i'm still not over the intense hate that suf got and how unfair it was.
“suf demonizes mental illnesses because steven turned into a monster! that's not realistic and it sends a bad message!”
first off, it's a fantasy show with sentient rocks. it's not supposed to be entirely realistic. i didn't see this type of judgment when the owl house portrayed eda's disability as a magical owl curse (no hate to toh btw i relate to eda on a spiritual level).
secondly, tell me you don't understand nuance without telling me you don't understand nuance. steven didn't turn into a monster because the writers wanted to demonize ptsd or mental illnesses. he turned into a monster because he felt like a monster.
time and time again in su, it was mentioned that steven's powers depended entirely on his feelings. and during suf, he felt like a monster, he felt like he had no control over anything, he felt helpless. all his life, he was blamed for his mother's actions and even for the actions of the other gems. it's obvious that he would internalize all of this and blame himself. he had been doing that in the original series as well.
but no, i feel like the people who were complaining either did not watch su or they just wanted something to complain about. y'all are dumb asf if you think that suf was trying to portray steven in a negative light. he was a victim, he was suffering from the trauma he had endured in the original series.
not to mention, he actually starts seeing a therapist by the end of the series, unlike other children's shows where a character's trauma is either healed by the power of friendship, the power of timeskip that erases everything or it's just never addressed. even in good children's shows, the ones that i really like, i've never seen therapy mentioned. the best we get is a drawn out character arc that allows the character to take time and heal on their own.
suf did something amazing for its younger audience - it told them that it's okay to seek professional help if you're struggling with mental health. you don't have to deal with it alone, it's not wrong to see a therapist or a psychiatrist. it did the opposite of demonizing mental illnesses, it broke the taboo of therapy that still exists. but y'all still want to misread the entire show so you have something to complain about.
(this post is talking about suf and suf alone. i am well aware that su had a lot of problematic elements and i'm not defending it by any means. i'm just talking about suf's portrayal of ptsd.)
*sees your tags about being salty about suf spinel*
YOU CAN'T JUST SAY THAT AND NOT SHARE YOUR SALT /LH
Okay, but I'm warning you, you asked for it.
LONG POST WARNING.
LIKE A REALLY, REALLY LONG POST WARNING.
Dimonds456 Presents: How They Did My Baby Dirty: An SUTM and SUF Analysis on Steven and Spinel (Told by a Progressively More and More Angry Narrator)
THE CONTEXT: There was a post talking about how you think a character will fix everything, but then they wind up making it works. My tags were "#*looks at suf spinel* #I am still salty about that like the bitch I am fghdjskgfa"
Grab some water, guys.
Let's start by talking about Steven for a moment. In the original show, when we were following him as a 12-14-year-old, we watched as he built up trauma and then learned how to hide it expertly well, to the point that most of the audience didn't even realize he was struggling.
You can actually pinpoint the seconds he makes those decisions, too. The best example is in "The Test," when he's storming up to the gems. He's pissed. His fists are clenched, he's got that anime eye shadow overlay on his face, he's frowning, all that. the Crystal Gems are clapping for him and lying to his face, and he KNOWS they are because he overheard them talking about how it was "impossible for him to fail" that test (- Garnet).
And yet... he also overheard them saying that they're just trying their best. They don't know what he needs. They never really have. No one is sure. So, Steven realizes that by picking a fight, he would just be making it worse for them because they would know they messed up, and nothing gets solved, and everyone gets more depressed and Amethyst and Pearl go back to fighting each other and- well, you get the picture. He doesn't have a full understanding of what's going on, so his kid brain went "so I can either be angry at them and cause problems, or I can tell them I did a good job to make them happy."
"I can lie to make them happy."
He storms down there angry, still mulling this decision over. He drops to the floor, frowning and pissed, and says "I can't believe you guys." He is so close to yelling at them, and yet, when he looks up at them...
"That was so... INSANE!"
You never would have been able to tell. It was right there. That moment. And then he never stops. For the ENTIRE REST of the series, he NEVER STOPS. He puts the Crystal Gems above himself every time. Think Rose's Scabbard, The Message, The Return/Jailbreak. The Cluster. Peridot. Dealing with Jasper. The zoo arc (ESPECIALLY the zoo arc). Aquamarine. Then pretty much the entirety of Season 5.
(NOTE: I went back and rewatched that scene for the screenshot. There is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it lip tremble in there too! D,: )
He lives for the people around him, and not for himself. Almost never for himself.
Put a pin in that.
Now, let's look at his maturity. People thought that was just him being mature, right? That he grew up. No. That was not it at all. He was learning from his own behaviors as well as the people around him, and building up this idea that he had to "fight to be everything that everyone wants [him] to be when [he's] grown" (- Steven, the extended intro).
Yes, he matured, but not because of that. He started making various decisions to benefit the group that oftentimes he wasn't fully comfortable with, but something he believed would be better for everyone.
Put a pin in that.
Then, later in Future, we see it all manifest. He is selfless to a fault, to the point that he can't think of himself in a positive light in the sense that he's good. We see it a couple of times, but especially in "Prickly Pair," when he vents to Cactus Steven about everything that happened. He feels useless, which is taking a toll on his mental health.
"Why do I need to be needed?" He needs to be needed because that's everything he was as a kid. His entire IDENTITY rests on his ability to help other people, no matter what happens to him. He literally sacrificed himself for them countless times (the big one of course being the Aquamarine incident), and now as a teenager, his whole sense of self is wrapped up in this need to get up and do something to make the world better.
And when he can't make the world better, his world falls apart.
Put a pin in that.
Now, let's talk about Spinel, the moment we've all been waiting for.
Spinel, as a gem, was made specifically to be a friend. That is her niche, and her purpose. Her reason for existing. At first, she and Pink Diamond got along very well, as shown in the flashbacks right before Drift Away plays (I headcanon she has illusion powers and was literally projecting her trauma, but that's a completely different post).
She and Pink vibed together for who knows how long, until one day, Pink started to not like being around Spinel anymore, finding her annoying and childish. We don't know what really caused the switch, just that it did happen (but of course, I have headcanons for that, too). Spinel never realized until it was FAR too late.
Steven actually describes his younger self as annoying at one point during the Diamond Days arc, when he decides to throw the ball, so I'm legally allowed to make this comparison.
Steven and Spinel were the SAME. They were both young and dumb, and something that at least a few people found annoying. People put up with their BS though, since they cared about them. But, while Steven realized this and matured because of it (or bottled up his emotions, to each their own), Spinel never did. She never matured. She was never given a chance.
In the movie, we saw her as a child, and watched as she played with Pink and never tried to be or do anything else, to the point that Pink Diamond thought to realize she might be struggling (and maybe Spinel didn't, either!).
She lives for the people around him, and not for herself. Almost never for herself.
And when she can't be friends with this one person, her world falls apart.
Sound familiar? It should. I literally pulled from things I said earlier lol.
Spinel and Steven are mirror reflections of each other. Reset!Spinel is 14-year-old Steven, completely devoting her entire self to one idea. Steven's was helping others no matter what, Spinel's was serving Pink no matter what. Spinel is like a combination of 14 and 12-year-old Steven in this sense, honestly. Goofy, without a care in the world, except one thing: the people around her. She would do anything for Pink, just as Steven would do anything for his family.
Now, Pink Diamond left Spinel. We all know this story. She left Spins there in the garden for 6,000 years because she grew more mature and started a rebellion, effectively forgetting about this one gem she kinda stopped caring about standing there.
Personally, I don't think Pink had any malicious or even intentional intent in that, but this ain't about her. This is about how Spinel continued to sacrifice herself for Pink, even when Pink didn't need her to anymore. She wanted to please Pink 24/7, all day every day, to the point she self-sacrificed and stood perfectly still for her for millenia.
Now, back to Steven. The gems don't need him anymore in Future, right? They've all grown up and matured and headed off towards their own futures, effectively stranding him alone in terms of self-identity and self-worth. But he stays there, ready to assist at the drop of a hat, or- in Future's case- the call of a phone.
Episode 6 anyone? The one everyone says shouldn't be in Future? That it should have been cut to allow more focus on Steven himself? The fusion episode? YEAH. THAT. He is running himself RAGGED to try and help others, to give himself a purpose. He is self-sacrificing. (He's a professional, don't worry. /j)
Steven metaphorically planted his feet down and decided that he was going to devote himself to the people around him.
Spinel's feet were literally tied down soon after she made that very same decision.
Okay, enough with the backstory. Time for the salt.
In Future, Steven is at his lowest low. He is running to the Diamonds for help, to see if there is SOMETHING they can do to help him. And we first see Spinel.
Spinel has been through the ringer on a lot of the same mental problems Steven himself is facing. She self-isolated, watched as everyone grew up and left her, and then began to lash out because of it. She understands what he's going through. We even see her concerned as Steven starts to tell her why he's there.
Spinel takes him from Diamond to Diamond, until he's running out of White's room in a blind panic. Spinel is able to catch up with him, and Steven realizes the same. SHE GETS IT. He turns around and says "Hey, you used to have vengeful thoughts!"
Spinel replies "Ohhhhh yeah, but I don't have 'em anymore."
"How did you make them stop?"
She then goes on to sing Change to him, effectively cutting that conversation short.
On paper, that sounds very in-character for her. She's goofy! And that is what worked for her! But the problem is that they had to dumb her down in order to make that character decision work. In the movie, she was shown to be observant and able to put two and two together, even if she often jumps to conclusions (see her being the one to figure out that the gems needed to remember their "pieces," as she remembers the Garden, her re-realizing what Pink did, and her meltdown later when she reactivates the injector).
Spinel is smart. It should have been in character for her to realize that Steven was panicking just as she had been, and needed to be talked to gently. But no. Instead, she starts belting out Change, which given Steven's situation, would not work for him.
At the very least, she would have started doing little tricks or started trying to get him to join a game, which would have taken his mind off of it (to her anyways, that wouldn't have worked either), which then could have prompted further discussion.
Then, once they finally start talking, Spinel could have been able to share some legitimate advise. She was hurt and lashed out. What worked for her was opening up to others and letting them in, learning to trust again (which Steven also has problems with- he can't trust that the Gems won't break down the second he turns his back. Trust does NOT equal love, there is no doubt he loves them to no end), and allowing other people in.
That is what Steven needed, too. He needed to let his guard down and just talk to someone. Sure, Spinel was not going to be a fix-all, but she could have at least offered some insight on what to do.
She UNDERSTANDS him. They are a reflection of each other.
But instead of offering help, Spinel made it worse. She was dumbed down to allow the rest of Future to happen, to make Steven feel even worse. Because- and here's the kicker- because the one person who MIGHT understand him doesn't, that means there's no hope for him.
At least, that's how he sees it. And so, the denial- and "Everything's Fine"- begins.
Here's the thing, though; they DIDN'T NEED to make that decision. If the Crew wanted to have Spinel not understand Steven, then draw the line of her being a Gem from Era 1, used to the Diamonds shattering people.
Steven has killed Jasper and revived her at this point, so maybe Spinel offers that at least he's trying to get better, just like the other Diamonds! See, they're doing so great now! And then that makes him feel worse since he IS trying to do better, but is only failing, while the Diamonds- who were MADE to be nasty dictators- are doing better than him.
The Diamonds shattered a lot of people, and they're doing better than Steven, who has only shattered one person, and not even on purpose. How horrible is that?
Then boom. THERE'S your angst, with a much smarter, more helpful Spinel.
Look, I knew going in that Spinel wasn't going to be able to help. The finale had to happen somehow, and we hadn't seen Wormy Boi yet. I have always been a storng believer of the corrupted Steven theory, so I knew it was bound to happen. But I was hoping that Spinel would at least try. But she really didn't. She just brushed him off, offering really loose advise that didn't even fit his situation and thinking that would be enough.
No. It's not.
I can see where the Crew was coming from. I still love that episode, and I love seeing Spins in it (until that exact moment). This is probably the only thing in SU that genuinely gets me mad. Or, well, maybe not mad, but definitely annoyed and- you guessed it- salty.
I have an unfinished fic where I kinda delve into Spinel's head for that episode called "A New Start". If you really want my thoughts on where Spinel's head was at, there's a bit in there that really explains it. In the fic, Steven decides to rejuvenate himself and brings Spinel along with him, and that's all the context you need for this.
I cannot explain that moment in the climax of the episode, though. Maybe she thought it would make him feel better, or that maybe he really did just need to open his eyes and see the error of his ways (which doesn't make sense, he KNOWS what he did). Maybe she thought that being silly would help somehow.
But you'd think she'd learn from her time with Pink as she grew more annoyed with her, but apparently not. Or maybe she would realize for a second that being loud and annoying was bad. Or maybe she doesn't learn.
Either way, it- and she- was dumb. And they did my baby dirty.
So, Steven’s way too caught up in the fact that he’s a Diamond right now, and therefore a hideous and overpowered monster who can’t hope to be understood by normal humans or normal gems. Let’s talk about that.
For all Steven’s enthusiasm to be a Crystal Gem and to demonstrate his powers, he’s always been weirdly ashamed of how being half-Gem affects his ability to live alongside humans. I don’t think he’s ever really decided how to feel about it. It’s only after seeing Steven growing substantially and changing his hair and getting diamond eyes, now that it’s clear that his physical form is so malleable to how he thinks of himself and what he wants to be, that it really hits me how growing up with Greg and around so many humans has affected his identity. How sort of…quietly unhealthy it was, to go around with his gem covered up all of the time, and his appearance so determinedly human. I mean, think of how upset and ashamed he was when he decided his inhuman aging would screw up his friendship with Connie.
Right now, Steven is a whirlpool of self-loathing mixed into repressed issues and trauma with the Diamonds and hatred for his mother, and because he’s feeling so disconnected from and alienated and misunderstood by both other humans and other gems, because his gem powers are being triggered by his trauma, he’s connected some dots and blamed it all on being a Diamond.
Looking back at that quiet “No,” at the end of “Fragments”, it’s easy to identify it as one of horrified realization. And you know, this is the logical conclusion of Steven’s feelings about his mother in “Mindful Education”, of “Storm in the Room”, of “Volleyball”—but it’s also the sum of a lot of other things:
Peridot: The Diamonds are the Gem matriarchs! …We live to serve them.
The culmination of Peridot flipping to the Crystal Gems is tied directly into her rejecting the Diamonds. Diamonds are introduced as the symbol of everything wrong with Homeworld.
Garnet: “How dare you fuse with a member of my court? You will be broken for this!”
…
Garnet: Pink Diamond thought for a moment, and then laughed; a wicked, empty sound. “You wish to save these life-forms at the expense of our own? Ha! Don’t be absurd. Return to your post, and I will forget your insolence.”
Diamonds are shatterers. They hate fusion. They hate Earth and organic life. They hate Garnet. They’re the evil queens in Garnet’s fairy tale.
Garnet: The Earth belonged to Pink Diamond. Destroying her was the only way to save the planet. For Amethyst to be herself, for Pearl to be free, for me to be together. For you to exist.
Free will and the Diamonds are utterly opposed. It might be a tragedy that Pink Diamond was killed, but she was a monster, like the other Diamonds. The ultimate enemies of the Crystal Gems.
We got almost five seasons of the Diamonds being spoken of this way. You see how terrified every Gem is of the Diamonds, whether they worship them or despise them.
And then we found out a) Rose Quartz was one of them. And b) that Steven is one of them.
Hey, quick question–anyone remember what Sapphire said, right in front of Steven, after the reveal?
Sapphire: Of course she was a Diamond. What a long road she took, to torture us all like this...
…Yeah, we never really got his feelings on b, did we?
I think Steven was so overwhelmed by everything else that was going on and everyone’s reactions, and later so eager to jump on the chance that being seen as one of the Diamonds gave him to fix the corrupted gems and help everyone, that we’ve never really seen him process this realization. Steven drew a very clear line in the sand. The Diamonds are the Diamonds, and Steven is Steven. The Diamonds are wrong about everything, so they’re also wrong about him being Pink, the same way everyone else in the series who’s called him another name has been wrong. He’s not Rose Quartz. He’s not Pink Diamond.
Except…that second part isn’t true. Sure, Steven has a human body. Sure, Steven’s not the original Pink Diamond. That doesn’t mean he’s not a Pink Diamond.
But it was easy back then, right? Because Steven was so, so different from them. A Crystal Gem. A defender of fusion. Weak. Small. Human-colored. Harmless. And as Steven says in the finale promo:
I don’t hurt people. I help people.
Yeah, there’s no way that building an incredibly black-and-white mindset with impossibly high standards for himself to create and hold on to a sense of identity was going to backfire.
So yeah, we never really saw Steven process that he was supposed to be one of these terrifying rulers. Except now he’s hurting people. In fact, it seems that all he can do is hurt people. And since he’s only able to see the bad things he can do, the amount of horrible power he has and how isolating it is and how terrifying it is–of course he blames it on what’s always seen as the source of so many horrible things.
No wonder he’s having an identity crisis! He’s always told himself that he’s different than the Diamonds. He’s better than them. He has to be. So if he’s doing everything wrong, if he’s a freak, if he’s a shatterer, than it’s because he’s a Diamond. He’s just like them. He’s just as bad as them. He’s just as much a monster as the Diamonds are.
It’s complicated, what’s going on. Steven’s very, very wrong. But he’s also, strangely, right on target.
The thing is, this isn’t happening because he’s a Diamond, it’s because he’s human. He’s experienced trauma while growing up and is trying to react to it in a very human way. He literally has PTSD and CPTSD, and if you’ll look up the symptoms you’ll see he’s showing all of them. He’s not a monster. He’s part-human, so his symptoms are manifesting in partially inhuman ways. And that means he just happens to have the power to do a lot more damage than other humans when he lashes out in a way that is, once more, very characteristic for humans. But you know, even the best of humans can do a lot of damage, too, especially when they never really get over trauma. After all, Greg sure did a number on Steven.
The flip-side of this is that the hilarious irony of ancient magical rocks trying to treat themselves as perfect and inhuman alien beings has always been that, that in reality, they’re every bit as fucked up and human as humans are. That’s the whole point of the Crystal Gems and the Homeworld Gems. Remember back when Garnet seemed so perfect? Peridot seemed pretty alien and unfeeling at the beginning, right? Jasper, Topaz, Aquamarine, it goes all the way up to the Diamonds.
The whole point of the Diamonds and why the old system was broken was that the Diamonds tried to present themselves as perfect beings without flaw, when in fact they were all just as much a disaster as every other Gem. Remember back when Rose Quartz was a flawless goddess? Yellow and Blue were terrifying when we first saw them, but then we saw them comforting each other at the Zoo. They’re literally just a screwed-up family grieving and dealing with the death of one of their own–White’s first appearance painted her as this terrifying and totally inhuman being above even Yellow and Blue, but in the end, every one of the Diamonds is a normal, flawed person…just vested with the power to do a lot more damage than most.
The thing about White, was that she was so sure she had to be perfect, that she had to make everything better, but in the end, the solution was just to…let go. Accept that she was imperfect, and live with the consequences of it. Let other people help her. Stop trying to fit into being something she’s not, and just let herself be who she is.
Does any of this sound familiar?
All four of the original Diamonds had destructive powers. All four of the original Diamonds experienced a change and made a conscious choice to control themselves and try to stop using their powers to negatively affect others. White Diamond might be stuck being White Diamond, but as “Homeworld Bound” made clear, she’s also the only one who gets to decide what that means.
So you know what?
You can call Steven half-Gem and half-human, but that doesn’t really describe what he is. He’s a human with a Gem. A Gem with a human form. None of that’s good or bad. It is what it is. And as much as it sucks to be different from everyone else, he’s also the only one who gets to decide what being different means to him. Steven Universe isn’t Rose Quartz and he’s not his mom, but just like he’s a human, he’s also Pink Diamond, and that isn’t bad.
And I think that’s what he needs to hear from everyone. The solution at Steven’s birthday party wasn’t to react to the situation they were in and cheer him up the same way you’d cheer up a baby. He wasn’t just a baby, he was Steven stuck in a body that he didn’t know how to control. What he actually needed was to hear from Connie that she wanted to be there for him, no matter how strange he was.
He needs the people he loves to stop telling him he’s “better than” his trauma and his diamond powers, to stop freaking out at how much damage he can do or treat it like a problem to be fixed. To not tell him that they know he’s going through, they’ve been there, too. They haven’t, and that’s not what he needs to hear. He needs to hear that none of what he is is bad. That his loved ones will be there for him and will love him unconditionally.
And I think that’s what will allow him to accept himself; accept that if he’s a Diamond then he’s also a human, if he’s human then he’s also Pink Diamond–and, just like the previous Pink Diamond, he’s the one who gets to decide what that means.
TL; DR I actually really hope diamond eye Steven is permanent for non angsty reasons. This kid needs to stop being ashamed of his identity.
I have a stupid question: what’s your ranking of Pearl’s love interests? Almost everyone ranks Bismuth or Rose as the ultimate ships I think. But I think not enough people make a full list. Is Pink Pearl ranked above Mystery Girl? And Amethyst? Mayor Dewey?
Lemme just get personal taste out of the way: Based on literally nothing but the vibes in my heart, my order goes: Rose, Bismuth, Amethyst, Pink Pearl, Mystery Girl. Dewey will not appear anywhere on this post. Pearl is a lesbian and I will entertain literally nothing else.
For a more “official” ranking, I’m going to base this on who’s best for Pearl. Like, which of these relationships are best for her. I think the list is going to change depending on your standards. I’m just doing: “you were/are a good partner for Pearl”. And she could date all these people at once (mostly) so whatevs lol.
1. Bismuth. I put her in the number one spot because she’s the only one who both understands what being a pearl means, and that our Pearl is absolutely not a pearl. Amethyst only knows about old Homeworld secondhand. Mystery Girl obviously doesn’t know what it means at all. Pink Pearl knows, but she hasn’t really moved past being a Pearl. She’s on the path to becoming her own person, but she isn’t there yet.
Bismuth isn’t afraid to say things like “Who do you belong to?” because she knows it makes Pearl happy to claim her independence. Bismuth is awed by how much Pearl has grown and loved that. Pearl has truly become her own person over the course of the show, and Bismuth is someone who can be a truly equal partner, who understands so much of what she’s been through.
2. Mystery Girl. It’s weird to put this so high, I’m sure, but although it was a fling I think it was crucially important for Pearl. No matter who else she’s with, I think Pearl will always look back on Mystery Girl extremely fondly, because she was finally able to take real steps to move past Rose and be confident in herself. Relationships don’t have to be long to matter!
3. Amethyst. I mean, it’s just hard to go wrong here. They have a rocky start, slowly build to a really deep, beautiful relationship. This one gets marked down because I feel like Pearl has helped Amethyst grow much more than the other way around. If this was a list of Amethyst’s love interests, I think Pearl would be at the top. But, especially in the later seasons of the show, Pearlmethyst kind of stops existing? Their relationship stops being so fighting-based, but they never take it beyond that.
4. Rose Quartz. As much as I love the ship, it was complicated. I think you could really argue either way as to whether Pearl’s romantic feelings for Rose helped her grow as a person or held her back. I think it’s possible that both are equally true. But no matter how amazing their love story, no matter how exciting and beautiful and real their feelings were for each other, nothing could ever truly erase that power imbalance that was hiding in the background - Pearl was devoted to her Diamond, even when she decided to become Rose Quartz. She always thought she was lesser than Rose and because of that their relationship will always be difficult.
I don’t think it’s inherently bad. It’s not so easy to just say a relationship is okay or toxic. Relationships are complicated, and while it’s sometimes easy to see whether they’re healthy, sometimes it’s not. I think Rose and Pearl were a relationship that could have been perfect, but it would have required both of them to learn to love themselves.
But that didn’t happen. So. It will always be complicated.
5. Pink Pearl. I mean it’s not toxic but I don’t think Pearl’s going to be great at helping Pink Pearl become her own person. Steven named that bitch Volleyball and our Pearl was just like, “Sure, why the fuck not?” She doesn’t even like volleyball. Steven just saw a fucking volleyball. fucking say something pearl.
anyway, Pink Pearl is in her own pit and she needs to do some work on herself before she’s ready for a relationship, tbh. Because she literally just got past the point of “she didn’t mean to beat me” and I think that girl needs some seriously therapy for her own safety before she hops back into another relationship.
SOOO that’s my little ranking! It’s very different from my personal taste, lol. I don’t think anyone is wrong or right for shipping these things. Relationships don’t have to be about finding the perfect person for you. I mean, sometimes someone is perfect on paper but there’s no romantic spark and you’re better as friends!
So ship away with Pearl with whoever you like best! <3
I just realized something. The timeskip from Change Your Mind to the movie and SUF works on so many levels. 1) It allowed Zach to use a more natural voice for Steven and room for the animators to explore Steven as an older teen. 2) It gave time to reorganize the Gem empire so that we didn’t have to devote the screen time to that, we could focus on Steven instead.
And I think the most interesting level is 3) audience interpretation of events differing from characters’ interpretation of events.
We see Steven again after 2 years of growth. 2 years of hard work. 2 years of continuing to stuff down and repress traumatic memories for the sake of playing nice with the Diamonds, for helping dismantle the empire, for helping Gems on Earth improve and grow. We see him bigger and more mature, with bigger problems. We see an immediate obvious disparity between the subtle signs of trauma in a young boy trying so hard to be happy, and the screaming, flashing red flags of a young adult spiraling downward.
His family doesn’t have the benefit of a timeskip. They see Steven frequently, and they have the weight of 16 years’ worth of day to day interactions coloring their perceptions of him. He seems fine today because he seemed fine yesterday. If he is only slightly more stressed or anxious on a day to day level, it won’t be obvious at all to them. This happens incredibly often in real life. A teenager develops a drug addiction, depression, an eating disorder. Little changes start to occur but they all seem small, and gradual, and they don’t quite all fit together into a clear picture. The Gems and Greg see a nightmare here, an outburst there, being more withdrawn sometimes, pushing away old things other times. But they don’t all see the same pieces and they don’t see them all at once the way we the audience did. And they remember all the times before that Steven was fine, so why would things be different now?
We saw a car crash coming in slow motion, helpless to stop it because we’re the audience, but we always knew what the conclusion would be. They saw Steven slowly cooking in a pot of water, degree by slow degree, and had no idea the extent of how he’d suffered until he boiled.
Woke: Connie’s speech was not a Steven Speech™ because she didn’t spare anyone’s feelings even though her speech had the same effect of inspiring everyone and saving the day
Bespoke: Connie’s speech saved the day specifically because it was not a Steven Speech™. It recognized that everyone’s guilt was legitimate because they did hurt Steven, intentionally or not, but they needed to set it aside at that moment and focus on helping Steven. Whereas, in a Steven Speech™, the goal would be to minimize their guilt--often at Steven’s own expense--and just focus on the lessons learned/how they can grow from it
So, apparently the two promo images are for the next two episodes which is wild. So what I am thinking is Steven, with his body reacting like hes in danger, the outburst will make plants be summoned as body guards for him and attacking any potential threats (just like Watermelon Stevens in the original series).
Take a look at the environment and the appearances of the Bush Stevens. They are big and intimidating (have kind of Greaser look to them).
We see a park bench, so maybe there were some bushes around the area that got hit with Steven's power to make them come to life to protect Steven?
And my prediction is that during the ambush (pun intended), Greg's van gets crashed/crushed. The gems show up to help protect Steven and Greg. (Maybe cause it looks like they are in the same area as Little Homeschool maybe they overheard or saw the comotion and came to help).
Then at the end of the episode we will see the "Leave me alone" scene which something will happen and Steven might run away.
Then we have Fragments.
With each week I always can't come up with a prediction of what's going to happen with the second episode they air (first Bismuth Casual, then Growing Pains, now Fragments), but I do associate these images with being in this episode.
Maybe it's just he ran away from home to Jasper and they train maybe? Like the last time we saw Jasper she stressed him out to awaken these pink attacks in the first place so thats probably not the best idea? And something goes wrong? Anyone's guess is better than mine.
I'm very anxious for these episodes. Each week my anxious meter has went up considerably.
steven universe is. very interesting as a show about the kid of two parents who wanted so desperately for their son to have freedom that they didn’t provide the structure a child would need
it’s a look at how love can never be perfect. about how parents can never be perfect, how trauma and abuse can resonate in any situation. about how, yes, it’s important to treat a child like another separate human being who has desires and needs that won’t match yours— that, to rose and greg, would be INTENSELY exciting, and as an emotional abuse victim i Get it, how bad the want to let someone just be the way your parents didn’t can get— but a child still needs a support system.
in a society where the infrastructural system for children is harmful, but where there’s no equal alternative for helping someone grow and develop and learn, a parent has to decide if they want to just avoid the system entirely or help their child through it as best they can, and they have to decide based on their experience with the system. the thing about avoiding the system entirely, though, is that to help your kid develop and grow, you have to become the system, and greg wasn’t willing to do that to steven because of his own parents, who restricted to harmful degrees and instilled in him the idea that almost any restriction was bad. rose asked the crystal gems to become the system, and they weren’t prepared. they were dealing with their own trauma, they had the same fear (or unawareness) of the system they grew up in, and didn’t want steven to experience it. all of the parental figures in steven’s life love him dearly, and don’t want to do him harm, but. trauma and problems can arise in loving situations, too, especially if everyone holds the specter of the system over your head without you knowing it— or, especially, if they can only hide you from it for so long, or if the lack of direction you feel is so violent you actually start to seek it out, unaware of the potential damage and desperate for information, for order.
