#her lashing out was because of the trauma Home world and Jasper did to her

[inkling0121]

"We need more angry women instead of soft victims of abuse" yall cant handle Lapis from Steven Universe

[magicalgirlagency]

I know it's old at this point, but can you explain how Laips's treatment of Peridot was abusive. I mean, I think both Steven and Peridot called her out over destroying the recorder almost immediately

Yeah, but Lapis didn't even bothered to get her own shit together, and was STILL abusive towards Peridot behind the scenes.

I mean, do you guys remember the episode Raise the Barn? When Lapis was desperate to leave Earth to avoid facing the Diamonds, but Peridot couldn't tell her that she didn't wanted to leave and kept making flimsy excuses to stay? And Lapis kept dismissing Peridot's feelings on the matter, plus with a tight grip on her shoulder to reinforce her authority? All of that accompannied by some ominous and almost unsettling tune in the background plus a scared, whining Pumpkin?

LAPIS: I can't... I WON'T get myself caught up in another war.

Not to mention how Peridot was so dependent and desperate for Lapis' approval in her bravery as she ran away:

And even after Peridot told Lapis the truth, that she wants to stay and fight for Earth because that's the new home she grew fond of, the blue bitch won't even flinch and then proceeds to take the WHOLE BARN with her, with PERIDOT'S BELONGINGS in it! Why the Hell would she need Peridot's belongings for?! Isn't that basically stealing?!

PERIDOT: Wait, no! You're supposed to reward me for my emotional honesty!

In fact, the whole episode was Peridot trying to be honest with Lapis, but failing to word her thoughts in a way that wouldn't result in Lapis lashing out at her. Even Steven himself is shown with a frightened expression in his face as Peridot refuses to leave Earth.

And when she returns in Reunited, she DESTROYS the barn right in front of Peridot by throwing it at Blue Diamond! And what does Lapis has to say, after being a major bitch to poor Peridot?

PERIDOT: LAPIS?! You're really here...

LAPIS: Hey.

Bitch doesn't even say "sorry", and that's supposed to be the end of her arc.

In general, Lapis Lazuli was an unpleasant character. Sure, she was supposed to be the victim of abuse, but no one actually had the guts to call her out, tell her to change her attitude and drop her nocive coping methods; Steven kept making excuses for her toxic behavior in Alone At Sea:

LAPIS: It's MY fault. I'm the one to blame.

STEVEN: That's not true...

[...]

STEVEN [referring to Jasper]: But... she's terrible!

LAPIS: I'M terrible! I did horrible things! I broke your dad's leg, I stole Earth's ocean; Go on, tell me I'm wrong!

Even Jasper outright admits how horrendous Lapis is:

JASPER [to Lapis]: You can't lie to me, I've seen what you're capable of! I thought I was a brute, but YOU... you are a MONSTER.

And again, in the same episode, when Lapis confronts Jasper, she also admits to have enjoyed torturing the Quartz Soldier as Malachite:

LAPIS [to Jasper]: I was terrible to you... I liked taking everything out on you... I NEEDED to, I-I HATED you...!! It was BAD!

And may I remind you that in Jailbreak, after being defeated by Garnet, Jasper desperatedly tries to convince Lapis to fuse with her in hopes of defeating the Crystal Gems, only to be tricked by Lapis in the end and trapped at the bottom of the ocean?

LAPIS [In control of Malachite]: I'm done being everyone's prisoner; now you're MY prisoner! AND I'M NEVER LETTING YOU GO!!

And this is just from an useless filler ep, but what about her small talk with Connie in The New Crystal Gems?:

CONNIE: Um, Lapis...? You don't remember me?

LAPIS: Ummm...

CONNIE: You almost drowned me when you tried to steal the world's water...?

LAPIS: I almost drowned A LOT of people...

Just because you were abused in the past, that doesn't give you the right to abuse others. It just makes you an insufferable dickhead who adamantly refuses to learn their lesson.

Lapis' problem never was her trauma, no; to blame a traumatized person for lashing out would be akin to demonizing their experiences. Lapis' REAL problem was how her trauma was handled, and how no one has bothered to call her out on it. We cannot help a person if they're constantly refusing to pull an effort to help themselves!

And just remember, she and Peridot never got their opportunity to develop their characters while on Earth, because the cartoon was perpetually stuck on a Steven-only perspective, and their stories would only move forward if Steven was present. If not, they're stagnant.

Oh, and about the recorder fiasco, I don't think calling her out for destroying it has worked at all, because the show would bring it back as an ill-spirited joke through a "Meep-Morp exposition" in Beta:

PERIDOT: This piece is called "Wow, thanks". It represents the struggles of inner communication, the tape is the ribbon that binds our experience on Earth together. [In a jolly tone] It has no functioning purpose; it just makes me feel bad!

[picturejasper20]

Lapis Lazuli defense megapost

(Warning: mention of toxic relationships)

Since i have seen some SU fans (and non fans) complain about Lapis as a characters i would like to give my own opinion on the subject.

I'm going to try debunking most the major complains i have read or heard. I going to cite things Lapis has said to help my argument as well as what other characters think of her.

1) "Lapis never felt sorry for hurting Jasper when they were Malachite"

Lapis in "Same old world": "Who knows what they would do to me back home after what I did to Jasper? I can't go back to Homeworld and I can't stay here."

(Fully admitting she did something terrible to Jasper and she can't return to Homeworld because of that) By the way, this is the episode that follows after Malachite was separated.

In Alone at the sea

Lapis to Jasper: "I was terrible to you. I liked taking everything out on you. I needed to, I hated you. It was bad!"

"NO!" (Refusing to be Malachite again) "What we had wasn't healthy. I never want to feel like I felt with you. Never again! So just, go!"

She refuses to hurt Jasper again the way she did. She has learned that hurting others it's a very toxic way of coping with her trauma and there are better options to express how she feels.

Lapis needed Jasper to feel she was in control of her life. She was "tired of being everyone's prisioner" and wanted to take her anger on someone. In this episode she learned that she her behaviour was very toxic and wasn't helping her to get better.

2) "Lapis never changed/realised how she was hurting others"

Lapis protecting Peridot after she tried to apologize to her and asking her if she was okay in "Barn Mates"

In Alone at the sea: "I'm terrible! I did horrible things! I broke your dad's leg. I stole Earth's ocean! Go on! Tell me I'm wrong!"

"Can't go back": "I don't even know anymore. I've done so much because I was afraid. I left Peridot behind. I took the barn. And her morps."

One of reasons of why Lapis didn't want to return to Earth was because she thought that Peridot was not going to forgive after the way she left in "Raising the barn"

Room for Ruby: "No, no. It's my problem. I didn't mean to make you feel like you don't belong here." (Lapis apologizing to Navy for mistreating her earlier in the episode)

Many of the episodes she is protagonist focus on how she treats others. After being used so many times in her life Lapis has a hard time trusting other people. She didn't trust that Peridot had changed and she didn't trust Navy right away. This makes her sometimes lash out and push anyone that tries to befriend her away.

Eventually she opens up to Steven and Peridot. Lapis is someone who returns kindness to those who are kind to her.

Also bonus:

This is in "The new crystal gems". In this context Connie mentions the events of "Ocean gem" and Lapis still feels sorry for trying to steal the Earth's water.

3) The characters never call Lapis out in the story

Peridot in "Barn mates" after Lapis destroyed her tape recorder: "Look, I get it, you know? You're confused! You can never go back to Homeworld. This place, doesn't exactly feel like home yet. You're alone, no one could possibly know what that feels like! Oh wait, I do! We're the same, except!... You don't have to be alone!

Steven after Lapis tells Peridot to leave: "Lapis, why are you being so mean to her? She's really trying!" "Lapis, you're not even giving her a chance! You should have at least gotten to know her before you decided you don't like her!"

Steven in "Can't go back": "You don't have to run, Lapis! Just stay with us!" (..)"Would you rather be alone?"

(Steven trying to convince Lapis to not run away and stay on Earth with them)

The whole episode of "Can't go back" comments on Lapis's choice to run away because of her trauma. She doesn't want to get caught in a war again, so that's why she keeps running away.

In "Reunited" she decides to face her fears and help the Crystal Gems to fight Blue Diamond.

( I love how she literally drops the entire barn on Blue)

Lapis is character that due to her traumatic past ends up hurting other people and running away. Over the course of the series she slowy overcomes part of her trauma to the point she's able to face again awful situations that remind her of past.

At the beginning she finds hard to call Earth her home..eventually she starts to like it and consider Earth her new home.

[otp-armada]

Right before I woke up this morning, for a moment, my mind dreamt of a scene of Clarke on the Ring. She makes it to the rocket on time. It's her and Bellamy standing at the observation window, watching Earth burn. It's the two of them looking to the future, their people's and their own, together. 4x13 ends with a flash-forward of six years, but one of Spacekru as a family. As we see the eight of them laughing together at a dinner table, the camera pans to a weighted, happy glance shared between Clarke and Bellamy, him lifting their joined hands to his lips, two matching, thin rings of gold metal on their fingers. And that's how the audience comes to know they have coupled up. Boom. Out.

My ears are ringing from the collective shrieking we would have done.

My waking hours are here, and I'd like to play this scenario out to my specifications.

The first half of 5x01 is Spacekru flashbacks, showing us how they bonded to become a family and how Bellarke got together.

In the long, quiet comfort of the Ring, our heroes give voice to their past traumas and heal old grievances.

Clarke tells Bellamy about her father, Bellamy shares stories about his mother. She tells him about her father's kindness and gentle nature, his limitless heart. Jake's teases about Clarke drawing on every plain surface she could find, a habit that began with her childhood. Passionate as she was for sketching, she was in the midst of early medical training. Her exposure to the Council and the Chancellor is what gave Clarke her political acumen. Clarke recounts the games they used to watch with the Jahas. Before long, she's explaining the rules of soccer to a confused but amused Bellamy. Bellamy tells her what little he remembers about his parents before his father died. Aurora's smile. Her sacrifices for her children. Her tenacity. Her love of mythic stories she passed onto him. The overwhelming sense of responsibility she instilled in him from too early an age. Bellamy talks about the challenges of a life spent hiding a little girl under the floorboards from the Ark. Bellamy shares the rewards of being the only pair of siblings to have existed in nearly a hundred years. Unbidden by the role of big brother in Clarke's company, he gives voice to the constraints placed on his life. The hardships of living in Factory Station, while Clarke shrinks in guilt over her bountiful upbringing in Alpha. They both recall the pain of watching their parents get floated. There, in front of their eyes one second, gone forever in the blink of an eye. Clarke discloses that, while privileged, she was a lonely child. Were it not for Wells, she would have had no friends. She talks about him, what Bellamy never got to know about Wells Jaha.

The atmosphere shifts, and their conversations progress to contemporary times.

They discuss their respective tendencies to want to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. It takes time, but Clarke finally divulges why she felt compelled to leave Camp Jaha. How bereft she felt. Her nightmares and loneliness in self-imposed exile. Wandering around the freezing cold of the woods. Bellamy can't rein in the pain as he reminds Clarke that she didn't bear it all on her own. She couldn't have, not when he was the one left behind to pick up the pieces Mount Weather shredded. He was the one seeing their faces every day. She asked him to come back with her, to their people, once before, and he did. But when he asked her to do the same, she left. They both know it's not apologies he's looking for. It's a promise, a reigniting of an old promise made between two lost souls needing the other when the world threatened to drown them. They readily give in.

Their conversation takes an unexpected turn when Clarke explains why she gave in to Bellamy's plan to go undercover in Mt. Weather. For her to be strong enough to save her people, she couldn't let love hold her back, make her weak. From the second Bellamy left her sight, she regretted it. They both recognize it as the confession she didn't intend to say. Shock settles in. With newfound confidence, it triggers an admission of Bellamy's own feelings. Cue canon Bellarke.

Once the air between them is clear, it was only fair that the effects of Mt. Weather be a topic Clarke and Bellamy discuss with the third member of the room that fateful day. It leads them to the complicated subject of Jasper, the three of them breaking down in tears over their fallen friend.

Six years of peacetime spent in Clarke's company shapes perspective on the girl herself. She's not Clarke Griffin, the fierce and stoic Skaikru leader, equipped with all the answers. She's not Wanheda, the great legend. She's just a girl, with vulnerabilities, insecurities, fears, and demons, just the same as any of them. She becomes a person to them. Real flesh and blood. A human being who does indeed break. And no one is more startled by this revelation than Raven. It's another contentious relationship of Clarke's requiring time to mend. Although sharing feelings doesn't come easily to Raven, the two eventually crack their sibling-like rivalry where Abby and Finn are concerned.

It's the presence of a fellow cockroach well-versed in the glamourous lifestyle of isolation that gets Murphy out of his self-destructive streak. In their own ways, they have both been the outsiders. They make an uncanny pair of confidantes, so says the rest of the kru. But somehow, it works. Trust doesn't come easy for Murphy, and he and Clarke have their fair share of issues. Close quarters force the two of them and Emori to work it out. For all that Clarke excels at contrition, deserved and undeserved, she's also never been one to beat around the bush, no matter Murphy's preference to lash out in his signature style of sharp sarcasm at moments of his choosing. As it is for Bellamy, Clarke's belief in Murphy as a good man is an overwhelming force, one he is not sure he's worthy of, but privately welcomed nevertheless. In time, there arrives a sense of respect and loyalty between them no one foresaw.

Clarke's penchant for extending her hand to the outsiders doesn't end with Murphy and Emori. Clarke was the first to bring Echo on board and, she is the first to treat their errant Azgeda former spy as family. Post-season 4 to the series' end, Echo's character development is at the forefront of her story arc, never filtered through a subpar pairing needed to fuel an insipid love triangle where her leg of it is marked for eventual demolition.

Since I am bound by limitless imagination, let us pretend this was a 2-hour season premiere.

The flashbacks take us through the six years to the present. Spacekru's happiness is juxtaposed, as we transition to below the ground, by the hellscape Wonkru is trapped in. The second half of 5x01 is Wonkru flashbacks, a la 5x02.

5x02 takes us back to Eligius IV, to the passing of Order 11 (is that what it was called?). A young pilot named Shaw chooses to defy his captain's orders, releasing their prisoners. They proceed to take over the ship, killing Shaw's crewmates and captain, Charmaine Diyoza assuming command. She corrals Paxton McCreary and his men to her side. With their mutiny a success, Diyoza tells Shaw to plot a course for Earth. All the while, we see Shaw wrestling with the bloody aftermath of his decisions. They reach Earth's orbit, ready to go home, unknowingly under the watch of 8 survivors in space.

The Eligius prisoners touch ground on the last arable patch of land on Earth and quickly find themselves ensnared in a series of traps by an unknown number of assailants. Their assailant turns out to be a solitary preteen. They capture her, interrogate her. She speaks a language they've never heard. I'm making it a point to emphasize those infernal shock collars do not exist in my little world.

5x03 plays out similarly onboard the Eligius mothership. Our kru arrives, not to borrow a cup of sugar, but to steal the hydrazine for their journey home. Clarke, Bellamy, and kru debates the morality of killing 300 strangers in their sleep before deciding to use them as leverage. Raven and Murphy stay behind. Six Spacekru members fall to Earth and are captured by Eligius. They are taken to Diyoza, where they find a little girl dressed in Grounder garb. Bellamy and Clarke use their trump card to free themselves, Madi, and use their resources to locate Wonkru, with an additional promise to share the land and their knowledge of life on Earth.

5x04 plays out the same, more or less, without the awkward tension of a Bellarke trying to reacclimate themselves to each other's presence again. Diyoza brings Madi, Bellamy, and Clarke to Polis, where Bellarke negotiates for Wonkru's release. They meet Blodreina and her cult of warriors. Fandom squeals seeing Octavia greet her sister-in-law. Wonkru (and Blodreina) comes to realize that they have found a surviving Nightblood. Diyoza betrays the accord, taking Abby and Kane to Shallow Valley and leaving Bellarke and Madi at odds with Octavia.

5x05 sees Bellarke continuing to act in concert as a team, eager to reunite with their lost people while keeping a protective eye on Madi. Tensions brew between them and Blodreina. Marper and Echo return and they all turn back to Polis.

Blodreina refuses to grant pardon to Echo. Spacekru fights on her behalf, while Echo is willfully recruited for Octavia's mission. Madi meets Gaia under Clarke's watchful eye. When Madi is introduced to the Flame, Clarke tries to persuade her not to be swayed by the Flamekeeper's influence. Because this is my fantasy and I can do what I wish, it turns out that Clarke and Bellamy are expecting their first child. Clarke, believing the Flame to be a curse for its bearer, wants to spare Madi a bloody fate. She wants to abolish this aspect of Grounder culture, fearing the chances her child may become the next natural-born Nightblood. She dreads the possibility of her child as the next participant in the Conclave or the next Commander.

Another sidenote I am interjecting. Here, toxic motherhood isn't a defining characteristic of Clarke's, to aid in her isolation and subsequent, continual emotional decline. In my world, she gets to be a protective mother, a loving wife, a compassionate friend, and a caring daughter, all rolled in one little blonde package. She gives love freely, as she does in canon, but receives it in kind. She doesn't sink to rock bottom, nor must she, to be the heroine she is. She draws on the good and the bad experiences she's had to teach others. She imparts her lessons to those in need. Love is a commodity her life isn’t devoid of.

Clarke and Bellamy argue over what to do about Blodreina. Neither wants her to be harmed, but Bellamy maintains that she is, above all, his sister. He needs to believe Octavia is still within reach. He cannot abandon her now that they're together again. Clarke petitions Bellamy to take their family to Shallow Valley before it's too late. They compromise, agreeing to remove Octavia from the board long enough for Indra to take Diyoza's proffered deal. Their plans fail, as per 5x08, and Octavia arrests Clarke, an execution set for after the baby’s birth. We retain the glorious Blake scene of 5x08. It breaks Bellamy's heart to hurt Octavia, but she forced his hand. He has to protect his wife and their baby.

Tensions come to a head between husband and wife, courtesy of 5x09. Bellamy, having exhausted all other options, decides Madi must ascend to Commander to accomplish their goals. It is the only way to protect them all and save the valley. I am once again interrupting my spiel to remark that Clarke knows, unequivocally, she is included on the shortlist of family Bellamy is most ardently trying to protect. Forget "included," she's at the top. Clarke, ever the protective mother, disagrees, citing endangerment to Madi from Octavia and her patriots. Clarke argues that, of Diyoza and Octavia, Diyoza is the lesser evil to their family. As long as they remain within Diyoza's rules, they have nothing to fear from her. Bellamy, seeing Clarke's deep-rooted fear, agrees.

They are delayed by Marper, who wish to stay within the bunker, living off the revitalized algae farm. Bellamy and Clarke don't want to leave them behind until Monty points out that they, for once, deserve the chance to choose their fate, as all of the people of Earth. Octavia recuperates in time to arrest Bellamy, sending him to the fighting pit. Clarke fights to defend him but is detained. Clarke wants to fight alongside him, but they both know she has to live to raise their baby. They are permitted a final goodbye, and they have an emotional last exchange, a.k.a. Kabby parallel. Like Kane before him, Indra is forced to separate another family.

Octavia assures Bellamy that the baby will be under her protection. By now, Bellamy has reached the end of his rope with his baby sister. He loves her, but he can't distinguish her from the monster she's become, and it's about to cost him a life with his family. Disgusted, Bellamy scoffs at her overtures. He reminds her that his child deserves to have its parents. Clarke's earlier words come back as he tells her that she is his family's worst enemy. It wasn't enough for Aurora to leave him responsible for raising his sister at six years old. For the first time, his life is right, and she's the one who's about to take it away. He reminds her what it was like to lose her mother at 17, to never know her father. She knows how devastating it feels. Yet, left up to her, his child would be an orphan. He finishes with a devastating blow: it'll be those he holds as his family who will take care of his wife and child.

Clarke breaks free of her restraints, making plans to cause disruption to the bunker and getting Bellamy out in the ensuing chaos. She is stopped by Monty, who wants to use the opportunity to give Wonkru a better choice. Clarke tells him she isn't gambling Bellamy's life. Monty breaks again, pointing out that the last time he helped her and Bellamy, they split blood, and their plans still failed. Clarke reluctantly relents out of guilt, knowing how Mount Weather continues to haunt Monty. She does, after all, trust him with her life.

Bellamy fights Indra in the pits until the proceedings are interrupted by an intervening Monty, brandishing a pure, white flower in a sea of blood and darkness. Just as he begins to sway Wonkru to his non-volatile solution to the impending war, Blodreina forces compliance by burning the algae farm.

As Wonkru mobilizes for war, the fractured Spacekru and Madi take the rover to the valley to find their friends. They destroy the worms in transit.

They save an incapacitated Abby, who later recounts the Dark Year. Bellamy can't stop the horror he feels at the ordeal his sister has lived through. He feels a pang of guilt he knows is irrational while wrestling with the knowledge that she is still responsible for her choices now.

They reunite with the rest of Spacekru and are surprised to learn McCreary has taken control of the camp. With Diyoza and Kane's assistance, the eye in the sky is reinstalled, giving Eligius the advantage. As much as they want to prevent this war, they cannot leave Wonkru to die in the gorge. The group breaks off. One team is sent to disable the eye in the sky. The other team uses Madi's knowledge of the valley's layout to head off to fight alongside Wonkru in the gorge.

By the time they arrive safely, only Octavia, Indra, and Gaia are left alive. Bellamy convinces Octavia to retreat instead of sacrificing herself. He tells her she has to live with what she's done instead of taking the easy way out. For the most part, I'm picturing the scenes play out as they did in canon. At base camp, Wonkru is in disarray. Too many bodies are left littered from this war, with Blodreina at fault. To stop the in-fighting, Madi attempts to assume control by invoking her natural right to lead as a Nightblood. Some dissent, claiming she is not yet Commander. With support from Gaia, Octavia, and Bellamy (who makes sure this is what she wants), they sway Wonkru to Madi's side. Freshly invigorated, Wonkru prepares for a second assault.

Back on the Eligius ship, Clarke, Raven, and Shaw release an imprisoned Diyoza. They allow themselves to be captured and taken to the ship's central control. While McCreary attempts to force Raven to pilot their ship, she and Clarke regain control. Meanwhile, Bellamy convinces Madi to let the prisoners live.

From here, may I present two alternatives:

Scenario 1: Clarke kills McCreary before he can launch the missile from the mothership. With Spacekru controlling the ship's weaponry and Wonkru overtaking the prisoners, Eligius capitulates. After much deliberation, a new accord is reached, allowing for all survivors to live in peace as a singular society. Spacekru gets their 80 acres. The last of the 10(2) become parents to the next generation. It takes time, but Bellamy and Octavia's relationship heals. Eventually, she earns back her place in his life as his sister. She becomes one of many to welcome Bellarke's little one to the world, ecstatic to be a loving aunt. Generations later, the Earth recovers.

Scenario #2: The missile is launched. Earth's survivors must escape to space to survive. Marper opts out of cryosleep and has a son. It takes Monty ten years to realize Earth may never recover from its last doomsday. He wakes Spacekru+ to determine options. Between him, Raven, and Shaw, the three configure a self-running algorithm to decode the Eligius III mission files. They wire the pods to awaken its occupants every decade to check the algorithm's progress. The McIntyre-Greens go into cryosleep with some gentle persuasion from Bellarke. They won't leave their people behind. Thirty years later, Earth remains dormant. The files reveal the existence of a planet that could support human life, lightyears away, in the binary star system in the Goldilocks zone. They plot a course.

No, it's not as thrilling as the original ending. But if our heroes are going to traipse across the universe, only to return to their home planet, then Marper will not be sacrificed for nada. They will live out their days, a little older, a little wiser, but surrounded by their friends. They will not say farewell to their son at his ripe old age of 26.

There isn't much I would change about season 6, not where its major storylines are concerned. Clarke meets Cillian for his insight on Abby and Kane's deteriorating conditions. I would alter Madi's arc to where she takes the Flame in Sanctum and uses the time while the grounders are in cryosleep to train under Gaia's tutelage. Madi becomes attached to Bellarke, and it leaves her susceptible to Sheidheda's influence when her newfound familial figures find themselves at risk from the Primes. She'd see Sheidheda as a necessary evil to save her people, not unlike Clarke submitting to Lxa's clout. I would have Sheidheda preying on Madi's fears that she'd be alone again as she was during Praimfaya if she doesn't respond with vigor.

Season 7 gets a similar, substantial overhaul I've been thinking about for months but haven't yet written down.

The end.

(When am I going to stop with these sidenotes? After this last point, I promise.) Jason ran too tight a ship to let his post-apocalypse masterpiece become overtaken by frivolous romance. Without this pitfall, what stopped him from coupling Bellarke up before the end? Nothing. He could have a Bellarke that remained symbolic of the show's themes and mythos. A show that thrives on chaos would never run out of conflict to stir the pot. Falling apart and weaving themselves back together has been the model of their relationship since season one. Why couldn't they do this and be a couple? Why couldn't they have the Memori Model? They could have, but Jason chose the path of the slowburn. There's no fault in this. There is a fault in choosing to rescind the previously established story when it comes time for the threads to finally tie together. And I will never forgive him for it.

[anythingstevenuniverse]

*SUF Spoilers* Not Okay

It is obvious and clear the Steven is not okay. He is suffering from his trauma and feels he has no identity outside of his Gem half. He lost his purpose of helping others, distancing himself from his support system, detached from his human and Gem side, his anger making his powers uncontrollable and lashing out, his body is reacting to minor stress as life-threatening, and after making a severe mistake, Steven thinks less of himself as a person and more of a monster. His trauma from his past is catching up and he is completely lost and in denial. Steven is losing himself and he will not be okay until he seeks help and finds himself.

Steven is suffering from trauma. Let’s be perfectly clear, not everyone is violent when dealing with trauma. Everyone deals with trauma differently and becoming violent and/or aggressive can be one of the unhealthy ways of dealing with trauma. Steven seems to be struggling with Era 3 peace time as no one needs his help and his friends are moving on without him. He is isolating himself from his family and friends and his powers begin to grow. At first, Steven’s powers do not become a problem until it becomes out of control. It was not until Dr. Maheswaran brought up childhood trauma did we realize his body and powers are reacting to minor stressful situations as life threatening ones. After cutting off Greg, he turns to someone who does more harm then good for Steven: Jasper. Jasper does state Steven needs to embrace his anger but instills a toxic form of anger. When fighting Jasper, he gains a little happiness from the brawl but goes to far and shattered her. He was able to bring her back but unfortunately bows to Steven and calls him her Diamond. This leads to Steven going to the Diamonds for help. However, they were not able to help and Steven nearly shattered White Diamond out of vengeance and on purpose. From what we saw in the promo, he is going to be in denial of what he has done which will make him worse. Steven will be critical of himself for harming others and turn into a monster because he cannot deal with his trauma.

Steven is starting to become destructive to himself and others. He is not opening up about his trauma and is isolating himself from his family and friends. From a recent interview, Sugar stated people who become are at their lowest can tend to go to people who dislike them rather than support. This can be true in some cases, but Jasper was not the best mentor as she struggles with her purpose and anger. She shows him to always show strength and Steven starts to become violent and aggressive. It is only temporary and regrets what he did to Jasper when he healed her back. However, this leads him to go to the Diamonds, family he wants to avoid because they are related to his trauma. Once he takes over White Diamonds body, he becomes really violent towards White and nearly shatters. He is having intrusive thoughts about hurting the Diamonds and flees because he doesn’t want to hurt them. Steven is continuing to become destructive and he won’t stop until he has hit his lowest point and talks to someone!

Steven still has unresolved issues about his mother. In “Rose Buds” he hides her picture in Lion’s mane and became angry about hearing more negative things about his mother in “Volleyball”. It is no surprise Steven would start to distance himself from Pink Diamond/Rose Quartz. After learning his mother made a lot of mistakes and the truth about her identity, it is no shock he would start disconnecting from his mother. However, Steven is ignoring a key aspect of his mother: she did grow and develop. Yes she ran away from her problems and left them unresolved, but she did start becoming a better person later on. But Steven does not want to become like his mother even though he is making mistakes. He thinks if he harms others he is exactly like his mom, making him go more in denial in future episodes. Steven needs to accept who his mother was in order to deal with his trauma and actions. He does not have to be her, but should accept his mother was not good or bad, just someone who wanted to find herself.

Steven is developing destructive powers opposite of his empathetic ones. His new powers started developing at the very beginning of future but are now out of control because of his unstable mental state throughout the series. He is losing his support system and his purpose. His body is reacting to minor stressful situations as life-threatening. He is lashing out his anger at others and even having thoughts of harming others. The Diamonds powers evolved when they decide to help others whereas Steven’s powers are devolving into destructive powers because of his trauma and mental state. Steven’s powers will continue to be destructive the more his mental state suffers.

Steven is suffering from something known as savior complex. A savior complex can be toxic as it places people on a pedestal and must be the perfect hero. That is starting to affect Steven. Gems and people praise Steven for being the savior of the galaxy. However, this complex makes him self-critical of any mistakes he makes. It has also trapped him in a purpose that is starting to fade over time. Now Steven has made big mistakes that are harming others and himself and he can’t open up to others about it. There was a line in the promo where Steven said, “I help people, I don’t hurt anyone.” That is very unsettling because he is denying his trauma and recent behavior. He is not addressing his problems and any severe mistake he continues to make will make himself think he is a monster. The savior complex is harming Steven right now and he needs to stop being the hero and start being a person.

This may be harsh, but Steven needs to be called out on his behavior. Now I don’t mean yelling at him or corning him into admitting his feeling. I mean someone must be honest with Steven and talk to him about his issues and behavior. I have been seeing the Gems and people trying to help Steven, but either it’s done too lightly or it’s not done right. Although the Gems will help Steven through this, the only person I can think of who will be honest with Steven is Connie. In “Mindful Education”, it was Connie who talked to Steven about his guilt about not saving everyone and reassured him it was okay to feel bad to move on. Connie has to talk to Steven about his self-destructive behavior and although it is not okay to behave this way it is even worse to deny it. She must reassure him that he is not just a Gem, but he is also a human and it’s okay to make mistakes. Steven has to realize he has hurt people, it is not okay, and that he is not a bad person just in a bad place. Only then will he start healing.

So now the question is what does Steven need? He as been through so much and he needs time to heal from his trauma and to find himself. First, he needs to acknowledge he is in a bad place. No denial of his actions or trauma, he needs to face them head on. He has hurt people because of his actions, but he is not a bad person nor is he unredeemable. It’s a good first step to heal from trauma. He needs to keep his support system. Like Dr. Maheswaran said, having a support system lessens our stress. The Crystal Gems, Team B Gems, Connie, Greg, the Diamonds, and Spinel all care for Steven deeply. It is good for Steven to have something grounding himself and showing love and support. The last step and probably the hardest, is Steven has to leave Beach City. Beach City is his home, but it is a place where all his trauma and trouble are. Steven’s Gem side is rooted at Beach City. He has to leave his home in order to find an identity outside his Gem half. Steven may be adamant about leaving because that is what his mom and dad did to get away from their problems. But Steven is not leaving Beach City with more problems, he is leaving to find himself. He is not abandoning anyone, he just needs to explore the world to find his own identity outside his Gem half. Steven will always have his family and friends to support him. Leaving Beach City is the only way to heal from his trauma and to find out who Steven Universe is. Sometimes, you have to leave home in order to move on and heal from trauma. With the final episodes nearing, I have hope Steven will be able to move on, heal, and return to Beach City when he has found himself. I believe in Steven.

[shy-magpie]

RQG 152

Poor Alex, there was no way to know and changing the story would be more of a breach of the implied contract than going forward. Plus side this warning implies we'll get more info on how the biology of the infection works before RSB actually explodes. To be clear I am all for warnings, I just imagine this was one heck of an awkward position for Alex & co to find themselves in. Well one would think they wanted to get through the intros as fast as physically possible! Seriously bless em for sticking with the structure instead of saying screw it and diving right in. Must be frustrating but it really helps me get in the right space to listen. Yeah it was a bit of an altruism run. That Ben physically ill at the prospect of characters talking? Yuck it up, I was specifically promised three (3) distinct topics would be addressed including both coping mechanisms and back stories. Poor Azu. If someone doesn't hold her while she has a proper cry I will be an unhappy Magpie. Are the new kids going to be invited to the conversations that are totally for sure not going to be put off for a month? Retcon: Barnes and Carter actually fought well it. I guess they were just down to the tricky ones. Theatrical much? Cel is great, have I said that enough? Well obviously not it should be declared at least hourly: "2 o' clock and Cel is great". But right after last episode instead of backing down (and IDK implying Wilde told the new kids their pronouns), Cel is immediately introducing themself with them and emphasizing their importance. Hamid right in there with the leadership, telling the duo that the party needs to go into isolation. I know having Zolf around must have took some weight off his shoulders but the man has grown since season one or even since Prague. He didn't lose that just because he cheers up when not solely responsible for leading the party. Note there is a messy negotiation with Zolf about who is in charge coming up and it is a mark of my trust in this show that I'm not dreading it. Am curious if it will be explicit enough for the white picket fence kids to pick up on, I know I have a thing about rank but some people seem to miss that aspect entirely. OK point Zolf but even with his charisma score there has to be a better way to put it than "do that and you are responsible for infecting Jasper and the village". Wow I guess that is the case isn't it. Thank you leader!Hamid coming in again. Getting Cel the kind of updates on home Hamid was denied in quarantine is fairly low risk for great gains in Cel's comfort with the whole thing. Point of clarity: as much as I hate to admit it, once the quarantine began they couldn't really keep Hamid in the loop since Ishaq was in the care of the Harlequins. Its been implied even without simply escaping an infected person could have means of communication that work in am anti magic cell. The village however is public info. Zolf, I want that again in small words! Are we talking black death or infrastructure problems? Because a few targeted infections could take out the government but not directly kill the citizens. Cel is doing the forced cheer again. What the hell have they been through that they default to words of affirmation for gory violence? Like most characters acknowledge the gore or that it was helpful, not both. Barnes is more reserved outside of the fight. Issues? Trauma? Oh Helen spelling it out, he's my type, crap. "Emotionally unavailable pirate" is a lot of people's type TBF. No wonder I made a warding gesture on hearing Zolf's description and didn't warm up till Dover. These characters wear the red flag as a cape and I'm surprised when my heart gets broken every time. Eh Zolf came back and is doing well enough, maybe Barnes will turn out to just not be chatty vs heart rending. And Hamid in there with the initiative casting Detect Magic so they don't have to face all the risks implied with not checking over the bodies. Barnes and Carter are glowing "like a fireworks factory where things have gone wrong". Only Water Breathing on the mooks. Speaking of emotionally unavailable pirates, Zolf sounds resigned as hell. I know he's working on it but the situation would depress anyone and he's been having a time of it, what with the puzzles and all. Shutting down isn't actually coping better than being shouty just more convenient. Have I already mentioned I want someone to comfort Azu on screen so she can put herself first for once? Remember how bright she shone in Cairo? If she doesn't process soon she's going to echo Zolf's arc. Carter is trying to looking at the bright side. Thank you Ben and Alex, not only a mood lightener but one that reminds us that Zolf asks direct questions now. And Zolf just moved as clearly as possible to protect Azu after Carter lashed out in response to her. I know they have a ways to get to where Grizzop & Azu were but I think they are at least proper team mates. Maybe having Zolf on this side of the bars this time will ease anything Azu is carrying from their introduction. Cel is a delight. Did they just suggest hamster balls? I love how Alex jokes about his own set design. Ah there is Ben's Minecraft joke. I think that's what you call environmental story telling. I love the mental image of them making their entrance crashing the mine cart into the ambush, like half way between a roller-coaster and sledding. Ah its been so long Zolf can't apply his memories of mining. They are officially out! Azu and Zolf are finally breathing right. Hey Zolf broke the weather machine! Cel takes a look see. Plumes of smoke from Shoin's? Wreckage from all the storms. Zolf joins Cel and USES HIS WORDS! I am so proud of him. Like not kidding learning to proactively offer praise & comfort instead of only offering concrete assistance in reaction is a huge step. Oh Cel! Getting yourself killed fighting alone would not have been better than defending your patch. And Zolf is right there, god remember Paris? Remember Prague? Now look at him. And there is the reality check. Not as jarring as it could have been. Azu is face down on the ground near Hamid! No more putting on her game face and slogging through it! Yes, process all you need darlin, no reason to rush. Hamid checks in! Azu takes his hand and explicitly talks about how scary it was when he was missing. Hamid talks about putting on a brave face for Skraak! RQG really just said "we're giving the fandom everything they want" in an episode recorded before we had a chance to ask. Azu checks in with Hamid! Oh Hamid its ok not to be ok. Oh hat Azu! Hamid call your family 18mumble is a go! Alex I will scream if he gets another delaying tactic. Cross your fingers we might get Ishaq and Saira! Azu assures him it would OK. Timing Zolf Horses! Topaz! Barnes: right Well that's a fair reaction to a celestial camel, he doesn't even know what the T stands for. Azu hugs Topaz Thank you Alex for making judgmental celestial camel canon.  How GMs don't all go insane with power from the moment it hits they can rewrite their world on a whim is beyond me. A Shetland for Hamid, a standard sounding horse for Cel, a cart horse for Azu, and another Shetland for Zolf. Carter can't get the question out before Zolf shuts him down. He is sticking to his word to Skraak, the island belongs to the Kobolds. Hamid calls en route! Bryn remembers to roll for it! Ishaq is a great kid, such a good sign he sounds like a kid too. Yes the kids are all together in the country house! Dad is at a redacted location, thank you Alex! Mom is alright! Saira is busy and the biggest problem with Ismail is that he is now taller than Ishaq! Ismail is good at magic too. Family bonding time. Einstein is working. Emeka & Veseek are helping things. Ed is with the family. Zolf is not happy about the call. Fair Zolf but none of us are regretting that call. Eh it being a one time thing is fair. Have I mentioned I like how Hamid & Zolf bicker? Its not like with Grizzop. They assume good faith and argue about the issue not score points. Part of why I shipped them in the beginning honestly: charismatic as Hamid is he probably impressioned like a duck on the first person to care more about what he was saying than how he said it. They joke about how hard nonverbal shots are in a podcast. Yes Alex we really do respect your craft. Might have been reassuring Ben. Helen is on the audience's side as always and tells him to pay up on the promised coping mechanisms talk. And Alex makes them roll a perception check. Do not talk block. Carter has been trying to eavesdrop. Azu tells him he isn't invited and Zolf tosses something at his head. Carter slinks back off. Zolf is still not good with words but he is resisting the urge to take it back. That counts damn it! Azu: your not good at talking for someone who says we need to talk. Yes Azu, and thats what makes it special. He is willing to put himself out there and do things he is bad at for the sake of the team. I like how Helen plays Azu getting over her issues with Zolf rather than just leaping to "Hamid vouched for you so we're besties". I need a clip of this, Zolf is offering to listen and be there while respecting boundaries and citing his own experience. Helen is great, Azu jumps right into the 18 months by asking about his relationship with Poseidon. Which again makes sense, as Azu is still working on "we met after you drugged, trapped, and imprisoned me". Which I get but seriously couldn't it have been in the stew or something? Drugging a woman's drink has connotations. Azu backstory(ish) oh thank Alex her cult is still doing the good work. Zolf tells Azu this, and offers her an out? Hamid & Zolf offer reassurance. Yes Hamid specifically tells her it isn't her fault. Zolf assures her that she isn't responsible for Sasha's decisions. Cel and Carter are chatting about what they've seen on the island.  Barnes tells them to keep the volume down and does Zolf's thing of bouncing something off Carter's head when he's loud again. Hamid moves to check in with Cel. Cel calls him on it.  Hamid asks what Cel plans to do after quarantine! Thank you Bryn! Cel doesn't know, ow. Cel feels obligated to be more proactive. Hamid reassures and points out that they were able to do it as a team so its not on Cel for not acting alone. Cel what is your backstory, afraid of being the monster. Thank you, I could wrap myself in this episode like a blanket. Cel how do you know that about being friends with mercs? Hamid would do it again but wants them to have a choice. Cel: When I call you little buddy I m not referring to the size of your heart. And that was veering saccharine so Ben swoops in with the Harrison Campbell joke. Do not make me get into why Hamid might be using snobbery as a cover for continuing to care more about what people might think than what he wants. Its a cheap shot for what could equally be he's that age and still has some flaws to work through. Thank you Alex for being realistic about horse pace without turning it into a word problem. Wilde! Cel points out the inn keeper could be infected, the boys explain the system of watching one another. Zolf is not letting Wilde get cute with his team again. Wilde wants them "fully supervised" in the bath. I feared that Alex, Wilde turned himself off again. Zolf calls him on it, kinda. They skim past the bath, thank you that could have been problematic. Thank goodness they are leaving the cell door open but locking the trap door. The new kids are in quarantine with them. Fair, going to be fun, but fair.  

[suthoughts]

The Future of Steven Universe

Since Change Your Mind aired both myself and other fans have found themselves asking, what’s next for Steven Universe? With corruption cured and the apparent destruction of Homeworlds cast system where else is there to go?

In this post I’m going to talk about what I think is next for Steven Universe, looking at the unresolved mysteries and problems, along with characters who still have a story to tell, and the possible aftermath of the last episode.

Unresolved Mysteries:

The Pyramid Temple:

We can deduce from the era 2 diamond insignia on the floor that the Pyramid temple was sent to earth after the war. Why was it sent and what was the meaning of the rather cryptic mural on the ceiling?

Pink Diamonds Creation:

The drawings Steven looked at during Familiar seemed to be depicting Pink Diamonds creation. Was there any reason why she was created? One of the drawings seemed to depict a Geode, is there any connection to the Geode on Earth.

Lion’s Chest:

We’ve gone back to feeling like we have a much more solid grasp on Roses life again, however this chest remains unexplained. What’s in there and why did Rose want to keep it locked away somewhere so secure that it couldn’t even be accessed after her death? Where is the key now?

The origins of Pearl:

The fandom is currently divided between those who believe our Pearl was created by the other Diamonds as a replacement Pearl for Pink, and those who believe she once belonged to White Diamond. Either way, what made the Diamonds give her a new Pearl if she got the last one taken away for ‘bad behaviour’?

Pink Pearl’s Missing Eye:

How and why did Pink Pearl lose her eye? The fact that the first thing she does is feel where her left eye used to be while she asks what happened suggests that her eye was still there when she was ‘bleached’ by White. Is it a result of being under Whites control for so long or did something else happen?

Jungle Moon:

The planet that orbits the Jungle Moon was destroyed, and not in the way that you get from colonisation. What happens here?

White Diamond:

Why did White Diamond know so much? Not just about the fact that Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond were the same person, but she also knew a lot about organic terminology (such as mother and child). Why did she believe she was supposed to be perfect and how did she come into existence?

Unresolved Problems:

The Human Zoo:

Both the bubbled Rose Quartzes and the Zoomans need to be dealt with.

The Zoomans present the problem of being not only content with their captivity but completely unable to survive outside of the zoo. Even beyond the complexities of the human world they’re going to need to be taught a lot of things that most people wouldn’t even need telling due to their upbringing. They currently have all the fear and common sense of a baby and have to be taught not to just walk into the sea or run into the road. Also, given how they coped with rejection, how will they respond to things like hunger?

The Bubble Rose Quartzes have a simpler solution of just unbubbling them with the knowledge they won’t Immediately die, however there are still complications regarding their release. Regardless of the way individual Rose Quartz may feel about having been bubbled for goodness knows how long (which presents a whole other set of problems) they still have to be filled in on a LOT of Gem history and, most importantly, relocated.

The Resource Crisis and Gem Reproduction:

Homeworld is still in the middle of a resource crisis, likely brought on by the unsustainable way they have of producing more gems. Sooner or later the Homeworld will run dry, and sooner or later the Diamonds are going to want to colonise another planet and, in the process, wipe out all the life from it.

Shattered Gems:

Shattered gems have a degree of consciousness, not enough to truly alive, but enough to suffer. Ideally a way would be found to free them from their gemstones and let them move on.

Characters:

Bismuth:

Bismuth has just been reunited with her closest friends, however for a very long time her existence revolves entirely around the war to the extent that her ‘purpose’ was making weapons for the rebels to fight with. While the construction of the house is keeping her busy at the moment how will she adjust to the life of a civilian and how will she handle rubbing shoulders with gems like Jasper or Nephrite, who used to be her enemy?

Lapis:

Now that she’s stopped isolating herself Lapis’s character can begin to grow. At the moment she feels she’s the only one who can’t ‘let go’ of her trauma, something that (given that the episode after she said this saw us journeying into Pearls repressed war memories) is obviously untrue. What Lapis needs is constructive coping techniques that don’t involve lashing out at those around her.

While Steven and Peridot meant well they both have a tendency to blame themselves for situations outside of there control and were scared of hurting Lapis further. Now however, as part of the main group, Lapis will have to interact with Pearl (who knows what it’s like to be treated like an object, and used to have a very similar way of dealing with her feelings) and Garnet (who while being kind and supportive will let Lapis know when she goes too far).

There’s also the matter of her back story. Now that we finally know about Pearls life on Homeworld she is now, officially, the Gem we know the least about. It’s also important to note that, other than Lapis, every other part of her origin story was a silhouette, something that has been repeatedly used (for instance in Your Mother and Mine) when a story doesn’t quite match reality.

Peridot:

Peridots relationship with Lapis was stifling. In my opinion this came partly from the fact that she had no idea how to support someone like Lapis, and partly from the fact that, during conflict, she assumes she’s the one in the wrong.

During her ‘redemption arc’ she was the main source of conflict, due to (generally out of ignorance) saying hurtful things to the Crystal Gems. She spent a lot of time being taught the correct way to behave. Before the revelation that Rose was Pink Diamond she never saw conflict between the Crystal Gems and may have assumed it had only happened because of her ignorance. If this is the case then the next step for Peridot is trusting her feelings and realising that sometimes other people make mistakes too.

Jasper:

There’s a lot of story potential for Jasper, from her origins in the Beta Kindergarten to the revelation that the Gem who took everything from her and her beloved Diamond were the same person. The cast system she absolutely believed in is now suddenly gone and she’s suddenly got nothing to fight and therefore, no purpose. Does Jasper even know that the Famethyst are still alive and at the zoo? Then there’s her whole negative experience with fusions to consider, along with the negative way she views herself.

Nephrite:

I’ve already made a post about Nephrite and what I believe to be her backstory so I’ll just write a summary here: Nephrite was considered something of a failure on Homeworld and, despite being persistent believes that she can do nothing right. If I’m right then she story will likely be about her, not only dealing with the trauma of corruption, but learning to believe in herself. It could also possibly give us information on how planets are scouted out.

Rhodonite and the Rutile Twins:

Out of all the off colours Rhodonite is the one who seems the least comfortable with her existence, ranging from telling Garnet that they should all be ashamed to occasionally correcting herself when she starts to talk about herself as one person instead of two. The Rutile Twins self loathing seems to be a little more subtle but they seem to have a similar dislike of their body as Amethyst and Peridot once had.

Jade and the Zircons:

Last seen poofed by Yellow Diamond we don’t know where they are or what happened to them.

Lars and Sadie:

What’s going to happen now Lars is back home. Both he and Sadie have grown as more independent people during his absence, will they still be able to connect with each other or have they grown apart?

The Aftermath:

Pearls:

While the cast system has been destroyed and all the gems are now no longer obliged to fall into their specific rolls, are the Pearls free? They are treated as objects by Homeworld and, as such, the Diamonds may have not mentally included them in the liberation. Even if they were included how willing would members of the elite be to give up their Pearls? In fact, if the theory about Rose accidentally breaking her Pearl is true, can Pearls even be given their freedom?

Former Corrupted Gems:

Did any of the gems go back to Homeworld with the Diamonds, and if so how many? Either way that’s a lot of gems who now have to find a place to live. Given Homeworlds mentality towards off colours how are they all going to cope with the fact that, with their new appearance, that is basically what they have become.

Homeworlds Off Colours:

As we’ve seen from Lars’s crew among others, the conform or die oppression the Homeworld off colours have faced have left them with a lot of issues. Even ‘acceptable’ off colours like Peridot were left feeling resentful towards themselves after being dressed up with lim enhancers to look like ‘real’ gems. Homeworlds mentality will not have changed in one go and there will be those who remain hidden out of fear, or out of a refusal to accept themselves. There may also be those who are (rightfully) angry about their oppression and want revenge for how they’ve been made to live.

The Former Elites:

Now we reach those I consider most likely to be the future antagonist of Steven Universe. While there will doubtless be elite gems who embrace the change there will be those who do not. Those like Aquamarine, who like their power over others and aren’t willing to let it go. A lot of people think the Gem shown in the film trailer is Morganite, the former owner of Rhodonite’s components, and if that’s the case, the deconstruction of the cast system, along with her views on thing like cross gem fusion would give her a motivation to start (or at least join) a revolution.

Middle and Lower Class Gems:

Gems who are not members of the elite, particularly low class ones like Pearls and Rubies, have problems regarding their own individuality and desires. They’ve always been treated as one of many identical and indistinguishable copies. As we’ve seen from both Ruby and Pearl, the affect of Homeworld on a gems individually can take a long time to lose its hold.

Then there are the gems like Holly Blue Agate, who have spent their lives sucking up to those above them and kicking those below. How will they cope with the changes? If there is a revolution I can see at least some of them joining in an attempt to get more power for themselves.

I can also see some lower class gems deciding to join, either in an attempt to secure some of the power that had been denied to them, or out of fear of freedom.

[ravenfirelair]

Steven universe future final review

so to give my review on the last season of steven universe. At first I thought the main purpose of this series was to complete some character story arcs and tie up lose ends that the previous seasons and the movie didn’t address, but boy, was I wrong! while I did like the season overall, I have some issues with it. The first half of the season felt very unfocused with a lot of one shot episodes that don’t lead up to anything, like when steven meets a bunch of rose quartz gems that look like his mom and he acts all awkward and uncomfortable around them which shows steven his clearly still not over have the lose of his mom even though they clearly established that he was in the previous season and in the movie, but the issue that steven still have issues to work out over his mom is never brought up again thoughout the rest of the season. The next episode focuses on volleyball or white diamond’s pearl and we discover that volleyball used to be pink diamond’s pearl and pink had some violent tendencies which caused the crack over volleyball’s eye and can’t be healed by steven because the damage is more mental then psychical. This might of implied that with pink diamond there was more to her then everyone thought there was and that she was not always the kind loving character we all know, but these issues are never brought again by the end of the season so they are left unresolved. Then the episode with bluebell felt kind of pointless because the whole episode was spend implying both aquamarine and eyeball rudy have turned good when in the end they really didn’t and they continue to hate steven instead of becoming friends with him and they just leave saying they will come back someday to get revenge, but by the end of the season they never do come back, so what was the point of that?

The episode with the two lapis gems felt kind of pointless too because the lapis gems don’t really change their ways and steven never becomes friends with them and they never show up again, so again what was the point of these characters? Then the episode where steven is over-stressed and overworked by trying to do all these different things with the gems at the same time by becoming fusions with them only to be an episode about good time management felt like really low brow writing. it felt like one of those chessy educational videos you whould show to little kids about simple life lessons, that kind of stuff I would expect from early 90s cartoons, but not from a modern progressive show like steven universe.  Then there was the episode where bismuth started to have feelings for pearl when they have a night out together with friends, but again this never really leads to anything because this plot point never comes up in the season again, we never see them fully hook up together and we don’t see them become a fusion, so again what was the point of this?

But then comes the episode that me groan the most, the episode when steven proposes to connie, this is where steven and the season as a whole gets the most dumb. Connie is going away to college soon and steven thinks her going to college means they will become further apart, so he thinks proposing marriage to connie is the thing to do to keep them from growing apart, but he is not sure if it’s the right thing to do, so he asks ruby and sapphire for advice, which I think was literally the worse thing to do because even though ruby and sapphire did fall in love with each other they still done fully understand how human relationships work and that every relationship is different depending how each person feels for each other. Personally I think steven should of asked an actual human being, like his dad? That way he would have been given better advice, he would of know that even though connie was going away they still can have a good relationship and also know that 16 is way to young of an age to propose marriage in the first place and would have avoided her rejection in the first place.  

Then comes the episode that eerked me just as much when steven and his dad go on a road trip together and end up at his dad’s childhood home, they break into his home and discover a lot about his past. I thought the episode was fine up until the last minute, we discover that steven’s dad never had a good relationship with his parents and that steven gets mad at his dad because he never had a normal childhood like his dad had, but those issues never get fully resolved in this episode. We never fully understand why greg never had a good relationship with his parents or why steven got so mad at his dad because he never had a normal childhood. Instead all we get is greg saying to steven that is proud of him for standing up for himself because he never did with his parents. While that is all well and good, it kind of makes it look like steven’s dad doesn't understand the real main issue going on here.  Also I would of liked to have seen more of a redemption arc with jasper since this series is all about villains getting redeemed. Jasper remains stubborn and unable to change her ways or becomes friends with steven until steven literally kills her by shattering her and once she comes back to life she just fully accepts steven has her diamond and quickly changes her ways, I just would of liked to see more of a slow gradual change to her character.  

Now on to the part of the season that I thought was both the best part and the most frustrating, mostly throughout the series we see all the trauma steven as experienced in his past is starting to take it’s toll on him and is coming out to the surface in negative ways by steven lashing out at people and more of his diamond powers coming out and reacting to all his stress in bad ways. I thought it was good in that we finally see the consequences of steven of going all these traumatic experiences and never really fully talking about it and steven constantly putting everyone else’s needs over his own. I thought it was good in showing how a character handles there own PTSD and that if it is not handled in a good way it can escalate in really massive bad ways and that’s okay to ask for help when you can’t handle it on your own. That being said though, it was equally frustrating to watch steven get worse and worse and yet he never seeks help, he constantly pushes the gems away even though he knows he needs help and the gems clearly see that steven is struggling but yet they do nothing. I know typically in this kind of situation other people should not push the person to seek help unless they want to seek help for themselves, but I think there is a point where someone else has to intervene in getting help for that person otherwise they end up doing something drastic to themselves (which eventually does happen to steven). So I think there were plenty of times the gems could of intervened to help steven before it got so bad he turned into a giant monster. Especially with garnet, if one of her powers is the ability to see into the future, she would have been able to foresee the consequences of steven not dealing with his issues properly or not seeking help and would do everything in her power to stop it, like maybe tell steven he if kept bottling up his issues and didn’t admit that he needs help he would turn into a giant monster. 

Furthermore, if the whole point of these season was steven trying to deal with his trauma from all his past experiences, why wasn’t the whole season focused on that? Have the whole season focus on a slow burn of steven progressively getting worse and worse on not handling his trauma very well. I mean we do kind of get that in the first few episodes with steven being more short tempered, irritable and angsty, and more of his gem powers coming out, but that stuff constantly gets interrupted by one shot episodes the focus on different characters and issues that don’t lead anywhere and thus end up being really unnecessary. Then the series takes a drastic turn to escalate the big moment we all know was going to happen. So yeah, the pacing of this season felt very uneven to me.

Furthermore, I was not so sure steven leaving beach city was the best decision for him? I mean yes, I get that he needed to leave to get a break from all the gem world drama and finally be is own person and make his own path out into the world, but at the same time is further isolating himself from everyone he cares about really the best way for him to handle his trauma? Plus does steven even know how to function as an adult on his own? It’s pretty obviously implied steven never went to school, so it’s kind of unclear of how much he knows even the basics of things. Plus if he plans to live on his own from now on, where would he live? Does he know how to get an apartment or a house? Does he know how money works and eventually has to get a job? If so, what kind of job could he get? Plus him being at the age of 16 he is still considered a minor and not an adult, so he wouldn’t be able to do a lot of things adults can do. I guess those are a lot big questions the audience is left to figure out.  

So yeah, again overall I liked this final season, but I had my issues with it. And far as the whole series of steven universe goes for me, I really like these series for being the progressive, unique and different show that it was. I liked how it started from a simple child-like beginning to slowly progressing to more of an adult show and had great character development with most of his characters. While I’m sad that it ended I know all good things must come to an end eventually and I thank this series for groundbreaking of what a cartoon show could be.          

[faelapis]

Lapis, Present, & Future

an empathetic hot take on why, while i love lapis, i don’t think her future character development should be a straightforward redemption arc. 

lapis has always been one of my favorite characters. she is flawed, haughty,  volatile, and can hurt others deeply, but those are things i like about her. i wouldn’t want her to become a truly heroic figure, or keep up the pretense of a perfect victim. i can’t relate to those things, and that’s not her. 

her antagonistic moments are when she truly seems to be acting as she wants, no holds barred, which tells an interesting story. i love those parts of her. 

meeting her like this was the coolest shit ever. you can feel her anger, boiling over as the sea rises... and yet, she’s directing it at all the wrong people. steven just freed her, and the crystal gems didn’t know she was alive. she just assumed they did. lapis has an awful habit of casting herself as judge, jury, & executioner, going with her initial worst impulse when she feels threatened. 

and she still makes sense as a sympathetic character. she’s thrust into this brand new world, she can’t go back to the home she had before the war. she can’t even understand what homeworld is anymore. her worst actions are pretty extreme, yes... but she is in extraordinary circumstances. even if that’s not the fault of those she hurts for it. 

the point is, you get her. even if she might be bad.

keyword might, she’s far from all bad. she’s traumatized, she deserves help for that, she’s grown to care for steven, and she harbors guilt for what she’s done. that guilt isn’t always altruistic - usually, the focus is “what consequences will i face for this” - but you get why. it is real. she knows she’s done genuinely bad things. 

much like why she inflicts pain on others, her being flighty, emotionally volatile, and impulsive are all trauma responses. born out of her personality, as an ex-elite gem who - according to rebecca sugar - does know she deserves better, and the situation at hand.

however. the reason i can talk about this so succinctly and sympathetically is that the show has focused on her trauma quite a bit. it’s easy to feel bad for lapis. the show clearly wants you to. but... well, she has done terrible things to others. and steven, whose perspective we follow, is so used to seeing lapis as a victim that he can never bring himself to be mad at her.

neither can anyone else - peridot is so obsessed with pleasing her, she doesn’t realize when it’s gone way too far. she’s completely neglecting herself to make sure lapis is never, ever upset or challenged as a person. that’s just not healthy. and... i think that should have a genuine consequence for lapis’ arc. 

because really, what it does is it prevents her from truly growing. and if that’s the point of it, then the crewniverse is writing a WAY more interesting story than a straightforward redemption arc - they’re writing what happens when everyone assumes she doesn’t need one, and just focus on her trauma, not her actions. that criticism would just upset her. 

and that’s a story i wanna hear.

plenty has already been said about lapis in "reunited”, but one thing i don’t think is true is that this was the result of “off-screen development”. not really. 

if lapis lazuli has a defining characteristic, it is the very idea emotional volatility. lashing out + making emotional snap decisions is kinda Her Thing.

i think this was that. we saw this in “same old world”, too. lapis is not on earth because she wants to, but because - in her words - how she feels about homeworld punishing her. that punishment feels inevitable after what she’s done, and that prompts her to act. “if they’re gonna punish me like a crystal gem, i might as well be one”. in other words, she feels she doesn’t have anything to lose anymore. 

however... she isn’t in love with earth, or the CGs. she’s never shared a bonding scene with garnet, amethyst, or pearl. she’s always kinda forcing herself to get used to it. i think the show is aware of that, judging by “gem harvest”. 

why don't you put that corn in a mirror for thousands of years, and then see how it feels about the table?! IT WOULD REALLY HATE THE TABLE!

this reminds the audience that the current status quo isn’t perfect. you’re meant to be uncomfortable with lapis’ place in all of this. heck, even if you stan her, she’s not happy. this is why her leaving was so effective. calling herself a CG may intentionally feel wrong, like she’s settling for a cause she’s not dedicated to, because she’s not dedicated to anything.

so where can this be headed? it’s framed like lapis facing the music, doing the right thing to earn forgiveness, but not, crucially, the end of her emotional volatility. it’s a part of it. if threatened, she’s prone to lash out again. 

yes, things feel happy and settled now... but it might not last. which wouldn’t be fair, either. no one gets that easy an arc, as lapis pointed out when navy-ruby was pretending to be perfectly redeemed through friendship alone. “no one could be that well-adjusted”. lapis, too, is more interesting when her friends are faced with her faults - and sometimes, even lose her. 

perhaps just as importantly - her “big damn hero moment” doesn’t address the pain she’s inflicted on the other characters. i want to believe that’s intentional. 

if i’m right, as i was about her leaving, they’re not writing a redemption arc without accountability. they’re slowly letting the characters figure out that she’s not as perfect as they think, and only then will those she’s hurt find closure. 

for one thing, nobody in the main cast knows her past. five seasons in, we got no idea! she was an elite in blue’s court, and the only gems who know that role are bismuth and blue diamond, who both tried to kill her... and we still don’t know why bismuth did so. just that lapis was “supposed to be there for a short time” (doing what exactly?), and that a lapis terraforms.

i think that’s meant to give us pause. her backstory was told so simply, so lacking in nuance, it reminds me of rose’s backstory in “your mother and mine”: what happened was real, yes, but different in context. it’s never that simple. i don’t think it’s an accident that bismuth is back now... and corruption is the focus of next episode’s promo, meaning jasper could return... meaning raid theory may get its day in court sooner than expected, and lapis with it. 

in any case, lapis returning to “face the music” only works if there’s still music to face - and there should be. she’s hurt greg, peridot, jasper, almost drowned steven and connie... the show deliberately called the latter out, and dismissed connie in a way i think was, once again, intentionally avoiding lapis’ faults. connie went along with it, but not happily. 

we shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking this is the “final lapis”. SU hot takes tend to assume the current situation is forever (see: bismuth), or the morally correct one (see: bismuth), and i don’t think that’s true. lapis has already pretended she’s “in retirement” at the barn, as rebecca put it. the stability of that appeals to her sense of self-preservation.

but in doing this, lapis kinda gets in her own way. earth is not her home, and her friends don’t know her. they excuse / ignore her flaws - like peridot did with the unhealthy parts of their relationship. how much lapis has been through became the default mindset she adapted, de-prioritizing how she felt. steven did the same. he knows reminders of the past upset lapis, and even dismissed his own dad’s trauma in “the message” once greg called lapis mean.

greg: well she’s a riptide queen and she’s super mean! steven: whoa, hold the phone, lapis was not mean! she was just trying to get back home!

those things don’t need to contradict each other, though. yes, she was trying to get back home, for good reason... but she still broke greg’s leg and almost drowned steven. which makes it a problem that he doesn’t just love lapis, but is dedicated to making sure others do, too. 

this is reminiscent of a moment in “beta”:  amethyst, while distressed, mentioned jasper. peridot took the liberty of being offended on lapis’ behalf. lapis herself did not have a bad reaction - steven and peridot were just deeply overprotective, to the point of ignoring what other people (in this case, amethyst, and indirectly jasper herself) were going through. 

lapis is aware of this (can’t go back, alone at sea), but it’s in her favor to ignore it... the problem is, her perspective going unchallenged is kinda why she left. no one understood her enough to find a fault with the status quo. it was convenient. we don’t have to challenge her, cause she’s not killing us (anymore), so let’s just not. let’s just let bygones be bygones, even tho anyone else would face a mountain of criticism for doing the same. 

it’s the same loneliness we saw in rose/pink - who was treated as infallible. no one knew all of her, they just saw the leader she let them see. in this context, lapis being treated as this badass hero and tortured victim without a hint of skepticism in “reunited” would almost feel insulting, if it wasn’t for one thing: this is still steven universe, and it’s never that simple.

lapis can’t just be “the traumatized one”. not with all the pain she’s inflicted on others. love can’t save the day, because that love is incomplete. it’s idolizing, without changing or even acknowledging flaws. the dedication to the image of lapis means it’s going to take an outside force - such as bismuth, or even jasper, who has plenty of legitimate beef and IS coming back someday - to put her into context. 

everyone’s trauma should matter, including what she’s inflicted. thankfully, SU episodes contrast - they showcase different sides of each character, and that’s what keeps me going now. just as there’s an episode to show rose’s love for earth and pearl, there’s an “earthlings” and “bismuth” to show how she hurt others. we may just... have to wait for ours.

"reunited” showed us lapis at her strongest. now she’s back, the show’s got chance to explore her weaknesses, and put others’ feelings first.

not even steven or peridot can say they trust lapis to always be there for them. they just hope so. SU adores setting up tropes to subvert them, so i hope to see them challenging the “hero comes back last minute, so everything’s fine” thing. hopefully, the moments of self-awareness they’ve set up will serve a purpose: to address lapis’ discomfort with herself, and how she’s hurt others, in ways that can’t just be undone. 

[galaxyblake]

What’s your opinion on Jaspers life and death? I feel like they had so much wasted potential with him and it was kinda unecessary for him to die.

I loved Jasper, I really did. I think his character was extremely complex and well done. While some may disagree, and that’s okay, I think that his character was set up to die the way he did after he lost Maya. We see all these kids go through so much trauma within the span of 9-10 months and time and time again we see them fight through it one way or another. Clarke is the person who fights the depression by herself, she grieves for who she used to be and what she had to do to survive. We see Bellamy and Octavia sort of lash out, likely because of their relation, it’s not surprising that they have the same emotional instinct. We see Bellamy feel so much guilt and resentment towards himself and towards the people who abandoned him and his way of grieving is to try and fight it head on because that’s what he believes he is good at. Same goes for Octavia but she did it in a more personal way. She lashed out on Lincoln and Indra and her brother, people that are important to her. She became brutal because of what she went through. Monty and Raven put themselves to work, usually being the ones to solve the main problem in the story. They survived their trauma through their work and by making themselves useful they found their purpose, they found that through all they had suffered they could still help everyone. Harper and Jasper kind of parallel each other in a sense, while Monty was the one to suffer with her physically in Mt. Weather her battle scars were much deeper and as were Jaspers. We all forget that he was only 15. He was in love with Maya, in love for the first time ever and then his love was ripped away from him at the hands of his best friend and two people he looked up to like they were his own parents. Yes everyone has lost someone, but in the real world not everyone can come back from that. He was depressed, he had PTSD and unlike the others he couldn’t fight it even though he was strong. He didn’t have to die, we all know that, but in the end it was his choice and his choice alone. I loved his character and what he stood for and I felt like it hit really close to home when he died because it reminds you that some of the worst wounds are the ones that you can’t see. In that final scene in arkadia when he dies we feel all that he felt and then we see Harper change her mind and I think it’s meant to show that some people can pull through and some can’t. That doesn’t make him any less than Harper, that doesn’t make him weak, it makes him real. Now I don’t think that his death was necessary, it would’ve been amazing to see him pull through with Harper and Monty I just feel like it was a painful reminder that they’re all just children and they can only suffer so much. Now feel free to add if I’m missing something or if you disagree, but no hate

[modestmondays]

Calling Out Lapis Lazuli

Last week, I wrote about how Steven finally called out Ronaldo at the end of Rocknaldo, after making excuses for him and putting up with his behavior. And at the end, I wrote that I hope this presages him calling out Lapis Lazuli. Some people understood why I said that, but a few were confused. So I’ll elaborate on the concept here.

First of all, though, I would like to direct your attention to this post: Lapis, Jasper, Malachite, and Abusive Relationships. I know it’s a long post, but it’s the shortest I could make it. It’s by no means perfect, but I think it adequately explains my thoughts on Malachite, and why I think Lapis was the abuser in that relationship. I won’t be repeating it here, although I’m happy to answer follow up questions on either of these posts.

The rest of this got pretty long (also a bit disorganized, and I probably forgot some important parts, since I wrote it while baking), so I’ll put it under a cut:

Second, let’s make a short list of people Lapis Lazuli could consider apologizing to:

1) Jasper, obviously

2) Steven and Connie, for nearly drowning them

3) Greg, for breaking his leg

4) pretty much everyone on earth, for the stunt she pulled in Ocean Gem

5) ...and possibly for whatever terraforming she was here to do during the war

6) did I mention Jasper?

7) Peridot, for how she treated her in Barn Mates (more on this later)

8) arguably the Crystal Gems, but both sides are in the wrong here, and it’s not like Peridot has ever apologized for her attacks on the CGs (or vice-versa)

9) oh, and Jasper

Now, a list of apologies that Lapis has actually made:

1) “Don't put me in charge! Oh, sorry. I mean, y-you shouldn't trust me with the boat.” (Alone at Sea)

2) “We're very sorry for your marriage.” (Gem Harvest)

...and that’s it.

Not only has she had the chance to apologize (she’s had speaking appearances in just over a dozen episodes now), but she’s specifically been called out for her actions, multiple times, and chose not to acknowledge or apologize for the things she did to hurt others.

The first time she was called out, admittedly, was not to her face. Remember Greg singing “she was a riptide queen and she was super mean!”? But then Steven responded, “Hold the phone! I’m 13, and it’s impossible for someone to be my friend and a bad person.” Then he sings the “she was trapped in a mirror” song to remind us why Lapis was sad.

Okay, great. But being sad and wanting to go home doesn’t make hurting people acceptable. Even if you’ve experience trauma, you’re still responsible for your own actions. You still need to own your own mistakes. People will (hopefully) understand, and not hold it against you, especially if you take steps to change your behavior, but you shouldn’t expect your friends to make excuses for you. That’s not fair, and it’s not okay.

Lapis got called out again by Greg, in Alone at Sea:

LL: “Steven, who is this?” G: “Uh, Greg Universe. You broke my leg trying to use the ocean to fly back to your homeworld?" LL: “Lapis Lazuli. Nice to meet you.“

Really, Lapis? You won’t even acknowledge breaking his leg? Classy.

But again, we find out that she’s upset and stressed out about Malachite! So apparently it’s okay that she doesn’t apologize, or that she lashes out at people who don’t deserve it. Again, this is Steven’s fault, too, for enabling her behavior here.

Lapis literally calls herself out later in the episode, when Steven calls Jasper terrible: "I'm terrible! I did horrible things! I-I broke your dad's leg. I stole Earth's ocean! Go on! Tell me I'm wrong!”

Steven has no answer for this, because he can’t reconcile those things with their friendship. He’ll need to, eventually.

And Lapis got called out again in The New Crystal Gems, this time by Connie. We’ll switch to images for this one. Connie comes over to Steven’s house, expecting it to be empty, but finds Peridot and Lapis in the bathroom. Lapis asks Peridot who Connie is:

“I almost drowned a lot of people” says Lapis, while breaking eye contact to stare directly into a mirror. Subtle, they ain’t.

But anyway, even if Lapis has started to acknowledge some of the hurts she’s caused, she’s done nothing to apologize or change.

Now, that may be a controversial assertion. The Lapis we’ve seen in Barn Mates, Beta, and Back to the Moon doesn’t seem a whole lot like the Lapis from Mirror Gem/Ocean Gem, The Return/Jailbreak, Chille Tid, or even Same Old World.

For this part, I need to speculate a little bit. I do think Lapis is in “retirement” as Connie put it, and as Rebecca Sugar explained in this interview:

“There is a part of [Lapis] that’s afraid of her own power, she’ll sit and read magazines, laying around like she’s retired. But that strength she exerts […] she can take it very far to get control over her own situation again and she’s aware of that,” Sugar said.

I think that they’re essentially putting Lapis “on hold” while they move other character and plot arcs forward, and I speculate that this is because her arc won’t make sense without more context (in particular, we know very little about pre-war Homeworld, or what it was like for Lapis, Sapphire, and Ruby. I suspect/hope we’ll see some Lapis and Garnet development once we finish the Jasper/Pearl/Pink Diamond narrative).

But part of the reason this works for Lapis is because she’s good at playing along--until she doesn’t want to anymore. We saw this in Mirror Gem, when she was “beach summer fun buddies” with Steven until he hesitated at her offer to return to Homeworld. She repeats what others want to hear (at first very literally) and shows them, not her true self, but a mirror of what they expect to see. We’ve only seen the occasional glimpse of the real Lapis under that mask.

We’ve seen Lapis just going along with whatever others suggest in Hit the Diamond (Steven’s baseball plan) and Beta (Peridot’s meep morps, Camp Pining Hearts marathons, remodeling, etc). Not once does she take the lead and offer her own ideas or suggest her own preference for activities. Even in Gem Harvest, it was Peridot’s plan to grow vegetables. Lapis will only concede that the barn can get “a little lonely”.

But it wasn’t clear that she was just playing along until we saw what happened in The New Crystal Gems. That, I think, supports this reading. Because when Peridot takes charge and makes herself “the Garnet” Lapis literally plays along by pretending to be Amethyst. But when she gets fed up with Peridot bossing her around, she finally asserts herself, and tries to take control of their little game (and Yellowtail’s truck).

Connie snaps them out of it, with a Steven-style speech, and later takes them to task with a Connie-style one--but by then Lapis has her mask back up. Still, with Steven gone, she was able to let some of her frustrations show, and flirt with the idea of really being in control.

The reason she’s been playing along, of course, is that she’s stuck on Earth. Lapis does genuinely care about Steven, and she wants to protect him and spend time with him, but she already knows that if she asks him to choose between her and the Crystal Gems, he’ll pick Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl. Again. So she doesn’t ask. She pretends that everything is fine, and so do they. Everyone involved has a lot of practice pretending everything is fine, as we know all too well.

But everything isn’t fine. We’ve seen the cracks--obviously in Jail Break (both in her cell and as Malachite), but also in Gem Harvest (”[the corn] would really hate the table”) and The New Crystal Gems (”There is no Lapis. Only Garnet.”). And even in Barn Mates.

So let’s talk a bit about Barn Mates. Because this is another episode where Steven pushes people her cares about into reconciling, except this time there’s no musical number, and no actual reconciliation.

Lapis blames Peridot for dragging her back to Earth, and for interrogating her (which we never see on screen, but do see Peridot write an apology card for, so we have to assume it was not something Lapis volunteered for).

Meanwhile, Peridot’s primary defense is a pragmatic one: she needed an informant, and Lapis Lazuli was the only gem on Homeworld who had set foot on earth in the last 5,000 years. Hence, taking her along and interrogating her. But necessity is no defense, and, by the same token, Lapis’s hurt is no defense for how she treats Peridot here.

Lapis demands the barn, though she has wings and can fly and could literally live anywhere. But since she wants the one place Peridot has made her home, Peridot needs to leave? Nice. And while Peridot’s attempts to win Lapis over re-awaken Lapis’s various traumas (Malachite was a bad time for her even though she was the abuser, and so was being trapped in a tape recorder the mirror.) that’s no excuse for her behavior. Not that she ever apologizes, of course.

In the end, only the sudden appearance of the Rubies (and a possible threat to Steven) forces the two of them to paper over their differences. Lapis starts to play along, again, because she sees that Steven won’t give up on this. So she gives in, for now.

We’ll see how Lapis Lazuli’s development proceeds in future episodes. Like Garnet, she’s trapped on Earth because of a fusion she made here, rather than by virtue of having joined the Crystal Gems. I hope that both of them will get a chance to resolve some of their fusion-related issues (cough Sugilite cough), and that we’ll hear from them what Era 1 Homeworld was like and why they both miss it.

We need to understand Era 2, the war, and Era 1, before Steven can bridge the gap between the Crystal Gems and Homeworld. We’ve had Amethyst and Peridot as our Era 2 gems, Pearl and Jasper as our war gems, and I hope we’ll have Lapis Lazuli and Garnet as our Era 1 gems.

Because this story isn’t going to end with the two sides fighting out a 5,000 year old war. We saw how poorly that went, for everyone, the last time around. This time, there has to be a new approach. We’ll see it in miniature, I think, between the Crystal Gems and the Homeworld Trio, and perhaps we’ll see a larger version with Steven, the Cluster, and the Diamonds. I remain hopeful that the ending will be worth the wait.

[jenhedgehog]

Hi! I've been thinking about the episode Barn Mates after the loud criticism and/or hatred directed towards it. The main critique is usually that Lapis forgiving Peridot was "forced", "rushed" and what have you. I admit I did find it a bit weird in spite of being a long time Lapidot shipper... but going through everything I realised there's an often overlooked detail. Namely, no one forced Lapis to stay anyway near the barn, but she kept hovering in the near vincinity. (1/4)

She knows where Steven lives; it's not like she could never find him again if she left. If Peridots presence caused her such grief, there's no reason she would stay around; Steven already made it clear that the barn was given to Peridot first. Personally, I think she held something akin to a grudge against Peridot for bringing her back to Earth and just didn't want to accept the fact that she had changed so drastically. (2/4)           

It fits into the theme of Same Old World when Steven shows that Earth is constantly changing - something she never realised out of the spite she held for the planet she was trapped on. In Barn Mates, Steven tried to show her that people change, too. How does her character evolve in Alone at Sea? She allows herself to start working on her past trauma, being forced into a state of staticity, when she lets herself change with her new experiences and apologizes to Jasper for mistreating her. (3/4) 

You can't have any of these episodes without the others. Seeing it from this perspective has made Barn Mates one of my favourite episodes because of the underlying theme of allowing to let go and look ahead (and, well, I'd lie if I said that I didn't enjoy the Lapis/Peridot interactions). What are your thoughts? Maybe I'm way off, haha. Anon love from Sweden! (Sorry for spamming your inbox by the way!) (4/4)            

Hi Anon, and thanks so much for sending this through!

I honestly think you might be onto something there.

No-one was forcing Lapis to stay at the barn, you’re right.  I think that, at first, she might have wanted to keep the place for herself; of course, in the end her and Peridot decided to share it instead.

I do wonder if this might have been the first time that Lapis ever actually forgave someone, thanks to Steven.

We know that Lapis has a tendency to lash out at people when she feels wronged (such as when she attacks the Crystal Gems in Mirror Gem and then, of course, trapping Jasper in a toxic fusion).  She really doesn’t forgive very easily - and she certainly has a lot of resentment towards Peridot at the start of Barn Mates.  I think the turning point was when she broke the tape recorder and Peridot said:

“Look, I get it, you know?  You’re confused!  You can never go back to Homeworld.  This place doesn’t exactly feel like home yet.  You’re alone, no one could possibly know what that feels like!  Oh wait, I do!  We’re the same, except… you don’t have to be alone!” 

I think, at this point, Lapis may have began to “get” Peridot’s true intentions.  She still lashes out at Peridot and tells her to leave, but I get the impression that she felt bad for that (as well as breaking the tape recorder) - especially after Steven called her out for it.  She certainly looks like she’s contemplating something, and almost looks to be feeling a bit guilty judging from her body language in that scene.

And I think that is why she saved Peridot from the Roaming Eye.  She even specifically stopped to ask Peridot if she was okay afterwards (and we all know what happened next, don’t we~)

After she forgave Peridot, I wonder if she did some soul-searching and began to wonder if she herself could also be forgiven for her past actions - hence the apology to Jasper.  She sought the forgiveness of someone who she mistreated, just how Peridot did in Barn Mates.  She even refers to herself as a “monster” - a far cry from the Lapis who’s always been the victim in the past.  Although, of course, Alone At Sea didn’t end as well as Barn Mates - which is probably deliberate, actually, to directly contrast a toxic “relationship” with a healthy one.

As for Lapidot being “rushed”.  I’ve said this before, but it’s literally because Lapis and Peridot don’t live with Steven.  We see everything from his perspective; so if he doesn’t see what’s happening, then neither do we.  It’s unfortunate, but it’s to be expected.  As important as Lapidot (as well as Lapis and Peridot themselves) is to us though, we must remember that they’re minor characters.  They live on their own, away from the main cast, and of course we’re not going to see anywhere near as much of them as we do the main Crystal Gems.

If they’re happy together, them I’m happy.  The ship is basically canon at this point anyway ;)