Story for Steven

"Story for Steven" is the 5th episode of season two in Steven Universe, and the 54th episode overall.

Synopsis
Greg tells Steven the story of how he met Rose Quartz.

Plot
Steven is hanging out with Greg in his van, playing music. Greg picks up a soda, which has a picture stuck to the bottom. It is a picture of a younger Greg with his manager, Marty. Greg cheerfully states that Marty is dead to him, and Steven asks what the deal is. Greg explains that Marty was actually a part of how he got together with Rose, and Steven asks for the full story.

A flashback occurs where Greg is singing a song (Like a Comet) at his concert.

As Greg stops playing, he looks out into an empty audience - except for Rose. She claps and comes over to his table full of his albums, where he goes and offers her a free T-shirt along with an album. He goes to the van and finds Marty with a girl. Marty forbids Greg from giving anything away, mentioning money and how he gets 75% of the profits.

Greg then turns and sees that Rose has gone. Later, sad, he walked away in a random direction towards the Crystal Temple and walks into a fence. He sees an purple owl perched on the fence and asks it if it knew about Rose. The owl (actually a shapeshifted Amethyst) then replies that if she DID tell him about her, she would have to kill him, then flies back to the temple. Greg, eager to know more, climbs the wire fence and goes straight to the temple. Amethyst reports to Pearl about Greg, saying how a human just talked to her. Amethyst then spots him and points him out to Pearl. Pearl is unsure of what to do until Garnet warps in and threatens to throw Greg over the fence. However, Rose appears and tells Garnet to stop. Then, Greg gives Rose her tee-shirt and Amethyst asks Greg (whom she calls Music Man) to play a song. He realizes it's night and rushes back to the van to meet with Marty.

Marty is about to bring Greg to Empire City. However, Greg gets tired of Marty's preference of money over Greg's feelings and kicks him to the side of the road. He goes back to Beach City and goes to the Temple. He starts singing to the door, when Rose appears from it. She tells Greg to go away and pursue what he wants, but Greg refuses and says he wants Rose. Rose, stunned, becomes starry-eyed and begins to laugh, shedding a tear into the water pools by the warp pad.

Greg stops telling the story, and Steven tells Greg that Greg loved her, to which Greg begins to tickle Steven. Steven then comments on how mean Marty was. Greg responds by telling Steven that if Marty didn't make it so easy to leave, he would have never been able to pursue Rose. The episode ends with Greg putting the picture back on the shelf in the van, next to a picture of Steven with cat fingers and the old picture of him and Rose.

Characters

 * Steven
 * Greg
 * Rose Quartz
 * Marty
 * Vidalia
 * Amethyst
 * Pearl
 * Garnet
 * Mayor Bill Dewey (named on sign)

Production Notes

 * While originally slated as the 50th episode of season one, it was moved into season two's rotation, due to StevenBomb premiering season two prematurely.

Songs

 * Like a Comet
 * Young Gems
 * What Are You Doing Here

Trivia

 * This is the second time that a flashback/story was shown/told, the first being "An Indirect Kiss".
 * The gems' outfit doesn't have stars yet at that time, but Garnet's gauntlets still have stars on them.
 * This is the first episode where Rose Quartz physically appears, not in a video tape, picture, etc.
 * Greg used to have a manager named Marty, but left him on the side of the road after he became too demanding and admitted to caring more about money than Greg's feelings.
 * Its revealed that Rose Quartz didn't wear shoes.
 * Amethyst originally had short hair, until she saw Greg's hair and may have changed it because of inspiration.
 * Greg sang his fourth song in this episode, 'Like a Comet'.
 * His first song was 'Let Me Drive My Van into Your Heart', his second was "Dear Old Dad", and his third was 'Wailing Stone'. This does not count "Lapis Lazuli", where Greg had one line before Steven took over.
 * But for his career, this is most likely his 2nd song.
 * The episode's title is raining like in the present of the episode.
 * Just before Greg ditches Marty in his van, a large box of red shirts with stars on them just like the ones Steven wears can be seen in the back. It is safe to assume that these were originally intended to be given away at Greg's next concert, but were all given to Steven to wear instead.
 * It is also to be noted that Greg's shirt bears a star, which has been the symbol of the Crystal Gems. There may be some further connection between Greg (possibly Marty) and the Crystal Gems.
 * The Crystal Gems, excluding Rose, were much more critical and cautious around humans in this episode (since Steven wasn't born yet).
 * The gems appear a lot younger, especially Amethyst, which is odd due to the fact that they are thousands of years old.
 * Marty, portrayed by guest voice actor Jon Wurster, is somewhat reminiscent of the many seedy/creepy characters he portrays on Tom Scharpling's The Best Show.
 * It is shown that Rose can display the same star shaped irises that Steven has at times the same happens with her laugh.
 * It can be assumed that this episode takes place at some point before The Return and Jail Break, due to the remains of the Gem Warship not being shown in the title card.
 * It is also possible that the gems have cleaned up all of the wreckage from the Gem Warship.
 * This episode was supposed to air in season 1, but moved to season 2 most likely because it didn't affect the current conflict. This may be a possible explanation to why there was no visible wreckage seen.

Cultural References

 * The owl shape that Amethyst takes in this episode is reminiscent of Noctowl from the Pokemon series.

Continuity

 * This episode revolves around the time Greg first met Rose Quartz. This exact moment is mentioned in "Laser Light Cannon".
 * In his van, Greg has three pictures; two of them are:
 * The picture of Rose and himself in the ocean frame Amethyst gave him in "Maximum Capacity".
 * A picture of Steven with cat fingers from "Cat Fingers" taken by Ronaldo.
 * The fence around the Crystal Temple's beach, previously mentioned by Pearl in "Full Disclosure, " appears in Greg's story before he runs it over with his van.
 * Pearl mentiones having a singing ability. This references/foreshadows (due to the dialogue taking place in the past) Pearl's singing in Strong In The Real Way.
 * Pearl's outfit in this episode was seen very briefly as a sillouette when she regenerated in "Steven the Sword Fighter".

Errors

 * On a sign it reads "Elect Buck Dewey for Mayor" when it should say - "Elect Bill Dewey for Mayor" following the correct timeline
 * While Greg is playing the electric guitar, when he reaches out his hand, the guitar pick he was holding dissapears.
 * When Marty was talking to Greg, We can see Marty's face overlapping Greg's hair due to animation errors.
 * When Greg is talking to Amethyst when she is an Owl, her Gem is briefly of the same cut as Rose's Gem, it then reverts back to her cut when she extends her wings.

Transcript
View the episode's transcript here.

Videos
pt-br: