Skipping straight to Home World stuff reeks of "only active plot matters" mentality.
Usually recommendations only provide select few episodes to skip...if they left the commendor in bad taste.
edited 2nd Jun '16 2:55:01 AM by randomness4
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.Filler is more like when an anime has an arc that's not from the manga but the arc adds little to nothing to the series as a whole.
The episodes more focused on the citizens of Beach City, while unpopular with a lot of fans, aren't really filler since they still add stuff to the series. Not with the gems usually, but with the world of the show. I'm with Dark where I see why people don't like those episodes as much, but I wouldn't want them to stop doing those kinds of episodes despite the only humans the fans usually care about in the show are Greg and Connie.
Granted, I'm still not much of a fan of the episodes focusing on Lars and Sadie's relationship. Those I can live without.
My Tumblr "If theirs one thing I'm good at, it's blowing" Jesse Cox 2013Do people exclusively refer to "filler" episodes as a bad thing? It's not like they're all bad. "Tales of Ba Sing Se," for instance. Or does that not count as filler because it has character development. I've always thought "filler" referred to episodes that don't directly advance the main storyline, but they can contribute to character development.
When we're done, there won't be anything left.There's such a thing as "Good Filler" in Anime.
Anything not anime, anything labelled Filler is considered pointless...bad.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.I'm reminded of the entry for The Deer Hunter on the Slow-Paced Beginning page:
Oh god it's another one of those "filler" arguments.
Technically, there's no such thing as filler in western animation, because they aren't following any mainline installment on a schedule. "expanding upon the universe" isn't a meaningful definition, because technically even anime filler expands upon the universe, just not in a way that any of the fans wanted to see.
Historical Friction was generally irrelevant. It gave Pearl something else to do during the Week of Sardonyx, but I honestly cannot for the life of me remember the plot. All I remember is the actual play itself, which did to its credit give some backstory for Beach City, showing that the Gems have been in North America for quite some time, and gave us an update on everyone's favorite Aladdin lookalike.
When people usually refer to filler, they talk about episodes that are forgettable at best and best forgotten at worst. Sadie's Song falls into those terms for a lot of people for being A. a Sadie episode, which aren't as enjoyable mainly because Sadie, Lars, and Rolando fall into that category of "characters that don't feel like Steven Universe characters". Rolando feels like he'd be from a way more cynical show, Sadie and Lars (at least when we're supposed to take them seriously) from a more emotional and grounded show, so their episodes feel distinctly disjointed from the rest of the show.
The complaint isn't (or shouldn't) be that x episode didn't do anything for the plot, but rather that x episode was generally not.... good. We didn't see the characters go through any development, or any meaningful change. In Sadie's Song the moral of the story was boundaries, a lesson which we understood immediately, and we got to see Steven and Sadie's mom stumble through for 10 minutes of missing the point and then 1 minute of Steven magical girl anime (by far the episode highlight). I understand the intent behind the episode (a clever subversion of the typical "talent show" storyline), and the first time I watched it I was pretty impressed by the twist, but the episode itself doesn't really hold up as well.
edited 2nd Jun '16 8:33:16 AM by InAnOdderWay
I prefer the Beach City stories and the stories that flesh out the Mystery of Rose. Not that interested in the current Active Plot except for opportunities to watch Steven work his magic, which I find the most compelling when it is the most grounded.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
I'm in a similar situation with the show. At this point, every problem with Homeworld seems so far away, that I'm starting to care less and less about it. At this point, I'd just like to see an episode where Lapis tells Steven about what Homeworld was like before she went to Earth and what it was like after Steven freed her. But right now, we know next to nothing about...anything, really.
When all of the currently looming threats (Jasper, the Cluster, YD, Homeworld in general) are in a state where they're not problems until the writers bring them up again, you start to wonder if the show wants those threats there at all.
"The cruelest thing you can do to an artist is tell them their work is flawless when it isn't." -Ben "Yahtzee" CroshawIt's not exactly a problem that they aren't a near constant threat.
Only Jasper is in a state of being threat since she's the only one who knows things.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.I'm the rare sort that appreciates the vagueness. Too often I see series where the universe is built up so quickly it becomes a power vs. power situation that can get boring.
It's a big well... universe out there and I'm fine with that.
The plot to me is interesting, but is ultimately the means of providing a direction for character development and struggles.
Best AU
10/10.

I think filler can have meaning when defined as anime/adaptation-exclusive material put in to fill out time, but otherwise it's been thrown around in so many different contexts it's become about as meaningful as the term "Mary Sue".
Like the other day a fan on a livestream was mentioning that she felt season 1 was almost complete filler and that someone she was recommending it to would be better off skipping directly to the Homeworld-related content.
To me, that misses the point entirely. Steven Universe ultimately isn't about the plot, it's about Steven's growth and interactions between humans and Gems.
I get why many don't like Beach City episodes, human characters might feel dull compared with the older and more expressively-designed Gems. But to ignore them as unimportant waters down the over all experience.
I enjoyed many of the slice of life episodes, especially at first, and "Mirror Gem/Ocean Gem" had the impact it did because there was a careful pacing where just enough bits of information that something bigger was going on in the background that when Lapis does show up, there's a kind of "ah ha!" moment when the surprises the show had been keeping close to its chest start to be revealed.
If there wasn't a slow build of tension, those episodes wouldn't be as good. Again, all my opinion, I won't claim to speak for any other fans objectively.