Anyone else following the final Steven Universe artbook leaks?
>Era 1 began 20,000 years ago, meaning that Era 1 did not begin with the start of the Gem race but instead most likely when they began colonization >The Diamonds were born together, they are the same age. White didn’t remove Blue, Yellow, and Pink from herself to create them, she believed that because she was white all Gems were extensions of herself. Because of this she policed their behavior, seeing any deviance or unplanned actions as some hidden perversity within. The irony is twofold. Because she is supposed to reflect all color she thought she was everything, but by never allowing herself a deeper passion for anything she basically became nothing at all and is blatantly described to have had no real personality being judgmental and frustrated. She also never created another purely White Gem, meaning no Gem is actually an extension of herself. By contrast the Rose Quartzes, which were created entirely by Pink, are literally just created in her own image which is why she could shapeshift into one so comfortably >Homeworld isn’t wrecked just because of the Kindergartens destabilizing it, it was hit with a giant asteroid that went straight through it. This may have been where the Diamonds originally came from >Gems have a religion. Peridot was meant to have a “Linus moment” where she’s tell it to Steven like other Gems telling him stories, but the idea was shelved for irrelevance to the Cluster and her redemption plots
>A LOT of info on the Diamonds, their psychology and power structure, their past crimes, and why Gems have largely forgiven them which is because when Gems were taught by the Crystal Gems to think of themselves as people instead of robots they realized Diamonds saw themselves the exact same way, so everyone gets to start “we have free will and our emotions matter” together with a clean slate >Connie with cleavage >Being able to reverse Shattering with Diamonds was intended as a plot from the start, and had bigger relevance. Originally Pink had Shattered Volleyball while playing with her, and had been reassembled by White but was incomplete. It took all four Diamonds to truly Unshatter, but none of them worked on anything together before Steven. Spinel was not planned at all, and came from some discarded ideas for other characters >Pink’s core power is bringing out your true self and enhancing your passions. Used maliciously she dangled hidden desires to control others like Slaanesh from Warhammer Fantasy. Her redemption involved seeing others reveal these things on their own, and how wholesome it was for it naturally and for them to actually achieve it. For example she could bring out Pearl’s desire to fight and be praised, but not her knightly virtue or her actual love
>Pink is the only Gem who was immune to White’s control. White relied on Yellow and Blue to control her with pain and shame instead, but wasn’t aware they only obeyed because they were afraid of her. Pink had to make herself emotionally vulnerable to use her manipulation powers on them, and they had to be vulnerable to her for its full effect. As the Diamond relationships grew more toxic none of them were open and honest for fear of being hurt, so she lost all power over them and most of her power over other Gems in general as she kept her guard up even around her Pearls. Pink finally allowed herself to be vulnerable to the Crystal Gems, but because she truly trusted them and not just to use her powers on them. But Bismuth’s betrayal hurt her so she remained on guard after that and wasn’t trusting again until Greg >Steven is so effective at redemption because Pink harbored a lot of guilt for her actions, carried into unrelated scenarios, even before Earth, which is part of how Blue controlled her. But Steven can use her powers with innocence and sincerity, because he never has to question if he’s taking away someone’s will or forcing them to do something. He also gave everyone the benefit of the doubt, keeping himself open and vulnerable at all times. Steven is able to use his power on White because of this raw honesty, and part of his power is the other Gem feeling how he sees them as people instead of purpose-built robots which gives them the realization it’s okay to see themselves that way too. White, basically the most enslaved to Gem society of all, is the weakest to it
>Rhodonite’s master and Emerald we’re important villains. They are also mostly cut content from the theoretical season 6 and maybe 7 which would have ended in CYM instead of 5, basically taking Jasper’s place as the main show villains for a season before Yellow and Blue arrive. >The fallout from Pink’s reveal would have been explored with everyone. But each character would have realized either that Pink was the one who was subordinate to their teaching and inspiration rather than being secretly controlled by her, or how everything that happened resulted in Steven being there for them >In particular Garnet would have questioned every single thing that happened, including her very creation, before realizing she really was the leader of the Crystal Gems and always had been. This kind of survived into the show, but only really remains as the source of Sapphire’s freakout and not Ruby or Garnet’s for time reasons >Amethyst learned to shapeshift from Pink and thought it was because she was ashamed of her deformities as her creator. In reality Pink felt Amethyst was a young version of herself, and tried to help Amethyst because nobody had been there for her. Pink never vocalized it, but she loved Amethyst for who she really was and sadly never gave Amethyst the chance to do the same for her. But her bond with Steven is exactly that, the realization they had in the arena fight of who the other one really was inside >Pearl finally sees herself as a true equal, because the last power Pink had as her owner is gone. She feels more comfortable with humans and being Steven’s mother figure rather than just as a teacher and protector.
>Steven is notably the one left struggling with Pink’s identity, as now instead of just being unsure how much of him is Steven and how much is Rose he’s unaware of how much of Rose was Pink, and what it makes his connection to every other Gem or other humans. This was dealt with somewhat in Future with the Rose Quartzes, but had a bigger part to play when dealing with White because his honesty Pink powers were hampered by not really knowing who he is to be honest about. By tearing him apart she showed him that Rose was truly one of Pink’s forms and not just a shapeshifted disguise and that his Gem half was really Steven, allowing him to finally make a connection to White like she’s handed him the emotional equivalent of Death Star plans
There’s more but I’m tired of trying to read these blurry blurbs.
Also, I guess the Pebbles can Fuse to get around in Era 3.
>STEVEN’S REDEMPTION ARC But Steven was never a villain at any point during the finale
Joseph Davis
He needed the fix the mess Pink left behind.
Gabriel Morgan
Many things wouldn’t have been dropped if this show hired actual writers instead of glorified storyboarders since season 2.
Connor Hernandez
>Tfw no gem council of nikea episode VGH....
Dylan Scott
He probably would have fucked up more shit throughout the season if they hadn’t had to also make it an epilogue for other characters and develop Little Homeworld.
Here is the preceding page, where you can see a big change. Steven creates Cactus Steven intentionally after trying to isolate himself from other beings after trying to hurt White. He’s alone instead of the episode being about isolating himself from G+A&P.
>I HATE WHITE DIAMOND!!! lol guess that’ll stick it to those retards that think that Steven ends up redeeming and befriending any enemy he encounters
Kayden Torres
Wasn’t this kinda obvious from the movie anyway?
Jack Thomas
Not really.
Steven is echoing some cut stuff that Pink felt. She had a binary view of others, either putting beings on a pedestal above her or beneath her. Steven’s view is you are either a friend he must love entirely or unconditionally or an enemy, and since he doesn’t want enemies or to destroy anyone he tries to just automatically forgive things he hasn’t.
He learns that to be mad at someone or mistrust them doesn’t mean they are an enemy. He can talk about how someone has hurt him without feeling like he’s attacking them.
That’s why he goes kaiju. If he can’t be your friend he will be your enemy, and if he suddenly thinks he’s not good enough to be anyone’s friend because of how much he hates himself then he’s a destroyer of worlds.
Interestingly this has what are probably unintended implications about Pink. If she felt like everyone was beneath her for whatever reason she would have been a worse tyrant than White and the Empire.
Wait, talk no jutsu was an actual power? Those that mean Steven was mind controling everyone?
Isaiah Perry
No, he just brings out how they feel and loosens their inhibitions
Hunter Torres
Eh, just because Steven and Spinel didn’t end up becoming buddies doesn’t mean that he hates her like does with White Diamond. I mean White and the Diamonds DID put him through all the shit he went through as a kid. The corrupted gems were the Diamonds’ responsibility. Sending Jasper and Peridot after him was their responsibility (though that did turn out well for Steven as Peridot became one of his closest friends and Jasper gained respect for Steven). The Diamonds are responsible for the Cluster. White put the CGs under mind control and yanked his gem out of his belly. Even separating Pink from him, Steven has a lot of reasons to dislike White.
Zachary Campbell
>worse tyrant than White Now that's an AU I can get behind
Caleb Thompson
So emotional de-stabilation?
Josiah Nguyen
No, but Pink was. When she was young.
Her power was basically to seduce, but both her and the victim had to be emotionally unguarded to do it. Other Gems kind of had to feel that towards her, but as trust died both ways between her and the other Diamonds she lost her power over them.
As you can see in the pic here Pink was using her power with the Crystal Gems, but in reverse. Instead of controlling them she uplifted them by harming herself.
Her strength and weakness is how the power goes both ways. If she could’ve be unguarded or the other Gem is an emotional Fort Knox then she has no power over them. She could control them, but they could hurt her back. It was cut from the show, but Bismuth would have realized how much she had hurt Pink, how much power the Crystal Gems has over her. It feels like that would have built toward something with Greg, but I don’t see him brought up much in any of this.
Steven doesn’t control others. He puts his view of them into their head, which is mindfucking for most Gems as it says in one of these pages because no Em, including White, was themselves as people. His power is “BELIEVE IN ME WHO BELIEVES IN YOU”. But since the power goes both ways, any Gem could lash out and hurt him. Something that he internalized when it happened throughout the show, which is why he’s a mess with PTSD and self-image issues in Future.
Oh I see. So he’s like a walking drug. Kinda like what Blue does but subtler
Eli Butler
The Diamonds hatched out of an egg.
Brandon Hall
I guess? It feels hard to make comparison for.
It doesn’t help that we don’t have good examples of it in use. Blue talking about how things used to be, where they would play games while doing their duty and having their Essence drained, feels like Pink using her power over them. She made them happy in a way they wouldn’t allow themselves be otherwise until Era 3. At some point Yellow went from laughing while playing games with them to watching her and Volleyball to make sure no laughter or play was happening, but gave her a smile in approval for Pink seeming to be stoic. Then we have Yellow and Blue trying to torment the cheer and games out of her, which according to the artbook and implied in the show was only because they felt if they didn’t take action themselves then White would force them to. Pink internalized not only feeling worthless, but punished Spinel in the same way Yellow and Blue punished her and for the same reason. Notably Pink didn’t use her powers to punish Spinel, meaning she may have lost her ability to trust others at that point.
Finally we have the artbook telling us she had become so fucked up emotionally that all she could do was hurt herself to try and pretend she was a better person despite having mostly actually become that person. Bismuth wrecked even her ability to do that, and it wasn’t until Greg that she learned to trust again.
I don’t know how to make a metaphor out of this. What can remove your inhibitions but only in specific ways that the other person wants, but doesn’t work if they don’t trust you? Something that you can use to diminish yourself while empowering others? It’s strange, but I almost feel like the metaphor is that she had the power of relationships? But Fusion is the metaphor for relationships, making Pink have the power of Fusion? But Yellow is the one with the power to force Fusions to happen or break them apart so I don’t know.
>I guess the Pebbles can Fuse to get around in Era 3. >wwn see this Worst fucking timeline
Zachary Rodriguez
Plus you have to factor in Steven. His power is like holding up a crayon drawing of the other and saying “This is you, this is how important you are as a person, and this is how much I care about you even though I don’t know you and you have tried/are currently trying to murder me.”
That’s Homeworld.
Since it appears with the art of something tearing through the planet, then we have a few explanations. 1) The Diamonds emerging did a lot of damage to the planet, like a whole continent worth (so some AU could say Russia being gone was a Diamond was born on Earth or something). Then it was struck by something. 2) Something struck the planet and left the Diamonds incubating, they emerged from the hole it left. 3) Something hit the planet, it was unconnected to the Diamonds, but when they emerged their births fucked it even worse.
Either way it seems it isn’t their fault Homeworld is wrecked. They may have even been inspired to make Kindergartens by how they were created, and they may have a less destructive means of reproduction available.
The fact of the matter is Future should've taken place before the movie.
Daniel Reed
It's funny watching I thought this was stupid but reading it I'm starting to understand
Noah Smith
No
Blake Morales
so he roofies them.
Evan Rivera
Yes, Ditching your responsibilities and family and passion to find yourself in the car is an act two of personal development.
Ditching, "My work'll never be done." for a YA novel ending was a mistake.
Jaxson Rivera
So original concept Steven is that Steven is a personality, the Gem and human half are both just dead physical things and he is neither the light form nor the flesh.
It’s a good thing they didn’t do this. The way she describes it, it sounds Ike Steven is just Pink wearing the skin suit of a miscarried baby being forced to live but without a mind.
It’s neat that Steven is a Fusion of two Stevens even from the start, and follows with how when Alexandrite split at the dinner with Connie’s parents you see Ruby and Sapphire have to form Garnet again. But the way it happens in the show in CYM is still strange. Like Gem Steven is a robot who can only feel emotion with his human half, and the human half can’t survive without him. The point seems to be that Gem Steven has a weak mind and human Steven has a weak body, which may parallel how Gems need to be taught free will by humans and in turn Gems are doing work to make human lives easier. But at the same time it almost feels like Gem Steven is a life support system that is an incomplete personality like a Gem shard or something.
that stuff about Pink's powers is pretty cool actually given how Steven kept sticking his nose in people's business. Like mother like son, and they both learned their lesson.
Jonathan Thomas
He didn’t ditch them, he just wanted to pursue new shit. They’re a part of his life whether he is physically there or not. And he wasn’t really passionate about it
