Y- What are your secondhand fandoms? (i.e., fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)?
The Magnus Archives, as previously stated
Transformers, to an extent, although I am slowly stepping through Transformers Prime and enjoying it! But goodness, there’s so many areas of canon, ahah XD
The Owl House (haven’t gotten around to watching this yet!)
All the 8th Doctor stuff, while I have listened to some, there’s still so much I’ve yet to immerse myself in. I have some knowledge about the goings-on, but not enough to truly dive into fandom content.
Z- Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go!
Another ask requested I rambled about Steven, so here I go! :D
I’ll probably write up a whole post about this later, but one of the aspects of Steven Universe I find super fascinating when it comes to the Steven-only POV is how his perception of his world shifted over the span of the show.
In the beginning, this was a kid who viewed everything the Gems did through the lens of his favorite media: primarily, video games and animes with clear cut “good” and “bad” guys. The Gems were the good guys, obviously, and the monsters they caught and bubbled were the bad guys. Furthermore, much like his action fighting games, early s1 Steven was far more likely to consider physical force as a solution to problems than later series Steven. (Fire salt, hucking an entire freezer at a corruption, his ‘harpoon gun’ idea for popping his bubble, his amazement at Sugilite’s brute force, etc) He also didn’t begin to question many of the techniques the Gems used to capture and subdue Gems until later in season 1A.
Later episodes in this season showed Steven beginning to push back on the Gems’ traditions and beliefs... for example, begging them to let him train the Centipeetle instead of poofing it again. It also showcases Steven’s perception of the Gems as infallible “good guys” shattering, when he decides to not obey Garnet’s command to give her the mirror. From that moment onwards his world ceases to be painted in shades of black and white, and he begins to understand the inherent nuance in all things. That directly extends to how he tries to solve future problems. Now, instead of immediately assuming force is the answer, (a solution the Crystal Gems got into the habit of leaping to), he does his best to first understand where the other individual is coming from. Is there any way he can help? Is there a way to resolve this problem peacefully?
It is this slow deconstruction of Steven’s childhood worldview that directly leads to Era 3, and freedom for all Gemkind. Without him beginning to challenge the Gems, this future would’ve never happened.
