I'm catching up with Steven Universe now

Submitted by Moonside in cartoons

  1. Letters to Lars

Actually quite a cute townie episode.

  1. Can't Go Back and A Single Pale Rose

Impressed with this pair of episodes (which I think really ought to be viewed as a unit), I think the latter one made the former stronger in retrospect. Big things happen plot and character-wise, which I won't be delving into.

I'm very happy with the visual and auditory presentation here, especially towards the end of A Single Pale Rose, which I instantly watched multiple times.

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Moonside OP wrote

  1. Now We're Only Falling Apart

The lore dump continues! Nothing too surprising, in fact I'm feeling that this batch of episodes sorta ought to be watched as a kind of a TV movie.

This is a jump, but I can't help but think of Bismuth. She was right.

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Moonside OP wrote

  1. What’s Your Problem

Very good episode, imo. Hardly any action besides talking, but I think the Crewniverse managed to make it compelling by attention to the manner of delivery. My favorite crystal gem keeps changing and now it's either Pearl or Amethyst, the latter reaffirmed based on this episode. She took real leadership here in a healing manner, which I suppose really is what the show wants to take us from it.

I mean it's basically one of the most obvious aspects of the show, but I love how the set up of three "moms" keeps delivering. Pearl has very teen problems despite being the most conventionally mom like, Amethyst can be mom-like in a cool big sister way or behave like a cool big sister. Garnet feels a bit aunt like to me.

Off topic, but still related: do you remember the strawberry fields back in an early episode when the Crystal Gems went off to investigate the ruins of a temple? It turns out that strawberries flourish in a sandy soil and sand is nothing than fine grained quartz. So basically it's an ancient battle field, it's the Verdun or Somme of the Gems. Fan theory? Very much.

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cute_spider_ni_srsly wrote

Fan theory? Very much.

I think it was very deliberate, I can't imagine that the selection of strawberry plants there was a happy accident.

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Moonside OP wrote

  1. The Question

I felt somewhat that like with Now We're Only Falling Apart, I'm clearly not the target audience, guessing very early on that this is an episode about remaining individual in a relationship (which doesn't really speak to me as an individual) and getting closure. Falling Apart was about Pearl getting insight into what her relationship with Rose was (which I also felt like I knew) and also closure. This is not to say that I didn't enjoy the episode, it's just that I didn't get that much more insight into the characters than I already had, but I'm sure kids don't mind and given the awkward scheduling, probably benefit from repetition.

Honestly, I loved that Greg saw some use here and that he has relationships with gems outside of Steven. I think lesser shows would forget about those or make him into a buffoon. Amethyst as a horse was hilarious and the more western comic with more realistic presentation than the show itself was pretty great stuff. But I do wonder what Pearl and Sapphire talked inside.

Also, I've noticed that this show has a genre pastiche for everything. Now it had its own western episode! What's left, honestly?

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Moonside OP wrote

But I must add that from the viewpoint of optics, it's hella good that the Crewniverse is extremely, almost painfully, obvious with gay romance now. Maybe it's a bit odd that marriage is a big deal now to alien gems, but given the attempts at censorship and they're-just-friendsing, it's megagood that denial just flat out isn't possible.

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