Spoiler: beta/earthlings A good bit of Jasper vs Amethyst meta. I am really happy to see a ton of thoughtful Jasper shit coming onto my dash. Thank god.
Spoiler Depends what part of the shock you're talking about - I don't think that her fusing with the Ocean Jasper would be the worst thing in and of itself - like, cringy and painful to watch, sure, but she knows Jasper will try and force fusion when backed into a corner, and given that they knowJasper has been collecting gems, it's probably a fair assumption she'd try it. The whole "watching jasper become corrupted before their eyes while crying about how no one likes her" thing might fuck em up a fair bit, though.
Spoiler Yeah but in this case, it's with a corrupted gem who literally cannot give consent in any way - Lapis did consent to it, albeit under duress. THAT though, was straight up non-con, nothing dubious about it. The whole thing was a glorious mindfuck and I have so much art to do later
so some of the things in this video have been disproven--like the idea that Rose is Pink Diamond--but I find it an interesting theory anyway. (warning: it's a load of talking with no accurate captions.) what do you guys think?
Spoiler: Earthlings WHAT A GOOD EP also gotta share this post that sold me on future jasper healing/redemption. LOOKING FORWARD TO LUKA COSPLAYING AS SMOKY QUARTZ, TOO.
Spoiler I read fusion just as a general, somewhat loose metaphor for interpersonal relationships rather than specifically a Sex Thing (because otherwise some things get kinda weird), so I don't feel like consent issues are as huge a thing as they are with actual literal human sex.
so.... Spoiler: theory a friend and I came up with what if the Diamonds....aren't Gems? what if, rather than being Gems, they're some form of higher being that made the Gems, and came into being some other way? I mean, think about it: - it would explain why it's been hinted at that they can't be poofed - it would explain their 'objective flawlessness' (I know Peridot said this and we can't really put TOO much stock in things Peridot's said about the Diamonds, since Yellow Diamond was proven to be...not exactly like what Peridot said she was, but there has to be some truth to it for everyone on Homeworld to believe it, imo) - it would explain why Jasper didn't just say 'poofed' or 'shattered' when talking about what Rose did to Pink Diamond--I mean, really, why the mystery around it? why not just say she shattered Pink Diamond? maybe it's because she didn't shatter Pink Diamond, but perma-killed her, because Diamonds can't be poofed, only perma-killed. - further: we've seen that Gems are still conscious in their shards. they're still alive in there, to some extent, desperately seeking out their other pieces (unless Homeworld has some kind of reanimation ability, that is). which suggests to me that, similar to being cracked, if a Gem gets shattered and all their pieces are put together, they can be healed by someone with Rose's powers--like another Rose Quartz. so if Pink Diamond was simply shattered rather than perma-killed, well, why wasn't she put back together and healed up? (I would assume Homeworld keeps the shards of Gems they don't want healed in some place only accessible to Diamonds, or something, and Rose probably wouldn't have the time to run around picking up the shards of every Gem ever shattered and healing them all, which could explain how the Gem war caused the loss of so many lives--not enough time to pick up shards, not enough access to getting the shards, so they couldn't be healed.) - more importantly: military leaders and the like always have some second-in-command to take their place. why did no one else step in? why wasn't a new Diamond created? I mean, objectively speaking, it could be an entire planet or more is required to incubate a Diamond--but I can't really see that stopping the Diamonds from making a new one. it is possible they were too strained after the war and loss of Pink Diamond to colonize new planets, and that all their old planets were tapped out, and they didn't trust anyone to take on the place of Pink Diamond, but even so, I find it interesting that they didn't at least try. you'd think losing a Gem matriarch would be kind of a big deal and that you'd need a replacement ASAP, and I don't really buy that there were only tapped-out planets left--there has to have been at least one with a little juice left in it, and I imagine they would've at least tried to create a new Diamond. granted, if it was a failed experiment we probably wouldn't have heard about it yet, but I still think this theory is plausible--especially since it seems Homeworld only recently began to run out of resources. it probably had enough power to at least make a replacement Gem to take Pink Diamond's place...and yet they didn't do it. why? - if the Diamonds are so 'objectively perfect' and powerful, how did they come into being, and why haven't there ever been any Gems on their power level, if every Gem is created the same way? since a Gem already in existence is required to make more Gems, it seems unlikely the Diamonds just happened to spring up out of the ground on their own, though maybe the conditions on Homeworld are right for that, but I doubt it. so what if they're some kind of higher being that came into existence via bullshit space magic and created the Gems to serve them? (I know there's some holes and it's probably really unlikely, but it's a fun idea and I wanted to share.)
No longer specifically spoilery- I got into a slight argument once with someone who was insisting that fusion was never a metaphor for sex and interpreting it as such was Problematic because kids had done it. Made me a little skittish. But like... you don't even have to see it that way- what it actually is, on a non-metaphorical level, is considerably more intimate than sex and so I'd consider consent even more important. (I'm also stubborn about the fusion experiments echoing rape-as-weapon-of-war. Fortunately this particular person was pretty reasonable once engaged.)
I think we're gonna have to just part ways on this one. I don't want to step on your toes if it's something you feel personally about, it's just my analysis of the text, and what feels most coherent to me. Like, I feel like sex is one of several forms of human intimacy roughly analogous to fusion, and some fusions are definitely sexual relationships (Garnet) - so a forced fusion could be analogous to rape, but that's not automatically the case, since there's also fusions that are clearly based on non-sexual relationships. I also think that making consent necessary gets a bit weird, since in several cases we've seen, fusion is a surprise to both parties - a spontaneous connection rather than something specifically sought out.
part of what makes this line of discussion such a threadshitter is that there are three things commonly called "fusion": the act of two parties fusing, the state of two parties being fused, and the fusion gem as her own entity, and all of these things carry different metaphorical implications.
Spoiler Oh man, everyone else in Jas's Kindergarden was malformed, defective, and fighting from their first day out of the rock, just like her. "Earth is a prison" indeed. Goddamn, they were made for this fight and this fight alone, no prospects, no hope, just doomed to die on planet Earth. Gosh. I bet Jas looks at Amy and sees all thw sisters that died. Fuck, I bet they fought like champions, but it didn't get them anywhere. Only Jas got anywhere by some fluke of birth. Jeeze. Wow, the Beta kindergarten is a sad fucking place.
Spoiler I wonder what kind of defects, other than height, would show up in Gems... What were the qualities Peridot listed off as signifiers of Gem health? Alignment of the hole, size, something about glass...
I think the positioning as well? It sounded like a big deal that one gem would have come out sideways apparently. Also, apparently she can gauge what kind of gem emerges from the hole purely by studying it. I wonder if it has to do with the glass/rock/dirt striations in the surrounding area, or general size and shape?
okay so i watched the two new episodes earlier but then i was doing stuff all evening and now i finally have a chance to scream abt them so Spoiler: beta/earthlings OH MY GOD AHHHHHHH *this goes on for ten minutes* YAY FIRST STEVEN/GEM FUSION!!!! i literally squeaked, out loud, when it happened and my eyes got all huge (i swear i had stars in em, i was so excited). i love smoky quartz so much!!! such a perfect fusion of steven and amethyst's personalities, they totally would turn into a goofy pun-shouting trickster type with a battle yo-yo, this is literally perfect AND YAY ANOTHER fat character who is shown to be heroic and inspirational this show is so good to me. i love love love their dynamic, they are the two weird misfit kids, both of them in a lot of ways aren't "true" crystal gems, they weren't really around for most of the rebellion. they are too young, both the "wrong" shapes, and it's hard. "we worst gems gotta stick together" my heart and damn, such great Sad Jasper stuff. i love her big beefy Cheeto puff self and the and i *points and flails incoherently for ten more minutes* i also definitely think there will be a redemption arc for her later, the whole healing corruption thing was built up way too much to let that be the end of it. but damn tho. i think the fact that she was very near an emotional break near the end is a hint that she can get better, that her actions right now are of someone desperate, scared and lost also "c'mon sis" ame you're literally killing me, i can't wait until jasper's redeemed and we get to see them share a special Quartz Bond ahhhh and i'm glad Rose is Pink Diamond theory is finally Dead (not to be mean to anyone who was into it i just really didn't like it) and it looks like we're gonna get more info on exactly how fucked up Steven's mom was, and it's gonna be awesome. tumblr'll probably implode tho. also i really really love peridot/lapis's roommate situation, i did not expect them to turn into weird art students, but it's great. i agree that it happened out of nowhere, but echoing what some of y'all have said elsethread- this is clearly a problem with the steven nuke format- what would've felt like a pretty natural pacing over months is instead rushed into two weeks, and it doesn't feel like enough time has passed. but on the other hand, it's kinda cool that stuff happens to the other characters when steven's not around them. i hope there's an episode shuffled around somewhere that gives us another glimpse of how period/lapis reconciled, but they are super adorbs together. and, finally, i would love it if the entirety of the war turned out to just be bitter lesbian breakup drama between rose/pink diamond/jasper, that would be gr8
Just watched it, oh lorrrrrd that was a good episode. SO GOOD. Spoiler: Earthlings I..can't even begin to fathom Jasper's damage. Imagine being the only 'good enough' quartz surrounded by her deformed sisters. It could even be that some of them did escape besides Jasper, but the others may have been recycled (harvested?) because of their deformities. That could explain her fixation on Amethyst's imperfectness, how could she be allowed to survive when everyone in her colony were ruthlessly culled. Whatever happened, I'm at least 90% sure that she was the only one in her colony that survived. That's actually, wow. That would explain lion. I don't think Lion is completely Pink Diamond, but he might be a piece of them. Shit, now we know why she's so fixated on strength >>;. I just..wow. What if Jasper is desperately lonely underneath all those layers of rage and fixation on strength. That could be why she was briefly obsessed with getting back together with Lapis. She's an orphaned gem because Rose did something to Pink Diamond, she got herself taken in to a stranger's army. Guys, what if she has this gem deep need to be part of an army? Gems are born into different jobs, so it makes sense that they'd have instincts related to their place. Jasper is trying to build an army because wtf else is she supposed to do? She has to avenge her diamond somehow. She'd been waiting eons for the chance to fight Rose Quartz, because Rose's actions destroyed her life before she was even born. This episode just destroyed me. There's so many things!!
