History WesternAnimation / StevenUniverseTheMovie

[[TimeSkip Two years after the events of]] [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E28ChangeYourMind the series finale]], Steven has finished his work dismantling the remnants of the Gem Empire and returns home to Earth, believing that his time defending the planet is over and that he can finally relax. However, when a mysterious Gem lands in Beach City with a weapon that threatens to kill all organic life on Earth, he'll face his biggest challenge yet.

* ExactWords: When Ruby finds out that Sapphire can see the future, she excitedly asks what will happen to her. Sapphire replies that Ruby "won't last the day". Ruby assumes this means she's going to die protecting Sapphire (which is her function), but what ends up happening is they fuse back into Garnet when Sapphire saves Ruby's life. She maintains her usual stoic tone throughout this, only to gain a panicked tone towards the end as she explains the saw will continue until it causes and anvil to fall... and Ruby will be shattered.
* ExplainExplainOhCrap: When Ruby is impressed by how Sapphire's predictions of the future are right and asks her what she predicts will happen next, Sapphire starts explaining events just before they happen as "hijinks ensue".

* ExactWords: When Ruby finds out that Sapphire can see the future, she excitedly asks what will happen to her. Sapphire replies that Ruby "won't last the day". Ruby assumes this means she's going to die protecting Sapphire (which is her function), but what ends up happening is they fuse back into Garnet when Sapphire saves Ruby's life.

* Catch22Dilemma: After Steven learns how Spinel's injector is poisoning the planet and can't be removed, he and the others realize that Spinel is the only one who knows how to turn it off. Problem is though, that she was reset by the rejuvenator the same as the Crystal Gems and doesn't remember what it is. Much less how to operate it. This leads to another problem, when Steven realizes if he restores Spinel's memories it will mean she will go from being the "cute and harmless" Gem she is now to the violent and psychotic Gem that wants to kill them all. But Peridot points out Steven will die anyway if he doesn't get Spinel to turn off the injector.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Spinel, who poofs the other Gems with her scythe when she arrives on Earth, is poofed when Steven uses her own scythe against her

* SlidingBikeStop: Connie arrives to fight Spinel, and launches into the room riding on Lion, who lands and slides across the floor, emulating the bike slide.

* TalkingIsAFreeAction: When Ruby is about to be crushed by a giant anvil and the shield is cracking, she spends all the time she could be using to escape talking to Sapphire.

* RefrainFromAssuming: Some of the songs have titles which aren't obvious from their lyrics:
** The song sung by the main Crystal Gems toward the beginning isn't titled "Once Upon a Time" or "Here We Are in the Future" as the lyrics would suggest. Its actual title, "Happily Ever After", only shows up in the first and last verses.
** The song Pearl sings when she reforms in her original state is titled "system/BOOT.pearl_final(3).Info". [[LuckyCharmsTitle Needless to say]], [[NonAppearingTitle this isn't found anywhere in the lyrics]].

* WhatOtherGalaxies: The movie is rather loose with whether the Gems' Empire spanned a single or multiple galaxies (the series once mentioned it as the latter). For instance, Spinel calls Steven's signal to all of Homeworld's colonies a "message to the universe" but Steven himself the "savior of the galaxy".

* EverybodyHelpsOutDenouement: At the end of th emovie, a montage is shown of the citizens helping to restore Beach City after Spinel's injector destroyed it.

** Also during the song "Happily Ever After," Steven sings about how he "began to hone a power all [his] own," one that was different from his mother's. He never specifies ''what'' that power is. It's not until the climax that we find out - [[spoiler: the power to change.]]

* BookEnds: After the song "Happily Ever After", Steven picks a flower(presumably from the lighthouse cliff) and applies his saliva to the stalk causing it to grow back. When he kisses the ground near the end, the spot where his lips touched grows the same yellow flower.

* AbsenteeActor: Many of the tertiary human characters appear, but Mayor Nanefua is the only one with lines. And Pink/Rose's only lines are in Spinel's voice as she's telling the story.

* BewareTheSillyOnes: Spinel is literally a jester or clown, looks the part, and even at her most villainous has some silly traits and looks like a 1930s cartoon character. She's one of the most dangerous villains in the series. Made even worse by the fact that she's not a god-like Diamond or elite soldier like Jasper or Aquamarine, but is essentially a Gem version of a toy or pet, and she still manages to take out three of the four Crystal Gems, disable Steven's Gem powers in the opening of the movie, and poses a serious threat to the entire Earth.

* HesBack: During the FinalBattle, Steven finally finds "all his pieces" and regains his full power, promptly revealing he's continued to improve and grow stronger over the TimeSkip and fighting Spinel on even footing. Among other things, he's learned not only to generate his bubble shield and the morningstar variant, but fractal shapes, as well as increasing the force of it 'breaking' enough to knock Spinel some distance away.

* IdentityAmnesia: Spinel's SinisterScythe is a rejuvenator that the Diamonds used to use on Gems that stepped out of line, basically restoring them to "factory default settings" — in Amethyst's case it was even more complete, as her emerging from her Kindergarten hole later than other Quartzes meant she ''had'' no identity upon emergence, and was a literal blank slate. Steven is unaffected mentally, but it [[DePower screws up his powers to the point that he's basically back at the start of the series]]. They can be restored by making them think of the significant life experiences they've forgotten — as Spinel says, "putting the missing pieces together".

* NoHarmRequirement: As soon as Steven learns about what [[DoomsdayDevice The Injector]] will do to all organic life on Earth, he immediately tries to use his gem-powered SuperStrength to remove it. His effort only [[FromBadToWorse makes it worse]] however, and Peridot quickly tells Steven that if they're to save the Earth, they'll have to remove the device without dealing it any harm. This in turn spurns the urgency to restore Spinel's memory along with the Crystal Gems as the horn she makes with arm can dislodge the device without touching it.
* NonIronicClown: In a stark contrast to [[MonsterClown how she appears when she shows up on earth]], Spinel's original role and personality is that of a goofy, energetic jokester who loves to entertain others and make them laugh, and her cartoony gloves, baggy pants, and boots all fit the image in both of her forms. Naturally, seeing this after she was hit by the rejuvenator is ''incredibly'' jarring and confuses Steven greatly, up until her DarkAndTroubledPast is revealed. It's clear from how she enjoys the Diamonds' laugh at the end of the movie that her original passion for the role never fully left.

* NoSell: As with previously seen Gem-tech like destabilizers or security force fields, the "rejuvenator" seems to have no major effect on HalfHumanHybrid Steven in spite of multiple direct hits... ''at first''. The trope is subverted; while Steven is immune to being poofed or memory-wiped like the other Crystal Gems, his own Gem powers are reduced to nearly nothing by the rejuvenator. A straighter example is during Steven & Spinel's battle atop the injector; while she's initially able to smack him around and even bloody his nose because his abilities are still malfunctioning, once he gets his powers back, she's totally outclassed; he literally never even budges, even when she's hitting him with all her strength.

** Despite her {{Seer}} abilities, Sapphire is unable to see her fusion with Ruby coming, just like when they fused the [[Recap/StevenUniverseS2E25TheAnswer first time]].

** To {{Animated Musical}}s of the 1960s and 70s, particularly those by Creator/{{Disney}} and their imitators.

* RealityEnsues:
** Spinel angrily {{lampshade|Hanging}}s that Steven can't make everything better by singing, especially since she suffered for thousands of years.
** Spinel wins the first fight with the Crystal Gems thanks to catching them off-guard and having a weapon they don't understand. The second fight, when she no longer has it ''and'' they're on guard, things go ''very'' differently.
** Steven gets the idea to cure the damage caused by the injector by using his healing powers. He kisses the ground, the plants and grass return... and then the camera pans out to show he's only healed one small patch. A little bit of spit will only go so far, after all.
** Steven seemingly talks down and redeems Spinel... only for a misunderstanding to trigger another psychotic break. Just because you've talked down someone with a serious mental illness that makes them legitimately dangerous to themselves and others doesn't mean they might not relapse or are instantly no longer dangerous.
** Spinel is redeemed and helped through her pain... but is still clearly having issues, especially when it comes to befriending Steven and the Gems. As with Lapis, the amount of suffering and trauma she went through doesn't just disappear instantly.
** While the Diamonds have come to accept that Steven is not Pink Diamond, they still want him to stay on Homeworld with them since he's still a living reminder of their lost sister.
** Steven's breakthrough with the Diamonds did stick, but since they've been stuck in their dysfunctional ways for so long, change doesn't come easy for them. They have to actively work at being better people and frequently screw up (White makes a FreudianSlip about "lower lifeforms", Yellow makes a subtle insult about the destroyed Beach City's smell, and Blue makes a SuspiciouslySpecificDenial to cover for their obvious distaste with the city's destroyed state).

* ShutUpKirk: At the end of an attempted redemption song, Spinel spikes Steven about a thousand yards into the top of the injector, declaring that "singing a stupid song" can't fix all her problems... which, fair enough, [[RealityEnsues it can't]].

* {{Mondegreen}}: There has been some confusion on what Spinel says at the end of her VillainousBreakdown. Some hear "I'm supposed to be ''your'' friend. I just wanna be ''your'' friend..." while others hear "I'm supposed to be ''a'' friend. I just wanna be ''a'' friend...". According to the movie's transcript, the latter is the correct one.

** After [[RedemptionFailure thinking Steven's attempt to get to her were just a trick]], Spinel mocks the idea of Steven being able to make people better. Steven replies that he ''can't'' change her, but ''she'' can change ''herself''. He then spends the second half of "Change" applying the first half’s WorldOfCardboardSpeech to Spinel herself.