Backing up a bit, I do agree the show's alternate Earth was meant as an interesting implied background element, not something extensively worked out or explicitly laid out. But it being inconsistent, ambiguous, or illogical in a literal sense is pretty ridiculous to bring up as an actual criticism.
Edited by thatother1dude on Mar 22nd 2020 at 6:33:53 AM
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I know. I dismissed it because was the only instance where this was confirmed and its deleted now. That makes it simply too obscure as an answer for something that a lot viewers wonder when they see the SU earth.
furthemore I was referring to the second quote you used for your arguement that one with gems actions had an impact on humanity.
Once again its not a blatant obvious hint as you claim it to be its just your speculation.
Not everyone knows of the tunguska event and as ![]()
points out the time frame doesnt fit at all. Also my first theory was less alien conspiracy and more like giant meteorite impact in the distant past.
Edit: im not critisizing it as inconsistent, ambiguous, or illogical. I just dont like that they do something like this without doing really something with it. It wouldnt impact anything if SU earths map wouldnt be any different. Its wasted potential.
Edited by galienus on Mar 22nd 2020 at 4:44:42 AM
Anything. This isnt a documentary this is fiction. At one point someone sat down and intentionally decided about it and then made it. But for what story reason?
None. It is completely superfluous. Nothing in the show would change if they just kept our earth map as it is. Its The Law of Conservation of Detail why im having a problem with this. Heck SU even has entries on this trope and you wonder why i dont like that in this case that it doesnt matter one bit for anything.
It wouldn't make any sense for the characters to comment on the map being different, or for it to somehow affect the story. From Steven's perspective, there's always been a massive hole where Siberia's supposed to be. That's just what his world is like. He's not going to notice that, say, Florida or Iceland don't exist, because from his perspective they've never existed.
Invoking the rule that "Every detail given is important" doesn't hold up here, because the map being different is important — it signifies definitively that the setting is not the world we know. And making it a normal world map wouldn't "conserve detail", because it'd still take up exactly the amount of screentime and detail that the alternate map takes up.
I was gonna ask if the conservation of detail even applies to visual storytelling like that...
As the characters never mention it, it's not really something we're meant to really question either, just notice.
This is something that's in a lot of fiction worlds too, it's only meant to show the world's different, not that it's "changed".
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.![]()
This. It's part of the Worldbuilding, emphasizing that this is very clearly an Alternate Universe.
It's like Big Hero 6, where there's a city named San Fransokyo in America and people eat "noodle burgers". You could tell the same story taking place in San Francisco and people eating regular burgers and it wouldn't affect the plot, but it makes it clear that it's a world different from our own.
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Why do you think i mean people should point out if its different from our world? I dont. Im talking from a doylist perspective in this case. Of course characters dont comment a difference they cant be aware of.
Im not even against it being caused by gems but why then they dont spell it out clearly if its supposed to be this. the ideal moment to reveal this was the it could have been great episode but they just didnt and never said afterwards they just didnt have time and space to insert there.
I see no good reason why it needs to be different from ours. We dont need a different map to signify we are in a different world from ours. From the beginning there are aliens and their sites who are around for longer than any human civilization. When that isnt already different enough i dont know what is.
On a final note if they would used simply our map the detail to conserve there would be that there is no detail to conserve and i bet nobody would dwell on it by now because of that.
Edited by galienus on Mar 23rd 2020 at 9:49:56 AM
Why and how would they "spell it out clearly"? Do you want someone to take Steven aside to point out to him that there would be extra landmasses here and there if the gems hadn't messed with the planet? Otherwise, there's no real reason for it to come up as anything other than a fact of the show's setting.
It really seems like you're just demanding that the show state a thing that is pretty efficiently shown to us with a brief glance at a map, in violation of the principle of Show, Don't Tell.
No, but you're also not giving any reason for why it shouldn't be different. How exactly would the show be improved if the world looked just like ours?
Clearly the showrunners wanted the series to be set in a unique alternate world, and they chose to convey that with various minor details that don't all have to impact the plot in a major way. I really don't get why this bothers you.
Edited by DrDougsh on Mar 23rd 2020 at 10:44:57 AM
They do reflect and repeat some of the Arc Words from the movie.
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Im complaining that they did this without doing anything with it. The reason why i say it should be like ours is simply to save effort. Nothing changes when you would replace all shots with their with another but keep everything else the same and that is bad world building for me. We never see how these different places affect the people living on it compared to us. We barely know anything about their world in general especially when its not gem related. Thats wasted potential and world building isnt just making different looking maps for the sake of it.
I will be honest here if for example RS would have been asked in a Q&A is asked about this subject and whatever her answer might be. Be it because gems actions, because thats how it always, because they wanted their earth to look different. I would just accept it and move on.

For reference, Joe Johnston's deleted comment was agreeing with a fan who guessed that gems changed the Earth geography, but most of West Africa's real life landmass was already part of South America.