Thing is that proofing a Gem is effectively the same process as killing an enemy soldier, and this takes the same amount of time. It takes two secondish to bubble a Gem and while that can be a disadvantage in some situations I imagine that most Gems don't reform so fast that it can't be delayed till the imediate threat is dealt with.
The Crystal Caverns A bird's gotta sing.Also, I know the show just treats gem shattering as if it were analogous to human death, but... it's not. It's worse. As we saw in Gem Drill, after a gem is shattered the individual gem shards maintain sentience. Still alive, but unable to become whole, each shard is condemned to an infinitesimal prison, grasping hopelessly at some form of stability or coherence. Forever.
Can you look me in the eye and tell me that subjecting thousands of gem soldiers to that fate would be the morally right thing to do?
No beer?! But if there's no beer, then there's no beef or beans!Yeah, when poofing and bubbling produces the same effects as death, It's not particularly practical to go out of your way to kill enemy gems. If for whatever reason that was there only option and it couldn't be helped, so be it. But I feel like they were operating under that system anyway. I doubt Rose would actually tell her people to let themselves be killed, rather than kill. Just absolutely don't kill if you can avoid it.
That being said, Homeworld most certainly wasn't working under that principle, and I can understand why the stress of rejecting your former position, and then having to many of your friends die in front of you would lead someone to where Bismuth went.
@51173 I mean, if we're talking about an Omnicidal Maniac, there is a pretty good word to describe who he wants to kill - "everyone."
@51186 Yeah, I'm going to echo the idea that Bismuth is just an Anti-Hero, and one I can see sliding away from the "anti-" part should she get future appearances (and I'd like that). The part that sucked, to me, about her bubbling at the end of the episode is that her words before poofing really sounded to me like she was finally understanding. I really want to see that followed up.
@51194 Yes, Bis was wrong about the shattering of Diamonds, but I will cut her a bit of slack on being wrong about being capable of shattering Diamonds, particularly if it turns out she had never seen a Diamond. She may have been running on faulty information.
Mind you, I think Bis was wrong morally to want to shatter a gem, but that's its own issue distinct from being incorrect about capability.
As for inefficiency... I think that it's got a bit of Fridge Horror when you think about it. Yes, the Breaking Point is rather inefficient, particularly when you consider that an opponent may, quite reasonably, have their gem protected in some way (particularly in wartime). Just as an obvious example, imagine if there was a gem that was kinda like an evil duplicate of Garnet - gem on a hand (or hands, if you want to make this evil gem a fusion to completely match Garnet), and whose weapon is armored gauntlets that completely cover the gem. Or imagine if Jasper's helmet was completely face-covering. Or if someone with their gem on their stomach or chest wore a breastplate. Even beyond those ideas, there's also the fact that a gem probably is going to reasonably develop a fighting style that greatly protects their gem (e.g. you're never going to see Pearl rely on headbutts).
Logically, the Breaking Point is most capably going to be used on a gem that's already been poofed - it's when you have the clearest shot, and when such an inefficient weapon is at its most capable. In other words, it's best used on an opponent already at your mercy (and one that could just as easily be dealt with via bubbling).
Unrelated to this, something I was just wondering... since bubbling is an effective way of stopping a foe that's been poofed, do we know if any of the bubbled gems at the temple predate when Homeworld abandoned Earth? I had assumed for a long time that all of those gems were corrupted gem monsters, but now I'm not so sure.
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.Previously, I guessed either Homeworld came back for them or the Crystal Gems engineered a situation where they would escape, think it was an accident, and leave. I don't expect it to ever be addressed.
Only letting Rose know where they were kind of makes sense during the war, but not thousands of year after.
There is a related possibility - there's a different room where Homeworld loyalists are kept, one that Steven just hasn't seen yet. Another, similar one is that there are multiple rooms where bubbled gems are kept, with the Crystal Gems opening up a new room once the previous one is filled, and Steven just hasn't gone into any of those older rooms.
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.That doesn't seem to have been a problem for them at all though. Like, presumably most of the bubbles they have in that room have been there for centuries, and likely much longer.
As long as they have a secure place to put them, the threat is negligible. And that wasn't what Bismuth was thinking about anyway.
Well, you can always bubble them. And quite frankly, keeping enemy gems alive has more than paid off for the Crystal Gems. If they had shattered Peridot, then the Cluster would have killed them all.
Oh God! Natural light!> All of them?
Maybe not all of them,but some of the ones they couldn't win over and were especially dangerous,as for why only Rose would know of their location even after the war effectively ended,maybe Rose didn't want risk it's existence being known should Homeworld ever return and capture one of them,
As for Rose's no shattering policy, showing mercy to captured gems is a sound recruitment strategy,Homeworld shatters gems,the crystal gems don't
edited 17th Jul '17 2:29:27 PM by Ultimatum
have a listen and have a link to my discord serverFirstly, you don't know that. For all we know, nine tenths of all Crystal Gem deaths in the war were caused by soldiers that had previously been poofed but got away. (I'm talking about before bubbling. Not that bubbling is safe anyway, as is proven by Centieedle's escape).
Even if Centipeedle is literally the first time a poofed enemy escaped, the low threat is not an excuse. Evil Only Has to Win Once.
Centi only escaped because Steven freed her
edit,relevant link because of Bismuth discussion,because she's confirmed Jasper and Bismuth will return
‘You haven’t seen the last of them,’ Sugar promises. 'I love them both too much.’
http://www.newsweek.com/steven-universe-vinyl-sdcc-rebecca-sugar-638202
edited 18th Jul '17 10:05:05 AM by Ultimatum
have a listen and have a link to my discord serverWe have absolutely no reason to assume what you're saying either. And since no one else has brought it up and bubbling has been shown to be impossible to escape from on the inside, I see no reason to go with your line of reasoning.
edited 18th Jul '17 3:07:31 PM by LSBK

I don't forget everything else. AFAIC, shattering enemy quartzes would have been the morally and pragmatically correct action. AFAIC, the circumstances of quartz creation matter squat.
I do agree that it's an impractical weapon (which I noticed immediately), but that is not where the disagreement came from. If it did, things would have gone differently.
Rose/Steven: This is an interesting idea, Bismuth, but this weapon is a bit awkward for me to use in combat. I think I'm more effective with my sword. You designed it so well, after all.
Bismuth: All right. I'll keep thinking. You can use the sword for now.
EDIT: And yes, I agree with Bismuth that Rose was a traitor to the Crystal Gems, sending them to their death for refusing on such grounds and thus support her attacking Rose.
edited 17th Jul '17 6:30:18 AM by Sereg