Even the Ronaldo episodes?
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So Legs airs December 17. Probably a week off for Christmas. Finale on the 31st, presumably. Then first three of season six, on following three Mondays.
Mostly I’m just about Connie’s new sword.
(This poster ought to really confuse people who are still catching up.)
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STEVEN IN PINK’S CLOTHES
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Details coming in fast. What’s actually happening:
Four episodes on Mondays, from the 17th. Last two of season 5; first two of season six.
Then a week off.
The Monday after that, it’s a Bomb of four episodes all back-to-back, the way they did the start of season five.
There are to be five songs across the seven new episodes (not counting “Legs”), each released online the day after the associated episode.
And those episode titles from, like, nine months back, when this stuff almost aired in… what was it, France? Those are the actual titles. So.
Yeah, but
Connie has a new sword
Also, these are almost certainly the episodes recorded late 2016, early 2017, during which we know that AJ Michalka did a song. So, my real question is…
Is this going to be a physical Stevonnie, or a spectral Stevonnie, where their minds fuse through a dream dive during Steven’s imprisonment?
Rebecca Sugar just posted a thing on Instagram.
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So, uh, the voice of Ruby (spoilers, I guess, for the couple of stragglers?) is… something else.
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Did you get to Alone Together yet?
That’s sort of my pet topic
i did and it was really cool
Now might be a good time to consider Evangelion’s influence on Steven Universe. Which is about as deep as any of its many influences, but I think has a pretty profound impact on its story development.
Both shows sort of slip into existence under the impression that they will be very different stories than they turn out to be, and wind up being vehicles for their creators’ personal demons. SU never reaches the depravity of The Gainax Opus—its whole mentality is different—but things get… um. We get pretty far from Cookie Cat, anyway. The generational trauma, it builds up.
They start in similar places, broadly: small group protecting home city against slow trickle of apocalyptic ancient menaces from the sky. The story gradually fills in why all of this is happening, and it’s… not too good.
(Seriously, how are these early Gem threats not essentially Angels?)
I think a major difference between the shows may be their approach to mental health? Eva is essentially hopeless. It has coiled and given up entirely. We’re all fucked up, and so nothing matters and we might as well just roll over and die.
SU is endlessly forgiving, and generous. It recognizes that illness is a universal trait, that never goes away but that can be managed and is nothing to be ashamed of. It allows for relapses. It allows for redemption. It knows we’re all fucked up, but it suggests that’s okay, and we should just accept it and love each other anyway.
But that focus on trauma and mental illness, it’s kind of a big thing at the center of both shows.
I also think there are comparisons to make between Lars and Toji. Though, uh… I think Lars probably has the better deal in the end. (Maybe?)
Also, Eva is steeped in a culturally abstracted version of Abrahamic symbolism, and Steven is basically Jesus.
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I’m… not sure I’ve seen anyone reference this, but Garnet’s visor. It’s… every time, you know? I can’t help it.
People focus on Jailbreak, with good reason, but I really think it’s Full Disclosure where the show changes. Where all the things that happened begin to sink in, and start to mean something.
Which affects even the townie episodes.
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Call me dense. I just had someone point out the significance of Stevonnie trying to pay for the doughnuts with a $3 bill.
I KNOW THE EXPRESSION, OKAY
??
Y-yes. Exactly.
i have been listening to the official SU podcast which is very fun and cool and hearing Rebecca Sugar and Ian JQ talk is very soothing. also their passion for the show and the amount of thought they put into it is so delighting
i specifically want to mention something that Ian JQ said about Stevonnie, and how their point of view is so unique because of how the show is structured; because it’s all from Steven’s perspective, the only time we can see from another character’s angle is when he’s fused with someone. That means he’s seeing himself as part of Stevonnie, which is why when their emotions get strong enough they hallucinate and the world seems to warp around them (like at the end of Alone Together or throughout Mindful Education). Something about the recursive angle of a character seeing things as another character taps in to a different layer of perception. Which is also why that combined with Steven’s dream-diving power let them see through Pink’s memories.
Ian JQ admitted that it was kind of a strange concept and hard to articulate (which my secondhand explanation of a thing i heard on a podcast probably isn’t helping itp) but i think i get what he means and man, is that ever cool
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Those podcasts are great, aren’t they?
Yeah, that is a really neat concept, and something that would be next to impossible to get across in a different medium. Not like this, anyway.
I kind of expect at this point things will get trippy when Stevonnie is around. They’ve only been in seven episodes so far (one a cameo), and four of them have been actively surreal. Appropriately enough, I guess, considering the huge messy metaphor that Stevonnie is, as a character.
I’m super into expressionism, so that’s just one more aspect of Stevonnie (out of more than I can keep track of) that really registers with me.
This is one of the things I find so amazing about the back half of Jungle Moon. It’s so frickin’ clever how the storyboards express Pink’s memories through Connie’s personal neuroses. (And that’s after half an episode of lush Miyazaki-esque world-building.)
There’s also all of this business:
I’m expecting the next run of episodes to build on the weirdness in “Jungle Moon.” AJ Michalka was in the studio for the upcoming narrative block, and ages ago it was suggested that Stevonnie would have a song in season five, which… uh, gives them one more episode to make that happen, I guess?
Zach Callison (Steven) and Grace Rolek (Connie) seem to be doing a lot of other stuff together, lately.
I, uh, guess it’s good they get along behind the scenes?