I’m now wondering if it would have been as popular as it got without the teenage lesbian stuff. Now I haven’t watched the show, but all I ever really hear about it these days is the ships. Maybe sometimes I’ll hear detractors talk about how it’s just diet Harry Potter with the big bad being done dirty for that good ol’ “Christianity bad” message. Personally, I’m of the opinion that if the only thing people can talk about is shipping, then what else is there? Because clearly the story and world supposedly weren’t interesting enough, unless it’s something the terminally online can flick their beans to.
I’m now wondering if it would have been as popular as it got without the teenage lesbian stuff. Now I haven’t watched the show, but all I ever really hear about it these days is the ships. Maybe sometimes I’ll hear detractors talk about how it’s just diet Harry Potter with the big bad being done dirty for that good ol’ “Christianity bad” message. Personally, I’m of the opinion that if the only thing people can talk about is shipping, then what else is there? Because clearly the story and world supposedly weren’t interesting enough, unless it’s something the terminally online can flick their beans to.
Not at all. The lesbian stuff was all anyone ever talked about. Like I have a general idea of the plot of all of Steven Universe entirely by mitosis, by hearing other people talk about it here and there over several years. I never watched a single episode. After all this time, the only thing I know about the Owl House is the underaged lesbians and some kid with god powers exists.
You know when you're reading a multiversal crossover story and there's always that one joke character that gets shoehorned in? Maybe it's a chibi character that only existed as a cereal mascot or a video game pixelated version of the character? Well, the important thing about that character is they don't actually *have* their own existing show because NOBODY WOULD FUCKING WATCH IT. Steven Universe and ThunderCats Roar and all those are examples of what happens when you actually give that character its own gay fucking franchise. Somewhere there is a hypothetical Steven Universe cartoon from the 80s that's actually called Mr. Universe or Captain Universe and the Crystal Gems or something that's about Steve Universe who's actually in shape and fights his own fucking battles instead of letting the creator's pet brown girl do literally everything physical. And instead of being Reddit-gender blobs, the three Crystal Gems are attractive women who keep Steve around because - even though they are more powerful than him - his brashness and sheer human spirit is key in winning battles. And also Steve gets to fuck Lapis Lazuli, but not really, because it's still a kid's cartoon.
make it a monster of the week cartoon without the big-scale bullshit. a recurring joke would be that the gems don't have any means of transportation, so steven's ukinojoe dad would have to drive them to scenes of crisis in his cuckvan. no crying. the character dynamics between the gems is fine (stoic/prissy/lazy), steven being a stupid kid works because he doesn't go to school and only knows what his three surrogate mothers teach him, his dad being a mostly-absent creep who lives in a cuckvan down by the river is pretty weird but shouldn't be dwelled upon. i dont remember much about the cartoon because i was like fourteen when it premiered, but i remember being put off by how quickly they went from monster of the week to the grandiose arcs and "big picture" being set up.
the serialized format has undoubtedly been discussed in-depth throughout this thread, but aside from that, i think a big issue was that they would go for numerous months between new episodes which was a great way to reduce engagement with kids that might be interested in the show. if you were a kid who was interested in watching it and you dropped in on one of those character arcs where a lot of shit happens that you'd need to know the context for, and it was just a week of that shit, you'd be driven off pretty fast. what did they call them, "steven bombs?" it's not like chowder where you didn't need to give a fuck about how many nipples chowder grew to laugh at mung trying to impress the ladies. they could air any episode and it would be the same experience, which is you having a good time watching it. i don't know about other tumblr shows because i don't give a shit about them unless we're counting gravity falls as one.
i don't visit /co/ often because it's full of pedophiles, and the owl house threads are always one of the prime offenders. any time there is an owl house thread, they are jerking off to the lesbian kids.
I'm still befuddles how Rebecca and the crew managed to fuck up a concept as easy as "a young boy befriends a bunch of living weapons from space".
You have to put in a real effort to make that about crying, lesbians and crying lesbians.
The obvious first step would be to make all the designs less retarded (Make the gems look like Gurren Lagann or whatever other crazy anime you want) but - assuming that the art has to remain unchanged - just stop making everything so obviously loaded with Rebecca and co's weird opinions.
I've never really cared about Steven Universe though I wanna find some more obscure woke shows to rewrite.
I came back to watch an episode when I heard that a character was voiced by the guy doing the Carl voice from Aqua Teen, but his character was literally just shamed for being wrong holding on to the past with his farm and airplane, get it cause liberals wrote this and he's southern!
I really don't think there's anything fundamentally wrong with the show. They mishandled Lapis's character, and Rose being Pink is a huge letdown, but I really don't have any issues with where they ultimately went other than wishing they weren't forced to end the show immediately when they pushed for the gay marriage. All my wants are just along the line of "more", mostly giving Peridot fusions and maybe the power to summon her limb extensions at will. I'm fine with Steven Universe not being primarily an action show, and I'm not offended by filler or townies.
The Disney bashing in the new Glitch show isn't completely unfounded in my opinion, cause in SMG4's (At this point, it might as well be original western animation since the only non OCs at this point are Mario and sometimes Luigi) recent arc, the bad guy takes over Disney for no reason.
To me it feels more like Sugar and the other showrunners designed Steven around what they want boys/men to be like or at the very least try (and fail) to teach them that crying and hugging your problems away is good.
Unrelated, Lapis had such a good introduction. It's a shame how they handled her later on.
To me it feels more like Sugar and the other showrunners designed Steven around what they want boys/men to be like or at the very least try (and fail) to teach them that crying and hugging your problems away is good.
Unrelated, Lapis had such a good introduction. It's a shame how they handled her later on.
Steven is like that to destroy the le evil gender norms and toxic masculinity. Still, even if you wanted to make that point, wouldn’t it make more sense to have something like an ultra macho man that shows his vulnerabilities later on? It doesn’t really make sense to have a character that’s just always like that.
Gonna comment so someone can remind me to sit down and write out shit later when I'm not super out of it with the flu. I'm only talking about Steven Universe because I'm a fan who followed the entire show as it aired and that was Hell on Earth.
Show would be better if Steven was a girl. I'
It makes sense if you’re a liberal woman. In their heads, they’re destroying feminine stereotypes and the patriarchy, totally preaching that boys to embrace that stuff. It’s all social constructs anyway, and they think boys secretly wanna be gay stereotypes but evil society just won’t let them. I give Rebecca Sugar the benefit of the doubt that she’s not malicious. But she doesn’t get how boys think.
In reality, a straight kid like Steven is super rare. You'll usually only find straight boys like him in houses with single mothers, no brothers, and tons of sisters. Steven unironically loves painting his fingernails, wearing dresses, and baking. Steven’s a female character inall but name. Hell, there are female characters that are less girly than him.
It’s super telling that Sugar’s husband, Ian Jones-Quartey, made a more traditionally masculine lead who punches stuff in his own show OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes . He’s just as woke as her, but he is still a dude who likes what boys like such as action and adventure. Steven doesn't reflect what boys want and much less what they aspire to be.
I am not even saying characters like Steven can't exist. It's just that boys, even teens, aren't into characters like him.
That's how I felt as the episodes aired! I know why it happened due to lolcows in the Crew but either way trying to pair her with Peridot never made sense even as the show aired. Iirc before Peridot and Lapis had meaningful time on screen together the narrative was implying she would get close to Amethyst. Lore reasons this makes sense--they're both era 3 gems and Lapis is older. I'll cut myself off there what I just said sounded autistic enough already.
God this too. My best friend growing up who is a guy that acted like this? Ended up being gay. A straight man "in tune with his feelings" wouldn't act as flamboyant as Steven in current year.
It’s super telling that Sugar’s husband, Ian Jones-Quartey, made a more traditionally masculine lead who punches stuff in his own show OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes .
I found the article where that’s mentioned. Lemme know if you want the related KF thread. http://www.autostraddle.com/rebecca...iverse-creator-comes-out-at-comic-con-346094/
In theory I get where she’s coming from, but again, most little boys don’t give a shit. They usually want to see Optimus Prime or Batman, not over emotional fat kid singing in a sparkly two piece tutu.
"What if The Venture Bros. parodied Steven Universe?"
I don't know how this idea came to mind, but I would like to see something like that. A show that can be described as "three alien ladies and the incompetent fat child they have babysit" sounds more like a comedy than something people are expected to take seriously. That cartoon would have been way better if it was aware of its absurdity and then went all in with it. Steven going from a naïve child to realizing the cruelty of the world rather quickly and getting terrorized in each episode (similarly to young Rusty Venture) would have been a good subversion of viewer expectations, and the Crystal Gems having to babysit his stupid ass because he is their wunderwaffe somehow would be a valid justification for the premise. You cannot realistically expect more from a child in a setting like this, and the idea of having the most unfit person imaginable for being a hero having to be one can be really funny if done right. Just imagine this from the villain's perspective: you are a galactic conqueror, your greatest opponent is an obese kid, and you're losing your war of conquest against that kid.
"What if The Venture Bros. parodied Steven Universe?"
I don't know how this idea came to mind, but I would like to see something like that. A show that can be described as "three alien ladies and the incompetent fat child they have babysit" sounds more like a comedy than something people are expected to take seriously. That cartoon would have been way better if it was aware of its absurdity and then went all in with it. Steven going from a naïve child to realizing the cruelty of the world rather quickly and getting terrorized in each episode (similarly to young Rusty Venture) would have been a good subversion of viewer expectations, and the Crystal Gems having to babysit his stupid ass because he is their wunderwaffe somehow would be a valid justification for the premise. You cannot realistically expect more from a child in a setting like this, and the idea of having the most unfit person imaginable for being a hero having to be one can be really funny if done right. Just imagine this from the villain's perspective: you are a galactic conqueror, your greatest opponent is an obese kid, and you're losing your war of conquest against that kid.
In the case of Steven, cut back on the Beach City and Farm episodes, they were massive pace breakers that ultimately took away from the show as Beach City doesn't even matter in the final. An entire season should be dedicated to Home World and building up White Diamond. The series as is absolutely rushed this critical plotline and its conclusion. Give White Diamond more of a reason to be the way she is. She is clearly a perfectionist completely absorbed in her need to advance gem kind, play around with that and make the audience more sympathetic to her cause to justify the redemption.
Really a refocusing of priorities would have been the best outcome for Steven. The show itself has the setup, but it rushes every pay off.
As a dumb nitpick, Lapis should have kept her original design. Her with pupils looks so much worse than without:
I have a lot more history with Adventure Time, so I go way more into detail with its shortcomings. First off, these episodes below can be purged, absolute bottom of the barrel filler - going to quote myself from the AT thread:
Web Weirdos (Season 4 episode)
Dream of Love (Another season 4 episode, but it is gross AF, just know Treetrunks and Mr Pig get together)
Up a Tree
Davey
Wizards Only, Fools
Root Beer Guy
All the Little People (disturbed Finn plot)
Lemonhope Part 1 & 2 (Super up its own ass)
James II
Sad Face
The Cooler (PB at her worst)
Chips & Ice Cream
Water Park Prank
Cherry Cream Soda (Season 7 episode that follows Root Beer Guy)
Any Fionna & Cake episode till season 8's Five Short Tables, they are all shipping bait.
With this, you get rid of the vast majority of inconsequential pseudo-intellectual garbage from the mid seasons. Season 5 & 6 had a hard-on for random adventures starring nothing characters to "flesh out the world." All of them are terrible and the show would be significantly better had they not existed.
From here, lets fix the trash episodes:
Frost & Fire - I am onboard with the idea that Finn and FP break up as part of Finn's immaturity, I am not however a fan of how they went about it. Turning the breakup into Finn get boner watching FP beat up a man with the cognition of Joe Biden was a terrible premise. It would have been better to build upon their already clearly apparent disfunction shown in Vault of Bones, maybe have Finn get frustrated at her lack of adventuring leading to a fall out.
Breezy - CN demanded that Finn get his arm fixed, so will work off that already shit stipulation. They could have found a way to handle that that didn't amount to a sad millennial sharing his sex life. Finn being confused with the loss of his girlfriend and now father should bring him closer to Breezy, leading to the arm fix, without the sex weirdness. They are both misguided outcasts atm, they can bond over that.
Going into bigger plots, season 6’s final should have never happened and I am glad the crew had enough humility to admit they fucked up later on. The whole Gunther was this ancient alien named Orgalorg was a dumb idea.
Will also throw in that Flame Princess deserved better. I enjoyed her trajectory when Sugar was still around and pushing her to become a leader. Her and Ice King were the bright spots of the mid seasons. Hate how the team just ignored her later on, with her only appearing for shitty rap episodes. She is much better as a power house like Elements had her as.
Bubblegum also deserved better. They never should have done the surveillance plot line where she stalks everyone. I get pushing her morality to be questionable, but more often than not, the mid seasons went way too far. She comes off like a bigger villain than even the main antagonists.
Marcy and Ice King should have gotten at least one more episode to flesh out their past.
For the last season, the entire Uncle Gumbald plotline should never have been a thing. The final season (season 10) should have been focused around the Lich hand trying to summon Golb and using crazy Betty as his patsy to perform the ritual. He also should have been the one to feed Fern’s dark side and get him to turn on Finn. Gumbald and Bonnie’s other family were wastes of space and made the final into the cluster it was.
TLDR: Just kill off most of seasons 5 & 6, the show becomes top tier without the mid season rot.
