Steven Universe: Save the Light picks up right when the last video game based on the hit animated show left off, with Steven and the Crystal Gems having tamed a destructive Homeworld Gem weapon that was once used to raise entire armies made entirely out of hard light soldiers.
Image: Cartoon Network
Though the White Light Weapon decides to become a member of the Crystal Gems itself (creating a new form for itself styled after Steven), the being’s time with the Gems is cut short by the arrival of Save the Light‘s main villain, the homeworld Gem Hessonite voiced by Christine Baranski. Moments after arriving on Earth, Hessonite explains that the White Light was her weapon that she used on Earth the last time she was on the planet thousands of years ago. She steals the White Light and zooms off in her spaceship, setting off the rest of the game’s plot, but it’s worth taking a moment to take a hard look at Hessonite and think about who she might be in the larger scheme of things.
Though it isn’t directly addressed, Hessonite’s curly afro; vertically-oriented, rectangular gem; and orange colour palette all suggest that she may be the same Homeworld Gem described by the Centipeetle in episode “Monster Reunion”. Because Centipeetle, a partially-corrupted Gem, can no longer use her mouth to speak, she draws Steven a series of pictures describing how she, her crew, and a fleet of other Homeworld soldiers were sent to Earth during the Gem War under the command of an unnamed Gem.
The Gem that the Centipeetle draws bears a striking resemblance to Hessonite, and her aggressive, domineering demeanour matches up with the way that Hessonite interacts with others in Save the Light as well as with how Steven Universe creator has described Hessonite’s personality.
The potential connection between Hessonite and Centipeetle also opens up the possibility for a clearer explanation of the devastating weapon that Homeworld used on the Crystal Gems during the war that resulted in the world’s corrupted Gem monsters. Towards the end of her illustrated explanation, Centipeetle tries to tell Steven about a light that engulfed the world as she and other Gems were trying to escape the planet. Steven wonders whether Centipeetle is describing a sound or a song and the weapon is only represented by a blinding white light.
Centipeetle’s drawing of her commander
Given how powerful an adversary the White Light was in the first Steven Universe game and how quick Hessonite is to reclaim it in Save the Light, it stands to reason that the White Light could very well be the same weapon that was used as Homeworld’s final solution to end the war.
It’s worth noting that the Steven Universe video games haven’t had a direct influence on the plot of the show in the past. But seeing as how the show isn’t at all bound to its television roots the way we once assumed it was, these video game developments could be very telling hints about what to expect as Steven Universe‘s story continues to unfold.
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