So, we know how the Homeworld rubies were looking for Jasper, right?
Jasper’s old enough to remember the war on Earth and old enough to be part of the “first generation” of Gems that were created.
In “Too Short to Ride,” Peridot mentioned that Homeworld is running out of resources to make Gems like “they used to,” (i.e. like Jasper).
Before the new ep, I had thought maybe they were hunting Jasper down for her failure in the mission and/or wanted to bring her back for punishment. Possibly even shatter her.
But that seemed out of character for someone like Yellow Diamond who seems to want to make efficient use of all her resources, including her soldiers. Why would she dispatch a bunch of rubies on a mission to retrieve one soldier? Unless Jasper has some crucial information related to the Cluster, it just seems like lot of effort to retrieve one, ostensibly, replaceable gem. There are not too many other explanations I can come up without stretching the canon a bit.
But “Too Short to Ride” fills in the missing piece.
While Jasper might have failed in her mission, she is a part of a generation of Gems that is fast becoming a dying breed. Homeworld no longer has the luxury of simply disposing of soldiers who fail to meet expectations. If small Gems like peridots are all they can produce these days, then they cannot afford to lose the firepower that Quartz-type soldiers provide.
So, to sum it up: they are trying to get Jasper back because they literally cannot afford to lose her.
Okay, but one of the things that I noticed right off the bat the first time I watched the Balmera arc is the design of Shay’s people.
I didn’t immediately connect Shay’s voice to her on-screen character because I was expecting a very feminine design to match a female voice actress; in almost every story about an alien or fantasy race, you immediately know who’s female in the bunch because they look exactly like human women, as compared to the males who can pretty much look like anything.
Case in point:
So when I didn’t see a stereotypical female design for the Balmerans, it threw me for a minute. Because Shay and her grandmother look very similar to Rax and the other male Balmerans. They have thick, knobby skin and sharp claws rather than slender arms and graceful fingers. Maybe their earring-things differentiate between genders (who’s to say Balmerans are only male/female?) but I’m seeing a distinct lack of boobs, makeup (long eyelashes, lipstick) and long hair that usually identify an alien woman.
Nope, still not seeing it.
It’s a super small thing and not very important to the overall story of Voltron, but this is one of the first times I’ve ever seen alien women designed like this and I think it’s so cool.
I am Silver Tongue, I am an artist. I have many characters and you can check out my art in the art tag. I occasionally practice witchcraft though I don't do anything too complicated. I am girl 2 and don't know what else to put here.
