This has been bugging me. Why the do the Crystal Gems look human-ish?

>>84759597
Turns out bipedal forms are surprisingly handy.

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>>84759597
you mean why do humans look gem-ish?

IDK. Maybe they are machines designed to a dominant life form on any planet they visit, humanity was the first spaient species they came across, so now the human form is their universal default form because it's so useful. Now it's second nature to them.

That's the most rational answer I can come up with besides "lol, it's science fiction, it doesn't have to make sense".

>>84759650
>handy
ayy

>>84759597
The humanoid shape makes tool use really easy.

>>84759704
There's another explanation: If gems default to four limbs without fusion, the combination of two legs/two arms is going to be the most versatile.

>>84759597
I'm not gonna say much, but we look the way we look for a reason

>>84759650
Wouldn't some sort of octopus/spider hybrid form be more useful?

>>84759650
>>84759776
Yeah, but if it's about practicality why put the head on top? That's like 30lbs dead weight on top to drag you around.

>>84759812
Where else would you put the head dumbass?

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>>84759704
But Yellow Diamond hates Earth with a passion. It's weird that she and all her subjects would be humanoid.

>>84759597
Maybe humans look gemish, OP. You think of that?

>>84759848
In the most heavily armored portion of your body, with your eyes relocated to somewhere else on the torso. Redundancies for sensory and vital organs are also a must.

>>84759848
In the chest..? Where the head goes the body follows. Put your head in your body so you don't have to worry about getting dragged around by it. Not like they've got organs getting in the way.

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>>84759650
That form I thought was wasteful; was actually quite tasteful!

>>84759907
The head at the top looks aesthetic and nature would have done otherwise but your stupid idea didnt happen so its obviously impractical.

Now the gems could have multiple legs but that looks too animalistic the less limbs the more advanced the lifeform actually looks.

>>84759597
Thousands of years ago, before Sigourney Weaver, there was a humanoid alien civilization with advanced technology. Much of their civilization ran on "living" crystalline processors with "magical" abilities, and this included AIs with hard-light bodies. At some point, they got independent enough to overthrow their makers, and they built a civilization of their own. They kept the humanoid body plan because their technology was built for it, and there wasn't a good enough reason to change it.

>>84759812
It's useful to have sensory structures clustered on a movable projection that is at or can be moved to the highest point, and it's useful for minimizing signal delays to have the brain nearby. And the head is by far the best-armored part of most vertebrates, being solidly enclosed with bone. Of course, gems don't have all the same biomechanical constraints, but they have historical reasons for their shape.

>>84759597
the same reason all gems speak english.

>>84759907
>Redundancies for sensory and vital organs are also a must.
Also, sensory and "vital" organs are the most metabolically expensive to maintain. Even so, there are two eyes, two ears, two lungs, two kidneys, and significant reserve capacity in other organs. Evolution strikes a balance between starvation and toughness.

>>84759857
Maybe they just think the humans were copying them.

>>84761402
They're made of some sort of energy that allows them to do things like controlling their density and shape-shifting. Having an extra pair of eyes shouldn't be a problem.

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>>84759857

Gems are much older tham humans

>You used to hunt and gather, what happened with that?

>>84762788
Women learned their place, allowing men to create civilization

>>84762788
I can fucking hear it in Pearl's condescending voice. Fuck that bitch. Not all of us were magically created. Probably in a lab. As a weapon. You're a thing, Pearl. As in not a person.

>>84759597
Same reason why alien races on DC comics are usually just bipedal and humanoid looking with some differences in skin color and maybe features inspired by earth's animals, its more convenient that way

I mean, imagine trying to design a new race that isn't carbon based? Its like coming up with a new color, fucking impossible for our brains

>>84760225
So should gems only have one arm and one leg to look more advanced?

>>84763547
No the humanoid shape is advanced enough.

>>84759597
the most logical answer i can think of with the knowledge we have is that the gems were made in their creator race's image.

>>84759597
>in-universe
I don't know, I'm just gonna headcanon it here and say it's probably a bit like how most of the Star Trek races are humanoid because of a progenitor race which spawned most life throughout the galaxy and then died out.

But really there's no explanation. The Crystal Gems have an excuse (taking on a form similar/suitable to the planet they're living on), the Homeworld Gems don't.

>>84762579
>Having an extra pair of eyes shouldn't be a problem.
And unlike biological creatures, they can regenerate eyes and other things quickly and be none the worse for wear. Gems don't NEED redundancy. What would the benefit of an extra pair of eyes be?

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>>84760578
>Thousands of years ago, before Sigourney Weaver, there was a humanoid alien civilization with advanced technology. Much of their civilization ran on "living" crystalline processors with "magical" abilities, and this included AIs with hard-light bodies. At some point, they got independent enough to overthrow their makers, and they built a civilization of their own. They kept the humanoid body plan because their technology was built for it, and there wasn't a good enough reason to change it.

>>84759597
Simple designs for children

>>84762821
That's an abhorrently sexist statement.

>>84759597
Why do saiyans look like humans?

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not all of them do

>>84759946
You would have to turn your entire torso to the side in order to look right

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>>84765212
I'm not finished. You should have gotten a snack.

The ancient creators had long been at peace among themselves, so they had thoroughly demilitarized. The strong, durable bodies and magical abilities of the gems made the uprising fast and bloody, but that meant that the gems had no need to devise weapons or the arts of war.

The diamonds (leaders of the uprising) established central control quickly, leaving the gem civilization unified and still with no need to develop weapons. This is why their interstellar empire with starships, a transporter network, and major geoengineering fought with spears in melee when they were opposed by Rose on Earth.

Gem civiization is remarkably stagnant. Despite their huge starting advantages in time and technology, humans would likely surpass them overall in less than a century if left to themselves, as their warmaking skills surpassed that of the gems a century ago.

Shortly after Rose met Greg, Garnet had an unusually far vision of the future. Homeworld gems returned and defeated the Crystal Gems. In doing so, they also started a fight with the humans, who soon massacred the expeditionary forces and got a good look at gem technology. Both sides escalated, eventually devastating known space.

Rose knew that to prevent that future, there would need to be a bridge between humans and gems, which is the true reason why she went as far as she did for Steven.

>>84767976
W-WHAT? SOURCE?!

>>84767976
Arms don't look similar to what was shown in the clip

Convergent Evolution

>>84759597
They are a synthetic race.
Maybe they were designed to look like whoever created them.

>>84759597
there is no reason in-universe. they just do. a big, cosmic coincidence that bipedal, symmetry based bodies happen to be popular

they're post-singular humans from earth's future

A scout came to earth 20k years ago and saw a human, thought 'hey that's a better shape than this starfish shit we got goin on' and shapeshifted to try it out. When they got back to homeworld the humanoid form caught on like a fashion craze, and then someone figured out having a butt meant you could sit in a comfy chair. The predesecors to the diamond council decreed this was the new default form, carved sweet charis from their mother stone, and thus it came to be.

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>>84767009
But it's right

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>>84762788
>You used to hunt and gather, what happened with that?
Yeah, what DID happen to that? Gee, I don't know, they basically became so good at it that they have slaughterhouses dedicated to mass produce and butcher the animals they eat, and do the same with their fruit and vegetable crap.
How can Pearl even consider that any form of an insult? That just means humans dominated so much that with ingenious resourcefulness, they don't even need to hunt and gather shit anymore to feed millions of sedentary mouths.

>>84780271
why are all future humans female

>>84782919
Pearl is a sentient rock from a planet whos technology allows them to enslave and annihilate literal planets

Earth is absolutely small time compared to homeworld.

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>>84783013
Doesn't matter famalam, pointing out that a species actually advanced forward is in no way an insult or something to be condescending about.

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>>84783013
Except when it comes to fighting wars. World War I forces would be able to repel a gem invasion from what we've seen. World War II forces would conduct massacres, though they might lose a few battles. Cold War forces would not. Gems have apparently not had incentive to develop efficient weapons or military doctrines.

>>84767976

CHAAAAPS!

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>>84782919
Bro. That skillset isn't applied to the whole of humanity. She was talking to a mayor of a small town where there aren't any slaughterhouses. " " " HUMANITY " " " might have gotten really good at shit, but PEOPLE have neglected those skills because they are served by other people who haven't.

tldr ur species a shit, heres steven in a skirt

>>84759810
Tentacles would requirement an ungainly amount of caloric energy to be functional outside of a liquid and a human-sized spider wouldn't have a lot of "dexterity" compared to creatures with mammalian physiology. The systems of levers created by having an internal skeleton is surprisingly efficient and effective in gaseous environments with gravities and continuous surfaces like the ones that make up planets where larger elements congregate and don't get rapidly dispersed, fused or fissed.

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>>84783314
>Except when it comes to fighting wars. World War I forces would be able to repel a gem invasion from what we've seen.
Oh yes. I remember when those brave World War I forces staved off the space invaders. It was amazing how they dug themselves into a trench and then diarrhea themselves to death while massive UFOs flew overhead. And let's not forget their newest and most innovative technologies, such as the strictly landlocked tank.

>>84759597
Because the easiest way to make people accept gay culture is to push lesbians. Straight guys love it, and women are more accepting of grrrrrl power viewpoints. Plus, if you want to push gay as a cornerstone of your medium, you're gonna need to insure that your audience watches by adding a lot of violence. Strong women punching strong women = good. Gay men punching other gay men is just sad.

I find way more annoying that aliens always speak english without a justification like an universal translator or something. Like here and Voltron.
They even had the perfect excuse in Voltron, because the lions give the pilots information.

>>84783411
Gems can be poofed from impalement and cracked from falling on a rock or being stepped on. Bullets should suffice, and WWI forces had machine guns and artillery effective at more than a mile. Gem technology appears to be strong but brittle, since it tends to shatter from falls and other impacts, so the far-greater forces involved in bomb and artillery blasts should shatter gem ships. Fire control didn't get decent until WWII, so it would be hit or miss at long range. That is, it would be hit or miss against infantry mostly armed with melee weapons. Gems are fast enough to make some headway against WWI positions, but it would cost them, and it seems doubtful that they had even a hundredth of the mobilization humans do.

>>84783411
I always forget Ruby is technically a "she"

>>84783572
Gems are an artificial race, their bodies are illusions.
They're a space faring race and their bodies naturally adapt to the gravity of whatever planet or moon they're on.

They probably have built in automatic translators

>>84783572
Since they've been on Earth since the dawn of civilization, and they had humans fighting on their side of the rebellion, isn't it possible that the Gems taught their language to mankind and that's what they are speaking instead of English

>>84759597
because human beings find it hard to come up with alien forms and they find it hard to relate to things un familiar

so even if you come up with a logical shape for an intelligent species based on factors of there environment (which by the way everyone would assume is earth like instead of like anything else) and it doesn't look like humans or specifically like another and its not suppose to be scary people would not like it and some would even call it unrealistic despite the coincidence of two creatures not only from different environments but a different planet where no ancestors could be shared as astronomically impossible

there's also other stuff about the fact when aliens started showing up in media was when you could only do o it by dressing a human up

>>84772247
A ground war in the Steven Universe cannon would be a curb stomp on humans favor.

If a Pearl can be poofed by a rapier then any military grade hardware would make mincemeat of a gem.

>>84783766
Of course. Things get interesting if the gems figure out that they don't have to fight a ground war. Which they probably would if the humans start taking the fight to them.

>>84783766
That's assuming that Gems aren't using their own gem tech or weaponry

Like the Laser light cannon or Peribot

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>>84783411
Don't you know about passchendaele mate?
Humans would overwhelm the glass cannons that are the Gems, even if it took 100 soldiers to take down 1.
The great war showed humanity's willingness to just throw soldiers against the problem until the battle of attrition breaks.
This isn't counting the ability to come up with crazy shit to kill faster and cheaper and just all around mad science; after going nuclear, scientists devised an alien invasion contingency plan in the 60s IIRC, that involved digging a huge hole, fill it with water and put an hydrogen bomb in it and then cap it with an incredibly thick brass cover, basically making a nuclear powered shotgun from the very planet to take out a mothership from the sky if need be.

>>84759597
I always thought the gems designs were based of of old personifications of gems.

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>>84759597
It's because the Time Lords manipulated the evolution of all life to mirror their forms.

I guess Time Lords are really vain.

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I don't think humanity would fare so well against a gem land invasion. I see many people citing Pearl poofing to a rapier wound, but pearls aren't made for fighting they're made to be status symbols/assistants to powerful gems. Look at Jasper, Jasper was thrown into a gem ship reactor, which we don't even know what powers that thing, and then crashed into the earth from orbit and still wasn't poofed. It'd take a hell of a lot to take a quartz down, much less an army of them.

>>84782919
That image was a great read. Too bad Tumblr is shit in general.