The Crossroads are an infinitely powerful place – where the planes collide, the worldly nexus and the paths of decision. While always related to the actual crossing of roads, the symbolic nature of the Crossroads extends far beyond – even in the physical plane. The nexus include far more than the mere crossing of paths, but present at many – both naturally and made-made – destinations. Below you will find a (non-comprehensive) list and a brief description of how they apply to the Crossroads and what work might be done most efficiently at the particular junction.
Physical Crossroads
“X” and “T”Crossroads
This grouping includes the Crossroads in its traditional sense – as the crossing of roads in an “x” or “+” formation. These, of course, are well documented and are usually what is being discussed when talk of crossroads come up. These can be specified – for instance: a crossroad at the edge of town, in the woods, etc., all of which have their own, unique connotations. Their “sister” crossroads is the T crossroad (alt. “Y”) – which is still prevelantly known. These are my personal favorite, being an adherent to Quimbanda – these Crossroads are held sacred to Pomba Gira. They offer a more concise, selective and direct crossroads energy – as they only offer 3 roads, two choices, the forward option rendered entirely void. In this capacity, there is no option but to change. You cannot continue as you are, but instead must choose a new path – change at its greatest.
Bridges
These are much like the traditional crossroads, though there is a minor planar separation. As the water and the bridge never transect. In this capacity, you have a path or tangent that is not wholly present, but guiding. From above they appear to intersect, but from the ground we see they do not and cannot – though this doesn’t make them any less useful. It is at these places that change can be made fluidly. Where as the “T” crossroad is (arguably) the most severe, change-bring crossroad, this the the least so. As such, this one is not so much about bringing in the new, but freeing yourself of the old. Symbolically, spirits were always said to be unable to cross running water – in this case, there is a part of you that you feel needs to be relinquished, one you will not permit to cross the water with you. This is the cross of letting go of that which need be so.
Railroad-Track Crossings
Again, similar to the above to entries, these represent more traditional crossroads. These can be broken down into two, separate sets of places:
Where Tracks Cross a Road: These can be used as a symbol for a path that is fixed, continuous and unstoppable. The train will continue, it is your responsibility to stop. This can be a place to work rituals for motivation, drive and success – or alternately, to learn patience. Sometimes the only, real option is to sit and wait – there is strength in patience, these places might allow for this realization.
Where Tracks Cross Tracks: A recipe for disaster. Two, headstrong, unstopping forces are doomed to collide. While the former has the potential to grant motivation, this one is the reality of too much or counterproductiveness. These places are great for working curses that breed devastation, and chaos working from all sides. Place a penny at the junction, allow it to be flattened and collect it to use in particularly nasty curses.
Property Corners
That’s right, little did you know you had a Crossroads (literally) in your own backyard! At each of the corners of your property, where four plots meet, there is a crossroads. These, naturally, are best used for things relating to the home – protection, finance, martial issues, health and well-being. Probably not the best to use these to call up Crossroads Spirits or make any Faustian Deals.
Cemeteries
The liminal space of the dead on the plane of the living – these are the sites where the dead interact (in great number) energetically with our plane, building a nexus of sorts. Naturally the larger the cemetery, the more effective this nexus becomes (here’s looking at you, New Orleans). It’s not enough that they exist spiritual in one place, but its that they exist as both physically and spiritual distinct in the location – their spirit and body exist, but no longer bound, working in a sort of intersecting movement. To no one’s surprise, these are the places most fitting work with the Dead, bridging the planes, communion with the spirits, etc. It’s also little surprise that many Cemetery Spirits have numerous correlations to their Crossroads counterparts.
Churches
That’s right, churches, too are liminal spaces – wherein the Divine (of which ever sort) ground to the earth and form a crossroads. These are obviously most fitting religious works – divine paths, orchestrating change with the help of the Divine, resolution to crises of faith, etc. As for curses go, these same qualities can also be harness to bring about crises of faith and repurpose the energies for more malignant works.
Metaphorical Intersections
Doorways
While at first thought, one might assume that doorways would be much like a “T” crossroad of not more severe – as there is but one path that may be taken. This, however, symbolically is not the case. While we know a closed door will always open to the same place here, spiritually that’s never a guarantee. In fact, doors have the capacity to connect all things. One door may lead to any other. But be warned, doors go both ways – be careful where it leads, for it will also lead back.
Hands/Feet and Mouth/Ears
Hands and feet are the intersection of the mind and the physical. It is they who move us, connect us, or create from our mind something on this plane – such as art, writing, gesture. Mouths bridge mind to mind through verbal communication – what the mouth sends, the ear receives and the mind interprets. As such, all of these things occupy a sort of liminal space.
Cosmic/Season Crossroads
Twilight
Twilight is the bridge from day to night, a time of change – a commingling of both of their characteristics. Depending on what you seek, these can be used as a way to gain insight. For illumination, enlightenment utilize dawn – allow the sun to bring light to the darkness. For understanding, self discovery or occult knowledge, use dusk – wherein the preconceived notions of day fall away to reveal the hidden truths of night.
Midnight
The minute when one day ends and the next begins – colloquially referred to as “the witching hour,” it is a time between time. This can be used for many works – though, when I utilize midnight, I use mid-night. The time at the middle of when the sun sets and rises – the darkest part of night, when it is at its strongest, after is has waxed, but before it has waned.
31st day
Like Twilight and Midnight, thisis time related – a place between months, a time for change. These can be utilized much like more regular New Years: a time to make resolutions, enact change and bring anew/cast out the old. As such, they’re good for exorcisms and rebirth.
There are countless other options, but I chose to note the ones I’ve been known to use. I’d love to hear and see what some of all know to be unconventional crossroads!
Each Gem in Steven Universe possesses a certain musical motif that plays during certain parts of the show. When Gems fuse, their musical motifs merge into a completely different genre of music. We’re going to look at each one in detail today. Since we’ve only seen detailed dances from the Crystal Gems, only there dance motifs will be looked at. When “Cry for Help” reveals Sardonyx in her entirety, I will update this post with her musical motif.
NOTE: When selecting a track to listen to, please right-click and select “Open Link in New Tab” so you don’t lose your spot in the post!
CRYSTAL GEMS
Garnet’s Motif: Hip-Hop (Waka Waka) Bass
Garnet’s musical and dance themes are very much centered around hip-hop movement (specifically the Waka Waka style of dancing). Waka Waka is characterized by very thick and bouncy bass tones and robotic movement of the limbs with fluid motions in between dance poses.
Take a listen to some of Garnet’s tracks. Here’s “Future Vision” from the official Steven Universe OST. Note that very present bass and “funky flow” of the tracks.
Pearl’s Motif: Classical and Swing Piano
Although Pearl has been shown playing the violin, her main musical motif is a piano played both classically and in the swing style. Both styles are played at a slow tempo in the show (around 90 to 110 BPM, depending on the song), giving Pearl an elegant, classy musical feel. Her dance theme, fittingly enough, is classical ballet as evidenced by her propensity to strike graceful poses both during fusion dances and combat.
Give one of Pearl’s most important themes, “Pearl’s Room”, a listen. Take note of the transition from classic piano to swing piano at the 0:11 mark. During this scene, Pearl is performing swan-like ballet poses in the privacy of her room, matching the grace and form of the piano.
Amethyst’s Motif: On-The-Floor Drum Beats (On-Time and Off-Time)
Amethyst’s motif consists primarily of drum beats that can either follow a time signature or occur erratically and randomly depending on the song. Amethyst’s reckless party-girl attitude is reflected both in her energetic drum motif and her simplistic club-like dancing style. Amethyst’s musical motif also utilizes strike and sting samples erratically (think 90s era music or, more recently, Splatoon)
Here’s one of the more fun musical themes, “Gimme Gimme”, heard when Amethyst is chasing Steven down to eat his Together Breakfast. The use of loud drum beats and sting samples can clearly be heard as she tries to get her hands on those panned cakes.
Steven’s Motif: Chiptune
Steven shares his motif with Connie, in that they’re both based on the chiptune style of music (although Connie’s mixes in acoustic sounds here and there). Chiptune intentionally sounds cute and innocent, fitting Steven perfectly. His dance motif has not really been seen yet, although his Stevonnie fusion dance with Connie seems to indicate that he inherits his mother’s (Rose Quartz’s) dance motif of 2-person waltz.
Here’s a Steven-based track, “Watermelon Steven”, complete with chiptune chirps.
Rose Quartz’s Motif: Bells and Piano
Rose’s motif consists primarily of arpeggios of bells and pianos, and other hi-pitch instruments. In the Rainbow Quartz fusion dance with Pearl, we can see that Rose takes the leading role in the dance and moves and sways in waltz patterns (which her son Steven inherited). She also takes the leading role in her and Greg’s subsequent dance on the beach, even spinning him around in a classic waltz twirl.
One of Rose’s quintessential themes, “Rose’s Room” demonstrates both her arpeggio theme and the bell/piano combination her motif is known for.
HOMEWORLD GEMS
Peridot’s Motif: Drum ‘n’ Bass/Trance Plucks
Peridot’s motif is stereotypical DnB (a hi-tempo style) with spacey trance plucks speckled throughout. Her personality fits with this motif, it’s just as spacey and awkward as she is, but much like the real Peridot, there’s something very menacing and dangerous sounding about her motifs. Listen to Peridot’s theme, “Peridot”, and love the green space Dorito. Peridot’s trance plucks mirror Pearl’s piano in form and function.
Lapis Lazuli’s Motif: Sidechained Pads/Hall Piano
Lapis’s motif relies heavily on sidechained static (the “unts unts” you hear in club dance music), and hall piano arpeggios. Her themes can easily lean towards melancholy (as in “I Am Lapis Lazuli”), or extremely dangerous sounding (as in “Mirror Match”) depending on tempo. Lapis Lazuli, much like her motif, is a very dynamic character, perhaps showing the most personality development on any character in the show, and her versatile theme reflects that. Her theme also carries extremely fast drum beats, a motif she shares with Amethyst.
Jasper’s Motif: Distorted Bass
Jasper’s main component in her motif is the presence of distorted bass. Heard most clearly in “Return to the Beach/Jasper”, the gross-sounding bass is definitely a parallel to it’s owner. Jasper’s distorted bass shares similarities in composition to Garnet’s Waka bass.
FUSIONS
Opal’s Motif: High-Energy Piano Anthem (a la Masami Ueda)
Opal’s motif is interesting in that it brings to diametric opposites (breakbeat drums from Amethyst and classical piano from Pearl), and forces them to conform to each other’s theme. Amethyst’s beats become structured and formulaic while Pearl’s piano becomes energetic and erratic. This style of music was coined by Masami Ueda (the composer for the Bayonetta games), and the influence in Opal’s theme really shows. Take a listen to Opal’s theme, “Opal”.
Sugilite’s Motif: Dissonant Hardstyle
The mix of Garnet’s bass and Amethyst’s drums do not make a very inviting combination. Sugilite’s motif is very menacing, as Garnet’s bass has become distorted and dissonant, while Amethyst’s driving beat makes it even more unsettling. Sugilite’s theme, “Synchronize”, transitions from a less evil-sounding combo of Garnet/Amethyst to the more traditional Sugilite theme halfway through.
Alexandrite’s Motif: New York Swing/Genre Fusion
Alexandrite’s theme is very hard to pin down and is a very confusing (but cohesive) mix of Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl’s themes. The musical chord stings originate from Garnet while her classy piano lead line and tribal-esque drums come from Pearl and Amethyst, respectively. Take a listen to Alexandrite’s theme, “Alexandrite”, and be as confused as me.
Malachite’s Motif: Minimalist Scare Stings
Malachite, being a horror movie character in and of herself, shares her motif with scary movies like Jaws and Signs. Heard in her theme, “Malachite”, Lapis’s drums and piano have been corrupted into dissonant stings separated by longs pauses, while Jasper’s bass has amped up the creep factor as an underlying harmonic entity.
The Cluster: Dissonant NuWave
Not only does the Cluster struggle to maintain shape, but it also struggles to maintain a musical motif. This dissonant mixture of many Gem’s motifs creates a very unsettling track, perfect for this abomination. Take a listen to it’s theme, “Gem Shards”.
So I’ve gone nuts and made a remake for that crappy old version. I doubt it’s less crappy now (don’t even try to object, I’m very dissatisfied and tired as hell), but at least more detailed and and stuff and oh god it’s almost 4 am here
I can’t say why I wanted this remake so badly, there’s never any logic in my actions :I
Only has 3 required questions, includes 16 other personality questions. All the science, motherfuckers.
Purpose: to gather a shit ton of data on Homestuck fan titles, astrological signs, personality types, Fanon title interpretation, and other miscellaneous details
Lemme just tell a little story to see if I can explain why movies like The Book of Life matter and how representation is not just for marking a check off a list. This is a photo I took of my dad after putting on The Book of Life to show for my two little cousins. For clarity my father has never once given more than a “meh” to animated films. He views them, but that’s about it. Then this film came out, and he decided to take my brother to go see it. He came back home ranting and raving about how great the film was, how it had the name Sanchez and how our family friends the Sanchez’s had to see it and how Carmen looked like another family friend Carmin and how she had to see the movie as well. How the abuelo in the film sang the same songs my abuelo does and how he had to see it.
He literally planned an entire night just to get my whole family to watch this film because it had him that excited. And while my Mom was talking with her friend throughout the movie she kept nudging me to look over at my father. Because even though he had seen the movie in theaters twice already he still couldn’t take his eyes away from the screen for one second and kept smiling like a giant kid. When Jorge Sanchez begins singing his opera song during the finale battle my Mom, Dad, and all my grandparents began to sing along because they knew that old song as it’s actually a famous one.”They are the Sanchez’s” was about the phrase of the night for my Dad. And when the end of the film came for La muerte’s big reveal he had to have everyone be quiet so the kids could freak out for it.
This is why the film is important, this is why representation is important. Because my Dad hasn’t seen anyone that reminded him of our friend Carmin, or the Sanchez’s or even my own family in an Animated feature. And when he did see one he couldn’t stop smiling, and he wanted to make sure the rest of the family felt the same way, and we did. So thank you Jorge R. Gutierrez for having the courage to stand and make this film. Because it’s now sitting happily on our DVD shelf, and every once and a while my i’ll point to the dvd in front of my Dad and say “They are the Sanchez’s”.
so the WHOLE ENTIRE STORY of gorillaz is actually extremely ridiculously long and very very complicated and confusing so i am going to try my very hardest to sum everything up as best as i possibly can without missing too much
(also the “phases” don’t really mean much besides marking the different album releases, which is why you may have noticed the band members look different every few years)
phase 1 (celebrity takedown) started around 1999. before phase 1, there was only this guy:
murdoc niccals. on august 15th, 1997 (d-day), he was doing tricks and crashed a car into a music store where this guy:
stuart tusspot (then in his young twenties) was working, and he hit stuart in the eye and sent him into a coma. murdoc wasn’t arrested, but rather he had to do a lot of community service and also take care of stuart while he was in his coma. murdoc being murdoc, he crashed his car a second time and sent stuart flying from the backseat, through the windshield and he hit his good eye on the concrete, which woke him from his vegetative state, thus “creating” the stuart you know today:
he was nicknamed 2D because he now has two “dents” in his head (which are actually 8-ball fractures if you wanted to know how this look could be possible). murdoc saw that 2D was really attractive and he could sing, so he made 2D the singer of his band
now, this is russel hobbs:
he was involved in a drive-by shooting when his best friend Del (Deltron 3030 irl):
was shot and killed. del possessed russel, thus turning his eyes completely white and haunting him from time to time when he plays the drums. he also raps in some of the gorillaz songs.
murdoc and 2D needed a drummer so they kidnapped russel and russel for some reason forgave them and agreed to be their drummer.
the guitarist for a short while was 2D’s girlfriend, Paula:
and together the four of them formed the band “GORILLA”:
and the only song they recorded together was “ghost train”. paula was kicked out of the band because russel caught her having sex with murdoc in the bathroom. they needed a new guitarist, so they send out an ad in the paper. not too long later, this little angel arrived at their front door:
she saw the ad and fed-exed herself from osaka to kong studios:
in essex, england. she was only ten and she only knew one word: noodle. therefore, they named her noodle and they made her the guitarist because she was really really good.
thus, gorillaz was born:
then they made the first album around 2000, titled “gorillaz”. they released a bunch of music, music videos, interviews, merch, a completely interactive website where you could walk around their house, and they even released little shorts that were shown on MTV for a while. you can watch all of their videos and interviews on youtube. they won some awards too, and even performed live using holagrams.
around 2002, they got a little tired of one another. lots of different personalities living under one roof. they faught a lot, especially murdoc and 2D (2D is not “all there” and he takes a lot of medication, murdoc is an asshole and abuses 2D CONSTANTLY). so they all left kong studios for a while, but not before releasing some b-sides (g-sides).
at the end of two years, murdoc ended up in a mexican prison, russel excorcised del’s soul from his body (but kept the white eyes), which sent him into a horrible depression, 2D got a job at his father’s amusement park, and noodle went back to osaka, japan to discover more about her past.
while in japan, noodle found out from some old dude that she was actually a part of some kind of organization that turns young children into war-machines (yeah, i know, fucking crazy, right?????). her memory had been erased by the old dude so that she could live a normal life, and when her memory was restored, she remembered everything, including how to speak fluent english. having found herself, she was the first one to go back to kong studios. she wrote most of the second album by herself before the others came back to kong and helped her out.
(btw, that is noodle’s pet monkey, mike. murdoc had a pet crow named cortez, and 2D had a pet dog named Prince, but no one knows what happened to them. keep reading)
this was around 2004 and would start phase 2 (slowboat to hades):
note the drastic style change. this phase was famous for its darker look, and the music became a lot darker in their second album, “demon days”.
they released some more teasers (which were “filmed” during their two-year break), more music, more music vidoes, more live performances, and more merch. even some gorillaz games. very cute, very fun (especially if you have a dark sense of humor? there is one game in particular that has the murdoc/2D fans feeling some type of way lol). if you watch the videos and interviews, you can really tell how their personalities shift from phase to phase. also, this is the phase where the windmill island makes its first appearence:
and this is where things get very weird and very very complicated (especially for a cartoon band). in the feel good inc. music video (watch it), noodle is on this island and she is being chased from helicopters from afar.
in the el manana video (watch it now or you might be confused), however, noodle was supposed to get “shot” by the same helicopters before parachuting safely off of the island where she would then flee to the maldive island to get away for a while (she just wanted a vacation but i guess didn’t want people to find her). however, in the gorillaz autobiography, murdoc says that something completely different happened.
murdoc was trying to get some guy killed (i forget his name) because murdoc is a horrible guy who holds a lot of grudges. murdoc tricked this guy into hiding inside the windmill and wait for noodle to “die” so he could take her place. noodle did not know about ANY of this. she wasn’t going to get hurt either way because she was given a parachute. so when DIFFERENT helicopters (DIFFERENT PEOPLE THAT WERE NOT HIRED BY MURDOC!) started shooting at her, TRYING to kill her, she freaked out and the windmill ended up crashing into a canal. there is a picture in the autobiography of her parachuting out off the island, but no one knows where she went after she hit the ground. everyone searched for her, but no one could find her. at this point, murdoc was confused as well, but everyone assumed she still went to the maldives to mellow out, or that she DIED.
this left 2D, murdoc and russel in deep depression. russel left kong studios first, as it was falling apart due to it being built atop a landfill and infested with zombies. 2D left afterwards to live in beirut, and only murdoc was left in the rubble that was kong.
after this, murdoc got word that the organization who tried to murder noodle (the black clouds) were now after him. he had no choice but to leave kong studios forever. so he set kong on fire and left. then the autobiography was released (it is implied they started writing the book well before even the middle of phase 2).
and then gorillaz were on hiatus for about four years. not a single word. if you went on the website, nothing changed. shit was cryptic.
THEN. OUT OF FUCKING NOWHERE, sometime in 2009, murdoc showed up in an interview talking about new gorillaz music. and very slowly, more information was released on the “unofficial gorillaz website”. the fandom was BATSHIT. half of us were butthurt about how ugly murdoc looked, and the other half was excited about NEW GORILLAZ MUSIC, and more importantly, THIS PICTURE:
people were mostly concerned with noodle and the fact that her eye was all fucked up, presumably from either the fall from the island OR from when she was in hell. also, peope assumed the whole band was together again, this was FAR FAR FAR from the case.
murdoc wanted to make new gorillaz music that would “top” their second album (which could never happen, but a pickle can dream). murdoc couldn’t get a hold of russel, and noodle was presumably MIA, so murdoc kidnapped 2D in beirut and shipped the poor guy to plastic beach:
plastic beach is essentially murdoc’s hiding place where he is “safe” from the black clouds, and it is literally an island made out of garbage and spray painted pink. 2D did not want to be there, but murdoc held him captive:
in a bedroom at the southernmost tip of the island, underwater, guarded by a whale (2D has a crippling fear of whales, murdoc is a GIANT ASSHOLE). he made 2D sing, and 2D agreed because he has been agreeing to murdoc for a long time and he knew better than to disobey him.
since gorillaz was lacking a drummer and a guitarist, murdoc had to improvise. to replace russel, murdoc used a drum machine to mimic the way russel plays the drums. to replace noodle, murdoc gathered some of noodle’s DNA from the el manana crash site and built CYBORG NOODLE:
she was just as good on guitar as noodle was and she was also the “war machine” that noodle was “supposed” to be, i.e., murdoc stuffed her with weapons. she even had a gun that fired from her mouth.
thus, this was the “phase three: plastic beach” crew:
they recorded the new album, titled PLASTIC BEACH, and murdoc “kidnapped” all of the artists that gorillaz collaborated with and they just had a grand ol’ time. the album was released in early 2010, followed by a revamped website featuring a full tour of plastic beach, more merch, and LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of interviews. some of them are probably no longer findable, but it doesn’t matter because pretty much every single interview was just murdoc hooting and hollering and drinking because IT WAS ESTABLISHED THAT AT THIS POINT HE HAS LITERALLY GONE INSANE.
the music video for stylo was released and did not contribute much to the “main plot”, which disappointed some people because we all wanted to know where noodle and russel where. after a long while, murdoc started a twitter to communicate with the fans who were more interested in the now extremely involved plot line of gorillaz as well as the music.
sometime in 2010, new “idents” were released. 2D’s showed him getting kidnapped and shipped to PB, murdoc’s showed him getting SHOT AT on a boat, probably on his way to plastic beach. then RUSSEL’S ident was released, and it showed him jumping off of a dock into the ocean in an EXTREMELY ANGRY MANNOR. lots of people speculated he was mad because he found out what murdoc was doing or he was going to confront murdoc about noodle’s whereabouts or both. cyborg noodle’s ident was released after that, it was nothing special, it was just really creepy (btw you can watch all the idents on youtube!
AND THEN. AND. THEN. noodle’s ident was released and IT WAS THE GREATEST DAY. AFTER FOUR YEARS we finally got to see what happened to noodle, dear, dear noodle:
her ident showed her on a boat (she is around 18-19 at this time), being asked to evacuate because the boat was being attacked by pirates (presumably the black clouds, coming after noodle). being the supreme badass she is, she grabbed a gun and stormed out of the room, and that was all we got. the fandom was in uproar. why the cat mask? was it to cover her eye? why was she on a boat?
shortly before the “on melancholy hill video”, murdoc stated he could see a brown rock moving towards plastic beach (official art told the fans it was russel’s head, as russel had eaten toxic waste and had grown into a giant):
and it was implied from this that russel was going to meet up with noodle sometime in the near future.
hope you’re still following me. im trying my best lol
in the “on melacholy hill” video, murdoc was now aware that noodle was very much alive and also in some kind of trouble, so he and all of the album’s collaborators went on a giant search for noodle, but never found her. they ended up finding some manatee on top of a rock (random af), while noodle defended her boat from the black clouds, and ended up escaping on a life raft with her guitar. and then this happened:
in both the stylo and OMH videos, a mysterious figure called THE BOOGIEMAN appeared:
he is implied by murdoc to be a symbol of death, as he “murders” both a police officer and the manatee on the rock. not much more is known about him.
after this, not much more happened. there was more fanart, more games on the gorillaz website, more merch, a gorillaz live band tour (not featuring the actual memebers of gorillaz, much to murdoc’s frustration), one new single called doncamatic, and a music video released during the tour featuring russel and noodle:
about a year later without any more activity, gorillaz released a fourth album titled “the fall”, composed entirely on an ipad by 2D (note how “gorillaz” = russel, “demon days” = noodle, “plastic beach” = murdoc and “the fall” = 2D). it was not entirely popular, but there were some really good tracks.
the gorillaz hype slowed to an almost-halt as far as plot was concerned. noodle and russel never made it to plastic beach, murdoc was still on the island with 2D, 2D was still a wreck, etc etc etc. the fandom was content, but the plotline was pretty stagnant for another year or so. there were a lot lot LOT of unanswered questions, but the fandom was used to it, as gorillaz was never really “designed” to have such a convoluted plotline to begin with, as you can probably imagine. who would have thought “gorillaz” would evolve into such a STORY?? we were at least content knowing noodle was safe with russel, and they were both happy (russel loves noodle like a daughter btw its adorable af). as far as 2D and murdoc went, a lot of people kind of knew that their relationship, as dysfunctional as it was, was still salvagable as 2D is pretty much infatuated with murdoc, as fucked up as that seems.
in 2011, rhinestone eyes was supposed to get a music video. alas, this never happened because the music video was no longer being funded for (it costs a looooot of money to make gorillaz music videos, and gorillaz lost a good deal of popularity after phase 2, mostly because of the plotline. no one besides the die hard fans knew what the fuck was going on in the music videos).
BUT we were blessed with the rhinestone eyes storyboard, which was pretty much everything we could have asked for. the black clouds were surrounding PB, murdoc was flipping out, the boogieman was cornering him. 2D was about to be eaten by the whale buT THEN OUT OF NO WHERE, FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY RUSSEL GRABBED THE WHALE WITH HIS HUGE YAOI HAND AND SENT IT FLYING ACROSS THE OCEAN, SAVING POOR 2D. MORE DRAMA ENSUES, AND AT THE END OF IT ALL, RUSSEL OPENS HIS GIANT MOUTH TO REVEAL NOODLE HIDING INSIDE. GOD BLESS.
now, even though the music video was never made, it is implied that everything that happened in the storyboard happened irl. but we still had so many questions left unanswered regardless.
in 2012, gorillaz released a music video to go along with their new single DOYATHING feat. ANDRE 3000. the hype for this video was as real as it could get, and the gorillaz fandom was practically pissing their pants after they saw the storyboard.
and, according to murdoc a short while after the release of the video (or before, i cannot recall), after russel and noodle arrived on the island, the cyborg attempted to kill murdoc (which was a surprise to no one….). noodle and the cyborg duked it out and the real noodle ended up coming out on top. and they all left plastic beach after the black clouds fled the scene, probably because it was shot to bits.
and that’s it as of right now. that is the gorillaz story, in summary. there are still a plethora of unanswered questions, however, as we have yet to hear ANYTHING from russel and noodle as of yet. we still do not know what exactly happened to noodle after el manana. we do not know why russel jumped into the ocean, we don’t know how russel and noodle found the beach, we don’t know what happened to noodle’s eye. we don’t know a lot of things. hopefully some of our questions will be answered in PHASE FOUR! which has officially started as of yesterday.
i hope i have given you a sufficient insight on the wild, wild world of GORILLAZ. they are more than just a band, they are characters with complex backstories and their adventures are pretty fucking crazy if you have the patience to keep up
As you may have heard, Cartoon Network adjusted its schedule today, and Steven Universe now only airs once a week. No more repeats, just two episodes every Thursday
I’ve seen multiple posts going around listing different ways to show Cartoon Network that Steven Universe can make a profit, but there’s also some conflicting information going around, and I have yet to see one post listing every option. So I’m making this post
THINGS YOU CAN BUY
Gem Glow DVD– Did you know the first SU DVD just came out Twelve episodes from season 1A including Laser Light Cannon, Steven’s Lion, and Giant Woman. It also comes with the pilot. I linked to it on Amazon, but it should be available elsewhere
Season 1A and Season 1B on iTunes – Episodes come in pairs for $3 each, but you can also buy a whole season for $25. If you buy Season 1B then you’ll get all the new episodes for the rest of the season as they come out
BOOM! Studios comic books – People don’t talk about them nearly as much as the show (to the point where I have yet to see anyone on my dash mention the comics today), but they exist and are good and you can buy them
Official merch via WeLoveFine – Mostly shirts. A few of them are on sale for the next seven hours. I think you can also get some of these from Hot Topic
THINGS YOU CAN DO WITHOUT SPENDING MONEY
Contrary to popular belief, watching the show on Cartoon Network does not affect the ratings and will not help. American TV ratings are an estimate based on a sample group of households that have Nielsen boxes installed. If you have to ask whether or not you have one then that means you don’t have one. Most people don’t
That being said, you can enter in your TV service provider info to watch episodes of Steven Universe on the Cartoon Network website. Just make sure you don’t have an ad blocker enabled. If you have a smartphone or tablet, you can also download the Cartoon Network app to do this
If you don’t have cable/satellite TV, you can still click that link to watch one free episode. The current free episode is Space Race. Again, disable your ad blocker
If nothing else, like the Steven Universe page on Facebook and try to get the show trending on Facebook and Twitter. Those are the only two social networks that Cartoon Network’s execs might be paying attention to
Gamerpyrope 
