Steven Universe
Aug. 1st, 2018 04:10 pmOver the last couple of weeks I've been watching Steven Universe. I've now caught up with all available episodes. It's recent kids cartoon about a boy and his family which made up of three magical Gems and Steven's human dad. There are wacky adventures, but also a complex plot and characters communicating with each other about their feelings.
I have so many feelings about the characters. The show does really good job with all of them. I like how the show focuses on talking and communicating. I went to a panel at WisCon that talked a lot about how Steven subverts gender norms by having female mentors, showing his feelings, and working to help other people connect with each other and that's something I really enjoy about the show. That panel was one of the things that made me finally watch the show. Another thing I like the diversity: all of Steven's mentors are voiced by women of color, his best friend is a Desi girl, and there are a lot of queer characters including a non binary character. I'm also finding the music very accessible -- like the songs make me feel things which isn't something that happens to me with a lot music. It helps that they all have lyrics I can understand.
The show does have some problems -- there are couple of relationships that are pretty toxic and I'm not sure the creators know that, and I wish it engaged more with some of the anti-colonialist themes it brings up. And there are a couple of other things that I'm reserving judgement on for now but might be problems. I've been avoiding media with dead moms -- and SU has dead mom who also gave up her physical form to create Steven which is pretty creepy. For me the range of other female characters who act as role models makes up for this. They also use the word "lame" as an insult, which is not great.
I love how the show builds characters and the world but introducing small facts and then adding to them gradually to make a big picture. It makes for a really rich show. And it lets the characters have some pretty complex and interesting relationships. The show is made up of 10 minutes episodes which are pretty short but that makes them a great fit for my life right now where I don't have many long stretches of uninterrupted time. Anyways I'm kind of obsessed with it at the moment, if you've seen it come tell me what you think? Or I'd love recs for fanworks or criticism about the show.
(Potential for spoilers in the comments)
I have so many feelings about the characters. The show does really good job with all of them. I like how the show focuses on talking and communicating. I went to a panel at WisCon that talked a lot about how Steven subverts gender norms by having female mentors, showing his feelings, and working to help other people connect with each other and that's something I really enjoy about the show. That panel was one of the things that made me finally watch the show. Another thing I like the diversity: all of Steven's mentors are voiced by women of color, his best friend is a Desi girl, and there are a lot of queer characters including a non binary character. I'm also finding the music very accessible -- like the songs make me feel things which isn't something that happens to me with a lot music. It helps that they all have lyrics I can understand.
The show does have some problems -- there are couple of relationships that are pretty toxic and I'm not sure the creators know that, and I wish it engaged more with some of the anti-colonialist themes it brings up. And there are a couple of other things that I'm reserving judgement on for now but might be problems. I've been avoiding media with dead moms -- and SU has dead mom who also gave up her physical form to create Steven which is pretty creepy. For me the range of other female characters who act as role models makes up for this. They also use the word "lame" as an insult, which is not great.
I love how the show builds characters and the world but introducing small facts and then adding to them gradually to make a big picture. It makes for a really rich show. And it lets the characters have some pretty complex and interesting relationships. The show is made up of 10 minutes episodes which are pretty short but that makes them a great fit for my life right now where I don't have many long stretches of uninterrupted time. Anyways I'm kind of obsessed with it at the moment, if you've seen it come tell me what you think? Or I'd love recs for fanworks or criticism about the show.
(Potential for spoilers in the comments)
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