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NOTE: If you're here for a review of Steven Universe Future, you're not gonna get one. Not until the show is over. But for now I'm going to say that it's a massive improvement over the original show.

Ah yes, good ol' Steven Universe. Definitely one of the most polarising shows of the decade. I have seen a lot of praise for the show. But on the other hand, I have come across a lot of people who despise this show, and a lot of people who find it objectively flawed. I was honestly never interested in watching this show despite seeing it everywhere. It wasn't until I struck a deal with to watch this, Gravity Falls and Star vs. The Forces Of Evil in exchange for him watching the entirety of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. My expectations for this show was that it was going to be of average quality at best based on what I heard. I could tell people like TTLF were exaggerating how terrible this show actually is, yet at the same time the show did sound like a flawed mess to me but I was sure it wouldn't be bad because I had a feeling the show would have good qualities in it, and that unlike other bad shows such as The Loud House (at this point I should make it tradition to berate this show in every scorecard) the show would actually try.

And what do you know? My hunch was correct, and not to my surprise I don't think this show has a single bad season in it. Before watching this show, I vowed to myself to not be influenced by or care about anyone else's opinion on this show. I wanted to come into the show with my very own perspective. The Sandals perspective. I remember when I first watched Gem Glow three weeks ago. I was appalled because I wasn't expecting this show to be bad, let alone that bad. It was a terrible pilot which was boring, infantile and barely bothered to establish anything and just left me confused as heck by the end of it. After watching Laser Light Cannon (which I may or may not give my own review), I became afraid that this show would in fact be as bad as certain others claim it to be, but thankfully those two episodes were not indicatives of the quality of the rest of the show, and it did pick up after that. But anyways, enough of my history with the show, let's get to reviewing.

PREMISE AND LORE: I really enjoy this show's premise. I find the concept of this show to be really creative. The concept of a universe where there are alien gems that are part of an interstellar empire which project female humanoid forms and have different powers. I don't know how you come up with such a creative idea as most shows I've seen focus on the adventures of biological characters. And while this show does focus on Steven who is a half-human, most of the important characters in this show are these gems so already I am interested in this show (well, at least when the show actually establishes everything which Season 1 failed to do at the beginning). This show does get some mileage from it's premise and introduced really interesting concepts such as fusion. Fusion is a concept which might confuse people. From what I heard, one of the crew members said it's a metaphor for sex which I think we can all agree is completely wrong. From what the show itself establishes, it seems to represent relationships, whether it's romantic (Garnet, or Stevonnie), family (Steven and Greg's fusion in Steven Universe: The Movie), or a close relationship between friends (like Smoky Quartz) or heck, even abusive (Lapis and Jasper fusing into Malachite). Although the main metaphor fusions portray is that close relationships will make you stronger together which Garnet's song in Jailbreak shows, while damaged relationships like Malachite will cause you to suffer.

There are a couple of other interesting but darker concepts which relate to these gems. Firstly, we have the concept of gem corruption. In this show we see a lot episodes where the Crystal Gems fight and bubble monsters, and as it so turns out these monsters were actually gems corrupted by the Diamond Authority in a last-ditch attempt to destroy all Crystal Gems on Earth, and the Crystal Gems bubble them to keep them safe until they can find a way to heal them. During corruption, these Gems lose sense of who they are, and are essentially unable to anything a normal gem would do. In fact, in the episode Earthlings, we see an on-screen corruption when Jasper attempts to fuse with a corruption and it is among one of the show's darker scenes. But perhaps what is more darker is the concept of shatterings. Gems can lead infinite lives as they are able to repair their own bodies if they are damaged, and they aren't biological beings and therefore can theoretically live forever, unless of course their gems are shattered. In fact, in Keeping It Together, it is revealed that former Crystal Gems were shattered and their remnants were forced to fuse together. That scene was legitimately horrifying, and it was made more horrifying by the atmosphere of that particular scene thanks to the background music, lighting, Garnet's reaction and inability to move or fight, and the creepy fusion itself which looks like mutant of human body parts. I respect that the show does sometimes dive into these dark matters and it can pull it off really well and make this show's universe a more intriguing place.

And yeah, to be honest I actually find this show's lore interesting. This show actually does have an interesting history, mainly to do with the history of the Crystal Gems' rebellion against the Diamond Authority to protect the Earth species, as well as the history behind our main characters that have been living for many years now. Every season does reveal something new about the show and the world it's based on, and it keeps me interested in this show's story and where it will go next. My personal favourite example of the show expanding it's lore is a controversial choice, but it's the revelation that Pink Diamond is actually Rose Quartz, and that her rebellion against the Diamond Authority was to actually end a colonisation that she started herself. This is a twist that has clearly been planned for a long time, and was actually foreshadowed really well. However, to keep this twist from being predictable through clever misdirection such as Your Mother and Mine which tells the story of how Rose Quartz started the rebellion against the Diamond Authority but only based on what Garnet had heard (presumably from Rose Quartz herself who most likely lied to her), and it is later revealed that she didn't actually have all the details and was therefore an unreliable source of information. However in context of the show's story, everything about this twist makes total sense, and it even explains a few things like the questions presented in The Trial, as well as Pearl's history and where her obsession with Rose Quartz come from (even though it made this character really questionable to me until the Future episode Volleyball). I find it really intriguing how this character which was once glorified in the first three seasons is now a terrible person that is beyond redemption. This twist isn't something which came out of the blue either. Rose was made into a questionable person as far back as the Season 3 episode Bismuth, and by Season 4 Steven began to ponder whether Rose is actually the amazing person everyone said she was. To this day, I have never seen a single good reason why the twist in A Single Pale Rose is a bad one. You know what? I hate Rose Quartz after that episode too, but is that really a bad thing? Clearly, the characters in the show also hate her after this twist too. It's not like the show continues to glorify her afterwards, and it actually leads to potential for interesting future stories like the aforementioned Volleyball. I know I will be mocked by my friends for saying this, but Pink Diamond is an example of a really complex character from this show. Someone how is a horrible person that did so many terrible things to the point where she became beyond redemptions, yet she still tried to change in spite of this, even though she was foolish and selfish in the process

STORY AND WRITING: This show doesn't actually have a single overarching plot, just like My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. But unlike that show, the show doesn't develop in a single direction and instead meanders around until it reaches it's final destination - the Gem Homeworld. Instead, this show is basically just a compilation of smaller story arcs mishmashed into one "story". It's clear that the show cared more about developing it's world, lore and introducing new characters. I don't think this is a bad thing. In fact I do respect their priorities, and I will admit this show does a really good job at expanding it's world. And I do like some of these smaller arcs. My favourite of these is definitely the gem drill arc (despite the fact that it ended terribly) which ended up bringing me my favourite episode of the show. I am interested in pretty much every arc in this show, where they are good or not, although the bad arcs in this show do have fundemental writing problems (mainly the final arc of Season 5).

And yeah, this is where I have to present my biggest complaint with this show. A lot of this review will be an appraisal of this show but the biggets problem with this show that ultimately brings it down to the okay category for me lies in the show's writing. Steven Universe is a storytelling and lore show. This show excels in the lore department, but it isn't exactly the best at telling it's stories. The biggest problem this show has is that it almost never changes it's perspective from Steven. The audience is practically glued to it's main character. This is a huge detractor from the show in such huge ways. First off, the show is unable to have any complex stories. Everything is practically straightforward from start to finish because we never get to see any event happen from the perspective of another character without Steven. It limits what the show an do in terms of it's stories, and I have absolutely no idea why anyone thinks locking the audience onto Steven is a good idea. Not only that, but this lack of perspective shifting means that this show is prone to plot holes. The first signs we get to see that this would become a problem is in the Season 1 episode Giant Woman. In that episode, due to the fact that Steven is stuck inside the monster's mouth, the first fusion in this show actually happens off-screen. I don't mind this in that particular episode (in fact, this episode had a bigger problem which brought it down to meh), however the first time it does actually become a problem for me is in An Indirect Kiss. In that episode, Steven thinks he healed Amethyst with his tears but as it turns out Pearl and Amethyst unplugged an unclogged chamber which saved her, yet we don't actually see it. This is a fatal example of the show ignoring the "show, don't tell" technique, and you'd think that for a show made my professional writers they'd actually try to follow that. But perhaps the most despicable example of this is in the Season 5 episode Lars And The Stars. The last time we see Lars, Lars convinces Steven to return home while him and the Off Colors will attempt to return to Earth another way. Yet, in Lars Of The Stars we see him as a pilot and he says that him and the Off Colors went on dangerous journeys including a stealing a freaking spaceship, yet we see none of that. I mean yes, I like that episode. But this moment absolutely infuriated me because there was so much potential in a few episodes focused on Lars and the Off Colors and their adventures that they wasted and it made me realise that because this show is super glued to Steven there is so much untapped potential.

Another problem with this show's writing is that the stories in this show don't actually have much substance to them a lot of the time. There are a lot of episodes in this show which are jut good but easily could've been great (Funnily enough It Could've Been Great was almost one of them). Likewise, there are a lot of episode which have interesting ideas or are part of interesting arcs which didn't end up being to my liking because they were light in substance. For example, the episode Lars' Head is actually a really interesting episode about how Lars is revived and how his hair actually connects to Lion's mane. However, all that happens in this episode is that Steven finds out about Lars' hair, he finds himself back to Earth, he goes back to Lars to tell him this, then he returns to Earth again. There are a lot of episodes like Lars' Head which capture your attention due to being interesting, yet when you get down to it these episode's barely have anything to them at all. And on a related note, since this show is always meandering, this show is also prone to having a lot "filler episodes", episodes which are jammed in between episodes with major story arcs but do nothing for the episodes themselves. These end up being the least interesting of the show's episodes (usually focusing on this show's townsfolk), and when you combine this with lack of substance in this show's stories it results in some of my least favourite episodes in the show. This why I find Season 1b to be the lamest substancial chunk of content from the show because most of that half-season is exactly that. This is also why I find Season 4 to be my least favourite full season of the show, because a good portion of the season is just that as well. This show has shown that it is capable of providing us with great stories filled with a lot of content, heart and emotion and it is just another example of this show having a lot of untapped potential.

And my final problem is something that bothers me the most whenever it does happen. Usually when it's most convenient, Steven discovers a new power which solves everything. I'm pretty sure this sounds familiar to you. It's called a deus ex machina which in my eyes translates to "pure laziness because the writers can't think of a clever way to solve conflicts". Like I mentioned above, the gem drill arc ended terribly. The episode Gem Drill was actually really good for most of it, but it suddenly becomes terrible once steven faints and all of a sudden he wakes up to find himself floating in mid-air, suddenly able to communicate with the cluster and asks it to stop forming. I know Steven being able to communicate in his dreams is introduced in Chille Tid, but this ability isn't even explained in the first place and it returns at the most convenient time just as a lazy excuse to resolve the conflict of not just the episode, but the entire arc. Apparently Steven is like Jesus or something. and he can do things at the most convenient times because he can. This is why I can't rate the episode because I don't know what to make of it. I like it for the most part, but I also dislike it for being a terrible ending to an entire arc, but I also get mixed feelings at the same time. But this isn't even the worst instance of this. Reunited's climax is the single worst thing to come out of the show. I'm going to use the Steven Universe Wiki's description of this climax to describe it to you. "Steven awakens outside his body on an abstract psychic plane. He realizes that while disembodied he can interact with people's thoughts, and watches as Lapis is also poofed. After giving his friends encouragement he attempts to contact the Diamonds, but still believing him to be an enemy, they attack him psychically. Steven resists and is able to create Pink Diamond's aura, which convinces the Diamonds that she is still alive." Someone try to comprehend this without their brain malfunctioning. At least the climax of Gem Drill is based off of an ability we know Steven has, even if it is not explained and is used as a huge deus ex machina. But this. This just comes out of literal nowhere to lazily resolve the conflict after the Crystal Gems lose a fight, and it's just horrendous writing. There are some other episodes where Steven randomly develops a new power, but thankfuly they don't affect the min plot. I guess the main one would be him being able to float like in Steven Floats, which is strange because if his emotions control this, why hasn't he been able to float before? But anyways, this show does have a tendancy to create more questions than answer them, and all of this cumulates into a show which while it has potential to be a really well written show and presents a lot of interesting ideas and stories, a lot of it is hurt by unchanging perspectives, deus ex machinas, Steven Christ and standing at the door.

THE MESSAGE: (YEAH I KNOW THIS IS A SEASON 1 EPISODE. SHUT UP.) I'm going to have a little section of the review covering his show's messages. The main messages the show presents are "Just talking can help solve your problems" and "People deserve second chances". On their own right, these are really good messages, but the way the show portrays them is really botched. The show presents these messages in a way which gives the audience the impression that these messages will always apply like implying that talking always solves your problems and that everyone deserves second chances. It's come to the point where by Season 5 Steven becomes a full-on pacifist. It also came to a point where the Diamond Authority somehow get redeemed, characters which have caused thousands of years worth of mass genocide and suffering. Let that sink in. And all because they are no longer sad that Pink Diamond is gone. The redemption of Blue and Yellow Diamond are one of the many reasons why I consider Reunited my least favourite episode of he show. After Reunited the rest of Season 5 turns into complete and utter Wyoming until Change Your Mind which is a substanceless 44 minutes TV movie which redeems White Diamond, supposedly the biggest villain in the entire show introduced in like the last 5 episodes. A shame because the rest of Season 5 is actually pretty solid.

CHARACTERS: First off I will start off with this show's protagonist - the Steven himself. For the first half of Season 1, Steven starts off as an idiotic and immature kid that is always putting everyone in danger. He is insufferable. I get that is what they are going for, but it gets annoying really fast, and as a result of it some of the episodes in the first half of Season 1A and a few in Season 1B feel infantile. Episodes like Together Breakfast and Giant Woman could have actually been good episodes had Steven not been so grating in them. In fact Season 1A in general could have been good had it not been for this issue because that half of the season had some charm to it as well as some interesting stories, especially compared to Season 1B. Thankfully the show actually slowly develops him into a more mature character. You can actually notice this in the new version of the theme song in Season 2. Steven looks a lot more mature in the new theme song, and I picked it up instantly when I first saw it. He is one of the characters in this show that matures more overtime, and I really like his character when he is more mature and not an idiot. But like I mentioned earlier, by the end of Season 5, he does just become a full-on pacificist and that bothers me for reasons stated above.

Now I know my friends will make fun of me for saying this, but I actually think hat the gem characters in this show are rather complex - well at least in theory. I do like these characters, but the show isn't the best at handling them. One example is Garnet. I really like this character and there is a lot of depth to her in theory, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I enjoyed this character a lot more in Seasons 1 and 2 then in the rest of the show. The reveal that Garnet was in fact a fusion of Ruby and Sapphire in Jailbreak is actually my 2nd favourite twist in the show, and was an extremely huge twist at the time. However, the fact that Garnet is a fusion was explored more in the show later on in the show which I understand, but after a while it feels like that aspect of her character is kind of taking over her entire personality. That, along with future vision just feel like a majority of her character nowadays. I mean, her old personality is still there, but it isn't as prominent nowadays.

Let's discuss another example - Lapis Lazuli. I actually really like this character, believe it or not. I find entertainment in her more deadpan and pessimistic personality, but she definitely has more to her character than that. In fact, her personality is kind of based off of her past traumatic experiences, mainly being trapped in a mirror for 5000 years and left behind on Earth, and being in an unstable fusion with Jasper as Malachite. Because of this, she can tend to get furious and lash out at others and generally being mistrusting of others. What this show does correctly is give her a really good motivation for her negative actions, while also never treating her in the right for them either. A good example of this would be Barn Mates where she acts like a complete jerk towards Peridot who is only trying to make it up to her, because Peridot forced her back into Earth which is a place she already despises due to bad memories from the mirror incident, and because that resulted in her having to be in abusive relationship with Jasper yet the episode rightfully treats her in the wrong for not giving Peridot another chance. And then in Raising The Barn, she leaves Peridot and takes the barn with her which is understandable as she fears the Diamond Authority will return and start another war and she does not want another repeat of the mirror incident from 5000 years ago. Yes, she is inconsiderate about the fact that Peridot also has her belongings in the barn too, but I don't get what some people that hate this character find wrong with this. Characters are capable of making bad decisions, and it isn't like she is treated in the right for this either. However, as much as I like this character, the show handled her arc really poorly, mainly a conclusion of it. I wish there was an episode which did properly discuss her trauma, but I think Can't Go Back did a good enough job at this. However, her arc was lazily concluded. This show does state how traumatised she is several times, yet she never actually deals with it by herself. Can't Go Back set up a potential episode about this really nicely, but because god forbid the show changes perspectives for once, the next time we actually see her is in Reunited where she randomly appears again to join the fight and all I can ask is "Where the hell did you come from?". Seriously, we don't get to see proper character development from her, she is just lazily pasted in to Reunited because . God, that episode screwed up in so many different ways.

Let's talk about Pearl as well, shall we? In Season 1A, she used to be my favourite character. However, by Season 2 and 3 I started to become annoyed by this character because the show was apparently obsessed with hammering in her obsession with Rose Quartz, while she normally just moped and never did anything to help herself. The straw that broke the camel's back was Mr. Greg. That's right. You can it right there in my bottom ten, perfectly placed at my #2 spot. A majority of that episode is a barebones "plot" about Pearl moping about how Rose chose Greg over her while songs which range between forgettable to legitimately awful play in the background. The conflict is resolved in a genius way too, with a mere few lines of dialogue spoken between Greg and Pearl where the line which apparently solved everything was "She always did what she wanted." which tells me nothing about how this entire conflict that has been building up to this episode actually is solved, and how that one line fixed the relationship between these two characters. As much as it makes sense why Pearl is obsessed with Rose, seeing as how she is the pearl of Pink Diamond, this is an aspect of her character which was ruining this character for me due to it almost taking up her entire personality. Thank goodness this character retained her more classic personality following Mr. Greg, well for the most part.

So yeah, this show has pretty complex characters which aren't managed very well half of the time. However, this show can still give us really good characters when it gets things right. Amethyst is one of the the few characters in this show that receive proper development. In Season 1 she starts off as a goofy and reckless character with the worst character design possible (which I am so glad was updated in Reformed). In On The Run, we see the more insecure side of character where she is afraid that Pearl views her as a mistake and "bad" due to her being made in a kindergarten that was part of Pink Diamond's initial mission to colonise Earth. In Too Far we also learn that Amethyst was actually not made properly and that she is actually much smaller than a normal amethyst is supposed to look like. Peridot mocks her for it which deeply upsets her. I actually enjoy the more insecure side of Amethyst's character. It gives her character more depth and unlike other characters she actually does something about it, most notably in the Jasper arc in Season 3. By Season 5, Amethyst's character has been developed so much, that Steven declares her as the most mature Crystal Gem in What's Your Problem. But of course, my favourite character and the overall highlight of the show is Peridot. The reason the Gem Drill arc is my favourite arc of the show is because of her character development arc in it. She goes from loathing the Crystal Gems to learning to accept and appreciate them as well as the Earth in general while helping them build the gem drill. The episode Log Date 7 15 2 is my favourite character of the show because it perfectly showcases how her character has developed overtime and actually evokes a feeling of pride from me for this character. Everything which happens in this episode ties together perfectly and it has a very interesting and unique framing device. It gives us a lot more insight into this character as well as fleshing out her personality. Peridot has a really interesting personality. She is intelligent but there are a lot of quirks to her due to her lack of knowledge on the Earth, as well her more over-the-top traits like how she calls everyone "clods". She boosts pretty much every episode she is part of which is why to this day there isn't a single episode which Peridot plays a huge role in that I dislike because she is that much of an entertaining character.

I do also like some of the human characters in this show. Sure, the episodes which feature them aren't very interesting, but thanks to them I actually do care for the environment this show is in as without them Beach City would be a really bland locations with nothing worth caring about. These characters surprisingly get solid development, especially Lars who really came out of his shell in Season 5. Likewise, Sadie also comes out of her shell in Season 5 where she becomes the lead singer of "Sadie Killer and The Suspects" which is a band composed of her, Steven and the "Cool Kids". The cool kids are actually surprisingly likable characters too with each of them getting an episode focused on theme, even if they aren't the best character. There are a few other characters which go through change too, like how Mayor Dewey decided to throw the election in favour of Nanefua, and now works at the Big Donut where Sadie and Lars used to work. I also really like Connie and Greg Universe as characters. Connie serves as a really good support character to Steven, while Greg has a really enjoyable and charming personality and is always there when you need him. In short, this show has solid characters and some of the gem characters are even complex, but this show would benefit if the show did a better job at managing all of it's characters.

ANIMATION: This show has serviceable animation. I do like this show's artstyle and it's backgrounds as well as the character designs. However the show does lack fluidity and it often has inconsistent character models, most notably in Steven's Birthday where Steven is apparently as tall as Connie now despite the episode stating he hasn't grown in six years. Other than that, the show's animation doesn't add or detract from this show's quality because it doesn't pull me one way or another. I can at least say that the show is watchable doesn't make me want to throw up when I watch it (hello Lucky Star).

SONGS: First of all, this show has an amazing theme song, more specifically the extended version of the opening theme song which already sounds great on it's own. A little-known fact about me is that I am quite critical of theme songs. I'm not even that big on the SpongeBob SquarePants theme song, despite how iconic it is. So it is actually refreshing to find a show that has a theme song that I genuinely love. As for the show itself, all of the show's best songs come from Seasons 1-2 and the movie, with a couple of really good songs also popping up in Season 5. The show can have really good and catchy songs, which is why I was appalled when I first saw the Season 3 episode Mr. Greg. Up to that point I really liked the songs in this show, so surely the first musical in the show should have good songs, right? To my utter shock, the songs sounded really bad. The only song I find tolerable is "It's Over, Isn't It?", and even then song is only tolerable out of context. In context of the episode and it's story, I really dislike this song. And the only reason I find it tolerable out of context in the first place is because Pearl actually has really good line delivery which is also shown in "Strong In The Real Way". But other than that, half of the song's lyrics consists of repeating the same (or pretty much the same) thing 15 times, while the other half is just Pearl sulking about Rose for the billionth time. Trust me, if Pearl's voice acting wasn't so good, I'd really hate this song out of context too because the lyrics are .

CONCLUSION: And now after one long review, are finally up to the conclusion. So what do I think of the show overall? Well, it certainly has a lot of good qualities, but there are also a lot of flaws which counter that and prevent this show from being good overall. This show is strong in it's worldbuilding and lore, it's music department, has an engaging premise, presents interesting ideas and has complex characters which I mostly enjoy. Unfortunately it is also brought down by it's mediocre storytelling, a really botched overall message, and it isn't the best at managing it's characters. However I can say that this show at least does a good job at keeping my attention, and I still find this show interesting which is why it was really easy to get through. So due to having both a mix of positive and negative qualities, but still managing to be interesting and decently enjoyable to some degree, I find this show to be just okay which in my basic rating scale translates to the upper side of MEH or a 6 out of 10 (or if you are a fan of Intrancity - Fair).

FINAL RATING: MEH SHOW

Description
NOTE: If you're here for a review of Steven Universe Future, you're not gonna get one. Not until the show is over. But for now I'm going to say that it's a massive improvement over the original show.

Ah yes, good ol' Steven Universe. Definitely one of the most polarising shows of the decade. I have seen a lot of praise for the show. But on the other hand, I have come across a lot of people who despise this show, and a lot of people who find it objectively flawed. I was honestly never interested in watching this show despite seeing it everywhere. It wasn't until I struck a deal with to watch this, Gravity Falls and Star vs. The Forces Of Evil in exchange for him watching the entirety of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. My expectations for this show was that it was going to be of average quality at best based on what I heard. I could tell people like TTLF were exaggerating how terrible this show actually is, yet at the same time the show did sound like a flawed mess to me but I was sure it wouldn't be bad because I had a feeling the show would have good qualities in it, and that unlike other bad shows such as The Loud House (at this point I should make it tradition to berate this show in every scorecard) the show would actually try.

And what do you know? My hunch was correct, and not to my surprise I don't think this show has a single bad season in it. Before watching this show, I vowed to myself to not be influenced by or care about anyone else's opinion on this show. I wanted to come into the show with my very own perspective. The Sandals perspective. I remember when I first watched Gem Glow three weeks ago. I was appalled because I wasn't expecting this show to be bad, let alone that bad. It was a terrible pilot which was boring, infantile and barely bothered to establish anything and just left me confused as heck by the end of it. After watching Laser Light Cannon (which I may or may not give my own review), I became afraid that this show would in fact be as bad as certain others claim it to be, but thankfully those two episodes were not indicatives of the quality of the rest of the show, and it did pick up after that. But anyways, enough of my history with the show, let's get to reviewing.

PREMISE AND LORE: I really enjoy this show's premise. I find the concept of this show to be really creative. The concept of a universe where there are alien gems that are part of an interstellar empire which project female humanoid forms and have different powers. I don't know how you come up with such a creative idea as most shows I've seen focus on the adventures of biological characters. And while this show does focus on Steven who is a half-human, most of the important characters in this show are these gems so already I am interested in this show (well, at least when the show actually establishes everything which Season 1 failed to do at the beginning). This show does get some mileage from it's premise and introduced really interesting concepts such as fusion. Fusion is a concept which might confuse people. From what I heard, one of the crew members said it's a metaphor for sex which I think we can all agree is completely wrong. From what the show itself establishes, it seems to represent relationships, whether it's romantic (Garnet, or Stevonnie), family (Steven and Greg's fusion in Steven Universe: The Movie), or a close relationship between friends (like Smoky Quartz) or heck, even abusive (Lapis and Jasper fusing into Malachite). Although the main metaphor fusions portray is that close relationships will make you stronger together which Garnet's song in Jailbreak shows, while damaged relationships like Malachite will cause you to suffer.

There are a couple of other interesting but darker concepts which relate to these gems. Firstly, we have the concept of gem corruption. In this show we see a lot episodes where the Crystal Gems fight and bubble monsters, and as it so turns out these monsters were actually gems corrupted by the Diamond Authority in a last-ditch attempt to destroy all Crystal Gems on Earth, and the Crystal Gems bubble them to keep them safe until they can find a way to heal them. During corruption, these Gems lose sense of who they are, and are essentially unable to anything a normal gem would do. In fact, in the episode Earthlings, we see an on-screen corruption when Jasper attempts to fuse with a corruption and it is among one of the show's darker scenes. But perhaps what is more darker is the concept of shatterings. Gems can lead infinite lives as they are able to repair their own bodies if they are damaged, and they aren't biological beings and therefore can theoretically live forever, unless of course their gems are shattered. In fact, in Keeping It Together, it is revealed that former Crystal Gems were shattered and their remnants were forced to fuse together. That scene was legitimately horrifying, and it was made more horrifying by the atmosphere of that particular scene thanks to the background music, lighting, Garnet's reaction and inability to move or fight, and the creepy fusion itself which looks like mutant of human body parts. I respect that the show does sometimes dive into these dark matters and it can pull it off really well and make this show's universe a more intriguing place.

And yeah, to be honest I actually find this show's lore interesting. This show actually does have an interesting history, mainly to do with the history of the Crystal Gems' rebellion against the Diamond Authority to protect the Earth species, as well as the history behind our main characters that have been living for many years now. Every season does reveal something new about the show and the world it's based on, and it keeps me interested in this show's story and where it will go next. My personal favourite example of the show expanding it's lore is a controversial choice, but it's the revelation that Pink Diamond is actually Rose Quartz, and that her rebellion against the Diamond Authority was to actually end a colonisation that she started herself. This is a twist that has clearly been planned for a long time, and was actually foreshadowed really well. However, to keep this twist from being predictable through clever misdirection such as Your Mother and Mine which tells the story of how Rose Quartz started the rebellion against the Diamond Authority but only based on what Garnet had heard (presumably from Rose Quartz herself who most likely lied to her), and it is later revealed that she didn't actually have all the details and was therefore an unreliable source of information. However in context of the show's story, everything about this twist makes total sense, and it even explains a few things like the questions presented in The Trial, as well as Pearl's history and where her obsession with Rose Quartz come from (even though it made this character really questionable to me until the Future episode Volleyball). I find it really intriguing how this character which was once glorified in the first three seasons is now a terrible person that is beyond redemption. This twist isn't something which came out of the blue either. Rose was made into a questionable person as far back as the Season 3 episode Bismuth, and by Season 4 Steven began to ponder whether Rose is actually the amazing person everyone said she was. To this day, I have never seen a single good reason why the twist in A Single Pale Rose is a bad one. You know what? I hate Rose Quartz after that episode too, but is that really a bad thing? Clearly, the characters in the show also hate her after this twist too. It's not like the show continues to glorify her afterwards, and it actually leads to potential for interesting future stories like the aforementioned Volleyball. I know I will be mocked by my friends for saying this, but Pink Diamond is an example of a really complex character from this show. Someone how is a horrible person that did so many terrible things to the point where she became beyond redemptions, yet she still tried to change in spite of this, even though she was foolish and selfish in the process

STORY AND WRITING: This show doesn't actually have a single overarching plot, just like My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. But unlike that show, the show doesn't develop in a single direction and instead meanders around until it reaches it's final destination - the Gem Homeworld. Instead, this show is basically just a compilation of smaller story arcs mishmashed into one "story". It's clear that the show cared more about developing it's world, lore and introducing new characters. I don't think this is a bad thing. In fact I do respect their priorities, and I will admit this show does a really good job at expanding it's world. And I do like some of these smaller arcs. My favourite of these is definitely the gem drill arc (despite the fact that it ended terribly) which ended up bringing me my favourite episode of the show. I am interested in pretty much every arc in this show, where they are good or not, although the bad arcs in this show do have fundemental writing problems (mainly the final arc of Season 5).

And yeah, this is where I have to present my biggest complaint with this show. A lot of this review will be an appraisal of this show but the biggets problem with this show that ultimately brings it down to the okay category for me lies in the show's writing. Steven Universe is a storytelling and lore show. This show excels in the lore department, but it isn't exactly the best at telling it's stories. The biggest problem this show has is that it almost never changes it's perspective from Steven. The audience is practically glued to it's main character. This is a huge detractor from the show in such huge ways. First off, the show is unable to have any complex stories. Everything is practically straightforward from start to finish because we never get to see any event happen from the perspective of another character without Steven. It limits what the show an do in terms of it's stories, and I have absolutely no idea why anyone thinks locking the audience onto Steven is a good idea. Not only that, but this lack of perspective shifting means that this show is prone to plot holes. The first signs we get to see that this would become a problem is in the Season 1 episode Giant Woman. In that episode, due to the fact that Steven is stuck inside the monster's mouth, the first fusion in this show actually happens off-screen. I don't mind this in that particular episode (in fact, this episode had a bigger problem which brought it down to meh), however the first time it does actually become a problem for me is in An Indirect Kiss. In that episode, Steven thinks he healed Amethyst with his tears but as it turns out Pearl and Amethyst unplugged an unclogged chamber which saved her, yet we don't actually see it. This is a fatal example of the show ignoring the "show, don't tell" technique, and you'd think that for a show made my professional writers they'd actually try to follow that. But perhaps the most despicable example of this is in the Season 5 episode Lars And The Stars. The last time we see Lars, Lars convinces Steven to return home while him and the Off Colors will attempt to return to Earth another way. Yet, in Lars Of The Stars we see him as a pilot and he says that him and the Off Colors went on dangerous journeys including a stealing a freaking spaceship, yet we see none of that. I mean yes, I like that episode. But this moment absolutely infuriated me because there was so much potential in a few episodes focused on Lars and the Off Colors and their adventures that they wasted and it made me realise that because this show is super glued to Steven there is so much untapped potential.

Another problem with this show's writing is that the stories in this show don't actually have much substance to them a lot of the time. There are a lot of episodes in this show which are jut good but easily could've been great (Funnily enough It Could've Been Great was almost one of them). Likewise, there are a lot of episode which have interesting ideas or are part of interesting arcs which didn't end up being to my liking because they were light in substance. For example, the episode Lars' Head is actually a really interesting episode about how Lars is revived and how his hair actually connects to Lion's mane. However, all that happens in this episode is that Steven finds out about Lars' hair, he finds himself back to Earth, he goes back to Lars to tell him this, then he returns to Earth again. There are a lot of episodes like Lars' Head which capture your attention due to being interesting, yet when you get down to it these episode's barely have anything to them at all. And on a related note, since this show is always meandering, this show is also prone to having a lot "filler episodes", episodes which are jammed in between episodes with major story arcs but do nothing for the episodes themselves. These end up being the least interesting of the show's episodes (usually focusing on this show's townsfolk), and when you combine this with lack of substance in this show's stories it results in some of my least favourite episodes in the show. This why I find Season 1b to be the lamest substancial chunk of content from the show because most of that half-season is exactly that. This is also why I find Season 4 to be my least favourite full season of the show, because a good portion of the season is just that as well. This show has shown that it is capable of providing us with great stories filled with a lot of content, heart and emotion and it is just another example of this show having a lot of untapped potential.

And my final problem is something that bothers me the most whenever it does happen. Usually when it's most convenient, Steven discovers a new power which solves everything. I'm pretty sure this sounds familiar to you. It's called a deus ex machina which in my eyes translates to "pure laziness because the writers can't think of a clever way to solve conflicts". Like I mentioned above, the gem drill arc ended terribly. The episode Gem Drill was actually really good for most of it, but it suddenly becomes terrible once steven faints and all of a sudden he wakes up to find himself floating in mid-air, suddenly able to communicate with the cluster and asks it to stop forming. I know Steven being able to communicate in his dreams is introduced in Chille Tid, but this ability isn't even explained in the first place and it returns at the most convenient time just as a lazy excuse to resolve the conflict of not just the episode, but the entire arc. Apparently Steven is like Jesus or something. and he can do things at the most convenient times because he can. This is why I can't rate the episode because I don't know what to make of it. I like it for the most part, but I also dislike it for being a terrible ending to an entire arc, but I also get mixed feelings at the same time. But this isn't even the worst instance of this. Reunited's climax is the single worst thing to come out of the show. I'm going to use the Steven Universe Wiki's description of this climax to describe it to you. "Steven awakens outside his body on an abstract psychic plane. He realizes that while disembodied he can interact with people's thoughts, and watches as Lapis is also poofed. After giving his friends encouragement he attempts to contact the Diamonds, but still believing him to be an enemy, they attack him psychically. Steven resists and is able to create Pink Diamond's aura, which convinces the Diamonds that she is still alive." Someone try to comprehend this without their brain malfunctioning. At least the climax of Gem Drill is based off of an ability we know Steven has, even if it is not explained and is used as a huge deus ex machina. But this. This just comes out of literal nowhere to lazily resolve the conflict after the Crystal Gems lose a fight, and it's just horrendous writing. There are some other episodes where Steven randomly develops a new power, but thankfuly they don't affect the min plot. I guess the main one would be him being able to float like in Steven Floats, which is strange because if his emotions control this, why hasn't he been able to float before? But anyways, this show does have a tendancy to create more questions than answer them, and all of this cumulates into a show which while it has potential to be a really well written show and presents a lot of interesting ideas and stories, a lot of it is hurt by unchanging perspectives, deus ex machinas, Steven Christ and standing at the door.

THE MESSAGE: (YEAH I KNOW THIS IS A SEASON 1 EPISODE. SHUT UP.) I'm going to have a little section of the review covering his show's messages. The main messages the show presents are "Just talking can help solve your problems" and "People deserve second chances". On their own right, these are really good messages, but the way the show portrays them is really botched. The show presents these messages in a way which gives the audience the impression that these messages will always apply like implying that talking always solves your problems and that everyone deserves second chances. It's come to the point where by Season 5 Steven becomes a full-on pacifist. It also came to a point where the Diamond Authority somehow get redeemed, characters which have caused thousands of years worth of mass genocide and suffering. Let that sink in. And all because they are no longer sad that Pink Diamond is gone. The redemption of Blue and Yellow Diamond are one of the many reasons why I consider Reunited my least favourite episode of he show. After Reunited the rest of Season 5 turns into complete and utter Wyoming until Change Your Mind which is a substanceless 44 minutes TV movie which redeems White Diamond, supposedly the biggest villain in the entire show introduced in like the last 5 episodes. A shame because the rest of Season 5 is actually pretty solid.

CHARACTERS: First off I will start off with this show's protagonist - the Steven himself. For the first half of Season 1, Steven starts off as an idiotic and immature kid that is always putting everyone in danger. He is insufferable. I get that is what they are going for, but it gets annoying really fast, and as a result of it some of the episodes in the first half of Season 1A and a few in Season 1B feel infantile. Episodes like Together Breakfast and Giant Woman could have actually been good episodes had Steven not been so grating in them. In fact Season 1A in general could have been good had it not been for this issue because that half of the season had some charm to it as well as some interesting stories, especially compared to Season 1B. Thankfully the show actually slowly develops him into a more mature character. You can actually notice this in the new version of the theme song in Season 2. Steven looks a lot more mature in the new theme song, and I picked it up instantly when I first saw it. He is one of the characters in this show that matures more overtime, and I really like his character when he is more mature and not an idiot. But like I mentioned earlier, by the end of Season 5, he does just become a full-on pacificist and that bothers me for reasons stated above.

Now I know my friends will make fun of me for saying this, but I actually think hat the gem characters in this show are rather complex - well at least in theory. I do like these characters, but the show isn't the best at handling them. One example is Garnet. I really like this character and there is a lot of depth to her in theory, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I enjoyed this character a lot more in Seasons 1 and 2 then in the rest of the show. The reveal that Garnet was in fact a fusion of Ruby and Sapphire in Jailbreak is actually my 2nd favourite twist in the show, and was an extremely huge twist at the time. However, the fact that Garnet is a fusion was explored more in the show later on in the show which I understand, but after a while it feels like that aspect of her character is kind of taking over her entire personality. That, along with future vision just feel like a majority of her character nowadays. I mean, her old personality is still there, but it isn't as prominent nowadays.

Let's discuss another example - Lapis Lazuli. I actually really like this character, believe it or not. I find entertainment in her more deadpan and pessimistic personality, but she definitely has more to her character than that. In fact, her personality is kind of based off of her past traumatic experiences, mainly being trapped in a mirror for 5000 years and left behind on Earth, and being in an unstable fusion with Jasper as Malachite. Because of this, she can tend to get furious and lash out at others and generally being mistrusting of others. What this show does correctly is give her a really good motivation for her negative actions, while also never treating her in the right for them either. A good example of this would be Barn Mates where she acts like a complete jerk towards Peridot who is only trying to make it up to her, because Peridot forced her back into Earth which is a place she already despises due to bad memories from the mirror incident, and because that resulted in her having to be in abusive relationship with Jasper yet the episode rightfully treats her in the wrong for not giving Peridot another chance. And then in Raising The Barn, she leaves Peridot and takes the barn with her which is understandable as she fears the Diamond Authority will return and start another war and she does not want another repeat of the mirror incident from 5000 years ago. Yes, she is inconsiderate about the fact that Peridot also has her belongings in the barn too, but I don't get what some people that hate this character find wrong with this. Characters are capable of making bad decisions, and it isn't like she is treated in the right for this either. However, as much as I like this character, the show handled her arc really poorly, mainly a conclusion of it. I wish there was an episode which did properly discuss her trauma, but I think Can't Go Back did a good enough job at this. However, her arc was lazily concluded. This show does state how traumatised she is several times, yet she never actually deals with it by herself. Can't Go Back set up a potential episode about this really nicely, but because god forbid the show changes perspectives for once, the next time we actually see her is in Reunited where she randomly appears again to join the fight and all I can ask is "Where the hell did you come from?". Seriously, we don't get to see proper character development from her, she is just lazily pasted in to Reunited because . God, that episode screwed up in so many different ways.

Let's talk about Pearl as well, shall we? In Season 1A, she used to be my favourite character. However, by Season 2 and 3 I started to become annoyed by this character because the show was apparently obsessed with hammering in her obsession with Rose Quartz, while she normally just moped and never did anything to help herself. The straw that broke the camel's back was Mr. Greg. That's right. You can it right there in my bottom ten, perfectly placed at my #2 spot. A majority of that episode is a barebones "plot" about Pearl moping about how Rose chose Greg over her while songs which range between forgettable to legitimately awful play in the background. The conflict is resolved in a genius way too, with a mere few lines of dialogue spoken between Greg and Pearl where the line which apparently solved everything was "She always did what she wanted." which tells me nothing about how this entire conflict that has been building up to this episode actually is solved, and how that one line fixed the relationship between these two characters. As much as it makes sense why Pearl is obsessed with Rose, seeing as how she is the pearl of Pink Diamond, this is an aspect of her character which was ruining this character for me due to it almost taking up her entire personality. Thank goodness this character retained her more classic personality following Mr. Greg, well for the most part.

So yeah, this show has pretty complex characters which aren't managed very well half of the time. However, this show can still give us really good characters when it gets things right. Amethyst is one of the the few characters in this show that receive proper development. In Season 1 she starts off as a goofy and reckless character with the worst character design possible (which I am so glad was updated in Reformed). In On The Run, we see the more insecure side of character where she is afraid that Pearl views her as a mistake and "bad" due to her being made in a kindergarten that was part of Pink Diamond's initial mission to colonise Earth. In Too Far we also learn that Amethyst was actually not made properly and that she is actually much smaller than a normal amethyst is supposed to look like. Peridot mocks her for it which deeply upsets her. I actually enjoy the more insecure side of Amethyst's character. It gives her character more depth and unlike other characters she actually does something about it, most notably in the Jasper arc in Season 3. By Season 5, Amethyst's character has been developed so much, that Steven declares her as the most mature Crystal Gem in What's Your Problem. But of course, my favourite character and the overall highlight of the show is Peridot. The reason the Gem Drill arc is my favourite arc of the show is because of her character development arc in it. She goes from loathing the Crystal Gems to learning to accept and appreciate them as well as the Earth in general while helping them build the gem drill. The episode Log Date 7 15 2 is my favourite character of the show because it perfectly showcases how her character has developed overtime and actually evokes a feeling of pride from me for this character. Everything which happens in this episode ties together perfectly and it has a very interesting and unique framing device. It gives us a lot more insight into this character as well as fleshing out her personality. Peridot has a really interesting personality. She is intelligent but there are a lot of quirks to her due to her lack of knowledge on the Earth, as well her more over-the-top traits like how she calls everyone "clods". She boosts pretty much every episode she is part of which is why to this day there isn't a single episode which Peridot plays a huge role in that I dislike because she is that much of an entertaining character.

I do also like some of the human characters in this show. Sure, the episodes which feature them aren't very interesting, but thanks to them I actually do care for the environment this show is in as without them Beach City would be a really bland locations with nothing worth caring about. These characters surprisingly get solid development, especially Lars who really came out of his shell in Season 5. Likewise, Sadie also comes out of her shell in Season 5 where she becomes the lead singer of "Sadie Killer and The Suspects" which is a band composed of her, Steven and the "Cool Kids". The cool kids are actually surprisingly likable characters too with each of them getting an episode focused on theme, even if they aren't the best character. There are a few other characters which go through change too, like how Mayor Dewey decided to throw the election in favour of Nanefua, and now works at the Big Donut where Sadie and Lars used to work. I also really like Connie and Greg Universe as characters. Connie serves as a really good support character to Steven, while Greg has a really enjoyable and charming personality and is always there when you need him. In short, this show has solid characters and some of the gem characters are even complex, but this show would benefit if the show did a better job at managing all of it's characters.

ANIMATION: This show has serviceable animation. I do like this show's artstyle and it's backgrounds as well as the character designs. However the show does lack fluidity and it often has inconsistent character models, most notably in Steven's Birthday where Steven is apparently as tall as Connie now despite the episode stating he hasn't grown in six years. Other than that, the show's animation doesn't add or detract from this show's quality because it doesn't pull me one way or another. I can at least say that the show is watchable doesn't make me want to throw up when I watch it (hello Lucky Star).

SONGS: First of all, this show has an amazing theme song, more specifically the extended version of the opening theme song which already sounds great on it's own. A little-known fact about me is that I am quite critical of theme songs. I'm not even that big on the SpongeBob SquarePants theme song, despite how iconic it is. So it is actually refreshing to find a show that has a theme song that I genuinely love. As for the show itself, all of the show's best songs come from Seasons 1-2 and the movie, with a couple of really good songs also popping up in Season 5. The show can have really good and catchy songs, which is why I was appalled when I first saw the Season 3 episode Mr. Greg. Up to that point I really liked the songs in this show, so surely the first musical in the show should have good songs, right? To my utter shock, the songs sounded really bad. The only song I find tolerable is "It's Over, Isn't It?", and even then song is only tolerable out of context. In context of the episode and it's story, I really dislike this song. And the only reason I find it tolerable out of context in the first place is because Pearl actually has really good line delivery which is also shown in "Strong In The Real Way". But other than that, half of the song's lyrics consists of repeating the same (or pretty much the same) thing 15 times, while the other half is just Pearl sulking about Rose for the billionth time. Trust me, if Pearl's voice acting wasn't so good, I'd really hate this song out of context too because the lyrics are .

CONCLUSION: And now after one long review, are finally up to the conclusion. So what do I think of the show overall? Well, it certainly has a lot of good qualities, but there are also a lot of flaws which counter that and prevent this show from being good overall. This show is strong in it's worldbuilding and lore, it's music department, has an engaging premise, presents interesting ideas and has complex characters which I mostly enjoy. Unfortunately it is also brought down by it's mediocre storytelling, a really botched overall message, and it isn't the best at managing it's characters. However I can say that this show at least does a good job at keeping my attention, and I still find this show interesting which is why it was really easy to get through. So due to having both a mix of positive and negative qualities, but still managing to be interesting and decently enjoyable to some degree, I find this show to be just okay which in my basic rating scale translates to the upper side of MEH or a 6 out of 10 (or if you are a fan of Intrancity - Fair).

FINAL RATING: MEH SHOW