{"id":6144,"date":"2017-02-07T08:00:57","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T16:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6144"},"modified":"2017-01-31T14:09:24","modified_gmt":"2017-01-31T22:09:24","slug":"mark-watches-steven-universe-s04e02-know-your-fusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2017\/02\/mark-watches-steven-universe-s04e02-know-your-fusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches &#8216;Steven Universe&#8217;: S04E02 &#8211; Know Your Fusion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the second episode of the fourth season of <i>Steven Universe<\/i>, Pearl and Garnet meet Smoky Quartz for the first time. Intrigued? Then it&#8217;s time for Mark to watch <i>Steven Universe<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Oh my god, WHAT A GREAT EPISODE. It&#8217;s meta, it&#8217;s odd, and it features GARNET AND PEARL LOSING THEIR SHIT OVER A NEW FUSION. Could I <i>ask<\/i> for anything more???<\/p>\n<p>Honestly, this is a really sweet episode because the central conflict is about identity: Who <i>is<\/i> Smoky Quartz? That&#8217;s all Pearl and Garnet, who appear as Sardonyx throughout &#8220;Know Your Fusion,&#8221; want to discover. It&#8217;s the first time they&#8217;ve ever seen a fusion like this, and the possibilities are endless!<\/p>\n<p>Thus, it felt a little strange to me that Sardonyx focused solely on three sets of powers that other fusions \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Sugilite, Alexandrite, and Opal \u00e2\u20ac\u201c had exhibited in the past. But there&#8217;s an easy explanation to that right in the opening scene: Garnet and Pearl made this all about themselves. I mean, who could blame them??? They were so ecstatic to see Smoky Quartz that they flipped out. (I don&#8217;t care, that will forever be one of the greatest scenes in the whole show. I LOVED IT SO MUCH.) And given Sardonyx&#8217;s personality, it made a lot of sense for her to pull Smoky Quartz into that absurd talk show room. Like, Sardonyx is ridiculous, y&#8217;all, and her showmanship manifests in <i>exactly<\/i> that manner. The talk short format allowed Sardonyx to be ridiculous, but also to manifest all the tests of Smoky Quartz&#8217;s power.<\/p>\n<p>However, I get know why Sardonyx missed the mark. A fusion is a pairing of two gems, yes, but it&#8217;s also a mixture of who <i>they<\/i> are as a person. Garnet&#8217;s personality comes from the coldness of Sapphire and the passion of Ruby. So, what kind of fusion would Steven and Amethyst become?<\/p>\n<p>First of all, they are EXPERT at puns, which is not a surprise at all. OF COURSE THEY ARE. But the clue to Smoky Quartz as a person is in the first moment of &#8220;Know Your Fusion.&#8221; What are they doing?<\/p>\n<p><i>Trying to determine a way to impress Garnet and Pearl<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>The truth is that these two characters are the ones most desperate to prove themselves to everyone else. That&#8217;s the arc at the end of the last season! Therefore, when the two of them fuse, Smoky Quartz is a continuation of that narrative. Which means: the talk show format with the tests of skill is the <i>worst<\/i> way to get Smoky Quartz to reveal their speciality.<\/p>\n<p>But let me take it a step further: Smoky Quartz told Garnet and Pearl their special power RIGHT AT THE START OF THE EPISODE: the yo-yo! Yet Garnet and Pearl wanted and expected something else, despite that the answer was there the whole time. In essence, Sardonyx stole the show and created their own, the <i>Sardonyx Tonight<\/i> set, which centered Smoky Quartz&#8217;s existence around Sardonyx instead. It really is a low-level conflict compared to other things we&#8217;ve seen on this show, but I enjoy that. I appreciate that <i>Steven Universe <\/i>can also address the complications from interpersonal relationships. That stuff is important to discuss, too! And it&#8217;s important to know that sometimes, our excitement can smother another person, even if we don&#8217;t mean to.<\/p>\n<p>The video for &#8220;Know Your Fusion&#8221; can be downloaded <a href=\"https:\/\/markdoesstuff.com\/products\/mark-watches-steven-universe-season-3\">here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/markdoesstuff?ty=h\" target=\"_blank\">I am now on Patreon<\/a>! There are various levels of support, from $1 up to whatever you want! You&#8217;ll get to read a private blog, extra reviews, and other such rewards. I POST A LOT OF CUTE PHOTOS, OKAY. Think of it like a private Tumblr blog that only SPECIAL PEOPLE get to read.<\/b><br \/>\n&#8211; I have updated my list of conventions and events for the remainder of the year and much of next year.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/tour-dates-appearances\/\" target=\"_blank\">Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a><br \/>\n&#8211; My <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/calendar\/embed?src=815s3sbr8clhdi9tn8k7r3tim4%40group.calendar.google.com&amp;ctz=America\/Los_Angeles\">Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0<b>My next Double Features for Mark Watches have been announced <a href=\"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2016\/06\/here-is-the-updated-mw-double-features-schedule\/\">here.<\/a><br \/>\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/markdoesstuff\">Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I&#8217;ve got a community page up that I&#8217;m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the second episode of the fourth season of Steven Universe, Pearl and Garnet meet Smoky Quartz for the first time. Intrigued? Then it&#8217;s time for Mark to watch Steven Universe.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[665],"tags":[666],"class_list":["post-6144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-steven-universe","tag-mark-watches-steven-universe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. The path to wp-cache-phase1.php in wp-content/advanced-cache.php must be fixed! -->