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Color palette for Azurite and Cuprite? Can you use the images?

When the gems try to rescue Steven from the human zoo, Sapphire introduces Pearl as being her Pearl, which makes no sense. 

According to Peridot, Pearls are MADE-TO-ORDER servants, meaning that each Pearl is custom made to each gem’s desires. 

This would mean it’s possible that a great deal, if not all Pearls, are likely to share many similarities with their owner, as we’ve seen through our best examples so far, Blue and Yellow Pearl:

And yet, our Pearl looks so different from Sapphire. She even has a different gem placement, but Holly Blue doesn’t bat an eye when Sapphire introduces her as her Pearl. This is extremely interesting, and could lead us to a number of conclusions: 

One: Some gems may choose to have their Pearl look different from them.

For any number of cosmetic or other reasons, a gem may decide that she rather her Pearl have a specific design that’s different from her own look. However, considering the vain nature of gems, how prideful they generally are, how they “flaunt” their Pearls around, this doesn’t seem very likely. It would make more sense for a Pearl to look like her owner, so her ownership can be better shown off, and she can be associated with her owner more easily.

Two: Some gems may choose to adopt Pearls that have no owners.

In Back to the Barn, Peridot alludes to this when she says:

Although she implies that this kind of ownership wouldn’t be permanent, it’s possible that Pearls could be picked up temporarily by different gems to be used as needed. There’s no saying that this is a normal occurrence, though. It may just be a show of how arrogant Peridot is, which is one of the main features of her character, especially early on.

Personally, I think it would make more sense for Pearls without owners to be considered useless, since without the owner they were made for, they can no longer follow the purpose they were assigned to at birth. Homeworld may then label them as Off Color and shatter them.

Three: It flew completely over Holly’s head. 

This one makes the most sense to me to me considering how pretty much EVERYTHING that happens in this episode flies right over her head until the very end.

Look at how surprised she is, after all the slights and slip ups that should have gotten the gems caught from the very beginning. Something tells me that if it were weird to have a different-looking Pearl, Holly wouldn’t have even begun to notice.

I'm going to leave this very very long video here which debunks many of the "critisisms", rumors, assumptions and false claims that many SU "critics" have of the Steven universe.

The channel who made the video did a ridiculous amount of research to debunk these points. From animation,to production, foreshadowing, writing, characters,etc.

1st date?

@jenhedgehog

hi. i’m white, and as someone with that privilege, it’s not for me to tell anyone how to feel. you’re right about that. i’m no authority - i’m just throwing my own initial impressions out, and you can decide for yourself. i support you in that. 

if i’m being completely honest, i feel like most of the discourse around the zoo is because of something that… isn’t over and done with yet. 

steven universe is a show in progress. we haven’t seen any conclusion to the zoo issue. it’s just been in one episode, introducing the basic concept of it. 

i really doubt they’re just gonna leave the zoomans there. SU always introduces things and builds a status quo, making the audience yearn for a follow-up before finally, FINALLY giving it to them. 

assuming otherwise is a common misunderstanding of how the show works - kinda like how people thought rose was just meant to be a “perfect dead mom” when she was introduced. which i would have personally disliked, and i’m glad that’s not the case.

there’s a thing called trope deconstruction, which necessitates that the status quo isn’t perfect from the start. and with a show as slow as SU, i don’t think we can conclude this discussion rn - we don’t know the fate of the zoomans.

and… well, the zoo isn’t actually supposed to be an utopia.

it was supposed to be a Problem that blue diamond did this. i feel like people. forget. that it was a bad thing. like. the whole point is that it *seems* nice to be catered to at first, but then, you realize that you don’t have a choice anymore. 

that’s *supposed* to be creepy. 

human zoos are a very common sci-fi trope of ‘what if aliens treated us the way we treat animals’. it’s not trying to make commentary on an irl event. maybe that’s besides the point, but it’s still worth noting.

so i… don’t see this one. when it’s not allegory nor applicable, what else is left?

sugilite is more disputed - i understand if people have a problem with her. it’s ok if you do. i’m not going to invalidate that. i think she’s a lot more complex than the fandom stereotypes her as (notice how when pearl hurt garnet, sugilite was the right option?), and i think she makes sense as a fusion…

but again… my opinion is that we haven’t seen a lot of her, either. not really. we’ve seen her in one emotionally tense situation, and one time where she was just kinda impressing steven.

as for her design… well, i can at least try to be informative about one thing:

this is a dragon. like. that’s what her design is based on. that’s what her brow is based on, that’s what her teeth are based on. not a gorilla. a dragon. 

a lot of fusions have an animal tie-in (dragonflies for sardonyx, salamanders for malachite), and yeah, i would raise Several eyebrows if they’d consciously (or even unconsciously!) picked gorillas for sugilite. but… they didn’t. she’s just. like. a chaotic neutral dragon. 

so… yeah. no one should have to convince *me* about this stuff - like you said - but i just wanted to bring some counter-points to the table. 

if any person of color feels upset about this, they’re allowed to. i hope you understand that i 100% support that, and maybe you can see something i can’t. you have every right to say i’m wrong about this. 

like,,, this is just me trying to interpret this stuff from the perspective of a symbolism-nerd - and yes, i do think that sometimes, certain people go out of their way to construct dramatic reasons for hating a show.