i was gonna write about everything everywhere all at once that “i can already tell i’m gonna be annoyed by people only fitting this movie into The Zeitgeist of generational trauma movies” when its also one of the best portrayals of existentialism and Facing the Absurd i’ve seen in film… but just as i was being pessimistic like that, i saw people actually doseem to get it!!
like yass… understanding that the lack of support system and purpose in life which causes existential dread can come from anything and anywhere, as a fundamental part of the human condition… and also understanding that the crucial relationship that brings you back from the brink of destruction in confronting the absurdity of life can be anyone, and anyonecan suffer from it, not just people going through generational trauma…. yass twitter go off.
(MORE DETAILED REVIEW AHEAD: long story short, i love it.)
i will say, i’m a little surprised at how many people call the movie all that original or weird or that it introduces ideas “never seen before.”
like… yes, asthetically, there are a lot of weird things that happen. the “point” of the randomness is that their version of the multiverse is a place where, once you’re aware of it and in tune with its chaos, absolutely anything can happen. but like… once you realize that point, its not like “a universe where x is the case” will really shock you. that’s just “standard” alice in wonderland-esque absurdity. thats almost the point, none of the weirdness matters, its just one experience among a billion. a brief distraction from existential horror.
i’m also surprised people keep saying they’ve neverseen nihilism portrayed like this before. the message of “love will help you through” is not really a new solution to existential dread. thats not a bad thing btw (steven literally experienced exactlythis in steven universe future after no longer having a purpose as a hero / someone who exists to help people), but it is the truth.
whatresonatesis the emotion. the harrowing experience of losing yourself to a million distractions because you don’t want to face the emptiness and meaninglessness of it all, and how we avoid painful emotional truths or having the difficult conversations that forces you to confront the absurd and work through it with the power of love.
one twist i do like is that, within the subject of generational trauma, it starts out with the old folks POV. you see a lot of the opposite nowadays… the child is the main character that the adults have to accept and validate. this becomes easy for usbecause they’re the audience avatar. in EEAAO we get something a bit more interesting, which is that we start out siding with adults who believe the child is a villain, is evil, has no morality and can’t be reasoned with.
and that IS how a lot of adults feel as their children blossom into teenagers. they rebel, they hate how you perceive them and kinda hate you, they’re obsessed with their own psyche but they don’t really have a moral compass yet despite youtrying to be selfless and do whats best for them. so it feels like they’re the bad guy… but you’rethe parent. its your responsibility to be there for them. you haveto try to understand them.
my one critique of the movie is also its conclusion - its surprisingly… neat? for a movie that styles itself to be so emotionally intense and avant-garde. at the end of the day, there isn’t much ambiguity at all to its ending or how the characters will continue to cope. they just go by their daily lives having confronted their emotions, and i mean… i guess thats all you can do. but i would have liked a bit more edge, a bit more uncertaintythat the void can ever be defeated.
because at the end of the day, i can’t help but feel joy’s pain. on some level… as emotionally freeing as the movie can be, you know its still a distraction. a blip in the eternity of your life that you have to try to find meaning in. its neat ending isnt as neat in the real world, you can have fulfilling relationships and still have a nihilistic existential depression that you have to keep fighting.
huge fan of the various expressions i’ve seen of existentialism lately, usually in the form of a kind of sartre-inspired existential atheism / absurdism of living without purpose, hierarchy, set meaning or true finality + the bittersweetness of constantly trying to find lasting connection and happiness that way (steven universe, su future, everything everywhere all at once).
but also. also. when am i getting a kirkegaard “either/or” type show which examines, from a more spiritual or “sartre-critical” light, the way that a lot of our lives without meaning becomes distractions, that the aesthete seemingly cannot be happy in a lasting way and is always afraid of boredom. like yes i do yearn for a new interesting thing to come along which can never last, and always returns to boredom. basically comparing and contrasting the apollonian vs dionysian urges of selfless purpose vs selfish pleasure.
and by “when,” i mean that actually may or may not have some kind of plan similar in my fic “something better,” and this contradiction may be further exploring this topic in SU but with greater emphasis on the complications and critique of a selfish life, even if it doesn’t steer totally into “either/or” territory.
very funny to see anyone say that steven universe is somehow the cause of people not being able to handle serious and complex stories and flawed characters, as well as non-wholesome lgbt+ rep.
i mean… in a roundabout way, sure, i’d say the fandom struggled to handle SUs complexity. they certainly treated pearlrose like shit for a while for being an interclass relationship where the person with the initial power there wasn’t Born woke. and people certainly mourned its bittersweet ending, where pearl had to learn to live for herself.
but if you have this false memory that SU is so simple and cutesy uwu without real complexity… i’d like to remind you you’re talking about the one cartoon that ended years ago and people still discourse about the morality of / characters of / story of more than whether catradora is healthy or not.
like. you can’t mention it among your favorite shows without 30 people having 30 different opinions, much of which comes from the ambiguity of how you’re supposed to feel about character morality.
so i’m just like… what? SU is like the only cartoon we’ve had where moral complexity of its story and messages came in more challengingand intentionally upsetting forms than just “you have your good guys, your bad guys, and one redeemable morally gray guy who is only allowed to be redeemed because they were abused.”
SU is a story where - arguably- among its morals are “sometimes abusers can heal better than their victims” and “even if you don’t forgive someone, the worst person you know can turn around. they can become useful to society without the punishment you would like for them to face, and that might mean you’re just gonna have to livewithit without getting your revenge, because their usefulness to society matters more than your feelings as a victim. and if you doseek revenge, that might just mean you need therapy.”
those are not easy pills to swallow for cartoon fans. the only way you could construe those as “simple” morals is if you fall into the trap of thinking that - for example, if you used to be a brony :) - redeeming villains just comes from a place of wanting to be overly nice to everyone, and therefore makes your story “less deep” by default.
so yeah. i’m guessing this comes from the people who think that “sometimes, you have to kill the villain!” is the height of moral complexity, despite being the most standard good vs evil moral ever. sorry to break it to ya, but SU is a bit more challenging than that. it doesn’t feed your revenge fantasies. and if that makes you uncomfortable, its a sign that its doing things right. it’s trying to.
Parallels between Hōseki no Kuni and Steven Universe
I was thinking about Hōseki no Kuni (Land of the Lustrous) and White Diamond reminds me a bit of Kongo. He turns out to be a robot made by humans to pray for their souls when no humans were left. He is supposedly broken and thus will no longer pray for the moon people. Essentially when humans died they broke apart into bone (the Gems), flesh (Admirabilis), and soul (Moon People). In order to try and coerce him into doing so, they attack the Gems and destroy them over time thinking it will upset him enough to make him pray for them to send them on (thus they would stop attacking the Gems).
What is interesting to me, is why he doesn’t just pray for the moon people to save the Gems not only from being destroyed but from the agony and sadness in losing those they love. He seems to be able to do it for the dog and the game board. I think that he either knows something we the readers don’t (maybe for beings from bone to exist the souls have to or something, or he simply can’t help them if he has no compassion for them). According to the leader of the moon people, there is something he emits that causes those around him to adore and love him. So the Gems follow him without questioning him, besides the story’s protagonist.
It got me thinking of the parallels between the anime/manga and Steven Universe (SU). What if White Diamond is a machine of sorts (an AI) that is broken and can no longer perform its original purpose? She and the other diamonds are adored by the gems and rarely questioned, but our protagonist (Steven) does question the way things are and seeks to change them. Phos (the protagonist) in Hōseki no Kuni actually loses her eye at one point in the story, which is something we’ve seen in SU (the kitten, Eyeball, etc.). She also loses her head and gets a new one (like how PD becomes Steven, though much more gruesome). So I am just curious if as we find out more about WD, the parallels will increase.
Body: Yellow Diamond (YD) represents the body as her power causes gem bodies to fall apart. She healed Centi’s body to a point, but as her power can only heal the physical damage there was something missing (her sense of self).
Soul: I feel that Blue Diamond (BD) represents the soul based on my understanding that the soul represents the sense of self. There is research to show that many animals do not possess a sense of self, but those who do (e.g., dolphins) are considered sentient similar to humans. I also like the representation of souls in the Harry Potter books. Dumbledore explains that without at least 1 piece of soul Voldemort would have no sense of self and the Dementors can destroy a person but leave the body alive by sucking out the soul. When BD attempted to heal Centi, she had a sense of self again though she had lost control of her emotions.
Heart: To me, Pink Diamond (PD) represents the heart as she, and Steven, have powers related to emotions like compassion and empathy. Steven represents empathy, compassion, and love. He helps others understand themselves at an emotional level while in terms of BD the sense of self is more related to “what” they are.
Mind: The mind ties everything together in our bodies. It can control our physical form but also our emotions and sense of self. So while the other 3 could allow Centi to fully form, they couldn’t keep her together. They needed White Diamond (WD).
If gems lose their sense of self (the soul), they could still think and move as their mind and body survive. They would have little sense of who they are outside of their intended purpose. Think about a depressed person who can still feel happy or joyful (heart), but have a dead feeling inside. From my own experience, there is this piece of me that is missing and I forget how to do things I knew before because I don’t know who I am anymore. I can still feel happy and excited, but the emptiness doesn’t go away. The compassion of others and what I feel for them helps to fill that void, so I see BD as living in a severe depression that she couldn’t escape without PD. A gem without the heart would be an unfeeling drone with no care for others or even themselves. So in essence, the HEART gives them compassion and empathy while SOUL gives them individuality.
Again this is just my thinking and I appreciate others’ input and opinions as well. :)
Before you say “It’d be cool if Steven regains Rose/Pink’s memories” just consider that it means Steven will have memories of fucking Greg. I don’t think anyone wants that
The Diamonds are never seen without their Pearls, right? I don’t think we’ve ever seen them without. It makes sense that the Pearls wouldn’t be out on the battle field when the Diamonds were fighting, but the Diamonds *must* have brought them along in their ships when they travelled to Earth. So… are they okay?
There’s so much I want to talk about with regards to Reunited. For now I’ll just say I’m glad Peridot got poofed so when she reforms she’ll finally get her star.
But I wonder when will she and Lapis actually reform?
I have a feeling that Lapis will take especially long to reform, maybe as long as Pearl (if not longer). For one thing, she still has a lot of inner conflicts to resolve. While she had time to reflect on some issues while she was on the moon, some time in her gem might be good for her. For another, I just don’t trust the Crewniverse to let us have Lapis back for good just yet.
Peridot is a difficult case. She’s very impulsive, I’d say more than ever before. So she might reform quickly like Amethyst. She has also embraced the Crystal Gems and considered herself one of them for a while now, so she won’t have to think too much about incorporating a star in her design (if it’s even a conscious decision; I guess we’ll find out). But she can also be a perfectionist like Pearl, so she might take her time.
What does everyone else think? How long will we have to wait to see Peridot and Lapis back in action? And how different do you expect their new forms to be?
I find it interesting that Pearl says she was “given to Pink Diamond” rather than “made for Pink Diamond”. Idk they can potentially mean the same thing but the choice of words stood out to me. I’m convinced that it means Pearl wasn’t made specifically for Pink and was either a general purpose Pearl or one of White’s disposable pearls. Also note she said she was given to her to “make her happy”. That’s an interesting and very specific purpose, rather than to simply serve her as the other pearls do for their diamonds. What does everyone else think?
What I keep thinking about in terms of the new SU episode is Pearl’s appearance during the time period that she was still Pink Diamond’s pearl.
Every pearl we have seen has matched the colors of their diamond.
But Pearl looks more like she’s made for all of the diamonds. Her pale skin is practically white and she wears the colors of Pink, Blue, Yellow and White Diamond in both her outfit and hair.
Also, why is Pearl’s gem so different from the other pearls? Not only are the gems of Yellow and Blue Pearl on their chests rather than forehead, but theirs are even a slightly different shape. Yellow and Blue Pearl have circular gems while our Pearl’s gem is an oval shape.
What does this all mean?
I still think Pearl was a hand-me-down from White Diamond. She was defective due to her oval shaped gem and therefore disposable, but Pink was nagging her sisters to get her own Pearl
Who Pearl originally belonged to still seems like a wide topic of debate and while she certainly could have belonged to any high ranking gem, belonging to a diamond would be far more interesting and I think it’s the most likely answer given how “fancy” she is. But I’ve always struggled with rationalising which diamond she belonged to. White Diamond would explain her overall colour scheme and her gem being on her forehead. Pink Diamond would explain the pink diamond on her space suit and how she probably met Rose. So it baffled me and I always dismissed the idea of White simply giving her to Pink because why not just make more? But then we got the latest episode, the glimpse of Pink, and I think I can explain how Pearl belonged to both.
Many people have speculated that Pearl is physically defective, based on Jasper’s comment to her in The Return and the oval shape of her gem (compared to Yellow and Blue Pearl’s circular gems). You would imagine that if a diamond was given a defective Pearl, she would be quick to have her destroyed and replaced. But then we see PD, who very much seems to be overcooked and, for lack of a better word, defective. That isn’t to say the diamonds decided a defective Pearl was befitting for a defective diamond. I believe PD was eager to start production of her own gems, but the other diamonds were skeptical of her capabilities as a leader. Still, a diamond can’t be without a personal servant. To keep her at bay, WD gives PD a disposable Pearl that she was going to get rid of anyway.
PD may not have seen an issue with this Pearl. Maybe she begrudgingly accepted, maybe she was just happy to have her first follower. Either way, Pearl would no doubt be grateful for the second chance at life and serve her new diamond diligently. Until of course production of PD’s gems start and Pearl meets a quartz with some interesting ideas
ok how can you not believe this villain has some strong af connection with PD? I mean look at all this fcking pink y'all
we sure know that in this show nothing is pink just because
i’m not quite sure about the “PINK DIAMOND REPLACEMENT GEM THEORY” although it would we so fcking cool, but this is sure as hell totally PD related
now, as much as I hope it is, I also hope that the crewniverse has a good explanation for this bc all the identity drama has already been closed, and it would be weird to just bring it up out of nowhere putting our grown up baby on the line again
but anyways i’m sure i’m gonna love it whatever it is about because i’m a total steven universe trash
Can y’all imagine the RELIEF we’ll feel once we listen to Escapism for the 1st time?
we’ve known about this song for a long ass time even longer that we’ve known about That Distant Shore and THAT WAS STILL A LONG ASS TIME oof i’m so excited
Sunstone has their own let’s play channel and the reason why Steven has a ps2 in the movie now is because Sunstone bought it with the money they made from their latest Minecraft stream
