History YMMV / LearningToBreatheUnderwater

* GeniusBonus: Steven mentions having had a pet fish named "Mister Kintsugi." ''Kintsugi'' is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold lacquer, and based on the philosophy of treating broken objects not as things to be thrown away, but items that should be treasured because their history is a part of them. Fits pretty well with Steven's philosophy of seeing everyone as deserving of a second chance, regardless of where they came from or what they did in the past.

* GeniusBonus: Steven once had a pet fish named "Mister Kintsugi." ''Kintsugi'' is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold lacquer, and based on the philosophy of treating broken objects not as things to be thrown away, but items that should be treasured because their history is a part of them. Fits pretty well with Steven's philosophy of seeing everyone as deserving of a second chance, regardless of where they came from or what they did in the past.

* GeniusBonus: Steven once had a pet fish named "Mister Kintsugi." ''Kintsugi'' is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold lacquer, and based on the philosophy of treating broken objects not as things to be thrown away, but items that should be treasured because their history is a part of them. Fits pretty well with Steven's philosophy of seeing everyone as deserving of redemption and a second chance.

* GeniusBonus: Steven once had a pet fish named "Mister Kintsugi." ''Kintsugi'' is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold lacquer, and based on the philosophy of treating broken objects not as things to be thrown away, but items that should be treasured because their history is a part of them. Sounds a lot like Steven trying to help people with their personal issues, regardless of where they came from.

** Lars' canon ethnicity was unknown at the time of writing, so the author made him half-Vietnamese. They weren't too far off; he was eventually revealed to be half-Filipino.

*** [[spoiler:More on Rose's characterization, within the fanfic itself: She was a Homeworld leader/commander with authority over other Gems and, unusually for a Gem, cared a lot about her subordinates, but was outranked by the Diamonds. They occasionally humored her by letting her do things like adopt rejected Gems, but stifled her attempts to make life better for their subjects. On Earth, she became fascinated with organic life and began the Rebellion to save all the planet's living things. All of these traits turned out to be a pretty close match to the show's version of Pink Diamond.]]

*** [[spoiler:More on Rose's characterization, within the fanfic itself: She was a Homeworld leader/commander with authority over other Gems and, unusually, cared a lot about her subordinates, but was outranked by the Diamonds. They occasionally humored her by letting her do things like adopt rejected Gems, but stifled her attempts to make life better for their subjects. On Earth, she became fascinated with organic life and began the Rebellion to save all the planet's living things. All of these traits turned out to be a pretty close match to the show's version of Pink Diamond.]]

*** [[spoiler:More on Rose's characterization, within the fanfic itself: She was a Homeworld leader/commander with authority over other Gems and cared a lot about her subordinates, but was outranked by the tyrannical Diamonds. They occasionally humored her by letting her do things such as adopt rejected Gems, but stifled her attempts to make life better for her subjects. On Earth, she became fascinated with organic life and began the Rebellion to save all the planet's living things. All of these traits turned out to be a pretty close match to the show's version of Pink Diamond.]]

*** [[spoiler:Another example within the fanfic itself: The way the Diamonds "indulged" Rose by allowing her to take in Gems considered rejects and deviants is also similar to how they showed a softer side around Pink.]]
** Lars' canon ethnicity was unknown at the time of writing, so the author made him Vietnamese. They weren't too far off; he was eventually revealed to be Filipino.

** Lars' canon ethnicity was unknown at the time of writing, so the author made him Vietnamese. They wasn't too far off; he was eventually revealed to be Filipino.

** Since Lars' canon ethnicity was unknown at the time of writing, he's mentioned to have a Vietnamese mother. The author wasn't too far off; he was eventually revealed to be Filipino.

** Since Lars' ethnicity was unknown at the time of writing, he's mentioned to have a Vietnamese mother. The author wasn't too far off; he was eventually revealed to be Filipino.

** Garnet's comment that the Diamonds, at first, treated Rose Quartz's rebellion like a temper tantrum instead of a real threat [[spoiler:became oddly prophetic with TheReveal that Rose was actually the SecretIdentity of Pink Diamond, a young, naive Gem who was treated as JustAKid by her her fellow Diamonds.]]

** The general presentation of [[TheCaligula Emerald]] becomes this after [[spoiler:"Lars of the Stars", where an Emerald is [[ArchNemesis driven to her wit's end]] by the Captain Harlock-esque shenanigans of the protagonists.]]

* FandomNod: Ronaldo calls [[spoiler:Jasper a Big Buff Cheeto Puff]] after running into her in a forest while checking for supernatural beings.
** In the same vein: when the Gems successfully defeat the [[spoiler: first]] Gem Buster, capture Peridot, and decide to celebrate [[TemptingFate with a beach party]], Amethyst digs an ancient limited-edition lime-flavored corn chip (not explicitly stated to be a Dorito) out from under the couch [[ExtremeOmnivore and eats it.]] One of SU's older Peridot memes was her hair's resemblance to a Dorito.
-->“It’s covered with ''hair'',” Pearl said, weak with horror.
** Peridot later complains that humans have live births instead of laying eggs, which is "more civilized"; one of the most popular non-canon interpretations of Gem reproduction is [[AffectionateNickname "gem egg hell".]]
** When Steven checks in with Sadie about Peridot (who at this point is mooching off The Big Donut's wi-fi), Lars comes out of the back with a box labeled 'Looking for a good home' with the implicit intent of sticking Peridot in it, a possible reference to the 'Peridot is a cat' meme.
** Lapis' evolving relationship with pizza looks like a nod to the Crewniverse' "Lapizza Lazuli" gag pizza box.

** Peridot being so confused about how human romantic relationships work that at one point she's convinced that Sadie is planning to ''traumatically inseminate Lars'' ("That's BEDBUGS, Peridot!"), despite her having access to [[TheInternetIsForPorn the entire internet.]] Fast forward to [[spoiler: "Log Date 7 15 2", and it turns out that all it takes for media-starved Peridot to form a highly sophisticated, complex understanding of human interpersonal relationship dynamics (and [[OneOfUs become a filthy shipper into the bargain]]) is a single episode of a cheesy Canadian teen soap opera. A single episode.]]

** The general presentation of [[TheCaligula Emerald]] becomes this after [[spoiler:the preview for Lars of the Stars, which shows an Emerald [[ArchNemesis driven to her wit's end]] by the Captain Harlock-esque shenanigans of the protagonists.]]

** Lapis not being much of a fan of Earth literature in Chapter 3 becomes this when we see her reading at the end of "The Kindergarten Kid" and is doing so in the background of the short "Video Chat" until Peridot gets her attention.

** Lapis being a DeadpanSnarker (''especially'' in Chapter 2) would come to canon in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS3E5HitTheDiamond Hit the Diamond]].

** How Lapis wound up in the mirror after the episode "Same Old World" aired. [[spoiler:While it was Homeworld who placed her there, it wasn't because Lapis was sent her to Earth to fight and failed. Instead, she was a civilian who went to Earth to visit, and while there was poofed by a Crystal Gem, had a Homeworld soldier mistake her for a Crystal Gem and place her in the mirror, and was interrogated for information on the Crystal Gems, which of course she didn't have. It was during the mass exodus after the failed efforts to stop the rebellion that her gem was cracked, and she was left staring at the sky through the mirror until Pearl found her.]]

* FandomNod: Ronaldo calls [[spoiler:Jasper a Big, Buff Cheeto Puff]] after running into her in a forest while checking for supernatural beings.

** Yellow Diamond being a chilly, rational, emotionless SocialDarwinist [[spoiler: looks a lot funnier after "Message Received", not just because canon!YD is, fittingly for a kids' show, [[LighterAndSofter a lot less chilling and aloof, and a lot more prone to making weird faces]]: Learning To Breathe's YD matches up almost ''exactly'' with Peridot's canon near-fanatical rhapsodizing about how she imagines Yellow Diamond to be. Just like Peridot, fans (and the writer) fell for YD's hype.]]
** Peridot being so confused about how human romantic relationships work that at one point she's convinced that Sadie is planning to ''traumatically inseminate Lars'' ("That's BEDBUGS, Peridot!"), despite her having access to [[TheInternetIsForPorn the entire internet.]] Flash forward to [[spoiler: "Log Date 7 15 2", and it turns out that all it takes for media-starved Peridot to form a highly sophisticated, complex understanding of human interpersonal relationship dynamics (and [[OneOfUs become a filthy shipper into the bargain]]) is a single episode of a cheesy Canadian teen soap opera. A single episode.]]
** How Lapis wound up in the mirror after the episode "Same Old World" aired. [[spoiler:While it was Homeworld who placed her there, it wasn't because Lapis was sent her to Earth to fight and failed. Instead, she was a civilian who went to Earth to visit, and while there was mistaken as a Crystal Gem by a Homeworld gem. For this she was poofed, placed in the mirror, and interrogated for information on the Crystal Gems, which she of course didn't have. It was during the mass exodus after the failed efforts to stop the rebellion that her gem was cracked and she was left staring at the Galaxy Warp through the mirror until Pearl found her.]]

** Peridot being so confused about how human romantic relationships work that at one point she's convinced that Sadie is planning to ''traumatically inseminate Lars'' ("That's BEDBUGS, Peridot!"), despite her having access to [[TheInternetIsForPorn the entire internet.]] Flash forward to [[spoiler: "Log Date 7 15 2", and it turns out that all it takes for media-starved Peridot to form a highly sophisticated, complex understanding of human interpersonal relationship dynamics (and [[OneOfUs become a filthy shipper into the bargain]]) is a single episode of a cheesy Canadian teen soap opera. A single episode.]]

** Yellow Diamond being a chilly, rational, emotionless SocialDarwinist [[spoiler: looks a lot funnier after "Message Received", not just because canon!YD is, fittingly for a kids' show, [[LighterAndSofter a lot less chilling and aloof, and a lot more prone to making weird faces]]: Learning To Breathe's YD matches up almost ''exactly'' with Peridot's canon near-fanatical rhapsodizing about how she imagines Yellow Diamond to be. Just like Peridot, fans (and the writer) fell for YD's hype.]]

** In the same vein: when the Gems successfully defeat the [[spoiler: first]] Gem Buster, capture Peridot, and decide to celebrate [[TemptingFate with a beach party]], Amethyst digs an ancient limited-edition lime-flavored corn chip (not explicitly stated to be a Dorito) out from under the couch [[ExtremeOmnivore and eats it.]]

** When Steven checks in with Sadie about Peridot (who at this point is mooching off The Big Donut's wi-fi), Lars comes out of the back with a box labeled 'Looking for a good home' with the implicit intent of sticking Peridot in it, a possible reference to the 'Peridot is a cat' meme.

** Peridot later complains that humans have live births instead of laying eggs, which is "more civilized"; one of the most popular non-canon interpretations of Gem reproduction is [[AffectionateNickname "gem egg hell".]]

** In the same vein: when the Gems successfully defeat the [[spoiler: first]] Gem Buster, capture Peridot, and decide to celebrate [[TemptingFate with a beach party]], Amethyst digs an ancient limited-edition lime-flavored corn chip out from under the couch [[ExtremeOmnivore and eats it.]]
-->“It’s covered with ''hair'',” Pearl said, weak with horror.