Whats the use of feeling, Blue episode

Steven Universe and Greg overhear an amazing heartbroken song in this clip from the episode, "That Will Be All."

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Steven Universe | "That Will Be All" Song | Cartoon Network
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Song Analysis: What’s the Use of Feeling (Blue)?

I’ve been mulling this song over since I’d first heard it. For one, it confirms a lot of things about Homeworld and the Diamonds that I’ve been harping on for a while now. But this post isn’t a sermon about how to sympathise with the Diamonds better. I’m not too big a fan of that perspective. Rather, it’s the power that we receive when we empathise with them.

The thing about the Diamonds is that they’re all powerful, huge, and “human.” They err and have feelings, not necessarily in that order. So when they irrationally do something that hurts a lot of individuals and even entire planets, the answer isn’t to excuse them because “they’re sad.” The answer is to reach out to them in a way they understand so that they don’t do it again, and more appropriate to our context, make amends. 

Because the two very polar sides of “forgive” and “punish” aren’t constructive. To side with either doesn’t do justice to the people and gems who’ve already been lost or still are losing. It doesn’t make things better for anyone. 

This post will analyse the perspective Homeworld has of Earth and human beings. At the same time, the song reveals a lot about how gems view themselves and one another. I’ll round it up with how PD’s death impacted both Blue and Yellow Diamond and how their respective coping strategies led to the way things are now. And I’ll speculate on the immediate future of Earth in that regard.

So let’s get to it!

1. The song implies a falling-out among the Diamonds before PD’s shattering

Why would you want to be here? What do you ever see here
That doesn’t make you feel worse than you do? And tell me, what’s the use of feeling, Blue?

When the Steven Bomb opens in Steven’s Dream, we get a rare moment of hearing Blue’s thoughts. Bent over PD’s palanquin, she expresses deep regret. She says, “If only I had done more.” 

We know that Blue is sad over PD’s death. And we know from the first verse that visiting anything related to PD makes both surviving Diamonds uncomfortable. But we can find, within the lyrics, something specific about why instead of just sad, regret is interspersed in their mourning of PD.

In sharp contrast to Blue’s lament of wanting to do more, later on in the song, YD says, “Now there’s nothing we can do.” That implies at one point in time, the Diamonds were in a position to do something that could have prevented PD’s shattering. And they didn’t do it.

I want to bring back one of my older posts regarding the circumstances of PD’s shattering. In it, I mention that there’s been some sort of historical scrubbing of PD’s memory from Homeworld, such that only older gems are aware of her or feel any affinity for her. The Great Diamond Authority Logo, colour schemes, and even gem factions show no sign of PD’s ever existing, when this wasn’t the case for older structures on Earth. 

But in a slightly contradictory manner, we know the truth to be the opposite. The Diamonds didn’t take PD out of Homeworld’s memory because of the fight. Rather, they erased her because it hurt them personally to be reminded of her existence. 

When we look at the circumstances of their argument, there are a few theories I can posit. The main one being this: PD had an unconventional relationship with her Earth gems. I say this because now we have two Homeworld “subordinates” as examples in contrast.

I brought up before that Jasper felt a deep personal affinity for PD. And this may be even without having met her personally, even with the possibility of her being created after PD was shattered. On the other hand, Peridot and Holly Blue talk about their Diamonds with a sense of detachment. There is a great divide that Peridot puts between herself and YD. YD is perfect; she is not. YD is the most objective; that is what she aims to be. YD is a great decider; she was there to reaffirm the logic of the former’s decisions.

It’s much the same for Holly Blue. BD decides to maintain the zoo; she is grateful for the opportunity to serve. BD is arriving; she wants to assure a pleasant visit for her.

In both these cases the gems don’t feel like they’re coerced into serving their Diamonds. They openly acknowledge that because their Diamonds are superior in different (and at times all) aspects, they’re worth following. It’s very similar to idolising someone and hoping they’d mentor you, or even that you could contribute to their cause in some way. This cause being the betterment of Homeworld. 

2. PD’s close relationship with her gems

What does all this imply? It shows that PD might have had the reputation for being unconventionally close to her gems. From what we’ve seen of Quartzes and the soldiers in general, they’re more touchy. They play around. They pull pranks on one another and are very physical. They have a deep relationship with one another because they go through life and death together.

PD was a military leader. But some of the best military leaders fight along with their soldiers. It’s much easier to trust the command of someone willing to risk their life for you as much as you are for them.

Why would you want to employ her subjects that destroyed her?
Why keep up her silly zoo? Oh, tell me what’s the use of feeling, Blue?

So to speculate on what happened when PD was shattered, I’d say that she tried to talk to Rose at one point. Her palanquin was damaged but not destroyed. If PD were so determined to escape to the nearest warp or ship, she could have kept going. The palanquin would have served as an added layer of protection amid the volley of attacks.

Gems like Eyeball have said they were right there when it happened. That implies PD wasn’t alone. But that Eyeball survived means that at one point, PD stepped out of the palanquin to face her attackers personally, even before the battle was over. It was likely because she knew her forces wouldn’t win against Rose and the Crystal Gems. 

Rose Quartzes were a caste under PD herself. That she stepped out and left herself vulnerable does mean that the same affinity PD shared with her Quartzes extended to Rose herself. Nonetheless, the confrontation happened and PD was lost.

Leading up to this moment it’s very possible that PD had tried to talk it over with Rose in the past then. That her gems feel a very personal connection with her means rather than giving off a distant air, she made herself approachable. 

And I wouldn’t say it means she was the “nicest” of the Diamonds. It’s likely she had the same regard for organic life that BD and YD have. It’s likely she valued utility as well. It’s just, because she interacted with them so much, it would have been easier for her to listen and to understand. And that’s my point. People aren’t born with an innate immediacy when it comes to understanding other people. It takes practice and it takes effort. But it can be learned.

That difference could have been what first caused the rift between her and the other Diamonds. Even in her death, Yellow doesn’t see the value in the “silly” human zoo. Even though PD treated human beings as little more than pets, she saw something in them and wanted to understand why. That’s why she sequestered a group of them. But I’ll talk more about that later.

3. Utilitarian Homeworld

An army has a use; they can go and fight a war
A Sapphire has a use; she can tell you what it’s for
An Agate terrifies; a Lapis terraforms
Where’s their Diamond when they need her, Blue?
You’ve got to be a leader, Blue!

I’ve said this so many times, and I won’t stop saying it, because this episode has shown more and more that Homeworld is deeply utilitarian. Gems are designed for a specific purpose. Gems are rewarded based on their fulfilment of that purpose. Planets are co-opted as colonies because they are useful. That’s probably why in the Crystal System, our Solar System, the gems made a beeline for Earth and left the other planets untouched.

When Yellow is convincing Blue not to be sad, she’s directly tapping into that collective psyche. “Every gem has a use. Yours is to lead. And that is why you must lead!” 

That’s why the thought of keeping the Rose Quartzes around doesn’t sit well with Yellow. It’s not because she wants to destroy them. It’s because destroying them is the only thing that makes sense to her. What does she tell Blue? “Why would you want to employ her subjects that destroyed her?” 

The alternative to shattering the Rose Quartzes is to employ them. That is, integrate them back into the Homeworld system and have to deal with them and see them and know that they are living reminders of PD’s shattering. 

It shows the strict binary of Homeworld. Living is being of use. Not being of use is a meaningless life, akin to death. Yellow can’t imagine anything in between, say, dropping them off in the middle of nowhere to start their own planet, and never seeing them again, partly because she won’t be at peace with it.

And this is because gems view themselves in the collective sense. Many times I’ve talked about how Jasper, even though she’s the “ultimate quartz” continues to identify with the other Jaspers. “Jaspers keep going until we get what we want.” It’s something they’re socialised to think from the moment they’re created.

Before anything, it’s awful that they’re generalising the consequence of one Rose Quartz’s actions on an entire type of gem. I will say that right off the bat. What this reveals is the collectivist thought of gems. Rose Quartzes aren’t seen as individuals; they’re seen as the type of gem, which is also why they’re all called the same thing. 

And that thinking applies to the Diamonds as well. Yellow is telling Blue to “be a Diamond,” to put aside her personal grief and fulfil the purpose of her caste. 

The succeeding lines, and if you think about it, the entire song, are filled with the language of utility and being “useful.” Peridot and Holly Blue talked about their Diamonds in this way as well. 

Yes, of course we still love her
And we’re always thinking of her
But now there’s nothing we can do
So tell me what’s the use of feeling
What’s the use of feeling
What’s the use of feeling, Blue?

Yellow admits there is a deep feeling for PD, love. Yet their feelings are secondary and the priority is what’s productive. That’s why her central point is that there is nothing they can do about PD’s death. 

4. Blue drowns herself in regret 

And we already know that denying their feelings completely hasn’t led to good decisions. That’s why we had the impression that YD was all alone. If there were several others deliberating on the Cluster, I’m certain some concerns would have been voiced. By and large, Blue has been passively living her life ever since PD passed. She’s left herself in the past and is determined to preserve anything that reminds her of PD.

To some extent, Blue is punishing herself. It hurts her to see anything that relates to Pink, yet she insists on seeking out the things that used to “belong” to the latter while at the same time expressing regret over not doing more to prevent her demise.

How can you stand to be here with it all
Drowning in all this regret
Wouldn’t you rather forget her?

When Yellow asks these questions, the answer is that Blue can’t stand to be there. She would rather forget. But she won’t let herself do that because she wants to be sorry. She wants to remind herself of what she did wrong because as Yellow said, there’s nothing they can do for her now. 

In Blue’s eyes, nothing she can do can make it better. That she green-lighted YD’s Cluster means that she’s not really thinking about making things better. Instead, she wants to keep feeling the hurt because she’s afraid if she stops hurting, that means she’s stopped loving PD and that she’s forgetting her memory.

We know that’s not true. Sometimes the best way to commemorate someone’s life is to keep going at what they believed in and live the good life they wanted us to live. Yet Blue hasn’t suggested saving Earth. A few human beings here and there, but all she does is mourn their planet, fully knowing that human beings don’t deserve it. 

And I think this thinking stems from two places.

First, as mentioned, she’s letting herself be led passively by YD at the moment. The second, is that she and the other gems don’t view human beings as, well, human. Look at the words she uses when addressing Greg. She wonders how he survives “in the wild.” She’s surprised that he “is capable of understanding” her pain. The Gems view human beings as savages, as animals even. They’re viewed as uncivilised and unable to comprehend things like ideas and feelings.

And there’s a historical equivalence for this. Colonisers viewed what is now called the “developing world” as a group of ignorant savages. Sometimes, they brought the goodness of civilisation to them and saw themselves as Saviours, introducing the finer aspects of being truly human. That is essentially the Human Zoo. PD and now BD honestly believed that human beings would be happier this way, living under a routine the way gems do, that this would give their lives meaning and make life worth living. It’s a flawed logic but it’s one they’re determined to impose. And that sounds familiar too.

Other times, they massacred natives and took their land and resources to sustain their own needs. And we already know the parallel for that in the projected Swiss Cheese Earth from It Could’ve Been Great.

The intention behind their actions is not malice. It’s ignorance. The Diamonds, when first encountering Earth, did not go, “Oh hey let’s go destroy some people for kicks!” 

While there are some opinions today that the former Imperial Powers should be robbed blind and forced to bow down to their former colonies, more people would say they should make amends, pay reparations, fix what they broke. And that opinion tends to get heard. It took time for people to recognise that certain peoples were even people in the first place. And in hindsight it’s obvious, but back then there was a genuine ignorance on the matter, a lot of people just grew up being taught that. As many have said, hate is learned.

And we know even today that doesn’t always work out too. But it’s a start. Introducing vaccines, technology, and civil liberties (not necessarily in the form of democracy), have helped a lot of countries begin to develop such that now, many of the “developing countries” have some of the fastest growing GDPs in the world. Again, it’s about being constructive. And as many have also said, love is learned as well.

5. Yellow wants to eradicate the memory

Won’t it be grand to get rid of it all?
Let’s make a plan of attack
Start looking forward and stop looking back

So when Yellow talks about destroying Earth, as I’ve said before, it’s a personal move. It’s her being angry and irrational and completely not objective. And there’s a motive behind it but she’s using it to justify a completely incommensurate use of force. 

Yellow copes by moving forward, burying her feelings, and trying to forget all about it. She likely feels the guilt Blue feels. And her love for PD is genuine. But she’s also certain that admitting that first, won’t do anything, and second, will lead to feelings she’s ill-equipped to deal with. So she stifles them instead.

The kicker is that it’s preventing her from healing. It’s leading her to abuse power and harm others. She’s buckling under the pressure she’s subjected herself to.

There’s a scene right before the song ends when Blue is the one comforting Yellow.

Yes, of course, we still love her
And we’re always thinking of her
Don’t you know I miss her too?
But tell me what’s the use of feeling?
What’s the use of feeling?
What’s the use of feeling?

But that causes Yellow to try even harder to hide how she feels. In fact, when we look at the song, it can be interpreted two ways. “What’s the use of feeling blue?” Is her treatise to BD, telling her not to continue letting herself wallow in her sadness, and she’d have a point there. But the way the song ends is “What’s the use of feeling?” The world “Blue” is tacked on at the end and even in the title it’s in parentheses, meaning it’s not seen as significant and can be omitted. This meaning is her telling BD that there’s no point in feeling. It doesn’t do anything. It doesn’t change anything. So let’s not feel anything, ever.

YD’s emotional constipation, for lack of better word, is just as damaging as BD’s grief. Because the latter is going on with everything, she’s not making decisions where it matters, like in perhaps saving Earth and she’s complicit in its destruction. On the other hand, YD’s coping strategy has her projecting destructive behaviour outward. So it again, doesn’t solve anything but has the added effect of making things worse.

There’s no doubt the two remaining Diamonds have a close relationship with one another. They’ve been through a lot together and they’re clearly sharing in a guilty secret no one else knows about. 

What implications does this have for Earth? The way to reach the Diamonds is definitely to empathise with them, not distance ourselves further. And we’ve seen it work. Greg’s empathy was what broke through Blue’s bubble of grieving, something not even YD could easily get through. 

Should human beings and the Crystal Gems just tough it out, they’d only be feeding into the notion the Diamonds already have about humans and Earth. But Earth has something to offer, just by virtue of housing life like theirs. Life that is capable of organising and living together instead of going it alone, as Blue says, “in the wild.”

Their hurt and ours isn’t undone by building the bridge, I don’t think it ever will be. But new constructive memories get forged over painful ones. And then healing for both parties can begin. What this episode has shown us is that the Diamonds don’t have anything personally against all the people they’re hurting. They’re caught up about PD and to them everyone else is just collateral damage. It’s definitely behaviour that must be stopped but the way to do it can be a means that benefits everyone. (Like a human-gem coexistence)

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