Change
If there is one prevalent theme in Steven universe is how everything changes,not only out surroundings or the people we care about but ourselves as well. This theme is very important in Steven universe Future for the series' main protagonist: Steven.
In Future the Earth lives in peace in the Era 3. There aren't big threats to face, there is no need to worry about gem spaceships coming to attack Beach City. The gems are allowed to vote their own leader and be themselves.
Then.. Why does Steven feel so empty? He should be happy, right? He barely has any enemies except for some gems who don't like him. He doesn't have to fix his mother' problems anymore. He finally gets to live his own life.
But what is his life now? Who is he supossed to be now? For a long time he felt he had to help everyone and fix everything. At the start he did it because he cared about helping people. However, over time this became his purpose and his role in life. He was the healer, the helper and the one who should find a solution to other people's problems.
Growing up he spent so much time trying to be someone that others needed him to be that he rarely thought what himself wanted to be.
So, in Future he tries different ways to hold on to this identity: He looks for more people who may need his help, he looks if some of his friends have new life issues to solve, he takes over Amethyst's job to "help" gems to find a new purpose.
Despite trying multiple times, every method seems to fail. Little by little this starts bothering Steven. He starts fearing his friends aren't going to care about him if they don't need his help. He thinks everyone is going to move on without him.
And when his loved ones really start to moving on with their lifes Steven enters in an identity crisis that causes so much stress that is manifested in strange pink gem powers.
He becomes really scared of what is inside him. He tries hiding this new "ugly" side of him afraid of the gems and his friends rejecting him once they find out about these feelings. He blames himself.He thinks they aren't going to understand what he is going through.
The more he hides and pretends to be fine, the more his symptoms worsen. This only makes him believe he shouldn't tell anything to his family. He is going to scare all of them. He thinks he is a monster that isn't worthy of their love.
And when all these thoughts really result in him turning into a monster he completely panics, he smacks his head against a rock and runs away not understading what is happening to him anymore.
At first the gems are also scared as well.They have never seen this side of Steven before.
But they don't leave him, they don't start hating him. Instead they reach out to him and tell him they love him. They remind him that he isn't alone and they are there for him.
This makes Steven calm down and realize that his family and friends are still here. They still love him even after finding out this side of him he was trying so hard to hide from them.
Suddenly all what he is going through don't seem so stressful. Maybe.. just maybe change isn't bad. As long as his family and friends are there to support him and love him, things would be okay. And maybe.. they could even change for the better.
