Steven Universe

[salinea]

At some point in the middle of S1 it went from a show I felt lukewarm about to one I was very much hooked to. I finished watching it in full yesterday.

Loved the lore and the heart of the show - it is a very warm story. My favorite characters were Connie, Pearl and Lapis. Loved the way it declined the themes of family love and support and how much of a difference to people. The songs are also incredibly catchy.

The ending of the main series was pretty awesome and epic. I loved how we got a series of fusion with Steven, that was good fanservice. I thought perhaps White Diamond was a little bit too underdeveloped for the final to hinge so much on changing her mind, though.

I thought the end of the Future was a little bit too abrupt after several episodes of escalation; but otherwise it was a brilliant, sensitive deconstruction to its own show. It was an excellent epilogue, addressing a variety of characters as well as Steven’s character journey in depth.

I don't have strong shippy feelings for the show, overall. I liked the fucked up one sided Pearl/Rose thing. The pining! This is some extra quality of pining! Also loved all the layers of secrets and uneven and dysfunctional relationship wrapped into it. Pearl knowing some of Rose Quartz’s secrets being what makes her feel like she has a special relationship with her; but also being burdened by them. It’s all fucked up and delicious.

I also was very into Steven/Connie who are adorable.

Comments

[flo_nelja]

Yaaaay I'm glad! <3

[salinea]

:D

[bluapapilio]

Made me want to finish it. :) It's been a while since I watched it!

[salinea]

You should!!! it's really worth it

[airlock384]

well well, it's been a joy to be proven wrong vis-a-vis whether you'd like the series moving forward! I suppose I forgot that s1 is the sleepiest one by far, even if the show as a whole always keeps one foot in the day-to-day life

and yeahhhh, the end sequence was super rushed. iirc, though, there's a reason for that -- afaik, it seems like Cartoon Network was none too happy about the whole "explicit nb lesbian wedding with kiss" thing, so they softly pulled the plug and the crew had to wrap things up fast. (I mean, funny that this would've been the straw that broke the camel's back in the show where the main character wears drag entirely on purpose once, the nb lesbians from that marriage have been in an unambiguous romantic relationship that's been known since the end of s1, and there's a whole ass plotline about a lesbian couple that loved and lost -- but ah, who understands lgbtphobes)

oh well, at least, I got a total kick out of reading that last chapter as a metaphorical trans narrative-

anyway! now you know what lovely thing my steven universe icon is from, too- and hell yeah, connie is a big fave of mine. show just knocked it out of the park wrt depicting a close friendship/romance with both all of the sweet goo and all of the troublesome situations that come along the path

(I also haven't gotten around to checking out Future yet. guess that's getting prodded on my lengthy to-do list)

[salinea]

the lgbtq themes in the series in general were a blast, yeah!!!

Connie is such a great character, yeah.

You should watch the Future! I'm looking forward to your impressions of it.

[kolleh]

It's really nice to see some positivity about the show, as fandom at large seems to have turned on it for various odd reasons such as being too ready to redeem its villains. Like you, though, I found it quite a warm story, even though I never ended up finishing it.

It reminded me in a lot of ways of the shoujo manga I grew up on, especially the kind protagonist and sense of optimism mixed in with its darker themes.

[salinea]

I love redemption stories so that's hardly a con for me. I think it's probably better to have in children media than the opposite tbh.


I love that sort of shoujo manga as well!! I'm in the middle of watching the 2019 version of the Fruits Basket anime which is probably another story where the fandom criticizes the willingness to redeem villains but it feels so much like the heart of the story. What sort of shoujo manga were you thinking about as well?

[kolleh]

Yes, exactly like Fruba! From Far Away is another to jump to mind, although I'm not sure anyone besides me remembers that one. That sort of idealized "love wins the day" story was such a building block of the shoujo and other children's stories I grew up on, so it's startled me a bit to see people turning against the trope.

I can see why, since you could argue it's teaching kids and especially people being socialized as girls to sacrifice their needs for others. I'm not sure "once you do a bad enough thing you're completely beyond hope or redemption and unworthy of kindness" is a better lesson to absorb, however.

[salinea]

I don't think I know From Far Away (it hasn't been translated in French so that would have been harder for me to get)


I love the idea of love wins the day yeah. I think I can understand people who criticize the idea of forgiveness being mandatory and other toxic dynamics from Evangelist culture in particular. It's pretty far from my own experiences though. And I agree with you that condemning people as irrevocably evil from any one specific misdeed is also super toxic. There has to be a balance between the two!