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Fictional Women Around the World: Peridot · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Smitha and welcome to stuff.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I never told you a prediction of iHeartRadio, And today
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: we are back with another edition, a sub sub sub
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: sub segment of fictional women around the world. And it's
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: gonna be a fun one because Smitha has no idea
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: what I'm talking about, none at all, And it's a
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: fun one to try to explain to someone who has
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: no idea what we're talking about at all.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Is it the age difference? This is why I have
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: no idea what this is.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: You also don't like animated stuff that much. I think
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: it's probably both. But we're gonna We're gonna get through
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: this and I'm very, very excited about it. So today
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: we are talking about Paradot, a character from the animated
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: series Stephen Universe. And fair warning, I have seen most
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: of the show. I think I've seen all of the show,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: but it's been a long time. I think it ended
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen, but that feels like forever ago. It
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: did have like some like a movie and all that
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: other stuff. But I do have a friend who cosplays
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: as characters from Stephen Universe at Dragon Con. Amazing, amazing,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: all right, So Steven Universe is an animated children's show
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: created by Rebecca Sugar. It started as a show in
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: twenty thirteen and then led to all kinds of things
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: a movie, comics, games, soundtracks. Music is a big part
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: of the show. It's a coming of age story. It's
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: really sweet that centers on Steven Universe, who is half
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: human half illienoid life form called Gym's. He's a young
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: boy who occasionally has to help save the world with
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: his family, including the wide group he's found, so like
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: the Gems kind of help, the Crystal Gems kind of
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: help raise him with his dad. It's very interesting dynamic. Now.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: The Gyms are created by the Diamond Authority for specific purposes,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: like you're a fighter or you're a farmer. It's kind
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: of a cast system, and there is amongst a lot
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: of the society belief about which is the best, which
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: is higher, and which is lower. Gems of similar types
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: confused together to become sort of a bigger, stronger version
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: of themselves. But the Gems aren't supposed to fuse the
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: gems of different types. As you might imagine, not all
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: gems follow this rule, and two of the main characters
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: and best friends slash lovers Ruby and Sapphire fuse to
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: create Garnet. They also get married. There's a whole marriage episode.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: They both use she her pronouns because of this act.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: They take refuge on Earth, not the marriage, but because
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: they were fusing together when they should not have been.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: And if you're like, does that mean it's sort of
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: a metaphor for sex. Yes, that's how a lot of
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: people view it, which we'll get to in a second.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: But there's a lot of growth and introspection in the
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: show and then occasional Earth saving. The episode is a
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: really short through, like ten minutes, so it's really it's nice.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: It's just nice. Stephen Universe is often praise is one
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: of the queerest shows on American television, and the fact
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: that it's aimed towards children and is so open about
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: it makes it even rarer. There are several characters that
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: I could have picked, like pretty much any of the
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: gems I think I could have picked. However, I went
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: with Paradot because she is Ace and also arrow Ace,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: which is funny because over on the other show I
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: do Saver. We did an episode on the fictional foods
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: of Stephen Universe and for that, we did a quiz
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: of which character are you and I got Paradot, which
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: is also my birthstone, So hell, wow meant to be.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: And I also know some of you might be like,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: wait a minute, is this just your read of this. No,
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  Speaker 1: the creator has said the character is aeroace, and I
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: think that one of the writers did too. I do
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  Speaker 1: think that this can be complicated in terms of visibility,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: though as an ACE person specifically, because if it's not
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: set out right in the show, it's not necessarily like
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  Speaker 1: anybody can interpret it how they're going to interpret it.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: That's a bigger conversation for later. But I just was
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: reading this, I was like, paradigt. I was just, Oh,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: I'd never thought about it that way, but now that
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: you mentioned it, okay. And thanks to UH as always
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: to fandom Wikis for compiling all this info, because wow,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: they really did a great job with this one. I've
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: seen the show, but you know, I could have given
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: you snippets, and I like to give history, but I
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: can't go rewatch the entire show, and surprise surprise, not
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: too many people have written a whole history of this character,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: so appreciate it. With people doing that here we go. Paradot,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: or specifically Paradot Facet two F five L cut five
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  Speaker 1: XG is a lime green and bright yellow. Uh no
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: gim Paradot because I mean perhaps obviously they're based on
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: gyms kind of with this like triangular hair with a
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: green gem on her head. She is a homeworld gym
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: who acts as a technician and helps create other Gems.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: When we are first introduced to her, she is an
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: antagonist to Stephen and the Gems, having been sent to
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: set up this advanced technology, allowing an army to come
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  Speaker 1: to Earth to destroy it. She clashed with the Gems
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: many times over that, and then she realized they were
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: quote rebellious Gems and was like, I've got to bring
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: them in. She's loyal but erratic, especially as time goes
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: on and she's constantly rebuffed or defeated by the Crystal Gems.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Because she's aware of the imminent attack on Earth that
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: she really doesn't want to be there for. She resorts
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: to all kinds of measures to contact the Gem homeworld,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: including kidnapping Stephen. At one point, due to some circumstances,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: she had these implants, these like lemon hancer implants because
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: she was basically born. It's almost like a runt, Like
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: she was small and she didn't have a special power.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: So she got these implants and she lost them and
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: it was a really traumatic event for her and it
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: makes her she starts acting younger. She's extremely paranoid. She's
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: afraid of like kitchen appliances. Is that, honestly, I almost
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: cut my finger off once, I understand. But she really
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: kind of latches on to Stephen in this point, and
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  Speaker 1: he's he's very open to her, and even though she's
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: kind of tried to kill him and kidnap him, but
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: he's very kind with her. Yeah, very He's very forgiving,
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  Speaker 1: and they become close. They become like really close friends.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: It's really sweet. However, the Crystal Gems are very suspicious
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: and are like, she's this paradigt is just trying to
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: get us captured. But Paradot later tells Steven she doesn't
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: understand why he never gave up on her, but she
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: won't give up on him either, and that they don't
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: need an excuse to hang out. It's really cute, I understand.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: In like other media, where you can be like the
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: the toxic version of a relationship, like this, but that's
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: not what this is. So it's just really sweet. Yeah.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: During this transition period of an antagonist to anti hero,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Paradout makes a lot of mistakes and accidentally offends the
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Crystal Gems numerous times. She also reveals she really really
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: dislikes fusion, which I said many people read a sex
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: so that's why a lot of people think she's ace,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: even outside of the creator and writer. But because of this,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: because of this dislike, she insults Garnett, who was the
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: result of a forbidden fusion, on multiple occasions. She's just
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: she's really awkward. She doesn't understand social cues. She's kind
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: of really hung up in this cast system, but we
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: do see her make attempts to learn. She often doesn't
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: understand human speech patterns and believes organic life life is lesser,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: which is really entertaining. But I can also see how
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: people might be offended by like kind of if you
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: were reading it as if she's on the spectrum of neurodivergence,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: but I think it's more of a She's not from Earth,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: so she just doesn't get these things. Over time, she
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: realizes how damaging the thinking of her homeworld is and
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: joins the Crystal gems a decision with ramifications that she
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: often struggles with, like she just misses her home, or
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: she misses the work she used to do. Things like that.
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  Speaker 1: Paradot is very raggedosious and often tries to take the
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  Speaker 1: lead unwarranted, like she's like, ah, this is what we're
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  Speaker 1: gonna do. A lot of this is probably to cover
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: up the insecurity she has since she doesn't have jim
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: powers due to lack of resources or special gem powers.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: She has the basic ones. She has those but was
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: seen as lacking by others, which is why she got
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: the tech enhancements that she was so devastated to lose.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: And it turns out she was pheraokinetic all along. She
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: just didn't know, and that's the ability to move and
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: shape things like iron. And she only discovers this because
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: with the help of Stephen an Amethyst, who really supported
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: her and were like, no, you know, it doesn't matter whatever.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: So it was like she needed the right environment to
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: find these things and she I mean, she's also kind
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: of working against herself a lot of the time. She's
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: very stubborn. She really doesn't like when she doesn't get
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: her way, but she's very dedicated also sometimes in a
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: way that is not like the good way, Like sometimes
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: she's like dedicated to a cause that you're like, you
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: really should maybe reevaluate this one. Most of our decision
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  Speaker 1: making is very intellect or logic based, which led her
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: to take a different approach to save Earth by reaching
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: out to the leader of the Diamond collective, Yellow Diamond,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: and plead their case using logic. It doesn't work. She
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: gets poofed away, which is the whole thing. But she
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: grows to love Earth and she views it as her home,
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  Speaker 1: organic life and all, and she does. After Yellow Diamond
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: orders that Earth be destroyed anyway. After her tempts at
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: logic don't work, she defies the order and accepts the
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  Speaker 1: title Crystal gim So she becomes one of the crew.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: She also forms a friendship with Lapis Lazuli, another gem. Okay,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: so of note, a lot of people ship them together,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: like put them together romantically. I'll just remind you as
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: people can have romantic relationships. I'm not saying that's what's happening,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: but I I just would have put that reminder in there.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: And they I do. I get why they worked together
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: with Lapis acting as Paradot's informant before Paradox switch sides,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: and according to a writer, Paradot was a part of
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Lapis's interrogation. So Lapis has this really PTSD kind of
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: hanging around this interrogation she went through and you sort
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: of learn pieces about it, but Paradot was involved. Because
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: of this, Lapis is less than excited to live with
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: when they move in together, but Paradis determined to fix things.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: She does all kinds of things, like I think she
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: makes her a pool. She does a lot of stuff
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: and gives her her most valuable possession, a tape recorder,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: but Lapis smashes it. Eventually, they talk and there's some
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: drama and Lapis comes to Paradot's rescue. Lapis blushes. All
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: the shippers like to point this out. I have no
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: skin in the game. I just thought it was funny
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: that that always came up. And they also they like
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: the same entertainment. There's kind of a cheesy rom com
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: show that Paradot really loves that they enjoy together. I
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: think it's a rom com show. It sounds like Dawson's
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: Creek to me. But anyway, Paradot becomes very consider of
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: her feelings and is very aware of like if someone
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: At one point, Amethyst suggests they play a game that's like,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: I don't know, we get captured or something, and Paradot
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: was like, no, we're not going to play that because
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: she knows Lapis would not like it. Lapis does leave
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: at one point, having she thought Paradot was going to
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: come with her back to their home world to leave Earth,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: but Paradot stays to fight with the Crystal Gems to
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: save Earth. But they do reunite with a hug. They
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: come back together. Yeah, And by the time the movie
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: came out, Paradot was much more compassionate and had really
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: grown a lot, helping with the Little Homeschool, which is
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: a place for Gems to go find their place after
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: the cast system of their home world is dissolved. So
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: she worked back on her homeworld. She was a what's
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: called a kindergartener where she helped. As I said, I
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: think she helped make new gems. But this was a
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: place where it could come and since the cast system
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: wasn't there anymore, like you could be you didn't have
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: to be one thing, you didn't have to only be
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: an engineer, you didn't have to only be whatever. So
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: she would teach at that school, and she even changed
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: her outfit to incorporate bits and pieces of the other gyms,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: and oh my gosh, I'm getting all. It's very sweet.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: It's a very sweet show. And I do really love Paradot.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: People are She's a character where people have I feel
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: like they either love her or hate her. So I
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: get it. She is kind of annoying. She's a lot
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: at first, especially, and she is the enemy at first,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: but I like that she got that journey, uh, and
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: we see her really change and really learn. It was nice,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: and so I was happy to learn that this character
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: was intended to be air Awace. I was like, oh, yeah,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: that's lovely.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: That's lovely.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: I don't know the show at all. I like, I
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: even looked it up, and I'm like, I have no
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: idea what this is, and I'm very baffled by the situation.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: But the way you describe it, so, knowing nothing about this,
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: I'm like, is this a children's show?
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: Kids watch this? Yeah? Yeah, it's really very confused. Yeah,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: it's hard to describe. It's just kind of like a
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: lot of it is very slice of life, Like there
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: are these big Earth battles, but they're in the minority.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: A lot of it is like, oh, I have this
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: little conflicked with the character. How do we work it out?
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I have to get props looking this up. A
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: majority of the cast are people of color. The voice
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: actors are.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's just hard to describe how like, even
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: their voices are very soothing. It's a it's a gentle show, okay,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: and it's it's nice because the general goal is let's
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: come together and work things out. And I'm I'm happy
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: that like the romance, I mean, even as an Ace person,
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: and I'm so happy that there was this really romantic part,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: and I'm glad that there's this character that is Ace,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: and I'm it's it's it's good that there's all these
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: different types of representation. I did read somewhere that I
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: couldn't remember this personally, but somebody said that the Crystal
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: Gems did struggle with the homophobia on Earth, which I
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: makes sense. I can't remember personally, but I did read
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: at least a couple places that that was true. And
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: then there's a polyamorous relationship as well, like yeah, huh,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: Like I said, I could have picked a lot. There's
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: a lot of people are Crystal Gems I could have picked.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: To learn.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: Yes, Yes, thank you for coming on this journey. When
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: I heard you knew nothing about it, I was very
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: excited and like I said, I haven't seen it in
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: a while. So if I got anything wrong, please let
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: me know. You can email us listeners at Hello at
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: Stuffhenever Told You dot com. You can also find Awn
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Zousky at Momster podcast or on Instagram and TikTok stuff
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Move Never Told You. We're also on YouTube. We have
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: a t belk story and we have a book you
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: can get wherever you get for your books. Thanks as
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: always to our super producer Christina or executive producer and
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: your contuder Joey. Thank you and thanks to you for
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: listening stuff An Never Told You production of by Heart Radio.
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  Speaker 1: For more podcast or my Heart Radio, you can check
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