#like yeah steven universe and ect could go here but no shows have come close to having such a hard and long grip on me like this one

[nico-the-overlord]

I can’t believe I’ve been this show has had me stuck fermenting like a fly in honey pot for five-ish years and counting

[groundramon]

Its only been 15ish minutes but I’m still thinking about this post and I really like how instead of being offended about the outrageous displays of sexism in the exact field im going into, instead of being mad that a show I really enjoy was canceled prematurely/at a spoiler (? so I’ve heard, like I’ve said I’m only on season 3 so...), I’m just like “WHAT DO YOU MEAN TERRA WOULD’VE GOTTEN MORE SCREENTIME IN SEASON 6″

That says a lot about where my priorities lie.  Like sexism in the children’s television industry and division in the toy industry are two things I’d love to work against once I get into the industry (I mean im not planning to change the world lmfao but I can try) considering both fields are close to my heart and I’ll probably be working with them extensively once I get a job (not sure how involved I’ll be in merchandising but I’d like to have at least some hand in it), and I hate enforcing gender roles on kids (do you know how fucked up I’d be if my parents didn’t let me play with “masculine” toys like dragons, Pokemon figures, ect-), but Terra is more important.

My obsession aside, I do wonder how much that’s changed in recent years.

Teen Titans aired from 2003 to 2006, and honestly I think sexism had the biggest grip on children’s television in that time period than any other time period.  Sure other older shows would just...not show females in equal roles to their male counterparts, but in the early 2000s, either you did that too or you made a big deal about your female character being given equal treatment to her male counterpart.  Oh boy, look at Rika from Digimon Tamers, it’s so WEIRD that she’s a GIRL and she’s SO GOOD AT TAMING AND THE CARD GAME, wOWEE.  I give Digimon Tamers a lot of slack for that because it was extremely realistic about its sexism lmao (Henry never said anything about Rika being a girl, Jerry and Rika were both treated as equals in the overarching narrative, ect) but my point still stands.  Teen Titans is really good about how it treats its female characters, but I can still see the fingerprints of this era all over it, from its character designs (DRAW RAVEN WITH A THICKER WAIST YOU COWARDS) to its choreography (if Starfire gets wrapped up by one more tentacle I s2g-)  They also both have male-dominated casts but like...what show doesn’t?  Steven Universe, and then shows specifically targeted towards females?  And like, I’m not gonna sit here and yell at shows from the early 2000s because these were the better shows out there, they tried their best.  I can find a more sexist show airing nowadays easily, and like whatever, plenty of shows have done just as bad if not worse and I’m just using those as examples because I’ll stan those shows til i die.  I’m just sayin, it’s not surprising given the time period.  (I also have no idea how ATLA survived and thrived in the late 2000s, seriously what the fuck, how did Nickelodeon do something right in those years)

Fastforward to nowadays though, and while male-dominated casts are still the...well everything except Steven Universe and female-oriented shows, there are so many shows that really don’t seem to appeal to a particular gender.  If you made me pick, I’d say shows like Steven Universe, Adventure Time, and We Bare Bears are probably aimed at 7-10 year old boys.  But honestly?  They’re relatively ageless and genderless shows; SU and AT are both adventure-comedies, and We Bare Bears is about as gender-neutral as a Tom and Jerry cartoon.  And I already mentioned that SU is like the only cartoon I can think of that doesn’t have a male-dominated main cast and isn’t targeted exclusively at girls.

One thing that the 2010s have brought that I really appreciate is ageless, genderless shows that aren’t just there to sell toys.  Sure you can find merchandise for AT and SU (I cant find any WBB merchandise though :( i wouldnt mind an ice bear plushie but its fine...im fine...) but it was never their primary goal.

Green Lantern was canceled in 2013, and while that doesn’t seem that long ago, that was actually four years ago (jesus christ why am I so old).  Young Justice was canceled the same year, but it was announced last year that it’d be returning for a new season.  Legend of Korra was canceled in 2012, meaning it could’ve easily been part of the same sexism in the industry that killed Green Lantern and Young Justice.  I did hear something about there being concern from Nickelodeon executives about Korra being a girl, but the writing team was allowed to proceed when a test screening showed that boys didnt care about her gender (surprise surprise! kids arent sexist assholes until you teach them to be. who knew? oh yeah I FUCKING DID) so...

Yes shows like Adventure Time and Steven Universe were out or coming out around this time, but the industry hadn’t made the shift in mindset yet.  Adventure Time was a hit at the time, but like Avatar: The Last Airbender, it was an outlier, a show that was picked up for so many seasons and just too big to kill when its contract was up.  But with shows like Steven Universe, Clarence, We Bare Bears, ect...the cartoon industry has become a lot more gender-neutral in my eyes.

The group that networks are most concerned with appealing to now is 90s kids.  The hip thing to do is play with nostalgia and reuse old properties, for whatever gender people you want.  That’s why Teen Titans Go is still playing when it appeals to people of all genders, despite Teen Titans doing the same thing (in an arguably better show) a decade ago.

But one thing I dont understand is 90s cartoons.  90s cartoons - the original CN cartoons, the original Nicktoons, the original Disney cartoons - none of them seemed particularly...gendered.  Like anyone could relate to Hey Arnold.  Courage the Cowardly Dog was scary no matter your gender.  Everyone loved Ducktales - altho I guess Disney isn’t behind any of the situations i mentioned before (it’s mostly CN and then a little bit of Nickelodeon, but I do know Disney’s done some...kinda shady shit and does have a tendency to gender its shows, but idk if it’s ever canceled a show for that reason)  I dont know.  I wish I had the motivation and resources to do more research, but I’m just some idiot on the internet lmao.

I guess my point is that Teen Titans, The Legend of Korra, and related shows would likely be much better off if they were airing in 2017.

[ganymedesclock]

some thoughts on steven's perspective

(this was initially a bunch of asks, but they were too many):

oh you brought up something interesting in that frybo post: the corruption plot is something i’ve been interested in since monster buddies, and i like what you mentioned about steven approaching centipeetle with this narrow perspective that’s later allowed to grow. because looking back, it didn’t feel toootally right that centi had to take the initiative to shapeshift before steven saw her as anything but a monster, but that initiative is more important than the shape-shifting.

because yeah, not every corrupted gem is going to shapeshift herself smaller, and it later leads steven to “you’re not a monster anymore” (read: i trained you right) conclusions, but… that’s not the end point. that’s one of my favorite things about steven universe. yes, plots are slow-moving and the crew makes a deliberate point to have you *miss* or *wonder about* characters for a while, but that initiative on centi’s part was only a beginning.

steven didn’t “learn his lesson”, he was just beginning his lesson - one that isn’t “done” per se (in the kindergarten kid he felt frustrated and almost hopeless with that “end! less! suffering!” rant), but one that’s developed a lot and can be applied in a lot of interesting ways - not just “all corrupted gems are suffering, not just the nice ones”, but also “all gems, and by extension all beings, have their own story, even if they’re scary or can’t be what you might call ‘reasoned with’ at first”.

it’s been a while since we’ve heard steven say something like “but the diamonds are bad!” or “but she’s horrible!”, and i don’t  think that’s just because his views on this one individual character or this one corrupted monster have changed. i think the more you’re exposed to a new perspective in general, even if it hurts

(like the ones about his mother, bismuth, jasper, ect have) it will eventually change how you view even what you once considered fundamental truths. before, it was “homeworld is bad, but peridot / lapis is one of the good ones, mainly because i always believed in them and didn’t let a few murder attempts deter me”, now it’s more… hmm.. its hard to pin down, because he’s been quiet on the subject for a while, but i think it’s more:

“seeing how much people on all sides have gotten hurt, and knowing how little i want to hurt any of them, has left me in this kinda hopeless state… but i’m still facing the day, and i still wanna meet new people and learn their stories. i still assume things sometimes, especially when it puts my friends in a good light at the expense of others, but i’m learning. it’s a slow process. it’s hard, not feeling like your ‘side’ is always in the right anymore.”

or something like that, maybe. it’s also important to say that these moments of character development has been draining, and i think steven is still trying to figure out how he feels. he’s gotten hit in the face with his own failures a lot, and often with the perspective that he should take responsibility, which is only sometimes true.

i love looking back though, like you can comparing monster buddies and the kindergarten kid, and appreciating both the questioning and exploring nature of the former, but also the important journey it took to get to the latter, even if it was hard, even if it felt hopeless. i think that’s very important to keep in mind, that really, most arcs and characters in steven universe are still developing.

some see this as a weakness, i adamantly see it as mostly a strength. most arcs / characters will probably have realizations, flashbacks and other elements yet to come, that will put it into a better, more ‘fulfilled’ perspective, because it’s all connected. the wait can be so, so frustrating, and i sympathize with that, but i’m still overall very hopeful and impressed with the show. 

This is all really well put Felix, and I think captures something I’ve been thinking about for a while.

Steven Universe is not a story about Steven mowing through all of his enemies and making them into Crystal Gems. In the Guide To The Crystal Gems they make it very abundantly clear that the Crystal Gems are a particular faction with a particular ideology and while parts of that ideology we are rooting for to be universal- mostly the “hey let’s not destroy Earth or render it inhospitable, guys”- I feel like as an audience, along with Steven, we’re coming to understand, again, that elements of Crystal Gem philosophy are not always immaculate and right.

And that’s very important because it seems to be a struggle most of the other Crystal Gems are dealing with, and at this point, not well.

Rose and Pearl are both homesick, and in Rose’s case, she seems to have dealt with a deep sense of guilt for most of her life after the war. Pearl regretted giving up space because everything that she built it on was being able to be together with Rose- “but now she’s gone, and I’m here. Forever.”

You have Amethyst who definitely on some level is trying to grapple with the fact that she is a beneficiary of one of the Homeworld systems that is hit as The Worst- she’s born from the prime Kindergarten which is Bad in Crystal Gem philosophy because it did damage to Earth and it feels like for the most part Amethyst feels like part of her inherent nature is tainted- on some level she can’t not be a Bad Person ™ because of where she comes from.

And Garnet, we already know Garnet hides elements of her nature to try and seem strong for people. We haven’t really had this discussed but I would not be surprised at all, given Sapphire and Blue Diamond felt so close, given the way Blue’s court was so hasty to spring to Sapphire’s defense at the slightest provocation- there were connections Garnet severed that she probably misses at least part of.

But none of them are really willing to grapple with doubt, and I think part of it is, during the war, they built up this very driven ‘heroic fervor’ (and Amethyst wasn’t around for that, but she was bathed in it after the fact) that Rose is their perfect leader, that they’ll fight Homeworld. They cling onto that idea even when it doesn’t serve them any more- even when it has actively waylaid their attempts with the corrupted Gems.

Because when we’re first explained Rose could never help them, it seems like Steven is entering a super bleak, hopeless environment.

But now, in the context that Jasper, using basically metal scrap and yelling, is able to at least get corrupted Gems to a situation where she can work with them fairly well, in a few days, not even understanding what happened to them?

It suggests that Rose had a fundamental flaw in her approach and her methods were not exactly exhaustive. We see in Greg The Babysitter that Rose was not really at her core an especially gentle person- if something pushed her or stressed her, she had zero qualms getting forceful. People very often try to attribute all of Steven’s good qualities to Rose.

And part of that is, Steven has gone into this very much with the expectation that maybe someday he’ll be Rose Quartz 2.0 and I feel like what he’s learning at this point is that he really doesn’t agree with the things Rose does and hopping on a railroad to being Just Like Her is deeply disquieting. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s part of what he’s internalized after Bismuth- he knows what Rose did to Bismuth was wrong, but, despite that, he ended up putting her in a bubble because he was panicked and didn’t know what to do.

And it doesn’t mean Rose was evil. It doesn’t mean the Crystal Gems are evil.

I feel like one of the major concepts of the story is the idea of bridging seemingly irreconcilable opposites. The love story of Rose and Greg is one of them, but there’s the fact that this is Steven’s real claim to being the main character, why the show is named after him.

Steven is a bridge. He’s a bridge no one even thought was possible before he happened. 

And I feel like in that perspective, people who insist the inevitable course of the show is Homeworld is either going to be destroyed, or assimilated because everyone is ‘redeemed’ into being a Crystal Gem (and we don’t talk about what happens to those who don’t want to), are kind of missing the point.

The point is, neither the Crystal Gems nor Homeworld are really doing that good.

The Crystal Gems aren’t making any new Gems. Their only new members lately are Peridot, that nobody planned on and whose interest in Earth hinges in a fairly substantial part on Homeworld’s good, and, ergo, is not going to stay a Crystal Gem if the mood changes to “we need to leave Homeworld to burn” and before her, Steven- who is important, very much so, but he also came at the cost of losing Rose. 

All the Gem infrastructure on Earth is crumbling. Any time it creates a problem, as seen in Coach Steven, they would rather smash it and do without it than invest in its upkeep. In fact, even when said infrastructure isn’t causing a problem they’re generally inclined to smash it (It Could Have Been Great, sure hope you won’t ever again need anything from that computer Garnet, there’s no way this can possibly come back to bite you).

Their attempts at repairing things like the Sea Spire are pretty halfhearted even if Pearl talks about how lovely it was. 

Steven and Amethyst know almost nothing about Homeworld and both of them have expressed a lot of curiosity about it. Pearl misses space, and almost any time Garnet talks on the subject it seems to come back to “…well, but they’d never let me stay together so I have to believe everything I’m giving up is worth it” which doesn’t sound to me like “there’s nothing I miss.”

There is also like four of them. 

Literally. The Gem population on Earth is not exactly thriving. Most of it is corrupted and in bubbles and the Crystal Gems are not really doing a great job healing them.

And Homeworld- I’ve talked about Homeworld a lot. They are making new Gems but their method is unsustainable, comes with high collateral, and said new Gems are running into problems. The Diamonds are doing very badly in taking care of themselves and taking care of others.

People who are more or less removed from the immediately conflict, that being Steven, Peridot, and Amethyst to a degree- have rapidly sized this situation up and gone “Yeah, if we actually just put our heads together this would be beneficial for both of us!”

To which both of the older sides of the conflict have aggressively dug in their heels and yelled “NO. We can’t reason with them, what are you doing, they’re literally the worst people they tried to kill you Steven/took your enhancers, Peridot/tried to destroy Earth/killed Pink Diamond. They’re objectively the worst, they’ll never understand us, they don’t care the way we do, they’re horrible.”

And an astonishing number of the fandom has just tossed up their hands of “Well it’s just Inevitable we’re going to get a second war over Earth” and blindly accept the Crystal Gems’ insistence that Homeworld can’t be reasoned with while tut-tutting at the Poor Misguided Gems on the other side who are insisting the Crystal Gems can’t be reasoned with.