Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26006155-20190403163405/@comment-26006155-20190418211243

WhatsYourExcuse wrote: BlackfootFerret wrote: This is why I hate GroupThink.

Assumptions made by a community that people hold as powerfully as religious beliefs, that people repeat, and consider it a crime to question.

If I had a dollar for each time I heard a Steven Universe theorist say 'Onion Gang and Rocknaldo are random worthless episodes that do nothing to add to the world of Steven Universe", I could buy a freaking motorcycle.

Nobody was able to figure them out.. so Everybody felt safe and secure in bashing these episodes, and feeling better about themselves because they hadn't screwed up... there was simply nothing to find!

And Akeem Lawanson, the SU version of MatPat, did everything in his leadership position to feed into this.

He once asked Rebecca directly at a con if SU was about 'people these days'. SU was about how warped modern religion is.. so when Akeem asked her about this different angle she said she hasn't considered that.. and Akeem jumped on what she said to conclude that SU *HAD NO POINT*, since the Crewniverse simply hadn't thought it out.

A lot of how MatPat trashed FNAF's story in "Why FNAF Will Never End". He couldn't figure it out.. so it must not HAVE a story!

And so he felt better about himself knowing that he hasn't screwed up. That, rather, SCOTT was the one who screwed up when he, just like Rebecca in Akeem's eyes, tried to sell the public a bullshit story.

A really dangerous trend in both the FNAF theorist circles, and the Steven Universe theorist circles (and who knows how many other fandoms) is: Don't Disagree With The Big Guy.

Few people were willing to disagree with MatPat during the Megastreams, because all the attendees were professionals who depended on Youtube for their livelihoods. Careers that could easily get destroyed by starting a fight with The Most Famous Theorist On Youtube.

In exactly the same way, Cartoon Universe hosted a forum after A Single Pale Rose hit, discussing the fallout ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtEA23BgMeY ) And during this, Akeem Lawanson went on an acidic tyrade about how the show was UNSAVEABLY DEAD after the terrible creative decision of making Rose Quartz Pink Diamond.

Akeem declared the show dead, in an absolutely self-assured voice that radiated righteous indignation, tearing apart the very franchise that he had personally benefited from more than anyone else there.

And the really scary thing was.. few of the others did anything to correct him.

You don't argue with the big guy. It's dangerous to do that. There will be consquences. People will say you're a fool to your face.

It doesn't matter how wrong the Big Guy is. Or if he's trying to kill something beautiful, unintentionally, or *perhaps* intentionally. YOU DON'T ARGUE WITH THE BIG GUY.

And you don't argue with GroupThink either. Because if you do, the Group will hate you.

The especially galling thing for me was this: Akeem Lawanson had personally reviewed my video "Rose Quartz Ate Pink Diamond" during one of his streams, after I'd donated to one of his livestreams asking if he would do this.

And his assessment wasn't just negative.. it was DAMNING. He flat out called me "A Menace To The Steven Universe Fandom" ( https://youtu.be/nEGX-ygXdpc )

He had personal knowledge about my theories.. when he went on this tyrade. Some of which had just been confirmed with "A Single Pale Rose", the very episode they were all talking about.

In fact, I think his knowledge of my theories is WHY he cut into the show with such acid.

A situation that seemed to be mirrored in FNAF.

If nobody proposes new ideas, nobody explores new ideas.

I made a point about praising "Onion Gang" and "Rocknaldo" in my responses to the release of "A Single Pale Rose" and the leak that happened the week before:

(SU leak happens in South America, shows Steven befriending Blue and Yellow Diamond)

DON'T GIVE UP! - https://youtu.be/Hyypv91ru8Y (May 3, 2018)

("A Single Pale Rose" airs on May 7th, 2018)

(Reaction stream with Akeem happens same day https://youtu.be/OtEA23BgMeY )

IT'S NOT OVER! -- https://youtu.be/UqFtHzfoqUU (May 14, 2018)

Because the episodes "Onion Gang" and "Rocknaldo" point directly to The Secret Of Beach City, and are *INTEGRAL* to the story.

And if I just submitted to GroupThink, or what Akeem considered Approved Avenues For Theorists To Explore, I never would have gotten anywhere.

GroupThink fucking scares me.

And as someone who was forced to question the Christian faith he grew up with by the circumstances of his life, especially after trying to read the book, making the argument that "Everyone Believes It, So You're Crazy If You Don't" is the fastest way to get me to question something. What exactly is the Secret of Beach City ... you know what?

...after revealing so many things in this thread..

...I might as well do one more.

I had a long conversation with Alexandrite1234 in the reddit announcement thread to my "Followup To; Rose Quartz Ate Pink Diamond" video: https://reddit-com.poiu.pro/r/stevenuniverse/comments/84d47c/the_followup_to_rose_quartz_ate_pink_diamond/

If you scroll down to the bottom, I go into it step by step.

But basically... remember how Mayor Dewey said his ancestor had gem-like abilities when he piloted the Mayflower-like ship that first brought people to Beach City?

I don't think he was kidding.

--

There are many records in the show now of gems dating humans, beginning all the way back with Pink Diamond.

And in the Secret Training base, we find material armor made in the style of every ancient human civilization. A Crusader, A Samauri, etc. And until Bismuth put on a set of material armor for Garnet's wedding, we've never seen gems wearing material armor before, other than Peridot's limb enchancers.

The Armor of the Fallen  was made for humans. But they were more than that.

Steven is the only known hybrid between a human and a Diamond. But many other hybrids existed as the children of other gems.

These hybrids, scattered all over the globe, were the source of all the legendary heros you hear about. Able to do More Than Human feats.. because they literally were more than human.

In Rocknaldo, Renaldo actually describes the process of how a human infected with gem shards can have them collect in his bloodstream until they crystalize into a new, different type of gem: A Bloodstone. A kind of gem never seen before, with powers that can only be described as unique.

The residents of Beach City are incredibly hardy. The Coffee family didn't seem overly horrified to help the Crystal Gems fight the giant pufferfish on the beach. And Sadie ferally took out an invisible gem monster when she, Steven and Lars got 'stranded' on Mask Island, basically by herself.

Then you have Lars, who's flat out breathed fire on the show. And somehow been possessed by Steven in the very same way that Steven just possessed the of the watermelon people that were animated by his own essense long ago. A watermelon that contained a shard of gem power from Pink Diamond.

In fact, the more you look, the more you notice that just about *everyone* in beach city is werid or special in some way,

-

Who in the world would choose to live in Beach City? Let alone found a city there?

Every other week, Beach City gets attacked by monsters. Or Aliens. Or gem nonsense that goes out of control like the replicated G.U.Y.S. just from Steven having another misadventure.

And yet, the resistents of Beach City have lived there, in that dangerous place, for generations. Ever since Mayor Dewey's ancestor decided to found a city in the shadow of the known monster magnet, despite the express warnings of the Crystal Gems.

It's almost like Dewey's Ancestor and his Mayflower-like ship considered Beach City to somehow be less dangerous than the rest of the world...

---

Remember the X-men, where mutants were persecuted all over the world, specifically because they were different, weirder, and stronger than most people?

Being a gem hybrid isn't all positive. It makes you WEIRD. In fact, the very thing that makes them strong, also by definition makes them weird.

Gem light-based technology has trouble penetrating human flesh. That's how Steven can resist gem force fields, and why Lars is able evade gem detectors, because his flesh conceals the bloodstone in his head from them. So when the Diamonds launched The Corruption Song, it may have almost wiped out the full gems, but didn't affect the human-gem hybrids that existed at the time.

Notice how the Fry Family has hair that looks like Bismuth's? I doubt that's a coincidence. At some point, generations ago, I do believe that Bismuth, or a gem like her, can be found in the Fry family tree.

The Hybrids may have been heroes in the war against the Diamonds, but after the war they were largely left on their own in a world where only a handful of uncorrupted gems survived. And were placed in a situation similiar to Stan Lee's mutants.

Normal humans, finding the Hybrids strange and threatening, made them unwelcome, and begin to persecute them, fearing their powers.

That's why Dewey's ancestor and his followers went to Beach City. The gem temple drew them. There was still a gem presense around that could defend them. And.. despite the dangers, it was saver for them in Beach City than in the rest of the world.

Like in Ocean Town nearby, which recently, mysteriously, burned to the ground. Another town that likely contained many human-gem hybrids. And become a target because of it.

--

Lars, Sadie, Renaldo, Onion, The Cool Kids, and Connie?

They're all the descendants of some of the greatest heroes to ever walk the Earth.

But in today's world, that's a liability. So hybrids have to hide their powers, and pretend to be normal. And over time, many may have even forgotten their lineage, or simply find the tall tales impossible to believe.

Which is why Lars had such self-esteme issues. Right up to the point where he found his courage, tried making a difference, and became one of the most dreaded space priates in the galaxy.

Nearly all the residents of Beach City are human-gem hybrids.

Nearly all of them have amazing potential to do so much more than they know.

They worry about standing out and seeming different.

But that difference is the very thing that, once accepted, makes them stronger.

--

I believe all the strange kids in Onion Gang are hybrids, too.

Like Onion, they're the children of humans and some of the handful of gems that survived the Corruption Song by being somewhere safe from the light at the time, and tried to hide in the human population like Mystery Girl and Vidalia.

Have you ever seen a group of little kids build a motorized go-cart from scratch before? These kids aren't retarded, far from it. They're just very, VERY weird.

Which is why they always travel all the time.

If the Onion Gang stays in one place for two long.. people will realize exactly HOW weird they are. And they risk a repeat of Ocean Town.

So they keep moving, with their little gypsy band. Visiting some of the various hybrid settlements you'll find scattered around the world, while coming back to visit Beach City once in a blue moon.

It's a metaphor just as powerful as Stan Lee's mutants, when he said "We're all mutants."

Each one of us has a spark of something divine inside us. A bit of gem light. And if we try to let it shine, we're going to stand out from those around us, and look weird.

But it's the only way to be ourselves, and if we want to make the world a better place, we have to let it shine, no matter what others think.

It's the only way we'll ever find our place in the world, and be happy.

---

That's why I put the line about "What if there was an army of Nephalim..." in "Followup to:Rose Quartz Ate Pink Diamond" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DADtNXeF0nw )

One day, if Steven can find them, and teach them the courage to be who they are, he'll have one.

That's the secret of Beach City.

And just like Pink Diamond's story, the seeds of it were placed in the pilot episode, "Gem Glow". When we saw that Centipedal could make gemless children out of light, that didn't require gems of their own.

Setting the stage for Gemless Hybrids, like Onion. And I think, Connie.