#SU Theory

[faelapis]

sometimes i worry that *i'm* wrong and SU is bad/rushed/blah blah. then i remember whites fragile need to be perfect and ego defense of thinking she's fixing things. i remember how its perfectly mirrored by stevens need to fix others. how its both beautifully symbolic in CYM an made more explicit and heart-rending in future.

yeah that shit rules. white being reformed is great. its the ultimate rebuttal to the ideology that only good/useful/perfect people deserve to live- which is exactly the standard white held herself and everyone else to. it mirrors stevens arc of selfless heroism. it mirrors the toxic, insecure selflessness thats plagued everyone from pearl to jasper to rose about what it means to "deserve" to live it ties into "love like you" of how learning self-love is intertwined with loving others. it ties into how steven can't let go of his hero role until he's confronted by *literally* having his own mind in white's body, hating the idea of being like her yet ironically reacting exactly how she would - "this is someone bad for society, they should be shattered, this is what's best for everyone." trying to hurt her only hurting him. trying to help her helping all of gemkind - from the corrupted gems to dismantling a system that was held up by those exact ideals.

yeah no SU is fantastic. i'm so sad that its reputation is "oh well it wasn't that good, but it had some lgbt+ rep :)" which is just about the most condescending crap ever. i would gladly flip it. i think most cartoons that have come after SU haven't been that interesting, they've just been mostly generic stories with some lgbt+ rep.

[thefreshprinceofjunes]

AND NOW FOR SOME META THATS NOT KH

i was looking through promotional art on the su wiki, and i came across the SDCC 2016 signing card

and i noticed that only four people in the pic have flowers

steven, greg, and pearl have roses, which of course represent rose quartz

while jasper has a hibiscus for some reason?

so i was thinking about why jasper would have that particular flower, esp when almost everyone else in the pic doesnt have one at all

and then i realized

... oh

2016 comic con, huh

[jewishdragon]

It just occurred to me that the reason the Crystal Gem rebellion was able to stand up to home world’s forces wasn’t because their leader was secretly pink diamond

The Crystal gems were insanely out numbered and out gunned.

But they were doing one thing home world was not.

They were FUSING.

“But homeworld gems fused! The rubies fused just fine!”

They fused DIFFERENT GEMS. It’s clear that fusing the same gem makes a gem as powerful as how ever many were fused. So a fusion of five rubies is as strong as five rubies. It’s bigger so that’s nice too.

But when you fuse two or more DIFFERENT gems you get a being more powerful than the sum of their parts.

[blueshity]

No fucking way that was on the SU Wiki all this time. I didn't even know that symbol existed! Rebecca, have boundaries please, it's a children's cartoon, we don't need to go that far

She just turned it upside down

Words translated from the image: Flammability, Health Hazards, Reactivity and Specific Hazards

And the best part, besides the name of the symbol also being diamond, is that what each color represents in the symbol has a bit to do with the corresponding colored diamond, at least I think I managed to find a parallel

Red: Informs about the risk of fire, which reminded me of how unstable and "explosive" Pink was, "catching fire" at times

Blue: Blue could cause damage to your health as she deals directly with your emotional state

Yellow: Yellow is not a very patient person and we can see that at the slightest sign of being contradicted, she goes into attack mode. A reactive person

White: Here I couldn't connect it very well to White, but in this part is the information about whether the substance is radioactive, corrosive and etc, so I think it would be the most dangerous part of the whole symbol, which matches the most dangerous Diamond of all

[badperidot]

I think its starting to dawn on me why Peridot ran into the wall like that in this scene. Before she could run UP the walls… perhaps thats what she was trying to do here? forgetting that she can no longer do it

[bostrichidae]

attention steven universe tumblr, i had a thought

took a shower and now my head is occupied with this concept.

so we know that pearls are personalized for one specific gem and they typically conform to that gem when they first form. this also applies to when they're rejuvenated (keep that in mind!). but i noticed something about the diamond's pearls.

notice the similarities in posing, appearance, and presentation, but most importantly, in gem placement.

this particularly drew my attention because. the diamonds' pearls are seemingly made to be very similar to their "owners". it only makes sense that this would apply to their gem placement as well.

this also applies to pink diamond and volleyball (og pink pearl) as seen below

they both have naval gems and upbeat personalities. but of course, volleyball became white diamond's pearl after that whole incident slash debacle slash problem slash whatever you like to call it. but.

did white diamond have a pearl previously?

and if so, what happened to her?

well,

what pearl with a white gem do we know very well? one with her pearl on her forehead? one who was given to pink after her original pearl was taken by white?

that's right.

the main pearl, the pearl we all know and love, was white diamond's pearl before volleyball.

just think about it for a second. we know that homeworld prefers to avoid wasting pearls, and well, rejuvenation and the reef exist for a reason. when volleyball was injured and could not be healed by any means, white diamond decided it would be best if she and pink traded pearls. white ensured that either due to rejuvenation or her mind control powers that pearl would not remember ever working under her as to ensure her loyalty to pink diamond.

but since she already existed, her gem placement could not be altered. and that is what really happened with the diamond pearls. yellow and blue pearl are just vibin this whole time tbh they're just watching this go down

to add on, there was also that one side comment from peridot where she said "you're a pearl. and a rather fancy one too" (or something along those lines) implying that pearls had varying quality with the highest quality being given to the diamonds. yet another reason why they couldn't just give pink an entirely new pearl.

this theory might seem a bit outlandish, but is there really anything to prove it false?

there probably is something that i'm missing that proves me wrong but I WILL STAND BY THIS THEORY.

edit: i see people pointing out that this is a common theory and that it is accepted as canon, and i would just like to state that i had no fucking clue because i've never seen anyone discuss it (then again, i'm not very deep into the world of su theories). just wanted to say that (and i'm not mad or anything)

[ragsistired]

I just thought of a question about steven universe and fusions. Ok so Rebecca sugar has said that all fusions have a single gem equivalent, I don’t remember where she has said this though, and this is something we see in the show (kind of). We see the gems fuse into obsidian and in Steven universes future we snowflake obsidian. Plus when blue diamond is talking to Steven about the party and Steven mentions Garnet blue says “does that call herself a garnet? What would you have her do enter with the Demantoids? The Hessonites, the Pyropes?” All of which are types of garnet.

So my question is could their be a fusion that’s a diamond? I don’t mean a fusion between 2 of the diamonds but a fusion between non diamonds that ends up being a diamond.

[gemdsona]

sorry its still stuck with me how pearls in the gem universe are maids and servants, a highly sought after but completely disregarded object, they are personal pleasears meant to dance and sing and be subservient but its really other gems reaction to them that reveals their class as both bellow and above them, they signify power and recognition of their masters but are ultimately mocked and dismissed by every gem even ones that look forward to owning a pearl some day, and what "reinvention" means in Pearl's song Its Over Isnt It, like she is such a tragic character to me, a servant freed of her shackles that is ordered never to talk about it or her master, as she continues to fight alongside her master who she now has to view as a lover but she keeps serving her as a master none the less and what it means for her to tackle her programming as a pearl after she dies, an object that is free with no one to serve, the way she holds Rose's sword as if its going to get taken away from her again, as if its supposed to give her new orders, insane insane insane

[cugzarui]

ok i've been letting this one bounce around in my brain for a while and i don't know if someone else already thought of it or not (i rarely have original ideas) but here's my theory on pink diamonds true power:

every diamond has a power that lets them control other gems. yellow diamond controls their bodies - even to an extent that the gem being controlled is unable to match. likewise for blue and a gems emotions. white diamond is a bit trickier to pin down but i think her power could be reasonably be boiled down to "identity". she is able to turn other gems into extensions of herself, or turn herself into an extension of other gems, because she can change a gems identity. also, when centipedel was being healed, yellow, blue, and steven together managed to fix her completely, but not keep her in that state without constant contact with them. white is needed to somehow solidify the transformation. i think this is because centipedel still identified and thought of herself as a corrupted gem, so no matter how much help she got she would revert back as soon as that help disappeared.

so we got: body, emotion, and identity. but what about pink diamond? at first it looks like her power is to heal gems; but that still breaks the pattern because it's not a form of control, and because it also works on organics. she also seems to have a whole bunch of other powers that the other diamonds lack. so what's going on here? well, i think a pink diamond has power over a gems abilities.

basically: anything a gem can do, a pink diamond can change their ability to do it. make it easier or harder. make them more skilled or less. even derive new abilities from it. this fits well with another theory that stevens powers (creating a bubble, floating) are just modified versions of normal gem abilities (bubbling, maintaining consistent personal gravity). in fact for most of his powers it's easy to see how they can be derived from a normal gem ability. there is only one exception; his most iconic power: healing.

it's been theorized (but from what i know only from pretty shaky evidence, and never confirmed) that the liquid inside the injectors that make gems - the liquid that turns into gems - comes from the diamonds. if this is the case, then the healing liquid of a pink diamond could be a modified version of this ability. applying that liquid to a gem that already exists could - much like putting an irl gem in the right mineral solution in the right concentration - cause new material to grow on the old gem, possibly ceiling cracks or healing other issues. but what about healing organics? and giving life and superpowers to plants? steven can even heal inanimate objects (one of his toy bears).

this i think is what happens when you have that concentrated mineral solution, but no gem for it to crystallize on top of. it forms new crystals (probably microscopic ones, that can grow super fast, and maybe get removed by biological processes). these micro gems would probably be too small to have much of a consciousness (i hope) but would still view the object they formed in as their body, and use their gem powers to fix and maintain it. possibly to give it gem powers and gem behavior too. but they'll take on the objects identity as their own. of course if the object isn't alive, they won't be able to use its biological processes to help maintain it (cuz it won't have any) so they'll make it fully gem instead. this is probably what happened to lars and lion. this also means that yes

lars is a zombie

[blueishspace]

You know, I was talking with a friend about Geminitay in @chrisrin Au and something came to mind.

The beetles in Steven Universe are rare, and wear long dresses which in Homeworlds culture implies a very high status

They are very small and weak so they MUST have some very powerful mental ability to be such high status, Homeworlds society is based on roles and use and the earth and heaven beetles wouldn't have been made if they didn't have some op ability to offset how weak their body are.

[spacemuf]

This has been brought to my attention and I love it. Stevens pearl was not created for white but it was created by white and I think from the other two diamonds as well. When pink hurt volleyball (aka pinks og pearl) it showed the other diamonds that pink could not be trusted to make gems since, I believe that each diamond created their own pearl with the image of themselves in mind (expect white because she thought she was to perfect to need a pearl). Since each of them could create their own pearl and pink almost destroyed it, it showed the flaws of the pearl and pink. Which in turn of got them to not give pink her own colony because when you get a colony you have to create the gems on it and since she wasn’t able to create a simple pearl they decided she was clearly too young into reckless to be in charge of a whole entire colony. 

Also about pearl, the reason she was created by each diamond is because you can see that she was obviously created by white due to the light complexion and the way pearl acts, and the reason white made the base was because she wanted a perfect pearl to look after pink, you can clearly see that blue had something to do with it as well because of the little accents on pearl. In the og design of pearl she has a lot of blue, yellow, and a little bit of pink. Blue and yellow def worked on the design of the pearl adding elements other themselves but also being kind and considerate to add bits of pink for pink. Blue took over the outfit making it cute, and playful like pink while yellow made the body to make it strong and withstanding so pink wouldn’t damage this pearl. Pearl seems so generic compared to other gems which is bizarre because it seems like she shares something with each gem, which is completely abnormal, each gem acts, a specific way, due to the courts or diamonds that they’ve been assigned since pearl is the only one that acts like each diamond ie her being emotional like blue, her being very calculated and precise like yellow and her having this perfection complex like white. Pearl is very unique and definitely shows signs that she was created by each diamond except pink. Since she was created for pink and not by pink, she doesn’t have anything that resembles her. The only thing that she has from pink is love because she always loved pink, but she was never created by her. She just experienced the trauma that those in pinks court experiences. 

[faelapis]

as far as i'm concerned, the SU q&a didnt tell me anything surprising. i already thought (and i think it was even in an interview) that pink presumed she wasn't that important to spinel - because that was her general presumption about people. that mindset informed a lot of her worst decisions. so spinel would be no exception. a lot of pink's carelessness is rooted in thinking she didn't have that much of an effect on people, at least not in a way that made them care about her.

[fusionlingdraws]

Bit of a ramble but hear me out.

I think a lot of people misunderstand future vision because they don't understand what it actually is.

A well known "theory" that's basically accepted as fanon by many SU fans is that Gems are computers.

From that perspective, we can look at future vision as a simulation of possible futures based on predictable behavior.

The reason Sapphire and Garnet's future vision is often wrong is because of miscalculations in their simulations; things they did not factor in or account for in their predictions.

Sapphires on Homeworld were likely mostly accurate because Gems were expected to behave in predictable ways, and most did exactly what they were made for and exactly what they were told.

The only time a Sapphire on Homeworld would be wrong is if a Gem or organic creature did something unexpected or against Homeworld rules, laws, or sensibilities.

This is why Garnet struggles and constantly works at improving her future vision by improving her understanding of the people around her and how they change and grow.

But of course Steven also reminds her that she's allowed to make her own future and steer the ship in a direction she wants, without worrying so much about the next surprise.

It's honestly a good way to live life. Embrace the unexpected. Get excited about life's next adventure!

[heavyfandom]

Do you guys remember this fiasco 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 man su said sike

[turbulentphoneinmypurse0997]

yknow a lot of people make fun of Rose’s videos for Steven/Nora but like. The whole point of the videos is that the show is giving an explanation behind how reincarnation beliefs works for someone who believes in it and remembers their past experiences. Rose was absolutely coded for reincarnation belief. She was also coded as Christ-like, having been crucified by Pearl for her sins of being a Diamond, and was reincarnated as Rose Quartz, and then she was made a martyr and reincarnated again as Steven. The whole show takes place with this post apocalyptic feel with all the murals, temples, and other such relics of the Crystal Gem War. It’s meant to break down the basics of religion and show kids that it’s valid to believe you’ve had a past life, whether you’re black, brown, tan, beige, caramel, or any other skin colour even white. I believe in reincarnation. I believe and recognize and remember I’ve lived an infinity of past lives as myself and as other beings on this planet. Everyone I say that to looks at me like I just told them that Batman likes to fuck bats. They think I’m nuts, crazy, cuckoo banana pants. But I still hold my belief. Anyways that’s just me giving a little of my retrospective theories on Steven Universe.

[badperidot]

I think the way Peridot acted in "Back to the barn" was probably very much fueled by this