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Sorry Weekly and other SU fans, but this was a long time coming.
I believe that the current rating for many Steven Universe characters is not accurate. At the moment, Steven himself, Lapis Lazuli, Alexandrite, and Malachite all scale to Lapis' tower feat, the latter two being outright Moon level due to the weakened Lapis' feat being SO close to 5-C.
These are all wrong, for one reason or another. Here are my issues with this.
1. The Calculation is incorrect. In the calculation, it calcs how much energy the entire ocean would yield if it traveled at escape velocity. This relies on two assumptions; the entire ocean is used and the ocean traveled at escape velocity. While the entire ocean was most certainly used, as the blog gives numerous examples of, it would NOT need to reach escape velocity to get into outer space.
You may be asking yourself: "But it must reach escape velocity in order to get into outer space, wouldn't it?"
This is true for single, unattached objects, such as space ships and satellites, but a structure built on top of itself to get to these heights would not need to break these speeds, as the tower itself would provide the base for the next piece of the tower to stack onto. It doesn't need to travel any speed to get into outer space, so long as it is able to have a "footing" to stand on, so to speak. The principle of Lapis' tower works almost exactly like a Space elevator, which also would not need to break escape velocity.
This renders the entire calculation invalid, outright. Other methods of calculation can be used to get a rating, and I would be glad to do them (its the least I can do for shoving this downgrade into the limelight), but this version assuming escape velocity is not an accurate method.
2. Steven doesn't tank the ocean normally. While he does shield the gang at the bottom of the tower, there are three concerns with this.
A. Area of effect: Steven only shielded the water that hit his bubble. Similar to inverse square law, he would not tank the entire power of the collapsing tower, only the a much smaller part of it, as the entire tower would not land square on his shield. The entire ocean returned very quickly, indicating a decent chunk of it hit away from the tower's location.
B. Timeframe: We rate our characters based off what they can do/tank in one attack or in one second. Even if the tower fell directly on Steven's shield, it would take a while for the entire thing to hit him. MUCH longer than one second.
C. Falling: The tower fell on Steven. AKA it did not travel at escape velocity on Steven. If the water somehow fell through the atmosphere and didn't burn up on reentry (and that alone is hard to believe), it would only be traveling at 8 km/s, not 11.2 km/s. This would nerf the overall yield of the tower falling, in addition to the two concerns above.
Also the 8 km/s wouldn't even apply to Lapis, since I would not be wall level for dropping a boulder off of a clip that I carried to the top.
I know this is probably hard and a lot to take in, but please comment below. Considering Steven Universe is a massive verse, I will be highlighting this.
TLDR: The Lapis calc is inaccurate as it doesn't need to hit escape velocity, and Steven doesn't scale to it either way.
I believe that the current rating for many Steven Universe characters is not accurate. At the moment, Steven himself, Lapis Lazuli, Alexandrite, and Malachite all scale to Lapis' tower feat, the latter two being outright Moon level due to the weakened Lapis' feat being SO close to 5-C.
These are all wrong, for one reason or another. Here are my issues with this.
1. The Calculation is incorrect. In the calculation, it calcs how much energy the entire ocean would yield if it traveled at escape velocity. This relies on two assumptions; the entire ocean is used and the ocean traveled at escape velocity. While the entire ocean was most certainly used, as the blog gives numerous examples of, it would NOT need to reach escape velocity to get into outer space.
You may be asking yourself: "But it must reach escape velocity in order to get into outer space, wouldn't it?"
This is true for single, unattached objects, such as space ships and satellites, but a structure built on top of itself to get to these heights would not need to break these speeds, as the tower itself would provide the base for the next piece of the tower to stack onto. It doesn't need to travel any speed to get into outer space, so long as it is able to have a "footing" to stand on, so to speak. The principle of Lapis' tower works almost exactly like a Space elevator, which also would not need to break escape velocity.
This renders the entire calculation invalid, outright. Other methods of calculation can be used to get a rating, and I would be glad to do them (its the least I can do for shoving this downgrade into the limelight), but this version assuming escape velocity is not an accurate method.
2. Steven doesn't tank the ocean normally. While he does shield the gang at the bottom of the tower, there are three concerns with this.
A. Area of effect: Steven only shielded the water that hit his bubble. Similar to inverse square law, he would not tank the entire power of the collapsing tower, only the a much smaller part of it, as the entire tower would not land square on his shield. The entire ocean returned very quickly, indicating a decent chunk of it hit away from the tower's location.
B. Timeframe: We rate our characters based off what they can do/tank in one attack or in one second. Even if the tower fell directly on Steven's shield, it would take a while for the entire thing to hit him. MUCH longer than one second.
C. Falling: The tower fell on Steven. AKA it did not travel at escape velocity on Steven. If the water somehow fell through the atmosphere and didn't burn up on reentry (and that alone is hard to believe), it would only be traveling at 8 km/s, not 11.2 km/s. This would nerf the overall yield of the tower falling, in addition to the two concerns above.
Also the 8 km/s wouldn't even apply to Lapis, since I would not be wall level for dropping a boulder off of a clip that I carried to the top.
I know this is probably hard and a lot to take in, but please comment below. Considering Steven Universe is a massive verse, I will be highlighting this.
TLDR: The Lapis calc is inaccurate as it doesn't need to hit escape velocity, and Steven doesn't scale to it either way.
