Bob lives in Lapis Lazuli's basement

This blog is dedicated to criticism and analysis of Steven Universe, and will feature my attempts to rewrite things that I didn't think were handled well in the show's canon. Feel free to send me asks or fan mail with your own thoughts, theories, or even your own rewrites! I want to give everyone a voice. However, please don't confuse criticism with hate. I love SU so much, and have seen every episode multiple times. There is nothing wrong with criticizing something, even something you like. Also, if anyone needs a specific thing tagged, don't hesitate to let me know. I want to make sure this is a safe place.

[su-rewrites]

Seeking insight about the history of the SU Critical Community

Hello fellow people with su crit blogs! This blog is still dead, but I have decided to try researching something that I care about, and that involves getting the opinions and experiences of others in the community! My DMs are open! So here is my question:

What drove you to create an entire side blog dedicated to criticizing Steven Universe? Why did you choose that over just making some review-type posts on your main? What experiences have lead you to stand in this community separate from the rest of the fandom?

Please note, this is not a condemnation of any of those actions. I just want to collect as many different perspectives as I can, and obviously I made one too, so I can't fault anyone else for doing so. No worries there. ^^

Thanks in advance to anyone who answers!

[su-rewrites]

Leaving the community

Hey guys. I've done some thinking, and I've come to the difficult conclusion that I'm going to retire from SU Critical.

It gave me such relief at first because I needed to vent, not just my issues with the show, but with the people who blindly defend their fave media at all costs who reminded me of the "anti-crits" of the last critical community I was in.

But I've realized that it's made me incredibly angry and bitter towards even the mere mention of SU. The aphobia and "anti su criticals" are stressful enough, but now the show itself just PISSES ME OFF when I think about it, and I... don't want to keep festering over it anymore.

Anytime someone talks to me about SU, I feel this burning need to go on a huge rant about how terribly they treated Bismuth or how much they botched Pearl up. I like Pearl because I appreciate what she COULD have been, but what they ended up doing was making her abusive and pitiful, and she deserves better. A LOT of the characters and concepts deserve better than writers this incompetent. And frankly, a network that would actually give the show a chance to be well-paced or keep any of the mystery it had left.

I'm so burnt out on SU that I might actually just drop the show out of boredom and frustration. It's become my go-to target to make fun of when I'm talking about bad writing lol.

But my anger never dulls, and I hate feeling that much seething negativity, using that much energy to hate what a show has done when I honestly have far better ways to spend that energy. I have my own story to write. I'm going to learn from SU's mistakes, but I want to focus on making my story great, not tearing into a show that has nothing left to offer me.

This isn't to say I won't talk about SU anymore though. I will likely always make fun of it or use it as an example of What Not To Do, but I need to do it in balance with all my other focuses.

Aaaanyway, I guess that's my confusing attempt at an explanation. Maybe I'll see some of you as a creator next time. :)

If anyone is interested in what content I'm trying to put out, I have a YouTube channel called The Angry Librarian (which I need to update more often RIP) and a webcomic called All the World's a Roulette, which will be released soon (I hope).

And if anyone still wants to interact with me in real time (and I am still willing to talk about SU if it comes up), I have a Discord Server for my fans and friends to hang out with me! Everyone's welcome~

[su-rewrites]

I could swear I keep seeing posts tagged "anti su critical" when I type in "su critical" even if they weren't trying to invade the tag and I'm just tired.

[salty-sapphire]

Y’know what I think may have worked out really well?

Pearl and Amethyst swapped personalities.

Think about it, it makes SO MUCH SENSE. Pearl would be reckless and rebellious and sloppy. Everything that a Pearl is not supposed to be. That’s her thing, she’s the renegade Pearl, she’s supposed to be the antithesis of what a Pearl should be. So she just does whatever she wants. She makes a mess because Pearls are meant to be neat, she doesn’t do as she’s told because she spent all her time on Homeworld doing exactly that. She’s headstrong because Pearls aren’t meant to be like that.

Meanwhile Amethyst is obsessed with perfection. Everything has to be perfect because she wasn’t. She came out ‘wrong’, and so she’s obsessed with making sure that everything else around her is perfect. She doesn’t want to eat (or maybe she’s just reluctant) because that’s a human thing and she wants to be a perfect gem. She has a very precise and thought out battle style because it has to be perfect. She was in love with Rose because Rose was a perfect quartz. Rose was everything that Amethyst wanted to be, and never can be.

Idk I just like the idea.

[su-rewrites]

I’m just so frustrated...

I hadn't been able to watch the new eps for awhile because of irl family issues and I've just been BUSY, so this might be late.

But okay, the newest set of eps, from "Your Mother and Mine" to "Letters to Lars," were such a slap in the face. I had been so excited to watch them and finally got time out of my day to do so, and what I got was one episode full of juicy teasing lore and then THREE MORE Beach City filler episodes!

I expected them to elaborate like any other naturally-flowing storyline would, but we got literally POINTLESS episodes!  I’ll admit, I thought The Big Show was really cute, and Pool Hopping was good enough on its own, but NOW was NOT the time!  I would have accepted The Big Show as the one break between serious shit, and I personally think Pool Hopping could have been saved for an actual period of calm after a crisis has been dealt with.  But Letters to Lars was utterly pointless.  The only parts that I liked (Mayor Dewey working at the Big Donut) could have been summed up in a few sentences in an otherwise useful episode.

This was just so frustrating to sit through.  I am COMPLETELY, 100% FOR taking breaks between serious arcs and action.  But lately, SU has really started to feel like it’s focusing on Beach City and using LORE as the BREAKS!  It’s so backwards and makes me wanna pull my hair out.

And now that I think about it, I do kind of blame CN for this one.  This Steven Bomb shit is stupid.  This show can’t breathe or it wastes our time, because the  only time they’re allowed to show us anything is when it’s the short return from a long-ass hiatus.  And so, they’re unable to tell a flowing story with all the elements that would make it great: a good balance of action/plot and calm/breaks (NOT filler, which should rarely ever be used).

At the same time, though, the crew should know by now how to make calmer / diverging episodes mean something.  They could actually spend time on a character’s development (and no, showing almost a whole episode of Mayor Dewey sulking in BG while Steven tells us shit we already know, and then working at the big donut in the last minute isn’t really character development, just a drawn-out change of scenery).

I just... feel like the writers are just not good at what they’re doing anymore.  Maybe they were at one point, but now it feels like they’re just forcing something out to get it over with, and it makes me sad.

Especially since I just rewatched all of A:tLA.  Even if SU can’t have the same flow, they can still have the same quality put into “filler” episodes.  They could actually TRY.  When I watch something that knows what the fuck it’s doing and then watch SU, I feel like I’m losing something. -sigh-

That’s all.  Seeya after I get my shit together lol.

[appleb18]

Steven Universe Should End or Get Cancelled (Spoiler Alert!)

Keep reading

[su-rewrites]

-rolling around-

I'm a little torn. I made this blog to help me finally embrace criticism of what used to be a show I held on a pedastal. I loved it so much and felt personally attacked when people criticized it.

Now I feel like I have the opposite problem. The show I used to love makes me angry and frustrated, and I struggle to figure out which of those griefs should stay and which are influenced by circle-jerk.

I've been in one other "critical" community before, and it was SUCH a relief at first. But the people turned to circle-jerking and saying nasty things about the author (the author was a jerk, but the stuff they said was dehumanizing), and generally making the community look bad. I get defensive of our community instead of SU now, but at the same time, it's not healthy for me to only focus on the negative either.

I'm still struggling to find a balance, and taking a break from su critical has been helping a little. But I'm still trying to become comfortable with both enjoying something and criticizing it heavily.

When people hear the way I talk about SU, they think I hate it. I don't hate it exactly, I just really resent how much they've ruined it. I love the concepts and I hate that they're wasted on a botched up story like this. I like Pearl too, but her writers ruin her, and she deserves better. I love so many things about the show that the writers keep screwing up for me, and THAT is what I hate.

I might change my username or something. Idk what to do with this blog just yet. But I still have grievances with SU and I need to be able to voice them somehow.

[frogtism]

i love steven universe more than any show but honestly their message of loving and making peace with oppressors sucks ass, especially in today’s time. t/ru//mp is fucking president. re/pu//blic//ans are DANGEROUS. there are literal ne/o/na//z//is rampant. we should not be telling kids to make peace with someone who is oppressing them. we should not be teaching them that it is okay to accept receiving slurs thrown at them in the interest of keeping peace! this is not how anyone progressed socially. oppressed persons do not move forward by staying silent and winning them over with kindness. oppressed persons progressed through actively FIGHTING what was not right. oppressed persons fought and scraped and suffered to earn rights, and they are STILL struggling! by teaching children to hug their oppressors instead of actively fighting what is fucked up, we are indirectly silencing them by teaching them that silence works.

[juanfernandova-deactivated20190]

So, as you might know, I have many issues with the latest episodes of Steven Universe, therefore, I decided to show my thoughts in the form of little panels because I’m better at drawing than speaking.

So, what would I change if I could? First of all, I think we needed a scene in which Steven (not Sadie) talked with Lars’ parents:

We also needed a scene in which Greg finally got upset, putted his foot down, and talked to the gems about his child, just like he did on Space Race.

Then, a scene in which the gems tell Steven that he needs to trust them, that they care about the earth as much as he does, and that he’s not alone.

Then Steven apologizes with Connie and all of that…

And THEN, they all (including Peridot, who, at this point, is not exactly over her relationship with Lapis, but is getting there) go to save Lars as a team:

We got our reunion, Lars gets to read a letter from his parents and the Crystal Gems meet the Off Colors (no Lars of the Stars bullsh*t):

They plan on hijacking Emerald’s ship, but this time we get to see it:

Peridot is useful:

We get our fight:

At some point the team gets in trouble (the engine fails or something), everyone starts to panick, but Lars is the one who puts everyone in place:

They destroy the ship, escape succesfully, and Lars gets encouragement from the gems:

They get to earth, have their reunion, etcetera:

And then they all celebrate, for now. Maybe Sadie became a rock star and Mayor Dewey lost the election off screen, or those acts could’ve been placed directly after this, who knows. I’m not good with words, but this is sorta what I wanted (and expected) from the show. 

Now why did we get a nonsensical space opera that went too fast; another Stevonnie episode, but this time without actual character development; and a random Pink Diamond appearence that really wasn’t necesary at that moment?… I honestly don’t know.

[juanfernandova-deactivated20190]

FAN BONUS:

Also, if they really wanted Lars to become a space pirate or something, which I think is cool, here’s an idea of how they could’ve done it:

First, the Off Colors recognize his leadership:

Then, he tells Steven he wants to be useful to the Crystal Gems, that he wants to leave his earth life behind and become someone he always wanted to be:

And then my Centipeetle finally becomes useful to the plot (you know, the only gem that actually knows what is like to be what Lars aspires to):

Time passes, Steven visites Centi once in a while (we get more Lars screen time):

And then Centi asks Steven to fix another problem I had with the episode:

That’s about it. 

How did they uncorrupted Centipeetle you might ask? My answer is: I don’t fucking know man, it’s anime bro. I’m not a writer, I thought about this yesterday night, I’m sure they can think a better way of doing this.

[su-rewrites]

This is so much better.

[powerfulwizard]

I broke into Rebecca Sugar’s house and found this sketch on her desk in a locked box labeled “Season 7″

[powerfulwizard]

Remastered

[grapiibear-dead-deactivated2018]

this post came into my house an

[su-rewrites]

Oh my fucking god, I copied ALL of my last post to save into a draft and it ONLY COPIED THE FIRST PARAGRAPH. What the fuck.

Ya know what, I'm sure plenty of other people will say it as well as I could anyway, I'll just reblog their stuff instead. :/

[su-rewrites]

one sec I have to fix the formatting in that last post uugh ><z

[bismuthspartnerincrime]

I’m losing my mind rn because I just realized it’s not just Lapis leaving that changed Peridot.

She took the Barn too.

They un-Barned Peridot

[su-rewrites]

holy shit you're right xD.

I mean really, Peridot looked really good in these episodes. Her colors and proportions were done well, and her expressions went on some adventures haha.

[transmasc-malleus]

Also @ the ppl saying it was bad of Connie to steal lion

She literally didn’t?? Lion made the choice to stay with her cause even he was fed up with Stevens shit?? Lion has his own autonomy and regularly chooses where he wants to go like,,,there was no stealing involved

[anawinkaro-deactivated20250217]

T H I S

Lion could’ve come back at Steven’s house perfectly. But he didn’t, he was mad at Steven too.

Also I heard rumors that the Crewniverse said that Connie and Lion have a special connection (More than the one Steven has with Lion)

[mahou-shonen-alex]

She took the custody during the duration of their divorce

[anawinkaro-deactivated20250217]

^This always makes me laugh so much

[su-rewrites]

Reblogging for the divorce comment haha. Nice xD.

[stephanos-spaceopera]

Oh no…

Pearl: endangers Mystery Girl MG: fucking dies Pearl: cries a lot, shouts oout Rose by accident maybe Stevo: Phoenix Down MG: is alive, now pink, looks damn near exactly like Rose now. She doesn’t mind it’s a “cool look”

Pearl Stevo and MG get closer from this magical expirence uwu

[criticalalexandrite]

Honestly I hate that I can see this actually happening.

[kirbycheatfurbymeat-deactivated]

Dewey Wins is real!

[salty-sapphire]

I’m not sure if this is an example of the show being self-aware or if we’re actually meant to feel sorry for Steven here but

this clip 100% shows exactly why I hate Steven and shows that he’s an insensitive asshole. He doesn’t care that the gems are worried He doesn’t care that Lars is STILL on Homeworld, he just wants to tell everyone about how brave he was turning himself in. He doesn’t care that Connie is upset, he just wants her to admire him. He doesn’t care that Lars was “hurt” and FUCKING DIED because “oh well I just healed him look at how great I am healing everyone”

Is it just me??? Steven is just showing here that he literally does not give a shit about anyone but himself.

[criticalalexandrite]

The worst part is this would be an interesting flaw for the writers to give to Steven to have him realize he needs to stop being so self-centered. But that’s not what the writers are doing with this scene. That’s what makes this scene’s writing so bad and makes Steven so unlikeable in it.

[su-rewrites]

I also can't stand that so many people buy Steven's "heroic" act or even blame Connie, calling her "petty." No, Connie has every right to be pissed and hurt by Steven's thoughtless actions. What he did was not only STUPID and unhelpful in every way, but selfish as hell. Regardless of whether his goal was to "save everyone by sacrificing himself" (and he would have saved no one, how is he this dumb), which sounds like he's thinking selflessly on paper, he didn't give a shit how anyone that loves him would feel.

If I were Connie, I'd be upset too. I'd feel betrayed and stabbed in the back. STEVEN, YOU LEFT HER. You left your dad, your family, and everyone else to worry about you for the rest of their lives, and never see you again. Or at least that was what you thought would happen. :/

[digamma-f-wau]

The problem with fandom criticals and why it’s not really the criticals’ fault

If you’re reading this you’re probably familiar with a recent tumblr trend: Fandom Critical. Specifically SU critical (the only other crit tag really gaining traction is ok ko critical: I think star vs critical tries to be a thing, but it doesn’t have much traction). People complain about the show of choice, often setting up side blogs to complain about it. In essence, they’ve become a loose knit group dedicated to hating a piece of media. I don’t like it one bit, and as the quasi-clickbait title indicates, it’s not for the reasons you’d think.

Now here’s a history lesson: SU’s always had some critics with opinions akin to the criticals these days (I had an unhealthy negative obsession with one of them; those were dark regretful days for me), but the trend what I call “proto-crits” didn’t start popping enough to become visible until the Sardonyx arc, and they didn’t really start crawling out of the woodwork until the show came out of hiatus in the spring of 2016. Meanwhile, popular browser add ons for tumblr have the option to block tags, and the site itself has the option to set up sideblogs. Some of the bloggers with criticisms for SU were like “I keep getting hate for my criticisms, maybe I start a sideblog to keep my SU dislikes off my dash and draw away hate” or “maybe I’ll start a tag so followers who don’t want to see me being critical of SU can use their add on things to block my critiques and hate”. A little bit after Bismuth came around, SU Critical crystallized into its final state

(Honestly a chunk of SU Critical’s complaints I agree with (or at the very least, I can see why it makes them mad), and another chunk of the complaints make me go “hang on I think they’re going somewhere with this” and if the show were drop the ball in regards to it I’d end up agreeing with them.)

Now one accusation I’ve seen lobbied towards crits is that they harass people. I have seen some examples myself (like some of the tasteless comments added onto the comic Zuke made before deleting her tumblr), but only occasionally. In contrast, I’ve seen critical blogs receiving hate tons of times. 

(Heck on the topic of Zuke, I think most of the online harassment they got was from shippers, not crits, and we all know the nth of circle of hell that is shipping wars and how horrible they can get. Basically the only big problem with crits that I have that lines up with the usual complaints people have with them is that they can get disturbingly personal with their negativity towards the crew (makes me think back to Mr Enter fans harassing Casey Alexander on twitter). And honestly the 4chan side of the SU fandom and hatedom can also get pretty bad in those regards, making jokes about Zuke that get get pretty horrific, and there are those on tumblr that wouldn’t identify with crits that would do the same, like the aforementioned shippers.)

Now the actual main problem that fandom criticals pose, tying back to the title of this post, is that it divides fandom. It ends up making an us vs them situation, forcing people into the boxes of “the show is the best thing ever and can do no wrong” and “this show is literally a blight that singlehandely has a negative impact on humanity”. I’m certain you wouldn’t get nowhere near as many people going “’ok ko critical’? Why you gotta hate the show, there’s no problems with it” if they weren’t already wary of SU critical existing. And a lot of that is on the people discouraging critique back in the SU fandom, thus encouraging the tag and sideblogs to show up in the first place. While what I’m saying can sorta boil down to “why can’t we all just get along”, the main obstacle to that “getting along” is those shutting down critique instead of discussing it, leading to the crits to make their little subculture, not the ones with critiques themselves.

[bicth-and-in-that-order]

This is so cool! I can’t believe you wrote a little biography on us. I’m flattered honestly.

[su-rewrites]

I agree. I hate that I have fallen into a pattern of toxic circle-jerking before because of how angry I was that I wasn't allowed to just express my criticism within the entire fandom.

Maybe if people would stop holding a show so high on a pedastal that any criticism of it is deemed "hate," then critical communities wouldn't need to exist in such a focused manner that encourages echo chambers.

I think exchanging different opinions about media is as important as having safe spaces to talk about shared opinions. Too much people agreeing on one thing all the time without taking other stuff into consideration can slowly wittle away nuance and patience.