Steven Universe - Now a Griefing Thread

[Yamma Damma]

I've always heard the argument "if they had more episode or if episodes were longer, then maybe would fix pacing of the show" but if that the case, then just further proves that the show makers did such a poor job planning ahead for their own episodes and ended up wasting time on episodes that ultimately didn't matter in the end.

Steven Universe waste so much time on stuff that ultimately didn't matter at the end, such as Nana becoming mayor, Sadie becoming a singer, Lars becoming a captain, Lapis trauma and so many more subplots that amounted to nothing or just forced in because the crew of SU had no idea to conclude these subplots or resolute them in and meaningful way.
This is a by-product of Sugar and "friends" not being able to plan their story properly and even when they were given 20 fore their final season SUF, they still managed to screw it up.

Now that it's all over in retrospect, those fans can't say much about CN being to blame anymore. By looking at how rabidly loyal the fanbase was, they would've gladly waited like Venture Bros fans have if it meant we got less townie shit and more gem shit. As said before, SU was a ratings sinkhole yet Becky still got to continue it. You'd think with the constant threat of cancellation over your head would urge you to get to the fucking point and keep your audience/corporate overlords happy but no.

I hope there's a tell-all from a CN wallflower in the future. So many things can't be just Sugar's fault or just CN's fault.

Let me the Devil's Advocate, but I'll argue that SUF had more focus, despite it not really focusing on any other characters other than Steven, than the original series.

No it didn't. It was just a "Where Are They Now" thing. But instead of Steven talking to a camera, it's a camera following him around like it's a reality show. Everyone else is just there to make it interesting.

 

[One Man Bland]

I might've posted about this before, but one of the big problems with the Diamonds is that they went out of their way to establish their empire as genocidal and otherwise nasty but insisted on doing what Gundam fans call an "UNDERSTANDING" ending.

At least Zeon could've been said said to act from legit grievances (what with them being the Axis in space with the Federation the Allies without the Soviet Union). The Diamonds though?

I’m not familiar with Gundam franchise outside of one series I saw like three episodes on Toonami once upon, but the only way I could think of to give an “UNDERSTANDING” ending as you put it with the Diamonds is if the show had done more with how several scenes that all Gems have been programmed and everything they do stems from that in one way or another - possibly being created by some other race that they’ve long since outgrown - and have that be the jumping off point for Steven.

I think it would still run into the problem that it would be letting Gems off the hook though. But I’m starting to think that the other problem is that if Sugar didn’t want Steven to shatter them, the alternative shouldn’t have been to have them continue hanging around But Good Now and just expect the audience to ignore the elephants in the room like the hundreds of destroyed planets and the Cluster. Maybe it would’ve been better if they’d simply left to some far corner of the universe or were banished/transported.

 

[Fluoxetine Man]

But I’m starting to think that the other problem is that if Sugar didn’t want Steven to shatter them, the alternative shouldn’t have been to have them continue hanging around

I don't understand why Becky is so adamant that Steven shouldn't shatter the space equivalent of Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo? I understand wanting to show violence isn't the answer, but sometimes you can't just 'hug it out', hell even the Carebears used force once in a while to save the day.

 

[friedshrimp]

Even Avatar, the Holy Bible of Becky and other cartoon tumblrites, still punished the villains and imprisoned them without the need to kill them. I don't see why they couldn't have gone that route if they really wanted to push the No Killing rule. Not killing doesn't equal Scott-free in most cases.

 

[Shokew]

Even Avatar, the Holy Bible of Becky and other cartoon tumblrites, still punished the villains and imprisoned them without the need to kill them. I don't see why they couldn't have gone that route if they really wanted to push the No Killing rule. Not killing doesn't equal Scott-free in most cases.

Someone (and those associated with her, as I'm sure we've all pointed out successfully by now.) clearly didn't practice what A:TLA's creators were trying to TEACH all of us (not preach / sermonize at us like Gay Space Rocks constantly does, which is why it fails to be entertaining. FACT.); as in TEACH (yes, I'm exclamaing this, because it's important.) us about how pacing in storytelling and strong character development throughout said story are our absolute best friends in this fight to entertain (kids and adults with an actual appreciation for this flawed but wonderful medium alike!) properly.

In the future, in this position Sucrose and Co. Are in? If I myself were to be in it, I'd start by relying much fucking less on anime refs and focus more on making sure what I'm doing is actually worth a damn, so as to not force myself into that unfortunate corner of sadly reminding people of better stuff they could be watching (which is all most refs like those are good for, anyway.), in the first place, than what I'm trying to get eyeballs focused on for the sake of my own actual success. Too bad I'm not Sucrose, but whatever.

 

[AverageAnimeWatcher]

Even Avatar, the Holy Bible of Becky and other cartoon tumblrites, still punished the villains and imprisoned them without the need to kill them. I don't see why they couldn't have gone that route if they really wanted to push the No Killing rule. Not killing doesn't equal Scott-free in most cases.

Steven Universe didn't punish it's villains, because, in the end, the show never really thought they did anything wrong.

Well that's not exactly true. They did make Pink cry and never listened to her and Steven called them out for it. Oh, you mean the actual genocide of countless alien lifeforms, and of them enforcing a caste system that dehumanized people and killed anyone considered a defect? That was just because they were sad and White sheltered her feelings. Yes, that's what the show is trying to say.

You see, just like Pearl said, Steven Universe (the show), thinks that everything bad wasn't caused by evil or malicious villains, but by a complex mess of bad choices and misunderstandings.

What SU thinks happened: Pink acted like a brat and was eager to prove herself, which was made worse by the diamonds treating her like a child. But when pink tried to change and save the earth she couldn't convince them because she had been a spoiled brat all her life so they thought this was just a whim of her. They even try to humor her with a human zoo. (It was just a dysfunctional family)

At the same time, White who is obsessed with ranking a perfection enforces a caste system, but that was just because she had pressure on herself to be perfect.

So a well-intentioned Pink feelings her death to save the planet and escape his abusive home. The grief of pink's fake death then causes the diamonds to corrupt gems on earth and plot earth's destruction because they were just that sad. Oh and then Pink made everyone sad because she became so enamored with life that she made his husband a widower, and ignoring her friends and family would still grief her.

Pink hurt people because she didn't understand how important she had become to others, but she didn't mean to hurt Pearl or Spinel. Jasper had just self-loathing issues, Pearl and Amethyst treated Greg like crap because of grief, and so on.

No central villain or evil intent. It's all complex and about feelings, you guys!

What actually happened: All the diamonds were literal evil genocidal dictators worse than most Sci-fi villains (At least an evil emperor doesn't need to kill all organic life in the universe to thrive). Everything would've been avoided if Pink acted maturely for a change, instead of LARPING as her gemsona .

But now they hugged it all and talked about their feelings instead of bottling them up so now everything is ok.

 

[Terrorist]

So this gay shit is finally over? Good...but what even gayer thing will it be replaced with? Seems like every other cartoon is like this now.

 

[PopRocks]

So this gay shit is finally over? Good...but what even gayer thing will it be replaced with? Seems like every other cartoon is like this now.

Considering how the decade's over and we're slowly growing out of that phase, hopefully something good will come.

 

[Sayon]

Steven Universe didn't punish it's villains, because, in the end, the show never really thought they did anything wrong.

Well that's not exactly true. They did make Pink cry and never listened to her and Steven called them out for it. Oh, you mean the actual genocide of countless alien lifeforms, and of them enforcing a caste system that dehumanized people and killed anyone considered a defect? That was just because they were sad and White sheltered her feelings. Yes, that's what the show is trying to say.

You see, just like Pearl said, Steven Universe (the show), thinks that everything bad wasn't caused by evil or malicious villains, but by a complex mess of bad choices and misunderstandings.

What SU thinks happened: Pink acted like a brat and was eager to prove herself, which was made worse by the diamonds treating her like a child. But when pink tried to change and save the earth she couldn't convince them because she had been a spoiled brat all her life so they thought this was just a whim of her. They even try to humor her with a human zoo. (It was just a dysfunctional family)

At the same time, White who is obsessed with ranking a perfection enforces a caste system, but that was just because she had pressure on herself to be perfect.

So a well-intentioned Pink feelings her death to save the planet and escape his abusive home. The grief of pink's fake death then causes the diamonds to corrupt gems on earth and plot earth's destruction because they were just that sad. Oh and then Pink made everyone sad because she became so enamored with life that she made his husband a widower, and ignoring her friends and family would still grief her.

Pink hurt people because she didn't understand how important she had become to others, but she didn't mean to hurt Pearl or Spinel. Jasper had just self-loathing issues, Pearl and Amethyst treated Greg like crap because of grief, and so on.

No central villain or evil intent. It's all complex and about feelings, you guys!

What actually happened: All the diamonds were literal evil genocidal dictators worse than most Sci-fi villains (At least an evil emperor doesn't need to kill all organic life in the universe to thrive). Everything would've been avoided if Pink acted maturely for a change, instead of LARPING as her gemsona .

But now they hugged it all and talked about their feelings instead of bottling them up so now everything is ok.

So why didn't the Allies just tell Hitler to talk about his fee fees?

 

[One Man Bland]

Steven Universe didn't punish it's villains, because, in the end, the show never really thought they did anything wrong.

Well that's not exactly true. They did make Pink cry and never listened to her and Steven called them out for it. Oh, you mean the actual genocide of countless alien lifeforms, and of them enforcing a caste system that dehumanized people and killed anyone considered a defect? That was just because they were sad and White sheltered her feelings. Yes, that's what the show is trying to say.

You see, just like Pearl said, Steven Universe (the show), thinks that everything bad wasn't caused by evil or malicious villains, but by a complex mess of bad choices and misunderstandings.

What SU thinks happened: Pink acted like a brat and was eager to prove herself, which was made worse by the diamonds treating her like a child. But when pink tried to change and save the earth she couldn't convince them because she had been a spoiled brat all her life so they thought this was just a whim of her. They even try to humor her with a human zoo. (It was just a dysfunctional family)

At the same time, White who is obsessed with ranking a perfection enforces a caste system, but that was just because she had pressure on herself to be perfect.

So a well-intentioned Pink feelings her death to save the planet and escape his abusive home. The grief of pink's fake death then causes the diamonds to corrupt gems on earth and plot earth's destruction because they were just that sad. Oh and then Pink made everyone sad because she became so enamored with life that she made his husband a widower, and ignoring her friends and family would still grief her.

Pink hurt people because she didn't understand how important she had become to others, but she didn't mean to hurt Pearl or Spinel. Jasper had just self-loathing issues, Pearl and Amethyst treated Greg like crap because of grief, and so on.

No central villain or evil intent. It's all complex and about feelings, you guys!

What actually happened: All the diamonds were literal evil genocidal dictators worse than most Sci-fi villains (At least an evil emperor doesn't need to kill all organic life in the universe to thrive). Everything would've been avoided if Pink acted maturely for a change, instead of LARPING as her gemsona .

But now they hugged it all and talked about their feelings instead of bottling them up so now everything is ok.

To add to this, SU shot itself in the foot because, in it’s eyes, the worst thing you can do is make someone Uncomfortable.

Being so thoroughly against self-sacrifice means you can’t have any Redemption Through Death (though not even in a “trying to save everyone” sort of way since you got characters like Ronaldo that have tried to murder characters on screen and aren’t thought of as being worse for that specifically) or have villains truly lose anything, imprisonment or exile out of the question because Jail Is Sad, and despite what Sugar claims it’s clear that no forgiveness or cutting dictators out of your life is not an option because that would be Exclusion; and Exclusion is all it’s forms is bad in SU’s mind.

I kind of explains why the only antagonists that it’s okay to shun are Marty and Kevin. Because unlike the Diamonds, their only real crimes were being unapologetic but overall milquetoast jerks.

 

[Akumaten]

o add to this, SU shot itself in the foot because, in it’s eyes, the worst thing you can do is make someone Uncomfortable.

So you can cause a not civil war hissy fit, betray so many of your own people, fight for nothing, it will be ok.
But just be a elementery school to high school level jerk and death squads will form,

This is truly a Tumblr show

 

[TungstenCarbide]

To add to this, SU shot itself in the foot because, in it’s eyes, the worst thing you can do is make someone Uncomfortable.

It's the internet. The worst thing you can do on the internet is hurting somebody's feelings.

 

[Racist Trash]

Remember that there is still a gem superweapon in the earth made from the corpses of dismembered and shattered gems who are horrified at their own existence and are basically zombies, but you know it's all good because the Diamonds have the sads. The big issue with this show is that gem programming just became their emotions which makes no fucking sense considering we know that their programming can just be reset.

 

[FluffyTehFennekin]

I agree with everything you said, Steven Universe is messed up. There are thousands of shows that are more consistent than SU. Heck, even shows for PRESCHOOLERS are more consistent then SU!

Rate me MOTI, but it’s practically the truth at this point.

 

[GhostButt]

one of the big problems with the Diamonds is that they went out of their way to establish their empire as genocidal and otherwise nasty but insisted on doing what Gundam fans call an "UNDERSTANDING" ending.

So why didn't the Allies just tell Hitler to talk about his fee fees?

I would pay to hear Hitler say the equivalent of what White said, which was essentially "bitch what? I'm into yoga now" while Mussolini smokes weed in the livingroom.

• death (bad)
• capital punishment (bad)
• jail (bad)
• voluntary public service in a field that YOU select yourself (what happened)
• bittersweet death by a scorned third party so the hero can still have the moral highground (how more competent writers might deal with the impossible situation of a pacifist hero and a genocidal villain)

At the very least a nuclear option would've been nice, a "you're out of your positions of power AND free, but if I start hearing shit about a new empire imma roll up and beat the shit out of my evil-ass aunties"

1000% props for not revealing the true villains to be a different race altogether of male-coded patriarcal trans-phobes. Toxic females were the issue all along and it took the first male in the royal family to set them right.

 

[keyboredsm4shthe2nd]

Steven Universe didn't punish it's villains, because, in the end, the show never really thought they did anything wrong.

Well that's not exactly true. They did make Pink cry and never listened to her and Steven called them out for it. Oh, you mean the actual genocide of countless alien lifeforms, and of them enforcing a caste system that dehumanized people and killed anyone considered a defect? That was just because they were sad and White sheltered her feelings. Yes, that's what the show is trying to say.

You see, just like Pearl said, Steven Universe (the show), thinks that everything bad wasn't caused by evil or malicious villains, but by a complex mess of bad choices and misunderstandings.

What SU thinks happened: Pink acted like a brat and was eager to prove herself, which was made worse by the diamonds treating her like a child. But when pink tried to change and save the earth she couldn't convince them because she had been a spoiled brat all her life so they thought this was just a whim of her. They even try to humor her with a human zoo. (It was just a dysfunctional family)

At the same time, White who is obsessed with ranking a perfection enforces a caste system, but that was just because she had pressure on herself to be perfect.

So a well-intentioned Pink feelings her death to save the planet and escape his abusive home. The grief of pink's fake death then causes the diamonds to corrupt gems on earth and plot earth's destruction because they were just that sad. Oh and then Pink made everyone sad because she became so enamored with life that she made his husband a widower, and ignoring her friends and family would still grief her.

Pink hurt people because she didn't understand how important she had become to others, but she didn't mean to hurt Pearl or Spinel. Jasper had just self-loathing issues, Pearl and Amethyst treated Greg like crap because of grief, and so on.

No central villain or evil intent. It's all complex and about feelings, you guys!

What actually happened: All the diamonds were literal evil genocidal dictators worse than most Sci-fi villains (At least an evil emperor doesn't need to kill all organic life in the universe to thrive). Everything would've been avoided if Pink acted maturely for a change, instead of LARPING as her gemsona .

But now they hugged it all and talked about their feelings instead of bottling them up so now everything is ok.

What, you've never become so grief stricken over a family member's suicide that you attempt murder on everyone in the vicinity?
OH AND ANOTHER PIECE OF BULLSHIT I REMEMEBERED
Remember when the Gems left a sapient gem trapped in a mirror for 5000 years assuming it wasn't sapient, despite the fact that the gem homeworld has living walls, stereos, statues, FUCKING COMBS, AND the fact that RQ is a literal diamond and would probably know at least a little about homeworld's interrogation techniques? People who defend this schlock go "OH BUT THEY DIDN'T KNOW IF SHE WAS A LOYALIST/CORRUPTED SO THEY COULD'T RISK IT" WELL THAT NEVER FUCKING STOPPED YOU FROM JUST POOFING THEM BEFORE, assholes. The Crystal Gems are scumbags. eta: yes the stupidity of this show makes me so rarted I can't spell.

 

[armoreddinnerjacket]

What, you've never become so grief stricken over a family member's suicide that you attempt murder on everyone in the vicinity?

I'd be cool with that, but I'd want it to be addressed and not swept under the rug.

 

[The Pink Panther]

I agree with everything you said, Steven Universe is messed up. There are thousands of shows that are more consistent than SU. Heck, even shows for PRESCHOOLERS are more consistent then SU!

Rate me MOTI, but it’s practically the truth at this point.

And yet everyone sucks this show's dick for "consistent story writing" and I ask why.

It's probably the most plot-confused show I've ever seen. Nothing is really ever explained, if things happen they happen, and even if it does happen you have to figure out the logic behind it yourself.

 

[BroccoliBrain]

If only Sugar reigned herself and her staff in and we wouldn't have gotten a boring mess that (sometimes) pretends to be poor man's Utena. The Diamonds are characterized all over the place but Sugar wants us to treat them like Utena's villains as hurt people to be understood and the sudden direction to paint the Diamonds as a broken family was like she suddenly remembered she hadn't huffed her fave anime in a while. Maybe she thought by leaving things so "open ended" and "up for interpretation" that people would be asking questions and talking about SU for years to come just like that.

Remember that there is still a gem superweapon in the earth made from the corpses of dismembered and shattered gems who are horrified at their own existence and are basically zombies, but you know it's all good because the Diamonds have the sads. The big issue with this show is that gem programming just became their emotions which makes no fucking sense considering we know that their programming can just be reset.

Isn't the cluster that big ugly pink arm that joins the fight to restrain him? Fuck if anyone bothers remembering how it turned into that.

I was glad they left Jasper mostly alone but then the way she fought Steven and lost, accepting him as "her Diamond" before he ditches her anyway left a real bad taste in my mouth. Pink Diamond discarding people she doesn't want to take care of, yet again.

And I don't believe White really has a "problem" like the rest of them. The pressure to be perfect? I loved her alien detachment in her first appearance because it seemed that maybe Steven met someone he couldn't preach into submission but they threw all of that characterization away. She looked pretty self assured that she is perfect while reasoning that everyone else is objectively flawed. Where does that pressure come from? Without an explanation it's her own damn fault if she feels that way because every lesser gem looks up, fears and worships her as their God Empress, and she can mind control or just kill them if she doesn't like their opinion. When she pressurizes herself to be perfect all I think is that it can't come from a vacuum but we don't get an explanation about where she gets this attitude from. It's also just pure plot armor that Steven could resist her laser beams.

 

[TchPiKinmup]

Steven Universe's Rebecca Sugar narrates call for closure of ICE camps

There are roughly 38,000 people currently being detained in ICE camps across America—that’s per The Washington Post, which also noted, in an article published earlier today, that while the rest of the country shelters in place, the detainees in the 130 or so facilities in question are, by...

news.avclub.com

Steven Universe's Rebecca Sugar narrates video calling for closure of ICE camps
William Hughes
Yesterday 9:23PM

There are roughly 38,000 people currently being detained in ICE camps across America—that’s per The Washington Post, which also noted, in an article published earlier today, that while the rest of the country shelters in place, the detainees in the 130 or so facilities in question are, by default, unable to self-isolate in turn. Conditions in the camps were bad before a global pandemic with terrifyingly low barriers to transmission set in; in the current environment, they’ve been called out by a number of observers as a possible full-blown humanitarian crisis in the making.

That’s the message being broadcast in the above video from advocacy group Never Again Action, which features Steven Universe creator Rebecca Sugar narrating a call to action asking for an outcry in response to the current situation. The focus, specifically, is on putting pressure on state governors, who have a lot of latitude when it comes to the status of camps operating in their states, and who have the added benefit of not being, well, the current Commander-In-Chief, in terms of having fully functioning senses of shame. In a statement accompanying the video, Sugar explained why she got involved with the movement, one of her first notable public acts since Steve Universe Future wrapped up last month:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNvVEESm8kw

“Our current situation is exposing the cracks and the cruelty of our American institutions. As a Jewish American, this cruelty is too familiar to bear. Innocent lives are at stake if we don’t act immediately to release detainees from the dangerous conditions of the ICE camps. As a member of Never Again Action I’m hopeful that together we can help guide the inevitable changes that will result from this pandemic to center around human rights. But to do so, we absolutely must act now!”

[Note: Eric Thurm, who co-wrote the video for Never Again Action, is a regular freelancer for The A.V. Club.]