Some Thoughts: The Zoomans

I think we all want to see the Zoomans free. Freedom would mean being able to self-determine, from their own life paths to the small choices of when to eat and sleep.

We know from the episode The Zoo, though, that it’s not going to be as simple as opening the doors and telling them they’re free. They have a very different conception of what a good life is, and what freedom means.

When we look at the Zoomans, we have to consider that they have been raised generation after generation in a very particular way. Consider also that the human beings first taken by Homeworld were not only living in a very different society from the one we have now, which also had very different conceptions of who deserved freedom and what it looked like. Moreover, for nearly 6,000 years, the Zoomans were born and raised in the facility, with no idea that a place like Earth exists.

I want to cover how the Zoomans got to where they are now, and the role Homeworld played in “creating” the environment, and the people seen in the episode. In this post I’ll also discuss how the Zoomans might feel and how they’ll eventually attain freedom in the sense we define it.

With that said, let’s get started!

1.  The First Zoomans

One thing that I think should be pointed out off the bat is that the first Zoomans were taken from a particular point in human history. In the 5,000 years since the war, humankind had begun to come together from small pastoral and agricultural communities and established the ancient civilisations, specifically those of the Fertile Crescent, such as Ancient Sumer.

At this time, up until the Enlightenment Period and Scientific Revolution, the human worldview was largely that of Cosmo- or Theo-centrism. Their lives were dictated by patterns in nature, and the concept of a good life was to be in harmony with nature or what the gods wanted. 

This was a time in which there weren’t a lot of choices about what life profession one could take, or who one could marry. Most of these were inherited from one’s parents and decided by the community. 

In fact, it’s much closer to the rigidly stratified social structure found on Homeworld, in which one is essentially born into a job and social roles. It was a time in which some groups weren’t recognised as “human” and equal to the others, again similar to Homeworld.

The idea of a state guaranteeing civil and political rights didn’t come until relatively recently, and in a lot of places, democracy is an even more modern idea. 

As such, the first Zoomans would be quite familiar with routine and some vague higher force instructing them on how best to proceed in life. We can assume that the technology at the Zoo hasn’t advanced very much since its creation, if only because it’s in the outskirts of gem territory, where no one really visits. From here it can be assumed that the way things were done in the past is quite similar to what we see now, in a largely unchanged formula.

It’s not to say that the first Zoomans would have been completely comfortable or didn’t try to fight back. After all, they were being taken from their communities, the very centre of their lives. They had established lives back home that couldn’t be replicated by Homeworld. But, what happened next could have been rationalised by their worldview.

So what happened next exactly?

2. Reverse-engineering the human world

On the Ending of Off Colors

There are some moments which are really telling. This one in particular, after Lars is injured says a lot about gem physiology and consequently gem culture. Gems often come off sounding dismissive and callous towards human needs. In the first season of SU, the gems would leave Steven alone and go on missions for days, their refrigerator usually left empty. 

What I think needs to be said is how much we take for granted that the things we value are in huge part a consequence of our being human also as defined by our physicality. As we move away from limiting the definition of humanity by certain arbitrary physical attributes, we can’t ignore our having a physical form that is organised in a certain way, which perishes after a certain time.

And so to gems, a technically immortal race of born adults and no metabolism, human life, which looks so similar to theirs, is easy to subsume as like their own. But it’s not. Leaving Steven behind for days or weeks would have been a blink of time to them, but not to Steven, as in Cat Fingers. Not having to eat or sleep is a reasonable expectation for gems, but not human beings. 

So the things we value, like the briefness of life, is a function of the way we experience time. The reason we get sentimental about objects is because they are in part what helps sustain us, by helping us acquire food or shelter. Going past that, seemingly useless objects (like an old book or watch) are meaningful precisely because they are markers of our being able to live beyond subsistence level. 

It sounds a lot like our species has built itself around food, and it sort of has. Intensive agriculture, population growth, and the formation of large societies all happened at around the same time. Agricultural surplus was what allowed people to specialise into other tasks. Our society is built the way it is because of our physiological needs.

So when Lars slams into the rock pillar and doesn’t immediately get up, Steven immediately runs to his side in panic. The gems behind him don’t yet know that such an injury could prove fatal. To them, it might mean getting poofed for a bit, or not getting poofed at all. Even though gems feel sensations, including physical pain, pain serves only as a signal that there is danger. It isn’t usually an indicator of their own impending demise.

I liked how the ending of Off Colors felt so ambivalent. On the one hand, we have the successful defeat of the robonoids. There should be reason to rejoice.

Yet upon seeing Steven’s face and his fear and sadness and panic and terror at what happened, to Lars, the gems immediately grow sombre. And this is, to me, an important development.

Even though they come from a culture that shrugs off pain, and by extension is well-acquainted with a lot of physical interaction we’d consider rough and violent,” they empathised. In front of the Off Colors is a completely alien being, completely unlike them. They don’t understand how he works or what’s really happening to him. Death takes a very different form in gem society. Nonetheless, they mourn him, even though they knew him only a short while. They see Steven and feel for him. 

I would say the ending of the episode remains ambivalent. On the one hand, Lars is alive and appears not to suffer physical harm.

On the other hand, and Steven was right to point this out in the next episode, he wasn’t brought back wholly the same as when he left, and Steven didn’t know if he had the right to do that.

Human life is fragile and death goes into that fragility. We don’t know how Lars will age from now on, if he does. We know already that he doesn’t really feel human hunger. His metabolism, which includes the breaking down of cells that ultimately lead to death, could have slowed or stopped altogether.

Instinctively, the choice might be to live, no questions asked. But in this case it wasn’t even Lars’ choice. I’m not saying he should have been left for dead, but I am saying that part of what our society values is choosing how we get to live our lives, and sometimes our deaths. That is why some people choose to sign “Do not resuscitate” forms. 

It’s ambivalent because we’re happy Lars is back. We still consider his humanity intact and he retains all his memories, feelings, and even the greater part of his appearance. At the same time, though, he’s not quite the same as a human being. He’s now somewhere in the middle of organic and gem life, just like Lion. His interactions with the world and others, his values, may change because of the change in his physiology. And it’ll be okay, but it’s going to take work. It’s just not as clear-cut as we thought things would be.

Here I want to bring back the idea of empathy, similar to the kind shown by the Off Colors. They’re called such because they can’t serve the purpose they were designed for. Lars is one of them, not because he’s a different colour now, but because he’s not exactly the human being he’s supposed to be.

But the episode wants us to feel like his humanity is still there. And I think that’s where empathy comes in. If our only metric of humanity was a series of actions and appearances that would mean someone was human, then we’d always find exceptions to the rule. 

Lars’s was an extreme case, but I think it serves the point being put out by the story. There is something else, something we see in others that makes us recognise them as human. And it should be there, regardless of the physicality we tend to see first. That is how we can talk about the humanity we see in the Gems and how they are many times in the show, humanised.

Speculation: Tiger Philanthropist

(For those interested, I found the page here)

[Edit:] IMDb is a site that anyone can edit and while I know that a lot of people know that, some people may not and I don’t want to mislead anyone with this post. Whether or not the information is true, it was fun to speculate on it. But really, the only source we can trust is the Crew and sometimes CN. 

And because some people may find this material very spoiler-y, (I know I did! But I’m too far down the rabbit hole now) I’ll be tagging this as spoilers and introducing a spoiler banner with my predictions for Tiger Philanthropist. But I’llm mostly be talking about my theories on how the episode will pan out.

The summary for this episode is: Steven tries pro-wrestling.

1. Bismuth

I’m assuming then that Steven moves over to a new wrestling league, because he and Purple Puma have won the Beach City Circuit and other cities have underground circuits as well. So it’s like moving up to a bigger contest.

And since they’re going to be competing with the best of some other towns, they’re going to need a team. Who else would love wrestling? Bismuth. Because Bismuth is still struggling between that line of Crystal Gems as warriors and Crystal Gems in a new kind of warfare, the not-so physical.

Like Amethyst, her pent up physical stress finds wrestling as an outlet. When they go off to another city circuit, their opponents are none other than Panda, Grizz, and Ice Bear (whose voice actors are mentioned in the cast), probably in human form with Bear-themed wrestling personas, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they were bears.

2. The Appearance of Crazy Lace

There’s another Crystal Gem we’ve heard before in the cast of characters: Crazy Lace Agate.

Foreshadowing from Steven’s Dream

The foreshadowed moment of Greg’s abduction leads me to wonder whether other details about the movie they watched are also relevant. 

“They only kidnapped cows because they needed milk for their cereal planet.”

And we already know that the gems are running low on resources and their planet is starving. Perhaps, as I’ve been suggesting for a very long time now, the key is to work together. In the same way cereal and milk are complements, the end goal might really be for organic and gem life to co-exist to make a delicious breakfast.

On Gems and Colour

Hi there! Of course you can send in submissions, and thank you for your comprehensive submission here :D

If I could summarise your main points, it’s that:

I think these are really interesting ideas! :D 

1. Fading Colours

So far our only glimpse at gems of the same type is the Ruby Squad and our own Ruby. And you’re right in pointing out Eyeball has a lighter colours compared to the other Rubies. Leggy is the Newbie and has the darkest, almost purplish coloration. Navy, whom we’re assuming is young as well, has a lighter purple to her, while Doc, Army, and our Ruby have similar colours. 

I like this idea because it shows that even if gems don’t physically, there are still signs of their years passed. And you’re right in saying gems can’t seem to control that. When gems regenerate, they maintain their colour palette and can’t change things like the colour of their skin.

I feel this can be broken down into two ideas. First, not all gems of the same type come out exactly the same. There will be little differences. Just like how some of the Rubies are more on the orange-red end of the spectrum while others are on the violet-red of the spectrum. 

When we talk about intensity of colour though, that’s interesting too. In fact, Eyeball supports this statement in Bubbled. When she and Steven are careening through an asteroid field, Eyeball is still outside the bubble and she’s running, jumping, and dodging asteroids for her life. 

At one point, she gets tired and pants: I think I'm losing my lustre...

Which is said in the context and tone of most people going, “I’m getting too old for this!”

So gems do have a concept of ageing in the form of losing their lustre. And it may be true that after facing a lot of battles or just being exposed to the elements a lot, a gem can have a lot of very small scratches, that make it appear dull, unlike the scratches on a phone screen after a lot of use. 

But it’s very subtle, because gems, in reality, don’t actually age. They do feel time passing and the weight of the years on them though, and it would be interesting if it manifests in their physical appearance as well. 

2. Reflecting their Factions

This is a topic that I’ve covered on the blog before, but it’s worth discussing again! Gem colours reflect the colour of their factions. It makes sense that in The Answer, Sapphire and the other gems aligned with Blue Diamond are different shades of Blue, even in their silhouettes. 

One new thing to bring up is that we see some gems who are a definite mix of two Diamonds’ colours. I will be the first to say that Quartzes come in all colours, and that the gem colours in the show are definitely partly based off the kind of material the gem incubated in.

Nonetheless, it’s interesting that, say, the Kindergarten Control Room and Hand Ship are green, even though they’re areas for Yellow Diamond. That Peridot, the embodiment of technological development under YD’s faction, is green means that there might be room for collaboration between diamond factions in post-war Homeworld, particularly between Yellow and Blue Diamond.

3. Pearls’ Colours 

This is something I also agree with! That Pearls cut across factions (gems of any faction seem to be able to own Pearls, who are given as merit awards) means that they might not be made with a particular colour in mind. When we see Pearl in The Answer, her colour is stylised as a light blue-green. And we get hints of that now when she blushes. But you’re absolutely right in saying that she has yellows, greens, and even pinks in her colour palette and these are things that she adds on as she regenerates. There was even a time Pearl had purple leggings in her leg warmers phase.

And it would mean that Pearls may come from the white faction. They’re malleable and sort of start out with a template, much like the White Diamond is a template or the archetypal diamond. As such, they’d be given the ability to change colours more easily than do other gems.

It’s also worth noting that Pearls are created through organic means, so they aren’t like other gems. That could be the key to making them able to change colours. 

Character Analysis: Connie (Part 1 of 4)

Part 1: Connie’s Role in the Series

As the questions suggest, I’ll be writing this post as an analysis on Connie. It will focus mainly on her role in the show from a narrative standpoint through looking at how she’s changed throughout the series. 

When considering Connie, I often think of juxtapositions between her and other characters. It’s not that she doesn't stand as her own character, really. It’s just there’s so much more depth to her when she’s considered in light of other characters. In light of the mixed reactions Connie has been receiving in the series, I think it’d also be more interesting to look at the feedback other characters have received in the series. 

I wouldn’t want to drag this introduction out any longer, so let’s get started!

1. Connie was never presented as “just a side-character”

One thing to look at when exploring how Connie’s character will develop is to look at where she’s been. The way Connie was introduced, she seemed to fill the role of the side-character trope. She was introduced without much exposition, even if her bracelet in Steven’s freezer was seen in an earlier episode. And in Bubble Buddies, her first appearance, she had a character arc that was resolved in eleven minutes while at the same time being the convenient somebody who helped Steven learn a new ability, the bubble. 

In any other teen-hero show, this is all standard practice. But we know now that Steven Universe plays up these existing tropes only to completely turn them around. Steven began to introduce her more and more to his life as a gem, with her next appearance being Lion 2: The Movie. And in hindsight, that is the episode that cements her being a permanent, plot-relevant character in SU. Lion took her and Steven to Rose’s Armoury. 

At that time in the series, we don’t really consider the relevance of this. We more of consider this momentous because we’re learning something about Rose, and making the connection that Rose was somehow tied to Lion. A number of factors make Connie’s invitation there a big deal. 

First, Lion is finicky. He doesn’t listen to anyone, not even Steven sometimes. It takes a lot of coaxing to get him to do something he doesn’t want to do. Recall in the episode that Steven is asking for him to take them to the cinema. Instead, they’re warped over to Rose’s hidden armoury. This means Lion, knowingly and willingly wanted to bring Connie to Rose’s Armoury. Lion doesn’t just let all of Rose’s skeletons walk out of the closet either. There seems to be a time and place when Steven is considered ready and these secrets reveal themselves, courtesy of Lion.

This means Lion wanted Connie to know about the armoury, and it plays out later on in the show because the wielder of Rose’s sword is none other than this character.

Second, the armoury is an important part of Rose’s history, and the gem history that is tied to her. By taking Connie to the armoury, Lion was introducing her to the lore that was Rose Quartz and the gem war. It foreshadowed how fighting, though not ideal, could not completely be divorced from the history of gems, and likely the situation she would be finding herself in. Connie had to learn how to fight, and deal with the aftermath of being conditioned to be a fighter. We see in Sworn to the Sword and Mindful Education that the fighting mentality within the context of gem culture has its effects on individuals, effects that Connie had been feeling.

Finally, Rose’s Armoury was a secret. No one else knew about it before Lion 2. The only one who knew where it was, was Pearl. And Pearl knew how to get there only through a perilous cliff-scaling journey. It shows how personal that place was. After Rose’s passing, it would make sense that Steven inherited the armoury, and Pearl was always planning to take him to the secret location anyway. But Lion’s intervention allowed Steven to discover the armoury on his own terms. 

In Rose’s Scabbard, the way Pearl introduced the armoury was through all of the formal names every piece of equipment had. She was simultaneously revelling in the memories she had with Rose. Had Steven discovered the armoury in this manner, it would have been another piece of Rose. It wouldn’t have felt totally like Steven’s. And he discovered it with Connie. 

Connie prompted the discovery of the weapons and armour. And I think that has bearing in how we’re going to see her in the show.

2. Connie has always tried to be part of the main group