'Toon Reviews 6: Steven Universe Season 1 Episode 45

Rose’s Scabbard

One of the best things about this show is how well it fleshes out the characters, revealing their depths and making what they go through feel real and sympathetic which makes the viewing experience beautiful and grand.  These feelings are at their strongest in this very cartoon, making it the season’s ultimate highlight.  At this point, Pearl has been shown as an emotional wreck from time to time, and the story deals with one of the main causes for this, her bond to the Gem who would become Steven’s mother, Rose Quartz.  How she describes Rose and how she was always willing to fight by her side during the Gem war really shows how much Pearl valued her, practically implying that she loved her more than just as the leader of the Crystal Gems and elaborating the deepness of the relationship.  This ties into the plot when the team finds the scabbard that held Rose’s sword while searching a Gem battlefield for weapons, and Steven and Pearl look for the sword which gives Pearl an opportunity to show Steven everything Rose shared with her and only her.  With this in mind, we have another major layer to this relationship.  Rose had to keep a lot of things secret, even to the members of her team, to protect everyone, but the fact that she was able to tell Pearl a lot of these things speaks volumes of how she valued her, and it’s easy to see how honored Pearl feels about this.  This is also why it’s easy to feel for Pearl when her view of her bond with Rose comes crashing down.  It happens when Pearl takes Steven to where she believes Rose’s sword is located, and Steven recognizes it as the armory Lion took him to way back in “Lion 2: The Movie.”  When the sword’s not there, the real kicker comes in when Pearl describes Rose’s sword and Steven remembers that it’s the same sword hidden in Lion’s mane, indicating that Lion has a connection with Rose, something even Pearl never knew.  She feels very hurt that even she, the Gem closest to Rose Quartz, wasn’t told everything and she even lashes out at anyone trying to reason with her.  Given how strong Pearl’s love for Rose has been shown to be, her reaction is completely understandable.  It’s bad enough for her that the man who would become Steven’s dad meant more to Rose, but after feeling that Rose saw something special in her for so long, realizing there were things Rose didn’t even tell her must be more hurtful than ever to her.   Through this sorrow of Pearl’s though comes a great moment from Steven as he follows Pearl to an ancient battlefield to find out what’s wrong with her, and he stops at nothing, even if it does meet him with near-peril.  What results from this is a moment that makes the cartoon as great as it is.  In a slow, quiet scene that makes the emotions easy to feel, as Pearl laments that she’ll never know what Rose really thought of her now that she’s gone, Steven comforts her by letting her know that he thinks she’s great as she is and it’s all capped off with a montage of both of them hanging out together with nothing but a smooth and beautiful music piece in the background.  It’s just a masterful way of getting an emotional response, getting you more connected with the characters than ever before.  Because of how real the characters involved feel as well as the revealed information on the big story and masterful sense of emotion, this cartoon is not just “pretty great” but also something truly amazing. 10/10

The Ranking

1. Rose’s Scabbard
2. Ocean Gem
3. Lion 3: Straight to Video
4. Alone Together
5. Coach Steven
6. On the Run
7. Maximum Capacity
8. Mirror Gem
9. An Indirect Kiss
10. Space Race
11. So Many Birthdays
12. Steven the Sword Fighter
13. Lion 2: The Movie
14. Bubble Buddies
15. Monster Buddies
16. Laser Light Cannon
17. Winter Forecast
18. Giant Woman
19. Lars and the Cool Kids
20. The Test
21. Steven’s Lion
22. Horror Club
23. Watermelon Steven
24. Gem Glow
25. Steven and the Stevens
26. Marble Madness
27. Warp Tour
28. Island Adventure
29. Rose’s Room
30. Cheeseburger Backpack
31. Future Vision
32. Secret Team
33. House Guest
34. Serious Steven
35. Joking Victim
36. Beach Party
37. Cat Fingers
38. Tiger Millionaire
39. Together Breakfast
40. Fusion Cuisine
41. Frybo
42. Onion Trade
43. Arcade Mania
44. Garnet’s Universe
45. Keep Beach City Weird

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode that stresses how different opinions should never affect friendships in "Open Book."

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