Connie Maheswaran

"I don't know what will happen in the future, but if something dangerous comes along, I don't want to be a burden, I want to help! I want to be there for Steven, to fight by his side! The Earth is my home too, can't I help protect it?"

"Connie Maheswaran" is a character in Steven Universe. She is Steven's best friend. She made her debut in the episode "Bubble Buddies".

Appearance
Connie is a young girl with dark skin and waist-length dark brown puffy hair. She has a prominent nose, thick eyebrows, and wears a pair of magenta lens-less glasses (with rose-colored lenses until "An Indirect Kiss"). She is slightly taller than Steven.

Connie is usually seen in a variety of different outfits and dresses. She usually wears light blue, green, and white clothing. In the first intro, she is seen wearing a white and seafoam-green dress with her peach colored boots but with a sunhat and no socks. Her glasses also have the lenses still on.

Personality
Connie is introverted, curious and intelligent. Due to her parents' lifestyle, specifically her father's, Connie rarely stays in one place for long and has been unable to form lasting friendships, which left her frequently feeling lonely. Her parents are very strict and don't allow her to participate in common childhood activities (such as eating donuts or anything with trans fats). This has led her to flat-out lie about Steven's non-nuclear family, due to paranoia at how they may react. Despite her obedience to her parents, Connie is not above exploiting loopholes, such as not buying snacks at a theater and instead bringing them from Steven's home.

Connie has grown used to the strange dynamic of her friendship with Steven despite her initial uncertainty of it, as in "Marble Madness" when the Gems destroy one of Peridot's robots in front of her, she reacts passively awed and only comments that she loves hanging out at Steven's place. She can be a bit deadpan at times, such as when she jokes about cutting off Steven's hand in "Lion 2: The Movie" and in that same instance quickly understands that by poking/tickling Steven she could provoke a reaction from Rose's Secret Armory. Her hobbies appear to include tennis and reading, and she also plays the violin, as seen in "Fusion Cuisine".

"Sworn to the Sword" shows a more confident and aggressive side to her personality as she learns how to use a sword. Due to Pearl's negative reinforcement she also began to display a reckless side, but this was quickly put out by Steven. It also highlights her strong feelings for Steven through her dedication in becoming his knight. This boosted confidence is also shown in "Nightmare Hospital" when Connie stood up to her mother about her strict upbringing and rules, and also even revealed her involvement in magical affairs.

Abilities

 * Swordsmanship: As of "Sworn to the Sword", Connie has become skilled in the art of sword-fighting with Pearl as her mentor. She was able to work in partnership with Steven and his shield. She can attack swiftly with light attacks or with power in heavy attacks.

Steven
Steven first saw Connie about a year prior to the start of the series during a parade. He saw her drop her bracelet, and decided to keep it in his freezer so he could return it the next time he saw her. She also remembered seeing him on his father's float, mentioning the soap bubbles in his hair. He becomes her first friend. Although Connie sometimes feels like her life is rather mundane compared to Steven's, they are currently good friends, and share a mutual crush on each other as seen in "An Indirect Kiss" and  "Alone Together" (in the latter of which Steven and Connie accidently fuse, forming Stevonnie). Connie is frequently shown to be affectionate to Steven, occasionally in a romantic way (e.g. "An Indirect Kiss" when she leaned for a kiss, and in "Steven's Birthday" when she layed on Steven's chest after their slow dance). Connie has demonstrated that she cares deeply for Steven, such as in "Full Disclosure" when she repeatedly called and visited him to make sure he was okay, even going as far as to say she wanted to "be a part of his universe", and since  "Sworn to the Sword" Connie has shown interest in joining Steven in his adventures with the Gems, training with Pearl to defend him.

Mr. Maheswaran and Dr. Maheswaran
Connie is very loyal to her parents. While they tend to be strict, they want the best for her, and want her to be smart, orderly, and healthy. She closely follows their orders, but does occasionally exploit loopholes or even lies to them to get away with something if absolutely necessary. In the episode "We Need to Talk", Connie reveals that her parents do not know of her adventures with Steven. This may be because of her fear that her parents will prevent her from seeing Steven due to the huge risk she willingly submits to every time they hang out. "Nightmare Hospital" explores Connie's relationship with her mother in more detail. Connie is prone to lying to her mother about her adventures with Steven, who is very strict with her, enforcing many rules on her that she never retracts for any reason. She remains untrusting of Connie when they and Steven are cornered by Gem fusion experiments at the hospital. However, after the ordeal, she agrees to be more accepting of Steven's influence in her life and much less micromanaging about Connie's life, although it is currently unknown how Mr. Maheswaran reacts to Steven's influence on Connie.

Crystal Gems
Connie is on good terms with the Crystal Gems. In "Bubble Buddies", they were excited to meet her. Pearl says in "Full Disclosure" that she doesn't understand human relationships when she is looking for Steven, though Pearl likely used her social ignorance to avoid answering where Steven was.

Pearl
Connie has not been shown to have any extended interaction with the Gems with the exception of Pearl, with whom she shares a mutually respectful mentor-student relationship since "Sworn to the Sword", where she also convinced Pearl to teach her sword fighting by appearing very passionate about staying by Steven's side to fight with him, which clearly struck a chord with Pearl, considering her own dedication to Rose Quartz.

Season 1

 * "Bubble Buddies" (debut)
 * "Lion 2: The Movie"
 * "An Indirect Kiss"
 * "Mirror Gem"
 * "Ocean Gem"
 * "Fusion Cuisine"
 * "Alone Together"
 * "Winter Forecast"
 * "Marble Madness"
 * "Open Book"
 * "The Return" (mentioned)
 * "Jail Break" (voice only)

Season 2

 * "Full Disclosure"
 * "Love Letters"
 * "Sworn to the Sword"
 * "We Need to Talk"
 * "Chille Tid" (mentioned)
 * "Cry for Help" (mentioned)
 * "Nightmare Hospital"
 * "Steven's Birthday"

Shorts

 * "We are the Crystal Gems" (cameo)

Trivia

 * Connie’s surname, Maheswaran, means “Lord of Universe” in Hindi and is also traditionally a Tamil surname.
 * Connie is directly referred to as Steven's girlfriend in commercials in Portugal as well as numerous other European countries.
 * Both of Connie's parents are Indian-American.
 * Kat Morris created Connie's character.
 * Connie appears in the title sequence as the "Mr. Universe" van drives by, causing a breeze that she looks towards. She holds the book A Wrinkle in Time.
 * In the second intro, she is shown wielding Rose's Sword and an unknown, large book with a bookmark inside. It can be assumed that she is holding one of the Unfamiliar Familiar books, although it has not been confirmed.
 * She is able to write backwards. This is seen in the very short amount of time it took her to write "Harpoon Gun" on the inside of the bubble in "Bubble Buddies".
 * It is revealed in "Lion 2: The Movie" that Connie plays tennis, and is shown describing it as the only thing that she remotely enjoys in her life.
 * According to writer Matt Burnett, Connie is of Indian heritage.
 * Following the events of "An Indirect Kiss", Connie can now see normally without her glasses thanks to the healing powers in Steven's saliva. Because she wanted to avoid confrontation with her parents and optometrist about this, she took out the lenses of her glasses and wore the frames instead.
 * It is possible she will no longer wear the frames after revealing this to her mother in "Nightmare Hospital", although her father's reaction hasn't noticed her glasses.
 * It is revealed in "Mirror Gem" that Connie plays violin.
 * In "Winter Forecast", Connie says "itadakimasu", a Japanese word said before eating. She has stated that her father travels, so Connie may know more than one language.
 * Connie may be a reference to the King of the Hill character of the same name.
 * Connie from King of the Hill and Connie from Steven Universe coincidentally both play the violin.
 * They both also have very strict parents.
 * Neither character's parents openly approve of their daughter's romantic interest; but that is open to change concerning Connie from Steven Universe.
 * In "Sworn to the Sword", Connie's outfit and fighting style were inspired by Kalaripayattu.
 * She wields a sword resembling the Khanda, a sword typically used in the style.
 * Her hairstyle is a braid typically worn by female Kalaripayattu practitioners.
 * Connie is shown to be ambidextrous in the episode "Sworn to the Sword". When she is training, she is seen holding her sword with her right hand; when she fights Pearl with Steven, she is using her left hand.
 * Despite saying her family moves around a lot, she has kept the same home for well over a year.
 * In "Nightmare Hospital", it's revealed that she hates the abacus, which is what her parents use to measure the length of punishments for her
 * It is revealed in "Steven's Birthday" that Connie is 12 3/4 years old.

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