#first iteration of this outfit to make any kind of sense as an actual garment lol

[marikodraws]

Took another shot at this old old drawing again :')

[love-takes-work]

Steven Universe Podcast Volume 3: Episode 5: Reunited

This is Volume 3, Episode 5 of the official Steven Universe podcast, looking at the episode "Reunited," including input from Rebecca Sugar and Ian Jones-Quartey.

The official description:

Steven Universe creator Rebecca Sugar and former Executive Producer Ian Jones-Quartey return to provide a detailed look at the creation and execution of "Reunited." Rebecca reveals her original idea for the wedding, the inspiration she drew from old movies like "Fiddler On The Roof" and "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum," and why it was so important for her to get "Reunited" made. Rebecca and Ian also discuss the different fighting styles and abilities of the Diamonds, everybody's wedding outfits, Ronaldo's armor and sword, the Cluster, and how the entire Steven Universe series is so informed by "The Wizard Of Oz!"

This, as usual, is bit long so I’ll do my bullet points of interest, with longer descriptions after the jump.

Highlights:

The episode was not originally meant to open with a song. They added the opening number much later to establish plot elements that needed to be fresh in our minds and also set the stage for how Steven was feeling.

They knew the Cluster arc would culminate in arm wrestling way back when they first invented the Cluster arc.

Musical influences for the opening number and the episode itself included For Me and My Gal, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Fiddler on the Roof.

The Cluster manifesting as an arm while the rest of it stays unformed to spare the Earth is described as "very uncomfortable" for the gestalt creature.

Katie Mitroff is credited for much of the opening song sequence, including wedding outfit design, with help from Joe Johnston.

Garnet's wedding outfit was originally conceived as being torn for the battle, but the design they used turned out perfect for showing the mixture of garments AND working well for fighting.

Ronaldo, seen wearing armor and talking to Bismuth at the wedding, is described by Ian as mansplaining armor to Bismuth.

Early concepts of the Ruby and Sapphire wedding started with Garnet actually marrying herself, in an episode known as "If You Love Yourself So Much."

Diamonds in combat were mostly handled by storyboarder Miki Brewster.

Blue's ability to incapacitate others with her sadness was known early on, and Lapis's reaction was an obvious element they intended to include.

Rebecca thinks the Wizard of Oz and Sleeping Beauty are the most commonly cited films in their writers' room, with a little bit of Cinderella for aesthetic.

Blue Diamond getting a house dropped on her is a Wizard of Oz reference.

Lapis being the one to drop the barn on Blue was a satisfying confrontation, as Blue is described as a parent who abandoned her.

Violence following a wedding was another nod to Fiddler, but it was important to Rebecca that the wedding itself be completed.

The Diamonds' invasion could not have happened any sooner or they would not have faced a united, prepared team of Crystal Gems. They now know what they're fighting for.

It's so important to show that communication and compassion for others leads to strength. The show often depicts the best Fusions as being healthy relationships, and Rebecca thinks spending time and effort on cultivating these relationships--and on yourself!--will make you stronger in the next thing you do.

Ruby and Sapphire's wedding was an important story type Rebecca and Ian felt their characters deserved to have. They were created as a classic cartoon couple who managed to get various romantic story types assigned to them throughout the show; Rebecca was determined to champion this mission to let them have this.

Ruby and Sapphire's introduction in "Jailbreak" was met with a decision-maker slapping a specific prohibition on them being a romantic couple. Rebecca had to argue, "But they ARE."

It's so incredibly vital that couples like Ruby and Sapphire are not considered more adult than typical couples in G-rated content.  

Rebecca is grateful and relieved that the wedding has finally aired and they got to do this, but she stresses that this is only one example amidst a hundred years of weddings and couples that communicate an exclusively heteronormative message. There's still so much to do for LGBTQ kids to help them understand they DO belong in a "family-friendly" world.

Though much of the discussion for representation has been about couples, they emphasize they're not just talking about couples here or pushing the idea that everyone's dream should be getting married. It's just that if you do want to marry someone, there is a future for someone who imagines being happy in a non-heteronormative relationship.

The show is designed to give kids tools to handle their own feelings.

Rebecca is excited to include Ruby and Sapphire as a couple that decided to get married after being together a VERY long time. Couples need to talk and know each other instead of jumping into something like marriage.

What's next on Steven Universe? An exploration of what it means for these rebel Gems to be on Homeworld, with Steven "in the palace," and the upcoming episodes are "huge."

The detailed summary is below!

[Archive of Steven Universe Podcast Summaries]

We open by discussing the opening of the episode: How did they come to the conclusion that they wanted to open with a song? Rebecca explains that the song was a late addition; originally they were just going to open on Steven banging on a vending machine trying to get some Chaaaaps out (which would echo what happened later when the Diamonds banged on the Earth to get the Cluster out!), but they wanted to set the scene with something that would tie together all the elements necessary to understand the upcoming action, as well as establish what Steven was thinking about and how he felt right then. Music is such a great vehicle to cover emotional complexities, so it made sense to do that with a song.

This episode was a VERY long time in the making, and they had the ideas for the arm wrestling with the Cluster back when they first started planning the Cluster arc. They had to make sure we had seen the Diamonds' arm ships early on so this scene could happen. The song really helped not only check in with Steven and his "manic need for positivity" but also became a great device for showing us where each major character's mind is as we go into this. It could have just been a couple scenes of talking, but the song works so much better.

McKenzie prompts her guests to discuss musical influences for "For Just One Day Let's Only Think About Love." Rebecca says she was paying a lot of attention to old Judy Garland musicals, so she pulled from a song called "For Me and My Gal" which is wedding-themed (she sings a few lines from it), and she really liked how in these kinds of old musicals they'd have people singing and then talking. It's really hard to coordinate, she says, but Ian says Rebecca has always wanted to collaborate with Aivi and Surasshu to do a big Broadway song like this. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum was another musical that was a big influence on the switch-between-singing-and-monologuing technique. Fiddler on the Roof influenced the structure of the episode too, since there's a scene where a wedding leads directly to the significant violence of the film.

The Cluster was suddenly brought into this episode after not being mentioned for a while, and Rebecca describes this as being partially the result of "a lot of moving parts." They knew how they wanted it to work, but it was just a matter of putting the pieces together. Steven befriending the Cluster was discussed in a writers' meeting that happened in 2014 or 2015. It was necessary for Steven to befriend the Cluster so it could help him, but it could never actually emerge without destroying the Earth, so that arm that emerges is obviously only a small part of it that almost seems like the Earth itself is fighting back. The arm can't just stay there chilling, though, because the Cluster is uncomfortable interacting that way with only a piece of itself formed.

Now into discussing the characters' wedding outfits, Rebecca credits Katie Mitroff for boarding a lot of the song sequences, as well as Joe Johnston for design. Some of the outfits were planned long ago, like Pearl revisiting her tux, but new outfits included Amethyst's "semi-casual suit" and Peridot's dress. Garnet's outfit went through many iterations, including some ideas to have her fighting with a torn wedding dress. (Gem clothing doesn't really tear exactly, though. Ian and Rebecca suggested the torn bit would have turned into sparkles?) Rebecca really loved the asymmetrical dress situation that was also "born out of necessity" that allowed Garnet's different clothing elements to show and also worked well as a battle outfit.

Ian brings up Ronaldo wearing his armor at the wedding, which Rebecca thinks she might have come up with but wasn't sure. It's all "stuff that happens in the room." Regarding the scene where Bismuth and Ronaldo are standing there in armor, Ian describes it as Ronaldo "mansplaining to Bismuth what armor is." In discussing Ronaldo and his use of the sword he got at DelmarvaCon, they remember that the armor's first appearance in "Keep Beach City Weird" was originally meant to include a bizarre extending baton that he would smack Steven with, but it was flagged as too violent. Ronaldo's "weapon" then became a potato. Ian jokingly says they've got to bring the potato weapons back. Rebecca's like "no, we don't need to do that."

Next, McKenzie wants to know how long Rebecca's been planning Ruby and Sapphire's wedding outfits, since we've now seen concept sketches from 2015 on her Instagram. She remembers drawing it for the first time in probably 2014, and she started pitching the wedding either late 2015 or early 2016. Originally, the concept was to have Garnet marrying herself in an episode called "If You Love Yourself So Much." Conceived as a simpler, self-contained episode, it contained cool images like Garnet dancing with herself and putting rings on her own fingers. They got to use some of that briefly at the reception. This idea didn't get through, but later when she started trying to get a wedding episode, she incorporated the clothing designs we can see from those early sketches, modified later to include the flowers Ruby was wearing in her hair. (Rebecca pulled the idea for those specific flowers from a friend's wedding.)

The next portion of the podcast discusses that epic Diamond battle. Rebecca was really excited to have Miki Brewster do her thing on this fight. The orbs and lasers that Blue generated were essentially invented by Miki, but the sadness wave was an older invention first shown in "The Trial." Blue's ability to incapacitate other Gems with her debilitating sadness in a battle was a really early development. As soon as they knew Blue could do this, they immediately thought of how Lapis would be affected by it and knew they would use it.

Rebecca then brings up the Wizard of Oz and how it directly inspired some elements of Steven Universe. That movie is absolutely a sci-fi/fantasy story. Rebecca feels that the Wizard of Oz and Sleeping Beauty are the two films that get brought up the most in the writers' discussions, with a little of Cinderella for aesthetic. Dropping a house--well, the barn--on Blue was a direct callback to the Wizard of Oz. Torturing the characters, as Ian says, was necessary to get Lapis to a place where she would take the barn in the first place, though Rebecca clarifies that there was nothing contrived about how Lapis acted; it all made sense with her character arc.

Lapis being an original member of Blue's court is mentioned, though they say they don't get to dig into that history, but Rebecca compares Blue to a parent who abandoned Lapis. Having her get to confront Blue and drop a house on her was cathartic. The Diamonds don't take care of the Gems they make. It's part of the problem with their entire system according to Rebecca. Lapis struggled to "take a side," being that she felt manipulated by everyone; now that she's begun to make choices, she can have some control over her life. Lapis always worries she'll do something horrible with power if she has it.

Garnet has a history with Blue too, they point out; Garnet has lots of fear and anger toward Blue, so it was nice to have her standing-up-to-Blue moment tied into Lapis's. This whole arc, from Lapis to Garnet, was about characters making choices for their own reasons. Garnet was ready to stand up to Blue now that she is 100% solid in who she is and why she is together.

McKenzie then asks Rebecca and Ian to discuss their motivation for having the Diamonds appear on the day of Garnet's wedding. Rebecca again cites Fiddler on the Roof and they mention how classic it is to have a wedding and then a fight. It was very important to Rebecca that the wedding itself not be interrupted. It was just the reception after.

(Chronicler's note: I also grew up watching the movie of this musical, and if you haven't seen it, the wedding has the main character's eldest daughter marrying the poor tailor she was in love with, versus the wealthy butcher she was supposed to marry. In the culture of the movie, the Jewish fathers generally chose husbands for their daughters (often through a matchmaker), and Tevye thought marrying Tzeitel off to an old rich butcher was assuring her a secure and rich life. Instead, she was in love with a tailor, and would have been unhappy marrying the butcher. When she begged to wed her love instead, Tevye found himself challenging tradition and questioning his own heart for his daughter's happiness, so this wedding was about new and old finding balance. And then the reception is crashed by the army intent on demonstrating their power and presence. It kinda wrecks the mood.)

The Crystal Gems are able to do what they're doing in this fight because they have recently been reunited in a powerful way by the recent events, and Rebecca brings up the important points Bismuth raised: what do the Crystal Gems stand for NOW, now that we know they were founded on something that isn't appropriate to fight for anymore? Who are they as a team? They have to rally behind Steven, and he has to be comfortable deciding the direction of that, along with Garnet who is now back to herself and has recently gone through some of the same emotional stuff. The Crystal Gems know they can trust each other, no matter what they were originally founded on. They could not have fought the Diamonds cohesively before they went through all this together.

Ian says many concepts they work into the show start with an idea or an image, and they figure out how to get it into the show in a fun way. Rebecca feels they must pull it together with themes about relationships, communication, growth, and emotional stability--and that these lead to strength. Using Fusions to explore this is ideal because they're relationships AND they're characters. Strong, healthy relationships make really excellent Fusions who can accomplish great things. Time devoted to cultivating these relationships and taking care of yourself and your community will lead to strength in your further actions.

In the last leg of the podcast discussion, McKenzie wants to talk about the wedding, and they begin discussing the struggle to actually air this wedding at all. As mentioned earlier, Garnet's marriage to herself was rejected; they wouldn't let it through at all. So Rebecca wanted to find another way to approach it, and describes their approach to their new concepts as being pretty similar to the conversations they had with decision-makers over other controversial episodes leading up to it.

Ruby and Sapphire needed to have every style of love story. "Jailbreak" introduced the characters, and immediately a conversation was born: why do we have this, who are they and why do they need to be what they are to each other, what's the context, etc. Every time these characters surfaced, Rebecca had to explain why she thought they should be able to show what they were showing. "The Answer" was the fairy tale. "Hit the Diamond" was the romantic comedy. "Keystone Motel" was the couple fight and reconciliation. What couple who's been through these doesn't get to have a wedding episode? It's typical endgame.

Ruby and Sapphire are designed to be very typical as a couple, with their fire-and-ice star-crossed lovers vibe; it was important for them to get to do all the things every other couple like them got to do, and there was NO reason they shouldn't get to do it unless the decision-makers were making a special exception for them. Rebecca actually got specifically told that Ruby and Sapphire CANNOT be in a romantic relationship, as soon as she introduced them. She responded, "But they ARE." There's even a song about it celebrating their introduction.  

Rebecca remembers a Valentine's Day post of some kind by Cartoon Network finally listing Ruby and Sapphire as one of their couples, and she almost broke into tears. She wasn't allowed to talk about their relationship at the time, and it meant so much to her to be able to start doing that--at the time, she wasn't able to talk about the characters' relationship OR herself being bisexual, but she knew she should be able to tell these stories to children and that there was nothing indecent about them.

She remembers that when she was directly told Ruby and Sapphire's relationship IS NOT OKAY, she remembered being indirectly told the same thing throughout her childhood. She finally saw it was true, this must not be okay, and she felt how harmful that was to her personally. And she and Ian knew they could not let the next generation suffer that harm. They had to know it IS okay. Rebecca says some of the issue comes with the show being aired in other countries, and in those cases the dialogue is sometimes changed in translation. There are also issues with their show being put in G-rated time slots, even though Steven Universe is NOT a G show. But G shows are always full of love, innocent kisses, marriage! There's nothing more wholesome than that and there's no reason Ruby and Sapphire shouldn't have that. Their love is not "inherently more adult" than what kids get to see from more traditional couples.

If you've never even SEEN a couple like Ruby and Sapphire in a G-rated show, you don't even know what it can look like, and Rebecca felt this lack had become an emergency for today's children. You learn and internalize these messages as a child. This harm mustn't be done to these kids; they will learn that there's something different and not-okay about that kind of love, and even if it seems okay in adult shows that they can seek out, they'll have to unlearn and heal instead of just not being damaged by it in the first place. Ian thinks kids can't learn that anything could be wrong with Ruby and Sapphire unless someone else told them it was wrong, so with children you're free to present the world as if you don't expect anyone to object to it. Then, they'll follow suit.

Rebecca is so grateful and relieved that the wedding finally aired and "we made it." But it's just the beginning--one drop in the bucket that's otherwise filled with heteronormative programming. There's still so much to do for LGBTQ kids to help them understand they DO belong in a "family-friendly" world. Feeling that lack so deeply, knowing there's something different about yourself--there is no way to communicate fully how this knowledge drilled into you as a child can corrupt you into fearing yourself and your own feelings. The exciting feelings of liking someone become terrifying, and you don't fully function as a person.

Rebecca also emphasizes that she's not fully focused on "couples" here. She wants the show to give kids tools to handle their anxieties and battle the challenges the outside world puts on them. She's beyond happy that the wedding has done what it was supposed to do, but there's still so much to do that she feels responsible for doing. Ian comments that it's not like anything has been "solved." Kids need to feel that happy dreams are in reach for someone like them. Rebecca doesn't want kids to get these ideas from Disney weddings that getting married is the primary goal and vehicle to happiness, but they need the freedom to imagine their future with a partner they can have happily ever after with; they should be allowed to be included in the option to have that dream.

In discussing fan reactions, Rebecca points out that they deserved to have a kiss like this twenty years ago. She describes the satisfaction of the wedding as bittersweet--it's not enough. She got to talk to a very young fan about Garnet recently in San Diego--this kid just saw Garnet as Garnet, and loved her and her relationship, but getting to have this was not a long time coming for him the way it is for Rebecca herself and older fans. It's just what it is and there's nothing weird about it for that young fan.

Rebecca also emphasizes that the wedding was a cool chance to bring a couple into marriage after they'd been together for a REALLY LONG TIME. Their choice to get married is very informed, contrasted with some cute cartoon weddings where characters are already in love after they've known each other for a few minutes. Rebecca thinks it would've been cool if Snow White got some time to talk to the Prince about whether they have any compatibility beyond their initial chemsistry. Ruby and Sapphire reflected in the wedding vows saying they are making a decision to change their lives individually and together. They will put work into their relationship, and that's what will increase their strength.

And McKenzie's last question is what do fans have to look forward to next? Rebecca is reluctant to talk about what's next, though she points out that Steven is "in the palace now." Ian thinks the trial they've been through has now led to them getting tested in a new way. Being on Homeworld now, what is that going to mean to each of these Gems who worked hard to get away from Homeworld? Rebecca says these episodes that are coming are huge. She can't wait for us to see them.

[Archive of Steven Universe Podcast Summaries]