#cy thoughts

I’ve made other posts talking about Future Steven’s general lack of nostalgia and how, yeah, it does sting a little to see, it makes sense as well, so I won’t go into it here.

Ah, Jamie, everyone’s favorite thespian delivery man, who is then never seen nor heard from for like, what, a solid fifty episodes? I mean, I know he’s seen in the background of other episodes in season one, but still. I remember when I first watched this episode, I kinda hoped he would be a reoccurring character. His simultaneous patience and complete bafflement with Steven was hilarious

RIP Mr. Queasy. Your sacrifice was noble and your presence... well nobody really cares. You just didn’t have the staying power of Cookie Cat, mate, sorry to say.

SU has always played fast and loose with its art style, letting whomever boarded an episode dictate how it looks. Other people in the fandom have taken issue with that, but I kinda have always liked it. It’s fun comparing how certain boarders draw each character, and even being able to guess who boarded an episode without looking at the credits due to the styles.

I didn’t really bring up the boarders in the last list commentary I did because, well, they all kinda felt too major to bother bringing up, if that makes sense.They’re all too involved with multiple other aspect of SU to really be able to talk about in a reasonable amount of time. 

The only reason I bring it up here is because these two episodes were boarded by show creator Rebecca Sugar and then Supervising Director Ian Jones-Quartey, both of whom, from what I’ve noticed, are especially prone to playing around with art styles. You can usually tell when an episode has had their touch art wise, and I like that.

...Also because Jones-Quartey and Sugar got married not too long ago and I wanna take a moment to say Good for them.

Jfc Steven, my teeth hurt just looking at together breakfast. 

How exactly does the door to the Gems’ rooms work? Does it act as a portal to their rooms? How does it connect to their Gems? I know the main CGs have physical rooms, but like, where? How are the Gems able to access each others’ rooms? Can they use the door or do they have to, like, crawl through the walls? We know fusions have rooms of their own, where are those rooms? Does the Temple just choose a random unoccupied space and make that the location of the room, or is it like a Rose’s Room situation, wherein there’s essentially a mini-pocket dimension that shapes itself to the fusion, since most fusions, while people in their own right, don’t exist on a permanent basis.

Also how does Gems Tech work, like, gravity wise?

We been knew that Pearl is a Sword Sapphic, but Pearl is a Sword Sapphic

LMAO while Rose was off faking her own death and “studying” earth’s delights, Pearl studied the blade.

While on the topic of Pearl... the fandom has long since known her as Bird Mom due to her nose, but I’m surprised nobody has given her with an aquatic maternal themed nickname (or if they have, one hasn’t caught on). I know most of the stuff connecting Pearl with water/the ocean is fairly recent (her Customization Settings being a shell in the movie, everything about the Reef in SUF’s “Volleyball”), but her room is clearly shown to be water themed here.

I’m with Amethyst here, don’t touch someone’s ish. Especially if its in their room.

ROSE’S ROOM CAMEO! This is why rewatching shows like Steven Universe is so much fun. I never caught that my first viewing.

Once again, you get the sense that the Crewniverse haven’t quite yet got everything figured out lorewise, especially when it comes to corrupted Gems (if that painting was one? I think it was said once that it was painted with Gem shards, but that’s obviously not fitting with later canon of Gem shard experiments. And also super messed up). They just straight up burn this sorry bastard. I guess, given that it didn’t seem to have a gem, it could be a “Mother Centipeedle” situation, where the actual Corrupted Gem is still out there, and this is just a mini enemy (or a virus?). That, or the gem is in the lava and Garnet just got it later.

These episodes start to dip into Steven’s relationship with the individual CGs, or at least Pearl and Amethyst. Garnet at this point is a stoic mystery, there to offer one liners or take leadership when Steven can’t (which is most of the time at this point).

Amethyst, I’ve felt, has always had more of an older sibling vibe to Steven- later in the series it feels more like an older sibling with an age gap, meaning they often act as parental figures- and its really cemented in this episode. She loves Steven but she ain’t above trolling him or annoying him. Meanwhile, Pearl was especially mom-like in “Cheeseburger Backpack.” Their exact connections with Steven aren’t delved too deep into yet, but there’s still enough individual interaction to pick up their roles in his life. 

I can’t help but wonder though- Steven refers to them as his “buds” rather than family at this point. We know he’s lived with them for a while, but I realize we aren’t told how long that was. It’s my personal theory that he moved in around eight, when he started “stagnating” appearance wise, which means he’s been with them for a few years at this point. Given the fact that they’re often off on missions and leave him behind, I suppose it makes sense that there’s some disconnect at this point (shoot, “some disconnect” might as well be written on their flag at this point.

The CGs have been there all his life, but hey, technically my sister (12 years my senior) was there all my life, too, an it wasn’t until a few years ago that we really started connecting.

It’s really interesting to see/think about, given how far everyone has come. SUF, and SU overall, is drawing to a close soon. It’s hard to believe- it feels like I was just watching these episodes for the first time yesterday, but like Steven I’ve grown and changed over the years.