Geode Musings

Considerations and Reblogs for Steven Universe, with an emphasis on clever or interesting theories.

[geode-musings]

Gem Memory Haze Remastered

Below is a post I made waaaaaay back when the show first revealed Peridot. Not sure what episode it was. I am inspired to recommit these posts in one place so I can link to it. I am more or less inspired to do this via the Crystal Clodcast, where a few pod casters rewatch the show and comment. They have some fun ideas, and i want to throw this at em. Original post below

—

Over time, I am going to discuss a little about Steven Universe’s oddities, one of which is the memory haze that seems to surround the Crystal Gems and all the gem technology and monsters.

I never see anyone else talking about it, but has anyone else noticed that humans don’t seem to understand or really grasp the Crystal Gems. In any other situation, why would people generally ignore the purple skinned young woman that seems to love changing shapes? How could you forget that seven foot tall woman with shades punched a monster into pieces on the pier? How about the woman with the stone embedded in her head that can summon spears? No reaction? Really?

I think something about the Crystal Gems makes them partially inscrutable to the human mind. The evidence is everywhere. From the untouched vast reaches of battlefields and Kindergartens, to a complete lack of being phased by giant monsters every couple of weeks.

I think this will be a series over time, just because I have so many thoughts on this, since no one else has really talked about it.

[geode-musings]

Part 2: Gem Memory Haze: Greg Universe

Part 3: Gem Memory Haze: Ronaldo

Part 4: Gem Memory Haze: Connie Maheswaran

Part 5: Gem Memory Haze: Gem Civilization and Speculation

[geode-musings]

Gem Memory Haze Remastered

Below is a post I made waaaaaay back when the show first revealed Peridot. Not sure what episode it was. I am inspired to recommit these posts in one place so I can link to it. I am more or less inspired to do this via the Crystal Clodcast, where a few pod casters rewatch the show and comment. They have some fun ideas, and i want to throw this at em. Original post below --- Over time, I am going to discuss a little about Steven Universe's oddities, one of which is the memory haze that seems to surround the Crystal Gems and all the gem technology and monsters. I never see anyone else talking about it, but has anyone else noticed that humans don't seem to understand or really grasp the Crystal Gems. In any other situation, why would people generally ignore the purple skinned young woman that seems to love changing shapes? How could you forget that seven foot tall woman with shades punched a monster into pieces on the pier? How about the woman with the stone embedded in her head that can summon spears? No reaction? Really? I think something about the Crystal Gems makes them partially inscrutable to the human mind. The evidence is everywhere. From the untouched vast reaches of battlefields and Kindergartens, to a complete lack of being phased by giant monsters every couple of weeks. I think this will be a series over time, just because I have so many thoughts on this, since no one else has really talked about it.

[chefpyro]

That was no simple slip-up. You don’t just make a mistake like that, not after having to identify yourself like that for the better part of your life. You actually see her being taken aback by Yellow Diamond’s response. She’s caught off guard, disappointed. She’d forgotten that just “Peridot” wasn’t enough to tell her apart. She’d become used to the idea of being unique. 

When do you think that happened? When did she stop seeing herself as “Facet-2F5L, Cut-5XG” and start being Peridot with a capital P? Was it after being stranded, due to the lack of contact with another peridot for months on end? Or was it after the truce with the Crystal Gems, brought on by them addressing her as just Peridot day after day?

Facet-2F5L, Cut-5XG. That’s all she’ll ever be to Homeworld. That’s all all the other peridots will ever be. But on Earth, she is Peridot. The one and only. In a way, that’s gotta be liberating.

[thechekhov]

On the topic of corrupted gems, in the episode Monster Buddies, we see the centerpeetle nearly turn into a humanoid form. I was wondering what you think the gem would look like if they weren't corrupt?

Okay, so

so I’ve been thinkin about this for a while so I finally sat down and did it

I know it’s only a theory, but I’m really keen on the idea that this is Jade, so I’ll roll with it. 

I think they will soon have an episode where Steven WILL successfully un-corrupt a gem. In fact, I think Jade is already good for it. It exhibited emotions and caring for Steven, but was destroyed. I think in the next re-generation, it might come back as a humanoid? Or at least more tame than before. 

I’m really looking forward to what the writers will do. C:

[ms-nova-scotia]

So I was rewatching Stephen Universe, and I realized that in episode 23, “Monster Buddies,” the Centipeedle is very humanoid when it starts to regenerate.

I know there’s a theory (or maybe it’s confirmed and I’m not remembering correctly) that all the gems that the Crystal Gems collect are from Gems that went to the dark side, so to speak, but I’m really surprised I haven’t seen anything about this before.

I was wondering if anyone could draw what they think the Centipeedle would look like as a Gem. Or if there are already drawings, if someone could direct me to them please.

[geode-musings]

I definitely planned on having more to say here, but I really wanted to repost this in response to the revelation in the Steven bomb two, with Garnet having to face the something like her worst nightmare, an amalgam of all her internalized race’s prejudices about fusion in Keeping It Together.

It saddens me that it could be years or never before we start getting to see the gang start saving the corrupted gems. (For plot reasons, I can’t imagine it happening anytime soon, but hey maybe Sardonyx will prove me wrong.)

This was a good catch by embolichan, from whom I saw it first.

[ladyloveandjustice]

Okay, Pearl meta:

I was thinking about Pearl’s situation, and it’s not surprising she’s so fixated and obsessive about Rose.

Pearl abandoned her home for Rose, she fought AGAINST her home for Rose. And unlike Rose, Pearl misses it and exploring the galaxy desperately. Pearl didn’t have any connection with humanity or like humans all that much before Steven. Steven is her only personal stake in humanity and her only connection to earth. She only fought for them because Rose cared about them.

You can argue this decision is proof Pearl was always obsessive, but that kind of rash “give up everything for you” thing is a common thing people do when they’re young and in love- GREG did the same thing for Rose, he impulsively threw everything he was working for away. It honestly shows a flaw in Rose she didn’t tell Pearl “you shouldn’t do this if your only reason is me”. 

And let’s consider the theory Pearl was some sort of manufactured gem- if her feelings for Rose are what made her realize she was more than what she was designed to do, it’s not surprising she puts so much weight on them- “Rose made me feel like I was everything”- this was her freedom, this was the one thing she chose.

But the thing is, there was no going back for Pearl after this. She can’t un-betray Homeworld. She can’t go back to freely traveling the galaxy. Here she is, stuck on an unfamiliar planet she doesn’t like or feel comfortable in,where she doesn’t know anyone, where she’s wanting so desperately to NOT be here, where her life has completely changed. She has no CHOICE but to double down so hard on her feelings for Rose, to make them her reason for living, because SHE HAS NOTHING ELSE. SHE CANNOT UNDO HER DECISION TO THROW EVERYTHING ELSE AWAY. She has to keep the regret, the doubt from destroying her by making Rose the only thing that matters. She has to justify her decision to herself by reinforcing that she is nothing, that Rose is everything, that Rose is worth what she gave up.

Keep reading

[koyotekin-blog]

do you mind if I ask whatcha mean exactly? Do you mean you don’t like how technically all the Gems are technically agender but since they express femininity, “lesbian” is the term of choice even if inaccurate? Def can see that and understand.

[koyotekin-blog]

essentially. my frustration lies in the fact that gay/lesbian are terms often used in fandoms to describe non-heterosexual relationships/people when not everyone who is outside of the gender binary/are not homosexual or heterosexual use those terms? and because the gems are technically agender, just because they use she/her does not inherently make them ‘lesbians’.

i think the only thing the gems are coded as (in terms of sexuality and gender) are non-heterosexual and agender.

[geode-musings]

I totally understand and agree. It has that subtle kind of hint of agender erasure that does seem common in a binary world, and it is a little sad, given that the creator has specifically clarified that all the Gems (other than Steven, probably) are actually genderless aliens with no real preconceived notions of male or female forms. They just happen to look and present according to feminine norms in appearance.

Sadly, modern media is incredibly difficult at conceiving of world with much diversity. The world has only just opened up to the possibility of cartoons (ostensibly) for children displaying open romantic relationships between women (Legend of Korra). I think that anyone who is wants to see more of that is desperately latching onto every other representation that is more diverse than Boy likes Girl or Girl likes Boy. 

Unfortunately, there isn’t any real wonderfully easy *agender coded term of romantic connection* that is snappy, heavily stigmatized/celebrated, would mean as much for the LGBTQA community as a whole. (And please forgive if I get that acronym wrong.)

I’ll probably post something later about how interesting the Gem Culture seems to treat fusion and romance as a whole, but I agree overall that I wish they’d come up with a better term, or at least stop using “lesbians” as a term. You’d think that the community would avoid making judgements on how relationships work based on appearances. 

[geode-musings]

Pearl’s Calling

An interesting thing was said during the “Sworn to the Sword” episode of Steven Universe that aired recently. I do not have the quote but I do remember Pearl said something along the lines of “And while it wasn’t my original purpose, I took to the human practice of Knighthood.” 

“Original Purpose” has an interesting connotation. I think it has been pretty well established that the gems tend to be “purposed” to a certain use. This was more or less confirmed when Jasper referred to Pearl as “a defective pearl.”

I am not the first to speculate on it, but I think “pearl” gems, if they are anything like the Pearl we know, probably tended to act more as maids (very immaculate, tends to organize things to a particular pattern) or even Majordomo’s (Highly mindful of schedules and capable of storing items for long term use). 

I can’t imagine how hard it would be for Pearl, someone who is very mindful of everything’s place in the world, to make the choice to step outside of her bounds, outside of her strict guidelines and clearly defined role, to step into the role of defender to her chosen queen. 

Its interesting, especially to me, that Pearl even started to move towards standing up to, and in front of her chosen’s way, to protect Rose Quartz even against Rose Quartz’s wishes. 

Interestingly, Pearl couldn’t have possible picked up knighthood from humans five thousand years ago. Knights are an affect of the last millennium (roughly 1000 C.E.). I’d think she’d better gather the inklings of “chivalry” from Rome’s legionaries (as early as 100 C.E.) or even from Samurai or Bushido codes of honor and sacrifice. (still only as early as 700 C.E.). 

And my knowledge of historic military elite is very meager going even further back. Remember, the crystal gem wars occurred 5000 years ago. Chinese civilization was just starting, and Judaism wasn’t even 800 years old. Untold amounts of history still hadn’t been written. Think of the ancient armies of the Persians, or the Egyptians, or the Summerians, all of whom Pearl could have found a “knight” parallel in their class and structures *during* the war between gems. And yet, she chose Knights and Chevaliers.

So, I am only going to have to guess that either Pearl’s knightly chivalric attitudes only developed in recent years as the Crystal Gems fought the rogue or corrupted gems still on earth... or Pearl’s memories are not perfect when it comes to humanity, and she may have some issues with blending time periods in human civilization... But more speculation on that will have to belong to another post, as I build more on my Gem Memory Haze series.

[fleshbra]

Lapis Lazuli did not imprison herself at the bottom of the ocean so you could ship her with Jasper.

[geode-musings]

By no means do I wish to rain on any shipping routes, but I think it is safe to say that Lapis Lazuli is probably not interested in any long term commitments, both literal or figurative, any time soon. She spent the last six or more thousand years trapped as a mirror/recording device, prisoner and enslaved as minor trinket.

Sure, she probably committed some crime, but I live off of human time scales, and spending the equivalent of what is essentially an eternal life sentence as a recording device is hard to justify without any sort of understanding of her crime.

But I still don’t think she will be interested in any sort of relationship with any gem anytime soon. She blames the Crystal Gems for her incarceration. She thinks that Homeworld has become terrible and the Homeworld gems also imprisoned her.

I think, if we find Lapis doing anything social in the near future, it will be on remote beaches, playing with children, building sandcastles and having fun. She probably would really relate to humanity as a whole, given that one of them freed her, then healed her broken gem, and even tried to save her from prison again. She’d associate humanity with fun and freedom, having to live in every moment, because humans don’t have long to live at all.

I’d like to see Lapis playing on a beach with some kids, hosting water fights, playing games, and enjoying life. I’d like to see her be able to heal her deeply wounded trust, and find something to be positive about.

[cursedskull-666]

I feel terrible for Lapis because all she wanted to do was go home, but the Homeworld isnt anything like she remembered it anymore and she probably didn’t feel at home there. 

However she doesn’t like Earth either; she calls it a ‘miserable planet’ that she ‘never believed in’. For all intents and purposes, even if she weren’t trapped at the bottom of the ocean right now, she’s homeless and probably still feels a deep sense of home-sickness as well as grief/loss over the fact that her home has been lost to the passage of time. 

I would love for her to learn to enjoy Earth if she ever becomes free again, but I think it would take her a lot time to reach that point. At the very least I hope she one day reaches out to Steven again because I think her friendship with him would be good for her. 

[palchidirenna]

Lapis Lazuli.

[vampirekin-deactivated20190403]

Lapis tho

[fleshbra]

Lapis Lazuli did not imprison herself at the bottom of the ocean so you could ship her with Jasper.

[geode-musings]

By no means do I wish to rain on any shipping routes, but I think it is safe to say that Lapis Lazuli is probably not interested in any long term commitments, both literal or figurative, any time soon. She spent the last six or more thousand years trapped as a mirror/recording device, prisoner and enslaved as minor trinket.

Sure, she probably committed some crime, but I live off of human time scales, and spending the equivalent of what is essentially an eternal life sentence as a recording device is hard to justify without any sort of understanding of her crime.

But I still don’t think she will be interested in any sort of relationship with any gem anytime soon. She blames the Crystal Gems for her incarceration. She thinks that Homeworld has become terrible and the Homeworld gems also imprisoned her.

I think, if we find Lapis doing anything social in the near future, it will be on remote beaches, playing with children, building sandcastles and having fun. She probably would really relate to humanity as a whole, given that one of them freed her, then healed her broken gem, and even tried to save her from prison again. She’d associate humanity with fun and freedom, having to live in every moment, because humans don’t have long to live at all.

I’d like to see Lapis playing on a beach with some kids, hosting water fights, playing games, and enjoying life. I’d like to see her be able to heal her deeply wounded trust, and find something to be positive about.

[universepearl-blog]

I really just want to know if all gems were mass-manufactured by another alien species and rebelled against their creators OR are produced by another means, perhaps magical and from one ethereal giant lady being.

[geode-musings]

This is a super interesting concept, and plays a lot into hard science fiction!

The part I am referring to especially is the concept that the Gems might be  manufactured beings created for specific purposes by another, older race of beings. It makes some complete sense, and there is some great sense in the idea. 

We’ve all seen movies where robots take over the world, or rebel against humanity. It is something pervasive in our society, a certain level of techno-caution in a future we can’t predict. But what if we aren’t the first people to fall to our engineered creations? 

The Gems all are apparently have specialized roles and specific strengths. Peridot is very uniquely and specifically a technician and engineer, given their easy grasp of technology. Jasper even refers to Pearl as a “defective pearl”. Sure, it could have been an insult, but it also heavily implies that Pearl is not the only one of her particular gemstone. 

Like any product, humans create robots for specific tasks. Now, clearly if the Gems are synthetic beings, then we are dealing with a level of complexity several magnitudes more advanced than our own. 

What if the Gems were created with specific roles in mind, as servant and assistants? Pearls could be loyal handservants, able to access any material at hand by conjuring items from their pocket dimension. Sapphires could all either be singers, or maybe couriers, given how fast she was. Peridot’s role is pretty apparent, and Jaspers as soldiers would make a lot of sense. 

Except, if they were all created, where is their master? Could the Gems, having been forced to be servants for so long, come to their own sense of personal identity and sentience via an alien Singularity? Of course, even as they overthrow their original masters, they still have their primary roles to fill in society, but now they have to deal with a tiered hierarchy artificially placed on them.

Given their source of life being literally inorganic, I can’t even imagine how they would have evolved naturally. And I know that the easy answer is “magic” but I don’t know if the Crystal Gems even use magic, but simply sufficiently advanced technology. There certainly haven’t been any signs of magic that I couldn't see be explainable to science (I mean, eventually. I don’t know how pocket dimensions work right now, but I imagine it is possible). 

It all reminds me a lot of Charles Stross’s Saturn’s Children, a novel based on the idea of what would happen to all the sentient robotic servants across the galaxy if humanity slowly, inexorably, died out. It wasn't a revolution that killed humanity, but the robots still have to pick up the pieces. 

Anyway, I love the idea that the gems are actually just the sentient “robots” that rose up against their creators to form their own civilization, and I hope we learn more in the show to explore the idea further. 

[geode-musings]

Li'l Butler!!!!!! Li'l Butler!!!!!!!!!!!

You people are too rich!

[geode-musings]

Gems in History: Prehistory of Man

Mankind has existed for a long time before the Gem Wars. Humanity really started to show the signs of actual, lasting civilization by the beginning of the Mesolithic period, about 12000 years ago.

I wonder how long the Gems had been on Earth? Their empire was vast and rife throughout the world. They seem to have existed in every biome and across great vast lands. Even with all their power, I imagine it would take a little time to build up the society and population they seemed to claim on the planet.

What if they have a Prime Directive-like standard on planet colonization? For those that don’t know, the Prime Directive is a Star Trek concept, that basically states that the Federation is supposed to not interfere or interact with planets that have not reached a certain level of technology.

I can imagine that the Gems follow a similar system, that they aren’t supposed to colonize and strip-mine a planet that has intelligent races on it. The problem was, those bizarre tribal monkeys that started off using barely fashioned spears learned to create fire… then they started to form culture, and civilization, and even developed writing and counting and suddenly, the Gems were in violation of their own rules.

Can you imagine the struggles, the political conflict, the serious fights over how the Gems either need to ignore the growing signs of intelligent, civilized life on Earth, or they need to leave now? And what about those hundreds of other Gems that were born on Earth along with Amethyst? Were they supposed to abandon their own homeworld, the only place they have ever known?

Look at how many Gems they were able to get out of such a small area of Earth in that one Kindergarten, sure the earth was barren, dusty wastes around the spot, but that place produced so many lives. I wonder if Earth might have been some sort of Eden for the gems, a perfect birthing home for the next ten, fifteen, twenty thousand years… until Humans became a problem.

The armies split between protecting the stupid, barely civilized, but growing indigenous life of Earth, or protecting the coming lives of thousands of future gems, likely to live for millenia longer than any civilization created by these silly native monkeys desperately living short, brutal lives, barely able to write their names in the stone.

Its easy to see how the Crystal Gems are our savior, but at the cost of a lot of lives. I wonder how many lives were really lost, both defending Earthlings, and defending the future generations of Gem progeny.

I do wonder how many human civilizations were destroyed in the skirmishes and battles across Earth as well, as one side strove to destroy the reason that they had to leave Earth at all, and the other struggled to save the helpless humans.

[geode-musings]

I like how I see a lot of posts about how Greg Universe gets generally kind accolades on Tumblr for treating women well, and for his general interest in larger women. I think he could be forgiven his mistake of thinking she was a normal human lady, given her coloring and humanoid shape.

Why doesn’t anyone talk about Rose Quartz’s really bizarre attraction to Greg? She’s an agender, inorganic alien lifeform. She is literally attracted to an alien race with body features and physio-cultural identities that do not exist in their culture. I mean, there’s lots of jokes about lesbian space rocks, but I wanna see more people talk about the 

Its like a human that falls in love with an alien with Trapezoidal Gender, or with a Up Polarity, whatever those might be. It so strange and almost otherworldly and interesting to think about.

[geode-musings]

Gem Memory Haze Part 5: Gem Civilization And Speculation

This is my series of musings on why no one is freaking out about the presence of the Crystal Gems and their existence, or why people still live in Beach City even though they are regularly attacked by monsters. My theory is that something about the Gems and their technology makes it hard or impossible for humans to form lasting impressions or memories concerning the fantastic magic and technology of the Gems.

So I don’t know if anything I have posted previously really constitutes much hard fact as much as it seems to be a focus on character musings. Its completely possible that most of the characters in Steven Universe are simply so inured to the Crystal Gems that they don’t register on the weirdness factor of discolored, monster-slaying, inorganic changelings.

I mean, we all get used to that sort of thing eventually... right?

But no, what really clinches the idea that Gems seem to somehow elude human perceptions and memories is their beautiful and massive remains of civilization, untouched for millennia.

How could anyone miss the sprawling vast battlefields where Gems slew each other left and right, covered acres of strawberries? Why had no one spotted the Lunar Sea Spire in all our years imaging the moon and earth via satellite? How is there not a thousand archeologist and tourists coming to Beach City to take a picture of the Crystal Gem Temple?

Why had the Kindergarten lay undeveloped and undiscovered for millennia when a railroad had been built within eyesight of the canyons?

The place would have been scoured for technology if it had been discovered recently. It would have been robbed if it were discovered in old times. I think that something about the gems makes it hard for humans to notice them, and I think the show backs that up a hundred percent.

I can only speculate on why though. I wonder if it has to do with how the Gems are inorganic, and that they clearly have access to extradimensional powers (Pearl’s ability to summon items, their weapons, the room in their temple.) If they are able to use extradimensional powers, then maybe the gems themselves don’t completely exist on our dimension.

When a three dimensional object casts a shadow, the shadow is always two dimensional. Why can’t the Gems and their technology exist as an extension of this idea? What if the Gems are actually four dimensional beings, casting a three dimensional shadow on the world?

That would explain why they can change shape, or access spaces that are impossible for a human. They don’t breath or require any sustenance really at all, just like a human’s shadow doesn’t need anything more than light to exist.

And if humans are really just looking at the shadows or bare fractions of a much larger or more more complicated being than they could possibly perceive, then it sort of makes sense why no one freaks out when they see Pearl summon spears from her head, or when they spot Amethyst change shape, or watch Garnet lifting something physically impossible. Its because they don’t exactly see the whole shape. They are seeing just a shadow of a much more complicated being.

Anyway, thanks for listening to my crazy theories! Feel free to ask if you want me to speculate on more crazy stuff! I will be chilling with Ronaldo, swapping theories, probably.