Steven Universe and Barnacles

This something very obvious that I think really is worth noting. Let's look at the attributes of the Gems in Steven Universe. -They can come close together for the purpose of mutual protection and rights (fusion). You know what else does that? That's right: BARNACLES -They leach off of larger structures and entities to form settlements and reproduce. Another similarity to BARNACLES -Gems build hardened, tough "shells" around their weak points. Just like BARNACLES!

Now, before we get into the next bit of evidence, we need to think about the assertion that Gems are all female and that they are an inherently artificial race. I would argue that neither of these are actually true. Put on your H.R. Giger pants, folks. We're going to talk about giant phalluses (pahlli?).

The Injectors serve as a reproducer for the Gems. They insert an unspecified colored liquid into the ground, and a couple hundred years later out pops a Gem. They are explicitly built by Gems. But then we get into the classic chicken-and-egg scenario. Then I figured it out; if the Gems are as unto BARNACLES then they may share other, similar characteristics with them. Male BARNACLES are dominated by their primary sexual characteristics, i.e. the penis. At some point in the distant past, the proto-Gem species had organic Injectors, the males of the species. Being dominated by their purpose to mate, they were not sentient as the females of the species were. Eventually, after millenia of development of Gem civilizations, they replaced the males with machines to increase efficiency. At one point, Gems were organic or at least natural, mobile BARNACLE-like creatures, but they hit a singularity and improved. Thus we come up with two more similarities to BARNACLES: Males dominated by sexual characteristics and organic/natural origins.

QED: Bizarre Alien Biology points to Gems being BARNACLES!

They propably were. But they may not be as barnacle-like anymore.