Steven Universe was always a good show @pink-diamonds-jasper - Tumblr Blog

we don't credit rebecca sugar enough for making the episode with the first gay wedding in a kids show extremely plot relevant so it could not be skipped or cut.

emeraldspiral

#rebecca sugar has gone on record saying that they knew from the beginning they wanted ruby and sapphire and they put every inch of planning#in to make sure that the studio could not take them out. sugar has said they’d compromised on hundreds of things they’d wanted for steven#so that they had the bargaining power specifically to keep ruby and sapphire’s relationship#and a number of ‘filler’ episodes were created just to establish counter-arguments that might come up when they pitched the wedding episode#the one that comes to mind is the episode about steven and connie getting lost in rose’s room steven’s central conflict about liking their#fave book series’ romantic ending was later weaponised when producer’s were like ‘oh but steven’s a boy he won’t be too interested in them#getting married’ sugar was able to be like ‘no. in this episode it’s established he loves romance and specifically weddings. and in these#episodes it’s shown how much steven cares about ruby and sapphire and their relationship and happiness. you cannot convince me this is not#good and necessary plot development#and they wrapped it up in the season finale and the big climactic point of the diamonds finally coming to attack earth to make the#episode integral to the series no skipping it without confusion. and had ruby wear a wedding dress because international censors took#advantage of her design to give her a masculine va#and sugar made certain that everybody knew This was a queer love story that an entire town supported and admired and that any child watchin#it at home would know they are not alone and that that support is waiting for them out there somewhere#sugar sacrificed the wider story they wanted to tell for that and it was a horrible decision to be given but they made the right choice

mallowmaenad

the funniest and most tragic moment in steven universe is the scene that implies that Pearl pulls bitches like a professional dog walker but doesn't know how phones work so her place on earth is being a life-changing futch fling for every dyke on the east coast there's probably a gay bar in maryland where they talk about the twiggy bird chick that eats milf pussy like it's the last edible thing on earth and they dont even know about the city full of thousand year old neon lesbian amazons who are pent up 24/7 from The War and leaving room for jesus cause they're always hanging out with their softboy nephew who might be the second coming of christ

jager-mistress-diane

strawberry-crocodile

I do definitely disagree with the "Steven should have shattered White Diamond" argument, but I also disagree with "Oh the diamonds are Just A Metaphor, you're not supposed to take them as literal dictators". Like yes they are a metaphor for a conservative family, but you should very much also read them as dictators, because they are. It's not an accident that Steven spared the life of a dictator. The show is taking a principled stance against punitive justice.

It's presenting you with the worst person imaginable, one who has done harm on scales personal to galactic, and saying "killing this person is still something we should not want to do." If we can remove White from power while sparing her life, if we can put her to use undoing what she has done, that would be preferable to killing her, no matter her crimes.

And a lot of people just didn't want to hear that.

strawberry-crocodile

So much art directly states the message "revenge is bad!", but still gives the viewers- and often the characters- the catharsis of seeing the villain killed anyway. Crewniverse decided "no fuck that we are actually doing Revenge Is Bad" and a lot of you were not ready for that.

oatmealaddiction

To that point, it's worth noting how this functions in regards to 'villains' in film historically and how that history ties into queer representation. Under the Hayes Code, it used to be legally mandated that villainous characters in films could not escape punishment for their actions. It's why the Little Girl in the Bad Seed is spontaneously struck by lightening, and why if a Femme Fatale survives a Noir—it's usually with the assurance she was a faithful wife the whole time who never did her dirty husband wrong. It's why we have long proud history of gay characters dying before the film ends. It's why basically every Disney villain dies a gruesome death, or is physically dragged into Hell. We all talk about how much we miss the unapologetic villains who are bad without remorse—and then forget how 99% of their stories end.

Lots of hand-wringing has been done about the violence and trauma of Bambi's mom being shot on screen, but not much about Uncle Scar being devoured by hyenas or Ursula being impaled by a boat. Nobody bothers to ask if despite what they'd done, why it was necessary to show children their grisly deaths. (Or to think about how often villains are positioned against blonde-blue-eyed princesses, and how often they are given hooked noses, or black hair, or darker skin, or disabilities, or even a 'foppish' or 'queer' affectation.) The Diamonds in Steven Universe do not die—and it's great. It's actually a best-case scenario! They see the error of their ways. They apologize. They help with reconstruction and lead the Gem Empire in decolonizing the planets they've hurt. They rescue the corrupted and shattered gems. Steven is able to resolve things cleanly without another war like the one his mother started—and where his family's war destroyed countless lives, he's able to restore them. Is there discomfort? Yes. SU made an entire epilogue series about that discomfort—and maybe that discomfort is good for you, and you should explore why an ending where everything changes for the better and no one is killed makes you feel upset. Fans of SU who claim to be so against the kind of empty cruel and perfection obsessed regime that the Diamonds ran, are still clamoring for blood in the exact same way they were. It's like you're the Catholic moderators enforcing the Hayes Code—angry that lightening didn't strike the evil little girl—like you'd rather stamp out anything with imperfections, than bear to keep living with a flaw.

meticulousmaker

another random thing that stands out to me rewatching Steven Universe as an adult:

throughout the show there's this clear Vibe that Steven has inherited some big magical destiny, right? and it makes sense narratively: he's the son of Rose Quartz, leader of the rebellion, now being raised by her friends who were the last remaining survivors of an interstellar war. he's like a human child in most ways, except he has magical powers that start to become more obvious as he's getting older. no one like him has ever existed before. it's a big deal. raising him and figuring out how he's going to grow is its own unique challenge, because nobody knows what to expect. so of course there's this magical destiny vibe, given all that.

What's interesting to me, though, is that this magical destiny is in no way literally, physically present in the story, it's just something everyone kinda feels. Like, there's not some ancient prophecy about a half-gem, half-human savior. He's not the Chosen One in any literal sense, he just happens to give off Chosen One vibes. And I say that's interesting because it means that the fact he was kinda raised with this Chosen One vibe is completely a decision everyone around him made, for better or for worse. And the show is aware of this, because the weight of Rose's legacy and everyone's expectations of him is a constant theme, and as Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl all grow and develop, they also realize the downsides of them putting those expectations on a child. Like, Steven spends his whole childhood being told about how great Rose was, and how because he's inherited her gem he will probably inherit her powers - and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Imagine how awful things could have been if Steven had no exposure to the Gems and no knowledge of what they were or how they worked, and then his powers started coming in? It was hard enough even when he was surrounded by the most qualified Gem Experts on Earth. But being primed for all of this "you're going to have your mother's magical powers" stuff put a heavy weight on his shoulders, and then the fact that nobody else quite knew how his abilities worked meant he was constantly faced with the adults in his life looking to him with concern because they didn't know what was happening with him. That's gotta leave an impression on a kid - and, well, throughout the show and especially in SU Future we definitely see that it does.

I like the way the show handles the pressure that's put on him, and the fact that everyone is just... trying their best in a completely unprecedented situation. Nobody knows what to do or how to raise this kid, and that inevitably causes problems but everyone is trying. And Steven can feel that everyone is trying without knowing what to do and he just wants to help and not be a burden and none of his caretakers have said that he's a burden but he can feel everyone's confusion and concern and the expectations he's not living up to and he cares so much, about everyone, about everything. He's in an extremely unique position that grants him opportunities to help that nobody else has, and he feels like he's failing everyone if he can't fulfill that, and in the end it never should have been his job to fix things but somebody had to try. Somebody had to try, and he was one of the only people with the ability to stop the Diamonds, stop the war, stop the lies, stop his world and everyone on it from being destroyed... and he was just a kid.

problemnyatic

the steven universe hate is insane bc people are (or at least were) more upset that fictional war criminals got fictional hugs than they recognize that it singlehandedly advanced queer rep in children's media by lightyears and then straight up ate heavy retaliation for the nerve.

It does have real flaws that are worth discussing, but it also put their male protagonist in dresses and skirts and played it straight and even empowering, they aired a lesbian wedding on television, it was a genuinely queer, genuinely diverse piece of media through and through. It did a lot of real good for the real world.

But also the fictional characters caused fictional harm to other fictional characters, and didn't get an onscreen firing squad sentence. So, you know, it's basically ontologically evil in real life.

outofthedeck

askstevendiamonduniverse

cheers to my housemates for drawing the gems for me for this comic

yunisverse

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what’s possible for characters vs. what the audience sees. (This might feel really obvious or redundant to talk about, but I just need to get the words out of my system)

In Steven Universe, when a character can’t do something, it’s a bit of a big deal. They struggle with it, they fixate on it, entire episodes may be dedicated to this thing they’re unable to do. When a character can do something, but doesn’t, it’s never focused on or called out. But when it does finally happen, it underscores a huge moment for that character.

As early as episode 10, it’s confirmed that Amethyst is able to bubble Gems. The action itself is not a big deal for her. Maybe she’s done it lots of times offscreen, where the audience hasn’t seen it. But since it’s our first time seeing her do this, it underscores her growth in this character arc, as she sends her tormentor and kindred spirit away.

On the other end of things, Garnet’s refusal to ask questions in the present ends up being a highlight for her backstory–she’s only shown asking questions in the far, far past, to highlight her very first moments of being in comparison to how firm and completely certain she is of herself now.

One can assume that Greg has always had some manner of social life outside of Steven and the Gems, but it has never once been mentioned who his friends are or what he does when he’s not working or hanging out with Steven. To wait until after he’s reconciled with Pearl to mention any sort of social action underscores how much he was letting the past get in the way of his friendships before this point. Considering this same episode is about Pearl doing the same for her social life highlights that further.

No one ever calls out these actions, or lackthereof, within the show. Things that aren’t happening lay in wait, to emphasize important moments in a character’s development.

All this is to say…

boy howdy they must be saving up Pearl shapeshifting for an absolute doozy.

ehentalix

Oh Fucking Boy They Sure Were

sandflakedraws

very late upload but this is the full piece i did for the su truekindalovezine

kagakagabisu

weedle-testaburger

You know, since it's Pride Month (and also I miss them), I feel like reminding everyone how fucking important Ruby and Sapphire were.

The way they were both unambiguously conceived as queer characters and let the writers make an established character queer retroactively. The fact that as soon as they share the screen, they immediately show how in love they are, without any ambiguity to please the censors, and they do that almost every episode they're in.

How their relationship isn't always 100% perfect, and they do conflict and fall out, but make up in the end because they genuinely love each other. How they were allowed to be iconic parts of the show, not just through being the focus of two of its most famous songs (Stronger Than You and Here Comes A Thought) but also through the book version of The Answer.

The fact they got the first gay kiss...

...and the first gay wedding in the history of kid's TV.

The way their reception showed networks that yes, people do enjoy media with queer characters, and so they contributed to many other series with prominent LGBTQ characters getting greenlit.

I honestly don't think it's exaggerating to say they're among the most important queer characters in the history of fiction for all that. And people need to say it more, and demand stuff like them more.

kiwiacidtrip

Senshi Rose Quartz para el que lo quiera

jaxsterrapp

BLUEEEEEE

rosequart

Rose and I talked about tons of important stuff. Music, comic books, getting sand between your toes, y'know, feelings. We both made a lot of mistakes when we were young—I thought disco was coming back, she started a war. I think she felt like she needed to confess everything to me, but I told her, “The past is the past. All that matters to me is who you are now.”