"i want morally grey female characters" you fuckers could barely handle rose quartz

best pals on an adventure :)

I am rewatching SU and damnit. Rose Quartz's character is so well constructed from the begining. You start thinking on her as this perfect being. She used to cure other with her tears! She freed Planet Earth. She loved Steven even without knowing him.

Then you start to discover not so great things about her. Then it straight up, every bad thing happening to Steven is a result of her past mistakes. She shattered Pink Diamond. She started a war. She treated Pearl like a toy. Then all of Steven's misfortunes are a result of her poor behavior.

And still, she's such an interesting character. She was born into the highest chaste of a society where you're born to be a tool, not an individual. She had tantrums because she was raised by tyrants that kept throwing bigger tantrums and throwing her inside a jail cell, alone for stars know how long. She did the only thing she could for Planet earth and this costed the lives of all her friends aside from Pearl and Garnet. She poofed Bismuth for being too radical and later used her idea. She tried her best and even like that her best wasn't enough. When she thought everything could work out and grew as a person in response to Greg, she wanted to create life, unfortunately everything blew up in Steven's face. She just wanted a child that could grow and change. She just wanted peace with her found family. Was she even bisexual. Anyways, I love Rose Quartz.

Dumbest part of criticism of SU Future is when people say "Future is character assassination of Steven" and "The show trivializes/poorly represents mental illness" in the same breath. If you think a character whom has suffered immense interpersonal and physical trauma having breakdowns and snapping at people because of being triggered is mutually exclusive to a character being kind and empathetic, I don't think you have a right to speak on mental illness rep.

Seeing a character who is defined by kindness and compassion crack under that pressure of being there for everyone like that is crazy to see in a kids show. Personally I hadn't felt that seen by anything in a while, and it's just offensive as hell to me to say that a character acting traumatized in a way that isn't sad puppy dog eyes means they're mischaracterized or abusive now. That's half the point of Future that Steven didn't know how to express his problems within his role as precious angel.

He wasn't mischaracterized, he was recontextualized. It's like people can accept "this mean character was once nice but changed cause trauma", or "sweet character is now depressed cause trauma", but the reality that someone youre familiar with can change dramatically due to trauma - acting angry and abrasive instead of sad and demure - is blasphemous somehow.

Double points if they then say the gems or Greg were dumbed down to make Steven look better. Like, My Brother In Christ, they are exhibiting the exact lack of awareness you are thinking it's impossible for a person like Steven to have angry or vengeful trauma reactions.

EDIT: Actually not gonna leave this in the tags -

Something-something ableism, something-something not accepting dramatic and unpalatable expressions of mental illness in fiction and likely not for people IRL.

Doodle dumb.... only random sketches cus i still have no motivation to draw LOL

you won and she chose you and she loved you and she's gone

@glowweek Day 3

RAIN | SNOW

Originally there was a different comic for the Rain or Snow prompt, some angsty AU stuff, but I decided to put that aside instead so I can give it better dialogue and clean it up more. THEN I started this much more light-hearted one with a much simpler drawing style, also a comic... And my sinuses started acting out too. 😬 And I'm just out of it the entire time. Practically half asleep. So I just took out the first panel and added vague background. Haha

So, yeah, just this thing for this day. 😅 I do plan on finishing the comic for this one of course.

I was experimenting with new brushes and drew Connie

for @sleepysquib 😁😁😁

Family Friends Day 5 - Family/Friends @glowweek

I've been reading the Delicious in Dungeon manga in my free time and I JUST finished reading up to the part where they delve into Senshi's backstory and MAN, I HAVE THE FEELS NOW.

No wonder he wanted to feed the "young ones." No wonder he wanted to understand the dungeon's creatures. NO WONDER HE DID NOT WANT ANYONE ELSE TO STARVE MAAAAAAAAAAAAAN.

I'M GONNA LOSE IT WHEN THE ANIME GETS TO THIS PART.

People always act like Steven would be a difficult patient for therapy or resistant but honestly I think it's the opposite. Steven constantly traumadumps in the series- to friends, to plants, etc. He would absolutely be willing to tell a complete stranger all his issues.

The problem is that Steven never talks to the Gems. He'd go in, explain shit for an hour to a therapist, the therapist would tell him to consider talking to his moms about certain parts of it, maybe consider setting boundaries, and he'd be like "oh yeah sure you're the boss." and just. Never fucking do it. Every week he'd be like "oh yeah! That. Yup I totally forgot."

my taste in 2 images (I see Hunter Wizard as a butch)

been sitting on this idea for like 3 days now

i keep seeing ppl in the notes on my camila post being all like "dont drag greg universe he was a great dad" which yeah, he was! i'd never argue against that. he did so good with what he had, but i would not say that greg was ever as involved in steven's life as much as he should have been.

the mr. universe episode in SU:F is proof of this. greg had helicopter parents that micromanaged him, so greg did what anyone would: he raised steven in the exact opposite way. is that a bad thing? depends on how you look at it. let me explain my perception:

steven grew up with so much freedom. he was allowed to eat what he wanted, dress himself how he wanted, go where he wanted, and do what he wanted. greg gave steven everything he never had growing up, but in doing so he deprived steven of everything he did have as a kid.

the reason steven clings to tightly to routines, schedules, specific diets & mealtimes, work, academics, etc. is because he did not have access to these things as a child. do you know how important routine is for a growing child? steven didn't even have a specific bedtime as a child. that shit absolutely fucks with your entire circadian rhythm later in life.

to be fair, i believe greg did the right thing with keeping steven out of public school. he wouldn't have thrived in that environment at all and it wouldve done more harm than good and greg did a great job making sure that steven wasnt too emotionally or socially stunted from this choice.

but everything else... the no doctor appts, no dentists, no bedtime, no mealtimes, no private bedroom, no supervision for like 80% of the time-- like, greg didn't even homeschool steven beyond third grade, probably.

greg was a good man for getting over his anxiety around magic/gem stuff enough to allow steven be so heavily involved in it. he recognized that steven needed to integrate with gem stuff to have that connection to his mother. i will never argue that greg should've sheltered steven more. he raised a good fucking kid. and without steven's involvement, the earth would've literally been destroyed.

but here's the problem. greg was more worried about being like his parents than he was of the effects this shit would have on steven's life. he made steven feel like he had to choose between two worlds. like he wasn't allowed to be both gem and human because greg would flinch and look away from steven's powers.

i do not blame him. he's only human and hindsight is a bitch. but we cannot deny that greg did in fact neglect steven by not being more involved with steven's life as a gem.

was greg a bad father? no. not at all. he made mistakes. all parents do. but greg often and actively refused to be involved in such a major part of steven's life. even if we factor in that the crystal gems themselves made him feel unwelcome, it still doesn't ever excuse it.