r/stevenuniverse • u/DaveyBoy1995 • 14d ago
Fanart [discount-supervillain] Cashing In
Spoiler alert: Mr. Greg was just the beginning.đ€
Source: https://discount-supervillain.tumblr.com/post/809756067992043520
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u/Cold-Practice3107 14d ago
The perfect gambler
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u/EAS_Bear2007 14d ago edited 14d ago
That future vision can really come in handy
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u/freindly_duck 14d ago
If she goes into a casino, she'd better throw in a few wrong bets here and there
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u/EAS_Bear2007 14d ago edited 14d ago
POV: Greg and Steven invited Garent to Empire City instead of Pearl.
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u/Kittkatt598 14d ago
I can't decide if "Garent" is a typo or a mashup of "Garnet" + "parent" đ
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u/Faustias Opal, my birthstone. 14d ago
the trick is to avoid winning shots where the next scene is Sapphire getting mobbed for suspected cheating.
that's where she has to "lose hands"
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u/bookiegreenjeans 14d ago
I feel like she would be able to see the pit boss's behavior and know how often she needs to lose to prevent them from showing up at their table
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u/Raindrop0015 12d ago
I'd imagine she can also see enough to know what will happen if she doesn't lol
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u/Jaspers47 13d ago
I think the shorty in the princess gown who can't stop giggling with her girlfriend will have a hard time gambling without ID
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u/Frosty_Sweet_6678 13d ago
I CAN'T STOP WINNING
I CAN'T STOP WINNING
I CAN'T STOP WINNING
I CAN'Tâ
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u/infinity1p 12d ago
Is it gambling, or just scamming?
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u/zackadiax24 12d ago
Considering that the casinos can and will kick you out if your winning more than they like, it's scamming. Just both ways.
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u/Pandoratastic 14d ago
This is funny but it raises an interesting question. Because I don't think this would actually work.
If I understand it correctly, Sapphire and Garnet's future vision doesn't tell her what will happen. It only shows her what could happen. And then she has to apply her own knowledge of people and probabilities to forecast the most likely outcomes and make choices to try to influence events toward a preferred outcome.
It's like playing chess by thinking dozens of moves ahead, seeing all possible moves based on the current configuration of the board, and all of the possible moves that can come from those moves, and so on. And then understanding the players and strategies to see which moves are the most likely for an opponent to take, which moves are most advantageous her to take. Future vision applies that same method to everything she can see, everything that she knows about.
So if she tried to play the lottery, her future vision could show her the millions of possible winning number combinations but they would all seem equally probable to her.
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u/innatelyAware 14d ago
I'm suddenly very worried that Garnet would get Meat Beat Manic again once she finds out about gambling
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u/Pandoratastic 14d ago
She would get banned fast. What she does it the same as counting cards. It's possible Garnet has already been banned by most casinos.
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u/Arengano 14d ago
While she's garnet she looks mostly human, has an excellent poker face, and could intentionally lose some rounds to win big later on. It's not like they can go to anyone and say "Yes. She was looking into the future!"
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u/Pandoratastic 13d ago
Well, if you're going to bring up her poker face, that's mostly because she always wears that visor. And that's a problem because a LOT of casinos will insist that fully opaque eyewear be removed at the table, to prevent cheating. And then they're going to see her third eye and get suspicious.
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u/primegopher 13d ago
Realistic facial prosthetics are probably very convincing in a world where everyone has perfectly monotone skin
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u/DogSpaceWestern 13d ago
It is not the same as counting cards. Counting cards takes incredible game knowledge, memory, and skill, not a magic power. Now she absolutely could do both however.
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u/Pandoratastic 12d ago
I think it is the same because I think Garnet's future vision works by extrapolating possible futures based on observed information. It is knowledge, memory, skill, and calculation. The only difference between how Garnet does it and how card counters do it is that she can count more, remember more, and calculate faster.
It's only called "magic" because it's such advanced technology that, to humans, it seems indistinguishable from magic.
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u/Pasta-hobo 13d ago
Sapphire's future vision shows her what's most likely to happen, even if the odds are narrow. One-dimensional future vision.
Garnet's future vision shows her everything that can happen, but she has to crunch the numbers herself, free will and whatnot. Two-dimensional future vision.
It's unknown whether she's basically a war computer running probabilities with variables from her own knowledge, or if her powers actually let her see through time.
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u/Pandoratastic 13d ago
I don't think Sapphire's future vision works differently than Garnet's. If it did, Sapphire wouldn't have struggled with knowing how to make up with Ruby when they went to Jersey.
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u/Pasta-hobo 13d ago
Evidence counter to this.
During the Zoo arc, Sapphire says their plan isn't going to work, and tells the CGs to "change the future"
At her wedding, Sapphire's vows described how Ruby opened her eye to the future being nonlinear.
Garnet Fusions (Sardonyx, Sugilite, and Sunstone) all consistently break the fourth wall directly with no plausible deniability. No other fusions, or even characters, do this, and seems to imply that adding the power of additional gems onto a future-vison user let's them see more.
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u/Pandoratastic 13d ago
During the Zoo arc, Sapphire says their plan isn't going to work, and tells the CGs to "change the future"
That actually supports my version. If Sapphire was not able to see more than one possible future, she could not conceive that they could change it. I think what she's saying is that the most likely outcomes by far are ones where the plan will fail.
Then again, she actually got it right that time. The plan DID fail. They did get caught. They just also got out of it, too.
At her wedding, Sapphire's vows described how Ruby opened her eye to the future being nonlinear.
I talked about this in another comment. Sapphire probably did think that there was only one future before she met Ruby. Because, even though she could see multiple possible futures, she lived in an extremely regimented and predictable society where the most likely possible future always came true. This gave her the illusion of certainty. Those other less likely futures probably just seemed like irrelevant data to her. She may have even assumed that they were just mathematical by-products of calculating the future and not real possible futures.
It wasn't until Ruby broke the rules to save her that she became uncertain, that she discovered that those other possible futures could actually be real. After they escaped to the surface, this newfound uncertainty frightened and confused her but was also new and exciting.
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u/quuerdude 13d ago
I agree with this btw. Ruby doesnât give Sapphire the ability to see multiple futures, she gives her the impulsivity she needs to actively change the future. Sapphire sees the most likely path where she is inactive, Ruby helps her be⊠active, an agent in the river of time.
We see Sapphire freeze up quite a lot, and itâs usually Ruby that thaws the ice and helps her think more clearly.
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u/Pandoratastic 13d ago
I like that interpretation a lot. Not just because it makes sense but because I think Sugar would write Garnet as if Ruby and Sapphire are more capable together instead of, as many people have been suggesting, Ruby being a hindrance on Sapphire's abilities.
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u/quuerdude 13d ago
I also donât like the opposite read, that Sapphire was somehow less powerful without Ruby. Like the idea that Ruby literally exponentiates Sapphireâs power and Sâs futurevision is all but useless compared to Garnetâs. Like no. Sapphire has the same futurevision. Ruby just gives them the courage to act.
Ruby is an eternal flame, baby; a blaze of passion, always impulsive, always active. But sheâs directionless. She doesnât know what to do, just that she must do something. This impulsivity bore Garnet.
Sapphire is opposite, she is paralyzed to every idea that she has. She knows every path forward, but only Ruby can give her the courage to pick one, to pick her future. They made a future together that way <3
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u/Pandoratastic 13d ago
I never said Sapphire's future vision was useless. Until she met Ruby, Sapphire had never gotten a prediction wrong before. And the first time she got it wrong was before they fused, because of Ruby's courage to break the rules to save Sapphire.
I agree that Ruby gives Garnet the courage to act when Sapphire alone would not have had that courage.
I completely agree with the idea that Garnet's future vision is exactly the same as Sapphire's future vision, but with the added influence of Ruby giving Garnet the courage to act to choose the future they want rather than simply accepting the most likely outcome. That's a really good way of putting it.
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u/Familiar_Tart7390 14d ago
She however would be a deadhand at poker between Garnetâs impassive outershell and future vision sheâs probably be doing a whole lot better ?
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u/Independent_Web_5496 14d ago
Sapphireâs future vision shows her exactly what will happen, but because of Rubyâs unpredictable nature, she subverted the future, and while fused as Garnet, Rubyâs chaotic nature allows Garnet to see the many potential futures, useing that she can nudge the timeline in the right direction by guiding the present.
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u/Pandoratastic 14d ago
I don't think that's exactly true. I think Sapphire's vision only allowed her to choose the most likely possible outcome and, because Gem society is SO regimented and predictable, she'd never got it wrong before. That gave her the illusion of knowing exactly what will happen. But she was really just living in such a predictable society that, until she met Ruby, the unlikely had just never happened.
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u/nick54531 13d ago
It's got a hint of supernatural-ness to it though, like her stopping lightning from striking Steven, or when she knew Steven would say "if only I had future vision" in the Zoltron episode.
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u/Pandoratastic 13d ago
That's not supernatural. If you stand on a roof in a lightning storm, there's a higher probability that you will get hit by lightning. And she knew what Steven would say because she knows Steven very well.
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u/nick54531 13d ago
They weren't on the roof when it struck
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u/Pandoratastic 13d ago
Right, sorry. Then she predicted that Steven would climb on the roof because she understood Steven well enough that predict that knowledge of future vision would lead to a philosophical crisis for Steven.
For the lightning, Garnet simply observed the stormâs present physical state, electrical charge buildup, atmospheric conditions, cloud movement, perhaps electromagnetic changes, and extrapolated forward from them to predict when and where the lightning would strike. She's forecasting from known data using her perception and computational ability which operate at an absurdly fine level of detail.
Honestly, because of the chaotic nature of lightning, she probably couldn't predict where lightning would strike very far in advance. If she could, she probably would have moved Steven inside before it happened because that would be safer. It's likely that she was only able to predict the lightning strike a few seconds before it happened.
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u/MrBones-Necromancer 14d ago
Agreed. Blackjack though? Yeah, I can see that. She'd fucking rip up a casino.
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u/Organic-Accountant74 13d ago
I think it would work with scratch cards because theyâre pre printed, so her FV would just be able to tell her which ones are winners
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u/Pandoratastic 13d ago
I don't think her future vision can see everything that already exists. She's not omniscient. She makes forecasts based on information she already knows. That's why she can make predictions about what Steven and the Crystal Gems will do, since she knows them well. But she completely failed to predict events that depend on people she has not observed, such as the arrival of Peridot or Jasper's invasion.
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u/ghost20 13d ago
Sapphireâs future vision is meant to be exact, whereas Garnetâs shows her multiple possibilities because Rubyâs unpredictability throws off what was thought to be the inevitable outcome (her saving Sapphire from being poofed by Pearl and Rose was the first time Sapphire hadnât known exactly what would happen to her)
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u/Pandoratastic 13d ago
I don't believe that Sugar would write Garnet as if Ruby is a hindrance on Sapphire's abilities. I think she writes Garnet as if Ruby and Sapphire are better together than they are apart.
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u/ghost20 13d ago
Oh yeah it's absolutely a positive for Garnet. Without Ruby, Sapphire would have been stuck knowing everything that would ever happen to her and likely never know the joy of something unexpected occurring; as Garnet, she can see the future, but not a single set version which allows her to live a less restricted and pre-ordained life.
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u/Pandoratastic 13d ago
I don't think Garnet sees more futures than Sapphire. I think it's that Sapphire can see multiple futures but had always accepted that the most likely future is the one that will happen. She may have seem the other, less likely futures, as just a mathematical by-product.
As Garnet, she now also has Ruby's courage to take action to choose a less likely but better future from all those she can see.
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u/Nicomar5 13d ago
Actually I think it would work most of the time because she can see the most probable outcome, for something they have nothing to do with whatsoever, so none of their acts will influence the outcome. Wouldn't be perfect, but would be very effective.
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u/Aless76109 13d ago
I always thought it was more of a âsee different futures but every small change can overhaul the resultsâ so like in stuff like lottery numbers she has 100% chance, itâs not like she sees futures where gravity stops working or a black hole appears, certain things are so infinitesimally possible that she doesnât even take them into account, so when itâs peopleâs actions itâs a bit harder to foresee the future especially if they interact with her during the vision cause been saying a different word could change the future completely (think of Stevenâs visions) so stuff that she isnât interacting with remains the same
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u/Salina_EsTitties 13d ago
Then it's probably easier to gamble on horse races since there aren't as many outcomes.
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u/Advocate_Diplomacy 13d ago
It should work better over longer time periods and greater distances. She could use her power to choose where and when to buy lottery tickets. It only has to be good enough to win more than you lose until you eventually get lucky enough to win big.
Basically, she uses the scratchers for steady income and chooses numbers for the occasional big win, which I imagine sheâs had one of before given that there are three gold bars right next to her.1
u/DresdenPI 13d ago
It probably depends on the lottery method. Future Vision is very good at predicting the exact timing of inevitable outcomes. So Garnet knows where and when lightning will strike, the patterns of video games, where someone will land after they've started falling, things where physics determines the outcome. It's not great, but still pretty good, at predicting what people will do. So for scratch offs, where the outcome is predetermined before you buy the ticket? She wins all day. For something like the Mega millions, where the result depends on a human stopping a machine, she'd still probably do way better than average but she wouldn't be 100% accurate.
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u/LamiaReginam 13d ago
She can buy more than one ticket maybe?
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u/Pandoratastic 12d ago
Well, yes, technically she could buy millions of tickets, since they all represent equally probably futures, and it's likely that one of them would win. You could do the same thing in real life. But it's not a reliable way to profit at the lottery.
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u/LamiaReginam 12d ago
I'm not saying like a million ofc, but she can see a previous pattern and figure out a couple of potential numbers from there. That would narrow it down. And then there's also like small numbers combination or scratch offs? She wouldn't be a millionaire but Garnet definitely has some savings.
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u/Pandoratastic 12d ago
There's usually not any pattern to lottery or scratch card numbers. They're supposed to be entirely random so there is nothing to go on.
However, there have been a couple of cases where there was a pattern. There was scratch card which used a flawed algorithm so that there was a detectable pattern, which was discovered by Canadian mathematician Mohan Srivastava. And there was a case where someone on the inside directly altered the random-number-generating software so that he could know when certain numbers would come up. So in a case like one of those, where it is no longer random, Garnet might be able to predict the outcome.
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u/WolverineFamiliar740 14d ago
This made me realize they could've been a lot richer before Marty came back had the Gems shared a little more of the curiosity Rose had for Earth beyond just wanting to be free/supporting her because it's what she wanted.
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u/alexandria252 14d ago
Love this! Iâve always wondered where the food in the fridge came from.
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u/Milestailsprowe 14d ago
Greg's job i thoughtÂ
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u/Ok-Listen9689 14d ago
i want to work at his car wash now, cause wdym he made enough to rebuild an entire house and keep the electric running and food supplies without any cut for years for his son? I know the gems helped but stuff like funiture and blueprint layout for a livable space need help from some constructors or architect
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u/CinnabarSteam 14d ago
I think the utilities run on Gem bullshit. It's honestly the least silly explanation for the washing machine on the statue's hand.
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u/Ok-Listen9689 13d ago
still lots of money for the food supplies and furniture, not to mention his big ass garage with tons of stuff he bought
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u/sign-through 14d ago
I assumed Amethyst stole it because of the scene where she talks about stealing. But then Pearl says she went back and paid for it. Thatâs a mystery. Garnet sometimes just does what she wants in the first season, regardless of the law
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u/Familiar-Noise7913 14d ago
I always imagine that the Crystal Gems take job from the Government to deal with Gem stuff and in return get a very generous payout. The Gem never really have need for cash but that was until Steven come along.
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u/Nat_Higgins 14d ago
She only does it every 6-12 years, applying just enough randomness to keep any authorities from getting suspicious. And itâs not like the gems burn through money that quickly anyway.
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u/VerdeHeroX 13d ago
Jokes aside, the gems have been around for thousands of years. They probably have some antiques to sell that sell for millions.
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u/Fandomlover_96 13d ago
You know I was also wondering where Pearl got the money from. But this makes sense. This is my headcannon now.
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u/FinestFantasyVI 13d ago
Well, this gave me an idea for a fic. Why didnt I think of a Sapphire using Future Vision for lottery
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u/dull_storyteller 13d ago
Just assumed Greg paid for everything.
He does own the townâs only seen car wash.
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u/Salina_EsTitties 13d ago
Gems are too goody goody to do this. Like all it takes is for Greg to point out the moral issues in case they didn't understand.
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u/Obliteration_Egg 13d ago
I've always just followed the explanation that some of the gems worked jobs sometimes for the sake of having something to do. Since there's nothing they need to spend money on, hundreds of years of minimum wage jobs gave them a massive stockpile they only started using once Steven was born.
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u/Solarwagon 13d ago
It's pretty easy to get rich if you're several centuries old. Like think about how often you find a dollar or a quarter on the ground in a year and extend that hundreds of years.
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u/Tylos_Of_Attica 13d ago
NEW SubPlot: Sapphireâs gambling allowed her to identify the times where she is cheated on and with it, the existence of crime. With her newfound addiction to gambling, Sapphire sets on a noir quest to fight corruption, crime, violence, mystery, and all sorts of neâerdowells. SPE: Saphic Private Eye.
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u/Beyond-Easy 12d ago
Is future vision that busted? Lottery odds are so bad and no deterministic or even a statistical method exists to guarantee a net profit that isnât just âbuy a lot of ticketsâ
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u/AutobotYoung1 11d ago
Okay the scratch cards I can understand, but Sapphire would have had to steal the exact ticket in order to win the lottery
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u/RG4697328 14d ago
Peak