Thursday, May 24, 2018

'Toon Reviews 15: Steven Universe Season 2 Episode 7: Rising Tides, Crashing Skies


Rising Tides, Crashing Skies
Ronaldo is without a doubt one of the unhealthiest functioning characters on the show.  Relating to obsessed theorist fans of shows you commonly find on social media, he’s an embodiment of the worst of those people.  That said, overbearing as he may be, it is admirable that his obsessed theorist ways bring about this uniquely-constructed cartoon. 
The whole thing is a web documentary about the weird occurrences of Beach City and how the Crystal Gems relate to them.  He’s investigated Beach City’s weirdness many times before, but this investigation is more serious tying into the Homeworld invasion that just recently happened.  The documentary itself shows how serious this nut is taking this menial project, utilizing all the associated tropes of the film genre like actual footage and re-enactments of events, and interviews of the Beach City residents. 
Regarding the interviews, they make for some enjoyable interactions as well as interpretations of the invasion and other past encounters with the Crystal Gems.  It helps display the magnitude of the serious Gem events that happen by offering various perspectives.  The other parts of the documentary have a certain charm to their construction with the re-enactments being very primitively made, shoddy sound work, and Ronaldo not bothering to edit out any stumbling points or lines that go off on tangents.  It makes the whole thing feel like a college student project where there’s a lot of effort and desire to do big things with the film, but the lack of professional technical aspects prevent it from really looking great.  In a way, I can kind of relate to this documentary as I look back on my college projects. 
Even if it lacks professional craftsmanship, what Ronaldo covers in the documentary does bring up some good points to the Crystal Gems’ role on Earth.  When he interviews Steven, in addition to dropping a hint of a human zoo theory that later turns out to be true, he finds out that the Homeworld Gems in their giant hand ship were coming for Steven and the Crystal Gems and no one else.  He concludes that the fact that dangerous beings are drawn to them means the Crystal Gems are putting innocent humans in danger.  The big thing about this is that even though the Crystal Gems do often beat the harmful forces and protect everyone, what Ronaldo discovers isn’t inaccurate.  It’s one of those light-hearted moments with underlying meanings that get you to think. 
What the discovery leads to isn’t as powerful as it could be though.  For one thing, when Ronaldo confronts the Gems to ban them, even if he acts like he did something big, they act so passive about what he enforces that it’s easy to tell they’re not actually going through with the ban.  Also, the thing that gets Ronaldo to go back on his ban is realizing with the Crystal Gems gone, he won’t have anything to blog about since Beach City won’t be weird anymore.  This wouldn’t be much of an issue if his investigations didn’t make him so obsessed and obnoxious.  Again, this is a support of an out-of-control behavior that paints Ronaldo as one of the weakest members of the cast. 
Even if his unhealthy mannerisms don’t make what we see as great as it could’ve been, the documentary approach and even some strong points on the Crystal Gems’ role make this cartoon entertaining and creative enough to check out. 8/10
The Ranking
  1. Sworn to the Sword
  2. Full Disclosure
  3. Reformed
  4. Joy Ride
  5. Say Uncle
  6. Rising Tides, Crashing Skies
  7. Love Letters
The next Steven Universe review covers Garnet's status as a fusion and how it's threatened by remnants of Homeworld's treatment towards Earth.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is Hey Arnold Season 3 Episode 7, consisting of "Dangerous Lumber" and "Mr. Hyunh Goes Country."
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If you would like to check out other Steven Universe reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

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