#in defense of steven universe

[sjbattleangel]

Edited from Hiding In Private's fantastic video which you can watch here.

Hiding In Public: "It's unreasonable to attack Rebecca's character as if the most malicious interpretation of everything in the show was their personal idea. The writing and storyboarding team of Steven Universe is one of the most diverse in cartoon history. On a show that pushed diversity and inclusion, a lot of this criticism starts to stink of right-wing co-opting of progressive language, without understanding context and sentiment, in order to have a "gotcha" moment. Considering a lot of videos pushing this also include racist and homophobic jokes (as I've covered in my own series).  Even then, the argument that you're trying to make is that there was a malicious characterization of minorities made by those same minorities...so the next question I guess is: Why Steven Universe? A show about pushing diversity, inclusion and acceptance was being specifically targeted by countless takedown videos (and posts) on this specific thing. It seems to me-at least-that even if someone were to concede all the bad things being said, that it would make more sense to target-more loudly-the shows (and other media) that do the same thing more often with less tact and who are also not led by minority communities rather than one of the only shows intentionally trying to support these communities. Especially when most the people making the criticism, show by virtue of their own comments, are neither coming from these communities or are at worst actively vilifying them with homophobic and racist comments. Say there are two shops: One that sells apples and the other that sells grapes. The apple owner overhears a customer complaining about the grapes not tasting good. Does the Apple owner then run a campaign pretending to be a grape fan in order to make grapes better? Or is it more likely that they stoked a flame to ensure that their business had less competition?"

[doctorsiren]

Drew Trucy in some outfits I’ve worn in the last couple weeks

[melodicdragon97]

Apparently, Steven Universe has been getting traction again, and unfortunately I've found this out through social media memes saying how bad of a mother Rose Quartz was.

People say she's a horrible mother because the burdens of her past were handed down to Steven. Now, while it's true that he had to deal with her past problems, Rose had NO WAY of knowing that would happen! Let me put things in perspective.

Rose never intended for Steven to bear the fallout of the war. When Rose was still alive, she and the Crystal Gems truly believed the war was over for more than 5000 YEARS.

The only aftermath of it was the corrupted gems that they were capturing, and for a long time, the Crystal Gems shielded Steven from them and didn't let him go on missions.

For 5000+ years since the war, there was peace, and that's when Rose had Steven.

NOBODY on Earth knew about Homeworld's fusion experiments and the Cluster. There was no contact from Homeworld until roughly 12 years after she had Steven, when they sent the Red Eye in episode 2.

I'm so sick of Rose being a scapegoat for all of the show's conflicts that happened AFTER SHE DIED.

[octoling-wearing-gauges]

TRICK OR TREAT

TRICK!!!

jk :)

hope yall had loads of treats this Halloween 👉👉

[fruitsofhell]

Anyone give a shit about my Kirby-Steven Universe AU I developed for 3 seconds last year?

Broader Plot Synopsis:

Midnight Agate (Meta Knight) was a young quartz assigned to watch over the colonization efforts on Popstar with a small brigade of Rubies (The Meta-Knights). While waiting for things to truly get started, she let her sentimentality get the best of her and got to know the natives rather than killing them as were her orders. Seeing as it was a backwater planet and mission no one was watching carefully, she thought things would be fine.

While she was playing at being a knight for King Dedede (King Dedede) an undercooked Rose Quartz (Kirby) popped out, and caused some Kirby style antics for them (KDL, Adv, RoMK plots). Agate attempted to be subtle about what Quartzby's existence meant - not wanting to let on to her king friend she was an alien sent to blow up the planet - but in her continued waffling she began to watch the quartz take a liking to the planet just as she had, and started doubting the entire thing.

Eventually, after defusing the silly rivalry between her and Dedede, she began to work on deactivating gem structures (all those Ancient Artifacts we know in canon) and halting the colonization process, but accidentally alerted homeworld authorities whom then proceeded to send Halcan Quartz (Galacta Knight) when it was obvious things were a mess.

That's about as far as I got with solid ideas, but I have more fun disjointed ones. Like Midnight Agate falling in line with Halcan Quartz for a while out of pure fear and obedient instinct before eventually confronting her with the help of Quartzby and her rubies. And from there Halcan Quartz's own sentimentality gets tapped into for a redemption arc.

And from THERE the equivalent to the Diamonds in the would be Zero - a white Diamond I would suppose. I also had lots of fun ideas expanding on Agate and Halcan Quartz's connections to their planets (especially the latter to Halcandra CAUSE I LOVE HALCANDRA).

I really like how both Kirby and SU use their science-fantasy themes to tell stories about enjoying the little things and how you can kinda redeem almost anyone by tapping into that universal humanity. Or atleast I've always read the text of SU into the subtext of Kirby just cause the latter informed my media tastes so much.

I'd def fuck with this AU again if I have another SU phase. But I'm literally just talking about this cause I'm overwhelmed by how much Kirby stuff I have ideas for and needed to fart SOMETHNIG out.

[accio-atticus]

no but do you ever see a show that changed you completely, who you are as a person and the kind of person you want to be and how you see the world

and it’s a cartoon made for children

[siegfrida333]

It's funny because everyone knows Lapis would be the first to knock a motherfucker out in the name of protecting Steven Quartz Universe.

Look at this shit

What a bad bitch.

This is barely after coming out of a traumatic event that has caused her hesitancy when using her powers. But when steven was in the line of fire? No hesitation. My girl did not FLINCH.

[faelapis]

i still stand by that steven doesn't totally hate the diamonds. or at least, its more complicated than that, considering his immediate reaction to his own intrusive thoughts was to panic and run away, horrified with himself. and especially especially considering the thing that incited his revenge fantasy was seeing himself as white.

even how he justified his revenge fantasy internally by trying to reclaim his own image as a hero who defeats villains, distancing himself from white. it was a reaction to being compared to her. all while ironically acting like her at her worst. its as much as about his own identity and coping as how he feels about white.

i think the twitter discourse of trying to "prove" steven hates the diamonds is deeply flawed and allergic to nuance where you can want someone to get better while still carrying resentment for past hurt. (as well as fear of becoming like a diamond himself).

[cannondisabledcharacters]

Today’s disabled character of the day is Defense Zircon from Steven Universe, who has an unspecified anxiety disorder and a lisp

Requested by Anon

[Image Description: Drawing of a blue rock based alien. She has a lighter shade of blue for her hair, that is done up in a crescent shape. She is wearing  a boxy, long-sleeved baby-blue jacket with padded shoulders and darker blue trim along the bottom, and a pale blue cravat. She wears a monocle over her right eye.]

[ahirumagica]

Where is the intersection of ‘People who watch RWBY’ and ‘People who watch Steven Universe’ and can we talk about how Rose and Ozpin are essentially the same character with slightly different motives

(This makes Oscar and Steven very similar as well)

[wacky-nameless-inventor-24]

Gee, it's swell to finally meet her other friends...

[nerevar-quote-and-star]

Avarenya, during the Defense of Bruma: We can't fight of these things forever!...

Avarenya: . . . well, we can but I don't want to.

Martin: *sigh*

[atypical-artisan]

hi there

so you've mentioned the video series about su you like. mind sharing a link? 👀

- erporo

EEE!!!! Hope you like long vids @erporo because these sure as hell are

So do you remember back a few years ago (About 2018 or so) a handful of people made a couple of bad-faith 'critiques' of Steven universe?

Well this guy, hiding in private, not only has done a rebuttal of the biggest 3 videos but has also decided to make a series going episode by episode to analyze the themes, characters, and story of Steven universe.

His opinions are AWESOME and such a breath of fresh air, esp if you're like me and like watching media analysis vids. SOme of the stuff he talked about I din't even realize about the series so it's just so cool to me!!

Anyways here are the rebuttal videos:

This one is almost fully about the 'steven universe is garbage' video:

And here's the start of the analysis series

Season 1:

He's only done season one so far and the next one won't be out for a while but DAMN is it a fun watch!!

[sjbattleangel]

Talk about missing the point!

Oh, Lily....

“Steven Universe” was never this magical-space stone version of “Star Wars” you wanted, nor was it ever, ever about “forgiving fascists” or “hugging Nazis!”

You see, “Steven Universe” was always about “learning to loving others and yourself”, “accepting imperfections”, “mending broken family bonds”. True, it’ not perfect (nothing ever is) but overall it’s a beautiful show about love, acceptance and hope.

Yet for you to attack personally attack Rebecca Sugar while calling her-a non-binary, bisexual Jewish woman- “a creep”, “a thoroughly loathsome person” and, worst of all, “a fascist sympathizer”. All because, in spite of all of the openly positive LGTBQ+, PoC representation and diversity, it wasn’t, in your eyes, “perfectly woke enough.” Plus, you were fuming mad that Steven didn’t fight White Diamond a la Luke and Vader.

Let get few things clear:

No, the Diamonds are not “genocidal fascists”, they are metaphorical stand-ins for estranged family members who push away others due to their obsession with perfection and order. Steven was making peace with his distance relatives by loving them so that they, in turn, could learn to love back.

No, Rebecca Sugar didn’t create Stevonnie as excuse to “sexualize kids.” Steven and Connie became Stevonnie as way of exploring their own identities and the world around them.

No, Bismuth was not an “angry, black brute character”, Her anger and vitriol towards the Great Diamond Authority was a metaphor for coping with past trauma and abuse but most of all, her anger was not the “end-all-be-all” of her character. She developed by learning to express herself more better while channelling her energy by using it help others.

And there’s so much more I could say but I’ll leave it here by saying how interesting it is when-for example- “Avatar: The Last Airbender”*, a show created by white guys borrowing from East Asian culture and folklaw, had little to no LGTBQ+ representation yet you give it a flying pass. “Steven Universe”, made a by diverse, multicultural team, was bursting with LGTBQ+ positivity yet you label it as “problematic, crypto-fascist propaganda” because it “didn’t do representation right” i.e. “representation done your way.” 

 Holding marginalized creators to harsh, unreasonable double standards? Thinking there is only one way to do representation right? *sighs heavily* We are done.  *For the record I also adore ATLA

[falinscloaca]

pisses me off so much much that i’m not immune to people arguing about steven universe

[colortheoryworker]

Me:*Almost done rinsing off dishes before bed at about 10:30 listening to my new stim song on repeat*

My Nephew:*flags me down*

Me: *Pauses the song* What's up?

My Nephew: Can you pour me some milk?

Me: Yeah sure! *Grabs and pours milk*

My Nephew: Why do you always listen to music in the middle of the night?

Me: In the middle of the night??👀👀