A cherry man through and through… One of my favorite things about Steven Universe are all the subtle references to previous episodes. It’s little call backs like these that show how Rebecca Sugar and her team always go that extra mile.
It makes it feel like a real world. Like, it’s not just referencing previous episodes it’s referencing jokes he’s made in his life and makes the world seem so much more real. It’s not to the extent of a running gag either.
We see in Hit the Diamond that Ruby and Sapphire can barely function without each other. We all were like ‘oh, its no big deal! they’re in love!” and I thought that too! But now, with Alone at Sea, we see that not only is it for love, but power. Lapis hates Jasper. They hate each other. But lapis says ‘We were fused for so long…”
Think all the way back to Strong in the Real Way. Garnet and Amethyst started to literally lose themselves in Sugilite.
SO… Fusion is addictive. The longer you stay fused, the more the counterparts need each other.
Stevonnie ain’t so cute now huh?
Don’t forget the episode where Pearl kept messing with stuff to get Garnet to fuse with her.
Until Garnet, fusion only happened between Gems of same kind, for the sake of making weaker gem types grow into a stronger version of themselves together. The Rubies didn’t even have to dance to synchronize, they are already aligned.
Why is it such a taboo among Homeworld Gems to have different kinds of gems fuse when it can be so potent mixing traits?
Why indeed. The Rubies, despite forced differences in personality, are pretty much the same and very simple of mind. Easily tricked and confused. How much mind do they have to lose upon fusing with, basically, themselves?
It is a far bigger invasion when two completely different minds fuse together. “You are not two people, you are not one.” The longer the fusion of two people last, a bigger impact it’ll have through its differences. And when you get used to something and suddenly have that yanked away, it leaves an empty spot. A spot which wasn’t there before, now a gaping hole you need to fill to feel whole again. Along with fusion making the individual gem feel like they are more than they were alone. Stronger, bigger, new traits and powers they never had before but which feel familiar through the mind of the other gem.
How much do you stay yourself, how much do you lose yourself, in fusion?
The experience is individual, but when not prepared for it and not knowing how to tackle it… fusion is a dangerous thing in many ways.
But that’s just my 2 cents on it.
Well there’s one key difference between garnet & stevonnie than the other fusions like malachite and say sardonyx. Garnet and stevonnie are a fusion of love were as malachite and sardonyx are a fusion of power. I think that the intentions behind fusion make a difference between whether or not it’s addictive. That’s why ruby and sapphire can still function separately and split whenever they want to such as in the baseball episode. Lapis and jasper fused out of power and so did pearl with sardonyx which is why they were doing horrible things to feel that rush again. Even garnet isn’t immune to the power rush either if you think about sugalite. They refused to unfuse because they felt super strong. Sugalite is likely far stronger than sardonyx.
There’s also the possibility that the bigger the power gap between the individual gems and the fusion, the more addictive the fusing. Like, the gap between sardonyx and garnet isn’t nearly as wide as the gap between sardonyx and pearl so pearl felt the addiction while the gap between stevonnie and connie and steven isn’t that wide since stevonnie is basically them but taller from what we’ve seen.
After all, they lost. They were literally brought into existence for one reason only, fight for Homeworld, and they failed. An entire planet’s army lost to a tree-hugging Quartz and her few thousand followers.
They wouldn’t get sympathy like human veterans because Quartzes are meant to fight and die for their diamond. They can always make more to replace those lost, or at least they could during the War. They failed, they lost a massive resource pool for Homeworld and now Homeworld is running dry. Because they weren’t good enough.
Everyone knows Jasper is one such veteran. She came to Earth as a bodyguard for an engineer. Not a very high profile job for someone that has warfare experience. That would explain her “Look like another waste of my time” line. She’s always being given low profile work because she’s a ‘failure’ for being a soldier in a war Homeworld lost. It’s punishment for something she couldn’t help. A punishment that’s been going on for around five thousand years. No matter how self-confident you are, being treated as a lesser by everyone around you will wear you down.
Now Jasper’s had a taste of immense power. As she loves it. She can’t get enough of it. Why? Because that power can bring redemption in the eyes of Homeworld. She can fight in wars and WIN! It took a four Gem fusion and an army of Watermelon Stevens to take down Malachite. And Malachite was only fighting for kicks. If Malachite was being serious and was driven and focused, who knows if the Gems could’ve won?
Jasper wants Malachite to prove she isn’t a failure that Homeworld believes she is. She can win, she can dominate, but only with Malachite. Peridot was willing to throw away all the trust she built up with the Crystal Gems to be useful to the Diamonds and Jasper is willing to go back into a toxic, damaging situation if it means she can be useful again.
rose expectations: i made steven because the worlds of gems and humans need a bridge, and being human is the most magical experience i can imagine
rose reality: greg hold my beer im gonna have a kid
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.
