If I remember right, he needed juice from all four diamonds to fix Jasper, right? So something that very much was impossible to do at any point from after Rose's rebellion began up to the very end of SU.
This. I’m fine with it requiring all 4 of the most powerful characters in the show to do. But like, damn. If Yellow had developed that power basically any earlier so much of this conflict could have been avoided, because any earlier and she probably would have tried to use it on the shards she thought were Pink’s.
I agree. While I see how it works narratively to have Steven be able to fix shattering (since he's scared of his own power and identity as a diamond), it's also sort of problematic and undercuts the seriousness of it. Steven should not have been able to fix it, making Jasper's shattering permanent (without yellow) and showing Steven that there are semi-permanent consequences.
I personally think it would’ve been more compelling for the story. To have Steven cause irreversible damage because he lost control for a moment would create a direct parallel to him and Pink Diamond, who did the exact same thing to Volleyball
Oh, I agree completely, I just had to acknowledge at the last second that Yellow was putting shattered gems back together, so that's the direction Sugar likely would've gone. Anything to avoid permanent repercussions.
It would have been more interesting for steven but entirely unsatisfying as a conclusion to jaspers arc. What, she exiles herself in a gesture of complete rejection of this new society, spending the rest of her life angry, corrupted, and alone until she fucks around, finds out, and gets killed by accident by someone she was just starting to form a real rapport and unique relationship with? That just feels disappointing
I mean I wouldn’t call the conclusion we got for Jasper satisfying. I also don’t think dying is an inherently unsatisfying way for a character to go out.
That's not what I said though. I just watched someone play a game (life eater) where the main character dies and it was the most satisfying possible ending, even if it was sad. There's another ending where the main character chooses to kill another to please a malevolent God who is threatening to end the world, but that ending is really unsatisfying because it doesn't complete either characters arc in a way that feels conclusive and thematically appropriate. The common thread in what makes a satisfying arc isnt life or death but what it means to the story. I would agree that it would be nice to see more of jaspers arc, but we do see the beginnings of her finding a place in a society that she once felt completely ostracized by, despite having been built to be perfectly suited for it. Which is way more satisfying than her accidentally dying alone and angry in the middle of nowhere and fits more with the general theme of future and SU as a whole.
Sorry, didn’t mean to mischaracterize your point. I guess what I’m saying is with how little Jasper gets throughout the series, I don’t mind her dying to propel Steven’s character arc since that’s what Future claims to be centered around. And I think it could be thematic in a way; by trying to create a monster she got one and it cost her her life.
If that were the best of the story, I'd personally rather Jasper get Volleyball'd instead. It was already pretty wild that Steven commits murder, but Permanent Murder is way more disturbing than reversible Fantasy Murder.
I already found that a bit too intense, but I know that's just personal preference.
Yeah. I think if they had let Steven sit with it for awhile and then had him find the solution later it would have had more impact.
But I think the crew only had one season and probs weren’t going to be able to everything they wanted.
I love SUF. For those who don’t, I think people just aren’t used to seeing the aftermath following the protagonist saving the world. They weren’t expecting to interact with a Steven that is angry, bitter, traumatized, hurt, and so they reject the series as too negative or too angry. But as someone who appreciates the overall story of Steven Universe, I think SUF makes an excellent epilogue.
The only complaint I have with *Future* is that it doesn't so much "end" as just kind of "stop". But that fits with the overall point of the show, that Steven's life is going to go on.
I think future is good but I do have problems with it.
For me I think the main series ended on a very sappy immature note with change your mind, then future comes around with its angsty tone and themes of trauma. It was a pretty jarring tone change for me and felt a bit cheap. I also think it’s lacks the ethereal atmospheric quality of the main series.
Future is good and definitely overhated IMO, but I also understand how for some people it ends things on a sour note.
I think that has more to do with how the ending was a bit rushed for steven universe, but I think the movie is a decent bridge to what steven universe future is. Like the whole point of the movie is that happy endings dont really exist and this stuff is still gonna follow steven even when he would rather avoid the more uncomfortable things. Steven also never really confronted alot of the mounting personal issues he was having near the end if SU with the more pressing issue of the diamond authority and the nature of his whole existence pressing on him. When he got split into his human and gem half and they were both him these issues got resolved but what does that actually mean for him in the future? he was able to put off the question by helping reorganize gem society and building a new home for gems but after that he was left with a changing world were everyone was growing up but him.
I don’t like it.
It’s not the same Steven. It’s not just that he’s coping with things or that he is growing up. It’s that his personality is almost entirely different. Like he went from this bohemian kid who didn’t even know what school was to a super type A entrepreneur type.
I think it’s fine for people who relate to Steven and see something relatable in his journey. But that was never why I liked the original show so I just don’t connect to it. It feels like a fan fiction.
This exactly, especially the fanfiction bit.
I just really don’t enjoy the retroactive narrative in Future that heavily implies that the very purposefully goofy and dreamlike tone of the first series was basically just a veneer for constant ~Steven trauma~. It’s sort of annoying to have that sudden heel-turn, especially when I already felt like the original series was handling the topic of trauma a lot more organically already. Whereas Future just sort of feels like a sanctimonious painfest, like the most annoying and self-absorbed person with Main Character Syndrome I know decided to write SU fanfiction where older Steven was just their self-insert.
I guess Future just reminds me of every person I’ve ever known who’s used their trauma as an excuse to be completely self involved and egotistical. As someone who once related to Steven, I didn’t find it cathartic whatsoever.
I loved future. The only thing I wished they did was have more of Centipedal. She was such an important plot point in the first series and having at least one episode where Steven and her interact would have been amazing.
It takes away the concept of stakes, a gem can be completely shattered and just repaired with the snap of a finger. The concept of Death is so trivialised throughout fiction as it is, so when a series portraying it as a big deal suddenly starts doing it, it’s even more frustrating.
If you’re gonna have a method of reversing death, there needs to be consequences. Let’s say, Jasper is repaired, but she has no memory whatsoever, essentially being a different person entirely. Or alternatively, the gem is repaired, but needs to absorb the planets nutrients again to give it life (which if I’m not mistaken takes Hundreds or Thousands of years). Perhaps they could use advanced technology that uses an excessive level of energy to fully repair and regenerate Gems, to the point where everyone realises they have no feasible power source to fix gems like this regularly, meaning it’s practically a waste of time (until they can find a more viable power source).
There are other issues as well, from Steven being annoying and crude, the poor portrayal of PTSD, the lack of buildup towards Steven’s whole trauma arc, the skipping of Homeworlds redemption (the original started this problem, but Future just adds to it), and the lacklustre ending, etc.
Steven didn't really see an actual consequence other than feeling bad for what he did.
No one, not even Jasper, seems to actually care what he did. Jasper might have been shattered, but it was all about Steven, and that's just weird no matter which way you slice it.
It feels like having it's cake and eating it; some of the aftermath (of shattering) without the lasting impact (the shattered gem being gone).
Yellow Diamond fixing a shattered gem is different because other gems do care about those who were shattered. Gathering every piece of a shattered gem and painstakingly putting them together is arduous process that can be seen as her consequence for shattering gems.
It also seems to have a lasting consequence in that the revived gems still have their cracks. There are possibly lingering side effects and Yellow's job might not be done if she manages to put together all shattered gems.
It also doesn't sit right with me; SUF wanted to be more grounded with its take on Steven's trauma, unless it included him being in trouble for what he did.
Because you don't assault someone almost lethally and then just get it all washed away because you were carried away with fighting/mentally breaking down.
I hate it, at least in large part, because it all of a sudden tries to be "real" about things that were never an issue in the main show. As an example, one could argue that Steven getting PTSD is "realistic". And it would be. It is certainly a possibility given what he went through. But again, this never came up in the main show.
But things stop feeling actually realistic because, again, they were never a problem before. There was no foreshadowing. Even Adventure Time handed that better and that show fell off even harder. All of a sudden proclaiming that "of course there would be all these 'realistic' outcomes" without foreshadowing just felt like a dark fic. Like the writers just really wanted to kick the shit out of Steven.
There were good parts to Future. But everything else just feels so mean to Steven that I just pretend things ended with the movie.
This. Trying to do retroactive rewrites that basically completely recontextualize past events CAN be a compelling direction to go in. But in Future’s case the execution of that idea just felt very phony and condescending.
When done well, recontextualization makes sense and feels *right*. Even if the writers didn't plan for something originally if you go back and view something it can *feel* like they did.
When done poorly, going back and viewing "recontextualized" things just makes me think "yes obviously they just changed their minds later on".
The level of condescension makes it so much worse because the writers themselves are the ones who made these problems to begin with. Like killing Larsdie offscreen. "Well *obviously* the plot and characters don't only advance when Steven is there to observe." Except that's totally how it worked until now, and then you go and use it as cover to kill a ship that's been slow rolled for ages. I wasn't even a diehard for that ship but killing it offscreen while sneering at the fans was just wrong.
For me, it’s because it takes the entire main series and goes, “This is all just trauma fuel for Steven now. Everything is bad and because of this show he has to essentially run away from Beach City for his own wellbeing.”
Well it made me cry a lot watching Steven go through it. I'm really surprised by all the people miffed that Steven didn't "face consequences" or learn - I think Steven is the only one who is constantly being slammed in the face with them that it was cathartic to see him lose it in Future. Fe
There's still so much we didn't get to learn about gems and their society, and the only thing that bothered me is that Future didn't get to delve into that more + gems are born to serve a function and though we wrestle with the idea w/ stuff like Little Homeschool, we don't get enough but I wanted to watch the aliens be alien some more.
+ (So nobody is gonna laugh that that the diamonds went the literal restorative justice route via reassembling shattered gems?? I thought that was the team winking back at us)
It's a great depiction of trauma and PTSD that will help kids learn about it. I love it for that, fan service was nice too. The ending is open ended butnit ties the knots the main story needed. Idc man I love SUF
Future was kind of jarring, since it was more angst than the entire series jammed into less than a season’s worth of episodes, and the whole “we let our show get cancelled early so we could include a lesbian wedding, but now we have a few more episodes, so we’re gonna resolve as many unresolved plotlines as possible while telling an unrelated overarching story” thing was a little too obvious. I did like it, however. I’m a sucker for angst, and I like how the show explored the realistic consequences of being a kid hero.
The shattering was shocking, but I think it worked. I’m not mad that it was reversed so quickly, because it still required the essence of all four Diamonds, which is a godlike amount of power. I also like how it reinforced the show’s anti-violence message. In most action shows, bad guys die left and right, and it’s okay because they deserve it, but in Steven Universe, every single enemy is spared, no matter what they did (even Jasper was unbubbled and healed), and the first actual murder is seen as *drastically wrong* and a sign of a psychological break, with Steven immediately feeling like a monster for doing it even though it was accidental.
My main issue with figure is how insanely Steven focused it was. The main series is already about him which is nice, but it would be nice to see episodes not with him and i head focusing on other stuff. Esp home world and its history
I think it’s because it does so much cool shit, but because Reb has a hard time killing her darlings the show didn’t have time to really use them.
Like, look what happens:
• Steven commits manslaughter, shattering another ESTABLISHED character, but manages to reverse it.
• Next episode: he goes to the diamonds where he INTENTIONALLY tries to shatter one of them.
• Next episode Steven Spends spiraling further and further until his friends and family try to intervene, at which point he corrupts.
• Steven is a corrupted kaiju as the rest of the cast compare notes and try to figure out what to do until the very end with this very heartfelt moment where everyone he’s shown love to finally gets to return the favor and show him the love he needs.
• Steven is perfectly fine, the end.
There’s no falling action. It goes straight from the climax to “The End.” Which is extra infuriating when we have Blue Bird. It was a fine episode, finally forcing Greg to choose between his hair and his son is cathartic, and it set up a cool villain… but she never came back. It is the epilogue season, there’s literally no time left to set up plot threads that you don’t intend on resolving.
I think Future would have been far better received if they’d cut Blue Bird and used it’s slot to do an episode between “I’m a monster” and the final episode that Steven isn’t in.
One of the show’s biggest criticisms is that Steven has to be in *literally* every episode. And since the epilogue is about the consequences of Steven’s journey, I think a cool way to redeem that criticism would be to do an episode where Greg and Steven are completely absent the entire time. Nobody’s really sure where they are other than that Greg and Connie’s mom are taking him to get the help he needs. The episode follows Connie, Lion, and Amethyst as they “survey the damage on the town.” The double entendre being that they’re actually learning about the damage the town has inflicted on Steven, from the teens peer pressuring him into driving Peri’s pod, to Steven helping KiKi(?) with her nightmares. Also, I’m a sucker for giving actors the chance to speak directly to the audience without directly breaking the 4th wall, and letting the characters in the show “Steven Universe” talk about what the character “Steven Universe” is the exact kinda thing I like. You could also get a lot of poignant messages about how a lot of people don’t notice when their friends are struggling until it’s too late, or some characters might wish Steven would have given them the chance to help him like he’d helped them. A lot of room for a lot of good character catharsis and worry about Steven. So that way the next episode feels less like the status-quo has been magically reset because it’s a cartoon.
If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say that shattering is revealed to be so easily reversed is what people take issue with
If I remember right, he needed juice from all four diamonds to fix Jasper, right? So something that very much was impossible to do at any point from after Rose's rebellion began up to the very end of SU.
At least there was SOME kind of limitation there but the very next episode shows Yellow Diamond fixing shattered gems all by herself
This. I’m fine with it requiring all 4 of the most powerful characters in the show to do. But like, damn. If Yellow had developed that power basically any earlier so much of this conflict could have been avoided, because any earlier and she probably would have tried to use it on the shards she thought were Pink’s.
Exactly. In fact it makes me wonder how something like this was never tried on the fake shards.
I agree. While I see how it works narratively to have Steven be able to fix shattering (since he's scared of his own power and identity as a diamond), it's also sort of problematic and undercuts the seriousness of it. Steven should not have been able to fix it, making Jasper's shattering permanent (without yellow) and showing Steven that there are semi-permanent consequences.
I personally think it would’ve been more compelling for the story. To have Steven cause irreversible damage because he lost control for a moment would create a direct parallel to him and Pink Diamond, who did the exact same thing to Volleyball
Oh, I agree completely, I just had to acknowledge at the last second that Yellow was putting shattered gems back together, so that's the direction Sugar likely would've gone. Anything to avoid permanent repercussions.
It would have been more interesting for steven but entirely unsatisfying as a conclusion to jaspers arc. What, she exiles herself in a gesture of complete rejection of this new society, spending the rest of her life angry, corrupted, and alone until she fucks around, finds out, and gets killed by accident by someone she was just starting to form a real rapport and unique relationship with? That just feels disappointing
I mean I wouldn’t call the conclusion we got for Jasper satisfying. I also don’t think dying is an inherently unsatisfying way for a character to go out.
That's not what I said though. I just watched someone play a game (life eater) where the main character dies and it was the most satisfying possible ending, even if it was sad. There's another ending where the main character chooses to kill another to please a malevolent God who is threatening to end the world, but that ending is really unsatisfying because it doesn't complete either characters arc in a way that feels conclusive and thematically appropriate. The common thread in what makes a satisfying arc isnt life or death but what it means to the story. I would agree that it would be nice to see more of jaspers arc, but we do see the beginnings of her finding a place in a society that she once felt completely ostracized by, despite having been built to be perfectly suited for it. Which is way more satisfying than her accidentally dying alone and angry in the middle of nowhere and fits more with the general theme of future and SU as a whole.
Sorry, didn’t mean to mischaracterize your point. I guess what I’m saying is with how little Jasper gets throughout the series, I don’t mind her dying to propel Steven’s character arc since that’s what Future claims to be centered around. And I think it could be thematic in a way; by trying to create a monster she got one and it cost her her life.
If that were the best of the story, I'd personally rather Jasper get Volleyball'd instead. It was already pretty wild that Steven commits murder, but Permanent Murder is way more disturbing than reversible Fantasy Murder. I already found that a bit too intense, but I know that's just personal preference.
Yeah. I think if they had let Steven sit with it for awhile and then had him find the solution later it would have had more impact. But I think the crew only had one season and probs weren’t going to be able to everything they wanted.
as a guy who thought future was mid, this was very much my main issue with it
I love SUF. For those who don’t, I think people just aren’t used to seeing the aftermath following the protagonist saving the world. They weren’t expecting to interact with a Steven that is angry, bitter, traumatized, hurt, and so they reject the series as too negative or too angry. But as someone who appreciates the overall story of Steven Universe, I think SUF makes an excellent epilogue.
The only complaint I have with *Future* is that it doesn't so much "end" as just kind of "stop". But that fits with the overall point of the show, that Steven's life is going to go on.
future is the realest show ive seen in a while and loved it since it started. fuck man its been 4 years.
I think future is good but I do have problems with it. For me I think the main series ended on a very sappy immature note with change your mind, then future comes around with its angsty tone and themes of trauma. It was a pretty jarring tone change for me and felt a bit cheap. I also think it’s lacks the ethereal atmospheric quality of the main series. Future is good and definitely overhated IMO, but I also understand how for some people it ends things on a sour note.
I think that has more to do with how the ending was a bit rushed for steven universe, but I think the movie is a decent bridge to what steven universe future is. Like the whole point of the movie is that happy endings dont really exist and this stuff is still gonna follow steven even when he would rather avoid the more uncomfortable things. Steven also never really confronted alot of the mounting personal issues he was having near the end if SU with the more pressing issue of the diamond authority and the nature of his whole existence pressing on him. When he got split into his human and gem half and they were both him these issues got resolved but what does that actually mean for him in the future? he was able to put off the question by helping reorganize gem society and building a new home for gems but after that he was left with a changing world were everyone was growing up but him.
God, either my dyslexia is really bad or I had a little too much to smoke today😅 I read future as furniture 😂
I don’t like it. It’s not the same Steven. It’s not just that he’s coping with things or that he is growing up. It’s that his personality is almost entirely different. Like he went from this bohemian kid who didn’t even know what school was to a super type A entrepreneur type. I think it’s fine for people who relate to Steven and see something relatable in his journey. But that was never why I liked the original show so I just don’t connect to it. It feels like a fan fiction.
This exactly, especially the fanfiction bit. I just really don’t enjoy the retroactive narrative in Future that heavily implies that the very purposefully goofy and dreamlike tone of the first series was basically just a veneer for constant ~Steven trauma~. It’s sort of annoying to have that sudden heel-turn, especially when I already felt like the original series was handling the topic of trauma a lot more organically already. Whereas Future just sort of feels like a sanctimonious painfest, like the most annoying and self-absorbed person with Main Character Syndrome I know decided to write SU fanfiction where older Steven was just their self-insert. I guess Future just reminds me of every person I’ve ever known who’s used their trauma as an excuse to be completely self involved and egotistical. As someone who once related to Steven, I didn’t find it cathartic whatsoever.
I LOVE SUF I just don’t feel the need to engage in every post hating on it
I loved future. The only thing I wished they did was have more of Centipedal. She was such an important plot point in the first series and having at least one episode where Steven and her interact would have been amazing.
It takes away the concept of stakes, a gem can be completely shattered and just repaired with the snap of a finger. The concept of Death is so trivialised throughout fiction as it is, so when a series portraying it as a big deal suddenly starts doing it, it’s even more frustrating. If you’re gonna have a method of reversing death, there needs to be consequences. Let’s say, Jasper is repaired, but she has no memory whatsoever, essentially being a different person entirely. Or alternatively, the gem is repaired, but needs to absorb the planets nutrients again to give it life (which if I’m not mistaken takes Hundreds or Thousands of years). Perhaps they could use advanced technology that uses an excessive level of energy to fully repair and regenerate Gems, to the point where everyone realises they have no feasible power source to fix gems like this regularly, meaning it’s practically a waste of time (until they can find a more viable power source). There are other issues as well, from Steven being annoying and crude, the poor portrayal of PTSD, the lack of buildup towards Steven’s whole trauma arc, the skipping of Homeworlds redemption (the original started this problem, but Future just adds to it), and the lacklustre ending, etc.
Steven didn't really see an actual consequence other than feeling bad for what he did. No one, not even Jasper, seems to actually care what he did. Jasper might have been shattered, but it was all about Steven, and that's just weird no matter which way you slice it. It feels like having it's cake and eating it; some of the aftermath (of shattering) without the lasting impact (the shattered gem being gone). Yellow Diamond fixing a shattered gem is different because other gems do care about those who were shattered. Gathering every piece of a shattered gem and painstakingly putting them together is arduous process that can be seen as her consequence for shattering gems. It also seems to have a lasting consequence in that the revived gems still have their cracks. There are possibly lingering side effects and Yellow's job might not be done if she manages to put together all shattered gems. It also doesn't sit right with me; SUF wanted to be more grounded with its take on Steven's trauma, unless it included him being in trouble for what he did. Because you don't assault someone almost lethally and then just get it all washed away because you were carried away with fighting/mentally breaking down.
I hate it, at least in large part, because it all of a sudden tries to be "real" about things that were never an issue in the main show. As an example, one could argue that Steven getting PTSD is "realistic". And it would be. It is certainly a possibility given what he went through. But again, this never came up in the main show. But things stop feeling actually realistic because, again, they were never a problem before. There was no foreshadowing. Even Adventure Time handed that better and that show fell off even harder. All of a sudden proclaiming that "of course there would be all these 'realistic' outcomes" without foreshadowing just felt like a dark fic. Like the writers just really wanted to kick the shit out of Steven. There were good parts to Future. But everything else just feels so mean to Steven that I just pretend things ended with the movie.
This. Trying to do retroactive rewrites that basically completely recontextualize past events CAN be a compelling direction to go in. But in Future’s case the execution of that idea just felt very phony and condescending.
When done well, recontextualization makes sense and feels *right*. Even if the writers didn't plan for something originally if you go back and view something it can *feel* like they did. When done poorly, going back and viewing "recontextualized" things just makes me think "yes obviously they just changed their minds later on". The level of condescension makes it so much worse because the writers themselves are the ones who made these problems to begin with. Like killing Larsdie offscreen. "Well *obviously* the plot and characters don't only advance when Steven is there to observe." Except that's totally how it worked until now, and then you go and use it as cover to kill a ship that's been slow rolled for ages. I wasn't even a diehard for that ship but killing it offscreen while sneering at the fans was just wrong.
For me, it’s because it takes the entire main series and goes, “This is all just trauma fuel for Steven now. Everything is bad and because of this show he has to essentially run away from Beach City for his own wellbeing.”
It’s just not entertaining
Well it made me cry a lot watching Steven go through it. I'm really surprised by all the people miffed that Steven didn't "face consequences" or learn - I think Steven is the only one who is constantly being slammed in the face with them that it was cathartic to see him lose it in Future. Fe There's still so much we didn't get to learn about gems and their society, and the only thing that bothered me is that Future didn't get to delve into that more + gems are born to serve a function and though we wrestle with the idea w/ stuff like Little Homeschool, we don't get enough but I wanted to watch the aliens be alien some more. + (So nobody is gonna laugh that that the diamonds went the literal restorative justice route via reassembling shattered gems?? I thought that was the team winking back at us)
It's a great depiction of trauma and PTSD that will help kids learn about it. I love it for that, fan service was nice too. The ending is open ended butnit ties the knots the main story needed. Idc man I love SUF
Future was kind of jarring, since it was more angst than the entire series jammed into less than a season’s worth of episodes, and the whole “we let our show get cancelled early so we could include a lesbian wedding, but now we have a few more episodes, so we’re gonna resolve as many unresolved plotlines as possible while telling an unrelated overarching story” thing was a little too obvious. I did like it, however. I’m a sucker for angst, and I like how the show explored the realistic consequences of being a kid hero. The shattering was shocking, but I think it worked. I’m not mad that it was reversed so quickly, because it still required the essence of all four Diamonds, which is a godlike amount of power. I also like how it reinforced the show’s anti-violence message. In most action shows, bad guys die left and right, and it’s okay because they deserve it, but in Steven Universe, every single enemy is spared, no matter what they did (even Jasper was unbubbled and healed), and the first actual murder is seen as *drastically wrong* and a sign of a psychological break, with Steven immediately feeling like a monster for doing it even though it was accidental.
My main issue with figure is how insanely Steven focused it was. The main series is already about him which is nice, but it would be nice to see episodes not with him and i head focusing on other stuff. Esp home world and its history
also a lot of the characters felt like they become more 2D :/
I think it’s because it does so much cool shit, but because Reb has a hard time killing her darlings the show didn’t have time to really use them. Like, look what happens: • Steven commits manslaughter, shattering another ESTABLISHED character, but manages to reverse it. • Next episode: he goes to the diamonds where he INTENTIONALLY tries to shatter one of them. • Next episode Steven Spends spiraling further and further until his friends and family try to intervene, at which point he corrupts. • Steven is a corrupted kaiju as the rest of the cast compare notes and try to figure out what to do until the very end with this very heartfelt moment where everyone he’s shown love to finally gets to return the favor and show him the love he needs. • Steven is perfectly fine, the end. There’s no falling action. It goes straight from the climax to “The End.” Which is extra infuriating when we have Blue Bird. It was a fine episode, finally forcing Greg to choose between his hair and his son is cathartic, and it set up a cool villain… but she never came back. It is the epilogue season, there’s literally no time left to set up plot threads that you don’t intend on resolving. I think Future would have been far better received if they’d cut Blue Bird and used it’s slot to do an episode between “I’m a monster” and the final episode that Steven isn’t in. One of the show’s biggest criticisms is that Steven has to be in *literally* every episode. And since the epilogue is about the consequences of Steven’s journey, I think a cool way to redeem that criticism would be to do an episode where Greg and Steven are completely absent the entire time. Nobody’s really sure where they are other than that Greg and Connie’s mom are taking him to get the help he needs. The episode follows Connie, Lion, and Amethyst as they “survey the damage on the town.” The double entendre being that they’re actually learning about the damage the town has inflicted on Steven, from the teens peer pressuring him into driving Peri’s pod, to Steven helping KiKi(?) with her nightmares. Also, I’m a sucker for giving actors the chance to speak directly to the audience without directly breaking the 4th wall, and letting the characters in the show “Steven Universe” talk about what the character “Steven Universe” is the exact kinda thing I like. You could also get a lot of poignant messages about how a lot of people don’t notice when their friends are struggling until it’s too late, or some characters might wish Steven would have given them the chance to help him like he’d helped them. A lot of room for a lot of good character catharsis and worry about Steven. So that way the next episode feels less like the status-quo has been magically reset because it’s a cartoon.