Steven 2niverse: Made of Love

[Cizak]

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I'm pretty sure that Steven's line is meant to come across as "The Gems believe in me, and I'm not going to let them down."

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Meant, but doesn't. There's a huge difference between "I will fight to live up to the potential others believe I have" and "I will fight to turn out the way others expect me to".

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Pearl I don't see a problem with. Pearl has issues, but choosing to honor Rose by fighting for Rose's cause is one of the healthier aspects of her obsession.

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But Pearl doesn't even like humanity or Earth that much. At best, she's indifferent. From what we've seen, literally the only reason she joined the rebellion was because she would join Rose in whatever Rose did. The cause is irrelevant to her. And now Rose is gone, and Pearl still can't do anything with her life other than what she guesses Rose probably would've done. This was adressed in Friend Ship, and that's good, but it's still not a good line for that sequence of the theme song.

[Ravian]

All the Crystal Gems need to move on, especially Pearl. Steven needs to be his own person. I'm all for character flaws, but as kickass lines the theme song... no. Not a fan. This opening is getting worse for me the more I think about it.[/spoiler]

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I think its telling that the opening has already changed before to match the circumstances on the show and I think that's a good indicator that it will continue to change as the characters grow.

In the first opening, Steven is more or less treated like a tag-a-long. The Crystal Gems care about him, but they're interactions are still what you expect from parents interacting with a child. There's a real sense that Steven is still not quite a part of the group yet. Meanwhile other characters are far less involved, a small shot of Connie watching the van, and Greg setting up the Barbeque. The second meanwhile has shown the gems and Steven on more even footing, with more mutual respect. Connie has become involved with the group with her sword and running after the van. Even the side characters in the background feel more involved even if they're not actually joining Steven and the Gems.

All in all its showing the changes that have occurred in the show and will likely change from there.

This all ties back to Pearl and Steven's lines in the extended version.

Those lines are fairly problematic, but I they're also rather accurate at this point. Pearl has largely defined herself by her devotion to Rose, and it wasn't until the most recent episode that Garnet had told her to find a reason to be strong for herself. Pearl still needs to find that reason though, and I honestly don't know what else she could give as an answer to that question at this point in time.

Steven has a similar problem, though not quite to the extent. Steven is still a kid, and is still very unsure about his place in the world yet. He wants to be part of the crystal gems and help people, and he's starting to figure out why he wants to do that, but currently he's also defining himself in relation to his mother. It's impossible for him to be with the Gems without constantly hearing how great his mother was, and it only follows for a kid like Steven to try and live up to the expectations the Gems set on him (however unintentionally).

I think there does need to come a point where Steven and the Gems need to reconcile fully that Steven is not Rose, and anything that he does as part of the team needs to come without the need to fill his Mother's shoes.

[Rater202]

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Steven is not Rose

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Well, technically...

[Ravian]

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Well, technically...

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Reincarnation stuff aside, it's still not a good attitude for Steven or the Gems to have. (Particularly since there's still so much we don't know about Rose)

Steven has Rose's gem, and they do share similar attitudes about life as far as we know. But Steven is a unique individual (Rose herself said as much in her video). I feel like they're the same person in a similar way that the Avatars from A:tLA are, on a metaphysical level yes, but they are still distinct individuals despite that link.

Personally I think it's partly why Steven has had so much trouble fusing with the other Gems. Logically Gems and humans should be somewhat compatible with one another. I do think it's possible, even if Gems aren't organic they can fake it well enough to produce an offspring with a human. (To say nothing of the idea that Steven's birth might be in some ways similar to a gem-fusion of Rose and Greg's DNA.) What I think is really holding them back is because sub-consciously they're still treating it like a fusion with Rose. (To the point where I believe Pearl's dance with Steven looked incredibly similar to the one she did to make Rainbow Quartz.

Like Garnet said to Greg, you have to dance like you, and while Steven's dance lessons with the Gems was very choreographed, his dance with Connie when forming Stevonnie is so natural and in the moment that they do it unintentionally.

[Rater202]

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Reincarnation stuff aside, it's still not a good attitude for Steven or the Gems to have. (Particularly since there's still so much we don't know about Rose)

Steven has Rose's gem, and they do share similar attitudes about life as far as we know. But Steven is a unique individual (Rose herself said as much in her video). I feel like they're the same person in a similar way that the Avatars from A:tLA are, on a metaphysical level yes, but they are still distinct individuals despite that link.

Personally I think it's partly why Steven has had so much trouble fusing with the other Gems. Logically Gems and humans should be somewhat compatible with one another. I do think it's possible, even if Gems aren't organic they can fake it well enough to produce an offspring with a human. (To say nothing of the idea that Steven's birth might be in some ways similar to a gem-fusion of Rose and Greg's DNA.) What I think is really holding them back is because sub-consciously they're still treating it like a fusion with Rose. (To the point where I believe Pearl's dance with Steven looked incredibly similar to the one she did to make Rainbow Quartz.

Like Garnet said to Greg, you have to dance like you, and while Steven's dance lessons with the Gems was very choreographed, his dance with Connie when forming Stevonnie is so natural and in the moment that they do it unintentionally.

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Just saying, logically they've got a point.

A Gem is literally just a sentient, Sapient magic gemstone projecting a hard light hologram to serve as a body.

Steven's gem is a rose quartz(or a pink diamond if that one theory is true) and was his mother's gem.

Steven's gem looks like it's part of his body.

If all three statements are true, then Rose Quartz is literally part of Steven. Which is something that Rose herself also said.

There are also moments that could interpreted as Rose Speaking through an unaware Steven.

I like that you brought up the Gem Fusion comparison though. Because Steven could well be interpreted as a fusion between Rose and an infant born from gregs DNA.

So, Steven is at least as much Rose as Garnet is Ruby. Distinct individual, but one is part of the other. At least as far as I'm concerned.

[Ravian]

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Just saying, logically they've got a point.

A Gem is literally just a sentient, Sapient magic gemstone projecting a hard light hologram to serve as a body.

Steven's gem is a rose quartz(or a pink diamond if that one theory is true) and was his mother's gem.

Steven's gem looks like it's part of his body.

If all three statements are true, then Rose Quartz is literally part of Steven. Which is something that Rose herself also said.

There are also moments that could interpreted as Rose Speaking through an unaware Steven.

I like that you brought up the Gem Fusion comparison though. Because Steven could well be interpreted as a fusion between Rose and an infant born from gregs DNA.

So, Steven is at least as much Rose as Garnet is Ruby. Distinct individual, but one is part of the other. At least as far as I'm concerned.

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I admit they are similar, but that only means the gems need to understand the differences all the more.

Rose being half of him still means he is unique.

To continue with fusion dancing, from what we've seen Rose and Steven's fusion dances are similar and yet distinct. Rose generally does something more like a formal slow dance, Steven's form is also most similar to that style, but his attitude while dancing is much more informal, distinctly child-like.

And while we haven't seen Ruby or Sapphire fuse with anyone other than each other (which was so quick and easy it can barely be called a fusion dance) I can imagine that both of them would still have dance styles different from Garnet's (just like any of the larger fusions would likely have) ergo Steven can't fuse like Rose does, and so hasn't been able to fuse with any of the gems yet.

This does bring up an important question on fusion dances though.

Based on what we saw in "Alone Together" of the Gems teaching Steven fusion dances, and the fact that Pearl seemed to be dancing with him the same way she danced with Rose in "We need to Talk"

Does that mean that Rose's fusion dance with Amethyst involved the Macarena?

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[Coidzor]

This does bring up an important question on fusion dances though.

Based on what we saw in "Alone Together" of the Gems teaching Steven fusion dances, and the fact that Pearl seemed to be dancing with him the same way she danced with Rose in "We need to Talk"

Does that mean that Rose's fusion dance with Amethyst involved the Macarena?

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Heh. Could be.

[Ravian]

Heh. Could be.

It does make a bit of sense. Rose seems to favor more formal dancing styles which likely included a good deal of choreography as we saw from dance practice. Meanwhile Amethyst prefers club dancing and just plain more loose and fun styles. The Macarena is both fun and fairly loose, while simultaneously following a rather clear series of steps.

It's also worth thinking about what that dancing style says about Rose's character. All the Gems have a dance style that matches their personality, Pearl with her precise and formal ballet, Amethyst with her flowing and cool club style, and Garnet's very smooth and sensual style. Even Steven's innocent kid dancing says a lot about him.

Way I see it is that Rose's style is very close, her dance with Pearl and with Greg's attempt at fusion shows a good deal of close contact with the partner, even more so than even Garnet's style (though not as much as Ruby and Sapphire's twirling embrace). And then there's of course the orderly nature. The two dancers have to synchronize much closer in her dances due to the close contact. (whereas the other Gems have good periods where they're free to do their own thing independently before they come together.)

What I see in all that isn't much different from how we've seen her before though. That sort of close and concerted nature implies a motherly and guiding sense, though with all the Pink Diamond theories we can still wonder what the orderly nature might imply.

[Coidzor]

It does make a bit of sense. Rose seems to favor more formal dancing styles which likely included a good deal of choreography as we saw from dance practice. Meanwhile Amethyst prefers club dancing and just plain more loose and fun styles. The Macarena is both fun and fairly loose, while simultaneously following a rather clear series of steps.

It's also worth thinking about what that dancing style says about Rose's character. All the Gems have a dance style that matches their personality, Pearl with her precise and formal ballet, Amethyst with her flowing and cool club style, and Garnet's very smooth and sensual style. Even Steven's innocent kid dancing says a lot about him.

Way I see it is that Rose's style is very close, her dance with Pearl and with Greg's attempt at fusion shows a good deal of close contact with the partner, even more so than even Garnet's style (though not as much as Ruby and Sapphire's twirling embrace). And then there's of course the orderly nature. The two dancers have to synchronize much closer in her dances due to the close contact. (whereas the other Gems have good periods where they're free to do their own thing independently before they come together.)

What I see in all that isn't much different from how we've seen her before though. That sort of close and concerted nature implies a motherly and guiding sense, though with all the Pink Diamond theories we can still wonder what the orderly nature might imply.

I'm pretty much convinced until we get new information otherwise, yeah.

As for an orderly nature that goes in line with Pink Diamondity... Every place in its thing and a thing in every place?

[MorgromTheOrc]

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Reincarnation stuff aside, it's still not a good attitude for Steven or the Gems to have. (Particularly since there's still so much we don't know about Rose)

Steven has Rose's gem, and they do share similar attitudes about life as far as we know. But Steven is a unique individual (Rose herself said as much in her video). I feel like they're the same person in a similar way that the Avatars from A:tLA are, on a metaphysical level yes, but they are still distinct individuals despite that link.

Personally I think it's partly why Steven has had so much trouble fusing with the other Gems. Logically Gems and humans should be somewhat compatible with one another. I do think it's possible, even if Gems aren't organic they can fake it well enough to produce an offspring with a human. (To say nothing of the idea that Steven's birth might be in some ways similar to a gem-fusion of Rose and Greg's DNA.) What I think is really holding them back is because sub-consciously they're still treating it like a fusion with Rose. (To the point where I believe Pearl's dance with Steven looked incredibly similar to the one she did to make Rainbow Quartz.

Like Garnet said to Greg, you have to dance like you, and while Steven's dance lessons with the Gems was very choreographed, his dance with Connie when forming Stevonnie is so natural and in the moment that they do it unintentionally.

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So far I've seen Steven as being a human with influence from Rose's gem. If you imagine a gem as a brain that controls the form and function of an artificial body it creates it could be reasonable to think of Steven as the gem shaping a body out of Greg's DNA and then giving up control of it, with perhaps a little bit of hard light mixed in but mostly it being fundamentally a body in the same way as the gems body wouldn't change because it's inferior organic flesh, it can still be manipulated in the same ways.

So really there is no reason beyond the weirdness of it's creation and loss of control to consider Steven anything but another body Rose Quartz made, except with its own sentience do to her giving up control, not saying I support that just I understand why the gems might think that. And also your position on Pearl's goal suggests you disagree with Fate stay/nights' lesson of ideals being just as important whether you came upon them on your own or learned them from another, as long as at the end of the day you believe in them. Otherwise I should probably be a dangerous sociopath since I don't naturally develop social or generally emotion concepts on my own.

Also has anyone else heard the Lion is Rose's other half theory?

[Ravian]

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And also your position on Pearl's goal suggests you disagree with Fate stay/nights' lesson of ideals being just as important whether you came upon them on your own or learned them from another, as long as at the end of the day you believe in them. Otherwise I should probably be a dangerous sociopath since I don't naturally develop social or generally emotion concepts on my own.

Also has anyone else heard the Lion is Rose's other half theory?

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I think the important part of ideals is why you follow them, not from where you got them from. One can develop an ideal on one's own that's still a bad one if you're following it for a selfish or otherwise flawed or unhealthy reason. Just like one can adopt someone else's ideal for a very good reason. (really if ideals were only good when you made them on your own than we'd all be doing badly, even philosophers used other's ideals and as a basis for their own.)

Pearl's devotion to Rose's cause isn't flawed because it came from Rose, it's flawed because as far as we can tell, Pearl is primarily devoted to the fact that Rose created it, rather than what it stands for. Pearl has difficulties really caring about humans, and honestly questions the point of continuing on this path without Rose.

In essence, she's devoted herself to a person, rather than the cause itself, and in many ways is only aping the steps she assumes Rose would want her to take. If she were to look at Rose's ideal of protecting the Earth and find a reason to emphasize with it beyond the fact that Rose believed in it, than I believe she would be better off for it.

To bring it to Fate/Stay Night, Shiroh's ideal of helping others isn't unhealthy even though it was originally his adoptive father's. If he had devoted himself to it solely because he was honoring him, there'd be some problems. But Shiroh does it because he believes helping others does make the world a better place, even if statistics and the rest of the world blatantly disagree with him. I won't say there aren't flaws in his ideal, and it can certainly go darker places

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Also known as Archer

but the fact that he himself believes in the ideal rather than just following the person behind it means there's nothing flawed with the devotion itself.

[MorgromTheOrc]

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I think the important part of ideals is why you follow them, not from where you got them from. One can develop an ideal on one's own that's still a bad one if you're following it for a selfish or otherwise flawed or unhealthy reason. Just like one can adopt someone else's ideal for a very good reason. (really if ideals were only good when you made them on your own than we'd all be doing badly, even philosophers used other's ideals and as a basis for their own.)

Pearl's devotion to Rose's cause isn't flawed because it came from Rose, it's flawed because as far as we can tell, Pearl is primarily devoted to the fact that Rose created it, rather than what it stands for. Pearl has difficulties really caring about humans, and honestly questions the point of continuing on this path without Rose.

In essence, she's devoted herself to a person, rather than the cause itself, and in many ways is only aping the steps she assumes Rose would want her to take. If she were to look at Rose's ideal of protecting the Earth and find a reason to emphasize with it beyond the fact that Rose believed in it, than I believe she would be better off for it.

To bring it to Fate/Stay Night, Shiroh's ideal of helping others isn't unhealthy even though it was originally his adoptive father's. If he had devoted himself to it solely because he was honoring him, there'd be some problems. But Shiroh does it because he believes helping others does make the world a better place, even if statistics and the rest of the world blatantly disagree with him. I won't say there aren't flaws in his ideal, and it can certainly go darker places

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Also known as Archer

but the fact that he himself believes in the ideal rather than just following the person behind it means there's nothing flawed with the devotion itself.

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I suppose I see what you mean then. I would say from what we've seen of her interactions with Connie though that she does at least to some extent care about humans, or at least see them as somewhat equals as far as the right to live goes. I would reference her interaction with Steven and Greg, but Steven is a Gem, and Greg is considered part of the Gem family. Though Steven definitely believes in his mother's goals.

Back to what you said before about Steven's dancing, it has me wondering if the reason Steven couldn't fuse with the Gems was just because of the way they were making him dance, rather than an inability due to being human?

[Ravian]

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I suppose I see what you mean then. I would say from what we've seen of her interactions with Connie though that she does at least to some extent care about humans, or at least see them as somewhat equals as far as the right to live goes. I would reference her interaction with Steven and Greg, but Steven is a Gem, and Greg is considered part of the Gem family. Though Steven definitely believes in his mother's goals.

Back to what you said before about Steven's dancing, it has me wondering if the reason Steven couldn't fuse with the Gems was just because of the way they were making him dance, rather than an inability due to being human?

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She's making progress with Connie, I think the fact that Steven cares about her helps a good deal (not the mention the fact Pearl might have seen a bit of herself in Connie when she wanted to learn how to fight).

To be honest, the gems in general aren't fully devoted to Rose's ideal. Rose wanted to save the Earth from the gems, but none of the others seemed to have that as a primary motivation. Garnet seemed to have seen Earth as a sanctuary where she could live in peace as a fusion away from the prejudices of Homeworld. Pearl fought for Rose rather than her cause. Amethyst wasn't even really a participant in the war (as far as we know) and possibly joined with the others for companionship more than anything else. (though that does mean she has a closer connection to the Earth than the others, since its her home)

All of them need work connecting with humanity more. I only bring up Pearl because much of her motivation is absent without Rose. Garnet still cares about Earth as a sanctuary, and its still Amethyst's home regardless of whether or not Rose is there, but Pearl's entire reason for joining the rebellion was Rose. Without Rose, all she has are ideals that she never truly believed in. It's why it's important that she finds a reason to be strong for herself.

On Steven's fusion ability:
The reason I thought his difficulty with fusion might be something other than his organic body is because of the fact that gem bodies seem to be incredibly versatile.

Sure they're technically made of light, but the fact that Gems can simulate a digestive system and even a functioning womb means that any functional differences between the two are likely only visible under a microscope.

Add in the fact that Steven's 'organic' body is far more flexible than it has any right being. He can shapeshift (not with alot of control yet, but that's besides the point) something that should logically be far more difficult to do with flesh than with hard light, and he can fuse with Connie, a normal human without even that level of mutability. Fusion with a gem should be even easier on a technical level, but because the emotional synchronization takes priority in fusion, it's far easier for him to fuse with another human who accepts him for who he is, rather than the gems, who, while they certainly care about him, still subconsciously treat him as the new Rose and expect him to take on her mantle.

[Coidzor]

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She's making progress with Connie, I think the fact that Steven cares about her helps a good deal (not the mention the fact Pearl might have seen a bit of herself in Connie when she wanted to learn how to fight).

To be honest, the gems in general aren't fully devoted to Rose's ideal. Rose wanted to save the Earth from the gems, but none of the others seemed to have that as a primary motivation. Garnet seemed to have seen Earth as a sanctuary where she could live in peace as a fusion away from the prejudices of Homeworld. Pearl fought for Rose rather than her cause. Amethyst wasn't even really a participant in the war (as far as we know) and possibly joined with the others for companionship more than anything else. (though that does mean she has a closer connection to the Earth than the others, since its her home)

All of them need work connecting with humanity more. I only bring up Pearl because much of her motivation is absent without Rose. Garnet still cares about Earth as a sanctuary, and its still Amethyst's home regardless of whether or not Rose is there, but Pearl's entire reason for joining the rebellion was Rose. Without Rose, all she has are ideals that she never truly believed in. It's why it's important that she finds a reason to be strong for herself.

On Steven's fusion ability:
The reason I thought his difficulty with fusion might be something other than his organic body is because of the fact that gem bodies seem to be incredibly versatile.

Sure they're technically made of light, but the fact that Gems can simulate a digestive system and even a functioning womb means that any functional differences between the two are likely only visible under a microscope.

Add in the fact that Steven's 'organic' body is far more flexible than it has any right being. He can shapeshift (not with alot of control yet, but that's besides the point) something that should logically be far more difficult to do with flesh than with hard light, and he can fuse with Connie, a normal human without even that level of mutability. Fusion with a gem should be even easier on a technical level, but because the emotional synchronization takes priority in fusion, it's far easier for him to fuse with another human who accepts him for who he is, rather than the gems, who, while they certainly care about him, still subconsciously treat him as the new Rose and expect him to take on her mantle.

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Basically what Ravian says here, although I'd also add in that I don't think Steven is quite ready or views the Gems the right way to fuse with them yet, either. He doesn't view them as equals in the same way he views Connie, but as superiors.

I do think though, that of all the Gems, he'll have the easiest time fusing with Amethyst because he views her as much more of a sister than a surrogate mother.

[Rater202]

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There's a theory on Tv tropes that in the season 2 finale, Malachite will return, defuse into Jasper and Lapis, Jasper will fuse with Peridot, and the resulting fusion will be defeated by a fusion of Steven(or Stevonnie) and Lapis.

Thoughts?

[John Cribati]

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Basically what Ravian says here, although I'd also add in that I don't think Steven is quite ready or views the Gems the right way to fuse with them yet, either. He doesn't view them as equals in the same way he views Connie, but as superiors.

I do think though, that of all the Gems, he'll have the easiest time fusing with Amethyst because he views her as much more of a sister than a surrogate mother.

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He might have an easier time of it now, I think. All three of them have managed to hurt him in some way, and he's become aware of their various flaws, most of which contradict how he thought of them originally. Garnet isn't always perfectly calm and perfectly strong; there are moments where she literally can't keep herself together. Amethyst isn't as brash and confident as she portrays herself; she even hates herself a little. And Pearl... she's probably hurt him worse than any of the other two gems wroth her words alone. I mean, he's a very forgiving and compassionate soul, but I don't see him ignoring how she acts when Rose is even tangentially involved. I think they've all been knocked from their pedestals somewhat.

[StabbityRabbit]

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There's a theory on Tv tropes that in the season 2 finale, Malachite will return, defuse into Jasper and Lapis, Jasper will fuse with Peridot, and the resulting fusion will be defeated by a fusion of Steven(or Stevonnie) and Lapis.

Thoughts?

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I could easily see Jasper fusing with Peridot, but I'm not too sure about Lapis. I certainly think that Steven, and Lapis will fuse eventually, but so soon after Malachite? Lapis, and Steven don't even really know each other well enough to properly fuse from what I've seen. Connie is his best friend, and he's not really fusing on command with her. Hell, even Amethyst, and Pearl who know each other very well can't fuse 90% of the time.

Although seeing a Peridot/Jasper fusion would be awesome. I'm picturing someone with Jasper's love of combat, and prowess, but with Peridot's cold, calculating nature.

[Ravian]

The end of the hiatus is nigh!

New Episodes start 9/10!

[Admiral Squish]

I am definitely looking forward to Nightmare Hospital. I really want to see how Dr. Maheswaran will handle the 'magic stuff' Greg is so hesitant to get involved in.

[Vulkan]

Finally we can start posting again, especially on /co/ if the mods weren't absolute garbage.

Anyways it seems I cannot get a solid read on episode order with the exception of the first few. The wikia claims When it Rains to be the 3rd new episode but my source is saying its Same Old World

Time will tell of-course

[Admiral Squish]

I'm refreshing my memory of the show by watching blind reaction videos. It's a surprisingly good way to vicariously re-experience the emotions of seeing the show for the first time.

Anyways, I was just finishing ocean gem when I realized something and ran to do some math. If the ocean-tower Lapis built was a cylinder with a radius of one kilometer (it looks significantly narrower) and used all the water in the earth's oceans, it would be something like 422000000 kilometers tall (assuming I'm moving the decimal appropriately). That's something like a thousand times the distance between the earth and the moon, and would be tall enough to create a bridge to mars at its closest approach.

[Vulkan]

Lapis isn't exactly smart.

[Sigh]

Unless the closest interstellar warp pad is on Mars though I think she's still right in that her tower probably wouldn't get her where she needed to go.

[The Fury]

It might seem like a cop-out, but my take is that Steven Universe isn't realistic, (and that's OK!) As I've mentioned previously, if you really want to get into the plausibility of what happens with Lapis's ocean tower/space-elevator, Steven shouldn't be able to breathe while standing on top of it. He can though.

My thought is that Lapis built her ocean-elevator more out of desperation than anything else. The episode made it clear that she's not in a good place mentally.

[Ravens_cry]

We've already seen what lengths desperation can even drive a smart gem to. See Pearl. Also, she's a Gem. Once she could get far enough into space to just achieve escape velocity, she could just move on, doing some slingshot manoeuvres to achieve solar escape velocity. It would take her a while, but eventually she'd reach Gem controlled space.
On another topic, am I the only one who purposefully does not watch the preview clips? It's like, the show's short enough as it is, why would I want to spoil even half a minute of it?
Same with Adventure Time.

[Lacuna Caster]

It might seem like a cop-out, but my take is that Steven Universe isn't realistic, (and that's OK!) As I've mentioned previously, if you really want to get into the plausibility of what happens with Lapis's ocean tower/space-elevator, Steven shouldn't be able to breathe while standing on top of it. He can though.

My thought is that Lapis built her ocean-elevator more out of desperation than anything else. The episode made it clear that she's not in a good place mentally.

Although I'll whine and cavill about this endlessly for LOLs, my main beef isn't so much with lack of realism so much as lack of honesty in various shows/books/media. Steven Universe isn't trying to sell itself as science fiction or primarily adult entertainment, so the lack of rigorous attention-to-physics has never especially bothered me.
(This is why I have a lot more respect for Fables than I would for, e.g, any entry in the Matrix trilogy.)

[The Fury]

We've already seen what lengths desperation can even drive a smart gem to. See Pearl. Also, she's a Gem. Once she could get far enough into space to just achieve escape velocity, she could just move on, doing some slingshot manoeuvres to achieve solar escape velocity. It would take her a while, but eventually she'd reach Gem controlled space.

True, though I think Pearl's issue might be somewhat different. To me it seems like when Pearl has something that would make her happy nearly within her grasp, she pursues it so single-mindedly that she forgets that other people/Gems might get hurt in the process.

On another topic, am I the only one who purposefully does not watch the preview clips? It's like, the show's short enough as it is, why would I want to spoil even half a minute of it?
Same with Adventure Time.

Not purposefully, no. Though I don't really seek them out though or have any idea when they're released. I might watch them if I stumbled across some though.

Although I'll whine and cavill about this endlessly for LOLs, my main beef isn't so much with lack of realism so much as lack of honesty in various shows/books/media. Steven Universe isn't trying to sell itself as science fiction or primarily adult entertainment, so the lack of rigorous attention-to-physics has never especially bothered me.
(This is why I have a lot more respect for Fables than I would for, e.g, any entry in the Matrix trilogy.)

Ha! That reminds me of a time I watched Star Trek Voyager with a friend-- in one episode they talked about cracking a hole in an event horizon. My paraphrased reaction was "Wait, what? Hang on, I don't think you can do that. Can they do that?"

You're probably right though-- if Star Trek in general wasn't a mostly serious science fiction I probably wouldn't have wasted a second thought on it. Sort of like the bit where Steven pops the canopy on Pearl's homemade spaceship at high altitude. And held a conversation. Though it was an easy enough scene for me to accept. Earlier I thought that maybe the story was just good enough that I was more willing to suspend my disbelief, though maybe the fact that it's not presenting as a straight, serious piece of science fiction had something to do with that too.

[Admiral Squish]

Just be be clear, I wasn't trying to say 'this is ridiculous, I no longer enjoy this', I just wanted to figure out how tall an ocean-tower would actually be. I've got no problem with the episode or the show, probably for the 'it's not hard-sci-fi' reason.

Though, I must admit, whenever I think about that episode, I do start coming up with weird questions. Like, did any other authorities notice the ocean going missing? Did Lapis take the fresh water too, or just the oceans? And what about the sea life? That pillar's definitely got some weird pressures, what'd happen to all the fishies that suddenly ended up in the wrong pressure zone? What about all the immobile creatures that suddenly came up high and dry, like coral and anemones? Can whales and other air-breathers poke out of the pillar enough to breathe? And when the pillar collapsed, wouldn't there have been a biblical-scale tidal wave? The collapse didn't look exactly controlled, so did all the sea life just get randomly redistributed?

[MorgromTheOrc]

Just be be clear, I wasn't trying to say 'this is ridiculous, I no longer enjoy this', I just wanted to figure out how tall an ocean-tower would actually be. I've got no problem with the episode or the show, probably for the 'it's not hard-sci-fi' reason.

Though, I must admit, whenever I think about that episode, I do start coming up with weird questions. Like, did any other authorities notice the ocean going missing? Did Lapis take the fresh water too, or just the oceans? And what about the sea life? That pillar's definitely got some weird pressures, what'd happen to all the fishies that suddenly ended up in the wrong pressure zone? What about all the immobile creatures that suddenly came up high and dry, like coral and anemones? Can whales and other air-breathers poke out of the pillar enough to breathe? And when the pillar collapsed, wouldn't there have been a biblical-scale tidal wave? The collapse didn't look exactly controlled, so did all the sea life just get randomly redistributed?

Yeah I kinda had to just ignore the specifics, when I think about it it devalues the episode to me. I usually love shows for the interesting world mechanics, and while gems are quite an amazing idea in general that I would love to see put into a d&d esque game or at least some game, I'm pretty sure the show is character driven and only really focuses on Steven and the other gem's character development. Which is fine I love that aspect of it too, but I just can't get over my innate system mastery desire that will force me to not like it if I focus on what realistic or not, because so far I've been able to convince myself the gems are either not actually hard light and just some light emitting shapeshifting material their gems(brains) produce, or some really really high tier scifi stuff.

[Ravian]

Yeah I kinda had to just ignore the specifics, when I think about it it devalues the episode to me. I usually love shows for the interesting world mechanics, and while gems are quite an amazing idea in general that I would love to see put into a d&d esque game or at least some game, I'm pretty sure the show is character driven and only really focuses on Steven and the other gem's character development. Which is fine I love that aspect of it too, but I just can't get over my innate system mastery desire that will force me to not like it if I focus on what realistic or not, because so far I've been able to convince myself the gems are either not actually hard light and just some light emitting shapeshifting material their gems(brains) produce, or some really really high tier scifi stuff.

I know what you mean, my brain still sometimes freaks out over how the gems definitely seem to break the laws of thermodynamics. They produce energy like nobody's business, and yet as far as we can see they barely consume anything themselves. Food isn't necessary, and while they do get tired, sleep isn't a problem for them either. The only thing they mentioned is that they get all the energy they need from their gem, but it still doesn't make sense to my science brain.

My current theory is that they subconsciously absorb ambient energy, possibly similar to how the kindergartens function, but on a massively reduced level (that they normally don't do any damage to the planet.)