As I’m sure you all know, I posted a controversial claim a few days ago that Garnet should break up. Needless to say, this provoked an overwhelmingly negative reaction from certain groups, but among all the hateful comments there were actually a large number of valid criticisms that as the creator of this proposition I need to address. Make no mistake, I am not retracting my opinion, and I will not be backing down to bullies. What I’m doing is clarifying my platform to those who aren’t physically sickened by the suggestion that Garnet’s relationship may not be perfect.

Clarification 1: break up spend time apart

If there’s one important thing I’m going to say today it’s this: I do not think Ruby and Sapphire should break up.

Okay, what did I mean but that? Didn’t I just say I wasn’t going back on my opinion? Yes, I did, and I meant every word of it, but I also said I was going to clarify my platform, and part of that is admitting that I misspoke.

‘Bump into’ and ‘crash into’ are synonyms, as are ‘fired’ and ‘let go’. However, despite sharing the same literal definition, two phrases can mean very different things. The same is true for ‘break up’ and ‘spend some time apart’.

Yes, both refer to a couple suddenly not being a couple anymore, but the former involves pain, conflict and resentment, whereas the latter is calm, healthy and a promise of better things to come. It’s not an end, it’s merely an intermission.

My vision was never an ex-nihilo fight and tearful breakup between Ruby and Sapphire. They truly do love each other and such an event is not just out of character, it’s completely unthinkable!

No, I meant the latter: a blunder (such as the one in Hit The Diamond where their inseparability endangered lives) would force Ruby and Sapphire (or at the very least Sapphire) to acknowledge the fact that they’ve been each other for so long they’ve lost a small but important piece of themselves along the way and that stay together, they need to take some time to stay apart.

“Love takes work.”

Garnet herself said that, and having been in love for 5,750 years I think she knows what she’s talking about. That’s why I believe Ruby and Sapphire would be able to realize that an important part of love is finding a balance between being yourself and being a part of someone else.

Clarification 2: Bigotry

A huge portion of the vocal opposition for this proposition came from the accusation that it was influenced by bigotry. Now obviously I wouldn’t be watching Gay Space Rocks: The Animated Series if I had any resentment towards the lesbian community, but to be honest, the gibbering mouthers did have a point.

Settle down you… two?

Yes, I admit that there was bias involved in my opinion, but it was not homophobia I speak of. No, I was guilty of something a bit more deeply embedded in my amygdala: Speciesism

Yeah, turns out that gems aren’t really the same species as us (huge shocker that one) and as it happens, applying human standards of romance to a species who can literally combine into a single organism may not be the best idea.

By human standards, Ruby and Sapphire have codependence issues, and the inability to handle being apart for a few hours, even if a friend’s life was at stake as Peridot’s was in Hit The Diamond would be seriously bad for humans, but what we know about fusion changes things a lot.

Fusion is a strange concept that we humans don’t have an analogy for. While unstable fusions like Malachite and Alexandrite are basically just multiple individuals sharing a body, stable ones like Garnet are entities all on their own who don’t seem to have separate minds controlling them

I focused on the idea of Ruby and Sapphire as individuals, but the fact of the matter is that they really aren’t individuals. Sure, they may have minds of their own, but they have lived nearly 6000 years as Garnet, who had her own experiences, her own growth and her own evolution, all of which are only parts of her. As Garnet lived and who she was changed, those experiences disassembled and reassembled Ruby and Sapphire until who they were no longer made sense independently.

Put simply, when Garnet was first created, she was two gems, but now that she’s become her own gem Ruby and Sapphire are just pieces of her that aren’t even supposed to work separately.

So does this mean that my point is moot? That Ruby and Sapphire have no reason to split up

HELL NO!

Ruby and Sapphire may be able to fuse, but humans can’t, and until a species that can starts watching our cartoons it is completely irresponsible to teach kids that extreme codependence is a sign of a healthy relationship.

Furthermore, none of this changes the fact the fact that having them decide to spend time apart gives the show new directions for character development and more potential fusions to work with.