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Three Gems
and a Baby
The fact that Steven is a human-Gem hybrid means it’s easy to
take for granted that there really is no one like him. For this cartoon, told against a wholesome
winter setting, we once again venture into flashback territory which
highlight’s Greg’s younger days.
In
fact, if you watch all the Greg flashbacks in sequence, the events of all of
them tell a cohesive story. First he meets Rose Quartz, then they fall in love, then she’s interested in human babies, and then Greg's raising one alone. This means that we don’t see Rose decide to
have one or give birth to Steven, but maybe that would be too much for the
censors. Despite that, the flashback
nicely shows the difficulties that come with being a single father Greg was
faced with. He couldn’t even afford his
own place so, as usual, he had to crash at Vidalia’s just to raise his
kid. I think the song that opens the
flashback “I Could Never Be Ready” is the perfect way to set the mood since
Greg really could never be ready fatherhood or losing his wife. It’s pretty somber if you think of it.
Speaking of losing his wife, the flashback
also shows the natural effects of loss on the Crystal Gems. Amethyst was struggling to come to terms that
Greg’s baby was not Rose while Garnet was strictly forcing herself to accept
that the baby was not Rose. With
everything known about her relationship with Rose and difficulties of moving on from loss and unrequited love, it’s no secret that Pearl was especially aggressive. These heavy emotions are also balanced out
with decent comedy from the Gems not really understanding how things on Earth
work. I mean, they brought baby Steven
gifts that are totally not appropriate for infants like a razor, adult diapers,
and a dictionary.
However, the humor of
their misunderstanding soon turned serious when Steven showing happiness at his
dad’s entertaining gestures got his gemstone to glow.
It’s this big moment that got everyone to realize that Steven was not
like your average human child. He was
indeed half-Gem.
Thinking they were
doing what was right, the Gems straight-up kidnapped Steven behind Greg’s back
to handle this matter. However, it’s
through this action that brought even more somber attempts to bring back Rose. Amethyst’s shapeshifting and Garnet trying to
get “Rose” to unfuse by briefly breaking into Ruby and Sapphire left no effect
on Steven apart from a few cries. No
attempt was darker than Pearl’s though as she tried to straight-up take Rose’s
Gem out of Steven’s body, and just as before, it’s staged with dark
implications. For Pearl’s sake, as well
as Steven and the Crystal Gems’, it’s beyond a good thing she talked herself out of it back
then. Also, it brings a passionate
speech from Pearl as she stated that human children are meant to naturally grow
and change even if this isn’t natural for Gems like her.
All of this leads to a passionate end when
Greg finally caught up with them. The
fact was that Rose was gone, and Steven is hard to understand, but they all
love him, and that’s sure to help them understand them later on. As the last scene in the present, as well as
what we’ve seen of the series, shows, they understand Steven now more than
ever. Reflecting on how valuable
he’s become to them all gives interesting merit to the whole cartoon. It does slightly lower the impact of big
moments like Steven’s gem glowing or Garnet revealing to be a fusion for the first time, but
then again it’s hard to remember infancy. What we have is still an endearing flashback
cartoon that builds character in a pleasing environment.
A
Season 4 Ranking
1. Mindful Education
2. Last One Out of Beach City
3. Gem Harvest
4. Three Gems and a Baby
5. Buddy’s Book
6. Know Your Fusion
7. Kindergarten Kid
8. Future Boy Zoltron
9. Onion Gang
The next Steven Universe review is the start of an arc that reminds Steven of his questions of his mother and the Diamonds and sends him and his family on an adventure through space.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews, we travel across space via the Voltron: Legendary Defender episode, "The Journey."
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