I always like looking into the voice talent of my favorite shows, and I need to share this with you guys because it makes my queer disabled heart soar with joy.
Emerald’s VA is Jinkx Monsoon, a non-binary drag queen with narcolepsy. Now, I’m not a drag queen, but I am a non-binary person with narcolepsy and it just really made me excited to see someone like me thriving in the world and doing cool things and taking part in a show that I love.
I know this isn’t representation in the show, but just knowing this is so meaningful to me.
And this is separate from the “it’s boring when every character gets a redemption arc” argument (which I more or less believe but isn’t the point here).
What makes me nervous about a Jasper redemption arc is the message it will convey to the target audience, children. So far, the show has done a beautiful job conveying abusive relationships and their dynamics via Lapis and Jasper. It’s even hit a little too close to home for myself and others.
The thing that concerns me, though, is implying that abusers can and will change. Don’t misread this: there ARE abusive people who, with time and serious effort/intervention, are able to become healthier people and genuinely change. However, Jasper has been the prominent example of an abuser so far, and so I worry that it could imply that abusers can usually or will frequently change. This, sadly, is NOT the case.
It’s not that abusers shouldn’t have redemption arcs. It’s that we need to be realistic in the messages we send so that we don’t leave viewers thinking that if they just wait out long enough then their abuser will change.
This is Fluckite, a gem fusion designed by @jynxcomplex! It’s one of my OCs, Taaffeite, and one of her OCs, Angelite. She’s adorable and I love drawing her.
I’m honestly convinced that while Yellow Diamond played a part in Pink Diamond’s assassination, it was White Diamond behind it all. The one thing that sticks out to me that I haven’t seen talked about is this: why isn’t White Diamond at the trial?
This trial prompted two of the three diamonds to show up- it was the trial to finally shed light on the details of how someone managed to killa diamond. So why wouldn’t White Diamond show up?
Maybe she didn’t show up because she didn’t care. She didn’t want to bother with it because she already knows exactly what happened. She knows exactly what happened because it was her scheme.
War and glory, reinvention Fusion, freedom, her attention, Out in daylight, my potential, Bold, precise, experimental
I assumed that “Reinvention” was referring to how Pearl stopped acting servile (and for a lack of a better term “pearl-like”) but I think it could also refer to how she changed between the war and the present (aka she now knows how to be “strong in the real way” and is a lot less brutal than in her war days).
peridot has a surprisingly emotional reaction to garnet teasingly calling her a clod, and at first i didn’t get why. i brushed it aside as a funny moment.
however, when i thought about it… of course peridot is emotional. garnet just showed her, in terms peridot can understand, how much she likes her.
peridot obviously has trouble with reading other people’s emotions, knowing how they feel about her, and how to make her own feelings known.
she has a lot of strategies to cope with this, some of which are obvious, like the tape recorder, some of which are not. one of the little things that i don’t think all the crystal gems have picked up on - she mimics their speech.
the most obvious example is steven - where she has this now-infamous expression of gratitude from:
she also picked up “cool” from him, and the tongue-out gesture all the way back in friend ship. steven was the first person she trusted among the crystal gems, and for a while, her only ally.
and he’s not the only example! remember how in barn mates, peridot said stuff like “holy smokes”, “i got yo numbah”, ect? i think we can be pretty sure that was amethyst’s influence. they’ve been hanging out more, and it’s pretty clear peridot considers her the “best” of the crystal gems.
again, this tells us that peridot parrots the people she likes! this is a very subtle, maybe not entirely conscious decision. again, i don’t think most of the other crystal gems have picked it up.
however… i think garnet gets it. ever since log date, she’s been making a conscious decision of trying to understand peridot.
of course, this isn’t one-sided! garnet says it herself, peridot made an effort to understand her. i think garnet wants to do the same.
in log date, we also saw she’s getting pretty good at understanding peridot’s needs; putting her relationship in terms she can understand (”i’m percy and pierre”), helping her calm down, and telling steven the tape recorder is important to peridot, so he should return it.
so when garnet uses peridot’s word, “clod”, she’s giving her what she needs - reassurance that garnet really does care about her, and has been paying attention to her. she’s doing exactly what peridot does to the people she likes - mimicking her words.
because peridot was worried, peridot was scared, and garnet wants her to know she cares. peridot might struggle to understand others, but she gets it when they make the effort to understand her, and express love like she would.
Full audio of Peace & Love On The Planet Earth from the Steven Universe episode It Could’ve Been Great. Follow @stevensuniverse for more Steven Universe!
