Spoiler: re: question Steven was practicing/playing in Greg's car at the beginning - I'm pretty sure that's meant to suggest he's learned a couple of things about driving from his dad?
Spoiler: shitposting theory maybe rose knew how to drive and steven tapped into her memories with emotional gem magic Spoiler but yeah, i am so glad they didn't win. that the narrative reinforced no really, them enjoying life and each other is the point
Spoiler: spoiler talk so uhhh what does everybody think about what was happening with the road? it really reminded me of the episode with the cluster when they started drilling it and steven was seeing flashes of stuff for some reason. Not sure what to think.
Spoiler: about the stuff boyfriend thinks it's meant to represent their anxiety/bad feelings messing with the fusion, but i'm not sure either.
Spoiler Yeah, it doesn't look like they lost a lot of time talking, and there was no sign that any of that happened physically... so I'm thinking that was the imagery of the fusion breaking down.
I just remembered - I wanted to comment on one thing: There's "Sadie accepting that Steven is in Lars's body" weird, and then there's Spoiler Kevin saying "oh, right, you were the two kids in a trenchcoat" weird As for the road stuff, Spoiler Anxiety-encouraged fusion-related hallucinations seems right, but it wasn't explained well
I'm pretty sure that the Crystal Gems and their monsters being around for most of human history has shaped cultural norms. Probably in other cities they have signs up for What To Do If A Gem Monster Attacks.
Spoiler look at how fucking thin he is, though. also look how there's a line on the left side of his chest. here's a screenshot from coach steven, which shows that there's definitely something sticking out there. and again, from island adventure. you could argue that it's just muscle, but he isn't muscular anywhere else. so it definitely could be breasts that are just small enough to not be noticeable. combined with all the other hints, i think it's a solid theory. as for him being an asshole? tbh i don't think it's that big of a problem. he doesn't fall into any notable transphobic tropes as far as i can tell and as long as him being an asshole wasn't narratively tied into his transness if they ever made it explicit, it wouldn't be that bad. like i definitely want trans characters that aren't assholes too but an asshole trans character whose assholeness isn't RELATED to them being trans would be a step forward.
my touhou music is getting into my brain again somebody please stop me from trying to figure out what the gems would be like in a bullet hell game steven would actually shoot friendliness pellets
PLEASE FIGURE IT OUT Jasper = some kind of attack where she moves around the screen with a cloud of bullets and tries to charge into you/big unzen-style fists/maybe lasers to represent the destablizer?
"Headbutt Sign ~ HULK SMASH" :::PPP Lapis has big spectacular crashing waves of bullets going back and forth across the screen and slamming together. Like, "make the game engine lag" numbers of bullets.
東方 薔薇晶軍: History of Crystal War (The moonrunes are Touhou Rose-Crystal-Army. The nicest reading would be Barashougun, which has the bonus of sounding like "General Rose" - as in, an army general)
Most of Peri's attacks involve targeted lasers. If she's got her limb enhancers, she occasionally shoots one straight stream of big ol' sun bullets, too. She's got a final timeout card where she gets in a mech and unloads its entire arsenal at you.
Sapphire would have cards like Danmaku Paranoia, where she'd "freeze" you in a relatively small area of movement. Ruby...would just go full Mokou. Maybe they'd be a double boss, and then fuse into garnet for their final card?
Some kind of gimmick related to her time in the mirror would also be fun. Maybe something like Satori, where she "plays back" other people's spell cards that you've seen? Or pieces together their trademarks into something new, even.
who gets to pull out LASER LIGHT CANNON as a master spark ripoff, though. I'd say Steven, but it seems like his shield would make a better bomb. Also, Steven definitely shoots star bullets.