Steven the Sword Fighter

Steven the Sword Fighter is the 16th Episode of Season 1 of Steven Universe. It aired along with a re-run of Gem Glow.

Synopsis
Pearl tries to teach Steven the art of Sword-Fighting using a holographic version of herself.

Plot
Steven and the gems are seen watching a Japanese movie called Lonely Blade IV which Pearl comments on the movie while they are watching claiming that it is nothing like real sword fighting. She then offers to show a demonstration of proper sword techniques to Steven, which Steven excitedly accepts. Pearl then takes the gems to a cloud temple where Amethyst is sitting on a cloud floating in the air. Pearl says she needs a sparring partner and Steven raises his hand, but Garnet quickly shoves it down. Pearl then says that she already has the perfect partner, and projects a hologram of herself who is trained to sword-fight. They then have a battle, Steven and Garnet cheering on Pearl, and Amethyst cheering for "Holo-Pearl." Pearl finally wins, and Steven asks Pearl to teach him the art of sword-fighting. She then shows him the basics, leaving him bored, so he asks for Pearl to do the "Boomerang Blade" from his movie. Pearl starts to lecture him on how you have to "wait for the perfect time" in sword-fighting, and gets distracted from her fight. Holo-Pearl then stabs Pearl in the chest with her sword, and all the gems go in shock. Pearl then disappears, leaving only her gem behind. Steven starts crying and saying how it was all his fault.

Garnet then explains that this has happened in the past and Pearl will reappear as soon as she's gathered enough energy to heal from her wound. Steven asks how long it will be, but Pearl still hasn't regenerated after two weeks. Steven gets depressed and tries to fill Pearl's void by hanging out with Pearl's holographic clone, but the clone is only interested in combat practice. The other Gems tells Steven to stop hanging around with Holo-Pearl, as it's getting creepy. Meanwhile Amethyst eats part of a cloud and inflates like a balloon and goes flying into the sky when Garnet accidentally lets go of her leg.

Holo-Pearl gets worse. Steven tries to get a reaction by taking her to Pearl's favorite tree, but when he tells her to "not hold back" she takes this as acceptance of her challenge for battle and chops down the tree. Later she attacks Steven again when he tries to watch Lonely Blade V. Eventually he destroys her by throwing a mop like the boomerang blade and impaling her. Finally Pearl finishes regenerating, seeing the mess that Steven's made of the house, the inflated Amethyst, and says she can't leave them alone for a second.

Characters

 * Steven
 * Pearl
 * Garnet
 * Amethyst
 * Lion
 * Holographic Pearl

Culture Refrences

 * When Steven tries to convince Holographic Pearl to clean his room, the figures he gives her resemble Anime Characters. See the Trivia section for more details.
 * There appears to be a Nintendo 64 in the foreground when Steven tries to get Holographic Pearl to organize the figures.
 * When Pearl was stabbed by the holo-Pearl it resembled a scene from the movie Lord of the Rings: The return of the king when Frodo was stabbed by Shelob the giant spider.

Songs
TBA

Trivia

 * In this episode, an alternate version of Pearl's outfit is shown when she regenerates. Differences: Pink socks instead of Orange, her frill skirt is replaced with a blue kimono sash, and the white part of her shirt is replaced with a neck high blue piece, making her entire shirt blue. It is unknown whether these changes will remain permanent, but it is likely because in a commercial for another episode, Pearl was shown to still be wearing the new clothes.
 * There are also figures that resemble a cross between Pikachu of the Pokémon franchise and Moogle of Final Fantasy franchise, Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII, Gitaroo Man, and Sonic the Hedgehog in the form of the Gotta Go Fastmeme.
 * Also, when Steven throws his figures at Pearl's holograph, she stabs the Cloud-like figure, just like how Cloud gets stabbed in the aforementioned game.
 * The way Steven throws the boomerang at Hologram Pearl is a possible reference to the boomerang weapon from The Legend of Zelda.
 * It is learned that when gems are badly injured, they retreat to their gem until they can fully regenerate. Unsuprisingly, this happens to Amethyst more than the others.
 * It's possible that this happened to Rose Quartz in some way in giving birth to Steven.
 * At one point during Pearl's regeneration sequence, you can see her Pilot design.
 * It's possible that in order for Pearl to regenerate, her holograph must be absent.
 * Amethyst is seen floating on a cloud in some scenes.  This is most likely a reference to Flying Nimbus from Dragon Ball.
 * The sword fight sequence between Pearl and her holographic projection could be a homage to Revolutionary Girl Utena.
 * This is the first episode where a crystal gem actually loses their physical form from injury.
 * A small part of Garnet's Room is seen as Amethyst sees that Steven is hanging out with Holo-Pearl.
 * This is the first time rain is seen in the title card.