thoughts on some of the details i loved in little graduation:
-little graduation is bookended by steven driving in his car, a symbol of maturity and freedom, but also a symbol of aimlessness. at the beginning of the episode, he has someplace to go, people to see. at the end, he’s alone, in a scene that feels reminiscent of the very wistful end credits, staring into the stars at what could represent lars, infinite possibility, his own baggage, and more.
-steven’s floating was screwed up when he saw shep, foreshadowing his lack of emotional control. sans the movie, boy hasn’t screwed up using one of his non-pink mode powers in ages…and now we get a pair of episodes when his powers are running wild.
-steven keeps assuming he knows how people feel. his eq has always been off the charts, but he’s not clear-headed, anymore, and that’s throwing his barometer off a lot. no wonder he thinks he’s losing his touch.
-and we see the cool kid’s futures. steven’s only a couple years younger than all of these people. it’s putting a lot of subconscious pressure on him, how together everyone is–and i think the whole point is that they’ve grown in ways that have made them able to face the future. like greg said, growing up is a choice.
-”who here loves sadie killer and the suspects? well, our band tonight has only one of them.”
and lars this entire ep is just like, “this is my penance for being an asshole when i was a teenager. true friends put up with friends even when they’re being tools.”
-not “lars, PLEASE STOP!” it was “lars, STOP!” yeah, that feels important.
-steven’s pink mode powers seem to be manifesting in more and more unformed, basic geometrical shapes, similar to pink!steven.
-steven’s dome itself was made entirely out of pink diamonds. this is in no way, shape, or form paranoia provoking.
-nope nothing concerning here
-sadie’s dating someone and experimenting with a new sound, lars and sadie are now able to have healthy conversations about their relationship, lars is able to talk about uncomfortable and personal topics in front of a crowd of people without panicking and lashing out, and he can hug his friends openly? yep, this? this is Growth.
-and seriously having steven being an asshole and lars being the reasonable one feels *strange*. haven’t seen this since the good lars, another episode where steven was overly controlling. HUH. almost like this is the boy’s big character flaw.
-”wouldn’t be the first time.” that’s some good pastel gallows humor right there.
-”you’re trying to figure stuff out right now, and you want your friends around to help you through it.” this feels important, too. they kind of skim over this, but i think it’s the heart of the matter–steven wants help. boy’s crying out for it. but he doesn’t know how to ask for it.
-we see a partially eaten pizza next to steven at the end of the episode, continuing future having the kid who used to start out every other episode making some of snack barely eat on screen. (only time i can think of is rose buds. UMMMM.) not to mention Mr. Big Eater seems to have had a couple of slices and tapped out, not to mention pizza’s been used to symbolize togetherness several times and he’s eating it by himself.
-steven’s really mulling over those lines, “i’m looking forward now.” at first, in the car, he seems to be getting into it. but when he’s looking at the stars, reflecting…he looks concerned. a bit upset. you can really see it hitting him–what does forward mean?
