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

Weapon Analysis: Rose Quartz

Rose has a lot of weapons, but I feel like we can talk about the more iconic ones, namely, her shield and her sword. The reason I don’t limit it to just her shield, is that she’s the product (and possibly even the cause) of an era in which gems fought exclusively with weapons. Additionally, Rose’s position as a military leader makes weaponry an important aspect of her life. So I’ll start from a top-down approach, starting with which weapons I believe she started using first to the most recently developed one.

Although Rose possesses other weapons, we don't see them being used in the show.

Source: SU Wiki

She has an entire armoury filled with weapons, but something tells me when all else fails, she relies on her trusty source and shield. The armoury has more axes, amour, and odds and ends, that she could ever need. I’d like to think Rose is a collector. Because she wanted one o the Mr. Universe shirts from Greg’s concert. And I think this is one field in which she deviates from the rest of Homeworld society already. From what we’ve seen, gems from the past don’t really hold on to anything that isn’t part of them. I think this is why Peridot was so amazed by “appearance modifiers that aren’t melded to your body!” in Log Date 7 15 2. From what we’d seen Yellow Diamond works in an empty office, and Blue Diamond sits in an empty palanquin. That behaviour makes sense if all gems did only their prescribed roles and tasks. There would be no way to explore other personal plans, hobbies, and fixations, no deviations from who they’re “supposed” to be.

Earth is absolutely the opposite of that. On Earth, we get to make our own choices. Look at Greg, he was in college, going to take a conventional profession. In a society like Homeworld’s, that would be the end of the story. But Greg left that behind so he could become a rockstar. And then he gave that up to be with Rose, and then that changed when they decided to have Steven. Life on Earth is dynamic; it’s ever-changing. There are so many choices an individual can have. So many facets of life. You don’t have to just be a carwash owner; you can also be a father, a singer, a friend, a music-collector, and all the other things Greg is. On Homeworld, the options are much more limited. It’s why Rose fell in love with Earth. Even if you inevitably choose the road assigned to you, it’s still okay, because you had the choice. I think that’s something a lot of people take for granted. A lot of people think they’d be happy without those choices because they would have chosen that road anyway, but life would have been so much more different if that choice weren’t available in the first place.

So onto her weapons, because Rose was able to use a good number of weapons, I think that they do represent the evolution of her personality as time went on, the war progressed, and Earth developed. Let’s get to that now.

1. The Sword (And Scabbard)

Source: SU Wiki

What I find interesting about Rose’s weapons, among other things, is that there’s an insignia that’s clearly hers on all those things. For instance, the Sword, though not her own summoned weapon, is decorated in her colours, and a design that clearly says “Rose.”

To me, this is an indicator that Rose was ranked highly enough that she warranted her own special weaponry designed in her image. Less rare or more lowly ranked gems have generic gear. Peridot and Doc have very similar-coloured and shaped visors. Pearl had a generic sword in her fight scenes, and she still has a number of them in her room. That Rose has her own special sword easily identified as hers shows that she was important enough, and irreplaceable enough for that. The other thing about the uniqueness of it, is that she had a presence on Homeworld. She was one of those gems who had an image people knew and recognised. If her insignia meant nothing, then there would be no point plastering it everywhere.

So her sword and scabbard are an indicator of rank and power. It’s a position she has that comes with both responsibility and constituents who rally around her symbol.

Given its size, the sword itself is a weapon that requires immense strength to yield. It’s scaled up just right for Rose’s proportions: Tall. Swordsmanship indicates precision as well. It works best when she can strike at exact points. If she just hacked at everything, then she’d leave herself vulnerable to attack. It’s what Pearl was explaining in Steven the Swordfighter. It was most likely Rose who taught Pearl how to fight with a sword.

Right away, we know that Rose is a Quartz. She’s meant to be a fighter and that means she has the strength and physique to go with it. But she managed to make it high enough on Homeworld, again, to warrant her having personalised weaponry.

Source: SU Wiki

It shows that Rose is both strong, but controlled. When we see Rose in her scenes prior to The Answer, she doesn’t look anything like a gem who could take down others. She’s wearing a long ballgown, and it would be rather difficult to move around in that. But we see her move incredibly quickly and takes down the Ruby Fusion, causing it to unfuse. To put in perspective, it took Pearl a lengthy chase, a cliff, and Sugilite’s own flail for her to accomplish destabilising a three-gem fusion.

Her presence isn’t terrifying, in the sense that she doesn’t have to flaunt her power and strength for people to know she’s capable. She can control exactly how much force or strength she has to use. In Story for Steven, Rose tells Garnet not to toss him out of the fence and she doesn’t raise her voice. She doesn’t need to. It takes a lot of experience to know how much force to use in the right situations.

And I think this is why it’s very significant she has a scabbard. It’s a sheathe for the sword. She’s not always at her most intense mode. That’s reserved for only battle, the right time and the right place. And I think that’s significant, because when she’s not stressed, Rose is caring, nurturing, for all accounts harmless. But that’s not how Homeworld views her. That’s the Rose we know. That’s the Rose we see in the show, talking to Greg, regretting the war, hoping to create a world full of wonder and love for Steven. We see Rose in her scabbard.

Source: SU Wiki

Homeworld sees only the sword. The knew Rose as the leader of the Rebellion, the starter of wars, which killed thousands and thousands of gems, for what cause? In order to have a planet they couldn’t use for other gems? A planet just for the sake of it? The same way she collected things just for the sake of it? Because on Homeworld, the needs of the society trump the desires of the individual by a long-shot. There’s no point in protecting Earth because it takes away opportunities and lives from other gems. Rose is cruel; Rose crushed Homeworld troops with her small, persistent group of rebels. And I think that this explains the way older Homeworld gems act around the rebels and about the war. We’ve seen the Crystal Gem side of the war. We’re supporting the Earth, because it’s our planet, our characters, stories we’ve already heard and identify with. We don’t see Homeworld’s side, but no side wins in a war.

From their point of view, Rose killed gems for a rock in space. To them, she’s the bad guy. It’s the duality in her character that I find very interesting. And Rose still feels Homeworld is her home. She calls it as much. We can feel where her guilt comes from. She lost everything, her rank, her Homeworld friends, many followers, her home, over Earth. To her, it was worth it. But that doesn’t mean she didn’t pay a price. She’s guilty precisely because she’s still able to see her actions from Homeworld’s point of view as well. She sees what it must look like from both sides of the story and that’s why she’s so torn up about it. When she finally opens up to Greg, she worries he won’t be able to accept her anymore. Because she understands more than anyone the gravity of what she's done. Sword and scabbard represent how she’s perceived by those around her.

2. The Shield

Fusion (Part 3)

Sorry for the delay in the third part. But here it is!

So I started talking about fusion in this post with Garnet and Opal, and then sort of went in depth with the relationship dynamics and the fusion’s personality in this post about Sugilite and Sardonyx. Now I want to focus on how fusion’s are separate entities from its components. 

Stevonnie

Source: SU Wiki

With Stevonnie, we begin to understand that fusion can be physical as much as it is emotional. Unlike the other gems, Steven and Connie are made up of organic matter. They’re tangible, they occupy space, and it’s incompressible and un-malleable, unlike Gems who can shape shift at will.

There are some theories as to why Stevonnie looks just like a taller human being. A lot of it hinge on Steven and Connie being incredibly in-sync and innocent, thereby achieving the “perfect” fusion. I really don’t think so. If you think about it, Steven and Connie and very different personality-wise. Connie can be more pragmatic and she voices her anxieties openly. We know that she harbours some feelings of never getting to fit in with the Crystal Gems, and that was what made her vulnerable to Pearl’s indoctrination in Sworn to the Sword. At the very least, she lets those feelings out in Steven’s Birthday. In Open Book, we’re aware of the differences between Steven and Connie’s approach to new information based on their critique of the book and what happened in Rose’s room. 

When Steven realised that the girl wasn’t Connie, he confronted her immediately. Connie, realising something must have happened to Steven, probably weighed out that Rose’s room wouldn’t really harm her son, so she looked for him, but closer to where they separated so he could find her, something that he did manage to do.

Steven is also pragmatic, but he’s characterised by strong empathy and a desire to understand everything. He immerses himself in experiences and wants to feel everything about them. Sometimes, that immersion makes it difficult for him to look past the present. When he’s happy, he’s incredibly happy. When he’s scared, when he’s angry, when he’s sad, when he’s excited, all those things are felt tenfold. When he does worry about the future though, he keeps it to himself. In House Guest, he doesn’t let on about his fears that his healing powers have stopped working until close to the end of the episode, and that’s only because Greg was trying to make him feel better by saying no one was hurt by what happened. In Steven’s Birthday, Steven stretches himself out for an entire day without saying what’s wrong, and only Amethyst and Greg’s intervention get him to say something about how he’s feeling.

When Steven and Connie are together, they feel like they can do anything. They work better together than they do apart, and that was the entire point Steven was trying to make in Sworn to the Sword. Connie versus some Pearl clones in the fog: Maybe a real test, the challenge that Pearl planned it to be. Connie with Steven fighting those clones together: They destroyed those clones in mere seconds.

That’s why their fusion is so excited, because when they’re together there are so many possibilities for things they can do. Similar to Garnet in The Answer, there is a lot of tentativeness, because this is a new level of intimacy that they didn’t have previously.

Source: SU Wiki

From episodes after Alone Together, we see that they do worry about the future they have together. Suddenly, they think of what it’s like ten or twenty years down the line. They think about growing up and growing older. When they’re together, (and faced with the world-- or at the least the city-- ending several times a month), they can’t help feeling more grown up. These are precisely the feelings Steven has in Joy Ride, and no doubt Connie, who naturally tries to classify her responsibilities, possesses them as well.

And this is why Stevonnie is somewhere in their teenage years. This is how they feel together, just a little older. The fun is still there and Stevonnie’s personality is brimming with it. They don’t need more eyes, arms, or legs. Really, they think they work better as themselves, as is. Maybe they would like to be a bit bigger, and that accounts for the height, but otherwise, Steven with shield and Connie with sword is their tag-team combination.

But Stevonnie is not Steven and Connie. Stevonnie is Stevonnie. Why is this so? Because according to Rose, every single thing has a unique and personal experience. When people started taking notice of Stevonnie, and at least one person was attracted to them, these aren't things that could happen to Steven or Connie individually at that point in their lives. Stevonnie is their own individual, much like we treat Garnet as her own character. Steven and Connie feel what Stevonnie goes through (c.f. Garnet: “We already love you, Steven.”), but they know they aren’t the ones being looked at or talked about.