Things I though about when watching Catch & Release for the third time: Steven's power's don't seem to work on things, like the home warp pad and the storm thing, just gems and humans. So Steven probably hasn't lost his powers at all. Spoiler: When It Rains The little heart thing killed me. Especially Pearl blushing omg my shit ship is showing
so, haven't you noticed (i'm a star)... i like it but... it sounds... incomplete to me. i mean, i don't really know anything about music so i can't be sure but... it does. the first part (i'm too famous, pink limousine; the part that was sung the most in the ep) doesn't really fit well with the second part (haven't you noticed, world is turning, see me burning). like, it sounds different, doesn't really transition that naturally from one to the other, and neither of those sections repeat anything from the other. they share the same theme, yeah, so it's not like they are completely different beasts but... yeah... also, the entire song, both parts, is about 50 secs long - which is hella short. like, i listen to a lot of pop songs on the radio and none of them are that short, i swear. but haven't you noticed is. which might be nothing but a result of it being on a cartoon and not that major, but yeah... i dunno what to make of this observation but i figured i'd post it here, see what you guys thought of it.
It seems like it's a verse and a refrain. It could do with another verse, maybe one that's more of a counterpoint to the first one, and puts the refrain in a slightly different context.
@unknownanonymous i do agree with you that it's rather short and abrupt, but i always got the impression that it was supposed to evoke the feel of a pop song more than be an actual "you'd literally hear this on the radio this way" kind of song? like it's not important that it be finished, because it does what it needs. also a lot of the songs in steven universe are like that- short bits of music that aren't really full songs. (the ones from the message about lapis/the wailing stone come to mind). that's just my 2 cents.
Keep in mind also that SU episodes are only 11 minutes long as it is and have very, very tight pacing - an average length song would take up a significant portion of the episode, and leave a lot less room for all the talking and doing that happens. I agree with @Choco - it's not important that the song be finished, because it's supposed to evoke the feeling of a song and let our minds fill in the sensation while the episode gets on with other stuff. It's very efficient.
Spoiler: Back to the Barn spoilers ROCK ON PEARL no pun intended but seriously yeah. especially after seeing her be down on herself about that in earlier episodes, it pleases me that she declines to take Peridot's crap. I'm also glad to see Peridot starting to learn.
Spoiler: Spoilers A Pearl centric episode not riven by angst?! She really has grown since the Sardonyx episode! *wipes a proud tear from eye* this episode was great, funny, cute, Pearl was a badass, an we got more info about gem homeworld! The thing with peridot though got creepy after awhile. Not only her prejudice but the implication that there are hundreds of slave Pearls and their only real fuction is to "stand around and look pretty and maybe hold your stuff for you" combined with grabbing her sash and saying she's a fancy one just. ... major creepy vibes there. Gems aren't sexual and they don't really feel human emotions in the same way but it just seemed eerily similar to sexual slavery.
Spoiler: back to the nor- no, the barn spoilers i was amazed by how casually the pearls-as-servants theory and the multiples-of-each-gem theory were confirmed. like, i expected that stuff to be revealed more dramatically. but it makes sense that it wasn't dramatic, actually, since for peridot, this stuff about pearls and multiples is entirely natural and she sees nothing dramatic about it. it is just how the world works.
Spoiler: back to the barn spoilers oh my godddddd. on top of my love of pearl, WORLDBUILDING : DDDDD honestly, one of my favorite things (in fiction) is systematic inequality systems. I 'm so excited to see more about homeworld, i have so many questionsss about the rest of it agreeing with the creepiness feeling from what peridot said.. but i sorta loved it for the creepiness
Spoiler In retrospect, I'm even more fascinated by the time Pearl shouted, "Why can't you just let me do this for you Rose??" If Pearls are considered a servant/slave/lapdog caste, expected to do nothing but look pretty... Then are most Homeworld Gems really buying in to what they're supposed to be and overlooking the exceptions? Is our Pearl genuinely unusual in comparison, and if so, how did she come to be an exception?
So what I got from this episode is that for all their "superior technology" gems never invented the wheel. Humanity: 1 Gems: 0 Spoiler: actual spoilers now I am increasingly convinced that this thing with the Cluster will be dealt with by the end of season 2 and that the Crystal Gems are going to wind up taking their rebellion to Homeworld and dealing with its oppressive society. Also don't think I didn't see you carefully rigging that tie, Steven.
Actually! I think that the Homeworld did invent wheels. But Peridot's so new that they were obsolete by her time. Plus there's the implication she never got any non-mission-specific knowledge, aside from basic cultural stuff - historical technology could be accessed on her screens if she needed it, so she never learned it elsewhere.
i guess Gems just never needed wheels like if they felt a need for wheels, well, they'd have invented some but they had other ways to make things move so they didn't
Well, that paid off all the "just a Pearl" foreshadowing with dividends! Spoiler The Gem classism stuff is a bit blatant, but I guess some Anvils Needed To Be Dropped. Will Tumblr jump on Peridot for still being Problematic (even though this sort of "well I guess you're different from the rest" is how actual people behave when they're in the middle of changng their long-held opinions)? Or is Pearl already Poblematic for other reasons and thus doesn't deserve defending?
The anvil made good sense to me, honestly. Spoiler Peridot's been so immersed in Homeworld Gem culture, whatever it is, that finding out Earth doesn't work like that is almost nonsensical. She's having culture shock, which is hilarious but also really interesting to look at.
Also, it's a kid's show. Kids aren't dumb, but they do have a low-res view of the world - having difficult concepts painted in broad strokes helps them get a grasp on those concepts.
I have to say it was also nice to have a reminder that even though Peridot is very young and vulnerable and adorable and has been abused, she can also be kind of a big jerkass, and she's still bought into this very unjust system and it will take her a good long while to divest from it. I have never been a big fan of immediate 180 degree turnarounds in characters who are suddenly *ENLIGHTENED* and understand that everything they formerly believed and did was *WRONG*, mostly because I'm from the South originally and I have seen people outgrow their old hateful attitudes, but it usually takes more effort and is less neat and clean and instant. I'm pleased that she's not going to become (at least not in canon) Little Miss Woobiekins.
Spoiler: spoipers wow, Peridot. 'You can belong to me for now'. Um. That's not creepy at all. Pearl being a massively enthusiastic nerdgoof about the robot thing was so adorable though. And her and Peridot have an opportunity to bond now, over the shared project which hopefully will lead to peridot stopping with her casteist (?) bigotry! Overall this is really moving in a great direction. Also the fact that they tried to keep it secret from steven that there were multiples of gems just???? What would they've done if another amethyst or another ruby or another sapphire or heck ANOTHER PERIDOT were part of the next invasion party? (Pearls seem unlikely with their designated role but any deep space traveling group will have a technician with them I am sure.) Also I do really hope that they will take the whole thing to homeworld for the third season but before that we still need to get the malachite plot resolved! #freeLapis2k15 ETA: also omg "Made to Order Servants" does that mean.... can gems be customized? Or is that a Pearl thing? I kinda hope we'll meet other Pearls on the show, all massively different in built and looks (and I kinda hope Pearl will lead a revolutionary army of Pearls on homeworld and that most of them will have really pretty weapons like ribbons or drapes or fans and I basically dream of half the budget of the season to be blown on a grogeous fighting sequence full of graceful dancing assassins.
