Welcome to Empire City
(This review contains
spoilers!)
After going almost a whole year
without a speaking role, Lapis Lazuli has finally made her long awaited return!
Rejoice!
This was a great episode for her as
well, as we finally got some more
character development for her. As cool a character as she is, it’s interesting
to think that we really haven’t learned that much about her since her premiere
way back in Mirror/Ocean Gem. In this episode, we finally got the origin of the
mirror, and how she got there in the first place.
The flashback to Lapis’s origins also brought
back the stylized art we first saw in The Answer, and as much as I like it, I
worry that if it’s used too much, it might become tiring. I know that for now
there’s still very little we know about the gems and Homeworld as a whole, but
I really hope we get some more detail soon.
I was very satisfied by the
explanation we got as to why Lapis ended up in the mirror and why she was never
freed. All the theories I saw had extremely complicated and tragic reasons as
to why it happened, but I kind of like that it was a simple case of
misunderstanding during the Gem Wars. The fact that Homeworld never once
wondered if Lapis was on their side really shows how cruel and heartless it
must be there.
Also, that rainbow dreadlocks gem that
took out Lapis. I can’t not bring that up. The fact that it was fully animated
and coloured in unlike the others probably means it’ll be significant in some
way later on, but I couldn’t tell you what.
Aside from the long-awaited backstory,
we also got some very sweet scenes of Steven interacting with Lapis. The two
Beach Summer Fun Buddies got to fly around in a very Whole New World-style
sequence, and we got to see what more of the area surrounding Beach City looks
like!
I really liked the Empire City,
especially how it seemed to be a hodgepodge of real cities such as New York and
Paris. Even better was Jersey, the smog filled city next door where traffic is
horrible and everyone is yelling at each other. It’s just a shame we never
stopped by the ill-fated Ocean Town.
As nice as all this was, I can’t help
but feel though that this is more or less the first part of Lapis’s path to
joining the Crystal Gems. Not much was accomplished overall, aside from Steven
convincing Lapis to stick around, with the ending setting up her conflict with
Peridot for next week.
Still, it’s nice to finally have Lapis as a
permanent character, for the time being at least. Hopefully we can explore her
character more, and maybe eventually she will follow Peridot and join the
Crystal Gems once and for all.
FINAL SCORE
8/10
Great
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