Because it was in the middle of forming...it probably is still conscious.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.I'm talking about Amethyst. She seems genuinely okay with who she is, with no big shames or secrets anymore. Peridot is a close second, with her only real issue being vast social ineptitude, and Garnet whose largest issue is the outside chance of her actually being a mutual erotomaniac and the fact that she freaks me out a bit.
edited 10th Sep '16 5:25:28 PM by madprophet
I've always appreciated Amy's storyline. The fact the punk rocker of the group has, as I've seen it called "first world problems" is in-and-of-itself hilarious, but actually exploring the crippling insecurity and self-esteem problems that creates has been great to watch.
To have everyone you know and love be incapable of saying anything good about what you are and where you came from. To know that a war was fought to prevent more of you. Your birth kills the land. Your creation means the death of thousands. All the condolences and "Well, we love YOU..." in the world doesn't stop Amy from feeling uncomfortable when Pearl describes the thousands that died in the name of more of Amy's kind not being formed. And then the guilt from feeling uncomfortable. And then the resentment that Pearl could inspire this guilt. And then the shame when she acts on that resentment. She's a purple Tyrion Lannister, yo. It's great!
I know I feel plenty of First World Guilt. I didn't ask to be born. It's not as sexy or cool a topic as societal shaming of my queerness, but I can address what I can contribute to my family, if not children. I can't bring back the fucking buffalo.
It's definitely one of the more unique messages to teach kids, and adults too. Sometimes, we hurt others even if we don't mean to, and sometimes we hurt others because of no fault of our own, but it doesn't mean we don't blame ourselves for it and punish what we've done.
But it's okay to think about it. The feeling hurts, knowing your best wasn't good enough, but it's the best you could do and you can't ask any more of yourself.
At times just because there's no right answer doesn't mean you have to suffer because of it.
But...Amethyst isn't a punk.
She's a clock.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.See, I just assumed that Amethyst was thinking about the whole issue wrong. She and the Gems work on the assumption that strength is always key. Amethyst isn't particularly large or strong, but she has guile, shapeshifting, and a being a smaller target on her side. Not only that, she's small. The less resources used up in creation, the less planets get destroyed. From a human prespective, she's not just making the grade in combat ability and versatility, but she's energy and resource efficient. She's like a living Tesla that propels itself via AK-47. Okay, human analogy doesn't really apply here, but you get the idea.
- Holds up a boombox blasting Here Comes a Thought to the universe*
That's why I liked Peridemption, too. God, it was done so freakin' well. She didn't stop valuing her people, she didn't change her core personality, she didn't do anything but acknowledge that other people deserve their lives, too. She thought her Diamond was rational and logical enough to care more about co-existing with Earth and sharing some resources than destroying everything and having none.
IRL, it should matter when asking someone to consider your viewpoint, to bother to consider theirs, too. If they are scared, paranoid, insecure and vulnerable, don't just mock them, help them. That's what Steven did with Peridot, Lapis, the freakin' Cluster, Centi. It's what he tried to do with Bismuth, Jasper and Eyeball... If Steven is ever going to help Homeworld, the only answer is to address their insecurity. (I LOVE how the show keeps foreshadowing this, like with Connie's survivalist rant about resources.)
Fantasy stories like this, Beast Wars and ATLA are some of the first to actually DO THAT and not just mindlessly ask magical people to give up their civilization, culture, religion or even, hell, reproductive system for the sake of middle-class, moderate, secular First World humanity. "Tolerance" and "diversity" only being used as tools to bend the will of more successful and/or less developed civilizations, with little real interest in helping them. Looking back on some of my favorite stories growing up, I'm actually creeped out by how often and successfully this request is made.
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HW don't care about potential, resources, or potential resources...they just want to expand.
They really are exceptional, did you see how tall they are?
edited 10th Sep '16 6:42:46 PM by randomness4
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.
Close, but no cigar. The Gems want to reproduce. If they don't, they ineveitably crumble like any civilization. All that's needed is a way to make that happen safely.
The Diamonds don't deserve the honor of being called exceptional. They don't deserve the honor of being called people. They don't deserve the honor of having a gender. They don't deserve the respect they demand. They don't deserve anything but to crumble and fall to the wayside as a distant warning of what happens when you stray from the right path. They deserved nothing in life, and shall have nothing in death.
edited 10th Sep '16 6:46:08 PM by madprophet
Peridot was being pretty naive you must admit. There's hypothetically a way to build Kindergartens in out-of-the-way areas in limited quantities that still keeps the native life mostly fine, but Homeworld's hardly going to care about that when they can just gut the planet dry, rip out the crust, and fold it into a hollow shell.
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Reproduce....expand their empire, what is the difference in this situation? They're expanding by reproducing.
I don't really understand that 2nd thing...we just need more beauty in the universe.
edited 10th Sep '16 6:49:55 PM by randomness4
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.
I have a code in life. A set of rules I live by. Among them are these:
Zero tolerance for rapists.
Zero tolerance for racists.
Zero tolerance for killing children.
Zero tolerance for genocidals.
If it were me, I would have them dead in a second. No tomb of riches, no golden casket or silver chain for the Diamonds, just death unto them. The rest of Gemkind is innocent. They were enslaved and ignorant. The guilt lies on the top, and they will pay for their crimes with their lives.
edited 10th Sep '16 6:55:21 PM by madprophet
Yeah, but...it's a TV show.
And when the Crystal Gems make those unmarked gravestones with shattered gems embedded in them, on Earth for some reason, Steven is going to drive his dad's car up to them one dark summer's evening.
He's going to pop open his trunk. Three men will fall out. He'll pull each man in front of a gravestone. "Do you see these? They are for you. If I ever see you cross another toe out of line, this will be your permanent residence."
Onion will show no reaction. He will just stare at Yellow Diamond's gem and... think.
Kevin'll spit on the ground. "Stevie, let's be honest. You gonna hafta kill me."
"Well, I don't want to die! What do you want, man? I'll give you donuts for life! Please, Steven, free donuts for life!"
"I don't want donuts, Lars!" Steven will yell as he slaps him. "I want peace and love on the Planet Earth."
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Okay, mang. I can get down with those rules...I mean, people already should live by that anyway. As those are extreme things.
edited 10th Sep '16 7:00:30 PM by randomness4
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice."Humans just lead short, boring, insignificant lives, so they make up stories to feel like they're a part of something bigger. They want to blame all the world's problems on some single enemy they can fight, instead of a complex network of interrelated forces beyond anyone's control."
All the hatred in the world towards the Diamonds doesn't change the fact that Gems NEED to kill organic life to currently reproduce and the only known way of subverting that involves self-sacrifice they may not be emotionally ready to handle.
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Yeah, it is extreme. But measures are required. The only reason I'm not out hunting Neo-Nazis right now is because of Rule 1, "Preserve your own life and the life of your family unless you are almost absolutely certain that a course of action that will lead to your death will signifigantly change the scenario for the better."
Yes, I understand it's a TV show, yes, I understand I shouldn't be freaking out about this, but I dislike compromising on these rules, because it isn't long before I start giving monsters ground where they don't belong.
There's a way to fix it! There's always another way! I won't endorse dooming an entire race to slowly die, just as much as I refuse to endorse them killing us. There needs to be another way. If I could, I'd find it. Not everything has a right answer, but everything has a solution.
edited 10th Sep '16 7:10:50 PM by madprophet
@madprophet: I don't tend to judge the homeworld gems or even the Diamonds too harshly, because, for all their transgressions, humans aren't any better in extremis.
"Cruelty as entertainment, human sacrifice to indulge superstition, slavery as a labor-saving device, conquest as the mission statement of government, genocide as a means of acquiring real estate, torture and mutilation as routine punishment, the death penalty for misdemeanors and differences of opinion, assassination as the mechanism of political succession, rape as the spoils of war, pogroms as outlets for frustration, homicide as the major form of conflict resolution—all were unexceptionable features of life for most of human history."
While their treatment of other life may seem barbaric by the standards of the modern west, the fact that gems are immortal would absolutely make social progress slower than in was in human civilization, if it didn't outright stagnate at absolutism.
edited 10th Sep '16 7:21:53 PM by CaptainCapsase
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All the hatred in the world? Only 7 living peeps on Earth know about the Diamondo. Thas not a lot of hatred to be honest.
edited 10th Sep '16 7:16:56 PM by randomness4
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.@madprophet You do you, but the funny thing about it is that because you feel more comfortable with that conversation, you shifted the thread to that when we were originally talking about the daughter of a "rape," Amy.
"How does Amy feel? What does Amy think about this-and-that?"
"That's a very important topic and I'm gonna let you finish, but my hatred for the Diamonds it the greatest hatred of all time!"
This is the endless cycle that's why Amy had such problems. Pearl has no idea how to talk about the Pink Colony without seeing it as this disgusting genocidal blight on Earth and while the war has been over for 5,000 years, one of the Gems made in that blight is right in front of her. Pearl is an amazing champion who saved humanity, but it's over (isn't it) and the more nuanced problem of how to celebrate a daughter of imperialism begins.
You can hate crimes all you want, but the conversation is more about the fact that life continues after that and you have to know how to look at the life in front of you.
edited 10th Sep '16 7:22:34 PM by ProserpinaFC
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The cluster alone constituted millions dead. The civilization that they have existed for hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of years. Even assuming that their birthrates are very slow and that capital punishment is rare (unlikely given what we know about Homeworld), they a body count of billions, if not trillions. They have committed atrocities on a scale that the human mind could hardly comprehend. All in the name of four entities. Four power-hungry imperatrices who couldn't be bothered with petty ethics. Those lower on the food chain didn't know better, couldn't have known better. Homeworld makes North Korea look like a walk in the park.
I don't hate Amy! I love her! She's an improvement, by God, an improvement! Living proof that a gem can be smaller and still useful! Her existence is a Godsend, a piece of proof in pudding, and her design is a bargaining chip the size of Manhattan! And I said nothing of rape! I don't think a Gem could even technically be raped, as they need to shapeshift to have sexual organs and excretory functions, can't fall asleep, are nigh impossible to be locked up, and can kill almost any human with their bare hands.
edited 10th Sep '16 7:27:30 PM by madprophet
Oh, it's absolutely a scale that the human mind can comprehend, in it's own special way, and it's really not that far off from the sort of behavior that was typical of human societies less than 200 years ago, the primary difference being the numbers involved.
edited 10th Sep '16 7:27:05 PM by CaptainCapsase

Well, the Cluster is bubbled now so... I guess it's in stasis mode? Which is probably better than its previous state. Although it sucks that the Cluster had to lock itself away once it came to terms with itself/themselves.