@chaoticArbiter re: quoted post Spoiler I guess I don't understand why shattering gems is ever necessary, since poofing and bubbling them seems to be as effective? oh, I guess bc then they can't be brought back if the CGs lose them and they're freed somehow. Idk, "kill the elite!" just gives me an uncomfortable French-revolution feeling :P
If characters aren't allowed to fall into any negative stereotypic traits of minority groups, then women characters can't exist anymore, because any trait a human being can possible has has been negatively applied to 'all women'. Frigid! Sluts! Unfeeling! Overly emotional! Too feminine! Not feminine enough! BAD BAD BAD BAD ROLE MODEL! Let's take this further! Garnet's desexualized! The Pizzas are working in the service industry! Connie's mother is strict! Guess everything is racist now!!
Spoiler I feel like shattering the Diamonds is necessary; they're the ones who seem to have started all this and are in control and will probably refuse all attempts at change, and if a follower tricked the CGs and freed the Diamonds or something, well.... I don't agree with killing every elite ever, but the Diamonds, imo, have gotta go.
Spoiler But shattering and removing are different, with being able to bubble gems. I think Bismuth was right about needing efficient weapons, but if you can poof bodies then bubble gems, that gives you three advantages that shattering doesn't have. You seem more reasonable to foes, you have potential hostages, and you can take time to talk to everyone individually after and try to recruit.
Spoiler then let me rephrase: I think the Diamonds should be shattered. I don't think they're going to be recruited, no matter what, and I think they're too dangerous if they ever got free. ....actually, that's a good idea I hadn't considered. that could work.
Spoiler: bismuth and the coding issue So, I mentioned it before but. SU does have a big problem with masculine gems being much more violent, inclined towards losing themselves in power, and requiring physical force to snap them out of that mindset. The fact that Bismuth and Sugilite are both black-coded might play into that, but the problem is that Garnet, the Pizzas, and Alexandrite are all also black or black-coded, and Jasper notably isn't. Which means that the issue to me seems like less of a race issue, and more of a presentation issue, where characters that are less overtly feminine have a tendency to resort to violence first. And it is a problem. I'm just hoping that with Bismuth getting bubbled (and maybe coming back-- after all, Lapis was a thirty-minute Special Episode gem too) and the potential for a Jasper redemption arc, some of that will be addressed.
Spoiler Yes, this. If the poof+bubble technique is as effective in battle as shattering, if bubbled gems are unable to escape, then shattering is a liability. If Bismuth had her way, rushing to Homeworld using it on everyone who got in their path? We have plenty of real world examples of when two sides are convinced that the other side is the Bad Guys Who Will Do Anything To Destroy You. It would have inspired Homeworld's ranks to fight that much harder against the rebels. Convinced the thinkers that rebellion is dangerous and harmful. What is the benefit of destroying the Diamonds when they could be utterly neutralized by being bubbled until the majority of gems no longer respect their leadership?
Spoiler my issue with this: I feel like to be in charge from the very beginning, for all this time, they've gotta have hella powers. you have to prove yourself to someone to get people to follow you to begin with, and then you can be a tyrant. they have to have crushed rebellions before they had hella soldiers, which means they've gotta have some kind of powers, and those powers have gotta be good.
Spoiler: presentation would the rubies count as violent masculine Gems? they don't have the other two traits you listed in the first sentence, but violent might be at least a maybe. and they are definitely masculine, most of them.
Spoiler: presentation I'd say that our Ruby is definitely hot-headed (haha) and inclined towards a punch first, ask questions later solution. The Ruby squad is a little less so, but the Ruby squad is also very loosely characterized, so it's harder to say one way or the other. But the Rubies, while being pretty masc, are small. Peridot is pretty small too and doesn't perform femininity very much at all, but she also doesn't hit those hypermasculine keynotes. So I think in this case, size might matter? I'd have to think about it some more, but there's definitely a tendency to use masculine presentation as a shorthand for rough-n-ready, and at least with the Lorge Ladies it's becoming a shorthand for "drastically violent" too.
Spoiler I agree with the basic premise of this! I look at Homestuck, at the Condesce, who had a horrorterror capable of killing all trollkind but her caste. Rebellions led by the lowbloods were always a terribly risky gamble, since she could just convince her lusus to giggle a little and wipe out that whole part of the spectrum. The diamonds at least have the social stratification of You Are Your Role keeping gems from considering the idea, and probably have absurd powers to help them survive would-be assassins and uprisings. We don't yet have any examples of these powers, other than Diamonds being large-fusion-sized while seemingly having only one gem each... But I find that very plausible to assume. So I agree: having the Breaking Point as a last resort for if poofing didn't work? That makes sense, in a practical logistical sort of way. If Bismuth had been able to pitch the idea like that, maybe they could have worked something out. That's not why Bismuth made it, and it's not how people would have used it. Expedience is hard to draw a hard line on. Why hold such a powerful tool in reserve when they could just destroy everyone who gives them too much trouble? [Insert slippery slope fallacy here].
Spoiler yeah, I don't agree with the Breaking Point as just...destroy everyone and anyone, or even anyone who gives them trouble. I would have liked to have kept it around as a last resort for if poofing didn't work, but only, and I do mean only, in the case of the Diamonds. nobody else. I wish Bismuth had made it for that reason, rather than being so extremist that she wanted to shatter every Gem they fought, because that's just...no. regardless, I do hope we'll see her again. and that she'll come around.
Spoiler i'm a squishy friendly blob at heart, I don't like people dying. and if you have a way to not really kill people? please use. and that is basically my feels on the bismuth thing. also she big and strong. and occassionally pantless. this is fine.
Spoiler http://kathygaele.tumblr.com/post/148473346716/a-thing-i-want-after-todays-ep-and-then-they I coloured it :3
sooooooooooooooooooooooo Spoiler thoughts on the Bismuth we met today being the same Bismuth who poofed Lapis?
Spoiler well, a cruel part of my mind is saying, "if she was the same bismuth, lapis would've been shattered."
