#sometimes people dont like acknowledging canonically awful actions from protagonists

[cescalr]

OK but 2 things:

Marinette remains a stalker, right, like that's just casually a thing she does?? Um???? Guys???? Stealing a fishing rod.... sabotaging a shoot... mari that's his job please honey stop this foolishness. Also goddamn do you not care about your own responsibilities? Um. You agreed to look after those kids... ditching adrien once isn't going to kill you. If anyone would get a busy schedule, it's him lol

Nino can't fucking stand chat and said that right to his face i- how is adrien supposed to act after that. Like Nino is his best friend and can't stand chat.... hmmmm. Rocketear dashing all the hopes and dreams of the ninoir fandom in one fell swoop alfjakxhlajf. Ig since Luka knows abt his identity now, and doesn't hate either persona, then ig I'm gonna have to rely on him for bestfriendism. Sad times.

[runrundoyourstuff]

Steven for the ask thing!

(in reference to this character ask meme)

Why I like them

Steven is one of those characters who I think on the surface doesn’t seem that interesting, but then I feel like you squint a little bit more and like all of a sudden, you realize that he’s really well written. He grows so much throughout the series but in a gradual way such that I feel like you don’t realize it’s happening while it’s happening, but then you go back to Season 1 and are just in awe. 

I also think it’s really important that we have a male protagonist of a major action cartoon (which would have even five years ago been labeled “a boys’ show by the industry…which really likes to gender), whose primary powers are empathy-based (both natural and supernatural empathy,) and who strives to help his friends learn to communicate their emotions in healthy ways. Modeling that, I think, does a lot to plant the seeds of combatting toxic masculinity. Plus, he’s secure enough in his masculinity, that he sometimes crosses-dresses, and neither he, nor any of the characters in the show, nor the show itself treats it as a joke:

(And the show isn’t like self-congratulatory on this point either. Which is great. It normalizes boys and men being okay with expressing their emotions and being secure in their masculinity in quiet ways, and doesn’t make a thing out of it. It just does it.)

Why I don’t

I mean I think this is part of the point and is actually good writing, but in Season 1–especially early in Season 1–he can be kinda annoying lol. (He explicitly acknowledges this in Familiar.)

Favorite episode (scene if movie)

Dang this one is hard because unlike the other characters, he’s literally featured in every episode. I think something that tends to be true about Steven is that, in his eagerness to help others express their feelings in healthy ways, he sometimes neglects to do so himself. But his emotions are so live for him, and so I really like episodes where that ends up coming out, like Storm in the Room, Steven’s Dream, Adventures in Light Distortion, Stuck Together, Mindful Education etc.Of these, if I had to pick a favorite, I think I’d either say Full Disclosure, in which he realizes for the first time what the consequences and stakes of being a Crystal Gem–and being his mother’s son–can be for the first time, or Lion 4: Alternate Ending, in which we see him really really struggling with the idea of his “magical destiny”. In both cases, he is supported and validated by the people he loves. And that’s the heart of the show. :) 

Favorite season/movie

Probably Season 4. So much of what this show is about is how Steven (and the rest of the characters) relate to Rose Quartz. And I think Season 4–in which Steven deals with the idea that Rose supposedly “shattered” Pink Diamond–represents a real shift in how this plays out. Prior to the last few episodes of Season 3 (Bismuth, and then Back to the Moon), he saw his mother as this all-perfect figure, and he felt pressure to live up to her legacy, and that was really hard for him. In Season 4, he instead starts to deal with the fact that (he thinks) his mother did this horrible thing…and how can that be, because he always thought that she was this infallible, perfect, loving being? And it terrifies him. SU is primarily a show about growing up, and part of growing up is realizing that our parents aren’t perfect. There’s a deep terror in that for kids, and I think the show dramatizes it perfectly with this arc.

(This fits into a larger discussion about how SU models how children have changing relationships with their parents as they grow up, and I’ve written a more extensive essay about that here, if anyone is interested.)

Favorite line

Ahhhh this is so hard because there are just so many interesting for him, but if I really had to pick one, I think it would be this one from Three Gems and a Baby:

“Wow, you guys were wrong about everything…No, I mean, about changing and growing. And how it doesn’t come naturally to you? But look at you now! I know you’ll never stop missing Mom, but I bet she would’ve loved this. I do.”

I think this quote just captures something so fundamental about Steven (and about the show as a whole.) He loves the people around him so deeply, even as they all live in the shadow of his mom–whether it’s grief for her, her legacy, or any one of the other million ways Rose is present in the show. And in the here and now, he’s committed to building that family day after day, helping them all to grow, and growing himself. 

Favorite outfit

Okay, I’m not sure this technically counts, but I love him in his caterpillar sleeping bag:

OTP

Once again, not a big shipper. But I guess Connie, if I had to choose.

Brotp

Boy oh boy, this is hard because I really love all of his relationships (and as the focal character of the show, he has a relationship with literally every character), but I guess if I had to pick, I’d say his relationship with Pearl or with Greg.

Head Canon

The first time Steven had a Cookie Cat was as a young child at the Beach with Greg and the Gems, and every time he eats one–every time he hears the silly jingle on TV–he’s reminded of that. That’s part of why he likes them so much.

Unpopular opinion

I don’t actually know whether or not this is actually an unpopular opinion or not, but I don’t really want to see Steven in a full-on romantic relationship that’s explicitly acknowledged as such. I know it’s been hinted at with Connie a few times–especially early on–but it’s never explicitly been romance. And I think one of the things the show excels at is striking a nice balance between different types of positive relationship dynamics, and I worry that, if he were to end up in a serious romantic relationship, that would become a focus moreso than other types of relationships.

A wish

Again, probably not super likely, but I’d like to see Steven physically age. We know from Steven’s Birthday that Steven’s body “ages” depending on how old he feels mentally. And we’ve seen him mature so much since Season 2–I’d love to see that reflected in his design.

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen

It’s been hinted at a few times, but it’d be so painful to see Steven like explicitly start to question his humanity. (It might happen…and tbh it would be some good angst material, but still so painful lol)

5 words to best describe them

Empathetic, Sensitive, Emotive, Outgoing, Fun-loving

My nickname for them

Your Ding Dang Diamond. (I’m so bad at this lol)