Fridge Brilliance / Steven Universe Season 1

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Gem Glow

"Gem Glow"

• Cookie Cat contains a surprising amount of foreshadowing. He's a refugee from an interstellar war who left his family behind, which is similar to the Crystal Gems' backstory. In "Future Vision", Steven imagines being attacked by him, exclaiming "I never considered you would be evil!", which, due being sheltered from knowledge of the Homeworld Gems, winds up being his reaction to Peridot.
  • Cookie Cat's bindle is covered with pink diamonds, making the foreshadowing even more obvious in retrospect.
• The "Cookie Cat" song lyrics alone foreshadow not only to the true nature of the Crystal Gems (refugees from a interstellar war) but to the revelation of Steven and Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond.
  • "Ohh, he's a frozen treat with an all new taste" — Steven is the "whole new taste" to the original Pink Diamond; the "he" for lack of a better word, in this case.
  • "Cause he came to this planet from outer space" — Rose Quartz and the rest of the Gems came from Gemworld, in outer space.
  • "A refugee of an interstellar war" — Rose Quartz and the Gems are refugees after the war.
  • "But now he's at your local grocery store" — this turns out the be literal. Pink Diamond/Rose Quartz gave birth to and in a sense became Steven, though as established he is his own person. Where does he go to buy the Cookie Cat ice cream bars? At his local grocery store!
  • And the line "He left his family behind" is also on the nose since Pink Diamond left behind her family, the Diamond Authority, back on homeworld. The context on why the family is left behind changes, however, given the series revelations.
• Amethyst says that when she needs to get her whip, "it just happens." Since Quartz gems like her are made for combat, then it's pretty obvious why she never needs to put any effort into summoning her weapon. She was literally born to fight.
  • Pearl needed a lot of dedication and training to learn how to summon her weapon because she was made to be a servant, not a fighter.
    • The "compartmentalized" part of her mind as shown in "A Single Pale Rose" contains many identical spears, which might mean that she's not summoning her weapon in the conventional sense. Considering a Pearl's function is summarized as "look pretty and hold your stuff", it's likely that Pearl can't summon a weapon — instead she's just storing her weapons of choice inside her gem, and retrieving them for combat.
    • Although this sounds like a nice and reasonable theory... The question is how Pearl's spears can fuse with other weapons if they're not "coventional" weapons.
    • Characters wearing clothes have their outfits fused when they fused, and Garnet's wedding suitdress especially makes it hard to tell where the suit ends and the dress begins. Mundane objects seem to be entirely fair game for fusion stuff!
  • Garnet's way of doing it also makes a lot more sense when you consider that she's a fusion of an aristocratic Gem who probably would never need to summon a weapon and a warrior Gem who can probably summon her weapon as easily as Amethyst does, so she really did have to "work really hard and not try at all at the same time" to figure her own powers out.
    • "Mindful Education" shows that Garnet is good at mindfulness and meditation by necessity, which implies that her bit about channeling the power of the collective universe through her Gems is less literal and more like a meditative mindset that she uses.
  • Now that we know Steven is a Diamond, not a Quartz, how he learned to use his shield makes perfect sense as well — it seems that at least some of the Diamonds' powers are directly connected to their emotions, and weapon summoning would be no exception.
• Steven's reaction to the Centipeetles is to call them cool and ask if they could be pets, this foreshadows his eventual friendship with the mother Centipeetle.

Laser Light Cannon

"Laser Light Cannon"

• Steven finds the Laser Light Cannon when it starts to glow faintly — right after Greg says the line about pork chops and hot dogs for the first time.
• Steven loving "fry bits" is clever for two different reasons: First, Steven is the guy who sees the good things in stuff no one else would. Fry bits, the discarded pieces that would normally be thrown out, are basically the potato equivalent of a hot dog. (If every potato was perfect, we wouldn't have fry bits?) Secondly, Steven doesn't exactly have the healthiest appetite. The bits have a greater amount of surface area compared to fries and have been sitting in the frier all day, so they're probably even greasier than regular fries.
  • Another foreshadowing; Pink Diamond had swallowed bits of fake shards in order to fake her shattering...
• In light of the newest Pink Diamond revelation, a clever bit of foreshadowing with the broken photo: Rather than a shattered frame, it's more like a framed shattering.

Cheeseburger Backpack

"Cheeseburger Backpack"

• Steven has a cheeseburger backpack. Peedee (whose hair looks like french fries) is his friend. Burger and fries!
• With The Reveal of the Crystal Gems being rebels against Homeworld, it doesn't make sense why they would be so determined to save the Lunar Sea Spire, and why Pearl would be so emotionally invested in it — it's a Homeworld structure, so what do they care? Especially considering that every other Homeworld structure they come across, the first reaction is always to destroy it. But when Bismuth is first talking about herself in her forge, she mentions that Bismuths are made to build various structures for Homeworld, and specifically mentions spires as being one of them. The Lunar Sea Spire was probably built by Bismuth before she joined the Crystal Gems, and given how close she was to Garnet and Pearl, they would want to preserve her work, regardless of who she originally built it for. They think Bismuth is dead, so the Lunar Sea Spire is practically a memorial to her. Enjoy re-watching the episode with that context.
• Part of a line in the episode is "Steven! This place is your heritage." With the revelation of Rose's real identity and her subsequent demise, it is likely that Steven would have inherited the colony Earth and the structures (including the Sea Spire) built on it.

Frybo

"Frybo"

• Frybo was only doing what Peedee told him to — he just said "make people eat fries," he never specified how.
• Peedee was originally excited to join the family business but ended up hating the job his father gave to him and expected him to do just because he's a Fryman, and his father failed to notice how unhappy he was. This parallels someone else with the initials PD...

Bubble Buddies

"Bubble Buddies"

• Upon realizing Steven has a crush on Connie, Pearl immediately tries to set up a "playdate", while Amethyst begins teasing him. Garnet, meanwhile, tells Steven that the best thing to do is just introduce himself and start a conversation, and promises that she and the others won't watch, so he doesn't have to be embarrassed. Garnet being the only one of the three that's helpful makes sense when you realize, she literally is a romantic relationship, and a very happy one at that.

Serious Steven

"Serious Steven"

• The Gems make a strong point of calling the Inverted Pyramid mission Steven's "first serious mission". This gains some significance after we learn in "The Test" that the Lunar Sea Spire mission in "Cheeseburger Backpack" was... well, a test. After the test mission, this one was the first one he'd attend that actually meant something.

Steven's Lion

"Steven's Lion"

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

Arcade Mania

"Arcade Mania"

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

Giant Woman

"Giant Woman"

• The bird monster that Opal was ultimately needed to take out was quite powerful. Look at both its stomach and when its main body is destroyed: it wasn't like most other monsters who only have one primary gem, it had dozens. Is it any surprise Opal was needed to defeat it? This also shows just how powerful Opal actually is.
  • Given what we now know about the monsters, this makes even more sense — it's likely as close to a "fusion" as corrupted Gems can get, so naturally they needed another fusion to stand up to it!
• Look back at the episode after having watched the entire season and pay close attention to every single line Garnet says: every line she delivers is clearly loaded with future sight!
• At one point, Garnet mentions only she can swim in lava. At the time, it just seems like another demonstration of how badass she is. But in hindsight, who would be better equipped for swimming through lava than a fusion between an ice gem (for cooling it down) and a fire gem (to withstand the remaining heat)?
• This could be thought of as Fridge Funny. We learned in "Cheeseburger Backpack" and "Serious Steven" that when the Gems warp, they spend some time in the warp stream before they reach their destination. In this episode, Garnet tells Steven before he warps with Pearl and Amethyst to keep the harmony. Steven begins with "Harmooooo..." when he warps with the two and finishes with "nyyyyyyyyyy!" when they arrive. That means that Steven held the "O" in harmony the whole time they were in the warp stream (or he stopped to take a breath). Either way, it's a hilarious off-screen moment.
• A small one, but Pearl getting angry when the bird eats her spear makes sense — Pearls are non-combatants, but one of their functions is to store their owners' stuff. Pearl isn't summoning a weapon in the traditional sense, she just owns her preferred weapons, stores them in her gem, and retrieves it for combat. The other gems can probably reform their weapons at will, but if Pearl loses a spear, it's gone. She's not just bothered about being disarmed mid-fight, she's upset about having lost something she liked.

So Many Birthdays

"So Many Birthdays"

• Garnet's comment about the crown and cape making her feel important makes sense when you consider that her Sapphire component was once a gem aristocrat. It would make sense she would like wearing something befitting royalty.
• When confronted with a rapidly aging Steven, the usually level-headed Pearl and Garnet show much more vulnerability than the laid-back and immature Amethyst. In some instances, more thoughtful and mature individuals will freeze up in a situation similar to this one due to automatically thinking of too many things that could happen (i.e. the very real chance that Steven would die right there and what they'd have to deal with afterwards, such as a funeral, telling his friends/family etc.), therefore clouding their judgement. Alternatively, the more brash and headstrong Amethyst would focus more on what's actually happening in the present rather than worrying about the future, leading to immediate action.
  • Amethyst isn't handling it well either. She may not be weepy but she keeps trying out party methods over and over again in spite of them being ineffective. She also keeps insisting that that everything is alright while doing it. Pearl is breaking down but Amethyst is firmly in denial.
    • This works with the prior observation however; while Garnet and Pearl are frozen up and breaking down due to over-thinking the situation, Amethyst's denial is caused because she isn't thinking at all about what could happen, only that nothing HAS happened, reinforcing her denial, making her believe everything is alright.
    • Not completely in denial — storyboards were posted, revealing that during the fight between the Gems, Pearl says that she thinks the party might have been working, and Amethyst says "The parties weren't working! I turned into a car and everything!"
• Pearl's inability to properly assist Amethyst in reverting Steven's age with the pie skit is most likely due to losing her grip on her emotions. However, it may also be that, after watching Amethyst and Garnet's prior attempts, she already realized that what they were doing wouldn't work and just went through with the motions due to Amethyst's insistence knowing it would fail, which caused her complete breakdown. Amethyst, being caught up in the moment and acting out of desperation, would not have gotten to the same conclusion.
• Garnet shakes Steven in an attempt to cure him and then says, "I thought violence would be the answer." She knows how to protect Steven from external dangers — with violence. This could be her first time trying to save him from himself, and she doesn't know how.
  • The funny thing is that violence really was the answer. Garnet shaking Steven causes the Crystal Gems to argue among themselves which causes Steven to revert to a younger age.
    • This is both better and worse in hindsight, now that we know about Garnet's future vision. On the better side, we realize that violence really was the answer — she must have seen that it was the possibility that would probably work. On the other hand, she was probably overloaded with her future vision at the time, combing every possibility for a solution and seeing tons of scenarios where Steven died.
• The above scenario shows that in contrast to how they were in "Three Gems and a Baby", the Gems became aware of Steven's fragility and mortality while helping to raise him. They've learned that Steven will die someday, though they hope it will be later than sooner.
• Steven's birthday suit is a royalty's outfit(king's crown and cape). Fitting, since he was originally born a (kind of a) royalty, aka a Diamond.
• The whole story is about Steven being forced into a role that doesn't fit him, resulting in him "dying". His family members try to cope with that fact in different ways; among the three gems, one of them tries to deny that something is wrong, while another breaks down sobbing. Foreshadowing of the Diamond family's situation, perhaps?
  • Adding out to that: the leader resorts to violence to try and fix him. Likewise, the leader of the Diamonds resorts to pulling Steven's gem out (an insanely violent and cruel method) to bring Pink back. And, although the violent acts don't solve the problem, they kick off reactions that lead to the problem being solved: Garnet shaking Steven leads to the Crystal Gems arguing, which makes Steven age back and the four of them figure out how to make Steven age back to normal, and White pulling out Steven's Gem leads into Steven realizing he was always himself, and for White's ego to come down crashing.

Steven the Sword Fighter

"Steven the Sword Fighter"

• Despite the Gems' bodies being holograms with mass and their high resistance to harm, Pearl was easily "poofed" by a holo-Pearl; a hologram with less mass than her body, equal to less strength than her own and a simple sable sword. Garnet needed Gem technology specifically designed to disrupt Gem bodies, Amethyst needed the superior strength of a Gem Monster. Why Pearl was so easy to "poof"? Thanks to more information given in new episodes, Pearl is revealed to be considerable less strong than Amethyst and Garnet in virtue of being "defective"; maybe the same applies to the fragility of her body.
  • Or it could be because holo-Pearl had enough cutting power to cut through a tree with a balloon.
  • In the same episode, considering the duality of the song that Pearl sings to Connie, it's possible that "Pearls" (assuming from recent a episode mentioning multiple Pearls that she isn't the only one) aren't meant for battle, so they wouldn't need to be nearly as physically durable as Garnet or Amethyst. Reinforced by the fact that she admits she didn't learn fighting until well after meeting Rose, implying she had no need for the skill beforehand on their home planet.
    • Elaborated on in "Back to the Barn": Pearls are custom-made slaves/glorified designer handbags, meant to "stand around looking pretty and hold your stuff for you." She wasn't allowed to learn any of her skills before she defected with Rose, and of course she wasn't made to be physically durable or especially fast: she was never supposed to get in a fight, thus, never supposed to get poofed or destroyed, and even if she did get into a fight and get destroyed or poofed, she was expendable.
  • Alternately, she could have poofed more easily due to the nature of the wound. Most of the other Gems and gem monsters we see are poofed by crushing, not piercing. It would stand to reason that stabbing through her body would be more lethal than an equal amount of force applied externally for the same reason it's easier to kill a human by stabbing instead them of crushing them, especially if the gems pseudo-organs are located in their chest.
    • This is backed up in "Island Adventure" when Sadie drives her makeshift spear through the invisible gem monster. Regardless of how buff Sadie has gotten on the island, she doesn't have anywhere near the strength equivalent of anything else that has poofed Gems. Clearly the pointiness has something to do with it.

Lion 2: The Movie

"Lion 2: The Movie"

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

Beach Party

"Beach Party"

• The teams for Volleyball are similar to each other in some way:
  • Garnet and Kofi: Both are the leaders of their respective group, known to be serious, and hardly crack a smile.
  • Amethyst and Jenny: Rebellious teenage archetypes, full lips, are known to irresponsible and lazy, and are jerks with hearts of gold, though Jenny is a little more nicer.
  • Pearl and Kiki: The responsible one, like cleanliness, and frequently scold the irresponsible one.
  • Steven and Nanafua: The Heart of their respective group, the shortest member, the nicest one.

Rose's Room

"Rose's Room"

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

Coach Steven

"Coach Steven"

• Steven tries to get Pearl to work out with him and his friends, to which she curtly refuses. While she was upset about him looking up to the extremely reckless Sugilite, it should be noted that since a Gem's body is a mere physical projection, she literally can't get physically stronger.
  • In a similar vein, Pearl is known for her precision and intelligence, not fighting power. She wanted to show Steven that having the smarts and cunning to defeat your opponents is just as valuable as being physically strong like Sugilite, which of course later led Sugilite's defeat via Hoist by His Own Petard.
    • This manages to be even harsher after "Back to the Barn", where we learn Pearl will never be anything but Weak, but Skilled and was made to be a servant, not a warrior. Compare this to Sugilite, a fusion of two warrior gems who is stronger than her components. Pearl might have been uncomfortably reminded of Homeworld's mindset.
• When Steven started coaching Lars, Sadie and his dad he was still going on the premise that being strong physically is being "strong in the real way". Even though he was only trying to help them get buff he also helped them find the inner strength ("strong in the real way") to not give up and push them to excellence. Sadie's jump-roping like a pro, Lars can do a push-up with Steven on his back and Greg lifts a two-armed dumbbell instead of using the one-handed one he was going to use first (at Steven's suggestion, of course). He may not have realized it, but he was showing them how to be strong "in the real way", like how he inspired Pearl to defeat Sugilite later in the episode.
  • It can also be interpreted as forshadowing to the powers he attains in the future.
• Steven walks into the Big Donut with ridiculously overdone bandages, acting like it was a huge deal. He drops this when Lars and Sadie laugh, but considering how worried Pearl was, and how there were no other gems around, she overdid the dressing for the "wound" in question, making Steven see it as more of a big deal than it was and add the sunglasses to act tough about it.
  • Alternately, he dons the glasses since Sugilite was wearing a pair and he was in the process of idolizing her.
• When Garnet & Amethyst first form Sugilite, she is briefly shown to have 5 eyes before 4 of them are covered by shades. Why would Sugilite have 5 eyes while Opal didn't? Because Garnet has 3 eyes due to already being a fusion. Garnet's 3 eyes plus Amethyst's 2 equals...
  • Plus, Sugilite's extreme aggression that even leads her into a Face–Heel Turn is likely because she's actually made of two overly aggressive gems, Amethyst and Ruby, plus Sapphire who can't counteract their tempers on her own.
• Steven and Pearl saying "I want to be your rock " could be a pun about being Gems.
• Pearl begging to fuse with Garnet becomes much Harsher in Hindsight after the events of "Cry For Help", in which it is revealed that fusing into Sardonyx gives her a sort of Power High which she enjoys so much that she is willing to fuse with her under false pretenses. Elaborated on further in "Friend Ship", where it is explained that she loves fusing with her because it gives her a sense of strength that other fusions (like Opal) did not possess.
• It may seem odd that Garnet didn't foresee the consequences of fusing into Sugilite, but there are two things we have to consider: First, it's implied the reason Sugilite went berserk is because Garnet and Amethyst spent way too long fused and felt abandoned. Second, if the Warp Pad hadn't been smashed, Garnet and Amethyst would have been able to safely defuse and warp back once they had finished smashing the Hub. Most likely, Garnet looked forward in time, saw herself and Amethyst smashing the Hub and then safely defusing and warping back, and so went ahead with Sugilite. She just got blindsided by the Warp Pad getting smashed.

Joking Victim

"Joking Victim"

• The Tiger Millionaire poster in the back. Of course it was back there - Lars is still a huge fan of Tiger Millionaire.

Steven and the Stevens

"Steven and the Stevens"

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

An Indirect Kiss

"An Indirect Kiss"

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

Mirror Gem

"Mirror Gem"

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

Ocean Gem

"Ocean Gem"

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

Secret Team

"Secret Team"

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

Fusion Cuisine

"Fusion Cuisine"

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

Garnet's Universe

"Garnet's Universe"

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

Watermelon Steven

"Watermelon Steven"

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

Lion 3: Straight to Video

"Lion 3: Straight to Video"

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

Warp Tour

"Warp Tour"

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

Alone Together

"Alone Together"

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

The Test

"The Test"

• Garnet's room having a lava motif makes a lot more sense following "Keystone Motel", which reveals that Ruby, one half of her, has fire powers or at least the ability to control temperature.
• Back in "Cheeseburger Backpack", Pearl finally gives in on letting Steven join in on the mission when Amethyst calls it a "learning experience". Garnet outright states that the test "wasn't something [they] planned behind [Steven's] back", and that they "saw and opportunity and took it". Meaning that mission was a learning opportunity to see how well Steven would do in future ones.
• Steven being frustrated and hurt by the idea of the Gems' new test has been brewing almost since the beginning. He keeps having to remind his surrogate moms that he's a Crystal Gem too, over and over, even after they admit they should have listened to him. The real test was realizing that, if he really were on equal standing with Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl, he wouldn't need them to act as gatekeepers to his own self-worth: choosing to focus on their need to feel like they're helping him grow up proves that Steven really is growing up. The Test ended up being for the Gems themselves, and they passed without ever knowing it.

Future Vision

"Future Vision"

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

On the Run

"On the Run"

• Garnet's joke about how they "kept Amethyst"... is not actually a joke. They literally kept her.
  • Further brilliance from this: Pearl's reaction to the "joke" seems a bit over-the-top and almost forced. Given she'd been keeping Steven Locked Out of the Loop, she likely treated Garnet's comment about Amethyst as a joke to ensure that's all Steven would think it was.
  • Garnet cared about Amethyst. She probably assumed that Amethyst would understand it was just a joke, that they "kept" her and she turned out wonderful. She became a valued and loved part of the team. The same might happen to Lion, too.
• "On the Run" reveals that Amethyst was created on Earth and has never been to the Gem Homeworld. Amethyst has always behaved the most human of the Crystal Gems, she's the only one who regularly eats and sleeps, despite not needing to.
• Of the Crystal Gems, Amethyst is the one who embraces her role as Steven's Cool Big Sis the most and the one always ready to try human stuff, like eating and sleeping. She, like Steven, is not from Gemworld and was born on Earth. She identifies more with Earth than Garnet or Pearl do and feel a stronger connection towards Steven because of their shared origin.
• Sugilite being the Token Evil Teammate makes more sense considering she's an amplified version of Amethyst; considering Amethyst's origins and the evil purposes behind her creation, Sugilite is what Amethyst was meant to be.
• All those holes in the Kindergarten makes you realize this is where all those Corrupted Gems probably came from. Then you realize this is where all those Gems came from, these thousands of holes. And there's only somewhere between 30 to a 100 Gems stored at the Temple.
• If you look at the other holes in the kindergarten, you see that most of them are bigger than Amethyst's hole (many of them twice as tall), fitting in with Peridot's observation that she should be twice as tall, and Jasper's calling her an "undercooked runt".
• Pearl saying "None of this is your fault! You didn't build this place!" gains extra significance with later revelations. Pearl has been on Earth since her Diamond arrived at the colony's very beginning. She did build the Kindergarten, or at least was part of Homeworld's forces while it was being built.

Winter Forecast

"Winter Forecast"

• Garnet transfers her power to Steven by kissing him on the forehead — where his third eye would be, if he had one.

Maximum Capacity

"Maximum Capacity"

• Steven finds a book, Passions of Xanxor, which Greg snatches away. We know that Rose was attracted to Greg because she was a Friend to All Living Things, but Greg was attracted to Rose because she was a badass alien warrior.
  • Or, alternatively, she influenced his "type", and he's now attracted to badass alien warriors because he no longer has her.
• Amethyst's fight with Greg when she says he "stole" Rose away from her. Coupled with her previous comments about Rose, it's clear she was probably the closest thing Amethyst had to a parent or at least the Gem she was closest to. It casts her whole teenager personality in a whole new light: she's still grieving the loss of her closest friend/mother the way that a child would, and she's angry at Pearl and Garnet for not getting that.
• The title character of the in-universe sitcom Li'l Butler can be interpreted as a parallel to Steven himself. While Li'l Butler does the family's chores, Steven does a different kind of labor for his family that a child wouldn't normally do; that is, help them sort out their emotional problems. The theme song for Li'l Butler includes the line "So mop the floor and dust the shelves / and teach us lessons 'bout ourselves."

Marble Madness

"Marble Madness"

• Peridot is under the impression that when Steven introduces himself that he is literally "a Steven" and inquires whether humans have been replaced as the dominant species of Earth. There is a good reason for Peridot's confusion, as Steven is part human and part Gem, and a scan would probably not show him as either.

Rose's Scabbard

"Rose's Scabbard"

• If Pearl was really as intimate with Rose as implied, it contextualizes Pearl's relationship with Amethyst a little more: Amethyst is like a child who is under the custody of a stepparent. It also provides an explanation for why Pearl is the Team Mom despite Garnet being the most leader-like of the three.
  • Further, it shows why Pearl is as devoted to swordplay as she is. The sword was Rose's weapon. What better way to get close to Rose than to train with her? And what better way to memorialize her than to hone her skill in Rose's way of fighting to absolute perfection?
• The way Rose's portrait fell from the wall after Pearl punched it in anger at the revelation that Rose actually kept secrets from her as well is a beautiful way to show how the pedestal of perfection where Rose is on Pearl's eyes broke up a little.
• The fact that Rose calls Pearl "My Pearl" at first seems like she's saying she appreciates her loyalty. Then in "Message Received" we learn that Peridot refers to Yellow Diamond as "My Diamond", implying that in Gem culture calling another gem "your" gem is a symbol of loyalty. Suddenly Rose's line fits in much more with how she "made (Pearl) feel like she was everything."
  • It also fits with Pearls being a Servant Race. Part of Pearl's struggle after Rose is gone is finding a sense of confidence and self-worth, and part of the development of Rose as a posthumous character is that she was a good and wonderful person, but she did embrace values of her culture that don't jive with an Earthly perspective. Regardless of the morality involved, Pearl was made to be a servant, and Rose understood that. In a more human context, calling someone "mine" is as much a statement of belonging as affection. It's only natural that Pearl is devastated by her loss, Rose was the only person who fully accepted her for what she was without forcing her to choose between her inherent nature and what she chose to be.
  • It also happens to be a subtle bit of Foreshadowing. Throughout the series, the only Gems shown to actually own Pearls are Diamonds. "A Single Pale Rose" reveals that Rose was Pink Diamond.
• When he's jumping from platform to platform after a fleeing Pearl, it looks like Steven is going to make the last jump, even though he shouldn't be able to. Then Pearl turns around, there's a significant moment where he realizes that she's glaring at him, and he suddenly starts falling straight down, right in the middle of his jump, as though the sudden negative emotions caused him to fall. Fast forward all the way to "Steven Floats", where it turns out that not only can Steven control the speed of his descent, but negative emotions cause him to fall faster.
• Pearl's speech about being Rose's sole confidant for a war leader who had to keep secrets to protect everyone, especially where it concerns warfare has a ton of deeper meaning with the ever-deepening implication that she was, or was meant to be, a Diamond's Pearl.
  • In "A Single Pale Rose", we learn that Rose was Pink Diamond. This was something that Rose was keeping secret from both sides of the war (and something that she had ordered Pearl to never tell anyone).
• At first, it's not clear why Rose would hide the sword away and seemingly pretend it was lost. However, using the sword in battle again would be a risk to her secret; if she were to accidentally strike a gem (such as the Corrupted Gems they fight all the time), it wouldn't actually shatter that gem.
• Why does Pearl look back fondly at the battle fought at the Strawberry Battlefield, unlike Garnet? Because to Pearl, any time spent with Rose is wonderful, especially protecting her.

The Message

"The Message"

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

Political Power

"Political Power"

• Mayor Dewey's interpretation of the Gems as Steven's "sisters" isn't actually that far off the mark. During flashbacks of the Crystal Gems pre-Steven, Rose was shown to be something of a Team Mom to the rest of the Gems; Garnet acting as the eldest child, Pearl the middle child, and Amethyst the youngest. When the Gems are viewed like this, they could essentially be seen like older sisters who got Promoted to Parent when Rose gave herself up to birth Steven.

The Return

"The Return"

• The Gem Destabilizers are essentially the Homeworld equivalent of tasers. Both of them are nonlethal weapons that deliver a shock that incapacitate an attacker, allowing the user to detain the attacker without resistance.
• Thanks to Alternate History, Greg addressing Gemkind as aliens and all the theories in the real world about it, we can be sure that humanity in this show pretty much evolved thanks to the Gems bringing technology. They may not "give" it to them, but humans tried to figure out and imitate what Gem technology could do.
• Garnet says that the Crystal Gems rely on Steven, that his voice inspires them and reminds them why they fight. You could say that he's their rock, and when he talks, it lights a fire in them.
• Jasper refers to Amethyst as an "overcooked runt". Jasper and amethyst are both types of quartz, as is rose quartz. Jasper is very large, as is Rose, but Amethyst is extremely short. It seems that Quartz-type gems are naturally big bruisers, but Amethyst is much smaller than she should be, probably because the Kindergarten was abandoned, and so she stayed in longer than expected.
  • Additional brilliance from a geological perspective: amethyst and jasper are not just the same type of stone, they're the same stone. The only difference is that amethysts tend to be buried more deeply and subject to more tectonic pressure than jasper; amethyst is also a crystalline quartz, while jasper is classified as cryptocrystalline. A possible hint that not only is Jasper a Kindergarten Gem herself, but that if Amethyst hadn't been buried as deeply as she was, abandoned, and then taken in by the Crystal Gems, she would have turned out just like Jasper.
• Pearl is referred to as "defective", an ironic moniker given that she earlier called Amethyst "the byproduct of a mistake".
• Garnet is referred to as a "shameful display", one of the final hints at her true nature as a fusion — the "shameful" part referring to Homeworld's view of two different Gems fusing being unacceptable.
• Why does a show that makes a consistent point of accepting yourself and showing everyone as beautiful in one way or another make such a classic example in Beauty Equals Goodness in Jasper looking so monstrous? Because, due to the fact that Gems determine their own appearance, she is deliberately enhancing the intimidating aspects of herself, making herself an enemy of the weak and fearful from the first impression.
  • Adding to that, remember, she's a warrior, and has been for millennia. Based on her behavior, she's proud of it, too: of course she would chose to present as a haggard, no-nonsense, intimidating warrior who by the looks of her has been through hell and back! Her stripes, especially the one on her face, are pretty reminiscent of battle scars or burns. As we later find out, "intimidating warrior" is pretty much the default look for a Quartz like Jasper, adding even more evidence that she fiercely embraced the role expected of her. Not to mention, a case can be made that what really makes Jasper look monstrous is the tendency for Slasher Smile, and otherwise she's almost an Amazonian Beauty, being a taller and more muscular version of Amethyst with a different color palette.
• When Lapis tries to convince Jasper that Steven is harmless, Jasper interrupts with, "I know what a human is." How would a Gem warrior who's never been to Earth know that? As it later turns out, Jasper was made on Earth and has likely had run-ins with the locals before.

Jail Break

"Jail Break"

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

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