drdoctordoctor reblogged
Anonymous asked:
can u post New Home previews
ty for taking the hint
two random panels
Steven clearly learned something from reading the copy of 1984 that Connie lent him.
Random SU Thought of the Day:
What if the Ruby Squad reentered the Earth’s atmosphere and just landed in the back of Andy’s plane causing him to think he had gremlins?
Thoughts on Gem Harvest
- Steven’s finally starting to learn more about the human side of his family, which we haven’t really seen much of.
- Dr. Maheswaran was right, Universe wasn’t Greg’s original last name.
- Greg and Rose weren’t technically married.
- Given Andy’s accent I’m wondering if the DeMayo clan are from Jersey?
Overall it’s a pretty solid episode, and given how much lore dump we’ve had on the Gem side of Steven’s family it’s nice to see him getting to know more about his human side especially since what we’ve seen in episodes like *Steven’s Birthday*.
Since Jasper grabbed a hold of the fishing hook baited with a gummy worm Greg was using in *Alone at Sea* I wonder if that means Jasper likes gummy worms?
“So the tiny humans come and attempt to steal your food?”
“Not exactly, it’s called trick-or-treating. The local kids dress up and go from house to house to get candy.”
“Why?”
“Well, it’s just sort of a tradition. I’m sure that there’s some sort of historical reason for it. Now, where’d I put that big bag of gummy worms?”
“Those weren’t for me?”
Late Night With Steven
“Ugh, I shouldn’t have eaten those fry...huh?”
“Hi Steven!”
“Uh, hi...Steven?”
Steven found himself in the darkened living room of the Beach House surrounded by other Stevens...and Rose Quartz who happened to be wearing his usual red shirt and jeans.
“Mom?”
Rose Quartz opened her mouth only to have Steven’s voice come out.
“Sorry, I’m Steven as Jasper sees Steven.”
“Well that figures. Who are the rest of you?” A Steven dressed like he just stepped out of the Oval Office piped up.
“I’m Steven as Connie sees Steven, or Steven as Steven thinks Connie sees Steven. I’m not really sure which, it’s kind of confusing.”
“Are you guys my subconscious? Am I trying to tell myself something?”
Another Steven, who just looked like Amethyst pretending to be him spoke.
“Probably that eating leftover fry bits before bed is a bad idea.”
“Oh, I thought I was going to have some sort of life-changing epihany.”
A Steven with a bald patch and a beard (who was Steven as Pearl sometimes sees Steven) patted him on the back.
“Sorry Stu-ball the only epiphany you’re going to have tonight is a need to run to the bathroom right about...now.”
Remember this exchange between Jasper and Peridot in Earthlings? "Hah! just look at this one! You've stripped her of everything! Her limb enhancers, her status, her dignity." "I still have one of those things." Peridot refers to herself as the leader of the Crystal Gems in Hit the Diamond.
drdoctordoctor reblogged
“Uh, why’s White Diamond not freaking out that there’s a human on her lap?”
“Well, he’s got long fluffy hair and red stripey parts. Maybe she thinks he’s a Jasper?”
“But Jaspers are way bigger than dad is!”
“Steven, have you noticed how big White Diamond is? Everybody’s small compared to her, she won’t notice a few feet.”
drdoctordoctor reblogged
I was thinking... one of the few good arguments against a Jasper redemption in my view is that Steven's under a lot of stress, and he shouldn't have to shoulder the emotional weight of every angry stranger he meets. (This has been a big theme in the show over the past few months: see Mindful Education and even Kiki's Pizza Delivery Service. Steven's capacity for emotional labor is limited, both in what it can accomplish and the toll it takes on him.)
But that’s not necessarily an argument against redemption arcs, is it? Just the idea that they have to proceed by Steven the Good Person deciding to open up by himself while the other Crystal Gems humor him from the sidelines. So, this might be a common sentiment I’m ignoring, but I really want future redemption arcs to be primarily driven by other characters, partly just because it’s more interesting, but also because it seems a lot healthier for poor little Steven.(Peridot seems like the most obvious choice, but at the same time a little too pat. I guess I’d like to see Amethyst take point in the eventual Jasper arc?)
So I initially saw the first part of this ask and was so convinced I was going to have to fight somebody, but, actually, kerapace, you make an excellent argument.
Redemption arcs are incredibly important because the alternative is outright giving up on characters, and Gem Drill explicitly puts into context that this is incredibly wrong and amoral.
But you’re absolutely right in that it’s bad to force Steven to do all of the requisite emotional labor! Steven should not be the only one working here, and I think that’s significant because, if we look at Peridot’s arc at this point… at the best of times, it was a team effort, but, unfortunately, far more often, the Crystal Gems stepped in to punish Peridot for stepping out of line and then left, leaving Steven to be the one to actually try to explain what went wrong to what was virtually always a completely bewildered Peridot who had no idea why she was just suddenly attacked or restrained. It fell to Steven to try to seek closure.
Not only have the Crystal Gems not really helped Steven in some of his past exploits, there are times they have actively made it harder for him. Look at Monster Buddies when Steven probably could’ve calmed Centi down a lot easier and faster if the Crystal Gems hadn’t all leaped to the offensive and basically roughed up someone having a panic attack.
This sounds… really harsh, and I think it’s a character flaw they’re slowly making progress on. But it’s something worth noting that it isn’t fair to just put Steven in the role of The Gentle Understanding One, because… well, look at the whole point of Message Received.
It isn’t that YD is Evil ™ and that’s why she can’t make a good decision about Earth, it’s that she just plain has too many feelings wrapped up in the subject- she doesn’t want to think about it, she doesn’t want to deal with it, she just wants it to go away. But because YD is the Important Leader, Peridot bypassed everyone else to specifically drop that on her plate, because isn’t making decisions for everyone’s good YD’s job? That’s her thing, that’s the thing she has to do.
And she can’t. Because she’s traumatized and hurt and in some ways pretty scared.
Putting Steven in a comparable position with the Crystal Gems where he’s always called upon to be the bigger person and mend these broken bridges without any help would run into more bad decisions. The reason why YD’s bad feelings condemn the entirety of Earth in Homeworld’s eyes is because she’s stuck alone in this Leadership Position and doesn’t have anyone else to help her. YD failing to embrace Earth is treated as her personal failing, and that isn’t fair to YD as much as her exclusive decision deciding whether Earth lives or dies isn’t fair to Earth.
Steven should not treat his inability to help someone as a personal failing, but, as we see in Mindful Education, he has been. And Steven’s efforts alone should not determine whether or not someone can be redeemed, but, going to the earlier parts of Message Received- the other Crystal Gems rapidly gave up on Peridot as soon as Steven stopped sticking up for her. They went straight from ‘singing a song having a bonding moment working on saving the planet together’ in It Could Have Been Great to Garnet openly suggesting that Peridot didn’t deserve kindness or forgiveness in Message Received. Sure, they felt betrayed at the time, but still.
Especially because with Eyeball, Bismuth, and Jasper, again, Steven is grappling with massive problems and hurt that these people are trying to take out on him that weren’t even his fault to begin with. Steven being trapped by Rose’s legacy as feeling like he has to become her or “make up for” taking her away is one bad thing but a whole different one is feeling like he has to fix all of Rose’s old mistakes and bad choices.
These aren’t characters that should be given up on, but absolutely, Steven should not be personally made responsible for ‘fixing’ them.
Honestly, the biggest thing I’m hoping for from a Jasper redemption arc is Jasper stepping up and helping Steven deal with his damage while she’s working through hers.
Think about it: in a way, they’re both child soldiers conscripted into a cause much greater than them from a young age. Steven might not have been expected to fight since birth, but there’s always been this expectation that he would become a Crystal Gem and step into his mother’s shoes once he was old enough. A lot of Steven’s issues stem from him not only becoming aware of those expectations, but also questioning whether that’s what he really wants. Should he uphold Rose’s legacy and fight for her cause in all of the same ways, good and bad?
Jasper is going to get Steven on a fundamental level that most of his friends and family don’t because, in her journey, she’s going to be asking herself a lot of the same questions. Does she have to fight in a war that began long before she was born? Does she have to sacrifice her identity and happiness in the name of the legacy of someone she may have never met, who might have died before she was born?
Most likely, “What does Jasper truly want?” is going to serve as a springboard for a question we’ve been building up to for a while now: “What does Steven truly want?”
Also, Jasper is independent enough that she’d probably chafe at Steven constantly trying to help her, and the personal space she demands might give her the opportunity to observe him and turn the lessons they learned from Jasper’s struggles back on Steven whenever he exhibits similar behavior. Steven not being expected to be in Helper Mode will give him a chance to stop pushing aside his feelings to focus on others and really stop and think about his own needs and feelings.
I think that, as friends, Jasper and Steven could be really good for each other.
This might just be me, but I think that Amethyst might be how we get a Jasper redemption arc. If Earthlings is anything to go on, it seems like she gets why Jasper was acting the way she was because she was the same way after someone took her mother figure away from her.
Plus, it would be nice to show that Steven’s not the only person that can help people and that others can follow his example.
Doc’s On Discord
Just as a heads up, I’ve started a server over at Discord. It’s a site that allows for audio and text chat similar to what we do during Picarto streams without anyone having to be streaming to do it.
If anybody’s interested in giving it a try, my username is Doctor_Squared user #4060
Thoughts on Onion Gang
- Uh, hi there Yellowtail
- It looks like Onion’s starting to feel more comfortable around Steven, he introduced him to his family in the last Onion episode and now he’s introducing him to his friends.
- “I don’t need you to pity me. That’s the one thing I can do myself.”
- I get the feeling that Onion having friends that are just like him sort of reinforces the fact that Steven doesn’t have anyone else in his life who’s like him.
- I wonder if Onion’s friends leaving because the Summer was over is supposed to be a metaphor for the upcoming hiatus?
Amazonite - Yellowswapped
“Steven, out of all the bubbles you had to accidentally pop why did it have to be her’s?”
A teal-colored Gem with a visor similar to Peridot’s flitted about the house in what looked like an attempt to organize it. In lieu of legs she had a wasp-like lower section that she hovered around on.
“She doesn’t seem so bad to me. At least she didn’t try to kill me like most of the Gems I’ve met.”
“That’s because she’s an Amazonite, she’s a Gem designed to manage other Gems. White Diamond sent her here a few thousand years ago to try and persuade your mother to leave Earth.”
Steven’s eyes went wide.
“There are other Diamonds besides my mom?”
Jasper pinched the bridge of her gemstone.
“Of course there are, I thought Peridot was supposed to be teaching you about Gem history?”
“She has been! We’re almost done with her lectures on great moments in Peridot history.”
That got a grunt from the quartz who was then interrupted by a high-pitched, slightly nasally voice.
“Well, I’m afraid that this wooden base of yours simply won’t do. I’ll have to report this to Yellow Diamond, speaking of which where is she?”
Steven stepped forward, avoiding eye contact with Amazonite.
“Uh, she kind of gave up her physical form to become me. I’m her son.”
Amazonite’s voice softened slightly.
“Oh dear, it’s even worse than I thought.”
Does anybody else want to see an episode where Pearl actually attempts to get her driver’s license?
“So how’d it go?”
“The woman at the counter was quite rude. I only asked what form you had to fill out if you lived here before humans founded the country.”
“Uh...”
“Who needs a license anyway? We’ve got a Roaming Eye, I can just use that to get around.”
Hours Later
“Hey Pearl! What are you doing here? I thought you were going to take the Roaming Eye back out for a spin?”
“The Human Air Force said I needed a pilot’s license and impounded it. Do you know where someplace called “Area 51″ is located?”
Thoughts on Last One Out of Beach City
- Anybody else get an FLCL-vibe from this episode?
- We finally found out what happened to Ocean Town.
- It’s nice to see Pearl finally starting to move on, I hope we see more of Mystery Girl in the future.
- Pearl saying “Your Krohl” means that she thought everyone was saying “My Krohl” instead of “Mike Krohl”.
- “That was the most scared I’ve been since you almost let me die!” Well, at least Garnet’s lesson from Mindful Education stuck with him.
It just dawned on me that Eyeball's weapon is a dagger that she pulls out of her Gem. She literally stares daggers at people.
drdoctordoctor reblogged
mrdraklin-deactivated20181214
I’m trying to animate Amazonite seriously; I’ll make a shit post instead.
Truly majestic.
Thoughts on Future Boy Zoltron
- I might be looking too far into it Mr. Frowny’s line about even coins not wanting to be around him reminded me a bit of Jasper, right down to Steven not being able to do anything to personally help him.
- Zoltron’s “lucky numbers” are coordinates that just so happen to match up with one of the locations marked on Buddy Buddwick’s map
drdoctordoctor reblogged
internal logic error, but I think in the end of it you’re right, Jasper is a fuzzy sweater, and she does deserve it.