#mel roars

we are introduced to her as this cold, towering dangerous villain who threatens the very planet the crystal gems have been fighting for for countless milennia. she moves with precision, purpose, and doesn't let anything stand in the eay of the job she was made for: her very reason of existence.

and then that starts to break down over time. her ship is hijacked. her mission is compromised. her informant and escort are nowhere to be seen and she is stranded on a planet that will (in a matter of weeks) be destroyed from the inside and kill her without contact with her superiors or any sort of understanding of the world she's on, with the hijackers and destroyers of her ship seeking her out wherever she goes. we see this calculating facade crumble in the face of realizing She Is In Danger.

and when she's poofed and captured, it completely breaks her down!!! she's literally terrified: captured by The Enemy, rendered completely helpless and still on the cruddy planet thats going to eat itself alive any moment!!!!!! only 4 steven to reach out with his endless patience and offer her things she has never even heard of before.

now i think this is where a lot of people have a gripe with her character, believing Removing her limb enhancers and redeeming her was flanderization... but i!! respectfully disagree!! all her life, three thousand years, she's known nothing but Work and Orders and Obedience. individuality, interests, Being Your Own Person was unheard of!! rebecca touched on this briefly in an interview that i can't be assed to find once i believe, particularly talking about the diamonds but bringing up peridot too: peridot's world view was so deeply ingrained in her entire existence, sure, but not her Identity. she didn't have an identity. i do understand why some people much prefer villainous peridot, but like... i feel like she would have become like the way she is regardless of who she spent time with if she was given the chance.

as for the people who say she got nerfed and woobified/infantilized... iiii! don't agree!!!

peridot is an anxious, curious individual with lots of internalized anger and a big ego. being stripped of all her safety nets and thrown into an unfamiliar situation is stressful! however, we see how she comes to her own!!!! she becomes enamoured by the life and culture on earth, growing to enjoy things like botany/farming, music and art(ie morps and when she performs music in the comics!) method acting, fandom shit etc.

and the reason i see most people arguing for is like, oh well it happened too fast. and like, well, duh doy! when your entire life is lived in endless unchanging monotony, a single ripple in that structure can make the whole thing come down.

ADDITIONALLY: she CAN recede into her old ways! freedom is obviously... well, FREEING, so she's able to live safely and happily with her friends without that lingering fear. when that is taken away from her, it all comes crumbling down. calculating, maybe not — but she Absolutely becomes cold again. losing a life she had built, a person she loved, she recedes into a cold and unfeeling persona (ie: her comments about amethyst, disregarding every attempt from s and a at cheering her up) and it seriously fucks her up!!!!!

what makes all this really special 2 me though is how we see she's changed in "in dreams."

ok, so. i could really get into steven and peridot's friendship but we'd be here even longer than we already have in So i won't beyond saying: i think steven and peridot have a similar dynamic to steven and amethyst. not as in "siblings," but as in seeing one another as equals to an extent but still having peridot recognize her position as the Older one, the Protector (i mean not physically but you get it)

we know peridot is socially inept. she tramples over other people, misinterprets Everything, is easily offended and can inadvertently come off as very egotistical (i mean, she IS, but that's besides the point.) we get a very good example of this from "in dreams."

steven very much wants to hang out with peridot. steven is desperate to keep his friends close to him. steven is afraid of losing the people he loves. steven is willing to do whatever it takes to keep the people he cares about around, even at his own detriment.

peridot wants to Watch a Show with her Buddy Steven ! :)

peridot does not recognize steven's anxiety at ALL. she seriously doesn't understand most aspects of socialization and emotions unless explicitly spelled out for her. she takes steven's insistence upon continuing their project as eagerness! he even takes initiative to eat spicy food before he goes to bed, LOL! she is reassured by the Facts expressed by Words and Actions in front of her, completely oblivious to steven's internalized turmoil because she is incapable of taking a hint.

what makes this episode special to me though, is that while this Seems like peridot is still inept and disregards the feelings of others, she does a complete 180 once the negative impact on steven is, well, LITERALLY put together for her in a little documentary on his tv screen. LOL.

peridot is literally. LITERALLY. the very first person in the entirety of future to say to steven i'm sorry, i won't make you do that again, are you okay? before his meltdown. and while this is a typical response for someone who is, like, normal... this is PERIDOT!! all we've seen of her until in dreams is a gem who struggles immensely to understand the feelings of others and own up for her own misgivings ("well how was i supposed to know that?" "who cares about how any of you feel?! you're all just rocks, ruddy muddy clumps beneath my gravity connectors!!!") so to see her immediately shift upon realizing she'd Fucked Up and earnestly apologizing and trying to comfort steven is like, WOW. way to go girl.

idkwhy ijust started thining aboutthis. n oone has to reblog and like 3 people will see thsi but imjust curious.

EDITING JSUT TO LET U GUYS KNOW I READ EVERY TAG. PLSSS TALK ABOUT UR OCS I LOVE IT