If following the caste was a result of actual baked-in (for lack of a better word) programming, I feel like Ruby and Sapphire's rebellion wouldn't really have taken, nor would Pearl, Ruby and Sapphire have had so much trouble behaving 'normally' on the Zoo. It seems like the Gems are very strictly socially programmed to behave the way they do and to be obedient to their castes, but it's not something intrinsic to their beings.
edited 14th Mar '17 5:51:45 AM by RedSavant
It's been fun.I think there's a mix and match. It's said Gems come out already knowing their purpose. Somewhere along the way, real life experience begins to set in and starts helping to override that programming. Full on rebels like Rose are probably extremely rare, and when you get down to it Garnet's first fusion was a result of Ruby fulfilling hey purpose: defending her charge at the cost of her very life.
edited 14th Mar '17 5:55:29 AM by sgamer82
The fact that they sometimes cry because they lost a sister doesn't change that fact.
And also that they're not allowed to be effective villains or our heroes would basically just be finished. They pretty much made that point clear, when the main characters weren't even allowed to appear before them.
There's just not a ton to look forward to with them, when they're so powerful that you have to keep the main characters a secret from them because then they can't interact.
edited 14th Mar '17 10:20:23 AM by xanderiskander
> Maybe they're literally programmed to follow their castes, and cases like Rose Quartz are rare anomalies that crop up and, in Rose's case, spread the word of self realization. That or only now, unfold millennia later, are Gems starting to move past that.
Since the Rose Quartzes came from Earth it makes sort of sense to me why they are so different,I think the life they take from the planet itself determines how their programming turns out.I've always felt Rose resembled a queen,so maybe her programming and appearance determined that she's supposed to be a leader of some kind
The fact that Steven can create life probably means Rose could do something similar with ordinary,inanimate gems without draining life away from the planet,which makes me think the Rose Quartzes are the legitimate rulers of the gem race and the Diamonds are just dictators.
edited 14th Mar '17 1:51:50 PM by Ultimatum
have a listen and have a link to my discord serverI don't know.
Sapphire being absolutely terrified in Blue Diamond's presence does paint her with a menace despite her otherwise spending the time in tears.
That brief moment when Blue Diamond looked angry is enough to remind you that despite being portrayed as sympathetic she is still the Blue Diamond that would have shattered Ruby, no appeals, no second chances.
It can actually make a villain scarier if the main characters have to avoid encountering them. To use an animes, the heroes and Vegeta of DBZ spent most of their time on Namek staying out of Freiza's way.
There's a dread there and its the dread that the Crystal Gems have felt every time Homeworld has come up. Why they hid from Peridot on her first appearance.
Its dread that grew when we learned about the diamond weapon. And grew when Navy escaped with the ship.
edited 14th Mar '17 2:07:14 PM by Bocaj
Forever liveblogging the AvengersYou mean..Freeza spent most of the time doing nothing because he's the leader...
While his croonies were there for the rising scale power-wise...
Except the Agate gem didn't work for that. Because she didn't prove to be a threat.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.In fairness, Amethyst did a lot of the heavy lifting by befriending all of the guards. And then they had Holly Blue outnumbered three to one. And it was more of a victory of putting one over on an asshole than strictly a contest of strength.
And also Steven Universe doesn't have the same kind of escalation as DBZ anyway.
And also comparisons don't have to be one to one.
edited 14th Mar '17 2:38:33 PM by Bocaj
Forever liveblogging the AvengersI know skill is what really matters in this, but in a hypothetical scenario...Amethyst seems like the only one who would've had the hardest time in a 1 v 1...against the Agate gem.
And she was the least likely to fight her by herself.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.![]()
So?
Possibly bad times. But the one they befriended was too young to be involved in that at least.
edited 14th Mar '17 3:01:01 PM by Bocaj
Forever liveblogging the AvengersI went in the wrong direction in that post.
What I meant was, if Sapphy or Ruby were somehow found out by the Agate gem, there wouldn't have been any actual Diamond danger presented.
That's what they needed to get across, but the series of events that actually happens puts everything in the Crystal Gems' favor...the moment they enter the zoo.
And the Diamondo only end up as a danger by actual being there.
edited 14th Mar '17 3:08:09 PM by randomness4
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.> Possibly bad times. But the one they befriended was too young to be involved in that at least.
As far as most gems are concerned he has her gem ,therefore he must be her in another form,after all.gems don't have offspring so it could only be her
edited 14th Mar '17 3:18:38 PM by Ultimatum
have a listen and have a link to my discord serverI meant Amethyst.
Amethyst is the one they befriended. They being the various guards at the zoo.
Forever liveblogging the AvengersThe part about Diamonds grieving over Pink made them more pathetic than sympathetic, in large part because their grief is incredibly hypocritical.
Keep in mind that Blue's idea of working through the loss of Pink is to dominate, hoard and/or kidnap everything Pink once had connection to, regardless of whether or not those things might prefer to be where they were (her ominous collection of Rose Quartz is especially jarring, as it's not bright and personable like the zoo). Yellow's idea is to just kill everything so they can put it all past them.
These are imperialist tyrants, and the fact that they can't deal with their own loss while continuing to inflict more of it on countless others is not a sign that they're better than they seem to be, or that next time the Gems meet them the plot isn't going to treat them like imperialist tyrants. It's a further sign of how dangerous their selfishness is.
edited 14th Mar '17 4:05:58 PM by KnownUnknown
Giving Yellow and Blue Diamond a degree of sympathy helped to deepen them, but at the same time it still showed they're fucking hypocrites and still heinous as all hell. I think it was Le Garcon who, back when the bomb leaked, made a comment about Blue going from sad to stone cold bitch and back again when Sapphire's cover was almost blown.
Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?
A page back people were discussing the possible Cosmic Horror aspects of the series. I think Yellow and Blue's emotions and hypocrisy are tied to it. Maybe Steven Universe doesn't have eyeballs and tentacles,
but there's still a strain of existential horror and despair running through it. Homeworld Gems are immortal super-being who don't need food or air or anything really, but they're still very much like us, with our fears and petty rages and our amazing ability to grind down the environment and each other.
There's no higher power in the Steven Universe universe, just a bunch of higher-power aliens who have none of our physical flaws and all of our emotional ones, and there's really nothing to stop them from doing to us what we do to each other.
The most powerful aliens being emotionally relatable to humans is the exact opposite of a Cosmic Horror Story. The defining trait of the genre is worlds and laws of physics being at the whims of things and phenomena which (sane) humans cannot comprehend.
The situation you're describing it more like Jerkass Gods (metaphorically speaking).
edited 14th Mar '17 4:56:59 PM by thatother1dude
I will point out that in both cases of Blue Diamond hoarding Pink's creations (well, her creations in terms of the Quartzes, as well as snatching Greg for the Zoo as a memento), the alternative is for those creatures to be destroyed - Yellow suggests that she shatter the entire caste because of what Rose did, while Blue just has them bubbled. Sure, it's ominous and a little obsessive, but those Gems are still alive because of her, regardless of her personal reasons for it. Same with Greg - if she was organizing Gems to kidnap every human on Earth I'd be more inclined to agree that it was inspired by sinister intentions, but as far as Homeworld knows the timeframe for the Cluster to explode is 'pretty much any time now'. She "saves" Greg because as far as she's concerned it's for his own good, saying that he (or perhaps humans in general) don't deserve the Cluster.
I fully expect to see more of Authority Equals Asskicking, Homeworld-style, but I wouldn't call it hypocritical - it's the emotional dissonance of being furious if anything happens to the people you care about, while still being willing to hurt people you don't know, all of whom are precious to someone out there. That's what war does/is.
It's been fun.By Cosmic Horror they probably mean something truly paranormal showing up,something that's not a corrupt gem or anything to do with gem empire,something that's beyond explanation,something truly eldritch
The cluster is the closest thing this show has to an Eldritch Abomination,it is literally every gem that's been killed during the gem war fused together in one mass,but we know what the cluster is,we know it's connection to the gem empire,it's makes sense in the setting.I'd argue against truly paranormal beings showing up in Steven Universe (ghosts,demons,zombies ect) because I don't think they need to complicate things,they already have corrupt gem mutants and the gem empire itself to serve as the weirdness of the setting and it forms a major part of plot.
Edit:There are always rapid fans critiquing some aspect of any show,it's best just to grit your teeth and ignore them unless you want a headache explaining to them how difficult it is to make a cartoon show's art consistent
edited 14th Mar '17 5:13:12 PM by Ultimatum
have a listen and have a link to my discord serverGetting rabid at the storyboarders is certainly too much, but having different styles of drawing the characters is the exact sort of thing that having a model sheet is supposed to cut down on. There are procedures for making sure art stays consistent (like QC).
edited 14th Mar '17 5:21:56 PM by RedSavant
It's been fun.![]()
It's surprising how much that doesn't tend to happen...
It's honestly not that bad, the different ways of drawing characters reminds me of Looney Tunes.
But the art is never bad because of that, it's just off because it's off.
edited 14th Mar '17 5:35:12 PM by randomness4
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.

Could the Diamonds change the caste system? Or at least could they do it easily. I had a thought earlier (dunno offhand if it was here or the spoiler thread) that maybe the Gems were originally created by someone or something else. My original idea was they Turned Against Their Masters, but now I'm reminded of a quote from Tales of the Questor
Maybe they're literally programmed to follow their castes, and cases like Rose Quartz are rare anomalies that crop up and, in Rose's case, spread the word of self realization. That or only now, unfold millennia later, are Gems starting to move past that.