Steven Universe: 10 Years Later...

Steven Universe first released roughly 10 years ago on May 21st 2013. I remember growing up with this show and enjoying it a lot this is one of the two cartoons from my childhood that I watched every episode of the other being Gravity Falls however recently I decided to watch another Cartoon Network show that I had seen before Adventure Time and I had an absolute blast there was good music good jokes good characters what's not to love but that got me thinking was Steven Universe on that level like Adventure Time is known as one of the best cartoons of its time but Steven I really liked it as a kid but nowadays it seems like a bit of a punching bag when it comes to the internet's cartoon consensus so here we are in the future trying to decide if Steven Universe was a cartoon legend or if my rose tinted glasses have started to crack that's uh that's not a rose joke or a gem God damn it howdy and welcome back to the project that I've been working on for the past six months it's been a huge time sink so I hope you enjoy it this video is going to be a big old retrospective on the series as I dive into the original five season run the movie and future with some additional segments sprinkled in here and there now I don't normally ask this because I feel like every time I do but consider leaving a like subscribing or commenting how you feel about the video or Steven universe as a whole first I'm going to give some history and background information on the show and then we'll go over the contents of the franchise after storyboarding for Adventure Time Rebecca sugar began to work on Steven Universe and it aired on Cartoon Network home to so many classic cartoons from all eras a lot of the show's details came from their own life experiences beach cities based on Delaware which sugar had visited prior spinel's character is based on a childhood memory and Hell Stevens based on her own Brothers Steven sugar the show was storyboard driven which I believe isn't super common when it comes to cartoons it was also done in hand-drawn animation which I'll talk a bit more about later it follows a boy Steven as he learns to use his gem powers to be a crystal gem and save the universe that's not even close to encompassing the whole story so let's try to do that a little bit yeah I'm gonna give you a rundown on every season of the show I'll make comments on things of note when I find them but I'll give an overall opinion on each season at the end now starting with this is probably the worst season of the original run still that doesn't stop it from having some of the most iconic episodes of the show I mean the first four of some of the episodes that immediately come to mind when I'm reminded of the show episode one is Gem glow which might be one of the most familiar titles of a cartoon episode to me it all starts with Steven being sad that his favorite ice cream isn't being sold anymore this episode shows off the centipedals a recurring monster there's also a really neat bit of foreshadowing here with this glow ring in the freezer I'd never really saw that before after defeating Senti he eats one of the cookie cats that the gems got for him and his belly button starts to Glow kicking off this boy's physical and emotional struggle to become a space god rock man hybrid laser light Cannon is actually really good it introduces the concept of rose quartz and it has Greg's first appearance as well I like Greg as a character he's one of the only characters that doesn't really get better or worse so it's good to see he starts out alright plus we get Let Me Drive My Van Into Your heart it's a cute song they rework throughout the series The visuals at the end are awesome also the backing tracks were really nice to listen to as well cheeseburger backpack cheeseburger backpack cheeseburger backpack cheeseburger nothing crazy happens in this episode they talk about the lunar ceasefire and Jamie the mailman is introduced he also mentions Barb another male person which really confirms to me that quite a bit of this show is pretty well planned out because she doesn't really exist until season two it got me thinking about how much this show has laid out in the first few episodes like Connie rose quartz and multiple deep character relationships now of course a lot of this could just be oh we said this 30 episodes ago I'm sure let's put it in this Random episode I don't know I just think it's neat number four together breakfast isn't super exciting lore wise but we do get a look at the temples that's where most of the adventure here takes place we also see Garnet activating her room with a red and blue gem hinting at a little something that we find out at the end of the season episode 5 is the first townie episode but I like it the Tony episodes are all the episodes that largely feature other human characters who live in Beach City I really like the fribo monster in this he's really cool looking the colors in this one are dull and sad but it adds such a good amount of flavor to the episode also why'd it only take five episodes before they were like yeah yeah we want Steven naked in this one I changed my mind Bad episode for episode 6 I wrote down Regular Show reference dude Connie's so cool I feel bad for her getting wrapped up in Alien stuff but she's great this is a good episode too both character development and a power unlock it's big the underwater part also looks really pretty serious Steven is a dungeon episode they go explore an area and talk a little history nothing too important episode 9 tiger millionaire sets up a filler Arc between amethyst and Steven in their secret wrestling personas eh Steven's lion is the name of episode 10 and it introduces lion I love lion he's so cute oh also they did the episode two thing with the color palette uh it's not as good but I still like it episode 11 is why the words Meep Beat Mania pops into my head from time to time this episode does a really good job showing how cool Garnet is it's a funny episode nothing too important Jesus episode 12 is the Fusion episode I'm pretty sure this is the episode that sparked a lot of the fan base and it has the first big song in the series there were smaller ones before for it but I remember giant woman being the most popular at the time opal is really cool and Amy Mann has such a nice voice for her although in terms of fusions she feels the least fused to me there really isn't enough Amethyst in her design or mannerisms episode 13 is just an M Night Shyamalan movie before it was bad you know I like Lars I think he's a good mean character and I'm glad they set up his Arc really early considering how important he becomes later the Moss aspect is terrifying but hey the flowers are pretty I don't care about the onion episodes I'm sorry this is the one where Steven tries to get his guy figure back from onion and accidentally gives him the power of God it's not a bad one I guess episode 16 is the poofing episode this was a really dark one at the time and it still is now the color palette is dark and the rain adds a lot to the mood the music kicks it back up in this episode as well the death scene is so the shadow cast Pearl's hair and face being all messed up and the dialogue unfortunately amethyst inflation makes this the worst episode I love Connie and lion episodes this series of episodes is a favorite I love the fact that Connie starts doing stuff right away she's not just like uh oh I'm a normal human y'all this stuff's crazy and I keep getting into dangerous situations instead of having another Greg you get a fully fledged character with so much growth even between her first two episodes also lion is still cute beach party is about the pizzas and the gems killing a monster together through the power of friendship Rose's room is I'm surprised at how many spooky episodes they did in the first season the donut scene is extra creepy the town as a whole is super creepy my favorite part of this episode is the sound design and music it really elevates the horror of it with sudden sounds and skipping tracks I know this isn't the last we'll see of it so we'll just move on to the sugilite episode Nicki Minaj was sugilite's voice and honestly it fits it's a real shocker of a casting but I really like it the Fusion Dance is way too horny which unfortunately isn't a one-time thing also big song number two it's good but mostly just because Duty has a good voice in 21 joking victim great title Sadie and Steven prank Lars for being a jerk by putting magic fire salt on a donut Stephen in the Stevens they did time travel to make a band I do want to bring up the fact that there was just a time travel device that the gems were looking for if one of the gems found it the entire War could have been stopped but because Steven found it he made a band and then went back in time to kill himself and all the Clones he created the centipedal is back from episode 1 and monster buddies and Stephen can bubble things another Connie episode with episode 24 an indirect kiss two things are introduced crack gems and Steven's healing power his good emotions and I love Connie popping out her lenses after Stephen healed her side at the end mirror gem is kind of crazy I remember liking lapis but nothing really Springs to mind of her doing anything all that interesting later in the show this is a good episode though and it's our first introduction to a new gem ocean gem man this is just a real culmination episode with every main character coming together for a mission which I love the music went off the visuals went off there's a great fight and I love the fact that not only does lapis have water powers she kind of also has mirror Powers Greg gets into the fight and the shield comes out too man this is just such a good episode on top of that the space visuals look super pretty episode 27 has Greg kind of being a dick Space Race episode 28 is up Pearl goes full villain mode and almost kills Steven in space I was originally gonna give secret team a single sentence but it introduces gem shards at least they're physical forms because they were also in freibo too island adventure is cool sure it introduces the island which is a recurring location but Sadie is the real reason to watch this she's so up for hiding their only way off the island but God damn can she body slam her invisible gem monster it's a good episode kind of makes me hate and like all three of these characters at the same time episode 31 sucks it's a keep Beach City weird episode and I hate it 32 is the introduction of alexandrite all three of the gems fused together it's a pretty emotional episode with the drama between Steven Connie's parents are pretty shitty they're still uptight I don't really want to talk about Garnet's World they give Ronaldo God Powers watermelon Stephen there are watermelon Stevens the watermelon Stevens beat up Ronaldo lion three straight to video introduces new lion mechanics also uh Pearl is weird I like to watch you sleep sometimes and by sometimes I mean often it's a very sweet episode though the videotape's adorable and they give Sadie a cute little moment too this one's pretty Monumental I had to re-watch alone together twice it's an important episode because it's all about Fusion some of it is a bit horny but once the training montage ends things get kind of crazy I remember adoring this episode because the relationship that Stephen and Connie develop is so cute and stevani is a great first Steven Fusion Garnet's excitement in this episode is great with future knowledge here but it's so damn awkward to have multiple teenagers crush on stevani like I guess it kind of makes sense that a mysterious new cool tall person is becoming popular but knowing that they're just two kids is no bueno oh also Kevin episode 37 is the Peridot episode I like how she's kind of the main villain for the rest of the season uh but that's about it there's not much to say about the test other than how it doesn't really end how I expect an episode of this show to end usually there's some kind of true to be told with everyone or at least Steven learning some kind of lesson but he just kind of lies about it saying that the test that they rigged for him helped and I kind of like it be drill I didn't write anything else for this one on the Run episode 40 is all about amethyst I like Stephen namatha's sibling-like relationship it's cute cool fight scene too these two definitely needed one 41 is another Ronaldo episode 42 is no okay fine episode 41 is like partially a Sadie and Lars episode so it's fine kinda it's about Lars and run all those falling out but I don't really care about their relationship and they never go back to it again so it kind of just doesn't matter there's some really cool visuals in this one though Winter forecast has Garnet giving Steven a tiny bit of her Future Vision power so he can make the right responsible choice and help Connie get home safe and sound episode 43 is the most up part of the show that I could remember before my rewatch this amethyst emotionally tortures Greg by turning into his dead wife because he wants to stop watching a show with her and then Steven sees it 44 is more Peridot stuff I like her but her build up is pretty tame Rose's Scabbard is one of my favorite episodes Pearl's emotions really make it I don't know why seeing our entire existence gets shattered is just Jesus Christ that's everything about this episode is awesome the music the shots the performances it just does so much in its normal 11 minute run time open book sees the return of Rose's room as it tricks Stephen into thinking it's Connie and it's kind of cool not as creepy as the first time but they still do some spooky stuff but number 47 shirt Club Steven makes a shirt for his dad's business and buck Dewey takes it away too far episode 48 is no no I refuse I will not under any circumstance talk about the Uncle Grandpa crossover episode no way in hell 49's a flashback episode we meet Marty and learn about Greg's first time meeting Rose I love the comment about amethyst liking Greg's hair because in the present we see her with a similar hairstyle from here on out I'm pretty sure it's all really important in the message lapis sends a message to Steven setting up the finale that Greg decodes using the Wailing Stone an item they found earlier in the season I lied episode 51 isn't important and it isn't that good it features my second least favorite character mayor Dewey as he tries to help with a power outage the Peridot situation parts are interesting but most of the episode is isn't that I do like how yet again they treat Steven as a dumb little kid and talk about things behind his back 52 the return is the second to last episode of the season part one of this two-part finale peridot's hand is actually really menacing uh some great colors again I I love when they do a limited palette Jasper is super cool too and that's boosted by Garnet's terrifying poof this is a top tier episode here and finally the big one jailbreak the season finale we got Ruby and Sapphire a phenomenal fight scene and the best song so far I also like the detail that Jasper has similar powers to Amethyst because we learned later that they're both born in kindergartens malachite at the end was cool and love like you with vocals in the credits ah God I just love kissing all my fingers probably the best of the season well now that I've rewatched all of season one here are my final thoughts the characters are really Dynamic all of them change a lot this early on and it's really great to see their early designs are iconic but I can already tell you that I like their redesigns a lot more the music felt a lot less in comparison to other seasons and there's a lot of inconsistency with the designs they can be partially excused because I can tell it's supposed to be more of like a stylistic choice but it still isn't my favorite they stopped some stuff pretty early on like the dark circles behind Stephen's eyes and the really weird summoning bit that Pearl does to get her spear a couple times that's not a design thing I just don't like it but it's the first season they were working out the Kinks overall I'd say it was solid I give it 6.8 inflated amethysts out of 10. it's all right a decent start [Music] now keep in mind some of the characters that I'm about to talk about aren't in the first season um but I still wanted to bring them up here most of the voice acting is really good with DD Michaela and Grace doing incredibly well as major characters as all felt like a tiny bit awkward at first but her characterization of garnet is just so damn powerful she's very cold and monotone a lot of the time but in those moments where she becomes super expressive and very emotional it cements this has a really good performance Matthew Moyes Lars was great a very expressive voice super good characterization a lot of the gem voices too Shelby rabara's Peridot Kimberly Brooks as Jasper yellow blue and white played by Patti lupon Lisa Hannigan and Christine Ebersole respectively they play three very unique overarching villains and not only do their voices fit their characters well they fit each other well too when I hear them in the show it really amplifies the fact that this is a group of Regal power hungry with super deep character flaws some fusions too AJ machalka estevani is one of my favorites and I and many others that I know love Alistair James's rainbow 2.0 however I have put off one very important voice Stephen's voice is a little grading now of course I'm really just talking about like the first half of season one no nothing against Zach Callison at all because again it's super early on later on he crushes it and even in those first few episodes he's still giving a great performance it's just I don't know maybe a directional thing at the end of the day I think he still did a good job at those early Seasons but I'm really happy that by the end of it all he became one of the strongest people in that cast alright let's get into season two two starts out right where we left off I feel like I remember this Steven avoiding Connie conflict going on for longer but my memory is not that great episode 55 is Stephen and his teenage friends going out on a road trip where they find peridot's Escape Pod episode 56's love letters where Jamie the mailman goes all hubba hubba over for Garnet 57 reform chose us a bit more insight on poofing and how when amethyst rushes her Reformation she isn't too wise about it and takes on some impractical forms we also get our amethyst redesign here episode 50 um something season 2 episode 5. we got the reworked intro which I prefer this episode is a really good one Pearl does bad stuff again and I like it it starts off really cute and fun there's two songs too the Jam song is good but you do it for her as one of the greats it ends cute too kinda it also perpetuates something that I didn't really realize how well they built up Steven's identity conflict with his mother episode 6 is a goddamn Key Beach City weird episode I swear to God Ronaldo episode 7 is a scary one seeing more Peridot is a must knowing how major of a character she'll end up becoming but the forced Fusion is awful in a cool way the effects and sound design of them are just great and getting more character development with Garnet is something that feels decently rare so that's nice season 2 episode 8 is a flashback episode and a really good one at that it's all about how Greg and Rose really fell in love the song was all right but the visuals were great like when Greg tries to fuse with rose and turns the stage lights on man that's a good shot it's very cute I also love seeing the Bad Blood between Greg and pearl number nine a lot of these big ones back to back this one's about lapis Steven also gets dream powers of some sort is all right a pretty creepy actually in season 2 episode 10 we get our final Fusion of the main three with garnet and pearl creating sardonyx it's a fun fusion episode and we get a rare amethyst song which isn't bad the drama in this episode Pearl really is just an awful person she's always doing some really up not the only one but she's she's got a lot of bad examples episode 11 of season 2 was one I remember liking a lot is good stuff I love Ruby and Sapphire's Dynamic and it once again shows more Garnet development 12. onion friend is an onion episode we see Vidalia and learn that she's onion's mom and that she and Amethyst had some sort of History I've learned that I don't really like the Jaime episodes during this re-watch historical friction has Jamie and Steven performing a history of the founding of Beach City in play form friendship episode 14 of season 2 is about peridot kind of not really garnet and pearl make up with each other and they get peridot's boot nightmare hospital is really cool the colors are great and it's a Connie episode It's gotta focus on a relationship with her mother and it's really cool the music really goes off a sound design the reveal and the ending too uh there's a top tier episode and my favorite of the season so far episode 16 isn't that important but Sadie does lean into her singing later on the show so there's that also the transition in the middle of the song at the end is just wonderful episode 17 is the beginning of peridot's character Arc also the main problem for this season the cluster is put into the Limelight 18 when it rains is just a cute character bonding episode between Stephen and Peridot oh Steven there's one more thing I have to mention what is it I love you that's the cutest thing I've ever seen back to the barn takes us back to the barn as Pearl and Peridot grow a bit of a rivalry when it comes to their skill sets episode 20 is a similar one to the last one but instead of Pearl and Peridot having more character connection it's amethyst and Peridot I wonder who next episode's gonna be about 21 is the answer and it has garnet and Parrot uh uh wait I'm sorry not yet it does have Garnet but it's a flashback episode it's Steven's birthday and as a gift Garnet tells Stephen the story of how Ruby and Sapphire first fused it's also our first mention of Blue Diamond Beautiful episode and it was well performed by Estelle in episode 22 we learned that Steven doesn't really grow up and that no one has any idea how age affects him he stretches himself out for too long and eventually turns into a baby as his gem can't handle the strain it could have been great starts with a really good musical number it tells a good story and develops the characters in The Plot which is wonderful and they go to the Moon we learn more about the diamonds and get more emotional Beats episode 24 message received this one was a massive one when it first came out the yellow diamond reveal is awesome she's so intimidating the last episode of the season is log date 7152 and it's a bit of a cooldown episode it's also an episode I teased earlier no it's not Uncle Grandpa it's just an episode where Steven learns how peridot and Garnet became closer it's cute that they us with a Peridot Garnet Fusion I hate it because she never fuses they never get around to it season two was a step up for sure it felt more put together and had way more interesting through lines the only thing missing here was like a big fighter confrontation as you'll find out or no every season has some like big event that happens but it was kind of disappointing to get to the end and not really have anything it was much more lore heavy and there's a lot of setup being done not only for next season but for the entire series as a whole the music also had a step up here which I appreciate I'll give this 7.3 pissed yellow diamonds out of 10. [Music] let's talk a bit about how this show looks the style of this show is pretty damn unique of course it's cute and colorful but there are so many quirks and design choices and the way that the colors are used gives it this really satisfying look first and foremost the backgrounds are phenomenal they're colored so beautifully and the use of diamonds everywhere gives it so much character the lighting as well is so underrated when it comes to this show I always wish they'd do more rainy episodes because the lighting they make perfectly encapsulates the feeling of rain a lot of gem and monster designs can be so creative and memorable it's not all Grand though sometimes the characters are drawn with just the most inconsistency man sizes faces hair it's all completely riddled with mistakes I know why there are so many people working on so many different episodes so it's pretty excusable when one person can't make something look exactly like somebody else's work plus most of the time it's really hard to notice when you're not actively searching for it it's not easy to keep every single character exactly the same all the time you get flaws with hand drawn or stiffness with rigged animation they probably wanted to and had to use hand-drawn for all the different silly movements and fight scenes my eyeballs are full of all this candy all right let's just move on to the next season three begins with super watermelon Island and the only importance is that Steven can become a watermelon Steven and malachite is over well at least the Alexandrite fight was pretty cool episode 2 is the cluster fight there are some cool visuals I love how spooky these shots can be and that's the cluster dealt with kinda it's a good cluster now same old world as episode 3 and it's a Lapis episode where she learns to appreciate the Earth and decides to live there the flashback section is cool looking and so are a lot of the environment shots this one's mainly just eye candy episode 4 is a setup for a main ish antagonist or group of antagonists the rubies number five there's a baseball game yep that's it no it's a fun episode where Ruby and Sapphire are cute and Lapis is pretty funny too and Steven floats Steven floats in episode 7 Marty gives Greg 10 million dollars it really just sets up episode 8 Mr Greg is phenomenal the visuals of the city the character Dynamics the music ah this episode feels like a demo for the movie with all the player and Showmanship and this episode has the song well okay okay well it has four songs and a reprise at the end but it's over isn't it is a top five song for sure I'm gonna talk about the music more later but understand that this number both visually instrumentally fantastic but the performance is Chef's kiss this episode's one of the best of the whole series episode nine too short to ride is the episode where we find out Peridot has metal bending Powers episode 10 is the only large episode of the season and it's a weird one Steven takes control of lars's body for a day which is really creepy and it doesn't really come up again I I think the watermelon Stevens are supposed to be the same thing but up until this point I thought it was really just a unique thing with his plant creations because he only ever uses it on them after this point Beach City drift episode 11 marks the return of the true series villain Kevin this episode is Anime as and I like that number 12 is restaurant Wars restaurants go to war goodbye Kofi Goodbye Mr Fryman this is your last episode Kiki's pizza delivery service is episode 13 more restaurant episodes yay this one's fine Kiki weirdly has a rare bit of character development number 14 monster reunion Steven's healing powers are back and now Steven can heal corrupted gems kinda I like this in between of a regular and corrupted gem we also get more insight into the corruption incident 15 starts out as a mid-tier episode and ends with Jasper coming out of the ocean and getting punched into Oblivion episode 16 Greg the babysitter is a flashback episode but to me it's probably the weakest one in 17 Connie goes on her first mission with Steven and pearl where they find Jasper obtaining two corrupted gems which comes up in 18 crack the whip this one's sick it starts out with like a fun time type episode where Steven and Connie hang out with amethyst and it ends with stevonnie fighting Jasper and Amethyst starting her main character Arc Stephen versus amethyst is the episode where Stephen and Amethyst fight to see who's the worst new power unlock Spike bubble episode 20. bismuth God that title card goes so cold this is a crazy episode bismuth is such a cool character man her design is awesome and her VA did a great job but it's so sad that she just disappears until the last season still this was one of the hypest episodes back then episode 21 reveals Jasper's Army and leaves off with a cliffhanger ending that leads into episode 22 earthlings and boom new fusional art we've got smoky quartz I love a yo-yo user man corrupted Jasper is really cool and the Peridot kill let's go also the name drop of pink Diamond's pretty neat Jasper's VA did a great job 23 shows us The Return of the rubies and we end up back on the moon we learn about how Rose shattered pink diamond and one of the rubies pulls Stephen into the cold vacuum of space I wonder what next episode's gonna be about bubbled is the name of the final episode of season three eyeball being the antagonist here is pretty nice considering the bit of build up she had in the baseball episode The Limited conflict despite taking place in the infinite expanse of space is also really cool and love like you is the ending ah great episode season three really kept the momentum going although there were no diamond appearances Jasper proved to be an intimidating enough villain and there's still plenty of setup being done for later this one had so much development for characters who needed it lapis Peridot Greg and Pearl and most of all amethyst the bigger event episodes were also Top Notch with Mr Greg bismuth the beginning and end all being great there were a couple of mediocre episodes but with great music more wonderfully animated scenes and a bigger plot build I'm gonna have to give this one 8.6 yo-yos out of 10. [Music] so I wanted this next part to be about like alternate media and Merchandising but I'm not Quentin reviews so it's not gonna be that fancy listen I don't got money to Shell out for DS kits and plushies all right I will try to talk about as many of the interesting products as I could find and for that I have to shout out the Tumblr page where Love Takes work they have a mega collection of Steven Universe merch that they make sure to document and display in one single place of course you've got t-shirts and plushes and figures and Funko Pops as far as the interesting things go you've got these really expensive varsity jackets uh based on the ones that Steven wears in future you've got this garnet-based karaoke mic which is very fitting for the show but her face is the handle and that's kind of weird to me speaking of garnet there's the Yahtzee set where you use her Gauntlet to roll the dice and finally of course a cheeseburger backpack most of the merchandising came from the original Show run and a lot of those were only available in small quantities at things like San Diego Comic-Con I'm just surprised we didn't get any action figure toys like new from Hasbro the Crystal Gems spring into action with rocket fist launching Garnet real tear crying Pearl and the other one there's also like the comics graphic novels books and soundtracks I guess I I don't really know what you'd want to hear about those they're just Steven Universe versions of those things there's not really any like interesting lore drops to be found either I did however find a way to play one of the games just please remind me to cancel my Apple arcade subscription I just want the free month I I swear if that five dollars goes through I'm gonna have some goddamn words with myself because that's just me being dumb I played unleash the light and it's fine the combat got really old really quick so the only Parts about it that I liked was the character interactions which there weren't that many but unleash the light is only the third in its respective series aside from the light games there's also Dreamland arcade which doesn't exist anymore gem bound which doesn't exist anymore the Phantom Fable which doesn't exist anymore soundtrack attack which doesn't exist anymore do you want me to keep going on top of those we have a bunch of browser-based ones and characters from the series have appeared in multiple other games like battle Crashers multiverses and even brawlhalla I don't know what this was for if I'm being honest like stuff exists that's the section of the video we're over halfway done with the original series it feels weird like a lot of setup is still going on but I haven't really seen too much about the diamonds but I also remember these last two seasons being really dense season 4 begins with a Wily coyote reference there's a whole episode also Paradox can bubble things now there are two things about that that's kind of sad because number one it's the last of her power development and two I don't think she ever uses it again number two is know your Fusion amethyst and Stephen show off smoky quartz to Garnet and Pearl and a very Charming episode comes out of it they also reveal that sardonyx has her own room in the temple which makes me kind of want to know what the other fusions rooms would look like Buddy's book is a history episode where Stephen and Connie read a book about an old Adventurer exploring a bunch of gem locations the only really interesting part is the quick tease of the palan king episode 4 mindful education is my favorite episode here comes a thought he's so important to me I love the progression of conflict here where you think it's just Connie with her anxieties but then Steven's fears start to kick in the transition where stevani is stabbing at bismuth and then the rose head the butterflies the colors this is a wonderfully made episode that really spells out anxiety in a hard-hitting yet easy to understand way five Future Boy zoltron is about Steven becoming a fortune teller this feels like a mediocre season one episode but the ending is pretty cute episode 6 is character development for Pearl and an extremely fun episode this one feels really different from the rest of them it's almost more mature with house music law breaking and Amethyst almost swearing but I kind of like that about it seven is an onion episode but also it's Craig of the Creek episode 8 is Gem Harvest which introduces Andy an he's all of the isms until he isn't it's such a weird episode to get the double length special treatment it just feels like really long filler to me episode 9 is much better it's a flashback episode where the gems end up stealing baby Steven from Greg I love Pearl's emotions especially at the start of the episode it's cute episode 10 has the full introduction of the palanquin when Garnet gets upset and cold it gets really interesting also a fourth wall break and It All Leads to Blue Diamond's big reveal and Greg's kidnapping good stuff episode 11 they go to a human Zoo made by The Diamonds to find Greg Gemma Heist is next and it introduces Holly blue Agate she's cool the zoo episode 13. Stephen finds Greg and they ruin a Utopia that will be all as the important one we see the diamonds interacting and yeah that is well needed the song is also cool I'm glad they put villainous songs in here yellow's VA kind of Clips the mic but it's fine the new Crystal Gems is about Connie lapis and Peridot being the new Crystal Gems while the others were gone I like seeing these characters interact but other than that episode 16 is cool Steven confronts his mom or rather a figment of his mom in her room there's good character development and the visuals are great 17 is a Ronaldo episode tiger philanthropist is 18 and it's another wrestling filler episode episode 19 shows the return of Navy one of the Ruby guards she's a Twist villain and like I knew she wasn't gonna become a new crystal gem but it was still disappointing to see lion four it's been a minute Steven gets a super special key he finds a tape with it and I'm so glad they got to the bottom of it immediately rather than trying to drag it out a bunch of speculation on who Nora could be would have been just not that fun this chain of episodes coming up is something I remember being extremely present for episode 21 is Dugout the title sends a tidal wave of nostalgia through my brain it's weird though because I didn't actually remember the episode itself the only important bit is the part with the Shadows at the end the good Lars is the same as the last episode but reverse the title versus episode remembering thing Lars is so frustrating but it's for his setup so I I'm fine with it and Sadie hanging out with the cool kids is also good setup for later in episode 23 we find out that everyone is going missing the reason ends up being a duo or Trio of gems aquamarine and topaz who are kidnapping specific Beach City citizens I I am my mom the title of this episode is so powerful this is the season 4 finale and God damn the I'm not my dad I'm my mom line at the end is killer and it also kicks off lars's Big Arc I'm having mixed feelings on this one it has my favorite episode great music and a lot of important events that build up into next season but there's something off about it I know that the Towny episodes are becoming less interesting because when you say in which a Ronaldo episode and a Wrestling episode between the two most important events in the series so far gets really hard not to skip them but the zoo Arc oddly tame for most of it and Gem Harvest getting the double length treatment was just pretty disappointing still there's some good stuff here 7.4 Bingo bong goes out of 10. [Music] this is the moment I've been waiting for the music in this show is one of the few things that it can wear with full Pride other shows can take home character work storytelling visuals but music I feel like this show is unmatched by how many quality pieces it puts out there are only two cartoons that I can think of with a soundtrack this refined Over the Garden Wall and Adventure Time Over the Garden Wall being a small limited series allowed it to have such an incredible soundtrack but I don't know how well it would have fared at 150 plus episode run and as much as I love Adventure Time's music it is 100 carried by Olivia Olson which isn't a bad thing but seeing Steven Universe give out so many incredible songs through all these different characters is wonderful do it for her something entirely new peace and love on the planet Earth for just one day change your mind don't forget about stronger than you an absolute jaw dropper and one of the most memorable moments in the entire series escapism a beautiful song from AJ with both backing vocals from Zach and Grace I wish it wasn't used in the way it was but it's still gorgeous it's over isn't it an absolute showstopper and one of the best performances in the entire series here comes a thought which is an incredible display of not only music but visual art as well providing such a moving and heart-wrenching piece of artistry that encapsulates anxiety so well and love like you which has become not only one of the most popular and beloved songs from a cartoon but a massive song in general garnering over 150 million streams on Spotify the music in this show is next to none and I haven't even gotten to the movie hi it's uh it's editing me for some reason I didn't think to write anything about the actual score of the show it was done by Ivy and sarashu and God it's just such good atmospheric music it sets the mood so well and it's just really satisfying to listen to alright bye all I can say is nice Steven Universe good on you so one more season to go I feel like the only thing that I'm missing is how little the diamonds have been actual characters foreign season 5 episode 1 starts with stuck together I love this Arc so much Steven and Lars try to escape but they end up getting separated when they land on Homeworld the trial is next and oh man it's so good we meet Zircon another new gem this episode feels really thought out with the palanquin Lars and mentioned in the breaking point off colors is the third of this four-parter and it introduces um the off colors Lars kicks ass and then straight up dies it's messed up but then Steven's healing tears emerge and brings him back to life the special ends with lars's head lars's hair is linked to the pink Dimension meaning Steven can now move between him and lion so large stays with the off colors and Steven heads home I'm sure they'll try to help him in the next episode yeah no the next episode is about an election I still don't like Dewey gemcation is episode 6 and this is the reason why I thought the Stephen Connie conflict from the beginning of season 2 was longer Connie's M.I.A for a while being upset with what happened and rightfully so episode 7 lapis takes the barn and leaves Earth back to the kindergarten shows Peridot still upset over what happened with lapis they plant some flowers the flowers die and then they get sad until they don't Sadie Killers the shocking title the ninth episode but she just starts a band episode 10 is Kevin Stephen and Connie makeup that's it episode 11 be begins another special large with the Stars I love the style of this episode Lars just becomes a badass space pirate in episode 12 stevonnie gets trapped on an alien Moon and has a dream about the diamonds but it's revealed that they're actually dreaming as pink diamond I love how stevonnie's dreams are Fusion dreams they they take aspects of both Stephen and Connie's thoughts episode 13 has gone at telling the off colors about Rose's story 14 The Big Show is about Sadie and her band's first gig I like the style of this episode it's pretty fun in episode 15 pool hopping Garnet goes insane and adopts a cat a letter to Lars is next and it's kind of a wrap up on all the townies kind of on the surface that's what it looks like but it really just ended up being an ax mayor Dewey episode in episode 17 can't go back Steven finds lapis on the moon spying on the Crystal Gems but after Steven has a dream about the diamonds she runs away again the dream's kinda crazy though as it insinuates that Pearl killed pink diamond a single pale Rose looks to resolve the conflict of last episode and drop the biggest reveal in the show thus far Steven goes into Pearl's gem he digs through her memories and finds out that rose quartz is actually pink diamond and pearl is pink Diamond's Pearl she was never shattered and instead reformed herself as Rose also it shows us why Pearl never shapeshifts in the series we get to see a bunch of different Pearl designs here too now we're only falling apart as another direct sequel we get more insight on Rose or pink and Ruby runs away from Sapphire after sapphire gets mad number 20 amethyst has her last big character Arc and they find Ruby with Greg the question has Ruby development and Sapphire and Ruby become engaged 22 maid of honor builds up the wedding and has the very late return of bismuth which by the way she's been in a bubble for like a year now I know that gems live for thousands of years but like it's still kinda messed up that they didn't try to socialize with the only sentient uncle erupted gem they had locked up in their Bubble Room God I forgot the wedding Arc was like six episodes but 23 and 24 is the actual wedding the song at the beginning is lovely and Ruby wearing a dress is adorable it's a phenomenal recap of the story as a whole but the diamonds end up crashing the wedding Blue Diamond especially goes sicko mode lapis comes back and now she's cracked as Steven dies I think and the Diamonds find out that he's actually pink diamond episode 25 is the diamonds trying to heal a corrupted jam it doesn't work and they tell him that they need white diamond that's where she's name dropped for the first time in the entire series she's been teased in imagery but this is like our first confirmation they go to Homeworld and I'm so glad that Connie goes with them she hasn't been in much action in the show and after the last time Steven went I really wanted them to take on things together Steven meets white but before he can say anything to her she sends him to Pink's room or um his room episode 25 familiar Steven talks to the diamonds to no avail so he decides to throw a party together alone it's party time until it isn't episode 27 and the penultimate episode of the series escapism we get the gorgeous song um escapism and Steven turns into a watermelon Stephen to tell his dad and bismuth that shit's gone bad change your mind is the final episode a 40 plus minute episode at that Steven gets blue diamond on his side and blue and yellow fight they also get yellow on their side but when white finds out Steven gets a chance to run away from it all he stays to help convince white diamond to change but then yellow and blue end up possessed by white in order to get his friends back we get to see more fusions rainbow quartz is a new form and all the gems get redesigned then garnet and Steven fuse into probably my least favorite Fusion Sunstone is interesting but then we see obsidian yeah they were trying to tie up all the Loose Ends it's a bit rushed but it's still fun obsidian sword is awesome by the way white is very intimidating I really like the stylization of her the the gray outline staticky room and they finally did something that they teased back in the flashback episode three gens and a baby white diamond pulls out Steven's gem this dual shot between the body and Gem is super cool The Scream the spin oh God it's great Steven being the little smooth talker that he is does eventually get through to White they go home Lars comes back and they heal all the corrupted gems then Steven finishes it out with change your mind season five is dense I mean it had to be seeing as it was going to be their last one I let myself think on this one the longest because I feel like I could go multiple different ways of talking about it I think season 5 is a good season despite having the abrupt end and trying to tie up all these loose ends as quickly as possible I still think it went well it has four great specials a lot of character development good music wonderful performances and some really great shots it was rushed but I won't let that taint this season alone that's more of an overarching problem with the entire series based on how much I enjoyed re-watching this season I'll give it eight weird Moon birds out of ten and that wraps up our original series discussion overall it was a pretty damn solid show the visuals especially the color work and backgrounds were great the performances were incredible and it gave us some of the best music in a cartoon that I've ever heard however with some character shots that look rough and are very rushed ending that felt unsatisfying I can't consider it to be the best of the best my number one complaint with this series is its inability to focus it feels like it's on a seesaw tipping between overarching plot development and Bland filler and even when some of the less important episodes of character and plot development it just feels bogged down by the energy of it the difference between season 1 and season 5 is jarring it feels like they kept pushing and pulling the direction of the way the story was being told we had constant light progression at first then it was full setup for later then a bunch of character arcs played out and then finally all the big flashy end game stuff it just lacked a sense of flow they also kept adding plot and characters and settings but they wouldn't expand on any of it Peridot once her Arc was done she became a generic comedic relief character lapis she had her Arc and when they wanted to do something else with her they just did it again bismuth a joke she was introduced earlier on and then brought back for the series finale with no actual evidence of character development the off colors the fusions from change your mind the corrupted gems most of the townies held even Greg stops being a dynamic character after the zoo Arc they just tried to cram way too many eggs into their basket still for what it is it's pretty damn good all of the characters and plot points that do get focused on are well done and the quality of the animation art style music and vocal talents increases more and more as the series goes on while I don't personally think that this show is a better show than Adventure Time I do still think it's a very good show I give the original five season run of Steven Universe a seven plus Oh and before we jump into the movie I'm in a lightning round the shorts what are gems this is just a recap of the explanation of gems told over the whole series Power gems made this is just a recap of the gem creation processes told over the whole series unboxing special number one Blacky sack hot dog duffel bag it explains exactly when he got his duffel bag which is seen in multiple episodes such as Keystone Motel Fusion this is just a recap of the explanation of fusions told over the whole series lion loves to fit in a box he's in a box oh this one's just the extended theme song the rest are known as minisodes good cooking with Lion it's a cooking video gem karaoke they sing the Olivia Olson song it's kind of cute Steven reacts Stephen reacts to a dumb show the whole thing is a parody of Steven universe itself very tongue-in-cheek video chat I distinctly remember this one Stephen calls Peridot but lapis thinks he's stuck in her tablet I don't understand this because gems have video chat capabilities that have already been shown prior to this short Stephen song Time Stephen sings a song I'm going to mention a couple of things real quick first off is the dove self-esteem project and the anti-racism shorts their informative animated shorts using Steven Universe characters to promote body positivity and anti-racism with multiple different messages the other thing I'm going to briefly talk about is the fandom I could not talk about this show without at least mentioning it now I'm not gonna dwell because nowadays they seem somewhat chill but there's a reason why in every single conversation about terrible fan bases this one is always there some absolutely heinous has come from the people there and sure bad apples in the orchard or whatever but there are bad apples and there are apples who bully people so hard that they attempt to take their own life so no yeah no that'll never get a pass from me let's move on yeah it's movie time no I actually kind of Star Wars to my rewatch I watched the movie first then the main series and then future I don't know if it made for a better viewing experience but it was kind of fun to do it uh this is a really well made movie it begins with the diamonds recapping the entire story of the series and begging Steven to stay with them after he broadcast to everyone that he's staying on Earth he holds his ground and heads home to recap some more with another song it's a better song though after lazing about for a bit Garnet's Future Vision shows her that they're happily ever after is about to be destroyed and then it is a giant drill crashes into the Earth and from it emerges a new villain to fight spinel is a great character and villain but I'll get to that in a bit she ends up poofing the gems but Steven beats her however something's not quite right when he finds out that his powers aren't working Greg gives him some reassurance but when Pearl reforms things aren't looking so good she along with the other gems including spinel have been then factory reset to their original forms so with none of the other gems memories or any of his powers Steven turns to bismuth lapis and Peridot for help they set out to find a way to regain the memories of garnet amethyst and pearl by having them live through important moments from their lives first up Ruby and Sapphire's Fusion Stevens failed attempt at threatening them into Fusion turns into a successful attempt as through a Rube Goldberg machine of hijinks Sapphire saves Ruby from being Shattered by an anvil and they become Garnet not Garnet Garnet though brand new Garnet so they put that one on the back burner and try amethyst after a very cute duet amethyst is back quick and easy you know what isn't quick and easy getting rid of the big injector pumping poison into the Earth the only way to get rid of it safely is through spinel but the evil crazy version in order for Steven to help spinel back to World itself he helps Pearl because she's the only one to have known her after a big show an amethyst transforming into Rose they get Pearl back through the power of fusion steg is interesting I like the VA and the song is great plus seeing more Fusion is always fun but man there's something interesting about that one Steven's struggling but he powers on to how spinel remember and that's when we learn about the garden and what pink did to spinel just another thing to throw onto the pile of pink being a villain spinel agrees to shut off the drill and so she does and that's the movie Just Kidding Steven's a dumbass he doesn't say anything wrong but his phrasing is so bad that spinel goes right back to being angry again and assured the injector comes down but it brings Garnet back when she remembers that love is good they fight spinel for a bit but she realizes that she can just get what she wants by speeding up the injector I thought it was a plot hole because she could have just done that in the first place but I can also see it as a way to make Steven suffer the gems help save the town's folk from the poison and Steven climbs the injector to talk to spinel and as he's dangling helpless hundreds of feet in the sky he realizes why his powers are missing which gives him his powers back then with a fight in the song they become friends and destroy the injector Steven starts kissing the ground to heal the poison damage but is interrupted by The Diamonds crashing in they take spinel as like a replacement Steven and then we kind of skip through the recovery process as the final song plays [Music] it's a pretty damn good movie The performances especially in the song Department were great the visuals popped off every now and again and the story and characters were solid as hell spinel was a great villain despite being such a powerless character when compared to the diamonds or Jasper and the conflict relied on character flaws rather than a big bad evil which was pretty refreshing I want to touch on the music some more because it's a musical and yeah it was well done at first some of the writing felt a bit on the nose but that kind of went away after I settled into my musical watching mode I'm a sucker for reprises so just let us adore you in the happily ever after songs were really cool true Kind of Love is Great disobedient and independent together are fun Zach did great on a lot of this soundtrack but change was definitely the highlight and finally Sarah styles on drift away and other friends was killer what a good casting I do have a couple of problems like once again the abrupt ending also since I was in performance mode I was looking to the other characters for like their reactions and stuff um but they would often just stand there and like wait for their line it's not the end of the world it's it's just what I noticed I think the movie's better than the show eight [Music] Steven Universe future I hadn't seen this prior to my full re-watch so I'll save my opinions on this until the end I do believe the original show had some loose ends and rushed its ending but a sequel show or any more seasons really felt unlikely to me when it ended now Steven Universe future here we are and it all starts with episode one little homeschool is the name and I'm realizing I need to talk about the intro I don't like it as much it's just like really dense visually and the song isn't nearly as iconic as the original sorry in this episode we see the development between the two series and get a better insight into what that Gem City was in the movie Steven feels bad that Jasper is all alone and goes to convince her to join everyone in little homeschool Jasper is uncooperative and they end up fighting which shows off a new power that Steven has where he turns pink episode 2 guidance shows gems integrating with Society Herb At least Beach City everything goes wrong when Steven starts micromanaging where the gem should be and Amethyst fuses with Steven to help fix things Smokey goes pink and can now slow down time or move really quickly one of the two rosebuds is episode three and I honestly did not expect to see the zoo make a return the importance of the zoo returning is seeing all the rose quartzes that were bubbled during the arc have now reformed of course it's super weird and everyone's uncomfortable he has an emotional moment about his mom and then they leave episode 4 is volleyball and it goes more into depth about pink Diamond's Pearl or uh well her original Pearl she wants Steven to heal the crack on her face but his powers won't work he goes to Pearl for help and they go to a special place known as The Reef spatial also uh two things one it was pink diamond new crafter not white and two Pro's gem is looking a lot Pinker than it used to Steven gets angry and yells which causes the reef to become hostile towards the pearls they have a heart to heart infused into a bigger Pearl to protect each other this episode makes me feel like I missed something because they kind of just casually talk about stuff that hadn't really been brought up before Bluebird is the name of the episode where they meet the gem Bluebird their Fusion of eyeball and aquamarine they cause Stephen to just be an they do hold Greg hostage but he gets away by cutting his hair so like they're not that good at being villains I did like Alexandrite forming just to squash them okay that was pretty funny episode 6 is a very special episode that's the title not not how I feel about it it's the one and only rainbow 2.0 episode which sucks and it's also an onion episode which is fine because I think rainbow 2.0 and onion work well together but like Sunstone is also here I still don't like Sunstone snow day shows off how maturity is getting to Steven amethyst drums up a game of Steven tag to help loosen him up and we eventually see Pearl shapeshift for the second time ever all the fusions have Steven forms which is fun and they have some nice development pretty cute episode episode 8 why so Blues about gems who are still destroying worlds a pair of lapis lazuli are terraforming a planet when Steven and Lapis jump in to stop them when talking doesn't work lapis resorts to violence and fights them but stops when she realizes she's losing her cool in little graduation we learned that Lars is moving back out into space and that Sadie has a lay friend so good for them except not good for them I guess because Steven doesn't like that his powers act up and he creates The Simpsons Movie Dome around the celebration he pushes the blame on Lars and the Dome starts to shrink around them shap Sadie's day Friend helps Steven realize his own feelings and he says goodbye to Larsen Sadie it's kind of weird this episode got me thinking about ships and I came to a conclusion that was quite false Steven has no real ship in the show and that's how I realized I haven't seen Connie yet prickly pear has Stephen denying his feelings from last episode he quit little homeschool and grew plants including the magical cactus that talks he uses it as a therapy punching bag and after feeding it too much negativity it ends up growing into a monster and letting the gems know about Steven's feelings while they fight him Steven apologizes to the cactus and it leaves number 11. in dreams shows Peridot actually being a character for the first time and she comes over to watch a show with Stephen but he's been having some bad dreams which ends up airing on his TV they immediately decide to use this to create their own version of the show which goes wrong at the end when they turn into nightmares it gets extra bad with some really cool visuals thrown in and it ends in an oddly rare positive note with Peridot reassuring that she wants to hang out with Stephen Moore which every other character besides the main Crystal Gems has been showing otherwise bismuth casuals the Bismuth episode man I really wish these characters got more screen time also suddenly Connie's here after 11 episodes of not existing she's dressed here in the Bismuth episode they go to a skating rink and Steven's not having the best at times his entire personality is just being the savior of the Galaxy he cannot stop talking about fixing the universe and he sucks at skating while everyone else is having a blast but when Connie tries to do something else with him due to his lack of skating enjoyment he blows her off telling her to just keep skating after talking with bismuth he tells her how he feels when they Feud so uh everything's good between them together forever episode 13 is an odd one to say the least Steven gets sad that Connie's going to college and has her entire life planned out so Ruby gives him the idea that at age 16 Stephen should propose to Connie but but not just propose propose few Fusion proposed that's weird as hell and Steven's just so bubbly thinking about being stevani forever but he doesn't think of Connie at all they go on an evening picnic and it's crammed full of references to previous episodes which I liked and the song despite me not liking the intentions is probably the best Steven song in the franchise but of course everything comes crashing down when he actually proposes she lets him down so easily too easily after she leaves his feelings still get carried away and he uh well yeah episode 14 Growing Pains uh yeah he takes it badly like really badly so badly he starts growing and morphing I uh I didn't really think we'd get a Mrs Mahesh we're in appearance but here we are he gets a full checkup but she thinks it's more of a mental problem if she tries to talk to him about the amount of trauma that he's endured this part is honestly one of the best scenes of the show he swells up to a large size but Greg comes in to calm him down Mr Universe picks up right after the last episode and it's a Greg and Steven road trip episode they end up breaking into Greg's childhood home where he grabs a CD and shows Stephen A song revealing that their family name is from it Steven gets upset by that and crashes the van this was the last big trigger that causes the final Arc the show I guess it's kind of the overarching plot of the season but they really address it head on after this and that's in fragments the gems are worried and Stephen Falls further into pink he leaves and ends up with Jasper who agrees to train him he ends up permapink for a bit and gets a redesign which makes him look a little bit more like stag which is nice interesting they rematch and he ends up shattering her it's fine though because she heals in the diamond Bath honestly that really annoys me like it gets rid of all the plot power that shattering has it's a kid's show so I guess I shouldn't expect them to make Steven a murderer but like I don't know man Homeworld bound has him going to Homeworld to talk to the diamonds for help spinel's here she's a lot less animated here in the movie but yeah that's forgivable this is a show they go to Yellow for help and we see that she's working on fixing the gem Shard experiments which is a nice loose end she can't fix Steven though so they go to Blue instead she can't help either so they just go to White her new power is kinda creepy just like her other power she can also let other people use her body as a puppet his feelings well up once again and he takes his anger out on White in a really unsettling scene he runs away and takes on a more diamond-like appearance episode 18 everything's fine everything isn't fine his powers are going sicko mode eventually Connie Greg and the gems have a bit of an intervention which goes poorly I am my monster yeah he's a monster and a pretty cool one at that lapis holds him down while the diamonds try to help him but nothing works and he breaks free it gets so bad the cluster begins to help they end up fixing everything with the power of love and the ending oh man yeah that got me for a show that often explains extreme emotions through dialogue and song lyrics this 10 seconds of just crying is one of the strongest feeling scenes in the show the future is the final episode ever maybe Steven decides that it's time to move out and start a new chapter in his life but the gems take it well too well everyone else has worked up about it so he decides to give them some gifts to drum up emotions bit of emotional manipulation there but whatever after saying goodbye Steven leaves and immediately drives back to be upset by it they cry and then he drives off and that's the story of Steven Universe thank you so Steven Universe future wasn't exactly what I was hoping for I did like the fact that his Diamond Powers were acting up and I liked that the whole season focused on one main problem that wasn't an enemy and you know the original series didn't do overarching stories perfectly especially early on they would often have a character or threat pop up at the beginning or middle and then wouldn't get to it until the end it wasn't until later on that it started getting better however I see some glaring issues with this season first and foremost Stephen is damn near unbearable character-wise in the original yeah he was a little annoying but his actions always felt in character to him I understand that he's had bottled up trauma and that was a really good route to go but he's just a bad person in this there were points where I didn't want to root for him just because of how unbelievably selfish and annoying he was especially near the end in this he helped people to maintain the status of being a good person it which confuses me because in the movie which takes place very close to Future he doesn't show anything that would lead to this he also had multiple internal problems that popped up like a need to be useful maturity or loss of Youth and abandonment but despite having a lot of overlap those problems didn't really co-mingle oh okay I'm gonna say it future is like a slightly alternate long version of here comes a thought all these different issues welling up and causing real problems but learning to overcome them by remembering you have people who care also the variety and complexity outside of Stephen wasn't there none of the other characters did anything I think of all the characters here lapis had the most development after Stephen and she had like one episode Pearl had something in episode 4 but it just repeated what they had developed in the first series she's simping too hard for Rose Garnet did nothing amethyst hardly existed and the other two side gems peridot and bismuth had episodes that coincided with bigger events events Greg loses his hair and has a bit of backstory revealed but not much any other gem had little to nothing going on with themselves Connie not showing up until episode 12 of 20 was a massive mistake as she had what I would deem as the breaking point in Steven's Arc and had a large role in fixing him I didn't feel bad for Steven like I should have because they all realized that they needed to be there for him after they asked if they needed to be there for him I get the whole welled up emotions thing but it was weird seeing him upset and then acting like nobody knew about it like telling Peridot that he didn't want to lose her and having her reciprocate those feelings but still convincing himself that everyone was gonna leave him it just felt forced I guess Steven Universe future it made me dislike Stephen as a character and didn't add anything new to the pre-existing cast it left out a lot of the key things that I'd want from a sequel show such as character Dynamics growing literally anything with Jasper who mind you is right back at square one as of the end of this series or any consequences of previous problems that were never solved such as the genocidal space dictators getting off scot-free after killing what had to be billions of lives on top of that the style was heavily reduced resulting in way less creative and interesting visuals less action significantly worse music much less enjoyable jokes in writing and an underutilized use of the concept of a sequel show the best thing that I can say about this show is Zach Callison kills it this time both in speech and in song he did wonderfully Steven Universe future gets a five minus from me it's not a bad show and it structure is a lot more focused and narrative heavy which I like but there isn't much here that makes me go wow I am so glad that they continued the story from last time like the movie does the intense focus on Steven's character let Zach and Steven shine but with it being a shorter series none of the other characters got to do anything which sucks because this season has the most characters at its disposal you know I'll say that the soundtrack was really nice but the actual music numbers were leagues below the movie and the original series [Music] I've got one more thing up my sleeve no it's not say uncle I I said no it's something I haven't even mentioned until now the Steven Universe pilot episode now I feel like this is something that I shouldn't talk about because of the Cartoon Network YouTube channel took it down but it's too cool not to so I'm gonna [Music] it begins with an intro that is very different from the original or a normal one no songs just a few lines of dialogue The Gems with their interesting designs come back from an adventure and after Steven sings the song that would eventually become the intro amethyst gives him a cool orb thing it's actually The Hourglass that Steven uses in the first season to make a band but this time he uses it for sick comebacks against Lars this use isn't printed on it as now it can only be used by Stephen for comebacks an evil skull creature seeking it out attacks and Garnet calls Steven a butt face now that might not seem like it's important but don't worry it's a surprise tool that'll help us later actually it'll help us now the gems get beat up so Steven uses a comeback to go back in time to save the day and so he does and then does it again to an earlier point in the episode man I I wish I could go back in time to set that up better oh well it's very different I won't play any audio but like Steven's voice is kind of weird and the visuals are yeah that's very 2000s it was all right if you know where to look I'd suggest checking it out well I guess I'm done and hopefully Steven Universe is too I think they really gave it its last bit of breath of the movie because future just didn't really do it for me I still think the franchise holds up well and is one of the best cartoons of the 2010s despite a rough fan base rushed endings sour sequel show and a bit of a failing reputation for whatever reason that is it's still a huge show that managed to keep its head above the water and really stand out in some incredible ways and on top of that it's kind of evolved into something more than just a show with messages of body positivity and acceptance themes relating to multiple different parts of the lgbtq plus community and characters who don't conform to typical gender Norms it stands out as a wonderful piece of art that welcomes those who are welcoming Happy Birthday Steven Universe adios

Channel: Butter Prime

Views: 260,495

Keywords: Steven Universe, Rebecca Sugar, Cartoon Network, Cartoon

Id: _6lIXNaEreA

Length: 73min 38sec (4418 seconds)

Published: Mon May 15 2023