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shinneth · 5 years

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Gem Ascension Tropes (Peridot-specific: I - K)

Reference:

Primary Peri Post ▼ Primary General Post ▼ Full Article

I Am What I Am: While technically in Chartreuse’s form in this moment, Steven’s (as Pink 2.0) intensive Epiphany Therapy towards the end of Chapter 8 of Act III revolves around Peridot’s inner turmoil and self-acceptance regarding her past life as a Manipulative Bastard, which has wracked her with endless guilt since her canon Heel-Face Turn. Said guilt turns out to be what is really inhibiting Peridot’s ability to fuse with Steven. Once it’s lifted when Peridot fully accepts herself, she not only finds that she and Steven can fuse after all, but together fulfill an ancient prophecy as the Diamond of Miracles.

I Gave My Word: Peridot promised herself and everyone else that she’d save everyone trapped on Homeworld and make sure they’re brought home to Earth, and remembering this often helps shake her out a mental funk she’s stuck in.

I Hate Past Me: A major internal issue for Peridot that only gets worse the further she progresses through Homeworld as former repressed memories of how horrible she was as a Homeworld Gem are inadvertently regained. White Diamond actively tortures Peridot by making her watch these memories in Act III, and this ends up weighing down so heavily on Peridot’s conscience that it inhibits her potential for fusion.

I Just Want to Be Special: Peridot is well aware she’s the weakest Crystal Gem, is one of the most common types of gems in existence (as well as the lowest-regarded kind in society) and is destined to be insignificant as an Era 2 gem who will never measure up to her friends. That hasn’t stopped her from going above and beyond to avert this even in her Homeworld days, and now being able to legitimately lead what’s left of the Crystal Gems is Peridot’s opportunity to really stand out and shine. However…

I Just Want to Be Normal: By Act III, it’s revealed Peridot is not only a Chosen One, but a one-of-a-kind Unwitting Test Subject that hasn’t been seen in several millennia. She becomes the first and only ascended gem, capable of being an ordinary gem and a Diamond simultaneously. This consequently makes her the only Era 2 gem with Era 1 capabilities, the only Diamond to be created from another gem, and then there’s her ridiculously powerful ability to conjure things by willing them into existence. All of this is thrown onto Peridot at once, who was determined not to let White Diamond compromise her identity… only to succumb to her fate following a Moment of Weakness. This trope is especially prevalent in Peridot at the very end of GA and all stories following it, as the consequences of her achievements in Act III force Peridot onto a pedestal she doesn’t feel ready for. Ironically, all of this is something Peridot would have been fully on board with prior to her Character Development.

I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Double Subverted with Pumpkin. Celadon Diamond – a fusion of Chartreuse Diamond and White Diamond – killed Pumpkin (while attempting to kill Greg, which he narrowly avoided). While Celadon used willpower (inherited from her Peridot/Chartreuse component) to do the deed, Peridot herself tried to do everything she could to make the fusion hold back. However, resigning to the fusion the way she had made Peridot’s influence on Celadon very limited; White was a much more dominant presence in the fusion, and her desire to kill Steven’s father overpowered Peridot’s resistance. It was only after this happened that Peridot managed to find a way to break the fusion, after several failed attempts. Had she been able to break the fusion earlier, all of this could have been avoided. While Peridot knows it wasn’t fully her fault that she lost Pumpkin, severely injured Greg, and destroyed the Crystal Gems’ spaceship, the fact remains that it was her power that caused this mess. Peridot failed to use her powers to save Pumpkin despite her efforts, and until Steven consoles her later in Act III, she laments that she could have spared Pumpkin, Greg, and their ship from this if only she had been strong enough to break or hold back the fusion. She also could have prevented this if she hadn’t fallen prey to White’s tactics earlier that rendered her emotionally vulnerable, which allowed the Celadon fusion to happen in the first place.

I Lied: Manipulative Bastard Peridot says this verbatim to 9FC in a flashback shown in Chapter 2 of Act III in regards to their friendship.

I Owe You My Life: Peridot wholeheartedly credits her life to Steven. It’s more than him simply liberating her from the oppressive Homeworld life where Individuality is Illegal and giving her a second chance when no one else would. Because he spent so much time teaching Peridot about Earth, as well as talking to her and enjoying life together, Peridot has very good reason to believe her “Great and Lovable” self would never have existed without him. She’s deeply grateful for it and makes sure Steven knows she feels that way several times in the story.

Before this (though it takes a long time for Peridot to remember this), Lapis is similarly credited simply due to coming in just in time before Peridot’s Near-Rape Experience with Jasper went any further than that. Lapis had no intention of saving Peridot; in fact, she was more than willing to let Peridot be subjected to the full extent of being violated for the sake of her own safety. However, Jasper was naturally more drawn to Lapis not only out of instinct, but lust/alleged “love” – meaning Lapis inadvertently took the bullet for Peridot anyway. Several times, at that, while the three were a team together. While the trauma surrounding the incident and Peridot’s own reprehensible behavior during this time were so overwhelming that they had to be fully repressed and nearly forgotten in order for Peridot to function properly after this, she never let herself forget that Lapis did save her from an incident that nearly erased her entire identity – which can be seen as her life being saved. This was the main reason why Peridot went out of her way to be accommodating for Lapis in canon, even at her own expense.

I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Played with. Peridot was fully prepared to be rejected by Steven when it came to the pursuit of a romantic relationship. No matter how jealous she was over her competition, Peridot valued her friendship with Steven far too much to jeopardize it over a selfish desire. She will gladly put Steven’s needs above her own every time. Thankfully for her, it never came to this.

I Will Only Slow You Down: Her rationale when she tells Steven and Garnet to Go on Without Me. White Diamond is just a couple of minutes away, which affords them no time to break the gate with brute force, while Peridot is too fatigued and injured to save herself. While she tries to smile at her friends without showing any tears or sorrow, that briefly fades when Peridot turns her head to hear White Diamond closing in. She resumes her smile when she looks back at Garnet and Steven, now more adamantly ordering them to leave her behind.

I Will Wait for You: Has this sentiment for Steven regarding her feelings for him, under the assumption that he may not be ready for that kind of relationship yet or if he’s with someone else entirely. Peridot’s got all the time in the world to wait for her turn. Luckily for her, she doesn’t have to wait too long.

I’m Having Soul Pains: When Peridot tries to do too much with her willpower in her base form, she will suffer this in the form of headaches, fatigue, and overall physical strain. This is due to her form not being a very good conductor for this kind of power; this kind of side-effect does not happen when performing the same feats (or greater) as Chartreuse Diamond. Only problem is that Peridot doesn’t exactly like to be Chartreuse unless she absolutely has to…

The Immodest Orgasm: It’d be more surprising if someone as naturally loud, expressive, and dramatic as Peridot didn’t behave this way. And sure enough, this is what happens in Chapter 2 of It’s a Birthday, Yes It Is.

Improvised Weapon: Even post-ascension, Peridot never gains an official weapon. Beforehand, she literally could not summon one from her gemstone due to her limitations as an Era 2 gem. Now charged with willpower, Peridot can summon pretty much any weapon she wants for the right situation, assuming she can decide on what to go with. Prior to this, Peridot improvised at least two weapons in a hammer (which she later gifted to an unarmed Connie) and a piece of metal scrap she was able to manipulate into whatever shape she wanted. Although it was mainly a mode of transport, Peridot also used a steel beam to ram into a pallid gem late in Act I.

Drop the Hammer: Though she used it very sparingly before giving it to Connie, Peridot did use the hammer to damage Yellow Diamond badly enough to stun her for the entire battle.

Indy Ploy: Peridot is forced to resort to this in Chapter 5 of This is Who I Am. 5XG is strangling the Light Steven in a separate dimension – consequently, Dark Steven (Peridot’s opponent) is unable to breathe due to his life being bound to his counterpart’s. Being isolated in a separate dimension makes Peridot unable to directly interfere with her counterpart’s efforts… except for one way: injuring herself. The problem is that 5XG is extremely resilient to damage, so Peridot has to inflict a severe injury on herself to have any hope of causing enough mutual damage to disrupt her dark self. With both Stevens moments away from being choked to death, Peridot has no choice but to go with her instincts, as there’s no time to think anything through. She knows it’s a bad idea to directly damage her own gemstone, but being bereft of options and not having the luxury of taking time to think this through leaves her with no choice. She stabs her own gemstone with a broken floor tile – this does force 5XG to stop, but now both Peridots are on death’s door. Luckily for them, Light Steven is merciful enough to heal the one who almost killed him while Dark Steven begrudgingly respects Peridot’s efforts to save his life and heals her to avoid feeling indebted. Ultimately, this insane plan helps end both deathmatches, as both Peridots are too injured to function while both Stevens are too fatigued to carry on, leading to a draw where both Steven and Peridot escape with their lives against all odds.

Inelegant Blubbering: Downplayed, but Peridot’s reunion with Steven in Act I includes sobbing into his chest, calling him every derogatory name she can think of, and punching his shoulder for each insult. Being that Peridot is severely injured, she’s not hurting Steven at all and it isn’t long before she fully devolves into this. Badly enough that the Crystal Gems need to split up and relocate, since Peridot’s cries are garnering unwanted attention.

Inferiority Superiority Complex: Still burdened with this, as Peridot can’t really escape being faced with constant limitations as the only Era 2 of the Crystal Gems… until she ascends, of course. But even then, she has limitations on her new powers unless she shifts into Chartreuse Diamond. She’s constantly self-conscious as a leader, and now that Peridot has regained her memories of her life as a Homeworld Gem, she has a lot of Old Shame moments that are hard for her to live down… especially when the Homeworld refugees constantly remind her of those times.

Insecure Love Interest: Downplayed, as this mostly applies to Peridot after she regains her memories about how awful she used to be during her pre-Earth life. It’s only hinted at in Act II; by Act III, Peridot also struggles with her identity as an Unwitting Test Subject that led to her betraying her friends early on. While it’s seemingly mended with Steven’s declaration of them being an Official Couple by Chapter 5, another problem arises in their inability to fuse. By Chapter 8, it’s revealed the primary cause of that was Peridot’s own guilt over her past crimes weighing her down to the point where she subconsciously believed she didn’t deserve to fuse with Steven.

Insistent Terminology: At the end of It’s a Birthday, Yes It Is, Steven points out the Department of Redundancy Department nature of Peridot’s GA-exclusive catchphrase, “stupid idiot”. Peridot’s response?

Peridot: “It’s not redundancy, clod. It’s emphasis.”

Steven: “I’m… not following.”

Peridot: “Some people can be stupid; others are idiots… but it takes a special kind of clod mentality to achieve the level of stupid idiot, Steven. When I say you’re a stupid idiot, I mean you’re an idiot even by idiot standards, get it?”

Insufferable Genius: Per canon, Peridot definitely has her moments of this, although she’s often prone to self-criticism in the story as well. Sometimes, she deliberately invokes this trope in an attempt to cover something up (usually an insecurity).

Internalized Categorism: Downplayed as time goes on; in Act II, she admits to envying Amethyst for being a gem made on Earth rather than Homeworld, as Peridot had grown to loathe being associated with her home planet in any way. Still, Peridot knows there’s nothing that can be done about it, and she soon no longer has the luxury of lamenting over such trivial details. But then, it’s revealed Peridot is part-Diamond in Act III – and this trope returns with a vengeance. Peridot learns to accept herself by the end of the primary GA series, but still isn’t really comfortable about embracing her Diamond heritage.

Involuntary Shapeshifting: Happens a couple of times. Most notably, she shifts into her Chartreuse Diamond form as she grieves over Pumpkin’s death that only makes her destructive reactions worse.

It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: For all the times Peridot wanted to stand out and be special, she didn’t get to enjoy even a second of it when it was revealed in Act III that she is a very unique Chosen One after all. While Peridot eventually has Steven to lean on to share her burdens with, the Post-GA stories exaggerate their woes as the new Era 3 operation looms over them, as they are the designated centerpieces for the operation, being the only diamonds left in existence at that point. Stories taking place after their project launches show that the burden of responsibility and work have weighed heavily upon the pair.

It’s All About Me: Heavily downplayed due to the high stakes and circumstances of Peridot’s goals in the story, but still has her moments of this. Played very straight regarding who Peridot used to be before she was assigned to monitor Earth.

It’s Personal: Messing with Steven automatically makes any matter personal for Peridot. After Act I, it becomes more personal as White Diamond directly messes with her life and compromises her identity that brings life-long consequences. Then Pumpkin gets brought into it, and… the results are not pretty.

Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She’s still full of herself, she’s still a brat, and she’s still prone to respond aggressively, but don’t ever question Peridot’s love for her friends, her loyalty towards her family, or what she’s willing to do or what she has to sacrifice to keep them out of harm’s way.

Jerkass Ball: Chapter 6 of Act III: after failing to fuse with Steven during their private time together, Peridot covers up her misery with this in order to function not only as a Crystal Gem, but a co-leader of the team, as well as avoid admitting her confirmed inability to fuse to the rest of her friends. However, this façade only makes it more apparent to the others that something is wrong with Peridot, who absolutely refuses to talk about it.

Jerkass Woobie: Peridot in a nutshell after her Near-Rape Experience with Jasper, but before her Heel-Face Turn when she aligned herself with the Crystal Gems.

Jumped at the Call: The moment she realizes Steven’s in trouble, Peridot not only does this, but is irked the others didn’t react like this and instead waited for her to reform before doing anything at all.

Karma Houdini: Until she met Jasper, Manipulative Bastard Peridot suffered no consequences whatsoever for her horrific behavior on Homeworld. She literally got away with murder on several occasions; even worse, often got rewarded for it. Peridot’s good fortune abruptly ran out once she was finally promoted and got on Yellow Pearl’s bad side; ever since her first encounter with Jasper, misfortune followed Peridot everywhere she went. Before long, she was finally suffering the consequences for her cruel ambitions.

5XF expresses that she has no desire to become “another 5XG” regarding her own despicable actions during Chapters 4 and 5 of This is Who I Am. Apparently “5XG” is a synonym for this trope now.

The Killer in Me: The Amnesiac variety, as Peridot is horrified and disgusted to remember how reprehensible she used to be once she reaches Homeworld, and how many lives were lost due to her actions, directly or otherwise.

The Klutz: Per canon, but also the reason why Gem Ascension didn’t end with Act I. Actually heavily downplayed in Act I after leaving Earth, specifically so it happening in Act I’s climax would be even more impactful and unexpected.

Knight, Knave, and Squire: The Squire to Bismuth’s Knight and Lapis’ Knave.

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rocket-sith · 7 years

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Is the salty fandom opinion ask list still open?

LMAO DUDE (dudette?) that was like a month ago. I think. I don’t even remember what the different questions were. I think someone actually asked me to answer all of them and I bitched about shit for pages. If you want me to get all salty about something, just inbox it to me - if there’s salt to be shaken, I’ll heap it on. But if you want some extra salt in the mean time, here’s the latest bee in my bonnet:

People can, in fact, bitch about Mace Windu without it being racially motivated. This goes triple if the people who are bitching about Windu are also bitching about Yoda, Obi-Wan, and/or Jedi dogma in general. Disagree all you want about character interpretation, say Anakin was annoying, say Jar Jar was secretly a Sith Master, say Qui-Gon’s Force ghost was haunting the Jedi Council making fart noises and that’s why they were all too distracted to sense the chancellor was an evil wizard, say you’ve got a headcanon that the reason Obi-Wan and Anakin argued so much was because they’d secretly signed on as models for rival hair salons and the tension finally got to be too much - but for the love of the Force, if someone comes out all “the Jedi suck, Windu’s a jerk, Yoda’s a frog turd, Obi-Wan’s a manipulative SOB” and so on, it makes fuck-all sense to climb up the person’s ass for racism.

Ditto if they’re pissed off at Windu for actual specific shit. There’s a world of difference between someone baselessly zeroing in on a POC as a hate target, and someone being like - fuck that dude for being a cult leader, a hypocrite, a politically corrupt wanker, for screwing over Ahsoka, for being a perpetual jackhole to Anakin, and for seeming to think the best way to accomplish his job was by acting like a royal dickweed to scared, traumatized kids. (And I don’t just mean Anakin here. The comment he made to Ahsoka at the end of the Wrong Jedi arc was just like - DUDE ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME, after what y’all did to her, goddamn.) None of this has anything to do with Windu being black, and though some people may be sitting here all like “he had a good reason for doing the stuff he did!” that’s an entirely different thing than “you’re racist for taking issue in the first place.”

This isn’t to say that some people in fandom aren’t racist asshats. It would be ridiculous to say there’s no racially motivated wank or hate in fandom - some of the reactions to Finn’s mere existence will tell you that much. But a character shouldn’t be beyond reproach or immune to critique or dislike simply because of their race any more than they should be disliked because of it. If a character is a jerk, or can reasonably be interpreted as a jerk, and someone in the fandom is like “hey! that dude’s a jerk!” - automatically jumping to racism is lazy and disingenuous. And when you’ve got a character who strikes a personal nerve with a good sized portion of the audience (hypocritical religious zealots tend to have that effect), and the same character also antagonizes multiple characters to whom the audience is already sympathetic (Ahsoka and Anakin)…it’s a recipe for a negative audience reaction.

Furthermore, “I hate that character” can mean two very different things. There’s “I hate that character” in the Bella Swan sense of the word (AKA “this character was poorly written, poorly conceived, and their existence was a bad idea in the first place”), and “I hate that character” in the Dolores Umbridge sense of the word (AKA “this character was a realistic antagonist whose in-universe actions evoked strong negative emotions in me”). When people rant about Windu, it tends to nearly always be in the second sense, which is an entirely different ballgame. The Bella type hate is a bash against the mere existence of the character, wishing they’d been excluded from the narrative entirely as they added nothing to the story and possibly even did it a disservice. The Umbridge type is based on complete acceptance of the character as a well-conceived in-universe jackwagon.

If people wanna say Windu’s character should have been written differently to avoid having The Black Guy be in an adversarial role with multiple protagonists, fine. If you want to say we need more POC protagonists across the board, cool (and I’ll be right there with you if you wanna say it’s an absolute fucking crime in its own right that Quinlan Vos didn’t get more airtime). If you want to defend Windu because you just plain like him and you think he was justified, that’s a legitimate discussion about character interpretation. But you can’t blame fans and call them racist for disliking a character who was literally written using the two biggest elements of “how to write an effective villain” - antagonize the audience, and antagonize whichever character(s) the audience sympathizes with or relates to.

Quite frankly, I’m getting sick of people trying to shut down fandom opinions they disagree with by turning everything into a social justice issue, and this whole thing strikes me as yet another example. There are a metric assload of legitimate grievances people might have against the Jedi and their leaders, but sure, anyone who has an issue with Windu must be racist. After all, you’ll get more mileage out of banging that drum than by telling people they need to confront their deep-seated bigotry against chartreuse muppets, right?

Mace Windu is a ginormous dickweed. Disagree until you’re blue in the face, defend his actions all you want, but don’t start guilting and manipulating people out of their absolute right to hate his guts just because some handful of jerkoffs want to derail everything into a social justice pissing contest.

#Anonymous #rant fest #teal deer ahoy #i'm probably gonna get flamed for this

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shinneth · 5 years

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Gem Ascension Tropes (Peridot-specific: D - E)

Reference:

Primary Peri Post ▼ Primary General Post ▼ Full Article

Dark and Troubled Past: GA gives Peridot quite the backstory in both aspects. Her living conditions were awful, but Peridot herself was morally corrupt, cunning, and ambitious. The way Homeworld society operates only enabled Peridot to become a sociopathic Manipulative Bastard, but her fateful first meeting with Jasper Broke the Haughty in a wide variety of ways. That made her more of a Jerkass Woobie, and thankfully it wasn’t long before she was captured by the Crystal Gems and Took a Level in Kindness. Still, Peridot repressed the majority of her Homeworld memories to cope after her Heel-Face Turn and was forced to remember them upon returning to Homeworld to rescue her friends. The amount of guilt weighing down on Peridot after this is immense, and even though Steven taught Peridot how to forgive herself by the end of GA, Peridot’s still going to have to be constantly reminded of her past transgressions by the refugees she’s tasked with acclimating to Earth.

Deadpan Snarker: Very much so, per canon. Especially with Lapis, and it’s actually fully justified since the two aren’t afforded time in the story to truly talk about the terrible way Lapis treated her and her friends (outside of the Video Will she made for Lapis). Up to Eleven in Act III with White Diamond, taking advantage of being a valuable Hostage MacGuffin to Trash Talk her literally any chance she gets.

Death is a Sad Thing: Peridot never had to suffer the loss of a loved one until Pumpkin succumbed to her mortal wounds in Chapter 8 of Act III. Once that happens… Peridot’s sorrow nearly kills an entire planet.

Death Wail: She does not take it well when Pumpkin dies right before her eyes. Induces Brown Note levels of damage across what’s left of Homeworld.

Defiant Captive: Very much this while she is White Diamond’s prisoner during the early chapters of Act III. Deliberately invoked as Peridot’s Genre-Savvy enough to understand her value as a Hostage MacGuffin makes her (relatively) untouchable and doesn’t hesitate to disrespect White Diamond in ways no other gem could.

Delirious Misidentification: When even the (illusionary) threat of Peridot’s own limbs being severed to keep a blade from slicing her neck isn’t enough to make the Determinator give in to White Diamond, the latter responds by conjuring a very convincing hologram of Steven who even sounds exactly like the real deal. After nearly a week of this torture she had to endure alone, Peridot is fooled into thinking Steven actually came to save her… and sparing even one second to look in his direction allowed White Diamond to finally overpower her and force Peridot into submission.

Derailed Train of Thought: Peridot is prone to this a lot. The early chapters of Act I especially show Peridot falling into this when she’s trying to lead her team. This trope is how she ends up confessing her love for Steven in every single Video Will she makes to her friends. Peridot herself acknowledges this flaw of hers, but it’s a very hard habit for her to break.

Desperately Craves Affection: Praise, more specifically. Affection is also wanted, but Peridot’s been addicted to receiving praise even since her days as a Jerkass Homeworld gem. In Peridot’s Video Will to Pearl, she acknowledges this and wonders if this was something ingrained into her very being as a worker gem at the bottom of the caste system. With no hope of upward movement for the Peridot kind and often overlooked and underappreciated (and largely disrespected by every gem above them), the best they can ever hope for is being praised for doing their job well.

Determinator: The defining aspect of Peridot’s character in GA; turned Up to Eleven in Act III.

Devoted to You: It cannot be overstated how Steven means everything to Peridot. She will do and say things she’d normally never go through with for this boy if she must. She’s so devoted, Peridot inadvertently makes sure everyone knows Steven means everything to her via her Video Wills in Act II.

Digging Yourself Deeper: Once Peridot’s propensity for running her mouth lands her in hot water, or she says something out loud she didn’t mean for anyone to actually hear, she’s under some delusion that going out of her way to make elaborate excuses or justifications will fix everything… and it never does. It always leads to this. Steven himself tells 5XF in This is Who I Am Chapter 2 that this is just a fatal flaw of Peridot’s she inexplicably can’t overcome.

Disability-Negating Superpower: Ascending to a hybrid Diamond whose power is charged by sheer will enables Peridot to bypass most limitations she had as an Era 2 gem, though there is a cap on her potential when using said powers in her Peridot form. This makes her the only Era 2 gem who can shapeshift.

Disorganized Outline Speech: While Peridot tries to make it out like she was kidding, she struggled with this trope while trying to find a way how to do her introduction for her Video Will to Amethyst in Chapter 3 of Act II.

Double Consciousness: A genuine and understandable concern of Peridot’s when she ascends and gains a Superpowered Alter Ego in Chartreuse Diamond. Although there hasn’t been much room for distinction between the two, Peridot knows in her heart there are at least a few exclusive factors to their natures. And she will need to make use of her Chartreuse alias in the Post-GA era, so while Peridot did learn to accept that Chartreuse is legitimately just another part of her, she’s a long way from embracing her Diamond persona and is wary about staying in that form for long.

Draw Aggro: Proposed by Peridot when an alligator ambush occurs in Chapter 2 of This is Who I Am, but ultimately averted as 5XF is quick to question this strategy, which results in the two bickering in a corner until Steven comes in to save the day.

The Dreaded: Was notoriously this to her fellow Peridots before her promotion and assignment to monitor Earth. The combination of her ambition, stoic and sociopathic nature, and overall being a cunning Manipulative Bastard made her fellow kind either avoid her out of fear or revere her in hopes of sharing in her success… though that never happened. Peridot saw all of her coworkers as expendable pawns, and if she was ever cordial with them, it was always an act that played into a greater scheme down the road that would only benefit her in the end. The few Peridots who were bold enough to attempt to get 5XG in trouble always met a gruesome end after failing to prove her of any wrongdoing. 3UI learned that the hard way, and Peridot gave the rest of her coworkers a speech that pretty much underlines why exactly she embodied this trope for most of her short lifespan, punctuated with crushing up 3UI’s remains for all to see.

Peridot: “I know this hasn’t been the first time I made an example out of an envious Peridot, but let this be a refresher course to remind everyone what will become of you if you even entertain the notion of snitching on me. Mind your own business, and you’ll live a long, fulfilling life for our Diamond…”

Dressing as the Enemy: Downplayed; Peridot obtains a new set of limb enhancers in Chapter 4 of Act I. While she can traverse Homeworld without them, it does draw a little attention (as Era 2 Peridots are very seldom seen without them), and they’re required for Peridot to “report to work” at her old station. In order to get the Skeleton Key she’s aiming for to optimize navigation of Homeworld to find her captured friends, Peridot needs to find a way to get close to Yellow Pearl; this scenario is the only way she can pull it off.

Earn Your Happy Ending: Hard to argue this. Peridot did work herself nearly to death to coordinate the rescue mission, only to get tortured for six consecutive days after being the only one to get left behind, then having her own identity compromised along with the shock of learning about being an Unwitting Test Subject, having to live with Chartreuse Diamond as her Alter Ego for the rest of her life, being forced to fight her friends… Then after a brief reprieve when she rejoins her friends, carries heavy angst over not being able to fuse with Steven, which ends up being what makes her vulnerable and receptive to a forced fusion with White Diamond, is helplessly trapped within Celadon Diamond and is only able to break free when Pumpkin is killed, which causes Peridot to have the ultimate Heroic BSoD that doubles as an Angst Nuke on an already-crumbling planet. Only after all that does life finally work in Peridot’s favor. She is not kidding when she says she needs a lengthy vacation at the end of GA. Thankfully, she’s granted one in Plans Change.

Egocentric Team Naming: In Chapter 6 of Act II, Peridot refers to GA’s initial team of herself, Lapis, Bismuth, and Greg as the “Peridot Patrol”; most likely in jest as she hasn’t referred to her division as such ever since. However, given Peridot’s circumstances by Act II, her teammates quickly make it their official Squad Nickname, though they opt to shorten it to simply call themselves the “Peri Patrol”.

Emotional Maturity is Physical Maturity: Per canon with any gem, but Peridot undergoes an unusual case that is strikingly similar to Steven’s Plot-Relevant Age-Up despite that trope not being possible for a full gem. When she first resumes her natural form after ascending to become Chartreuse Diamond, Peridot appears to have a bit of a growth spurt. It’s not extreme, but noticeable in that she outgrows Amethyst and has a more pronounced hourglass figure. Post-GA stories (It’s a Birthday, Yes It Is, most notably) theorize this is a result of Peridot’s final inquiry prior to ascension, which was whether or not becoming a Diamond would give her a mature body so that she wouldn’t have the appearance of a scrawny brat anymore. Given the nature of Peridot’s power in particular, it’s safe to say she willed her Chartreuse Diamond form to have a much more mature and developed appearance and subconsciously willed her own base form to reflect this – but in a subtle manner that still made her recognizable. Another factor may be the Relationship Upgrade with Steven making Peridot even more self-conscious of her appearance.

The Engineer: The Support Engineer.

Erotic Dream: In Chapter 8 of Act II, Peridot (via her prerecorded Video Will) confesses to having this happen to her… in a dream with an otherwise innocuous setup where she and Steven are Happily Married with loads of kids, with Peridot herself as a stereotypical housewife; Steven’s portrayed as an average breadwinner of the family, but after revealing he doesn’t have work today, he seductively asks his wife if she wants to “make another one” before carrying her off to the bedroom.

Extra-ore-dinary: Her ferrokinesis, per canon. They’re later revealed to be merely a branch of her true potential that was awakened via a Despair Event Horizon (something similar happens to Steven in Chapter 4 of Act III), but even post-ascension, Peridot uses her metal powers more often than her vast array of new abilities… possibly with the exception of her utilizing Hammerspace and teleportation.

Extreme Doormat: A trope discovered in hindsight regarding how Peridot acted around Lapis when they were roommates during This is Who I Am Chapter 3, as it’s revealed Lapis (inadvertently) played a huge role in preserving some degree of Peridot’s sanity when they met. Her mere presence is why Peridot’s Near-Rape Experience with Jasper didn’t go any further than that. Since Peridot was already on the brink of completely breaking down and losing her identity from what Jasper already put her through, it’s safe to assume Peridot would have never become the gem she currently is had Lapis not repeatedly taken the bullet for her.

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Gem Ascension Tropes (Peridot-specific: B)

Reference:

Primary Peri Post ▼ Primary General Post ▼ Full Article

The Baby of the Bunch: Greatly emphasized more so than in canon, to the point where it’s outright said on multiple occasions. While Peridot’s chronological age isn’t revealed until Act II, it’s no mystery she’s by far the youngest full gem of the cast, being the only Era 2 of the Crystal Gems. Her overall ignorance of what her friends lived and suffered through in Era 1 alone is more than enough for Peridot to be treated like a child. She’s notably the only full gem who absolutely isn’t a Fish out of Temporal Water in any sense of the word. Her detachment and neutrality toward figures like Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond compels Steven to not only value Peridot as an unbiased party, but see her as an equal rather than a gem to look up to as a Parental Substitute (as literally everyone else is seen by him as a surrogate mother, aunt, or big sister). Unsurprisingly, Peridot ends up becoming closer to Steven and (relatively) young gems like Amethyst than anyone else. When her actual age is revealed, it turns out Peridot is younger than Steven (by a year); fitting, as there are canon moments where even he regards her as a child below his age group. The only character in the main cast Peridot is older than is Connie – whose mental maturity is greater than hers and Steven’s combined. Despite being born a gem, Peridot (whether she likes it or not) wholly embraces this trope in all aspects of her maturity.

Badass Bookworm: Per canon; Up to Eleven in GA. She actually bonds with Connie through sharing this trope.

Badass Normal: Later becomes an Empowered Badass Normal.

Bad Liar: Peridot is so godawful at lying, even fellow bad liar Steven can’t help but facepalm at how badly she sucks at it. There’s one time she averts this, and it’s in Chapter 4 of Act I when she fools Yellow Pearl into believing she’s legitimately come back to work, when in actuality Peridot was plotting to Logic Bomb everyone’s consoles to overload and shock them hard enough to get poofed. Granted, at that time, she was heavily medicated, and it was strongly insinuated that Peridot’s Heroic Safe Mode briefly took over in this moment. As a tyrannical Homeworld gem, Peridot was very adept in deception. Since her reformation, Peridot has lost her ability to keep a straight face and tends to run her mouth in an attempt to cover her tracks when she’s really just making it more obvious that she’s either hiding something or isn’t being honest.

Bare-Handed Blade Block: Literally does this in Chapter 2 of Act III, though her fingers nearly get severed for her troubles, to prevent an energy blade of White Diamond’s from slicing her neck. She surprisingly holds out well, until White Diamond employs dirty tactics to distract Peridot long enough to overpower her.

Battle Couple: With Steven.

Be All My Sins Remembered: Deep down, Peridot is afflicted with this. Most notably in Chapter 5 of Act I when Steven calls her “great and lovable” not long after Peridot regained memories of what a Manipulative Bastard she used to be to her Homeworld colleagues. She very rarely makes it apparent to her friends, but when Peridot remembers who she was as a Homeworld gem, she’s very shell-shocked by it. Yet, at the same time, realizes she had to be as horrible as she was to get where she is today.

Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: The Brains to Lapis’ Beauty and Bismuth’s Brawn.

Became Her Own Antithesis: When Peridot concedes to ascension and becomes Chartreuse Diamond in Act III, it isn’t long before she sees herself like this.

Becoming the Boast: Peridot has claimed to be the leader of the Crystal Gems on more than one occasion in canon. In GA, Peridot not only leads her fellow remaining Crystal Gems to rescue their teammates, she ends up keeping her “promotion” and co-leads the team with Garnet after the end of the main series.

Berserk Button: Messing with Steven and/or Pumpkin is a quick way to set her off. She even snaps at anyone who refers to Steven as Pink Diamond or Rose Quartz, being one of the few to never see Steven that way and knowing how much it bothers Steven personally makes her all the more insistent on this, even when she’s hardly able to do anything on her own as Celadon Diamond.

Berserker Tears: A byproduct of Peridot’s Unstoppable Rage late in Act III.

Big Heroic Run: All of the Crystal Gems technically apply for this, but it’s by far most prevalent with Peridot since she’s the one furthest behind, not only with White Diamond in pursuit, but also racing against time regarding a series of gates triggered to fall every passing minute that would trap Peridot if she isn’t running fast enough. Though she comes close to reaching the finish line, one trip leaves her trapped and stranded.

Big Little Sister: Since her post-ascension growth spurt in Act III, Peridot is now taller than 5XF, who she is 6 seconds younger than.

Big, Thin, Short Trio: The Short to Lapis’ Thin and Bismuth’s Big.

Blinded by Rage: Falls victim to this in Chapter 6 of Act III in a Moment of Weakness when she’s triggered upon catching sight of the (presumed) White Diamond’s neck. Once she sees it, she can’t stop thinking about it. Understandable, as it was her own neck on the line when White Diamond tried to force her to ascend earlier in the act. So, feeling a major surge of Revenge Before Reason makes her obsessed with giving White Diamond’s neck the exact same treatment. You know, even though targeting that part of her won’t really make a difference in the fight, and it gets downright disturbing for her friends to watch Peridot go through with this. Made doubly worse when Peridot realizes she’s not strong enough to actually inflict damage as herself and has to shift into Chartreuse Diamond in order to get the revenge she needs. On top of that, she inadvertently entices Steven of all people to join her, and he’s willing to break the Stevonnie fusion to do so.

Blood Knight: Very atypical for her kind; Peridot tends to be notably aggressive in more ways than one, and it seemingly gets worse after her canon Heel-Face Turn. Most likely due in part to her Rebellious Spirit being awakened after Peridot finds out who she truly is on Earth.

Boisterous Weakling: Still retains this trait per canon, though it’s mostly contained in Act I. Now that Peridot’s in a position of authority, she’s all the more driven to prove her worth and refuses to show any sign of weakness to her teammates. Even if she really sucks at hiding it.

Born as an Adult: Per canon like with all full gems, though Peridot is only “adult” in the sense that her body and capabilities are fully developed so that she can do the work she was literally created to do. However, since she is by far the youngest gem of the main cast and the only one who lived in Era 2 Homeworld (where propaganda was rampant and she was ignorant of several key moments in Era 1 history that the other Crystal Gems practically know by heart) and was primarily locked to a small, contained environment prior to her promotion due to how low her kind is in Homeworld’s caste system, Peridot has very few life experiences accrued compared to her teammates. Consequently, she had a childlike naivete (that she presently still has to some degree), as well as overall ignorance and curiosity to elements beyond what she was meant to know about. Her specific work environment encouraged Peridot to develop into a sinister individual, but still one who was way in over her head and nearly fell apart when she met Jasper and was faced with the reality of her position in life. This left her very uncertain, shaken, and confused about life and her own identity, which persisted when she met the Crystal Gems in person. Steven frequently points out that Peridot is much more receptive to change than most gems he’s known; she adapts to Earth life very quickly – and in most ways, does so better than her fellow Crystal Gems who’ve lived on Earth for thousands of years while Peridot herself hasn’t even lived a full year on Earth yet. This is strikingly similar to how the human brain is most receptive to learning during the first five years of life. Her affinity for modern technology and adaptive skills (while complaining about Era 1’s outdated tech) makes Peridot come off more like a kid of the current generation than a true adult. Peridot’s general attitude since finding her true identity is visibly even more childlike than Amethyst’s. Her fellow Crystal Gems often treat her like a child (and do so more openly in the GA continuity), but most of the time is regarded as an equal similar to Connie by Steven (in more uncommon circumstances, Steven sees her as a child even below his age group… of course, in GA, it turns out Peridot is in fact junior to Steven by a year). Her post-ascension growth was induced by her willpower and was a very subtle change – but said growth was influenced by Peridot’s desire not to be seen as a child by her peers. Therefore, this trope is downplayed with her far more so than any other gem; as Steven has often said in GA, Peridot may be a full grown gem, but she has a growing human’s spirit.

Boss’s Unfavorite Employee: Peridot was this to Yellow Pearl. Explored in Chapter 3 of This is Who I Am.

Break the Haughty: Played with mostly in Act III, but not nearly as prevalent as this trope is with White and Yellow Diamond. However, this trope is greatly in effect during a flashback segment in Chapter 3 of This is Who I Am when Peridot exposits on a heavily repressed memory to Steven that involves how her first meeting with Jasper went down. Peridot is very clear that much of her vile Homeworld persona was snuffed out even before her canon Heel-Face Turn courtesy of Jasper.

Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Peridot is this trope in so many ways in GA. She’s the first known Era 2 Peridot to climb up the ranks as quickly and efficiently as she did during her Homeworld days, largely due to being such a Manipulative Bastard and a cunning Blood Knight – traits that no Peridot should ever have. After the reveal of Peridot’s Mismatched Eyes and her true identity as an Unwitting Test Subject, she becomes the first (and only) of her kind to become an ascended gem: simultaneously a Peridot and a Diamond. Additionally, after awakening her benign Diamond abilities, Peridot becomes the only Era 2 gem who can bypass most limitations inherent to Era 2 gems in general, such as shapeshifting. Peridot has also made the greatest leap in terms of gem evolution, as her kind is at the rock-bottom level of the caste system; she managed to ascend to the very top as a Diamond. And it turns out she’s even 50% of the legendary Diamond of Miracles on top of that. There honestly aren’t any more glass ceilings Peridot can break at this point.

Broken Hero: Starting with Act III, when the truth behind Peridot’s creation and her identity as an Unwitting Test Subject are not only hard to comprehend, accept, and live down in their own right, but cause a load of problems and personal struggles for Peridot throughout the act. Many of these life-altering revelations lead to permanent consequential changes to Peridot herself that are reflected/acknowledged in every post-GA story released. Despite that, Peridot manages to endure her hardships and come out better for it on the other end. She’s never quite the same after this, but Peridot at her core remains a Plucky Comic Relief/Hero Protagonist hybrid… just a little wiser and hardened coming out of those experiences now.

Broken Tears: Peridot is reduced to this when Pumpkin dies before her very eyes in Chapter 8 of Act III (this moment with said trope is even illustrated!). However, following Peridot’s Heroic BSoD that starts with a Death Wail and triggers an Angst Nuke, this trope transitions to Berserker Tears.

Brutal Honesty: Generally downplayed since her canon Character Development, although becoming a team leader has forced Peridot to resort to this to get her point across many times across GA (and even post-GA) while asserting her authority. The ones on the receiving end of this tend to be the ones closest to Peridot; she did not hold back on Lapis when recording her Video Will and made sure she knew exactly how badly her past actions screwed her up. Steven’s propensity for breaking down or throwing a fit at the sight of someone’s death is also met with some harsh demands to get over it by Peridot – though to be fair, this always happens during a time when they’re on the run while being actively pursued by the enemy. Most times Peridot utilizes this trope needlessly is around 5XF, though the final chapter of This is Who I Am somewhat justifies that behavior, given what happened.

Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Portrayed as this often once she actively takes on The Leader position, especially in the earlier half of Act I. Similar to Pearl (who also shares this trope), Peridot’s talented in areas outside of what she’s literally made to be good at, and said extra talents are not ones one would expect from the likes of her. Peridot often has unorthodox approaches to her plans, and most of the time, they actually work out.

But I Read a Book About It: How Peridot knows about the brittle nature of diamonds in Act I, hence how she was able to incapacitate Yellow Diamond with a single blow with a hammer. It can be inferred that Peridot learned about many things through this if she wasn’t directly taught through Steven or Amethyst.

Bystander Syndrome: When Peridot’s full backstory on how she first met Jasper and Lapis was revealed in This is Who I Am Chapter 3, it’s also confirmed that Peridot stood firmly in this trope when it came to witnessing how often and badly Lapis was abused by Jasper. Despite Lapis inadvertently saving Peridot from suffering more than just a Near-Rape Experience, the latter never once showed an ounce of gratitude for it. Nor did Peridot show any degree of pity for Lapis during that time, and she didn’t hesitate submitting Lapis to more of Jasper’s torture whenever Lapis wouldn’t cooperate as an informant. Sadly, it’s justified in that Peridot literally couldn’t have prevented Jasper from doing anything to Lapis (or even lessen the abuse) since she held no real authority in the team – and being the low-caste gem she is, Peridot also had no right to do anything about it. This trope is the primary reason why Peridot later became an Extreme Doormat to Lapis in canon, despite Peridot making herself forget many of these details in order to cope with her own trauma related to Jasper.

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Gem Ascension Tropes (General: R - T)

Refer to the initial post for details on this. Here’s the full version on Google Docs.

Reality-Breaking Paradox: According to the laws of gem physics, no two gems with a matching facet code and cut series ID can coexist. It’s believed should this happen, and the identical gems make physical contact with one another, that reality itself will tear the universe apart. This is a simplified explanation for why Steven and Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond can’t coexist, since Steven directly inherited her diamond.

Relationship Upgrade: Steven and Peridot become an Official Couple, while Lapis and Bismuth become Fire-Forged Friends after Peridot gives them the Ten Minutes in the Closet treatment to work out their problems in Chapter 3 of Act I. As of This is Who I Am Chapter 6, 5XF and Sphalerite go from acquaintances who just met to Official Couple within a day or so.

Replacement Goldfish: What Peridot and Steven’s Diamond Alter Egos are to White Diamond for the deceased Blue and Yellow Diamond. Everyone’s aware of this, and is the primary reason why White’s We Can Rule Together act never, ever works.

Rescue Arc: Act I. Can also apply to Act III, but is more of a hybrid of this and a War Arc.

The Reveal: In Chapter 8 of Act II, Peridot’s Mismatched Eyes (witnessed only by Steven and Garnet at the end of Act I) are indicative of her identity as an Unwitting Test Subject. She is the first confirmed case since before the start of Era 2, and it’s heavily implied (later confirmed) that no one, not even Peridot herself, was aware of this.

The nature/full extent of what Peridot is in terms of being an experiment is not revealed until the beginning of Act III. Peridot’s identity as a hybrid Diamond and an ascended gem is not made known to the main cast until Chapter 3 (Steven only; Garnet also found out, but was silenced and internally damaged before acknowledging it) and is fully revealed by Chapter 5.

By the end of Chapter 8, it is confirmed that Steven and Peridot’s Alter Egos can fuse into the mythical “Diamond of Miracles”, a legend White Diamond spoke of and wished to invoke in Chapter 6.

Romance Ensues: Chapter 6 of This is Who I Am almost exclusively features Sphalerite and 5XF on an uninhabited island while recovering from the traumatic events of the previous chapter that have Steven and Peridot completely out of commission. For the last 3 days of the vacation, it’s only Sphalerite and 5XF who share similar identity issues and learn about themselves and each other… which eventually leads to this.

Ruling Couple: Generally defied with Steven and Peridot for the stories set after Act III, though that reportedly hasn’t stopped many refugees from seeing the pair as this. Peri-dise: The Capitalist Anarchy confirms they’re referring to Steven and Peridot as their “king and queen”. Especially since they’re the only living Diamonds left in existence, it was inevitable for the couple to get this kind of label. They’ll have to work hard to convince these gems that they aren’t ruling over them.

Sadistic Choice: A few of these are scattered in the story.

Act I has the dilemma presented in Chapter 7 (which is put in action next chapter) via Sapphire’s Prophecy: Regardless of who brings up the rear in the operation to escape Homeworld, that person will end up being left behind. As Peridot is The Leader of this operation, it’s on her to make the choice who that will be. While it doesn’t take her long to nominate herself, Sapphire does inform Peridot that even if she does this, history is likely to repeat itself as her friends, Steven especially, will inevitably come back and risk everything to save her. Peridot ultimately sticks with her decision.

At Act I’s finale, this is somewhat turned around on Garnet as Steven (who is unaware of the aforementioned prophecy) is determined to save Peridot. She’s faced with respecting Peridot’s decision while breaking Steven’s heart (leading him to resent her), or risking everyone’s safety on the off-chance that Steven might be able to change everyone’s fates for the better, even though that’s blatantly disrespecting Peridot’s final wishes in the worst way possible. Garnet at least attempts to let the latter play out until she can no longer pretend Steven can change fate this late in the game. Luckily, she manages to get her act together in time to keep everyone safe (outside of Peridot, of course), but that ultimately leads to the consequences of the former choice.

Act II brings up one in its final chapter, but it never actually happens in the story: Peridot orders everyone to shatter her should Steven die for any reason, as she’s certain she’ll completely lose herself and be a threat to everyone else. At first it appears to be a Played for Drama scenario, but when everyone finds out Peridot’s an Unwitting Test Subject (and historically, other gems like her had very tragic endings – most infamously was one who nearly committed genocide on Homeworld after the Diamonds killed her close friend behind her back), Bismuth realizes this is a possibility everyone needs to be prepared for. Garnet agrees, but emphasizes on making sure their situation never gets that far in the first place.

Early Act III has Peridot in the middle of another rock and a hard place when she encounters her friends for the first time in a week… but now that she’s Chartreuse Diamond and firmly under White Diamond’s thumb, with White able to hear and see everything they’re doing, it’s a huge risk to simply revert back to being Peridot and running back to her friends. White could immediately kill Peridot or any of her friends at this stage. But that means Peridot’s only real option is to be the Crystal Gems’ enemy, even though she can hardly bring herself to fight them at all. This is the route Peridot ultimately takes once she sees hows hostile her friends are to her Alter Ego (not knowing it’s really her, of course), as this makes Peridot believe even if she did reveal herself at this stage that the Crystal Gems would never take her back and presume Peridot herself is once again the irredeemable traitor they once saw her as when they first met. While she can’t bring herself to truly hurt her friends (especially after severely damaging Garnet on accident), Peridot settles on capturing her friends with far less brutality.

Peridot does eventually return to the Crystal Gems as an ally, but it isn’t long before White captures her again following a Curb-Stomp Battle that she ends up being manipulated into becoming a permanent hostage when White forcibly fuses with Chartreuse to become Celadon Diamond. Just before the fusion, Peridot leaves a note by Steven that’s basically an order to Kill Us Both. Now Steven is faced with either going through with this or risking his friends’ lives fighting a double-diamond fusion. While Steven is crushed by being tasked to make this decision, this choice is soon subverted as Steven finds a way to Take a Third Option.

This is Who I Am Chapter 5 takes this trope to the extreme when a power-corrupt 5XF splits Steven and Peridot into two individuals; one that represents their best traits, and one that represents the worst (dark side vs light side, basically). However, a cruel twist is put on this trope: Peridot and Steven have already achieved total self-acceptance in GA Act III, so fighting their counterparts would be anticlimactic. To remedy this, Light Steven is forced to fight Dark Peridot while Light Peridot must face Dark Steven. The fights are separated by dimensions, so Steven and Peridot have no way to help each other whatsoever. However, since these split personalities are still legitimately part of the full beings they came from, the dark and light sides of one individual are linked; they share each other’s pain, and should one side die, the other will follow. Dark Steven and Dark Peridot aren’t bound by love and fully embody the selfish aspect of their full selves, so they have absolutely no problem offing each other to ensure their own survival. With Light Steven and Light Peridot not willing to harm even the darkest part of their loved one, it’s just a matter of which one will get worn down enough to take out; either way, 5XF organized this pair of deathmatches to ensure that only Peridot or Steven will leave alive. While Steven and Peridot do ultimately make it out of this with their lives, it required Peridot to nearly kill herself (as her Dark side was strangling Light Steven; also felt by Dark Steven) to force both matches to end in a draw. The Peridots were too severely damaged to keep up fighting even after the Stevens healed their wounds, and the Stevens had been strangled for so long that they were in no condition to coherently fight, either.

Second Chapter Cliffhanger: If you’re reading the original Gem Ascension (the one where the individual acts are all one single chapter – and the current Act II was just an Interquel separate from the main series), Act II/Chapter 2 ends with Re:Ascension’s final chapter of Act I involving Peridot’s Heroic Sacrifice.

Secret Relationship: Attempted by Sphalerite and 5XF, since they went out of their way to not be discovered or interrupted during Their First Time by shutting off any digital device that would give away their position. For about two days, they succeeded… then upon coming home next chapter, Garnet consults the pair soon after they arrive and very quickly pieces together the fact that they’re in a relationship. After Sphalerite defuses, it’s not long before Steven and Peridot remember everything their fusion did with 5XF. It’s safe to assume their relationship will become common knowledge with all the Crystal Gems soon enough.

Secret Test of Character: Bismuth and Lapis put Peridot through this in the very first chapter to determine whether or not she’s qualified to lead the charge for the impending rescue mission. Peridot passes with flying colors, but is extremely miffed that her friends had the nerve to pull a stunt like that.

Garnet teases this in Chapter 5 of Act III when she requests Peridot co-lead with her after she’s been rescued and engineers a similar situation to prove her point. Then she does this for real in Plans Change to determine whether or not Peridot’s qualified to make this promotion stick from there on out.

Sequel Hook: Invoked In-Universe so many times in Act III, it’s ridiculous… but justified. There’s tons of ways GA can be (and currently has been, to some degree) continued, given the number of loose ends it concludes on.

Shared Family Quirks: Made evident in This is Who I Am, both Peridot and 5XF are Tsunderes when their sentimentality is pointed out. 5XF also shares more than a few traits of how Peridot speaks.

Shipper on Deck: Although only Amethyst, Connie, and Lapis are overt about it, pretty much everyone is cool with Peridot and Steven being together. The only one who shows the slightest hint of discomfort is Pearl, but given the team’s ongoing dire circumstances in the story, it’s really not worth her effort to get too upset about it.

Shout-Out: So many, it needs its own page.

Show Within a Show: Beyond the standard Camp Pining Hearts in canon (which is seldom mentioned in the GA continuity), one unique to GA stands out by the name of The Cost is Correct – a shout-out to The Price is Right. It’s only mentioned and never seen, but it is surprisingly relevant in that it plays a role regarding Peridot’s age. Its rules are the inverse of the real-life equivalent; namely the rule that the winning answer is determined by the person who guesses the closest number/amount without going under.

Sickeningly Sweethearts: Steven and Peridot’s relationship can definitely be seen like this, especially in the Post-GA stories.

Sidekick Glass Ceiling: Defied; Peridot not only retains her promotion as leader of the Crystal Gems (although with Garnet back, they are jointly leading), but her ascension has assured she will be a key figure in the heroes’ restoration project. Likewise, Lapis, Bismuth, and Greg (albeit to a lesser degree because he does have an occupation) are all officially Crystal Gems of equal importance living under the same roof with their own individual rooms.

Signs of the End of Times: Pearl especially is quick to notice how much Homeworld looks like it’s barely hanging by a thread in Act III. Once the Crystal Gems are caught up in an unprecedented downpour not long after returning to Homeworld, Pearl takes this as a major sign that this planet’s end is nigh. Subverted in that said downpour was deliberately caused by Chartreuse Diamond who naïvely hoped to restore life to Homeworld, then zigzagged as she does inadvertently cause landslides and other forms of widescale damage simply for bringing so much rain to a planet that was never conditioned for it. However, the entire planet losing all of its color as a side-effect of White Diamond’s influence is played straight here.

Sitting on the Roof: Steven finds Peridot sitting on his house’s rooftop by herself gazing at the moon at the start of Bottled Up. Peridot allows Steven to join her, and the entire story takes place with them never leaving the roof. The scenario is reprised in the final chapter of This is Who I Am as the pair tries to calm down and reflect on the hell they just went through during the latter half of their vacation. On both occasions, the couple end up falling asleep in each other’s arms on the roof.

Slow-Motion Fall: Towards the end of Act I, the narrative indicates that in Steven’s perspective, this trope was in effect the entire time Peridot’s Twisted Ankle moment played out.

Slow-Paced Beginning: The first two chapters of Act I (or the entirety of Act I in regard to how GA was originally released) fully revolve around planning and preparation for the rescue mission to Homeworld outlined at the very beginning. Chapter 3 deals with team bonding and final planning stages and ends only when they’re about to disembark upon reaching their destination. The first three chapters in general can also be considered a Prolonged Prologue. The mission itself (and actual events during it) starts in Chapter 4. On top of that, the Crystal Gems do not properly reunite until Chapter 6.

So Crazy, It Must Be True: In Chapter 8 of Act II, once Steven proves how he used his evolved powers to figure out that Greg, Lapis, and Bismuth had a sing-a-long they never told anyone about back in Chapter 3 of Act I, everyone concedes that whatever is going on with Steven’s powers is the real deal.

Speed Sex: An interesting variant in that both Steven and Peridot fall victim to premature ejaculation when attempting Their First Time. In fact, Peridot’s probably more at fault than Steven since she not only came first, but locked Steven out from inserting himself any further before he followed suit. Although Steven managed to keep his fluid entirely inside of Peridot, he couldn’t get more than the head of his phallus inside her before she climaxed. So, it wasn’t just premature; Steven was barely able to penetrate her at all, which would suggest that despite their efforts to throw caution to the wind, this couple still hasn’t had proper sexual intercourse.

Split Personality Merge: Steven and Peridot’s fragmented light and dark sides ultimately come together to become their full selves again, but they require 5XF’s help to do this, as she was the one who fragmented their personas to begin with and is in possession of the only means to bring them back together. With some forceful persuasion by 5XG, 5XF finally complies.

Stargazing Scene: This is the nature of the final scene in GA’s main series with Steven and Peridot on their first date. Chapter 3 of This is Who I Am also has a scene of this for Steven and Peridot in the Sahara Desert. It’s a Birthday, Yes It Is Chapter 2 closes out with Steven and Peridot stargazing from bed in their secret hideaway on the Moon.

Starts Stealthily, Ends Loudly: In Act I, the Crystal Gems try to be careful, quiet, and discrete when they first make it to Homeworld. They’re well aware their mission will be next to impossible if they’re being actively pursued from the start, and they’re nowhere near strong enough to confront Homeworld’s gems (much less the Diamonds) on their own. By Chapter 6, shortly after the last of the imprisoned Crystal Gems are rescued, they’re all discovered by White Diamond. A Heroic Sacrifice by Blue Diamond allows them to escape, rest, and plan out the remainder of their escape route from there. However, by the time the Crystal Gems are closing in on their goal, the Diamonds corner them and force them into a giant battle with their escape route less than a mile away.

This can apply to the story overall, as well. The first few chapters of Act I are relatively tame since it’s the “planning” phase of the rescue mission that largely happens before the Crystal Gems even leave Earth. There’s even a large emphasis on the importance of a stealthy approach. By the end of Act III, it’s a race against time before Homeworld’s Earth-Shattering Kaboom.

Status Quo is God: Averted so hard. Most Post-GA stories have at least one scene where someone’s dwelling on the fact that Nothing is the Same Anymore.

Stranger in a Familiar Land: Pretty much all of the Crystal Gems fit in with this trope in regard to Homeworld. With the exception of Peridot, everyone is primarily a Fish Out of Temporal Water; just as Lapis was in canon (and still is). Although it hasn’t even been a year since Peridot left Homeworld for Earth, it’s still very unsettling for her to step back into its atmosphere. Once she begins to regain her memories of her Homeworld life, Peridot quickly loses any lingering affection she still had for her old home.

Streisand Effect: While Era 2 gems (and even the majority of Era 1s) were blinded by the Propaganda Machine facilitated by the Diamonds to keep them ignorant of certain historical past events that expose the empire’s flaws (most notoriously, the war on Earth with Rose Quartz’s rebellion after Pink Diamond’s apparent death), there remains a single event in the distant past that nearly destroyed Homeworld from the inside that absolutely could not be covered up no matter how hard the Diamonds tried. The “Lone Twin Massacre”, a civil war between the Diamond Authority and Fluorite – a heterochromatic gem who could commune with any shattered gem’s spirit – broke out after the latter lost her sanity due to the Diamonds murdering a gem she was close to. Her powers enabled her to amass an overwhelmingly large army of deceased gems who were similarly wronged by the Diamonds (thus were easy for Fluorite to recruit). She also had the power to shatter a gem with a mere touch. While the Diamonds eventually managed to eliminate Fluorite and her undead army, Homeworld lost 85% of its population in that short-lived conflict. Colony planet development was severely delayed due to this, and it took many hundreds of years for Homeworld to recover from these losses. Future heterochromatic gems were shunned by society due to this, and had White Diamond not stepped in, it’s entirely possible that Fluorite would have eliminated the Authority – this event was a major black mark on the Diamonds’ credibility, and consequently it became illegal to even speak of White Diamond. The fallout from this event is immense; the Diamonds couldn’t spin this story to make them look better. Consequently, it was only a matter of time before the truth became public knowledge. Even Peridot and 5XF, gems made very late in Era 2, know of this historical moment.

Symbolic Blood: Represented as bright “superfluid light” that pours out from Peridot’s wounds as she’s blocking an energy blade with her bare hands to keep it from cutting her neck. It oozes from her nearly-severed fingers and sprays out gratuitously when the blade ultimately reaches her neck. All of this was an illusion made by White Diamond to invoke Your Mind Makes It Real on Peridot to overcome her Heroic Willpower.

Their First Time: Happens in It’s a Birthday, Yes It Is Chapter 2 despite Peridot and Steven’s attempts to resist going that far. However, it was probably the worst kind of “first time” a couple could possibly have. So bad to the point that both Steven and Peridot would Retcon it if they could.

A few months earlier, this happened with 5XF and Sphalerite in This is Who I Am Chapter 6. They had a much better experience… that is to say, so good that their “first time” technically lasted 41 hours.

Three Act Structure: Gem Ascension was intended to function this way from the start. Played straight in both the original release and Re:Ascension, albeit in differing ways. The original Act I was simply the first two chapters of the current Act I; chapters 3-8 were Act II (as one chapter) while the current Act II was originally relegated to Interquel status. Act III is the same in both versions, but the original is all a single chapter opposed to 9.

This is Gonna Suck: The Crystal Gems’ reactions towards the end of Act III when they realize the responsibility of handling the thousands, if not millions of gems that were transported from Homeworld to Earth falls entirely on them. It only gets worse when they consider the staggering amount of work that needs to be done now that they’ve ended the war, the Diamond Authority is gone, and Homeworld is no more.

Thwarted Escape: The escape sequence in Act I’s finale is basically this, especially for Peridot.

To Absent Friends: In Chapter 1 of Act II, the Crystal Gems discuss Peridot in this vein before Garnet reveals the odds favor Peridot still being alive given their present circumstances. While everyone largely believes and presumes Peridot to be alive throughout Act II, certain characters aren’t ruling out that she could be dead after all.

Trash Talk: The majority of the characters partake of this trope gratuitously in GA, especially in Act III. Peridot’s the one who utilizes it the most, but there’s a good amount of this from Amethyst, Lapis, Bismuth, Ruby, and Connie as well.

Trilogy Creep: Despite the deliberate Sequel Hooks late in Act III, there weren’t initially any plans to expand on the Gem Ascension continuity beyond the original three-act novel. A little over a month later, a total of six stories related to the GA continuity were released. An additional one-shot was released late in the summer. All stories are completed as of August 2019, but there are plans for even more stories to come in the future.

Troubled Fetal Position: A few characters are reduced to this across the series. Peridot, Steven, and 5XF immediately come to mind.

Two Beings, One Body: Per canon, fusions are a thing in the GA continuity. Opal, Sunstone, Rainbow Quartz 2.0, Alexandrite, and Stevonnie are the canon fusions that have appeared in this particular series so far. Sugilite, Smoky Quartz, Sardonyx, and Obsidian have been namedropped, but haven’t yet appeared. There are also new fusions unique to the GA continuity: Moonstone (Lapis/Bismuth), Celadon Diamond (White Diamond/Chartreuse Diamond), Iridescent Diamond (Pink Diamond 2.0/Chartreuse Diamond), and Sphalerite (Steven/Peridot).

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shinneth · 5 years

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Gem Ascension Tropes (Peridot-specific: T - U)

Reference:

Primary Peri Post ▼ Primary General Post ▼ Full Article

Teleportation: Post-ascension, Peridot can use her willpower to do this so long as she knows about and can visualize the spot she wants to teleport herself (and/or others) to. Attempting this without that knowledge can result in a fatal Teleportation Misfire.

Mass Teleportation: With the help of Steven’s aura abilities to locate the gems remaining on Homeworld, Peridot exerts her willpower to poof and bubble all of these gems simultaneously, then by carefully reciting specific coordinates, teleports every single gem back to the temple on Earth. While Peridot pulls this off, she’s afflicted with a massive headache for performing this feat as herself instead of her superior Diamond Alter Ego.

That Gem is Dead: Midway through Act I, Peridot’s various encounters on her first visit to Homeworld since she left for her Earth mission cause her to remember the moments of her life on her planet of origin in much greater detail; consequently, Peridot is forced to acknowledge that as a Homeworld gem, she was far worse than she made herself out to be. However, Peridot doesn’t forget who she is now; she acknowledges through her Character Development after aligning with the Crystal Gems that she is no longer the 5XG who bullied her fellow gems and often got them needlessly shattered through social sabotage. This doesn’t stop her from feeling immensely guilty over her past actions, but Peridot remains firm in that she is no longer the amoral, sociopathic gem she emerged as. By Act III, Peridot starts to falter on this – especially when White Diamond forces her to relive the memories of her worst moments as 5XG – though by this point, Peridot’s dealing with far more issues than just a shady past life. Faced with being an Unwitting Test Subject, resigned to being White’s prisoner on Homeworld with no hope of being rescued by her friends, and enduring an endless week-long torture with no one but White for company is almost enough to make Peridot regress back to her old self. However, it isn’t long after the Crystal Gems do indeed come back for her that Peridot realizes her self-worth as the gem she worked hard to become despite how awful she used to be. While Peridot’s guilt over her past actions lingers, she ultimately learns to forgive herself with Steven’s help. The trope is ultimately reconstructed; while “5XG” is no longer considered the aspect of Peridot that defines who she is as a whole, she is accepted as a legitimate part of Peridot herself, as well as acknowledged to be a necessary component of Peridot’s current identity – she wouldn’t have aspired to become greater than herself if she was never a conniving, sadistic menace to society with so much gem dust on her hands.

(After reliving the first part of the memory of her encounter with 3UI as her former self) Peridot: “That isn’t me anymore… it’s not… 5XG died a long time ago! I-I’m just Peridot, and that’s all there is to it!”

These Hands Have Killed: No matter how much Peridot has become a better gem to atone for her many past crimes, it will never change the fact that she has lived most of her life as a remorseless sociopath who was not only willing to kill anyone in her way she viewed as an obstacle in her path to glory and success, but enjoyed doing so and reveled in the suffering of her fellow gems. Peridot is fully aware there’s nothing she can do to truly make up for her past actions, and this proves to be one of, if not the biggest source of her inner conflict in GA. The guilt she lives with on a daily basis due to this trope proves to be what prevents her from being able to fuse with Steven. At least half of Peridot’s Video Wills in Act II have her lamenting over this; she often brings this trope up to discourage anyone from rescuing her. She not only doesn’t want her friends to risk their lives coming back just for her sake, but Peridot staunchly believes her indefinite imprisonment on Homeworld is the punishment she deserves and should serve her time incarcerated.

This is Unforgivable!: Invokes this in Chapter 6 of Act III when Sanity Slippage starts getting the best of her. She very loudly vocalizes her hatred of White Diamond and how reprehensible she is before trying to slice her neck open.

Thought-Controlled Power: The basic definition Peridot’s ascended powers. While Chartreuse is limited only by her imagination, Peridot risks her own wellbeing if she tries to consistently perform at Chartreuse’s level due to her body having a much harder time channeling that much raw power.

Time to Step Up, Commander: How Peridot became leader of the Crystal Gems in the first place.

Tiny Tyrannical Girl: Played for laughs in the present day, but played disturbingly straight during references or flashbacks to Peridot’s life on Homeworld. To say she was a Manipulative Bastard back then is an understatement, so Peridot did genuinely have many of these traits back in the day.

Took a Level in Badass: One of the central themes of Peridot’s character and the story in general is how she has to step up and rise from Plucky Comic Relief to Hero Protagonist in order to save her friends. This trope is an integral component in that transition.

Town Girls: The Neither to Lapis’ Femme and Bismuth’s Butch.

Trapped in Another World: Although Peridot spent most of her time as a prisoner within her gemstone to avoid dealing with her in real life, White Diamond found a way to even mess with her safe space. For six days, Peridot has been forced into various different worlds, all of them terrifying and filled with things trying to kill her, forcing her to be constantly on the run. She goes through several of these, but the only one even partially shown in the story is the Slenderman Shout-Out world.

Trauma-Induced Amnesia: While Peridot made herself forget many aspects of her Homeworld life after her Heel-Face Turn, they were fairly easily regained when she returned to Homeworld. Only one memory remained deeply buried into her psyche and wouldn’t be unearthed so easily: the first time Peridot met Jasper. It took 5XF’s deductive skills and Steven’s intervention for Peridot to recall this awful moment in her life, as it nearly shattered her entire identity.

Traumatic Superpower Awakening: White Diamond puts Peridot through relentless torture (almost life-threatening) just to speed up the process of harvesting a diamond from Peridot’s gemstone that would have taken centuries to form on its own. In order to fully awaken, Peridot has to accept that She Can’t Fight Fate and submit to her own diamond. Then, she’ll fully ascend. Naturally, Determinator Peridot won’t concede even after the torture she went through. Ultimately, another power struggle ensues as White Diamond tries to fragment Peridot’s mind to take her fiery determination and defiance out of the equation, so she’ll be much easier to manipulate. In order to do that, she needs to render Peridot unconscious, so she orchestrates a very dire situation where a giant blade is set to lacerate Peridot’s throat and all she can do to stop it is with an agonizing Bare-Handed Blade Block. Locked in another stalemate, White Diamond resorts to conjuring a projection of Steven with his voice to trick Peridot into Delirious Misidentification long enough to overpower her at last. Peridot, stunned in shock via a Slashed Throat, thinks she actually got Tricked to Death and passes out, allowing White Diamond to finally mess with her mind and engineer Peridot to be receptive to her new powers. One short conversation later after Peridot wakes up, White Diamond assists in fully awakening Chartreuse Diamond into existence.

Triangle Shades: Receives her canon CYM upgrade in the first chapter of Act III.

Tricked to Death: Falls victim to this when a very convincing mirage of Steven (conjured by White Diamond) breaks her focus from keeping a blade from giving her a Slashed Throat. Subverted in that, being a gem, this doesn’t actually kill Peridot, but at the time it looked pretty damn convincing – enough so that she lost consciousness after this.

Trickster Girlfriend: Downplayed due to her Character Development, but Peridot’s penchant for trolling Steven for shits and giggles doesn’t end just because they’re dating now. And sure enough, Steven has already acknowledged that Peridot’s more esoteric traits play into how his love for her went beyond the platonic level.

Troubled Story Flashback: The flashback shown in Chapter 3 of This is Who I Am shows the precise moment of Peridot’s fall from grace way back when she was still a Manipulative Bastard shortly after discovering the Crystal Gems. Specifically, the moment Jasper is assigned as Peridot’s escort (as well as Yellow Pearl’s speech highlighting how screwed Peridot is shortly before meeting Jasper) is when Peridot gets a very nasty wake-up call to reality. While far from being anything resembling “reformed” coming out of that traumatic event, it leaves Peridot so shaken that the stoic, sociopathic, cunning, and pain-resistant traits she was once notorious for embodying almost completely vanish from that point going forward. While she didn’t completely lose her ambition, Peridot’s forced to look at her goals realistically and understand most of the goals she strived for simply aren’t possible for a gem like herself.

Trying Not to Cry: Often attempted, but more often than not fails. One of Peridot’s biggest weaknesses is her inability to hide how she truly feels by trying to maintain a strong, invincible demeanor in the face of adversity. After an initial fit of crying when she’s forced to remember a particularly traumatic memory in This is Who I Am Chapter 3, Peridot does finally manage to pull this off for Steven’s sake.

Tsundere: Tsuntsun Types 3 & 4. Deredere Types 2, 4, & 6.

Twisted Ankle: Peridot was so close to reaching her friends before the final door dropped, but all it took to fail was a single misstep that made her trip. Due to how fast she was running, the trip sent her crashing head-first into a door mere inches away from freedom. This shatters Peridot’s visor and concusses her. Combined with the fatigue from the constant running, she’s too weak for her metal powers to get the door to budge and has no means to hack her way out (not that she’d have the ability to concentrate on that, anyway…).

Undying Loyalty: Steven, Steven, Steven. Well, Peridot does have this for the rest of the Crystal Gems, but it was her loyalty to Steven specifically that made Peridot get her act together and never give up in her endeavors, no matter how often she screwed up. This only briefly falls out at the start of Act III, solely for the reason that Peridot is under the impression that she is stuck on Homeworld for good and will never see Steven again, which forces her to compromise her loyalty to Steven when he does come back for her. However, it completely tears her up inside (and she is mentally compromised when he returns). It isn’t long before she’s looking for the perfect opportunity to come back to Steven, and luckily for Peridot, she finds the right moment to come back and make amends for her transgressions.

The Unfettered: Exclusive to her pre-Earth Homeworld persona. Atypical of her kind, Peridot quickly developed ambition to not only rise above the rest of her kind, but even outdo gems above her in the caste system, even though Peridots had a strict glass ceiling they were never meant to break. Peridot did not once hesitate to get any gem who threatened her ambition eliminated by any means necessary, all the while being clever enough to cover her tracks so that she would never be caught breaking the rules. If she “befriended” any gem (or was even the least bit cordial towards them), it was always done so Peridot could use them to further propel herself up the ranks.

This aspect of Peridot was forcibly diminished once her promotion led to her being assigned with Jasper as an escort. As Chapter 3 of This is Who I Am shows, Reality Ensues when Peridot finds herself in a bind she can’t manipulate her way out of with Jasper. While it’s only a Near-Rape Experience, Peridot was overwhelmed by so many unfamiliar feelings in that moment that it actually Broke the Haughty. While not completely succumbing to it, Peridot’s latent submissive qualities that are normally ingrained into her kind from the point of emergence awakened from this, which permanently shook her up to the point where she couldn’t be unfettered any longer. She finally understood how delusional her aspirations were.

Unlikely Hero: Given how often she screws up in the first half of Act I and considering her canon history… if you called Peridot becoming a legitimate hero who would go on to become a key figure in Era 3’s gem society, and was The Chosen One all this time, then you are a liar.

Unstoppable Rage: Sorrow and grief is more prevalent, but rage is definitely there when Peridot’s Heroic BSoD after Pumpkin’s death invokes this. If nothing else, Peridot’s not only filled with rage towards White Diamond (and Homeworld itself) over her loss, but also herself in reference to her behavior right before Pumpkin died. She cries endlessly and inadvertently summons a massive storm across an already-dying Homeworld. Her Involuntary Shapeshift to Chartreuse Diamond in the midst of this worsens the collateral damage her rage causes, including the shattering of every establishment still standing on Homeworld.

There’s actually a moment in Act I that qualifies here, too. Late in Chapter 4 of Act I, once Peridot successfully gains Yellow Pearl’s gemstone as a makeshift Skeleton Key. Her menacing Smug Snake demeanor fades when Bismuth and Lapis try to snap her out of it… then Peridot remembers where she is, and after the trauma of what she went through with 9FC earlier finally sinks into her mind, combined with the memories she’s regaining from working in Homeworld becomes too much to bear. She entertains the thought of shattering the helpless poofed Peridots, but ultimately focuses her rage on her own console. By the time Lapis and Bismuth dare to return to retrieve Peridot, they find she bashed said console into powder.

Unwanted Rescue: Literally every single Video Will Peridot makes to her friends in Act II has her begging each individual Crystal Gem to not go back to Homeworld just to save her. Various reasons include not being worth going back and risking everyone’s lives to rescue (opposed to Steven, Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Connie – Peridot firmly believes they’re all worth risking everything to be rescued, especially as a collective unit), not able to handle the inevitable guilt of someone getting harmed, captured, or killed because of her, not wanting her friends to fall into White Diamond’s painfully obvious trap since Peridot herself is the bait being used… and to some gems, Peridot even confesses that she doesn’t deserve to be rescued after remembering what a horrible gem she used to be on Homeworld; thus she sees her imprisonment as serving time for the crimes she legitimately committed in the past. She questions her own worthiness as a Crystal Gem in light of her many past crimes. …Of course, the Crystal Gems promptly ignore these pleas without a second thought. Certain gems, such as Garnet, find it amusing how Peridot’s attempting to use this trope to hide how desperate she is to be saved and just wants to go home.

Unwitting Test Subject: The first case of one since before Era 1 ended. Peridot was among some of the last gems created on Homeworld, therefore White Diamond had one last opportunity to conduct an experiment she was on the fence about doing in the past, which was namely to add a broken shard of Yellow Diamond along with her own diamond dust into a gem’s injector fluid to enhance their inherent abilities. For what Peridot was subjected to specifically, White Diamond wanted to see if she could create a new Diamond from another gem.

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shinneth · 5 years

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Gem Ascension Tropes (General: C - E)

Refer to the initial post for details on this. Here’s the full version on Google Docs.

Call-Back: There are loads of these in GA. So much that, much like Shout-Outs and Mythology Gags, really warrants its own page.

Campfire Character Exploration: Happens towards the end of Act I’s first chapter with Peridot and Greg. A similar scene plays out late in Chapter 6 of Act II; this time with Greg, Lapis, and Bismuth.

Capital Letters are Magic: Word of God imposed an unorthodox rule in the story: in the context of a gem’s gemstone, the name of the gemstone (which matches the gem’s by default) will not be capitalized. So, Peridot’s gemstone will be referred to as a peridot. However, in reference to the hard light forms of Peridot’s fellow kind that aren’t her specifically, whether individually or in a group, they are referred to as Peridots (or a singular Peridot). The rationale is that while the gem species will always be lower-case as it would be for any kind of species, the specific type of gem is more analogous to a nationality/ethnicity, which is always capitalized for humans on Earth. So, gems in their hard light forms such as Peridots and Pearls are (as far as grammar is concerned) analogous to Americans and Germans.

The only exception to the rule is quartz, which is always left in lowercase unless the type of quartz is specified, as there haven’t been any gems in canon that were ever just called “Quartz”. That might make quartzes more like another subclass, such as a “superhuman”.

Clip Show Episode: Chapter 7 of Act II can be seen as a slight parody of this, as the climax is comprised of a collection of excerpts from Peridot’s Video Wills from each chapter of Act II up to this point, including a repeated part of the message introduced earlier this chapter. Justified, since this is presented as a group-effort project (led by Amethyst) in order to awaken Steven from the Angst Coma he put himself into at the end of Chapter 1, and snap him out of his Heroic BSoD regarding his refusal to watch Peridot’s message to him.

Coitus Ensues: After Romance Ensues for Sphalerite and 5XF in This is Who I Am, it transitions to this pretty quickly. Chapter 6 ends just as they start getting into it. The following chapter timeskips this, but makes it very clear the last 41 hours was full of nothing but this for the couple.

Colorful Theme Naming: For certain characters that are exclusive to GA’s continuity, they follow a similar naming pattern to their canon counterparts, but deviate a little. Peridot’s Super-Powered Alter Ego is named Chartreuse Diamond, while the fusion comprised of Chartreuse and White Diamond is called Celadon Diamond. Steven’s awakened form is named after his mother as Pink Diamond 2.0.

Commonality Connection: 5XF and Sphalerite quickly bonded over their shared issue of trying to find out who they really are; Sphalerite hasn’t existed long enough to learn who she is independent of Steven and Peridot, while 5XF has to completely start from scratch as a Homeworld refugee learning how to live for herself for the first time in her life.

Convenient Cranny: In Chapter 7 of Act I, while Peridot and Sapphire are stuck together in a crowded terminal, Sapphire informs Peridot of a small hiding space like this that they’re closing in on and can use for cover. Sure enough, it’s found moments later; Peridot and Sapphire duck into the alcove just in time to evade Yellow Diamond and the pallified Blue Diamond.

Costume Evolution: Peridot and Lapis reform at the very start of GA with a cheap upgrade (basically stars added where diamonds once were on their original outfits). By the end of Chapter 6 in Act I, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl receive their canon CYM outfits upon reforming. Lapis is poofed midway into the final chapter of Act I and reforms in the final scene of said act with her CYM ensemble. Peridot poofs offscreen after Act I and doesn’t reform until the second scene of Act III’s opening chapter, where she finally gets her CYM upgrade.

Crapsack World: Homeworld, per canon. Probably even more exaggerated in GA, though. On top of the fact that Individuality is Illegal, it’s both told and shown through Peridot just how cutthroat the environment is for the working class. She pretty much had to be a Manipulative Bastard just to get the opportunity to learn life could be better than that.

Crisis Makes Perfect: Throughout Act III, Steven and Peridot attempt to fuse on two separate occasions – both times result in failure that neither can make sense of, but it strongly implies Peridot’s Era 2 limitations simply make her incapable of it, much to her despair. It’s later proved that Peridot can be fused with in Chapter 7, but that was through a forced fusion with White Diamond where Peridot had little to no control or involvement as Celadon Diamond. Once Peridot is so heavily triggered by Pumpkin’s death that her rage and agony actively tears apart the already-dying Homeworld throughout Chapter 8, she brings about the Darkest Hour for everyone as it becomes apparent that everyone’s going to die along with Homeworld. Steven takes it upon himself to calm Peridot down; not only to stop her destructive behavior, but to fuse their Alter Egos to make the Diamond of Miracles, which is their only hope coming out of this situation with their lives. It’s unknown at the time whether or not Pink 2.0 and Chartreuse’s fusion is the miracle diamond; it could just as easily be a fusion of Pink 2.0 and White Diamond, and presumed to be more likely given Steven and Peridot’s fusion track record. However, with some intensive Epiphany Therapy, Peridot (as Chartreuse) can finally fuse with Steven (as Pink 2.0) – they become Iridescent Diamond, the miracle-granting Diamond they need to survive Homeworld’s apocalypse – and manage to escape Homeworld just before it explodes.

Cult of Personality: Per canon, the Diamond Authority as a whole has been this for untold amounts of millennia. It’s especially prevalent with the propaganda-fed Era 2 gems like Peridot, who weren’t around during the infamous war with Rose Quartz rebelling against the order. In GA, this mostly applies to White Diamond exclusively, as Yellow and Blue aren’t around long enough to properly represent any kind of threat or notoriety to the Crystal Gems. Although Peridot has long since overcome this sensationalism in canon, she and Steven legitimately worry that this Diamond Propaganda will shift over to their Diamond Alter Egos after the main GA series, now that the OG Diamond Authority and Homeworld are gone and they’re left to guide millions of confused Homeworld gems who were abruptly immigrated to Earth.

Curb-Stomp Battle: The Crystal Gems are on the losing end of one in Chapter 6 of Act III after it’s revealed the White Diamond they’ve spent so much time fighting is a fake.

Darker and Edgier: Compared to Change Your Mind, yes, GA very much is. Word of God phrases Gem Ascension’s premise basically as “What would happen if everything just went to pot after the first few minutes of CYM?”. It’s not all-serious, all the time, but unlike CYM, there are quite a few major character deaths, not every villain is redeemed, and the story ends giving Status Quo is God the middle finger.

Darkest Hour: Chapter 8 of Act III is where this happens. The situation is bleak enough at this point, as the Crystal Gems’ spaceship has been obliterated. While Peridot finally managed to break out of the Celadon Diamond fusion, Greg is severely injured, and Pumpkin succumbs to her wounds not long after reuniting with Peridot. Prior to this, Peridot (who never suffered loss like this before) was in hysterics and highly unstable. Steven forced himself to implement tough love to drag Peridot back down to reality after the latter snapped and brutally hit Lapis, but by the time Peridot got her act together, Pumpkin died. Heroic BSoD ensues, combined with an Angst Nuke, and suddenly Peridot is unwittingly tearing up an already-dying Homeworld with her agony alone. Once she Involuntarily Shapeshifts into Chartreuse Diamond, every structure still standing on Homeworld is shattered into pieces and all forms of transport crumble, which eliminates any hope of the Crystal Gems finding another way off the planet. Peridot is so consumed with grief that she can’t hear anyone else, and the storm she conjured is so potent that it’s dangerous to even get near her. It’s looking like foregone conclusion that the Crystal Gems will be going down with Homeworld after all. Once the group spots White Diamond approaching them again, Steven realizes he has to act before White tries to force him into fusion. The only hope he and his friends have now of leaving Homeworld alive is to make the Diamond of Miracles a reality – and most don’t even believe such a being truly exists. Even more unlikely is Steven and Peridot’s Alter Egos being the miracle they’re looking for, as the pair has not been able to fuse at all. At this stage, however, Steven either has to make it work, or be obliterated with his friends.

Dawn of an Era: Garnet believes in Plans Change that Era 3 starts now, rather than a week or so prior during the Era 3 ball on Homeworld. Thematically, it is more appropriate to consider a time post-GA to be the real starting point of Era 3, given how much of a drastic shake-up there is in the status quo, as well as an entirely different setting for most of gemkind where they’ll lead vastly different lives than they had in the past two eras.

Death of Personality: Another way to interpret a pallified gem.

Delaying the Rescue: Steven attempts to defy this at the end of Act II, but the Crystal Gems begrudgingly acknowledge that they should return to Homeworld only when they’re better-prepared to take on whatever traps White Diamond has laid out for them, as well as how to fare in White Diamond’s Homeworld. They all hate having to leave Peridot to be tortured for so long, but know there’s no point in going back if they don’t know what they’re doing. Especially since Peridot made it clear in her messages that she’d never forgive them if anyone was to lose their life attempting to rescue her.

Despair Event Horizon: Once Steven and Peridot’s Alter Egos form the Diamond of Miracles, White Diamond – while she doesn’t outright say as much – is done. She was so certain she would be this mythical being and make her planet perfect again, but instead White is now reliant on the two people she tormented the most and was driven to make minions of. Her omniscient powers mean nothing now since there are no bodies left to snatch (and on top of that, she no longer has subjects to lord over), and the Crystal Gems don’t hesitate to rub it in White’s face that she has nothing left. Though it’s mostly at Steven’s behest, the Crystal Gems won’t even kill her and are quick to dismiss White once they’re finally granted a way off Homeworld. Above everything else White lost, her relevance and her legacy are what she can’t bear to lose most of all. She attacks the Crystal Gems one final time with the Energy Donation Steven granted her on request, but that was not only thwarted, but Peridot nearly destroyed her with her own attack… until she saw White Diamond’s fear, which was much more satisfying to the low-caste gem than a shattering. Added with suffering a final parting shot from Connie, which gave her form blemishes, White could no longer live with herself. The mightiest of all Diamonds being terrified of a Peridot and cracked by a human was too much to bear… and a short while later, White self-destructed.

Don’t Look Back: At the climax of Act I when the Crystal Gems escape through the terminal tunnel to their spaceship, this order from Peridot is the last time most of the Crystal Gems hear from her until they reunite with her in Act III.

Doomed Hometown: Homeworld. Once White Diamond starts a hostile takeover of her own planet at the end of Act I, infecting every bit of it with her pallification, the planet itself is drained of what little structural integrity it still had and is set to crumble. The planet itself is completely gone near the end of Act III.

Downer Ending: Compared to Change Your Mind, it certainly is. On its own, it isn’t so bad as there’s an optimistic view that everything is starting on a clean slate and will be done better this time around. But compare that to White, Yellow, and Blue Diamond all still being alive (and White Pearl) in CYM, now friendly with Steven and the Crystal Gems, and casually visiting to enjoy time with everyone on Earth… meanwhile tying up every possible loose end, including curing all of the corrupted gems. Gem Ascension concludes with many loose ends, on top of another set of gems in need of a cure outside of the corrupted.

Dream People: Peridot and Steven have grown very close together even before they became an Official Couple, so it’s no surprise that Peridot’s idealized perception of Steven who takes place of the real deal in her imagination and dreams looks and acts almost exactly like Steven himself. When Peridot is imprisoned in her own subconscious with him in Chapter 2 of Act III, she talks to him just like she would with the real Steven. And while under the impression that she’ll never see the real Steven again at the time, Peridot is more than happy to cherish her imaginary Steven as the next-best thing she’ll ever be able to have.

Dual Age Modes: Chartreuse Diamond and Pink Diamond 2.0 are not only a great deal taller, but have much more developed bodies than Peridot and Steven.

Earned Stripes: How one can interpret Lapis and Peridot gaining stars on their outfits after reforming. Even more prevalent in GA since they first reform with their original outfits only with stars added, then Lapis reforms a second time at the end of Act I with the new outfit she gained in CYM. Peridot follows suit at the start of Act III.

Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Homeworld’s fate when Gem Ascension concludes.

End of an Age: As Gem Ascension ends, it’s evident that life for the Crystal Gems will never be the same again, but for entirely different reasons from Change Your Mind.

Not only is the Diamond Authority completely eradicated, but Homeworld itself no longer exists.

Homeworld’s colonies are still intact, but have no idea what happened to their home base. It’s a safe bet many will devolve into anarchy with civil wars abound once they learn the truth.

Most gems who lived on Homeworld were rescued, but the majority are pallid and thus stuck in stasis like their corrupted counterparts. And unlike CYM, no cure has been made for either affliction, which means that is an ongoing endeavor made doubly harder.

The Homeworld gems who aren’t affected have abruptly immigrated to Earth and are just as Locked Out of the Loop as their brethren in the colonies. It’s up to the Crystal Gems to educate thousands of confused and terrified citizens what happened and what their lives will be like from here on out.

Getting Homeworld gems adapted to Earth will be hard enough, but it will be even harder for them to comprehend how to live free from Diamond rule. It won’t help when they eventually learn Steven and Peridot’s Alter Egos are the only Diamonds left in existence, as the couple have no desire to continue the regime of their predecessors.

Unfortunately, they will have to use their Diamond identities to make any headway with the colonies, meaning Steven and Peridot are doomed to be put on a pedestal and garner a lot of unwanted public attention.

Garnet invokes this in Plans Change, when she voices her belief that Era 3 didn’t start with the ball that took place shortly after Steven went to Homeworld. Instead, she believes Era 3 starts at this point, on a clean slate, where life will be completely different for everyone.

Enemy Civil War: The fate of the Homeworld colonies after the events of GA, or at least the presumed fate. The Crystal Gems intend to set things straight after they figure out how to run their own operation on Earth.

Ensemble Cast: During Act II.

Epistolary Novel: Act II

Evil Power Vacuum: Acknowledged In-Universe in Act III after the deaths of Yellow and Blue Diamond. It’s a bit hard to ignore the fact that White Diamond obliterated two thirds of her own order, so it’s painfully obvious why she seeks to have Pink Diamond 2.0 and Chartreuse Diamond under her thumb.

Exposition Beam: Used twice only in Act III. In Chapter 4, Steven uses his empath abilities while touching Peridot’s gemstone to link their minds; not only to catch up on what he missed with her over the past six days, but to figure out what exactly White Diamond did to her mind so he’ll know how to fix her current problem. This ends up backfiring in the form of a traumatic side effect, unfortunately. In Chapter 5, Peridot does this for the rest of her friends, only this time using her gemstone as a Mental Picture Projector rather than directly linking minds with them.

Exposition Cut: As lengthy as GA is, there are a few times where this is put in place. Namely a speech from Peridot that starts at the end of Chapter 6 transitions to Peridot ending her speech at the opening of Chapter 7. Another exposition speech told by Peridot is cut like this in Chapter 5 of Act III.

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shinneth · 5 years

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Gem Ascension Tropes (Peridot-specific: N - O)

Reference:

Primary Peri Post ▼ Primary General Post ▼ Full Article

The Napoleon: Per canon. Needless to say, during the brief time she has limb enhancers again in Act I, she doesn’t hesitate to revel in being taller than her friends – it’s really the only kind of joy Peridot can get from them. In Act III, this trope carries over to Chartreuse Diamond as well.

Native Guide: Best qualified for this position when the Crystal Gems are on Homeworld.

The Navigator: Is this by default, since Peridot is the only one who’s lived on modern-day Homeworld and thus the only one who has any idea of where to go and how to get there.

Near-Rape Experience: In This is Who I Am Chapter 3, Peridot reveals this is how her first meeting with Jasper went down, and the only reason Jasper didn’t go through with it was due to catching sight of the arriving Lapis. The moment Jasper set eyes on Lapis, she completely lost interest in dominating Peridot and exclusively subjected Lapis to this abuse instead. Still, enough happened to Peridot that not only scarred her for life, but gave her one hell of an identity crisis.

Nice, Mean, and In-Between: The In-Between to Bismuth’s Nice and Lapis’ Mean.

No Poker Face: Right up there with Suspiciously Specific Denial on why Peridot is the most unconvincing liar in the universe. Averted only once in GA during Chapter 4 of Act I, and that is entirely due to Peridot being in Heroic Safe Mode, where her former Manipulative Bastard persona takes over.

Nonhuman Humanoid Hybrid: A Peridot made with a shard of Yellow Diamond inside her gemstone, along with diamond dust from White Diamond – which consequently makes her a Peridot/Diamond hybrid, although Peridot’s Diamond identity and abilities are benign until White Diamond speeds up the developmental process that would have taken hundreds of years on its own.

Not Afraid of You Anymore: Per canon, this was already the case with Yellow Diamond (now made even more trivial with how easily Peridot neutralizes her as a threat in Act I). Peridot is rightfully terrified of White Diamond, however, as she’s a threat well above Yellow who is largely a mystery. But, by Act III, Peridot is no longer afraid of White Diamond either, after managing to spend almost a week being able to lock her into a stalemate as a Determinator would. Granted, most of Peridot’s lack of fear in this instance is due to being aware of her status as a Hostage MacGuffin.

Not Afraid to Die: If it means Steven will live, Peridot will do so without hesitation if there are no other options.

“Not If They Enjoyed It” Rationalization: Combined with knowing Jasper’s instinctive Might Makes Right justification and the fact that as far as Homeworld law is concerned, everything that happened to Peridot was perfectly legal even if it did fully happen, this leads to Peridot becoming very conflicted on why part of her actually wants Jasper to come back and finish the job (or worse). Peridot’s own natural submissive instincts (that were benign until this incident) came very close to convincing her to concede to her role and embrace the abusive treatment all other Peridots in her position inevitably go through. But in the end, she resists her own instincts and holds firm on the belief that she didn’t deserve what Jasper put her through.

Not Quite Back to Normal: When Chartreuse reverts back to her Peridot form for the first time, there are some minor, but notable differences in Peridot’s appearance that stick from here on out. Theorized to be a side effect of Peridot’s desire to have a more mature body just before she first ascended, she’s gained a bit of height. Not much, but enough to outgrow Amethyst. Of course, once Steven’s Plot-Relevant Age-Up happens, he outgrows her, and Peridot remains the 3rd shortest of the group, as she was pre-ascension. However, Peridot does have a more curvaceous and developed body than she had previously – and her newly-grown diamond still remains fused with her gemstone. These changes stick with her default appearance from that point forward.

Not Quite Dead: Although she sustained a massive concussion during her failed escape attempt at the end of Act I and was presumed Left for Dead by her friends, the most that happened to Peridot afterwards was her poofing back into her gemstone state, where she remained purely to spite White Diamond. Since White Diamond spotted Peridot’s Mismatched Eyes before this, on top of Peridot being the best way to bait Steven back to Homeworld, the Big Bad had no intention of shattering her as she was too valuable in more ways than one.

Not Quite Saved Enough: If only Peridot wasn’t such a klutz…

Not So Different: Both Act I and Act III point out the various personality quirks Peridot shares with Ruby. This is Who I Am invokes this with 5XF.

Not So Stoic: Per canon; re-examined in relation to how she was once legitimately stoic in her early life. A bit of an unfortunately-timed Trauma Conga Line exposed Peridot as this, though Steven points out this actually ended up saving not only Peridot’s life, but Earth (and everyone living there) as well. Steven seeing the cracks in her façade was what compelled him to free her from the Burning Room when she was captured.

Now, Let Me Carry You: Invoked in the final scene of This is Who I Am; while Steven and Peridot have supported each other when their partner falters, more often than not, Steven is the one who does the heavy lifting in this category (to be fair, it’s one of his main gimmicks as a character overall for the entire cast). When they finally have a moment alone together, Peridot takes notice to her boyfriend’s plight and pleads for him to let her be his pillar of emotional support (not knowing yet that Steven is actually mad at her specifically).

Peridot: “Steven… when you go this long without smiling even once, it’s extremely concerning. Please let me share your burden.”

Steven: “Uh, what…?”

Peridot: “Last time we were up here, you offered yourself to act as the buffer for all the stress, anger, and hatred I kept bottled up within me. I can tell just by looking at you; a ball of atmosphere-crushing pressure is tearing away into your innards. So, allow my center of gravity to counterbalance that harmful power.”

Official Couple: With Steven, as of Chapter 5 of Act III.

On Three: How Peridot and Steven prepare for their first kiss.

One of the Kids: Inverted; Peridot goes out of her way to fit in with her fellow gems – all of whom are no less than 5,000+ years old – to give the impression she’s just as ancient, experienced, developed, and “mature” as they are. However, at a mere 13 years of age, Peridot is actually younger than Steven, and most of the Crystal Gems were well aware Peridot was nowhere near their age range even before they learned how old she truly was in Act III.

One-Way Trip: How Peridot perceives the rescue mission in Act I is going to play out for her specifically.

Open Mouth, Insert Foot: No amount of Character Development will save Peridot from falling victim to this trope on a daily basis. She tries, bless her heart, but it’s inevitable that Peridot will run her mouth about something that will incriminate herself and probably offend somebody in the process… and by the time Peridot finally realizes that after shutting her mouth, she’s already in far too deep to salvage the situation.

Our Hero is Dead: How Act I concludes (presumably).

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