oooo…. being told by his friends that he has to hurt or kill someone who was 'just doing his job', and figuring out how to react to that. Yes, so this does fit into the overarching themes of summer of steven (preparing steven for the coming war)

…I get the vague feeling that onion was trying to show off Steven's powers to his friends. There was the fake death, the fact that he had to use float powers to be at the top of Vincent Adultman, and I guess the bug could have needed healing powers too after the smashing (I think onion would realize that steven…

Admittedly, he was a tool for someone else's storyarc… when THAT story arc was mostly a tool in order to get at Steven's story arc. So he has a few degree of separation from having his own agency.

Mysterious girl is less of a character right now, and more of a symbol. First, she represents how pearl is easing herself into newfound attempts to find herself (…and doing so by 'going with what you know', in that she is thirsting after a giant pink haired chick).

The continued defeat by sadness is interesting, mostly because it was always after only a single line. This shows that some problems can't be solved with a single cheery suggestion.

I have been expecting this fallout since Joyride, where steven begins to honestly talk about his complicated feelings for his mother (where he thinks the other gems blame him for her loss, and that he has to fill in her role on the team). The boy has been thrust into the center of an interplanetary war that is far…

They don't openly cry, but as a cat owner, I can say they get moody as hell. So Amethyst basically.

Herding cats? That is basically the same as leading the crystal gems.

I would love to see that court case.

If more rubies had that weapon, I would be less mystified about how they are supposed to be the grunt soldiers. Because then you just have small, homicidal people climbing all over you trying to stab you in the heart.

Resources have been shown to be tight at times.

Also, they need to teach those gems how 'mother' works.

…thinking about it, that Ruby's dagger seems brutally efficient for gem warfare.

Easier to write off all the injuries from looney toons when there is an actual mechanic for gems to have their physical forms destroyed and they make a new one.

There appears to be an aristocratic class. So yes, tons and tons of petty rivalry, jealousy, and displays of wealth and power. Things such as using bismuths to make big fancy towers just so they can brag about how bigger their towers are.

I assume that bubbling first has a simple effect that prevents a contained gem from taking physical form. We have seen it serve this purpose when dealing with the cluster- the cluster was under the effect of an uncontrollable cascading process of forming a body. When its might was turned towards bubbling, however, it…

But to what extent? Maybe that cooperation… has a price tag. Promises of gems to be handed over. And such promises only really work if you have someone to extort them from. Otherwise, you just grab up all the unclaimed gems and make them your own. Thus, Jasper and Eye.

From a tactical stand point, the shattering of pink diamond does seem vital. She 'owned' the colony. Every enemy gem was dedicated to serving her. If they just bubbled her, the entire war would instantly shift from suppression to a rescue mission of Pink Diamond. And I don't think the guerrilla based rebels could keep…

As another way to think about it: Jasper's personal issue is that she has the feeling of the 'good child' that gets good grades and gets doted on by the parents. At the same time, she sees her sisters with poor grades, and sees how her parents practically ignore them. There is that strange desperation to succeed,…

Shuriken!