Steven Universe - S3 E20/21: Bismuth

Plot
Steven unbubbles a Gem whom has been kept a secret for over 5000 years, and it turns out there is a reason for this...

Characters

"Rose is a boy now? And small?"

Bismuth is an extremely complex character. She was also one of the few characters whom listened to Steven's worries, and the first Gem, really. Yes, Bismuth had a dark side, but Rose caused it by hiding her away, and sadly that caught up with Steven and found him close to being shattered. Powerful voice acting was used in the final scenes of the episode and Bismuth genuinely teeters on the line of good and bad and she was a welcome addition, she has a nice, bubbly personality outside of her anger issues. But is she actually a good gem? I think she is, even though she lashed out at Steven she had her reasons and she made the "Breaking Point" because she wanted Homeworld to pay, a mass of Gems were killed in the war, her friends, people she considered family, I mean she just wants justice and I can see her point, she horribly explained it and lashed out which led to her bubbling, but I can still see her point. Plus, Bismuth was a blacksmith, she constantly assisted people with weapons in the war, but it wasn't enough because Homeworld won, she failed, over and over, and her anger probably built up because she felt a degree of guilt and anger. Her morals and her hesitancy were dashed away and maybe, maybe, that was Bismuth's breaking point.

Steven realises how this episode ends.

Steven is very interesting this episode. He opens Bismuth with welcome arms, and has a nice talk with her. He's peppy and upbeat but notices that Bismuth's slightly violent approach is too intense for him and we learn that Bismuth has some anger towards Rose, Steven is in legitimate danger, a Crystal Gem is attacking him and he cannot do much but take it. He has some degree of care with Bismuth, clearly, he tells her to "watch out" but is fighting back. After the whole talk with Bismuth, I think Steven was quite shocked that Bismuth would say things that she did and call him "Rose". Steven was pushed to his breaking point in this episode, forced to fight an ally because of their short fuse, Steven could've been shattered. His mothers mistakes caught up to him for once, and he defended himself which I found good and a welcome change, I am glad he didn't accidentally shatter Bismuth because Steven wouldn't do that and it would've gone against so many things. Steven has truly grown in this half and hour special, he is able to build from Rose's mistakes and even though he ended up bubbling Bismuth, he needed to defend himself and he didn't resort to shattering and you could certainly tell it wasn't easy for him. I bet for him, it was seriously of left field because no Gem (an ally) has ever been that angry at him that they've tried to attack him, he handled the entire situation as well as he could. Remember that he is 14 and possesses an amazing amount of majority. The entire scene with him and Bismuth was poignant.

A weapon upgrade! Jasper will pay...

Amythest is a very prominent character in this episode, and less comic relief because she doesn't know Bismuth and isn't blinded by having not seen her for over 5000 years. Amythest is suspicious of Bismuth and brings up a very good point, just before she completely changes her opinion and becomes useless to the story at that point. Amythest was the smart one during this episode, which is something we rarely see, and she had a decent amount of confidence, considering the events of the last few episodes.
Good Moments

• Pearl's Comic Relief - Pearl provides a nice element of hilarity to the episode. Hey, it's a dramatic episode, and any scene with Pearl in was gold, even the crying scene.  
• Weapon Upgrades - The Gems have long needed some sort of power up, Steven's got a few now, so he didn't need any, but Garnet, Amythest and Pearl did, plus it tied in well with Bismuth being a blacksmith. 
• The Conclusion -  Dramatic. Tension filled. The score and the voice acting was stellar. The storyboarding, everything was handled with poise.

Comedy
Any Pearl quote was quite funny, the episode was more focused on the dramatic side of things rather than the comedy, but Pearl provided some comedy, Bismuth's confusion of Steven while they talked in his room was funny. Amythest got me a few times with her, "Oh my god, it's a total stranger" and "Bismuth's the BEST!"

Soundtrack + Animation
Absolutely superb. The soundtrack was brilliant from Bismuth's regeneration music with metal instruments because Bismuth is a more of a metal, to the new ending song adding to a new chapter of "Love Like You". The animation and the storyboarding was superb as well! The scene where it went black and then it panned out to an eventual reveal of Bismuth being stabbed by Steven was jaw dropping, the music really helped as well. Lovely episode of television, honestly.

Additional Notes

Now, the eye catchers during this episodes really were a very welcome thing. Personally, I'd want more of these and more 22 minute episodes actually produced as such because these are extremely good. Everybody's personality is captured very well, like Pearl's ballet leap towards the Warp Pad is something subtle but you can still see it.


MVP
Bismuth deserves the MVP. She carried this episode, rightly so, this is her debut and it is named after her, if she doesn't appear again, then at least she has got the MVP of this episode, it's her by a mile. Steven is a 2nd, though.

Rating
I'm awarding this episode a solid 10/10. The only thing is that I wish Bismuth hadn't been bubbled, but it packed more of an emotional punch towards the end and now I have come around to it, plus we will presumably be seeing her again. I doubt this is the last we shall be seeing her. This episode was an absolute treat to watch and a pleasure to review.

* Apologies for the freaky format in advance.

Gravity Falls!

What?! A blog about Gravity Falls? How dare I! No, but seriously, Gravity Falls is airing its final episode and I NEED to talk about it's amazingness. The show has brilliant characters, a brilliant soundtrack, a diverse cast of fun personalities and a compelling and endearing story! Now, I could rant and rave about how purely brilliant the series.

But, why not you?

This blog needs discussion, c'mon. Comment. What was your favourite moment? And yes you reading the blog, comment now. What were the weaknesses of the show? Are you a viewer of this who hates Gravity Falls? Gasp, comment below why!

Basically comment below, anything about the series. #RememberTheFalls

PPG 2016 Reboot

Well, the PPG reboot is coming out in April! Way sooner than I expected, buut, there's no way I am gonna be able to review the PPG series. :( Well, the original...I might review the second one, you see, originally I was gonna review PPG and SJ until there reboot series came along, and thus forth PPG's original series will not be reviewed, unless PPG 2.0 is postponed or on hiatus at sometime. Now, I am going through everything I have seen so far:

Promotional Material

 Obviously, the logo is the first thing. I mean, I think the logo is good, it has an essence of the previous incarnation, but puts it own spin on it. It looks more like the original PPG logo (back when it
was a mere Oh Yeah! Cartoons short). Feel free to disagree however.

This is a very nice promotional picture, it shows the girls, the logo, and a nice Townsville design. It would've been a bit nicer to see more, but you know, it's only promotional material, not a promo of the actual show, so this is pretty decent promo material and these are putting a clear amount of effort in PPG 2.0.

Now, you may think that this is all the promotional material, and I am pretty sure I have covered all of it, if I haven't drop down a comment and inform what I have missed!

You never know, I may have missed one thing.

Show Clips

Watch them here!

• Two new promos you may not have seen, starring Him! Mojo Jojo! Princess! Loads of new villains!

These promos are both good, I like the girls flying out of the window still, and many things have been kept. Quite a lot of new things, like uhm, that giant blue teddy thing? I feel like they aren't a bad thing because, as seen in "Don't Call Me Princess!" (The episode clip), they do still fight with there fists and they NAIL the villains still, I do not feel like those things will be permanent and they may sparsely use gadgets.

The design looks good, the new VAs have won me over in these promos, I like a lot of the elements, however what was Buttercup throwing at Princess? Was it just me or did it look like a gem? I hope that the reason they adding in the new element isn't because they wanna cash in on Steven Universe because they are different shows.

I really like the fight scenes at night, compared to day because I feel they animate it a bit better, like it's not as in your face. 

Other Clip

Now, I like this clip, yes it seems very, "FEMINISM!" but no. That's an out of context clip and considering the villain, it's like this. I was worried at first, but Equal Fights was an episode of the old series AND, of course this episode will have some ounces of feminism in.

Now, this clip had animation, duh. I didn't like the villain, it rubbed me the wrong way due to the design in the first place, anyway, it does seem Clarency, but I do not care about that, it was the throw, it wasn't fast paced enough, like, yes cringe comparison to the original, the original was fluid and it amped up the throwing, and there were more frames drawn?

I don't really know, but it looked better back in 1997, but this is different, so obviously this will do better in some aspects that the original show failed at.

Show Pics

These pictures are separate from the promotional material.

Well, I cannot really judge a picture can I. So here's the synopsis for the episode!

Bubbles convinces the Professor to test his new transmogrifying ray on her new friend, Donny the Pony in an effort to help him become the unicorn he's always wanted to be, but when it turns Donny into a monster instead, she must stop him before he destroys Townsville!

They each have phones, I think the hotline phone might still be in use? But this is for on the go things. Modernised, and still creepy, not just me, right?

Creepy.

This image isn't mine, btw.











Credit to respective image owners, btw.

Intro

"Don't get hyped yet. The intro may be posted on Monday, doubting it, however."
Darn, I was wrong!

The intro is very interesting, really. Check it out!