Steven and Greg take on Korea.
Credits to the rad uncle:
How do you think Andy would react if Steven and the Gems told him how they saved the Earth and the number of times Steven has nearly died?"
If this scene in Gem Harvest were any indicator, he wouldn’t take it too well, I think.
At the start of Gem Harvest, Andy viewed Steven as totally human. Even after seeing him pull out the shield, he was only considering how being a gem manifested in Steven. He’s fine seeing the gems do dangerous things because he still sees a clear divide between human beings and gems, and he sees Steven firmly on the human side. Like, Human with Gem Abilities, not human-gem hybrid.
And also, it’s clear to the cast of characters that all gems are adults. They never talk to the gems as if they’re children, which is why Andy was quick to ask which of the gems was Greg’s wife. No one was ruled out as a suspect.
On the other hand, Andy sees Steven as a child. And it’s not that children aren’t capable, but children can be easily pressured to copy or do things that might hurt them without fully knowing the risks yet.
It’s also a good play on the trope of “cool uncle lets you do crazy stuff.” I’d say Andy would give Steven and Greg and earful. Then Greg would explain the magical destiny. And Andy will have none of it. Only after they quiet down and Greg and Andy are alone will Greg explain how he felt when he realised the danger Steven was in too. Then he’d probably bring up the events of Ocean Gem and House Guest.
Because Steven will always be Greg’s son. And Greg knows that even if he can’t always understand why Steven does the things he does, he can try to be there for him and support him and try to minimise the risks as much as possible. Greg steps in when he feels the risks towards Steven are non-mitigable, like in Space Race. But overall, he is trying to gauge Steven’s abilities in a field he can never be part of.
That’s something I feel Andy can relate to.
Here's something slight that is starting to annoy me, but I concede there may be more to it: In Gem Harvest, Greg does not tell Andy that Rose is straight up dead, even though practically speaking, she mostly is, giving up ALL of her physical form and HALF her DNA to become ALL of Steven. Sure, that's a bit more complicated a death than human perishment, but that seems more final than even corruption or shattering (even shattered they're still partially conscious). (cont).
flowerapplejacks said:In fact, they never actually say she died, leading to these personally hated theories where Rose is "just hiding inside Steven's gem" and Steven is just this living mirror for Rose until she comes back in a 100 years or so after Steven passes. Then again though, the show isn't giving us any direct answers either.
Right, as I mentioned in this post in which I speculated on how Steven was conceived, it’s not as simple as retreating into her gem for a baby to grow around it. Rose is more than just the information she provided, and that’s precisely what was lost, in the same way our genes are all the same and it’s the specific active parts for encoding that express who we are. The one big thing that makes humans different is that we can create new DNA, new cells that eventually become the embryo. Gems can’t do this. They are more or less a closed system. So when Rose gives Steven her genetic information, that information encodes, synthesises, and expresses Steven.
I’ll be talking more about this in the next post in the Story of Steven series, but again, when we take that raw information, say after Steven passes away, it’ll have to activate and encode and express the exact same way it did for Rose for, well, Rose to come out. And she won’t have Rose’s memories or relationships or experiences should that very small possibility come to pass.
You’re right to point out how vague the show has been about it, but then again, the show is generally vague when the subject matter is Rose, for instance all of the parallels between Rose and Pink Diamond, but no tangible answer. I feel it’s setting us up for something big but the bottomline for me is the narrative significance of Rose’s passing.
If we’re all so certain Rose is coming back, and if it’s the simplest logic of: information is here, so we’re good. Why does everyone act as though she were never coming back? Why did she let them mourn and hurt in the way they do now? She loved them all so much, so why would she reasonably let them go through all that pain just for her to come back “Ta-da!” as if there were a big reveal?
In fact, why put Steven through all of this “having to be Rose” feelings when Rose was coming back anyway and he wouldn't have to “replace” anyone. It cheapens their grief and pain. It takes away the significance of a loved one’s passing when they’re just going to be brought back. As someone who has lost three people this year, I feel very strongly about it.
Anonymous asked:
Hi, I hope it's okay to just drop by and say this, it's not a theory or anything but. Andy really hit home for me this ep. My grandma tends to spout a lot of the same kind of racist/derogatory comments, she did it a LOT when I was younger. However, like Andy, at one point she realized she needed to change, or at least, look at her inner values and standings. Pt. 1
Pt.2 She changed, and for the better. However, her beliefs didn’t entirely change, so, sometimes I am still stuck awkwardly insulted and exasperated at once at an odd comment that she doesn’t realize is offensive. But, she is a good person, I admire her a lot she has done SO many good things for herself and others /especially/ after decided to reevaluate herself. It just, felt really nice to not feel bad for loving someone who can seem behind the times or rude because of stagnation
Pt.3 this is mostly to say that I’ve seen a number of Andy bashing posts and I don’t really… Know how to handle it? I know a person who is very precious to me exactly like Andy, but I handle it like the gems and Steven did and it didn’t always work so I wish fandom would give him a chance. His rude comments may not stop completely after this ep, but I don’t have any doubt that he cares for his family or is willing to try at least for their sake. Sorry if this was weird, thank you for reading
Pt.4 This isn’t to say that I’m okay with my grandmother’s views or am not working to change it. But both my grandma and Andy are the same, I can give her my opinion and new facts. But changing their mind (like on gay couples or alien hippies living in your barn) it’s up to them to decide, but it doesn’t necessarily make them a bad person before that change happens. You could just tell that Andy was really overwhelmed and I kind of REALLY felt for him. Sorry that this got off track
Hello! Of course it’s fine to share personal experiences like these. I’m not an SU-analysis robot who only close-reads, I promise. :)
Thank you for sharing your perspective and your experiences, especially if it wasn’t too easy to write out like that.
And I think yours is a nuanced example of what it’s like coming from a family with much older, sometimes conservative members. A lot of the things they do that we find uncomfortable or even offensive sometimes were considered acceptable at the time. And as you’ve said, it’s not to say that it’s right they do these things. Because these days we’re starting to lend an ear and listen to people who’s opinions we didn’t deem important or worth hearing before. That context makes a big difference.
One thing I noted in the analysis was how Andy might also be coming from a place of resisting change, so everything that’s present is alien to him. He’s afraid of everything he’s losing because of changes he can’t control. He’s afraid because he’s not gaining anything so he’s determined to keep what he has and what he’s known. And one thing I tried to consider were my own feelings in my context and why that didn’t sit well with me. So believe me when I say I get where you’re coming from, Anon. I have people I care about who have said a thing or two that I hoped the people outside our home would never hear.
But to engage the “even if,” that even if it were an expression of bigotry, we have to ask ourselves how we want to deal with it. Definitely, it shouldn’t be tolerated. Does that mean calling them dumb and ignorant and backwards? Because in many situations, it’s someone you care about. Someone you love, and you want them to see your side. And I think that’s why it came from Andy and not some random individual. That’s when we do what Steven and the gems did, try to talk to him, try to change his mind not only with words but also by how we live every day.
Believe me when I say there are times that polite conversation turns ugly. There are times when you fight and nothing is resolved. But there are also times when they make little concessions and realise something and change. It is those moments I live for.
Just as Andy had a small change of heart when he saw Steven summon his shield, realising he was a gem too, the people we love have the capacity to change as well. It is often said that prejudice is learned, but that means love can be learned too.
I hope for the best with your and your grandmother and I’d say she’s very lucky to have a grandchild like you. :)
Lapis pulled some great air moves while looking really effortless today. Go Lapis :D
Some Thoughts on Andy and the Demayos, his history with Greg, and his future with the Gems
All things considered, Gem Harvest really got to me as an episode. Despite how slice-of-life it was compared to the events we’ve had lately, I think at this point in my life (and for a lot of people’s) the shift from high-calibre magic and science fiction into something like family hit really close to home.
First off, I really like how SU deliberately found a way out of explicitly calling their gathering Thanksgiving. I know there was turkey; I know they all said what they were thankful for, but they kept it non-specific and as someone who doesn’t live in the USA, it’s very welcoming.
Just a heads up, this is probably one of those non-structured “Some Thoughts” posts, but I’ll try to clean it up as much as I can later. In my analysis on the promo, I was expecting the episode to be something particular about the relationships Lapis and Peridot had, that we would see someone from their past and that would sort of unify the idea that gems are all gems. That there shouldn’t be a division or war between Homeworld and the Crystal Gems because in the end, they have the same goal: To do what’s best for gems. It’s achieved in different ways, but really, fighting about it and causing more gems to suffer shouldn’t really be the answer.
I’m pleasantly surprised by how it was handled in the episode, because the prediction that the new character wouldn’t be someone completely unknown, but just unknown to Steven’s life hit the nail on the head. And I find this so significant because of how the episode is set up.
Lapis’ parallels Andy’s experiences
We begin the episode with this problem. Peridot and Lapis are lonely. The former misses the “pitter-patter of gem feet.” And the latter clearly still doesn’t feel she has a place to call home. Yes, they’re getting along with one another, but it’s not enough to just be with one person all the time. I mean, it can be swell, but these two had other friends. They had people they left behind back on Homeworld and they ended up on Earth because at one point, there was just no turning back. After that, it did feel like they were just left in that barn. We didn’t seem to hear from them until something was convenient or needed of them.
And what were they supposed to do? There’s only so much Camp Pining Hearts, so many meep-morps to be made before there’s nothing new. They’re not getting any input from the outside world. Their routines don’t change. They live in a closed system in which they’re only making do with whatever is in the barn (part of that closed system).
Their desire to grow an army of vegetables doesn’t stem from any need to use that army for its intended military purpose. They’re in need of company, of new living things to engage with.
I find this especially reflected in Lapis. She doesn’t declare full allegiance to the CGs. She’s still very much on the fence about them. There’s a lot of bad blood between them and it’s never actually been addressed in the show. She had her status, identity, and freedom taken away from her. She was not put in the mirror by the Crystal Gems, but in her eyes, it was their move that forced Homeworld to play that card. In her eyes, the CGs caused her to stay trapped in the mirror, treated like an object, and then forgotten.
As much as we’ve been seeing the less-heroic things the CGs had done during the war, we still haven’t been addressing them. Bismuth was precisely one of those episodes, but it still ends with that sort of cliffhanger.
Lapis isn’t content with letting their current kindness smooth over what happened in the past. She’s not after retribution, just any sort of acknowledgement that these atrocities happened, that they’re sorry. She wants reassurance that worse comes to worst, they’re not going to do it again. Because right now is relative peacetime, and in contrast, war brings the worst out of people. To Lapis, those hurtful things were what the gems “really are,” and that’s a feeling that settles uncomfortably in her stomach when she remembers them.
That doesn’t mean Lapis isn’t lonely. She adores Steven and she genuinely wants to make a new home for herself. She just lost her Homeworld and in the episode, her desire for a home shows. When Steven tells her to stop attacking Andy, she turns to him, almost pained, and says, “But he was attacking us.” He was attacking our home.
On the other hand, we have Andy, who feels the exact same way. He hadn’t visited this barn in ages. And he makes it clear that he and the Demayos used to do that every single year. To his surprise, that one place he called back to mind when he thought of family and home had changed drastically, had become unrecognisable. And to top it off, no one recognised him.
If that story sounds familiar, it’s because that’s exactly what happened to Lapis in The Message. After spending years just wanting to go home and making the flight there, she sees it’s totally different back on Homeworld, and that she can’t keep up.
Because Andy was earnestly trying to be okay with the gems and all the changes that had happened in his absence. The way Greg talked about him, he said “Andy doesn’t change his mind.” There’s a finality to the way it was said. But time after time we saw that wasn’t the case. Andy entertained the idea of having the big traditional dinner because Steven was “so darn cute.” He prepared food with the gems even under the assumption that it was all going to be vegetarian at first. He ate with them, dessert first. He was making compromises. And for someone like Andy, whom Greg doesn’t believe can change at all, that’s a huge implication.
At the end of the day, though, he still didn’t feel like he belonged. He was in the same place, at the same time of year, with the Demayo he’d wanted to see for two decades, and it felt wrong. They didn’t feel like his family.
That’s how Lapis feels. She has a space now. She has a roommate. She has a whole planet to explore. But she doesn’t say she’s fighting for Earth the way Peri does. She’s only beginning to cope with her experience of being trapped in the mirror.
“Try putting that corn in a mirror for thousands of years and see how it feels about the table!”
It’s subtle but it directly links her experience in the mirror to her feelings about the Earth. It’s an association she feels, whether or not other people think it’s a logical association to make in the first place.
What we saw though, was that Lapis is starting to heal. She’s starting to acknowledge that she wasn’t just angry. Anger was what she was living on the first few encounters we saw her after Ocean Gem. It’s partially what motivated her to keep staying fused as Malachite. She was venting, self-destructing, hurting others even, because she was angry.
Now that anger is waning and it’s making room for things like sadness and hurt. Her introspection started some time before Alone at Sea, and we can see it’s still going on. She doesn’t show it often, but we see it in this episode. There was a level of possessiveness for the barn. Even if she was non-committal about a lot of things, especially about Earth because she “never believed in this planet,” this was one thing she was willing to defend.
And coming to terms with those feelings, she’s starting to open up discussion about them. Probably subtly. At one point she may bring it up with Peridot after a long session of CPH. Just a throwaway remark that she doesn’t expect a real answer to. The real moment of catharsis though, will have to be with the CGs. That she’s inserting these feelings into their conversations means that at the end, she’ll want to talk about this with them. She’ll want some show of accountability. It’s not over, but her joking about them in her own grim way is a start. It’s a stark contrast from something similar she said in Barn Mates also with Peridot as her conversation partner, about the icy tomb that was the bottom of the ocean. This time it’s meant to be taken how it’s said, not a thinly veiled guilt-trip. It’s healing and I like how the show doesn’t skimp over how slow-going it may feel sometimes.
The heart of Greg and Andy’s conflict
One of these is a real Andy quote and the others are my attempts at captions. :)))
“This is wiggety-wiggety WHACK, Greg!”
“I know a guy.”
“You’re hobettes?!”
“We were young, okay?”
“You’ll be hearing from my lawyer!”
“And to top it all off, I get burned?”
One of my favourite moments today was when Uncle Andy suddenly gave Steven a bear hug. And it’s not as if we’ve never seen Steven get hugged on the show before.
But then the CGs start to get uneasy and hostile. And they look as if they’re about to attack Andy for restraining Steven “against his will.”
And then the shot pans to Lapis and Peridot who are equally ready for “clobbering time.”
Everybody loves Steven. :D