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One of my problems with the original show is that for all the talk about how horrible shattering is, we never actually get to see someone get shattered to drive that point home. The closest we had to that was Amethyst getting poofed by Jasper before Jasper grabs her gem (which definitely should've been a cliffhanger) and gets wrecked by Stevonnie.
For what it's worth, Steven Universe: Future did give shattering some weight by having Jasper reap what she sowed and that Steven now has to live with the fact that he killed Jasper, and now has her willing to submit to him because he revived her.
"Punishment is not the answer. Punishment is easy. It's lazy. Redemption is hard. Redemption makes you work."-Skulduggery PleasantYou don't typically need to see death in order to get the point across that it's bad...
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.I think my favorite is Amethyst, and I used to like Peridot a lot, but she's undergone a bit of Hype Backlash for me.
I also really love Rose/Pink. Not gonna reopen that whole discourse but I think she has a fascinatingly complicated approach to morality where she doesn't challenge her upbringing enough and still condescends and controls people because that's all she ever knew, even if she's trying to learn.
The scene of Greg snapping at her in "We Need to Talk" is one of my favorite scenes of the show, especially in retrospect:
"That's a good thing."
Peridot is probably my favorite character. I'm a sucker for the villain to hero character arc. Amethyst gets a close second. Honestly, most of the cast was just great. Basically everyone not named Ronaldo.
Special mention goes to Lars. While he was an interesting character as a townie, his transformation into Captain Harlock was unexpected and fantastic.
Edited by Zeromaeus on Sep 6th 2023 at 3:06:25 PM
This is a hot take but I actually liked Ronaldo. I thought he was a funny take on fandom conspiracy culture and the jokes at his expense were pretty enjoyable. Jenny's "Where she at, though?" when he said he had a girlfriend, lmao.
I remember not liking some of his episodes like "Rocknaldo" but that was more missed opportunity issues and weird Gem characterization.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.Agree, honestly. Ronaldo was funny and I like how a lot of the time he was used to sneak in foreshadowing.
Rocknaldo would have been a far better episode if the Gems had actually let him come along on whatever mission they had. Still ultimately reaches the same outcome without Ronaldo acting like a colossal jackass.
Jawbreakers on sale for 99¢One of the best parts of Peridot's Heel–Face Turn is that she mostly comes around to it on her own. Even right up to it she's still loyal to Yellow Diamond and thinks she can convince her of how valuable a resource an intact Earth is. It's only when Yellow Diamond makes it clear she doesn't give a shit and wants Earth to die that Peridot makes a stand. Even immediately afterwards she's freaked out, realizing she's burned her bridges and now has no choice but to side with the Crystal Gems.
And then over the rest of the series she gradually learns to appreciate Earth and the life on it for real, to the point she feels genuinely remorseful over the damage Kindergartens inflict on planets.
Edited by M84 on Sep 7th 2023 at 3:39:28 AM
Disgusted, but not surprisedI really disliked Ronaldo, I found him obnoxious and annoying, so everytime he appeared in an episode I felt "this one's going to suck".
But yeah, most of the cast is great. Other minor character (beside Padparadscha) that I love is Blue Zircon. Her attempt to deduce the circumstances of Pink Diamond's shattering went hand-in-hand with us, the audience learning about the possible circumstances. And the way she comes to the conclusion that the culprit had to be one of the Diamonds is just brilliant.
Yes, Peridot's Heel–Face Turn was a very gradual thing that took an entire season, and it was great.
Edited by Snicka on Sep 6th 2023 at 1:45:16 PM
Peridot's personality also doesn't really fundamentally change. She gets less focused and stops putting up so much of a facade, but bits of her really gremlin-y side start leaking through pretty early on. It's also pretty consistent that she's only really able to keep up the really focused mode when she's got a single massive task to focus on, otherwise, she bounces around between her various fixations.
There's a reason the autistic community latched onto her so much.
Edited by Zendervai on Sep 6th 2023 at 8:38:20 AM
Peridot, being an autistic-coded character with engineering skills, who initially works for the villains but then turns to the heroes without fundamentally changing her personality, has a lot in common with Entrapta.
Peridot is my favorite, especially since she's good ace rep and I appreciated that they didn't just follow up on Garnet's "you'll do it when you find the right person ;-)" speech by having her fuse after enough pressure like I was afraid they were going to do.
I mean I wouldn't be against her fusing in general as she does form nonromantic bonds with others, but definitely not under those circumstances.
One of the most interesting things about Peridot to me was that, while the Crystal Gems are all dedicated to protecting Earth, for a while Peridot was the only Gem who shared Rose Quartz utter fascination with Earth and human culture. She still didn't see them as as important as herself and the people she cared about, but she was charmed by humanity and compelled to learn more in a way that instantly reminded me of Rose.
It eventually changed, but Garnet and Pearl were at first fairly dismissive of humans and Amethyst mainly interacted with humans on a hedonistic basis, and them developing for healthier connections to the people around them is a big part of their character growth, whereas Peridot dives into genuinely wanting to be a part of what's around her quickly.
Edited by KnownUnknown on Sep 6th 2023 at 8:18:57 AM
Honestly, after Peridot got a Promotion to Opening Titles in Future, I was quite disappointed that she also got Demoted to Extra, only playing a prominent role in one out of the twenty episodes.
Honestly I was just glad to see a cartoon use Voices Are Not Mental. Voices Are Mental is a pet peeve trope of mine lol.
BTW what do you guys think of the trans Lars headcanon? I think it adds an interesting layer to his characterization.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.Outside of the times characters may actually acknowledge that a character's voice sounds different...
It doesn't really matter if Voices are mental, it's just for the sake of clarity.
I assume that people only avoid it if they find it funny enough to have the actors imitate each other.
Maybe the actors want to flex their vocal chops and it can sound impressive.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.![]()
I know an episode of Teen Titans tried it and then dropped it because Hynden Walch and Tara Strong turned out to do perfect imitations of each other's characters to the point that, allegedly, the final episode still might contain bits of them copying each other because the sound editors couldn't tell.

Apparently the episode Fragments was based off an idea for the original series. If that's the case, then that could imply that Jasper would've been uncorrupted in the original series and that her training Steven would've been part of her redemption arc.
And may also include the horrifying possibility that Jasper would've been shattered in the original series.
"Punishment is not the answer. Punishment is easy. It's lazy. Redemption is hard. Redemption makes you work."-Skulduggery Pleasant