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Meet the newest member of the Crystal Gems (in my headcanon of course; no need to bring out the pitchforks)!
I absolutely adore Steven Universe. It, in my opinion, is the best animated show currently on television. While on the surface it may come across as a typically conventional show about the misadventures of a boy and his three magical caretakers, this could not be further from the truth. Peel back the layers and you will see that the show has so much more to offer. It frequently tackles important and relevant themes such as unconventional family dynamics, the subversion of gender stereotypes, acceptance, and love (in its many forms) with candor, all while overlaying some science fiction elements and slice-of-life moments that keep things engaging and interesting. The show also doesn't shy away from talking about things that many others would consider taboo, which is just one of the many things I can appreciate about it. If you have not seen the show, I highly recommend you check it out. There is something there for everyone. While it does start off slow, give it a chance and you may just be surprised!
Before we take a look at what the newest Crystal Gem is all about, it's time for a crash course on Gems!
Gems are inorganic beings characterized by the gemstone embedded somewhere on their body. The gemstone contains the Gem's "DNA", in a sense. A Gem's physical body is merely an illusion projected from the gemstone, once described as being "like a hologram but with mass", meaning that they can alter their bodies to their personal preferences. If a Gem's physical body is damaged, they are able to retreat into their gemstone to heal and reform it an indefinite number of times so long as the gemstone itself has not been damaged, but if it has...
Due to their nature, Gems are not able to die by any natural causes, and do not need to eat or sleep (although they can if they choose to). The only way to "kill" a Gem is to destroy their gemstone. All Gems are inherently genderless and sexless, and although most Gems choose to present themselves with physical forms containing elements of human femininity, there is nothing stopping a Gem from doing the opposite. To go one step further, a Gem is completely capable of using shapeshifting to replicate the reproductive organs of organic beings with 100% accuracy if they were so inclined. An important detail to note, however, is that shapeshifting is only inherent in Era 1 Gems and no longer included in Gems created in the current "Era 2" due to the dwindling amount of resources on Homeworld.
Gems are highly imperialistic and operate under an incredibly strict matriarchal caste system based on Gemstone in which there is essentially no room for variance. Every Gem has a predetermined role in the system that is set in stone even before they are created. Individuality among Gems is not highly valued – a stance perpetuated by the Gem elite to limit the potential of the Gems below them, leading to Gems of the same type not varying widely in appearance and attitude, though there are exceptions to the rule.
With all of that said, let us take a closer look at this rather unconventional Crystal Gem.
Name: Aelwyn, Emerald Facet-1C9S Cut-1EX (former formal designation), The Experiment/The Failure (used mockingly by Homeworld Gems and The Great Diamond Authority)
Race: Gem
Gender: Genderless but chooses to identify as male
Gender Pronoun: He/Him
Gemstone: Emerald (Briolette cut)
Gem Type: Emerald
Gem Weapon: Glaive (Broadsword)
Affiliation(s): Crystal Gems, Espers (formerly), Gem Homeworld (formerly)
Occupation(s): Crystal Gem, Mage-in-training (formerly), Researcher (formerly), Scouter (formerly)
Likes: Video Games, Cooking, Music, Theatre, Reading, Learning, Camp Pining Hearts
Dislikes: Loud/Disruptive Noise, Unnecessary Interruptions, Rudeness, Injustice, Laziness, Willful Blindness, Preconceived Notions.
Aelwyn is an Era 1 Emerald Gem that was created on the Gem Homeworld approximately 6000 years ago. However, there was much more involved in his creation than what standard Gem creation dictates. Apart from the processes normally involved in creating a Gem, both lunar soil and magic from the Espers (a race of magical canine-like beings that were native to Earth's moon) were used in his creation. These facts are often referred to as the most likely reason why he has chosen such an unorthodox, non-streamlined, and abhorrent (according to some Gems) physical form compared to other Emeralds.
Aelwyn's creation was an "experiment"– an attempt to create a living Gem weapon to be used by the Diamonds as they saw fit. They even coerced the Espers into teaching Aelwyn the ways of magic to increase his versatility. Unfortunately for them, the combination of Aelwyn inadvertently discovering his hidden purpose as a weapon and his subsequent witnessing of the needless and gruesome annihilation of the entire Esper race by way of Homeworld led to him defecting and fleeing to Earth, where he met Rose Quartz and ultimately joined her and her fellow renegade gems (calling themselves the Crystal Gems so as to dissociate themselves from the others) in protecting the Earth from Homeworld; a series of battles that came to be known as "The Rebellion" (or "Gem War") and lasted approximately 1000 years.
Aelwyn has a myriad of abilities both inherent and acquired. His inherent Gem abilities include superhuman strength and durability, semi-immortality, the ability to summon a unique and personalized weapon from his gemstone, the ability to fuse with other Gems, the ability to bubble other gems to prevent them from regenerating, and shapeshifting.
His magical training with the Espers has afforded him a cornucopia of learned abilities (including abilities inherent to other Gem types) such as control over many different elements including, but not limited to, water, fire, wind, and ice. He can also use magic to enhance his strength even more (although doing so would both render him unable to use his magic for anything else concurrently and quickly drain his reserves), increase his speed, teleport, and transfigure matter.
Aelwyn is also skilled in alchemy and some of the darker and more forbidden aspects of magic, such as time manipulation. A unique ability that only he possesses is the power to entrance and control others, induce lunacy, or even render others catatonic using only his eyes. His eyes are multi-toned and look the way they do for a reason: you are meant to be drawn to them. He does not use this unique power, though, without good reason.
Aelwyn's uniqueness as a Gem and his varied arsenal make him both a valuable asset to the Crystal Gems and a truly terrifying opponent to face in battle.
Artwork by the lovely
Aelwyn is © me
I absolutely adore Steven Universe. It, in my opinion, is the best animated show currently on television. While on the surface it may come across as a typically conventional show about the misadventures of a boy and his three magical caretakers, this could not be further from the truth. Peel back the layers and you will see that the show has so much more to offer. It frequently tackles important and relevant themes such as unconventional family dynamics, the subversion of gender stereotypes, acceptance, and love (in its many forms) with candor, all while overlaying some science fiction elements and slice-of-life moments that keep things engaging and interesting. The show also doesn't shy away from talking about things that many others would consider taboo, which is just one of the many things I can appreciate about it. If you have not seen the show, I highly recommend you check it out. There is something there for everyone. While it does start off slow, give it a chance and you may just be surprised!
Before we take a look at what the newest Crystal Gem is all about, it's time for a crash course on Gems!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━What are Gems?Gems are inorganic beings characterized by the gemstone embedded somewhere on their body. The gemstone contains the Gem's "DNA", in a sense. A Gem's physical body is merely an illusion projected from the gemstone, once described as being "like a hologram but with mass", meaning that they can alter their bodies to their personal preferences. If a Gem's physical body is damaged, they are able to retreat into their gemstone to heal and reform it an indefinite number of times so long as the gemstone itself has not been damaged, but if it has...
Due to their nature, Gems are not able to die by any natural causes, and do not need to eat or sleep (although they can if they choose to). The only way to "kill" a Gem is to destroy their gemstone. All Gems are inherently genderless and sexless, and although most Gems choose to present themselves with physical forms containing elements of human femininity, there is nothing stopping a Gem from doing the opposite. To go one step further, a Gem is completely capable of using shapeshifting to replicate the reproductive organs of organic beings with 100% accuracy if they were so inclined. An important detail to note, however, is that shapeshifting is only inherent in Era 1 Gems and no longer included in Gems created in the current "Era 2" due to the dwindling amount of resources on Homeworld.
Gems are highly imperialistic and operate under an incredibly strict matriarchal caste system based on Gemstone in which there is essentially no room for variance. Every Gem has a predetermined role in the system that is set in stone even before they are created. Individuality among Gems is not highly valued – a stance perpetuated by the Gem elite to limit the potential of the Gems below them, leading to Gems of the same type not varying widely in appearance and attitude, though there are exceptions to the rule.
With all of that said, let us take a closer look at this rather unconventional Crystal Gem.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ProfileName: Aelwyn, Emerald Facet-1C9S Cut-1EX (former formal designation), The Experiment/The Failure (used mockingly by Homeworld Gems and The Great Diamond Authority)
Race: Gem
Gender: Genderless but chooses to identify as male
Gender Pronoun: He/Him
Gemstone: Emerald (Briolette cut)
Gem Type: Emerald
Gem Weapon: Glaive (Broadsword)
Affiliation(s): Crystal Gems, Espers (formerly), Gem Homeworld (formerly)
Occupation(s): Crystal Gem, Mage-in-training (formerly), Researcher (formerly), Scouter (formerly)
Likes: Video Games, Cooking, Music, Theatre, Reading, Learning, Camp Pining Hearts
Dislikes: Loud/Disruptive Noise, Unnecessary Interruptions, Rudeness, Injustice, Laziness, Willful Blindness, Preconceived Notions.
Aelwyn is an Era 1 Emerald Gem that was created on the Gem Homeworld approximately 6000 years ago. However, there was much more involved in his creation than what standard Gem creation dictates. Apart from the processes normally involved in creating a Gem, both lunar soil and magic from the Espers (a race of magical canine-like beings that were native to Earth's moon) were used in his creation. These facts are often referred to as the most likely reason why he has chosen such an unorthodox, non-streamlined, and abhorrent (according to some Gems) physical form compared to other Emeralds.
Aelwyn's creation was an "experiment"– an attempt to create a living Gem weapon to be used by the Diamonds as they saw fit. They even coerced the Espers into teaching Aelwyn the ways of magic to increase his versatility. Unfortunately for them, the combination of Aelwyn inadvertently discovering his hidden purpose as a weapon and his subsequent witnessing of the needless and gruesome annihilation of the entire Esper race by way of Homeworld led to him defecting and fleeing to Earth, where he met Rose Quartz and ultimately joined her and her fellow renegade gems (calling themselves the Crystal Gems so as to dissociate themselves from the others) in protecting the Earth from Homeworld; a series of battles that came to be known as "The Rebellion" (or "Gem War") and lasted approximately 1000 years.
Aelwyn has a myriad of abilities both inherent and acquired. His inherent Gem abilities include superhuman strength and durability, semi-immortality, the ability to summon a unique and personalized weapon from his gemstone, the ability to fuse with other Gems, the ability to bubble other gems to prevent them from regenerating, and shapeshifting.
His magical training with the Espers has afforded him a cornucopia of learned abilities (including abilities inherent to other Gem types) such as control over many different elements including, but not limited to, water, fire, wind, and ice. He can also use magic to enhance his strength even more (although doing so would both render him unable to use his magic for anything else concurrently and quickly drain his reserves), increase his speed, teleport, and transfigure matter.
Aelwyn is also skilled in alchemy and some of the darker and more forbidden aspects of magic, such as time manipulation. A unique ability that only he possesses is the power to entrance and control others, induce lunacy, or even render others catatonic using only his eyes. His eyes are multi-toned and look the way they do for a reason: you are meant to be drawn to them. He does not use this unique power, though, without good reason.
Aelwyn's uniqueness as a Gem and his varied arsenal make him both a valuable asset to the Crystal Gems and a truly terrifying opponent to face in battle.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Artwork by the lovely
Aelwyn is © me
Category Artwork (Digital) / Miscellaneous
Species Canine (Other)
Size 977 x 1280px
File Size 181.4 kB
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