Steven Universe

A fancomic released after Maximum Capacity.

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I guess we can extrapolate from Peridot just how little the Homeworld Gems think of humans, considered she seems to find the concept of them having individual names totally alien.

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Does anyone feel like Peridot is bit of a Punch-Clock Villain? I mean, yeah, she is rather villainious, but I mean like it seems like she is just a maintenance worker with deskjob or something She seems to be really confused by the resistance and her reply is "Why are you breaking my things?" and "I'm reporting this!"

She didn't realize Steven was human, not that humans have individual names.

That’s the feeling I got. She doesn’t seem so much evil as annoyed that she’s unable to do the job she’s been hired to do. I imagine she doesn’t relish meeting up with superiors that will surely be angry with her specifically for failing in her mission.

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Peridot definitely comes across as a Punch-Clock Villain, which is why she's such a great example of Moral Myopia.

From her point of view she's basically the repairman, getting the rat infestation out of the machinery before getting it working again. Her legitimate confusion about why the Crystal Gems are bothering to stop her is pretty telling.

Plus the way she seems to only know about Earth as though she read about it in a history book. She seems to just regard it as an early expedition that went south way back before modern society.

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

OK, who else knew this was a bad idea? I mean, obviously it was plot-moving idea, but not a actual-logic idea. At very least, they should stop that orb thing at the very end.

A little surprised that Connie's subplot didnt have any conclusion but I liked it. Perfect addition of humor and cuteness to tense episode. That face she made when she learned Steven reads forth book....Also these books sound awesome.

Speaking of way combining funny and serious, funny faces are the only cool animation in this one. I loved animation when large orbot turned into pyramid platform and then it made small orbbot that put itself like hand against scanning panel, and then Peridot operated thing from away with just hands and computer screen looking like some video game boss...Really great visuals.

"Steven Quartz Universe would like to speak with you! I swear thats not his real name... " "There are plenty humans! My dad, Sadie, Lars, Onion... I think." Gotta to love these self-aware jokes.

Funny thing, that everybody likes this episode despite that Steven messes up as he usually does (failing both Gems and Connie) and never even fixes it.

Dont know why, but the way Pearl pulled out her spear only half way and let it stick out like unicorn's horn made me chuckle.

And yeah, I love seeing Peridot again. She makes interesting villain; just doing her work, but completely apathetic. That is except her freakout when she saw Gems. Very noticeable, even if she never really raised her voice. Honestly I think see would get along with Pearl if they were on the same side. The fact that she did know who are Crystal Gems raises many questions and implications.

Well, Garnet says that even though it was a bad idea, they learned a lot! So there's that.

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Yeah, they learned IT WAS A BAD IDEA! (her words not mine.)

Though actually they did find out that it was Peridot looking for Kindergarten (though why didn't they realize that by themselves, given what they know, is a good question.)

Oh well. At least this advanced the plot by making Peridot (and likely the other Space Gems) aware of the Earth's Gems. Oh, and now we have a date for the Kindergarten event: 6000 years ago!

The gooey hug sequence was priceless. Though Pearl was right that the substance could have been dangerous.

And Steven? I thought you were past the "doing things you were forbidden to do" phase. Damn.

P.S.: That Steven Universe fancomic was awesome btw, especially the art.

edited 6th Mar '15 5:29:30 AM by Sijo

I like the comic too. FANON CONFIRMED.

I get a feeling that, if this weren't such an important plot-advancing episode, it would be merely good. It wasn't particularly dark or heartwarming or funny, after all. That's not to say there's a single SU episode I dislike.

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I found Peridot's comment about the Red Eye not reporting any gems kind of strange. The Red Eye was destroyed. How could it have reported anything?

Something that stood out to me is that the Gems have apparently been away from their homeworld for so long that they don't know what current Gem tech is capable of.

Also never realized that "Crystal Gems" was a team name.

I think it never reported anything because it was destroyed.

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Huh. The gems are over 6000 years old. No wonder they have no respect for human lifespans.

And Amethyst is confirmed to be 6000 or less, and she acts like a moody teenager. How old must Pearl and Garnet be?

Also, if the Kindergarden was shut down over 6000 years ago, why are all the holes and equipment still recognizable? The canyon is exposed to the elements. Even if Gem tech really is just that good, you'd figure the holes would have eroded by this point.

The Kindergarden is going to be re-activated, and shut down by the Crystals permanently, but at least one baby gem is going to be made, and Steven will get an adopted little sister.

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The way the Gems just tried to keep destroying the Plug Robonoids reminds me of the Parable of the River.

To me, the most likely reason for Peridot's confusion about the Crystal Gems is that the Homeworld Gems either avoid talking about them or outright erased them from history because they were embarrassed to have lost. Peridot herself is clearly too young to have seen it herself (which means she's probably even younger than Amethyst), and she seems intelligent enough to have looked up available research on Earth beforehand. A smaller possibilities is that modern Homeworld Gems aren't quite as long-lived as they used to be, so the historical record may have faded naturally.

And now I'm really uncertain whether or not Lapis is why Peridot came to Earth when she did. On one hand, Lapis clearly knew who the Crystal Gems were. On the other, maybe Lapis's information got to Peridot's boss, who send her to Earth without giving the full story. However, that doesn't explain the timing of the Red Eye.

As someone said earlier, it's probably a lead-in to an episode called "Book Club" that airs in two weeks.

She wasn't even including the Quartz part!

Red Eyes probably stay on a planet without sending any messages until they find something. Peridot probably checks to see if they're still running periodically, but the Earth's Red Eye was destroyed too recently.

The Kindergarten has a large amount of Gaia's Lament going on. Maybe a side-effect is that it locally stopped any active natural forces that would have eroded things?

edited 6th Mar '15 12:45:25 PM by thatother1dude

I love how most folks took "Red Eyes aren't corrupted Gems" to mean that they must be some third-party alien menace. Nope! They're basically Gem security cameras.

Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.

Really? Because Red Eye being something the Homeworld Gems sent was actually something a lot of people guessed.

I don't know if them following the marble was a bad thing. Well, yes it was. But if they hadn't done something, Peridot would have just kept sending bigger marbles and they couldn't have fought them forever. Garnet didn't want to.

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Huh. I don't remember it happening around here, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.

How long was Lapis trapped in that mirror, I wonder. The Kindergarten had been shut down for 6000 years and Peridot didn't even seem to know who the Crystal Gems were. I suppose it's been so long most of them probably forgot all about that radical faction that actually cared about a mud ball like the earth.

edited 6th Mar '15 1:15:47 PM by LSBK

Well I haven't heard much speculation here at all about what the Red Eye was besides my guess that it was a Gem Lost Superweapon, but someone wrote something on the Red Eye's wikia paged about the Homeworld Gems sending it. It was deleted for being speculation, but turned out to be partially right (not entirely because they thought it was sent to attack).

edited 6th Mar '15 1:26:19 PM by thatother1dude

Or just a way to remind us what a dummy Steven is about such things that he would just give away his presence to Peridot. (Actually I want to take the Spirit Morph Saga as a hint that they'll explore Steven's own unfamiliar familiar again soon.)

Yeah, it couldn't just be sucking up life that existed then; it must have introduced some long-term pollutant. I wonder if they'll ever mention what happens to a non-Gem that tries to set foot in there.

Now it doesn't seem very smart for it not to send back a live video feed they could analyze anytime later, considering the way Peridot took over the control room confirms they have instant transmission. Even if you think the Red Eye didn't notice the Crystal Gems gathered on the shore, surely it had plenty of time to notice Amethyst smacking into it over and over?

I'm almost certain we are going to get more about Lion in Rose's Sheath as Lion has a very strong connection to Rose (his pink coloration,knowing the location of her hidden stash, having the tape, a Mr. Universe shirt, and most importantly given the title Rose's Sword).

Also it's subtle, but I love how Steven has pretty much gained control over his bubble.

Yeah, the fact that the Gems' technology is so advanced but their scouting drones apparently don't have camera feed is strange to me. When NASA wants to know what the Mars rover is up to, I'm pretty sure they don't send someone to go get it.

(I don't know jack about space travel, so be easy on me)

6000 years does seem excessive, in my opinion. But eh, it is what it is.

edited 6th Mar '15 5:18:08 PM by Austin

Perhaps FTL transmission requires something that cannot be moved from place (fragile components?) so there's no point in placing them on drones.

Of course this begs the question of why the Red Eye, if it was intended as a transmission device, didn't stop in place instead of heading down in a crash course with Beach City. Maybe it malfunctioned?

Or the homeworld Gems don't care about smashing up a bit of the place they're going to investigate. That's in line with them seemingly giving no shits about Earth, but it seems like that would rather compromise their results.