Steven Universe - Now a Griefing Thread

[Syaoran Li]

Relatively little and none of it valid.

LOL

There's a very fine line between mere shitposting and outright simping

And they would be wrong.

Stan all you want, but Steven Universe is the kind of show and fandom that embodies the worst of 2010's pop culture and Rebecca Sugar still isn't going to fuck you.

Just sit back, grab a drink, and enjoy the trainwreck. It's okay if you like the show, but it's not on the level of Tolkien or Shakespeare.

 

[Opposite Time Nomad]

@Opposite Time Nomad paging you to bitch more here.

What else is there to bitch about. This was a very lame and was a kinda Lackluster Ending. I get it, the focus was trauma and how undealt with really messes with you. Thing is, trauma is like a lifetime time you work through your life. Therapy is something you do multiple times for a reason!!!

Spoiler: Episode Rambling

Instead we had Stephen go through Edgy Puberty and self discovery that everyone through teen years and then POOF IT ACCUMULATES TO GIANT LAME KAIJU STEPHEN.... that gets fixed by a single hug. Because TRAUMA and PAIN gets fixed by a giant group hug. Wowie.

Yeah gimme hats I am just like wow that was kinda lame.

 

[AverageAnimeWatcher]

Watched the finale, still holding my full thoughts on that for later, , but I don't get why Steven is leaving to live away from literally all his loved ones

I mean it would make sense if he had a career and a job, or was moving to college as a normal kid, but he has none of that. No plan or goal. Is he planning to live off his millionaire dad for the rest of his life?

I just don't see how moving as far away as possible from everyone, helps him "grow" as a person.

 

[Muttnik]

Watched the finale, still holding my full thoughts on that for later, , but I don't get why Steven is leaving to live away from literally all his loved ones

I mean it would make sense if he had a career and a job, or was moving to college as a normal kid, but he has none of that. No plan or goal. Is he planning to live off his millionaire dad for the rest of his life?

I just don't see how moving as far away as possible from everyone, helps him "grow" as a person.

Especially when the prior episode harped about him needing to rely on others. What mixed fucking signals.

 

[PumpkinSpiceBitchMeringue]

There's something that's been stuck in my mind so.
Warning, sperg rant ahead:

Steven having for once in his entire life a chance to talk to his own mother in whatever means necessary, it wouldn't matter how stupid at this point, and getting to actually know her would've actually be more impactful than this dull mess. They could've touched more upon the whole "your parent's mistakes or traits don't define you" kind of theme they were going with since the beginning on this series. No tapes, no flashbacks and no biased interpretations from everyone who knew Rose/Pink, just the raw conscience of his mom showing him how she really was or show she relaly felt about the idea of having him. It always seemed to me, before the PD reveal, that her curiosity towards how humans and other living being embraced all possibilities was what compelled her to try making new being that could bring both worlds together, a new experience so completely unheard-of she could be a part of. Steven felt the he was just a replacement to fixing her problems and was doubting his own autonomy; an experience with Rose could've showed him how their upbringings led them to different choices and paths. When the Diamonds were being introduced I felt that Sugar was trying too hard at making these two very, very similar so once she "unpredictably" revealed Rose is "really gone" so you could applaud her for the attempt on provoking your thoughts about identity or some self love crap that wasn't executed well. Steven corrupting himself and turning into that thing was a finally was really unnecessary and wasteful ""conflict"". The crewniverse could've gone full circle like they tried in The Future with calling back to Gem Glow, if they at least worked with Steven's closure with Rose. They tried to close the Rose chapater in Rose Buds and pretended that it never existed. I'm looking at this too exceptionally and I apologize. I'm trying to wrap my head around why Sugar wasted so much time amd resources of plot lines that ended up going nowhere or never brought again to be resolved, or not given a better send off; when there better options that were staring at her square in the face but chose to ignore.

 

[Wabbu]

Steven's monster design was very goofy, it had a fucking beerbelly

 

[PumpkinSpiceBitchMeringue]

Steven's monster design was very goofy, it had a fucking beerbelly

Even in monster form he fat.

 

[Private Pyle]

Watched the finale, still holding my full thoughts on that for later, , but I don't get why Steven is leaving to live away from literally all his loved ones

I mean it would make sense if he had a career and a job, or was moving to college as a normal kid, but he has none of that. No plan or goal. Is he planning to live off his millionaire dad for the rest of his life?

I just don't see how moving as far away as possible from everyone, helps him "grow" as a person.

It’s really just supposed to be symbolic of Steven moving on and leaving the nest. Like many things in SU, it’s one of those things that falls apart when you think about it for five minutes.

 

[omori]

Twitter is currently crowing about the Steven/Connie paring being canon with the kiss and its just, no shit? There was absolutely no reason, and therefore no tension, for it not to happen. Like I said previously when the proposal episode aired she didn’t exactly turn him down, it was a gentle “not now”.

 

[Muttnik]

Another thing--for a show that pats itself on the back for presenting real and accurate depictions of mental illness awareness, it certainly doesn't take into account that most severely mentally ill people don't have people in their lives that give a shit about them like Steven does. Steven is surrounded head to toe with a loving family and friends that support and encourage every one of his behaviors. So many people with severe depression out there have no one. That's part of the reason why they're depressed. They don't GET to have a big group hug full of people telling them it's going to be okay. For some people, they are completely and totally alone and it only makes them worse.

So in the end, congrats to Steven for having a family and a support network. Remember kids, if you're an isolated mentally ill loser with no one looking out for you, you're a gone goose and you might as well kill yourself!

Steven should have learned that he needs to deal with himself one day at a time. This should have been a conclusion he reached on his own without interference. That's more than often the epiphany that real mentally ill people come to, not their family cooing over them and tiptoeing around them like they're a toddler about to explode.

This shit makes me appreciate Bojack Horseman a lot more. That show encouraged its mentally ill viewers to work on personally bettering themselves and moving forward no matter how tough things get. It was way better handled than this schlock.

 

[keyboredsm4shthe2nd]

Another thing--for a show that pats itself on the back for presenting real and accurate depictions of mental illness awareness, it certainly doesn't take into account that most severely mentally ill people don't have people in their lives that give a shit about them like Steven does. Steven is surrounded head to toe with a loving family and friends that support and encourage every one of his behaviors. So many people with severe depression out there have no one. That's part of the reason why they're depressed. They don't GET to have a big group hug full of people telling them it's going to be okay. For some people, they are completely and totally alone and it only makes them worse.

So in the end, congrats to Steven for having a family and a support network. Remember kids, if you're an isolated mentally ill loser with no one looking out for you, you're a gone goose and you might as well kill yourself!

Steven should have learned that he needs to deal with himself one day at a time. This should have been a conclusion he reached on his own without interference. That's more than often the epiphany that real mentally ill people come to, not their family cooing over them and tiptoeing around them like they're a toddler about to explode.

This shit makes me appreciate Bojack Horseman a lot more. That show encouraged its mentally ill viewers to work on personally bettering themselves and moving forward no matter how tough things get. It was way better handled than this schlock.

A lot of these gripes can be answered in a single sentence. "What did you expect from a show written by tumblr?" On the topic of severe mental illness, sometimes it's even worse than that. Sometimes the person in question has a family, but they're either driven away by the delusion that their family is evil/going to hurt them/CIA glowniggers OR they start doing hard drugs like heroin or meth to self medicate or become severe alcoholics and their families simply can't help them (if they don't want to be/don't put in effort) for the sake of the greater familial unit.

 

[Exceptionally Exceptional]

I still think this would work as an anime. The Japanese wouldn't hyper focus on Steven like the crewniverse did. They'd have made him the main character, sure, but they wouldn't have tied the "every episode must involve him" anchor around their waists. Because really, the characters had so much chance to be interesting, but they weighted them all down by making the majority of their meaningful interactions with Steven and only Steven.
They may have kept the "all gems are female" angle, but they definitely would have gone for far more appealing designs considering the anime asthetic. Just imagine the whole show in this sort of style:

Imagine if they had actually embraced the 90s anime they took inspiration from instead of doing every fucking thing they could to move away from them.

And maybe actually stuck to a fucking plotline more instead of wandering off on autistic slice-of-life episodes that nobody wanted and nobody really cared about that outright outnumbered the plot episodes. I really didn't care about the boring ass residents of beach city. A few of them were fine, most of them didn't make the show better with their inclusion.

It was a great concept, terrible execution. I think it's one of the few properties that could be improved with a reboot, assuming the original crewniverse have NOTHING to fucking do with it outside of being more or less George Lucas'd. In name only.

 

[friedshrimp]

Agree on the Bojack Horseman thing. That show also knew how to tackle well the message of "abusive parents may sadly never change and your, their child, may sometimes never have closure with them, but it doesn't mean you have to follow in their footsteps" when compared to how SU tackled Pink.

 

[Piga Dgrifm]

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/steven-universe/images/0/0b/Bismuth_Casual_047.png/revision/latest?cb=20200308004544

I was gonna say this isn't terrible so long as they didn't make a huge deal out of it, but then I remembered seeing some of the SU critical Tumblrites complaining about how religion canonically does not exist in the world of SU, meaning a character having any sort of religious item makes zero sense.

I like how Steven learns a lesson about relying on his family being there for him like he is for them... And then immediately fucks off.

 

[Haramburger]

I don't know why these characters were even focused on for so many endless filler episodes when the show doesn't really give a shit about them.

Dragon Ball Z mirrors this. Lotta screentime wasted on teaching Piccolo to drive, as if fetching groceries for Chi Chi ever mattered or trotting out Chiao'tzu now and then. Haha. Krillin's a cop now! Nothing makes sense or goes anywhere.

It was a great concept, terrible execution. I think it's one of the few properties that could be improved with a reboot, assuming the original crewniverse have NOTHING to fucking do with it outside of being more or less George Lucas'd. In name only.

By having that slice of life shit merely exist, future reboots benefit by never having to retread that shit nobody wanted. Steven Universe Kai, someday.

So many people with severe depression out there have no one. That's part of the reason why they're depressed. They don't GET to have a big group hug full of people telling them it's going to be okay. For some people, they are completely and totally alone and it only makes them worse.

So in the end, congrats to Steven for having a family and a support network. Remember kids, if you're an isolated mentally ill loser with no one looking out for you, you're a gone goose and you might as well kill yourself!

rate me optimistic, but you could interpret this as multi-layered messaging of "see how much better Steven copes surrounded by friends and family? The first step of improving your own depression is building a support network this big!" That's a big ask of introverts spoonfed bad advice all the time, but it's honestly a good first step if you can pick the right people and force yourself to open up.

 

[friedshrimp]

I'd say the problem in SU's writing is not so much the representation/diversity, but like...everything else. The pacing, the dropped-off character arcs, and the very weird and creepy mixed messages they send.

 

[heyilikeyourmom]

simping

Stan

What the fuck are you talking about

 

[Haramburger]

What the fuck are you talking about

you bring no translator & have not learned the native tongue?

 

[AverageAnimeWatcher]

Dragon Ball Z mirrors this. Lotta screentime wasted on teaching Piccolo to drive, as if fetching groceries for Chi Chi ever mattered or trotting out Chiao'tzu now and then. Haha. Krillin's a cop now! Nothing makes sense or goes anywhere.

To be fair Anime does it because, usually, the manga they are adapting is too short or too behind so the anime team has to make filler episodes that won't contradict what's coming next and without losing their audience's interest.

SU didn't have this excuse. In hindsight, a lot of time was wasted in characters that didn't matter in the long run beyond background cameos.

 

[The Pink Panther]

Well that was kinda ehhhhhh. I really liked Steven Universe Future, but I can't believe they actually went with the gay "hug it out" ending. I'm not really as peeved as others, but I dunno. You kind of needed to defeat a monster of negative emotions with love and understanding of sorts, but just hugging it out when he went through as much PTSD as Steven did? Ehhhhh...I'm bothered that they didn't go with a more complex direction.

Even though the final episode was a 5/10, I'm satisfied that they went with the ending of Steven moving on from Beach City. It was boring, but satisfying because it made sense. I just wish it had more of an impact, but that's mostly because I don't really feel for any these characters, but Steven due to the expanded focus. Either way, while standard, I'm glad that it ended on a happy, albeit predictable note. I thank Steven Universe Future for ACTUALLY being good rather than be a piece of shit like the OG.