Headscratchers / Steven Universe Season 4

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Know Your Fusion"

"Know Your Fusion"

• This episode establishes that fusions have their own rooms in the temple, but only while the fusion exists. Garnet's room happens to contain all of the bubbled Gems. What happens to the bubbles when Garnet splits up?
  • The burning room isn't Garnet's room.
    • Steven is able to visit the Burning Room with Garnet split up in "Made of Honor".
  • For that matter, why didn't Sardonyx's room just transform back into Garnet and Pearl's rooms?
    • Because the Temple didn't combine their rooms together, it made a new one for Sardonyx, just like in "The Test" when they made the challenge rooms for Steven.
• What was the point of the yo-yo trick prior to Smoky Quartz's grappling tactic?
  • An attack?
  • It could be Smoky has tied certain tricks to certain things the Yo-Yo can do as such they used that trick to use it like a grappling Hook. Kinda how Walk the Dog seems to be a bludgeon attack
  • What's the point of any yo-yo trick? To show off.
• If Stevonnie is the 2nd/3rd strongest Fusion and Steven and Connie are still training does that mean that if they reach their peak potential Stevonnie might be as strong if not stronger than Sugilite? Or is the power gap just too great for that to happen? It'd make for one heck of a episode seeing cute old Stevonnie beat down Sugilite or even draw with her.
  • Stevonnie is the weakest fusion. It goes Alexandrite, Sugilite, Sardonyx, Opal, Garnet/Smokey Quartz and then Stevonnie. Stevonnie is not even as strong as an ordinary Quartz and while they might get stronger as they age/train it won't increase by a significant amount since gem strength is so much greater than human.
    • I have to disagree with them not being as strong an ordinary Quartz. Stevonnie beat Jasper (pretty much the perfect Quartz) pretty easily back in "Crack the Whip". One key point Garnet brought up in Keeping It Together is that a fusion is more than just the sum of her parts. So yeah, Stevonnie does have the potential to become really strong (maybe not as strong as Alexandrite or Malachite, but still).
    • It's measuring "physical strength", not overall combat capability. Note Stevonnie is fast, agile and skilled, where as Sugilite is none of those things (hence getting beaten by Pearl).

Buddy's Book

"Buddy's Book"

• This episode establishes two things: First, Steven loves books, and second, Steven had never seen a library before in his life, and in fact did not even know what one was. That being the case, where was he getting the books that he loved reading so much? Prior to his dad's big payout, he couldn't have had enough money to buy them all; the Crystal Gems don't seem to use books much, and even if they did he doesn't know their written language. Steven also never went to school, so he couldn't be getting them there.
  • Steven is best friends with Connie, who has been established to love books from her very first appearance. Steven may very well have learned to love reading from the books Connie loaned him, and his excitement over them could have been learned from Connie as well.

Future Boy Zoltron

"Future Boy Zoltron"

• Steven had multiple options for fixing that Zoltron fortune telling machine. Why didn't he use any of those, instead of being a stand-in earning back the money to pay for it a quarter at a time? Options include:
  Using his healing spit, to fix the thing, since we know it works on inanimate objects.
  Get Pearl to fix it, with her mechanical aptitude, it wouldn't take more than a few minutes.
  Greg's still reasonably loaded and the machine is only a few thousand, he could just pay for a new one.
  • Steven is young... Smiley quickly roped him into dressing up as Zoltron and Steven was probably too awkward or was caught too off-guard to articulate any resistance.
  • Besides, Steven legitimately broke Zoltron—any of the above options mean that he gets off scot-free. He might feel a little guilty for breaking the machine and figured that this was a way of making it up to Mr Smiley

Last One Out of Beach City

"Last One Out of Beach City"

• Couldn't Amethyst shapeshift into a car or a helicopter instead of walking after the Dondai ran out of gas?
  • She probably didn't think of it. It happens.
  • It's also possible that she was about to suggest it when Pearl suddenly spoke up.
  • It might also attract more attention than they wanted. They were trying to have a "normal" evening; a weird purple car that is obviously a person isn't very conductive to that.

Onion Gang

"Onion Gang"

• So, if Connie is getting ready for school, what exactly went down in "Mindful Education"? Cause it sure looked like a school she busted up a kid in.
  • Teachers often hand out class-specific supply lists the first day of school, she could have already started school and still need to do some shopping.
  • Either "Mindful Education" was months ago, before summer break, or Connie and that kid were at school in summer for some reason (Knowing Connie's mom, sending her to summer classes wouldn't be odd).
    • That would explain why we only saw those two in the flashback.
    • It's not that odd for schools to be open to the summer. When this troper was in high school, she took ethics and financial literacy over the summer of her freshmen year, that way she could've taken more AP courses my senior year. Connie might've wanted to get a jump on it.
• Why didn't Steven check up on Lapis or Peridot if he needed somewhere to hang?
  • He was specifically thinking about hanging out with people around his own age. None of the gems fall into that category.
    • Neither in the "people" category or in the "his own age" category.

The Zoo

"The Zoo"

• All of the Zoomans appear to be young adults. Are the older and younger Zoomans kept in separate mini-zoos? If so, then why were Greg and Steven put with this set? If not, then... well, where are they? Are their numbers and breeding really so controlled that there's only ever one generation at a time? (Which seems like a really good way to have zero humans after the several thousand years that have passed.) The Zoomans have no issue understanding that Steven is not to be part of the "Choosening", implying that they have some level of experience with humans of other age groups...
  • There's an old woman in the "The bits! The bits! The bits!" scene, so they are there, and apparently with no real barriers separating them. Greg probably happened to only hang out with certain Zoomans.
  • This might squick some people, but Steven is 14 years old biologically and has already begun puberty, even if his shapeshifting alters his appearance. He might have been placed in this particular group because the machines that inspected him determined he was capable of reproducing, and the zoomans excluded him because he really doesn't look his age (and is most certainly not emotionally mature enough yet).
  • The zoo might be bigger than we've seen, especially since Holly said the entire bottom half was devoted to containing humans. It could just be the Zoomen are separated into groups based upon age or other characteristics, and Steven just happened to be sent to the same group Greg did.
• How can the Zoomen have no concept of hurt? Reproduction alone would necessitate childbirth in all its painful glory. And that completely disregards random accidents (which apparently do happen), illness, etc.
  • Zoomans giving birth could be placed under sedation. Alternatively, this group hasn't actually reproduced before, given the lack of children. As for injuries, there's a difference between pain and actually hurt. A few scrapes and bruises wouldn't phase anyone, but they feel emotional hurt for the first time, which they don't know how to process.

That Will Be All

"That Will Be All"

• How come Blue Diamond didn't recognise Ruby and Sapphire as the same two gems how fused at the Sky Arena?
  • Because there are a lot of Rubies, and almost certainly another one with the same gem placement. As for Sapphire, there could be another Sapphire with her gem on her hand out there, or that could just be the norm for all Sapphires. It's not like they have any other defining features.
  • Not to mention that it has been thousands of years, and Blue Diamond has undoubtedly punished many, many Gems during that time. There's no reason for her to recall the accidentally fused pair, especially if it's common for Sapphires to have Ruby bodyguards, as it is pretty plainly implied.
• In Yellow Diamond's song, she says that Lazuli is made for terraforming. If that's so then why was Lapis on Earth then?
  • More than likely to terraform. As humans know the word it would be "forming places/planets to be more Earth-like or hospitable." In science fiction, it would be considered shaping the planet to be hospitable to whatever alien life had decided to take residence there. Lapis Lazulis probably shaped the Kindergartens and might have even been commissioned to hollow out the Earth, had Homeworld been successful in colonization.
  • I think Lapis mentions in "Same Old World" that she went to Earth because she was curious after hearing stories about it, not because she was ordered to be there, and ended up getting caught in the war after she got there, so I think that is why she happened to be there. But as the above troper said, that is the reason any Lapis Lazuli would be on Earth strictly speaking. Our Lapis just wasn't one of the ones who was supposed to be there.
    • Actually, Lapis specifically said that she was "meant" to visit. She was definitely there on orders.
  • It is heavily implied (and Future more or less confirms) that "terraforming" in this case means making the planet inhospitable for its native life; Earth had not yet been terraformed, since there was still organic life there. This explains, incidentally, why Bismuth attacked Lapis from behind on sight - it wasn't the totally unprovoked aggression it seems, at least not from Bismuth's perspective. Lapis was there to kill all life on earth and Bismuth, likely knowing how dangerous a Lapis Lazuli can be, took the opportunity to take her off the board the moment it presented itself.
• Why did none of the Gems working at the zoo want to join the Crystal Gems? Considering how they're mistreated you'd think at least 1 would want to leave.
  • They likely have no idea what the Crystal Gems are up to and where they're heading — Amethyst doesn't seem to be the explaining type. Perhaps despite their mistreatment, they feel it's safer to all remain at the zoo and take care of the humans. Also, they watch out for each other. Even one leaving would draw suspicion from the Diamonds and likely get the rest punished for letting her escape.
• Why are the Zoo Jaspers' gemstones different from the one on Earth's?
  • I don't think it's ever been affirmatively stated that Gems have to have identical stones.
  • Even disregarding Pearl and BP/YP's difference in shapes, we can actually confirm now that they do not have to have identical stones. In Jungle Moon, the Nephrite on the phone is Nephrite Facet-XJ Cut-763 while Centipeetle is Nephrite Facet-413 Cabochon-12. This is the same as our Jasper and Skinny, who are respectively a Cut and (what appears to be) a Cabochon. Additionally, Blue and Yellow Diamond have different Gem shapes (Blue's is more of a kite-shape) and Pink and White have brilliant cuts instead.
• Was Rose the prototype for the cut of Rose Quartzes currently bubbled in Blue Diamond's chambers?
  • ...Maybe? This doesn't seem like a very headscratchers question.
    • As of "A Single Pale Rose", nope.
• Why are the Diamonds just grieving Pink when we've seen a Gem-made time machine before? And keep in mind this was relatively ancient gem tech. So why aren't they bending space and time to save Pink Diamond and prevent the rebellion?
  • That was the only one, and they don't know how it was made?
  • The fact that it existed means that time travel is possible in this series. Homeworld had 5,000 years to make a new one, and pretty much eternity to get it right.
  • We saw from that very episode what happens when time travel is attempted; to put it lightly, it doesn't cooperate with your plans. The Diamonds are the ultimate rational mind of the universe here, they should know it'll cause a Grandfather Paradox.
    • Episodes like this one make it quite clear that the Diamonds are not rational beings, and that they are particularly bad at handling grief.
  • We don't know how the time-machine really works, what it actually does, or how time-travel works in Steven Universe. It's possible that its mechanics are such that you can't actually change the timeline and can't permanently jump timelines using one - when it was destroyed, all the time duplicates turned to sand (like what happened when the duplicator was destroyed), which implies that they were in some way "fake." The fact that the Diamonds never used time travel for anything serious implies that they probably cannot - most likely it is some sort of Sapphire-powered device intended for viewing possible futures, not actually changing them; while you can bring out stuff from possible timelines it's done using the same tech as the duplicator (wired to a sapphire's capabilities to explore possibilities and create things / people based on them). In this interpretation, it's not actually capable changing the past.
• The Amethysts' room is full of what look like cubby holes that some of them are lying or sitting in, as if they're bunks in a dorm. What are they for, since Gems don't sleep?
  • Somewhere to be when they're off duty. Same reason why the Crystal Gems have their own rooms I the temple even though Amethyst is the only one that sleeps. Holly Blue isn't just going to let them wander around when they're not working.

Storm in the Room

"Storm in the Room"

• Wouldn't Rose's Room be able to provide more than its usual dream chamber capabilities regarding Rose? It's shown hints of having its own intelligence with Rose's voice, and perhaps her personality. While Steven may have no more memories of Rose than we have seen, couldn't the Room tap into his gem as well as its own memory files to provide something more substantial than the version of Rose Steven gets... (unless it meant this as another one of its Tough Love lessons).
  • Who's to say it didn't? And if it didn't, then that can just be attributed to "Steven didn't ask enough". If he asks "to see Rose, as realistically as possible", then that would happen.
  • Indeed. For a room without its own sentience, Cloud|Rose asked some awfully pointed questions. They could be Steve's unconscious thoughts to be sure, but it's just as possible they could be a resonance of Rose, or a fragment of her consciousness within the room, too.
  • We don't really know what sort of "memory files" it has. If it has any at all (which is possible, since as others have said its simulation of Rose was more accurate and immersive than many of the other simulations it produced), they could be extremely limited.

Room for Ruby

"Room for Ruby"

• We've been given no indication that the Gems' gems are somehow stronger than regular rocks, and since Eyeball and Amethyst's gems broke simply from being hit with enough force, how exactly did Navy go through atmospheric re-entry without having her gem disintegrated? The point of the atmosphere is to burn up rocks so they don't hit the earth.
  • Maybe it's because Rubies have heat resistance. Garnet can swim in lava because of Ruby, after all.
  • Also remember that in Amethyst and Eyeball's cases, their gems were directly hit with force without any protection, which caused them to crack. Navy knew she had to brace for impact when she was able to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere, so she had to fall on her back to minimalize the damage caused to her gem. In short, Amethyst was too much in her "fun mood" to properly defend her gem when she fell onto the rock, Eyeball was too cocky to notice the meteoroid going for her gemstone, and Navy had enough time to prepare herself for exposed re-entry.
  • It actually has been established that Gems are much more durable than ordinary Gems. In one of the shorts, I believe. As for Navy, Rubies are fire based Gems so re-entry won't burn them up and their bodies adjust to the local gravity so she would have been near weightless as she entered the atmosphere so she wouldn't actually hit the Earth that hard.
• Why exactly didn't the Crystal gems pick up the rubies? Steven said they'd get them on their way back to Earth after saving Greg, yet they never follow through.
  • Because, what would they do with them? Once they bring them to Earth, it's another issue on their hands.
    • Poof them and bubble them. Not exactly kind, but kinder (and less dangerous) than leaving them floating in space.
  • The most likely answer is that with all the dramatic things happening, they literally forgot.

Lion 4: Alternate Ending

"Lion 4: Alternate Ending"

• How did the Nora tape wind up in Rose's trash dump? Rose herself wouldn't have been able to put it there after Steven had been born, and unless Garnet figured out Steven's gender before then, she wouldn't have known which tape to dump and which to put in Lion. Did Lion drop it there for some reason? Did Greg or the other Gems know about the trash dump?
  • You can tell the sex of a baby months before it's born and it's likely Rose was getting some sort of check ups to make sure her baby was alive and safe. We don't know how far along she was when she made the tapes but there should have been plenty of time to figure out the baby's gender and stash the spare tape. Or, if that's not enough, Garnet, Amethyst or Pearl may have stashed it after Steven was born, it was in what amounted to Rose's trash dump and the place was missing three walls so they wouldn't have needed Lion or the key. (there's always the chance that Lion's mane isn't a pocket dimension but actually leads to a real place somewhere, the Gems have never gone inside Lion so we don't know if they'd recognize anything there).

Doug Out

"Doug Out"

• After discovering Onion in Funland, why did Doug, Connie, and Steven decide to just leave him there? Even without the threat of Homeworld Gems kidnapping humans, taking Onion back to his home would be the responsible thing to do as it makes sure he gets home safely as there's plenty of things that could happen to a young child alone at night. If they didn't want Onion to get in trouble with his parents, they could've at least made sure he got to the door, then left. End result: Onion gets taken.
  • Beach City is a pretty safe place, and Onion got there himself just fine. Steven and Connie are around the same age as him and go into combat all the time, walking home is already a safe activity that is nothing compared to the routine dangers 2/3 of the characters present face. It would be hypocritical of them to think it was too dangerous for him to go home themselves.
    • There don't seem to be any kidnappers or the like, I'd point out that Beach City does have fairly routine monster attacks. And Onion was clearly terrified. Just leaving him alone inside Funland seems a little negligent just on an instinctual human level. And while it could be argued that taking him all the way home might have been a bit excessive, wasn't it Doug's job to at least escort him off the property?

I Am My Mom

"I Am My Mom"

• This episode reveals that the humans (Lars, Sadie, Connie, Jamie, and Onion) taken by Aquamarine and Topaz were based on the names Steven mentioned to Peridot back in "Marble Madness". First, how did Homeworld know to send two Gems to Beach City to pick humans up since Steven never mentioned where his dad and friends lived nor did Steven and Peridot's confrontation take place near Beach City? Second, why would Homeworld waste time and effort trying to take six specific humans rather than taking as many humans as they could gather especially when the Earth was as far they knew due to blow up at any moment.
  • They knew the location because of Lapis, she may not have told them everything she knew but she told them enough to land right on their front lawn. As for the list, it came from Yellow Diamond, who is only interested because it'll make Blue feel better, and she wants a good variety as fast as possible because she thinks the Earth could be destroyed any day now.
  • They aren't trying to get six specific humans, they assumed that each "specific" human was a type of human. That is to say a "Connie" would be like a "Ruby", there are a ton of them running around making them easy to find.
• What could a Topaz's role in the caste system be? They seem intelligent enough to fly a modern spaceship, but Aquamarine treats her Topaz associate like a complete dolt and they certainly don't look like they're built for tasks like that. Especially intelligent Gems like Peridot or Sapphire seem to be made visually unimposing, while the "dumb muscle" Gems like the Amethysts and Jaspers on the Kindergarten are made large and intimidating. Could Topazes possibly be like "best of both worlds" Gems?
  • Given Pearl's reaction to learning her identity Topaz is likely high ranking, high enough that Pearl assumed she was sent personally by Yellow Diamond, possibly the top ranking for warrior type gems. Aquamarine seems to be even higher ranked and being higher ranked can treat even someone close to her rank as poorly as she wishes, just like Holly Blue Agate could treat the quartzes like garbage even though all our information has indicated that quartzes are decently high ranked and would usually receive a fair amount of respect.
  • Homeworld ships seem to be fairly intuitive to drive, since a batch of Rubies (who are... not the brightest Gems), managed to pilot the Roaming Eye just fine. The Topazes would not need to be incredibly skilled to drive them.
  • Topazes in "Familiar" seem to be security guards. They're likely around the same sort of caste as a Quartz.
    • Security guards for areas restricted to the Diamonds themselves, definitely higher than a quartz.
  • Topazes are likely elite "Praetorian Guard" gems intended to protect and serve top-ranking gems and to guard extremely sensitive areas. Hence, they'd be huge, powerful, and physically imposing, while also being smart enough to carry out complex orders and to operate heavy machinery when needed. However, to avoid the sorts of problems caused by the real-world Praetorian Guard, they'd also be heavily indoctrinated for obedience. And Aquamarine is just a jerk in general; she outranks Topaz, but we have no idea by how much - she would almost certainly act the same to anyone under her command.

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