Hey everyone!
This is Hailey from Cartoon Universe, and
after a long, long, long time, I am back with
another analysis video by Poet of the Piano!
They have written this video, so if you enjoyed
it make sure to check out their tumblr to
see all of their other analysis pieces, and
give them a follow!
So with that, let’s begin!
Change Your Mind introduced a lot of mind-bending
concepts.
It also blew a lot of speculation out of the
water by delivering to us precisely the most
extreme scenarios.
Off the top of the list are: showing us Obsidian,
the long-speculated Temple Gem Fusion, Lapis
and Peridot’s Crystal Gem regenerations,
and of course, the age-old, “What would
happen if we pulled out Steven’s Gem?”
This video will be tackling the implications
of that last one.
If it hasn’t yet been made clear at this
point, there will be some serious spoilers
ahead for Change Your Mind.
So, to get everyone on the same page, the
climax of the movie has the Crystal Gems face
off against White Diamond, but she incapacitates
them easily with her mind projection powers.
More on those powers later.
With ease, White picks up Steven and plucks
out his gem, expecting Pink Diamond to reform.
Instead, after cycling through the silhouette
of Pink Diamond and then Rose Quartz, a pink
Steven is formed.
White Diamond is shocked and tries to use
her powers on Steven’s Gem-half, or the
Pink Split Steven as he’s called by the
Crewniverse (http://joethejohnston.tumblr.com/post/182238709428/if-gems-cant-fuse-with-humans-how-did-stevens)
but he uses his shield against her.
Gem-Steven finally makes it to a very weakened
human-Steven, and they fuse in what is one
of the smoothest animation sequences in the
show.
Steven re-forms and White throws a tantrum.
Steven diffuses the situation and he and Connie
laugh at White, causing her to blush and turn
pink.
This causes White to release her control over
the other Gems and shifts the story into the
resolution.
A couple of interesting things happen in this
scene, and White says some cryptic things.
To better understand what on earth happened
when Steven’s gemstone was separated from
this body, it would help to look at why White,
and all the other Gems, had such a hard time
wrapping their minds around Steven’s being,
well, Steven, and not Pink Diamond or Rose
Quartz.
With that, let’s get started.
1.
Homeworld’s concept of Identity is tied
to the Gemstone
First things first, let’s delve into Homeworld’s
concept of identity.
On Homeworld, a Gem’s “Self,” or however
you want to call it: their identity, their
essence, their being, whatever makes that
Gem an individual, is intrinsically tied to
their Gemstone.
It’s the main reason why Gems address each
other by their Gemstone.
Calling someone by their name is tantamount
to recognising them as a being separate from
the rest.
It also reinforces the idea of homogeneity
on Homeworld.
Every class of Gems is expected to fulfil
a particular purpose.
As Yellow Diamond said, “From a thin flake
of mica to the deepest, hardest stone, we
all must make sacrifices for the sake of our
perfect empire.”
Early on in the series, we already got the
sense from Pearl that Gems were replaceable,
but the hints we were getting that this applied
even to the Diamonds were finally confirmed
in the movie.
Even if the Diamonds were all just porcelain
figurines speaking on behalf of White, we’re
led to believe it wouldn’t have been questioned
by the rest of Homeworld.
In short, on Homeworld, identity is tied to
purpose, and that purpose is defined by one’s
Gemstone.
This makes sense as each class of Gems has
unique Gem abilities.
Rubies can superheat themselves, Sapphires
have future vision, Lapis Lazulis have hydro-kinesis,
and the like.
And these abilities would define what each
Gem could accomplish.
That’s problematic in itself, and we’ll
be talking about that later.
But first, what does this all mean for Steven?
In White Diamond’s eyes, no matter what
form “Pink Diamond” takes, her Gemstone
would remain the same: The Pink Diamond.
That’s why it was no problem for White Diamond
to extract Steven’s Gemstone from the rest
of him.
White was operating under the notion that
everything that was needed to bring back Pink
was all there in the Gemstone.
She saw Steven as an organic being separate
from the Gemstone, much like we would view
clothing as something we could freely take
on and off on a whim.
And that’s what was so damaging about White’s
dismissiveness.
She honestly believed Steven was just another
one of Pink’s “whims.”
Her viewing Steven as nothing more than an
organic shell was not out of malice against
Steven himself.
She didn’t even acknowledge Steven was his
own individual from the get-go, because she
was incapable of thinking that it was even
a possibility.
For millennia, she believed that this one
thing was true, and she wasn’t making an
effort to understand this new information
in front of her as a sign that her worldview
should be re-evaluated.
That leads to the next idea.
2.
The Diamonds comprise Homeworld’s Idealised
Version of the “Self”
Since The Trial, it’s been noted that even
among Diamonds, there are differences in Gem
abilities.
Yellow Diamond could not seem to induce empathy
by imposing her emotions on other Gems, and
Blue Diamond could not seem to “poof”
Gems by disrupting their physical forms.
While this already foreshadows how the Diamonds
cannot live in the perfect system where the
individual is suppressed in favour of a Gem’s
class, there other implication is that the
Diamonds each have a dimension of the Self
that corresponds to their abilities, and,
as the movie shows us, their identities.
Yellow Diamond is the physical dimension of
the Self.
Her lightning can disrupt the manifestation
of a Gem’s physical form.
It was her powers first that caused Centi
to return to her Nephrite form.
Narratively, Yellow Diamond was the first
face we saw of the Great Diamond Authority.
It is her presence that informed us, for a
long time, what Homeworld was like.
Similar to the way the first thing we observe
about someone else is their physical appearance,
if only because it’s the first thing to
notice.
Yellow Diamond was, by all appearances, perfect
at her job.
She conquered more planets than Blue, and
we were led to believe took over most of Blue’s
responsibilities when the latter went into
mourning.
But that was just the surface.
In the scene we’re analysing, White says
that Yellow is so strong, but weak when it
comes to Blue.
Yellow was suppressing her emotions.
In “What’s the Use of Feeling (Blue)?”
she tried to put aside her grief for Pink
instead of dealing with it.
Emotions are her weakness, not because she’s
incapable of feeling, but because she’s
terrible at dealing with those feelings.
Blue Diamond is the emotional dimension of
the Self.
This is evident in her powers.
We know at this point that “using her power”
on someone means having them feel the way
she feels.
In Legs from Here to Homeworld, Centi was
able to vocalise her emotions, more than the
screeches and clicks she had been using to
communicate until then.
Moreover, Blue was the most visibly emotional
about Pink’s death.
She openly mourned for her, and it was something
that the other Diamonds were well aware of.
In White Diamond’s words, Blue “thinks
she needs” Pink, because her colour soaks
up the warmth.
Before getting to that, let’s talk about
White Diamond.
When the Diamonds were trying to heal Centi,
with Steven, they were unsuccessful, because
it wasn’t sustainable.
Yellow says, “How long do you expect us
to hold her together?”
And this sparked the entire endeavour to try
involving White Diamond and going to Homeworld
in the first place.
White Diamond is the mental dimension of the
Self.
Just as Blue is able to project her emotions
onto other Gems, White projects her mind.
When White uses her power, the Gems affected
act as her mouthpieces, and she speaks and
moves through them.
By no means does this mean that White is “controlling”
their minds though.
Earlier in the movie, Blue uses her powers
on Steven and despite his tears, he’s laughing.
He doesn’t feel sad or guilty, and so even
though Blue’s powers affected him, they
could not conquer his true emotions.
Similarly, it is not without strain that White
Diamond is able to use her powers.
After turning the Crystal Gems white, she
says, “I’d rather not spread my uninhibited
self so thin, you know.”
It’s not that she has changed their minds.
She has suppressed their minds in favour of
her own.
White’s power is dangerous because in our
modern society, we often put the mind on top
of everything.
Many today claim that the seat of the soul
or the self is the brain.
We tell ourselves “Mind over matter,”
or “Don’t be so emotional, be rational.”
We put such a premium on the mind that the
other dimensions of the Self are often neglected.
In the same way, White has locked herself
in her own head, both figuratively and literally
(because she’s in a Head Ship).
She has deduced that her worldview about the
roles of Gems is the most rational, and as
the most rational, she has put her own opinions
above those of everyone.
3.
Pink, the fourth dimension of the Self
When White says that Blue’s weakness is
Pink, she’s talking about everything Steven
represents throughout the show.
Steven has shown time and time again that
open communication is the key to resolving
conflict.
He trusts his gut feel, that some new enemy
cannot truly be bad and cannot truly be an
enemy.
He both relies on others and pushes them be
the best they can be.
Pink represents the social aspect of the Self.
That feeling of warmth that White described
that Blue needed, exists in between individuals.
Pink Diamond had a less-than-professional
relationship with Pink Pearl.
She wanted to spend time with her Quartzes.
But in the end, she ran away from the social
relationship that needed to be mended the
most.
Rose Quartz saw the individuals in each of
the Crystal Gems.
She believed in everyone’s ability to change,
though she couldn’t see it in herself.
Though she engaged the Diamonds, the relationship
was destructive, and she fought them.
The social Self is fully realised in Steven.
Rather than completely ignoring the relationship
with the Diamonds, or engaging them in a destructive
way, he chose to reconstruct their relationship.
And following the logic that the “impurities”
in each of the three Diamonds absorb the light
of another, Pink’s weakness would be White.
This is clearly seen in her smaller physical
stature compared to the other three Diamonds.
There may be some doubt regarding how quickly
White changed her mind after blushing, but
there are a number of factors that tell us
it was an organic response to the events that
had happened.
First, blushing is perceived as a social symbol.
Anthropologists have long studied why we blush,
and more often than not, it comes out as a
social signal that we have done wrong and
are showing that we are aware of it.
That would be the subtext of the scene.
By becoming off-colour, White was truly engaging
with the social sphere around her for the
first time in millennia.
She was pulled out of her own head, and even
calls to Blue and Yellow for help.
Second thing of note is what White says when
she realises, she’s turned pink.
She insists that “I’m in control.”
When we involve other individuals, other “Selves,”
we can never fully predict how they will act.
Other beings are always a wild variable and
outside our locus of control.
That’s why Steven was so effective against
White Diamond’s rhetoric.
In their confrontation earlier, White was
rationalising Steven’s actions, causing
him to doubt himself.
Telling him he was surrounding himself with
inferior Gems to feel better about himself,
asserting that there was no way he could know
things about Pink Diamond without her still
being in his Gem, these were attacks on the
mind.
In other words, White was saying, “what
logical reason would you have to surround
yourself with Gems who were defective, or
of lower standing?
What use could they have?” which is the
mantra of Homeworld.
From a purely utilitarian standpoint, the
only thing he could be getting out of it was
the satisfaction of knowing he were superior,
that he was helping those who could not help
themselves.
White says as much when she dismisses Steven.
She says, “It's a pity, the way you bring
out the worst in others.
See how you've encouraged their deficiencies?
It's written all over their gems: insecure,
dependent, obsessed.”
Later she tells him to “Please stop helping
them.
You'll only make things worse.
That's what you do.
I make things better.”
White’s point is that according to Gem logic,
Gems of the same class should be behaving
the same way.
They should be similar in all respects because
their gemstones, their identities, are the
same.
She applies this logic to Steven himself,
when she takes the Gem from him.
Much as most people today view the mind as
the seat of the self, White believed earnestly
that the gemstone was the seat of the Gem-self.
What she forgets is that we are never just
individuals in a vacuum.
All of us exist as an individual among individuals.
If we take into account recognising a “Self”
in everyone, then Pink, Rose, and Steven’s
actions take on a new meaning.
We hear these examples coming from Blue, that
back then Pink would make White angry by doing
things like naming Pyrite “Fool’s Gold,”
something other than their Gem name.
The Crystal Gems were inspired by Rose because
she told them to be who they were.
Steven takes this one step further.
He found uniqueness within Gems of the same
class and called them by name, as he did with
the Ruby Squad.
He recognised the differences in the Diamonds
instead of calling them a nebulous “they.”
He tried to rebuild a broken relationship
and he didn’t do it alone.
He wouldn’t have been anywhere close to
accomplishing this without the Crystal Gems,
Connie, the citizens of Beach City, and the
other Diamonds.
Conclusion
That is the why Steven was so effective against
White.
The latter prides herself on being logical
and rational.
But staying in her own head had made her reach
certain conclusions without taking in all
of the information.
When Steven put things into context, when
he brought her back into the greater context,
that logical self of hers saw there was something
missing.
She became conscious of herself not only as
a disembodied consciousness, but also as someone
in front of others.
The exchange implies that as much as we develop
ourselves and try to progress in the world,
it means nothing if we lose sight of other
people.
To impose ourselves on others, and to deny
individuality, also causes us to lose a part
of ourselves.
If the Diamonds were to represent a whole,
then narratively, Pink’s disappearance would
be the best metaphor.
The Diamonds suffered in silence for so long
because they trapped themselves within themselves,
following White’s mandate of “Mind over
everything.”
It was only through communicating with each
other that the door finally opened.
And this is just the start.
And that wraps up this analysis video.
If you enjoyed this video and want to get
notified of any others we got coming up in
the next few weeks, make sure to subscribe!
Also, please check out Poet’s analysis blog
to check out what else they have been up to.
And thank you Starry for editing the video.
If you’d like to support us, consider becoming
a Patron or joining the Cartoon Universe Amino
fan club.
Links are in the description below.
We really appreciate all the love and support
from our fans.
Look forward to more Steven Universe videos,
as well as a Dragon Prince video, coming up
soon!
We still have a lot to talk about, and I hope
I can join you all there.
Thank you for watching and have an animated
day!
