I love the fact that deedee put her pearlussy into “it’s over isn’t it” to the point where the animators had to change the animation to match deedee’s singing
@@mariniendoh9109 That’s probably what they meant lol The storyboard was probably different than the final product, which means that they might’ve changed the storyboard to match Dee Dee’s singing.
One thing I want to mention about Zach Callison's voice is that he was ~14 when they started work on the show and recorded for the pilot. As the years went on, his voice cracked and he had to change how he was acting to keep up the prepubescent Steven voice. Sometimes the strain is more obvious than others, but they did find a couple ways to utilize his natural voice well in the main series (Steven's Birthday and the "She's GONE" from CYM). I also think that's part of the reason his acting is so much better in Future, he doesn't have to keep up the falsetto (which in some clips sounds like it hurts).
@@regulate.artificer_g23.mdctlsk NAH fr i jsut realized that as I read it, and it makes sense for the episode obviously for the diamonds, blue, yellow, and pink. And those are all against white at the moment (if I remember correctly) and white is the absense of color.
I think the test is very important. It’s shows how much the gems are lost without Rose. And Steven realizes how much it’s struggle for the gems to raise someone as unique as him. He realizes if he spares the gems feels by pushing his down. After that, you can see many time where Steven is pushing his feels to make sure other people feels better.
It's also the first time Steven ever sees the Gems struggling to take care of him, it's a major shift in the show's tone and as you said started Steven's habit of disregarding his own feelings for everyone else's.
*[It may not be the most perfect show ever. It had it's moments. But i'm sure that, over the past decade, Steven Universe sure created something incredible: memories. Amazing memories]*
11:22 "weird to see teens crushing on Stevonnie." that was actually the point! Rebecca Sugar has said that it's like a metaphor for puberty and the way people's perception of you changes. like, yes, you're still just a child, but suddenly because you get secondary sex characteristics, you get sexualised and ogled at. I think it's a clever way of portraying that. most girls first experience with catcalling/harrassment has been in their early teens and that's messed up.
Yeah, but I think you're forgetting that Steven's 14, and Connie's 12, and them combining to be a conventionally attractive young female presenting person is honestly creepy as FUCK
@@VeloriaMyVey fusion is a metaphor for relationships, not explicitly sex. Yes, sometimes that can take the form of mutual gratification similarly to how a casual sexual relationship functions, and pearls abuse of that is manipulation, but its not and never will be rape.
Future wasn't really a sequel show. It was really just an epilogue show. It's made to tie off loose ends in character development instead of presenting entirely new character arcs. And since Steven had the largest loose end of "how does he process all of the trauma he experienced throughout his childhood?", that's why it is the main focus of Future.
Yes, I feel like a lot of people forget it's an epilogue. I personally would have liked a bit more time after the climax as it felt like it never really gave me the closure I needed, but that's just personal.
It genuinely angers me that people got so mad that Connie rejected Steven in future. She was completely in her right to. She didn't spit in his face and yell at him for being such an idiot, she lets him know it's "Not a no, it's a not now." but i guess they went deaf at that moment cause people never seem to talk about it when talking about this scene. EDIT: It's nice reading the replies and knowing there are people who see the reason in Connie, also tysm for all the likes!
It wasn't just getting married he wanted to BE stevonnine. Literally taking her independence away. Anyone who got mad at CONNIE needs to take a deep look inside themselves
As someone with PTSD, I think Future is a heartbreakingly real representation of how trauma can not only affect your emotions but how it can affect your sense of morality and self. Steven becoming so overwhelmed by his trauma that he ends up hurting the people around him is too real. My main issue with the season is that it’s not very uplifting for people with the disorder as it does paint steven in a very negative light and doesn’t really do much to redeem him in the end. You sort of have to have the disorder or be close to someone that does to understand his actions and otherwise it’s kind of a damaging portrayal. I do think its very well made but I just wish the ending was more than steven deciding to isolate himself from his support system.
Yes, this. Steven Universe Future came out during a time where I was very deep in my trauma and the show DEEPLY resonated with me. It was so wild having a piece of media come out at the time which could encapsulate so much of the pain i was going through- especially one that i grew up with and had brought me so many wonderful memories throughout more "innocent" times. Growing up with Steven, and then arriving at a place with him where we both realize we've been fucked up- idk it was just such a unique and almost poetic experience. Also for your critique point, I totally get what you meant, but everyone has different things they need to help improve their lives and situation- Steven had a lot of trauma in general but one if his biggest issues was hanging on to the past too much, not knowing how to let his friends and family move on with their lives and simultaneously move on with his own, so I think it was a very big and important step for him to take a step back and start his own path, move on with his own future! I don't think he'll be completely without his support system, I think he'll still be heavily in contact with Connie and the gems and such, but from a more healthy distance with room to grow!!
To add to your critique, it's just really weird how Steven's trauma makes him become a corrupted monster and how everything is just solved by a hug. I think the fanservice of seeing a corrupted diamond spoke louder on this part, but it's still weird to view someone suffering with PTSD to be portrayed as a monster
@@santihjusto I don't think the PTSD made him a monster. I think the monster represented Steven decompensating and having a mental health crisis in response to the intervention that forced him to confront his feelings. Which is very plausible in his position.
Did you forget? Steven helped people at the expense of his own mental health. Future Steven wants to help people but he couldn't keep doing it at the expense of himself anymore. Episodes like Keystone Motel went fully into this and it still left Steven's feelings largely unresolved. The entire series just forced Steven to bottle everything up for the greater good. Future addresses this near perfectly. It wouldn't make any sense if he wasn't selfish to a degree, the other gems got to be selfish while Steven was always stuck making compromises. He was struggling mentally and wanted things to just be how he knew them to be. That was real and Future gave Steven a lot of complexity as a character. Plus, the movie definitely set it up. Steven was stagnating in a "happily ever after" mindset and was noticeably less patient with Spinel than he was with other gems.
If you ask me Steven’s mental health issues were set up best in the episode “Mindful Education”, where it starts as then focusing on Connie’s issues and how to handle them but suddenly Steven has issues too… and he tries sooo hard to just shove them back down when Connie tries to help him. They don’t really touch on anything after that because.. well everyone is used to happy Steven, none of them know how to deal with mentally traumatized Steven. 🤷🏻♀️ But mental health issues as severe as Steven’s needed more time to be addressed, he needed more help… and because he didn’t get any he ended up dealing with the complete break down of his sanity in Future. But for some reason people still think it came out of of no where… when I and many others saw this coming for a long time.
@@bloodyrose1995 that was a brilliant episode. Definitely one of my favorites, hitting me right in the heart. How anyone forgets about that is beyond me.
that's exactly what I was thinking! And I kind of actually liked how they showed Steven refusing the gems' help until he absolutely needed it. He wanted to protect the gems or help them out as much as he could, even if that meant he had to find some other way to solve his problems. The idea that he doesn't want to hurt the gems by bringing them into his problems makes complete sense to me. I loved the whole future series. I still remember being a teen and the emotions I had- and it felt like Steven was rolling through waves of emotions like I was. His emotions felt just as volatile as mine. Him exploding in rage or emotions made complete sense to me because that's how volatile my own emotions felt.
A pet peeve of mine is when someone says the Diamonds were redeemed. When they were not. They stopped dominating but they never stopped being trash people. Steven tolerates them to keep them appeased. They can't kill the Diamonds. Can't banish them. Just tolorate them and hopefully try to make them a little better. But never redeemed. Edit: I've been thinking about this more and rewatching clips. And I think calling them still trash is harsh. They have been making efforts to do better and be better. They haven't been fully redeemed but they are on the path to redemption for themselves. A lot of what they did can't be forgiven by some which is very understandable. But they are trying for that second chance and that should be acknowledged.
Also everyone misunderstands that the Diamonds killed off tons of sentient beings. All the planets they destroyed didn't have sentient life, just kind of basic animal stuff - which was confirmed by the creators. Earth was the first planet to have sentient life and it caused a whole war. Also, being aliens they seem to have different moral codes and generally frown upon other life-forms they think are "lesser" the Diamonds view on humanity was that of insects for some time.
@@blacksesamecandies Sure, it *was* still awful, but it wasn't like they literally genocided actual sentient beings. The closest to that were gems who were shattered, and yeah, implication is that there's quite a lot of gems that were shattered. But yeah, they mostly drained planets with plant life and basic insect life. Earth was, indeed, the first planet they found with sentient life, and the only one they didn't manage to colonise. Also also, do I need to even mention that Steven.. tried to KILL WHITE DIAMOND OUT RIGHT?? If he hadn't punched the pillar next to White, she would've been shattered.
The show might have been too vague with what the diamonds' fate was I guess. Owl House killed off Belos (kinda twice if you count how the Collector bodied Belos in the season 2 finale).
@@GumSkyloard What evidence do you have from the show that none of the previously colonized worlds had sentient life? The gems that interact with humans on Homeworld in the human zoo episode clearly refer to the humans like animals that “make annoying noises” even though it’s well established gems can speak to humans. They keep them in a zoo. What actual evidence do you have from the show that this was their first instance interacting with sentient life? Also, when they did find it, they STILL TRIED TO COLONIZE THE PLANET.
Blue tries though, she begins to empathize with the crystal gems and even the gems caught in the blast that led to gem corruption. Of the three diamonds, shes closest to being redeemed at the end
While I also think shattering jasper should have been permanent, in its defense it serves the purpose of being another incident where steven is able to ~magically fix things~ all on his own and be the savior yet again, further leading to his huge breakdown. He mentions it in "everything's fine" in the confrontation scene, he says something like "i can fix anything, i can keep just messing things up and its fine and you never have to know about any of it" and uses the shattering thing as an example
I also think it adds another layer of what it feels like to be mentally ill. All the pain and suffering and the feeling of things being "wrong" is internal and there's no physical proof of it. So having a murder be undone like that makes the mental struggle feel even more like "I should be okay because nothing is physically wrong"
Also having Steven be a straight-up murderer would definitely need more time to be addressed and would probably get in the way of the whole mental health conflict
I can understand people not particularly liking Future, but as someone who went through childhood trauma I felt seen for the first time, it'shard to express how much that season means to me. I cry my way through the season every time 😅.
I felt the same thing. In this review it’s mentioned how the emotional beats are kind of illogical, with the gems constantly trying to be there for Steven and how he seems to have emotional break throughs that then get reversed…. But that’s kind of just what complex post traumatic stress disorder is like. You can know and logically understand that someone loves you and is there for you, and you can even feel it, but there is a cognitive dissonance when you have cPTSD that literally doesn’t make sense to those outside the experience. It’s inherently illogical. There’s a condition called Toxic Syndrome which basically occurs when you have been exposed to too much of a certain chemical and now your body literally cannot handle it anymore. Your body will literally assume you’re being poisoned if you are exposed to a small amount of substance within that chemical family, because it hit a hard limit once and now cannot deal with it at all. I’m oversimplifying here a bit, but it’s a fairly good physical analogy for how cPTSD works in my opinion. Anything that can remind you or is even distantly related to the trauma can cause your emotional regulation to go completely out the window, because trauma is essentially past your limits by definition. If you have multiple, sustained events that were traumatic that have not been processed, it is not as simple as having one heart to heart conversation about how much you care to undo that reaction. The fact is by the end of Future, he is NOT okay still. He is figuring it out, but nobody is actually okay after having a huge PTSD breakdown. I appreciate that about the show, that it does show that the affects of the moments throughout the series had really long lasting impact on Steven, and it’s not something that can be fixed in a 10 minute special episode. The reality with cPTSD and PTSD is that recovery is a really long journey and is not linear. Sometimes you can have positive breakthroughs and sometimes you have incredibly low times where it feels like you’re at your worst. Future did a decent job at this. Considering how little post-trauma is represented even halfway decently in most media, I was happy to see Future handle it so well.
The problem is people only want the “cutesy” side of trauma, so when a character exhibits “uglier” sides, such as aggression, it’s suddenly bad writing
@@chaosbeam4654 Couldn't have said it better myself. I had a ptsd breakdown once that looked a LOT like Steven's and I felt for the kid every step of the way
EXACTLY! steven is way more bearable to me because i understand his reactions as a victim! i love watching him be able to finally realize that there are people who care, and let them back into his life!
1:07:27 personally I think it is a very real representation of what it can feel like to lose your “purpose” and being left with all the trauma and problems you pushed to the side while you had “more important things to deal with.” It can cause immense character change (if only temporarily) while you face The Absurd and realize that life goes on and you have to find meaning in the process, not a singular thing. It’s a complex philosophical struggle that I personally feel they represented well.
I really liked what Future did, it came out just as I was getting ready to go to college, and his struggle of trying to figure out who he is without the people he's around, what he wants, trying to reconcile with his past, it all hit incredibly close to home. My favorite part was Connie's mom saying "You've been through so much that now your body responds to normal situations as if your life is in danger". I got diagnosed with PNES, a type of conversion disorder that turns stress and trauma into physical symptoms. His response of shock and disbelief and frustration and anger and panic and sadness is so accurate and I cried when I watched it because it was such a simple yet effective way of explaining it, it made me feel less alone and more normal. To me, the writing team did an absolutely commendable job of engaging with Steven's experiences as if he was a real person. I also think Steven's actions in Future make a lot more sense if you consider he's a traumatized 16-year-old who feels like his world is imploding around him, he has a full-on mental health crisis and it's realistic that he'd be less "likable" in that circumstance.
I liked Steven in Future. It made sense. Literally having the world on his shoulders, being one of the most important figures around, saving and helping people most of his life. It made sense he snapped when he wasn’t particularly useful anymore. And then macho Steven was super cool, I liked seeing him tap into his true power. But then he shattered (and instantly revived killing the concept of shattering) jasper. And put a 100% stop to the behavior. I think Steven needs to regularly spar! It’s a good outlet and I liked him making himself more manly. It was cool before he went all Gohan and let the power rush to his head.
Heavily disagree with SU Future. Steven is not unlikable, he is breaking down. He pushes people away because he thinks of himself as unlikable. He doesn't talk because he feels like a burden and is used to eating stuff up. He is rude because that makes people stop asking. The Greg episode is really good, showcasing that Greg "over-corrected" with the way Steven was raised, Steven picking up gardening because that's the only way for him to feel needed, Pearl realizing that she is in fact not over Rose and this type of trauma can take a really long time to heal, Jasper being set in her ways was the most Jasper thing to do and when she called Steven "my diamond" ...it was bone chilling.... The thing I would fault the most is the diamond powers being very goofy and they could have done it differently. But Stevens attempted murder of White Diamond was terrifying. You can clearly see his suppressed rage and anger swelling up against all of his mothers side of the family... including himself. IMO they didn't go far enough with his mental breakdown but they did show his mental instability really well. The slipping from happy to slowly loosing it one by one. Using control and rage to find oneself... Also the Conny episode... I didn't even think he was a dickhead. He wanted to be someone else so badly, that he just proposed... I didn't feel angry towards anyone in this case. IDK what people mean by "Conny is mean" or " Steven is a jerk". He loves her, asked for advice from one of the most stable couples in his life and took it as the gospel truth. All in all good video man, I liked the series too but i just felt you gave Future a bit too much of a bad rep. Many did and it feels like many misunderstood its purpose, that being not a sequel, but a conclusion or more of a " cautionary tale of child heroes" and a bit of a mental health awareness campaign.
Totally agree with you. Lots of people didn’t seem to truly understand what Future was doing… Also, thank you for mentioning Greg’s “over-correction”! I’ve seen so many times people talk about how shitty it was for Steven to fight with Greg and that he didn’t do anything to deserve Steven’s anger when he seriously did. He messed up, like lots of parents do, by becoming the complete opposite of when his parents were and just made different kinds of mistakes. Greg tried to give Steven what he wanted as a kid… not realizing that the reason he was able to go find his own path was partially because of the stability he’d been afforded in life. Greg was a good dad, he loved Steven and tried his best, but he still messed up…
@@bloodyrose1995 Neither were right or wrong. People will probably empathise more with one than the other, but Greg was doing what he thought was best, and Steven was reacting honestly. I find Steven unlikable in that episode because I find people who take out their anger on others unlikeable. But it's not like I don't think he was allowed to be angry, and I still 'forgive' it because he was going through a tough time and clearly regretted it. I don't think it's a good idea to remove accountability from those who are mentally unhealthy, I think it's very dehumanising to do that to someone.
As someone with BPD i can tell you with certainty that stevens actions are more than justified when it comes to needing people to love you so much that you scare them away and i dont find it forced cus its literally just me 😭
You think steven has bpd, I have that, I never noticed it in steven but maybe I can see your point in regards to him always trying to be like his mom and how he is his mom, I think maybe that stuff could cause him to develop bpd. Good point. Especially if you view rose as a narcissist , narcissistic parents normally end up giving there kids bpd. Very interesting
@@CirqueDuSomni no, I believe that they meant that this behavior is actually real and not an overexaggeration and showed that they're personally find it relatable with their bpd (Steven might not have bpd but show the same behavior)
It makes perfect sense for Steven to act the way he does in Future. The entire first series/movie his self worth is derived from being helpful. Once you run out of ways to help, you make them up. He also couldn't go 2 weeks without another character having their own emotional crisis, so he learned it was important for him to always be the hopeful one who has it together and doesn't act silly or negatively. When you have a problem, just bottle it up! It makes perfect sense that once the world around Steven stops depending on him to keep it together is when he really falls apart. It doesn't quite fill the same narrative purpose, but it reminds me of the last half hour of the Lord of the Rings, when Frodo eventually succumbs to the wound from the witch king, and the weight the ring had on his heart, to the point his only course is to go into the west with Bilbo and Gandalf. It's really bittersweet.
The reason why no one helped Steven in Future until the end is because Steven didn't want them to help him. You can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped. He kept denying and/or projecting his issues, without actually owning them. How are you gonna help someone who doesn't even *realize* the issues themselves.
I agree with so many things said here and while I disagree with a bunch of other things (mainly about future) I have to thank you for pointing out Zach's amazing performance during the show's run. I think that even in the earlier seasons Zach's voice acting was as good as it could ever get and it made the whole thing so much better in my opinion. Episodes like Storm in the Room, Reunited, Change Your Mind, Everything's Fine and many more benefit a lot from his beautiful voice acting. This might very well be biased on my part, having fell in love with this show ever since the beginning and following not only the show itself but a lot of the voice actors careers, but I still think that Zach deserves all the praise he could get(waiting for your return Zach, hope youre doing well). I thank Rebecca Sugar for all the memories and amazing times I've had watching this show, whether it be crying, laughing or just enjoying the stunning scenery and music.
Steven's problems in Future isnt just his trauma from the main series. His purpose in life was helping other people reach their happily ever after, and he's finally reached it. He HAS NO purpose in life anymore and is struggling without knowing what to do now. He has everything he ever wanted and has no clue what to do.
As someone who watched as an adult, Steven Universe remains one of my top examples of Western cartoons, and one of the defining series of the 2010's. It was groundbreaking for the industry to graft on a dose of 90's post-NGE anime and tell a story that was willing to explore character psyche and identity in more depth than "welp life sucks sometimes, that's the joke, roll credits" - the old go-to strategy of adult animation from the Simpsons. This kind of story has always been around, but it just wasn't being done in a cartoon format. And Adventure Time did also play a role in that, not just in sharing staff members but in setting up groundwork for how that kind of story could be told, which SU elaborated on and pushed much farther by using a soap-operatic narrative structure - to the point where fans complained with Future, because at that point the adventure mystery box stuff is over and it's just "Steven dealing with some shit". I really don't think you could have movies of this decade like Turning Red and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish - stuff accessible to young audiences that addresses messy adult topics without hiding behind irony - if you didn't also have SU yanking open the door and showing that audiences will engage in those conversations, even if means some of them fall down a rabbit hole of toxicity in the process.
I really wish they had been able to stick the landing a bit better. The end of the series felt rushed and future has its own set of problems but it is hard to shake the feeling that if CN had given them more time to flesh out the plot points that they had set up they would have been able to come to a more satisfying ending. I really feel like the biggest issues with the series were caused directly by CNs influence. The stevenbombs and the flakiness when it came to the final seasons and renewal just led to a lot of issues that didnt need to exist.
Amen.. i was so in love with the small lil bits of lore and just loved the show so much.... The feeling of disappointment with the movie and future was unreal sooo rushed and just so disappointing we had to wait sooooooo lonngg for lil bits of lore throughout the series and then just a super rushed lame ending like what???
@@zoeclupka9543 The final ep of the original run just had me looking over all the Onion and Ronaldo episodes, looking at that absolutely wasted time when they could have been exploring any of the lore they'd set up... giving us more of Pearls PTSD Roller Coaster... or just sending Peridot and Lapis to a renn faire, something fun and stupid instead of just annoying and stupid.
agreed! If they had been allowed to move at the right pace and there wasnt as much interference from the studio what was already a great show for me couldve been so much better
something interesting is how season 1 portrays the gems as more mystical figures, with temples and gem artifacts that are more spiritual than technological (like the moon goddess statue, time travel hourglass, lapis's mirror, etc). season 2 onward is when it takes a hard turn into sci-fi and the gems being aliens. i do wish they stuck with the mystical angle, the sci-fi stuff feels a lot more generic compared to the more mysterious and memorable stuff from season 1, but the two approaches are so different that it's like apples and oranges.
My main issue is why weren’t the gems known! If something like them and the corrupted gems actually existed, you’d hear or see something about them all the time! And mind you we don’t really get to see humanity beyond beach city.
We know since the gems have been on earth home world advanced their technology like crazy, so maybe that's how they started out. How they had powers and so on, and that is why newer gems don't have them and rely more on technology. Like older gems were more mystical and magical and with less resources they had to improve on technology.
I kind of disagree on this. I think a majority of kids/teens shows focus on magic and mystical elements, I like that SU stood out as Science Fiction and I think it did a good job blending the two elements.
I definitely agree on the fandom bit but that’s sadly what happens when you have a bunch of chronically online pre teens and teens who think they’re right about everything. It’s not the first time and it won’t be the last either every few years there’s a fandom that seems to one up the other on how bad the 1% of a fandom can be. Even though I’m a part of fandoms that have done bad things I have to remember there’s lots of good in them too. I’ve seen so many people let the choices of a small amount of people cause them to leave a fandom and that really sucks.
Yeah honestly I hate when people (in general) use this as a point AGAINST the show itself. Like I’m sorry but welcome to the damn internet. The super horrible people who doxx and send death threats and do shit like that genuinely exist in every single fandom that has 300 or more people in it. And none of this was the fault of anyone who worked on the show or normal chill fans who just liked or were even obsessed with the show themselves
I always disagree with the toxic fandom idea. How many people do you need for fandom to be toxic? Because honestly SU and any other fandom there’s gonna be a vocal minority of idiots. That does not make a toxic fandom. There are thousands of people in the SU fandom most of them are fine.
@@highvoltage7797 that’s true honestly. Because it’s easy to see a few people from a massive fandom do one or two bad things and then go “oh it’s toxic”. It’s just like how all people think Furries are pedos and want to sleep with animals when In reality more than plenty of them reject those people and don’t consider them part of the fandom.
@@highvoltage7797 for any fandom, there's always a very toxic and very vocal ~5% of people that will make their problems with their favorite media everyone's problem. With smaller fandoms, those people can usually be ignored or knocked back in line. But the bigger the fandom, the bigger that ~5%, and the harder it becomes to tune them out. And because they're the most vocal members of the fandom instead of the ones who are chill and just want to enjoy it, they're the people that leave the biggest impression of the fandom on other people. Thus, the fandom itself gets a toxic reputation.
White Diamond theme is so atmospheric, so alien, i love how otherworldly her theme is, i also like to use as background music while playing No Man's Sky, it fits perfectly.
I am 17 years old and till last year it was my absolute favourite show (overthrown by The Owl House now), I still enjoy the episodes when I see them and it will always have a place in my heart. Arguments on why I loved it? I don't have any, I just did honestly, and I also think that's what this is all about, enjoy it to the fullest and then decide if you liked it or not 🤷🏻♂️😊
The Owl House honestly feels like it was inspired by Steven Universe, at least partiall. I adored both shows and both of them suffer from premature cancelation and thus have rushed storylines toward the end
You started to like The Owl House more than Steven Universe? I started watching The Owl House in 2020 late didn't even know about Steven Universe until late 2021 and it immediately become my favorite show ever 2022
51:06 I know sometimes the crewniverse has some inconsistencies, but I think this could be explained by the fact that while Lapis knows about video messaging (the wailing stone ep), the medium is what matters. Every single gem communicator I can remember is holographic or a projection (makes sense since they're light), so when Lapis sees Steven in a handheld device with a live video feed (not the camp pining hearts tv) on one surface I imagine the first and only thing she can compare it to is her mirror. Maybe I'm reading too much into it tho.
No! You’re not reading too much into it! I thought that Lapis was just re-traumatized from the whole mirror/livefeed thing and wanted to “save” Steven from the same terrible experience she did with the mirror
10 years?!! I remember watching the first episode when it aired doesn’t even feel so long ago. I fell off near the end of the show but the lore,mystery,characters, and artstyle always brought me back.
I think pearl is a greatly damaged person which is why her development as the series went on was so good. She started out with a lot of bad moments but got so much better and I appreciate that. She became one of my favorite characters but it took a long time.
I rewatch Sardonyx's introduction constantly, I wish more people liked it and her as much as I did. Alexia Khadime's voice work is absolutely incredible, as is the music. I wish we had seen more of her.
I like how steven universe does side stories, people call it filler, but that’s pretty dismissive when a lot of the messages and themes of the are empathy and caring for people where they are.
Did I miss it, or did you actually not mention the premature cancellation? (I'm genuinely asking cause I mostly listened to this in the background of working on a project) I feel like the cancellation is a fundamental part in understanding most, if not all, of the show's flaws i.e. network interference. One such example is the "filler episodes" being caused by network mandates for episodic storytelling. Anyway, this was an absolutely fantastic retrospective and it's always fun to see this show get some well-deserved praise.
Oh my god, there’s no way! I remember reading up on the whole cancellation story and what ended up leading to the movie and Future and being really interested in the whole thing. HOW DID I NOT INCLUDE IT?! (Thanks for the kind words, btw)
@@LynxxXVI yeah, I really don't like the term filler when used in the context of Steven Universe or other shows like The Owl House or Amphibia; there's not a single episode in any of those shows where the writers didn't try to make a good episode of television.
Thanks for the hard work seriously the amount of time and effort but in this video is insane and it made me relive some good childhood memories so thank for that too
I like that Peridot never fused. Feel very ace representation. Which we need more of. In regards to the different character designs, Rebecca Sugar said that she loved seeing fans point out what artists drew who for this episode. She also said that she hates conformity. So she kinda encouraged the artists draw how they wanted. I appreciate the idea but it is hard to look at.
i'm eternally thankful that they went for the ace representation, not only did it feel right, but it also put a huge damper on a majority of toxic shippers as well it was so awful having a favorite character that was constantly reduced to the other half of any given pairing from start to finish pretty much, and it still stings that it had an effect on some of the episodes we ended up with too
@@alien-eater First claim is weird to make, second claim is somewhat correct. Fusions are a result of really any relationship, which Smokey Quartz demonstrates the best imo. They are friends, and fusion is a result of that. But most other fusions work and are talked about and shown in the context of romantic relationships. Pearl and Rose. Ruby and Sapphire. Garnet and Pearl seems to be a weird mix of both romantic and platonic. I think it is safe to not have Peridot fuse for a whole slew of reasons that does involve this implication that fusion can be showing how characters may have romantic feelings for one another.
This series was my childhood, and I’ve rewatched it recently and come to the conclusion that it has the highest highs of any animated show I’ve ever seen and some pretty low lows. At its best it deals with extremely heavy handed emotional topics like love, abandonment, acceptance, ptsd, the effect of lies on children, parenthood, even SA in one very thickly veiled instance, with some amazingly written character like Lapis, Garnet, Connie, Greg and especially Pearl, as well as some like Yellow Diamond, Bismuth and Jasper, some absolutely STELLAR music, obviously the vocal tracks like It’s over isn’t it, full disclosure, Stronger than you, what’s the use of feeling blue, and Comet, but also instrumental tracks like Alone Together and I’m Still Here, and the iconic Escapism, not to mention the iconic Love Like You. It can have some extremely compelling stories like the climax of season 1 or the pearl/pink diamond stuff, with an amazing ambience in beach city with side characters that you care about like Jaime, Lars/Sadie, the cool kids, Petey, and Mayor Dewey. Greg provides an amazing character, a failed musician turned car wash owner who is content to live a simple life in the moment with his son, the gems provide the perfect balance between mother/family figures and source of mystery and tension, Connie is an amazing addition the perfectly walks the line between romantic interest and wholesome friendship as well as keeping Steven grounded in his humanity, and Steven is a great protagonist that we can see grow and develop, deal with issues of loss, pressure, and pain from his mother and the gems, as well as homeworld. It even manages to display a message of acceptance without being in your face about it and can be ignored by young children. At its worst it’s a preachy show with quickly written episodes that feel very cartooney, sinking far below the standards the series has set for itself. Steven can be an almost comedically over sensitive character that can’t stop crying, garnet can be a device simply to promote gay rights (which I have no problem with when done right, as the show has proven it can do), the show becomes reliant on childish tropes and feud ex machina rescues, with unearned conflict resolution that feels shoehorned in because they can’t have Steven end a conflict with violence (looking at you White Diamond). In short, for every amazing episode like: Rose’s Scabbard, Jailbreak, Full Disclosure, Giant women Sworn to the Sword, Mr. Greg, Indirect Kiss Alone together Keeping it Together Winter forecast Lion 3: Straight to video, We need to talk, Ocean Gem Alone at Sea Storm in the Room Same Old World Bubbled It Could’ve been Great and many more, you have an episode like Hit the diamond The Question (Ruby Rider) Rocknaldo Back to the Barn Future Boy Zoltron The new crystal gems Dewey wins Love Letters Know your fusion Historical Friction Restaurant Wars Lars of the Stars Sadie’s song Too short to ride Kindergarten Kid Doug out Back to the Moon
As someone with intense and severe ptsd, Stevens depiction is absolutely perfect in Future. That is what ptsd looks like. Anyone who says otherwise has never experienced ptsd. It makes you afraid of yourself.
Guess I don't have PTSD from years of SA as a child and experience with DV because my experience doesn't conform with a cartoon character. I didn't get bursts of anger. I'd heavily dissociate (to the point of nearly crashing my car) and have panic attacks where I attempted to isolate myself. I never became aggressive towards other people, even when I was scared. Steven does not represent all of us.
even though everyone seems to hate it. (including myself when it first came out) the uncle grandpa episode is actually pretty funny with some good jokes. like uncle grandpa saying "don't worry. its not canon. but this is!" only to pull out a real cannon and shoot down a ship that lars and sadie were on. for lars to exclaim "NO!! OUR SHIP!!" as they sink into the sea. which is alot funnier knowing that they don't actually get together in the end.
I really lile that this video isnt overly negative or overly positive. It talks about the stregths and flaws without letting one overshadow the other. This is one of my favorite shows and its nice to see someone enjoy it while still having a critical eye.
I remember very well how much this show had an effect on me. Me and my friends would always talk about the latest episode the day after it aired, I would listen to all the cast interviews, and play the songs on repeat, I went as Steve for Halloween, and it helped coming to terms with myself with what I was going through every time. I am forever. Thankful for Steven universe.
I remember there was an inteview that confirmed the reason why season 5 is so rushed at the end was because they thought they would be cancelled after having a gay wedding in the show. So they wanted to wrap up the story quickly and finish it before that happened. So cool that it didn't.
I actually really loved Future. As someone who experienced a lot of childhood/teen trauma it was representation I’m not used to having. It’s really important, especially because the demographic of queer viewers unfortunately also experience more trauma than average. I didn’t feel that Steven was out of character. I think because I have CPTSD I understood better why he behaved the way he did, and it didn’t make me find him to be unlikable/a bad person. I also went through the common childhood trauma experience of falling apart after the fact. Before that you’re in survival mode and it’s not obvious how much the trauma messed you up until you’re safe enough to start to process it. I’m 23 and still realizing how much I’ve been impacted and hindered from what I experienced during the years that I was being shaped as a person. A lot of his behaviors don’t seem logical when you haven’t experienced the mental illnesses that cause them. Like pushing people away when you need them most, while being terrified of abandonment. I think a lot of his anger was justified, he was neglected, had way too much responsibility placed onto him, saw horrible things, was hurt so many times and had no stability for basically his whole life. His identity and self worth got tied into his heroism, so once he didn’t need to do that anymore, he didn’t know who he was or feel valuable without it. He was stuck processing his trauma while everyone else got to move on with their lives. It’s really hard to be stunted like that, seeing everyone else move on with their lives because they got to grow and develop while you had to put that on pause to survive. You get stuck in the past and people don’t understand that you still need the support that you never got when you were younger. You kind of have to parent yourself and it’s so hard to ask for the help you need because you feel like a burden and think you SHOULD be able to handle it yourself since everyone else can, but you didn’t get to develop the needed skills. I struggle a lot to function because I wasn’t taught how. Like Steven I was neglected, didn’t have a stable home, didn’t get to go to school/learn to socialize/have peers, was hurt physically/didn’t receive needed medical care, had too many responsibilities, was in constant crisis, had identity issues, and other things that have made it so I’m very unprepared to be on my own, and lack “basic” life skills. It’s very upsetting and overwhelming to realize just how much the adults in your life failed you. You never got the chance to be not okay either so it can get very self destructive and so much worse than people realize because you think you have to put on a strong front like you’ve always had to. I cried a lot watching Future, CPTSD is not a subject I’ve ever seen a cartoon touch on and Steven Universe is a comfort show for me that I watched during the roughest times of my life. It was healing to see Steven go through the same struggles I go through and still come out okay in the end. I understand that the subject is too heavy for most shows to want to touch upon it but it’s so refreshing to see a piece of media acknowledge the impact of trauma since most characters go through awful shit and are just magically fine afterwards.
I 100% agree honestly, I was so shocked watching SU Future for the first time and so many times it had me on the edge of my seat and in tears because I could see myself in Steven.
I fully agree! Steven Universe itself (not Future) premiered a mere less than two months after my own mom passed away, so in a way it was good to have that representation and have it treated in an appropriate manner and not Disney's way of 'oh, my mom's dead, that sucks'. It's WAY more convoluted than that, and that was perfectly shown throughout SU and SUF with not just the supporting characters who directly were involved with Rose/Pink and lost her (Pearl, Amethyst, Garnet, Greg, maybe even Spinel + the Diamonds but through a different context) but most importantly Steven himself.
I would argue that Steven's personality in future is actually pretty spot on in terms of trauma response. His gem was acting up,he wanted so hard to be useful because he spent his entire youth helping people. Him acting up and thinking nobody cares when there are people around him is just his brain tricking him into,I would guess,thinking that they only see Pink in Steven and not Steven himself,therefore feeling like he's alone despite having friends. Trying to propose to Connie because he doesn't want her to leave is insane but at the same time not really his idea in the first place and he was desperate,him bubbling and crushing his friends,while it was explicit in the show,makes sense as a person being so terrified of change when most change in his life was bad and life threatening. While him becoming a monster because of his issues can be seen as a negative representation of mental issues,I see it as Steven manifest how he feels,especially after he shattered Jasper. Connie's mom told him he had ptsd but he has no real idea on how to cope with it or even coping with the new thoughts and his own actions and words makes him feel like a monster,wich is what he becomes. And it makes sense in that particular situation that love is the thing snapping him out of it,loving and helping friends or family that suffer is the best way to let them at least try to heal. I didn't watch the entirety of steven universe of future,but I can see from some sort of outside perspective how future kind of hit the nail on the end in term of Steven,and even the other gems. It might be frustrating to see them act bland and lifeless in the show,but I see it as how everyone else but Steven got their lives figured out,they all(except a few ones) got their happy endings and don't need more character growth. It works badly in terms of watching a show but in my opinion,works fine in a world building way. Everyone has their lives and are happy,and Steven is just there,struggling to just live1
I just watched the whole series recently (+ the movie and future series) and tbh, I can’t believe I’m 10 years late to the party lol. It’s honestly a great series with tons of funny and sad moments! 🧡
I'm really glad you mentioned the value of the show mentioning concepts that come back way later on, whether they be seeds for something else or just a basic idea to come back. This show should definitely be rewarded for having some elements planned out from the start, especially when other shows get inappropriately more credit for retconing concepts into existence (like what? why?).
Yeah that's the word to describe it as personally, growing up with it too: "Good", it has some great moments and smaller things like music and color palettes that stand out. And it's easy to get inspired by it artistically too! :)
Just so we're clear, the Zammi070 situation didn't actually play out like that. They even confirmed that their attempt to take their life was not due to harassment by SU fans. I really wish you'd've done more research on that and looked into it. It did happen, I definitely was there for it, but they confirmed that the SU fanbase did NOT push them to try and take their own life. That's blatant misinformation/lies.
So weird to me that enough time has passed for people who watched SU as kids to make videos about it. I watched it and loved it but I was 16 when it came out, didn't start watching til I was 18 and mostly watched it to *heal* my inner child. Good video, just... fuck, time flies and I'm old 😭
I have recently rewatched all of steven universe to relive my nolstagia and to simply compelte the series as I watched it through the CN television show when I was a kid and I didn't watch watch every episode or even in order. While it is fresh on my mind, I believe that the first 3-4 seasons were really nicely well made, however due to the contraint placed on SU, the final season and future were rushed so much that it was bittersweet when it ended, I just wished there were a couple extra seasons to flesh out the diamonds, bismuth, and the homeward. Heck I even wish there were more of spinel. I really liked her, goofy and bitter. Future is incredibly rushed, while the ptsd and trauma were important subjects to talk about, I don't think having it done like like the last 5 episode does it justice. I also think that healing the shattered Jasper is also a stupid plot point, It just comes out of nowhere, like no lead up. And nobody talks about it again even though it was reviving from the dead... But even after all that, Steven Universe teaches us important lesson that while our past is a crucial to what we are, we can't let it ties us down as the future has so much possibilities.
Yeah, the main issue with it is that it was rushed but it’ll always hold a place in my heart and I genuinely don’t understand why everyone was acting like this show was hot garbage, yes it had problems but it really wasn’t THAT bad. I guess I’d blame the toxic fandom at the time and how some TH-camrs basically milked the SU hate to the brim until it lost popularity.
Ah "Too short to Ride", the episode where Amethyst of all people throws a fit that Peridot doesn't overcome her inferiority issues the SECOND Amethyst orders her to, despite taking multiple SEASONS to deal with her own, and then actually literally abuses her and tries to destroy her tablet, then proceeds to stand around with her arms crossed and a smug expression, like she's trying to say "A job well done !" and never, literally never proceeds to apologise. For contrast, Peridot apologised to Amethyst despite 1. Just saving Amethyst's life 2. Amethyst egging her on to make fun of everyone else, including Steven, TO HIS FACE but then was not able to take it herself 3. The thing she was insulted by was literally a *compliment*
I haven't gotten to know this show until last November I think. It was definitely the end of last year. I watched the first season because of a trade(?) with my sister. I'd watch SU and she'd read a book I kept offering her. I got hooked... I'm not entirely sure where somewhere between Giant Woman and Alone Together. I... binged the rest of the series. I couldn't stop talking and thinking about it afterward and I'm still very much submerged in it. To me, that is one of those things that separates SU from other shows. I watched the Owl House, and I loved it, but... it ended and there's not much after it. (I really wanted to actually finish the Ruby quote here, but I was completely thinking about TOH until the last ep came out.) SU somehow pulls the audience in, to a level other shows usually don't. At least that is my experience. I also knew about all the major plot twists thanks to my sister, who finished the show before me, but it didn't make the experience worse. It made it different of course, but it didn't make it bad. I also LOVED how slow it was. This was a long way of saying, thanks for making this video. I've run into the hatred this show gets, for valid and less valid reasons, and I didn't understand how such a great story can be so overshadowed by what people think. And I know a huge community loves it too, but it was kinda discouraging to see the divide.
Something funny about Garnet's World is that it actually physically demonstrates how a diamond-like gem looks like a quartz-like gem when oriented from the top. When ring-o takes the ultimate power gem and puts it in his hair ring.
1:29:00 Jasper being fixed is part of the point imo. Steven never had to face any consequences for his actions, he never had to process guilt from being wrong not only because he was always righting wrongs but because even when he did they were usually fixed within the episode. Even when he did the worst possible thing he could do in shattering a gem it was fixed. This inability to process guilt is one of the reasons he breaks down
steven universe was a haven for me, falling into it during a really hard time was like a soft blanket , the messaging I took from it helped me keep going through living with an abusive parent and i watched future a couple years after moving out, it felt like the show was mirroring the ptsd , realizations and behavioral changes i experienced. i sobbed from the hospital episode till the end of future. the show def has problems but i feel that the situations and messaging can be interpreted in so many different ways depending on the person . the soundtrack and art stye literally transport me. and intentional or not there is so much room so theorize and analyze the plot and characters. overall a very personally important show
The main issue with the last seasons and it's troubling flow are because of the many "hiatuses" imposed by cartoon network to the crewniverse, there was a time you could go a whole year waiting for the next episode to air, and because of that the releasw of said episode in other countries would be delayed too. I even had to learn english by watching the newest episodes online because they took more than a whole year to be aired in Argentina lolol
Honestly, as we enter the age of algorithmically generated media I actually kind of appreciate the animation errors, they're a reminder that there is a real person out there who drew each frame by hand. I think there's something very human about that. Hand drawn 2D animation has been growing more and more rare over the last two decades, I think the amount of effort and care it takes is meaningful even when it's not perfect
I know its the not the best cartoon, Idk if it my favorite cartoon, but this show will always have a special place in my heart. It really helped me get through some mental barriers and hard times in my life and I'll always be grateful for that.
This was great!! I love listening to things in the background while im working on a drawing, especially when its like an hour long rant about shows and cartoons. I really enjoyed listening to this in the background!! :D
I miss the era of cartoons of fandom. That era of cartoons in the 2010s where people would OBSESS over all the minor details in blurry, zoomed-in screencaps of a scene to try and figure out some future reveal in the show. All those shows where the fandom is so invested and theorize about XYZ and what this means in the show. Where every animation channel is making fan content breaking down "top 10 things you missed in the new episode" and what this single line from this character is implying and how all of these black obelisks form this conspiracy. It seemed at the time everyone was so connected just by these shows, like how it could've been back when everyone watched the same thing on TV. It was a beautiful time of genuine human bonding that we just don't have anymore because everyone hates each other now. We were all just so focused on this great show and trying to unravel its secrets and talking about how much we loved it.
The critique of Steven being an 'awful person' in Future was spoken truly like a person who has never had their personal coping mechanism ripped away and been forced to face the reality that the thing that used to comfort you, distract you from your demons, is gone. Steven was being terrible because he was in pain. A Lion will be aggressive when there's a thorn in its paw. A human will be aggressive when it's got a thorn in its mind. That doesn't make what he did 'okay'-- but it does make what he did make sense. He truly believed he wasn't worth keeping around. He disliked himself, so he lashed out to push others away. When you're in that mental state, that's what you do.
I feel like the overall lesson the show is trying to tell is kinda smudged. The diamonds did some particularly terrible things, the whole stuff with the cluster was extremely dark and basically a genocide. Yet those dark things were waved off for the sake of redeemable villains. I find it particularly unsettling because in the end there aren't really any consequences to the genuinely evil actions? I feel like it would've been more interesting to have them remain villains and also show a lesson that not everything can be saved by befriending and changing peoples' minds and forgiving every action ever, regardless of what those actions were.
I feel the cluster broke some of the lore/worldbuilding that was set in season 1! Like how are gem shards able to incubate in the ground like fully-made gems? Also the time frame for when the cluster was made. It had to have been during the gem war, because the Crystal Gems claimed Homeworld had never returned to earth prior to season 1.....
@@DrawciaGleam02 i mean the cluster is more like frankenstiens monster The only reason the cluster can talk is because there are so many shards that a rudementary intelligence formed. Gems are grown from the ground, and maybe there was technology artificially giving more of earths energy to the mass of shards because maybe its form is just too large and requires too much power to be sustanable long term. They wanted to use the cluster as a superweapon but each gem lives thousands of years. Maybe all those fragments cant maintain or last a long time without more power especially with the fact that they are a collection of fragmented minds that has the intelligence of a small child that cant even talk properly.
Steven Universe is a show that will live in my heart forever. The way a lot of the episodes covered things had me a sobbing mess after reevaluating my tramas and learning more about myself. My friend and i used to paint and listen to the music for hours. Some parts really stick with you.
As a 20 something year old, this cartoon helped me out of a funk. The emphasis on self love and the music was enough to soothe me. The song "Here Comes a Thought" holds a special place in my heart. I shared SU with a friend who enjoyed Marceline in Adventure Time because of her singing, but he wasn't into it. I think if you're an adult who enjoys cartoons and needs an extra shot of wholesome joy in life, Steven Universe is a good choice. The interesting plot was a bonus.
s1 e38 was kind of like the first ever sign of steven hiding his emotions/bottling them up to me. and the fact it was so early in the show really makes you realize how much he went through and had to keep all to himself because nobody else in the world is like him.
i love The Test because it just shows Steven’s emotional maturity, and being able to put the Gems’ own feelings above his own. Tbh I think I think I’ve cried about it, the way he lies to protect them in a little way, instead of blowing up at the gems for lying themselves. He’s able to see where they were coming from and that makes him such a “strong” character.
so overall the issue with steven universe comes from a planed 8 season show with a finale movie being condensed and rewritten. with the wedding episode pushed into production, cartoon network cancelled the show. Rebecca then persuaded them to greenlight a few more episodes (diamond days) to conclude the show. this then altered the supposed ending of the show to fit the final few episodes. after seeing fan reception, CN then greenlit the movie, but refusing it finality and inability to advertise more content, it was contracted that Rebecca then create more episodes.(SU future) unfortunately, the crewniverse and budget was slashed, so rebecca now had a rushed and concluded story with less help and resources to create its successor. its a really sad story.
I honestly love this show so much. I wish this show had been around when I was a kid. It would have been good to know feeling your feelings is valid. At least it's here now!
I used to hate future, especially the ending. But during the height of my first big manic episode, that was triggered by my childhood trauma where I needed to be the rock for all my family and friends, Steven universe future came to mind, the ending in particular. I damaged one of my closest friendships at the time, maybe irreversibly, I don’t know yet, and I was my own monster. All of this effort I put into helping other people damaged me resulting in a struggle with addiction and collapsing my sense of self. In the end I was hurting everyone around me by feeding into their own delusions and negative energy because I was telling them what I thought they wanted to hear, not what I really believed. I became someone that as a child I thought I would never be, that I hated even, just like Steven became more like a diamond. I think to understand some aspects of future you have to have gone through, or been close to someone, who has had a complete collapse in mental health as a result of parentification like Steven did in the show. Of course I know many people who have still don’t like it, and that’s completely valid as it has many glaring issues, but the message that it’s sending out to those of us that have undergone this sort of specific childhood trauma is so kind. I think it’s a very important series and I’m so grateful to rebbeca for creating it. The ending of future used to really bother me as I interpreted it as all of stevens trauma getting solved by a group hug, which in my opinion at the time was straight up offensive. But now I see that it was that his support system saw the monster within him, finally saw all of his struggles with morality and his insecurities, and they still chose to support and love him. I think it makes the song change your mind all the more powerful because once you’ve gone through a mental collapse like that it changes the way people see you, often in a really negative way, and once you start picking up the pieces all you can do is hope that other people change their minds about you, without forcing it to happen yourself, the ball is in their court now to accept you or not and if they don’t that’s okay, that’s on them. But it’s also because of shows like Steven universe future that I’m learning to have compassion for myself in that manic state where I lost my ability for empathy. She deserves love just as much as my previous people pleasing self did and just as much as this current version of myself does too. So do all of you out there, you may be your own monster, but that monster deserve love, understanding, compassion and above all you deserve to be seen and heard. I hope all of you stay safe out there and just know there is no one else like you, you are your own creator and you are here for a reason.
Man I also grew up with this show, and I remember being OBSESSED with the movie once it came out. I was so excited to view it for the hundredth time in theaters until the pandemic hit, and then once Future came out I made sure to watch every episode when they aired. Though, when the last Future episode came out, and I watched those credits roll, it was like a switch was flipped inside my brain. I had instantly just… stopped caring about this show I had followed for years, and I didn’t start caring again until just a few days ago when I had a dream related to one of the original episodes. I’m thinking of rewatching the whole series again, and this video is kinda making me want to even more lol
@@elainestegeman7204 that’s because the pandemic hit before it got a chance in theaters. Luckily I never ended up buying a ticket but I was super close to getting one like a month before it happened
I understand but really hate the pink diamond slander because we saw her character development in reverse, sure it doesn't undo all the terrible things she's done but people forget that it wasn't just rose doing those things, they were telling the truth when they said diamond died, the selfish, egotistical, tantrum throwing princess did die, giving birth to the leader of the crystal gems, lover of Greg universe and mother to the most influential being in the universe
this video kind of lost me around the season 5 point. the season was rushed because it was cancelled due to ruby and sapphire's wedding. rebecca sugar has talked about it extensively, and to ignore that point completely, by this point in time, feels like either lack of proper(or even mild!) research, or purposeful ignorance. sugar has said that if they wanted to have the wedding they would have had to accept they'd lose international funding, which would subsequently lead to the end of the show; therefore they had to wrap things up with the second half of season five. discussion of future is just annoying to listen to, because it's so blatantly ignorant and almost feels intentionally dense. i can understand just... not liking the specific type of character steven is now, but to claim that his actions are out of character is kind of ignoring how his trauma has affected him. steven's need to retain his position as the therapist friend is not out of character, and he tries to retain this position by causing problems that he can(or at least tries to) fix. his purpose throughout this entire series has been to help fix other characters' emotional problems, and now he feels unneeded, which why he constantly fears being left behind. i do agree that at points the rest of the cast seem dumbed down, but its probably to emphasize how emotionally stunted steven feels when everyone around him seems to be completely happy and satisfied. they also don't get extensive arcs because they just... don't need them. garnet, amethyst, pearl, peridot, lapis and bismuth's developments have reached their natural conclusion. jasper is really not back at square one. she puts on a tough facade, and she doesn't make an effort to differentiate steven from pink diamond, but like... she's also joined little homeschool, something she was very vocally averse to at the beginning of the series, showing that she's willing to make some kind of effort to get better and develop as a person. her growth is much more subtle, and clearly still a work in progress, but to insinuate that she hasn't changed a bit since her debut is just wrong. connie not playing a bigger role is a fair criticism though, and i do agree she could have been utilized much better (when future was coming out i was also really upset about her being basically written out of the show) you mention the movie and steven not having/showing these toxic traits, but the movie gives steven a clear problem that he can fix in spinel and her injector. steven isn't purposeless, he still has to fix someone else's emotional trauma instead of confronting his own problems. THIS HAS BEEN a really long and pettuy rant. i'm very passionate about this show, and it's a bit frustrating to see certain points being so frequently misconstrued, but this isn't a bad video by any means. i still enjoyed your analysis and opinions on earlier seasons, and i agree with a lot of your points about i.e gem harvest. THUMBS UP
Thanks for the criticism! Me not talking about why season 5 was rushed has been eating at me because I distinctly remember reading about it and thinking about how fascinating and upsetting it was, and I could’ve sworn I wrote and recorded something about it, but it was my first attempt at a big analysis, so it was gonna be a bit messy. And as you and many have noted, I definitely missed the mark on Future, and instead of giving it time to think about it like I had with SU and the movie, I just kinda spewed out my first impressions. I should’ve delayed the video or cut that part altogether because I realistically couldn’t have given it as much focus as it deserved. This was a huge learning experience, and I hope that next time I try something of this caliber again, I do a better, and more thorough job. Thanks again!
@@ButterPrime totally understandable! and yeah, with big videos like this it's natural that things might not get intimate focus or time. again, not a bad video by any means, and i'll admit i was being a bit nitpicky towards the end as well, but it's very respectable how open to criticism and learning you are!! :-)
The test has so much foreshadowing to Steven's personally and struggles near the end of the main show and into future, it is meh on a first watch but 10/10 with future knowledge in my mind
Despite the show’s plot not really holding up or reaching its full potential, it was honestly a place of comfort for me growing up in this period of my life, where all these characters struggle and strive to be genuinely kind people.
What surprised me the most upon rewatching the show is that the diamond lore, specifically the pink diamond lore, was showed so late into the show. Like there was one mention of Rose and a Diamond in the Serious Steven episode, the battlefield, and then... the moon? Then the lore suddenly crashed into you like the hand ship at the end of Stronger than You. Idk if the lore was already made well in advance or being made up as the fans were theorizing, but I feel like the latter could have been possible, not just because of the aforementioned, but because of the bombs and hiatuses. Some stuff definitely could've pulled through last-minute for the fans. But we'll never know. Edit: I forgot that FUCKING UNCLE GRANDPA predicted that Rose was Pink Diamond, and as far as I know, there were NO OTHER HINTS outside of the season this was revealed. So yeah, my bad on that one.
I feel like a lot of whether a fan does or does not like Steven in future is based on whether they've had the kind of mental illness problem's he's showing/has had a similar kind of meltdown (I have and let me tell you, my heart went out to the kid every second of the show)
the point of The Test was steven realizing that the gems are deeply flawed and him deciding to put their feelings above his own by lying and saying that the test was the correct choice instead of calling them out when they were already feeling like crap
S1 Ep38, The Test, is my favorite of the whole series. Steven puts aside his own feelings and un-confidence because he realizes that the gems are the ones that actually need reassurance that they are raising Steven correctly. Even though there is no story/plot progression, the character development is through the roof and really shows who Steven is as a character.
This is great work man, I was genuinely shocked at how low your subscriber count was when I looked at it because of the quality and production value of this video
Hi! this is a great retrospective on the series. The show definitely got more hate then it deserves at the time. Also, i'm an animation student and i can shed some more light on some more technical aspects, like the designs. In general, I adore the steven universe designs. However, the inconsistencies in those designs are, for some reason i can't understand, intentional. What happened was every episode is directed/written/storyboarded by a different member of sugars writing team, and they each had their own "style" when drawing the characters. This isn't suppose to ever happen in a studio, every show has a design bible (documents will all the dos and don't of the show's visual style) and there should always be multiple character sheets showing every animator how to draw every character/prop/location (with some leeway for stylized visual gags, but even those will get their own little design sheet). Obviously as a show goes on and evolves those designs can change, but they'll always update those design sheets and the bible. Having consistent designs and solid drawings is one of the bare minimums for an animation of any kind. Long story short, it isn't actually excusable
i loved this show and followed it as it was airing, followed the fandom, and the news relating to the show. i think many of the issues you mention (the underutilization of the supporting cast in future, the rushed ending, the weird pacing in general, etc) we’re caused not by the show runners or the writers, but by cartoon network. the show was originally planned to be six seasons, but rebecca sugar had to fight tooth and nail to get a gay wedding scene on kids tv, and because of it, the network forced them to end the show early. if you imagine season 5 as 2 seasons crammed into one, it starts to make a lot more sense. i think this show was as good as it could be, for the time it was made, under the network it was broadcast on. ps. loved this video. it’s great to see a truly honest and balanced critique of this show that’s not totally bashing it or praising it 100% pps. best musical numbers in a cartoon, hands down, no contest.
On stevonnie - stevonnie's first episode is a representation of puberty (specifically afab puberty) alongside being a fusion episode. It's uncomfortable because it's quite accurate to how the world reacts to young girls going through puberty. You're no longer just a kid. You're seen in a much more different light.
Steven Universe was definitely a product of its time in some respects and had its flaws but overall the show was good and it touched a lot of people in meaningful ways. It’s probably not something I’ll ever do a full rewatch of but it still holds a spot in my brain that won’t ever go away.
I turned this on for background content, ended up focusing solely on the video and stopping my second activity, and now I’m crying, reliving the feeling of my favorite childhood show, one I very much relate to, ending.
IMO Steven has BPD, I feel like Steven’s entire personality was a split, and to me future was a huge help as of late to remind myself of lessons I had forgotten, I think Steven being a bad person, isn’t really that, just him having a bad time.
I love the fact that deedee put her pearlussy into “it’s over isn’t it” to the point where the animators had to change the animation to match deedee’s singing
Oh really? Didn't know that!!
it was less "redo the animation" and more "revise a few storyboards" which is not too tricky to do
Heard on a interview with a VA that in some cases the animation is done after the voices are recorded, not sure how it was for SU tho
@@mariniendoh9109
That’s probably what they meant lol
The storyboard was probably different than the final product, which means that they might’ve changed the storyboard to match Dee Dee’s singing.
That song goes hard for a breakup song
I really, REALLY wish they had explored Lars being pink and those consequences more.
SAME
The anxiety I would have if I had immortality man
Just the pure dread man
@@malachiwilliams9883 well at least the crew on his spaceship is also immortal, so it's not like he'd be lonely
@@TheLemming1337hes not immortal he just ages slower
@@JellyEllipsethe consequences are the same
One thing I want to mention about Zach Callison's voice is that he was ~14 when they started work on the show and recorded for the pilot. As the years went on, his voice cracked and he had to change how he was acting to keep up the prepubescent Steven voice. Sometimes the strain is more obvious than others, but they did find a couple ways to utilize his natural voice well in the main series (Steven's Birthday and the "She's GONE" from CYM). I also think that's part of the reason his acting is so much better in Future, he doesn't have to keep up the falsetto (which in some clips sounds like it hurts).
exactly. i actually really like that the Zach’s voice kinda grew alongside his character, and SUF was a good way to stop him from straining his voice.
I just realized that the acronym for Change Your Mind are the first letters of the Secondary Colors too (Cyan, Yellow, Magenta)
@@regulate.artificer_g23.mdctlsk NAH fr i jsut realized that as I read it, and it makes sense for the episode obviously for the diamonds, blue, yellow, and pink. And those are all against white at the moment (if I remember correctly) and white is the absense of color.
He was 13. Puberty happened beginning of season 2. Zach was approximately 15 then.
I think the test is very important. It’s shows how much the gems are lost without Rose. And Steven realizes how much it’s struggle for the gems to raise someone as unique as him. He realizes if he spares the gems feels by pushing his down. After that, you can see many time where Steven is pushing his feels to make sure other people feels better.
It also began Steven robbing himself of his own happiness and conclusion for others.
It's also the first time Steven ever sees the Gems struggling to take care of him, it's a major shift in the show's tone and as you said started Steven's habit of disregarding his own feelings for everyone else's.
*[It may not be the most perfect show ever. It had it's moments. But i'm sure that, over the past decade, Steven Universe sure created something incredible: memories. Amazing memories]*
If every porkchop were perfect...
@@upumpkin then we wouldnt have hotdogs
@@upumpkin we wouldn’t have a hot dog!
#StevenUniverse10
Peridot has given you happiness..
New achievement unlocked
11:22 "weird to see teens crushing on Stevonnie." that was actually the point! Rebecca Sugar has said that it's like a metaphor for puberty and the way people's perception of you changes. like, yes, you're still just a child, but suddenly because you get secondary sex characteristics, you get sexualised and ogled at. I think it's a clever way of portraying that. most girls first experience with catcalling/harrassment has been in their early teens and that's messed up.
Yeah, but I think you're forgetting that Steven's 14, and Connie's 12, and them combining to be a conventionally attractive young female presenting person is honestly creepy as FUCK
@@kuiperkit not to mention Sugar's edd/eddy fanart+'fusion-is-a-metafore-for-sex/RAPE-sometimes-but-not-always'....lil sus on her part
@@VeloriaMyVey fusion is a metaphor for relationships, not explicitly sex. Yes, sometimes that can take the form of mutual gratification similarly to how a casual sexual relationship functions, and pearls abuse of that is manipulation, but its not and never will be rape.
And then they proceed to sexualize them in other episodes when there was no real point to it...
@@absolutechadd8895 i don’t see any point in the episodes where she gets sexualized
Future wasn't really a sequel show. It was really just an epilogue show. It's made to tie off loose ends in character development instead of presenting entirely new character arcs. And since Steven had the largest loose end of "how does he process all of the trauma he experienced throughout his childhood?", that's why it is the main focus of Future.
Yes, I feel like a lot of people forget it's an epilogue. I personally would have liked a bit more time after the climax as it felt like it never really gave me the closure I needed, but that's just personal.
It genuinely angers me that people got so mad that Connie rejected Steven in future. She was completely in her right to.
She didn't spit in his face and yell at him for being such an idiot, she lets him know it's "Not a no, it's a not now." but i guess they went deaf at that moment cause people never seem to talk about it when talking about this scene.
EDIT: It's nice reading the replies and knowing there are people who see the reason in Connie, also tysm for all the likes!
Eh, I was fine with that story point. I did like Steven proposing with the little plastic ring though!
They went death? I don’t think they died when that scene came up, otherwise people wouldn’t really be talking about it.
People got mad about that? I thought it was generally agreed that Steven was being really intense.
It's like people forgot that the protagonists are actual kids... Who act like kids. Well, most of the time 🤷🏾♀️
It wasn't just getting married
he wanted to BE stevonnine.
Literally taking her independence away.
Anyone who got mad at CONNIE needs to take a deep look inside themselves
As someone with PTSD, I think Future is a heartbreakingly real representation of how trauma can not only affect your emotions but how it can affect your sense of morality and self. Steven becoming so overwhelmed by his trauma that he ends up hurting the people around him is too real. My main issue with the season is that it’s not very uplifting for people with the disorder as it does paint steven in a very negative light and doesn’t really do much to redeem him in the end. You sort of have to have the disorder or be close to someone that does to understand his actions and otherwise it’s kind of a damaging portrayal. I do think its very well made but I just wish the ending was more than steven deciding to isolate himself from his support system.
This is the reality of constantly needing to be other people’s “rock” and then getting completely discarded once you stop being useful to that end.
Yes, this. Steven Universe Future came out during a time where I was very deep in my trauma and the show DEEPLY resonated with me. It was so wild having a piece of media come out at the time which could encapsulate so much of the pain i was going through- especially one that i grew up with and had brought me so many wonderful memories throughout more "innocent" times. Growing up with Steven, and then arriving at a place with him where we both realize we've been fucked up- idk it was just such a unique and almost poetic experience.
Also for your critique point, I totally get what you meant, but everyone has different things they need to help improve their lives and situation- Steven had a lot of trauma in general but one if his biggest issues was hanging on to the past too much, not knowing how to let his friends and family move on with their lives and simultaneously move on with his own, so I think it was a very big and important step for him to take a step back and start his own path, move on with his own future!
I don't think he'll be completely without his support system, I think he'll still be heavily in contact with Connie and the gems and such, but from a more healthy distance with room to grow!!
To add to your critique, it's just really weird how Steven's trauma makes him become a corrupted monster and how everything is just solved by a hug. I think the fanservice of seeing a corrupted diamond spoke louder on this part, but it's still weird to view someone suffering with PTSD to be portrayed as a monster
@@santihjusto I don't think the PTSD made him a monster. I think the monster represented Steven decompensating and having a mental health crisis in response to the intervention that forced him to confront his feelings. Which is very plausible in his position.
I don't think you have to be close to someone with PTSD to understand his actions. Anyone with empathy should be able to understand him.
Did you forget? Steven helped people at the expense of his own mental health. Future Steven wants to help people but he couldn't keep doing it at the expense of himself anymore. Episodes like Keystone Motel went fully into this and it still left Steven's feelings largely unresolved. The entire series just forced Steven to bottle everything up for the greater good. Future addresses this near perfectly. It wouldn't make any sense if he wasn't selfish to a degree, the other gems got to be selfish while Steven was always stuck making compromises. He was struggling mentally and wanted things to just be how he knew them to be. That was real and Future gave Steven a lot of complexity as a character.
Plus, the movie definitely set it up. Steven was stagnating in a "happily ever after" mindset and was noticeably less patient with Spinel than he was with other gems.
If you ask me Steven’s mental health issues were set up best in the episode “Mindful Education”, where it starts as then focusing on Connie’s issues and how to handle them but suddenly Steven has issues too… and he tries sooo hard to just shove them back down when Connie tries to help him. They don’t really touch on anything after that because.. well everyone is used to happy Steven, none of them know how to deal with mentally traumatized Steven. 🤷🏻♀️ But mental health issues as severe as Steven’s needed more time to be addressed, he needed more help… and because he didn’t get any he ended up dealing with the complete break down of his sanity in Future.
But for some reason people still think it came out of of no where… when I and many others saw this coming for a long time.
@@bloodyrose1995 It's a shame. Future Steven was one of the few things Future did right. It's my favorite version of the character.
@@bloodyrose1995 that was a brilliant episode. Definitely one of my favorites, hitting me right in the heart. How anyone forgets about that is beyond me.
@@nuibaba280 Well said.
that's exactly what I was thinking!
And I kind of actually liked how they showed Steven refusing the gems' help until he absolutely needed it. He wanted to protect the gems or help them out as much as he could, even if that meant he had to find some other way to solve his problems. The idea that he doesn't want to hurt the gems by bringing them into his problems makes complete sense to me.
I loved the whole future series. I still remember being a teen and the emotions I had- and it felt like Steven was rolling through waves of emotions like I was. His emotions felt just as volatile as mine. Him exploding in rage or emotions made complete sense to me because that's how volatile my own emotions felt.
A pet peeve of mine is when someone says the Diamonds were redeemed. When they were not. They stopped dominating but they never stopped being trash people. Steven tolerates them to keep them appeased. They can't kill the Diamonds. Can't banish them. Just tolorate them and hopefully try to make them a little better. But never redeemed.
Edit:
I've been thinking about this more and rewatching clips. And I think calling them still trash is harsh. They have been making efforts to do better and be better. They haven't been fully redeemed but they are on the path to redemption for themselves. A lot of what they did can't be forgiven by some which is very understandable. But they are trying for that second chance and that should be acknowledged.
Also everyone misunderstands that the Diamonds killed off tons of sentient beings. All the planets they destroyed didn't have sentient life, just kind of basic animal stuff - which was confirmed by the creators. Earth was the first planet to have sentient life and it caused a whole war. Also, being aliens they seem to have different moral codes and generally frown upon other life-forms they think are "lesser" the Diamonds view on humanity was that of insects for some time.
@@blacksesamecandies Sure, it *was* still awful, but it wasn't like they literally genocided actual sentient beings. The closest to that were gems who were shattered, and yeah, implication is that there's quite a lot of gems that were shattered. But yeah, they mostly drained planets with plant life and basic insect life. Earth was, indeed, the first planet they found with sentient life, and the only one they didn't manage to colonise.
Also also, do I need to even mention that Steven.. tried to KILL WHITE DIAMOND OUT RIGHT?? If he hadn't punched the pillar next to White, she would've been shattered.
The show might have been too vague with what the diamonds' fate was I guess.
Owl House killed off Belos (kinda twice if you count how the Collector bodied Belos in the season 2 finale).
@@GumSkyloard What evidence do you have from the show that none of the previously colonized worlds had sentient life?
The gems that interact with humans on Homeworld in the human zoo episode clearly refer to the humans like animals that “make annoying noises” even though it’s well established gems can speak to humans. They keep them in a zoo.
What actual evidence do you have from the show that this was their first instance interacting with sentient life?
Also, when they did find it, they STILL TRIED TO COLONIZE THE PLANET.
Blue tries though, she begins to empathize with the crystal gems and even the gems caught in the blast that led to gem corruption. Of the three diamonds, shes closest to being redeemed at the end
While I also think shattering jasper should have been permanent, in its defense it serves the purpose of being another incident where steven is able to ~magically fix things~ all on his own and be the savior yet again, further leading to his huge breakdown. He mentions it in "everything's fine" in the confrontation scene, he says something like "i can fix anything, i can keep just messing things up and its fine and you never have to know about any of it" and uses the shattering thing as an example
I was just thinking this but couldn't put it into words
I also think it adds another layer of what it feels like to be mentally ill. All the pain and suffering and the feeling of things being "wrong" is internal and there's no physical proof of it. So having a murder be undone like that makes the mental struggle feel even more like "I should be okay because nothing is physically wrong"
Also having Steven be a straight-up murderer would definitely need more time to be addressed and would probably get in the way of the whole mental health conflict
I can understand people not particularly liking Future, but as someone who went through childhood trauma I felt seen for the first time, it'shard to express how much that season means to me. I cry my way through the season every time 😅.
dude same, I will always be biased towards Steven Universe Future because, to me, it portrays how I feel so perfectly.
I felt the same thing. In this review it’s mentioned how the emotional beats are kind of illogical, with the gems constantly trying to be there for Steven and how he seems to have emotional break throughs that then get reversed…. But that’s kind of just what complex post traumatic stress disorder is like. You can know and logically understand that someone loves you and is there for you, and you can even feel it, but there is a cognitive dissonance when you have cPTSD that literally doesn’t make sense to those outside the experience. It’s inherently illogical.
There’s a condition called Toxic Syndrome which basically occurs when you have been exposed to too much of a certain chemical and now your body literally cannot handle it anymore. Your body will literally assume you’re being poisoned if you are exposed to a small amount of substance within that chemical family, because it hit a hard limit once and now cannot deal with it at all. I’m oversimplifying here a bit, but it’s a fairly good physical analogy for how cPTSD works in my opinion. Anything that can remind you or is even distantly related to the trauma can cause your emotional regulation to go completely out the window, because trauma is essentially past your limits by definition. If you have multiple, sustained events that were traumatic that have not been processed, it is not as simple as having one heart to heart conversation about how much you care to undo that reaction. The fact is by the end of Future, he is NOT okay still. He is figuring it out, but nobody is actually okay after having a huge PTSD breakdown. I appreciate that about the show, that it does show that the affects of the moments throughout the series had really long lasting impact on Steven, and it’s not something that can be fixed in a 10 minute special episode. The reality with cPTSD and PTSD is that recovery is a really long journey and is not linear. Sometimes you can have positive breakthroughs and sometimes you have incredibly low times where it feels like you’re at your worst. Future did a decent job at this. Considering how little post-trauma is represented even halfway decently in most media, I was happy to see Future handle it so well.
The problem is people only want the “cutesy” side of trauma, so when a character exhibits “uglier” sides, such as aggression, it’s suddenly bad writing
@@chaosbeam4654 Couldn't have said it better myself. I had a ptsd breakdown once that looked a LOT like Steven's and I felt for the kid every step of the way
EXACTLY! steven is way more bearable to me because i understand his reactions as a victim! i love watching him be able to finally realize that there are people who care, and let them back into his life!
1:07:27 personally I think it is a very real representation of what it can feel like to lose your “purpose” and being left with all the trauma and problems you pushed to the side while you had “more important things to deal with.” It can cause immense character change (if only temporarily) while you face The Absurd and realize that life goes on and you have to find meaning in the process, not a singular thing. It’s a complex philosophical struggle that I personally feel they represented well.
I really liked what Future did, it came out just as I was getting ready to go to college, and his struggle of trying to figure out who he is without the people he's around, what he wants, trying to reconcile with his past, it all hit incredibly close to home. My favorite part was Connie's mom saying "You've been through so much that now your body responds to normal situations as if your life is in danger". I got diagnosed with PNES, a type of conversion disorder that turns stress and trauma into physical symptoms. His response of shock and disbelief and frustration and anger and panic and sadness is so accurate and I cried when I watched it because it was such a simple yet effective way of explaining it, it made me feel less alone and more normal. To me, the writing team did an absolutely commendable job of engaging with Steven's experiences as if he was a real person. I also think Steven's actions in Future make a lot more sense if you consider he's a traumatized 16-year-old who feels like his world is imploding around him, he has a full-on mental health crisis and it's realistic that he'd be less "likable" in that circumstance.
I liked Steven in Future. It made sense. Literally having the world on his shoulders, being one of the most important figures around, saving and helping people most of his life. It made sense he snapped when he wasn’t particularly useful anymore. And then macho Steven was super cool, I liked seeing him tap into his true power. But then he shattered (and instantly revived killing the concept of shattering) jasper. And put a 100% stop to the behavior. I think Steven needs to regularly spar! It’s a good outlet and I liked him making himself more manly. It was cool before he went all Gohan and let the power rush to his head.
Heavily disagree with SU Future. Steven is not unlikable, he is breaking down. He pushes people away because he thinks of himself as unlikable. He doesn't talk because he feels like a burden and is used to eating stuff up. He is rude because that makes people stop asking.
The Greg episode is really good, showcasing that Greg "over-corrected" with the way Steven was raised, Steven picking up gardening because that's the only way for him to feel needed, Pearl realizing that she is in fact not over Rose and this type of trauma can take a really long time to heal, Jasper being set in her ways was the most Jasper thing to do and when she called Steven "my diamond" ...it was bone chilling....
The thing I would fault the most is the diamond powers being very goofy and they could have done it differently. But Stevens attempted murder of White Diamond was terrifying. You can clearly see his suppressed rage and anger swelling up against all of his mothers side of the family... including himself.
IMO they didn't go far enough with his mental breakdown but they did show his mental instability really well. The slipping from happy to slowly loosing it one by one. Using control and rage to find oneself...
Also the Conny episode... I didn't even think he was a dickhead. He wanted to be someone else so badly, that he just proposed... I didn't feel angry towards anyone in this case. IDK what people mean by "Conny is mean" or " Steven is a jerk". He loves her, asked for advice from one of the most stable couples in his life and took it as the gospel truth.
All in all good video man, I liked the series too but i just felt you gave Future a bit too much of a bad rep. Many did and it feels like many misunderstood its purpose, that being not a sequel, but a conclusion or more of a " cautionary tale of child heroes" and a bit of a mental health awareness campaign.
I think the Test is when Steven started to push his feelings down.
Totally agree with you. Lots of people didn’t seem to truly understand what Future was doing…
Also, thank you for mentioning Greg’s “over-correction”! I’ve seen so many times people talk about how shitty it was for Steven to fight with Greg and that he didn’t do anything to deserve Steven’s anger when he seriously did. He messed up, like lots of parents do, by becoming the complete opposite of when his parents were and just made different kinds of mistakes. Greg tried to give Steven what he wanted as a kid… not realizing that the reason he was able to go find his own path was partially because of the stability he’d been afforded in life. Greg was a good dad, he loved Steven and tried his best, but he still messed up…
@@bloodyrose1995 Neither were right or wrong. People will probably empathise more with one than the other, but Greg was doing what he thought was best, and Steven was reacting honestly. I find Steven unlikable in that episode because I find people who take out their anger on others unlikeable. But it's not like I don't think he was allowed to be angry, and I still 'forgive' it because he was going through a tough time and clearly regretted it. I don't think it's a good idea to remove accountability from those who are mentally unhealthy, I think it's very dehumanising to do that to someone.
100% agree with you, in Future Steven was really relatable for me and it actually made Steven my favorite character in the show (besides Pearl haha)
Eh it wasn't really for me it feels like Steven was becoming psychotic.
I personally love this series overall and I think its worthy of the fact that it holds a special place in so many people's hearts
As someone with BPD i can tell you with certainty that stevens actions are more than justified when it comes to needing people to love you so much that you scare them away and i dont find it forced cus its literally just me 😭
same, I think it's pretty accurate to what can happen in real life
Yeah, I definitely missed the mark on that. Thank you for your insight, I do very much appreciate it.
You think steven has bpd, I have that, I never noticed it in steven but maybe I can see your point in regards to him always trying to be like his mom and how he is his mom, I think maybe that stuff could cause him to develop bpd. Good point. Especially if you view rose as a narcissist , narcissistic parents normally end up giving there kids bpd. Very interesting
@@CirqueDuSomni no, I believe that they meant that this behavior is actually real and not an overexaggeration and showed that they're personally find it relatable with their bpd (Steven might not have bpd but show the same behavior)
Sadly I don't think BPD was commonly shown in television at the time, so that's one reason why people didn't react well to Steven's actions.
It makes perfect sense for Steven to act the way he does in Future. The entire first series/movie his self worth is derived from being helpful. Once you run out of ways to help, you make them up. He also couldn't go 2 weeks without another character having their own emotional crisis, so he learned it was important for him to always be the hopeful one who has it together and doesn't act silly or negatively. When you have a problem, just bottle it up! It makes perfect sense that once the world around Steven stops depending on him to keep it together is when he really falls apart. It doesn't quite fill the same narrative purpose, but it reminds me of the last half hour of the Lord of the Rings, when Frodo eventually succumbs to the wound from the witch king, and the weight the ring had on his heart, to the point his only course is to go into the west with Bilbo and Gandalf. It's really bittersweet.
Man, this retrospect made me realize how hard Deedee Magno Hall carried throughout the entire series.
The reason why no one helped Steven in Future until the end is because Steven didn't want them to help him. You can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped.
He kept denying and/or projecting his issues, without actually owning them. How are you gonna help someone who doesn't even *realize* the issues themselves.
I agree with so many things said here and while I disagree with a bunch of other things (mainly about future) I have to thank you for pointing out Zach's amazing performance during the show's run. I think that even in the earlier seasons Zach's voice acting was as good as it could ever get and it made the whole thing so much better in my opinion. Episodes like Storm in the Room, Reunited, Change Your Mind, Everything's Fine and many more benefit a lot from his beautiful voice acting. This might very well be biased on my part, having fell in love with this show ever since the beginning and following not only the show itself but a lot of the voice actors careers, but I still think that Zach deserves all the praise he could get(waiting for your return Zach, hope youre doing well). I thank Rebecca Sugar for all the memories and amazing times I've had watching this show, whether it be crying, laughing or just enjoying the stunning scenery and music.
Steven's problems in Future isnt just his trauma from the main series. His purpose in life was helping other people reach their happily ever after, and he's finally reached it. He HAS NO purpose in life anymore and is struggling without knowing what to do now. He has everything he ever wanted and has no clue what to do.
As someone who watched as an adult, Steven Universe remains one of my top examples of Western cartoons, and one of the defining series of the 2010's. It was groundbreaking for the industry to graft on a dose of 90's post-NGE anime and tell a story that was willing to explore character psyche and identity in more depth than "welp life sucks sometimes, that's the joke, roll credits" - the old go-to strategy of adult animation from the Simpsons. This kind of story has always been around, but it just wasn't being done in a cartoon format.
And Adventure Time did also play a role in that, not just in sharing staff members but in setting up groundwork for how that kind of story could be told, which SU elaborated on and pushed much farther by using a soap-operatic narrative structure - to the point where fans complained with Future, because at that point the adventure mystery box stuff is over and it's just "Steven dealing with some shit". I really don't think you could have movies of this decade like Turning Red and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish - stuff accessible to young audiences that addresses messy adult topics without hiding behind irony - if you didn't also have SU yanking open the door and showing that audiences will engage in those conversations, even if means some of them fall down a rabbit hole of toxicity in the process.
I really wish they had been able to stick the landing a bit better. The end of the series felt rushed and future has its own set of problems but it is hard to shake the feeling that if CN had given them more time to flesh out the plot points that they had set up they would have been able to come to a more satisfying ending. I really feel like the biggest issues with the series were caused directly by CNs influence. The stevenbombs and the flakiness when it came to the final seasons and renewal just led to a lot of issues that didnt need to exist.
Amen.. i was so in love with the small lil bits of lore and just loved the show so much.... The feeling of disappointment with the movie and future was unreal sooo rushed and just so disappointing we had to wait sooooooo lonngg for lil bits of lore throughout the series and then just a super rushed lame ending like what???
@@zoeclupka9543 The final ep of the original run just had me looking over all the Onion and Ronaldo episodes, looking at that absolutely wasted time when they could have been exploring any of the lore they'd set up... giving us more of Pearls PTSD Roller Coaster... or just sending Peridot and Lapis to a renn faire, something fun and stupid instead of just annoying and stupid.
And hire actual writers.
agreed! If they had been allowed to move at the right pace and there wasnt as much interference from the studio what was already a great show for me couldve been so much better
yeah it's incredibly noticeable that the network forced them to end sooner than they wanted, kinda like bojack horseman's sixth season
something interesting is how season 1 portrays the gems as more mystical figures, with temples and gem artifacts that are more spiritual than technological (like the moon goddess statue, time travel hourglass, lapis's mirror, etc). season 2 onward is when it takes a hard turn into sci-fi and the gems being aliens.
i do wish they stuck with the mystical angle, the sci-fi stuff feels a lot more generic compared to the more mysterious and memorable stuff from season 1, but the two approaches are so different that it's like apples and oranges.
I kinda like it because it shows how the gems have technologically advanced since trying to colonize earth
My main issue is why weren’t the gems known! If something like them and the corrupted gems actually existed, you’d hear or see something about them all the time! And mind you we don’t really get to see humanity beyond beach city.
We know since the gems have been on earth home world advanced their technology like crazy, so maybe that's how they started out. How they had powers and so on, and that is why newer gems don't have them and rely more on technology. Like older gems were more mystical and magical and with less resources they had to improve on technology.
I think that was done on purpose to throw you off about Gem's true nature.
I kind of disagree on this. I think a majority of kids/teens shows focus on magic and mystical elements, I like that SU stood out as Science Fiction and I think it did a good job blending the two elements.
I definitely agree on the fandom bit but that’s sadly what happens when you have a bunch of chronically online pre teens and teens who think they’re right about everything. It’s not the first time and it won’t be the last either every few years there’s a fandom that seems to one up the other on how bad the 1% of a fandom can be. Even though I’m a part of fandoms that have done bad things I have to remember there’s lots of good in them too. I’ve seen so many people let the choices of a small amount of people cause them to leave a fandom and that really sucks.
Me, I was impressed by the fan works that appeared literally HOURS after a Steven bomb premiered back in the day.
Yeah honestly I hate when people (in general) use this as a point AGAINST the show itself. Like I’m sorry but welcome to the damn internet. The super horrible people who doxx and send death threats and do shit like that genuinely exist in every single fandom that has 300 or more people in it. And none of this was the fault of anyone who worked on the show or normal chill fans who just liked or were even obsessed with the show themselves
I always disagree with the toxic fandom idea. How many people do you need for fandom to be toxic? Because honestly SU and any other fandom there’s gonna be a vocal minority of idiots. That does not make a toxic fandom. There are thousands of people in the SU fandom most of them are fine.
@@highvoltage7797 that’s true honestly. Because it’s easy to see a few people from a massive fandom do one or two bad things and then go “oh it’s toxic”. It’s just like how all people think Furries are pedos and want to sleep with animals when In reality more than plenty of them reject those people and don’t consider them part of the fandom.
@@highvoltage7797 for any fandom, there's always a very toxic and very vocal ~5% of people that will make their problems with their favorite media everyone's problem. With smaller fandoms, those people can usually be ignored or knocked back in line. But the bigger the fandom, the bigger that ~5%, and the harder it becomes to tune them out.
And because they're the most vocal members of the fandom instead of the ones who are chill and just want to enjoy it, they're the people that leave the biggest impression of the fandom on other people. Thus, the fandom itself gets a toxic reputation.
White Diamond theme is so atmospheric, so alien, i love how otherworldly her theme is, i also like to use as background music while playing No Man's Sky, it fits perfectly.
I am 17 years old and till last year it was my absolute favourite show (overthrown by The Owl House now), I still enjoy the episodes when I see them and it will always have a place in my heart. Arguments on why I loved it? I don't have any, I just did honestly, and I also think that's what this is all about, enjoy it to the fullest and then decide if you liked it or not 🤷🏻♂️😊
Yeah, same goes for me- though I had multiple favorites, but now my top favorite is definitely the Owl House
It was a very earnest, smart and funny show with a great, queer spirit and some killer bops.
Honestly, Steven was never able to be dethroned, for me. It installed itself at the top, and stayed there.
The Owl House honestly feels like it was inspired by Steven Universe, at least partiall. I adored both shows and both of them suffer from premature cancelation and thus have rushed storylines toward the end
You started to like The Owl House more than Steven Universe? I started watching The Owl House in 2020 late didn't even know about Steven Universe until late 2021 and it immediately become my favorite show ever 2022
51:06 I know sometimes the crewniverse has some inconsistencies, but I think this could be explained by the fact that while Lapis knows about video messaging (the wailing stone ep), the medium is what matters. Every single gem communicator I can remember is holographic or a projection (makes sense since they're light), so when Lapis sees Steven in a handheld device with a live video feed (not the camp pining hearts tv) on one surface I imagine the first and only thing she can compare it to is her mirror. Maybe I'm reading too much into it tho.
No! You’re not reading too much into it! I thought that Lapis was just re-traumatized from the whole mirror/livefeed thing and wanted to “save” Steven from the same terrible experience she did with the mirror
reading the title and immediately dissolving into dust as i become aware of the passage of time.
great video btw
10 years?!! I remember watching the first episode when it aired doesn’t even feel so long ago. I fell off near the end of the show but the lore,mystery,characters, and artstyle always brought me back.
I think pearl is a greatly damaged person which is why her development as the series went on was so good. She started out with a lot of bad moments but got so much better and I appreciate that. She became one of my favorite characters but it took a long time.
I rewatch Sardonyx's introduction constantly, I wish more people liked it and her as much as I did. Alexia Khadime's voice work is absolutely incredible, as is the music. I wish we had seen more of her.
I like how steven universe does side stories, people call it filler, but that’s pretty dismissive when a lot of the messages and themes of the are empathy and caring for people where they are.
Did I miss it, or did you actually not mention the premature cancellation? (I'm genuinely asking cause I mostly listened to this in the background of working on a project) I feel like the cancellation is a fundamental part in understanding most, if not all, of the show's flaws i.e. network interference. One such example is the "filler episodes" being caused by network mandates for episodic storytelling.
Anyway, this was an absolutely fantastic retrospective and it's always fun to see this show get some well-deserved praise.
Oh my god, there’s no way! I remember reading up on the whole cancellation story and what ended up leading to the movie and Future and being really interested in the whole thing. HOW DID I NOT INCLUDE IT?!
(Thanks for the kind words, btw)
SU has excellent filler though, all the side characters are charming. Learning and interacting with them more really attaches you to beach city
@@LynxxXVI yeah, I really don't like the term filler when used in the context of Steven Universe or other shows like The Owl House or Amphibia; there's not a single episode in any of those shows where the writers didn't try to make a good episode of television.
@@andalilbitqueer you say that when they made multiple episodes on Dewey 💀
@@jammindragon1812 your point being?
Thanks for the hard work seriously the amount of time and effort but in this video is insane and it made me relive some good childhood memories so thank for that too
I like that Peridot never fused. Feel very ace representation. Which we need more of.
In regards to the different character designs, Rebecca Sugar said that she loved seeing fans point out what artists drew who for this episode. She also said that she hates conformity. So she kinda encouraged the artists draw how they wanted. I appreciate the idea but it is hard to look at.
i'm eternally thankful that they went for the ace representation, not only did it feel right, but it also put a huge damper on a majority of toxic shippers as well
it was so awful having a favorite character that was constantly reduced to the other half of any given pairing from start to finish pretty much, and it still stings that it had an effect on some of the episodes we ended up with too
Artistically sound, business wise it was an odd move.
Maaan fuck that, I wanted to see how the fusion would look like soo bad would it be big like amethyst and garnet? Or small like steven and fusion
She isn't ace, and fusions aren't always a relationship
@@alien-eater First claim is weird to make, second claim is somewhat correct. Fusions are a result of really any relationship, which Smokey Quartz demonstrates the best imo. They are friends, and fusion is a result of that. But most other fusions work and are talked about and shown in the context of romantic relationships. Pearl and Rose. Ruby and Sapphire. Garnet and Pearl seems to be a weird mix of both romantic and platonic. I think it is safe to not have Peridot fuse for a whole slew of reasons that does involve this implication that fusion can be showing how characters may have romantic feelings for one another.
This series was my childhood, and I’ve rewatched it recently and come to the conclusion that it has the highest highs of any animated show I’ve ever seen and some pretty low lows. At its best it deals with extremely heavy handed emotional topics like love, abandonment, acceptance, ptsd, the effect of lies on children, parenthood, even SA in one very thickly veiled instance, with some amazingly written character like Lapis, Garnet, Connie, Greg and especially Pearl, as well as some like Yellow Diamond, Bismuth and Jasper, some absolutely STELLAR music, obviously the vocal tracks like It’s over isn’t it, full disclosure, Stronger than you, what’s the use of feeling blue, and Comet, but also instrumental tracks like Alone Together and I’m Still Here, and the iconic Escapism, not to mention the iconic Love Like You. It can have some extremely compelling stories like the climax of season 1 or the pearl/pink diamond stuff, with an amazing ambience in beach city with side characters that you care about like Jaime, Lars/Sadie, the cool kids, Petey, and Mayor Dewey. Greg provides an amazing character, a failed musician turned car wash owner who is content to live a simple life in the moment with his son, the gems provide the perfect balance between mother/family figures and source of mystery and tension, Connie is an amazing addition the perfectly walks the line between romantic interest and wholesome friendship as well as keeping Steven grounded in his humanity, and Steven is a great protagonist that we can see grow and develop, deal with issues of loss, pressure, and pain from his mother and the gems, as well as homeworld. It even manages to display a message of acceptance without being in your face about it and can be ignored by young children.
At its worst it’s a preachy show with quickly written episodes that feel very cartooney, sinking far below the standards the series has set for itself. Steven can be an almost comedically over sensitive character that can’t stop crying, garnet can be a device simply to promote gay rights (which I have no problem with when done right, as the show has proven it can do), the show becomes reliant on childish tropes and feud ex machina rescues, with unearned conflict resolution that feels shoehorned in because they can’t have Steven end a conflict with violence (looking at you White Diamond).
In short, for every amazing episode like:
Rose’s Scabbard,
Jailbreak,
Full Disclosure,
Giant women
Sworn to the Sword,
Mr. Greg,
Indirect Kiss
Alone together
Keeping it Together
Winter forecast
Lion 3: Straight to video,
We need to talk,
Ocean Gem
Alone at Sea
Storm in the Room
Same Old World
Bubbled
It Could’ve been Great and many more, you have an episode like
Hit the diamond
The Question (Ruby Rider)
Rocknaldo
Back to the Barn
Future Boy Zoltron
The new crystal gems
Dewey wins
Love Letters
Know your fusion
Historical Friction
Restaurant Wars
Lars of the Stars
Sadie’s song
Too short to ride
Kindergarten Kid
Doug out
Back to the Moon
As someone with intense and severe ptsd, Stevens depiction is absolutely perfect in Future. That is what ptsd looks like. Anyone who says otherwise has never experienced ptsd. It makes you afraid of yourself.
Nice invalidation there Pal
Guess I don't have PTSD from years of SA as a child and experience with DV because my experience doesn't conform with a cartoon character.
I didn't get bursts of anger. I'd heavily dissociate (to the point of nearly crashing my car) and have panic attacks where I attempted to isolate myself. I never became aggressive towards other people, even when I was scared.
Steven does not represent all of us.
even though everyone seems to hate it. (including myself when it first came out) the uncle grandpa episode is actually pretty funny with some good jokes. like uncle grandpa saying "don't worry. its not canon. but this is!" only to pull out a real cannon and shoot down a ship that lars and sadie were on. for lars to exclaim "NO!! OUR SHIP!!" as they sink into the sea. which is alot funnier knowing that they don't actually get together in the end.
Also U.G. giving a hint of Steven's gem being a diamond by saying "you should polish that twice a year" when you don't polish quartz
Deserves more views man
This video is well structured
I really lile that this video isnt overly negative or overly positive. It talks about the stregths and flaws without letting one overshadow the other. This is one of my favorite shows and its nice to see someone enjoy it while still having a critical eye.
I remember very well how much this show had an effect on me. Me and my friends would always talk about the latest episode the day after it aired, I would listen to all the cast interviews, and play the songs on repeat, I went as Steve for Halloween, and it helped coming to terms with myself with what I was going through every time. I am forever. Thankful for Steven universe.
I remember there was an inteview that confirmed the reason why season 5 is so rushed at the end was because they thought they would be cancelled after having a gay wedding in the show. So they wanted to wrap up the story quickly and finish it before that happened. So cool that it didn't.
I actually really loved Future. As someone who experienced a lot of childhood/teen trauma it was representation I’m not used to having. It’s really important, especially because the demographic of queer viewers unfortunately also experience more trauma than average. I didn’t feel that Steven was out of character. I think because I have CPTSD I understood better why he behaved the way he did, and it didn’t make me find him to be unlikable/a bad person. I also went through the common childhood trauma experience of falling apart after the fact. Before that you’re in survival mode and it’s not obvious how much the trauma messed you up until you’re safe enough to start to process it. I’m 23 and still realizing how much I’ve been impacted and hindered from what I experienced during the years that I was being shaped as a person. A lot of his behaviors don’t seem logical when you haven’t experienced the mental illnesses that cause them. Like pushing people away when you need them most, while being terrified of abandonment. I think a lot of his anger was justified, he was neglected, had way too much responsibility placed onto him, saw horrible things, was hurt so many times and had no stability for basically his whole life. His identity and self worth got tied into his heroism, so once he didn’t need to do that anymore, he didn’t know who he was or feel valuable without it. He was stuck processing his trauma while everyone else got to move on with their lives. It’s really hard to be stunted like that, seeing everyone else move on with their lives because they got to grow and develop while you had to put that on pause to survive. You get stuck in the past and people don’t understand that you still need the support that you never got when you were younger. You kind of have to parent yourself and it’s so hard to ask for the help you need because you feel like a burden and think you SHOULD be able to handle it yourself since everyone else can, but you didn’t get to develop the needed skills. I struggle a lot to function because I wasn’t taught how. Like Steven I was neglected, didn’t have a stable home, didn’t get to go to school/learn to socialize/have peers, was hurt physically/didn’t receive needed medical care, had too many responsibilities, was in constant crisis, had identity issues, and other things that have made it so I’m very unprepared to be on my own, and lack “basic” life skills. It’s very upsetting and overwhelming to realize just how much the adults in your life failed you. You never got the chance to be not okay either so it can get very self destructive and so much worse than people realize because you think you have to put on a strong front like you’ve always had to. I cried a lot watching Future, CPTSD is not a subject I’ve ever seen a cartoon touch on and Steven Universe is a comfort show for me that I watched during the roughest times of my life. It was healing to see Steven go through the same struggles I go through and still come out okay in the end. I understand that the subject is too heavy for most shows to want to touch upon it but it’s so refreshing to see a piece of media acknowledge the impact of trauma since most characters go through awful shit and are just magically fine afterwards.
I 100% agree honestly, I was so shocked watching SU Future for the first time and so many times it had me on the edge of my seat and in tears because I could see myself in Steven.
I fully agree! Steven Universe itself (not Future) premiered a mere less than two months after my own mom passed away, so in a way it was good to have that representation and have it treated in an appropriate manner and not Disney's way of 'oh, my mom's dead, that sucks'. It's WAY more convoluted than that, and that was perfectly shown throughout SU and SUF with not just the supporting characters who directly were involved with Rose/Pink and lost her (Pearl, Amethyst, Garnet, Greg, maybe even Spinel + the Diamonds but through a different context) but most importantly Steven himself.
I would argue that Steven's personality in future is actually pretty spot on in terms of trauma response.
His gem was acting up,he wanted so hard to be useful because he spent his entire youth helping people. Him acting up and thinking nobody cares when there are people around him is just his brain tricking him into,I would guess,thinking that they only see Pink in Steven and not Steven himself,therefore feeling like he's alone despite having friends.
Trying to propose to Connie because he doesn't want her to leave is insane but at the same time not really his idea in the first place and he was desperate,him bubbling and crushing his friends,while it was explicit in the show,makes sense as a person being so terrified of change when most change in his life was bad and life threatening.
While him becoming a monster because of his issues can be seen as a negative representation of mental issues,I see it as Steven manifest how he feels,especially after he shattered Jasper. Connie's mom told him he had ptsd but he has no real idea on how to cope with it or even coping with the new thoughts and his own actions and words makes him feel like a monster,wich is what he becomes. And it makes sense in that particular situation that love is the thing snapping him out of it,loving and helping friends or family that suffer is the best way to let them at least try to heal.
I didn't watch the entirety of steven universe of future,but I can see from some sort of outside perspective how future kind of hit the nail on the end in term of Steven,and even the other gems. It might be frustrating to see them act bland and lifeless in the show,but I see it as how everyone else but Steven got their lives figured out,they all(except a few ones) got their happy endings and don't need more character growth. It works badly in terms of watching a show but in my opinion,works fine in a world building way.
Everyone has their lives and are happy,and Steven is just there,struggling to just live1
I just watched the whole series recently (+ the movie and future series) and tbh, I can’t believe I’m 10 years late to the party lol. It’s honestly a great series with tons of funny and sad moments! 🧡
I'm really glad you mentioned the value of the show mentioning concepts that come back way later on, whether they be seeds for something else or just a basic idea to come back. This show should definitely be rewarded for having some elements planned out from the start, especially when other shows get inappropriately more credit for retconing concepts into existence (like what? why?).
Yeah that's the word to describe it as personally, growing up with it too: "Good", it has some great moments and smaller things like music and color palettes that stand out. And it's easy to get inspired by it artistically too! :)
feel pretty lucky to have stumbled across this channel in its infancy. keep going, man. this video (and several others of yours) was good as hell.
Just so we're clear, the Zammi070 situation didn't actually play out like that. They even confirmed that their attempt to take their life was not due to harassment by SU fans. I really wish you'd've done more research on that and looked into it. It did happen, I definitely was there for it, but they confirmed that the SU fanbase did NOT push them to try and take their own life. That's blatant misinformation/lies.
So weird to me that enough time has passed for people who watched SU as kids to make videos about it. I watched it and loved it but I was 16 when it came out, didn't start watching til I was 18 and mostly watched it to *heal* my inner child. Good video, just... fuck, time flies and I'm old 😭
Dang, I was around the same age as you when the show first started. Though I started watching at 17.
We’re old. 😭
I have recently rewatched all of steven universe to relive my nolstagia and to simply compelte the series as I watched it through the CN television show when I was a kid and I didn't watch watch every episode or even in order. While it is fresh on my mind, I believe that the first 3-4 seasons were really nicely well made, however due to the contraint placed on SU, the final season and future were rushed so much that it was bittersweet when it ended, I just wished there were a couple extra seasons to flesh out the diamonds, bismuth, and the homeward. Heck I even wish there were more of spinel. I really liked her, goofy and bitter. Future is incredibly rushed, while the ptsd and trauma were important subjects to talk about, I don't think having it done like like the last 5 episode does it justice. I also think that healing the shattered Jasper is also a stupid plot point, It just comes out of nowhere, like no lead up. And nobody talks about it again even though it was reviving from the dead... But even after all that, Steven Universe teaches us important lesson that while our past is a crucial to what we are, we can't let it ties us down as the future has so much possibilities.
they were planning to have 6 seasons originally but sadly CN didnt have the same ideas :(
Yeah, the main issue with it is that it was rushed but it’ll always hold a place in my heart and I genuinely don’t understand why everyone was acting like this show was hot garbage, yes it had problems but it really wasn’t THAT bad. I guess I’d blame the toxic fandom at the time and how some TH-camrs basically milked the SU hate to the brim until it lost popularity.
@@S0m3B0z0OnTheInternet yeah i blame youtubers who milked the su hate dry
@@jojo-xk8ri fr, it was worse than the toxic fandom at the time it literally just caused more kids to get bullied for liking SU
Ah "Too short to Ride", the episode where Amethyst of all people throws a fit that Peridot doesn't overcome her inferiority issues the SECOND Amethyst orders her to, despite taking multiple SEASONS to deal with her own, and then actually literally abuses her and tries to destroy her tablet, then proceeds to stand around with her arms crossed and a smug expression, like she's trying to say "A job well done !" and never, literally never proceeds to apologise.
For contrast, Peridot apologised to Amethyst despite
1. Just saving Amethyst's life
2. Amethyst egging her on to make fun of everyone else, including Steven, TO HIS FACE but then was not able to take it herself
3. The thing she was insulted by was literally a *compliment*
I haven't gotten to know this show until last November I think. It was definitely the end of last year. I watched the first season because of a trade(?) with my sister. I'd watch SU and she'd read a book I kept offering her. I got hooked... I'm not entirely sure where somewhere between Giant Woman and Alone Together. I... binged the rest of the series. I couldn't stop talking and thinking about it afterward and I'm still very much submerged in it. To me, that is one of those things that separates SU from other shows. I watched the Owl House, and I loved it, but... it ended and there's not much after it. (I really wanted to actually finish the Ruby quote here, but I was completely thinking about TOH until the last ep came out.) SU somehow pulls the audience in, to a level other shows usually don't. At least that is my experience. I also knew about all the major plot twists thanks to my sister, who finished the show before me, but it didn't make the experience worse. It made it different of course, but it didn't make it bad. I also LOVED how slow it was.
This was a long way of saying, thanks for making this video. I've run into the hatred this show gets, for valid and less valid reasons, and I didn't understand how such a great story can be so overshadowed by what people think. And I know a huge community loves it too, but it was kinda discouraging to see the divide.
Happy tenth anniversary, Steven Universe.
Something funny about Garnet's World is that it actually physically demonstrates how a diamond-like gem looks like a quartz-like gem when oriented from the top. When ring-o takes the ultimate power gem and puts it in his hair ring.
1:29:00 Jasper being fixed is part of the point imo. Steven never had to face any consequences for his actions, he never had to process guilt from being wrong not only because he was always righting wrongs but because even when he did they were usually fixed within the episode. Even when he did the worst possible thing he could do in shattering a gem it was fixed. This inability to process guilt is one of the reasons he breaks down
steven universe was a haven for me, falling into it during a really hard time was like a soft blanket , the messaging I took from it helped me keep going through living with an abusive parent and i watched future a couple years after moving out, it felt like the show was mirroring the ptsd , realizations and behavioral changes i experienced. i sobbed from the hospital episode till the end of future. the show def has problems but i feel that the situations and messaging can be interpreted in so many different ways depending on the person . the soundtrack and art stye literally transport me. and intentional or not there is so much room so theorize and analyze the plot and characters. overall a very personally important show
The whole "Rose Quartz is Pink Diamond" reveal was single handedly the biggest 'Oh FUCK' moment I've ever experienced with a show.
in this year i have rewatched steven universe 3 times and im on my 4th rewatch now. so as you can probably tell, I love steven universe.
this might sound like a weird compliment, but thank you so much for having sections of you irl. it was an oddly personal touch to the video essay
The main issue with the last seasons and it's troubling flow are because of the many "hiatuses" imposed by cartoon network to the crewniverse, there was a time you could go a whole year waiting for the next episode to air, and because of that the releasw of said episode in other countries would be delayed too. I even had to learn english by watching the newest episodes online because they took more than a whole year to be aired in Argentina lolol
“There are watermelon stevens.” “The watermelon stevens beat up Ronaldo.”
Honestly, as we enter the age of algorithmically generated media I actually kind of appreciate the animation errors, they're a reminder that there is a real person out there who drew each frame by hand. I think there's something very human about that. Hand drawn 2D animation has been growing more and more rare over the last two decades, I think the amount of effort and care it takes is meaningful even when it's not perfect
relax lmfao, we arent even remotely close to AI animation for tv. Literally every animation youve seen in your life is hand drawn
I know its the not the best cartoon, Idk if it my favorite cartoon, but this show will always have a special place in my heart. It really helped me get through some mental barriers and hard times in my life and I'll always be grateful for that.
This was great!! I love listening to things in the background while im working on a drawing, especially when its like an hour long rant about shows and cartoons. I really enjoyed listening to this in the background!! :D
I miss the era of cartoons of fandom. That era of cartoons in the 2010s where people would OBSESS over all the minor details in blurry, zoomed-in screencaps of a scene to try and figure out some future reveal in the show. All those shows where the fandom is so invested and theorize about XYZ and what this means in the show. Where every animation channel is making fan content breaking down "top 10 things you missed in the new episode" and what this single line from this character is implying and how all of these black obelisks form this conspiracy.
It seemed at the time everyone was so connected just by these shows, like how it could've been back when everyone watched the same thing on TV. It was a beautiful time of genuine human bonding that we just don't have anymore because everyone hates each other now. We were all just so focused on this great show and trying to unravel its secrets and talking about how much we loved it.
The critique of Steven being an 'awful person' in Future was spoken truly like a person who has never had their personal coping mechanism ripped away and been forced to face the reality that the thing that used to comfort you, distract you from your demons, is gone.
Steven was being terrible because he was in pain.
A Lion will be aggressive when there's a thorn in its paw.
A human will be aggressive when it's got a thorn in its mind.
That doesn't make what he did 'okay'-- but it does make what he did make sense.
He truly believed he wasn't worth keeping around. He disliked himself, so he lashed out to push others away.
When you're in that mental state, that's what you do.
I feel like the overall lesson the show is trying to tell is kinda smudged. The diamonds did some particularly terrible things, the whole stuff with the cluster was extremely dark and basically a genocide. Yet those dark things were waved off for the sake of redeemable villains. I find it particularly unsettling because in the end there aren't really any consequences to the genuinely evil actions? I feel like it would've been more interesting to have them remain villains and also show a lesson that not everything can be saved by befriending and changing peoples' minds and forgiving every action ever, regardless of what those actions were.
I feel the cluster broke some of the lore/worldbuilding that was set in season 1!
Like how are gem shards able to incubate in the ground like fully-made gems?
Also the time frame for when the cluster was made. It had to have been during the gem war, because the Crystal Gems claimed Homeworld had never returned to earth prior to season 1.....
We do have bluebirdazurite for that althoug even then they just let them go still wanting to kill steven so I guess the point is a bit sus.
@@DrawciaGleam02 i mean the cluster is more like frankenstiens monster
The only reason the cluster can talk is because there are so many shards that a rudementary intelligence formed.
Gems are grown from the ground, and maybe there was technology artificially giving more of earths energy to the mass of shards because maybe its form is just too large and requires too much power to be sustanable long term. They wanted to use the cluster as a superweapon but each gem lives thousands of years.
Maybe all those fragments cant maintain or last a long time without more power especially with the fact that they are a collection of fragmented minds that has the intelligence of a small child that cant even talk properly.
You may hate on Say Uncle, but it's canon. Steven unlocks a new power, and Uncle Grandpa gives the earliest series hints of Rose being Pink Diamond.
Steven Universe is a show that will live in my heart forever. The way a lot of the episodes covered things had me a sobbing mess after reevaluating my tramas and learning more about myself. My friend and i used to paint and listen to the music for hours. Some parts really stick with you.
As a 20 something year old, this cartoon helped me out of a funk. The emphasis on self love and the music was enough to soothe me. The song "Here Comes a Thought" holds a special place in my heart.
I shared SU with a friend who enjoyed Marceline in Adventure Time because of her singing, but he wasn't into it. I think if you're an adult who enjoys cartoons and needs an extra shot of wholesome joy in life, Steven Universe is a good choice. The interesting plot was a bonus.
s1 e38 was kind of like the first ever sign of steven hiding his emotions/bottling them up to me. and the fact it was so early in the show really makes you realize how much he went through and had to keep all to himself because nobody else in the world is like him.
21:28 "Oh Steven theres one more thing i have to mention, have you ever heard of the hit game, Among us?"
i love The Test because it just shows Steven’s emotional maturity, and being able to put the Gems’ own feelings above his own. Tbh I think I think I’ve cried about it, the way he lies to protect them in a little way, instead of blowing up at the gems for lying themselves. He’s able to see where they were coming from and that makes him such a “strong” character.
so overall the issue with steven universe comes from a planed 8 season show with a finale movie being condensed and rewritten. with the wedding episode pushed into production, cartoon network cancelled the show. Rebecca then persuaded them to greenlight a few more episodes (diamond days) to conclude the show. this then altered the supposed ending of the show to fit the final few episodes. after seeing fan reception, CN then greenlit the movie, but refusing it finality and inability to advertise more content, it was contracted that Rebecca then create more episodes.(SU future) unfortunately, the crewniverse and budget was slashed, so rebecca now had a rushed and concluded story with less help and resources to create its successor. its a really sad story.
I'm sorry for everything I ever said about this show.
I honestly love this show so much. I wish this show had been around when I was a kid. It would have been good to know feeling your feelings is valid. At least it's here now!
I used to hate future, especially the ending. But during the height of my first big manic episode, that was triggered by my childhood trauma where I needed to be the rock for all my family and friends, Steven universe future came to mind, the ending in particular. I damaged one of my closest friendships at the time, maybe irreversibly, I don’t know yet, and I was my own monster. All of this effort I put into helping other people damaged me resulting in a struggle with addiction and collapsing my sense of self. In the end I was hurting everyone around me by feeding into their own delusions and negative energy because I was telling them what I thought they wanted to hear, not what I really believed. I became someone that as a child I thought I would never be, that I hated even, just like Steven became more like a diamond. I think to understand some aspects of future you have to have gone through, or been close to someone, who has had a complete collapse in mental health as a result of parentification like Steven did in the show. Of course I know many people who have still don’t like it, and that’s completely valid as it has many glaring issues, but the message that it’s sending out to those of us that have undergone this sort of specific childhood trauma is so kind. I think it’s a very important series and I’m so grateful to rebbeca for creating it. The ending of future used to really bother me as I interpreted it as all of stevens trauma getting solved by a group hug, which in my opinion at the time was straight up offensive. But now I see that it was that his support system saw the monster within him, finally saw all of his struggles with morality and his insecurities, and they still chose to support and love him. I think it makes the song change your mind all the more powerful because once you’ve gone through a mental collapse like that it changes the way people see you, often in a really negative way, and once you start picking up the pieces all you can do is hope that other people change their minds about you, without forcing it to happen yourself, the ball is in their court now to accept you or not and if they don’t that’s okay, that’s on them. But it’s also because of shows like Steven universe future that I’m learning to have compassion for myself in that manic state where I lost my ability for empathy. She deserves love just as much as my previous people pleasing self did and just as much as this current version of myself does too. So do all of you out there, you may be your own monster, but that monster deserve love, understanding, compassion and above all you deserve to be seen and heard. I hope all of you stay safe out there and just know there is no one else like you, you are your own creator and you are here for a reason.
Man I also grew up with this show, and I remember being OBSESSED with the movie once it came out. I was so excited to view it for the hundredth time in theaters until the pandemic hit, and then once Future came out I made sure to watch every episode when they aired. Though, when the last Future episode came out, and I watched those credits roll, it was like a switch was flipped inside my brain. I had instantly just… stopped caring about this show I had followed for years, and I didn’t start caring again until just a few days ago when I had a dream related to one of the original episodes. I’m thinking of rewatching the whole series again, and this video is kinda making me want to even more lol
Thought the movie was only shown on Cartoon Network, not a theatrical release?.
@@elainestegeman7204 that’s because the pandemic hit before it got a chance in theaters. Luckily I never ended up buying a ticket but I was super close to getting one like a month before it happened
I understand but really hate the pink diamond slander because we saw her character development in reverse, sure it doesn't undo all the terrible things she's done but people forget that it wasn't just rose doing those things, they were telling the truth when they said diamond died, the selfish, egotistical, tantrum throwing princess did die, giving birth to the leader of the crystal gems, lover of Greg universe and mother to the most influential being in the universe
this video kind of lost me around the season 5 point.
the season was rushed because it was cancelled due to ruby and sapphire's wedding. rebecca sugar has talked about it extensively, and to ignore that point completely, by this point in time, feels like either lack of proper(or even mild!) research, or purposeful ignorance. sugar has said that if they wanted to have the wedding they would have had to accept they'd lose international funding, which would subsequently lead to the end of the show; therefore they had to wrap things up with the second half of season five.
discussion of future is just annoying to listen to, because it's so blatantly ignorant and almost feels intentionally dense. i can understand just... not liking the specific type of character steven is now, but to claim that his actions are out of character is kind of ignoring how his trauma has affected him. steven's need to retain his position as the therapist friend is not out of character, and he tries to retain this position by causing problems that he can(or at least tries to) fix. his purpose throughout this entire series has been to help fix other characters' emotional problems, and now he feels unneeded, which why he constantly fears being left behind. i do agree that at points the rest of the cast seem dumbed down, but its probably to emphasize how emotionally stunted steven feels when everyone around him seems to be completely happy and satisfied. they also don't get extensive arcs because they just... don't need them. garnet, amethyst, pearl, peridot, lapis and bismuth's developments have reached their natural conclusion. jasper is really not back at square one. she puts on a tough facade, and she doesn't make an effort to differentiate steven from pink diamond, but like... she's also joined little homeschool, something she was very vocally averse to at the beginning of the series, showing that she's willing to make some kind of effort to get better and develop as a person. her growth is much more subtle, and clearly still a work in progress, but to insinuate that she hasn't changed a bit since her debut is just wrong.
connie not playing a bigger role is a fair criticism though, and i do agree she could have been utilized much better (when future was coming out i was also really upset about her being basically written out of the show)
you mention the movie and steven not having/showing these toxic traits, but the movie gives steven a clear problem that he can fix in spinel and her injector. steven isn't purposeless, he still has to fix someone else's emotional trauma instead of confronting his own problems.
THIS HAS BEEN a really long and pettuy rant. i'm very passionate about this show, and it's a bit frustrating to see certain points being so frequently misconstrued, but this isn't a bad video by any means. i still enjoyed your analysis and opinions on earlier seasons, and i agree with a lot of your points about i.e gem harvest. THUMBS UP
Thanks for the criticism! Me not talking about why season 5 was rushed has been eating at me because I distinctly remember reading about it and thinking about how fascinating and upsetting it was, and I could’ve sworn I wrote and recorded something about it, but it was my first attempt at a big analysis, so it was gonna be a bit messy. And as you and many have noted, I definitely missed the mark on Future, and instead of giving it time to think about it like I had with SU and the movie, I just kinda spewed out my first impressions. I should’ve delayed the video or cut that part altogether because I realistically couldn’t have given it as much focus as it deserved. This was a huge learning experience, and I hope that next time I try something of this caliber again, I do a better, and more thorough job. Thanks again!
Frankly, Future was rather divisive.
I remember SO many videos back in the day saying it didn't portray mental health very well.....
@@ButterPrime totally understandable! and yeah, with big videos like this it's natural that things might not get intimate focus or time. again, not a bad video by any means, and i'll admit i was being a bit nitpicky towards the end as well, but it's very respectable how open to criticism and learning you are!! :-)
The test has so much foreshadowing to Steven's personally and struggles near the end of the main show and into future, it is meh on a first watch but 10/10 with future knowledge in my mind
Despite the show’s plot not really holding up or reaching its full potential, it was honestly a place of comfort for me growing up in this period of my life, where all these characters struggle and strive to be genuinely kind people.
What surprised me the most upon rewatching the show is that the diamond lore, specifically the pink diamond lore, was showed so late into the show. Like there was one mention of Rose and a Diamond in the Serious Steven episode, the battlefield, and then... the moon? Then the lore suddenly crashed into you like the hand ship at the end of Stronger than You. Idk if the lore was already made well in advance or being made up as the fans were theorizing, but I feel like the latter could have been possible, not just because of the aforementioned, but because of the bombs and hiatuses. Some stuff definitely could've pulled through last-minute for the fans. But we'll never know.
Edit: I forgot that FUCKING UNCLE GRANDPA predicted that Rose was Pink Diamond, and as far as I know, there were NO OTHER HINTS outside of the season this was revealed. So yeah, my bad on that one.
I feel like a lot of whether a fan does or does not like Steven in future is based on whether they've had the kind of mental illness problem's he's showing/has had a similar kind of meltdown (I have and let me tell you, my heart went out to the kid every second of the show)
the point of The Test was steven realizing that the gems are deeply flawed and him deciding to put their feelings above his own by lying and saying that the test was the correct choice instead of calling them out when they were already feeling like crap
S1 Ep38, The Test, is my favorite of the whole series. Steven puts aside his own feelings and un-confidence because he realizes that the gems are the ones that actually need reassurance that they are raising Steven correctly. Even though there is no story/plot progression, the character development is through the roof and really shows who Steven is as a character.
This is great work man, I was genuinely shocked at how low your subscriber count was when I looked at it because of the quality and production value of this video
Has anyone realized the the score albums for seasons 1 - 5 actually connect to make one picture?
Great comprehensive breakdown with great commentary keep it up man
Hi! this is a great retrospective on the series. The show definitely got more hate then it deserves at the time. Also, i'm an animation student and i can shed some more light on some more technical aspects, like the designs.
In general, I adore the steven universe designs. However, the inconsistencies in those designs are, for some reason i can't understand, intentional. What happened was every episode is directed/written/storyboarded by a different member of sugars writing team, and they each had their own "style" when drawing the characters. This isn't suppose to ever happen in a studio, every show has a design bible (documents will all the dos and don't of the show's visual style) and there should always be multiple character sheets showing every animator how to draw every character/prop/location (with some leeway for stylized visual gags, but even those will get their own little design sheet). Obviously as a show goes on and evolves those designs can change, but they'll always update those design sheets and the bible. Having consistent designs and solid drawings is one of the bare minimums for an animation of any kind. Long story short, it isn't actually excusable
I watched the show in full for the first time this year and is now genuinely one of my favorite shows.
i loved this show and followed it as it was airing, followed the fandom, and the news relating to the show. i think many of the issues you mention (the underutilization of the supporting cast in future, the rushed ending, the weird pacing in general, etc) we’re caused not by the show runners or the writers, but by cartoon network. the show was originally planned to be six seasons, but rebecca sugar had to fight tooth and nail to get a gay wedding scene on kids tv, and because of it, the network forced them to end the show early. if you imagine season 5 as 2 seasons crammed into one, it starts to make a lot more sense. i think this show was as good as it could be, for the time it was made, under the network it was broadcast on.
ps. loved this video. it’s great to see a truly honest and balanced critique of this show that’s not totally bashing it or praising it 100%
pps. best musical numbers in a cartoon, hands down, no contest.
On stevonnie - stevonnie's first episode is a representation of puberty (specifically afab puberty) alongside being a fusion episode. It's uncomfortable because it's quite accurate to how the world reacts to young girls going through puberty. You're no longer just a kid. You're seen in a much more different light.
Steven Universe was definitely a product of its time in some respects and had its flaws but overall the show was good and it touched a lot of people in meaningful ways. It’s probably not something I’ll ever do a full rewatch of but it still holds a spot in my brain that won’t ever go away.
I turned this on for background content, ended up focusing solely on the video and stopping my second activity, and now I’m crying, reliving the feeling of my favorite childhood show, one I very much relate to, ending.
IMO Steven has BPD, I feel like Steven’s entire personality was a split, and to me future was a huge help as of late to remind myself of lessons I had forgotten, I think Steven being a bad person, isn’t really that, just him having a bad time.
Great Video! Really appreciate all the work you put into this.