*THIS
REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK*
(GIF SOURCE: http://kevindart.tumblr.com/post/136803116364/steven-universe-title-cards-here-are-all-of-the)
You know,
between this, Infinity War and
finally getting round to finishing Neon
Genesis Evangelion, this past week-and-a-half has been a pretty wild ride
for me media-wise. And with regards to SU, I don’t seem to be the only one- the
overwhelming reaction to these new episodes seems to be almost total disbelief
to the point of re-evaluating the show’s entire mythos.
Fortunately,
it’s actually not really complaining going on so much as bewilderment at how
completely the new revelations these episodes bring are game-changers. There’s
basically no way to really discuss it without spoiling everything, so if you
haven’t seen the new episodes yet and want to know what they’re like, stop
reading and go and watch them. Long story short: they’re good, and absolutely
intense.
For those
who’ve seen them, or who don’t mind getting well and truly spoiled, let’s dive
in.
*
Can’t Go Back
To be
honest, Lapis is probably one of the most contentious characters in the whole
show, in no small part because she’s complex and morally grey,
well-intentioned for the most part but traumatized and intensely fearful. And
this episode plays to practically all the bests you can go to with her
character, so if you like Lapis, you are in for a ride.
When
Ronaldo finds the barn on the moon through his new telescope and tells Steven
about it, he heads there himself and tracks down Lapis, who confesses she’s
simultaneously too afraid to go back to Earth and confront the Gems having done
what she did and too lonely to flee to the deep recesses of space to be safe
from the Diamonds.
For the
most part, it’s kinda reminiscent of Same Old World- something I was grateful
for, since that was the episode that cemented Lapis as one of my favourite
characters and showed that she was capable of recovering from her abusive past
and having a healthy friendship with someone. While the story is functionally
similar, it’s almost the inverse of that episode- rather than her and Steven
looking hopefully to the future, she’s looking mournfully to the past she left.
It’s also
striking how it shows the extent to which her previous abuse at the hands of
Jasper and her fear of suffering again lead her to inadvertently harm others,
and the episode communicates that in a sensitive way, reminiscent of how
survivors of abuse or people with mental illnesses like depression or anxiety
sometimes do self-destructive or selfish things without intending to hurt those
close to them. While I can’t say I liked the ending, which was quite a downer
after Lapis seemed to be recovering and leaves few clues when she’ll reappear,
I have to admit that, like Raising The Barn, it was well-executed and it’d be
unfair of me to claim it was bad just because I want Lapis to be happy.
Perhaps the
highlight of the episode is Lapis’ song, ‘The Distant Shore’, a really poignant
and beautifully performed demonstration of her feelings about what she’s done
and her loneliness without the support of Steven, the Gems and Peridot. It kinda makes me wish she’d had a song at some point in the last 4 seasons,
given that for me this song ranks up there with ‘It’s Over, Isn’t It’ or ‘Here
Comes A Thought’ for the show’s most poignant.
On top of
all that, the initial part of the episode actually manages to make Ronaldo
funny for the first time in a while, which is no mean feat. I can thoroughly
recommend this episode- it’s an emotional rollercoaster ride, but is compelling and
genuinely engaging to watch.
Speaking of emotional rollercoaster rides…
*
A Single Pale Rose
I honestly
can’t remember an episode that's made the fandom go quite so collectively nuts as
this one has. It’s hardly surprising given it explains to us one of the single
biggest mysteries of the show’s mythos so far, and raises a lot of additional
questions about how the characters’ dynamics will change in the coming
episodes.
After
having seen something weird in his dream while on the moon with Lapis, Steven asks
Pearl if she shattered Pink Diamond rather than Rose, to which she responds by
texting him to say she’d like to but can’t, and asking him to go into her gem
to find it. This leads to an Inception-like sequence of him meeting Pearls inside
Pearl, going further and further back into her past, to finally find out the
truth about what happened with Pink Diamond along the way.
It’s one of
the first episodes to really delve into Pearl’s life for quite a while, and we
see a nice mix of surface-level things that have been affecting her life
recently (like all the numbers she’s gotten from women interested in her, and
her compulsive cataloguing nature) and issues that affected her past (like her
lapses of faith in Rose when she became pregnant with Steven and when most of her army were killed by Homeworld), until it finally shows what
actually happened when Rose Quartz shattered Pink Diamond.
So, here’s
the big spoiler: Rose was Pink Diamond. She shapeshifted to take the form of a
Quartz, only confiding in her feelings towards Homeworld’s empire to Pearl for
fear that after all her begging to be taken seriously as a commander, she would
be severely punished for daring to not quash the inhabitants of a potential
colony as the other Diamonds would. When she couldn't bear to be a Diamond anymore, she had Pearl shapeshift into Rose Quartz, appear to shatter her in front of everyone, and Pink
Diamond lived out the rest of her days as Rose Quartz.
I can
definitely see the argument that this is convoluted or shows Rose was far more
callous than we’ve always been led to believe, but as far as I’m concerned,
that’s the point. To be honest, I thought it was fitting given that Jungle Moon
previously showed Pink Diamond made demands eerily similar to what Rose
eventually got, it explains Rose’s animosity towards Bismuth’s desire to
shatter evil Gems, and provides setup that seems set to lead into the
teased episode about Ruby and Sapphire coming to terms with the truth about Rose. I even feel like it retroactively reinforces how much I liked Storm In The Room from last season, as seeing Steven come to terms with his relationship with Rose after finding out she was less of a role model than he thought served as buildup for him to be able to bear finding out the truth about her.
On top of
that, it’s interesting to see the show give some more concrete backstory to
Pearl, and like Can’t Go Back, this is an intense episode to watch with the
emotions it tackles, and as far as I’m concerned does a good job of it. So yeah,
for those of you who want to know who shattered Pink Diamond at last, here’s
your answer.
*
Conclusion
The big twist of A Single Pale Rose wasn't without precedent; in
interviews in the past, Rebecca Sugar said that ‘Rose Quartz is a really awful
person’. Up until this point, to be honest, I hadn’t bought it- sure, she was insensitive
to Pearl and shattering Pink Diamond seemed like a fairly aggressive thing to
do, but not really bad enough to call her ‘really awful’. Now, I absolutely do
buy it. Rose effectively sold her subjects a lie and got most of them killed
because she was too cowardly to be honest with the Diamonds, and her inability
to make Pearl understand her feelings towards Greg before she became Steven led
to years of animosity between two people she loved. She was emotionally immature at best and awful at worst.
Exploring
the moral grey area this revelation brings opens up a lot of possibilities,
some of which already seem to be in the works for the show. I think what I’d
like to see is the show teaching that you can condemn the bad things people do
and still appreciate the good things they do if they were a positive formative
influence on you, and that malicious action and malicious intent are not the
same.
If the show
keeps the momentum of Rose’s arc going, we could have some excellent stories-
seeing Ruby and Sapphire’s reaction is already in the pipeline, and I’ll be
fascinated to see how learning the truth about Rose affects Greg and how
finding out Steven is descended from a Diamond affects characters like Lapis,
Peridot or Connie. Where will the show go from here? I’m not sure, but I’m very
excited to see.
Now if you’ll
excuse me, I need to find something a little less emotionally intense to watch
for a while. Maybe I should finally get round to watching Bojack Horseman?
COMMENTS