Recap / Steven Universe S0E2 "We Are the Crystal Gems"

It's years in the past, back when construction has just started on Steven's house so he could live closer to the Crystal Temple. Steven had recently taken up the ukulele and had been learning very quickly, so Greg encourages him to share the song he wrote with the Crystal Gems. Steven is hesitant at first, but starts it up after some encouragement. Garnet starts clapping along and the other two follow.

If you're evil and you're on the rise
You can count on the four of us taking you down
'Cause we're good and evil never beats us
We'll win the fight and then go out for pizzas

We... are the Crystal Gems
We'll always save the day
And if you think we can't
We'll always find a way
That's why the people of this world believe in
Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl and Steven!

After Steven finishes singing, we flash-forward through the construction to Steven moving in, looking as he does in the present. Pearl is heard singing over bits of his life in his new house with both them and Greg.

If you could only know, what we really are
When we arrived on Earth, from out beyond your star
We were amazed to find, your beauty and your worth
And we will protect your kind,
And we will protect your Earth
And we will protect your Earth,
And we will protect you!

The Crystal Gems each show off their glowing gemstone, while Steven's doesn't glow. Cut to all four running on the beach, and Steven falling behind. Their image turns into silhouettes in the foreground of a montage of major events thus-far. When the montage ends, the Gems have changed to their new outfits, and Steven catches up and takes the lead. The music reaches a peak and they all begin singing accompanied by related imagery:

Garnet: I will fight for the place where I'm free!
To live together and exist as me!

Pearl: I will fight in the name of Rose Quartz!
And everything that she believed in!

Amethyst: I will fight for the world I was made in!
The Earth is everything I've ever known!

Steven: I will fight to be everything that
everybody wants me to be when I'm grown!

All: The odds are against us, this won't be
easy but we're not going to do it alone!

From there the short transfer into the second opening, but with Greg included.

We are the Crystal Gems!
We'll always save the day
And if you think we can't
We'll always find a way
That's why the people of this world
Greg: Believe in
Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl and Steven!

The short originally aired at San Diego Comic-Con 2015, then on the Cartoon Network website.

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Tropes:

• "Back to Camera" Pose: Near the end, the heroes stand with their backs to the audience, looking up at the villains looming over them. In the same shot, the yet-to-be-introduced Yellow Diamond is the only one in the villains' group who is standing with her back turned. A few seconds pass, and she slowly turns her head so that one of her eyes is visible, glancing back toward the camera.
• Blush Sticker: Young Steven's cheeks are perpetually blushing.
• Brutal Honesty: Amethyst tells Steven they'll like his song even if it's bad. Pearl objects briefly, then concedes that she's right.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Pearl and Garnet have the same outfits as the beginning of the series, but Amethyst has a long-sleeved shirt instead of a tanktop. This matches the comment from "Steven the Sword Fighter" that Amethyst is usually the one who gets injured and has to regenerate. Similarly, during the instrumental bridge, the Gems go from having their first outfits to the ones that they get as the season went on.
  • As Amethyst says the Earth is her whole world, the background shifts from her birthplace at the Kindergarten to her favorite human setting, the wrestling ring from "Tiger Millionaire".
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: We see the show's "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune has a partial in-universe origin as something Steven made up when he was younger.
• Evil Overlooker: The last line before shifting to the second opening features the Crystal Gems in the foreground with the Homeworld Gems in the back: Peridot and Jasper are both wearing scowls as the latter holds a worried Lapis by the arm. Behind them is Yellow Diamond, who starts out facing away then slowly turns her head to face the audience, with the scene changing the moment her profile is revealed.
• Good-Times Montage: After Steven moves in, he's with Pearl hanging his clothes out to dry, cleaning the dishes with all of the Crystal Gems (Amethyst cleans one with her mouth while taking a bite out of it), and being read to in bed then tucked in by Greg.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Garnet's verse spoils the existence of Ruby and Sapphire, which was a major reveal at the end of Season 1.
• Musical World Hypotheses: The first verse is diegetic: it's a song Steven made up and rehearsed. Pearl's solo verse seems to be All In Their Heads, musing at what they're still keeping secret from Steven at the time. The rest, including the show's opening, appears to be Adaptation of them expressing to each other their goals in life.
• Mythology Gag: As with the main theme tune, the extended version Steven sings in the beginning is lifted directly from The Pilot (down to using the same recording).
• Same Clothes, Different Year: Played with; Steven is wearing the same shirt years in the past, but it's very loose. This is going with a Freeze-Frame Bonus from "Story for Steven" showing a bunch of the same shirt leftover from Greg's concert, implying it literally is the same (series of) shirt(s).
• Time-Passes Montage:
  • A shot of Steven's house shows it going from barely founded to complete.
  • The scene on the beach also shows major events from season 1.

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