My First Protest

It is agreed upon by many people around me that the country we live in is in a poor state of affairs.  This will not be a huge political rant - the people that need to know my feelings on the subject of politics largely already know my feelings on the subject.  As with everything, I try to remain open and critical of the information that comes my way.  That said there are some things that concern me.

This kind of thing - not the cartoon, but the content of it.

I participated in my first protest today.  This was a peaceful protest conducted by my university's Social Justice Committee.  The words "social justice" have taken on a negative connotation in my mind, so much as I love the people on the committee and their undying commitment to the betterment of humankind I still inwardly cringe at the title.  Thanks, Tumblr.

You PC, bro?

It was a peace protest, not just a peaceful protest.  Unlike many protests going on across the United States, our university wasn't demonstrating against president elect Trump.  There were, in fact, Trump supporters present with Trump/Pence signs.  Cool, there's a potential for a dialogue here.

Kind of.  I mean, it was a protest, and people were there to chant slogans and not really engage in discussion.

Going in, there's one thing that I promised myself I would not do: I would not engage in chanting of any kind.  Group voices are powerful, and being present and part of a mob is also powerful.  But Groupthink can be very dangerous, and so I refuse to engage in it when I see it coming - even if the intentions are noble enough.  When spoken to, I will raise my voice in defense of my beliefs.  When no one will speak up, I will raise my voice in defense of my beliefs.  But I will not chant them, and I certainly will not chant them with a group.  (In case you're wondering, I stayed true to my promise).

No good ever comes of this.

I saw a great number of friends at the protest.  Most of them were students, a couple of them were professors.

I should back up.

Back on my birthday, I decided that I would quietly begin my transition from identifying as a male to identifying as a female.  This was late October - I suddenly had more personally riding on the election than previously.  (Not to say that I wouldn't have been frustrated by the result had I not begun to transition, but I certainly wouldn't have had much in the way of irrational fear to buy into as a white male).

I began showing up to school dressed as a woman and wearing a wig (because my hair hasn't grown out to a point where I'm satisfied that it looks feminine enough for my own tastes) and I wear mastectomy prosthesis because I like the way I look with boobs.  I put on makeup before I leave the apartment.  This came as a bit of a shock to many of my school friends, who I had to refrain from directly coming out to for other reasons that are logical to those friends and I but do not otherwise concern anyone else.  My transition has been, in this very short period of time, fairly smooth.

This includes looking fabulous in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel leggings

I go out dressed as a woman for much of my time these days.  I'm pretty comfortable with it.  Today, I protested as a woman.  This was not some holistic experience that made me feel like a goddess.  It was, however, an interesting experience as a trans woman.  This was mostly because of the Trump supporters that were present.  Without them, I rather suspect the whole protest might have felt a little dry and uninteresting.  Just walking and chanting, walking and chanting.

None of the Trump supporters were openly hostile towards me, and if they noticed that I was trans then they didn't give any indication that it mattered to them.  While that's great, I was still uncomfortable around them.  I know a lot of Trump supporters, specifically family members, who don't buy into the whole racism or misogyny bit.  They support much of Trump's economic platforms, or else just despised Hillary.  They're not bad people and I continue to love them even though our opinions on the matter differ.  So why should these student Trump supporters make me uncomfortable?

The first time they made me especially uncomfortable was when the front of the crowd began to chant "Human rights matter," and the Trump supporters (somewhere around the middle where I was) began to chant "USA" over top of the folks in the front.  If it wasn't their intent to usurp the message of "human rights matter" they surely failed.  Sorry, but your patriotism does not outweigh human rights on a global scale.

The actual protest as it left Saint Martin's University

But chanting "USA" just by itself was discomforting, as well.  Later in the protest, the whole crowd chanted it as we walked down Lacey blvd.  While I might have been inclined to chant things like "human rights matter," chanting the initials of my country speaks of mindless nationalism.  While I don't think my country is the worst country in the world by a long shot, I am certainly very critical of it even when things are going my way.

To me, the biggest problem that the United States has is one associated with idolatry.  I am choosing this very Abrahamic word because it suits our largely Abrahamic nation.  We idolize the rich, and we build our society on the myth that it is possible for anyone to get rich.  And Trump, among other things, spews forth the Horatio Alger myth as his own path to success.  While I think a great number of people had a great number of reasons for voting for Trump, I think the reason why Trump is most trusted is because people believe he can be trusted with money.

I'm not going to make the argument that he cannot be trusted with money.  I'm not writing this to attack Trump.  I just want to point out that it doesn't take much digging to find something that's terribly wrong with this country, something that has been consistently demonstrably untrue for two hundred and forty years of American history.  And it is something that has been protested against for almost the entirety of the twentieth century.

This dapper fellow just wants the chance to eat - he isn't concerned with the capital gains tax

I served in the US Army for 8 years.  I am proud of my service, and I believe I have done my civic duty to this country.  I asked not what my country could do for me, and instead asked what I could do for it.  That's what many young men are wont to do in a wartime.

But I am ashamed of what extremists have been doing in the name of patriotism.  Especially this past year.  Especially this last week.  And just like my feelings about the Confederate Flag and the swastika, the chant "USA" has become synonymous with hate speech in my mind.  It doesn't represent proud patriotism, crowned good with brotherhood.  It represents angry, frustrated people trying to yell their way to greatness.  The news media tells us, "we have never been more divided in American history."

Though these gentlemen might disagree

I became curious, as I watched these young students march and chant, how many of them actually participated in the elections?  Before we began, I heard one young fellow admit that he didn't vote.  It wouldn't have mattered much if he had in Washington, which voted Hillary anyway.

But what I find curious are two things: first, if the majority of protesters did vote, which I think it seems safe to assume they did, what does that say for the stereotype of voters in their age ranges?  Most of them seemed to be typical college students, early twenties.  Not your traditional voters.  Second, if they didn't vote, why would they choose to enter the political process now, outside of the bureaucracy that allows the system to change?

I don't have answers to these questions.  I hope someone with more journalistic wherewithal is out there doing the research right now.  I'd be fascinated to interpret the data.

Something else I reflected on while I was walking up the street was how grateful I was to be privileged enough to be part of a protest where I wasn't getting attacked by dogs, or tear gassed, or pepper sprayed, or arrested.  There are still some very big protests in this country - vital ones that aren't related to president elect Trump at all - where that kind of thing is still happening.

Like the Dakota Oil Pipelines

I think, though, those are the most effective kinds of protests.  You don't have to be violent to protest, but I think in order for the protest to work there must be some kind of violence perpetrated.  Someone must become the villain in order for the problem to be recognized.  And the more villainous the villain the more effective the protest.  That's really sad, and honestly I hope I never have to be in a protest where I have to wonder if I'll ever see my children again.

But should it come to it, I know that I will be in that protest.  I will link arms with my brothers and sisters for a united goal should the time come.

I think that's all for my stream of consciousness reflection on the protest I took part in today.

Live long and prosper.

Get Your Ass to Mars!

I must admit I am in no small amount moved by Elon Musk's fervor to reach Mars by 2025.  I am skeptical of its success, but I am also reminded of what Kennedy said in 1962 on a football field in Texas.

We choose to go to the moon.  We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one we are willing to accept, ONE WE ARE UNWILLING TO POSTPONE, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

 This quote remains relevant in the world today because, even in the face of Kennedy's death, we (as human beings) were able to pull together and send men to the moon within that decade.

The political and scientific significance of the actual moon landing is beyond the scope of this blog

There's no small amount of risk in interplanetary travel.  Some have compared it to the overseas travel of the 15th and 16th centuries, but Elon Musk's plan calls for something a bit more concentrated than that.

However, in that context, I've been thinking about some of the ways that people might find themselves on a rocket ship to Mars.  The very real threat of indentured servitude crops up here, since in founding a colony you're going to have a bunch of people who stand to gain quite a bit of land from completing initial contracts and corporate sponsorship is an easy way to cover costs and allow businesses on Earth to profit from the goings-on on Mars.  There is no doubt in my mind that this latter situation (Earth business profiting from Martian investments) is going to happen.

One must wonder what kind of society will be set up on Mars.  By necessity, I think it would likely be established as an 'international colony,' somewhat akin to the international research stations like those in Antarctica and, of course, the ISS.

Humans coming together for science!

The Martian political landscape is quite likely to be discussed thoroughly before its establishment, as humanity enters an age of neocolonialism.  It's impractical, with a 13-minute communication delay and a 2-year physical transportation gap, to remotely govern a Martian colony.  But I'm sure critics in Europe said the same thing about establishing colonies in the Americas where the delays were months-long for both physical transportation and message sending.

The very real promise with the Martian colony is its potential.  This potential has been argued both for and against, and I've seen compelling arguments both ways.  It could be that the "Martian Million" all perish as they attempt to establish a colony there.  But what a step forward it would otherwise be!

Image courtesy of the Curiosity rover

Another concern on Mars is where humans can ethically settle.  There has been water discovered on Mars - all over the damn place.  And while that's great from the point of view of people who are going to need water to live, it's also really frustrating because it presents the possibility for cross-planetary contamination.  Colonization is the fastest way to contaminate things, and the robots that NASA has been sending to Mars have gone through increasingly stringent processes to reduce the amount of Earth that goes to Mars.

What is there to contaminate?  Possibly nothing, but probably something.  Not necessarily microbial life, but there's a good chance of that being the case.  And if it is, then a pure sample will teach us a great deal about the evolutionary process as it applies to life on a universal scale.

Those clean white suits aren't just for style.

I will, and have, made no secret that I want to live (and likely die) on Mars.  I'd love to be one of the Martian Million.  There's no doubt that I could contribute to the Martian society, particularly in the form of entertainment (which they will need up there!)  I have other facts standing against me, though.  I have had a vasectomy, so I cannot effectively contribute to the gene pool of the Martian colony.  In an austere environment, reproductive efficiency is a must.  Although I'm sure reproduction problems will exist to some extent due to stress and other issues that arise from interplanetary travel that we're as yet unfamiliar, I am wholly unable to contribute.  Another fact against me is my legal obligation to my children, which will I will not be relinquished of in enough time to become one of the Martian Million.

I love my children dearly.  As they grow older, my presence in their life fluctuates.  Sometimes I see them quite a bit and sometimes I never see them at all.  Ideally, we could all go to Mars.  But I couldn't make that choice for them, not when going to Mars is this dangerous.  I would miss my children terribly, but I'd live with my choice to go if I could.  I know I could justify my actions to myself, even if I couldn't justify it to them.  Call me selfish, I don't care.  I've dreamt of being an astronaut since I was a child, and I've never stopped dreaming of it.

In the long run, Musk's Mars Million is not about just colonizing Mars and ultimately terraforming it.  It sounds silly to talk about the long-term goals of this mission, but Musk says it all in his mission statement: he wants to make human beings interplanetary.  This starts with what's in our solar system, but stretching out into vast and unknown stretches of time it covers interstellar exploration as well.

There's a reason why, in Star Trek, Mars was the jumping-off point for Starfleet after Earth Space Dock

A Few Thoughts on the Force

I realize this blog has primarily been about Star Trek, but I have other interests and so should you.  In the wake of writing a paper (rather hastily, I'll admit) for a religious studies class I'd like to explore some thoughts I have on the nature of the Force from Star Wars.

The Force is changing.  Or rather, the canonical definition of it is changing somewhat.

The Ashla, the Bogan, and the Bendu

Some of this change is manifested in the Disney XD television show Star Wars Rebels which just entered its third season this last weekend.  (Rather triumphantly, I might add).

Star Wars Rebels (and Dave Filoni's other project, The Clone Wars) has done wonders for expanding the canonical Star Wars universe in wonderfully cinematic ways.  What I appreciate more about Rebels than Clone Wars are the episodes that delve into what it means to be a Jedi (or to wield the Force in general).  Clone Wars does have a few good episodes on this topic as well, but Clone Wars' aim was less about exploring the nature of the Force and more about demonstrating how far off the path of light the Jedi had tread.

The three-part story about Mortis was nothing short of epic

Rebels examines a struggle that might have been played out in the Star Wars cinematic saga had Obi-Wan Kenobi more time to train Luke.  Granted, Obi-Wan was a full Jedi when he met Luke, but the downfall of Vader always made it seem like training a new Jedi was more difficult than it appeared.  Ezra Bridger encounters many of the trials that we don't get to see Luke (or Anakin, for that matter) go through on his way to becoming a Jedi Knight.  Kanan Jarrus is someone who never achieved Knight status.  Both master and apprentice are learning how to use the Force.  This opens their minds to new interpretations.

Not the last of the old Jedi, but the first of the new...

The Force is strange, and rightfully beyond an exact definition.  The definition that Obi-Wan gives Luke is our most solid explanation of what the living Force is and where it comes from, and Yoda reinforces this view.  But there is a duality in the Force which comes from the distinction between the cosmic Force and the living Force.

Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.

The living Force holds within it a connection to all other life forms in the galaxy.  It is very specifically what Yoda and Obi-Wan train Luke to be aware of.  Because life is now, it is the Force of the moment.

Life creates it, makes it grow.

But there are greater powers at play in Star Wars, and this is where the cosmic Force comes into play.  The cosmic Force covers the great galactic currents of time and possibility.  These events vary from the infinitesimally small to the unfathomably large, from the impossibly fast to the epically slow.  The cosmic Force and the living Force are, without a doubt, intertwined.  But it is the cosmic Force that lets a Jedi peer into possible futures or reveal hidden truths from pasts long gone.

In the time of the Grand Galactic Republic, the Jedi believed they were masters of both the living and the cosmic Force.  Darth Sidious came along and proved that they were not.  The Dark side seems to have a peculiar stranglehold on the cosmic Force, and an uncanny ability to blot out visions of the future that would otherwise be readily available to the Jedi.

Difficult to see, the future is.

It is very possible that the reason why the Dark side is so powerful is that, unlike the Light side, the Dark side draws more from the massive wealth of power stored up in the infinite, uncaring cosmos.  So much power, used so readily and channeled through extreme emotions, is certainly enough to spell out one's destruction at the hands of the Force.

This is not to say that the living Force is not its own dearth of power.  Certainly, the Jedi were no trifling opponents in the days of the Grand Galactic Republic.  But, when properly used by a Light-side Force user, it seems to take longer to call upon.  Don't believe me?  Go back and check out how long it took Yoda to pull that X-Wing out of the swamp, and how much effort he put into it.

Judge me by my size, do you?  Well!  You should not!

I believe this is actually because most of what Yoda is doing here is controlling his emotions.  The temptation of the Dark side is always there, and the more you're trying to do with the Force the more the Dark side is likely to tempt you to just use the easy path to get the job done.  For someone like Yoda who believes that "once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny," there's no such thing as quickly and easily moving things around with the Force.

Vader just snags it because he doesn't care

But this just takes forever to happen

Now, I'm not an expert.  I might be way off base here.  But that seems pretty reasonable to me so I'll go on to explain why I am so convinced.

In Rebels, the Force training Ezra receives is very personal.  This lets us join him on his path to becoming a Jedi.  The episodic nature of the show means that the lessons Ezra learns can become episodic and focused.  Usually, by the end of an episode, Ezra has made some progress in learning the lesson about the Force he was taught at the start of an episode.

Learning as a team!

Bite-sized chunks are great for understanding the nature of the Force.  They even get Yoda to step in and help out with Ezra's training.  No, Ezra and Kanan don't go to Dagobah, they hear Yoda speak to them through the Force.

Now if this seems weird and nonsensical to you in the context of what I explained about the Dark side's connection to the cosmic Force, that's okay.  You're on the right track, except that Yoda isn't using the cosmic Force to watch over and communicate with these aspiring Jedi.  Instead, Yoda is using the living Force.  Why the living Force?  Because he's seeing things as they happen, which is what the living Force is good at.

Yoda is nothing if not a master at using the living Force.  That's part of why he chose exile on Dagobah.  Everything on that swampy planet is alive, and it has its own Dark side cave that he can watch over as well.

This is the reason why Yoda is able to make a claim like, "long have I watched this one," about Luke and then turn around a day later and tell Luke that "difficult to see, the future is; clouded by the Dark side."

In Star Wars, the present and the future are two distinct domains.  Where the past falls into this is unclear just yet.

But, as I said at the start of this blog, the nature of the Force is changing.

There has been an Awakening...

Star Wars The Clone Wars reintroduced the magic of the Night Sisters of Dathomir, whose powers were previously de-canonized following the made-for-TV movie Ewoks: Battle for Endor.  The Night Sisters of the Clone Wars have a wide array of powers some consider to be... unnatural.  Well, the Night Sisters are distinctly Dark side Force users, so this should come as no surprise.

No, I'm not even going to cover this.

Star Wars Rebels took this one step further in their second season with the introduction of a concept called Ashla.  Ashla was first referenced by an elderly female Lasat named Chava, and she used it as a power to guide the crew of the Ghost to the lost world of Lira San.  Ezra remarks that Ashla sounds an awful lot like the Force.

Well, the Force can go by many names.  Why can't it?  If it's such a ubiquitous power in the galaxy, surely cultures everywhere will have different names for it.

The name Ashla comes from the Expanded Universe world of Tython, where it was one of two moons that helped influence the apocalyptic Force storms that wracked the Jedi home planet.  Its other moon?  Bogan.

Bogan is mentioned in passing by a new character in Star Wars Rebels season three.  The character is known as Bendu, but even this seems to be a bit of a misnomer because he identifies the Light side of the Force as Ashla, the Dark side as Bogan, and himself in between: Bendu.

This... is not a thing.  Not yet, anyway.

Now, the choice of word is interesting because the original title for the Jedi was the Jedi Bendu.  The post-Clone Wars Jedi in the movies seem more concerned about balance than they do specifically about light versus dark.  I'll qualify that last statement in a moment.

But what's most interesting about the character Bendu is that he talks about sight.  Now, Kanan has been blinded and must learn to see using the Force (no, he's not a de facto Miraluka).  But Bendu has a very specific way of phrasing the way he perceives the Force.  He is very clear that the different sides of the Force are as irrelevant and natural as night and day.  To see, one must simply be willing to let go and trust the Force.

No! Do.  Or do not.  There is no try.

Why is this a change?  Because the Sith and Jedi have relied on the cosmic and living Force as individual domains to accomplish their goals previously.  According to Bendu, sight has no bearing on light or darkness when one uses the Force.  Potentially, if Yoda could get past his dogma (he can't) he would be able to see the future that the Dark is trying to hide from him.

Now back to my assertion that Yoda and Obi-Wan are more interested in balance than the actual Light-side: the only Force users in the known galaxy during the Rebellion era are Darth Vader, the Emperor, and Luke.  Since Darth Vader and the Emperor were both decidedly evil, Yoda and Obi-Wan are convinced that Luke needs to be twice as good to make up for all the evil.

No pressure, right?  (Yeah, well Luke said fuck that, if I'm good and I can get my dad to be at least half good we'll be set.)

This, to me, really supports the assertion that the cosmic Force is kind of big and powerful and ambivalent to the living Force.  According to Bendu, the Force itself cannot be good or evil, it can only be used for good or evil.  Easy peasy and we didn't need some nonsensical code that looks like it was written by a middle school kid trying to make a cool Star Wars thing canon.  (I'm looking at you, Grey Jedi).

Serenity and peace are the same thing, dumbshits.

This also fits in well with why Rey was suddenly capable of using the Force the way she did.  If she was able to tap into the cosmic Force better than those around her, she'd be particularly potent in her implementation of the Force.  Since her awakening happened through a vision of the past and possibly the future, it is very reasonable that this made her a conduit for the cosmic Force.  Although she might well have used all that power for the Dark side (Snoke sure wants all that power for himself) she chose not to follow that path.

Dis mah mad face

But, like Bendu, Rey maintained a strong link with the cosmic Force.  Truly the first of the New Jedi, Rey brandishes the Force with all the emotion she earned by being tortured then watching Han and Finn get cut down.  And at the end of the day, she still walks the good path.

What Rey teaches us, what the old Jedi fail to teach us, is that emotions aren't bad.  They just need to be understood and directed.

Steven Universe and the IDIC

I stay away from websites like Tumblr.  I have a Tumblr account I don't use, but I won't even go near Tumblr for the same reason I won't go near League of Legends: the hostile "friendly community."  I will grant that a good amount of Tumblr isn't vitriol - what isn't I get the highlights of in screenshots on my Facebook and Twitter feeds and that's good enough for me.

Really?

Tumblr catches my ire in particular because of its focus on fandoms.  That can be such a negative word these days.  Fandom.  To rhyme with lavatory attendant.

I have ranted before about the dark side of fandom.  It didn't have any particular focus.  So I'll grab on something that's recently come to my attention about one of my favorite fandoms.

In a purified vein of the IDIC there is a cartoon show called Steven Universe.  Steven Universe is a member of a team of alien warriors who protect the Earth from hostile aliens of the same species.  But Steven requires that none of his teammates do so by killing.

Steven is a hugely inclusive show, with intentional normativity in its inclusiveness.  The aliens are, with one notable exception, all female.  So when they develop relationships with each other they are not human hetero relationships.

Mind you, they're not human relationships at all.

Human relationships wish they were this good.

The team who works on Steven Universe has been pretty open with sharing their work in the past (within legal constraints) because they're proud of what they do.  They should be, they make a good, compelling product.

My kids can watch a show about a goofy fat kid with magic powers but also learn about how complex interpersonal relationships and communication are.  This show is so powerful it still helps me deal with the emotions I have regarding my divorce.

I'm not crying, there's something in my eye.... oh, who am I kidding?

I cannot pontificate enough about the superiority of this show.  It's witty and deep and it will speak to your inner child and your struggling, confused adult.

Greg is doing his best, but let's be honest it's hard enough raising a kid without magic powers.

Tumblr is full of kids who want everything to be socially equal.  That's a laudable dream, it's even at the core of the IDIC and a good deal of what is actually depicted in Steven Universe.  But these kids, who have come to be known by the now pejorative term "Social Justice Warriors" take things too far.  Especially when it comes to fandom.

A storyboard artist for Steven Universe quit Twitter because of harassment from these fans.  The subject?  The fans didn't like the way the show was developing the relationships between three characters.

Peridot is a recent addition to the Crystal Gems

Fairly new to the show, Peridot has struggled to fit in with her new friends, the Crystal Gems (Steven and his family of alien warriors).  She is outgoing but awkward because Earth culture is new to her.  She made an attachment with one of the primary Crystal Gem characters in order to help her fit in.

Amethyst is the youngest Crystal Gem (besides Steven) and normally the most laid back

Amethyst, unlike the other two Crystal Gems, was able to get along with Peridot because she has a great sense of humor.  She had maybe a couple episodes where Peridot and Amethyst developed their friendship.  Mostly they were concerned with stopping a giant monster from consuming the Earth.

But there's also Lapis Lazuli

Lapis Lazuli is the catalyst for all of the problems the Crystal Gems have been facing in the show.  She has a troubled past, and is constantly brooding.  Because she wanted to leave Earth, she drew attention to the Crystal Gems from their home world (named, incredibly, Homeworld).

Lapis Lazuli couldn't return to Homeworld after preventing an evil gem from completing her mission of destroying the Crystal Gems and allowing the Earth to be destroyed.  With nowhere to go, she shacked up with Peridot.

There are paragraphs to write about Lapis Lazuli and what she means to the show, but they're not relevant to this argument.

All the metaphors for unhealthy relationships

Now, as a pretty open-minded person who doesn't try to read too much into things it seems like all three of these characters have reasonable platonic relationships with each other.  They are close, as friends are.  They all desire companionship, but all of them aren't well-enough adjusted with themselves to seek out romantic relationships.

I italicized the words "storyboard artist" earlier, so I'll get to my point and justify that now.  I'm not going to say that a storyboard artist has no creative input on the way the show goes, but her job is generally input as far as presenting the sequences in the way that best captures the story cinematically.  They don't sit around and decide who's screwing who, especially in a children's television show.

It's goddamn ridiculous that fans would target her as the focus of their anger and vitriol.  These kids are out of control.

But more importantly, Steven wouldn't approve of that kind of behavior at all.

Lauren Zuke, the artist who left Twitter, tweeted that life exists outside of Steven Universe.

Kind of crazy that she would even have to tweet that.

But if you don't believe Lauren for whatever reason then really you need to be asking yourself whether or not Steven would accept you as a Crystal Gem for behaving that way.  Yeah, we're all different.  But that doesn't mean we have to be different kinds of jerks.

The show is about hope, humanity, and love.  It's about love that transcends simple binary relationships and undermines our perception of love as a road to sexual gratification.  It's about real, honest love.

It's about Pearl's unrequited love for Rose Quartz

It's about Ruby's love for Sapphire

It's about connecting across cultural gulfs

It's about finding freedom in your love for each other...

...even though it acknowledges that most love is fleeting.

It's never about who is with whom.  If it was, we wouldn't have met

Sugilite

Opal

Sardonyx

and Alexandrite.

In fact, in every episode where the characters are concerned with who's in love with whom, someone inevitably gets hurt.  It's like the writers of the show are trying to tell us something.  Huh.

As far as Lauren Zuke is concerned, even if she does have any creative control over the relationships of the characters try celebrating her art instead of trying to direct it.

Peridot isn't ready for a real relationship with anyone anyway

Remember that, whatever your fandom, nobody likes a backseat driver.  Feedback is cool.  Hate isn't.