dogcopter 4, Dogcopter dies and comes back to life and it’s revealed that his parents are cats, so probably Rose has either seen another Dogcopter movie without Steven and Connie or she’s involved in Dogcopter’s production.)

Super Watermelon Island Steven wakes up in a watermelon body. Melon Dog busts out barking excitedly. She leads him to the sacrifice ritual and tricks him into volunteering his hijacked body for death, which reveals the location of Malachite. This episode is a season premiere and is preceded by Peridemption arc. RQ kill count +1

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service Steven needs a boost to escape the pizza monster in Kiki’s dream, and Dogcopter appears to pick him up and meows at him. This episode is preceded by Restaurant Wars, in which, among other important developments, Pearl wears her hottest outfit to date and Jane appears for the second time. The first time is in Lion 2 when she sells Connie, Steven, and Lion tickets to the Dogcopter 3 movie.

Steven’s Dream Steven wants to know about Pink Diamond so Rose shows him the Pink Diamond murder location. If it’s a memory like later dreams, it’s a relatively recent one and she is crying in it. This episode is preceded by Three Gems and a Baby in which we see the aftermath of Rose’s death on Greg and the Gems.

Storm in the Room Rose literally just shows up in person to tell Steven to chill the fuck out while he’s stress dreaming about her via the room. She doesn’t affirm his feelings though.

This episode is directly preceded by The New Crystal Gems, in which Lion is named but does not appear, and that episode is preceded by the Zoo arc.

Jungle Moon Stevonnie is stranded on the moon of an abandoned Diamond Authority colony and their ship is broken so they can’t contact Lars. They find a moon base which used to belong to Yellow Diamond. They have a dream of one of Pink Diamond’s childhood memories of trying to play with YD while she’s working, which reveals the passcode to YD’s console. They use that info to call Lars and gtfo. This episode is preceded by Lars of the Stars, in which Steven and Connie go to space via Lion.

Can’t Go Back After Steven and Lion go to the moon, while Lion is napping downstairs Steven is napping upstairs, and Steven has a dream about Pink Diamond trying to convince the other Diamonds to leave Earth alone. He also sees Pearl with her sword.

Meta: This episode is preceded by “Letters to Lars”, in which Steven describes how the whole town has formed interpersonal bonds and everyone is doing way better without Bill Dewey in charge. Also in CGB, Lapis talks about running away in fear and being lonely while they observe the CGs from the moon. RQ vibes on both counts.

Together Alone Steven is sleeping in PD’s room. Opens with a dream in which Pink is playing with Volley in her room. Yellow Diamond interrupts and they play their roles. They behave like cheerful buddies, but then the dream becomes a nightmare as Volley is taken away and Steven starts stress heaving Rose’s hair and sees a vision of White. This episode is preceded by Familiar, in which Steven tries to talk to the Diamonds and learn about Pink.

Escapism Steven tries to call for help by APing out of prison, and is diverted to Mask Island where Melon Dog 2.0 tries to keep him distracted. She’s worried about him when he takes off. Lion picks him up on the open sea and carts him home to deliver his message before his tender perishable body ends. Steven kill count +1

Change Your Mind Steven wakes up in prison, then realizes he’s dreaming another memory of Pink’s in which Blue comes to berate and shame her in prison for bringing cute organic life home. Blue mentions that White will take away Pink’s Pearl if she doesn’t quit the mischief. Steven also sees a flashback of what happened at the ball, and the Diamonds doing the corruption attack. Steven is disturbed by a dream experience of cycling between appearances - Pink, Rose, Steven - and then wakes up.

Meta: The focus on her relationship with Volley and the loss of Volley in hindsight contributes to what we learn later in Volleyball; although they appeared close from Pink’s perspective in the older happy HW memories shown, we learn Pink’s explosive temper frightened Volley and even injured her and that a manifestation of the injury lingered with trauma. From Volley’s perspective Steven’s angry outburst is terrifying and she says that Pink couldn’t keep a secret – Pink changes her behavior to such an extent afterwards that our mom Pearl knows her as almost entirely the opposite in both regards. Lion has also changed from RQ’s super loving, inspiring speech giving persona to an aloof, silent cat.

Change Your Mind Finale During the final confrontation, Pink Steven disobeys White Diamond to her face to protect Steven, and doesn’t run away. Pink Steven confronts White Diamond on Steven’s behalf, exclaims SHE’S GONE!, and affirms Steven’s identity to both WD and Steven himself, embracing him with joyous laughter and love as his gem reenters his body.

Future:

Rose Buds Rose straight up just returns (but we’re not ready to admit that yet) and uhhh I’ve already done like ten posts about this ep so let’s stop there

other suspicious Future characters post Rose Buds:

A Very Special Episode One of Onion’s dolls waves at RQ2 even though it wasn’t umbrellafied. Might just be Onion eldritch shenanigans.

Prickly Pair Cactus Steven tries to talk to Steven after Steven opens up to him but is limited by his vocabulary. He might be his own cactus.

Reflections: See Lion megaposts for the Lion arc, I might make another big fucking essay one day taking both these and Lion into account but today is not that day, but one common thread is that these psychic ghost characters go from exclusively taking their cues from Steven and Steven’s immediate desires/needs to going out of their way to teach him things about Rose, first without contradicting the secrets and her post-death narrative, but ultimately by actually showing him truth.

#rose is lion 2020 #rosedemption 2020 #su meta

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mst3kproject · 5 years ago

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The Vindicator

We’re heading back to Canada, the True North Strong and Free that brought us The Final Sacrifice. Our indie movie scene up here is pretty weird and very cheap, and this is a prime example of the latter. It’s a dimly-lit, badly-directed ripoff with shitty effects and a has-been headliner. The perfect thing for Pearl to throw Mike’s way in between her other cruel experiments.

A research guy named Carl is killed in a Science Accident at EvilCo, so his bosses save his brain to make into an indestructible cyborg I hereby dub RoboCrap. Boy, that’s a great idea. Not like he’ll escape and go on a rampage. EvilCo’s boss decides that the only way to get him back is to hire Hunter, a ninja lady played by the closest thing this movie has to a star, Pam Grier. By using RoboCrap’s wife Lauren as bait, they lure him back to EvilCo for a final confrontation. Somehow this all results in people being able to land on Mars. I don’t know. I don’t care.

So despite a title that’s supposed to invoke The Terminator, this is in fact a ripoff of Robocop, and it’s very, very bad. Almost Future War bad, where they really shouldn’t have tried to make this movie on this budget. I can say in its favour that it did understand what was interesting about Robocop and tried to ape that rather than just showing us a cyborg killing people, but it still gets it all wrong.

Let us start with RoboCrap himself – I know his name is Carl because people keep yelling it at him. He’s obviously the Alex Murphy of this story, the guy whose death is co-opted to create a killing machine, and who eventually turns this weapon against his creators while reclaiming his humanity. They do this wrong at every stage. RoboCop made sure we got to know Murphy just well enough to feel for his death and be interested in him rediscovering himself. When we meet Carl we see that he’s at odds with his boss over funding, but this isn’t particularly compelling, and the only thing we know about him on a personal level is that his wife is pregnant. It’s kind of like Hawkeye in Age of Ultron, where the existence of a family is treated as a substitute for characterization.

Having failed to humanize Carl, the movie then fails to dehumanize him. RoboCop presented the title character to us very much as a machine, with very little idea, at first, how much of Murphy was left in him. Carl still knows who he is and soon finds out what he is, and there’s never any doubt even among the bad guys that there’s still a human being under all that machinery. This is illustrated best by the movie’s own visuals – one of the way’s RoboCop hid Murphy’s humanity was to cover his eyes. The Vindicator covers everything but Carl’s eyes.

While I’m on that topic, the suit design is terrible. Robocop had an easily recognizable silhouette that looked convincingly mechanical while not being distractingly complex. RoboCrap here looks like he’s made of garbage. There are far too many little parts and the lighting is so bad you often can’t see anything but a mass of vaguely metallic stuff. Even in daytime shots, you never really get an impression of what this being looks like or what any of this junk does. The fact that you can see the actor’s eyes mostly just emphasizes that this is a stupid costume with a guy stumbling around inside of it.

Look at that. This shot would be forty times better if he were standing in front of the yellow van, where he’d stand out, instead of in front of the scrap metal he blends right into. Morons.

I guess the wardrobe department’s reasoning for leaving the eyes uncovered was that it would allow the actor to emote. It’s too bad they hired a crappy actor. He’s bad as RoboCrap, and worse in the early scenes where he’s just supposed to be Carl. The worst thing he does is shout NOOOOOOO during the science accident, which is so awful it’s hilarious. Then not only do they show it to us again in flashbacks, they also have him go off on another NOOOOOOO when he realizes he’s killed a bunch of people in a sewer. You can’t watch this and take it seriously.

A poorly-handled main character will kill a movie very effectively, but The Vindicator does just about everything else wrong, too. The EvilCo boss’ reasoning for creating this cyborg never makes any sense – in fact, it makes so little sense that other characters keep pointing out how dumb it is! When you know something in your movie is stupid, the last thing you want to do is draw attention to the fact! Nor do we ever really know what it is Carl’s trying to achieve. He hangs around in the sewer, leaves cryptic messages for his wife, and defends himself from a biker gang and from Hunter’s mercenaries. Eventually he reprograms himself to remove the insta-kill mode they inexplicably installed in him, but that happens offscreen and is rather anti-climactic. The insta-kill is established for us in a scene with a lab chimp, where the CEO of EvilCo literally pokes the animal with a stick until it gets so pissed off at him it dies of a heart attack. This is established like it should be a plot point, but we never even see anyone concerned that Carl will Rage To Death. The movie has totally forgotten about it by the time we get that far.

Similarly, we never find out what Carl was threatening to ‘blow the whistle on’ when he argues with his boss. EvilCo is up to some shifty stuff to be sure, but as far as I can tell from the movie we see, it’s all disguised. The development of the robotic limbs was undercover as advanced prosthetics, the indestructible shell was a spacesuit, the mind control was only for use on animals, etc etc etc. Even the people developing this stuff were surprised when the CEO had them bring it all together to create RoboCrap. What did Carl know? We never find out, because the movie never mentions it again. I figured he would try to use secrets as leverage but nope.

Another really weird plot point has to do with the synthesizer in Carl’s house, which apparently has a short circuit or something that picks up radio broadcasts. RoboCarp uses this to communicate with Lauren, but it’s never clear why this is necessary. He’s perfectly able to speak, and there’s no reason why he couldn’t just phone her. Using the synthesizer doesn’t even accomplish anything in the plot – EvilCo has the house bugged, so they’re listening in on the conversations anyway!

The list of crap goes on. There’s an annoying little kid playing in a junkyard who sees RoboCrap and asks him if he’s from outer space. Like the ape raging itself to death in the opening scene, this kid is introduced as if he ought to be important to the plot, but he isn’t – he just stands around going ‘ooooh’ as RoboCrap lifts cars, and then he’s gone. I guess we should be glad of that, because it means we’re not obliged to put up with his ‘cute’ antics for more than a couple of minutes. At the same time, he’s still annoying, and since he doesn’t do anything important, he’s also pointless.

One of the biggest ruined opportunities in the movie was the character of Carl’s co-worker Bert. When they’re introduced they seem to be good friends and Carl asks Lauren to contact Bert for him so that he can ask for help. Bert meets Carl, but it turns out to be a trap by EvilCo, who have rewarded Bert for his help with a promotion. This makes Bert, and the conflict between his loyalty to his friend and his loyalty to his job, potentially quite interesting… but then it turns out he’s just an asshole, who only hung out with Carl at all because he was in love with Lauren. When Lauren rejects him, he tries to kill her.

This means we don’t have to feel bad about it when RoboCrap kills Bert a few minutes later, and neither does RoboCrap himself. But honestly, it would have been a way better movie if we did. Carl and Bert’s friendship was one of the only relationships in the movie that was properly established, and having Bert actually blackmailed into betraying him, and Carl actually forced by his programming to murder his friend, would have had far more emotional impact. Carl is horrified by his own killing but we don’t really feel that when his victims are criminals and his evil bosses.

Is there anything good in this movie? There’s a few things here and there. The lab animals that escape from their cages to kill the scientist who’d been torturing them did richly deserve that revenge. There’s a scene in which some extremely creepy dolls are used to emphasize that Carl has become an uncanny effigy of humanity or something, and it goes on way after we’ve got the idea but it’s all right. It’s also established that RoboCrap will only kill in self-defense, when a perceived threat activates the insta-kill. He states that he doesn’t want to kill people but cannot control this programming – so the bad guys repeatedly bring violence upon themselves when they attempt to attack him. This is clearly intended to be ironic and kind of works. Hunter’s suicide, when it’s very unlikely RoboCrap was actually going to kill her, functions on a similar level.

Man, this movie is bad, and it’s not even bad in a fun way – it’s just bad. It ‘got’ what made RoboCop worth watching but it still couldn’t do anything with that, and everything it could have done with what it had, it fucked up. The result reminds me of that Fix Auto commercial where the kid flails around and ends up whacking his mom’s car instead of the pinata. They could have had something tasty, but instead they just made an expensive mess.

#mst3k #reviews #episodes that never were #the vindicator #tw: rape #tw: suicide #80s

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wardencommanderrodimiss · 6 years ago

Text

Chapter Six: Flashback, one of two, and also Maya’s in it

[Beginning] [Chapter Masterlist]

“Hey, Chief, question: so murder’s murder even if it’s one of the Fair F -- the fae, who’s murdered.”

“Murder is murder when a person is killed, accounting for manslaughter, accidental death, and the like -- honestly, Phoenix, you just think a person doesn’t count?”

“No! I mean, like… It just surprises me, is all, that you would let a human court arbitrate it and not just…”

“Revenge ourselves on the suspected killer with our magics in our home realm?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s always a possibility -- but it’s far too messy. That sort of thing tends to drag others who are far outside of the disagreement into the fighting, by way of networks of alliances, and before you know it there’s a full war that began because of a stupid crime of passion in a human bar. Some time before me, our Courts decided that humans and your courts and laws are the closest to fair, neutral judgment available, and that we would abide by their verdicts. Oh, certainly humanity was not consulted, but it is to your benefit to investigate the killings of fae, so as the allies of the deceased will not strike a curse down on all who were in the vicinity. And besides, you don’t think that, if humanity agreed that fae deaths won’t be tried, that rule wouldn’t be abused? That any man might claim his neighbor was one of the Fair Folk and killing him does not ‘count’ -- that any mother might throw her child in a fire because it acted just the slightest bit strange and claim that its life was forfeit on her suspicion?”

“You say that humans are fair and then list out all that. Neutral, with our lying and biases and stupid foolhardy impulsive actions--”

“Other than lies, we have the same faults, but so often magnified. We are impulsive and petty and cruel, with bias bred into our bloodlines -- it is an imperfect decision, as we are imperfect, as you are imperfect, as I have found even your laws to be. We make do with our best. It is all we have, in the end.”

A cold iron stake through the heart will kill anyone, not just one of the fae.

The same, Phoenix thinks, would go for an iron bullet through the forehead.

It’s not that he doesn’t know what Magnifi was -- Zak told him that from the beginning, and Pearl’s gift confirms for him that he wasn’t lying. And even without it, he could still see the lingering traces that Zak was a witch -- once. Their powers fade quickly when their patron is gone. He knows that without asking.

If it should matter, though, there is no way to prove to anyone else what Magnifi was.

Fae corpses don’t leave evidence. If they leave a corpse at all -- most do, but not all, and those deaths by their nature are never judged but in the Courts of Kurain, if the dead has the allies to bring the matter forth -- it is indistinguishable from a human’s, a last residual enchantment to make sure they cannot be ignored or dismissed.

Or to fuck with those left behind, as Phoenix comes to understand of Magnifi.

The evidence of the trial made that much obvious: one shot to the forehead; you cannot refuse, and we both know the reason why. A final cruelty to impart on those whom he bargained with -- and why wouldn’t he? If he knew he was dying -- of age, a curse from another, whatever it was -- the Gramarye witches would outlast him. And even if his death would take their powers away, the fae never like to feel that they’ve been cheated. One last indignity: don’t forget what you lost forever to make a bargain with me.

There is a lot Phoenix does not know, answers he is still seeking, but this, he understands. The nature of the fae, he understands.

The Bar Association suspends his badge pending inquiry, the hearing scheduled for one short week after the trial. News travels fast about Phoenix, ever since von Karma, ever since Gant, two pillars of the legal system he brought crumbling down, and the prosecution already had done half of their inquiry for them, placing Drew Misham in the courtroom with a speed that made Phoenix’s head spin. His memories of the trial are patchy, direly so, when it comes to the diary page -- how he got it, why he didn’t find it too suspicious to present -- and that will be his own inquiry: who fooled him, and how. It probably wasn’t Zak; it very likely could have been Gavin, a prodigy looking to make a name for himself, with enough enchantments and glamours to make it happen. He is human at the core and nowhere else, but the old adage, foot in each world, doesn’t seem so true, not when he drapes himself in iron jewelry like he thinks it can ground him firmly on this side of the veil.

Phoenix doesn’t trust him -- Phoenix has five people whom he personally trusts -- but he can’t condemn him, not yet. Not without more evidence.

The first lead he chases down is the forger himself, Drew Misham. (No, not himself.) The forger is his daughter, Vera, a shy, sickly little girl, and a changeling besides. Drew seems to know, but he won’t say it outright -- Vera is “exceptionally talented”, “a genius”, and he never makes eye contact with Phoenix. She was the only one to see the client’s face, and whoever it was has done a good job of convincing her to clam up. A gentle smile, she says. Like an angel, but for the briefest of moments -- a slip in the upkeep of a glamour? -- Vera saw the devil.

Not exactly helpful, and definitely worrying when compounded with the secret charm that she won’t show, but she does tell him that she lays an enchantment on all of her forgeries -- not in those exact words. Phoenix isn’t even sure that she realizes what she is, that her powers are not human.

Valant is the second he speaks with, at the detention center where he has been interred for trying to pin the murder on Zak. Talking to him -- or maybe it’s that Phoenix retrieved the magatama to keep with him on this investigation -- brings one memory into sharper focus -- the girl, the little girl, Zak’s daughter, as human as her father but draped in magic even when it was fading from Magnifi’s two pupils. And that is definitely worrying, too; Phoenix has stumbled sightlessly into the dark, and something monstrous is lurking in it.

He nearly misses his hearing -- an unnecessary formality because there wasn’t one among them, except apparently Kristoph Gavin, who hadn’t decided that Phoenix’s badge would be gone at the end of it -- trying to track down Trucy. The Gramaryes were an elusive coven -- Valant tried to make a cursory protest on the terminology, “Troupe! We were not…”, and Phoenix broke the single lock by just staring him down until he rescinded his words -- who were never found by those desperate enough to seek them out, but instead would appear to them in the midst of their search. If they had a home base, Valant won’t say, and no one else in the world knows. Zak’s daughter, Trucy is her name, could be anywhere in the city, anywhere beyond the city, out to the mountains of Kurain, and Phoenix might never find her.

Getting an answer from her about who she received the diary page from would be a bonus; Phoenix is more concerned for her sake. He was only able to briefly See her, but he didn’t like the glimpse.

This is going to take some assistance.

The first thing he can unearth in his apartment that can make a circular shape is an extension cord; he drags it out to the kitchen and sets a cold half of a ground beef patty on a plate in the center. The fake candles are back at the office, but that is an unneeded trifle -- funny, but unnecessary. “Maya,” he says, stepping back from the circle and closing his eyes, “there is someone I need your help to find.”

A cold gust of wind batters against his face. When he opens his eyes, the room has filled with a slowly-dispersing purple mist, twisting in strands around the fae standing in the circle. She has gained an extra pair of eyes since he last saw her, smaller slits right along the browbone, all four glowing red. The remaining mist settles about her head like hair or the headdress of royalty, not quite blending with the void-black tendrils that frame her face. One of them extends, almost like an extra arm made of shadow, down to the floor, snatching up the burger and tossing it into her mouth. She grins, the truest cheshire smile Phoenix has ever seen, stretching literally from pointed ear to ear, displaying dozens of huge sharp fangs. “Hey Nick!”

Immediately she turns to face the refrigerator right behind her. “Are you holding out on me? That was a lame burger just now.”

“Cut me some slack. I just lost my badge. I’m trying not to burn my savings on food too quickly.”

She cocks her head, still staring at the fridge. The mist doesn’t move with her like something part of her should. “Where’d you have it last?” she asks. “If you lost it at the office, Sis will probably have it on your desk in the next couple days.”

Ah. Literalism. The main weapon and weakness both of the fae. “No, I mean -- I was disbarred. I am no longer allowed to work as a lawyer--”

He stops when he sees Maya’s face. She has finally looked at him and her expression, however hard to parse it can be, shifts rapidly, the briefest flash of something like horror that twists into fury, a contorted, monstrous rage. “Who did this to you?” she snarls, and he didn’t know he looked, physically, that bad, or that she knew how to read the depths of his exhaustion and despair from his aura. “You want my help to hunt them down and eat their hearts?”

“No! No, that’s not what I want!”

“Oh.” She frowns. “I would throw it in for free.”

“No!” He bends down to break the circle and stops. “On the condition of not eating any part of a person, I let you leave.”

“For the duration of this summoning, you have my word,” she replies. He could -- should -- argue that, try and make it a blanket deal for eternity, but he decides they can negotiate that some other time. For now, he has what he needs, and he unwinds the extension cord.

When Maya steps forth, the glamour settles over her in a wave, the mist hanging over her settling into glossy black hair, her two smallest eyes vanishing and the others whitening and gaining dark irises, her mouth shrinking, and the four small glowing orbs that drift lazily about her face sink down to become four large beads of a necklace. And then she looks like an ordinary girl, late teens or early twenties, her hair done up in a topknot and her smile small but still toothy and just a little too sharp. “So who is it that you want to find?” she asks. She frowns, but it seems like such a minute motion compared to moments ago. “Is your prosecutor in trouble again, too?”

“No; that was last month.”

And he leaves her hanging on that one and they sit at the kitchen table while he instead begins to explain his own case, his own worst situation, and the Gramaryes. She repeats Magnifi’s name to herself after he says it, again and again until her voice loses its human quality, sounding instead like the clatter of bells or a windchime, until suddenly she snaps back. “This fae you call Magnifi -- he was banished, many years ago, stripped of his power with his name and cursed to never return.”

“Why?”

“He strove for power and made those who had that power very mad,” she answers. “And so -- ouch.” She picks at some stain on the table and Phoenix winces, anticipating her leaving claw marks gouged into the wood. “He had a daughter. No other allies besides her -- she left with him, naturally.”

“Thalassa,” Phoenix says. Maya nods. “It was a far fall for him, huh, to end up where he did. Probably all he had left was the power trip over Zak and Valant, and all they had was pretending that they weren’t witches sworn to some bastard.”

“That’s the funny part of it, kinda,” Maya says. “They didn’t even credit him, when they were saying they can perform spells for whatever sorry suckers show up hoping for a miracle -- they were just like ‘yeah, no fae involved, ignore that guy, we won’t screw you out of a deal’. And they by being like that probably screwed him out of dozens more deals with sad desperate humans. No wonder he decided his death should be one last one-over on them.”

Sitting cross-legged in her chair, her hands in her lap, she leans it back to balance impossibly on two legs. She likes to cause the double-take, to force Edgeworth or Franziska or whoever else to look twice at the way she twists the world around her. “And you’re looking for his granddaughter?” she asks. “Not his daughter?”

“Thalassa is dead,” Phoenix says. “And Trucy isn’t, yet, so yes, I’m looking for Trucy.”

“I’m vaguely flattered that you think I’m powerful enough that I can just find her, just like that,” Maya says. She doesn’t wobble. “It’s not so easy, not here in this realm, not without knowing her true name.” “Trucy Enigmar,” Phoenix says. “Or Trucy Gramarye.” Maya rolls her eyes. “I need to know which, Nick.” Names have more power in the Twilight Realm. It’s why Mia, even trying to be human, stumbled on names that weren’t Phoenix, the human whose life she owned, and Dahlia, the fae she defeated. It’s why Iris only ever called him Feenie. It was the kindest gesture she could make. In the same fashion, Maya calls him Nick. They don’t own him, not entirely, though they could. “It’s only two choices. You can’t guess?” “No. I need to know.” Half of magic is certainty, Maya and Dahlia so certain they have the world at their fingertips, Iris so much meeker and weaker than her sister, Vera knowing little about herself but knowing that once instructed she can create anything and that is all she needs to know. And Valant, weaker, because he was so sure he was second-best, a self-fulfilling prophecy, the only kind of prophecy that Phoenix ever sees. A spell can’t be cast on a guess. “Is there anything you can do if you go back to the Twilight Realm?” Phoenix asks. “Hm.” Maya holds her hands up, palms facing each other, and a purple glow begins to form around them. Then she claps them together and the light vanishes, her eyes glinting red for a moment in the sterile light of his kitchen. “I’ll ask Sis for help, first.” It has started to rain when they leave Phoenix’s apartment. Biking in this weather is unfortunate enough, but Maya insists on balancing herself on the handlebars, right in Phoenix’s line of sight, and this would be the most embarrassing way for Phoenix to die after everything he has been through. They are both soaked through to the skin but only fell once by the time they arrive at the office. The lights are already on and the heat is blasting a literal warm welcome. “Hey, Sis!” Maya calls into the silence. No answer comes forth, of course, but the smile on Maya’s face is one that shows her to be more at ease than in a long time. “I could use some help! Nick’s trying to steal a kid.” “I’m trying to help her,” Phoenix objects. “Honestly, Maya.” “Yeah, yeah.” Maya twirls through the office and her hair doesn’t move like it is heavy with water, or even like it has the weight of that much hair. She stops at the shelves of law books that Phoenix has meant to read for two and a half years and never did, running her fingers down the spines but not stopping at any of them and proceeding on to the binders and file folders full of Mia’s case references and research materials that Phoenix hasn’t known how to sort and get rid of. “Somewhere here,” she mutters, “maybe there’s something.” Phoenix gives her a moment to offer one before he asks for an explanation. “After our mother left,” she says, “Sis at some point moved some of the royal records out of the Twilight Realm. I think she was worried about our aunt getting her hands on them.” The pages turn without Maya touching them. Her bangs and the hair framing her face sway as though there is a gentle wind to tousle them. “But… nope.” She stops on a page and squints down at it, only to resume flipping a few seconds later. “This Magnifi of yours, his true name – it wasn’t just taken, but erased. There’s not even an echo for me to work from.” The binder slams shut and is tossed over her shoulder without her moving her hand. “If these witches were well-enough known, how did people usually find them?” “They didn’t,” Phoenix says. “Anyone who went looking for them, they would eventually appear to.” “Huh,” Maya says. “Well, we’ve got two options, now!” Phoenix is already bracing himself to hear them. “We can go out and wander until I find us a likely trail, or you can put up some – uh, wanted posters.” “Wanted? For the Old West, maybe, but—” “Then, a ‘lost kid’ kinda thing. You do that, right? With the description, and the phone number, and the reward money.” “That’s for pets.” “It could be for kids. Don’t let your narrow-minded cultural assumptions box you in.” “Ah.” Sometimes, Phoenix has no idea what the hell she is talking about. “If we’ve got to make a grid search of the city, we’d better get started.” Maya hops up onto the couch and pushes the curtains aside to look out at the rain. “Maya, do you know how big Los Angeles is?” She looks back at him with her head cocked. “No,” she says. “How big?” Again they set out, on foot this time. “We’re helping her by stealing her,” Maya says, jumping squarely into a puddle and splashing muddy streetwater up Phoenix’s jeans. “It’s not either-or.” She tilts her head back, face to the clouds that are darkening from gray to black as night falls. “I bet Sis can save her, like she did you.”

Streetlamps flicker as they pass, and in those brief spurts of shadow, Maya’s shape flickers too.

She leads him down streets he didn’t know existed, past storefronts that look long-abandoned, with neon signs still glowing in the windows but not the puddles they should be reflected in. “You definitely were enchanted, by the way,” she adds. “I can still see the residue.”

“It’s been a week,” Phoenix says.

“Well, double-layered enchantments are harder to shake off and take longer to fade.” She shakes her head. “You were doomed as soon as you took that paper, without anyone to help you. You’re only human, after all.”

“Yeah,” he says. “Yeah, I know.” A cheap, sad ball bounced back and forth between players of a game whose rules he doesn’t understand, then as in now, a pawn dragged to the other side of the board to be crowned a knight and turned back again.

“What did you say this coven called themselves, again?” Maya asks, when they’ve been out for a little more than an hour, Phoenix soaked through to the bone, Maya having given up the illusion that weather affects her the way it does mere mortals. Her skin does not shine wet in the light. Her hair still flutters like a ribbon with the breeze of passing cars.

“Gramarye.”

“The name itself might be an invocation,” she says.

“What, like ‘Bloody Mary’ three times in the mirror and she’ll--”

Maya squints at him. “I don’t know anyone who uses that moniker,” she says, very seriously. “Is that a meme?”

Phoenix regrets teaching her about memes, for many more reasons than this, but also specifically for this. “The -- the belief is that you say her name three times and she’ll appear behind you in the mirror.” He turns to his reflection, staring back at him out of the dark window of a closed-down ramen shop. “Gramarye,” he says firmly, despite feeling a little silly, and doubting that the reflection is even necessary. “Gramarye, Gramarye.”

“That’s not a mirror,” Maya says.

“I don’t wear makeup so I’m not going to just have one in my pocket--” Something flashes in the storefront window and Phoenix glances back. Something is glowing, a small pink light, and he figures that some neon sign in the shop has sputtered back to life until it moves, flitting about like a moth thumping up against a lamp. He looks back over his shoulder. There, down at the end of the block, the light is dancing up above the street. “Maya, look,” he says, nudging her, not even sure why he’s pointing it out but compelled to. “What’s that? We should go look—”

“Nope!” She grabs his arm and yanks him back. He hadn’t realized he ha started walking, toward it, until she stopped him. “What’d we just talk about, Nick?”

“Bloody Mary? Or that I’m only human?” The light pulses, brighter and softer, but never too bright that the glare is jarring in the dark and the rain.

“Yes! That without me you walk right into enchantments!”

“An enchantment?” He looks again at the light, really looks, but nothing about its shape or color changes and he takes another step forward. The edges of his vision are blurry, like he is staring through a sheet of falling water, and he should be able to see something—

He didn’t see anything suspicious about the diary page, either. Glancing over at Maya, his stomach momentarily turns over at the sight of the pale claws on his arm. “It’s trying to lead you astray,” she says, and even when she isn’t grinning, her full shark’s mouth of several rows of teeth is made visible, and she tugs at his arm again. “Back this way.”

The light bobs back and forth, sashaying forward as Phoenix moves away from it. “A will o’ the wisp?” he asks.

Maya nods. “A distraction,” she says, very seriously. “This is all very clever, actually.” One hand still closed around his upper arm -- he blinks and wills her claws to look like stubby nails and blunt fingertips again -- she pulls him back toward the storefront. “The doorway appears where there is a need, then the wisp distracts for the witch to step forth and seem to have just appeared from nowhere.” She reaches forward, touching a finger to the glass, and it wobbles and ripples like water, opening wider and wider a circle big enough to step through. “Because you can’t just teleport like that. There always has to be a door, but it adds to the illusion if it doesn’t look like there’s one.” Stepping to the side, she waves to usher Phoenix in first. He can see a stained wooden stairs descending, before they are swallowed up entirely by darkness. “Age before beauty!”

Even in the most human of her grins, he is reminded what she is.

Beneath his feet, the steps creak at every movement, the walls closing tighter and tighter as he descends, brushing against both of his shoulders at the same time. He fumbles forward, one hand stretched out groping blindly for an exit or a wall. Maya is prodding him in the back as they go -- “C’mon, Nick, you’re so slow!”

“I can’t see,” he protests, right as he walks straight into something solid, the impact of his hand against it jarring his entire body. “Ah.”

Maya’s hand brushes past his ear to reach over and tap the wall. With a loud scraping sound, a thin crack of light slowly spreads wider and wider, shifting aside to reveal the interior of a gaudy gilded room. It isn’t the decrepit shack he expected, no rats or exposed wires or broken furniture, but it still disgusts what slight aesthetic sense he has. Everything is gold, or red, or black, a collection of clashing decorative styles, Victorian-looking couches with abstract modernist tables and shelves, and a few implements that look like something from a circus, strange boxes and colorful flags and hula hoops.

Stage magic. Phoenix snorts.

Sitting on the couch, a blue plastic bowl in her hands, a spoonful of mac-and-cheese on its way to her mouth, is Zak’s daughter. “Oh!” she says brightly, through a mouthful of noodles. “Hi, Mr Lawyer! If I had known it was you I wouldn’t have let Mr Hat lead you away.”

Mr Hat? Phoenix mouths it at Maya, even though reasonably there is no way she will know what that means. She shrugs. “Hi Trucy,” he says, looking around for a place to sit and deciding he doesn’t trust anything in this place. “Your daddy hasn’t come back, has he?”

Her face falls. “No,” she says. “He hasn’t. But he told me I could trust you, Mr Lawyer!”

Why, Phoenix so desperately wants to ask, but he is trying to keep that trust and that question will not do him any good. “I did some digging to find out if you have any other family,” he says, trying to keep eye contact with her while also watching where he puts his feet. “And it didn’t seem like it, so I wondered if you wanted to stay with me for a little while -- until your daddy comes back.”

She nearly overturns her bowl trying to set it down. “So if I stay with you,” she says, “does that mean we’ll be family?”

“I, uh… I guess so?”

Maya is laughing quietly as she circles the room, plucking up the decorations on the mantles and setting them back down. “Who is she?” Trucy asks. “Will she be my new mommy?”

“Er -- no. No, no.”

Trucy’s face falls. “Oh,” she says. “Since my mommy disappeared years ago, I thought I might get a new one now too.”

“No,” Phoenix says, “she’s just -- a friend.” Sort of. As much as human and fae can ever be friends, without the tangle of deals and magic and curses that always litter those relationships. He’s heard of romantic couplings of fae and human -- ones genuinely built on love, he means -- but that was not his experience and he has no intention of repeating anything close to that situation.

“I’m Maya,” she says. “Nick and I have known each other for a few years now. You can trust him.” She grins. Trucy hasn’t recoiled from horror from her; it doesn’t appear that she has the Sight, and another quick glance over her confirms that. Phoenix hadn’t paid attention to that last time, distracted as he was by everything else that was going on, with her, and in general. Now he can see that her eyes don’t change, but marked around them is a teal glow, in the shape of a diamond, over each of her eyes like a variation on a domino mask. He can’t quite tell what it means; curses are always easier to read, a red slash across the throat only really meaning one thing.

In the meantime, until he can ask Maya out-of-earshot, he decides he should stop staring and instead deal directly with the situation he has invited upon himself. “Oh, Trucy? You don’t have to call me ‘Mr Wright’ or ‘Mr Lawyer’ or anything. You can just call me Nick if you want.” He scratches his head, as the depth of this is beginning to weigh on him. “Or even ‘Daddy’ someday, but not now if you don’t want to--”

“Okay, Daddy!”

Oh. Okay.

“I have to get my stuff, if I’m going to be living with you,” Trucy says. “I’ll be right back!”

She springs to her feet and runs off into the next room. Phoenix moves to follow her, not sure if this place won’t swallow them both up, never to be spat back out into the world. “It’s truth, if you’re wondering,” Maya says, opening an ancient-looking wooden cupboard and rifling around in it. “The blessing on her,” she adds, emerging with a pack of microwave mac-and-cheese that for some reason was stashed there, and tearing open the pack of cheese powder and shaking it into her mouth. “It probably doesn’t look quite the same as Pearly gave you, but I wouldn’t recommend lying to her.”

“I see,” he says.

“No, you didn’t See. You were wondering.” She grins again, and she swallows the package of pasta, plastic and all. Once she told him that she can unhinge her jaw like a snake to swallow anything as big as her head; he wishes that she could lie. He wishes that her sense of humor could extend beyond literalism into exaggerated falseholds.

He steps into the hall that Trucy disappeared down, just far enough to see her running from room to room, with the clattering of objects upended and tossed aside. “Do you need help carrying things?” he calls.

Trucy sticks her head back into the hall, beaming. “Nope!” she says proudly. “I have this!” She waves at him a huge pair of frilly pink bloomers, and part of him -- most of him -- does not want to ask, but he also does not want to trek back into this hideout when he finds out she didn’t bring any of her clothes. “My magic panties are better than any suitcase!”

“Can you… elaborate?”

She reaches in through the top of the bloomers and pulls forth a pink cape. “Oh,” he says, but she drops the cape in a heap on the floor and reaches again to bring out a t-shirt. “Okay, I see. Thank you.”

Maya has wandered into the kitchen area and is continuing to devour everything she can find in the cabinets. Phoenix decides against asking her to leave him some of it to bring home for him and Trucy now. “This really isn’t a liminal space, is it?” Phoenix asks. He would be able to see if it were, the way magic hangs in the very air in his office, the way Mia herself and the last traces of her life linger.

Maya shakes her head and sinks her teeth into three donuts stacked together like a hamburger. “Hidden by magic, but no closer to the Twilight Realm than anywhere else. She’d have at least a bit of the Sight if it were.” She leans up against the wall, watching Phoenix with eyes that glamour doesn��t quite have a hold over, flickering as they do to red. “But even then, she might still be too young to know to be afraid.”

#fic: the seelie of kurain #fae au tag #ace attorney bullshit tag #roddy fanfics #NEXT UP: we learn a little more about phoenix's travesty of a life #and about his deep and abiding emotional issues. and a little about curses. and those things might all be connected.#honestly this chapter is p. dull compared to the next one. next chapter has some stuff i REALLY enjoyed writing.#1/1/2019: the middle chunk had been retconned and rewritten

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sanctferum · 6 years ago

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Steven Universe – Reunited reactions

Time for the final episode of this Stevenbomb, and it looks like it’s gonna be quite the episode…

Huh, this title screen is different…

Wow, we’re starting off with a song from Steven!

A melancholy song about Rose…but soon enough Steven stops brooding and pops out of his bathroom into the rest of his house, where Pearl and Amethyst, both in suits (and with Amethyst’s hair all fancied up unlike how it usually is) are filling a box with roses. A wedding flower! But maybe not the best flower to use at this particular wedding, methinks.

Greg, also in a suit, has no roses. He has a stack of pancakes with syrup and butter. I think that’s butter. I hope that’s butter. But I will say, my first thought was not that it was butter, but popcorn. Together Breakfast has obviously left deep scars on my psyche.

Steven anoints the top of the pancake pile – which is technically, I suppose, a wedding cake – with two little figures of Ruby and Sapphire.

Steven is taking his mind off of the whole Rose thing by having wedding fun. (Amethyst looks somewhat confused at him dancing and singing all over. C’mon, you’ve lived with Steven almost his life, you should know how he is with musical numbers.)

Pearl still has her top hat from Mr. Greg!

“How can we move on…?” Pearl asks. Maybe the top hat is reminding her of “It’s Over Isn’t It”?

Good on Steven for choosing to think positively! And it sounds like he genuinely is into it, not just repressing his emotions or anything.

Bismuth is not wearing a suit. Or rather, she is wearing a suit…of armor. Nice.

Amethyst was in charge of getting the flowers. And she’s just now thinking about the implication of picking Roses. I mean, roses. Lowercase r.

Anyways, Peridot’s gathering flowers, so I’m fully expecting her to come back with an armful of flowers, but they’re all roses.

PERIDOT IN A DRESS

She’s standing in front of a huge hole in the ground…almost certainly where the barn used to be. Yeah, no Lapis at this wedding. Then again, Lapis doesn’t get along with most of the Crystal Gems, due to them having owned the mirror she was trapped in for several thousand years.

On the other hand, this IS an episode called “Reunited”. I mentioned some possibilities before for who’s reuniting – Sapphire with Ruby to become Garnet, Garnet with the CGs, Garnet with Bismuth, Lars with Sadie (and the off colors would be there too), and Steven/”Pink Diamond” with the Diamonds as a not-so-pleasant reunion that could happen. But it’s totally possible Lapis could return as well.

“Sooner or later the Diamonds are gonna come for the Cluster…” That IS an inevitability. And judging by some shots from the Heart of the Crystal Gems trailer, I’m guessing the answer is “sooner”…

There’s a shot of Lapis sitting on the barn. Which looks to still be in that moon crater. I dunno if Lapis returned to the moon, or if this is a flashback kinda shot.

Stevens’s song has been a pretty decent summary of recent events, huh.

Steven dances Peridot over to the warp pad as he sings, returning himself to the house. The Crystal Gems, including Bismuth (but not including Ruby and Sapphire, who I’m guessing are outside) are there, and they and Greg have been joined by Connie (who hasn’t met Bismuth before, but I suppose she knows who Bismuth is, or at the very least knows what she looks like due to the fusion hallucinations in Mindful Education)

Outside, Sapphire is in a suit, and standing underneath the wedding tent thingy, while the townspeople all sit in the chairs in front. The Pizzas (and Dewey’s former bodyguards, who prolly work for Nanefua now?), The Frymans, The Maheswarans, Uncle Andy, Yellowtail and his family, the Deweys, Jamie, the Millers, Mr. Smiley…no sign of Ruby, yet, but she’ll be along soon, I’m sure.

Andy looks somewhat worried, and I’m guessing that’s because there’s a big pink magical lion sitting on the ground near his chair and generally speaking, lions sitting near your chair is not a good situation. (Lion, on the other hand, is, as a cat would be expected to, doing his best “I don’t give a fuck” impression.)

Another cute instrumental of “Made of Love”. This episode only gets better and better.

Peridot accidentally hits Mr. Fryman in the face with a flower so hard he falls out of his chair.

“All flowers have been deployed, commander!” I love Peridot so much guys

With the instrumental Made of Love being played by Greg on his guitar, the other bride makes her appearance.

Ruby is in a dress, and she looks really cute! I bet Sapphire thinks so too.

Ruby’s excitement causes her footsteps to leave burn marks on the house’s steps as she descends, and as she rushes past the guests in a ball of fire, she turns the sand underneath her to glass.

It begins!

D’aww, Cat Steven is sleeping on top of Lion’s mane!

Is Pumpkin one of the bridesmaids?! That’s amazing. 10/10

GFDI THE ONION JOKE

5,750 years and 8 months, huh. Well, it’s interesting to have a specific number of years since Garnet was formed (as opposed to a general “The War took place 6000 years or so ago”)

I’d say “get a room you two”, but if a wedding isn’t a place for public flirting, what is?

“The power vested in me by the state of Delmarva” Steven confirmed for ordained public official?

A full on lesbian kiss on the lips? On MY children’s cartoon show? It’s more likely than we ever dared think.

She’s back, baby! Garnet is back! I can’t tell if she has a new design or not, due to the wedding dress covering most of her body. (I’m assuming the wedding dress isn’t a permanent part of her design, haha)

While Greg takes a break from his guitar, DJ Sour Cream has us covered. Time to hit the dance floor!

Yeah, that bouquet isn’t coming down from the atmosphere for a long time, sorry guys.

Jamie apparently still has somewhat of a crush on Garnet, but now that he’s seen fusion firsthand he’s gotta understand why it wouldn’t work.

Dewey’s also still a bit depressed about not being Mayor Dewey, I suppose. Poor guy, standing there watching his former bodyguards dance with Nanefua.

Awww, Dewey and Jamie are bonding over their sorrows.

Are they gonna dance together? Nice.

Bismuth, meet Ronaldo. This can only end well.

Oh, the bouqet finally fell down, onto an unsuspecting Bismuth. (Amethyst proceeds to laugh her ass off. Not literally. It sure says something about Amethyst that I have to clarify that.)

Steven’s crying tears of joy. Well, no more tears now. Only happiness.

…The tears don’t stop, no matter how hard Steven tries to dry them up. That’s weird. And probably not good at all. I do remember the last time Steven cried uncontrollably, from emotions that weren’t his own. Ruh-roh…Peridot was right, it looks like. There’s only one explanation for this, and it is one of my guesses about what “Reunited” meant. Blue Diamond must be heading to Earth to see why the Cluster hasn’t hatched.

Garnet’s future vision shows her something bad…

“She’s here?!” “And she’s not alone.” Oh boy. It sounds like Yellow Diamond is ALSO heading to Earth. Fuck. This is really bad.

Suddenly, everything starts to darken. Onion points up the sky, at some suspicious looking clouds.

And the clouds part to reveal two arms. Or, two arm-shaped ships. One yellow, one blue. This is the very definition of bad. Goddamn Diamond party poopers.

Guests flee in panic, as Steven tells Nanefua to activate her emergency contingencies. Time to evacuate!

Peridot is momentarily distracted by her panicking from the ships flying overhead, missing the group altogether. Uh…

Oh. That explains. They aren’t here to fight the Crystal Gems at all, OR to retrieve Steven. They want something else…the Cluster.

Oh god. Bismuth doesn’t know what the Cluster is. Someone really needs to explain to her just what happened to all her friends. I mean, as far as I can tell, she seemed to figure out the corruption stuff on her own just from observing Biggs, but…

Steven can’t mentally connect to the cluster unless he’s asleep. So he tries to go to sleep, while the very world is shaking and dread is consuming everyone. Yeah, good luck with that kiddo.

Greg plays a few notes on his guitar and Steven just fucking. Passes out. OK then. But he soon wakes up, in terror, as the cluster’s bubble pops.

He and everyone rush outside, as the cluster starts to form, a million arms reaching out of the Earth at once, melding and fusing together…to form a giant hand, muscle and sinew and no skin and oh god what’s gonna happen now

The hand tightens into a fist, and…

Oh god. Ronaldo tries to attack it while dual-wielding katanas. But thankfully, Peedee pulls him away before he can catch its attention. You do NOT wanna fuck with this thing, Bloodstone.

But, while the Cluster hatching might spell Earth’s end, it doesn’t mean the Diamonds get their hands on a superweapon either. Because the cluster is made up entirely of shards from Crystal Gems, those who fought the Diamonds. And as such, the first thing the hand of the Cluster does is punch Yellow’s ship, which flies back in a clutter, straight towards Beach City. Thankfully, it lands out at sea, instead of on the town itself. The ship is tough enough that it still works fine…as such, it rises up out of the ocean to face the Cluster. The hand of the Cluster stretches up, over the Gem Temple, and for a moment it hovers there, as if about to crush the Crystal Gems and friends like a gnat.

And then, it gives those below a thumbs up.

The Cluster does not want to destroy the planet its components gave their lives to protect. And with that in the forefront of every shard’s broken mind, it’s able to prevent itself from fully forming. And the part of it that HAS formed, recognizes and wants to protect Steven and friends.

Suddenly, the tide may have turned.

As Steven gives a thumbs up back, the Cluster attacks Yellow’s ship again, and vice versa, the two of them wrestling each other to the surface of the planet. As the Cluster starts to overpower the arm ship, Blue’s own arm ship arrives to reinforce her sister. And then turns around, looking like it’s gonna ram the Temple.

The hand of the ship slams down onto the beach, and as it raises back up, it leaves Blue Diamond standing there in its wake. Of all the people to crash Garnet’s wedding, Blue Diamond is probably the worst person or gem to do so, huh.

Greg offers to parley with Blue, but everyone instantly shoots him down. Probably best he doesn’t get locked back up in the zoo, huh.

As Greg retreats into the house, Blue makes her approach. Yellow wants the Cluster. Blue wants revenge. Time for her to learn the truth about Pink, then?

“This is PINK’s world! How DARE you use it as your hiding place!” Yeah. About that…

Peridot freaks out, Connie draws Rose’s sword, and Steven is frozen in fear.

And Bismuth? Bismuth immediately shapeshifts her hand into a hammer and leads Garnet, Pearl, and Amethyst out into battle like a hardened general.

“C’mon, you rocks! Let’s put her in a bubble!”

The Crewniverse once said that a Diamond can’t be poofed. But judging by A Single Pale Rose, it’s not so impossible after all. Theoretically.

Steven makes up his mind. He tells the Crystal Gems to stay behind, and walks out to confront Blue alone, intent on telling her the truth of Pink and Rose’s conflict, and therefore hopefully removing her reason to want revenge.

Blue, of course, doesn’t believe a word he says. So much for that plan, Steebs.

Blue sends a blast of energy at Steven, and he flies back, only for a newly formed Alexandrite to catch him. Steven tries to stop Alexandrite, but both the Gems and Blue are intent on ending one another. Blue’s emotions spiral out of control and she clenches her first as sorrow and anguish wash over her, her aura projecting out from her on all sides, unfusing Alexandrite and basically forcing everyone into a fetal position.

Interestingly enough, said aura only seems to affect gems. And in Steven’s case, half-gem. Bismuth and Peridot collapse, while Connie freaks out at what’s going on but isn’t otherwise affected. As she’s the only one standing, she figures she’s the only one who can do something, and whistles for Lion. Lion jumps through the air, and Connie pushes off his back, in an attempt to slash the sword into Blue’s face.

Without even looking, Blue catches the entire sword in between two of her fingers. Yeah, there’s no way that was gonna work.

Blue recognizes Connie’s sword. Uh-oh.

“This…THIS IS THE SWORD THAT SHATTERED HER!”

And with the rage of a thousand suns, she returns the favor and shatters Rose’s sword into a million pieces, sending Connie tumbling down below. Lion manages to catch her. Oh, damn. Well, I guess it’s a good thing the Gems and Connie now have a professional blacksmith gem with her own forge to make a new one, and maybe it can specifically be for Connie instead of being a hand-me-down?

As Blue prepares to destroy them all, as the cluster struggles to hold back Yellow’s ship in the background…Garnet manages to stand up and she stands before her former Diamond. Blue of course doesn’t recognize her at all.

“I am the will of two gems to care for each other, to protect each other from any threat, no matter how vast or how cruel. You couldn’t stop me 5,750 years ago, and you can’t stop me now.”

And then, Blue recognizes Garnet. A Ruby and a Sapphire, who broke the rules exactly 5,750 years ago, in Blue’s very own presence.

Blue scoffs at Garnet’s attempts to harm her, but Garnet grins and reveals that she wasn’t trying to seriously hurt Blue. Just to distract her.

A look of confusion appears on Blue’s face. And then a drop of water hits her head. And another one. And a third one. Blue and Steven look up at the sky.

There’s a giant water bubble hanging over Blue’s head. And inside of it, a barn. And next to the barn, silhouetted against the moon, is Lapis Lazuli. FUCK. YES.

SHE’S SMILING! SHE’S FOUND THE STRENGTH TO FIGHT BACK AGAINST THE DIAMONDS! TO PROTECT THOSE SHE CARES FOR! THIS IS THE BEST!

The only way for this episode to get any better is if Lars and crew reach Earth and help the Cluster fight Yellow’s ship.

One barn to the face, coming right up! Press F for Peridot’s meep morps. Oh well.

Blue is nowhere to be seen. I kinda doubt that poofed her, but it at least gave us a moment’s reprieve.

CRYSTAL GEM LAPIS!

Blue is down but not out, and within the next few moments, she burst out from under the barn, destroying what remains of it in the process.

Oh shit. She recognizes Lapis. Lapis WAS part of her court back during the War, so that makes sense, huh.

Aura time again!

The Gems all collapse again, except Lapis. I think I might know why, too. Lapis has dealt with too much of her own anguish, sorrow, and self-hatred to be brought low by someone else’s.

“I’ve felt…worse.” FUCK YES

And at last, Lapis has realized that being on a planet that is 70% water makes her practically a god.

Everyone draws their weapons. Say, though. Now that she’s imprisoned with water chains, maybe’s a good time to talk to her and tell her Pink’s truth.

Oh, there go the chains again. Bombardment time!

Wow, Steven’s shield powers have improved so much, he can hold off a Diamond’s energy bombardment.

Oh right. Peridot doesn’t have a weapon, either from her gem or a Bismuth weapon. Well, she’s trying to be helpful, but soda cans aren’t gonna do more than distract her for a second. Bismuth picks up Peridot and throws her straight into Blue’s face. Distraction it is, I suppose. (If Blue swats Peridot off and she gets poofed, she’ll totally come back by the end of the episode with a crystal gem design, right? There’s no way she’d get poofed and not come back with a big ol’ star shape. Also a shirt that says “take this, Diamond clod!”)

Blue successfully deflects every attack sent her way, raises up her arms to protect her face from Lion’s sonic roars, and…fails to lower them in time, as Steven hits her with a spike-covered bubble straight in the chest. Round 3 (or is it 4?) goes to Steebs!

Meanwhile, The Cluster’s grip is starting to cause parts of Yellow’s ship to explode. Yellow’s ship goes flying. Lapis scoops up Steven and carries him away in the knick of time, but Blue isn’t so lucky. Her ship smashes onto her, and keeps going, skidding into the cliffside, taking a large portion of Steven’s house and The Temple with it.

Oh, right. Greg’s still in there.

And now Greg is out here, clutching Cat Steven to his chest as he staggers out of the ruins of the house.

The Cluster gives Steven another thumbs up, then withdraws back into the Earth before it can lose control of itself, where it presumably re-bubbles itself.

Yeah, nice after-wedding party you had their, Garnet.

Whether or not Blue is actually poofed, it isn’t over yet. There’s one more Diamond here. And Yellow isn’t interested in a long-drawn out revenge like Blue is. She just wants it to be over and done with. I doubt she’d want to hear anything Steven has to say, even less than Blue. She just wants “Rose” dead and shattered, the planet destroyed, and the whole mess put out of sight and out of mind forever.

She breaks out of her ship to confront Steven and co. But first, she jumps down over to Blue’s ship and lifts it up, so that Blue (who has not in fact been poofed) can crawl out from underneath.

“Ha! I told her off once. I can do it again.” Hey, remember what happened to both Zircons? Time for Poofidot. Can’t wait to see her new design…

And there she goes.

I wonder if Yellow really didn’t remember Peridot? Maybe it’s cause she has no limb enhancers? Or maybe she just didn’t give a fuck after the initial shock of an underling calling her a clod wore off?

Steven quickly rushes forward to protect Peridot’s gem, and Yellow notices him. And she charges, intent on the kill.

Steven’s shield momentarily deflects her. Then she stomps down on it, hard.

The next moment, Steven opens his eyes to see Connie screaming over him. She sounds distorted. And the background is…weird. Did Yellow manage to poof Steven? If so, she’ll see what his gem looks like, right? And that will solve that.

Steven gets up, leaving an after-image of him behind. I guess even though he poofed, his body is still there because he’s only half-gem? Uh, maybe?

Steven looks around to figure out where he is. Uh…that looks like…Connie’s head…?

Oh, it’s everyone, frozen in a moment in time, while images of them as they are right now – fighting – are also visible…? And the fight isn’t going well. Peridot’s poofed, and Lapis, undoubtably the most powerful gem currently fighting (by the oceanside no less!), soon suffers the same fate. (Crystal gem redesign for her too…?)

When Steven passes through Connie’s image, Connie is able to hear his voice. And Steven has a plan. When he touches Connie’s image, she can hear him, so…if everyone in the fight has an image, then…he needs to make his way to Blue and Yellow and touch their images and tell them what really happened.

He tells Connie to protect his body while he’s out, and jumps from gem to gem from there. He encourages Garnet to keep fighting for what she believes in, as she is Made of Love, tells Amethyst that he believes in her, and reminds Pearl that she isn’t just fighting for Rose or Steven, but also for herself. He tells Bismuth not to give up hope till the fight is over. And then…

Yellow and Blue…

Yellow believes that what happened to Pink, is her fault. She was the one who gave Pink a colony despite serious reservations. Her sister’s death hangs heavy around her head, in a way that she’s refused to outwardly show.

And Blue…Blue knows, deep in her gem, that executing Steven and destroying Earth is a pointless endeavor. It’s pointless, because no matter what she does or who she hurts, it will never bring Pink Diamond back. And everything that happens just makes her miss Pink more, just makes her suffer even deeper.

Their emotions are super strong. Strong enough that Steven can’t even approach their minds…

He dives in again to try and reach Blue’s mind, and succeeds briefly, before being flung back again. Blue’s eyes shoot open in shock, and she looks around, confused. Again, Steven tries, and again Blue feels a presence. A…familiar presence…

Steven also gets through to Yellow, who assumes it’s a trick, a trap. She points to where Steven is, and she and Blue attack. Steven instinctively tries to manifest his shield…and ends up unlocking his Diamond aura instead.

And with that, Steven can fight back. Not with violence, not even with words, but with love. The love two sisters had for their fallen sibling. The truth about that sibling. She’s still alive. She’s here. Right here, in front of them. Not even Yellow can deny that. Not anymore.

And then Steven wakes up.

And looking down on him are the Crystal Gems, Connie, and Greg. And behind them…Yellow Diamond. And...

Blue Diamond. With tears flowing from her eyes. Finally seeing the truth…

And with that, the episode ends. Possibly the season, too. I’m not sure.

Lars and the off-colors didn’t show up in the end, but still. That was an absolutely AMAZING episode.

Thank you so much, Rebecca Sugar and crewniverse. Thank you.

#Steven Universe #SU #Steven Universe spoilers #SU spoilers #Reunited #spoilers #Heart of the Crystal Gems

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sparda3g · 7 years ago

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The Seven Deadly Sins Chapter 265 Review

We were left off with a complete beat down, brought to you by Estarossa. After the Golden Week break, we returned with more beat down because that’s how he rolls. Previously, he insisted to be called “Meliodas.” This chapter answered a couple of questions though one still hanging. It was another chapter to showcase the power of Estarossa, now done in a larger scale.

The most interesting part is the flashback. It answered on what Estarossa meant when he claimed to be Meliodas. The flashback goes way back to the very moment of when Elizabeth asked him if he had a fight with his brother. It’s the same scene from last time, only this is shown in a spectator view. It explores Estarossa’s mind during the time he felt he was getting stronger, only to be crushed by that scene.

I’m curious if the dog in the flashback is meant to be important since he can’t recall its name. It plays off like it has some relevancy like we should expect a twist. Part of me feels that it could be Hawk since it somewhat suggested that he has been reincarnating through multiple animals. I can be wrong and maybe the dog is just a dog. Aside of that, it was that moment where he realized that he has always loved Elizabeth. I should mention that he did look like Meliodas a lot. I guess you can say he’s what if he doesn’t get love from Elizabeth version of Meliodas.

It also explores his relationship with Meliodas as he not only sees him as a role model but someone he wants to be. By that, I don’t mean like him; I mean literally him. Meliodas was so proud of him, though he was in his sinister period. He has that evil smile that you often see lately, which is kind of funny in my opinion, like it is copy-pasted. It was the hug scene with Elizabeth and Meliodas that most likely changed his way of living.

Great, Elizabeth is a trophy now. All I need now is her saying, “Yay, guys fighting over me!” In all seriousness, I’m not much of a fan of fighting over a woman or even man in a serious tone, especially when romance becomes overly prioritized. I just got back from watching Pearl Harbor, I don’t need a reminder. But we’ll see how it goes down. I think Holy War 2 just started.

Once the flashback ends, it goes back to the beat down galore. There is one question that is left unanswered and it’s perhaps the most crucial one out of all. Elizabeth now remembers Estarossa, but it doesn’t explain on why she couldn’t remember him or anything revolves with him in the first place. His amnesia concerning her was explained due to the Commandments, but if she hasn’t touched any, then why still. Maybe it has to do with the Commandment but indirectly, though I get the feeling it’s a different story completely.

Despite the explanation of his reason to be called Meliodas, he shows plenty of signs of his lunacy, so that remains true. His expressions are creepy but it helps to portray a convincing insanity. Throughout the chapter, his focus keeps on changing like he doesn’t know what he is or what was he doing. He has forgotten about Derieri until he sees her again and asks himself what he wanted to do, only to believe that he is truly Meliodas. The Commandments are clearly taking the effect and it is likely going to get worse if Nakaba decides to show what happens when one uses plenty or all.

The rest of the chapter shows how powerful Estarossa has become in a good old fashion of everyone’s attack being useless. It’s a bit strange how Guila is the only one to step up, while Howzer and others aren’t doing anything. It kind of feels out of character, probably because her reaction makes it seem like they have deep connection. I know it’s a Holy Knight’s duty, but what about other guys? After reading the chapter, I still don’t get it.

The rundown begins. Guila attacks Estarossa; it’s not effective. Diane uses Diamond Shield and King uses First Form Chastiefol on him; it didn’t work. I was confused on what just happened there when Derieri gets the spear instead, so it took me a while to get it. The shield was easily cut and slices Guila in the process. Maybe the idea is to injure Guila for some development later or perhaps just taken out of commission. The latter would be weak.

The Archangels that won’t stay dead Sariel and Tarmiel literally cut Estarossa into three parts; they get their own share afterward. Estarossa lost majority of the body before, so cutting him won’t do any good. I guess Grace is deemed useless already? I know they did it in the last chapter, but surely they can try it with a unique style. Diane and King were about to attack him, but Elizabeth stops them before they were highly suggested to be killed.

I know it’s a Shounen thing to do, but there has been plenty of one-sided battle within this series recently. It doesn’t help that Estarossa has made almost everyone look useless, nearly convinced me that it’s going to be a Demon and barely Goddess Clan exclusive only bouts; similar to Saiyan only in the last part of Dragon Ball. I get that Estarossa did consume the Commandments and I suppose that’s a hint of what’s to come, but power scaling really needs to be balanced. I know Holy Knights are doom to do nothing, but Sins should look strong when there’s no training time (I think).

It’s quite funny how Elizabeth was showing some cool features earlier, only to be taken hostage as I predicted. Well she did dress the part, now time to act the part. In all fairness, I wasn’t upset due to the fact she was the one that came forth and submitted to his desire. If continue, they will all die with her left standing. That saved me from rolling my eyes.

Plus, I admire her to care for Derieri and her protection. Unless she saw the only one possible route to win. Too soon? It’s sad since Derieri technically loses another companion; really sucks to be her. It would be interesting to see how she will fit in with others. Perhaps the only problem now is Meliodas will take notice of his brother taking his lover hostage. It looks like the old phrase, “Bros before,” I rather not finish it will have its own twist. I can’t say I’m thrilled.

For a chapter to showcase the beating and terrifying Estarossa, it does a pretty good job. After his loss against Escanor, the only way to renew his momentum is to give him a power-up as well as obtaining a sinister vibe. While it may have boost up his status, the fallen ones need help to renew their glory and hopefully, it won’t result to exclusivity to limited character selection. The art is pretty good at capturing the creep factor of Estarossa and the impact of everyone’s action leaving nothing on him. The cliffhanger is early to call a total damsel in distress, but I may be optimistic. Love hurts in more ways than one…

#the seven deadly sins #nanatsu no taizai #chapter 265 #review

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billyggruff · 7 years ago

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A couple things Star Vs does better than Steven Universe:

I like both shows, lets get that out of the way first. Both shows have really interesting worlds. They have lore that is deeper than you are first led to believe by it’s cute and happy appearance. They both are led by adorable characters who don’t really understand the gravity of what is going on around them until the first season finale. Both have a lovable cast of supporting characters (for the most part), with a few exceptions that you wish would get erased from canon entirely. However similar they are, Star Vs is the better show over all at the time of making this. Sure, this all comes down to preferences at the end of the day. I will watch both of them as they come out regardless which one I think is objectively better. However I think highlighting their differences will help show why SU is under-performing in comparison to Star Vs. *Two focal characters vs One focal character:* Here we start right off the bat with one of the major differences between Star vs and Steven Universe. Star has two focal characters driving its story forward, namely Star Butterfly and Marco Diaz. Meanwhile Steven Universe is told from the perspective of one focal character, Steven Quartz Universe. If you think this doesn’t make much of a difference, you would be wrong. Having two focal characters allows for there to be an equal give and take between them. Their personalities play off each other as their bond becomes stronger. Neither one of them is a passive participant in any given episodes. They are active characters with goals that drive them forward. You can tell they are friends who actually care about each other because of their actions. Having two focal characters allows you to also explore topics and story ideas that you cannot with just one. If we only saw things from Star’s perspective, we would never have seen Marco’s 16 year battle of wits with Heckapoo for example. Imagine for a moment that Steven Universe had Two focal characters instead of one. Lets say Connie and Steven. If we could see things from Connie’s perspective as well, it would open up story options that would still allow for them to conceal future plot points. We never really get to see Connie adjust to Steven’s world like Marco does with Star. Marco reacts to her powers, he is not used to handling situations with monsters and magic. What was it like when she first met Garnet? Pearl? Amethyst? What did she think of their strange powers? How did she react? Did she write about it in a journal? Did she doodle about them in her notebooks in class? We don’t know any of this because she isn’t a focal character. Her purpose and role in the story is to be a love interest for Steven, and not much else. She is side character in the story that can be absent for episodes at a time. We don’t know what her life is outside of Steven’s proverbial bubble. We don’t know who her schoolmates are. We don’t really know much of what her home life is even now. We don’t know if she’s even made more friends since she met Steven unless it’s in a musical number and a flashback. We won’t know any of this because she is not a focal character. She matters less than Steven in this story thanks to this. This is why Marco and Star’s relationship is so much more developed and nuanced. They share the story together and grow together as equals. We’ve seen their hobbies and interests change over time as they knew each other. They both change each others perspectives on what is important.

This is even more prevalent in the recent season, where Marco gave up living on earth to be with Star and Mewni. It was a believable move on his part born out of much character development. When he becomes Star’s Squire, it felt like a natural progression of their characters maturing. Star taking on her role of princess more seriously from her days of shirking responsibilities and following her own whims. Marco growing from an overly safe and cautious kid to a seasoned warrior who is ready to tap into his potential that he wouldn’t have been able to on Earth. Connie takes up a knight role for Steven too, but it has a decidedly different flavor to it. She wasn’t trained to be his equal, she was trained to believe that she was worth nothing compared to him and that she was to put her life on the line to keep him safe. Instead of this happening over many episodes, it was crammed into one and only alluded to afterwards. Yes, in that episode Steven fights against the idea that she isn’t as important as he is.

However that doesn’t change the fact that after that point, Connie’s training is barely ever touched upon beyond references in conversation. It’s because her character development doesn’t really matter. This change to her character was purely utilitarian to make their fusion more combat savvy. That is all. She is a power up for Steven, something he can use in a fight against a strong opponent. As much as they wish to claim they are equals, in the eyes of the narrative they aren’t.

*Passive vs Active participation in the Narrative:* Steven doesn’t actively move the plot forward. Star and Marco are active participants in their story. From the very start of Steven Universe to even in the most recent episodes, Steven is not the thing that drives the story forward despite being the focal character. Things happen to him. Things happen around him. Things he does passively sets things in motion later on, though not intentionally. Look back at even the earliest episodes of Steven Universe and ask yourself if Steven’s direct actions led to the over arching plot being moved forward. That plot being the mysteries of the Gem War and who shattered Pink Diamond. Sure he might spin his wheels for an episode with a time traveling doohickey, or trying to avoid taking Connie home on a snow day, or get plopped onto a rose cannon, but he is not really an active agent in moving the story forward.

He doesn’t ask questions for the longest time. He doesn’t explore his mothers or the gems past until SEASONS have passed. He doesn’t even actively train his abilities unless it happens to strike his fancy that episode. He tags along with the gems and he passively learns stuff along the way. He didn’t even know they were thousands of years old until a few episodes in, and he’d been living with them for years at that point. At most, he has reacted to things happening around him, but for the most part his driving factor in the plot, I.E the mystery of Rose Quartz and who killed Pink Diamond, is next to nil. Even now. You know why? Because he spun his wheels for six episodes moping about Connie while Lars was still in space making an interesting story happen off screen. Even more frustratingly, he asked not ONE thing about any of the revelations that were brought up in The Trial to the Crystal Gems. Not ONE peep about any of it. The trial might as well have not even happened because he had absolutely no intention of exploring any of it.

Star vs in contrast has been developing its overarching plot and narrative quite nicely. Star vs the forces of evil is a story about colonialism, systemic oppression, bigotry and classism. That isn’t me reading too much into it either, it is pretty blatant at this point that that is exactly what they are going for. When Star first appeared, fighting monsters was shown to be this happy and exciting activity. Marco and her would fight the monsters of the week led by Ludo and they didn’t bat an eye at what they were doing. They were the good guys, and Ludo was the bad guy. However even that early onto the series they started to lay the seeds of doubt with The Great Monster Massacre. Star glossed over the history of it because that is what she always did, however Marco was the outsider who saw the discrepancies of the story. As time has gone on in the series, Star’s opinion of her kingdoms stances on monsters has changed quite a bit the more she learned. She began to see that there was something fundamentally wrong with how Mewmans treated monsters and she’s even tried to make efforts to change it. Eclipsa was encased in Crystal for simply being married to a Monster and having a child with him, all the while a strikingly similar relationship created Star’s off and on again boyfriend Tom. Moon has even flat out said they only associate with some kingdoms because they were rich. Star learns all of this actively. She confronts it and tries to fix it, even though things like this can never be fixed with just a simple wave of a wand and a word of a single princess. They may even be building up to the idea that Mewni itself needs to be fought and reformed in order to make this right, which is a heavy subject for a show that seemed so simple at the outset. Yet none of this feels forced or unnatural. It was revealed and built up to gradually with active characters moving the plot forward. Steven Universe’s plot and mystery however flounders in circles for episodes and even seasons at a time. Since Steven is such a passive agent in this story, the only way things are revealed is by the plot literally happening to him. Characters have to scream out plot points while turning into a corrupted gem, or have to sit him in a literal court proceeding to reveal that it might not have been his mom who shattered pink diamond. Even then, he doesn’t follow up what he learned there in any meaningful way whatsoever. He’d rather spin his wheels helping the mayor and starting a band, grinding the pacing of the plot to a standstill. People decry the beach episodes and the Barn because they ultimately mean nothing. They are filler, and irrelevant to the mystery the story is supposed to be about. Lars in space right now has been a more active and dynamic character off screen than Steven has been for the entire run time of the series. That should not be the case. No focal character should be this passive.

There are more things that Star vs does better than SU, but these are the things I wanted to talk about in this post. As much as I like SU, Star is just an objectively better show.

#su critical #steven universe #star vs the forces of evil #steven quartz universe #connie #su connie #pearl #marco diaz #star butterfly #garnet #amythest #beach city #star vs

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ificouldbegin-to-be · 7 years ago

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Pink An Overcooked Runt/The Crystal Gem’s Deception

So the internet has been buzzing since we got these promos and one thing that's been talked about is of course this photo:

I was suspicious about this the moment I saw it but after some theorizing with a friend I realized quite a few things, one being the implausibility of the picture and another being....size differences. We'll start with the sizes and why Pink Diamond is an overcooked runt.

This is clearly a war flashback, falsely told by the Crystal Gems, and I'll get into how it's 'false' in a second. One thing that always seems to be accurate in any flashback however is size relations.

Blue Diamond in “The Answer”is clearly to size; the only reason she appears smaller here is because she’s sitting down.

“Sworn To The Sword” we see in the flashback, the size relations that the (Jasper?) Quartz soldier and Rose seem to be fairly accurate.

“Same Old World”, Bismuth is the right size in relation to Lapis.

There are obviously more flashbacks in the show but these came to the top of my head. Now this is just as a general estimate since we know the...models tend to fluctuate in the show, but these are the base sizes and in flashbacks, especially any relating to the war, they're accurate sizes. Even if the sizes are a little different as the show progressed they are still close to what we’re shown in flashbacks.

...So what does that say about this?

If we're meant to believe this is Pink Diamond she's...visibly perhaps only slightly bigger than Opal. Pearl should not be the length of half way up Pink Diamond's leg. She should be able to stand on her fingertip and fit in the palm of her hand.

With how sizes are done in the flashbacks, at most in this image we should be able to see...maybe nothing higher than Pink Diamond's torso while the rest of her is off screen because she's too tall. ....That is, if she was the size of the Diamonds. But she isn't.

She's an overcooked runt.

This could explain a few things. Anything that is not meant to fit within the Diamond's orders are to be purged. Maybe not all the Diamonds felt that way though. Yellow and Blue were preciously attached to her and likely all the more protective of her because she was smaller and younger. But who says all the Diamonds felt that way...?

Or perhaps Pink was accepted and loved as the way she was. She was a Diamond, they aren't 'flawed' in the eyes of the other Diamond's. Perhaps the Diamonds are the only ones that are permitted to be a little different since the authority are clearly a family. Whether it's sisters/lovers, they truly love each other so they still loved Pink, tiny and all. It could also explain why she only had one planet. Maybe even if she was alive for a while they were cautious with her because of her size.

Now, onto 'The Crystal Gem's Deception'

As I said, this picture didn't look legit to me at all, and I realized why I felt that way and why it looked fake. I don't mean the image is fake, I mean what the Crystal Gems are telling is.

The destablizers.

If that is supposed to be Pink Diamond and this is a war flashback then there are some elements that are being exaggerated/lied about.

Gem destablizers didn't exist then.

Not much is known about pre-war Homeworld but we have gotten some clues from Lapis in “The Message”

'Steven, Homeworld is not the way it used to be. Everything here is so advanced. I can't even understand it. There's no way anything on Earth can stand up to it.'

So clearly pre-war was a lot different and less advanced and the technology was probably more high tech to compensate for the fact they had a missing leader and probably to try and reach the technology level where they might be able to see if it was possible to revive Pink Diamond. Either way, it seemed pre-war Lapis had a more pioneer experience and gem destablizers are not something that look like they existed thousands of years ago. But here's the proof.

If we're really meant to believe that's Pink Diamond with the gem destablizers...then what was with the Crystal Gem's behavior—namely Garnet back in The Return?

Why would you literally run right into something if you know what it's capable of? The answer, she didn't. None of them did. If Pearl's scream of horror didn't clarify that, they had no idea what a gem destablizer was capable of. It's new. They never saw it before. Lapis and Peridot did however. They get frightened and back up because they know what it does.

And the Crystal Gems certainly didn't see it here.

So why is it in the flashback? Well flashbacks are always told in the Crystal Gem's perspective, and it's easy to include a weapon in it now that you know what it is. I mean, why would Pink use a gem destablizer? She's a Diamond with likely her own weapon and elemental powers. She didn't use destablizers. They didn't exist back then. The Crystal Gems made this part up.

I'm aware this could be a continuity error but I want to think it's deeper than that. The show is amazing at thinking ahead, like Peridot's list in “Are You My Dad”. Things seem to be planned straight from the beginning so I feel like this could connect.

Destablizers aside, the expression of Pink is so...exaggerated. It has that cartoony feel of “rawr I'm that bad guy, I'm gonna kill you for the hell of it” that's usually done when you're trying to exaggerate things as much as possible and make them seem as bad as you possibly can.

Now I'm not trying to demonize the Crystal Gems. They are rightfully biased against Homeworld. You can't blame them with the pain that planet put them through, but we've seen how they often demonize something that's more...innocent if it's from Homeworld. Take The Zoo for example.

Controversy aside, The Zoo in canon is meant to be a paradise. But we weren't told it that way. We were told it was a horrible place where Pink Diamond put 'her trophies'. They hyped it up so bad that poor Steven thought Greg would be doing tricks for peanuts. Whether the zoo is morally wrong or not, it's clearly meant to be a paradise for humans. It's meant to contradict what Pearl said it was, and that's how this show goes.

We're told one thing and made to believe that, until we learn the other side. It's all about turning our preconceived notions on its head. This is also why I think Pink is the kind one of the Diamonds because all we're ever told about her is that she’s a cruel tyrant. One that imprisoned humans.

Now...we're told things about the other Diamonds too. Peridot tells us that Yellow Diamond is “the most reasonable and rational”. She's...not really. Holly Blue tells us that Blue Diamond is “kind and merciful”. She's...not really. But no one tells us about Pink. Not even the Diamonds have gone into detail. We know literally nothing about her personality. We weren't told she was kind. We weren't told she was merciful. Not even Eyeball or Jasper tells us. We're just told she's...Pink, really.

The only ones that have told us who Pink is as a person are the Crystal Gems. So if weren't meant to believe that she's this awful, cruel tyrant.....then what are we going to learn differently? If this show is all about being told one thing and learning the total opposite, what does that say about Pink?

Hm...

#pink diamond #yellow diamond #blue diamond #white diamond #the return #su theory

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sanctferum · 7 years ago

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Steven Universe – A Single Pale Rose reactions

Oh boy, time for what is undoubtably a really really interesting episode…

We start with a few things we’ve heard. Ruby’s testimony regarding Rose shattering Pink Diamond, Blue Zircon’s questions about how Rose got close to Pink, that dream flashback thing from last episode of Pearl drawing her sword. Steven’s eyes fly open and he’s on his living room couch.

Enter Pearl and Amethyst, talking about Pearl’s phone. She’s had it for a month, and she’s used it merely as a clock.

Amethyst IS the kinda person who would literally say the word “sigh” instead of sighing, yeah. That checks out.

Amethyst changes Pearl’s wallpaper to a selfie of the purble herself. Classy.

Meanwhile, Steven is about to burst at the seams with questions for Pearl. Amethyst dismisses him when he tries to interrupt her. Pearl learns how to send text messages, and immediately sends one to Steven.

Amethyst suggests getting a case for the phone. Pearl pulls a briefcase out of her gem. That’s a bit big for a phone, Pearl.

Amethyst leaves to get an actual phone case, and Steven seizes his chance.

Wow. That was awfully blunt.

Pearl’s conditioning or whatever it is that prevents her from talking about that particular subject kicks in and her hands cover her mouth and her phone drops to the floor. Good going Steven.

“It’s OK, you can just tell me!” It’s pretty clear she physically cannot tell you, Steven.

Amethyst comes back with the phone case. With the change of topic Pearl takes the opportunity to grab her phone, put it in her gem, and skedaddle, leaving behind Steven. And Amethyst, who didn’t get to give her the phone case and is very confused.

Later on, Steven is out for a walk, finishing off The Bits over at Peedee’s repurposed mayormobile stand thing. His phone makes an incoming text sound.

Wait shit, I just had an idea. Pearl can’t talk about the truth behind PD’s shattering. Could she communicate it via texting? Is that what this is gonna be?

“I want to tell you, but I can’t.” With a monkey covering its mouth emoji at the end.

Steven runs back home to ask Pearl about it. But…Pearl hasn’t used her phone since she put it away.

SO THEN WHO SENT THE TEXT????

Pearl tries to grab her phone and check it for herself, but keeps pulling random other objects out of her gem instead. As she gets frustrated at being unable to retrieve the right thing from her gem, Steven gets another text from her phone. Another emoji. A rose petal? I’m no flower expert but that doesn’t look like a rose petal to me, so maybe not.

Pearl freaks out and tells Steven to go inside her gem and find her phone. Something weird is going on with it, and Pearl has an idea of what’s going on, but physically cannot tell Steven the details…

Inside of Pearl’s gem is…Pearl?

“There’s a Pearl inside Pearl’s pearl?” Apparently…?

The Pearl within the pearl attempts to file Steven with other objects.

Can I just appreciate that giant Pearl Point for a moment? You know, the stickers from Steven vs Amethyst, but Steven has presumably been shrunken down enough to fit in Pearl’s gem that it’s the size of his head.

And here are…a bunch of papers with phone numbers, including Mystery Girl’s. Some of them have hearts and lipstick smooches and etc on them. Besides “S”/Mystery Girl’s, there’s one from “RH”. One from “Yeva”, one with an indecipherable gmail address…no phone. Pearl switches to another segment of the filing system, where the cellphone should be. And indeed, there’s an empty space exactly where it should be. Wait, what?

“Some other me”? Is Pearl a matryoshka doll of mini-Pearls…?

After warning Steven about wherever it is these other Pearls are, Pearl sucks Steven into her gem. Now Steven is two layers deep into Pearl’s mind.

This area takes the form of the beach in front of the Temple, which noticeably lacks the house Greg built for Steven and the Gems.

“This doesn’t look like a mess. This looks like…the past.”

Right after Steven says that, he sees a third Pearl crying behind some rocks. And she looks different somehow.

Wait. Are all these Pearls…different regenerations? Which would make Pearl the current version, Pearl 2 the version that got poofed in Steven the Swordfighter, and Pearl 3 a Pearl from before the show began. I’m gonna have to check whether Pearl 2 has Pearl’s design from the original episodes…

OK, well in between that last sentence and this one, I had two doctor’s appointments as well as lunch. But I’m back! So, looking back on the episode so far…Pearl 2 has the same design as Pearl 1. Pearl 3’s design is definitely a Pearl from before the show began, though – I specifically recognize it as her design from “Story for Steven”.

So why is Pearl sobbing? It’s because of Rose, of course.

“What was she thinking?! She can’t have a baby…” Yeah, about that. Have you noticed you’re sitting next to Steven? As in, Rose quite definitely did make the decision to have a baby, and the boy next to you is the living proof that she did.

Yeah, this particular Pearl is from the past all right. After Rose’s decision, but before Steven’s birth. Those awkward nine months where it’s clear that Rose is perfectly fine for the time being, alive and well, and also clear that when those nine months end she is going to die, for good.

“I’m going to lose her. Just like I lost my…what was it you said?” Oh, nothing, Pearl 3. Cellphones haven’t even been invented yet from your frame of reference.

“I think I know where it is.” Is it…inside of your gem, by any chance? Being used by yet another of the matryoshka doll Pearls? Are we gonna have to go even deeper inside?

Where’s the Pearl with a Myspace titled “Welcome to my twisted mind”, I wonder?

Here we go!

Pearl 4’s environs are the Strawberry Battlefields. But strawberries won’t be growing there for thousands of years. This battlefield has just been recently decimated. It glows in a blood-red light, Bismuth’s abandoned weaponry and the remnants of the Diamonds’ army’s technology being all that is left.

No, that isn’t right, actually. There’s gems, too. Gems, lying everywhere. Whole gems, not shattered ones, but broken nevertheless – when they reform, it will be into the first corrupted gem monsters.

Pearl 4’s design is a new one. Well, OK, it was leaked a while back, along with stuff like Ruby and Sapphire’s wedding outfits, but in-show, I’m not sure we’ve ever seen it. We might have gotten a glimpse of it in Your Mother And Mine, possibly? That’s the only war flashback I can think of that hasn’t been shown in a stylized fashion.

“Is this really about your phone or what?!” Obviously not, Steven

Do WHAT, Pearl? Are you allowed to tell us yet, or do we need to talk to Pearl 5 to get the details?

Pearl 5 it is!

Those sure are flowers that look like the emoji sent from Pearl’s phone. And shards of what appear to be a pink gem. Is this…the moment immediately after PD was shattered?

And there’s Rose, or at least someone who has Rose’s appearance, in a cloud of pink dust, with PD’s death cry still echoing…

Rose? stands up, tears streaming down her face, as PD’s screams continue to echo. Steven approaches where she stands next to the palanquin, only to stop as Rose’s eyes open, revealing what are unmistakably Pearl’s pupils.

OK, so that seems to confirm that Pearl shattered PD, but…why is she crying? Why is she shapeshifted to be Rose? Does this mean the sword she used to shatter PD was part of the disguise, and as such didn’t have whatever adjustments Bismuth made to the real thing that prevented shattering? Was the sword a fake, is what I’m asking? Both the sword and Rose herself?

OK who is screaming? PD’s been dead for at least half a minute, this can’t still be her death cry…right?

“Rose” opens her hand to reveal…to reveal…

Pink Diamond’s gem. Huh?

Then…whose gem is on the ground? Pink Pearl’s, perhaps?

Steven begs for answers, but gets sucked into Rose/Pearl 5’s gem instead. Um. OK.

Pearl 6’s memory places Steven on PD’s throne, within the palanquin. Strange whispers echo off the walls Behind the throne, Rose and Pearl are talking.

“…And then it’ll be done. It’s going to be easy.” So…did Rose plan the assassination, and Pearl carried it out? But why not just have Rose do it herself?

And Pearl is clearly uncomfortable with the whole thing. Rose is pressuring her into it, in the belief that this will end it all, that Blue and Yellow care little enough about what happens on Pink’s colony that killing Pink will cause them to just give up the colony without a fight. Cut their losses and scram.

Well, that worked out great for you and your army, didn’t it, Rose.

“Your status…my purpose…none of it will matter anymore. This…will change everything.” “I know. Isn’t it exciting?!” “…It is.”

Sure, Pink might’ve been an awful brutal authoritarian brat who wouldn’t have cared a damn if the planet and its people died, but…there’s something unsettling about seeing Rose and Pearl get so hyped over a plan to kill someone.

“We can leave our old lives behind. If this is really my world, I want to give it to the Crystal Gems. I want to live here with human beings! I want to live here, with you! We’ll both finally be free…” But…you already are living here with human beings, Rose. And what do you mean, if this is really “your” world? It’s either Pink Diamond’s world, or everyone’s world. Why would it be yours, in particular? And aren’t you part of the Crystal Gems? Their leader, and founder, and…? This isn’t leading to some “Rose was Pink Diamond all along” kinda twist, is it? Cause that wouldn’t make sense, would it? I thought we already went over that particular fan theory with a fine-toothed comb.

“I can’t exactly shatter myself…” ??????

Rose shapeshifts into PD. Or…PD shapeshifts out of Rose? At this point, I…I don’t know.

Can…can she do that? Shapeshift her own gem? Huh?

That flower again…

She…changed the dirt into broken shards. The shards Steven found in the last memory.

“Wait…there’s one last thing I need to do. No one can ever find out we did this…I never wanna look back. So…for my last order to you as a Diamond…please…let’s never speak of this again. No one can know.”

I am so confused right now. My current thought process is something like this, though:

Pink did used to be a brat. But Earth changed her. Changed her, to the point where she wished to abandon the responsibility of her position. To the point where she fell in love with Earth and its people. Disenchanted with the gem empire and her fellow Diamonds and their plans to hollow out the planets they used as colonies until nothing but an empty shell was left, she staged an elaborate production, with both the heroine and villain played by herself. All to fake her own death and become able to live freely.

And if that’s true, the Rose Quartz who we all know and love never existed. The person who started the rebellion against Pink Diamond was…Pink Diamond. Pink Diamond, shapeshifted into the form of a Rose Quartz, creating what was essentially a façade that would stop Blue and Yellow from searching for her after she disappeared.

That’s why Pink Diamond never managed to track Rose down via last episode’s lunar base orb, in case that wasn’t clear.

And. If all this is true, Steven was right back in Your Mother and Mine. Pink Diamond, in a very real sense, is still out there, under a different name. The name “Steven Quartz Universe”.

Also, that explains how Rose’s sword could have been the “fatal” weapon. As a sword unable to shatter gems, it was the perfect weapon to use to “shatter” PD while actually leaving her gem intact. Not only does it now make sense for it to be the weapon, this revelation means that it HAD to be the weapon, due to being unable to actually shatter her.

Holy fucking shit. Of all the fan theories to turn out to be right…and even those fan theories didn’t go far enough to claim that both PD and “Rose” were the same person.

Oh, and um. Here’s Pearl’s phone. Thanks Pearl 6.

And now to go back! Pearl shapeshifts into Rose, takes the sword and leaves. “Rose” “shatters” Pink Diamond, keeping her intact gem hidden within her hand. Garnet and Pearl fight on the battlefield, as the sky suddenly lights up with the corruption blast. Pearl sadly places her hand on Rose’s pregnant belly. Pearl sits outside the temple crying as Amethyst and Garnet attempt to comfort her. All this happens in a blur, and then Steven lands on the floor of his house.

Steven and Pearl share a moment. A moment which doesn’t last very long at all. Because, well. Garnet and Amethyst are standing right there, and they just heard Steven say Rose was really Pink Diamond, and this can only end poorly.

The episode ends with a preview of the fallout. Amethyst freaks out, but in a similar way to the way I am freaking out. That is to say, she takes this a lot better than some others, namely Sapphire, who defuses from Ruby in an ice-cold rage that quickly melts into a puddle of betrayal and, tears streaming down her face from her one eye, makes for the warp pad and fucks the hell off, leaving Ruby behind.

Yeah, that’s right. The reason Garnet exists in the first place is Rose Quartz. It was an attack by Rose on Blue Diamond that lead to their first fusion, and Rose’s advice that lead them to decide to live the rest of their lives as Garnet. w e l p

And that’s that for this special, I guess? More SU episodes coming this summer.

I…suppose I need some more time to gather my thoughts before I can say anything on what just happened.

#Steven Universe #SU #Steven Universe spoilers #SU spoilers #A Single Pale Rose #spoilers #seriously there are fucking ginormous spoilers in this post

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