Steven Universe: Giant Woman Rewatch

January 4, 2015 7:53 PM - Season 1, Episode 12

On a mission with Pearl and Amethyst to find a "Heaven Beetle," Steven discovers Gems have the power to fuse their bodies into an alternate form.

Written and storyboarded by Joe Johnston and Jeff Liu.

posted by JHarris (8 comments total)

• Part of the story of Steven Universe so far has been the gradual reveal that the Gems are not super-powered humans but something stranger. The idea for two beings fusing themselves into a new entity that's an amalgam of their selves is something that came from Dragonball Z (Steven Universe borrows a lot of ideas from anime). We'll see later on in Coach Steven why the Gems are reluctant to fuse: there is a real danger of the individual Gems losing their individuality to the joining. The question of how much of the individual Gems are in the fusion is left uncertain; discord among the constituents can force the fusion apart, but if there is no such discord it seems the Gems can remain together indefinitely. For more on this see Coach Steven.
• Sometimes the Gems are awfully indulgent of the kid, but he's so good-natured it's hard to fault them for it. Re: The water balloons, and his constant requests that P and A form Opal.
• Amethyst: "You're no fun anymore! This is why we don't form Opal." Anymore? Pearl's personality has changed? What happened? She does seem awfully critical of Amethyst, sometimes for good reasons, but more than that too. Anyway, this episode isn't too flattering for Pearl. One gets the sense in these early episodes that they were playing Amethyst and Pearl as being opposites centered around the "normal" of Steven and Garnet. Later on Amethyst becomes more like an instigator of mischief and Pearl becomes more neurotic, which are more interesting attributes.
• Pearl shows off some minor telekinesis on the sand.
• Steven: "Ooh! Ooh! Did you bring me anything? Woah! A rock! Thanks Garnet!" Steven is easy to please. He's soon seen biting it.
• Song lyrics: "All I wanna do, is see you turn into a giant woman, a giant woman!/ All I wanna be, is someone who gets to see, a giant woman./ All I wanna do, is help you turn into a giant woman, a giant woman!/ All I wanna be, is someone who gets to see, a giant woman./ Oh I know it'll be great, and I just can't wait!/ To see the person you are together,/ If you give it a chance, you could do a huge dance!/ Because you are a giant woman./ You might even like being together,/ and if you don't it won't be forever,/ but if it were me, I'd really want to be, a giant woman, a giant woman!/ All I wanna do, is see you turn into, a giant woman."
• The trip shows Pearl and Amethyst rubbing harshly against each other, so to speak. Before Steven came along, was Garnet always the peacemaker? We see the Gems united as Steven's guardians, and to go on missions. But were they always that way? If Rose or Steven weren't around, would they bother with each others' company?
• HELPFUL JOURNEY GOAT.
• OMG LOOK AT THE LITTLE BEETLE BEDROOM! There's so much detail in that little room. Contents of the L.B.B.: A bed (of course), a mug, books with reading glasses resting on them, a chest of drawers, an alarm clock, a sweater on the floor with some paper, houseplants in the windows, a backpack with the initials H.B., bongo drums, an electric lamp with a pullcord, a ceiling fan, oh for crying out loud a television set with rabbit ears, a freaking Sega Genesis and Gameboy....
• Inside the bird: there's globes on sides of its stomach, containing gems. This appears to be the same kind of idea as when Hunson Abadeer eats souls in Adventure Time, and I think both borrow from how eaten souls are depicted in DBZ. There's a variety of other objects in there too: swords, skulls, a treasure chest, a book, a shopping cart, a boom box, a globe, a plant, a lucky cat, a bone, a tire, of course Steven Jr the Goat, and the Heaven Beetle.
• When they finally do fuse, yeah, Opal's pretty awesome. Gem fusions combine their weapons in some way; here, Pearl's spear and Amethyst's whip becomes a bow that can fire arrows of light. She's got great theme music too!
• The Heaven Beetle gets put into a terrarium with the Earth Beetle. But how will it adjust to life without TV and Sega Genesis?? TOEJAM & EARL ROCKS, all I'm sayin'. What happens to the two later? Will we see them again? Their terrarium gets bubbled, but the beetles themselves seem to be conscious and well.
• G: "Good work. You'll be great at fusing someday." S: "Yeah... wait, I can do that too??" We've not seen it yet, but an upcoming episode might feature the idea. Could the world long survive a giant being with Steven's enthusiasm?

posted by JHarris at 7:56 PM on January 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

Rebecca Sugar's demo and the ukulele chords for Giant Woman: http://rebeccasugar.tumblr.com/post/77991679516/heres-my-demo-for-giant-woman-and-here-are-the
posted by sleeping bear at 1:16 PM on January 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

The storyboard for Giant Woman.
posted by JHarris at 1:43 AM on January 25, 2015

This was the ep that fully sold me on Steven Universe about... a week ago? And now I'm up to The Test.
posted by tchemgrrl at 7:46 AM on September 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

There are wonderful stories awaiting you, tchemgrrl!
posted by JHarris at 11:04 AM on September 11, 2015

Aimee Mann is the voice of Opal.
posted by domo at 11:49 AM on January 19, 2016

The fusing revelation is such an enormous imagination-firing tease!
posted by comealongpole at 5:01 PM on August 22, 2016

In recent news, Rebecca Sugar took part in a charity drawing stream with a few other animators, including Alex Hirsch of Gravity Falls, who does the voices of Grunkle Stan and Soos. They managed to convince him to sing Giant Woman as Grunkle Stan, and, well, someone animated it....
posted by JHarris at 12:29 PM on August 7, 2017