aka “How did Steven go from being a kid with lots to learn to the moral center of the show?”
I’ve decided to take in depth looks at the characters of Steven Universe, their relationships, their developments and the places I think the story line failed them. I decided to start with Steven because he is the main character of Steven Universe. This will likely be a series of posts, which I’ll compile together later. This one will focus solely on Steven as a character, so let us begin.
Steven Universe is the very first Gem/Human hybrid born approximately 6000 years after the gem wars. His birth meant that his mother could no longer exist, she had to give up her physical form. From that point on Steven was raised by his father Greg Universe presumably in his van until around the time he was 12/13. During this time Steven resided in Beach City and was close to the residents while looking forward to his magical destiny with the Crystal Gems.
So at this point, Steven is this innocent goofball who loves people, music, video games, and food. He doesn’t know a lot about the gems besides they’re magical warriors and they know Rose Quartz.
Actually, that means that Steven has probably witnessed the gems fighting monsters in Beach City before. Like imagine the magic of seeing these warriors ladies fighting giant monsters, protecting you, your home the world, and you’re supposed to become one of them... That must have been so amazing for him.
So, Season 1 Steven is the Steven we meet in the first episode.
He’s just recently moved in with the gems. He hasn’t learned to use any of his powers yet. Over the course of the first half of the season (the first 26 episodes), Steven learns the ropes of being a Crystal Gem. In almost every episode it’s like Steven vs the problem of the week.
I think the general tone of the show was done fairly well, because I remember a few people used to get agitated that we were just watching Steven fumble around while the gems were off doing cool stuff. We wanted to be where the gems were and so did Steven. Anyway by the end of this portion he becomes an actual part of the team.
In the second half of Season 1(episodes 27-52), there’s much more focus on Steven and the gems bonding. During these episodes Steven is much more experienced with Gem stuff than he was before. He still has a lot to learn, but he’s got the basics down. He gains a new power, he experiences fusion, and he tries hard to prove that he deserves to be a Crystal Gem.
In contrast to the first half where he was goofy and didn’t seem to take things as seriously as he should, this Steven is taking this job more seriously while keeping in place his optimism. He seems aware that there is a lot he doesn’t really know about and he’s ready to learn those things.
At the beginning of Season 2 and throughout the season even, we have a Steven who was negatively impacted by the events of Jailbreak. He wants to cut off his connections with humans because of all the danger and he’s scared. A whole bunch of pressure just collapsed on him. He’s beginning to wonder about his mother and his humanity. Season 2 had a much darker tone than the previous season and that was at least partially because Steven was starting to struggle.
Honestly it’s hard to pinpoint exactly when the shift of Steven becoming the moral center happened, but I feel like it started when Peridot was unbubbled. Steven was Peridot’s introduction to the earth and during this arc the the focus switches from Steven to Peridot while still being in Steven’s point of view. At this point they kind of dropped everything that was building up with Steven to focus on the Cluster situation which is fine, but they didn’t really pick it back up until mid/late season 3.
And I think this where the crew really started to drop the ball with Steven. This is when the world starts to feel like it revolves around Steven. So Steven locates Malachite using his watermelon dream powers, then Steven prevents the cluster from forming by talking it out of it, then Steven convinces Lapis to stay on earth, then Steven convinces Lapis and Peridot to be roommates, then Steven tricks the Rubies. It was even Steven’s idea to bring Pearl on Greg’s trip to Empire city. Steven who is just a kid is suddenly fixing all the problems and giving all the advice.
Then the story remembers the build up from season 2 and tosses him in an arc with Amethyst. Then he bubbles Bismuth and almost immediately after finds out that Rose shattered Pink Diamond.
So far Season 4 Steven has been a continuation of Season 3 Steven. He’s still giving out advice and fixing everyone’s problems with the occasional mention of his problems, but I feel like they kind of lost him. Like they reversed his character development because he seems less mature now then he was in season 2. And I’ve discussed this before so I’ll just quote myself,
Before I end this post, I’d like to take a moment to address a big part of Steven’s portrayal which is his innocence and naivety. I think the story line often treats Steven’s good nature and will to help others as if it’s tied with his innocence and lack of experience and I think that’s part of the reason they avoid addressing the effect these experiences would have on Steven for too long. The writers might be worried that if they go serious for too long than they’ll lose his childlike sense of wonder and his will to help people, but I think that’s not necessarily the case. My favorite quote from Wonder over Yonder is, “The Helper seeks to help because he knows what it’s like to be helpless.”
That is to say, I believe that growing up a bit wouldn’t hinder Steven from being caring or from having fun. I think it’d be a great way to show someone choosing to be kind and enjoy life despite being hurt or realizing the world isn’t as nice as they first thought.
