Making Right What Went Wrong: Why I'm Making Steven Universe ...

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Skip to main content 13 min read

Those who have been following me for the last few months will know that I've been working on something known as Steven Universe Beyond. No, it's not fan art for a new chapter in Rebecca Sugar's Cartoon Network modern classic; rather, it's my attempt at revising a show that I felt had a rather flawed final season by doing right by its main character and resolving unresolved plot points. And this article is going to be a doozy.

THE DESOLATION OF STEVEN

I was and still am a Steven Universe fan, so much so that I created fan characters, partook in the fandom traditions of theorizing about what was to come, and even crafted a quartet of "movie" scripts that were meant to streamline the series's story for a new audience. Those scripts haven't aged well (my writing has significantly improved since I first wrote them), but I feel like the show helped me along in my artistic journey significantly. Visually, the show could be rough at times, and the writers weren't always able to resolve the plot points we the fandom thought were worth addressing. Nevertheless, I pressed on and enjoyed a majority of the original series.

My fandom was challenged, however, when I was watching Steven Universe Future, the epilogue to the original series and something of a "final" season. Show creator Rebecca Sugar has stated that she may return to the series's world one day, but for now, Future is the final chapter. It had its good points, yes- many characters were given proper send-offs, the series's topic of Steven confronting his unprocessed trauma was interesting (in concept), and the final episode was a cathartic conclusion.

However, Future undid much of what Steven had learned across the original series while also causing him to act in ways that I and some within the SU fandom found to be "OOC" (out of character). Compared to when we saw him last (as a ripe 16-year-old who finally grew a neck and had accepted that there was no such thing as "happily ever after" but he could still make the most of life's trials and tribulations with his family at his side), Future portrayed him as an angst-ridden, cowardly, murderous jerk to his family that couldn't handle even the slightest bit of change without blowing up at those around him. Some would say that Steven's past trauma had changed him, and I would say that was true.

The original series did put Steven through quite the wringer, what with his late mother Rose Quartz's morally murky past coming back to haunt him so many times. The main difference between how the original show and Future tackled Steven's trauma is that the original series didn't make it the forefront of his character. I'll admit, Future was also respectful about it in its first 14 episodes- Steven was still a character, but you could still see his issues seeping through the cracks.

And then we have Episodes 15-18, in which Steven's character goes completely off the rails.

Words cannot describe how badly written he was in these episodes. Actually, no- I wouldn't call them bad so much as they were inconsistent with Steven's character prior to these episodes. Suddenly, he resents his closest family (the "Crystal Gems" Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl as well as his human father Greg) for not giving him a normal childhood (Being half human and half Gem didn't exactly make him a normal kid). He trades his usual methods of showing mercy and kindness for brute violence against two opponents who he once showed grace to. And on top of all this, he attempts to justify his behavior by acting like he can "fix it" and his loved ones "won't have to worry about it".

... that wasn't the Steven Quartz Cutie-Pie DeMayo [SPOILER] Universe who I watched mature over the course of 5 seasons. This was a twisted, near-psychotic Steven who was made the way he was by poor writing. Speaking of which, Steven's guardians are written to be rather unobservant and incompetent in Future. Had Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Greg been written with the same care that they were in the original series, I'm pretty sure that Steven would've been in the therapist's office halfway through the series.

My main problems with Future are the two I mentioned above and the awkward pacing throughout. I will freely admit that Steven Universe as a franchise was never one for pitch-perfect pacing, but Future spent so much time on building up to Steven's breakdown in the third-to-last and penultimate episodes that the finale (Episode 20) ended up feeling like too big a jump forward in time. At least he had a therapist by then!

If I were to have written Future, I'd have rearranged the narrative beats so that Steven's breakdown was not the climax, but rather the midpoint of the series. As a result, we see him gradually healing and recovering from his mental health misadventures rather than jumping ahead a few months and being like "oh, yeah, he's mostly better now." That's rather disingenuous for a series which had treated characters like Pearl, Lapis Lazuli, and Spinel with sympathy and gave them time to heal, grow, and change for the better prior to Future.

On top of that, I found it rather ironic that while Rose Quartz (Steven's mom) was shown to have quite the transformation from spoiled and bratty to kind, motherly, and sacrificial to the point where she literally gave herself up to bring her baby boy into the world, Steven wasn't granted the same luxury and all we saw was him acting in increasingly self-destructive ways before the show had to blitz ahead a few months with him acting much more like his pre-Future self. The component that was there for Rose and missing for Steven was the proper time needed for redemption. As much as fans and detractors alike dunk on Rose for what she did to characters like Spinel or Bismuth, she clearly learned from her mistakes and grew as a person.

Unfortunately, only Steven's downward spiral was shown to us in Future when it should've been about both his fall from grace and his own journey of healing. Not only would this have been better paced, but it would've reflected the journeys which Steven helped set the Crystal Gems and former foes alike on in the original series. By skipping from the aftermath of his Godzilla-sized meltdown to him acting more well-adjusted three months later, the writers robbed us (their audience) of a chance to see Steven go down the same path of redemption his family and ex-enemies went down in the original series.

The lack of redemption for Steven was especially frustrating for me as a Christian, as I felt that one of the show's greatest attributes was him showing grace to antagonists who would've just been thrashed about by the heroes in other shows. There are some that I wish had been developed a touch more (the Diamonds say hi), but for the most part, redemption was something built into the show's blood. And it sucked that the kid who once believed anyone could change for the better was written as if he himself barely could.

I personally believe that the loss of former head writers (and Craig of the Creek creators) Matt Burnett and Ben Levin hurt Future's storytelling. If anything, I feel like my experience with Steven Universe Future made me take Rebecca Sugar off of the pedestal I had put her on. Sure, she had and still has good ideas, but she needs a filter like Matt and Ben to help her ideas be better-communicated and more easily-understood.

It's like the relationship George Lucas has with Star Wars. Lucas may have come up with the core concepts, but his filmmaking buddies helped him refine the original trilogy into something watchable. And like the problems that came with Lucas assuming full creative control in the prequel trilogy, Future felt like Rebecca was given free reign to write without the filter of Matt and Ben's influence with questionable results.

I hold no ill will towards Rebecca or her team, but I can't deny that Future was disappointing after coming off the excellent original series. Between the wonky pacing, the mutilation of Steven's character, and the reduced presence of Steven's caretakers, there's no way I could look at it as a satisfying ending. I was in a similar position to Spinel- I'd heard the tale of Steven, and I wasn't fond of how it ended.

But rather than go on a heartbroken rampage of revenge like she did, I chose to do something that I'd seen many fans do. Instead of angsting about how Future stained the franchise's legacy or pretend it never happened, I chose to use it as a stepping stone (unintentional pun?) to create the ending that I felt the franchise deserved. And that ending would be called Steven Universe Beyond.

GOING BEYOND THE SOURCE MATERIAL

Steven Universe Beyond is my non-canon continuation of Steven Universe, set five weeks following the finale of Steven Universe Future. Steven has set off on his USA-wide journey of healing, and the Crystal Gems are keeping up their good work of helping curious Gems adjust to life on Earth. Things are looking bright... that is, for now.

Unbeknownst to the Crystal Gems, their old adversaries have come together under the banner of "HALO" and are plotting to undermine their efforts to better Gemkind. Matters are only complicated by the stubbornness of one particular Gem, Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl's guilt over letting Steven spiral out of control (like he did in Future), and Steven's current absence. Can Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, Bismuth, Lapis Lazuli and Peridot defend Earth while Steven takes time off to heal his psychological wounds? What scenarios will Steven find himself in during his travels? And who is the mastermind behind HALO?

Who will live? Who will die? And in the end, who will tell this story?

With the summary and Hamilton reference out of the way, I believe I've made it clear what kind of continuation I'm going for. I wanted to bring together the plot points that Future and the original series left open while exploring the consequences of the former's events. Fortunately, both provided a lot of material for me to work with. For example, the Crystal Gems' guilt over letting Steven deteriorate to the point that he was at in Future came from my own frustration with their own lack of action within that chunk of the series.

Not only would this make a good deal of sense, but it was something I could picture for each of the core CGs. Garnet would start using her "future vision" more intently to see how Steven would behave in potential futures (not she didn't already, but she's now more focused on keeping him on the right path). Amethyst would be angry at herself for not stepping in earlier and upset with someone who's caused her and the other Crystal Gems (mainly her and Steven) much pain. And Pearl... Pearl is the one who would take it the hardest. She'd blame herself for not being a better caretaker for Steven. For those who don't know her character, Pearl is the most outwardly motherly towards Steven, so seeing her surrogate son hit rock bottom in Future had to have hurt her heart.

All three of these felt like reasonable and in-character responses to Steven's deterioration in Future. Similarly, I knew that there were many antagonists who weren't given the screen time I and some within the fandom felt they deserved. As such, HALO (the group of villains mentioned in the synopsis) is composed primarily of either one-off villains (example: Emerald or "Mean Lapis") or returning baddies who deserved a touch more time in the limelight (in this house, we support Bluebird Azurite) bent on undoing all the hard work the Crystal Gems fought to accomplish.

WHAT I HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH WITH BEYOND

Most importantly, though, Beyond is meant to accomplish two things- show Steven's healing and redeem Jasper. For the former, I thought it was a no-brainer. Steven couldn't have possibly overcome all his past trauma over the span of three months, could he? (the show did imply that he still had much healing to do, but with how he was acting in the series finale...) Beyond starts with Steven in a mostly good place mentally. However, his powers are acting up again and he feels immense guilt over his actions in Future.

The main purpose of this arc is Steven learning how to forgive himself for his past mistakes while confronting his past trauma. Through his own healing, his powers slowly realign themselves with the "new" Steven, giving him control over his abilities once more. His arc culminates in a battle of heart and mind within the mental realm, with Steven's human half (the part of him that's willing to change for the better and wants to heal) and his Gem half (the half that wants to embrace raw power and to use his past issues to justify poor behavior) coming to a compromise and granting Steven access to a new form that's the best of both parts of his being. This doesn't mean he won't need a therapist (he'll still need one even after the whole human half vs Gem half confrontation), but it's more of a visualization of his inner turmoil for our eyes.

The other thing I hope to accomplish is Jasper's redemption. For those who haven't seen Steven Universe or SU Future, Jasper was a recurring antagonist, described by Rebecca Sugar as "a textbook definition of a bully. Deep down, she's afraid there's something wrong with her, so she has to feed her ego. She has to put other Gems down to stay on top." This mentality often got her into trouble, worsening her issues and creating a wedge between her self-centered worldview and the selflessness of the Crystal Gems.

With Beyond, I wanted to go deeper into Jasper's character, seeing her make efforts to "do something better with her life" and change for the better. It's hard for her- very hard. Between Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl putting restraint on her, other Gems fearing her, and her own insecurities, she has many moments where she regresses to a more aggressive state. However, with the help of Bismuth (down-to-Earth Crystal Gem blacksmith), Pink Pearl/"Volleyball" (a Gem who acts as a foil to Jasper), Peridot (Crystal Gem techie with a redemption story of her own) and the CGs, she slowly starts to reevaluate her behavior and realize "okay, this is what I've been doing wrong. How can I do better?"

I can picture redeemed!Jasper as something akin to Vegeta (from Dragon Ball) or Shadow the Hedgehog- she’d be semi-benevolent, but she can be pretty obstinate when she wants to be. And before you ask, no. She will not join the Crystal Gems because I feel like the Garnet-Amethyst-Pearl-Bismuth-Peridot-Lapis-Steven-Connie team is expansive as is and that having Jasper on the same team as some who she’d traumatized wouldn’t be very apropos.

CONCLUSION

Steven Universe Beyond is not my top priority right now- finishing up my first year of college and Eternity Kingdoms (my original series) are. However, I still work on it so that I can have the ending I feel like Steven Universe as a franchise deserved. Again, I don't hold any ill will towards Rebecca and her team- they had good intentions with Future, but thanks to a mess of issues, the franchise ended with a whimper instead of the bang it was meant to end on.

I found myself inspired by the lyrics of the song "Change" from the series itself- "You can make it different, you can make it right! You can make it better... we don't have to fight!" In the context of that scene, Steven was reaching out to an enemy who was hurting on an emotional level and was venting their anger through violence. He understood how they felt and why they wanted to hurt him, yet he still made efforts to help them change for the better. On top of this, he went through the fight without delivering a single punch, instead remaining on the defensive throughout the whole fight. And it WORKED.

In the context of Beyond's creation, I found myself in Steven's position, reaching out to a show that had suffered and wouldn't leave me be as I was looking for a new source of inspiration. I could've left it behind and deemed it yet another show that let me down (like Adventure Time, but that's a story for another article), but instead I chose to make like Rose and Greg's boy and offer it a second chance via writing out my own idea of how the series should've ended.

Here I am in a post-Steven Universe world, and it's bright. Despite all the faults that the original series and Future had, I still hold it in high regard. It was a good stepping stone (again, unintentional pun) in my artistic journey, I still love the characters, and I still want it to have a good ending. It may not be my top priority...

... but I know that with Beyond, "happily ever after" will never end. Thanks for reading, everyone. God bless!

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