The scene in question is where Rose and Pearl do their dance in order to fuse into Rainbow Quartz and at one point, the two were very close to each other almost as though they were about to kiss. Cartoon Network's UK division felt that scene was a bit too inappropriate and edited it out. Now there's a petition to ask Cartoon Network's UK branch to reinstate the scene in future broadcasts.
For the record, I'm a lefty, but I can see the reason for it to be edited out from a conservative point of view. And to be fair, only that scene is cut while everything else is intact. So Pearl's affection towards Rose remains nonetheless. It's just that, from the censors' perspective, it's a bit much seeing two characters that are seemingly of the same gender into a position like that.
Now I said 'seemingly' because Rebecca Sugar and the rest of the Steven Universe staff has said time, and time again, that the gems in Steven Universe are genderless because, quite simply, they're just space rocks. They are given female characteristics and pronouns for the sake of simplicity. Feel free to see the relationship between Pearl and Rose, and Ruby and Sapphire, as a metaphorical representation of love between those of the same gender. But as far as the narrative of Steven Universe is considered, the gems are primarily genderless that chose to take female form, again for simplicity's sake. They can, if they want to, take the form of males as we see with Amethyst.
With that said, while I am disappointed that that scene was cut from the UK broadcast, it does virtually no impact at all to the overall narrative of the episode, the show, or its characters. Furthermore, this is not the first time a CN Original gets censored in the UK as there have been numerous other shows that receive the same treament. Rating systems differ from region to region. So what is considered appropriate in Japan, for example, may not be as much in the US or Europe. So this really is not surprising. At the very least, these censorships are not as heavy as the Austalian versions as Australia is notorious for making HUGE edits of shows from Cartoon Network and broadcasting these versions throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
Now that I mentioned it, I did not hear anything about the Australian broadcast doing any editing as far as Steven Universe is concerned, nor does the UK broadcast edited any intimate scenes involving Ruby & Sapphire. So this case of a small edit in "We Need to Talk" could be an isolated incident and therefore, I find it not really that much of a big deal.
Ok, now that's settled, the next segment after the break is my review of today's episode of Steven Universe. Like the previous two, it has spoilers, so stop the video right now if you don't want to get spoiled. Otherwise, my review begins right after the break.
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"It could Have Been Great" takes the series back the ongoing story arc involving Peridot. To be honest, this entire episode is just a setup to the next episode "Message Received". The episode only provides supplemental information of the world of Steven Universe, namely how different is Earth in the show from that of our own, who really rules Homeworld, and what would happen if the Gems did have their way with Earth.
So in short, the episode is a whole lot of nothing happened yet and the real plot is in the next episode. So I'll use this time to give my rant on something else.....
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So today, Frederator, the studio behind Adventure Time and The Fairly Oddparents, has announced in their official Facebook Page of the latter starting its 10th Season on January 15th on Nickelodeon. When asked about the status of season 3 of Bravest Warriors, the Frederator Facebook Page replied that Bravest Warriors will return AFTER all episodes of Bee & Puppycat are out.
~Are~~~~~
~~You~~~~~
~~~Freaking~~~~~
KIDDING ME?!
I. Am. Apalled. That one of the most anticipated web series is now at the mercy of another web series with an absolutely horrible management. Say what you want about Bee & Puppycat, but the fact that the 5th & 6th episodes of Bee & Puppycat has only been released EXCLUSIVELY to Kickstarter members and has yet to be available to the public, and STILL NOTHING about the final 3 episodes. This is BS Level Over 9000, folks. And I'm simply done with Bee & Puppycat and its management. And I'm ending it right here.
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