“Wanted” Recap – Steven Universe
By: Dylan Hysen
Dylan Hysen, Delaney Stovall, and Sam Quattro discuss the big Steven Universe “Wanted” special! Topics include who killed Pink Diamond, is Pink Diamond Lion, and the new Off Color gems.
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Dylan Hysen
Dylan is a software developer from the DC area who hosts the Overly Animated podcast discussing everything animation.
15 Comments
how do you think lars’ redemption stacks up against zuko’s? please dedicate at least 50 mins to this topic, thank you 🙂
Zuko got redeemed over two seasons. Lars got about six episodes. Zuko was far better because of the buildup, and only Peridot could be compared in SU. That being said, Lars was excellent in this event, and like the pod said, it was done in a believable manner.
As to the narrative of Steven bringing Lars back to life, I’d posit that we have no way to know that could work for shattered gems, especially given that we’ve only seen this on organic life thus far, and corpses that were unharmed for the most part; I can’t see Rose’s healing power being so OP that she can put a Diamond back together. On the other hand, the fact that gem shards seek their missing parts makes it a slight possibility I don’t believe in, but I don’t want to discount entirely.
And for Lion is Pink Diamond… I’m sorry, nothing convinced me to think that. You brought up shapeshifting as a potential explanation, but the stress that would put on the gem would be astounding. And I have no reason to think that Rose has any capacity in shaping a Gem into another shape by her own force. I’m sorry, just as Lion 4 told us Steven is just Rose and Greg’s baby and was not made with an ulterior motive, Lion is just a pet Rose healed out of love with no ulterior motive.
Yellow Diamond’s reaction: she’s a hothead and took offense to being accused of shattering her fellow Diamond. How would you react if someone even hinted at you being the killer of your murdered sister?
Other random stuff: Blue Pearl is adorable. I thought the Steven riffing on how he maybe shattered PD went on for too long and wasn’t that funny. The big gem looks like a Space Lard from Adventure Time. Lars should learn to teleport.
Finally, Slow Sapphire is my fave and her jokes landed all the way through. I love her so much.
4. Off Colors
3. Lars Head
2. The Trial
1. Stuck Together (Hot take I’m sure, but Topaz was lovely and Aquamarine was perfect. I’m reeeeally disappointed they didn’t make appearances in the rest of the event.)
I don’t know if Yellow shattered Pink, her reaction is the actions of a red hairing these situations.
Well the scene when Steven talks to Lion he says to Lion “why didn’t you tell me”? I thought the scene meant they were confirming that Lion was Pink Diamond.
The off color need to go to Earth and join team Crystal Gem, I nicked named them the Misfits Gems based on the toys from the land of misfit toys. What do you think?
I’d love for you guys to discuss what role you think Pearl could’ve had in Pink Diamond’s death, if any!!
P.S. one theory that I’ve since come across that I’m strongly inclined to believe in: So we see Blue Diamond can affect other people’s emotions or state of mind. So, could that power be heightened enough, whether it be by fusion or just an intense episode of grief, to corrupt gems?
What if Rose managed to talk Pink Diamond around to get way of thinking? She defects and Yellow either shatters her or less about her being shattered.
Possibly even Rose fakes her being shattered to allow for the defection. Remember Rose’s sword was designed specifically not to shatter gems. YD pushes for them to drop the corruption bomb to cover the whole thing up . Man this season is just going to be gold for fan theoriests
More thoughts, did you guys thinks we would have an Avatar Kyoshi in the trial, in which Steven turned into Rose and said what happened? That would have been cool.
So who is your favorite off color gem, I love them all, but my favorite is Padparadscha, she is so cute and funny. Just like Dylan has a type with the mean girls, I have the type for the good hearted air heads.
My theories:
White Diamond killed Pink. Similar motivations to what Yellow’s would be, but I don’t think they’d make it this obvious.
PD’s gem (either pieces or revived but altered somehow) is in the treasure chest inside Lion.
As for WD being a fusion: why would her color still be on the symbol if Pink was removed? Shouldn’t Pink’s death also kill any fusions involving her? Thereby killing off White and removing that color as well? Then there’s the fact that WD’s mural depicts her with a gem on her forehead, and no fusions so far had the gems move to new spots on the body.
Also, as to why can’t Lion teleport to Homeworld? Well, it took him a minute just to get to the moon (implying it’s slower than light), so something outside the solar system would probably take forever, especially since in Log Date Garnet said Homeworld was in a different galaxy.
So do the Off Colors represent mentally challenged people? Something to ponder.
OVERALL: Loved this turn of events. Totally unpredictable that getting back to earth would be resolved in this way, and having a new faction of “good gems” on homeworld and a way to get there, is a huge game changer for the stories that can be told from now on.
WHITE DIAMOND:
Going in I didn’t buy the White Diamond is a fusion idea. On both Era 1 and Era 2 Diamond authority logos, and the murals on the Moonbase, WD is symbolically presented as roughly co-equal with the other Diamonds.
Also, Dylan is wrong about the floor of the trial chamber. It’s just the Era 2 symbol with yellow, blue, and WHITE triangles. The white one just kind of reads as pink because there’s a general pink haze around all of them, but that’s an optical illusion.
BUT . . .
The now I’m coming around more to the WD fusion theory for two reasons.
1) She was conspicuously absent here. Surely the trial would have been of great interest to her, or at least her absence would have been acknowledged in some way. If she didn’t who up for this, what would justify her showing up later in the series.
2) The large white statue structure we saw during the escape and on the title card for “Off Colors”. Even if it’s not the image of White Diamond, I think it is a fusion of the Diamonds. I think it would be a cool parallel if the Diamond homebase is shaped like their fusion, just like how the Temple on Earth, is presumably the fusion of Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Rose.
LION:
I don’t think Lion IS pink diamond. I think Buddy’s Book combined with Lars’ Head is too clean a connection at this point. It’s very shallow subtext or maybe even the text of the show that one of those lions was revived and became our Lion.
However, there’s definitely more to discover about Lion I think he contains (literally) and in his life was privy to some of Rose’s secrets that the Crystal Gems weren’t.
Also, can we talk about how, hair that’s a portal to a secret interconnected pocket dimension, is a very bizarre and arbitrary attribute that seems totally unrelated to the healing power of Rose’s tears. Is Steven the only one who can enter that dimension? He seemed to assume he could take the Off Color gems through, but we never saw him actually try.
What if Lars tried to go inside lions mane?
OFF COLOR GEMS:
I don’t think they’re going to come to earth. I think their function is to be the good gems who inherit Homeworld at the end of the series. The meek shall inherit the alternate earth 😉
PINK DIAMOND:
2 possibilities that haven’t been discussed on the show.
1) Pink diamond is the Crystal Heart in the temple (“Together Breakfast” & “Catch and Release”). It appears have pink diamond particles running through it’s veins, just like . . . Blood Stone!
It sounds crazy, but there is a precedent for ridiculous things Ronaldo says being for shadowing of information about the Diamonds.
2) This is part of a much larger Alternate Earth type theory I have, but the TL;DR is:
The gems are a post-singularity race that were originally organic and human like. Or the Diamonds were anyway. They started using injectors to create artificial life, eventually replacing all organic life in their galaxy. Pink Diamond’s agenda on earth, including creating the Rose Quartz line, was to secretly find a way to return Gems to an organic existence. Yellow Diamond found out and was having none of it, compelling PD to abandon her plans. Rose rebelled, but she and PD eventually struck a secret bargain to fake PD’s shattering. PD returned to an organic form and went to live a normal life among the humans. And Rose could shatter her gem in front of witnesses because PD didn’t need it.
OH! A thought for Justin, if he didn’t already seize on it immediately.
The white statue building could be a ship, specifically the head of the Diamond Voltron.
has no one mentioned how much emphasis Blue/ the episode on the fact that Pink was shattered by a SWORD?! ROSES SWORD!
did y’all forget that Bismuth made that sword and she herself said that it cant shatter gems, only poof them!
PINK IS STILL ALIVE