Three Very Long Stories

(This was a comment I posted on a SU recap on The Mary Sue, but I’m also posting it here with some edits because I love it so much.)



My greatest wish is for Steven to create his own team consisting of the Homeworld Trio.

There’s a lot of pressure for the little dude to step into Rose’s shoes, but the Crystal Gems are Rose’s team. Rose was the one who brought them together, and her memory through Steven is the glue that holds them together. The Crystal Gems are like family to him, but for Steven to truly step out from his mother’s shadow and become his own person, he needs to do things his own way, and accomplish things that not even Rose thought were possible. Very soon he’s not going to need mentors who teach him how to be as much like Rose as possible, but he will need friends who will show him how to be the best Steven he can be, and I think each of the trio are in a unique position to do that for him.

With Peridot, Steven finally meets a Gem who’s less experienced than he is. I think a lot of her redemption arc is going to involve Steven becoming a mentor for her, teaching her about her powers and how to live on Earth. Having the chance to be in the teaching role for once is going to do wonders for that boy’s self-confidence and help them both grow.

With Lapis, there are already huge Pearl parallels. She seems hellbent on sacrificing herself for Steven, just like Pearl was for Rose, but it becomes clear that both of their self-sacrificing streaks come not from a selfless desire to protect but as a symptom of their own underlying psychological issues. It’s pretty clear that Rose never addressed Pearl’s issues, either because she didn’t know how and didn’t have the heart to tell Pearl she was wrong to sacrifice herself, or because she didn’t notice. Through helping Lapis learn how to live for herself again, Steven’s going to learn how to handle complex and difficult situations with tact, and avoid making the same mistakes his mother did by making every effort to not become a distant messiah figure who’s out of touch with the people he cares about.

His potential relationship with Jasper is what I’m most intrigued by. Their philosophies are antitheses of each other; Steven the communalist who wants everyone to get along, Jasper the rugged individualist 90’s comic book antihero. That alone could lead to a fascinating clash of personalities. But what I really think Jasper’s role in all of this is to show Steven the other side of his mother. The warrior, the tactician, the Gem who wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty, the Gem who the Crystal Gems try to hide behind a veneer of saintly kindness so Steven doesn’t have to face the negative aspects of his heritage and the war. But Jasper fought on the other side, and she has a perspective of Rose that the other Gems don’t, and would have no qualms about telling Steven about the darker aspects of the war and his mother’s history. And Jasper does have a lot of visual similarities to Rose that I don’t think are a coincidence - her height, the fact that her weapon is somewhat defensive in nature, the way her bangs fall across her face. I’m thinking that Jasper’s going to “complete” the niche that Rose left behind by taking on those aspects of Rose that Steven doesn’t want to, and doing the actual leading into battle.



We’ve already seen a bit of this when Steven showed no interest in sword fighting and gave Rose’s sword to Connie, even though “Rose’s Scabbard” made it look like it was Steven’s destined weapon he’d have to take up. He handed that aspect of his mother’s legacy to someone else who wanted it more and could make use of it, rather than shouldering it himself and turning it into a burden. This is a huge indication that the ideal development for Steven is not becoming a clone of Rose; he respects her legacy and what she left behind for him, but he has his own needs and wants, and those don’t always align with who everyone else wants him to be. So he gives them away to people who need them more, and can make use of them. I definitely think he’s going to have some serious qualms about the warrior commander role his mother once occupied that the Gems expect him to grow into, given that he’s rejected the offensive parts of his mother’s legacy by giving up her sword, while embracing the defensive and pacifistic parts through embracing her shield and seeking nonviolent solutions. However, with the possibility of Homeworld’s forces returning to Earth, they’re going to need a leader who can guide them into a fight and ensure they return alive. Garnet’s growing into her own as a leader, but she’s still new to it, and it’s clear from “Keystone Motel” that it’s a struggle for her to bear the weight of command alone. When the time comes for the Crystal Gems to defend themselves and the people of Beach City, she’s going to need help, and Steven’s not experienced enough to provide that assistance, nor does it seem like he has that much interest in becoming a warrior-tactician like his mother was. But who do we know who’s a war veteran, is comfortable with taking charge, and is probably familiar with Modern Homeworld’s battle tactics? And who could have a really compelling arc with Garnet as she becomes auxiliary leader and learns more about her point of view? Jasper.



Steven also expressed an interest in strength training from as early as “Coach Steven,” and it’s clear that stamina is one of the things he needs to work on with regards to his powers. Pearl can’t really help him with that, since her deal is precision and skill rather than strength. However, that is an area which Jasper could definitely help him with. I could definitely see them developing a mentor/student relationship, with Jasper eventually becoming his second in command and handling all the battle stuff for him until he’s skilled enough to take the reigns in emergencies, and is ready to make that decision as to whether or not battle is a part of his mother’s legacy that he wishes to embrace. I could also see her becoming a confidant for him with regards to Gem Stuff, being able to talk to her about the war and his mom in a frank way that he couldn’t with the Crystal Gems (due to their own perception of Rose as her dearest friends, their desire to protect Steven, and Steven’s own desire to not hurt their feelings by reopening old wounds) or Greg and Connie (as much as he loves them, they’re humans, and they’re coming at things from a completely different perspective than Steven. Greg might be the most knowledgeable human on the planet about Gem history, but there’s a lot of stuff that even he doesn’t know).

Basically, I don’t think it was a coincidence that we were introduced to three Homeworld Gems, and that they’re paralleled to the three Crystal Gems in the extended intro. I want Steven’s relationships with these three to become Steven’s own “three very long stories,” and for him to mean as much to them as Rose did to the Crystal Gems.

