Steven Universe - Now a Griefing Thread

[SteelPlatedHeart]

I get what sugar is saying, but, in the end, Spinel really wasn't that different from any other villain.

1. Villain seems unredeemable evil at first.
2. Turns out they had a sad backstory
3. "Evil" behavior usually caused directly or indirectly by Rose Quartz.
4. Wants to kill Steven at first
5. But they eventually talk it out.

Plus the fact that diamonds adopted her and all parted on good terms, seemed to imply she did change.

Really the only difference is that, unlike say Jasper, Spinel wanted to lash out against Steven, despite, knowing he isn't Rose Quartz.

I think that was sort of the point. Spinel went after Steven knowing full well he wasn’t Rose and there made it more malicious than those who thought they were going after Rose. The others were going it as some form of their own revenge against the person they felt was the cause. Spinel attacked them just to make herself feel better because she couldn’t take revenge against the person she blamed, since she’s already dead.

 

[AverageAnimeWatcher]

I think that was sort of the point. Spinel went after Steven knowing full well he wasn’t Rose and there made it more malicious than those who thought they were going after Rose. The others were going it as some form of their own revenge against the person they felt was the cause. Spinel attacked them just to make herself feel better because she couldn’t take revenge against the person she blamed, since she’s already dead.

Definitively, but what I'm getting is that the "more malicious" part is a bit debatable. Say, the diamonds also tried to wipe out all life on earth and have done so to other planets as we saw in jungle moon where they did commit genocide among other things like shattering "off-color" gems.

And Yellow diamond specifically wanted to get rid of the earth to move on from pink's supposed death with the cluster. That's not that different from what Spinel tried to do.

Spinel pretty much followed all the patterns of the previous villains to a T. Who she lashed out is different, sure, but she is not the worst in terms of danger. Not even close.


edit: I get she is meant to represent "toxic" people, but in the end, her arc was a typical Steven Universe redemption arc.

 

[Muttnik]

Rebecca's comments kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I get what she's trying to say and it's true that Spinel DID make innocent people hurt, but she also was perfectly willing to try to change when Steven first gave her a chance after the garden. It only went south again after it was perceived as Steven no longer being interested in her once she turned off the device the first time, thus triggering her abandonment issues. Sugar seems to want to downplay the fact that Spinel was a massive victim and the majority of the movie even features her in her innocent mode without focusing on her as a villain. It's just really wonky to me. I totally get the idea of someone being toxic and wrongfully hurting people that had nothing to do with their source of pain, but the way they portrayed Spinel was far too endearingly sympathetic to achieve that message.

 

[AverageAnimeWatcher]

Rebecca's comments kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I get what she's trying to say and it's true that Spinel DID make innocent people hurt, but she also was perfectly willing to try to change when Steven first gave her a chance after the garden. It only went south again after it was perceived as Steven no longer being interested in her once she turned off the device the first time, thus triggering her abandonment issues. Sugar seems to want to downplay the fact that Spinel was a massive victim and the majority of the movie even features her in her innocent mode without focusing on her as a villain. It's just really wonky to me. I totally get the idea of someone being toxic and wrongfully hurting people that had nothing to do with their source of pain, but the way they portrayed Spinel was far too endearingly sympathetic to achieve that message.

Yeah, you said it better than I did. In the end her story really wasn't that different from all the other redemption arcs so far of making villains extremely sympathetic.

 

[Bungus Scrungus]

Was anyone else weirded out by the Steg shit? It'd be less weird if Rebecca hadn't drawn Double D and Eddy from Ed, Edd, n Eddy fucking each other like, 12 years ago or something long ago like that, but the whole fusion aspect to this show is clearly meant to be somewhat sexual in some instances, and is directly related to the fusee's relationship. It's different in Anime with the weird stuff because you expect that and it's whatever; it doesn't pretend it's anything but what it is. But this show gives off a preachy vibe, so when you get pelvic thrusting eye fucking rockstar guy: it just ends up blaring some sirens in my head, especially due to the aforementioned history Sugar has with this sorta shit. That, and you just KNOW the exact same people who give shonen manga shit for sexy highschool girls don't find the implications behind this fusion sketchy whatsoever.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

Was anyone else weirded out by the Steg shit? It'd be less weird if Rebecca hadn't drawn Double D and Eddy from Ed, Edd, n Eddy fucking each other like, 12 years ago or something long ago like that, but the whole fusion aspect to this show is clearly meant to be somewhat sexual in some instances, and is directly related to the fusee's relationship. It's different in Anime with the weird stuff because you expect that and it's whatever; it doesn't pretend it's anything but what it is. But this show gives off a preachy vibe, so when you get pelvic thrusting eye fucking rockstar guy: it just ends up blaring some sirens in my head, especially due to the aforementioned history Sugar has with this sorta shit. That, and you just KNOW the exact same people who give shonen manga shit for sexy highschool girls don't find the implications behind this fusion sketchy whatsoever.

Fusion does not mean sex.

I don’t know why that rumor has gone on for as long as it has, but I’ve gotten pretty sick of it. Fusions represent relationships. They can be romantic love, abusive love, love of friends, family love, ect. But it doesn’t mean they’re fucking.

Steg is the way he is because he’s a performance. He’s a mixture of how coolness Steven thinks his dad is and how much Greg admires his son his what he does. The pelvic thrusting and whatnot is just what a big name performing rockstar would do to put in a show.

And as for the Ed Edd and Eddy thing, who cares? It’s some dumb rule34 doodles she drew, it’s not likes she’s going around making a habit of it or insisting it’s a thing that really truest happens or anything. I think there was a quote by a Nick cartoon creator that basically said people have learned to just expect porn of the characters at this point.

Sorry, I’m not meaning to attack you on it or anything. It just gets tiring hearing people claim
that fusion is fucking or that Rebecca Sugar is a pedo just because of one set of doodles and a misunderstanding of what a part of the show is.

 

[Bungus Scrungus]

Ah, okay, gotcha. It just made me uncomfortable, was all.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

Ah, okay, gotcha. It just made me uncomfortable, was all.

Honestly, I can see why people would be. I just wanted to clear up the other stuff.

 

[Xiphias]

I kinda expected a father-son fusion to be more wholesome, instead of what we actually got.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

I kinda expected a father-son fusion to be more wholesome, instead of what we actually got.

I feel like it’s what they both think is cool. Steven has that pompadour back in Steven and the Stevens.

 

[AverageAnimeWatcher]

I like the art style of the background art, but the character design/plot seems not that great. Is it really worth watching? It seems sort of melodramatic.

Forgot to answer this.

In my opinion, it's pretty good, but the fandom is horrible. The fact it was said earlier that kiwi farms is one of the few places you can discuss it, somewhat safely, should tell you something.

The show is very liberal, and despite me disliking all the woke reboots lately, I absolutely love it. It's a good argument on how a show can be "progressive" and still good. Mainly because they are creating something instead of merely hijacking the success of someone else.

Unpopular opinion: I personally like it a lot more than adventure time and how pretentious it became in later seasons. While Adventure time seemed to set up misteries and arc that rarely paid off, or paid until you lost interest, SU's story arc flows a lot better, all the mysteries pay off. And also unlike Adventure time, which had a propensity to introduce secondary characters that you never see again, SU's filler episodes, the ones not about gems, still serve to world build and make the town more believable, and you will totally get to see all the normal people again and even like them.

All in all, I think it's a cute loveable show with a message of love and optimism that is a breath of fresh hair in a seas of edginess nowadays, but it's certainly not for everyone.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

Forgot to answer this.

In my opinion, it's pretty good, but the fandom is horrible. The fact it was said earlier that kiwi farms is one of the few places you can discuss it, somewhat safely, should tell you something.

The show is very liberal, and despite me disliking all the woke reboots lately, I absolutely love it. It's a good argument on how a show can be "progressive" and still good. Mainly because they are creating something instead of merely hijacking the success of someone else.

Unpopular opinion: I personally like it a lot more than adventure time and how pretentious it became in later seasons. While Adventure time seemed to set up misteries and arc that rarely paid off, or paid until you lost interest, SU's story arc flows a lot better, all the mysteries pay off. And also unlike Adventure time, which had a propensity to introduce secondary characters that you never see again, SU's filler episodes, the ones not about gems, still serve to world build and make the town more believable, and you will totally get to see all the normal people again and even like them.

All in all, I think it's a cute loveable show with a message of love and optimism that is a breath of fresh hair in a seas of edginess nowadays, but it's certainly not for everyone.

I’ll add that it’s liberal without attacking the other side, which makes it far more enjoyable.

 

[183 baras]

Checked out the movie and...eh.
I guess if you liked the last season, you'll like this episode as well. For me it was all weak: weak storyline, weak character design, etc. Redeemed diamonds reminded me why I lost interest in SU, their behaviour also rubbed me the wrong way, as well, as Spinel. The way she acted in the flashback actually creeped me out. Like, I feel what writers tried to make and show, but the whole scene screamed how clingy she is and how unhealthy her attachment was. And, since the whole picture of Spinel didn't work for me, I just couldn't care about the plot in general.

But I enjoyed Garnet's and Greg's fusion songs, they were nice.

 

[Archeops]

Another Little Golden Books-inspired SU book titled The Tale of Steven is set to come out in two weeks and pages (if not the entire book) have been leaked online.

Spoiler: The Book

The book itself is the usual schmaltzy, feels-inducing fluff that SU's famous for, but the atrocious formatting makes the book really difficult to read (which makes sense given that it's from the perspective of White Diamond, Rose, and Steven until some point). It's a nice addition to any sort of SU merch collection but there's one thing that makes me VERY uncomfortable with this one...

Spoiler: ABANDON ALL HOPE AND SANITY YE WHO ENTER!

The last page has a dedication to trans kids and whatever the hell "gender-expansive" kids are these days. I would've just ignored it if it mentioned people in general but explicitly mentioning kids just rubs me the wrong way, especially given how popular transtrenderism has gotten with teens and parents with easily-fooled children. C'mon Rebecca, you were able to skirt around the complexity and ridiculousness of the trans situation in the past so why bring this up now?

 

[Nauseated Courgi]

Another Little Golden Books-inspired SU book titled The Tale of Steven is set to come out in two weeks and pages (if not the entire book) have been leaked online.

Spoiler: The Book

The book itself is the usual schmaltzy, feels-inducing fluff that SU's famous for, but the atrocious formatting makes the book really difficult to read (which makes sense given that it's from the perspective of White Diamond, Rose, and Steven until some point). It's a nice addition to any sort of SU merch collection but there's one thing that makes me VERY uncomfortable with this one...

Spoiler: ABANDON ALL HOPE AND SANITY YE WHO ENTER!

The last page has a dedication to trans kids and whatever the hell "gender-expansive" kids are these days. I would've just ignored it if it mentioned people in general but explicitly mentioning kids just rubs me the wrong way, especially given how popular transtrenderism has gotten with teens and parents with easily-fooled children. C'mon Rebecca, you were able to skirt around the complexity and ridiculousness of the trans situation in the past so why bring this up now?

I smell some minor backlash. Good job giving your detractors ammo Sugar.

 

[Archeops]

I smell some minor backlash. Good job giving your detractors ammo Sugar.

Seconded, especially if Jonny Boy gets his hands on a copy.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

Another Little Golden Books-inspired SU book titled The Tale of Steven is set to come out in two weeks and pages (if not the entire book) have been leaked online.

Spoiler: The Book

The book itself is the usual schmaltzy, feels-inducing fluff that SU's famous for, but the atrocious formatting makes the book really difficult to read (which makes sense given that it's from the perspective of White Diamond, Rose, and Steven until some point). It's a nice addition to any sort of SU merch collection but there's one thing that makes me VERY uncomfortable with this one...

Spoiler: ABANDON ALL HOPE AND SANITY YE WHO ENTER!

The last page has a dedication to trans kids and whatever the hell "gender-expansive" kids are these days. I would've just ignored it if it mentioned people in general but explicitly mentioning kids just rubs me the wrong way, especially given how popular transtrenderism has gotten with teens and parents with easily-fooled children. C'mon Rebecca, you were able to skirt around the complexity and ridiculousness of the trans situation in the past so why bring this up now?

Maybe it’s a term meant to cover nonbinary, ace and the like? She did come out as non-binary like a year or so ago, right?

 

[OmnipotentStupidity]

Unpopular opinion: I personally like it a lot more than adventure time and how pretentious it became in later seasons. While Adventure time seemed to set up misteries and arc that rarely paid off, or paid until you lost interest, SU's story arc flows a lot better, all the mysteries pay off. And also unlike Adventure time, which had a propensity to introduce secondary characters that you never see again, SU's filler episodes, the ones not about gems, still serve to world build and make the town more believable, and you will totally get to see all the normal people again and even like them.

Funnily enough, one of the reasons for that dip in quality was because in...I want to say Seasons 3-5(?) of Adventure Time, Rebecca was responsible for pretty much every good aspect of its most memorable episodes. The mystery, the storyboarding, the songs, the tone of the episodes, the writing; I hazily remember knowing that back in the day when I closely followed AT, but looking back now: she, Ian, and a lot of the other original Crewniverse people were pretty much carrying that show.

I mean, the entire reason I made that jump over from AT to SU was because Steven Universe just felt like "Adventure Time without the bullshit". To the point that after she left, you could tell the other staff either had no idea how to wrap up her storylines, had different plans for the show entirely, and basically floundered in trying to replicate Rebeeca's work, and failing miserably.

 

[Archeops]

In a somewhat ironic and possibly unexpected twist, a thread on the SU subreddit about the book’s dedication was locked two hours after being made due to transphobic comments.

Looks like @Nauseated Courgi was right about that backlash.

Maybe it’s a term meant to cover nonbinary, ace and the like? She did come out as non-binary like a year or so ago, right?

I was thinking the same thing, judging by Google’s results the term refers to those who identify themselves outside of the usual male/female definitions.

 

[Racist Trash]

Spoiler: *Just a mess of thoughts

*I liked Spinel I feel like she was shown as someone who had snapped and I feel like she was redeemed way too easily (same probelems with the Diamonds) especially considering that what we are shown of Gems as a species is that they come precoded to act a certain way. Hell Spinels seem to be coded to be massively obsessive and needy making it strange that they act like gems have free will right after showing Pearl reboot and instantly being a slave to the first person she sees.


Essentially I feel like a lot of flaws with the show is that they intentionally write characters dumb and ignorant of the world that they know in order to make plot happen rather than writing something interesting.*

*I'm going to leave this first draft of retardation here and see if you guys can make sense of my terrible mind dribblings where one thought cuts off the other


I feel the big narrative problem the Gems have is that they are treated as human characters rather than Gems who have adopted humanlike characteristics. We see in the movie that Gems have a default state and so when Gems do change it's generally required to fight their existing base programming it's what makes Spinel actually sympathetic because as much as she is overreacting it's somewhat understandable when you look at it from the perspective that she was made to do what she did and nothing else, literally knowing nothing else and the revelation that something else exists causes her to snap and that's something I think can't be solved with a couple of songs. Essentially I feel like they needed to go deeper into Gem history and their actual function that led them on their genocide the galaxy stuff to make the Diamonds and what they do make sense and from that sense you can make them redeemable.