#You can hate Spinel without saying some dumb shit

[tumamek]

Projecting real-life societal rules onto the pairing of two fictional characters, one of which is a talking rock that even can’t be subject to human age convention, who are both living in an non-existent world does not hold water.

[lunawolflight]

STEVEN UNIVERSE FINALE (THOUGHTS)

Hey everybody, so last night I watched the livestream of SUF finale and ... I really didn’t like it. Okay I wanted to write this later and focus on my work, but I couldn’t concentrate enough so there you go.

I WARN YOU THIS POST WILL OPENLY SPOILER ALL THE LAST THREE EPISODES AND WILL CRITIQUE A LOT OF THE THINGS ABOUT THEM, SO IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED OR YOU DON’T WANT THAT A RANDOM STUPID ITALIAN GIRL WILL RUIN YOUR ENJOYMENT FOR THE SHOW THEN DON’T READ!!!!
Okay let’s get started.

From the episode “Homeworld Bound” I felt something off with the plot’s development; Steven acting like a jerk to Spinel without even say sorry bothered me a lot, not only ‘cause I really like Spinel, but because Steven’s bad attitude towards others went too far for me, like, SHE CAN STILL BE MENTALLY UNSTABLE AND YOU SAY “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU??”? THE WHOLE POINT THAT MADE SPINEL A VILLAIN WAS BECAUSE SHE THOUGHT SHE WASN’T GOOD ENOUGH AND THOUGHT SHE WAS THE REASON WHY PINK LEFT HER AND-!

Okay okay, need to calm down or I won’t arrive at the end of this.

So the rest of the episode was good, I liked that the diamonds are actually changed for the better for the better with helping the gems they had hurt (even though I didn’t’ understand how the heck Yellow can be now so powerful to reform a shattered gem alone but okay).

So after this we now have “Everything’s Fine”, accurate may I add.

Tbh, once Steven left the diamonds in the last episodes I expected to see Steven to want to be alone for a while. What I mean is; after you almost shattered a diamond (which I thought to be a suicidal’s thought forSteven’s diamond part), and rethink about the fact that you shattered Jasper, this would be a lot of stuffs to process. I imagined Steven would have use the portal and traveling alone through some planets with the company of his own thoughts and space. Like a revisit of Spinel’s garden, The Moon station, even the Kindergarten, all places that would have recall all the things that had a central role in Steven’s journey with no need of dialogue whatsoever, THEN he would have come back home, thinking that everything’s fine, BUT OKAY.

He comes back home immediately, Connie calls him and Steven has a self conversation when he says he’s good, PERFECT. Here nothing to say, I particularly loved the parte when the camera zooms to Steven, FINALLY I WANTED TO SEE IT FOR AGES. The gems arrives, Steven says everything is fine and then go to little Homeschool ... okay? He starts to mess around and ... the gems don’t do nothing? WHAT?!?!?!

No, I’m sorry this is unacceptable, you let all this time pass (exactly an half of season) letting your kid alone with a mental issue that gone worse and worse, in the last few episodes he escaped home for three days coming back horrified, he goes away horrified saying that you can’t help him anymore, he comes back still glowing and clearly showing the issue that leads him to disappear for days AND YOU DO NOTHING?!?!??!? LIKE NOTHING??

You let Steven doing shit when he’s clearly unstable and you keep working like nothing happened??? I’m sorry, this is the thing that made me so angry, in the whole serie (future) the gems have no importance whatsoever, yeah there’s a moment between Garnet and Steven, but really I can’t find anything that could give them more role, they can’t be this dumb and stupid to let the boy that they loved, protected and grown alone and not even be more involved in his pink problem. It’s frustrating, they were so much important and in Future their role is inexistent, they seem to not care about Steven, so why should we? If everyone still accept Steven to mess around after all the things he has done, why I should be emotionally involved when the Crystal Gems, the most important character’s in Steven’s life along with Greg and then Connie, where do I can exactly feel the conflict??

Alright, let’s move on.

Finally AFTER FIVE MINUTES of Steven messing as we predict because the gems CLEARLY didn’t knew he had troubles, they force him to talk with Greg and Connie too. Steven vents is really deep, I like that the others just say a line and then is STeven that throw out all the things he has done still pretending that he’s fine and then alternate it with the real deep suffering that he’s feeling inside. GOOD, back on board, he finally vented and GASP HE’S CORRUPTED FINALLY! Let’s see what it’ll happen!

“I Am My Monster” when I first saw the title, I was so sure that this would have been the big climax of the serie, all the action, emotional final moment and resolution will happen here, and the double sense of the title already implies a bit about Pink, LET’S GO!! *sigh*

So finally corrupted Steven makes his entrance, everything is trembling, people are scared like “Oh shit, here we go again” and from the distance they finally see the monster ... okay, gonna be honest, I didn’t expect him to be so bright.

Alright it’s just a design and this is not even a critique valid to say why I didn’t enjoy the finale, but for only and personal taste, I don’t really like the design.

He looks like any other colored monster we saw before, since the monster is born from the thought that Steven consider himself as a monster that has grown inside of him through the trauma that Steven realized in the course of the season, he should have been way more dark then just normal bright pink, something like dark pink with a lot of tendency to purple and even black, more sharp and with more monster’s characteristics, like shorter paws, more claws and sharps in his body, the eyes the brighten and more attracting part of his new horrible form.

Again, this is a really personal’s taste thought, it’s not relevant at all in this “review”, but I wanted to express my opinion about it anyway since THIS was the monster we were waiting for for the entire season.

Okay back to the plot. The gems talks a bit about Steven’s new for and the consequences if he doesn’t come back normal, Connie goes ALONE to bring everyone in the whole freaking town safe, in the movie all the gems basically had to save the humans, but Connie is enough apparently, and then decide to attack Steven and stopping him from destroying the town and in less then two minutes they’re able to cage him thanks to Lapis. IS LAPIS THIS STRONG??

I know that she’s been to a lot and probably her powers increased with time, but is shown just few minutes later that Steven is even stronger then the diamonds and the Cluster, and they’re like, the most powerful characters??

I don’t get it, there’s a constance discontinuity of strength in the characters, Lapis is an ordinary gem that never really shines in combats, yeah she was her purpose before the diamonds, but in fact, she can’t be stronger then them and the Cluster. She was holding him with water chains, okay, but it’s still not believable, and she keeps Steven blocked for quite long too!

Let’s move on ...

The diamonds arrive with my baby Spinel and once again the thing is tricked like an annoying joke that goes on too long. Alright I get that the diamonds are not exactly the best characters, tbh the last chance to evolve them in this season was wasted forever, but it can’t be possible that every time these morons arrives everyone gets annoyed, especially here!
on the contrary, the others should have feel relieved to see them arrive since, you know, THEY’RE FREAKING DIAMONDS and could know how to turn Steven back to normal since they’re not only powerful but also are close to these kind of problems. This brings back the problem of the gems that I brought up earlier; if they don’t make them look relieved to see the diamonds ‘cause they’re the most powerful beings above all the gems that make them look like they don’t care sincerely for Steven’s transformation and safety after what he has become. Okay maybe you don’t like the diamonds, but if you’re so desperate to bring back the person you love the most and the people that have the most opportunity to do it are luckily here you can go over the annoyance and pray them to bring your kid back.

But okay, the diamonds just made another entrance that annoys others even in this shit of situation, FINE. Even they joke about it.

The GodMothers Diamonds tries to bring Steven back thanks to their new abilities but it’s useless, that’s fair ‘cause this kind of mental monstrosity could be dominated a bit by these powers, but not entirely, even thought the powers are still really confusing, but okay good. Meanwhile Lapis calmly keeps Steven chained, heck she’s a new GodDiamond. Steven FINALLY frees himself roaring and kick everyone down, tries to escape again but then the Cluster arrives to hold him (in lesser time then Lapis).

There’s a dope moment when everyone cries and blame himself for not had been able to help Steven or for being the ‘cause of its status now. Believable, but too wimpy for me, Greg’s part is the best one ‘cause he stands there without caring to be hurt if that means to bring his son back. The diamonds were unnecessary honestly, even for Spinel, White’s part is just so unbearably pity, it’s just too explanatory for all WHite’s character and the problem that the fandom always had for her.

Then Connie arrives and openly says YES THIS IS YOUR FAULT.

*breath and let it sink in*

WHAT?!?!?!
Okay this feels like fanbase.

I know that White is hated and such, but in this kind of situation you can’t just blame one single person if the problem, as you clearly saw, is that Steven has mental diseases and just five minutes earlier he said what’s the problem that he had to face in that period, if he would have said something like”IT’S WHITE’S FAULT!” Then I would understand, but since the diamonds had NO PLOT RELEVANCE, they arrived only at the end of the serie, then how she could primarily be the responsible of Steven’s corruption??? It’s because Steven’s hate to be a diamond, fine, but none know for sure it, the gems can understand it since it’s the hole point of the last seasons, but attack White saying that it’s all her fault is far from being correct, the reasons are way more complex and we just watched the entire progression of it in the last episodes! I don’t like White but you can’t give all the blame to her, I’m sorry but it feels like the fandom talked instead of Connie and that’s just feels wrong. AND YES, I’m aware that after all White is the one that also caused more problems, but it’s not just that, and CONNIE CAN’T FREAKING KNOW IT IF STEVEN DIN’T TALK FOR AN ENTIRE SEASON ABOUT HIS SHIT. Well anyway Connie give the inspirational speech, everyone now is ready to fight and Garnet has a plan.

Gonna say, I don’t really like the animation here, there are no big contrasts of colors and the part where Steven is running towards them is so flat and seems to be a running baby dinosaur and not a treating monster.

So okay everyone hugs him (noticing White’s face and the hate for her increase again), everyone says they’re here (admit that Greg’s parts here are my absolute favorite, he had so much space for Steven and I just love how much he cares and sounds genuinely emotionally broken and involved, LOVE GREG!) and won’t ever leave him. Of course Connie arrives and with her kiss Steven comes back.

... no, I’m sorry, this was too quick.

This monster that we were waiting to see for an entire season lasted ONE EPISODE OF TEN MINUTES??? This is even worse then White’s battle, at least there was good action, emotional involvement and White has been a “treat” for more or less 40 minutes and some plus with the last episodes!

I don’t say that the intention of doing it is bad, I mean, of course Steven would have come back normal, but if you turn someone that thinks that is a monster into an actual monster LET HIM DO MONSTER STUFFS!

They needed just a bit of minutes: Steven immediately escapes after the diamonds arrives, cut out the useless joke of their arrival, let Steven actually destroying Beach City and also go further then that and Homeschool and show that yes he’s acting like a monster, but he’s also fighting to not kill anyone (he cause a bit damage), there would be a fight sequence and then a scene with them that tells him that he’s not what he seems, now that I think of, let the other new gems of Homeschool help so Steven can see the gem he helped at the beginning of the season, including Jasper.

Also, I don’t think that the corruption just needed an hug of comfort, like, it needed more, use gem’s healing stuffs, a stick to calm him, anything that wouldn’t had just involve simply hugging because yes, knowing that the people we love are here for us helps, but it won’t magically make all the depression and mental damage go away, it needs time.

But the worse thing, is that they NEVER addressed Pink, I know that “SHE’S GONE” but at least give her a moment because apparently she’s really important since, you know, PINK POWER, DIAMOND EYES AND ALWAYS REFERRING TO HER WHENEVER THERE’S BEEN A PROBLEM WITH THIS NEW POWER.

It didn’t need much sentimentalism, just a whisper of her saying her son’s name, a phrase, or heck, once Steven woke up let him open the chest in lion’s mane and let him found one last message of his mother also to give her more importance either then make her look like the worst being of the galaxy.

Sooooo Steven woke up and, I’m not gonna lie, this is the part that made me tear up, none says anything, Steven realizes his actions, but then lion comes and while he starts cuddling him, he hugs him and finally cry, for real, I think that this is the most emotionally involved and sincere crying I have ever see in a cartoon, you can feel all the pain and thrown up of Steven, no words needed, just him that finally screams his pain, free, while his family watches him relieved that he’s back. CUT.

WHAT?? NOOOO PLEASE DON’T END THE PERFECT MOMENT I FOUND!!

“The Future”. Here we areeeeeee, the epilogue of the story.

Soooo Steven decides to leave. Jee didn’t see that coming. I mean, it can be but I never saw Steven like he wanted to leave, maybe I needed more clues about it, or maybe I’m just nitpicking sorry, I wrote enough for the monster part.

Anyway FINALLY STEVEN SEES A THERAPIST good lord it happened!!

So there’s the scene of Steven that makes cookie cats for the gems to tell them that he leaves and they’re like: “Sure whatever, be happy and leave the tv here” and then they leave him alone. I hated this part, I knew from the beginning that they were pretending to be happy and the inside they were in pain as hell.

Two things bothers me the most: after the events of the last episode apparently everything magically comes back normal, I’m sure it was intended but, for a person that experienced depression in her own skin, I found it really dumb. I had to go to several psychologists in the course and even after my depression period, it took me a lot of time to process the shit that happened and even now sometimes I rethink about it. One entire year of process plus some months to find confidence.

And you’re telling me a kid that experienced multiple traumas, which we know had a crucial impact to his mental stability, get over it perfectly, yeah he sees a therapist now but you know what I mean. And this lead to the fact that it all feels like Steven is about to explode again because the gems are acting like shit for him leaving.

The second thing that bothers me is the fact that HE’S ABOUT TO LEAVE “PROBABLY FOREVER” AND HE DOESN’T TELL TO THE GEMS UNTIL THE DAY BEFORE HIS DAY LEAVING??? So now we have Steven that AGAIN doesn’t tell to the gem that he’s leaving, THAT IS LIKE A PRETTY MUCH BIG IMPORTANT THING TO SAY TO THE PEOPLE WHO RAISED YOU, no emotional conflict whatsoever, just another useless episode where everyone acts like freaking unrealistic morons, OKAY THEY’RE GEMS, but they’ve been able to put a lot of emotions with rocks as protagonists and now we have to buy this excuse? And all of this without mentioning a bit what happened in the last episode?? The diamonds of course don’t count anything along with Spinel, Steven then gives everyone a gift for his departure and I really enjoyed it, love so much Peridot’s reaction since one of my fave episodes of Future is the tv one just for the relationship with Steven and Peridot while the powers were really plot conventional. Jasper just make an appearence of not even ONE MINUTE, yeah she’s been shattered, nothing to explore much really UGH-! No, enough, or I really will lose my sanity into this freaking analysis fff. OH SOMETHING THAT I LOVED! Greg’s part was really cute, FINALLY he has a bed to sleep on and it just warms my heart, he has been one of my favorite characters AWWW

Then Steven say bye to everybody, come back and the gems cracks (GET IT).

This is so cringe I’m not kidding, also hilarious because wants to see them cry at all costs, like I THOUGHT I WAS THE SADISTIC BUT LOOK AT HIM! I understand his reasons, but really for the rest of the episode he wants to see them be tortured by agony, they do it and then he leaves with the smile on his face, I find it funny xD

There’s this exchange between them that I found good, but at that point I wasn’t even engaged anymore and so didn’t really get emotionally involved once again. So without any deeper explanation of what happened to Steven, an emotional engagement or a final satisfying shot, the boy leaves for adventure, following the now trend of protagonists that has to leave because nowadays people are obsessed with drama.

Aaaaaand this is the official end of Steven Universe and the finale of Future.

Guys, I didn’t cry, and once the screen went black I was so mad to myself at first because I really wanted to get emotional, I really wanted to feel the power that this show used to give me and that now officially finished without a single tear.

I talked with my brother all night about it and, in whole my entire life, I’ve never found and recognized so many flaws in a movie or tv show at its first watch.

Wanna give you an example of the finale of my all time favorite cartoon to give you a breath personal opinion of IT.

Phineas and Ferb Last Day of Summer: usually I hate to be redundant, but this is my absolute favorite show and I won’t ever get tired of talk and fangirl about it.

So the conflict in this special wasn’t the Inator the caused the repetition of time itself, but it was the context itself: this is the last day of summer.

There’s already a vibe that something is different, the nostalgic tone is heavy but not overdramatic because that’s not what Phineas and Ferb is about. However, what is different from its general formula in fact, is not only the tone, but how the characters are facing this imminent ending, not only for them, but also for the fans, which is something that immediately involve us emotionally because we’re exactly living what the characters are living. The only one that doesn’t accept it it’s Candace, who in fact cause the main conflict of the episode; not accepting the end of something and creating an alternative about it has its own consequences, and this could reflect the thoughts that some people may have when they don’t accept change; the day keeps on repeating and repeating, the changes are always different and with different strategies (in the case of Candace and Doof) but this little game can’t last long and we’re accepting something that is constant we’ll sooner or later get through extremely huge consequences. It’s also really subtle the portals that, once you fall on them, everything that involves you is disappear like it never exist, that’s another great scene when Phineas and Ferb gets sucked by these portals and THEIR OWN MOTHER doesn’t know their existence, it’s something that we knew it was gonna happen, but we’re so involved that we gasp anyway because it’s in the context of a season finale, and personally my first thought was “WHAT IF PHINEAS AND FERB NEVER EXISTED??”. Doof’s final resolution and becomes good is finally something we were waiting for the entire show, we always knew he was good and it’s so satisfying to finally see him redeemed, Candace tries to fix the damage that she caused with the help of the gang, Phineas and Ferb of course use their inventive to come back and in a final breath take sequence where the time is about to end forever, the day is finally save and so the rest of the characters!

*I’m starting crying welp*, then everyone just sits, no inventions, no crazy schemes, just a breath moment when the characters are talking and confronting their memories, the interactions between them suddenly increase while the music starts playing nostalgic, showing the characters we grew up with talking about all the amazing adventures they’ve been through, and we’re with them, sitting and feel close to them because we know what they’ve been through, we’ve always been with them, and we are now in this last day of summer.

THEN THE MUSIC STARTS AND TEARS HAVE TO DISAPPEAR FOR A MOMENT! The classic magnificent song formula is directed to us, the characters are talking to everyone that is now watching and primarily the people that have been loyal to them and followed their adventures after all this time. A big, heartbreaking love letter for the support shown towards them, the song has an happy tone but the words are strong, there’s this self awareness of everything they’ve done (also AYA but who cares I overlook for this!) and then finally Linda goes out and asks if anyone wants the pie, as usual, like everything, even if it change, always stay the same, the real spirit of thew show. Everyone enters in the house, all together, and the one that decide to say the last goodbye it’s Phineas.

Phineas, that always lived the moment, that went through the impossible and possible to gift to everyone the joy and fun we have to create with our own hands with the time that we have in our hands without necessarily do the greatest things, but just seize it to have fun and never forget to waste one single second of it. This boy, that always shown so much love for the summer, the season that allows you to do the impossible, now is closing the door, with a warm smile on his face, confident that with the end of this amazing journey, more adventures will wait if he’ll keep pushing forward, Carpe Diem.

... I’M FUCKING CRYING I CAN’T.

You know I’m not able to watch that last song even knowing the meaning of it because IT STILLS MAKE ME CRY THE END OUT OF ME.

After FIVE YEARS from its ending, this is a finale that is able to give a proper and plus exceptional conclusion of one of the best cartoons I ever seen and that is always dear to me. Maybe my standards for a finale of an important show are too high? Maybe, but what I know for sure, is that for the SUF finale, this feeling of conclusion felt empty to me.

Now that I shitted all the last three episodes, does that mean I hate the show?

Absolutely not. Even if not much like PnF and GF, I see Steven Universe as one of the most revolutionary and bravest show of this decade, its emotional beats conquered the heart of many fans and the characters made them stay by their side for so long. Some realizing its flaws or not, this show had a huge impact, and even if I personally didn’t felt it, so many people cried for the end of one of their favorite cartoons that meant so much for them, and thanking Rebecca Sugar and her crew for all the work she did for this show.

Alright so, these are my final thoughts, I’m sure that many people wouldn’t agree with me, and for that I’m greatly happy, but please I’d like to not get too much hate but only constructive comments about this finale. I understand that fans don’t like to let any idiots like me to ruin their enjoyment of their favorite show, and for that in fact I promise that this is will be my first and last expression of negative opinions on the finale of Steven Universe, I’d only answer my personal thoughts whenever people require it, for the rest I know how annoying picky fans could be, so I promise that I won’t ruin any longer the fun of this show, I’m just expressing my opinion.

Oh well look at that, another long post where I express my opinion, jeez I think this is the longest one yet, it took me one day to finish to write (in total, that would be three day but pfff who cares), I hope I didn’t bother much anyone opinion, remember I’m just a stupid Italian girl that wants to write during quarantine xP

For everyone that arrived at this point, thank you very very much for had stand my longest poem yet (GOSH IMAGINE WHEN CANDACE AGAINST THE UNIVERSE WILL COME OUT WELP) and see you soon for something different then sassy reviews, bye!