Board Thread:Introductions/@comment-44188074-20191109003138/@comment-35619149-20191109180058

Mr Mystery Guest wrote: You don’t hat Steven has a god relationship with Pearl and Garnet? They’ve had plenty of development, it doesn’t all need to be done directly before fusion to be justified. It sounds like you’re talking about the scene itself now, but scene being rushed and their development being rushed aren’t the same thing. I appreciate it will always be personal taste. To my mind, I don't feel like Pearl and Garnet's relationships with Steven have particularly evolved. In terms of storytelling, it seems to me that they largely fused because the plot said so rather than because it felt like a natural progression for their interactions.

Garnet's only real development with Steven is accepting his becoming a 'large man' rather than being a child. That is entirely contained to Pool Hopping. Pearl... kinda the same. Most of her development happens in Mr. Greg and Last One Out of Beach City and is focussed on her moving on from Rose/Pink.

A character arc is much like a story. It usually (though not always) involves:


 * Status quo - how things are at the start.  In Star Wars, Luke is living as a farmer and is bored.
 * The trigger - something that kicks off an adventure.  Luke's Parent's get killed.
 * The quest - all the ups and downs of trying to follow the adventure.  Luke leaves his home planet.
 * The Critical Choice - important, the character makes a decision that decides their future. Luke decides to become a Jedi Knight.
 * The Surprise - similar to the quest, but a new twist.  Sensei/wise trainer figure dies is the classic one.
 * The Climax - the big show-down.  Rebels attack the Death Star.
 * The Reversal - roles are switched, lessons are learnt. Luke, Han et al are now all pals and part of a greater struggle.
 * New Status Quo - everything is better (or at least different). The Rebels prepare to fight the Empire again!

(I've no particular attachment to Star Wars, it's just a convenient example).

If you're very clever with your story telling, you nest it. Like Russan dolls. Each episode follows the pattern above, folding into a larger pattern over the whole series (season) which folds into a larger pattern still over the entire show. Characters follow that pattern too, and that's how they evolve.

That evolution does happen for Amethyst, and explains her new status quo (able to fuse with Steven into Smokey). It doesn't really happen with Garnet or Pearl (unless you really, really squint your eyes!). Hence, I think, rushed. They don't need to do all those steps, or in that order, but they don't really do them at all I think 😄 Though I don't want to speak for anyone else (DetectiveAquamarine is more than capable of explaining their own thoughts!) and I'm by no means the best person to explain it 😎