YMMV / Steven Universe: Alternate Future

• Adorkable:
  • White Topaz, Black Rutile's Perky Female Minion who loves making shadow puppets. It helps that one of her main inspirations is Scorpia, and even shares her voice actor too.
  • Naïve Newcomer Teal Zircon, who is just oodles of high energy and naivety.
  • In Little Homeworld Life, Jasper turns out to be pretty socially awkward and it's quite adorable.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Emerald/Smithsonite and Demantoid discuss whether Steven has PTSD or borderline personality disorder. Demantoid suggests the possibility that Steven has both.
  • Is Black Rutile genuine when she claims she Hates Being Alone in "The Future"?
• Ass Pull: While it was common knowledge that there were other worlds filled with life. What wasn't known or even hinted at was that some of these worlds had sapient life.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Black Rutile suddenly turning into Michael Jackson to celebrate Pink Diamond's shattering comes out of nowhere and is never brought up again. Lampshaded by White Topaz, who says it was the result of her vivid imagination and watching Earth music videos.
• Bizarro Episode: To Err is Human definitely qualifies as it takes place in an alternate universe where all of the gems are humans attending a high school. This is justified considering it was All Just a Dream.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • "Love Like You" takes the climax of "I Am My Monster" and makes it even more cathartic. In addition to Jasper & White Topaz teaming up to finally defeat Black Rutile once and for all, Steven at last gets some closure with both Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond by teaming up with them to defeat Negative Steven and help return him to normal. The addition of the titular end credits song from the original series makes it all the more emotional.
  • "The Future" adds a scene of the Crystal Gems being hailed as heroes to Earth following the Monster Steven crisis and Pink Diamond being celebrated as an example of Perfection Is Impossible on Homeworld. Even Negative Steven declares that Steven has earned this before suddenly disappearing.
• Creator's Pet: Teal Zircon seems to be one as she used quite frequently throughout Little Homeworld Life with having two episodes featuring her in the first season, even though she is more of a minor gag character.
  • Word of God has also admitted that Lapis is his favorite character, hence why she got three A Day in the Limelight episodes in Little Homeworld Life.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Although Altered Jasper has a Dark and Troubled Past, there is no denying that the way she was tormented is completely laughable. First, Lapis gives her a Swirlie in a whirlpool, next she gets zapped by Peridot's plasma globe, and then she gets a Curbstomp from Amethyst who violently noogies and whips her. All while Pearl completely ignores her pleas. However, it stops being funny once Garnet starts to torment her.
• Cry for the Devil: Despite everything she has done, it is kind of hard not to feel bad for Black Rutile who was essentially told by her idol that all of her successes and accomplishments were built around a joke.
• Fan Nickname: Steven's inner voice is given the name Thorn by Brydav-Massbear, since he is a thorn on Steven's side. It is also because it is a reference to how roses have sharp thorns.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: Pietersite/Eagle's Eye in the original definitely qualifies as this with her tacky color scheme and odd proportions.
• Funny Moments: After a homeless man sees the Crystal Gems for the first time, he mistakes them for succubi and begs for mercy. Lapis just calls him a weirdo and the gems leave him be.
• Love to Hate: Black Rutile is a smug, smooth-talking Evil Genius with a grudge who's proud to be a Card-Carrying Villain and doesn't take kindly to things not going her way, but she has so many funny lines and is a Determinator to boot.
  • The same also goes for her fusion with Bluebird Azurite, Eagle's Eye who just adds the little gem's quirks onto hers.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Black Rutile crosses it twice in the final chapters of Part 2. First, she shatters one of Demantoid's Bismuths to scare the rest of them into working for her, then she tosses Steven off a cliff while sending a boulder down with him to crush him.
  • Steven's inner voice crosses this by attempting to shatter White Diamond himself when Steven refuses to do so, and then forcing Steven to punch Spinel for singing at him.
  • The inner voice's physical form, Negative Steven, crosses it by burning the dream human versions of Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl alive while Steven is Forced to Watch.
  • In The Black Pearl Brigade, Cinnabar crosses this in the two-part finale "Shining Diamond" by shattering a Peridot fo simply asking why she was freeing the prisoners, then subjecting the Brigade to a Death of Personality and plotting to have their allies executed as she stages a takeover of Homeworld while the Diamonds are away.
• Pandering to the Base: Lightyearpig admits that Alternate Future came into fruition because of complaints he heard from fellow fans about how They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot due to Executive Meddling, and sought to satisfy those desires. Regardless, much praise has still been given to him and his writing.
• Recurring Fanon Character: A lot of the characters in Alternate Future are based on ones made by various members of the Steven Universe Fandom. Some directly, and some loosely.
• Unexpected Character: Uncle Grandpa makes a surprise cameo in the climax of "Two Sides of the Same Gem", despite the fact that he declared his crossover with Steven to be non-canon.
• The Woobie:
  • You think Steven already had it bad in Future? In addition to his already established issues, he now has a sociopath plotting to kill him and render everything he's done for Era 3 All for Nothing before gaslighting Steven into believing he was never loved.
  • White Topaz is a Nice Girl who is also a Minion with an F in Evil who no one treats with any respect, not even her boss.