Was I Wrong About Steven Universe?

5 years ago I made a big video about Steven Universe and the fanbase hasn’t stopped crying about it since. But was I wrong? Mostly no, but let’s discuss!

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00:00 – Introduction
02:32 – Re-Examining the Writing
31:18 – Re-Examining the Fundamentals
52:32 – The Part Where I’m Wrong

#stevenuniverse #rebeccasugar #cartoonnetwork

5 years ago I made a big video on Steven Universe and haven’t stopped having a migraine since the thing is like everything ever made it hasn’t aged well ask any artists that they like looking at their old work time context the fact that Steven Universe is over now and 5

Years of growth as a person and critic has reflected poorly on that old video I have in many instances tried to update it to more modern standards with better critique which none of you terminally outraged [ __ ] bothered to watch so when I see people still passing it

Around trying to refute it I feel like I’m locked in a Time Loop or a video I made while I was dealing with severe abuse and was therefore constantly angry as being held up as if it reflects everything about me today and the truth is my opinion on Steven Universe has

Changed quite a bit in truth I was honestly taking out my anger at many other things in my own personal life onto something that flat out cannot be hurt in recent years I’ve taken a much Kinder view of Steven Universe almost entirely because it’s interesting to

Talk about let me make this clear I do not think the show is good my feelings on it today can be summed up as oh yes I hate this it is revolting more please Mr Steven Universe is a lot of things but boring isn’t one of them and years

Afterwards I was dealing with trying to ring analytical content out of shows that all go bad in the same boring predictable ways to the point I just got so tired of it that’s why I don’t like Adventure fantasy as a concept they’re all the same and you try coming up with

A new script every two weeks to describe Adventure Time times 12 but Steven Universe fails in very fascinating ways if you want to dig into it it’s practically become a critical Muse let me make this clear I would love nothing more than to sit down with someone who

Really likes this show and thinks it’s brilliant and pick their brain because I am fascinated by that notion the problem is Nobody Does it most of the rebuttal to that old video are less about arguing why Steven Universe is good and more about being outraged at the sheer Audacity Of suggesting otherwise there

Have been a half a dozen videos trying to debunk the old video and honestly I haven’t watched a single one of them I would definitely watch a Steven Universe’s genius and here’s why because I find that position fascinating but let’s go through this 5-year-old video

And debunk it is exact ly the kind of combative mudslinging that’s just [ __ ] boring it’s not 2018 anymore I don’t want to fight you in the Denny’s parking lot over you tenna fan fiction you shut up yes sir you keep talking part of critical analysis is having to compare where

Something missteps to when it doesn’t that’s where criticism becomes fun nothing is truly 100% bad except conservative politics and that contrast between its successes and failures is where criticism really shines but nobody’s talking about where Steven Universe succeeds so I guess I’ll have to do it Myself Steven Universe is interesting to talk about precisely because it’s writing bounds between being great and great piles of [ __ ] there’s a reason everybody says it could have been great because after multiple episodes where characters do nothing don’t Advance the plot and don’t Advance their own character and you’re about ready to

Write the show off completely they throw something like bubbled at you bubbled is one of the best episodes of the entire show the premise is that Steven was ejected into space last episode and he’s protecting himself from the vacuum with his defensive bubble and it’s just him

And one of the Ruby soldiers and all they can do is talk and so that’s exactly what they do it’s a quiet episode with a lot of really discordant music that does a lot to sell just how big and empty space is how even if you managed to survive you’d be a drift

You’d be completely and utterly alone forever and Steven’s trapped with someone who wants him dead and doesn’t know it yet not only is this the first time Steven hasn’t been able to talk someone down he’s also on his own and rescue isn’t coming anytime soon after

Things come to aead and stepen has to ditch eyeball there’s nothing left to do but just float there in the empty void of space completely and utterly alone it only lasts about 30 seconds before he’s rescued by the others but it’s 30 seconds of the best visual storytelling

Steven Universe has ever done I honestly think it would have been a lot better without eyeball to have Steven do as usual I’m not paying attention to the danger I’m in shtick and have it slowly reach the crescendo of that last moment as the reality that he is alone a drift

And can’t get back fully settles in on him really deconstructs Steven’s tendency to Goof Off intense situations there really is no better way to have a character reflect on their decisions and their choices in life than to just set them a drift in space but for what it is

Bubbled is a good exploration of the concept and one of the few times where everyone from the animators to the writers they’re the same thing to the Musicians ringing their aame then the next episode is an extended Road Runner homage then the next episode is a game show Montage where Steven and Amethyst

Are shown to suffer from self-worth issues through the vector of a game show then the next episode is a lore dump then the next episode is Bad this pattern of really good episodes then leading into an anime inspired lore dump has confirmed what I believe for a while

The biggest problem with the show’s writing is that everyone involved can make really good character drama it’s just that they would rather make anime references so many of the good moments in this show are just when characters have to stop bounding around in badly animated fight scenes or weird drug trip

Sequences or crying speeches is about Redemption and friendship and talk like normal people but these moments are few and far between especially when you have an edict from onh high mandating near constant peanut gallery it’s been complained about before but Steven has this rather unusual trait where Steven

Has to actually be present for an event in order for it to happen so if you thought you could have a moment between garnet and pearl as they both talk about losing someone important to them you can’t get that because the show has to contrive away for Steven to be there and

If he’s there e has to be the center of attention there’s an episode where amethyst is excited for a rock concert but when Greg bailes on her Pearl offers to drive instead and then drags Steven along as well the episode is interesting because most of it is dedicated to Pearl

Getting a crush on a woman who looks a lot like rose and it’s probably the best episode primarily featuring Pearl living her life and moving forward with it but it’s brought down by the fact that Steven has to be there making glib remarks the entire time as much as I

Loathe the notion of critiquing an episode by wishing it was a different episode entirely If This Were a solo Pearl episode it’d be great Pearl goes on a quiet road trip during the night thinking about everything resolving to move forward with her life coming home A Renewed person sometimes you just got to

Go take a drive in the dark somewhere quiet to think about everything hey the stuff with amethyst going to her concert is just a framing device to get Pearl in a car and talking to buff IMO anyway you could do this the whole episode with no dialogue just the car radio and some

Sound effects someone driving in a car at night is a surprisingly somber atmosphere it’s a shame a lot of shows don’t use it but because we’re not allowed to do anything without including Steven instead the episode has to deal with his commentary the entire time okay

Nobody’s going to say it she kind of looked like Mom you noticed I noticed we all noticed yes Steven we noticed now please shut the [ __ ] up this is a really good quiet moment where Pearl can just think and you can soak in the visual storytelling they presumably care so

Much about but no Steven has to open his [ __ ] mouth and the worst part is that this is not something the show has to do fans argue well he’s the main character but lots of shows have main characters they still take time to give other people a moment in the spotlight but if

This were a show just about him that would be fine but often times a show has episodes focusing on other people and what they think and feel and the writers have to awkwardly shove steveen in there for it to happen and once he’s there everything just proceeds like a normal

Show it’s like a [ __ ] Kingdom Hearts cut scene where things play out as they did in the source material but Sora Donald and Goofy are just there in the background this is the biggest contributor for why the story is often so rushed and slap Dash in a normal show

It will often cut away to the villains so you can actually know what they’re doing and thinking or sometimes Side characters will have their time in the spotlight it’s an essential part of Storytelling that has pretty much been the standard for films and television since they figured out you could cut

Film and stick bits of it together and it just works but here it just doesn’t happen because Steven isn’t there to see it happen yellow and blue diamond have a very sudden switch in the final Arc where it turns out that they’ve been questioning home world’s fascist

Dictatorship for a long time would have been nice to have seen that at all but Steven was too busy hanging out with onion for 20 episodes so many characters have issues and Trauma that they have to work through but can’t because Steven has to be there or they aren’t allowed

To if Steven doesn’t bother to check up on them you never learn about them at all getting back to last one out of Beach City that episode ends with pearl getting a girl’s number and showing some sign of moving on with her life this is never followed up on and this girl who

Is only known as mystery Girl by The Phantom never appears again this is a recurring problem and honestly removing Steven’s perspective from the equation wouldn’t actually solve it because the real problem at play is that the crew doesn’t care they let Pearl hook up with

A cute buff lady but they didn’t want to revisit it because they just didn’t care they to do six episodes about s’s band so many characters often main characters are left critically underdeveloped because the writers are too busy making joke episodes and call backs to other

Shows they like as much as we can blame the four Steven perspective it’s ultimately the showrunner who decides what the show is going to be about paradot is one of the few Crystal Gems to have a really interesting character entirely because a lot of time is spent

With her you get to see this transition from a blue collar technician trying to check on a super weapon to someone who’s come to love life and everything in it and it only happens with a a ton of episodes of focus something most of the other characters just flat out don’t get

Paradot is the only character who gets to have scenes where Steven isn’t present granted the entire premise of the episode is Steven listening to her tape recorder but [ __ ] it I’ll take a half-ass approach to telling a story like a normal person this is the only time you get to see characters interact

With each other without Steven’s running commentary hell she spends most of it interacting with Garnet another character who desperately needed some real screen time Jesse zook did not deserve the [ __ ] this Show’s garbage fandom gave them this is what happens when you spend time with a character and

Do more than one thing with them parad becomes such an interesting character because you see so many different Avenues of her explored home world’s fascist dictatorship means she has to unlearn fascist propaganda understand Fusion learn to love living beyond just being a cog in the machine it’s so good

And she becomes visibly happier as a result and she’s the only one who gets this they had so many ideas for paradot and they were like let’s do all of them I would have loved to see that kind of passion dedication and Care given to the entire main cast it’s actually quite

Surprising just how little time is spent on the main characters go back over most episodes and keep a tally of how many are actually about a main character and how many do anything substantial with them that opens a new Avenue for them or moves their Arc forward most episodes

Are actually about some Rando in Beach City who are usually one note joke characters and the ones that are actually about the main cast usually just rehashes something they’ve already done even Steven remember that show the character who is legally mandated to always be on screen at all times is

Criminally under veloped name five things about Steven that aren’t compassion trauma fat savior complex or Connie what does he like what keeps him going every day how does he actually feel about the other gems what does he want to do when he grows up so much time

With Steven spent watching him fix other people’s problems like he’s the [ __ ] Messiah the most interesting thing they can do with him is have him crack under the stress so what are you going to do Shatter Me go ahead just do it no even if we don’t agree no nobody deserves This K better but even when that story ends he just moves away and the show ends waiting to be renewed again so we can all experience the second coming of Steven so much of the show is a pantomime that looks like it’s doing something with the characters but how

They feel about anything is often left decidedly vague Steven doesn’t get his own story his entire story is cleaning up the mess left by his deadbeat mom and so most of the time spent with him that isn’t him [ __ ] around is just learning more secrets about his birth

Mom that’s great for the people who make Theory videos and like speculating there’s no shortage of mysteries to solve and content to Mill especially given the fact that most of them are just never going to be answered so you’ll never be wrong but it’s all mystery and no payoff because at the end

It’s just well I guess that’s a whole lot of stuff we now know getting back to Pearl I find her story is most emblematic of this unwillingness to take a step forward because Pearl has a lot of time spent with her but it’s all time spent recycling the same story that

Being Pearl’s grief over losing the love of her life now the nature of pearls is weird it’s very clearly chatt slavery but Becky often denies that so it’s clear this wasn’t intended but that’s not a very complicated topic Becky’s not very smart tried to do one thing smashed

Her face into a wall whatever I get it I have a more interesting point to make so I’m just going to take Becky at her word that this wasn’t what it was supposed to be I am going to play this clip again though still having said

That I feel guilty okay I’m good let’s go so the thing about Pearl is that her story never gets to move forward Pearl is where Becky wears her revolutionary girl utena jacket the most and the thing about revolutionary girl utena is that it didn’t really end in a way that gave

Anyone closure at the end utena Gets Lost In The Realm of Darkness and anthy goes off looking for her and they’re never seen again until a few more corporate Acquisitions puts them in the next Kingdom Hearts game so when that’s your inspiration your story is already

Kind of doomed to never come to to a satisfying conclusion because Melancholy grief is kind of all the show has going for it there is an interesting theme in there about how you can’t save someone from abuse by emulating the system that abused them in the first place but it’s

Buried under symbolism and knives it runs a gauntlet of serious subjects that could have all served an entire show on their own but here they’re all haphazardly thrown into darling baby’s trough and most people only remember the show for being gay and covering heavy topics at all and not about how well it

Does Hell most of the topics people claim it covers are aren’t actually in the show it’s in adolescence of utena basically a movie rewrite that came out later this is why any show inspired by utena tends to have the same problems of just not grappling with cause and effect

And cycling through serious issues without actually taking them seriously because nobody who watches UT tenna as an adult sees a revolutionary step forward in gay rep and Anime what they see is a [ __ ] mess but if you were a gay 13-year-old back in the ’90s this show and bootleg copies of Sailor Moon

Were all you had and so you’d covet those things and never really think critically about them this is why Steven Universe thought nothing about taking a story regarding dysfunctional family Dynamics and just throwing Nazis on top of it because utena does the same thing take a story about abuse and then lay

Your Cosmic Stakes on top of it until you’ve forgotten why you’re here some people call this show psychedelic and yeah it does often feel like it was written on drugs I will say it’s the perfect show for anyone who ever wanted to see Irish shank Misty in the back

With a [ __ ] Rapier that’s just quality Television right there it certainly is an experience but if you ask me to find a model for writing stories about abuse or relationships this would not be a show I would tell you to emulate it already does way more than its writer is capable of handling

And a fan of that is not going to improve on it in any way so what you end up with is almost revolutionary girl utena fanfiction and you have to remember that utena was already princess Knight fanfiction and after a certain point you’re just in breeding it’s why

You have all those americanmade shows about kids going to anime Warrior school and the fact that there’s such a thing as anime Warrior school is just never questioned because a show they liked had it and also har Harry Potter uh speaking of Harry Potter uh Pearl’s entire story

Is about how she still hung up on her first crush who has died a tragic death and is coping or rather sabotaging her own mental health by spending the rest of her existence watching over the sun she had with someone else so there’s a cursed thought for you so Pearl story

Keeps running that treadmill because where else is it going to go they wanted it to be like utena but because utena has an open ending you’re kind of stuck with it now that’s fine for utena because it only had 40 episodes and it’s serialized Steven Universe has 180

That’s ly a long time to do [ __ ] all the crew is aware of this too because they spend a lot of time distracting the viewer with shiny bubles particularly musical members when people try to point to this story being done well they usually point to Mr Greg because Pearl

Sings about how Rose chose Greg over her and it’s certainly loud and epic and climactic as Pearl does her best impression of a Kingdom Hearts character but it’s Hollow and empty it’s using a musical number to sort of yada yada over the fact that you’re watching Pearl do

This song and dance literally for the 10th goddamn time no the actually good episode about this is Rose was a Scabbard this is the first time Pearl has had to confront the fact that pink kept secrets from her Pearl thought she knew everything about pink she thought

She was the only one who truly knew her regardless of anything else like the fact that pink chose Greg over her the fact that she gave up her life to have a little son of geode Pearl at least had the fact that she was the one person pink shared everything with her only

Real Confidant well it turns out she doesn’t even have that pink kept secrets from her too and it causes her to completely break down this is probably the only episode that’s even better in hindsight Steven Universe likes to pretend it’s weaving this intricate plot web but like most stories they’re making

It up as they go along but presumably Rose had a secret identity was scribbled on a Post-It note somewhere and this is the only place where it feels like they thought about that anyway the reason this episode is so good is because when Steven finally chases Pearl down Pearl

Just talks mostly to herself and we get her processing her feelings out loud and one thing we really learn here is that Pearl hasn’t really accepted that pink is really gone she openly wonders if Steven has her memories Pearl really is aimless and a drift alone for the first

Time in her life she doesn’t know what to do remember what I said about how the show never lets a quiet moment sit well here it does sometimes I wonder if she can see me through your eyes what would she think of me now well I think you’re pretty great

This moment is absolutely beautiful it’s one of the most gut-wrenching moments I have ever seen in a cartoon and it didn’t need a big flashy dance number fight scene or death trap to do it it didn’t need a celebrity Cameo or a guest animator to do it all it needed was a

Writer who knew what the [ __ ] they were doing sorry did I say knew what the [ __ ] they were doing I meant decided to actually put in some work that day I’ve said this the whole time Becky can make great art when she’s not getting distracted by anime references in or

[ __ ] giggle squee this is what Rose’s story was missing for most of the show we don’t need to necessarily know who Rose is we just need to know someone who did and pearl got a lot of screen time but screen time in Steven universe doesn’t equate to development between

Rosea Scabbard and volleyball Pearl’s grief is usually wallpapered over with musical numbers this really comes to a head in the bad version of rosea Scabbard volleyball during this episode while trying to heal pink Pearl’s scar always a silly notion scars don’t actually heal Pearl takes the two of

Them to the reef to try and repair her but it turns out that the scar on her face isn’t an injury it’s from an injury that was so impactful that it manifested as a part of her physical form so it’s a scar this does have a good moment where

Pink pearl says she’s fine and her scar spreads to immediately contradict her well she’s just like me okay I said that as a joke but like during the writing of this video I actually did make another appointment with my therapist and unpack the fact that the only positive relationship I

Had as a child was a lie and was actually quite abusive and that’s partly why I’m so bad at having relationships with people so if A Moment Like This ever makes you go oh she just like me for real just just stop and think about that for a minute okay let’s continue

Okay so Pearl assumes it was white but when pink pearl corrects her and says it was pink pearl goes into full denial because this is a pink diamond pearl never knew a childish brat who threw destructive tantrums and kept breaking her toys it’s an interesting moment

Where both of them have to confront the fact that at some point pink diamond changed from explosive and angry to reclusive and secretive or at least it would be if Steven didn’t throw a tantrum in accident trapped them both in a labotomy clam and so now they have to

Have the really short version of that scene from rosea Scabbard before quickly fusing into another uten of reference and having a rushed action scene my God you were almost there we could have had another scene like that one in Rose’s Scabbard there’s an exchange in the clam

That would have been so good if it was longer and quieter but the [ __ ] showrunner is a [ __ ] chipmunk with a sugar high it’s like getting the cliffnotes version of a much longer more focused story that moment where volleyball asked Pearl how she stopped hurting and Pearl just says I didn’t is

Really good because the thing about trauma is that it never really leaves you you can manage it and recover but it affects everything about you Pearl’s time with pink are her formative years and they’re called formative years for a reason they stick with you and influence

Everything you are as a person for good or ill childhood or early life trauma will always stick with you far more than adult trauma will because your brain has grown and developed around it it affects the really deep-seated aspects of your personality and that’s interesting let’s

Really dig into it d sect Pearl’s brain in as many ways as you possibly can early seasons were pretty good at this like when Connie asked Pearl to teach her to fight and pearl taught her to be a meat Shield because that’s basically how she understands being a soldier

That’s interesting it shows how her relationship with pink has affected her thought processes everywhere but almost every instance after that it just reminds you oh hey Pearl’s crush is dead Pearl’s not over it I’ll remind you again in an hour Pearl’s grief and how she deals with it and how it affects her

Day-to-day thinking is interesting but you know what else would be interesting seeing what Pearl gets up to when she’s not being reminded about how she got cucked by the lead guitarist of a fog hat cover band like I don’t know an episode where she warps to Brazil and

Learns capoa and takes part in a competition and has Sapphic tension with her opponent in the finals I mean you like anime so much do a Sapphic tournament talk that’d be fun I’m not asking for her to get over it I’m asking to see her make some progress because

That’s satisfying I want to get to the next episode where it’s time to open the grief box again and think you know what she’s been doing pretty good for herself I’m proud of her it’s not enough to just tell me what happened off screen let’s see it I’m kind of reminded of how

Legend of Kora just kind of glossed over Kora learning the four elements on the basis that the previous show was already about that but the point that it misses entirely is that the adventure to learn about the four elements isn’t just about learning the elements it’s about the Avatar broadening our Horizons and

Meeting people from diverse backgrounds and learning to really appreciate every culture on the planet not H holding up in a compound completely isolated from other people in perspectives this is why San and Roku grew apart soan remained isolated and that’s how imp imperialism festers Roku traveled the world and so

Of course he’s not on board with soan taking over the world in the name of the Fire Nation because the world is already beautiful and you’d know that if you stepped outside your Walled Garden the interesting part of a story is seeing how characters grow as people you

Shouldn’t just skip over that and jump right to the end oh but Lily you still get it so that means it’s good the way it is oh by that logic why even bother animating it just tweet your outline and then make a Tumblr blog where you talk

About your OC’s and never write anything the execution of a story is the fun part getting off Pearl for a second and getting on to Pink Diamond I always found it a little skey the way the show spend so much time analyzing every single bad thing pink diamond ever did

Because pink Diamond’s crimes are [ __ ] minuscule compared to the rest of the diamonds you get these big elaborate musical numbers about every horrible thing pink diamond ever did like all two of them and it’s such a point of drama and weight for like half the show but then the actual tyrannical

Oppressors show up and they’re basically just silly little aunts to say Becky’s priorities are out of whack would be an understatement to end all understatements but on reflection I know noticed this in other places too one of the themes of the show is that none of the gems are perfect parents but Steven

Still forgives them because he loves them right well when you look up the number of times the gems mess up a trend pops up pearl and amethysts mess up their parenting and traumatize Stephen the most while Garnet Ruby and Sapphire mess up like twice however the two times

Garnet messes up are also one of the few times in the show Steven responds with anger at the way he’s being treated when Garnet accidentally scares Steven by teaching him what Future Vision is he gets angry even though he was the one that doubled down when Ruby and Sapphire

Act a mess in public Steven yells at them when Pearl almost lets Steven fall to his death when Pearl brainwashes Connie to be Steven’s Warrior slave when Pearl almost gets herself in Steven killed by flying in a DIY spaceship when Pearl invades Garnet’s boundaries when Pearl does anything Steven starts

Jumping to hugging it out it’s pretty [ __ ] up now the watsonian critique could suggest that Steven is just accustomed to Pearl being nuttier than rat crap at a pistachio Factory while Garnet can usually be counted on to be the actual adult in the room but the real critique is another one of

Priorities the writers are determined to get you to sympathize with pearl and so when she [ __ ] up it’s usually excused or swept under the rug I don’t think you need to do that though a character May sympathetic and still held accountable for their actions you’re not going to

Tarnish Pearl in the eyes of the fan base if Garnet or Greg have to give her an earful every once in a while or you might the fan base has rocks for brains after all the crew seems very afraid of criticizing Pearl at all and so they do

Everything in their power to blunt all of her actions and that usually means Steven forgiving her Steven is the show’s moral Center and if he approves of something the fan base usually will too in fact it’s a common deflection tactic of the diamond’s Redemption Arc because people will say oh they weren’t

Redeemed because Steven hasn’t forgiven them which always struck me as a strange argument because Steven isn’t one of their victims it’s not up to him look just just stop taking shortcuts unpack Pearl’s Behavior people will get it it’s almost like there’s this fear people will condemn Pearl at the first

Opportunity but people don’t usually do that unless they’re bigoted or it’s immediately clear that this character is your baby and look I’ve got no stones to throw in this regard I’m a writer myself I have characters for whom I go that’s my baby they have have never done

Anything wrong in their life but you don’t have to be afraid of people not being on board with it here’s a dirty secret that I’ve known for years people will get on board with any idea if you tell a good story and tell it well if it

Takes you a while people are fine with that you don’t have to preemptively try and counter internet grumbling let them Grumble there’s always the risk that after a bad episode your Twitter mentions are going to be flooded but honestly I think showrunner should just not have Twitter anyway that’s just bad

For you and pearl is one of those characters who is never going to have a good first impression you watch the first two seasons and you won’t get the feeling that this is someone who was toyed with and played for a fool you’ll get the feeling this is someone who

Can’t take no for an answer you’ll probably wonder if this was Rose’s creepy Stalker that’s the vibe I got from Pearl for a long time but you know what that’s fine more information came out and I was like yeah all right I’m on board however I do think Pearl’s story and indeed many character stories take way too long to

Get to the [ __ ] point you don’t need this much setup you don’t need this much filler you don’t need any filler I have no idea why so many Beach City episodes are in the actually no that’s a lie I do know see back in the ‘ 80s and ’90s most

Action adventure anime were made as adaptations of comic books but for some boneheaded stupid reason the decision to adapt a comic into an anime was made exactly .4 seconds after the first issue hit shelves so a lot of these shows end up catching up to the comic book and

Needing to fill time with filler Seasons while the writer made more story to adapt the thing is Japanese comic books are usually written and drawn by one guy and so for the longer more elaborate show those filler arcs were getting pretty common now the reason they’re called filler is because nothing happens

Any character development is forgotten when they get back to the real story and nothing in them has any weight this is what filler actually means it’s it is a nothing Burger plot to stall for time I don’t know why fandom got it into their head that filler means character

Episodes that don’t Advance the plot and that’s dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my life now the thing about this business model is that it was the worst [ __ ] business model anyone has ever thought of since trickle down economics if there was ever a distillation of the worst of the worst of dystopian

Nightmare capitalism it would be the anime and manga industry crunch is rampant animators are underpaid comic writers even more so and a few companies are exploiting people on mass anime filler archs are not a cute funny thing they are an exact symptom of what happens when one person can’t create

Infinitely but the money men demand constant constant profit weaves have a hard time accepting any criticism of the anime industry it’s so emotionally devastating to them they’ve been trying to spin it into xenophobia for the last 15 years so Ste Universe a show made by weebs didn’t really think anything of

Filling the story with Filler episodes that do nothing um actually Lily Rebecca said that every episode is important and there is no filler I’m sure she believes that but then you get something like Steven and the Stevens which is supposed to explain how time travel works but

Then they never use time travel again all of this waffling has real effects The Last Arc of the show before it was cancelled was cut horrendously short and it didn’t need to be if they had just gotten to it a lot quicker see Cartoon Network wanted Ruby and Sapphire’s

Wedding to be the last episode of the show and for a show all about love and finding happiness and purpose in life that’s actually a really cool idea it wouldn’t fix the sidelining Ruby Sapphire and Garnet all had throughout the show but it’d be a pretty neat day

Numa allegedly and I say allegedly because I honestly just don’t believe a single word that comes out of Becky’s mouth she had to really fight to get a few more episodes to finish the story but the solution there could have just been to flip them around have the

Wedding after the end of the show after all that [ __ ] with the diamonds these negotiations presumably took place in 2018 it was possible and if you did it well it’d be beautiful because you’re having the wedding after healing the Crystal Gems that would be storytelling but by the time you came around to

Figure most of this stuff out the show had already backed itself into a corner by clogging itself with way too many episodes about mayor Dewey Lars sad and Ronaldo and at the end of the day any show has to end at some point Cartoon Network was never going to let the show

Keep limping along forever and that’s not even a problem unique to Steven Universe multiple shows have hamstrung themselves by just twiddling their thumbs with a looming deadline on the horizon perception is what makes this difficult to explain because Steven Universe on the surface looks like a

Slow burn with a rushed ending but the rushed ending is just the consequences time you waste on garbage now is time you won’t have on important things later even good cartoons get three or four seasons at most look I’m sorry but you’re not one piece you’re not going to

Get 500 episodes to start the process to begin the preliminary evaluation to decide if you’re eligible for permission to embark on the first leg of your journey and Steven Universe was already long as Sin it had 180 episodes you know how many episodes all in the family had

205 and that’s the most beloved sitcom in the [ __ ] world revolutionary girl utena the show Becky cribs most of her ideas from had 40 episodes and it managed to tell a coherent it managed to tell a complete story it managed to actually end in a way that was satisf it

Actually managed to end episode you see your ver more like 11 minutes that’s like half of what show usually are e more more like 90 episodes well Bonnie congratulations on figuring out your division thank you and to answer your question every episode still has a complete threea structure so their

Runtime is irrelevant oh I see carry on there we go lack of focus is the show’s big problem wherever the crew is writing a story they’re getting distracted with random vignettes anime references and trying to cram Becky’s latest musical number into it somewhere like a Monty om

Fight it’s clear on an executive level at least that one or both of the showrunners saw this as their magnum opus and thus needed to cram everything into it they possibly could any idea they might have had that could serve as its own single season spin-off or miniseries was just thrown into Steven

Universe as an aside most of the criticism towards Steven Universe often gets deflected by blaming Cartoon Network and I think that belies the real issue on some level Becky was convinced this was the only chance she would get despite having worked in the industry for some time even working with

Superstar producers like gendy tarkovski so Not only was every idea shoved in there everything was compromised to such an absurd degree ironically it was Steven universe that gave me a brand new appreciation for Lauren fa who for a while became rather notorious for bailing on projects after creative

Differences with the executives and I respect that I respect just going you don’t want me to make the show I wanted to make then I won’t make the show but honestly I don’t think creative freedom would have solved anything because just on a fundamental level the way she writes and thinks is

Flawed the answer to any lore question about Steven Universe is it depends why because the answer changes every week are fusions composite identities or are they their own identities greater than the sum of their parts it depends they are one with they need to be and the

Other at all other times and there is no consistency is Fusion a metaphor for relationships intimacy sex friendship symbiosis combat team ups the concept that mashing characters together is cool tax evasion the answer is yes now Fusion as a concept is not unique it was found

In anime for years and the style that Steven Universe uses is taken from both Dragon Ball Z and Kingdom Hearts but in those it’s not really emblem Matic of anything other than the power of friendship taken to its logical extreme in Steven Universe because Becky’s kind

Of pretentious Fusion is a well it’s not a metaphor it’s a simile a metaphor is something a simile is like something it’s basically unity and working in sync there’s a lot of ways to do that and admittedly despite insistence from the fandom otherwise the show has never really pretended that isn’t the case

You’ve got the very intimate kind of fusion with Garnet but then you have Steven and Amethyst bro fisting to fight bad guys any idea that it’s strictly about intimacy or relationships is thrown out the window when Jasper fuses with a complete stranger and a beast fusions are presumed to not last if the

People involved aren’t in sync but lapis kept Jasper at the bottom of the ocean for months tormenting her for Giggles then in the very last episode Steven is just fusing with gems that aren’t even active which honestly are you allowed to do that that feels like it should be a

Crime the truth of the matter is that showing off new fusions is eye grabbing but building up to them consistently is difficult so they just don’t bother any notion of fusion having some kind of meaning is abandoned by the writers pretty damn fast but you know what

That’s fine because that was a problem that they already solved Fusion is given its intimate way through Perma Fusion garnet and later rhinite are permanently fused because they’re in love because of this they’re actually very in sync because they’re accustomed to being fused all the time and they don’t like

Not being fused because they’ve been together so long that being AP part creates a very deafening Solitude a lot of people might hate the idea of sharing a mind with someone but to someone who has already been sharing a mind for a very long time being a complete

Individual could be just as nightmarish this isn’t a New Concept in Star Trek most Borg drones who become separated from the collective are very distressed when it happens they don’t like the silence and Perma Fusion is that but like not evil to the writer’s credit Perma Fusion isn’t something they pull

Out lightly there’s only six Perma fusions in the entire show and only two of them have significant speaking roles so it’s not like they’re throwing Perma fusions out like Pokémon cards the one we spend the most time with is garnet and we learn very quickly how much

Actual weight she puts onto Fusion when Pearl deceives her to form sardonic without her informed consent real actual thing she did by the way she’s enraged when she discovered the artificial fusions home world was creating she’s horrified to the point of Tears when paradot explains what the cluster is

Garnet actively calls it an Abomination this is usually the part where I tell you how they [ __ ] it up but no this is one of the few things they remain consistent on they remain so consistent on it in fact that they actually use it to interesting effect see because Garnet

Is the only adult in Steven’s life who isn’t [ __ ] crazy she becomes his model for good relationships which means Steven ever determined to take the shortest route to any destination possible proposes to Connie and says that they should be stani permanently this is disturbing to Connie who has

Lived with actual real parents and friends and so places a lot of value on individuality so she obviously turns him down they’re also children so legally they can’t marry and morally they shouldn’t it shows probably for the first time that other people have experiences that are different from

Steven and the things he’s been taught to Value are not the things they’ve been taught to Value future is the only time Steven’s role as moral center of the show is scrubbed away and he has to confront the fact that people will say no to him and he’s just going to have to

Live with that there’s also a PTSD plot but it sucks so yeah Perma Fusion and the weight and implications behind it are actually really well done and kuniv sticks to it unfortunately that solid foundation turns out to be a cockroach in the coffee maker when we get to the

Sardonic Arc in the sardonic Arc Pearl and Garnet formed sardonic to destroy paradot Beacon to home world with more grace and Agility than sugite previously had but then Pearl starts repairing it to have an excuse to fuse more often no idea why it didn’t occur to her to just

Ask but then again you can set your watch to Pearl being completely [ __ ] irrational she gets caught and Garnet is rightly furious leading to an episode where Ruby and Sapphire can’t agree on what to do about it this is all interesting character work so far as we

Now have to contrast the fact that Sapphire uses her precognition to avoid addressing issues in the here and now and Ruby can’t see the future so she thinks Sapphire doesn’t care when they get home all Garnet says is not now this is good because it puts the arc to bed

In a way where we can pick it back up whenever we like and deal with it when everyone involved has clearer heads we could do that but you remember how Pearl and pink pearl had to have a rapid fire therapy session Inside the Mind break clam and all it really did was emphasize

How averse to Quiet Moments kerse is well Pearl and Garnet gets stuck in a trash compactor and have to very quickly work out their [ __ ] and fuse before they can get out furthermore this confrontation is largely Pearl just asking for forgiveness and then making excuses about how she couldn’t help

Herself which is something a rapist would say in court Pearl wanted to fuse with Garnet because Garnet’s so strong and put together and stoic and independent and she wanted to be strong too but Garnet says hey uh this idea that I’m some stoic strong always together person who doesn’t need

Emotional support is a load of horseshit this is one of the first times G has admitted to having doubts and insecurities outside of being the stoic one so when do we get to see more of this side of her Becky good job it’s unfortunately also soured by the fact that Garnet is now

Consoling the person who assaulted her why why is she doing this why are Pearl’s feelings being given more weight than the person she hurt well unfortunately this is how a lot of stories treat black women especially in relation to their white co-leads Garnet’s feelings aren’t prioritized because the writer overwhelming favor

Pearl and this is a story where Pearl is undeniably unequivocally in the wrong and as we’ve explored kerse is just unwilling to stick to that also due to the fact that the show doesn’t really want to explore any kind of conflict resolution other than forgiveness which naturally puts the responsibility for

Ending a conflict on the victim over the perpetrator but the problems with that are magnified when your dainty white ballerina violently assaults a black woman and all she has to say for herself is I couldn’t help it you’re just so strong and aluring it’s not good enough

To have characters of color in your show if you’re going to so thoroughly torment them like this and that’s what happened to Garnet they had a few good ideas and then threw her aside only to drag her out to either give Exposition about Fusion violate her or perve on her so

The one time they really had to think about the weight they put on Perma fusion and they are ultimately sabotaged by their own primary theme and their unwillingness to let Pearl be in the wrong without caveats and their own racism and I’m not going to soften that

One the [ __ ] they pull with Garnet in this show from violating her for the drama to waving her around like a pinup to just not letting her have character depth is morally ethically spiritually physically positively absolutely undeniably and reliably racist it’s not the only instance of Stephen Universe

Being racist but it’s the only one I’m going to cover for this video this is what I mean when I say that full creative freedom won’t make a better show because the fundamentals of how to work with symbolism and just how to resolve some pretty cut and dry

Conflicts are things that creerse has consistently struggled with the diamonds are the worst for this the great Diamond Authority is supposed to be some dysfunctional family controlling mom gold and child other siblings tantum throwing out of control child everything breaks apart yada yada your tamagachi is

Sad but the diamonds are also the cosmic dictators of an Intergalactic fascist Empire that spans most of the Galaxy and whose victims are numerous enough that they’re incubating in the Earth’s core in a lethal combination of mass grave and weapons of mass destruction you know I feel like these two aspects of the

Diamonds are not really going to gel together this is one of those instances where you have a good foundation for an interesting story I mean my parents are in space and I’m estranged from them isn’t a bad one the progress of Steven learning that Rose wasn’t stuck there

But hit of her own valtion would be interesting but for some unknown reason the stakes are artificially inflated so [ __ ] high so it’s not just my parents are in space and I’m estranged from them it’s my parents are in space and I’m estranged from them and that

Estrangement has a body count in the trillions also Earth will blow up if we don’t make up and become a family so the thing about aranged family is you’re not really required to become un estranged you can just stay estranged at time of making the old video I was estranged

From all of my immediate relatives and at the time of making this one I’m tentative on sociable terms with three of them and the fourth I would like to forget ever existed but I did that at my own pace creerse really doesn’t like the idea of doning family and making a new

One so the story is filled with 17 different traps so that pink diamond pretty much has no choice but to make nice with her controlling family and actively refusing to do so is routinely characterized as a selfish decision because that’s what happens when you give family drama a body count

Understandably most people don’t like this story because it’s gross it’s astounding just how much has to be taken out of the character’s hands and how high the stakes have to be and how much the story has to Railroad itself entirely because not reuniting with the rest of the diamonds is just instantly

The moment you even think about it the rational correct and healthy decision to make it’s like all those shows that try to make civil rights groups into villains including Steven universe itself funnily enough and they have to do so much work to make you not side

With them what did bismuth want to do kill three dictators and liberate home world you wouldn’t know that if you talk to the fan base the fan base seems convinced he was a blood KN who wanted to murder all home World gems but I’ve gone over bisi’s episode with the fine

Tooth comb and the fan base just [ __ ] made that up furthermore the show ties all of its metaphysics into the diamonds without the diamonds they can’t make new gems they can’t fix old gems and the gems are doomed to erode out of existence I’m going to qu a new term and

Call this coercive World building any reasonable person would go this [ __ ] fascist and kick white diamond out of a [ __ ] window and in response Becky goes uh uh uh well uh um you can’t because uh uh the goop that g makes the gems comes from the diamonds and and and

And uh also the diamonds are the only ones who can heal the gems so so so so you can’t kill them or you’ll Doom the gems to go extinct so like do better now that’s one way to go about fostering reconciliation of an estranged family another option is to have literally

Anyone involved actually interested in said reconciliation but your idea is good too because that’s the thing nobody cares at all blue diamond is grieving but she’s not doing anything yellow is just going to blow up the planet and wash her hands of it white diamond is too busy trying to hunt down and

Exterminate home world’s underground jewels and every version of pink diamond looks at the other diamonds with complete and total contempt even outside that immediate family so to speak the diamonds are completely hated even after their Redemption not a single character as a kind thing to say about them nobody

In the cast wanted this reconciliation so why did we do this this isn’t even a thematic issue making the characters involved invested in the thing you want them to do is like writing 101 we go from Steven going we’re family we have to be family and then one episode later

It’s like oh these [ __ ] guys again he was so invested in this reconciliation and then he just gave up seemingly off screen well we know why the diamond’s Redemption was the single most contentious thing the show ever did you spend the entire show being told Yep they’re evil they’re oppressive they do

Genocide they hate non-st relationships they don’t respect people’s identities all the people they want to exterminate are branded with stars and then suddenly the show just [ __ ] 180s and goes OMG like cringe aunties it’s clear at some point redeem the villains was written on a Post-It note somewhere and they just

Never went back to think about that if you’re going to do that if you’re going to go this is a show about forgiveness and Redemption then fine just dial back the stakes you hyperactive weirdo this is the problem with writing on presumption Steven Universe came out in

The Heyday of villain redemptions and it hasn’t aged very well but this isn’t a new observation villain redemptions were so overused in the 2010s it’s being deconstructed or reconstructed and villains who were just like I’m going to take over the world because I [ __ ] can or practically refreshing in

Comparison what do you have to gain by killing her if I wanted to kill her I’d beat her to death with a frozen lamb chop and then eat it with a nice Mero even just on a fundamental level if you have multiple villains and you redeem all of

Them that’s just boring Steven Universe is only notable because villain redemptions always had that one line they would never cross usually by just not including them but Steven Universe did it they jumped that line and they never lived it down so I don’t feel compelled to rub the show’s nose in it

Any further even fans blind idiot stands notwithstanding will say this story completely [ __ ] suck so the discussion is pretty much over and no amount of defensive entries on TV ch’s common knowledge segment will change that all over the show on a thematic level you see the same problem that

Affects the plot in characters most of their ideas suffer from distractions and the ramping up of stakes for absolutely no reason and the fact that they don’t think about how these stories should conclude and brute force them to all conclude the same way there’s a good way

To do the sardonic Arc but for the good of everyone involved it requires removing the part where Pearl violates someone’s bodily autonomy maybe replace it with oh and I’m just spitballing here a quiet conversation where characters are emotionally vulnerable with each other as they talk about insecurities

And weaknesses and strength you know the part where Steven Universe really shines and don’t get interrupted by a death trap ironically the best episodes of this show are either when characters are just sitting and talking or the ones that are just this High concept mood

Piece it works when it’s being 2 and A2 or tree of life but when it’s trying to be this genre smorgas Board of bad anime from the 8S that’s when it falls over so many of the show’s strangest moments seem like they were made entirely to be more like utena but ironically they

Forget the one thing that made utena worth watching at least once in spite of the drug up nonsense for those who haven’t seen it and I’m giving you the very basic version here utena is a story about a girl getting wrapped into a dueling tournament where the prize is an

Actual human person being sold off like cattle and when she discovers that this girl is basically a slave resolves to win specifically to free her she wasn’t even in the competition to win this girl she just wanted to fight but ultimately she fails and Anthony has to be the one

To free herself by actually wanting to believe that things could be better and in the end she walks away and goes to find her maybe dead maybe missing fiance the thing is the undercurrent of the show comes to a head in the penultimate episode where utena professes she’s

Going to win anthy so nobody can hurt her but anthy has heard this line before this is still ultimately someone trying to control her however well-meaning they may be and she is likely setting herself up for more abuse concluding that the devil you know is better than the devil

You don’t she stabs utena in the back literally utena got it into her head that she could beat the villain at their own game and It ultimately got her killed because it eroded the trust anthy had in her utena might have had good intentions but anthy doesn’t know that

This is not a system designed for benevolence it’s meant for power and the victims of that system will not believe you when you say you’re going to be benevolent with it it’s only when you tenna approaches anthy as an equal and a companion that anthy’s hope for

Something better returns to her this is actually a very basic through line for a lot of thematic and sociopolitical issues this is the core fallacy behind say police reform the police as they exist as a concept was designed to protect the interests of wealthy landowners in the US they were literally

Just slave catchers trying to reform them is like trying to repurpose a gun into a bandage now if that’s the theme you took from utena that’s a great Foundation to inspire a story and it could conspire any story you could possibly imagine but it seems like what Becky took from utena was abused

Ballerina sword lesbian which is keeping in line with how the phandom to remember any given work there’s a lot in Steven Universe about revolutionizing the world but in utna that was a red herring for the villains and Steven universe doesn’t do anything with the idea other than Steven giving a magical feel better

Speech there’s almost that theme in there with Steven being really pacifist but instead of talking about the use of systems created specifically for power and domination being inherently harmful it just goes where violence bad which in terms of insightful and profound themes is like waxing a car with a dog turd to

Its credit utena never explicitly makes this theme just kind of sits there with it and expects you to get it which is probably why we’re in this mess it’s filtering utena through the lens of early adolescent Nostalgia so about half the themes are either being filtered out

Or interpreted in rather simple ways if you don’t get distance from a piece of art before revisiting it you tend to keep your childhood interpretation of it and looking at how that interpretation manifests it seems like what Becky took from it was a lot of surface level

Visuals I spoke with other people who lik this show and the consensus between us was that if utena was a primary inspiration Becky at most only half got it but that’s not a criticism I’m not criticizing Becky here it’s just more of a neutral statement of fact and as I

Came to that conclusion I actually found a lot of value in Steven Universe but maybe not in the way the Creator intended let’s see how do I put this so I’m a writer myself both personally as I work on my own hobbies and professionally through this Channel and

Ghost writing on the side I’ve been writing stories since I was 14 and the main piece of original fiction I’ve been working on the last few years is called scars a story set in the ’90s about two people who have been as close as they can possibly be since they were kids

Contrasting their very different lived experiences the primary theme like with most of my work is love how love is the universal need and how it’s what keeps people going in Bleak or even dreary circumstances it’s a very quiet story it’s it’s almost mundane the thing is

When I talk about it people ask me what my inspiration is and they’re very confused when I look them dead in the eye and say Kingdom Hearts that throws people for a loop because they know Kingdom Hearts has that anime game with Mickey Mouse in it where Donald kills a

Power Ranger with a dragon ball laser and if I were still 13 I’d have the same reaction but as an adult replaying these games and seeing the series conclude its primary story I didn’t so much take the ballerina sword fighting or the big expansive anime plot from it I took the

Story about The Love Sora has for his friends and how it not only gives him strength but protects him how many characters are built to be puppets of the main antagonist and go on this emotionally grueling journey to discover their own identities how holding love close to your heart can keep you going

Even if you feel like you’re completely alone these are themes that the Creator always had on his mind and playing these games as a child a particularly lonely child at that that really resonated with me even if I didn’t realize it it’s only playing them as an adult I was

Consciously aware of them and those concepts are Universal as I mentioned there is this interesting theme in utena about how oppressive systems cannot be weaponized for good they are designed to resist you doing that utena was never going to save anthy by being the one to

Own her instead of her brother a guilded cage is still a cage and while you can get that theme as an adult by like reading the works of assada Shakur you can also get it from Lord of the Rings you cannot wield it none of us

Can the One Ring answers to saon alone it has no other Master but taking a work on its most visceral emotional surface level isn’t something exclusive to Becky they’re just the most elaborate about it fandoms are filled with people who simultaneously adore a given work of art

And yet wildly miss the point of it look at how many fans of Fallout or Boulders gate see those games as just sandboxes so much so that both franchise third entries ended up being watered down toothless versions of themselves so you go from an entire game about resisting

The pull of an evil God hellbent on using you as a cosmic Soul jar to a game where you are encouraged at all times to literally shove worms in your brain this is where nature versus nurture got us apparently and I’ve been seeing this approach to Old works a lot works that

Borrow surface level features from something the Creator really liked but lacking The Narrative or thematic weight and that’s really the core issue of Steven Universe it has a lot of big ideas but its understanding of the ideas is through the lens of a nostalgic 13-year-old grasping at surface level

Readings and not understanding why they work the part where anthy betrays utena carries a lot of thematic weight to it it’s where anthy has lost hope and chosen the devil she knows over the unknown that is increasingly looking blink it speaks to the way those in abusive situations will often refuse to

Leave because the unknown is frightening and they think they’ve already adapted to their own situation everyone develops ways to cope with abuse and the hardest part of recovering is when you don’t need those strategies anymore I coped with severe abuse as a child by learning

To bite first to be such a problem such a disturbance that it wasn’t worth it to antagonize me this had the downside of opening myself to reactive abuse but in my damaged mind it was worth it I also bit at perfectly nice people who just wanted to be my friend because I was

Afraid they would hurt me too better to cut things off now than wait to be [ __ ] with the hardest part of recovering in my adulthood was learning I didn’t need to do that I didn’t need to keep a sheet of glass between me and everyone else I needed to believe things

Could be better and for a very long time I thought I was perfectly fine being completely alone for the rest of my life then I met my friends and I I met my wife and it was like stepping out into the Sun for the first time and it was in

That moment I realized I never wanted to be alone again I’ve come a long way since those days I don’t let a lot of people in but I utterly cherish the ones I do let in it’s a much better place to be so this moment resonates with me in

Particular for all my criticisms of utena I think this is truly wonderful how does Steven Universe pay homage to what is arguably the biggest moment in the entire series it’s about waiting carefully for the perfect moment whoopsy Daisy you know not to hit below the belt or anything but if I had

Written a story like utena and this was how presumably the biggest fan of my work chose to pay homage to the single heaviest moment in the story where all the themes that play finally settle in on the viewer I would take that as the most damning indictment of my entire

Career look I’m quite critical of utena but I can’t think of anything harsher to say about it than some of its fans do when they pay homage to it I’ve been pulling my punches on my critique of this show to avoid letting things get too aggressive like the last one but

This this is [ __ ] Pathetic if you just skipped to the segment here then Hi how are you having a good day I think there’s a fundamental difference between being wrong about something and your opinion and Analysis changing over time that’s the Folly of having one video become way more popular than all your other videos most people

Just won’t see the newer stuff over the years Steven Universe has become something of a critical news I talk about about cartoons for a living it’s not a glamorous job but then neither is yours and one problem I’ve had over the last few years is that shows that are

Interesting to talk about and shows that actually pull in the views don’t really overlap if you want to pay your rent you have to talk about the latest story driven Adventure fantasy show and they’re all so syy and boring that there’s just nothing really to talk

About Steven Universe at least has a lot of things to unpack it’s fascinating to do that I could sit here and look at episodes that work and compare and contrast them to episodes that don’t for hours upon hours upon hours if I wanted to and I do want to but I understand

When a video has gotten too long I still think the show is pretty bad but it’s bad in fascinating ways that I could spend so much time going through but I am going to take the segment to talk about things from the old video that I

Would gouge out with a rusty spoon if I could for one the tone the video is very aggressive and personal and some get the indication I think sugar killed my family or something uh funnily enough uh people blame this on like some kind of mellian agenda this actually wasn’t

Unique to this video most of the videos I made in 2017 and 2018 were quite angry this is just the only one most of you have seen uh I was being severely abused by my partner at the time and it made me an unpleasant person to be around no

Excuse for that I wasn’t in a good place mentally and I’m in a better place mentally now and I’m with someone else who makes me very happy well I don’t think sugar as a talented Creator I would apologize for the sheer barrage of personal attacks if I could I was taking

Out my anger at many other things onto this project that I’d been working on for a while and like I said every video was like this I was just taking out my anger on everything else and that was obscenely wrong of me not going to sugarcoat it obscenely wrong uh for two

Stani I was way too harsh on stani at the time Steven Universe was the only place you could get NB rep in animation and the fact that it sucked certainly didn’t help but since then we’ve actually had non-binary rep get better and worse at the same time so Steven

Universe is just in this weird Middle Ground compared to Double Trouble stani is practically merciful I think steg probably really uh tempered my opinion on stani it’s kind of clear that the imagination for other Fusion designs just wasn’t really there for any of Steven’s fusions with other humans they

Both look like they came right out of begy spank bank honestly smoky quartz and rainbow quarts were just a lot better uh but my criticisms of them cross the line into outright mobia times and I apologize for that in general non-binary characters are characters I’ve always found very interesting the

Sheer breadth of experiences and presentations and identities could be very creative and it always bothered me that for a long time designers either went full nonhuman or stayed strictly fem I said it poorly in the last video but non-binary characters are an unexplored Frontier of character design

And so few people really run with it I’m so happy we eventually got rain Whispers uh this is something Steven Universe actually themselves improved upon later with shef who isn’t in the show very much but in terms of characterization and design is great one major problem with non-binary characters

Is sorry did I say major problem with nonb I meant one major problem with how people write non-binary characters is a lot of people on the internet view non-binary as just woman light and so there’s far more fem leaning and Fe presenting non-binary characters than there are androgynous or masculin and

That’s assuming they bother at all because the non-binary shape shifter is becoming far too commonplace for all my criticisms of the ow house I love how they have two very well-written non-binary characters who each have different gender presentation and neither of them is the shape shifter for three the entire racism segment I’ve

Said this in about 17 different places before I think the racism in Steven Universe warrant full analysis and I’ve been working on a script doing just that for a while it’s generally something I tinker within between projects but the language I used for that segment was beyond inappropriate mostly taking it

From an article I sourced some of the words coming out of my mouth in there were flat out disgusting and they weren’t mine to use no excuse for that I’m I’m sorry uh that new script I fully intend to pass by a sensitivity reader when it’s done because in 2023 I just

Don’t trust myself with anything anymore for uh despite common opinion I never actually called uh sugar a Nazi uh what I did was question whether the show’s fixation of redeeming Space Nazis from the moon was Mal or stupidity and I’ve always concluded that it’s stupidity I

Concluded that in the video itself but I think I did hang on that issue far too long I actually rewrote that entire section two years ago and I think it’s just way better it talks about how the show’s commitment to Redemption at any cost ends up being very unintentionally

Cruel to abuse survivors look I’m an abuse Survivor myself and one thing I will never be on board with is some [ __ ] telling me I need to forgive for my own sake I’ve been abused quite severely uh throughout my life and uh by a lot of people and I’ve made peace with

Some of them and I haven’t made peace with others and one I would dig my memories of them out of my head with a rusty screwdriver and forget they ever existed if I could and nowhere in that path of recovery did anyone insisting I needed to forgive ever do anything but

Piss me off a lot of Abus survivors are gaslit into believing that being angry will make them a monster and you will never convince me that this is a good thing to teach people especially children I will always be firmly against that very concept especially in children’s

Animation four fives I would delete the entire animation segment even when that video went up I wasn’t entirely on board with it I know behind the scenes a lot of pre-production work just wasn’t done and the animators were working overtime also writing the story and the only reason projects do that is because

Writers are unionized and animators aren’t so when your storyboarders are writing the episodes you can pay them less all the excuses about visual storytelling complete horseshit shows with scripts and Writers Do visual storytelling all the time and Steven Universe is claim to visual storytelling is pretty weak and honestly that deserve

To have way more Focus than the fact that the characters aren’t on model because that shit’s a symptom and a symptom nobody would care about if the writing was better I only included it in the first place because it was a really big point of contention for Su crit at

The time and I felt like I had to include it for completeness his sake but in truth it was a big point of contention precisely because it was easy to see the more in-depth and Nuance criticism was a lot harder and we get you harassed for 5 years for sixes this

Is less of a retraction and more of an expansion but I really got on Becky’s case for the puberty subject just being cart blanch to pervon stani the truth is a lot of teenage girls do get hypersexualized once they hit puber pu but that’s not really a puberty thing so

Much as it is a men being perves thing the thing that really bothered me was Becky’s statement about how hitting puberty gives you the body of an adult and how it gives you power and to put that kind of thing onto puberty and suggest that is kind of missing the

Forest for the trees being objectified doesn’t give you power it’s the exact opposite of that then again the quote I was taking from is highly likely to have been misspoken Becky misspeaks more than I do and I’ve actually said the phrase her pronouns are they them multiple

Times in the past my speech is f [ __ ] I’m not an eloquent lady and so I’m inclined to just ignore that issue today like on reflection this is small potato stuff in comparison to like the big picture issues but it does raise my point about how stani is supposed to be

Non-binary but the expression of the trials and tribulations of puberty are be done almost exclusively from a feminine perspective when that’s only half of their components the conclusion drawn there is that if you want to do a puberty episode then just do a puberty episode don’t do a Fusion episode

Granted this is something that improved Leaps and Bounds as the show went on especially in the one episode where Divan has facial hair uh which is a design element most people just wouldn’t do on reflection with the show being done it’s clear the writers give a [ __ ] about non-binary rep they might have

Sucked at it for a while but sucking at something isn’t a problem sucking at something can be fixed with patience and I still maintain that Shep is [ __ ] amazing if we had to stumble through a mine field to get Shep then [ __ ] cheers I’ll drink to that it’s more

Visible effort than Shira had see this is what I’m talking about the Leaps and Bounds between when Steven Universe is [ __ ] brilliant and when it smashes its face against a mountain is so interesting to break down that’s what happens when you wear your Inspirations on your sleeve that’s what happens when

Something can be practically unpacked forever if you wanted to I have wanted to do other videos on Steven Universe and I’ve always restrained myself because there’s this narrative that all I do is talk about it for hours but like I do want to talk about it for hours I

Want to go over it with a fine tooth comb like a [ __ ] archaeologist so [ __ ] it might as well put it out there I do a podcast occasionally with my wife and whoever wants to talk about a given subject usually just one of my friends someone who loves this show and thinks

It’s brilliant writing and has interesting arguments as to why and who is 19 years of age or older I’m offering to let you come on and do a podcast with me let me be clear this is not a debate and it is not an argument it’s not so

You can complain about fake Nazi accusations I’m inviting you to come nerd the [ __ ] out come info dump to me I’ve never heard a coherent argument for why this show is good and I want to hear it my work email is in the description give me one short paragraph of analysis

To show me you have something interesting to talk about anyway that’s all I have to say for now thanks for watching my and I hope you have a fantastic Day else me please just say you love me my hands and yours and tell me that I always been my life means nothing so just say you love me tonight if you lie this poor boy will have to die oh