Because the show just isn't that great

This is a blog about criticizing Steven Universe.

[stevenuniversecriticisms]

Do you think that Steven Universe Future made SU as a whole worse? If so, why?

It's certainly inconsistent. Future was clearly made as an attempt to answer criticisms (despite stans claiming that none of them were valid) but they did it poorly. This is why Steven has all sorts of issues in Future. People criticized how he character was handled so they tried to address all the trauma and it just ended up being laughable. It's also why there are token bits to try to say that the Diamonds weren't just totally forgiven which was another major criticism with how SU ended.

I'm all for addressing criticisms and attempting to fix things but when the writers don't know what they're doing they'll never be able to fix things. You can't just slap on bandaids last minute just to make the criticisms stop.

[stevenuniversecriticisms]

I have a suggestion.

How about you create a blog about criticising The Owl House?

I'm sorry I've never watched the Owl House and don't have any interest in it

[stevenuniversecriticisms]

I know SU is dead and you have moved on from SU related criticisms, but can I still tell you something about something that I can't stand about SU? It's about the fan base pandering and how it affected the show's quality.

Sure you can

[stevenuniversecriticisms]

I would love to see Steven Universe get rebooted by a different (actually competent) crew just so I can see half the internet have collective brain aneurysm XD.

I think it would be neat to see a proper reboot of someone taking the concept and writing it well just to prove how bad the actual show is.

[stevenuniversecriticisms]

Will you post a list Steven Universe fanfics that are better than canon?

I apologize. I haven't read Steven Universe fanfictions so I can't make a list. But I assume many of them are way better than the actual show.

[stevenuniversecriticisms]

Honestly, the gems should’ve stayed as mysterious magic based beings of unknown origin rather than aliens. Them being aliens kind of killed the mystery and mystical vibes to them. 😕

See the writers could have gone in one of two directions with the Gems.

If they wanted to focus on the more mundane and silly stories in Beach City then it wouldn't be that big of a deal for the Gems to be weird and mysterious. If the show was meant to just be a comedy that occasionally dipped into something a bit more serious then not delving into all of the nitty gritty details of the Gem history wouldn't matter. We'd occasionally learn something about them or an ability they had but since the scale of the story is so small it would be all you'd really need to do since the real focus is on these simple stories. It'd be more like early Adventure Time where there were definitely hints that some crazy stuff had happened in the past but the whole concept of things like the Mushroom War wasn't really that big of a deal.

The other way to handle things is to build up a big elaborate stories. Dive deep into the history of the Gems and their rebellion 5000 years ago. Show all of the nitty gritty details and develop a serious ongoing story that would go far beyond Beach City and deal with everything established about the Gems. Any bit of information we learn would be a small piece of a bigger puzzle as the story builds to bigger stories.

Unfortunately they made the ridiculous decision to pick the uncomfortable inbetween. They tried to hint at bigger stories but they didn't care about that. They wanted to make the show mostly about Beach City and the denizens of it because that's what they mostly cared about, but since they kept establishing major things about the Gems and their history and never elaborating on that it hung around their necks like an albatross. One of the most infamous examples is how Peridot establishes that the Cluster could destroy the earth real soon but then we had a bunch of filler episodes. It's a baffling decision and showed how little direction the show had and how incompetent Rebecca Sugar was at leading the show.

The reason many people, myself included, got so frustrated at the show is because they clearly set up major stories then didn't actually want to do any of them. It was only after years of fans criticizing them that they actually made a half baked attempt to even try to go into the big stuff. But with how poorly that went it's clear they had no plans to actually deal with it. The Diamonds being redeemed out of nowhere reeks of "We really don't want to actually deal with the tyrannical genocidal dictators we set up" so they gave a rushed conclusion that was easier for them to write. But this was a problem of their own invention. Just pick one path and stick with it. You want silly stories with wacky non human characters? Just do that. You want a serious story spanning thousands of years dealing with complex intergalactic politics of an alien race? Then do that. Don't pick the worst option and try to do both but never committing properly to either.

[stevenuniversecriticisms]

Do you know the best thing about a disappointing show such as Steven Universe is? It can always be improved by the power of fanfiction. Hell, I’m pretty sure there’s a whole list of fanfics that are better than canon.

I'm sure most SU fanfiction is better than the show

[stevenuniversecriticisms]

Take it as a compliment but I wouldn't be surprised if this blog is one of the most hated in all of Tumblr and fandom.

I'd take it as a compliment

[stevenuniversecriticisms]

I think it would've made the gems more distinctive and add more layers to them if they had given themselves names like the clones did in 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars'. 

I agree. I don't think anyone involved in writing the show thought of that at first. When the only Gems we see are distinct in and of themselves like how the Crystal Gems were at the beginning of the show then it isn't as odd to call them all by their gemstone. But when you have multiple Pearls and Amethysts it becomes more confusing. And the show wasn't nearly competent enough to actually write a story where the Gems are not given names for a reason even if it flirts with the idea of actually delving into Gem culture.

[stevenuniversecriticisms]

I think the problem with Steven Universe is that the show suffered from a severe identity crisis; the crew couldn't decide if the show was meant to be a slice-of-life comedy, a relationship drama or an epic space opera. 

Absolutely agree. They ended season 1 with a build up to being a big space opera after only touching on the backstory all season, and then afterwards they ping ponged back and forth between "Ultra serious plot driven story about fighting a genocidal galactic empire" and "We would rather die than write a plot anyways here's our 20th Beach City episode in a row about a character you don't care about"

[opalsiren]

thank u sliceofokatu for touching on cn’s tendency to bait and mislead its audience with promises of ‘answers’ in su trailers, only proceeding to not deliver when the show airs

[stevenuniversecriticisms]

I used to like Steven Universe but not anymore. I don’t hate the show it’s just that I sort of grew out of it. Like when you grew out of your goth phase in your teenage years. I didn’t even finished watching Future because it reminded me too much of my past personal issues. -Anon

That's absolutely valid anon. It's fine to grow out of things you used to like.

[icegoddessrukia]

Why do you find SU so repulsive, besides it being flat out boring?

The art work/character designs are awful and the creators make no effort to improve them. The voice acting quality is shitty. It’s intentionally badly drawn and the Asian animation team are the only ones who try to fix it by animating it well but they can’t do much with what they’re given. So right off the bat it’s not remotely pleasing to look at/listen to. The music hurts my ears and they break into cringefest songs constantly.

Then we get to the actual story. Steven is a selfish, immature asshole of a main character who basically becomes a Gary Stu. The plot makes no sense and is constantly trying to be deeper than it’s capable of being only to let its fans down.

SU is like something a six year old would watch and yet 30 somethings are watching a screeching manchild talk-no-jutsu at everyone while humanoid gems simulate fucking each other, acting like it’s some revolutionary show. Why would anyone watch this? It’s lame.

Anyway, this is really giving the show more attention than it deserves. TL:DR - SU is cringy and pathetic

[coolman229]

Well not even 4 months since SU ended, now the crew are back, pulling a JK Rowling yet again and retconning and damage controlling the show even more: Gems are really "solar-powered robots that can't die"(so robots can now shapeshift and give birth? so whole point of PD's fake stattering(statter as a whole) being a big deal was really pointless) and Steven "never" forgave the Diamonds( I call bull on that! he was singing about fixing his mom's "broken family"). Hot mess all around.

Oh dear. The Gems are firmly established as alien rocks that make hard light constructs to form their bodies which is why having a cracked gem is so horrible. It’s like their brain being broken. What’s the point of trying to radically retcon things AFTER the show has long since ended?

Also Steven is so chill with the Diamonds after easily turning them good it’s a little hard to sell him not forgiving them in an attempt to answer criticism now.

[saintheartwing]

So. The SU Movie.

 Okay…so…

The positive. Much more fluid animation, Spinel, the villain, in particular has great animation and she’s very expressive and entertaining. Connie and Steven FINALLY kiss. The music was very nice. And it was kind of funny to have Steven sort of lampshading how crazy his life gets.

And now…the problems.

AND THERE ARE MANY.

Okay, so, the villain is someone who has NEVER EVER EVER been mentioned before. Not once. Not even a little. She was just a playmate of Pink…but didn’t we already see she HAD a playmate back on Homeworld? This kind of contradicts the whole “she used to play a ton with White Diamond’s pearl, who got all cracked and messed up for her trouble” thing? And didn’t she also get her OWN Pearl to, y’know, make her happy and all that?

Also, the whole plan of the villain’s to inject a bunch of evil liquid into the Earth that’s gonna, when fully injected as Peridot says, basically wipe out all life on Earth and we clearly see it ALL injected and…the Earth’s fine, it’s just Beach City that’s ruined. And they repair it. Mostly with…and I’m not kidding you…STEVEN KISSING THE GROUND OVER AND OVER TO BRING THE FLOWERS BACK.

Oh, and Steven fuses with his dad who makes a four-armed human-looking kinda hot in a disturbing sort of way male fusion who looks like if Greg was, like, ten times hotter and with long flowing hair and it’s messed up. I mean, fusion’s kind of been basically a stand in for sex or y’know, an intimate relationship of a similar nature and…YES, they DO need to try  and get Pearl back to normal and invoking something wild and crazy and against the grain works but…still…EW. Just…EW. It comes across like fetish fuel!

Also, STILL no indication of what happened to the people in the Zoo. All those poor humans. OR all the, y’know, shattered and made-into-pieces-and-then-mutants gems that are still wandering around or inside the Earth and not part of the Cluster. And how do they address the whole “Homeworld caused genocides thing”? Two lines. Steven says though he’s enjoyed dismantling the empire and freeing all the worlds, he has to get back to his own planet. Yellow pleads with him to stay since she’s dismantled all her armies and freed all her colonies. And…that’s it.

Now, yes, Blue is no longer shattering people either. Yes, White is no longer judging based on appearances. That’s all good but…to just…HANDWAVE away the whole genocide and slavery and everything else is so…insulting.

We don’t even SEE any other races. I mean, for all we know, the gems LITERALLY WIPED OUT ALL LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE! Don’t act like you saved the galaxy, literally every other sentient race seems to be gone! Also, Homeworld is still literally in two pieces. Cut in half. Doesn’t look like you’ve fixed that up.

I wanted to like the movie so badly but these issues they don’t address and the creepy stuff and the overeliance on redemption arcs and the like really rub me the wrong way. I’m sorry but…Rebecca Sugar…what the hell have you wrought?!

[facadecake-deactivated20210625]

Some hot su movie takes:

-they infantilized the diamonds like they were scary as HELL in previous episodes, but then they turn into wine aunts who apparently find their greatest priority to be living with Steven like..........

-steg shouldn't have looked like that, like if you're gonna make references to things (jojo) at least make it slight, not something as big as a fusion

-a theme of it was to get over pd and then spinel literally goes to the diamonds and isn't dissuaded by them being like "ye ur not her but ur SO MUCH like her omg"

-the poison was enough to kill all organic life on earth and it all got released and somehow didn't kill all life on earth?? Sorry??? Also 1) there's no way they actually managed to save everyone y'all clownin and 2) there's also no way Steven could just "kiss away" all the damage. No. There was WAY too much poison for that

-if the gems were like? Factory reset? Deadass they shouldn't have memories like. That shits gone, homeslice, yaint getting it back

-Did garnet REALLY not see this whole series of events in her future vision

-timing is pretty wack in the movie like. Morning, Steven makes that broadcast or whatever, and spinel sees that and has a cow,,, then later in the afternoon she has this MASSIVE injector and that rejuvenator like ok.... sis WHERE did you get that

-Pearl has plenty of time to explain who Spinel is during Other Friends but she just like... doesn't explain

-I feel like the rejuvinator should have had a different effect on Steven, like it didn't take away the other gems powers just yoinked their memory

[coolman229]

Is it just me or was Kevin only brought back into SU because the fandom hated him for some reason? You could have replaced him with a stray or wild animal in his debut episode and nothing would change, nothing. He was less than a plot device, I forgot all about him!

That’s literally it. He was a one off character that people had a completely insane hatred for, and the writers brought him back not because it made any sense but because he was hated by the fandom so much they played into that.

In his first appearance in the already gross and awful Stevonnie episode he was kinda pushy but nowhere near bad enough to be considered a horrible person. He wanted to dance with Stevonnie because he thought it was a cute woman, which I don’t get why that’s an issue when the show has basically everyone else getting all hot and bothered by Stevonnie too (which is super gross cause wtf they’re kids). And when they defuse Kevin freaks out realizing that the person he was dancing with was two kids and backs the hell out.

He was clearly disgusted with the idea of it and got out asap when he realized that Stevonnie was literally two kids. Then he comes back… and is obsessed with Stevonnie? He’s suddenly super dickish for some reason and he’s presented as a villain. That’s nothing more than cheap pandering to the awful fanbase that decided Kevin was a villain for just being kind of obnoxious.