I honestly can't remember if I had heard about the Diamonds before I started watching. When I started, the show was up to Joy Ride, so obviously a lot of information was still a mystery, but I had been spoiled on some things, like Garnet being a fusion, or the gems being rebels from Homeworld.
It's pretty hard to pick up on the background details when you're watching like 56 episodes in a row.
edited 13th Jul '16 12:30:58 PM by Collen
Gave them our reactions, our explosions, all that was ours For graphs of passion and charts of stars...Cautiously trust those who play favorites...it's a 50% chance of fail.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.I wasn't there, but I've seen some hilarious old theories back before Mirror Gem. Like the supposed Metals, a race of all male conquerers that killed off the other Gems.
To be fair, other than the Diamond mural, a few comments by Pearl about the Earth, and one or two jokes, there really wasn't much to go off of, though it's pretty easy to tell they're aliens.
I actually read the entire forum up until "On The Run" once I realized how many posts there were about the show in the TV Tropes forum. In fact, I still plan on reading the rest eventually. It's amazing what predictions people were making back then. It makes me want to go back and read them again just to see all of the speculation from the perspective of someone who knows more than they did then.
I liked most of the theories surrounding Garnet. People thought the fifth gem on the temple door was for some new Gem that hadn't been introduced yet, and the idea that Garnet was herself a fusion was just another theory.
If I had to say what I love about this show, as well as a bunch of recent cartoons, it would be that it has a surprising amount of depth. A show that could have just been about the kid sidekick to three monster-fighting warriors has it's own mythos, lore surrounding it, and characters with struggles and flaws and traits past their basic descriptors. Off the top of my head, shows that I think are similarly surprisingly deep are Adventure Time, Gravity Falls, and the Avatar series. Even shows like Regular Show, Gumball, and Clarence have moments of depth with their characters, which is more than you can say for most cartoon shows. I really like this show.
"The cruelest thing you can do to an artist is tell them their work is flawless when it isn't." -Ben "Yahtzee" CroshawWait...why is Avatar surprising? That's anime storm supplying the narrative there.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.What? I just meant that it's filled with typical anime stuff.
This gots nothing to do with maturity.
edited 13th Jul '16 7:57:02 PM by randomness4
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.
x4 I guess it was more from my perspective, but when I first watched the Last Airbender (which came out in 2005, over 10 years ago!), I didn't think it would take the serious turn it eventually did. Like how most of season three's episodes treated the big conflict it's been building up to as the biggest event of the protagonists' lives, with the occasional Breather Episode.
edited 13th Jul '16 7:58:15 PM by BlueBlaze64
"The cruelest thing you can do to an artist is tell them their work is flawless when it isn't." -Ben "Yahtzee" CroshawAnime is just Japanese cartoons, and I've seen plenty of it that is far dumber and immature than Avatar. I've also seen lots of it that is much more mature. Either way, the only real similarity is the art style, considering anime is such a broad thing that there aren't really tropes that characterize everything there, just like how old Disney cartoons have very little in common with Powerpuff Girls.
Except for the humor...that's a lot more...not Japan.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.It can go both ways. Panty and Stocking for instance would be something you'd see on Adult Swim rather than anime networks, especially with the dub that fits so seamlessly you'd almost never know it was an anime in the first place.
Conversely, SU of course has a lot of anime-influenced style, though I get miffed at some fans implying it's better because of that. It's just a stylistic and narrative choice.
Especially with the mindless praise of the Japanese dub. I mean, yeesh.

Well, I just watched this entire show over the course of a week or so, and now it has become my number one favourite cartoon of all time.