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Crydius — Wrath of the Diamonds
#bluediamond #yellowdiamond #stevenuniverse
Published: 2018-07-07 19:58:00 +0000 UTC; Views: 5611; Favourites: 136; Downloads: 9
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So. Guess what I just watched.SPOILERS!
"Reunited" is an episode for the history books. Not only is it by far the best season finale of Steven Universe, it is one of the best season finales I've seen in my life. Everything in it is fifty shades of awesome. The characters, the writing, the emotions, the action, the art,... it was all great. Not to mention, Ruby and Sapphire's kiss is gonna go down in history as the very first same-sex lip kiss in a cartoon. And it was perfect. I'm so happy for them.
But for me the ones that really stole the show and left the biggest impact on me, as you can tell by this little thing I made, were the Diamonds. Oh my Khorne, the Diamonds. You've all probably realized by now that I'm usually way more into villains than heroes, and Steven Universe is no exception. It's kinda bittersweet though, as Steven Universe, much like My Little Pony, has a habit of reforming their villains. And as we know, the Diamonds aren't really villains anymore. But holy crap, were they badass as villains. The fight with Blue was easily the most epic fight in the series (sorry Malachite). It finally makes you feel just how much of a threat they really were and the artists did an incredible job of portraying that. The way they're animated and especially their expressions were absolutely perfect. I loved it.
And with that, I guess it's up to White to take the villain seat, I suppose. Looking forward to that. Once we've seen all the diamonds we can finally have our SU fandom version of "who's best princess". It's gonna be a blast.
(At the moment I'm totally on Yellow's side. To victory my Diamond!!)
All images shown her are to Cartoon Network, Rebecca Sugar, and the Crewniverse.
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Comments: 91
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To be fair, those two are the only ones who picked this fight. Everyone else was celebrating a wedding!
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everything is always serious with Diamonds they never take anything for "granite"
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Yeah that was pretty "Clod" awful XD
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B*tch please, the Doctor's look can melt a sun, these two only rank as annoyed on that scale.
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I wouldn't mourn their reformation just yet; while it is inevitable, I doubt it is as immediate as we've been lead to believe. This show tends to put more effort into their reformations than MLP. It makes sense that a ceasefire would result when finding out the person you've been fighting is the person you've been fighting in honor of. They may listen to what Steven has to say, but that doesn't mean they'll be willing to forgo their prime directive. They are more likely to try to convince him to return to it.
As for this being the best season finale of Steven Universe... I really want to agree with you. It combines the great excitement and great emotion that the show is known for. It was a great episode for all the reasons you stated, and it really feels like it should be their best finale yet. Unfortunately, their were several key issues that I thought brought it down from that point.
First is that it seemed weird that the Cluster had enough awareness and understanding to keep itself from fully forming, recognize its friend, identify its enemy, focus solely of its enemy, and re-bubble itself when it was done. (And also that it knows what "thumbs up" means, but that's a nitpick).
Second is that when Blue uses her ability, none of the affected gems sound all that sad. This may seem minor, but considering how much heartbreak the Crystal Gems have experienced, the fact that this sadness was debilitating for them should have been a much bigger deal. But since their vocalizations don't sound as emotional as they have in the past, the impact of these scenes, especially Lazuli's "I've felt worse" line, is diminished.
Speaking of Lapis, I have major problems with her return. This show has developed a terrible habit recently of having off-screen major character development, and Lapis has had it the worst. To focus on the immediate, the last time we saw Lapis, the thought of the Diamonds returning was so overwhelming for her that all of the self-assurance she had been building came crashing down and she abruptly abandoned everyone she cared about out of fear of the possibility. Now she returns to Earth and the first thing she does is attack the Diamond whom she most likely used to serve. This is a huge shift, she had to have overcome a lot of trauma-induced anxiety, and we don't get to see it. This also weakens her "I've felt worse" line, since we so seldom get to see her feeling worse or how she deals with it.
Finally, they have a straight-up inconsistency. They make a point of establishing that Blue's emotion powers don't affect non-gems. The first time she uses them, Connie and Lion are capable of acting unimpaired, but the second time they're rendered helpless with the others.
Whew, that was long-winded (well I typed it, so long-digited?), but I'm glad I finally got a chance to say it. I suppose I should waylay some anger and make it clear that I did love the episode. I could spend as much, if not more, time describing the good parts, but everyone else is already doing that, and this post is long enough. I just think that these points bring down the great finale so that it's not quite as good as it should have been. On the ten-point scale, I would give it somewhere between a 7-8.5.
And as for "who's best Diamond", the answer is clearly Steven.
(That being said, I would dedicate my entire being to the service of the illustrious Blue Diamond!)
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Possibly. I indeed doubt they'll give up their planet-conquering ways, considering we've heard from Peridot that recourses are running out on Homeworld. So colonization may at this point be very well key to the survival of the gem race. I don't think they'll try to convince Steven to do the same though. I think that's gonna be White's shtick. But we'll have to wait and see.
And sure, I never said it didn't have any problems. But then again, so did the other finales. It's just that for me the problems for this one didn't bring it down enough to put it bellow all the others. If they did for you I can perfectly understand it wasn't as enjoyable. Which one's your favorite finale then?
In response to some of the points you made:
For the Cluster, the way I saw it was that at first the turning on the Diamonds was an instinctive reaction. As in "I was having a great nap, all my billions of minds perfectly fine and peaceful, and then all of a sudden these dicks break through the earth's crust, pop my bubble, and wake me up! What the Hell! Piss off! *punch*". And then only when they saw Steven they were like "Oh hey! It's that kid that helped us understand each other and saved us from a life of destruction and agony. Cool. Don't worry kid, we got you". Something like that. And if you remember, the Cluster actually did bubble itself back in Gem Drill. Steven actually started to despair, because there were too many shards to bubble, but after bubbling a few, the other shards started bubbling others themselves, forming the bubble it has now. So why couldn't it do that again? I don't know, the more I thought about it, the more it made sense.
As for Lapis, yes, I agree. Her development has been the most rocky out of all of them. I mean, it has been coming for a while now, it had to happen sooner or later. The way they did it just felt, by lack of a better word, "off". But I feel that was more the fault of the Can't go back episode than this one, as that one was clearly meant to set up Lapis for her return here. If that one had handled her inner conflict better, especially at the end, her return here wouldn't have felt so off.
And as for that last one, I noticed that too, but I guess you can argue that it can, in fact, affect non-gems, but not nearly as much as gems. The first time Connie was a good distance away from Blue. The second time, she was right in front of her, and got hit at point blank with a wave that was probably even greater than the last. Also, look again, Lion is in fact unaffected both times. So it might also be an intelligence thing or something. I don't know. For all we know it was an animation fuck-up. And if not, I'm sure there's some explanation.
Ah, her illustrious clarity, Blue Diamond. So far, most people seem to prefer her court. Or Pink/Steven's. And I can definitely see why. ^^
The only reason I slightly prefer Yellow, is because of her no shit, go in, kick ass and take names-attitude. XD
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It's funny, since writing that criticism, I haven't been as bothered by the flaws I pointed out. Perhaps talking about it helped me put them aside so I could enjoy what they did well more. I may end of changing my mind about this episode.
I go back and forth between the finales of seasons one and three. I think that The Return/Jailbreak were most people's favorite before this one, so I won't say much about it other than that I can't really think of any problems with it. Not many people seemed to have liked the season 3 finale, likely due to it kind of being three separate stories crammed together, but I loved how deeply personal it was. Steven and Amethyst supporting each other through their insecurities, Jasper describing her reverence of the structure of machine-like gem order, then providing her perspective of the way Steven "reforms" gems, Steven's reaction to thinking his mother killed someone, and finally seeing how the average gem views him and his mother, with Eyeball trying to kill him even after saving and spending time with her. I don't think any of the other finales explored the characters quite so much.
I suppose your rationale behind the Cluster's actions makes sense. Perhaps what bothers me is actually that, similar to Lapis, we never checked up on it and never saw it developing the focus to pull these feats off, so seeing it in action feels sudden and incongruent with what we already understand of it.
Heh, "rocky". I see what you did there. In all seriousness though, yes it is the fault of the previous Lapis episodes, or lack thereof, that her return felt underwhelming, but the finale is a part of the show, a pinnacle point even, and it needs to be judged in that context. If the rest of the show fails to set up the finale properly, the finale suffers for it.
I have come to appreciate Yellow more as the series has progressed, and this was definitely her best appearance. I found her first appearance to be a major fall from grace, since she was built up as a logical and strategic entity and was immediately shown making an irrational decision, not to mention being so easily offended. But she started to grow on me as I saw her no-nonsense attitude and it became clear that a lot of what she does is done out of an attempt to mask her grief. I think she finally redeemed herself this episode with her response to Peridot's taunt.
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Well, if there's anything these kinds of shows teach us, is that talking about things helps us more than you'd think. (Oh God, that sounded like a letter to Celestia, I'm sorry...)
Yeah, I hear a lot of people still like The Return/Jailbreak, which is understandable as it was the first finale ever. Pretty much SU's The Best Night Ever. And that sticks with you. But I have one major problem with it, and it's the ending. While I love Malachite as a fusion and a villain, there was absolutely no reason for Lapis to form her. Jasper was beaten and weak, and all of the Crystal Gems were right there and could've easily taken her. Heck, Lapis could've easily taken her. Why she agreed to fuse rather than just make a fist out of water and squash Jasper makes no sense to me.
And yes, that's a very good point. When it comes to character focus in a finale the season three one takes the cake, and it's probably my favorite one after Reunited. But as you pointed out, yeah, it does suffer from the "too much going on at once"-syndrome, and it doesn't help that it's cut up in three, technically four, different episodes. It's probably better written than Reunited, now that I think about it, as it had more time to work with, and it didn't need other episodes to set up plot point or character moment, like Reunited did. But what I guess puts the latter above the rest for me is the sense of scale and accomplishment. This is what we've been building up to all this time. It resolves several plot points that've been hanging above our heads for multiple seasons, brings multiple character arcs full circle (flawed or not), and feels like a conclusion rather than just another set-up, like in season 3. That's my way of seeing it I suppose.
I also love how polar opposites the Diamonds are. Yellow is all business, stern, strict, act first, talk later. Blue is all emotion, caring, sensitive, think first, act later. So it was nice to see how in this episode we see the sides that we usually don't. We saw Yellow's sensitive side, when we learned she feels responsible for Pink's fate, and we got to see Blue lose her cool, and go in guns blazing. It really made me appreciate them more, both as characters and as villains.
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Careful, Crydius. If they catch you talking like that they might try to reform you next.
I think Lapis's fusion in Jailbreak was meant to be an action of pure spite. She didn't just want to defeat Jasper at that moment, she wanted to make Jasper suffer. Taking away someone's autonomy is one of the cruelest things you can do, and it meant that Lapis would finally be in control over someone else instead of the other way around. Was it rational? No. But spite-driven actions rarely are. (Doofenshmirtz can attest.)
Bizarrely enough though, thinking about this has brought to light a problem I have with that same scene. Why didn't the Crystal Gems try to stop Malachite? As you said, Jasper was already weak, and the fusion was clearly unstable. They could have separated them then and saved themselves a lot of trouble.
What do you mean by "it didn't need other episodes to set up plot point or character moment" (Cromwell, 2018)? Season three had quite a few episodes building up to Jasper's confrontation and Steven and Amethyst fusing. I think that the effort that they put in to building these events up is one of the things that makes me like those episodes more than this one. They were climactic events that felt like a natural progression from what was established.
But I can't fault you for loving the episode's sense of scale and achievement. There have definitely been instances when I have enjoyed an episode with a sense significance more than an episode that was clearly better-written.
So how do you think White Diamond is going to fit into that dynamic? I know some people are expecting her to be completely emotionless, which would be in line with her apparent apathy towards Earth and Steven, but I think I'm hoping for something a little more interesting than that. (Until we find out, at least we have this version to fall back on.)
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I guess that's a good point. Lapis has been shown to be quite spiteful and willing to hold a grudge. But as you just pointed out yourself, and like I said before, the Crystal Gems could've easily stopped Jasper, or Malachite for that matter, and pretty much saved themselves a whole season worth of headache.
I meant it didn't need it quite as much as Reunited did. Even if you didn't see Crack The Whip and Steven vs Amethyst and just start at Beta, you still get all the information you need to follow the story and feel the emotion. From the beginning you know Amethyst is bothered by her inferiority (pretty much the whole Beta episode is dedicated to that), that Steven is and has been trying to help, and that Jasper is her main confrontation point. Everything you need is either set up or recapped at the beginning pretty well, making it a good finale both as a stand-alone (well, of four episodes, but still) and as a part of a bigger whole. While with Reunited, the Lapis return and the Cluster is only glossed over very very briefly during the song. It needed more set-up is what I mean. Which the season three finale did really well, though once again, I chalk that up to having more episodes and thus more time to work with.
LOL! XD
There's a lot of theories about White Diamond and I really can't wait to see what she's like. At the moment we know so little I really don't know what to think. But I hope she's this wise old sage character, that has this "about as old as the universe itself"-thing going on which makes her stoic and unfeeling towards lesser beings, especially humans (mortals) who are fleeting and short-lived. And then Steven's role will be to show her the beauty of something that's short-lived, but lives every moment to the fullest. Or something like that. I'm sure whatever Sugar gives us will be great.
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Ooo, I like that idea. It would fit nicely with the theme of contrast as well, as being wise, stoic, and uncaring would make her the counterpart to both Pink (who was naive, immature, and interpersonal) and Steven (who is growing, emotional, and supportive).
(Jeez, that was a sharp drop in content volume. It feels weird typing so little, but I don't really have anything else to add. )
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Well, she was sooner than I expected. Not sure how much I should say, since I'm not sure if the episode is available everywhere yet, but there's definitely much intrigue to be derived from what we've seen.
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Ah, you've seen "Legs from here to Homeworld", have you? Yeah. Talk about a jawdropper. I also didn't think we'd meet her so soon, though we only saw very little. But I'll tell you this much, I haven't been this scared of a cartoon character in a very long time...
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Quite imposing isn't she? Although I'm filled more with fascination than fear (I wouldn't last long in one of these stories). Why was she made differently than the other diamonds? At this point, it does seem likely that she's the oldest of them, considering the amount of significance she attributed to Pink's actions. She also seemed a lot more artificial than the others: while they're capable of genuine emotion, all of her expressions seemed like a mimicry of emotion to me, and her Pearl was acting completely mechanical. Perhaps the design wasn't yet perfected when she was made. But if that's the case, why is she still more powerful than the others? So many possibilities to ponder, and we've hardly even begun.
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Oho, yeah she is.
And no, you probably wouldn't. "So, you're a giant magical galaxy conqueror huh? Fascinating, tell me more about yourself." SQUASH. XDDD
And yeah, the theorist are going insane. It might be a good thing the show's on hiatus for a little while because everyone is losing their minds. Every SU fan and their mothers are speculating and coming up with theories. And like you said, there's a lot to speculate about. (I love how we just solved the biggest mystery in the show, "who shattered Pink Diamond?", and a couple of episodes later we already have a whole bunch of new mysteries to figure out. This show man...)
As for her "artificial-ness", yeah, that's also a big speculation point. My guess is that, considering she's the oldest of the Diamonds, she's simply lost the ability to care or feel emotion after all this time. That or the responsibility of running Homeworld has broken her long ago. (Which is also interesting, because from what we've seen Homeworld is falling apart. Is she holding it together perhaps?) Though knowing this show, there might be something far more sinister afoot here... I honestly don't know what to think.
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Excellent moment to capture. Things can only get more awkward and uncomfortable from here.
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So badass that the only way to survive a fight with them, is a ceasefire...which is what appears to be happening now.
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From the very beginning I knew that was the only way out. The question was how they were gonna get to it. Props to Steven for pulling it off.
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BUT...now comes the big question. Who was the bigger badass in the fight? Yellow or Blue?
And I wouldn't say the Diamonds are "good" just yet. After all, this just means they don't want to kill Steven. They still mercilessly shattered all those Gems on either side of the war with the Corrupting Light, they still think nothing of eradicating sentient life to create more Gem colonies, Garnet and Bismuth still clearly haven't forgiven them, and they still subscribe to the Gem caste system; so Gems like the Off Colors would still be shattered on sight if they were identified.
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Well, unfortunately we didn't get to see much of Yellow, so Blue's fight feels more epic and badass because we saw more of it. Though when it comes to who kicked the most ass it was definitely Yellow. She poofed both Peridot and Lapis, and wasted no time trying to crush Steven.
Yeah, "good" probably isn't the right word. Though they certainly aren't villains anymore, I doubt they'll give up their planet-conquering ways. It'll be interesting to see where they go with that.
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In retrospect, I do note their difference in "fighting styles". I think it goes without saying Yellow Diamond is more used to combat. Blue just stood there and made herself a nice big target while using her pathokinesis and energy projection, while Yellow Diamond jumped right in and literally stomped on the opposition.
But that in and of itself I find interesting. Does this mean Yellow Diamond actually "joins in" on battles from time to time?
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Indeed. Their fighting styles are very fitting for their characters. From what we've seen and from what ms. Sugar and the Crew themselves have been saying, Blue and her gems are more diplomats and organizers, while Yellow and her gems are the military branch of Homeworld. So what Blue did wasn't as much fighting as it was venting her sadness and frustration, and when she did fight she preferred ranged attacks and her trademark pathokinesis. On the other hand, when Yellow stepped on the battlefield she immediately went in, no fucks given, straight for the enemy with the intend to kill. In just that moment you can tell the massive difference in mindset and battle experience.
And I do think it's possible, though only when she deems it necessary. As we've seen, some of her gems, like the Rubies, aren't exactly the most "effective". So I can see her stepping in and doing it herself.
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I personally never saw the diamonds as "evil" or "villians" merely as the antagonist to Steven who is the protagonist of the series. Thus their was never a need to reform them or make them "good". Merely get them to understand a view of things other then their own. Personally I find it hard to believe that in their entire existence they never seen a planet like Earth before. They could have seen countless planets like it is just Pink Diamond was the first one to ever care for one.
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That's an interesting view. My personal opinion is that as much as they're supreme leaders, the diamonds are just as enslaved to the caste system as the gems that rank lower than them.
It's just like Rose said: Gems are 'born' already knowing what they 'should' do, and they just do their duties without question. Maybe questioning this mindset may play into part of their redemption arc (However long it may take). Though honestly I can see Blue 'turning' faster than Yellow.
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Maybe to a degree but I do not think it absolute.
To me there is a different between what they what someone "should" do and what they "could" and "would" do. Pearl(Crystal Gem one) seemingly was always able to question her duties and do things that she was not suppose for possibly her entire existence. The Crystal Gems and many other things actually seemed to be the result of something Pearl initiated herself(I think Pearl just lucked out getting one Gem that did not care and another that truly value it). Also I have a feeling that Yellow would come to understand Steven's and Crystal Gem's standpoint a little quite then Blue or around the same time. There are instance where they one that has the most attachment is not always the one that seemingly wearing their heart on their sleeve. But the one that try to hide what they are truly feeling from others and themselves
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Oh yeah.
Honestly, I'm hoping that we get to see a flashback of Yellow and Blue as they were when they were younger. Yellow mentioned twice that she was going to do the talking for Steven. Earlier, she tells him that he should keep quiet if he 'doesn't want to be in a bubble for the next few millennia', which implies that she's gotten this punishment before. Take a closer look at her face when the ship landed on homeworld. She actually looked rather afraid. Maybe throughout her life, Yellow took the brunt of the abuse from White so that Blue (and later Pink) wouldn't have to? It possibly would explain her harsh and easily irritated nature.
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Maybe and that Yellow being how she is about her own emotions and feelings would not display what she is feeling out in the open like Pink and Blue do. Thus to me the most interesting Diamonds at the moment are Pink and Yellow because they seem to have hidden layers to them that neither White nor Blue do. It feels like what you see is pretty much what you get with Blue and White(of course that is not a bad thing though)
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True. I guess ever villain in this shows is like that when you think about. Someone with a different view on things.
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11st i know right jsut one epsidoe and we see just how terrfing and so powerful XD
2ndand the love of 2 girls ahhhh she is crossing a bridge for kid cartoons
3rd true maybe that the plan from the start why else will they never show much about white XD the first diamond and oldest and and not making any preset and yet when she comes fel fear >////<
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Only yellow diamond and blue diamond what about white diamond did she not care what happened to Pink There littlest sister or is she going to be the one who plays the role as a villain in the Steven Universe Universe?
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There's a lot of theories about that actually. As we've barely seen anything about White. All we know is that she's the largest and probably the most powerful of them. So there's theories that, because of that, she doesn't really care for the others, or that she saw Pink's death as weakness and thus thought she got what she deserved, or that maybe White is part of Homeworld and so she can't leave it. There's many possibilities, but I do think she's gonna be the next big villain.
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Not gotta lie, The gems really held their own against the Diamonds better than I thought!
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Yeah, it was a pretty amazing fight. They did really well. But they barely managed to hold off one Diamond. Against both Yellow and Blue they wouldn't have had much of a chance.
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Yeah, And I hate to see what would happen if white made an appearance. Yet again, she only made a few brief appearances so who know!
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Yep and at that moment the person who picked a fight with the diamonds just realize you done f***** up.
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Did you see how fast Yellow ran?! Yeah I don't think even running is a good idea
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Right?! You can run all you want, she just has to take a couple of quick steps to catch up.
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Yeah, the best option would probably to be hiding in a underground bunker, but then again if they used their ships like they did with the cluster that wouldn't work ether. now that I think about there's probably a gaint canyon/hole next to beach city
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I don't even watch Steven Universe and even I have been hearing all about the Diamond related drama that's been going on in the show recently. XD
I gotta say though, I fricken love Blue Diamond. She's awesome in every single clip on Youtube I've seen her in. If I were to start watching the show, it would be because of her. <3
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