Is Steven Universe an Alternate History? (A Map Analysis)

hello everyone I'm at metric Dale Tran historian another map analysis today where I'll be looking at a world map depicting a very different 18th century this is Steven universe 1770 by Sean McKnight aka why not 1989 you might remember Sean from the time I analyzed his map of America from ghost in the show which is as I write the script for this video the second most viewed video on this channel so that's cool like that other map Steven universe 1770s from another animated series called Steven universe a TV show created by Rebecca sugar that I've heard good things about but I haven't watched until now and hold man am I glad I finally checked this show out I initially just plan to watch a few episodes to get an idea about the show was about and some way I've been watched most of the first three seasons quick spoiler alert I'm going to try and be vague about the plot but I might spoil some minor details in my analysis so you've been warned to summarize Steven universe is about a boy named unsurprisingly enough Steven universe the son of human Greg universe and the gem rose quartz who lives in Beach City the gems are a magical alien race and mortals that colonize earth thousands of years ago before they were kicked off the planet by Rosa's army of rebels the crystal gems who rebelled event all organic life on Earth from being destroyed Stephen spends most of his time with remaining crystal gems garnet amethyst and pearl etting as their kid sidekick as they clean up the mess left behind by the gems throughout the series Steven learns more about his gem half as he discovers new gem powers and then their secrets about his family and friends quite simply Steven universe is an amazing show it's got great messages about growing up as a boy and teaches the audience about gender and sexuality in an intelligent and non patronizing sort of way it's a style of storytelling that reminds me a lot of gravity falls another cartoon obviously made for kids but doesn't so well that I will recommend it to adults but as an alternate historian what interests me most about this show is the world-building as I mentioned before in the Steven universe timeline the gems colonized the earth roughly six thousand years from the present which would put their arrival somewhere around 4000 BC when the first human civilizations showed up plus since the Steven universe wiki says they stayed around for at least fifteen hundred years the gems had time to impact human history now the idea of ancient aliens visiting early human cultures is anything new even the quote History Channel and quote as a host showed this conspiracy theory and there are plenty of other fictional works that make use of it these stories however tend to be secret histories where our knowledge of history is incomplete or covered up but otherwise learning it would not change the course of events for example the Americans would still win the American Revolutionary War even if it was alien space bats who gave ancient humans the idea for the wheel in Steven universe how're the gems presence on earth is not only obvious but an accepted fact we see human cities built near gem ruins and even see American money with a diamond on the back rather than the usual pyramid and I there's even an amusing episode where local conspiracy theorist is disappointed to learn that all the weird stuff happening in Beach City was not caused by snake people or steeple but by Steven and his gem friends which means that ancient warrior rock women from space with bodies made out of light are a normal everyday occurrence for this conspiracy theorist that's hilarious and if you need an even bigger example of why this world is different just check out this image of Earth from the show sure doesn't look like our planet huh which brings us back to Sean's map right off the bat you can see that the gems presence on hers caused some major geological changes Florida is an island parts of Mexico Central America India and China are underwater Iceland is missing South America is bigger there are several large islands in the Atlantic that shouldn't be there chunks have been taken out of West Africa and Siberia and Australia isn't split in half I'm sure I've missed some small details here and there but you get my point the gems have left their mark on earth both literally and figuratively now I did read at least one theory that suggested gems had nothing to do with why the earth looks the way it does instead the author argues it was because plate tectonics happened differently in this timeline I don't agree with that theory however since we actually see what the earth would have looked like once the Germans were done terraforming it and since it involved drilling content and sized holes to the center of the earth I don't think it's a stretch to assume they were the ones who carve the earth up remember the show says that the gems homeworld is not even in our galaxy so if they're that advanced that they can travel between galaxies I think they can move a few measly continents around anywho what do all these changes mean for human history well not much really some American state names are different for example Beach City is located in the state of Delmarva which in our time looms named uh peninsula on the east coast of North America shared by Delaware Maryland in Virginia the state that should have been Pennsylvania is called Keystone in the state that should have been New York is called Empire which are just nickname for those states in our timeline New Jersey's also just called Jersey which makes me wonder whether the original Jersey in the English Channel is still above water in this alternate timeline other changes include Canada's flag being green and light rather than red and white also some fans have pointed out that holidays like Halloween and Christmas don't appear to exist whether this was a deliberate choice by the show's creators or they just haven't bothered to touch on them yet I have no idea but when early humans are visited by arbitrarily advanced extraterrestrial women one does wonder whether the Abrahamic God is a woman in this timeline also Ghana supposedly exists in this timeline despite most of West Africa being underwater perhaps some other countries called Ghana but one wonders one of the word god I would even exist in this timeline which brings up a major problem I have at the world-building in Steven universe despite the major change is caused by an alien race colonizing the earth in a distant past history seemed to have played out generally as a date of North timeline the Steven universe 1770 doesn't look all that different from what our own unaltered earth must have looked like around the same time which means that if the United States of America still exists in Steven universe's present then the east coast of America must have been Connors but a British and the Americans must have rebelled around the same time to create the good old US of A but the United States and any other European colonial powers shouldn't even exist in a time line with the point of divergence so far in the past now to be fair to Sean his map is still great even if he is limited in how creative he can be with the political borders due to the parallelism found in Steven universe from a technical perspective the map looks like you could actually find it tacked to a wall in some classroom getting old and dirty with age unfortunately you can only zoom in so much for things start getting blurry which makes some of the smaller tags for the British colonies or the smaller states of Europe hard to read technical issues aside I do like some Assange choices for how conversation game would have played out in this world since Portugal in our time when I got the early jump on the expiration game it makes sense they would have been the ones that colonized the island chain the South Atlantic one does after wonder however whether these islands would have acted as stepping stones between Native American African cultures contact between them may even have predated any contact with Europeans which would make for an amazing story but as far as I can tell from the show that was never considered one map choice I'm iffy about is too far eastern territories Shawn shows them being Russian I'm not convinced Russia would have overcome the roadblock that taganka sea represents since they were never known to be a maritime nation in our timeline in a nation with the best Navy you'd be the one who controls the sea in my opinion Russia would have gone the long way around swinging through Central Asia and northern China one blood-soaked battlefield at a time also what happened to the Mongols let's see is smack dab in their homeland if they don't exist then how did Russia even come to be with nevermind to be honest the more I think about it the more disappointed I am that the creators of Steven universe didn't go all out with their version of Earth I mean when you have aliens count izing earth why not just have fun and create whatever nation you want you could still have the story take place on earth but get creative with the nations and their borders for alternate history perspective it would have made for a lot more interesting world rather than trying to fit the round peg of our timeline into the square hole of Steven universe's timeline I do understand why they did it change history too much you may lose your audience but if your audience can accept sentient rock mages then I think calling the USA ad beautified provinces of Duty land is not asking that much more from them still don't let my complaints sway you from watching Steven universe it's funny heartwarming and the world-building is okay if you can suspend your disbelief I've always been a proponent of a good story trumping bad plausibility and I'm not going to change my mind now and as for Sean's map is another example of why he's one of the best altering cartographers out there and I'm happening one of my patrons was able to give me the opportunity to revisit his work Wow that was not the same subject if you like what I do please comment subscribe share this video support me on patreon I meant me to rich the author historian right [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: The Alternate Historian

Views: 70,785

Keywords: Steven Universe, alternate history, cartography, map, maps, alien space bats

Id: FZuVgC-Z20w

Length: 8min 21sec (501 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 16 2018