i feel some people’s enjoyment of su would increase a lot if they realized that we’re not supposed to agree with steven all the time. he’s not meant to represent how we’re “supposed” to feel.
Been saying this for a while. Hell, one of my oldest post on this site was about the disconnect between what Steven was seeing and what the show was actually telling us. It was around the time Alone At Sea aired, so you can guess what the post was about.
Malachite is the easiest topic to illustrate that point. You have Steven worrying about Lapis, telling Peridot that she’s been fighting Jasper as if she’s doing something noble, telling Lapis that Jasper is terrible and flat out ignoring Lapis herself saying that SHE was the aggressor in Malachite, not Jasper. Meanwhile the narrative shows us Jasper in chains and drowning while Lapis is on the surface. Then Jasper briefly gets control and Lapis get pulled under. The narrative in Chille Tid made it damn clear who was doing what to whom. But Steven refuses to see it and because Steve refuses to see it, so does most of the fandom.
Another example is him saying that “he tried to help them” during Mindful Education. And we know he didn’t. Besides the necessary gemhealing with Eyeball, he didn’t extend any help to her beyond that. You can argue that there wasn’t time for offer help with Bismuth, but he still included her in the “I tried to help them”. Then there’s Jasper - did he try to help her? Technically, yes. When it was painfully obvious that she needed it. But prior to that, he treated her like nothing more than an enemy. Basically Steven’s line is contradicting his actions that the narrative have shown us.
There’s other examples, but I don’t wanna make this too long. Basically Steven may be the protagonist, but that doesn’t make him right. You’re seeing things from his perspective, but the show is smart in the sense that it also shows us what’s actually going on.
Which means that the narrative will contradict Steven at times. And that means that we, as an audience, have to pay attention to more than just what Steven sees. Even if that means disagreeing with him at times.
Most importantly, this ain’t a JRPG. Steven’s not some blank proxy for the audience to project themselves onto. He’s his own person, with his own personality, beliefs, and, yes, biases. That’s what affects his perspective, and how he behaves. We’re seeing the events of the series through his eyes, but that doesn’t make him a reliable narrator by any means, especially back before he actually knew anything about what was going on. You’d think that people would start to clue into that now that his feelings of guilt are warping him so much that he’s starting to believe things that obviously (to the audience) aren’t true, like how he thinks he is his mom, that he should be held accountable for her crimes just because he has her Gem, and that letting the Diamonds punish “Rose” will somehow magically solve everyone’s problems and give everyone closure because they’re all better off without him, anyways. Even though it’s obvious that his friends and family were devastated that he left. Even though we’ve had at least two seasons hammering home what a stupid idea sacrificing yourself without understanding the hidden costs to those you leave behind is.
Steven is his own character with a ongoing arc. Right now he’s going through an existential nervous breakdown and is questioning everything he believed up to this point, so why are some people refusing to question him and just dismissing any inconsistencies as “bad storytelling?”
Idk man, a widowed father who works full time and lives in his car so he can afford to keep his child fed while he lives with his aunts, who still makes time to see his kid every day, and who is possibly the only family member that child has who has not implicitly or explicitly wished in front of him that his mother had survived instead of him, fostering an intense survivor’s guilt in him where he feels like his loved ones blame him for the death of his mother
I just don’t see how people have ever managed to call Greg Universe a deadbeat, I mean, the one time the dude did a mildly bad thing is when he lied about being hurt so he could spend more time with Steven who he felt was drifting away from him, and even then he copped to it and apologized. His sole concern as a character in the entire show is taking care of and being there for his kid, he’s honestly one of the best dads on TV and I think it’s sad that people act like he’s a shitty father because he’s poor and spends what little available time and money he has on his son who he loves more than anything
Fucking this. Also he’s called a ‘washed up musician’ when he made a choice to abandon what could have been a good career– we see he’s got the chops– on his life as a husband and then father.
He didn’t fail. He succeeded at being what he wanted to be, which was ‘the respected partner of Rose aka an alien war general’ and ‘Steven’s dad’. He still makes music in his spare time and loves it, but his priority #1 (by choice NOT because he isn’t good for anything else) is Steven.
He was Steven’s primary caretaker until he hit the limits of what he could teach (aka gem stuff), and he gave Steven a loving, nurturing life full of physical affection, musical tutoring, family traditions and outings.
I don’t think the gems pay for Steven’s cell phone subscription. I’m pretty damn sure that Greg thought a phone with music storage capacity for his son was a better use of his cash than anything for himself. He’s content living in the van, I think – he strikes me as being pretty zen– but he does have needs.
He always puts those needs second for Steven, except the once, which was such a huge anomaly we got an entire story arc about it.
Reviewers make a lot of how Steven seems to have ‘inherited’ Rose’s kind nature– bull. Bull and shit. Yes to some extent he does have Rose in him, but to ignore how much of his nurturing and forgiving nature he LEARNED from Greg is just lazy.
Greg Universe’s lover laughed in his face when he asked her if she respected him and he stuck around and talked it out like a goddamn adult.
Greg Universe had his home wrecked because he helped the Crystal Gems fight off Lapis and never turned his distress on them.
Greg Universe got pushed off a fucking roof because a badly socialized tech support agent wanted to see if he could fly and immediately forgave her because she didn’t know any better.
Greg has never told his son to ‘man up’ or ‘butch up’ or ‘toughen up’. Greg would have stared blankly if anyone ever suggested that he was ‘babysitting’ his own child. Greg is a huge part of why Steven is who he is and he chose to be there because he never for a second questioned or shirked his responsibility as a father.
Greg Universe for dad. Like, every dad of every animated character who has a shitty or absent father. Shinji from Evangelion? Now Greg’s son. Eren from SNK? Now Greg’s son. Meg from Family Guy? Now Greg’s daughter.
Steven has Rose’s boundless curiosity about and fascination with other people, but his empathy and patience? His desire to not only observe others’ growth in whatever intriguing form it takes, but to nurture? He gets that from Greg.
it wasn’t a redemption arc because he didn’t do anything he had to redeem himself for. the worst thing he has done is being grumpy but you still think he’s the literal devil for acting like the depressed teenager he is
