Sworn to the Sword

"Someday soon, we may be fighting some really bad guys. And when that day comes, I wanna fight with you, together."

"Sworn to the Sword" is the 9th episode of season 2 in Steven Universe, and the 58th episode overall.

Synopsis
Pearl teaches Connie to be a sword fighter.

Plot
The episode starts with Steven tuning his ukulele while Connie is tuning her violin. They then proceed to sing "Jam Buddies". Having finished, Steven spreads some jam on a biscuit. Suddenly, a group of seagulls begin to assualt Steven but Connie shoos them away with her violin bow. Steven eats his biscuit and praises Connie for being such a good sword fighter. Connie explains that she isn’t, but wants to learn how to use a sword.

Steven brings her to Pearl, but she is having second thoughts about teaching someone as young as Connie. Connie then explains she wants to fight alongside Steven and protect the Earth. This convinces Pearl and she takes them to the Ancient Sky Arena to train. Pearl explains that the Arena was where some of the first Gem Battles used to take place. She hands Connie a sword whilst explaining to her the concept of being a Knight - compared to Steven, Connie is nothing more than a protector. Pearl tells Connie to bow to both her and Steven. She then proceeds to summon Holo-Pearl, which spooks Steven and causes him to summon his bubble by reflex. Steven deactivates it and steps to the side for Connie to start. Pearl explains the stance and starts to sing "Do It For Her" while a montage of Connie’s training plays. Pearl sings about her dedication to Rose Quartz during the Gem War, relating it to the dedication Connie must have for Steven. Throughout the montage, Steven seems noticeably uncomfortable, and Connie greatly improves her swordfighting ability.

The montage ends and later in the Beach House Steven tries to talk to Connie about his discomfort. Before they can have a discussion, Pearl states they have training to do and warps away with Connie. Amethyst and Garnet come out of Amethyst’s room, and Amethyst asks why Steven is looking so sad. Steven explains he is worried for Connie; Pearl is asking her to do all this dangerous stuff for him. Garnet expresses understanding, and explains to Steven how Pearl risked her life many times for Rose, and that it makes sense that Pearl is training Connie to do the same for Steven. Steven then warps himself to the Arena to try to stop Connie. Before he can get there, Pearl summons fog over the Arena and they start training.

Steven enters the fog to try and find Connie, but stumbles upon a Holo-Pearl, Connie appears and stabs it to save Steven. Steven then saves her from another Holo-Pearl, convincing her that she doesn't need her to be his knight; they can be a team. Four more Holo-Pearls show up and Steven summons both his shield and bubble, which deflects their attacks and defeats them. Pearl clears the fog and scolds Steven for interfering. She insists that Connie needs to fight her on her own. Steven and Connie refuse, and attack Pearl together. Pearl is surprised at first, and they seem to be winning. Pearl soon overcomes her surprise, and knocks Connie and Steven back. Steven and Pearl argue, and Pearl claims Steven shouldn't be anywhere near a battle since he is too important. Steven refuses, and Pearl has a breakdown after mixing up Steven and Rose's names. She drops her sword and sits on the edge of the Sky Arena.

Steven and Connie apologize and comfort Pearl. After a brief conversation, she calms down and comes around to their viewpoint. Shaking tears from her eyes, she exclaims that they will both make great knights. Pearl hugs both of them and the star-shaped iris closes on a sword laying on the arena floor.

Characters

 * Connie
 * Pearl
 * Steven
 * Holo-Pearl(s)
 * Rose Quartz (flashback)
 * Robot Shooty Thing (mentioned)
 * Cloud Connie (mentioned)
 * Amethyst
 * Garnet
 * Unknown Gem Warrior (hologram)

Objects

 * Cheeseburger Backpack
 * Robot Shooty Thing (mentioned)
 * Warp Pad
 * Rose's Sword (flashback)
 * Steven's Shield
 * Connie's Violin
 * Steven's Ukulele
 * How to Talk to People (book)
 * Get Fit (book)
 * Food Processor
 * Steven's T-shirts

Locations

 * Beach City
 * Beach House
 * Crystal Temple
 * Ancient Sky Arena
 * Gem Battlefield (hologram)

Songs

 * "Jam Buddies"
 * "Do It For Her"

Soundtrack(s)

 * The Mother (remix/shortened)
 * Mirror Match

Trivia

 * This episode was the first episode of the second StevenBomb.
 * The episode was hinted in the promo art with a drawing of Connie's head.
 * Like how the first Steven bomb started, Stevenbomb 2.0 starts off with this episode that also involves Pearl's and Rose Quartz's relationship.
 * This episode is the first to feature a new opening for season 2.
 * This is the first time Connie Maheswaran is seen being warped by a Warp Pad.
 * This is also the third time a human has been seen being warped by a Warp Pad.
 * The first and second being Greg Universe in "House Guest" and Lars and Sadie in "Island Adventure", respectively.
 * This is the first time Pearl refers to Steven as Rose.
 * This implies, that Pearl had a similar argument with Rose during the war, with Rose being uncomfortable with Pearl risking her life so many times.
 * This is the second time Steven uses his shield against a Crystal Gem, the first time being "Say Uncle"
 * Steven is shown to be able to summon a shield and bubble simultaneously.
 * It is revealed that during the war for Earth, Pearl risked her life many times for Rose, as she is shown retreating into her gem multiple times in Garnet's story.
 * The unknown Gem from Pearl's hologram strongly resembles Jasper.
 * This is the first and second time Connie sings a song, with Jam Buddies and Do It For Her.
 * Steven can seemingly summon his shield at will now.
 * In the StevenBomb 2 promo art, there is a piece of paper that says "Keep your stance wide," which is a line from the song "Do It For Her".
 * This is the first episode to have two duets in it.
 * This is the first time that the temple hand's washing machine is shown within an episode, rather than in the end/start credits.
 * The temple hand is shown to have a Warp Pad on it.
 * In addition to Holo-Pearl having a new redesign due to Pearl's new look, the new Holo-Pearl has a star on her tunic like Pearl while the first Holo-Pearl had a diamond.HoloPearl1.PNGHoloPearl2.PNG A symbol similar to those on the gem warship can be seen on the entrance and inside the Sky Arena. The only two differences being that the shapes that make up the symbols are triangles in the warship and diamonds in the arena, and the pink shape is absent on the warship.
 * Both symbols have shapes that contain the colors white, yellow, and blue in the same relative locations. The white shape is on top, while the other two are below the white one so that the yellow shape is on the left side of the symbol and the blue one is on the right.
 * The pink shape may be referring to Rose Quartz, meaning that she was an important figure on the homeworld before she rebelled. This would explain the absence of pink in the warship's symbol, as the arena was built pre-rebellion and the warship was built post-rebellion (indicated due to Pearl's confusion with the technology of the warship).
 * On Keep Beach City Weird, Ronaldo makes a post, Ronaldo mentions that his blog hasn't updated in a while because he's been busy with a super secret project that he plans to release the next day after he finishes editing it.

Cultural References

 * Connie's training outfit and fighting style appear to be based on Kalaripayattu, a martial art that originated in the Kerala region of India.
 * The outfit also resembles Piccolo and Kid Gohan's Gi from Dragon Ball Z.
 * Like in "Steven the Sword Fighter", some of the sword fight shots are shot-for-shot homages to sword fights in the anime, Revolutionary Girl Utena.
 * The sword Connie uses is a straight cutlass, whereas Pearl and the Holo-Pearls use a rapier. The rapier is commonly known to be an elegant dueling weapon used by noblemen, which fits with Pearl's graceful personality and fighting style.
 * The book Steven is seen reading titled "How to Talk to People" bears similar resemblance to the book "How to Wins Friends & Influence People" by Dale Carnegie.

Continuity

 * Connie is the second person Pearl tries to teach sword fighting, the first being Steven in "Steven the Sword Fighter".
 * This is the third episode where Connie uses a sword, the first being "Lion 2: The Movie" and the second being "Open Book".
 * This is the second episode where Connie's Violin appears.
 * Upon seeing Holo-Pearl, Steven backs away, apprehensively. He appears to be remembering the events of "Steven the Sword Fighter".
 * Holo-Pearl's outfit was also updated due to Pearl's regeneration.

Errors

 * When Garnet appears behind Amethyst's door, she does not have part of her right glove.
 * When Garnet is about to sit down and talk with Steven, Amethyst's shirt changes back to her pre-regeneration version.


 * When Pearl gives her final talk to Steven and Connie, she makes a sniffling noise with her mouth rather than her nose.
 * At a very brief moment in Connie's and Holo-Pearl's second fight, the latter's eyes aren't red.


 * When Pearl and Steven are arguing, Connie's face bandage disappears, then reappears.
 * When Steven and Connie attack Pearl, Steven's teeth are transparent in one frame.
 * After the end of the song "Jam Buddies," the biscuit that Steven is about to put jam on is shown to have jam on it, but that jam is gone when it shows the biscuit in a close-up.
 * When Connie and Steven are talking to Pearl about Rose, Connie's face bandage disappears then reappears.
 * When Connie and Pearl were singing, the bandage on Connie's cheek disappears and reappears.
 * When Pearl is about to drop her sword after the fight with Steven and Connie, Connie's bandage disappears, and reappears after Pearl drops her sword.
 * When Connie and Steven attack Pearl, when Connie is fighting Pearl from the front view, Connie's face bandage disappears, then reappears.
 * At one point during Pearl and Connie's duet, Pearl's hair changes from orange to a pale blonde.
 * When Pearl shows the hologram of the war (when she sings the line "When everything is chaos"), at first, Pearl is shown to have the sword Connie had, but when defending Rose, she is shown to have her own sword that she used when training Connie. (The Holo-Pearls also had that sword).
 * During the same scene, Pearl's collar disappears after she sees Rose Quartz.
 * Connie's sword looks different when under Steven's shield with Steven, compared to other scenes.
 * This could be due to the refraction of light made by the shield.
 * When Connie first began training, she held the sword in her left hand, but for the remainder of the episode she held it in her right hand.

Transcript
View the episode's transcript here.

Videos
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