Only Child Antarc | Over Analyzing Houseki no Kuni Chapter 15 

I can't stop thinking about the contrast between cinnabar and phos. Cinnabar is separated from the Gems at first fearing they will hurt them but eventually makes friends. Where as Phos struggles and sacrifices so much for their friends but ultimately hurts and looses them all, ending up alone. Early cinnabar feels like foreshadowing for Phos' fate. Also I don't know why but the page where antarc hugs Kongo reminds me so much of aechmea and cairngorm. You could draw some interesting parallels or a contrast between their relationships.

On Cinnabar’s isolation, they themself had not commented on it, it was only Rutile and maybe Kongo that concluded the Gems had basically left Cinnabar locked into the night. Cinnabar doesn’t blame the others for their loneliness. But yes, good point that the Gems care about each other, they’re just not the best at showing it sometimes. Rutile the caring quack expositor. You’re right about Kongo not getting mad later on increasing Phos’ distrust, but here I believe the Gems taking responsibility earlier simply increases their guilt and tanks their self-esteem, because Phos _does_ see that the other Gems don’t count on them at all, their uselessness is a foregone conclusion. The ice floes’ resemblance to Lunarians is supposedly intentional according to either Aechmea or Barbarta later. And the little pegs around the big spiky middle one does make it look more like an army on a vessel than just mental breakdown Phos. Antarc is harsh, and the other notably harsh Gem is Bort, who Phos found scary before. Of course, they are harsh in different ways where Bort won’t hesitate to shove a sword into Phos’ face threateningly and completely dismisses Phos as of now, a ‘get out of the way’ harsh. But Antarc’s harshness is encouraging, putting expectations on Phos to do better. And that tracks with their hardnesses, Antarc being even softer than Phos and the preconception of harder equals more capable. Just wanted to compare them.

On the topic of Rutile being so attentive to the other gems is really interesting to me. Their relationship with Padpa is (as you described) being a puzzle to Rutile, perhaps the doc is trying to avoid a similar situation with another gem? I especialy think about the "no emotion rule" hampering genuine affection, the gems are not human but they could be. Rutile would've probably gotten numb to fixing gems to some degree but still takes care. And Cinnabar's past still being in the school, before choosing night watch, how would've Rutile handled fixing them? I can imagine Rutile and Cinnabars similar to that of Baby Phos and the aforementioned doc. Constantly being broken and needing repair, even more than Phos (being a 2 on the mof scale) could foster a close relationship with Rutile. Maybe part of the reason Rutile wears gloved so much along side avoiding damage to gems could protect Dr from the mercury, or maybe to convince cinnabar that the mercury wont hurt rutile. Maybe part of why Cinnabar is so scared to hurt the other gems is from the impact their Mercury had on Rutile. I think part of the reason why Rutile considers giving Cinnabar winter bedding is because of how much it potentially affected Cinnabar when they were still at the school. That would justify the fear of hurting other gems and add another layer of interactions. Maybe thats the reason that rutile has such a standard doctor uniform. We know that gems aren't the best at utilising human human inventions (the video about chairs), Cinnabar could've given that coat more comforting meaning, unless its just more inspiration for Red Barrel's outfit design. Maybe the reason some characters hair is short is from Cinnabar? Like how Bentonite(?) has short hair and are the one we know for a fact has lived next to Cinnabar is from stray mercury bits potentially hurting them a little bit at some point? Maybe I'm reaching too hard but it's so fascinating to think about the time before the story starts. All the potential character interactions make my head hurt (in a good way) pardon the rant - i love Houseki no Kuni

I think in the page sensei says its ok to phos team up with antarc, antarc and phos are on the same height because antarc had no way of knowing what happened with the amethysts. Or not maybe thinking too much lol Then on page 48 and 49, when phos is telling why they can't sleep, they appear on a black background again, made by the pillar's shadow, and antarc that was level with phos still start looking down on him.