remember when ppl were theorizing about garnet being a fusion before jailbreak and came up with all these bizarre grimdark explanations as to why shed stay fused (like she was forcibly fused, they were both dying or something and needed to be fused to stay alive, etc.) and the real reason was just. Theyre Lesbians
On that note, I think it’s quite interesting that we see a recurring and very obvious trait of Steven to personify objects and animals. Much focus has been given on the idea of treating people like objects (the Pearls, the use of Gem artifacts, the Cluster, even the fact that Homeworld differentiates Gems of a type by serial number) but we see that to Steven… everything is a person. He sees a pile of stuffed animals together and says no, they’re a family, they have bonds and he doesn’t want to separate them. He spends a short period of time with a goat, and decides this goat is his son, and despite their falling out later, Steven is still upset when Steven Jr. is grabbed, and Amethyst addresses said goat by that name many episodes later.
He sells the Watermelon Stevens, but as soon as he realizes they’re alive- not dangerous, just alive- he runs around giving everyone their money back and taking back the Watermelons. Even then, before he thought they could move, he identified “Baby Melon” and decided it was his child and not for sale.
His treatment of Lapis? This is something he can talk to, that responds to him, this is clearly a person.
And his statement in Monster Buddies when he tries to remind Centipeetle about their friendship, and says “You’re not a monster any more!”
That, to me, is a very telling line. Because Centipeetle hasn’t changed. At this point we don’t know she’s a Gem. She’s still a large buggy, acid-drooling thing that most people would describe as a monster.
But nothing can be a monster to Steven if he sees they’re capable of good. Centipeetle stopped being a monster to him when he fed her chips and she chased off seagulls for him, and followed him into the caves, and she can’t ever be a monster again to him. She’s a person now, and he wants to help her.
And when she poofed? He cried almost as much as he did when that happened to Pearl in Steven The Swordfighter. It seems like the only reason he’s more composed is because he already knows Centipeetle isn’t gone forever.
So… in contrast to how Homeworld’s culture seems to treat people as things, Steven has a very wide, encompassing definition of a person. People are people. Animals are people. Even things that seem like objects (or are objects) are to a certain degree people and should be respected. This definitely isn’t something instilled in him by the Crystal Gems (they even seem to disagree with him at times on that idea) and about the only outside encouragement we see of it is Rose’s comment about every living thing having a unique experience in Lion 3, which takes place after both Monster Buddies and Watermelon Steven.
So… this is a part of Steven’s values that he seems to have gained mostly on his own. And it seems very important.
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