Steven Universe is a really good show with a really great fans.
The crew is full of people who grew up in fandom, people like most of us reading this right now. People who spend hours talking about their favorite media. People who build and join communities. People who create and comment. They know what it’s like to love something like this, in the way we love it.
I know from interviews and artbooks and cons that the crew knew what a fandom cared about, knew what made a show compelling to dig into, to rip apart and stitch back together. They knew how to make a world worthy of exploring.
It’s because of that I have friends. The world is hard, and as my husband and I are tugged from place to place in search of jobs and stability, abandoning family and loved ones and them abandoning us in turn for a chance at making a decent living, I can only think how much more impossible and depression this would have been without this fandom.
I have made friends here that I will have long after the show ends, who I got to keep even as I moved all the way across the country. I have made friends that I get to keep even as we lock our doors and huddle in our homes. I have made friends that have made me a better writer, a first time artist, and a better person.
At my lowest point in writing, Steven Universe dragged me back into the world of creating again. When I felt helpless and stupid, the crewniverse created a world so thrilling, with characters so compelling, that I couldn’t walk away. There were days I feared I’d never write again, and Steven Universe ended that.
As a creator, there is nothing more beautiful to me than when people say I’ve made something that makes them want to create. To spread the joy and thrill of creating something in the best thing in the world, and the crew has done that again and again. There are people who picked up a pen and started to draw or write because of Steven.
There are people who learned they were binary and nonbinary trans from Steven Universe. There are people who learned they were gay or bi or ace. There are people who learned they didn’t have to be a certain kind of boy, or a certain kind of girl to be those things. There are people who didn’t learn those things about themselves, but learned that those people existed.
There are people who are alive today because Steven Universe was sunshine in a dark place.
This show did a lot of things for a lot of people. It was a harbor in a hurricane. A spot of light when the world was dark. A quiet night with your family after too much time apart.
If Steven’s story ends with perfect bliss it won’t even come close to touching the amount of happiness he’s brought into the world as a whole.
Goodbye, Steven. I’ll miss you.
We’re all gonna miss you.
jbbartram-illu
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