History Fridge / StevenUniverse

* [[FridgeHorror/{{Coco}} Fridge Horror]]
* [[Headscratchers/{{Coco}} Headscratchers]]

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!!FridgeHorror

* See FridgeHorror.StevenUniverse.

!!FridgeLogic

* See Headscratchers.StevenUniverse.

!!FridgeBrilliance

* See FridgeBrilliance.StevenUniverse.

* See Fridge.StevenUniverseBrilliance.

* See Fridge.StevenUniverseHorror.

%% SpoilersOff applies to all Fridge pages.

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%% Please do not add anything related to leaks until the episodes have aired. Promos, however, are okay.

[[folder:General]]
* The show has been praised for, among other things, its extremely egalitarian beliefs: no character is depicted as lesser based on their appearance, ethnicity, orientation etc. Steven himself literally won't even hurt a bug! But it isn't so much a positive message for it's own sake as it is a reinforcement of the Gems' beliefs: they are the defenders of earth and "all of it's living creatures." And that means AllOfThem! Any kind of intentional prejudice would sully that message.
* Peridot's go-to insult, "clod", makes a lot more sense when you realize that "clod" means a lump of mud, dirt or other useless earth material. It's like calling a human a useless sack of flesh, which is why it makes sense that the Gems would be offended!
* The device Steven uses in the pilot, the one that only works so he can use his ComebackTomorrow, is a Come-back device, as in come back in time.
* Steven's gem is located in his navel, the place where the umbilical cord is linked between a mother and child. That, and Rose's gem was located in the same area.
* Although some people think the term "kindergarten" sounds like an odd thing to call a place where an alien race grows It's population, it's actually a very fitting term; When it is translated from German, it can mean "childrens garden (kinder = children, Garten = garden)". In a garden, to grow completely new plants, people plant seeds in the dirt, and the seeds absorb nutrients from the soil to grow until they sprout from the ground-- a similar process to how Gems are created. The Kindergartens are "gardens" where the Gem empire grows its "children".
* Steven has, on multiple occasions, been said to look like Greg. Since Gems aren't organic beings, and thus don't have DNA, he's basically a smaller clone of Greg, with any differences coming from his time in Rose's shapeshifted womb and her Gem being in his belly button.
** This is pretty much confirmed in the companion book "Guide to the Crystal Gems", where it is said that Rose gave up her physical form in order to pass on her Gem to Steven- because doing so would allow him to inherit the information about Rose's being stored within.
* Rose's signature dress is made of many different layers... like the petals on a ''real'' rose!
* As noted on the main page, the Crystal Gems are the (likely self-appointed) Protectors of the Universe. What is Steven's last name? ''Universe''!
* The Crystal Gems being shapeshifters makes sense; considering they're pan-galactic warriors, they'd want to blend in more with the natives of whatever planet they're protecting.
** It's actually [[SubvertedTrope the other way around]], Gems are pan-galactic ''conquerors'' and shapeshifting would allow them to blend with the natives of whatever planet they plan on attacking...
* The Gems' [[HeartDrive gems]] locations can be tied to their personalities and habits:
** Pearl's gem is located on her forehead; she's very much the intellectual of the group, and acts with her mind.
** Amethyst's gem is on her chest, and she's very quick to act on instinct or intense emotion (her bout of acting out as Purple Puma, for instance); she acts according to her heart.
** Garnet's gems are in the palms of her hands; while she's also very intelligent, she's more a person of action, and the placement on her hands could be seen as a VisualMetaphor for being willing to get her hands dirty. And having two gems is the first hint to her nature as a fusion.
*** Ruby's and Sapphire's gems are found on their left/right hands respectively, marking them as being [[YinYang two halves of a whole]].
*** The other two Ruby bodyguards assigned to Sapphire also had their gems located on their arms, signifying their BloodKnight tendencies.
** Steven's inherited rose quartz is located in his stomach; he goes by gut instinct. Rose Quartz's was also in the same place and one could think of the gem being near her womb.
** Lapis' gem is located on her back; her main goal is looking back and wanting to return back home.
*** Or that she had turned her back on Earth long ago ("... But I never believed in this place.")

*** Also, her water wings come from her gem. Having it on her back allows her to pull off the WingedHumanoid look.
*** That it was cracked when she first appeared may symbolize the grudge she carried; She felt she'd been ''stabbed in the back''.
** Peridot's gem is also on her forehead; from what we've seen of her, she seems logical to a nearly robotic level, with little time for things like mercy and kindness.
** Jasper's gem is on her nose. Lapis took her out of commission by pretending to go along with her plans for a fusion; in other words, she was led around by the nose. It might also denote her bloodthirstiness.
*** If one considers her Gem Weapon is a helmet for her to ram people with her head. You can add the metaphor for her being headstrong, dominant and "bullheaded".
*** Alternately it could symbolize her feelings of superiority to the Crystal Gems. She "looks down her nose at them".
*** Or possibly because her aggressive style could be considered to be "on the nose".
*** Or to combine many of these, she's shrewd, tough, and unsentimental. She's "hard-nosed"
** As for the Ruby Squad's gems:
*** Doc's is on her chest, she's the leader of the Rubies.
*** Navy's is on her stomach like Steven and Rose, and she's a very sweet gem who finds simple joy in everything.
*** Army's is on her arm, and she's very aggressive and always wants to fight others.
*** Leggy's is on her leg; she's absent-minded and always ''lagging'' behind the others.
*** Eyeball's gem covers one of her eyes, she's the war veteran who ''saw'' what [[spoiler: Rose Quartz did to Pink Diamond]] and is ''blinded'' by her anger towards Rose and the Crystal Gems so much that she [[spoiler: attacks Steven without thinking of the consequences]].
*** Eyeball's weapon is a [[spoiler: chisel-like dagger]]. Given how Gems pull their weapons out, and her angry personality, she is literally [[spoiler: glaring daggers at everyone]].
* Steven has a habit of spontaneously bursting into song. While it's mostly an excuse for Rebecca Sugar to flex her very impressive musical muscles there's also an in [[{{Pun}} universe]] justification for it. Greg used to be a professional musician... [[LikeFatherLikeSon Steven ''probably'' picked up that habit from him]].
* Steven possessing a Rose Quartz gem means more than just being inherited from his mom. A Rose Quartz is called the Love gem and Steven is the result of the first love relationship between a human and a Gem.
* It was stated by Pearl that Rose's loving nature was what empowered her healing tears; why the other Gems don't have this power as they share certain powers like shapeshifting? Because Gems are not very empathetic individuals unless it's their own kin, except for Rose, who was loving by nature and learned to see humans and the Earth with compassion and care over time. This also explains why Steven has her powers aside of being inherited; as a half human he's more used to the concept of empathy towards humans and as a child he's caring and compassionate by nature.
* Opal's Bow is literally Amethyst and Pearl's weapons combined. The colors of the bow indicate that the body is formed from Pearl's staff while the string is made from Amethyst's whip.
** Ditto Sugilite's mace being made of Amethyst's whip and Garnet's gauntlets.
** And Sardonyx's war hammer being made of Pearl's spear and Garnet's gauntlets.
** Also, [[spoiler: Smokey Quartz's yo-yo]] being made of Amethyst's whip and [[spoiler: Steven's shield]].
* Steven said the Gems' bodies "are an illusion". Their bodies can shape-shift, and regenerate inside their gem, all implying that a Crystal Gem's body is a projection of the Gem itself- which contains the Gem's actual personality. This explains why an anthropomorphic species would be called "Crystal Gems", as well as why they don't age. Gemstones don't deteriorate over time, right?!
* Want to know why Amethyst is a little hesitant to fuse with Pearl to form Opal, but goes {{Squee}} at the thought of merging with Garnet to form Sugilite? Think about it: despite the fusion being a perfect fusion, there's always a dominant personality. Opal's is Pearl's as denoted by her grace and poise, which means that Amethyst has to take a backseat, something she's not very comfortable with. As Sugilite, not only does she not have to put up with Pearl, but it's also very clear that Amethyst is the dominant personality, due to her wild and destructive nature (something Amethyst is very fond of already.)
** Alternatively, given recent episodes, it could be that since Garnet is really Ruby + Sapphire, Amethyst knows that in Sugilite, her and the hot-headed Ruby will collectively have more influence than Sapphire while in Opal both halves have equal influence.
*** And when Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl fuse into Alexandrite, their personalities would be balanced out with Pearl and calm and collected Sapphire.
** Alternatively, information in even more recent episodes (specifically, "Friend Ship") says that each of the Gems in the fusion can feel what it's like to be the other. Pearl and Amethyst, who are each rather self-loathing, enjoy fusing with the self-loving Garnet, but not with each other.
*** And with them working through a lot of their issues (with themselves and with each other) since Opal's first appearance, "Log Date 7 15 2" shows Amethyst and Pearl fusing into Opal willingly, easily, and happily, no life-or-death situation required.
* Concerning the difference in Opal and Sugilite: Pearl and Amethyst were able to fuse smoothly into Opal because Steven's life was in danger. However, Sugilite was summoned to get a job done quickly rather than carefully, and as noted above, Amethyst was very eager to fuse into her. Not only does Sugilite's first line imply she isn't summoned much, but these circumstances probably increased her recklessness and made her more desperate to keep her form.
** Also, the qualities of the Gems that make up each fusion. Pearl is thoughtful and Amethyst goes by her feelings, so they can sort of balance each other out in a crisis. But Garnet is hands-on and active (not to mention she's less controlling of Amethyst than Pearl), so Sugilite isn't much of a reasoner and only cares about indulging herself.
** Alternatively, Pearl and Amethyst have personalities on complete opposite ends of the spectrum while Garnet is grounded somewhere in the middle. Combining opposites would result in a fairly perfect balance, while combining one extreme with the middle would result in that extreme being the dominant personality. Throw in Garnet's immense physical strength and you have a fusion that's much more difficult to deal with than Opal.
*** In light of the reveal that Garnet herself is a fusion, it could also be broken down mathematically. Normally each Gem would be half of a fusion, but since Ruby and Sapphire are already half of Garnet, they're only a quarter or a third each of Sugilite.
* Bordering between brilliance and horror, but why is Pearl the gem most desperate to leave Earth? Amethyst was born/created on Earth and knows no other life, Garnet is, literally, never alone, but Pearl lost the most important person in her life when Rose Quartz gave up her form. Pearl's been essentially alone ever since.
* A sad mix between this and FridgeHorror: even if Rose/Steven's abilities could heal the corrupted Gems - not just the broken ones like Lapis Lazuli - it's more likely that the ones sealed in the temple were sympathizers with the Homeworld Gems rather than allies. They can't risk letting them go and creating more of a threat to the people of Earth.
** I don't know about that. They have been abandoned by the Homeworld Gems. Rose and her tiny ragtag army drove off the Homeworlders, but the Homeworlders don't seem to have much care for their walking wounded. That being the case, it's entirely possible that they would feel gratitude for being helped by the Crystal Gems, rather than left corrupted and uncared for by Homeworld.
* Why does LargeAndInCharge seem to be a theme with Gems? Given how Amethyst's larger and more muscular form started failing in "Reformed", more powerful Gems are simply able to project a larger body than weaker Gems are.
* Rose's personality, as well as her healing powers, makes a lot of sense if you're knowledgeable in gemology, where the crystal rose-quartz is known as the "Love" stone (Rose is depicted constantly as a loving person) and associated with kindness (able to see the beauty in everything), as well as bringing peace and calm. Rose-quartz is also known to be used for crystal healing, hence why it makes sense that Rose and, by inheritance, Steven possess healing powers.
* The show's tagline, "Believe in Steven," might have more to it than once thought. Steven's powers only seem to activate [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve whenever he believes in himself]], either by being encouraged by others or through his own doing; believing in Steven, or rather Steven believing in himself, might be a prerequisite for his own powers to function properly.
** It also makes sense with the fact Steven has come the closest of anyone to healing corrupted Gems, something the Gems seemed to not think possible. Steven restored their hope that it was possible to save more of their kind.
* Garnet's designs:
** Her first design was probably based on the Almadine Garnet; it has red hues with sightly tones of brown. The prevalence of red most likely indicates Ruby as the dominant in the fusion, while Sapphire takes a more passive role.
** Her second design has a more purple hue, probably to emulate the Pyrope Garnet, that can reach scarlet, violet and even indigo hues. Thanks to the experience of being separate, Ruby and Sapphire appreciate their fusion and are more balanced. Red + blue = violet.
** Her original form - "Cotton Candy Garnet" - is pastel pink and blue. She's a colour change garnet, which is either pink or blue depending on the light. Which makes sense, because this is the first time she's ever formed, and she's still working out what she is. Her disjointed colour scheme reflects this.
* Steven truly is [[Recap/StevenUniverseS1E22StevenAndTheStevens not like the other guys]]. He's not like ''anybody''.
* Each season (including Season 1A and Season 1B) focuses on a different plot and sub-plot.
** Season 1A is about the hunt and origins of the Gem Monsters with Steven's development of his powers as sub-plot.
** Season 1B is about Homeworld and the imminent return of Homeworld Gems; the Crystal Gems' origins and the Gem War for Earth being the sub-plot.
** Season 2, so far, is focusing in Gem Fusion and all related to it (especially in the emotional department). The sub-plot is about chasing after the Homeworld Gems and stopping them from individually causing an oncoming catastrophe.
* Pearl's love for Gem history, seen on all the times Pearl right out jumps to explain everything to Steven, is apparent. Rose might have tried to make her step out of the Rebellion against Homeworld because she knew how much Pearl loved their home and didn't want her to get exiled from it because of her, but when Pearl's devotion towards her was proved bigger, she couldn't say no to her; that's why Rose's chuckle sounded a little sad and she said "''My'' Pearl" now that Pearl proved she loved her more than home.
** And because of this, when Steven hugged Pearl and said "I think you're pretty great", I bet Rose also had a part in that sentence since Pearl, despite all, still protects Earth out of loyalty to her and most likely feels guilty.
* The ending credit's lyrical version has Rebecca Sugar singing a song, which seems to be directed towards Steven. The song implies that the singer gets high respect from Steven. Obviously one of the gems is singing it (because of Steven's immense respect for the gems), but who? Well, Sugar has stated that the Crystal Gems are representations of how she acts around her little brother. Her little brother's name is Steven. So, all three of the gems are singing to Steven, because Rebecca HERSELF is singing to her little brother!
** Making Rebecca Sugar... Alexandrite?!
** On the topic of the girls being different sides of Rebecca--They can be said to be different facets of the same gem.
* [[http://shada-was-in-the-area-and.tumblr.com/post/121648207135/you-know-what-i-noticed-about-the-crystal-gems This post]] points out that each of the Crystal Gems (sans Steven) has a different time set: Pearl is still in the past, Amethyst stays in the present, and Garnet looks towards the future.
* There is plenty of fan speculation that Rose Quartz is recuperating in her gem and that when Steven dies, she will regenerate. If this is the case, then FromACertainPointOfView, [[TheCuckoolanderWasRight Steven really IS pregnant]]! With his own mom!
** And seeing as she "became part of him", he is, in a way, a fusion.
** As the Crystal Gems were able to use Lapis's power when she was poofed, Steven could be drawing power from his mother's gem in the same way
* Thinking about some details from over the series results in some interesting conclusions. To wit, the Gems are alien warriors that originally came to earth to steal its life force to create more warriors, and have little regard for sapient live forms, even being willing to use members of their own species as resources for their tools and weapons. In addition to being able to summon a weapon, they can transform when things go south. In other words, they're MagicalGirl villains, and Amethyst was basically created like a MonsterOfTheWeek. The Crystal Gems themselves have reformed, but they still think like bad guys on occasion.
* Meta: Quartz is one of the most common minerals on Earth. It makes much sense that two varieties of Quartz (Rose Quartz/Steven and Amethyst) are cast as the defenders of Earth.
* All the Gems' outfits after regenerating show a change that seems to give a clue of the cause for regeneration:
** Pearls outfit is now - for the first time for all we know - ''not symmetrical''. It may hint at her becoming more relaxed and ok with herself in contrary to being overly stuck-up.
** Look at her design as well as the designs of all other Pearls closely. All costumes of Pearl as well as those of the other Pearls have some part of the costumes that is partially see-through which might be considered pretty (similar to glass decoration). Her new costume has ''no'' see-through part which might be indicating that Pearl finally starts to fully put her past as a "decorative slave" behind herself and embraces being different.
** Garnet's suit had a color change with a split of color down the middle from the chest down, indicating how she was split in half by the destabilizer in "The Return". It also represents Ruby and Sapphire finally appreciating fusion as "do everything by yourself while your partner takes a backseat", so they now work as equals in their relationship.
** Amethyst's outfit is neater and symmetrical, something that Pearl notices and appreciates almost immediately. Possibly pointing to the emotional cause of the regeneration rather than the physical. Instead of aloofly ignoring other's opinions or desperately grasping at them, she picks something that's both suited to herself while still making others happy.
** Amethyst's ''next'' outfit visually echoes the colour arrangement of Jasper, the one who poofed her.
* Fusions made of radically different personalities are shown to be stoic, as with Opal and Garnet. This makes sense because their constituent personalities are so disparate, the only way to achieve common ground is to purge themselves of emotion!
** Alternately: they're so stoic because their extreme differences cancel each other out, leaving only the emotions they have in common. This also would explain why Sugilite and Sardonyx and so much like Amethyst and Pearl respectively, Garnet's already balanced so the only real influence she offers is her pride and confidence, which cancels out her companions emotion issues, leaving a distilled and amplified version of her friend's personalities.
* In "VideoGame/AttackTheLight," Steven is never directly attacked, other than chameleon monsters stealing from his inventory. From a gameplay standpoint, this is because he's only a support party member, only having healing or buffing abilities, and he has no HP count of his own. But from a story standpoint, the light monsters see Steven as their master. Whether or not they [[PoorCommunicationKills think he's testing them in combat, they would never harm their master.]]
* I just realized something else about Steven's ukulele. The ukulele is an instrument that is popularly associated with Hawaii, a place known for its beaches, food, surfing spots, and overall laid-back nature. Besides the fact that Steven inherited his father's musical talent, the ukulele represents Steven's childlike, happy-go-lucky, and friendly personality.
* Regarding Gem Fusions, the way they are portrayed throughout the show is rather HoYay in context, since the Fusion dances are very intimate to the point where Pearl tried to cover Steven's eyes when a Fusion dance is performed in front of him. From a realistic standpoint, a Fusion is akin to what happens when two people trust each other enough to form a relationship and take it to the next step as shown with Ruby and Sapphire. Since this is a kid's show, a Fusion dance is Steven Universe's kid-friendly way of showing two people "[[GRatedSex make love]]".
** My response: [[{{Squick}} Stevonnie]]. They're kids!
*** "Or at the very least, inappropriate!..."
*** It's also really hard to see Pearl, Garnet, and Amethyst in a sexual relationship with each other, especially since Garnet instantly shuts down the idea of being part of any sort of romantic relationship other than the one she embodies. Yes, fusion is sometimes suggestive, but the love it expresses between the Crystal Gems is clearly not romantic in nature.
*** Most tellingly, Garnet expresses an intention to explore and develop Steven's fusion abilities, ''before they know fusion with humans is possible'', and ''before they realize contact with other gems is possible''. The only people he would ever have an opportunity to fuse with, as far as they knew, were Pearl, Garnet, or Amethyst. Obviously, given their motherly / sisterly relationship, she wouldn't have suggested the possibility of fusing with Steven if fusion was always seen as sexual in nature.
* Pearl has consistently shown apathy towards the Earth and its inhabitants, and she admits in Rose's Scabbard that Rose Quartz was the only reason she stayed. The one time we hear her say something positive is in Serious Steven, when discussing the wild strawberries: "Oh, that's what I love about the earth!" We can assume that she admires the Earth's ability to cover over places of destruction with nature and wildlife. Why would she like this aspect over all others? It reminds her of [[GreenThumb Rose Quartz!]] Rose may have even sown those plants, another reason why Pearl is fond of them. Finally, Pearl is happy and excitable when talking about the Gem war itself. Like the strawberries, Rose Quartz grew over the pain and horrible memories until that was all she could see.
* Fusions tend to have multiple limbs, such as Opal and Sugilite having four arms and towering over most small buildings, and Alexandrite having ''three'' sets of arms and ''two faces''. However, Garnet and Stevonnie don't. They're both normal human sized, or at least compared to the others, and have the proper amount of limbs to be construed as "normal". Why is that? Could it be that fusion, ultimately, is an emotional response? We've seen Amethyst and Pearl fuse, but ultimately that was to save Steven, which could be construed as a necessity. The same goes for Sugilite, who was formed only to complete a mission. But when you look at Garnet and Stevonnie, what was the conditions for their fusing? Two people who obviously feel stronger together than they ever did apart, sharing each others weaknesses and helping through them, where they truly feel one with each other, rather than a necessary by-product. Other Gem-Fusions seem to have multiple limbs to have a constant sign that there are TWO people there. This is not one person, this is two/three people who are carrying out a duty, and nothing more. Whereas Stevonnie and Garnet feel stronger, more natural, being fused together, to the point they want to BE their own person, not because they have to, but because they WANT to.
** In light of this information/idea, it is interesting to note, Rainbow Quartz's only extra body part is an extra pair of eyes. Rose and Pearl must have been close.
** The appearance of fusions depends on the nature of the relationship of the components. Super close relationships get ExtraEyes, but look otherwise normal. If they're less close but still goods friends, they end up MultiArmedAndDangerous. This obviously looks wrong, but in a cool way. Toxic relationships result in grotesque BodyHorror. The less the relationship should be, the less the fusion looks like it should be.
** [[spoiler: Smoky Quartz's]] appearance looks rather unusual, even compared to some of the other fusions- no extra eyes, but three arms, with the left arm splitting into two arms between the elbow and the shoulder. This might be a reflection of [[spoiler: Steven and Amethyst's closeness, with the more unusual trait of three arms coming from the unusual fusion of a half-gem half-human with a full gem.]]
* The more stable a fusion is, the smaller they are and the fewer extra body parts they have. This could be seen as their bodies "overlapping more" -- the more two shapes overlap, the less space they take up and the fewer parts of either shape stick out.
* Maybe coincidence, accident or not, but Steven is shaping into becoming a [[MessianicArchetype Jesus-like]] character. He was born from a [[InvertedTrope human dad]] [[HumanMomNonhumanDad and a genderless but female-coded rock alien]], who was [[HundredPercentAdorationRating adored by all]], [[AllLovingHero loved everyone equally]] and was very powerful. He lives up his mother's legacy and pretty much keeps the Crystal Gems together.
** It's not a coincidence. The episode Three Gems and a Baby had titular three gems bring gifts to Steven, same as the three wise men. Ocean Gem had Steven walking on water and Lapis saying she doesn't have faith in the earth; similar to the biblical story where Jesus walks on water had Peter not having enough faith.
** Also, healing powers.
* Lapis's prominent [[DoesNotLikeShoes bare feet]] make an awful lot of sense if you consider that before her gem was cracked, she could fly anywhere. Why would you need shoes if you don't need to walk to get from place to place?
** Also, between Gem toughness and healing, cutting her feet isn't really an issue.
* When you think of pearls you think of perfectly round ones, maybe on a really expensive necklace, right? Well most pearls that come out of oysters have highly irregular or "flawed" shapes. Similarly, Pearl does her very best to appear organized and strong, and at first she seems the most mature and responsible of the Crystal Gems. In actuality, she has flaws she desperately keeps hidden in case they make her seem "less valuable". Jasper calling her "defective" could have caused her insecurities to reawaken, even after making a bit of progress with Steven's help.
* Corrupt gems are attracted to the Crystal Gems, apparently putting Beach City in danger- but the Crystal Gems are there to protect them. Whenever they warp, it's always somewhere desolate and overgrown with wildlife. Never have we seen another human settlement of any form. By having the enemies come to them, it's actually easier for them to do their job! Then again, doubles as Fridge Horror. Did rampant corrupt gems prevent humans from settling in the places they warped to, or ''''destroy'''' them?
* Ever since Season 2 of the show took off, Pearl has been earning a reputation of being [[ClingyJealousGirl salty]] by the fanbase. Intentional or not, it would make sense that Pearl is the salty one - pearls are found in oysters, which mostly reside in '''salt'''water habitats. [[IncrediblyLamePun Get it?]]
* Peridot has been growing [[SanitySlippage increasingly unhinged]] the longer she's trapped on Earth. In real life, pure peridot gems are extremely rare due to something in Earth's atmosphere often causing it to break apart.
* As pointed out [[http://lumosnox934.tumblr.com/post/124620461122/miraisfandomtrash-ok-so-i-love-stevens here]], no one is depicted as ugly in the series and are treated in some capacity as beautiful. The characters are ''also'' all given some degree of depth. Remember what was said about Rose Quartz? That she saw the beauty in ''everything''?
* In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1w18Kkg16c the extended version of the theme song shown at SDCC 2015]], in the segment in which the Gems state what they will fight for, they each make a fist. Garnet makes two as she summons her gauntlets. Why? Cause she's made up of two Gems, of course!
** In the extended theme song, Sapphire is gracefully holding her hands together, interlocking her fingers; this shows that she is calm, graceful and passionate, while Ruby is shown to be cracking or holding her knuckles, a sign of toughness, or that she is ready to fight. On the other hand, Ruby seems calmer than expected from her, like she is meditating (think martial arts), and Sapphire more upbeat than usual, indicating that being Garnet brings balance to both of their personalities.
* Why does Garnet hardly ever use her [[ShockAndAwe electric powers]]? Because most gems/minerals are good conductors, which means [[NoSell electricity passes right through them.]]
* Peridot's use of "[[InformedObscenity clod]]" as an insult: not only does it mean "stupid person", but also "lump of dirt". To a sentient gemstone, that's doubly insulting.
* Greg's sunburns are the result of working/spending long hours at a place that's surrounding a beach (Beach City, anyone?), as well as going without sunscreen lotion for long periods of time. If anything, those sunburns don't really look healthy...
** As another possible explanation, the tan lines don't match Greg's usual outfit, but they exactly match the outfit he's wearing in flashbacks. Maybe it's not a sunburn at all, but something more permanent he got when he was younger. [[spoiler:He did get a sunburn while shirtless in "Greg the Babysitter".]]
* One of Pearl's coping methods is projection, and her power set [[StealthPun literally]] projects images.
* Why is Garnet not such a good conversationalist? Because she herself ''is'' a conversation.
* If sentient Pearls are anything like their Earth counterparts, they were originally formed in an ocean. Pearl's color scheme- coral orange hair, sand-white skin- would camouflage perfectly into such an environment.
* The Crystal Gems have round gemstones, and the Homeworld Gems have pointed gems with straight edges. Lapis' tear-shaped gem is both rounded and pointed, marking her ties to both factions -- the Crystal Gems through Steven, and the Homeworld Gems through Peridot/Jasper. Peridot has a triangular gem with flat sides and rounded corners, and later episodes show her to be slowly warming up to the Crystal Gems, particularly Steven.
* Buck is considered the "human counterpart" to Garnet because of their similar clothing colors, wearing glasses, mouth shape, and cool headed attitudes. One other aspect is that they both are connected to lightning: Garnet can produce/redirect lightning and Buck wears a lightning t-shirt.
** Arguably, Sour Cream can be seen as a "human counterpart" to Pearl. Both have light skin complexions, and pointy hairstyles and faces. Both also came from different "families" - Pearl was originally a Homeworld Gem who was adopted by Rose, while Sour Cream is Marty's son through a one-night stand with Vidalia who now lives with Yellowtail as his stepfather.
** Jenny is Amethyst's "human counterpart", in that both are fun-loving and wild, and prefer to goof off instead of taking responsibility, which sometimes grates with their parental figures (Amethyst and Garnet/Pearl, Jenny and her father Kofi). They also both have curvy bodies and similar mouth shapes.
* Some people have pointed out that Peridot has a fear of weapons (eg: flinching when Jasper pulls something out, recoiling when Steven wraps up the towel, asking if such and such is a weapon), as if she's used to getting beat up by them. This makes sense when you realize that she and the other Peridots are probably the equivalent of tech support, and who the heck treats tech support well (especially when you know that they're not your species)? But because she knows more than many gems, she's still pretty cocky.
* Looking at all of the Crystal Gems (minus Amethyst, though to a degree her too), a trend appears that makes it clear ''why'' Rose got a massive Rebellion going, with her son Steven following in her footsteps. Bismuth was only taught to build things the Diamonds wanted and not what ''she'' wanted, Pearls are a SlaveRace who exist to being treated as window dressing, Sapphire was disgraced when during a time of crisis she accidentally fused with her lower-class Gem bodyguard Ruby, who also nearly got ''killed'' by Sapphire's boss Blue Diamond for ''doing her job'' but in a way Blue Diamond didn't approve of, and Peridot was mistreated by Yellow Diamond. Homeworld doesn't care about Gems and saw them as expendable...but not Rose and Steven. It's likely her compassion and loyalty was the first compassion that the Gems under her care ever got.
* This is probably more coincidence than anything else but with the exception of Rose Quartz all the Crystal Gems (not counting fusions even though some fusions are) have been birthstone gems. Garnet is January, Amethyst is February, Pearl is June (so is Alexandrite), Ruby is the birthstone for July, Sapphire is September and Peridot is August
* Amethyst's whip has amethysts in a rose thorn pattern. This is both because of her connection to Rose Quartz as a person and a proof of her being a Quartz as well.
* Throughout the series a variety of Gems have some sort of sacrifice complex -- Pearl with Rose (which was explored in "Sworn to the Sword"), Lapis with Steven (in "Chille Tid"), and Ruby with Sapphire (in "The Answer"). In fact, when Steven brings up this self-destructive complex that Pearl is teaching Connie in "Sworn to the Sword", both Garnet and Amethyst don't seem too disturbed. Why? Because (sans Amethyst) all of them were conditioned to live for the Great Diamond Authority, a mindset that causes to not be concerned about their own wellbeing. This unhealthy mindset can also be transferred onto others (i.e., Pearl's dedication to Rose, Lapis' "sacrifice" for Steven).
** It also doesn't hurt that DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist for them provided their gem is intact. When the Diamonds are implied to have sacrificed some of their own soldiers permanently (by corrupting them), this is treated as serious business in a way that eg. Pearl's repeated sacrifices of her physical form aren't, since, well, Pearl will just regenerate as often as necessary, right?
* Pearl displays the many traits of a NobleBigot and SmugSuper attitude towards humans. It isn't until season 2 that it's revealed that Homeworld has a strict caste system, with pearls being the on the lowest spectrum, being made to "stand around and look pretty". Given the fact she was treated this way for most of her life, she could be putting on an arrogant attitude towards humans since the species can't do the things Gems can do as an unhealthy way to strengthen her confidence.
** And besides the feeling of superiority, another reason for Pearl's attitude towards humans also comes from how Rose would begin romances with them.
* It's revealed that Lapis Lazulis had a connection to water and flying. This might seem like an awkward combination until one realizes two things. First, the atmosphere of Earth is filled with water molecules. Second, in Fluid Dynamics, water and air are considered the same for the purposes of studying potential flow.
* I realized why the Diamonds are depicted as huge: they ''look down'' on other lifeforms and lesser Gems.
* Peridot's recent emotional development comes from the fact that peridots are healing stones believed to promote growth and renewal, while protecting against negative feelings such as apathy. When Peridot was still allied with Homeworld, she was cold, calculating, and ruthless. But after her HeelFaceTurn, she starts feeling new emotions that she never experienced before. It also helps that green, a color strongly associated with peridots, symbolizes rebirth.
* According to Peridot, the Gem Homeworld is facing a crisis due to the inability to create new gems without consuming vast amounts of resources. This, combined with the inability to repair gems that get damaged past a certain point, leads to inexorable population decline if they don't constantly conquer and consume worlds, and was almost certainly the reason they attacked earth in the first place. This implies that Rose Quartz was looking for a long-term solution to this; that's part of the reason she focused on trying to repair damaged gems, and it ''may'' have been part of the reason she decided to sacrifice her physical form to create a half-human child in hopes that Steven's hybrid abilities could find a solution to the population crisis that she couldn't.
* Steven has one major thing in common with each of the Crystal Gems so far, concerning their secrets, insecurities, and relationship to Rose.
** He's similar to Garnet because they're both fusions made of love. On a more subtle note, they're both partially defined by the pressure to lead and take Rose's place.
** Amethyst and Steven are both from Earth, while the other Crystal Gems are from Homeworld. They both also lost a mother figure in Rose (though admittedly, that's slightly WMG).
** Pearl and Steven share the burden of a role that was forced upon them that may not "fit" - Steven's role as leader and Pearl's as a servant - but that they cannot escape. Both of them also have very complex emotions about Rose that cannot be pinned down easily.
** Both Peridot and Steven have major physical and psychological differences from other Gems due to the circumstances in which they were made. Neither of them ever had a chance to know Rose Quartz.
** While little is known about Bismuth, she and Steven have similar body builds and both of them lack a lot of knowledge of the last 5,000 years. They're also both connected to Lion.
* For all that they dismiss him as "kind of a mess", Greg seems to have coped with Rose's "death" better than all the gems except Garnet (who, aside from being the most mature, was the least dependent on her to begin with). This makes sense when you realize that humans age and die as a matter of course; Greg has known his entire life that he would see loved ones die sometimes, and is psychologically wired for it in a way that the ageless gems are not.
* Pearl's obsession with being Sardonyx is a lot more heartbreaking when you realize that, prior to Rose's death, she would have frequently merged into Rainbow Quartz; to her, Sardonyx (another merger with a powerful, confident gem) is a way to recapture at least some of the feelings she got when merged with Rose.
* Music, especially the gems leitmotifs, are a very big thing in the series and there is plenty of fridge brilliance in it. To summarize, the instruments dedicated to each main character currently are as follows: Pearl = Piano, Amethyst = Beat, Garnet = Bass, Rose = Strings, Steven = 'Game Boy sounds', Peridot = Techno, Greg = Guitar, Jasper = Drone noise. Lapis has a piano, but with a minor key which makes it more sad than Pearl's. Connie doesn't seem to have a clear motif for now.
** When Pearl is fusing with Amethyst to make Opal or Garnet is fusing with Amethyst to make Sugilite, you'll notice that the {{Leitmotif}} each character contributes to the fusion's leitmotif is different from the song that is used for the actual fusion dance. For example, take Amethyst and Pearl's fusion into Opal; you hear both Amethyst's and Pearl's leitmotifs but if you separated them from each other they would still sound like the respective Gem's leitmotifs. Now, when they actually have fuse into Opal, their Leitmotifs have actually fused as well, and this is where you see their "influence" on each other; Pearl's piano is wilder, while Amethyst's beats are more straight, which in turn gives Opal a completely unique leitmotif. The music that plays for the fusion dance kind of symbolizes the fact that the two Gems' are trying to get into the same mindset but they are still separate beings, while the music that plays for the fusion symbolizes that they have succeeded in achieving that mindset. That clever Rebecca Sugar...
** Why is it easier for Garnet to fuse with Amethyst and Pearl than between Pearl and Amethyst? Garnet is a bass that is usually a support in songs anyway while the piano is a classic instrument and beats are more modern and thus need to actually be tuned together more carefully.
** Steven and Amethyst manage to befriend Peridot very easily. Which makes sense, because they are all quite young with a modern mindset and equally modern instruments. Especially Steven and Peridot get along well since they are both interested in technology (Steven consumes a lot of TV and videogames). Garnet needs a bit longer but is also able to synch up with Peridot after a while. Pearl and Lapis (piano) take the longest to get along with Peridot (techno).
** A piano (Pearl) is related to violins (Rose) and thus they have a good harmony together. But pianos are keyboard instruments while Rose's violins are string instruments and thus are very different. Guitars (Greg) on the other hand...
** Amethyst and Garnet accepted Greg pretty fast. Which makes sense, since his rock guitar is perfect for bass and beats.
** Jasper may or may not be able to have a positive fusion with anyone. Her instrument is very disturbed and can probably not properly harmonize with anyone.
* One thing I realized: the main four Crystal Gems (Garnet, Pearl, Amethyst, and Steven) represent the four stages of human life:
** Steven, as the youngest of the Crystal Gems, represents the child stage. While he's definitely a smart kid, there are still things he doesn't fully understand yet, which is where mature people like Pearl and Garnet come in. He is also more innocent and kindhearted, which is what most young children are, and also the only person of the Crystal Gems with the least emotional/mental baggage.
** Amethyst represents the teenager stage. Wild, hedonistic, and very indulgent in anything that looks fun and exciting. Also suffers from angst over self-identity (constantly changes appearance to please others, while wondering if she'll be of worth to anyone at all), refuses to abide with authority figures like Pearl and occasionally Garnet, and is generally impulsive and emotional - all of them traits that many teenagers have. Part of the reason why Amethyst lets Steven do childish things that would've earned disapproval is because the teenager yearns for their childhood days and wants to cling onto their dwindling freedom.
** Pearl represents the young adult stage where a teenager finally enters the adult world, and is given new experiences and responsibilities. More skilled and mature than the teenager, but due to naivety regarding how the world works, she is often easily overwhelmed and has to compensate in order to hide her issues, letting them fester until they start affecting others in the worst possible way. Also has idealistic notions when it comes to love, so when it doesn't work out the way they imagined, they're often left emotional wrecks that takes years to recover from.
** Garnet represents the "true" adult stage, where a person has succeeded in surviving the craziness of being a young adult and has the wisdom and experience to prove it. The adult, now wanting to pass their knowledge onto others, starts marrying (Ruby and Sapphire) and having children, which results in the child (Steven) learning from the parent what it was like to live in the old generation. Having had experienced the worst possible situations, the adult also has enough foresight and resources to deal with them should they appear again.
* The logo and murals of the Diamonds are actually quite telling about the Diamonds themselves.
** The logo of four diamonds (white, yellow, blue and pink) are visible on the old structures on earth. The same logo, but with an empty spot where pink would be appears on spots that were relevant during the late part of the rebellion (and in Centipeetle Mother's drawings). Afterwards, all logos now have only three diamonds visible, showing that Pink Diamond was probably victim of {{Unperson}} after she became shattered.
** The murals of the diamonds on the moon base show show all diamonds holding planets in their grasp: Pink Diamond has one planet (with one satellite [Earth and Moon]), Blue Diamond has eight planets (or seven and one satellite), Yellow Diamond has nine planets (with fourteen satellites) and White Diamond has fifteen planets (with twenty satellites). Corresponding with this, the logo always shows White Diamond on top, Pink Diamond on the bottom and Yellow and Blue in the middle. Furthermore, all Diamonds show to the right on the murals except for White Diamond who looks straight, possibly hinting at her being TheLeader, though so far she's (for unknown reasons) more a AllPowerfulBystander.
** Yellow Diamond and Blue Diamond have their gem at their chest, connecting them with Amethysts impulsive behavior (as seen in Yellow Diamond's pettiness and outrage in "Message Received"). White Diamond has her gem on her forehead, thus possibly hinting on her being logical, a thinker and planner similar to Pearl and Peridot. Pink Diamond has hers on her navel which can either mean that she might have had the potential to be loving (like Rose Quartz) or was childish due to being the youngest (like Steven Universe).
* So far, gems that stated belonging to a certain diamond have corresponded with the colour of the regarding diamond, thus possibly proving also in the future who was made for which diamond.
** Jasper (orange-red), the Ruby vet (red) and Rose Quartz (rose/pink) are explicitly stated to have served under Pink Diamond. All Rubies might have originally belonged to her, including Crystal Gem's Ruby (Blue Diamond makes clear that the Rubies are not hers). Amethyst's colour scheme is a mixture of red and blue, possibly personifying how she was on Pink Diamonds planet, but how Blue Diamond took over after Pink Diamonds demise.
** Peridot (yellow-green) and Yellow Pearl belong to Yellow Diamond.
** Sapphire belonged to Blue Diamond. Lapis Lazuli might have belonged to Blue Diamond as well.
* Over the course of the show, fusion has gone from requiring a dance to being just close to one another. Why? Every character involved in fusion (excluding Jasper and Lapis) grew closer towards one another, thus ''getting closer to being in sync with each other''.
* The show actually puts a lot of subtle effort into explaining how the Crystal Gems won the war despite being under-supplied and out-numbered. To whit:
** Unlike Homeworld their egalitarian ethics allowed Gems from non-warrior castes like Bismuths and Pearls fight in combat roles increasing their effective numbers
** Rose's healing powers were unique and lacked a Homeworld equivalent, allowing the Crystal Gems to recoup their losses at a much faster rate.
** The Crystal Gems were the only faction to use fusions between Gems of different types, a taboo on Homeworld. Mixed gem fusions are shown to be substantially more powerful than single gem ones, and provided a firepower advantage.
* Likewise why does Jasper so strongly believe that fusion is why she loses? She has no concept of the underlying teamwork and loyalty behind it. It's due to this that her fusions tend to be so unstable and uncoordinated, she thinks everyone else is also in it just for the power.
* Why is Sardonyx so [[FunPersonified full of jokes]]? One third of her is Pearl, who's [[LargeHam dramatic]] and loves to show off when she can. Also, as mentioned below, Pearl gets a [[AwesomeEgo huge boost in her self-esteem]] when she's fused. The other two thirds of Sardonyx are [[Recap/StevenUniverseS2E9SwornToTheSword Garnet, Master of Comedy]].
* Why is Steven's weapon a shield? Not only was it inherited from Rose, but like his mother, he's a lover and not a fighter, and only wants to protect those he loves (though a shield can also become a weapon under different circumstances, like throwing, reflecting, and bashing)
** Rose Quartz, a lover and not a fighter? No, not by a long shot. Which is why she wielded a sword and shield, where Steven only has the shield. The sword, however, is an actual forged material weapon; Rose was a Quartz and a warrior by nature, but she had to literally take up a sword for her cause. This is even extra brilliant because of Connie, who, being fully human and well aware that Homeworld thinks humans are more or less bipedal cockroaches infesting the Earth, has no reason ''not'' to use lethal force against an enemy Gem.
* Right from the start of season one, the Gems are seen making a lot of mistakes and questionable decisions while fighting the MonsterOfTheWeek. This may appear as poor writing at first, but plot and character development gradually show it to be completely intentional on the creators' part: as much as Steven looks up to the Crystal Gems, without Rose Quartz's leadership they simply aren't what they used to be.
* Steven's love for ''Crying Breakfast Friends'' makes sense when you consider Steven's personality: he's a BadLiar, likes to avoid PoorCommunicationKills, and hates persisting conflict. In ''Crying Breakfast Friends'', all of the problems are solved because the breakfast friends are so open with each other. This contrast is shown most obviously in "Cry for Help" where Pearl was hiding her desire to get the fusion power high, and caused a rift with Garnet for several episodes. The in-show tears provide "sweet catharsis," as Steven puts it in "Steven Reacts".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Season 1]]
[[AC:Gem Glow]]
* Cookie Cat contains a surprising amount of foreshadowing. He's a refugee from an interstellar war who left his family behind, which is similar to the Crystal Gems' backstory. In "Future Vision", Steven imagines being attacked by him, exclaiming "I never considered you would be evil!", which, due being sheltered from knowledge of the Homeworld Gems, winds up being his reaction to Peridot.
* Amethyst says that when she needs to get her whip, "it just happens." If we follow the very probable theory that Kindergarten Gems are made for combat, then it's pretty obvious why she never needs to put any effort into summoning her weapon. She was literally born to fight.

[[AC:Laser Light Cannon]]
* Steven finds the Laser Light Cannon when it starts to glow faintly--[[{{Foreshadowing}} right after Greg says the line about pork chops and hot dogs]] for the first time.
* Steven loving "fry bits" is clever for two different reasons: First, Steven is the guy who sees the good things in stuff no one else would. Fry bits, the discarded pieces that would normally be thrown out, are basically the potato equivalent of a hot dog. (If every potato was perfect we wouldn't have fry bits?) Secondly, Steven doesn't exactly have the healthiest appetite. The bits have a greater amount of surface area compared to fries and have been sitting in the frier all day, so they're probably [[DeepFriedWhatever even greasier than regular fries]].

[[AC:Cheeseburger Backpack]]
* Steven has a cheeseburger backpack. Peedee (whose hair looks like french fries) is his friend. Burger and fries!

[[AC:Frybo]]
* Frybo was only doing what Peedee told him to--he just said "make people eat fries," he never specified ''how''.

[[AC:So Many Birthdays]]
* When confronted with a rapidly aging Steven, the usually level-headed Pearl and Garnet show much more vulnerability than the laid-back and immature Amethyst. In some instances, more thoughtful and mature individuals will freeze up in a situation similar to this one due to automatically thinking of [[AdultFear too many things that ''could'' happen (i.e. the very real chance that Steven would die right there and what they'd have to deal with afterwards, such as a funeral, telling his friends/family etc.)]], therefore clouding their judgement. Alternatively, the more brash and headstrong Amethyst would focus more on what's actually happening in the present rather than worrying about the future, leading to immediate action.
** Amethyst isn't handling it well either. She may not be weepy but she keeps trying out party methods over and over again in spite of them being ineffective. She also keeps insisting that [[BlatantLies that everything is alright]] while doing it. Pearl is breaking down but Amethyst is firmly in [[SelectiveObliviousness denial]].
*** This works with the prior observation however; while Garnet and Pearl are frozen up and breaking down due to over-thinking the situation, Amethyst's denial is caused because she isn't thinking at all about what could happen, only that nothing HAS happened, reinforcing her denial, making her believe everything is alright.
*** Not completely in denial - storyboards were posted, revealing that during the fight between the Gems, Pearl says that she thinks the party might have been working, and Amethyst says "The parties weren't working! I turned into a car and everything!".
* Pearl's inability to properly assist Amethyst in reverting Steven's age with the pie skit is most likely due to losing her grip on her emotions. However, it may also be that, after watching Amethyst and Garnet's prior attempts, she already realized that what they were doing wouldn't work and just went through with the motions due to Amethyst's insistence knowing it would fail, which caused her complete breakdown. Amethyst, being caught up in the moment and acting out of desperation, would not have gotten to the same conclusion.
* Garnet shakes Steven in an attempt to cure him and then says, "I thought violence would be the answer." She knows how to protect Steven from external dangers--with violence. This could be her first time trying to save him from himself, and she doesn't know how.
** The funny thing is that violence really was the answer. Garnet shaking Steven causes the Crystal Gems to argue amongst themselves which causes Steven to revert to a younger age.
*** This is both better and worse in hindsight, now that we know about Garnet's future vision. On the better side, we realize that violence really was the answer - she must have seen that it was the possibility that would probably work. On the other hand, she was probably overloaded with her future vision at the time, combing every possibility for a solution and [[FridgeHorror seeing tons of scenarios where Steven died]].
* The above scenario shows that [[spoiler:in contrast to how they were in "Three Gems and A Baby," the Gems became aware of Steven's fragility and mortality while helping to raise him. They've learned that Steven will die someday, though they hope it will be later than sooner.]]

[[AC:Steven's Lion]]
* When Garnet says "we kept Amethyst" at the end, Pearl goes into extremely unnatural, forced over-the-top laughter, while Garnet remains completely stoic. On a first watching, this looks like it's just Garnet being TheUnfunny; but after "On The Run" reveals that that's ''exactly'' what happened, it seems more like Pearl's forced reaction was to try and keep Steven from asking uncomfortable questions about Amethyst's origins.

[[AC:Arcade Mania]]
* Why is Garnet so talented with the ''Samba de Amigo'' style maracas rhythm game? She's using her future sight to ''cheat.''
** Totally cheating. When Steven took her shades off to try and get her attention, her third eye was flashing crazy colours. Garnet, you cheating cheater.
** Garnet mentions when her future sight gets revealed to the viewers and Steven that she sees "so many things" and so many possible ways the future could go. The rhythm game only had about 56 possible moves at any time. Considering Garnet is implied to see ''everything'' that could ''possibly'' happen, no matter how unlikely, seeing "only" 56 combinations ahead of you would be a relief, wouldn't it? No wonder she likes the game.
* Why did Garnet enter a trance while playing? She was using her future vision to predict the game's patters. When she reached a high enough level, the game likely entered a random mix mode. Her future vision was showing her so many possibilities for each move that she couldn't stop looking into them all until Steven broke the game to eliminate all those possible futures so she could focus on the outside world again.

[[AC:Giant Woman]]
* The bird monster that Opal was ultimately needed to take out was quite powerful. Look at both its stomach and when its main body is destroyed: it wasn't like most other monsters who only have ''one'' primary gem, it had ''dozens''. Is it any surprise Opal was needed to defeat it? This also shows just how powerful Opal actually is.
** Given what we now know about the monsters, this makes even more sense - it's likely as close to a "fusion" as corrupted gems can get, so naturally they needed another fusion to stand up to it!
* Look back at the episode after having watched the entire season and pay close attention to every single line Garnet says: every line she delivers is clearly loaded with future sight!
* At one point, Garnet mentions only she can swim in lava. At the time, it just seems like another demonstration of how badass she is. But in hindsight, who would be better equipped for swimming through lava than a fusion between [[AnIcePerson an ice gem]] (for cooling it down) and [[PlayingWithFire a fire gem]] (to withstand the remaining heat)?
* This could be thought of as Fridge [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Funny]]. We learned in Cheeseburger Backpack and Serious Steven that when the gems warp, they spend some time in the warp stream before they reach their destination. In this episode, Garnet tells Steven before he warps with Pearl and Amethyst to keep the harmony. Steven begins with "Harmooooo..." when he warps with the two and finishes with "nyyyyyyyyyy!" when they arrive. That means that Steven held the "O" in harmony the whole time they were in the warp stream (or he stopped to take a breath). Either way, it's a hilarious off-screen moment.

[[AC:Steven the Swordfighter]]
* It's explained that a Gem can release and regenerate their physical form as long as their gem is intact. Theoretically, Rose could return to life if her gem was removed from Steven. Whether Steven would survive the separation is doubtful.
** If/when Steven dies, Rose would return to her physical form (as long as the gem isn't damaged.) Rose - or any gem willing to breed with a human - could bear an infinite number of hybrid offspring since, upon the offspring's death and decomposition, the gem would regenerate back into the original form. The emotional duress Rose will have to endure, however, knowing her resurrection was at the expense of Steven's life may curb her enthusiasm to have any more children.
* Despite the Gems' bodies being [[HardLight holograms with mass]] and their high resistance to harm, Pearl was easily "poofed" by a holo-Pearl; a hologram with less mass than her body, equal to less strength than her own and a simple sable sword. Garnet needed Gem technology specifically designed to disrupt Gem bodies, Amethyst needed the superior strength of a Gem Monster. Why Pearl was so easy to "poof"? Thanks to more information given in new episodes, Pearl is revealed to be considerable less strong than Amethyst and Garnet in virtue of being "defective"; maybe the same applies to the fragility of her body.
** Or it could be because holo-Pearl had enough cutting power to cut through a tree with a balloon.
** In the same episode, considering the duality of the song that Pearl sings to Connie, it's possible that "Pearls" (assuming from recent a episode mentioning multiple Pearls that she isn't the only one) aren't meant for battle, so they wouldn't need to be nearly as physically durable as Garnet or Amethyst. Reinforced by the fact that she admits she didn't learn fighting until well after meeting Rose, implying she had no need for the skill beforehand on their home planet.
*** Elaborated on in ''Back to the Barn'': Pearls are custom-made slaves/glorified designer handbags, meant to "stand around looking pretty and hold your stuff for you." She wasn't ''allowed'' to learn ''any'' of her skills before she defected with Rose, and of course she wasn't made to be physically durable ''or'' especially fast: she was never supposed to get in a fight, thus, never supposed to get poofed or destroyed, and even if she did get into a fight and get destroyed or poofed, [[WeHaveReserves she was expendable.]]
** Alternately, she could have poofed more easily due to the nature of the wound. Most of the other gems and gem monsters we see are poofed by crushing,x not piercing. It would stand to reason that stabbing through her body would be more lethal than an equal amount of force applied externally for the same reason it's easier to kill a human by stabbing instead them of crushing them, especially if the gems pseudo-organs are located in their chest.

[[AC:Lion 2: The Movie]]
* Steven's lion being able to [[WalkOnWater walk/run on water]] might be a stylistic reference to one of Jesus' names being "the '''Lion''' of Judah."
** Also Aslan from ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'', who is a clear allegory for Jesus, is of course a lion.
* Initially, I thought the chamber reacted to how Steven was poked, but really the chamber was giving Steven what he wanted. When Steven wanted to get his arm off the slab it gave him swords to cut his arm off with. When Steven didn't want to cut his arm off the swords went away. When he wanted Connie to stop tickling him the chamber gave him armor (to keep him from getting tickled). And when he said he wanted to see explosions, well, one can't deny Steven got to see a lot of explosions thanks to that machine.
* It took me a couple rewatches to notice, but when Steven and Connie are trying to get Lion to go to the movie theatre, Steven says "I'm not trained very well either" and Lion's eyes seem to focus. Of course he took the two to what seems to be Rose's training room - he wanted Steven to get trained better!
* Rose's collection of armor- the "Armor of the Fallen"- is more than just a bunch of useful equipment. It is a reminder of the fallen friends that she could not save with her shield, and an expression of her desire to guard the people she cares about, whether they are with her or not. It is also an expression of hopefulness, as there would be no utility in keeping the armor (she never wore any herself) unless she intended to restore others who would wear it.

[[AC:Beach Party]]
* The teams for Volleyball are similar to each other in some way:
** Garnet and Kofi: Both are the leaders of their respective group, known to be serious, and hardly crack a smile.
** Amethyst and Jenny: Rebellious teenage archetypes, full lips, are known to irresponsible and lazy, and are [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold jerks with hearts of gold.]]
** Pearl and Kiki: The responsible one, like cleanliness, and frequently scold the irresponsible one.
** Steven and Nanafua: {{The Heart}} of their respective group, the shortest member, the nicest one.

[[AC:Rose's Room]]
* Why is Greg the best acting hologram in Rose's room? Because if the room runs on her magic, the one she'd know best would be her husband.
** That seems highly unlikely, considering that many of the characters generated in the room, such as Frybo and Onion, were characters that Rose had likely never seen before. Connie's one line was also something she said in a past episode to Steven, again something Rose couldn't know about. It's more likely that Greg was the best acting hologram because ''Steven'' knows him the best, not Rose, and he appeared because Steven was scared and needed reassurance.
*** It could easily be both. The pink whale had Rose's voice even though Steven never would've heard her speak. The room could be operating on both Steven and Rose's memories.
** Another possibility, although it's not necessarily entirely incompatible, is that it has to do with the room's stated inability to properly handle something of the scale of the town and the fact that Steven expressed a desire for 'someone to explain' just before speaking to holo-Greg -- the new wish, combined with the fact that Steven and quite possible ''Rose'' would have memories of Greg explaining things to them may have made the room prioritize simulating Greg over other things Steven wouldn't see.
* Recall the strange conversation Steven had at the doughnut shop. Pearl mentioned that the room couldn't handle something of that scale, meaning basically it was lagging trying to process everything, causing a delay in their responses.

[[AC:Coach Steven]]
* Steven tries to get Pearl to work out with him and his friends, to which she curtly refuses. While she was upset about him looking up to the extremely reckless Sugilite, it should be noted that since a Gem's body is a mere physical projection, she literally can't get physically stronger.
** In a similar vein, Pearl is known for her precision and intelligence, not fighting power. She wanted to show Steven that having the smarts and cunning to defeat your opponents is just as valuable as being physically strong like Sugilite, which of course later led Sugilite's defeat via HoistByHisOwnPetard.
*** This manages to be even ''harsher'' after Back To the Barn, whee we learn Pearl will never be anything but WeakButSkilled and was made to be a servant, not a warrior. Compare this to Sugilite, a fusion of two warrior gems who is stronger than her components. Pearl might have been uncomfortably reminded of Homeworld's mindset.
* When Steven started coaching Lars, Sadie and his dad he was still going on the premise that being strong physically is being "strong in the real way". Even though he was only trying to help them get buff he also helped them find the ''inner strength'' ('''"strong in the real way"''') to not give up and push them to excellence. Sadie's jump-roping like a pro, Lars can do a push-up with Steven on his back and Greg lifts a two-armed dumbbell instead of using the one-handed one he was going to use first (at Steven's suggestion, of course). He may not have realized it, but he ''was'' showing them how to be strong "in the real way", like how he inspired Pearl to defeat Sugilite later in the episode.
* Steven walks into the Big Donut with ridiculously overdone bandages, acting like it was a huge deal. He drops this when Lars and Sadie laugh, but considering how worried Pearl was, and how there were no other gems around, she overdid the dressing for the 'wound' in question, making Steven see it as more of a big deal than it was and add the sunglasses to act tough about it.
** Alternately, he dons the glasses since Sugalite was wearing a pair and he was in the process of idolizing her.
* When Garnet & Amethyst first form Sugilite, she is briefly shown to have 5 eyes before 4 of them are covered by shades. Why would Sugilite have 5 eyes while Opal didn't? Because Garnet has 3 eyes due to already being a fusion. Garnet's 3 eyes plus Amethyst's 2 equals...
** Plus, Sugilite's extreme aggression that even leads her into a FaceHeelTurn is likely because she's actually made of two overly aggressive gems, Amethyst and Ruby, plus Sapphire who can't counteract their tempers on her own.
* Steven and Pearl saying "I want to be your ''rock'' " could be an IncrediblyLamePun about being Gems.
* Pearl begging to fuse with Garnet becomes much HarsherInHindsight after the events of ''Cry For Help'', in which it is revealed that fusing into Sardonyx gives her a sort of PowerHigh which she enjoys so much that she is willing to fuse with her under false pretenses. Elaborated on further in ''Friend Ship'', where it is explained that she loves fusing with her because it gives her a sense of strength that other fusions (like Opal) did not possess.

[[AC:Joking Victim]]
* The Tiger Millionaire poster in the back. Of course it was back there - Lars is still a huge fan of Tiger Millionaire.

[[AC:Steven and the Stevens]]
* At the concert at the end, Garnet is playing a keytar -- an instrument that's a fusion.
* The reason why Garnet and Pearl were looking for the largest and grandest? Compare the Diamonds to other gems.
** Notably, ''Amethyst'' the one that has never seen a Diamond before was not using the same criteria.
* Many consider the show in general to be goofy and pointless in its earliest episodes, and it only gets really good past episode 20 - especially episode 25, which introduces the first non-Crystal Gem we've seen. What could cause this change in tone? Maybe it's because the original Steven ''dies'' in episode 22, and from this point on we follow a new Steven: one who's a lot more serious, a lot smarter, and who is in a timeline in which he comes into contact with much more dangerous and fascinating situations.
* This is the only episode where Steven gets DrunkWithPower, in that he manipulates a strange gem object to have a band for Beachapalooza; in any subsequent fillers his good intentions tend to go awry. The original Steven's simple desire to have a band quickly goes awry with gem magic, and he gets a JerkassRealization on seeing his past self cower in fear while hundreds of Stevens occupy the room. Steven in the alternate timeline gets a serious case of FutureMeScaresMe and realizes that a small part of himself can get corrupted, hence why he takes care not to use powerful weapons like [[spoiler:Bismuth's Breaking Point]]].

[[AC:An Indirect Kiss]]
* Steven having magic spit may seem weird and gross, but really? It's actually more useful than healing tears! After all, you have to be sad or hurt to cry, but you will always have saliva in your mouth.
** Not only that, but it could be less gross then you think. After all, what's one way to get the spit onto somebody without hawking a loogie? Kisses! And what do you do to an injury to make it better?
** Also, it would be 'licking one's wounds.' Saliva contains tissue factor which promotes the blood clotting mechanism, especially the enzyme lysozyme is found in many tissues and is known to attack the cell walls of many gram-positive bacteria, aiding in defense against infection. Tears also have this as well, though.

[[AC:Mirror Gem]]
* Remember how difficult it was to heal Amethyst's gem when it was damaged. It's not entirely unlikely Lapis simply couldn't be healed at the time and by the time the current three came in possession of it they were apparently unaware there ''was'' a being in the Mirror (note, the Gems seem to think the Mirror became SENTIENT, not that the entity inside is trying to reach out and Lapis is a bit of an UnreliableNarrator given she's bitter). This has FridgeHorror because, if true, Rose could have saved Lapis had she only known.
* Why the Crystal Gems were so mad and [[OOCisSeriousBusiness Out of character]] when they found out that the mirror was Sentient. They thought that it contained an imprisoned Homeworld Gem from the war that would try to kill everyone and was using Steven. Fortunately, the Mirror only contained the relatively peaceful and friendly Lapis.

[[AC:Ocean Gem]]
* Lapis Lazuli can control water, and after Steven heals her gem, she sprouts a pair of wings on her back. They're [[{{Main/Pun}} water wings]]!
** Not to mention that she turned the ocean into a sort of tower. It's a [[{{Main/Pun}} water tower.]]
* Choosing the lapis lazuli as the namesake for the new Gem is very clever. A lapis lazuli is a rock, not a crystal, and Lapis Lazuli makes clear that the Crystal Gems are different in some way to the rest of their kind.
* Pearl had the easiest time with her double. (Until it split into two, anyway.) And ''why'', you may ask? Because essentially does the same thing all the time whenever she practices with her holograms! She's probably used to "fighting herself" by now.
* Making the Crystal Gems fight doubles of themselves, as opposed to doubles of Lapis or something more abstract, makes sense for someone who lived in a ''mirror'' until recently.
* As noted on the main page, all of the Crystal Gems have a five-pointed star on their outfit. As in, only the ''Crystal'' Gems. Which Lapis Lazuli is not, judging by her comments ("You're one of them, one of the Crystal Gems!"). Lapis is a gem, but not a crystal gem, so she doesn't have one on her outfit.
** If you look at her shirt, it (sorta) has a four pointed star/Diamond on it.
** Her mirror and the shapes the water she controls make an octagonal star similar to Peridot.
* While perusing the wiki for more infos on gems, I found a tidbit about lapis lazuli: there used to be a paint made out of it, and that particular hue of blue was (thanks to the gem making it hella expensive) held in such high regard, it was only used in paintings when depicting angels or when painting the blue of the Virgin Mary's robes. Suddenly it's clear why Lapis Lazuli has wings!
** Adding to this, the name of that paint/colour is azure (from the name of the stone) or more commonly, ''ultramarine'', meaning "from beyond the sea". Small wonder they chose to give her power over water of all the blue things they could have picked! It also hints to her feeling out-of place both on Earth and Homeworld.
* During the fight between the Crystal Gems and the water clones, the Steven clone engulfs Steven and Connie's heads with water. It may seem harsh for Lapis to try and drown the kids like this, but remember, at this time Lapis thinks that Steven was a gem. She doesn't know he's half human and needs to breathe. She probably assumed Connie and Greg were also gems since they decided to come along on such a dangerous mission.
** Considering her time spent trapped in the mirror seemed to have also been spent largely inside of Pearl's pocket dimension, it's hard to say how much she knew about humans to begin with. Even if she knew they were human, who's to say she knew humans needed air to breathe?
* Lapis: "Wait, you have healing powers?" When she realized that this little kid was the infamous Rose Quartz, leader of the rebellion and she may know that Rose killed Pink Diamond.

[[AC:Secret Team]]
* It would've been quicker and easier for Steven to just tap his newly conjured Rose Quartz bubble and warp the shards back down to the Burning Room. Except that method would've run the risk of Garnet seeing the bubble arrive and realizing it had been removed from the room in the first place. Hence placing the bubble back manually so as to keep an eye out for her.

[[AC:Fusion Cuisine]]
* Garnet's deadpan delivery of "Sorry, I panicked" is justified now that we learned she's a fusion; Ruby and Sapphire were probably flipping out at what they did, but in different ways, which meant that Garnet's zero emotional reaction was because they were panicking so much that the only common ground they could find was to keep Garnet whole.

[[AC:Garnet's Universe]]
* "Garnet's Universe" can now be seen as a plot parallel to "The Return/Jailbreak". In both episodes, Garnet fights against two opponents (the Fox and Jasper) and loses the first time. Why? Because she wasn't strong enough, as she said in "Garnet's Universe." In both episodes, her two friends are detained: Hoppy and Hopper and Pearl and Amethyst. When she curb-stomps Ringo, it's because he burned Steven's picture. Jasper hurt Steven and Garnet fought her to give Steven time to get to the others. And finally, Garnet's worries in "Garnet's Universe" about not being strong enough are diminished in the song "Stronger Than You."
* The Fox parallels Lars (voice, hair color, etc.), but there's one more similarity. The Fox was originally thought to be the villain until it was revealed that he was the actual protector of the shrine. This is probably how Steven views Lars; just a misunderstood teen who isn't as bad as he seems.
** Similarly, Ronaldo (Ringo) seems like a decent, albeit weird, person until it's revealed that he's quite deranged.
** It makes sense that Ringo and the Fox would be rivals. Consider the relationship of their real-world counterparts.
* Garnet was in the right place at the right time when Steven jumped onto her head. How is that possible? A few episodes later, we discover she has Future Vision.

[[AC:Watermelon Steven]]
* Pearl being actually frightening on the battlefield is quietly foreshadowed here. Amethyst and Garnet are both forced to the ground and trapped by the Watermelon Warriors dog piling them. In comparison, Pearl is upright and capable of struggling.
* Likewise, Amethysts fear of being buried alive (or, ''returned to the earth'' as it were) is subtle foreshadowing of her origins in the upcoming 'On the Run'

[[AC:Lion 3: Straight to Video]]
* The pocket dimension in Lion's mane has no air in it because, as a Gem, Rose didn't need to breathe.
* [[FriendToAllLivingThings Seagulls approaching Greg]] during Rose's video hints at his [[NiceGuy "beautiful" heart]], the thing that Rose loved the most about him.
* Greg wearing a t-shirt and shorts while spending time with Rose at the beach and while sleeping under the sun (most likely without sun blocker) explains his sun burn-looking tan.
* One when you look at future episodes: As we see in "The Answer", the dress that Rose wore 5,750 years ago is the same one she wears in Steven's video. Gems tend to change their forms when they regenerate. It's quite possible that Rose has ''never'' fallen in battle. Not ''once.''

[[AC:Warp Tour]]
* Garnet displayed a previously unseen ability to enlarge her gauntlets to deliver a larger impact on hit, this was previously seen in the entirely fabricated story made up by Steven in Garnet's Universe; perhaps this was the inspiration for the new attack?

[[AC:Alone Together]]
* When Steven and Connie first fuse into Stevonnie, Garnet has a grin from ear to ear in a sort of OutOfCharacterMoment. It's only after you realize that Garnet herself is a fusion of two gems that very clearly love each other that her grin makes a lot of sense. Ruby and Sapphire kiss and laugh when they fuse, almost like a married couple. To Garnet, she may have seen that as Steven admitting his feelings for Connie, and like a motherly substitute, got excited for them and their budding emotions.
* When Stevonnie introduces themself to the gems as a fusion, Garnet is smiling happily and holding her hands clasped together. Ruby and Sapphire's gems are in her ''palms'', so she's holding both her gems together as if they were kissing!
* Stevonnie using "they/them" pronouns could be counted as having a double meaning; apart from the fact that Stevonnie [[AmbiguousGender doesn't have an established gender]], they're also technically [[MindHive more than one person]].
* Additionally, Pearl's reaction to Stevonnie is the exact opposite of Garnet - she's deeply uncomfortable, says that fusions with a human are "impossible, or at least inappropriate", and tries to convince them to separate immediately. This makes a lot more sense in light of "We Need to Talk", where she used the impossibility of human / gem fusions as an argument for why Greg and Rose's relationship couldn't really be serious.

[[AC:The Test]]
* Garnet's room having a lava motif makes a lot more sense following Keystone Motel, which reveals that Ruby, one half of her, has [[PlayingWithFire fire powers or at least the ability to control temperature.]]
* Back in "Cheeseburger Backpack", Pearl finally gives in on letting Steven join in on the mission when Amethyst calls it a "learning experience." Garnet outright states that the test "wasn't something [they] planned behind [Steven's] back," and that they "saw and opportunity and took it." Meaning that mission was a learning opportunity to see how well Steven would do in future ones.

[[AC:Future Vision]]
* Garnet's future vision might explain why she could be entranced by the Meat Beat Mania game. If she sees potential outcomes and the game was randomized there would be no end to what she sees, it completely overtaking the potential futures sees.
** Though videogames are not truly randomized -- they only use pseudorandom numbers. It could still overwhelm the future vision, though, if the random numbers were affected by the player input.

[[AC:On The Run]]
* Garnet's joke about how they "kept Amethyst"... [[FunnyAneurysmMoment is not actually a joke.]] They literally kept her.
** Further brilliance from this: Pearl's reaction to the "joke" seems a bit over-the-top and almost forced. Given she'd been keeping Steven LockedOutOfTheLoop, she likely treated Garnet's comment about Amethyst as a joke to ensure that's all Steven would think it was.
** Garnet cared about Amethyst. She probably assumed that Amethyst would understand it was just a joke, that they "kept" her and she turned out wonderful. She became a valued and loved part of the team. The same might happen to Lion, too.
* "On the Run" reveals that Amethyst was created on Earth and has never been to the Gem Homeworld. Amethyst has always behaved the most human of the Crystal Gems, she's the only one who regularly eats and sleeps, despite not needing to.
* Of the Crystal Gems, Amethyst is the one who embraces her role as Steven's CoolBigSis the most and the one always ready to try human stuff, like eating and sleeping. She, like Steven, is not from Gemworld and was born on Earth. She identifies more with Earth than Garnet or Pearl do and feel a stronger connection towards Steven because of their shared origin.
* Sugilite being the TokenEvilTeammate makes more sense considering she's an [[UpToEleven amplified]] version of Amethyst; considering Amethyst's origins and the evil purposes behind her creation, Sugilite is what Amethyst was ''meant'' to be.
* All those holes in the Kindergarten makes you realize this is where all those Corrupted Gems probably came from. [[FridgeHorror Then you realize this is where all those Gems came from, these thousands of holes. And there's only somewhere between 30 to a 100 Gems stored at the Temple.]]
* If you look at the other holes in the kindergarten, you see that most of them are bigger than Amethyst's hole (many of them twice as tall), fitting in with Peridot's observation that she should be twice as tall, and Jasper's calling her an "undercooked runt".

[[AC:Winter Forecast]]
* Garnet transfers her power to Steven by kissing him on the forehead -- where his third eye would be, if he had one.

[[AC:Maximum Capacity]]
* In Steven finds a book, "[[InterspeciesRomance Passions of Xanxor]]", to which Greg snatches away. We know that Rose was attracted to Greg because she was a FriendToAllLivingThings, but Greg was attracted to Rose because she was Badass alien warrior.
** Or, alternatively, she influenced his "type," and he's now attracted to Badass alien warriors because he no longer has her.
* Amethyst's fight with Greg when she says he "stole" Rose away from her. Coupled with her previous comments about Rose, it's clear she was probably the closest thing Amethyst had to a parent or at least the Gem she was closest to. It casts her whole teenager personality in a whole new light: she's ''still'' grieving the loss of her closest friend/mother the way that a child would, and she's angry at Pearl and Garnet for not getting that.

[[AC:Marble Madness]]
* Peridot is under the impression that when Steven introduces himself that he is literally "a Steven" and inquires whether humans have been replaced as the dominant species of earth. There is a good reason for Peridot's confusion, as Steven is part human and part gem, and a scan would probably not show him as either.

[[AC:Rose's Scabbard]]
* If Pearl was really as intimate with Rose as implied, it contextualizes Pearl's relationship with Amethyst a little more: Amethyst is like a child who is under the custody of a step parent. It also provides an explanation for why Pearl is the TeamMom despite Garnet being the most leader-like of the three.
** Further, it shows why Pearl is as devoted to swordplay as she is. The sword was Rose's weapon. What better way to get close to Rose than to train with her? And what better way to memorialize her than to hone her skill in Rose's way of fighting to absolute perfection?
* [[RuleOfSymbolism The way Rose's portrait fell from the wall]] after Pearl punch it in anger at the revelation that Rose actually kept secrets from her as well is a beautiful way to show how [[BrokenPedestal the pedestal of perfection where Rose is on Pearl's eyes broke up a little]].
* The fact that Rose calls Pearl "My Pearl" at first seems like she's saying she appreciates her loyalty. Then in "Message Received" we learn that Peridot refers to Yellow Diamond as "My Diamond," implying that in Gem culture calling another gem "your" gem is a symbol of loyalty. Suddenly Rose's line fits in much more with how she "made (Pearl) feel like she was everything."
** It also fits with Pearls being a ServantRace. Part of Pearl's struggle after Rose is gone is finding a sense of confidence and self-worth, and part of the development of Rose as a posthumous character is that she was a good and wonderful person, but she did embrace values of her culture that [[ValuesDissonance don't jive with an Earthly perspective.]] Regardless of the morality involved, Pearl ''was'' made to be a servant, and Rose understood that. In a more human context, calling someone "mine" is as much a statement of belonging as affection. It's only natural that Pearl is devastated by her loss, Rose was the only person who fully accepted her for what she was without forcing her to choose between her inherent nature and what she chose to be.
* When he's jumping from platform to platform after a fleeing Pearl, it looks like Steven is going to make the last jump, even though he shouldn't be able to. Then Pearl turns around, there's a significant moment where he realises that she's ''glaring'' at him, and he suddenly starts falling ''straight down'', right in the middle of his jump, as though the sudden negative emotions caused him to fall. Fast forward all the way to "Steven Floats", where it turns out that not only can Steven control the speed of his descent, but negative emotions cause him to fall faster.

[[AC:The Message]]
* We learned in this episode that the Wailing Stones are communication devices that should send and receive sound, and the Gems are perturbed when it produces a discordant howl instead of speech. We also learned that they have gathered every Wailing Stone on the planet and brought them back to the Temple. Back in "Rose's Room", when Amethyst activates the stone, it produces a different, high-pitched shriek. Given that all the other Wailing Stones are presumably nearby in the Temple, the shriek could simply be audio feedback, like when a live microphone is placed next to a speaker.

[[AC:The Return]]
* The Gem Destabilizers are essentially the Homeworld equivalent of tasers. Both of them are nonlethal weapons that deliver a shock that incapacitate an attacker, allowing the user to detain the attacker without resistance.
* Thanks to AlternateHistory, Greg addressing Gemkind as aliens and all the theories in the real world about it, we can be sure that humanity in this show pretty much evolved thanks to the Gems bringing technology. They may not "give" it to them but humans tried to figure out and imitate what Gem technology could do.
* Garnet says that the Crystal Gems rely on Steven, that his voice inspires them and reminds them why they fight. You could say that [[Recap/StevenUniverseS1E20CoachSteven he's their rock, and when he talks, it lights a fire in them]].
* Jasper refers to Amethyst as an "overcooked runt." Jasper and amethyst are both a type of quartz, as is rose quartz. Jasper is very large, as is Rose, but Amethyst is extremely short. It seems that Quartz-type gems are naturally big bruisers, but Amethyst is much smaller than she should be, probably because the Kindergarten was abandoned, and so she stayed in longer than expected.
** Additional brilliance from a geological perspective: amethyst and jasper are not just the same type of stone, they're the ''same'' stone. The only difference is that amethysts tend to be buried more deeply and subject to more tectonic pressure than jasper; amethyst is also a crystalline quartz, while jasper is classified as cryptocrystalline. A possible hint that not only is Jasper a Kindergarten Gem herself, but that if Amethyst hadn't been buried as deeply as she was, abandoned, and then taken in by the Crystal Gems, she would have turned out ''just like Jasper''.
* Pearl is referred to as 'defective', an ironic moniker given that she earlier called Amethyst "the byproduct of a mistake."
* Why does a show that makes a consistent point of accepting yourself and showing everyone as beautiful in one way or another make such a classic example in BeautyEqualsGoodness in Jasper looking so monstrous? Because, due to the fact that gems determine their own appearance, she is deliberately enhancing the intimidating aspects of herself, making herself an enemy of the weak and fearful from the first impression.
** Adding to that, remember, she's a warrior, and has been for millennia. Based on her behavior, she's proud of it, too: of course she would chose to present as a haggard, no-nonsense, intimidating warrior who by the looks of her has been through hell and back! Her stripes, especially the one on her face, are pretty reminiscent of battle scars or burns. As we later find out, "intimidating warrior" is pretty much the default look for a Quartz like Jasper, adding even more evidence that she fiercely embraced the role expected of her. Not to mention, a case can be made that what really makes Jasper look monstrous is the tendency for SlasherSmile, and otherwise she's almost an AmazonianBeauty, being a taller and more muscular version of Amethyst with a different color palette.

[[AC:Jail Break]]
* About Sapphire's gem. Her gem on the temple door has her triangle facet upside down: upside down triangles are a symbol of femininity. It's also related to her physical form: her dress gives her physical form a triangular look.
* Garnet being the one that give to Stevonnie really good advice about what a fusion is and how them should enjoy the experience makes sense now that we know she herself is a fusion; she has more experience with it since she lives it all her life.
* Ruby was clearly angry at the sight of Steven and tries to tell him to go away. She was upset that the surprise they had planned for Steven's birthday was ruined and was trying to see if it could be fixed.
* A few fans have pointed out how real garnet isn't actually a single gemstone, but rather its own class of several types. In much the same way, Garnet herself isn't a single Gem, but rather a fusion between Ruby and Sapphire. The show runners should be commended for having this reveal planned for over a ''year'' in advance, intentional or not.
** Similarly, this troper always found that the absence of Ruby and Sapphire in a show with people named for gemstones was rather conspicuous, chalking it up to staying away from low hanging fruit. Now with the revelation of Garnet's status as a fusion, it shows they were there all along. We just never met them until now.
*** Rubies and sapphires are actually the same type of gem, called corundum. It makes sense thematically that they would be compatible. Corundum is also the second hardest mineral after diamond, hence, Ruby and Sapphire combined makes the toughest of the Crystal Gems.
* All of the Fusions that have appeared in the series have been voiced by women best known as musicians. This includes Garnet, who is actually a fusion of Ruby and Sapphire, and has been voiced the entire time by famous British musician Estelle.
* Sugilite having a far wilder personality makes more sense after meeting Ruby and Sapphire and the line "I am their fury, I am their patience" in Garnet's song. Garnet is a balance between Ruby (fury) and Sapphire (patience). So when Amethyst is added to the mix the ratio is off, and Ruby's fury and Amethyst's wildness take control.
* The garnet gemstone is said to represent love/romance, so it makes sense for Garnet to be a fusion of a seemingly perfect romance.
* Why is Lapis Lazuli able to so easily trap Jasper both in Malachite and at the bottom of the ocean? Everything we see about Jasper shows her to be a hyper-aggressive BloodKnight interested only in proving her physical prowess in hand to hand combat. Even her signature weapon is a helmet that she uses to head butt opponents with. Lapis's hydrokinesis, though, is completely mental in nature and logically must require incredible levels of control and discipline, she managed to use what must have been billions of tons of water to make her tower in Ocean Gem while she was injured. By fusing Jasper gave up her advantage in sheer physical strength and unknowingly stepped onto a playing field where Lapis would be dominant using her will power and mental discipline.
* Why Lapis Lazuli easily made the choice to trap herself and Jasper in the ocean on Earth, a place she hates: she literally has no home to go back to and has nothing to lose.
* My thought is also that Lapis has to have one hell of an HeroicWillpower. Between the strength of concentration it would take to build a tower of the entire ocean ''without killing the sea life'' in the process combined with the strength of self and will that it would require for Lapis to have been trapped in a mirror for a thousand years but still come out of it sane. On top of that, as above, Jasper is all about the physical muscle, saw Lapis as a weakling, and underestimated her will. I'm willing to believe that it's going to take a lot of Jasper rage beating against Lapis' will before Malachite breaks fusion.
* Malachite's gems are, as with all fusions, on the same location that with the original Gems; in her case, they're on her nose and her back. Lapis used her change and ''got under Jasper's nose'' in order to ''backstab her'' at the end.
* How are Lapis and Jasper so easily able to form Malachite? Simple: They want revenge. Thing is, their targets are completely different - while Jasper wants to get revenge on the Crystal Gems, Lapis just wants to take revenge on those who would imprison her. The Crystal Gems may not have helped her at all, but they are allied with the altruistic Steven, and it was implied Jasper imprisoned her every step of the way.
* Peridot's cry of "you clods don't know what you're doing!" when Pearl and Amethyst hijack the ship makes sense after "Back to the Barn" and "Too Far" confirm that in Gem society, Quartz Gems like Amethyst and Pearls like Pearl are seen as foot soldiers and pretty servants/decorations, respectively. Peridot doesn't think they don't know how to use tech they're thousands of years out of date for, she literally believes they're incapable of handling sophisticated equipment ''period''.
* The relationship of Jasper and Lapis is implied to be abusive. ([[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids Y'know, for kids!]]) The name of their fusion, Malachite, is potentially toxic. More so to prove they ''literally'' are in a toxic relationship.
* During the end of her fight with Jasper, Garnet watches Jasper flying around the room with her SpinDash for several moments, looking focused...then smirks right when Jasper chose which direction to attack from. She was using her future vision and when Jasper decided to come at her from that direction, she knew exactly what was going to happen.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Season 2]]
[[AC:Open Book]]
* It ''seems'' like the room is back to its old nightmare-inducing simulations with Fake!Connie. But here's the thing: In order to escape the LogicBomb of "I want you to stop doing what I want", the room had to accept that Steven had conflicting wants and interests. So, it analyzed Steven's recent interests without instantly trying to gratify them. Admittedly, this still comes off as more than a little creepy. (i.e., "I know you like her. I know you want her to like you too. That's why you can't tell her [that you like the ending]. But you ''want'' to tell her!") In short, the room not only was intelligent enough to think itself out of a LogicBomb that concerned its prime objective, but it was able to BatmanGambit Steven into a situation where he had the largest probability of being satisfied.
* Steven and Connie's favorite characters of ''The Spirit Morph Saga'' go hand-in-hand with their personalities and how they relate to them. Steven likes Archemicarus the familiar falcon, a magical being devoted to his liege Lisa to the point of falling for her; Steven himself is part magical and holds feelings for Connie, who prefers Lisa because the character began as a normal girl and ended being TheChosenOne badass, something she'll like to be. Also, Steven was able to see the subtle hints of the romantic plot between Archemicarus and Lisa because of his status as TheHeart; he's is in more tune with his and others' feelings than Connie, who was just focused in the action/adventure plot.
* There's a subtle hint that something is off when 'Connie' exits the costume shop. Just a few moments before, Connie noticed that Steven imagined one of Lisa's tunics as red, while she had imagined it as black. When Steven says he wants to see Connie, 'she' exits the costume shop wearing a red cloak, hinting that it's not really Connie, but Rose's Room attempting to manifest Steven's desires. Sure enough, when the real Connie reappears later on, she's wearing a black cloak.
** It's also subtly hinted that something's off in Connie's dialogue - or rather, her lack of it. In the following scenes, she's rather passive, with her dialogue limited to either pointing out stuff from the books (like the wing-lizard) or asking Steven to continue the story. ''She's'' the one who wants to rewrite the ending in the first place, so why does all the work fall on Steven? ''Because she's a construct of the room, and she thus can't think for herself!''

[[AC:Joy Ride]]
* When the cool kids invite Steven to come "freak out some squares" with them, he declines on the grounds that he's "fond of all basic shapes." LiteralMinded as his thought process was here, it does fit metaphorically well with his AllLovingHero nature. Steven will gladly befriend, or at least try to, people of all types, including those folks generally referred to as "squares".
** A square/four-point diamond also seems to be a symbol for the Gem Homeworld (Peridot and Jasper both wear one on their clothing, and Peridot's hair/headgear is in the same general shape). Steven ''tried'' to make friends with Peridot.
* While Steven may believe the Gems as a whole blame him for the loss of Rose, Amethyst is probably the one who'd blame him the ''least''. She would, after all, [[NotSoDifferent know better than anybody how it feels to be seen as "a byproduct of" what's generally been seen as "a big mistake." And she'd know Steven, like her, "never asked to be made."]]
** Most likely, ''Garnet'' would be the one that blames Steven the least for Rose being gone. Garnet is the fusion of two Gems who are very much in love with each other so they/she have the most emotional support to overcome the sadness of Rose's loss. She also has said and demonstrated how much she loves and believes in Steven over Pearl's neurotic overprotection and condescension, and Amethyst's playful teasing. Garnet misses Rose, yeah, but she misses her more as a dear friend and leader instead of as a parental figure (Amethyst) or a heroine/lover (Pearl).
** In addition, Garnet is a fusion of two Gems who love each other unconditionally, and both Ruby and Sapphire would probably sacrifice themselves for the other if it came to that. Garnet understands giving yourself up for someone you love, as Rose did.
*** "Keeping it Together" also sheds more light on the fusion and how Garnet views herself. Not as just the combination and love of Ruby and Sapphire, but also a separate entity and life. In a lot of ways while Garnet is the embodiment of their love, she is also the product of their love, like their child. So not only would Garnet understand the love and have a more healthy relationship with Rose, she would also have a firmer grasp in understanding why Rose would want to/be willing to give up her own life for Steven's.
** This, in turn, means that the one that probably blames Steven the most is Pearl, who was not only thought she was closest to Rose, but has no frame of reference for what Steven's situation is regarding Rose. However, she still respects Rose's choices even if she cannot understand the emotional aspect of it, and tries her best to not come off as a bigot towards Steven. This causes her to overcompensate when taking care of Steven, which is why she seems to take far more interest in his physical wellbeing than any other Gem.

[[AC:Say Uncle]]
* This isn't the first time the Crystal Gems immediately attacked someone/thing [[Recap/StevenUniverseS1E23MonsterBuddies for Steven's safety, despite his protests]], or because [[Recap/StevenUniverseS1E44MarbleMadness they simply didn't understand its function]].
** On this same vein, Amethyst is the one shown to be more accepting of Uncle Grampa, but still attacking him anyway. She knows what it feels to be different (she was created in Kindergarten) but still follows on UG's beating out of social pressure.
* Pearl's character exaggeration makes sense when you consider that, [[ArbitrarySkepticism despite being an intergalactic rock creature]], [[AgentScully she's firmly grounded within the confines of reality]]. Her meeting [[RealityWarper Uncle Grandpa]] is not much different from a lifelong atheist meeting God in person and [[SkepticismFailure watching everything they thought they knew]] [[GivingUpOnLogic go flying out the window]].
* There was a WildMassGuessing about "Say Uncle" that said it would be non-canon or an April's Fool episode. Uncle Grampa confirm it while launching his head out of a cannon, with smoke writing 'April's Fool' in the sky. A [[{{Pun}} headcanon]] confirmed both WMG.
* Despite Uncle Grandpa saying the episode isn't canon, Steven is able to summon his shield without problems in future episodes. Why? Uncle Grandpa spelled out April Fool's immediately afterwards, meaning his previous statement is a joke, and that the episode (as well as Lars and Sadie's ship) is official.
* At the end of the episode, the [[WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor Kids Next Door]] are conspicuously absent from Uncle Grandpa's list. Why? They hate adults!

[[AC:Story for Steven]]
* Greg's guitar (as seen in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utULCVro9kk the sneak peek]]) is a [[BlandNameProduct Jader]]. Not only does it tie into the show's mineral motifs, but it has headstock of a Jackson guitar and the body of a Fender. Put the names together and what do you get? Jader. The guitar is a fusion.
* The five-point star was a symbol Greg used in the height of his music career, which makes sense of his camera--as seen in the video in "Lion 3"--having the show's star-shaped IrisOut as an effect. It was probably an effect he programmed in for outros on his music videos.
* Fridge Heartwarming: Despite Greg telling the story of how he met Rose so many times before, it seems this is the first time Steven playfully teases him over his love for her. Well, now we know that Rose is half Steven, and she could hear the whole version of the story, so she now can tell how much Greg does love her and has all the right to tease. Awww!
* In the flashback, Amethyst's hair is short instead of the RapunzelHair we've come to see on her, and she also says that she likes Greg's long hair when they meet. Amethyst based her hair off of Greg's.
** I think her long hair in the [[http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/steven-universe/images/c/ce/SoManyBirthdaysPreview07.png/revision/latest?cb=20140301212717 old picture]] from So Many Birthdays kind of contradicts that.
* While trying to let down Greg, Rose said that she would like to "play" with him. For someone so loving and caring, it was quite a derogative term, until it came to me. To Rose, Greg's feelings and, overall, lifespan are just like those of a stray puppy that took a liking for her, or even a normal human. Dogs grow older faster than humans and die in just 18 years at maximum. To Rose, a relationship between herself and Greg would be like that and (as those who had pets and had seen them die would know) just as heartbreaking.
** Or she could have just meant it as in "play music"...
** Or [[TakeAThirdOption both...]]
* In "Lars and the Cool Kids", Steven states he has no idea where his clothes come from and it is shown many times he has many of the same shirt. In "Story for Steven", Greg had a box of shirts in his van exactly like Steven's, implying that Steven's shirts are leftover Mr. Universe merchandise.
* Seeing young Greg provides another reason why Steven hasn't aged much. He could merely be a late bloomer (Greg heavily resembles Steven despite Greg presumably being a late teenager at the time) and considering how Steven got a good deal of genetics from Greg, it's merely another thing that RunsInTheFamily.

[[AC:Love Letters]]
* Garnet isn't interested in forming a relationship with Jamie because she already IS a relationship between two lovers. You could even say she ''is'' love. Jamie literally fell in love ''with love''.

[[AC:Reformed]]
* Amethyst's final form has less FashionableAsymmetry than her usual one, which makes [[SuperOCD Pearl]] very happy; this ''could'' just be coincidental, but since the two are closer with Steven's influence, especially after "On the Run", it could be that the original element stemmed from her irritation with Pearl, and with that reduced, she doesn't need to wear it as proudly on her sleeve.

[[AC:Sworn to the Sword]]
* Steven and Connie singing about jam together. They're [[StealthPun jamming.]]
* Why was Connie so easily convinced of Pearl's speech of her being a sacrifice for Steven? Because Connie has self-esteem issues and a case of IJustWantToBeSpecial. What better way, in her and Pearl's minds, to boost the former and be the latter then to die protecting someone who is considered to be on the level of a messiah? Also counts as NightmareFuel and a bit of FridgeHorror.
* Pearl has holo-Pearl set to actually hurt her enough to cause her to poof if she makes a mistake because, as we see in "Sworn to the Sword", Pearl doesn't place enough value on herself and probably think she deserves to get hurt if she makes a mistake fighting because she's been on the battlefield where even just one mistake can have serious consequences and end up with people you care about getting hurt.
** Pearl not valuing her own life can also be seen in the hologram scene during the song ''Do it for her/him''. We see Pearl running to defend Rose, but the recording stops right when she's about to get a hit. This most surely means she had just died there.
* The age gap between Pearl and Connie adds additional subtext to Pearl's harshness: having been ''thousands'' of years old when she started training, she had emotional resilience and autonomy that a kid like Connie does not. She held Connie to the standards of an adult, not a child.
** Though given how Gems age, or more accurately how they ''don't'' age, Pearl could have been the Gem equivalent of Connie's age at the time. Which adds another whole layer of FridgeHorror as that would make Pearl a ChildSoldier...
* Why didn't Connie's parents notice the bruises or calluses on her hands? Steven probably healed them after each training session.
* Pearl's description of a knight, while fitting the LadyAndKnight concept, doesn't bear much resemblance to the actual medieval code of chivalry. It sounds more like a {{Samurai}} than anything else. But consider that A) Pearl doesn't really understand or care for human culture so she could have gotten the two mixed up and B) she's romanticizing it anyway. It make sense for her to be inaccurate.
** In an early interview introducing the Crystal Gems, Rebecca Sugar herself did not describe Pearl as a knight, but as a {{Samurai}}. [[SubmissiveBadass Now we know]] [[SenselessSacrifice EXACTLY]] [[DevotedToYou how accurate the foreshadowing in that description was.]]
*** As an aside note, this is a rare example of the show's creators not [[ShownTheirWork showing their work:]] 5000 years ago, there was nothing on Earth resembling either knights or samurai.Pearl couldn't have picked up that concept from us until several thousands of years later.
* The Quartz in the flashback seems to be twice Rose's size, when Jasper is normally only a little taller than Rose ''at best'' and was able to crush Pearl. This is despite the fact we later see that Pearl was capable of defeating ''multiple'' Quartz Gems at the same time. At first it seems like this is simply for dramatic purposes, but we learn later in "The Answer" that Gems of the same type fusing together during battle wasn't uncommon. The Quartz in the flashback was likely a fused Quartz Gem, explaining her size and power.
* Notice the fighting style when Steven and Connie fight together. Steven is the defensive fighter whose sole job is to protect Connie, with Connie doing all the real damage. Connie was being trained as Steven's knight and explicitly told to sacrifice herself for Steven, yet Steven is the one defending Connie and rushing to save her life, while the best way to support Steven involves leaving Steven to attack rather then standing beside him to defend him; in short their combat style is in a sense a reverse of the typical styles expected of a Knight defending a higher value individual. Even their genders are reversed from the 'standard' male attacker and WhiteMagicianGirl were used to. This makes sense in multiple levels:
** It shows one of the key flaws in Pearl's training of Connie, she was so focused on setting up Connie as a sacrificial knight she failed to see that Connie could better 'serve' Steven as a complement to Steven's powers rather then a subservient knight. Basically, the two must break the inferiority complex that Pearl projects onto Connie and instead of fighting as invincible messiah and lowly knight, instead fight together as **equals**, so as to complementing Steven's lack of offense and Connie's pathetic defense (all humans are squishy compared to a Gem) to make a single powerful unit.
** This is in keeping with a sort of subtle meta-theme of all of Steven Universe, one about gender roles and stereotypes. The show is well-known for breaking gender/stereotype roles by having a 'boys' show with a primarily female cast, the male being the NonActionGuy (or closest to it), and being more in touch with his feminine side then typical boys in such cartoons. Their team up similarly breaks a lot of the expected tropes for LadyAndKnight. Here the person defended is arguably 'stronger' and yet the knight has far more raw power; the knight is the female and the protected individual, male; the magic individual(Steven) breaks the SquishyWizard trope by being a StoneWall and the melee fighter is the GlassCannon; and the one doing 'support' does it by adding offense and the one being 'protected' offers the defense.
** Their fighting as a single unit, two sides complimenting each other to make one fighting force, has some obvious parallels to Stevonnie fusion. Maybe the fact that they have already fused helps to explain why they manage to work together to support each other so naturally now with little training.
* Another thing about "Do It For Her/Him": Steven is partially his mother, so when Connie fights for him, she is indeed doing it for her.
* Why is Pearl so willing to take on a "mere" human as a student, given that she usually doesn't seem to think highly of them and knows Connie would be at a severe disadvantage against gems? Because Pearl, herself, was once a "mere" Pearl who followed the same path.

[[AC:Rising Tides/Crashing Skies]]
* Jenny makes Garnet almost hitting her back in "Joy Ride" a lot more malicious than it actually was. During that episode, Steven revealed some of his issues regarding the Crystal Gems to the Cool Kids and given that they actually like him, in addition to the fact that Garnet was at least guaranteed to harm Steven before they interfered, she may have done so out of indignation towards the Crystal Gems for how they have treated Steven.

[[AC:Keeping It Together]]
* The title has two meanings: One, TheReveal that Homeworld have used the shards of Crystal Gems as experiments by ''keeping them forced together''. Two, how Garnet nearly defused into Ruby and Sapphire upon witnessing what happened to her fallen comrades, but managed to ''keep it together''.
* [[https://soundcloud.com/aivisura/steven-universe-gem-shards The song]] that plays when the fused gem shards appear sounds like a lot of different songs stuck together randomly. Just like the gem shards.
* The piles of clothing each of them that represents their personality.
** Garnet has two piles -- reminder that she's a fusion.
** Amethyst folds the shirts messily and just piles them on --indicating her slobbish, wild nature.
** Pearl's pile is perfect and neat -- something that matches with perfectionist qualities.
** Steven's pile emulates Pearl's probably because he learned how to do it from her -- he's a student of hers, along with Garnet and Amethyst. Plus, he thinks of Pearl as the closest thing to a mother figure in the absence of Rose, his actual mother.
* The Injectors look very similar to bacteriophages, viruses that kill bacteria by injecting their DNA into them and turning the bacteria into a virus-making factory. Similarly, the Injector turns the Earth into a Gem-making factory, destroying it in the process.

[[AC:We Need To Talk]]
* After watching the episode, I realized that the ending's song could be seen from Rose Quartz's perspective on her relationship with Greg. I mean, I'm sure that Rose at some moment ever thought "If I could began to be half of what you [Greg] think of me, I could do about everything...I could even ''learn '''how to love''' like you''".
* Rainbow Quartz is an incredibly positive fusion, if your subscribe to the theory that better relationships produce more human-like fusions. Her only glaring oddity is the separation of eyes and and seemingly a degree of maintained individuality. This ties in nicely with how their relationship is: Both have deep, genuine care for the other, but neither has really "seen" a complete picture of the other. Pearl has a distorted view of what she was to Rose and what Rose needed/wanted from her (Rose's Scabbard/Sworn to the Sword), and Rose seemed unaware of Pearl's nastier side, not realizing she was trying to break her up from Greg.
* [[http://jen-iii.tumblr.com/post/122535693616/jen-iii-i-was-making-an-observation-while The reason]] behind Greg's shiver after Rose calls him by his first name.
* It might be surprising for Garnet to be supportive of Greg and giving him advice with Rose, but there are a few points to consider:
** Rose was clearly interested in him too, so the feeling was mutual.
** He was trying so hard to make her happy. He wrote her songs and made her laugh and showed her the human way of expressing love, which seemed to excite her. Garnet saw how happy they were together and tried to help, because she knows what it's like to be just starting a relationship and you're maybe nervous and shy, maybe even scared, but really want to make it work.
** Being from a world that seems to frown on committed love, and then living in a world where it's normal and encouraged, Garnet would naturally have studied how human relationships work.
** Another factor to consider is that, in just the previous episode, we saw that Garnet takes the concept of fusion incredibly seriously. Greg wasn't just trying to make Rose happy, he was making an effort to understand something he was unfamiliar with but was clearly important to her. He was doing his best to fuse with Rose, and Garnet saw the respect he was treating the idea with even though he's just a human - why ''wouldn't'' she want to help someone out in that case?
* Garnet's sheer glee over Stevonnie also has an extra dimension thanks to this episode - although Greg never was able to do it, Steven was able to fuse with Connie, validating Garnet's belief that humans could be capable of fusion.
* The Gems clothing back when Rose was still early in her relationship with Greg is more obviously Earth-like implying Rose encouraged them to try and fit in more and since her departure they've withdrawn from humanity slightly and are only now starting to engage with it again, thanks to Steven.
* RuleOfSymbolism for both Greg's flashbacks about the beginnings of his relationship with Rose (the other one being in "Story for Steven"). Both flashbacks are set in nighttime, reflecting how Greg and Rose are in the dark about the real implications of being in a InterspeciesRomance, and especially about the real nature of their significant other (both are unable to see each other beyond their initial fascination). Interesting, Rose's video in "Lion 3" was recorded during daytime; they had around ten years to get to know each other as individuals instead of [[LovingAShadow concepts]] and their relationship morphed into something meaningful and deep, to the point of awaiting a child.
* Garnet insists that Greg's attempt to fuse with Rose worked, even though they were still two separate entities from everyone's view. Fast forward about 20 years, and one realizes that she wasn't directly referring to that particular moment - she was referring to Steven being born.

[[AC:Chille Tid]]
* [[http://themillenniumtoenailclippers.tumblr.com/post/121970131731/i-absolutely-love-how-steven-cast-the-other-gems Steven's dream]] in "Chille Tid" shows how he views each of the Crystal Gems.
** Garnet getting a lot of cheers also makes sense on a meta-level; due to being voiced by Estelle, she's a CelebrityStar on a sitcom!
* Pearl's dream is interesting. She's overjoyed to be surfing with Rose Quartz on a pizza slice, and asks Rose to run away with her to space. Rose shifts into Greg, who thanks her for fixing his van, and another pizza slice comes out of his mouth. We know Pearl is grossed out about eating. Why all the pizza? Maybe it's ambivalence towards being locked in an Earth-style family. The Pizzas are one of the most stable, content families Pearl knows.
* Pearl and Amethyst's quick acceptance of Steven's dream telepathy is both a sign of their character growth and trust in his maturity, and a realization that Pearl's prophecy in "Monster Buddies" is coming true. After all, Steven is the only known gem in the universe who ''has'' to sleep, so his discovering this new power makes sense!

[[AC:Cry for Help]]
* Garnet's anger over Pearl wanting to fuse with her just experience the rush of fusion is justified, but seemed a little out of place at first, considering how casual she was about fusing with Amethyst in "Coach Steven" ("We don't need a plan, we just need to be huge."). But consider what's happened to Garnet since then -- Sugilite proved to be a huge, dangerous mistake, Ruby and Sapphire were separated, and possibly worst of all, Garnet found out about the Cluster, and just what Homeworld thinks of Gems like her. After all that, Garnet had probably gotten really protective of the lifestyle she leads, and would get especially angry over attitudes like Amethyst and Pearl's, who essentially have taken a more benevolent view on Jasper's posturing about fusing being only to make weak Gems stronger. To have your enemy call a relationship built on incredible love, trust, and loyalty reduced to an insulting battle tactic by your enemy is bad enough, but to have your friends and teammates do the same? It makes Garnet's anger even more justified and painful to watch.
** Pearl's intense desire to fuse might be a holdover from her status on Homeworld. As a member of the lowest servant class on the planet, Pearl would never have gotten the chance or permission to fuse with anyone else. As seen in later episodes, the only fusions allowed by Homeworld were A) in combat situations, and B) all of the same kind of Gem.
** This goes a long way in explaining Garnet's reaction to Amethyst trying to stand up for Pearl. Amethyst basically said the same thing as Jasper did, but in kinder and tamer words. No wonder Garnet was having none of it.
** Pearl using Garnet for fusion like that is bound to make her even more upset because fusing with her for her own self-interest and power like that is making an mockery of Garnet's entire being. Garnet sees fusion as something built out of love and trust, and while Pearl's motivations are far more complex than simply enjoying the power high of being fused with Garnet, it's an incredible betrayal of trust for her.
** This crosses over into FridgeHorror when you see at the end of the episode Garnet demands Amethyst fuse with her to destroy the tower. Sugilite does have better control now, but only because Amethyst is intimidated at Garnet. The fusion gem doesn't have Amethyst's wild nature that drives Sugilite back at "Coach Steven". After withstanding such an insult from one of her closest friends, she is forced to fuse with Amethyst, who is obviously uncomfortable at the moment, [[{{Hypocrite}} which basically goes against what Garnet believes about fusion.]]
** The last time Sugilite appeared, her personality was wildly out of control because Amethyst, in her wild ways, upset the balance between the normally hot-headed Ruby and calm Sapphire. This time however, Sugilite just silently and violently destroyed the tower without so much as a word. This is because Amethyst is too terrified of Garnet to do her normal hijinks, while Ruby and Sapphire are the ones in rage; Sapphire's calmness instead turned it into [[TranquilFury tranquil rage]].
* This is another title with more than one meaning: Peridot's message to Yellow Diamond is an actual cry for help -- a distress signal. Sardonyx maintains that she is a ''response'' to a cry for help, and that she'll be there whenever she's needed. Finally, Pearl and Amethyst "cry for help" in the more psychological sense -- acting out in a destructive way in a desperate bid to get someone to assist them with their issues. Amethyst's gloominess and dejection elicit a response from Steven, who moves to make her feel useful and empowered again...but Pearl's cry for help (her increasingly reckless and selfish behavior) is destructive to the people around her, so Garnet is in no mood to provide the reassurance and validation that Pearl's so desperate for. The title hints that this might be a flashpoint for Pearl's ongoing issues.
* The first time Sardonyx was formed was some kind of [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadowing]] - Pearl had the idea to rebuild the Communication Hub while she and Garnet were Sardonyx the first time. Think about it: when Garnet and Amethyst form Sugilite at the end, Sugilite pretty much obliterates the Communication Hub -- there's probably no way we'll be seeing it in future episodes. Meanwhile, earlier on in the episode, Sardonyx is able to use her weapon more efficiently to aim at specific structures of the Communication Hub rather than just cause more collateral damage than necessary. This could very well be because Pearl's personality was dominant (graceful movements and perfect precision - Sardonyx was probably enthusiastic because Pearl and Garnet - basically Sapphire and especially Ruby - were excited). Pearl could have kept Sardonyx from simply destroying the Communication Hub by making her remove the pillars instead of simply smashing them, thus having Pearl frequently rebuilding the Communication Hub.
* Sardonyx being FunPersonified seems like an odd choice. Given that she's a merge of TheStoic Garnet and the generally finicky Pearl, her showy personality seems more akin to Amethyst's than her actual component gems. However, after Pearl and Garnet's heart-to-heart in "Friend Ship" it makes a lot more sense. Pearl derives a lot of her usual personality quirks from her insecurity and fusing with Garnet gives her not just a PowerHigh but a much needed boost in self-confidence. On the topic of her aforementioned stoicism, Garnet's input in personality could be pretty minimal since Ruby and Sapphire form a near-perfect balance that a third gem tips, hence why Sugilite was so much like an exaggerated Amethyst, so Pearl could very well be the dominant mind in Sardonyx. In short, Sardonyx is what Pearl would be like without her own perceived weaknesses.
* Why does Sardonyx [[StillWearingTheOldColors have a pink diamond on her shoes?]] Because Pearl herself has a pink diamond hidden as well, on her pilot outfit seen in "Space Race" (and later in "Back to the Barn"). And Pearl being the only one to have a memento of her allegiances in her wardrobe makes sense as well: she has stated after all that she rebelled for/because of Rose as a person (whose colour is also pink.)

[[AC:Keystone Motel]]
* Ruby's PlayingWithFire abilities neatly explain why Garnet can swim through molten lava without a problem while neither Pearl nor Amethyst can.
* Greg makes a comment that Garnet "likes to eat sometimes," which fits perfectly into the IdSuperegoAndEgo dynamic that the Crystal Gems have. Pearl (the superego) never feels the compulsion to eat, Amethyst (the id) gives into desire and eats constantly, and Garnet (the ego) finds a happy medium between these two extremes.
* Sapphire's hair somewhat resembles a cloud in shape. With the reveal that Garnet gets her precognitive powers from her, as well as Sapphire's focus on what happens in the unknown future (such as her fixation on Garnet forgiving Pearl), Sapphire's a literal representation of the saying "head in the clouds" (which is to refer to a person who has unrealistic ideas and doesn't pay attention to his/her current surroundings).
* While she may have been acting dramatically (and out of anger) at the time, Ruby referring to herself as an "eternal flame" takes on another meaning when you realize that rubies are used to amplify emotions and are usually associated with courage, love, and passion. So she may be referring to herself as the "eternal flame" of love and passion for Sapphire, but also the eternal flame of rage and fury towards her enemies (the latter considering what happened between Garnet and Pearl in "Cry for Help").
* With TheReveal that Sapphire only has a single eye instead of two like Ruby, it could be a reference to Greek mythology, where the Cyclopes traded their normal eyes for a special "third eye" that allowed them to look into the future. It could also be a literal way of saying "She has eyes only for [Ruby]".
* Why does Garnet have [[ShockAndAwe electrical powers]]? Because when hot ([[PlayingWithFire Ruby]]) and cold ([[AnIcePerson Sapphire]]) fronts meet, electricity is created.
** Garnet confirms this in the "Guide to the Crystal Gems" companion book.
** You could say that when Sapphire and Ruby get together, "sparks fly".
* In ''Beach Party'', Garnet stayed in the air a little longer that gravity would allow during both times she 'spiked' the beach: in this episode, Sapphire is clearly seen floating in the air.

[[AC:Onion Friend]]
* Onion's mouse being alive in the end, rather than being fed to the snake is actually foreshadowed; feeder mice are typically sold already dead, so as not to put up a fight and potentially kill the snake. The fact that it was alive in the first place indicates it may just be another of Onion's pets.

[[AC:Historical Friction]]
* The entire play of Captain Dewey takes on a whole new meaning when you consider that it's been entirely rewritten by Pearl. The key phrase is said by the first mate just before he's taken away by the squid tentacle cutout: "I still think you're great even if you screw up often because you keep trying." In ''Friend Ship'', Pearl is seen failing precisely because she keeps trying too hard to capture Peridot. This entire play is ''Pearl begging Garnet for forgiveness'' the only way she knows!
** The play also calls back to Rose's Scabbard. In that episode Pearl had difficulty explaining herself until she used a visual aid, which was the hologram of her and Rose talking. She's using the play as another aid. Also in Rose's Scabbard, despite Pearl's freakout nearly hurting Steven, he still forgave her, saying "I think you're pretty great". Echoing that line shows that Pearl knows she's in a really bad place with Garnet.
* "Rising Tides Crashing Skies" showed the Gems as rather dismissive of the trouble that the humans living near them go through because of their presence, basically saying "we were here first so deal with it." The play shows that the town founder settled there while being very aware of the dangers that could crop up so the Gems attitude becomes less "suck it up" and more "we warned you so don't complain".

[[AC:Friend Ship]]
* Peridot's increasingly crazy (yet extremely hilarious) behavior as compared to the cold and calculating gem that was introduced in "Warp Tour" has some merit: in real life, peridot is based on olivine, an Earth-based material that is very abundant, yet due to its properties, it's also chemically unstable and has weathering tendencies. Perhaps this was the reason Peridot displayed more emotion and developed EvilIsHammy tendencies while on Earth -- she was slowly being driven insane the longer she stayed there!
* Why is the Gem ship functional ''at all'', despite its advanced age and state of disrepair? Gems are TheAgeless, so they would use technology that can last for a long time with minimal maintenance.
* The way Peridot's fingers are positioned when firing a laser [[http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/steven-universe/images/3/33/Friend_Ship_Peridot_03.gif/revision/latest?cb=20150717232122 here]] looks hilariously reminiscent of a person giving someone "the middle finger".

[[AC: Nightmare Hospital]]
* When sayings that she will try to accept Connie's role of dealing with magic, Dr. Maheswaran says she'll try to keep an open mind about Connie and Lion, but squints her eyes when saying she'll try to keep an open mind about Steven. She has this reaction because Steven possessively referred to Connie as "my Connie" when defending her. While she can begrudgingly accept Connie fighting because she witnessed her sword skills firsthand, the idea of Connie having a boyfriend at such a young age bothers her the most.
* It may seem weird for Dr. Maheswaran to treat two obviously inhuman patients as if they were normal, but she knows almost ''nothing'' about the Gems and how they work. It's not unreasonable for someone with no experience with aliens to assume that, whatever these things are, they have similar biology to humans, and it's mentally easier to blame faulty equipment than consider life-forms that ''don't have heartbeats''. It's also not unreasonable to assume from the distressing sounds they were making that the fusion monsters needed treatment, normal patients or not, and she's first and foremost a doctor.
* Priyanka's FreakOut about Connie's sword is partially contextualized by Garnet's earlier phone call to her.
-->"The children are playing swords. Sorry, playing ''with'' swords. They're bleeding! Oh no, they are dead."
* Steven saying "My Connie" seems a little off at first, until you remember that "My X" seems to mean something along the lines off "I really respect/admire you" in Gem culture.

[[AC: Sadie's Song]]
* Comparing to the previous episode: it's interesting to see the contrast between Connie and Sadie's moms because they are both control freaks, just in different ways. Whereas Connie's mother is very strict in forcing her daughter to follow her rules, Sadie's mother tries to support her daughter's interests but always goes overboard and forces her into a position where she ''has'' to be the best and gets angry at anyone who she thinks is getting in Sadie's way. It seem a lot like she's trying to live vicariously through her daughter. The moms are both trying to do what they think is right for their kids, but they don't listen to their girls and put what they want over what their daughters want and it ends up alienating them. Barb at least thinks she's listening to what Sadie wants, but she really doesn't, and it ends up just as unhealthy as Connie's mom's strictness.

[[AC:Catch and Release]]
* Why is Peridot so small? Peridot crystals are pretty tiny.
* Unprotected peridot (as in the real life, non-sentient gem) tends to decay quite rapidly on Earth. Similarly, Peridot is completely defenseless without her armour/limbs or robots, to the point where she doesn't even quite get the idea of being able to attack unarmed.
* If the Cluster really is a DoomsdayDevice of some sort, that would explain why Homeworld waited so long to come back to Earth, they were waiting for it to finish incubating.
* Peridot's most notable traits have been a lack of empathy, and a pouty attitude towards things not going her way. Overall, she's profoundly immature. Naturally, it's revealed she's physically a child underneath her armor. As far as Gem aging goes, she probably ''is'' one!
* The title of the episode becomes meaningful with what happened to Peridot: She was ''finally'' caught by the Crystal Gems (Catch); then set free from her bubble and her true form is revealed (Release).
* With TheReveal that Peridot's "limbs" are actually artificial prosthetic limbs to cover up the fact that she's actually quite tiny in size, it becomes apparent that she was...ahem, CompensatingForSomething...
* Peridot's confusion over what a shirt is makes sense when you remember that gems' bodies are just projections created by their gemstones, which likely includes their clothing.
* How did the Crystal Gems manage to find Steven so quickly after Peridot kidnapped him? Because Pearl is still set up to track Peridot through her escape pod.
* Why was Peridot angry when Steven called her 'cute'? She probably doesn't even know what the word ''means'', and naturally - given the circumstances - assumes it's a pejorative term.
** That doesn't explain why she [[BlushStickers blushes]] when [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking bringing this up in her list of offenses]].
** Cute is still a somewhat diminutive term, one that might remind her that she's basically powerless without her limb enhancers. She might even have some history with being disrespected by other gems over her appearance, particularly if Jasper was indicative of what gems are like on Homeworld. If personal strength and prowess are held in high-esteem among gems, she might have dealt with quite a bit of mockery, potentially explaining her being so maladjusted and paranoid.
* Peridot knows what citrus fruits are, but not shirts- likely because Homeworld's records of Earth predate the invention of shirts.
* With the revelation that Peridot's limbs are artificial, it's clear now why she randomly had powers pop up on earth that she never had before; she upgraded her Limb Enhancers when she was at Kindergarten and later on at the Old Ship. This also explains why in this episode she didn't have any new powers; she'd run out of raw materials to upgrade with.
** Another explanation is that she'd simply never been in actual combat before (given her apparent role as a technician), and that she was simply unaware of and/or lacking practice with everything her limbs, which seem to have been built to compensate for her lack of offensive ability, could do, explaining why her first blaster shot in "Friend Ship" knocked her back and seemingly took her by surprise with its power.
* Peridot was likely asking if everything was a weapon in the hopes that it would provide her a tool to help her escape; it was hardly an innocent gesture.

[[AC:When It Rains]]
* Peridot says she has read centuries of reports about Earth. This might explain her low opinion of humans, as she only knows about the early humans who were not as smart or capable as modern humans.
* Why doesn't Peridot know what rain is? The Gem Homeworld must either lack Earthly weather or have some kind of climate control.
** The Gem Homeworld lacking the amount of water that the Earth does would certainly explain why Lapis isn't higher up on the chain of command, despite being so powerful on Earth.
* Peridot mentioned that she got all her info on Earth from old reports she had stored in her limb screen, which explains why she's such a FishOutOfWater, she can't look stuff up now, even assuming she has information on a lot of Earth stuff.
* Peridot assuming that Steven came from the Kindergarten because he's a type of Quartz makes some sense when you think about it. Quartz and its variations, like Amethyst, are ''very'' common on Earth, so it's not unreasonable that the Kindergarten would produce a lot of Quartz-type Gems.
** Not to mention that Rose Quartz is the most human-looking Gem seen in the show.
* Peridot's implication that the Kindergarten made mostly Quartz Gems, along with her assumption that "mom" and "dad" are either some kind of rocks or other planets and the wording of the info in "How Are Gems Made" short released the same day as this episode implies that other methods of Gem production exist, or maybe Kindergartens on other worlds without native life, which is where Ruby, Sapphire, and Pearl came from.
* The longer Peridot's been spending on Earth and the more her appearance deteriorates, the less ''triangular'' her hair gets. What are triangles associated with in this show, again?
* While mostly unintentional, the Crystal Gems were using the Good Cop Bad Cop interrogation to get information out of Peridot. The Crystal Gems were the bad cops, scaring Peridot to the point she refused to leave the bathroom, while Steven was unknowingly playing the good cop, being genuinely nice to the frightened Peridot. Peridot was unwilling to give information to the other Crystal Gems because of how dangerous they were to her, but she opened up to Steven, who treated her with kindness.

[[AC:Back To the Barn]]
* Peridot reveals that Pearls are mass-produced luxury gems while being second-class citizens that are made to order back on Homeworld. This is rather appropriate, since A) pearls, unlike other gemstones, are organic in nature, giving credence to a class system and B) can be manufactured en-mass in RealLife by way of cultured pearls.
** In addition, since pearls need to be warmed up for maximum beauty, they were often worn by servants during the day so they'd be at their best when the lady of the house wore them in the evening.
* Pearls are designed to "stand around and look pretty". The [[LargeAndInCharge tall]] [[FusionDance one]], the [[MorphicResonance purple]] [[VoluntaryShapeshifting one]], and the [[BeautifulSlaveGirl hot one]]?
* Given what we've seen, Pearl was so devoted to Rose because she gave Pearl a ''choice''. In "Rose's Scabbard", we see that Rose gave Pearl a chance to back out of the of the Rebellion, and what else we've seen indicates she treated Pearl as a friend. Pearl fell in love with Rose because (if Peridot's attitude is the Homeworld norm) [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe Rose was the first Gem to treat her as a person instead of just a servant]].
** Which makes it all the more appropriate that Steven has been able to bridge the gap between the Crystal Gems and Peridot by showing her some concern and kindness. Homeworld is starting to slip into a bit of a pattern with its people.
* The implication that Peridot's attitude is the Homeworld norm certainly explains why Pearl wasn't exactly sad about leaving it behind to stay with Rose on Earth.
** But Pearl was sad to leave Homeworld. Both her and Rose refer to it as "home". Pearl desperately wanted to see what had changed on Homeworld in "Space Race" but wasn't that happy that they wouldn't be able to land or they'd be killed. Pearl's devotion and love for Rose outweighed how much she would miss her home. Pearl wishes Pearls had been treated better and Homeworld caused her a lot of pain, but it doesn't mean she can't miss the place.
* There's also the implication that Peridots are meant to be engineers and technicians. Not only does this explain why Peridot's pride was so easily wounded when Pearl suggested that she could engineer just as well as Peridot, it also explains why she was so quick to lord over Pearl. She seemingly lacks experience around them, implying that she isn't much higher on Homeworld's social ladder, and she wishes to be in charge of somebody for once.
** She also seems to be jealous of higher-ranking Gems, who apparently have Pearl servants as a status symbol.
* Pearl being a created servant explains why she takes such delight in domestic tasks (like when she took over the chore wheel in "Keeping It Together").
* Pearl's SuperOCD makes perfect sense now, of course a created servant would have a natural dislike of uncleanliness and disorder. In addition to this, Peridot's dialogue in "Log Date 7 15 2" specifically shows that one of a Pearl's ''duties'' is to clean. After so many years on Homeworld, she's probably better at cleaning than either Garnet or Amethyst would be [[note]]the former being an army grunt merged with a renowned aristocrat, the latter being unaccustomed to even ''living'' inside a building - much less maintaining one[[/note]].
* This episode explains why Pearl has so many diverse talents, besides the fact that a servant would be expected to be able to do a lot of things, she's deliberately tried to improve her skillset and show she's not just another servant Pearl.
* Why doesn't Peridot know what a wheel is? She was probably made after it became obsolete on Homeworld.
* Rose keeping the knowledge of Lion's existence from Pearl makes a lot more sense now. In the "Guide to the Crystal Gems" book, Steven mentions that he thinks his mom used Lion's pocket dimension to carry stuff around for her like a living bag. Given that Pearl can store stuff inside her Gemstone (she is shown to have a similar pocket dimension to Lion's in her Gemstone, albeit with air, in the comics), and that, according to Peridot, Pearls are meant to hold your stuff for you, implies that she kept Lion a secret from Pearl so that Pearl wouldn't know she needed help and wouldn't worry about her.
* Peridot erodes easily on Earth. In this episode Peridot gets some character development and seems to be starting to move past her preconceived notions on Pearl.
* The confirmation of a Homeworld caste system provides another possible reason that Fusion is frowned upon - it gives lower-class Gems the potential to become one of higher status.
** This actually has some TruthInTelevision - in real life, those of the working class who manage to become wealthy through hard work and dedication are called "nouveau riche". They tend to be looked down upon by the more "older" wealthy families who earn their wealth through inheritance, because they are seen as upstarts who threaten the traditional social class hierarchy that has been established for centuries.
* In the very first episode, Pearl teaches Steven that one way to summon a weapon is with hard work, determination, and focus, and this episode reveals why she taught him that: She was made to "stand around and look pretty", and wasn't intended for fighting. So, of course she had to summon her weapon with hard work, determination, and focus.

[[AC:Too Far]]
* Why does Peridot try to make Amethyst laugh so much? She's probably subconsciously associating Amethyst with the Quartz Gems on Homeworld, and who wouldn't want to impress their superiors?
** That, or the highly militaristic Homeworld has no time for such things, and Peridot's just realizing how much she enjoys it.
* Why are Quartz Gems warriors in the Gem FantasticCasteSystem? Quartz has a 7 hardness on the Mohs Scale, meaning that they're tougher than most minerals. Of course it makes sense for them to be soldiers, especially since Quartz is a ''very'' common mineral, and thus much more suited to forming an army than other Gems that are harder, but less common.
** And it makes a lot sense why the Gems chose Earth to colonize. Quartz is extremely abundant in the Earth's crust
* As mentioned above under ''The Return'', amethysts and jaspers are the same stone, just under slightly different circumstances while forming, namely amethyts being buried deeper. No wonder why it took Amethyst longer to dig herself out and why Peridot's description of what Amethyst is SUPPOSED to look like is a dead ringer for Jasper: she ''is'' supposed to be exactly like her!
* Fridge Heartwarming: Amethyst had no clue that upon Homeworld she would have been considered defective. For that to have happened, Garnet and Pearl must have never looked down upon her for it, nor even mention it.
* It turns out that Quartzes are high-ranked in Homeworld's hierarchy, implying that every kind of Gem has its set place. No wonder they would abhor and discourage fusion, it can potentially change the type of Gem drastically! Remember how Pearls are a ServantRace or SlaveRace back on Homeworld? Two of our Pearl's fusions (Sardonyx and Rainbow Quartz) are ''Quartzes'' too!

[[AC:The Answer]]
* Ruby and Sapphire's places in the Gem caste system. Ruby is literally a RedShirt while Sapphire is literally a BlueBlood!
** If this is true, then it adds more reasons for Ruby and Sapphire to rebel against Homeworld and defend Earth. Homeworld not only seems to hold prejudice against fusions but it will likely frown upon a romantic relationship between two Gems of different social caste. So Ruby and Sapphire practically [[{{Elopement}} eloped]]!
** Given what little we've seen and figured out so far, Gems on Homeworld seem to be ranked by their hardness, sort of like a social Mohs scale. Rubies and sapphires are two of the hardest gemstones second only to diamonds, which would put Ruby and Sapphire very high in Homeworld's hierarchy. Ruby's incredible strength, durability, and her ability to [[PlayingWithFire control heat]] would make her roughly Homeworld's equivalent to a SuperSoldier, while Sapphire, with her [[{{Seers}} precognitive powers]], would make her an excellent battlefield tactician and commander because she can predict the enemy's moves before they happen. This would probably add another reason to why Homeworld would frown on their relationship - Ruby, while an extremely valuable warrior, would still be seen as a military grunt compared to Sapphire due to one being more useful to society than the other, and a romantic relationship between the two would be like a front line soldier having an affair with his commanding officer.
* Sapphire defecting Homeworld seems a little out of character. She was a respected and loyal aristocrat and diplomat with useful powers and even, it seems that Sapphires are a rare class of Gems in Homeworld, so why giving up everything for a low-class ruby, already condemn to die? But remember, Ruby saved Sapphire from being poofed, something that Sapphire already saw and accepted, but also she fused with her in seemly the first different-gems fusion in all recorded history. Ruby demonstrated to Sapphire that future is not set in stone, she proved to her that she has autonomy and can chose; she literally shocked Sapphire's whole ground of beliefs, no wonder she got fascinated with Ruby.
* In the other side, Ruby most probably fell for Sapphire not only because with her she felt different while fusing, but because Sapphire saved her from from being broke despite being one of many other Rubies; Sapphire recognized her as an individual with a meaningful existence.
* Why are Rubies ranked so far down on the caste system? Ruby is actually more common than most people think, but rubies of large size and high enough quality to be considered real gemstones are rarer, explaining why they're "common" soldiers and child-sized.
* The fact that Sapphire Gems, despite sapphire having a chemical composition almost identical to ruby, are much rarer than the latter, heavily implies that the Diamonds control how many Gems of a type come into being to support the FantasticCasteSystem.
* Rose and Pearl were so accepting with the newborn Garnet because they've surely already fused together into Rainbow Quartz before.
** Unlikely, given that Rose and Pearl looked absolutely shocked to see Garnet. Pearl even refers to her as "the fusion". However, Garnet probably gave ''them'' the idea to fuse into Rainbow Quartz. In sum, Garnet gives the idea of fusion between components of different types, instead of the same components Homeworld's adhering to.
* Sapphire foresaw Rose and Pearl's capture and the end of the rebellion. However, Ruby's act of selflessness and love didn't register in Sapphire's premonitions. Meaning Sapphire can't predict love, unseen and uncontrollable force of attraction that it is. In other words, love saved earth.
* While on Homeworld, all the Gems are shown in monochrome (the rubies are all shades of red, sapphire is all shades of blue). They're uniform. Singular. This pallet even affects Rose and Pearl, who have since defected from Homeworld. In fact, the first show of any character displaying more than one shade of any color is ''Garnet''. The fusion. The abomination in the eyes of Homeworld society. Garnet breaks the monochrome, the conformity, of Homeworld. As a mix of two different gems, she is literally the first fusion of her kind, and an anomaly. As soon as Ruby and Sapphire fall to Earth, they break the monochrome as well. While they're still shades of their respective colors, they're no longer the uniform slate of red and blue - they have darks and lights mixed in with their pallets. They no longer fit the uniform. The same goes for Pearl and Rose when they are on Earth. Homeworld represents unity, and conformity. Every Gem serves Homeworld as a whole, and there is virtually no distinction between Gems of the same kind. Earth represents individualism and rebellion, and breaking free of the societal norms.
* Related to the example above, the color palette of Garnet's first fusion incorporates both red and blue in contrast to Garnet's later forms which are mostly purple with a few different color highlights. In addition to representing Ruby and Sapphire's break from Homeworld, their individual colors bleeding through represents their newness as a coupled entity. Garnet's later forms are mostly monotone in color because Ruby and Sapphire have been together for far longer and it shows the strength of their comfort level and identity as a cohesive being. In their earlier days, Ruby and Sapphire's bond hasn't matured to that level yet, thus Garnet's first form has more red and blue instead of the mixed purple.
* When seeing Garnet for the second time, Pearl is surprised, even shocked, and doesn't move to attack. Then when she hears Garnet talk about her feelings, she is seen smiling as broadly as Rose. Garnet saying she feels much more at ease with herself now than she ever was and would do whatever she will do now much sooner than what she was ''meant'' to do must have resonated with Pearl, who, probably inspired by Rose Quartz, grew beyond her intended role of silent servitude into a dreaded and badass warrior of a case which, before Garnet, only had 2 sympathizers as far as we know.
** Garnet (Sapphire, especially) would have been inspired by CG Pearl as well. (cf. her speech in "Friend Ship") After all, our Pearl broke out of the path of servitude destined for her in just about the most spectacular way possible.
* When Garnet said in "Love Letters" that love takes time and work, considering she sees herself as a being made of love itself she must have included herself in that sentence. Look what a mess Garnet is when she first was born; Ruby and Sapphire surely encounter many impasses in their relationship that ended splitting them, and when they made up and re-fused, Garnet came more balanced and better clothed to represent the increasing harmony.
** The episode actually almost seems like a visual episode-long CallBack to "Love Letter", not just a mere hint on what Garnet had said. We get to see how Ruby and Sapphire fell in love and that it took time and effort. While Ruby appears to feel some sort of attraction to Sapphire when she bumps into her, she doesn't act on it. It takes her until at least an hour later when she sees Sapphire's eye to actually really notice that she is probably attracted to the other Gem, same with Sapphire who "took her first good look" at Ruby (and they don't say it or push their feelings on the other, instead Sapphire starts a conversation). We then see at least one day pass (if not more) which they spend enjoying their time and getting to know each other before they start their love song. The love song itself is all about trying to know more about the other with only the last line feeling like a LoveConfession. And when starting their FusionDance, they still start out very shy and awkward until they apparently finally accept their love and start properly dancing which leads them to fuse again. Just like Garnet had said, love takes time and love can't happen on first sight.
* Even MORE parallels between Garnet and Stevonnie: both of them were the first of their kind, the former being the first fusion between two different Gems, and the latter being the fusion of a Gem (well, half-Gem) and an actual human being, and both of them first fused by accident. After seeing Stevonnie, Garnet probably relived a lot of sweet memories.
* It turns out that Gems refer to their leading Diamond as 'My Diamond'. When Rose referred to Pearl as 'My Pearl' all those thousands of years ago, Rose was basically saying that Pearl was practically royalty herself.
** Not necessarily. "Diamond" is as much a title as it is a name, and "my Diamond" is used similarly to an address like "my liege". Calling her "my Pearl" implies ownership rather than allegiance, but this was happening a long, long time ago, even by Gem standards. That was the moment that Rose actually decided to stay and lead the rebellion she started, and Pearl was almost certainly recently liberated; Rose taking informal ownership of Pearl would have been the best thing she could have done for her at that point. Even Garnet refers to her as "Rose Quartz's Renegade Pearl".
* Given that Sapphire was fatalistic to the point of accepting death and Ruby changed what Sapphire thought to be inevitable, the two of them and Garnet are a living embodiment of the well-known prayer called the serenity prayer: "May God grant me the strength to change what I can [Ruby], the serenity to accept what I cannot [Sapphire], and the wisdom to tell what is which [Garnet]."
* FridgeBrilliance and HeartwarmingInHindsight: Garnet was the first fusion of different Gems. Which means all the Crystal Gem fusions we saw before, Opal, Sugilite, Rainbow Quartz, Sardonix and Alexandrite, all that the Crystal Gems know about fusion and all the times they spoke of how beautiful it is (like Pearl saying it's much more than just combining as water is much more than just oxygen and hydrogen), is only possible because they know and have listened to and learnt from Garnet.
* Sapphire tells Blue Diamond she looks forward to speaking with her again, "once I reform back on Homeworld." This implies she had complete faith someone (maybe our Ruby, the guard she didn't see being poofed) would pick up her Gem and take it back to safety. We have no reason to think they wouldn't do that if the prediction was correct, and if the one to pick up and take back Sapphire's Gem was Ruby (which is possible as she was assigned to Sapphire as a bodyguard), there is a chance Garnet still would have happened eventually. Sapphire didn't know this (or that Ruby would save her and prove her prediction to be incorrect) because she believed her future vision to be absolute and unchangeable. It took Ruby's diving save to give her faith in the power of actions, both her own and those of others.
* While Blue Diamond's desire to crush Ruby may seem like a way to show she's a villain, when one thinks about it, her anger against her makes perfect sense. Fusion between different Gems aside, there's already a lot of evidence of fusion being linked with intimacy. The fact that Ruby fused with Sapphire without her consent (granted, accidentally) could be considered something along the lines of sexual assault, and against a gem of higher standing as well (note that Blue Diamond only wants to crush Ruby, not Sapphire). Also, Ruby's actions also cost Homeworld a major victory, one that could never recover from. Ruby cost them the entire war!
** Pushing this further is that Sapphire only said the gem's physical forms would be destroyed, not their gems. Indeed we see Pearl only poofing her opponents, not shattering them. And as we know gems can regenerate, Sapphire wasn't in any real danger. In other words, Ruby's heroic act not only cost Homeworld the war, but was completely unnecessary. No wonder Blue Diamond wanted her crushed.
* Sapphire's comment about how it is nice to have more than one eye might have seemed a bit random liking, but actually, that ''was'' a whole new experience to her: with one eye, she has no in-built depth perception. She liked it, though someone else might have had a FreakOut on this new-found ability.
* Garnet's almost completely red color scheme from Season 1 is due to Ruby's guilt and frustration over her perceived failure as Sapphire's bodyguard, so she becomes the dominant Gem to protect Sapphire from everything that comes their way, which naturally caused Sapphire to take a backseat. Being separated in "The Return" must have made Ruby realize that in trying to protect her from everything, she forgot that being Garnet actually required both Gems to work together as equals. So when they reunited in "Jail Break", Ruby's appreciation of being fused with Sapphire resulted in Garnet's current unified appearance with a (mostly) purple color scheme from Season 2 onwards.
* This episode establishes that fusions between gems of different types are considered absolutely forbidden on Homeworld... and that such fusions are ''much more powerful'' than usual. Given that the modern-day Crystal Gems use cross-type fusion freely as their ultimate technique, it seems likely that they adopted it after Garnet showed both that it was possible and powerful, and that this is part of the reason the rebels ultimately won.
* Garnet's description of Pearl as Rose's "terrifying renegade Pearl" implies that Pearl was TheDreaded to Homeworld's loyalist forces. In addition to Pearl honing her grace and skill with a sword into nearly a CharlesAtlasSuperpower, a big part of the reason why a renegade Pearl would be so terrifying is because pearls are normally treated as ''slaves'', with many of them in key positions as retainers to powerful Gems. The idea of one of them defying their supposed place in the natural order of things is a direct challenge to Homeworld's entire culture and raises the specter of a broader pearl rebellion that could destabilize everything. (Most real-world cultures that relied heavily on slaves lived in constant fear of slave rebellions.)

[[AC:Steven's Birthday]]
* Why is it that shapeshifting is shown as being very stressful to maintain, when extended periods of shapeshifting have been shown before in previous episodes without such strain? Except in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS2E8Reformed "Reformed"]], where Amethyst strained herself trying to assume a form substantially bigger and stronger than her usual one. So it's not that shapeshifting in and of itself is dangerous to maintain for too long, so much as that using it to become bigger [[ShapeshifterDefaultForm than usual]] is.
* Why did Steven revert back to being a baby after abusing his shapeshifting powers for the entire day? Well, with [[Recap/StevenUniverseS2E8Reformed what we've seen of this before]], Gems who do this will be forced to revert to their gem in order to recharge. Since Steven is part human though, and thus can't revert to his gem, it went with the next best form that'd be easiest to maintain while his energy recharged, that being a baby.
* Garnet becoming more gentle and affectionate with Steven. In "So Many Birthdays", Garnet tries to turn old!Steven back to normal by shaking him violently. Here, she tries to cheer baby!Steven up by making funny faces.
* Steven grows a hair at the end of the episode, showing he's (physically) finally growing up. But Steven's physiological level of maturity (physical age) is based on ''how old he perceives himself to be.'' Steven ''never aged'' while he was living with the Gems because a) they're ageless themselves, b) to them, he was always little Steven, and they were always his older guardians to him - that fact didn't change no matter how much time passed, leaving him in limbo age-wise.
** ''Brilliance:'' While Steven couldn't ''force'' himself to age, his body subconsciously reacted to his desire and aged him to match how he sees Connie in terms of "age." [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Connie, and their love for one another, is responsible for Steven finally growing up, and will most likely cause Steven to keep aging throughout his life to match Connie.]]
** ''Brilliance:'' This may also explain why Stevonnie appears to be older than Steven or Connie: their fusion is a comparatively more mature version of their relationship.
** ''Horror:'' On the flip side, had Steven never met Connie, he more than likely would have remained at relatively the same mental and physiological age forever, since life with the Gems and isolation from peers likely would have caused him to effectively "freeze" in time.
** ''Horror:'' When you remember that Steven's physical age is directly tied to his mental age, the horror sets in that once Connie dies, Steven might very well die as well due to a combination of grief and thinking his own life should come to an end. It could even trigger when Greg dies, since Steven will almost certainly outlive Greg.
* It was somewhat confusing when the Crystal Gems were confused over the concept of birthdays back in "So Many Birthdays". However, this episode reveals via Greg's baby book of Steven that ''none'' of the Crystal Gems were present in Steven's past birthdays.

[[AC:It Could've Been Great]]
* Why isn't Peridot was horrified about what the Earth would have become once it was colonized? Well, just because she's working for the Crystal Gems doesn't mean she agrees with their views. While she has grown fond of them for only several weeks, that won't immediately stomp a thousand years of having Homeworld's beliefs drilled into her. Like Garnet stated in ''Love Letters'', "Love takes time", and that can be love between two people or the feeling of love or empathy towards others.
** This whole episode could also be indicative of the massive disconnect between Homeworld Gem culture and that which the Crystal Gems have adopted. It seems most of the Crystal Gems were rather caught off-guard by Peridot's continued support of Homeworld ideas and efforts, despite the fact that they seemed to be getting along with Peridot. Which is rather surprising, given that Peridot has said in explicit terms that she doesn't actually support the Crystal Gem cause. But, Peridot comes from what is apparently a hyper-conformist, caste-based system where Gems are explicitly expected to put their goals ahead of themselves. As abhorrent of an ideology as it may be, it might have actually instilled one surprisingly virtuous quality into its people, and that's how to work with others that you disagree with. On Homeworld, it may be that personal disputes are expected to take a backseat to completing your job; Peridot might not have seen her improved rapport with the Crystal Gems as her coming around to their ideas, but of her being a good team player. It might be that, to her, getting along with someone for the sake of the 'mission' isn't the same as agreeing with them, something that may have been lost on the Crystal Gems.
* The double meaning of the title not only refers to what Peridot said about the Earth colony plans, but also refers to how Peridot's relationship with the Crystal Gems "could've been great" if she hadn't insulted Rose Quartz so callously and essentially erased all the trust and goodwill the Crystal Gems were starting to feel towards her.
* Peridot seemed to pick up very quickly on music, when Steven decided to introduce it to her, despite the implication that Peridot had effectively no prior experience with musical theory. This actually makes a certain amount of sense, given that music is fairly heavily tied-in to mathematics. If Peridots are meant to serve as engineers and technicians, it would make sense for them to have a certain amount of inherent affinity for math, and by extension, things like rhythm and tempo. One could also expect that as technicians, they would have good use for finely-honed senses for the diagnosis of mechanical problems, giving Peridot a certain degree of insight into tone.
** The song even points out the precise moment Peridot gains insight into music: she recognizes it as some sort of a pattern, and patterns of various kind are what all technicians, scientists and engineers work with. Having recognized it as a pattern, it was indeed almost discouragingly easy for her to follow it and sing in tune.
* At the beginning, it almost seems as if Peridot is starting to come around on Earth and grasp why it is that the Crystal Gems seek to protect it. She quickly gets caught up in the song and even starts contributing her own lines much to their approval. This contributes to a quite a bit of the shock when it becomes apparent that Peridot's views hadn't changed nearly as much as they thought, nearly invalidating their earlier activities in the episode. But, if one pays attention while Steven is trying to explain music to her, Peridot explicitly refers to it as hypothetical and without substance. While she quickly picks up on singing it, she seems almost to be parroting Steven and mastering it as a mechanical exercise without ever connecting with the experience emotionally. Her song didn't ''mean'' anything to her and it may have been the approval she received that she truly enjoyed.
* Why does Peridot so callously insult Rose even thought the Crystal Gems are giving her a DeathGlare? Well, using some lines from "Marble Madness" about her being unaware of any Gems on Earth, it's most likely that Peridot doesn't have any information about Rose. Aside from that the only mentioning of Rose she has heard were from Jasper ("Jailbreak") and Steven ("When It Rains"), both of which didn't give a full explanation on who she was. Had Peridot learned how important Rose was to the others, she may have toned down on her BrutalHonesty.
* The Cluster's position near California could be an in-universe reason for the area's massive earthquake records.
* Peridot freaks out when Garnet gives her an appreciative pat on her back. The last time that Garnet had her hands near Peridot's back was when she poofed her in 'Catch and Release'.
* The difference in values between Peridot and the Crystal Gems seems simple enough, but it's easy to forget that Peridot only knows Rose Quartz as a historical figure, not a person. To her, Rose Quartz is essentially a ''cult leader'', and when Pearl reminds her that Rose believed that all life is precious, it was just the cult leader's pretty servant parroting her late mistress's words. The magnitude of what "all life" means can't hold much meaning for someone who only started thinking of non-mineral life forms ''as'' life forms a few weeks ago at most. She thinks nothing of a hollowed-out planet because Gems don't need food or water or sleep or a breathable atmosphere or even consistent gravity, so she has no real reason to know what an ecosystem ''is'', let alone why one would matter.
* Also, as we find out in "Too Short to Ride", Homeworld is experiencing a ''massive'' resource shortage, one with direct and serious consequences to Peridot personally (resulting in her intentionally stunted development and lack of powers, something she's extremely self-conscious about.) Her musing that it could have been great if Earth were strip-mined for resources isn't just idle detachment; she can't help but consider how her own life could have been better if Homeworld had had Earth's resources at its disposal and used it to create full-fledged Gems like the Era 1 ones.

[[AC:Message Received]]
* Peridot turning on Yellow Diamond makes sense when one realizes something: Yellow Diamond likely has ALWAYS acted that way and treated the other Gems as expendable...but Peridot never had a ''contrast'' before now. After being treated as a ''person'' and actually shown compassion and how it feels, she could finally compare Yellow Diamond's mistreatment to something enough to recognize how horrible it is.
* Peridot very specifically describes Yellow Diamond as being the (literal) Paragon of rationality and objectivity. She had no doubts that such an intelligent and practical Gem could put aside their personal feelings and spare the Earth, if Peridot could offer up reasonable, sensible reasons for why it would be a waste not to. But what Peridot found was that the being she idolized was nothing more than a stubborn, petty, and utterly ''un''reasonable being who wanted the Earth destroyed more for personal satisfaction than anything. Peridot holds notions of intelligence, efficiency, and practicality as being high virtues and is visibly taking aback when Yellow Diamond falls short. Peridot was dedicated and loyal to this idea of what she thought Yellow Diamond was truly like, so it's no wonder she was so upset to the point of HeroicBSOD at finding out that she was basically worshiping a lie.
** Feeding into the above, it's heavily implied that Peridot knows nothing about the rebellion on Earth, so from her perspective the Gem she worshiped was completely willing to destroy the planet not out of spite but of [[ForTheEvulz pointless cruelty]].
* Why were the Crystal Gems so happy that Peridot is a part of them now, even though in the last episode she made callous remarks against Rose's rebellion? Because Peridot is ''doing'' the very thing Rose did: Seeing the value of Earth and trying to protect it.
* Yellow Diamond's Pearl might explain why Peridot was so unwilling to see Pearl as an equal in "Back to the Barn". Considering Peridot has likely dealt with this Pearl before and as such made to kowtow to what is technically a lower class Gem as though it were a higher class one it makes sense she would have difficulty acknowledging the CG Pearl, who is lower in her eyes for being a traitor to Homeworld.
* Peridot trying to reason with Yellow Diamond is in direct parallel to when she and Steven first officially met in "Marble Madness": They (Steven and Peridot) try to convince another Gem (Peridot and Yellow Diamond, respectively) to talk about why they're on Earth (Steven to Peridot) or the reason why Earth should be spared (Peridot to Yellow Diamond), basically they have a discussion revolving around the planet. But for some reason the Gem won't listen (Peridot's apathy and Yellow Diamond's pettiness) and attempt to kill them for a very stupid reason (Peridot tried to kill Steven simply because he was there, Yellow Diamond attempted to kill Peridot because the latter called her a "clod").
* This ties into previous episodes, but the fact that we don't see much of Peridot interacting with the Crystal Gems between "Too Far" and "It Could've Been Great". Had there been more episodes between those events, or had Peridot gotten more screen-time during the given episodes, the audience would have quickly picked up how Peridot analyzes her environment and how she thinks. This would have easily led to the tension of this episode being lost, as most of the audience would have understood Peridot's explanation on the first viewing and would have known that she was never planning to betray Steven or the Gems, and that she came to appreciate Earth from a logical rather than emotional standpoint. By limiting her appearances even in the background, the writing team successfully managed to produce a PoorCommunicationKills episode where even the audience misunderstood the character's intentions.
* Yellow Diamond's exaggerated reaction to Peridot telling her off may be due to the fact that, as someone who has a reputation for being very logical, she grew used to having her plans go as she expected them to. So when something went wrong with one of her plans, it completely took her by surprise and threw her off her game, which was why she became absolutely ''furious'' at Peridot's refusal to obey. Now imagine what would her reaction be if she learns that the Cluster had stopped growing and failed to destroy Earth...
* The last straw for Peridot is when Yellow Diamond says that she doesn't care about Earth's resources. As we later see in "Too Short to Ride", Peridot is an Era 2 gem, with significantly reduced abilities due to the resource crisis facing Homeworld (and it's reasonably clear she's ''extremely'' self-conscious about it); to her, this crisis is an extremely personal issue. When Yellow Diamond is so dismissive of it, she's effectively dismissing the problems that have defined Peridot's entire life. Peridot was fine with being an Era 2 Gem as long as she thought the sacrifice had some ''meaning'' (and was willing to fight for the Gem Homeworld as long as she believed they were trying to solve it.) Yellow Diamond's response showed completely clearly that this wasn't the case.

[[AC:Log Date 7 15 2]]
* Peridot is quite right about Steven being the source of madness. If "madness" is emotivity and compassion going against Homeworld's logic and practicality, Steven was the first one to treat her with true compassion and respect. Steven is also a human-Gem hybrid, making his own existence illogical and proving that inorganic and organic life can come to an union and co-exist. Steven is also able to fuse with humans, the mere idea is crazy. And if Peridot believes the idea of rebelling against Homeworld is the madness, well Steven is Rose Quartz's son ''and'' reincarnation; she was the first one in getting the idea and she spread it to other Gems, the same thing Steven did with her.
* Peridot bonding with Garnet and coming to sympathize with her with makes her HeelFaceTurn make a lot more sense: Garnet was the angriest out of the Gems, so after realizing she didn't understand Garnet.
* Peridot's EurekaMoment in regards to Garnet's status as a fusion actually makes quite a bit of sense. Peridot very much treats her obsessive shipping of Percy/Pierre as an exercise in optimization, with her being concerned not so much with emotional compatibility, but with finding the best combination of individuals for dealing with challenges. This is perfectly in-line with her clinical and objective approach to most things and Garnet actually seemed to pick up on that. So when Garnet described herself as Percy/Pierre, Peridot was finally able to grasp that Ruby and Sapphire are, from her point-of-view, the most effective and ideal pairing. She still doesn't quite ''get'' the romantic element, but she's finally found a way to place the Crystal Gems' views on fusion into terms that she can understand.
** Even better, Ruby and Sapphire are indeed a perfect match from a practical standpoint as well, being a trained soldier with determination and sometimes a bit of a temper and a Gem with future vision that not only is able to give out vital tactical advice but possesses the maturity and yes, patience, needed to keep Ruby from attacking recklessly to the point of tragedy.
* Peridot's YaoiFangirl moment in regard to Percy/Pierre from ''Camp Pining Hearts'' makes sense. All Gems seem to be female, and the only humans she knows are male (Steven and Greg), so she likely assumes humans are also a monogendered species. Since she doesn't understand the concept of sexuality, she's {{Shipping}} them purely based on potential fusion strength.
** She obviously doesn't get romance and sexuality, seeing that when Paulette and Percy kiss, she calls it a "strange ritual" and when Steven later tries to explain that they like each other, Peridot simply dismisses it. Which may give even more layers to "The Answer", seeing that Ruby and Sapphire were not only pioneers regarding fusions, but maybe also the first Gems that openly engaged in a romantic relationship.
* Garnet's relative silence over the course of "Message Received" makes a whole lot of sense once you realize that the entry for date 7 14 2 was recorded before the trip to the moon. Opal was formed to place the drill on the sawhorses, Garnet and Peridot attempted a fusion, Garnet makes a log entry in Peridot's diary telling Steven to give the tape recorder back, and only after that does Peridot steal the communicator and subsequently become a member of the Crystal Gems. Garnet ''knew all along'' what would happen and why Peridot would lose the diary. She foresaw having to talk to Peridot about where to put her star before her allegiance ever came into question. Over the last three episodes, Garnet had not only foreseen that this was a likely path that Peridot would choose, but trusted that it would be a path she would choose. HeartwarmingInHindsight indeed.
* Think back to the first time Amethyst and Pearl fused to form Opal in the series, and how much difficulty they had doing so. Compare it to how effortlessly they did so in this episode's flashback, and it's a subtle nod to how far the two have come in their relationship with one another. On a smaller note, given that the fusion dance requires dancing, in addition to compatibility they need to be able to synchronize their movements while doing so, something they couldn't do in "Giant Woman" without tripping up over themselves. This was lightly foreshadowed by the two of them dancing together in "Steven's Birthday".
* Peridot says most Gems don't shapeshift as often as Amethyst because of the energy expenditure. Since we now know she was originally supposed to be bigger, maybe Amethyst's energy is super-concentrated so that she's better suited to transforming than most Gems.
** Also, she [[BigEater eats a lot]], which probably gives her more energy than she would otherwise have.
** Since Peridot mentions in "Too Far" that Steven must have a high energy consumption since he has to eat (indicating that Gems with no familarity of ''having to'' eat know what it is and does), it may actually be true that Amethyst's habit of eating allows her to do more straining things.
* A bit of Meta Fridge Funny; back when it was still unclear exactly where Peridot's escape pod landed, fans were pointing out Canada as a possibility given the trajectory shown in the episode (presumably somewhere in Quebec). Fast forward to now, and what show does she fall in love with? One set in Canada, and judging by Percy holding a container of poutine, it was probably set in Quebec to boot. The writers probably had a field day with that one.
* Garnet being the only Gem other than Steven to comfort Peridot in this episode is understandable, when you remember Garnet basically already been through the same situation as Peridot. Ruby was initially depressed and questioning of her value when she realized she was an outlaw and wanted dead by Blue Diamond, just like how Peridot is by going crazy in this episode, while Sapphire, like Peridot, betrayed her Diamond when she realized how horrible she was by attempting to kill Ruby for "changing" the future she predicted, just like Yellow Diamond's refusal to spare the Earth out of clear spite.
* The 2 at the end of the log date probably refers to the fact that the Gem empire is in its 2nd era.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Season 3]]
[[AC:Super Watermelon Island]]
* When the watermelons go off to fight, a (presumably female) flower-wearing watermelon leaves her watermelon husband behind. When remembering that ''Steven'' created the watermelons, and [[MamaBear who]] [[AmazonBrigade he's]] [[MagicalGirlWarrior looked up]] [[ActionGirl to]] his whole life, it makes perfect sense that in the watermelon society, the women are the warriors.
** And of course, the human-like relation Steven has with his father Greg compared to the Gems helps this notion.
* The watermelon animals make sense, as if the watermelons are anything like Steven, they'd love animals too.
* When Steven is walking through the village, he passes a giant watermelon idol with its arms outstretched. An older watermelon is teaching a bunch of kids the same position, having them all close their eyes and stretch out their arms. This is the ''same position'' Baby Watermelon made in the episode "Watermelon Steven" right before his HeroicSacrifice. They literally respected him so much, the watermelons made an idol out of him and are now teaching his ways to their children. Probably also doubles as FridgeHorror is you consider that a bunch of young kids are being taught the nobility of self-sacrifice.
* Why is Steven the one chosen to be sacrificed to Malachite? Well, right before the elder points to him, all the watermelon Stevens place their fingers where their noses should be. This seems like a silly gesture, perhaps a term of respect for the Elder, but they're actually playing the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nose_goes "Not-It" game.]] Because Steven did not touch his nose, he was "it," and thus chosen for the task.
* The fusion dance the Gems do in order to form Alexandrite consist of Pearl and Amethyst dancing around while Garnet stationarily strikes some moves; Pearl and Amethyst are the most volatile components of Alexandrite, while Garnet is the common central ground.
* A lot of people wonder why none of the Gems shape shift-stretched to save Jasper, but it's actually very simple: they'd ''just'' come out of being Alexandrite after a literally ''huge'' battle. They wouldn't have had the energy to stretch like that!
* Many people have brought attention to the fact that Pearl could've stopped Jasper from falling into that chasm but didn't, but those people overlooked something. As soon as the earthquake started, what was Pearl's first reaction? Catching Watermelon-Steven to keep him from falling. Even a living watermelon shaped like Steven is enough to invoke her maternal instinct!

[[AC:Gem Drill]]
* When Steven is being affected by the Cluster as Peridot is attacking it, he's shown sweating and in pain and clutching his stomach (where his gem is). It almost looks like he's in labor. The Cluster was about to be ''born''. With all the other birth/giving life/mother metaphors surrounding Steven and Rose Quartz, this feels intentional.
* Why is it so easy for Steven to win over the Cluster? It was made of former Crystal Gems!
* Why does the Cluster want to stop forming once it learns that doing so would destroy the Earth? It's made of shards from former Crystal Gems. 5,000 years later and they're still upholding their duty as defenders of the Earth, even if they're shattered.

[[AC:Same Old World]]
* Why doesn't Homeworld at least try to determine if Lapis is a Crystal Gem or not before interrogating her? The Diamond Authority considers other Gems [[ExpendableClone expendable and easily replacable]], so it's no facets off of their gemstones if their civilians get caught up in their conflicts like that.
** Also as it was an opening battlefield by the looks of the flashback and the fact that Homeworld would most likely only use warrior Gems it wouldn't be too hard to assume they simply thought she was a Crystal Gem.
* If the Gem that poofed Lapis was a Crystal Gem, that would be another reason for her to blame them more for her imprisonment despite the fact that Homeworld Gems did the deed.
** The Gem that poofed Lapis was multicolored, possibly hinting on it being fusion instead of one Gem. Since Homeworld despises Fusion between gems, it is very likely that it was a Crystal Gem that poofed her.
* That flash of light which has the colors of Yellow, Blue and White Diamond is likely connected to why most of the Gems left on Earth are corrupted.
* Her trance passing over the Galaxy Warp, one that causes her to almost let Steven slip, heavily implies PTSD. This was later confirmed by Lauren Zuke, a storyboard artist and writer.
* Lapis eventually decides that she'll stay "here here" for her new home-- at the barn where Steven was comforting her. That's because for her home isn't just a place; it's also the people there. In several thousand years she hasn't met anyone like Steven, who has continually shown her compassion and empathy even after she's lashed out at him; Steven in a few hours has shown her that on Earth she can live anywhere she likes and have new experiences, building a new life from the shambles of her old one. Lapis needs Steven, and the barn is close enough to him but far enough from the Temple, one of her prisons.
* The places that Steven and Lapis visit foreshadow her living arrangements with Peridot: the wacky roommate has been mentioned for Empire City, but she stays in the country and intermingles with nature which foreshadows the farming experiment "Gem Harvest"; in Jersey she finds that the people there express their hatred of the earth openly, and she and Peridot explore expressing their conflicting emotions through "meep-morps".

[[AC:Barn Mates]]
* Steven's suggestion in "Same Old World", straight from a sitcom, about Lapis moving to the big city and getting a wacky roommate comes back here with her interactions with Peridot, especially with [[http://rebeccasugar.tumblr.com/image/144973983058 this image]].
* Peridot's talk about Lapis Lazuli Gems implies that, like Pearls, any contact she had with them on Homeworld was infrequent and/or indirect.
* Peridot talking about how Lapis Lazuli Gems like flying and water implies that Lapis came to Earth because it had a lot of water.
* The way the [[EmpathicEnvironment sky gets cloudier as Lapis gets moodier]] is likely a byproduct of [[MakingASplash her water powers]] subtly influencing the water vapour the clouds are comprised of. Once she calms down, the sky is bright and cloudless again as well.
* When Lapis breaks Peridot's tape recorder after receiving it as a gift, the latter asks "Were you trapped in a tape recorder, too?" In a sense, that's exactly what the mirror was when she was trapped in it.

[[AC:Hit The Diamond]]
* Why are the Rubies so dumb? If they're considered expendable, why would the Diamonds put in brainpower they're not going to need?
** That leads to another question, as to why the Crystal Gem's Ruby has at least human average intelligence and more focus. Given how she was a bodyguard to a ''very'' high-ranking Gem, it's likely they deliberately selected against idiots for the ''important, long-term'' mission.
** Alternatively: the other two Rubies of the bodyguard mission hadn't been exactly smart either. Ruby might have had "a defect" and come out smarter than normal. Alternatively, she might have been as dumb as the others (she doesn't talk much before her fusion in "The Answer"), but her contact with the intellectual Sapphire made her more sophisticated as well.
*** This implies that the Rubies are the equivalents of humans who only received enough education to be good for physical labor.
*** Looking back, our Ruby seems to be able to at least count how many there where with only minor trouble (she pauses with an "uh" before stating that they sent three of them.) compared to the Ruby squad that can't even manage that. She is at the very least shown as more sane than the others.
** "Too Short To Ride" brings up an interesting possibility: the Yellow Diamond Ruby Squad, like Peridot, are all Era 2 Rubies, and thus made with few resources than our older, Era 1 Ruby, hence their comparative lack of intelligence. Because like how Peridot not needing combat abilities due to [[CripplingOverspecialization being a technician/engineer]], the Ruby Squad don't need much in the way of intelligence due to being [[WeHaveReserves disposable rank-and-file foot soldiers]].
*** This is unlikely, as shown later, at least one (Eyeball) was born before the revolution.
*** That actually makes it ''more'' likely, since Eyeball seems to be the smartest, most coherent (if not stable) of the bunch.
* The Ruby that has her Gemstone in the same place as Rose/Steven is the nicest and most interested in Earth, implying that gem placement location can affect the personality of the Gem.
* It might seem weird to us that the female Pearl and Lapis choose the male names Earl and Bob as aliases...but that's just because we're human. The Rubies and other Gems, who are technically genderless aliens, would have no notion of gendered human names and thus wouldn't bat an eye at what would be a flaw to us.
* The Chest and Navel Rubies are both the only ones with custom uniforms and the only ones whose gemstones would be obscured by the "default", implying that Homeworld custom is to have your Gem exposed and visible.
* Bear in mind that this was intended as a suicide mission, so Yellow Diamond probably chose Rubies with "quirky" personalities that she wouldn't mind getting rid of.
* The mission may have been a XanatosGambit. If they find Jasper, then fine. If they fail, then Yellow Diamond can just have them get shattered, either by the Cluster's appearance or by having them executed or otherwise punished and sent away for their failure.
* Well, now we know where Garnet gets her visor; one of the Homeworld Rubies wears one, so it's likely that our Ruby summons those too.
* Why didn't the Rubies know or care about Peridot? Yellow Diamond probably doesn't want that the knowledge of an insubordinate Gem spreads any further than absolutely necessary, since the very idea of disloyalty is practically unthinkable to the Homeworld Gems, and the last thing she wants to do is to expand their horizons on that front. She just wants the intel from the one loyal Gem left on Earth if she possibly can, so that she can plan her next move.
** Also, what evidence does she have that the bomb inside of the communicator didn't shatter her after their conversation?
** Also, as far as Homeworld knows, the Cluster is still set to hatch any day now. To them, Peridot and the Crystal Gems are living on borrowed time, and their only concern is to extract Jasper, the only Gem stuck on Earth that's still loyal. This also means that they shouldn't engage in any risky and unnecessary behavior that would get them poofed.
* Why does Peridot claim that she's the new Crystal Gem leader? It's not just her ego, she's trying to make herself seem more important so they'll leave the others alone.
* Why isn't there an umpire? Nobody present wants to claim they're part of a [[IncrediblyLamePun Diamond Authority]].
* At first, Lapis' human name "Bob" might seem like a simple {{Odd Name Out}} gag. But thinking back to "Ocean Gem", what did Steven say to her after she thanked him for healing her? [[CallBack "No prob', Bob!"]]
* The Rubies not noticing Ruby and Sapphire flirting makes a lot of sense when you consider that romance like theirs is ''very'' unusual by Gem standards. The Rubies likely simply don't ''understand'' what they're doing.
* The Diamonds probably try and make the Rubies stupid to better control them.
* Steven tells the Rubies that Jasper is on Neptune. Jasper is in the middle of the ocean and has been sealed beneath it for months. Now, what was the God of the Sea in mythology?
* Why doesn't Sapphire use her future vision to help the team win the game? During her life as an aristocratic Homeworld Gem, it's very unlikely that she ever had to get her hands dirty to make sure the best possible outcome occurred, but rather had other Gems to do it for her. Now that she's almost always fusing, she has Ruby to make sure that actions are taken, but on her own, she has difficulty internalizing the fact that she needs to act in order to get the best future. This attitude can also be seen in "Keystone Motel," when Sapphire did almost nothing to help smooth over the situation because she saw that everything would work out eventually. She forgot she had to take action in the present in order to shape the future.

[[AC:Steven Floats]]
* Why does Steven unlock the power now? He's finally home, he's saved the world, Lapis and Peridot are safe and getting along, he's going to get a doughnut in the morning, why ''wouldn't'' he be over the moon?
* Of course Garnet would win at checkers; her future vision allows her to see every possible move Steven could make before he makes it, and counter it.
* Steven refers to the Gems as "my guys". Given that recent episodes have developed Steven's ability to not only join the team but lead it, it makes sense that they'd be '''G'''ems '''U'''nder '''Y'''our '''S'''upervision.
* I was wondering why the Gems had a cake in the fridge, and then I remembered. They only headed to the barn a few episodes before Steven's birthday, and hadn't really been planning to go until the Cluster was brought up. They must have bought the cake for Steven's birthday!
* In "It Could've Been Great", Peridot reveals that Gems automatically adjust to the gravity of any planet or moon they land on. Rose, and now Steven's, ability to slow how fast they fall may be based on manipulation of their personal gravity, actively using that effect.

[[AC:Drop Beat Dad]]
* When Sour Cream is yelling at Marty, he slips into the same language that Yellowtail and Onion use. This is TruthInTelevision in that people who were raised bilingually can sometimes slip into their second tongue without noticing it.

[[AC:Mr. Greg]]
* Steven's actions in the episode when he reveals that he intentionally invited Pearl so that she would make up with Greg. He's not just pulling it out of nowhere. He's remembering Keystone Motel, and hoping the same thing will happen with his Dad and Pearl.
* Steven saying his mother will be going on the trip too just seems like Steven having an awkward, clueless moment at first based on Greg and Pearl's reactions. Then you find out that Steven wants them to make up and encourages them to bond over their shared memories of Rose, and it turns out Rose really was there in a sense, and he may have brought her up on purpose since it's part of what makes them NotSoDifferent.
* Steven told Lapis in "Same Old World" that "What happens in in Empire City never sleeps." While Steven and Greg are found sleeping after arriving in Empire City, Pearl's song wakes them up. Steven doesn't sleep again until they leave Empire City.
* The promotional artwork shows Steven playing a big row of piano keys while grinning down at a smaller Greg and Pearl as they dance at the end of those keys. It neatly foreshadows how [[TheChessmaster he]] plays them [[VisualPun like a piano]] into confronting and resolving their tension together. Also the fact that it's done over a dance with Steven playing the piano.
* Steven's sudden proficiency with the piano. Although not always the case, pianos are commonly taught as an introduction to music and to help memorize the scales before moving on to other instruments. It's entirely possible that Greg taught Steven the piano (or keyboard as the case may be) before he started him on the ukulele.
* Greg and Pearl's interactions in this episode parallel Greg and Rose in "We Need To Talk"; after sharing a heart-to-heart and a dance they become closer and understand each other better. Like a fusion, if you go with the platonic relationship/conversation interpretation of fusion instead of the romantic/sexual one.
* In "It's Over, Isn't It", Pearl describes herself after losing Rose as "petty and dull ''with the nerve to doubt her''". That line sums up ''so many levels'' of Pearl's development. She's not just doubting Rose's judgment over falling for Greg, she's doubting Rose's judgment on ''having Steven''. Rose was a fabled general and strategist who approached many things in a very calculated way, and Pearl was willing to be poofed in order to follow her orders and even now fights in her name; Pearl doesn't realize what a huge stride it is for her independence that she's allowing her feelings to take precedence over Rose's orders. It's unfortunate that those feelings are grief and jealousy, but ''not'' blindly following Rose's wishes even when it hurts is a huge step for someone who regularly got poofed for her.
* It's been remarked elsewhere that $5.95 is a pretty steep price for a burger; unless Pepe's is some high-end chain, even for a combo meal, that's pushing it. And yet, thanks to the jingle, Pepe's sold over ten million dollars' worth. ''That'' is how awesome of a songwriter Greg Universe is: an advertising jingle just ''based on'' one of his songs got millions of people to buy an overpriced burger.
** Not really, assuming they where advertising for their Whopper (5.29$ for a double)/Baconator ($6.09)/etc equivalent rather than a dollar menu burger equivalent. That is a pretty standard price for a non-bare-bones burger from a chain restaurant.

[[AC:Too Short to Ride]]
* Peridot unlocking a power she didn't realize she had namely [[MindOverMatter telekinesis]] makes sense when you consider that, like Steven, this power was unlocked via her emotions, namely her desire to catch her tablet before it went into the ocean because of how important it was to her. If her personality pre-character growth is any indication, emotional attachment is an unusual trait for her race, so it's little wonder no Peridot has ever unlocked that ability before.
** Her HeelFaceTurn also falls under this since Yellow Diamond was giving up a perfect chance for resources all [[EvilIsPetty to destroy Earth with the Cluster.]]
** Also, in another comparison with Steven, Peridot wasn't supposed to have any powers, or so she was told, and that's why she never even tried to confirm this, and only found out because her friends encouraged her to unleash her potential, something that no other Peridot, apparently, has done before. This is similar to Steven's DreamWalker powers, as he discovered them by doing something that Gems rarely, if ever, do at all; sleeping. Both Steven and Peridot discover their powers because they're acting out of Homeworld's standards.
* Amethyst reassuring Peridot that they like her because of who she is and that she needs to focus on what she can do instead of what she can't is a CallBack to Amethyst's having had to deal with the same kind of insecurities about herself in the past.
* Peridot being so attached to her limb enhancers makes even more sense now that we know she didn't know she had any natural powers of her own and thought they were the only way she could defend herself.
** As does her initial enmity towards Pearl during their robot-building contest, as Peridot had legitimate reason to believe that the only thing she was good for was for tech related enterprises, with her apparent lack of Gem powers. Given how Homeworld treats its people, it was probably an inherently terrifying thought that Pearl could be as good as Peridot at the one thing she believed she could do. It completely threatened all sense of self-worth that she had.
* Given Peridot's magnetic nature and Steven referring to her MindOverMatter as "metal powers", it may be that its a form of MagnetismManipulation.
** It also makes perfect sense that Peridot has that as a power: peridots contain iron, making them magnetic.
* Peridot's enthusiasm about the old Earth colony makes sense now, she was probably thinking about how she might have been made as she was meant to be, powers and all, if the colony had proceeded as planned. She was also probably thinking about all the other Gems who had and would suffer from the shortage, due to her newfound sense of empathy.
** As does her anger and calling Yellow Diamond a clod after the she refuses to listen to Peridot's plans to access the planet's resources without harming the local ecosystem. Peridot is a being who is learning empathy from her newfound friends, the Crystal Gems. So Peridot isn't mad just because Yellow Diamond is being petty and willing to destroy a planet of resources for a grudge over something that happened before she was mined. She's mad because she's thinking of all the Gems who'd been made and would be made weaker than they should be because of the resource shortage, something her leader is showing her doesn't matter to her. So not only is Yellow Diamond being petty, but she's not caring about her future subjects who will suffer because of her pettiness. That is why Peridot called Yellow Diamond a clod and essentially cut ties with Homeworld, because Yellow Diamond insulted not only Peridot's sense of logic, but also her newfound sense of empathy.
* It's entirely possible that Homeworld resources crisis is ''artificial'', created by the Diamonds in order to justify limiting the powers of Gems beneath their rule to prevent another Rebellion.
** Another hypothesis is that they're fighting something that's badly draining resources, and a planet-sized weapon is more important than a planet full of resources.
* Peridot revealing that she was born without any powers due to a lack of resources means that she essentially suffered the Gem equivalent of malnourishment and stunted growth. It also means her "limb enhancers" were actually prosthesis to compensate for this.
* Assuming the resource shortage is real, Yellow Diamond sending the search party for Jasper makes sense from a pragmatic viewpoint. Warriors like Jasper who have the full array of Gem powers would take too much of Homeworld's dwindling resources to replace. It's more efficient to retrieve them if they go missing.

[[AC:The New Lars]]
* As disheartening as it is for the Cool Kids and Lars' parents to not understand why Lars is rightfully angry with Steven for possessing his body, their are some reasons to explain why they react this way: 1) Humans of the ''Steven Universe'' world are accustomed to the supernatural, 2) Lars' parents think that Lars may just be acting like his usual jerky self, 3) the Cool Kids probably know that [[AllLovingHero Steven]] would never intentionally take over Lars' body out of malice.
* How did the Big Donut get seagulls stuck in the vents? As Sadie mentioned in ''Steven Floats'', the Big Donut has started making their own donuts again, which would attract seagulls to the scent of fresh donuts.

[[AC:Beach City Drift]]
* Stevonnie being an InstantExpert when it comes to racing makes sense when you remember that Steven is explicitly said to be a ChildProdigy (at least in music, but given how quickly he picks certain things up, likely in multiple areas) and Connie has signs of being one, and is very intelligent, regardless. Both have shown the ability to very quickly become skilled in things that they've gotten the basics of. Stevonnie, as their fusion, likely has their combined skills in these areas taken UpToEleven, possibly even to the point of SuperIntelligence.
* Why does ''[[AllLovingHero Steven]]'' of all people state he ''[[OOCIsSeriousBusiness actually hates someone]]'', the someone being Kevin? Well, Kevin harassing him and Connie as Stevonnie in "Alone Together" opened up Steven to something: Not only will Steven have to deal with misogyny whenever he wants to fuse with the girl he loves, but he also has to live knowing Connie is going to deal with it all the time. He doesn’t just hate Kevin as a person, he hates feeling helpless about Connie’s societal struggles.
** That and the fact that he disregarded how Stevonnie felt. Seeing how seriously the Gems take Fusion, and how much emphasis they put on their partner and the shared experience, it was pretty much equivalent to Pearl's selfish desire to fuse with Garnet for the rush of it a while back. Steven's reaction even parallels Garnet's in terms of relative intensity.
* Kevin seems to use the reactions of others to validate himself. No wonder he crumbles when the duo walk away, he's finally found someone he can't just get a rise out of anymore, and he's trying to regain control before everyone ''else'' follows suit.
* Steven and Connie's strong response to Kevin pressuring them to dance with him only seems like a [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything metaphor]] for [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar sexual assault]] until you remember that fusion is activated by FusionDance. Rather than being its own metaphor, it ties into the themes of consent and boundaries that have been long established by the show.
* Kevin's behavior makes a lot of sense when you think about him not as a simple {{Narcissist}}, but someone with actual Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Many of his actions, including being a jerk just to get a rise out of others for attention saying that Stevonnnie is obsessed with him when he's the one who's obsessed (projecting something about himself he won't accept onto someone else) is something people with this disorder do. Even his breakdown when they deny him the attention he wants is also characteristic of the "narcissistic rages" a narcissist will exhibit when their ego is bruised.
* Kevin's name has the syllables Steven and Connie loses from their names when they fuse into Stevonnie. It works on a thematic level too, since Stevonnie is a being made out of love for another, while Kevin is all about himself. He's the opposite of the two in every way.
* How were Steven and Connie able to so effortlessly fuse this time when previously they only did it by accident? They've been practicing out of sight!
* Kevin seemingly hitting on Stevonnie despite knowing their true nature makes sense when you remember one thing: Kevin is a self-admitted {{Troll}} and knows they don't like him at all and that upsets them, so ''of course'' he'd do it just to get on their nerves.
* Greg being hard on Steven for using the word "hate" becomes sadder when [[spoiler:we meet Uncle Andy in "Gem Harvest"]]; from what we learn from [[spoiler:Andy]] and Greg, the latter grew up in a typical anti-immigration-toting family that prided itself on tradition. [[spoiler:Andy gives off a lot of negative vibes as a GrumpyBear, that threatens to become infectious.]] No wonder Greg left, and makes an effort to teach his son to be kind; being around someone like [[spoiler:Andy]] is quite depressing and stressful, and Steven runs the risk of going the same way by encouraging those feelings.

[[AC:Restaurant Wars]]
* More Fridge Funny, but given Jenny's reaction and Kofi's near-sadistic grin when offering Steven the VIP "card", it's implied that not only has he not offered this to anyone else, but was specifically waiting for Steven. This is probably because Steven ordering the Mozzarella Sticks were what started the war.
* Why didn't Ronaldo tell his family about his girlfriend? He probably knew that they wouldn't believe him.

[[AC:Kiki's Pizza Delivery Service]]
* Why does continual use of his DreamWalker abilities tire Steven out? Because he's actively fighting against the cheese hands for Kiki, he's not really ''resting''!

[[AC:Monster Reunion]]
* Why did the Diamonds feel comfortable using whatever corrupted all the Gems? Because, as Centipeetle have shown, corrupted Gems can't activate Warp Pads, meaning that they were stranded on Earth!
* The fact the Diamonds used whatever corrupted the Gem Monsters shows ''why'' Homeworld didn't just return: as far as they knew, the Earth was currently overrun with vicious Gem monsters. Which also gives a good reason Peridot tried her best to do her job remotely rather than come to Earth and do it manually until she HAD to. This also explains why Peridot didn't find it odd that the Red Eye probe and her flask robonoids were being damaged/destroyed; she's already expecting hostilities.
* In the first episode, Centipeetle tried to get into the temple for seemingly no reason. This episode explained why; even when corrupted, she wanted to use the warp pad to find her crew.
* Why did Steven's healing spit work more than Rose's tears? Well it's revealed in this episode that the corruption caused by the Diamond's FantasticNuke isn't just physical in nature, but somehow mental too. Now think all the way back to "Monster Buddies" when Steven tried to rehabilitate a completely corrupted Centipeetle through ThePowerOfFriendship. Basically, he ''already'' started the healing process a long time ago.

[[AC:Alone at Sea]]
* Jasper's reaction shows a new potential reason for Homeworld's fusion stigma: the possibility of a loss of control in even their most loyal soldiers.
* Why is Jasper so obsessed with reforming Malachite compared to Lapis? Lapis' enjoyment of Malachite came from abusing Jasper for stress relief, which she feels guilty about liking after the fact, while Jasper reveled in the sheer ''power'' and {{Flight}} capacity Lapis brought.
** In addition, Lapis had at least ONE selfless reason to form Malachite: to protect Steven. Which she can now do WITHOUT that. Jasper on the other hand, ONLY had that PowerHigh and for no other reason.
* The reasons Jasper and Lapis enjoyed being Malachite are the exact same reasons they both ''formed'' Malachite in the first place: Jasper to get a power boost and Lapis to [[TheDogBitesBack take revenge on Jasper for imprisoning her again.]]
* This episode provides ''another'' reason that Garnet was so ticked off at Pearl for deceiving her into forming Sardonyx: Jasper and Lapis shows what happens when a fusion is based off of purely selfish emotions and personal satisfaction rather than the positive relationship between their components. They become addicted to the emotions due to that being ''all'' it's about.
* Jasper and Lapis' emotions in this episode were extremes of Pearl and Stevonnie's past issues. Jasper is like Pearl, wanting to fuse to feel powerful. Lapis is like when Steven and Connie formed Stevonnie for selfish revenge rather than because they care about each other and want to enjoy each other's company. Only unlike those two cases, they spent a much longer time in that mindset to the point neither of them was willing to separate willingly and even Lapis had difficulty shaking the mentality.
* Another reason Jasper has become so obsessed with Malachite is again, the strength and power they had, something that she's apparently always greatly admired. Being a Quartz Gem, one of the most powerful short of the Diamonds themselves, she probably never even ''dreamed'' of that kind of power before, and having it torn from her instead of de-fusing willingly probably made it worse.
* Originally, the ship was called the S.S. Misery. Jasper/Lapis was a pretty miserable ship, and guess what sank at the end?
* Before setting sail, Greg and Steven renamed the boat “Lil Lappy”. According to sailor superstition, renaming a boat will bring bad luck. And indeed, the trip ends very bad for the boat itself.
* The episode points out something Garnet said all the way back at the send of season 1. "Yikes. They are really bad for each other". Point to note, she didn't just point out one or the other, she said they are both bad for each other and this episode pointed that out in all its terrible glory.

[[AC:Greg the Babysitter]]
* In this episode, Rose seems fascinated with the idea that humans can change and define themselves, rather than being defined from the moment of creation like Gems are. Now look at her and her closest friends: Pearl defied the set role for pearls to become Rose's "terrifying renegade pearl", Garnet's very existence is a defiance of both Ruby and Sapphire's intended roles and their society's rules, and of course, Rose herself defied her purpose when she rebelled against Homeworld. Naturally ,she'd be fascinated with the idea of an entire race of people who changes and defines themselves as a matter of course.
** Not only that, but falling in love with humanity as a species for that reason also explains a bit more. Seeing humanity having that ability when the Diamonds don't ''allow'' that and while Gems ARE capable of doing more than they were made for, the rules completely forbid it due to the rigid caste system. Not only did she see something worth protecting, she saw something that revealed the flaws in her own society.
* Rose implies that part of her reason for having/becoming Steven was to reinvent herself in ways that she normally wouldn't be able to, given how a Gem's nature is set when they are made.
* Greg leaving behind his star-shirt and starting to use a "It's a Wash" one is him leaving behind his immaturity.
* You could say that Greg's HeelRealization was foreshadowed quite early in the opening song, in the shot where Rose was tossing him up and down playfully - like one might play with a baby.
** Not to mention the sight of him in the Ferris wheel is reminiscent of a baby carriage.

%%[[AC:Gem Hunt]]

[[AC:Crack the Whip]]
* Steven and Connie have obviously been training together offscreen, how else would they be so in sync in combat?
* Amethyst being no match at all for Jasper makes sense given Jasper is ''another'' Quartz, meaning she's as strong if not stronger than her. Amethyst may be able to handle mindless beasts with her UnskilledButStrong status, but Jasper matched or exceeded her ''on top'' of being much more skilled and experienced. In contrast, Stevonnie has Steven's experience and Connie's skill, in addition to Steven's Gem powers, so it's only natural they'd fare better.
** Amethyst is also the only one who is inexperienced fighting other Gems. Pearl, Garnet and Jasper are all veterans of the Rebellion and Steven and Connie learned to fight by training against Pearl. Amethyst, however was born strong and with a certain amount of knowledge on how to fight so she never learned how to fight someone who can match her in both power and intelligence.
* Jasper's motives seemingly changing makes sense when you remember she blamed Steven for Lapis refusing to fuse with her. She still does and is trying to finish what she started.
* If Jasper wanted to attack the temple while Pearl and Garnet are away, why did she wait till the end of the day? She didn't; she walked all the way from the north to the beach and it took her a good day or two to do so.
* Amethyst's new appearance seems a bit random...until you make note of one thing: Jasper spent the entire fight saying how she was what Amethyst 'should be'. Jasper's color pallet arrangement has her brightest color on her chest, her darkest color on her lower body, and her middle color as her shoes. What's Amethyst's new color pallet arrangement? Brightest color on the chest, darkest color for the legs, and middle color for the boots.

[[AC:Steven Vs. Amethyst]]
* Why is Pearl's teaching method so different in this episode compared to "Sworn to the Sword"? Because she already tried her usual teaching method with him in "Steven the Sword Fighter" and learned that Steven has trouble staying focused during training. In response to this, Pearl has developed a new training regimen based on Steven's needs: She gives him several "challenges" to work on specific skills and rewards him with small prizes for his accomplishments during the day (much like quests in a video game).

[[AC:Bismuth]]
* Bismuth's sheer power and durability (which seems to be at least on par with a [[SuperSoldier Quartz]]) makes sense when you remember her purpose for being created. Bismuths are construction workers who build all of Homeworld's structures and buildings. For a job like that, one would pretty much have to be a living bulldozer.
* Note how Bismuth's gem is shaped and colored. On the outermost layer, the color is predominately pink, followed by blue, then green, and finally yellow. Along those lines, her philosophy of playing dirty and shattering their gems to make sure they're truly dead closely mimics Homeworld's tactics of putting down rebellious Gems. In other words: on the outside, she's a jovial piece of fun like Rose Quartz, but on the inside, she is just as merciless as Yellow Diamond is when it comes to her opponents.
** Moreso than that, her gem forms a cavity in her chest, unlike the others who all project outward. This could represent both that she's more focused on the past than the others and has something eating away at her such as her absolute hatred of Homeworld and Rose's betrayal.
* Why doesn't Bismuth have a Gem Weapon of her own? She doesn't ''need'' one! Even if her shapeshifting her body doesn't work, she can just ''make'' weapons as needed!
** Even more brilliant, bismuth is a type of ''metal'', which through heat, can be molded and shaped into different weapons. Bismuth worked as a blacksmith for the Crystal Gems, who can turn herself into a weapon.
* Speaking of Bismuth's namesake gem, it's interesting to note that bismuth doesn't naturally have the rainbow colors and stairstep crystal structure it's known for. It only appears that way when it's created artificially. And Bismuths on Homeworld are a caste of...builders and artificers.
* Pearl's spear being upgraded into a trident makes perfect sense when you consider the biggest advantage of a trident over a spear other than having two additional points to stab with: trapping an opponent's weapon between the prongs, at which point there are opportunities for a skilled user to twist or wrench their weapon out of their grip (or snap it if you get the right leverage), which fits Pearl's WeakButSkilled fighting style by giving her more options. In addition, the added weight likely isn't as big of a disadvantage as it would be for a human, as her strength and ability to alter the size of the spear would neutralize that issue.
* Throughout all of the promotions and leaks for the new episode they said Bismuth was a new Crystal Gem. They never said that Bismuth would be joining them.
* A breaking point is when a person (or object) snaps after taking in too much pressure. The "Breaking Point", a weapon created by Bismuth, is designed specifically to shatter Gems and how that works is it has a metal spike that applies enough force to shatter a Gem. Bismuth's "breaking point" occurs when her idea of a Gem weapon was rejected by both Rose and Steven, resulting in violent rampages that warrant being poofed and bubbled indefinitely. Alternatively, because she takes pride in a blacksmith, you can name her Breaking Point weapon her "BerserkButton".
* Rose may have been using ThePowerOfLegacy when she didn't tell the others about what happened to Bismuth, wanting to preserve her memory.
* Bismuth is a very soft and brittle metal that has a lower melting point than other metals. Bismuth (the character) is a BloodKnight who works in a weapons forge full of molten lava, and is a very destructive person when angered.
* This episode explains why the Crystal Gem's weapons are good at poofing monsters; Bismuth specifically designed them, at Rose's request, to only poof their bodies and leave the gems unharmed.
* Why is Bismuth, an architect and builder - people who are usually depicted with calm, rational, or even pedant personalities - so bloodthirsty towards her former leaders? Well, for once, she went from being a creator of buildings and other mundane, passive designs to being the forger of weapons. However, when you look at it from a philosophical standpoint: she's a creative worker who realized that her talent and powers are wasted on building the same, repetitive designs for her superiors. Rose offered her the chance to explore the full extent of her capabilities, and this brought her to the realization that she has been exploited as a worker, and on top of that, insulted her as a creator through arbitrary limitation and petty degradation. For her, the war wasn't just about her freedom and the protection of the Earth, but also, the punishment and destruction of the ruling elite that dispossessed her, and so many of her kind, and overthrow the system they created - she's essentially the gem equivalent of a militant Marxist or anarchist, while her friends are "merely" defending themselves, their values, and Earth. In other words, the show'a creator's haven't just created another blood knight to counter Jasper, but explained why you shouldn't stand up against something or someone out of sheer spite, or worse, putting your own spite before reason or others - it makes you just as bad as the ones you despise. Ideologies and factions that put revenge before the good of others can become the source of just as much, if not greater misery as the ideas they meant to replace.
* Rose refusing to use the Breaking Point makes more sense when you consider this: Jasper showed in "Crack the Whip" that crushing a Gem with your bare-hands IS something Gems are capable of, and we can assume a hard hit to an enemy's Gem could do it. However, that is having the CAPABILITY to truly kill and the choice whether to do so or not. You have the OPTION of taking them captive. If they're a civilian who was caught in the crossfire, you have the option to rectify the mistake by sparing and letting them go. The Breaking Point is designed for killing and ONLY for killing. It's a weapon with NO CHOICE as to whether or not you kill your target. It's understandable that Rose would oppose such a thing, as it means you're surrendering any possibility for a peaceful solution to the conflict.
** The Breaking Point is also wildly impractical as a weapon of war. It only works at point-blank range, and has a long priming time, meaning the Gem targeted would most likely have to be restrained in some way. It is a weapon of terror, not war.
* Bismuth treating Amethyst with respect and dignity seems like it was done specifically because of the double-whammy she just went through in the last two episodes, but it makes sense that Bismuth would be completely accepting of Amethyst; Bismuth respected Rose's philosophy that anyone can be anything so long as they chose, hence she's the only person who would have absolutely no baggage against Amethyst; to Bismuth it does not matter what made Amethyst what she is now, but what's important is what Amethyst chooses to be in the future.
* The name Breaking Point can either mean it is the point at which all gems would break (which is the weapon's intended purpose) but it could also mean that its Point (the tip) is used in Breaking gems. Given that Bismuth is known to make puns, it's not surprising that she'd name even a lethal weapon with such a mentality.
** It also refers to a structural weak spot that can be struck to destroy the entire object. Suffice to say, it's a name that works on multiple levels, both as a weapon and a metaphor for going too far.
* Bismuth constantly refers to elite Gems as 'upper crust', which is yet another pun ''and'' a phrase that works considering the history of their society, as low-ranking soldiers are grown deep underground.
* Bismuth using nicknames to refer to some of the former Crystal Gems makes even more sense when you remember that there were most likely multiple versions of the same Gem as part of the rebellion, so using nicknames would be much less impersonal than using their number designations.
** They may not be nicknames. Biggs is a type of Jasper, Crazy Lace is a type of Agate, and Snowflake is a type of Obsidian.
* When Rose fused with Pearl, Pearl was able to keep her Shipping Torpedo plan from Rose despite the two sharing minds. It's likely that Rose shielded their memories from each other even while fused so that Pearl couldn't learn about all the things she had to do during the war, including Bismuth's fate.
* When Peridot first reformed, she was still carrying out the motions just before she was poofed. Bismuth reforms with both fists raised and panicky, hinting that she was poofed while fighting desperately. [[spoiler: Fighting Rose would definitely be the cause.]]

[[AC:Beta]]
* The Beta Kindergarten's appearance explains why Jasper is colored the way she is, she seems to have taken on visual cues from the environment she was incubated in!
** It would also explain Amethyst's coloring since she was made in the Prime Kindergarten.
* Jasper turning out to be pretty much the Gem equivalent of the UltimateLifeForm not only explains why she could even hold her own against Garnet, but also why Yellow Diamond bothered to dispatch a team of Rubies to try and get her back in ''[[Recap/StevenUniverseS3E5HitTheDiamond Hit the Diamond]]''. She’s not just a run off the mill, expendable soldier; she’s one of the probably few perfect Gem soldiers Homeworld has, if not the ''only'' one like her, given Peridot's reaction.
** It also explains why she ''only'' sent Jasper with Peridot to begin with. Not only did she think Earth would be infested with monsters rather than occupied by an enemy, Jasper herself is abnormally powerful. Given the ease with which Jasper overpowered Corrupted Gems, she had a good reason to believe that.
* The reveal that the Beta Kindergarten was made to churn out Quartz-type Gems to bolster Homeworld's dwindling forces explains why we constantly hear about armies of Quartzes, supposedly made for war, being defeated by a ragtag bunch of random Gems from other disciplines; it's likely that due to the rushed job, all of them were defective and much weaker than they were supposed to be.
** Not only were the Quartzes likely getting weaker, the Rebellion, as we've seen, were likely continuing to improve and possibly growing (it seems the Beta Kindergarten Gems would have MORE reason to join Rose, given they were literally made to be CannonFodder.
* The reveal of Jasper's origins explains why she constantly belittles Gems weaker than her and never needed to fuse; she has every right to believe that she is the strongest Quartz soldier to have ever existed.
* Steven's concerns about Amethyst's obsession with revenge on Jasper makes a lot more sense when you consider [[spoiler:he's recently witnessed [[HeWhoFightsMonsters that kind of obsession and hate did to]] [[FallenHero Bismuth]].]]
* While 'meepmorps' may be an InherentlyFunnyWord, it actually makes sense that Homeworld wouldn't have art (outside of things that venerate the Diamonds or show their history, like the murals in "Serious Steven") - it has no purpose on the battlefield, it gives Gems an opportunity to explore life in a way unrelated to their pre-determined caste, and it has the possibility to produce subversive social commentary; all are huge risks to the Diamonds' rigorously-structured society (and indeed, artists are usually targeted by oppressive regimes in real life for the same reasons).
** As 'meep morp' is actually Lapis and Peridot's word for 'art' (apparently something they'd never heard of before), sometimes artists don't even realize the value behind their work. Peridot's works of 'meep morp' were all carefully thought out and explained, meanwhile Lapis's were very easy to understand.
-->"This is a baseball bat. It reminds me of the time I played baseball. This is the leaf Steven gave me. It reminds me of the time... Steven... gave me a leaf."

[[AC:Earthlings]]
* During Amethyst's rematch with Jasper, Jasper tries to catch her whip like [[Recap/StevenUniverseS3E18CrackTheWhip last time]], but she's too slow this time and earns a crack to the face. Remember at the beginning of the last episode how Steven commented on [[ChekhovsSkill how much faster Amethyst was getting at her whip-cracking]]?
* Why is Amethyst the first full-Gem Steven fuses with? They're the most alike!
** For an added bonus, go back and rewatch the first scene of Alone Together when the Gems are trying to teach Steven fusion. Now, which dance does he come closest to matching and which Gem is he most in sync with attitude-wise? Amethyst. Has Pearl not been there disapproving of their laughing fits they may have managed to form Smokey that night.
** Their fusion weapon, a yo-yo, is a toy for children. Both Steven and Amethyst (barring her 5,000+ years of age) are the most childish of the Crystal Gems. And the reason why Smoky Quartz was able to [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomp]] Jasper with it is because Amethyst, the impulsive one, has Steven's skill and versatility - a yo-yo is a versatile toy that promotes skill and creativity in children.
* Why is Peridot able to impale Jasper at the end? She was worried for Steven and Amethyst.
* Now we know why Jasper is so obsessed with defeating Rose Quartz; Rose was apparently the one who took out Pink Diamond, the same Diamond she and Jasper were supposed to serve under. Since Jasper has the fanatical loyalty to her Diamond that seems to be ingrained into most Homeworld Gems, no wonder she'd be bent on revenge against the Gem who betrayed their leader.
** Even more than that, Jasper stated that Gems only exist to serve their Diamonds. By taking out Pink Diamond, Rose took away Jasper's entire purpose in life.
** One small detail that shows she's still loyal is when she talks about Gems obeying their Diamonds, the image zooms out to reveal the old diamond logo with Pink Diamond.
** Jasper's perfectionism is ''painful'' with the context in this episode. Her entire self-identity is being TheAce of Homeworld's army, the favored daughter of Homeworld's Earth like Superman is the favored son of Krypton. Unlike the rest of the Crystal Gems, who rebelled for the right to find and be themselves, Jasper is a flawless example of what a Quartz is supposed to be. She fits perfectly in the Gem hierarchy and has never had a reason to feel frustrated or doubtful... but it's lonely at the top. She can't be a peer to the Diamonds and her only equal, Rose, is no longer in existence and Lapis rejected her. What she ''really'' wants is the strength that comes from a solid relationship, but she has no idea what that even ''is''. Add this to the implied horror of ''forcing'' a Gem to fuse just to have that connection with someone, ''anyone'', to be her idea of a better self, and you get one (appropriately) well-crafted NightmareFuel.
* [[http://sashi-memer.tumblr.com/post/148653843825/a-little-detail-i-think-we-missed When Gems are talking about the Diamond they serve under, they say "my diamond"]]. In "The Return" Jasper never says "my diamond" in reference to Yellow Diamond, she always calls her just that.
* Among Jasper's army is one random Cluster Gem. It seems to be the odd one out until you remember that the Beta Kindergarten was where The Cluster entered the Earth's crust.
* Why does Smoky Quartz, a human-looking fusion, have a third arm sprouting out of their left elbow? One reason could be that the yo-yo is not known for precision, so they need support in order to better control its movements. Another reason could be due to Smoky's humor, which come from both [[PungeonMaster Steven]] and [[ThePrankster Amethyst]]. Some comedians use extra arms/hands as props in their skits.
** Also, consider this. Most Gem/Gem fusions have 4 arms. This was a fusion between a Full gem and a Human/Gem Hybrid, so there's only 3/4ths of a full gem's worth in them.
* The entire reveal about Pink Diamond puts a new perspective on why Jasper said Rose Quartz was a priority back in JailBreak. It was far more personal than anyone would have thought at the time.
* When Amethyst and Steven fused for the first time, the fusion occurred with a nuclear blast-like manner. Amethyst and Steven fusing was a spur-of-the-moment, so the feeling of complete shock from seeing that happening was represented by a ''literal'' explosion.
* Mixing in with TearJerker, Amethyst calls Jasper her "sis" before bubbling her gem because despite being wholly different from each other, they're still Quartzes. It's also SympathyForTheDevil on Amethyst's part because Jasper's recent obsessive behavior, when compared to Amethyst's made it seem like they're actually NotSoDifferent. Despite appearing to be a strong Gem, Jasper suffers from as many psychological issues as Amethyst does.
* Peridot trying to reason with Jasper shows a lot of CharacterDevelopment. Before, when she tried to reason with Yellow Diamond, it was on the basis that Yellow Diamond wouldn't destroy the Earth if [[CutLexLuthorACheck Homeworld could use its resources]]. Here, Peridot knows that Jasper is an emotional Gem who has hurt her roommate Lapis (which in part was Peridot's fault for using Lapis as an "informant" about the planet Earth). So she says that on Earth she's learned to be free, appealing to Jasper's emotional side and trauma from being Lapis's prisoner and wanting to use again. Peridot also knows that what she did to Lapis by bringing her back to Earth appeared unforgivable, but she changed and Lapis forgave her with Steven's help. Jasper could easily go down the same path, if she wished.
* When Jasper accuses Steven and Rose of only offering help to gems "after they're worthless", she isn't actually wrong. Rose only showed kindness to Ruby and Sapphire after they had become outcasts, having attacked them before they first became Garnet. Amethyst would be considered defective by Homeworld's standards. Steven aided Lapis when she was cracked, and again after she realized she couldn't adapt to Homeworld after thousands of years in the mirror. The gems only gave Peridot a chance to redeem herself after her limb enhancers were taken away, and Jasper was consistently called a monster by Steven and only offered sympathy when she was being corrupted and in the middle of a breakdown. Technically, she wasn't wrong about how the Crystal Gems recruit new members.

[[AC:Back to the Moon]]
* Eyeball being a Rebellion veteran explains why ''she'' was chosen for the mission: familiarity with the planet.
* Why doesn't Leggy know who Pink Diamond is? The other Diamonds are making her an UnPerson so they can keep playing the god-like figures to the rest of Gem-kind, and only Rebellion survivors like Eyeball and Jasper know any different.
* Pink Diamond's gemstone being on her navel explains the positioning of the Diamonds in the original symbol. White Diamond, the color we most associate with diamonds, has her Gemstone on her forehead, and apparently has the most colonies (according to her mural, in which she also seems to be holding onto Homeworld), so she's on the top. Blue and Yellow Diamond have about even numbers of colonies, and their gems are on their chests, so they're in the middle. Pink Diamond, having her gem on her navel like her subordinate Rose (similarly to how Yellow and Blue Diamond had Pearls with Gems on their chests) is on the bottom, and only seems to have Earth and the Moon as her territory.
* Rose rejecting the Breaking Point makes sense, she was obviously guilty about shattering her Diamond, and never wanted to do something like that again.
** Since it isn't mentioned ''when'' Rose shattered Pink Diamond, it might also be that she was against it from the very beginning, but had to betray her strong believes that even lead her to [[spoiler: bubble one of her closest friends]] when she or her friends were confronted by the Diamond directly.
* Conversely, if Rose shattered Pink Diamond ''after'' the Bismuth incident, that could explain why Rose rejected the use of the Breaking Point, but didn't destroy it.
* The traits associated with pink diamonds don't seem to fit what we know about the Gem... but they ''do'' fit ''Rose''.
* Jasper and Eyeball's reaction to Pink Diamond's death adds another layer onto why Rose was against Bismuth's intentions to shatter the Diamonds and the nobility: [[EvilOverlord tyrannical despots]] and [[BadBoss horrible bosses]] or not, the Diamonds are still the leaders of a CultOfPersonality. Killing Pink Diamond may remove her as a threat, and probably frees some, but that doesn't change the fact that some are so fanatically devoted to them that killing the Diamonds might just make it ''worse''.
* In her mural, Pink Diamond is seen reaching for what looked like Earth and the moon. It's possible that Pink Diamond is the youngest of the four Diamonds (Yellow, White, and Blue have already conquered planets while Pink had none prior). Conquering Earth, her first planet, may have been her biggest aspiration and would have reached it had Rose not betrayed and shattered her.

[[AC:Bubbled]]
* Why are healing abilities so rare as to be unheard of, if not possibly unique on Homeworld? Because Pearl claims they resulted from her love and empathy, something that the Diamonds' society has in ''very'' short supply.
* Eyeball's serious mental instability goes a long way to explain why despite being the eldest of Ruby Squad, she's not the leader. Unlike Jasper, Eyeball was clearly mentally unstable ''before'' coming to Earth, so it makes sense the more levelheaded Doc would be the leader instead.
* Knowing that Rose Quartz shattered Pink Diamond adds another layer to Bismuth's outrage over Rose's rejection of the Breaking Point, assuming it'd happened before then. Rose has already demonstrated that she's willing to compromise her own ideals for a greater good, and after destroying one of the most powerful Gems on Homeworld, refusing to do the same for their common infantry must have seemed like utter hypocrisy to Bismuth.
* After throwing Eyeball out of the bubble, Steven re-seals himself and seems to be finally running out of air. We're treated to a shot of him drifting in the depths of space, and then the screen cuts to black for what feels like a long couple of seconds, making it seem like the Crewniverse might just end the episode there. They've actually been conditioning us to think this is a possible ending for the episode, as many episodes since Jasper's return have ended in cliffhangers, cutting straight to the credits without an IrisOut.
* The second season ended with Peridot suffering a nervous breakdown following her rejection of Yellow Diamond's petty desires and realizing her leader wasn't perfect. The third season ends in a similar fashion, but on a darker note: Steven has to accept that his mother wasn't an AllLovingHero or perfect, as the Gems and his dad have led him to believe, and suffers a lot of emotional turmoil from it after witnessing the consequences of Rose's actions. Unlike Peridot, who has Garnet to help her through it, the Gems can't help Steven through his BrokenPedestal crisis because they are the ones who insisted Rose was amazing.
* Why didn't the Gems tell Steven the truth about Pink Diamond? Because, in realizing that Steven was an innocent child and not Rose, they couldn't make Steven realize that in a past life that he killed someone. Steven went into HeroicBSOD when he couldn't save Centipeetle.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Season 4]]
[[AC:Kindergarten Kid]]
* Peridots have iron in them, so Peridot is a semi-literal IronButtMonkey in this episode.
* After spending the entire episode mocking the monster's intellect and growing more and more frustrated that her plans failed, Peridot only manged to beat the monster by resorting to the most grabbing hold and withstanding an unintended drop purely by her own innate durability. She got much more into the monster mindset than she ever realized.
* Peridot having SuperToughness makes sense when you think of her job: a mechanic and technician. That job would require being able to survive a lot of random accidents or heavy machinery. While [[WeHaveReserves Homeworld doesn't care much for their people,]] if a mechanic can't fix damage to a space ship or other major piece of technology, an entire warship, building, or something else important (and possibly some rare or important Gems that are much harder to replace) could be destroyed with everyone in it, making making Peridots tougher than average PragmaticVillainy.
* Another possible reason Peridot is so durable, the gemstone can rank up to 7 on the Mohs hardness scale. That's the same rank as quartz!
* Peridot, while battered and bruised, never seems to get hit with anything like the injector spar that poofed Jasper, nor the sword strike that poofed Bismuth, another possible reason for her durability.
* Peridot doesn't consider fusing with Steven to defeat the monster for several reasons: 1) She wants to prove she can do this on her own; 2) While she sees the practical side of fusing it still makes her uncomfortable; 3) While she loves Steven and Steven said he loves her in "Gem Drill," it's platonic FireForgedFriends love that doesn't necessarily lend to fusion intimacy.

[[AC:Know Your Fusion]]
* Why couldn't Smoky measure up to Sugilite? Because Sugilite is the product of three Gems, as to Smoky's one and a half; coincidentally, this makes them being on par with Garnet in strength impressive in hindsight.
* While Garnet left the temple in Keystone Motel to be by herself and defuse, this episode also explains why she couldn't have stayed in her own room during the time, as defusing then would've made it collapse onto Ruby and Sapphire.
* On the strength test, we see only one non-Fusion on the entire thing, right there at the bottom. This makes sense... Not only are Steven and Amethyst not the only characters struggling with feeling inadequate... But given what happened prominently when we were introduced to her, of course the part of Sardonyx that comes from Pearl would put herself all the way at the bottom.
* Listen closely: Sardonyx's voice has a slight echo on it no matter what room she's in. Fitting, since she always seems to be hosting, performing, or presenting no matter the location or context.

[[AC:Buddy's Book]]
* The Cloud Arena is the only major Gem structure that is absent from Buddy's book, which makes sense since it’s the one structure humans would have no way of accessing back then, since flying machines hadn't been invented yet and humans can't use Warp Pads without the help of Gems.
* Some of the locations seem mythologically appropriate in hindsight. The Field of Swords is shown to be in Norway, and would have probably inspired the the myth of the war between the Aesir and Jotuns. The Sand Castle appears to have vaguely Babylonian style of architecture, which seems to connect Rose to the myth of Ishtar, a Babylonian goddess often portrayed in the company of a pride of lions.
* Rose appearing with a pride of Lions seems to raise more questions than answers. However, as pointed out towards the end of the episode, Steven and Connie aren't really picturing these things in their heads accurately. It's not impossible that the lions Rose was hanging out with were pink, or any other color. (Steven and Connie also imagine them as a roughly equal mix of lions and lionesses, which would be highly unlikely in a real pride.)
** Buddy didn't comment on their color at all. This could be for many reasons, not the which of least include colorblindness, being ignorant of lion physiology, or not wanting to add in a detail to his book which would make it seem unbelievable or fantasy-esque.

[[AC:Mindful Education]]
* Why did Pearl have her holo-Pearls "fuse"? Besides simulating an enemy fusion, it probably allowed her to make it bigger than she could by herself.
* Sapphire being in distress over a swam of butterflies (that represent personal issues) while Ruby sends most of her time dealing with one. Ruby is more focused on a single problem at a time, but Sapphire with her more serious behaviour and Future Vision is in constant turbulence over past, present ''and'' future bad situations. And notice that it gets worse once Ruby separates from her in order to give chase to a single issue. Once Ruby calms down and goes to her again, she can balance Sapphire's hyper awareness and fatalism, bringing calm to both, and Garnet overall. Which is a nice CallBack at "Keystone Motel" where it was Ruby's anger and refusal to forgive Pearl what unbalanced the fusion and split up Garnet.
** Additionally, the way Connie's and Steven's problems play out in the episode strongly mirror Ruby and Sapphire in the dream sequence, and is even foreshadowed with the shot juxtaposing Connie and Ruby. Connie, much like Ruby, gets very upset over a single, recent problem, to the point where Stevonnie can't function, while Steven, much like Sapphire, has several, much deeper problems that's he's managed to bury for a while, but when they're triggered, his resulting breakdown is even worse than Connie's. And Connie, as with Ruby to Sapphire, is the one to get through to Steven and help him work through his problems.
* Butterflies feature heavily in promotional material for this episode. Butterflies are often associated with nervousness and anxiety - Steven and Connie have so much on their minds that they can't even concentrate on what's presently going on around them.
* BG Artist Jane Bak made one of the [[http://stevencrewniverse.tumblr.com/post/149500701917/intindra-a-promo-i-made-for-this-episode-i promo images]] depicting Steven and Connie with butterflies. Connie stares at one butterfly (Jeff) while Steven has two on his head and a third on his hand (Bismuth, Jasper and Eyeball). They're not facing each other, thus not seeing the issues the other has to deal with.
* This episode had a myriad of things related to Buddhism, such as mindfulness, lotus poses used for meditations, and facing one's own problems in their own mind. '''This is the [[OneHundredAndEight 108th]] episode.''' Bonus points for having a Japanese animator help animate the episode.
* Steven's intense guilt over not being to help Bismuth, Jasper, or Eyeball makes more sense when you go back to previous episodes. He was able to get the older Crystal Gems to work out their problems with one another, convince Peridot and Lapis to see the beauty in Earth, help solve conflict between the Beach City residents, and convince the Cluster to not form. He was able to solve conflicts peacefully by using ThePowerOfLove and ThePowerOfFriendship. So, now he has to face people who have more complex (and understandable) reasons not to listen to him, so he has ''to respond with violence to protect himself''.
** That also adds another dimension to the meaning of his hallucination of Rose -- after Garnet told him that she was able to fight in spite of not wanting to, he probably feels like she'd disapprove of him for not having the same dedication to protecting Earth.
* Steven sees a butterfly over Rose's sword before the unleash of his emotional turmoil, which hints the connection beforehand, but it also hints Steven's issues come from the discovery of Rose's martial side and inability to associate this side with the ideal already in his mind. That sword represents all of his mom's sins.
* Steven can already float better than Stevonnie on his own, and has done so while holding things way heavier than Connie, so why did they need to fuse to float when they were falling at the end? Because that power is tied to his emotions so fusing was necessary to get him to calm down enough to use it at all.
* Stevonnie seems to flail their legs to use the float/hover ability. Smoky Quartz uses the ability fine. The difference being Amethyst has seen Steven and Rose using this ability while Connie has not.
** It could also be that Stevonnie is 75% human and thus might have to put more effort into floating. Smoky, on the other hand, is 75% ''Gem''.

[[AC:Future Boy Zoltron]]
* Mr. Smiley seemed a ''lot'' more angry than usual when Steven broke his machine. This might seem a little inappropriate at first - yes, it cost him thousands of dollars, but he had it in ''storage'' until that point, and on top of that, it's clearly not the most well-built fortune teller machine[[note]]Most fortune teller machines have protective glass to keep people from messing with the teller[[/note]] - until you realize that he runs the ''entirety'' of Funland by himself, and Steven broke one of his means for accumulating income without having to run himself ragged.
** Of course, assuming inflation is one of the things that still occurred normally in the universe's history, it's safe to assume that "thousands of dollars" when Mr. Smiley bought it amounts to ''hundreds'' of thousands if not ''millions'' today, making his frustration with Steven doubly justified.
** Why didn't Steven just have Greg pay the machine replacement cost?
*** Because Greg's a "cool dad," not a foolishly-permissive one. Steven needs to learn responsibility for his actions, it's one of the good morals of the series.
*** While he still has money to burn, Greg's reaction towards seeing the bill in Empire City might also hint that he isn't THAT rich after that night. After all, he had mentioned how he only rented a boat in "Alone At Sea" and was beaten down when he ended up having to buy it.
* Mr. Smiley saying he'd "rather not talk about" the jokes he used as a former comedian when Steven asks, may be due to the fact that some of his jokes were adult in nature. Steven, being a kid, may not understand them, so hearing someone like Steven making a sex joke with his friends without knowing the connotations just because he finds it funny will be a bit awkward. Of course, there's Pearl and Greg we have to worry about, too.
** Alternative possibility: He has a routine with Mr. Frowney. He'd rather not talk about it, because on one hand the jokes only work well with someone depressing giving him something to react to and also because him and Mr. Frowney parting is probably too depressing for Mr. Smiley to even consider joking about.
* Remember how Garnet remarks about this being an appropriate use of her powers? It might sound like Lampshade Handling at first, but she might actually be serious. Not only she helps 2 individuals resolve some issues they're both facing, something we've seen her be willing to do in Mindful Education, it would teach Steven that sometimes there ARE no easy answers to people's issues.

[[AC:Last One Out of Beach City]]
* Pearl may be totally clueless about the difference between apple juice and alcohol; but then, alcohol wouldn't affect a Gem any more than apple juice would.
** She also could have meant, "I'm going to try drinking" literally. Steven needs to eat and drink, and Amethyst doesn't but does it anyway because she likes it, but Pearl has never been shown to do it before. Consuming any beverage, alcoholic or not, would be seen as adventurous coming from her.

[[AC:Gem Harvest]]
* The "Steven Reacts" short ends up predicting the plot for this episode: a typical ''Steven Universe'' conflict occurs when Steven creates Veggie Head for Peridot and Lapis, but is wrapped up quickly. Then new, hostile characters appear (the Angry Lunch Enemies as opposed to Uncle Andy) who want the former to GetOut, only to be convinced to make peace.
* Steven creating Veggie Head for Peridot and Lapis encapsulates how his relationship with them progresses: his first attempt to help them make a sapient vegetable backfires, but he continues to try to help them, and eventually Veggie Head goes to them.
* Andy eventually mellows when the Gems get the ridiculous wedding cake, the baby boy balloon and the tombstone. Why? Because they were trying to accommodate his wishes, without really understanding the rituals that he mentions. To Andy, they're flailing like children, hence why he cracks up, and Peridot thanking him makes him feel guilty for not fitting in when the Gems crack jokes about the Gem War.
* Steven may not have been acting TooDumbToLive by asking Lapis to toss him onto the plane and then to fly back: he was trusting that Andy would care about him enough to catch him, turn the biplane around and head back to the barn. His gamble paid off, in that Andy suffers a JerkassRealization as a result and accepts Steven's offer of becoming part of his family.
** Also remember: Steven can float, even if he missed the biplane he would have just floated down safely.

[[AC:Three Gems and a Baby]]
* When Garnet unfuses into Ruby and Sapphire, baby Steven cries, which could explain why Garnet never told Steven she was a Fusion right away.
* This episode also explains why Pearl was hesitant to comfort Steven when he regressed into a baby in Steven's Birthday.
* The Gems' gifts to Steven are only useless to him as a baby. Pearl's dictionary will likely make him very eloquent after he learns to talk and read, Garnet lampshades how Steven will need the shaving razor when he's older (which was confirmed all the way back in "Too Many Birthdays", wherein all of Steven's adult selves [Except middle age] have some form of facial hair) and Amethyst's adult diapers will probably be helpful when he becomes an old man.
* The reasons for the Gems' speculations about where Rose's physical form went all connect back to them in some way. Amethyst and Garnet's guesses are the most obvious, but why does Pearl assume Rose is "trapped" in her gem and can't reform because Steven's in the way? Most likely because Pearl herself frequently got poofed trying to save Rose, and thus had to reform a lot.

%%[[AC:Tiger Philanthropist]]
%%[[AC:The War]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:General]]
* Why is no one in-universe at all concerned with how unhealthy Garnet's relationship could possibly be? She's fused all the time. Steven didn't even know they exist for 14 years. Don't any of the other gems miss Ruby and Sapphire? It's like they're so wrapped up in their relationship they've ceased existing.
** "The Answer" reveals that Rose and Pearl met Garnet before they knew Ruby or Sapphire, so they're probably too used to Garnet to miss either of her components.
** It's also heavily implied that other Homeworld gems take this position (they're freaked out by the idea of a fusion lasting this long.) Rose Quartz, however, was more of a live-and-let-live hippie sort; if that was how Ruby and Sapphire wanted to live, she accepted it, and the others followed her lead. (It is honestly more likely that their relationship and the way Homeworld treats it as disgusting and forbidden is intended to be a DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything metaphor for interracial or gay relationships in our world, especially since we find out that one of the things that disgusts them is the idea of a fusion between two different types of gems.)
* Why can't Onion talk? Is he totally mute? Not necessarily "horror," per se, but you have to wonder what's wrong with that kid...
** I was gonna suggest that he's too young to talk but he looks about 4-5 years old, he should at least say SOMETHING!
** It could be that, like [[WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb Ferb,]] he's a man of action.
** In one episode, Onion and his father were seen talking. But instead of using actual language, they were just... mumbling.
** He may just be nonverbally autistic. He shows several other signs of autism (having qualms with eating in front of people, not socially adjusted, the way he obsessively collects G.U.Y.S and G.A.L.S. in Onion Friend, and obviously, not talking) and his mother just accepts his behavior as normal, perhaps because she knows it can't be changed and she just has to accept him for who he is.
** He appears to have inherited it from his father, who is IntelligibleUnintelligible.
* Connie and her loneliness. If she hadn't met Steven, would this have developed into depression? What she said about only her parents noticing if she were to die was rather concerning...
** There are a couple of moments that suggest that Connie's mother is an awful person, most notably treating parental love as ''a shut-down'' and complimenting the Gems on its use after they hand down a ''thousand year'' punishment on Steven. The idea that Connie was so distressed over what her parents would do to her that she attempted to run away with her only friend never crosses her mind, and learns nothing from the experience because she has the exact same problem later in the hospital episode.
* It was mentioned in her introductory episode that Connie and her parents move frequently due to their work... so it's more a matter of WHEN they'll move next and how it will affect her and Steven.
** In that case, it's a good thing that Steven is the warp master
* All of the Gems have been pretty gravely unsettled by the loss of Rose, with Pearl being hit hardest by her deeply personal relations with her, going into a pretty severe breakdown when her Rose button gets pushed. Now think about how long Gems are implied to live for (at least 6,000 years old and showing no signs of decay) and how hard it seemingly is for the Gems to adopt new ideas (they're still totally clueless about earth culture). It could be millennium before this wound begins to heal.
* So, if a Gem's physical body is destroyed, they can still regenerate from their...well, gem. Okay, but what if said gem '''''breaks?'''''
** [[Recap/StevenUniverseS1E24AnIndirectKiss Apparently, nothing good.]]
** FridgeBrilliance: Steven's Gem is on his stomach/lower abdomen, and we can assume that the same was true of Rose Quartz. Suddenly, there's an explanation of [[DeathByChildbirth what]] [[TearJerker happened]] [[PosthumousCharacter to]] [[MissingMom her]].
** How fragile does that make the Gems then? I mean, if a slowly expanding stomach can break the Gems, what happens if Garnet, for example, gets her hand caught in a door, where her gems are located?
*** It probably has more to do with the umbilical cord than the gem breaking. Maybe Steven took up all her gem's energy as a fetus? Of course, that's assuming a Gem could even have a traditional pregnancy.
*** Gems are likely as durable as their mundane counterparts so anywhere from, say quartz, to diamond on the SI hardness scale. Lion 3 demonstrates that Rose could not exist with Steven so it's likely just an outcome of giving birth and passing on her gem. Secret Team implies that gem shards are sentient and project whatever part that roughly corresponds to the rest of the body. This is a worse outcome.
*** Apparently, from evidence, a Gem can never actually ''die''. As said above, it seems that the Gem shards have sentience of some sort, enough to regenerate whatever physical form they can muster and move around. The Cluster in "Keeping it Together" is several Gem shards fused together, sentient enough to be aware that they've been horrifically combined into a singular form. And WordOfGod says that the poster that Garnet had in "Together Breakfast" had ink made from ground-up Gems, and when it gained a form, that was their souls crying out for revenge. So apparently, unless a Gem is perfectly intact, the Gem is cursed to eternal AndIMustScream.
* Steven, being half Gem, [[WhoWantsToLiveForever will likely outlive his father and all his fully human friends]].
** Maybe he realizes this and, taking a page from his mother's book, doesn't let it bother him.
** Worse Fridge Horror: Steven's physical age is tied to his mental age and when he starts thinking like an adult, he physically starts aging. This could mean that the trauma of having to watch his friends pass away one by one will eventually end up aging him to the point of death...
* Some have discussed the possibility of Rose regenerating from her gem after Steven dies. But upon regenerating, she will immediately realize what this means. As an all-loving being and a mother, this will destroy her.
** If Steven can't age, this can means two scenarios involving Steven being killed. One where the Gems failed to protect him, which will devastate them on-top of having to face Rose with their failure. The second is where they all died during a mission or while trying to protect Steven and Rose regenerates surrounded by the sight of her dead loved ones.
* There's something unhealthy going on at the House of Fryman. Between Peedee's age-inappropriate cynicism/world weariness and Ronaldo's violent delusions (that show signs of being rooted in narcissism and a desire for attention) it seems more and more likely that Fryman is a less then ideal father.
** It seems genetic, possibly a chemical imbalance. Either way they need help.
** On a related note, one of Ronaldo's blog post is about him getting stuck under a fridge (seemingly without injuring himself), and he only tries to contact his family with his phone by posting on his blog. The obvious joke is that Ronaldo is too stupid to just call an ambulance, but given he's a dyed-in-wool ConspiracyTheorist, he might have a distrust for emergency services. That could create a ''serious'' problem if he or one of his family members has an actual emergency.
* Peridot and the Homeworld Gems look down on humans (and all other non Gem lifeforms). So how will they react when they find out Steven is a half-human half-Gem hybrid?
** It turns out that they think he's Rose, leader of the insurrection, in a new and weaker form. Not better.
* Since Steven's body is organic, would he still able to regenerate from his Gem like the other Gems after getting seriously injured, or would he just...die?
** Given that Gem magic can handle human bodies just fine, he'd probably regenerate.
** It's possible that he might die if he suffered enough harm. https://twitter.com/mcburnett/status/614483780812705792
* We've been given to understand that Gems really only make sustained changes to their appearances when they 'die', retreat into their gem, and regenerate. The fact that all of the Crystal Gems look different in the flashbacks in "A Story for Steven" means that each of them has ''died at least once'' during Steven's lifetime.
** Possibly twice. When we see Pearl regenerate in "Steven the Sword Fighter", Pearl appears to turn briefly into her form from the Pilot. So that means she used to be that Pearl as well.
*** Or, like in So Many Birthdays, they grew up for him.
*** That's unlikely, considering how they seem to be surprised about how Steven's age fluctuates based on his state of mind, implying it's not a normal thing for Gems. But it does bring about another tragic interpretation, if true: the Gems "aged" themselves because Rose's death forced them to be "older".
* One horrific thing is while Jasper hates the Crystal Gems, Lapis hates ''at the very least'' the Crystal Gems, Jasper, and Peridot, and at the ''worst'' everyone not named Steven. This means that should Malachite go berserk, she's going to be a threat to ''everyone'' not named Steven. [[OmnicidalManiac Crystal Gem, Homeworld Gem, or human.]]
* What happens to a fusion Gem's consciousness when she's not fused? Is it tucked away in the back of her components' minds? Does she just stop existing until they fuse again?
** Steven asks this question to Garnet in "Keeping It Together". Garnet clarifies that [[ThePowerOfLove as long as Ruby and Sapphire continue to love each other, she'll never truly go away]].
*** So if the fusion is powered by hate.....
* If the Crystal Gems have been living on the East Coast of North America for thousands of years, why didn't they intervene to prevent the invasion of North America by Europeans and the genocide of the Native Americans? Historical Friction even shows them helping to form an European colony, so it can't just be that they are indifferent to humanity, did they hate the Natives for some reason?
** They probably didn't really care, seeing as how they had a fence built to keep humans out.
** They protect humanity from outside forces; they don't protect it from themselves.
** It's possible the colonization of America was more peaceful in this timeline, so the Gems saw no need to intervene. Remember, this is an alternate timeline where World War II apparently never happened.
*** Or, maybe the Native Americans were already exterminated during the Gem War thousands of years ago and the continent was left empty until Europeans came.
*** There were still at least some Native Americans in this timeline, since the state of Kansas (which is based on a Sioux word) still has the same name.
* According to [[WordOfGod Rebecca Sugar]] in an interview for the book Guide to the Crystal Gems, it's explained that when two Gems of a similar type fuse together the resulting fusion would only be slightly stronger than their component parts (meaning say if Pearl fused with another Pearl the resulting fusion would only be slightly stronger). It's explained that when two Gems of opposite strengths and properties come together it creates a Gem far stronger than the two (such as the case for Garnet and the other Gem fusions who are all noticeably stronger than the originals). With all that in mind consider; Jasper, a Quartz made Gem that was strong enough to go toe to toe with Garnet in a straight up fight and survived being caught in the center of an explosion. Then we have Lapis, a PersonOfMassDestruction who stole the Earth's water and was easily able to hold her own against all three of the Crystal Gems. Now imagine how terrifyingly powerful Malachite must be and the damage she could cause if Lapis and Jasper's personalities ever completely meshed...
* The Gem Homeworld's motivations. Why ''are'' they so hellbent on expanding their empire? They don't require new resources for their existing society because they're just using other planets to create ''new'' Gems. Are they just interested in conquest for the sake of conquest? Building up against some equally terrifying enemy they're at war with? Just some kind of sick game between the Diamonds?
** It's WMG territory, but this troper theorizes that the four Diamonds of the Homeworld Diamond Authority are fusions of once numerous Diamond type Gems, whom ended up dividing the universe between each other and using their power to force all other Gem types to kowtow to them so that they can rule over the universe unopposed. The two Diamonds we've seen come off as rather... petty and childish, with Yellow Diamond out to see Earth destroyed for the sake of spiting the one Gem whom stood up to her, and Blue Diamond demanding Ruby be crushed to dust not for any reasonable crime but simply for "fusing with a member of my court", as if she was upset at somebody for messing with her toys.
** This leads to an even bigger case of FridgeHorror. As far as we know, new Gems can only be created by stripping worlds of life. And while they don't age, Gems aren't eternal, at least not with current technology; while something seems to remain no matter how badly broken they get, there's a point beyond which current technology and magic is incapable of repairing them to the point of coherence. (Though Rose was working on it.) Together, these facts imply that if the Gem Homeworld doesn't constantly strip other worlds of life in order to create new Gems, they'll face a slow but inexorable decline and collapse as more and more gems get broken beyond repair in accidents or combat. There may be a few ways out of this (it's unclear if there's a "sustainable" way to create new Gems, or if they can at least strip life from non-sentient worlds), but overall, it paints a very grim picture.
*** A more upbeat side-implication of this realization is that it's possible that Rose's creation of Steven (while obviously a genuine act of love with Greg) also represented her hope of discovering a more sustainable way of creating new Gems, freeing her people from the need to destroy worlds like Earth. Obviously, the process she used to create Steven himself isn't a solution (since it didn't create a new Gem, just repurposed hers), but it's possible that gem-organic hybrids may have some way of reproducing without destroying worlds.
* Lapis is a PersonOfMassDestruction thanks to her water powers, but is more on the neutral side due to her friendship with Steven and hatred for both the Crystal Gems and Homeworld. It's already revealed that there are other Lapis Lazulis at Homeworld, so imagine if the Diamonds ever realize that the Earth is 70% covered in water and they have Gems who can control water on their side.
* Greg's absolute unwillingness to get involved in anything magic hits a lot harder when you realize that this is probably, in part, because magic rules governing Gems meant that his wife had to give up her physical form in order to give "birth" to Steven.
* Why didn't Yellow Diamond just send a Lapis Lazuli to destroy Earth at any point in the past few thousand years? We know that Lapis Gems are capable of unassisted FTL travel (because 'our' Lapis Lazuli traveled from Earth to the Gem Homeworld using just her water wings, without any special technology), and any Lapis is a PersonOfMassDestruction on a water world like Earth - again, 'our' Lapis nearly caused a worldwide catastrophe without even meaning to. Given the apparent range of Lapis Lazuli powers, a single Lapis could have easily dropped from space at any time with no backup and caused severe damage.
** One possibility is that Lapis Gems are, like Sapphires, extraordinarily rare (but not as valuable, because most Gem-controlled worlds have no water.) It's also possible that the Gems didn't realize or appreciate how powerful they are on a water-filled world, although this would require a fairly severe degree of IdiotBall if they know even the most basic things about Earth's composition and how Lapis powers work. A third possibility is that Yellow Diamond didn't consider it necessary, trusting the corruption and the Cluster to handle things for her.
** Also, it's very likely that Yellow Diamond lacks authority over Lapis Gems (given that they are ''blue''), and that Blue Diamond doesn't share Yellow Diamond's lust for revenge and is therefore unwilling to devote a (possibly very rare) Lapis to a task she considers unimportant.
** Another possibility is that "our" Lapis is unusual in some way, either in terms of being capable of FTL travel or having freakishly extreme control over water. It's also possible that a Lapis' control over a world's water increases the more time she spends there or something along those lines, so only a Lapis who had been stuck on Earth for thousands of years could pull the stunts our Lapis did.
** The idea that Lapis is unusual is not only possible, but probable, for one reason: while Peridot states all Lapis Gems are capable of flight and ''like'' water, WordOfGod has said Lapis' hydrokinesis is her Gem Weapon, which are typically unique to that specific Gem rather than their species. This means while all Lapis Gems may LIKE water, only our Lapis may have flat-out hydrokinesis.
*** It is mentioned in "Too Short To Ride" that Homeworld isn't creating Gems 'like they used to', one reason why Peridot doesn't have a weapon. So unless the Diamonds have another old Lapis, they wouldn't have one with water powers unless they specifically create one. And IF they decide to make one now, they either would have to hurry it which would probably make the Lapis [[FridgeHorror faulty]] or it would take a few thousand years. The latter may not feel that long for Gems, but it's probably safe to assume that the series will end with some kind solution for the tense situation and thus a freshly made Lapis wouldn't be needed by the time she's finished...which also would be a quite horrific thing for that Lapis in specific.
* Shouldn't the Crystal Gems be frantically debriefing Peridot for as much information as possible about what's happened to the Gem Empire and Homeworld over the past 6,000 years? Her information may be incomplete or limited (she indicated she depended a lot on her technology), but she should at least be able to provide a broad history, and getting that as soon as possible would seem to be extremely important both tactically and (for Pearl, at least, and probably also Garnet) emotionally. Earlier, Pearl was deeply depressed about knowing she'd never see space again; now she's ignoring the chance to get the first up-to-date news about her Homeworld in 6,000 years? It's vaguely possible they did it and it wasn't shown, but it seems odd that something so important wouldn't be touched on; it's also extremely likely the topic will come up in the future, but you would have expected it to take absolute priority the moment it was clear Peridot had switched sides permanently. (From an out-of-character standpoint, of course, they avoided it because immediately grilling Peridot for everything she knows about the current situation on the Gem Homeworld would lead to a boring and mostly-unsatisfying infodump as opposed to spacing it out. But it's still odd from an in-setting standpoint.)
* It's implied on several occasions that Rose may still be alive and conscious inside Steven's gem, and possibly able to see everything that's happening through it. This isn't the horror part; it's even a bit heartwarming. The horror part is that if that's true, she is watching him ''all the time'', which is going to make his relationship with Connie a bit awkward as they get older.
** It's even worse. All the times Steven, Greg and the Crystal Gems suffered or were in lethal danger. The fate of her fallen comrades. Steven being almost murdered because HER past came to bite him in the rear. Her friendship with Bismuth broken beyond repair for her dishonesty. The BrokenPedestal moments concerning her in several episodes. ''She has seen all of that and can do nothing to help or explain herself''.
* We've seen corrupted Gems that turn into malicious monsters and shattered shards forced to fused with other pieces that become mismatched assortments of limbs. So what would happen if corrupted Gems were shattered and forced to fuse into clusters?
* While it is stated that World War 2 has not happened in Steven Universe, nothing is said about World War 1. Considering how there is no World War 2, World War 1 could have either been not as bad as in our world, or much worse then our world.
** One can also notice the literature and slang of the world. Lord of the Flies exists, and (if it the same as our version) could indicate that a conflict did occur. Interestingly, the book refers to a Atom Bomb. Later in the show, when Connie is talking about nuclear families, Steven freaks out at the term nuclear. These might indicate that at some point in the Steven Universe timeline, a nuke was dropped.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Season 1]]
[[AC: Together Breakfast]]
* I just had rewatch this episode, and notice Pearl's comment on possessing organic matter. The spirit had tried to take over Steven and with WordOfGod the scroll is implied to be the trapped spirits of Gems. Just what the hell is wrong with Homeworld and making FateWorseThanDeath for their gems.
** It brings up an even more disturbing question of why there would be a tool used to possess organics, which they despise and see as the pest and scum of the universe.

[[AC:Frybo]]
* Think about the Gem shards. We missed out on most of Pearl's lecture about them, but based on their behavior and what we've learned since...it seriously sounds as though, during the war, a general took a Gem and ''shattered it'', [[PoweredByAForsakenChild choosing to use its pieces to animate a giant army of slave-armour]]. But then, with what little remained of the Gem's shattered consciousness, the shards turned on its murderer, attacking and killing everything in its path.
** Rose's Armory contains "The Armor of the Fallen", and Pearl takes great offense in the fact that Steven doesn't know that name...

[[AC:Serious Steven]]
* They go to a 'Gem Battlefield', decorated with lost weapons and Gems, on the planet Earth. This implies that Gems have fought one another. Now, let's assume that this was because some Gems went evil.....did an equivalent of a Gem Jedi-Sith war once ravage the universe?!
** Given TheReveal of evil Gems creating the 'kindergarten' that was sucking life out of the world to make more Gems, we can probably make an educated guess now...
** Also the couple of hints about the Gems being the last of their kind adds to this....is there a Gem Vader running around at the behest of a Gem Sidious!?
*** Jasper did mention taking the Crystal Gems to "Yellow Diamond". Furthermore, it's revealed the Homeworld Gems are led by a Triumvirate of so called "Diamond" leaders.
** In "Monster Buddies", the Centipeetle [[http://inbarfink.tumblr.com/post/97287782097/yeah-okay-but-what-if briefly takes on a familiar, humanoid form.]] Perhaps this means something much more sinister. Maybe there's something that causes Gems to turn into monsters, which is why Rose Quartz (and, consequently, Steven) feels the need to "heal" them.
*** This is more or less confirmed to be the exact case after Ocean Gem.
** Rose Quartz had an entire army on her side. A number of them are implied to have been her close friends, just as much as Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl. This means Rose, Pearl and Garnet lost a LOT of loved ones that day who were just as close to them as they are to each other.
* Whilst inside the pyramid trap, Steven experiences severe vertigo and nausea anytime the traps rotate and reconfigure. He figures out that this is why they keep going in circles, but the Gems never experience this sensation. We find out why courtesy of Peridot MUCH later on in the series, whom explains that as a race of world conquistadors Gems automatically adapt to gravity on all kinds of planetoids. This means their bodies wouldn't have even noticed changes, as they would have adapted to them automatically.

[[AC:Giant Woman]]
* The stomach of the Big Bird had a ''lot'' of Gems inside of it...
** We also see at least two human skeletons. How many people have been killed by Corrupted Gems throughout history?!

[[AC:Tiger Millionaire]]
* Pretty much all the in ring action. Wrestling is something that relies a lot on communication between the wrestlers, to avoid actually hurting someone. All Amethyst does is slam or punch people without warning, which would already be incredibly dangerous even without the addition of her genuinely superhuman strength.
** I imagine it's called an ''underground'' wrestling circuit for a reason.

[[AC:So Many Birthdays]]
* The Gems honestly don't know what effect Steven's death will have on Rose's gem. It could release her, or kill her.
* Steven has to explain to the Gems what his dad does for him every birthday. How could the Gems not know? Have they never been to any of Steven's birthday parties? And then you realize it's also the anniversary of Rose's death…

[[AC:Onion Trade]]
* The fact that Onion nearly destroyed the town out of [[ItAmusedMe sheer boredom]].

[[AC:Steven the Sword Fighter]]
* Pearl dying (temporarily) in front of Steven was horrifying enough, but she's also his ParentalSubstitute and is essentially his mother in everything but name. Losing her, however brief the period of time, echoes the biggest loss in Steven's life: the loss of [[MissingMom Rose Quartz]], his birth mother.

[[AC:Rose's Room]]
* Pearl is quite horrified when Steven tells the Gems that he accidentally caused Rose's room to simulate all of Beach city, and is extremely relieved he's not hurt. If you think about what dangers misusing the room could result in, her fear is quite reasonable.
** At the end, when the room is glitching out, Steven is just left falling through space when he makes a last wish that he wants to be back with the Gems, causing a door to open beneath him back to the real world. Pearl then mentions that the room can't handle simulating an entire city. Assuming if whatever magic the room runs ran out or broke down, would that have left Steven [[FateWorseThanDeath falling through space for eternity]]?

[[AC:Coach Steven]]
* Why was Pearl so upset about not being strong enough to protect anyone? "Sworn to the Sword" shows that, in battle, Pearl would throw herself in Rose's way to protect her and take on the approaching enemy herself...but was so small and fragile that she did instantly every time. It's quite possible that Sugilite's near-fatal beatdown of Pearl brought up flashbacks of those days in the war when Pearl couldn't even put up a sliver of a fight to protect Rose.

[[AC:Steven and the Stevens]]
* The Steven Universe that will be featured in the show from now on will not be "our" Steven, but one instead created by an alternate timeline, and one that watched himself die ''en masse''.
* The alternate Stevens composed and performed a very upbeat song about how they are Steven and the Stevens, and they are going to make you smile. The episode ends with a DarkReprise of that same song, but the lyrics have changed and are about Steven learning to be true to himself after watching himself die. Then you realize that this new Steven never got to hear the original version and does not know he's singing a reprise. Technically, he just happened to compose a song that happens to be almost identical to a song that was composed by his now deceased alternate selves, and the original is now lost to the sands of time.
* All the alternate Stevens ''melted'' to death. Unlike most variations of this story, those weren't just clones created from a magical or scientific source. ''Those were all real, but alternate, versions of Steven''.
* What happened to the alternate universes from where the other Stevens came? Either they're all now missing a Steven or they collapsed when the time orb was destroyed. If it's the former, then Steven's friends and family will never know where he disappeared to, with the Gems and Greg most likely entering a HeroicBSOD due to the loss of their protege/son. If it's the latter, then it's entirely possible the other universes disintegrated in the same way the Stevens did, meaning ''everyone in them melted to death without knowing why it was happening''.
* Why were the Crystal Gems so concerned about the temple flooding? Why were they unable to go back for a hundred years? Aside from Steven, none of them needed to breathe; they could have just sent him back and continued searching the flooded temple.

[[AC:Monster Buddies]]
* When Steven lets the Centipeetle out of its bubble, it takes a human shape before turning into the Centipeetle. Is the show implying that the Centipeetle (and by extension, possibly other monsters) used to be human or a Gem?
** Confirmed in "Mirror Gem". The Centipeetle was most likely a corrupted Crystal Gem.
*** Confirmed again in "Monster Reunion", but she was a Homeworld Gem, not a Crystal Gem

[[AC:Ocean Gem]]
* Did anyone else consider the fight in pretty terrifying when you realize it was about our heroes trying to essentially put a FateWorseThanDeath onto a youngish Gem who just wanted to go home? Sure, she was using the entire ocean to fight back, but she was using it for self defense...
** Considering how they reacted to her escaping, the real question is what they're so scared of that they will never let these gems leave the planet?
** Remember though, Gem ages "are an illusion". It's doubtful physical appearance would've factored into fighting.
** ''The entire ocean went missing''. The folks at Beach City just treat it like it'll be a major problem for tourism, but the largest source of the planet's water has just disappeared!
* The revelation that Gem monsters used to be Gems themselves is horrifying enough, but it adds a heaping of horror to "Coach Steven". Pearl seemed concerned that Sugilite would never be pried apart. Could she also have been witnessing her two oldest, best, and only friends in the world on the brink of turning into a monster too? ''Has she seen this happen before''?
** Considering her forlorn tone of voice when explaining the truth to Steven in "Ocean Gem", it seems quite likely that she has.
* Really, everything about Lapis' predicament could be termed fridge horror. She was trapped in a mirror for an unspecified (but probably lengthy) period of time, fully aware of everything around her but unable to do anything but follow orders. Of course she would freak out at the prospect of being captured again!
* The Gem monsters were all members of the Gem race once. Now mentally replace them with disturbed, traumatized people who may not be able to comprehend what's going on or what's happened to them...if they're ''lucky''.
* Lapis Lazuli's eyes are mirror like and she in general seems far more unstable than she does when she's healed. Why? The fact Gems can be corrupted is revealed by the Gems in response to the reveal of Lapis. What if Lapis was in the ''process'' of being corrupted into a monster during the episode, if not because of the damage to her Gem then perhaps her despair. This would also explain why the Gems instantly attack her: it's possible that they view her as already being too far gone to be saved and see it as a MercyKill. In addition, imagine what might have happened if Lapis ''had'' become a feral monster with her sheer power.
* The ocean withdrew into a pillar, then suddenly was released. The fate of any people on boats/ships might be pretty horrifying. The physics, as far as this troper understands it, would also mean Beach City would be washed away by a tsunami, which did not happen due to either artistic license or Lapis exerting a degree of control over the release, just enough not to hurt Steven's home (that's the argument he used, after all). Either way it would not be enough for people on ships.
* The Crystal Gems never actually beat Lapis. She just left and returned Earth's water. Now remember that the unstable Malachite fusion has her water powers is right off the coast of Beach City.
* Remember how Amethyst's crack slowly spread in "An Indirect Kiss", even when her gem had stopped taking damage, and it was implied she was close to death? It's quite possible that, if Steven hadn't healed her, Lapis would have ''died''.
* Seeing how Lapis' gem was damaged and yet she was able to draw all the water from earth's oceans and have pretty darn good control over it, not only does one have to wonder what power she actually wields at full health, but also if the gem's caste system is based not just on rarity but also on [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking their natural-born power, just how strong are the Diamonds if gems like Lapis are lower on the ladder?]]
* How many other Lapis gems exist? What if some of them have malicious intent?
* Near the start of the episode, Pearl asks how she was supposed to know that the gem inside that mirror was so powerful. This essentially confirms Lapis' accusation from the previous episode - the Crystal Gems knew there was a gem trapped in the mirror and did nothing, without even wondering who she was or who she used to be.

[[AC:Fusion Cuisine]]
* Garnet's concern for Steven's safety when the Gems are scolding him for trying to run away with Connie is that he [[AdultFear could have gotten mangled in traffic]], which feels a little out there compared to what Amethyst and Pearl suggested. Given everything we know about Garnet after "Future Vision" however, it's very possible that this would have been the ''most'' likely outcome had Alexandrite not intervened.

[[AC:Future Vision]]
* Since Garnet can see all possible futures at any given moment, that means she sees tons of outcomes where Steven dies ''all the time'' (and futures where she fails and the Gems get hurt or ''worse''). She all but spells this out herself at the end of "Future Vision".
-->''Steven, [[AdultFear I see so many things that can hurt you.]]''

[[AC:Warp Tour]]
* Peridot, the Gem that manages the repair orbs, is distinctly inorganic. As opposed to the other Gems, who at least show organic qualities, Peridot shows NONE. She also shows disturbingly little concern for the damaged robot as she destroys it. The other Gems, Garnet and Pearl in particular, show [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness disturbing amounts of fear and uncertainty as Garnet REDESTROYS the Homeworld Portal. Just what were the offworld Gems LIKE?!]]
** Given how Peridot's feature is an obvious homage to the Mega Man Franchise (and a lot of it is in the X iteration, whom Peridot shares a lot of similarities to design wise) it serves to make Peridot creepy and unsettling to the fans of the franchise. Especially when you take in the Crystal Gems acted like the resistance would to someone from Neo-Aracadia showing up.
** It's more than a lack of concern. [[YouHaveFailedMe She seems to be disgusted by the fact that it was damaged. Contempt for an injured servant is one hell of an EstablishingCharacterMoment!]]
** Following what was shown in the Steven Bomb 4, Peridot crushing a robonoid makes perfect sense. This is the only way she knows how to deal with failure. This is how upper class Gems treat the lower class ones for their failure. For Peridot the price for failure is death, she has never known any other reality. This is also why she was so angry and hateful of the Crystal Gems. They were not just endangering her mission, they were endangering her life and well-being.

[[AC:Space Race]]
* Pearl described the planets the warp pads lead to as "Gem-Controlled." Not "Gem Inhabited" or even "Gem Colonized" but "Controlled." That's a very specific and ominous choice of words, both for Pearl and the writer.
** Compounded with the fact that in any and all of these worlds, there is a complete lack of any life outside of the odd gem. This does not bode well.
* Think about the ''major'' repercussions Pearl's relationships with Garnet, Amethyst, and Greg could've been had Steven been seriously injured or died.

[[AC:On The Run]]
* The abandoned machines in the "Kindergarten" are very visually reminiscent of a T4-Bacteriophage virus. How do they work? They inject their DNA into bacterial cells, hijack the cell's replication machinery to clone more viruses until the cell is bled dry, and then the new viruses burst out of the cell thereby destroying it. Even if the Gem machines don't work that way, it is heavily implied that their purpose is to ''manufacture new Gems using Earth's own mineral composition'', draining it in the process, making the visual analogy very appropriate.
** Confirmed by the short "How are Gems made?", where Amethyst explains Gems are made by putting a Gem deep underground, where the developing Gem consumes useful material from the rocks and soil around it, the same way as a bacteriophage virus works, or if you want to be more benign, the way a growing chick consumes the egg white while growing.
* If a facility like the Kindergarten is capable of churning out hundreds - if not thousands - of Gems based on all those holes, and each one is intended to be as strong as Amethyst, then how formidable would an army of Gems be if a whole planet was mined for raw materials instead of just one canyon?
** One alternate interpretation is just as awful: there are so many holes to make up for a very high failure rate, resulting in corruption or stillbirth.
** There's also the rather worrying thought that Amethyst was left behind because she was ''weaker'' than she was supposed to be. What if they're closer in strength to Lapis Lazuli, whose was an outright PersonOfMassDestruction? How much damage could even ''one'' of those gems do?
*** "Amethyst was left behind because she was weak" has been {{Jossed}} by the guide book; she was found long after the war ended, and likely emerged way after the Kindergarten was abandoned. All that time alone carries its own fridge horror, though; Being a rock herself, she simply interacted with all of the mundane rocks around her like they were people.
** Jasper's comments against Pearl and Amethyst implied that 1.) Their gemstones are not unique and there could be other Pearls and other gems out there and 2.) Amethyst is overdeveloped ("overcooked"). This implies that the Kindergarten were possibly turning out clones of existing gems that are less developed than the sentient ones, possibly so that they will be easier to control and to be used as war machines.
* TheReveal of Amethyst's creation provides a little bit more: it's more or less confirmed at some point, the Crystal Gems turned on their fellows and protected the Earth...so what about all those Gem Monsters? Are they the Gems the Homeworld Gems made using the Kindergarten? The evil Gems the Crystal Gems were fighting against? Other Gems that sided ''with'' them to stop their fellows but ultimately fell? Some combination? All the combinations are equally horrifying when you think about it.
** Greg ''did'' say that Rose could only "save a handful of her closest friends"...
* At the end of "On the Run", it's left ambiguous whether or not the sound we hear is simply the music or one of the machines starting up again...
** If gets worse when you remember that Peridot was on her way to the Kindergarten before Steven's stickers spooked her. There's a nasty implication that the other Gems' are coming back to Earth to finish what they started. And it can't be good.
** Pearl says '''''a''''' Kindergarten when she warps to Steven and Amethyst. That's right, '''there are more of these places'''. And if the one we see produced hundreds, if not ''thousands'' of Gems, how many did they ''all'' produce? Millions? How many '''''are''''' there!?.
*** Another thing, [[NothingIsScarier where are they?]]
*** Thankfully, "It Could've Been Great" softens this a bit: Peridot mentions that only two Kindergartens were actually built on Earth.
* We know Amethyst is 6,000 years old, since the Kindergarten was shut down around then. If she wasn't around at the time of the battle 5,000 years ago, this means she spent at ''least'' 1,000 years there, ''alone''!
** Alternately Amethyst may have been incomplete when the Kindergarten was shut down, but managed to grow on her own in those 1,000 years and eventually come out long after the facility was shut down and all the other Gems created there had left and died/been corrupted. At least that was the implication that I read into Amethyst being "overcooked runt" according to Jasper. It would also explain how Amethyst managed to avoid the fate of all the other Gems on Earth save for Rose and friends.
** If Amethyst wasn't at the battle, then Rose saved herself, Pearl, and Garnet. That's... kind of horrifying.

[[AC:Winter Forecast]]
* Garnet bestows her future vision powers on Steven. He is freaked out after just one instance of experiencing the possibilities and knowing the results of making the wrong choice. Garnet has to live with this ''all the time'', plus the burden of knowing what the consequences are of the wrong choice for everything they do and every mission they undertake.

[[AC:Maximum Capacity]]
* "The fight between Greg and Amethyst doesn't reach its peak until Amethyst shapeshifts into Rose, and it's implied she has does it before. What if Greg asked her to look like Rose in order to cop up with the lost of his wife, but realized that it was unhealthy and not fair to the young gem? Amethyst probably went with it because she tried to fill the void left by Rose with Greg, but still felt resentment at him.
** Greg also says that when watching Lil' Butler with Amethyst everything disappears for him, including Steven. He probably knew that the sorrow over Rose will make him relapse eventually so he give baby Steven to the Gems.
** Jossed by the extended opening.
** With Greg and Amethyst's fight, she turns into Rose to taunt Greg. What if the comment "Don't worry, Greg, I've seen your junk before" was not as innocent as previously thought?
** This was pointed out to me by a guy's Youtube comment, but remember how Rose said she would be a part of Steven in that tape she made for him? Steven's reaction becomes a lot more (read: EXTREMELY) deep if you think that, deep down, Rose saw and heard EVERYTHING, and the possibility that his reaction was actually Rose's.
** It seems highly unlikely, given his personality and the way he reacts to Amethyst doing it, that Greg would ever have asked Amethyst to change into Rose to comfort him, emotionally or physically. On the other hand, at the time it was perfectly in-character for ''Amethyst'' to lash out in a rage by doing something massively inappropriate or cruel against another person's wishes to express her frustration (something she seems to be [[CharacterDevelopment maturing out of during the latest season). It seems like less a question of Greg voluntarily being inappropriate with Amethyst in Rose's form, and more that Amethyst did...''something'' while shapeshifted into Rose that put Greg off so badly it ruined their friendship.]]

[[AC:Marble Madness]]
* This line from Peridot: "The Red Eye didn't detect any Gems on ''this'' Planet." It implies that the Earth isn't the only object of conquest for the Homeworld Gems. And how many other species have been killed and their planets defiled by Kindergartens all for the sake of making more Gems? And just ''why'' are the Gems obsessed with making more of their kind, given that they are TheAgeless, and don't need to replenish their population as rapidly as humans?
** In a blend of AntiVillain and DeliberateValuesDissonance, that might be the only way they know HOW to reproduce. For the survival of a species, reproduction is an absolute must.

[[AC:Rose's Scabbard]]
* Garnet lifts an ax that is ''Sugilite sized''. Just how ''big'' were some of these Gems!?
** On a related note, every weapon once belonged to a Gem that died in the battle 5,000 years ago. That means that not only did a ''lot'' of Gems die here, but the Gems are essentially ''graverobbing''.
* In the middle of Pearl fangirling about how awesome a leader and fighter Rose was, Garnet drops a pretty heavy line about how WarIsHell... which Pearl is completely unfazed by and continues describing this horrible battle like it was a particularly exciting sporting event featuring her celebrity idol. Either Pearl had a really easy role in the rebellion that kept her far from the front, or she straight up enjoyed a battle horrible enough to disturb GARNET.
** Although there's also the possibility that Pearl was just interrupting Garnet to protect Steven from learning the grisly details of Gem history, as she's done numerous times.
* Look at Pearl's angry expression when she looks back at Steven just before he falls. Does some part of her hate him for taking Rose away from her?
** It's been theorized that should Steven die, Rose would reform from her gem since it would no longer be bound to her human child. Is this why Pearl does ''nothing'' to stop Steven's fall when he tries to leap to her platform, a misguided hope that his death would bring Rose back to her?

[[AC:The Message]]
* Lapis' message was a big turning point for that episode, but considering how far Homeworld Gem tech has advanced since she was last there (to the point that their communications technology is damn near incompatible with what the Crystal Gems have), how long do you think it's gonna take for whatever police/military force Homeworld has to realize that they have essentially a mole leaking out troop movements to enemy combatants? And what do you think they're gonna ''do'' to her when they catch her? Suddenly her fear of Homeworld seems WAY more justified.

[[AC:The Return]]
* The fact that Peridot's ship is in the shape of a hand and it fitting with her recurring GiantHandsOfDoom motif has been well documented, but the one time we get to see it from the wrist end, it has a large rectangular slot on the back not unlike an N64 cartridge slot. This begs the question; does this ship have something that fits into it, or does it fit onto ''something else''?
** On that note, who knows, maybe Steven's joke about fighting a giant foot could come true someday.
** Similarly, Pearl and the others were instantly able to tell it was a ship, not some sort of hand-shaped monster (which, given everything else they've faced, wouldn't be completely out of the question). This means that they've seen one before, and possibly more, so if it does attach to something, ''it's not unique''. There could be an army of whatever attaches to it.
** Adding additional credence to this theory, the first object Peridot sent to Earth? The Red Eye ... that's right, a ''giant eyeball'', and now her ship is a ''giant hand''. Perhaps both were part of the same super-structure that will make an appearance in a future episode (perhaps piloted by Yellow Diamond, even).
** The Crystal Gems temple is in the shape of a giant multi limbed woman missing several hands. Rather than being a ruined building could it be a derelict space ship?
** Maybe not as it looks like, and is speculated to be, a statue of a fusion. maybe garnet, amethyst, pearl and rose quartz
* This troper wondered why Peridot was asking Steven if everything was a weapon in "catch and release" and why she flinched when he said the towel could be a weapon. I was re-watching "the return" and was watching peridot at every part because she's my favourite character and i noticed that when jasper took out the destabilizer peridot was looking at it like she was afraid of it. You can only wonder but the implications are worrying. "who hurt this muffin?" indeed.

[[AC:Jail Break]]
* While Lapis may have control of the Malachite Fusion for now, there's no way of telling if she'll be able to maintain it, or for how long (since Gems don't need to breathe, eat, or sleep, they could be down there conceivably forever.) And she and Jasper are ''right off the coast of Beach City''. If Jasper ever manages to wrench control away from Lapis, or manages to defuse themselves, there will be hell to pay for the Crystal Gems.
** Or worse, how long until they fuse into something that's no longer either personality, like Sugilite could have? Or if the toll of her situation and Jasper's mental influence drives Lapis to break? Imagine how devastatingly powerful a fused Gem monster of Malachite's caliber would be.
** Even worse, what kind of toll will it end up taking on Jasper? She wasn't particularly stable to begin with, and with this, it's entirely possible she could snap too. And it should be considered that Lapis' influence on Jasper might not be very positive either, given her apparent despair at the time. If Jasper was bad before, what kind of monster could this turn her into?
** It's increasingly looking like Lapis' sacrifice might have much worse long-term repercussions, than just letting the Crystal Gems fight it out with Jasper. With Fusion there seem to be two main factors between those fusing: Personalities and a sort of emotional resonance. As long as those fused are, more or less, in-sync, the fusion is stable. And while the fusion is going on, the primary personality traits of those involved mesh. Here we have Jasper, a brutal, unstable thug, that has recently faced a humiliating defeat, who has now been imprisoned at the bottom of the ocean. On the other, there's Lapis Lazuli. A traumatized gem, that still hasn't had any of her emotional issues resolved, and who has good reason to resent a great many people. For all that Jasper may been trying to manipulate her, Lapis might have a lot of underlying anger left inside her. So we have the raging Jasper, who might well give into her own despair the longer she's imprisoned at the bottom of the ocean. And Lapis, who has no hope of returning to a home she is familiar with, and could potentially be driven towards a desire towards revenge. That shared anger and despair, could actually bring the fusion more tightly together, as their emotional states deteriorate, stabilizing the fusion. And with the level of power that Malachite is implied to possess, we could be looking at an Omnicidal Maniac. And both Lapis and Jasper have a fixation on Steven; Steven being one of the only individuals Lapis cares about and Jasper having transferred her interest in Rose Quartz onto him. So, an Omnicidal Maniac, that's potentially Yandere for the young protagonist.
** Worse, how do you think Lapis is managing to maintain the fusion at all? Fusions typically require their constituent Gems to be in sync with one another. Obviously Jasper doesn't want to be jailed at the bottom of the ocean...but would Lapis want to either, even if she's the jailor? Suddenly the two have something that very much unifies them, something that Lapis could exploit to hold it together [[PityTheKidnapper at her own expense...]]
* Uh, guys? Where's Peridot?
** If her escape pod's trajectory is any indication, she may have landed somewhere in the Northern US (around the Great Lakes States), or possibly Canada. As far as we know, there is nowhere else on Earth that is aware that the Crystal Gems or Gems ''period'' are even a thing outside of Beach City, so some poor sods are gonna be in for a surprise if she landed in a populated area.
*** Given Peridot's nature, I'd gamble on the fact that she's more likely to try and rendezvous with Jasper or try and work out a way back home. Not to say that she wouldn't cause any trouble along the way, but I think it's unlikely to be out and out mayhem.
*** Peridot does seem rather goal-oriented. While cold and ruthless, at no point has she been shown to take any real joy or pleasure with what she's doing. To her, it's a job she was sent there to do, that she has been prevented from completing at every turn. She isn't concerned with whether her actions are good or evil, only that she completes her mission. She seems fairly pragmatic, and if she can't otherwise find a way to complete her mission, she'll probably avoid getting too much attention or, as the above post suggested, focus on finding Jasper or contacting Homeworld.
*** Though, on further thought, she might act to personally target the Crystal Gems. From her perspective, they've interfered with her work, destroyed her property, forced her into a situation she didn't want to be in, tied her up, destroyed her ship, and caused her to be stranded on an alien planet. While she might not have any personal enmity towards humanity, she might be moved to try to ''hurt'' the Crystal Gems for all of that.
*** The reveal in "Joy Ride" that she landed within ''driving distance'' of Beach City would lend credence to this line of thinking, particularly if she were able to control the pods trajectory in flight like Steven was able to on the ground. The thing can still fly even after [[MadeOfIndestructium taking the brunt of re-entry and slamming into a corn field with little more than a dent, so who's to say it couldn't alter its course in flight?]]
*** That does raise the question: Why did she abandon the pod? It seemed to be fairly powerful, for an escape pod, and it would seem like she would need every tool at her disposal now. Just how badly damaged was it, that she didn't put it to use? Did she think it was too dangerous to use? If so, how much worse could things have gone with Steven in that thing?
* Jasper forced Lapis to fuse with her, which backfired on her ''big time''...but remember that Jasper was looking for ''anyone'' to fuse with, not specifically Lapis. What if Peridot, who wouldn't have turned things against her, had been there to fuse with?
** Given that Peridot didn't seem to be much a warrior, and seemed rather intimidated by Jasper herself, she might not have been anymore enthused at the prospect, than Lapis Lazuli. Of course, that can lead to a darker prospect for Peridot, as Jasper didn't seem like she was in a mood to be refused. It only seemed to be the fact that it would give Lapis the chance to turn the tables, that seemed to convince her. Considering how ''coercive'' that whole scene seemed, it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine that Jasper would have gone further to force anyone into the fusion.
** Peridot's obviously not great at the kind of fighting Jasper excels at, and her greatest strength is manipulating gem technology to take down her enemies from a safe position. Which means that a fusion between them would actually be really intimidating...''if'' they worked together as equals. But Jasper would probably insist on doing things ''her'' way instead of relying on Peridot's expertise and the fusion would ultimately be beaten as a result of that decision.
* If Garnet hadn't bothered showing off and instead shocked Jasper, they could have rescued Lapis with no problem. Instead, by chucking Jasper into the power core, the crashes into the ground, and Steven inadvertently breaks his promise to Lapis, who got to go down with the ship.
** Which brings up still more fridge horror; despite Lapis' attempting to help Steven, the Crystal Gems still likely consider Lapis to be an enemy, or at least a dangerous wild card, and the feeling is obviously mutual. Between the war against Homeworld on behalf of Earth (a conflict where Lapis was ''very clearly'' not on their side, whatever her role was) and their eons of fighting corrupted Gems, the Crystal Gems have formed a solid unit among themselves, but the idea of extending the hand of friendship to a strange Gem who isn't a known ally, as Steven is constantly trying to do, is likely total anathema to them. They're warriors who've alienated themselves from their own kind, and we now know firsthand how ruthless Homeworld is about quashing disobedience; by this point, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl's instinct is fight-or-flight, with no time or energy wasted to try and get to know their enemies and turn them to their cause. Garnet didn't let Steven go back for Lapis, not because she was messing around, but because as an un-allied Gem, ''Lapis was never Garnet's priority''. Her objective would be entirely centered on ensuring her family--Steven, Amethyst, and Pearl--survived the crash. They're her loved ones and the only people she has ''left''. Which leaves Lapis betrayed and captured one more time...and then Jasper inadvertently offers her [[SealedEvilInADuel an option that will let Lapis punish Jasper, terrify the Crystal Gems, and protect Steven]] all at once. All she has to do is, once again, give up her freedom, [[LossOfIdentity her sense of self, and even her name...]]
* Lapis could have been saved if only Steven went looking for her instead of watching Garnet through the monitor. In a tragic twist, his concern over one Gem doomed another.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Season 2]]
[[AC:Full Disclosure]]
* While it ultimately got resolved by the end of the episode, Steven did bring up a very good point; Connie and others he cares about can and ''have'' gotten hurt because of him. Connie nearly drowned when he was fighting Lapis in "Ocean Gem", and his dad broke his leg when Lapis' clone of Steven tossed his van with him in it. How long is it going to take, and how many more people are going to get hurt (or possibly killed) solely because they know him or have gotten involved with Gem stuff, before he finally resolves to break everything off with the people he loves [[BreakHerHeartToSaveHer so they can have normal, not dangerous lives?]] Especially now that the Homeworld Gems are gonna be coming for his blood after the events of "The Return[=/=]"Jailbreak".
* Amethyst randomly turning into a crocodile with jazz hands is almost on every level a literal BigLippedAlligatorMoment.

[[AC:Say Uncle]]
* Even though it is non-canon, when Uncle Grandpa knocks on Stevens gem ''SOMETHING KNOCKS BACK!'' This means that, taking the info from "Lion 3", Rose Quartz is "half of [Steven]". The knocking may possibly mean ''Rose is still alive inside Steven''.
** Not necessarily. This becomes less horrific if you assume the knocking from within the gem was just an echo.
** Additionally, Rose seemed pretty okay with the fact that she'd still be alive in Steven and even said that the moments when he loves being himself represent her maternal love for him.

[[AC:Reformed]]
* The Slinker managed to get into Amethyst's room. How often do monsters invade the temple? How safe are any of the gems in their rooms?

[[AC:Sworn to the Sword]]
* Pearl's suicidal protectiveness towards Rose was already hard to watch, but then you remember Rose's powers include an invulnerable bubble and a protective shield. Pearl has probably taken a lot of bullets she didn't need to over the years.
** Pearl training Connie to be willing to sacrifice her own life may bring to mind comparisons to child soldiers in the Middle East.
** I just realized something horrifying regarding Pearl's situation with Connie. From what we've seen, Pearl is very devoted to Rose to the point where she basically worships the ground she walks on (and may have a crush on her possibly). So when Rose died to give birth to Steven, Pearl took it '''''VERY''''' hard. Her sometimes overprotective behavior towards Steven as evidenced by the flashback and her emotional outburst in ''Sworn To The Sword'' is because Steven is Rose's child/reincarnation. What if Pearl was secretly jealous of Connie's friendship with Steven? What if her physical and psychological training Connie to become a sacrifice for Steven was really an indirect attempt of [[MurderTheHypotenuse getting rid of an unwanted rival for Steven's (platonic) affections]], given how close Connie and Steven are? What if Steven's WhatTheHellHero speech with Pearl at the end was really Rose calling Pearl out for manipulating an innocent human (especially one that her son/reincarnation deeply treasures) into becoming something akin to an expendable weapon in a war where the enemy is a lot tougher and powerful that even the Crystal Gems had a hard time fighting?
*** Alternatively she saw herself in Connie and wanted her to be to Steven what she was to Rose.
* Think about what would happen if Connie continued this way of thinking in an actual battle? Not only would she either be injured or died, but the Maheswarans would rightly blame Pearl for this. Pearl would've been indirectly responsible for sending a little girl to her death...

[[AC:Keeping it Together]]
* The shape the fused-shard gem took as Garnet was bubbling it in ''Keeping It Together'' is exactly the same as Centipeetle's gem, suggesting that Peridot has been on Earth conducting these experiments all through the series and the monsters the Gems have been fighting are the results.
** That doesn't really make any sense considering she only arrived thanks to the Homeworld warp being repaired by her robonoids and only returned in the giant hand ship. It's implied the formerly fought gem monsters are corrupted gems, think cracked like Amethyst and Lapis but more severely. Peridot's goal more or less was to check on the forced fusion experiments with the shattered gem shards and she only managed to do this post Jail Break.
*** Though, she did mention that some had "emerged early"; maybe Centipeetle was an escapee?
** It's been confirmed by WordOfGod that that was an animation error.
* Other than her being a dirty coward nothing really stops Peridot from seeking out and destroying gem monsters for more fodder for the force fusion experiments seen in Keeping It Together.
* Peridot said that the Fusion Experiments were developing properly. The fact that that was apparently what they wanted is horrifying, and illustrates just how different the Homeworld Gems have become from the Crystal Gems.
* It's revealed that Homeworld used the remains of the fallen Crystal Gems in forced-fusion based experiments, to punish those that rebelled. Does Homeworld use the threat of using its own in horrifying fusion experiments or similarly horrible punishments, as a means of maintaining control through fear? It would go a ways to explaining why Peridot is so determined to follow through on her mission, if she thinks something like that is what will greet her if she fails.
** It would also explain why Lapis was so meek and ineffective in ''Jailbreak''. This was a Gem that triumphed in a 3-on-1 fight minutes after being freed from millennia of imprisonment, while her gem was cracked. Yet in ''Jailbreak'', she cowers in her cell even when Steven offers her a way out, urging him to surrender so that Homeworld will ''go easy'' on them. That seems cowardly...but if Lapis knew about, or had been threatened with the prospect of, being shattered and used as experiment fodder, completely helpless, at the mercy of her tormentors and with [[AndIMustScream no escape or relief from a living hell]]...no wonder she was terrified.
*** This is again implied in ''Catch and Release'', where Peridot cowers in fear while saying "You're going to ''harvest'' me?"
* At this point, every single Gem has shown that they each have some sort of serious emotional issue; Amethyst is insecure about her origins and her identity, Pearl has self-esteem issues and seems to be suffering from mild depression and Garnet fears that she will be unable to save her friends, despite her future vision.
** Let's not forget Lapis, who was not only trapped in a mirror for who knows how long with a cracked gem, but even when she was free she found out her home planet had completely changed and eventually she sacrificed her freedom to imprison Jasper at the bottom of the ocean as the fusion Malachite - and to make things worse, she ominously embraces her fate as Malachite in Chille Tid. How has she managed to have so much willpower throughout all of this?
* Shattering a gem would split it into multiple pieces...so what happens to the consciousness of a Gem whose fragments have been used in multiple experiments?
* Garnet mutters to herself "so ''this'' is what they think of fusion" during her freakout. This might mean that Jasper's contempt isn't unique, but more like a generally accepted, bigoted opinion on Homeworld, which was possibly already widespread back when the Crystal Gems still lived there/under their command. This would give Garnet more than enough reason to fight with Rose: Rose, being the loving and wonderful person she is, accepted her as Garnet, while Homeworld wanted to keep her as Ruby and Sapphire. Remember, Garnet explained fusion as being like when you are more yourself when together with someone else, than when you are alone.
* While the Cluster Gems themselves are horrifying, it's not hard to think how this would've been Garnet, Pearl, and Rose's fates if they were shattered during the war.
* As of "Monster Reunion", we now know that some sort of homeworld WMD type device was used to corrupt nearly every Gem on Earth. There is no indication that shards and mutants were immune to this. Now watch this episode again, and note that the main mutant tries to take on a more humanoid form before settling into a more monstrous form, just like Centipeetle did back in Monster Buddies...
* Fusion being taken as the Gems' expression of both physical and emotional intimacy makes the shard monsters even worse. These are gems who were brutally dismembered, all that's left are partial limbs. Homeworld basically chopped up a bunch of Crystal Gems and then [[RapeByProxy forced the pieces to violate each other.]]

[[AC:We Need To Talk]]
* Like all the Gems so far, [[OneSceneWonder Rainbow Quartz]] was a spiffy-looking character we want to know more about, right? Well, unless Rose comes back somehow [[PosthumousCharacter she's only appearing in flashbacks]].
** There is the potential that Rainbow Quartz could reform by a fusion of Pearl and Steven, but they would be a very different character, and not just in terms of design. Garnet describes fusion as 'a conversation' - Pearl's 'conversation' with Steven would almost certainly be wildly different to one with Rose Quartz, given their significantly different relationships (mother/son figure rather than knight/liege). So even if they ''could'' form Rainbow Quartz, it wouldn't be the ''same'' Rainbow Quartz, just another fusion of that mineral.
* Rose's response to Greg not knowing anything about her past? "That's a good thing." Just what has Rose done that she has this view to the point that she sees it as better someone close to her knows nothing about her past actions?

[[AC:Chille Tid]]
* Steven discovers that Lapis and Jasper are still fused at the bottom of the ocean and Lapis is keeping her there by force. After the episode "Keeping It Together," Jasper's fate becomes a lot more horrifying.
* This episode shows us that Gems are capable of projecting themselves into other Gems' minds. What if, with no other way to communicate, the fusion monster was trying to do that to Garnet? Its mental landscape would ''not'' have been pretty, probably causing the trauma that nearly caused Ruby and Sapphire to split. Even worse, the Gems used to create it might have been begging her for help in separating themselves, because she's been a fusion for so long...but she doesn't know how.

[[AC:Cry for Help]]
* Listen to the message at the beginning and try to look at it from Peridot's POV. To sum it up: She is stranded on an foreign planet with hostile enemies that not only outnumber you, but with each of them being able to overpower you by a mile. Your support that might have been able to defend you has disappeared without you knowing where to and why and all attempts to leave or contact home don't work. Does anyone really blame her for losing her mind with every episode that she appears in, considering she has to deal with a terrifying scenario like this?

[[AC:Friend Ship]]
* Garnet brings up the disturbing possibility that Pearl could have eventually latched onto Steven to cope with her emotional problems. Mix in her maternal role in his life and her blatantly unhealthy methods of trying to cope with her issues and you get a ''very'' devastating bullet to dodge.

[[AC:Nightmare Hospital]]
* This episode proves that more fusion monsters are on the loose, and that they're wandering into populated areas.
* The fusion monsters seem to have been docile until Steven showed up. Did his presence cause some kind of reaction?
** A video of the mutants talking very slowly showed that they seem to cry "Rose Quartz, Rose Quartz, help". They believe Steven is his mother and beg for her to help them. The mutants are literally fallen Crystal Gems that have been forced together, proving that the mutants from "Keeping It Together" were not ''any'' gems, but that Garnet was actually being forced to witness ''her friends being sewn together in the most horrific way''.
*** If the mutants manage to not only recognize a old friend, but actually cry for help, then they must be sentient. they haven't actually attacked anyone, they only approached the gems so far without any obvious bad intention. In contrast to the Gem Monsters who are insane and attack the Gems, the mutants are trying to get to their old friends, begging for them to help them make whatever they believe is happening with them to stop. And if the wheezing is any indication, then they must be in horrible pain.
* These shard fusions seemed more complete than the first ones. While they were just random bundles of limbs who didn't really do anything but flail around and scream, these ones were more of a humanoid form, and seemed to deliberately seek out Steven. What if, whatever horrid process used to create these things is being perfected?
* If Connie and Steven hadn't been there to protect her, would Priyanka be dead now?
** Seeing that they had been perfectly docile and harmless until a gem got close, it might be possible that nothing would have happened without one of the gems getting to the hospital or the mutants escaping.

[[AC:Catch and Release]]
* WordOfGod says that Lapis was interrogated while Steven was unconscious in "Jail Break", which is how Peridot knows about Steven's healing spit. What exactly ''happened'' during that interrogation? Is that why Lapis was so broken when Steven found her?
** Which adds the FridgeBrilliance of why the gems were in cells, rather than bubbles; so they could be interrogated.
* When Peridot is let out of the bubble, she sees all the others and assumes they're going to "harvest" her. What is harvesting, and why would she fear it so much?
** Apparently Homeworld is low on resources and making undersized gems to conserve them. Reclaiming HumanResources?
* Is Homeworld society really militarized enough that Peridot's knee-jerk reaction to something unfamiliar (like a toothbrush) is to assume it's some kind of weapon?
** More likely she was looking for a tool she could use to help her escape; taking it that way removes the innocence of the conversation.
** As mentioned below, her reaction to Steven ''implying'' that the towel could be used as a weapon when near her prompts a fearful reaction and a cringe, which indicates that Peridot has been attacked before.
*** Or she was just cringing because Steven had prepared the towel in a way he stated was usable as a weapon, and Peridot is physically weaker than he is.
* Given Peridots's fearful reaction to the towel, [[http://olgipolgi.tumblr.com/post/129868199229/glassraptor-who-hurt-this-muffin as well as her fearful look at Jasper's Gem Disrupter in ]] "Jail Break", and it seems that Peridot may have had a DarkAndTroubledPast of some kind back on Homeworld.
* [[http://toxicspeka.tumblr.com/post/129964409876/i-believe-peridot-was-abused-by-someone-most This post]] presents the idea that Peridot had been regularly abused back on Homeworld.
* If what Peridot is hinting at is true, and the Cluster is some kind of DoomsdayDevice left behind by Homeworld, that means that they've had this plan since before their defeat, and [[BestServedCold are willing to wait thousands of years]] [[EvilIsPetty to get a final victory over Rose, even if it costs them what they wanted as a prize]].
** And as Message Received revealed, ''this is absolutely true.''

[[AC:When It Rains]]
* Even if the ''millions'' of Gem shards that make up the Cluster were made in the Kindergarten and not taken from fallen Crystal Gems, ''why'' would Homeworld want a fusion monster so large that it's ''bigger than the Earth''? Do they think they can control it and use it as a WeaponOfMassDestruction?
** Assuming that the Cluster's only purpose as a weapon is as a DoomsdayDevice for the Earth, and not something Homeworld wants to use again (which is fridge horror in itself both for the idea of seeing something that large approaching a planet and the idea that Homeworld might have a threat against it that ''warrants'' that kind of force), what is Homeworld going to ''do'' with it afterwards? Are they going to destroy it (or at least ''try'', or will it just wander around space, smashing planets?
* Not that Amethyst's history was pleasant to begin with, it gets even worse when you consider the possibility that she, and gems like her in the Kindergarten, were created just to be harvested for the Cluster.
* The Gem Mutants seem to be [[UnstoppableRage far more aggressive]] in [[MadScientist Peridot's]] presence. Could it be that they recognize her and think she made them [[AndIMustScream the way they are?]]
** Peridot herself explains that she wasn't "lucky" enough to have been there back then. But seeing that Peridots are specialized Kindergarteners, who says that the Mutants didn't mistake her for the ''old one''?
* Where did Homeworld ''get'' all those Gem shards for the Cluster? Hopefully at least ''some'' were created specifically for the Cluster, because otherwise they would have had to use ''thousands'' of Crystal Gem, and maybe even some of their own fallen, to get that many Gem shards.
* This episode hints at a more sound explanation for the Gem Homeworld's FantasticRacism against fusions and Peridot's earlier claim that Garnet was a "filthy war machine": fusions aren't just a subject of morally degenerate Homeworld experimentation, they were the basis for a prototype superweapon that could destroy planets. It's possible the only exposure newer Homeworld gems like Peridot have had with fusions is these experimental monsters, meaning that Homeworld gems may now associate the word "fusion" with the monstrous mutant gem experiments, a thought process which might have caused their looking down on "natural" fusions as well.
* To add to the pile of FridgeHorror The Cluster has become, think about what will happen after it emerges and destroys the earth, keeping in mind this is just from it ''regenerating'', and considering the Shard Fusions behaviors in the past it will probably go after homeworld next, and likely wipe them out considering it's the size of a damn planet, then go around the universe destroying all in its path without mercy for all eternity, considering the fact that gems, even when shattered, are ''immortal''. So effectively, Homeworld created the real equivalent to an ''EldritchAbomination''. All for the sake of petty revenge...
** What if it was made for more than that? What if that's what they ''want'' to happen, except they're laboring under the delusion that they can somehow control it?
*** Worse yet, what if they ''do'' have a way to control it?
* What if the Cluster's implantation and slow development is why the Earth of Steven Universe looks different from ours?
* The "monsters" from "Keeping It Together" are forced fusions of a few gem shards that retain partial consciousness, are constantly screaming and look like horrifying messes of mismatched body parts. Among other things. Imagine everything that was horrifying about them, except in a forced fusion that is composed of ''a million shards'' instead.

[[AC:Back to the Barn]]
* The reveal of Pearls as a made to order ServantRace raises some disturbing implications about Pearl's past. Did Rose rescue her from some abusive "master"?
** On the other hand, Rose's line, "my Pearl", gets a bit darker connotations. In the context of what we learned in this episode, it could be taken as a confirmation of fact, rather than a term of endearment. Rose gave Pearl a choice whether to stay with her, against the customs of Homeworld, but she wasn't necessarily entirely free of its cultural baggage, after all.
*** It gets ''even worse'' when you consider that Pearls are apparently "made-to-order." Could this mean that Rose outright ''commissioned'' Pearl? And if so, one must wonder: how much of Pearl's loyalty to her was preprogrammed?
** Fridge Heartwarming: Turns out Gems refer to their leading Diamonds as 'My Diamond'. Rose was actually treating her like she was the highest form of royalty.
* If Peridot's attitude is the Homeworld norm, no ''wonder'' Pearl was ready to jump ship with Rose. It's looking more and more like Homeworld is a CrapsackWorld (at least for the lower classes).
** Especially if one recalls Jasper's own contempt-filled reaction towards Pearl. Until Pearl began suggesting that she could equal or surpass Peridot in her own field, Peridot seemed little more than bewildered and amused by Pearl. Given her remarks after that, Peridots might even be counted among the same general lower-class that Pearls occupy, which would make Peridot's clinging to that system all the more unsettling. The apparent fear she demonstrated around Jasper and fretful paranoia Peridot first displayed around ''Steven'' suggests that the lower-classes aren't just disrespected by the the powerful castes, they might not even be safe around them. And, despite all that, Peridot is still having trouble accepting an alternative. That is a terrifying amount of control to have over the mind of your citizens, that they don't even think it's possible for someone to move beyond their station, or look for alternatives to a system where you live in fear.
** So, why out of all the gems are Pearls the ServantRace? Maybe it's because pearls are one of the most easily replicated gems on earth. Granted the fakes are made of plastic, but still.
*** Real but artificially grown pearls are still much easier to create than most gemstones. We can also have a lot better control of the colour and texture of pearls created this way by breeding clams a certain way and blasting them with specific minerals, which fits in well with the "made-to-order" aspect of Pearls in-universe.
* Slavery has been a part of practically every culture since the dawn of human civilization. Now that we know Pearl's origins, and Rose's attitudes toward said origins are pretty obvious in turn, one really has to wonder how the two of them felt about that whole thing...
** Steven's world has been confirmed to be an alternate Earth with differences from our Earth even before the gems intervened. Slavery may not have existed in such a large scale in this version of Earth.
* Peridot's comment about being a "certified Kindergartener". Does that mean that Homeworld has ''more'' Kindergartens set up around the galaxy?
* ''Where'' exactly did those cars Pearl and Peridot ''chucked over the horizon'' end up ''landing'', exactly?
* Peridot's snide, contemptuous attitude towards Pearl even extends to touching Pearl without her permission (remember, a Gem's clothing is as much a part of their physical projection, that is to say their ''body'', as their hands and legs are), commenting on her appearance as if she weren't a person while ignoring Pearl's obvious discomfort, and claiming ownership over her without her consent. [[BloodKnight We've met another Homeworld Gem]] [[KnightOfCerebus who had a similarly cavalier attitude towards the physical autonomy of a "lesser" Gem]], at least until that Gem [[TheDogBitesBack turned the tables on her.]] Turns out Jasper isn't an exception among Homeworld Gems, she's the ''norm''. Even a [[SquishyWizard weak tech-type Gem like Peridot]] will immediately take the opportunity to lord her superiority over Pearl (who is basically made to be a decorative slave/handbag for upper-class Gems), at least until Pearl confronts and challenges her. Given the clear [[StealthPun stratification]] in Homeworld Gem society, imagine for a moment just what kind of horrifying, miserable lives Gems like Pearl and Lapis Lazuli must lead on Homeworld...

[[AC:Too Far]]
* Peridot's comment about how the newer model of Injector looks better pretty much confirms that Homeworld hasn't stopped making new Gems on other worlds.
* The confirmation that Quartz-type Gems are made to be powerful warriors, combined with the fact that the Kindergarten apparently produced Quartz Gems near exclusively and their implied high-rank in Homeworld's FantasticCasteSystem, paints a ''very'' unpleasant picture of Homeworld society. Do they have an enemy of some kind that they ''need'' that many soldiers to fight, using the Kindergarten Gems as cannon fodder, or are all the soldiers necessary to keep the civilian Gem population from rising up in rebellion?
** If 99.99% of the people "born" there are expendable, and the overlooked outlier is one of the very few with a nice quality of life, then the 'system' is defective, not Amethyst.
* The evidence for the theory that Jasper was made in the Kindergarten on Earth is piling up. Just think, if things had been a little bit different, Jasper could have been the "defective" one who was born late and Amethyst could be the one fighting for the destruction of the world she came from.
* Why is Peridot so desperate to gain Amethyst's friendship, and be found funny, and why is she so bad at realizing when she's being rude? Did she have ''any'' friends before coming to Earth?
** Amethyst is a Quartz. Peridot herself mentions that by Homeworld logic, out of all gems, Amethyst has the highest rank (possibly followed by Steven who's half-Quartz). Peridot is going by the logic that she probably had followed all her life: please the gem that is ranked above her in the hope of good treatment. And since Amethyst is easy to please by behaving weird and funny, Peridot most likely enjoys that for once she isn't getting threatened, but actually treated nicely by a gem that is miles above her. Which also explains why she reacts so depressed and confused when Amethyst no longer talks to her. From Peridots perspective, she ruined her relationship with someone that is not only above her, but also at least twenty times as powerful. For all she knows, Amethysts indifference could turn to violence and abuse at any moment, if she does another misstep.
** Worse still, the more she acclimates to Earth and the ways of the Crystal Gems the less she's going to be able to return to Homeworld. It seems Homeworld was already prepared to abandon an otherwise loyal citizen, but now that she has worked with enemies of Homeworld ''and'' embraced ideas outside of what they find acceptable? They might not just prevent her from returning, Homeworld might actively begin targeting Peridot for elimination. And this likely hasn't even occurred to her yet.
*** If Peridot had a true heartfelt connection to Yellow Diamond in the first place, wouldn't she have accepted the bubble without telling Steven anything and sleep through the end of Earth?
* If Amethyst had come out on time, she would have missed out on Rose Quartz and everything Amethyst enjoys about Earth. She might have even wound up in the Cluster.
* Peridot panics ''really'' badly after she pushes Amethyst (a high-ranking Gem) onto the ground, even though doing so saved Amethyst's life. Makes one wonder exactly how Peridots are treated on Homeworld...
** She didn't just push anyone, she pushed a ''Quartz''. We know that Amethyst is friendly and understands what Peridot did. But imagine the same scene with Jasper being the one pushed and you can perfectly understand ''why'' Peridot starts panicking about having pushed Amethyst.
* Peridot explains exactly how each of the Crystal Gems is "defective": Garnet is a fusion who doesn't unfuse when not in battle, Pearl is a pearl, Steven's weird, and Amethyst's tiny for an amethyst. Now, remember when Jasper first showed up in "The Return." Peridot points to the Crystal Gems as the ones "who keep breaking my machines," and Jasper's response is a contemptuous "This is it?" Back then, it might have seemed Jasper was unimpressed by how few Crystal Gems there were. But given Peridot's explanations, Jasper may very well have been saying, "This is it? A servant gem, a (relatively small) fusion, and a tiny quartz?"
** Actually, she does say exactly that: she adds an explanation as to why she looks down on them, saying "A puny, overcooked runt, some lost and defective Pearl, and ''this'' shameless display?!"
* Quartzes are described as big and intimidating, made to be warriors. This adds another layer of senselessness to Pearl's sacrifices for Rose during the war: Rose was not only, by all accounts, a good fighter and not only did she have healing powers, but she was always meant to be a fighter, making it even plainer she could have handled the situation alone, and without having to retreat into her gem as well, probably. The second fridge horror comes in when you realize Rose is everything ''but'' an intimidating person made for the battlefield: her healing powers are based on her [[AllLovingHero empathy]] and [[GentleGiant gentleness]]. Either she was a gentle person to begin with, which must have made her military training and her destined place into Homeworld's hierarchy as an intimidating warrior and BloodKnight positively hellish for her (thus explaining why she left in the first place), or she underwent one massive CharacterDevelopment (remember, her calling Pearl "my Pearl" coupled with the information that Pearls are generally made-to-order might mean she ordered Pearl herself, that is if Pearl wasn't a ''gift'').
** Perhaps being a specific type of quartz (Rose, Amethyst, Jasper, etc.) defines a more specific role than just the general warrior/leader type. Perhaps Rose's healing powers come because she is less of a BloodKnight and more of a [[ThePaladin Paladin]] or MagicKnight.
*** Given the stark differences (design and power-wise) between Jasper/Amethyst and Rose, it indeed seems to be at least two subtypes of Quartzes, which might mean there is a more specified role in store for the likes of Rose Quartz (if she wasn't the only one with her abilities and personality, that is- at the very least her healing powers seem to be unique and exclusive to her and Steven, and Pearl describes the healing specifically in the form of TenderTears no other gem could replicate.) If there ''were'' are enough gems like Rose, she cold have been assigned a role you described or even have been the resident combat medic as all armies need healers and Rose's tears could heal even cracked gems, which could be of vital tactical importance (giving her insight into Homeworld's wars, thus further disillusioning her even as she knew she used her abilities to help fellow gems.)
* Imagine you're in a house with two people who are just walking around with weapons drawn. Swords, loaded guns with their fingers constantly on the triggers, grenades with the pin out, whatever. There's no imminent threat for them to protect themselves from. They're not deliberately doing it to intimidate you or anything. They just like doing it. They're just walking around, doing chores, enjoying a day on the beach, etc. while recklessly handling these dangerous instruments of destruction. And if you say: "Hey, waving those things in my face is making me uncomfortable, could you put them away?", ''you're'' the jerk.
** Except even though it is/was used as a last resort for fighting, fusion was more like a secret/looked down upon/unpredictable combo technique than a weapon even on Homeworld. Who knows, maybe the reason they look down upon it so much is the inherent danger of losing your original selves?
** It seems that fusion is seen on Homeworld as some sort of taboo, only acceptable to happen when necessary or possibly behind closed doors. This is supported both by Jasper and Peridot, Jasper who calls Garnet a "shameful display", and when Steven asks what's wrong with Garnet staying fused Peridot seems awkward saying outright what's happening ("They're not even fighting, they're just... y'know!?" *makes hand motions* "Y'Know?!"). Considering that Homeworld seems to be a very strictly controlled place, and what fusion represents...

[[AC:The Answer]]
* The audience finds out that not all fusion is viewed as wrong on Homeworld, just fusion between different types of gems. While Sapphire and Ruby are talking, Ruby says that fusion with other Ruby's has never made her lose herself the way fusion with Sapphire did. If fusion between different gems results in a complete mental transformation, then it's going to make Gems who try it less likely to want to keep to the caste system. After all, Ruby and Sapphire fused once and Sapphire immediately threw her life away to keep Ruby safe.
* Garnet was actually the first cross-gem fusion, and Homeworld had NEVER seen that before, it is basically 100% guaranteed that Garnet is the one who gave them the idea for the cluster. No WONDER Garnet was so upset about the clusters she found and Sapphire insisted that it wasn't her and Ruby's fault that Homeworld used cross-gem fusion as a punishment during the rebellion. Not only do they spit in the face of everything she is, '''she's the reason they exist'''.
* When put into context, Sapphire's lax attitude concerning her being "poofed" by a few rogue gems is pretty disturbing. How many times did she see herself die, enough to make her complacent and accepting of her fate?.

[[AC:Steven's Birthday]]
* One could only imagine the painful stretching Steven went through in order to maintain his "magical growth spurt". His bones, blood vessels, organs...

[[AC:It Could've Been Great]]
* We get to see a wall with Blue Diamond (who had been introduced in "The Answer") and Yellow Diamond (who had been previewed in the extended opening and properly revealed in "Message Received"). We know from "Sworn to the Sword" that there are four diamonds, being Yellow, Blue, Pink and White. When the group starts to climb the stairs, the camera lasts awfully long on what seems to be White Diamond. Is she gonna make an appeareance of any kind next?
* Peridot mentioned other "colonized planets". Does that mean there were other planets that already had life on it and the Gems just colonized there anyway?
** Exactly how common is (or was) organic life in this show's universe? How many worlds worth of useless organic life have been purged and sterilised to further the propagation of Gemkind?
*** ''Why'' does Gemkind need to be propagated at all? Organic life is tied to the cycle of life and death, there's even a song about it in the show, but Gems are functionally immortal, they don't breed, and they don't grow: even the Diamonds, if they have the same biology as the rest of Gemkind, would have just ''begun existing'' at some point. There's something especially horrifying about the idea of a life-form suddenly popping into full, sentient, sapient, intelligent existence, and then building an entire hierarchy of "lesser" beings to do its bidding without caring about any of them or what their work is doing to the universe. If the Diamonds really are the oldest and most perfect Gems, they're more or less the god-queens of Gemkind and something like a biological parent or grandparent to the same Gems they casually discard and break whenever they like, and apparently they feel ''nothing'' in doing so.
* The map of Earth on the Homeworld Gem console showed some... interesting tidbits of information about the landscape of the planet. Like the fact that ''Most of Siberia, Western Africa, and several other landmasses were completely gone''. The map looked like it came straight from [[VideoGame/TheWonderful101 The Wonderful 101]], and that version of Earth had fought off TWO alien invasions with the objective of destroying the human race. It's a subtle hint that even with Rose Quartz's interference, the Homeworld Gems did damage to the earth that could qualify as ''catastrophic'' in RealLife terms.
** Not quite. The Western Part of Africa still exists, just attached to South America, and similar happens with India, Australia and other parts of the lands in the Indian Ocean. The crater in Siberia is undoubtedly Gems' doing, seeing as there is a Gem structure right in its center, though.
* The hole in Siberia seems bad enough, but it gets even worse when one considers its effects on prehistory. Since the exact time the Gems began this is unclear, this may have been during the time of the Bering Land Bridge, when ancient humans were passing through that way to migrate to the Americas. The Gems may have wiped out entire American civilizations, before they had the chance to start.
** Which would, on the other hand, make European colonization of America LESS horrifying than in the real world.
** And if Gems drowned thousands of humans at that time, it would give much more chilling connotation to Garnet's line in the play in Historical Friction: "And you know, humans aren't very good swimmers."
* Why was there air in the restricted-access Diamond moon facility? Did they ever expect anything besides Gems to be there?
** To talk? Gems communicate with spoken language, [[CaptainObvious which requires sound]]. Sound requires an atmosphere.
** We're assuming an atmosphere that humans can breathe in (that is, containing oxygen) but when you think about it, it's actually FridgeBrilliance... only Gems and a half-Gem have ever been there. Steven being Steven, he may not even notice that he isn't breathing in the conventional sense. This also applies to the ship they were on in the season one finale.
* Garnet was ready and willing to possibly kill Peridot, who is now defenseless and whose only crime was being some BrutalHonesty regarding Rose and how her rebellion accomplished nothing. While it was wrong on Peridot's part, Garnet was about to harm someone over such a (''technically'') menial reason...That being said, what would she and the others have told Steven if he hadn't came with them?
** Knowing the Gems, Pearl and Amethyst would have been slightly guilty and flustered, but Garnet would most likely be like, "Well, she should have kept her mouth shut", and that would be that.
** Maybe Garnet just wanted to poof her to teach her a lesson. Unless she was angry enough to actually destroy Peridot's gem, the latter would have just regenerated.
* We saw what the Homeworld Gems had in mind for Earth. Now imagine what Homeworld actually looks like, based on the Earth colony plans.

[[AC:Message Received]]
* Peridot's entire relationship with Steven and the Crystal Gems almost completely imploded, due to her inability to articulate her well-meaning plan. PoorCommunicationKills at its finest. Perhaps even literally, going by the effort the Crystal Gems were putting into trying to thwart her.
* The fact Yellow Diamond's Pearl seems so smug to Peridot is funny at first... until you remember [[SlaveRace her kind's station on Homeworld]]. She's probably like that because her authority over Peridot is about the only power she ''has''.
** Despite Yellow Pearl's stuck-up and snobbish attitude, pay close attention to her body language. She ''flinches'' when Yellow Diamond speaks in just mild annoyance. She is panicked as she's explaining what's going on and immediately points to Peridot. When Yellow Diamond reaches for the Communicator, Yellow Pearl backs away at the mere ''sight'' of her hand. Considering what we see of Yellow Diamond, it's not hard to imagine what relationship they have.
* As stated on the nightmare fuel page, those communicators have probably been used by the diamonds to kill any gems who piss them off or fail their mission, which would explain why they can self-destruct devices remotely.
* Peridot says that they can't sacrifice all of Earth for "one geo-weapon." This strongly implies that the Cluster, that horrific, Frankenstein-ish and necrophiliac monstrosity is not just a singular experiment. It implies that there are many more Clusters. That Homeworld produces things like that regularly.
** The term "geo-weapon" gets a lot more horrifying when you realize that a Gem calling something "geo" is likely analogous to us calling something "bio". This means that these are the equivalent of Biological experimentation for them. What's worse is that the Cluster experiment might be just ''one type of these experiments'' and there are different types of geo-weapons out there, all made from the equivalent of human experimentation.
* The way Peridot identifies herself, by facet and cut, implies this is how gems are identified individually. Pearls are round, which leads to the implication that as far as Homeworld is concerned, they don't ''have'' identities.
* As awesome as Peridot calling Yellow Diamond out might have been, and as funny as YD's reaction was, it's less funny to realize that Peridot, an incredibly low-ranked Gem, just insulted her boss (and in some ways the closest thing she has to a ''god'' ) to her face. Her immensely powerful, petty, ''vengeful'' boss, who knows ''full well'' where the Earth is and is fully capable of sending more Gems like [[KnightOfCerebus Jasper]] and more battleships after the Crystal Gems and after her traitor subordinate. And given how the Diamonds seem to love making an example of anyone who steps out of line if they can possibly get their hands on them...
** There's no way a society as militaristic as Gem Homeworld doesn't have a method to deal with traitors. And that method probably isn't very pleasant for the traitor. Given how militaristic countries on Earth deal with treason...
** We've already seen what Homeworld does to traitors. In Keeping it Together. [[AndIMustScream Those forced fusions]] were the Crystal Gems that were caught.
* The episode can have an EsotericHappyEnding once you realize this: Yellow Diamond said that she was going to send a ship to pick up Peridot and bring her to the next mission. She never took that back.
** Lessened when one remembers she set off the communicator's detonator just a minute later, and has no way of knowing the Crystal Gems would have gotten rid of it; as far as Yellow Diamond can tell, Peridot just got blown to shards, so a new transport wouldn't be necessary.
* Peridot shrinks when Yellow Diamond mentions her manager. In fact, this is the first time we've even heard about Peridot having a manager - all of her distress signals have circumvented the manager and gone straight to Yellow Diamond. Looks like Peridot and her manager don't have a very good relationship.
** Even more so, as Peridot is silent at the mention of her manager. [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness And Peridot does not do quiet.]]
* Think about what Yellow Diamond learned from Peridot's transmission. Peridot said "The Cluster will emerge shortly". So Yellow Diamond does not know exactly when the Cluster will hatch, but think about when the Cluster doesn't hatch. Yellow Diamond is bound to notice after a while that the Earth is still intact after the Crystal Gems destroy the Cluster themselves. Even though a vague timeframe like "shortly" will buy our heroes some time, Homeworld investigating an intact Earth is inevitable. And as several people have already pointed out, Peridot is likely going to have a metaphorical giant bullseye on her back when Yellow Diamond learns she survived the communicator's detonation.

[[AC:Log Date 7 15 2]]
* While very innocuous at the time, during their stargazing Garnet and Peridot note that they can actually see Homeworld's galaxy. While it's not so amazing being able to catch sight of a distant galaxy while stargazing, this comment also indicates that the Homeworld Gems represents, at the least, an ''intergalactic civilization.'' Their technology was already astounding when they were recognized as an interstellar society, but the fact that they could traverse the distance between galaxies ''thousands of years ago'' makes them several orders of magnitude more advanced than we already knew they were. What's more, apparently their own ''galaxy'' was found wanting when it came to their imperialistic, resource-grabbing tendencies.
* Peridot wonders where she is going to put the Crystal Gem star on her clothes. It was a harmless remark until we watched Too Short Too Ride and learnt the only way for her to get said star is ''by getting poofed''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Season 3]]
[[AC:Super Watermelon Island]]
* As pointed out on the Headscratchers page, while they were at the ocean floor, Lapis and Jasper's gems were under a lot of pressure. In the aftermath of the battle, we see Lapis' gem, which appears undamaged. We don't see Jasper's gem.
* What happened to the Watermelon Stevens with all that upheaval?
* Lapis Lazuli's control over Malachite seems to lapse fairly quickly once the Crystal Gems arrive, but did it really? While Lapis very much cares for Steven, there hasn't been any real indication that she's let go of her animosity for the rest of the Crystal Gems. How much of that fight was Jasper taking control and how much of it was both Jasper ''and'' Lapis coming together on one of the few things they have in common?
** What is most likely Jasper actually argues that the Gems had done horrible things to Lapis and that they should have some fun. After that, Malachite's powers seem to go through the roof, she summons her wings, walls of water and so on. It seems, Lapis actually couldn't resist the idea of making the Gems suffer, even if it meant working together with Jasper.
* The Watermelon that Steven possesses winds up being chosen for the sacrifice because of Steven's unfamiliarity with their rituals. Steven sent an innocent sentient being to their death by complete accident. [[WhatMeasureIsaNonHuman And didn't seem to care at all.]]
** On the (slightly) bright side, Steven was in control the whole time, so the Watermelon Steven he was possessing couldn't feel a thing.
* So the Watermelon Stevens maintain their population by growing more of themselves. Simple enough. But they still need to get the seeds first. Meaning the only way to make more Watermelon Stevens is for another Watermelon Steven to be given the slice treatment first.
** Several posibilities: We saw Steven being able to open a "mouth" without any ill effect, and the "seeds" are visible, so it's possible that they are able to spit them. The other possibility is that, since there is a Watermelon Elder, that means they can grow old... and die of old age... presumably they bury/plant them and the new generation is born.
* Back when Steven first sent the Watermelon Stevens away, he ordered them to learn from Baby Melon, which sacrificed itself in order to stop the Watermelons from attacking the Gems. The Watermelon Stevens on the island have all come to an agreement that a member of their society has to be sacrificed every now and then, presumably as a means of appeasing Malachite. Looks like they learned a lesson about sacrifice for the greater good...sorta.
* Remember how it only took a few stories of a fall to crack Amethyst's gem? Jasper, from the looks of it, is falling face first into a very deep crevice..

[[AC:Gem Drill]]
* What will happen when Yellow Diamond realizes that the Cluster never took form?
* So, the Earth is saved, and the Cluster is happily making friends with itself inside a bubble. But if that bubble pops...
* Just how long has the Cluster been conscious down there saying, "Have to... Want to.. Need to... FORM"?

[[AC:Same Old World]]
* With what we've learned about how Lapis ended up in the mirror brings up some ''very'' unsettling implications. How many completely innocent Gems were subjected to horrific treatment or even experimentation by Homeworld for no crime other than 'we think you're a Crystal Gem' with no process of law or CONCERN of whether or not they're actually Crystal Gems or not? RealitySubtext makes this ''much'' worse when you consider [[WitchHunt This has happened in real life, and especially brings to mind how easy it was in Nazi Germany to get sent to a death camp with no way to defend yourself.]]
** In addition to the aforementioned reality ensuing, this is very similar to Locked(in) Syndrome, a syndrome in which the victim is completely paralyzed, but is able to witness all. They can see, but they can't speak or communicated. Every single muscle in their body, with the possible exception of the eyes, is completely paralyzed. Many victims can be mistaken for dead if not examined properly. Imagine being able to see everything around you for ages, but not being able to move or communicate ''at all''.
** How many of the Cluster gems are just loyal Homeworld soldiers that were mistaken for Crystal Gems?
* If the "shatter them all and let the Diamonds sort it out" approach is the default approach, Lower ranking Homeworld Gems must live in constant fear of pissing off the wrong Gem and getting shattered.
** Which begs the question; what would count as pissing off the RIGHT Gem?
* What was Lapis, a Gem almost certainly not meant for combat, doing on Earth that led her into a ''war zone''?
** Lapis does have hydrokinesis... maybe they wanted to use her abilities in some way since they knew the planet in question has a high percentage of the stuff.
* Lapis going into a complete trance as they pass over the Galaxy Warp and almost letting Steven slide off her hands, their hands actually briefly separating before she breaks and catches him (and, boy, if she hadn't...). In addition, this was very indicative of PTSD, something that was later confirmed by Lauren Zuke, a storyboard artist and writer for the show.

[[AC:Barn Mates]]
* If her time with Jasper traumatized her so much that she's reluctant to associate with water for a while, to the point that it takes a while for her to use her water powers to hit down the Roaming Eye, will it be a problem in the future?
* What if Peridot hadn't run back from the Roaming Eye in time? Or, what if they had simply grabbed her and fly off to Yellow Diamond? Steven and the others would have had no idea where she went and what happened, and if they did find out Steven would end up blaming himself.
** As we see at the end of the next episode, they would have gotten out and asked her where Jasper was. That still leaves the question of how the Rubies would have reacted to Peridot not knowing.
** Heck, just what would have happened to Peridot had she have no reason to return to the barn could be argued as this.

[[AC:Hit The Diamond]]
* What happens when the Rubies reach Neptune, which has nothing for them to land on?
** Probably nothing, as they won't land if Jasper isn't there.
* The purpose of the Ruby squad's mission. Yellow Diamond probably doesn't realized that the Cluster has been bubbled, so she probably intended for the Rubies to save Jasper and leave Peridot to die when the cluster emerges.
** Yellow Diamond probably thinks she killed Peridot when she detonated the communicator. I wonder how she'll react when she finds out that the Gem who insulted her is still alive?
* The fact that Yellow Diamond sent the Rubies to a doomed planet on the off chance that they might be able to pick up one of her agents. Imagine what would have happened to them if the Cluster had emerged on-schedule...
* Given the possibility that the Cluster was still going to emerge, if Yellow Diamond assumed it was late and not stopped altogether, she might have been sending the Rubies on a SnipeHunt to get rid of them.
* Assuming the Ruby squad are typical of the Ruby type in general, it's entirely possible the primary grunt force of the Gem empire has the mentality of [[ChildSoldiers children]]. That...isn't pleasant.
** And that's not even considering the left knee Ruby, who the others refer to as "Newbie", meaning she was possibly created relatively recently (to the point that this might be her first mission entirely).
*** According to Rebecca's [[http://rebeccasugar.tumblr.com/post/145334824303/my-concept-drawings-for-hit-the-diamond-from concept drawings]], this really is Leggy's first mission, and she was ''literally born yesterday.''
* So, Steven and the Crystal Gems managed to trick the Rubies into leaving! Yay, all is well, until they realize [[{{Roaring Rampage of Revenge}} they were tricked.]] Worse, if they tell Yellow Diamond what happened, and what Peridot told them, she'll know of the Crystal Gems, Steven, and if they were on a suicide mission, she'll wonder why the Cluster hasn't gone off. Next, she's sending more squads, or worse, deciding to intervene herself. Either way, [[{{From Bad to Worse}} this could come back to bite the Crystal Gems]], in numerously horrific ways.
** Or the Ruby squad, in their stupidity, attempt to land on Neptune and get crushed by its gravitational pull and atmospheric pressure, meaning that while they can't go back to tell Yellow Diamond, they might just die...
*** Gems automatically adjust to the gravity of every planet they visit, though, so they'll be fine. Hopefully their ship is able to adjust as well...
* As mentioned under FridgeBrilliance: the Rubies are uniformly not very bright and considered expendable foot soldiers. This brings up ''more'' unfortunate possibilities about Homeworld. Either the Rubies are MADE to be stupider or denied any more education than the bare minimum required for their job.
** It's also possible that the Diamonds started making Rubies with an even lower average intellect in order to better control them after the Rebellion. That even might have been their reasoning before, for better control.
* The Rubies from Garnet's story were generally identical in how they thought and the Crystal Gem's Ruby, while not a genius, is still a lot smarter than the Ruby Squad. With the revelation from Peridot in Too Short To Ride that Era-2 gems are made by conserving resources, it's likely that to not lose out on Rubies' primary attribute (combat strength) their intelligence was scaled back instead.

[[AC:Steven Floats]]
* If Steven had been just a little further over, he could have hit a plane.
** If he had jumped higher, he might have left earth's gravity field and - floating ability or not - not have made it back down. We don't know for absolute sure, if Steven depends on air or not, so he might survive that, but the Gems would certainly look for him everywhere BUT in space...
* So, I wonder how Kofi's going to react when he found out that Garnet broke into his car?

%%[[AC:Drop Beat Dad]]

%%[[AC:Mr. Greg]]

[[AC:Too Short to Ride]]
* Apparently Homeworld has been running low on natural resources for a long time now, and more recently made gems have been made a lot weaker and less powerful because of it. If they become desperate, Earth could very well be targeted again.
* So either Peridot's having any powers at all is a fluke, or Homeworld has been lying to the newly made gems and telling them they don't have any natural abilities of their own and making them reliant on Homeworld tech to function for some reason...
* The Gems have an interstellar empire...but are still running low on resources. There are a few ways to interpret that, from them lying about the resource shortage to better control their minions to them just being ''that'' careless with the [[PlanetLooters Planet Looter]] thing, and none of them are good.
* Yellow Diamond's [[EvilIsPetty desire to destroy Earth for revenge]] and not caring about its possible, unique resources becomes even more heartless and petty given Homeworld is running low on resources.
* How many Gems are being created with little-to-no powers due to the shortage? What could justify continuing to make Gems at the same rate instead of slowing down to compensate for the shortage?
* Is it possible that the Diamonds are setting up a phony resources crisis in order to justify limiting the powers of new Gems as insurance against another Rebellion?
* So Peridot's got a new power, which is great! But if she hadn't been able to access the power/didn't have it in the first place, Amethyst would've thrown her tablet into the ocean, once again leaving Peridot in a tech-less despair. Not to mention it would've broken a lot of Peridot's trust for Amethyst.
* When Amethyst pulls a GoLookAtTheDistraction, so she can cheat Mr. Smiley at the ring toss game, there's a twist: the distraction (Onion trying to light the roller coaster on fire) ''is actually happening.'' What's Smiley's first reaction when he sees this? "No! I'm still paying off the last lawsuit!" Rides at his park have caught on fire '''before?'''
* Peridot mentioning that Homeworld is lacking in resources explains a lot about her initial fear of being "harvested", which is probably a deadly euphemism for being shattered and rendered down for their gem's component parts so new gems could be made.

[[AC:The New Lars]]
* Steven can project himself into other humans. Now, Steven's too kind and innocent to do anything bad with it, but imagine the amount of damage he could do if he wasn't. Particularly given, as shown with the Watermelon Stevens, the death of the host won't hurt him.
** Worse, he wasn't ''trying'' to possess Lars. What happens if he can't learn to control this power and ''keeps doing it''?

[[AC:Beach City Drift]]
* A gem fuses with someone else out of hatred in order to beat someone they couldn't defeat alone. Who are we talking about here, Steven in this episode or [[NotSoDifferent Jasper.]]
** The difference is that both Steven and Connie chose to fuse, instead of one of them pressuring the other into it. They may have done it for the wrong reasons, but there's no indication that either of them didn't have a choice.
* Given how angry he got after Stevonnie showed he no longer had a hold on them, is it possible that Kevin might go after Steven and Connie for revenge?

[[AC:Restaurant Wars]]
* Kofi was chasing around Steven, a ''child'', with a ''branding iron''! What if he managed to catch him with it?
** What would the Gems have done to Kofi if he ''had'' [[MamaBear caught Steven]]?
* Everybody's, including [[AllLovingHero Steven's]], complete disinterest in Ronaldo's misery. Even though the break-up and following moping is played for laughs, it's unsettling to see Fryman simply roll his eyes at his son's depressive attitude. He offers no concerned or supportive words, not even a pat on the back. We've seen before that Fryman has no clue how his children feel and that he often pushes them too far for too little reward, and with Ronaldo's need to feel like a piece of a bigger puzzle, it's not far to assume it comes from his father's failure to care for his emotional and mental health.
** Makes Peedee's actions in "Keep Beach City Weird" far more unnerving. Yes, letting Ronaldo believe in over-the-top conspiracies IS dangerous but given Fryman's indifference towards both his sons' happiness it could be that Peedee is the only one in family that cares/aware of how fragile his older brother's mental state is. Thus Peedee is forced into the role of family peacekeeper/caretaker he isn't ready for. And who in turn is looking after Peedee??

[[AC:Kiki's Pizza Delivery Service]]
* Kiki was having that nightmare ''every night''! If things had continued the way they had, would she have had a nervous breakdown over them?

[[AC:Monster Reunion]]
* How many other Gem Monsters were loyal Homeworld Gems who only stayed behind in a desperate attempt to find their friends and retreat before the Diamonds essentially used a Gem nuke to corrupt them all?
* The way Gem corruption is described sounds like the Diamonds basically gave them all ''brain damage''.
* It's brief, but Steven described Centipeetle's drawing of the weapon that corrupted her as "a sound". Sonic resonance can cause gems to fracture and crumble and Jasper and Peridot both came with Resonators that destabilize Gems on contact, so whatever corrupted the gems might have been a prototype weapon, or possibly a much larger, WMD version of whatever became the Gem Destabilizers.
** Steven also described the weapon as "a song." Way back in Jailbreak, Jasper almost went ballistic in an attempt to stop Sapphire from singing. Is music as a whole seen on Homeworld as some deadly weapon that could kill the whole of society?
* The episode has frightening stuff as is...but just imagine it from poor Centipeetle's POV.
* Centipeetle finding her crew...of ''two'' other gems. In her simplistic drawings of the past she always had five identical gems in her crew (the drawing of them in the ship and the the drawing she tears). What happened to the other three Gems?
* Greg mentioned that at the conclusion of the war, Rose could only save some of her friends. We now know that the white flash caused all the gems exposed to it to turn into gem monsters. It's likely that Rose's shield was the only thing able to deflect it, which is why only the three Gems survived it; every other active Gem was turned into a monster because Rose was unable to extend her shield that far.
** In that case, it could mean that they had to ''watch the other Crystal Gems turn into monsters.'' And, using Centipeetle as an example, the process is ''very'' painful.
* Centipeetle and her crew, even in their corrupted state desperately wanted to reunite with each other...for several thousand years. There are not words to describe how painful that has to have been.
** Even worse, considering they all appear to be the same variety of Gem, it's entirely possible that them being crewmembers made them the closest things Gems can ever get to being family.
* The fact that the Homeworld Gems were ''still retreating'' up to the Diamonds' attack. This means the Diamonds were so deadset on unleashing it, that waiting for their own people to be safely out of the blast radius was not something they considered. Is it any wonder Centipeetle is ''growling'' while she draws their picture despite having been a Homeworld soldier?
* The whole episode brings up an unsettling point about corrupted gems. Centipeetle's attack in the first episode was an attempt to reach the warp pad to find her crew, a motivation she kept after being partially healed. Corrupted gems still hold a measure of their original personality and motivations regardless of their appearance and lacking the mental clarity to fulfill them.

[[AC:Alone at Sea]]
* Is what happened to Jasper a more pronounced version of why Garnet stays fused all the time? The power and sense of completion becoming a form of AddictiveMagic?
** Jasper still has her own individual identity, but Garnet is at the point where she's not the fused form of Ruby and Sapphire so much as they're her ''split'' forms. What if rather than a more pronounced version, it's a '''less''' pronounced version?
** When she was talking to Steven, Lapis seemed to say that she was suffering a similar problem to Jasper, though to a lesser degree. She overcame it for now, but how deep does it go, and if she does give in, will there be any hope of getting her back?
* Jasper is now psychotically obsessed with fusing Lapis to reform Malachite and tracked her down ''all the way'' from Mask Island to do so. Who's to stay she won't ''keep'' coming after her until she finds the barn? Where Lapis has much less water to fend her off with?
* Jasper isn't exactly wrong about Lapis. While Jasper was the one that pressured her into the fusion in the first place, Lapis' easy dispatching of her demonstrates quite clearly that Lapis didn't need to fuse in order to protect Steven from Jasper. And while Jasper was unpleasant and partially responsible for Lapis' captivity, that was only one of many grievances that Lapis had built-up and presumably taken out upon Jasper. While Lapis has undeniably bounced back psychologically and recognizes the wrongness of her actions, these recent events reinforce just how bad of a place she was in at the time.
* What exactly did Lapis do to make someone like ''Jasper'' call her a monster?
** And given the former, was Lapis' story about how she got caught in the mirror a lie? What reason did she have for coming to earth in the first place?
** Its possible she's talking about the fact that she betrayed Homeworld and used Jasper as a living stress ball.
** It's also possible that Jasper was referring to [[MakingaSplash Lapis' hydrokinetic powers]], note that Jasper didn't call her a monster out of malice, but rather out of respect and even awe of her god-like strength with her abilities. Still horrifying as she's "changed" to desiring the power as Malachite.
** Very doubtful that Lapis's story about being caught in a mirror is a lie, especially considering she was able to project the memory to show Steven and went into such a trance going over the Galaxy Warp that she almost dropped him (indicative of PTSD, as was later confirmed by Lauren Zuke, a storyboard artist and writer for the show). As the above commenter said, it's much more likely that Jasper considered being a 'monster' was a sign of sick respect.
* The fact that Jasper isn't insulting, but ''admiring'' Lapis for the way she poured all her hatred into keeping Malachite fused. Just what kind of twisted stuff is Homeworld teaching Gems? [[MightMakesRight That if someone can overpower you]], you should be ''happy'' about the prospect of serving them, even to the point of giving up your own identity? That you deserve to be tortured if you have even a small moment of weakness? That you shouldn't hesitate to destroy yourself mentally and physically for power? And given just how harsh the caste system is, it's possible that Jasper's SanitySlippage was worsened by the fact that she literally [[EvilCannotComprehendGood could not understand]] the mental openness and togetherness that comes with fusing. It all paints an even more nightmarish picture of what Homeworld life is like, which hardly seemed like it could be possible after everything we've already seen.
** Or did her time as Malachite completely break her sanity, and really did change her for the worse?
** If Homeworld fosters the mentality that you should bow to anyone who can overpower you like that, then it explains the mentality of how Yellow Diamond treated Peridot, as she expected her domineering commands to have made Peridot bow to her.
* TheReveal, according to WordOfGod, that Jasper carries a deep self loathing due to her origins and refuses to tolerate failure or weakness on her own part adds a new, ''very'' disturbing layer to her addiction to Malachite...
* Every single thing Jasper says in this episode is something straight out of an abuser's mouth. Many trauma survivors were able to identify that, and they were also able to identify that many people in abusive relationships get back together again and again and again, much like Lapis and Jasper desired.
* Jasper threatening to shatter (kill) Steven makes sense in that she thinks Jasper is Rose and thus a Gem, not a human. How would she have reacted in knowing that Steven doesn't need to be shattered to die?
* Malachite is the second-longest sustained fusion, after Garnet. What holds a fusion together isn't just "compatibility" or "harmony" or "love", it's a ''desire to remain fused'' that keeps them stable. Jasper is under a ''ton'' of pressure, both because of her own self-hatred and her apparently very illustrious reputation on Homeworld for being flawless, and Lapis is (or was) full of suppressed anger at being confined. Despite being openly unhealthy and mutually abusive, they wouldn't have been able to stay together that long if being Malachite wasn't meeting their emotional needs. It's just that the emotional needs being met were their ''worst'' ones.

[[AC:Greg the Babysitter]]
* Even before the ferris wheel, Sour Cream could have hurt himself many times over simply because Rose failed to realize he ''could'' be hurt.
** Is that had happened, just imagine how Vidalia would have reacted and what might have happened if she made good on that death threat to Greg.
* It turns out that Gem obliviousness to human fragility wasn't a quirk on Peridot's part; even ''Rose'', who loved the Earth and all is inhabitants, had no idea that you can't just let a baby do what he wants. If on the off-chance she and Steven could exist together, how exactly would her mothering Steven have gone even with Greg nearby?
* The Gems also had no idea that humans could change from babies to adults. Rose envied this quality once she learned about it, and gave up her gem durability and a millennia year lifespan to become a helpless infant that would change into something new. Garnet says later on that Rose did many things the Gems could not understand, and creating Steven was one of them. No wonder Steven picks up on their resentment about him being his mother.

[[AC:Gem Hunt]]
* The two corrupted Gems encountered in this episode heavily resemble forms of jasper. Knowing that Jasper fought in the war against Rose Quartz, and that any Homeworld Gems unable to escape were corrupted by the Diamonds, it's possible that Jasper knew those Gems. So to them, one of their old allies - possibly even their leader - was hunting them down, and the last thing they saw before being poofed was her brutally ripping their gems out of their bodies.
** To add on to this, given what we know of Jasper's recent behavior, she's deliberately targeting Gems of similar power levels as her in order to force a Fusion so that she can get back on her power/Fusion high.
** On the other hand, considering how Jasper deliberatly taunts Rose Quartz with the two Gems "Hey Rose, look what I got.", they could also be corrupted Crystal Gems, maybe even personal friends of Rose.
*** Given the Bismuth clip in which she mentions a Crystal Gem called "Biggs", which is a form of Jasper similar to the brown monster's Gem, it's entirely possible that they ''are'' former Crystal Gems.

[[AC:Crack the Whip]]
* Jasper would have ''shattered'' Amethyst mercilessly if Stevonnie hadn't stopped her. Has she done this before to other Crystal Gems?
* Jasper managed to tame two Gem Monsters within the span of a day. She also states that "Jaspers always get what they want". Since the real-life name of the other two gems may very well be Biggs Jasper and Ocean Jasper, could it be that not only does Jasper know that these two use to be the same type of gem as her, but she somehow used that connection to subjugate them? In addition, since Jasper already knows how to do it, it implies that the taming of feral Gems is already a technique known to Homeworld, but not to the Crystal Gems.
* Garnet left Amethyst to "hold down the fort", but clearly didn't see Jasper coming in her future vision or they'd have ''all'' stayed behind. Can you imagine how Pearl and Garnet would have felt if they came back from looking for Jasper only to find out that Jasper found Amethyst first and shattered her, plus potentially harming Steven ''and'' Connie?

[[AC:Steven Vs. Amethyst]]

[[AC:Bismuth]]
* Were there others in the Crystal Gems that agreed with Bismuth's views? Is ''that'' why Rose kept their fight a secret from the others?
* The Breaking Point is a weapon specifically designed to ''completely shatter Gems''. Imagine what would happen if she successfully used it on Steven during their fight in the underground forge? [[MamaBear The Crystal Gems]] [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge are not gonna be happy]]...
* Rose made the best choice when she rejected Bismuth's Gem-shattering weapon. Since previous episodes established that Gems are still sentient even when shattered and Homeworld is fully willing to exploit that, using it would've created more problems for the Crystal Gems because not only would they have to deal with Homeworld soldiers, but they would also have to fight ''a full army of angry, destructive, and unstoppable mutants created from the Gem shards''. Even if that wasn't the case, many have pointed out it would likely have simply ''escalated'' the war rather than ending it.
* Lapis' backstory reveals it was Bismuth who attacked and poofed her, a fleeing civilian. Not only does this show that even civilians wouldn't have been safe from what Bismuth intended with the Breaking Point, but just imagine if she'd ''had it at the time.''
* Imagine if the Rebellion HAD listened to Bismuth or Bismuth was still with them in the present without changing her mentality. Peridot and Lapis would've been shattered on sight. Amethyst might have been too.
* Bismuth's gem being inside Lion could be why Rose never trusted Pearl with all of her secrets. What else has Rose been keeping from the remaining Crystal Gems?
* Even if Steven had granted her wish to be shattered, Bismuth would still be alive albeit in a cruder form. Since Gems are shown to retain sentience in their shattered states, it's ''very'' likely that Bismuth will be rendered AndIMustScream, never dead but never alive either. And plus, IF (with heavy emphasis on "if") Steven decided to shatter her, he'll end up creating maybe a dozen Gem monsters that will destroy anything in their path in a desperate attempt to have the death she wanted.
* Crossing over with TearJerker, Bismuth's reasons for attacking and hating Rose - you have been created to build things, but you're only allowed to build something your bosses want, not what ''you'' want. Then suddenly this person comes along and tells you that you, as a sentient being, have the right of free choice. You decide to follow this person, and to pay them back for "freeing" you, you decide to create weapons so the Rebellion can use them to take down your former bosses, only to have this person to tell you to create weapons specifically designed to ''injure'', not ''kill''. A bit off-putting, but since it'll ensure that everyone will no longer have to work for your former bosses, you go with it. One day, you decide to change the game and create a weapon that will ensure a quick victory, but the person who "freed" you takes one look at it and says something along the lines of, "No, you cannot create this kind of weapon." You argue that you are a person of free will and that you have the right to create what you want, but this person tells you that you are not allowed to create any weapon that will destroy innocent lives. When you attempt to go against orders, the person you admired punishes you by sealing you away in an alternate dimension somewhere, completely alone, never telling your fellow rebels about your ultimate fate. During the years locked up, you remember all the inspiring words this person has said to you and suddenly you realize that you are just a tool no matter what you do, and you end up hating the person for turning out to be a giant hypocrite.
* One thing Bismuth calls out Rose for doing is hiding her from Garnet and Pearl, and from the other Gem soldiers. This wasn't just Bismuth wanting to show off the Breaking Point; Bismuth's loss hurt the Crystal Gems, since they lost a blacksmith and a dear friend. This is shown when Pearl, who has been struggling with Rose's death, immediately leaps into Bismuth's arms when the latter reappears.
* Given Bismuth attacked Rose, the Crystal Gems leader, she was committing the highest form of treason in war, which would merit death in traditional armies. Bismuth ''wanted'' to be shattered when Rose rejected her idea.
* Garnet never once seems to be aware of Bismuth's plans or the possibility of what ultimately happens between her and Steven. Garnet has to actively search the future and pick visions, and it's clear Bismuth is one of her best friends. So likely as with her failing to see Pearl's lying to form Sardonyx, Garnet probably didn't feel the ''need'' to do such when it came to Bismuth. This means that she trusted Bismuth THAT much that she never considered a possible future where she was an enemy...only to find out she'd developed genocidal ambitions and tried to murder both Rose and Steven for disagreeing with them. Imagine how much the AwfulTruth had to hurt her.
* Bismuth only thought the other Crystal Gems from the rebellion had been shattered. The Diamonds' corruption weapon, the forced fusions and the Cluster...learning about those is going to ''devastate'' her.
* Homeworld has plenty of gems and the resources to make more, and the Diamonds don't seem to care about the wellbeing of their subordinates. None of this can be said about the Crystal Gems and Rose Quartz. The Breaking Point could have ended the war, but not in the way Bismuth had meant it too; if it fell into enemy hands, it would hit the Crystal Gems a great deal harder than it could ever have hit Homeworld. Bismuth made a weapon ideally suited to destroying ''her own team'' and is too blind to see it.
* Garnet accepted Steven's decision to keep Bismuth bubbled, despite only going on his word and having the possibility of convincing Bismuth to forget her grudge. But it's likely that she used her future vision to see all possibilities, including unbubbling Bismuth. Which means that Bismuth really is too far gone to ever consider reason, even from her close friends. Alternatively, it's that Bismuth wanted to be shattered, but being bubbled would give her peace of mind.
* Bismuth offhandedly refers to Steven as a "meatball" before being formally introduced, and probably can't tell that he's half gem, but nevertheless welcomes him to the Crystal Gems... how many other humans were among their ranks? This also makes Sworn to the Sword even darker than it was previously.
** It also implies that Bismuth, and possibly some other Crystal Gems, didn't exactly see their human allies as equals.

[[AC:Beta]]
* How many of the CannonFodder Gems made in the Beta Kindergarten were thrown into the meat grinder for Homeworld, and how many were "defective" because Homeworld rushed things?
* The ending of the episode has the holes dug into the rock ''full'' of corrupted Gems. How many has Jasper caught already!?

[[AC:Earthlings]]
* Jasper heavily implies that for Homeworld Gems, being made in the "wrong" shape for their caste or changing their form to something outside their original body type is pretty much an instant death sentence. How many Gems are shattered for the crime of basically having a birth defect moments after being made, or being the Gem equivalent of trans?
* Amethyst apparently fused with Rose before, which is how Smoky knew what their name was. But that means that the original Smoky is effectively dead.
* So apparently TheCorruption is ''contagious''. Did any of the Crystal Gems become corrupted when, after escaping the Diamond's final attack, they tried to reach their former fellows?
** Or is Corruption more like the Gem equivalent of insanity? Did Jasper finally collapse under all the psychological trauma and stress she had gone through? Being Malachite had obviously done a huge number on her mental health. And given her lamenting "Nobody I fuse with ever wants to stay." the Gem Monster breaking the fusion and running away might have just been the final straw for Jasper's mangled psyche.
* Corruption can be transmitted from fusion, and erodes higher reasoning in the infected gems. Considering what fusion is, this effectively makes it an ''STD version of Rabies''.
** Alternatively, if you subscribe to the "corruption of the mind" analogy from "Monster Reunion", Corruption could be considered to be like a ''computer virus''.
* While Jasper was found and defeated while she was still in the planning stages, imagine what would have happened if that ''hadn't,'' and she'd managed to break all those Corrupted Gems to her will and let them loose on Beach City all at once, like she planned?
* Of all the gems that Homeworld could have sent as Peridot's escort, they chose Jasper. In light of this episode, we now know that Jasper has some massive psychological hang-ups, and perhaps even trauma, when it comes to Earth. It certainly wouldn't have been any sort of secret to Homeworld what her past was with the planet, and while she's a powerful gem it couldn't have been that difficult to substitute in a few other gems in her place. Rather they sent a gem that has reason to hate the Earth and the Crystal Gems to the point of desperation and instability. Did they perhaps pick her because they expected her feelings about Earth would motivate on her mission? Or did they not even care about the mental health of a loyal, strong gem at all?
* If we're to assume that Pink Diamond was destroyed or otherwise permanently taken out of commission, could it be possible that the remaining Diamonds deployed the corrupting weapon out of fear, rather than spite? All Homeworld Gems seem to venerate the Diamond Authority to the point of feeling like they have no purpose without them and they've been ruling for thousands of years, so it's not a normal thing for a Diamond to be destroyed. Was that what pushed Homeworld to launch that final attack, that they were afraid things would completely collapse? Does Yellow Diamond perhaps take the loss of Pink Diamond personally, to the point that she can't be rational about the subject? And if Rose is the one that defeated Pink Diamond, did she realize that she may have been the one that pushed Homeworld to the point of using the gem-equivalent of a WMD?
* Jasper's army consisted of almost entirely of the same type of Gem monsters. Since the Beta Kindergarten was made to crank out Quartz soldiers at a rapid pace, it's likely that all those Corrupted Quartz Gems were just abandoned after Homeworld pulled out, and remained there ever since.
* The fact that Pink Diamond was removed from the ''Homeworld's'' symbol implies they were the ones who gave her the UnPerson treatment. This means the other three Diamonds more or less decided to cover up the existence of the fourth member of their number to preserve their own image of invincibility.
** Even worse, what if this isn't the first time this has happened? After all diamonds do come in more than four colors.
*** This sheds new light on Yellow Diamond's insistence that Earth be destroyed; it was the planet where the Diamonds lost one of their own. Whether it's petty or personal, there's a real motivation to destroy it. They might even be afraid that other gems created there might turn traitor like Rose did.
* If the corruption attack that corrupted all the Gems still on Earth was a combined attack of some short by the three remaining Diamonds...just what would it have done if Pink Diamond was still around?
** Even worse, [[OhCrap who's to say they couldn't do it again?]] At least they don't seem to know that there are Crystal Gems still on Earth. ''Yet...''
* Jasper actually looks grieved and shocked when Steven reveals that he didn't know "Rose" had done something terrible to Pink Diamond. This means that either she started to believe Steven when the latter said that he wasn't Rose, or that for Rose hurting a Diamond was ButForMeItWasTuesday. If the former were true, Jasper would have realized she had thrown away her chance to be saved for nothing. If the latter were true, Rose is even more dangerous than Jasper once thought.

[[AC:Back to the Moon]]
* A small one compared to the rest of the episode, but imagine being Lapis, a repetitive trauma survivor (to the point that, in 'Jailbreak,' it was shown that being prisoner is all she knows now), seeing Amethyst in Jasper form and being asked by 'Jasper' if she'd like to be a prisoner.
** It's likely that Amethyst didn't know the impact that this could have, but she had been informed before that Jasper was a trigger for Lapis.
* What could have made Rose go so far as to ''shatter'' another Gem in cold blood, even a ''Diamond''?
** It's possible the shattering was a mistake, and that's what led to Rose Quartz refusing to ever shatter another gem again. Or it wasn't a mistake, and when she realized what she'd done and how completely irreversibly it was, she took up her no-shattering policy.
** It gets worse: In "It Could Have Been Great" Peridot refers to the diamonds as the gem "matriarchs", implying that the gems view the diamonds in a maternal role. If so, not only did Rose assassinate the ruler of the gem colony on Earth, but she also committed the gem equivalent of {{Matricide}}. No wonder she thought it was a good thing that Greg didn't know about her past.
** It does reinforce the fact that Rose made the right choice to reject the Breaking Point, though. It's not a stretch to think that the Diamonds employed the "light" as retaliation for shattering Pink Diamond. What would have happened if they were shown employing a weapon intended for wholesale genocide...?
** Or what if we're getting this the WRONG way around? Pink Diamond's gem was on her lower abdomen, like Rose's. Along with the Ruby soldier, gem placement might have something to do with their view on the world and how they act. Could it be, that Pink Diamond is good all along? If you think from that viewpoint, coupled with the gem mural on the moon depicting her holding earth and moon as her (probably) first colony, this story could have taken a darker turn: Pink Diamond being the lowest, youngest and lest powerful compared to the other Diamond Authority MIGHT have been the one that refuses to sacrifice Earth for the sake of the intergalactic Gem community, after seeing what's the effect of building a Kindergarten has on Earth; that's why before the third Kindergarten was built she rebelled against the other three Diamonds. Since she was a royalty, having her personally in battle would be the craziest idea, thus she picks Rose Quartz, her most loyal and strongest warrior to lead the Rebellion. They put out a decent fight, and even succeeded in converting Homeworld gems to add to their rank. The other Diamonds, fearing this could lead to a huge upheaval against them, decided to deploy the Corruption-inducing WMD on Earth, making the Crystal Gems and their soldiers regressed to feral, monstrous being...INCLUDING PINK DIAMOND. Since Diamonds are pretty much the 'perfect, strongest Gem' the rampage she done might have the reason so many Gems shattered in the first place. Seeing there's no way to control Pink Diamond, or it's just plain impossible, Rose took the ultimate choice that forever scarred her: shattering Pink Diamond. The Palanquin described in Buddy's Book might have been Pink Diamond's, not the one that Blue Diamond was seen to be carried on "The Answer", and this might paint the reason Yellow Diamond want to destroy Earth in a new light: If even the beauty of Earth can convert a Diamond, what effect can it bring to lower caste soldiers? Sending them to Earth would just cause them to rebel against the Authority, that's why she sent only hellbent-on-revenge soldiers like Jasper or Gen1 Ruby, they're practically blinded by rage so they won't consider 'converting'.
*** This is wholly inaccurate it's stated outright that the second Kindergarten was created to pump out soldiers to fight against Rose, meaning Pink Diamond created it to fight the rebellion. Eyeball Ruby was a first hand witness to Rose shattering Pink Diamond, and Pearl and Garnet are certain of it as well, she wasn't spared or corrupted, she was their enemy. There'd be no reason to hide the truth after the Homeworld gems fled or from Steven.
* Just ''what'' happened with Pink Diamond's death that is traumatic for Pearl that she's left trembling and horrified from it? This is Pearl, the Crystal Gem who actually talked ''proudly about the War'' in the past. [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness Whatever it is can't be good...]]
** It's not about the memory being traumatic so much as she realises, as Garnet does, that Steven is learning his mother's darkest secret in a scenario where they can't provide an explanation or context. Steven's entire view of his mother is being shattered and they can't do anything about it because of the Ruby Squad.
* It's actually a good thing the Rubies didn't just leave the moon base. If they did, the Crystal Gems would have been stuck at the base, with no way to get home or contact Lapis and Peridot.
** Steven can still astral project while sleeping. And even if he can't contact them he could possess someone in Beach City and ride Lion up to the moonbase. Granted he doesn't have permission to use anyone's body and there's no telling if Lion would listen to anyone else.

[[AC:Bubbled]]
* Eyeball seems to have PTSD, but Homeworld has no equivalent of therapists. How long until another Rebellion vet snaps?
* So what of the Rubies? Are they just going to float, helpless, in space ''forever'' (or at least until they hit something that they can't tank)?
* The premise. Steven is stuck out in space, with no way to get home, and only has a small bubble protecting him from the vacuum of space.
* Did Rose shattering [[spoiler: Pink Diamond]] inspire Bismuth to create [[spoiler: The Breaking Point]]? Or did Bismuth create it ''specifically for that purpose'', then when she saw what it could do, go mad with power?
* Eyeball's weapon is a ''chisel''. Under the Diamond Authority, even low-level Rubies have weapons made specifically for breaking gems.
* Steven briefly ponders what might happen if his Gem were separated from his body. While the fandom has wondered this all along as well, it's a little disturbing to see it brought up in canon, since it may end up being foreshadowing...
* When Steven opens the bubble to release Eyeball, he also sacrificed whatever oxygen was in the original bubble, and is obviously struggling to breathe and on his way to an unhappy end afterwards. At first it seems like a fight or flight reflex, along the lines of jumping from a burning building. However, by preventing Eyeball from taking his gem, he could have prevented Homeworld from learning about the remaining Crystal Gems and the Earth. Steven made a spur of the moment HeroicSacrifice to save his family.
** This also plays into Garnet's reasoning for Rose shattering Pink Diamond - Steven didn't do what was best for ''him'', but he did do what was best for Earth in that moment.
** The horror is lessened when you realize he is half Gem, and most likely requires less/no oxygen at all. He also appears to have the ability to create oxygen inside of his bubbles.
* Steven learns the hard way in this episode that Gems won't necessarily react positively to discovering that he's (basically) Rose Quartz. It's probably good that he learned this lesson now and not, say, when the show inevitably takes the Crystal Gems to Homeworld.
* For the first 14 years of his life, Steven had believed his mother to be an AllLovingHero, a BadassPacifist, and one who could inspire friendship and understanding in all living beings because the Crystal Gems hvae put her on a pedestal. In the span of 2 days, every single ideal about her was consecutively shattered in the most brutal, nightmarish way possible. If he thought his feelings towards Rose was complicated before, it just got exponentially worse now.
* Steven is clearly very distressed to learn what his mother did, and Garnet later confirms that she did what had to be done. Just moments before (in screen-time, at least) Steven himself was forced to commit a similar act against a rampaging Eyeball by propelling her into space to save himself. YMMV on whether this is Downplayed because of gems being TheNeedless and likely capable of surviving in space, or if it's AFateWorseThanDeath for this very reason. And that's not even mentioning what could happen to a little Ruby all alone out in that vastness, especially one that's already so unhinged.
* When Peridot needed an escort back in season one, Homeworld sent Jasper, who found what she thought was Rose Quartz. When Jasper vanished on Earth, Yellow Diamond sent the Rubies to find her. Now that the Rubies have vanished, who will Yellow Diamond send once she learns the Rubies have failed?
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Season 4]]
[[AC:Kindergarten Kid]]
* How would the fight with Jasper have gone if she had been able to use ''this'' particular Gem Monster?
* If Peridots are that durable, how hard ''was'' Garnet squeezing her in "Catch and Release"?
* If Peridots are made to be ''that'' durable, what kind of stuff are they expected to deal with on a daily basis?
* How long has Steven been thinking of what being a monster is like?
** It could all stem from his encounters with the Cluster Gems and the Cluster itself throughout season 2 and the earliest part of 3, perhaps even his attempt at healing Centipeetle Mother's corruption could have given him a deeper connection to the gem itself and not its corrupted form. It's still sad that he knows just how much pain and resentment everything inflicts on them.
** Probably ever since he was first told [[WasOnceAMan what Gem Monsters actually are]], all the way back in Season 1 during the events of "Ocean Gem".
** Or since "Cat Fingers", where he did transform into a [[Film/TheThing1982 Thing-esque]] monster.
[[AC:Know Your Fusion]]

[[AC:Buddy's Book]]
* How long did it take Buddy to travel to all those locations, and how many times did he nearly die?
* In the past, Rose Quartz had a ''whole pride of lions'' that traveled with her. ''They're all gone''. Lion is TheLastOfHisKind. And he was kicking around the Sand Castle, probably waiting for Rose to return. Possibly for centuries. Alone.
** Considering Lion had quite a few important things in his mane, including a crystal gem, who knows what is gone aside from just a pride of other lions.
** Why is he the only pink lion? Obviously it has something to do with Rose, but all of her other lions were colored as a regular lion is.
[[AC:Mindful Education]]
* Did Connie get in trouble at school for flipping Jeff?
** She could have, but given how easily public school authority figures can be cowed by other authority figures, such as doctors, probably not. Dr. Maheswaran probably treated the kid or paid for the medical bill and was done with it.
** Unless school policies are very different in the show compared to real life, it seems obvious she didn't. For one thing, Connie's mother is an overbearing beast most of the time and she doesn't approve of Connie's training to begin with, so if Connie had been disciplined at school over it, Dr. Maheswaran would most likely have forbidden any future lessons. For another, most schools have a zero-tolerance policy on fighting and violence, and Connie broke a kid's arm for bumping into her in the hallway. This troper's middle school had kids arrested for less.
*** Judging by the sling and lack of cast, Jeff's more likely to have a sprained shoulder or elbow and no broken bones. This sort of injury is usually from sport or a minor accident.
** Judging by the flashback, they were alone. If no one saw and Jeff did not report it("I fell") then Connie didn't get in trouble.
* If Connie hadn't worked through her issues, would she have reacted like that again?
* This episode establishes exactly how easy it is for Connie to accidentally injure people with her strength and combat training. What if next time it's one of her parents? Is she going to be able to live a normal life knowing that at any point she could seriously injure or possibly ''kill'' people without meaning to?
* When Steven's emotions break up Stevonnie on their second session, we see Bismuth, Jasper, and Eyeball - followed by all of them forming together to create [[BrokenPedestal Rose.]] After Season 3's finale, Steven is effectively [[HeroicBSOD traumatized by thinking about his mother now,]] compared to the brief moment of complicated feelings in ''Steven Floats'' preventing her from being happy thoughts to him. But just ''how bad'' does it go now, knowing what his mother did - and how much ''worse'' could it possibly get than breaking down into uncontrollable sobbing and losing control of his own powers?
[[AC:Future Boy Zoltron]]
* So just how long will it take for Steven to work off the debt for Zoltron? He's pretty good at it, with or without future vision, and thus Mr. Smiley may have him there for a couple of weeks.
* Future vision is established to work by presenting outcomes to whatever option the seer considers taking. Which means that, up until The Answer, Sapphire had been so thoroughly whipped by Gem societal structure and so resigned to her future that the thought of doing anything else had never even crossed her mind.
** What's worse is that Sapphires and any other seer gems are probably ''socialized'' to think that way. Back in The Answer, Blue Diamond is enraged by the fact that things did not work out as Sapphire had said they would. From a detached, tactical standpoint, it would make sense to try to keep the seers as passive as possible so that their predictions actually come true. Blue Diamond probably knew that Sapphire's predictions weren't 100% infallible and why, making the decision to break Ruby a tactical one, on top of being punishment for committing a taboo.
** This also makes Sapphire's actions in The Answer make more sense - Ruby's actions taught her that the future ''isn't'' set in stone, and she's now fascinated by her own capacity to assert what she wants (seeing more of Earth, protecting Ruby) in a way that cleverly mirrors Peridots empathy.

[[AC:Last One Out of Beach City]]
* How isolated is Pearl from human culture that she doesn't know that they can dye their hair pink, and that it's taken her fourteen years to encounter a human that looks like Rose? She's better than she was when the Gems met Greg, but colored hair is fairly ubiquitous in Western society.
* Pearl notes that she's "not exactly a citizen". What would happen if a government agency like Child Protective Services audited his living situation and found he was living with 3 highly dangerous non-Citizens?
** Greg is presumably a citizen and Steven's legal guardian, even if Steven isn't living with him anymore. And he technically owns the house Steven lives in. If the kid has food and shelter and someone with income supporting him I don't think they could do much about it.
** What if someone tried to deport the Crystal Gems?
*** They'd fail. You need an active gem to get into the temple or use the warp pads, the Crystal Gems would likely just ignore them until they gave up. Steven might be in danger if they found out he was half-Gem.
*** How would you deport someone whose place of origin is another solar system?
*** Plus, they've been there longer than the United States has existed.
* Pink-Haired Mystery Girl probably has no idea who Rose Quartz is, but if she and Pearl form any kind of relationship, it's not going to take her very long to make the connection. It's easy to just write it off as Pearl having a type, but Pearl struggles with Rose's death in a way that's going to be impossible to ignore for very long, and PHMG isn't going to have any context for that. How is she going to react to being a ReplacementGoldfish for someone who wasn't even human?

[[AC:Onion Gang]]
* Connie's doing back-to-school shopping and the kids are going back home, but Steven doesn't go to school. Does Beach City have him registered as homeschooled? If not, what will the truant officer do?
** Greg probably registered him as home-schooled at some point.
* Steven's [[invoked]][[DudeNotFunny reaction]] to the kids wanting to kill an innocent beetle that won a takes on a tragic note when you remember the trauma he went through the past season: learning his mother turned Bismuth into an UnPerson for attacking her a weapon that would shatter Gems, failing to save Jasper because of [[BrokenPedestal Rose]] [[KilledOffForReal shattering Pink Diamond]], and having to send Eyeball drifting into outer space when the latter tries to cut off his gem in the bubble. Steven's been in ''real'' life or death situations, and seeing Onion treat it as a game triggered the baggage that one CooldownHug with Connie wouldn't cure.
* Having an {{Expy}} of Frisk is quite disturbing when one sees Soup participate in the bug squishing, given that when you play in ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' it's the player that forces Frisk to either spare or kill monsters in the game. Frisk in canon is theorized to be a Pacifist since you only find out their name at the end of a True Pacifist Run; Soup in contrast happily joins in the competition like a Genocide Run player, or a [[DemonicPossession soulless]] [[CruelTwistEnding Frisk]].
[[AC:Gem Harvest]]
* Andy already has a tough time adjusting to Gem weirdness, and to Steven nearly dying from a great fall. Just how is he going to react in learning that more "illegal aliens" are after his nephew and have tried to kill him more than a dozen times?
** Perhaps he'll try to fight them?
** He could get guns attached to the plane.
** Even so, human weapons only work against Gems when the former have the element of surprise, like Greg with his car against Lapis. Andy may try to rally the human governments to protect against Homeworld, ''if'' they show up again, but it's a campaign that could easily backfire.
[[AC: Three Gems and a Baby]]
* Apparently, Pearl was so desperate to bring back Rose that she was ''this'' close to ripping out Baby Steven's gem. It's unknown just what would have happened had Pearl gone through with it but there are some ideas, one of which being Pearl succeeding in bringing Rose back. If that happened...just how would Rose have reacted to Pearl (and by extension Garnet and Amethyst) killing her son?
** No matter what would have happened there, think about how ''Greg'' would have reacted.
* Also, in the scenario that Pearl presented, a centenarian Rose is trapped inside a helpless infant, in AndIMustScream, unable to reform without killing Steven. Rose would have gotten what she had wanted, only to realize it wasn't great at all, but she wouldn't want to sacrifice her son to reform since he will only get a human lifespan and she will get an eternity.
* There is also the fact that the Gems kidnapped Steven and drove away with him in the middle of a blizzard. If they had gotten stranded, and if the van heater hadn't been working, Steven could have succumbed to frostbite.

%%[[AC:Tiger Philanthropist]]
%%[[AC:The War]]
[[/folder]]

* Peridot's go-to insult, "clod, makes a lot more sense when you realize that "clod" means a lump of mud, dirt or other useless earth material. It's like calling a human a useless sack of flesh, which is why it makes sense the gems would be offended!

* Although some people think the term "kindergarten" sounds like an odd thing to call a place where an alien race grows It's population, it is actually a very fitting term.When it is translated from German,it can mean "childrens garden(kinder=children, Garten=garden)".In a garden,to grow completely new plants, people plant seeds in the dirt,and the seeds absorb nutrients from the soil to grow until they sprout from the ground-a similar process to how the gems are created.The kindergartens are "gardens" where the gem empire grows its "children".

* At one point, Garnet mentions only she can swim in lava. At the time, it just seems like another demonstration of how {{Badass}} she is. But in hindsight, who would be better equipped for swimming through lava than a fusion between [[AnIcePerson an ice gem]] (for cooling it down) and [[PlayingWithFire a fire gem]] (to withstand the remaining heat)?

* Steven and Connie's favorite characters of ''The Spirit Morph Saga'' go hand-in-hand with their personalities and how they relate to them. Steven likes Archemicarus the familiar falcon, a magical being devoted to his liege Lisa to the point of falling for her; Steven himself is part magical and holds feelings for Connie, who prefers Lisa because the character began as a normal girl and ended being TheChosenOne {{Badass}}, something she'll like to be. Also, Steven was able to see the subtle hints of the romantic plot between Archemicarus and Lisa because of his status as TheHeart; he's is in more tune with his and others' feelings than Connie, who was just focused in the action/adventure plot.

* Although some people think the term "kindergarten" sounds like an odd thing to call a place where an alien race grows It's population, it is actually a very fitting term.When it is translated from German,it can mean "childrens garden(kinder=children, Garten=garden)".In a garden,to grow completely new plants, people plant seeds in the dirt,and the seeds absorb nutrients from the soil to grow until they sprout from the ground-a similar process to how the gems are created.The kindergartens are gardens where the gem empire grows its "children".