History WesternAnimation / StevenUniverseFuture

* Flanderization: Steven is deliberately flanderized. As the season progresses, Steven becomes more and more unscrewed and prone to major meltdowns and lashing out. To the point it becomes his whole character and all his optimistic and happy traits Steven was known for in the original show are lost. This is done to show Steven's descent into madness and to show what can happen if mental health issues go unchecked. His unchecked trauma and mental health crisis literally consumes his character and becomes him, until he is able to finally get the help he needs.

* KneelBeforeFrodo: After Steven defeats and shatters Jasper, he resurrects her in a bathtub filled with healing potions. After Jasper has been resurrected, she bows before Steven, praising his newfound abilities and calling him "my diamond", acknowledging him as a WorthyOpponent.

[[folder:E-J]]

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: After Connie politely declines Steven's proposal with a "not now", when her alarm goes off, she's willing to put her studying on hold to spend a little more time with Steven, telling him that he's important to her.

* AwwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: After Connie politely declines Steven's proposal with a "not now", when her alarm goes off, she's willing to put her studying on hold to spend a little more time with Steven, telling him that he's important to her.

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[YouAreNotAlone "We Will Always Be Your Family"]]'']]

** First of all, the idea that your child or friend has gotten to a really bad place due to untreated trauma or mental illness, and then see them in a full mental breakdown with no way to know how to help them, is a horrifying one. And to twist the knife even further, there is also the dreadful realization that you may be part of the reasons why your loved one is suffering in the first place, whether it was intentional or not, directly or not. This is what [[spoiler: the Gems, Greg and the Diamonds learn the hard way, when Steven accidentally corrupts himself and turns info a Kaiju-like rampaging monster because of his trauma originated from the original series and movie, and they are forced to own up to the fact that they did hurt him and they never truly helped him to cope when he needed most]].

* AdultFear: Peaking too soon. The problem with being a KidHero is that Steven's already accomplished more than any one person could usually ever hope to accomplish in their lifetime before he was even halfway to being an adult, but now that he's reached the pinnacle of achievement anyone could ever make and brought peace to the universe and solved everybody's problems...he has no idea what he's supposed to do next.

* ObviouslyNotFine: PlayedForDrama throughout the cartoon. Steven is frustrated, tired, and generally traumatized from all his time dealing with the Gems' world-threatening conflicts, but constantly tells his family that he's okay and not to worry about him. However, bottling up his anger doesn't work, resulting in strange power surges when his anger builds up. He denies he needs help even when his body begins growing in hideous malformed ways. Eventually he explains the horrors he's experienced to his family while still constantly trying to downplay them, and [[spoiler:turns into a monster because of all the resentment and guilt built up inside him]].

* SoWhatDoWeDoNow: Now that there's nothing to fight for and his family and friends are moving on, Steven is DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife. [[spoiler:While the show doesn't end with him having one, he's no longer ''desperately'' searching for one, and uses [[WalkingTheEarth a cross-country road trip]] [[LeavingYouToFindMyself to calmly figure himself out]]]].

* SoWhatDoWeDoNow: Now that there's nothing to fight for and his family and friends are moving on, Steven is DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife. [[spoiler:While the show doesn't end with him having one, he's no longer ''desperately'' searching for one, and is using [[WalkingTheEarth a cross-country road trip]] [[LeavingYouToFindMyself as a method to calmly figure himself out]]]].

* DeathIsCheap: In the original series, "shattering" of gems was treated as the equivalent of a gem getting KilledForReal. In this series, [[spoiler:Steven accidentally shatters Jasper, but is able to bring her back to life using healing essence from all four Diamonds.]]

* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: [[spoiler:A tragic example, since Steven never wanted to do this in the first place. Steven, now without a purpose or problem to fix, starts to become more unhinged as his powers go haywire due to untreated trauma and PTSD from the original series and movie. His attempts to end it on his own, not only fail miserably, but also put himself and everyone around him in danger (like the accidental shattering of Jasper, and the attempted shattering of White Diamond). Of course, he deeply regrets his action, but at the end of “Everything’s Fine”, his Sanity Slippage finally reaches a breaking point, as he has a spectacular meltdown that corrupts him and transforms him into a giant, rampaging monster. He gets better.]]

* HardTruthAesop: You are not the center of the universe. Everybody else's lives don't revolve around you and just because you're satisfied with your life doesn't mean everybody else is. Everybody has their own lives to live and will sometimes make choices for their own benefit. Now that everything has settled down Steven starts to notice everybody else moving on with their lives to bigger and better things, meanwhile he is forced to confront the idea that he has no idea what to do now that he's peaked before even becoming an adult.

* FamilyUnfriendlyAesop: You are not the center of the universe. Everybody else's lives don't revolve around you and just because you're satisfied with your life doesn't mean everybody else is. Everybody has their own lives to live and will sometimes make choices for their own benefit. Now that everything has settled down Steven starts to notice everybody else moving on with their lives to bigger and better things, meanwhile he is forced to confront the idea that he has no idea what to do now that he's peaked before even becoming an adult.

* WhoopiEpiphanySpeech: In ''Little Graduation'', It is ultimately the non-binary Shep, who only appears in this episode, that saves the day by summing up Steven's abandonment issues and telling him that he can't force his friends to stay by his side forever.

* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: A tragic example, since Steven never wanted to do this in the first place. Steven, now without a purpose or problem to fix, starts to become more unhinged as his powers go haywire due to untreated trauma and PTSD from the original series and movie. His attempts to end it on his own, not only fail miserably, but also put himself and everyone around him in danger (like the accidental shattering of Jasper, and the attempted shattering of White Diamond). Of course, he deeply regrets his action, but at the end of “Everything’s Fine”, his Sanity Slippage finally reaches a breaking point, as he has a spectacular meltdown that corrupts him and transforms him into a giant, rampaging monster. He gets better.