It's episodes like this that remind me of one of the major issues this show often runs into, runtime. This is a fine episode, but it's too short to fully deliver its theme, making for a pretty hollow episode overall. What really doesn't help, is how the episode actually features Bismuth among Steven's past traumatic experiences, reminding everyone that the episode she came from was a double length one, which benefitted that story. Maybe I'm picky, maybe the episode lengths don't matter, but honestly the episode just does not convey enough information.
The episode opens with a clearly distracted Connie arriving at Steven's place, its training day and Garnet is waiting to see the two fuse. As they train as Stevonnie, they see a vision, revealing a boy that Connie beat up in school. Garnet explains that without balance, their fusion can not last, so after a neat musical number Connie seems much more calm, but Steven shows signs of stress. Stevonnie begins witnessing past Gems that Steven was forced to hurt, resulting in the fusion breaking as the two begin fall. Connie eventually calms him and they successfully fuse in a calm state.
This is by all means a good idea for an episode, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. Steven's eventual PTSD feels like it comes out of nowhere, rather then having any kind of build up, so it comes off unnaturally. I like the idea of Steven struggling with visions of those that he has harmed, but considering none of them have been officially killed, so Steven's stress feels a bit weird, as well as selective considering various corrupt Gems that he has fought. I reiterate, the episode is a good idea, but it needed more time to land effectively.
The episode is okay, it suffers from a short run time, but I truly appreciate the attempt at a PTSD theme for the episode.
Support me on Patreon
Written by Octaviano Macias
Support me on Patreon
Written by Octaviano Macias
No comments:
Post a Comment