I feel like Steven’s reaction to Bismuth could’ve worked with a few tweaks Instead of making Steven the “Voice of Reason”, have the script frame him more as the naive child he is I think “That would make us just like them!” is a 100% valid emotional response to that situation coming from a literal child. The main problem was that the KID was taken seriously over Bismuth
I agree, he had an argument and for his character ig it made sense he felt that way. the real problem is the show is clearly on his side with no ambiguity and frames bismuth as completely wrong
I hate how they showed Lapis getting poofed by Bismuth (or another gem of the same type) and then did nothing with it. You’d think Lapis confronting the gem who caused her to get trapped for centuries would be a major plot point, but nope. Even if it wasn’t the Bismuth we know, there could have been an arc where Lapis doesn’t trust her because she looks so much like that gem. Like how Steven was tense around the Rose Quartzes in SU:F because they reminded him of his mother.
It was confirmed that Bismuth poofed Lapis, but Lapis does not remember her. But yeah, i feel like it would have been better if it turned out that Bismuth did it by accident, not realising she is not the enemy, because she was focused on fighting.
Tbh you’re giving the writers too much credit, they probably did that just to plant the idea with absolutely zero plan to do anything with it. Because I had a similar thought too, she had animosity towards peridot just for being a home world gem and aiding jasper, but confronting the gem who trapped her in that mirror would’ve been a great character interaction
@@awsomedude23456 that’s how the whole show felt. Concepts with no payoff. I don’t even wanna call it planning without payoff cause planning would mean something was happening and almost nothing of major substance really happens. And when it does the show seems more interested in the bloody townies. “Oh the worlds about to be ripped apart by a giant creature made of thousands of dead gems? Hmmm well how’s the Mayor doing?
@@AnimatedTerror Think about the opposite too, I really liked the Townsfolk, and I wanted to see their stories progress, but it always felt like they were thrown in to the middle of major story events in a way that didn’t mesh. Also anytime a character got an episode to themselves you just knew it was gonna be forever before we came back to them. Or sometimes they just flat out disappear. It felt like their character was going somewhere and then it just didn’t, like most things about the show.
12:24 You joke, but even avatar actively mocks that idea. Aang: Maybe we can make some big pots of glue, and then I can use gluebending to stick his arms and legs together so he can't bend anymore. Zuko: Yeah, then you can show him his baby pictures, and all those happy memories will make him good again. Aang: Do you really think that would work?! Zuko: No!
I like how technically both Aang and Zuko are still correct in a way. Zuko is right that his father won't ever change but Aang still manages to take his bending away so he doesn't have to kill him.
@@shinyagumon7015 And the series ends before we have to deal with the answer to why, historically, tyrannical leaders kind of had to die; because there would always be that alternative in case people didn’t like the new boss.
Also the reason why Aang couldn't kill is because he is the LAST air nomad. His people are gone, his culture is gone. He is the only living part(and Appa) of air nomads. Aang killing someone would be like fully destroying air nomad in spirit as well.
Right, Bismuth was ready to take action against the power structure of Gem World which would’ve benefited so many gems in the future, and Steven never took the time to learn from her experiences and perspective, believing his own personal ideology was superior. Really remember disliking this episode/plot thread
Gaslighted? People are really mad over a 13-year-old boy being uncomfortable with the idea of killing, not to mention that a non-lethal way of defeating gems already existed and was proven effective. On top of that, the show never turns to the camera and says “this is the right way to handle matters of war and oppression 100% of the time in the real world, WHICH THIS IS NOT”.
absolutely agree. the premise, concept, and idea of the characters are all amazing. the execution of it all, though, ruined this show. it had so much potential that it makes me wonder if it would've been better if it was made by a different team
I really loved the first half but after that it just drops off a cliff. So unfortunate. Hopefully future artists can learn from the mistakes of this show.
The show really didn't know what it wanted to be, Saturday morning cartoon?, magic fantasy?, Science fantasy against an evil galactic empire?, family drama?
@Ahmed malake I had the exact same experience lol At one point I refused to watch Clarence but found myself sitting down and watching full episodes whenever my brother's put it in the living room
It's a show that's about the journey, not the destination. Because the destination was fumbled so badly you're better off hopping off the train right before the last stop and enjoy the train's amenities one the way.
I feel like another missed opportunity for Steven Universe would’ve been to have antagonists that weren’t Homeworld gems like imagine if Steven had to fight a person from another race whose home was destroyed by the gems.
Or organization of humans. Think about it. Those rampaging monsters (corrupted gems) were on earth for like what, 500 years? And crystal gems aren't exactly secret organization either they interact with the town quite often. It baffles me that some type of SCP like organization wasn't introduced, especially with how cruel humans can be compared to gems.
@@MrCyplixo seriously. Like witch hunters. A foundation. Something. The world of Steven universe always felt so passive and unchanging. like stuff just happened around it and not to it. A better story would have had some form of human organization that stood opposed to all alien creatures.
@@AnimatedTerror I know right?! Maybe they could find a way to use shattered gems as an energy source or something, make them even more threatening. Another nice thing would be if they never truly changed, just defunded once people would realize gems are good... There could be so many great things in that. Emotional manipulation, "good soldiers follow orders", forcefully created half gems half humans brainwashed into fighting gem creatures, so much potential! But nah let's just forget that humanity exists in this series.
"imagine if Steven had to fight a person from another race whose home was destroyed by the gems." I've thought about that. One idea I had was that Digimon were created as a means to stop alien conquests by making their technology go haywire. And one day some Digimon learned about their original purpose and dedicated themselves to stopping Homeworld once and for all. Which puts them at conflict with Steven. (Yes, I'm eager for a Digimon/SU crossover)
Why didn't they bubble the diamonds? It's been shown as a reliable way to non-lethally pacify gems until they could be dealt with later. Makes more sense than the Diamonds changing their minds after a couple conversations and it still follows the no killing rule.
they also could've had the diamonds die but not directly be shattered by steven/the protags. a lot of disney movies do this. idk how they would've done exactly consider how hard a diamond must be to shatter, but it was another option
@@tiablue9106 Get this... I thought of Arceus (god from Pokemon series) shattering them and using the shards to create new Pokemon that have the diamond's ability to make gems.
@@tiablue9106 I always thought of some kind of proper homeworld revival rebellion going on behind Steven's back could do it. That's kind of tacky too though
@@Victor_Graves True. But that's because I meant it to be a crossover. If you're writing a crossover, several shows have avenues that could defeat the diamonds. MLP: Elements of Harmony Digimon: Basically any Mega-level Digimon (Ultimate -levels could also do the trick) Owl House: The Collector Heck, I mentioned Arceus, but after playing the Pokemon games for so long I think it's possible to use regular (not legendary or mythical) pokemon to defeat the diamonds.
I still hate the fact that Rebecca Sugar (the creator of Steven Universe) stated that there are no villains in Steven Universe and yet presented dictators that colonized planets, shatter gems for not being obedient, corrupted gems to be monsters, and even forced them to fuse to become a Cluster. I truly wanna ask if tyrannical leaders aren't considered villains, then what is?
This is pure relativization of evil. A literal dictator who is willing to decimate worlds and entre civilizations just for personal gain is not that bad, but an average guy who cat-called a girl in a night club (a nightclub where two kids weren't even supposed to be) is readily used as fuel to the heat of the audience.
Shattering didn't even matter, when they can literally fix them. Oh yes, that's right everybody! "Shattering" the thing that meant death to Gems and is touted as being irreversible... Is fucking reversible... All that scare and death was MEANINGLESS
to play devil's advocate shattering never really killed gems. it was as close to death that a gem can experience (barring Rose i guess). gem shards still have a sense of sentience and try to find their other broken pieces. the fact that they can be put back together by the very beings that created them isnt too far fetched, but i do wish that they didnt go that route regardless.
Given that it requires the power of all four diamonds working in concert, it was effectively impossible until the gem war ended. And it was never death. It was WORSE than death. Point still stands.
@@E-Man5805 It doesn't require all four diamonds. Yellow Devil just put all of the pieces of a shattered gem together and then healed just healed their gem.
Her last moments were of fighting in a war. Of course she'd be a little more aggressive than the other gems. Coupled with the fact that she had to learn that most of her friends were gone... She was really going through it and instead of doing more to try and help her mental and emotional state, they just declared that she was too dangerous to be left unbubbled so they did what Rose did to her.
I used to be obsessed with the show. only after Season 5 did my obsession wither away completely. after hearing what happened afterwards, with the diamonds, I'm freaking glad it did.
it was a waste of time imo. wayyy too many hiatus's and pointless story lines/lesson's. the nail in the coffin for me was that dude from the roundtable yelling at a child with cancer, (got mad bc they were able to see episodes no one else could see at the time) lost respect for that channel.
@@Maretoast yeah instead he’s just given an instant win every time things get too serious like goddamn stevonie had so much weight as too be important to the story and crap and they got shafted to the point that all that remains of that concept is problematic suggestions and clearly misinformed writers The personality of 2 kids does not make a combined mature personality
Let’s not forget the only reason the diamonds decided to listen to Steven was because of his connection to Rose Quartz, so it wasn’t out of the goodness of their hearts it was because their family told them it was wrong about that connection they still would have gone on doing what they were doing.
Well I mean, the connection was just what finally got them to listen to the facts, it was still mainly the revelation they drove Pink away that got them to change, the fact it was delivered by someone who was connected to her personally was just an extra bit of believability.
@@psychomagalor4902 but that’s the thing if Stephen didn’t have the connection then they would be able to end this peacefully I don’t buy that they would listen to a low level gym that was disobedient to them or her spawn and then they would stop doing what they were doing.
@@cartoonking1789 Well yeah cuz they would’ve just assumed they were lying in order to get out of being served the justice they believed they were owed, but because they were able to be clearly shown he did indeed have Pinks Gem they had an easier time believing that what he said was true and actually reflecting on their actions since they trusted the source it was coming from.
SU should have had better progression with it’s threats. Start with the Crystal Gems fighting and defeating corrupted gems, then average Homeworld gems (Lapis and Peridot), then the HW champions (Jasper and Aquamarine), then HW commanders (Holly Blue and Emerald), and end with the Diamonds. I was so disappointed that we didn’t get Steven and the Crystal Gems going on space adventures with Lars, exploring and liberating the colonies before we saw the Diamonds.
You forgot this is the show that started out with a clear loose timeline, building up too much, and fumbling to resolve the plot points they setup at a breakneck pace and then patting itself on the back for how great their achievements are. You shouldn't except good writing from the steven universe staff considering the whole overarching plot fell apart after the first season. At least the episode to episode plots stayed okay til season 3 or thereabouts. God I'm still mad about how bad steven universe became. It's so frustrating, because the first season actually still holds up. Because it's largely episodic while peppering in the overarching at a consistent slow pace and it's not convulted enough yet to be agonizing to think about.
The fact that steven said "even if we don't agree, no one deserves this" was such false equivalence, mah lawd. yeahhh steven, that was bismuth's argument for why the diamonds should be shattered, they had some disagreement. I think this could've been better if bismuth was set down a slippery slope where she was willing to shatter not only the diamonds but any gems who took their side after the fact--think those lapises from the epilogue series. that'd be a much better reason for steven to be against the idea and actually would make bismuth somewhat like the diamonds since she'd be shattering others just for not falling in line with her. only problem is this might make bismuth seem irredeemable for down the line, but then again since when has this show had a problem forgiving terrible ppl?
@@a.dennis4835 yeah that's why I said steven's attitude towards them was off--he was endlessly patient and forgiving w/ peridot even before she ever stood up to yellow diamond, yet w/ jasper and kevin he had none of that. so arbitrary. It's like steven only warmed up to peridot so easily bc she's cute lol
Honestly, I think they could’ve made an argument that “if you do this, it won’t end the war!” Because if she started shattering gems, whose to say that the diamonds wouldn’t just send stronger forces to earth, resulting in even more casualties.
I remember they ship teased Pearl and Bismuth at the end of Future and I was like “Cool… but you’re literally almost done with the show. Why should I care whether or not these two get together? I’ll never see what happens.” Kind of off topic I’ve just been holding onto that nitpick for a while. It sucked that Bismuth was so underutilized even her ship was underwhelming.
Remember that one episode where they "introduced" a human who looked veeerrry similar to Rose and Pearl was just smitten to the point of even trying food for her? What happened with that? (I honestly stopped watching after Steven came back to Earth from the Gemworld. Oh, saw the movie though)
@@robogirl I knew she wouldn’t be important so I quickly forgot about it 😂 wish I dropped it that early but I had to see how bad Future would be (incredibly). Skipped the finale, saw the big kaiju Steven hug and officially gave up
@@bobtheball5384 I don't know. Wouldn't that make it better to have something happen? The only thing that even hinted at it was that she gave Pearl her number and..that's it. I think if that were the case too is if it was from someone who didn't look almost exactly like Rose; Bismuth for instance.
Peridot’s redemption was done so well, yet they somehow fumbled every other villain. Not every villain needs a redemption, but they’re story arc definitely needs a satisfying conclusion.
@@TheMedicatedArtist You're absolutely correct and I agree with you. Peridot's arc was done incredibly well, but it seems like after jasper they had a Season 3 Rick and Morty happen and it just took a nosedive from there
I don't think Jasper got corrupted, as a character i mean. I think her arc feels natural to me. She continues to be evil, but now all alone in desperate need of company, feeling betrayed by everyone and attempting to create her own army of gems to take over the Earth. But after being revived, i think she felt like she was important to someone, losing her motivation to make an army and destroy crystal gems. But she lives alone in the woods, because she still does not trust other gems at the little homeschool and beach city. The only person she trusts is Steven, because she reminds him of her diamond and he is actually her diamond, that's why when Steven gets "corrupted" slowly, she goes full on servant mode. She is a lonely gem, who lost everything and who felt betrayed by the world she is living in. She was a weapon and she is not used to being an actual person so to speak.
I’ve forgotten how obsessed I was with Steven Universe…. Like… VERY LATE IN THE SERIES. I had to catch up right before White Diamond’s reveal. The only problem when rushing like that is that I skipped some episodes because of how many, and I mean MANY filler episodes there were so I barely had any attachment with Bismuth until the movie came out lmao. I mean, what a damn good singing voice.
I also became super obsessed with SU really late, at the time I've started 1st season the newest episode was "Familiar" And I've skipped the whole 4th season ecxept for the first and the last 3 episodes because I was rushing so badly to catch up before the show ended lol And I think I've skipped all of Season 5 episodes that took place after Steven got back on Earth at the beginning of the season but before "A single pale rose"
I remember I caught up with all of Hilda a Netflix show, one day before the movie dropped so I know the feeling lol. I love SU but I agree plenty of the homeworld gems, diamonds included, had a lot of unused potential.
Steven Universe fumbled the ball with a lot of characters, even in it’s main series. Lapis, Peral, Rose Quartz, Lars, Jasper, all of the diamonds, the list goes on. It’s a series with an infuriating amount of missed potential.
Pearl's character arc about being independent was completely thrown out the window, Rose's entire character was assassinated with the Pink Diamond reveal, The Offcolors and Lars were just sidelined, Jasper was thrown under the bus, Peridot became a joke character after season 3, the fact that the Diamonds were redeemed in the first place was a no no, Spinel's character arc from the movie was completely obliterated in Future (also seriously, they really underutilized her), and all the antagonists in Future were never seen again.
@@LooneyNuke Hahaha! "Antagonists" in Future. All of them and I mean ALL of them were nothing but a mere inconvenience. A rock on the sidewalk you kinda stumble over after not seeing it. You throw it towards the grass in annoyance and continue on your way. All of them were pathetic wastes of time. Yes, even the pink lemonade godzilla. He smacked his head against the wall, screamed a few, splashed in the water, and had a good cry. People were so hyped for this form, why...?
Yeah the sheer volume of missed potential in world building and character development is terrible. I think the Pink Diamond reveal was the biggest mistake of the series, it took away a lot from the mythos of Rose Quartz revealing her to have been a Diamond. From there it felt like her character was assassinated repeatedly to make her look like a terrible person on so many levels. Rather than someone who was generally good with some flaws =/.
@@djdragondrawer9339 I guess people wanted to see some mass destruction, and they got what they wanted alright. A mass destruction of the entire plot of Steven Universe.
@@tonts5329 They never really tried to assassinate Rose's character, more of they did her character redemption backwards, by showing her being good, and then showing her very bad flaws that lead up, to how she reached the point she is now
What makes it worse is when you realize how death in the war worked. Rose had a strict no killing rule, so the only shattering that happened was on roses side, Bismuth lost countless friends to the diamonds, and she didn’t even KNOW about the corruption. Bismuth had every right to feel the way she did and Steven comes off as tone deaf and he might aswell had been saying “all lives matter”
Steven Universe: "Bismuth wanted to SHATTER Gems, kill them forever! She was misguided into a monster!" Steven Universe Future: "Naaah JK, shattered Gems can be revived with the right glue. Bismuth would have moderately inconvenienced Homeworld at worst."
I can't help but think that the writers got so obsessed with wrapping every lesson up with "Kindness and nice words (sometimes in song form) are the way to help others" that it impacted the story negatively by oversimplifying messages and killing the full development of themes and characters. For example, take the shallow ending that is resolved by Steven literally telling a murderous dictator they are evil because they are insecure. Logically, this is flawed because White Diamond, and even the other Diamonds, did what they did because: A. They thought it was in the best interest for their kind B. They viewed it as morally unproblematic because the life they ran across was "inferior" to them in their eyes. Now, insecurity could one of her motivations (although I beg to differ) but the writers solving the conflict by pretending that this was the main and only strong reason for their actions was logically flawed and shallow. People are complicated, and their actions and motivations are as well.
One person said it best. It was that the show wasn’t mature enough to realise how to handle the difficult subject matters. Oh and also buying the idea that it’s better to exhaust yourself reaching out to abusive parties rather than helping those who were abused by said parties. The writers claim that Steven never forgave the diamonds. Okay… what about how the others feel about the Diamonds.
If you want an actual good message about how kindness is the way to help others then watch Mob Psycho 100. It does everything ten times better than what Steven Universe aistrying to do.
@@christopherbennett5858 I like that point a lot. My memory is hazy, after all the hiatuses while SU was airing I gradually fell out of the show. I do remember the handling of the Diamonds being highly disputed. It sounds like there was a big lack of nuance that went unaddressed or at least not addressed clearly enough when it came to the climax. It just throws me why the Diamonds were written to be so vile. People have limits to how much they can forgive, tolerate, etc. When you have the Diamonds committing some of the worst acts known to humanity, I can see why a chunk of the audience doesn't like how the conflict ended.
Actually ATLA made that point twice when Aang went missing and they approached Iroh to do it instead but he said he couldn’t because history would see it as a brother killing a brother to gain power.
What pissed me off more about the special was at the very end. Bismuth showed remorse and reason shortly before poofing... And what did Steven and the gang do? They bubble her for the rest of the series. WHY?! WHY DIDN'T STEVEN LET HER REGEN
That was effed up. Bubbling corrupted gems is understandable because they're hostile, but a conscience self aware gem?? On their side??? Jasper? Okay. But a fellow rebel?? Yikes.
Because the writers just didn’t feel like writing her character until later I guess I mean, what would they even have her do in the 20 filler episodes between plot points?
Another really excellent example of this trope being executed well is in The Expanse. Praxidike Meng, a mild-mannered botanist, joins the group in seasons 2-3 on the agreement that they’ll help him find his daughter if he helps them on their own quest. On the side, the story follows Dr. Strickland, a scientist who’s conducting Protomolecule research on several children including Prax’s daughter. He’s generally characterized as a cold-hearted scumbag who we wouldn’t mind seeing put down by Prax when the Roci’s crew finally catches up with him, and Prax seems onboard with the idea through further events in the story. However, when the time comes, Amos (The brutish antihero, by the way) stops him, and says “You’re not that guy.” Prax breaks down in tears, realizing that Amos is right, and goes back to join the others. Once the airlock is closed, Amos turns to Strickland and says “I am that guy,” and gives us our cathartic vengeance.
Ah. That reminds me of something similar in Advance Wars: Days of Ruin when we go after Admiral Greyfield, one of the few survivors of the meteors and trying to use this as an opportunity to expand his influence as being special for having survived. After having killed the good hearted leader, crew is out for vengeance, only for the lead to ultimately decide he doesn't want to while one of his allies decides to do it for him after he left, even when Greyfield pointed out it would make her no different, she was more than fine with getting her hands dirty if the lead can keep a better moral character.
Man remember when Bismuth's reveal was treated like a _huge_ deal with a ton of promos and trailers hyping her up. Only to literally be shafted after her 2 main appearances
Um why would there be drama? Lapis doesn't know who poof her, and bismuth are in the middle of war how would she know this lapis is the one she poofed in the middle of a fricking war??
Honestly, I’m not even sure that she was bubbled because she wanted to shatter gems. If you remember what she said about Rose’s sword she said it could destroy physical forms but not the gems themselves. However, this directly contradicts the story that Pink Diamond told the other gems as she claimed the sword shattered her. But if Bismuth heard this, she would’ve revealed that the sword was unable to shatter gems. Pink didn’t bubble Bismuth because she was an extremist… she bubbled her because that fact would’ve blown her cover.
Not at all. It was quite clearly because they had a major confrontation about their opinion on the breaking point. Possibly even extra fueled by Rose's fear of Bismuth being so eager to shatter the diamonds when she secretly was one.
Honestly, I think it would've been interesting if the whole "shattering is wrong" had been replaced by "Sure, you shatter the Diamonds but what's next?", because who would've guided the millions of gems if Bismuth had been capable of using the Breaking Point on the Diamonds? Bismuth or another Crystal Gem? Or let them decide on their own? I don't think so, Homeworld would've freaked out and fallen into chaos. Or, "How do you expect the Breaking Point to defeat an empire with high tech?", because the Diamonds had hundreds of thousands of Injectors to create gems, warships, and canons, they even had the arm ships to obliterate them. They had the resources to make weapons deadlier than the Breaking Point, and this is pure theory but the only way for the Crystal Gems to get the tech they needed if the Breaking Point had resulted too weak against more advanced weaponry was to steal it from their enemies by traveling to Homeworld using the Warp Pads which was extremely dangerous and even if Pink had tried to by using her status as a Diamond, the other Diamonds would've found out one way or another.
What's worse is that shattering is no longer a consequence. Why should we worry about a gem shattering to only see Yellow Diamond and Steven can magically piece them together as if nothing ever happened.
I mean like leaving the Diamonds alive to heal th corrupted gem understandable. Would've been cool if Furture showed the planets and aliens thay suffering from the gems And even if the gems help they they won't forgive them that easily.
@@JLacay This. I honestly wish Jasper for instance has stayed shattered. Imagine the true turmoil it would've brought on Steven and the conflict it could've created. But nope, he fixed it instantly -_-
The show in general was a fumble aside from season 2 and select episodes/moments in 1 & 3. There were some real high moments like Peridot, A Pale Rose, and the S1 Finale, but overall it's just such a deeply flawed tangled mess that can't make up for it's glaring shortcomings. As an ex fan season 4 onward crashed and burned spectacularly but there had been numerous cracks going all the way back to the earliest episodes.
9:58 additionally aang's act of not killing ozai can also be seen as a statement on the importance of the air nomads, the fire nation committed genocide on the air tribe and by aang choosing to find a way to defeat ozai without killing him was one big act saying "my people's beliefs do have a place, and did not deserve to die"
Someone made a Tumblr post about how Aang was basically a honor student with athletic scholarship mentors (which made sense since he learned all the elements in a year, whereas his mentors took a decade for each element). Dude was also able to take and give someone’s bending, something literally none of the previous avatars knew was a possibility.
One thing I picked up about Steven Universe is that it seems to be like "A noble attitude is better than anything else". Meaning that even if someone else has a logical plan and good reasons, Steven will always get his way because it's "the right thing to do". Did I observe that correctly?
Yeah. Steven is pretty much never questioned since he’s the moral compass of the show. Heck, Alone at Sea kind of shows how, if Steven likes you you’re given all the chances but, if he doesn’t, you deserve to choke in the eyes of the writers.
The show is a fantasy where goodness, kindness, gentleness, softness, understanding, pacifism, being willing to talk it out are enough. And the truth is that it is, if the other person is willing. So yes, "what if doing the right thing was enough?" is the very idea upon which the show hinges. For this reason I don't know if it would actually be appropriate for children, because they could be blindsided later on. But I personally find it quite a comforting alternate reality
A good example for a character that doesn't want to kill bad guys but still does is Ashitaka from Princess Mononoke. Despite everything that was happening Ashitaka was strictly against violence. His curse helped him see that hate and killing are never the answer. But Ashitaka wasn't a non- killing pacifist either. He still killed when he had to, but it was clear that it was only when he had no other choice. He even said to one of the "bad guys" "Don't make me kill you!". Ashitaka was in perfect balance- someone who doesn't like violence, but was willing to use it if necessary.
6:35 I think this idea perfectly summarizes the ending of Avatar the last Airbender. Aang didn't spare Ozai because "it would make me the same as him" exactly, but because Aang was taught all his life that taking a life is wrong, so killing Ozai would just have a heavy toll on his mental health. And if he's gonna be the Avatar, he needs to do whats true to himself, not what's the morally right thing to do. So by sparing Ozai, he was really just protecting himself. He was being selfish but true to himself Edit: I should've guessed you were gonna bring it up lol
Honestly, the episode could have worked had it simply taken a different angle. Had Steven pointed out that the war was over, and that trying to kill the diamonds when they seemed content to sit on their throne in home world would simply reignite the war to disastrous effect, they could have made the conflict work. Having to avoid a full confrontation with a force that is far stronger than you even when you have every reason to fight them is a very good lesson to teach. It would have also made Bismuths little freak out actually make sense, as she thought that Rose not going with the plan was what caused them to get to that point, so she could have seen that as an excuse made by someone who wouldn't take accountability. This episode falls victim to the sheer amount of writers hired for the episodes, as well as becoming an oversimplified lesson about the dangers of answering violence with violence.
I think it would be interesting to explore the Diamonds' past. From the final episode of Season 5, I got the impression that Yellow and Blue Diamond were partly doing evil just to keep Homeworld together. They were surely seduced by power, but when Yellow was saying "We have to keep everyone in line to preserve our perfect empire," I got the vibe that it was something she told herself rather than something she genuinely believed, a bit like a mantra of sorts. Her earlier actions certainly challenge this, but I have a feeling there's something deeper to the Diamonds that explains (but doesn't excuse) their actions. Alas, the series is over for now.
Yeah but you gotta remember before that scene both Blue and Yellow were really casual about shattering, colonizing and putting "dick" in "dictator" without White present or overseeing anything. It is basically an excuse to redeem them which falls flat on it's face when you remember "just following orders" isn't good enough for committing mass genocide (and because White got redeemed too)
Yeah, it was because of White Diamond; though Yellow is both, she did what she did to keep things in line AND chose to do terrible things out of her own will regardless (because to her, any other life besides a Diamond did not matter). Both Yellow and Blue were afraid of White as shown when confronting her, however, that's when it the remaining plot crumbles as White herself says she needs to be perfect but never explains why. (Besides the probably reason that she's the most powerful Diamond out of all of them, so she gave herself that role.)
@@danmakes2497 that's my point. a) Yellow and Blue Diamond still have mixed motives, as horrible the things they did are, and b) we never got to understand *why* White Diamond acted so inhumanly (I think all Gems have humanity, even though they're not humans). I understand that part of it was because CN crippled the Crewniverse to tell the last bit of the story in only a few episodes, but I can't help but feel that part of it was just weird writing on the part of the Crewniverse. People have probably written hundreds of essays about the writing of Steven Universe that I can't write in RUclips comments just because I'm commenting for fun. How does this tie in to Bismuth? She's right in saying that the Diamonds need to be held responsible for their actions *somehow*, but the Rupphire wedding arc just throws all that out the window because Bismuth is forced to put her anger away because she values her friends and their desires more than her own. Sounds like a sinister life philosophy to permanently suppress your thoughts and desires for the sake of the collective, but again, that's not my job.
@@joshuab.3887 really late reply but i just assume White Diamond was created differently and being the first gem to ever exist had a severe effect on her mentality or something, especially if she was created by another being and didn't just come into existence by chance, because that would mean she was deliberately created with a certain purpose in mind that her entire existence was based around (making the universe perfect by filling it with highly advanced, nigh-perfect life forms). one must wonder what kind of fucking animal would create a being like that though, if that is indeed the case.
@@carnage0685I figured that too. It might tie in with the Snake People theory floating around. Given that Satan is portrayed as a snake in the book of Genesis, I wonder if Rebecca Sugar had that in mind from the beginning.
I honestly understand bismuth’s pov honestly. Being a necessary piece of an army and being taught right from wrong all your life, and then being betrayed for having independent thoughts and essentially put to sleep for over 5,000 years and then being brought back and having to fight your attackers son for the same reason you got bubbled and getting bubbled again. She had a right to be angry
I was really impressed how in this video you clearly and succinctly summarized series and story beats for people who had never seen them before. Good work!
Another reason that Atla works so much better is because Aang is the last of the air nomads, a people who strictly did not kill. If Aang killed Ozai, he would’ve been fully rejecting air nomads teachings and he would’ve been the reason the air nomads as both a people and culture would’ve well and truly died. Everyone told he had to choose either the world or morals with no one, not even another air nomad, understanding just what that choice truly meant. If push came to shove then Aang would’ve killed the firelord, but he always looked for another way and it’s because he held on to his beliefs and who he was as a person, his will was able to overpower Ozai’s and he was able to save both the world and his people. It’s stuff like this that make Atla such a good show that no matter how many times you watch it, you can always get something new out of it.
The comparison between Steven Universe and Avatar the Last Airbender was interesting. Literally everyone was telling Aang that he needed to kill Ozai. Despite Aang's reluctance the show at least was aware that some people can't change since Ozai tried to attack Aang even after he spared by him and was on the verge of being killed. Steven Universe i don't think ever does this nor do we really get any input from any of the other characters in regards to shattering the diamonds. I think that would've been an interesting conflict of discussion.
The thought really isn’t “let’s not kill people because of their opinions” and more like “why the hell did Steven think it’s wrong to kill, not one, not two, but THREE space hitlers?” Before befriending them and making them start to “repent” for something they’ll never be able to fix. Yeah they can repair the gems they shatter and corrupt but they can’t bring back the possible billions of lives they killed on other planets. I hate this show so damn much because of the good ideas that where ruined by horrible writing
Because he literally need all of them to heal the corrupted gems and to keep the homeworld gems in line, what do you think will happen if all of the ruler died off? Shit will hit the fan, gems who are loyal to their diamonds will want revenge, how long and how much more work do you think Steven have to do?
I don't hate the show due to nostalgia and seeing some good in it in other parts but yeah they fucked this up really badly. The diamonds are inexcusable and it felt gross that they got "redeemed"
@@Kyss111 I've thought about scenarios where the other diamonds are killed off. One is a Owl House crossover where the C.A. T. S rebellion learn that the Draining Spell was used on the Diamonds to kill them. The witches decide that they will take in gemkind, and many gems move to the Boiling Isles and prosper there. Some gems even become witches themselves!
Nah it's more so "let's not kill people because of their opinions" people can be redeemed and change and Bismuth wanted to kill more then just the diamonds. The show's writing was mostly good though.
Because they weren't fucking space hitlers. They were people used to committing environmental destruction at worst. They have a hard time wrapping their heads around human life being sapient because they are not used to non-gems being sapient. That's why Pink Diamond was blown away by Earth. The other diamonds couldn't really wrap their heads around this because they weren't there. When Pink appeared to die they then tried to destroy the Earth from grief and revenge. I will NEVER understand where the "colonizer" "hitler" shit comes from. Because they used the word "colonies"? Because gems have castes? Because of the off-colors?
Yeah, but bismuth wanted to shatter every gems that are not aligned with the crystal gems ideals, she's literally doing what the diamonds were doing shattering gems that are out of line
@@Kyss111 Like I said, shattering gems isn't the ONLY bad thing they've done. Unless they're gonna start a dictatorship or start invading planets and draining them of their resources, it really wouldn't make them "as bad as the diamonds". what you said changes nothing. He would still have to do a LOT more to truly be as bad as the diamonds.
I think the problem with SU is that the message of the show didn’t really work with the lore. If the diamonds were just the abusive family of pink/rose who harmed her and her friends and passed some of those toxic traits, then the core of message of talking things out, that anyone can change their mind of change for the better would have worked so much better. Gonna get a but into fanfic territory but like if gems where just beings that where all over the galaxy and the diamonds where like rich, mean and cruel authorities that others liked because of their fame, it would have worked much better as of what it is. Rather than space dictators that have ended God knows how many planets.
Exactly, forgiveness is a good and noble concept - but it falls flat when it involves unrepetant genocidal tyrants. It works for low level conflicts where the instigator wants to be forgiven and make amends for the harm they caused. It does not work with Space Hitlers. You cannot redeem someone who sees themself as being in the right in spite of all the blood on their hands. Such crimes should never be forgiven, you just enable them to do it again.
Steven saw a geo-weapon made out of billion shattered gems (whom some of were members of Crystal Gems) that if it ever emerged, it would've destroyed the entire fucking planet the rebels were sacrificing themselves to protect, but somehow concluded killing the 3 dictators who were responsible for that monstrosity would make him "one of them" (which in the end Steven did make himself one of the Diamonds when he described them as "family")
You don't seem to think what would happen after he shattered them, how many gems do you think are out there? How many are loyal to the diamonds? Most of them, what you got from shattering the diamonds is endless war, Steven are there for peace not to start up another centuries old wars
@@Kyss111 Fine mental gymnastics you're doing there What happened to nazi's after H*tler died? They got punished and most of them left on their own since they were in that regime out of fear. Same principle here. Go on, hug a nazi and say how you're saving the world. I'm sure plenty of Jewish, Slavic, Romani, disabled and poc survivors would thank you
haven't watched the show, but it seems like this issue could've been more or less solved if the writers went with "some of rose's emotional attachments/selfish desires/irrational feelings or whatever transferred over along with her gem." plus they'd get a free protagonist being in the wrong pass, without having to think too hard about it edit: also idk what it says that they chose the one gem that appears to have dreads to be portrayed as overly-aggressive and violent in pursuit of justice and just safety, but I feel it's saying something at least
That wouldn’t really work imo, a large part of Steven’s relationships is that he isn’t is mother and Rose wasn’t coming back, which the other characters (especially Pearl) had to accept. So to have part of her personality live on would kind of go against that.
Oh believe me, quite a few people have mentioned how black and butch coded Bismuth was and how her supposedly going too far for the rather moderate Steven and Rose (the latter actually being a person who profited from the oppression of others) when facing (at that moment) an obvious evil. Because this happened in the middle of the cluster arc. You know, the arc where they’re stopping the diamond’s world destroying bomb that was a living mass grave.
@@bobismad1362 hm, I can't think of any way to fix this without drastic reworking, then, since he can't possibly know what rose's opinion was on it without also knowing it was a plan in the first place
@@christopherbennett5858 terribly ironic since it's trying so hard to be progressive in other areas- not that it didn't succeed in some, but it's amazing how antithetical the whole thing is to its more overt messages not that this is too subtle
Dude, you forgot that Steven is technically one of them! So he's got special privilages and powers that landed him victory. What do you think would've happened if he's just a human?
If you want my honest opinion he wind up dead or his opinion would not matter since he a normal human and the diamonds or even the other gems would think he another dumb human being........and then they proceed to destroy his entire existence or something.
That doesn’t mean he’s a good character, that just makes him too overpowered and a bad character, not relatable at all, it’s like Superman he’s the worlds greatest hero but honestly who even relates to him? he might have weaknesses but because of plot armor he gets out of the situation no problem, point is Steven isn’t an engaging character.
After watching this I realized something they never really explored, other sentient alien species. The show constantly implys about the numerous organic life the empire conquered and wiped out, but outside of some small animalistic creatures here and there we never meet or hear characters mention this despite having military forces. It could have been interesting seeing surviving species and how they view the situation they're, along with how they view the main cast and the empire. You could see steven get exposed to an outside viewpoint and maybe reconsider his "we can talk it out" mentality and have it dawn on him that what happened to these alien species could happen to his planet if he's not careful.
Steven Universe is one of my favorite cartoons of all time, and even though I love some moments in the finale, I know the overall ending was AWFUL. I'm pretty sure the reason it was so bad was because it was very rushed, the series was canceled in the middle of the season so the creators had to rush to tie up all the loose ends in the few episodes they had left, and i wouldn't be surprised if it meant they had to rewrite the whole ending. It's a shame, the series had built up such a dark and interesting group of villains.
In defense of the last season of Steven universe, they did have less episodes than they wanted to, in order to wrap things up. That's not an excuse for how things ended, but Rebeca Sugar said herself, that they had to wrap things up, because Cartoon Network gave them only so many episodes to make and therefore put out.
I hated the way Rose dealt with Bismuth. It was a WAR. A war Rose herself started! Bismuth was doing her job, saw her own sisters die, so created a weapon that'd actually work.
Not to mention that its revealed even LATER that shattering gems wasn't even a permanent solution unless a diamond was shattered. All 4 diamonds are needed to heal a shattered gem, meaning that their deaths would have like QUADRUPLE the impact
Steven Universe had masterful storytelling for the most part. The way they trickled information through foreshadowing and slowly built up the universe was just about perfect. It could have been so much more successful and more widely talked about if they didn't waste so much time pandering and handled the Diamond conclusion better. Half way through the series though, I think it was pretty obvious that we were heading for a talk-no-jutsu ending anyway.
The thing about Avatar the Last airbender and Steven Universe is both protags are in their early teens and very impressionable. Steven is raised to be perfectly optimistic and while you point out: "It's better to kill a tyrant" From Stevens view (and he says it himself): "An enemy is the friend you haven't made" Infact ironicly in Steven Universe Future (wich has good and bad). We see 1 antagonist appear: Bluebird. A fusion between a ruby Steven saved but they hate him and aquamarine who was a sassy gem who didn't like steven. Their mutual hatred for him got em together and while Steven talked it out.. he couldn't convince em to stand down. They think Steven is wrong period and remain HATING HIM! (We never get a conclusion) The thing about the Gem Society is it isn't stooped in logic. I could "forgive" white diamond if they had their REASONS to do what they did. But no she feared flaws.. okay that might be a reason to remove flaws from your society.. but it doesn't change SEVERAL OF THE REASONS of what the Diamond Authority were doing.... Like... why make more gems? You are immortal beings that don't need substance? Why make more? Your system is perfect... you have no reason to expand. Why make more possible imperfections? While White Diamond made Yellow and Blue to control the gem society better... We never saw a reason for Pink to be made but it's indicated she wanted a pet and made Pink as a reflection of her imperfections... but again... "WHY?!" Sure white is being humanized, but.. here's the thing... SHES AN ALIEN QUEEN YOU DONT HAVE TO HUMANIZE HER! Why do they have a Military? Never in the series has it been confirmed Gems were in wars... they conquered everything fairly easily without much resistance. Even earth was conquered easily till PINK REBELLED! But she was the diamond who ruled it and.. well you know that mess, but I don't mind that mess. Pink was an impuslive dipshit. And I liked the fact that Steven's mother was destructive, impulsive and didn't think of anything else but her own happiness... even when making Steven is because Greg reached out to her to give her something new to try and Pink being Pink... WANTED IT NO MATTER WHAT! Anyhow side track aside. Why did White expand? One reason is simple: "I am so perfect, I can make any world perfect" Okay... so she's narsastic. That's a road I can see going with her. She does have a god complex.. but it's shown again... she didn't care for that. There was no subtle motion in gem society that organics were imperfect beings that needed to bow down. Cause then the human zoo wouldn't be made at all or maintained. So that reason dies. Okay how about: Gems were made and to keep gem society safe and perfect, I have to take as much as I need to avoid being destroyed? This would LITTERLY make a perfect climax to the Diamond arc story. Steven can litterly tell White Diamond: "Why the perfect world? Why the colonizing and destruction?" White Diamond: "Cause if we don't... someone will destroy our society like it did before long ago..." Steven: "But what you are doing now... is the same as those who tried to destroy you! Are you that blind?!" That would fight a little then White Diamond sees their wrongs and starts fixing what she can... sure not perfect.. but it shows reasons for genocide. And I hate comparing the diamonds to the other genocidal maniacs... but some found reasons to do their terrible deeds like Cleansing the world of evil. What the diamonds were doing is doing it cause... it's what they do.. NO REASON! But agian.. they didn't go for this... In the end Bismuth failed.. cause the diamonds failed...cause Steven's narrative failed... Imagine if Gems could EXPIRE.. Imagine if the gems had a NATURAL ENEMY... Imagine if White Diamonds god complex was front and center. I think the fact the series had to wrap up is the reason the writing tripped up. But yea... not the best critism cause you decided to focus on one moment where we are still vague on the diamonds.. but in the end.. bismuth was right... even NOW. There is a reason NO ONE CAN FORGIVE THE DIAMONDS....cause their genocidal reasoning was never explained.. THEY JUST DID IT! FOR FUN MAYBE EVEN!?
idk man the human zoo was made because pink liked them so much. was only maintained in her honor. and ik you were against humanizing the alien empress but there are plenty of past empiricals who expanded for no other reason than a whim. it does suck that it was never really touched on and the way it was resolved was insane
@@SunshineTheLover Actually on expanding empires.. It was never on a "whim" Some believed they were expanding their greatness. Some wanted more to rule. Some to keep their enemies futher away from their home city. Some believed they brought salvation. Unnessarcy expansion only harms your empire by giving you more subjects to feed and maintain, more land to defend thus bigger armies and bigger chances for rebellions. But hey... again I just felt like it was undercooked. And you can humanize white diamond in some way, but their way was stupid... Eitherway the way Gems are made and maintained shows they are possibly an artifical race... wich could have setup "Who made White Diamond and why? And did she rebel against her makers for a reason?" Guess we will never know.
A. They made more Gems so they could have more workers to expand their perfection across the Universe. If they did make more imperfections, they would have forced them into hiding or gotten rid of them. B. Pink was likely made so they could have a more light-hearted Diamond to appeal to the general masses and to be a source of happiness for them. Yeah they didn’t “have” to humanize White, but they did cuz they wanted to show even those who seem the most irredeemable may have some sort of humanity to them. C. They likely had a bigger military in Era 2 in case another Earth war broke out, which until later they believed was because of a rogue Gem and not Pink. D. She clearly was shown to greatly care how she was perceived and wanted the whole Universe to see how perfect she was, they never indicated she didn’t care for that. Also they clearly did think organics were below them, hence why they made a Zoo for humans instead of making a trade deal or something. E. They clearly had a reason, they were incredibly powerful god-like beings and believed they were meant to spread their light across the universe, so they put up an aura of perfection so that the Gems they made would follow them no matter what. So no it was not “just for fun” cuz they didn’t even have the concept for fun.
@@psychomagalor4902 Not bad, but never was it truely stated. I mostly agree with C. But overall the show seems to be conflicted on what is going on and we are just "guessing" If the diamonds just did it to make the universe perfect like them.. it just makes them... a JRPG God Final boss. The thing is.. it doesn't feel like it fits with SU's themes. But eh...
@@kotlolish I feel like they did state what the gem empires goal was in Your Mother and Mine. To me it was pretty clear what the show was going for early on when every conflict with the Homeworld Gems that was solver with violence usually ended on a bittersweet note, whereas in the ending where they did win via negotiation they actually got a happy ending. Sure the Diamonds may in concept sound like a JRPG final boss but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t tell a different type of story with characters like that.
If Bismuth was brought back for the wedding and they never bring up the conflict she presented in her starring episode, why couldn’t they have brought her back before? Did the Pink Diamond revelation completely change her mind? If so, that still leaves the entire conflict she brought up unresolved, with no real conclusion. It’s a shame, because it was so interesting to have someone on the Crystal Gems’ side have such a different philosophy, and to see that get completely ignored so quickly feels like a waste of potential.
Envys death is my favorite in all of FMAB it's so brutal, it's one of the only times we see Mustang a normaly calm person loose his cool that isn't played for laughs, it's honstly why i love FMAB so much
the literal only reason the diamonds stopped being so tyrannical is because stephen has pink diamond's gem, which honestly could've been a really interesting point? like yeah, how else besides killing the diamonds could you get them to stop what they're doing? just be born the right way because all they care about is each other lol. it could've been something that delved into how horrifying that alone is, but it was never treated very seriously when it really should have been. it could've been great, but they just didn't really do anything with it besides making stephen mildly uncomfortable around the diamonds from then on. so much missed potential with that!!!
Steven Universe's big problem honestly is they shifted towards redeeming the Diamonds while also holding Pink Diamond to personal account for everything. Characters emote and act based on what the current narrative wants them to rather than in the context of the whole series. Really feels like they had something smaller planned and wound up spinning out
Aang isn't against the idea of killing as a concept. He just cannot do it for cultural reasons. Aang would be fine if someone else killed Ozai. Ozai was just seduced and thrown into prison with no bending. Zuko and the other world leaders could easily just execute Ozai if they choose, and Aang would be fine with that.
One thing I always kept coming back to was the idea in my head that Steven should have used the Gem Rejuvenator from the movie on the Diamond to win without killing them. I also thought Steven could develop a power similar to that, similar to what Aang did to Ozai.
@TheGlassesPro you know, that got me thinking. What if White reverted back to a form that, not only looked less perfect, but looked completely alien to the rest of the gems. I remember Pearl saying that “She’s not even like them” in reference to the other gems, so what if she reverted to this bizarre, monstrous looking creature that not only felt disdain for all life around her, but herself as well?
@@DrawciaGleam02 Great point. I think it could be worked well enough if given proper development where they remember their past lives but now they are also something different. To me it would make their shift in personality less jarring than what it ended up making the final cut
@@inktendo Yeah. TBH, how they handled Spinel gaining her memories back in the movie was GREAT! Many watching were likely concerned she'd go right back to fighting Steven again but that isn't what happened. She was willing to let it go.
"This is the only Steven Universe content you're ever gonna get out of me" Why do I get the feeling this will eventually be poorly aged in a video somewhere in the future.
After you realize the extent of what the diamonds are capable of in having truly messed up life the entire galaxy, I don’t know a single viewer who would look at that, and not agree with Bismuth. Yes, I do think shattering literal space hitlers times countless planets worth of damage would be a good thing.
Well yeah. You’d be stopping them from killing anyone else. Sure, there’d be backlash. However, considering how they treat their own people, probably not as much as you’d think.
@@DrawciaGleam02 I’m guessing Leo from Rise of the TMNT would like the idea but criticise her for making a weapon used so directly. Meanwhile, Donnie would try and improve it
@@DrawciaGleam02 Well, I guess pre-Krakoa arc Charles Xavier would be more like Steven universe and say that this would lower Bismuth to their level. However, Krakoa era Xavier has more nuance and would probably work with Magneto and the rest of mutantkind to develop a better weapon to defeat the diamonds. Maybe even reprogram Blue or Yellow to defang the homeworld empire so they can use the essence of the other diamonds to heal the corrupted gems and no longer be a threat that would also be under their control. Pre Krakoa Xavier gets compared to MLK a lot by people but, in reality, whilst King was pro non violent protest, he wasn’t anti violence. Not only that but, in an ironic twist, MLK’s letters from Birmingham jail condemned people like pre Krakoa Xavier.
It just Occurred to me Another Reason why Aang didn't kill Ozai. It would have Violated the Teachings of the Air-Nomads, A People that were Destroyed, Aang is the Last AirBender. So of Course it would prioritize those Teachings above almost everything else. “Our lives are fashioned by our choices. First we make our choices. Then our choices make us.”--Anne Frank Similar to Batman, Aang is bound to an Ethical-Standard and failing to meet that standard wouldn't just prove Ozai right, It would permanently destroy the Air-Nomad Culture. "Live Well. It is the Greatest Revenge"--The Talmud "He who seeks Revenge should Remember to Dig Two Graves."--Chinese Proverb
If Steven argumented that without the diamonds home would would break out in chaos (considering how depended the gems are) it would work better. The reason would at least sound....reasonable
Like yeah, there are some people who take their hate for SU a little too far, but the whole deal with the Diamonds was some BS. Just finding the gem experiments alone should have been a wake up call for Steven.
Production wise, I can sort of excuse what happened to Bismuth. She was never intended to be an actual character in the show, she was just a cool prop that the artists and storyboarders put in Lion's mane with no plan or reason. Rose was always meant to be Pink Diamond, that was just what Sugar wanted for the story. But Bismuth? She wasn't planned at all, so they only had so much time to plan for what to do with her when fans insisted on seeing her in the show. Storywise? Yeah, Bismuth was done dirty, and the writers flubbed it bad. They should have had her sit Steven down and explain that no, it's not that black and white, that's not how War works. Bismuth is an intelligent Gem, they should have had her try to appeal more to Steven's ignorance as a child, and teach him a more mature viewpoint of the Gems and what they should do.
[Mini rant] Bismuth was absolutely epic in her debut, I wish she wasnt so casual about it when steven told her that his mom was pink diamond, it just seems so wrong knowing she was against the diamonds.
Honestly I felt that the gems and their empire seemed a bit undercooked, they had interesting ideas and interesting cultures which we never got to see as much. I still think this story line could have worked, like Steven believing that Rose, his mother didn't believe in shattering gems as a solution to a problem and that she would try to use reason, or just simply bubbling them up as a form of solution, that would make more sense to me at least but the show never did that sadly.
To be fair Steven did have reason to believe in the same idea that Rose did. And that's because almost all he as a child has ever heard about her, is her ideals, her mission to fight against tyranny, and how much of a wonderful and kind person she was. Of course he believes in the same thing even though he has no greater personal reason to, when everyone around him built her up as this nigh-saintly Gem that he wanted to be like and has to live up to. And that's all on top of the fact she was the dang boy's own mother, so personally I think it really all clicks together why he would.
Okay finally someone agrees the Avatar example is good. People saying he should have killed Ozai or Zuko should have killed Azula missed the entire point of the series.
yeah aang reining in the avatar state saying "no. I'm not gonna end it like this." was a powerful moment to me and while I get that the lion turtle stuff could be seen as a copout or whatever, I thought it was less abt right vs wrong and more abt aang's feelings on the matter. (I mean even he admitted the world would be better w/o ozai, plus the past avatars basically going "yeah, kill him"; he never rlly said it'd be wrong, just that he didn't wanna kill him) also do ppl rlly think zuko should've killed azula?? that's kinda crazy (edit: ig I understand someone saying they wish he'd been the one to defeat her instead of katara, but idk abt killing her)
It's... Fine... My main problem is that that weird power kinda came out of nowere. They could have shown a little more buildup to that OP powermove. Another problem I have is that the show kinda insisted that the Nomads had a superior culture and that everyone would be better if they were more like them. Wich, I get the point, but... Isn't the job of the Avatar to learn both the various tecniques of bending and by extension other philosophies and cultures to find a middle ground? It's not exactly a middle ground move to choose your peps morality over every single other one cause yes. Besides. Nomads definitively... Killed people... Pretty sure all those fire nation soldiers around Ghiatso did not die because of his pacifism... Yeah... Uhm... Also, Aang definitively killed people before fighting Oozai. Sooooo. Lol.
The problem is Aang was in a win state... but gambled it to keep morally right. Imagine you have a gun to a certain WW2 leader's head. Now imagine you set the gun down and try to take his power from him which if you fail results in him winning. Without the knowledge it would work... can you say this was the right choice? Aang had won the fight and could kill him... but Aang proved their own point by winning. Taking the power from the big bad won't stop them from making a gun or leading. In fact it would add even more power to the movement. "Look our enemies won't even kill us! They are cowards and weak! We have nothing to fear!" What Aang did would likely lead to focusing on technological advances to crush people alongside bending. It is only with knowledge that it didn't does Aang's choice become "right" but otherwise it is a stupid decision.
I would rewrite The episode Bismuth so that when he and Steven has there argument Steven seis something that makes Bismuth realise what she is doing (trying to kill Steven as thou he was rose who betrayed her, so she stops fighting him and ample-ably runs away thinking that she doesn’t deserve to be called a Crystal Gem, because this outcome would leave room for bismuth’s redemption to almost killing Steven, rather then bubbling her and leaving her in there for a lengthy about of time, and making the fans who love Bismuth miss her for a long time until she gets released in the episode “Made of honour”. Also I agree that Steven’s logic that Killing a baddy makes you just as bad as them, without addressing that killing a Villain that is 10x as evil doesn’t carry on to the person who killed them, is Nonsensical.
I will say that only the 4 diamonds abilities can heal shattered gems makes it a bit more complicated, because if Steven wants to heal the shattered gems he can’t kill them. So there is an aspect of moral complexity to wether they should die when their abilities have so much potential for good, as long as the crystal gems keep them in check. Wether that’s right or wrong is an interesting conundrum that I haven’t really seen in a show before. That being said, this is a revelation found out way after this episode so I agree that it was clumsily executed. I also agree the end could have been handled way better and in many ways falls on its face, but I’ll take the trade off that Sugar and the rest of the crew got to do Garnet’s wedding and the doors it opened at CN
The show could’ve done a better job with the second string crystal gems. It was cool to see them actually do stuff in season 5 but they needed way more development.
I think another series that does it well is Mob Psycho 100. Mob is a pacifist at heart, he doesn't like hurting people. So much so that he constantly suppresses his own emotions due to fear that they could overwhelm him and cause him to lose control and hurt others. Although he is perfectly capable of using violence as a means to defend himself and others if necessary. But when he and his loved ones get overwhelmed by Claw he feels compelled to fight seriously to the point where he decides that murder is acceptable. But Reigen stops him. And it's not because killing them would make Mob "just like them" , but because Reigen knows that even if it accomplishes his goals in the short-term, even if he manages to save everyone, afterwards the weight of his actions would crush him, because he's just not that type of person.
They fumbled the whole show towards the end there really. Especially when they actually got a second chance with Future, except instead of answering questions and giving us lore, we got some lame lesson that hugs make every thing better. The finale also plagiarized 2 episodes of Adventure Time, which still pisses me off.
@@Raya-ir4tm I loved the ending of AT, but I'm actually talking about the episodes "Don't Look" and "Abstract," especially the first one. Finn turns himself into a "monster" because that's how he sees himself, except instead of hugging it out, his friends actually talk to him in a way that validates his feelings while showing him that he's more than what he thinks he is. Jake's monsterfied episode is more lighthearted, but I think the lesson about how we sometimes need a different perspective on things is an important one. And it's like SU Future stole the general outlines of those stories and threw away the heart of them. Finn and Jake learned and grew from their changes, Steven just drives off into the sunset like literally nothing happened because a hug made everything better.
@@scarababbeo9733 I have thought about that, but I dont think she was even working on AT anymore when those episodes were made. It just seems pretty sus to me, and it struck me that she never came back to reprise her role as Marceline's mother in AT: Distant Lands (now *that's* how an epilogue series should be made, more lore, more of our favorite characters in new situations, etc)
They clearly talked it out with Steven to though, many seem to forget the speeches from everyone during the hug, the hug itself wasn’t the full thing. Steven clearly grew and learned as well not to bottle up his feelings and that he has people who care and will support him no matter what, which he was struggling to believe after viewing himself as useless and unworthy of love for most of Future.
I love your vids. You are seriously such an amazing voice in the community. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I feel less alone because of it. Take care and I look forward to so much more from you.
i just rewatched steven recently and honestly bro bismuth had to of some what known and provoked her actions. thats why she said some dark shit to steven about rose " shattering herself and all her problems going away. she mustve taken my advice" then later on being stashed in lions mane/ pinks realm for 5.3k years.
Indeed. I feel the same that it was more aang-like and better for Ozai to have to live without having what he used to assert himself as much as he did. But at the same time, still feel it was a bit of an easy out for Aang to suddenly get this power no one else seemed to ever have with very little build up to it within the story before. Makes it come off a little cheap.
@@motherplayer I think if the story had alluded to this idea previously, it would have been a bit better. Yeah, not killing Ozai thing is distinctly about Aang as a person. And clearly not about Ozai because on some level, Aand too think it would be a solution. But since he's the only one with that power and they asking that of him, he tried to do this on his terms.
While I agree, I also think the aspect of Aang being a strict pacifist should've been developed more during the series. Sure, he never directly kills anyone (*directly* is the key word), but neither does anyone else. It just feels extremely jarring for Aang to suddenly care so much about the life of the guy who was going to genocide the entire Earth Kingdom in a couple days.
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Love ur content dude keep up the amazing work.
Love your work!!
Honestly, the themes of this episode being poorly handled is a microcosm of how MOST of the really themes in the show were handled.
i get keeps but
I am not a 35 year old man
I am a 14 year old girl
I think I'll be fine
I think one type of media that contrasts SU very well is Digimon Survive. It does sympathetic villains much better!!
I feel like Steven’s reaction to Bismuth could’ve worked with a few tweaks
Instead of making Steven the “Voice of Reason”, have the script frame him more as the naive child he is
I think “That would make us just like them!” is a 100% valid emotional response to that situation coming from a literal child. The main problem was that the KID was taken seriously over Bismuth
I agree, he had an argument and for his character ig it made sense he felt that way. the real problem is the show is clearly on his side with no ambiguity and frames bismuth as completely wrong
Steven being a child isn’t an excuse, Aang was also a child
@@bigbadgammagnome Did you not read my comment? Steven being a child isn't an excuse Aang had to save his world at the age of 12.
@@bigbadgammagnome Don't worry about it, I should have been clearer so it's my fault too, sorry about all that aggression.
@@WeloveJimmy-sikeRare RUclips commenter disagreement that results in a peaceful conclusion
Bismuth deserved waaaaaay better. As did like 99% of the characters. Bismuth was just so cool.
Agreed she was so god damn miss treated
This whole show could’ve been so much better
Well they did massacre garnet so bad
Faxs
@@godoftomatos881 agreed.
I hate how they showed Lapis getting poofed by Bismuth (or another gem of the same type) and then did nothing with it. You’d think Lapis confronting the gem who caused her to get trapped for centuries would be a major plot point, but nope.
Even if it wasn’t the Bismuth we know, there could have been an arc where Lapis doesn’t trust her because she looks so much like that gem. Like how Steven was tense around the Rose Quartzes in SU:F because they reminded him of his mother.
It was confirmed that Bismuth poofed Lapis, but Lapis does not remember her. But yeah, i feel like it would have been better if it turned out that Bismuth did it by accident, not realising she is not the enemy, because she was focused on fighting.
Tbh you’re giving the writers too much credit, they probably did that just to plant the idea with absolutely zero plan to do anything with it. Because I had a similar thought too, she had animosity towards peridot just for being a home world gem and aiding jasper, but confronting the gem who trapped her in that mirror would’ve been a great character interaction
@@awsomedude23456 that’s how the whole show felt. Concepts with no payoff.
I don’t even wanna call it planning without payoff cause planning would mean something was happening and almost nothing of major substance really happens.
And when it does the show seems more interested in the bloody townies.
“Oh the worlds about to be ripped apart by a giant creature made of thousands of dead gems? Hmmm well how’s the Mayor doing?
@@AnimatedTerror Think about the opposite too, I really liked the Townsfolk, and I wanted to see their stories progress, but it always felt like they were thrown in to the middle of major story events in a way that didn’t mesh.
Also anytime a character got an episode to themselves you just knew it was gonna be forever before we came back to them. Or sometimes they just flat out disappear.
It felt like their character was going somewhere and then it just didn’t, like most things about the show.
@@Numbabu you know what fair point.
Show felt like it wanted to be slice of life but also have a big overarching story and juggled it very poorly.
12:24 You joke, but even avatar actively mocks that idea.
Aang: Maybe we can make some big pots of glue, and then I can use gluebending to stick his arms and legs together so he can't bend anymore.
Zuko: Yeah, then you can show him his baby pictures, and all those happy memories will make him good again.
Aang: Do you really think that would work?!
Zuko: No!
I like how technically both Aang and Zuko are still correct in a way.
Zuko is right that his father won't ever change but Aang still manages to take his bending away so he doesn't have to kill him.
@@shinyagumon7015 And the series ends before we have to deal with the answer to why, historically, tyrannical leaders kind of had to die; because there would always be that alternative in case people didn’t like the new boss.
@@christopherbennett5858 True in think tho that the comics dive deeper into how Zuko maintained power.
@@shinyagumon7015 Probably.
The issue is that the comics are more like supplementary material which can be easily overlooked.
i think the most laughable notion was that Ozai was ever a good person
Also the reason why Aang couldn't kill is because he is the LAST air nomad. His people are gone, his culture is gone. He is the only living part(and Appa) of air nomads. Aang killing someone would be like fully destroying air nomad in spirit as well.
Good eye.
*cough* tenzin
@@hueyfreeman6262 Tenzin didn't exist when Aang needed to defeat the Fire Lord
@@hueyfreeman6262 He was his son, you know, YEARS LATER.
@@danmakes2497 yeah so the air nomads would be reborn through him whos he gonna kill
Growing up is realizing Bismuth got gaslighted by a boy who never experienced war… She literally deserved better.
Right, Bismuth was ready to take action against the power structure of Gem World which would’ve benefited so many gems in the future, and Steven never took the time to learn from her experiences and perspective, believing his own personal ideology was superior. Really remember disliking this episode/plot thread
Oops, Home World, it’s been a long time since I’ve watched 💀
exactly.
Gaslighted? People are really mad over a 13-year-old boy being uncomfortable with the idea of killing, not to mention that a non-lethal way of defeating gems already existed and was proven effective. On top of that, the show never turns to the camera and says “this is the right way to handle matters of war and oppression 100% of the time in the real world, WHICH THIS IS NOT”.
@@diamondminer5459 a 13-year-old boy who doesn't know how the world works
Let's all remember the only reason the diamonds didn't kill steven is bc they thought he was PINK, he was saved bc of nepotism
The most you can say about SU is that it was a neat concept, but it was so completely fumbled in so many ways that's all it really is.
absolutely agree. the premise, concept, and idea of the characters are all amazing. the execution of it all, though, ruined this show. it had so much potential that it makes me wonder if it would've been better if it was made by a different team
I really loved the first half but after that it just drops off a cliff. So unfortunate. Hopefully future artists can learn from the mistakes of this show.
The show really didn't know what it wanted to be, Saturday morning cartoon?, magic fantasy?, Science fantasy against an evil galactic empire?, family drama?
@Ahmed malake I had the exact same experience lol At one point I refused to watch Clarence but found myself sitting down and watching full episodes whenever my brother's put it in the living room
It's a show that's about the journey, not the destination. Because the destination was fumbled so badly you're better off hopping off the train right before the last stop and enjoy the train's amenities one the way.
I feel like another missed opportunity for Steven Universe would’ve been to have antagonists that weren’t Homeworld gems like imagine if Steven had to fight a person from another race whose home was destroyed by the gems.
Or organization of humans. Think about it. Those rampaging monsters (corrupted gems) were on earth for like what, 500 years? And crystal gems aren't exactly secret organization either they interact with the town quite often. It baffles me that some type of SCP like organization wasn't introduced, especially with how cruel humans can be compared to gems.
@@MrCyplixo seriously. Like witch hunters. A foundation. Something.
The world of Steven universe always felt so passive and unchanging.
like stuff just happened around it and not to it.
A better story would have had some form of human organization that stood opposed to all alien creatures.
@@AnimatedTerror I know right?! Maybe they could find a way to use shattered gems as an energy source or something, make them even more threatening. Another nice thing would be if they never truly changed, just defunded once people would realize gems are good... There could be so many great things in that. Emotional manipulation, "good soldiers follow orders", forcefully created half gems half humans brainwashed into fighting gem creatures, so much potential! But nah let's just forget that humanity exists in this series.
@@MrCyplixo I think you are looking for that show about ghouls except like without the awful later seasons
"imagine if Steven had to fight a person from another race whose home was destroyed by the gems."
I've thought about that.
One idea I had was that Digimon were created as a means to stop alien conquests by making their technology go haywire. And one day some Digimon learned about their original purpose and dedicated themselves to stopping Homeworld once and for all. Which puts them at conflict with Steven.
(Yes, I'm eager for a Digimon/SU crossover)
Why didn't they bubble the diamonds? It's been shown as a reliable way to non-lethally pacify gems until they could be dealt with later. Makes more sense than the Diamonds changing their minds after a couple conversations and it still follows the no killing rule.
What a perfect idea!
they also could've had the diamonds die but not directly be shattered by steven/the protags. a lot of disney movies do this. idk how they would've done exactly consider how hard a diamond must be to shatter, but it was another option
@@tiablue9106
Get this...
I thought of Arceus (god from Pokemon series) shattering them and using the shards to create new Pokemon that have the diamond's ability to make gems.
@@tiablue9106 I always thought of some kind of proper homeworld revival rebellion going on behind Steven's back could do it. That's kind of tacky too though
@@Victor_Graves
True.
But that's because I meant it to be a crossover.
If you're writing a crossover, several shows have avenues that could defeat the diamonds.
MLP: Elements of Harmony
Digimon: Basically any Mega-level Digimon (Ultimate -levels could also do the trick)
Owl House: The Collector
Heck, I mentioned Arceus, but after playing the Pokemon games for so long I think it's possible to use regular (not legendary or mythical) pokemon to defeat the diamonds.
I still hate the fact that Rebecca Sugar (the creator of Steven Universe) stated that there are no villains in Steven Universe and yet presented dictators that colonized planets, shatter gems for not being obedient, corrupted gems to be monsters, and even forced them to fuse to become a Cluster. I truly wanna ask if tyrannical leaders aren't considered villains, then what is?
Yeah, quite the lack of foresight there.
Kevin
Not to mention Pearl raping Garnet and Rebecca sugar forcing a metaphorical gun to Garnet's head to forgive her.
This is pure relativization of evil. A literal dictator who is willing to decimate worlds and entre civilizations just for personal gain is not that bad, but an average guy who cat-called a girl in a night club (a nightclub where two kids weren't even supposed to be) is readily used as fuel to the heat of the audience.
She has brain damage if she said that.
Shattering didn't even matter, when they can literally fix them.
Oh yes, that's right everybody! "Shattering" the thing that meant death to Gems and is touted as being irreversible... Is fucking reversible...
All that scare and death was MEANINGLESS
to play devil's advocate
shattering never really killed gems. it was as close to death that a gem can experience (barring Rose i guess).
gem shards still have a sense of sentience and try to find their other broken pieces.
the fact that they can be put back together by the very beings that created them isnt too far fetched, but i do wish that they didnt go that route regardless.
Given that it requires the power of all four diamonds working in concert, it was effectively impossible until the gem war ended.
And it was never death. It was WORSE than death. Point still stands.
Fixing a broken gem was not exactly a bad idea it just need to be polished
@@E-Man5805 It doesn't require all four diamonds. Yellow Devil just put all of the pieces of a shattered gem together and then healed just healed their gem.
@@weird751 Yes it did. Steven had some liquids from all three other diamonds and had to use his own spit or something to heal Jasper.
Her last moments were of fighting in a war. Of course she'd be a little more aggressive than the other gems.
Coupled with the fact that she had to learn that most of her friends were gone...
She was really going through it and instead of doing more to try and help her mental and emotional state, they just declared that she was too dangerous to be left unbubbled so they did what Rose did to her.
I would say they were even worse than rose
Considering she had just tried to murder Steven they were totally justified. I even thought he was out of his mind when he went to unbubble her
@@amazinggrapes3045Out of frustration and anger.
Steven is just a kid who has never been to war, Bismuth.
I used to be obsessed with the show. only after Season 5 did my obsession wither away completely. after hearing what happened afterwards, with the diamonds, I'm freaking glad it did.
it was a waste of time imo. wayyy too many hiatus's and pointless story lines/lesson's. the nail in the coffin for me was that dude from the roundtable yelling at a child with cancer, (got mad bc they were able to see episodes no one else could see at the time) lost respect for that channel.
@@youropinionsareshitandsoar1954 (about the first sentence) that I know now. I'm just glad I moved on to other things.
because the gems aren't taken seriously and Steven is missing the point of what true courage is- mental strength to withstand the unexpected.
Huh 👀
@@Maretoast yeah instead he’s just given an instant win every time things get too serious like goddamn stevonie had so much weight as too be important to the story and crap and they got shafted to the point that all that remains of that concept is problematic suggestions and clearly misinformed writers
The personality of 2 kids does not make a combined mature personality
Let’s not forget the only reason the diamonds decided to listen to Steven was because of his connection to Rose Quartz, so it wasn’t out of the goodness of their hearts it was because their family told them it was wrong about that connection they still would have gone on doing what they were doing.
Well I mean, the connection was just what finally got them to listen to the facts, it was still mainly the revelation they drove Pink away that got them to change, the fact it was delivered by someone who was connected to her personally was just an extra bit of believability.
@@psychomagalor4902 but that’s the thing if Stephen didn’t have the connection then they would be able to end this peacefully I don’t buy that they would listen to a low level gym that was disobedient to them or her spawn and then they would stop doing what they were doing.
@@cartoonking1789 Well yeah cuz they would’ve just assumed they were lying in order to get out of being served the justice they believed they were owed, but because they were able to be clearly shown he did indeed have Pinks Gem they had an easier time believing that what he said was true and actually reflecting on their actions since they trusted the source it was coming from.
Steven Universe is criticized for being idealistic, and here you are criticizing it for being realistic! Can't fucking win!
@@amazinggrapes3045 I don't think this is a criticism of Steven Universe, it's just pointing out how truly irredeemable the diamonds are.
SU should have had better progression with it’s threats. Start with the Crystal Gems fighting and defeating corrupted gems, then average Homeworld gems (Lapis and Peridot), then the HW champions (Jasper and Aquamarine), then HW commanders (Holly Blue and Emerald), and end with the Diamonds.
I was so disappointed that we didn’t get Steven and the Crystal Gems going on space adventures with Lars, exploring and liberating the colonies before we saw the Diamonds.
Holy shit, yes
they were on this track for a while with seasons 1-3 and it was going pretty well. then it started falling apart season 4 onwards
You forgot this is the show that started out with a clear loose timeline, building up too much, and fumbling to resolve the plot points they setup at a breakneck pace and then patting itself on the back for how great their achievements are. You shouldn't except good writing from the steven universe staff considering the whole overarching plot fell apart after the first season. At least the episode to episode plots stayed okay til season 3 or thereabouts. God I'm still mad about how bad steven universe became. It's so frustrating, because the first season actually still holds up. Because it's largely episodic while peppering in the overarching at a consistent slow pace and it's not convulted enough yet to be agonizing to think about.
The fact that steven said "even if we don't agree, no one deserves this" was such false equivalence, mah lawd. yeahhh steven, that was bismuth's argument for why the diamonds should be shattered, they had some disagreement.
I think this could've been better if bismuth was set down a slippery slope where she was willing to shatter not only the diamonds but any gems who took their side after the fact--think those lapises from the epilogue series. that'd be a much better reason for steven to be against the idea and actually would make bismuth somewhat like the diamonds since she'd be shattering others just for not falling in line with her. only problem is this might make bismuth seem irredeemable for down the line, but then again since when has this show had a problem forgiving terrible ppl?
"when has this show had a problem forgiving terrible ppl?"
Jasper and Kevin
@@a.dennis4835 tbf neither of them rlly tried to "redeem" themselves. ur right tho, steven's attitude towards them was way off
@@tiablue9106 Neither Peridot. She only joined the Crystal Gems after she had no other option.
@@a.dennis4835 yeah that's why I said steven's attitude towards them was off--he was endlessly patient and forgiving w/ peridot even before she ever stood up to yellow diamond, yet w/ jasper and kevin he had none of that. so arbitrary.
It's like steven only warmed up to peridot so easily bc she's cute lol
Honestly, I think they could’ve made an argument that “if you do this, it won’t end the war!” Because if she started shattering gems, whose to say that the diamonds wouldn’t just send stronger forces to earth, resulting in even more casualties.
I remember they ship teased Pearl and Bismuth at the end of Future and I was like “Cool… but you’re literally almost done with the show. Why should I care whether or not these two get together? I’ll never see what happens.” Kind of off topic I’ve just been holding onto that nitpick for a while. It sucked that Bismuth was so underutilized even her ship was underwhelming.
Remember that one episode where they "introduced" a human who looked veeerrry similar to Rose and Pearl was just smitten to the point of even trying food for her?
What happened with that? (I honestly stopped watching after Steven came back to Earth from the Gemworld. Oh, saw the movie though)
@@robogirl I knew she wouldn’t be important so I quickly forgot about it 😂 wish I dropped it that early but I had to see how bad Future would be (incredibly). Skipped the finale, saw the big kaiju Steven hug and officially gave up
@@robogirlTbh I felt like she was just a plot device to show that Pearl was capable of moving on from Rose romantically.
@@bobtheball5384 I don't know. Wouldn't that make it better to have something happen? The only thing that even hinted at it was that she gave Pearl her number and..that's it.
I think if that were the case too is if it was from someone who didn't look almost exactly like Rose; Bismuth for instance.
I thought Bismuth was gonna be shipped with Biggs....
You pretty much described in perfect detail why SU started to heavily decline after they just corrupted the best villain in the series: Jasper.
Peridot’s redemption was done so well, yet they somehow fumbled every other villain.
Not every villain needs a redemption, but they’re story arc definitely needs a satisfying conclusion.
@@TheMedicatedArtist You're absolutely correct and I agree with you. Peridot's arc was done incredibly well, but it seems like after jasper they had a Season 3 Rick and Morty happen and it just took a nosedive from there
I don't think Jasper got corrupted, as a character i mean. I think her arc feels natural to me. She continues to be evil, but now all alone in desperate need of company, feeling betrayed by everyone and attempting to create her own army of gems to take over the Earth. But after being revived, i think she felt like she was important to someone, losing her motivation to make an army and destroy crystal gems. But she lives alone in the woods, because she still does not trust other gems at the little homeschool and beach city. The only person she trusts is Steven, because she reminds him of her diamond and he is actually her diamond, that's why when Steven gets "corrupted" slowly, she goes full on servant mode. She is a lonely gem, who lost everything and who felt betrayed by the world she is living in. She was a weapon and she is not used to being an actual person so to speak.
@@CoalEater_Elli corruption as in the spiky animal form
@@burnttoast.2017 Ooooo. Oh yeah, i remember that.
I’ve forgotten how obsessed I was with Steven Universe…. Like… VERY LATE IN THE SERIES. I had to catch up right before White Diamond’s reveal. The only problem when rushing like that is that I skipped some episodes because of how many, and I mean MANY filler episodes there were so I barely had any attachment with Bismuth until the movie came out lmao. I mean, what a damn good singing voice.
I also became super obsessed with SU really late, at the time I've started 1st season the newest episode was "Familiar"
And I've skipped the whole 4th season ecxept for the first and the last 3 episodes because I was rushing so badly to catch up before the show ended lol
And I think I've skipped all of Season 5 episodes that took place after Steven got back on Earth at the beginning of the season but before "A single pale rose"
I remember I caught up with all of Hilda a Netflix show, one day before the movie dropped so I know the feeling lol.
I love SU but I agree plenty of the homeworld gems, diamonds included, had a lot of unused potential.
Steven Universe fumbled the ball with a lot of characters, even in it’s main series. Lapis, Peral, Rose Quartz, Lars, Jasper, all of the diamonds, the list goes on. It’s a series with an infuriating amount of missed potential.
Pearl's character arc about being independent was completely thrown out the window, Rose's entire character was assassinated with the Pink Diamond reveal, The Offcolors and Lars were just sidelined, Jasper was thrown under the bus, Peridot became a joke character after season 3, the fact that the Diamonds were redeemed in the first place was a no no, Spinel's character arc from the movie was completely obliterated in Future (also seriously, they really underutilized her), and all the antagonists in Future were never seen again.
@@LooneyNuke
Hahaha! "Antagonists" in Future.
All of them and I mean ALL of them were nothing but a mere inconvenience. A rock on the sidewalk you kinda stumble over after not seeing it. You throw it towards the grass in annoyance and continue on your way.
All of them were pathetic wastes of time. Yes, even the pink lemonade godzilla. He smacked his head against the wall, screamed a few, splashed in the water, and had a good cry.
People were so hyped for this form, why...?
Yeah the sheer volume of missed potential in world building and character development is terrible. I think the Pink Diamond reveal was the biggest mistake of the series, it took away a lot from the mythos of Rose Quartz revealing her to have been a Diamond. From there it felt like her character was assassinated repeatedly to make her look like a terrible person on so many levels. Rather than someone who was generally good with some flaws =/.
@@djdragondrawer9339 I guess people wanted to see some mass destruction, and they got what they wanted alright. A mass destruction of the entire plot of Steven Universe.
@@tonts5329 They never really tried to assassinate Rose's character, more of they did her character redemption backwards, by showing her being good, and then showing her very bad flaws that lead up, to how she reached the point she is now
What makes it worse is when you realize how death in the war worked. Rose had a strict no killing rule, so the only shattering that happened was on roses side, Bismuth lost countless friends to the diamonds, and she didn’t even KNOW about the corruption. Bismuth had every right to feel the way she did and Steven comes off as tone deaf and he might aswell had been saying “all lives matter”
Steven Universe: "Bismuth wanted to SHATTER Gems, kill them forever! She was misguided into a monster!"
Steven Universe Future: "Naaah JK, shattered Gems can be revived with the right glue. Bismuth would have moderately inconvenienced Homeworld at worst."
Yeah wtf?
Steven revived Jasper after shattering her!?
What?
Gàaaaaaaah
I can't help but think that the writers got so obsessed with wrapping every lesson up with "Kindness and nice words (sometimes in song form) are the way to help others" that it impacted the story negatively by oversimplifying messages and killing the full development of themes and characters. For example, take the shallow ending that is resolved by Steven literally telling a murderous dictator they are evil because they are insecure. Logically, this is flawed because White Diamond, and even the other Diamonds, did what they did because:
A. They thought it was in the best interest for their kind
B. They viewed it as morally unproblematic because the life they ran across was "inferior" to them in their eyes.
Now, insecurity could one of her motivations (although I beg to differ) but the writers solving the conflict by pretending that this was the main and only strong reason for their actions was logically flawed and shallow. People are complicated, and their actions and motivations are as well.
One person said it best.
It was that the show wasn’t mature enough to realise how to handle the difficult subject matters.
Oh and also buying the idea that it’s better to exhaust yourself reaching out to abusive parties rather than helping those who were abused by said parties.
The writers claim that Steven never forgave the diamonds. Okay… what about how the others feel about the Diamonds.
If you want an actual good message about how kindness is the way to help others then watch Mob Psycho 100. It does everything ten times better than what Steven Universe aistrying to do.
@@JLacay thinking about getting into Mob Psycho. Mob looks like a dumbass so therefore I must read/watch it
@@microwave8931 He may look dumb but Mob is a better written character than Steven the Pink Prick.
@@christopherbennett5858 I like that point a lot. My memory is hazy, after all the hiatuses while SU was airing I gradually fell out of the show. I do remember the handling of the Diamonds being highly disputed.
It sounds like there was a big lack of nuance that went unaddressed or at least not addressed clearly enough when it came to the climax.
It just throws me why the Diamonds were written to be so vile. People have limits to how much they can forgive, tolerate, etc. When you have the Diamonds committing some of the worst acts known to humanity, I can see why a chunk of the audience doesn't like how the conflict ended.
Actually ATLA made that point twice when Aang went missing and they approached Iroh to do it instead but he said he couldn’t because history would see it as a brother killing a brother to gain power.
What pissed me off more about the special was at the very end. Bismuth showed remorse and reason shortly before poofing... And what did Steven and the gang do? They bubble her for the rest of the series. WHY?! WHY DIDN'T STEVEN LET HER REGEN
That was effed up. Bubbling corrupted gems is understandable because they're hostile, but a conscience self aware gem?? On their side??? Jasper? Okay. But a fellow rebel?? Yikes.
Well, he did after the Pink Diamond reveal.
Because the writers just didn’t feel like writing her character until later I guess
I mean, what would they even have her do in the 20 filler episodes between plot points?
Being a little tired after being reluctantly wounded by someone you tried to murder isn't "remorse"
Another really excellent example of this trope being executed well is in The Expanse. Praxidike Meng, a mild-mannered botanist, joins the group in seasons 2-3 on the agreement that they’ll help him find his daughter if he helps them on their own quest. On the side, the story follows Dr. Strickland, a scientist who’s conducting Protomolecule research on several children including Prax’s daughter. He’s generally characterized as a cold-hearted scumbag who we wouldn’t mind seeing put down by Prax when the Roci’s crew finally catches up with him, and Prax seems onboard with the idea through further events in the story. However, when the time comes, Amos (The brutish antihero, by the way) stops him, and says “You’re not that guy.” Prax breaks down in tears, realizing that Amos is right, and goes back to join the others. Once the airlock is closed, Amos turns to Strickland and says “I am that guy,” and gives us our cathartic vengeance.
Ah. That reminds me of something similar in Advance Wars: Days of Ruin when we go after Admiral Greyfield, one of the few survivors of the meteors and trying to use this as an opportunity to expand his influence as being special for having survived. After having killed the good hearted leader, crew is out for vengeance, only for the lead to ultimately decide he doesn't want to while one of his allies decides to do it for him after he left, even when Greyfield pointed out it would make her no different, she was more than fine with getting her hands dirty if the lead can keep a better moral character.
ayo the expanse reference lets go
bonus points for remembering prax's full name lmao
Damn maleboss moment
Man remember when Bismuth's reveal was treated like a _huge_ deal with a ton of promos and trailers hyping her up. Only to literally be shafted after her 2 main appearances
The fact we never got any drama with Bismuth and Lapis bugs me to this day it feels like they just forgot that Bismuth poofed her
Um why would there be drama? Lapis doesn't know who poof her, and bismuth are in the middle of war how would she know this lapis is the one she poofed in the middle of a fricking war??
@@Kyss111 they probably only made lapis “not know” is cause they didn’t know how to write it into the story 💀
Honestly, I’m not even sure that she was bubbled because she wanted to shatter gems. If you remember what she said about Rose’s sword she said it could destroy physical forms but not the gems themselves. However, this directly contradicts the story that Pink Diamond told the other gems as she claimed the sword shattered her. But if Bismuth heard this, she would’ve revealed that the sword was unable to shatter gems.
Pink didn’t bubble Bismuth because she was an extremist… she bubbled her because that fact would’ve blown her cover.
Not at all. It was quite clearly because they had a major confrontation about their opinion on the breaking point. Possibly even extra fueled by Rose's fear of Bismuth being so eager to shatter the diamonds when she secretly was one.
As someone that genuinely enjoyed from Steven Universe, one of the few things that I hate about it is the whole Bismuth-Diamonds treatment
Honestly, I think it would've been interesting if the whole "shattering is wrong" had been replaced by "Sure, you shatter the Diamonds but what's next?", because who would've guided the millions of gems if Bismuth had been capable of using the Breaking Point on the Diamonds? Bismuth or another Crystal Gem? Or let them decide on their own? I don't think so, Homeworld would've freaked out and fallen into chaos. Or, "How do you expect the Breaking Point to defeat an empire with high tech?", because the Diamonds had hundreds of thousands of Injectors to create gems, warships, and canons, they even had the arm ships to obliterate them. They had the resources to make weapons deadlier than the Breaking Point, and this is pure theory but the only way for the Crystal Gems to get the tech they needed if the Breaking Point had resulted too weak against more advanced weaponry was to steal it from their enemies by traveling to Homeworld using the Warp Pads which was extremely dangerous and even if Pink had tried to by using her status as a Diamond, the other Diamonds would've found out one way or another.
What's worse is that shattering is no longer a consequence. Why should we worry about a gem shattering to only see Yellow Diamond and Steven can magically piece them together as if nothing ever happened.
@@JLacay yeah, that's what I really dislike about the show now. They took away the fear of shattering by making it so the gem can just get fixed.
I mean like leaving the Diamonds alive to heal th corrupted gem understandable. Would've been cool if Furture showed the planets and aliens thay suffering from the gems
And even if the gems help they they won't forgive them that easily.
@@JLacay This. I honestly wish Jasper for instance has stayed shattered. Imagine the true turmoil it would've brought on Steven and the conflict it could've created. But nope, he fixed it instantly -_-
I feel like there's a lot of things Steven Universe fumbled.
The show in general was a fumble aside from season 2 and select episodes/moments in 1 & 3.
There were some real high moments like Peridot, A Pale Rose, and the S1 Finale, but overall it's just such a deeply flawed tangled mess that can't make up for it's glaring shortcomings.
As an ex fan season 4 onward crashed and burned spectacularly but there had been numerous cracks going all the way back to the earliest episodes.
9:58 additionally aang's act of not killing ozai can also be seen as a statement on the importance of the air nomads, the fire nation committed genocide on the air tribe and by aang choosing to find a way to defeat ozai without killing him was one big act saying "my people's beliefs do have a place, and did not deserve to die"
Someone made a Tumblr post about how Aang was basically a honor student with athletic scholarship mentors (which made sense since he learned all the elements in a year, whereas his mentors took a decade for each element).
Dude was also able to take and give someone’s bending, something literally none of the previous avatars knew was a possibility.
One thing I picked up about Steven Universe is that it seems to be like "A noble attitude is better than anything else". Meaning that even if someone else has a logical plan and good reasons, Steven will always get his way because it's "the right thing to do". Did I observe that correctly?
Yeah. Steven is pretty much never questioned since he’s the moral compass of the show. Heck, Alone at Sea kind of shows how, if Steven likes you you’re given all the chances but, if he doesn’t, you deserve to choke in the eyes of the writers.
The show is a fantasy where goodness, kindness, gentleness, softness, understanding, pacifism, being willing to talk it out are enough. And the truth is that it is, if the other person is willing.
So yes, "what if doing the right thing was enough?" is the very idea upon which the show hinges. For this reason I don't know if it would actually be appropriate for children, because they could be blindsided later on. But I personally find it quite a comforting alternate reality
They really had no bismuth doing her that dirty
"Hello, Pun Police....."
How dare you lmao
A good example for a character that doesn't want to kill bad guys but still does is Ashitaka from Princess Mononoke. Despite everything that was happening Ashitaka was strictly against violence. His curse helped him see that hate and killing are never the answer. But Ashitaka wasn't a non- killing pacifist either. He still killed when he had to, but it was clear that it was only when he had no other choice. He even said to one of the "bad guys" "Don't make me kill you!".
Ashitaka was in perfect balance- someone who doesn't like violence, but was willing to use it if necessary.
Honestly, It's kind of crazy just how many of the show's story problems could be summed up by this one scene.
.. The person who guessed this was gonna be a defense of bismuth must be feeling pretty smart
:')
6:35 I think this idea perfectly summarizes the ending of Avatar the last Airbender. Aang didn't spare Ozai because "it would make me the same as him" exactly, but because Aang was taught all his life that taking a life is wrong, so killing Ozai would just have a heavy toll on his mental health. And if he's gonna be the Avatar, he needs to do whats true to himself, not what's the morally right thing to do. So by sparing Ozai, he was really just protecting himself. He was being selfish but true to himself
Edit: I should've guessed you were gonna bring it up lol
Bismuth: "Why are you booing me? I'm right!"
Honestly, the episode could have worked had it simply taken a different angle. Had Steven pointed out that the war was over, and that trying to kill the diamonds when they seemed content to sit on their throne in home world would simply reignite the war to disastrous effect, they could have made the conflict work. Having to avoid a full confrontation with a force that is far stronger than you even when you have every reason to fight them is a very good lesson to teach. It would have also made Bismuths little freak out actually make sense, as she thought that Rose not going with the plan was what caused them to get to that point, so she could have seen that as an excuse made by someone who wouldn't take accountability. This episode falls victim to the sheer amount of writers hired for the episodes, as well as becoming an oversimplified lesson about the dangers of answering violence with violence.
I think it would be interesting to explore the Diamonds' past. From the final episode of Season 5, I got the impression that Yellow and Blue Diamond were partly doing evil just to keep Homeworld together. They were surely seduced by power, but when Yellow was saying "We have to keep everyone in line to preserve our perfect empire," I got the vibe that it was something she told herself rather than something she genuinely believed, a bit like a mantra of sorts. Her earlier actions certainly challenge this, but I have a feeling there's something deeper to the Diamonds that explains (but doesn't excuse) their actions.
Alas, the series is over for now.
Yeah but you gotta remember before that scene both Blue and Yellow were really casual about shattering, colonizing and putting "dick" in "dictator" without White present or overseeing anything. It is basically an excuse to redeem them which falls flat on it's face when you remember "just following orders" isn't good enough for committing mass genocide (and because White got redeemed too)
Yeah, it was because of White Diamond; though Yellow is both, she did what she did to keep things in line AND chose to do terrible things out of her own will regardless (because to her, any other life besides a Diamond did not matter).
Both Yellow and Blue were afraid of White as shown when confronting her, however, that's when it the remaining plot crumbles as White herself says she needs to be perfect but never explains why. (Besides the probably reason that she's the most powerful Diamond out of all of them, so she gave herself that role.)
@@danmakes2497 that's my point. a) Yellow and Blue Diamond still have mixed motives, as horrible the things they did are, and b) we never got to understand *why* White Diamond acted so inhumanly (I think all Gems have humanity, even though they're not humans). I understand that part of it was because CN crippled the Crewniverse to tell the last bit of the story in only a few episodes, but I can't help but feel that part of it was just weird writing on the part of the Crewniverse. People have probably written hundreds of essays about the writing of Steven Universe that I can't write in RUclips comments just because I'm commenting for fun.
How does this tie in to Bismuth? She's right in saying that the Diamonds need to be held responsible for their actions *somehow*, but the Rupphire wedding arc just throws all that out the window because Bismuth is forced to put her anger away because she values her friends and their desires more than her own. Sounds like a sinister life philosophy to permanently suppress your thoughts and desires for the sake of the collective, but again, that's not my job.
@@joshuab.3887 really late reply but i just assume White Diamond was created differently and being the first gem to ever exist had a severe effect on her mentality or something, especially if she was created by another being and didn't just come into existence by chance, because that would mean she was deliberately created with a certain purpose in mind that her entire existence was based around (making the universe perfect by filling it with highly advanced, nigh-perfect life forms). one must wonder what kind of fucking animal would create a being like that though, if that is indeed the case.
@@carnage0685I figured that too. It might tie in with the Snake People theory floating around. Given that Satan is portrayed as a snake in the book of Genesis, I wonder if Rebecca Sugar had that in mind from the beginning.
I honestly understand bismuth’s pov honestly. Being a necessary piece of an army and being taught right from wrong all your life, and then being betrayed for having independent thoughts and essentially put to sleep for over 5,000 years and then being brought back and having to fight your attackers son for the same reason you got bubbled and getting bubbled again. She had a right to be angry
"having to fight your attacker's son"
She chose to do that
I was really impressed how in this video you clearly and succinctly summarized series and story beats for people who had never seen them before. Good work!
Another reason that Atla works so much better is because Aang is the last of the air nomads, a people who strictly did not kill. If Aang killed Ozai, he would’ve been fully rejecting air nomads teachings and he would’ve been the reason the air nomads as both a people and culture would’ve well and truly died. Everyone told he had to choose either the world or morals with no one, not even another air nomad, understanding just what that choice truly meant. If push came to shove then Aang would’ve killed the firelord, but he always looked for another way and it’s because he held on to his beliefs and who he was as a person, his will was able to overpower Ozai’s and he was able to save both the world and his people.
It’s stuff like this that make Atla such a good show that no matter how many times you watch it, you can always get something new out of it.
The comparison between Steven Universe and Avatar the Last Airbender was interesting. Literally everyone was telling Aang that he needed to kill Ozai. Despite Aang's reluctance the show at least was aware that some people can't change since Ozai tried to attack Aang even after he spared by him and was on the verge of being killed.
Steven Universe i don't think ever does this nor do we really get any input from any of the other characters in regards to shattering the diamonds. I think that would've been an interesting conflict of discussion.
The thought really isn’t “let’s not kill people because of their opinions” and more like “why the hell did Steven think it’s wrong to kill, not one, not two, but THREE space hitlers?” Before befriending them and making them start to “repent” for something they’ll never be able to fix. Yeah they can repair the gems they shatter and corrupt but they can’t bring back the possible billions of lives they killed on other planets.
I hate this show so damn much because of the good ideas that where ruined by horrible writing
Because he literally need all of them to heal the corrupted gems and to keep the homeworld gems in line, what do you think will happen if all of the ruler died off? Shit will hit the fan, gems who are loyal to their diamonds will want revenge, how long and how much more work do you think Steven have to do?
I don't hate the show due to nostalgia and seeing some good in it in other parts but yeah they fucked this up really badly. The diamonds are inexcusable and it felt gross that they got "redeemed"
@@Kyss111
I've thought about scenarios where the other diamonds are killed off.
One is a Owl House crossover where the C.A. T. S rebellion learn that the Draining Spell was used on the Diamonds to kill them.
The witches decide that they will take in gemkind, and many gems move to the Boiling Isles and prosper there.
Some gems even become witches themselves!
Nah it's more so "let's not kill people because of their opinions" people can be redeemed and change and Bismuth wanted to kill more then just the diamonds.
The show's writing was mostly good though.
Because they weren't fucking space hitlers. They were people used to committing environmental destruction at worst. They have a hard time wrapping their heads around human life being sapient because they are not used to non-gems being sapient. That's why Pink Diamond was blown away by Earth. The other diamonds couldn't really wrap their heads around this because they weren't there. When Pink appeared to die they then tried to destroy the Earth from grief and revenge.
I will NEVER understand where the "colonizer" "hitler" shit comes from. Because they used the word "colonies"? Because gems have castes? Because of the off-colors?
"won't that make us just as bad as the Diamonds?"
Last I checked, shattering gems wasn't the ONLY bad thing they did.
Yeah, but bismuth wanted to shatter every gems that are not aligned with the crystal gems ideals, she's literally doing what the diamonds were doing shattering gems that are out of line
@@Kyss111 Like I said, shattering gems isn't the ONLY bad thing they've done. Unless they're gonna start a dictatorship or start invading planets and draining them of their resources, it really wouldn't make them "as bad as the diamonds".
what you said changes nothing. He would still have to do a LOT more to truly be as bad as the diamonds.
I think the problem with SU is that the message of the show didn’t really work with the lore. If the diamonds were just the abusive family of pink/rose who harmed her and her friends and passed some of those toxic traits, then the core of message of talking things out, that anyone can change their mind of change for the better would have worked so much better.
Gonna get a but into fanfic territory but like if gems where just beings that where all over the galaxy and the diamonds where like rich, mean and cruel authorities that others liked because of their fame, it would have worked much better as of what it is. Rather than space dictators that have ended God knows how many planets.
Exactly, forgiveness is a good and noble concept - but it falls flat when it involves unrepetant genocidal tyrants. It works for low level conflicts where the instigator wants to be forgiven and make amends for the harm they caused. It does not work with Space Hitlers.
You cannot redeem someone who sees themself as being in the right in spite of all the blood on their hands. Such crimes should never be forgiven, you just enable them to do it again.
*[It's so sad that Bismuth literally has only 3 major episodes throughout the series... and some cameos in the Movie/Future]*
Steven saw a geo-weapon made out of billion shattered gems (whom some of were members of Crystal Gems) that if it ever emerged, it would've destroyed the entire fucking planet the rebels were sacrificing themselves to protect, but somehow concluded killing the 3 dictators who were responsible for that monstrosity would make him "one of them" (which in the end Steven did make himself one of the Diamonds when he described them as "family")
You don't seem to think what would happen after he shattered them, how many gems do you think are out there? How many are loyal to the diamonds? Most of them, what you got from shattering the diamonds is endless war, Steven are there for peace not to start up another centuries old wars
@@Kyss111 Fine mental gymnastics you're doing there
What happened to nazi's after H*tler died? They got punished and most of them left on their own since they were in that regime out of fear. Same principle here. Go on, hug a nazi and say how you're saving the world. I'm sure plenty of Jewish, Slavic, Romani, disabled and poc survivors would thank you
haven't watched the show, but it seems like this issue could've been more or less solved if the writers went with "some of rose's emotional attachments/selfish desires/irrational feelings or whatever transferred over along with her gem." plus they'd get a free protagonist being in the wrong pass, without having to think too hard about it
edit: also idk what it says that they chose the one gem that appears to have dreads to be portrayed as overly-aggressive and violent in pursuit of justice and just safety, but I feel it's saying something at least
That wouldn’t really work imo, a large part of Steven’s relationships is that he isn’t is mother and Rose wasn’t coming back, which the other characters (especially Pearl) had to accept. So to have part of her personality live on would kind of go against that.
Oh believe me, quite a few people have mentioned how black and butch coded Bismuth was and how her supposedly going too far for the rather moderate Steven and Rose (the latter actually being a person who profited from the oppression of others) when facing (at that moment) an obvious evil.
Because this happened in the middle of the cluster arc. You know, the arc where they’re stopping the diamond’s world destroying bomb that was a living mass grave.
@@bobismad1362 hm, I can't think of any way to fix this without drastic reworking, then, since he can't possibly know what rose's opinion was on it without also knowing it was a plan in the first place
@@christopherbennett5858 terribly ironic since it's trying so hard to be progressive in other areas- not that it didn't succeed in some, but it's amazing how antithetical the whole thing is to its more overt messages
not that this is too subtle
@@bobismad1362 they kinda wrote themselves in that corner by using the Avatar type of reincarnation.
Dude, you forgot that Steven is technically one of them! So he's got special privilages and powers that landed him victory. What do you think would've happened if he's just a human?
If you want my honest opinion he wind up dead or his opinion would not matter since he a normal human and the diamonds or even the other gems would think he another dumb human being........and then they proceed to destroy his entire existence or something.
@@jthehollowviewer7358 Honestly the show unfortunately made too mutch sense in terms of their relationships(
That doesn’t mean he’s a good character, that just makes him too overpowered and a bad character, not relatable at all, it’s like Superman he’s the worlds greatest hero but honestly who even relates to him? he might have weaknesses but because of plot armor he gets out of the situation no problem, point is Steven isn’t an engaging character.
@@theblackswordsman5039you're out of you're mind? Superman is Miles better than steven!
@@erikbihari3625 I’m not saying Superman isn’t a bad character I’m just saying I don’t relate to him.
After watching this I realized something they never really explored, other sentient alien species. The show constantly implys about the numerous organic life the empire conquered and wiped out, but outside of some small animalistic creatures here and there we never meet or hear characters mention this despite having military forces.
It could have been interesting seeing surviving species and how they view the situation they're, along with how they view the main cast and the empire. You could see steven get exposed to an outside viewpoint and maybe reconsider his "we can talk it out" mentality and have it dawn on him that what happened to these alien species could happen to his planet if he's not careful.
Steven Universe is one of my favorite cartoons of all time, and even though I love some moments in the finale, I know the overall ending was AWFUL. I'm pretty sure the reason it was so bad was because it was very rushed, the series was canceled in the middle of the season so the creators had to rush to tie up all the loose ends in the few episodes they had left, and i wouldn't be surprised if it meant they had to rewrite the whole ending. It's a shame, the series had built up such a dark and interesting group of villains.
This show had so much potential, and squandered it all.
It fumbled itself.
In defense of the last season of Steven universe, they did have less episodes than they wanted to, in order to wrap things up. That's not an excuse for how things ended, but Rebeca Sugar said herself, that they had to wrap things up, because Cartoon Network gave them only so many episodes to make and therefore put out.
I remember when I saw the ending for SU, all I thought was "And that solves everything!"
I hated the way Rose dealt with Bismuth. It was a WAR. A war Rose herself started! Bismuth was doing her job, saw her own sisters die, so created a weapon that'd actually work.
Not to mention that its revealed even LATER that shattering gems wasn't even a permanent solution unless a diamond was shattered. All 4 diamonds are needed to heal a shattered gem, meaning that their deaths would have like QUADRUPLE the impact
Steven Universe had masterful storytelling for the most part. The way they trickled information through foreshadowing and slowly built up the universe was just about perfect. It could have been so much more successful and more widely talked about if they didn't waste so much time pandering and handled the Diamond conclusion better. Half way through the series though, I think it was pretty obvious that we were heading for a talk-no-jutsu ending anyway.
The thing about Avatar the Last airbender and Steven Universe is both protags are in their early teens and very impressionable.
Steven is raised to be perfectly optimistic and while you point out: "It's better to kill a tyrant"
From Stevens view (and he says it himself): "An enemy is the friend you haven't made"
Infact ironicly in Steven Universe Future (wich has good and bad). We see 1 antagonist appear: Bluebird. A fusion between a ruby Steven saved but they hate him and aquamarine who was a sassy gem who didn't like steven. Their mutual hatred for him got em together and while Steven talked it out.. he couldn't convince em to stand down. They think Steven is wrong period and remain HATING HIM! (We never get a conclusion)
The thing about the Gem Society is it isn't stooped in logic. I could "forgive" white diamond if they had their REASONS to do what they did. But no she feared flaws.. okay that might be a reason to remove flaws from your society.. but it doesn't change SEVERAL OF THE REASONS of what the Diamond Authority were doing....
Like... why make more gems? You are immortal beings that don't need substance? Why make more? Your system is perfect... you have no reason to expand.
Why make more possible imperfections?
While White Diamond made Yellow and Blue to control the gem society better... We never saw a reason for Pink to be made but it's indicated she wanted a pet and made Pink as a reflection of her imperfections... but again... "WHY?!" Sure white is being humanized, but.. here's the thing... SHES AN ALIEN QUEEN YOU DONT HAVE TO HUMANIZE HER!
Why do they have a Military? Never in the series has it been confirmed Gems were in wars... they conquered everything fairly easily without much resistance. Even earth was conquered easily till PINK REBELLED! But she was the diamond who ruled it and.. well you know that mess, but I don't mind that mess. Pink was an impuslive dipshit.
And I liked the fact that Steven's mother was destructive, impulsive and didn't think of anything else but her own happiness... even when making Steven is because Greg reached out to her to give her something new to try and Pink being Pink... WANTED IT NO MATTER WHAT! Anyhow side track aside.
Why did White expand? One reason is simple:
"I am so perfect, I can make any world perfect"
Okay... so she's narsastic. That's a road I can see going with her. She does have a god complex.. but it's shown again... she didn't care for that.
There was no subtle motion in gem society that organics were imperfect beings that needed to bow down. Cause then the human zoo wouldn't be made at all or maintained.
So that reason dies.
Okay how about:
Gems were made and to keep gem society safe and perfect, I have to take as much as I need to avoid being destroyed?
This would LITTERLY make a perfect climax to the Diamond arc story.
Steven can litterly tell White Diamond:
"Why the perfect world? Why the colonizing and destruction?"
White Diamond:
"Cause if we don't... someone will destroy our society like it did before long ago..."
Steven:
"But what you are doing now... is the same as those who tried to destroy you! Are you that blind?!"
That would fight a little then White Diamond sees their wrongs and starts fixing what she can... sure not perfect.. but it shows reasons for genocide.
And I hate comparing the diamonds to the other genocidal maniacs... but some found reasons to do their terrible deeds like Cleansing the world of evil.
What the diamonds were doing is doing it cause... it's what they do.. NO REASON!
But agian.. they didn't go for this...
In the end Bismuth failed.. cause the diamonds failed...cause Steven's narrative failed...
Imagine if Gems could EXPIRE.. Imagine if the gems had a NATURAL ENEMY... Imagine if White Diamonds god complex was front and center.
I think the fact the series had to wrap up is the reason the writing tripped up. But yea... not the best critism cause you decided to focus on one moment where we are still vague on the diamonds.. but in the end.. bismuth was right... even NOW.
There is a reason NO ONE CAN FORGIVE THE DIAMONDS....cause their genocidal reasoning was never explained.. THEY JUST DID IT! FOR FUN MAYBE EVEN!?
idk man the human zoo was made because pink liked them so much. was only maintained in her honor. and ik you were against humanizing the alien empress but there are plenty of past empiricals who expanded for no other reason than a whim. it does suck that it was never really touched on and the way it was resolved was insane
@@SunshineTheLover Actually on expanding empires.. It was never on a "whim"
Some believed they were expanding their greatness.
Some wanted more to rule.
Some to keep their enemies futher away from their home city.
Some believed they brought salvation.
Unnessarcy expansion only harms your empire by giving you more subjects to feed and maintain, more land to defend thus bigger armies and bigger chances for rebellions.
But hey... again I just felt like it was undercooked. And you can humanize white diamond in some way, but their way was stupid...
Eitherway the way Gems are made and maintained shows they are possibly an artifical race... wich could have setup "Who made White Diamond and why? And did she rebel against her makers for a reason?"
Guess we will never know.
A. They made more Gems so they could have more workers to expand their perfection across the Universe. If they did make more imperfections, they would have forced them into hiding or gotten rid of them.
B. Pink was likely made so they could have a more light-hearted Diamond to appeal to the general masses and to be a source of happiness for them. Yeah they didn’t “have” to humanize White, but they did cuz they wanted to show even those who seem the most irredeemable may have some sort of humanity to them.
C. They likely had a bigger military in Era 2 in case another Earth war broke out, which until later they believed was because of a rogue Gem and not Pink.
D. She clearly was shown to greatly care how she was perceived and wanted the whole Universe to see how perfect she was, they never indicated she didn’t care for that. Also they clearly did think organics were below them, hence why they made a Zoo for humans instead of making a trade deal or something.
E. They clearly had a reason, they were incredibly powerful god-like beings and believed they were meant to spread their light across the universe, so they put up an aura of perfection so that the Gems they made would follow them no matter what. So no it was not “just for fun” cuz they didn’t even have the concept for fun.
@@psychomagalor4902 Not bad, but never was it truely stated.
I mostly agree with C.
But overall the show seems to be conflicted on what is going on and we are just "guessing"
If the diamonds just did it to make the universe perfect like them.. it just makes them... a JRPG God Final boss.
The thing is.. it doesn't feel like it fits with SU's themes. But eh...
@@kotlolish I feel like they did state what the gem empires goal was in Your Mother and Mine. To me it was pretty clear what the show was going for early on when every conflict with the Homeworld Gems that was solver with violence usually ended on a bittersweet note, whereas in the ending where they did win via negotiation they actually got a happy ending. Sure the Diamonds may in concept sound like a JRPG final boss but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t tell a different type of story with characters like that.
If Bismuth was brought back for the wedding and they never bring up the conflict she presented in her starring episode, why couldn’t they have brought her back before? Did the Pink Diamond revelation completely change her mind? If so, that still leaves the entire conflict she brought up unresolved, with no real conclusion. It’s a shame, because it was so interesting to have someone on the Crystal Gems’ side have such a different philosophy, and to see that get completely ignored so quickly feels like a waste of potential.
Envys death is my favorite in all of FMAB
it's so brutal, it's one of the only times we see Mustang a normaly calm person loose his cool that isn't played for laughs, it's honstly why i love FMAB so much
the literal only reason the diamonds stopped being so tyrannical is because stephen has pink diamond's gem, which honestly could've been a really interesting point? like yeah, how else besides killing the diamonds could you get them to stop what they're doing? just be born the right way because all they care about is each other lol. it could've been something that delved into how horrifying that alone is, but it was never treated very seriously when it really should have been. it could've been great, but they just didn't really do anything with it besides making stephen mildly uncomfortable around the diamonds from then on. so much missed potential with that!!!
Steven Universe's big problem honestly is they shifted towards redeeming the Diamonds while also holding Pink Diamond to personal account for everything. Characters emote and act based on what the current narrative wants them to rather than in the context of the whole series. Really feels like they had something smaller planned and wound up spinning out
Aang isn't against the idea of killing as a concept. He just cannot do it for cultural reasons. Aang would be fine if someone else killed Ozai. Ozai was just seduced and thrown into prison with no bending. Zuko and the other world leaders could easily just execute Ozai if they choose, and Aang would be fine with that.
Then why didn't they 😕
@@amazinggrapes3045 I guess they were stretched too thin. Everyone had a part in the battle.
Just Stop slowly shows he's becoming a better opinionated Lily Orchard.
One thing I always kept coming back to was the idea in my head that Steven should have used the Gem Rejuvenator from the movie on the Diamond to win without killing them. I also thought Steven could develop a power similar to that, similar to what Aang did to Ozai.
I thought about that too, but what would happen when the diamonds started to remember their past lives???
@TheGlassesPro you know, that got me thinking. What if White reverted back to a form that, not only looked less perfect, but looked completely alien to the rest of the gems. I remember Pearl saying that “She’s not even like them” in reference to the other gems, so what if she reverted to this bizarre, monstrous looking creature that not only felt disdain for all life around her, but herself as well?
@@DrawciaGleam02 Great point. I think it could be worked well enough if given proper development where they remember their past lives but now they are also something different. To me it would make their shift in personality less jarring than what it ended up making the final cut
@@hamishstewart5324 That's a very interesting concept. Too bad we will never see what it could have been :(
@@inktendo
Yeah.
TBH, how they handled Spinel gaining her memories back in the movie was GREAT!
Many watching were likely concerned she'd go right back to fighting Steven again but that isn't what happened. She was willing to let it go.
"This is the only Steven Universe content you're ever gonna get out of me"
Why do I get the feeling this will eventually be poorly aged in a video somewhere in the future.
After you realize the extent of what the diamonds are capable of in having truly messed up life the entire galaxy, I don’t know a single viewer who would look at that, and not agree with Bismuth. Yes, I do think shattering literal space hitlers times countless planets worth of damage would be a good thing.
Well yeah. You’d be stopping them from killing anyone else.
Sure, there’d be backlash. However, considering how they treat their own people, probably not as much as you’d think.
I've wondered how characters from other media would handle Bismuth's suggestion.
Undertale ALONE would be a trip to experience.
@@DrawciaGleam02 I’m guessing Leo from Rise of the TMNT would like the idea but criticise her for making a weapon used so directly. Meanwhile, Donnie would try and improve it
@@christopherbennett5858
Didn't expect TMNT to be mentioned! Anyone other shows you'd like to throw into the mix?
@@DrawciaGleam02 Well, I guess pre-Krakoa arc Charles Xavier would be more like Steven universe and say that this would lower Bismuth to their level. However, Krakoa era Xavier has more nuance and would probably work with Magneto and the rest of mutantkind to develop a better weapon to defeat the diamonds. Maybe even reprogram Blue or Yellow to defang the homeworld empire so they can use the essence of the other diamonds to heal the corrupted gems and no longer be a threat that would also be under their control.
Pre Krakoa Xavier gets compared to MLK a lot by people but, in reality, whilst King was pro non violent protest, he wasn’t anti violence. Not only that but, in an ironic twist, MLK’s letters from Birmingham jail condemned people like pre Krakoa Xavier.
It just Occurred to me Another Reason why Aang didn't kill Ozai. It would have Violated the Teachings of the Air-Nomads, A People that were Destroyed, Aang is the Last AirBender. So of Course it would prioritize those Teachings above almost everything else.
“Our lives are fashioned by our choices. First we make our choices. Then our choices make us.”--Anne Frank
Similar to Batman, Aang is bound to an Ethical-Standard and failing to meet that standard wouldn't just prove Ozai right, It would permanently destroy the Air-Nomad Culture.
"Live Well. It is the Greatest Revenge"--The Talmud
"He who seeks Revenge should Remember to Dig Two Graves."--Chinese Proverb
If Steven argumented that without the diamonds home would would break out in chaos (considering how depended the gems are) it would work better. The reason would at least sound....reasonable
Does that happen in German when Hitler kill Himself
I’ll tell ya if pink wasn’t dead and wasn’t hiding behind Steven she’d be beaten to a pulp or imprisoned for crimes
Like yeah, there are some people who take their hate for SU a little too far, but the whole deal with the Diamonds was some BS. Just finding the gem experiments alone should have been a wake up call for Steven.
barley know this show exists, but bismuth's design just makes me think she's a sonic character and i don't know why.
Production wise, I can sort of excuse what happened to Bismuth. She was never intended to be an actual character in the show, she was just a cool prop that the artists and storyboarders put in Lion's mane with no plan or reason. Rose was always meant to be Pink Diamond, that was just what Sugar wanted for the story. But Bismuth? She wasn't planned at all, so they only had so much time to plan for what to do with her when fans insisted on seeing her in the show.
Storywise? Yeah, Bismuth was done dirty, and the writers flubbed it bad. They should have had her sit Steven down and explain that no, it's not that black and white, that's not how War works. Bismuth is an intelligent Gem, they should have had her try to appeal more to Steven's ignorance as a child, and teach him a more mature viewpoint of the Gems and what they should do.
I think you're forgetting that bismuth not only want to shatter the diamonds but also shatter every gems that are not aligned with the crystal gems
[Mini rant]
Bismuth was absolutely epic in her debut, I wish she wasnt so casual about it when steven told her that his mom was pink diamond, it just seems so wrong knowing she was against the diamonds.
Honestly I felt that the gems and their empire seemed a bit undercooked, they had interesting ideas and interesting cultures which we never got to see as much. I still think this story line could have worked, like Steven believing that Rose, his mother didn't believe in shattering gems as a solution to a problem and that she would try to use reason, or just simply bubbling them up as a form of solution, that would make more sense to me at least but the show never did that sadly.
To be fair Steven did have reason to believe in the same idea that Rose did. And that's because almost all he as a child has ever heard about her, is her ideals, her mission to fight against tyranny, and how much of a wonderful and kind person she was. Of course he believes in the same thing even though he has no greater personal reason to, when everyone around him built her up as this nigh-saintly Gem that he wanted to be like and has to live up to. And that's all on top of the fact she was the dang boy's own mother, so personally I think it really all clicks together why he would.
Okay finally someone agrees the Avatar example is good. People saying he should have killed Ozai or Zuko should have killed Azula missed the entire point of the series.
yeah aang reining in the avatar state saying "no. I'm not gonna end it like this." was a powerful moment to me and while I get that the lion turtle stuff could be seen as a copout or whatever, I thought it was less abt right vs wrong and more abt aang's feelings on the matter. (I mean even he admitted the world would be better w/o ozai, plus the past avatars basically going "yeah, kill him"; he never rlly said it'd be wrong, just that he didn't wanna kill him)
also do ppl rlly think zuko should've killed azula?? that's kinda crazy (edit: ig I understand someone saying they wish he'd been the one to defeat her instead of katara, but idk abt killing her)
It's...
Fine...
My main problem is that that weird power kinda came out of nowere.
They could have shown a little more buildup to that OP powermove.
Another problem I have is that the show kinda insisted that the Nomads had a superior culture and that everyone would be better if they were more like them.
Wich, I get the point, but...
Isn't the job of the Avatar to learn both the various tecniques of bending and by extension other philosophies and cultures to find a middle ground?
It's not exactly a middle ground move to choose your peps morality over every single other one cause yes.
Besides.
Nomads definitively...
Killed people...
Pretty sure all those fire nation soldiers around Ghiatso did not die because of his pacifism...
Yeah...
Uhm...
Also, Aang definitively killed people before fighting Oozai.
Sooooo.
Lol.
The problem is Aang was in a win state... but gambled it to keep morally right.
Imagine you have a gun to a certain WW2 leader's head.
Now imagine you set the gun down and try to take his power from him which if you fail results in him winning.
Without the knowledge it would work... can you say this was the right choice?
Aang had won the fight and could kill him... but Aang proved their own point by winning. Taking the power from the big bad won't stop them from making a gun or leading. In fact it would add even more power to the movement.
"Look our enemies won't even kill us! They are cowards and weak! We have nothing to fear!"
What Aang did would likely lead to focusing on technological advances to crush people alongside bending. It is only with knowledge that it didn't does Aang's choice become "right" but otherwise it is a stupid decision.
Bismuth was one of my favorite gems in the show. Glad she got some more screen time.
I would rewrite The episode Bismuth so that when he and Steven has there argument Steven seis something that makes Bismuth realise what she is doing (trying to kill Steven as thou he was rose who betrayed her, so she stops fighting him and ample-ably runs away thinking that she doesn’t deserve to be called a Crystal Gem, because this outcome would leave room for bismuth’s redemption to almost killing Steven, rather then bubbling her and leaving her in there for a lengthy about of time, and making the fans who love Bismuth miss her for a long time until she gets released in the episode “Made of honour”.
Also I agree that Steven’s logic that Killing a baddy makes you just as bad as them, without addressing that killing a Villain that is 10x as evil doesn’t carry on to the person who killed them, is Nonsensical.
I found the title to be funny, cuz you could make a 50+ video series on everything Steven Universe Fumbled.
Bag fumbling could be a sport
God, I always thought Bismuth’s treatment was weird. I’m glad people agree
Please do a deep dive on this entire show! Would love to hear more
I will say that only the 4 diamonds abilities can heal shattered gems makes it a bit more complicated, because if Steven wants to heal the shattered gems he can’t kill them. So there is an aspect of moral complexity to wether they should die when their abilities have so much potential for good, as long as the crystal gems keep them in check. Wether that’s right or wrong is an interesting conundrum that I haven’t really seen in a show before. That being said, this is a revelation found out way after this episode so I agree that it was clumsily executed. I also agree the end could have been handled way better and in many ways falls on its face, but I’ll take the trade off that Sugar and the rest of the crew got to do Garnet’s wedding and the doors it opened at CN
The show could’ve done a better job with the second string crystal gems. It was cool to see them actually do stuff in season 5 but they needed way more development.
I think another series that does it well is Mob Psycho 100. Mob is a pacifist at heart, he doesn't like hurting people. So much so that he constantly suppresses his own emotions due to fear that they could overwhelm him and cause him to lose control and hurt others.
Although he is perfectly capable of using violence as a means to defend himself and others if necessary.
But when he and his loved ones get overwhelmed by Claw he feels compelled to fight seriously to the point where he decides that murder is acceptable.
But Reigen stops him. And it's not because killing them would make Mob "just like them" , but because Reigen knows that even if it accomplishes his goals in the short-term, even if he manages to save everyone, afterwards the weight of his actions would crush him, because he's just not that type of person.
They fumbled the whole show towards the end there really. Especially when they actually got a second chance with Future, except instead of answering questions and giving us lore, we got some lame lesson that hugs make every thing better. The finale also plagiarized 2 episodes of Adventure Time, which still pisses me off.
@@Raya-ir4tm I loved the ending of AT, but I'm actually talking about the episodes "Don't Look" and "Abstract," especially the first one. Finn turns himself into a "monster" because that's how he sees himself, except instead of hugging it out, his friends actually talk to him in a way that validates his feelings while showing him that he's more than what he thinks he is. Jake's monsterfied episode is more lighthearted, but I think the lesson about how we sometimes need a different perspective on things is an important one. And it's like SU Future stole the general outlines of those stories and threw away the heart of them. Finn and Jake learned and grew from their changes, Steven just drives off into the sunset like literally nothing happened because a hug made everything better.
Might the plagiarizing be related to the fact that Rebecca Sugar worked on adventure time before Steven Universe?
But, yeah, this dosen't exuse it
@@scarababbeo9733 I have thought about that, but I dont think she was even working on AT anymore when those episodes were made. It just seems pretty sus to me, and it struck me that she never came back to reprise her role as Marceline's mother in AT: Distant Lands (now *that's* how an epilogue series should be made, more lore, more of our favorite characters in new situations, etc)
They clearly talked it out with Steven to though, many seem to forget the speeches from everyone during the hug, the hug itself wasn’t the full thing. Steven clearly grew and learned as well not to bottle up his feelings and that he has people who care and will support him no matter what, which he was struggling to believe after viewing himself as useless and unworthy of love for most of Future.
The show is basically the LGBT version of MLP but at least that show had Irredeemable villains.
I really enjoyed this video! i think it was well written, and well edited!
YEAHOO, JUST WHAT I NEEDED, ITS ALMOST THE WEEKEND AND MY FAVORITE CREATOR UPLOADED WOOOO
I love your vids. You are seriously such an amazing voice in the community. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I feel less alone because of it. Take care and I look forward to so much more from you.
You know the critic is going to be good when they start to compare it to Fullmetal Alchemist. This show does everything so right
i just rewatched steven recently and honestly bro bismuth had to of some what known and provoked her actions. thats why she said some dark shit to steven about rose " shattering herself and all her problems going away. she mustve taken my advice" then later on being stashed in lions mane/ pinks realm for 5.3k years.
Really nice you talk about Aang. A lot of people seems to believe the end would have been better if he killed Ozai. Thanks.
Fr! An abuser losing his power. More satisfying than killing him
Indeed. I feel the same that it was more aang-like and better for Ozai to have to live without having what he used to assert himself as much as he did. But at the same time, still feel it was a bit of an easy out for Aang to suddenly get this power no one else seemed to ever have with very little build up to it within the story before. Makes it come off a little cheap.
@@motherplayer I think if the story had alluded to this idea previously, it would have been a bit better.
Yeah, not killing Ozai thing is distinctly about Aang as a person. And clearly not about Ozai because on some level, Aand too think it would be a solution. But since he's the only one with that power and they asking that of him, he tried to do this on his terms.
While I agree, I also think the aspect of Aang being a strict pacifist should've been developed more during the series. Sure, he never directly kills anyone (*directly* is the key word), but neither does anyone else. It just feels extremely jarring for Aang to suddenly care so much about the life of the guy who was going to genocide the entire Earth Kingdom in a couple days.
@@perfusion7104 im pretty sure they did allude to it earlier