Ramblings about Science and Steven Universe

[joethejohnston]

Is there any truth the the rumor that James Baxter's scene alone was SO EXPENSIVE that the budget of "Escapism" was reduced because of it?

Not true. We made “Escapism” exactly how we wanted. It’s actually one of my favorite episodes that I’ve boarded.

[electronicferret]

man y’all really looking for reasons to hate on this episode aintchha? Everyone relax. It was nice.

[returntothesingularity]

For the record, I asked that because I was hoping Joe would debunk it. Apparently the rumor was stated by some popular fan Instagram account, and people just started repeating it as a fact. I’d also seen speculation that “Escapism” was a low-budget “bottle episode” as soon as it aired. I think a lot of people were just angry the episode they had hyped up in their heads as THE EPISODE YOU KNOW THE ONE WITH THE SONG turned out differently than they were expecting, and were looking for someone/something to blame.

[joethejohnston]

Hey if you're answering questions please answer this one because everybody has been very lost since Together Alone. Are the gems that had cog skirts jades too? Because no one can seem to agree on it... Thank you!!!

Cog skirt gems are jades. The fusion jade is Yellow Jade I think. Rebecca mentioned this in the ama on reddit, double check there.

[returntothesingularity]

I could have answered that one. The official closed captions for the show made it clear they were Jades. (Also the fusion is Lemon Jade.)

[joethejohnston]

Is there any truth the the rumor that James Baxter's scene alone was SO EXPENSIVE that the budget of "Escapism" was reduced because of it?

Not true. We made “Escapism” exactly how we wanted. It’s actually one of my favorite episodes that I’ve boarded.

[returntothesingularity]

Thank you so much for dis-confirming this. The subreddit has been driving me nuts repeating that one.

[returntothesingularity]

An old quote from the official podcast that is VERY relevant:

Ian: [Steven being able to fuse with humans] made so much sense, because we had all these ideas about what Steven was, and I remember one of our early ideas was that, 'Oh, he's human cells held together by magic—by gem magic.'

Rebecca: Is that a spoiler?

[returntothesingularity]

“We’re not going to do it alone.”

[returntothesingularity]

The comments on “Escapism” are giving me serious “Rising Tides, Crashing Skies” flashbacks.

Once again, people are underappreciating a good episode because it wasn't like the imaginary version of it they had built up in their heads, based on little to no information.

[returntothesingularity]

Are cows NOT domesticated farm animals in “Steven Universe?”

In “Full Disclosure,” we see Steven swipe through the photos on his phone, and there’s this one of Steven and Connie at a restaurant. 

Notice the painting and the stuffed cow head. Stuffing and mounting an animal’s head is usually what you do with an animal that you’ve hunted and killed, not with domesticated farm animals that are slaughtered for their meat. 

And that painting is based on a real painting of Theodore Roosevelt, who was (among many other things) a big game hunter. 

And then there’s this line from Garnet in “Too Far:”

Are cows a wild animal that people hunt for sport in this universe?

[hotdogpeasant]

You: White Diamond

Me, an intellectual: Steven Universe cow lore

[courtnashe]

I love how this person, @returntothesingularity, has never seen anything with cow skulls, mounts, or painting of cattle before in any restaurant doing a western theme. Visit any Longhorn Steak house please.

I have been in peoples houses and cow heads are decorations. I used to collect their skulls for fun and to decorate with as well.

They are not wild animals. They just make neat decorations.

Cattle back in the day were instrumental to helping with the western expansion. I mean any cowboy worth their salt moved cattle. Theodore was also a ranch handle and later owner. He was a cowboy. Again fits in a western theme of a restaurant. I just think steven and connie were at a themed restaurant.

[sokumotanaka]

Also shooing cows away when you’re going to be making robots and rockets is…smart.

[daywalker27]

OP has never been to Texas I bet. EVERY restaurant has a cow’s head mounted on the wall somewhere. Even fast food places at least have a painting of a ranch, cows, or some other western style imagery.

[returntothesingularity]

OP lives in Texas.

[returntothesingularity]

An old timeline of SU theories I started working on last year and never finished.

I was looking through my old Google Docs and found this. I've decided  to post it-as is (including the references to who shattered Pink Diamond still being a mystery), rather than completing it. I may get back to working on it someday, but I'd rather share what I have so far than just let it sit in a digital drawer for another year.

Link to post on Steven Universe subreddit.

[returntothesingularity]

I’m like 70% sure that Rebecca Sugar is talking about my RQ=PD master-post at the 17:50 mark in the most recent episode of the official podcast.

[returntothesingularity]

Theory: The damage to White Pearl’s eye is symbolic indication that she's undergone the gem-equivalent of a lobotomy. She's lost her free will, and literally does not have a voice of her own.

[returntothesingularity]

WTF was going on in “Lion 4: Straight to Video”

[returntothesingularity]

Three down...

[returntothesingularity]

Apparently running ths SU fan blog is all part of my cover-story as “ a Russian propagandist.” 

[returntothesingularity]

Greg not knowing isn’t surprising.

Greg: Rose and I talked about tons of important stuff. Music, comic books, getting sand between your toes, y'know, feelings. We both made a lot of mistakes when we were young. I thought disco was coming back, she started a war, I think she felt like she needed to confess everything to me, but I told her, “The past is the past. All that matters to me is who you are now.” And who she was, was an incredible, loving being

-“Steven’s Dream.” Air date: January 2, 2017

Greg: I don’t know anything about Homeworld. I don’t know anything about your society.

- “Gemcation.” Air date:  December 15, 2017

Rebecca Sugar: What I like about it is that everyone is being sincere. Like, nobody is trying to trick Steven into thinking something. Greg adores Rose. Ian Jones-Quartey: He adores the Rose he knew. Rebecca Sugar: Yeah, the Rose he knew, which was a very specific side of her. Everybody knew her in different ways, at different times, met her for different reasons, and she meant something different to each of them. That’s really fun.

- Offical Podcast, “Earth Gems.” Air date: March 7th, 2018

[returntothesingularity]

Are cows NOT domesticated farm animals in “Steven Universe?”

In “Full Disclosure,” we see Steven swipe through the photos on his phone, and there’s this one of Steven and Connie at a restaurant. 

Notice the painting and the stuffed cow head. Stuffing and mounting an animal’s head is usually what you do with an animal that you’ve hunted and killed, not with domesticated farm animals that are slaughtered for their meat. 

And that painting is based on a real painting of Theodore Roosevelt, who was (among many other things) a big game hunter. 

And then there’s this line from Garnet in “Too Far:”

Are cows a wild animal that people hunt for sport in this universe?

[returntothesingularity]

A letter to the fans that think the show is horrible now because of the implications about Pearl and Rose’s relationship

Even if your worst fears about Rose and Pearl’s relationship were true, and Pearl was essentially a slave, with exactly as little agency as Blue and Yellow Pearl, even for the thousands of years she was with Rose after the war ended, her entire character arc up through and including “Mr. Greg” and “Last One Out of Beach City” was about her learning to have agency and truly be an independent gem now that Rose is gone.

In “Sworn to the Sword,” we saw her realize that the way she had devalued her own life for Rose’s sake was an unhealthy relationship dynamic. In “Friend Ship” we saw her learning that she shouldn’t use her status as a pearl as an excuse to just give up and that she does have control over her own destiny. In “Mr. Greg,” she openly expresses a desire to finally “move on” from Rose, and “Last One Out of Beach City,” she shows that she has. 

And, THE SHOW’S NOT OVER.

More to come in future episodes…

More on this in future episodes!

We still have yet to see how Pearl will change in response to her secret becoming public knowledge. In “Sworn to the Sword” we saw Pearl learn through Steven and Connie that the way she had been devaluing her own life was unhealthy. Now that Pearl will be able to discuss the true nature of her relationship with Steven, and Garnet (who has very strong feelings about how love and relationships should work) she’ll finally be able to get a fresh pair (or trio) of eyes on her relationship. I very much doubt the coming episodes are going to contextualize Pearl and Rose’s relationship as a perfect fairy-tale romance.

I don’t understand why you guys  are so convinced that this relationship is going to be handled in the worst possible way. It’s not like the crewniverse just came up with the ideas for how diamonds and pearls work and then, just this Monday, decided to put Rose and Pearl in those roles without realizing the implications of it.

“When you see a lot of media for kids, especially media directed at little girls, it’s very heavy with the message that, ‘You will find another person who will validate you, and being in a relationship will make you know that you’re a worthwhile person.’ And Pearl is an exploration in what a terrible message that is, and how it can just ruin someone completely… She feels like all of her worth is tied to her relationship with someone else, and without that someone else her worth is zero.” 

- Rebecca Sugar, Official “Steven Universe” podcast, Vol 2, Ep 4: “Pearl

Of course her servant mentality played a role in her allegiance to Rose, how could it not.

- Joe Johnston

This was the plan since before “Gem Glow” aired. And we’ve seen this show do a good job (I think) of tackling issues like toxic, abusive relationships (Malachite), and bad allyism (Rocknoldo) before, and I don’t think we’re going to see it stumble across the finish line now.

I hope you’ll all keep watching. You might just be pleasantly surprised.

[faelapis]

this is one thing i’m worried about with the fanbase. there seems to be a lot of collective amnesia about how much of pearl’s arc has already focused on moving past this - and, when you’re someone who always suspected rose diamond - how poignant it is that rose is gone. forever. pearl has to move past her, and this truly hammers home how central that is for her character. 

when we saw her in the most recent flashback, that’s the earliest we’ve ever seen her. that’s her at her most servile. the closest to “programming”, but still her own person enough to question rose diamond’s decision. that tells us a lot about not just rose encouraging her to make her own decisions, but pearl’s own willingness to question her. of course her loyalty played a role - hence SUCH a huge focus on the unhealthiness of that in s2-3 - but pearl found the prospect of rebellion exciting in her own right. 

that’s something i can’t wait to explore, even more than we already have.

susan egan (rose/pink VA) recently said this in an interview: 

There’re lovely flashbacks, finally, this season, which show how she and Pearl met, and what that relationship was. This was always in Rebecca’s mind. That so blows me away. She’s known all of this all along.

so it’s coming. and it’s coming soon. 

[returntothesingularity]

Steven Universe Recap: “We Need to Talk”

It was only a matter of time before our collective visions of Rose Quartz were dashed.

Vrai Kaiser's 2015 review of "We Need to Talk" makes for some interesting reading these days.

It was only a matter of time before our collective visions of Rose Quartz were dashed. They had to be, for the sake of Rose existing as a three dimensional character and not just an untouchable goddess on a pedestal. That her flaws wound up tied to what others remember most about her (her love of humans) is just a painful little stroke of brilliance. Rose is a puzzle of a Gem

...

Of the very little we know of Rose, one thing we’ve seen over and over is that she’s secretive. She has a hidden cache of weapons. None of the Gems knew about Lion. Steven himself might be a long con unbeknownst even to Greg. In this very episode Rose says it’s “good” that Greg knows nothing about her (referring, I imagine, to her role in the rebellion and the way it clearly continues to haunt her).

There goes a popular theory that Rose is former Gem royalty of a sort, a “Pink Diamond” who reinvented herself as Rose Quartz and broke away from Homeworld. Whether or not that proves true (there are certainly some compelling bits of evidence), reinventing seems to be something Rose is doing constantly. She’s a caretaker to Amethyst, a role model to Garnet, a confidant and idol to Pearl (probably. Hold that). And she tried to be the winsome mysterious lover she no doubt saw in movies (she catches on to the Marx brothers reference pretty quick and loves music, so I imagine she’s absorbed humanity largely through pop culture) for Greg until he out and out demanded she stop. And perhaps that’s what ultimately ended up being special about him.

It’s hard to say anything, with all these gaps – none more glaring than the one revolving around Rose and Pearl. This makes three episodes now (“Rose’s Scabbard,” “Sworn to the Sword,” and this one) that feature Pearl’s feelings for Rose as a major component. And yet, even when we have Rose there in person it’s hard to gauge the dynamic of their relationship. There are a few suggestions, particularly in the fact that Rainbow Quartz is a highly compatible fusion (like Garnet, she is completely humanoid except for having extra eyes). But Rose is so flippant in both of her flashback appearances, always laughing and putting on a cheerful front, and we have yet to see a real one-on-one conversation between the two without an audience.

That fact makes it almost impossible to get a handle on their relationship. Is Pearl’s jealousy childish, coming in the wake of reassurances from Rose about Pearl’s importance? Is it stemming from the fact that Rose is acting as though nothing’s changed, while Pearl’s inferiority complex resurfaces and she begins to fear Rose is tossing her aside for Greg (her heart wrenching “I think he’s her favorite too” seems to imply so)? Their fusion dance is certainly one of the most intimate we’ve seen, even ending with a kiss (Rose’s hair is blocking the lip touch, but you can see Greg trying to mimic the motion as he dances with Rose), and yet… and yet. These are very conspicuous blank spaces in the writing, and I don’t think for a moment that this is just forgetfulness on the part of the writers. Something is coming to a head – it might be during tomorrow’s episode, or it might be months from now, but there’s a key piece of information about these two that’s being withheld. I am, dear readers, most confessedly afraid of that day.