SU Diamond Days: Familiar
The following contains spoilers and my personal opinions.
They are mine, and they are not ‘universal truths’, they are just my observations and thoughts. You are free to challenge me on these thoughts, but there is no guarantee I will have the energy or the desire to argue with you.
The scene opens up with Pink in her official ‘room’. Man, it kinda looks… tiny? Although I imagine that the entire structure where her Legs’n’Butt ship is parked is technically hers as well.
Immediately, we are introduced to a new species of gem(?) - Pebbles (ARE Pebbles gems?) Now, I’m not surprised about their existence - we already knew some gems can be small, but they seem to be different, in the sense that they don’t have facets. They appear to be made of more rudimentary rock material, so to speak, instead of a refined, isolated mineral. Where to they fit on the gem hierarchy? Are they even considered actual ‘gems’?
For the time being, all we know is that they usually try to stay out of sight, and only come back when they recognize Steven as ‘Pink’, who appeared to have treated them with kindness. They become much more relaxed and genuine in his presence after that.
Pearl’s back! And her first thought it that White Diamond hurt Steven. I can’t say anyone is surprised.
“…and they consider me one of your things” - Although this line is pretty heavy, I enjoy the way Pearl delivers it here. She’s not impressed - clearly frustrated and angry, but perhaps compartmentalizing those feelings for later. I’m glad to at least see that even though she’s back on Homeworld, she’s still our same, “Bitch did u really think” Pearl. She doesn’t say “on Homeworld, I’m one of your things”. She knows who she is, and what she’s about, and she’s only begrudgingly playing along.
This is further proven when she has this ‘stop that’ moment with Steven. I’m glad that she’s not even attempting to pretend that he’s Pink, even in front of Yellow and Blue Pearl. She talks to him the same way as back home, and scolds him for trying to play Alexa with YP.
Now, we’re gonna wind back here - and look at the statues in the background of that shot. The gems on each of the statues is in a different place.
To add to this, quite obviously we have the gossiping walls…
and shown a bit later (but I’m gonna clump them in here) the statues at Blue’s bath:
…which all appear to be… sentient, but immobile gems.
Aside from being mildly freaked out and going back through to see how many other ‘sentient decoration’ gems I could spot, I am also curious about their origins. Are they really just gems that are created with this sole purpose of being statues? Does Homeworld not have a sculptor on hand? Is making walls too boring for them? And from the point of view of an intergalactic conquerer who is low on gem production, why waste precious gem resources on forcing these guys to T-pose for eternity instead of, idk… not…. doing that…
The yellow gems on the walls to the Extraction Chamber, in particular, seem to be spending their days chattin’ away to each other. Which like, if they were there to just stand guard, I understand, but what is their explicit purpose?
One is that we are already familiar with gems that are used as… inanimate objects, for lack of a better word.
Lapis was trapped in a mirror and forced to act as gem YouTube for watching “3000BCE’s Greatest Hits (that CG’s dealt to Homeworld)”. This was clearly punishment for being thought of as a Crystal Gem.
Are these gems also punished, in a way? Is it a way to recycle unruly gems - by forcing them to be furniture? Seems like an odd way to force order for a society that has something as threatening as ‘shattering’ to do the trick in terrorizing its citizens.
And even if that’s the case, why are all the gems so uniform? The wall gems on the way to Yellow’s even all have their gems in the same place. What - one gem fucked up, so the rest will now also be punished so that Yellow Diamond can have a uniform-looking Living Architecture installment?
Although it’s possible, I feel that it’s… unlikely.
What I feel is more likely is that somehow… these gems were created with this purpose. Perhaps they are lower in the hierarchy than even Pearls - unable to act as their own independent creatures. Instead of being refined mineral gems they are closer to Pebbles - mixed minerals, not fully articulate like gems are, and not fully able to create a light form.
And you know what else that reminds me of?
Is she…. no, it can’t be! I mean, the Crystal Gems LIVE in that thing. Are you telling me this whole time, the fighters for freedom and future, have been utilizing one entire gem and runnin’ around amok in her organs because she’s useful?
Or is she asleep or what? Idk. I need answers.
Yellow Diamond is a die-hard Lemongrab fan confirmed.
Hey, that’s the new Era 2 Diamond Insignia! This Extraction Chamber IS new.
I think this has already been pointed out, but Yellow Diamond isn’t just sitting in the sauna because it feels good. The ‘extraction chamber’ is clearly extracting… something from her! I think we all kind of thought that magical bodily-fluids were specific to Steven, but I guess Yellow’s Sweat is a thing too.
Once we move into Blue’s bath chamber, we find her with some Pebbles of her own. (And I do think these are also pebbles… I don’t see why they wouldn’t be - they appear to be the same type of gem, if a bit more ‘sophisticated’ compared to the ones in Pink’s room).
Anyway, Blue also seems to be in the bath for some main purpose, maybe the same way as Yellow was–
Wait…. no, wait. Wait a minute.
Is Yellow’s sweat is magic…
And Steven’s spit is magic…
BLUE DIAMOND, DON’T. DON’T PEE IN THE BATH. DON’T.
I’m kidding (am I though)
Anyway, Steven’s plan isn’t working.
And it’s very convenient that Homeworld’s day cycle seems to be more or less the same as Earth’s. But here’s my next observation.
While with the Pebbles, Steven starts singing Familiar (which is great) and opens up a secret door by pressing an inside light panel.
I don’t think this is usually a space Diamonds - or any gems - usually go. The reddish hue and the tiny staircases hint that this is a back area used by Pebbles. I’m presuming that Pink was able to access it because she was friendly with the Pebbles and treated them kindly.
Here we have several things. The first one is that tub of rocks, which appears to be a bunch of not-yet-sentient Pebbles. One comes to life when Steven’s sweat (tear…?) drips down onto it.
Aww, Steven! You’ve got a whole Watermelon army, a sentient pumpkin, and now a baby rock! That’s a lot of ….children to take care of.
We also have #2, which seems to be a flower, calling back to Rose’s ability to control plant life. (At this point, I think it’s just life in general).
And #3, which is perhaps the most mysterious to me. What are those mini-gems? They’re as small as some of the pebbles, but they’re clearly gems. Are they also future gems? Or are they simply ‘dummy’ gems that Pink was meant to experiment with in order to keep her from making her own colony?
Steven, of course, being the stupidly optimistic kid he is, believes he can cure the Diamonds of their tyranny by talking. And I mean - that has definitely worked before! But I’m thinking it’ll be more complicated than that.
The Diamonds still clearly have no intention of understanding him or calling him Pink. For the time being, they are along for the ride, perhaps because they believe that the corrupted gems on Earth are ‘wasted resources’ which could be recycled if they are salvanged.
But at the very least, he doesn’t have to do it alone.
And you know what else? Before Pearl runs off, she asks “I wonder what happened to Pink’s court…?” And you know who she brings back?
Eh, close enough I guess.
