It's that time of year again.

Upset Situation

[Update: February 23, 2024]

I saw many artists draw this meme "Draw your comfort characters"

Andy DeMayo, Hoagie P. Gilligan Jr [Number 2] and Megaman X are my fav. characters, which they're my comfort characters. I decide to draw this meme. ---

This is my random story.

Something bad happened to their vehicle (Andy's Plane, Hoagie's plane and X's Ride Chaser). They have to go on some missions together, and they need to use a vehicle. So, they had to use car without choice.

Steven Universe © Rebecca Sugar

Title: My life was kinda short, but I got so many blessings

Summary: A drabble an episode keeps the writer engaged. One peek into Steven’s life per episode; season four edition!

Excerpt:

"What kind of Gem was it?" Peridot asks on the walk home. It suddenly occurs to her that she should probably know these things. That these were, intrinsically, Gems. Corruption was such a new concept for her; these hulking, monstrous beings that used to be fully functional Gems horrified her still. She didn't know how the others could casually fight them. She still wasn't sure how she had casually fought it. It hadn't felt like fighting a Gem. It'd felt like fighting a dingo over her limb enhancer. Steven clicks his tongue and slowly shrugs. "I, uh, I don't know? The Gems don't tell me these things. Or maybe they just don't know?" Peridot touched her forehead. "It was shaped like a Zircon. But why would a lawyer be on Earth?" "To hold Rose Quartz's trial," Steven deduces. "It- it feels wrong. Guessing like this." It did. It felt like rewriting the history of a stranger. But Peridot would stare up at the Gem in the barn that night, trying to decipher who she could've been if not for the Diamonds.

Season 4! From Kindergarten Kid to I Am My Mom, we've got twenty four drabbles chock full of fun! Including old men getting confused by the concept of fusion, various stages of PTSD, Andy Demayo being a chill guy, and lots more!

Commissions Are Open! || Ko-fi

SU Character Tournament

i love holandy’s dynamics.

“GREG HELP THIS GEM HAS MADE ME HER HUSBAND”

“This is my husband, Andy.”

Steven Universe meets The Sopranos: "You Think I Don't Know It Was You?"

Starring:

Greg Universe as Tony Soprano

Andy DeMayo as Paulie Gualtieri

We only got to see Uncle Andy ONCE in the show then he was never mentioned again. I liked him, I would've loved to see him grow as a person 🥺

“y’all couldn’t even handle the moral complexities of steven universe”

You've probably seen this type of post make the rounds every so often and either agree or disagree with it. I'm of the former camp and have often pondered some of the reasons why this thesis holds water.

To start, Social Media has really changed the game in Fandom for better and for worst (the latter being too often the case). Namely in how on platforms like Tumblr and Twitter (Musk can shove that X up his ugly a-), we get fun fandom nonsense along with a 24/7 news cycle of whatever's trending.

Which means we have constant intrusion on our timelines about how the geopolitics across the globe are pretty crap. Many of us retweet things we feel may be relevant, especially when misinformation has become a vertiable economy we need to be aware of.

We also have people raising awareness of social issues that our world still endures such as sexism, racism, every kind of bigotry you can imagine. Ironically, this brings about those railling against the notion that they either still exist or need to be worked on at all in a display of said prejudices. #Gamergate didn't just spring from the ether.

Many celebrities of various levels of fame were turning out to be… pretty bad. Social Media would empower them to speak their minds and not all of it was just “their beliefs.”

To keep this focused of when Steven Universe was coming out, the end of the Obama era and Trump planting his stanky ass in the Oval Office, this was when people’s trust in each other was at an all time low.

Hell, I remember when Trump’s campaign and Brexit got many bigots to feel like they can be prejudiced without consequences. Whole reason he made it to the final two at all.

As such, how else would Uncle Andy Demayo come across as anything other than a MAGA hat wearer? How else would the Diamond Authority come off as but the powers that be who “need to be stopped?”

Steven Universe came at a time when fandom was intermingling with the real life. Fans were starting to feel insulted whenever something like fighting the government or interacting with problematic family member wasn’t answered with “Burn it to the ground!”

Notions of compassion to those who are troubled or maybe in need of a shoulder to lean on were disinterpretted in the least favorable light possible. How could SU even humor the notion that narrowminded family members or even people of power could be redeemed let alone humanized?

Essentially, it didn’t speak to the emotional climate at the time for millennials or Gen Z. It’s why we’ve celebrated Big Jack Horner and those who harken back to classic Disney villains. The kind you cheer on to be taken down a peg.

Lily Orchard didn’t start the fire. The flames were already being fanned.

Okay, so we all know that, canonically, Steven and Connie WILL get married at some point in the future.

But here's the thing: they fuse super easy

Which isn't a bad thing, not at all

And of course Connies parents know all about the whole magic stuff, but i do wonder if they know about Stevonnie specifically. I don't remember them ever seeing Stevonnie in the series.

Which brings me to my second point: what about Connies extended family? Like aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins? Does she have extended family? (this might sound like a stupid question, but while I myself do have extended family, I'm not in contact with any of them except for my grandparents, if those even count as extended family?)

So like, before the wedding, as part of the wedding prep, are Steven, Connie, her parents, Greg + the gems gonna have to explain all that stuff? If Steven and Connie have a fusion wedding, like Garnet did.

And just explaining the fact that Stevens mom was a space dictator who then startet a war on earth against herself and rebelled against her family is gonna be a whole thing, before even mentioning the fact that this rebellion technically still exists, but the war itself is over and done with, and also Steven is half (literal-)alien and has magic powers (that may or may not go haywire, but don't worry about it, he's got it under control)

And also the fact that, seeing as they were Pink Diamonds family, the diamonds will probably want to attend the wedding, since it's an important event in Stevens human life. I mean boy, that is gonna be whole cluster if shards on its own with 3 giant women showing up at the wedding of (from Connies extended familys view) Connie and this guy they probably never heard of, but is somehow a really really big deal?

And also, at the end of Future, as Steven was driving away, the whole town was wishing Steven goodbye as he left Beach City, including quite a few gems, i think. And i mean sure, Beach City ain't that big, but they're gonna have to have the wedding outside with how many people and gems are gonna be on Stevens side alone. Plus, lots of gems don't look human enough to blend in, the topic of "this Steven guy has non-human... entities on his side of the family" is GONNA come up if they don't explain it first. But even if the gems from little homeschool don't come, at least the crystal gems closest to Steven are gonna come, like Pearl, Amethyst and Garnet, but also Bismuth, Lapis and Peridot, and Lion is also gonna be there, probably, for Connie. And with Lion, Lars and the Off-Colors probably as well.

Honestly, the more i think about it, the easier it might be for them to just give them a brief "Steven and his family is magic and most of them are from space, except for Greg, he's from earth". Oh yeah, and also Andy DeMayo!

And if anyone has a problem with Steven and Connie marrying (and maybe even fusing), they've got half an army to answer to.

But on to my second point: if Steven and Connie WON'T have a fusion wedding, they're gonna have to practice dancing withOUT fusing. Which i can imagine being the hardest part about the whole wedding, bc they fuse so easily.

and regardless what whether they fuse or not, SOME dickhead is gonna start some shit and after a while, they're just gonna get tired of arguing and explaining, and just start ordering Lion to eat people. He doesn't actually eat them, but it sure gets them to go away real quick, so goal accomplished XD

SU: Pizza Tower style

[Update: June 26, 2023]

Well, I draw Steven Universe in Pizza Tower style.

From left to right Pearl --> Garnet --> Amethyst --> Lapis Lazuli --> Peridot --> Pumpkin Dog --> Greg Universe --> Andy DeMayo --> Steven Universe

The Diamond Authority is not a metaphor for abusive family.

I don't understand why Steven Universe fans are so pretentious, do they think a basic figure of speech makes Steven Universe deep or something? So metaphors are a comparison of two separate things or concepts by calling one thing another, example: "She was a lion, roaring at the crowd". The woman's shouts at the crowd are compared to the roars of a lion in order to exaggerate, create interesting prose and imagery and also give depth to her action.

SU fans argue that the Diamonds are just a metaphor for abusive family. But, that's not what a metaphor is since they quite literally are just an abusive family. They aren't exactly like a human family but they are the gem equivalent.

But what about them being a fascist dictatorship? That's not a "metaphor" for abusive parents (and it would be a terrible one anyways). Remember, the other gems are not treated as family but as subjects, so they are automatically left out. They're like Ozai, abusive parents and dictators.

The "abusive family" thing isn't even a thing until like season 5. Before that, they are the manifestation of society's ills (eugenics, homophobia, genocide), and the impact they have is mostly on the other gems, not Steven. They are two separate thing (and neither are done well https://www.reddit.com/r/CharacterRant/comments/1aupslu/steven_universe_the_victim_blaming_of_rose/).

Also, Steven Universe has the racist relative already in the form of Andy Demayo, the fact that they addressed this archetype already leads me to believe the Diamonds are more than that.

You can't complain about "media literacy" when you don't have any yourself. It's a kids' show for fuck's sake.

Side note: So glad Encanto and Turning Red came out and blew SU out of the water with their stories on abusive family and interpersonal relationships.

Here! Have Headcanon!

Steven Universe is Italian. Now listen to me here

We all know from Uncle Andy that Greg's original surname was DeMayo. Well I did a little googling and

This automatically makes me right/j

I mainly bring this up because I think Steven would connect with his human side via learning about his culture. I want him to go seek out people who are DeMayos (not really Greg's parents because I have the feeling they're conservatives) so he can learn some family history. I want him to cook traditional Italian foods and dishes. I want him to learn how to speak Italian and maybe teach it to Connie and/or the Gems.

I am not in any way Italian nor European for that matter but there's something so cathartic to me about characters learning more about their cultures. Especially when everything is Western by default. I wish I could properly speak my native language and knew more of my culture. So seeing one of my favourite characters learn more themselves sounds so nice

May 1: Happy 53rd Birthday to Voice Actor Dave Willis, who provided the voices of the cousin of Greg Universe and the first cousin once removed of Steven Universe as the Steven Universe character of Andy DeMayo; and former agent of ODIN turned former head of the KGB when converted into a cyborg as the Archer character of Barry Dylan.

Just curious, but why do you hate Andy so much?

I think I made a brief post a few months back about the general weirdness of gem harvest but I will talk about it again in order to properly discuss my andy opinions. buckle up

first off I think he is just a generally unlikable character, which I think was the point for the most part. my dislike of him though honestly is mainly directed at the idea of him/his episode in the first place. not that I dislike the crew, I think they just made a lot of hm... misjudgements? the most obvious one here being the illegal immigrant joke, especially given the political climate at the time (the episode came out a couple of weeks after the 2016 election). I think that there was potential in the episode, especially given it was the first (only) time we met someone from greg's family. learning more about greg (and by extension steven) was important, because we see all the gem stuff but steven is half human too. being in touch with that is important to him, hence why he added demayo to his name! I 100% would be in support of the premise of making andy confused and unwelcoming to strangers in an important place for him and his family. my issue with him lies in the fact they took real problems, real conservative beliefs, made them lighthearted, then redeemed him within 15 minutes (reminder that it took them two YEARS to redeem bismuth!)

he just left a bad taste in my mouth. I've always been an advocate for filler eps in shows in general because I love the inherent world/character building they provide. not everything has to be plot heavy all the time for me! so I think that it could've been a really nice episode if they'd gone about it differently. there was some really cute/funny moments with the gems too. I know the message of su is that everyone deserves forgiveness and whatnot, but I feel like if they insisted on going down the route of him being a real life dick then he would have been a good opportunity to show that just because someone is family it doesn't mean you have to be on great terms with them

I would argue this is even something they do with white diamond later. I dislike her as much as the next guy, but so does steven. I won't go into my thoughts on the diamond redemption because they are in all fairly unoriginal, but a lot of people view her redemption as steven... making friends with her? when that is not the case. like ultimately there should have been more consequences but being on okay terms with the diamonds was something that had to happen in order for steven to put a stop to what they started. he couldn't heal the corrupted gems on his own, and the diamonds would have continued targeting earth forever otherwise. but steven did not suddenly decide they were good people, or that he liked being around them. in homeworld bound he very explicitly does not like being around them; even when he starts to think they're the only people he can relate to. he tries to shatter white. this to say steven is not incapable of having a grey area of feelings about people, so I don't understand why andy was someone the crew felt the need to actually redeem. like wasn't he invited to garnet's wedding?! why in the world did he need to be there?!?!

tldr andy = white diamond