What's up, Dot?

A -mostly- Peridot blog. Jasper is reblogged occasionally as well. Sometimes post my own work, tagged "my art". Feel free to send drawing suggestions. Do NOT repost my work. Do NOT use kin tags when reblogging my work.

[ahunkahunkaburninlove]

I’m just gonna come out and say it, if your ‘goodbye Steven Universe’ or 'thanks SU’ art is a group shot and doesn’t include Jasper you’re a trash person. To all the artists drawing Jasper in the group shots, thank u from the bottom of my exhausted heart.

[glumshoe]

Listen, I love media and stories and interesting characters… but fictional characters are not more important than real people. If your dedication to fandom outstrips your ability to be decent to existing humans… you have an actual, serious problem and need to take a step back. As in, seek help and remove yourself from online fandom until you can participate without becoming a bully. Media is not a ‘safe space’ for you if you’re using it as an excuse to abuse others.

[faelapis]

people: steven should not be demonized or held to an infinitely higher standard than other characters.

me: yes :)

people: so let’s blame everything on jasper instead, act like she had it coming, steven is an innocent baby & she deserves to die.

me: no >:(

[faelapis]

sushinfood replied to your post: [[MOR] so… i’ve defended steven plenty here, but…

Jasper was abusing him. She repeatedly beat the shit out of a confused and desperate teenaged boy under the guise of it being training. Training involves absolutely zero physical and mental abuse, both of which she continually inflicted on him. She forced him beyond his comfort zone again and again and rewarded cruelty and callousness. She made him into the one who wouldn’t hold back. In the end, the differences between them were immense but Steven did not intend to kill

?????

do you. do you have any idea how strong steven is. at no point during training did jasper “beat the shit out of him”. you are literally writing fanfiction here. 

she dropped a rock on him because it’s a damn test that they both agreed to, and he can easily handle that. they were both toxic in using aggression to deal with their feelings, but he is not a mere ~confused and scared teenage boy, and she is not some supervillain adult who tried to hurt him in these scenes. 

she’s being harsh the same way like… li shang is harsh on mulan. it’s more vicious, yes! and it’s not a healthy outlet for either of them! but it’s the training they agreed to. there’s a long way between that and outright abuse.

also… please re-read the transcript or something. she doesn’t say a single cruel or abusive thing while they’re training. the closest thing is telling him to “shut up” because he teased her, and then goading him into using more power when the fight starts. teasing him to prove he isn’t “weak” is like… not even remotely the worst behavior i’ve seen from a damn football coach. it’s not nice of her, but come on. have some nuance. 

i take abuse very seriously, but This Ain’t It. the narrative at no point frames it like she has unjust power over him. if anything, it portrays them as nearly equally messed up. 

this is such an overdramatification that i am completely void of words. literally the only true thing you said here is that he didn’t intend to kill, which i’ve already agreed to several times. i do not intend to vilify either, but you are reading way, WAY more malice into jasper here than necessary or justified.

[catatonic-fungman]

steven universe future spoilers

hmmm where could he have hurt his head so badly…

I think jasper cracked his skull

[ahunkahunkaburninlove]

Honestly at this point I just keep thinking she should have hit him harder, you absolute fucks continue to find ways to piss on Jasper even when she isn’t even in the episode.

[pearl-likes-pi]

The revelation that his whole life, Steven’s just been breaking all of his bones all the time is SENDING me 

 So like…. everything we wrote off as “zany cartoon gags” in season 1 was actually him just SHATTERING HIS BONES OVER & OVER?? IM LOSING IT 

AND THE FACT THAT THE GEMS JUST DIDN’T NOTICE BECAUSE THEY JUST…. DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW BONES WORK?????? IM LOSING MY MIND, THEY WERE LITERALLY THROWING HIM AT STUFF

[ahunkahunkaburninlove]

OH BUT IT’S JUST BECAUSE OF JASPER THAT HE’S GOT SKULL DAMAGE, HUH? HUH????? (Sorry Pi not hijacking your post to be rude or anything but some smart-ass wanted to push that Jasper’s headbutt is the reason for the skull fractures, not anything else, and my poor girl gets maligned by fandom enough its just really hit a button today urrrgh )

[nacrepearl]

MAYA SAID AROACE PERIDOT RIGHTS

[nerd-peridot]

You know what? At this point, as SU is coming to an end, I don't think I'd mind that much if all my ships don't happen. Just as long as Lapi/dot doesn't become canon.

Me @ the Lapi/dot ship:

[dabwax-deactivated20250410]

People who watch Steven Universe and just write Jasper off as a big mean antagonist without giving her character or history any sort of thought are so boring

She’s one of the most compelling characters for so many reasons and I’m really glad Steven’s current arc parallels hers so much. Maybe people will Get It

But probably not since so many people think Steven having reasonable trauma and reacting in a negative way to it is Bad Writing LMAO

[buffysummers]

2020 seems like a good year for y’all to finally utilize the blacklist option and actually blacklist the things you don’t like instead of sending anonymous hate to the people you do follow for liking said things you seem to hate

[its-a-gemfact]

So I get that people are comparing steven to uncle Andy or white diamond and I'm fine with that but also. Andy and white diamond drove the people they loved away because they were being assholes.

Imagine being left behind because you're a good person. Imagine saving everyone from a sinking ship without realising that, by the time you filled all the lifeboats, there'd be no room left for you. And none of the people you were saving ever thought to mention that. Everyone just assumed you'd be fine until it was too late. Honeslty steven has a lot more reasons to be pissed off than white or andy imo

[asianartiste]

i get to draw his dramatic teen faces now

[saint-somnia]

I’m sorry but this is all I could think about

[asianartiste]

yes! that is exactly wjat i was going for!

[asianartiste]

these are the same !

[introvert-celeste]

If you don't mind me asking, can I have a brief summary on what the 2016/17 discourse was?

I’m mostly referring to the A@S discourse between…the involved character fandoms. I wasn’t on tumblr when the episode premiered, but I do know that the discourse became very heated in 2017. Lap stans victim-blaming Jasp fans who relate with the character was the biggest thing. A majority of the show’s fandom perceived Lap as the victim and Jasp as the abuser. Lots of speculation about Rebecca’s personal life based on an interview where she said Lap was based on a character from an unfinished comic she made, which was based on a toxic relationship Rebecca was involved in at one point (emphasis on toxic). I would mark 2017 as the year the fandom started having serious discussions about Jasp’s character, which was inevitably met with backlash from Lap fans. Oddly enough, I think the lap///dot vs am///dot discourse was in about the same boat. I wasn’t on Tumblr in 2016, when it became more than just a crack ship, but the greatest discourse happened in 2017, alongside the A@S bs.

In short, all this discourse inspired a very specific view of Lap’s character where fans endlessly defend her and constantly skew canon in her favor, and that attitude is still very much present on the wiki. They don’t outright say Lap’s a poor abuse victim and Jasp is an awful abuser, but there are large sections where that is clearly the angle they’re going for.

[jaspurr]

for more context: “lapis was a poor abuse victim” was definitely a thing before alone at sea. I think what happened was not that it got popular, but a number of people with that specific interpretation felt emboldened by the episode. and that lead them to do some seriously nasty behavior.

what’s worse is that episode tended to be triggering as fuck if you related to jasper. so like. me + a bunch of other people who were already having panic attacks and shit were also having to deal with the “lapis protection squad” going in for the kill and sending messages with the specific intent of hurting people and manipulating them into seeing lapis as jasper’s victim.

side note: that “speculation” based on the comic got super invasive and gross, and honestly it was just used as discourse ammo to hurt and manipulate people with. like people have asked rebecca about this multiple times and it clearly makes her very uncomfortable and she describes it as toxic and left it at that. it’s the fandom who decided that they could just headcanon about her personal life for discourse points. it was disgusting all around and overall one of the low points in the fandom.

this didn’t calm down at all until well after earthlings, when people started feeling sorry for jasper. I think the real turning point might have been the abusive lapis meta gaining a lot of traction in the su critical community (I know several of my meta posts which weren’t even critical posts got really popular with that crowd early on) which for better or worse made that particular conversation more “mainstream” (as in it left the specific circle of jasper fans and into wider fandom discussions). a real shift with how people perceive lapis also probably happened around raising the barn too, because even people who have 0 sympathy for jasper could empathize with peridot. (this episode is also super triggering for people who relate to peridot!)

anyways, the wiki has been garbage for everything except transcripts and screenshots for years.

[dontouchperi]

Don't come to Tumblr often, bit I'll still post my WIPs here occasionally 😔✊

[boneshine]

(One of) My Problems with Lapis - Rant - *SUF Spoilers Below!!!*

A large part of the Jasper and Lapis controversy is because of the way that the show, specifically Lapis, talks about her experience as Malachite.

She appears to speak of it as if she were the one that suffered.

(In “Barn Mates”, when Peridot made Lapis a pool of water to make her feel more welcome) “It was an endless, crushing darkness. Wet and bleak and suffocating. Water was the tomb I lived in for those months.”

(From her song and episode, both titled “Why So Blue?”) “That mirror was a prison, and Fusion was the same.”

Yes, the mirror is a big deal. Being trapped for thousands of years with no way to escape or reach out for help can cause quite a bit of trauma. There’s no doubt about that. That was completely out of her control.

But…

Lapis’ experience as Malachite was completely consensual on Lapis’ part.

How can she talk about Fusion being a “prison” when Lapis herself was the reason that Malachite existed as long as she did?

In “The Return, Part 2″, when Jasper and Lapis fused and formed Malachite, Jasper realized that Lapis had tricked her and was dragging her into the ocean  and attempted to unfuse. Lapis did not let her and pulled Jasper back into the Fusion.

From that moment, Malachite became a forced Fusion. Because of Lapis.

And yet Lapis constantly talks about her experience as if it were completely out of her control. As if she didn’t have the power to simply let go and allow Jasper to unfuse. She was clearly powerful enough to poof Jasper with no help, but chose instead to fuse with her and keep her prisoner.

And please do not use the “she was just protecting Steven!” argument.

There were three other Gems ready to battle, and Jasper had just been defeated by Garnet. There was no reason for her to accept fusing with Jasper outside of literally announcing that she was going to make Jasper HER prisoner.

And let’s not forget, in the episode “Alone at Sea”, Lapis states that she LIKED “taking everything out on you [Jasper]!”

If Lapis talks about how Fusion was a prison, let us be clear that Lapis made her own prison.

She opened the cell, walked in, locked herself in with the key, and then threw the key away.

And then she complained about being imprisoned.

This type of dialogue and the associated lack of confrontation by the Crew and the characters only serve to add to the controversy that keeps insisting that Jasper was the abuser and Lapis was the victim when it was clear that Jasper was the one that was abused.

I generally don’t like to bash characters. And I understand that Lapis has a very large fanbase that doesn’t take kindly to people who talk badly about her.

But this is my opinion, and I shouldn’t feel like I can’t speak freely about this.

I don’t like Lapis Lazuli. I hate Lapis Lazuli.

If you’re a fan of Lapis and you hate me for this, that’s fine. I don’t know you. I don’t know why you like Lapis, and you don’t have to feel like I’m attacking you personally. Although I can understand why saying bad things about your favorite character can come across as hateful. I do understand this.

As a fan of Jasper, I’ve had to deal with many hateful comments about myself and my favorite character.

But I also have my issues with Lapis outside of the Jasper-related incidents.

It is not merely because she hurt my favorite character. That is a large part, but it is not the only reason.

It is also the fact that Lapis refuses to acknowledge what she’s done and attempt to better herself from it, therefore allowing her to change in a healthy way.

For a show that focuses on working through inner turmoil and constantly preaching that violence is not the true answer, and that change is ultimately what is best, having a character that causes this much damage and seemingly does not have to confront the consequences or attempt to better herself and discuss these issues seems like a bit of a strange turn for the Crewniverse to allow.

You can argue with me and state how Lapis has come a long way and how things take time, but remember that Lapis has been on the show since she appeared in Season One. She has had at least ten episodes after Malachite was unfused where she was either the focus or a prominent part of the episode.

None of these were truly used to address Lapis or her actions.

Yes, I am bitter.

It’s very frustrating to have such a wonderful show that can work through so many controversial topics and relationships and hard-to-navigate parts of life, and yet they can’t properly handle the most toxic relationship in the entire show.

But that’s just my opinion.

Four years worth.

[littlelarimar]

i can’t believe steven went from a major lapis apologist and jasper blamer to desperately wanting to help and befriend jasper n not viewing lapis as a nice person and realising she’s made major mistakes.

remember kid steven “corrected” greg when he called lapis mean? this steven would not

[teensyquartz]

Steven, when he was younger, had a sort of veil around him regarding people’s morality. Someone who sounds sad and is nice to him? She isn’t mean, just misunderstood, even though she tried to attack us and has willingly hurt people. Someone who sounds angry and is mean to him? She’s a terrifying villain who we have to defeat and that’s all she is to me. He hadn’t fully grasped how complex the world was, because he was still an innocent, dopey kid who had a lot of growing up to do.  

Then he learned the truth about his heritage and how his mother hurt people despite trying to be a good person and trying to better herself to make amend for her old self. He learned the Diamonds are, yes, terrible but also people with genuine emotions and feelings and have complex relationships that aren’t perfect but can be fixed. 

He grew up. He realized that Jasper is yet another victim of his mother’s actions, and he also realized that Lapis, while somewhat in the same boat as Jasper in that regard (though not as heavily connected to Pink Diamond of course), had hurt people in the past and wasn’t 100% a victim of all her circumstances. That yes, she is growing, but she’s still not there yet. 

I somewhat wish we got to see when that transition happened, because I wonder when he realized that Lapis isn’t as innocent and sweet as he once believed. 

[airandangels]

Ironic that Lapis sings that she’s “tired of the blame” when literally no one she knows blames her or holds her accountable for anything (the only person I remember trying, Connie, got brushed off and never tried again), and by ironic I mean “this initially mysterious and interesting character has turned out to be so badly written and disappointing because the writers seem to want credit for her growth without ever actually showing her learning anything, just having her make decisions offscreen and claim she’s learned.”  

That “cycle of horrible torture” was something you did to someone else because you wanted to and you have never apologised or expressed any concern for how it affected her, you hellbeast.  Nor have you ever apologised for the way you treated Peridot (taking away her home and everything she owned and had built with you because she didn’t agree with you, and accusing her of lying because she was afraid to upset you), and the show just treats it like everything you’ve ever done was fine and you are a poor little thing who only needs to be happy.  By this stage I can’t imagine they’re ever going to address this, because they simply don’t see it as a problem, and it’s a huge letdown.