I stopped seeing this as a potential straight up war when the gems failed to fight a single spacecraft in season one. It never bothered me that Steven Universe took its time. Its a show about self-improvement, not necessarily dense plotting. Steven cares about people and I like that this extends beyond saving them from monsters. When he does fight, he fights to save Beach City, a city filled with complex people and complicated issues and ideas. Some might not like the see-saw between drama and space action, but I argue that by showing the audience who he fights for, that makes the fight scenes that do involve the plot that much more important.
The gems never stopped colonizing, so much as struggled against their own complicated hierarchy. Gems weren't consistent the way White Diamond wanted them to be, such as Peridot and Amethyst. Gems were pairing with gems outside their subspecies. White Diamond is obsessed with everything belonging in one place and fulfilling its purpose in endless repetition. Her inability to adapt lead the home planet to being trapped in psychological stasis as White Diamond struggled to understand why everything went wrong. Its why she is so insistent on sending agents to Earth rather than simply destroy it. She wants to understand why, but she does not want to admit she made mistakes. The finale has her jump to the conclusion that Pink Diamond is flawed because she is not White Diamond and sets about remedying the situation. Its dominance that she deceives herself into thinking is compassion.
When Steven resists White Diamond's influence and asserts his human form as being his true form, it shows that both people can reach a greater potential without her help and that other lifeforms have wills that compare to gems. This doesn't resolve everything, but Steven shows her way to get out of her stasis and begin to acknowledge her failures. Having a court session about why killing other species is wrong would be somewhat redundant. Not everything needs to be said or explained.
If you prefer more straight to plot action, I recommend Ben 10 Alien Force. I don't like how weak they made Kevin, but most of the rest is pretty well-paced. Steven Universe is more focused on the drama then the action.
I\'m just not sure if the lack of action in season 1 was a good enough signal. Especially since the season ended with a lengthy fight between Garnet and Jasper, Peridot escaping to earth, and Steven having a dilemma about wanting to keep Connie safe from impeding danger.
Plus taking your time isn\'t a bad thing on its own. As long as a show still contains a certain balance that can keep all of its viewers satisfied. I just don\'t think SU reaches that balance.
And white diamond acknowledging that she\'s imperfect, I don\'t think equates enough to the idea that their imperialist agenda is inherently wrong. Even the other diamonds mostly complained about the stress from their work, rather than the work itself being unjust. The finale also didn\'t address that Rose Quarts gathered her army through the idea of the autonomy of gems, and how they can do more than what they were made for. This was a major driving force of the Crystal Gem\'s beliefs. If you apply the lesson the diamonds learned to normal gems, it would give off the idea that they can do what they\'re made for, just better. Which would be colonizing planets.
Because of that, it seems to me that if everything that happened between SU and Future never happened, the Diamonds would still be spreading their oppressive influence across the universe, just while being a little more attentive towards each other\'s feelings.
Both the fights against Lapis and Aquamarine weren\'t directly won. That should be an indicator more than anything that this show wasn\'t going to have a war arc. As I\'ve described before, the show has been consistent that a direct fight wasn\'t going to solve the problem whether it be condemning Bismuth\'s Breaking Point weapon or stopping the Cluster by talking to it.
I can argue with further about a proper balance being drama and action, but you list no examples of shows that provide that balance to make your case, so its just is a case between your view and my view.
Ignoring the thoughts and opinions of other creatures is the reason the gems are imperialistic. I don\'t see how letting the Crystal Gems as well as several other gems live autonomous lives on Earth reinforces hierarchy rules. There is plenty of evidence that gems are dissatisfied with the hierarchy whether it be the existence of the Off Colors or the dissatisfaction of Topaz expresses for being stuck in her job. The Diamonds start healing the smaller gems in the finales which shows they are moving beyond the typical role of controlling other gems. Furthermore allowing Steven to remain a human instead of continuing to try and revive Pink Diamond is indicative that they are putting Steven\'s needs before their own. Star Wars The Phantom Menace low critic rating is indicative of how boring a series of council discussion scenes are. I doubt Future going in that direction would be any better received.
You make some good points, tho I will die on the hill that the Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond twist made a lot of sense in how it made every piece of the plot till then fit.
Also, something I wish I saw more folks discuss is the fact that the entire confrontation with White Diamond (and by extension the Homeworld system) doesn\'t fit the traditional structure you\'d expect out of a \"defeat the space overlord\" story, because it\'s not a \"defeat the space overlord\" story; it\'s a \"we want to tell an allegory about LGB Tphobia and the way it breaks family\" stories. This is most evident with White Diamond\'s frantic speech as she tries to defeat Steven\'s diamond half, and her whole schtick about being \"perfect\", with the Change Your Mind\'s final song really driving the point home.
Which, you can make the argument that taking things in this direction was a bad move cause it went against what lots of folks expected, and I sort of agree. But honestly? I kinda respect Rebecca Sugar for doing things the way she did. Some Anvils Need To Be Dropped, and the show\'s target audience would have spent a lot less time theorizing and building up super rigid expectations regarding what sort of story Steven Universe is.
@Immortalbear
Generally shows with Monster of the Week formats, which SU was at first, keep it simple at first so they can flesh out the world, before expanding into larger scale conflict and battle with greater antagonists. That\'s not including all the time spent on Steven learning how to use his powers or the mystery behind why some gems were corrupted, which would later be revealed to be because of Homeworld, which did a good job at demonizing them. All of this was in season 1 and 2, the buildup seasons. But the amount of action decreased after season 2. It was around the time aquamarine showed up that I realized the pace. The most engaging arcs of SU was always when there was a direct villain that needed to be defeated. Which was the times Lapis, Peridot, and Jasper were stranded.
If you wanted an idea of shows I think balance story and filler well, Star Vs the FOE was one example. Even with how poorly it turned out in the end, it still did a good job at Growing the Beard and using the last season to follow through with what it was trying to do. Tangled the Series, Wakfu, and Amphibia are other good examples.
@Nazo
To clarify, I didn\'t think the Rose/Diamond twist was bad. But rather the treatment of Rose\'s legacy afterwards. There were some attempts to explain that rose was flawed but had good intentions, but by Future, she was just treated as a villain.
I can also understand that White Diamond acknowledging that she and her system is imperfect could encompass the idea that what they were doing to other planets is wrong. And judging by future, it\'s fair to assume that\'s what happened. The lesson the finale focused on is good, I just wish SU made it clear from season one that that is what was going to be focused on.
This isn\'t even about action. What I mean is there was a heavy message about autonomy and individualism in the first half of SU. Which is incredibly relevant in society because the majority of past and present dictatorships viewed its citizens as expendable cogs in their machine, with only the higher up\'s identities mattering. That\'s congruent to Homeworld\'s system. Character\'s like Bismuth said they joined the rebellion because Rose inspired them to be more than what they are. All of this made some think we\'d be spending more time with individual gems on homeworld rather than the diamonds. So to see the message of SU pivot from autonomy and freedom to a relevant but still smaller scale message about pride and homophobia, I found as a bit of an upset.
So even if White Diamond\'s realization would encompass the flaws in her system, I still don\'t think that gives the original message SU seemed to be building up about autonomy the time it deserved when so many people in other countries are being oppressed to this day.
Amphibia is an example of everything you disagreed with on Steven Universe to a more significant degree. Sure, there are plot focused episodes, but to a greater extent most episodes would focus on Anne's interactions with the citizens and strange aspects of Amphibia's world. Like Steven Universe, this does not bother me. I like how the episodes often involved Steven trying to help people get over emotional slumps or helping them reach their inner potential. This is another kind of development as Steven is becoming more confident and willing to discuss problems with other characters, an important factor as much of his confrontation with White Diamond as well as his desire to confront her in the first place involves his emotional development over the course of the show.
A general message of Steven Universe was that no one is beyond redemption, so I think the ending is more of a result about that then gay pride, though the latter's message was still featured in the finale. I see what you are saying about Star vs the Forces of Evil, but I think focusing on the changes to gem society would interfere with the narrative structure. There isn't another climatic confrontation the story can feature after getting White Diamond to listen. The time skip either requires the gem society to remain broken and dysfunctional for years or be fixed offscreen. Not every issue is solved at the end of Tangled the Animated Series, but its the willingness to begin to address these problems is what makes the conclusion satisfying. The way I see it, the same can be said for Steven Universe.
I have to disagree on the claim that Star vs. has a better balance than Steven Universe. One of the biggest complaints about the show, particularly in its later seasons, was that it would constantly ignore the overarching plotline in favor of shipping drama, which led to things like the Eclipsa plot not making any meaningful progression until season 3\'s mid-season finale, and multiple plot points being set up, then almost immediately dropped or glossed over, along with long-running plotlines being left hanging or rushed to their conclusions throughout season 4. But Steven Universe would always follow through on its plot points, even with the filler, and some filler episodes actually introduced something that would turn out to be important later.
As for the decrease in action, I don\'t really consider it to be an issue, because Steven Universe is not an action-adventure series, but a hurt-comfort series (think Hey Arnold! meets sci-fi fantasy). Most of the action scenes are just novelties, and were never intended to be the draw of the series, and the few that aren\'t novelties usually represent some assertion or statement, and are rarely, if ever, the true climax of the conflict, with the real climax being an emotional catharsis, or acceptance or rejection of an offer of help.
The answer is \"No\". Steven Universe just has too many problems to call it a good show.
Find the Light in the Dark
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Can we even call it good?
Looking back at SU, including Future, I realized it was a show that had a very consistent level of quality throughout its entirety, unlike other cartoons like Star Vs which had clear peaks and depressions. There was always a healthy amount of good being dragged down by some problem.
The first season had a typical episodic format, with hints at greater conflict appearing in certain intervals. But unlike similar shows, SU took a noticeably longer time to get itself going. Buried in with that problem were several others, like imagery that was as repulsive as it was unnecessary (Naked Steven comes to mind), and bare-bones anime references. Still, the glimmer of potential was still there. And the finale promised so much for the future.
Second seasons are when cartoons start to pick up now that they have a foundation. The same couldn't be said for SU. It still moved at a snail's pace. That could have something to do with the bomb format. But that isn't the only factor. SU takes place after the struggle. The Big Bads don't even know the heroes exist for half of it. That on it's own wouldn't be a problem if the show acted like that's how it was. But the protagonists constantly talk up the impeding battles and the great rebellion to come when nothing like that really happens, making us expect more than what SU can reasonably give. Like making a movie about the struggles of WWII that takes place in 1950.
Another major problem was the Rose/Pink Diamond reveal. It was a good twist. What wasn't good was how the show began treating Rose like a villain afterwards. Even though she selflessly saved an entire planet, and started a rebellion that would eventually liberate the universe. Nothing good she did mattered. The bigger problem is that the twist shifted the purpose of the conflict from "defeating the empire, and autonomy for gems", to "The diamonds are stressed and their system is imperfect". The latter is what the finale deals with. "Imperialism is wrong" is never even close to said. Which raises the question: Why did the diamonds stop colonizing planets? This debacle is dealt with between SU and Future. In other words, offscreen. Like the writers forgot both that Rose was a hero, and what the plot was about.
Future had an interesting idea with Steven coping with a world that doesn't need him. But the execution was backwards. Steven starts pushing everyone away when they try to help him. He was clearly wrong to do this. But the show doesn't acknowledge this. The characters who learn the lesson is everyone who isn't Steven. Steven doesn't even apologize for bottling up his feelings in the end. That's just not how it should have been.
SU+Future is like running with a ball and chain. There's so much good there, with some sort of issue constantly dragging it down. Is it bad? Well I don't hate it. I'll keep it broad and say it's a decent time. You'll enjoy SU most if you understand that it isn't as much as it boasts it is before going in.