It's very obvious that the gem caste system and their oppressive regime is supposed to be a metaphor for several different types of real life oppression, ranging from racism, homophobia and classism and many others. The show uses fictional elements to make statements and commentary about real world issues, very much…

I appreciate that they didn't felt the need to end the episode with a fight, which is something that other shows probably would want to do in a season finale.

This is a problem that I have with the episode. It reads a lot like you're supposed to see a moral in it, but it's elements do not translate out of the context of the show and this makes it's narrative choices even more messier.

I believe Rebecca mentioned in a panel once that Steven is supposed to be a stand in for being a mixed jewish kid. I would link the quote if I could find it.

I agree with you that she has a lot of sympathetic characteristics. And I like the character. And I can see that, but I think the episode became tonally more sinister by the end and they mishandled something that could have been written better. Basically I'm saying it can be both, but it lacked a lot of needed nuance.

It would be different, because the feelings of people of color, specially black women in our society are treated in a different way (think about the "angry black woman" stereotype). So even if they didn't intend to their episode reinforces unfortunate stereotypes. It's a matter of context and how the show interacts…

I think they chewed more than they could eat with that episode.

While I can't speak for the commenter you're replying, my original post is about black coded gems, specifically Bismuth.

It's basically that. I'm not trying to justify the character actions, I'm wondering why in a meta level they decided to make these narrative choices. This arc of Steven learning that peaceful ways of handling conflict not always work, specially when dealing with oppressors that want to kill people like you (and in the…

I edited my post to address this. My point is basically that they decided to write the character as an extremist and unreasonable even if her discourse during the confrontation with Steven is pretty much Rose's manifesto, it was unnecessary. I'm saying that the very way they decided to write Bismuth story was…

Honestly, the difference in how the SU crew decided to portray in tone, story and nuance Rose shattering a Diamond against Bismuth desire to do so makes me even more uncomfortable about how it was all handled. I like the "Bismuth" episode less and less every day.

I mean, it's because I'm really not in the mood right now for heated discussion, really, so I'm trying to not be extend this discussion that much. But I think it's important to understand that people being angry and passionate about it have their reasons to do so. Specially black women that are viewers and might have…

I think Bismuth introduction considering her coding and her plotline deserved a lot more. The point of the original post was that it's valid to be upset with the problematic aspects of this episode in relation to that. Because while it's unlikely that this is Bismuth only appearance, it could have been done better.…

We got to see a lot of her sympathetic side first, though. There is a lot of humanization behind it. Bismuth had 22 minutes, where only half of it was sympathetic. There is an imbalance on that.

So, are you more of a Doc, Eyeball, Army, Navy or Leggy? I'm probably Navy or Leggy, tbh

Yeah, but I'm talking more about the tone. The lighting, the soundtrack, the way Bismuth towers over Steven in a threatening way. The way she gets more and more out of control through the episode. We're supposed to be scared of her in this episode. Her actions in the second half of the episode have a sinister tone to…

Yeah, but if you think for how long they have been setting this up it just makes it way worse, you know? The character could have been introduced in a different way even. It's not that they needed to introduce her like that because they needed a justification for her being in Lion's mane, is that she was put in Lion's…

maybe both

I think that as an introduction to the character it did a poor job at making her seem nuanced and sympathetic in her views by the way they decided to portray it. It was something that would have benefited from being worked differently.
Instead we got a black coded character showing themselves as unreasonable extremist…

It makes as much sense as Peridot after being overwhelmed by the gems still managing to escape because Amethyst forgot she had a whip, I guess. I would not worry about the whole information thing, though. Peridot seems to know about these projects deeply and the other CG probably knew it too.