>>120235496>>120235519Might as well have been with how Steven reacts to them.
And it's why a lot of people feel like the whole reveal is either a retcon or more properly inorganic.
All those times, without context, it DOES look like traumatizing moments really.
But remember what happens in them.
>The TestSteven is intentionally given a Test, which the gems offered him to see if he was ready to go on missions.
He fails but pretends to succeed without blowing up on the Gems (which although he rightfully should have, also is a lose lose because wtf do you think is gonna happen? They were doing this out of the kindness of their heart.)
>Pearl and Garnet defeatsSteven spends an entire episode nursing Pearl back to health with antics ensuing with her 'poofer' of a Holo Pearl. Overcomes in and she comes back, all seems good.
And Garnet again, comes back, much to Steven's surprise and delight.
>Cluster ExperimentsBoth times seem like literal scare factors to him and not anything that indicated trauma.
>Aging to DeathWhich he learns to deal with and again is not indicated to be trauma until he revisits it by regressing.
>Bismuth, Eyeball, JasperPart of the drama with his mom which seems like is resolved with the end of the original series.
>Cat FingersGenuine traumatizing no matter how it's looked at tho, probably why he never shapeshifts again except for a previously mentioned example.
The problem with a LOT of the examples Rebecca uses is that the context REALLY ruins what her intent was, if she was trying to instill trauma, knowing how those scenes PLAY OUT really takes away from it, and again, is not organic at all because all this trauma just suddenly comes to him all at once, it's not naturally built up, he's literally told that he has all this trauma once SU:F horrible plot makes it apparent.
This is why you see people calling it a retcon or some other crap, because it's genuinely done wrong/horribly.
