When referring to the modern cartoon that children watch today, many millennials believe that they are “garbage” and offer no educational value at all. That all modern cartoons now only include humor only kids understand and have no plot. However, there is one show deserves recognition and that would be Steven Universe. Steven Universe is a show that follows the adventures of a boy who is part a group of alien heroines called the Crystal Gems. Their purpose is to protect the earth from the dangers of outer space and invaders. The Crystal Gems are composed of three gems, Garnet, Pearl, and Amethyst, who show Steven how to use his gem powers. The reason why this show deserves recognition is that this show recognizes relationship issues and shows it to children symbolically rather than directly, while adding the silliness of a cartoon. There are a variety of issues presented in the show such as unrequited love, heartbreak, and even toxic relationships. They also show the beauty in good relationships between two people who love each other.
When love is presented in cartoons, it is usually presented in a fairy-tale kind of matter, where boy meets girl and they both fall in love and live happily ever after. They don’t show the actually of how complicated love can be and the many stages it has to go through for it to blossom. In Steven Universe, however, it shows that love isn’t something that happens out of the blue. One episode would be “We Need to Talk” where Steven’s parents, Rose Quartz and Greg, come to the realization that they have been moving way too quickly in their relationship, to the point where they barely know anything about each other. The beautiful thing about this episode is that instead of breaking up right then and there like most cartoons, they instead do the mature thing and talk it out.
The show also portrays unrequited love and how it could affect a person, mainly with the use of Pearl. The Crystal Gems used to be composed of Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Rose Quartz (Steven’s mother), but in the beginning, it was a rebel group only composed of Pearl and Rose that fought against their own kind in a war trying to save Earth. Pearl was Rose’s servant and she eventually grew to fall in love with Rose. Centuries passed and Pearl still remained by her side.
In the end, however, Rose fell in love with Steven’s father Greg, which caused Pearl to become heartbroken. The audience first catches a glimpse of her heartbreak in the episode “Rose’s Scabbard”, when she finds out that Rose kept secrets from her, even though she was her main confidant. The usually calm and well-mattered Pearl became angry and sad and ran away to a cliff. Steven followed her, even though she constantly told him to leave her alone.
When Steven finally caught up to her, Pearl told him “Sometimes you even sound like her.” She paused and continues “Do you remember this place? Do you have any of her memories? We were right here, over 5,000 years ago.” Then, she makes a hologram of Steven’s mother and reenacts the day she decided to become Rose’s knight and fight alongside her for the Earth. After the reenactment, she tells Steven “Everything I ever did, I did for her. Now she’s gone, but I’m still here. Sometimes I think that maybe she could see me through your eyes. Oh, what would she think of me now?” This shows how much Pearl held Rose close to her heart, even years after her death, regardless that Rose never felt the same way.
In most cases, cartoons make it seem like unrequited love is just something that is usually easy to get over. If not, the person lets their heartbreak fester into hatred and they become a villain. This is where this show is different. Instead of Pearl becoming a villain and getting angry at Rose, she makes it her goal to take care of Rose’s and Greg’s son, Steven, and teach him how to use his gem. She does become bitter toward Greg, but on the episode “Mr. Greg”, Steven brings them together and after fourteen years, Greg and Pearl talk it out and they make up. That’s the true significance here about the show! That it shows what a realistic heartbreak looks like instead of an exaggerated version.
The show also represented the effects of an abusive relationship. In the episode “Alone at Sea”, the show expresses it through a character named Lapis Lazuli. In the episode, Steven decides to help Lapis get used to living on her own on Earth by taking her sailing. Lapis isn’t all that excited to go, because she had a horrible experience with another gem named Jasper. Since Jasper wanted to destroy the Earth and the Crystal Gems, Lapis sacrificed her freedom and fused with her forcibly, and dragged her into the bottom of the ocean, so Steven taking her sailing made Lapis feel uncomfortable. Throughout the episode, she acted squeamish and weird, and in the end she reveals to Steven that she actually missed Jasper, even though how terrible she was to her.
After revealing her feelings, Jasper came onboard the ship and came straight to Lazuli, saying that she was following her. Jasper then began insulting Lapis and even called her a monster. Then, Jasper pushed Steven away, grabbed Lapis and begged her to fuse with her again. “I was terrible to you. I liked taking everything out on you. I needed you. I hated you! It was bad!” Jasper then interrupted and said “I will be better this time. I’ve changed! You’ve changed me!” Then Jasper closed in on her, trying to convince her to fuse again. Lapis eventually refused saying “What we had wasn’t healthy. I never want to feel what I felt with you, not ever again! So just go!” This is an extremely wonderful topic that the creators made. They were able to show how and what makes a toxic relationship without being too graphic and making it easy for children to understand how wrong it is.
The show may focus on a lot of issues with relationships, however it also defines the beauty in relationships between two people who love and respect each other. The aspect I love most about the show is the regularity of all gems having female bodies and them loving each other is presented no different than straight love. The way the creators presents this genius. They show it with the backstory of their character Garnet. Garnet is actually a fusion of two Gems called Ruby and Sapphire who couldn’t stand to be without the other for a minute. In the episode “The Answer”, the two gems are left stranded on Earth and as they explore Earth together, they eventually fall in love and fuse together to become Garnet. There was no discussion of whether it was right or wrong, it was just natural, which I believe is a wonderful message for viewers.
The creators of Steven Universe said that the Gems didn’t have a specific gender because their bodies were an “illusion”. I feel that this is probably a cover because of complaints of more conservative parents not wanting their children to be exposed to something that they, the parents, feel uncomfortable with. However, I feel complaining to the company about a show that some parents feel is inappropriate is a bit exaggerated. If the parent feels uncomfortable, just don’t let their child see it, or even, let them watch what they want. I understand parents don’t want sexual orientation to be “forced” on to their children, but aren’t they forcing a straight sexual orientation if the child is only watching cartoons that feature straight couples? Besides, there is nothing inappropriate about the show. Parents should just let their child watch the show! The fact that there are countries out there that censor parts out just shows how homophobic people are. One example would be in the episode “Mr. Greg”, when Pearl expresses her depression over Rose’s decision to pick Greg instead of her and that ,even after fourteen years, she still can’t get over it. There was nothing dirty or inappropriate about the song, but it was censored out in Great Britain as well as in other countries simply because they think it’s inappropriate for woman to fall in love with another woman. That’s what makes this show awesome because they show that LGBT love is that same love as straight love. It has the same hugs, the same heart, the same heartbreaks, the only difference is the gender combination.
