#steven's thoughts

[problemnyatic]

the steven universe hate is insane bc people are (or at least were) more upset that fictional war criminals got fictional hugs than they recognize that it singlehandedly advanced queer rep in children's media by lightyears and then straight up ate heavy retaliation for the nerve.

It does have real flaws that are worth discussing, but it also put their male protagonist in dresses and skirts and played it straight and even empowering, they aired a lesbian wedding on television, it was a genuinely queer, genuinely diverse piece of media through and through. It did a lot of real good for the real world.

But also the fictional characters caused fictional harm to other fictional characters, and didn't get an onscreen firing squad sentence. So, you know, it's basically ontologically evil in real life.

[artbyblastweave]

I'm not the first to mention this, but one bit that I thought was really clever in Steven Universe is the ways in which the show subtly justifies the cartoonism of the principle cast always wearing the same outfit for ease-of-animation purposes. The gems are a gimme in that they're all hardlight-projections, and even before that's solidified as a plot point they're otherworldly and superheroic enough that you don't really think to question it. But Steven canonically just owns hundreds and hundreds of those star shirts, which are leftover merchandise from his father's fizzled-out career as a rock star. Into which you can read a whole bunch of other stuff if you really want to, right? And I do want to. It's reflective of Greg's misplaced optimism that he got hundreds of those made in the first place, and it's a benign but visible example of how Steven's life is shaped by the knock-on effects of decisions his parents made before he was even alive. He's got his mother's superpowers and he's wearing his father's shirts.

[olive-man]

I WAS SEARCHING FOR A SU CLIP BUT THIS IS SO MUCH MORE FUNNIER THAN WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR

[ursiday]

Arnica might take out the throes that I threw in my head

[nutsack90]

these took so much longer than they should have ,,,, cgs as ponies

i might make the crystal temps + the diamonds aswell but idk

[obsessedfluffbutt]

One thing I don't often see people talk about in Steven Universe.

In the series most of Stevens powers come from a need to protect those around him. His shield, his bubble, healing spit/tears, all designed, and come from the desire to, protect those around him. With the exception of his floating which comes from a sense of joy and happiness.

In Future his new powers stem from a subconscious need to protect himself, instead of a need to protect others. He's dealing with a lot and his powers are reacting in an explosive way to keep him safe. Super speed to escape a dangerous situation, explosive screams to throw the threat away from him, and panels, thicker and stronger than his shield and bubble, to shield him from the perceived threat.

Which then makes me wonder, since Pink on Homeworld was known for destructive "temper tantrums" how often she must've felt so unsafe, scared and unhappy that her powers reacted the way Stevens do in Future.

When she became Rose Quartz she felt confident, comfortable and more safe as Rose than as Pink. She had a strong desire to protect the Earth and the Crystal Gems, developing her powers into the ones we see most in the show.

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

Then all those years of building - were they worth anything? Yes - they're just hoping you don't realize it.

Rebecca Sugar going in for the kill with some sketches out of absolutely nowhere. Here's my best attempt at getting an okay-ish image out of a blurry vertical phone recording of a screen. Original video was posted on the official rebeccasugar account on TikTok - a big thank you to @jeejyboard for bringing it to my attention.

[my-secret-shame]

Gods and Monsters

[angels-in-overcoats]

the idea of putting too many spirits behind a paywall is actually so funny to me

like no I don't think I will pay $60 to watch two grown men in their 30s sit around drinking while reading tumblr ghost stories

[scre6m]

Okay, what do we know about vampires? What are we talking about? Like a Anne Rice, or a True Blood? You know, Twilight? Very different kind of vampires. ABIGAIL (2024) dir. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett

[sadwetcatmk]

[artbyblastweave]

I saw a post a couple of days ago that said one of the most important things about Steven Universe, thematically, is that everybody in the core cast has done at least one completely morally unjustifiable thing, regardless of how likeable or sympathetic they are otherwise, and that this is important to understanding the show thematically. This is true. 

But it also reminded me of one other thing I really like about Steven Universe, which is that it’s the emotional-toxicity equivalent of all those posts about how cartoons have to come up with unimaginably worse forms of death and violence in the course of avoiding getting censored for depicting plausible forms of death and violence.  All of the ways in which SU characters cross those emotional and interpersonal lines are wrapped up either in their fantastic abilities or their bizarre life circumstances in a way that makes it all esoterically awful and often much more existentially horrifying than any of the real-life dynamics it’s alluding to. You’ve said nasty things to people in the heat of the moment but you’ve never shapeshifted into the guy’s dead wife to twist the knife a little more. No violation of bodily autonomy is ever gonna involve contriving a situation in which the other party will believe that it’s necessary to fuse with you, body and soul in order to do demolition work. The most toxic relationship in the world isn’t gonna involve imprisoning someone at the bottom of the ocean for several months and only emerging to participate in humanoid-sacrifice rituals. Your codependency will never last 8,000 years, be frontloaded with a faked death you’re biomechanically incapable of confessing to, and end with your partner’s suicide-by-childbirth. Your worst roommate situation will never end with one party stealing the apartment and taking it to the moon. Et al. Et al.

I don’t remember where I was going with this, precisely, (and I may have drifted sideways from the original discussion topic of crossed lines per se, but whatever.) I mean part of it’s funny because it exists in a series with tons of mundane, non-metaphorical examinations of interpersonal issues, like everything to do with Lars and Sadie, or Sour Cream and Marty. And there’s an extent to which I’m just describing how cartoons are written. But there’s something special about how Steven Universe does it. Something delightfully fucked up about it all. I think maybe part of it is that it’s a considered and embraced fucked-upedness, none of this is just an ill-considered fridge-logic by-product of something else they were trying to do. Like for every one of these, someone in the writers room probably went, “Man, this has some fucked up implications,” and then everyone would go, “Yeah!” and hi five and put it in specifically because of that. Great Show. Great show

[screwpinecaprice]

Ew they're flirting again.

[thoughtkick]

A woman who opens her heart to love you when it’s already been broken, is braver than any person you’ll meet.

Steven Benson

[nori-no-name]

If Blue Diamond ever fused, I think Garnet should be at least a little petty about it