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 opens the back doors of the van only to have Marty and Vidalia jump out. Marty forbids Greg from giving anything away, mentioning money and how he gets 75% of the profits, and how 75% of 0 is still 0.

Greg then turns and sees that Rose has gone. Later, depressed, he walks away in a random direction and finds himself at the Crystal Temple's wire fence. He sees a purple owl perched on the fence and asks aloud if it knew about Rose. To his surprise, the owl replies that if she did tell him about her, she would have to kill him before flying back to the temple. (At this time the house at the front had yet to be built.) 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. Garnet blushes, quickly dropping him. Rose then asked if he was okay before Greg gives Rose the shirt. As Rose shows it to the Crystal Gems, Amethyst requests Greg to sing, Garnet summons a gauntlet threateningly as she warns him that his song must be good. Greg then realizes that it was late and rushes back to his van. After he leaves, Pearl states that she can sing as well. The Gems then laugh at her, causing her to blush.

Greg is shown to be in his van as Marty is about to bring him to Empire City. However, Greg can't stop thinking about Rose and Marty replies that making money is more important to him than Greg's feelings. Standing up for himself, Greg throws Marty out of his van and he goes back to Beach City and goes to the Temple. After arriving at the flooded temple, he steps on the Warp Pad before singing his song for Rose. After the song, Rose appears from her room to tell Greg that even though she finds him cute, he should go away and pursue what he wants because she doesn't want to take away his happiness away from him. However, Greg refuses and says that the only thing he wanted to pursue was Rose. Stunned, Rose becomes starry-eyed and begins to laugh, as a tear falls.

As Greg ends the story he questions why Steven looks so happy. Steven replies that Greg loved Rose, to which Greg begins to tickle and noogie Steven. Steven then comments on how mean Marty was and Greg responds by admitting that if it weren't for Marty, he wouldn't have able been able to pursue Rose. The episode ends with Greg placing his picture with Marty next to his picture with Rose and another of a picture of Steven.

Characters

 * Steven
 * Greg (younger and older)
 * Rose Quartz (flashback)
 * Marty (debut, flashback)
 * Vidalia (debut, flashback)
 * Amethyst (younger, flashback)
 * Pearl (younger, flashback)
 * Garnet (younger, flashback)

Objects

 * Greg's Van
 * Greg's Guitar

Locations

 * Beach City
 * Crystal Temple (Flashback)
 * It's A Wash
 * Empire City (Mentioned)
 * Rose's Room

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
 * Rose's Theme
 * Young Gems
 * What Are You Doing Here

Trivia

 * This is the sixth time that a flashback/story was shown/told, the first being "An Indirect Kiss" about the venture to Rose's Fountain.
 * The second was about Beach City Explorer's Club in the Lighthouse in the episode "Horror Club."
 * The third was Pearl's holographic projection of Rose in "Rose's Scabbard".
 * The fourth was in the song "Lapis Lazuli" in the episode "The Message".
 * The fifth was Steven's flashbacks on the cliff in "Full Disclosure" about the events of "The Return" and "Jail Break."
 * Based on the Gem's "retro: outfits, it can be concluded the episode takes place in the 80's.
 * The Crystal Gems' outfit don't have stars yet at that time, but Garnet's gauntlets still have stars on them and Rose has a star-shaped cut-out in her dress.
 * This is the first time Garnet blushes.
 * This episode was the first time Marty appeared (along with Vidalia).
 * It's revealed that Rose Quartz walks barefoot.
 * Greg sang his fourth song in this episode, "Like a Comet", and his fifth, What Are You Doing Here.
 * 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 only one line before Steven took over.
 * But for his career, this is most likely his second song.
 * 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 cautious around humans in this episode in the past.
 * However they appeared a lot less cynical (Pearl's curious interest in Greg is very different from her condescending attitude in later episodes) in their view of humans - possible as a result of not interacting with them enough to form an opinion of them yet.
 * The Gems appear a lot younger, especially Amethyst, which is odd due to the fact that they are thousands of years old.
 * Most of this is due to their younger personalities rather than appearance; especially Amethyst acting very childlike and rather like a wild animal.
 * Proportion-wise they are the same height as in "later" episodes (Pearl is the same height as Greg, and Amethyst is chest-high to Pearl etc.)
 * It is shown that Rose can display the same star shaped irises that Steven has at times the same happens along with her laugh.
 * This is the first episode where Greg is the main character.
 * This is the second episode where Steven is a minor character (the first being "Garnet's Universe").
 * This is the second time we don't see the gems except in a flashback, the first being "An Indirect Kiss"
 * The Big Donut did not exist at the time of this episode, although Fish Stew Pizza did.
 * Due to the Gems' outfits being different it can be concluded that their fusions must have had different outfits as well.

Cultural References

 * 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.

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 two pictures; they 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's outfit in this episode was seen very briefly as a silhouette when she regenerated in "Steven the Sword Fighter".
 * The "Mr. Universe" t-shirt that Greg gives Rose was also seen in "Lion 3: Straight to Video" inside Lion's mane.

Errors

 * 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 and body overlapping Greg's hair.
 * When Greg is talking to Amethyst when she was an Owl, her Gem is briefly of the same cut as Rose's Gem, it then reverts back to her cut when she flies away.
 * When Rose laughs near the end of the episode, there is a frame where a curl of her hair overlaps her mouth.
 * When Rose prevents Greg from being thrown off the Crystal Gems property, Amethyst's skin color changes to light blue.

Transcript
View the episode's transcript here.

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