Also, regarding the tree in Lion's mane and oxygen production... keep in mind that, while a regular tree does produce a decent amount of oxygen (presuming it worked like am average tree, probably enough per year to let Steven breathe for two years), oxygen doesn't just sit there right by the tree - it naturally diffuses through whatever atmosphere it's in. Whatever oxygen the tree in Lion's mane produces spreads across a nigh-infinite plain, so the amount actually present for Steven's use is probably minimal (and that's even before getting into issues of there potentially being things for the oxygen to react to in the area... or the fact that it might be an alien tree producing something other than oxygen).
In short, while the Doylist reasons for the lack of breathable air in Lion's mane are a bit sketchy (as noted, it seems silly to use that as a reason why Steven can't just hide in Lion's mane... particularly when Lion's roar portals work, not to mention his fairly rapidly developing shield powers), at least it's consistent and makes sense on a Watsonian level.
Unrelated, something I was reflecting back on... has there been any analysis on the fact that Lars was revived with Steven's tears, as opposed to his spit? Tears were strongly suggested to be Rose's thing for the longest time... does this mean Steven is more fully growing into his powers? Was it a one-off? Did Rose also have healing spit, and she just liked using tears more? I feel like I completely missed a boat here for a few weeks.
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.Rose could have always had healing spit and just never noticed. It took a pretty bizarre incident for Steven to discover his.
Amethyst visibly drools
◊ in her Gross-Up Close-Up in "Fusion Cuisine", and I think we've seen nervous beads of sweat before.
Even if gems don't normally have saliva, the Crystal Gems should because they altered their bodies to be able to eat. It's a pretty important part of tasting food and digestion.
Shapeshifting doesn't count, obviously, unless you're implying that Blue Diamond, Topaz, and several other Gems just shapeshift tear ducts when they want to cry.
EDIT: I suppose Topaz needing too blow her nose suggests they produce some kind of mucus as well?
edited 13th Jul '17 9:42:33 AM by SalFishFin
I've been running with the headcanon that the gems were a constructed race by something organic that died off (possibly killed off ages ago by the Diamonds) and they still have some vestiges of that organic origin under their default manifestations, which is why they're typically humanoid (if you think about it, there are probably times when it would behoove a gem to regularly have more than two arms, or maybe a field of vision beyond our binocular field) and have some suggestions of bodily function (such as tears or mucus). They'd probably only intentionally delete out functions that actively interfered with duties (getting rid of a digestive system because hunger forces unneeded breaks, or getting rid of a circulatory system because the risk of bleeding out is too risky).
It's perhaps not the most elegant explanation, but it works enough that I don't get distracted from the show.
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.So here's the stuff from the artbook that I think may be relevant to the canon of the actual show:
- I'm keeping discussion of the timeline picture to the spoiler thread, because I think they may have left more visibly than they meant to. What they definitely did mean to say it that it covers a "20,000 year history". I think that gives a good idea of how far back concrete details will go: a couple times further back than the war, but probably not the Diamonds making the first gems.
- When discussing the crazy amounts of background stuff in "Lion 2: The Move", Rebecca Sugar states that "it sets up... things we haven't even paid off yet". I took some notes while rewatching it, and have some ideas, though Sugar appears to have made that statement several months ago, before Wanted aired and the big reveal about Lion.
- One of the "writing games" is to make up a description for a gem that someone else illustrates. One is a non-corrupted version of the Earth Beetle, who is about eight inches tall. Obviously not canon, but further evidence (along with that one setting on the Roaming Eye) that some gems are really, really tiny.
- surasshu mentioned that each chord of the Diamond Authority's leitmotif represents a specific Diamonds. A picture illustrates
that White is F# Major 7 and Pink is A Major 7. A more musically literal person (i.e. not me) might find a Theme Song Reveal by listening if either chord is emphasized. And I guess just knowing which chord is for which Diamond might say something about them.
- Two drawings of potential maps are shown. One is of the area surrounding Beach City, but has almost no resemblance to what we've seen in the final show. The other is a world map whose landforms and gem sites markers exactly match the Moonbase map and the map Pearl made for Buddy. It includes labels giving names to the landforms, and pegs a specific gem site to each dot.
- Location names:
- Aqua Mexico: version of Mexico where much of the south is underwater
- Blueland: version of Greenland whose difference from real life I can't readily tell
- Floridan Archipelago: version of Florida that's cut off from mainland North America
- Indian Islands: partially-sunken southern area of India
- New Australia: partially-sunken western half of Australia
- Pangea: the larger version of South America that has much of Africa's real life landmass.
- Tunguska Sea: the enormous body of water that seemingly replaced most of Siberia and Mongolia
- Newly specified locations of gem sites:
- Communication Hub: American Southwest. Turns out that dot is not the Beta Kindergarten, which isn't listed on any of the three maps. Looking closely at the pan to it in the Moonbase suggest the Beta Kindergarten is a bit further west.
- Galaxy Warp: dead center of the "Tunguska Sea"
- Lunar Sea Spire: off the coast of Newfoundland
- Mask Island: off the coast of the Northeast US
- Ocean Gem: This one is kind of mysterious. "Ocean Gem" is only an episode name, not a place in-show. The artbook may be saying that place in the middle of the Atlantic is where Lapis made her tower but... why is that same point marked on the other two maps?
- Rose's Fountain: Spain
- Shooting Star Shrine: Tibetan Plateau
- Sea Shrine: eastern edge of the Caribbean Sea
- Sky Arena: Finland
- Sky Spire: Norway, north of the Strawberry Battlefield
- Location names:
edited 13th Jul '17 11:31:36 AM by thatother1dude
Yep,it just needs win the emmy!
Also,Lion 2: The Move Dogcopter shoots a missile out of his behind,just like Peridot's robot does,a neat bit of foreshadowing right there!
And we have official confirmation about White Diamond!
edit:Oh and on the subject of musical cords identifying the diamonds,sky Williams observed this awhile ago Link
edited 13th Jul '17 4:35:09 PM by Ultimatum
have a listen and have a link to my discord serverI think most human beings can only tell notes apart from each other by comparison. The ability to do otherwise is known as absolute pitch
.
Just noting that every appearance of Yellow Diamond ended on the same note of a Leitmotif and that the other Diamonds might be signified by ending on other notes. He thought be remembered Lion's teleporting having the Diamond music attached to it but didn't have any immediate way to check
At this point, I don't see how Lion could have any metaphysical connection to any of the Diamonds that kind of thing would signify.
edited 13th Jul '17 9:45:39 PM by thatother1dude
So I'm going to bring up some random lines that I'm recently looking at differently than I used to:
- In "Alone Together", Pearl said Steven and Connie fusing was "impossible... or at the very least, inappropriate". I only saw it as a slightly dodgy joke about those two specifically, but a comment in the artbook made me realize her literal meaning was a prejudiced rebuke to the idea of any human and gem fusing. Of course, she specifically said "human being" right before that, so now I'm guessing most people didn't take thirty months to really understand that line.
- In "We Need to Talk", Greg begs for Rose to "talk to me for one second, like a real person". I thought he meant "like I'm a real person" and Rose misunderstood it as "like you're a real person". Now I realize Greg may have meant either; the comment makes sense either way.
- Rose's response that "I'm not a real person." just seems like she interprets "person" exclusively as a synonym for "human" (Rebecca Sugar consistently uses the word the same way in interviews) and felt a need to remind Greg she was an alien. However, considering the downright envious way she described human growth in "Greg the Babysitter", she may actually see gems' artificial, purpose-based creation as making them less "real" than natural life like humans.
- P.S. Do many other languages have a term with that kind of ambiguity? I pity the sap tasked with translating such a line. It takes a lot of nuance for Rose's response to make sense without Greg coming off as really stupid/insensitive.

The artbook has an unclear picture of the show's timeline. People are still in the middle of examining it, but just to be safe, I'm taking discussion of it to the spoiler thread.