Isn't much of a nuke without any explosions...
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice."That dog is a bomb! That present is a bomb! Even my words... "*BOOM* *BOOM*
edited 28th Feb '17 3:38:31 PM by sgamer82
Randomness just appreciates the traditional nukes...
This more of a mental one...which won't be dismissed, but still looked down on.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.Humans in this world seem to have a Weirdness Censor, honestly. No one questioned the giant, clearly alien temple (which was occupied when Beach City was settled), which is probably the most visible sign of Gem habitation, and everyone seems to have settled down barely a year after a giant green hand ship exploded in midair and nearly destroyed the city.
People are surprisingly chill about Gem-related things, is my point.
It's been fun.It's because people rarely ever went to that side of the beach...apparently.
Now it's just that they don't care...
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.@Red Savant: Gems have been around ever since written history has been a thing, or even before that. I think people are vaguely aware gems exist, but don't do anything about them because the gems aren't that weird as, once again, they've been around. Maybe they did once in ancient history, and got into an agreement with the Crystal Gems, or scared away, or there wasn't enough mutual interest.
@Kayeka: I'm wondering if Pink Diamond was really shattered. Granted, all evidence so far seems to point towards that, so it's a -worthy theory at best.
My problem with the Beach City episodes in relation to the Myth arc is how separated they are. Sometimes it feels like two separate shows. Rebecca Sugar has said the series is about the mythical being fascinated by the mundane, but we hardly see that, aside from episodes with Rose.
Humans that aren't Connie or Greg are rarely connected to the myth arc, and even then, they typically serve a small role. Greg's role in the recent bomb was unusual.
Yes. Exactly.
They put so much effort into worldbuilding for the gems that the lack of the same for humans is strange and notable. And you can't brush it off as being a cartoon because of all the effort put into Homeworld.
There are ruins. There are corrupted gems. There were three spaceships. Humans should have noticed, and probably have, but there is so little attention placed on it.
edited 28th Feb '17 4:35:12 PM by SilentColossus
Humans have two types of indifference toward the gems: There's people from Beach City, who are aware of their existence and ignore it. Then there's people from out of Beach City (the Maheswaran, Mystery Girl, Andy, Marty) who find gem-related things strange... but not particularly notable.
edited 28th Feb '17 4:51:44 PM by thatother1dude
I wonder if it's denial more then anything else,people this case choose to ignore the evidence of alien structures and artefacts just so they can continue to go about their lives as part of a coping mechanism
edited 28th Feb '17 5:06:29 PM by Ultimatum
have a listen and have a link to my discord serverThere's people that think the pyramids were made by aliens.
I guess in Steven Universe there's people that think alien temples were made by lost human civilizations.
Forever liveblogging the Avengers._. I-I'm sorry for the Wall of Text.
The show reminds me a lot of Ponyo. One of the main themes of the movie is acceptance, and I see a lot of that in the show. In both works, sometimes that goes beyond what's believable to reinforce how important acceptance is. Off the top of my head the example that comes to mind is Connie's mom worrying more about how her own behaviour led to Connie mistrusting her than her daughter lying to her and training to go on life-endangering adventures.
Additionally, oftentimes I find that the characters' personal issues are more important than the external issues they face. I think there are a few episodes the characters are dealing with an external problem, then they fail to deal with the problem, followed by the show taking a break from the problem to see one character's introspection or dialogue between multiple characters, and finally ending with the problem basically solving itself. I feel like putting it that way makes it sound like a bad thing, but I disagree, even if one might dislike the execution or the idea in itself. How Steven and Peridot dealt with the cluster is an example, but I think I had a better one I just can't remember right now.
Extra Credits once had an episode on "Why Aren't There Science Fiction Games?"
(, in which they quote someone else who) I'll paraphrase here: "science fiction should make the marvelous seem mundane, and then mundane life will seem marvelous." I think the series does manage to do that, and, although maybe it's just me, maybe it's only natural, the show gets better at it after we have an idea of who the characters are.
The way I see the show succeeding at such is, interestingly, not when Rose Quartz is fascinated with the Earth and Humanity, but when the characters are shown enjoying their lives and caring about themselves and each other. It's the little details, like the gems choosing to eat and sleep (or choosing not to), or in the bigger ones, like the gems spending time together and having fun. You see these amazing people, capable of superheroic acts and feats of legend, and you see them struggling the hardships you struggle. The loss of a loved one, loss of trust between friends, feeling like an outsider, being unable to help the people who refuse to be helped, or with problems you can't do anything about but be there for them.
In a way, I think that's the Myth Arc of the show. But, yes, pls gimme more of the War against Homeworld.
@Silent Colossus: I have to agree I wish the humans were better developed - actually that's a loaded sentence. Let's say I wish they had been handled differently. I'm trying to keep in mind the characters I like rather than the ones I don't in saying this.
For example: Lars. I don't see any reason to think Lars is anything other than a jerk except that somehow Steven and Sadie like him. Hold on - we do see Lars not being a jerk: when other people act like jerks towards him. Sadie keeps him stranded in a desert island for days. Steven hijacks his body (I found that terrifying). And that's when he behaves less of a jerk than you'd expect him to.
Uh, I might have been too specific here. But to answer the rest of your post, and other people: I do think humans - especially, say, the government - should have noticed or shown noticing the gems and everything related to them, and I would love to see that. However, ultimately I don't think that's the point of the show. Although I'm not saying they wouldn't do it in the future, who knows.
@slimcoder: Andy is told they are aliens and is still more interested in the barn.
@thatother1dude: Assuming they are in the year 20XX, I calculated the war started between 3 and 4 thousand B.C., which Wikipedia said was about when writing was invented. I didn't bother to check if that was accurate.
My biggest pet peeve is that, even if people didn't think too much about the gems, they should be paying more attention to their technology. Of course, I'm sure the Crystal Gems would try to stop humans from meddling with gem technology, but still.
I would be amused if there was some kind of reveal like "the current year is actually in the real world's past, though through the study of gem tech humanity advanced a little faster."
I shitpost in /sug/ more than I should, and dear god do they hate this. It's like a masquarade plot but worse because people straight up don't give a shit. One of the coolest parts of a fantasy/reality crossover is seeing people's interactions when they first face the unknown, and the oddities that happen at the intersection between reality and fantasy. Of course the natural problem is that this state is inherently unsustainable, and sooner or later everything will either be real, or not. Extra Credits I believe had a good episode on that too, no clue on the name though (I'll find it later).
It's just... it's more than just unbelievable, it's frustrating. It's frustrating because there's so much cool stuff that's going on and happening and so rarely do we see characters actually reacting to it.
And even worse than that, we don't even see the fantastical become mundane. The show seems to actively work to separate "gem stuff" from "human stuff", by keeping the gems out of Beach City and downplaying any interaction the Gems have with Beach City, which directly works against the themes of the show.
Edit: Gravity Falls was a good use of this trope. It had a reasonable explaination to show why people care so little about the obvious supernatural prescence in the town, but we still had the main cast actively reacting to the weird world around them. And the characters never really get "used to t", which I like. Up til Weirdmaggedon every new fantastical element introduced was treated as a weird new thing to play around with.
edited 28th Feb '17 5:43:18 PM by InAnOdderWay
This might even apply to the gems themselves: while they're poofed, they may be materially indistinguishable from mundane (if improbably large) gemstones.
That said, it's still disappointing that there's still so little meaningful interaction between gems that aren't Steven and humans that aren't Greg or Connie. Especially since "Beach Party", way back in season 1a, was based entirely on that.

I think the show deserves a rewatch so I can have a better opinion. At least so I can tweet about each episode - I forgot to do it when I began the binge >_> But for now I'll mention some of the episodes I liked the most. I'll try to avoid mentioning the things I dislike for now.
Well, I did explicitly mention the Sardonyx story arc, but I found many of the story arcs dealing with the War and Homeworld to be very exciting. Those had me watching one episode after the other.