Steven Universe Review - The Writer Problem
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- //DESCRIPTION: Hello and welcome to the last part of my three-part Steven Universe critique! In this video, we'll be talking about some broader topics about the way this show has been handled by the writers and the network over the past year. I also briefly touch upon some of the Lapidot episodes from this bomb, but only briefly.
To repeat what I said in the video: Thank you guys so much for the support!!! I'm really shocked by how well my videos have been received. Feel free to let me know what you'd like to see from me in the future; I have a few ideas of my own, but I'd love to get a better idea of what my subscribers are interested in, too.
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Hey guys! Thanks for 1k subs!!! Let me know what else you'd like to see from me. I've got a Life is Strange video that will hopefully be up not too long after the holidays, as well as a few other ideas, but I'd also love to hear suggestions from you guys. If you have any ideas, reply to this comment!
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Suuuuper excited for the LiS video!
Hi! Sorry if this comment doesn't tell you that much about what you should do next, but I just wanted to say that i've just found out this channel and i really like it! I hope it keeps growing!
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Please talk about the episode Rocknaldo, it's like perfect example of bad writing in the show. Also the Hype for it was not nessary at all. I was annoyed that I have to wait for Lars of the stars. Most of episodes would of been allright if they didn't have tie in too this Connie business. Also you have that song that was realised but not used in the bomb. I was hype for stuff in the bomb that wasn't in the bomb
Yo! Curious to hear your opinions on a show that has a similar concept to SU, with the excemptions of humans, called Houseki no Kuni (Land of the Lustrous). The show features gems fighting off moon dweller invaders and is animated fully in 3D. Its an anime, so you could pretty much expect what you normally expect form an anime. I have never personally watched the show, but I heard it tackles on some topics that SU covers as well, but in a more... almost in-your-face or subtle approach.
Yayyy Life Is Strange. Are you starting with the original or before the storm?
The slice of life has gotten stale because the show refuses to let the townies BE reactive to the world around them, like complacent status quo is somehow endearing for us. You know who has the most development out of Beach City normies? Lars, Sadie and freaking Ronaldo.
Lars and Sadie get more development because they were Rebecca's sugars ocs. And everyone now loves Lars because he GREW as a character and is part of the gem side of the show now. Like Connie.
Ronaldo has become the proxy punching bag for the SUcrews frustration with the fandom. Which becomes irritating when his pro activeness to the weirdness in beach city is just written as him wanting attention.
Humanity has no agency when it comes to the gem stuff. And that's why we've stopped giving a shit.
If all the humans did was react to gem stuff that would be surrendering their agency to the gem stuff as well.
But yeah the enforced status quo is disconcerting but at the same time part of the core structure of a reverse changeling fantasy, except we are more interested in the special world Steven/Rose comes from than the normal world they want to hide in.
To get two of the most hated characters the most development,in which one case you end up hating even more the character(lookin' at you Ronaldo) it really is something to be admired,of how much poorly this thing is
+Richard Dolder
How?
The gems are the biggest threat to the world and being reactionary to them would be, well, HUMAN.
The humans feel like props to the point where I wouldn't be surprised at a twist revealing the world to be a hologram of some sort. Only reacting to the gems wouldn't lower their agency considering how important gem activity it.
If something completely controls your life and your life is spent in reaction to it then you don't have agency. It's been stripped from you.
Here's the thing, do you worry about say, gamma ray bursts? I mean one could be heading for earth right now and wipe it out. You wouldn't be able to stop it, You wouldn't be able to really see it coming, and the whole human race would be gone.
No you don't, you just go on with your life because either a gamma ray burst happens or it doesn't and there's nothing you or any other human can meaningfully do about it. Reminder that to the humans there's just been a surge in weird magical shit recently, weird magical shit happens all the time on their earth, And where it has been centered people are looking to do things, or at least feel like they are doing things.
And the diamonds? Their a gamma ray burst, I mean if Yellow really wanted earth to die RIGHT NOW rather than in some through some elaborate means because she has emotional issues, well it's a gamma ray burst scenario. Lapis can casually blow earth up, which means there should be even exceedingly low balling a couple billion gems that can do the same, send one on the teleporter and....the crystal gems wouldn't even NOTICE, much less humanity.
+Richard Dolder
That's a really bad comparison, the gems to beach city are more like a war torn 3rd-world country with houses being hit by drones and RPGs once a week. The only thing Beach City can't be sure of is how much will be destroyed, destruction is assured.
It is a stripping of agency but at the same time consistently reacting and preparing for the next attack (that happens every week or so) is the only real agency they could have.
The Bomb format is one of the most cancerous things to happen to animation. Bombs should only be used as season openers or season closers, since it makes sense to have that many episodes connected at once.
It worked for the Out of this World arc. What matters is that the episodes make up a serialized story arc. They don't necessarily have to be season permieres or finales in order to be effective.
what’s a bomb?
@@miningpieeater9342 sequence of episodes per week
joao ducati
thanks ^-^
@@miningpieeater9342 Instead of releasing 2 new episodes once a week they instead do all of them in a month. Then you have to wait several months for more.
I try so hard to avoid comic con spoilers but RUclips algorithms recommend channels that have the spoiler in the thumbnail
SU's writers are a bit lazy. It takes forever to advance the plot. I'm gonna compare this to Over The Garden Wall for a sec. OTGW accomplished alot in a short amount of time. It got characters, backstories, character development, world development, beautiful scenery in a span of 10 episodes. Steven Universe took an entire season to get started on its plot, and has mostly been churning out filler with the ocassional mini arc.
A Level 20 Warbear It took 70 goddamn episodes for SU to establish a major plot point that led nowhere.
You're comparing apples and oranges. Otgw is more akin to a standalone movie than a running serial cartoon. It makes a world of difference when you know where and when you can end your story.
does the show have a head writer that inserts ongoing story clues? and on characters progression?
honestly adventure time only started its plot in season 4ish, so I really hope steven universe gets going and branches out into some quality character backstories and plotlines, but I doubt steven universe will run as long cause it seems white diamond is pretty much the ultimaye obstacle ://
SU fans always gotta bring up Adventure time smh.
This bomb was possibly the worst StevenBomb ever. Connie was acting way too dramatic. I understand being concerned for your friend, but she needs to understand that she can't get involved in all of Steven's battles. He gave his life to save not just Connie, but the whole town, the Gems. She needs to understand the fact that they were pretty much overwhelmed by that point. In the episode Kevin Party, Connie gave no apology, no recognition to the fact that she was kind of overreacting.
Star Warrior Productions
There may have been a subplot that the Crystal Gems may have had a hand in Connie's overreacting, namely Garnet. That plotline may have been dummied out last minute and hackneyed to the mess we got.
Where are you getting the subplot thing from?
It's bad writing when characters development happens off screen. The writers should have shown how Lars got to be so confident, turned into a space pirate captain. This is just one example of how bad it is that the writers only show Steven's point of view and not any other character's. The bomb would have been so much better if the writers spent a few minutes with Lars and the off colors as they try to escape homeworld. It might also have not made Steven and Connie's separation feel so dragged out.
Many others and I had mentioned that sort of problem too. Too much of it is just Steven's POV. He would always be placed into situations, be it intentionally or not, to help the other characters. Even if some are capable of doing it themselves or have developed to become a better person when it was shown in previous episodes. It's like the world's problems can't be solved without Steven. It would be nice if we go see from another character's perspective. Like how did Amethyst and Vidalia first met? Maybe show Connie and the kid she accidentally injured talk about one of the adventures she joined with Steven. I also wouldn't mind showing Lars and his adventures in the homeworld. Maybe he tries to act cool in front of them. Sometimes he bumbles up, but the Off Colors either don't mind or still think he's amazing. He slowly gains more confidence each step. He talks about what his planet is like and his family & friends back home. The gems get more interested and hope to see his home.
Megan Evans Eh, I don’t think it’s always a bad thing. It just depends on how it’s done and how well it’s executed like with most things in any form of creativity. We don’t need to see everything, sometimes it’s best to leave things up to interpretation and mystery. But yeah in this case it does feel off.
DW I'm not saying fans have to see everything but it's hard to write a great show from only one person's POV. Even shows that show multiple POVs also don't show everything. But there's no show I can think of that can properly write a long series from one person's POV without having similar problems as the one's Steven Universe has. That's why most shows don't stick to only showing one person's POV.
APChibiDubtalia nothing happens unless he's around to see it. I picture the other characters just standing around doing nothing until he shows up
What makes this even worse is the leaving of Lapis with the Barn. Now we have TWO things that we would like to know, what happened to Lars and the off-colors and what is Lapis going to do?
It was really cathartic, I was getting frustrated that nobody seems to care about all this weird writting the crewniverse trying to make
Omar Sanchez I care it makes me not want to watch the show anymore
I can agree to that. I honestly have no idea what this show is supposed to be anymore. Its basically a few episodes dedicated to a homeworld/gem conflict we know little about, and the other is drawn to static/stiff slice of life elements with boring uninteresting human characters.
Slice of Life/Action/Drama/Space Opera
These can't really coexist in one show. Or one bomb.
This is probably not the crews fault but I don't think it's a wise move to "mess" with the viewer's after such a long hiatus. Steven's song, Pearl's confession and Garnet's p.o.v of pink diamond's battle and nothing actually happens throughout the episodes. Also, I'm not fond of the writers dumbing Steven down for the sake of plot. one episode he knew how to escape danger in a another planet now he forgets sun flowers need SUN to grow and that there's no Wi-Fi in the vacation house. I'm really hating the bomb format as of now why can't we just get an episode once a week? I can clearly understand why many fans are upset about this bomb failing since we waited months for it and expected something like Lars in the stars.
*Starry * if I'm completely honest here, I wouldn't have thought of the sunflower thing
i miss when shows had one episode a week. its crazy to think that the ren and stimpy creator had to make deadlines but always hated when his work wasnt perfect while su's crew has more time and yet they dropped the ball on so much.
Isn’t the reason why SU’s writing is so shoddy because of the fact that NO ONE in the Crewniverse is an actual writer? It’s just a bunch of talented artists who think that good writing means putting your all into a shocking season finale but blowing off what happens in between. Townie episodes don’t HAVE to be boring filler, but since these guys think writing is easy, they don’t hire someone who knows how to pace things and create characters. CN unfortunately now associates SU with glacier pacing, so the Crewniverse HAS to create arcs that can be solved in 5-6 episode bomb formats.
Rhaynebow
This is what, I don't get. To this day.
If homeworld is so dangerous and technical advance, how the hell, did Steven get Greg (His dad) so easily fast. Like I was expecting so much. He just came in, got his dad, and said deuces
And I hated how, all of a sudden, Lars is a confident courageous space pirate, who stole a ship- but we didn't get to see it. To me, that's like saying, oh I'm pregnant and then walking away. Did Rebecca sugar, believe we won't have following up questions lol
You are very much correct. The show's stories aren't script based but are 100% based off of storyboards. Storyboarding is important to making an animated series (or movie) and in some cases a story can function on only a storyboard format (mostly smaller comedy series and shorts). But if you have a show that is heavily story based with overarching plots and character development, you NEED scripts and talented script writers to help get things done properly.
To make things worse, Rebecca Sugar is very much a "Yes woman." She has admitted that she doesn't like rejecting ideas that other people put on the table. Ergo, she doesn't say no to the other staff members even if they have a bad idea or an idea that just simply does not work for the story.
The storyboarders are pretty much free to do whatever they want, with little input or anyone guiding them or pulling in the reins if they do something stupid. The fact that they're so lax is why the show is so inconsistent both artistically and how it's written. It's gotten to the point where you'd think that they're completely lazy and don't give a damn what's going to happen to the series. Unlike other shows where people plan out in advance in what they have in store for it (like Gravity Falls or Avatar: The Last Airbender), the people working on Steven Universe are just making things up as things go along (kind of like what happened to Adventure Time).
mjangelvortex
Hunny, you are 100% percent right on Rebbecca Sugar. She is definitely a yes woman. I do think, she put her workers feelings before the show. Because you can tell, there is no rules or guidelines.
If this was some other kind of show, it probably won't be as loved as it is now. But since it is SU- and have a massive fan base, it can get away with it.
But I think, Sugar is mentally drained from the show.
But I have meet some people, who is slowly losing interest.
+mjangelvortex-Interestingly enough, Adventure Time and Steven Universe mirror each other a lot in those ways. Much like Rebecca Sugar, Pendleton Ward was a young, innocent, relatively inexperienced artist who never had a major show under his belt before Adventure Time. When Cartoon Network picked up Adventure Time after Nickelodeon finally released it, CN was concerned that Pendleton Ward didn't have any major previous writing experiences so they loaned out Merriwether Williams and Tim McKeon to help work with Ward early on and flesh out his concepts to turn it into an actual show. (The closest Rebecca Sugar had to Williams and McKeon were her original story editors: Matt Burnett and Ben Levin, who worked on all the episode outlines AND worked with the writers during the entire episode process.)
Pendleton Ward struggles quite a bit on grasping nuance, subtly, but most of all, basic writing skills because he is an artist first. He's more interested in if something happens to be cool rather than if it works in the actual episode or not. And much like Sugar, he has hard time saying no to anyone who offers an idea, he is too nice to tell anyone no and lets his storyboard writers have almost entire free reign. (Much like Sugar does with hers.) That explains quite a bit why even early on Adventure Time pretty much threw everything but the kitchen sink into the series. Quite simply, Adventure Time is overstuffed to the brim with way too much, and it's not the kind of show that ever needed to be that way either.
Steven Universe started out a bit different. The pacing in the first two seasons was almost immaculate, there was a great balance between the Gem stuff and the regular slice of life episodes and it was clear that Sugar had the first two seasons largely ironed out before she began production or they fought hard to make sure things were woven organically. To me, it was season three that was the first sign something was clearly wrong and the first time where they unserendipitously discarded two major storylines they had built up: Malachite and the Cluster, the first time I notice they actively retconned things, and where characters just weren't themselves if the plot needed them to be.
+mjangelvortex-It's been five years already and they haven't even answered questions all the way back from season one: how did Big Bird get formed from so many Gem shards? What was Homeworld doing with a weather dome when it was established that Lapis Gems terraform anyway? Why did some Gems turn into corrupted monsters but others were stuck on inanimate objects? Why did Homeworld discard a device that can alter time so easily? Do they have more? And I don't think those questions are going to be answered anymore. I think the writers honestly forgot about the entire thing and called it a day.
It doesn't help that there's been a mass bleeding of writers, editors, and artists from the show: just to name a few, Ian Jones-Quartey, Matt Burnett and Ben Levin, Jasmine Lai, Elle Michalka, Raven Molisee, Luke Weber, Aleth Romanillos, Yong Seop Jeong, and Lauren Zuke was "recently" fired. That's a lot of crewmembers to lose and often, others are stretched too thin between other Cartoon Network projects, including Steven Sugar himself. Any sense of signature animation style or story continuity gets shaved off when these people leave and whoever is left doesn't know what they're doing next. It helps to always plan things in advance and have a plan to go off of for a series.
And if this last bomb and Lars of the Stars/Jungle Moon are any indication, it's way too late to undo the damage inflicted on this show. It's spiraling even further into Lost territory where they refuse to concretely answer anything and only pile on even more mysteries that are never going to be solved either. It's spiraling into something completely unwatchable-with its reputation as a progressive show, a lot more condescending, preachy, and snide-and something completely abhorrent.
The show started off way too good to be in the state it is in now and perhaps, giving Rebecca Sugar's poor skills as a showrunner and her refusal to reign in her staff, it was almost inevitable the show was going to fall out like a popped balloon at some point. It just came sooner than I thought it would. This is not the same show I fell in love with. This is some strange, bizarre chimeraesque ensemble-collected parts of the show I used to love. And I have a bad feeling with some many of the original staff gone, it's only going to get much worse.
i couldn't imagine having to write for this show, honestly. the tone is so wildly inconsistent, it's like they have no idea what demographic to cater to. i feel like we wouldn't be so pissed if they just picked one
i actually like that there appealing to both
bless your pure heart.
it's not that it ruins the show, but it really makes it rough when you wait half a year to see they've dropped the story. i guess it just sucks when you know the writers aren't really inspired, because it totally shows.
yeagh its truly disappointing to see the mighty fall
What do you mean you couldn't imagine writing for the show? Gosh, people are so overly dramatic. Yes the show isnt perfect: far from it. But remember when Adventure Time went downhill in season 6 and 7 but then picked up? I have no doubt Steven Universe will pick up again.
thing is, this is an issue the show's always had. it's not coming out of nowhere. Steven's always flip-flopped with its tone and pacing, trying to tell some huge intergalactic space adventure story, and small, earth stories. neither are given enough time to get anywhere. it feels like Rebecca wants us not to know anything sometimes, and that's frustrating. i love this show, but i mean it, i don't know if i'd be able to work with its material.
As I said in someone else's video, I think some of the pacing problems with this bomb could have been solved with rearranging the order of the episodes. Imo the most effective order would have been "Dewey Wins", "Gemcation", "Kevin Party", "Sadie Killer", "Raising the Barn", and "Back to the Kindergarten". For one thing, "Back to the Kindergarten" feels more like a conclusion than "Kevin Party" does. It leaves you with the feeling of "So now what's going to happen?" in a constructive way. Plus the episodes in that order go along with the parallels you were talking about. Dewey quits, Steven is forced to leave town, Steven moves on rather than obsessing over Connie. This is paralleled by Sadie quits, Lapis chooses to leave Earth, Peridot moves on rather than obsessing over Lapis. The issues with the humans are mirrored by the issues facing the Gems.
EDIT: Also, with "Kevin Party" being the third episode, the tension between Steven and Connie wouldn't drag on for far longer than necessary. The conflict would be resolved in a more natural storytelling way.
Yeah...What Elisa said. I'm pretty sure Sadie Killer has Steven putting up posters for Lion.
Dark Dodgers Well, yeah, of course there would be minor changes to the episodes, particularly Sadie Killer like you said. But I still think that "Raising the Barn" and "Back to the Kindergarten" should have been the last episodes, _not_ "Kevin Party".
I agree. I felt Kevin Party being the end was quite weak...
@Elisa Castro well yeah he was just stating a better episode order that could have been better
They seriously need to drop the bomb format and release the episodes like a normal schedule because I just do not care anymore.
It wont happen. It's the standard format for most cartoons nowadays. Adventure Time, MLP, TMNT, Power Rangers, DuckTales, they all do it.
+Jordan DeHart-You forgot We Bare Bears, a Cartoon Network show I still adore. Cartoon Network is the main perpetrator of this trend for me (at least animation wise, technically, the Netflix "bomb the whole series at once" is probably the format they're most going after) and I can actually see why studio executives love the format. Superficially, it's a quick and very easy way to drum up hype for the next episodes and leaves people wanting more. And I've actually heard the argument that kids are far more patient and willing to wait months for the next episodes and don't care as much for a more rigid and consistent tv schedule.
All of which I can say, with my past experiences, is a bunch of BS. The truth is, you'll grab a lot of fish on the hook that way but you'll also wind up pissing several people off in the process who will quit the show because of that. It's a hard gamble Cartoon Network is taking on its shows. That same format killed any interest I had in the later seasons of X-Men Evolution all the way back-it was always rescheduled, new episodes were often delayed indefinitely to where there was no hint of when it was going to air, and the WB often ran reruns in the place of where new episodes were supposed to be. The format didn't help Gargoyles, a show criminally underrated to this day, because Disney wanted to rush the showrunners rather than waiting for a consistent schedule to come up.
I kind of get the Netflix mentality of doing something like but the main difference is that Netflix drops the season all at once. (And I have problems with that practice but that's another story). And quite simply, it just doesn't work well. Especially with a show that is as heavily serialized as Steven Universe is, you can't afford to go on long breaks for indefinite periods of time and maintain interest. It just doesn't happen. Kids don't like it, adults don't like, no one likes when a favorite show does that. It's aggravating to say the least but like you said, it's not going to stop anytime soon.
This bomb was honestly painful
ArtandJunk the only thing that was interesting was lapis leaving earth and that was obvious she was going to it was kind of a given
As are all bombs. Explosions hurt.
@@bigbrainanime9485Very funny😑
The real rant should’ve been WHERE IN THE FRICK IS PERIDOT’S STAR. I MEAN COME *ON.* WE ALL THOUGHT IT WAS GONNA BE THIS BOMB BUT NOOOOOooooooo.
True
MilkAndCookies I thought it’d be a year ago
Ekim soon
Soon my children. Soon
And another year later.... Still no.
I haven’t seen Lars of the Stars. It was really concerning how nobody was concerned and I really wanted to know what was happening in space ;;
Btw really nice analysis! I’m glad your viewership is picking up!
I hadn't seen those clips or heard anything about Lars of the Stars, so seeing it here was pretty shocking. In retrospect the delay during this Stevenbomb is clearly intentional to buy time for Lars' transformation, and there's nothing wrong with that, except that they didn't manage to come up with a good reason for it. Instead the show is spinning its wheels. Not only is Steven unable to stage a rescue for petty reasons, but no one even seems interested in doing so.
That should have been the driving conflict for this Stevenbomb: his need to save Lars but being unable (or possibly even afraid) to. They could even have maintained a conflict between Steven and Connie when he reveals what happened to Lars and is reluctant to bring anyone else with him to Homeworld because he's afraid of the same fate befalling anyone else. Yes, he's dealt with that risk before, but this time someone finally _died_ over it, and he still doesn't know the extent of his ability to bring them back or what the consequences for Lars will be.
In that context, Steven's "betrayal" of his promise with Connie to fight together would have a specific, meaningful choice attached to it. It would allow for them both to have valid viewpoints, and the answer would be subjective but well-defined.
+Danielle C-I think it was way worse that Steven didn't show much of an ounce of concern about Lars. Lars was left stranded in Homeworld because of him. And when Steven promises that he'll find anything he can to bring Lars back home. . .naturally, one would assume he would very much mean that and dedicate everything to finding out how to get Lars home. . ..
Instead, about the only time he mentions it is telling Dewey that the Barrigas are upset that their son is. ..stuck on a hostile alien planet with a tight dictatorship that will kill him just for being there. . . other than that. . .he endlessly pouts about how Connie is mad at him for no reason. . .and pouts that he can't get Dewey reelected. . .He blames himself for the fact that Dewey's reputation took a hit. . .something that was never his fault. . .instead of actually doing something constructive and helping fix the problem he made-leaving Lars behind on Homeworld.
Steven just sits on his ass for the entire Stevenbomb, endlessly pissing and moaning over how life isn't fair TO HIM about Connie, Peridot, Dewey, etc.-where others have to drop EVERYTHING they're doing-when they could be doing something far more constructive-in order to coddle HIM and pat HIM on the head that everything is okay. And when Steven doesn't even check on Lars for maybe a week, two (?). . .it is honestly shocking, not to mention appalling that Steven sat on his ass so long that Lars decided he couldn't wait for Steven to help him and decided to take his life in his hands.
The fact that OUR MAIN CHARACTER sits on his ass while someone is left in a life and death situation BECAUSE OF HIM and pouts over how life isn't fair TO HIM. . .that. ..that is honestly reprehensible.
I personally do feel like Lars of The Stars was aired strategically. They wanted the fanbase to get all caught up with the "BINGO BONGO EMERALD LOL" memes and ignore the big issues. It just feels like the writers only care about certain characters and the rest just get their generic cartoon episodes. I'm excited for the new stuff coming out, even Sugar is but outside of the Lapis and Peridot stuff I'm erasing the rest of the bomb from memory so I don't get caught up in being pissed.
caleb what issues?
(it's almost like the writers aren't competent and have the writing skills of a 15 year old.
ThatBugBehindYou Let's not get hyperbolic. A few weak episodes doesn't mean literally every episode is awful. C'mon now.
@Ricky Garrison, It wasn't strategically aired. The show was supposed to return earlier than December, but it was delayed.
+Ricky Garrison
I didn't say every episode was awful.
Re-read my comment.
You know the issue of writing is not merely relegated to the recent bomb alone, it reflects the show as a whole at this point. It just simply has never been done to proper efficiency. The story seems stagnated and the plot is full of things that either have not been revealed, don't make sense, or are not important to the main narrative.
Steven Universe is technically known as an adventure series with elements of action/fantasy and sci-fi features. Yet the adventure or journey is hardly ever present. The show is still full of minor problems that only affect steven or a few others. Some episodes are just Steven trying to handle his emotions, and even that isn't done very well.
If you compare Steven Universe to other shows, you start to see the issues more clearly. Take the recently concluded series "Samurai Jack" for example, it too was an animated adventure series (albeit with much more action), but it managed to tell a narrative and story in 60 episodes compared to what Steven Universe has failed to do in nearly 160.
The reason? (Well other than the obvious fact that Genndy Tartakovsky is an infinitely better writer/creator than Rebecca Sugar) Samurai Jack never forgot its main plot (the conflict between Jack and the immortal Aku) Steven Universe has no idea what its main plot is (The gems and steven? Homeworld? Beach city?) it makes things too complex for even the writers to follow, and that is what is slowly killing it.
Honestly, the more these Steven bombs frequent, the more lazy and lax the staff ends up being. They don't even have a consistent conflict on Earth that would keep them occupied anymore (corrupted/fragmented gems when and where...?), characters constantly shrinking and growing in height and proportions (Steven, Connie and Peridot shrinking and Lapis' hair growing and shrinking) and the gems not doing anything AT ALL without Steven (you could say they're "training", but I don't think the show even shows any signs of said training at all).
I could imagine the gems trying to think of what to do with Lars being a portal to homeworld and finding defecting gems to join their cause and effectively make a revolution on homeworld.
I dunno if Samurai Jack is a reasonable comparison. The original Samurai Jack series didn't really have plot progression and most episodes were one of two stories; 1 - Jack finds some magical macguffin to send him to the past, he misses the window of opportunity due to a fight or gives it up for some inane reason, or 2 - Aku tries to kill Jack but fails because he is awesome. Maybe I just wanted more episodes like The Birth of Evil or Young Jack in Africa, but season 5 seemed to focus more on narrative than the original 4.
Big Troll Steven Universe Future is going in a good direction and focusing mainly on the gems
@@Piper9080 eh there is always a conflict whether it's the cluster or say some homeworld gems but there is often a good amount of filler which annoys people. the inconsistent heights may be lazy or in some cases due to a style change could be fitting but im just gonna say this since some refer to this as "animaton" no it's not actually animation is more so the movement of the characters not the drawings. another issue is yep it's to steven central wouldn't say this is the staff being lazy more so stubborn
I feel most things of the plot make sense and I admit the filler can get annoying but I don't exactly hate it it's honestly enjoyable it's weird comparing it haven't seen much of samurai jack but i feel like it's a off comparison of two very different shows. maybe comparable to gravity falls which has some non important episodes either or even maybe adventure time which technically may have a main plot
After doing some research about how the show is written, I think I know why the show is such a mess at this point (keep in mind, I don’t work on the show myself, but this is what I found from various interviews with Rebecca and the crewniverse).
Apparently, Rebecca and the producers sit down together and write an outline for the storyboarders, then they’re free to do whatever they want from there. And that’s the problem right there. The storyboarders are free to do whatever they want with little input until the very end. And since the show is storyboard driven rather than script, the writing is often over looked in favor of the art, which doesn’t work for a over-arching show like this. If they all sat down together in a writer’s room and actually talked about the story rather than draw as they go along, half of these problems probably wouldn’t exist.
It’s also notable that some of the storyboarders were artist before they were writers, and this is their first time putting together a cohesive story like this. I found this out from watching an interview from School of Visual Arts (Rebecca’s college), and a lot of them met while going there together.
The only thing that’s not their fault is poor scheduling. That’s all on Cartoon Network and they have no control over that.
I was thinking about making a video on this, but I’ve never made videos before, so here ya go. If anyone else is interested in animation production (I want to go to college for it) I’m happy to start a series on it!
I'm interested! :)
+StarrySkylar-And that is a big problem. Rebecca Sugar comes across like a relentless nice person in every appearance I've seen her but she just lacks any sort of balls in order to reign a huge beast of a show like this. (It also doesn't help that this is her first major show and she started writing it at 23.) It's clear from seasons one-two that they had a good amount of the story fleshed out beforehand-and they also had far better story editors (Matt Burnett and Ben Levin, who've moved on to their own show) who were willing to work with the storyboard artists/writers for the episodes they were working on. It seems like Burnett and Levin really picked up a lot of the showrunning slack that Rebecca Sugar herself should've been doing, as well as probably Ian Jones-Quartey, who left after season two.
I'm just saying to me, there was a really big and noticeable decline in quality when all three of these people left. A lot of the nuance and subtlety got thrown out the window right around the time Quartey left, and maybe that was just a coincidence. Maybe Sugar just ran out of planning to carry the stories over the next couple of seasons. The big stuff might still have been planned out a bit but in broader strokes but the writers suddenly got at a complete loss over how to complete it all together like they did before. They knew the "roads" but they weren't sure how to get there, which would explain quite a bit over how and why they handled the Malachite and Cluster storylines the way they did, as well as Steven agreeing to surrender himself to Homeworld without really thinking it through.
And since the slice of life episodes are far easier to work around out of sequence than a tighter plot, they focused more on that and saved the bigger stories for Bombs. But what's increasingly evidence that the writers don't have collaboration with the whole team is the fact they've sacrifice continuity, the one thing they were good at. They've sacrificed all these characters at the altar where the show and the characters are spinning their own wheels at this point and Steven is a complete idiot if the plot of the episodes calls him to be. This is lazy writing Sugar and the team would've found unacceptable, abhorrent, a few years ago. Most of the characters have ceased to be characters at this point, including the Crystal Gems themselves. (Garnet hasn't done anything for several seasons now).
And the tight, almost immaculate pacing has been replaced by sporadic, often random encounters. The nuanced and well balanced feminism of the first two seasons have been largely replaced by a smarmy smugness (doesn't help when Steven Universe is deemed the most progressive show on television. Spare me), especially by Lauren Zuke, who has contributed a lot to lesbian baiting (with Peridot and Lapis, who she did want to be a romantic couple but got shot down hard) and feminist/lesbian jokes that are hackneyed and cringey. "Rock people (lesbians) hate men?" *actual joke*
This show has become a complete mockery of itself and Rebecca Sugar has shown that she is simply incapable of handling simple showrunner duties. She just comes across as wanting to please everyone but winds up pleasing no one. She's dropped the plot very hard at this point and she has no idea where to keep it going. Since more of the original writers continue to leave the show, I fear this problem is only going to get worse.
The show would have needed an expirienced head writer in this case, and better team management.
Very strange that they have formatted the writing process that way, when the art in Steven Universe is wildly inconsistent and often times ugly, especially when compared to similar shows like Gravity Falls or Star. It just feels like nobody on the show actually knows what they're doing.
The show has been mediocre since the latter half of season 4. We're five seasons in, and we barely know anything about Homeworld yet? Come on writers. You can do better....
The show really needs to go somewhere and have consequences.
Sexy101 The first season was boring and established next to nothing, the second season had some action but ultimately felt off. Third through fifth and all that's happened is some bullshit with homeworld and so much minor character development that goes nowhere and is forgotten an episode or two later. The show has always gone nowhere, hell it took 70 goddamn episodes to establish a major plot point.
@Blake, Sinack, It didn't take 70 episodes to get to a major plot point. Ocean Gem was the 26th episode of Steven Universe, and a major plot point. And even before that, there was world building.
Sexy101 What I mean by that is, nothing that unbelievably massive has been a problem until that point, and borderline nothing came of it. We saw Steven and the Gems all fucking around as though there was nothing wrong while there was something massive happening.
@Blake, because the first half of season 1 focused on world building
@@sexy1018 world building the interesting part, the gem part, and then the show dropped that in favor of endless Beach City stuff
My theory about the plot issues has a lot to do with the writers not knowing what to do with this show. I think this has been an issue since episode one but it's jarringly obvious in current seasons. They want to add so many concepts and ideas and use different genres and try to mash them into one comprehensible media. As mentioned in the video whatever format the show grew on it's not working anymore. Things have become far too complex and in need of more developing dimensions and cannot be summed up like it is now. The "free form" format does not work for a show with so much plot going on and it needs to be more episodic. Like, how South Park changed for season 21 and instead of summing up a plot in one episode they decided to have a progressing story but it hurt the entire season and fans did not like it. They experimented but that show works better with it's original format. SU is the opposite and needs this format of episodic progression opposed to 11 minutes per idea because it's not enough time to develop complex ideas like this season expressed. Like, even some serious episodes end silly and "well, we solved that problem for good" so the episode's tone and impact is reduced or lost entirely. I have not seen the older seasons of the show for awhile but one example that comes to mind is 'Too Many Birthdays' in season 1. The episode really bought up an interesting concept of age and relationships and growing up and half gem/half human complications but it's handled messy and NEVER mentioned again. Steven's form changed due to the state of his mind. As interesting and emotional as this episode was we never see Steven struggle with this again even though he's appearing to be developing into a more mature kind of character. Why is he not physically changing? Even if this is when he's under stress/turmoil wouldn't his strain with Connie have trigger this or many other issues he had to deal with? Why did such an emotional episode that explored the dynamic of the CC be reduced to a visual joke at the end? I loved the concept but was handled kind of messy (I liked this episode but it is still not written solid). This messy kind of writing is not new to SU but just has gotten worse and I find it hard to blame CN for it entirely. I can admit that when under the scrutiny of a company there are rules to follow but to me it's evidence of poor writing and said writers not having any idea what tone they want to convey. This is mentioned in the part 1 video, this issue is not new to the episodes. They want to be slice of life, a comedy, action/adventure, drama, ect. but this bouncing around is hurting the show's progression; and as mentioned is a problem since there are not permanent consequences or changes to match what happens via the plot/lore. Example, Pearl's famous song from 'Mr.Greg'. Although she finally could put her old emotions about Rose to rest this episode and forgave herself, Greg and maybe even Rose for leaving her she did not really 'change' but they just omitted those traits. I have not noticed real change in her personality just the removal of her Rose hang-ups.While removal was a positive they did not give her positive habits to show she's over it but decided not to showcase those emotions since they were solved. This is again evidence of lackluster writing but the episode was still good.
The Beach city citizens are underdeveloped drones used for nothing more than filler to bloat the show to run longer (like in anime when they cannot go beyond the manga's progression). Another example of the staleness of the citizens way before this point was...the episode when Sadie and Lars and Steven are stuck in another world. I forgot the name of the episode but Sadie and Lars really developed into a couple and opened up to each other but after that episode there isn't much evidence of that. They returned to their dynamic of Sadie being an open heart and Lars being a manipulative jerk because of it. Sadie wasn't maybe jaded by Lars' reaction or maybe sad/avoidant or something and Lars wasn't distrusting of Sadie for tricking them which literally almost cost all 3 their lives. They never changed how they saw each other and that is not only impossible in terms of human relationships but also means that episode has zero impact which makes it feel pointless. This is weird to me considering they like each other more or less on the down low. As mentioned in the last video an episode of Sadie maybe preparing or helping Steven to prepare and save Lars after learning of his disappearance would've been more appropriate and I agree. Why they wrote the characters so unaffected and borderline uncaring to his disappearance is insulting to the characters and the fans in my opinion. I personally do not care for Lars but even I found it weird the citizens (especially Sadie/Lar's parents/the cool kids) did not react enough. Character changing events mean nothing in this show unless they are main characters/gems. Which leads me to my next point:
SU's problem has more to do with fear of permanent change from a formula they created than anything else. They are afraid to make changes people will not like unless it's something they really want/had planned already/has to do with gems (example Peridot and Lapis' living together/relationship whatever it may be). I recall fans were really mad about this (mostly due to like ship wars or something? idk) but this remained. The show should approach ALL character changes this way. Just write them and let fans feel things and care for the characters. A reaction is better than feeling nothing even if it's an angry one. Idk, I just wish the writers would get out of this "happy-go-lucky slice of life" binge of episodes and stick to some plot/lore. Another problem, the writers are obsessed with keeping facts and lore from the audience. It's so frustrating (I think I mentioned this before on another video). They introduced the idea that Rose did not shatter Pink Diamond and that has not come up AT ALL since that episode with the trial. I mean, Steven had some inside stuff he dealt with about his mom recently but what about the other Crystal Gems? They loved Rose so why aren't they responding to this information a bit more adamantly or looking into more? Same when returned back from Home World, Connie should not have been the one to be in the conflict spotlight this bomb. A great opportunity to put conflict between Steven and the gems. Like the mirror episode when Steven opposed Garnet and eve hit her away to keep/save the mirror (Lapis) or even between the gems on how they felt about Steven's actions like when Garent and Pearl were not talking over betrayal. How the gems did not have any real conflicting emotions about Steven's actions is just...awful and the show's charm are the relationship he has with them.
I'm sorry this comment is so long but your videos mentioned so many good points that I just wanted to add in my thoughts too. I enjoyed your videos dissecting this bomb and hope to see more content from you!
This is one of the longest comments I've read but I'm glad I read it cause I agreed with all your points ! Almost everything I would need to say about this show you explained in detail ! Thanks for taking the time to write it out (:
*+Lourdes o.O* Hah hah Long comments are a bad habit of mine tbh I'm glad you read it, thank you! I appreciate that you enjoyed reading it. I try to condense my comments but they are usually long like this when the subject is meta of stuff I enjoy :D
+Midnight Jay No problem haha it was a very detailed comment that I don't mind rereading and discussing about because it really does bring up great points ! And when it's something you enjoy you can't help but keep writing everything you feel about it !
Steven's aging powers were a big plot of "Steven's Birthday" (Season 2) where it showed that Steven was afraid of not aging while Connie did. It's just a mundane power that just makes the show inconsistent.
I'm just going off of memory on this one: After "The Island" Lars was subtly more affectionate for Sadie since there would be shots of them holding hands/hanging out in the background. IIRC they were dating but Lars didnt want anyone to know that. Though you're right that Lars reaction is played for laughs and that it doesn't impact the relationship in a negative way.
I do agree that this arc should have been more centered on Steven and the Gems instead of Steven and Connie, because the previous arc was a total game changer for the show.
*+Chamsr0ck2247* Thank you for the response and adding to the discussion. Always fun to get deeper perspectives about this topic. To respond, while the issue of aging comes up again in "Steven's Birthday" I think something like that still doesn't explain why Steven's body isn't changing at all. "Too Many Birthdays" explains Steven's form matches his mentality/level of maturity. It's not directly stated that anything else effects this metamorphosis-or not that I remember-so this still feels sloppy. The resolution of that episode is that he had to get his mind together again to stop the gems from fighting (a powerful scene I wish was not followed with humor). Since in "Steven's Birthday" he shows not having an issue with aging and in current seasons he's developed into a more mature individual why hasn't that shown in his form? Shouldn't he be a little taller or showing some kind of physical change to match his maturity? This is still really inconsistent to me. why introduce this element to his half human/half gem self if it's not important enough to be a consistent issue with a character who is constantly growing/changing mentally/emotionally. I understand that changing him would change the branding kinda (Steven is like the show's mascot like Ash and Pikachu are to the Pokemon anime, who also barely age/change) so extreme change is not possible but then why bring this up if that is a reason? (not that you stated this is a reason but I thought about it and that could be why). I'm...not completely convinced that showing Steven not worrying about aging later on explains why he isn't changing for the sake of his maturing mind. I do not remember past episodes that great though so if it was explained I'd have to go back and watch it. I think further explanation of how his aging works could rectify this inconsistency (if "Steven's Birthday" did not, I do not have access to episodes to check right now unfortunately). This is a prime example of introducing powers and not keeping up with them. We are never told/shown Steven mastering powers he struggled with in the beginning. Well, that's not entirely true (the shield, bubble, floating, healing are things he kind of learned but there were episodes literally dedicated to him mastering these abilities for his sake or others/to solve a situation.) but it does bring up a pattern of inconsistency and not just with Steven but with all of the gems. Some episodes they have powers but said powers are not used in situations that would aid them. Example, when the CC were confronting Peridot back when she was an antagonist she would fly away to escape via her limb enhancers. She always got away because she could fly but the gems can shapeshift at will but none of them did to stop her from escaping each time she flew away; like turning into a flying animal/object or something. We've seen Garnet and Amethyst transform before when they transformed into Steven, and Amethyst multiple times before and after that. Even fusing into one of their giant woman forms like Alexandrite would've stopped her.The writers introduce a lot of powers and just abandon them after an episode or two-unless it serves an episode plot-and it makes moments of vulnerability seem forced when this happens. The gems feel temporarily "nerfed" for the sake of plot progression and sometimes it makes episodes weaker because of it. The gems, including Steven, have a lot of powers that are only used as plot devices then when it comes up to use them again to make interesting fight scenes they are omitted (purposefully or otherwise).
Concerning Sadie and Lars, while small gestures of affection shown after "The Island" (thank you for the episode title and mentioning this) were for comedic effect/not shown negatively I don't see it as a positive either. It's like with Pearl after "Mr.Greg" I mentioned in my original comment. Eliminating negatives without replacing them/adding positives in a new direction is not effective. Absence of challenge is not effective either and things happening that we do not see as the audience is not effective (via the two getting close enough to be affectionate outside of private situations; private affections which we also do not see because the show is stuck in Steven's perspective instead of creating a 3rd person view to give other characters depth). Small gestures like that are great but then why make it a joke/for laughs when presented? How is the audience supposed to take it seriously when the show will not? Lars did not really change as a character until the abduction arc (I mean serious character development that's kind of noticeable and it seems to only have been done since he would be revived. A huge flaw for SU is only developing plot centric characters only and keeping citizens the same but showcasing them all doing mundane things-"The Island" evidence of things happening not being a major shift for Sadie/LArs because they are just secondary Beach City citizens). Your example of Lars not wanting people to know of their relationship is exactly the problem. If they were closer after everything that happened after "The Island" why not challenge Lars character at that moment opposed to making it a scene for laughs? I think if they wanted to convince the audience that they grew closer maybe show these moments of affection more effectively (the two in private or not) and maybe add conflict/challenge to it opposed to making it something humorous. This is just my opinion though. You make a great point and respect it although I can't say I agree entirely. Lars not wanting people to know is just another significant sign that not much has changed concerning the two and he is manipulating the situation for his benefit like he always did. This is not policing their relationship and saying it has to be happy and healthy but Lars had always been like that with Sadie-not wanting people to know how he feels. Only difference is she knows but she doesn't develop much either to be stronger to declare it or challenge Lars for his insecurity of their relationship to be known. Not much changed after "The Island" with that thought in mind.
Speaking of Lars and Sadie's relationship, another issue with this show is they do not know when to take some moments seriously/serious enough sometimes. Not all the time (some of the best episodes have very serious moments like the season 1 finale) but sometimes. Adding humor in at the wrong time makes the show tone deaf in my opinion. I think I mentioned this in my original comment with "Too Many Birthdays" as the example. Sadie and Lars after "The Island" may have had small moments of affection like you mentioned but again it's weird that they were not challenged as characters/their relationship wasn't challenged. What was the point of seeing the two become so romantically inclined during "The Island" only for them to be reduced to what they already were? If they changed we never see much evidence of that. Why did they grow closer when there was so much conflict during this episode/not resolved on screen afterwards? Even with Lars thankful to Sadie for saving them she put them there in the first place. Why was her deceit not an issue after this episode? I think it would've been more natural for them to grow apart somewhat first because getting closer; to deal with what happened bot good and bad. Trust is easy to lose and hard to gain. It's a matter of asking "is it normal to grow closer to someone who risked your life for their own agenda?". Lars does this to Sadie all the time and while it's destructive behavior he never risked her life. This conflict in this episode is never seen again to my knowledge and if there was a resolution not seen then that's worse; off screen resolutions are not effective. Even if Sadie saved all three of them during that episode it does not justify or excuse her deception and I find it weird that this was not an issue with someone like Lars because he it hardly the most understanding/easily forgiving guy. I'm just not convinced these inconsistencies can be explained when the writing is not stable enough. I do not remember some episodes though so my opinion is limited to what I remember. I personally do not care much for Lars or the future of his and Sadie's relationship (I know it's hard to tell based on my comment being at least a 3rd about them) but it is so jarring to see them so poorly written and make the current Steven Bomb mildly worse (if they were so close to be secretly affectionate then Sadie's reactions are even worse off-her secret boyfriend disappeared and she and his friends make a band instead of maybe discussing the problem or their feelings). I think it would've been a great episode if instead of them getting together to make a band maybe talk about Lars or Sadie admitting her feelings or something (which would force Steven to not be as nonchalant and would explain his nonchalant behavior beforehand; him trying not to think about a huge issue he has to confront eventually). I did not see the comic con footage about Lars like a lot of people so I walked into this bomb not knowing Lars was fine so Steven/Sadie/everyone else's reactions were just...deplorable. Idk, went on a tangent kinda but talking about past episodes does show the current bomb's direction to be poorly constructed/written.
Thank you for the reply/for reading my long original reply! Always up for a discussion and you mentioned interesting points. Thanks again for adding episode titles because I seriously can't remember them all lol I'm sorry this reply is so long...I just expect so much more from a show with a strong foundation and tackling such interesting concepts but...they are not handled well; especially in recent episodes as the video explains.
It still baffles me that it's taken die hard SU fans THIS long to notice the show's writing issues. These things have been prevalent since season 2.
I'd argue that this stuff has been prevalent since season 1. The early half of season one is kind of a slog for a lot of people to go through. I know a lot of people that said that they didn't like the show until Mirror Gem. That's quite a bit of episodes to go through before actually liking a show. In fact, a lot of those earlier episodes had quite a bit of boring townie episodes in them too now that I think of it.
mjangelvortex but there was also a lot of important lore established
@@mjangelvortex there was stuff established before hand though important stuff honestly the slice of life episodes aren't all bad
The crewniverse is making bank now so to their perspective they don’t have to do much. The other issue is the both Rebecca sugar and her lead animator are letting the writers and artists make mistakes because they’re all sinfully lazy. Every artist uses the principle of reference and continuity. The Crewniverse are ignoring the basic rules of animation. Their main excuse is “if you can tell that’s the character it’s enough” but how would you feel for example if Batman was drawn tall but then in later episodes shorter then the joker or with a completely different personality. The crewniverse is getting rich, lazy and their excuses are disrespectful to their fans and the animation industry.
That's not how it works, they make their money through merchandise, and part of that goes to cartoon network as well. Every show gets a certain budget for how much they can use per episode or per episodes when it comes to broadcasting and what not. They don't make moneys from people viewing or watching the show itself, cartoon net work does. :3
Zack Rose
Your comment makes no sense since there are and have been many long-running cartoons that have little to no merchandise.
@The Otter, the animation in season 5 has improved significantly since the latter half of season 4. "If you can tell that's the character, it's enough"? Where did you get that logic from?
I don't believe he/she is merely referring to the animation, but the character design. There have been episodes where multiple designs for the characters have been shown. The point is, there is no reference sheet, including size, height, weight, etc...So the artist basically draws the character in their own style (as long as the audience knows who it is). Steven could be as tall as his kitchen counter in one episode, while in another he is half that height and has a stunted looking body.
Here are some examples: i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/192/762/8ae.png
i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/249/030/bb0.png
i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/231/340/cfd.png
You better have a source for those claims. The show itself should be criticized, but conspiracy theories about the creators don't contribute to anything, they just create a toxic environment.
Lapidot is a cancer ship, and lapis’ character was completely ruined since the episode barn mates.
It was completely bad writing that lapis changed her personality literally an episode later, without almost any time passing between the two. SU is plagued with bad writing, so it’s not news, but it certainly wasn’t worth the time once the episode Barn Mates aired
James Of Hoenn
Agreed.
James Of Hoenn yes it was
"Hippie lesbian farmer aunts" I love it
Enjoyed watching all three of your videos. Tbh I don't think much of issues stands from not the writing of the show, but more of the show revolving around Steven perspective, the way he see's the world. Take Adventure Time for example even though Finn and Jake are the main characters, they don't appear in every episode so we get to understand other side characters better when they have episodes revolving around them.
1) Adventure time is terrible it's the worst cartoon ever made 2) It's not a good idea to focus heavily on side characters if you have an on going story It works better in episodic gag cartoons like Family Guy or it gets annoying, unfocused and all over the place 3) His name is in the title people will ask where is Steven he has to be there 4) When most shows leave out the main character its occasional and they usually cameo or a side plot
icecream hero
delete this
Why it's true
How can anyone stand abomination time
People can stand it because they aren't you...if you don't have anything to add, don't bother replying.
I like your channel because its nicer to watch clips from the show with good narrating than watch someones animated drawing of themselves changing poses on the screen while they talk.
long, tan, and handsome makes sense
Yeah... I'm getting tired of Beach City episodes, so pretty much all of the Steven Bomb episodes were boring. I really wish the writers would just spend more time with the Crystal Gems...
or other gems for that matter. Isn't this supposed to be a sci-fi/fantasy adventure show? Where is the world building?
@@bigtroll8915 season 1
Veronica Cervantes we got a lot with them
I watched the bomb without seeing the Lars thing, but knowing about it, and from a purely writing stand point... WHAT THE FUCK. Steven tells Lars' parents that he's fine, and that's it. We devote an episode to Dewey's campaign, and Steven taking a vacation, but we don't get to see Lars' parents deal with the fact their son is STUCK on a HOSTILE ALIEN PLANET and they may never see him again? They had like one scene in that episode, I think, and not even SADIE really gives a fuck that Lars is gone other than he joke of "Now I have to talk to myself when I work." People deal with things in different ways, I know, but Jesus no one was written like a human in this bomb.
Even the cool kids who barely know Lars, who wanted to get to know him, didn't bring him up. If I knew a guy casually and he was kidnapped and then missing and ALIENS were involved I probably wouldn't go, "Hey, let's start a band and avoid talking about that kid that's missing from town." It feels like they keep making Beach City filler episodes that would/should go on TV, so CN can pull from a few dozen episodes with minimal continuity, but since CN ISN'T DOING THAT they should stop. Refocus on the main story, please. As it stands they could have condensed the main story down into a single season of episodes, tangentially related episodes included. (IE, episodes that alluded to or hinted at something bigger). I am sure that once SU ends someone is going to make a list of "Essential episodes" that cuts all the filler out, and it won't be longer than two seasons.
I may be wrong here, but to be honest, I think the writers have lost their way. They are trying to do two things at once and I don't think it's working.
I really think the writers hearts are in the townie episodes - the more emotional, human interaction aspect of the series. This is why they focused so heavily on Steven and Connie's break up, pushing the question of Lars aside for weeks (in show).
But, for whatever reason, they've also incorporated a larger, epic conflict element into the series. We've had the home world threat for a while, and now we have Lars abandoned and alone. As far as the characters know, he is in grave danger from discovery by home world. Steven may have resurrected him from the dead, but that doesn't make him immortal. The diamonds believe that the dreaded Rose Quartz is running loose on the planet. What if she foments a new rebellion? What if what her lawyer, Zircon, brought up about the events surrounding Pink's shattering are revealed?
They have to be freaking out and are undoubtedly searching far and wide for her. Her capture has to be their number one, and probably only, priority right now. And once they find Lars instead, then what? Once they discover Rose has returned to Earth, might they not attack Earth and deal with her once and for all? It's a very real possibility, if not a given. (And, yes, I'm ignoring the whole Lars of the Stars thing because the characters don't know any of that at this point.)
And yet the characters have shown little concern about any of that. Why, for example, didn't Steven ask Connie if she knew where Lion was? The last Steven saw of Lion, he was leaving with Connie. That was Steven's only possible line of inquiry and his only hope of assisting Lars. Granted, Connie was shutting him out but he could have at least asked. (And, on a totally unrelated side rant, why didn't Steven tell Lars parents what was going on? It was Sadie who evidently broke the news to them. What!?! Okay, that's out of my system. Onwards and upwards with my main point.)
I've come to the conclusion that the writers don't care as much about that aspect of the narrative and therefore don't know how to write it very well. It's taking too long to develop, they are jumping in and out too often, they've left too many obvious plot holes unfilled, and they've left us with a huge number of open questions that, evidently, they have no intention of returning to (I wonder, for example, if Greg's duct tape fix of the geode is still holding? It's like they have never even heard of Chekov's Gun).
In my opinion, the writers have lost their way and are struggling to tell a story they don't know how to tell. If the writers had just focused on the interpersonal relationship stuff and left the rest out, the show would have been just as good and just as well loved. But, it's too late for that and now they're stuck doing something they aren't up to the task to deliver on.
Or not.
R Thompson A small point, I was rewatching the series with my little sister and I remember the episode where Steven notices the robonoids in the warp stream (way back in season 1) addresses the geode thing very briefly. As the gems visit all the warp pads looking for the mysterious threat, they warp to the geode and Pearl remarks, "Oh, I see the geode is holding well." I guess it is just a way to handwave the problem away.
Although that does bring up an issue with the series that I have had since season 1. Why do the gems treat the ancient gem relics like garbage? Garnet punches the control panel on the moon base, the geode isn't given any purpose, I'm pretty sure they completely destroy the underwater lab with the time traveling things from Steven and the Stevens, the gems kind of just laugh at the fact that the Lunar Sea Spire sunk (which is the only one of its kind we know of), Pearl doesn't seem to mind Amethyst and Steven crashing into the pillars in the Arena, I could go on and on. Maybe it's just the archaeologist/paleontologist in me speaking, but shouldn't they at least be somewhat interested in preserving their legacy on the planet? Also why do none of the human governments seem to discover or care about these artifacts sprawled all over the world?
R Thompson My thoughts exactly. Is it possible to like a comment more than once?
The show was said to be, from before the first episode aired, just a series of morals that each of the crewniverse thought were good. I respect that; however, they've implemented so much that it's not fair that they keep doing what they want to do anymore. They have to think about what the audience wants. It's poor writing this way.
Speaking of audience, I feel the crewniverse is just very rude to fans sometimes. When people were asking if there was going to be a male gem in the works (back in like season 1 or 2), one of the writers took to twitter and wrote a very angry tweet about if fans want to watch a super powered man then they should look at comic books for that buff, ultra super dude. I wish I was making up what I just said, it was pretty funny but very rude to the audience. They were asking a question, and instead of answering honestly that all gems will look like women, they decided to yell at their fans.
Then again there were times were the fans yelled back over tumblr stuff, so I say it's fair.
"What's interesting about the conflict between Lapis and Peridot is that they're not like the other crystal gems where they've been on earth for thousands and thousands of years and have had practice having relationships with people and communicating their problems and stuff"
Seriously? The Crystal Gems are only SLIGHTLY better at communicating their problems with other another than Lapis and Peridot. I'm mean seriously, Rose's entire thing was keeping secrets from her friends and family, what the hell.
I feel like they put these beach city breaks in just so they can have episodes to re run later when they need to fill a time slot. Episodes like these, a kid who knows nothing about the show can walk in and enjoy them. However, doing that does hamper the plots for fan of all ages who have been following it for a long time. If I was a kid, I would have wanted to know Lars was OK and not been on the internet to see that he was. Also its rare they show re-runs of Steven at all, so I have know idea why they chose now of all times to make more of those episodes.
Even if that's the purpose of the filler,they don't even do the episodes right! At least for me, if I didn't knew about SU and saw this bomb, I will be bored as heck
fill a time slot? there is only ttg
8:10 "Curse you, Windows Movie Maker for not letting me zoom in closer." xD
Honestly everyone agrees that Connie's reason for leaving was just stupid and selfish, she literally got mad that Steven saved all of his loved ones through a selfless act.
Agree i hated her after that episode
An excellent rant on this Steven Bomb as well as the issues the series has in general.
It gets on my nerves how the writers seem to think delving into every single character's personal life gets them more props. We hear about Sadie's mum once, now we have to have an episode revolving around Sadie's bad relationship with her mum. We meet Peedee, then we have to waste time listening to his existential crisis and family problems even though we've only just met him and have no reason to care. And hey, while we're at it, let's have an entire episode devoted to stopping Kiki's bad dreams! Or Jamie's nonexistent acting career! Who honestly gives a fuck? Why do we need to listen to the problems of every single damn side character? Whether it makes for good 'character development' or not (which it hardly does), I shouldn't need to care about their development because they're such minor characters.
The real problem is that we don't get to meet the side character before their big problem. Kiki was the best done because we saw her with the cool kids quite a few times before we got her story and the bad dreams. That was okay. Peedee, Dewey, Sadie's mom, they had one episode that centered on their big problem, and that's their development. "Hi, my name is Carl, and I have a fear of the ocean. Here is fifteen minutes of me trying to conquer that fear, and now I'm entirely a one note side character that may or may not mean anything in the future."
These episodes feel like they belong in season 1, before a GIANT SPACE SHIP CRASHED TEN FEET FROM EVERYONE'S HOMES. Especially the Dewey episode in this current bomb. The gems are well known in Earth history, they're barely a secret because there was a whole freaking invasion and all these old structures that people can just LOOK AT. So why would the town freak out about some alien kidnapping, verses that one time aliens almost NUKED THE TOWN and the aliens that stop the bad aliens ALMOST CRASHED THE FUCKING SHIP ON EVERYONE AND THEIR FAMILIES? I'd be far more upset about a crashed spaceship than some random alien sneaking around town.
Nekufan1000000 Exactly! Honestly the beach city residents just piss me off with how relaxed they are about everything. Also why tf are they attacking Mayor Dewey of all people over it when they finally start caring? I mean, he definitely sucks and does little to nothing about it, but what can he really do against alien forces? The only ones who can really deal with the problem are the gems, yet Steven would prefer to dick around in the cool kids' band than try and find a way to help Lars and the rest of the crystal gems just decide to fuck around on retreats with Greg even though the reason this is all happening is BECAUSE OF THEM. I'm sure Rose is turning in her stoney grave because of what shitty protectors of the earth they are.
You bring up a good point about season 1. Honestly all this minor character relationship focus wouldn't bother me nearly so much if it was done at that time. I can't say I agree about the whole Kiki thing because I personally don't feel like I need to know about her personal life when there's more at stake, but hey.
I feel as though SU is trying what AT did with its side characters, albeit with less of a success with Lars and Ronaldo. The show's main problem is the whole "Steven perspective" where the show revolves around him and what he sees. Granted his name is in the title, but that doesn't mean he has to be there 100% of the time.
I would like to see a rebelling human in that human sanctuary Pink Diamond made attempting to escape or a gem who is starting to question homeworld's probable unethical and dirty ways of doing things to other planets and defects away from homeworld towards the Crystal Gems. Just anything that isn't Steven-centered or Beach City resident-related would be nice for a change.
Piper 9080 That's a really cool idea. It'd be nice if the filler episodes were focused on more world-building stuff like that rather than fucking restaurant wars. Honestly, why have a low fantasy setting if you're only going to focus on the mundane rubbish when you've run out of air time?
Nekufan1000000 I agree with you about the beach city residents but dont forget that the city was completely evacuated when the spaceship crashed
“We won’t ever have to sit through that again”
Steven Universe future: *and you thought-*
I think the real problem is: people are getting tired of Lapis
Let’s summarize
In season 1 Steven freed her from the mirror and then she ran away to Homeworld
In the end of Season 1 she comes back with Jasper and Peridot and gets stuck in the bottom of the ocean as Malachite
In Season 3 she returns and runs away again, only to return 5 min later and stay in the Earth for good
And now on Season 5 she ran away again... twice
I think people are getting tired of this run away come back run away come back that she always does
I’m not one of those people because all the times she ran away I understood why
It was selfish and cowardly but she had a BUNCH of reasons to run away so I sympathized with her literally all the times that she ran away
But there are people who are tired of this and honestly I can’t blame them since this shit has been going around since SEASON 1
Who knows maybe I’m just an idiot
But hey at least it’s finally solved now with reunited she returned and self proclaimed herself as a Crystal Gem so yay Lapis arc is finally solved guys
It took 5 fucking years but it was worth the wait right? Right? No? Just me?
The show is spiraling into a frustrating disappointment.
It's even worse than your Harry Potter example. Let's say that it was Luna who put Harry in a position to be killed, but it was already leaked, so we spend an extra five chapters focusing on Luna messing around. And nobody calls her on the fact that Harry's in danger because of her... meanwhile the book focuses on her problem with Ron because her father sold out... without us even hearing anything about what happened to Harry once he walked into the forest alone.
Or anything really about the fucking war.
And then we finally get to Luna walking into Hogwarts one day after her vacation is done and Harry is one-lining it up with Lucius Malfoy. But everyone *in the book* is fine with it because the *readers* were told in some *meta* way that it'd all be okay.
Congrats on your channel growing! I enjoyed this series a lot and I hope you'll get some less disappionting material for your future Steven Universe videos.
PSA this gal is the one who made the thumbnail for this video, so you can credit her for how pretty it is this time
+Yorick-Oh. . .I really think the Pink Diamond revelation is ripe for Lysspizza. . .there's more than enough material starting with Lars of the Stars-Legs from Here to Homeworld for another review entirely.
The show has pretty much gotten stale with the show just revolving around Steven and the humans not even being... well human. Its as if whatever happened in one episode doesn't affect them in any shape or form.
For the "Steven Perspective, I understand that the show is called "Steven Universe", but can we shift perspectives to the gem's old past to clear up some rumors and theories (Pearl's past and original Diamond, Amethyst's trouble of fitting in or being found by Rose, ACTUALLY showing Rose's dispute with Bismuth and how the scene played out and even the GEM WAR) or to a new character that has varied perspectives and views on Homeworld (a rebelling human in the Zoo or a defecting gem learning of Homeworld's questionable actions).
Another thing that the show does that I find rather disappointing is its lack of being daring. People often praise it for the morales and values it teaches, such as being open to one's self, accepting others, gay and lesbian relationships, etc. But the show isn't being daring to do the one thing that most cartoon shows did, killing off their characters regardless if they have been there for a season or just one episode that made them memorable. Adventure Time (Billy the Hero) and Powerpuff Girls (Bunny the ORIGINAL 4th PPG) have made use of this and made some memorable characters. I have yet to Steven Universe actually pull this off tbh...
You forgot Regular Show killing off Pops, albeit that was in the series finale. He was more important to the show (in nearly every episode) than the other two were.
Lars getting resurrected with magic tears was lame.
Daring writing would've had Connie replace Lars instead, and either kill her off or bring her back as a disfigured, barely sentient walking corpse with no portal hair. That would've led to an interesting plot line of Steven being trapped in an unknown world and dealing with the death of his best friend. We've could have seen more of the Diamonds, new Gems, and Homeworld this way too. There'd be anticipation for Steven's eventual return to earth.
I could see Connie's parents demanding the gems they find and bring back their only daughter so that could lead to another interesting plot line of the CGs going to Homeworld, getting captured and separated. Ruby and Sapphire could be fleshed out as individual characters, we can experience just how badly pearls are treated, and maybe Amethyst would decide to stay with the other Amethyst at the zoo since she fits in with them better.
The writers missed an opportunity here. All of this would've drastically change the status quo.
U.N. Owen I agree with you Lars getting resurrected with magic tears was utterly lame and I think the whole "Lars died and came back to life and turned pink" thing was just a plot device to get Steven back on Earth without good explanation and that is why I hate Lion
Lion is the strongest plot device the writers use when they want something to be done without explanations
when they wanted Steven to get back to beach city to fight the giant hand they used lion
when they wanted the crystal gems to go to the communication hub over and over as if the warp pad is not destroyed they used lion
when they wanted the crystal gems to get to the moon base without any Technology they used lion
when they wanted Bismuth to come out suddenly from nowhere they used lion
and the last one is when they wanted Steven to get back from Homeworld to Earth without showing us anything about Homeworld They killed Lars off, resurrected him with magic tears and turned him pink just to use lion "their ultimate plot device" to get Steven back on Earth like nothing happened
Funnily enough, Lion's teleport bullshit COULD have been useful in a number of scenarios.
Such as looking for gems who are, hypothetically, not corrupted in any part of the world that is not Beach City. Hell, we could've had a trip to Russia and see what happened there and how much damage was done to it.
Good idea and they can also use the warp pad to do it
At least the writers should have made some respectable origin for lion but no
The mysterious overpowered pink creature which has a lot of magic and secrets is basically "a corpse and a tear"
Man, I like this place
You’re discussing what you don’t like and not just hating everyone and everything and I really appreciate that
Thanks.
YES! Finally people acknowledge that the bomb format is having negative effects on the writing and the show
People have spoken bad about the format for awhile now. Especially when discussing other shows hurt by that format, like Adventure Time and TMNT.
There's just way too much wrong with SU to justify watching it anymore. The writing is way too slow, the development takes so long in a season to even SHOW that it's not worth watching, the few good in between moments aren't all that great, and the only way to get enjoyment out of it for the most part is to watch it without really thinking. I've heard so many, SO MANY people say exactly what you've said about this show. "If you just turn your brain off it kinda makes sense." Your show shouldn't have episodes like that, much less in the quantity SU has them. It took 70 episodes to confront a major plot point, that's not something that should be a reality. Most shows don't even get that many episodes, and they have FAR better and more intricate stories than SU has even had.
"But Sinack, the show is meant to have character development and an overarching plot while we get shown the in between moments!" The show uses the fact it makes some veeeery minor character development happen every single goddamn episode between the action as a crutch. And even then, that minor character development gets thrown out the window for plot. It's almost as if the writers are running out of ideas, and want to stall for time so they can meet an episode quota.
On cartoon network uk they have been running loads of season 1 and 2 episodes, and its shocking how much the show has gone down in quality. Watching the earlier episodes makes me feel nostalgic, which is probably because the mediocrity of newer seasons makes the old ones seem older
SeriouslyNotNormal I'm actually happy they don't post the new episodes over here.
Salt Sama same lol
When is the last time Garnet has done literallt anything in the whole series?
jay Never.
Still waiting.
jay jailbreak
Really, I don't have so many problems with this bomb as some people do. But I do have a problem with how they treated Lars's situation and her family and close friends reaction to it. And I think that "fixing" this bomb (mostly), would have been as easy as taking this two steps:
1.- Make Steven realize that Lion is missing right at the second episode. This is important. Also maybe have him guess or realize that he must be with Connie.
2.- (This is the most important part for me), Show us a brief scene of Sadie and Lars's parents feeling distressed about Lars, and then Steven tells them he has no means of rescuing him RIGHT NOW, but that he promises he will rescue him and ask for their trust. They understand and give Steven their trust.
Suddenly Sadie and Lars's parents's reactions throughout the bomb are understandable, and the whole bomb is a lot easier to accept and enjoy. As an added bonus, in Sadie Killer, have the cool kids make a comment like "We still feel weird about starting a band with Lars still in space, but we trust you, Steven" and then their attitude also makes sense. And with that, the entire bomb, for me, gets redeemed.
The "problem" with the ambiguity of the moral about Steven's sacrifice and Connie's feelings are still there, but I don't actually see it as a problem, since I believe there was NO CORRECT CHOICE Steven could've made in the situation he was in, so I actually think leaving the lesson ambiguous is actually good. Also the Gems reaction and Steven seemingly not telling them anything is still there, but eh. I ignored it as I felt Steven was so worried about Connie that he wasn't paying enough attention to tell them.
The sunflowers wouldn't even have grown that much from my experience. They'd stop before they bloomed without any sun since they require A LOT of sunlight. More than the average flower.
i dont understand lapis' logic here. so it was fine to stay after dealing with jasper who came on orders from homeworld, peridot who managed to contact yellow diamond directly and insulted her and the rubies who were sent to come and pick jasper up but failed and some even managed to get back to homeworld. but now its not ok because steven ran from the diamonds? even though he's essentially faked them out and they still think hes on homeworld right now? honestly its a miracle that homeworld gems havent invaded and dealt with them already considering all the fuckery they've caused.
this whole "oh no they're definitely coming for us now!" thing is really stupid. you've been hanging out with and openly assisting known fugitives this entire time and you choose NOW to bail? also, dick move to take the whole barn.
It was just her bottled fear and uncertainty of the unknown coming out in its entirety.
shes a little bit late to the " we gotta get out of here" party after fighting homeworld gems for this long is all im saying. and she comes off as a dick (to me) because shes essentially abandoning her friends to a battle she doesnt think they have a chance of winning while shes basically the ace of the team.
Honestly, considering her previous situation, I can't blame her for picking up and leaving. Sure, from a surface level point of view it is a "dick move", but if you look deeper into it, she's basically a PTSD ridden war veteran, a veteran to a war she didn't even ask to be a part of. Not to mention she was trapped in a mirror. If I were in her situation, I would pick up and leave too, maybe not take my friends/family's home lol, but I wouldn't stick around while space Hitler is planning an inevitable strike on my planet that I'm forced to stay on only because I have no other place to go.
Mari W my problem isn't with the reasoning of her decision. its with the timing and the event that triggered it. this PTSD reaction should have been an issue all the way back when the ruby's came from homeworld on a mission to pick up jasper.
She's been fighting homeworld gems and living next to people she knows are actively fighting against homeworld since she unfused with jasper but no sign of this issue until now? seems kind of dumb to me.
In fact I don't understand Homeworld's logic and how Homeworld gems don't care AT ALL about any crystal gem that is not Rose Quartz I find it really weird
I mean Rose is the most wanted and that makes lots of sense (She is the leader of the crystal gems and accused of shattering Pink Diamond) but Pearl and Garnet should be the second and third most wanted I mean They fought against Homeworld for thousands of years and they played major roles in the war and the rebellion not to mention the fact that without Garnet's fusion Rose Quartz would have been captured 5,750 years ago and after all of that Homeworld gems don't care about them at all!!!
(I will consider this a flaw of the show unless it's explained)
and people are calling Steven "self centered"! Well he wouldn't be self centered if Homeworld wasn't targeting him as if he is the only crystal gem in the universe
and for Lapis she has done nothing against Homeworld compared to Pearl and Garnet and since Homeworld gems don't care about them they don't care about her either but the point is when The Diamonds come to Earth (just for Rose Quartz) everyone on earth will be involved in the war, whether they like it or not
"Steven essentially faked them out" yes but Lapis doesn't really know that and I agree with you taking the barn was a bad move
Well said. I hadn't ever thought about how the structure of small-bursts of episodes could be responsible for why things felt so thin and stretched over the years. I just assumed it was a holdover from when the show was meandering and trying to find its footing and they'd gotten so used to nuggets of plot in a pile of slice-of-life moments that they couldn't really change things so there was more attention to lasting consequences and sustained attention outside prologue-conclusion episodes.
One small issue, about the voice-over, do you do multiple read-throughs? Everything flows perfectly, but the actual talking is a little stiff.
Ahaha yeah I do multiple read-throughs, I was just getting kind of tired after a while. You can probably tell that I have a bit of a lisp, and in real life I tend to stumble over my words, so I'm still learning when and how to slow down and enunciate things better. I'm hoping that the problem will go away after I've gotten more practice.
Your assessment makes sense; I think it is probably a mix of both. Either way, it feels like the writers are adhering to a specific structure/pace purely for the sake of adhering to it, rather than because that's what is right for the show, you know? The Homeworld arc should've been followed up on with more immediacy, but because the writers are trying to keep to some weird structure, they just...pushed it off until next time.
I didn't notice a lisp at all. But that puts the issue in a new light and I apologize for speaking from ignorance. As another mush-mouth I sympathize.
"they just...pushed it off until next time"
I don't know if it's relevant anymore but the reason CN has to use the bomb format for SU is to hide the shows poor ratings. There is an interest spike in New episodes but otherwise most viewers just don't care about SU because of its mediocre rewatchability, so to keep the show from going under they hide the poor rating with Steven bombs so the hiatus' between episodes can be filled with more popular shows.
"It's not like Steven _literally_ left Lars to die."
Thank you, I needed that laugh.
I actually have been avoiding everything Steven universe, to not get spoilers, so I didn't know about Lars and the stars thing, so I was wondering the whole bomb..... "why is no one worried about Lars and the Diamonds? Why is Steven acting like nothing has happened" the episodes are good, but I think that these side character episodes are being added in the wrong places.
I love side characters, but you have to also add them to the story and react to things, maybe even kill some off or something to make connections. I have been dreading how there is a major arc happening toward the end of the season, then nothing is mentioned until 20 episodes later. I know the hiatus could effect the way the show looks, but even watching the episodes one after another, after the hiatus, many times there isn't any continuity.
I feel like they are trying to make old style episodes, when the show truly shines when it acts like 30 min episodes like the one with bismuth.
I just hope that the amount of negativity the show is gaining will help Rebecca reevaluate the shows direction and make some changes to it.
id like to watch luna lovegood joining a band
Natasha Jones it actually sounds like her character.
"I feel like everyone who cares about Steven Universe has seen this clip"
Uh, what about the little kids who watch the show?
I think a lot of us teen and adult fans and even the fucking writers themselves forget about the kids a *lot.*
Knoxville Nuggins I don't think kids even watch the show, if it's boring to us it must be agonising for them.
As for Peridot, I really really hope that the writers make her more important as aCharacter now that she's currently staying at the temple with no barn. Also please, please, give her a chance to truly shine in character development. Please, I'm on my knees begging you writers, please make Lapis and Peridot grow as characters. Individually by their own means, not by anyone else. Because they are my most favorite gems in the show and I'd hate to see such potential wasted.
One of my biggest problems with Lapis Lazuli is:
Most of her backstories are forced and make no sense
I can accept the whole mirror thing by saying "that was a war everything was messed up and something like that can happen during a war" but what I find really unacceptable is:
Why was she a prisoner in "The Return" and "Jailbreak"?
when Steven tried to get her out she said: "If we do everything they say they might go easy on us."
A question arises here: If she was doing everything they say then why was she in prison?
after that Steven said:"But they're... mean!"
Well Homeworld gems being mean to Steven and the Crystal Gems is understandable but them being mean to Lapis makes no sense
Let's think about it "an elite overpowered Homeworld gem who was missing after the war for thousands of years is back she also knows where the base of the Crystal Gems is and she is very pleased and ready to serve Homeworld again"
This deserves a good welcome or at least a normal welcome
Why would Homeworld gems be mean to her after all of this?!
Another point in "Same Old World" she said: "after what I did to Jasper I can't go back to Homeworld" that may sound to make sense but when you think about it nobody on Homeworld knows about this so Lapis can just go back to Homeworld and fake a story about Jasper
Cartoon Fan Lapis's backstory was a bit half assed to me. Seeing how she controls water and is extremely powerful enough to square off with the CGs, I always thought that her true purpose for coming to Earth was scouting the planet for bodies of water that suitable for Homeworld and gathering important intel for the diamonds. It was established in the zoo arc that Lazulis were destined to be terraforming planets so maybe that's the cause, but they don't really elaborate on it well.
RandomAwesomeness I agree I think the problem is: Lapis is extremely powerful but Homeworld is not treating her based on that and we don't know why
Cartoon Fan
Do you think we'll ever going to get an answer?
I'd love to have some episodes of the Crystal Gems just playing off of eachother and having fun with the classic dose of fun you'd get at the start of the show. The problem with the bombs is that they've been doing bombs for probably almost a year now and it just starts to effect later when you're watching recorded episodes or not expecting them for months because of scheduling.
Well as things stand right now, i feel the show could explore gem lore and things, but the past few bombs have left people unsatisfied in quite a few directions in action and humor. I do like the lore, but I think we could use chilled episodes to replace Rocknaldo or Dewey Wins. Some episodes to make people laugh and maybe not feel as angry about a loreless episode. Lots of shows skip lore a few times XD
And I thought the problem with gemcation came from the gems being more of a supporting cast to all the other characters and steven's emotional stuff.
Steven universe should be 30 minutes and air every Friday or every other Friday. It should also have other characters p.o.v. Peridot and Amythst going to the kindergarten alone and planting sunflowers would have been sweet.
lol 30 minutes, are you high?
How would you have made 'Dewey Wins' into an interesting 30 minute episode?
Glad you asked :)
Steven Universe is a great show. I love it. But the last few episodes were really, really…stale. After all the excitement of the trial and going to Homeworld and Lars dying then coming back from the dead. I was a little disappointed to be back in Beach city.
Steven went to space, met the diamonds, Lars died, was revived, but he cannot come back. This would have been the right time to show the town people reacting.
Now Here is how I would have done it:
The beginning and the end stay the same. Connie is mad at Steven, takes Lion, and does not see Steven for a while and the episode still ends with Steven in his bedroom trying to call her, but she won’t answer.
Here is what I would change; Sadie.
Sadie was Lars’s best friend/co-worker/maybe, potential future significant other. I do not think she would be all right with Lars being in space and Steven leaving him there.
{Scene at the Big Donut Starts}
Steven tells Sadie what happened to Lars. Upset, she starts to cry.
“Don’t cry Sadie,” Steven pats her on the back, “He’s with some very nice gems who are on the run from their Homeworld Overlords,”
Sadie keeps crying.
“Sadie, he’s fine. We can go see him anytime through lion,”
“But how are you going to get him home?” Sadie asks, and Steven looks confused.
“What?”
“You said that we can visit him but how are you and the gems going to get him home?”
Steven does not have an answer.
“You’re not just going to leave him there, right?”
When Steven hesitates, Sadie loses it.
“You can’t just leave him there!”
“We’ll figure something out,” Steven says.
Sadie turns her back to him, her shoulders shaking, and Steven can tell she is crying.
“I think you should go,” she says, her voice filled with sadness and Steven leaves, with a sad glance over his shoulder
{Scene end}
Just like that, the scene is more impactful. Addresses the issue of Lars coming home, Sadie’s feelings have been shown and Sadie’s relationship with Steven has been affected.
Next; The riot.
Cut the riot. There is no need for the people of Beach City to be mad at Mayor Dewey. If anything, they would be rioting about the crystal gems and the effect they have on the town. So, cut the riot entirely.
With no distractions, Steven heads to the Barriga residence.
{Scene}
Steven tells the Barrigas what happened to their son.
“And so, your son is still in space,” Steven finishes his story and the Barrigas just stare at him.
“No,” Martha says, “My baby is not in space. That’s not possible.”
“I’m sorry, Lars’s mom, but-” Steven starts, but Dante interrupts him.
“He died?” Dante asks, and Steven nods.
“But do not worry, I healed him,” Steven tries to assure them, “He’s alive…he’s just pink. Like lion!”
Lars’s mom gets mad.
“Why didn’t you bring him home with you?” Martha asks, standing up.
“I-I couldn’t” Steven stutters, “Lars’s head is a like a portal to earth but he couldn’t fit inside his own head so--”
“Why didn’t you stay and protect him?” Martha presses, “You…you shouldn’t have left him there. What if something happens to him?
“Nothing will happen to him.” Steven says, “He’s with some other gems and-”
“This is all your fault!” Martha cries and Steven flinches, “I knew we should have left after that time we had to evacuate the city!”
“Wait! No!” Steven stands up, “Listen, maybe I’m not explaining myself. Lars is okay! He just-”
“I think you should go,” Dante says, “We just…we need time to process this,”
Steven starts to say something.
“Get out!” Martha cries and Steven hurries out the door.
{End Scene}
Now, maybe that was a little harsh. Still Steven has admitted that Lars died. Their son was dead. And now he is back. But he is not home with them. Steven left him in space. We saw what happened, but the Barrigas did not. They only have Steven’s word and a missing son.
I think that they would blame Steven because this isn’t the first time Steven and the crystal gems have caused problems for beach city. Lapis stealing the ocean, Frybo eating people, Jasper and Peridot’s arrival making Beach City evacuate, etc.
Next; Mayor Dewey.
Instead of a riot causing Steven to go see Mayor Dewey, Buck runs into him on his way home and tells him that his dad wants to see him.
{Scene starts in Mayor Dewey’s office}
Steven goes to see the Mayor, who is looking out the window. They don’t show the Mayor’s face and the air feels tense.
Steven doesn’t appear to notice.
“You wanted to see me?” Steven asks.
“Why didn’t you call me?” Dewey asks.
“What?” Steven questions.
“When people were being abducted, why didn’t you call me?” Mayor Dewey asks.
“I didn’t think about it,” Steven admits.
“There are 24 people in this town, four of them were kidnapped and you didn’t tell me.” Mayor Dewey still doesn’t turn, “People are asking questions and I didn’t know what to tell them,”
“I…I’m sorry.” Steven hurries to apologize, “How about we call an impromptu meeting on the board walk and I can tell everyone what happened?”
“Yes, we should do that, but first…” Mayor Dewey finally turns to reveal bags under his eyes “Why don’t you tell me what happened?”
Then fade out with Steven silently telling the whole story to the tired Mayor.
{Scene end}
That was another issue I had. Mayor Dewey is the Mayor. I know that it’s easy to paint him as an idiot, but like he said, he’s been the Mayor for a decade. I think he knows the people in the town. And it would have been a pleasant change of pace to set up for what I want him to do at the end.
Next; The Boardwalk
{Scene Starts}
The Mayor does not go with Steven to the boardwalk.
Steven is alone when he gives his speech on the board walk, leaving out the Mayor Dewey part at the end.
“So, in conclusion, I’m sorry about the abductions. Everything was my fault because I unknowingly provided some space Gems with a list of names and put everyone in danger. Thanks for listening,” Steven finishes with a relieved smile.
“Was it the same Gem who stole the ocean?” The woman with the ponytail yells.
“No,” Steven says.
“What about the gems who attacked when you made us evacuate the town?” the man with the mustache asks.
“No, but don’t worry. Everything is fine now.” Steven says.
“That’s not true!” Sadie yells, “What about Lars?”
“I told you-” Steven starts.
“How is everything fine when my friend is still missing?” Sadie asks, tears welling up, “How is everything fine when he’s still lost in space?”
Like in the original scene, Lars’s mom starts to cry, and Lars’s dad comforts her.
“You can still visit him any time you want,” Steven hesitates, “We just have to use Lion to…”
Steven trails off, unsure what to say.
“Let me talk to the gems,” Steve says desperately, “Everything will be fine. You’ll see!”
Lars’s mom hits Steven in the face with a tomato.
{Scene end}
Like I said, this is not the first time that something has happened in beach city. The towns people know that things keep happening and Steven and the gems are at the center of it. And to know that people were kidnapped, and Lars died because Steven accidentally gave their names to the wrong people is just a slap to the face.
Now because the Mayor didn’t attend the speech, he’s not there afterwards so that leads to what happens Next.
Yeah, I hadn't seen Lars of the Stars before I saw the bomb. Connie's resentment actually became very relatable, because "WHY THE HELL ARE YOU SO CALM STEVEN? YOUR FRIEND JUST SACRIFICED HIMSELF FOR YOU!"
I think the wait between the homeworld arc and this recent one also masked many of the problems with it.
I like this show a lot but it's not the only show I'm watching so by the time we get to Connie and Steven's relationship problems in this bomb I don't care about what happened in the the last arc as much since I moved on to watching other shows.
Yeah it’s weird that the writers are more or less telling the audience not to think about Lars for now when Lars’ subplot is what I’m most interested in atm.
I don’t watch Steven universe, I just enjoy your passion for speaking about it because I really wanna work with Cartoon Network in the future
tbh, I had a feeling that each Steven bomb was dipping in quality. Idk why, but I could really feel as though there is some sort of divide in the crew considering the varying degrees of Gem and Beach City episodes, with either side being mundane, unimportant or actually important to the plot.
I didn't see the comic con footage until after I saw the bomb, and I didn't really care
I mean, it's objectively stupid and weird and bad writing, but this show has a long history of setting up big plot threads that should be incredibly pressing and then just throwing in a filler episode or two or thirty with a few minor references to it until they decide to really address it again
I'm just used to it by this point
Lazypackmule Yeah, but I think the town’s treatment of Lars’ disappearance came off as extremely insensitive and unsettling. There was not much continuation from such a big event and that’s what ruined it for me. I mean, there’s a teenage boy stuck in a planet 70 years away! Is no one freaking out?
Lar's parents were freaking out.
Id love seeing Luna meet her future husband tbh
I am starting to dislike this show
I must say, I really enjoyed this video series. Your videos are put together very well, your points are clear and concise, and, despite the thumbnails, you don't really rant about the topic. It's so refreshing to watch a video like this and not leave it with a negative taste in your mouth.
Now, on to the actual topic, I have to agree that the hiatus-bomb format is killing the show. There's been so much space between episodes that any sort of hype surrounding the show dies off, and it's clear the writers are starting to lose momentum. Hopefully TTG is actually over, so other shows have room to grow.
For real, though, that show has killed their lineup.
Honesty at this point it's more on the writers' storytelling than CN's scheduling. Look at Adventure Time, they get less bombs than SU but they manage to established endgame villains like Bubblegum's family, Golb, Fern, and the Lich, set up their final arc, give more development to Abadeer and Jake, and set up their final arc in the same format as Steven. Four seasons in and we only saw a sminch of Homeworld, gem-controlled earth, the war, or even a hint of how the last arc is even gonna play out, instead we get stuff like Sadie joins a band with the cool kids(still bland characters) even though the showed no interest in her before. It's even more sad that after the zoo bomb the Crystal Gems are given less screen time than freaking Sadie and are now just extras. Garnet used to composed, wise, and a good teacher but now if it's isn't about fusion she's keeping Steven in the dark when Homeworld's invasion is getting closer by the second and just recklessly let Steven lonewolf himself into deadly situations without backup while the fandom shrugs it off because, ''OMFG TINY LESI-ROCK LUV 4EVER!'' Pearl is worse because she has all this knowledge and keeps quiet about it just to move the conflict forward. It's gotten to the point where fans are coming up with stupid theories like was programmed to not talk but apparently not to rebel against her superiors. You would figure this far in the story with Steven's growing powers and knowledge that the Gems would train him more and not shield him from his Mom's past or homeworld when he's gonna a key factor in the inevitable war for Earth, nah let's take him on a vacation instead of asking about the trial or preping for the next homeworld gem that can pop up in any moment like Jasper, the Rubies, and Aquamarine who just came a FEW EPISODES AGO!
Maybe the writers are just that bad
I want to congratulate you on your channel growth! While most people may attribute the growth to you talking about Steven Universe, I want to mention that you seem and sound so natural when you narrate these videos. You sound on par with Slice of Otaku, and the like!
I love your channel! I subbed, and can't wait to see you hit a million subs
Congrats on 1k I’m like so happy for you!
I believe the reason for sunflowers was based on their meaning. Sunflowers can be used to represent loyalty, which could possibly be used to show that Lapis’s loyalty to Peridot and the Crystal Gems was broken, or that she has none and it’s not something that Peridot can build up or grow upon. Perhaps the Crewniverse just wanted something bright looking in the Kindergarten, but I personally like to believe it was for the representation
Valid points. Though, about the plants, my thought was why didn't they plant legumes. They say gems suck the energy out of the soil, which for plants is usually nutrients like nitrogen, which legumes will actually replenish after dying thanks to housing special bacteria. Grow legumes to fertilize the soil, and then you have land more suitable for growing other plants.
Also, it's stupid they only grew the sunflowers in *one area* of the kindergarden. Other parts could've had better conditions for growing plants.
I'd like to see an episode of everyone j just standing around not blinking or breating or talking then Steven walks in and it's like oh yeah we're supposed to be alive and do stuff. But Jesus Christ this bomb had literally turned me off to the show if it doesn't improve drastically I don't really wanna watch it anymore
Great video! I"m definitely looking forward to your next video
I think the bomb format is definitely choking the show, esp when you look at pacing and how they've been trying to make each arc bigger and bigger. On the other hand one thing I really liked about this arc is Steven's angst cos (I want to see characters suffer) Steven has been too optimistic about everything so at least in this bomb I feel like he is a teenager instead of a god diplomat all the time, even if the Connie thing was blown out of proportion
Like remember Jasper? that arc was like an entire season and a half! Compare that to the Zoo arc which was like 5 episode despite dealing with the diamonds and getting to space and losing Greg
We can literally have an arc about Steven having explosive diarrhea and the rest of the gems constantly fighting corrupted gems. Guess which one is gonna happen off screen.
You have really good content and interesting things to say about a show I love, I'm glad you're channel had been growing so fast!
Holy crap I have been binge watching (well, all 3 videos) your content and didn’t even look at your sub count! You definitely deserve more subs because you make pretty high quality for someone with your amount of subs! Doing great!
Sometimes I feel like the characters, both the gems and humans (lion too), are just too stupid to really comprehend the seriousness of whats going on around them.
It’s not the crewniverse’s fault for the schedule. It’s the people who control scheduling at CN.
I think the reason they planted sunflowers is bc they grow well in high radioactive places.
Townie episodes were never my favorite but they've become so much more of a stretch. its really hard to work a solid 'moral' or 'lesson' into 11 minutes and SU managed to do that so well for so long while also focusing on the bigger story in season 2/3. But in season 4 things got a LOT more awkward. Even in the latest 'stranded' event the lars of the stars episode had a really awkward learning moment for Lars
At some point, I thought, "I wonder if the constant leaks are some kind of subtle cry for help from the staff?"
Still you hit all the points I have for the bomb. Let's hope for better episodes.
all these problems you mention REALLY bother me too >-< I'm glad you took the time to highlight and explain them. Also congrats on reaching 2.3k subscribers, you truly deserve it!! *subbed
Didn't know Lars of the Stars was a thing. Now I'm ticked about how this show does anything. The whole bomb was stupid even if the whole Lars thing didn't happen. And without putting that episode in somewhere I have no faith in the writing or presentation anymore.
Overall, the reactions of the characters to Lars being stuck on homeworld makes sense for the characters. The characters are written poorly in the first place. That is what made all the reactions and emotions of the bomb possible. Bad tropes and conflicts that don't happen in real life.
I listen to ur stuff at my job washing dishes. Really makes the day go by
Only another half a year for like 5 more episodes
Another problem with Steven Universe is the ham acting. I can't judge voice acting but the do a good job I'm taking about the way they draw the posses for the characters. They do the most over the top poses possible. You may say its a cartoon aren't they supposed to be exaggerated. Yes but most toons aren't serious they should save the over the top acting for comedic scenes and use more subtle poses for serious scenes. The characters look hilarious and it takes you out of it.
Yeah, I'm a casual watcher and didn't know about the Comic Con leaks, so when they killed off one of my favorite characters and then resurrected him and then wasted time focusing on over exaggerated Connie Steven drama instead of checking in on him I was really put off, because the show, and Steven, aren't usually that sociopathic. Just cause they leaked it doesn't mean the story can ignore it.
I honestly think BTTK (back to the kindergarten) was about getting help when you're feeling sad.
i did not watch those episodes knowing that Lars were okay, and it honestly were a big problem to me that nobody really cared about if Lars were okay or not
adventure time seems to be working better with the bomb format than steven universe ever did, because each episode of AT stands up on its own but also works with the larger plot, although the overarching plot in season 9 is pretty weak but that's why the episodes have to stand out independently even harder.... SU doesn't know how to make individual eps stand up but its larger plot is so large - the buildup to a new war - that it has to do this menial filler bullshit until they have the balls to reach that point.
These are so great!! So on point. Steven Universe has extremely high highs and extremely low lows. It's very disappointing and bombs like this one make me really unsure how invested I should be in the future of this show because sometimes it is so massively disappointing. Curious how you felt about the two follow up episodes we just got. Personally, not very happy. I'm really waiting them to deal with the emotional fallout from Lars DYING and it just seems like that's never actually going to happen. Like, the message seems to be that dying was the best thing that could have happened to Lars and that is weird and wrong in so many ways. Ugh, they need to get this show back on track.
We're Steven Universe obsessed.
Lars of the Stars is a bad episode, it feels super speed up
Would have been nice to see lars as cool captain harlock and less as crybaby for no real reason in a life threatening situation.
I found you fairly recently and I've been enjoying your videos. Keep up the good work. :)
My friends all talk about how the first season of Steven Universe was complete garbage and the episodes since then have only gotten better. I completely disagree.
Season one was what got me hooked on the show, and almost everyone loves The Return/Jailbreak. Those episodes were built up, so it felt like an excellent finale to an overarching problem. I really wish each season stuck with a certain problem, like Malachite being dealt with in season two and then the whole third season was about the cluster. Then, I also wish Steven finding his dad in Pink Diamond's zoo would've had some impact on Greg or Steven for the long term. Instead, they seem to have forgot about the whole ordeal after two episodes.