The Steven Universe thread

[The Count]

So what's the fusion's name? *Looking forward to catching this on repeat.

 

[Drtooth]

Sardonyx, if I heard it correct.

 

[mr3urious]

Are you sure Sardonyx is made of rock and not ham?

Spoiler

Also, the downer ending of Pearl and Garnet's possible falling out was quite an interesting change of pace from the usual happy ending.

 

[Harleena]

Last night's episode was really interesting. I was a bit disappointed that Sardonyx wasn't somehow related to Jasper (either a fusion of Jasper and another gem or one half of Jasper, if Jasper is actually a fusion), but I seriously love Sardonyx. That ending was a real downer, though…and the fusion dance seemed like a punch in the face to Pearlnet shippers, because let's face it: Amethyst and Garnet's fusion dance wasn't that shippy. Neither was Pearl and Amethyst's. I feel like it could come across as "Hey, remember when this was still a valid ship? Yeah, I'm gonna rub it in!" Other than those things, a really good episode.

 

[Drtooth]

You'd think that Garnet would understand Pearl wanting to fuse with her so bad. After all, Garnet's fusion of Ruby and Sapphire is such an experience that she..er...they refuse to separate. Then again, Garnet says that these fusions are based on trust. Pearl is a pretty needy individual. Her best friend/lover/whatever you'd call it is gone and it's clear that she has a stronger bond with Garnet than Amethyst (which pretty much proves Amethyst's point that she doesn't feel she belongs). There must've been something special about Sardonyx's fusion for Pearl to basically weakly fall into something that desperate.

 

[AlittleMayhem]

I like how Sardonyx was very big and grand and show off-y. I'm not sure if she's like that regularly but it kinda made sense in the way that Garnet and Pearl wanted to impress Steven, since they know how much he loves fusions.

But the main point of the plot was that being with Garnet is awesome. She is the literal being of love and she is full of it, despite her stoic personality. Look at the ways Amethyst and Pearl react when she asks them to fuse with her. They're so excited and touched that they get to be part of that love. Like Garnet says, fusion is an experience and it's and experience they love to take part in.

Obviously, as we saw on Monday, it can get them a bit carried away. Understandable, Pearl was in the wrong (in which she later and finally apologised for even though Garnet hasn't accepted it yet) but you can see and both Amethyst and Garnet did the wrong too. Amethyst choosing to not say anything until the last minute and Garnet for forcing Amethyst to fuse with her. Thus the rip tears wider.

But by the looks the this episode's ending, they were a step closer to fixing that rip.

Maybe.

 

[Drtooth]

I love how Garnet's internal conflict about Pearl's desperate antics tore herself apart. Considering how seeing the broken gem parts fused into nightmarish body parts caused her to lose her crap that much that she was on the verge of splitting, that is saying something. I can only imagine that if Pearl found out, it would make her feel even worse. She seemed broken up about it as well.

Great to see Ruby and Sapphire again for that much of the episode. It really takes both of them working together to be as calm and collected as Garnet usually is. Garnet was always the most mature of the three, and had a wisdom beyond the other two. Ruby and Sapphire seem to be less mature (Ruby especially). Seems that Ruby dealt with anger very angrily, while Sapphire was trying to hide her feelings and failing at it by freezing the room. Every word that came out of Steven's mouth seemed to upset her more, causing ice cracks. Nice touch. Love how they have the requisite fire and ice powers. I'd love to see them in action again.

Side note. There's a full version of the theme song that will appear in another episode. Yellow Diamond gets the "anime shadow" treatment.

 

[mr3urious]

I loved seeing Ruby and Sapphire again. Their personalities are so stark, yet opposites really do attract with them.

Spoiler

Plus, it seems like baby steps are being taken in terms of Garnet trusting Pearl again.

I also love how exaggerated the facial expressions can get in the show, and none of that is more apparent than in this episode. This is one of those times where going off model in animation can be a good thing.

 

[Drtooth]

I always loved cartoons that went "off model" on purpose like that. But they've primarily been used for straight comedies. Ren and Stimpy and Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog to name a few. And then that awesome story about how a single animator took all his work home to get that priceless "HANDCUFFS!!?!? ON A SNAKE?!?!" reaction on Oil can Harry in a Filmation Mighty Mouse episode (i.e. a company that forced animators to stick on model and key poses for budget and time purposes... which proved they were unfortunately right about it when the next Mighty Mouse series was always overtime, overbudget, and padded themselves with clip shows and music videos...but it was well worth it).

While they do still use it for comedy in this series, I give them major respect for using those extreme facial expressions for dramatic purposes. There's a lot more animated "acting" in recent cartoons than ever before. Even the new Transformers series has some wild expressions on some of the characters. No Transformers Cybertron there. A lot of us grew up with stock expressions and flatter animation leaving the voice acting to speak for itself. Body language, an important part of communication just couldn't be done due to budgets and deadlines. Now you look at Adventure Time and Steven Universe among others, and we got these great facial expressions and body language selling the dramatic points home. that's why I refuse to believe cartoons ain't as good as they used ta.

 

[mr3urious]

Also, I liked how the use of Sugilite in the previous episode went by without a hitch -- no mass destruction or anything. Maybe it's because of Amethyst's recent character development?

While they do still use it for comedy in this series, I give them major respect for using those extreme facial expressions for dramatic purposes. There's a lot more animated "acting" in recent cartoons than ever before. Even the new Transformers series has some wild expressions on some of the characters. No Transformers Cybertron there. A lot of us grew up with stock expressions and flatter animation leaving the voice acting to speak for itself. Body language, an important part of communication just couldn't be done due to budgets and deadlines. Now you look at Adventure Time and Steven Universe among others, and we got these great facial expressions and body language selling the dramatic points home. that's why I refuse to believe cartoons ain't as good as they used ta.

The only ones that still go for those stock expressions are Flash shows, but even then some still manage to use a bigger variety of wild takes, like Foster's Home, Gumball, and MLP.