Interaction Update: Peridot and Lapis

Anonymous said:

I’m not sure if you’ve seen the newest episodes (Hit the Diamond, in particular) but I was curious on your thoughts about the Rubies, as well as any thoughts on Lapis Lazuli’s & Peridot’s character development thus far?

This post will mainly be analysis and speculation as to Lapis and Peridot’s relationship after the events of Hit the Diamond. I’ve spoken a little on this topic before, but since I’ve been talking about Lapis and Peridot a lot today, I think now’s a great time to go in-depth on the matter.

What’s nice here is that Peridot and Lapis have got the chance to develop in the context of each other through Steven. Although they were able to interact with the Crystal Gems in Hit the Diamond, I’m a firm believer that how people act in times of crisis aren’t who they really are, as stressors such as the need to survive usually take over and influence behaviour.

The following are some things I’ve observed from their relationship thus far.

1. They are ideologically opposed

Ideologies are almost always based on context. In order to get a good sense of why their beliefs are opposed to one another, I think their respective backgrounds are rather important. Lapis comes from pre-war Homeworld. It’s a place in which the ideal gem “cares about other gems” as she mentions in Mirror Gem/Ocean Gem. The glimpses we get of pre-war Homeworld from The Answer show a court with members ready to sacrifice themselves for the good of the many. Rubies, Quartzes, even civilians like Lapis were willing to put up with the horrors of war. To them, it was their society against a greater enemy. It was always their society as a collective facing something “other.”

Pre-war Homeworld is preoccupied with conquering planets and expanding their dominion. They acquired colonies and through this process were able to create more gems. We’re talking about a world where people think as a collective and for a cause greater than themselves.

The war changes this. Lapis felt what it was like to have your own side turn against you because of fear, because of paranoia. She was falsely accused and then imprisoned. These are actual things that happen to people during conflict and wars. And she was still willing to go back. In her mind, the collective gem society was right to be wary and to fear. Instead, she put the blame on the Other. The Crystal Gems decided to uproot the foundations of her society and they decided to pick a fight with her home. If they didn’t do this, she would still be living her every day life. That’s why she never believed in Earth. It was causing divisions in her home and it was making things deviate from the way they were.

We learn in Same Old World that Earth never did anything to her. But things happened on Earth and because of Earth that made her resent it. And from here, we can see Lapis not only holds on to this view of the “good of many” but also characteristically holds on to the past. I’ve said before that she holds grudges, that she brings up old grievances and old flaws. Steven calls her out on it in Barn Mates, but at her core, Lapis is the type who likes looking back. Despite everything that’s happened between Mirror Gem and Super Watermelon Island, in Same Old World, she’s missing Homeworld and still calls it home. In The Message, she’s realised there’s no place left for her on Homeworld, but in Same Old World, she wants to go back. That’s the kind of loyalty to and longing for a system that’s been good to her in a way that makes her wish she could just bring herself back to a time when things were like that. Despite Steven showing her an entirely new world where she could find a home, where Steven loves her, Peridot wants to be her friend, and she never has to be alone again.

In sharp contrast we have Peridot. Message Received was deliberately set up for us to think Peridot was going to betray the Crystal Gems, but she didn’t. Because Peridot has one core characteristic as well. Whatever fits into her frame of logic is what she goes by. New information available to her can lead to a paradigm shift. No indoctrination required. Because Peridot doesn’t want to hold on to things that are no longer relevant. After she determined Yellow Diamond wasn’t the impartial figure she thought she was, that was it. After Steven showed her there were things on Earth worth protecting, that was it. Peridot makes alliances based on what makes sense to her, and that rapidly changes with new information. She’s not swayed by flowery words and pleas for the “greater good.” Quantify that need to her; explain what “greater good” is; give her data to work with because she’s smart and draws her own conclusions.

Peridot represents new Homeworld. She hasn’t experienced the war and she doesn’t know everything about it. She doesn’t live in an era of extreme tension, in which self-sacrifice for others was the biggest value. After the war, the goal is to rebuild. Making smart decisions about how to use limited resources, like time, gems, and land, that’s what Peridot is good at. Given her role as a technician, she’d also often be working alone. She was sent on a solo mission to Earth to check on YD’s pet project. Given the way she acted in Warp Tour, it’s safe to assume that she’s done this solo before as well.

Suddenly, the collective isn’t as important. If all the jobs were compartmentalised and systematised (because Peridot has a supervisor now) and everything was pre-assigned, then individual talent and skill is premium. This is why compared to soldiers we see in new Homeworld, like the Ruby Squad, who jump all over each other and interact with physical contact, Peridot shies away from physical contact. Because soldiers are trained as a collective. They have to drag each other out of the war zone if necessary. You’re only as strong as your weakest member. On the other hand, skills like Peridot’s are honed through her own hard work and skills. She’s sent on solo missions. There’s very little space for her to interact this intimately with others. And it would explain much of her physical aversion to pats and hugs in the earlier parts of the series. That’s why it was a big step that she jump in and save Amethyst in Too Far.

Peridot looks to the future, looks forward, and doesn’t look back. Peridots didn’t even exist during the time Lapis was on Homeworld. Pearl and Garnet had never seen one in Warp Tour. She has limb enhancers that fit her needs so incredibly well. She fits in perfectly in Homeworld and all its new technology, as we’ve seen her operating the Hand Ship and the Kindergarten control room.

Looking at it from that perspective, of course Lapis would have a teensy bit of resentment watching someone like Peridot. She’s already lost her ties to Homeworld because Homeworld just went through post war rebuilding without her. Home’s focus has shifted towards technology and other things that no longer seem like the collectivist society she loved. And here are gems who didn’t appreciate the collectivist ideal, fitting into the collective when she couldn’t. It hurts. Then Steven comes along and offers her a new home, only for her to find out Peridot, one of those new-age gems, has taken that too.

The way they dress also reflects this. While Lapis’ clothes are flowy and loose (and don’t carry the yellow diamond), Peridot wears what appears to be Homeworld standard uniform. Lapis visibly feels like she doesn’t belong, and someone blatantly smacking her in the face as a reminder isn’t helping her get past that.

This phenomenon is very similar to what we experience in our society now. “Millennials” get so much flak for being born in an “easier time,” never having known the hardship of war. Those born immediately after wars, or the post-war generations believe that millennials are self-absorbed, entitled, and don’t understand what it means to work with others. On the other hand, many millennials feel like these earlier generations don’t understand the demands of life today, that their actions are necessary to survive in this 24/7, always on the go lifestyle, where jobs are incredibly specialised and “what makes them different” is what gets them employed. There are just many, many levels of misunderstanding and a loss of nuance, and it’s a function of context.

This is why this scene in Hit the Diamond is so significant.

Peridot comes out and puts herself on the line for her friends. Without being asked or prompted, and more importantly, despite orders that she stay in the barn and out of sight.

It’s a clear sign that Peridot isn’t completely apathetic to others. She cares about other gems, something Lapis deems very important. And to me, it’s a good start for how their relationship will pan out. Because to both these characters, talk is cheap. Both Lapis and Peridot don’t get swayed by words alone. They need action to prove things are worth caring about and listening to. We’re not going to see a magical transformation into friendship, but rather a series of small gestures, similar to the ones in Log Date 7 15 2, that add up into a tangible shift in their interactions.

2. They have personal issues to work out before they can be something resembling “friends”

But before the two have a relationship resembling that of the Crystal Gems’s (so any hopes for a second team should be put on hold for a little while), they still have their own issues that must be dealt with. For instance, Lapis still loathes the CGs. She’s starting to understand that it’s not Earth’s fault per se, but there are still things between Lapis and the CGs that need to be addressed. Just because she played along in Hit the Diamond, doesn’t mean the tension hasn’t dissipated. Notice that while the CGs (Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, Steven, Peri) are all clumped together in the Barn, Lapis stands alone and apart from the group. She’s not comfortable with them yet. She’s not going to call herself a CG, but she knows that now (with the Ruby Squad about to shake them down) isn’t a good time to air out that grudge.

Because Peridot is proudly calling herself a Crystal Gem, (which is a nice contrast to someone like Amethyst whose CG life is “all she’s ever known, by the way) and there’s still a long ways to go before Lapis can even begin to approach this subject.

Lapis hasn’t yet figured out where she stands with the senior CGs. Similar to Peridot’s sacrifice at the end of Hit the Diamond, I think she responded well to their wanting to protect Peridot at the start of the episode, and it’s what made her agree to the baseball game in the first place. But she’s still holding anger towards the CGs. As a civilian, I get where that anger is coming from. Because when people fight wars, civilians are the hardest hit. Every time NATO or another international body “intervenes” in a warring state, yes, the target is the terrorist cell, but people who are taken hostage, who just happen to live there and have nowhere to go, who are at the wrong place at the wrong time, are also hit hard. When the CGs declared war, they target Homeworld and Homeworld targeted the CGs, but a lot of gems like Lapis were crushed or poofed, or lost in between these two giants.

That’s an issue that hasn’t been addressed yet. Lapis has shown that whatever the stand on Earth, it’s besides the point. Her problem was that gems died and no one cared about the nameless, faceless people lost and used for political reasons.

That leads to a lot of anger on her part. At the moment, it’s just floating around in her somewhere. She has no where to direct it, and it does partially explain her hostility towards Peridot. She wants to hold someone accountable for everything that’s happened, but there’s no avenue for that yet. In order to start a new relationship where she feels safe and comfortable, the way she does with Steven, she has to start fresh. The reason she gets along well with Steven is that the latter has no history with her. Everything is a clean slate.

On the other hand, Peridot is still coming to terms with where she belongs now that she’s chosen her side. Clearly Peri isn’t going to be a conventional Crystal Gem. She prefers her own space out at the barn instead of living with everyone in the Temple. And Peridot still has to work on her empathy and understanding others.

Because when Peridot picks a side, she injects herself deep within it. In Hit the Diamond, she referred to herself as “the leader of the Crystal Gems.” It’s a lofty thing to have, and it’s because Peridot really does have trouble reading other people and picking up on social cues.

At times, she doesn’t even know how she herself feels, but her feelings seem to be magnified in her experiences, like feeling small, or feeling like the leader of the resistance. In order to find her place, she appropriates things. We see her using Amethyst turns of phrase like “I got cho’ number, girl.” She does a very neat social trick in which she copies mannerisms and actions that other people do in order to find more acceptance within a group, things that are deemed “normal” or “appropriate” in the right place and the right time, because she can’t decipher them herself. She’s looking into patterns of behaviour and copying them.

That’s not necessarily a wrong thing. But it leads us to question whether she can understand Lapis, who by and large doesn’t say what she’s feeling and leaves only little nonverbal cues to clue us in. Because there’s a very strong chance she’ll offend Lapis if she does what she’s doing, and with Lapis already having a small chip on her shoulder about Peridot, it’s something she does as with risk.

And Peridot is making moves to try understanding people. This is the conclusion she made in Too Far, and in Log Date we see she’s actively trying to do so. But it would be nice for her to have a firm foot on understanding herself before she moves on to someone like Lapis. Because it’s painful to see her be hurt in the way Lapis hurt her when she crushed Peridot’s tape recorder, and I for one would very much like to avoid scenes like that again.

So Lapis needs an exercise in catharsis for letting go, sensitivity, and control, while Peridot needs to work on also sensitivity, empathy, and slowing down. Because both these gems need time to work out their own issues before jumping into a friendship that, like all relationships, take time and effort.

3. Lapis’ befriending Peridot would open up a lot of doors

Some people that I’d like to see Lapis interact with are Greg and Connie. They’re humans and don’t have a history with the war. It would be a refreshing thing to have her meet them and leave behind all the baggage if only for the moment they’re together. Especially Connie, because her impression of Lapis right now is “Water gem who tried to drown me and took the ocean.” It would be interesting because this time, Connie is the civilian who became victim to Lapis’ agenda, in the same way Lapis was victim to the Rebellion and the war.

And of course I’d like Lapis to slowly come to terms with the CGs. Again, I don’t think she’d just up and declare herself a CG too, but she’d probably hang around the barn and the water tower and help out when the going gets tough.

But I think the key to these doors opening is indeed a friendship with Peridot. Because Peridot is someone also without the baggage of the war. If Lapis and Peridot can put their ideological differences aside, they’ll be able to see they have a lot to get along with. Peridot doesn’t have war baggage, but she has post-war baggage Lapis needs to move past (the entire idea of being a “new-age” gem). Her relationship with Steven was a start because he was a total unknown, a completely blank slate. The next step, a relationship with Peridot, would be slowly opening up to the present issues she’s carrying around, those regarding present Homeworld.

And it would open doors towards her dealing with even older issues, particularly the beef she has with the older CGs about the war. For me, it’s a slow process. Not all people are as keen and quick to forgive and forget the way Steven is. Not all people immediately see the good in others. Some people really are like Lapis, or really are like Peridot, in the sense that you need to prove yourself to them before they find you’re worth it.

These individuals are not the initiators of new relationships, but that doesn’t mean they won’t make that relationship worth your while when it’s there.

These two are very loyal, very giving, and very concerned about others. They show it in very detached ways, but it’s earnest, even if they don’t always express it that way. What Peridot said in Barn Mates is absolutely right. They’re both searching for a “home away from Home,” and at least this way they wouldn’t be going it alone.

If you’re interested in the Character Update series, you can check these out:

Character Update: Peridot

Character Update: Jasper

Character Update: Lapis