Steven Universe: Future Vision

January 30, 2015 11:43 AM - Season 1, Episode 39

Steven learns that Garnet can see possible futures and begins to worry about all the terrible things that could happen to him.
posted by Small Dollar (9 comments total)

Finally another real Garnet episode! She's got a surprisingly large amount of dialogue in this one.

We get some insight into why Garnet doesn't talk so much; maybe she's just too preoccupied with all the possible futures?
1. At the beginning of the abstract sequence illustrating Garnet's future sight ability, her eyes are obviously all different colors.
2. "Are you going to tell me something cool about yourself?" "Nope!" Isn't that really the problem though? The Gems are all so tight-lipped about Gemness and their history, right at a time when it might be about to start mattering a great deal....
3. G: "...which comes in handy since you seem to attract a lot of danger." S: "Well, danger is my middle name!" G: "That's a lie. Your middle name is..." Me: "It's Quartz! It's Quartz, we found that out back in So Many Birthdays!" G: "...cutie-pie!" Me: "...well trolled, writers."
4. The morning exercise thing is not common in the US, but is fun to watch. Are Gems actually helped by exercise as humans are? Garnet's destroying of the radio is hilariously characteristic of her, in her quietly violent ("quiolent") way.
5. This is the first time a non-Steven Gem has been in the Big Donut that we've seen. The crew doesn't seem particularly freaked out, at least until the coffee lands on Garnet. Anyway, I think Garnet's future vision must be on the blink there because we all know there's no way Lars is gonna high-five Steven just like that....
posted by JHarris at 1:29 PM on January 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

I was hoping you'd bring up Garnet's heterochromia, which I have filed away as another hint that Garnet is a fusion that long ago lost its individuality.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 2:34 PM on January 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

This episode was amazing. So much Garnet response pause. I keep looking for the YouTube supercut of Garnet silences, like Cage does Cage.

I have so many questions about how that power works though. How far forward can she see? How many futures can she review in a given span of time? Does she only see things from her own future perspective? Is it relevant in-universe that she is effectively a Turing Oracle? Have the Gems ever exploited her implicit ability to violate causality? Does Garnet ever time-share her ability with herself in order to pass messages backward in time from future versions of herself?
posted by books for weapons at 10:18 PM on January 30, 2015

I don't see it as inherently casuality-breaking myself, but just a sense of general possibilities. Something with only a 1% chance of happening still occurs one time in a hundred, it proves nothing. Sure all those bad things could happen to Steven, but they're just vanishingly unlikely. Which is useful, because writers don't have to worry about bad things happening that Garnet "should" have seen, it could have just been very unlikely.

Also, it doesn't seem to provide any information on out-of-the-blue circumstances she has no experience with. Garnet still doesn't know if Steven can regenerate from his Gem (they're not knowing that was established in the comics [which are pretty nice BTW, available on Comixology], but seems plausible enough for the show), or what the consequences of Lapis making it to space are.

Well, that's is how I'm seeing it at the moment.
posted by JHarris at 11:21 PM on January 30, 2015

Meanwhile, what is happening elsewhere in Beach City?

Ronaldo got stuck beneath his family's refrigerator.
posted by JHarris at 7:39 PM on January 31, 2015

Here's something more...

Rebecca Sugar revealed a few months ago at an art show that there is a longer version of the series' theme song, which starts out with the opening from the pilot, but goes on into stranger territory, and when she performed the full version she had to avoid certain lyrics which would be spoilers.

Here is the version she sang, on YouTube. All together, here are the lyrics that we know:

If you're evil and you're on the rise,
you can count on the four of us taking you down,
'Cause we're good and evil never beats us,
we'll win the fight and then go out for pizzas!

(chorus)
We
are the Crystal Gems,
And we always save the day!
And if you think we can't,
we will always find a way!
That's why the people of this world
believe in --
Garnet, Amethyst,
and Pearl, and Steven.

(duh-duh-duh etc)

If only you could know
what we really are
(a little more duh-duh-duh)
We were surprised to find your beauty and your worth
We will defend your kind, we will defend your Earth
We will defend your Earth--

(chorus again)
posted by JHarris at 4:36 AM on February 1, 2015 [5 favorites]

This was another great episode.

"I drink coffee for breakfast!"
posted by isthmus at 9:57 PM on February 1, 2015 [6 favorites]

Garnet's Future Vision explains how she saved Steven in Warp Tour and also how she tends to know what disaster is happening where and how to stop it. ALSO IT MAKES HER REALLY GOOD AT MEAT BEAT MANIA.
posted by sleeping bear at 8:30 PM on February 3, 2015 [13 favorites]

That third eye, remember, was glowing and looking around when Garnet was playing the game. Something about the game fascinated her future vision, I think, and stuck her there. Evidently future vision isn't everything it's cracked up to be.
posted by JHarris at 4:04 AM on February 4, 2015 [2 favorites]