After the groundbreaking finale of Steven Universe season 5, a lot of people thought that was it – that was the end of the show. Then Rebecca Sugar and the Crewniverse surprised us with a Steven Universe movie. And now we’ve been given the final installation of Steven’s story – Steven Universe Future.
Steven Universe Future explores something that most other shows only give a glimpse of in their final episodes – life after the conflict. Or, more specifically, how the conflict has changed the characters. Life goes on – and people have to try and forget the terrible things that have happened to them.
Things seem fairly normal in the first few episodes. The Crystal Gems have finished building Little Homeworld and are now focusing on helping the other gems who have decided to stay on Earth learn more about human culture. Connie is getting ready for college. Lars is working in a shop again and Sadie has a new partner.
But just as things finally start to slow down, Steven begins to notice a change in his powers. He sometimes starts to glow pink and can slow down time. At first this is played off as Steven having cool new powers. But as the season progresses, it becomes clear that this has actually emerged because Steven is trying to cope with the traumatic memories of his childhood. His new powers only emerge when he’s angry or upset, and become more and more destructive as the episodes go on.
While Change Your Mind seemed to give a great fix-it ending for the story of Steven Universe as a whole, something that it really glossed over was how violent Steven’s childhood was. This is mainly thanks to the Diamonds; however, as Steven realises in Growing Pains, he’s been in many other situations where he has almost died, or other gems have been poofed in front of him. Because he saw repeated incidents like this during his childhood, he now feels like any sort of conflict he faces as an adult will result in him or the people he loves being harmed in some way.
Steven hasn’t been given the opportunity to grow up in a healthy environment thanks to the actions of the Diamonds. It could be argued that Pink Diamond was being selfish by creating a rebellion and then having Steven as soon as she managed to escape the conflict. Because Steven has the “Rose Quartz” gem, all of the blame for the war and Pink Diamond’s “death” was placed on him from a very young age. This clearly has a serious effect on his mental health, as he feels like he always has to fix his mother’s mistakes and make everything better. That’s a lot of pressure to put on a child. He also struggles to talk to other people who weren’t involved in the gem-related conflict during the events of Steven Universe. In Bismuth Casual, Steven meets some of Connie’s school friends and finds it difficult to talk them. This is because he didn’t have a normal childhood, and therefore can’t relate to other people who did.
He blames the Diamonds for his outbursts because they’re the ones who caused all of his problems when he was younger. He begins to have violent thoughts, and tries to act upon them in several episodes. In Homeworld Bound, Steven tries to shatter White Diamond; although the lines between fantasy and reality are blurred in this scene, it is made clear that he didn’t actually shatter her, but he did really want to do it. In Fragments, Steven actually does shatter Jasper because he became too violent when they were fighting each other.
His reaction when he finally tells Connie, Greg and The Crystal Gems about this addresses one of the major problems that people had with the show. Steven takes the attitude of “I fixed it, so it’s ok” to try and avoid how serious these issues are. Viewers of the show had originally argued that the problems in Steven Universe were fixed too easily because all Steven had to do to end any conflict was talk things out with other gems/people. Rebecca Sugar is clearly addressing these concerns, because this attitude is what eventually leads Steven to his breakdown in I Am My Monster.
When the trailer for Steven Universe Future came out, everyone started speculating over who the big pink monster in the centre of this picture was. Some people seemed convinced that it was going to be a new villain. But in I Am My Monster, we finally find out who it is. The monster is Steven.
This is Steven’s corrupted form. He turns into this when he realises that his way of coping with his past is very messed up. It is also no accident that this happens right after he tells his family about his new powers and his violent thoughts and actions. As Garnet points out, “As long as he believes he’s a monster, he’ll stay one”.
This means that The Crystal Gems can’t fight Steven like they would with any other corrupted gem. Steven’s corrupted form is a personification of his mental illness. Many people may recognise this behaviour from breakdowns in real life. Steven has become so wrapped up in his trauma that he’s barely himself anymore. It’s up to his family and friends to help him get better.
So, the “villain” of Steven Universe Future is Steven himself, because he has to accept that he has severe emotional trauma from the events of Steven Universe. The series didn’t end with Steven fighting one final big bad villain, because that’s what gave him his emotional trauma in the first place. Although people have argued that this ending isn’t as good as the one we got with Change Your Mind, I think the ending of Steven Universe Future stays very true to the message that the show has tried to give out from the first season. Love yourself and love each other. That’s how Steven managed to get through to the Diamonds in season 5, and that’s how Steven’s family and friends managed to get through to him in Steven Universe Future. It’s a simple message, but it’s strong. Love will always be more powerful than hatred, and it’s important for us to remember that. That’s why Steven Universe was such a successful show, and that’s also why so many people loved it. You can’t change the past, but you can always try to make things better.
7/10
Film and stuff 