I kinda wondered if the lack of Jesse Moynihan in the opening week was an attempt to lead off the show with its most accessible foot forward.

One of the reasons I'm so excited about this season of Adventure Time is to see how the show reconciles its burgeoning artistic maturity with the transition to less "heady" character-based stories. S6 of Adventure Time was strange and somewhat spotty, but it contained some of the show's most distinctive storytelling…

I have five aunts on my mother's side, and I kinda mentally classify them by the Crystal Gem they most resemble.

It's interesting how much the show has kept Lapis at a distance, in situations where she's indisposed and unable to explain to the Gems how she got in the mirror.

I know. I didn't really think of it as a ship, though. I just wanted to see what would happen to Peridot if she was confronted with a human as unstable as she is.

Basically, Peridot's the green apple Skittle to the Crystal Gems' lemon, strawberry, and grape.

I think Peridot's by her nature a wacky, childish and immature character, and because she's new to the spotlight the show inevitably has to give her a lot of screentime to establish her character in a more detailed and psychologically realistic way. Thus, the show as a whole has to adjust its tone and messages to her…

I feel that. The show's at a bit of a dramatic lull right now and Peridot isn't quite gelling with the rest of the ensemble. The sense of mystery that originally accompanied her is gone now, and while the Cluster is an obvious existential threat, it doesn't really have a personal connection for any of the main…

I'm waiting for the inevitable episode where Peridot gets hassled by Ronaldo.

The past couple episodes have given us a number of perspectives on Peridot's relationship with the Crystal Gems, from naive child and comic foil to playful rival, but this is the first episode where they've really examined that dynamic through the more dramatic lens the show does so well. You get an understanding that…

There is something really sad about the fact that Steven lives in a house Greg paid for and helped build but doesn't live in.

Eh, Garnet's always been treated a little differently by the show than Pearl and Amethyst. We haven't really seen the show place a strong emphasis on Garnet's relationship with Rose, for example.

They've aired 38 episodes of Steven Universe this year, and there's two and a half months yet. Show a little respect.

Fair enough. I… think Amethyst got the message, though, by the end. Just because the story doesn't explicitly spell out a moral for the kiddies doesn't mean one isn't there.

Eh, I saw her laughter there as being at Peridot's expense. She knew Garnet was going to punish Peridot for it and that it would be hilarious.

I can't wait for the montage of Peridot trying to dance.

Garnet is already aware about Homeworld attitudes towards fusion and is a far more confident gem in general. Look at how directly she deals with Peridot's insubordination. Amethyst had no idea about the Kindergarten gems and had a lot of latent emotional issues surrounding her origin to begin with.

It's been known since a while before S6 ended, when the episode titles leaked, but it's taken a surprisingly long time for the news about it to percolate into general knowledge. I've mentioned it to all of my friends who watch the show and none of them had heard of it before.

Man, remember "Apple Wedding"?

Something about this really bugs me and I can't put my finger on it. I can buy societal acceptance of fusion being suppressed by a Homeworld society with ulterior motives, but I can't buy Ruby and Sapphire being literally the first gems ever to fuse with someone not exactly like them. It just makes them *too* special,…