YMMV / Steven Universe S4E4 "Mindful Education"

• Awesome Music: "Here Comes A Thought", a song that several SU fans have said genuinely helped them with their anxiety issues and gave them a positive introduction to the practice of mindfulness meditation.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Steven's failure to peacefully reason with Bismuth, Jasper, and Eyeball was already plenty tragic, but we see here that his guilt over it has been weighing on his mind for so long that it eventually takes its toll, overwhelming him at exactly the wrong moment and nearly killing Connie and himself when it causes Stevonnie to trip and fall out of the Sky Arena.
  • "Steven Floats" has the self-aware joke of Steven literally pushing thoughts of Rose Quartz out of his mind because those feelings were "way too complicated." Here, it's painfully represented at the sum collective of all of Steven's fears and anxieties over filling in for her role along with the choices and so on. Along with the stern face she presented, it shows Steven has trouble being able to fully see her as a mother figure.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: When you see a picture of Connie making up with the boy she attacked, you see that she had accidentally broken his arm. This would be regarded as a serious matter at any school, but the episode focuses on Connie's self-guilt, with no mention as to the reaction of her school, her fellow students, or even Connie's parents. We also never see Connie make up with the boy; we only get a brief mention of her doing it as the episode shifts to Steven's problems.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Ruby and Sapphire's appearance makes sense in hindsight, but was entirely unhinted at in the official summary.
  • The cameos by Bismuth, Jasper, Eyeball, and Rose came out of nowhere, but again, they fit with the episode's theme.

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