A series like this has an interesting quality of finding significant value in just about anything in life. In this cartoon, it goes together well with deeper themes of character development, Steven’s current conflict of a need for companionship. The latter element continues to showcase its heavy effects on him, and in this case to a creative extent. Its connection is to the subject of dreams where, as most know, anything can happen, and this series is known for going all out with dreams.
The cartoon opens with such a dream of Steven excited to party with his friends after saving the universe, but then falls into an abyss when it’s declared he’s no longer needed. He wakes up shortly after with the focus shifting to a later topic, yet the idea of dreams remains relevant in the new direction.
This steers us to the role of Peridot in this cartoon. Now, Peridot is another one of the great and beloved supporting Crystal Gems who sadly hasn’t gotten a lot of appearances compared to the main Gems, even in this epilogue series. In fact, after one huge arc spanning across the second and third season of the original series, she was downgraded to simple comic relief. As such, her interests were mainly on minor things like a particular TV show called Camp Pining Hearts. Frivolous as that show may seem, it’s still a part of why she became so interested in Earth, and in this context, provides benefits to what Steven is facing.
They’re initially excited for a reboot of Camp Pining Hearts, but as with certain bland reboots and live-action remakes of our world, they find it disappointing and unappealing. Then when Steven’s dreams start projecting onto the TV, they get an idea to ‘reboot the reboot’ with Steven dreaming up their scenario to display in the episode proper. It even comes with a self-inserted character from Steven, and a hunky one at that. For the most part, there’s a lot of talk on the nature of Camp Pining Hearts, much more so than usual. That can be an issue considering how light the show itself has been apart from what it’s done for Peridot’s character. All this info feels dumped onto the audience, and it's hard to process.
This isn’t the case with how Steven’s dreams are involved though. Like many dreams, they end up being random images with slight connection to certain issues on the mind. The Diamonds eerily show up beside a river, all of Steven’s interests and companions fly away from him, and he gets those strange pink glows at inopportune times. It says a lot about how not only Steven fears losing everything, but even has a few instances of bottled up trauma. He soon has to face, at least the former, in reality when Peridot suggests his character steal the female love interest from his friend. When Steven objects, Peridot opts to stop the project, but Steven goes through with it anyway to keep spending time with her.
It’s here where the most personal dream of all occurs. The guilt of the plot point leads Steven to a dark room leading to the party of his first dream. With Peridot standing in front of it, Steven fears her drifting away too, and begs her not to go and that he just wanted a reason to hang out. Following this dream is an endearing moment of Peridot, understanding Steven’s feelings, having seen something so personal. In the end, they decide to watch the reboot as it is for the sake of companionship.
This turns out to be
decent closure for Peridot’s character as well as Steven starting to move
forward by being open. While this
cartoon comes with an abundance of frivolous details, they fortunately all come
together.
A-
The Ranking
1. Volleyball
2. Little Graduation
3. Little Homeschool
4. Prickly Pair
5. In Dreams
6. Bluebird
7. Why So Blue?
8. Snow Day
9. Rose Buds
10. Guidance
11. A Very Special Episode
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