my opinion on steven universe had been "it was really rocky & uneven but they stuck the landing with the last season, movie & epilogue". having fully rewatched it as of last night, not only is it way less rocky than i thought but the stuff i thought was good is even better. steven universe future is a fucking gut punch and i relate very deeply to it and i'm glad they not only told that story but had the confidence to put steven, their protagonist, through that as a character. it's ugly and raw and real. i have also been through that "everyone is leaving me behind and i've got to lock down anything i can" wringer. i've been the person who can't stop self-sacrificing because i don't know who i am otherwise.
also, just. god "mr. universe" is a heartbreaking episode.
i've mentioned this but i think steven universe was a victim of both its toxic fandom and the insane airing schedule. when you watch it now, free of both problems, it really really holds up. if you are like me and my friends and didn't follow through with steven universe or remember it not-so-fondly, i strongly suggest checking it out again. i'm really glad i was able to re-evaluate this show and see it for what it is, and not for what fans wanted it to be. i think sooner or later a lot of people are going to start waking up and realizing steven universe whipped ass all along whether they're taking my word for it or not.
and in the last stevonnie episode, they finally put on shoes!
to this day saying the words "Steven Universe was good actually" makes me feel like someone's going to read them and finally order the sniper outside my window to take the shot but i do think it's time for SU's cultural redemption as people who were put off by the horrible airing schedule and all the Yelling Online and bailed like i did come back around to it, or the (mostly) kids who were doing a lot of the yelling enter their prime Nostalgia Years for it and reapproach it with more mature viewpoints.
the show does not deserve to have a legacy as The Discourse Cartoon and instead we should all be hauving covid for Pearl like normal, civilized humans
Back in April I had the good fortune to get to attend an event at Vancouver's Emily Carr art school being put on by Women in Animation Vancouver consisting of a fireside chat with Rebecca Sugar and Ian Jones-Quartey followed by a meet-and-greet and signing. Rebecca Sugar is the single most creatively-inspiring person I can personally think of, and I knew I couldn't be me and not go, so I'm very happy I did even if the event organization itself left something to be desired (I'll grouse about that in a postscript). Attendance was, as you might imagine, absolutely packed, and I was lucky enough to pick a seat that happened to be right on the aisle where the lineup for the Q&A portion formed, so I actually got to ask something.
My question (which I'm proud to say I didn't garble TOO much despite being so nervous my knees were literally shaking) was if the bad-faith tenor of discussions around Steven Universe had changed how the two of them were approaching future creative projects. Their answer, which turned into something of a free-wheeling discussion, boiled down to "not really".
If you've read then 2nd Steven Universe art book you'll be familiar with a lot of the meat of their response. The main point Ian brought up is that the simple fact of the time delay between when episodes were being planned to being animated to finally releasing, which could be months to years, made trying to anticipate every possible angle of discourse an exercise in futility from the get-go. They knew the story they wanted to tell and the themes they wanted to include, they had an EXTREMELY clear vision, and ultimately they were vindicated. Rebecca talked quite a bit about the difference between bullying & criticism, specifically how "a bully wants you to believe something about yourself that isn't true" and that "the thing a bully wants most is to see their actions affecting you". Rebecca also gave a few examples of people just straight-up lying about things related to the show, like how they supposedly didn't use model sheets (you can see the model sheets and ton of other excellent production materials in the two very good art books!)
There was a lot of other good stuff in the talk. They talked about Trojan-Horsing the queer content by Rebecca pitching SU as a story based on her relationship with her little brother, coasting on that for like 50 episodes, and then by the time the CN c-suite started catching on, too much had already been planned, boarded, and animated for significant changes to not be extremely costly (Ian was VERY smug about this). Rebecca talked about Estelle being extremely helpful in developing all of Garnet's songs - Rebecca would describe the general vibe of a song, like how "Stronger Than You" is all at once a love song, and a fight song, and a victory song, and then later that evening Estelle would send back a bunch of incredible reference material for Rebecca to build from. Rebecca also closed out the talk by performing "Love Like You", and while it was a terrific performance the best part was absolutely watching Ian watch Rebecca while she sang. That man loves his wife SO much. I don't know that I've ever in my life seen a man more in love.
I'm not JUST reminiscing about a fun experience (though I absolutely am) - my point in sharing this is to say that I think in the majority of the world that exists outside the deeply-unwell crab-bucket echo chambers of limitless media discourse, Steven Universe IS rightfully regarded as an indispensable classic & towering achievement. The energy in the room was SO good - pretty much every age group was represented; it was majority Emily Carr students but also a lot of folks my age and older. The show took swings with its storytelling that basically no other piece of Western animation ever attempted and carried them off with unrivalled grace & competence, trusting its audience at every step. It could pack more emotional resonance in an 11-minute episode than a lot of prestige dramas ever achieve in a full season. Perhaps most impressively, the show managed to tell its story in its entirety, complete with a satisfying (if gutting) epilogue, and then stopped.
(Kvetching about the bad parts of the event: I think WiAV really underestimated just how popular the event would be because their time management and organization for the post-talk signing/meet-and-greet was abysmal. The talk started late, went long, and then they did absolutely no line management for the signing, including allowing people to get pictures taken with Rebecca & Ian. This led to the signing running HOURS overtime, and by the time I got to the front of the line both of them were so exhausted that they both misspelled my name in different ways (I've got the prints from the event displayed proudly, I think it's hilarious). Really embarrassing stuff on the part of the organizers, I felt terrible for Rebecca & Ian because they were clearly exhausted. Rebecca still recognized me from the Q&A and thanked me for my question, which is a memory I'll keep fondly.)