The Message
While it may seem like not much happens in this cartoon, if
you follow it through all the way, you’ll find that it has some good instances
of character and plot development. Like
most cartoons, it starts off nice and simple with Steven and Greg enjoying one
of life’s pleasures which is their shared passion of music as they come up with
album art and songs inspired by the time Lapis Lazuli stole the ocean to try and get home. It even features a
moving, albeit very brief, ballad about Lapis.
Then the plot gets more important when an ancient Gem artifact called a
wailing stone picks up a message, but all the Crystal Gems can hear is a loud
indescribable noise and the rest of the cartoon is them trying to make sense of
the noise to hear the message. It’s not
exactly the most exciting thing for a plot to revolve around given that all the
action takes place in one area and the long process of getting the message is
mostly heavy on explaining what goes into it.
However, no matter how you may feel about what goes on
entertainment-wise, it’s worth noting that what goes on is a good display of
everything about Greg’s character.
Although he’s a mere human who wouldn’t doesn’t really understand the
ways of Gems like the others do, he’s still willing to put in a good effort to
help them out with everything he does know, mainly his knowledge on sound
mixing showing the purpose of what we as an audience saw before the wailing stone was
heard. It’s hard to determine that his
plans will work, but it’s still great that he’s trying. Because of this, it’s easy to feel for him
when his first plan doesn’t work and he couldn’t help the Gems all through a
reworked version of the previous song.
However, there’s twist to the plan when the idea comes that while Greg’s
audio equipment didn’t work, video equipment is the way to go, which also
harkens back to something that occurred with Steven and Greg in the
beginning. Then, we get the most
engaging part of the cartoon which is the message itself. It’s of Lapis Lazuli informing them (mostly
Steven) of how she’s found out that Homeworld has changed so much while
she was trapped in the mirror, and more importantly that Peridot is coming to
Earth, and she isn’t alone.
While this conclusion is a great triumph for Greg, it’s foremost a major
foreshadow for what’s to come as we near the end of the season, and the worried
looks of Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl sell how major it is that they’ll
have to deal with Homeworld Gems again.
While this cartoon is on the slow side, it’s still easy to sit through
it and get a lot of impactful elements out of it. 9/10
The Ranking
- Rose’s Scabbard
- Ocean Gem
- Lion 3: Straight to Video
- Alone Together
- Coach Steven
- On the Run
- Story for Steven
- Maximum Capacity
- Mirror Gem
- An Indirect Kiss
- Space Race
- So Many Birthdays
- Steven the Sword Fighter
- Lion 2: The Movie
- Bubble Buddies
- Monster Buddies
- Laser Light Cannon
- Winter Forecast
- Giant Woman
- Lars and the Cool Kids
- The Test
- The Message
- Steven’s Lion
- Horror Club
- Watermelon Steven
- Gem Glow
- Steven and the Stevens
- Marble Madness
- Warp Tour
- Open Book
- Island Adventure
- Rose’s Room
- Cheeseburger Backpack
- Future Vision
- Secret Team
- House Guest
- Serious Steven
- Joking Victim
- Beach Party
- Cat Fingers
- Tiger Millionaire
- Together Breakfast
- Fusion Cuisine
- Frybo
- Shirt Club
- Onion Trade
- Arcade Mania
- Garnet’s Universe
- Keep Beach City Weird
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode when Homeworld's threat finds a way to affect the Beach City residents in "Political Power."
If you would like to check out other reviews on this blog, click here for the guide to all the reviews posted so far.
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