Sunday, October 28, 2018

'Toon Reviews 23: Steven Universe Season 3 Episode 5: Hit the Diamond


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Hit the Diamond
While the last cartoon suggested an intense confrontation between our heroes and a new set of Homeworld adversaries, what we get here doesn’t add up to the promise.  It’s much more light-hearted with a frankly humorous scenario.  If you disregard that last scene from “Barn Mates” and open your mind for something fun, the cartoon is one of the most fun times you’ll have with the show. 
It’s a rare instance where all the principal protagonists get together from Steven and the main Crystal Gems, to Peridot and Lapis, to even Ruby and Sapphire.  The latter two come about in regards to who they’re dealing with.  It’s a band of five Rubies who seem threatening, but are actually quite unintelligent, right down to not knowing how many of them there are.  Fortunately, they each have distinct characteristics instead of being direct clones of each other.  There’s the tough leader, someone who wants to fight all the time, a calm optimistic one, an easily frightened innocent, and a mysterious one marked by her gem on her eyeball.  While they seem easy to face, they take their mission seriously, which justifies Peridot fearing that they’ll shatter her for what she said to Yellow Diamond if they find her. 
However, since their unintelligence persists, Steven and the others are able to possibly dissuade them from going into the barn.  Garnet unfuses so her Ruby can infiltrate the Homeworld ones.  Our Ruby actually is quite nervous operating without Sapphire, and that has circumstances lead to an outrageous yet thoroughly enjoyable scenario. Steven tells the invading Rubies that the only way to determine them going in the barn is by playing baseball.  This conclusion is a bit contrived since Steven gets the idea from baseball stuff lying around in the barn that wasn’t there before. 
Disregarding that, the baseball game of Steven and most of his Gem comrades dressed as humans against all Rubies is a great display of character.  Steven exercises his devotion to his home planet with his interpretation of the rules for inexperienced Gems. The Homeworld Rubies turn out to be surprisingly good at the sport. Lapis goes along with the game despite clearly not wanting to. Even Peridot gets a few laughs while observing the game from the barn.  The standout characters are Sapphire and Garnet’s Ruby constantly flirting with each other unable to focus on the plan.  It’s an instance of how them being fused all the time isn’t all positive since they both come close to costing the game and straying from the plan.  Their actions culminate just as Sapphire’s about to win the Earthlings the game with a homerun. She and Ruby end up fusing back into Garnet, officially blowing everyone’s cover. 
For a brief moment, the Rubies become a legit threat again as they fuse into one giant Ruby, and Peridot turns out brave enough to face them after hiding in the barn all this time.  However, the Rubies’ unintelligence saves the day when, they anti-climactically want Peridot to tell them where Jasper, who they believe is the leader of the Earth mission, is.  Not to mention they buy Steven’s lie that she’s on Neptune.  It’s unfortunate that it’s never revealed why they, and Yellow Diamond who gave them the orders, think nothing of Peridot which kind of kills the tension.  Thankfully this is slightly made up for by the fact that this isn’t the last we see of the Homeworld Rubies. 
While it’s not the best way to follow-up on the end of the previous cartoon, this cartoon is still great fun for its great use of character and interesting premises.
A-

The Ranking
  1. Gem Drill
  2. Super Watermelon Island
  3. Barn Mates
  4. Hit the Diamond
  5. Same Old World

The next Steven Universe review leaves Peridot and Lapis behind to focus solely on Steven and the main Crystal Gems for the first time in a while. However, it's not a total return to the status quo since Steven ends up unlocking a new power.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is Episode 37 of Animaniacs.
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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