All these Peridot episodes are killing me because Peridot is so adorable I can't stand it. I love how she's slowly learning away from the homeworld prejudices.

But the bad news is, apparently there won't be any more episodes this year. Just when I was getting used to this show running weekly again. ;_;

There is finally a clear version of the extended opening! Spoiler tagged just in case, but there's nothing very spoilery about it if you have seen season 1 finale. (there is a silhouette of a future character though)

!

! I have to add, I really like the small moment where Steven is asleep and Greg and the gems are just silently staring at each other. It tells a lot about their relationship without any words.

I liked this chapter a lot! I never felt much for Rebecca, but I still found this conclusion touching. I don't understand how people can see this as stretching the plot, I think the conclusion chapters are always the best part of the arc.

I didn't read through the whole thread, but I saw a lot of arguments for and against Rebecca. I don't really find her annoying, but I've come to realise how incredibly bland she is. She is mostly defined through her relationship with Kyros, and Kyros's tragic story is definitely the stronger side of their tale. I haven't paid attention to this before, but now I can't think of a single interesting personality trait that would define Rebecca. Dislikes violence? Seriously, that was mentioned in maybe two instances. Doesn't want to hurt anyone, I guess, but wasn't that mostly because her mother told her so? She has a strong desire to be with her father/the soldier, but is that really a personality trait? I would just describe her as a generic nice girl who was forced to fight. That serves the story ok, but it still doesn't make Rebecca herself very interesting.

By the way, I might have missed this in the manga or it has been discussed before, but it has been bugging me for a long time. Was it ever explained how everyone knew Rebecca was king Riku's granddaughter? Her mother "died" to the eyes of the public and she clearly wasn't Violet's daughter.

@Wagomu:

This seems more likely. If Pearl was projecting in her song with Connie (and Pearl is

), lines like "you weren't built for fighting" support your idea.

Not to mention that Jasper called Pearl "some lost, defective pearl", so she's definitely unusual in some way. I've also seen speculaton that Pearls could be disposable, possibly mass-produced soldiers. Pearl's "I'm just a pearl" in the most recent episode seems to confirm that pearls are somehow lower class, and used to taking orders from someone. Though I think Pearl's attachment to Rose might also be just because Rose probably was the first person to show compassion towards her. Nevertheless, I can't wait to learn more about how everyone met Rose.

That was some excellent editing. I was on a verge of tears by the end of the video. (for new watchers, spoilers up to We need to talk, I think)

! This episode and the Sugilite episode go together perfectly. Just a few days ago Pearl's song was playing in my head: "Can't you see that she's out of control and overzealous? I'm telling you for your own good, and not because I'm- I could show you how to be strong… in the real way." Before that I hadn't realized that Pearl ends her sentence before "jealous", and I was wondering why she would be so jealous of Sugilite, since she clearly had no self control. But now it makes sense, because didn't Sugilite also say "It feels so great to be me"?
! Garnet is my favorite of the gems because I love how she has so much self-confidence without coming off as cocky. That's quite rare to see, but it also makes sense why she would love herself so much, given her backstory. But Pearl and Amethyst are both super insecure about themselves, so it makes sense that they both enjoy fusing with Garnet. It doesn't make them feel strong only physically, but mentally.
! That said, I agree that Steven Universe has a habit of making its characters go slightly overboard for the sake of plot. What Pearl did this episode was pretty similar to how Greg pretended that Steven didn't heal him so they could hang out. I can understand both of their motivations, but I would still expect them to think "Wow, I really shouldn't carry out such an elaborate lie just because I'm selfish".
! Strong start for the week! I can't wait to see the rest~

Another Steven Bomb is coming!

Starting from June 15.

http://stevencrewniverse.tumblr.com/post/119974401732/hiatus-ends-june-15-more-details-coming

Nice to see a thread for talking about old One Piece stuff too!

I've read the manga volume-by-volume since it was first released in Finland. I remember that my first reaction was something like "this is pretty weird… but I kinda like it?" I look fondly back to how awkward the finnish translation was in the first volume (for example, Zoro was called L'ollonois Zolo, but it was changed immediately in the second volume). What I liked about the first chapters was the immediate mutual respect Zoro and Luffy had for each other. I think my favorite panels from the first volume would have to be where Luffy says "Nice, Zoro!" and he responds with "no problem, captain". I feel like they established a relationship all the way back then that has not faltered along the journey.

Little things that stood out from the next volumes:

• I remember that when the end of volume 1 mentioned that Buggy had also eaten a devil fruit, at first I thought it meant that he could stretch too. Oh, One Piece would have been so boring if devil fruits gave out only one power.
• When Luffy punches Moji, it was weird to see Luffy to make a seriously angry face for the first time. It seemed a bit out of place back then.
• I always liked how Oda dropped seemingly random details about characters in the first volumes, and they later became relevant. Nami's "I hate pirates, but I like money and tangerines" comes to mind.
• The first time that One Piece made me laugh out loud was when Usopp asked the gang what they can do. "I cut" "I stretch" "I steal" "...I hide" :')
• I always forget how much fun Johnny and Yozaku were. Plus, it was really cool that they met former colleagues of Zoro who were shocked to see he had joined a pirate crew.

While I had grown fond of One Piece with the first 5 volumes, it was volume 6 that sealed the deal. The twist between Zoro and Mihawk was so unexpected and gave so much promise of things to come, I was completely hooked. Plus the oath Zoro makes to Luffy was cool as heck. I always thought it was weird that this moment hasn't been the defining point for many other readers (everyone just mentions Arlong Park). Volume 7 was a bit of a disappointment, because Luffy was all ready to kick ass at the end of vol 6 but he wasn't even able to do much in 7. Pearl was such a fodder villain, he was weird but not really funny and he was just there to beat Sanji up. But Sanji's backstory was very memorable anyway, Zeff eating his own leg was shocking for sure. I especially liked how Sanji's story related to Luffy's. Well, I liked vol 8 much better and it was only uphill from there...

I got slightly worried for a second that Doflamingo might get beaten too easily… But oh man, Oda didn't disappoint. That last page with Luffy is way too cool. I expected him to just punch Doffy to stop the kick, like he's previously done to many villains. But this worked much better. I'm super hyped for the next chapter!

Here is one of the creators explaining it on Tumblr:

In the world of the show, Gems are an alien species that don’t have a gender binary. They are all the same. (This is very common in fiction. Think of alien species like the Namekians in Dragon Ball.)

Steven on the other hand was created by mixing human and gem DNA so he’s a completely new kind of being. He is the only gem to be born thru biological reproductive means(Rose shapeshifted a womb for him to be born from). In Earth terms, he identifies as male so the Crystal Gems have no problem using he/him pronouns with him. (Jasper, who has no concept of this, refers to Steven as if he is Rose)
This is similar to how all Smurfs were “male” before Smurfette was created by Gargamel.
That said, Gems have the ability to take on gendered forms if they choose to. You’ve seen Amethyst do this.

The same person also said this earlier:

In the world of the show, Gems are an alien species that use she/her pronouns for each other

I think it's really cool that the show creators answer the questions from the fans so actively, there's a lot of cool details I've found by going through their Tumblr accounts. Apparently even if the gems are not organic, they can still shapeshift functional reproductive organs (though maybe this was the first time it happened with Rose). I love how the creators have paid attention to even all kinds of biological details about the gems.