Talk about a way to start the series back up right. Nightmare Hospital has given us plenty to talk about, and now it’s time to let our minds wander a bit. What might happen in the future based on what we saw happen in that dark, spooky hospital?
Apocalypse how?
Airing immediately after Friend Ship, it seems like Nightmare Hospital provided a speedy answer to what could be behind Earth’s expiration date: the writers made sure to remind us of the cluster fusions, and they did so in a way that named them as dangerous enemies to be fought. Then we see that they’re showing up in random places and, after an initial period of docility, acting aggressively.
Of course just two of them were easy for Steven and Connie to handle: Steven was able to keep one occupied, and one-on-one they are no challenge to Connie at all. Yesterday we mentioned that we could think of three ways they could become more dangerous: the monsters fusing, there being one enormous cluster fusion, or there being a massive army of them. Peridot talking about needing to check on “the cluster” rather than “the clusters” would seem to imply a single, massive enemy (as we initially expected), but any scenario could work.
Why so aggressive?
Of course if these things are going to be the cause of Earth’s expiration then they need to be dangerous to everyone, not just the Crystal Gems. These two were more aggressive than the one Garnet encountered at the Kindergarten, so either we were right about these being made from the shards of homeworld loyalist soldiers or they’re getting more aggressive over time.
The six-armed monster seemed to be agitated by proximity to Steven, though it’s hard to be sure if it would have eventually attacked anyway. It’s certain that they weren’t focused on Steven: the one grabbed Connie, and the other chased after an empty stretcher even though Steven was still in the room it had been trying to break into. They are probably just sensitive to the magic of Steven’s gem, like all of the other monsters the Crystal Gems have dealt with in the past.
If so, that means that the cluster fusions would have eventually started attacking people even without coming near a Gem. With enough of them rising up, they could cause havoc all over the planet. An army of uncontrollable monsters crawling out of the ground would certainly be a dangerous event, and would explain why Peridot was so keen to be elsewhere.
2 comments
Peridot did say some even emerged early. They could al be aggressive because they’ve never seen Steven before, or fear Rose Quartz’s gem, or recognize what’s happened to them. They might also be aggressive cause they don’t want to be forced into a fusion and want to reform as their own individual gem again. They’re all one garbled conversation that they don’t want to take part in and act because the gems who form the cluster can’t agree on how to think or act like the one Garnet & Steven saw in Keeping it Together.
The fusions were something that was started thousands of years ago – in the context of prehistoric man, these things would have been shambling monstrosities and pose a more serious threat in a time when the spear and sword were the most common weapon.
I wonder if some of the other fusions could be more active and more dangerous.