Connie reminds me quite a bit of me and my friends at her age. We were huge book worms, wrote self insert fanfic of ourselves in our favorite stories where we'd go on adventures together. Still had that vague hope/dream that we were actually a character in a book and our adventure would begin soon. I can't say that I wouldn't react exactly like her in that situation. Because huge nerds with escapist fantasies. :P
Haha, yeah, the Lars fiasco is something I've seen brewing out the corner of my eye even way off in Terrible Bara Land.
Yeah the Tumblr fandom is... Absurd. That's not what this show is about. There are no, or nearly no, irredeemable jerks. Stephen's power is heart and friendship. He will nakama the entire universe if he lives long enough. And look at the slow arcs of people rekindling bonds, rediscovering their strengths, while still remaining fundamentally them. Look at the difference between the T-shirT-shirt episode (early in continuity) to the crashed pod episode (much later). Characters like Lars are slower to bend to Stephen's aura of friendship, but I suspect the healing will happen.
Yup, sounds about right with the fandom. Also, anyone else get sort of uncomfortable/squicked when people insist that a character has (x) mental illness when it doesn't even make sense to draw that conclusion whatsoever? Like, it feels like they're either projecting really hard onto the character, or trying to make it so they can claim that the character is a precious cinnamon roll who can't do anything wrong. (Also there are mini cinnamon rolls in the house and I've been taking every available chance to call,the, precious cinnamon rolls lol)
The Steven Universe Tumblr Fandom = Jupiter Drama = The strong winds Lars (and by extension Sadie) Drama = the Red Spot
lol you're gonna have to put the Lapis/jasper ship in the red spot too, because that shit gets fucking ridiculous.
In the context you are talking about then yeah, it's kind of an issue in a lot of tumblr fandoms, It's not something too bad imo (it's something I used to do a lot myself) but it does kind of bother me from a character analysis perspective. Like, the only way I think it's really wrong is from a "people are being wrong on the internet about something I like!" (or if they go the CAA route but that involves a lot of factors I think) otherwise... It really depends on what mental illness they are diagnosing characters with? Like, I enjoy the "Pearl is the gem equivalent of autistic" headcanon and Lars is like... he definitely has some kind of anxiety disorder. His anxiety issues really pinged me in the Island Adventure episode (as opposed to him just being a tool in Lars and the Cool Kids though in retrospect he is pretty anxious in that episode too) it only got even more pronounced in the halloween episode. Notably in a world where pretty much all the humans are basically "meh, whatever." about weird things and magic he goes into screechy crying panic meltdown mode when weird stuff starts happening. Like dude. Someone get this child a therapist and a prescription nobody should be panicking this badly all the time. (this is why Lars is my trash baby despite also having a lot of narcissistic/self centered traits)
Spoiler: more connie talk You know, I'm kind of surprised that Connie bought into all the YOU MUST BE READY TO DIE FOR YOUR LORD, YOU ARE NOTHING BUT THE SWORD AND THE DRIVE TO PROTECT so quickly. I mean, she was training for a while, and I'm sure Pearl was very - I dunno, charismatic? But even so. I'm rather wondering if Connie's parents and their methods have left her with some brainweird. I mean, something is definitely Not Right over there - Fusion Cuisine really bothered me for that reason.
As someone with a lot of neurodivergent headcanons...yeah, it kinda does. Personal background: I ran a blog for neurodivergent Homestuck headcanons at one point, and some of the submissions were just...ugh. I started it with high hopes ("people will be able to relate to this! i'm doing a good thing!"), and now I'm totally soured on the entire concept because half the time it was like someone was just throwing darts at a board. Like, "Let's see...*throws dart* Jade has...uh...*throws dart* dependent personality disorder. Yeah. This makes perfect sense." So tl;dr you're not alone. Also the SU fandom on Tumblr is terrifying and a good part of why I was reluctant to even try the show out at first. I'm glad I did, but ugh. It's like the HS fandom at its worst but with more wannabe SOSHUL JUSTUS bullshit and more vitriol. :( EDIT: Also, I don't read any of Pearl's actions as intentionally malicious either. She's definitely got Major Issues but I don't think she's intentionally A Bad Person? But again, see also: shitty fandom, so. Yeah. :I
Oh man yeah. I mean, if you can back up that kind of headcanon with canon bits, or just go 'I don't really have much support for this but it makes sense to me, hehe' then fine, go nuts. But don't just go 'this character is definitely like this, it's 100% true, i know what i am talking about and if you disagree then you are ableist and denying representation.' Also, I am quite sure that Pearl is not being actively malicious, but she has some heavy social conditioning and a lot of beliefs on What You Do In Battle and What Roles There Are that have been challenged basically never.
Spoiler: Yes Connie talk is good I think there is a few factors: 1.) the same way Rose was the only person who ever saw any value in Pearl, Steven is Connie's first and still only friend 2.) she really loves her fantasy novels where those themes are pretty common. Like, this whole training sequence could pop out of any cliche YA fantasy novel. I imagine that she was processing it like she was a character and this was her novel. Her parents though are also incredibly controlling though so that also influences things I think. She couldn't hang out and get the social skills with other kids her age because she moved around a lot and activities normal kids enjoy are strictly monitored due to their concerns for her health and safety. Also she may be under the impression that her parents don't love her very much if all they do is put more and more pressure in her life. I dunno, not something I have a ton of experience with myself but it's what I imagine.
@liminal Yeah, those make a lot of sense! But I have seen a whole heck of a lot of what @KarrinBlue mentioned: the whole "this is totally canon if you disagree you're ableist/trash/etc." sort of posts, when what they are insisting has absolutely zero support from canon. And that's more what I was talking about, sorry for the confusion. Like I'm all for neurodivergent headcanons that have some basis given what's been shown in the show, or even headcanons that make no sense so long as the op doesn't try to insist that it is canon or that people can't disagree.
There's a theory that Pearl is the gem equivalent of autistic? Huh. That I never thought about. As far as being intentionally malicious, while I'm sure that Pearl definitely has that in her to some extent a lot of what she does doesn't ping me as being intentionally malicious. Pearl's just got. Issues. She lacks a healthy self view and she's lacking in self preservation, and she is very, very strongly attached to Rose. Pearl is very much a "I have duties and so does everyone else" person too. Ritual is also very fucking important. She's the sort of person who might get stuck in a religious hell spiral if she were a human and exposed to it. At least that is how she strikes me. I don't think she's trying to hurt people most of the time. She just gets very blinded by her particular obsessions and she obviously has some sort of baggage what with falling apart into tears. Pearl is honestly the most relatable person in the show for me. Anxious, dutiful, ritualistic, and devoted to a frightening degree.
I haven't really seen any really off the wall SU brainweird headcannons. I know the autistic Pearl thing is common enough that people tag fics with her on AO3 as "Cannon Autistic Character", which pings me hard in the 'wow no don't go saying things that are just plain not literally true, why' feels. Similar things happen with Amethyst and Garnet, though their particular tags are "Cannon Queer Woman of Color" which, again, I get the whole "coded black" deal, but they are literally purple and red space rocks, respectively. I feel weird about being upset by those tags, cause I have no issue with people thinking of Pearl as autistic or Garnet as black, but they aren't literally that as stated plainly in the show itself so?? I guess I am picky.
Oh, I have seen "Human Garnet is definitely a multiple system!" Which was weird for me, but probably a logical conclusion to make if you are in that sort of community.
this episode gave me such intense pearl feels. like, goddamn it, almost too intense... the knight/liege thing, how intensely pearl feels for rose, all that just... hella designed to hit me right in the feels, right in my fave romance tropes. (which i, being me, indulge in the most Trashy Romance Novel way possible, haha.) heck, i'm having trouble dealing with how unhealthy some aspects of it was, i'm just feeling pearl so much right now. fave. fave. fave. also, i hate it when tumblr is like "the moral of this episode/movie/book/whatever was and that is just so socially just or whatever," since we're talking about annoying steven universe tumblr shit just... goddammit, tumblr, that's so fucking patronizing and yeah, people should lay off the "not literally true" ao3 tags and stuff. like, your headcanons and stuff? they might be good and fit really well, but even so, they are still headcanons, not Literal Actual Canon. and those tags sound like a sign that they'll be one of those people that's really obnoxious about sjw stuff.
