People are already making memes about Peridot assuming everything is a weapon, but there’s something highly worrying about the fact that Peridot literally assumes everything around her is either dangerous on its own or a means to hurt her? The first time she asks it’s because Steven asks her to hand him something- she was assuming that he would immediately turn around and attack her with it.
Of course Peridot doesn’t know this stuff. She’s an alien that doesn’t have any of the needs that a bathroom accommodates. It’s dubious gems even take baths, because the bathroom is explicitly “Steven’s bathroom” and didn’t exist before they built the addition for Steven- not to mention that Garnet can bodily expel fluids from her person, and Pearl was able to casually wipe grease and oil off herself with a dry cloth- presumably a property of the gems’ physicality means they don’t really need to scrub things out of their pores.
But, when confronted with a room full of foreign objects- even a room she doesn’t assume is an armory (she calls it a “think room”) she assumes all of them are weapons. The one time Steven even implies something could be a weapon she curls up, clearly thinking he’s about to use it on her.
This is really kind of a worrying sign? Especially if Peridot without her “enhancers” is physically not strong enough to even inflict pain on a full Gem (she was surprised she could hurt Steven). What exactly has she experienced that would make her live in a constant state of fear- to such an extent that she’s just used to it and doesn’t really make that big a deal about it?
It’s also really interesting because we see how different the concept of weapons seems to be to Peridot versus the other gems we’ve seen. At the very beginning of this series, one of the first plot points is the gems trying to teach Steven how to summon his weapon, and they speak of it like it’s a very personal matter. In a way, all of their weapons reflect something about themselves, but more importantly, all of them stem from their gems. I originally thought that maybe Homeworld had advanced beyond gem weapons, however this isn’t the case since we see Jasper form her weapon from her gem, and while Lapis has no physical weapon to speak of, her gem technically controls her attacks by giving her power over water.
Peridot, however, is utterly helpless without her limb enhancers, which we now know held all of the power behind her attacks. The fact that she also assumed everything that can be picked up is, in some way, a weapon, raises some questions about why she isn’t summoning her own and who she was trained around. Are all Peridots given limb enhancers like that? Is there now a culture on Homeworld where smaller gems are encouraged not to even try to use their own weapon because it’s “weak,” instead favoring outside materials to craft their own? Did she not spend extensive time with gems who could summon weapons, instead spending all her time with “lesser” gems who couldn’t? Can she summon a weapon at all, and just chooses not to because she was never trained how to use it to her advantage, or even worse, ridiculed for it?
Personally I am 100% for what seems to be an upcoming Peridot redemption arc because I love redemption arcs more than life itself, especially in a show this heavily based in personal development and themes like understanding and forgiveness, and i’m really excited to see how they explore her missing enhancers. While she definitely seems like more of a support/tech party member and I doubt we’ll see her taking on Jasper anytime soon, i’m interested to see if they’ll address her lack of a natural weapon, and if Steven will be the one to help her summon one to defend herself despite her small stature.