Fusion (Part 1)
The weekend is here, and I’ve just recovered from being sick. With just a week to go before In Too Deep, I was dying to write down my thoughts on fusion!
A lot of people see fusion as a very intimate and personal thing. Essentially, two beings become one and it’s not something that happens just because you want to fuse. There has to be factors of synchronicity and trust. And dancing is involved too.
There are some analysis of fusion that liken it to the act of sexual intercourse, and I’m not going to go out and say that this perspective is wrong. But I do want to widen that notion. More than just the act, I think fusion exactly encapsulates how two or more characters relate with each other. This is what their relationship would look like as a person. When two gems (and/or humans) fuse, they’re no longer just themselves; the fusion is what they could be when they’re together.
It’s a bit abstract, but I borrow some of these thoughts from Rebecca Sugar’s take on fusion in her interview with Comic News Insider. Fusion is the relationship you have with another person. Whether you love them, or hate them, whatever you have between the two of you, those feelings are the fusion.
Because of this, I don’t subscribe to the thinking that there are “perfect” fusions. When people say “perfect” they mean “humanoid,” and it’s a fact that gems don’t follow the standards of what human beings think are beautiful. One popular example is Garnet as one of the most perfect fusion, because the only doubled organ is her eye, which means Ruby’s and Sapphire’s eyes didn’t completely fuse together. I’m going to talk more about this later, but it’s going to boil down to: Different relationships mean and function in different ways. If fusion is really a metaphor for the relationship between individuals, then we don’t get the right to dictate whether their relationship is “perfect” or not, because clearly there is no perfect relationship, and there is no standard for them, just as clearly as you would say there are no standards for perfect people.
Garnet
I’ll start with Garnet because she’s often the one used as the “perfect” standard for fusions. She appears the most humanoid, because she has two arms and two legs, she’s the smallest fusion (discounting Stevonnie). She has one mouth and one face, and she has three eyes. I’ve heard people say that after Ruby and Sapphire work out their issues, Garnet will have only two eyes. But Ruby and Sapphire want to look this way. Their relationship is strongly romantic.
Look at the way they hold each other. It’s clear that they share a very intimate relationship. Here’s the other caveat: They want to be one person all the time. Inside the fusion space, there is no distinction between one and the other, unless there is disagreement. The moment disagreement surfaces, the fusion immediately becomes unstable. Garnet knows that more than anyone, because at first glance, Ruby and Sapphire are opposites. Nonetheless, they want to be as together as they can.
When we look at The Answer, we begin to understand why. They changed each other’s lives forever, and deviated from the set paths they were supposed to take. The reason they’re here and they have their freedom and choices, it’s all because they did it together. They’re the type of relationship in which the constituents are better together. So let’s look at Garnet. Arguably, Ruby and Sapphire are physically shorter, but I don’t think that’s the reason Garnet’s height is that way. Lapis and Jasper alone fused as Malachite, whose size rivals Alexandrite, a fusion of four gems.
Garnet looks the way she does because that’s how Ruby and Sapphire feel about each other. They want to be together and one. The first time they fused, it was completely unintended; the second time, tentative. Neither knew what was going to happen, but they knew they wanted the same thing. That’s how their relationship works, and the common dynamic is that the two balance each other out under the one goal of protecting those they care about, the way they protected each other that first time.
They have three eyes, probably to triangulate better. One eye focuses on future vision. In Arcade Mania, we’ve seen how that eye functions almost independently when using future vision, but Garnet’s other two eyes need to concentrate on whatever other task is at hand, and two eyes give better depth perception.
But Garnet herself, her personality, it’s calm, confident, assured, and very very protective of others. That’s the relationship Ruby and Sapphire have together. It’s stable, nurturing, protective, and secure. And that’s how Garnet manifests.
So for them, there was no need for a massive hulking fusion. Their goal was oneness and their relationship tried to encapsulate the compactness of that. That manifestation is Garnet. She has one set of all her appendages and body parts because she wants to be fused all the time, no distinction between Ruby and Sapphire. In Alone Together, we saw that fusions can feel alone, because your parts can’t comfort you and hug you and tell you things are going to be okay. You’re running essentially on the strength of your relationship and will to stay as one. That’s what Ruby and Sapphire want, and I can’t stress this enough as I start talking about the other fusions in the list.
Opal
So the second fusion we see in the series is Opal. A lot of people say she looks slightly more like Pearl, and this shows that Pearl is more dominant in the fusion. I doubt that, because from the eyes alone, Opal is already a mix of Pearl’s blue eyes and Amethyst’s dark ones. I think the key to their relationship, is that deep down, they’re both harbouring insecurities they can’t really explain to Garnet. These insecurities and feelings of inferiority make them want to be someone bigger and stronger, and they do feel that they can accomplish that when they’re together.
In Log Date 7 15 2, take a look at the scene right before Pearl and Amethyst fuse:
In a situation like this, Amethyst thinks being bigger is better. In Too Far, we know that she holds a lot of issues in, and part of it is size.
Peridot: Well, you’re a quartz. They’re huge, loyal soldiers. You should be twice your size. Broad shouldered, intimidating, but you simply stayed in the ground too long.
Amethyst: *angry* Are you saying I’m wrong?!
She also has fears of never being truly accepted. Tiger Millionaire and On The Run showed us that there was a divide between Pearl, acting with Garnet, and Amethyst, and the tendency for the former two to treat her like a juvenile, even though she’s hundreds of years old. In a very Labelling Theory way, that’s probably how she ends up acting.
We know Pearl has issues of inferiority as well. It’s how she was socialised and she’s only starting to deal with these feelings instead of burying them and ignoring how they’re actually affecting her. Rose’s Scabbard and Sworn to the Sword showed precisely how Pearl didn’t even realise she was hurting Steven and Connie because she had old feelings resurface, and these feelings never really went away because she never dealt with them.
And there’s one last caveat about Amethyst: She wants to be like Pearl and Garnet. It’s difficult because it’s subtle, but in Reformed, we got a look in her mind and really, she’s afraid she’s not going to catch up to them. She thinks that the way to be accepted is to be more like them, so perhaps Opal will look this way until
So together, Pearl and Amethyst try to be taller, (but have a build similar to Pearl’s), and bigger people, because they know they can at least try to be bigger together (though not too big because they don’t think they can do it– again, Opal is on the shorter side of the fusions). We’ve heard little from Opal compared to the other fusions, but though her physical form hasn’t changed as much, I think personality-wise, she’s started to adapt to the changes in Amethyst and Pearl’s relationship.
When we first see her in Giant Woman:
She makes such an attempt to be graceful and tall and silent. Her actions mimic Pearl’s. And at this point I’m pretty certain it’s not because Pearl is “controlling” the fusion. Fusions aren’t a car that get piloted, they’re a relationship. At this point in their relationship, Amethyst is still trying to please Pearl and to emulate her. It makes sense that the sum of their parts would be overtly long, elegant, and graceful in the conventional way.
But a lot of people have pointed out that by Log Date 7 15 2, Pearl and Amethyst have adapted to each other’s dancing styles. They have more synchronicity in their fusion dance and it relates to how they’ve grown together and understood each other more. When Garnet was angry with Pearl because of the events in Cry For Help, Amethyst was the one to defend Pearl. They’ve started to come to terms with each other’s quirks, and while it’s still a process, it’s something that they’ve started on. And Opal in Log Date is more fun. She stretches and grins and does that punchy motion before grabbing the drill. These are Amethyst’s mannerisms, but they’re also things Pearl does when she’s relaxed. The two are opening up and getting more comfortable with one another, that’s what their relationship is like now, more fun, more open, and more willing to adapt.
As a side note, I don’t think that Opal’s form will change very much over time, because her weapon is a great use of Amethyst and Pearl’s skills. Accuracy and power are both needed in the spear and whip, and maybe I’ll talk about it more some other time, but that’s exactly what a bow and arrow entail. So four arms and height for leverage are really helpful, and Opal’s form plays up their strengths, and they’d prefer it that way.
I have more to say on the other fusions, but in the interest of keeping this post readable, I’ll link to the succeeding posts when they’ve been written.
It’s here!
Fusion (Part 1)- Garnet and Opal
