Spinel getting antsy that Steven was just going to forget her unless he needed her for something is actually a pretty reasonable assumption for her to make since that’s objectively what Steven’s done in the past with other characters… and it’s what ended up happening with Spinel herself.
@jojo "if you're too mean to tyrants you're just as badwrong as them." Steven Universe isn't a great show. Neither is Korra show, Rooster Teeth's junk, etc.
Steven getting pissed at Greg for not wanting to live with an abusive family also pissed me off. The fact Greg's letters to his parents were never opened shows the fact they don't care about their son.
I wouldn’t exactly consider not opening your son’s Christmas letters as abuse. And from what we’ve heard about how they raised him, sounds like all they did was establish some rules and structure in his life so that he didn’t do stupid, life ruining shit. Which he did anyway. They’re not the ones breaking into someone else’s house. From the sounds of it, Greg’s the fucked up, maladjusted adult here, and his desires for absolute, unfettered freedom ended up royally harming his son. Imagine what would have happened to Steven had he not been half gem. He was never vaccinated. Dude would’ve suffered atrociously.
@@willhiggins9563 idk man when he started about what he ate and looking at how things were locked etc and no letters being opened reminded me of a classmate that was “strict” like they made sure the doors won’t opened over night by stuffing something on the doors and like measured out their food and times their bathroom breaks etc.
Bruh, the point wasn’t that Steven was in the right. That was actually a scene from Future that I appreciated because it really demonstrated by showing, rather than telling, Steven’s angst, and the way that he always longed for normalcy, humanity, a stable family in his life. He blamed so much of the trauma from his upbringing on being half gem that he was blinded by his jealousy of what Greg had rather than seeing the freedom Greg lacked. The truth of the matter is, though his reaction was overblown, Steven’s emotions were pretty justified. As if it wouldn’t have been hard enough living constantly in the shadow of his own mother- his dad, until the later seasons, was a total deadbeat. They sort of made a joke, as well as several plot points, out of how out of touch Greg was with Steven- how he never put Steven first, and just left his upbringing entirely up to these ancient aliens because he was too depressed that his girlfriend was gone to think twice about the son she left behind. It annoyed me more that, in that episode, Greg then turned around and said “Steven you had freedom! You had what I never had!” as if that makes up for being an absent father, as if that was his plan all along. Both characters were so absorbed with what they didn’t have, what they wished they had, to see what the other truly needed. Steven couldn’t appreciate Greg’s need for freedom from his parents, meanwhile Greg couldn’t understand Steven’s need for protection and stability and the presence of a human guardian/guiding figure. That’s why Steven was so angry. He was suffering and externalized it and blamed Greg. Very realistic teenager emotional response if you’ve got a lot of harbored trauma. I think it was a realistic portrayal of the inner conflict of someone who might have been raised with a martyr complex.
Also, keep in mind that part of this resentment Steven harbored towards Greg’s lasse-faire parenting style includes Steven literally never having gone to the doctors, having had no vaccines, never going to school, etc. Like another comment suggested, imagine if Steven wasn’t half gem. He would’ve perished long ago, and the show confirms that when Steven does finally go to see a doctor in future.
You ever notice how stupid it is that after people criticized Pink Diamond they tried to portray her as a less sympathetic, unforgiven character yet did nothing about the 3 very much still alive diamonds who "clearly just wanted to be loved and that's why they were committing genocide a few years ago".
@@pandaescarlate7268 the diamonds stopped targeting earth for years. Rose probably thought that they forgot about earth so she thought it would've been safe to start a family
I know right? I get they were trying to go for the ‘Rose isn’t what she seems’ angle but the fact they kept piling on to her misdeeds after the reveal was really unnecessary.
You're getting it entirely wrong. The damonds aren't supposed to be forgiven or redeemable, Steven just needed them to make things right and knew the only way was emotional manipulation
What’s even more horrifying is the realization that before the movie and future, throughout all 5 seasons Spinel is still standing there waiting for Pink
It never fails to astound me how many people can overlook the horrific atrocities the Diamonds dealt out. Taking villain redemption to the umpteenth degree can't work with people who willingly and eagerly committed acts of genocide on numerous species including their own.
@@nostalgiajones5472that’s because it’s more tell not show with the other diamonds, like you hear about all the fucked up stuff they do but you rarely see it, with pink you see it
If the show really wanted a Diamond redemption they should’ve just stuck with Pink being the more sympathetic one of the Diamonds and show more of her and put more focus on her making up for her mistakes. Or have it so it’s the other Diamonds fault that Rose never came back for Spinel and show in some way that she regrets it.
I mentioned on tumblr a long while ago that Steven could've easily calmed Spinel down by saying something like "we're still friends, we just need to finish this. How about we hang out when the world isn't in danger anymore? We could all get pizza together" or something and someone bit my head off. This fandom can be *brutal*
true, only issue being that steven hasnt had like any sleep, both him and spinel are INSANELY stressed, and they're currently trying to stop a world ending threat, so neither of them are in the right mindset.
Honestly, for all her faults, Sugar managed to get one thing surprisingly right and its horrid that it's played off as a trope because it really wasn't intentional. And that's Spinel having BPD. I know, I know, if the show doesn't say it, then it's not a canon thing. But when this movie came out and I watched it because I had nothing better to do, Spinel surprisingly helped click that part of my brain that went "Hey, I do this..." and subsequently saw people mentioning BPD around her, it sorta had me go to my mental health team and mention it. And surprise, I got diagnosed. When Lily said that if Steven had just took a step back and apologized for his wording, that legitimately would have worked on Spinel because (and this isn't limited to folks with BPD obvs) that would have worked on me too...
@@LilianOrchard OH MY GOD YEAH THOUGH. Someone manages to get the disorder right by ACCIDENT once, now it's just frustrating seeing people do it dirty by trying to do it right ON PURPOSE
@@LilianOrchard The moral of the story, don't put all your interesting ideas in one story. Just because you can combine two things together doesn't mean you should.
You know... A friend once told me for a project. When it comes to story telling.. "Keep it simple stupid" Keep the story having a simple base with a message that even the stupid can get. But now I realized it's more about keeping the core themes and tones of your show simple on surface so that even if nuance goes out the window, you still have a story that stupid people can enjoy for their own sake. And that says a lot when you point out the constant jarring tone shifts.
Pearl being infatuated with Greg at all also pushes the idea that she didn’t have a real, personal level of love for Pink Diamond and only did out of programming. Yet again, Sugar has somehow dug herself a deeper grave with Pearl.
@@teddobomb9037 I can’t really view it as her “getting over her” in that moment, because she doesn’t REMEMBER Pink. She’s quite literally obsessed with and infatuated with her master, whether it be Pink or Greg, against her will, because she HAS no will. She’s programmed to want to serve and adore, and serve and adore she does
Like watching the episode where peridot calls her "a servant to her master" and watching her be all offended was so funny to me because... she's still just pink's servant. Even after her death, all her actions are based off what pink wanted her to do, take care of steven, protect the earth, even keeping rose's true identity a secret. I wish they explored that more, its such an interesting idea to me, having pearl slowly develop her own identity/independence.
I think it's quite obvious that Pearl has her own thoughts and feelings towards Pink/Rose. She even says so, she says 'Forgive me... I've been imagining things, even when you haven't asked me to. I imagined I ran away and met you here! On Earth! A Rose Quartz...' (A Single Pale Rose I believe). She's not blindly serving Pink, she's doing what she wants. And after Pink turns into Rose Quartz, she never orders Pearl to do anything ever again - and they fuse casually and are shown to care for each other deeply (Pearl moreso, obviously). I think there is something to be said that Pearl has some level of conditioning - just as all gems do at first - to adore and serve their diamonds. But, as Peridot showed herself, this conditioning can be broken and gems are able to think and feel for themselves. If you think the servitude Pearl shows Greg and the tenderness and adoration she shows Pink/Rose are the exact same/come from the same place, idk what to tell you. I think it's obvious that one is her Role, and the other is Her.
When watching other reviews of the movie, I love how people were pointing out that when Steven tried removing the drill himself, Lapis (who moved the ENTIRE EARTH’S OCEAN) couldn’t move this one thing, Peridot (can can move metal), and Bismuth (who could build anything that could’ve helped them) was standing right there just watching him
What I really hate about gems being able to be repaired when shattered is it doesn’t take all of them to repair them. Just requires yellow to put them back together mostly. Which is something she would definitely do for pink. Which means they never even looked at her gem and attempt to fix.
@@gw7911 WAIT YOU'RE RIGHT? dude if the ability to repair gems came up earlier there's a lot they could do with that. The fact that the diamonds can do it might soften the blow of what they'd done so far and make the redemption slightly less horrible, because at least they know it's reversible. Yellow's anger could partly be frustration at it not working, it could explain why they wanna keep the diamonds intact- just knowing it was a thing could've improved the series
The fact that Spinel was presented as a villain at all is really disgusting considering that she was Pink's playmate/slave and was treated horribly by her, she just wanted to have a friend to play with and the film for the most part treat her like some villain waiting to happen. Did the space penis even had to be there? I already care about Spinel, why did the movie think a world ending threat should be the only reason for Steven and the Gems to stop someone?? Couldnt Spinel just go to Beach City, encounter the Crystal Gems and after a quick fight, THEN Steven talks to her to calm her down and listen to her. (I know its difficult considering Steven isnt nearly that compassionate but still) I find it really gross when Steven "redeems" Spinel only for him to pawn her off to the Diamonds (who only want her cos she was Pink Diamond's slave) so he doesn't have to deal with her again. So this whole movie was just Steven telling Spinel to piss off for 90 minutes. What is it with this show and treating their victims of abuse like disposable trash?? I also found out in an interview, Spinel was based on Sugar's childhood toy that she left in the garden as a kid and upon rediscovering it six months later, she found the toy had permanently changed after exposure to the elements... Sugar literally just made When She Loved Me into a slave/victim of abuse backstory, WTF Sugar?!!
She wrote a song for adventure time called "everything stays" where it's portrayed as a good thing that the toy is still there waiting for you and slightly changed.
Gotta love how 4 years later the "counter-argument" for the most part still boils down to repeating "Lily dumb/hater, don't know what she talking bout" or "But i liked -random red herring-"
"Lily doesn't know what she's talking about" says the person who did no research into the subject/situation and didn't take time to properly understand Lily's argument to properly counter it.
@@emmagauthier9258 Exactly. I bet there's already another video of "Lily is a pedophile" all because she criticized there precious poorly written little meow meow cartoon.
@@emmagauthier9258 also the same guy that shit talked a kid with cancer over them using their wish to see episodes of the show his love for the show is so weird
It took me so long to figure out why I didn't like the music in Steven Universe. I would watch the show and feel indifferent about the songs everyone was going insane about. But then, I would listen to a cover and finally be 'okay, now I like the song." I didn't realize the pattern until recently, and the reason hit me like a bag of bricks. The fan covers actually felt complete. The show songs always felt like the first draft instead of a completed project. In fact, the entire show felt like a first draft- many good ideas, but unpolished and much needed proof reading.
I think of Stronger than You where I assumed it was an original song to the Undertale community. But then I heard the Steven Universe version and was like "wow, this is shit."
I loved the comedic take with this one. And honestly the boomer mom guilt trip is the ONLY joke that lands for me that was actually....purposefully written by Sugar. And i...really felt the same way about Pearl and Greg. It was just straight up creepy, even at the time. Upon further rewatch it's even worse.
IM SO HAPPY TO SEE THIS! I wouldn’t have blamed you for not covering this, but god THANK YOU for saying how shitty it was for Pink to just *leave* Spinel standing there waiting for Pink to come back. Always love your content! 😭👌🏻
What Pink did to Spinel was unforgivable and mind boggling evil, that's villain behavior. Yet Pink is portrayed as a super empathetic character who betrayed her own race over earthlings causing a thousands year long civil war resulting in untold gem people sufering & being shattered. Yet she treats Spinel, a sentient being who has undying loyalty to Pink merely as a plaything she outgrew to be abandoned forever. Pink denied Spinel's personhood and didn't give two craps about her at all.
The painting is from a Vidalia episode where she paints him and Garnet. It's Renaissance style, and they didn't pose naked. The pose was garnet holding steven up in her hand
@@LilianOrchard oh no absolutely. You just seemed to not know where it was from so I commented where it was from. It's easy to miss that plot line, since it's in the same episode as cat steven.
@@cisnt9244 yeah like cherubs were still clothed and this is a "kids'" show, not some college art piece wtf is wrong with Becky (we all know but still wtf)
I watched the movie when it came out and the ONLY feeling it brought out in me was triggering my brain into a panic attack over Spinel's abandonment. That whole story was far too close to my experiences and having that be glossed over in the end by pawning Spinel off to the Diamonds is so insidious and disgusting. Its even worse to see this after all the time spent talking about how "good" Rose was and also minimising her crimes during the gem war. Thank you for ripping this apart, especially the bit about Spinel, it was a catharsis I didn't know I needed.
The implications of steven fusing with his dad haunt me. Also the diamonds being able to bring back gems falls kinda flat when you ask "And how many have they decided to bring back"
I know this is 6 months ago.. But why is everyone such a dumbass? You are also implying this is weird with Rainbow Quartz 2.0, Smokey, and Sunstone.. Steven is a child and the other gems are adults...
@@evauwu5190 Literally. Some complaints of the show are valid but people are very adamant about fusion being strictly romantic and it is so silly. im sure there wasnt any romantic feelings when Garnet offered to fuse with Peridot but that never gets talked about because its the most irrefutable example of fusions not needing to be based on romance. It says more about the people pushing that narrative than the actual potential implications of that idea being in the show. Just saying.
The real creepshow of this movie really sticks when you realize the implications of pearl being infatuated with Greg in the song that basically confirms the diamonds hard programmed the pearls to have an emotional attachment to their owners
I don't think Pearls are programmed to have emotional attachment to their owners . The biggest example is Greg, Pearl doesn't blush when she's with Greg
The part where a kind of overly sexualised fusion between a son and his father try to seduce his lesbian Stepmom honestly makes me look away I just can't believe that is a thing in the movie and not a horrible tag in a hentai website
I like Spinel and her concept. However, se was presented horribly. She has no reason to forgive anyone for what Pink did, Steven is just kinda a whiney asshole sometimes and she should not have been presented as a villain. She should have been presented as someone who the cast has to apologize to and try to make amends
I will never shut up about how creepy Steg is and how the entire song is just insulting to Pearl as a lesbian and how it's so clearly sexualized and it's just....so nasty
Not to mention, I feel like this entire sequence implies that Pearl isn’t just a lesbian; she’s going to lust/fall for whoever *owns* her and that just… why Sugar? Why? Someone has a barely disguised master/slave kink, and it shows.
Leaves a really bad taste in my mouth when the reset lesbian character is shown to like men. That's basically saying something between her creation and her now "made her" a lesbian so by erasing those memories and resetting she's back to being the factory default which is "straight" Yeah not what you want to leave ppl with
Over the years I've developed a belief that Steven is Sugar's self-insert which is part of why she goes so hard on this weird martyr/hero/emotionally mature complex Steven developed because all of the adults directly responsible for him are just terrible at being responsible adults until it's time to try and cover the adults' asses.
I always felt like PEARL was sugars self insert tbh. She has multiple love interests and is never really faced with consequences for how she treated garnet or Steven
@@sonoio869 true he was named after her brother. but the way he is treated, unless she made some type of emotional incest bond with him, Steven is kinda like her self-insert
The movie shouldn't even work technically: Do you honestly believe the Cluster would let the toxic gem sludge dart slide? Nah it'd punch Spinel into space and flip the bird. The movie only works when you ignore the Cluster, unless the Cluster's been de-clustered...but I don't care about Steven universe that much to look it up.
Wait, was there in an in-story explanation for why fusing made Garnet ditzy? I mean, doesn't she have literal foresight? Isn't she essentially two gems fused into one, meaning that if anything she'd be smarter and wiser? Is there any explanation for this not being the case??
I think the first time she fused she also was confused about it all, it wasn't as extreme as in the movie but, she also was less down to earth and calm then later on. But just like always its usually the fans coming up with an explanation of something that has been vaguely shown and i believe most people think its since before fusion only happened between the same type of gem, who ofc know eachoters abilities (since its the same as them) they can fuse and instantly function. Garnet first had to explore her abilities as a fusion.
@@ar_t_lo More to the point, her Sapphire side was confused because *she never saw it coming.* She never foresaw a timeline where she fused with Ruby... And once Garnet formed, she didn't want to see a future where she wasn't.
@@majorghoul9017 well we don't really see her do much in the show the first two times she fuses. The first time she unfuses almost immediately. The second time we see her struggling to walk, fall on her butt and tell Rose that she is confused. I wouldn't be suprised that if you would ask Sugar about why Garnet is an idiot in the movie she'd say something like "it's a symbol of when you first fall in love and you forget how to walk and talk and you turn into a complet idiot because you can only think about that one person."
I’d love to know what made Cartoon Network give Sugar so much leeway to do basically whatever she wanted. You’d think whoever was writing the checks would want to know where she was going with this nonsense, instead of just shrugging their shoulders and green lighting a movie and a sequel series. Sugar is the one to blame for the show itself, but Cartoon Network should have also known when to take the steering wheel back.
Given that it's the entertainment industry which is full of scummy background info, i would assume that Sugar has some sort of blackmail on one of the higher ups at CN so they give her the attention she wants.
I think the fandom may also share some of the blame too. They’ve proven to be extremely aggressive when it comes to defending the show that it wouldn’t surprise me if they made enough of a stink about it that CN felt pressured to give them a movie and a spin-off. Kinda like Kim Possible getting another season except that show actually deserved it.
@Xian Russel, funny thing is, they didn't give her as much leeway as one would think. Example- some episodes like the Thanksgiving episode with Uncle Andy were mandates that CN had imposed, as episodes that *had* to be done.
As far as the music issue goes, I really like Spinels’ “Other Friends” song. Spinel is probably the most interesting character in the entire series. Her backstory of essentially being created to exist as a toy and then was unintentionally imprisoned alone on a dead planet like a doll in a toy box really freaks me out. Solitary immortality on a dead planet is one of my fears.
I think the shittest part about this god awful movie, ignoring the fact its still the same garbage as the series, is the fact that the diamonds were literally RIGHT there. On my first viewing with some friends my only thought was "oh, so this is where Steven goes to get the Diamonds and they fix everything right? Because they can just do that?" And not ONCE did Steven even think to go get the three strongest beings that he knows are waiting on him hand and foot. I remember watching one of your previous videos, where you were critiquing an episode of MLP because the solution to the entire episode was so obvious, and every character had to be smacked with the "idiot" hammer to make the entire episode work. This entire movie is just like that episode but bumped up to 11.
Steven actually did consider asking the Diamonds for help after learning that his gem had been reset, Lapis didn't think it would do much good since Steven's healing powers are apparently the only effective way to fix the situation.
And when he does get the diamonds to help its to throw the character with abandonment issues and that he convinced he wouldn't leave onto the three space dictators who keep her specifically because of her slight connection with her toxic dead friend. Why would anyone want to be constantly reminded of someone who mistreated them or threw them aside? It seems kinda cruel when you look at it for what it is. I never understood why that was the solution or why the show explained it as that instead of something like, the diamonds trying to make up for their own mistakes and helping out someone they would have known and let their sibling abandon. It'd still be a weird way to get her out of the show but it would at least help the case to say that the diamonds are being reformed.
I mean why would he think of that? He's shown to be very uncomfortable around them to the point that when they're actually in his mind, it's always when he no longer has any other options to deal with his surroundings Plus, when looking at his scenes with them from his point of view, it always feels like the Diamonds are being disingenuously and suffocatingly sappy around him, and just because he's related to Pink, who was someone they didn't even care about up until her staged death (which makes it twice as icky for Steven; who has seen her memories). Of course he wouldn't wish to entertain the idea of them being around him, even though they are a possible solution to his problem.
Man, every cursed joke, from the Space penis fulfilling Becky’s breeding kink, the whole situation with Pearl, the diamonds being gross, and Steg fucking ruin me. It’s the mixture of the joke coming straight out of left field and that what’s being made fun of is so genuinely awful that is perfect. And man did we miss out on Spinel’s weapon being cool with a giant mallet. It even works on the basis of them being gems more than a scythe does! Like, instead of cutting their light forms, which somehow affects their gems, it would’ve made more sense with the mallet physically striking the gem, not enough to shatter it but still affect if. But like you said, that’s putting more thought into then ‘hey, cool anime scythe’. Overall, another really fun video, that combination of cursed humor and genuine critique that I thoroughly enjoy!
@@sebman6031 well yeah, sometimes its insinuated as it, sometimes its not, pearl manipulated garnet into wanting to 'fusing' with her multiple times because she just loves the feeling even though its only for emergencies
22:54 that's very funny because in Gumball they have that exact plot point in two episodes, and in both occasions they make Gumball look dumb for asking Penny to marry him, obviously
@@chadnorris8257 nah that was just the moment he pushed Connie away after pushing his dad away after pushing the gems away The reason he got so bad is that he destroyed his support system because of his breakdowns
@Pumpkin Warrior Steven Universe isn't a good show. Neither is Rooster Teeth's garbage, Legend of Korra, Star v. Evil and whatever edgy animu/wannabe animu you're into.
And Penny on both occasions gave the same answer, "We're 12." That's so simple and yet so funny! Steven was what, 17? And Connie was 15, so of course Connie (the only one with a brain) would say no. Not only that but she told Steven something in the lines of, "Not yet." Which clearly indicated that she would want to marry him when they were older, but Steven ended up having a breakdown anyway.
I still hate the fact the roundtable didn't get punished for bullying and doxxing a cancer victim because they leaked future episode when they had permission to do soo
My favorite defense of the diamonds being "they can fix shattered gems so it's not that big a deal" is the fact that it makes the diamonds look so, *so* much worse. The whole center of at least blue and yellow (but arguably also white) is the fact that they're all f***** up by their grieving for pink diamond- but they could have just fixed her this whole time!! The show even shows us that they left fake pink diamond shards before the people to find! There was no need to grieve for thousands of years!!! They just did all of that f***** up stuff for funsies and never once thought about bringing pink back to life!!! And then sometimes they'll argue that well. They didn't know they could bring people back to life and I think of those people don't understand that "these characters *thought* murdered millions and we're fine with it but they didn't actually" isn't that much of a defense.
I just want to bring up, that while the diamonds are shit they can only fixed shattered gems as a group of four. If 3 of them try it’ll only be temporary, so if pink is shattered then they can’t unshatter her because they’d need pink to fix her.
This whole thing really gives: I didn't watch (or pay attention) to the whole thing, and stretched further than Spinel to reach for connections that don't exist. Which, btw, Spinel is based on Rubber-Hose Animation, not Sonic the Hedgehog???
I loved Steven universe during its early seasons when the jokes where good, the background storytelling was semi deep (reminded me of gravity falls) but then later down the line the overall quality got worse and basically all the worst fan fic became cannon. And somehow we’re still left with plenty of questions, for example what is the crystal heart and how did the crystal gems get one?
I'm not even gay, and the weird fetish around Pearl simping over Greg is making my skin crawl. And Steg, why did they go with the generic design? Also, why was a fusion between father and son so...sexual? Stope the ride, I want to get off!
That's so disturbing wtf, Isn't Pearl supposed to like gay and stuff, did her orientation somehow change for Greg of all people? That's straight up disturbing, Holy shit
@@raiisasmartbtch4713 Pearl was one of the token gay characters of the show. We clearly see Pearl being attracted to a woman who's not rose in an episode. Even if you were right, how is a brainwashed slave any better? In either scenario, it's still messed up and all the fucked up things are just tossed in there and romanticized. Btw, you're right about her being brainwashed, not denying that.
I'm impressed on how tame you were with the whole writers barely disguised their own fetish joke, like... You could just do it for almost every interaction really
I honestly hated how spinel was treated during the movie. once her trauma has been revealed both the movie and steven proceed to treat her as ANOTHER of one of pink's fuck ups and not as her own backstory (I definitely didn't word that correctly but hopefully what I mean to say makes sense) I also absolutely despised how they pawned her off to the diamonds too, wouldn't it have been better to have her hang out with peridot and bismuth? on earth, away from the diamonds? At the end of the movie she's so happy to see the diamonds and they her bc the reason is that they remind each other of pink, but in spinel's case why the fuck is that a GOOD thing? Pink ruined her life?? they introduced their villain, and because she absolutely HAD to have a traumatic backstory they decided to have it center on pink yet again to really dig deep on stevens mommy issues, they dismiss her and then throw her away to the people that remind her of the person who ruined her life, and because we want to end this movie quickly because we gave steven more baggage and that was the point well just pretend that spinel is also happy with this ending, even if it really doesn't make sense
Listening to the "Return pearl back to normal" Bit makes the entire context of Pearl's love for pink Diamond provably abusive. It was explained as Pearl genuinely loving Pink, but when Pink Diamond is shown to her here, she completely ignores it and looks to Greg. Because to her, he owns her. Her love and devotion is to him, and not pink. So she's completely uninterested so they decide to use Greg as the stand-in. How is this not horrifying. How is this not proving Pearl has stockholm syndrome built in. All the scene needed to do was have Pearl immediately shift her focus from Greg to pink, and it's a free "See, Pearl isn't just following slavery.exe, her love for Pink makes her ignore that!" But no. It's doubling down on it. They wanted to have the fusion and song and completely butchered any chance to fix one of the obvious problems with having Rose quartz be pink diamond.
I actually didnt know that around season two they already knew there was gonna be only 5 seasons. Sometimes I'm suprised that there are only 5 seasons because so many ideas popped by that it feels longer. I always thought that's why the show got cancelled because it kept using new ideas without concluding the old ones and if they executed each idea properly over more seasons it would have been better. But if they knew it would only have 5 seasons why did they waste time with ridiculous new ideas that serve no purpose (like the human zoo, which they only used so that they could draw as many hot people as possible, like what???) Instead of decently executing their main ideas? It literally makes less sense now that I know that they were aware of the amount of seasons they'd get.
Probably pride. It’s hard to change things sometimes especially if you had a particular plan for how you wanted it to go. So instead of cutting back on certain plots and ideas she decided to just stuff everything in at once.
There is a theory that one of Pink Diamond/Rose's powers, and thus one of Steven's powers, is an aura/force that influences people to love. Which is why everyone constantly preaches about how compassionate Steven is without him demonstrating it, and why he was able to convince the Diamonds to call off the war.
honestly Spinel's weapon being a scythe instead of a hammer seems like such a missed opportunity. like seriously, I'm surprised every time I see it, I've had times when I've watched/listened to that song on loop (I probably have bad taste) and gotten surprised again every 2 minutes or so when it's a scythe she pulls out instead of a hammer. also a hammer would've been a much more threatening weapon where gems are concerned since rather than it slicing through their solid light bodies it'd be more of a threat to their actual gemstones. so not only would it have been more fitting but it'd also have made Spinel a more menacing antagonist within the context of the show. I always had a problem with Garnet that I never figured out until you brought it up. I despise her visor, in animation the eyes are a pretty vital part of a character's expression so having Garnet's eyes be hidden 99% of the time always makes her feel very emotionally distant compared to the other characters, even if it's supposed to be an emotional moment. that visor worked to hide the fact that she had 3 eyes for a little while but honestly they should've done away with it once her major secret of being a permafusion was revealed.
You really put it into words perfectly, Steven Universe has so many good ideas and potential, but then it is all wasted or executed so poorly, and the rest of the budget is put towards making bad anime references and hiring the most expensive voice actors Every time i think of steven universe I end up imagining the good version of the show that we could've had, like Rose could've been her own person and the rebellion leader we know and love, Pink diamond couldve been her own person and a villain where Pearl and Spinel are escapees of her abuse, and we actually address their trauma instead of using it for tugging on heart strings, we'd have garnet actually be an active character, ETC... And then i end up feeling disappointed because that show never became real
It intrigues me to know that a big excuse for Pink Diamond's whole Spinell incident is "she was busy with the war." Not just because of what we know about her actual role in that event, but also because there was definitely a window of time (no matter how brief) between her leaving Spinell and starting the revolution that still speaks to her consistently abusive behavior. If you went to the park with your dog, told him to sit still and not move, then left, you would still be a fucking monster, even if you got shipped off to the goddamn front lines two days later. That's still an entire 48 hours that a living, breathing being did not cross your mind *once*, it's not like Rose got super busy being bored of her human zoo and it slipped her mind, from the very fucking moment she left Spinell she knew she wasn't going to go back.
God, I knew Rebecca was gross. Them being a creep is nothing new, but good lord this is Nickelodeon levels of thinly-veild fetish. Bimbofication, worship, orientation play, whatever the fuck is going on with the steg fusion, and probably giantess *constantly* in *this movie alone*. Hell, even the episode where the gems were trying to teach Steven to fuse with sexualized dances (by Sugar's own damn logic, this is gross but they greenlit this anyway).
@lovestaar♡ it's when a gay person/character is put in a sexual/romantic situation with the opposite gender which contradicts their preferred sexual orientation. Some people find that hot, to "turn" a gay person straight. So it's a "fetish" for some people. A lot of gay people (myself included) find it very disturbing and disgusting.
Man I always forget how in denial the people at the roundtable are that there still going off on the real problems that you pointed out 5 years ago sometimes I forget how crazy people are about things they are good
I wanted to add something when it came to you saying that people were trying to say the diamonds weren't genocidal because you could repair gems: Yes they were still genocidal. Remember what Garnet said about how completing colonies meant "the extinction of all life"? THEY STILL HAVE COMPLETED COLONIES EVEN IF THEY'RE LIBERATED. No matter how "free" the gems are now, there's still organic life that can't be brought back on MULTIPLE planets. *OVER DOZENS.* Remember the diamond moon murals. Each circle on their murals represent a colony, with the one having the most colonies being White. She has over 12 circles, which means on over 12 planets, ALL ORGANIC LIFE WAS DESTROYED. AND IT CAN NOT BE BROUGHT BACK. Humans, animals, aliens, plants, that one rainbow colored "pet" Pink let loose in the ballroom, all species of organic life is *dead.* combine her, Blue and Yellows' colonies, that's over 20 planets filled with millions of billions of life forms wiped away. Never to exist again.
While watching this video a thought occurred to me. Most fans of Steven Universe, even some of the most diehard ones, do not like Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond. Almost everybody hates her and- rightfully- think her actions are deplorable. Honestly it can even get pretty ridiculous because sometimes those same people will then turn around and try to justify why the other three Diamonds are totally forgivable even though the show blatantly reinforces whenever it can that they're the reason Pink Diamond turned out the way she did. The reason I bring this up is because it sort of proves that even by the show and fandom's logic, you CAN'T just forgive everybody and that redemption isn't always possible. You know, a message that is being pushed so hard in the narrative that apparently even genocidal fascists can be forgiven. (I feel dirty just typing that out.) Even for the most uncritical fans who won't admit it, the message didn't land. That's how badly it was fumbled.
It's the craziest thing, we all understand that Rose ultimately became a good person but the sheer amount of badness in her past that she never owned up too or, worse, tried to hide is just unforgivable. Bismuth alone was going to be locked in her room forever were it not for Steven.
Good review Lily I always had an issue with the shattered gems being able to reform. It would have been better if shattering stayed what it was shown as death. Another thing holy candycanes Pink does have mind control abilities in the tears I never noticed the tears on the villain's faces.
4:00 - 4:22 You know, when I first saw the 'let us adore you' song I found it creepy in a way that I couldn't quite put my finger on. Welp, now i see it. And I think I need a shower.
How do people still think pink diamond is a good person after we found out that she left spinel alone for 6,000 years by tricking her into thinking its a game??? THATS ACTUALLY VILE!!! Also Steg is so weird to me like His design is cool i love the concept but i hate how it was used that scene with pearl and him is so disgusting to me beacuse pearl is a non-binary lesbian female like that entire scene just raised a lot of red flags and the fusion itself idk if the allegations of fusion being a secret form of s*x is true but if it is....oh no 😨
I just want to add two things that will always bug me ever since I first watched this movie. One, there is NO explanation for where Spinel gets the doom plot device. Somehow someone virtually forgotten by all who had no real social standing or power just ends up with a world killing injector and rides it across the galaxy and no one notices or cares until she drops out of the sky. Two, absolutely no problems are explored or even mentioned from the "disbanding" of the Dimond empire. Yellow Dimond just says she's disbanded ALL her armies, they don't make new colonies, they just tell this giant destructive machine of an empire they built to stop. And it apparently does? Reality isn't so simple and easy. Let's be honest there would be some Emerald warlords or something out there in a galaxy or problems as everyone tries to figure out what to do next with thier lives. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, seeing any of that might have actually required good writing and pointing out the how the way this show resolves conflict is very flawed.
To be honest, the movie always gave me anime movie vibes. Like impossibly high stakes and strange plot contrivances for the sake of cool action and slight world building.
My main problem with this damn movie is that the whole conflict with the drill could be easily solved by anyone else instead of Steven. 1) The poison only damages organic stuff, if only we had a full town of magical warrior ladies and some of them with engineering knowledge. 2) what about the healing fountain than I am certain that Bismuth help to build? 3) Lapis official job was terraforming, maybe she could cut a chunk of the land with the drill and send it to the sun. 4) Ask help to Homeworld, Steven is a fricking Diamond dammit xD. Also the damn movie review the whole plot of the series more than three times, just so we could be more redundant. (The diamond song, the intro song and everytime the gems remember their lives). Spinel had the same problem as other antagonist in the series, great introduction and potential but then it's conflict was solved easily and effortless without the need of character development of anyone and then she was tossed into the Steven fanclub or in other words "being reddemed". (Also another proof that the rushed resolution of the Diamond conflict was less about the series "being cancelled" and more of a symptom of bad conflict development that was present through all the series)
Steven universe is like a Batman villain. You keep beating it up and send it away in hopes to never see it again but some time later it just breaks out brings a bunch of goons and you beat it up and send it away all over again.
I really wished this movie wasn't a musical. Sure we got gems like both of Spinel's songs, but most of the songs, and by extension scenes, are literally recaps that just waste time. It's like they knew they wanted Spinel, knew how they wanted to start and end the movie, but just phoned in the middle cause it was too much work lol. And ug Steg. Steg made me so uncomfortable. Also I hate how Steven just pawned off Spinel to the Diamonds. Spinel's worst fear did come true. Steven forgot Spinel almost immediately after Spinel called off the injector, and when Spinel confronted him about it Steven showed how utterly insensitive he is. I was on Spinel's side since he did show that he was just using her and always planned to just throw her away like his mom did. And then he pawns her off to get both Spinel and the Diamonds off his back...not thinking that the Diamonds only care about Spinel because she was one of PD's personal gems and they will eventually get tired of her like Rose did. Like New Homeworld and Beach City is right there, filled with opportunities for Spinel to make her own friends.
I don't get why they made Garnet as ditzy as they did. She wasn't like that when she first formed. She didn't know who or what she was, but she wasn't a complete idiot either.
Because that's the creator fetish lmao nah but fr, there a fetish that involves the passive/receiving party being ditzy and clumsy as hell, not knowing or comprehending the things going around them and is often used in hentai/echi/anime (being anime a big inspiration for Rebbeca...)
holy shit i never thought about it (because I never watched it and never cared for it) but a giant cartoon mallet for spinel wouldve been so dope. missed potential makes me sad
Lily: (about Spinel) Here is yet another person driven to suicidal nihilistic despair at the very mention of her name. Me: Wait until you see Pink Pearl/Volleyball...
So if the heal all potion can repair shattered gems instantly why don’t the use it on the cluster? Like the diamonds left it in the earths crust to destroy the planet if they are redeemed and supposedly healing the gem world why not help one of the biggest marks against them?
I'm pretty sure that in one of the final episodes of Future Yellow Diamond shows that she doesn't even need the other diamond's essences to fix shattered gems and comments to Steven that she wants to fix the Cluster
I never thought I would hear you say, you were happy to see the diamonds. Also, I like that you said you did this because your opinion of sugar changed. That's something different from other people I've seen
Yaknow, after watching this vid, i realised that yea, ur right on a lot of things, although i only find SOME of the songs weirdly written, but frankly, i just find the show cozy, and i think thats what most people feel abt it and why they like it, whatever they actually say to defend it
Not going lie, I watched all of Steven Universe in a January "Phone on the ground while playing Xbox" manner. I feel like that's the kind of viewership it deserves. Not crazy obsession. Just something to watch during an acid trip and never make eye contact with while sober.
5:42 do you not remember the episode where this was painted? edit: that episode is when garnet is struggling with her future vision ands starts to do “the unexpected”. they pose for a painting for onions mother (forget her name), and rhen run off before its finished. he was never posed nude. onions mom just improvised. yall crazy
If you're wandering about tha nude painting of Steven, It had it's own episode in the show. One of the characters in Beach Sity, Vidalia, is great friends with Amethist and had long history with Greg, she's known Steven since he was a lil baby. In the episode "Pool Hopping", Steven and Garnet were being cute together the whole episode. They visited Vidalia, and after hearing that she has trouble with inspiration, decided to pose for her, and Steven did have his clothes on him. But then they had to rush out for some reason, and Vidalia finished the painting without them. The decision to make Steven, an uderaged little boy, naked in a portrait with his mother figure, was Vidalias, while Steven and Garnet weren't there to oppose. And apparently Steven loved the painting so much he decided to put it up in his home... Also, this painting now sells online.... Just like that...
I love ur steven universe vids bc you always perfectly articulate exactly how i felt ab the series over time but never really sat put my thoughts on the show in order. Every time im always like “THATS why that felt weird to me” Especially the parts about rose. I loved her in the early seasons. But less and less as rhe show went on bc she just kept being written worse and worse
21:14 No actually ive been thinking about this actually, because what the actual fuck is up with the rest of the earth, like the world only exists where Steven exists. Take season one when a BIG FUCKING GREEN HAND SHIP INVADED EARTH, the fact absolutely no one else from the government or such did a thing is mind boggling. And earlier than that even, when Lapis was stretching out THE ENTIRE OCEAN, and a kid with his girlfriend and family are the first at the scene, getting there...on a van (and Lion too ig but they stuck together and got there together so Lion didnt warp.) The fact the entirety of the ocean vanished from what seems to be most of the world, means so many sea animals and such just fucking died, but nahhhh, Lapis put it back, everything is chill, the natural order is preserved. One more for good measure k? What about when the cluster struck, it was mentioned the earthquakes happened over on Beach City too while Steven and the gang was over at the barn, so its pretty safe to assume that they happened on a bunch of places worldwide. So, worldwide consecutive earthquakes....and no one gave a shit? REAALLY?.... TL:DR : Apparently unless Steven knowingly acknowledges it, the rest of the world literally just does not exist.
I will say, enjoyed the movie and liked Spinnel, however, the ending sucks. The end battle is cool, and takes advantage of Steven more defensive style, not outright trying to hurt the opponent. But I liked it cuz he actually did something for once. My issue is “you can solve everything with some stupid song” just for it to work out that way. I think the movie would’ve been better if it focused on say one or MAYBE two gems getting reset as opposed to speed running all of them getting their memories back.
Ah, yes. This movie... You know, I will never get over the "I made a rebellion and a war happen because I wanted to fuck around" aspect of Pink Diamond/Rose. It was there when the show became absolutely broken permanently for me. Because everything was not only pointless, but truly evil. Like, she started a war, a fricking war, against herself because she couldn't say to her sisters that she wanted some free time O.O I am sorry, but that totally ruined anything this show ever wanted to say for me. And this movie only reinforced that with Spinel's backstory. Like, what is the point of this show? I completely lost the illusion that there was ever a vision of something here.
@@VereditoRainbow1012 Nah, she saw humans as a pretty pet to look at, hence the human zoo. She also saw the concept of babies and pregnancy as "fun" cuz she was bored as hell and said "what if..."
Even though the show's main inspo is Utena, I don't think Rebecca even paid attention to the overall message. Revolutionary girl Utena wasn't even about a lesbian romance, it wasn't even a thing until near the end of the main series and movie. Its message is about breaking away from the status quo and, by extension, the cycle of abuse. That show even went as far as to show the viewers why Akiro, the main antagonist of the show, is a terrible person and shouldn't be redeemed. This further proves this statement during the entirety of the black rose arc that he was a manipulative predator even to his own sister. So the fact that Rebecca wrote how space tyrants, or the metaphorically abusive family, is being tolerated leaves a bad taste in my mouth. sure they're playing nice now, but what would happen when steven dies? The Diamonds are only doing this for him. So, Whenever people mention Utena as Su's inspiration, I'm always gonna think about how Rebecca was only watching it because someone said there were lesbians in it.
I despise how the diamonds and their whole existence is the cause of stevens pain and trauma yet they’re welcomed back with open arms, simply because of “family” like if that family didn’t destroy life and colonize and enslave gems across galaxies and using their shattered remains to create monstrous fusions inside planets that are also used for colonization
Also that halfassed reveal that they could fix them all along isnt helping, why wasnt it mentioned or hell revealed early on if the diamonds really wanted pink back but no, it took a short kid with an afro to get them to use it simply because he shares the same rock not out of the kindness of their callous hearts
btw the nude painting of steven was from an episode where garnet was trying to be unpredictable to unlock new futures so she and steven modeled for vedalia. he wasnt actually nude when they modeled and they had to leave so vedalia finished the painting on her own and that was how it came out. i was also shocked by her choice to draw steven naked idk what the reason was probably to emulate those cathedral painting things? idk
If I'm remembering it right, the weird painting in Steven's room was painted by Onion's mom during the original series. I think it was the episode where Garnet was trying to be unpredictable, and they posed for a painting but left after Onion's mom only got the sketches down. They came back later in the episode and she just finished the painting without them, and that's what she painted (there wasn't any stated reason for Steven being a naked angel baby).
All of Pink Diamond's victims and the victims of the diamonds are valid and they need help not more abuse. Spinel is absolutely valid in being upset and the diamonds needed to be crushed at the end for their quick ADD fixation on Spinel as a new toy. Ick.
y'know, i think it's pretty telling about Crewniverse that somebody decided to have Garnet singing about "the true kind of love" over footage of our heroes beating the shit out of an abuse victim who is trying to protect herself from being further abused
Love this video and I agree with all your points. To tell the truth, I was on the fence about Pink Diamond until this very movie where it was discovered that Spinel was left behind for MILLIONS of years in one spot without even a single thought afterwards. Pearl knew of her but never really thought to wonder where she was. Pink obviously didn't and the rest of the Crystal gems didn't know. At this point, my flag was put deep into the side of "Pink is freaking douche canoe". But then I remembered that sometimes movies aren't canon. Maybe it was just some weird plot that was done (weird but okay) to generate money and continue advertising the show. I don't know. But then Future came and I saw Spinel and I was like "God dang it" and then it just got worse with Pink Pearl who just casually mentions how Pink would have powerful tantrums and the fact that the crack on her face is not cause of some physically stuff but cause it's PSYCOLOGICAL. Pink basically gave ANOTHER gem mental trauma and it's brushed off for some strange reason to focus on Steven who, wouldn't you know it, starts acting like young Pink and suffering from mental issues (which I'm not shocked about cause one episode had Steven literally see himself die in front of him with no warning at all in the prequel and that made me freaking worried about the dude when I didn't even blink when he ends up in fights that could end with his death if he's not careful). About the gem cracking thing and how the Diamonds can fix that, I mentioned in a comment in a previous video (that video was old and I think it was a reply to another comment) about that and I was wondering why the Diamonds hadn't tried to fix the cluster yet. Seriously, like if there was one way for Diamonds to show that they were trying to be good, why not repair the MILLIONS of victims they created? It would take ages sure, but they are basically alien rocks that don't age. They should be fine with repairing the damage they did.
*sigh* 5:53 Vidalia made that painting in "pool hopping" with Garnet trying to be random. He was not naked. She just drew him as an angel. And steven is one that likes art so he has it hanging up, no shame.
The main thing that makes me mad about Steven universe is that it’s such wasted potential. I have seen people make AUs of Steven universe and it’s plot is 10 times better. Like you said, they should stick to a plot point it would be better.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea of Steven Universe, but gosh the show has seemed so dry and corny since season 2 for me. I wish they explored the main concepts some more and the world building we see once and a while is just so cool and imaginative. I wish the quality and story didn't go down so hard after the first few seasons.
I love how perfect of a concept Future has to work with, "Martyr Complex Young Adult has to deal with the emotional backlash of his life spent basically doing everything and having to be emotional support for the THREE GROWN ADULTS who should be supporting HIM and also becoming capable enough to be a LEADER for them because his Mother decided to start a rebellion but didn't have the guts to see it through" Like, the concept of "Chosen One Depression" is so fucking cool and yet they still fuck it up, least I watched the series before I got to the point of seeing its flaws lol
I've been going through a very rough patch this holiday season and see just the thumbnail to this video put the biggest dumbest smile on my face that I've had in months thank you Lily 😊
Don't ask me to cover Future. Unless this video does well, in which case I'll think about it.
Aw sweet! They fixed his severe PTSD with a hug, how nice…
Please cover 😮 I love ur videos lily
PLEEASEEE BRO FUTURE WAS SO BAD SPARE YOURSELF 😭
Why would we ever ask you to suffer so-
Steven universe future was eh ugh
Spinel getting antsy that Steven was just going to forget her unless he needed her for something is actually a pretty reasonable assumption for her to make since that’s objectively what Steven’s done in the past with other characters… and it’s what ended up happening with Spinel herself.
@@catalinamelo9932 hey uh fuck off transphobe
how does he do that do other characters i dont understand. spinel chose to go live with the diamonds. he didnt “abandon” her she just went away
@jojo "if you're too mean to tyrants you're just as badwrong as them."
Steven Universe isn't a great show. Neither is Korra show, Rooster Teeth's junk, etc.
@@galten7361 but what about rvb? (not rvb zero)
@@galten7361 if people talk about it and enjoy it it’s a great show either you think so or not
Steven getting pissed at Greg for not wanting to live with an abusive family also pissed me off. The fact Greg's letters to his parents were never opened shows the fact they don't care about their son.
I didn’t watch Future but when I heard about that my head almost exploded in anger
I wouldn’t exactly consider not opening your son’s Christmas letters as abuse. And from what we’ve heard about how they raised him, sounds like all they did was establish some rules and structure in his life so that he didn’t do stupid, life ruining shit.
Which he did anyway.
They’re not the ones breaking into someone else’s house. From the sounds of it, Greg’s the fucked up, maladjusted adult here, and his desires for absolute, unfettered freedom ended up royally harming his son. Imagine what would have happened to Steven had he not been half gem. He was never vaccinated. Dude would’ve suffered atrociously.
@@willhiggins9563 idk man when he started about what he ate and looking at how things were locked etc and no letters being opened reminded me of a classmate that was “strict” like they made sure the doors won’t opened over night by stuffing something on the doors and like measured out their food and times their bathroom breaks etc.
Bruh, the point wasn’t that Steven was in the right. That was actually a scene from Future that I appreciated because it really demonstrated by showing, rather than telling, Steven’s angst, and the way that he always longed for normalcy, humanity, a stable family in his life. He blamed so much of the trauma from his upbringing on being half gem that he was blinded by his jealousy of what Greg had rather than seeing the freedom Greg lacked. The truth of the matter is, though his reaction was overblown, Steven’s emotions were pretty justified. As if it wouldn’t have been hard enough living constantly in the shadow of his own mother- his dad, until the later seasons, was a total deadbeat. They sort of made a joke, as well as several plot points, out of how out of touch Greg was with Steven- how he never put Steven first, and just left his upbringing entirely up to these ancient aliens because he was too depressed that his girlfriend was gone to think twice about the son she left behind. It annoyed me more that, in that episode, Greg then turned around and said “Steven you had freedom! You had what I never had!” as if that makes up for being an absent father, as if that was his plan all along. Both characters were so absorbed with what they didn’t have, what they wished they had, to see what the other truly needed. Steven couldn’t appreciate Greg’s need for freedom from his parents, meanwhile Greg couldn’t understand Steven’s need for protection and stability and the presence of a human guardian/guiding figure. That’s why Steven was so angry. He was suffering and externalized it and blamed Greg. Very realistic teenager emotional response if you’ve got a lot of harbored trauma. I think it was a realistic portrayal of the inner conflict of someone who might have been raised with a martyr complex.
Also, keep in mind that part of this resentment Steven harbored towards Greg’s lasse-faire parenting style includes Steven literally never having gone to the doctors, having had no vaccines, never going to school, etc. Like another comment suggested, imagine if Steven wasn’t half gem. He would’ve perished long ago, and the show confirms that when Steven does finally go to see a doctor in future.
You ever notice how stupid it is that after people criticized Pink Diamond they tried to portray her as a less sympathetic, unforgiven character yet did nothing about the 3 very much still alive diamonds who "clearly just wanted to be loved and that's why they were committing genocide a few years ago".
This always bothered me
The show wants you to hate pink diamond more than the diamonds who made it feel like she had to fake suicide to leave them
@@pandaescarlate7268 the diamonds stopped targeting earth for years. Rose probably thought that they forgot about earth so she thought it would've been safe to start a family
I know right? I get they were trying to go for the ‘Rose isn’t what she seems’ angle but the fact they kept piling on to her misdeeds after the reveal was really unnecessary.
how did they just want to be loved? they were terrified of white because white was an obsessive sociopathic perfectionist
You're getting it entirely wrong. The damonds aren't supposed to be forgiven or redeemable, Steven just needed them to make things right and knew the only way was emotional manipulation
What’s even more horrifying is the realization that before the movie and future, throughout all 5 seasons Spinel is still standing there waiting for Pink
oh god...
Wait. Someone should make that edit.
@@lightspaceman5064didnt someone do it?
It never fails to astound me how many people can overlook the horrific atrocities the Diamonds dealt out. Taking villain redemption to the umpteenth degree can't work with people who willingly and eagerly committed acts of genocide on numerous species including their own.
@@nostalgiajones5472that’s because it’s more tell not show with the other diamonds, like you hear about all the fucked up stuff they do but you rarely see it, with pink you see it
If the show really wanted a Diamond redemption they should’ve just stuck with Pink being the more sympathetic one of the Diamonds and show more of her and put more focus on her making up for her mistakes. Or have it so it’s the other Diamonds fault that Rose never came back for Spinel and show in some way that she regrets it.
the entire series butchers the concept of planet-eating alien machine life and tried to make it seem like a good thing
its not like they are actually redeemed they are off scot free but steven still hates them
Considering there are tons of Undertale fans who still think Chara wasn't evil, I am really not impressed.
I mentioned on tumblr a long while ago that Steven could've easily calmed Spinel down by saying something like "we're still friends, we just need to finish this. How about we hang out when the world isn't in danger anymore? We could all get pizza together" or something and someone bit my head off.
This fandom can be *brutal*
This is an example of good criticism from a sane person who actually took the time to watch the show before criticizing it. Take notes lily..
that sounds adorable actually
true, only issue being that steven hasnt had like any sleep, both him and spinel are INSANELY stressed, and they're currently trying to stop a world ending threat, so neither of them are in the right mindset.
Honestly, for all her faults, Sugar managed to get one thing surprisingly right and its horrid that it's played off as a trope because it really wasn't intentional.
And that's Spinel having BPD. I know, I know, if the show doesn't say it, then it's not a canon thing. But when this movie came out and I watched it because I had nothing better to do, Spinel surprisingly helped click that part of my brain that went "Hey, I do this..." and subsequently saw people mentioning BPD around her, it sorta had me go to my mental health team and mention it. And surprise, I got diagnosed.
When Lily said that if Steven had just took a step back and apologized for his wording, that legitimately would have worked on Spinel because (and this isn't limited to folks with BPD obvs) that would have worked on me too...
It probably wasn't intentional because it didn't become in-vogue to armchair diagnose every abuse victim character as having BPD until 2021.
@@LilianOrchard OH MY GOD YEAH THOUGH. Someone manages to get the disorder right by ACCIDENT once, now it's just frustrating seeing people do it dirty by trying to do it right ON PURPOSE
@@feloniousglitch a broken clock is right twice a day
@@LilianOrchard The moral of the story, don't put all your interesting ideas in one story. Just because you can combine two things together doesn't mean you should.
You know... A friend once told me for a project. When it comes to story telling..
"Keep it simple stupid"
Keep the story having a simple base with a message that even the stupid can get.
But now I realized it's more about keeping the core themes and tones of your show simple on surface so that even if nuance goes out the window, you still have a story that stupid people can enjoy for their own sake.
And that says a lot when you point out the constant jarring tone shifts.
I dunno I've seen not even that is needed, all you to do is say with text like a PSA you're doing it even if you're not
You’re on point with simplifying the storytelling there.
Pearl being infatuated with Greg at all also pushes the idea that she didn’t have a real, personal level of love for Pink Diamond and only did out of programming. Yet again, Sugar has somehow dug herself a deeper grave with Pearl.
I thought the insinuation was that Pearl's arc was getting over her obsession with Rose. I kinda felt like that was everyone's arc, including Steven.
which is so sad and unfortunate bc i love Pearl
@@teddobomb9037 I can’t really view it as her “getting over her” in that moment, because she doesn’t REMEMBER Pink. She’s quite literally obsessed with and infatuated with her master, whether it be Pink or Greg, against her will, because she HAS no will. She’s programmed to want to serve and adore, and serve and adore she does
Like watching the episode where peridot calls her "a servant to her master" and watching her be all offended was so funny to me because... she's still just pink's servant. Even after her death, all her actions are based off what pink wanted her to do, take care of steven, protect the earth, even keeping rose's true identity a secret. I wish they explored that more, its such an interesting idea to me, having pearl slowly develop her own identity/independence.
I think it's quite obvious that Pearl has her own thoughts and feelings towards Pink/Rose. She even says so, she says 'Forgive me... I've been imagining things, even when you haven't asked me to. I imagined I ran away and met you here! On Earth! A Rose Quartz...' (A Single Pale Rose I believe). She's not blindly serving Pink, she's doing what she wants. And after Pink turns into Rose Quartz, she never orders Pearl to do anything ever again - and they fuse casually and are shown to care for each other deeply (Pearl moreso, obviously).
I think there is something to be said that Pearl has some level of conditioning - just as all gems do at first - to adore and serve their diamonds. But, as Peridot showed herself, this conditioning can be broken and gems are able to think and feel for themselves. If you think the servitude Pearl shows Greg and the tenderness and adoration she shows Pink/Rose are the exact same/come from the same place, idk what to tell you. I think it's obvious that one is her Role, and the other is Her.
When watching other reviews of the movie, I love how people were pointing out that when Steven tried removing the drill himself, Lapis (who moved the ENTIRE EARTH’S OCEAN) couldn’t move this one thing, Peridot (can can move metal), and Bismuth (who could build anything that could’ve helped them) was standing right there just watching him
Peridot explains that the cluster would inject the poison faster or even explode if they tried to remove it by force
What I really hate about gems being able to be repaired when shattered is it doesn’t take all of them to repair them. Just requires yellow to put them back together mostly. Which is something she would definitely do for pink. Which means they never even looked at her gem and attempt to fix.
As I recall, Yellow said she only recently developed that ability. Before "Future", she's only ever used her power to disrupt a Gem's form.
@@ThePrincessCH and even then they couldn't have fixed it because they didn't have the shards of pink diamond's gem in the first place
@@gw7911 WAIT YOU'RE RIGHT? dude if the ability to repair gems came up earlier there's a lot they could do with that. The fact that the diamonds can do it might soften the blow of what they'd done so far and make the redemption slightly less horrible, because at least they know it's reversible. Yellow's anger could partly be frustration at it not working, it could explain why they wanna keep the diamonds intact- just knowing it was a thing could've improved the series
The fact that Spinel was presented as a villain at all is really disgusting considering that she was Pink's playmate/slave and was treated horribly by her, she just wanted to have a friend to play with and the film for the most part treat her like some villain waiting to happen. Did the space penis even had to be there? I already care about Spinel, why did the movie think a world ending threat should be the only reason for Steven and the Gems to stop someone?? Couldnt Spinel just go to Beach City, encounter the Crystal Gems and after a quick fight, THEN Steven talks to her to calm her down and listen to her. (I know its difficult considering Steven isnt nearly that compassionate but still) I find it really gross when Steven "redeems" Spinel only for him to pawn her off to the Diamonds (who only want her cos she was Pink Diamond's slave) so he doesn't have to deal with her again. So this whole movie was just Steven telling Spinel to piss off for 90 minutes. What is it with this show and treating their victims of abuse like disposable trash??
I also found out in an interview, Spinel was based on Sugar's childhood toy that she left in the garden as a kid and upon rediscovering it six months later, she found the toy had permanently changed after exposure to the elements... Sugar literally just made When She Loved Me into a slave/victim of abuse backstory, WTF Sugar?!!
She doesn't like abuse victims. That's pretty clear by now
@@LilianOrchard Exactly. She doesnt like someone unless theyre fascists or referencing some crappy anime
She wrote a song for adventure time called "everything stays" where it's portrayed as a good thing that the toy is still there waiting for you and slightly changed.
@@LilianOrchard I'm really wondering if she looked at what Ragyo Kiryuin did to her daughter Satsuki and went 'oooh that's hot.'
She literally tried to genocide all of earth
Gotta love how 4 years later the "counter-argument" for the most part still boils down to repeating "Lily dumb/hater, don't know what she talking bout" or "But i liked -random red herring-"
Dumb, hater, or Puting down is just a deflecting tactic because there scared there precious meow meow got criticism.
"Lily doesn't know what she's talking about" says the person who did no research into the subject/situation and didn't take time to properly understand Lily's argument to properly counter it.
@@emmagauthier9258 Exactly. I bet there's already another video of "Lily is a pedophile" all because she criticized there precious poorly written little meow meow cartoon.
@@emmagauthier9258 also the same guy that shit talked a kid with cancer over them using their wish to see episodes of the show
his love for the show is so weird
Does this guy go by a she?
It took me so long to figure out why I didn't like the music in Steven Universe. I would watch the show and feel indifferent about the songs everyone was going insane about. But then, I would listen to a cover and finally be 'okay, now I like the song."
I didn't realize the pattern until recently, and the reason hit me like a bag of bricks.
The fan covers actually felt complete.
The show songs always felt like the first draft instead of a completed project. In fact, the entire show felt like a first draft- many good ideas, but unpolished and much needed proof reading.
I think of Stronger than You where I assumed it was an original song to the Undertale community. But then I heard the Steven Universe version and was like "wow, this is shit."
I loved the comedic take with this one. And honestly the boomer mom guilt trip is the ONLY joke that lands for me that was actually....purposefully written by Sugar. And i...really felt the same way about Pearl and Greg. It was just straight up creepy, even at the time. Upon further rewatch it's even worse.
I mean, Greg wasn't exactly overjoyed about it either.
IM SO HAPPY TO SEE THIS! I wouldn’t have blamed you for not covering this, but god THANK YOU for saying how shitty it was for Pink to just *leave* Spinel standing there waiting for Pink to come back. Always love your content! 😭👌🏻
I feel like there needed to be a "our hero, everyone" clip in there.
Its like they ignore all the valid criticisms just because its their fav character
What Pink did to Spinel was unforgivable and mind boggling evil, that's villain behavior. Yet Pink is portrayed as a super empathetic character who betrayed her own race over earthlings causing a thousands year long civil war resulting in untold gem people sufering & being shattered. Yet she treats Spinel, a sentient being who has undying loyalty to Pink merely as a plaything she outgrew to be abandoned forever. Pink denied Spinel's personhood and didn't give two craps about her at all.
The painting is from a Vidalia episode where she paints him and Garnet. It's Renaissance style, and they didn't pose naked. The pose was garnet holding steven up in her hand
Okay but HE'S STILL NAKED
@@LilianOrchard oh no absolutely. You just seemed to not know where it was from so I commented where it was from. It's easy to miss that plot line, since it's in the same episode as cat steven.
@@cisnt9244 yeah like cherubs were still clothed and this is a "kids'" show, not some college art piece wtf is wrong with Becky (we all know but still wtf)
@@colbaltmind5696relax... with that wokey username, you expect them to be objective? 😆
@@LathropLdST wha huh?
I watched the movie when it came out and the ONLY feeling it brought out in me was triggering my brain into a panic attack over Spinel's abandonment.
That whole story was far too close to my experiences and having that be glossed over in the end by pawning Spinel off to the Diamonds is so insidious and disgusting.
Its even worse to see this after all the time spent talking about how "good" Rose was and also minimising her crimes during the gem war.
Thank you for ripping this apart, especially the bit about Spinel, it was a catharsis I didn't know I needed.
The implications of steven fusing with his dad haunt me. Also the diamonds being able to bring back gems falls kinda flat when you ask "And how many have they decided to bring back"
A fusion can be caused by familial or platonic love, not only romantic feelings
@evauwu5190 thank you. Ffs.
I know this is 6 months ago.. But why is everyone such a dumbass? You are also implying this is weird with Rainbow Quartz 2.0, Smokey, and Sunstone.. Steven is a child and the other gems are adults...
@@evauwu5190 Literally. Some complaints of the show are valid but people are very adamant about fusion being strictly romantic and it is so silly. im sure there wasnt any romantic feelings when Garnet offered to fuse with Peridot but that never gets talked about because its the most irrefutable example of fusions not needing to be based on romance. It says more about the people pushing that narrative than the actual potential implications of that idea being in the show. Just saying.
The real creepshow of this movie really sticks when you realize the implications of pearl being infatuated with Greg in the song that basically confirms the diamonds hard programmed the pearls to have an emotional attachment to their owners
Pearl is a slave, and she never stopped being one. It's super depressing.
I don't think Pearls are programmed to have emotional attachment to their owners . The biggest example is Greg, Pearl doesn't blush when she's with Greg
The part where a kind of overly sexualised fusion between a son and his father try to seduce his lesbian Stepmom honestly makes me look away I just can't believe that is a thing in the movie and not a horrible tag in a hentai website
It's just wrong on so many levels. Steven Universe was always a pretty horny show but it's never been that blatant.
Not only that, but Rose's/Pink Diamond's corpse is apart of that fusion in hindsight
I like Spinel and her concept. However, se was presented horribly. She has no reason to forgive anyone for what Pink did, Steven is just kinda a whiney asshole sometimes and she should not have been presented as a villain. She should have been presented as someone who the cast has to apologize to and try to make amends
I strongly agree with you, and they could have done it in the main TV show.
You're acting like she ain't do anything wrong 💀
I will never shut up about how creepy Steg is and how the entire song is just insulting to Pearl as a lesbian and how it's so clearly sexualized and it's just....so nasty
Not to mention, I feel like this entire sequence implies that Pearl isn’t just a lesbian; she’s going to lust/fall for whoever *owns* her and that just… why Sugar? Why? Someone has a barely disguised master/slave kink, and it shows.
Leaves a really bad taste in my mouth when the reset lesbian character is shown to like men. That's basically saying something between her creation and her now "made her" a lesbian so by erasing those memories and resetting she's back to being the factory default which is "straight"
Yeah not what you want to leave ppl with
Oh lord
Im still mad they showed a similar love interest to rose and did nothing with it yet they give stegg a whole moment with her
@@stalebread9825 Steven Universe just loved introducing and immediately abandoning characters
Over the years I've developed a belief that Steven is Sugar's self-insert which is part of why she goes so hard on this weird martyr/hero/emotionally mature complex Steven developed because all of the adults directly responsible for him are just terrible at being responsible adults until it's time to try and cover the adults' asses.
@@sonoio869 really? I never knew that-
I always felt like PEARL was sugars self insert tbh. She has multiple love interests and is never really faced with consequences for how she treated garnet or Steven
@@sonoio869 true he was named after her brother. but the way he is treated, unless she made some type of emotional incest bond with him, Steven is kinda like her self-insert
Actually Pear, Garnet and Amethyst are Sugar's self inserts, because one is not enough.
The movie shouldn't even work technically: Do you honestly believe the Cluster would let the toxic gem sludge dart slide? Nah it'd punch Spinel into space and flip the bird. The movie only works when you ignore the Cluster, unless the Cluster's been de-clustered...but I don't care about Steven universe that much to look it up.
The cluster is actually not declustered. When Steven turns into a monster in SUF, the cluster helps to restrain him.
Wait, was there in an in-story explanation for why fusing made Garnet ditzy? I mean, doesn't she have literal foresight? Isn't she essentially two gems fused into one, meaning that if anything she'd be smarter and wiser? Is there any explanation for this not being the case??
I think the first time she fused she also was confused about it all, it wasn't as extreme as in the movie but, she also was less down to earth and calm then later on. But just like always its usually the fans coming up with an explanation of something that has been vaguely shown and i believe most people think its since before fusion only happened between the same type of gem, who ofc know eachoters abilities (since its the same as them) they can fuse and instantly function. Garnet first had to explore her abilities as a fusion.
@@ar_t_lo More to the point, her Sapphire side was confused because *she never saw it coming.* She never foresaw a timeline where she fused with Ruby... And once Garnet formed, she didn't want to see a future where she wasn't.
Garnet is her own person even if she is sapphire and ruby and Garnet was confused
@@majorghoul9017 well we don't really see her do much in the show the first two times she fuses. The first time she unfuses almost immediately. The second time we see her struggling to walk, fall on her butt and tell Rose that she is confused. I wouldn't be suprised that if you would ask Sugar about why Garnet is an idiot in the movie she'd say something like "it's a symbol of when you first fall in love and you forget how to walk and talk and you turn into a complet idiot because you can only think about that one person."
I’d love to know what made Cartoon Network give Sugar so much leeway to do basically whatever she wanted. You’d think whoever was writing the checks would want to know where she was going with this nonsense, instead of just shrugging their shoulders and green lighting a movie and a sequel series. Sugar is the one to blame for the show itself, but Cartoon Network should have also known when to take the steering wheel back.
Given that it's the entertainment industry which is full of scummy background info, i would assume that Sugar has some sort of blackmail on one of the higher ups at CN so they give her the attention she wants.
I think the fandom may also share some of the blame too. They’ve proven to be extremely aggressive when it comes to defending the show that it wouldn’t surprise me if they made enough of a stink about it that CN felt pressured to give them a movie and a spin-off. Kinda like Kim Possible getting another season except that show actually deserved it.
It's popular, simple as that really
she's sooo weird idk how anyome liked su
there's been an off vibe to it from day 1
@Xian Russel, funny thing is, they didn't give her as much leeway as one would think. Example- some episodes like the Thanksgiving episode with Uncle Andy were mandates that CN had imposed, as episodes that *had* to be done.
As far as the music issue goes, I really like Spinels’ “Other Friends” song. Spinel is probably the most interesting character in the entire series. Her backstory of essentially being created to exist as a toy and then was unintentionally imprisoned alone on a dead planet like a doll in a toy box really freaks me out. Solitary immortality on a dead planet is one of my fears.
I think the shittest part about this god awful movie, ignoring the fact its still the same garbage as the series, is the fact that the diamonds were literally RIGHT there. On my first viewing with some friends my only thought was "oh, so this is where Steven goes to get the Diamonds and they fix everything right? Because they can just do that?" And not ONCE did Steven even think to go get the three strongest beings that he knows are waiting on him hand and foot. I remember watching one of your previous videos, where you were critiquing an episode of MLP because the solution to the entire episode was so obvious, and every character had to be smacked with the "idiot" hammer to make the entire episode work. This entire movie is just like that episode but bumped up to 11.
Steven actually did consider asking the Diamonds for help after learning that his gem had been reset, Lapis didn't think it would do much good since Steven's healing powers are apparently the only effective way to fix the situation.
And when he does get the diamonds to help its to throw the character with abandonment issues and that he convinced he wouldn't leave onto the three space dictators who keep her specifically because of her slight connection with her toxic dead friend. Why would anyone want to be constantly reminded of someone who mistreated them or threw them aside? It seems kinda cruel when you look at it for what it is.
I never understood why that was the solution or why the show explained it as that instead of something like, the diamonds trying to make up for their own mistakes and helping out someone they would have known and let their sibling abandon. It'd still be a weird way to get her out of the show but it would at least help the case to say that the diamonds are being reformed.
I mean
why would he think of that? He's shown to be very uncomfortable around them to the point that when they're actually in his mind, it's always when he no longer has any other options to deal with his surroundings
Plus, when looking at his scenes with them from his point of view, it always feels like the Diamonds are being disingenuously and suffocatingly sappy around him, and just because he's related to Pink, who was someone they didn't even care about up until her staged death (which makes it twice as icky for Steven; who has seen her memories).
Of course he wouldn't wish to entertain the idea of them being around him, even though they are a possible solution to his problem.
Man, every cursed joke, from the Space penis fulfilling Becky’s breeding kink, the whole situation with Pearl, the diamonds being gross, and Steg fucking ruin me. It’s the mixture of the joke coming straight out of left field and that what’s being made fun of is so genuinely awful that is perfect.
And man did we miss out on Spinel’s weapon being cool with a giant mallet. It even works on the basis of them being gems more than a scythe does! Like, instead of cutting their light forms, which somehow affects their gems, it would’ve made more sense with the mallet physically striking the gem, not enough to shatter it but still affect if. But like you said, that’s putting more thought into then ‘hey, cool anime scythe’.
Overall, another really fun video, that combination of cursed humor and genuine critique that I thoroughly enjoy!
i still cant get over stegs existence which is just fucking ludicrous, because fusions are like... sex
@@cleanchimera3870 o h n o
@@cleanchimera3870 people is still parroting that bs about fusion being sex...
@@sebman6031 well yeah, sometimes its insinuated as it, sometimes its not, pearl manipulated garnet into wanting to 'fusing' with her multiple times because she just loves the feeling even though its only for emergencies
@@cleanchimera3870 This is your brain in porn addiction
22:54 that's very funny because in Gumball they have that exact plot point in two episodes, and in both occasions they make Gumball look dumb for asking Penny to marry him, obviously
I kind of hoped Lily was just joking, and that didn't actually happen. Because sheesh.
@@chadnorris8257 she's over simplifying if. Steven does try to marry connie but that's not the one and only reason he turns into a monster
@@chadnorris8257 nah that was just the moment he pushed Connie away after pushing his dad away after pushing the gems away
The reason he got so bad is that he destroyed his support system because of his breakdowns
@Pumpkin Warrior Steven Universe isn't a good show. Neither is Rooster Teeth's garbage, Legend of Korra, Star v. Evil and whatever edgy animu/wannabe animu you're into.
And Penny on both occasions gave the same answer, "We're 12." That's so simple and yet so funny! Steven was what, 17? And Connie was 15, so of course Connie (the only one with a brain) would say no. Not only that but she told Steven something in the lines of, "Not yet." Which clearly indicated that she would want to marry him when they were older, but Steven ended up having a breakdown anyway.
I still hate the fact the roundtable didn't get punished for bullying and doxxing a cancer victim because they leaked future episode when they had permission to do soo
Wait roundtable did WHAT
@@raptorrixx99-wv2hl Where can I look this up?
@@auditect950I wanna know too
My favorite defense of the diamonds being "they can fix shattered gems so it's not that big a deal" is the fact that it makes the diamonds look so, *so* much worse. The whole center of at least blue and yellow (but arguably also white) is the fact that they're all f***** up by their grieving for pink diamond- but they could have just fixed her this whole time!! The show even shows us that they left fake pink diamond shards before the people to find! There was no need to grieve for thousands of years!!! They just did all of that f***** up stuff for funsies and never once thought about bringing pink back to life!!!
And then sometimes they'll argue that well. They didn't know they could bring people back to life and I think of those people don't understand that "these characters *thought* murdered millions and we're fine with it but they didn't actually" isn't that much of a defense.
I just want to bring up, that while the diamonds are shit they can only fixed shattered gems as a group of four. If 3 of them try it’ll only be temporary, so if pink is shattered then they can’t unshatter her because they’d need pink to fix her.
This whole thing really gives: I didn't watch (or pay attention) to the whole thing, and stretched further than Spinel to reach for connections that don't exist.
Which, btw, Spinel is based on Rubber-Hose Animation, not Sonic the Hedgehog???
Sonic is ALSO based on rubberhose animation
An example?
Having semi good ideas ruined by fetishes and zero impulse or quality control is basically Sugar's brand at this point
I loved Steven universe during its early seasons when the jokes where good, the background storytelling was semi deep (reminded me of gravity falls) but then later down the line the overall quality got worse and basically all the worst fan fic became cannon. And somehow we’re still left with plenty of questions, for example what is the crystal heart and how did the crystal gems get one?
Another question is what the heck was in that chest in lion’s mane??
I'm not even gay, and the weird fetish around Pearl simping over Greg is making my skin crawl. And Steg, why did they go with the generic design? Also, why was a fusion between father and son so...sexual?
Stope the ride, I want to get off!
That's so disturbing wtf, Isn't Pearl supposed to like gay and stuff, did her orientation somehow change for Greg of all people? That's straight up disturbing, Holy shit
@@comrade_lenin4820 She's a pearl, pearls are supposed to love their owners. It's not about orientation, it's not about rose being a woman or not.
@@raiisasmartbtch4713 Pearl was one of the token gay characters of the show. We clearly see Pearl being attracted to a woman who's not rose in an episode. Even if you were right, how is a brainwashed slave any better? In either scenario, it's still messed up and all the fucked up things are just tossed in there and romanticized. Btw, you're right about her being brainwashed, not denying that.
honestly pearl and greg in this movie give more of a teacher's pet sort of vibe rather than actual romance
@@raiisasmartbtch4713 THIS
I really enjoy this more lightheartedly comedic take and I look forward to more in this direction. It’s just more fun to take the piss outta this.
I'm impressed on how tame you were with the whole writers barely disguised their own fetish joke, like... You could just do it for almost every interaction really
How dare you post this while I'm at work, i spent the first 15 minutes cackling into my mask like a dork XD
Love you Ren!
I honestly hated how spinel was treated during the movie. once her trauma has been revealed both the movie and steven proceed to treat her as ANOTHER of one of pink's fuck ups and not as her own backstory (I definitely didn't word that correctly but hopefully what I mean to say makes sense)
I also absolutely despised how they pawned her off to the diamonds too, wouldn't it have been better to have her hang out with peridot and bismuth? on earth, away from the diamonds? At the end of the movie she's so happy to see the diamonds and they her bc the reason is that they remind each other of pink, but in spinel's case why the fuck is that a GOOD thing? Pink ruined her life??
they introduced their villain, and because she absolutely HAD to have a traumatic backstory they decided to have it center on pink yet again to really dig deep on stevens mommy issues, they dismiss her and then throw her away to the people that remind her of the person who ruined her life, and because we want to end this movie quickly because we gave steven more baggage and that was the point well just pretend that spinel is also happy with this ending, even if it really doesn't make sense
Listening to the "Return pearl back to normal" Bit makes the entire context of Pearl's love for pink Diamond provably abusive. It was explained as Pearl genuinely loving Pink, but when Pink Diamond is shown to her here, she completely ignores it and looks to Greg. Because to her, he owns her. Her love and devotion is to him, and not pink. So she's completely uninterested so they decide to use Greg as the stand-in. How is this not horrifying.
How is this not proving Pearl has stockholm syndrome built in.
All the scene needed to do was have Pearl immediately shift her focus from Greg to pink, and it's a free "See, Pearl isn't just following slavery.exe, her love for Pink makes her ignore that!" But no. It's doubling down on it. They wanted to have the fusion and song and completely butchered any chance to fix one of the obvious problems with having Rose quartz be pink diamond.
I actually didnt know that around season two they already knew there was gonna be only 5 seasons. Sometimes I'm suprised that there are only 5 seasons because so many ideas popped by that it feels longer. I always thought that's why the show got cancelled because it kept using new ideas without concluding the old ones and if they executed each idea properly over more seasons it would have been better. But if they knew it would only have 5 seasons why did they waste time with ridiculous new ideas that serve no purpose (like the human zoo, which they only used so that they could draw as many hot people as possible, like what???) Instead of decently executing their main ideas? It literally makes less sense now that I know that they were aware of the amount of seasons they'd get.
Probably pride. It’s hard to change things sometimes especially if you had a particular plan for how you wanted it to go. So instead of cutting back on certain plots and ideas she decided to just stuff everything in at once.
There is a theory that one of Pink Diamond/Rose's powers, and thus one of Steven's powers, is an aura/force that influences people to love. Which is why everyone constantly preaches about how compassionate Steven is without him demonstrating it, and why he was able to convince the Diamonds to call off the war.
That’s just the fan base trying to justify the bad writing with an in universe reason, as opposed to just realizing it’s bad writing.
It WOULD be plausible since Rose Quartz is indeed a love stone in real life.
honestly Spinel's weapon being a scythe instead of a hammer seems like such a missed opportunity.
like seriously, I'm surprised every time I see it, I've had times when I've watched/listened to that song on loop (I probably have bad taste) and gotten surprised again every 2 minutes or so when it's a scythe she pulls out instead of a hammer.
also a hammer would've been a much more threatening weapon where gems are concerned since rather than it slicing through their solid light bodies it'd be more of a threat to their actual gemstones.
so not only would it have been more fitting but it'd also have made Spinel a more menacing antagonist within the context of the show.
I always had a problem with Garnet that I never figured out until you brought it up. I despise her visor, in animation the eyes are a pretty vital part of a character's expression so having Garnet's eyes be hidden 99% of the time always makes her feel very emotionally distant compared to the other characters, even if it's supposed to be an emotional moment. that visor worked to hide the fact that she had 3 eyes for a little while but honestly they should've done away with it once her major secret of being a permafusion was revealed.
You really put it into words perfectly, Steven Universe has so many good ideas and potential, but then it is all wasted or executed so poorly, and the rest of the budget is put towards making bad anime references and hiring the most expensive voice actors
Every time i think of steven universe I end up imagining the good version of the show that we could've had, like Rose could've been her own person and the rebellion leader we know and love, Pink diamond couldve been her own person and a villain where Pearl and Spinel are escapees of her abuse, and we actually address their trauma instead of using it for tugging on heart strings, we'd have garnet actually be an active character, ETC... And then i end up feeling disappointed because that show never became real
That's what fanfiction is for. Fix fics, anyone?
Peridot saying no about music genuinely caught me so off guard almost forgot about it 😅
It intrigues me to know that a big excuse for Pink Diamond's whole Spinell incident is "she was busy with the war." Not just because of what we know about her actual role in that event, but also because there was definitely a window of time (no matter how brief) between her leaving Spinell and starting the revolution that still speaks to her consistently abusive behavior. If you went to the park with your dog, told him to sit still and not move, then left, you would still be a fucking monster, even if you got shipped off to the goddamn front lines two days later.
That's still an entire 48 hours that a living, breathing being did not cross your mind *once*, it's not like Rose got super busy being bored of her human zoo and it slipped her mind, from the very fucking moment she left Spinell she knew she wasn't going to go back.
“Steven died for your sins”
I can’t 😭
God, I knew Rebecca was gross. Them being a creep is nothing new, but good lord this is Nickelodeon levels of thinly-veild fetish. Bimbofication, worship, orientation play, whatever the fuck is going on with the steg fusion, and probably giantess *constantly* in *this movie alone*. Hell, even the episode where the gems were trying to teach Steven to fuse with sexualized dances (by Sugar's own damn logic, this is gross but they greenlit this anyway).
I remember when this show was constantly being praised for it's gay representation and stuff, so the orientation play is even more outright disgusting
@lovestaar♡ it's when a gay person/character is put in a sexual/romantic situation with the opposite gender which contradicts their preferred sexual orientation. Some people find that hot, to "turn" a gay person straight. So it's a "fetish" for some people. A lot of gay people (myself included) find it very disturbing and disgusting.
@@comrade_lenin4820eh. I've seen the opposite in play and it's just as gross
@@timtimothy5405 true true
Man I always forget how in denial the people at the roundtable are that there still going off on the real problems that you pointed out 5 years ago sometimes I forget how crazy people are about things they are good
I wanted to add something when it came to you saying that people were trying to say the diamonds weren't genocidal because you could repair gems: Yes they were still genocidal. Remember what Garnet said about how completing colonies meant "the extinction of all life"? THEY STILL HAVE COMPLETED COLONIES EVEN IF THEY'RE LIBERATED. No matter how "free" the gems are now, there's still organic life that can't be brought back on MULTIPLE planets. *OVER DOZENS.*
Remember the diamond moon murals. Each circle on their murals represent a colony, with the one having the most colonies being White. She has over 12 circles, which means on over 12 planets, ALL ORGANIC LIFE WAS DESTROYED. AND IT CAN NOT BE BROUGHT BACK. Humans, animals, aliens, plants, that one rainbow colored "pet" Pink let loose in the ballroom, all species of organic life is *dead.* combine her, Blue and Yellows' colonies, that's over 20 planets filled with millions of billions of life forms wiped away. Never to exist again.
While watching this video a thought occurred to me. Most fans of Steven Universe, even some of the most diehard ones, do not like Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond. Almost everybody hates her and- rightfully- think her actions are deplorable. Honestly it can even get pretty ridiculous because sometimes those same people will then turn around and try to justify why the other three Diamonds are totally forgivable even though the show blatantly reinforces whenever it can that they're the reason Pink Diamond turned out the way she did.
The reason I bring this up is because it sort of proves that even by the show and fandom's logic, you CAN'T just forgive everybody and that redemption isn't always possible. You know, a message that is being pushed so hard in the narrative that apparently even genocidal fascists can be forgiven. (I feel dirty just typing that out.)
Even for the most uncritical fans who won't admit it, the message didn't land. That's how badly it was fumbled.
It's the craziest thing, we all understand that Rose ultimately became a good person but the sheer amount of badness in her past that she never owned up too or, worse, tried to hide is just unforgivable. Bismuth alone was going to be locked in her room forever were it not for Steven.
Good review Lily I always had an issue with the shattered gems being able to reform. It would have been better if shattering stayed what it was shown as death. Another thing holy candycanes Pink does have mind control abilities in the tears I never noticed the tears on the villain's faces.
4:00 - 4:22 You know, when I first saw the 'let us adore you' song I found it creepy in a way that I couldn't quite put my finger on. Welp, now i see it. And I think I need a shower.
How do people still think pink diamond is a good person after we found out that she left spinel alone for 6,000 years by tricking her into thinking its a game??? THATS ACTUALLY VILE!!!
Also Steg is so weird to me like
His design is cool i love the concept but i hate how it was used that scene with pearl and him is so disgusting to me beacuse pearl is a non-binary lesbian female like that entire scene just raised a lot of red flags and the fusion itself idk if the allegations of fusion being a secret form of s*x is true but if it is....oh no 😨
Gotta love how you manage to promote your next series in this video. I'm really looking forward to what you'll do with pokemon
I just want to add two things that will always bug me ever since I first watched this movie. One, there is NO explanation for where Spinel gets the doom plot device. Somehow someone virtually forgotten by all who had no real social standing or power just ends up with a world killing injector and rides it across the galaxy and no one notices or cares until she drops out of the sky. Two, absolutely no problems are explored or even mentioned from the "disbanding" of the Dimond empire. Yellow Dimond just says she's disbanded ALL her armies, they don't make new colonies, they just tell this giant destructive machine of an empire they built to stop. And it apparently does? Reality isn't so simple and easy. Let's be honest there would be some Emerald warlords or something out there in a galaxy or problems as everyone tries to figure out what to do next with thier lives. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, seeing any of that might have actually required good writing and pointing out the how the way this show resolves conflict is very flawed.
To be honest, the movie always gave me anime movie vibes. Like impossibly high stakes and strange plot contrivances for the sake of cool action and slight world building.
@@teddobomb9037 Well, Rebbeca IS a massive weebo after all
I understood the reasons why back then you refused to do this movie and the sequel series but this whole thing had me in stitches.
My main problem with this damn movie is that the whole conflict with the drill could be easily solved by anyone else instead of Steven.
1) The poison only damages organic stuff, if only we had a full town of magical warrior ladies and some of them with engineering knowledge.
2) what about the healing fountain than I am certain that Bismuth help to build?
3) Lapis official job was terraforming, maybe she could cut a chunk of the land with the drill and send it to the sun.
4) Ask help to Homeworld, Steven is a fricking Diamond dammit xD.
Also the damn movie review the whole plot of the series more than three times, just so we could be more redundant. (The diamond song, the intro song and everytime the gems remember their lives).
Spinel had the same problem as other antagonist in the series, great introduction and potential but then it's conflict was solved easily and effortless without the need of character development of anyone and then she was tossed into the Steven fanclub or in other words "being reddemed". (Also another proof that the rushed resolution of the Diamond conflict was less about the series "being cancelled" and more of a symptom of bad conflict development that was present through all the series)
Lapis is the most powerful CG by leaps and bounds but the writers never wanted to use her for some reason.
Steven universe is like a Batman villain. You keep beating it up and send it away in hopes to never see it again but some time later it just breaks out brings a bunch of goons and you beat it up and send it away all over again.
Vaush being crying Steven is so funny
I really wished this movie wasn't a musical. Sure we got gems like both of Spinel's songs, but most of the songs, and by extension scenes, are literally recaps that just waste time. It's like they knew they wanted Spinel, knew how they wanted to start and end the movie, but just phoned in the middle cause it was too much work lol. And ug Steg. Steg made me so uncomfortable.
Also I hate how Steven just pawned off Spinel to the Diamonds. Spinel's worst fear did come true. Steven forgot Spinel almost immediately after Spinel called off the injector, and when Spinel confronted him about it Steven showed how utterly insensitive he is. I was on Spinel's side since he did show that he was just using her and always planned to just throw her away like his mom did. And then he pawns her off to get both Spinel and the Diamonds off his back...not thinking that the Diamonds only care about Spinel because she was one of PD's personal gems and they will eventually get tired of her like Rose did. Like New Homeworld and Beach City is right there, filled with opportunities for Spinel to make her own friends.
I don't get why they made Garnet as ditzy as they did. She wasn't like that when she first formed. She didn't know who or what she was, but she wasn't a complete idiot either.
Because that's the creator fetish lmao
nah but fr, there a fetish that involves the passive/receiving party being ditzy and clumsy as hell, not knowing or comprehending the things going around them and is often used in hentai/echi/anime (being anime a big inspiration for Rebbeca...)
holy shit i never thought about it (because I never watched it and never cared for it) but a giant cartoon mallet for spinel wouldve been so dope. missed potential makes me sad
Lily: (about Spinel) Here is yet another person driven to suicidal nihilistic despair at the very mention of her name.
Me: Wait until you see Pink Pearl/Volleyball...
So if the heal all potion can repair shattered gems instantly why don’t the use it on the cluster? Like the diamonds left it in the earths crust to destroy the planet if they are redeemed and supposedly healing the gem world why not help one of the biggest marks against them?
I'm pretty sure that in one of the final episodes of Future Yellow Diamond shows that she doesn't even need the other diamond's essences to fix shattered gems and comments to Steven that she wants to fix the Cluster
Yeah, in the second to last episode of Steven Universe Future, Yellow was putting shattered gems back together and reviving them.
I never thought I would hear you say, you were happy to see the diamonds. Also, I like that you said you did this because your opinion of sugar changed. That's something different from other people I've seen
Yaknow, after watching this vid, i realised that yea, ur right on a lot of things, although i only find SOME of the songs weirdly written, but frankly, i just find the show cozy, and i think thats what most people feel abt it and why they like it, whatever they actually say to defend it
Not going lie, I watched all of Steven Universe in a January "Phone on the ground while playing Xbox" manner.
I feel like that's the kind of viewership it deserves. Not crazy obsession. Just something to watch during an acid trip and never make eye contact with while sober.
The one lesson I got out of these "Steven Universe sucks" videos is not to rely on anime too much in terms of influence.
the fact Rebecca got her idea of the gem reseting from her phone reseting, yikes, is she that terrible of a writer?
Yes
@@LilianOrchard just “yes.” Lol
But better than me because I only take ideas, never make anything
5:42 do you not remember the episode where this was painted?
edit: that episode is when garnet is struggling with her future vision ands starts to do “the unexpected”. they pose for a painting for onions mother (forget her name), and rhen run off before its finished. he was never posed nude. onions mom just improvised. yall crazy
I like this new format! It really puts your sense of humor front and center but with on point criticism in it too.
If you're wandering about tha nude painting of Steven, It had it's own episode in the show. One of the characters in Beach Sity, Vidalia, is great friends with Amethist and had long history with Greg, she's known Steven since he was a lil baby.
In the episode "Pool Hopping", Steven and Garnet were being cute together the whole episode. They visited Vidalia, and after hearing that she has trouble with inspiration, decided to pose for her, and Steven did have his clothes on him. But then they had to rush out for some reason, and Vidalia finished the painting without them. The decision to make Steven, an uderaged little boy, naked in a portrait with his mother figure, was Vidalias, while Steven and Garnet weren't there to oppose. And apparently Steven loved the painting so much he decided to put it up in his home...
Also, this painting now sells online.... Just like that...
I love ur steven universe vids bc you always perfectly articulate exactly how i felt ab the series over time but never really sat put my thoughts on the show in order. Every time im always like “THATS why that felt weird to me”
Especially the parts about rose. I loved her in the early seasons. But less and less as rhe show went on bc she just kept being written worse and worse
21:14 No actually ive been thinking about this actually, because what the actual fuck is up with the rest of the earth, like the world only exists where Steven exists. Take season one when a BIG FUCKING GREEN HAND SHIP INVADED EARTH, the fact absolutely no one else from the government or such did a thing is mind boggling.
And earlier than that even, when Lapis was stretching out THE ENTIRE OCEAN, and a kid with his girlfriend and family are the first at the scene, getting there...on a van (and Lion too ig but they stuck together and got there together so Lion didnt warp.) The fact the entirety of the ocean vanished from what seems to be most of the world, means so many sea animals and such just fucking died, but nahhhh, Lapis put it back, everything is chill, the natural order is preserved.
One more for good measure k? What about when the cluster struck, it was mentioned the earthquakes happened over on Beach City too while Steven and the gang was over at the barn, so its pretty safe to assume that they happened on a bunch of places worldwide. So, worldwide consecutive earthquakes....and no one gave a shit? REAALLY?....
TL:DR : Apparently unless Steven knowingly acknowledges it, the rest of the world literally just does not exist.
"All their character development has been reset to zero, except for Steven because he was already there" that's so good
I’m so glad I wasn’t the only one who was super creeped out by Pearl worshipping Greg. It felt wrong on so many levels.
How is it wrong wasent she reset from 0 so she follows anyone then again what do I know
@@puncakesop2805 yes she got her memory erased so it was like she was just a original pearl again and that is why she did what did to Greg
I will say, enjoyed the movie and liked Spinnel, however, the ending sucks.
The end battle is cool, and takes advantage of Steven more defensive style, not outright trying to hurt the opponent. But I liked it cuz he actually did something for once.
My issue is “you can solve everything with some stupid song” just for it to work out that way.
I think the movie would’ve been better if it focused on say one or MAYBE two gems getting reset as opposed to speed running all of them getting their memories back.
They shouldn't have lost their memories, it just dropped the entire movie's momentum to a complete halt, that was the worst aspect to be honest.
Ah, yes. This movie... You know, I will never get over the "I made a rebellion and a war happen because I wanted to fuck around" aspect of Pink Diamond/Rose. It was there when the show became absolutely broken permanently for me. Because everything was not only pointless, but truly evil. Like, she started a war, a fricking war, against herself because she couldn't say to her sisters that she wanted some free time O.O I am sorry, but that totally ruined anything this show ever wanted to say for me. And this movie only reinforced that with Spinel's backstory. Like, what is the point of this show? I completely lost the illusion that there was ever a vision of something here.
I don't think you understood Rose's character. When she knew the human kind she didn't want to do them harm and started the war to protect them.
@@VereditoRainbow1012 Nah, she saw humans as a pretty pet to look at, hence the human zoo. She also saw the concept of babies and pregnancy as "fun" cuz she was bored as hell and said "what if..."
@@Neganerd You didn't get the cartoon or Rose at all
@@VereditoRainbow1012 Bro, ur favorite cartoon has some serious flaws, get over it.
@@Neganerd It has flaws, but I think Rose's character is very complex and well-written
Even though the show's main inspo is Utena, I don't think Rebecca even paid attention to the overall message. Revolutionary girl Utena wasn't even about a lesbian romance, it wasn't even a thing until near the end of the main series and movie. Its message is about breaking away from the status quo and, by extension, the cycle of abuse. That show even went as far as to show the viewers why Akiro, the main antagonist of the show, is a terrible person and shouldn't be redeemed. This further proves this statement during the entirety of the black rose arc that he was a manipulative predator even to his own sister.
So the fact that Rebecca wrote how space tyrants, or the metaphorically abusive family, is being tolerated leaves a bad taste in my mouth. sure they're playing nice now, but what would happen when steven dies? The Diamonds are only doing this for him. So, Whenever people mention Utena as Su's inspiration, I'm always gonna think about how Rebecca was only watching it because someone said there were lesbians in it.
Out of the jokes the only thing I truly agree is steg design is really really wierd
I despise how the diamonds and their whole existence is the cause of stevens pain and trauma yet they’re welcomed back with open arms, simply because of “family” like if that family didn’t destroy life and colonize and enslave gems across galaxies and using their shattered remains to create monstrous fusions inside planets that are also used for colonization
Also that halfassed reveal that they could fix them all along isnt helping, why wasnt it mentioned or hell revealed early on if the diamonds really wanted pink back but no, it took a short kid with an afro to get them to use it simply because he shares the same rock not out of the kindness of their callous hearts
btw the nude painting of steven was from an episode where garnet was trying to be unpredictable to unlock new futures so she and steven modeled for vedalia. he wasnt actually nude when they modeled and they had to leave so vedalia finished the painting on her own and that was how it came out. i was also shocked by her choice to draw steven naked idk what the reason was probably to emulate those cathedral painting things? idk
The youth pastor song joke literally made me choke on my drink 💀 excellent commentary!! So proud of how far you've come!
If I'm remembering it right, the weird painting in Steven's room was painted by Onion's mom during the original series. I think it was the episode where Garnet was trying to be unpredictable, and they posed for a painting but left after Onion's mom only got the sketches down. They came back later in the episode and she just finished the painting without them, and that's what she painted (there wasn't any stated reason for Steven being a naked angel baby).
How did no one, not a single news channel, came to Beach City to inform the people about the literal end of the world lmao.
All of Pink Diamond's victims and the victims of the diamonds are valid and they need help not more abuse. Spinel is absolutely valid in being upset and the diamonds needed to be crushed at the end for their quick ADD fixation on Spinel as a new toy. Ick.
Worst part of the whole thing is STEG.
I hated the ending too. Why would they give Spinel to the people that abused Pink, and sees Spinel as a pet or toy?? 🤢
Spinel did nothing wrong
y'know, i think it's pretty telling about Crewniverse that somebody decided to have Garnet singing about "the true kind of love" over footage of our heroes beating the shit out of an abuse victim who is trying to protect herself from being further abused
Love this video and I agree with all your points. To tell the truth, I was on the fence about Pink Diamond until this very movie where it was discovered that Spinel was left behind for MILLIONS of years in one spot without even a single thought afterwards. Pearl knew of her but never really thought to wonder where she was. Pink obviously didn't and the rest of the Crystal gems didn't know. At this point, my flag was put deep into the side of "Pink is freaking douche canoe".
But then I remembered that sometimes movies aren't canon. Maybe it was just some weird plot that was done (weird but okay) to generate money and continue advertising the show. I don't know. But then Future came and I saw Spinel and I was like "God dang it" and then it just got worse with Pink Pearl who just casually mentions how Pink would have powerful tantrums and the fact that the crack on her face is not cause of some physically stuff but cause it's PSYCOLOGICAL. Pink basically gave ANOTHER gem mental trauma and it's brushed off for some strange reason to focus on Steven who, wouldn't you know it, starts acting like young Pink and suffering from mental issues (which I'm not shocked about cause one episode had Steven literally see himself die in front of him with no warning at all in the prequel and that made me freaking worried about the dude when I didn't even blink when he ends up in fights that could end with his death if he's not careful).
About the gem cracking thing and how the Diamonds can fix that, I mentioned in a comment in a previous video (that video was old and I think it was a reply to another comment) about that and I was wondering why the Diamonds hadn't tried to fix the cluster yet. Seriously, like if there was one way for Diamonds to show that they were trying to be good, why not repair the MILLIONS of victims they created? It would take ages sure, but they are basically alien rocks that don't age. They should be fine with repairing the damage they did.
*sigh*
5:53 Vidalia made that painting in "pool hopping" with Garnet trying to be random. He was not naked. She just drew him as an angel. And steven is one that likes art so he has it hanging up, no shame.
not the bold sigh
The main thing that makes me mad about Steven universe is that it’s such wasted potential. I have seen people make AUs of Steven universe and it’s plot is 10 times better. Like you said, they should stick to a plot point it would be better.
great video. excellent jokes. I'm super excited about the pokemon video. but this (25:55) is going to live rent-free on my mind for many years to come
Now tempted to rewrite Steven universe but Connie be the protagonist
I LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea of Steven Universe, but gosh the show has seemed so dry and corny since season 2 for me. I wish they explored the main concepts some more and the world building we see once and a while is just so cool and imaginative. I wish the quality and story didn't go down so hard after the first few seasons.
I love how perfect of a concept Future has to work with, "Martyr Complex Young Adult has to deal with the emotional backlash of his life spent basically doing everything and having to be emotional support for the THREE GROWN ADULTS who should be supporting HIM and also becoming capable enough to be a LEADER for them because his Mother decided to start a rebellion but didn't have the guts to see it through"
Like, the concept of "Chosen One Depression" is so fucking cool and yet they still fuck it up, least I watched the series before I got to the point of seeing its flaws lol
At this point, I'm just with you for this ride bc it's hilarious how the show just falls apart if you think about it for more than 1 second
I've been going through a very rough patch this holiday season and see just the thumbnail to this video put the biggest dumbest smile on my face that I've had in months thank you Lily 😊