Spoiler: half hour special, triggery tumblr awfulness discussion you know what is really upsetting to me? this episode's parallel to destructive tumblr activists is not really much of an exaggeration. be it by trying to make sure people they don't like starve, suicide baiting vulnerable folks, etc., they quite literally try to kill people on the regular. i'm really upset thinking about this, actually, i'm gonna step out for a bit i think
...Note to self: Nope off of Tumblr tonight. Apparently there's a shitstorm a-brewin' with regards to Bismuth.
Firstly, sympathy liked, @Carnivorous Moogle. :( I can see it. Spoiler: half-hour ep spoilers Bismuth is a Big Bulky Lady and I love her. I wish she wasn't bloodthirsty like the other Big Bulky Ladies we have but honestly this way I can blackship her and Jasper and that's pretty okay with me. @KathyGaele that is a FANTASTIC PICTURE by the way a+. I can see her getting this way because she was in the middle of a war, and the person responsible for making weapons at that; everyone else has had thousands of years to cool down from war-time, but time doesn't seem to pass for bubbled gems subjectively, so from her perspective she's still in that situation. It doesn't excuse her but it does explain her, I think. I'm really worried about Steven. The kid's like... twelve? And he keeps having to manage all these dangerous situations with people who expect him to be Rose. Like, kid needs a therapist. And a hug. I'm glad the other gems didn't fight him on his account of events; I was worried they'd take Bismuth's side.
Spoiler: shitstorm prediction i reckon tumblr doesn't like seeing itself in the mirror. that, or it likes it too much. or both.
I don't even go here and it's all over my dash. It's not brewing: it's the kind of shitstorm you launch Dorothy II into.
Spoiler Same!!! It's so nice to see what a gem still essentially from that time period was like! The active in-jokes, the immediate comradery, the references to things that of course everybody involved would know. Amethyst and Steven have gotten tiny tidbits, but who did they have available? Rose, chronic secret keeper. Pearl, who loves having things she knows that others don't, so she gets the chance to be the Teacher. And Garnet, who's quiet and inscrutable a hell of a lot of the time. But surrounded by other, more talkative people who they loved.... :( Spoiler: Bismuth. A few choice quotes from a few friends of friends who dared to venture into the tags: I am sticking to my perspective on it: Bismuth is an excellent example of the social justice warrior: those for whom the fight is what matters mentality. There's already other means of neutralizing gems: break their form, bubble them, and there's nothing they can do. The breaking point is destructive for the sake of destruction.
Also, actual analysis here. Spoiler When Bismuth was talking to Steven and was like, 'of COURSE you aren't Rose, that's the point, you can be someone better', that clicked with how she said she wanted a fresh start. I feel like... maybe that's what Rose was looking for in Steven. Everyone adored Rose to such a point that if Rose had the same high esteem for herself, she'd be in dangerously narcissistic territories. The ending themes only seem to emphasize the disconnect between what Rose felt of herself and what others thought of her. Bismuth's got obvious class issues but still resonated with Rose as a member of the dirty masses rising up against the elite, so whatever Rose went through early as a soldier, it was NOT being treated well. Others identify her as a general though, so either she earned that title when she defected and raised an army, or she stayed in the system long enough to work her way up, like (presumably) Jasper. Rose forged her own path, she offered people choices, but she did this using the tools and weapons and mindset imprinted on her from the start by an uncaring class system with no mobility, and when she's talking to Greg in Greg the Babysitter, she's amazed that human societies encourage people to change, yes, but she's also amazed that humans can change. That reads to me like she still struggles with distancing herself from her beginnings and feeling like the changes she makes are 'real' changes, are 'enough'. As much as Rose was an amazing general and leader and as much love as she had in her, I feel like she struggled with a lot of self-worth issues and with how her beginnings defines her. She had to have done some sketchy shit to protect Earth, even if she wouldn't go for Bismuth's Breaking Point, but what did her fighting and her morals get her? She protected Earth, but she failed to protect her own army. The only lucid survivors other than her were Garnet, Pearl, and Bismuth. And frankly, it's kind of ambiguous if they fought off Homeworld or if Homeworld just left after that last attack. Even if Rose genuinely fought off Homeworld, I think she must have felt so inadequate for failing to protect her friends and soldiers. She's a war vet with PTSD and survivor's guilt and probably a fuckton of other issues we'll discover, and as much as she loves Earth, I wonder if she just got... tired. So. Steven. Steven isn't Rose. Steven is someone new, someone who has been given options from the start. Steven is a fresh start. Steven can be better than Rose, because Steven doesn't have to feel bad for whatever decisions Rose feels bad for. Steven is Rose running from her problems.
I came back from the dead to say that I ship Bismuth/Pearl I loved their interactions together my heart
Spoiler: what's on my dash. I'm a bit confused, the flares on my dash are completely missing the point of her episode, aren't talking about her actions or choices or literally anything else. None of the stuff with Rose, or.. -anything-. They are solely focused on a black coded + beefy gem being aggressive. That is literally it. Nothing about the episode or specific moments, just screaming about those two points of her character and how that is making Rebecca Sugar the devil. Literally nothing else got through yet. I'm predicting a few days of intense shit escalating into massive turds, and then maybe some of the point might get through but so far: nada.
Spoiler: a post I like that I found on Tumblr rose and bismuth were both in the wrong. homeworld doesn’t care about gems, but rose did. she fought them but it seems like she tried not to shatter them unless she had to, she just poofed and bubbled them. the gems have that same attitude to this day. i agree that maybe they should’ve shattered the diamonds, but i think rose meant that she didn’t want bismuth to shatter other gems fighting. she didn’t want her to because those gems had no choice, no free will. they were cogs in homeworld’s plans who were brainwashed into thinking they needed to fight instead of embracing who they could be. gems like peridot and lapis who ultimately learned that they have their own paths in life. if the gems were bubbled instead of shattered, they could be rehabilitated and given new lives. it’s the diamonds that needed to go. however, bismuth was right that some gems needed to be shattered, like the diamonds and the elites who perpetuated the war. but not the gems that had no choice. rose was wrong for bubbling bismuth and never telling anyone. they should’ve settled it together instead of fighting like that. and rose should’ve told everyone why she bubbled bismuth, because maybe garnet and pearl could’ve gotten through to her. and i personally think they should’ve used the weapon on the diamonds and elites, because obviously they weren’t ever going to listen. they wanted to keep all gems under their control. you could see at the end that bismuth was truly upset because she feels like rose abandoned her, lied about her, and didn’t care about her. she began to turn a little when steven promised to tell the gems what happened. when she said he’s better than rose, she meant that he wasn’t going to cover up what happened, and he was going to help whether they agreed or not. that wasn’t a devious smile at all. bismuth is NOT a villain. she and rose had different strategies, and they both messed up. i think bismuth is going to come back and, with steven’s help, understand where he’s coming from. ssssssssssssssssssssame
Spoiler: But But she's not the only black character. She can be a character because she's not the sole representation. And she's aggressive because- well, because she's aggressive, but also because she's at her psychological breaking point, that's the POINT of the weapon name.
