There’s so many people out there trying to give Greg’s parents the benefit of the doubt, saying they meant the best for him, or that Greg just didn’t do a good enough job explaining to them he was unhappy. That Greg and Steven just need to talk to them, to reach out to them, and hope is a great thing.
But I knew the second I saw this shot that they didn’t love him. They didn’t answer his letters. Never. Didn’t even read them. Don’t try and tell me Greg didn’t try. Don’t tell me he didn’t reach out.
Greg didn’t just say they just discouraged music or pushed him to do sports, this isn’t a Barbara kind of miscommunication. He clearly said they forced him to do sports and music was off limits. He tried. From the looks of it, he tried many years after he left too.
Don’t try and tell me that parents that saw their kid constantly frowning or looking like they were gonna cry in their photos and did nothing about it loved their kid.
The only picture we see Greg look happy in was his school photo. Not the one they liked enough to frame. It is possible there are happy pictures around here with him and his parents we just didn’t see, but I wouldn’t place any bets on it.
The only mistake Greg made in Mr. Universe was not being more tactful with how he explained all of this to Steven.
Greg never specified the lack of love, and therefore Steven just didn’t get it. He saw all these pictures and trophies and baby items and thought, that’s love, right? He doesn’t understand or know about the parents who obsess over nick knacks, doesn’t get that these weren’t treasured memories to them, they were collectibles. Anybody who’d still keep the letters, but not open them, was clearly after the status of being parents, not the actual time with their kid. They kept in view things from a time he was obedient. But all Steven sees is the image of a pretty, normal family house, the image Greg’s parents were more obsessed with maintaining than communications with their actual kid.
They wanted him in their life at first, sure, but only back when they still thought there was hope that he’s end up just like them. Back when he would still go to the island, back when he couldn’t fight his hair getting cut, back when they thought he could be the cookie cutter clone of them that looked neat in family photos and would prevent them from having to explain to people what he did for a living or why he wasn’t going on vacation for them, yet again, using him as a part of their image, not their son.
Greg wouldn’t have called all of that junk, when he’s been shown to love collecting and having random junk, failed to emotionally connect or get nostalgic about a single item there, if there had been any love or bonding attached to any of them.
Greg is a loving, loving, forgiving man. If there had been any good memories in that house,
he wouldn’t have constantly looked miserable in it except when he was talking about when he escaped it.
Greg, unknowingly, and only trying to help, bless his heart, made a huge mistake with a single sentence.
“Trust me, your better off than I was!” OUch.
He pushed Steven away the second he made a comparison between their lives. You just can’t play the comparison game with people who were traumatized.
Was he right that Steven got to grow up with love Greg didn’t? Well, yes, but Steven doesn’t realize that. All he hears is the man who grew up in a nice, warm, not corrupted gem attacked house, with a nice, normal, not training just in case someone was on their way to murder you education, in a calm, relaxed, not born a war criminal childhood. And complaining about it!
Of course he got mad!! Even if Greg had specified he wasn’t loved, how could he dare use the word better to describe Steven’s life? Greg meant nothing bad by it, but as far as Steven was concerned, Greg was telling him he had a wonderful childhood, a wonderful future ahead of him, “just like mom” did.
Greg couldn’t have just brought up a half alien baby wanted dead in a normal community, training with the gems, unstable parents or not, was necessary for his survival. But in the heat of the moment, Steven doesn’t think of that, the way he talks in this scene, he really thinks he could’ve had that, that a normal childhood could’ve “fixed” him, and that his dad’s choice was the only thing that stopped him from having that.
And between that and the crash, that was the trigger needed for Steven to push his dad away. The guilt for yet another person he thinks he’s a danger to, and the huge feelings of jealousy he was too ashamed yet still too angry to voice over his dad getting to grow up human. Steven saw his yearbook pictures and nearly got choked up saying the words “more human” pausing with a frown he quickly gets rid of, yearning to be the human in Greg’s pictures.
So many out here are trying to take sides, either saying Greg was wrong and Steven was right, or Greg was right and Steven was wrong, but in the end both are true. Both had the right to be unhappy with what they were given, and both should have done a better job trying to understand and listen to the others plight.
While Greg should have worded things much, much more tactfully, and definitely, even if accidentally, hurt his kid with his words, he meant no more harm than any of the other people who’ve tried to cheer him up, and was right about all he said.
Yet you can’t get mad at Steven either, because as far as he’s concerned, all he learned today is that his dad had it so much easier, less terrifying, and found an identity in a way that Steven couldn’t relate to, couldn’t use.
That his dad can’t help him anymore.
Edit: I’m not saying redemption is impossible for his parents,(Steven Universe is all about second chances), I’m saying that I can’t see it happening. If you wanna be technical about it, anyone can be redeemed. But that’s the point isn’t it? Anyone can change, but they have to want to. The only person I could see being less likely to want to change is Marty.
While possibilities are endless, the people who can not love their own child while raising them don’t tend to be the kinds of people to have a turnaround. Not saying it hasn’t happened before, just that it’s so very, very rare.
These two made it very clear they didn’t want to, that they don’t want to. It would be different If the letters were opened. For a redemption/family reunion to work with these two, they’d have to make the first step. Perhaps they’d get wind of Steven’s existence, and in a change of heart that came in old age, they’d get motivated to try getting back in touch even though they thought at this point it was too late. Perhaps we’d get a shot of opened letters falling down not neat and tidy on the dresser.
For it to work for me, Greg would have to receive a letter.
But i’m not holding my breath.
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