This is Volume 3, Episode 5 of the official Steven Universe podcast, looking at the episode “Reunited,” including input from Rebecca Sugar and Ian Jones-Quartey.
The official description:
Steven Universe creator Rebecca Sugar and former Executive Producer Ian Jones-Quartey return to provide a detailed look at the creation and execution of “Reunited.” Rebecca reveals her original idea for the wedding, the inspiration she drew from old movies like “Fiddler On The Roof” and “A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum,” and why it was so important for her to get “Reunited” made. Rebecca and Ian also discuss the different fighting styles and abilities of the Diamonds, everybody’s wedding outfits, Ronaldo’s armor and sword, the Cluster, and how the entire Steven Universe series is so informed by “The Wizard Of Oz!”
This, as usual, is bit long so I’ll do my bullet points of interest, with longer descriptions after the jump.
Highlights:
The episode was not originally meant to open with a song. They added the opening number much later to establish plot elements that needed to be fresh in our minds and also set the stage for how Steven was feeling.
They knew the Cluster arc would culminate in arm wrestling way back when they first invented the Cluster arc.
Musical influences for the opening number and the episode itself included For Me and My Gal, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Fiddler on the Roof.
The Cluster manifesting as an arm while the rest of it stays unformed to spare the Earth is described as “very uncomfortable” for the gestalt creature.
Katie Mitroff is credited for much of the opening song sequence, including wedding outfit design, with help from Joe Johnston.
Garnet’s wedding outfit was originally conceived as being torn for the battle, but the design they used turned out perfect for showing the mixture of garments AND working well for fighting.
Ronaldo, seen wearing armor and talking to Bismuth at the wedding, is described by Ian as mansplaining armor to Bismuth.
Early concepts of the Ruby and Sapphire wedding started with Garnet actually marrying herself, in an episode known as “If You Love Yourself So Much.”
Diamonds in combat were mostly handled by storyboarder Miki Brewster.
Blue’s ability to incapacity others with her sadness was known early on, and Lapis’s reaction was an obvious element they intended to include.
Rebecca thinks the Wizard of Oz and Sleeping Beauty are the most commonly cited films in their writers’ room, with a little bit of Cinderella for aesthetic.
Blue Diamond getting a house dropped on her is a Wizard of Oz reference.
Lapis being the one to drop the barn on Blue was a satisfying confrontation, as Blue is described as a parent who abandoned her.
Violence following a wedding was another nod to Fiddler, but it was important to Rebecca that the wedding itself be completed.
The Diamonds’ invasion could not have happened any sooner or they would not have faced a united, prepared team of Crystal Gems. They now know what they’re fighting for.
It’s so important to show that communication and compassion for others leads to strength. The show often depicts the best Fusions as being healthy relationships, and Rebecca thinks spending time and effort on cultivating these relationships–and on yourself!–will make you stronger in the next thing you do.
Ruby and Sapphire’s wedding was an important story type Rebecca and Ian felt their characters deserved to have. They were created as a classic cartoon couple who managed to get various romantic story types assigned to them throughout the show; Rebecca was determined to champion this mission to let them have this.
Ruby and Sapphire’s introduction in “Jailbreak” was met with a decision-maker slapping a specific prohibition on them being a romantic couple. Rebecca had to argue, “But they ARE.”
It’s so incredibly vital that couples like Ruby and Sapphire are not considered more adult than typical couples in G-rated content.
Rebecca is grateful and relieved that the wedding has finally aired and they got to do this, but she stresses that this is only one example amidst a hundred years of weddings and couples that communicate an exclusively heteronormative message. There’s still so much to do for LGBTQ kids to help them understand they DO belong in a “family-friendly” world.
Though much of the discussion for representation has been about couples, they emphasize they’re not just talking about couples here or pushing the idea that everyone’s dream should be getting married. It’s just that if you do want to marry someone, there is a future for someone who imagines being happy in a non-heteronormative relationship.
The show is designed to give kids tools to handle their own feelings.
Rebecca is excited to include Ruby and Sapphire as a couple that decided to get married after being together a VERY long time. Couples need to talk and know each other instead of jumping into something like marriage.
What’s next on Steven Universe? An exploration of what it means for these rebel Gems to be on Homeworld, with Steven “in the palace,” and the upcoming episodes are “huge.”
“Ruby and Sapphire are designed to be very typical as a couple, with their fire-and-ice star-crossed lovers vibe; it was important for them to get to do all the things every other couple like them got to do, and there was NO reason they shouldn’t get to do it unless the decision-makers were making a special exception for them. Rebecca actually got specifically told that Ruby and Sapphire CANNOT be in a romantic relationship, as soon as she introduced them. She responded, “But they ARE.” There’s even a song about it celebrating their introduction.
Rebecca remembers a Valentine’s Day post of some kind by Cartoon Network finally listing Ruby and Sapphire as one of their couples, and she almost broke into tears. She wasn’t allowed to talk about their relationship at the time, and it meant so much to her to be able to start doing that–at the time, she wasn’t able to talk about the characters’ relationship OR herself being bisexual, but she knew she should be able to tell these stories to children and that there was nothing indecent about them.
She remembers that when she was directly told Ruby and Sapphire’s relationship IS NOT OKAY, she remembered being indirectly told the same thing throughout her childhood. She finally saw it was true, this must not be okay, and she felt how harmful that was to her personally. And she and Ian knew they could not let the next generation suffer that harm. They had to know it IS okay.”
A new species is evolving before scientists’ eyes in the eastern United States.
Wolves faced with a diminishing number of potential mates are lowering their standards and mating with other, similar species, reported The Economist.
The interbreeding began up to 200 years ago, as European settlers
pushed into southern Ontario and cleared the animal’s habitat for
farming and killed a large number of the wolves that lived there.
That also allowed coyotes to spread from the prairies, and the white farmers brought dogs into the region.
Over time, wolves began mating with their new, genetically similar neighbors.
The resulting offspring — which has been called the eastern coyote
or, to some, the “coywolf” — now number in the millions, according to
researchers at North Carolina State University.
Interspecies-bred animals are typically less vigorous than their parents, The Economist reported — if the offspring survive at all.
That’s not the case at all with the wolf-coyote-dog hybrid, which has developed into a sum greater than the whole of its parts.
At about 55 pounds, the hybrid animal is about twice as heavy as a
standard coyote, and her large jaws, faster legs and muscular body allow her to take down small deer and even hunt moose in packs, and the animal
is skilled at hunting in both open terrain and dense woodland.
An analysis of 437 hybrid animals found that coyote DNA dominates her
genetic makeup, with about one-tenth of its DNA from dogs, usually
larger dogs such as Doberman pinschers and German shepherds, and a
quarter from wolves.
The animal’s cry starts out as a deep-pitched wolf howl that morphs into higher-pitched yipping — like a coyote.
Her dog DNA may carry an additional advantage.
Some scientists think the hybrid animal is able to adapt to city life
— which neither coyotes or wolves have managed to do on their own —
because her dog ancestry allows her to tolerate people and noise.
The coywolves have spread into some of the nation’s largest cities —
including New York, Boston and Washington — using railway corridors.
The interbreeding allows the animal to diversify her diet and eat
discarded food, along with rodents and smaller mammals — including cats,
which coywolves eat skull and all — and they have evolved to become
nocturnal to avoid humans.
The animals are also smart enough to learn to look both ways before crossing roads.
Not all researchers agree the animal is a distinct species, arguing
that one species does not interbreed with another — although the
hybrid’s existence raises the question of whether wolves and coyotes are
distinct species in the first place.
But scientists who have studied the animal say the mixing of genes
has been much faster, extensive and transformational than anyone had
noticed until fairly recently.
“(This) amazing contemporary evolution story (is) happening right
underneath our nose,” said Roland Kays, a researcher at North Carolina
State.
THIS SHIT IS SO WILD AND IT’S ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING. If you’d like to watch the entire Nature documentary referenced in that “watch this report” link, you can find the whole thing on Youtube. It’s a terrific documentary and a really interesting look at an animal most people don’t even seem to realize exists. The extent to which coywolves have adapted to urban life and the ways in which they’re very distinct from the species they’ve sprung from is pretty incredible.
Ultimate Doggo
HOT DAMN I WANT COYWOLF DOGGL
See, I first heard about this a few years back, but I thought it was a mislabelling of the Carolina Pariah Dog. So it is actually a distinct breed?
What I had first heard is that they hunt like wolves, scavenge like coyotes, but will totally beg and butter you up for your fries like a dog. Like they’d much rather become your friend for food if they can, since it’s easier than eating your kids.
Brie’s response to people saying that ‘she looks really serious and doesn’t even smile’ in the CM trailer……. which is the equivalent of “you should smile more! 🙂 you’d be prettier :)” and honestly they can choke on their own smile… we stan an icon
Firebird Scratches 