Channel Awesome
Ever wonder how Ruby and Sapphire met? Doug and Rob take a look at what went into making one of our favorite Crystal Gems!
Tagged with: channel awesome doug walker rob walker steven universe steven universe vlogs television the answer
About Doug Walker
Other Posts By the Author:
30 comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
The way gem sizes work: The leaders, The Diamonds, are huge because they’re supposed to be dominant and all-powerful. Soldiers and fighters are basically made to be huge because they’re supposed to be doing battle on the frontlines. And everyone else is pretty much just made smaller or generally shorter than those types to show that they’re of a lower status with people closer to the leaders usually being bigger than the ones who are of lesser value to them. Which is kind-of interesting, but yeah, that’s GENERALLY what’s going on based on what we know so far.
If someone really wanted them to get this message they should tweet to them or something because Doug and Rob no longer read the comments so they don’t catch spoilers. I would but I don’t tweet or have a twitter
I don’t think I agree; after all, Saphire was considered of vastly greater class than Ruby, and they were of a similar hight. And Sapphire is shorter than Pearl, but pretty clearly would be considered of higher rank than her. I don’t think hight=value, it’s just that most of the warrior caste is large so they can brawl easier, and the warriors are generally of considerable status.
Oh fek, they’re basically caught up, and there’s no date for when the show will resume, it seriously feels like someone at Cartoon Network is trying to sabotage the show, kinda like Korra.
They might be taking longer because some ass decided to leak the next episode early. Which wouldn’t be that bad, except it’s a BIG episode.
No one is trying to sabotage them. They are just really bad at scheduling. Plus having bomb after bomb have not helped. Trust me, all of their shows (minus TTG) have had really weird scheduling. And I doubt they are sabotaging all their shows.
“Star Trek the Next Generation did a great episode on this…”
No, not they didn’t Brad. It was a fucking cowardly episode.
In TOS’s “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” they showed the absurdity of racism using the aliens but also showed black, white, Asian, and other ethnicities working together in Roddenberry’s future. Up to TNG’s “The Outcast” and well beyond, Star Trek went out of its way to never show a LGBT person.
Definitely agree with you on that. I actually did an essay on the gendered and racial progress that Star Trek portrays.
Also, which episode? The Native American Episode or one I haven’t seen… I feel like I’ve seen all of them so i’m not sure since they blend together after a certain point.
I think the episode of TOS in question could have worked if there had been cases of positively portrayed homosexuality (heck, ANY homosexuality) elsewhere in the show (even in the episode in question, it’s an alien race of Asari-like female-leaning mono-genders). But, as is, it’s, to paraphrase SFDEbris, “One brave woman’s stand against the oppression of lesbianism!” In this case, since all the Gems are also female-oriented mono-genders, I read this as less of a tale of overcoming sexual oppression (although I certainly see how you could read it as such) and more a tale of overcoming racial/class/caste oppression. Actually, Homeworld Gem society often reminds me of the Indian caste system under the British Raj.
I never read the gems as female or male. They are what you want them to be. Now about your racial/class/caste comment i agree. Gems are not emotional thinkers. They have a set of rules and a class system. If you do anything to muck that up they will be really pissed. Hell I think even if ruby and sapphire never fused and just became friends and not romantic they still will blow their top.
So many people will be butt hurt over them confusing Lapis with Blue Diamond’s Pearl.
That wasn’t Lapis, that was Blue Diamond’s Pearl. You can tell from her nose.
You can, however, clearly see Lapis in the foreground when Sapphire and the three Rubies are walking towards Blue Diamond’s throne.
“They were gonna break you!”
“Who cares!? There’s tons of me!”
I really liked how they used a fairly tale/children’s bedtime story setup to provide us with a stylized sample of Gem society. Since they bothered to give Blue Diamond and her Pearl specific designs, I imagine we’ll be seeing them again fairly soon. Not sure why Sapphire allowing herself to get poofed was treated as such a big sacrifice, since it was specifically mentioned that she was supposed to reform on Homeworld. I get that Cartoon Network probably doesn’t want to depict their protagonists (Rose and Pearl) as killers, but considering how many Gems were destroyed during the war, I assume many of the casualty’s must have been loyalists as well.
Admittedly, getting poofed isn’t really a huge deal for Gems, but it still hurts, and it’s clear that our Ruby didn’t want to fail his mission or let harm befall her. A person getting cut isn’t as bad as getting their arm broken off, but their bodyguard/lover would probably like to avoid both.
It seems safe to think there were a lot of dead Homeworld Gems, although Homeworld doesn’t seem to have much compassion permanently killed Gems (which is a bit odd, considering it’s takes some effort to permanently kill a Gem, but maybe its a byproduct of how many Gems there are). How many of them were intentionally killed by the Crystal Gems is still unclear, especially since we still don’t know a lot about the war beyond the fact that it was clearly highly costly and traumatic for both sides.
Hey if you guys are going back to doing the whole nothing happened bit that Doug did like forty times(which I am more annoyed that Rob is on it now) can you put in a thing where the review actually starts because I hate repetitive non-humor. Also I hate the straw man of people who are against PC. culture is just some intolerant white guy. How about actually talk to people on that side instead of assuming, and for the record I am for gay rights and equality.Now for the episode I think you missed under stood the focus on fusion. The outcast thing is because they are two different Gems . Now we know that there different types of Gems both racily(?) and class wise . Like Jaspers,Amethysts, and Rubies are solders, military and we know Rubies fuse to fight and that Gems of the same type seem to be almost clones to the point where if they fuse they don’t feel any difference.They can fuse because of that and that they still serve the same purpose and have the same abilities no real change, but when two Gems of different classes fuse there are a so many differences that there is a huge change to every thing which I imagine the Diamonds knew but to secure their position they must have made up reasons or lies why Gems like Ruby and Sapphire can’t or at least shouldn’t fuse. . Another thing to consider when it comes to Home Worlds thought on Garnet is because of why they fuse. When Rubies fuse it is to fight but when Ruby and Sapphire fuse it is because they wan’t to so maybe love or affection doesn’t exist on Home World.
Oh that wasn’t Laps. That was simply Blue Diamond’s Pearl.
We’ve never seen any of the rebellion outside of the crystal gems, but it’s my understanding that the creatures in the bubbles were gems who were part of the Rebellion. Thus why Rose wanted to “help” them. And why they get bubbled rather than destroyed. I think the Cluster and the other experiments were made out of the shards of dead gems, Rebellion and Homeworld alike. But it could have been just Rebellion gems, adding an extra level of horror for Garnet when she ran into them for the first time since they would have been monsters cobbled out of the bodies of her dead friends.
The fusion experiments are explicitly made out of dead Crystal Gems, which makes that whole operation one half Mengele level science experiment and one half middle finger to the rebellion from a defeated Homeworld. I would actually not be surprised if the corrupted Gems came from both sides of the conflict. Rose seems like the kind that would show mercy to a defeated enemy, especially if she was a high ranking gem in Homeworld society before rebelling.
Finally a good ruby and sapphire episode and to be honest I love proto garnets look more then default garnet Also the biggest thing we learn is gems are not against fusion. They are against gems from different classes fusing. Sapphire is basically a political leader class and ruby a grunt so they were not to keen on them combining..Only negative being being ruby singing. Look guys I know you like to sing on your show,but this shows that not everyone has the talent for that.
I think we saw a silhouette of Lapis in the crowd scene, or at least one of her gem types. Not only was Garnet an abomination because she was 2 different gems fused, but one of those gems was an aristocrat while the other was a low born soldier, this is like some random squire sleeping with a princess. Remember in an earlier episode when Garnet explained how her future vision worked? She said she saw branching paths and possibilities, pretty much in direct opposition of how Sapphire THOUGHT she saw a singular path of the future, until Ruby’s impulsive act disrupted that.
There was also a neat trick in the story, the characters that Steven knew personally; Ruby, Sapphire, Pearl and Rose; all spoke with their own voices, while anyone else such as Blue Diamond spoke in Garnet’s voice. It’s as if we are actually experiencing the story from Steven’s perspective, where his imagination is filling in the audio and video with what he knows and bandages over the rest.
I think most of the rebellion’s army consisted of humans, after all it was their planet at stake, though I imagine there HAD to be other sympathetic gems who joined the cause at some point. After all, when Garnet saw the artificial fusions she said it was punishment for the rebellion, it could be the shards of their allies who were broken were used in those experiments as punishment, a form of living death as it were. Amethyst also said that the monsters they encountered in the first season used to be gems at one point, they could be the un-recovered shards of friend and foe alike from the battlefields that were unable to reassemble their former bodies and became feral creatures instead, instinctively driven to seek out other gems (or specifically the rebellious crystal gems) by whatever memory they have left. In this specific instance the rebellion might have just gotten started, Pearl might have been Rose’s only gem ally at this point and they were trying to take down Blue Diamond in her court in the sky Colosseum assassination style.
Steven Universe and Zootopia are actually very similar in how they both make metaphors for prejudice and bigotry, whilst doing it in a way that’s fresh and new, rather then the same old tired out methods. I love SU and Zootopia for that reason, among many others~
On that note, you guys make a lot of interesting meta! I mean… thinking about those points about how prejudice still persists despite the fact that, as people say, “we’ve come a long way.” I think it IS good to point out the good that we’ve achieved– particularly when it comes to the progressive things that exist in media we watch. Because if we didn’t point out what creators are doing right, and only pointed out what they did wrong, other creators would only know what to avoid, and not what to be inspired by.
On that note, I think the most challenging thing about discussing the problems that still exist in out culture, is that a lot of the people who WONT listen aren’t necessarily just the hardcore bigoted people. Rather, they’re often people who WANT to believe the world is all equal and prejudic-free now. Because a lot of people get uncomfortable if you bring up how twisted our culture still is. Not only can it be a hard truth to swallow, but it can also make people think, “what? Do you think this stuff would just fly over my head? I’m not stupid, I would know it if I saw it!” But really…. a lot of systematic power structures work in the “subtle but deadly” way. It absolutely CAN be something we go numb to, and dont even notice. We can even take part in it without realizing, and that’s a scary thing to come to terms with. But of course, we cant fix problems unless we point out that they exist. Even when they exist in the stuff we like, the things we do, and the words we say.
“Its such a simple thing to get why do we have to repeating the same message?” There you go Doug the question betrays the problem because you think the solution is simple unchanging and universal. Its not simple, it was never simple and it will never be simple. Only people’s understanding of what is right and wrong is simple which is precisely why throughout history people tend to fall into the same patterns of one group going from victimized minority to part of an oppressive majority almost overnight. Once you stop asking yourself what is right and assume what you already know is all you will ever need to know the very moment the potential for being monstrously wrong increases exponentially. It doesn’t matter what color, creed, culture, cause, philosophy you are of or adopt take an inflexible static unquestioning viewpoint of life you will go and do wrong eventually.
This episode showed that they hate not the fusion they hate fusion of two different gems
Blue Pearl was a pretty Pearl. Not Lapis
I don’t care about rotten tomato
She is called Cotton Candy Garnet you are not original with it the fans are
Did Ruby and Sapphire fall down from home-world to Earth??.Was Earth part of home-world and the teleport the Earth into the milk-way. hmmm.
Earth was not part of Homeworld- it was a separate planet that Gems were attempting to colonize. I believe Ruby and Sapphire fell from the sky arena to Earth- the one that Pearl took Steven and Connie to for sword training. Blue Diamond had apparently used it as a home base of sorts before the war ended.
O ya the sword arena.Good point.
Okay. I’m not as caught up as I should be BUT I am now on Onion Friend so there’s that. I mostly watch Steven Universe for the aesthetics. I don’t even look for the deeper meanings.
Fall from Olympus,
two Gems find love far from home.
Lady Blue Diamond.
The unique aesthetic of the Homeworld Gems in outline is an explicit reference to the style of a female animator from the 30s, if I recall my background information on the episode correctly. It makes their scenes visually striking while also allowing them to not have to fully design dozens of new gems just as background fodder. There was definitely a fairy tale feel to Garnet’s story, which I suspect means certain details were embellished for Steven’s benefit. The Walkers mentioning Sleeping Beauty is especially apt, since Cotton Candy Garnet’s design looks like the scene from that movie where the fairies are fighting over the color of Aurora’s dress and end up giving it that splotchy two-tone look.
What struck me as interesting about Garnet’s inception is that not only is Homeworld opposed to Gems of different ranks fusing, they weren’t even aware it was possible until Ruby and Sapphire did it. However, in the intervening years since the rebellion ended, it’s become common practice to do so, but strictly for combat purposes. Peridot, having grown up entirely in a post-rebellion society, thinks of Garnet as purely an instrument of war.
As for the status of the rebellion, there’s an official timeline of the rebellion in one of the side books, and Garnet’s tale seems to place these events closer to the beginning. I believe that Homeworld had the rebellion well in hand, much like the early days of the American Revolution when the British were handily smacking the Continental Army around. Garnet’s first fusion might have actually been the event that turned the tide, since it could attract many new followers to Rose’s side who had similar feelings as Roby and Sapphire.
when you catch up to the most recent episode, will you continue the adventure time vlogs?