“What can you do? Kids gotta express themselves.”
Steven Universe, like many fantasy shows, is centered around a mystery. Over the course of two seasons that mystery has come to define the show, permeating its balletic action and complex character dynamics with a gnarled, inscrutable flavor of dread and uncertainty. I’m talking, of course, about the mystery of what the heck is up with Onion.
‘Onion Friend’ makes a strangely satisfying case for a simple answer: Onion’s just a weird kid. Remarkably little happens over the episode’s course. Onion steals some Chaaaaps from Steven, Steven chases Onion to a garage full of paintings of Amethyst, and Steven and Amethyst spend an evening at Onion’s house. It thrives in its details, in its easy, lived-in mood, and in its smart decentralization of the ongoing conflict between Garnet and Pearl. Amethyst has been on the conflict’s sidelines from the beginning.
Steven Universe, like many fantasy shows, is centered around a mystery. Over the course of two seasons that mystery has come to define the show, permeating its balletic action and complex character dynamics with a gnarled, inscrutable flavor of dread and uncertainty. I’m talking, of course, about the mystery of what the heck is up with Onion.
‘Onion Friend’ makes a strangely satisfying case for a simple answer: Onion’s just a weird kid. Remarkably little happens over the episode’s course. Onion steals some Chaaaaps from Steven, Steven chases Onion to a garage full of paintings of Amethyst, and Steven and Amethyst spend an evening at Onion’s house. It thrives in its details, in its easy, lived-in mood, and in its smart decentralization of the ongoing conflict between Garnet and Pearl. Amethyst has been on the conflict’s sidelines from the beginning.
- 7/16/2015
- by Gretchen Felker-Martin
- Nerdly
Garnet: “Start with the letter N.”
Connie: “Huh, okay. What next?”
Garnet: “The letter O.”
Steven Universe giving love at first sight the brushoff feels kind of shaky just a few weeks after the show waxed rhapsodical about it in ‘Story for Steven.’ Granted, Jaime the Mailman cuts an especially dismissable figure with his overblown confessions of love from afar. Equally understandable is his crush on Garnet, an immortal space babe with perfect hair and more composure than God. Laying a reasonable foundation, though, isn’t enough, and for the second time the show pretty much waves off the opportunity to do anything with the hook of “human is attracted to Gem.”
Like ‘Story for Steven’ there isn’t really anywhere that ‘Love Letters’ can go other than where it does, and the only character development we get is that Jaime is a failed actor and Ruby and Sapphire are exclusive to each other.
Connie: “Huh, okay. What next?”
Garnet: “The letter O.”
Steven Universe giving love at first sight the brushoff feels kind of shaky just a few weeks after the show waxed rhapsodical about it in ‘Story for Steven.’ Granted, Jaime the Mailman cuts an especially dismissable figure with his overblown confessions of love from afar. Equally understandable is his crush on Garnet, an immortal space babe with perfect hair and more composure than God. Laying a reasonable foundation, though, isn’t enough, and for the second time the show pretty much waves off the opportunity to do anything with the hook of “human is attracted to Gem.”
Like ‘Story for Steven’ there isn’t really anywhere that ‘Love Letters’ can go other than where it does, and the only character development we get is that Jaime is a failed actor and Ruby and Sapphire are exclusive to each other.
- 4/24/2015
- by Gretchen Felker-Martin
- Nerdly
“Vote For My Dad.”
The stakes have never been lower, but Steven Universe thrives on the small stage. The episode’s plot is simple: Steven and Buck Dewey make T-shirts together, then disagree about what said T-shirts are for. It’s a light, sit-com-esque premise that leads into an earnest look at what growing up can take from us. Nothing explodes, nobody fuses with anybody, and the B-plot is a running discussion about ownership of art and the incompatibility of art and capitalism. Imagine an episode of Dragon Ball Z where Goku just repairs a shoe while arguing with Bulma about the value of the 24-hour news cycle.
The episode begins with Steven proudly showing the Gems his handmade poster advertising guitar lessons from Greg. The Gems react with varying levels of tolerant interest, but down at the Big Donut the ever-hip Buck Dewey sees memetic potential right off the bat.
The stakes have never been lower, but Steven Universe thrives on the small stage. The episode’s plot is simple: Steven and Buck Dewey make T-shirts together, then disagree about what said T-shirts are for. It’s a light, sit-com-esque premise that leads into an earnest look at what growing up can take from us. Nothing explodes, nobody fuses with anybody, and the B-plot is a running discussion about ownership of art and the incompatibility of art and capitalism. Imagine an episode of Dragon Ball Z where Goku just repairs a shoe while arguing with Bulma about the value of the 24-hour news cycle.
The episode begins with Steven proudly showing the Gems his handmade poster advertising guitar lessons from Greg. The Gems react with varying levels of tolerant interest, but down at the Big Donut the ever-hip Buck Dewey sees memetic potential right off the bat.
- 4/17/2015
- by Gretchen Felker-Martin
- Nerdly
“Come on, aren’t you your own mom? You can do whatever you want.”
Living up to a parent’s legacy can feel impossible. Steven lives in the void his mother left, a hole in the lives of every one of his parents, biological or otherwise. It’s easy to see the tension between his desire to step up and help ease the pain of his mother’s absence and his desire to be a kid, to befriend monsters, to play, and to be free from responsibility. When the Cool Kids show up to spirit Steven off for a night of joyriding after a day of hard work excavating pieces of Peridot’s wrecked space-hand, it’s a chance to unwind and experience that freedom.
The Cool Kids are a good set of voices to show the pressures exerted on a child by a parent, and by a parent’s reputation.
Living up to a parent’s legacy can feel impossible. Steven lives in the void his mother left, a hole in the lives of every one of his parents, biological or otherwise. It’s easy to see the tension between his desire to step up and help ease the pain of his mother’s absence and his desire to be a kid, to befriend monsters, to play, and to be free from responsibility. When the Cool Kids show up to spirit Steven off for a night of joyriding after a day of hard work excavating pieces of Peridot’s wrecked space-hand, it’s a chance to unwind and experience that freedom.
The Cool Kids are a good set of voices to show the pressures exerted on a child by a parent, and by a parent’s reputation.
- 3/27/2015
- by Gretchen Felker-Martin
- Nerdly
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