Oh wow, I managed to forget about that. If this situation is based off any series in particular, it's probably Harry Potter.

They also had that volcano fortress ruled by a line of badgers… which was pretty weird when you think about it.

Probably my favorite aspect of this is how unrelentingly vicious Rose's plants have wound up being in any episode they've appeared in.

It is a romantic relationship, to be fair ("Alone Together" and "An Indirect Kiss" make that pretty clear to me) but the show positions them at just the age where it doesn't really matter which way you want to read them.

And his fanart at the end!

That's not going to be airing for two/three weeks at least. But yes, I am excited for it.

I think if there was one thing that this episode was *definitely* missing, it was exactly what Connie's idea of the right ending for the series would be. That seemed to hint at Rose's Room being used as this means of self-actualization instead of the stream of mildly absurd situations Steven got himself into.

I like how the show makes it so that Rose's Room is simultaneously an incarnation of Steven's imagination and his subconscious. It lets the show have those cute "holodeck fanfiction" moments where they play dress-up and still allow it to be something untamed and potentially frightening.

we're going to see a lot more Connie/Stevonnie in fantasy outfits now, aren't we?

When I heard Connie monologuing about the books at the beginning I groaned internally. That is *exactly* how I sound when I talk to other people about works of fiction.

If anything I think "trying to be a ham but forcing it" is probably more true to who Ronaldo actually is.

"Y'all ready to blow up this boat?"

And to be fair, some of the posts on the KBCW tumblr do refer to stuff like that. See the art of Koala Princess, him saying "that's why I use bitcoin", the way he has a "Fridgegate" tag when he gets stuck under the fridge…

The show's more satirical towards Ronaldo than the rest of the cast, that's for sure, but I think something like that would be too mean-spirited for the show's viewpoint. If you want to imagine him like that, then fine.

I need a break. Much as I loved all these episodes airing at once, they blew me out, and I think I'm beginning to suffer from that weird combination of obsession and anxiety that makes people slowly begin to sour on stuff they like.

Yeah, but he doesn't have any of the uncomfortable sexism or politics that most people tend to attack them for in the first place. He's a decent guy who just happens to be obsessive and clueless.

It wasn't so much the fact that he reacted negatively to the event and more that it happened in a sort of trope-y and artificial way, I guess. I also feel that that maybe Steven was too willing to avoid and drive away Connie even when she was personally present and in clear emotional pain.

That said, there was a lot of stuff in this episode that was great: the banter between Amethyst and Pearl, Ronaldo's out-of-touch monologue, the ship wreckage strewn all over Beach City (and visible in the title sequence, too), the way the cell phone ringtone was worked into Steven's song… I could go on. Even when I…

I said after "Winter Forecast" that Connie episodes are the most dependably-great ones the show has to offer. After watching this one, I can't help but think that it's the exception that proves the rule. It spends most of its time ignoring or actively eroding the rapport between them to make a point about where the…

I remember Alex Hirsch talking once in an interview about how different the skillsets were for 22-minute and 11-minute series. I don't think it would work out that well.