STEVEN UNIVERSE FUTURE

. REWRITTEN .

Episode three: Not my diamond problem

Note:the episode volly ball is canon in this rewrite. It is the second episode here and I consider it a decent episode of future.

With spinel being the pink diamond replacement, you’d think that having 2 gems acting has pink diamond would help things out. Well… as far as homeworld was concerned, there was still 1 pink diamond, the other…. Was just a clown who had an agate rank. This made the era 3 enforcement…. Difficult
Spinel: For the last time:STOP! BUILDING! WEAPONS!
Agate cut345: or what, your just a jester gem
Spinel: and this jester gem beat up 3 war veterans. What makes you think you're gonna be any safer.
Agate: You aren’t my diamond!
Spinel: according to the diamonds, I am!
Agate: but this isn’t a weapon, it just creates a beam of light that focuses in a certain area that parts the particles in that targe- i mean, selected area.
Spinel: THIS WEAPON IS CALLED, A PARTICLE DESTROYER, THAT'S LITERALLY WHAT IT DOES!
Agate: well FINE! Come on, this clow rock said we have to stop protecting the homeworld from threats.
Back at the diamond palace. Spinel walked in looking very defeated, she had tried everything in the book, dressed like a high rank. And had even extended her entire body, well the last one she stopped because she just looked very stretched out. But the gems would seem to find any excuse to not follow rules, and sometimes spinel would have to get a diamond because homeworld gems didn’t want to listen, and rebel gems still resented them for corrupting them 6000 years ago. Well rebel gems weren’t much of the problem any way. But the homeworld gems were
Yellow diamond: Oh hello spinel! You seem tired
Spinel: i just don’t get it, why am the only one who the gems don't listen to. Aren’t i wanna of you guys now
Yellow diamond: yes of course
Spinel: then why won't they listen to me
Yellow diamond: well…. Um
Spinel: it's useless, i’ll think i'll just quit this all together. There’s no point in having a job you can’t even do right!
Yellow Diamond:..... Maybe there's something I can do to fix this. Follow me.
Yellow led spinel to her room, where yellow pearl was.
Yellow pearl: hello my diamond, is there anything i can do for you today, at least 1 thing!
Yellow diamond: Has a matter of fact there is. Could you please let me demonstrate something on you
Yellow pearl: OF course my diamond
Spinel: what is this
Yellow diamond: you’ll see
Spinel then watched her use her diamond powers to change yellow pears size from pearl sized to sugilite sized.
Spinel: WOAH!
Yellow diamond: pretty impressive, instead of destroying forms, I can change them, their size, their body proportions, anything.
Spinel: cool! But how does this solve my problem?
Yellow diamond: if homeworld wont see you has a diamond, i'll just alter you shape to be like a diamond
Blue diamond: HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!
Blue diamond walked up to yellow: yellow, don't you think you should make home world respect spinel has a diamond, instead of “fixing spinel”
Yellow diamond: but this is what spinel wants, right?
Spinel was unsure. On one hand, the gems were not gonna respect her as a diamond if she did look like a spinel, on the other hand why should she have to change just to get some respect out of these gems, but on the other other hand, being shaped like a diamond did sound pretty cool.
Spinel: WELP! I'm out of hands
Blue diamond: what?
Spinel: I mean, I agree with yellow.
Blue diamond: but… well fine, it's your choice spinel.
Five minutes later
Yellow diamond: DONE! What do you think
Spinel: i look….. Like a diamond!
And spinel sure did. She had a dress akin to that of blue’s, a shirt akin to yellows, and she even had a cape.
Spinel: jee im so happy that i could sing! in fact- iiiiiiiiiIIIIIIiiiiii, i can-
Blue diamond: sorry spinel, but the person writing this doesn’t have a song in the budget!
Spinel: Aw what!?
Yellow: anyway don’t you still have work to do
Spinel: oh ya!
Has spinel ran off to finally get respected has a diamond, blue turned to yellow with angry face
Blue: if this fails like last time. I will crack you
Yellow: don't worry, what's the worst that can happen.
Soon home world had a harder time defying spinel’s orders, because now she was truly a diamond, at least, diamond seized. At first, life seemed good, the gems no longer bothered (as much) to argue with her. But she realised that being diamond sized had its problems, for one, not every place is made for diamonds, some were at most built for someone opal sized. Sometimes spinel would just unexpectedly hit her head on things she’d normally slip right under. And then on her 7th day of being diamond sized, she discovered another problem.
There was a hike that was meant to be led by steven but he was busy with other problems (will be covered in episode 4) so they needed some other gem to do it, spinel offered to go lead it, despite pearl’s protest, she still allowed her to go. This would be where a major problem would occur.
Spinel: now walk very carefully, you don't want to fall and crack your gem
Nephrite: ok…. Hey do you hear that cherry
Cherry quartz: what
Nephrite: sounds like cracking
Pearl: amethyst
Amethyst: don't worry its not my gem,
Nephrite: no more like, rocks crumpling
Spinel: probably no-
She was gonna say nothing, but then the sounds location was revealed, the rocks spinel was standing on collapse and spinel fell down the mountain. Is now a bad time to say this mountain was on a floating base in the sky?
Spinel: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA HHHHHHHHHH!
Pearl: oh that's what I was afraid of. When spinels size change it multiplied her weight every square meter, this increased her weight which made the rocks collapse
Amethyst: why do you think i ordered the group to stay 15 feet away, i knew DUH!
Pearl:....well wonder’s we’ll never see.
Amethyst: Now let's go save spinel! Peridot, float me after her.
Has spinel was falling down the mountain, peridot manege to float near to her and amethyst carefully lassonde it around her foot
Amethyst:now stop this thing
Peridot: I'M TRYING! But i’ve slowed us down to only 18 mph less
Amethyst: we need more power! Wait, I got it! If magnets can be created or have their strength increased by using electricity, Then….
Amethyst pulled out battery: TA DA!..... Peri why do you look like you’ve seen a ghost? Is it so surprising that i like to read every once in a while.
Peridot: but how is that gonna work
Amethyst: oh i'm just gonna clamp these prongs onto you.
Peridot: OOoooh- WAIT WHAT
Amethyst: just trust me
Amethyst clapped the prongs onto peridot and everything stopped. Then spinel went up. Apparently the wip now acted has a bungee cord, and spinel was now going up
Peridot: wait, if i was trying to pull this plate up and spinel is going up, doesn’t that mean- ! AMETHYST LET GO BE- to late
Amethyst was now flying up with spinel, up over the mountain peak and back down of the spire. Into a lake.
Spinel: OW! Me entire body hurts
Amethyst: well at least you not cracked, hey what's that weird pink rock thats all long and jaggy
Spinel then glitched out and amethyst then connected the dots.
Amethyst: OOOOOOOooooooooooohhhhhhhh…….
Needless to say, blue was not happy, the last time yellow did this, the gem had nearly been shattered. Yellow managed to fix her gem. But blue was still angry.
Blue:I said this would happen. Yellow change her back right now
Spinel: but then i can’t enforce era 3 rules, and that was the whole point
Yellow: right?
Blue: but this is ridiculous! Think about it, spinel, you had to alter your form for what, because people wouldn’t listen to you? You shouldn’t have to change yourself just because of others!
Spinel was gonna retort back with something but then thought about it. Blue was right, she had changed herself because the gems didn’t listen to her. And when she thought about this more, it actually hadn’t solved the problem, they weren’t listening to her, they were listening to diamond her, and that hadn’t really been the spinel she wanted to be, not the jokester, always smiling, happy spinel, but the strict, straight face, monotone spinel that everyone expected of a diamond.
Spinel: I guess you're right. I shouldn't have tried to change myself to suit others.
Blue: good, now let's go back to how things were.
Spinel: actually, i have a suggestion
So spinel got a chance to now look more like a jester, wacky hair, one side of her face normal, the other painted in a pink and black plaid color scheme. Sure gems didn’t listen to her as much but at least she was just her.
THE END oh wait there's more
Back at the mysterious space station. The gems there seemed to be working overtime to complete their project.
Mystery gem: so we have the rendering of her look. Now we just edit it to fix one of her problems. Any ways hows our spy going.
Kyanite: oh its going great, its who the’ll least suspect.
The screen would light up has one of the gems were talking to them, they said: thanks for helping me out, volleyball
To be continued

so, sapphires are gems that can look into the future, right?
that also means that garnet looks into the future because she's a fusion between ruby and sapphire, correct?
so what about when garnet fuses? that means that the other fusions containing sapphire can see through the future.
does this mean fusions like alexandrite, sardonyx, and sugilite can see into the future?]
because I dont really want to live in a world where sugilite can predict the future.

I’ve been making tier lists of my fav gems in the show and came at a conclusion that Alexandrite is my favorite. But that left me confused as to if she counts as her own gem or as just a fusion of her components. I know there’s has been explanations and what-not, but when we look at all the other gems like Bismuth or even someone like Jasper, they have gone through their own story and development. Even though they aren’t the main CG’s you can’t see SUF Jasper like you saw her in Season 1. I mean Opal was the first “Fusion” we were introduced to and yet 160 episodes , a movie, and a spin-off later we still don’t know much about her other than her incredible singing ability. We’ve gotten stories about how “Gems” like Sardonyx affects Pearls and Garnets relationship and stuff but that was only for her components she wasn’t there for those conversations and it didn’t really affect her outside of how Pearl and Garnet felt about each other. We got a glimpse of this type of conversation in Know Your Fusion with Smokey, but that was only for her and it was one episode. I love the original crystal gems but I really want to know who is Opal, who is Sugilite, who is Alexandrite.

Okay, here's a crazy thought: When it comes to RQ turning into Steven, the feeling of loss that the characters feel is not shared with the audience. We're told she was great, and we're told that it sucked losing her, but we never feel that.
In a similar way, we never have to deal with getting to know R&S because they basically form Garnet right away and stay that way as often as possible.
However, what if it happened to characters that the audience has known for a while?
Shipping aside, let's take a brief look at the cast. Garnet is taken, Pearl is... not ready yet for that sort of thing, so that leaves Amethyst, Lapis, Peridot, Bismuth and maybe Jasper as the 'singles'. These are all characters we've known for a while, and if any of them formed a "permanent' fusion like Garnet, that'd be a very effective way of triggering a hurricane of emotions in the audience. It causes sadness that the character is mostly gone, but also wonder and curiosity. It'd also make for a great drama side-story, with each character dealing with this new personality in their own way, be it prefering it, or missing the old individual gems.
Not only that, but this is a form of changing up the cast. I don't think SU will even kill-off any gems, hell Lars was already a huge stretch. But I think it'd be very interesting to see Steven having to learn acceptance that his old friend(s) became someone else, just like everyone had to do with RQ becoming him. It mirrors it nicely, and cold be an interesting plot point once the current ruckus at HW dies down a bit.
As for whom would make a good candidate... that's a rough question. Everyone's got points for and against it.
Amethyst: Used to it, but she also seems very individualistic. She also doesn't have that much of a bond with the 'singles', to put it mildly.
Peridot: Seems the most interested in it, but it also seems equally as likely to avoid it.
Lapis: She's got the peridot thing going on for her, but she's also traumatized from her last permafusion.
Bismuth: Friendly and all, but also hasn't been around to know the others in an intimate way yet.
Jasper: Already wants to permafuse, but still a villain.
Going by route of least resistance, Peridot and Lapis or Amethyst seem the most likely, but regardless of the route, there would have to be a certain build-up to it. No characters are quite there yet. However, it is something I'd be very intrigued to see, as it'd change the status quo quite a bit.

While it began with a settled backstory, a direction in mind, and a lot of ideas, a lot of Steven Universe was left to grow while the show was being made. It seems to have taken a writer's playground approach to construction. While a lot of the ideas in the backstory were used, there were a ton of abandoned plot threads and elements. This is not a comprehensive list, but I cover a lot of them. Please chime in with your own!
Laser Light Cannon: How did Greg end up with the cannon? Why did Rose give it to him? What about that totem pole with gem-like figures on it? How about the golf clubs with roses embroidered on it? Concerning Greg and Rose's relationship, there's still a ton of things we never learned.
Cheeseburger Backpack: We never did find out the significance of the Lunar Sea Spire. I suppose the statue is supposed to resemble Blue Diamond... but it doesn't, really. There's a lot of ancient gem culture that's still a mystery. (The LSS was revisited, by the way, in Attack The Light.)
Together Breakfast: One of the biggies: what is up with the Crystal Heart, which we're given to understand is the core of the Temple. (And, why is it a "temple?" What do gems worship? I can understand Cartoon Network being standoffish about depictions of religion in this political climate, even if they're fictional, but c'mon, this is a show that fearlessly showed animation's first lesbian wedding.) Also, what was the scroll that Garnet was burning, which got into Steven's breakfast?
Frybo: Everything about Peedee.
Cat Fingers: The Gem Sloop is shown one other time in the series, in storage in Pearl's head.
Bubble Buddies: A lot of other things about the Crystal Temple (name assumed) are left mysterious, like how it was made and some things about the nature of its extradimensional space. It's crumbling now (and puts Connie in danger in the process). We also see a gigantic stone sword out in the ocean--since the Temple figure is of Obsidian, we presume that's a representation of her sword. We never see the temple in its original form throughout the whole series, not even in flashback.
Serious Steven: The whole thing about the Ziggurat, and the event depicted on its mural, remains unknown. It shows Rose, but the gem she's fighting we don't know. It looks kind of like White, but her gem is in the wrong place. Also, what are those black figures in the background, and what are those hands coming up from below? Does that represent the Cluster? The way the pedestal turns when Steven shows up to collect the gem at its core seems significant, but what was the gem? Why was it waiting for Steven?
Tiger Millionaire: Why is that Beach City warehouse used for civic functions despite the big hole in its side? There's also a lot of wrestling characters who don't show up again (except in its sequel, Tiger Philanthropist).
Steven's Lion: The Desert Glass is never brought up again. It appears there's a whole class of gem that's not sentient, but still has limited intelligence. These are not revisited later, even in Future.
Arcade Mania: A big one IMO, what was going on with Sapphire when Garnet was playing Meat Beat Mania? This is a heavy hint that Garnet was a fusion, of course (and before Giant Woman!), but what was happening to her is never explained.
Giant Woman: It was nice to see the Heaven and Earth Beetles uncorrupted in Future (they're still called beetles though). The contents of the Little Beetle Bedroom are weird though, seeing as how they implied that the Heaven Beetle, at least, had some of her mind intact. And a little beetle backpack, and Sega Genesis, as well. (We can probably presume that this was an artist joke, though.) Also: we never see where the Earth Beetle was hanging out. Also, the two are never bubbled but put into a terrarium. And we never find out about the sensory powers of Garnet's visor, that allowed her to find them.
So Many Birthdays: We see a grown-up form of Steven that doesn't match what we see in Future, but we can presume that Steven's physical form is fluid enough to explain that.
Lars and the Cool Kids: Rose's experiments, or whatever they were, with plant life are not hearkened back to much, although the pink gems that appear when the moss blooms do show up later, in Rising Tides Crashing Skies.
Onion Trade: Pearl seems upset when Garnet breaks her duplicating wand; what was it? Where did she get it? Was it one of the trinkets available for accessorizing Pearls at The Reef? Also: why was Amethyst annoyed that Pearl's stuff keeps falling down into her room (also mentioned in Cheeseburger Backpack) when Pearl keeps stuff in her head? Was Pearl's storage system a bit "leaky" before?
Steven the Sword Fighter: We find out the sky arena was a platform Blue Diamond used to help oversee the colony's construction, but the significance of the statues is still not known.
Lion 2: The Movie: Rose's Armory has a ton of things in it (some of them named in Rose's Scabbard) that are never referred to again. That giant penny, in addition to being an excellent reference to Batman, kind of implies that Rose tried her hand as being a superhero for a while.
Beach Party: Not too much unexplained, although the gem's making new clothes for themselves is something that rarely comes up again.
Rose's Room: Why does the whale in Rose's Room speak with Rose's voice? At this point, Steven has never heard it before. Also, why is the room's existence set and definite, unlike Sardonyx's room? Maybe the rules are different for fusion rooms.
Coach Steven: It's a shame that Sugilite only got a speaking role in this one episode, probably because of the expense of getting Nikki Minaj again. This is an interesting episode for demonstrating that fusing can be dangerous too (which is called back upon when we get to Malachite). Also, the Communications Tower, which shows up again in Cry For Help, is interesting as an example of old gem tech.
Joking Victim: What was up with that giant ice cream cone Mayor Dewey was unveiling? ("It melted, Gary!")
An Indirect Kiss: The area around Rose's Fountain is interesting. Who built all this, Crystal Gems during the war? Where did they get so many of Rose's tears from? We also get an indication that Rose's animate plants, without her, were directionless. We can presume that Rose controlled them while she was around, while Steven's are more self-motivated, perhaps as an evolution of his powers.
Mirror Gem/Ocean Gem: Lapis is crazy strong! Like, could possibly terraform a planet by herself strong! She can even travel in space under her own power! This is referred to later, in Future, but not explained. Another thing is the practice of gems putting other gems into object, which seems torturous. I hope that practice died out.
House Guest: Man, that Geode seems ominous. I guess that's some heavy-duty duct tape Greg used, as it's still holding up. Maybe the gems, or even the Diamonds, found another way to fix it themselves.
Space Race: Pearl is pretty amazing, even if her ship didn't make it out of Earth's gravity well. At the time we were left to assume that the ship's controls were an example of gem technology, but now it seems likely that they were her creation, perhaps adapted from Earth objects. Also, this is our introduction to The Barn, and the portrait of Greg's uncle and aunt, who we never find out much about, despite their picture appearing as late as Future.
Island Adventure: The origin of the geodes on the island, and the mask fish, are unknown, although we do know the site ended up being the home of the Watermelon Stevens. Did they ever uncorrupt the invisible gem monster?
Keep Beach City Weird: I guess we can presume that the gem from Horror Club was still in the lighthouse back then.
Fusion Cuisine: The restaurant doesn't show up again, except possibly as a site for one of Steven's photos of Connie on his phone.
Lion 3 Straight to Video: We still don't know the full nature of the extradimensional space that Lion connects to (and later Lars). We can suspect that part of it is similar to whatever gem technology produced the interior of the Crystal Temple, but not how it was able to bridge distances in space; gems usually used warp pads for that, not extradimensional spaces. There's trees in there, and grass, and a sun, but no breathable air. It seems to be connected with one of Pink Diamond's still-mysterious powers, which may explain why she didn't tell the other gems about it.
Alone Together: The warehouse shows up again.
Warp Tour: The nature of Warp Space is interesting. How robonoids are made is left up in the air, but we do know that Pearl experimented with one, and Peridot eventually got more when relations with Homeworld thawed.
Horror Club: They never returned to the huge gem that Steven saves in the lighthouse, and we never return to Ronaldo and Lars' relationship.
Maximum Capacity: Greg's stuff is still in Amethyst's room at the end of this episode, where I presume it's victim to the whims of her nebulous storage system. Now that Greg's rich, presumably he could find a place for all of it. Speaking of rich... Greg mentions his uncle has a mansion, and he has the deed somewhere!
Marble Madness: The gem mutants subplot just sort of went away. Presumably there's still some forced fusions hanging around Earth. Maybe Yellow Diamond will spend some time hunting them up in order to try to repair them.
Rose's Scabbard: What's the origins of the floating islands hanging over the Strawberry Battlefield?
Open Book: Implies that Rose's Room has some kind of innate intelligence.
Story for Steven: There's a ton of implied backstory in these flashback episodes, from Greg and Rose's relationship to the gem-influenced history of Beach City to the citizens' relationship with the gems, that we never find out more about. I feel like there's more than enough for a Steven Universe Past series, someday.
Political Power: Mayor Dewey notes that the population of Beach City need their electronic distractions to avoid thinking about the fact that disasters keep happening, which is interesting. Ocean Town being somehow even worse off than Beach City is a hilarious joke, but it's also difficult to imagine how that could be so unless there's some huge, undetected gem threat lurking there.
The Return/Jailbreak: The hand ship is interesting--it's not one of the Diamond's ships, it's green, and also not a whole arm. Why do gems build ships in the shape of body parts?
Joy Ride: The fluid in Peridot's escape pod is interesting; Steven can breathe it, but it never comes up again.
Reformed: The Slinker escapes and never comes up again (although it may be the monster the gems fight in the short where Steven unboxes his hot dog bag).
Sworn to the Sword: Connie's swordfighting, while awesome, didn't actually turn out to be as important as her empathy, and her willingness to tell off gigantic gem matriarchs. Pearl mentions underwater and low-gravity training, which sound awesome, but we never got to see.
Keystone Motel: Greg reveals that he knows Garnet's a fusion here.
Onion Friend: There's a lot about Onion that's mysterious, although I think most of it was added as a huge joke on the audience, a gigantic red herring.
Historical Friction: Helps fill in the blanks about the early history of Beach City (which appears to be the founding site for the US, like Plymouth Rock, in Steven Universe's alternate version of Earth).
Friend Ship: The whole ship is interesting. It's implied that it was one of the first colony ships from Homeworld, which means Pearl and Pink Diamond may have ridden in one of them.
There's more in later episodes, but they decrease in number as the show's focus narrows and the plot takes a stronger role. The Moon Base, the Jungle Moon and the shattered planet it orbits, the Star Incinerator, Emerald, what we see of Homeworld, and other things I'm sure, all hint to the larger picture around the show. What have you always wondered about?

First Sapphire and Amethyst. Both of them have seem to have serious trust issues. Sapphire was a Homeworld elite. She came out knowing everything. She is calculating and calm. Amethyst was a Homeworld reject. She came out knowing nothing and she's totally impulsive. I was thinking about Sugilite and realised that, for no reason, Sugilite didn't seem to have future vision like every other Sapphire fusion, nor did she have Amethyst's insecurities. The two gems seem to cancel one another out in a lot of ways.
Then, pretty obviously, we have Ruby and Pearl. Yes, they were both servants, but for totally different purposes. Rubies are all about protection and fighting, but ours became more of a companion. Pearls are supposed to more like companions with their service, but ours became a fighter. Ruby is aggressive and rash. Pearl is protective and cautious. Sardonyx doesn't seem to have many of the defining characteristics of Ruby or Pearl, as though they, again, cancel one another out, in a way.
Next is Rose and Bismuth. Both were totally committed to taking down the diamonds and freeing the Earth. But they had totally different attitudes about it. Bismuth was all about strength. Do whatever it takes. She seemed to be doing it more out of hate and anger than anything else. Rose, on the other hand, was fighting because she loved humans and the Earth, and did not condone Bismuth's "any means necessary" attitude. Would've liked to see a Rose Quartz/Bismuth fusion, but whatever. Anyway, opposites.
Now, Peridot and Lapis Lazuli. I know my Lapidot shippers are gonna be mad, here. So, both Lapis and Peri are originally from Homeworld and hated the CGs. But in pretty much every other way, they're totally different. Lapis is epically strong. Peridot is ... well, a Peridot. Lapis is more about emotion. Peridot is more about math, engineering, and calculations. One controls metal and the other controls water. And, on the topic of fusion: part of Lapis's entire character was centered around fusion. Fusing as Malachite was a serious personality altering event for her. Peridot is ace and, presumably, will never fuse.
Finally, we have Connie and Steven. Of course, both are loving and selfless. Both are very unusual. But there are some key differences here, too. Steven has the shield, all about protection and love. Connie ended up with the sword, defiant and brave. Connie struggled with anxiety. Steven had anger management problems. Connie's basically a gem in a human's body, personality-wise, where Steven is probably the most human character in the show, yet he has the diamond. There's also that cool parallel with the kisses. Steven healed her eyes with "An Indirect Kiss". She healed him in the finale with a direct kiss. I could also talk about the more shallow stuff (black and white, male and female, etc), but that isn't really all that significant.
All of this led me to conclusion that this was all types of deliberate. Rebecca seems to be trying to make the point that our differences don't mean that we can't love each other and be friends. Everyone here was on the same side. Many of these pairs have fused together, in one form or another. Anyway, I thought this was kinda cool.
PS. Please don't attack me, saying Pearl's opposite should've been Amethyst or something else like that.

like I know the whole "fusions are greater than the sum of their parts" but I mean when we look at sugilite or sardonyx or smoky, you can see how the gems make up the fusions personality

Episodes 1-2 Episodes 3-4 Episodes 5-6 Episodes 7-8 Episodes 9-10 Episodes 11-12 Episodes 13-14 Episodes 15-16 Episodes 17-18 Episodes 19-20 Episodes 21-22 Episodes 23-24 Episodes 25-26 Episodes 27-28 Episodes 29-30 Episodes 31-32 Episodes 33-34 Episodes 35-36 Episodes 37-38 Episodes 39-40 Episodes 41-42 Episodes 43-44 Episodes 45-46 Episodes 47-48 Episodes 49-50 Episodes 51-52

Season 1 Retrospective and Review

Okay, guys, this is my summative review of all of season 1! I’m going to start by giving a review of everything on my top ten list, followed by a (probably awkward) discussion of season 1 as a whole, and then I’m going to end with my thoughts on where season 2 might go with the show. I’ve watched all of these episodes once again, and listened to all of the music, to give myself a better sense of them. After revisiting these, and after thinking about how I decided to review these, I’ve moved a few things around, so this list might look a little different than how it looked after the finale reaction. On a side note, I have absolutely no idea how long this post is going to be, so please forgive it for its length or brevity!

BGM Discussion-

I’ve included a link to each song so that you can refresh your memory of it if you don’t remember how it sounds.

10. Watermelon Steven

I love this song. It gives me such a wonderful Legend of Zelda vibe. It’s got the chiptune/guitar aspect that a lot of the topdown Zelda’s have, especially Link Between Worlds, which I’ve played an absolutely absurd amount of. It’s simple, short, and full of heart, and I absolutely adore every second of it!

9. Love like you(The Ocean Returns)

What a sweet and heartfelt rendition of the ending theme. It’s genuinely beautiful to hear this song, and especially its incredible intro. It reminds me of a Pixar song. Maybe it’s only because I’ve recently rewatched Finding Nemo, but I keep thinking of Nemo Egg when I listen to this song. What a beautiful moment this song creates.

8. The Hill/Rose’s Fountain

What an astonishing song. It feels like I’m getting hit in the face everytime I listen to this song, because it carries such incredible raw emotion with it. It has a wonderful and sweet intro, and also a deliciously funky little bassline in the second half. I would love to hear more of this soft and ambient music. It’s not quite Rose’s theme, because this is how Steven thinks of Rose, and I think that it’s incredible beautiful for it.

7. The Cave

What an ambience this song has. It’s a little exploratory, a little sad, and quite wonderfully emotional. Something quick that I noticed is that this song and ‘Be Cool at the Club’ are the only songs that make us of the echoing clap.. This song has a lot of small accentuations that really make it feel vibrant. Little bits of instruments come and go, supporting this constant theme of exploration, and the second half of the song is incredibly beautiful to listen to. It’s wonderful.

6. Alone Together

What a jazzy, upbeat song! I love it’s use of echoes to fill space. It has this constant beat that suggests movement, giving it this fantastic dance vibe that really stands out among the other songs in the show. Like everything in this episode, it feels like it has a slightly sound to the rest of the show, the beginnings of a self-exploratory sound that just resonates perfectly with what Steven and Connie feel together.

5. Night Drive.

As usual, the top of my BGM list is dominated by subtlety and ambience, and this song is no exception. It encapsulates the feeling of, well, a Night Drive. It’s got a sleepy vibe to it, with a lazy guitar and quiet bass. It’s fun, but it doesn’t need to try for it. It’s quiet, simple, and nostalgic to hear. What a fantastic song.

4. Twilight Run

What I consider a sequel to Alone Together, Twilight Run takes the emotions starting in Alone Together and absolutely runs with them, documenting the feeling of discovering yourself perfectly. The piano at the end of the song absolutely breaks my heart every time I hear it. It’s got such a sound of completion. This song is amazing.

3. Lapis Tower.

Wow. This song takes ambience to the next level. My favorite aspect of this song is its expert use of space. It’s unafraid to have long moments of quietness, accentuated by echoing, otherworldy sounds. It’s recreation of ‘Lapis Lazuli’ struck me as powerful, too. We had never heard a song quite like this before in Steven Universe, and it really stuck. It absolutely encompassed the emotions of Steven and Lapis’ conversation perfectly.

2. Glitch City.

If any one song could try to encapsulate the quietness of nighttime in the city, this is the one to do it. We hear echoes of events far in the distance, the sounds of 1,000 little ticks and oddities, and yet we never learn more about them. They come into our consciousness and leave just as quickly. It has this sense of aimlessness to it that really strikes me as powerful. I love it with a passion. There’s only one god damn song that could take the number one spot from this one...

1. I’m Still Here

Fuck me, this song is good. My absolute favorite part of the entire song is the opening. We hear the song come in, but it’s already been playing before the song starts. The song has always been there, and we just never heard it. It’s an incredible motif for the relationship between Steven, Pearl, and Rose. Without a doubt, this is the best song in the show. It carried the entire ending of Rose’s Scabbard, for god’s sake!

Vocal Track Discussion-

Similar to the BGM discussion, I’ve included a link to each of these songs.

5. Just a Comet

What a fucking wonderful 80’s hair rocker song! This is probably the only song so far where I love Greg’s voice because he’s destined to be a rocker. I love the subtle layering on this song, and it’s got some great guitar work. It’s a wonderful little pastiche of the absurdity of the 80’s. I like this song quite a bit. I’m going to also say that the “music video” for this song is amazing.

4. Be wherever you are

Steven really shows his great voice talent here. I love the tone of this song a lot, actually. The fiddle adds a ton of strength to the song, and the standup bass sounds fantastic. The song has a great sense of building, and really sounds like people just started jamming on a beat and key. I guess I just love a good ol’ fashioned hoedown! I’m also consistently impressed by Zach Callison’s voice throughout the entire song. We haven’t had much of a chance to hear his unfiltered voice, and I really like it. He has a surprisingly good range!

3. Strong in the Real Way

Fuck, Deedee Magno has a voice. This is probably the most creatively written song in the entire show, actually. The rhyming is genuinely impressive, and I love the way it’s put together. I also love the dichotomy of the phrase, ‘Strong in the Real Way’. Steven and Pearl use identical lyrics to mean completely opposite ideas, and it comes through in this powerful song. The nice part of the song is that both characters are reacting off of Sugilite, and yet neither character ever directly references her. This song is absolutely wonderful, and I hope to hear more like it.

2. On the Run

This song has an incredibly good sense of wanderlust throughout. It perfectly encapsulates the desire to just go. It’s got a real indie-folk sound to it, and actually reminds me a lot of The Lumineers. It’s a quiet little song with a lot of emotions behind it. I like that you can hear an arc throughout the song, in terms of the music. It starts out with an excited ‘preparing to go’ tone, moves into a ‘in the process of traveling’ tone, and ends with a quiet ‘end of an adventure’ tone. It’s really subtle, but it’s absolutely wonderful to hear.

1. Stronger Than You

This song is fucking badass. I could end this right here, I think, but I’ll talk about the song. Estelle has a great voice, and the song has a wonderful tone to it. I think that the electronica vibe combined with Estelle’s vocals/humming really makes this song stick in my mind. It also has a lot of really fun lyrics, with some great rhyming, and a really good backing track with some small, but interesting, accentuations. It really encapsulates who Garnet is. She’s badass, and she’s fun, and she’s got a powerful voice, and the lyrics really add to this sense of who she is. As the fusion of Ruby and Sapphire, she is literally a being made entirely of love, and you get this sense that she’s happy just being herself in this song. It’s fucking good, okay?

Episode Discussion-

So, I’ve rewatched all of these episodes to get a better sense of them, and I’m also going to include some of my favorite moments in each episode after the discussion.

10. Laser Light Cannon

An absolute treat of an episode, this one definitely deserves my number 10 spot. The episode is fascinating because it writes the characters in such a way that you don’t need to understand what’s happening. It rides exclusively on the emotions of the cast, and makes a fantastic, FLCL-esque episode out of it. Some of my favorite moments are-

• JK this episode isn’t my actual number 10.

10. Mirror Gem

What a great and horrifying episode. The slow descent into madness really made this episode special, I think. Watching Steven go from playing with a mirror to what might as well have been Unspeakable Evil was an absolute treat. Watching the gems react to this whole situation was equally wonderful. The best part of this episode, though, was undoubtedly the reveal of Lapis, and the ‘Shit is going down what the fuck’ experience. This was the first episode where we stepped outside of the realm of our character development episodes, and it hit like a real brick. Some of my favorite moments are-

• Tennis Connie.
  
• Pearl being Pearl.
  
• More of the above.
  
• This creepy shit.
  
• This shot.
  
• Garnet Full of Rage. (Ha! References are funny!)
  
• This nightmare fuel.
  
• This shot.
  
• This eerie ritualistic shot.
  
• Lapis.
  
• ”I’m Lapis Lazuli, and you can’t keep me here anymore!”
  

9. An Indirect Kiss

Our first harcore Connieverse-shipping episode, this episode was also equally about Steven’s relationship to Rose, and a little Amethyst in there. We also got the first hints of Pearl’s relationship with Rose here. The music in this episode was absolutely beautiful, and especially at Rose’s Fountain. The scene where Steven talks about how he can’t cry because he never knew his mom was wonderful. Some of my favorite moments are-

• Steve-O.
  
• Googly eyes.
  
• The power of moe.
  
• The inspiration for this work of art.
  
• Pearl’s freakout.
  
• This scene.
  
• This wonderful moment.
  
• Dramatic Ending Pose.
  

8. Jailbreak.

What an end to a season! Full of drama, revelations, and badass lesbians beating the shit out of space rocks! Seriously, this whole episode was just great. Ruby and Sapphire were a treat, and I hope we see more of them, and learning that Garnet was a fusion was great, especially considering that I had already been thinking about it. Seeing Garnet fight against Jasper was especially awesome, and Estelle’s song was just wonderful. This whole episode was just fucking awesome! Some of my favorite moments are-

• Humming over blackness.
  
• Basically all of Ruby.
  
• Defeated Lapis.
  
• Sapphire’s hair. It looks like delicious candy!
  
• These fucking two.
  
• The big reveal.
  
• Garnet fighting Jasper, and “Stronger than You.”
  
• Jasper and Lapis’ relationship.
  
• ArmsLegs.
  

7. Winter Forecast

What started out as an average episode that probably wouldn’t have made my top ten list at all changed dramatically during the last 20 seconds with one of the best endings to any episode, ever. I didn’t realize until the end of this episode, but this is a straight up sequel to Alone Together, documenting the character changes that both Steven and Connie went through after their experience together, and watching these two characters together was an absolute treat. Without a doubt, though, the scene at the end, where they watch the snow with no dialogue or music, was incredible. Some of my favorite moments are-

• ”Bone Marrow!”
  
• Steve-O.
  
• Greg and his cherries.
  
• This red herring.
  
• This entire scene.
  
• This shot.
  
• Also this shot.
  
• Especially this shot.
  

6. Coach Steven

Coach Steven was an unexpected rollercoaster of a ride. At the time, the only fusion that we had seen was Opal, who was such an incredible and positive character, so seeing Sugilite being such a powerfully negative force was an absolute shock. The music was great, the animation was great, and Nicki Minaj was great, but the absolute winner of this episode was Deedee Magno. Seriously, her perfect delivery, and singing talent, made this episode incredible. Watching her battle with Sugilite, her insecurities, and her issues with the past were incredible. It doesn’t hurt that Strong in the Real Way is such a fantastic song with multiple, complex meanings, and that Pearl has an equally complicated relationship with Steven, Sugilite, and, now that we know this, Rose. Some of my favorite moments are-

• Super Steven.
  
• pearlface.
  
• Pearl’s embarassed, and slightly aroused, reaction to seeing Garnet and Amethyst fuse, and her subsequent attempt to stop Steven from seeing it.
  
• Funky dancing.
  
• Sexual dancing.
  
• Sugilite.
  
• Actually Sugilite.
  
• The sheer fact that this character is voiced by Nicki Minaj.
  
• Poor Grego.
  
• ”...no.”
  
• Strong in the Real Way. (Which I somehow do not have a single screenshot for. Why?!)
  
• ”You...ain’t...nothin’!”
  
• Pearl looking back at the temple for strength.
  
• Pearl still being emotional, even after she’s prepared herself.
  
• Goop Hug!
  

5. Ocean Gem

What a wonderful end to a season(ish)! It really was a culmination of everything we’d seen until then. Seriously, 24 episodes of character development were used perfectly here, creating one of the most exciting episodes of the show. Seeing all of our characters together, on screen, ready for some big fight, was one of my favorite moments from the show. The mirror battle was absolutely wonderful, and had some wonderful excitement. Seriously, though, what brought this episode so high was the two minute scene at the end between Steven and Lapis. What a beautifully animated location! Their quiet discussion had huge impact after the massive climax of the mirror battle, and there was a really sense of space in the dialogue. Long periods of little happening created this serene sense of wonder. Honestly, what a great way to end the season. Not with a bang, but with an infinitely more powerful silence. What a fun episode! Some of my favorite moments are-

• Steven taking responsibility for his actions.
  
• pearlface.
  
• Pearlmethyst.
  
• This beauty.
  
• Connieverse shipping.
  
• ”Guys, I just had the best idea for an album.”
  
• This wonderful mirror fight.
  
• ORAORAORAORAORAORA!MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDA!
  
• ”Revenge!”
  
• The reappearance of Steven’s shield.
  
• Space.
  
• More space.
  
• This shot, which is probably my second favorite shot in the entire show.
  
• Lapis’ animation change.
  
• Sadie and Lars.
  

4. Lion 3: Straight to Video

I loved this episode. It was a simple episode with soul wrenching emotion that left me devastated. We take our first look at Rose nearly 35 episodes in, and as a result, feel very similar to Steven. Rose doesn’t need to be some badass motherfucking warrior, although I’m sure that she is, because Steven wants to know about her. The emotions of the episode soared for me when we first see Rose’s tree. Clearly, everything there is important to her. The photo of Rose, along with the t-shirt that Greg gave her, are important mementos, and something about the visuals absolutely destroyed me. The tape that Rose left Steven was an absolute wash of emotions. I could barely stop to pause it because it had such a heavy sense of unadulterated love. It genuinely felt like I was drowning in it when I first watched the episode. The subplot with Sadie’s mom was also incredibly well done, and probably had less than 20 seconds of time dedicated to it, and yet it ended up being one of the biggest emotional punches of the episode. Some of my favorite moments are-

• Whatever the fuck this is.
  
• This glorious face.
  
• Steven’s dreams.
  
• The power of moe.
  
• Literally everything here.
  
• Especially this.
  
• The contents of this fucking tape.
  
• Rose’s first appearance.
  
• Rose and Greg’s clear love for one another, and Steven.
  

3. On the Run

This episode was a big surprise to me when I saw it. What started out as a wonderful episode that encapsulated the feeling of wanderlust in a stunning way quickly became a dark introspective look into Amethyst’s character. It was a big tonal shift that reminded me that these episodes could become deadly serious at any moment, something that certainly keeps me more interested in some of the smaller episodes of the show. The climax between Amethyst and Pearl was powerful, dramatic, and full of raw emotion. It introduced to us one of the eeriest locations on television, and began to make us realize that the gems might not be as perfect as we thought that they would be. Some of my favorite moments are-

• Amethyst. Just Amethyst.
  
• The No-Home Boys and their disastrous graphic novel adaptation.
  
• This entire song.
  
• This absolutely gorgeous shot.
  
• The Kindergarten and its bacteriophages.
  
• This lovely reference.
  
• This really creepy shot.
  
• ”I never asked to be made!”
  
• Goop hug.
  

2. Rose’s Scabbard.

Man, what an episode. This one really takes the cake, or at least in terms of Steven Universe. Its absolutely stunning animation and incredible music already put it near the top, but its beautiful depiction of Pearl’s relationship with Rose and Steven is incredible. Once again, this show manages to fuck me up with its queer relationships, and I absolutely cried for at least a third of this episode. This show took its time building up Pearl for an emotional moment, and when it happened, it was enormous. The visuals alone were heartbreaking, and the entire last minute and a half of the episode was positively beautiful. Watching Pearl struggle through her grief, only to come out a changed character, was powerful, mostly due to Deedee Magno’s incredible delivery. Seriously, though, the highlight of this episode is “I’m Still Here”, an incredible scene that manages to deliver a flurry of emotions through visuals and music alone. It’s honestly one of the best moments of the entire show, and rewatching it makes me cry every time. Without a doubt, this episode is one of the best episodes I’ve ever seen of any show, ever. It’s almost reached ‘Tales Of Ba Sing Se’ levels of incredible! Some of my favorite moments are-

• Pearl and Lion.
  
• Potat-O.
  
• The human papoose.
  
• Garnet’s silence.
  
• This incredible shot. Seriously, it’s amazing.
  
• ”Sometimes, you even sound like her.”
  
• This.
  
• ”Well, I think you’re pretty great.”
  
• This incarnation of Pearl.
  
• Pearl’s instinctual honor of Rose’s flag.
  
• Pearl’s haunted stare.
  

1. Alone Together

Yes, I’m an animal. I put Alone Together back on top. What are you gonna do about it, huh? I could pretend like it had something to do with subtle changes in how I view the episode, but in all honesty, I just realized that it didn’t really make any sense to ignore how important this episode is to me. Yes, this is a great episode. It’s beautiful to look at, the music is wonderful, and it has extremely creative and fun writing. Yes, these things alone would have put this episode high on my list. What really made this episode unique, not only for Steven Universe but for all of animation, was its incredible messages about identity, sexuality, adolescence and consent. This may be the most important episode of any animated show I’ve ever seen. Its strong message of inclusivity and understanding are powerful beyond words to children growing up without positive reinforcement of their sexuality or gender. I was genuinely shocked by how much this episode spoke to me, and I’ve already gone through my discovery of my own sexuality. I can’t even imagine what an incredible boon this must be for teens still in confusion about what their sexuality means. I was genuinely in tears in this episode, because it hit me like a fucking truck, and I was just blown away. Hell, writing this mockup’s making me a little emotional. I’ve never seen any episode like this one before. If I was rating these out of 10, this episode would make the number score meaningless, because its themes of identity and individuality transcend beyond the quality of an episode and become instead emotional catharsis. Fuck. This episode should be required viewing in school. Some of my favorite moments are-

• Steven trying to learn how to dance.
  
• This smooth shit.
  
• Stevonnie not knowing how to move.
  
• This. (Especially with the context that Garnet is a fusion.)
  
• This entire scene, but this shot in particular.
  
• This wonderful and playful scene.
  
• This shot.
  
• This subtle dialogue.
  
• This gorgeous dancing.
  
• This cutie.
  
• Their panic attack at the dance party.
  
• Kevin and his objectification of Stevonnie.
  
• This ending.
  

Season 1 Roundup

What a fantastic first season of a show. Seriously, this was an incredible first step, and I can’t wait to see where this goes. I loved everything about this show. It had wonderfully clever characters, fantastic animation, incredible themes, beautiful music, astonishingly good continuity, and extremely funny humor. I started this series a few weeks ago knowing that I would probably only be able to get one or two reactions a week out, and yet we all saw where that plan went. Seriously, this first season was incredible, and there’s so much that we still don’t know! I’ve been told that Season 2 is where the show starts to get into Maximum Overdrive, so I can’t wait to see what comes up next. We've seen that Peridot escaped, and that ArmsLegs is somewhere in the ocean, and we haven't seen the Pearl/Garnet fusion yet, so I'm guessing we'll be spending most of season 2 exploring those. Steven Universe, you’re a-fucking-okay!
On a side note, I may be slowing down these reactions a little going into season 2 for a bit. I’d say keep an eye out for a reaction about every 2 days until the end of next week, when school ends. Then it’s going to be a mad dash to the end! Thank you guys so much for sticking with me this far. I never expected this to be anywhere this big, and everyday I see you guys and smile. You guys are so incredibly positive, and I feel lucky to be in this incredible community. Thank you guys so much! Finally, a question-

• What was your favorite moment from this reaction series so far?

Until Next Time!

Episodes 1-2 Episodes 3-4 Episodes 5-6 Episodes 7-8 Episodes 9-10 Episodes 11-12 Episodes 13-14 Episodes 15-16 Episodes 17-18 Episodes 19-20 Episodes 21-22 Episodes 23-24 Episodes 25-26 Episodes 27-28 Episodes 29-30 Episodes 31-32 Episodes 33-34 Episodes 35-36 Episodes 37-38 Episodes 39-40 Episodes 41-42 Episodes 43-44 Episodes 45-46 Episodes 47-48 Episodes 49-50 Episodes 51-52 Episodes 53-54 Episodes 55-56 Episodes 57+misc Episodes 58-59 Episodes 60-61
Time for another reaction! Yinz know the rules, keep spoiler free and keep the hype low, and let’s get into the episodes!

Episode 62- Chille Tid

Steven and the Crystal Gems try to relax with a slumber party.
Written and Storyboarded by Lamar Abrams and Lauren Zuke

• I don’t recognize this writer. I wonder if this is the new writer pairing, or if this is a one-off.
  
• “What’s the matter, Pierogi? You tired?” Uh...why is Amethyst drowing Steven?
  
• “I don’t get tired, I get results.” I know that feeling, Pearl.
  
• “Was the sign for,’pull me up’, one wiggle or two?”
  
• The flashlight returns?! My life is complete.
  
• So, we’re looking for ArmsLegs, huh?
  
• Also, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t on before, and I didn’t hear any cues that suggested that it was being turned on, so it was a little jarring to just have it be there.
  
• “This is why we wear lifejackets.”
  
• I love this man.
  
• “It feels like we’ve been searching for lightyears!” “Uh, lightyears measures light, not years.” Uh...that doesn’t really make any sense. That’s like saying ‘Mph’s measure cars”. It doesn’t measure the object that travels, it measures the distance the object travels.
  
• What a treasure trove this episode is turning out to be.
  
• “Safety’s no punchline, Pearl.” Yeah, Steven! Lay it down!
  
• “Is Lapis gonna be okay?” Yes, I also have this question.
  
• “Don’t worry, Lapis. We won’t let you sleep with the fishes.” Ha! It’s a double pun! Fishes because water, and sleep because they’re tired! Genius!
  
• “I win.”
  
• “We should be out there searching, not in here not searching!”
  
• Wait, why are they tired? They don’t sleep, right?
  
• “Maybe we can throw a little fun into the mix with a slumber party!” Oh, okay. It’s going to be one of those episodes, is it?
  
• “It’ll be like there isn’t a vengeful fusion boiling the ocean with hatred!”
  
• What’s that, Chekhov? You think that this episode is a rest from the action for both the gems and the audience? I dunno, seems unlikely.
  
• So we have a slumber party with Steven, Pearl and Amethyst. This sounds absolutely wonderful.
  
• “I’ll pass on the SlumberPals.”
  
• Pearl doesn’t know how to sleep? That’s actually amazing.
  
• “Okay. Alright. I’m sleeping now. I’m sleeping.”
  
• Woah, what is this? Are we getting some exciting Steven dreams?
  
• “Steven Universe is filmed before a live studio audience!”
  
• Wait a second, Pearl doesn’t have her gem! Is Steven dreaming about a human Pearl?
  
• This is everything I ever wanted in my life!
  
• Just look at her. She’s amazing. This is amazing.
  
• “Bunga-Kowa!”
  
• The laugh track in the back is making this approximately 10 times more amazing.
  
• Oh my god, they all cheer when they see Garnet. Seriously, whoever came up with this idea deserves a raise.
  
• “Chille Tid!” I don’t actually know what this means, but same.
  
• He’s going to The Big Dance? But the prom’s tomorrow!
  
• Wait, shit, I already used that joke. Just pretend like you haven’t seen it before, okay?
  
• ‘Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” q:^)
  
• Oh no… This isn’t going to be a silly, fun episode, is it?
  
• Man, this is a pretty eerie image, actually.
  
• Something interesting that I just noticed. Before, Lapis’ hair went forwards, but here it’s actually going out to the sides, like ArmsLegs’ hair.
  
• Okay, this is really creepy stuff. I like that Steven immediately realizes that this isn’t normal, too. I feel like a lot of shows would have ran with Steven thinking that it was a dream for some time, but it feels like he knows right away that something’s up.
  
• Pearl interrupts the dream? Unlucky.
  
• Oh, I just realized, Pearl was actually just watching Steven sleep, wasn’t she?
  
• “Well that doesn’t make any sense. Lapis is fused with Jasper at the bottom of the ocean.”
  
• I quite like the idea that Pearl’s never slept before in her life. It’s always wonderful, watching Steven introduce her to aspects of human life.
  
• I wish I could remember my dreams like Steven. I forget almost all of my dreams when I wake up, and even the ones I remember are more bits of visuals or emotions than anything solid.
  
• ”Why did I agree to raise this smol child?”
  
• Is our boy Dogcopter going to enlighten us on the sociopolitical climate of cartoons in the United States?
  
• Or he could meow. That’s a fair point.
  
• “I hope the rumors about Dogcopter in the tabloids aren’t true.” I just avoid learning anything about celebrities for this very reason. It’s one of the reasons I don’t look up any musicians that I like. Also, I don’t like knowing what a musician looks like. Does anyone else feel that way?
  
• Steven should realize that this is a dream right away. There’s no way Pearl would eat anything.
  
• Pearl gave Steven a rocket boost? Nice and spicy.
  
• By the ways, I am looking very intently for any subtle hints or metaphors we might get in this dream, but I don’t think I’ve found anything really substantial yet.
  
• I like how this looks. Maybe I’m just a sucker for a single color dominating most of the screen, but it just looks fantastic. It’s very clean looking, I think.
  
• By the ways, have yinz seen the behind the scenes video for Samurai Jack? I’m very excited for it now.
  
• Lapis! Like, the actual Lapis? It seems like it, but what does that mean? How is Steven able to communicate with her?
  
• Ew, what the hell is this?
  
• We got interrupted again? We had better not get left on a cliffhanger.
  
• Her dream gets displayed through per gem? And she’s dreaming about being with Rose? That’s cute. Also pretty sad.
  
• Rose’s Theme is playing in the background?
  
  • “Pearl, thank you so much....For fixing my van!”
• Hey, at least it’s not Uncle Grandpa.
  
• I love the unearthly sound that comes from his mouth as this happens.
  
• I like that Pearl immediately realizes that Steven’s serious and stops to listen to him. We’re seeing Steven mature, and the people around him are starting to respect him in a more adult way.
  
• “Steven, you could be using your dreams to connect with her mentally.” How, though? What allows him to do this?
  
• “Maybe Lapis can just tell you where they are.” Hm… I don’t think she will. Remember that whole ‘You’re going to be my prisoner forever’ thing?
  
• “Oh! I know this is a dream, now.” Okay, so we’re lucid dreaming now. Will this impact how Steven can interact with Lapis?
  
• “I can imagine anything I want, like...a mashed potato.” Is not potato but is actually in fact fish “Hrm…”
  
• That is not Lion Steven that is clearly ArmsLegs!
  
• This is very interesting, visualy. Lapis said that Jasper would be her prisoner, but it looks more like she’s being held here than anything else.
  
• Woah, that’s cool. She’s holding them down with the weight of the entire ocean? How strong is ArmsLegs then? Jesus!
  
• Woah, this is absolutely awesome looking! So they’re each fighting to be in control, and only one of them can be on top at any one time? What a fascinating relationship they have with each other.
  
• ”You…”
  
• I’m not going to lie, I leaned away from my monitor when she said that.
  
• Man, this whole scene is really well done. This music is pretty fantastic, too. It actually kind of reminds me a little of Cell’s Theme, but with less of an emphasis on being badass and more on creepy horror.
  
• Man, what a beautiful shot. Seriously, show someone Gem Glow and then show them this image, and I doubt that they’d even realize it’s the same show.
  
• “Don’t look for me. I don’t want your help!” Yikes. Lapis clearly needs help, but she’s so stuck in this weird power struggle mentality that she doesn’t want it at all.
  
• “Just let me do this for you!” Seriously, what is it with the Lapis-Pearl similarities? We keep seeing them share lines and delivery over and over again. There’s got to be a reason for it.
  
• “We’re Malachite now.” Malachite? What a cool fucking name! It’s just got a great ring to it.
  
• Oh, I see, they modeled their...mindscape place...after the actual gemstone.
  
• Wow, what a terrifying shot. Something about the emotions on Malachite’s face really interest me, though. There’s confusion, surprise, and some subdued anger.
  
• Aw…
  
• “Amethyst was on a skateboard, and then Dogcopter meowed at, and then was just not interested in what I had to say at all, and I might have some issues I need to work out, but Lapis! She’s out there and she’s still-” “Sh...I know you’re worried, but there’s nothing we can do right now, so let’s take it easy.
  
• “That’s pretty convincing.”
  

Closing Thoughts-

This was a really great episode. First off, learning Malachite’s name was really cool, and the way we learned it was even better. Everything in that scene was pretty amazing. The animation was especially fantastic there, I think. The way Lapis and Jasper looked absolutely exhausted and defeated was really great, and their expressive emotions were really well animated. Most of the early stuff was really fun, especially anything with Pearl, and so hitting the dark stuff with Lapis was really unexpected and carried a lot of weight. I thought this would be a lighter episode, but it turns out that there’s no such thing in Steven Universe! I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes, so let’s get into the next episode.

Episode 63- Cry For Help

Steven's favorite TV show gets interrupted by a magical disturbance.
Written and Storyboarded by Joe Johnston and Jeff Liu

• A Jeff-Joe episode?
  
• Oh, dear. Is this the much-lauded Crying Breakfast Friends?
  
• “I don’t get this cartoon, man.” Me neither, Amethyst. Me neither.
  
• Wait, so what’s up with the TV? Why’s it going haywire?
  
• Oh, I was not expecting that. So Peridot hijacked television stations? What for?
  
• Oh, okay. She’s broadcasting on all frequencies, so the TV picking it up was unintentional. I guess we know where the ‘Cry For Help’ comes from.
  
• Show this imagine to someone who hasn’t seen Steven Universe and ask them what they think.
  
• This looks familiar…
  
• Oh! This is the place that Sugilite destroyed.
  
• “You guys should form Sugilite!” Maybe not the best idea, considering what happened last time. Still, Amethyst and Garnet are pretty different now, so maybe it wouldn’t be too bad.
  
• Nevermind, I guess they’re not going with Sugilite. I don’t think Opal would be equipped to handle this, and the gems on their own wouldn’t, so either the tower doesn’t get destroyed right away, or we finally get to see Garnet and Pearl fuse.
  
• I love when we see Garnet’s eyes.
  
• Look at how tiny she looks!
  
• “let’s fuse.”
  
• “Don’t cry, Pearl.”
  
• This is so interesting. Why did Amethyst and Pearl both react so strongly to fusing with Garnet? Is there something special about it? Maybe it’s because Garnet’s already a fusion. You’d think they would have a similar reaction when they formed Alexandrite, though, if that was the case.
  
• “Hang on. It’s been such a long time.” Man, they keep getting more and more direct with the sexuality involved in fusion. I love it!
  
• Wow, that’s really sensual. I don’t think I could imagine seeing something like this in a children’s cartoon 5 years ago.
  
• Then again, five years ago I was a snotty little brat who probably thought that I was too cool for cartoons. I don’t think there was much good on at the time, though.
  
• Man, I am loving this fusion dance a ton. It’s been awhile since we’ve seen one, and this one is really enjoyable to watch. I’m also very excited to see what exactly comes out of this fusion, though, so there might be a little bias there.
  
• Wait, I don’t think I’ve ever noticed this before, but their gems glow when they do fusion dances!
  
• This is so fucking radical!
  
• I’m dead.
  
• Oh wow, this is very cool looking. I really like her color scheme a ton.
  
• “This is the lovely Sardonyx coming to you live from the soon to be former communication hub. How are y’all doing tonight?” Interesting! She’s got a performance theme. I really was not expecting something like this. It’s really creative, and I don’t think I could have guessed anything like it at all.
  
• Also, I’ve noticed that I’ve slowly gotten used to the enormous amounts of hype this show gives me for fusions. Just so you know, I’m crazy excited, but I don’t think it would be very interesting to hear me say the same thing every time we saw a new fusion or character, so I try to tone it down a bit and keep to a discussionary tone.
  
• “Oh my stars, if it isn’t Steven Universe!” Man, Sardonyx really seems like that one cool aunt that loves hanging out with all of her nieces and nephews.
  
• I googled ‘Sardonyx’ to find out what the stone looked like and found this instead. Thank god Google’s got itself straight, right?
  
• “So, whaddya think? Was I worth the wait?” Wow. Sneaky, Crewniverse. Yes, Sardonyx, you were worth the wait.
  
• “What am I saying? Of course I was! Ahahahaha!”
  
• “I could literally squish you right now. It would not be hard!”
  
• “I haven’t exactly been myself lately.”
  
• I’ve been narrowing down exactly what I’m getting from Sardonyx, and it feels like she’s a performer or magican from Las Vegas. I could see her cohosting Penn and Teller easily.
  
• Interesting that Amethyst feels so down about this whole situation. I can really understand it, though. Garnet basically told Amethyst that she was the reason Sugilite failed, since Sardonyx is so ‘perfect’. I’m thinking that Cry For Help is going to have a second meaning, and we’re going to spend most of this episode dealing with the emotional baggage that Amethyst has.
  
• Okay, that’s awesome. Actually, Sardonyx is giving me a real “Fairly Odd Parents” vibe, too! Man, that show was so good before it was Spongebob’d.
  
• “Are you gonna smash stuff with your warhammer?” “Hm...Smash is the word one would use to describe what someone else might do.” Ah, I see we still have Pearl’s saltiness in there.
  
• “The proper words to describe yours truly are...Specific! Intelligent! Accurate! Faultless! Elegant… “ Man, I love the delivery on this line. It’s making it clear to me that Sardonyx has as many issues as Sugilite does, even if they’re not as apparent or outwardly destructive. She seems to enjoy making Amethyst feel absolutely awful. She’s a bully who seeks attention and hurts people in all the little, subtle ways that you can’t call her out on. The exact kind of person I hate the most. I’ve known a couple Sardonyx’s.
  
• Sardonyx also has amazing delivery. I wonder who her voice actress is…
  

Alexia Khamide, huh? She really nailed it here. Good Jorb, Alexia!

• I like how sensual they are when they defuse.
  
• Well, that was a lovely scene! I quite enjoyed that. I think I hate Sardonyx as a person, but she’s a really interesting character and I hope we get to see more of her.
  
• Well, now we’ve seen all of the Crystal Gem fusions. I think that, of the four of them, my favorite is probably Opal, even though we’ve seen so little of her.
  
• Okay, these two are kind of being unimaginably cute together right now. This is problematic for my Pearlmethyst shipping.
  
• Garnet’s “We were awesome” is kind of adorable. It’s a shame that all of these happy feelings are going to be twice as painful as they were adorable when we get to Amethyst.
  
• “Why, Pear? Why did you lie to me?” “I didn’t mean to…” Poor Pear. We might be getting a little metaphor here for Pearl and Garnet, I think. They hurt Amethyst without meaning too.
  
• Huh. The signal came back? I guess Peridot went and fixed the place again. Why didn’t Sardonyx fully destroy the place? Just absolutely ruin it?
  

Oh, I see. Sardonx, consciously or unconsciously, left the place unbroken so that she could be in the limelight again.

• Yeah, I really do not like Sardonyx. She’s putting people at risk and humiliating Amethyst. Clearly Garnet and Pearl are too caught up in themselves to notice what’s happening, but I hope Steven does soon, because I really feel absolutely awful for Amethyst. Nobody should have to go through something like that.
  
• Steven and I had the same face when Amethyst started singing.
  
• Man, this song is already starting off with some heavy emotions.
  
• “I had to use you to make me feel strong, but I don’t care about that now.” I’m already crying and we’re maybe 10 seconds into the song. Shit. I’m going to die here.
  
• “Can I make it up to you?” Jesus, that’s some tough stuff right there. Amethyst thinks that she’s to blame because Garnet, Pearl, and Sardonyx are all telling her. The worst part, though, is that there’s some truth to what they’re saying. Amethyst and Garnet messed up, and that’s partially Amethyst’s fault. She needs to realize, though, that it’s Garnet’s, too, and they need to find somewhere to meet in the middle here.
  
• They’re doing a stakeout for Peridot? I don’t think that’s going to magically solve all of their relationship issues.
  
• That’s some Team Rocket type stuff right there.
  
• I was not expecting to encounter this today.
  
• “It’s Peridot’s escape pod. She...fixed it somehow?” “But I thought we had it!” Oh...OH…
  
• So, which one is it going to be? Garnet or Pearl? Maybe both? But I don’t think Garnet would actually be on board with this one. What was it Amethyst said again? I had to use you to make me feel strong? Seems to me like Pearl is our lucky contender.
  
• Yeah, this is super shitty. Pearl’s lying to Garnet for emotional enjoyment. It’s basically sex under false pretenses. This is almost as shitty as what Sadie did to Lars.
  
• “Garnet! It’s the hub again.” What, like this one?
  
• “Stop!” I have no idea why, but I swear that Amethyst sounds exactly like Ash Ketchum here. Also, it’s good that Amethyst is stopping this before it can get any further. A relationship built on something as negative as this is bound to fail horribly.
  
• I love this shot. Being able to see both of them in real time is absolutely great for an emotional scene like this one. I could also pretty reasonably construct a metaphor about how we’re looking through Pearl’s perspective and she’s only seeing herself and what she did, although I don’t know if this will stand up at all to what’s about to happen.
  
• And Amethyst comes to Pearl’s defense here? That’s really interesting. I notice that we haven’t dealt with the emotional impact of Sardonyx hurting Amethyst yet, so I’m wondering if we’re going to hold onto that one for awhile. If there’s one thing characters in Steven Universe are good at, it’s holding onto negative emotions.
  
• Holy shit that’s ominous.
  
• Oh my god when did the tension in this scene get so fucking high?! Pearl looks scared for her life! I’m pretty sure it’s not because of Sardonx, too.
  
• Oh my god, I had my metaphor so close. I thought this episode’s focus would be about Pearl hurting Amethyst when it was actually about Pearl hurting Garnet.
  
• “Man, it sure would be nice if things worked out the way they do in cartoons…” “Yeah, it would.” So we’re holding this for later, then? What a way to end an episode.
  
• Oh shit, there’s a totally different ending theme! I really like it’s drifting ambient tones. It reminds me a lot of something you might find on the Transistor soundtrack. Maybe like a more relaxed Coasting? It’s good, though. I like it a lot.
  

Closing Thoughts-

This was a powerful episode. We met Sardonyx, who’s a manipulative, attention-seeking bully, and we learned that Pearl’s willing to lie to people to feel better. We also learned that Amethyst blames herself for Sugilite’s behavior exclusively, and we got some really tense drama between all of the characters. This is probably the worst we’ve seen the gems be to one another and themselves. This episode was really interesting to watch because it does a complete 180 on where it seems to be going about two thirds of the way through the episode. There’s so much to talk about with this episode, but I want to hold onto it for awhile until I have a better sense of what’s going to happen. Still, this was a great episode, and I really enjoyed it. On to my episode list-

Top Ten Episodes

1. Alone Together
   
2. Rose’s Scabbard.
   
3. We Need to Talk
   
4. Keeping it Together
   
5. Sworn to the Sword
   
6. On the Run
   
7. Lion 3: Straight to Video
   
8. Winter Forecast
   
9. Cry For Help
   
10. Coach Steven
    

10. Laser Light Cannon
I rearranged a couple episodes after rewatching some of the older stuff, so this might not be exactly the same as it was before.
Next up, my vocal tracks-

Top Five Vocal Tracks-

1. Do it for her
   
2. Stronger Than You
   
3. On the Run
   
4. Strong in the real way
   
5. Let yourself be wherever you are
   

After the next song, I plan on extending vocal tracks to top ten so look out for that. Finally, my BGM’s-

Top Ten BGM's

1. I’m Still Here
   
2. Theme from an Endless Romance
   
3. Glitch City
   
4. Lapis' Tower
   
5. Night Drive
   
6. Twilight Run
   
7. Alone Together
   
8. The Cave
   
9. The Hill/Rose’s Fountain
   
10. Love like you(The Ocean Returns)
    

Thanks so much for reading, guys! As usual, keep your comments spoiler free and keep the hype low. Finally, a question-

• Who’s your favorite animated character that you love to hate? Can be from any source, anime included.

Until next time!

I've been thinking about this for a while. Garnet, Smokey Quartz, and Stevonnie are all fusions of two entities that came out to about the size of an adult human. On the other hand Opal and Malachite are also fusions of two entities that came out much larger. I don't think this is just a result of what kind of gems contributed to their formation; I think it has to do with their harmony.
We know that Garnet, Smokey, and Stevonnie are all fairly stable because of the relationships that they are built upon. Malachite on the other hand is they manifestation of an abusive relationship and Opal is formed by two people who usually get on each other's nerves. So size correlates to instability.
If this is true, it would correspond pretty well to how actual atomic stability (fusion and fission) works. For a nucleus to be stable, it has to have all of it's protons and neutrons contained inside a radius small enough that it can be held together by the strong nuclear force. When a nucleus becomes energized (perhaps by gamma radiation) those protons and neutrons move into elevated states where the strong nuclear force doesn't have as tight of a grip and the nucleus becomes unstable. If the nucleus is large enough and unstable enough it causes fission.
It would also give credence to what Pearl says when she sings 'Strong in the Real Way' that "A power that big comes with a bigger expense." Initially I interpreted her meaning as Sugilite's emotional volatility, but since we didn't see that from Alexandrite or Obsidian who are larger and more powerful, I'm thinking she meant the stability of the fusion.
What do you all think? Any counter examples you can think of?

I mean, even though fusions take parts from both Gens, they are still their own individual person with their own unique personality. They aren’t bound by the thoughts and feelings of their components (as demonstrated by Sugilite).
For example, what does Sardonyx think of Garnet and Pearl? What are Opal’s opinions on Pearl and Amethyst?
Can a fusion like, dislike, or even hate the Gems that make them up?

So this is an idea I have been thinking about since CYM. (Note: Fusions who have had no or very low combat or have only appeared briefly will NOT be counted in this list, examples: Fluorite, Jade, Rainbow Quartz, etc. Also same gems fusions like Topaz and Triple Ruby are not included.) This a tier list based on combat effectiveness and raw power, not strength in the real way. This list is entirely my opinion and by no means are you forced to agree or respect it. This is also my first tier list on this so expect a LOT of mistakes.
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• Low Tier: Garnet and Opal

Garnet is a rather weak fusion, probably because Sapphire hinders the fusion because she is not made for fighting while Ruby is. Garnet may be a weak fusion but she is still incredibly powerful, but it's shocking for a gem as massive and powerful as Malachite is also only 2 gems. Garnet is exceptionally difficult to unfuse however.
​
Opal is probably slightly more powerful than Garnet. The bow is a very powerful and versatile weapon, but Opal is probably not very durable, being somewhat of a glass cannon. I don't have much to say about her, she seems quite powerful, but her lack of screentime limits my understanding of what she can do. Again, still incredibly strong, but still kind of weak for a fusion.
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• Mid Tier: Sugilite, Alexandrite and Sunstone.

Sugilite is the weakest mid tier fusion, while her raw power and mighty flail are no joke, she's cocky, unstable and rather stupid. She easily underestimates her foes and charges in headfirst, probably believing herself to be invincible. But she was able to be unfused with just one hit of her own weapon. We can probably add clumsy to the list. But despite all these negative traits, she can easily destroy the gem communication tower, which is a feat only shared by Sardonyx. A lack of stability hinders her even more, making her fusion unreliable.
​
Alexandrite is a powerhouse with a no-nonsense attitude on taking down any threat to earth, with access to all crystal gem weapons except the shield, this means she should be at the top of the list right? Well not quite. You see with great power comes great responsibility, meaning that Alexandrite cannot maintain her form for long, exhausting the crystal gems. Maintaining this form requires immense concentration and can be split apart by Pearl just not wanting to eat breadsticks. Keep in mind Alexandrite was only able to beat Malachite because of the Watermelon Steven army, distracting Malachite. Alexandrite also has no special resistance to Blue Diamond's emotion powers or Aquamarine's wand.
​
Sunstone already shows blistering power with her strength holding up the diamond mech's foot. Her strength and calm attitude makes it so she can stay fused for a long time (probably indefinitely). Her access to 2 very useful weapons, the shield and gauntlets place her higher on the list. Although her combined weapon is rather weak being suction cups. There is also a limit to her durability as she was unfused in one hit from the diamond mech. I think I speak for everyone when I hope to see more Sunstone in the future.
​

• High Tier: Smoky Quartz, Sardonyx.

​
Smoky Quartz has one of the best weapons on the list: The Yo-Yo. They even get three of these monsters. Smoky was able to defeat Jasper effortlessly, even when she became the corrupted fusion. Although Garnet was able to defeat Jasper, it took a lot of effort. Smoky's versatility in their weapon can range from long range attacks, grappling hook or even creating a tornado strong enough to lift a corrupted fusion. Smoky also shows notable acrobatic feats rivaling or surpassing Garnet's.
​
Sardonyx has it all. Class, wits and power. A very stable and reliable fusion, so much so that even the crystal gems probably know she's one of the best fusions. As seen when Garnet and Pearl fuse into Sardonyx in "Back to the moon" Amethyst does not fuse, hinting at it being more reliable than Alexandrite (Although they probably did this because it was faster to fuse Sardonyx than Alexandrite). Also seen in "Back to the moon" Sardonyx was able to unfuse the quintuple Ruby fusion in just one hit. Also the classiness automatically makes her High Tier.
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• Best Tier: Malachite and Obsidian.

​
Malachite is stupidly strong, control over water means that anywhere that's close to water gives her an overpowering advantage, she was able to easily defeat Alexandrite before the Watermelon Stevens intervened. She also retains the ability fly from Lapis and the crushing strength of Jasper. All of this while only a 2 gem fusion, yet she's as large and mighty as a 3 or 4 gem fusion.
​
Okay we all called it, Obsidian holds 1st place on the list. Having access to the shield, spear, gauntlets, whip, bow, flail, yo-yo, suction cups, umbrella and hammer, and her unique greatsword, strong enough to slice through diamond warships, whereas Opal's bow couldn't even scratch a hand ship. She also probably has pyrokinesis what with the lava and all. Also holding together surprisingly well for a 5 gem fusion. Even the very little we've seen of her I can already tell she's the most powerful fusion (yet).
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So that was my (probably very inaccurate list) on the fusions. This was done purely for fun and I hope you have a nice day.
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Edited 05/08: Now that The Truth Is Out, I wrote a formal version compiling foreshadowing on The Geekiary here!

Original Masterpost

Hello lovelies! I've been dragging my feet about updating this post, but here I am, finally doing it. I have decided to redo the post entirely, since there is all sorts of new context for the theory, and I thought it might be fun to preserve the "original" theory for posterity.

THEORY: Rose Quartz was Pink Diamond, former member of the Diamond Authority

Note: There are many variations on this theory. Rose + Bismuth = Pink Diamond, Rose mutilated her Gem to be Pink Diamond, all Diamonds are secret Fusions and Rose is only a component--etc. To make it easier for myself, I'm still presenting the potential evidence that supports Rose (and now Steven) being a literal Diamond, but please note that this evidence can be applied to most theories if you tweak the interpretation. Quite honestly, much of this evidence can also support Rose being a high-ranking member of Pink Diamond's court. Only time will tell!
Here is an excellent summary of the post-SB4 misdirection of the theory by tumblr user oathkeeper-of-tarth.
~~~~
1) The Diamond Authority symbols from various episodes seem to indicate there once was a pink component, but now there is not. In rough chronological (in terms of Gem history) order:

• The ships from Friend Ship
• The Moon Base
• The Sky Arena in Sworn to the Sword. It also seems like the pink component was deliberately smashed.
• In the temple in Serious Steven, with no pink component
• The newer emblem again on the Homeworld Hand Ship, with no pink diamond.

2) The mural in Serious Steven.

• Picture.
• In depth analysis of the mural in regards to this theory from VikingDreaming This link is broken but I'm hoping OP gets me a new link.
• Concept art of mural from the storyboards, featuring a more definitively Diamond shaped Gem. Fun exercise: click back and forth between these two pictures with RES

3) Real life rose quartz gemstones are lighter than pink diamonds.

• Check out this helpful chart by Oboe-Shoes
• It's true there are pale pink diamonds and dark rose quartzes. But do a google image search, and the pattern is pretty clear.

4) (Pink) diamonds are rare and very hard, like Rose's shield.

• Not to say that the shield is made of literal diamond--just that it's known for being particularly hard, which is something diamonds are also known for.
• It's true diamonds are also brittle (which I'd say fits nicely into this theory from a meta level). But ask your average layperson on the street, "what are diamonds known for?" and I bet they'd say: rare, and hard ( ͡° ͜^ ͡°)
• A "Rose Diamond" is a specific cut. Definition according to google: "a hemispherical diamond with the curved part cut in triangular facets."

5) In the original pilot, Steven's Gem has a gold ring around it.

• Picture of pilot!Steven's Gem, from angelicmissile's post "gem rankings revealed in pilot..."
• Specifically it should be noted that Amethyst, a definite quartz Gem, has a silver ring.

6) Several pieces of clothing have pink diamonds on them

• Pearl's suit in Space Race
• Sardonyx's shoes - note also that Garnet was formed on Earth, which means Sardonyx's affiliation with the Pink Rhombus symbol is likely post-Earth (ty, Nlolsalot)
• Sugilite's left knee cut out as theorized by GregoriusDaneli -- note that in Cry for Help the cut outs are both stars
• Holo Pearl (this changes to a star in Sworn to the Sword)
• Rainbow Quartz's cut out is half diamond
• Similar combination star-diamond shape on Alexandrite's knees
• Note also that Peridot and Jasper have yellow diamonds on their forms.

7) Royalty foreshadowing

• Pearl kneeling before Rose in her holo-flashback in Rose's Scabbard
• Pearl tells Connie to bow to her "liege" in Sworn to the Sword.
• Greg calls Steven "Your Watermelajesty" in Watermelon Steven
• Garnet calls Steven a King, also in Watermelon Steven
• Steven wearing a crown, Lion as a symbol of royalty. "Towards the end of [So Many Birthdays], the scene where he is laying against Lion wearing his crown and cape seems like something off of a tarot card predicting that he will be gem royalty." -MonstrousGiggling
• Lion's original design was a heraldic lion

8) The sparklies at the warp pad are pink diamonds in Rose's Scabbard.

• Picture

9) There are pink diamonds on the shields at the Strawberry Fields.

• Picture and another (plus more diamond sparklies)

10) Rebecca Sugar packed these pins for SDCC this year
11) Greg's van has a diamond window. The lighthouse has a diamond designs as well.

• Greg's van - Remember, foreshadowing comes in many flavors. It could well be the Crewniverse chose this type of van because the diamond window is a common feature.
• Lighthouse. I bring this up because look at the lower window--does that remind you of someone's Gem? Plus, the windows look a lot like those at the Moon Base and in Yellow Diamon'ds lair.

12) The pink stuff all over the space ships in Friend Ship
13) Pearl calls Rose "one of a kind" in the Guide to the Crystal Gems
14) Rose doesn't have much in common with the other confirmed quartz types, Jasper and Amethyst

• Her natural abilities are defensive/protective, which is interesting if quartzes are huge, loyal soldiers.
• While Rose is certainly huge, the physical similarities end there. She has a different hair and a distinctly different build than Jasper. Picture
• Ian JQ on this

if Rose is a quartz, why is that she's much more friendly looking, and has protection/healing powers if she's built to fight? Ian Jones-Quartey: quartz soldiers are intended for armies, meaning some of them need defensive powers as well. they can't all be tanks.
Does this mean that Rose is definitely a quartz? Ian Jones-Quartey: Yo her name is Rose QUARTZ

15) It Could've Been Great

• Blue and Yellow Diamond have chest placements (picture), White has a head placement (picture). If it follows that the fourth Diamond has a placement corresponding to the Diamond Authority symbol, it makes sense that Pinkie's is lower than chest. Say, belly.
• Pearl wanders off to look at the Pink Diamond mural.
• The Gems were "literally walking in the very footsteps of Diamonds"... while following Steven bouncing up the stairs.
• Steven activated the hand pad with the DA symbol on it, attached to a chair made only for "elite Gems."
• What we could see of Pink Diamond's mural - note that the cluster at her feet looks like it could be a naturally occurring rose quartz crystal (ty, mycls)

16) There exists a famous diamond named "Pink Star Diamond") ty, u/noordleoordle
17) You can hear Blue Diamond-like tones in Rose's music

• Check out this post by EdibleBrains

COMMON COUNTERARGUMENTS:
I. Skinny mural legs! Other Diamonds have a kite cut! No one recognized her during The Answer! She's way smaller than Blue or Yellow Diamond! Jasper said: "You have the Power of Rose Quartz!"

• Yes, if this theory turns out to be right, it seems very likely Rose altered her form significantly to be Rose Quartz. (Psst: revisit point #2)

II. The Guide lists Steven's Gem type as "Quartz"

• The Guide is also explicitly "written by" Steven, and as far as he knows, he's a quartz.

III. Peridot calls Steven "some kind of quartz" in When It Rains

• Peridot knows Steven is from Earth (a Quartz Colony), has heard him being called a Quartz, and that line is even, "you're some kind of quartz, right?" As in she doesn't actually know what he is. EVEN SO, counterarguments II and III might very well be legit if Rose/Steven is truly a quartz, and only a part of PD.

IV. Wouldn't an actual Rose Quartz Gem exist?

• Who knows? Maybe Rose named herself after a Gem type that were all crushed under the metaphorical boot of Homeworld. I don't think every single mineral has to have a Gem counterpart, though. And even if she is a quartz, she's "one of a kind," according to the Guide.

V. I don't get it. Why would Rose change her name/form at all?

• To symbolize she was a Gem of the people? To honor her fusion with Pearl (also as a symbol of the Rebellion)? To distance herself from the oppression the Diamonds upheld on Homeworld? Because Earth was a "Quartz colony" ?

VI. Ugh, I hate hidden royalty cliches. It seems too obvious

• Obvious like, Garnet is a fusion, or Pearl is one of many, or Peridot has robotic limbs? Yall, the point of this show isn't these mysteries--it's the characters, and to a lesser extent, the plot that's happening to Steven now. Plus, there's this tweet by Matt Burnett

Question: Is it disheartening to the crewniverse if a fan theory predicts events in the show?
Matt's response: No. What fun is a mystery if audience isn't given the clues to figure it out themselves?

My concluding point: Not only is there a lot of evidence, (some undoubtedly more convincing than others), there is a good narrative value to this theory. This show is about Steven Quartz Universe--whoever his mother was has to impact him directly. But think about it--Steven coming into his "magical destiny" as the son of an ancient alien ruler and some primitive primate joe schmo, one of a kind in a species in the whole universe, the bridge between magical and mundane, made from love <3

Episodes 1-2 Episodes 3-4 Episodes 5-6 Episodes 7-8 Episodes 9-10 Episodes 11-12 Episodes 13-14 Episodes 15-16 Episodes 17-18 Episodes 19-20 Episodes 21-22 Episodes 23-24 Episodes 25-26 Episodes 27-28 Episodes 29-30 Episodes 31-32 Episodes 33-34 Episodes 35-36 Episodes 37-38 Episodes 39-40 Episodes 41-42 Episodes 43-44 Episodes 45-46 Episodes 47-48 Episodes 49-50 Episodes 51-52 Episodes 53-54 Episodes 55-56 Episodes 57+misc Episodes 58-59 Episodes 60-61 Episodes 62-63
Alright, guys, we’re back with another reaction. Now, I know that a lot of people disagreed with my opinions on Sardonyx, and I feel like there might have been some miscommunication, so I’m going to spell out my current opinion on her and then move on.
Sardonyx is a bully. She used emotional manipulation to hurt Amethyst and make herself seem better. That said, Pearl and Garnet are not bullies. They’re both unaware of how they’re hurting Amethyst. Pearl is blinded by the sheer joy she felt being Sardonyx, and Garnet most likely didn’t realize that the words she directed towards Sugilite were hurting Amethyst instead. Sardonyx is just like any other person in that she can change, so if something happens that I think will change her character, or if we see her again and she’s different, my opinion on her will change.
I’m really surprised at how many people seemed upset by this interpretation. I don’t think I’ve had this negative a backlash on anything I’ve said, well…ever. I’ve responded to literally hundreds of comments about Sardonyx, which seems so strange to me because it was such a small part of my post, and I kind of feel like it took away the sense of friendly discussion in the comments. A lot of it was my fault, though. I think I just got tired of talking about Sardonyx, and started to get irritable, so I’m sorry if I came off strong on the subject. I think I’m about done talking about Sardonyx for now, so I’m sorry to tell you that I won’t be talking about her unless something new comes up.
Now that I’ve got that out of the way, let’s get into the episodes. You guys know the deal; keep spoiler free and keep the hype low.

Episode 64- Keystone Motel

Steven, Greg, and Garnet go on a road trip.
[Editor’s note from the future: These episode descriptions get more and more vague every time. What the hell is this crap?]
Written and Storyboarded by Raven M. Molisee, Paul Villeco and Rebecca Sugar

• “Pearl!” Pearl turns around in fear
  
• Okay, so things must still be very tense with Pearl and Garnet. I wonder how Steven’s dealing with his parents fighting in the house? This is the first time they’ve brought their arguments home, that I can remember.
  
• “Looking for Peridot!...For a few days straight.” Man, she’s really trying to make it up to Garnet, huh? Something tells me it’s not going to work.
  
• Wow, have you guys noticed how applicable ‘Tower of Mistakes’ is to Pearl?
  

Maybe you're better off with her
I think she's better for you
I forgot how great it felt to be us
Guess I got carried away
I had to use you to make me feel strong
But I don't care about that now
I see a tower built out of my mistakes
And it all comes crashing down
Is there something I can do
Is there something I can do
Is there something I can do
Can I make it up to you?
How I feel so far with this Stevenbomb.

• “I’m going to prove to her that she can trust me again.” It’s not that easy, Pearl. That’s something that Garnet and Garnet alone can decide.
  
• Garnet’s not even talking to Pearl? Interesting. While none of this is Garnet’s fault, it’s interesting that she’s not ready to talk to Pearl yet.
  
• “I’m sorry.”
  
• “Who wants to go on a roadtrip?!” Yes, please, get me out of this house!
  
• “Well, I gotta drive over to the next state, Keystone.” “You mean the Keystone state?” “Right, the state named Keystone.” Okay, this dialogue is pretty fucking hilarious. But also, Pennsylvania’s just called Keystone, then? And also, they’re taking a roadtrip to Pennsylvania? How radical is that!
  
• “I don’t like those brushes. They feel weird on your fur.” ???
  

Oh, he’s talking about when he turned into an Akira cat monster. Gotcha.

• Okay. “Keystone Motel.” They’re going to a motel in Keystone.
  
• “I can’t wait to get room service!” “You’re thinking of a hotel. We’re going to a motel. It’ll have a pool, and free ice, and it’s right next to the best diner in the world.”
  
• Garnet’s coming? So, the second Pearl gets to the house, she leaves, huh? I guess she can’t even be near Pearl right now.
  
• Man, Garnet isn’t even acknowledging Pearl. That’s rough.
  
• “This is going to be fun, right, dad?”
  
• They’re playing Night Drive? Sweet, I fucking love this song.
  
• Wait, they’re right on the edge of the state? What the heck?
  
• You know, I always enjoyed staying in motels. Hotels in general, really. Something really appeals to me about sleeping in an unfamiliar bed, and I don’t know what it is.
  
• “Good news. We’re bugless!”
  
• Man, Garnet is really not okay. She’s shaking, and I don’t think she can speak right now. She’s barely holding herself in check.
  
• “I’m off to see a man about a tunnel brush. An internet man. If I’m not back in an hour, call the police.” Pfff!
  
• Oh, are Ruby and Sapphire having a fight? How would that even work, anyways?
  
• Oh my god apparently they just defuse
  
• “You’re choosing to take it personally.” “It’s fusion, Sapphire! What’s more personal to us than fusion?!”
  
• This is really interesting. I guess that explains why Garnet can’t talk to Pearl right now. She has two conflicting ideologies that are probably extremely confusing for her.
  
• Holy shit. These rubyfaces are out of control.
  
• “You’re not as above this as you think you are!” “Yes, I am.”
  
• By the ways, I’m pretty sure every word in Ruby’s sentences deserves it’s own exclamation mark.
  
• “You can’t stay angry with her forever.” “Wanna bet?”
  
• Oh my god, there are too many rubyfaces to keep track of. I’m only gonna bring up the big ones, I think. The truly beautiful ones.
  
• Ruby burnt the carpet? How adorable.
  
• Hm...Ruby has a fair point, I suppose. It’s okay not to be the better person and let your emotions rule when something this traumatic happens. Besides, not forgiving Pearl is probably the responsible thing, to be fair. She doesn’t deserve to be let off the hook yet, even if it’s terrible to see Pearl so heartbroken.
  
• She’s just gonna walk in? And keep talking? God, I love these smol people.
  
• Unlucky.
  
• Also, Steven’s hair looks less afro-y than usual.
  
• “Sapphire?” “Hello, Steven.”
  
• “The channels are all the wrong numbers.” This is just one of many hundreds of reasons why television is absolutely terrible. The internet is 100 times better.
  
• “Can you use your future powers to predict what channel I’d love the most?” What a wonderfully mundane use of her powers.
  
• Wait a second, that’s something that Sapphire just has? I thought it was something that Garnet got from being a fusion. Huh.
  
• Hm. Sapphire seems to be ignoring Ruby’s need for emotional catharsis here. She’s looking into the future, but she’s ignoring how Ruby feels in the present.
  
• “She’s just letting her emotions get out of hand.” “Not you, though?” “No.”
  
• “Sapphire? The toilet’s frozen.” “Such is fate.” Holy shit that’s funny.
  
• “How’d it go?” “Well, he wasn’t an ax murderer, so that’s good.”
  
• “He’s not gonna like that it’s square.” ??
  
• “Oh, boy. Where’s the other one?” Okay, I guess Greg knows Ruby and Sapphire.
  
• Rest in Peace, the pool.
  
• “Square pizza?! What’s wrong with this crazy state?!” Okay, I won’t lie, that’s weird. Like, it’s normal for a circular pizza to be cut into squares, but a pizza that comes as a square? That’s actually insane.
  
• Oh my god, I just realized that Sapphire was talking about the pizza.
  
• Man, this is a complicated episode. I think I’d probably give Ruby and Sapphire space, but I’m not sure that it would be the right decision. They clearly need to talk it out between them, but Sapphire’s too stubborn in her assuredness to consider Ruby’s feelings here, and Ruby’s too hotheaded to have a civil conversation, so I’m not really sure how they’d be able to talk at the moment.
  
• That’s a real pretty shot.
  
• Wait, it’s actually just called The Best Diner in the World? God, I love this show.
  
• “What’s the matter, not hungry?” “Gems don’t need to eat, dad.” “Well, Garnet likes to eat sometimes.” “Well, Garnet’s not here!”
  
• Look at this freaking guy. What an absolute legend he is.
  
• “You’re shaking the table.” “Oh?! I’m kind of surprised you felt anything at all, to be honest!”
  
• Holy shit, I’m laughing so hard right now!
  
• “I didn’t need to feel. I saw.” This is pretty much Sapphire’s entire thing this episode, right here.
  
• “This will pass. She’ll eventually just burn herself out.” That’s kind of rude, talking like Ruby’s not even there. She’s devaluing Ruby’s emotions here.
  
• “I am an eternal flame, baby!”
  
• Also, I guess that’s Ruby’s weapon. It seems remarkably similar to Garnet’s. It’s possible, I suppose, that Sapphire’s weapon is future vision, maybe? I don’t know what else could be added to Ruby’s, besides another gauntlet, of course.
  
• Oh, Steven’s mad now. It’s been a long time since he’s been really mad.
  
• “I was so happy when Garnet said she’d come on this trip with me and dad. Home’s been awful. Here’s been awful. I thought you wanted to have a fun time, but everyone’s been acting awful, too. It just came with us! I don’t understand, is it, is it me?” Steven’s clearly confused about what’s going on to think it’s his fault. From the outside, it’s pretty clearly a fight between Pearl and Garnet, but I can see how it might be more confusing from the inside, especially for Steven.
  
• “But we made him feel like it was his fault.” Hrm… I don’t know if I buy this. It seems a little too unrelated to what actually happened. Maybe it’s the catalyst for their emotional change, but it feels a little weak to me.
  
• “I keep looking into the future, when all of this has already been solved, as if it doesn’t matter how you feel in the present.” Okay, they’re addressing the actual issues now.
  
• ??
  
• Also, Sapphire’s voice actress is really good. “No wonder you think I don’t care!”
  
• Hrm. This is a fine conclusion, but it feels just a little rushed. Maybe they could have cut the diner scene and given a little more time to this one.
  
• Oh. Well that’s fucking adorable.
  
• “You know what’s nice about being split up?” “What?” “I get to look at you.”
  
• “There’s my laughy Saffy.” Please, I can only take so much adorableness in one day!
  
• Man, this song is great, by the ways. I picked up on some of the melody for Stronger Than You in here, and it’s a really sweet song otherwise.
  
• I love this show so much for how it portrays Ruby and Sapphire.
  
• Yay, Garnet’s back!
  
• “Garnet, how are you?” “Not now.” Well, at least she told Pearl that she wasn’t ready to make up with her yet.
  

Closing Thoughts-

This was a good episode. It was really nice to see Ruby and Sapphire again. It’s nice to see these characters, although I really don’t think we’ll be seeing much of them. I’d say that we’ll get to see them as a treat, but I can’t imagine many scenarios where we’d see Garnet unfused in a happy situation. Still, they’ve both got wonderful energy, and seeing them fight on their second appearance certainly wasn’t expected. Seeing Pearl try to make Garnet appreciate her was pretty sad. Actually, most of this episode was. There was just this growing sense of disappointment in the characters throughout this entire episode that really made me feel terrible. Not that that’s a bad thing, of course. The music was really lovely in this episode, and I enjoyed it a ton. Hopefully, we start to get some closure into this situation in the next few episodes. Onto the next one!

Episode 65- Onion Friend

Steven and Amethyst visit the strange world of Onion's house; Amethyst catches up with her old friend Vidalia.
Written and Storyboarded by Lamar Abrams and Katie Mitroff

• I have no idea who this episode could possibly be about. I wish there was some sign in the title, or something.
  
• Hey, that’s clever. Steven couldn’t do that in Together Breakfast, so Garnet had to do it for him. How far we’ve grown, huh?
  
• Wait, what is that orange thing in the middle? Is it orange roughy? Did the pizza parlor run out of it?
  
• I dunno why, but I quite like this shot.
  
• “Hey, Amethyst. I made lunch! You wanna eat this empty container?”
  
• Oh. Okay, then. Hello, Onion.
  
• Also, ‘Chaaaps’ seems like a Rick and Morty thing.
  
• “It’s a special flavor that’s only in stores for a limited time!” I don’t mess with that kind of stuff for this exact reason. Well, not this exact reason, but whatever.
  
• Okay why are there paintings of Amethyst here?
  
• Also, this is a fucking Lenny Face. What a beautiful world we live in.
  
• There are a lot of Amethyst’s here… I don’t know what to think of this.
  
• “Uh...that’s really weird!”
  
• Oh my god, whoever this woman is, she has a real gun! Wow, that’s really interesting. Back in my day, you couldn’t show a real gun to children.
  
• “Vidalia?!” Oh, okay. This is Onion’s mom, then. This pretty much confirms my theories. Onion and Sourcream are stepbrothers, and I’m pretty sure Marty’s Sourcream’s father.
  
• So they know each other well, then. I guess it makes the most sense for Amethyst to have human friends.
  
• They’re pretty wonderful together.
  
• “We both kinda hung around your dad, but Vidalia’s cooler than your dad, so we started hanging out without him.”
  
• “Is that Steven? Look at him! He looks just like Greg. That’s good, that’s good, he used to be super hot.” Implying that he isn’t now?
  
• So Vidalia’s a painter who enjoyed painting Amethyst? There’s got to be some shippers out there. Speak up, Vidaliamethyst (?) shippers!
  
• “Can you still turn into anything?” “Anything but respectable.”
  
• I love these two.
  
• It’s really nice seeing Amethyst interact with someone positively for once. Everything’s been so awful, and it’s fantastic to see Amethyst feel comfortable again.
  
• “You don’t know what I’ve done in these shows!” :^)
  
• “You’re Onion’s mom?!” I mean, the hair and the name kind of give it away, Steven.
  
• “Steven, he loves talking about you!” :^|
  
• A dinner scene, eh? Perhaps we can make up for the…lackluster one in Fusion Cuisine. Lamar’s even a writer on this episode!
  
• “Oh, it’s just a little dish I like to all Nooodles And Butter.” How has Amethyst never had buttered noodles before?
  
• “Check this guy out! I used to be bigger than him.” This is a really sweet episode. It’s nice to just have a little interpersonal scene without enormous emotional stakes on the line.
  
• This is really sad. They have a schedule for when Onion’s dad gets home, and it looks like he’s only home a couple weeks in the year.
  
• Okay, so Marty is now confirmed to be Sourcream’s father.
  
• “It’s just been me and Yellowtail for a while now.” Okay, we’ve got it all spelled out now. Vidalia had a kid with Marty, left him, got married to Yellowtail, and had another kid with him.
  
• It’s interesting, though. I can’t think of many kids’ shows that have step siblings. Drake and Josh is the only one that comes to mind. I think it comes from this presentation that romance has to last forever, and showing that people can be happy after splitting up kind of damages that.
  
• What’s, uh...what’s going on here, Onion?
  
• Oh. Okay, then.
  
• Gross.
  
• “...Why do you hate food?”
  
• So, Amethyst is a little unwilling to talk about what’s going on with the gems? Interesting.
  
• So, uh… what? Why did this happen, exactly?
  
• Something similar actually happened to me last night! The power on the entire block went out for a couple hours. It’s why I didn’t get a post up yesterday.
  
• “What can you do? Kids gotta express themselves.” That’s a really nice attitude to have.
  
• “Looks like he’s ready for you, Steven.” ^{:^|}
  
• Onion’s room, huh? Why does he have a shopping cart?
  
• “Is that your pet?” ”Does this look like a fucking game to you?”
  
• He’s got a snake? That’s a pretty radical pet. I assume that the mouse is food for the snake. That seems pretty expensive to keep up, though. Any snake owners out there? Got anything to add to this?
  
• Everything’s gotta eat, Steven.
  
• Wait, why the hell does Onion have a video of him being born?! What parent gave that to him?
  
• Also, is this Steven’s first time seeing a vagoogoo? Or has he felt…the urge?
  
• Oh, he has a secret tunnel. I wish I had a secret tunnel!
  
• “It’s awful at home. I feel trapped.” I like how the Garnet-Pearl situation is affecting everyone. There’s no real escape from tension in that tiny house, so everyone has to deal with each other. I feel like they all need some space right now.
  
• Come on, there has to be some good fanfic of these two, right? Perhaps suggesting some a little more...intimate?
  
• “Okay, Onion. Let’s do this.” Aw, he’s playing with Onion to give Amethyst more time to be out of the house.
  
• So, what’s going on here? I’m pretty curious.
  
• Oh, it’s where he keeps all of his Guys!
  
• “You have Gals, too?!” I wonder what that acronym stands for.
  
• Oh god, thinking about acronyms is just making me want to watch KND again. Fuck me, that was an amazing show.
  
• “Karen!” That kind of looks a little like Rebecca Sugar.
  
• Aw, Onion gave him one of his Gals. I wonder what his rationale is. It’s a shame we don’t know more about what makes him tick, because he’s one of the most interesting townspeople we have.
  
• “I can stop by anytime if you need…inspiration.” They banged. I refuse to believe otherwise.
  
• Oh.
  

Closing Thoughts-

This was an interesting little episode. It seemed like we were going to learn more about Onion, but he remains an engima to us. No, we spent this episode exploring an old relationship Amethyst has with Vidalia, which is quite interesting. Of ourse Amethyst would be the one to make friends with a human! Hearing her talk about Garnet and Pearl was quite interesting, though. I really enjoy how much they’re impacting everyone around them. It gives the situation a lot of weight. I’m also glad that we’ve 3 episodes now without a resolution. This is a real issues that’s going to take time to solve, and so letting us experience that alongside the cast is a great choice. There wasn’t much going on in terms of animation or music, but the episode didn’t really need anything special to do its job, and it did it quite well. My current episode standings are-

Top Ten Episodes

1. Alone Together
   
2. Rose’s Scabbard
   
3. We Need to Talk
   
4. Keeping it Together
   
5. Sworn to the Sword
   
6. On the Run
   
7. Lion 3: Straight to Video
   
8. Winter Forecast
   
9. Cry For Help
   
10. Coach Steven
    

10. Laser Light Cannon
Next up, my vocal tracks-

Top Five Vocal Tracks-

1. Do it for her
   
2. Stronger Than You
   
3. On the Run
   
4. Strong in the real way
   
5. Let yourself be wherever you are
   

Finally, my BGM’s-

Top Ten BGM's

1. I’m Still Here
   
2. Theme from an Endless Romance
   
3. Glitch City
   
4. Be Cool at the Nightclub
   
5. Lapis' Tower
   
6. Night Drive
   
7. Twilight Run
   
8. Alone Together
   
9. The Cave
   
10. The Hill/Rose’s Fountain
    

I'm planning on going back and listening to all of the BGM's again, since I've been a little lax here, so you'll probably see some changes in this list over the next few posts.
Thanks for reading, guys! As usual, keep spoiler free and keep the hype low. Finally, a question-

• Keeping in mind the news about Samurai Jack, what show do you think should get one last season?

Until Next Time!

Tl; Dr: The Movie plot could be about a rogue gem that escapes from eons of imprisonment and starts breaking havoc on Homeworld, as the Steven Universe: Harmony comics suggest.
After the bomb that was "Change your mind" and with the official confirmation on the upcoming movie airing sometime in fall, I think it's time for some rough speculation about everyone's favorite matter: the plot.
For those who didn't know, KaBOOM! Studios (the ones responsible for bringing SU to the good ol' fashioned format of comics) released a series of comics called Steven Universe: Harmony that is some kind of prequel to the movie. The last comic was published two(ish) months ago and, oddly enough, nobody is talking about it. So I decided to give it a go, speculate a bit of what the comic gives in terms of plot for the movie and the what it adds to whole show itself.
With so many things in mind, warnings are the best to avoid misconceptions and/or problems.
1) I'm, not a fluent English speaker. I say this because, even though I'm confident enough in my capabilities to make this post, I understand that seeing bad writing is... unpleasant (at least for me). So, please, for the sake of mastering my English skills, feel free to correct any typos and spelling errors that you can spot (and be patient).
2) About the canonicity of the comics. As far as I know, the comics are "half canon" or "level 2 cannon", that is to say, unless the show directly contradicts the comics, they are as canon as an official release can be.
3) Spoiler Warning (For the comics and the movie) I mean, my word is not any kind of official confirmation, but the whole batch of comics are intended to be a "prequel" of some sorts for the movie, so if you would rather like to see the movie (whenever it airs...) blind, and without any kind of expectations about its plot or would actually want to give the comics a go (they're actually pretty good), get out of here, NOW.
4) Supporting the show. If you can, buy the comics, the best way to support the show is by showing Cartoon Network our love, the best way of doing so is by buying the merch.
Well, without further ado, let's get started.

The Time period of the comics

First of all, unlike the other comics, these ones are pretty clear in the time period they are positioned. So, given the clues the comics present, they could be set between the aftermath of "Jungle Moon" and directly before"The Big Show". The evidence is the following:

• Lars is already a space pirate and Steven and all of his friends know about this.
• Sadie Killer and the Suspects are a thing.
• Steven is still a member of the band (After the last part, Steven leaves because he can't go to the practices due to the Crystal Gem's duties, but starts recording everything in Greg's old camera).
• Speaking of the band, they still haven't had an official debut (They're going to record their first demo in Yellow Tail's cousin basement studio).
• Rose's Sword is intact and Connie still uses it ( and Connie has her haircut).
• Lapis left and is still in space.

Knowing that, we can get a pretty solid idea that the comics are actually made with care for the details that the continuity of each episode has, that makes me think that the adventure happening in the comics will be referenced in some point of the movie (I hope a callback, as some characters get some really good development in this short story), because it doesn't contradict anything that has happened in the show.

The Comics and The Story

Before moving on to the movie plot, lets talk of what the comics add to the overall story of the show:

• The Topazes in charge of Aquamarine haven't fused since the events of "I'm My Mom" (and they miss it)
• Homeworld has huge storages that contain old gem technology, archives, and documents of gem history and previous colonies
• To prepare for the attack on earth (Reunited), blue diamond sent Aquamarine to gather information in those documents.
• Sadie has a picture of her, Lars and Steven in her bedroom.
• Peridot explicitly says that she "isn't made for physical strain" making the theory of her not having a weapon, even more possible.
• Opal, Sugilite, Sardonyx, and Alexandrite make an appearance in the comic. This had me wondering if the only reason they don't appear in the show is because the voice actresses that play them aren't available.
• Peridot doesn't understand rock, paper, scissors (And she likes property damage).
• Onion likes to sleep in the boardwalk.
• Peridot maintains online arguments about camp pining hearts with other fans.
• Garnet has money.
• Pearl and Rose used to sing together (Making the line "I can sing" more sad).
• Buck reads Dostoyevsky and knows about Schrodinger.
• Garnet sings to give herself the power to win any battle.
• "No! I refuse to die here! I still have internet arguments to win!"

The Harmony Cores

The comic introduces the "Harmony Chores", a piece of ancient gem technology (at least from before the war) which primarily function was to subdue planets before their colonization without threatening organic lifeforms by serving as an energy source to power centinels that would grow stronger the more time the cores would remain active. They are said to connect with each other through "warp-like" technology and work like this:
First, a "loyal Gem" would get inside it by touching it (this would make only the light form of such gem go inside of the harmony core, not its gemstone) to control it from the inside and harmonizes with another gem on the outside, thus getting the core started and functioning well.
Second, the cores would start harmonizing with each other (they all activate at the same time, but deactivate separately) and would begin to pulsate signals that trap inside it the consciousness of any living organism nearby (I assume they all eventually die from starvation, as only their consciousness is sent inside). The consciousness of those trapped inside the cores acts like an amplifier of a radio frequency, the more they are, the powerful the cores grow.
Third, the cores would start beating light-signals that power centinels, those sentinels would start colonizing the planet, making it ready for gem production.
Fourth and last, when the colony is finished, the gem inside the harmony core would get out through a failsafe and deactivate the core.
The problem with this is that, as Peridot mentions, such failsafe for the gem trapped inside the core was only used when a "useful" homeworld gem was being trapped, it's said that most of the gems that got trapped inside the core to make it work are still trapped and scattered alongside with each core in space (maybe this was a punishment for "malfunctioning", different or off-colors gems.
Another thing that gets mentioned in these comics is that the harmony chores weren't used for eons, they were never even intended to be in the earth in the first place because new and more efficient technology was being used already for the colonization. They were, though, a gift from Blue Diamond to Pink to please her. First, the zoo was created to help her with the preservation of the humans in the planet, then the harmony cores were given to her to "ensure the rest (of the organisms in the earth) a peaceful end". Tough, as Blue mentions, the cores on earth were never activated (One of the topazes activates one accidentally at the start of the comics and that sets off all of the cores in existence) before, because Pink was "shattered" first.

The Movie and The future of Steven Universe:

At the end of the last comic, Steven and co. finally, destroy all the cores in existence (after battling with a giant core-robot) and supposedly free all of the hundreds of gems inside the other cores. To make a good assumption of what the movie plot will be, let's break the situation of the story so far, apart:

• The last season ends with a definitive peace between Homeworld and the Crystal Gems, the war is over, the corrupted gems are healed and everyone is happy.
• The Teaser for the movie shows what seems to be a rotating Harmony Core, and inside shows a brief picture of Steven, Garnet, Pearl, Amethyst and a mysterious laughing figure that could or could not be a gem (remember that the harmony cores can trap living organisms faster).

The Harmony Cores side to side (Left, the teaser of the Movie, Right, comics):
That is the end of the "facts" we know for sure, but let me get inside some heavy theorizing:
Let's say that, after seeing she's not perfect, White decides to make some severe changes in the Homeworld society and starts by stopping the colonization of planets. Now, after Homeworld finally starts to take the steps to get better, things get bad. The connection I was talking about before? Well, I think the comic end and the movie teaser suggest that some not-so-friendly gem got out after who knows how many eons of getting trapped and is not feeling so swell about Homeworld. Let's say this rogue gem wakes up from her thousands of years imprisonment and begins to cause havoc amongst the planet/colonies, as some sort of revenge to the empire that trapped her.
And what If the threat is big enough, such as the diamonds can't handle it? Remember, if the Diamonds resort to trapping gems instead of directly shattering them (that could lead to potential problems later) that must be for a really good reason (Heck, it could even be an organic life-form that caused them some real problems). And what if their last resort is asking the CGs for help. That would make both, a good exploration of the ancient/new gem culture and a good scenario for battles to develop, mix everything up and you have yourself a good movie plot.
Many wonder about the future of the series (as most of the more "important" plot points got resolved with the last episode released) and some even act like there is nothing left for the show to explore, but if the Crewniverse knows how to do it?, they have tons of things to add to the Steven Universe story (Traveling through each of Homeworld's old colonies to find the lost gems?, that could be awesome!)
But that is what I think that could happen. Let me know what you think about all of this!
EDIT: As Timeline15 said, the gem that appears in the movie's teaser seems to have a heart shaped gem in its chest. That reminded me of something: at one point in the comics Garnet battles a sentinel/monster that has a Harmony Core in i'ts chest. We've seen quite little about gem-powered artifacts such as lapis's mirror or the gems in the walls of Homeworld, maybe this is related?
EDIT 2: After four months or so, a kind stranger gave me gold in this post during my cake-day. That's actually a really good gift, thank you very much whoever you are!!

I mean, aside from being unable to fulfill a certain purpose. If gems were allowed free reign with fusion, it could spell serious disaster because they could be unpredictable and uncontrollable. You really wouldn't want a Sugilite or Malachite situation occurring because then unpredictable fusions could destroy infrastructure and could potentially bring unwanted chaos.

YOU DON'T HAVE TO READ PART 2 IF YOU'RE SHORT ON TIME OR PATIENCE
 
I'm not sure if it's okay to post entire essays in these text posts, but there doesn't seem to be a word limit so...
I tried by best with the formatting, hope you all can read this.
 
Part 1: Introductions
About a month ago, I found Aivi and Surasshu on Soundcloud and fell in love. I mean, fell hard. "The Black Box" covers so many moods and styles while still feeling completely in control and intent in every track. As most of you here probably know, however, Aivi and Surasshu are not known mostly for The Black Box, but for the sountrack of Steven Universe. After searching the artist of The Black Box craving more music I was initially struck with the over 100 sounds and near 3 hours of content. Listening through though, I can safely say that almost every track is just as and usually more amazing than anything on The Black Box. I mean, talk about diversity in style! I could talk for hours about the many nuances of the Steven Universe Soundtrack. Actually yeah, let me do that. Skip this part if you already know how awesome this music is!
 
Part 2: Steven Universe Soundtrack musings
Listen along with me, it's free!
https://soundcloud.com/aivisura/sets/steven-universe
Initially, "Steven's Shield" was a quaint opening that had me expecting a nice and heartfelt yet playful setlist. A good song to be sure, but that mood was immediately overturned with "The Mother". The clean fast synth drums play so darkly off of the thick synths that I feel like I need to take a breath every time I hear it. This soundtrack clearly knows how to handle many different styles. If I go into every song I might be here all day, and I don't want to lose sleep. Here are a ""few"" notable examples of things I liked in the soundtrack.
 

• I could listen to "Pearl's Room" for hours. It starts so regal, but when the syncopation hits...
  
• What's up with "Drop the Strawberry"? I get the title pun, but why does that song exist? Never before have I heard a song switch moods so fast and then switch back like it never happened.
  
• "Desert Glass" sure sounds scary. Around this point I noticed the use of Heavy Synths to mean Danger This is certainly a dangerous song.
  
• Oh my goodness "Amalgam". Such a well constructed song... you can tell that it consists of an amalgamation of that recurring sharp-attacking bright piano mixed with some real funky bass and drums, to great effect. This same mix was used later in the next song, "Opal", but this time less obviously amalgamated and more cohesively intertwined.
  
• Every time I hear that piano my smile grows just a little. "Dance of Swords" is a good example, with the piano put over a simple synth drum meat. The song sounds very resolute, like I wold imagine two people dancing with swords would be!
  
• "Glitch City" almost hurts, like it's sucking the breath out of me. Every time something repeats or you hear those creepy strings, I can imagine walking around my own city, but engulfed in the Uncanny Valley...
  
• Holy cow, there's singing? And holy cow, really really good singing! "Strong in the Real Way" is powerful, and I can really feel the sincerity of the female singer. The male singer is a bit nasally, but the piano and guitar really work so well that I can forget about that.
  

 
Around here I realized that the music was really getting good. I wish I could comment on every track!
 

• "Synchronize/Sugilite" if a very interesting track indeed. The first half, "Synchronize" is a real funky beat that I could totally see beginning a cool club song. The higher synth begins to betray the atmosphere, the song starts to feel a bit foreboding. Of course, that's where "Sugilite" comes in to remind us that Heavy Synths means Danger. It's not even all the synths here though, the harsh drums and sporadic higher square really drives home the dread this track put forth, and it's quickly followed by the even more foreboding "Sugilite Returns", with harsher key changes and dirtier synths. This one really feels helpless, until...
  
• YES! THAT PIANO! Oh my gosh I can't describe the feelings that went through me when I heard the first bit of piano on "Sugilite Returns". The piano feels like a symbol of fighting back, no matter how powerful your enemy is. This is short lived however, and the synths quickly drown out the piano. If feels hopeless, until you hear the piano play the motif from "Strong in the Real Way", and the track picks back up again! YES, GO FIGHT!
  

 
Okay, I should explain that at this point I didn't even really comprehend that this was a cartoon. I was listening to it like a long album! Even still, I could feel like I was rooting for the characters I didn't know existed. That's how good this soundtrack is! It paints such a vivid picture, and I want more! Okay, back to musing.
 

• Not the strongest point in my humble opinion, but there's a short string of tracks from "Steven and the Stevens" to "Steven and the Crystal Gems" that I don't like. Maybe it's just that same male singer from before, but also the songs didn't really speak to me. Mostly the songs with the song cover that says Steven and the Stevens in yellow with a blue background and a song listing from 1 to 7? Yeah, those felt out of place here. Also, the ending to "Steven and the Crystal Gems" was a but... odd? "I learned to stay true to myself, by watching myself die."
  
• Aww here we go, "Monster Buddies"! Right off the bat, we start off with a motif we heard before in "The Mother", but it's quickly changed from foreboding to quaint and subdued, like a little diner. It looks like there's a picture of similar monsters on both songs, but this versing is cute and small.
  
• In case you don't know, on Soundcloud you can see about how many people have listened to each song. It follow pretty predictable trends, with the most listened to songs usually being songs with singers, and the first few songs on the soundtrack. The better songs also usually get higher listens. If that's so, why the HECK does "Fight, Flight or Love" only have around 190K listens? Are you kidding me? This song is honestly my unequivocal favorite so far, and that's mostly because of the picture it paints in my head. First, we have this foreboding opening with some atmospheric synths. This is quickly developed with some synths and drums. This is bad, as Heavy Synths mean Danger. The situation continuously get more and more dire throughout the track, until about a minute thirty where we have a brief clear moment. Seems we've met the eye of the storm, since after this clears up, we're met with some strings that introduce us to an intense drum beat ending on a suspended chord. After that, a short run of the "We Are The Crystal Gems" motif that we'll hear later. What an amazingly expressive song, leading to it being deemed my favorite!
  
• In "Mirror Gem", we hear the piano take on a distinctly new role, and a role I don't think any song in the whole soundtrack has taken thus far: pure sadness. Boy does it accomplish that.
  
• "Let Me Out", from the same picture group, is very different, and also quite unique in the soundtrack with the sheer boldness of its tone. In and around this track you start to hear a lot of choir, which perfectly suits it. Something new is happening, something probably bad, and the music is not subtle about it in the least. That is, until the very ending where we hear a much more inviting if not still slightly sad anthem. I wonder what that's about. This picture trio is rounded out with "I Am Lapis Lazuli", a song I don't know how to feel about. It changes so quickly, it feels like this must be a very climactic place.
  
• "Mirror Match" is also up there with "Fight, Flight or Love" for me, and it seems to be getting more love as well. This song is interesting in the way that it seems to tell a progressing story. You always hear that drumbeat, but over top of it you hear a variety of instruments ranging in tone that change in a very natural way. We hear that piano again! This is where I really started to get curious about the show, I mean what could possibly be happening on screen with this craziness? All these instrument changes, all these moods!
  
• "Lapis' Tower" is a nice calm down from the previous madness, and it ends with a motif we've been hearing a lot lately, from "Mirror Gem" and "I am Lapis Lazuli", but now in a major key! That's some nice resolution.
  
• This past lot has been great, and what a way to end this group with "Love Like You" AKA "The Ocean Returns". So soothing.
  
• I've got to talk about "Almost There", as the whole song feels so well put together, and I couldn't image how this goes with the pictures on screen. Firstly, the buildup throughout the song constantly gets more grandios, more epic, but also more frantic, and by about a minute in, more dire. Those Heavy Synths should've tipped me off! Then the Soft piano hits, and I can only imagine how heartfelt this moment must be. Trust me, I imagined it.
  
• The next time we hear singing is in "Be Wherever You Are". And you know what? This singer isn't bad here. I'm not sure if he just grew on me or not, but I could swear his voice is better here. Maybe it just goes well with the ukulele/violin going on in this song. It's so reminiscent of a nice, soothing afternoon in the sun. Am I crazy or is this soundtrack just super vivid!
  
• Holy Cow, that's a lot of Heavy Synth in "Snerson Interrogation". Some intense stuff is going on when they play this track... I again kinda want to watch the show just to see what is happening to deserve such heavy music!
  
• There's another playlist on Aivi and Surasshu's Soundcloud called FUSION MIXTAPE, and "Alexandrite" is one of the track on it. I'm not really sure why though, I had assumed that it was just some sort of "best hits" type album, but it doesn't even have a lot of the vocal songs in it! And no offense if you like it, but "Alexandrite" is... odd!
  
• "Peridot" is a real atmospheric track that makes use of a different kind of wave than the Bad Heavy Synths, but still manages to give off a creepy vibe. It's also a motif we hear later, so it must be important!
  
• The next one is on the FUSION MIXTAPE, as one of the only songs on the main soundtrack over 1 million views, definitely deserves some "best hit" status. It's short but oh so sweet, like a lot of the stuff on this soundtrack.
  
• I don't know what to say about "Be Cool at the Club". It's just awesome, and has some great chiptune arpeggios. I love me some chiptune arpeggios!
  
• "Death Rag" has me confused by its title at first. It's so upbeat, what could it have to do with that awful title, I thought? Even the key change halfway through is cheesy, not scary or death-ly. Then the ending hits. Oh my...
  
• Again, I like the guy singing in "On the Run" a lot more now than before. There's a different girl singing here, and is it just me, or are these lyrics a little... sad? I feel like the guy is really into it, like a catchy showtune! The girl feels a little more detached, like there's some deeper meaning to the lyrics. "But home's a place that I have never known"... Is she okay?
  
• Whoa, "Defective" came out of nowhere. Actually, both it and "Moonlit Battlefield" feel similarly and oddly dark. What's going on soundtrack, are you feeling okay lately?
  
• I take it all back, "I'm Still Here" is next, and I totally get it. This track makes me feel things, things I didn't know I could feel. I can tell that, even through it's sadder, this is That piano, the jazzy piano we've been hearing all along, the one that picks up when all the chips are down.
  
• "Wailing Stone" and "Lapis Lazuli" are two songs with the same melody but different lyrics. They're pretty okay songs, but I'm just impressed they could make two sets of lyrics for it when I can't write one set of lyrics to go along with a song.
  
• "Stronger Than You", clearly either the most well known song on the soundtrack, the most liked song on the soundtrack, or both. I mean come on, 4.5 Million listens? Not that I'm complaining, it's sung by freaking Estelle! Why don't any other songs on here have such high-profile singers on them! Killer builds, smooth synths, great singing, awesome track. Also the lyrics are cool, they sound like an interesting ballad about the power of love, and the climatic nature leads me to believe that love plays a role in beating some huge opponent.
  
• Not that the power-ballad induced win lasts long for our heroes, as "Collusion" comes in to remind us not to trust Heavy Synths! Another possible link that I thought the FUSION MIXTAPE may be held together is the fact that a lot of the pictures show characters dancing, including this one, so maybe they're all dance songs. That still doesn't explain "Alexandrite", and this song also doesn't sound very dance-y despite the picture. How are they dancing to this?
  
• "Malachite" - Now that's a scary song. Definitely a dangerous enemy comes along with this song, and given picture that I see to my right in comparison to the one accompanying this song, an enemy you will all be seeing again May 12th? Good luck with that one...
  
• "Full Disclosure" is, again, a pretty good song for this singer. It seems that it's a bit out of range for him though, probably should have brought it up a few steps? Catchy though.
  
• Oh my gosh that same singer from "Strong in the Real Way" is back and is still amazing! This time, it's a duet with another singer. The song is great, but the lyrics really intrigue me. What is the deal here, there's discussion of dying for someone in war, and confusingly gendered pronouns? I kinda want to know more!
  
• All right next to each other, we're getting so many songs with lyrics! "What Can I Do" is a great song too, really sells this hair rock image. Again though, these lyrics. Why does the the lady refer to whomever the song is about as human man and why does she say that she likes the way human beings play? Wait, what does she mean by ...play... OH WELL ROCK ON WITH THE SOLO!
  
• Right back to Malachite in "We Are Malachite". Again, all I can say is good luck on the twelfth.
  
• What did I say about this female singer! In "Tower Of Mistakes", she sounds even more depressed than in "On the Run", and here it is very explicit through the lyrics. "I see a Tower build out of my Mistakes, and it all comes crashing down..." Ouch, do you need to talk or something?
  
• "We Are The Crystal Gems" is such a dandy little tune. It's also probably my best insight into the show without watching it, so I'll listen closely! All our main our here, the main dude (Steven), beautiful-voice lady from "Strong in the Real Way" and "Do It For Her", depressed lady from "On the Run" and "Tower of Mistakes", and Estelle is back!
  
• "Theme from An Endless Romance" sounds just as the title suggests - a very romantic theme that I could see being played back at prom near the edge of midnight. Such vivid pictures these songs paint!
  
• All I could think while listening to "Uncle Like You" was "Hey, you mind pitching that high synth up another 3 octaves?"
  
• The singer of "Haven't You Noticed (I'm A Star)" is arguably more beautiful than that of "Strong in the Real Way", though the song isn't really my jam. I could understand you liking it though!
  
• "Little Peridot" does to "Peridot" what "Monster Buddies" did to "The Mother", that is to say it's a great track that takes an old creepy motif and somehow makes it adorable.
  
• "Robolympics" is just a straight up great song title, and the song really fits that technological, competitive, but friendly competitive atmosphere.
  
• Ah, "Blue Diamond" is so calming. Such a mellow synth atmosphere, like the song wants me to sleep, but in a good way.
  
• "Something Entirely New" is just so good. I don't even know who's singing and I can already tell so much about their characters, their relationships, and just aah that humming at the end it gets me every time. Two characters that complement each other so well, and what an ending chord!
  
• Ah, "Yellow Diamond" is so calming. Such a mellow sy... What the? What's happening? It's like "Blue Diamond" on drugs! And it just keeps getting worse throughout, even when you think it can't get any weirder and more disjointed...
  

 
It seems we've reached the end of the soundtrack, and what an ending... I hope our heroes are okay!
 
Part 3: Steven Universe and me, and you!
 
As I've eluded to in Part 2, a lot of the songs in this soundtrack, especially a lot of the lyrical songs, have made me interested in watching Steven Universe. Now, I realize that going to a subreddit entitled "Steven Universe" to ask whether or not I should watch Steven Universe may be inquiring of the choir, but look at it from my perspective. I haven't watched TV in a long time, let alone cartoons. Even if the soundtrack is great, a cartoon may not pique my interest as much. So here's my question, does this show hold the same nuance as its music? I can listen to this music and analyse the many subtleties for hours, is the show like that? If it's just a straight forward show, I'm perfectly happy experiencing the story though the music. I'm absolutely not doubting that the show is "good", but there are plenty of "good" shows that I just can't get into, mostly because they have plots that I could see coming from a mile away and nothing to analyze. These are worlds I just can't get lost in. So, does it sound like even an old guy like me could enjoy this show? Thanks for your responses in advance!
I FIXED EGREGIOUS GRAMMAR ERRORS, AND BUTT ERRORS