Steven Universe maybe doesn't have the best worldbuilding, although I think it's sufficient to sustain the show. It helps to think of it something like a tokusatsu, in which world-shattering invaders that threaten all of humanity and Earth nevertheless are polite enough to confine their attacks and manifestations to a particular Japanese city. The show gives us terrifying Gem-monsters able to smash up city blocks—so, are these things to be found all over the world? I guess the Crystal Gems can warp around the globe if they want, but there's no clear indication that they're attempting to monitor the entire world for Gem-monster incursions. Mostly they stick close to Beach City.
But it's such a great premise. Long ago, on some alternate Earth, there was an alien war, a war so destructive that it altered the geography of the planet, and ever since there's been the shattered remains of an alien occupation of Earth, scattered bits and pieces of Gem technology and Gem soldiers. Strange interactions occur between some of these Gem relics and the substance of Earth, and thus we get oddities like the flowering moss from "Lars and the Cool Kids" (illustrated above)—possibly some sort of accidental fusion between a terrestrial plant and Gem fragments that happily resulted in the creation of a new lifeform.
(Wouldn't human beings try experimenting with Gem fragments themselves? The implications of that are frankly terrifying—especially if we make the assumption that the human beings of Steven Universe Earth as are foolhardy and ambitious as human beings tend to be here on our Earth—so maybe it's just as well that the show didn't really go there.)
The fact that Gem relics create this sort of weirdness around themselves, causing the creation of novelties and monstrosities of various sorts, has caused me to speculate that one could stitch together the continuities of Steven Universe and Undertale. The origins of the Monsters in Undertale is completely unknown and I doubt whether Fox or anyone else on the development team gave the matter much deep thought; all we really know is that they're magical beings. I've entertained the speculation that the Monsters are creations (deliberate or accidental) of human mages—but I've also got this wilder idea that the Monsters' origin is tied up with the aftermath of the Gem occupation of Earth. The interaction of Gem material with earthly things produces results that might be regarded as magic, after all.
(I do have some more particular ideas about how it might work but, uh, just wanted to run that up the flagpole.)
~Chara of Pnictogen
Love this. I've always thought that SU/UT would make for a great crossover. I think Frisk and Steven would get along great.
As far as the tokusatsu problem, this was actually covered in Rising Tides, Crashing Skies. Briefly.
Ronaldo finds out that the Hand Ship was there for the Crystal Gems and then jumps to the conclusion that none of the gem monsters would attack Beach City if the Crystal Gems weren't there. Despite his leap of logic, Pearl actually confirms that this is the case.
Listen, Frybo, magic beings are indeed drawn to us, but we were here long before Beach City even existed.
I... don't think this is ever elaborated on.
As I recall, we originally started thinking of trying to merge Steven Universe continuity with Undertale as a way of sidestepping a big problem with trying to envision a post-Pacifist ending: it's impossible to imagine the Monsters having a Good Time™ if they appeared on Earth, the way Earth is these days. Steven Universe Earth, though, seems far more accustomed to strange phenomena, and—in Beach City, anyway—the human beings are remarkably chill with the Crystal Gems and the weirdness that happens round them. If magical Monsters suddenly emerged from a mountainside somewhere in Steven Universe Earth and took up residence on the Surface, it's plausible to guess that it might actually go reasonably smoothly. The successful establishment of Little Homeworld in Steven Universe Future is an encouraging hint that it could actually work.
Ronaldo seems like the only exception, the only human being who reacts to the Crystal Gems and the weirdness round Beach City in a way that seems realistic by contemporary human standards—i.e. he's paranoid and alarmist and confrontational. So...why's he the only one, and why doesn't anyone else seem to care? It feels like Ronaldo's an awkward joke character and I think it's a weakness in the fictional fabric of Steven Universe. There's a genuine issue here, the question of what human beings really think about all the mysterious Gem-related stuff going on round them and whether that causes any trouble. You'd expect more trouble than we see, but all we really get is Ronaldo's sensationalism, which is explicitly depicted as comical and futile. I hate to make the comparison (feel free to pelt me with rotten fruit over it) but I'm reminded of how the fictional conceit of the Harry Potter books—the presence of a hidden social stratum of magic users amid ordinary human society—raises a heap of difficult questions about the mages' interaction (or lack of interaction) with human events, questions which J. K. Rowling's incapable of answering. It's less of a problem perhaps with Steven Universe because SU Earth seems much altered in comparison to our familiar Earth, and its history is perhaps completely different.
~Chara
Yeah, that's some pretty good thinking. Pink Diamond arrived on Earth around 6,000 years ago, and her Rebellion ended successfully around 5,000 years ago. The War Between Humans and Monsters probably happened somewhere around 1,000 to 500 years ago judging by the type of sword that's show in the intro.
It seems very unlikely to me that Mt. Ebott exists in the United States, as the native population didn't use long swords, and if the people shown in the intro were colonists, they would presumably have used firearms and artillery instead of or in addition to swords and spears. Of course, it's possible that development of gunpowder based weaponry was delayed greatly due to the presence of magic--if you can cast fireball, why invent a cannon? Unfortunately we know very little about how common magic was in human society.
All that is to say, both the timeline and geography of the two universes could combine in a way that's not contradictory to the canon of either, unless I'm missing something (I'm probably missing a lot, lol).
Honestly, I love how freaking chill the humans are in Steven Universe. They literally only care about weird stuff happening if it impacts them directly, like when the gems wreck the sign at Fish Stew Pizza. The Pizza family has a brief feud with the gems, not because they're weird magical alien beings, but because they broke their stuff.
I have to wonder if the sheer abundance of weird shit happening throughout history as a result of the gem war just led to a human society that is a LOT more tolerant of things that seem different, unusual, or even inexplicable.
As far as Ronaldo goes, I mean... it seems he's just kind of weird. Most of humanity takes odd stuff in stride, but there's always going to be variations. I think if Ronaldo existed in our reality, he'd still be a weird little conspiracy theorist.
As far as the HP comparison, I think you're right in that the history of SU Earth is very different than our own. One claim I see repeated often is that Rebecca Sugar or another member of the Crewniverse stated that WWII never happened in the SU timeline, but I'm having trouble finding an original source to back that up.
But regardless, the geography of SU Earth is uh... WAY different than ours, so yeah... I feel a lot of stuff happened differently.
Also this is more a vibe thing than something I have evidence for, but I feel like the human population of SU is SIGNIFICANTLY lower than ours. Which would also lead to a very different history.
