No see, the only way to end transphobia forever is to have more rigid gender roles and expression, reading every instance of crossdressing as a damaging insult. Only then will people open their hearts to the idea that gender =/= biological sex and in some cases is even fluid or nonbinary.
I just finished watching the new episode, and my biggest reaction was that ... well, it just wasn't funny. I'll readily admit I'm not the target audience for surrealism-without-witty-intent-as-humour, though, so there's that. The joke about UG being Greg's/everyone's brother and father read to me like a version of "what do you get when you multiply six by nine? 42." "well I always thought there was something fundamentally wrong with the universe." rather then OMG incest. And UG as Rose seemed ... definitely not funny, but way more in the "this is ridiculous" rather than "this is deliberately mocking trans women". Honestly, I think it might have been funnier if they'd just gone with Rose's massive hair. More snerk-worthy, less eeeeh. However, that all being said, it feels like it's treading the line - because whether or not the joke was meant to be "lol man in a dress how weird and wrong", it was still supposed to be funny for one reason or another, and it's not always easy to separate intent from perception in current media. I dunno. Honestly, my current thinking is that if the SU team had wanted to do an April Fools episode, there were better ways to do it. Something with Ronaldo, perhaps? Also, the bit about how Steven summons his shield to protect others, I think, is really important, and is borne out by the rest of the episodes so far. I appreciated the allusion to how nitpicky the distinction between when-bubble? and when-shield? seems to be. Could they have gone with "caregiver" rather than a gendered term like "maternal"? Sure. Down with gender roles. But I think the basic idea - Steven's powers are strongly linked to his emotions, especially to emotions about other people and how much he cares for them - is valid. And I think that's unfortunately being swallowed up by the rest of the episode.
Yeah, maternal sounded weird to me, but then again his powers do come from his mom, and I kind of read that as an allusion/kind of pun based on that. Still, yeah, intent doesn't have much baring on how it'll be interpreted, and I honestly think that the best joke was the one about the ad in the first few minutes and there wasn't a whole lot else to the episode. Also, curious about how you'd imagine a Ronaldo episode going? Maybe something like that time Steven imagined what Garnet had been doing all day? Cute and silly and inconsequential.
Ah, I meant a "Ronaldo from Ronaldo's POV" episode, not just a Ronaldo centric one. Sorry, should have clarified. I dunno why i figured that'd be obvious. I guess just cause it was a proposed April Fools episode, so it made sense to me for it to be a weird little Ronaldo self-important fantasy spoof.
I read another post on tumblr about the episode, which had basically the same joke reading that I did, but instead of being "It's Rose! Just kidding it's UG" it was that there was this beautiful elegant figure coming out of the water only to have... UG's face. Not in a"dude in a dress is funny!" way but a "put Nigel Thornberry's face on everything meme" way. Which would make more sense as a bait and switch. Also keep in mind that this was at the end of an all day UG marathon, and the UG and SU fandoms don't generally mix... I'm sure there were plenty of UG fans who wouldn't know about Rose or her emotional significance to the series. At least for those who don't keep track of shows they don't like or don't watch. In any case there have been a couple of times where I've been so put off by the SU fandom on tumblr that I quit the fandom for awhile. This is one of those times. All the pretty art work and cool stuff from the steven bomb is being overshadowed by the wanking over this episode.
Oh no, I only just found this thread! I am madly in love with this show and I'm so glad there is a place for me to freak out about it! I'm going to catch up on reading through the whole thread and then nerd out with everyone here. :D Also, I made a gemsona RP with my moirail. She's Moss Agate and I'm Ametrine, but it seems like there is already another Ametrine in this very thread! Oh no! We must duel! (Or peacefully co-exist, one of those things.) ;p
I absolutely think of that ending theme song as sung by Rose Quartz, I was just talking to someone a couple of weeks ago about that. I think it would be super beautiful if Rose looked at the people around her, who adored her so much, and just marveled at their capacity for love. c: Also, in regards to the Uncle Grandpa discussion, I said this on tumblr as well, but it's important to think of each episode as something the creators intend to exist past their air date. Even if the Uncle Grandpa dressed as Rose bait and switch was given away by the hype of it being a cross over episode, there are going to be new fans coming to the show all the time and the joke will work for them. Not to mention all the little kids it would have worked for since they're less likely to have been inundated with tumblr wank the month before the thing aired. Not all jokes are going to work for everyone, and that's fine, but I think that making them out to be dire ~*~problematic~*~ issues is unnecessarily unkind to the creators. I personally hated that pouch thing Uncle Grandpa was wearing, it was gross and made me feel cringey, but that's a personal preference and not something that's wrong with the episode/show. I really liked Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl throughout the episode, and all the fun little pokes it made at the Steven Universe fandom. I'd never actually sit through an episode of Uncle Grandpa unless a little kid made me, but I enjoyed how much fun Steven seemed to have, and how much fun the episode would have been for the little kids like Steven watching.
Oh man she looks awesome! Her other Gem is on her shoulder, right? I like her hair and the two star-tie-things.
So so so cute! Also, someone on tumblr pointed out that the pile of unsold band t-shirts in the clip are red with a yellow star. No wonder Steven has so many!
He also seems like the sort to completely forget to do any sort of promotion or advertisement, though.
That was my friend's theory. 'People will just show up!' My other theory is maybe he does this, like, every week, and people are kind of sick of it by then. 'There's that asshole playing music at the beach at 1 in the morning again!' I kind of like the advertisement one better, though.
I wonder if Pearl ever got really really confused over Greg's lyrics Greg you can't have the solar wind in your hair, you would die. Greg why would you say that.
Hey with the next episode coming soon I've been thinking about Greg. My fan theory is that young Greg is not a native of Beach City and just toured the road. So of course no one would show up to the concert of some random kid who showed up and set up his van yesterday without any kind of advertisement or reputation to get them interested. After that concert he stayed in Beach City because of Rose and eventually settled down and had a kid there.
