The Fate of Chosen Ones: The End of Steven Universe 

"Everyone is more fun and willing to play with him if they're not yelling at each other" Truer words have never been spoken.

CellSpex: "Here's a moment with best character" Video: Shows Peridot Me: "Ah, I see you're an individual of culture as well."

As someone who’s used to being the peacekeeper for my family and friends, this hits home. Also, we can all relate to the trauma of Ronaldo existing.

Ok but honestly we need an entire "Steven visits the Therapist" spin-off dedicated SPECIFICALLY to Ronaldo damage

I personally diagnosed him with what I call 'Happily Ever After Disorder', which is a Protagonist specific form of PTSD. Symptoms: - Obsession over personally confronting conflicts (regardless of how unimportant or unrelated to him the conflict is) - Clings to consistency (Hence him insisting Lars and Sadie stay in Beach City) - No coping mechanism for small stress and emotional problems (as mentioned in Growing Pains. Likely because he's used to external conflicts or issues) - Depression (How lost he feels when he isn't helping someone else, which is the only thing that reminds him of his life before the end of the show. Steven is frankly an important case to understand the dangers of growing up as a protagonist and not a person: Once the Story ends he has no skills, no familiarity with the quiet moments in life so he's conditioned to seek conflict, to seek a problem to solve no matter how little he understands the problem nor how much people insist that he isn't needed in it. I personally wish I could enter this show just to cut the plot off at Growing Pains and take him straight to therapy.

One problem I noticed about Steven Universe Future.... They didn't age Onion a bit

Also this show genuinely saved my life. The episode lost at sea gave me the courage to get away from an abusive relationship. They came back for me

Im glad the series ended the time it did, too many series stay around long enough to become A Simpsons type scenario.

I adored future. It’s not a popular opinion, but as someone who has mental health issues very similar to Steven, I so appreciated how they handled ptsd. For those of you who didn’t like how the conflict ended with a hug, you’re missing what the characters conflicts were through future.Steven, while in his frantic state, had an issue accepted or asking for love, while the other characters already saw him so high on a pedestal that they didn’t push to show love when they noticed signs of his deterioration. The “hug” didn’t solve anything long term, but in that moment, it was about showing up and supporting someone who was looked over to the point of breakdown. So powerful.

So, I'm not transgender, but that moment where Steven was separated from his gem half by White Diamond and looked so ill before he finally embraced himself joyfully still hit me hard. I'm autistic and I grew up with a lot of anger, resentment, and outright denial over my condition due to a lot of bullying and gaslighting when I was growing up. I'd had relatives who denied my condition even existed, much like how White Diamond basically treats Steven like he's going through a "phase" he'll grow out of. I've even had people ask me if I could just try NOT being autistic. Then my whole life would be so much easier. Seeing Steven reconcile with his gem half felt so relatable to my struggles to reconcile with my autism and the fact it's not an accessory I have. It's me. :') I loved this damn show.

"Adorable domestic asexual couple " I loved that

Someone: the floor is asking the gems for help and talking about your feelings- Steven: *levitates off the ground*

We did find out what Lion was about, he's just a lion Rose owned and resurrected when he died.

Rose is not perfect, but she's also far from the worst being ever. People forget that what she did before coming to earth like the voleyball accident don't ever repeat itself, as shown for pearl not believing rose/pink having tantrums. Basically she comited grave mistakes and learned from them so they don't repeat. Even the shater thing. It was bismut ideia in the fist place, not hers.

I see the video Me : FINALLY SHE HAS NOTICED YOUR WORTH

I have ptsd and I'm surprised you didn't meantion this more when talking about pink steven. It looks like a visual manifestation of being "triggered", where even though I have a reason for getting mad or upset, I go from like 6 to 11 immediately and it's really intense for everyone. And even though I got ptsd from "being too nice" and staying in bad situations for too long, now sometimes it's hard to face some of the things I've done when I'm triggered and get "too" upset. I've never physically hurt anyone, but it's still a hard thing to have to reconcile.

This was a good chunk of television, but... Man, it was a lot, took a few days to recover tbh

Cellspex is heavily underrated and more people should watch her reviews.

Steven Universe: Future was so emotional. The fact Steven is mentally breaking down due to all the shit he went through just hits me hard.

“Ronaldo existing” lmao yeah! Because Ronaldo is one of the worst reasons Steven has trauma. 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣

This whole show felt like it was great at building up arcs and storylines, but can easily mess up in execution a lot. The only arcs that I felt worked completely from beginning to end was the Jailbreak arc and the Zoo arc. Change Your Mind just emphasized how much this show could fail at wrapping up arcs, mostly because of how rushed it all felt. I wonder how different this show would be if it had a 22-minute runtime instead. Future seemed to tackle the loose ends of the rushed arcs, with many of the episodes focusing on characters that were a bit overlooked. The others have a new arc with Steven’s mental health, but it ironically falls at the end. A poetically perfect way to say goodbye to the series.

Personally, glad we had Future, despite really only liking a few select epsiodes in the begining and like the last six.

I will always appreciate that this show worked to talk about mental health, anxiety, and PTSD. So few children’s shows touch on the long term effects of these types of stories.

steven: i’m fine every character in the show and the fandom: *are you sure about that*

I appreciate that it's one of the few shows/series' that touches on what happens after the young protagonist saves the world and actually has to process the trauma they went through

For people who are dissappointed that we never got to see Steven's Road to Recovery apart from "he's seeing a therapist now" in the last episode: The Road to Recovery for some people can take their entire lives. As someone with childhood trauma, you only learn to deal with it better, it never truly goes away even with years of therapy. I'm content with this because there is no realistic scenario where anyone with any kind of PTSD or trauma is completely 100% "cured". The best we can do is keep on moving and do our best to work on ourselves, sometimes with the help of a therapist if necessary. This is exactly what steven does and I fucking love the show for it. He's out there, somewhere...discovering himself, learning to deal with things and discovering the beauty of life all over again as his own person, with all the ups and downs that entails. We don't have to see that journey because it might never end. Also rebecca sugar said she wanted to "set steven free" at the end. I think this is what she meant. I still relapse and get nightmares about my trauma even though I've gone to therapy for a while and dealt with most stuff but shows like Steven Universe remind me why I chose to keep living. To experience stories and experiences as brilliant as Steven Universe, that give me such an incredible amount of hope and inspire me to create.

Little Graduation was my favorite. With the entire show being focused on Steven, it feels really significant to have the problem be that he wasn’t a part of the town’s growth, even if it was ultimately played for laughs.

Steven Universe isn't perfect, but it was the show that made me realize I was gay, and also told me that that was ok, and for that I will always be grateful.

I'm thankful for takes like this on the subject. I'm pretty sure the Steven Universe hate dogpile was simply a matter of people realizing that expressing displeasure was gonna get more clicks than reasonable level headed discourse. Many youtubers that I considered pretty solid turned into raving lunatics practically overnight. But that's how youtube works, hate the game not the players i guess.

i had this open in another tab and haven’t seen the early seasons of SU in so long that hearing Steven’s season 1 soprano-esque voice threw me for a loop

Anakin: You've had a tough life kid. Steven: Not worse than yours I imagine.

I feel like the hug at the end is one of the more reasonable ones in the series, it wouldn't feel like a good message to tell kids "hey, is your friend going through things? Just beat them up until they calm down!", although yeah, Steven should've done more destruction

I'm hoping for an Off-Colors spin-off. And they better include Centi/Nephrite as a guest character.

Finally someone who isn’t giving this mini series crap for its climax, I’m grateful to you 🙏🏻

The gems under the diamond's reign after being freed: He is the Messiah! Steven: I am not the Messiah... The gems: HE IS THE MESSIAH

I didn’t get into SU until after the movie dropped, so I’m still missing a lot of information, but I can say with complete honesty that SU future fucking broke me. I know it’s criticized a lot, but the feelings of uncertainty in your future, not wanting to bother loved ones while also wanted their contestant attention, and feeling like no one will love you if you show them the worst side of you hit incredibly deep. I could relate with Steven on nearly all his issues

I just relazied he doesn't have any average normal human friends

When Future was announced I was sort of against it believing that they couldn't provide anything more after the main series and the movie, I was very wrong, Future is an amazing story about consequences and how being the optimistic hopeful hero can eventually damage one's mental health, this video was needed as I've been thinking about Steven Universe as a whole and my relationship with the series and how it's evolved from being this cool new kids action show that had cool animation to a series that's emotionally resonated with me, introducing fantastic LGBTQ representation at a young age, Steven Universe was truly special, and it's unlike anything I'll experience with a series again, sure it had it's ups and downs but I stayed with the show from start to finish, and Steven Universe is gonna stay with me from birth to death

Finally someone noticed and realized the actual thenmatic purpose of Steven Universe: Future.

Steven not only broke Jasper, he broke the internet!

Still wish Steven had the chance to meet his grandparents.

It would've been cool to see a villain that was dangerous and actually challange Steven's beliefs and doesn't change a bit.

And so the beautiful if not flawed series comes to a conclusion, but leaves us all with single burning question.... What the fuck is and Onion??!!

"Anger and aggression can be very addicting emotions, especially during a time were you feel alone and helpless and need to feel powerful in order to feel in control of your life." Damn this girl just summed up cancel culture and twitter in a nutshell.

Guess who’s back? Back again. SHEEESSSSS BACC. BACK AGAIN.

After hearing this Steven is like Jesus

2:33 "This franchise has been put on indefinte hiatus. Avatar Airbender is better anyway" After this and your Onward review, i wouldn't mind you making a video talking about your problems with the Harry Potter franchise

Here's my feelings with the "lapadot fusion can't work because asexual" thing: pearl and amethyst can fuse and they aren't in a relationship. (Same with garnet and anyone else.) So the only reason why they don't fuse is their feelings on the matter. (Still doesn't stop it from hurting that the fusion didn't happen.)

This fandom turned on Stevens mom really damn fast the second they learned she was not a perfect paragon of goodness when her attempts to do good didn’t work out in the way she’d hoped

20:02 CellSpex slight voice crack to make your heart just break into pieces

honestly i thought future was like, perfect thematically, it really helped wrap up the themes left as loose ends in the first 5 seasons

Everything he's been through, and Steven's STILL doing world's better than Shinji.

I’m disappointed there was no Steven Universe Sock Puppet Show.

Regardless of the fan reception of the show, *Steven Quartz Universe will always be one of the greatest male cartoon heroes ever written.* He redefined compassion, masculinity and heroism ways that no other character has ever done. I'm so thankful that he exists. He taught me so much.

Having just recently finished the show, there are few shows that take such a unique idea to such a heartfelt conclusion and such heart wrenching lows, actually your video on best animated dads is part of the reason I jumped back into it when I did, thanks for that.

People shat on Future for ending in a group hug yet forgot that Adventure Time ended by signing an optimistic song about everlasting friendship at the eldritch god that physically pained it

Steven didn't "save an empire", he dismantled it...

I would love to see you cover the Tangled animated series on Disney+

20:40 I'm really mad I never saw lapis and peridot like that before. Now that's my headcannon forever

I was going through the brute force of depression and beginning to seek help and therapy during the airing of Steven Universe future. I honestly have trouble going back to watch it, because the final season just stirs up a lot of difficult emotions and reminds me of how helpless and hopeless I was feeling. Steven Universe came out when I was in middle school, and so I grew up with Steven the way many grew up with Harry Potter. It was one of the shows that helped me realize I wanted to work in animation. Steven Universe Future felt so personal to me, and it made me cry to see how much he was suffering. But it made me feel heard. I wasn’t the only one suffering. Even a magical boy with extraordinary powers could feel just as helpless as me. Steven Universe helped me accept my bisexuality. It helped me become passionate about art. It helped me learn to embrace empathy and diplomacy. And while the show wasn’t always perfect, it will always be very dear to me.

I’m a Simple man, I see CellSpex upload. I click

Lion was one of Rose's lions that must've died and was brought back. You can actually see a Lion with a heart-shaped nose wake up Buddy in Buddy's Book. You just never see it from the front again.

I never saw a "kid" show tackle emotions like this. It's basically like growing up being told how gifted you are and how you're going to do big things...always being thrust into the forefront of people's expectations and attention whether you wanted to or not? Yeah. It touched some close to home territory for me. Sadly, I didn't get to feel right with myself until I was much, much older than Steven was. It's got it's flaws. I'm a little saddened the show ends with Steven not reconciling his feelings regarding his mother though. She was just as flawed as him. If Steven found out gems he barely knew were putting him on a pedestal and construing some of his low moments as something toer than what they were, I bet he'd have a problem with it when the truth is so much murkier. I imagine for Pink/Rose, it was the same exact thing.

One song can describe me right now “It’s over isn’t it, isn’t it, isn’t it over,”

Here we are in the future , Here we are in the future and it's DEPRESSING!!!!!

I always thought SU was one of those shows that rode more on the hyperactive fandom than actual quality of storytelling. SU: Future though, wow. I absolutely loved what they did with the post-narrative look at the MC and what kind of trauma these things would actually inflict on a kid. Really a groundbreaking move as far as mainstream properties go.

Finally someone actually LOOKS at this epilogue and sees it for what it is and what it accomplished rather than immediately bashing everything about it.

As someone who deals with ptsd, the whole flashback scene in the hospital moved me to tears. (might have also given me a bit of a panic attack due to not expecting such an accurate depiction of flashbacks but what'cha gonna do lol)

Well, can't wait for Steven Universe: The Next Gem-eration

As soon as you showed peri’s hug and line, I started bawling. She was one of if not my favorite characters.

Fantastic analysis!! SU was oddly deeply therapeutic for my anxiety and depression and you really nailed what made the genius of SUF so underrated. Well done.

My problem is...well... the final season, the finale, fell flat. it felt "meh." instead of being wowed and crying when the show ended, I felt numb. sad, but numb. What's even worse is that I watched this show when it first started. so when I saw the ending..I just wished it could've been better. not saying the season wasn't good, it just could've been better

Future was one of my favorite seasons because of how relatable it was for me. I usually am the person trying to help everyone I can, adding problem after problem onto my list, without ever taking a moment to focus on myself. A problem with me is that when I start helping someone with a mental health issue for example, I get in this overly selfless mindset where the only person that matters is the one I'm helping, and I matter least. It led to a LOT of problems earlier this year that this season touched on, every episode surprising me with how relatable it was. While I still struggle with that too-selfless mindset right now, I am beginning to learn to balance my mental health while helping others(').

Great video! It's crazy to notice how much Steven's arc in Future wasn't unlike Spinnel's: A friendly companion who feels dread and an increasingly sense of uselessness as those they care seemingly abandon them

I pushed Steven Universe away for years because i thought it looked weird, and only got into it as it was ending. The finale hit me incredibly hard, and i cried for a solid twenty minutes. Not only did it completly destroy my emotions, but i realized that I'd been pushing away a beautiful and incredibly powerful story for years. It's now one my altime favorite cartoons, and I'm still mad at myself for pushing it away. Steven Universe, you will be missed dearly. Also, Spinel is adorable and i love her.

Steven didn’t save the empire because he was the best human being he saved the empire because he was related to the monarchy.

Ok so, I was washing the bathroom today, and I have a little tradition where I listen to one of Cellspex’s videos while I clean. I was planning to just listen to an older episode, but lo and behold, she’d finally posted a new one, and it’s about Steven. I could go on and on about Cellspex’s summary in this video, my feelings on this show and how it ended, or even my thoughts on possible spinoffs. But I think I want to focus on why it means so much to me. I discovered SU years ago when I played “Attack the Light” on my phone. I was a new summer camp counselor and I wanted something fun to play on the app store. I knew nothing about the show, but the game seemed cool so I downloaded it. Then I checked out clips of the show on RU-vid. And I was hooked. I bought episodes on iTunes and every break I had, I drove to McDonalds and watched them. The show got me through a difficult time in my life, and the more I saw, the more I fell in love. The thing is...if I’m being honest, there are themes in SU that conflict with my personal religious and worldview beliefs. But even so, I kept coming back. And I realized that the reason was the show’s overall message regarding redemption. No matter how bad a person is, they can be forgiven, and they can grow. I know people give the show flack for this, but it really meant a lot to me. I’ll just drop the bomb now: I’m an evangelical Christian. Part of my belief system is that anyone can be redeemed and forgiven of their sins. And it really touched my heart how often Steven was willing to forgive even the worst people and bring the best out of them, which is what I believe Jesus does. Now I don’t believe Steven is Jesus, but I agree with Cellspex that there are parallels. Anyway...I love this show. I love these flawed but growing characters. I love the music, I love the art, I love the sci-fi aspects. I love Steven Universe and feel very blessed that I got to experience it.

I really like SU Fututre. A lot of the themes and ideas hit a little too close to home so I was consistently devastated and that’s great. Since the show is about empathy and love and overcoming trauma, it made sense to me that the final arc is about letting the emotional center of the story get back the emotional effort he’s put in. He put a lot of effort into helping his family and friends become more balanced, happy people, and they are going to do the same for him if it kills them. I like that Steven’s a stubborn brat whose impulses are getting the better of him bc the coping mechanisms that kept him alive before are backfiring on him and he doesn’t know what to do about. I just like Future a lot, even if it’s not perfect. I like the whole show, flaws and all. The finale is one of my favorite episodes, bc I don’t mind that White Diamond’s ‘redemption’ is rushed. It’s not a redemption, it’s a chance. WD is your grandma whose always made fun of you for being chubby and says all the queers go to hell. So to me, the finale is going ‘hey I love you but I’m exactly the person you talk shit about, could you please maybe listen to me instead of never talking to me again?’ And then they DO. It’s a show about acceptance, so the finale is the fantasy that even your worst relative will accept you, and I think that’s very rad.

“Ronaldo existing” lmao couldn’t be any further from the truth lol

It’s not that he accepted his Diamond half, he was happy that he was himself. He had been under a constant deluge of visions, thoughts, and feelings of Pink Diamond, to the point where he wonders if he was his actual self. Him hugging himself was just acceptance of himself. Note how Pink Steven was completely emotionless until Steven touched him. The metaphorical meaning of all of that was on whether a child can ever really be anybody else but their parents child, and there’s a whole load of psychological baggage that comes with that thought. Trust me. I’ve felt that, and still feel that to this day.

Introducing... 16:25 THE DRUG DEALER!!! Blue Diamond:CoLd PaLaCe WaLls!!!

To me, Steven Universe Future was a sign that Steven would have to leave eventually and eventually end, the kid had already been through a lot of trauma growing up in a supernatural environment to the point that certain things that he would need, like healthy relationships and environments, those went out of the window for him. If he continued to stay he wouldn't be able to find himself as a human, in fact he would continue to suffer. He would need time to grow out of that, and staying in Beach City just wouldn't make that happen.

I just watched this this morning. Are ya'll stalking me?

I waited until the finale to watch the whole miniseries in one sitting and as it was going I started noticing that's some of the things Stevens gone through I things I've gone through. But it wasn't until the very end that it really hit me, and I really appreciate how this whole thing has been put together.

I lived through 2 decades of Cartoon Network Orginal classics , so it's pretty sad to know yet another Era of the channel's history has come to a close , but the memories of those shows I'll definitely cherish forever and look forward to the future of what CN has to offer.

This resonated with me because growing up I got straight A's, had friends, and generally a fun life. Then some trauma happened and I spiraled, shutting myself away from everything. Then I picked myself back up. Then covid hit. I was not well, I'm still not but it's better. I am healing

I'm happy to see a great and positive review over the countless negative " Everything Wrong with Steven" reviews. I appreciate anything covered by Steven fans, but it gets old when every 5 videos or so, talk about how bad it was.

Steven is my favorite series of all time. It's imperfect, but that's ok.

I think something worth noting is: Steven didn't completely forgive the Diamonds. He's cold to them in the movie, and in Future, there are signs of ptsd due to abuse. For example, especially for White, he flinches when they get close. He also actually shouts at White saying that she's actually awful, which is warranted. "I don't wanna be you! I don't wanna be anything *_like_* you!" And "This is for everything you put me through!" Really sell this. I don't know why people say Steven forgave the Diamonds at all, when he really didn't.

Stephen is literally the saddest character all the series is about is him cleaning up his moms messes and he doesn’t even have time to think about his self I feel so bad for Stephen like or comment if you agree👇🏽

Ugh Being Human still makes me tear up when I listen to it. I'll always have this series in a special place, it's a shame it ended up being constantly ruined by internet people going like "Look at me I'm so smart because I'm criticizing this thing everyone likes," and how people still, STILL kept missing key ideas of the series like "WHere Iz Dair PoonIShmeNt!!!???" without realising how that accomplishes literally nothing and only makes things worse and stop them from changing. Just look at how prisons are everywhere besides like Norway; they don't actually help people get better and do good instead of harm, it just makes them more angry and deranged and continues a vicious never ending cycle. Though I'll always embrace what this show was really demonstrating and be thankful that it even helped me grow and improve a lot as a person.

I will miss Steven Universe. I was there at the beginning and I was there when it ended. I loved the art, I loved seeing the characters grow, and I loved just the very existence of it. I laughed, cried, and happy cried. Steven Universe will forever be one of my top three favorite tv shows.

One thing to note- I think on regards to the Peridot and Lapis stuff, a crew member said Peridot was sorta intended to be the aroace rep- I wish they had gotten it across in the show more but I'm still really happy that it's there. Plus there were definitely hints of it before.

Honestly, after SU ending I've been seeing so much hate towards the show and I wanted to accept it's flaws which I had already did, but I love this show and showing said love towards it felt like I was insulting everyone's opinion so this is a nice reminder why I fell in love with SU in the first place.

I wished they finished up Jasper's arc.

My thoughts on the show largely echo yours, and I think you summed up what Future was all about quite well. I'll always love Steven Universe for trying to be a light in what might be the darkest times I've lived through. Whereas other shows might bow to cynicism, Steven held up kindness and empathy. Was it perfect? Of course not, nothing is! There's plenty I would have changed if I had the chance, but I think that also kind of hits with a core theme of the show overall. Embrace your imperfections and come to grips with things not always working out as intended. It is just nice to see someone offer critique without dogpiling on the show and being overly negative. For me at least, what I got out of the show isn't really diminished by the odd animation error or rushed conclusions to certain plotlines. Steven Universe was a show that helped me learn to care a bit more, to look inward and to not be afraid of change. I'm glad kids can grow up with something like this today and I'm hopeful other shows continue to push boundaries well past what this show was capable of doing.

I've only recently seen the show during lockdown and now I must say, it is a masterpiece of a franchise that I can't believe I've missed out on, and that I would recommend for just about everyone I know.

Dang I really loved this analysis! You brought up how Future adressed a variety of themes of the main show, and delved deep into Steven’s character arc. Nice!

I love this video, it expressed all the feelings I have for this show in ways I couldn't articulate, and it expanded my thinking towards the show by discussing things I hadn't thought of before. A fantastic analyses, I can't wait to share this video with my friend after we finish watching both series together!

It’s funny how you are probably one of the most competent reviewers I’ve seen on RU-vid. You try to acknowledge points other than your own, and you really want to spark discussion. Your humor is natural, not overdone but able to break up the seriousness. Plus, you just have a passion for this, and it’s nice to see someone on the younger side enjoy what they do and not rely on the ironic, nihilistic tendencies we all seem to have fallen into. You have gotten me into shows thanks to talking about them, and I think hearing a full-on adult gleefully discuss cartoons “made for kids” helped throw off a lot of preconceived notions I’ll admit I had about maturity. I’m not going to say “you changed me life,” but I will say I’m glad I found your channel, and so far haven’t regretted subscribing.