Steven suddenly loses all that empathy he's been passing around to gems and random strangers and even a broken mirror, and can't muster any understanding for his own father.
Is nuance, his entire childhood Greg was Steven's rock, a solid foundation that could give him advice in moment of doubt. And that is how this episode starts, but this little escapade shows to Steven Greg is kind of an immature man child himself, and despite doing his best he wasn't the best.
Greg should have notice this and find a way to help Steven, instead his approach was self centered and caused Steven to fall deeper into his own issues.
People on /adv/ go to /adv/ to either show their point of view or look for other points of view (very often just to confirm their confirmation bias, which you can see by them immediately defending their situation at the first sign of criticism) but even then it's not a father/child relation. In the sightless.
If the people looking for advice don't like any of the advice they get, or if they get bad advice, that's not one of the most important figures in their life given that advice, and they are old enough to write in the internet.
My mother often took my and my brother's savings when I was a child. i found out when I went to buy something after penny pinching for years and found out I didn't have said money.
Somebody came into my house and rob me while I was working.
One thing traumatized me as a child, and I probably don't know how many issues that actually caused in me, the other just made me get a fence installed.
Greg let Steven move out to be raised by his weird estranged aunts when he was still only a child just because that’s what Steven wanted and Greg respected that. He even fricking built Steven and the gems a new house just for this purpose. If anything Greg respected Steven’s freedom too much.
greg was an ultra chad that learned how to take care of himself, while steven was a spoiled rich kid helping damaged women and that fricked him up, never learning to be a man and instead learning how to b***h at your problems so others could take care of them.
Greg tried to get in touch with them but they ignored his letters (while at the same time being unable to just throw them out). All signs pointed to his parents being shitty no fun allowed gays
Ah it's been a minute since I've seen it so I just assumed it's the rebellious rocker that permanently cut ties. Then nah Greg wasn't in the wrong but that doesn't necessarily make Steven anger unwarranted
Greg tried to get in touch with them but they ignored his letters (while at the same time being unable to just throw them out). All signs pointed to his parents being shitty no fun allowed gays
Lowkey kino seeing Steven going off on his dad. I wish we had more of that kind of Steven in the original run.
Still find it an interesting choice to have the entire Future series be Steven's arc since he wasn't really truly the focus in the SU, just a vessel to react to the world.
i agree but feel like people misread the message of these episodes, there isn't even a message, is mostly showing how actions have consequences regardless of how well meaning.
But people love to selfinsert on steven and go nuclear on greg for no reason.
I don't know if anyone is "wrong", but I get Steven thinking his dad is a huge homosexual after what he's learned about him and lamenting that he's been kept away from Greg's side of the family for Greg's own petty reasons.
Didn't they force him to get a crew cut and banned music to the point where he had to hide em in the vents? He also looks super uncomfortable in pretty much all his family photos
It’s also the reason Greg isn’t the side to blame for “cutting Steven off” from the rest of the family. There’s no way none of those letters mention Steven. Greg was the side that made an effort to stay in touch. Greg’s parents were the ones who needed to open the letters and respond if they were ever going to have a connection with Steven. They don’t even care whether or not he exists.
People gloss over it, but if we take prior events of the series into context it probably means something that even Uncle Andy, who made a huge fricking deal of the family needing to keep in touch, apparently had zero contact with Greg's parents.
3 months ago
Anonymous
It's called poorly managing the story.
3 months ago
Anonymous
It's called poorly managing the story.
It really was a gigantic oversight not involving Andy in that plot. It was a gigantic oversight not involving the actual fricking grandparents in that plot. Imagine Steven having to deal with a pair of hyper-conservative old grandparents that he's trying to reach with his usual love and understanding, and they just DO NOT care and refuse to value him in any capacity unless he becomes the boring model-child they demand him to be.
Make him actually see what the emotional abuse Greg went through was like, and have to confront the reality that the life he "missed out on" not only may not have been what he imagined it to be, but also certainly would have made him into a kid who couldn't have saved the galaxy from the Diamonds.
3 months ago
Anonymous
Sounds like a waste of time in what was already a frivolous unnecessary sequel to a completed show. The season would not be improved by spending multiple episodes on introducing Steven’s grandparents, and the episode itself doesn’t have room for them either.
3 months ago
Anonymous
Future itself needs restructuring from what we got, may as well add some room to properly explore this element of his family instead of just dumping it off in such an unsatisfying manner.
3 months ago
Anonymous
> Imagine Steven having to deal with a hyper-conservative old grandparents that he's trying to reach with his usual love and understanding, and they just DO NOT care and refuse to value him in any capacity unless he becomes the boring model-child they demand him to be.
they already did this arc, anon. that's literally what white is, and she only shut the frick up when steven made it clear her 'granddaughter' chose to never speak to them again before she died. if there's a more brutal way to slap sense into someone, i don't know it.
Would you guys be okay if kids and preschool shows that don't demonized characters that cut tied with shitty parents?
biological parents are untouchable in most kids shows since they're made for the kids to watch with the parents. i don't think there's a single disney movie where the main character's biological parents were objectively abusive.
3 months ago
Anonymous
>they already did this arc, anon. that's literally what white is, and she only shut the frick up when steven made it clear her 'granddaughter' chose to never speak to them again before she died. if there's a more brutal way to slap sense into someone, i don't know it.
But that ISN'T what I'm talking about. I'm talking about people who refuse to ever see things Steven's way. Make him realize that no matter how much he tries to reach them, to find any sort of compromise or soft spot or even tiny shard of love in their hearts, his grandparents do not care about him AT ALL beyond the potential to mold him into their ideal grandson that has nothing to do with who he is as a person.
White could be reached, because as wrong as she was, there were things she cared for unconditionally and could be forced to acknowledge. But in this scenario, his grandparents aren't like that; a "perfect" White Diamond, if you will.
3 months ago
Anonymous
>I'm talking about people who refuse to ever see things Steven's way.
that's final boss material, not random pouty grandparent material.
3 months ago
Anonymous
Not being the final boss is what MAKES it interesting, because Steven can't just punch them or use gem magic on them. As frustrated, and increasingly confused and angry he is with these two old buttholes, he can't do anything to them because they aren't "enemies".
3 months ago
Anonymous
>'granddaughter'
What? >never speak to them again
Pretty sure there was no transportation.
3 months ago
Anonymous
Pink is metaphorically White's grandchild
Also, no. Rose literally had a spaceship in the desert, she could have left anytime she wanted to if she had owned up to her shit. She's just like Greg in that way, burning bridges without turning back.
Greg has a consistent pattern of downplaying any bad thing that happens to him.
Remember how Amethyst tortured him psychologically by taking the form of his dead wife and he described that as 'Yeah we don't really hang out any more'
He is also a self centered "musician" who changed his name and never bothered reconnecting with not even his extended family until one of them almost got killed by the people squandering in his property.
Greg made the effort to keep his parents up to date with what was going on in his life, they just decided to not return the favor. If the extended family wanted to know what was going on, they should've been asking the parents since they had all the answers right there in those letters
>Sends them letters consistently over the years >They don't open a single one of them
What was he meant to do? Turn up on their front lawn with a boombox?
Both, though moreso Steven I guess. Greg DID try to reach out to his folks about his Steven despite his personal hangups, but his folks were too stubborn and instead just kept the letters unopened in a drawer.
Steven never gave a shit about before and only started caring because the autism he had to deal with from all the gem shit was finally getting to him. Greg's parents seemed like bland overbearing buttholes anyway
To a point I understand Greg, Steven is half alien so why not let the aliens take care of him, at the same time he is also half human and outside of being a friend to Steven Greg didn't do much for him.
Steven wanted greg to be firm with him after he crashed the van
He told him instead he was proud of what he did
Steven wanted a father not a friend that is afraid of giving his real opinion
Steven was pissed about not being told he had other living relatives sooner, and Greg probably should've opened up more about his life and their family situation sooner. Definitely before driving to and breaking into the house without prior explanation.
But consider the alternate possibility where Steven is told he has grandparents as a young naïve lad, gets himself excited with the imagined idea that they'll love him and want to meet him, begging Greg to take him to their house. Then getting hit with a reality check when they get there and they slam the door in Greg's face and refuse to acknowledge Steven.
Greg grew up in a controlling military helicopter family so he craved freedom. Steven grew up with a hands off hippie dad and constant gem related stress so he craved structure. Kid didn't even go to school. I feel like Greg was trying to give Steven everything he wishes he had as a kid, but in doing so deprived Steven of things he needed. The answer was probably somewhere in the middle. But I can't fault Greg too much. He was a single father with a full time job living out of a van with a magical prophecy child. All things considered he did a decent job
part of the journey of becoming an adult is realising your parents are flawed, thinking they're utter buttholes, then realising they tried their best with the limited tools they had. (unless they were utter c**ts who beat you or some shit). steven is realising that about greg.
although the show skipped that part of steven's emotional journey to rose and wrote her off as a forever harpy, to its detriment.
Steven. 100% Steven. So incredibly obviously Steven that it's absurd how hard the showrunners try to pretend Greg did anything wrong at all. Steven is a fricking alien being that not only needed the protection and guidance of the gems at all times for his own sake, he needed it to not accidentally hulk out on some shitty 4th grader and rip them apart with his alien strength.
This whole thing in future with Steven being traumatized and leaving everyone he loves is absolute character assassination and I'm getting really fricking sick of bad writers shoving their personal psychodrama and talk therapy onto characters and shows where they don't fit.
Man, imagine a version of events where Steven went to school.
I mean on the bright side he'd run into someone willing to actually say: >Lmao, look at this fat little gay boi wearing a dress
To his face
Steven. 100% Steven. So incredibly obviously Steven that it's absurd how hard the showrunners try to pretend Greg did anything wrong at all. Steven is a fricking alien being that not only needed the protection and guidance of the gems at all times for his own sake, he needed it to not accidentally hulk out on some shitty 4th grader and rip them apart with his alien strength.
This whole thing in future with Steven being traumatized and leaving everyone he loves is absolute character assassination and I'm getting really fricking sick of bad writers shoving their personal psychodrama and talk therapy onto characters and shows where they don't fit.
Imagine a world where instead of getting used to gem adventures and practicing with his bubble and beating up giant breakfasts Steven just got bullied mercilessly in public school and then the diamonds destroyed the planet effortlessly
>Steven is a fricking alien being that not only needed the protection
From who? This whole premise that Steven "needed protection" only works if there was someone on Earth looking for him, and as we can all see that was never the case. There's no CIA or SCP or any alien detection force trying to counter the Gems so it's unnecessary.
Greg, meanwhile, never took his infant son to the hospital and until the Beach House was buitl was living out of other peoples homes because he refused to get a job. Even if we believe that his folks were abusive, he still should've made sure someone knew he had a fricking kid that can't take care of. The guy is a horrible parent and a selfish manchild.
>from who!? Nobody's looking for Steven!
homie did you even watch the fricking show?
Forget the fricking diamonds, at the start of the show he needs protection FROM HIMSELF. HE ALMOST TURNS INTO A HORDE OF cats IN LIKE EPISODE THREE. >he never took him to a hospital!
Because he's not a fricking human you twat
Adult Steven goes to the hospital and Connie's mom goes "I don't know what the frick I'm looking at"
Go cry into your porridge some more you dangerhair frick
>Don't have kids
I find the idea of having kids at this point in history downright evil.
I spoil the shit outta my nephew though. Poor fricker is in for a world of hurt.
>Imagine a world where instead of getting used to gem adventures and practicing with his bubble and beating up giant breakfasts Steven just got bullied mercilessly in public school and then the diamonds destroyed the planet effortlessly
Pretty much. Steven can talk shit all he likes but at the end of the day the only reason the world didn't end is because his father knew he needed to learn to do Gem stuff and gave him up to a group of bitter lesbians who hated his guts so he could do it. >B-bu-but I wanted a normal childho-
You want that delicious green grass on the other side of the fence you chubby little fricker. Don't pretend you'd be any happier if you were over there.
>his father knew he needed to learn to do Gem stuff
No he didn’t. Greg didn’t make that decision for Steven, he let Steven make that decision himself (despite Steven being a child). I’m willing to bet that if Steven had wanted to join the circus or go to a british boarding school, Greg would have been equally as supportive and would have done what was in his power to make it happen. But Steven chose to be a magical girl and then regretted it and whined that Greg should have stepped in and made him go to normal school instead.
>whined that Greg should have stepped in and made him go to normal school instead
Which, again, would have led to Steven dying at age 8 and dissociating into a horde of cats and then the entire world explodes due to the cluster.
>Steven is a fricking alien being that not only needed the protection
From who? This whole premise that Steven "needed protection" only works if there was someone on Earth looking for him, and as we can all see that was never the case. There's no CIA or SCP or any alien detection force trying to counter the Gems so it's unnecessary.
Greg, meanwhile, never took his infant son to the hospital and until the Beach House was buitl was living out of other peoples homes because he refused to get a job. Even if we believe that his folks were abusive, he still should've made sure someone knew he had a fricking kid that can't take care of. The guy is a horrible parent and a selfish manchild.
>this premise only works if there is someone on Earth looking for him, like say someone curious about the existence of sapient alien life or government agencies concerned about national security
In other words, a premise where human beings behave like human beings, which are also really the only ones where PTSD and child neglect plotlines can work or at least be effective.
Suspension of disbelief is nuanced like that. Everyone is willing to go along with a guy having an alien son, but you can't just go "and nobody gives a shit" unless you establish why, such as keeping it a secret or a setting it in a multi-species civilization where it's commonplace.
Greg not taking his infant alien son to the hospital doesn't make sense, in a setting where the doctor doesn't care that she's looking at an alien/human hybrid baby, which also doesn't make sense. In a more realistic premise (like fricking Superman, I guess), there would be danger to exposing Steven's alien origin and powers to kids at school or the media.
If you want to take your plucky boy adventure story and then re-contextualize it on how it was actually traumatizing child abuse, you don't get to keep enjoying "also humans are basically moronic zoo animals who don't care about alien invasions or the potential destruction of their planet", which is what SUF wanted.
>Steven, you don't understand what your grandparents were like! All your life you've been surrounded by people that adored you. Between me, the Crystal Gems, Connie's family, everybody in Beach City - you're loved. Heck, even the Diamonds love you now that they know you! You've never known what it's like to realize that somebody important to you doesn't love you. I tried to be everything my parents wanted me to be, but it wasn't enough to make them love me. I was just a tool for them. That's why I ran, and it's why I never brought you back there. If they couldn't accept me, I don't even want to THINK of the things they'd say about a kid with a gem in his stomach! You deserve a family that loves you, Steven. But my parents didn't love anybody.
It’s also the reason Greg isn’t the side to blame for “cutting Steven off” from the rest of the family. There’s no way none of those letters mention Steven. Greg was the side that made an effort to stay in touch. Greg’s parents were the ones who needed to open the letters and respond if they were ever going to have a connection with Steven. They don’t even care whether or not he exists.
Don't people who were shitty parents tend to become awesome grandparents?
>Don't people who were shitty parents tend to become awesome grandparents?
That's simplifying it. When they have zero "real" responsibility to properly raise a grandkid, some grandparents are just more doting and kind than they ever were to their own kids. Some genuinely became better caregivers but others just do better without that responsibility. Either way it doesn't really change things if they were a garbage parent.
>Don't people who were shitty parents tend to become awesome grandparents?
No? It’s sometimes a trope in fiction that strict over bearing parents become over indulgent as grandparents because they just wanna have fun with their grandkids, but that doesn’t make them suddenly better at parenting or anything.
I've got to say, the morality of Steven Universe is wild.
dictator that wishes to turn everything into herself in a metaphor for complete narcissism >Totes redeemable by UwU kid jokes >Conservative parents? >Literally worse than (the aforementioned) Hitler
The 'people' that write this shit really are beyond parody.
>I am so goddam stupid is not even funny
We know anon
The diamonds are a neccesary evil to fix the gem race and for that to exist
Is not like you can destroy them and call it a day
Hell steven never forgave them
Steven was completely in the wrong in this situation. He imagined a situation of what it would be like to be the normal kid who did the normal things and lived the normal life and didn't have to deal with all his gem shit, contextualizing it in his head as something that HAD to of been great and absolutely refusing to see any other side of the argument beyond the assumption that he would enjoy living said normal life--even without having the slightest sample of what said life would be like. To top it off, he contextualizes Greg as some sort of antagonist who never tried to weave those bonds but as many people in this thread have openly pointed out, he clearly did try and they weren't receptive. Greg is, what, in his early-mid 40s? And he implied he ran off as either a teenager or just barely a young adult. There's only so long you can desperately reach out to a bunch of people who clearly want nothing to do with you. Especially if you're creating your own new life with the people around you.
SUF was just cosmically weak as a whole, and this episode was late enough in the show that I had admittedly already given up on it.
Yeah this really great did his best, in fact most of steven's worst life moments are because the gems were being idiots. He trusted them because they implied to him it'd be better for him to be with them and greg trying to be better than his parents. So he tried to trust steven but the gems were actively shitty and had no chill. Steven probably never could have had a normal life as the ends would have always ended the same way just without him being instantly involved. He basically was a complete dick throughout future for no reason, like yeah trauma but it's so dumb it only happens now after the story is long over. Really just shows that rebecca is a terrible lead writer, she literally only gave steven a character arc after the series where it'd have had the most space to grow was over and in a after arc. Imagine steven trauma starting S2 and slowly building to him raging on one of the diamonds or gems for being shitty schizos.
Steven's "trauma" during the show proper would have just brought the show to a screeching halt never to recover.
The through-line of the show was Steven's optimism and high emotional intelligence breaking down and curing generational trauma.
His "arc" in Future was the complete and total opposite of that. It doesn't just not fit in with the lore of the series (as others have pointed out he would've been fricking dead and so would the planet if he'd gone to regular-ass school) it doesn't fit thematically either. It's a fricking mess because it's someone's personal issues with their parents being transplanted into an existing character and world that wasn't built for it.
It's kind of the same problem I have with the ending/message of Fionna and Cake. It's not a terrible theme or message on its own, but it absolutely does not fricking work in the context of the world it was shoved into.
Gotta agree with this. One of the most blaring problems in SUF is that Steven pretty much is a completely different character entirely in the service of the trauma story they wanted to tell. And I'm not saying the trauma isn't possible, obviously he's been through some shit, but he went from being an optimist who has to question himself in lieu of growing knowledge...to a whiny overemotional teenager with the only excuse for it being 'puberty'. Though I suppose it fits in with literally the entire cast of SU being massively flanderized to maximum dipshittery in SUF.
I would disagree, I think his characterization in Future still fits, weve been shown that he spends the entire show helping other people, but in future no one needs help anymore. I have some experience with this, when you spend so much time helping everyone around you, stuff builds up with yourself that goes unadressed, so when you get to a point in your life where no one needs you to help them, you dont know what to do with your self and that can cause some issues
Yes, but that's the broadest possible strokes of the story of Future. Painting Greg as being irresponsible for letting the magic aliens raise the magic alien child is ridiculous, and Steven's EQ drops triple digits both in terms of introspection and understanding his friends and family
>Dad I want to be a crystal gem >DAD WHY THE FRICK DID YOU LET ME BE A CRYSTAL GEM?
homie was turning into a cat, idk what to say, imagine he turning into a fricking monster without taming his powers
Imagine if Cat Fingers had happened while he was in the public school system. It probably would've been grounds to suspend him on grounds of being a danger to the other students. Really most of his powers would be. I kind of doubt Steven would've lasted long in school.
you're meant to be a little shit to your parents, greg only never got hit with it before cause steven was repressing his entire psyche to be the Peacekeeper.
95% Steven for not being able to control himself and crashing the car 5% Greg for not being able to read the room at all.
Steven suddenly loses all that empathy he's been passing around to gems and random strangers and even a broken mirror, and can't muster any understanding for his own father.
Is nuance, his entire childhood Greg was Steven's rock, a solid foundation that could give him advice in moment of doubt. And that is how this episode starts, but this little escapade shows to Steven Greg is kind of an immature man child himself, and despite doing his best he wasn't the best.
Greg should have notice this and find a way to help Steven, instead his approach was self centered and caused Steven to fall deeper into his own issues.
People on /adv/ do the same thing.
shocker we are all human and make mistakes
People on /adv/ go to /adv/ to either show their point of view or look for other points of view (very often just to confirm their confirmation bias, which you can see by them immediately defending their situation at the first sign of criticism) but even then it's not a father/child relation. In the sightless.
If the people looking for advice don't like any of the advice they get, or if they get bad advice, that's not one of the most important figures in their life given that advice, and they are old enough to write in the internet.
My mother often took my and my brother's savings when I was a child. i found out when I went to buy something after penny pinching for years and found out I didn't have said money.
Somebody came into my house and rob me while I was working.
One thing traumatized me as a child, and I probably don't know how many issues that actually caused in me, the other just made me get a fence installed.
greg for isolating his child. he has a pattern of this, remember the episode where he pretended his leg was broken?
yeah, he's his rock because he made no effort to introduce him to new things
Greg let Steven move out to be raised by his weird estranged aunts when he was still only a child just because that’s what Steven wanted and Greg respected that. He even fricking built Steven and the gems a new house just for this purpose. If anything Greg respected Steven’s freedom too much.
greg was an ultra chad that learned how to take care of himself, while steven was a spoiled rich kid helping damaged women and that fricked him up, never learning to be a man and instead learning how to b***h at your problems so others could take care of them.
so this only proves that steven needed his father and that leaving him with 3 unstable lesbians affected him psychologically for the worse
5 unstable lesbian one of them is two
that makes 4
i like this take, yeah Greg loves Steven but not enough to change for him
People who ex communicate their family are generally homosexuals so I'll say Greg
His parents' house had a bunch of letters from Greg that were unopened.
He evidently wanted to keep in contact with them, but they didn't.
Ah it's been a minute since I've seen it so I just assumed it's the rebellious rocker that permanently cut ties. Then nah Greg wasn't in the wrong but that doesn't necessarily make Steven anger unwarranted
Greg tried to get in touch with them but they ignored his letters (while at the same time being unable to just throw them out). All signs pointed to his parents being shitty no fun allowed gays
Lowkey kino seeing Steven going off on his dad. I wish we had more of that kind of Steven in the original run.
Still find it an interesting choice to have the entire Future series be Steven's arc since he wasn't really truly the focus in the SU, just a vessel to react to the world.
i agree but feel like people misread the message of these episodes, there isn't even a message, is mostly showing how actions have consequences regardless of how well meaning.
But people love to selfinsert on steven and go nuclear on greg for no reason.
I don't know if anyone is "wrong", but I get Steven thinking his dad is a huge homosexual after what he's learned about him and lamenting that he's been kept away from Greg's side of the family for Greg's own petty reasons.
>for Greg's own petty reasons.
Running away from your abusive parents who haven't even bothered to open your letters isn't really petty.
They seemed to be more stick that abusive. The worse thing Greg said about them was how bland their meatloaf was.
Didn't they force him to get a crew cut and banned music to the point where he had to hide em in the vents? He also looks super uncomfortable in pretty much all his family photos
>He also looks super uncomfortable in pretty much all his family photos
so do all twitter users
They didn't open his letters.
Like he made an effort to reach out to them and they didn't even open them. That's a big red flag right there.
It’s also the reason Greg isn’t the side to blame for “cutting Steven off” from the rest of the family. There’s no way none of those letters mention Steven. Greg was the side that made an effort to stay in touch. Greg’s parents were the ones who needed to open the letters and respond if they were ever going to have a connection with Steven. They don’t even care whether or not he exists.
People gloss over it, but if we take prior events of the series into context it probably means something that even Uncle Andy, who made a huge fricking deal of the family needing to keep in touch, apparently had zero contact with Greg's parents.
It's called poorly managing the story.
It really was a gigantic oversight not involving Andy in that plot. It was a gigantic oversight not involving the actual fricking grandparents in that plot. Imagine Steven having to deal with a pair of hyper-conservative old grandparents that he's trying to reach with his usual love and understanding, and they just DO NOT care and refuse to value him in any capacity unless he becomes the boring model-child they demand him to be.
Make him actually see what the emotional abuse Greg went through was like, and have to confront the reality that the life he "missed out on" not only may not have been what he imagined it to be, but also certainly would have made him into a kid who couldn't have saved the galaxy from the Diamonds.
Sounds like a waste of time in what was already a frivolous unnecessary sequel to a completed show. The season would not be improved by spending multiple episodes on introducing Steven’s grandparents, and the episode itself doesn’t have room for them either.
Future itself needs restructuring from what we got, may as well add some room to properly explore this element of his family instead of just dumping it off in such an unsatisfying manner.
> Imagine Steven having to deal with a hyper-conservative old grandparents that he's trying to reach with his usual love and understanding, and they just DO NOT care and refuse to value him in any capacity unless he becomes the boring model-child they demand him to be.
they already did this arc, anon. that's literally what white is, and she only shut the frick up when steven made it clear her 'granddaughter' chose to never speak to them again before she died. if there's a more brutal way to slap sense into someone, i don't know it.
biological parents are untouchable in most kids shows since they're made for the kids to watch with the parents. i don't think there's a single disney movie where the main character's biological parents were objectively abusive.
>they already did this arc, anon. that's literally what white is, and she only shut the frick up when steven made it clear her 'granddaughter' chose to never speak to them again before she died. if there's a more brutal way to slap sense into someone, i don't know it.
But that ISN'T what I'm talking about. I'm talking about people who refuse to ever see things Steven's way. Make him realize that no matter how much he tries to reach them, to find any sort of compromise or soft spot or even tiny shard of love in their hearts, his grandparents do not care about him AT ALL beyond the potential to mold him into their ideal grandson that has nothing to do with who he is as a person.
White could be reached, because as wrong as she was, there were things she cared for unconditionally and could be forced to acknowledge. But in this scenario, his grandparents aren't like that; a "perfect" White Diamond, if you will.
>I'm talking about people who refuse to ever see things Steven's way.
that's final boss material, not random pouty grandparent material.
Not being the final boss is what MAKES it interesting, because Steven can't just punch them or use gem magic on them. As frustrated, and increasingly confused and angry he is with these two old buttholes, he can't do anything to them because they aren't "enemies".
>'granddaughter'
What?
>never speak to them again
Pretty sure there was no transportation.
Pink is metaphorically White's grandchild
Also, no. Rose literally had a spaceship in the desert, she could have left anytime she wanted to if she had owned up to her shit. She's just like Greg in that way, burning bridges without turning back.
Greg has a consistent pattern of downplaying any bad thing that happens to him.
Remember how Amethyst tortured him psychologically by taking the form of his dead wife and he described that as 'Yeah we don't really hang out any more'
True but the tone in that argument doesn't indicate he is trying to downplay his parents. He seems to be venting if anything.
It felt implied that Greg was downplaying a lot of things from his past
He is also a self centered "musician" who changed his name and never bothered reconnecting with not even his extended family until one of them almost got killed by the people squandering in his property.
why should he have to talk to people just because he is related to them?
Greg made the effort to keep his parents up to date with what was going on in his life, they just decided to not return the favor. If the extended family wanted to know what was going on, they should've been asking the parents since they had all the answers right there in those letters
>Sends them letters consistently over the years
>They don't open a single one of them
What was he meant to do? Turn up on their front lawn with a boombox?
Both, though moreso Steven I guess. Greg DID try to reach out to his folks about his Steven despite his personal hangups, but his folks were too stubborn and instead just kept the letters unopened in a drawer.
Steven never gave a shit about before and only started caring because the autism he had to deal with from all the gem shit was finally getting to him. Greg's parents seemed like bland overbearing buttholes anyway
To a point I understand Greg, Steven is half alien so why not let the aliens take care of him, at the same time he is also half human and outside of being a friend to Steven Greg didn't do much for him.
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steven shouldn't have been driving
Greg for murdering his wife
Technically it was suicide.
Don’t blame Greg, the murder wiener cannot be controlled.
Steven wanted greg to be firm with him after he crashed the van
He told him instead he was proud of what he did
Steven wanted a father not a friend that is afraid of giving his real opinion
but that was Greg's real opinion.
Me for giving this show attention and the creators for creating the show
Steven was pissed about not being told he had other living relatives sooner, and Greg probably should've opened up more about his life and their family situation sooner. Definitely before driving to and breaking into the house without prior explanation.
But consider the alternate possibility where Steven is told he has grandparents as a young naïve lad, gets himself excited with the imagined idea that they'll love him and want to meet him, begging Greg to take him to their house. Then getting hit with a reality check when they get there and they slam the door in Greg's face and refuse to acknowledge Steven.
Greg grew up in a controlling military helicopter family so he craved freedom. Steven grew up with a hands off hippie dad and constant gem related stress so he craved structure. Kid didn't even go to school. I feel like Greg was trying to give Steven everything he wishes he had as a kid, but in doing so deprived Steven of things he needed. The answer was probably somewhere in the middle. But I can't fault Greg too much. He was a single father with a full time job living out of a van with a magical prophecy child. All things considered he did a decent job
neither of them, really.
part of the journey of becoming an adult is realising your parents are flawed, thinking they're utter buttholes, then realising they tried their best with the limited tools they had. (unless they were utter c**ts who beat you or some shit). steven is realising that about greg.
although the show skipped that part of steven's emotional journey to rose and wrote her off as a forever harpy, to its detriment.
Steven. 100% Steven. So incredibly obviously Steven that it's absurd how hard the showrunners try to pretend Greg did anything wrong at all. Steven is a fricking alien being that not only needed the protection and guidance of the gems at all times for his own sake, he needed it to not accidentally hulk out on some shitty 4th grader and rip them apart with his alien strength.
This whole thing in future with Steven being traumatized and leaving everyone he loves is absolute character assassination and I'm getting really fricking sick of bad writers shoving their personal psychodrama and talk therapy onto characters and shows where they don't fit.
Man, imagine a version of events where Steven went to school.
I mean on the bright side he'd run into someone willing to actually say:
>Lmao, look at this fat little gay boi wearing a dress
To his face
Imagine a world where instead of getting used to gem adventures and practicing with his bubble and beating up giant breakfasts Steven just got bullied mercilessly in public school and then the diamonds destroyed the planet effortlessly
>from who!? Nobody's looking for Steven!
homie did you even watch the fricking show?
Forget the fricking diamonds, at the start of the show he needs protection FROM HIMSELF. HE ALMOST TURNS INTO A HORDE OF cats IN LIKE EPISODE THREE.
>he never took him to a hospital!
Because he's not a fricking human you twat
Adult Steven goes to the hospital and Connie's mom goes "I don't know what the frick I'm looking at"
Go cry into your porridge some more you dangerhair frick
Don't have kids man, you might forget them in the gutter.
>Don't have kids
I find the idea of having kids at this point in history downright evil.
I spoil the shit outta my nephew though. Poor fricker is in for a world of hurt.
>Imagine a world where instead of getting used to gem adventures and practicing with his bubble and beating up giant breakfasts Steven just got bullied mercilessly in public school and then the diamonds destroyed the planet effortlessly
Pretty much. Steven can talk shit all he likes but at the end of the day the only reason the world didn't end is because his father knew he needed to learn to do Gem stuff and gave him up to a group of bitter lesbians who hated his guts so he could do it.
>B-bu-but I wanted a normal childho-
You want that delicious green grass on the other side of the fence you chubby little fricker. Don't pretend you'd be any happier if you were over there.
>his father knew he needed to learn to do Gem stuff
No he didn’t. Greg didn’t make that decision for Steven, he let Steven make that decision himself (despite Steven being a child). I’m willing to bet that if Steven had wanted to join the circus or go to a british boarding school, Greg would have been equally as supportive and would have done what was in his power to make it happen. But Steven chose to be a magical girl and then regretted it and whined that Greg should have stepped in and made him go to normal school instead.
>whined that Greg should have stepped in and made him go to normal school instead
Which, again, would have led to Steven dying at age 8 and dissociating into a horde of cats and then the entire world explodes due to the cluster.
>Steven is a fricking alien being that not only needed the protection
From who? This whole premise that Steven "needed protection" only works if there was someone on Earth looking for him, and as we can all see that was never the case. There's no CIA or SCP or any alien detection force trying to counter the Gems so it's unnecessary.
Greg, meanwhile, never took his infant son to the hospital and until the Beach House was buitl was living out of other peoples homes because he refused to get a job. Even if we believe that his folks were abusive, he still should've made sure someone knew he had a fricking kid that can't take care of. The guy is a horrible parent and a selfish manchild.
>this premise only works if there is someone on Earth looking for him, like say someone curious about the existence of sapient alien life or government agencies concerned about national security
In other words, a premise where human beings behave like human beings, which are also really the only ones where PTSD and child neglect plotlines can work or at least be effective.
Suspension of disbelief is nuanced like that. Everyone is willing to go along with a guy having an alien son, but you can't just go "and nobody gives a shit" unless you establish why, such as keeping it a secret or a setting it in a multi-species civilization where it's commonplace.
Greg not taking his infant alien son to the hospital doesn't make sense, in a setting where the doctor doesn't care that she's looking at an alien/human hybrid baby, which also doesn't make sense. In a more realistic premise (like fricking Superman, I guess), there would be danger to exposing Steven's alien origin and powers to kids at school or the media.
If you want to take your plucky boy adventure story and then re-contextualize it on how it was actually traumatizing child abuse, you don't get to keep enjoying "also humans are basically moronic zoo animals who don't care about alien invasions or the potential destruction of their planet", which is what SUF wanted.
>Steven, you don't understand what your grandparents were like! All your life you've been surrounded by people that adored you. Between me, the Crystal Gems, Connie's family, everybody in Beach City - you're loved. Heck, even the Diamonds love you now that they know you! You've never known what it's like to realize that somebody important to you doesn't love you. I tried to be everything my parents wanted me to be, but it wasn't enough to make them love me. I was just a tool for them. That's why I ran, and it's why I never brought you back there. If they couldn't accept me, I don't even want to THINK of the things they'd say about a kid with a gem in his stomach! You deserve a family that loves you, Steven. But my parents didn't love anybody.
Why does it feel like Sugar venting here?
Don't people who were shitty parents tend to become awesome grandparents?
>Don't people who were shitty parents tend to become awesome grandparents?
That's simplifying it. When they have zero "real" responsibility to properly raise a grandkid, some grandparents are just more doting and kind than they ever were to their own kids. Some genuinely became better caregivers but others just do better without that responsibility. Either way it doesn't really change things if they were a garbage parent.
>Don't people who were shitty parents tend to become awesome grandparents?
No? It’s sometimes a trope in fiction that strict over bearing parents become over indulgent as grandparents because they just wanna have fun with their grandkids, but that doesn’t make them suddenly better at parenting or anything.
The problem with that episode is that Steven could ask Andy to have both clarification and confirmation.
Would you guys be okay if kids and preschool shows that don't demonized characters that cut tied with shitty parents?
If the writers of Future had their way Steven would be bullied misanthropist and medical curiosity on a planet doomed to be consumed by the cluster.
>when the elite skill doesn't deserve its elite status
https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Talk:Shadow_Prison
The team for not making a longer, full version of the song.
I've got to say, the morality of Steven Universe is wild.
dictator that wishes to turn everything into herself in a metaphor for complete narcissism
>Totes redeemable by UwU kid jokes
>Conservative parents?
>Literally worse than (the aforementioned) Hitler
The 'people' that write this shit really are beyond parody.
>I am so goddam stupid is not even funny
We know anon
The diamonds are a neccesary evil to fix the gem race and for that to exist
Is not like you can destroy them and call it a day
Hell steven never forgave them
Steven was completely in the wrong in this situation. He imagined a situation of what it would be like to be the normal kid who did the normal things and lived the normal life and didn't have to deal with all his gem shit, contextualizing it in his head as something that HAD to of been great and absolutely refusing to see any other side of the argument beyond the assumption that he would enjoy living said normal life--even without having the slightest sample of what said life would be like. To top it off, he contextualizes Greg as some sort of antagonist who never tried to weave those bonds but as many people in this thread have openly pointed out, he clearly did try and they weren't receptive. Greg is, what, in his early-mid 40s? And he implied he ran off as either a teenager or just barely a young adult. There's only so long you can desperately reach out to a bunch of people who clearly want nothing to do with you. Especially if you're creating your own new life with the people around you.
SUF was just cosmically weak as a whole, and this episode was late enough in the show that I had admittedly already given up on it.
Yeah this really great did his best, in fact most of steven's worst life moments are because the gems were being idiots. He trusted them because they implied to him it'd be better for him to be with them and greg trying to be better than his parents. So he tried to trust steven but the gems were actively shitty and had no chill. Steven probably never could have had a normal life as the ends would have always ended the same way just without him being instantly involved. He basically was a complete dick throughout future for no reason, like yeah trauma but it's so dumb it only happens now after the story is long over. Really just shows that rebecca is a terrible lead writer, she literally only gave steven a character arc after the series where it'd have had the most space to grow was over and in a after arc. Imagine steven trauma starting S2 and slowly building to him raging on one of the diamonds or gems for being shitty schizos.
Steven's "trauma" during the show proper would have just brought the show to a screeching halt never to recover.
The through-line of the show was Steven's optimism and high emotional intelligence breaking down and curing generational trauma.
His "arc" in Future was the complete and total opposite of that. It doesn't just not fit in with the lore of the series (as others have pointed out he would've been fricking dead and so would the planet if he'd gone to regular-ass school) it doesn't fit thematically either. It's a fricking mess because it's someone's personal issues with their parents being transplanted into an existing character and world that wasn't built for it.
It's kind of the same problem I have with the ending/message of Fionna and Cake. It's not a terrible theme or message on its own, but it absolutely does not fricking work in the context of the world it was shoved into.
Gotta agree with this. One of the most blaring problems in SUF is that Steven pretty much is a completely different character entirely in the service of the trauma story they wanted to tell. And I'm not saying the trauma isn't possible, obviously he's been through some shit, but he went from being an optimist who has to question himself in lieu of growing knowledge...to a whiny overemotional teenager with the only excuse for it being 'puberty'. Though I suppose it fits in with literally the entire cast of SU being massively flanderized to maximum dipshittery in SUF.
I would disagree, I think his characterization in Future still fits, weve been shown that he spends the entire show helping other people, but in future no one needs help anymore. I have some experience with this, when you spend so much time helping everyone around you, stuff builds up with yourself that goes unadressed, so when you get to a point in your life where no one needs you to help them, you dont know what to do with your self and that can cause some issues
Yes, but that's the broadest possible strokes of the story of Future. Painting Greg as being irresponsible for letting the magic aliens raise the magic alien child is ridiculous, and Steven's EQ drops triple digits both in terms of introspection and understanding his friends and family
>Who was in the wrong here?
The writers of this show. The whole thing was wasted potential.
>Dad I want to be a crystal gem
>DAD WHY THE FRICK DID YOU LET ME BE A CRYSTAL GEM?
homie was turning into a cat, idk what to say, imagine he turning into a fricking monster without taming his powers
If Steven just went to school Beach City gets obliterated by the red eye while some inner city kid calls him a fat homosexual
Imagine if Cat Fingers had happened while he was in the public school system. It probably would've been grounds to suspend him on grounds of being a danger to the other students. Really most of his powers would be. I kind of doubt Steven would've lasted long in school.
you're meant to be a little shit to your parents, greg only never got hit with it before cause steven was repressing his entire psyche to be the Peacekeeper.
Steven Universe was a mistake.