'Toon Reviews 15: Steven Universe Season 2 Episode 19: When it Rains

When it Rains

Her previous appearance showed off her lack of understanding on Earth, mostly to humorous effect.  However, in this cartoon, this side of Peridot’s character is shown for more than just humor’s sake which makes her far more endearing. 

She continues to lock herself in Steven’s bathroom, refusing to talk about the Cluster as shown through humorous moments of her trying the patience of the Crystal Gems.  Since she's warmed up to Steven, she’s not only more open to talk to him, but it also brings her endearment.  There’s a storm outside and Peridot is frightened by the rain and thunder, particularly thinking that it’s the Cluster emerging.  Through all her fears, Steven reassures her that rain and storms are natural and nothing to be scared of.  It’s honestly interesting for a young kid like Steven acting as a teacher figure who knows what he’s talking about to a seemingly knowledgeable Gem who actually has a lot to learn.  It develops Steven and further shows the layers of Peridot. Peridot stepping out into the rain, realizing it’s harmless after all brings out great heart, and that it’s not as bad as she thinks.  It’s also silent, so you can better take in how big of a moment it is for her character. 

Regarding the Cluster, the simple gesture of Steven teaching her about rain gets Peridot to talk about the potentially destruction to Earth.  They go to the Kindergarten where all of Peridot’s logs on the Cluster are stored.  Its background is just like that of those strange Gem mutants we’ve already seen twice.  They were experiments done by Homeworld, whose leaders were plotting to make a geo-weapon to destroy Earth.  After countless forced artificial fusions of Gem shards, a singular gigantic artificial fusion with millions of shards was made and placed under the Earth’s crust to incubate.  Now, it’s close to emerging if the random smaller mutants emerging are any indication, and it will be so huge that it will destroy the planet when it does.  The forced fusions have already had a big scare factor, but now their threat is even bigger with an immeasurable one that can destroy the world, setting up something big to look forward to later. 

As for how the reveal is presented, it further works in the heart of Peridot’s character where little instances of her needing Steven’s help in accessing the logs foreshadow what happens.  Her lack of understanding of Earth is accounted for when she assumes that Steven will know how to stop the Cluster just because he taught her about rain, even though Steven actually does not have the answers to everything.  This is only further proven true when they’re attacked by more Gem mutants and Steven’s powers aren’t enough to stop them.  They’re stopped when the Crystal Gems show up just in time to truly finish them off.  All these instances together bring about one major change in Peridot when at the very end of the cartoon, she agrees to tell them all about the Cluster after her constant refusal to do so. 

This is only the beginning of her big change in attitude towards the group as a whole that will span through cartoons to come.  Even here, everything Peridot gets up to through learning about Earth and forming meaningful relationships amount to a great development and major boost in character appeal.  For that, this is another high-tier season highlight. 10/10

 

 

The Ranking

1. Sworn to the Sword
2. Keystone Motel
3. When it Rains
4. Friend Ship
5. Nightmare Hospital
6. Chille Tid
7. Cry for Help
8. Keeping it Together
9. Full Disclosure
10. Catch and Release
11. We Need to Talk
12. Reformed
13. Historical Friction
14. Joy Ride
15. Say Uncle
16. Onion Friend
17. Rising Tides, Crashing Skies
18. Sadie’s Song
19. Love Letters

The next Steven Universe review takes us back to the barn where as plans to stop the Cluster finally convince, we get more background on Pearl, a robot-building detour, and a chance for Peridot to bond with her.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is more excitement from Rocko's Modern Life with "Leap Frogs" and "Bedfellows."

If you want to stay updated for more reviews, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter.

If you would like to check out other Steven Universe reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

'Toon Reviews 15: Steven Universe Season 2 Episode 16: Nightmare Hospital

Nightmare Hospital

With this cartoon, the decision of Connie training to swordfight becomes a very big and meaningful one as she gets very involved with it and tries to hide it from her rule-bearing mother, Dr. Maheswaran.  We get a heartfelt story that swiftly makes its way from light and happy to dark and threatening and expands on character bonds. 

It’s known that Connie’s parents are very strict with customs, so she keeps secrets from them, especially since what they find out could prevent her from being with Steven, her only friend, but the matter soon becomes too big to be kept secret.  Steven gives Connie his mother’s sword to practice with via the charm these friends are known for.  However, it gets confiscated when Dr. Maheswaran finds it, who then lectures on the dangers of swords.  Just from here, you get a believable reason why Connie would be hesitant to tell her parents things if you needed to be reminded.  Dr. Maheswaren’s controlling tone and dense mindset with little room for reason is overbearing which isn’t particularly entertaining.  This would be marked as a problem if not for what happens later. 

With a major artifact of Steven’s mother taken away, Steven and Connie sneak into the hospital Dr. Maheswaran works at to get it back, and from there, the nightmarish parts of the hospital build.  It's very dark with dim halls accompanied by an eerie music piece all throughout which suggests that something horrifying will occur.  This belief is intensified when the kids enter the hospital room of the patients Dr. Maheswaran was called in for.  It turns out the patients brought in were covered Gem mutants, and just as the ones from their first appearance did, they attack.  The scare factor intensifies when the mutants lead Steven and Connie out into the halls into a corner with Dr. Maheswaran and only Steven’s bubble can protect them. 

There’s a helpless tone with nothing anyone can do to stop these creatures.  The only chance they have, no matter how much Connie insists that she can handle the sword, is held back by her mom.  Things soon get so tense that Connie reveals that she doesn’t need actual glasses anymore since Steven healed her sight and she popped the lenses out.  This is huge since her healed eyesight was something we saw Connie cover up to preserve her friendship with Steven before we even met her parents, selling itself as her biggest secret as it tied into the possibility of their strictness.  For Connie to be led to reveal this marks this moment as a big example of a small moment working as a huge climax aided by her effortlessly poofing the forced fusion with the sword while Dr. Maheswaran stands speechless. 

The darkness over, out of this awesome moment, the cartoon reaches a heartwarming conclusion where Dr. Maheswaran actually realizes how controlling she had been while trying to be a good mother.  It would’ve been easy for her to stubbornly stick to her rule-bearing ways, but a more pleasing direction is taken to show that despite her flaws she does have a heart.  Likewise, as her mom agrees to keep an open mind about Steven and everything associated with him, Connie agrees to be truthful about her life.  I always believe that resolving a conflict with a compromise to satisfy both sides is the best way to go, especially when it brings on a genuinely heartfelt finish with a tender embrace between Connie and her mom which Steven watches while holding a close tie to his own mom. 

In all, the cartoon amounts to an amazing work with a wide range of moments, strong character development, and the best conclusion for the scenario. 10/10

The Ranking

1. Sworn to the Sword
2. Keystone Motel
3. Friend Ship
4. Nightmare Hospital
5. Chille Tid
6. Cry for Help
7. Keeping it Together
8. Full Disclosure
9. We Need to Talk
10. Reformed
11. Historical Friction
12. Joy Ride
13. Say Uncle
14. Onion Friend
15. Rising Tides, Crashing Skies
16. Love Letters

The next Steven Universe review covers the starting point of Sadie's singing career and where we first learn about her mother issues.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews we'll be covering a Hey Arnold review on "Grandpa's Birthday" and "Road Trip."

If you want to stay updated for more reviews, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter.

If you would like to check out other Steven Universe reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

'Toon Reviews 15: Steven Universe Season 2 Episode 8: Keeping it Together

Keeping it Together

This cartoon shows how well this series specializes in playing with one’s emotions.  It pulls you in with something nice and wholesome and gradually leads to something heavier. 

Everything starts out simple with Steven and the Crystal Gems conversing while doing chores.  Even with the calm tone at the moment, thoughts are still on how necessary it is to find Peridot, with everyone assuming that her main goal is reactivate the Gem Kindergarten.  We even learn how its injectors work such as exactly how they plant Gems in the ground and how their growth depletes the Earth of its resources.  With all the talk about Peridot, the Crystal Gems track her down in the Kindergarten, and the tone intensifies from there. 

Even though this isn’t the first time we've seen the Kindergarten, it still has a moody, grey feel to what goes on, signaling something dark that could happen.  Steven happens upon Peridot by chance who appears calculating about “fusion experiments” giving the impression that she WAS trying to reactivate the Kindergarten and potentially hurt the Earth.  Following an energetic chase through the Kindergarten, the Crystal Gems split up after her with Steven going with Garnet to also see if they can figure out Peridot’s real intention since the injectors aren’t on.  Through it all, the nice familial bond between Steven and Garnet is very prominent with Steven, as any curious child would, asks Garnet question after question on what it’s like to be a fusion, and Garnet answers them as she advances with her investigation. 

Then, when they start investigating closely, there’s always a feeling that something ominous is watching them.  The strange occurrence makes itself known when disembodied hands appear and attack them, bringing the whole cartoon to its darkest point.  It’s especially dark with Garnet’s reaction.  The hands are actually forced fusions of the shards of shattered Crystal Gems .  Eventually, a big forced fusion composed of a large number of shards shows up to attack and fully unsettles Garnet, and its screams add to the horror and tension.  You may think it’s strange for Garnet to be unable to do anything because of this, but given that she’s a fusion of two Gems who love each other, this is an understandable and logical layer to prevent her from continuing to fight.  In fact, what she sees brings her to the brink of falling apart as if the scene wasn’t frightening enough already.  However, through a heartwarming turn of events, it’s Steven’s pleas for Garnet to keep going that allows her to prevent unfusing, and beat back the forced fusions. 

All ends well with everyone leaving safely despite still not knowing what Peridot is up to and that the shattered Crystal Gems had met such a horrible fate which even Garnet understandably still isn’t over.  It is nice though that talking with Steven helps ease the shock of the discovery, which even includes a nice allusion to keeping a pair of socks together regarding what it feels like for Garnet to be a fusion all the time.  So, despite the horrific things that came from Homeworld’s ideas of fusion, it’s great to know that we’re left to believe that Garnet will always remember what fusion really means. 

That there is a good embodiment of the power of this cartoon.  It gradually goes from light-hearted to disturbing, but inspires the audience to hold onto what’s good regardless, making this one of this show’s most influential works. 10/10

The Ranking

1. Sworn to the Sword
2. Keeping it Together
3. Full Disclosure
4. Reformed
5. Joy Ride
6. Say Uncle
7. Rising Tides, Crashing Skies
8. Love Letters

The next Steven Universe review will be on the second Greg and Rose Quartz flashback highlighting their attempt at fusion.

The next review for MC Toon Reviews will be on Hey Arnold Season 3 Episode 8 featuring "Arnold's Room" and "Helga vs. Big Patty."


If you want to stay updated for more reviews, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter.

If you would like to check out other Steven Universe reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.