#steven unvierse

[artsycooky13]

bro i wish

[james-p-sullivan]

☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ ━(☆∀☆)/”

[diversebadger27]

this took forever but i was really feeling motivated, revived yellow belongs to @su-revived

[vimbry]

this is one of my fav underrated gags in su

[techno-toister]

costumes

probably should've drawn this during Halloween but i didn't think of it until like a few weeks ago

[soft-sweater-viking]

Kenan Morozov & Stanley Blu // Moodboard

[kingdeku-queentoga]

Steven glared at the crying sapphire with no emotions as he used his tail to gently pick up ruby gem, before grabbing it "now listen here, sapphire..." Steven started as he made sure sapphire was listening to him "you have two opinions... First is we can stop this stupid war. Second is that I shatter every gem here while you watch, before I make you watch Ruby get poofed until she is beg to be shattered cause I wonder, who'll break first... You or her" he threatened her as he used his tail to move sapphire hair out of her eye, so she could clearly look into his own pink eyes, while his pink eyes pierced into her blue eye.

Sapphire was tumbling in terror as she couldn't think since she was overwhelmed with everything that was happening from pink diamond before a monster, ruby getting poofed, the whole war coming to a freeze all because of pink diamond transformation.

"hurry up and choose..." Steven suddenly said as he brought Ruby gem in front of her face and squeezed it, making her eye widened as it started to crack.

"RUBY" Sapphire scream is horror as she watched Ruby almost get shattered before she very eyes "P-please stop, I-i surrender..." she cried in defeat.

Steven looked at her as he placed her down on ground before she dropped to her knees crying "...let's go. Now" he said as he disabled the bubble around them as he turned around and started to walk back to his side of the battlefield with a defeated sapphire following behind him.

Steven and sapphire walked up to Yellow diamond as he disabled the bubble around everyone who was caught up in the explosion "s-steve-" yellow started but Steven had cut her off.

"give me your commutator" Steven told her, making her look at him and at the sapphire crying behind him, before she nodded and give him her commutator.

Steven had activated the commutator and made it so it had displayed a live video feed for everyone to hear and see.

Everyone looked up and the screen in fear as they was met with Steven piercing pink eyes glaring at them "listen up. This pathetic war is over" he said such a way that his words was absolute "homeworld gems, drop your weapons and go back to homeworld" he ordered them before he gave the commutator to sapphire.

"c-crystal gems..." Sapphire tried to stop crying the best she could "the w-war is done. Th-this is an order, drop your weapon and leave this planet" she told them, trying to keep her voice from breaking before Steven took the commutator from her.

"If anyone tries anything, I'll shatter them" Steven said before he broke the commutator, glaring down at sapphire who had flinched under his glare "take this and get out of my sight" he said giving Ruby broken gem to sapphire, who had hugged it for dear life as she turned around and walked away.

Everything and everyone was quiet as they slowly separated from each other, going to where they belong as the only people left was the Diamonds.

Yellow and Blue was looking down at Steven as he was motionless the whole time "S-steven..." Blue called out, making Steven slowly turn around the look at them "a-are you okay?" She asked him softly.

Steven looked down at his hand, seeing his pink skin and the claws on each of his fingers "yeah... I'm fine" Steven said as he looked at Pearl gem before undoing the bubble, making sure to grab her gem before it felled onto the ground.

It was as if Pearl knew that it was Steven who was holding her gem because soon her gem started to glow brightly, floating in the air just before she had reformed.

Pearl landed on the ground and quickly pulled out her spear ready to fight and protect her diamond again, but she looked around and saw that there was no war going on "w-what happened?" She said confused.

"pearl, are you okay" Steven asked her.

Pearl tense up as the voice and quickly turned around, before her eyes widened in shock and terror as she was met face to face with an pink monster that was almost a head taller then her, she was about to strike at it but noticed it pink skin, the same pink that came from her Diamond's bubble "m-my diamond?" She asked it worried.

"yeah..." Steven said seeing the confusion and terror on her face, but his eyes widened as he noticed one of her eyes was completely white with cracks forming from it.

"w-what happened... That form... The war... H-how long was I poofed my Diamond!?" Pearl asked him worried as she looked at the fangs coming from his mouth, his pink eyes, sharp claws, and the large tail that came from his back as she started to wonder if it been days, weeks, months... Years since she was poofed.

"enough" Steven suddenly said making her tense up and salute "your eye, can you see out of it?" He asked making Pearl gasp.

"n-no I can't" Pearl said as she was so worried about her diamond, she didn't even notice that she couldn't see out her left eye.

"don't move" Steven said walking to her and licked his finger before gently running it over her gem, watching it glow but nothing happened, causing his eyes to widened as this was the first time his healing power didn't work "w-why isn't it working?" He asked worried and tried again but nothing happened.

Steven stared down at his hands, perplexed, just as the sounds of glass cracking drew Yellow, Blue, and Pearl's attention to him, shortly before his pink skin began to crack and shattered, revealing Steven's actual human body as he was back to normal.

"Steven!?" Blue gasp.

"My Diamond, Are you okay!?" Pearl asked him worried

"I-im fine" Steven told them as he looked back at Pearl, not understanding what was happening but he turned towards his ship "let's go, we're are done here" he stated as he started to walk back to his ship but everything had hit him all at once, making him drop to his knees and started to throw up blood while also pouring from his nose.

"STEVEN" Yellow, Blue, and Pearl screamed in horror as they watched Steven collapse in front of them, in a pool of his own blood.

[glydeart]

Wip

[kazooie]

Love when animated characters do this, they should keep doing this

[toyota12]

Steven Universe Future: Pink State Analysis (Growing Pains) Part 2

This post continues where part 1 left off.

After Priyanka agrees to perform tests on Steven to see if he's suffering from a human-related illness, Connie leaves the room to wait (and call Greg as well since she pulls out her phone as soon as she walks away). Priyanka then proceeds to take his temperature (through his ear) and first finds that he has a mild fever. However, Steven, feeling uncomfortable by this begins to glow pink again, which she also takes notes of. Priyanka then checks his heartbeat and puts her stethoscope on his gem, to which she hears a whirring noise coming from it.

However, when Priyanka tries to take his bloodpressure, Steven’s arm fluncuates again, which destroys the strap for the monitor, which she takes as him having high blood pressure.

Priyanka then asks who Steven's general practitioner is, and upon learning he's never been to the doctor, Priyanka raises her voice before speaking in a calmer tone to help Steven relax before mentioning that she'll be discussing that with Greg (which foreshadows the next episode). The moment where Priyanka speaks in quiet voice and that helping Steven calm down also shows how the pink state can be neturalized when people are more calm around him.

Steven then gets even more uncomfortable when Priyanka mentioning running more tests on Steven (showing how he's put off by this whole experience) and then gets handed a hospital gown to change into.

Steven then glows pink again when Priyanka checks his tongue for swelling or sore throat, his height fluncuates when she's measuring his height (and taking his weight at the same time), and then his neck extends towards the ceiling when she's re-measuring and recording his height.

Steven's knee instinctively bubbles itself, momentarily trapping Priyanka's hand when she's testing his reflexes. This is due to how Steven's body misinterpretted this is some sort of attack it needs to protect Steven from.

Finally, she takes Steven's x-ray, which show Steven's size fluncuations again as the sleeves of gown come right up to his hands when he's holding a lead apron during the process.

When going over the x-rays, Priyanka shows the differences in skeletons of the two sides of Steven's family, his human half and gem half. The human skeleton appears exactly like one would expect a male skeleton to look like.

However, when shows the x-rays of the Crystal Gems, which they agreed to do for research purposes, their gemstones are the only thing visible on the screen (except for food and other items eaten for Amethyst's x-ray). This is due to gems not having a physical body since they're hard light constructs.

However, when showing Steven's skeleton, despite the numerous fractures, every bone is still in alignment, to which she suspects that bones healed themselves before Steven could suffer any serious injuries.

This scene not only shows the differences between Steven and both gems and humans when it comes to their x-rays, but also how Steven stands out in contrast to both species. Unlike humans, who would suffer severe injuries or outright die after taking hits to the skull, Steven's body can heal it's injuries not matter how severe. And unlike gems, Steven also has an actual skeleton that still shows his own gemstone embedded into his navel.

While Steven interprets the instant healing of his body as a positive, Priyanka suggests that he still might've suffered trauma in spite of that. When Steven asks if that means there's something wrong with his brain, Priyanka reassures him that his brain isn't damaged (once again calming him enough to dissipate his pink state) but still tells him that experiencing childhood trauma could still have a lasting impact when comes to reacting to stress.

She goes onto explain how cortisol (the stress hormone) works when humans react to a crisis. She then theorizes how the pink state could be a gem equivalent of cortisol. Priyanka asks if Steven remembers anything traumatic that happened in his childhood. Steven begins listing off the trouble that he got into during his gem-related escapades throughout the original show before stopping when Priyanka reacts with shock again. Steven either downplays his issues again or doesn't consider anything he just listed to be seen as anything serious as they are taken here.

As Priyanka goes onto to explain how all of Steven's traumatic memories have affected his ability to respond to stress more healthily, Steven continues to ruminate on said memories before stopping when he flashes back to the moment White Diamond removed his gem, becoming more disturbed as he does so, showing that this is first time he's treated his issues as something of actual concern.

Priyanka then explains how because Steven's dealt with actual world-ending danger when he was younger, he now interprets even minor stressors as a big deal. While this does explain Steven's breakdowns throughout the series so far, I believe this could also explain Steven's longing to a fill a void in his life that has been seen as well. Since he had grown accustomed to helping end these major catastrophes, he doesn't know how to properly adjust to life now that there aren't any to resolve anymore.

Steven asks why he's only having problems dealing with this now (which was a question I had been asking at the time of this episode first premiering as well). Priyanka explains how stress is less harmful with a support group and wonders if maybe Steven could be losing them or if he recently experienced anything stressful, which she doesn't even get through saying before Steven flashes back to the proposal last episode and experiences more size fluncuations as a result of being triggered by this.

First off all, when Priyanka mentions how Steven's been losing his support group, she is referring to how Steven feels that everyone will abandon him since they don't need his help anymore, and how he's refusing to let them know how he's feeling since he still feels that he would be burdening them with his concerns. Second of all, Steven interpretting the failed proposal as a stressful experience shows how he feels he blew his chances with Connie having anything to do with him since he feels he made himself look a like a fool doing so.

(Continued in Part 3)

[matt-the-radar-techncian]

Had a conversation about this yesterday and it made me kind of wonder. If pink was given the ultimatum by white about the colonization of Earth and was locked away for thousands of years, could she have become like phosphophyllite from houseki no kuni, who I heard is pretty similar to pink and seems to became a villain because of the realization of everybody didn't care about them. without any further spoilers about what their story is, I'm going to say that what they went through is more tragic than pink/Rose tragedy that arguably makes her bittersweet ending, giving up her life to have Steven, look happy in comparison

I haven't read past the anime for Land of the Lustrous but I have heard that it gets quite a bit darker in the later chapters and I am excited to read it at some point

But yeah depending on how you look at it, Rose's life ends with her seemingly having achieved her dream, being able to live freely on Earth, free of the control of the other Diamonds, and she dies peacefully, surrounded by her loved ones. But you have to remember her state of mind during all of this. Being able to end the war for Earth came at the cost of countless gems, many of whom she was probably close with too. She probably felt responsible for the suffering of every shattered or corrupted gem on Earth. (That may be why she and the other Crystal Gems were so focused on finding and bubbling all the corrupted gems and collecting stray gem shards, since Rose wanted to end their suffering, and maybe even look for a way to help them.) On top of that, she wasn't really even able to talk about it with anyone because of her hidden identity. The amount of guilt she felt must've been incredible, and having to just pretend that it just didn't exist would have made her "happy" life on Earth feel disgustingly hollow. It is definitely a happy ending on the surface, but there's more to it than that

[monarch-of-weird-girlboy-nation]

Steven universe is my favourite character!!! He's so babygirl. Anxious! Love him so much. Would die for him

[amoschaos]

Dispersia Pink & White & the 2 pearls

[hugthesquids]

Not only that, Rebecca Sugar herself confirmed this in a podcast.

Question: If Steven dies, what would happen to his gem half?

Joe Johnston: "Oh, I hate this question."

Rebecca Sugar: "That's so… That's so grim. They're one, they're together. There is no... (interrupts herself). Steven is Steven, he has a gem. They can't exist as Steven without each other. Immensely impossible, it's impossible for both of them, it's horrible."

From the podcast "The Fantasy Of Steven Universe" with Rebecca Sugar, Ian Jones-Quartey, Kat Morris, Joe Johnston, Matt Burnett, and Ben Levin. At the 27:30 mark.

(Now you can understand even more the anger and trauma Steven had at being broken in half in CYM, it's literally being shattered and dying and torture for him. His identity is Steven.)

Steven is a hybrid, NOT a fusion

So this is just an essay to this topic I really wanted to make:

Steven is a hybrid, not a fusion. I think this is very important to Steven's identity and the message of the show as a whole.

Not only that, this is actually confirmed by the Crew, that Gem Steven and Human Steven aren’t full beings of their own, but just two halves of a whole.

Identity

One of the core themes of SU is identity. Every character has something in their arc to do with their own identity, either finding it, or accepting it, or fighting to have it be accepted after being denied it.

Identity is so ingrained into SU that its main antagonists, Homeworld, the Diamonds and especially White Diamond, their ideology and society are literally the anti-thesis to identity and individuality. The whole reason Peridot defected is that she was just another number to them, but to Steven she was a person. Every gem is just a cog in the machine, and even the Diamonds themselves are not exempt from this as White treats every one of them in the roles she sees them fit to be.

Blue laughs at Garnet calling herself a Garnet, Amethyst is reduced to just being a defective gem and a mockery of a Quartz, and Pearl is just a Pearl, an objectified servant who is only as important as the owner she belongs to, bereft of her own identity.

And no one has been denied their identity as much as Steven has.

Not only on the Homeworld side but also among friends and family.

There is obviously the whole Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond thing, either being treated as her or having to live up to her or just being an extension of her.

There are also his family and friends who deny Steven's gem or human side, only seeing him as one of them and not the hybrid he is. His dad treats him like a gem, which neglects him in the human department. And his mom only considers his human side, which makes her blind to all the gem stuff he has to deal with that she inadvertently leaves him with.

The Crystal Gems veered into only seeing him as the human, making him feel left out of their group to the point of crying about the idea the gems would abandon him of he didn’t prove his useful worth as a gem, to then veering into seeing him only as the gem he was later on, making them blind to the human neglect that caught up to him later on as we see in SUF.

And in CYM, White treated him just like a gem embedded onto a human child, as two separate people.

Ironically, it’s White Diamond in SUF that actually has Steven the most spot on. When the Diamonds changed their ways, White actually sees Steven as the hybrid he is, “Half a Diamond, half a creature of earth, in all the universe there's no one else that could know what you’re going through”. He is one of a kind hybrid.

This only further highlights the importance of that scene in Change Your Mind (CYM).

CYM

With identity being so central to SU and White Diamond and the entirety of Homeworld’s ideology being the anti-thesis of identity, it’s no wonder that the most crucial scene and theme in CYM has to do with the identity of the protagonist himself, the one who’s been struggling with identity the most.

The whole point of CYM is that Steven's identity has been denied for so long, which is why Gem Steven screams at White who's trying to deny him being anything other than Steven. Steven literally says "I'm me, I've always been me" after becoming whole again.

Steven is Steven. Him being anything else, a fusion, having a brother, having this separate Pink Diamond gem attached to him is so wrong and goes against everything the scene stands for, and by extension what Steven Universe stands for.

Gem Steven and Human Steven are two halves of a whole hybrid, not a fusion or anything else. They’re not meant to exist separately, they’re not two individual beings.

Split Steven is a shattered Steven.

This is why that scene in CYM is so important, because Steven was forcefully split apart—essentially shattered because White denied his identity. Shattering has been shown to be essentially the worst offence one could do.

Which also fuels why Steven has such a visceral reaction to WD in SUF compared to anyone else, even Spinel who almost killed his entire planet and reset the gems he didn't have that visceral reaction to. Treating him like a fusion would take away the sheer violation of being a whole being shattered in two that he experienced in CYM.

As we see when split, the two halves act like they’re shattered where the pieces are still conscious but can only focus on becoming whole again, as we’ve seen is the case for shattered gems. And the way Steven’s parts “fused” back together, works just like how the shattered gem parts “fused” back together after Yellow Diamond put them back together.

This is actually confirmed by the Crew, specifically Joe Johnston, the one who wrote and storyboarded this very scene in CYM and is a director on the Crew:

Question: "If gems can’t fuse with humans how did Steven’s gem fuse back with him?"

Answer: “Think of the split Stevens like they’re two halves of a whole. The two Stevens are each only half of a being, they can’t not fuse back into a full Steven. If you kept them apart they would only ever be focused on becoming whole again, seeking their other half. A little like two magnets that get close to one another and then snap together.“ - Joe Johnston

We see this in action during CYM.

A heart without body, a body without heart

Both Human and Gem Steven are lacking what a full human and gem is, and both their body and mind seem to not be fully there. They’re obviously not fully functional beings of their own, but are missing what the other has, because they’re one full being split apart, like bones without muscle, heart without body.

The show makes it especially clear with how the PoV was literally cut in half in that scene.

Another way they make it clear is showing how both halves are lacking vital parts on their own.

Gem Steven struggles to be animated like a normal gem with his face mostly blank, unblinking and has very mechanical movements. He also almost looks like a hologram instead of a proper light form as the gems have. Meanwhile Human Steven obviously can't even walk and is very pale and weak.

Gem Steven is pragmatic in his thinking, while the human side is very empathetic. Human Steven gets concerned when Gem Steven pushes White back along with his controlled friends and shouts “don’t hurt them”, but Gem Steven isn’t hurting them or shows any interest in engaging with them but sees pragmatic side of stunning them so White doesn’t keep attacking which delays Gem Steven’s movement to reach Human Steven.

Both have emotions still, as we see Gem Steven’s anger at White denying his identity, which is an anger that has been building up for so long as nearly all of Steven’s trauma comes to this, and him being denied being Steven ended up with Steven essentially being shattered.

Gem Steven seems to be fast to act on his defensive reflexes when attacked by WD but struggles with his mind on the finer details. Human Steven is the opposite. We see how Human Steven is the first to reach out and crawl to his gem, and it’s only when Human Steven falls that Gem Steven seems to realise what’s going on, since he’s not used to operating on half a brain.

When Gem Steven screamed, he didn’t realise it also hurt his human side and it’s only when he sees him crying that the camera pans to the gem’s face like an “oh” realisation.

It’s only when they’re united again, Human and Gem Steven in physical contact that they gain what they’re missing. Gem Steven becomes more animated, able to smile and blink, and Human Steven gains more energy and is livelier, able to keep up with the dance.

They're literally missing pieces of themselves which is why each half doesn't function properly.

Shattered like a heart ripped from the body, or like a brain cut in half with a right brain and left brain. There is no separate gem and human consciousness when they are whole, there is only Steven.

If you try to separate him, it’s creating an artificial divide. It’s like when you cut a brain in half irl (yes that’s a medical practice that existed); so yeah the two brain halves will act differently when split, but they’re not meant to be split in the first place. And when whole the brain will not even consider there being two separate parts.

This is why it’s wrong to treat Steven as two separate individuals.

What fusion are and what Steven is not

The show has also made a very clear distinction what a fusion is.

A fusion is a relationship between two or more individuals, separate beings with identities of their own. And as we've seen with Garnet's arc, it's important that fusions aren't co-dependent, something Rebecca Sugar herself talks about and the components are still allowed to be individuals of their own outside that relationship. Garnet makes it very clear that Ruby and Sapphire are their own people.

That's why it's very wrong to treat Steven as two separate people as that would basically nullify the meaning of Steven saying "I'm me, I've always been me", in response to seeing his gem side being actually Steven and no one else or external entity, it's just him.

It would also go against what fusions stands for, because even a “permafusion” like Garnet had to go through an arc of recognising the components as their own individuals who should be allowed to explore themselves who they’re outside of their fusion.

Another thing that we see about fusions is that they are a conversation between two people. Steven doesn't have that, he doesn't have a mental plane with a human and gem Steven because he's just Steven. He can't "unfuse" from mental disagreements since there are no two people arguing, he's just one person.

And he can't "unfuse" by taking damage either. He can only be forcefully pulled apart like ripping a heart out of a body or cutting a brain in half, not meant to exist without the other.

Unlike fusions, he can’t exist being split apart; he is only half a human and half a gem when split, not two whole functional human and gem. Again, stated as canon by the Crew.

Identity and the neglected hybrid

SU is inherently a very queer show with queer themes interwoven into it (heck, it was the whole reason the show got cancelled, since the wedding happened and Rebecca didn't want Ruby and Sapphire's relationship denied).

And the same goes for identity.

The core message of the show is identity and Homeworld its anti-thesis.

Pink and Rose got to choose her identity outside of the Diamond she was expected to be, Pearl chose hers to be more than a servant, Ruby and Sapphire became Garnet, Amethyst is not defined by her "defectiveness", and lastly we have Steven, someone who has been denied his identity the whole franchise, which is why it's so powerful to say Steven is Steven.

And we know the show is called Steven Universe and we see things from his PoV. Which makes sense why his identity is central to the show.

SU was about Steven being denied even being Steven, while SUF is him knowing he is Steven Universe but struggles to figure out what Steven Universe even is, as most of this identity has been built in the shadow of constant conflict and the neglect he inadvertently encountered.

I don’t think I can write this section without also writing a whole essay and analysis on Steven’s perspective in SUF to really understand what he’s going through.

But I’ll at least say this.

Steven being a hybrid is so central to Steven’s character. He’s one whole being, one person going through all of this chaos, trauma and neglect. And this trauma and neglect stems from his hybrid nature and how no one really knows how to accommodate him.

This is why it’s so important that Steven is a hybrid, not a fusion or anything else. Because acting like his gem is a separate entity to him really takes away the pain and identity struggles that Steven goes through.

Steven in SUF never treats his gem as a separate being to himself (neither his human side either). His frustration with his family, as we saw with the argument in the van, is that they only see one side of him.

And it’s ironic that being blind to his human and hybrid side is exactly what causes his gem powers to act up. The feeling of being brushed aside, unheard, blind to his pain and needs. Meanwhile in contrast we saw that someone like Priyanka, who actually treats him as a human and gem is the one who manages to help him. Acknowledging that the very human experience of his trauma and stress response is what causes his gem powers to act on that stress response.

This is why it's important that Steven is Steven, not two people in a trench coat.

[lenny-link]

Wait in the SU AU is Sniper a pearl? Like I feel like he's a pearl and he's yellow- And Saxtons a diamond and yellow. Coincidence 👀 Or I should go back to bed

no you are on the right track anon :] here’s Pearl!Sniper’s backstory and some lore of the AU :3

to be continued…

if you’re wondering who’s RED pearl, well if you read the tf2 comic "Loose canon" we can see Blutarch’s assistant, thats her. yes i know she’s Blu but i had already put Bidwell as Blu pearl and we never saw Redmond’s assistant so i put her instead :p

and yes Gray Diamond doesn’t have a pearl, did he shatter it? did he not deserve one bc he was the smallest and weakest of the Diamonds? idk :p we’ll figure it out later maybe lol

[nugatorysheep]

Heartbreak as a young lad. He looks pretty normal for a future dictator and genocidal maniac lmao