To a degree they are. Specifically, being patient with someone who is openly hostile or threatening means that you trust them not to use the time you spend trying to get through to them to stab you in the back. The glimpses of Gem society we've been getting come closer to an actual Godwin violation than JK Rowling *thought* she was doing. Gems who make mistakes or are imperfect are casually destroyed, organic non Gem life is treated as valueless and after watching last night the gemsona I thought would be cheerfully anarchist turned into someone who uses piracy as a cover to sabotage colonization and collects evidence of the genocide she can't prevent. (I think my queer/Jewish /mentally ill consciousness is making me do that :/ ) My point (and I do have one) is that up till recently the show has managed to be incredibly gentle and compassionate in its worldview, but of necessity it's getting darker. Not to be edgy, but because the moral question of how a compassionate person who wants to help everyone handles a situation where their opponents are simultaneously human and deserving of basic human respect yet are also committing monstrous evils, especially taking into account that even if someone is just THAT bad, there are lines you don't cross because maybe you can't come back from there, is an important and valuable question for people of all ages to consider.
Spoiler y'know, when Malachite eventually unfuses I almost wanna see a Peridot/Jasper fusion. Because Peri was so enthusiastic describing the body amethyst was supposed to have and seems to think Percy/Pierre is perfect due to characteristics like DESTROYING that 3 legged race! like, Jasper is kinda shit out of luck when Malachite falls apart, assuming more gems aren't going to visit earth any time soon. If it's before the cluster the options are "work with the people she hates" or "have the entire planet, herself included, die." Somehow I think she would choose the latter option over the former. If it's after the cluster dilema is solved, she's still shit out of luck until more ships are eventually sent to investigate. She could attempt revenge or die trying, but she would probably get poofed and bubbled at best because she is out numbered and out gunned. The home world warp is destroyed, along with pretty much any method of communication to homeworld. Jasper ain't exactly patient or gentle but after the awful and toxic situation with Malachite I am not so sure she'd wanna repeat the mistake of fusing unless absolutely necessary, even from a tactical standpoint. Peridot on the other hand is basically her opposite, not very strong but she's smart. A fusion between Jasper and Peridot would probably be terrifying, combining confidence, aggression, physical strength, and technical skill, and probably would come in handy against a powerful opponent. Provided Jasper is capable of creating a stable fusion. Though I could very easily be wrong too, since we don't know much about Jasper's character. I know it's not realistic but damn it I want a Jasper story/redemption arc too, since Peridot and Lapis got one.
I thought that screenshot credit was debunked as fake though? but that's just a rumor I heard. We won't know until someone looks at the read credits for the ep in depth I guess.
I think we might have different ideas of trust. I don't think being patient with someone who is actively trying to hurt you requires that you trust them, it requires that you accept the risk for the sake of the outcome you're aiming for. I dunno. Trust is like. An expectation of obligation, in my head. If Steven's goal is to make Peridot a Crystal Gem, then it's on him to do what he can to make that happen, and the failure is on him as well. It's not Peridot's goal to change her point of view to match Steven's. It's not a failure on her part if she doesn't. Is it? I dunno! I am confusing myself here. But yes, to the last paragraph. Moral complexity, yes good.
Also DANG, P-dot's been with the Gems for over a month! Wow! That's a lot! More than I had thought. Fuck, Malachites been a thing for a long damn while, hasn't she? wow. Wonder how they're both holding up?
Why is Peridot so upsetti about tying Earth trash to her feets when she's already got Earth Trash tied to her face? And why does a gem specifically engineered for engineering need eye protection in the first place? Can not adjust? Can visors not adjust? Shapeshifters, why not tint to suit situation??
isn't she just being tsundere though. "i-it's not like i like hanging out with you clods or anything!" i'm only half kidding, i think.
Since my old fangem's concept got totally crushed, I made a new one. Meet Helenite! Just as helenite is a 'fake' gemstone made of colored glass created by natural conditions in the Mt. Saint Helens eruption, Helenite is a synthetic servant gem. She's quite experimental compared to the classic Pearls, and is only a few years old at this point. Maybe decades? Young for a gem.
Trust in my opinion is not all or nothing and there are people I wouldn't trust not to hurt me ever but might trust not to do it in some situations based on their past history. For instance, I avoid my mother because she's incredibly emotionally abusive, but I also know that in an emergency, or at a large gathering, I can trust her not to bring up 'what Jesus told her' or throw a knife, which are things she will do if I spend enough time around her for her to get really comfortable. I don't trust her as a person but I don't think she will do some of the really horrible stuff when other people are around or while she's trying to convince me she won't turn evil on me this time (which is never true, but now I know about how long it takes so if somebody dies I know a couple phone calls are safe but never sleep in her house?)
I like Garnet's dance with Peridot. Garnet seems pretty enthusiastic about the relationship behind fusion - the love and feeling of being completely united and the trust you get from a fusion, from knowing someone in a fusion. She was enthusiastic about explaining it to Steven and seems to encourage it, so I don't think it's weird she'd offer to fuse with Peri. esp because she's the most stable of the gems when it comes to fusions - who knows what kind of mess could come out of Ame's issues and Peri's issues getting together. Peri learns best by experimenting and analyzing and it's a good opportunity for hands-on experience on the feeling of fusion, why she wants to stay fused. she'd have a direct link to sapphire and ruby's love. And peridot seems startled by it at first, Garnet backs off, peri says she just needs a minute, they dance, peri realizes she's not ready and garnet backs off again, offering an explanation she could understand but that isn't that good. but also DID YOU GUYS SEE HOW CASUAL AND RELAXED AND OVERALL HAPPY PEARL AND AMETHYST SEEMED ABOUT FUSING DID YOU GUYS SEE AMETHYST WAS MAKING JOKES AND PEARL WAS SMILLING AND THEY DANCED WELL AND OPAL WAS THERE AND WHERE IS THE WE ONLY FUSE FOR EXTREMELY DEADLY CIRCUMSTANCES AND CAN BARELY HOLD TOGETHER LONG ENOUGH TO RESCUE STEVEN. MY CHILDREN HAVE COME SO FAAAAAAR
I discovered the Jaspidot tag and now I'm gonna spend the rest of the night in the crackship trash can.
I wonder what Peridot and Jasper's actual relationship is like. It seems like Peridot was ostensibly in charge of the situation, cause Jasper was assigned to he, like how Ruby was assigned to Sapphire. But Jasper absolutely hijacked the mission despite Peridot's protests. And also Peridot is a jumpy twitchy beast who's shown to be fearful of gems bigger and meaner and higher ranked than her, but she absolutely back sasses Jasper and doesn't seem afraid of getting hit even when Jas was getting violent. It's. Weird. Interesting.
I think they'd be somewhat close in rank or relative position. Jasper is old and outliving her usefulness by the looks of it, and peridot is a new high-techie gem.
jasper does have a. personality. Yellow Diamond seems to have a with thing about her time being wasted. i wonder if she would have appriciated he kind of gem who'd derail a mission just to show her a problem that would have been erased if she'd just done her damned job. maaaan, i have so many questions about Jasper's whole deal. all theHomeworld gems, really, but Jasper is the one who seemed to have or thinks she has a dirrect line of contact with YD. that's fucking weird! you think she knew about the cluster? do bodyguards have to know about that kinda stuff? was she supposed to but let her personal history with the Crystal Gems distract her from it? blurgh. gonna be upset if Jasper doesn't get episodes. unrelated, but i hope Lapis ends up being as belligerent a little turd as i imagine her to be.
like in my head Lapis holds grudges like a motherfucker. she just decides things and then that's it. Patience works with Peridot because she wants to understand things, but i like the idea that Lapis is stubborn enough to outlast even the most sincere and devoted attempts at reconcelliation. so stubborn. like, i've decided i like you so i'll like you forever, but the Crystal Gems are cockholes and i'm gonna hate them no matter what they do. she'd just be Steven's weird mean friend. a rude jackass who isn't their enemy and isn't going to betray them, but just man fuck that guy.
