Are you kidding?
She belongs to no one...
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.
Well, not anymore.
So anyway, I was listening to "Rose's Farewell" again, and the lyrics from the first verse seem even more fitting now that we know more about Rose.
If I could begin to be
half of what you think of me
I could do about anything
I could even learn how to love
edited 16th May '18 6:48:57 PM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprisedIt is interesting how fan synopsis and theory of Yellow Diamond changes almost each time she is seen or referenced. First she's seen as wanting to destroy Earth as she wants revenge against the C Gs due to pride for losing the war. Then when its revealed that Homeworld is lacking in resources, she comes off more petty and Revenge Before Reason as she wants to destroy a solution to HW's problem. Then its revealed Pink was shattered so now Yellow is shifted from being seen as revenge obsessed for pride and instead because she is angry over her fellow diamond's death. Then the official story of the shattering is revealed to be unclear and Yellow is pushing for a quick trial so it looks like she was in on the shattering or even did it and wants the planet destroyed to destroy evidence against her. Then that turns into a red herring as Pink was never shattered and the diamond's were not in on Pink's plan, so Yellow is back to being seen as angry over her fallen diamond.
Its just amusing how fan predictions, theories and character summaries keep changing while (so far) Yellow hasn't. She's been consistent while the context and backstory gets completed like a puzzle.
-Witty line-So I was rewatching "Earthlings" and I realized that technically speaking Jasper, Amethyst, the Famethysts, and all of the other Earth Kindergarten Gems are not aliens. They were born on Earth.
It kind of got me thinking about citizenship. Could Amethyst make a case for being a natural-born US citizen since the Earth Kindergarten seems to be located in the USA even if her birth predated the existence of the USA as a sovereign nation itself by millennia? Not that I think Amethyst would care.
edited 17th May '18 2:40:39 AM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprisedAnd now I'm wondering if this is an issue in other sci fi universes. Would a Vulcan born in the USA take offense to being called an alien and identify as a Vulcan-American?
I guess this means Steven's ethnicity would be half Gem-American, half whatever his father's ethnicity is. Demayo, or De Mayo, is apparently Italian in origin, so maybe Greg is Italian-American.
edited 17th May '18 5:15:19 AM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprisedI do in general wonder about scifi world identity politics.
Like, wouldn't said American Vulcan possibly identify as just American? Or what if they identify as "Person from earth"/terran/whatever is word for that? What if further they identify as human instead?
And would it'd be offensive for human to identify as vulcan or vulcan to identify as human since they can't have same biological experience even if they grew up in same culture? Or would it be more offensive to say they can't identify as who they identify?
I can see in retrospect why identity politics are rarely discussed in scifi to full extend beyond "In the future we solved discrimination problem and now everyone accepts everything" or "Well its about same as nowadays", but I honestly do find it weird since ideas regarding identity in real life are rather diverse and fluid that you'd think same type of logic could be applied to scifi setting. But then again, I can see why writers would want to avoid touching question of "Is it cultural appropriation or is it discrimination if human character identifies as klingon, but other klingons refuse to let them join their rites because they are human?"
edited 17th May '18 5:27:57 AM by SpookyMask
I feel like Steven's ethnicity would still be American even though his biology makes him Gem human
Amethyst could claim she's an American since she was born Earh's Kindergarten,she is however an extra terrestrial since her species did not originate from Earth but outside it
have a listen and have a link to my discord server@54780 I think I discussed this once before here.
If we assume that the laws of the US are basically the same in the real world as in Steven Universe, then we have to consider how the law treats the Crystal Gems in general.
Given their shared "background" and history, what's most likely is that they'd be treated functionally similar to a Native American/First Nations tribe by the law. As such, laws related to those are probably what are in effect, with additional complications for Garnet (and, relatedly, Ruby and Sapphire) and Pearl.
Generally, the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 grants American citizenship automatically (i.e. not needing to go through the naturalization process) to all tribe members as long as they could claim natural citizenship via any other means. For Steven and Amethyst (presuming Prime Kindergarten is on US soil), that's a pretty easy no-brainer. They're considered to have US citizenship.
The situation with Garnet and Pearl (also, Amethyst if Prime Kindergarten wasn't in the US) is a bit more complex. Strictly speaking, they're immigrants, but they predate the country to which they immigrated. There has never been a de jure ruling on such an issue, but the de facto treatment was that they would be eligible for US citizenship as long as they would have otherwise qualified under the laws for naturalization, except without needing that step (which probably would not have been until 1924).
As an aside, this only affects Peridot inasmuch as she still would have to wait a couple of years before she could become one (and because she wasn't naturally born, she'd have to go through naturalization). If Lapis come back... well, that whole "mirror" thing is a whole complication on its own. Short answer is, it'd probably be argued in court, but I think Lapis has grounds to be treated under the law same as Garnet and Pearl.
As an aside, because of the laws about such things, Garnet and Pearl are not eligible to become President, and Steven is obviously too young, but I think Amethyst is eligible to run for the office. She'd lose, of course, but it's hilarious to think that there are no legal impediments to it.
There is one funny thing in retrospect when you look at the citizenship thing... if the Crystal Gems are treated as a tribe by US law, that means that they could form a tribal government and handle affairs that other tribes do. One of these is driver's licenses - meaning that Pearl could solve the lack of one mentioned in "Last One Out Of Beach City" by just issuing herself one (though it might make more sense to have Garnet issue it).
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.Considering Westphalian nation states are built around ethnic nationalism, the whole concept of Italian-Americans, Indian-British, and so on have always been full of deep and irreconciliable contradictions; embracing such a dual identity means that, no matter how much you achieve in life and how hard you try, you’ll always be a second class citizen on some level due to the basic structure of nation states. Which is why being of mixed ancestry can often be uniquely alienating, especially if passing isn’t an option.
That’s an issue that Steven Universe has barely even touched though, understandably so given how stigmatized such topics are in the United States.
edited 17th May '18 8:03:56 AM by CaptainCapsase
@54789 Since only the office of the US presidency is restricted to "natural born citizens," any of the Crystal Gems (assuming they put in the effort to figure out the citizenship question) outside of Steven is already eligible for that job. I could actually see the convergence of developments needed to prod Pearl (who probably would have a decent chance of winning, depending on opposition) into running.
Of course, the only thing needed to get Amethyst to run would be to convince her it might be fun.
@54790 It's also something that clearly hasn't been something that concerns Steven Universe at all; such questions are mostly just silly tangents to wonder to keep our minds off of the impatience over what's going to happen next.
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.Remember how I was sad about Pink not longer being her own character? Now I'm sad Rose couldn't have been able to do this.
https://dav-19.deviantart.com/art/Rose-Quartz-595396146
The citizenship question would be more complicated for Gems too because of Fusions.
I'm reminded of this one fancomic I saw that had Garnet become the leader of the Crystal Gems via an election which she won by splitting into Ruby and Sapphire.
Yeah, that's the one.
edited 17th May '18 10:49:09 AM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprisedHey, you know how Rose has had boyfriends
before Greg?
edited 17th May '18 1:02:22 PM by WillKeaton

You know, it's kind of funny that, in the end, Pearl belonged to both Rose Quartz and a Diamond.