Steven, Universally

Hi all, I'm Jay. I'm a children's librarian who thinks Steven Universe is the most important cartoon of the 2010s, and from 2016 through 2021 I wrote episode-by-episode reviews for the entire dang series that analyze why. As they were written with hindsight and take the full story into account (including the movie and Steven Universe Future), all reviews are placed within context of future events, so I'd only suggest reading if you've completed the series unless you love constant casual spoilers! Click the Archive to find specific episodes or Just the Reviews to scroll to your heart's content, and check out Going Over the Garden Wall for my miniblog on the classic miniseries.

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Lars of the Stars Coverage

"There are still adventures waiting for us out there."

Oh, hey everyone! Been a minute!

First off, thanks so much to everyone who's visited Steven, Universally since it wrapped up, it's just nuts to see notifications keep popping up from fresh eyes on these reviews. Second, given folks have been DMing me about the big news, I figured I'll make my first post since 2021 to address my plan for Lars of the Stars.

The premise of Steven, Universally is analyzing episodes in the context of the entire series, rather than the typical television review structure of analyzing episodes as they come out. While I began the project well before Steven Universe ended, I always had a hefty gap between when episodes aired and when I wrote about them, which allowed me to take future events into account. I went back and edited reviews here and there as new information came to light, but surprisingly few major changes had to be made when, say, A Single Pale Rose debuted.

Plenty of folks will be writing about Lars of the Stars as it airs, and I'm excited to see what they think (but I mean not super excited because a common opinion is that the Diamonds are somehow redeemed and/or forgiven, so who knows what wack takes we'll see?), but I'll be holding off until at least its first season is finished. Or the whole series, depending on whether this is gonna be a miniseries. At the time of writing this, we know very little!

So yes, Steven, Universally will return! But between wanting to wait for a fuller picture and the fact that I've become a husband and father since y'all last heard from me (so slightly less free time than I had in my 20s), it'll be another minute before it does! Until then, enjoy getting hyped up and remember to be kind to yourselves and each other, even if the "other" is someone who, and I can't emphasize enough how incorrect this is, thinks that Steven and the Diamonds are buddies.

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Future, Episode 20: The Future

Time is an illusion that helps things make sense

So we’re always living in the present tense

It seems unforgiving when a good thing ends

But you and I will always be back then.

“It's not serious, but could be trouble if left unchecked.”

Future Vision is an episode about Steven preparing to grow up, then becoming terrified of the overwhelming potential for bad things to happen, then learning to embrace what might come around the corner. So I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Lamar Abrams, who boarded both that episode and this one, begins The Future with Steven performing Garnet’s workout routine by himself.

There are an awful lot of callbacks to the past for an episode about the future called The Future in an epilogue called Steven Universe Future that takes place months in the future after our last episode, in a time period that’s already years in the future after the original series. But that’s par for the course for a series finale, and while these references have the same victory lap feel as the movie’s first act, this is no longer a story about a hero bent on maintaining the present fighting a villain trapped in the past. This is a celebration of the past not just because it was great and we’ll miss it, but because of how it informs the unseen future of these characters.

Steven doesn’t leave us as a fully developed character, because the whole point of his journey from the movie onward is that you don’t stop developing at the end of a character arc. Instead, with the gauntlet of Steven Universe Future behind him, the part of his adventure that we get to see concludes with three major victories that reveal how much he’s grown since we first checked up on him in Gem Glow: one for himself, one for his legacy, and one for his family.

The time jump between the original series and the movie made the movie pop and reinforced the sea change of Change Your Mind. We could’ve had a season or two of episodes that connected these two points in time (network allowing), but the details of those years frankly don’t matter as much as knowing that Steven was putting in a whole lot of work for Homeworld and the Gems. It would’ve been even easier to have an episode of Future about Steven going into therapy, and this crew would’ve made it spectacular, but the fact that we don’t is Steven’s first victory: after years of us watching his highs and lows, he’s finally afforded some privacy when it comes to his personal life. And he’s about to get a lot more of it when the episode ends.

With this victory comes a sense of genuine, soul-nurturing peace that we haven’t seen since his last moments in the original series, as he sang Change Your Mind on the beach. As he chats with Connie about plans that he’s already made, thought over, and accepted, we’re back to soft music and gentle banter without any caveats. At no point in the episode does the conflict veer towards him worrying about whether his decision to leave is the right one, because at long last he’s confident in his ability to handle a mysterious future. Even better, he’s confident in his ability to handle a journey by himself, checking in on others but not living exclusively for them anymore.

But just because that isn’t the episode’s conflict doesn’t mean that there’s no conflict to be found, and this first conversation reveals what Steven’s final challenge of the series is: communicating clearly with the Big Three Crystal Gems.

He’s got a decent plan of action: to explain how far he’s come with their help, to ease the news with a cute treat, then to tell them outright that he’s leaving. It might be fun as an audience member to see him make such a concrete reference to Gem Glow, but it makes perfect sense in-universe that Steven would consider his first shield summon as important as the show did as a dividing point of his life. And as he presents the snacks, we see how much the Big Three have grown as well: Garnet accepts hers with warmth and gratitude rather than aloofness, Amethyst waits for Steven to finish talking instead of swallowing hers immediately, and Pearl makes the effort to take a bite, regardless of how small it is.

Cookie Cat was the first song we heard besides the opening theme, so it’s fitting on such a musical series to use it again to close the circle. Pearl and Amethyst get to go full ham for it (with Deedee Magno Hall in particular combining her early music career with overwhelming mom vibes), and it honestly starts to feel a bit too self-congratulatory until Garnet brings the mood right back down, forever transforming the jingle’s ridiculous punchline. This is intentional in-universe, as Steven is using the song to demonstrate his own need to leave, but far more touching is the way it quietly reveals Steven’s second victory.

Steven has spent the entire series trying to live up to his mother’s legacy, then trying to run from it, then trying to own it, then unintentionally embodying the worst of it. But Cookie Cat, a song about an alien war refugee, is a far more accurate analogy of his mother’s adventure than his own, and by embracing its meaning for himself, he’s finally lived up to the best of Rose Quartz’s legacy: like her, he’s realized that he needs to make a personal change and takes the brave step of doing it. The Big Three aren’t nearly as bad for him as the Diamonds were for Pink, or the DeMayos were for Greg for that matter, but like his parents before him he knows that the only way to become his own person is to strike out on his own. He’s taking the best of what his parents did, but learning from their mistakes at the same time: he isn’t running away, he’s moving forward.

When I said Steven’s final conflict is communicating with the Big Three, I don’t just mean that he isn’t able to get through to them. Communication is a two-way street, and the Big Three's almost callously casual reaction to his news is made all the stranger when we say goodbye to the B-Team.

I love that we say aloud what binds these three together: they’re all Gems the Steven saved, Gems that he befriended because he saw good in them that they didn’t. The Big Three see Steven as their kid or kid brother, but the B-Team see him as both a friend and a mentor, to the point where they genuinely don’t know what they’re going to do without him.

The Kübler-Ross model positing five stages of grief (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance) is extremely popular in writer’s rooms, and it’s also bullshit. It suggests that grief works the same among all people across all cultures spanning all of human history, and all without an ounce of empirical evidence backing it up. So I love that we essentially get a parody of it in The Future, cemented by the B-Team’s scene: after the Big Three covered denial, we get Lapis’s anger, Bismuth’s bargaining, and Peridot’s depression all at once rather than in stages, pummeling Steven with their different forms of grief despite his own sense of acceptance.

It’s the sort of cathartic scene that we’d expect from the Big Three, goofy and sad and beautiful in its execution. Bismuth shows Steven how much he’s wanted, offering to build him a new house and do whatever else she can to help. Lapis gives the best advice, warning Steven through her own experience that he can’t run away from his problems, but this thankfully isn’t what he’s doing. And Peridot, sweet Peridot, has transformed from a cold-hearted worker bee to an overflowing fountain of emotion. And the gifts he gives them are perfect enough that even Lapis, whom Blue Diamond herself couldn’t make cry, weeps at his thoughtfulness.

Jasper’s farewell is the briefest of the Gems’, but crystallizes Steven’s growth in the epilogue. She’s the part of him that balks at the idea of change, but whatever power she once had over him (as an enemy he thought he could help, then as a false idol whose lifestyle he sought to emulate) is gone. And sure enough, as he finally escapes the war he insisted on fighting for so long, we meet her at Little Homeworld instead of out in the wilderness. It isn’t great that she still sees him as a Diamond and herself as an eternal soldier, but it’s amazing that she accepts his choice so readily. And in her final joke, she gets a nice summation of the problem she now has hope of overcoming as part of a society: she prefers breaking things down than doing things the easy way, even if it means bashing a second hole in the wall.

Noting that even Jasper took the news harder than the Big Three, Steven tries saying goodbye again with gifts. This time, each Crystal Gem ignores his clear emotional need in a way that belies their affection: Amethyst is sisterly and competitive, Pearl is maternal and offers to help pack, and Garnet gives distant advice but is now also the kind of person who says things like “Well bust my britches, it’s Steven Universe!” There’s a risk of the same pacing problem as Guidance or Bluebird here, where we understand where the joke is going well before it’s complete, but the three repetitive scenes are quick and quippy, and Steven’s increasingly dramatic reactions at the end have the same goofy/sad feel as his goodbyes to the B-Team.

As far as one-on-ones are concerned, we save Greg for last. He, like Connie, isn’t someone who’s just now hearing the big news, and I love what this says about how he and Steven have worked on their relationship. It’s already clear from Steven’s plan that he’s taken after his dad, traveling on his own not with warping but wheels, but we couldn’t possibly end the series without one last talk between these two, and I couldn’t have asked for a better sendoff.

Greg has always been content in his van, to the point where he didn’t even move to a house when he could afford it, and he was happy touring as a manager. But Steven’s gift to his father is a stable home, and a passing of the torch as he takes Greg’s mantle as a young man living on the road. And Greg, who despite Mr. Universe has always been Steven’s most emotionally secure parent, understands right away what this also means for the Crystal Gems.

The trauma of growing up in this house was that while the Crystal Gems were parent figures, Steven also had to be a parent figure of sorts from a young age, helping his elders deal with their own emotional baggage. They may be better now because of it, but part of Steven’s healing process is acknowledging that maybe what the Gems have always needed wasn’t a kid, but a parent. So they swap one Universe for another, and Greg at last finds a home that lets him be himself.

As Steven says his final goodbyes, he starts with Connie and Greg, two humans that model the kind of attitude he needs if he wants to be healthier, before a muted goodbye to the rest of his family. The Big Three are cordial, but far away even when embraced, and as they recede from his rearview mirror, Steven achieves his third and final victory.

The Steven who’s willing to suffer and suffer and suffer if it makes other people happy is gone, and so is the Steven who only wants to focus on the good and let the bad fester within him. A less mature version would have kept up this war of wills and driven away, no matter how awful it made him feel, but now he taps into his inner Connie and demands that his elders be kind.

And go figure, the same core issue that led to pretty much every problem the Crystal Gems have had was the issue here; they may be further along than the Diamonds, but they’ll always have more work to do. An inability to communicate frankly was the original sin that Rose Quartz instilled in her second family, and none of The Future’s conflict would have happened had Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl been more open about how much they’re going to miss Steven. 

Garnet’s peek into a future where they may have prevented Steven from leaving sounds valid on its face, but even that could’ve been avoided had she just said so at the start. I don’t say this to rag on these characters, because I think it’s perfect that nearly two hundred episodes into our adventures they’re still on the road. Children need to know that adulthood doesn’t come with all the answers, and even a character who can literally see the future can fear it from time to time. But they also need to know that it’s not their job to provide answers to aimless adults, no matter how kind and good and loving those adults are, and that eventually the time will come to live their own lives.

This where the goofy/sad poignancy that fills this finale finally culminates. Michaela Dietz, Deedee Magno Hall, Estelle, and Zach Callison don’t say a single thing we don’t already know after so many years together, but they don’t have to, because what matters is that these characters are saying it to each other. They want to be absolutely positive that they part ways without regrets and without leaving a shred of doubt about how much they love Steven. And like clockwork, each of the Big Three gets one last moment in the spotlight. Amethyst, ever impulsive, is the first one to break. Garnet, the once silent leader, tells Steven the most. And Pearl, the first and oldest Crystal Gem, earns the final line of the series.

But the last people Steven sees aren’t his family. They’re the people of Beach City, a town that’s now half-human and half-Gem just like him. It’s Mr. Smiley and Mr. Frowney together again, and Onion waving goodbye in the cheeseburger backpack, and Gems cheering and texting and walking and living. The original series explored a child of two worlds, balancing between cosmic adventures and boardwalks, and after two years spent helping Homeworld sort out its own mess, it’s time to get back to that balance.

Aivi and Surasshu, who already did wonders scoring the goodbyes for the B-Team and for Greg, outdo themselves by imbuing their final track with the same theme as Steven’s first shield summon before it cedes to Emily King’s closing number. We were introduced to Steven as he came into his powers, and we leave him as he recommits to his humanity. He's gotten exactly what he wanted as a kid, and saw his full potential reached as far as his Gem half is concerned. It’s time for him to get what he needs.

I Can’t Believe We’ve Come So Far

How do you even begin with Lamar Abrams? This is the boarder who gave us the Onion Trilogy (Onion Trade, Onion Friend, and Onion Gang) and the Bismuth Trilogy (Bismuth, Made of Honor, and Bismuth Casual) despite the two characters having exactly zero things in common. This is the boarder who helped make Winter Forecast and When It Rains, two episodes with two of the best scenes in the series that both happen to involve precipitation. This is the voice of Buck Dewey.

With forty-six episodes and a movie, Abrams is tied only with Paul Villeco as Steven Universe’s most prolific credited storyboarder. But what’s more impressive to me than sheer numbers is what an outstanding team player he was, because on top of being the only person to board two episodes solo (Onion Trade and Beach Party), he gave us Steven’s Lion with Aleth Romanillos and Luke Weber, Lars and the Cool Kids with Matt Braly, Monster Buddies with Hellen Jo, The Answer with Katie Mitroff, Lars of the Stars with Jesse Zuke, Off Colors with Jeff Liu, Letters to Lars with Colin Howard, Now We’re Only Falling Apart with Christine Liu, Rose Buds with Adam Muto, and Fragments with Miki Brewster. That’s a hell of a thing to do when you’re making a show about the power of working together.

Every storyboarder who made this masterpiece what it is deserves thanks. Every staffer who helped along the way, in ways big and small, deserves thanks. But I’m pumped that Lamar Abrams worked on the finale, because he certainly deserves my final sendoff. More than any other boarder, he’s a testament to the power of collaboration. 

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

And there we have it, my complete personal ranking. As promised, I upped the top list to an even forty, music chart style, and The Future makes that cut by closing a chapter, but not a book.

Thank you for reading.

The Pinnacle

Steven Universe: The Movie (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Top Forty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Jungle Moon

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Mr. Universe

A Single Pale Rose

Fragments

Change Your Mind (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Reunited

Earthlings

In Dreams

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Prickly Pair

Lars of the Stars

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Escapism

Little Graduation

Back to the Kindergarten

Steven’s Dream

Kevin Party

The Future

When It Rains

The Good Lars

Lars’s Head

Catch and Release  

Chille Tid 

I Am My Mom

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Storm in the Room

Room for Ruby

Lion 4: Alternate Ending

Doug Out

Are You My Dad?

Stuck Together

The Trial

Off Colors

Gemcation

Raising the Barn

Sadie Killer

Your Mother and Mine

The Big Show

Pool Hopping

Letters to Lars

Can’t Go Back

Now We’re Only Falling Apart

What’s Your Problem?

The Question

Legs From Here to Homeworld

Familiar

Little Homeschool

Rose Buds

Volleyball

Snow Day

Why So Blue?

Bismuth Casual

Growing Pains

Homeworld Bound

I Am My Monster

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Rocknaldo

Dewey Wins

Together Alone

A Very Special Episode

Everything’s Fine

Y’all, It’s Complicated

Made of Honor

Together Forever

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

Tiger Philanthropist

Guidance

Bluebird

No Thanks!

     6. Horror Club      5. Fusion Cuisine      4. House Guest      3. Onion Gang      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

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Future, Episode 19: I Am My Monster

“The only person who’s never had Steven is Steven.”

Steven Universe began with a sweet, simple theme song focusing on our young hero’s innocence, and gained a more confident update after he got some experience under his belt. Steven Universe Future mixes things up by adapting Happily Ever After from the movie into a theme song, and while this new opening mostly revels in the same joy as its predecessors, it replaces the line “nothing to fear, no one to fight” with an uncomfortable lyrical gap as we see what Steven has to fear and fight.

Most of these obstacles were familiar from the start: Jasper is a given, Bluebird heavily resembles Aquamarine, we’ve got a new plant version of Steven up front, two lapis lazulis up high, and a screaming pink version of White Diamond between them. Mysterious, sure, but easy enough to figure out by look alone. The only new face is the final boss, lurking behind and above everyone else, casting an ominous glare in the same way Yellow Diamond once did when she was the scariest threat Steven could think of.

It’s a given that Steven Universe is the protagonist of the series, movie, and epilogue that bear his name. But it turns out he’s only the hero of the first two.

Before the episode-length action scene that consumes I Am My Monster, we get four efficient establishing shots that sum up how we got here. Yellowtail and Sour Cream’s bond has grown, and while Steven had a hand in this process, it was mostly something they figured out themselves. Vidalia (the first human Greg met in Beach City) and Onion (Steven’s strange counterpart down to having the same voice actor) are in her garage, right where she painted the portrait that triggered Steven to repress his emotions and imagine his younger self as an angelic ideal. Peridot and Bismuth, whose lives were concretely improved by Steven, are now cleaning up after the mess he left behind in Little Homeschool. And Bill and Buck Dewey, who round out the parent-child dynamic we saw from the other humans, are joined by an unnamed Gem that now casually walks among humanity thanks to Steven achieving galactic peace.

There’s a lesson in all four of these shots. Steven can be helpful, but doesn’t need to be helpful for his friends to find happiness. He could be seen as a cherubic savior, but has always had plenty of chaos to overcome. He freed Gems from captivity and befriended them even when they hurt him, but letting down his guard for enemy after enemy has taken a toll on his ability to be calm and secure. He opened the door for humans and Gems to live together, but it’s up to them to want to do it. This is a kid that has inarguably made the universe a better place, but he still needs to accept that the universe is much bigger than himself if he wants to stop being crushed by its burdens.

From there, we follow the Crystal Gems’ B-Team as they leap to action, brilliantly introducing Monster Steven from an outsider’s point of view while setting the stage for everyone to be there for him now that his sense of self has been shattered. His terrifying scale is reinforced by the brutal, lumbering music that scores the initial outburst: this isn’t even a monster so much as a force of nature, massive and gradual but impossible to stop. Outside of his color, which is a product of Pink Diamond more than anything, this beast looks absolutely nothing like Steven; even Corrupted Gems have hints, however vague, of their former selves, but the only recognizable part of our lead is the fact that he’s clearly in pain.

The music picks up as Garnet takes point, laying out the stakes (Steven will continue to be a monster so long as he feels like one) and ordering the Crystal Gems into position. Despite the relative peace of Future as far as the Crystal Gems getting into physical fights are concerned, and despite Garnet dropping the ball over and over as Steven looks to her for help, she doesn’t miss a beat as she slips back into a command role: Connie’s assigned to civilian patrol, the B-Team need to lure him into the water, and Alexandrite will pack the muscle.

Or at least she would pack the muscle, if not for the true powerhouse of the Crystal Gems being in her element. Alexandrite quickly succumbs to Monster Steven’s raw might, and Peridot and Bismuth combined can only distract him, but Lapis Lazuli’s control of the ocean is the only thing the Gems can do to actually hold him back. Her own ridiculous power is certainly a factor here, but it’s our first hint that empathy, not combat, is the key: Lapis not only understands suffering better than most, but is the only Gem on the beach who’s felt trapped in a monstrous giant before. But of course it’s Amethyst that tells us outright what the problem is: the person who’s always solved this sort of problem for them is the one who’s having the problem now. And between Lapis with the subtext, Amethyst with the text, and Steven as the subject, I Am My Monster quietly reminds us one last time that this is a story about the Jasper in him, terrified of the future and more comfortable lashing out than dealing with that fear in a healthy way.

Both the movie and this finale see the Diamonds appearing in what would be a deus ex machina if they were remotely good at solving problems. The first time around they provided a quick fix for our Spinel problem, but as we’ve seen, it hasn’t exactly panned out yet in terms of helping her through her core issues. And now, as they return with Steven’s sandal, they provide one last bit of fairy tale structure to lend a magical tone to how awful they are at this.

Time is of the essence, so we get a speedy three-part story as Yellow’s lightning can’t fix his body, Blue’s joy cloud is redirected (leading to the only real joke of the episode as Patti LuPone guffaws through the crisis), and White’s reverse domination power infuriates Monster Steven enough to break loose of Lapis’s grip (way to go!). Christine Ebersole is outstanding here, oozing the same patronizing energy that made her a villain in the first place before the shock of Monster Steven’s rage sends her panicking. White is once again the exact opposite of what he needs, now compounding her terrible therapy with the counterproductive declaration that Steven no longer exists in Monster Steven. In case Homeworld Bound wasn’t clear, this isn’t something that the Diamonds are gonna fix.

With a single roar, the ocean parts and the clouds shift and his entire family is knocked back. It’s crucial to keep showing us how destructive Monster Steven is without causing the kind of harm that would warrant a more violent response; we’ve seen quite enough suffering to get the point across, and dragging out the fight instead of focusing on the solution would just be cruel. The Cluster emerges to protect the world from him, and his family gets some necessary room to breathe and regroup.

Pearl gets the blame train rolling, because of course she does: she’s the Crystal Gem with the most experience bearing guilt for not helping others enough. Amethyst follows, because she knew best that Steven was suffering and feels awful for not trying harder to help. Sapphire frets about the worst possible timeline, and Ruby focuses on the immediate issue of comforting her wife, with neither capable of seeing anything in between. The B-Teams stay mum, because we’re about to get another scene of every Gem talking and it’s important not to overdo it, so for now Greg gets to say his piece as a father before we transition to the Diamonds. Blue’s strange bond with Greg makes her the natural lead in this second stage, followed by Yellow as a more sober Diamond to keep the tone even, before Spinel and White pull back the curtain on what the scene has been doing all along.

The Big Three Crystal Gems (well, four with Garnet split) have accidentally harmed Steven by enlisting him as their teammate despite his youth. Greg accidentally harmed Steven by allowing them to do so instead of providing a more stable childhood for his son. And the Diamonds intentionally harmed Steven, so are feeling even more guilt for their actions. But Spinel’s blubbering and White Diamond’s melodramatic moaning, while exaggerated, reveal how selfish all of these complaints are. There’s a time and a place to be introspective, and it’s a critical part of the healing process in the long term, but we’re in the middle of a crisis and there’s no time for self-pity when Steven is in danger.

Again, Steven isn’t the hero of this story, but I’m hardly calling him the villain, even in this monstrous form. Steven Universe Future is about Steven needing to be saved, and not in the kind of way that alien powers can simplify. He needs somebody that understands him at his core, who gets why he’s suffering and how to help him. He needs somebody willing to call out everyone who let him down without making it about them, and willing to admit her own shortcomings without making it about her. He needs a herald of change, someone who stood by his side all along as his powers and worldview grew, someone who embraces the possibilities that the future has to offer instead of fearing what might go wrong. He doesn’t need his enemies to respect him and love him and know him, but he needs somebody to.

And that’s what makes Connie the hero.

The Crystal Gems use a five pointed star in contrast with the four-pointed Diamonds in the sky, but Connie bookends her first outing as a member of the team by bringing Earth’s own star to the table. The sun returns as she saves the day in the same way she did when Lapis and Peridot were acting up in The New Crystal Gems, or when Blue and Yellow Diamond were oppressing Steven in Change Your Mind: by fearlessly scolding her elders for not doing the right thing and demanding they shape up. She’s a Maheswaran just like Steven is a Universe, as much a product of her parents as her best friend is, and in an emergency she has neither the time nor the desire to mince words when wrongs can be righted. She’s Steven’s knight until the end, even if she has to protect him from his family and himself.

So yes, Garnet might take lead again by coordinating the final push to reach Steven. And everybody gets a turn this time to tell him what he’s meant to them, allowing our magnificent cast an emotional showcase that culminates years’ worth of love sent their way by our suffering monster. But it’s Connie who gets the last word, and a human kiss instead of a magical one that cures him.

Zach Callison finally gets his voice back as he lets out Steven’s grief, and I can’t even imagine what this recording session was like. The pain is palpable even before the tears come back, and when they do it’s a explosive expression of sorrow, the kind of desperate sobbing reserved for the death of a loved one. He might be back, but he’s a mess as everything crashes in, and while Connie may have been the one to save him, I love love love that it’s Lion who comforts him here. Sometimes you just need to hold your pet and weep.

I Am My Monster comes and goes like a kick to the stomach. Despite the long buildup of Steven’s breakdown throughout Steven Universe Future, storyboarders Etienne Guignard and Miki Brewster pace this final “fight” with the harrowing pace of a sudden panic attack, and it leaves me just as breathless when it’s through. As hard as it is to watch, it’s exactly as tense as a situation this dire needs to be, and allows our final episode to explore what happens when the worst of it is finally over.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

A tough one to watch, but I appreciate how understated it feels compared to the bombast of Reunited or Change Your Mind; there’s nothing happy about I Am My Monster, and even in victory it’s clear that there’s a long way to go, but it wouldn’t do Steven justice to have it any other way.

The Pinnacle

Steven Universe: The Movie (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Top Thirty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Jungle Moon

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Mr. Universe

A Single Pale Rose

Fragments

Change Your Mind (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Reunited

Earthlings

In Dreams

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Prickly Pair

Lars of the Stars

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Escapism

Little Graduation

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

When It Rains

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

Steven’s Dream

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Storm in the Room

Room for Ruby

Lion 4: Alternate Ending

Doug Out

The Good Lars

Are You My Dad?

I Am My Mom

Stuck Together

The Trial

Off Colors

Lars’s Head

Gemcation

Raising the Barn

Back to the Kindergarten

Sadie Killer

Kevin Party

Your Mother and Mine

The Big Show

Pool Hopping

Letters to Lars

Can’t Go Back

Now We’re Only Falling Apart

What’s Your Problem?

The Question

Legs From Here to Homeworld

Familiar

Little Homeschool

Rose Buds

Volleyball

Snow Day

Why So Blue?

Bismuth Casual

Growing Pains

Homeworld Bound

I Am My Monster

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Rocknaldo

Dewey Wins

Together Alone

A Very Special Episode

Everything’s Fine

Y’all, It’s Complicated

Made of Honor

Together Forever

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

Tiger Philanthropist

Guidance

Bluebird

No Thanks!

     6. Horror Club      5. Fusion Cuisine      4. House Guest      3. Onion Gang      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Future, Episode 18: Everything’s Fine

“You good, bud? You talkin’ to yourself?”

After leaving a regimented life of helping others at the end of Little Graduation, Steven has tried moving forward with gardening, fanfic, a night out, permafusion, going to the hospital, bonding with his dad, training with Jasper, and consulting the Diamonds, but all it’s done is make him feel worse. So with no other ideas for how others could help him cope with his trauma, he doubles down on the most dangerous tool in his arsenal: denial.

Denial is what got him here in the first place, and I’m not just talking about Future. Steven has been hiding his pain by default since at least Full Disclosure, meaning he’s known deep down that this isn’t a great method since he was thirteen. We get a concrete reference to that starting point as Connie calls, setting off the same ringtone that he turned into a song about not telling her what’s wrong. But old habits die hard, especially when destructive secrecy is in your blood; sure enough, he never resembles Pink Diamond more than when his lies finally overwhelm him.

Homeworld Bound used a traditional three-part fairy tale structure as Steven asked his elders for help, and Everything’s Fine echoes this structure as he embodies the youngest Diamond. This time it’s Connie who bookends the three scenes of Steven trying and failing to find a healthy solution, and while she’s a much better advisor than Spinel, it’s too late by the time yet another terrible day is done. His first lies of the episode are to her, and are painfully obvious ones: she doesn’t need to see him to know that he isn’t okay, and he flubs basic concepts like the Gems needing sleep as he scrambles to invent a version of reality where he is okay. 

Catching viewers up is important even in an episode this late, although I pity any kid whose first look at Steven Universe is this one. But beyond exposition purposes, the montage of everything Steven has done wrong lately is critical to the plot itself: we not only see an evolution of his power to project his thoughts into screens, but it forces him to face the facts after he hides them from Connie, and provides a mirror to see his Diamond eyes when he turns off the television. But he’s still in full escape mode, so he turns from the real events in his life to a stylized painting of himself as both a child and an angel.

This wasn’t even an accurate portrayal of Steven when it was painted, so it certainly isn’t one now. But he’s cultivated this purely heroic identity for so long that he already feels like a liar for not living up to it, meaning it isn’t a gigantic leap to expand that lie now. Pool Hopping, the episode where Vidalia paints this, centers around Garnet losing her mind a little while she grapples with Steven’s nebulous future as he grows up, and it’s his turn to do the same.

While he’s now lying to himself in the same way he’s lying to everyone else, Steven isn’t fully dissociating here. He‘s denying that he argued with Greg and shattered Jasper and tried to shatter White Diamond not because he believes it, but because he can’t imagine living with himself if it actually happened. After years of subtext, he’s now overtly meddling with others to distract from his own issues, which he wouldn’t have to do if he bought his own lie; throughout the episode, you can always sense that in the back of his mind he knows it’s a ruse.

Steven Universe Future has been tense for a while now, but at least the episodes leading up to Everything’s Fine began with Steven looking for real solutions, no matter how wrongheaded they might’ve appeared from our point of view. As such, there was always at least a glimmer of hope that things might’ve worked out by the end of those episodes. Gardening, playing with his dreams, and roller skating could’ve easily been good for him. Dr. Maheswaran’s diagnosis could’ve been followed by treatment. Greg’s road trip could’ve been relaxing. Jasper could’ve been changed like so many other villains have. Heck, as crazy unlikely as it would’ve been, Connie could have said yes to Steven’s proposal and the Diamonds could have had good advice. But now that he’s approaching his problems from a foundation he knows is false, there’s nothing but dread accompanying the anguish of his slow-burning mental breakdown.

Less attention is called to the repeating tropes across Steven’s three adventures than it was in the Diamonds’ rooms from our last episode. Connie, unlike Spinel, isn’t here to guide Steven along between her opening and closing arguments. But nonetheless, three key similarities bind the scenes together to both ratchet up the tension and maintain a fable-like mood.

First, all three scenes reference moments from the original series that highlight a positive trait he inherited from his mom, then show the downside of that trait by referencing the epilogue. We start with his plant powers: Steven’s attempt to help Peridot and Lapis farm crops brought Pumpkin to life, but Peridot now cites a “No Plant Friends” policy instated after Prickly Pair. Then we have his love of love: he brought Bismuth back for Garnet’s wedding as a surprise, but hearing her call him a “wedding expert” evokes his embarrassment in Together Forever. Finally, we have his leadership skills: Hit the Diamond relished in how good he once was at bringing disparate Gems together, but the modern team’s most prominent players (Amethyst, Larimar, Nephrite, and human representative Onion) were last seen together when Steven micromanaged a disaster in Guidance.

Second, all three scenes give one last look at how the Big Three Crystal Gems failed Steven. Garnet caps his first scene by straight-up being a therapist for a pair of frequently seen background humans; the Big Three know that therapy is helpful and healthy, but for whatever reason they don’t see that Steven needs this treatment. Pearl lingers in the background of the second scene, wordless by choice as she allows Steven to mess up without interference; through their silence, the Big Three have largely left Steven to figure things out on his own. And Amethyst, who’s increasingly present in all three scenes (mentioned in the first, then segueing us to the second, then dominating the third), is the only one explicitly looking out for Steven’s interests, only to be ignored; even when the Big Three do try to help, the fourth Crystal Gem doesn’t let them.

Third, all three scenes focus on Steven’s inability to restrain himself. This one’s the most obvious: a dab of spit makes an forest of plant golems, a humble hammer splits an anvil in half, and while he catches a baseball and lands with grace, a single cheer craters his surroundings. Steven was once an adept problem solver, but his inability to mind his own problems means they’re now blown out of proportion. Pink Mode is all about reacting to situations as defensively as possible, so he can’t fix little things anymore without blowing up.

Again, Steven’s subconscious self-awareness is key here, culminating in him admitting to himself that he’s been messing things up when he saves a window, only to accidentally destroy all the glass in the city soon after. This is an obsession, not a treatment, to the point where Steven can spin creating new problems as a positive because it gives him more to fix.

No matter how fast he runs away from his actual problems, be it from his home to Little Homeschool or from class to class, Steven can’t hide forever. When he warps back to his room after a long day spent fixing everything he broke, Connie has organized an intervention of sorts, spurred to action by a blend of his once goofy powers: whatever potential silliness his wacky dreams and plant golem mantras once had disappears when we see Pink Steven on screen mimicking his creation’s chant and squat, and “Steven’s here to help!” devolves into “Help Steven!” It’s absurd, but in a way that’s disquieting instead of humorous.

Connie sets the stage for a talk, and Greg gives Steven an opening by telling him this new form is okay as long as he’s happy, and it’s more than the other Crystal Gems have done all season. Steven needs a platform to express himself and the promise of acceptance no matter how dark that expression might get, and only the humans in his life seem to get that: the Gems, even Amethyst, can’t stop viewing Steven as a teammate instead of a teenager. They can block him when he tries to escape again, but the damage is already done.

Pink Steven’s final scene features not one but two explosions, and as awful as the literal one is, Zach Callison makes the figurative one just as harrowing. Nothing Steven says here is new information to us, and we even know that he’s been hiding the whole story from everyone, but it still feels like a revelation instead of old news when Callison lays everything out in a long overdue tirade. It should be a relief to stop holding it in, but the sheer volume of what he’s done, compounded by his inability to express himself until now, makes everyone in the room (even Connie and Greg) recoil at least once.

Talking things out is good, but Steven Universe Future doesn’t shy from the fact that it doesn’t always feel good if you don’t do it right. Venting allows Steven to finally start processing the magnitude of his actions, but it also cranks up his shame all at once because he waited until now to do it. His family can’t help but be horrified, which doesn’t help his growing turmoil, and you can just hear the snap as Callison’s frantic yet passive aggressive dismissal of his actions fades into quiet self-hatred.

Steven isn’t just guilty about his recent behavior, but at his inability to live up to the perfect kid he once was. The problem is that he never was that kid, and ironically that kid’s biggest problem was the same one he’s facing right now: thinking an impossible ideal is attainable and punishing himself for not achieving it. A smoother road might’ve let him solve this problem with a gentle touch, but now he’s in a place where the slightest poke creates an army of plants, a tiny dent cleaves metal, a whoop of glee blows up a town, and anything less than perfection means he’s a monster.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

Despite its tension, there’s an odd sort of relief to Everything’s Fine from knowing everything’s not fine: without the hope that things will work out by the episode, we can ride the wave to its nadir and hope things work out next time. This helps salve my biggest issue with episodes that end midway through a scene, as it feels satisfying on its own, but it’s still too tough to watch to honestly say that I love it.

The Pinnacle

Steven Universe: The Movie (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Top Thirty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Jungle Moon

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Mr. Universe

A Single Pale Rose

Fragments

Change Your Mind (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Reunited

Earthlings

In Dreams

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Prickly Pair

Lars of the Stars

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Escapism

Little Graduation

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

When It Rains

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

Steven’s Dream

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Storm in the Room

Room for Ruby

Lion 4: Alternate Ending

Doug Out

The Good Lars

Are You My Dad?

I Am My Mom

Stuck Together

The Trial

Off Colors

Lars’s Head

Gemcation

Raising the Barn

Back to the Kindergarten

Sadie Killer

Kevin Party

Your Mother and Mine

The Big Show

Pool Hopping

Letters to Lars

Can’t Go Back

Now We’re Only Falling Apart

What’s Your Problem?

The Question

Legs From Here to Homeworld

Familiar

Little Homeschool

Rose Buds

Volleyball

Snow Day

Why So Blue?

Bismuth Casual

Growing Pains

Homeworld Bound

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Rocknaldo

Dewey Wins

Together Alone

A Very Special Episode

Everything’s Fine

Y’all, It’s Complicated

Made of Honor

Together Forever

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

Tiger Philanthropist

Guidance

Bluebird

No Thanks!

     6. Horror Club      5. Fusion Cuisine      4. House Guest      3. Onion Gang      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Future, Episode 17: Homeworld Bound

“I don’t want to feel better, I want to be better!”

For all his shortcomings when it comes to putting everybody else first, Steven at the very least knows to maintain a healthy distance from the Diamonds. Steven Universe: The Movie begins with him fleeing Homeworld with such desperation that he’d rather face his family’s hard reset and a global threat by himself than call the Diamonds for backup, so the only way to realistically have him seek them out would be circumstances that felt even more dire than the end of the world. And sure enough, that’s what Steven Universe Future spends its first sixteen episodes building up to.

Homeworld Bound begins right where we left off, meaning we have our second episode in a row that sets the stage with the Big Three Crystal Gems. As in Fragments, Steven walks right past his family’s concerns and puts up a literal wall to keep them away, but this time any frustration they have has ceded to pure concern over his well-being. Jasper now lurks among them as a living reminder of his darkest moment, and while nobody he leaves behind is happy about it, she takes it the hardest; she’s had more than enough rejection in the past few years. Steven isn’t happy about it either, but now that absolutely every other option that he can think of has been exhausted, he grits his teeth and warps to a broken world to see if he can stomach his last resort.

After a quick joke about Blue and Yellow Zircon (my vote’s for Zircon) and one last dose of Pearlsplaining (featuring Aubergine Pearl) to lighten the mood, Spinel bursts back onto the scene. Her animation might not have the same flair that the movie budget allowed, but Sarah Stiles hasn’t lost a beat, and rubbery sound design allows us to fill in the gaps as she slips right back into entertainment mode. She bookends our meetings with the Diamonds by embodying the core problem with Homeworld: while it’s changing for the better, change takes time.

Spinel’s murderous rage might be gone, but she still greets Steven by invading his personal space and sends him off by singing his own advice back at him, oblivious to how unhelpful it is. She, like the Diamonds, is no longer a villain, but that doesn’t mean she has good enough social skills to be the friend he needs. And like the Diamonds, her awareness of her past faults makes her prone to overcorrection as she attempts to reform; hers is mildest, replacing her vengeful obsession with a smothering friendliness that she already displayed in the past, but the Diamonds’ reversals will grow more and more upsetting.

Homeworld Bound‘s brilliant second act is itself divided into three clear segments that repeat the same general story: we meet a Diamond who seems far kinder than she once was, then she reveals a reversal of how her oppressive powers once worked, then she tries it with Steven when he asks for help, but it doesn’t take, and she sends him on his way. The episode practically screams at us that the rule of three is in play, making these encounters feel like an escalating joke and a classic fairy tale all at once. Who better to guide Steven through this story within a story than a clown who became a princess?

Yellow Diamond is up first, and I love that she’s the one who’s come the furthest since Change Your Mind. Yellow might be ornery, but she’s by far the most straightforward Diamond, all too happy to speak plainly and unable to hide her emotions despite every intention to. What you see is what you get, and she treats the work of helping Gems with the same pragmatic efficiency that made her such an effective warlord.

Because her role is to set things up, she gets the simplest version of the story: she used to destroy, and now she rebuilds! We’ll get to more nuanced power evolutions with Blue and White, but Yellow’s is the only one we see that doesn’t have any visible downside. She’s fixing the damage she caused rather than overstepping her bounds, and the Gems she repairs are the only ones we see within the three stories that seem genuinely happy in a way that can last.

Because of this, her overcorrection ends up being the least prominent: she’s gone from hurting Gems to curing them, but she’s still only able to understand visible damage, and is thus only able to offer external solutions. She hears Steven’s worries about his changing body and can’t imagine he’s more concerned about the why of it than his actual appearance. Goldilocks changes him from big to small to just right without bothering to ask him first, and gets exasperated when a quick fix doesn’t work.

The three Diamonds are stand-ins for bad forms of therapy, and Yellow’s ends up being the most insidious: unlike Blue and White’s more obvious faults, Yellow’s insistence that it’s the outside that counts subtly reinforces that you can fix yourself from the outside in. Which isn’t to say there’s no truth to that, as your physical health directly affects your mental health, but this presumption fuels eating disorders, self-mutilation, and other attempts to control the inside by controlling the outside. As her old temper returns, Yellow eventually realizes that Steven needs emotional help, but because she hasn’t grown enough to become well-rounded, she shunts him off to Blue.

Blue Diamond has a broader transformation, as overwhelming in her joy as she once was in her sorrow. She’s the first to be described as having a new power, rather than simply demonstrating a reversal of what she once did, and there’s no better way to portray her new worldview than in rapturous song.

Lisa Hannigan sounds like the most beautiful witch in the world, and My Little Reason Why uses that voice to both soothe and discomfort; it begins and ends with a lighter version of the Homeworld motif, but it’s still the Homeworld motif. This is the final original song of the series, and it ramps up the stream of happy-sounding songs tainted by their circumstances that culminates in the reprise of Cookie Cat. Steven’s breakdown accelerated with his own final original song, I’d Rather Be Me (With You), and on its heels came Dear Old Dad and Mr. Universe covering his fraying relationship with the other most important human in his life, but now we see that even a mighty Diamond can fall for this trick. Happiness without introspection can come back to bite you, and Steven’s recent experiences with happy songs have granted him enough wisdom to make his last good decision before the finale.

Blue’s clouds aren’t the subtlest metaphor for turning to drugs when life is getting you down, and I hopefully don’t have to explain in great detail why this is bad therapy: antidepressants as a medical treatment are one thing, but abusing a narcotic to escape your pain will multiply your problems without even fixing the one you were trying to solve. Steven has been seeking fast answers throughout the epilogue, and it’d be hard to blame him for being tempted by more escapism, but he doesn’t even consider this option. Rejecting the clouds is a triumphant moment for a kid who was so easily roped into Jasper’s toxic worldview, but the show must go on. From her opiated stupor, Blue eventually recognizes that Steven needs better self-worth, but because she hasn’t grown enough to become well-rounded, she shunts him off to White.

Yellow Diamond established a story, and Blue Diamond’s repetition turned it into a pattern, so now it’s time for White Diamond to mix things up: she’s the punchline of a warped joke, and the conclusion of a warped fairy tale. She’s the root of the rot, and the single worst person Steven could turn to for help. Kevin would be better for him than what his grandmother has in store.

White is essentially a god, one whose lifespan dwarfs lifespans that dwarf Steven’s, and only two years out of those eons have been spent figuring out that total domination shouldn’t be her default. Yellow and Blue changed in a way that helps others, but White’s ego gave her a power that only helps herself. Sure, it might be fun for Spinel to dance around in a gigantic body, but White needs to understand empathy, and the only way she can imagine doing so is allowing others to violate her agency in the same way she once violated theirs.

This is progress, given how terrible she was when we first met her. It matters that White wants to understand others, and if letting them hijack her body is the only way to do that, then by her very low bar it’s a noble act to let them. She’s the only Diamond who asks for Steven’s permission before using her powers on him, indicating a practiced effort to consider other people in a way that we know doesn’t come naturally to her. But she’s still obsessed with hierarchy and power imbalance, and she still can’t get fundamental tenets of empathy right: she pokes Steven with her giant nail without thinking twice about how triggering it might be for him, and condescendingly waxes poetic about the irony of him having so much power but not wanting it. It’s admirable that she’s on the road, but she’s not even close to being somebody that’s good for Steven. She’s a last resort for a reason, but with nowhere else to go, he accepts her bad therapy.

After a brief shock of delight at the novelty of White’s powers, Steven’s anguish oozes back in as he almost immediately realizes how bad this is for him. He’s forced to relive the last out-of-body experience he had around White Diamond, but as the fear overwhelms him, the anger that his “therapy” with Jasper cultivated returns. Go figure, a kid who learns to solve his inner problems with violence now reacts violently when afraid, going into a sort of fugue state as he attempts to shatter White Diamond. It was tough enough to watch the aftermath of shattering Jasper, but this time he’s doing it on purpose, and we see it play out in painful detail rather than getting a single muted blow. Worst of all, thanks to White’s power we don’t hear Christine Ebersole’s pleading voice as she cowers from him, but Zach Callison’s.

The shame cycle continues as Steven veers from violent anger to regret, and he ends the episode right where he started: running away from a family after hurting somebody rather than confronting his feelings head-on. Spinel twists the knife by singing Change back at him, a song that he sang to a villain and that makes him now feel like he’s the villain for needing it.

Steven transforms once more, this time into a fairy tale counterpart of the Pink Steven we saw in Fragments: his growing feet force him to leave a sandal behind like Cinderella, and his disheveled hair and sense of self-hatred resembles the Beast. He’s slowly leaving his humanity behind, and as the shame cycle gets worse, so will his outward appearance.

Like the Diamonds, Steven wants to feel better, but has no idea how to do it. He was betrayed by the Crystal Gem solution, embodied by Garnet. He didn’t register the human solution offered by Dr. Maheswaren. He was burned by his attempt to connect with his father’s side of the family. He got worse when he took advice from an adversary. And now his mother’s side of the family, who blend the complications and condescension and abuse from all the other places he’s looked with very little of the good, have disappointed him. Steven lives for other people, but now that every other person has left him wanting, he has to try and carry the weight by himself. We’ll see how that goes.

I Can’t Believe We’ve Come So Far

My first three Change Your Mind posts concluded with tributes to storyboarders who left after the movie, but that wasn’t the end for everyone. With over forty episodes to his name and perhaps the most distinctive art style of the lot, it’s time to say goodbye to Paul Villeco.

I’ve already covered a good portion of his work in my very first storyboarder sendoff for his longtime partner Raven Molisee; he was right alongside her introducing us to Lapis Lazuli, Peridot, Jasper, and Yellow Diamond, but on top of that he gave us the magnificent Blue Zircon. His detailed facial expressions are the stuff of legend, and while they were mostly used for comedy, they’re just as potent for horror when given to the likes of Frybo, Cluster Gems, and most recently Cactus Steven. His style and approach is perhaps best seen in Steven Floats, an episode he boarded solo that does what he does best: with humor and heart, he adeptly smoothed out the tricky road of the show’s episodic nature and its serialized lore. There isn’t an episode with his name on it that isn’t overflowing with heart, and that consistency was everything on a show with as many twists and turns as Steven Universe.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

Steven Universe isn’t above criticism. If it was, I wouldn’t be ranking the episodes. But a complaint that I’ve seen from way too many people that I’ll never understand is that the Diamonds’ redemption happened too fast, because the idea that they’re anywhere close to being redeemed by the end of Future is bananas.

Homeworld Bound is a fantastic snapshot of the Diamonds and Spinel before their final episode in I Am My Monster, exploring the frustrating truth that becoming a good person doesn’t happen overnight. They’ve admitted that they need to change and are working to improve themselves, and that’s a good thing, but it’s only the first step, and there’s no better version of this story than one where they’re on the road but nowhere near the finish line.

The Pinnacle

Steven Universe: The Movie (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Top Thirty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Jungle Moon

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Mr. Universe

A Single Pale Rose

Fragments

Change Your Mind (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Reunited

Earthlings

In Dreams

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Prickly Pair

Lars of the Stars

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Escapism

Little Graduation

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

When It Rains

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

Steven’s Dream

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Storm in the Room

Room for Ruby

Lion 4: Alternate Ending

Doug Out

The Good Lars

Are You My Dad?

I Am My Mom

Stuck Together

The Trial

Off Colors

Lars’s Head

Gemcation

Raising the Barn

Back to the Kindergarten

Sadie Killer

Kevin Party

Your Mother and Mine

The Big Show

Pool Hopping

Letters to Lars

Can’t Go Back

Now We’re Only Falling Apart

What’s Your Problem?

The Question

Legs From Here to Homeworld

Familiar

Little Homeschool

Rose Buds

Volleyball

Snow Day

Why So Blue?

Bismuth Casual

Growing Pains

Homeworld Bound

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Rocknaldo

Dewey Wins

Together Alone

A Very Special Episode

Y’all, It’s Complicated

Made of Honor

Together Forever

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

Tiger Philanthropist

Guidance

Bluebird

No Thanks!

     6. Horror Club      5. Fusion Cuisine      4. House Guest      3. Onion Gang      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Future, Episode 16: Fragments

There are three core episodes of Steven Universe that center around the idea of being Strong, highlighted by each of the Big Three Crystal Gems singing about it. In Coach Steven and Strong in the Real Way, Pearl lays out the thesis that inner strength is what matters most. In Jailbreak and Stronger Than You, Garnet solidifies that thesis and focuses on the importance of healthy relationships to enhance inner strength. And in Cry for Help and Tower of Mistakes, Amethyst points out that while Pearl and Garnet are right, the work itself can be grueling: there are no shortcuts to building inner strength and healthy relationships.

Steven internalizes these lessons at the time, but as his life unravels, so does his understanding of them. So at what he thinks is his lowest point, he turns to someone that disregards inner strength for physical strength, that was defeated by partners working as one and repeatedly failed to emulate their success, that only values hard work when it allows her to hurt people more efficiently. And when she preaches about power for the umpteenth time, he drinks up her barbaric perspective like it’s the most delicious poison in the world.

For Jasper, strength is always comparative. Being strong isn’t as important as being the strongest, so we always hear her bragging about being stronger than everyone around her; that’s what adds the extra kick in Garnet’s Stronger Than You. Despite being defined by her misguided sense of strength throughout the series, Jasper only ever says the actual word “Strong,” without affixes, once. And because brutal eloquence is her secret weapon, once is all she needs to deal a life-changing blow.

“Are you afraid to be strong?”

Sure enough, we begin with the Big Three Crystal Gems together again for the first time since Prickly Pair, demonstrating why Steven needs an actual therapist. Amethyst, whose counterpart will dominate the rest of the episode, is the only one to offer a judgment-free listening ear and shoulder to cry on, but she’s drowned out by Pearl’s frantic concern and Garnet’s tough love approach. Crashing the van is worth taking seriously, but the eldest two Crystal Gems are still too used to treating Steven like a child to figure out how to help him; there’s a punitive, accusatory tone to their conversation that makes sense from the perspective of worried parents of a kid behaving recklessly, but is ultimately detrimental to his well-being. You can’t just give somebody no boundaries and try to lay down the law when an arbitrary limit has been reached, and Steven’s lack of structure makes it practically impossible to reach him.

Still, the most crucial element of Fragments is that even as Steven gets worse and worse at dealing with his emotions, his inner sweetness is never too far away. His first tessellating barrier of the episode pushes Pearl back by mistake, and even in his anger he apologizes for it, because no matter how pink he gets he hasn’t become a different person. When his downward spiral culminates in becoming monstrous, the audience needs to know that he isn’t a monster, only that he thinks he is, and little reminders of his kindness are everything to this message.

We don’t see how long it took Steven to decide that Jasper was the right call, and we don’t see how he convinced her to listen to him, and we don’t know how much he told her about his problems, but it’s the perfect time to bring her back into the ring. She’s loomed in the background since the first episode of Future as a personification of his fear of change, a fellow soldier obsessed with doing what she always has because it’s the only life she understands. Despite insisting in our last episode that his problem is being a Universe, and despite the pressure from the Diamond side of his heritage squeezing him thin, Steven’s actual issue is the same as Jasper’s: he’s a quartz without a war.

Steven feels that he’s changing for the worse, and in our next episode we’ll see that the Diamonds and Spinel are changing for the better, even if none of these changes are as dramatic as they might appear at first. But Jasper represents an absolute unwillingness to grow, a stubbornness that came naturally to her but was cemented by her relationship with Lapis Lazuli. She gave changing her mind a shot, but it was a horrible experience because of the horrible attitude she brought into it, and she vowed to never do it again.

Which brings us to the final reason this is Jasper’s moment: she, like Steven, sought permanent fusion to solve her problems, and was left rudderless when rejected. Malachite is about the furthest opposite from Stevonnie that you could ask for as far as fusions are concerned (one was an abusive relationship between two enemies that hated Earth, the other is a symbol of friendship and love that helps two proud earthlings become closer and more confident), but Jasper had the most prominent breakup that we’ve ever seen Steven witness, and he knows that she survived it. Connie’s “not now” is oceans apart from Lapis’s “never again,” but to a teenager in crisis, it’s hard to see the difference.

The danger of Jasper is that while she’s wrong, she’s never entirely wrong. As someone primed to see others as potential enemies instead of potential friends, she’s as good at understanding their weaknesses as Steven is at understanding their strengths. She alone knew and accepted Lapis’s underlying desire to retake control no matter who got hurt, and now she’s diagnosing Steven with alarming clarity: he says he wants to be alone, but he’s still so reliant on others that his version of “alone” involves hanging out with somebody that hates him. This is a kid who’s obsessed with other people’s needs and opinions, and whose greatest fear is the solitude she craves.

And because she gets that part right, it leaves the door wide open for her poison to seep in. It’s always been clear that she views others as obstacles or tools to achieve her goals, and after Lapis and a Corrupted Gem both deny her the chance to fuse, she decides those grapes were sour anyway and that she can be even stronger by dropping the part where others can be tools. If she gets strong enough, there’s no need for other people to do what she wants, meaning there’s no chance of more rejection, which as a glory-seeking war hero is her greatest fear. She’s convinced herself so thoroughly that this is the right way to deal with inner turmoil that despite being a vicious bully, she earns a strange sort of empathy: she isn’t preaching these lessons and putting Steven through her training regimen as an evil scheme, but as a hurt person genuinely trying to help him.

That empathy grows as Kimberly Brooks is allowed to make Jasper funnier than she’s been in any other episode, gagging at Steven’s kindness and railing against eco-friendliness with delightfully specific language. She’s enthusiastic about self-improvement, quick with a one-liner when Steven gets too boastful about his muscles, and willing to share her experience even if that experience is tainted by her violent heart. The same uncomfortable truth that drives Alone at Sea bubbles back to the surface as her “friendship” with Steven grows: actual abusive relationships are allowed to fester because despite of all the bad, there’s that kernel of honest affection that keeps the train rolling.

The imagery of a fish being baited isn’t unique to Alone at Sea, and Fragments thrives in its training montage by calling back to two similar sequences from the past. Island Adventure, which explores an abusive moment in a relationship despite forgetting the part where Sadie is called out on it, features Steven unable to eat a cartoonish fish without covering its face; now that he’s closer to Lars and Sadie’s ages back then, he has no problem hunting and eating a fish that’s more realistic to match his less childlike view of the world. Where that montage was joined with a purehearted song, here we get pure instrumental magic from Aivi, Surasshu, and Jeff Ball that adapts Jasper’s theme three times in a row (once for each day in the mountains) with increasing intensity to match Steven’s evolution.

The second influence lies in another wordless sequence featuring an older variant of Steven: Stevonnie’s survival montage from Jungle Moon. The self-sufficiency that Steven develops here was already present when Connie was along for the ride, and the similarities between the scenes make her absence that much more potent. Despite being in far greater danger in space than he is miles away from his house, wilderness life was easier and more fun with Stevonnie, right down to the livelier musical score. But Stevonnie pointedly isn’t here anymore, and despite the drastic nature of Jasper’s training, it does prove that Steven doesn’t need permafusion to survive three episodes after he banked his entire future on it.

Still, I don’t wanna leave the drastic nature of Jasper’s training as a “despite.” Whatever positive values Steven takes away from it, from building a shelter to working out his body to developing his magic, the sequence is built on a false foundation: that punching your feelings away alleviates your stress. Ask any decent psychologist about managing your anger by hitting a pillow and they’ll tell you that it might feel good in the moment, but it teaches you that violence is a good outlet for aggression, which ultimately makes you angrier. Jasper’s techniques are not only abusive (exposing Steven to potentially lethal harm to toughen him up) but counter-intuitive to helping his mental state, which Steven would know if, say it with me now, he was seeing a therapist.

After three days of training that harms nature so much that the birds fly away, we use another pair of callbacks to portray Steven’s troubled state of mind. The fact that he’s grown to an adult form leans on the plot point we learned in So Many Birthdays (and, bonus reference, Steven’s Birthday): his presented age is a reflection of how he feels about himself, and working with Jasper makes him feel like he’s older. This is a kid who grew up around warriors, and as he becomes a physical equal of a Gem who’s physically superior to his caretakers, his teenager brain convinces him that this is the ideal adult form. And yes, he looks more powerful now than he did at the start of the episode, but the idea that bigger is better will go off the deep end fast, first in his possession of White Diamond, and then in the manifestation of a far larger, far more powerful form that represents his self-loathing even more acutely.

But in contrast to that sense of literal growth, Steven’s maniacal laugh and ridiculous hair shows a regression to a person that this Steven never actually was. In my favorite episode of Steven Universe, the more annoying Steven of the early years is symbolically killed off to make room for an alternate version that we see through the rest of the series, and sure enough, Steven at his worst is styled after Handsome Steven, a corrupted variant who only realizes the importance of change by shattering something.

The fight itself is the final action scene of the series that’s anything close to fun; the battle against Monster Steven is appropriately somber, but Steven is learning the wrong lessons in Fragments, and one of those lessons is that fighting is awesome. Jasper has been priming him (and us) for a rematch for ages now, and while it’s ultimately an unhealthy exercise, part of showing us the truth is admitting that in the moment, it does feel good to vent your rage by hitting something. Steven begins the fight with one last spark of his inner kindness, worrying about punching Jasper even after all of that training, and while letting that go leads to an exhilarating match between a pair of tremendous warriors, there’s only one way it can end. What was once an unintentional wall and a purely defensive barrier becomes weaponized as Steven imbues his hexagons with diamond-shaped spikes to match his eyes, and we reach our inevitable conclusion with a life-changing blow.

Steven Universe is musical to its core, both in the actual songs that play and in the beautiful soundtrack that breathes life into every scene. I have every confidence that Aivi and Surasshu could’ve scored the perfect music to accompany the scene that follows Steven’s battle with Jasper. But in a show that’s musical to its core, there’s nothing more brutal than refusing to give us that comfort.

Steven rushes through his home with only the sounds of worried parents and a roaring storm to guide him, and after recreating the opening scene of Future with heartbreaking urgency, water now spouting from the faucet and Diamond essences now seeping from their bottles, we don’t even get a particularly loud thunderclap as he opens his hand to reveal that he’s performed an act of violence so heinous to him that the idea that his mother did the same sent him down the path he’s on today. 

This is what happens when you solve your problems with violence: people get hurt. He didn’t shatter Jasper on purpose, but that doesn’t really matter, because that’s still what he did. And even if his power to create remains stronger than his power to destroy, and he can bring Jasper back with only a slight scar to show for it, this is his lowest point. I Am My Monster sounds like I Am My Mom for a reason, and that reason is that not even Pink Diamond would actually go through with destroying a Gem, so from here until the finale, Steven has shifted from someone who feared becoming like his mother to somebody who believes he’s even worse. 

Steven can only realize how much he doesn’t want Jasper’s approval after he becomes the person she wanted him to be. He laughed off Connie’s bow in Sworn to the Sword, and was deeply uncomfortable with Lars’s bow in Lars’s Head, but he meets Jasper’s with outright fear. It might’ve looked like he won this fight, but Fragments is far more than Round 2 of Jasper’s duel with Steven in Little Homeschool. It’s Jasper’s rematch against Amethyst, this time for the soul of their youngest sibling, and to his horror, Jasper won. Steven abandoned the teachings of one sister for another, and he’ll never be the same. 

But he can be better.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

Mr. Universe is my favorite episode of Steven Universe Future, but Fragments is probably the best one, so it comes pretty damn close. Jasper is a brilliant stand-in for Steven’s darkest thoughts without ever losing the part where she’s her own character, and after so many episodes where things end poorly for Steven, it’s incredible to have a nadir this definitive without overwhelming the episode with despair. 

The Pinnacle

 Steven Universe: The Movie (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Top Thirty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Jungle Moon

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Mr. Universe

A Single Pale Rose

Fragments

Change Your Mind (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Reunited

Earthlings

In Dreams

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Prickly Pair

Lars of the Stars

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Escapism

Little Graduation

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

When It Rains

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

Steven’s Dream

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Storm in the Room

Room for Ruby

Lion 4: Alternate Ending

Doug Out

The Good Lars

Are You My Dad?

I Am My Mom

Stuck Together

The Trial

Off Colors

Lars’s Head

Gemcation

Raising the Barn

Back to the Kindergarten

Sadie Killer

Kevin Party

Your Mother and Mine

The Big Show

Pool Hopping

Letters to Lars

Can’t Go Back

Now We’re Only Falling Apart

What’s Your Problem?

The Question

Legs From Here to Homeworld

Familiar

Little Homeschool

Rose Buds

Volleyball

Snow Day

Why So Blue?

Bismuth Casual

Growing Pains

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Rocknaldo

Dewey Wins

Together Alone

A Very Special Episode

Y’all, It’s Complicated

Made of Honor

Together Forever

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

Tiger Philanthropist

Guidance

Bluebird

No Thanks!

     6. Horror Club      5. Fusion Cuisine      4. House Guest      3. Onion Gang      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Future, Episode 15: Mr. Universe

“Don't you know the Universe is looking, too?”

My dad was born in New Jersey in the mid-fifties and raised not too far away in Pennsylvania, so there are few artists that move him like Bruce Springsteen.

When I was thirteen or fourteen, Dad and I were driving somewhere, half-talking and half-listening to the Boss. Longtime readers may recall that both of my parents are pastors, and Dad was in full form preaching the Gospel of Bruce, but when he mentioned how well Springsteen captures the yearning of youth, I just sorta shrugged. With the tact of a literal middle schooler, I helpfully pointed out that while my dad remembered Springsteen as a young man, from my perspective he’d always been middle aged.

The car didn’t screech to a halt, and Dad didn’t get defensive or stern. He wasn’t even disappointed that I didn’t grasp what he saw in his favorite musician. But I’ll never forget the way his face shifted as the weight of our age gap sunk in; somewhere down the line, he’d gotten older than he thought he was.

Greg Universe has always been an outstanding father in a medium where incompetent dads thrive. The episode that portrays him in the most negative light, House Guest, barely even fits in the canon due to how wildly out of character he is: at no other point do we ever see him anywhere near as conniving and negligent of his son’s immediate needs. Other episodes like Maximum Capacity and Greg the Babysitter dig into his actual flaws (he can be thoughtless, and prefers fun to work to an occasionally detrimental degree), but he always recognizes these shortcomings within the episode, either by realizing his mistake or because the story is a flashback to a younger, less mature version of the man we know. He might live in a van, but doing so after striking it rich shows that he enjoys simplicity, and the unstated fact that he’s Steven’s only parent with a job means he’s always been responsible for feeding and clothing his son even after he moved in with the Gems.

Mr. Universe wisely doesn’t throw that away as it deepens his background and reveals his greatest failing as a parent. As with Dr. Maheswaran in our last episode, we see how traits that we always saw one way could be seen from a different perspective: just as her stern demeanor comes from a place of concern for others, Greg prioritizing his son’s freedom didn’t just mean a life of fun adventures. But no matter how poorly Steven handles the events of the episode, and no matter how justified he is in calling out Greg’s mistakes, what makes this my favorite episode of the epilogue is how well it captures the full picture. The opening alone sums it up perfectly: it might not be healthy for Greg to treat his son’s sorrows with ice cream for breakfast, but it comes from a place of absolute love. 

The road trip leading to Greg’s childhood home is a greatest hits album of Steven and Greg’s relationship, scored to Dear Old Dad (a song that should set off warning flags given its appearance in House Guest, but is too sweet to deny) and evoking all the ways they’ve bonded in the past. Going out and about to get closer with Steven has always been a major part of Greg’s parenting, which makes sense for a guy who met Steven’s mother while touring, lives in a van, and works with cars. Space Race kicks us off as a way to make up for House Guest, then we have our first trip out west in Keystone Motel (near Greg’s native West Keystone, which seems to be a separate state) and a follow-up vacation in Mr. Greg (sponsored by Pepe’s Burgers, where they now eat from). Gemcation and The Question both result from Greg helping out folks dealing with romance woes, and when car travel doesn’t work, we get away from it all by boat in Alone At Sea (featuring a rejected proposal to permafuse, more on that next time) and by plane in Steven’s Dream (featuring a fashion montage that they repeat with gas station shades). 

But it’s not just the details of their past that makes this sequence feel so special: it’s the details of road trips as a whole, whether general (dodgy bathrooms) or specific (Wawa counterpart Uaua, a staple for East Coast travelers). You can just feel how special this wonderful mundane little trip is, and understand why it’s what Steven needs more of at the end of the series. It’s a uniquely human experience, a voyage hinging on technology and infrastructure and nutrition too advanced to be natural but not advanced enough to be alien. No warping, no magic lion, just four wheels and the open road.

Steven prompts this trip by pointing out that he spent so long figuring out if he shared his mom’s identity that he never got the chance to understand his own, and Greg genuinely relates to this despite how absurd that sentiment sounds in a bubble. Sure, he didn’t have alien magic burdening his childhood, but as the only parent figure Steven has who’s ever been a teenager, he gets the drive to branch out from what his parents want and find out what he wants. And as Greg takes his son through his old stomping grounds, talking about his first gig in his DeMayo days, Steven again spurs the story along by asking how his dad got the family name.

The wedge between Greg and Steven starts to form as soon as they reach the old house, as the former doesn’t even want the latter to come with him. Greg sees this as a chore, an uncomfortable means to the end of sharing a life-changing song with his son. But Steven sees a mystery that slowly fills the pieces of half his life, and is so intrigued by the new information that he misses out key details. Greg is eerily quiet as he swallows his bad memories to get through this task, and that alone should tell Steven that this wasn’t a happy place for him, but he’s far too concerned that his dad seems to be breaking into a house to read the room.

A somber remix of Dad Museum continues the episode’s callback train, bringing us all the way back to the storage unit that introduced us to Greg back in Laser Light Cannon, and while the music cheers up after Steven realizes this is his dad’s childhood home, the dividing point is critical to understanding why Greg acts the way he does, both in this episode and throughout the series. Steven is delightful as he wanders through the house looking for material to write an apology letter, dictating praise for grandparents he still doesn’t know exist, until he finds the missing link between Greg and the house: an entire shelf full of unopened letters, written from a Universe to the DeMayos.

Because this revelation comes first, Steven’s excitement overrides the implication, and he hears Greg’s complaints as minor quibbles compared to his own harrowing childhood. But he, and we, “meet” the DeMayos by seeing that Greg tried reaching out to them and was rejected. These letters were written from Beach City, not the road, meaning he was either writing about Rose or writing about Steven, and was met with nothing.

Greg wasn’t just a rebellious teen who ran away and never thought about home again, no matter how flippant he seemed about it in flashbacks. When he tells Steven in The Return that without a son he’ll be all out of family, he’s saying it from the perspective of somebody who still wanted a relationship with his parents despite his awful childhood, and who never got to have it. Sure, they kept the letters instead of tossing them, meaning they cared in their own way, but not enough to look past his desire to be his own person.

We learn in the midst of this reveal that Greg always told Steven he spent his childhood in prison, which is said in a beautifully off-handed way that suggests an even deeper relationship than what we’ve seen, full of in-jokes and old stories that they’ve shared without us. Still, Steven looks past that “deception” as he goes over all the artifacts of his father’s youth (boots, trophies, old yearbooks signed by veteran animator Lauren Hecht), getting starry-eyed for the first time in what feels like ages. Greg might be meeting every question with a complaint, but between their road trip and this initial tour of his grandparents’ place, this is the last time we see Steven this happy until the finale.

His son can only see the memories that his grandparents curated, but Greg only cheers up by taking down the prison bars and finding something secret of his own. And in a heartbreaking plot twist, it’s Greg’s actual reason for sneaking into his old house that sinks Steven’s mood. Only one of them gets to be happy, and leaving the house forces Steven to pass the baton.

After revisiting his horrible childhood, with controlling parents and unbreakable routines, Greg is over the moon to once again give Steven more freedom: in this case, the keys to the van. You can already see some hesitance as the novelty dims and Steven realizes how huge this new information is, but he holds it together until he hears the song that transformed his father into Mr. Universe.

Mr. Universe couldn’t have been an easy song to write. It needs to simultaneously be a realistic spark that changed Greg’s life and a song that Steven can’t relate to, short enough to not flood the episode’s runtime but long enough to leave an impact, and all the while evoking era-appropriate music. Jemaine Clement does wonders for that last part, summoning his inner Bowie for a sweet, spacey take on a ditty that’s hypnotic to a kid trapped in the burbs gazing out at the stars, but old hat for a kid who’s been there. Greg was a boy without choices who heard a song about infinite possibility, but Steven is a boy overwhelmed by the uncertainty of the future, and the divide is too great to overcome.

After a fantastic montage on the road and a brilliant scene involving multiple settings in the house, we slow down to a series of painfully extended shots of our two leads as the song plays, the freedom of the road ceding to stifling claustrophobia as Steven is trapped in his dad’s glory days. Music, like travel, has been a reliable source of bonding throughout the series, with Greg so open with sharing his music that it hurts even more to see that this song, one he’s clearly been saving for a special occasion, does nothing for his son. And as he sings along with the lyrics that gave him his name, we can finally see the wrinkles on Greg’s face.

Our tour of Steven and Greg’s relationship closes with a return to, well, The Return. One of my favorite scenes of the series is when Greg is driving Steven away from danger, and he, not any of the Gems, is the one to break the news that Rose Quartz was an alien invader. Steven is in the driver’s seat this time around, so this time he’s got a lot more to say about his flawed parent, and this time he’s more directly responsible for crashing the van.

It’s so rare to hear Steven argue with Greg, and Zach Callison makes it that much harder to hear by punctuating his valid points with a rage that grows and grows while Greg blithely refuses to understand. Learning about his grandparents is the last straw, but years’ worth of complaints explode after going unsaid for a lifetime: we’ve known for a bit that Steven feels left out for not having gone to school, and more recently that he’s never been to the doctor, but it also turns out he’s got some thoughts about growing up in a van. He ties Greg’s secrecy about his family with Rose’s, and he isn’t wrong to, but he misses the part where both Greg and Rose changed their names and hid their families out of pain and fear on Steven’s behalf.

Even though Steven is right, and even though Greg lets his emotions get the better of him as he cluelessly tells his traumatized son that he was “better off” living a life of constant danger, the tragic truth is that this was an impossible situation. Greg, as we’ve sort of known throughout the series but confirmed minutes ago, had no family network when Steven was born. He was a human being who just lost the love of his life raising a half-alien child without reliable human support, so of course he let the Crystal Gems help out, and of course that meant raising Steven in unusual circumstances. And considering his own parents wanted nothing to do with his life, of course he never talked about them with his son.

Greg wasn’t and isn’t the perfect father, especially as he gets defensive in this conversation. But he did his best to protect his son from the childhood he endured, even if by overcorrecting and providing too much freedom instead of too much control he gave his son all new problems to endure. The problem now is that his own trauma prevents him from empathizing with Steven’s, and no matter how encouraging he is, his age prevents him from relating with Steven’s adolescent perspective anymore.

Everything crashes together in the same way as The Return, but instead of being helped by all the humans of Beach City, Steven is alone with Greg, who still doesn’t get it but is still trying. Greg will never allow there to be any doubt that Steven is loved, which is obviously a good thing, but it’s easy to read his pride and concern as brushing off Steven’s grievances. He acknowledges that he’s been called out, but doesn’t apologize or address it further, and eventually his words just become white noise as Steven’s last tether to his support network frays apart.

Mr. Universe is the point of no return in that regard, and it’s no wonder Steven needs to get away from it all in our next episode. But the episode pulls off the astonishing trick of allowing us to understand how bad things are for Steven while at the same time showing us why things will turn out okay: he can only see the bad in Greg in the moment, because that’s how teenagers work, but we have seen enough of the good to know that Greg can and will do better if Steven asks him to. We have our cake and eat it too, setting up our protagonist’s continuing breakdown as well as his salvation from it in one fell swoop. Family can be complicated, and sometimes you’ve just got to hit the road, but for all his faults, Mister Universe would never leave those letters unopened.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

I mentioned it somewhere up in that review, but Mr. Universe is my favorite episode of Steven Universe Future. It’s a touching sendoff to Greg, not even necessarily painting him in a bad light, just a different light. Steven understandably only sees the downsides now, but in a show that takes such care to paint parents as people, I love so much that the final parent to get the full treatment is the human one.

The Pinnacle

 Steven Universe: The Movie (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Top Thirty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Jungle Moon

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Mr. Universe

A Single Pale Rose

Change Your Mind (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Reunited

Earthlings

In Dreams

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Prickly Pair

Lars of the Stars

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Escapism

Little Graduation

Back to the Kindergarten

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

When It Rains

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

Steven’s Dream

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Storm in the Room

Room for Ruby

Lion 4: Alternate Ending

Doug Out

The Good Lars

Are You My Dad?

I Am My Mom

Stuck Together

The Trial

Off Colors

Lars’s Head

Gemcation

Raising the Barn

Sadie Killer

Kevin Party

Your Mother and Mine

The Big Show

Pool Hopping

Letters to Lars

Can’t Go Back

Now We’re Only Falling Apart

What’s Your Problem?

The Question

Legs From Here to Homeworld

Familiar

Little Homeschool

Rose Buds

Volleyball

Snow Day

Why So Blue?

Bismuth Casual

Growing Pains

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Rocknaldo

Dewey Wins

Together Alone

A Very Special Episode

Y’all, It’s Complicated

Made of Honor

Together Forever

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

Tiger Philanthropist

Guidance

Bluebird

No Thanks!

     6. Horror Club      5. Fusion Cuisine      4. House Guest      3. Onion Gang      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Future, Episode 14: Growing Pains

”There’s a clear history of numerous fractures.”

Deconstruction of children’s media within children’s media isn’t new. Growing up in the 90s, I had two formative examples: Animorphs, a book-a-month series about teens who can turn into animals where the “go to school, save the world” formula warps the protagonists into hardened child soldiers who never really recover from their war, and Digimon, a cartoon that positions each protagonist within a standard kid’s show archetype (the brave one, the brooding one, the smart one, the tomboy, etc.) but shoves them in a wonderland setting that breaks down those archetypes and forces them to grow. Heck, Steven Universe itself began in part as a deconstruction of gender roles in action shows for children, giving the boy the “girl powers” and women the “boy powers.” So that’s not what makes Steven Universe Future special.

What makes Steven Universe Future special is that it coordinates with a show that takes the virtues of being a kid hero as a given, rather than telling us all along that we’re deconstructing what that does to a person. We’re allowed to enjoy Steven’s childhood adventures and watch him grow into a selfless champion of peace, and while we see hints of how this hurts him, it remains an exercise in escapism. The epilogue continues to use metaphors and outlandish circumstances to tell Steven’s story, and it should: this is a magical kid in a magical universe. But sometimes you have to call a spade a spade, and after thirteen episodes of allusions and allegory, Growing Pains reveals the thesis of Future with brutal clarity: nobody survives being a kid hero unscathed.

We ease our way into reality with Dogcopter, but because escapism is no longer our focus, seeing an adorable proposal puposal only makes Steven feel worse. Turning pink has become so commonplace that we don’t even see the transformation anymore, he just collapses onto bed after quickly morphing off-screen. Unhealthy coping mechanisms, like drowning in fiction or eating his feelings away, aren’t working.

But healthy coping mechanisms, like reaching out to family and friends, also aren’t working. As with Ruby and Sapphire in our last episode, Steven’s adults are unavailable because of how he’s helped them: the Gems are off doing their own thing, and Greg explicitly thanks Steven for suggesting his newfound career as a manager. Greg asks if everything is okay, but Steven once again rejects help, not even allowing his dad to know that there’s a problem to be worried about.

The only character who’s stubborn enough to push past Steven’s insistence that he’s fine is the last one he wants to see. Connie haunts the opening, with Dogcopter evoking her not only from his proposal but through his importance to their early friendship. Then her name shows up before his dad’s on the phone, her bracelet lurks in the fridge, and her ringtone yanks us back to the anxiety of trying to hide horrible events from her in Full Disclosure. Steven rejects the idea that anything is wrong even as his body distorts with inner pain, but Connie has heard this act three episodes in a row now, and she can’t let him get away with it anymore, demanding he see the only doctor that he knows.

Dr. Maheswaran is the perfect character to give Steven the advice he needs. She’s the most prominent medical professional we see on a show that uses magic to heal wounds, she’s a human adult who accepts the weird world she’s in but isn’t conditioned to accept the frequency of Steven’s adventures like a resident of Beach City would, she’s no-nonsense enough to tell the truth but has grown warm enough to be gentle with her daughter’s friend, and for all her flaws, she’s a mother who raised a kid to have a good head on her shoulders, which is somebody Steven really could’ve used growing up.

Growing Pains is low-key about her character development as much as anything else, or rather the development of our perception of her. She’s definitely chilled out since the beginning of the show, but in the same way we’re exploring the flaws of what we’ve seen Steven’s strengths (always putting others first), here we explore the strengths of what we’ve seen as Dr. Maheswaran’s flaws: sometimes you need a parent that tells it like it is in no uncertain terms.

While we get a quick dose of reality as she asks about his GP and briefly loses her cool upon learning that Greg never took his son to the doctor, the hospital sequence simmers down the tension with sight gags about blood pressure and hacky jokes about the shortcomings of hospital gowns. They aren’t laugh-out-loud funny, but lightening the mood even a little bit is crucial to keeping Growing Pains from getting too monotonous: we need things like Dogcopter and Steven growing past any attempt to determine his height, or else the punch of the dramatic scenes gets muted from the lack of tonal shift. The humor still provides information, particularly when Steven’s leg bubbles itself as a literal kneejerk reaction, but it lets us relax just a little before Dr. Maheswaran winds up for the knockout.

There are many moments of brilliance in Steven Universe Future, and perhaps others have more immediate emotional heft, but the diagnosis is by far my favorite scene in the epilogue. After one last joke involving Amethyst’s X-ray, Dr. Maheswaran sits Steven down and straight-up tells him that he has post-traumatic stress disorder. While that exact term might not be used, we get a hell of a lot closer than most cartoons would, pushing all metaphor aside to talk about things like cortisol and lingering emotional pain. It’s a scene that risks becoming one of the Very Special Episodes that this show just parodied, but Mary Elizabeth McGlynn was never gonna let that happen, forgoing Dr. Maheswaran’s brusque tone to show us how worried she is about her patient.

When it’s Zach Callison’s turn, his monologue listing potential sources of trauma is backed by devastating sound design as his summary of early episodes devolve from jokey to morbid. This montage is absolutely everything to Future, because the point of the story isn’t that any one thing is the root of his turmoil, but that all of it is, and it started the moment his powers activated. His adventures, like most adventures, were fun for us to watch, and he accepted that he wasn’t getting hurt for the same reasons we did: shows like this tend to end before we see the past catch up with the hero. This is a show where true strength isn’t physical, but Steven still thinks that his physical pain being healed means everything is fine.

These aren’t just things that happened to Steven; these are things Steven himself still remembers vividly enough that recalling them makes him break into a sweat. And as he talks about it, we get new wrinkles about how he viewed the past (for instance: despite the Gems’ insistence otherwise, he remembers Pearl’s poofing as her dying). He starts slowly, but as soon as he gets going he can’t stop, because when he’s in a safe environment his body wants him to get the right kind of help. This isn’t just a kid who needs a therapist, he’s a kid who’s needed a therapist for years, and the pain keeps washing over him as Dr. Maheswaran reveals the truth about his pink form: it’s not a superpower but a defense mechanism, designed to protect somebody who’s faced so much danger that he’s conditioned to react to everyday problems as if they’re the end of the world.

Steven has the wherewithal to ask why this is only affecting him lately, and while the answer has been hammered in for the past few episodes, it’s still important to hear Dr. Maheswaran say it plainly: his support network is crumbling. The time for insinuation is done, as Steven and the audience alike need to hear the hard truth. The problem now is that Dr. Maheswaran, for all her medical knowledge, only knows what Steven is telling her, meaning she only knows what he’s willing to admit. While he’s opened up more to her than he has to anybody else so far about his woes, he still doesn’t understand that a major part of his support system’s failure is his own inability to reach out for help.

Thankfully, Connie understands what he needs in this department. When she left the room with a smile then got on the phone, it was a clear sign that she was worried, and it pays off quickly as Greg arrives to help. But before he does, her presence causes even more embarrassment as Steven goes haywire, triggered by the shame of his proposal and the shock that she didn’t tell her parents about it. It’s telling that he’s flabbergasted that she didn’t tell her mom when he didn’t tell his dad, because it’s so obvious to him that when something bad happens you should talk about it, but he still thinks that applies to everyone but himself.

The final humiliation is primal: he gets too big for his clothes, and Connie and her mom have to avert their eyes as his physical exposure matches his mental state. This is a waking nightmare, and while it forces him to understand what he needs in the moment (some time away from Connie), his inability to reach that conclusion in a healthy way makes him shout at her. This is the first of four episodes in a row where his bottled up emotions emerge as rage towards others, and it’s telling that the first instance is around Connie and Dr. Maheswaran, the other two people involved in the dream that first revealed Pink Diamond.

Thankfully Steven’s other parent arrives in time, and while Greg’s appearance here is preceded by the reveal of a major failing on his part, it’s so good to see him. He of course knows what to say, allowing Steven to vent and telling him it’s okay; letting it out makes him feel better, but the writers and actors convey an astonishing level of pain as it does. Tom Scharpling gets a lot more to do in our next episode, but he’s a killer here as a dad who’s hurting on behalf of his son, while Callison naturally knocks it out of the park.

We get one last little moment of embarrassment to ease us off when Steven recognizes what Connie did for him and thanks her; it’s rough to talk to somebody you just yelled at, especially when they’re clearly trying to help you. And considering Steven’s problems stem from not recognizing methods that make him feel better, it’s predictable that he won’t retain the lesson that talking things out will help him. But the biggest bummer of Growing Pains is that, like Bismuth Casual, it only ends on a positive note the first time you watch it. Like Stevonnie, Greg seems like the solution to Steven’s problems, and both episodes are followed by stories about that solution failing.

Still, considering how harsh this stretch of episodes is, it’s nice to have a little bit of solace before diving back into more misery. Steven finally knows what his problem is, which is the first true step towards recovery. But it sadly isn’t the last.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

While Growing Pains suffers from the same difficult ranking as Together Forever (it’s hard to say I love an episode that’s so painful to watch), its overwhelming strengths and the fact that it has my favorite scene in Future make it a clearer choice. Don’t love it enough to watch it enough to call it a favorite, but boy oh boy is it great.

The Pinnacle

  Steven Universe: The Movie (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Top Thirty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Jungle Moon

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

A Single Pale Rose

Change Your Mind (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Reunited

Earthlings

In Dreams

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Prickly Pair

Lars of the Stars

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Escapism

Little Graduation

Back to the Kindergarten

Steven’s Dream

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

When It Rains

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Storm in the Room

Room for Ruby

Lion 4: Alternate Ending

Doug Out

The Good Lars

Are You My Dad?

I Am My Mom

Stuck Together

The Trial

Off Colors

Lars’s Head

Gemcation

Raising the Barn

Sadie Killer

Kevin Party

Your Mother and Mine

The Big Show

Pool Hopping

Letters to Lars

Can’t Go Back

Now We’re Only Falling Apart

What’s Your Problem?

The Question

Legs From Here to Homeworld

Familiar

Little Homeschool

Rose Buds

Volleyball

Snow Day

Why So Blue?

Bismuth Casual

Growing Pains

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Rocknaldo

Dewey Wins

Together Alone

A Very Special Episode

Y’all, It’s Complicated

Made of Honor

Together Forever

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

Tiger Philanthropist

Guidance

Bluebird

No Thanks!

     6. Horror Club      5. Fusion Cuisine      4. House Guest      3. Onion Gang      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Future, Episode 13: Together Forever

“Not now.”

Ugggggh.

Sorry, weird typo, what I meant to write was UGGGGGGH.

I never actually watched Together Forever until I had to for this post. I’d watched most of it, and I’d listened to the whole thing, but I was physically unable to keep my eyes on the screen until I forced myself to do it, because, if you’ll allow me, UGGGGGGGH.

It starts out so well, with Steven and Connie so connected that his ukulele syncs up with her theme, but even in this lovely opening track we can hear their core problem: she’s got her own piece of music, but he’s playing Alone Together. She wants to have her own life, where he’s important enough to take study breaks for but not the single goal she’s aiming for, while he just wants to be with her. It's not only a matter of romance, although we’ve gotten to the point where that has overridden the friendship subtext of their relationship for good; he wants her confidence in the future, her optimism that things are gonna get better from here instead of peaking in childhood.

We also get a sense of Steven’s catastrophizing right off the bat, as their conversation ends with him worrying himself pink about Connie going to a faraway college. For anyone else it’d make sense to be upset that a distant loved one is going even further away, but Steven and Connie as individuals and as a unit have access to a magic teleporting lion. These are kids who can go to the friggin moon on a whim and be back before bedtime, commuting isn’t gonna be an impediment here. But all Steven can see is a worst case scenario, and the symbolism of space apart instead of the reality that things are gonna be fine no matter where she goes.

This isn’t just a problem of Steven’s specific trauma, but of adolescence in general: life is hard for him in the moment, and Connie is busy in the moment, and being a teenager tends to amplify momentary issues into inescapable life-changing problems. Part of it is lack of context (it’s hard to know that your problems will seem smaller in hindsight without the part where you have hindsight) and part of it is chemical (puberty’s gonna puberty) but none of it is in his control. He feels like the world is going to end unless he does something, so he does something.

Garnet is the natural Gem to pair him with, demonstrating the solution to his woes within moments of meeting her, even if she and her components spend the rest of the episode screwing that solution up: she separates into Ruby and Sapphire, not because of a crisis but because they can still love each other while doing different things.

Steven is failed in Together Forever, but it’s so much more frustrating than Ruby and Sapphire merely letting him down. At every turn, their poor advice is informed by how Steven helped them develop. Ruby, now a troop leader who encourages her scouts artistically instead of punching her way through nature, suggests a proposal because that’s exactly what Steven suggested when her own relationship was on the rocks. Sapphire, capable of charting out possibilities with mathematical precision, abandons all sense of prudence to spur Steven towards rashness because he taught her that love overcomes all. They've grown more similar to each other, with Ruby cooling her jets and suggesting Sapphire as a safeguard when she’s getting too excited, and Sapphire evoking her inner Ruby as she abandons her foresight, but Steven doesn’t benefit at all from their growth.

Ruby and Sapphire want to help Steven, but they can’t do for him what he did for them. For starters, he has way more experience dealing with other peoples’ issues than they do, as he’s been moonlighting as the team’s therapist since at least Tiger Millionaire. But even if Garnet and her halves shared this quality, they were in a committed relationship for thousands of years by the time they got married, so while the proposal itself was spontaneous, it wasn’t remotely similar to what Steven’s proposal to anyone would be, let alone one made as a teenager. 

Jumping ahead to the aftermath, Garnet is only mildly better. She gives outstanding advice about the importance of soulmates being individuals, and to not use relationships to fill in personal gaps, but she presents it like a parent telling a teenager what I just wrote a few paragraphs ago: that their problems will seem smaller later. It might be true, but if it comes without any understanding or empathy for what it’s actually like to live in that moment, it rings hollow. Despite our best efforts, it’s impossible for us former teenagers to fully relate to current ones (especially because the world keeps changing and the adolescent experience keeps changing with it), but it’s so important to at least try and remember that they’re going through a lot. As an adult who was never even a teenager in the first place, Garnet’s attempt at providing wisdom doesn’t stand a chance. She knew something bad would happen, and while there’s value in letting kids make mistakes on their own, her inability to sense his vulnerability is a critical step in his sense of dissociation from the other Crystal Gems.

But, ugh, back to the heartbreak. Steven comes at the proposal from the wrong mental place, literally wanting to use Connie to make him feel strong; he’s never gonna be the sort of guy to trick her like Pearl did with Garnet, but it’s not great to share the sentiment that sparked the Week of Sardonyx. Ruby and Sapphire might encourage him, but he’s clearly been thinking about this independently (I mean he envisions her in a wedding dress all the way back in Open Book), and despite Garnet’s words not being helpful, it’s visible that there truly isn’t a future where he doesn’t propose. He wants to be talked into it because he needs the approval of others to do what he wants to do on his own.

But even if his motives are wrong, the real punch to the gut of Together Forever is that he does absolutely everything right if his date night had lower stakes. He plans ahead, humming the tune that he’ll soon sing in the way he once did in Gem Glow and Steven and the Stevens, and while he arrives at Connie’s place as a surprise, he’s thoughtful enough to keep her schedule in mind. He brings her to the beach where they first met, confident enough to laugh at his past self instead of being embarrassed, leading her to a picnic full of emblems of their past (durian juice, jam, and an imminent glow bracelet like a bomb in a driver’s trunk). And then he has to twist the knife by singing the last new song he’ll sing in the series.

I’d Rather Be Me (With You) is, without the knowledge of what it’s building up to, among the more heartwarming songs of the series. Its subtle-but-not-too-subtle reference to Let Me Drive My Van Into Your Heart works wonders, establishing the romantic tone but sounding new enough to be Steven’s voice; you just get the sense that he’s closer to the age Greg was when he wrote that song. Zach Callison can do no wrong when he picks up the microphone, and after the sweeping range he displayed in the movie, it’s magical to hear a softer tune. If everything stopped when the song did, the moment would be perfect.

But knowing what it’s building up to, it’s clearer that this isn’t a love song. Steven would rather be tall (like Stevonnie) and rather be smart (like Stevonnie). He isn’t singing about a relationship with Connie, he’s singing about losing himself within a fusion, romanticizing the death of his individuality to achieve the ultimate goal of someone who lives for other people: to literally become another person.

Connie, who spends the entire date practically swooning over how sweet Steven is, clearly wants to be in a relationship with him (she kissed him first, after all), but ever the realist of the duo, she reacts to his proposal with horror. It’s a proposal we’ve been dreading since the idea first came up (or even earlier, if you spoiled yourself with leaked audio), but for her it’s full whiplash from the good time she’s been having, and it’s just fucking awful.

She’s an absolute champion in her response after the initial shock wears off. She takes Steven seriously, and under no circumstances wants to humiliate him even though the idea of proposing at their age is absurd. She doesn’t get angry, she keeps her justified freak-out to a minimum, and she doesn’t even tell him “no”: she, as someone who isn’t afraid of the future, all but tells him to just wait a few years. But she doesn’t understand that he’s terrified of the future, or how lost he’s been feeling, because she hasn’t had the time to understand how bad of a place he’s in.

And that’s not her fault. She isn’t and shouldn’t be his only support network, and he’s obsessed with presenting the front that he’s okay. She’s busy, but does make time for him, and if he refuses to talk about his own problems then her hands are tied. But she wants to help him, ignoring her alarm without hesitation and telling Steven he’s important to her with the same passion-bordering-on-anger she displays when telling off the Diamonds. He just refuses to let her in, closing himself off again under the shroud of false happiness until he convinces her to leave.

Steven has already endured the events of Little Graduation, where he perceived folks living their own lives as folks leaving him behind. And now he faces another crisis, where he perceives the desire to keep the stakes at an adolescent level as a rejection. The first blow is what really got the ball rolling on his mental breakdown, but Together Forever ramps up the trauma to the point where he’ll need to be hospitalized for a bit, and it’s easy to see why. When he turns pink again he doesn’t just sink into bed with depression, he explodes. He destroys all the work he’s put into his dinner with Connie as he spends untold hours in a daze, and when he emerges, he’s only met with Garnet’s inability to reach him on a human level.

This is thankfully the worst of it on a secondhand embarrassment level, because I’m not sure I could’ve taken much more than this. We’ve dabbled in Steven making his own problems worse in Prickly Pear, but this time he doesn’t even get a fun metaphor for how his inability to seek help for himself creates a vicious and expanding circle. This time all we get is pain, shame, and gorging on cake.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

There was no future where I listed an episode this painful as a favorite. It would be disingenuous to say that I love or even like to watch Together Forever, but it certainly isn’t due to lack of quality, so it finds a place in my oddball category.

The Pinnacle

  Steven Universe: The Movie (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Top Thirty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Jungle Moon

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

A Single Pale Rose

Change Your Mind (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Reunited

Earthlings

In Dreams

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Prickly Pair

Lars of the Stars

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Escapism

Little Graduation

Back to the Kindergarten

Steven’s Dream

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

When It Rains

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Storm in the Room

Room for Ruby

Lion 4: Alternate Ending

Doug Out

The Good Lars

Are You My Dad?

I Am My Mom

Stuck Together

The Trial

Off Colors

Lars’s Head

Gemcation

Raising the Barn

Sadie Killer

Kevin Party

Your Mother and Mine

The Big Show

Pool Hopping

Letters to Lars

Can’t Go Back

Now We’re Only Falling Apart

What’s Your Problem?

The Question

Legs From Here to Homeworld

Familiar

Little Homeschool

Rose Buds

Volleyball

Snow Day

Why So Blue?

Bismuth Casual

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Rocknaldo

Dewey Wins

Together Alone

A Very Special Episode

Y’all, It’s Complicated

Made of Honor

Together Forever

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

Tiger Philanthropist

Guidance

Bluebird

No Thanks!

     6. Horror Club      5. Fusion Cuisine      4. House Guest      3. Onion Gang      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Future, Episode 12: Bismuth Casual

“I’ve kinda missed out on a lot of human stuff.”

After eleven episodes of buildup, our next eleven minutes can’t wait a single second longer for Connie.

She’s the biggest missing piece of Future up to this point, only seen in glimpses and heard in references. And she’s not even a main character in the movie, meaning we’ve barely seen her at all since the time skip. That said, we can gather a lot from what little we’ve gotten from her: she’s bolder about her crush on Steven, she’s interested in normal human activities like space camp without losing her grip on that space sword, and now she’s busy busy busy planning for her future. In short, she’s everything Steven could be if he had his life together, but because he wasn’t raised in a stable home and was burdened from a young age with an impossible legacy, that just isn’t in the cards for him. It isn’t that she’s run out of problems, but she’s figured out how to keep it together.

And sure enough, she bursts into Bismuth Casual singing along with Emily King, who’s been serenading the closing credits and will give us the final song of the series. Connie is the human half that's eluded Steven throughout the epilogue, and while it’s great to see her, sudden exposure to this vital part of his life is bound to be messy.

What makes Bismuth Casual brilliant is that this messiness doesn’t look inevitable at first. Emily King signifying humanity becomes a bigger deal in retrospect, but in the moment, it evokes fellow real-world singer Mike Krol in this sequel to Last One Out of Beach City: there, Pearl’s journey into the human world was just beginning, but now she’s an expert at talking to strangers and impressing the mortal world with charm and toilet paper. And Bismuth is not only here to round out the crew, but named in the episode. This looks like it’s gonna be a blast!

And for a while, it is. Pearl’s favorite song is a commercial jingle, because she’s still an alien at the end of the day, but Deedee Magno Hall makes it sound good. Sour Cream, her Cool Kid counterpart, is doing what he loves. Bismuth is looking sharp, and while she’s nervous when she gets to the skating rink, she’s cheered up by Steven’s enthusiasm for trying something new; after a string of episodes showcasing his anxiety, he can admit his distance from humanity with a smile and the hope to get back into things. Things are finally looking up.

It only goes south when, like in Kevin Party, we’re reminded that Connie has a life outside of Steven, and has long outgrown the shy kid reading a book on the beach because she’s bad at making friends. Both here and in Kevin Party, it’s a good thing that she’s got her own stuff going on, rather than being defined as a side character in Steven’s story; however, both instances display her ease with people that aren’t Steven after a long and pointed absence, making him feel like the odd man out. 

Far worse is Steven’s inability to relate even slightly with Patricia and Daniel, two kids who not only lack Connie’s status as a Crystal Gem, but your average Beach City resident’s familiarity with magic. Nearly every human we’ve met has encountered the supernatural at least once over the course of the series, but Connie’s friends are just folks from school living their best Muggle lives. He’s fumbling before he even starts talking with them, and crashes hard when he opens his mouth. He’s not the outgoing kid who makes friends with strangers reading on the beach anymore, and while it’s mostly a good thing that he’s gained a sense of self-awareness that he lacked in the early days, all he can do is reflect on how embarrassing it is that he doesn’t go to school and is better at chatting up alien enemies than his earthly peers.

This is already enough conflict to fuel the episode, but because Steven is a teenager and adolescence can be pure hell, he literally crashes hard when he tries to skate as well. But it gets worse: Pearl, an alien who began the series wanting nothing to do with humans, can skate just fine. And it gets worse: Bismuth, who’s been stuck in a bubble since thousands of years before roller skates were invented, is a natural.

It’s fitting in a way that Bismuth’s finale episode sorta sidelines her, given she was ignored for nearly the entire third act of the original series despite every reason on paper to bring her back. But even though this is primarily a story about Steven and Connie, our title character does what she does best: inspiring others and being brave enough to try something new. Uzo Aduba remains iconic as Bismuth lifts our hero up when he’s down by reforging his weaknesses into strengths (“Of course you're weird, you're a Crystal Gem!”) and pushes him back into the fray.

Bismuth, like Connie, is deepened by the reveal of a life and relationships beyond Steven. She’s drawn to the way Pearl (another character who has prominent off-screen adventures featured here) has grown, enough to develop a crush on her that we never see the consequences of. Perhaps it’s unfulfilling to not know what happens next, in the same way we never see what happens to the mystery girl of Last One Out of Beach City, but I love how much we emphasize that the universe doesn’t revolve around Steven, no matter how much responsibility he wants to take for its problems. Like the rest of the B-Team, I’d have liked more time with Bismuth than we got, but even with limited focus she gets a warm sendoff here, and the hope of a warmer future.

Which brings us back to Connie. While both kids hold some blame for their disconnect (Connie isn’t making time for their friendship, Steven isn’t making time for humanity), we see over and over that she’s trying here, which makes it that much more painful when Steven repeatedly chooses to ignore her attempts to help. She’s glad to see her friends, but at every turn she turns her attention back to Steven, even if it means leaving the others behind. It’s telling that Bismuth, a Gem, is the only one who can convince Steven that Connie wants to hang out with him after Connie has been making that crystal clear the whole time.

The fact that Steven can’t even connect properly with a human as close to him as Connie makes the ending a victory in the moment and a defeat in the greater scope, because he truly doesn’t know how to skate. He can’t even handle gliding forward, preferring to stand still even as the world moves around him, terrified of what change might bring. He outright says he fears drifting away (Spinel really did a number on him), and while fusing might help him out of his funk, he learns the wrong lesson from it. 

Stevonnie looms over the pair well before they appear, as Sour Cream replays the song they once danced to over Connie’s attempts to bond, and again (briefly) after Bismuth spurs Steven to get back out there. It’s a song that played over Stevonnie being alone in a crowded room, but also over the introduction of Kevin and the souring mood of Alone Together as the downsides of maturity reveal themselves. Stevonnie is a momentary rush of relief, and it makes sense that Steven wants to stretch that moment into a lifetime, but as he’ll soon learn, he can’t.

Lest I sound too somber, that rush of relief is brilliant, even without AJ Michalka. After subtly priming us to remember a tense moment of dancing in front of others to Sour Cream’s deejaying, we instead see Stevonnie at their most comfortable, weaving in and out of the crowd and finding joy in what was once a stressful situation. This is, after all, a coda for Stevonnie as well as Bismuth, and an even bigger one as Bismuth does return for the finale, so it’s wonderful to close the chapter on what Alone Together opened.

But then the moment passes, and while Steven is in a better mood, he can still only relate to Connie’s human friends with references to his Gem stuff. He’s feeling great, but he still chooses to use his victory to help others (in this case, Bismuth and Pearl) instead of doing something for himself. He knows change is possible, but he still thinks the solution lies in other people, and he’s taken one step back on the journey to realizing the truth: the person he needs to focus on is himself.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

This is the first, but not the last, victim of my difficulty getting past secondhand embarrassment to enjoy an episode to its fullest. Bismuth Casual is terrific, and works even better in retrospect, but it’s edged out of my favorites list because it’s so painful to watch.

(Luckily our next episode is a breeze!)

The Pinnacle

   Steven Universe: The Movie (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Top Thirty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Jungle Moon

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

A Single Pale Rose

Change Your Mind (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Reunited

Earthlings

In Dreams

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Prickly Pair

Lars of the Stars

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Escapism

Little Graduation

Back to the Kindergarten

Steven’s Dream

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

When It Rains

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Storm in the Room

Room for Ruby

Lion 4: Alternate Ending

Doug Out

The Good Lars

Are You My Dad?

I Am My Mom

Stuck Together

The Trial

Off Colors

Lars’s Head

Gemcation

Raising the Barn

Sadie Killer

Kevin Party

Your Mother and Mine

The Big Show

Pool Hopping

Letters to Lars

Can’t Go Back

Now We’re Only Falling Apart

What’s Your Problem?

The Question

Legs From Here to Homeworld

Familiar

Little Homeschool

Rose Buds

Volleyball

Snow Day

Why So Blue?

Bismuth Casual

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Rocknaldo

Dewey Wins

Together Alone

A Very Special Episode

Y’all, It’s Complicated

Made of Honor

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

Tiger Philanthropist

Guidance

Bluebird

No Thanks!

     6. Horror Club      5. Fusion Cuisine      4. House Guest      3. Onion Gang      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Future, Episode 11: In Dreams

"Camp Pining Hearts helped me escape when everything around me was in chaos.”

Meta commentary requires a deft touch unless you want a story that’s overly cutesy or self-congratulatory, and while Steven Universe doesn’t always get it right as far as I’m concerned (see: Say Uncle and Know Your Fusion), it’s never gotten it wrong when an in-universe television show is involved, and it’s never gotten it wrong with Peridot.

I say “meta commentary” and not “meta humor” because In Dreams, on top of being our last Peridot episode, is our last horror episode. And while there are jokes galore courtesy of the Crystal Gems’ favorite gremlin, what could’ve been a broad episode about fanfiction is reshaped by the very thing the story is about: the fact that Steven Universe Future is about what happens after the escapism of Steven Universe, when the fantasy of being a galactic hero cedes to the reality that Steven has a lot more life to live and a newsstand’s worth of issues to sort out.

This isn’t just an episode about why this series can’t be Steven Universe anymore, but why the series is ending: ongoing shows require constant conflict to fuel each episode’s plot, and Steven has adjusted his worldview to fit into a world driven by conflict to the point where he has no idea how to just exist with people anymore. In Dreams mourns the end of simpler times, but readies both its characters and its audience for what can come next.

Steven’s dream powers return to present an unsubtle but devastating view into his subconscious fear: that because his value comes from helping others, and everyone has already been helped, nobody will need him anymore. Cartoon Network, scrambling for some levity to promote a show about a kid having a nervous breakdown, went all in on using Steven’s excitement at partying for promos, but he’s never allowed into his own home to participate. He’s brought everybody together, but he remains an outsider looking in, belonging with neither humans nor Gems. The giant Cookie Cat’s haunting “No one needs your help, so why are you still here?” might be on the nose, but it’s okay to be obvious about the message when you do it with style.

As he aims his dreams toward fixing Camp Pining Hearts, we shift from what he fears to what he wants. “Stefan” is physically idealized, resembling the hunky adult Steven became in So Many Birthdays with prominent stubble and a deep voice, but the self-insert is still defined by helping others rather than doing anything for himself. Still, as the dreams continue, his fears seep back in, first with the abusive Diamonds making their first appearance in the epilogue, then with a montage of everyone once again leaving him, no matter how strong his body has become.

Like Steven’s dreams on Homeworld, these are more easily interpreted than the more realistic dreams from the rest of the series, which had a far more even blend of meaning with nonsense. There’s plenty of nonsense here, for sure, but even silliness like Cookie Cat and Dogcopter and Steven’s infant form reveal a kid who’s grappling with the end of his childhood. He mentions after the first nightmare that these bad dreams are frequent, and his ability to project them into a television is one of many examples of how Steven’s fear of letting people know how he feels is undermined by his inability to hide his feelings, so in case it wasn’t clear from previous episodes, this is a much bigger problem than it might look in his day-to-day.

Compounding the issue is the elephant in the room that both the house party and the series is dancing around: as Steven’s worries grow and grow, Connie remains out of reach. He mentions her in Prickly Pair, but for the first time since Little Homeschool we actually see her, first as one of many in a room he can’t reach, then as a far more personal figure in his dreams.

Steven doesn’t want to be the main character anymore, but when Peridot insists that he up the drama by having Stefan horn in on the Rodrigo/Jasmine pairing, whatever adolescent self-insert fantasy the show seems to be going for grinds to a halt as Connie, the girl he’s actually interested in, replaces his fake love interest. Her anger and transformation into Obsidian is refreshingly ambiguous after such clear-cut visual metaphors; this could be a matter of jealousy, frustration with Steven for not putting in the effort to see her, Steven’s worry that she’s closer to the Crystal Gems than he is, Steven’s desire for her to be closer to the Crystal Gems, Steven’s fear that the closest people in his life are crushing him under their massive Monty Python foot, who knows? It’s nice to have something here that’s debatable, especially when Connie, who had a whole arc about being a real person and not just a side character in Steven’s story, is the subject. We get the real thing just in time, but In Dreams does excellent work in heralding her arrival.

But we’ll have plenty more room to talk about Connie later! For now, we get our second of the three finale episodes for the Crystal Gems’ B-Team, and after a long absence of her own (only appearing meaningfully in Bluebird), Peridot gets an outstanding sendoff. There’s no better character for a meta episode that isn’t aiming for laughs, because while she can certainly bring the comedy, she’s far more grounded than the likes of Sardonyx or Sunstone. Her anxiety, difficulty understanding people, and growth are all on full display, and Shelby Rabara knocks it out of the park.

Peridot gives 100% of her energy towards hanging out with Steven to watch Camp Pining Hearts, and while there are plenty of quotes in the episode about Steven’s inner turmoil, her speech about what the show meant to her is everything to what In Dreams is about: she, like Steven, wants to return to a simpler time, but for her it involves returning to a show before its reboot. Her brand of meta commentary makes the most sense in-universe compared to her more magical counterparts, as her comparison of Steven’s life to a television show is based on her gaining an understanding of social dynamics through a television show. Using terms like “character development” to describe her growth, arranging shipping charts, and even getting into the weeds by storyboarding her episode ideas all bear fruit in what a person in her scenario might actually do given the resources available to her, so it hits the sweet spot of being funny without overwhelming the fourth wall.

As Steven points out, he and Peridot bonded by fixing something together, so it tracks that they’d get into making something new out of a show that’s gone off the rails. Steven appreciates the lower stakes, but to Peridot these stakes are as high as the end of the world, as the end of Camp Pining Hearts as she knows it is akin to a part of her old life dying. This is of course happening on a cartoon that itself is going through a soft reboot before ending for good; she brushes up against this fact just enough to let the commentary speak for itself.

Peridot is technically the antagonist of the episode, but while she’s insensitive to Steven’s distress, we’ve always known that she has a hard time sussing out her friends’ emotions when they aren’t being clear. Her ardor about fixing things pushes Steven’s similar drive to make everything better, but her distance from what’s actually bothering him manifests in his final dream’s devolution into a nightmare right out of Rose’s Room, when his escape from a nasty scenario is revealed to be an even scarier level. The rainbow test pattern that consumes her glasses, and then the whole world, makes for breathtaking imagery and speaks to all sorts of truths that In Dreams wants to convey: that Peridot is blinded to Steven’s needs, that Steven is breaking with reality, that there’s an error of communication, and that as great as television can be, it’s critical to not let it define yourself or your relationships. It’s okay to love, say, Steven Universe, but you can’t let that love subsume your identity.

And it makes it that much more powerful that Peridot, realizing her mistake, takes off her glasses for the first and only time in the series to wipe her tears away. That she’s always wearing glasses is something that I at least have always taken for granted, as they don’t look nearly as detachable as Garnet’s shades and we can see Peridot’s eyes just fine. But for a character introduced as a menacing mechanical villain who loses her artificial enhancements as she bonds with Earth, it’s a beautiful final step to see her shed her final enhancement as she reminds us how good of a friend she’s become.

In Dreams is still in the diagnosis stage more than the healing stage, with Steven acknowledging for the second episode in a row that he doesn’t know what to do with himself without something to fix. Rather than seek further help, he and Peridot give escapism another shot, this time bonding over bad TV instead of clamoring over juicy drama. And to a degree, that’s okay! Escapism can be good, even downright necessary, so long as it isn’t a substitute for dealing with your issues. It’ll help Steven be fine for now, but it won’t be long before his worries fester back to the surface.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

This is my third episode in a row that’s made it into my Top Thirty, and In Dreams is the highest Future episode so far! The trend won’t go on forever, but this midpoint really hits the sweet spot for culminating character arcs and fueling Steven’s last story without overwhelming me with second degree embarrassment. We might not get nearly enough Peridot in Future, but she makes her only major appearance count!

The Pinnacle

    Steven Universe: The Movie (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Top Thirty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Jungle Moon

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

A Single Pale Rose

Change Your Mind (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Reunited

Earthlings

In Dreams

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Prickly Pair

Lars of the Stars

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Escapism

Little Graduation

Back to the Kindergarten

Steven’s Dream

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

When It Rains

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Storm in the Room

Room for Ruby

Lion 4: Alternate Ending

Doug Out

The Good Lars

Are You My Dad?

I Am My Mom

Stuck Together

The Trial

Off Colors

Lars’s Head

Gemcation

Raising the Barn

Sadie Killer

Kevin Party

Your Mother and Mine

The Big Show

Pool Hopping

Letters to Lars

Can’t Go Back

Now We’re Only Falling Apart

What’s Your Problem?

The Question

Legs From Here to Homeworld

Familiar

Little Homeschool

Rose Buds

Volleyball

Snow Day

Why So Blue?

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Rocknaldo

Dewey Wins

Together Alone

A Very Special Episode

Y’all, It’s Complicated

Made of Honor

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

Tiger Philanthropist

Guidance

Bluebird

No Thanks!

     6. Horror Club      5. Fusion Cuisine      4. House Guest      3. Onion Gang      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Future, Episode 10: Prickly Pair

“Why do I need to be needed?”

Steven Universe, for all its sweetness and humor, knows its way around horror. It isn’t even something the show had to ease its way into: Frybo and Cat Fingers are only its fifth and sixth episodes, and they set the stage for a children’s cartoon that’s strangely okay with unnerving its viewers. It’s not as if it’s rare to see scary stuff for young audiences (horror is a huge genre for kids), but it’s weird and wonderful to see it so seamlessly woven into a show that isn’t normally aiming for that mood.

There are only two episodes I’d label as “horror” in Future, and like our earliest entries, they appear back-to-back. But these are no longer stories about childhood fears: Steven is growing, and the things that scare him the most hit much harder for teenagers and adults. We see throughout the epilogue that it’s unhealthy to bottle up your feelings instead of processing them, but as Prickly Pair and In Dreams show, the consequences can go further than pain or discomfort. They can be downright disturbing.

Our opening shot gives our heroes a wide berth, but that sense of distance soon cedes to a claustrophobic atmosphere in Steven’s greenhouse. The reveal that he hasn’t been using his powers to speed things up suggests that he’s been at this for a while, pouring all of his time and energy into building a gigantic garden from scratch. Lest we confuse this hobby for a healthy outlet, like Peridot’s own interest in plants, he lets us know that he’s spent the entire time obsessing about the aftermath of Little Graduation, and is using entities under his control that are literally rooted down as a substitute for his drifting sense of community.

The Big Three Crystal Gems, last seen not knowing what to do with Steven, are at least in touch enough to notice that something’s wrong here. They’re doing their best to help him in the way he needs post-Snow Day, bringing him gardening supplies and offering a listening ear when he starts rattling off the plants he’s named after bygone friends (Connie, only mentioned once offhandedly since the first episode of the epilogue, is pointedly the first one he mentions), but they can’t do much if he doesn’t want their help.

Even so, he’s still keen on showing off to them at every turn, despite the resentment festering under the surface. He wants them to know believe that he’s fine, propping up his successes while scrambling to cover up his mistakes as if they’re an audience he wants to impress rather than a family. This dynamic enhances the sense that Steven and the Crystal Gems love each other, but are just out of sync: the Gems have good advice when he isn’t willing to listen, but aren’t nearly as helpful when he asks for help in episodes like Bluebird, A Very Special Episode, and Together Forever. So instead of turning to them, he turns to Cactus Steven.

The only time we see Steven outside the boundaries of his home is when he’s unloading with a makeshift therapist. Much like confiding in the Cool Kids that he’s worried the Gems might blame him for Rose being gone in Joy Ride, or confiding in Amethyst that he’s worried about never living up to her legacy in Steven vs. Amethyst, Steven gets a chance to talk about his feelings in a revelatory way: sure enough, he’s as aware as the audience that the Big Three are letting him down, and his incisive complaints about each of them show that he’s been stewing about it for at least as long as he’s been gardening. But much like the Mirror, his new friend doesn’t tell him anything new, only echoing his words in a way that’s clever but ultimately unfulfilling without growth.

While more concrete horror elements come later, Steven’s relationship with Cactus Steven is the most uncomfortable part of the episode, revealing not one but two sparks for his upcoming breakdown. First, he doesn’t know how to talk with anyone he actually knows about his problems, and that sense of isolation spurs him to make rash decisions that only drive him further from his friends and family. And second, rather than seek out an actual therapist to help with this, he repeats what he learned from the Big Three: when in doubt, dump all your problems on a kid and hope they make you feel better.

Cactus Steven doesn’t just resemble our hero in his appearance, but in his role. He’s what happens to someone who absorbs the trauma of others without developing the ability to express their own pain in a healthy way, and he foreshadows Steven’s mental and physical deterioration not by shriveling, but by growing into an uncontrollable monster. Both Stevens are failed by their well-meaning elders and left without the tools to get better, so they’re left with little choice but losing their minds.

The more concrete horror is a result of this, as Cactus Steven goes from a cute head to an angry lump to a full-fledged doppelganger of Steven, reflecting his confusion and anger in the same way the Watermelon Stevens reflect the self-sacrificial empath of his younger days. The visuals and sound design are tremendous as Steven searches for his counterpart, with telltale needles littering the floor and Cactus Steven slowly rising from behind our hero, and the ensuing fight adds more classic body horror from the Frybo days by mutating the plant further and further. But again, this is a teenager’s horror episode, so the scariest thing for Steven isn’t the monster; the guy’s been handling monsters for years now. What frightens him most is the truth.

The issue I have with Guidance and Bluebird is that they telegraph what’s happening to the point where by the time we get to where the episode is going, it feels like going through the motions. Prickly Pair has the same potential flaw, with Steven sounding off on the Crystal Gems in a way that’s clearly gonna come back to bite him given how well it’s established that his listener is an oversharer. But thanks to the mood the episode sets, what feels redundant in Guidance and Bluebird instead feels ominous, because we just know the bomb in the trunk is gonna go off and it’s only a matter of how close the Gems are when it does.

Steven is as concerned about this possibility as we are, and is frantic in his attempts to keep the Gems away. His bold-faced lie that everything is fine while the Gems look through the window at the fight is one of several instances of humor blending into the suspense, and because Prickly Pair has the crew at the top of its game (with newcomer Drew Green working with veteran Paul Villeco) this comedy hits the perfect balance of entertaining without distracting from the stakes. Zach Callison is great at tempering his fear and angst with impertinence, unable to help himself from snarky asides when he’s in a bad mood, while Pearl faces the brunt of our physical humor when she keeps getting needled. Even Amethyst’s hilarious confusion at their “weirdly specific” opponent comes at a dramatic climax, but it doesn’t diminish the anxiety of the moment.

Steven saves the day, of course, and he does so in the exact way Connie will save him: by realizing that his monstrous form is in pain, and offering some love. And, like Steven one day will, Cactus Steven realizes afterward that it’s time to figure some things out on his own. But despite being honest with the Gems about Cactus Steven reflecting his words, and despite being willing to get stabbed by needles to embrace his prickly offspring, Steven still can’t stick the landing. The Big Three give him an opportunity to talk at the beginning, and Amethyst gives him another when he’s trying to hide Cactus Steven, and now he’s getting yet another chance, but he still has nothing to say to them. He’s holding a flower that represents Cactus Steven literally opening up, but he still can’t do the same.

Everyone in the room wants the same thing: for Steven to be more communicative and to close the widening rift between him and the people around him. But none of them know how to do it, because the only therapist that the Big Three have ever had is Steven, and the only therapist Steven has ever had just busted down his wall to leave. All four of them need a professional, and while Steven was a good enough substitute to work in a pinch for his family, that means he needs that much more work to heal. He knows his need to be needed is a problem, but admitting you have a problem is only the first step.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

The only reason this wouldn’t make my favorites list is that I don’t like feeling uncomfortable (I can only take so much cringe comedy, let alone cringe horror), but the sheer quality of Prickly Pair demands to be recognized. Like Why So Blue? before it, it fits right in with I Am My Monster while telling a story of its own, and while it’s a bummer to see our hero take steps towards that breakdown, I’m stunned by how artfully this episode sets that stage.

The Pinnacle

     Steven Universe: The Movie (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Top Thirty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Jungle Moon

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

A Single Pale Rose

Change Your Mind (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Reunited

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Prickly Pair

Lars of the Stars

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Escapism

Little Graduation

Back to the Kindergarten

Steven’s Dream

Kevin Party

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

When It Rains

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Storm in the Room

Room for Ruby

Lion 4: Alternate Ending

Doug Out

The Good Lars

Are You My Dad?

I Am My Mom

Stuck Together

The Trial

Off Colors

Lars’s Head

Gemcation

Raising the Barn

Sadie Killer

Your Mother and Mine

The Big Showf

Pool Hopping

Letters to Lars

Can’t Go Back

Now We’re Only Falling Apart

What’s Your Problem?

The Question

Legs From Here to Homeworld

Familiar

Little Homeschool

Rose Buds

Volleyball

Snow Day

Why So Blue?

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Rocknaldo

Dewey Wins

Together Alone

A Very Special Episode

Y’all, It’s Complicated

Made of Honor

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

Tiger Philanthropist

Guidance

Bluebird

No Thanks!

     6. Horror Club      5. Fusion Cuisine      4. House Guest      3. Onion Gang      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Future, Episode 9: Little Graduation

“But if there’s nothing to work out...”

We don’t know exactly what Steven was up to for the two years between Change Your Mind and the movie. For all we know, he could’ve taken plenty of breaks from fundamentally reshaping Homeworld society to hang out in Beach City; given what the epilogue presents, I doubt it, but he could’ve! But we do know that after Letters to Lars, we got sixteen more episodes of Steven Universe, then an entire movie, then eight episodes of Steven Universe Future before we finally got another story about Steven’s mortal half.

After Can’t Go Back leads us to A Single Pale Rose, Steven has been all in on the Gem side of the family, and even after he decides to leave Homeworld at the start of the movie, he goes from saving Earth from Spinel to building a whole school to help every Gem he can. He’s so far gone in the movie that he doesn’t consider the value of a rock show to help Pearl until Amethyst brings it up, and while he pays lip service to Lars and Sadie and Connie in Little Homeschool, the only humans he spends any amount of time with until Little Graduation are his father (by default) and Onion (who barely counts).

It’s difficult enough that Steven doesn’t know what to do about the legacy he inherited from his mother, but by focusing so hard on fixing that part of his life, he’s created a far more dangerous problem that consumes the rest of the epilogue: he’s forgotten the importance of being human.

So, in the same way they introduced the entire series, Lars and Sadie introduce the final arc of Steven Universe, the fulcrum episode that forces him to reconsider where he’s going in life. After listening to Sadie Killer and the Suspects’ eponymous song (my personal favorite from the original series, second only to Disobedient overall), we hard reset in Lars’s bakery, where we finally get the first three characters we ever see together in one room again. Everything seems great, until it doesn’t.

I love that Lars and Sadie not only break up, but do so off-screen. My bottom-ranked episode, Island Adventure, only makes it that far down based on how okay the show is with Sadie abusing Lars. While she isn’t nearly that cruel to him again, and he remains a jerk for quite a while afterwards, it’s frustrating to gloss right over her major violation of his agency. But it finally gets addressed, albeit in a roundabout way, by the knowledge that they don’t end up together and the acknowledgment that they very well could’ve had a conversation about the island that we just didn’t see. It doesn’t fix the part of Island Adventures where kids get a worrisome message about consent (including Steven, who praises the episode when talking with Shep), so down at the bottom it remains, but it helps!

Both of their arcs, as well as the Cool Kids’, get wrapped up in this single episode of focus that also introduces a new character and heralds a major shift in Steven’s life, so it’s something of a miracle that Little Graduation doesn’t feel overstuffed. Lars gets a little more attention, being the character who had to grow more and who got a more Steven-centric story, and it’s wonderful to see him become somebody that Steven can look up to. He’s able to acknowledge awkward situations (he, not Sadie, brings up Shep for the first time, and he’s happy to talk with the new couple at the party), and shows Steven that it’s possible to have more than one dream by leaving a fulfilling life on Earth for the mysteries of space (a neat mirroring of what Steven needs). His surliness and sarcasm haven’t disappeared, because you don’t have to fully change who you are to move forward, but he’s capable of unabashed glee as well.

And in that glee department we have Sadie, who at first seems to share Steven’s cluelessness; while his manifests in confusion about everything going on around him because he hasn’t kept in touch with his human friends, hers involves gushing about Shep by essentially comparing their awesome relationship to the one she had with Lars, right to Lars’s face. But as we see more of her, it becomes clear that her attitude is a side effect of genuine overwhelming happiness, rather than being lost at sea like Steven. After the early years of suppressing her rage, then her years as a frontwoman channeling that rage into music, she’s finally free of it, and she’s over the moon.

Steven’s identity hinges on helping others, but he specifically helps by bringing people together, so he has no idea what to do about the reality that some people naturally drift apart. The most prominent example he’s encountered was a song literally called Drift Away, which painted the experience as soul-shattering, so he can only see the bad in Sadie breaking up with Lars and her band. Any one of the characters involved could’ve presented a more positive outlook to counteract his discomfort, but I’m so glad it’s Jenny.

On top of being the Cool Kids’ Amethyst counterpart (which works right into an epilogue about Amethyst versus Jasper), Kiki and Nanefua Pizza have already given Steven two excellent bits of ignored advice. Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service is a direct prequel to Future, hammering in the importance of taking time for yourself instead of living for others, while Dewey Wins sees the new mayor abandon a blame-oriented mindset to move on and heal; had our hero actually listened to either of those lessons, he’d be in a much better place right now. Instead, he’s still putting others first and absorbing all the guilt of his mother’s actions, so it’s Jenny’s turn to try and set him straight, relishing in the beauty of change rather than mourning the past.

The five teens in Steven’s life, now young adults, represent the different ways he could grow in a healthy way. Lars chooses one passion over another, but leaves what he built in capable hands and is open to staying in touch. Sadie shifted her passion from a coping mechanism to a celebration. Sour Cream is staying the course, as passionate about deejaying as ever, because it’s okay to remain committed to what you’ve always loved if you do so in a healthy way. Buck found a passion out of absolutely nowhere, which is a great joke that speaks to his mysteriousness but also speaks to the value of surprising yourself. And Jenny, who also found a new passion, incorporates the work ethic she’s built into her new endeavor, showing that you don’t need a big personality shift to make a change.

And then there’s Shep!

There are any number of reasons a lesser show would fail Shep: they’re a brand new character with only one appearance, they’re romantic competition that sinks a popular ship, and as a person of color who uses they/them pronouns they’re an easy target for writers who want to earn Woke Points by making a gigantic deal out of those attributes. Giving them the major speech that helps Steven through his panic attack, rather than any of the established characters who make their final major appearances here, could’ve backfired just as easily. But this is Steven Universe we’re talking about, so the crew does more than right by Shep.

Shep is defined not by a checklist of identifiers but by their kindness and ability to go with the flow: they’re realistically confused by Steven’s odd behavior, but never holds it against him. Indya Moore gives them an excellent matter-of-fact delivery that highlights the obvious without being redundant or patronizing: of course Steven’s issue when things go south are that he’s overthinking things, but Shep is gentle in their diagnosis even when threatened with getting crushed. The fact that they’re nonbinary is just a part of who they are rather than the focus of the story, because queer people are normal people. (That includes Sadie as well, who’s shown clear attraction to Stevonnie and subtle attraction to Jenny before dating Shep.)

This is the first of many stories focusing on Steven’s awkwardness around humans, and it’s downright painful to watch him fumble over his words and misjudge easily readable rooms in a way that even the earliest version of the character might cringe at. He’s a teenager written with loving retrospect, terrified of letting his true feelings be seen but unaware of just how obvious they are to everyone around him (fun fact to teenagers reading this: you are almost definitely like this!). He lets stray thoughts slip into his speech, his happy float down to see Sadie turns into a freefall when he sees Shep, and his Pink Mode for the first time manifests in a way that can’t be confused for something cool.

It’s perfect that Lars is the key to these emotions: where Steven once had the confidence of a child and Lars had the nervousness of a teenager, Steven takes up his old role while Lars has gained the confidence of adulthood. Lars is kinder than he would’ve been in his early days when Steven tries to blame him for the unresolved emotional tension trapping the crowd, but still puts his foot down and corrects the misunderstanding. He and Sadie and everyone else have their own lives, lives we haven’t seen because Steven hasn’t been putting the work in to be a part of, and also because folks are allowed to have private moments without Steven. His frantic “I didn’t see any of this!” sounds like something a fan would say when trying to catch up with old characters, and that’s more than just meta-commentary on the show’s part: Steven is behaving like a fan of his old life, rather than someone capable of living it.

Steven’s final conversation with Lars is scored with the same music that accompanies his literal death on Homeworld, because even though they can still keep in touch, that’s where Steven’s at right now: reacting to friends leaving him with the same amount of fear and grief that he’d have if they were gone for good. Heightened emotional reactions are par for the course for teenagers, but combine that with a naturally emotional guy who has powers based on those emotions and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. He makes the major decision to quit being part of Little Homeschool almost offhandedly by comparison, and we’ll see him make rasher and rasher choices as he stumbles downhill.

As a quartz, Steven doesn’t know what to do without a mission, and for his whole life that mission has been helping everyone around him. Breaking off from Little Homeschool may be a step in the right direction, but he does so without understanding why it’s important, citing his unhappiness with graduations as the impetus for leaving. He wants to listen to I’m Looking Forward again, but when offered a CD, he opts for an even older tape cassette. He ends the episode contemplating in solitude, but he does so with his eyes to the stars and his back to the Earth, not understanding that he needs to be facing the other direction if he wants to turn his life around.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

This is the first Steven Universe Future episode to end up in my list of favorites; while painful to watch, it’s a magnificent sendoff to five terrific characters (granted, Buck doesn’t get much to do and Sour Cream will return in Bismuth Casual) that show to Steven and the audience that it’s okay to be happy, and a heck of a lot easier to do so when you aren’t shouldering the weight of the universe.

Oh, and the Off Colors are there! Not for long, but they’re there!

The Pinnacle

     Steven Universe: The Movie (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Top Thirty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Jungle Moon

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

A Single Pale Rose

Change Your Mind (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Reunited

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Lars of the Stars

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Escapism

Little Graduation

Back to the Kindergarten

Steven’s Dream

Kevin Party

When It Rains

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Storm in the Room

Room for Ruby

Lion 4: Alternate Ending

Doug Out

The Good Lars

Are You My Dad?

I Am My Mom

Stuck Together

The Trial

Off Colors

Lars’s Head

Gemcation

Raising the Barn

Sadie Killer

Your Mother and Mine

The Big Show

Pool Hopping

Letters to Lars

Can’t Go Back

Now We’re Only Falling Apart

What’s Your Problem?

The Question

Legs From Here to Homeworld

Familiar

Little Homeschool

Rose Buds

Volleyball

Snow Day

Why So Blue?

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Rocknaldo

Dewey Wins

Together Alone

A Very Special Episode

Y’all, It’s Complicated

Made of Honor

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

Tiger Philanthropist

Guidance

Bluebird

No Thanks!

     6. Horror Club      5. Fusion Cuisine      4. House Guest      3. Onion Gang      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Do you think it's indicative of anything that all of your "No Thanks!" episodes are pretty human centric?

Ooh, I love this question. Maybe? Let’s look at why I actively dislike the only six episodes of the series that I actively dislike.

Horror Club is my “favorite” among my least favorites in terms of ranking, while Island Adventure, which is actually the episode I enjoy watching the most of the six, is ranked lowest. They’re both there for the same reason: I don’t dig the way either of them shrug off abusing Lars just because he’s a jerk. It took me forever to come around on Lars as a character, but even when I wasn’t a fan, the idea that it’s not only okay but sometimes heroic to mistreat people because they’re unkind is completely at odds with what Steven Universe is usually about. If either plot had a genuine apology, either within the episode or down the line, then they wouldn’t be on the list.

The other four (Fusion Cuisine, House Guest, Onion Gang, and Sadie’s Song) are episodes whose stakes are based on folks acting wildly out of character for just one episode to spur the plot along. The characters in question (Connie, Greg, Steven, and Steven again) have so many fascinating flaws to dive into, but instead of exploring those shortcomings, we invent new flaws wholesale that either never pop up again or temporarily demolish their existing character development. Which, yeah, I’m not into at all.

I just never thought about the fact that all six of these episodes are human-centric. I’m a big defender of Steven’s adventures with humans (literally the next episode I’m reviewing, Little Graduation, is all about how awesome and important they are), so it’s not a matter of me ranking these at the bottom because I’d rather focus on the Gems. I’m hesitant to speculate on why this correlation exists, but gun to my head, my uneducated guess would be that perhaps the crew focused more on nailing down the Gems for any number of reasons (they’re more novel characters, they require more lore due to their long years, they’re more alien than us and took more work to develop, etc.) so Gem-centric episodes aren’t as prone to misfires. But it honestly could just be a coincidence.

Bear in mind that there’s obviously nothing wrong with liking any or all of those episodes; far from it, I’d be downright fascinated to hear anybody defend Onion Gang as a secret classic, even if I doubt I’d ever agree with them.

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Future, Episode 8: Why So Blue?

“What made it click for you?”

Every episode of Steven Universe Future is about Steven, except one.

In the past, particularly in the second and third seasons of the original series, you could expect plenty of episodes where Steven played backup to a different main character. But in Future, the focus is so heavily on our lead that Why So Blue? manages to be both our final and our only example of that type of story; even our two-pearl showcase revolved around Steven’s inability to handle more bad news about his mom. And of all the characters that could’ve taken on this mantle, the very last episode that isn’t about Steven Universe is about Lapis Lazuli.

When you look at Future as a whole, two of the most obvious candidates for this treatment are Amethyst and Jasper, the angel and devil on Steven’s shoulders as he faces the most important identity crisis of his life. But both of those characters are so aligned with him that they necessarily co-star rather than take center stage. By giving that platform to Lapis instead, we not only get one last look at what a number Jasper can do to a person who gets too close, but explore the subtle thread that ties Lapis to Amethyst: they’re the two most creative Gems in the series when it comes to using the full extent of their abilities, because that’s the only way they’ve been able to survive.

Which is strange, considering Amethyst is a runt while Lapis Lazuli is easily the the most powerful non-Diamond in the series. This episode only widens that gap, because in the same way Amethyst is physically the weakest of the quartzes we meet, it turns out that even among her fellow lazulis, Lapis is essentially a water deity.

Each of our two new lazulis should be better at waterbending than Lapis. They’ve been terraforming nonstop while she took what we’ll call an extended break, and they relish in using their abilities to achieve maximum destruction. In a one on one, either oughtta be able to defeat Lapis in a fight, and together it shouldn’t even be a question. Instead, we see that their desire to destroy can’t hold a candle to Lapis’s drive to create.

Introspection doesn’t come naturally to folks who breeze through life, because without any obstacles there’s no impetus to think too deeply about, well, anything. So it tracks that your average lazuli would be a meathead, given they’re living weapons of mass destruction. But it turns out spending thousands of years reflecting forces a person to think outside the box, and just like Amethyst, Lapis had to define herself with cleverness when physical strength failed her. She didn’t have a voice, so she hijacked the Mirror’s ability to communicate through echoes. She was captured by a bigger Gem, so she flipped the script when coerced into fusion to capture Jasper instead. She couldn’t reconcile between loving her home and fearing the Diamonds, so she just took her home with her in her last escape. While Curls and Freckles have managed just fine with cavewoman tactics, Lapis learned to turn hydrokinesis into an artform.

What makes Why So Blue? so fascinating is that Lapis has already won. Even if she never convinces a single Gem to join Little Homeschool, she’s survived millennia of trauma and found happiness at the end of the tunnel. Even if she gets embarrassed when her dance and song are met with ridicule, she’s still capable of opening up and allowing herself to be vulnerable. The sarcasm and dark sense of humor remain, and that’s more than okay, but she clearly isn’t using them as a defense mechanism anymore.

She still isn’t perfect, struggling to deal with how stubborn her cousins are and eager to pick a fight, but Lapis doesn’t need anything from this encounter. So rather than an episode where she learns something, like Pearl does in Volleyball, we get a full-on recap and victory lap that shows us that she’s going to be okay. In true Lapis fashion, it’s marred by at least a little bit of sorrow, and the other lazulis compare her singing to a pearl’s, but Pearl isn’t her counterpart here: as I said earlier, the Big Three Crystal Gem she’s most similar to ends up being Amethyst (and not just because she played her so well as a Crystal Temp). They’re both crass, creative, and exhibit friendship with Steven rather than a parent/child dynamic, and both are Gems defined by motion whose arcs involve settling down. (The same can be said of Spinel, but let’s save that thought for Homeworld Bound.)

Curls and Freckles (officially “Mean Lapis” and “Nice Lapis”) have a story that naturally extends from Guidance and Bluebird, but is superior to both: they’re Gems who have been given free choice, but like doing what they’ve always done and are antagonistic towards our heroes because of it. They’ve got Lapis’s sense of wry humor (deciding to half-listen to a half-Diamond is a terrific joke) but none of the spark, learning quickly but needing to see what our Lapis can do before realizing their own potential. It’s clear from how easily they pick up Lapis’s tactics that they could pick up her mindset as well, but only Freckles is brave enough to give it a shot, allowing us a solid but imperfect win.

As I said, this isn’t a Steven episode, as he’s devoted to assisting Lapis throughout rather than taking center stage. But this is still Steven Universe Future, so we still get a connection to his long-term problem: he, like the lazulis, has the choice to do whatever he wants, but feels bound to what he’s always done. Stubbornness is a universal trait among Gems, but only in quartzes, lazulis, and Diamonds have we seen that flaw backed up by unthinkable capacities for violence, and as both a quartz and a Diamond, the power of the lazulis here foreshadows the power he’ll one day display in his own oceanic outburst.

Both Steven and Lapis go full Monster Mode in Future, and both events are manifestations of their darkest impulses spurred on by Jasper. Steven’s is more short-term, as he only lets Jasper into his head for a day or two, but two years out and Lapis is still working through her urge to dominate (and not in a kinky way) that she learned from her months as half of Malachite. And the fact that she can’t stop him in his monstrous form is made more prominent by reminding us here that she’s a powerhouse herself, making her decision to resolve things with words instead of force that much more important. The lazulis still don’t understand her attitude, bowing to her outer strength rather than her inner strength, but choosing to be like Steven is a victory for Lapis herself. She could’ve been one of the most prominent villains in the series, but she’s a hero because she chooses to be.

Why So Blue? tells this story with panache, incorporating excellent physical and verbal humor (Steven and Lapis’s coordinated dance into the conversation is tremendous), a killer song from Jeff Liu, and a sterling performance from our actors: like Open Book, this is a simple two-hander featuring Zach Callison as Steven and a costar as variations of the same character. In this case, the three lazulis are fully different people, and Jennifer Paz does a splendid job of keeping them distinct without delving into caricature (not that I would’ve minded an impersonation: again, see her work as Amethyst in The New Crystal Gems). It took a while until we finally got to hear her singing voice, and I’m thrilled we get one more song to close the door on Lapis’s story.

In the same way Snow Day acted as a finale for the original series, Why So Blue? gives us our only episode that isn’t about Steven just in time for his arc to rev up. Soon enough he’ll retire from Little Homeschool and suffer setback after setback until he finally has to make a change, and Why So Blue? is the perfect breath of fresh air before we dive back into the drama zone. We’re getting two more finale episodes with the B-Team, in order of when Steven met them, but if just one of them can take place in a time before our hero feels trapped and overwhelmed, I’m glad it could feature Lapis Lazuli.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

Mirror Gem is my favorite dramatic episode of the series, so I’ve got a soft spot for Lapis’s journey. It’s a long road to get here, and she still defaults to anger after all that work when the going gets rough, but I love where she ends up.

The Pinnacle

     Steven Universe: The Movie (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Top Thirty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Jungle Moon

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

A Single Pale Rose

Change Your Mind (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Reunited

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Lars of the Stars

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Escapism

Back to the Kindergarten

Steven’s Dream

Kevin Party

When It Rains

The Good Lars

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Storm in the Room

Room for Ruby

Lion 4: Alternate Ending

Doug Out

Are You My Dad?

I Am My Mom

Stuck Together

The Trial

Off Colors

Lars’s Head

Gemcation

Raising the Barn

Sadie Killer

Your Mother and Mine

The Big Show

Pool Hopping

Letters to Lars

Can’t Go Back

Now We’re Only Falling Apart

What’s Your Problem?

The Question

Legs From Here to Homeworld

Familiar

Little Homeschool

Rose Buds

Volleyball

Snow Day

Why So Blue?

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Rocknaldo

Dewey Wins

Together Alone

A Very Special Episode

Y’all, It’s Complicated

Made of Honor

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

Tiger Philanthropist

Guidance

Bluebird

No Thanks!

     6. Horror Club      5. Fusion Cuisine      4. House Guest      3. Onion Gang      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventured

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Future, Episode 7: Snow Day

“I need you to see me for who I am now.”

The first three episodes of our epilogue are all about quartzes, focusing on Jasper, then Amethyst, then the Rose Buds (with Steven as lead quartz across all three). Then, after capping off Pearl’s series-long arc, we get another trilogy, this time about how the Big Three Crystal Gems are failing Steven. The first two are so silly that this theme slips right under the radar, and it’s not like Snow Day is a somber affair, but we can’t get to the breakdown that consumes the rest of the series without making one of its main sources clear: this is a kid who needs a solid support network, and the Crystal Gems can’t provide it as they are.

The brilliance of Snow Day is that unlike Bluebird or A Very Special Episode, where the Big Three are unusually apathetic about Steven’s feelings, their behavior here is sympathetic: they, like many of the fans, want this show to still be Steven Universe, but Steven needs it to be Steven Universe Future if he wants to find real happiness down the line. It makes sense to be nostalgic for simpler escapism, but they’re clumsy at the adjustment, and he overcorrects in his ever-growing sense of duty, because somewhere down the line they stopped communicating to each other about their different needs. Taking care of yourself takes work, but so does taking care of relationships, even (and especially) with your family.

After two meandering episode and a frantic episode, we’re right back to tight pacing as we set up our conflict within about a minute: the Big Three want to hang out with Steven in the same way they did when he was younger, and he’s gained enough independence and responsibility that he doesn’t feel that he has the time to indulge them. In both this intro and the tag game, the Gems arrive in order from least to most mothering, from Amethyst wanting to goof off (while remaining enough of an authority figure to remind him about the importance of breakfast), to Garnet trading her future vision for our most explicit reference to the past with his Cheeseburger Backpack, to Pearl smothering him with scarves. And to drive home the point, all three give him their signature triple pat on the head from our last theme song.

We gild the lily a bit when he comes home, doubling down on the Gems wanting to do overly childish activities with Steven and getting the same reaction, but it’s important to show that this isn’t a one-off misstep. The Gems fundamentally don’t know how to interact with this version of Steven, to the point where Garnet’s future vision starts fluctuating like it did in Pool Hopping, and while Amethyst comes closest by diagnosing his lopsided work-life balance, none of them can break past his terse dismissal of their attempts to hang.

You’d think it’d be unpleasant to see Steven so dismissive, and in some ways it is, but despite his unhealthy devotion to work, I’m actually a little impressed that he’s willing to stick up for himself. Granted, he could do it in a friendlier way, but there’s a spark of hope in his ability to prioritize what he wants to do over what everyone around him wants. If he refocused that energy towards his own needs, and wasn’t too burnt out to be polite, this would be a straight-up victory for our little people pleaser.

What ends up being most fascinating about Snow Day on rewatch is its structure, because we move straight from the set-up to an action sequence that lasts for the rest of the episode. It’s a refreshing change of pace from the slower stories we’ve seen so far, keeping the tone fun and exciting while still allowing for great little character beats like Pearl shapeshifting (and Steven acknowledging the unmentioned fact that we’ve never seen her shapeshift in the present, something fans clung to in our first instance of Steven Tag as a hint of her dark past). The inherent humor of the “fight” keeps things lively, but thanks to our understanding of Steven’s mindset going into the game, we never lose sense of the very real personal stakes at play.

This is an episode that’s literally about Steven doing everything he can to avoid himself, and coupled with its structure, Snow Day finds itself with an unlikely companion episode. And oddly enough, despite its emphasis on action, it isn’t paired with either Jasper outing, as both of her fights are preceded by two solid acts. There’s only one other episode that consists solely of setup, action, and Steven disassociating while his family tries to reach him, and both it and Snow Day are strengthened by their similarity.

Snow Day and I Am My Monster are both about Steven’s imperfect support system failing to give him what he needs despite trying as hard as they can, with two key differences. The first is that Snow Day‘s Steven is still able to lose himself in the structure of running Little Homeschool, avoiding introspection in a way that’s productive enough that he can pretend that it’s good for him, while I Am My Monster’s Steven is fully rudderless. The second is that Connie is only in one of these episodes to get everyone in line.

That first difference manifests most obviously when it comes to tone, because you don’t need a reviewer to tell you that Snow Day is a bit more fun to watch than I Am My Monster. But the fact that we’re still in a place where we can have such a lively episode about Steven’s angst is proof that there’s more work to do; this feels like a classic Steven Universe episode not only because of the callbacks and the final appearance of his old character model, but because that was a show that allowed conflicts to wrap up at the end of an episode, saving the larger problem for down the line. It didn’t do this all the time, of course (see: the Week of Sardonyx and the Breakup Arc), but we were still allowed victories that seemed solid at the time, while Future’s limited runtime demands we examine those victories for what they leave out. We are down the line now, and this is the last episode of the series that’s able to fully kick the can. Its conclusion seems to resolve everything, with Steven expressing how he feels, spending the rest of the day goofing off, and returning to work refreshed with a better relationship with his family. We could stop right here and stay in that moment of victory, but there’s more to this story than a simple fix.

The second difference manifests in how there’s still a lot of show to go after Snow Day, and Connie is the key to dealing with this conflict for real instead of giving it a bandaid.

Okay, so I sped right through the bulk of the actual episode, but the problem with writing about Snow Day on that level is that Steven Tag is such a brilliant sequence that it doesn’t benefit much from discussion. It’s so full of jokes and action that talking about it too much threatens to become a series of “I like the part where ___ happens!” comments without any real weight. Like, yes, I love that we get a whole progression of Big Three Fusions (and in Ruby and Sapphire’s case, diffusions) getting Steven Versions, complete with their theme songs and dramatic captions, but what else is there to say about em besides that they’re great? I don’t even have much to complain about; the only part that sticks out is the weird shift to an Uncle Grandpa-ish reaction to Steven!Alexandrite’s fire breath, but other than that it’s a solid action scene where the humor lands and the shield surfing is smooth.

Despite the stakes of Steven wanting to be taken seriously, what makes Steven Tag work so well (besides, y’know, the stuff I already mentioned) is that it wouldn’t have any stakes if Steven didn’t retain at least some of his childishness. He’s grown, and that matters, but nobody has a gun to his head to play by the rules of the game. Had he put his foot down after being tagged, we could’ve gotten an awkward conclusion where he refuses to transform into his old self, but instead he begrudgingly goes along with it; no matter how much he wants to deny it, he’s still a kid. Not in the sense that he’s still the same guy that we knew in Steven Universe, but in the sense that he’s not an adult and he shouldn’t be seeing himself as one yet.

It’s good to have our final goofy episode be bound to the original show’s history, because it gives us a clean break to dive into the psychological drama that Future has to offer. Like I said, Snow Day seems to finish things up neatly enough that it could’ve been the finale in a pinch, and it still can be if we just stop watching here, but as it is, it’s only a distant finale for the adventures of Steven Universe, aged 12-14. And with its silliness complete, it’s time to close the door on escapism and get to work.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

Snow Day comes the closest to breaking into my Top Thirty of all the Future episodes so far, but it still doesn’t quite make the cut. I promise the epilogue will make a showing in my list of absolute favorites, but for now we have to “settle” for an episode that I “only” love.

The Pinnacle

     Steven Universe: The Movie (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Top Thirty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Jungle Moon

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

A Single Pale Rose

Change Your Mind (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Reunited

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Lars of the Stars

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Escapism

Back to the Kindergarten

Steven’s Dream

Kevin Party

When It Rains

The Good Lars

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Storm in the Room

Room for Ruby

Lion 4: Alternate Ending

Doug Out

Are You My Dad?

I Am My Mom

Stuck Together

The Trial

Off Colors

Lars’s Head

Gemcation

Raising the Barn

Sadie Killer

Your Mother and Mine

The Big Show

Pool Hopping

Letters to Lars

Can’t Go Back

Now We’re Only Falling Apart

What’s Your Problem?

The Question

Legs From Here to Homeworld

Familiar

Little Homeschool

Rose Buds

Volleyball 

Snow Day

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Rocknaldo

Dewey Wins

Together Alone

A Very Special Episode

Y’all, It’s Complicated

Made of Honor

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

Tiger Philanthropist

Guidance

Bluebird

No Thanks!

     6. Horror Club      5. Fusion Cuisine      4. House Guest      3. Onion Gang      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

I'm just wondering, do you have a masterlist of all the posts with a "and that's why they're a hero" or variants on it? I think it'd be great to have all of those gathered in one place (or one tag).

Well, what better place to gather these all in one place than right here? I don’t have a masterlist, but I do have a big ole doc with all my posts to make it easy to compile all the variants of the phrase. Here they are, in order of episode airing:

Pearl (Coach Steven)

Garnet (The Return)

Lapis Lazuli (Chille Tid)

Peridot (When It Rains)

Steven (Steven vs. Amethyst)

Greg (Gemcation)

Rose Quartz (Now We’re Only Falling Apart)

Amethyst (What’s Your Problem?)

Rebecca Sugar (Reunited)

Bismuth (Steven Universe: The Movie)

Spinel (Villain Variant, Steven Universe: The Movie) 

...yep, that’s every hero accounted for! Not one more major character to write about!