Steven Universe Season 2

(SPOILER WARNING!!)

Well, with the promos for Season 5 recently getting to YouTube, now's as good a time as any to talk about the show's 2nd season.... that's all the intro I got, so let's get started.

This season starts off immediately where the 1st left off; Garnet's revealed to be a fusion, the Crystal Gems have just barely escaped Homeworld forces, Peridot is off somewhere on Earth and Lapis had been forced by a major antagonist, Jasper, to fuse with her into a monster called Malachite. The first episode primarily focuses on the aftermath of the battle and Steven is starting to realise that the scope of the situation is much larger than he initially thought, as he tries to distance himself from Connie as a means of protecting her. However, that doesn't last long, as he has become much closer to Connie over the relatively short time that they have known each other, so can't bring himself to lie to her and keep her out of it.

That's some pretty heavy stuff right off the bat, but this does add to Steven's overall arc in this show; him growing up. That does seem to be something of a consistent theme for the show, the idea of growing up and becoming more mature. And as I stated in my review of the 1st season, it's not in the sense of "be dark for the sake of it", but rather as a way of showing Steven making mistakes and learning from them, ensuring to make up for anything he does wrong, even if some of those things may not actually be his fault.

A brilliant example of this shows storytelling is with the "Sardonyx" Stevenbomb (another name for a 4-6 episode arc). This story starts off with the Gems trying to find Peridot and stop her from whatever she's doing. This first involves Pearl and Garnet fusing into Sardonyx to prevent Peridot from contacting Homeworld. However, Pearl starts to get carried away as she constantly fixes the communication hub and blaming it on Peridot, just so she could fuse with Garnet and feel stronger, as Pearls are commonly seen as weaker than an average Gem. Needless to say, Garnet is pissed when she finds out, namely due to how not only has Pearl been distracting them from the main mission, but Fusion being a very personal thing for her. Heck, it's the core reason she even exists.

This results in Garnet losing a lot of trust for Pearl, going as far as to split apart into Ruby and Sapphire as they have something of a lovers quarrel. Ruby, as expected, is furious with how Pearl has treated the concept of Fusion as a toy, whilst Sapphire seems to be dismissive of the whole thing and claiming that Ruby should just get over it. Of course, what they don't realise is the kind of effect that this is having on Steven. At home, he has to sit and watch as Garnet just ignore Pearl and is not allowing her to make up what she's done, but in this episode, "Keystone Motel", the two arguing is upsetting Steven as he hates to see his friends argue with each other over something that could be resolved with a simple conversation. And when Steven finally explodes at them and starts to think that it's his fault, the two finally see the harm that's being caused by their own personal extremes and finally make up, Ruby adorably flirting with Sapphire in the process.

Also, for anyone still saying "they're just friends, nothing more", watch this damn clip:



Still, even with these two arguing, it's actually pretty easy to see where they are coming from. Ruby is passionate and hot-headed, her 1st instinct is to explode in anger and try to assert her viewpoint. Sapphire, by contrast, is cold and logical, her Future Vision giving her an insight into how things will play out thus feels no need to argue with Ruby. Neither are stupid and neither are wrong; there's simply a difference in perspective. In fact, I can kind of relate them somewhat to the characters of Shotaro and Philip from Kamen Rider W, with how even though they have grown throughout the series, the basis for how they act remains the same; Philip relying on a logical perspective and Shotaro reacting through emotion and sheer force of will. I really like it when stories pull this kind of conflict, one that is actually born through personality differences as opposed to forcing the characters into a conflict that has no real resolution.

Incidentally, fuck Crazy Steve vs. Bearded Idiot!

And eventually, Garnet does start to trust Pearl again after she realises the real reason Pearl went to the extremes she did; her status as a Pearl makes her seem less capable than other Gems, be it Homeworld or rebellion, so fusing with a stronger Gem is the only way for her to feel any form of validation for her existence. Because otherwise, she would just be a slave doing what others tell her to do, which is horrible for anyone to go through. Garnet, however, tells her that she IS strong in that she is her own Gem, one who decides her own destiny and purpose, no one else. And thus, with this finally sinking in, the two can trust each other again and stand together as one.

Because, damn it, everything is gay about this! (thank you Des Shinta for that joke)

Still, Steven, Garnet and Pearl aren't the only ones who get a huge sum of character development; there's also Peridot. As stated before, she escaped to Earth after the Homeworld ship was destroyed during Garnet and Jasper's brawl. Upon doing so, she tried everything in her power to either contact Homeworld and continuing work on "the Cluster", which we'll get to in a bit. Regardless, her plans keep failing and she is eventually poofed and bubbled to the Temple. However, Steven is curious why she's doing all of this, and tries to co-operate with her.

It doesn't go well at first:



Eventually, she does calm down, and decides to help the Crystal Gems (who she regularly calls "Clods") and tell them about the Cluster; it's an amalgamation of millions of Gem shards that have been forcefully fused together and is incubating in the planet's core, meaning that once it forms, it will destroy the planet. Of course, Peridot is initially doing this for the sake of survival, but as she starts to work with the Gems and bond with each of them (resulting in the fan-ship of Amedot), she starts to she the value of life and death and love and birth and peace and war on the planet Earth (had to work that in), to the point of when she finally contacts one of Homeworld's hierarchs, Yellow Diamond, she tries to have the Cluster terminated. Unfortunately, she also sees just how ruthless her leader can be, as all Yellow Diamond wants is for the Cluster to emerge and the planet to die. And thus, in defiance, Peridot refuses to follow the orders given to her and outright insults her leader, resulting in one of the show's most popular memes:



I love this show so damn much!

I honestly don't have much more to say about this season that I haven't in the last one, expect that it's really good. The animation has made a mark improvement, the songs are still awesome and most of the side stories do get a chuckle out of me. I'd say go watch it, but most people have already, especially with Peridot joining the main cast and becoming one of the shows most popular characters.

Overall rating: 9/10 (Awesome)!

Until next time, I'm Callum Lewis, the Media Man, signing off.