Many many thoughts about the recent episode, to me it does seem very likely that the Grand Celestial or the Astralis Siblingsβ grandfather have altered their memories, but there's also so much info here that could hint about why Pluto was the runt, Saturn's mother and her intentions, and what happened to their race.
If Neptune was like, 5 when he went to see Owlbert, it would be believable that he had no sort of recollection of him. And separately, it would also be believable that he simply forgot why his motherβs hair glowed all those years ago. However, putting both of those together (alongside the fact that Nep and his mom allegedly visited multiple times when he was 10, meaning there should've been some sort of recollection), it could be very likely that something happened to change everyoneβs memory of how their race had lived in years prior. I also think that the approximation Saturn gave of only 10% of their species surviving the event that caused them to be near extinction is very important, especially considering the statistic we just got that only 20% of the Makara Astralis weren't immune to the mineral.
What likely happened (and also what I think is the general consensus from what I've seen) is that a portion of those who weren't immune to the mineral staged a coup lead by the GC, and took out the ones who could get more powerful from it (which would also be why not EVERYONE who wasn't immune survived, cause obvi a lot of people would be opposed to that, so the remainder went from 20% to less than 10%). That would also explain how everyone else is not resistant to the mineral, and how no one else remembers the actual history of the Makara Astralis -- the members participating in the coup wouldn't want to tell their children that they were the instigators in this situation, so they'd make up a different story, a sort of revisionist history. As for the children, the royal trio definitely got their memories messed with (you can't exactly replace royalty, after all, the GC already proved he couldn't raise 5 children, how do you think he'd handle 5 more), though I don't know how they would've dealt with other young mineral-resistent members of the clan (I wouldn't be surprised if they pulled an Anakin VS The Younglings when it came to the other children lowk, but I also dunno if that would be too dark for TEASS. Though TSAMS has July 16th so).
Additionally, I also think that itβs very important that Owlbert mentions that their mother called the planet a βSafe Haven." As Neptune points out, the amount of information she shared with Owlbert would be akin to treason in the eyes of all her race, which likely indicates that she might've already began to distrust the GC at this time. Maybe she was telling him all of this information specifically to ensure that their clan's history would live on were something to happen. Maybe she was making plans to run away with the children, thus why she kept bringing Neptune; to test how he would do in a different environment. We can't know for sure without more info, but this gave us a lot more context into the environment she was in at the time, and I think it tells us that she wasn't really allied with him by the end of her being in the clan.
This isn't DIRECTLY supported by anything in canon, but its just a thought - maybe the mineral-resistance is inherited in a way similar to how you inherit what your dominant hand is. Left-handedness is rare, even when one of your parents is left-handed, since right-handedness is the dominant gene. So far, all of the Astralis Siblings have inherited their mother's resistance to the mineral, but what if one of them didn't? Like Pluto?
Saturn did mention that he was a difficult birth, and that their mother had likely been using the mineral at the time. Maybe he was getting slowly poisoned in the womb because of that, and is the cause behind his "runt" status. It could also be what alerted the GC to the fact that she was still using the mineral after it all went down -- it wasn't apparent with all the other siblings because they were immune. (Maybe this is what Saturn was trying to say here, I didn't really pick up on why she brought this up as they changed the topic after this. I have a really bad tendency to not pick up on important lore when watching these shows, I always need to be reminded of/ask about plot points XP) This would also be important for future plot points -- cause Venus is trying to micro dose Pluto with the mineral, correct? If his tolerance for it before getting ill is lower than the other siblings, it could prove to be very dangerous for him. The angst of Venus killing him accidentally. ("I thought you were stronger..." /ref) I also think that Venus is greatly overestimating how much Pluto trusts her and that's gonna bite her in the ass later, but that's another topic.
In summary, what I think happened is that the GC started spiralling when he noticed that his children were resistant to the mineral and would likely surpass his power. Or maybe, most members of the clan wanted to stop conquering and settle down (just like Saturn's mom said -- she was looking for a new home for her people when she first visited the Owlbear), and the GC realised that if they really wanted to they could use the mineral to overthrow him, so he got ahead of that. His wife, discovering his plan, tried to stop his efforts herself, but failed. The GC had offered her immunity as long as she never touched the mineral again, and she agreed for the sake of placating him; however, when Pluto was born deathly ill due to a poisoning before birth, he knew she had betrayed his trust. She then got exiled or killed, though likely exiled as a Moonfallen due to the cuffs on her wrists.
But yeassss yeasss I loved this episode, a lot of interesting info going on.
