I went out with my friend today and I talked to her about Pacific Rim/Steven Universe headcanons and she suggested that Hermann's disability in pacrim can be translated into SU as him having a broken gem, like Amethyst did, but while hers was healed, his gem wasn't 100% fixed. She even suggested that his gem had more of a patchwork fix up job where he's missing a piece of his gem and they put another fragment in and hoped for the best, which is why he doesn't have full mobility of his legs.
Oh geez, that’s really cool because I was thinking something along the lines of that, but I wasn’t 100% sure about it because I was worried about the correlation between Hermann having a cracked gem that results in him having trouble with mobility and the kaigems having corrupted gems that results in them being what they are. As far as we’ve seen have there been ways of corrupting a gem other than via physical damage? Something that would justify the obvious similarity and yet disparity between Hermann and the kaigems (or whatever it is that they’re gonna be termed) other than the differing extent of the damage? That in itself could be enough, but we could also fabricate some sort of other process.
Whatever it is that would give so much pOTENTIAL for some really awesome facets of character. Him fearing the kaigems not just for their capabilities and how they signify that the Homeworld has lost all grip on decency, but also because he identifies with them on some level, given his damaged gem. And being scared of himself a little, too. Because to some extent, there is the same (well not really the ‘same’, but that’s what he finds himself thinking before he shuts the thought down and tells himself to stop being ridiculous) wrongness about him and the kaigem.
Oh, and you mentioned earlier a pons stupidity-level equivalent would be Newton trying to fuse with a corrupted gem, so maybe fusing with Hermann was one of the first things that really inspired him to pursue that? Maybe before they fused, everyone just kind of assumed that Hermann wouldn’t be able to fuse anymore, including Hermann himself. . Maybe previous attempts in similar cases had been unsuccessful, giving backing to this assumption. So it was a big deal when it happened! And Newt couldn’t help but wonder since it was possible for him to fuse with Hermann, what e l s e could he fuse with? Maybe Newt’s compatibility threshold is unusually low or something? Ehhhh, or maybe not, idk but it would justify why their fusion was a success where others had bombed. OR I guess it could be simply BECAUSE Newt and Hermann are so compatible, and nothing to do with a low threshold.
I’m 100% sure someone else would be able to write this so much better than I currently am. Am I even remotely coherent here? I hope so. (and sorry for responding with a freaking essay, I just. Have a lot of words. I think I said that before. sorry)