History Characters / StevenUniverseStevenQuartzUniverse

* SingleSpecimenSpecies: As a result of the unique circumstances surrounding his birth, Steven is the first and only human-Gem hybrid in existence.

*** All of this inevitably culminates into [[spoiler:a legitimately hard to watch breakdown in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS4E4MindfulEducation "Mindful Education"]]. Steven carries a massive amount of guilt that none of the above Gems would let him help them, and how he never wanted to hurt anyone. Most tragically, all of his negative thoughts merge into one image that he seems to fear over everything else - Rose Quartz.]]

** {{Downplayed|Trope}} and played straight with Connie. While Steven still remains ThePollyanna NiceGuy who is open about his emotions, he has a habit of not talking about the fear he feels of what could happen if he doesn't becomes what the Crystal Gems expect him to be or [[spoiler:the intense guilt he feels over not successfully helping Bismuth, Jasper, or Eyeball]]. At both times Connie has been the one he opens up to about said feelings and trauma, while she provides him with needed emotional support.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Some people not familiar with the show will spell his name as "Stephen Universe".

* MessianicArchetype: Steven bears many of the criteria for this trope. He is the son of a human (Greg) and a transcendent otherworldly being (Rose Quartz, who is even referred to as a "goddess" by Vidalia in one episode) who comes into his own and learn how to control his otherworldly power, including the power to create food (grow plant life), heal the injured (healing spit) and ultimately revive the virtuous ([[spoiler:brings Lars back to life]]). He befriends and converts followers of his celestial parent's doctrines (Peridot and Lapis Lazuli) and is willing to sacrifice himself to his people's enemy (the Diamonds) and save his world in the process. This is especially telling in "[[Recap/StevenUniverseS4E9ThreeGemsAndABaby Three Gems and a Baby]]", where three ancient beings (Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl) come bearing gifts for Steven and his weathered human parent (Greg) in a place that is not their own (Vidalia's house) set in December. In an interesting inversion of the trope, at the end of the fourth season, he sacrifices himself not to atone for the sins of humanity, but [[spoiler:for those of his "divine" parent]]. Taken UpToEleven in season 5 with [[spoiler:the reveal that his mother was secretly ''[[PhysicalGod Pink Diamond]]'']].

* PsychoactivePowers: Steven's power tends to hinge on ThePowerOfLove. Every time he's used it successfully, it's been in the defense or service of someone he cares for or loves. But since [[Recap/StevenUniverseS1E27HouseGuest "House Guest"]], he is also concerned that his self confidence affects his abilities as well. His newly gained floating powers are controlled by yet another aspect of his emotional balance; he's able to speed up his descent with sad thoughts, and slow himself down by thinking about things that make him happy, like the Crystal Gems.

* KarmicJackpot: For five seasons and a movie, Steven always helped everyone, even those who hurt him, without asking nor getting anything in return. In "I Am My Monster" [[spoiler: everyone finally repays the favor by saving him from his corrupted form with a CoolDownHug]]. After everything he has been through, he absolutely deserved it.

* AllLovingHero: {{Reconstruction}}. Steven hasn't met a person he didn't try to make friends with. It's something he has in common with Rose, and [[PersonalityPowers seems to be the reason]] both of them have healing powers. He even shows some concern for enemies, as seen when Peridot is crushed by a falling injector in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS2E11KeepingItTogether "Keeping It Together"]] and he asks if she's alright. The ''only'' exception is Jasper, who he knew he couldn't become friends with the moment he saw her, and even that's based more out of fear than hate — the first thing Jasper did when she saw him was beat him unconscious. Even with Jasper, he shows concern when she [[spoiler:falls into the Earth]] and [[spoiler:covers for her in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS3E5HitTheDiamond "Hit the Diamond"]] by lying to the Rubies that she's on Neptune.]] He also tries to heal Jasper [[spoiler:when the latter becomes corrupted]]. In fact, this is shown to be his greatest strength because his desire to see the best in everyone meant he managed to turn [[spoiler:Lapis and Peridot into his friends and eventual Crystal Gems. He manages to get the ''Cluster'' to be his friend, and eventually manages to get the diamonds to accept him.]] Even his two least favorite people ever, Marty (a manipulative and neglectful jerk even to people he claims to care for) and Kevin (a condescending, egotistical jerk who gets really pushy about propositioning Stevonnie) are people he's still willing to be ''civil'' to. [[spoiler:He gradually loses such traits in ''Future'', in which he becomes DrunkWithPower during his rematch with Jasper and winds up shattering her (though he's able to revive her afterwards), and later attempts to smash White Diamond's head into a pillar due to [[{{Revenge}} vengeful thoughts]]. He [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone deeply regrets]] doing these things, and tries to help everyone once more, only to end up getting corrupted. Luckily, Connie is able to convince everyone to help ''Steven'' like how he's helped ''them'', and he promptly gets his all-lovingness [[KarmicJackpot thrown back at him]] in the form of a CooldownHug, thankfully turning him back to normal.]]
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Reveals in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS3E19StevenVsAmethyst "Steven vs. Amethyst"]] that he feels this way about Rose a lot of the time. Eventually he gains the self confidence to stop comparing himself to her.

** After five seasons of being a LivingEmotionalCrutch, neglect of Steven's needs (from both him and the Gems), and the Gems' issues at caretaking, his underlying trauma from being a KidHero and other problems are finally catching up to him with disastrous results. Not only has this given him severe emotional issues expressed through the rage-powered Pink Steven form, but - as a result of the frankly insane amount of responsibility placed on Steven's shoulders - he shows traits of both [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parentification parentification]] and the [[https://novantinuum.tumblr.com/post/190115019709/the-atlas-personality-drawing-on-the-myth-of-the 'Atlas' personality type]], taking on a pattern of compulsive care giving and workaholism, with difficulty asserting his own needs. Furthermore, this is underlined by his unique nature of being a Gem/human hybrid, which gives him a set of problems and capabilities that neither Gem or human fully understand and provides an immense source of fear and isolation for Steven. In fact, he even shares this with his mother [[spoiler: Pink Diamond, albeit in a different case. Pink may have been a Gem, but as a Diamond, she really could not interact with any other Gem as equals as many of them acted as subordinates to her and doctrine forbade them from further intimate or casual relations. And while she may have been a Diamond, she was the BabyOfTheBunch and treated more as a party planner than a real Diamond. Blue and Yellow Diamond had each other and White lorded over everyone and detached from them, even if she did have some favoritism toward Pink. This left Pink with no one as an equal.]]

* SharedFamilyQuirks: [[NiceGuy Compassion]] runs in Steven's family, and as mentioned above, he got it from both his father Greg, and his deceased mother Rose. In regards to Rose, he has the tendency to get starry-eyed when excited and/or happy, and go out of his way to help people in need. [[spoiler:And like Rose, who is actually Pink Diamond, Steven struggled to fulfill his family's expectations of him, which went to tragic extremes in Pink's case when she was alive.]]

** While he just wanted [[spoiler:Lapis and Peridot to get along]], Steven also (accidentally) gave [[spoiler:Lapis a minor guilt trip for not giving Peridot a chance]], even though she has [[JerkassHasAPoint some very good reasons as to why she won't]].

* AllLovingHero: {{Reconstructed}}. Steven hasn't met a person he didn't try to make friends with. It's something he has in common with Rose, and [[PersonalityPowers seems to be the reason]] both of them have healing powers. He even shows some concern for enemies, as seen when Peridot is crushed by a falling injector in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS2E11KeepingItTogether "Keeping It Together"]] and he asks if she's alright. The ''only'' exception is Jasper, who he knew he couldn't become friends with the moment he saw her, and even that's based more out of fear than hate — the first thing Jasper did when she saw him was beat him unconscious. Even with Jasper, he shows concern when she [[spoiler:falls into the Earth]] and [[spoiler:covers for her in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS3E5HitTheDiamond "Hit the Diamond"]] by lying to the Rubies that she's on Neptune.]] He also tries to heal Jasper [[spoiler:when the latter becomes corrupted]]. In fact, this is shown to be his greatest strength because his desire to see the best in everyone meant he managed to turn [[spoiler:Lapis and Peridot into his friends and eventual Crystal Gems. He manages to get the ''Cluster'' to be his friend, and eventually manages to get the diamonds to accept him.]] Even his two least favorite people ever, Marty (a manipulative and neglectful jerk even to people he claims to care for) and Kevin (a condescending, egotistical jerk who gets really pushy about propositioning Stevonnie) are people he's still willing to be ''civil'' to. [[spoiler:He gradually loses such traits in ''Future'', in which he becomes DrunkWithPower during his rematch with Jasper and winds up shattering her (though he's able to revive her afterwards), and later attempts to smash White Diamond's head into a pillar due to [[{{Revenge}} vengeful thoughts]]. He [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone deeply regrets]] doing these things, and tries to help everyone once more, only to end up getting corrupted. Luckily, Connie is able to convince everyone to help ''Steven'' like how he's helped ''them'', and he promptly gets his all-lovingness [[KarmicJackpot thrown back at him]] in the form of a CooldownHug, thankfully turning him back to normal.]]

** He hates being called pitiful, as Jasper found out in ''Future''.

** Steven is the sweetest, nicest kid you'll ever meet, and it takes a lot to even make him ''annoyed'', but when you manage to get him ''angry''... it's not pretty.
** [[spoiler:Steven's true Gem form is not nearly as talkative or happy as his human shell. He can only exist for a few minutes at a time without killing Steven, but he's more powerful than Pink Pearl, the Crystal Gems and all three of the other Diamonds put together.]]
** [[spoiler:''Future'' has taken this even further, with Steven's PTSD manifesting as violent outbursts of power when his body senses he's in danger, no matter how big or small. Not only this, but when Steven becomes angry now, he will no longer hesitate to get rid of you. If you see Steven turn pink, '''run.''']]
** [[spoiler: What makes this worse is that Steven won't just kill you with brute force, he's also shown that he's capable of using calculated methods of hurting his enemies.]]

* ItsAllAboutMe: A much less self-centered version of this trope than normal. Most of the events in the main series really did revolve around him[[note]] Of which Reynaldo voiced his displeasure of in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS1E31KeepBeachCityWeird 'Keep Beach City Weird']] [[/note]]. In Future when all events finally stop revolving around him and everybody starts moving on with their own lives he has no idea what to do with his own.

* HybridPower: Initially, being half-human seems entirely detrimental compared to being a full Gem: his powers and body develop slowly instead of being like that from the beginning, he needs to eat and sleep, he might be as short-lived as a human (and can even accidentally cause his own death by old age ''prematurely'', though he can also seemingly reverse it) and may not be able to regenerate his body like full Gems do. Later, it's revealed his body has some advantages no Gem has had before, including being able to fuse with humans (and according to Rebecca Sugar, organic beings in general, theoretically including animals like Lion) and immunity to technology that destroys Gems' bodies. He also has the power to talk to other Gems in his dreams, which is something totally unique to him since Gems don't even need to sleep. But perhaps the biggest advantage has nothing to do with his powers at all: [[ChildOfTwoWorlds being raised with Gems and humans]] leaves him as basically the only one in the world [[TheHeart who can easily understand and empathize with both]]. This ties into another major ability he has: Gems [[StaticCharacter are expected to never change]] and have that drilled into them by Homeworld's society, but being human, Steven's ''natural'' state is change. And as shown with the Crystal Gems, this makes him very capable to instigate change and growth in Gems on a level even his mother couldn't do. Notably, Rose considered this ''the'' most amazing thing Steven's hybrid nature would give him. [[spoiler:The power displayed by Pink Steven suggests that his true potential might ''exceed White Diamond''. This is because he inherited the sheer power of his mother, but the ability to change and ''grow'' from his father, something White lacked.]]

* WhiteMaleLead: Steven is a member of a team where most members are sexless, agender and female-presenting aliens who all have different body types, colors and ethnicity codings. Many of them are attracted to each other and to other female and feminine people, [[DiscountLesbians coding them as lesbians/wlw]]. The half-Gem Steven, by contrast, is Caucasian (likely Italian and even Jewish ancestry based on some subtle hints), uses he/him pronouns and has only expressed attraction to a girl. It's notable that he enjoys wearing female-coded clothing and make-up occasionally, and that when fused with others, they use a they/them pronoun set.

* CosmicMotifs: Stars are always around Steven. His shirt has a star, his eyes turn to stars when he's happy or excited, his mother's side of the family come from space which are filled with stars, and he dots the "i" in his last name with a star.

* {{Adorkable}}: Steven is an enthusiastic, dorky kid who is awkward about introducing himself to Connie, gets really excited about things like birthdays or breakfasts, and will adopt as his new best friend virtually anything that sits still long enough, even acid-spewing bug monsters or fully-grown lions. Even as he matures, he never truly loses this quality.

* BirdsOfAFeather: With Jamie. He shares several [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} quirks]] [[{{Adorkable}} and]] [[NiceGuy tendencies]] with him, making the two good friends.

*** Becomes a DownplayedTrope in ''Steven Universe: Future'', as while Steven is still an {{Adorkable}} AllLovingHero and Lars retains his DeadpanSnarker tendencies, Lars has now TookALevelInKindness and is more open to talking about his feelings, whereas Steven became more stressed and emotionally unstable. This results in their usual roles getting ''reversed'' in "Little Graduation", with Lars helping ''Steven'' with his emotional issues.

* KarmicJackpoint: For five seasons and a movie, Steven always helped everyone, even those who hurt him, without asking nor getting anything in return. In "I Am My Monster" [[spoiler: everyone finally repays the favor by saving him from his corrupted form with a CoolDownHug]]. After everything he has been through, he absolutely deserved it.

* ColorMotif: Pink. He wore a pink shirt in the first five seasons. Many important scenes with him involve the color pink. He has a pink gem. His mother's hair was [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair pink]]. His shield and other weapons he create are pink. If his gem is pulled out, a pink version of himself comes out. By the movie, he now sports a pink jacket.

* DespairEventHorizon: In "[[Recap/StevenUniverseFutureS1E18EverythingsFine Everything's Fine]]", Steven finally snaps, at first downplaying his issues throughout ''Future'', then revealing [[spoiler: that he shattered Jasper and thought about smashing White Diamond's head into a pillar]] in front of Greg, Connie, and the Crystal Gems. This then descends into self-loathing and he collapses to the floor, decrying himself a fraud and a monster [[spoiler: before pink spikes burst out of his back.]]

* RealMenWearPink: In "Fragments", he trains seriously with Jasper and gains a new form that incorporates a ''lot'' of muscle, all while his ''incredible'' power and ''skin tone'' retains its pink coloring.

* ExtremelyProtectiveChild: During the "Out of this World" event, Greg is kidnapped by Blue Diamond and Steven is determined to save him at whatever cost. Whether it's traveling at the speed of light, entering into a (presumably dangerous) human zoo, or ready to ''fight'' those he perceives as trying to keep his father against his will.