It’s time for another exciting episode of Overanalyzing Cartoon Characters!

(Disclaimer: I realize the costume designs are decided upon for aesthetic appeal and ease of animation, not anything this fatuous. Let me have my fun.)

So I was looking into techniques for soothing anxiety and found a little self-help guide for an energy practice called Jin Shin Jyutsu. This technique suggests holding body parts with delegated traits until the energy is released or the emotion soothed. The hand chart goes like this:

Naturally, I thought of Garnet’s gloves, and how portions of her fingers are covered. (Isn’t it adorable - and interesting - that her gems sit in the place of nourishment?)

In her season one gear, both gloves have a fingerpeice that wraps over - holds - the middle finger. All through season one, Garnet is struggling to get her team to work together, to protect Steven from physical threats and excessive knowledge of Gem culture (and her own identity), and to throw her own grief aside in order to be the leader everyone expects. She’s angry, frustrated, indecisive and irate, but is trying to soothe these emotions on both her hands.

In season two, however (and I’m going by the official sheets here because there were some animation errors in episodes), the covering on Sapphire’s side changed! Whilst her probable anger and frustration at Rose, for leaving her in charge, and at herself, for being unable to live up to that standard (exacerbated by Ruby and Sapphire, who have their own anxieties) does still exist, another factor has come into play that Garnet is desperately trying to suppress. The ring finger, in Jin Shan Jyutsu, represents sadness, fear of rejection, grief, and negativity. After Pearl’s betrayal of her over Sardonyx Week, Amethyst’s less-than-soothing commentary on the subject of fusion with the G Squad, and the impending mess with the cluster experiments, Garnet is in pain, with no one to vent to about it. She potentially fears what the clusters mean for her as a fusion, and grieves for the souls of those trapped in them. From the moment Garnet reformed in Jailbreak, she was feeling pessimistic - how are we going to get out of this? what does this mean for Earth? what brought the Homeworld to our shores? - and was afraid of Steven’s reaction to her being a fusion. She desperately wants to let her pessimism live and just say, “That’s it, we’re done, it’s over,” but she can’t, as a leader, and deep down could never personally allow herself that surrender. So she tries to sooth the emotion by covering the finger it’s associated with.