#grahamrocks

[jelloapocalypse]

Long time follower. Is it a bad thing that I recently have been watching SU on Hulu, just binge watching it, and am in mid S2... and I actually disagree with your opinion on the Beach City episodes/residents and actually like them as characters and the episodes in general? Maybe this comes from the fact that I’m watching it all at once without a five month break or whatever and I’m not watching it critically like I’m sure you did, but I’m really enjoying what I see so far? I’m not bored or mad?

I didn’t mind Beach City stuff until midway through Season 3.

Generally I like worldbuilding and castbuilding but Steven Universe is kind of a unique exception because no matter how far along it is in the “main plot” it routinely goes back to focus on side characters. There are ways this can be done to a story’s benefit if done right, such as:

Using these side adventures as a tool to explore a side of a character we haven’t seen before, like a new power or an aspect of their personality that doesn’t come out much. The episodes with Vidalia, for instance, are usually pretty interesting because they’re used to explore Amethyst and Greg. Those episodes feel impactful even though they don’t have any bearing on the plot because we get to learn more about the characters.

Using Beach City as a breather episode between plot-heavy story arcs. 

Establishing the world that Steven and the Gems are supposed to be saving so that when danger appears we feel there are real stakes because we have grown connected to the setting and cast as a whole.

Setting up the cast so that they can aid the heroes later on.

The reason Beach City episodes don’t bother you yet is probably because you’re still in Season 2, which means you’re in the middle of the Sardonyx/Peridot stuff. At the end of Peridot’s arc we meet the first main antagonist of the show, get a handful of plot hooks, and things feel like they should finally start to pick up in regards to Gem Homeworld and all the secrets the Gems should be telling Steven.

The problem is... they don’t.

The story’s pacing never accelerates from that point on. Things just continue as they are. You’ll get 2 “plot”-related episodes followed by 5-6 “Beach City” episodes. And that wouldn’t be so bad if the Beach City episodes didn’t start to feel samey after awhile. There are absolutely some great Beach City episodes, don’t get me wrong! But there are also a lot of bad ones.

Like a LOT of bad ones.

After coming home from a dangerous trip to space where Steven has somehow still not managed to ask any questions and learn anything about anything, I don’t want to watch an episode about Renaldo. I don’t want to check in on the Pizza Family or Mayor Dewey to see what boring, irrelevant thing that they’re up to. I don’t want to watch Lars and Sadie in the same exact relationship dynamic for the fifth time in a row just to find out that nothing has changed. Season 5 is particularly bad about this. These episodes are no longer used in new ways to explore the core cast and they begin to actively feel like a waste of your time.

I was going to give them a pass on about 70% of the Beach City stuff if at the very least they justified it somewhat by having all of Steven’s friends participate in some way during the final few episodes.

Lol

oops

[notcuddles]

grahamrocks replied to your post “Hot take of the day: Soulmate AUs are bad and creepy and encourage a...”

It’s funny, because the last time I read one of these it was portrayed as a very bad thing because they were enemies and CERTAINLY not going to get together at all.

Wait so how did it turn out?  Like, were they soulmates in some kinda Homestuckian kismesiss situation?  Hate-mates?  Or did they end up getting together in spite of being enemies? 

I do get the appeal of, like, exploring how two characters who hate each other might eventually come to have other feelings for each other, but the idea of it being mandated by some outside force is what really skeeves me out.  And also kinda feels like lazy writing, to be honest - though like anything, the right writer can put a good spin on things.

[nonnareviews]

To that one follower who likes everything I post

hey,,,,,,,I love you

[pines-pokemon-headcanons]

In the same vein as the “Pokémon battles are like martial arts: no pain no gain and it’s worth it because you get stronger” thing I wrote, I think also the result of battles when your opponent’s or your Pokémon faint is also a martial arts analogy too: when you’re learning how to spar, you’re always taught to hold yourself back so if you punch or kick someone, you don’t actually hurt them. So too, is a trained Pokémon as well taught to never use their full power lest they kill or injure the foe.

Indeed.

[pines-pokemon-headcanons]

So... what ARE the Gengar line exactly? Are they the shadows of Clefairy? Are they the spirits of humans who want to terrorize and/or befriend people? Should we be afraid of them?

Put simply... nobody really knows what they are. Gastlies are made of 95% gas and 5% decaying animal matter, while haunters and gengars are, well, just made of “ghost”, as far as anybody knows. Whether or not they’re spirits of clefairies or humans, and whether they want to terrorize people or befriend them, nobody is quite sure-- mostly because they tend to enjoy pranks quite a bit, and any attempted studies on the subject inevitably end with no usable data. 

As for whether or not we should be afraid of them, yes and no. A good majority of the stories about the gastly line (and most ghost-types) have been exaggerated so that the ghost-types seem much more malicious and deadly than they are in reality. However, they are capable of doing serious harm to humans and pokémon alike, and we shouldn’t forget that. Most wild gastlies, haunters, and gengars have stopped attacking humans, as they’ve figured out that they can drain small amounts of life energy from many people rather than a lot of energy from one, but there are always exceptions (although those don’t tend to live near people). Really, what it comes down to is this: they’re dangerous, yes, but so are just about all pokémon. It’s all about knowing how to manage them.

[pines-pokemon-headcanons]

What are Voltorb and Electrode anyway? What about the make of a Poke Ball is able to suddenly spring to life and gain sentience and sapience? What even ARE Poke Balls then?! Deactivated or dead Voltorbs?!

Like the klink line, voltorbs and electrodes are just assumed to be ordinary objects-- in this case Poké Balls-- that somehow came to life due to some mysterious circumstance. For awhile, this actually resulted in several people speculating whether or not object pokémon such as the aforementioned lines should be considered ghost-type, even though they don’t share the type’s advantages or weaknesses; this discussion continued until it was demonstrably proven that they were not simply ghosts possessing objects, but rather the objects coming to life themselves.

Don’t worry, though. Poké Balls are just what they say they are-- machines, created in a factory, that capture pokémon. (Unless, of course, you accidentally grab a voltorb instead.)

[pines-pokemon-headcanons]

So help me settle something conflicting to me: what actually happens when a Charmander’s tail fire goes out? Some say that if the fire goes out, then they die, while others say the opposite: if they die, the tail fire goes out. Which is it actually? Is it both? Is one conflated from the other? Could either be true given certain circumstances?

Well, there’s not really much of a distinction. The flame is born from a charmander’s life force, so to speak. The charmander’s tail produces a layer of grease to feed the flame, so the flame is able to perpetuate itself. If the charmander is unable to produce the grease, that means it’s about to die, and therefore its flame will go out. If an attack is strong enough to put out the fire, that means it’s also strong enough to kill the charmander. So... both explanations are right, in a way.

[pines-pokemon-headcanons]

Thoughts on Pokémon Battling/Training in general, if not already asked? Me personally, I enjoy it and don’t believe that it’s “abuse” like a certain villainous team does. While the metaphor of a football team and a coach being like a Pokémon team and their trainer is a good one, I personally ascribe to a different metaphor: Martial Arts. Every Black Belt and Battle Girl started somewhere, and that journey has given them a lot of pain and hardship, but they keep going and get stronger for it.

Honestly, the claim that pokémon battling is abusive is entirely unfounded-- it’s just fearmongering and anger directed at an easy target. Pokémon enjoy battling. They essentially domesticated themselves because they saw humans and realized that they could face better challenges if they teamed up with us. Have PEPA and their lot ever actually met a wild pokémon? They leap out of the bushes to challenge trainers! They’re not being abused! But no, clearly trainers are hurting their pokémon, forcing them to battle against their will, when all it would take to avoid a battle is for the pokémon to just return itself to its Poké Ball! Of course there are abusive trainers out there, and I’m all for finding them and taking their pokémon away so they can’t hurt them anymore, but battling has a positive effect on the vast majority of pokémon, physically, mentally, and emotionally, so really, PEPA can go stuff it!

Haha, sorry, I kind of... really don’t like PEPA. Anyway! I like your metaphor a lot! Learning martial arts is a hard journey, but all the more rewarding for it.