Found on Joe Johnston's tumblr. What a time to be alive :)))))
Posted Jan 27, 2019, 3:46 PM UTC
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I don't understand people who do this. It's like shooting an arrow at the great Wall of China.
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I feel like a more apt comparison is shooting an arrow at an arrow factory seeing as Joe literally worked on the show.
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I don't do this but I would totally shoot an arrow at the great wall of china?
...Question: Are there any other great walls?
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Are there any other great walls?
Ask the President.
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I'm pretty sure he blocked me.
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Lol.
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Pink Steven was Pink Diamond.
She's GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE!
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*cue crab rave
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I don't get how people can misunderstand this. White Diamond was wrong that Pink was still in there. Sure, maybe scraps of her memories still remain, but she is quite literally gone. There is no coming back. Steven is Steven and Pink is gone.
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White is literally an evil space empress and abusive narcissist mother rolled into one - nothing she says can or should be taken at face value.
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People in this thread don't seem to understand that, if she's wrong about Steven being Pink, then she might also be wrong in assuming that Pink doesn't exist somewhere within Steven.
And taking this tweet or whatever at face value is even dumber, creators of drawn out, fan driven stories like these love to obfuscate and acting coy to fuel the fires of fan theories. Especially when considering the wording "maybe it'll change yours".
But hey, I don't have a horse in this particular race. It just irks me to see people argue this vehemently with such inconclusive evidence.
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"inconclusive evidence"
What is inconclusive about directly saying that Pink Diamond is not Pink Steven?
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Is there some context I'm missing here? All I've seen is the op post and the episode it self. Neither of which explicitly states that Pink Diamond isn't Pink Steven.
Pink Steven yelling "she's gone" might be a metaphorical thing referring to how Pink Diamond is no longer the same person that she was before Steven came to be. That she is just as much Steven as she is herself at this point.
And as I said, the OP is expressly vague.
0†
Happy cake day
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The structure of "Pink Steven" wasn't well explained in the show when he showed up, is not what has been traditionally shown in the show regarding gems, their persona and fusion, and is still pretty unclear overall, so I am not surprised by the reaction. For as well done as the rest of the show was, Pink Steven was a surprising mis-beat.
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I think some people have a tough time understanding that "is Pink Diamond" and "is made of what used to be Pink Diamond" are different concepts.
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Did PS not shout loud enough?
SHE'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE
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"I want you to know you could know me if your change your mind."
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I think it's time to break out the big voice.
WHY ARE THESE FOOLS STILL SPEAKING. THIS. NONSENSE?!
#THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!
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Repost
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No they just didn’t know someone already posted it
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This is what 90% of reposts are.
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Wait... Joe Johnston... Jo... And Jo.... JOJO!!!
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Thanks Padparadscha! This was literally posted last week.
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Ok, so, can we have a sensible discussion about this whole thing?
Yes? Then please read the whole thing-
While I understand that this was supposed to be a closure to Steven's ark do we have any other in show confirmation?
As for now I saw three actual arguments for this (outside of not direct "word of God"):
-Pink Steven screaming "she's gone"- do I need to explain why I'm doubtful about this? Simply put its not like people can't lie.
-Pink Steven reforming in the shape of Steven- while this is a kinda more reasonable argument it can be explained with two things first- it would be stupid of PD to not reform as Steven ( if that was PD) and second the fact that the gem first circled between previous PD's forms, and while this sounds like a stretch on my side, don't you think if she was truly gone those forms would be also gone, especially her RQ form.
-the split in vision at the beginning- this is the best one I saw up to now. Still it can be argued with on the basis of one of PD's quotes "...I'm going to become half of you. And I need you to know that every moment you love being yourself, that's me..."
I don't want to insult anybody, I just want to learn something that might change my mind.
Maybe it's just hard for me to understand as I'm not a transexual.
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Don't forget what Steven said.
"I've been me... I've always been me." And why would he lie to Connie about that? He gains nothing by it and it goes against his character to lie for no reason.
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Did sardonyx or garnet knew that pearl was lying?
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So you believe that Rebecca added that line to purposely deceive the audience? You think the writers added all those context clues to deceive the audience? You think that Joe is actively trying to deceive the audience on Tumblr?
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It's one of the most important rules in storytelling: Don't tell a lie to the audience. This rule can be somewhat foregone if you plan for a twist, but I don't consider a good twist a lie, because a good twist always has lots of foreshadowing and reasons to doubt the lie. See: Rose Quartz.
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Well there was a lot of RQ=/=PD clues back in the day also if I remember correctly the crew laughed off the idea of a diamond being poofed
But seriously IDK
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Death of the author can only go so far. When they literally conclude the main character's primary arc by having the main character scream out the conclusion, and visually represent it, plus your representation goes counter to the themes of the show, you're grasping at straws.
Plus, there's difference between "death of the author" and "No, writer, that's bullshit, you're wrong, I'm right."
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Death of the author, also death of the actor, also death of the animator, also death of the director...
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Actually, that's definitely pink diamond if you ignore everything that happened in the episode.
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death of the author doesn't mean all readings are equally valid, especially when the "reading" is a clear misreading that disregards obvious counterevidence presented within the same scene
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I agree that Steven Universe being a fictional show means its scenes are open to interpretation; it's basically one of the golden rules of art. People are taking this particular scene emotionally and treating it like it's a realistic situation... that it has a definite meaning. Personally I disagree with the pink Steven being Rose/PD, and that's that. (This is how I decided to understand the scene as I was watching it, and is what I still believe)
What I'd just like to understand is, assuming that it was his mother, what else could the "SHE'S GONE" line actually refer to? I can't think of any good alternative meaning it could have, and it's resoundingly the largest piece of evidence that impacted my interpretation.
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[deleted]
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I agree with that statement as well. But I feel like Occam's razor breaks down when it comes to storytelling long-cons, because the writer can misconstrue situations for the sake of a twist or revelation later on. E.g. imagine watching up to the end of S4 and using Occam's razor to justify that Rose wasn't Pink.
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is death of the author the ludo-narrative dissonance of 2019? find out after the break
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Lol what
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Pink Steven as Pink Diamond
She's gone.
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I have a feeling this ^ comment is gonna get a lot of downvotes - but yeah. As long as you don't go all LO and go crazy on reading whatever the hell you want despite what's clearly stated, it's a valid line of thought.
Like, for example, I don't consider Rose Quartz to be a terrible person, just a flawed one. Though I have to say I seriously don't agree with the interpretation from anon and OP.
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We'll see, you're using death of the author in the correct manner, which is to say that things that are open to interpretation do not have to have a definitive answer, even one said by the creator of the work. The original Tumblr ask as well as the parents commenter seem to be applying death of the author to things not open to interpretation. It's the difference between "I think Garnet's personality is because ______, despite what was said about how fusions work" and "Jasper is a fusion, I don't care that we only saw one gem in Earthlings."
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Oh yeah, I totally agree. That's why I disagree with anon over there. Death of the Author is a thing and all, but wasn't the entire point of that scene to unequivocally demonstrate that Pink Steven wasn't Pink Diamond?
There's interpretation, and there's beating your head against a brick wall.
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Exactly. And like I mentioned elsewhere, there's a difference between "I'm interpreting this this way" and "No guy who helped write this story, you and everyone on the crew and 95% of viewers are wrong, I'm right, that's bullshit."
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It doesn't make sense for Pink Steven to be Pink Diamond when you look at what happens right before and right after. Before White Diamond is basically saying that she's right because she's perfect and therefor can't be wrong. To prove this to Steven, she removes his gem to show him that 'his' gem isn't his but PD's. So if Pink Steven was Pink Diamond then White was right. But her reaction is not one of vindication but of shock.
This plus the part where you see half Pink Steven Vision and half Human Steven Vision, clearly showing its a part of him.
I think this is the kicker that really disproves the theory that pink Steven is “pink diamond just really wanting to be Steven”. The split perspective shows that both Stevens are just two halves of a whole; Steven
Yep. Also, the "she's goooone" part. The crew literally SCREAMED it at us.
That part is really blunt. The only way it could have been clearer if it was jut a mad lib version of the Dead Parrot sketch with parrot switched to Pink Diamond.
I love the way Sugar described it as White Diamond "breaking the show."
It reminds me a bit of what Ruby said to Sapphire about fusion in The Answer:
So instead of two Rubies, it was two Stevens, just that one was human and the other was a Gem. Sure, Pink Steven may have the gemstone and powers of Pink Diamond, but it's more like she donated an organ than it is she became him.
Not even a full human, really. Clearly that part of him couldn't survive alone.
In an earlier podcast, Sugar described Steven as human cells held in place by magic. Then she paused and tried to backpedal, wondering if that was a spoiler or not.
Even without that, though, it's pretty clear Steven's dying.
And that the pink entity responded to the name Steven rather than Pink. It didn't exactly seem like a tricksy being apt to lie and feint.
Or PD is a part of him like she said in one of her tapes
Please don't bombard me with "gone" memes, it wouldn't be the first time somebody lied in this show
Why the hell would Steven be lying when he said "I've been me... I've always been me." ?
Sure Rose might lie, Garnet was misinformed, and Eyeball was tricked by fusion, but what does Steven gain by lying about himself?
There are two possible outcomes. White Diamond was right and Steven is lying, or White Diamond is wrong and Steven was telling the truth.
Which seems more likely to you?
And if it's the first one, how does that explain Steven being able to see from Gem Steven's eyes?
Well neither garnet nor sardonyx knew about what pearl did so I don't think Steven was lying
That pink thing on the other hand...
Also neither one seems more likely to me, I'm just looking at what happen and trying to interpret it on the basis of this show's logic
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A lot of things were
There's a shot that strongly implies that both Stevens can even see out of each others' eyes.
Pink Steven is Steven. It's canon. The show literally shouts it at you.
I didn’t see it as that, I personally saw it as we were seeing it from both of their perspectives, not Steven’s. Which makes that another nail in the Pink Steven = Pink Diamond theory’s coffin, since SU is from Steven’s perspective. Since there were two Stevens, we saw two perspectives.