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Trivia / Steven Universe

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Trivia tropes for Steven Universe

Trivia with Their Own Pages

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    A-E 
  • Acting in the Dark:
    • Before Susan Egan was first heard playing Rose Quartz in "Lion 3: Straight to Video", she voiced the floating whale in "Rose's Room" that is implied to be imitating her voice. Egan was not informed of this until after recording the earlier episode* , leaving her confused at there being more to record later.
    • Though their characters knew all along that Rose Quartz was Pink Diamond, Deedee Magno-Hall (Pearl) and Susan Egan (Rose) didn't learn this until shortly before recording the episode that revealed it.
  • Actor Existence Limbo: There is a recurring tendency for the Crystal Gems' fusions to be played by relatively-famous female singers who don't normally do voice acting, including Nicki Minaj as Sugilite and Aimee Mann as Opal. Presumably, the difficulty in getting these voice actresses again is the reason those fusions (not counting Garnet) rarely have speaking roles outside their introduction. The first fusion to have a second speaking role was Alexandrite in early Season 3. "Know Your Fusion" even includes a fourth wall breaking joke where Sardonyx wonders if they'll have to pay "her" just for using previous voice clips of Sugilite.
  • Acting for Two:
    • "Steven and the Stevens" has all the Stevens share the same voice, courtesy of Zach Callison.
    • Steven and Onion (and likewise, Greg and Yellowtail) are each voiced by the same actor.
    • When Steven talks with the Cluster telepathically, one of the numerous voices is also provided by Steven's voice actor.
    • Kiki and Jenny also share the same voice actress, which makes sense, since they're twins.
    • "The Answer" has multiple Rubies, all voiced by Charlyne Yi. All of the Rubies in "Hit the Diamond" are also voiced by Charlyne.
    • "Message Received" introduces Yellow Diamond's Pearl, whose voice actor is also Deedee Magno-Hall, starting a trend of Gems of the same type sharing a voice actress.
    • Matthew Moy voices both Lars and Lars' father in "The New Lars".
    • Going international this time, Yellow and Blue Diamond have the same voice actress in the French dub.
    • In the Latin America dub, Steven and Blue Diamond share the same voice actress.
    • For the Brazilian dub, Priyanka Maheswaran shared a voice actor with all of the Diamonds, except White. Eventually, Yellow and Blue got new voice actors while Priyanka and Pink kept the original.
  • Actor-Inspired Element:
    • Garnet is based on Estelle to nearly (but not quite) an Ink-Suit Actor level. There is even a video showing Rebecca Sugar drawing Garnet while looking at Estelle.
    • Most of Pearl's Team Mom traits were inspired by Deedee Magno-Hall's performance and interactions with the crew, as evident from Pearl lacking such behavior in the pilot.
    • Rebecca Sugar thought Charlyne Yi's takes for "Keystone Motel" were "so huge" she changed her drawings of Ruby's expressions to match.
  • Adored by the Network:
    • Back in its heyday, Steven Universe aired fairly often, having occasional marathons and reruns, and probably being the third or fourth most-aired show on average. It more or less replaced Adventure Time as the network's most prominent action/adventure series.
    • On the Labor Day 2019 weekend, Cartoon Network ran every episode of the series followed by the premiere of Steven Universe: The Movie on September 2. The movie itself had advertisements air on other WarnerMedia channels, including the Toonami block on [adult swim] — the Toonami crew even made their own trailer for it, and TOM admits he missed having more family-friendly fare on the block, as the modern Toonami almost exclusively airs action-oriented anime aimed at teens and adults — and CNN, showing that Warner went all in on promoting it.
  • Amateur Cast: A lot of the cast of Steven Universe had very little experience in voiceover, and tend to be chosen partially for musical ability. Estelle (Garnet) is a singer best known for her Top 10 hit "American Boy" (which more famously featured Kanye West), Deedee Magno-Hall (Pearl) and Jennifer Paz (Lapis Lazuli) work primarily in theater, Shelby Rabara (Peridot) works primarily as a dancer, Michaela Dietz's (Amethyst) and Grace Rolek's (Connie) careers, barring Dietz's role as Riff in Barney & Friends, mostly consist of minor characters, Charlyne Yi (Ruby) is primarily a stand-up comedian, and Joel Hodgson (Mayor Bill Dewey) is a comedian best known for creating and being the original host of Mystery Science Theater 3000. In fact, the only veteran voice actors in the series are Kimberly Brooks (Jasper), Dee Bradley Baker (various vocal effects, most notably Lion), Crispin Freeman (Connie's dad) and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (Connie's mother) though Zach Callison (Steven), Tom Scharpling (Greg), Matthew Moy (Lars), Erica Lutrell (Sapphire), Kate Micucci (Sadie), and Brian Posehn (Sour Cream) have also done some voice work.
  • Author's Saving Throw:
    • Many fans began to feel that Steven was becoming flanderized as an All-Loving Hero, and were getting weary of Steven simply talking many of his foes out of hostilities (with the worst example being from "Gem Drill"). Season Three rectified this by having Steven's Story Arc revolve around him learning the harsh truth that there are many foes who simply can't be talked down and won't listen to reason. Not only that, but Steven is forced to fight back in self-defense in three of those instances and forced to temporarily shed his pacifistic morals to survive them, finally learning what his father Greg really meant when he lamented the severity of war. And when Jasper is finally defeated during the last episodes of season 3, she rebukes any chance of redemption Steven gives her and refuses to let him save her from succumbing to The Corruption. All of this gives Steven some vital Character Development and also gives the show, with its setting being the aftermath of a brutal war, even more depth and realism and satisfied many fans who felt as if Steven's qualities were being taken to unrealistic levels.
    • One aspect of Gem fusion that made many viewers uncomfortable was the idea of romantic partners giving up their personal autonomy to live full-time as a combined being like Garnet. The Steven Universe: Future episode "Together Forever" addresses this by revealing that Ruby and Sapphire sometimes willingly split (as opposed to when they're arguing or on a mission that requires their separate selves) to pursue their own separate interests. Garnet explains to Steven that a healthy relationship isn't about people completing each other, but complementing, and that her two component Gems still live their own lives independent of each other.
  • Banned in China: Plenty of places, all for the same reasons.
    • Banned in Kenya in 2017 for its LGBT themes along with a number of other children's shows, as same-sex sexual relations are illegal in that country. This effectively extends to several other African countries because they all share the same satellite TV service (including South Africa, where discrimination based on sexual orientation is forbidden by the constitution).
    • Some episodes are banned in Russia, due to the country having a law against advocating "non-traditional sexual relations" to minors.
    • Banned in some Middle Eastern countries for its LGBT themes.
  • Better Export for You: The franchise only has DVD and digital releases in the US, but Australia did get the original series on Blu-ray as well.
  • Cast the Expert: The show's staff clearly had musical numbers in mind when casting, as almost every main character and much of the supporting cast is voiced by a capable singer, not to mention the creator herself being a talented ukulele player and singer.
    • Garnet's voice actor Estelle is a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter.
    • Deedee Magno-Hall is an accomplished Broadway performer, having starred in leading roles in Miss Saigon and Wicked. Her character (Pearl) not only gets to sing the most, but her musical numbers are also the most in the style of Broadway.
    • Yellow Diamond's voice actress is Patti LuPone, a two-time Grammy Award winner, two-time Tony Award winner, and another Broadway musical performer who's been inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. It certainly shows during her Villain Song, which is cited as one of the best in the show.
  • Cast the Runner-Up:
    • Matthew Moy (Lars) also auditioned to play Steven. This possibly inspired the plot of "The New Lars", where Steven possesses Lars's body (and thus speaks with his voice).
    • Deedee Magno-Hall (Pearl) also auditioned to voice Sadie.
    • Shelby Rabara (Peridot) auditioned for all four of the main characters as well as Stevonnie, getting closest to being cast as Garnet.
    • Jennifer Paz (Lapis Lazuli) auditioned to be Amethyst. "The New Crystal Gems" pokes fun at both this and the above by having Peridot and Lapis impersonate Garnet and Amethyst.
    • Erica Luttrell (Sapphire) also auditioned to be Garnet. This played into her being cast as Sapphire, as Rebecca wanted to work with her.
    • Charlyne Yi (Ruby) also auditioned for Stevonnie.
    • Estelle (Garnet) also auditioned for Amethyst.
  • Celebrity Voice Actor:
    • Estelle (full name Estelle Fanta Swaray; she is an Africannote -West Indiannote -British pop singer) is Garnet.
    • Yellow Diamond is played by Broadway legend Patti LuPone.
    • Uzo Aduba, most well known for playing "Crazy Eyes" in Orange Is the New Black, voices Bismuth.
    • Most of the gem fusions are voiced by singers:
      • Aimee Mann, half of the indie music group "The Both" is Opal (Amethyst + Pearl).
      • Ted Leo, the other half of "The Both", voices Steg, the fusion of Steven and Greg, from Steven Universe: The Movie.
      • Nicki Minaj as Sugilite (Garnet + Amethyst).
      • Stevonnie is voiced by AJ Michalka of Aly & A.J..
      • Sardonyx (Pearl + Garnet) is voiced by English stage singer/actress Alexia Khadime.
    • Mr. Smiley (the arcade owner) is voiced by comedian Sinbad.
    • Mayor Dewey is voiced by Joel Hodgson. Yes, that Joel Hodgson.
    • Christine Ebersole voices White Diamond and White Pearl.
  • Children Voicing Children: Zach Callison (Steven and Onion), Grace Rolek (Connie), and Atticus Shaffer (Peedee) were about the same age as their characters when the series began production. This eventually turns into Dawson Casting, as all three have reached their twenties while their characters have only aged a couple years.
  • Colbert Bump:
    • Penny, the Lapis Lazuli-lookalike in Episode 20 of Golden Bat, attracted some viewers to that particular anime.
    • After he was seen in the series as the performer at the rock show Pearl, Amethyst, and Steven attend in "Last One Out of Beach City", Mike Krol has gained a surge of listeners.
    • Ted Leo and Aimee Mann both gained popularity boosts after their guest appearances, to a point where comment sections in their videos are filled with people discovering them from the show.
  • Completely Different Title: The French titles of "Barn Mates", "Hit the Diamond" and "Steven Floats" translate as, respectively, "Interplanetary Refugees", "Humans Versus Rubies" and "A Moment of Floating".
  • Creator Backlash:
    • A concept drawing in the show's Art & Origins book includes an idea for a gem called Concrete, who has a dark complexion and thick, pale lips; it's also noted on the page that she "can't read". Between the lips, which called to mind blackface for some, and the illiteracy, a contingent of fans perceived her as an unflattering stereotype of black women. The Crewniverse, including Rebecca Sugar and Hilary Florido, who wrote the note, went on record that they regretted Concrete's design, calling her resemblance to stereotypical depictions a "careless mistake". Concrete was removed from later printings of the artbook.
    • Steven's first Latin Spanish voice actress, Leisha Medina, left during the dubbing of the movie and swore off ever working on the show again due to feeling that the fans never appreciated her work on the series — alongside voice acting, she also did scripts and translated the songs — and constantly criticized her for the quality of the translated songs. She was replaced by Jorge Bringas for the movie and Future.
  • Creator's Favorite:
  • Creator's Favorite Episode: We also have the favorites from the voice actors!
  • Cross-Dressing Voices: Fisto, who is a sexless, female-presenting alien, is voiced by Zach Calison, a man.
  • Dawson Casting: Teenager Sour Cream is voiced by Brian Posehn, who's over fifty — he's the same age as the guy who voices Sour Cream's father.
  • Defictionalization:
  • Demand Overload:
    • When the fourth StevenBomb was announced, the site that revealed it was immediately overloaded by fans and its servers crashed. Ian Jones-Quartey made a post leading to a different article so others could view it.
    • On October 30th, 2017, when it was announced that Steven Universe would be coming back (on the CN App) on November 10th, Tumblr's servers crashed from too many excited fans.
  • Descended Creator:
    • Rebecca Sugar sings "Love Like You", the song featured in the credits throughout the series (with some instrumental build-ups before her singing parts).
    • Buck Dewey is voiced by Lamar Abrams, one of the show's storyboard artists. He even storyboarded "Lars and the Cool Kids" and "Shirt Club", two episodes that most prominently feature Buck. Abrams also voices Garbanzo and Wy-Six, both characters that appear in other episodes Abrams boarded.
    • Vidalia is voiced by Jackie Buscarino, the show's producer.
    • Ian Jones-Quartey provides the voice for Steven's Mr. Queazy toy in "Cheeseburger Backpack", an episode he himself storyboarded.
  • Development Gag:
    • When Pearl regains her physical form in "Steven the Sword Fighter", a silhouette◊ resembling her original design from the pilot◊ can be seen.
    • Greg's illustration of Lapis Lazuli in "The Message" is reminiscent of her early character design.
    • The video of the extended version of the show's theme song opens up with Steven, as a little boy, playing the first part of it on the ukulele. The whole segment is lifted from a similar scene in the pilot, where Steven performed the song as a preteen, right down to the Gems clapping along to the song. Amethyst's outfit during this segment (identical to her first outfit, but with a long-sleeved, off-shoulder top and no extra patches on her legs) is a reference to her design in the pilot.
    • "Last One Out of Beach City":
    • In "The New Crystal Gems", Peridot and Lapis impersonate Garnet and Amethyst, referencing how their voice actors Shelby Rabara (Peridot) and Jennifer Paz (Lapis) originally auditioned for those roles.
    • Although Connie's mother is unnamed in the show, the name used by the crew is "Priyanka", a name from an episode idea that can be considered a very early prototype for "Bubble Buddies", Connie's debut episode.
  • Diagnosis of God: Peridot has multiple character quirks associated with autism; upon being asked about it in an interview, Rebecca Sugar stated that Peridot was not designed with autism in mind, but people are still free to consider her autistic if they want.
  • Dueling Dubs:
    • As is typical, the show has two different Spanish dubs (a Latin American one and a Castilian one).
    • There's also two Portuguese versions (the Brazilian dub and the European dub).
  • Dueling Works: Tends to be seen as this with Land of the Lustrous, especially once the anime adaptation started. This is a bit strange, since they have few similarities, other than the basic concept of humanoid beings made of gemstones (Lustrous is a seinen CGI manga/anime loaded with Mind Screw and Buddhist imagery, Steven is a traditionally-animated American adventure story with a Kid Hero and musical numbers).
  • Early-Bird Release: Since the middle of the fourth season, most episodes have been released on Cartoon Network's website and video-on before airing on TV:
    • The five-episode Out of This World Story Arc was released online almost a month before its TV debut. However, all episodes but the first ("Steven's Dream") were taken down within a day, which has lead people to believe the others were only up by accident.
    • The last five episodes of season four aired over the course of one workweek, but went up online the Friday before.
    • The first four episodes of season five premiered together on Memorial Day as the hour-long special Wanted, but the first episode ("Stuck Together") was shown online as a sneak peak about three weeks early.
    • The six episodes from "Dewey Wins" to "Kevin Party" went up online over a month before they started premiering on TV two-per-week.
    • The four episodes from "Your Mother and Mine" to "Letters to Lars" were posted two weeks before they started airing once a week on TV.
    • "Legs From Here to Homeworld" was posted online one day after its premiere at SDCC 2018 and five months before premiering on television.
  • Executive Meddling:
    • The Stevenbomb format was the idea of Cartoon Network, and was something the show's crew were opposed to because they felt it would kill the show's momentum and cause episodes to be aired out of order. After the first Stevenbomb, future episodes had to be written with the Stevenbomb format in mind; this lead to plot-important episodes getting bunched together rather than being evenly spread out as they had been in Season 1, in turn causing large gaps where seemingly nothing happens between each jump in the plot.
    • The show's crew had to fight very long and hard against the network for Sapphire and Ruby to get married, and it ended up happening over a season later than they originally planned because of the network's resistance to it. It was later revealed after the conclusion of Steven Universe Future that while they caved to the crew's want for a wedding, the higher-ups initially wanted the show to end with the wedding in return; Rebecca had to convince them to give the show a few more episodes so they could make a satisfying conclusion.

    F-O 
  • Fandom Nod:
    • The episode "Rocknaldo" has Ronaldo create a "Gemsona" for himself as part of joining the Crystal Gems — within the fandom, "Gemsona" is the term commonly used for Gem Original Characters.
    • In issue 8 of the 2017 comics, a wide shot of Lapis and Peridot's corn maze shows Kevin and Jamie interacting at the entrance, referencing the popular fandom pairing of the two. A variant cover◊ of issue 6 also shows Kevin lounging against a speaker as Steven and Jamie clean up after a play.
    • In Unleash the Light, the first form skin for Garnet's gauntlets is called "Cotton Candy Gauntlets", referencing a popular Fan Nickname for Garnet's first form.
  • Flip-Flop of God:
    • Former head co-writer Matt Burnett made a number of statements about the show's setting and various hypothetical situations on Twitter (perhaps most notably that Steven could not regenerate like a full Gem and that World War II never happened in the show's universe). Eventually, he took most of them down, probably because he didn't want to constrain the crew to statements made in obscure corners of the internet. Few if any of them have been outright contradicted, but their canon status is questionable.
    • Storyboard artist (later director) Joe Johnston made a post on Tumblr very heavily implying the Spooky Painting in "Together Breakfast" was painted with ink made of crushed Gem shardsquote , but eventually deleted it. However, Ian Jones-Quartey would later make a similar statement.
    • An accidental example: Both Kat Morris and Joe Johnston casually mentioned that Yellow Diamond wears a helmet, only to later state that they meant to say "hair".
    • Shortly after the release of Attack the Light, Ian Jones-Quartey stated that it and the comics were "Level 2 Canon", meaning they were canon unless the show contradicted them. About four years later, Ian stated that Attack the Light and its later sequel are canon, and while the original 2014-2015 comics were still Level 2 Canon, anything past that not written by a member of the Crewniverse was completely non-canon. In particular, an article announcing the 2016 graphic novel Too Cool For School stated that the people writing it worked closely with Ian and Rebecca to make sure it aligned with canon, while Ian said he had written the outline of it to be non-canon.
    • While working on Steven Universe, storyboard artist Jesse Zuke stated they interpreted Lapis and Peridot's relationship as a slow-burn romance, and wrote their dynamic accordingly. During the run of Steven Universe Future, storyboard artist Maya Petersen stated that Peridot was asexual and aromantic, meaning that Peridot was incapable of feeling attraction towards Lapis (or anyone else for that matter). Further confusing things is that Maya then went on to say that this wasn't something the entire crew agreed with.
  • Gay Panic:
    • The scene of Pearl and Rose Fusing in "We Need To Talk" was censored in the UK, with the most intimate parts of it removed. Cartoon Network UK revealed the reason for the edit was to ensure that it was "more comfortable for local kids and parents".
    • Towards the end of the series, Ruby and Sapphire get married. Having already dealt with censorship against the show before, the crew decided to have the masculine Ruby wear the wedding dress and the feminine Sapphire wear a tuxedo and show an onscreen kiss, making covering up the fact it was gay ludicrously hard — unfortunately, a lot of countries decided to just skip over the episode entirely, thus creating a Dub-Induced Plot Hole.
  • God Never Said That:
    • Many fans insist Pearl is canonically a lesbian to "disprove" heterosexual pairings involving the character and accuse shippers of homophobia and lesbian erasure. While the showrunners have confirmed that she has had romantic feelings towards at least two women, and she was explicitly uninterested in the one man who had feelings for her, they never specified her sexuality.
    • The artbook had a joking nod to the theory that fusion is just a metaphor for sex, but made it clear that fusion actually serves as a much broader metaphor for various kinds of relationships, not just sexual or romantic ones. However, this was quickly warped into the exact opposite, with fans saying that the artbook confirmed the theory.
    • A persistent rumor sprung up after "Alone at Sea", an episode about Jasper trying to get Lapis to fuse with her in order to become Malachite again (serving as a metaphor for toxic relationships), that Lapis is a self-insert of Rebecca Sugar and her experience with an abusive relationship and that Jasper was based on her abuser. This was a conclusion fans made when Sugar said she started drawing her "Margo in Bed" comic after a "bad breakup" and that the eponymous character was a self-insert of herself and a "proto-Lapis." However, she has never disclosed such personal information or even said that Lapis was intended as the victim of the relationship. Rather that Malachite represents an unhealthy, loveless relationship that brings out the worst in people.
    • People who hated the plot twist from "A Single Pale Rose", in which Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond turn out to be the same person often say that the crew said they didn't plan past "Ocean Gem" until after the episode aired, often as proof that the writers came up with the twist at the last minute and that any quotes to the contrary are lies. This is incorrect, as they actually said they didn't storyboard past "Ocean Gem" due to being unsure about the show's future beyond that. It was consistently stated that the aforementioned twist was one of the first plot points thought up about the show.
    • The crew never specifically debunked the theory related to the above twist. What they did say was stuff like "Her name is Rose QUARTZ", which turned out to be true in the end.
  • He Also Did: Sachiko Kojima (Pearl) and Miho Hino (Peridot) also voiced Arusu and the Child of Luca respectively in the original Japanese version of Tweeny Witches.
  • Inspiration for the Work:
    • Rebecca Sugar's brother, Steven, and the experiences had growing up with him is often her source of inspiration.
      Rebecca: If we’d get stuck for ideas, we used to bug him.
    • Beach City is based on the many Delaware beach towns the Sugars visited when they were kids.
    • The idea of Lars becoming a Space Pirate came from a cameo he made in Pug Davis. There Lars appeared as an extra in a bar on a space station, and they wondered how he could have gotten there.
    • The landscape of the moon in "Jungle Moon", especially the giant flower-like plants, was inspired by Joe Johnston visiting a garden full of succulents and playing with his camera to make them seem enormous in pictures.
    • White Diamond's character was heavily inspired by a scene from the 1946 educational short The Story of Menstruation where a woman is crying in front of a mirror, the narrator encourages people to be/act happy because "no matter how you feel, you have to live with people", and the woman's reflection walks off happily while the real one is still there crying. Rebecca Sugar and other crewmembers she showed it to were fascinated by how dissonant and unintentionally horrifying it comes across.
    • Much of the aesthetic of Homeworld, specifically the Diamonds' palace, came from looking at how The Golden Age of Hollywood (essentially the works of Busby Berkeley, including Ziegfeld Girl) was "this era where the idea of person as a beautiful piece of furniture was very appealing". The show basically takes that concept to the extreme, as many Gems seem to exist to be living furniture or dance around like cogs for a Busby Berkeley Number.
  • International Coproduction: The Latin Spanish dub began in Venezuela, with a cast entirely from that country. During season 2, Maria Jose Estevez (Pearl) moved to Miami and began recording from that city. As of season 3, Judith Noguera (Ruby) records her lines in Chile. And the characters from Uncle Grandpa all kept their Mexican voices.
  • Irony as She Is Cast: Shelby Rabara, Peridot's voice actor, is a professional dancer (the sound from Steven and Pearl tap dancing in "Mr. Greg" comes from her dancing in real life). Peridot seems to be the only Gem who can't dance, as she's never performed a Fusion Dance, and needed Garnet to lead the one time she tried before backing out (it didn't help Peridot was standing on paint cans).
  • I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: Marty's voice actor, Jon Wurster, is one half of the comedy duo Scharpling & Wurster with Greg's voice actor, Tom Scharpling, on the weekly live show/podcast The Best Show.
  • Lying Creator: It was stated multiple times by the crew that the show has no one-off characters; however, by "Change Your Mind", multiple characters, human and Gem alike, only appeared once. This became particularly egregious with Steven Universe: Future, as while most of the one-offs from the original series were minor characters among a huge cast, 90% of the characters introduced in Future only appear in their respective debut episodes, including every antagonist showcased in the intro besides Jasper.
  • Marathon Running: On Labor Day Weekend 2019, a marathon of the entire series aired to lead into the movie.
  • Meaningful Release Date:
  • Meme Acknowledgment: During the "In Too Deep" and "Steven's Summer Adventures" events, there were many instances with episodes being leaked or spoiled before airing. Many fans were not amused, and made their displeasure known. Others thought it was almost a joke. So for the final week of the "Summer Adventures" event, we get this promo, which has several spoilerific scenes in it, but like when CN was promoting "The Nest", they're all covered by question mark bubbles.
    But how can we tell you how amazing and epic these new episodes will be without giving them away?
  • Milestone Celebration: Cartoon Network announced in a promo that "Bismuth" is the 100th episode. The two-part special is actually 98 and 99, but all of the Season 2 shorts are considered be one episode in terms of production; thus, "Bismuth" is 99 and 100.
  • Missing Episode:
  • The Other Darrin:
    • Between "Watermelon Steven" and "Sadie's Song" (which aired about ten months apart in real life), Mr. Smiley's voice actor changed from Sinbad to Colton Dunn.
    • The Romanian dub recast Pearl's voice after "Ocean Gem". After "Jail Break" aired, Cartoon Network moved the recording studio to another city, recasting everyone except Steven and Pearl's second voice.
    • In the last few episodes of Future and the tie-in game Unleash the Light, Miriam Hyman took over as the voice of Bismuth from Uzo Aduba.
    • Lapis' European Portuguese voice actress, Vânia Blubird, was fired from the show after she leaked the song "That Distant Shore" from "Can't Go Back" on her Instagram story, months before it was supposed to air. She was replaced by Teresa Queirós.
  • Out of Holiday Episode: "Horror Club", an episode that is clearly treated like a Halloween Episode, aired on February 12, 2015. (It has to be noted that, according to Word of God, some holidays don't exist within the show's Verse, Halloween included.)
  • Out of Order:
    • Ian Jones-Quartey released a list in mid-July 2015 of the official intended viewing order for all of Season 1. It mostly matches up with the broadcast order, with a few exceptions:
    • Digital video services such as iTunes and Amazon Instant Video have "Rose's Room" (episode 19) and "Coach Steven" (episode 20) reversed, which isn't that big of a deal. They also have "Political Power" (the episode right before the season 1 finale) after "Full Disclosure" (the season 2 premiere), which messes with continuity a bit. "Reformed" also got moved back four episodes, rendering Amethyst's outfit change inexplicable for several episodes.
    • Notably there are times episodes air out of production order, but were clearly in order in terms of continuity: "Frybo" (5th episode aired) is the 8th episode produced despite it being clearly being set before "Cat Fingers" (6th aired, 5th produced). "Steven the Sword Fighter" (16th aired) is the 13th episode produced while three episodes that use Pearl's old design ("So Many Birthdays", "Lars and the Cool Kids", and "Onion Trade") were produced afterwards. In both those cases, the dates on the original storyboards are a bit closer to intended. The storyboard for Sugilite's Fusion Dance in "Coach Steven" shows Pearl in her pre-regeneration outfit, suggesting it was made before the decision was made to poof her in "Steven the Sword Fighter".
    • The Season 1 DVD set mostly lines up with the list regarding the intended viewing order of the season, though "Shirt Club", "Say Uncle", and "Story for Steven" are missing while "Full Disclosure" and "Joy Ride" are included despite being a part of Season 2. The first three episodes would eventually be included on the Season 2 DVD set. The Season 2 DVD set suffers similar issues, as in addition to the extra Season 1 episodes, "Steven's Birthday" through "Log Date 7 15 2" are all excluded.
    • When six episodes from the fifth season were released on video-on-demand before TV airing, some sources put "Gemcation" between "Raising the Barn" and "Back to the Kindergarten", while on TV it premiered right after "Dewey Wins". The TV airing appears to be the intended chronological order, hence why in "Gemcation" Peridot, who moved back into Steven's bathroom after the events of "Raising the Barn", is unmentioned and does not come with everyone else to the vacation home.

    P-S 
  • Permanent Placeholder: When the show's creator knew the main character's name would be Steven, but hadn't decided on a title, she used Steven Universe as a Working Title in reference to Tenchi Universe. Everyone ended up getting attached to it, so that became the show's final title and Steven's full name.
  • Playing Against Type:
    • Crispin Freeman plays Doug Maheswaran, a normal, non-badass father.
    • Erica Lutrell plays Sapphire, a calm, collected alien, as opposed to normal people who freak out a lot.
    • Oddest of all may be Shelby Rabara as Peridot, if only because she's a dancer more than she's an actress.
    • Dave Willis voicing Uncle Andy in "Gem Harvest" would probably be a minor example, considering Willis is better known for more adult-oriented cartoons such as Aqua Teen Hunger Force (which, probably coincidentally, featured Greg's voice actor Tom Scharpling as a monster named "Willie Nelson").
    • Tom Scharpling himself was best known for his cantankerous, put-upon persona as the host of The Best Show before being cast as the genial, easygoing Greg.
    • In the Japanese dub, Rose Quartz is voiced by Rei Igarashi, who is best known for playing sadistic and evil villains, the complete opposite of what Rose is.
  • Pop-Culture Urban Legends:
    • That Peridot was singing with the Crystal Gems in the extended intro (it was Steven, it just sounded like Peridot due to his VA having trouble synchronizing with everyone else).
    • Zach Callison's chameleon voice returned in "Mr. Greg": various lines in the song "Both of You" have been attributed to Susan Egan, Rose's VA, but the crew have said it's all Callison.
  • Promoted Fanboy:
    • Danny Cragg was originally just a fan of the show (though a Pearlmethyst comic of his did get reblogged by Matt Burnett, with a comment saying it was "too real to ignore"). He eventually got on the show as a storyboard revisionist, then a storyboard artist and character designer. He's also made several covers for the comics.
    • Maya Petersen was just a fan and fan artist of the show. She became a storyboard revisionist and later a storyboard artist.
    • Drag Queen Jinkx Monsoon (best known for winning Season 5 of RuPaul's Drag Race) is a huge fan of the show, and has made requests for Gem-themed fan art from many of their fans, as well as made public pleas to Rebecca Sugar via YouTube and social media to voice a character on the show. They finally got their wish in Season 5, where Jinkx provided the voice for Emerald.
  • Queer Character, Queer Actor:
  • Reality Subtext: The Lyrical Dissonance within "Love Like You" comes from the fact that the three lyrical sections of the song were written at different points during production, with Rebecca being in completely different mindsets at each. While the song was originally written to simply be about an alien (Rose Quartz and the other Gems) being unable to fully comprehend the love that a human being is showing them (Greg and Steven), it ultimately became a personal epiphany about how much Sugar cares for her brother, how much others care about her, and how her own insecurities have prevented her from always being there for those people.
  • Refitted for Sequel:
    • Instead of "Jail Break" revealing that Garnet was a Fusion, an idea was considered to have Steven finding out when he saw Ruby and Sapphire unfusing in order to go into their separate rooms in the temple, as Garnet wouldn't have her own. It was even planned to show this as early as "Together Breakfast".
    • During the concept stage of "Hit the Diamond", it was planned for Steven to come up with nicknames for the Ruby Squad. Though the nicknames were still used by the crew and in the credits, they weren't used in-series until "Back to the Moon".
    • Lars coming Back from the Dead with pink skin was planned to happen as early as halfway into the first season (as part of "An Indirect Kiss", which would have been foreshadowed by Steven selling pink lemonade). As is, they decided to hold off until the beginning of the fifth season for it to be dramatically appropriate.
    • Steven entering Pearl's gem was another season one idea that got pushed back all the way to season five.
    • The idea for Ruby and Sapphire getting married was one that the crew had had for a long time before becoming a reality in "The Question". The scene from "That Will Be All" where they lock hands when they become Garnet was originally to show their wedding rings on Garnet's fingers. One idea was that Garnet would marry herself, and the episode was called "If You Love Yourself So Much".
    • Yet another idea pushed back from season one to five was Steven being separated from his gemstone in "Change Your Mind". At first it was planned as part of "Giant Woman", then meant to be episode ten, as a result of Steven's first attempt at fusion.
  • Same Voice Their Entire Life: Steven is voiced by Zach Callison regardless of his age, which is noticeable when he's shown as a baby. Likewise, Sour Cream is voiced by Brian Posehn, both as a baby and his present teenage self.
  • Screwed by the Network: Despite being a ratings success, the show was constantly on and off the schedule, reruns became non-existent, and the hiatus were incredibly frequent, due the show's heavy serialization making it difficult for those unfamiliar with the show to follow.
  • Self-Adaptation: The storybook adaptation of the episode "The Answer" and The Tale of Steven are both written by the show's creator and illustrated by two other crew members.
  • Serendipity Writes the Plot: Sugilite almost never appearing after her debut episode (and none of her future appearances having speaking lines) is because her voice actress Nicki Minaj is difficult and expensive to get. Her absence is written into the show via Garnet concluding that her and Amethyst become unstable when they combine, and that Sugilite is too destructive to the point where it's basically never worth it to form her.
  • Series Hiatus: The show is notorious for its extremely erratic schedule. There were numerous hiatuses, as well as "bomb" weeks, where there was one new episode a day. The odd schedule also meant that there were only very short or even nonexistent season breaks. The longest hiatus was 224 days, between the episode releases from January 21, 2019 ("Change Your Mind") to September 2, 2019 (the premiere of Steven Universe: The Movie).
  • Short Run in Peru:
  • Shrug of God:
    • During a charity drawing livestream, Rebecca Sugar mentioned that Gems use light for their bodies, causing Alex Hirsch to ask what would happen if a Gem spent a long time in the dark. Sugar declined answering, so Hirsch retracted the question.
    • Writers Ben Levin and Matt Burnett were once asked what would happen if post-resurrection Lars went into Lion's Pocket Dimension, then went through the other portal that comes out of Lars' own head. Both admitted to not considering such a strange situation, but theorize things like Lars creating a Recursive Reality or duplicating himself. The show's creator later stated it would be a combination of both.
    • When asked why Onion has not grown in several years, Rebecca Sugar stated "The show is meant to feel sublime, so we have to have some mysteries left.".
    • When Ian Jones-Quartey was asked about the black-out part of the timeline printed in End of an Era, he said viewers are gonna have to fill in the blanks themselves.
  • So My Kids Can Watch:
    • One of the reasons why Deedee Magno-Hall voices Pearl on the show. She went to SDCC wearing a pink scarf with yellow stars (Steven's colors) — a gift from her god-daughter.
    • Estelle got the idea to get into voice acting, and was eventually cast as Garnet, as a way to impress her nieces and nephews.
  • Spoil at Your Own Risk: Matt Burnett begged fans not to leak spoilers of Weeks 3/4 of "Summer of Steven" online until the episodes had aired.
  • Spoiled by the Cast List:
    • When broadcast with a Credits Pushback, episode-specific credits are replaced with combined credits for many episodes, even several that haven't aired yet. This occasionally reveals the names of characters not yet introduced, which isn't usually much of a spoiler out of context. However, Malachite was credited to two different voice actors, both of whom voice other characters (Lapis and Jasper), hinting she was an unstable Fusion between the two.
    • While the promo and eyecatches for "Bismuth" made it look like Bismuth would become a member of the main cast, her not sticking around was given away somewhat by Uzo Aduba being credited as a guest star in an article announcing the episode.
  • Spoiled by the Merchandise: In February 2018, 3D foam keyrings were showcased at the New York Toy Fair based on character designs that wouldn't be seen on television until May and July: Past Pearl and Pink Diamond's full designs from "A Single Pale Rose", Rose Quartz in a Homeworld soldier uniform from "Now We're Only Falling Apart", and most egregiously, Ruby and Sapphire in wedding outfits from "Reunited" and Steven's tuxedo from their wedding.
  • Staff-Created Fan Work: Many of the staff members make semi-official Episode Title Cards, usually the storyboard artists for the episodes they do.

    T-W 
  • Trolling Creator:
    • Matt Burnett, one of the writers, has a habit of making innocuous tweets to build suspense for upcoming episodes. For example, he joked that the Uncle Grandpa crossover was replacing the episode that reveals the long-awaited fusion of Garnet and Pearl.
    • Most of the show's storyboard artists post extra Episode Title Cards when an episode they boarded is going to air. Some of the ones Lamar Abrams posts are deliberately rather wildly misleading. In particular, a few hours before "Rising Tides, Crashing Skies" aired, he posted this image and both he and Burnett proceeded to make numerous posts claiming Ronaldo would die in that episode.
  • Unfinished Episode:
    • The first episode storyboarded was shelved before going any further, or even getting a formal title — the crew simply called it "the shield episode". It was about Steven trying to summon his Gem weapon, eventually doing so to save himself and his father from being hit by a car. The Gems disguised themselves as humans to go out in public and Rose appeared in Steven's dream, both concepts rejected for the series proper. There was a song called "The Meatball Sub Song" and Pearl drove an old car. "Gem Glow", the actual series premiere, reused the basic plot of Steven trying to use his Gem weapon, while Pearl driving around town in an old car was used for "Last One Out of Beach City", three whole seasons later.
    • Some known episodes ideas that didn't make it past the outline stage include one about Steven, Ronaldo, and either Lars or Sadie getting stuck in a fallout shelter and a very literal take on a Bottle Episode where Steven transformed himself into a bottle that gets passed around Beach City.
  • Voiced Differently in the Dub: A lot of the characters ended up sounding very different in the dubs compared to their English counterparts, with the most notable example being Steven in the Cantonese dub of the movie. In the dub, Steven’s voice is very deep and almost operatic at times. His voice can be very off-putting, both because of how different it sounds from Zach Callison’s and because it’s a voice that should definitely not be coming out of the mouth of a teenage boy.
  • Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things: Due to the rowdy and often hostile behavior of the fandom, this occurred somewhat frequently among the show's staff:
    • Matt Burnett, one of the show's writers, was known for answering fan's questions on tumblr, often in an amicable tongue-in-cheek manner. A few extremely rude comments to an answer on the discontinuity of Pearl's sudden dislike of eating food resulted him choosing to shut down the blog for an indefinite amount of time. He brought it back after a few months.
    • A tumblr fan-blog known as didyouknowstevenuniverse posted parody facts about the show. For example, saying that Pearl would be killed and replaced by Topaz, or that the creature that Garnet pulled from the ocean in "Love Letters" intentionally looked like Lapis Lazuli because Rebecca Sugar "loves to kill her fans with emotions". The former is obviously a lie and it's a joke in the fandom to call out Rebecca Sugar for the show's tearjerkers. Each "fact" was stated in clear Sarcasm Mode and the blog runner said several times that the facts he made were 100% made up. Unfortunately, some people ignored this and took the "facts" seriously, and went as far as to harass Rebecca for it. Ian Jones-Quartey, one of the storyboard artists, found out about this and expressed annoyance at the blog. Thankfully, the blog runner was very polite in his apology, closing the blog temporarily and, at Jones-Quartey's suggestion, making the disclaimer that it's a joke more obvious.
    • After the episode "Keystone Motel", some people found out that there's an actual motel called the Keystone Motel in Florida. Fans of the show left reviews for the hotel, pointing out that "the pool wasn't filled and had scorch marks at the bottom" and that "the people next to us were arguing the whole time". This wouldn't have been such a problem if it weren't for the fact that the X-out-of-5-stars ratings on these reviews were low, which put the actual motel at risk of having a bad reputation. Matt Burnett had to get involved and tell everyone to stop.
    • When the staff caught wind that a fan artist was being harassed online by SU fans for drawing Rose in a way that appeared significantly thinner than her appearance in the show, they decided to weigh in on the subject and wrote the fan artist's drawings off as artistic interpretation... and were immediately hit with the exact same accusations of everything from racism to transphobia to, later, pedophilia when the same harassers dug up Rebecca Sugar's old Ed, Edd n Eddy slash art (which she'd made as a teenager) and information on Ian Jones-Quartey's interest in art that resembles lolicon. Ignoring the fact that not only is the show is designed to be extremely romantically positive and welcoming, but the staff are themselves quite diverse. And Rose's original form, Pink Diamond, is actually fairly thin.
    • Jesse (then Lauren) Zuke deleted their Twitter account after overzealous shippers accused them of "pandering" to the Lapis/Peridot ship in "Beta". Others harassed them for writing the characters Like an Old Married Couple as what they felt was an insensitive joke. Jessie responded with something to the effect of "Why would I do that? You know I'm gay, right? Literally none of that was a joke. It was a funny scene, but it was sincere. Why would I pour my blood, sweat, and tears into this show just to write jokes at the expense of other gay people?"
  • Word of Gay:
    • Joe Johnston, at the time a storyboard artist, confirmed Ruby and Sapphire were in a romantic relationship before the show itself made it clear.
    • Writer Matt Burnett confirmed that Pearl's feelings for Rose are not platonic for those that missed the subtext.
    • During a fan meetup, storyboarder Raven Molisee stated that Mr. Smiley was gay.
    • A variation for elsewhere in the LGBTQIA+ community; Maya Petersen, a storyboarder for Steven Universe Future, confirmed Peridot to be asexual and aromantic, though she did admit that as a storyboarder, her word would be rendered moot if someone higher in the Crew said something different.
    • After coming out as bisexual in Pride Month 2021, Grace Rolek, the VA of Connie, said in response to someone asking if Connie's LGBT+ that she can be whatever sexual orientation and gender identity people want her to be.
  • Working Title: Some episodes changed title during production:
  • Writer Conflicts with Canon:
    • Former supervising director Ian Jones-Quartey stated on Something Awful that "Steven was never 12 onscreen". This contradicts the timeline evident in the actual show, where one summer begins, fall and winter pass, and it's the next summer by Steven's 14th birthday. There were even two annual Beach-a-Paloozas in the meantime.
    • While on the show's podcast, the co-head writers for the first five seasons concluded Lapis did not take all the Earth's oceans in "Ocean Gem", just in the area around Beach City. However, that begs the question of why the surrounding water didn't flow in, and several shots in the episode from space appear to show the planet with no oceans.
  • Write What You Know:
    • Rebecca Sugar based the show's LGBTQ aspects on her own experiences as a non-binary, bisexual woman. The way gems casually use and allow female terms, even if they don't see themselves that way, is a reflection of her own gender identity.
    • The series' notable focus on dancing (the Gems have a literal Fusion Dance, and each of the Crystal Gems has a unique dance style) was inspired by Rebecca Sugar's mother being a dancer.
    • Greg and Rose naming Steven "Nora" if he was a girl was because Rebecca's parents almost named her Nora.
    • Sadie Killer and the Suspects was based on a band Rebecca was in during college, where she was "Rebecca Murder". Lapis and Peridot turning the barn into an art museum was based on how, after Sugar left to work on animation, the rest of the band went to make art in a barn.
    • Ruby nearly walking off a desert cliff in "The Question" was inspired by Rebecca Sugar driving her car into a ditch during a trip to Joshua Tree.
  • Write Who You Know:
    • Steven is based off of Rebecca Sugar's brother, also named Steven (who works on the show). However, Rebecca Sugar's also stated Steven Universe has become less like his namesake as other staff members have contributed to his character.
    • Rebecca Sugar based the Crystal Gems on different parts of her personality. Sadie is based on how Sugar was when she was in college.
    • The Pizza family are based on Ian Jones-Quartey's family. The twins were based on two of his cousins, and Nanefua is based partially on his own grandmother.
    • Similarly, Pink Diamond Starting a New Life as Rose Quartz was partially inspired by some members of Jones-Quartey's immigrant family who reinvented themselves after moving to a new country.
    • Rebecca mentions in an interview that Ruby and Sapphire's relationship was based around her and Ian's relationship.
    • Kimberly Brooks based Jasper's voice on a Sears employee who talked her into buying a refrigerator.
    • Alastair James based Rainbow Quartz 2.0's voice on his grandmother's, but with a British accent.
  • Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: While the show's writers came up with a lot of ideas years before formally introducing them, there are still major elements of the setting and character background written retroactively, even if they might have seemed planned from the beginning.
    • The first half-season ended with the revelation that there were other Gems the Crystal Gems came into conflict with, and Garnet and Pearl seem anxious that the same thing will happen again. While the crew had a vague idea of a Great Offscreen War fought on the Earth, most of the details of who the Crystal Gems fought and why were decided after said revelation.
    • While they already had the idea of Amethyst joining the Crystal Gems after the war, her specifically having been made on the Kindergarten on Earth was thought up in the writing sessions for season 1B, which is where the episode that reveals such aired. Garnet's line in "Steven's Lion" that "We kept Amethyst", though often thought as foreshadowing such a reveal, was actually written before then. Amethyst's short height being the Gem equivalent of a birth defect was also something thought up later still.
    • The first season finale had a vague reference to "the Cluster". While it became a major plot element of the next season, what exactly it is wasn't really figured out until partway through the development of season two. There were preliminary plans for it to be a conventional (though enormous) monster the heroes directly confronted, but it ended up being a weapon so enormous it would immediately destroy the Earth if it even formed a body.
    • The third season begins with the Crystal Gems assuming Homeworld was after Peridot for insulting Yellow Diamond in "Message Received"", only to discover they didn't care about her and it's later shown Yellow Diamond forgot who Peridot was. However, when the mentioned episode was being storyboarded, Yellow Diamond actually was planned to hold a significant grudge over it.
    • Bismuth's bubbled gemstone was added to the background of Lion's mane before deciding who she was, why she was there, or if she was even a character at all — preliminary ideas included it just being a portable warp device, not a gem. However, her character was still mostly planned out by the end of producing season one, well in advance of Bismuth's introduction in late season three.
    • In the season four finale, a minor bit of dialogue from three seasons earlier (Steven telling Peridot about his friends in "Marble Madness") turns out to have major consequences (said friends ended up being the targets of Alien Abduction). Though the writers thought of it a while before the end of the fourth season, they had no such intention when the earlier episode was made.
  • Written by Cast Member: Although none of the cast have written episodes, some have contributed to the songs they performed:
    • Garnet's voice actor Estelle provided some advice in the earlier creation of "Stronger Than You", suggesting listening to "Gold" by Spandau Ballet and the theme of Fame for inspiration.
    • Sadie's voice actor Kate Micucci came up with the idea for the lyrics of "Haven't You Noticed (I'm a Star)".

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