History StevenUniverse / TropesAToD

** In season 3, there's "Greg the Babysitter", which comes after a similarly intense pair of episodes, "Monster Reunion" and "Alone at Sea".

* DualWielding: Garnet on a regular basis with her gauntlets. Amethyst and Pearl usually only sport one whip and one spear respectively, but they can do this if they please.

* AnimationBump: The fusion dances tend to have more frames and tight choreography. According to the production blog, the storyboards for those scenes are sometimes near-fully animated before being sent to animation proper to ensure that the timing is perfect.

* {{Animesque}}: Downplayed in the first two seasons but played ''deadly'' straight in seasons 3 and 4.

** It's possible that the Crewniverse and Rebecca Sugar's viewing of ''SK'' in the 90s might be why there's so much catness in this show.
* AnimationBump:
** Lapis has far more flowing, graceful animation than most of the main cast, reflecting both her aqueous nature and more serious character. Especially apparent when she's alone with Steven, whose jerky animation and childlike personality contrast hers.
** Rose has carefully animated hair, and her large curls are detailed and can often be seen moving and bouncing with the smallest movements of her head. This helps portray Rose's beauty, which many characters refer to throughout the series.
** Garnet and Jasper's fight in "Jailbreak" is animated with many wide shots and dynamic camera angles, giving it a more cinematic feel.
** Pearl's 360-degree turn while singing about Rose and Greg in "Mr. Greg". In fact, the animators started with this scene and built the rest around it.
* {{Animesque}}: Like its spiritual counterpart, ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', Steven Universe takes a lot of aesthetic and thematic hints from anime. Fittingly, whereas ''Adventure Time'' shares enough traits to make it an American [[ShonenDemographic Shounen]] series, Steven Universe shares enough traits to make it an American [[ShoujoDemographic Shoujo]] series.

** Played completely straight in "Bubbled". [[Spoiler:Steven is blown out of an airlock on the moon base and floats through space in his bubble. At one moment, he completely dissipates his bubble in order to knock away one of the 5 Rubies that got blown out along with him. He holds his breath, pops his bubble and exposes himself to the complete void of space before reforming his bubble and starts breathing oxygen again. Apparently, the bubble itself ''creates'' oxygen.

* BatmanCanBreatheInSpace: Despite the RuleOfCool trumping physics when it comes to scenes in space, there's actually a justification given. The Gems being TheNeedless, don't have to breathe, and as half-Gem, Steven is shown being able to hold his breath longer and receive a small degree of air in space, though it can only last so long. His other half is organic, after all. Averted when traveling inside [[PocketDimension Lion's mane]], as it takes some experimentation to figure out that he needs to hold his breath before going in.

* ArtisticLicenseGeology: It's not entirely clear what the show's definition of "gem" is. Most Gems fall under the technical definition--that is, precious and semiprecious crystalline minerals. Pearl's inclusion, however, would imply that it's more about jewelry stones in general than it is about actual gemstones.

* ArtisticLicenseGeology: It's not entirely clear what the show's definition of "gem" is. Most Gems fall under the technical definition--that is, precious and semiprecious crystalline minerals. Pearl's inclusion, however, would imply that it's more about jewelry stones in general than it is about actual gemstones. The introduction of [[spoiler:Bismuth]], a ''metal'', and not even a precious one, throws even that generous definition out the window.

** Then there is "Universe and Universe's Universal Space Travel HQ".

** Distinctive Appearances: ''Steven Universe'' uses this among not just the main characters, but also the secondary cast. The best examples of this are the three primary Crystal Gems Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl, whose designs are based around squares, circles and triangles respectively and distinct heights and body types that they could be told apart miles away.

** Homeworld's attitude towards fusion is highly complicated, but has parallels to sexuality and [[Maligned Mixed Marriage racism]]. Gems of the same type can fuse with each other as a strategy, merely enhancing the base gem's abilities. However, Ruby, a base gem, wasn't even allowed to touch Sapphire, an aristocrat gem, and the two of them fusing, even by accident, prompted Blue Diamond to order Ruby's gem shattered. Garnet is also incredibly surprised that Rose isn't disgusted by her, because of the blending.

** Homeworld's attitude towards fusion is highly complicated, but has parallels to sexuality. For instance, the same gem type can fuse with itself as a strategy, merely enhancing the base gem's abilities. However, Ruby, a base gem, wasn't even allowed to touch Sapphire, an aristocrat gem, and the two of them fusing, even by accident, prompted Blue Diamond to order Ruby's gem shattered. Garnet is also incredibly surprised that Rose isn't disgusted by her, because of the blending.

** When Jasper forcefully and violently fuses with [[spoiler: a gem monster]] to get her power high again, it looks a lot like she's transferring her abusiveness towards a new partner. [[spoiler: Then she gets infected by the monster's Corruption, much like an STD.]]

** Most Gems would qualify, as they're NighInvulnerable intergalactic conquerers that although synthetic, refer to and take the forms of human females.

** In "So Many Birthdays", the Gems are frantically trying to keep themselves calm and positive because of Steven's RapidAging giving him]\ mere seconds to find a solution before it kills him. Doubly stressful as being half-Gem, he can die whereas the others can hardly grasp the concept, let alone cope with this knowledge. Triply so as Steven's the reincarnation and remnant of their leader, Rose Quartz whom they had already lost to child birth and were about to lose again.

** The Gems are named after gemstones, some of which are commonnly used (Pearl, Ruby, Jasper) and others of which are little known or unusual-sounding (Sugilite, Peridot, Sardonyx, Amethyst).

** Lion's mane has a PocketDimension of its own.

* BigEater: Steven and Amethyst. More often than not they will scarf down any and all available food. Moreso in Amethyst's case, as she's been shown eating things that ''aren't'' food, such as plates, motor oil, and tea bags.

** BreatherEpisode: ZigZagged. One of the show's strongest features is the masterly done pacing. In between several episodes of intense drama and character development, SU still dares to alternate with lighter toned episodes. However, many of this apparently filler episodes manage to unveil clues that later will turn into major plot points, seemingly averting this trope. Some standouts:

** ConnectedAllAlong:

** In "MonsterReunion", Garnet turns Steven away when Amethyst is asked to [[spoiler:poof a partially uncorrupted Centipeetle]].

* Cyclops:

** This trope is also very common among the Beach City residents, but Connie, Greg, and Lars deserve a mention. Connie virtually grew up without ANY friends and wasn't allowed to enjoy her life for the sake of "safety"; Greg was abused and ridiculed by his manager, had to see his wife die, has a low-paying job, and has to see his own son constantly put in danger; and Lars appears to be a FreudianExcuse. As WordofGod says, he wasn't able to make a whole lot of friends, and he acts mean to Steven because he believes he'll ruin Lars' chance to make friends.

* ApocalypseHow: Implied in 'Monster Reunion' that [[spoiler: a Class 3A occurred 5,000 years ago, when the Diamonds unleashed some sort of white light attack that corrupted all of the gems on Earth, turning them into monsters. The only survivors were Rose Quartz, Garnet, and Pearl, who were protected by Rose's shield, Amethyst, who had not yet emerged from her hole, and Lapis Lazuli, who was trapped in a mirror.]]

** Centipeetle, in her first semi-corrupted appearance, is barefoot.

* AnachronismStew: Steven used the relatively recent slang term "boo" when talking to Lion in ''Bismuth'' (the fact that it's usually used to refer to one's significant other notwithstanding). That said, the fact that Steven still uses his ''UsefulNotes/NintendoGamecube'' implies that the series may be still set during the Gamecube's lifespan within UsefulNotes/TheSixthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames (between 2001 and 2006, before it became a widespread slang term).