#myactuallife

[peadea]

SU back then: “All I wanna be is someone who gets to see a giant woman!”

SU now: PUT IT BACK

[jess-and]

Hey! The world is hard and terrible, but at least you’re not my dog in a minion costume.

[cheza--bear]

Me. #notmine #myactuallife

[peadea]

maybe a little late to this but...

irl people are like: ima take a year off of school to go travel

ash ketchum in sun & moon is like: ima take a year off of traveling to go to school

[peadea]

From a psychological standpoint (coming from the perspective of a psychology student with almost a Bachelor’s degree), Steven Universe is all about cognition and understanding other people.  

The Gems represents a human being backwards - physically small body with a large, visually-represented mind.  

Think of the gem as a brain and think of the “light with mass” body as a mind.  

In psychology and philosophy, we spend time discussing *where* the “mind” is and *what* it is.  Is it our soul (minus a religious aspect)?  As for *where*, some in the past (such as Rene Descartes, the guy responsible for the phrase, “I think, therefore I am”) have even speculated that our minds exist in the pineal gland of the body.  It is a very powerful gland in charge of all our hormones, and hormones effect our brains and the way our daily cognitive lives function (which is a fancy way of saying, “the way our minds work every day”).  

The point being made here is that different philosophers have different views on how the body and the mind are connected.  Some believe that they are connected and cannot be separated, while others believe that they are separate but can still influence each other.  It can be a very tricky concept to understand, so think of it this way:

Steven Universe has morphed the “mind-body” problem into a new context: the body is small just like how human brains are small and we can’t see them from the outside, while the mind takes on the outside - a physical manifestation of a human body - therefore being able to project whatever identity the gem has.  If a gem feels a certain way, the physical manifestation could potentially warp as a result. 

This is fascinating because it allows for characters to be much more revealing and vulnerable by being sort of “inside-out” that way (and yes, just like the Pixar movie Inside Out where the emotions have emotions of their own).  It allows for the dynamic of the show to be all about ideal communication vs. extreme societal practicalities. That’s what makes Steven so special.

Steven himself is the bridge between the human audience, the human characters, the Crystal Gems, and the Homeworld Gems.  Rose knew how important the human psyche was because it fascinated her, but she also knew that a gem would never be able to fully comprehend how to be an ambassador to both species.  She knew creating a hybrid child (especially with someone like Greg who is a real “gem” himself in terms of effective, loving communication styles, having pretty high self esteem, and having the privilege of being a free-spirited person) would have so much compassion and understanding in their heart that they could potentially help build bridges toward better understanding for the fight for Earth; not necessarily solve massive problems, but work toward a better future for all through hard work and understanding (but also Rose just wanted the experience of being a mom and having a kid at the expense of giving up her physical form). 

That’s why the corrupted gem arc is so important as well; it illustrates humanity's need to be understood by others.  Some humans seem like monsters on the outside or inside, but if we have patience and understanding, we could begin to help heal those individuals - to eventually come to a place where they can be comfortable with themselves (like Centi). This is not to say that with this information, we now have obligations to go out and help all the random strangers we can find by being loving and kind to them.  All this means is to be aware of others and ourselves.  Caring too much can sometimes put us in danger.  We need to be careful and pick our battles wisely so we don’t get hurt, but also begin to come from a place of awareness, love, and understanding for all.

Now, the diamonds sort of represent a theory of philosophy where humans are machines.  This is extreme practicality in the sense that the diamonds believe gems are only created with inputs and therefore must only produce outputs.  However, this is where human cognition becomes complicated because there are other theories at work that don’t make sense on their own.  For instance, emotions don’t seem to follow this rule because emotions are highly illogical, but they have a great deal of influence over our behavior, so cognition can’t purely be inputs and outputs.  

The diamonds don’t know that, which is evident in the song, “What’s the Use of Feeling, Blue?”  

I believe that the dynamic between Yellow, Blue, and Pink Diamond (given the latest information about Pink) was one of forbidden love and death of a child.  Yellow is purely practical and doesn’t understand emotion, but she loves Blue and so they created a child together - Pink (but gems aren’t meant to grow, so their child would only serve an impractical purpose in the Diamond Authority, showing weakness among their people). They were just doing what they had always been doing, until they came across the Earth and it threw a monkey wrench in their whole philosophy.  Now Yellow and Blue are still mourning the loss of their child several thousand years later, but that’s not what gems are supposed to do, so they just move on and pretend like it didn’t matter when deep down, it really did. 

Right now, I’m not entirely sure where to conclude this segment I’ve written because it’s 1 in the morning, but I might come back to it at a later date and polish off a better closing statement.  Until then, I hope I provoked some interesting speculation someone else that can be applied to their life someday. 

[peadea]

I never knew how much I wanted to be a dad until I started playing Dream Daddy... and I’m a woman. 

[peadea]

texting about playing pokemon sun and moon with my boyfriend and: him: “Tapioka cock is an electronic type?” me: “LOL” him: “Hehehe what” me: “TAPIOKA COCK” him: “Tapioka cock gave me a sparkling stoner”

[peadea]

Last night I had a dream that more Homeworld gems came to earth, except there was an “evil” Sapphire and some Ruby guards.  The Sapphire was a darker blue than our Sapphire and she had short, spiky hair, almost like her hair was crystallized.  Her dress was short and spiky, too.  It was blue, purple, and indigo, and you could see her legs and she wasn’t wearing shoes; she had cute little Sponge Bob feet.  She preferred floating and her powers consisted of icy telekinesis (so basically she had elements of Aquamarine mixed in, but she wasn’t a fusion).  Also, her gemstone was where her second eye would be if she had two eyes, like Eyeball Ruby.  It was jagged, though, like a raw stone, and kind of looked like an eye patch. I drew a picture but it’s VERY amateur, just a quick doodle for some kind of reference.  Maybe someone else could make a more accurate depiction. It was a fun dream, it was basically if Sapphire had a different design with Aquamarine’s personality.  There was also an enhanced black Peridot and a Homeworld Garnet (more purple-colored) made for fighting, but they weren’t as detailed.