The Fate of Chosen Ones: The End of Steven Universe

this video is brought to you by skillshare the first thousand people to click the link in the description will get a two-month free trial for skillshare premium when we first meet the boy who would become steven court's cutie pie demayo diamond universe he has the kind of life that any stereotypical preteen boy would want he doesn't have to go to school has super powers and is gradually being trained to fight monsters his eagerness to do so isn't because he's an aggressive boy it's because he wants to protect people and spend more time with and be equal to the rest of his family he does think it's cool but it's also because he kinda doesn't have anything else to do when he's unable to spend time with his gem family or his own father he's constantly looking for alternative companionship and between him easing the conflicts between his bickering gem parents and attempting to befriend everybody in beach city including the antagonistic lars steven becomes adjusted to the role of peacekeeper because everyone is more fun and willing to play with him if they're not yelling at each other aside from all of the almost death the greatest stressor of his young life is his feelings regarding his late mother that even then were complicated he grows up hearing what an amazing loving caring and powerful and overall seemingly perfect person she was who literally sacrificed her life to bring him into the world he admires her but is also intimidated about living up to this messianic figure as well as suffering the guilt that he only exists at the expense of her and afraid his family blames him for her not being there thus the tendency to blame himself for absolutely everything that goes wrong this is all my fault but i wasted your time i ruined everything didn't i still she inspires him to be both a brave fighter and a compassionate person and only after experiencing multiple invasions attempted kidnappings near-death experiences ronaldo existing and a heck of a lot of dead naming rose why do you look like that he learns that she was actually a diamond in disguise and that everything that he and his family have suffered has been the results of her lies there are things to say about pink quartz rose diamond but that's for another day suffice it to say for now that it's been a fascinating unveiling of this fallen idol both for stephen and for the fanbase what's important is how steven reacts to his struggles steven has been one of the more practical applications of the typical chosen one trope but he is not chosen by a random spin on a cosmic wheel or some prophecy bs it's a more literal kind of fate that due to circumstances beyond his control namely his birth he inherited both the power and the burdens of his mother while he has been special and one of a kind he's not being trained for any specific grand purpose and all of his training and attempting to reach certain power milestones is just a supernatural parallel to the trials of growing up when homeworld came to earth he technically didn't have to do anything but he eventually realized he was literally the only one in a position where he could have made a substantial difference whereas anyone else could not yes this kind of story employs the typical allures of the wish fulfillment trope being overpowered knowing better than all the adults and being adored by everyone which can be annoying as i will say so but it's not insignificant to have this kind of escapist story but in a series written with queer children in mind starring a male character that subverts many typical depictions of masculinity the perseverance against a world that is constantly attacking you and staying true to who you are and your beliefs despite everyone telling you you're wrong the emotional climax of his arc isn't even when he topples the evil empire it's when he's finally able to cast off the identity and expectations of what everyone wants him to be and finally able to accept and reclaim his own life for himself but now the impossible expectations of being his mom will now be replaced by the impossible expectations of himself okay now let's actually talk about future steven universe future the epilogue miniseries is the story of the mental spiral and fallout of a young chosen one after they fulfilled their purpose a volatile combination of ptsd from being a child soldier with the far more mundane but nonetheless stressful issues of dependency coming of age anxiety and fallen child star syndrome and like anyone who's worked through a weekend on pure stress and adrenaline who collapses the minute the project is over when steven finally experiences the first thing he can call down time with no foreseeable conflicts to brace for and starts thinking about his own future rather than others we see what happens when everything he's experienced all his anxieties and all the trauma catches up to him at once in episodes 1 and 2 we see the start of what will become steven's main complexes that his tendency and reputation for helping people has now become ingrained in his self-image to the point where it has become a reflex to get involved even if he's not necessarily wanted or needed he tries to help jasper by encouraging her to go to the school even though she doesn't want to and technically isn't bothering anybody and he tries to shake up the gems jobs on earth to get them out of their comfort zone after amethyst has already counseled them because why would aliens who just moved and are getting used to a different planet and culture have any need for any sort of comfort zone is it also because he doesn't have faith in amethyst because he believes he's the only one that can do anything granted it's not too surprising for steven to start to believe a little bit of his own hype given how everything has happened almost solely due to his own decisions having a bit of an ego is a common affliction of child stars especially ones who are basically jesus impossible birth son of god healer various sermons about the right way to live devout followers show compassion to thine enemies bringing people back from the dead offers himself up as a sacrifice to save humanity and returns to earth to save the souls of the corrupted my sister's a religion major i'm sure she'll tell me if any of that was wrong okay so that's a bit of an exaggeration steven has of course not been able to perfectly assess and solve every conflict even in the place where he is the most exceeded empathizing with others feelings he didn't always understand why they felt that way or the best way to help them he doesn't understand connie's hurt feelings after he returns to earth nor does he understand lapis's trauma and mild reluctance at the aspect of moving in with her former captor also remember when he flipped out at the prospect that sapphire and ruby may never get back together but in the end everything worked out because he tried and he genuinely wanted people to be happy but that has kind of been the cycle even when he did genuinely f up like he did when he was curious about peridot's bots which led to aquamarine's list in the end he's ultimately vindicated and proven right because otherwise he wouldn't have known about the cluster and in the end he saved the entire gem empire anyway before he was genuinely trying and hoping for the best outcome now he expects it and gets irritated when he doesn't get it this is reflected in the narrative and that the show from day one has been entirely steven centric we don't witness anything that steven doesn't experience except for flashbacks and other people's stories and in episode 9 we see this manifested into a meta joke where steven literally cannot comprehend that a major development happened in his friend's lives because he wasn't there to witness it even other character stories are literally leaving him i never thought i'd see the day lars was better adjusted than steven episode 3 i wasn't sure at first what the point of this was since these are characters that don't return but they do give us some priceless reaction shots but the point of the episode is to show how steven's feeling about his mother are still complicated leaning on the resentful which is only made more evident in episode 4 where on top of indirectly hurting others she directly hurt others though that she is a diamond that was always very probable it may seem a bit like overkill at this stage to throw more wood onto the rose is the worst bonfire but aside that volleyball story links to stevens in terms of difficulties acknowledging and coping with trauma we're also witnessing two of her victims as it were from two different phases of her life are still making excuses for her but that they're finally able to confront their pain and help each other we also know that the original series ended a bit prematurely and highly likely that this whole pink steven story was originally going to be part of the whole pink diamond identity crisis where his fear and anger at her coming from the fear and anger of what he thought he might become only stephen has already had the not my mom revolution but it is acknowledging that even though he's confronted it and accepted it doesn't mean that the damage is gone especially since he's still cleaning up her messes maybe one day he'll finally able to make peace with her but for right now he takes rose's portrait out of the house in episodes six and seven the one with the psa and the one with the snow respectively are much more fun filleresque episodes which have not usually been people's favorites but i will take as much rainbow 2.0 as you will give me and the family playing in the snow with the steven designs is genuinely adorable remember when steven wanted to play but the crystal gems were busy no it's the opposite as fun as they are they also show how much steven has grown but also how much pressure he's currently putting on himself to meet everyone's needs now i've said before the complaint about the constant villain redemption and how every single conflict is solved by talking which is a little weird considering that in the show there's so so so so so much fighting and that steven has not actually been able to turn everybody and those that he did took a semi-believable amount of time a curve that white diamond completely and utterly ruined bluebird seems to have been made primarily for the sole purpose of re-emphasizing this point as aquamarine and eyeball ruby two villains that never liked steven attempt to bring him down by hate [ __ ] each other and as a follow-up to the changes and policies of the gem empire the lapis lazulis want to continue doing their destructive terraforming of planets even if it destroys the local ecosystem in both cases communication is attempted but ultimately the two need to be strong-armed so the point is made that giving people the opportunity to change doesn't guarantee that they will but somewhat feebly bluebird is such a joke of a villain that it doesn't feel like a real threat and that steven doesn't really need to put his foot down about anything and with the lazulis it's framed as lapis's weakness even if the lazulis do still ultimately listen merely because of a show of strength but this is of course more evident in jasper who through her entire existence in this series has only ever responded to power but on some level they are acknowledging that they just can't be responsible for everyone's bad behavior another debatable thing about steven's character it seems most of the time that his kindness and empathy is so pure and natural and automatic but you can find instances where steven's peacekeeping is motivated by reasons other than pure altruism most often in the service of increasing his own personal enjoyment and now you're trying to do the right thing not really i just want secret team again if you can't get along with each other i might never get to see your awesome fusion power and indeed while it may be his natural instinct it's not necessarily just because it's the right thing to do it's because based on his experience it's literally been the most effective problem solver especially since they've gone against many that they just couldn't fight physically but what we don't see that often is steven actively struggling to stick to his own philosophy for all the murderers that he's confronted the only times when he's actually gotten angry first and had to remind himself to give someone a chance was onion ronaldo and kevin and spinel and now bluebird except that his first instinct turned out to be right again but i guess i can attribute that to steven being an empath and being able to literally sense who has malicious intent and who doesn't the other main theme of this series as well as stephen's other massive fear taking shape is wondering what he's going to do with his life something every teenager goes through only for stephen it now only hits him exactly how much his father's lack's parenting style has crippled his future options wow even consequences for his never having to go to school chosen one escape his childhood future really is touching on everything never having been to school no ged and aside from music not a whole lot he can put on a college resume i mean you could put down alien ambassador apparently enough people know about it but it does seem like that's the only job his life so far has prepared him for and frustrated by his lack of choices and the idea that this is what he'll spend the rest of his life doing especially when he sees how everyone else has grown and is moving down their own life paths this comes to a peak when he asks connie to marry and become stevonnie with him but while he does love connie the main reason he's asking is out of a need to guarantee that he'll keep a loved one close to him and give himself a solid direction for his future this entire episode is so brilliant from beginning to end managing to be both hilarious and devastating to watch and i particularly love garnet's line that your partner is your compliment not your missing piece and now we've gotten this far so we might as well finally talk about pink steven it's described literally both in the show and by the creators as a survival reflex kicking in in moments of great emotional distress brought on by his past trauma so it's a manifestation of his mental stress that also serves as a visualization for the effects that can have on your real life even when you try to ignore it also you know with this whole coming of age thing we have going magical puberty the diamond's powers do behave a lot like hormones as his body grows the diamond's powers are also growing and adjusting to it and he uses the powers well when his mind is clear or if he has support but when his mind is disturbed his power and his mental state both aggravate each other and comes out in angry dangerous bursts it's also not a coincidence that the powers are first triggered when he first expresses anger born out of insecurity and for the first time develops an offensive power as opposed to his usual defensive so when he finally stops being scared and rejecting it he's able to control it better but like indulging in your dark side or your worst instincts it can be very tempting and easy to get carried away especially when particularly anger and aggression can be very addicting emotions especially during a time where you feel alone and helpless and need to feel powerful to feel in control of your life i didn't even notice at first that the polygons were his own personal power evolution away from using his mother's usual signatures and here we see the natural consequence of our chosen one being overpowered not just his pressured mentality that he should be able to handle everything on his own but if for whatever reason he loses control or possibly shifts alliances it is not the first time a chosen one has turned into a villain you were the chosen one now as impactful as it would have been if steven had in fact actually killed jasper somehow now being the point where asking the audience to pardon a murderer would have been too much but jasper returning and uttering the words my diamond is almost just as chilling as this is what he has always feared they're the causes of everything awful that's happened to him so if nothing else steven's pink power his diamond half despite being the thing that he accepted and change your mind is also the part of him that he's greatly scared and ashamed of so it becomes associated with all of the feelings that he is scared and ashamed of even now him going to the diamonds is a last resort and then all the diamonds have to offer is the superficial solutions change your appearance or get a makeover take substances or taking it out on others which if you're gonna take it out on anyone but that is not who stephen is after all he helps people because he's good he literally saved an empire because he was literally the best human being but if he admits he's done these terrible things what right is he to be telling other people how to live their lives and is he in fact no better than a diamond and all he's been doing like all the diamonds is telling other characters what to do and as we said earlier about pink diamond's tendency for deceit it's not surprising that the moment the steven is the most diamond-like is when he's hiding feelings from his family plenty of people who struggle with mental health deny that they have them or deny their severity whether it's hoping that merely saying so will make it true whether just hoping that the problems aren't actually as bad as they think or not wanting to bother others with those problems stephen you need to see a medical professional i wouldn't want to waste your time there's also the very frequent sense that you should be strong enough to handle it on your own you don't need to tell anyone steven saved an empire he should be able to handle some bad thoughts but the pink power being frozen shows that even despite steven just acting like everything is normal it still affects him and all of the people around him but when his family finally corners him in an intervention he can't hide from his feelings anymore and stephen finally turns into the corrupt monster he believes he is as long as he believes he's a monster he'll stay one by the way anyone who gave this show grief for ending in a hug do you know what the season has been about plus how has every other massive conflict been solved not by punching it steven is only able to calm down is not fixed but able to come down from his momentary destructive mental spiral by his family coming together to proclaim that they still love him even when they've seen the worst in him stephen you never gave up on me for some reason i don't understand don't do the same for you this is particularly powerful as a message as there's still a lot of mental health stigma especially regarding men admittedly i would have liked to have seen a corrupt steven be a little bit less cuddly and also do maybe a little bit more actual damage but this is the penultimate episode if he seriously hurt someone that was going to be a whole other guilt-ridden arc for him to get over that plus it's on par for stephen even when he's a goddamn kaiju he's mostly beating himself up i'll admit that i had a mild theory that the final episode would go full evangelion especially since steven's hexagonal shield reminded me of an at field plus they're both stories about reluctant chosen ones with lots of themes around mental health showing how actually incredibly damaging and unfun being tasked with saving the entire world would be forgetting that steven universe has already made a reference to the final episode of evangelion instead we got the exact same concept as the mlp finale with the gems holding back their feelings about steven leaving only without the x number of years later designs and surprise shipping confirmations though we do finally get a stephen connie kiss but admittedly in steven there's more of a reason for the gems to act this way especially considering what happened at the end of the previous episode and a finale where everyone goes their own separate ways and hug and cry is fairly common as it's the characters expressing the same sadness and farewell sentiments like the fans are experiencing but it doesn't mean it's not warranted or exactly what all the fans need to hear steven has been afraid to be alone since the very beginning and now he's gonna act upon it himself it's an incredibly fitting way to end the series now i'd be lying if i said at the end of the series that i didn't feel a little disappointment partly comes with the territory at the end of all ending series you're sad that you're not going to see any more and you see all of this untapped potential as well as all of the still unanswered questions what the heck is up with onion and lion and we never got to see a laptop fusion even though i totally get given their complex feelings on fusion it makes total sense for them to represent an adorable domestic asexual couple especially that unfulfilled potential between exploring the world and having excellent characters drop the minute their arcs were over but i think we can also agree plenty of instances in which some of these questions are better left unanswered as many times fan theories can be more interesting than the official canon it has definitely not been perfect a lot of the critiques against it are not completely unfounded the art and aesthetic is lovely and distinct but the animation has been inconsistent not all of its ideas and concepts seem fully thought out there's a lot of filler with characters that i just don't care about there have certainly been times where i've been disappointed but i've never been angry even at its most controversial and times where i wish that they had handled things better but together with all of the other complex subjects and the not perfectly pure characters i like that it engaged conversation that it got people thinking that has been one of the great things about this whole phenomenon i definitely think the discourse at times could have been more civil what steven universe has provided is a unique and passion-filled story unlike anything other that's been made just the concept of the gems is such a brilliant sci-fi fantasy element its lgbt representation has made waves and it's touched on so many topics that other family works don't touch and expressed many of them in a way so that they're comprehensible to a young audience so that they especially have the language tools to be able to voice emotions and feelings that they may not have been able to do before even if it didn't always work even if the metaphors were imperfect i love that it tried and took chances and this show will always be one of my absolute favorites at least the episodes where stuff actually happens so tell me animaniacs at the end of it all how do you feel about steven universe and thanks again to skillshare for sponsoring this video skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of classes from art to music to business to freelancing personal productivity and of course film and animation especially in these stressful and difficult times indulging in or experimenting with something new and creative is a great way to break up your routine and keep yourself healthy and engaged especially if it's a passion or skill that you wanted to try but never knew where or how to start the classes are mostly less than an hour so are easily manageable and frequently come with resources as well as projects to get your wheels turning this has been great for someone who has been trying to make their own animated short for quite some time i even created my first moving shot like a year ago so i've been trying to soak up all the expert tips that i can to progress to the next step oddly one of the things i struggle with the most at these early stages is color you might have noticed i have a bad habit of using only really saturated colors and color is one of the best aspects of steven universe's design so i found carla alcazar's class on exploring color with a limited color palette very helpful especially regarding repetition and balance it also helps a lot to start with a narrowed focus and i bet there'll be something that will help and inspire you too the first thousand people to click on the link in the description will get a two month free trial to skillshare premium and you all stay healthy and shiny animaniacs [Music] you

Channel: CellSpex

Views: 302,523

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Id: hHea36L-u2g

Length: 24min 20sec (1460 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 26 2020