So, i have been so completely disconnected from reality for so long that when my mom walked in on me watching future, it was in the middle of one of steven's breakdowns. She said something jokingly along the lines of "huh, that's kinda like you," and when i tell you a mental floodgate broke right there.
I always tend to think the fish people are an evolved/mutated version of the people who sailed away in stakes due to them still wearing animal hats, a tradition formed through them, and humans overall.
Poor Greg. He fell in love with a form Pink Diamond created. He never met the actual Pink, he only seen the manufactured shape of a Gem soldier. Than later in life, after he got over all the loss and grief, he meets the same gems that look like “Rose”, and can’t even bare the sight of one who looks exactly like her.
it kind of shocks me to hear that people dislike i am my monster ngl. it hit me like a damn truck when i first watched it and i've never cried harder at a show than the ending of the episode 😅
Steven Universe Future is not perfect. Far from it, actually. But I think that's what makes it so great. It makes you think, discuss, and see it from different points of view. Despite its controversial nature, I think this was a great way to end the series.
It wasn’t until this video that I noticed the foreshadowing of Steven & Connie’s exchange before fusing: “I just couldn’t stand the thought of everyone staring at me” “Well no one’s staring at you now?” “You are.” Followed by Steven immediately acting to mitigate Connie’s discomfort. It’s very fitting that Stevonnie destabilized as a result of their discomfort with being ogled, and their time being fused ends with Steven and Connie staring at each other (before they get up and dance) with hysterical relief.
The way i interpreted Steven and his dads fusion was that together, both of them are their greatest selves and ideals. And nothing encapuslates that better than their music and love for the stage. Their fusion then, imo, is a projection of the "perfect rock n roll singer" full of swagger, muscle, and sex appeal. (Sort of like elvis?) Which admittedly is weird, but rock and sex do have a long history together. But i agree that of that weirds some people out, then thats their right.
I’ve seen people say that every supervillain is some person who went mad after a tragic event made them go evil. Slade on the other hand, is just evil because he can. He invalidates their point. Heck, I don’t think there were any villains like that in Teen Titans. All the other bad guys just sorta showed up and started causing chaos because they could, or for reasons that totally are not tragic (I.E. Atlas merely wanted to prove he’s better than Cyborg. Brother Blood just wanted to start an academy to teach people how to be Supervillains and that’s all).
What I find crazy about Bismuth is that to her the war was 2 years ago. She got over all of that in such little time with a memory nearly perfect of the horrors
How come I just realized while watching this that the hypothetical reason Steven loves “the bits” is because when he was younger his dad did not have enough money to actually get a meal so he got the bits that were left when the actual fries were fried, frybo even says that they don't charge for the bits in an actual episode I'm pretty sure... Honestly, that is very sad... And Steven being a kid just loves “The Bits! The bits! The bits!”
I love Future the most, too. Growing Pains always has me break down during that part, like, can y'all imagine kids hearing the word "trauma", learning wtf the ACE test is, & maybe being able to empathize with themselves through Steven?! That is such a gift, I thank everyone involved in this show for that. It's so important for the kids hurting for them to know they'll be supported. That's what anyone needs the most during those times 🌸
With relationship to her line about how humans always change and grow and how gems are created with a purpose, I think about when pearl showed her around Earth and her reaction to everything is “we’re not creating something out of nothing, but taking and leaving nothing behind”
that is controversial because they were creating non-organic life, the lives of their "daughters", other gems, that's not nothing. Human life is worth more than that of gems?, her people? I think that reflects how much Rose hated herself.
I find it interesting that Rose and Greg both has similar pasts that they were running away from. I think that’s what drew Rose to Greg. She saw herself in him, except he was able to change. And change is what she ultimately wanted.
I like both Steven universo shows, I just dislike the final episode, in the hug aspect...ok also Garnet saying Ruby and Starfire have their own personal spaces and pretending they have just for a few minutes of exposition felt very forced and out of no where for the sake of the kind of moral of the episode.
An odd but 8 think fair criticism I have of the final scene. Everyone uses Stevens tactics on him to help calm him down, hugging, apologising, and talking it out..... But steven had one more thing he did.... Sing It's nice that blue diamond got a solo song, but I just wish it wasn't the final song of the series, I think it would have been so thematically relevant if everyone sang an apology to Steven, yes it may have been even more coney than what we got, but that's kinda the point
I got the idea of what they were going for with the series, and I respect it greatly, I just felt like it was handled somewhat poorly when I watched it for the first time a couple of years ago. I can't really explain it in full, since it's been a while, but I may rewatch the series in the future to see if my opinion will actually change
Gravity Falls walked so that Steven Universe could run. And Steven Universe ran so The Owl House could print (shame Disney took away the finish line). And Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss are just those weird kids vibing in the corner
Rose Quartz always brought an interesting thought to me... if a woman knowingly gets pregnant, 100% knowing that she was going to die, is... that considered suicide? If it's not suicide... why isn't it?
You could see it that way, but she gave up her life for another's, which we generally regard as self-sacrifice as opposed to (outright) suicide. Whether that label really applies for _creating_ life as opposed to _preserving_ it is kind of up in the air since there's no easy real life equivalency for that
This episode makes me love the plot twist of the show so much, in my opinion a great plot twist can recontextualise and reveal that much more about earlier iterations of a work and that's exactly what happens here. I can never watch this episode the same way I did pre-reveal and I love that.
To be honest, I was never in the larger SU fandom, so people hating on Future is such a shock to me. I remember watching it as it came out and literally crying on some of the later episodes and scenes, particularly Fragments or the hospital visit. It wrapped up by coming full circle, returning to Steven and his pain and struggles. Future is one of the reasons I started my journey to healing, to getting therapy and medication, because Steven's arc spoke to me, and it still does. It was complicated, and messy, but poignant and beautiful at the same time, and I feel like it deserves appreciation no matter what.
I feel like knowing what we now know about Homeworld and its culture, the fact that Pearl knew the mirror had a gem the whole time doesn't feel too crazy. Is it bad with human morals applied to it without any other knowledge? Yeah, absolutely. But also, she's from a planet where everything, even the walls, were made of living gems. She probably assumed that the gem in the mirror was there because that was their intended purpose
I like the idea that Greg is mostly moved past Rose and doesn’t care about her past as Pink Diamond because Greg loved her as a human while Pearl and the others loved her as Gems. They have radically different concepts of love. Greg understands the concept of changing yourself more than the gems, the gems dont. Mega Pearl’s monologue at the end of Volleyball confirms that.
ahhh good memories. Alone at Sea made me ship these two so hard......both when Lapis admits she misses Jasper and when Jasper gets on her knees to beg Lapis to be Malachite with her again, ahhh they're so delicious. A part of me back then wanted another moment between Jasper and Lapis before the series ended, but tbh I don't think it would have been as good as this episode. I love that malachite went out with a bang.
She thought homeworld would never return before she had steven. Remember, the homeworld wasn't advanced as we seen them now, and in the early stages the cystral gems, we were likely on the lookout for homeworld but they never showed up for thousands of years.
Kid flash said she was different cause he was spitting game and was likely the first time someone called her special which Jynx craved. She wanted that from Madame Rouge not romantically but professionally and didn't happen so Kid Flash won. The guy with the eyeball just has no game 16:25 lol
Hey there! Seeing a 2024 SUF video essay was such a delight after all of the backlash it got initially, and you did a lovely job covering it and giving it the love, attention, and criticism it deserves. I just want you to know that when this video came out two months ago, I watched about five minutes of it before deciding I would have to rewatch SUF first because it was already so lovely to listen to your thoughts- this then led me to embark on my own personal little SU journey as I rewatched the main series so that I could watch SUF so that I could watch your video. Watching all of SU as an adult was truly a different enlightening experience- many of the issues I had with it as a kid and teenager (as it was coming out) no longer were issues to me, and SU future especially hit so fucking hard, reminding me vividly of my experience as a teenager, and how impossibly large all those emotions felt at the time. There really isn't another show like SUF and you cover it perfectly! I agree with so much in this video (minus Connie's speech in I am My Monster, which I personally LOVED- it was so satisfying to me to see these characters finally be told off for making everything about themselves, put in their place for their poor reactions to Steven's mental health struggles, and more- I really felt like those characters needed to have it said explicitly to their faces in a way they couldn't avoid, so I took it less as SU not trusting the audience to understand the theme, and more as the characters themselves needed to be properly scolded haha) and it was absolutely lovely to listen to while I drew and a perfect finale to my SU revisit. I'm not sure what to do with myself now! Thank you for making this video, it was worth the (self imposed) wait!
