post-“Jail Break”, a lot of us rather inevitably and understandably started using its ‘Garnet is a fusion of Ruby and Sapphire’ revelation to both interpret Garnet in subsequent episodes and to recontextualize her admittedly stoic, withdrawn behavior throughout Season 1.
this sort of ‘recontextualization effect’ encouraged some funny fandom trends–like figuring out what Ruby and Sapphire were feeling/thinking during moments like Garnet’s infamous telephone conversation with Dr. Maheswaran in “Fusion Cuisine” or the duration of Garnet’s fusion with Amethyst in “Coach Steven”. and those were mostly harmless, but allowing Ruby and Sapphire’s love to determine our understanding of Garnet as a wholly happy, healthy relationship–even over behavior that suggested something deeper and different–really does Garnet a huge disservice.
Garnet isn’t just Ruby and Sapphire in a trench coat, or Ruby and Sapphire copiloting Garnet’s body.
Garnet embodies Ruby and Sapphire’s love, and she’s a gestalt–her own, distinct person, with her own personality and experiences, who’s quite literally greater than the sum of her parts.
during The Week of Sardonyx, a lot of us–including myself–noted that, because she embodies Ruby and Sapphire’s loving relationship, Garnet couldn’t really comprehend the depths of Amethyst’s and Pearl’s loneliness, insecurity, self-loathing, and lack of self-esteem…
…and while there’s definitely more to it than I originally understood before my Garnet-targeted canon rewatch, I still believe that point hasa little merit. while Amethyst and Pearl once had Rose to help them work through their issues and remind them that they were valued and loved, Rose ultimately abandoned her physical form to have Steven–and even before that, it was impossible for Rose to always be there for Amethyst and Pearl in the same way that Ruby and Sapphire are for one another, because they’re “always together”. like Pearl, it’s very likely that Ruby and Sapphire experienced marginalization and oppression on Homeworld…but by fusing out of love, they’re able to lend each other constant, unconditional support and achieve a transcendent sense of togetherness.
that unconditional love, constant support, and transcendent togetherness of Ruby and Sapphire’s fusion are the foundation of Garnet’s very being. in her own words, Garnet has told Steven on two separate occasions that being a fusion makes her feel like she’s never alone…
…and the relative emotional stability and security she feels because of that–along with her unique abilities and amplified strength as a fusion–are probably the qualities that made her the best candidate to step up as the Crystal Gems’ new leader after Rose gave up her physical form.
but–and I cannot stress this enough–none of those qualities preclude Garnet from longing for significant connections with others, experiencing loneliness, or having her own insecurities. Ruby and Sapphire may always be together, but Garnet is her own person with her own feelings, thoughts, emotional needs, and relationships with the others. Garnet’s needs are different than Amethyst’s and Pearl’s, but hers are just as valid as theirs.
in fact, Garnet’s behavior and interactions with the other Crystal Gems throughout the series establish that she wants connection keenly…but deliberately distances and holds herself back from her teammates emotionally, hence her ‘stoic’ and ‘put together’ exterior.
I want to write a fic where Lilo goes to college and her roommate is Boo from Monsters Inc. Boo is the first person to think Stitch is adorable and cuddly, and Lilo is the first person not to act like “Mike Wazowski” was a weird name for a goldfish. They get on like a house on fire which is kind of bad for Nani’s blood pressure.
But then one night they wake up in the middle of the night because something is in their closet. And the door starts to creak open so Stitch tackles whoever (whatever) is in there. They fall back into the closet, the door slams shut… and when Lilo runs over and opens it there’s nothing but an empty closet.
Then Boo tells Lilo all about this weird thing that happened to her when she was a kid, and how no one ever believed her but she knows it was real.
And cue Lilo and Boo busting into the Monster world to rescue Stitch and wreaking mad havoc in the process.
SEE THIS IS A WORTHY SEQUEL
This needs to happen
Petition for the movie to be hand-drawn in Lilo and Stitch’s style when they’re in the human world, and computer animated once they go through the door into the monster world.
So my dad teaches at a SUPER liberal school, and he’s basically right smack dab in between being a republican and being a democrat. He’s just about the only employee who’s not a raging liberal. And there’s one teacher at this school who’s gay, and his car broke down and he couldn’t take the bus because our city’s buses suck.
NO ONE would drive him. Except for my white straight Christian dad, who picked him up for 2 weeks.
A few months later, all the teachers went on a retreat. NOT ONE of the male teachers would room with him because they didn’t want him to hit on them and they were afraid he would. Except my dad, who was his roommate the whole weekend, and he told me the guy’s really nice (and now they’re friends).
A few weeks ago, my dad told me that the school had hired a trans woman as their secretary, and he was upset because there were lots of other employees saying they didn’t want that kind of image for their school, and my dad was the person who told them that this woman deserved the same respect the rest of us do.
Let’s stop pretending that all liberals and democrats actually practice the social justice they preach, and let’s please stop pretending anyone who’s Christian is homophobic or transphobic, because as far as I can see nothing could be farther from the truth.
I see a lot posts about how garnet might not understand what it’s like to be alone, and i do think that’s true. at least, to the extent that amethyst and pearl have felt alone.
but on the flipside, i don’t believe pearl or amethyst know what it’s like to feel alone for the first time. i believe both were born feeling alone. i think they don’t know that garnet is feeling alone for the first time in her life, ever since the events of Keeping it Together. she’s heard of how homeworld treats fusions. she intrinsically knows because of sapphire and ruby and what they went through. but she’s starting to feel she’s not looked at as a person. she’s just a tactic, a tool ,an experiment. Stronger than You is all about her self-confidence in being a conversation, in being a feeling, in being made of love.
but Keeping it Together forced Garnet to see what “fusion” meant to homeworld. she kept that deep inside of her, despite how much it disturbed and distressed her, and even tried to “keep it together” for steven. think about the double meaning of the title for that episode, just as “Cry for Help” had a double meaning for pearl (and arguably amethyst). at the end, she’s trying to bring the status quo back for steven’s sake. she wants to put away what she saw deep inside of her.
when someone is dehumanized and their very existence is heavily stigmatized, they learn to start looking for threats and aggressions in their own environment to protect themselves. for garnet to see and feel aspects and remnants of what homeworld thinks of her in pearl and amethyst must be difficult for her to deal with. even if she’s misinterpreting how pearl feels partially, she has every right to be on the defense.
i think garnet is feeling alone for the first time in her life, and that’s heavy for her. i think she was so happy about sardonyx because she cares for pearl AND because it was a way to reclaim fusion for her after seeing the clusters and exeperiments. it was a way to make it what it is supposed to be: letting someone in, a connection, and creating a person with its own special and unique memories, personality, strengths and weaknesses.
only to find out that pearl was using it as a tactic to feel good about herself, to the point of sabotage and deceit.
her focused anger on peridot shows how personally she’s still taking the events of Keeping it Together, and i think the reason garnet isn’t talking about it isn’t just because she want to shoulder the burden on her own. i think it’s because she honestly might not recognize what she’s feeling or fully understand it.
AngelMihe 