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Shepherd's Crook
- Even if most of the fic is very sweet with the father/son type interactions of Casimir and Steven, there's this line, underscoring the harsh treatment Steven had to endure over the years under the shadow of his mother.Casimir. Not 'Cactus Steven'. Not 'Steven but a plant', not 'Steven but worse', not 'copy of Steven'. Casimir needed only to be himself and no one else.
- One has to wonder if Steven's gentle treatment of Casimir is at least partly influenced by guilt over how harshly he initially abused it when it was little.
Like A Word, A Sound, A Song
- Greg offhandedly mentions that Steven's "shut down mode" during sleep (where he stops moving, barely breathes, and has a nearly absent heartbeat) really worried Greg when Steven was a baby. Four words- sudden infant death syndrome
. - Steven has a moment of unintentional Past-Life Memories from Rose, in front of Bismuth. For a moment, he's absolutely terrified that Bismuth might try to attack him for it. When he calms down, he begs her not to tell Pearl.
- This stray line that grimly sums up Lars and Steven's lives.And then Lars didn't work at a donut shop anymore, and Steven's middle name was a lie, and they both had more important things to do now than sit around and talk about girls.
- Steven used to file down his claws to an unhealthy level because the Gems, wanting to gloss over the fact that they were former alien invaders, didn't tell him that it was normal. It's sort of a microcosm of their overall dynamic- the Gems either failing to communicate or outright distrusting him with the truth, and Steven becoming hurt or hurting himself as a result.
Clustersong
- The entire fic has a sort of bittersweetness- as much as Gems can help or honor Frank aka the Cluster, as peaceful as their life is now, nothing will ever be able to fix them.
A Love Affair, But Exit Left
- The reveal that Jasper isn't really that proud of her status as a 'perfect Quartz', resenting the isolation her status gives her.
- The fact that Steven relates so much to her.
- Steven had almost hit the mental low of using Jasper as a vehicle for self-harm before she broke him out of it.
- It's a sign of her growing acceptance of Earth and Era 3, but there's the fact that Jasper is so lonely she develops an attachment to a piece of Rose's moss.
- Steven and Jasper's first interaction post-SU:F quickly devolves into a screaming match. Steven felt betrayed by Jasper trying to change their relationship to something other than equal, and Jasper felt that his rejection was a denial of her agency.
Diamond Drop
- Thor seems to have developed a minor Shrinking Violet tendency where his father is concerned, letting himself be talked over and being afraid of Odin finding out that he even disagrees with him, a stark contrast from how he acted in Thor 1. It looks like his temporary disownment hit him harder than it seems.
- Part of the reason Lars adopted his devil-may-care bravado after his resurrection is a desire to be someone who is worthy of being alive.
- There's a bit of humor in the Dramatic Irony of people being scared of Steven, but it's a little sad to think how someone so sweet will basically have to constantly fight people's fear of him.
- Odin seems to be subtly removing Loki from Asgardian memory, the way he did Hela.
- Thor has started to become an alcoholic after Loki's "death", a very harsh Call-Forward to his state in Endgame.
- On that note, being present at Loki's attempted suicide has legitimately traumatized Thor.
- Thor is terrified of being caught disobeying Odin in anyway, and his narration points more and more to the idea that Parental Favoritism only made him a bigger target for Odin's punishments.
For The Tax Benefits. Also I Love You
- Steven's distress and hesitation over Connie's proposal is already this, but even more so with the context of Together Forever having happened, an episode that was released after this chapter was released, no less.
- Amethyst's brief freak out that Steven and Connie might want to become a permafusion is also Harsher in Hindsight with the context of this episode.
- Steven being so distressed over the proposal and what it meant that he almost unfused.
- Vendan's pessimistic but realistic point that if they take their relationship with her to this next level, Steven might not ever get over it if Connie dies.
- When going over who to invite to the wedding, Connie doesn't have a real answer to if any human family other than her parents will come.
- The implication that Greg had abusive, or at the very least neglectful, parents.
- Greg had apparently reached out to them for help when Steven was born, but they still did nothing. Knowingly or not, they left their son and grandchild to suffer poor and homeless.
- It's not said outright, but it can be put together that Priyanka's parents cut her off while she was in college in America for dating someone (possibly Doug) who wasn't of the family's brahmin caste, essentially stranding her in a foreign country.
Like Halley's Comet
- Even if it's in the far future, Greg still lives a mortal life and dies.
- Gems consider the loss of a Gem to be the death of all of their fusions, as well. When Greg died, so did Steg.
Aliens Steal Cable
- Even though he never made it big as a touring musician, Greg had a decent following for ten years before suddenly dropping from the public eye entirely. Right around the time that Rose had died and Steven was born.
- A family caught in the Battle Of New York had been trapped under the rubble of thirteen floors for 37 hours.
- In the same story, Steven running himself ragged for a week straight without rest after the battle.
- Pearl, our Crystal Gem Pearl, wrote a memoir about her time with Rose/Pink Diamond. The shown "excerpts" talk about the faked shattering, and the aftermath of the corruption.
- There's something rather sad about the whole concept of "Asteria Diamond". Steven has become a Shrouded in Myth figure who can never live the normal, human life that Rose and Greg wanted for him.
