Yeeeeah, I spent about two weeks on the darned, so I've been trying to pimp it out a little bit. I just love the fusions and the idea of fusion so much, I had to do something. The idea of two or more people being in such an intense conversation with each other that they literally become another person is an amazing idea, and a strangely relatable one too.
Leaked episode spoilertastic one liner: Spoiler Amethyst confirmed for the gem equivalent of a little person. AW YEAH GIRRRRRL!
Spoiler: too far Oh my gosh Amethyst my baby. ;-; I will say that the idea of Ame ever actually being in charge is slightly terrifying--especially since she knows she's a terrible source of advice and freely admits as much ("...and never listen to Amethyst." "That's fair!" in Cat Fingers; "...and he shouldn't be taking advice from me..." in The Test...)--but I think she knows that. I don't think she wants to be in charge, really. She's considerably younger than Pearl and Garnet (or at least Garnet's components), and definitely way younger than Rose was, and she seems content to let them do the planning anyway. The entire thing with Amethyst calling Peridot a nerd and Peri getting super confused slayed me. ("Can you...use it in a sentence?" wow nerd alert) SOOOOOOOOO much secondhand embarrassment from Peridot's initial attempts at reconciliation, because that was Basically Me as a kidlet and just. Ouch. That ending legit had me on the verge of tears. ("How do you feel?" "...Big." JUST RIP MY FUCKING HEART OUT OKAY) Gahhhhhhhhhhhhh! I DON'T WANT THERE TO BE A HIATUS. I NEED MORE. ;0;
I was expecting this episode to rip my heart of out by chest and fill its place with tears, but it wound up surprisingly warm-fuzzies-inducing.
Spoiler: Too Far For a bit, I was wondering if this was going to be about Amethyst copying Peridot's jokes, because that's where I've seen this kind of set up lead before. Glad it didn't, though, because it would have been really weird. I really, really enjoyed what we saw of Peridot's character in this episode. She got approval from someone (someone she views as superior, even), was thrilled even though she didn't understand it, and proceeded to spam the approval button until it broke. And even though she missed Amethyst's initial discomfort, she did pick up on the greater differences in behavior later and immediately consulted Steven for troubleshooting. Also, Peridot's description of what an amethyst "should" look like sounded an awful lot like Purple Puma.
Spoiler: Too Far I thought it was interesting how Quartzes are described as strong, big, and loyal... I wonder what Peridot thinks of Rose Quartz. Then again Steven is also a Quartz and he is strong and loyal but not very big.
SCREAMING I STARTED REWATCHING THE EPISODE AS SOON AS I FINISHED Spoiler: Too Far Peridot is actually learning and it's really neat to see, especially since her moral system is pretty blue and orange compared to ours. Also "how do you feel?" "Big" made me wibble a bit, this episode was good for my heart.
Spoiler: amethyst I just think it's so cool that Amethyst doesn't seem all that self-conscious about the whole emerging late thing. She's self-conscious about being a Kindergarten Gem, yes, but that's not because she's "defective." Even after learning what she's "supposed" to look like, she seems more pissed at Peridot for being a jerk about it than upset about her size. I'm just so happy to see her and Pearl learning to be confident and proud of who they are. ;u; Also, I love how this series examines issues of this sort--in this case, Amethyst is very probably an allegory for physically disabled people--through a fantasy lens, but doesn't force the connections. Like, they're definitely there, but it's not some over-the-top in-your-face shit like so many pseudo-inspirational kids' things are? And like...a kid with some form of dwarfism might see this episode and think "hey, Amethyst is like me, that's so cool!", but there's no cloyingness to it. (And if anything, the whole "she can do anything a NORMAL Gem can do!" thing Peridot spouts sounds a lot more like the typical """inspirational""" BS, and Amethyst is shown to be clearly unhappy with it.) Basically, Amethyst is learning to be happy with who she is in what I think is the healthiest way--not "I'm awesome DESPITE being disabled," and not "I'm awesome BECAUSE I'm disabled," but "I'm awesome and I'm disabled and that's just who I am and I'm cool with that." Bluhhh I can't words but I'm so happy about this.
All the things you said are great and on-point, but this in particular is a thing I've been noticing and loving about SU. There's definitely parallels to real life issues and problems, both interpersonal and societal, that are brought up and... engaged with, for lack of a better phrase. But the show never raises the demon of allegory. There's never one-to-one parallels like "HELLO YES THIS EPISODE IS ABOUT FANTASY HOMOPHOBIA" or whatever. All the things that are metaphors are metaphors for a lot of things blended together, and also have a place in the world that is not just metaphorical. The demon of allegory is quite possibly my biggest aesthetic bugaboo, rivaled only by tweeness, and seeing SU repeatedly tempt it and then dodge it so deftly is one of my very favorite things about the show.
shit, I'm totally drawing amethyst w/ achondroplastic features from now on also congrats to garnet for not splatting peridot into a fine green mist; lord knows she was asking for it
Spoiler: Thoughts on fusion and de-fusing. A thought just came to mind. That rod that Jasper used to poof and defuse Garnet, and Peridot tried to use to poof Steven... What, if any, effect would that device have on any the forced fusion shards? Would that just poof them back to the shards that are stuck together? Or would it separate the different shards?
