Love
Letters
The Beach City residents have their appeal, but since most of
them are not as interesting as the main protagonists and the Gems, cartoons
where they’re the main focus aren’t the best.
That’s the case with this cartoon starring Jamie the mailman.
In his earliest appearance, he was just a guy
doing his job with a friendly attitude.
With that in mind, it’s worth giving credit that there’s some expansion
to Jamie’s character. He’s very theatrical and wants to become an actor, hence
why he’s been away where the big pictures are made all this time…apparently in
Kansas. Despite this new layer, the plot
focuses more on the “love at first sight” concept when Jamie sees Garnet and
falls madly in love with her. While
Garnet’s first interactions with him sell how seductive she is to Jamie, this
being what gets him so attached to her feels petty and shallow, especially
since it is possible to craft a more believable romance that isn’t
appearance-based.
With the fact
that Garnet is a fusion only recently being revealed, when Steven and Connie
show her a love letter from Jamie, much of Ruby and Sapphire’s love for each
other is shown through Garnet’s firmness of not getting involved with this new
crush, which is a good show of character to get from this scenario. She’s devoted to the relationship of the Gems
who form her and won’t let anyone stand in their way, coming off as admirable
for her strong will. It continues when
writing a response to Jamie’s overly dramatic love letter to him. It amounts to a very blunt no, further
showing how strong the relationship she’s a part of, or is entirely, really
is.
However, this is where things start
to go downhill. After hearing about
Jamie’s constant acting rejections, Steven and Connie get the idea to rework
the love letter response so that he won’t get as disappointed. Considerate as they may be, this is a pretty dumb move on their part.
Through trying to match the poetic tone of his letter and being vague
about the reject, Jamie could easily get the wrong idea and try to follow up on
the letter. Sure enough that’s what
happens when Jamie shows up thinking Garnet returned his love. Not only that, but while Garnet continues to
be firm with Ruby and Sapphire’s love, she’s also a bit too harsh saying that
she’ll never be interested in him. This
statement along with finding out that Steven and Connie wrote the response puts
Jamie in a funk that prevents him from even doing his job. While he’s still sympathetic, his overbearing
feelings are too much to completely feel for him at this point.
Fortunately, Garnet takes the initiative to
properly let Jamie down. She gives him
some honest life advice on how love at first sight really doesn’t exist, and
that it mostly involves knowing the other person, and Jamie knows nothing about
Garnet. This isn’t just a random tidbit
for Jamie at the moment, but it’s believable for real life too. For all the times people in shows and movies
fall in love because of appearances, it’s easy to forget that there’s more to
love than that, so for this cartoon to bring that up is very commendable. Garnet also prompts Jamie to move forward
towards his acting passions, so with all this said, this cartoon is credible
for one of the most mature instances of turning down love ever put to media.
It’s still not the most interesting plot for
this show nor does it have the best character moments, but some solid
performances and the mature approach to romance make it good for what it is. 8/10
The Ranking
- Full Disclosure
- Joy Ride
- Say Uncle
- Love Letters
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