Headscratchers / Steven Universe Season 1

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Together Breakfast

"Together Breakfast"

• The smoke monster from the scroll is a bit of an enigma: Every other monster has been a corrupted gem or a minion made by a gem such as the baby centipeetles or the watermelon Stevens. If it was a minion made by a corrupted gem, how scary is that gem!? If not then what exactly was it and where did it come from?
  • Another alien race? Home world gems seem to acknowledge that there are several different races to the extent to consider humans as vermin. Perhaps it is a vengeful inhabitant of a planet that had been conquered.
  • Maybe it was something a human magic user summoned?
  • Joe Johnston, one of the storyboard artists, implies that the ink used to write the scroll was made using crushed Gems.

Cat Fingers

"Cat Fingers"

• What's the extent of the Gems's transformation powers? I mean, by all logic, they should be tremendously useful, but are hardly used apart from when Amethyst wants to prank someone. For example, in the episode "Laser Light Cannon" the Gems have to destroy an evil eye slowly approaching Earth, but can't get near it. So, while Steven searches for his mother's cannon, the Gems try having Garnet physically throw Amethyst towards the thing. Now, granted, Garnet's super strong and can throw tremendously long and hard, but why don't one of the gems try turning into a cannon themselves, or a giant slingshot or something? And, even if that particular instant could be disputed, there are numerous other occasions when transforming into something would be useful, but are completely ignored (even when discounting every monster fight in which all they'd have to do was to turn into Godzilla or something). I'd wager that the transformations were completely cosmetic—and thus only useful for things like disguising and pranking—but that's clearly not true since in the episode the tranformation powers were introduced, "Cat Fingers", Steven accidentally turn his body into cat heads that work independently from himself. Thus, the transformations are more than just cosmetic. So, again, why don't the Gems use their transformation powers more often?
  • There's a difference though. Steven is half human and the gems are completely made of light. Organic shapeshifting would bring things into life while light constructs are just cosmetic and can sometimes provide a meager powerup.
  • Even if the Gems could transform into a physical duplicate of Rose's cannon, it's doubtful they could replicate the sheer power of the cannon. Basically, while their shapeshifting is highly versatile, it's likely it can't significantly enhance their combat potential. Sure, fusing two gems comes with a powerup to match because two gems are in one body, but one gem must have limits.
  • Forming into a sling shot or any sort of mechanical object would place their body under stresses that they're likely not able to handle. And shapeshifting in combat just places you in a body that you're not trained in using. Overall strength likely wouldn't change, and it's possible overall weight and density wouldn't either (which would make large forms really impractical).
    • Stressing and potentially cracking and/or corrupting Gems by shape-shifting into over-clocked energy weapons is a VERY VERY BAD idea in the SU 'verse, since it can create Gem monsters or outright kill the Gem in question.
    • Shapeshifting requires a great deal of focus. To the point where Gems can't do it at all if they're too emotional. Combine that with the other limitations listed above and you can see why it's not useful enough for combat purposes.
  • It's such a significant use of energy compared to the output.
    • A thought on this: Amethyst is the only Crystal Gem who eats regularly, which is what gives humans energy. It's possible that gems can also gain at least a marginal amount of energy from eating. Since only Amethyst eats, only she has the tiny energy bump necessary for her constant play with shapeshifting.

Bubble Buddies

"Bubble Buddies"

• Why didn't Steven simply ask somebody else to walk up the hill and inform the Gems that he and Connie were trapped in the bubble?
  • This is the kid who suggested getting hit by a roller coaster as a way to break out. He may just have been so far on the track of "gotta break this bubble" that such a simple solution didn't occur to him. And Connie didn't know the Gems all that well and was mostly following Steven's lead.
  • It's also possible that Steven simply wasn't taking their predicament seriously. He's been in much more dangerous situations than this, and he was reasonably sure the Gems would get him out eventually.

Tiger Millionaire

"Tiger Millionaire"

• Why doesn't the crowd think it's weird that Purple Puma has a woman's voice? I don't think Amethyst actually said much when she was wrestling but she still grunts and stuff, right...?
  • The crowd isn't that close, she doesn't talk much, looks hyper masculine, and her voice is deep enough to pass for grunts and yells. I don't see any plot holes here.
    • OP here. Yeah, looking at the episode again, she's actually pretty much completely silent as The Purple Puma. She doesn't even grunt or yell like I thought I remembered her doing. BUT there is that one instance where she's arguing with Pearl and Garnet when they interrupt the match. Shouldn't the audience have heard that?
    • They probably did, but didn't care too much. They've seen and heard weirder.
    • A bit of a stretch, but considering the general reaction to Stevonnie (like Ronaldo automatically using "they" instead of he or she as pronouns for them on the Keep Beach City Weird blog), it's possible that Beach City is just generally more open to those who identify as gender neutral than in the real world, and as such care less about if someone's voice "matches" their gender presentation.
    • That doesn't work. Stevonnie's gender (possibly lack there of) is difficult to tell. Everyone just assumed they were either a girl or very pretty boy and the fused kids didn't think to correct them. Ronaldo uses "they" as the pronoun for Stevonnie only after learning of who they are on his blog. Most likely, the people of Beach City are so accustomed to weirdness that they didn't mention the few time the Purple Puma actually spoke as not fitting. If they accepted the purple skin, I could see them allowing the voice to slide.

Giant Woman

"Giant Woman"

• In "Laser Light Cannon", when attempting to destroy the Red Eye before it could come to Earth, why didn't Pearl and Amethyst try fusing into Opal and shooting an arrow at it? While Pearl and Amethyst may not get along, with a dangerous force threatening to destroy them, Steven and their home, you'd think they'd be able to push their pride aside and work together to fuse. In "The Return", they were able to fuse into Opal in an attempt to fight against the Homeworld ship, so why couldn't they have done the same for the Red Eye, especially when throwing Amethyst at it wasn't doing anything?
  • Several possible explanations: a) Since Steven took some time to go for the cannon, it could be that they had already tried fusing, realized they didn't have much range, and decided to try to throw Amethyst (Garnet might be stronger than Opal). b) The problem was not range, but the strength of the arrow (They know their weapons, and realized it would do nothing) or c) They simply couldn't fuse because Steven wasn't there/in immediate danger.
  • And of course the meta reasons is just that they weren't ready to introduce her in "Laser Light Cannon". That would have made this episode somewhat pointless.
  • This episode pretty clearly established how difficult it is for Pearl and Amethyst to fuse in the first place. Even if they thought to try it, it definitely wouldn't have worked.
• Where'd the Heaven Beetle get the tiny furniture and game console?
  • At the local flea market?

So Many Birthdays

"So Many Birthdays"

• So the old-timey picture in "So Many Birthdays": is it supposed to just be a parody of Watson and the Shark the Gems had done or in the Steven Uni-verse were they the ones to save Brook Watson and be the subjects of the painting? Yes, I'm aware how Garnet saying "the hard part was getting the shark to pose" leans on the side of parody.
• If Steven's age fluctuates depending on his mood, does that mean he could be immortal, too, as long as he's young at heart? (Or as long as he doesn't start feeling old enough to die.)
  • It means he's probably as immortal as the gems, as soon as he learns to master his shapeshifting.
  • That or that since he lacks control over the powers of his gem, it was the source of fluctuation.
  • As of "Steven's Birthday" we know that he hasn't actually changed physically in several years. Presumably, when his powers manifested, he stopped aging unconsciously without realizing. Since a handful of years mean nothing to Gems and they aren't all that clear on human development, none of the Crystal Gems noticed. Greg may have, but he could easily have assumed that Steven was just short for some reason. That or he could have been somewhat willfully blind since he doesn't want his child to grow up too quickly. Since Steven is so unique, nobody could tell exactly how his body is supposed to work.
  • Greg most likely didn't realize that Steven wasn't aging because he didn't socalize with the other parents and seen their children (Steven is homeschooled). It wasn't until Connie pointed out that Steven looked identical for 4 years in a row that Greg clued in. Greg also wouldn't be able to tell either since he's watched Steven grow up, and you never notice someone slowly growing if you've been there the entire time (which is why only your distant relatives can see the difference).
• Okay, if Steven's age depends on how young he feels, is it possible for him to age backwards? (i.e. an infant)
  • Presumably. If his age fluctuation was a result of inexperience with his powers rather than his biology, then probably not.
  • At the end, I thought Steven looked a little smaller and sounded a little squeakier than usual. I'm assuming he can go backwards based on that ending.
  • In "Steven's Birthday", Steven aged back into a baby after he forced himself to look older all day.
• Do the events of So Many Birthdays mean that Steven IS immortal? I mean if an old body can kill him even if he's young, doesn't that mean that a young body WOULDN'T kill him even if he's old? Once he gains control over his shapeshifting, can't he keep himself young forever?
  • Most likely. But we see him aging mentally, so Steven will probably grow up continuously without thinking about it. Maybe he'll start slowing down in his late fifties or so?
• Steven has lived with the Crystal Gems his whole life, so how come he realises only now that the Gems have never celebrated their birthdays? It's not like he's completely ignorant of the concept of a birthday, since he does celebrate his own, and based on the various parties he throws in this episode, he does seem to have a pretty good idea what birthdays are supposed to be like. So why hasn't he ever noticed his three "mothers" don't celebrate theirs?

Onion Trade

"Onion Trade"

• Did the chars said same guy or game guy in the latest ep?
  • The figurine was Dave Guy, and the one Steven wanted was Ranger Guy.

Steven the Sword Fighter

"Steven the Sword Fighter"

• Pearl has previously stated that Gems can die if fatally wounded. If that was the case, why can Pearl regenerate after being stabbed?
  • Probably because it wasn't an instantly fatal wound, but a grievous injury nonetheless. Also, Garnet explains the Gem's regeneration mechanism shortly afterwards.
  • A fatal wound for a Gem is more likely to be actually getting their gemstone destroyed, rather than the chest wound Pearl wound up with.
• Pearl normally wields her spear with her left hand, yet she sword-fights with her right?
  • Maybe she's ambidextrous?
    • And even if she's not like that naturally, knowing Pearl, she'd likely train herself to fight with both hands.
  • In "Ocean Gem", Pearl's seen Dual Wielding two spears. So it looks like ambidextrous is confirmed.
  • Some Ambidextrous people can't actually perform the same tasks with both hands, but each hand can perform a task better than the other (which is why they use both hands equally, as opposed to relying on one hand for all tasks). Maybe Pearl is simply better at swordfighting with her right hand, while her left hand is better with the spear.
  • It's also possible that, being as a gem's body is only a hard-light hologram, the concept of left/right-handedness simply doesn't apply.
  • Pearl is thousands of years old. She had more than enough time to train herself with both hands.
• Why would anyone make a sparring partner that would stab you in the chest or even try to kill you at all?
  • Guess she figured it made for better training, but yeah, it is dangerous.
  • If Pearl loses, she just spends a couple weeks regenerating. Dangerous, yes, but far less so than it would be to a human, and it can't be disputed that the risk factor would provide incentive to improve.
  • Pearl has a big head and didn't think she'd ever lose to the hologram.
  • Pearl just likes it hard and rough.
    • That could have been worded better...
  • She's about a thousand years old and has presumably accumulated more sword fighting experience than any human ever could. If Holo-Pearl can slice apart a tree with a balloon sword, and real Pearl can defeat it with relative ease, she has to be at level where non-lethal sparring just doesn't cut it anymore.
  • Being stabbed through the chest isn't fatal for a Crystal Gem. As long as the sparring bot is incapable of targeting or damaging her gem, it's incapable of killing her, at worst causing injuries with a lengthy recovery. Also, it only stabbed Pearl because she stopped to have a conversation. Very much a lucky shot.
  • In "Sworn to the Sword", it's shown that Pearl doesn't exactly value her life that much, especially since she can regenerate. It's not a stretch to think she developed the holo-pearl specifically for lethal situations, so that she may better train herself to make the ultimate sacrifice for Rose, repeatedly.
  • You'll note that The Terror Pearl (After "The Answer", that's the name I use to differentiate between her and other Pearls) also goes straight to training with real weapons with Connie. Gems are really hard to hurt in any kind of meaningful way, so concepts like safety equipment just don't occur to them readily.
  • While a 'fail-safe' built into the holo-Pearl probably would have been a good idea, it's also worth mentioning that at the time the holo-Pearl was just constantly repeating three actions. It just happens that on the third action, Pearl was distracted. It wasn't trying to kill her, it just seemed to have the right timing. Or wrong? As for killing Steven, I doubt Pearl's holos would aim for anything but a gem. But this one wasn't made to fight Steven, and isn't programmed not to fatally wound an organic body.
• So Gems lose they bodies and them regrow from their gems... except that Garnet has two gems. What would happen if they were separated from each other?
  • Maybe they would be sort of magnetically connected to each other until Garnet's body healed? That way you couldn't just pull them apart, and they could stay that way until Garnet's body was restored.
  • Or maybe Garnet is a fusion of two Gems.
    • This is confirmed as of "Jail Break".

Lion 2: The Movie

"Lion 2: The Movie"

• Has it ever been specifically stated whether or not Greg and Rose got married? A lot of people have said they were on here and other places, but as far as I can tell, they're only making assumptions.
  • Who would perform the ceremony? Would it even be legal, given that Rose isn't human and the applicable laws probably don't account for Starfish Aliens? Which raises the question, what is the legal status of the Crystal Gems? They don't hide their presence at all, so the government must know about them (even though, if Beach City's local gov't is any indication, they are even less competent than in real life).
  • "Gem Harvest" confirms that Greg and Rose never married.
• What is the deal with the giant penny in Rose's armory? I mean, seriously, why does Rose's secret armory have a giant penny in it? Is there any possible explanation for it, or is it just a straight-up BLAM thrown in as a joke?
  • It's a Batman reference.
  • Yes, that's the meta explanation for the penny, but it doesn't explain why it's there, in-universe.
• Remember in "Laser Light Cannon" where they had to find the titular cannon in Greg's storage unit? Later, in "Lion 2: The Movie" we see the Quartizine Trio and in "Rose's Scabbard" the place where we find it is in Rose's Armory. If the Gems didn't have that much faith in Greg having the Laser Light Cannon, then why didn't Pearl just take Steven to his mother's armory and get the Quartizine Trio?
  • Rose's armory isn't precisely close (a portal trip, a three hour hike and then a 90° climb) and by the time of "Laser Light Cannon", it's probable that the Gems assumed Steven wasn't able to activate the whole thing to take the cannons out. And even Pearl looked fairly surprised at what Rose stored in her armory, so it's possible she didn't know the Quartizine trio were there.
    • Put simply, they didn't have time. It took less than an hour for Steven and Greg to find the cannon barely in the nick of time, and considering the armory is a six-hour round-trip, it would not have worked.

Rose's Room

"Rose's Room"

• Why did Rose's Room try to create the whole town rather than just send him out there? Is the room stupid or does Steven just suck at programming magical cloud rooms?
  • Steven didn't phrase his wish properly, so the room tried grant his request the best it could: by recreating the entire town. If he had specified that he actually did want to leave the room for real, it would probably have just opened up for real. Given how the Gems tried to warn Steven away from it, we can assume that they knew getting it to properly respond to your desires is more difficult than it seems.
  • The room does actually give Steven exactly what he wanted: to go out and get donuts, and not see the Crystal Gems. With Garnet standing right outside the door, that would only be possible by creating an entire Beach City with no Crystal Gems for Steven to have to see.
  • The room was made for someone who understood exactly how it worked. The possibility that someone might have both the security clearance to control it and no idea what its limitations were just wasn't on the table before Steven happened.
  • The Gems were very panicked in this episode. Steven really wasn't supposed to be in there, and so anything that happens in there that shouldn't have is entirely on him, in the sense that he is a foreign element.

Coach Steven

"Coach Steven"

• There's something that really confuses me about fusion. Let's look at Sugilite; she shows a callous disregard for Steven's safety, something neither Amethyst nor Garnet would do, and when she splits up, both Amethyst and Garnet refer to her in the third person ("Sugilite overworked our bodies"). So when two Gems fuse, a new consciousness takes over the fused body, right? But then Fusion Cuisine comes around, and you can clearly see the three Crystal Gems fighting amongst each other while they're fused into Alexandrite. So... which is it? Do they retain their original consciousnesses, or are their minds fused into one?
  • The whole minds fused into one thing was only because they spent so long as Sugilite. Pearl even directly says: "You've been fused for too long! You're losing yourselves!"
  • Sugilite has likely been used several times before, and so has formed a consciousness of her own. Maybe Alexandrite has very rarely been used (for several obvious reasons), and more to the point is formed of a highly unstable mix of personalities.
    • Yeah Alexandrite does seem like something that was rarely used, I thinking they either use two being fusions or four being fusions with rose, a three-being fusion is basically like that time in Power Rangers: Dino Thunder where the Megazord only had two out of three of its components, incomplete and really never used except in desperation as something to fight with on that level.
    • Well to be fair, it is a four being fusion between Amethyst, Pearl, Ruby and Sapphire.
    • Yeah fair enough I just consider Garnet an individual all of herself, but I guess we'll never know if it be any different if Sapphire and Ruby fused individually on this.
  • Honestly, Sugilite doesn't show much of a disregard to Steven as it seems. She shows about as much disregard as Amethyst would over something Pearl would react more strongly to. If anything, Sugilite seemed to carry a good deal of Amethyst's big sis vibe towards Steven, what with asking him if he wants to see something cool and letting him pick where she starts smashing.
  • It indeed seems that two Gems being fused for a long time results in the fusion becoming its own consciousness and taking over, Garnet herself being an example. If she refers to Ruby and Sapphire, she refers to them as "they", never "me", for instance: "I'm the embodiment of Ruby and Sapphire's love for each other"/"I'm sure Ruby and Sapphire would like to meet you, Steven, but I'm not un-fusing for laundry", when telling Pearl about her un-fusing in "Keystone Motel" she says in an upset voice "I came undone!" like she herself disappears when un-fusing. My impression of all that was that Garnet indeed is her own person "created" from Ruby and Sapphire, rather than being the constant collective actions and words from the two. Only when Garnet gets really freaked out or angry such as in "Keeping It Together" and "Keystone Motel" does her personality "unravel" to withdraw back to Ruby and Sapphire.
• Can the Gems bleed? I'd say no because their bodies are just projections from their gems, but then why can they blush?
  • Simply adjusting the color in their cheeks. As to "why" they blush... it's always struck me as odd how much of their tech (the heart of the temple, the hand spaceship with its veins...) is based on organic life, and the curiously organic nature of their bodies. Gems do seem to emulate biological life, though I could only speculate as to why.
  • I'm sure they have actual blood in their projections, since Amethyst can get sick from food poisoning, Rose can develop a baby in her uterus, and Pearl mentions food "passing through you". Not to mention the gems can cry and sweat in their human forms. So I think it wouldn't be a stretch that they have actual blood that they do not really need.
    • Blushing is probably more of a social function than a biological one. Gems seem to have many of the same emotions as humans so they can express them similarly; they imitate blushing in that their skin changes color but they don't have blood itself. Rose canonically shapeshifted a womb to form Steven, but having organs and blood all the time would be a disadvantage since they're unnecessary parts that can get injured/infected and slow the Gem down. Also, Pearl didn't bleed at all when stabbed, and Garnet just sort of shattered with a distinctively non-bloodlike ooze that disappeared when her physical form was destroyed. So it seems like they can copy biological processes without actually having biological parts. As for the hand ship (and Red Eye), it's been speculated that they have tech that can merge together into a giant humanoid form, though it's unknown why they'd pick that formation.
  • Pearl ended up with a bunch of red scratches during her fight with Sugilite. It might not be literal blood, but she'd got some kind of red substance inside her body, along with blue stuff for blushing.
• You know Garnet being excited to fuse with Amethyst is kind of weird considering what we know now. I mean later she does say that three is a crowd... going with the fusion is sex metaphor... did garnet just wanted to add some spice into her "bed" so to speak that day.
  • Fusion being analogous to sex is pure Fanon and not supported by show canon. The Crystal Gems had no problem teaching Steven to fuse, with the intention that he'd do so with them (not knowing fusions with humans were possible); while some of the fusions have a suggestive nature to them, others don't at all — Ruby and Sapphire's fusion is simply a Twirl of Love. Also the situations when the Gems fuse are almost invariably because they needed the fused individual — it's yet another tool in the Gem's arsenal. Garnet wanted to fuse with Amethyst because Sugilite's raw destructive force was exactly what they needed for that situation — and, given Sugilite loudly declares "I forgot how great it feels to be me!" upon appearing, chances are pretty good that Amethyst isn't the only one who gets a kick out of being a towering, Nicki Minaj-voiced engine of destruction every now and then.
  • Fusions have been displayed as being very intimate, but that doesn't have to mean romantic or sexual.
• Speaking of what it takes to make a gem "poof", why is it that Pearl poofs when stabbed through the gut, yet she's still able to stand after someone as strong as Sugilite beats her up?
  • A wound inflicted by a stab may have disrupted her form. As aforementioned, their forms are essentially holograms but with mass and they seem to be able to ingest food and "pass" it. Stabbing a Gem's physical form would be far more lethal than slamming with a fist — the damage is being spread out over her entire form and isn't penetrating into her body, disrupting it.

Steven and the Stevens

"Steven and the Stevens"

• As much I appreciate the story, they honestly don't explore the Gems' mission as heroes enough. Like, why do they need to gather these strange artifacts? Most of them (like the Time-Glass) seem perfectly safe where they are.
  • Safekeeping. Would you rather leave extremely powerful magical artifacts sitting out in the open on Earth or locked away in your nearly impenetrable fortress that nobody but you can enter? Besides, if, for some reason, it became necessary for you to use the item, you'll have access to it.
  • It's pretty obvious they're lying to Steven. At the very least just not mentioning some key aspects of their lives. He didn't even know the monster gems were once like Garnet, Pearl, and Amethyst, and were somehow corrupted into being like they are now. It's better to keep them somewhere safe where they can't cause any harm to anything, with the possibility of healing them at a later date still on the table.
  • As of the reveal of the Homeworld Gems, the answer seems to be that they're collecting all those artifacts in case the Homeworld Gems return.
• What was up with the water in the climax? At the start of the episode, Garnet had maybe 3 spare seconds to grab Steven; but when all the time-clones start showing up, suddenly they've got a minute and a half to duke it out, give a speech, and all disintegrate, before the ocean comes down on the Sea Shrine?
  • Maybe all the Time Glass replicas and Stevens from different timelines in the room confused it, and only started to flood once time balance had been restored.
• Why is the water even a problem? Gems don't need to breathe. They could have just left Steven at home (because they've done this before and know what happens if you make the wrong choice).

An Indirect Kiss

"An Indirect Kiss"

• Connie has her eyesight healed by Steven's saliva and no longer needs her glasses. In the next episode, she's still wearing them. Why?
  • Did you actually watch "Indirect Kiss" all the way through? She just pops out her lenses and keeps wearing the frames.
  • Ah, yes, sorry. I missed that. But that was to keep her parents from getting suspicious, right? Wouldn't they have eventually noticed when, I dunno, lights didn't reflect off the in existent lens?
    • You can get fake lenses.
  • You're missing the point. The symbolism of the scene is that Connie's lenses were ROSE-COLORED. So now she's seeing things in a new light, both figuratively AND literally. If you pay attention to the general theme(s) of the show this should come clear; it's not a scene meant to be taken at face value (similar to how Greg's mantra about pork chops and hot dogs isn't really true in practice but the point still remains). Going back to the rose-colored lenses, this is indicating a change in Connie's character. To see the world through rose-colored glasses is essentially a form of "nostalgia goggles" which means you're seeing the world in a more idealistic, feel-good light rather than the matter-of-fact or in some cases unfortunate way things really are. TL;DR symbolism and character development.
  • In "Nightmare Hospital", it's shown that her parents are so overprotective of her and busy with their lives that they didn't notice that her glasses were lens-less.

Mirror Gem

"Mirror Gem"

• So if all of the Monster Gems are "normal" Gems that have been corrupted, what's going to happen when Steven eventually heals (because we all know it's heading in that direction) the one he "tamed?"
  • Probably a similar situation as with Lapis. I'd wager that at least some of the corrupted Gems aren't going to be happy about having been kept in bubbles for so long, which may cause conflict, but it seems reasonable that the Gem that was the Centipeetle would be loyal to Steven.
  • As of "Monster Reunion", they will probably be happier with the Crystal Gems capturing than with the Diamonds corrupting. Also, it was stated in "Kindergarten Kid" that Gems in bubbles are in a kind of stasis.
• Do the Gems have no ethical issue with using their own kind to power magical artifacts, obviously Lapis didn't take kindly to it, so why and how is it done?
  • The Homeworld Gems were fine with harming Earth in the past, so they don't seem to have been much for the rights of living things. Rose Quartz doesn't seem like the kind of person that would use someone like that, but she apparently didn't have an issue with leaving Lapis in there. We still don't know why Lapis was turned into a magic mirror, so we don't know how common that is, or whether it was some kind of punishment, or what. All we know is that none of the Gems wanted to free Lapis, so whatever ethical concerns they have are not strong enough for them to go around freeing Gems that were made into artifacts.
  • Given she flew home as soon as she could, and Homeworld Gems came back not long after, their fears seem perfectly justified for not releasing her.
  • Pearl didn't seem to know the mirror's Gem was still sentient in there, otherwise she wouldn't have given the mirror to Steven. This headscratcher still applies, however, for the Crystal Gems' reactions when it later showed signs of having a mind of its own.
    • Given that all the other Gems on the planet were corrupted at this point, they might have assumed the same of Lapis. I always figured that part of that horror they showed was because they didn't realize the Mirror Gem could still be... sane?
  • Could this hint at tactics used during the war between the Gems? I mean, could it be possible that Rose purposefully turned enemy Gems into objects in order to not have to kill them? Then again, it is basically known that Lapis was put into the mirror before the war erupted, because Pearl did say the things that the mirror should have shown Homeworld (unless what would have been shown would be Lapis' memories by extension).
  • If sealing Gems inside artifacts neutralizes them, it's a far better alternative than outright killing them. Considering Lapis is on the wrong side and seriously powerful but not objectively a bad person, maybe Rose considered it the best way to deal with her. Thinking about it, that might have been what gave her the idea of implanting her gem into Steven.
  • In "Same Old World", it's revealed that Lapis was placed in the mirror by a Homeworld soldier. Rose had nothing to do with it, and she likely never realized that the Lapis-mirror was sentient.
  • Considering some Gems (like the Pyramid Temple or the Desert Glass) don't seem to have much sentience, it's likely some Gems are created to have the shape of buildings or other items instead of being a person. The Crystal Gems probably thought it was the case with the mirror, thinking it was powered by a non-sentient gemstone. It's only when Lapis showed emotion through the images she recorded that they realized it wasn't the case.

Ocean Gem

"Ocean Gem"

• Why is Lapis so ungrateful to Steven after he not only freed her from the mirror, but also fixed her gem to let her fly home? She just takes off and leaves him to die from falling off the tower. If it wasn't for Lion, I highly doubt that Steven's gem could have survived a fall from that height, to say nothing of his human side. I know the Gems can be cold sometimes, but nearly killing someone you called a friend, who fixed your problems TWICE!? I mean, maybe she assumed that Steven could save himself, but seeing as how he was completely ineffectual in the fight until he learned how to summon his conflict ceasing shield...
  • Maybe she felt betrayed and confused? you got to remember that When Steven got Lapis out of the mirror, she was confused that there was another Crystal Gem that had helped her, much to Steven's surprise then the Gems come out with their weapons and are threatening her. and so the situation becomes this. "I'm leaving and I want you to come with me" "I don't know what you're talking about!?" "You have a choice, them.. or me" "But..." "Fine you made your choice!" I mean when you think about it that way, Lapis thought her new friend would come with her only to end up seemingly betray her... that and you got the whole confusion of the situation.
  • She might have wanted to go home as quickly as possible — she'd been stuck in a mirror for who knows how many years and had just been fighting the Crystal Gems, and simply left assuming Steven would be alright (either one of the other Gems could catch him, or he could help himself).
  • Another thing to consider is that Steven never told her that he's part human, just that he's a Gem. So, maybe she just figured that he's like all other Gems and in full control of his powers (remember, Gems are both age and sexless, so they may not even go through the child-stage of development the way humans do). If so, she might have assumed he'd just summon his shield and land uncomfortably, but entirely safely.
• Pearl was driving Greg's van, does she have a driver's licence? It's illegal to drive without a licence. Did Pearl go to driver's ed? How did she find the time? I hope Pearl's not illegally driving without a licence.
  • Really?
  • Wait, that's actually an interesting question. I remember that in "Gem Glow", when Amethyst said that she stole a bunch of cookie cats with the other Crystal Gems, Pearl said right after that she went back and paid for them, which made me believe that unlike the other Gems, Pearl does care about the legal systems of Earth. So I suppose she would have a driver's license, and also the other forms of documentation that a driver's license requires. But that raises another question: why does she know how to drive a car in the first place? Not only gems have much advanced means of transportation (warp pads), but they can also shapeshift into flying animals and objects (well, at least Amethyst does it all the time). I think it makes sense that Pearl would want to know how a car works, but why did she felt the need to actually learn how to drive one? And thinking about it... where did she get that money?
  • I guess the car thing, she probably went through a phase where she was actually addicted to driving (kind of like Garnet being addicted to "Meat Beat Mania" in "Arcade Mania") where she must drive, then somehow got over it. And the money, I guess there was a period of time where it was just Amethyst and Garnet going on missions so she was bored to tears then decided to get a paying job to pass the time until she's needed again. I guess it was during Rose Quartz pregnancy then after baby Steven was born, taking care of him was enough to keep her busy so she quit her paying job.
  • When Pearl was playing the arcade driving game in "Arcade Mania", she asked which button the turn signal was, implying she knows at least the basics of driving.
  • In recent episodes she's seen repairing the car with Greg, and was able to build a spaceship out of scrap parts. Maybe vehicles is just her thing; Amethyst likes to eat so maybe Pearl's mundane human activity is car enthusiasts.
    • So is Pearl secretly The Stig?
  • Well, "Last One out of Beach City" reveals Pearl doesn't have a driver's license because she is a 6,000-year-old being from another planet and probably wouldn't qualify to be a U.S. citizen. She had to evade the police because she's unlicensed.
• This is probably just a nitpick, but during the battle scene in "Ocean Gem", why didn't Pearl just summon Holo-Pearl to help her when she noticed that the water doppelganger she was fighting split in two? Wouldn't that be more effective than fighting both at the same time with two spears?
  • Holo-pearl probably is not very useful in a real fight. It is fine for a sparring match because they can have a by-the-book sparring match, but in a real battle pearl probably has to do quick last second life-or-death decisions against enemies she isn't familiar with and that may be too complex for her hologram to handle.
  • Steven beat her remember? She lost to a really impractical and telegraphed attack, just because she wasn't programed to handle it. Also consider the fact that if the theory of Pearl taking so long to regenerate because the hologram was active is true, it would drain strength from her to use it.
• So, is there actually a difference between Gems and Crystal Gems, or is one just the long name? Because Steven and the Crystal Gems use the terms interchangeably, and Lapis didn't exactly stick around long to explain if there was a difference.
  • I'm guessing "Gems" is the species, while the Crystal Gems are simply a specific group of Gems, since Lapis says "They're the Crystal Gems!" as if she's not also one.
• If the trapped Gems can be healed with Steven's (not to mention Rose, before the show) powers, then why haven't they freed all of them yet?
  • Actually, they can only heal broken gems. There hasn't yet been an actual occasion of them healing a monster gem.
  • Not to mention that it is stated that even Rose couldn't help the fully corrupted gems.
  • It's most likely that Rose's magic can only heal physical ailments. Whatever drove the corrupted gems insane is not a physical defect, therefore Rose's magic can't fix them. Garnet was just speaking metaphorically when she said Rose tried to "heal" them.
  • That or they collectively forgot. It has happened before.
  • Attempted and failed as of "Monster Reunion".
• Why didn't Lapis just drop a ginormous block of water on them, or at least send a super fast stabbing attack? We know she has the power for the giant block, and the speed as seen in the Garnet Vs. Water Clone Garnet fight, and the ruthlessness is shown with the drowning attack on Steven and Connie, so... what gives?!?
  • Lapis just wanted to get back to Homeworld, only lashing out at the crystal gems because they were pursuing her, so it's possible she only intended to beat them back, instead of more lethal tactics. Its possible that lapis only created the constructs to slow them down. As far as the drowning tactic, honestly not sure. Given that the attack seems to hold Steven and Connie in place, it might be that it was only intended to immobilise them, Lapis just forgot (or didn't know) that humans need air.
    • Then why didn't she try that with the others? The fact that she only tried to drown the targets susceptible to it strongly suggests that she knew humans need air to live.
  • Lapis already had a purpose in mind for the water she was using, so using large quantities of it for attack would have been counter-productive. Her goal wasn't to fight the Crystal Gems, it was to build a tower.

House Guest

"House Guest"

• Is there any particular reason that the Greg doesn't live in the house along with Steven? The Gems don't really use it for much other than hanging out, and it would almost certainly be more comfortable than living in his van. It's an especially weird setup when you take the Word of God from above into account where it's stated that he basically built the house and pays for the utilities. Sure, it would inconvenience the Gems slightly, but... for all practical purposes it's his house.
  • Greg himself has repeatedly mentioned how he's not comfortable with magic stuff, and more importantly his relationship with the gems is still very awkward. They all still feel some resentment towards him for taking Rose from her.
  • I seriously can't imagine him not living with his own son just because he's uncomfortable with magic stuff, especially given he fakes injury in this episode to live with him longer. The show really doesn't provide a reason for it at all.
    • Seems a good enough reason to me. Come on, the very first episode had the entire house being attacked by baby Centipeetles. I doubt Greg would have wanted to be there for that. He's shown again and again that he respects the Gems and what they do, but just feels like he's in the way a lot. This was a short-term thing, implying that he would be back in his van conceivably when the 'break' wore off. Long-term would likely be too much for all of them.
• Along the same lines, is it weird to anyone else that the Gems regularly leave Steven alone in the house? I mean, during the day it's no big deal, but at night they all head into the temple, essentially leaving Steven alone every night. It's especially gratuitous when they know for a fact that the temple is occasionally attacked by monsters. Heck, in "Catch and Release" he straight up gets kidnapped because they couldn't be bothered to keep an eye on him even when they know that there are enemies around.
  • Actually, Pearl tends to sneak into Steven's room at night to watch him sleep once he's gone under; she just hadn't come in yet. They still got to him in less than two minutes, though.
  • Also, Garnet can see the future, and is explicitly stated to always be watching for dangers to Steven. It's entirely likely that the kidnapping only happened because she saw it would happen, saw that Steven would be safe, and saw that it would let them capture Peridot, which was enough for her to allow it to happen.

Space Race

"Space Race"

• Something that hasn't come up, but just realized... what is the status of Greg's parents? He has mentioned his aunt and uncle as being pilots and in regards to the barn, but nothing about his parents themselves. Are they deceased or is he on just that bad of terms with them??
  • Greg did tell Steven that if anything happened to him he would be "fresh out of family". So yes I'd say much of Greg's immediate family is either deceased or don't talk to him.
  • As of Future, Greg’s estranged from his parents, having resented their strict upbringing of him.
• Based on numerous serious revelations later in the show, Pearl's desire to take Steven to space and see "Gem dominated" worlds seems utterly absurd and unthinkable. She's considered property back in the Diamond Authority and planets under Gem control are eugenic police states built on top of exterminated native species and sucked dry of resources. Even at her most depressed, human and earth loathing point it seems unthinkable she'd ever consider the idea of going anywhere near Diamond controlled territory, since doing so would both be an act of personal betrayal against Rose and would most likely result in her and Steven's death.
  • She merely wanted to view them not go down there, and she was probably remembering things through rose colored glasses and not the bad parts. Out of all of them, Pearl was the most likely to feel homesick, Garnet, with good reason, left Homeworld and never looked back, and Amethyst was born on Earth, and doesn’t understand Gem culture really much more than Steven.
  • Consider: There is so much of Pearl's past she can't share with Steven, either because she doesn't want to put that on him, or because she can't talk about Pink Diamond. By introducing him to space travel, she can give him a little window into a part of her past that isn't going to be horribly traumatic.

Island Adventure

"Island Adventure"

• Sadie gets bitten by a fish and afterwards gets the wound bandaged. Fridge logic starts to set in when you remember that Steven has healing powers that he can use at will. Why didn't Steven just use that?
  • Maybe Sadie just thought having someone's saliva in her wound was too gross or something.
  • In "House Guest", Steven initially forgets about his healing powers. They're pretty new, and he's not yet used to having powers, so he likely forgot.
    • Confirmed in "The Test" when Pearl says that Steven has lost the confidence to use his healing powers.

Fusion Cuisine

"Fusion Cuisine"

• So, in "So Many Birthdays" Pearl says she likes pie. But later in "Fusion Cuisine" we find out she thinks eating is disgusting. I... CANNOT COMPREHEND.
  • She said she likes pie, not that she likes eating pie. Maybe she just likes baking pies, or looking at them, or smelling them (I'm pretty sure it's the former, though). Maybe she used to bake them just to sell. That would explain where she got that money.
    • Word of God confirms this. Though it was probably just a sloppy retcon.
  • We all have our guilty pleasures.
  • She may enjoy pie enough that she's willing to endure the digestion process to taste it.
  • Or maybe she doesn't digests the pie. She just puts it in her mouth, chews a little, then spits it out. (A common tactic among the eating-disordered. Lbr, Pearl's other neuroses contribute to an Ambiguous Disorder that could encompass aspects of several human disorders.)
  • Or she could have said she likes it just to make Steven happy.
  • The plot wouldn't have worked if they couldn't find an excuse for Pearl not to go.
  • Pearl only says she likes pie, whereas there are several food related episodes where she is visibly disgusted, Frybo and Together Breakfast already indicated she didn't enjoy food.
  • Her visible disgust at food only starts after she re-forms in "Steven the Sword Fighter". In "Together Breakfast" she says she wants to go for pizza and that it's good. We interpreted her reaction to Frybo as being the mess of the ketchup on her, rather than that it's food. In Rebecca Sugar's AMA on Reddit, she said that when Gems die, a new version of them — with differences extending beyond their appearance — is what comes out at the end.
• This may sound gross but, if they Gems don't need to eat, do they still go to the bathroom? It makes me wonder that because when Amethyst eats, where does the food go? Does she ever get rid of the "waste"? And I think I saw Garnet drinking in one episode (which makes since how she and Pearl were able to produce tears and saliva) For Garnet too, the juice (water or whatever it was) that Garnet drank, where does it go?
  • They can vomit, that's one way to get it out. They may also be able to assimilate it wholesale and use their magic to convert it to energy.
  • It's probably safe to assume that their human bodies include digestive systems. No reason they shouldn't be able to replicate that.
  • On a rewatch, both Pearl and Amethyst vaguely mention "passing" things back out. It stands to reason they can digest and excrete like humans can. Pearl just finds it horrible.
  • Pearl mentions that they can, but derive no nutrients from it. However they can feel it physically passing through their bodies, which disturbs Pearl to no end and Amethyst apparently finds it fun. The way she describes it, it sounds like she has to make a conscious decision to pass it through her body, so it doesn't even sound like normal human digestion.
• Steven said his reason for not bringing just one of the gems to pose as his mother was "that would be a lie". While bringing Alexandrite isn't technically any better, it's understandable since Steven views all the gems as being like moms to him anyway. Still, if being honest was such a concern to him, why was he so quick to lie to the Maheswarans about everything else?
  • Bringing Alexandrite was a really poorly thought out solution to the problem of picking a Gem to pose as his mother, when he couldn't decide. He tried to justify it to Connie that he couldn't pick just one since that would be a lie, but I don't think that was the real reason. Saying Alexandrite is his mother is just as much of a lie and he knows it. Although he is normally very honest, and, as this episode shows, he is really bad at coming up with convincing lies when he does lie, he was willing to lie to Connie's parents out of fear that they wouldn't let him hang out with Connie if they found out his family situation. Honesty wasn't the real issue. I think the real reason he begged them to fuse is that the idea of having to pick just one made him very uncomfortable. In his mind, he subconsciously felt like picking one over the others would have been like choosing favorites, or saying that one of them was more worthy than the others to be his mother figure, or that one of them was more important to him than the others. This made him really uncomfortable and he probably proposed bringing all three — in the form of Alexandrite — as a way to avoid the issue. The fact that he pushed the idea so hastily and didn't stop to consider that it was a really poor solution (having an 80-foot-tall, 6-armed, mentally unstable monster woman pose as your mother isn't really a good way to convince someone you have a normal family) is probably because he came up with it as a way to avoid making a very uncomfortable decision.
  • I have to wonder why the option of telling Connie's parents that Steven's mom was dead or some child friendly variation of the word was never brought up. Rose may not actually be dead since all she did was give up her physical form, but as far as humans care she may as well be gone forever. Telling the Maheswarans that Rose was dead wouldn't have worked best, they certainly would keep Connie from seeing Steven just because his mom is gone.
  • The truth of the matter is Connie panicked. Steven is her first friend ever, she's desperate to keep him, but Steven is also pretty weird and her parents are very strict. She was afraid they'd disapprove and so she tried to make Steven sound as normal as possible. As we see Connie's parents are only really concerned that Steven's guardians are responsible so they can trust that Connie will be safe but they couldn't tell the truth without exposing Connie's lie, which Connie thinks will mean she won't be able to keep seeing Steven. The whole mess could have been easily dealt with but Connie lied and then Steven made things worse by trying to follow the lie.
    • I highly doubt the Maheswarans would be so uptight as to not let Connie see Steven because one of his parents is deceased. Something that everyone has to experience at some point in their lives.
    • Of course they wouldn't. The point was Connie was afraid they'd freak out over his situation, and she's afraid to tell them anything because of how strict they are, and things just escalated.
• This episode makes it clear Connie hasn't told her parents anything about the Crystal Gems, so why aren't they totally shocked when Steven's "mother" turns out to be a giant magenta-skinned woman with six arms?

Watermelon Steven

"Watermelon Steven"

• Why was Amethyst panicking when the Watermelon Stevens were gonna bury her? She's a Gem, who doesn't need air and she could easily dig herself out afterwards.
  • Sand can actually be really hard to move out of once you're surrounded on all sides. It's possible she thought she wouldn't be able to be found.
  • Most likely just for comedic effect.
  • This might be a long shot, but considering that Amethyst spent most of her life alone in the Kindergarten, underground and with no-one to talk to, she might be afraid of going back underground as it would remind her of the loneliness she felt before she joined up with the Crystal Gems.

Lion 3: Straight To Video

"Lion 3: Straight To Video"

• If Rose died while giving birth to Steven, then does that mean that gems can't have babies or reproducing isn't good for their bodies? (e.g. like if Garnet had a child, she'd die too?)
  • There's really no way of knowing. Steven is already unusual being the only known human/Gem hybrid, so even if we did know how he was born, we couldn't use him to judge normal Gem reproduction or even if they usually reproduce normally at all. It's good that the show avoids As You Know exposition dumping to make interactions more natural sounding, but it is a little frustrating to get information on important parts of the setting so rarely.
  • Rose didn't die giving birth to Steven, she literally gave up her physical form to give birth to Steven. Steven is still a very strange case, but basically Rose is the gem part of him and Steven himself is the human part. But to answer your question, I don't think children really exist among the Gems as they are practically immortal and have no need to procreate. If the other gems attempted to create a child by themselves, most likely they'd just be reborn as a child if they do actually start off as children. If they were trying recreate a child with another gem, it would just be a fusion. The only way to create a child is the way Rose Quartz did, by having one with a human, which is why she sounded so happy in the Happier Home Movie to say that Steven would be human.
  • As for the example question of Garnet having a child: She'd need to have a sexual relationship with a human man (which, let's be honest, seems incredibly unlikely). Since she's a fusion, she would likely pass one of her gems on to the child and revert to whichever gem was not passed on. This is all assuming that Ruby and Sapphire are a) willing to unfuse, possibly for good, and b) willing for one of them to give up her form to become part of a half-human body, the effects of which are still unknown.
  • At least some information has been gained on Gem reproduction. The area known as the Kindergarten is apparently where at least some types of gems are produced. The Classroom Gems shorts also include one that describes that means of gem production, and no others. This suggests to me that all standard gems are grown in the ground. Rose's decision to basically reincarnate herself in to this new kind of gem that uses living human tissue instead of a hard-light hologram is something entirely new to Gemkind (at least Garnet thinks so, see episode: The Test).
• Not sure if this was answered above, but the video shows that Rose was literally pregnant as she has a protruding belly. Are they implying that she and Greg procreated normally? How does that work when she technically doesn't have a human body, or even if she had the "parts" required for having sex, how would she have all the inner workings of an actual baby growing inside of her when again, her human body isn't "real"?
  • The official answer is that she created a womb inside herself.
• What's the deal with the bubbled Bismuth in Lion's mane? Are metals going to be counted as Gems in this show, or is it going to be revealed to be from a separate species?
  • It could be any number of things. We've seen Gem technology that looked more like old rock than anything before. All we can say is that it's presence implies that Rose intended Steven to have it at some point, just like the tape and her sword. The problem is that since he knows so little about being a Gem that he doesn't recognize it as anything significant and nobody else can inform him otherwise while it's in Lion's mane.
  • There are lots of artifacts that the gems have. Although many of them are powered by gems, there are some that clearly are not, such as the stone from "the message".
  • Pearls aren't technically "gems" either.
  • Bismuth as we recognize it (in stepped squares and highly regular) is the crystalline form of bismuth (which just means it has a regular molecular structure).
  • Resolved as of "Bismuth" (kudos to whoever identified the gem, by the way).
• How did Rose know she would become part of Steven when he's born? She sounded certain, but to be certain, wouldn't it mean this happened before? It makes me wonder if there is another gem/unknown alien race hybrid out there, since it's confirmed that Steven is the first human/gem hybrid.
  • Probably because she did it on purpose. If she wanted Steven to have her powers, it would have been a necessity.
  • I don't doubt she did a lot of calculations and research beforehand. Given what she did was similar to Lapis being placed in the mirror, there is precedent for implanted gems granting power and personality.
  • It explains how Steven has his gem on his navel; it's exactly where they had to pull his crystallized umbilical cord.
• I believe somewhere it is explained that the way Rose gave birth to Steven was she shapeshifted organs to make/give birth to Steven. Could she not have just made a regular child and not give up her gem and her physical form?
  • Being that Rose is a polymorphic construct created by a space rock, She most likely gave birth to Steven in a human method, and then let herself be used as his gem. Gems don't normally reproduce at all, and never tried until Rose did.
  • My assumption would be that, the way described in the Lion III episode, Rose wanted Steven to be something special, something great. She created a being that had no likeness in the universe. The effects of the knowledge of a hybrid on the Homeworld gems is currently unknown, and may be seen in the future.
  • The recent episode showed that Rose realized she will never understand what it means to be human as long as she is a Gem. Combined with her lines from "Lion 3", it sounds like she wanted to be reborn in Steven, so that she can know what it is like to be a human.
  • It's also quite possible that Rose wanted to experience pregnancy, not caring or really thinking about what it could do to her. She may have only found out what would happen when it was too late and she didn't want to perform an abortion on herself. In addition, for all we know Rose's life creation abilities may just be limited to creating plant soldiers and things like Lion to serve her. The only way for her to have a human child may have been to simulate the human reproduction process as closely as possible.
• So, Steven's father is white, his mother had pale pink skin that can sorta pass for a white person, and Steven is white. So it remains a mystery: did he inherit his skin color from both parents, like a normal human baby would, or just his father? If his mother were a gem with some far-out color like red, purple, blue, or green, would he too have a not-possible-in-normal-humans skin tone, or would he still just be a regular white guy like his dad anyway?
  • It's like when two people who have completely different skin tones have a kid; the tone of the child's skin will be in-between. Steven's skin tone was more like his dad's than his mom's, but lighter.
  • It's not just her skin color, everything about Rose, except her height, was extremely humanlike by Gem standards. Like, what if Sapphire was his mother? How would the blue skin/one eye/possibly no legs thing have been inherited by Steven?
  • Steven didn't inherit any genetics from Rose, Rose has no genetics to pass on, her body was a projection of light. Steven is genetically a clone of Greg that also is infused with Rose's Gem. His mother could have been any other Gem and he would have looked exactly the same, just with different powers.
    • Actually Gems do carry DNA or something similar to it as it has been stated already, it's within their gem, its also heavily implied that Steven has received his curly hair and slightly stocky build from his mother,(Greg had a slightly skinnier build in his younger days so I don't think Steven got it from him) So I think Steven would look mostly the same with the minor differences if he had a different gem as a mother.
• So, I get that it's an alternate universe where aliens have openly existed on Earth for millennia, but are we really supposed to believe that there's a camcorder that writes to full-size VHS (so mid-90's-early 00's tech), but that can do custom effects like the star-shaped iris out at the push of a button, in real time? And don't tell me Rose made it, because she's literally figuring out how to use it as she's making the tape. As someone who worked in film in the 90's, it bothers me.
  • You just answered your own question. Alternate universe. Alternatively, it could be that DVDs or similar media were not created until recently and thus video is much more developed. Or that them method for reading what is on the video works by a different method, allowing edits to be made.

Warp Tour

"Warp Tour"

• Not related to the actual plot, but... is it just my imagination, or is Peridot's design based on a certain blue robot?
  • It's been confirmed already.
• How were Peridot's robots able to get to Earth in the first place if all the warps were broken? It can be assumed that Lapis Lazuli informed the Gem Homeworld about Earth's status, but the robots were clearly using a warp. Did Peridot send a robot through other means to fix a few warps and the Crystal Gems didn't notice or something? If this is the case, then repeatedly breaking the warps is only going to put off the inevitable.
  • One crashed into Steven's house. It can be assumed Peridot launched them there conventionally, then had them use the active local warps to reach the Homeworld Warp.

Alone Together

"Alone Together"

• How does Steven's fusion with other humans even work within the context of Gem fusion? Now admittedly this is all pure conjecture, but it seems like Gem fusion more or less works by more or less using the power of both the Gems to project a more powerful form. It is established that gem's bodies are more or less "illusions" but Steven's body and definitely Connie's body are not illusory… if this series had a higher content rating a screw up could result in some body horror.
  • Fusion probably just works differently for Steven, being a half Gem and all.
  • Gem powers have never shown any problems emulating or creating organic bodies before. Garnet has called their bodies illusions, but they are certainly more complicated than just a structure-less image, and have always acted like human bodies.
  • Apparently, human bodies are just as illusory as gem bodies.
  • It seems from "Cat Fingers" that Steven's gem can create a living organic being with a brain, it's own personality, a digestive system, bone structure, and senses. This is probably how he can fuse with humans, his gem literally reorganizes all the cells in his and Connie's body to become a brand-new fused being.
  • There's also a theory out and about that he can only do it with Connie because of their "Indirect Kiss".
• So... Can Gems other than Steven fuse with humans? Pearl thought that Steven fusing with a human was impossible, but she was obviously incorrect about that. Gems might be more compatible with humans than she thought.
  • Most likely Steven was able to do that because he was a hybrid. Granted, there's no direct proof to prove it, but...
  • From the Gem's reaction, either they've never attempted it before, logically so since fusion is difficult for even Gems and only used for emergency power boosts, or it's supposed to be impossible for a human. A Gem hybrid's powers seem to genuinely function differently than those of a full-blooded Gem, as we've seen with his aging and healing. Since there's never been another known Gem hybrid besides Steven, nobody can say exactly how the rules work for him.
    • On that note, are a hybrid's powers actually different, or is Steven just using them in ways that non-hybrid gems haven't tried?
  • Jossed in "We Need to Talk". Greg, upon seeing a fusion, did try to do it, but it turns out he can't (no matter how much he resonated). The only reason Connie can fuse with Steven is because Steven is half human.
    • Not sure it was Jossed. Sure GREG tried to fuse, but Rose didn't ever attempt to. It would be likely that to fuse with a human the GEM would have to be trying to initiate the fusion. Or blunder into it as with Steven and Connie.

Future Vision

"Future Vision"

• This troper is having a hard time pinning down the limitations of Garnet's Future Vision. She explained that she sees probabilities or something like that, but there are many times in earlier episodes where it would have come in handy. For example, why could she not foresee Steven's shape shifting powers going out of control, or in the Birthday episode, his aging. Why didn't she foresee Steven fusing with Connie? For non-Steven related things, why did she not foresee any probability of Peridot's arrival, or Lapis Lazuli's freedom from the mirror? Any idea, folks?
  • She probably does not use it all the time. It is not addressed but it's probably that constantly seeing ALL the possible outcomes could be too stressful, so she may limit herself to a few possibilities when they are not in a mission. it is also possible she cannot see the future of something she is completely unaware of. Returning to the example of Peridot. it is possible she was able to rescue Steven because her visions told her he was in trouble, but she was unable to see Peridot coming because her very existence was not something Garnet was aware of so she was unable to check for the possibility of another gem. With Lapis Lazuli, she was only aware that it was a gem artifact, not an actual Gem, so she did not feel it was necessary for her to check all possibilities of the outcome with Steven. Same with Connie. she believed it was possible for Steven to fuse, So chances are she saw a future here Steven fused with one of them. However. she never thought of the possibility of a gem/human fusion as it was the case with Connie and so, she did not bother to check for possibilities were Steven fused with a human. With the shapeshifting abilities she either didn't think it would go that bad and just did not bother to check, or she saw it coming but her visions told her Steven was not in any real danger at the time. being able to see multiple futures at once does not necessarily mean she is omniscient.
  • In "Winter Forecast", we see how it works in person. Garnet sees a possible future, then another one, and then another one, until she wants to stop. This means that if a future is really unlikely or would require a really specific combination of events she's unlikely to see it. If she did a really exhaustive search she'd be able to find even really strange possible futures, but of course she doesn't know in advance that she needs to do an exhaustive search for a particularly unlikely possible future.
  • In "Marble Madness", Garnet takes a few moments before answering a question. If she's seeing the future, it probably takes a few seconds to process the information. Since Garnet was fighting Jasper at the time, taking a few seconds to read the future could have been fatal.

On the Run

"On the Run"

• Is Steven getting skinnier? There's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it close-up of Steven with a single facial hair. Is this him maturing (aging) as well?
  • I think Steven looked pudgier in the earlier episodes, but I don't know if that was just the way he was drawn at the time. An in-universe explanation would be that while Steven's a big eater, he also exercises and goes on missions more often.
• Maybe it'll be elaborated upon later, but why did Gems have to infect Earth in particular to make new Gems? Even if one isn't a paragon of good or anything, it seems kind of needlessly cruel to hollow out an already inhabited planet when there's already an infinite amount of uninhabited ones out there. Was it something special about the Earth's composition itself?
  • The soil in the Kindergarden looks dry and dead, chances are, whatever is needed to create new Gems, it may need to be done in fertile soil and the process ends up destroying the ecosystem. it would probably not work in an uninhibited planet because there needs to be life in there in order to do so successfully. It is also implied it was done a long time ago, maybe even before the first big civilization was settled. it is possible the gems came, started to harvest, they discovered intelligent life, and decided they were too advanced in the operation to stop now. that was when Rose and the other rebelled.
    • Ah, that sounds plausible enough. Makes sense that some sort of life was necessary to the gem-making process.
  • Maybe it needs to be a planet with organic life.
  • Do the Gems did need Earth in particular, or is it just a known exploitable planet with a warp pad? Maybe they've drained every other suitable planet that they've found. We don't know anything about why they chose Earth, or what their long term plans were. The existence of sapient life on Earth and the phrase "Gem Dominated" raise some unpleasant possibilities, though.
  • I don't get why they couldn't have gotten the materials from somewhere else either if they are capable of creating gems in this manner to start with Earth isn't that special geologically or organically speaking when you consider to plethora of planets elsewhere and the fact Homeworld Gems seem to have no issue with FTL travel. In fact I'm surprised Peridot didn't jump the moment she saw Steven with modern clothing or any sign humans had managed to reach an information/industrial revolution. It is just as unsettling is that humans seem to be completely fine with the gems taking care of such affairs and are never asked for assistance themselves despite perhaps having a better understanding of ranged weaponry or practical modern warfare.
    • Maybe certain types of planets yield certain types of gems because of their geology? I mean yes the universe is big but nobody said Homeworld has established warp pads and connection to every part of it, and in real life quartzes (the type Homeworld seems to have used the Kindergarten on Earth for) are one of the most common type. As for the question about why the Crystal Gems don't ask the humans for help, probably they would feel it would mix the humans even more up in the whole mess than they already are and well they did swore to protect them.
  • Consider this: There are four terrestrial planets in the Solar System. Mercury and Mars are fairly small, but the question is: how about Venus? It's almost the size of Earth. If it exists, did Gems try to convert it?
    • Maybe they have converted the other terrestrial planets of our solar system. Maybe that's why all the other planets are lifeless. Maybe Earth is just the last local planet to face conversion...
  • The problem with this question is that it assumes the Gems needed Earth specifically and Earth is special. It's entirely possible, if not most likely, that an imperialistic culture like Homeworld's does this to every single planet they know they can possibly get resources from, and the native species or organic life in general just doesn't matter to them.
  • From "It Could've Been Great", Peridot states that Earth was to be the site of a new Homeworld colony. Its also later stated that Homeworld is the seat of the Gem Empire, following this, it's likely that Gems simply expand, making colonies on suitable worlds. The criteria for these colony worlds just happens to be similar to the ones for life to appear. The Earth Colony is only opposed because there is already life on it. Other prospective colonies may have been similar to Earth, but life may not have developed yet, leaving it ripe for the taking. Unfortunately we don't yet know why
• How have no humans noticed the Kindergarten yet? Weirdness Censor or not, the existence of a giant gorge filled with creepy human shaped holes and giant mechanical viruses is impossible to just gloss over.
  • Who says they don't notice? We never see humans in the Kindergarten or know if their any human settlements nearby. Maybe it like one of those places your not suppose to go, but you still find thrill seekers, urban explorers, and teenager smoking pot if you know where to look
  • We know Humanity has some knowledge of Gems from "Buddy's Book", following this it is possible that there are old legends about the Kindergarden, or people are simply steered away from it by some gem device or primal instinct.
• Why are there a lot of Gem temples and artifacts on Earth if the Homeworld Gems were going to use it for Kindergarten? Or is it that at some point the Gems colonized on Earth before deciding to use the Kindergarten?
  • Peridot does refer to earth as an "abandoned crystal system colony planet" in "Cry For Help".
  • Wiping out local life doesn't necessarily make a planet uninhabitable to gems. Heck, they may find it more comfortable.
  • In "It Could've Been Great", we see what the colony would have been if completed: there was far more than just Kindergartens planned.
  • Considering there was a war fought there, It doesn't seem to much of a stretch for installations to have been built there. Its also possible that they are the initial parts of Gem colonisation, completed right before the Rebellion.

Maximum Capacity

"Maximum Capacity"

• When exactly was Greg and Amethyst friends? It's implied that they were before Greg and Rose were romantically involved, but I'm hearing talk that it was after Rose had died.
  • It was likely that they became friends before Greg became romantically involved with Rose. After Rose and Greg became a "thing" Amethyst became resentful of Greg as Rose became more involved with him.
    • Greg mentioned that him and Amethyst used to watch Lil' Butler when Steven was just born. It's probable that the stresses of losing a wife/sister/mother figure caused some tension between Greg and Amethyst at first, especially since Amethyst and Greg appear to be the most dependent on Rose's support. Once they started interacting they ended up bonding over the show, Amethyst tried to shapeshift into rose in some attempt at attention, and Greg decided to stop talking to her.
    • Given their horror at being seen by Steven, it's possible that things went a lot further than that; at the very least, Amethyst (who, while she probably understands humans better than any of the other Gems, still doesn't understand them very well) may have shapeshifted into Rose to try and physically comfort Greg, and may even have tried to sleep with him. Worse, given that Greg wouldn't have been in the best state back then, he might have given in (or nearly given in.)

The Return

"The Return"

• Why didn't the gems try to fuse into their Alexandrite to try to destroy the ship? Was Opal the only one with a ranged attack or is there some disadvantage that is was unseen about that fusion?
  • Opal's ranged attack is likely more powerful than anything Alexandrite could pull out, considering she seems to be specialized in it. It's also a bad idea to merge the entire unit into one, huge, slightly clumsy target when there's a fully armed battleship with weapons trained on you.
  • Yeah I suppose that makes sense, just part of me was thinking they should have been using the most powerful form they had at their disposal, not that it would have really made that much of a difference with the Gem destabilizer.
  • Alexandrite, as we saw in "Fusion Cuisine", is very unstable and probably wouldn't be worth the risk.
  • It's one of the hardest Fusions to keep as it has Pearl's calm combined with Garnet's stoic and Amethyst's wildness.
  • Now that we've seen all the fusions of the three full Crystal Gems, it's shown that Opal is the only one of the four forms that has such a long distance attack. Every form that Garnet is involved in uses melee weapons, which are powerful, but completely useless against an aerial opponent like the ship.
    • Contrariwise, though, Alexandrite's weapon is listed as "all of them". She probably could use Opal's bow.
  • Maybe they would have tried that next if Steven hadn't showed up and distracted them.

Jail Break

"Jail Break"

• Is there any oxygen inside the hand ship? I mean, Steven seems to be breathing just fine, but it has been stated that Gems doesn't breath at all, so it's quite confusing to me that a Homeworld ship has a breathable atmosphere.
  • It could have picked up oxygen when it landed or there happens to be oxygen on Homeworld.
  • No atmosphere means no sound as well. Alongside that the ship had plenty of holding cells, it's possible Gems aren't the only thing they would need to hold.
    • Except Steven made it clear that the cells couldn't hold anything except Gems by escaping easily. But yeah, they may keep air around because they need it to talk.
• So back in "Space Race", Pearl wanted to take Steven to space and show him all the Gem-planets. Except everything we've learned about offworld Gems is overwhelmingly negative, and they threat their possible return and the corrupted Gems represents to the earth is very real. While it is true that the threat of the Homeworld Gems coming to Earth may have been far out of mind before the incident with Peridot, Lapis had escaped to space at that point and they were clearly worried about that! So is Pearl a complete traitor willing to betray the Earth (which she already betrayed her species for), her teammates and Rose herself by abandoning the planet she swore to protect and taking Steven with her?
  • While she mentioned homeworld in the episode, it seemed like she was more missing space itself rather than Gem society, even when she was actually taking Steven away, she simply said the "wonders of the cosmos". Space is an awesome, vast, and beautiful place and being restricted to just one boring planet for centuries (or even millennia) afterwards must have been agonizingly dull. There is a lot of space out there — she was probably planning on taking Steven on a quick tour of some relatively safe places.
    • Not to mention that the Gem Controlled planets could be her referring to planets that are protected by other Gems like the Crystal Gems.
  • You'll note that Pearl mentions seeing "just from a distance what's been going on without [her]." She doesn't want to return to Gem society, just visit the wonders of space and maybe look from a distance at what all her friends and family she undoubtedly left behind for Earth have been doing.
  • It's also likely that after the Gem War there was some sort of ceasefire going on between Homeworld and Earth Gems, such that she probably could have gotten away with warping there and coming back quickly.
  • If you look closely at her outfit, it doesn't have the star pattern usually associated with Crystal Gems, but the diamond pattern common on Peridot and Jasper...
    • But Pearl's diamond was pink where Peridot's and Jasper's were yellow. It's not unrealistic to assume the colour of the symbol denotes which Diamond you're in the court of. Pearl's diamond could be a holdover from an older spacesuit design she wore, a sign of allegiance to an ancient homeworld monarch who wasn't as horrible, or she changed the colour to represent her loyalty to Rose. The diamond symbol means something in gem culture, but it's in no way indicative of her intentions in that episode.
• Can Gems get stronger? I mean fusion is one thing. But Jasper was Garnet's equal in their fight even though she was explicitly not a fusion. I mean Jasper comes back even if she's un-fused the gems are gonna be in big trouble if their single (sorta) strongest gem is only equal to her. I mean any one of them could fuse, but the Homeworld Gem's tech can easily counter that, their opponents can fuse, and the Fusion Dance itself takes some time unless the Gems fusing are VERY close. As was the case with Ruby/Sapphire > Garnet.
  • It could be that some Gems are just naturally stronger than others. Peridot is apparently a weakling, as are Ruby and Sapphire.
    • No, Ruby is one of the more physically powerful Gems. This is shown when she punches the wall and causes Steven to fall over from the shock of the force.
    • Strong for her size, but nowhere near the level of a Quartz. Rubies are soldiers, but apparently very low-ranking ones.
  • The Crystal Gems may have an advantage now they didn't when this began: Pearl interfaced with the Hand ship, so she may have a bunch of information from its data banks. The other thing I'd expect to see now is Amethyst and Garnet working on fusing into Sugilite and finding a way to rein in her overzealousness until Jasper shows again, at which point they can be like "Ok, let loose." I will be a little disappointed if they don't consider Sugilite as a tactical move against Jasper.
  • Another advantage they might have is they still have all the wreckage of Peridot's ship and the technology in it. It's been shown that Pearl was at least able to rebuild one of her drones, so it's not impossible to imagine they could reverse engineer it.
  • As far as Gem power goes, Pearl seems extremely weak and has to heavily complement her natural attributes with skill and intelligence. And I wouldn't count Peridot out yet, as she seems somewhat similar with somewhat limited physical abilities being made up for with tactical skill and advanced technology. Steven caught her off guard by being immune to her one hit kill weapon, I don't see her making that mistake again.
    • Without her limb enhancers, Peridot is much weaker than Pearl by a wide margin.
  • I think that the key to figuring out the growth of strength in gems depends on how it is how obtained/used, which is largely seems to be confirmed since the first episode that it is different for each Gem.
  • Well, there can be gemstones (the mundane kind that humans deal with) that are more stable, pure, or just generally well-formed than other stones of the same mineral; the way they are cut or polished can also impact their "quality". The way Jasper referred to Pearl as "defective", the way Amethyst was literally created, seems to imply that a Gem's power is determined when the stone is formed, and a "better" gemstone will make for a more naturally powerful Gem. Not sure if Steven is an exception, being organic, but there seems to be a need to practice in order to control powers — for example, Lapis probably had to train to get that good with her water magic. Pearl and Peridot also show that gems can rely on knowledge, tactics, and experience to be more formidable in a fight. In terms of pure physical strength and power, the most likely answer is that it's, quite literally, set in stone.
    • On this note, Jasper's strength is probably pretty standard for a Quartz that isn't "defective", but in addition to that, she also seemed to be a battle-hardened veteran with probably millennia of combat experience. She wasn't very good at using the destabilizer, presumably a new tech, and only succeeded with it the first time due to sheer surprise value. But once she reverted back to fighting using her helmet and fists, her experience with them, combined with her raw strength, was what let her keep up with Garnet.
    • "Beta" reveals that Jasper is basically the ultimate Quartz and is much stronger than is normal for them.
• If a fusion's weapon is a combination of the weapons that make up the fusion then what were Ruby and Sapphire's Gem weapons?
  • When a fusion summons a weapon, what we see is her summoning the individual weapons and then combining them, with this in mind, Ruby's weapon was probably a smaller version of the gauntlets Garnet uses while the goggles are Sapphire's the same way Jasper had a helmet.
  • There's also the possibility that Sapphire might be similar to Lapis and Peridot and have no weapon, or at least not seem to. Instead, she could have most of Garnet's special powers such as the future vision or her electrokinesis.
  • In "Keystone Motel", we see Ruby's weapon, which appears to be a smaller gauntlet that is missing the star and the knuckles. So we can infer that Sapphire provides the missing part.
    • Ruby also only summoned one gauntlet. This troper assumed they both had a single gauntlet, so Garnet get's two that's an aesthetic mix of the two of them. The reason she doesn't need to go through the process of building them like the other fusions do is either because her fusion is so strong or because the weapons are so similar they don't need prep time.
    • Ruby's weapon appears to be a boxing glove. The reason she doesn't summon two is her gem is only on one hand.
    • The reason she didn't summon two is because she didn't need to summon two. We've seen, repeatedly, the Gems summon as many of their weapons as they need with no restrictions. All Ruby would have had to do to summon two gauntlets is touch her hands together. And Sapphire doesn't have a weapon at all.
• We know that fusions can fuse, but that raises another question: does the order of the fusions count? We have for example seen Sugilite, fusion of Amethist with Garnet, herself fusion of Ruby and Sapphire, but what if Ruby fused with Amethyst first, and then with Sapphire? Or if they executed a three-Gem-at-once fusion? Would the result be the same?
  • Probably not, since when Alexandrite un-fused we saw the silhouettes of both Ruby and Sapphire, suggesting that Garnet was treated as two individuals for fusion purposes. However, Ruby-Amethyst fusion without Sapphire would probably be different from the alternative.
  • Matt Burnett confirms◊ that the order of the fusion doesn't matter in reference to Alexandrite, stating that Amethyst fusing with Sardonyx or Pearl fusing with Sugilite would still form Alexandrite.
• Why didn't Lapis take advantage of the ocean right beside her to incapacitate Jasper?
  • That's an interesting question. Though she looks relatively small and weak, her near unlimited ability to manipulate water means that, with access to that quantity of water nearby, she is easily the most powerful gem there. Incapacitating Jasper shouldn't have required fusing with her. But here's a possible explanation. Lapis, having despaired of finding happiness simply by getting back to Homeworld, is so unhappy and angry that she sees nothing better to do with the rest of her life than spend it holding Jasper prisoner.
    • Gem (semi)suicide. Nice.
  • Not to mention Jasper was right next to her and could have snapped Lapis like a twig before she could use her hydrokinesis.
  • Personally, I see it as both protecting Steven and taking revenge. Lapis doesn't really have a home anymore thanks to the homeworld's implied significant changes and the fact that neither she nor the Crystal Gems trust one another. After all she's been put through, she decided to lash out at someone and Jasper threatening her only friend made the choice in targets easy.
• Why did Garnet break the destabilizer after taking it away from Jasper? She could have used it against her instead, shortening the fight and avoid wrecking the ship, allowing them to capture it to their own advantage. With her future vision she should have known that the fight would wreck the ship. The only way this makes sense is if Garnet predicted something worse possibly happening if she had acted differently. Or if her desire to show up Jasper by winning in a fair fight clouded her judgement. Or... something.
  • Of course if you think too hard about it, there are very few plots that the ability to see the future can't break.
  • Attacking Jasper with a weapon she's not trained in would be just asking Jasper to take it back.
  • It could be just a matter of pride. Ending the fight with a cheap shot like the destabilizer wouldn't do much to prove Jasper wrong. Beating her at her best in a fair fight would be much more satisfying.
  • That may have been her best option. Even after breaking Jasper's visor it didn't slow her down that much.
  • Garnet's song seems to supply all the motivation for why she'd want to beat Jasper in a fair fight as opposed to "fancy tools".
    • But if she knew it would crash a very powerful ship they could otherwise capture, it still seems rather shortsighted to put this above a long-term strategic advantage.
    • ^Perhaps she foresaw that, if she didn't destroy the destablizer, then Jasper would steal it back and use it against her and win the fight and then the Crystal Gems would be defeated. Or, ya know, maybe she just didn't have the energy to actually use Future Vision in the middle of a fight like that.
    • The fight didn't start anywhere near the engine. It only ended up there because Jasper plowed them both through multiple decks of the ship after the disrupter was destroyed.
• So, are there more than one of the same gem, as in would it be possible that they will meet up with another Amethyst or Pearl? I mean Jasper did call Pearl "defected" as if "Pearl" is a model and she is just one acting out of character. Further more would that mean that all the other Gems made at the Kindergarten are also "Amethysts"?
  • "Defected" has more than one meaning. She could have been talking about Pearl abandoning Homeworld. That said, many Gems have variations of themselves, so I wouldn't be too surprised if we saw another Pearl or Amethyst some time in the future.
  • Jasper said defective, not defected. Defective has only one meaning, so Jasper's use of it could confirm the existence of other Pearls.
  • In "Friend Ship", Pearl blames the fact that she is "just a Pearl" for her dependence on others. This is a pretty strong hint that Pearls, if not all Gems, are not unique and seen as beneath other Gems in their society.
    • Confirmed in "Back to the Barn". Gem society has a Caste system, with Quartz gems as soldiers and Pearls as made to order servants that stand around and look pretty. Not sure how Garnet, Lapis and Peridot factor in.
    • Garnet is a fusion, so she's outside the caste system. As of "The Answer", we see multiple Rubies, so Ruby is clearly a type of low-ranking bodyguard gem. In the same episode, Sapphire is referred to as "rare", so there's probably not many Sapphire-type gems. As far as Peridot, in her conversation with Yellow Diamond, Yellow Diamond asks her "which Peridot?", and Peridot gives a serial number so there's definitely multiple Peridots. I don't know about Lapis, though.
    • Peridot appears to be the equivalent of Tech support. Lapis is unknown, however given her powers, appearance and backstory (this is all pure speculation) She is likely a member of Blue Diamond's court (or at least of a similar ranking) that was created before the rebellion. Given that she can control water, its possible Lapises are used in either construction (similar to Bismuths) or some other purpose.
    • Lapis probably was a member of BD's court. It has been explicitly stated that Lapises are used for terraforming.
  • Multiple Amethysts and Pearls confirmed as of "That Will Be All".
• Given that she was willing to kill them before Steven showed himself, why did Jasper bother with taking the other Crystal Gems as prisoners at all? If she was going to interrogate them, why was she willing to kill them before knowing anything about Rose's whereabouts?
  • Rose is well known for her compassion. Jasper knows that Rose isn't weak, so capturing some of her friends to use as leverage would be the easiest way to make her talk. As for why she was initially willing to blow up the other Crystal Gems, she probably just assumed that if Rose wasn't fighting alongside them, she'd fallen victim to whatever killed or twisted every other Gem on the planet. We still don't know what that was, but as Peridot was surprised there was ANY survivors it was probably bad.
• Why didn't Malachite unfuse? Every other episode shows pretty clearly that fusions need to have at least a shared purpose to remain stable. When they disagree on the next course of action or disagree majorly they split. But Lapis and Jasper fused, and stayed fused even when Jasper didn't want to be in the fusion and demanded to get out of it. And if fusing like that just required the stronger presence of mind, Jasper would have tried to force-fuse with Lapis instead of asking her permission. Will this get explained later?
  • The fusion DID start breaking down: you can see that when Malachite is being dragged into the ocean, her face starts coming apart and then immediately reforms. Jasper was probably just too tired and damaged from her fight with Garnet to fight back properly.
  • A bit of Fridge Horror: it's revealed that Homeworld Gems were researching into artificially fusing two Gems together, with their physical Gems haphazardly merged into one. However this is done, this might be how Jasper was able to fuse with Lapis so easily; Jasper might have whatever device that artificially merges Gems together in her, as she just wanted the power. She probably thought that Lapis was too broken to put up a fight in their mind, so she would permanently have control over Malachite. She didn't count on Lapis being as strong willed as she was, and the temporary breaking up was probably a reflex, but once the two fused, it's permanent. Lapis might have known this too, which is why she allowed the fusion to happen, so that Jasper will never be able to escape her.
  • It's possible that the chains Lapis used to pull them down into the ocean are so restrictive that they prevent Malachite from unfusing. After all, you can't split apart if something's forcing you together. As long as Lapis keeps the chains on and doesn't get overpowered by Jasper, they'd be able to stay there forever.
  • "Chille Tid" confirms that's exactly what Lapis is attempting to do. To maintain the fusion and keep Jasper imprisoned, she has given up her identity as Lapis Lazuli, saying "We're Malachite now". Naturally, Steven is still determined to save her.
• Here's something that's bugged me for a while; most fusions don't seem to have anything that isn't drawn from their components in some way, or at least makes sense. So how come both Ruby and Sapphire have American accents, while Garnet has an English accent?
  • Since she has been fused for a long time, is entirely possible she adopted the accent in some way or another
  • She might have even done it intentionally to distinguish her fused personality from Ruby and Sapphire.
  • Garnet's been around for thousands of years, long before either country existed. Garnet doesn't have an English accent, the English have a Garnet accent.
    • Beg to differ. That's not just an English accent, it's genuine 21st century Cockney.
• Why were the Gems waiting until Steven's birthday to reveal that Garnet was a fusion? Wouldn't they have no qualms about revealing such things? Or is it considered too "adult" for a child? Or did they do something like: "What can we do for Steven's birthday... Hey Garnet, does Steven know you're a fusion?" "Yeah, I told him about ten years ago." "Wait... humans can't remember things from their early development stages." "Oh... well then, that's something we can surprise him with."
  • Steven doesn't find out about the more dramatic aspects of the Gems and their abilities like fusion and regeneration until the events of the series. He's pretty young — it's reasonable for the Gems to hide the equivalents of love/sex and death from him until this age. And the birthday in question is probably just the first one following "Giant Woman", so there's no reason to keep it a secret anymore, but Steven's the type of kid who would love that sort of surprise on his birthday.
  • "Three Gems and a Baby" confirms that Garnet had unfused in front of Steven as a baby, but as he was too young to grasp why Garnet had vanished, his immediate reaction was to burst into tears. In all likelihood, the Gems (particularly Garnet, Ruby, and Sapphire) were unwilling to risk upsetting him that way again. Once they knew he understood the concept of fusion and saw how excited he was by it, they probably thought it would just have been a really nice surprise for him so Garnet decided to tell him for his birthday.
• When Jasper was strong-arming Lapis to fuse with her to defeat the Crystal Gems, why do the gems just stand there and not intervene? Sure, they may not like or care about Lapis but I doubt they’d like to face off against a fusion with Jasper’s strength and Lapis’s water control particularly when both have reason to hate the Crystal Gems. If they were focused on protecting Steven and making sure he didn’t intervene and get hurt or killed, one or two of them could stayed behind to hold him back while the others charged Jasper which couldn’t be too hard since Garnet was able to go toe to toe with Jasper earlier and Jasper didn’t the gem destabilizer to incapacitate them. Heck, they could have had Lion use his sonic roars to blast away Jasper from Steven until she poofed or her gem shattered. It just seems weird that they would just stand there when their usual shtick always seems to be Attack! Attack! Attack! which would’ve been really useful in this case. And if they were expecting Lapis to refuse Jasper’s demand to fuse, then it makes it seem they were fine with letting Lapis be poofed or shattered by a vengeful Jasper, which would’ve been traumatic for Steven to watch given that he does care about Lapis.
  • Pretty much exactly the reason you said — Lapis isn't entirely their enemy, and she was basically Jasper's hostage. Plus, Jasper herself took the full brunt of Garnet's attacks, and was only inconvenienced. Jasper was still a threat as powerful as Garnet and Rose, and she had Lapis within her grasp; they were probably worried that Jasper would actually break Lapis if the Gems attacked.
• Based off of earlier gem fusions, a fusion has an amount of arms equal to the gems making the fusion (for example, Opal has two sets of arms, given two gems make the fusion; same goes for Alexandrite, three gems make her, so she has three sets of arms). However, how does Garnet only have one set of arms, despite being a fusion of Ruby and Sapphire?
  • Fandom consensus is that duplicate body parts on a fusion are a sign of instability. Garnet could stay fused forever and only had a third eye. Opal took some effort and compromise to make, so she's a bit less humanoid. Sugilite (three gems) was hard to control, and Alexandrite (four gems) broke down quickly, so they were even more messed up. Malachite was an abomination whose minds weren't in sync at all. The only perfect fusion seen so far (unless there's another we don't know about) is Stevonnie, judging by Garnet's reaction.
  • The crew behind the show stated that a way fusion looks has no set rules as long as they have "extra" of something. For example Garent and Rainbow Quartz only have extra eyes, while Opal only has extra arms.
• According to one of the supplementary materials, same-type Gem fusion creates a larger, stronger version of that gem (Ex. Pearl + Pearl = Bigger Pearl). Rubies and Sapphires are, essentially, the same Gem (corundum) with minute atomic differences... so is this a factor in the stability of Garnet as a semi-permanent, relatively powerful (compared to quartz-type gems) fusion? Given that rubies and sapphires are barely different structurally seems to be a logical factor in the fusion mechanics of Garnet.
  • I'm pretty sure that her stability is a result of their strong love for one another. Different gem types in a fusion probably grant more strength, but stability seems to be purely relationship-based.
  • "Gem type" in the show seems to be closer to "race", meaning the same Gem. So even though Ruby and Sapphire are the same gem chemically they are still different gems and are considered a different gem type.
• Would a fusion of Ruby, Sapphire and a third gem make a different fusion than Garnet and that other gem?
  • No, because it's still the same three components. All that matters is the individual Gems involved, their current combination is irrelevant: Garnet dancing with Opal or Sardonyx with Amethyst would still make Alexandrite. Even though Garnet is closer than any other fusion known, to the point that she retains her personality as part of Alexandrite, she's still treated as two Gems as far as fusion is concerned.
• What was the point of Jasper/Peridot putting the Crystal Gems and Lapis into the yellow forcefield prison cells on the ship? Couldn't they have just bubbled them instead? (Except Steven, of course.)
  • Interrogation, Jasper wanted info and they needed the prisoners intact to get answers. Steven broke them free before they got around to it.
    • Hmm... I had always assumed that the intention was to interrogate them after they all got back to Homeworld.
  • It could also be that they don't actually know how to bubble. There's only two Gems running the ship as far as it's known, and Peridot doesn't seem to know any sort of Gem magic whatsoever. She's that useless combat-wise that without her limb enhancers or a fancy robot, she resorts to using weapons out of house utilities and slapping Steven after finding out it "hurts" him. Even had she known some gem magic I suspect that her limb enhancers would essentially nullify that until taken off and bubbles seem to vary from gem to gem in strength (Garnet states as such that her bubbles were fine as is when it's suggested they might have needed a bigger bubble for Peridot.) As for Jasper, it's uncertain but likely that she wouldn't know how to bubble either as bubbling is either used for protection or storage, two things that Jasper probably wouldn't do taking into account the fact that she's prideful, boastful and likes to take things head-on in favour of defensive tactics. In the end it didn't really matter anyway as they had a way of keeping the gems confined with no escape, so why fix something that isn't broke? They just couldn't account for Steven is all.
    • Alternatively, it is possible that the bubbling technique was invented by one of the Crystal Gems (likely Rose) for the specific purpose of containing the corrupted gems. In contrast, a utilitarian Homeworld gem would simply shatter the corrupted gem and avoid the extra trouble, so they never had a reason to learn the bubbling technique.
    • The above appears to be Jossed as of "Gem Drill" where the Cluster is seen bubbling themselves en masse, although it's unclear whether they already knew how to or if Steven's demonstration helped.
    • Why would that Joss it? The Cluster is maninly composed of former Crystal Gems.
    • Completely Jossed as of "That Will Be All". Every Rose Quartz is bubbled.

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