The Steven Universe thread

[snichols1973]

Thanks to a mini marathon this weekend I'm finally caught up on the invasion by the new Gems.

Now I know who Jasper is. Is Jasper the name of a precious stone/gem?

Jasper - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Drtooth]

I've never seen Uncle Grandpa before so I wouldn't know how it would fair as a UG episode. But despite that I was able to appreciate this crossover a lot.

This episode was a Steven Universe episode and produced by the SU crew... but they were able to mimic the format of an Uncle Grandpa episode, managing to actually make fun of that series as well. A standard UG episode will be made up of a few littler cartoons. The main story cartoon, the blackout/transitional segment, a shorter cartoon, and a final blackout. The blackout/transitions were the bits where there's just white space and they're running around, you see.

I really liked the little touches. The video game they were playing that had UG's Tiny Miracle (the robot in case you're not familiar) fighting Hoppy (or is it Hoppity? it's the Frog). That was a nice little one there. Steven drawn in sort of UG style with the flatter, more cartoonish pallet. I especially liked Amethyst eating Pizza Steve (being only the second successful attempt after Ric Flair). But to me, the greatest UG reference in the episode was, and UG fans will spot me on this, UG's Magnificent B***ard moment.

My Theory of UG is simple. He's much more devious and calculating than he acts and looks. His solutions to kids' problems in his own show have a "you're stronger than you realize" angle that always results with them getting into major trouble. That's exactly what happens here. Like UG knew the only way to unlock Steven's powers was to give him a serious reason to. That's a subtlety only UG fans and writers would get, perfectly executed here.

 

[snichols1973]

I just finished watching the "Story for Steven" episode, which is basically a SU version of a HIMYM episode, where Greg meets Rose Quartz and the Crystal gems when they were a bit younger, and Greg eventually fired Marty, his greedy manager, giving up his musical career to be with Rose Quartz.

Rose's Scabbard is clearly intertwined with Lion 2: The Movie, where Lion takes Steven and Connie on a detour to Rose's armory.
Pearl seemed to take quite a bit of pride in being Rose's main confidante, until Steven re-visits the room to which Lion brought him; afterwards, Pearl feels some bitter disappointment, as she believed herself to be the sole keeper of Rose's secrets, especially in Rose's armory when Steven uses his own unique style to make the weapons appear and pulls Rose's sword from Lion's magic storage space; after some reminiscing about Rose and reconciliation with Steven, all is well again....

 

[Drtooth]

If there's one thing I find amazing about this show it's that Rose Quartz isn't exactly thin, yet she's constantly presented as a Goddess. Along with Amethyst, I really think we came a long way from Gargoyles where they had to turn one of the characters into a dude because they wouldn't accept a zaftig heroine.

 

[mr3urious]

It was great seeing some extra backstory from Greg, along with the younger versions of the Crystal Gems. Seems like Amethyst really would seduce him later on down the line, too.

 

[AlittleMayhem]

This episode was ridiculously adorable! I love the younger gems designs and learning a little bit more about Rose!

Also, it gave us a lot more stuff to theorise on as well as a butch of parallels to past episodes. For example, anyone notice how Marty looks like Sour Cream and the woman he was with has Onion's round features? Hoo-hum!

I really think we came a long way from Gargoyles where they had to turn one of the characters into a dude because they wouldn't accept a zaftig heroine.

Really? Which character did they do that to?

 

[Drtooth]

Really? Which character did they do that to?

According to TVTropes, Broadway was supposed to be a female character, but Disney didn't like the idea of a not attractive female character.

 

[Drtooth]

While I really liked this episode, especially how Steven respects the heck out of his dad, I have one question.

How the heck did the part with Steven in the watchtower with a T-shirt gun get by the censors? Seems like that's the first episode to get pulled if something bad happens. That and the episode of Gumball where Principal Brown wants to blow up the school. Really?!

 

[mr3urious]

While I really liked this episode, especially how Steven respects the heck out of his dad, I have one question.

How the heck did the part with Steven in the watchtower with a T-shirt gun get by the censors? Seems like that's the first episode to get pulled if something bad happens. That and the episode of Gumball where Principal Brown wants to blow up the school. Really?!

That T-shirt gunman scene had all the potential to be in poor taste, but I thought it worked because of Steven's naivete and Mayor Dewey's overreaction to getting shirt.

 

[Drtooth]

Oh yeah. It was nicely done and all, but you know that this episode's going to be pulled out of rotation if anything slightly happens. Sure as heck happened with Buzz Lightyear. Seriously, between this, the Teen Titans Go scene where Beast Boy actually beckons Raven on her bed in his underwear, Principal Brown threatening to blow up the school in Gumball, and so much of Clarence (especially the "Indise Job" line in Dollar Hunt), you wonder how lax the censors are getting.

Not that there's anything wrong with lax censorship.

But overall a beautiful episode about Steve's relationship with his father and the strained relationship over Mayor Dewey and his son. Seriously. Greg Universe is an aging wanna be rock star that owns a Car Wash to barely get by, and Steven still thinks he's a rock star. He's definitely his mother's son. Only time he ever thought less of his father was when Greg was taking advantage of him when his leg was hurt. And even then, it was more about how his actions ruined his son's confidence and he felt incredibly awful about it.

It really is a nice companion/contradiction with Dewey and his son. Then again, it's the lack of Daddy kisses that made him who he was.