Story for Steven

"You're everything I want!"

"Story for Steven" is the 5th episode of the second season 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 can of soda and drinks from it, while a picture is stuck to the bottom of the can. When it falls off, Steven catches it. 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. Greg starts to play a tune of a song he performed when he first met Rose.

A flashback occurs where Greg is singing "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 hop 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, searching for the "Strange Pink Lady", 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 Beach House has not yet been built). Greg, eager to know more, climbs the wire fence and goes straight to the temple.

At the temple's Warp Pad, 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, embarrassed, quickly drops him. Rose then asked if he was okay before Greg gives Rose the shirt. As Rose shows it to the Crystal Gems, Amethyst asks Greg to sing; Garnet summons a gauntlet threateningly as she warns him that his song had better be good. Greg then realizes that it's late and rushes back to his van. After he leaves, Pearl states that she can sing as well, appearing to be jealous of Rose's attention to Greg. The Gems then laugh at her playfully, causing her to blush.

Later on, Greg is lying in the back of his van as Marty is driving him to Empire City for a big show to make lots of money. 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, leaving him on the side of the road. Greg goes back to Beach City and goes to the Temple. After arriving at the temple, he steps on the Warp Pad, 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 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 admits 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 a picture of Steven with catfingers.

Characters

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

Objects

 * Greg's Van
 * Greg's Guitar
 * Steven's Ukulele
 * Mr. Universe Shirt (flashback)
 * Warp Pad (flashback)

Locations

 * Beach City
 * Crystal Temple (flashback)
 * It's A Wash
 * Empire City (mentioned)

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

 * Comet
 * Destiny

Soundtracks

 * Young Gems
 * Rose's Theme

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".
 * The seventh was in "Sworn to the Sword" during Pearl's song as she recounts the war and the apparent struggle with Jasper and the Homeworld Gems.
 * Based on the Gems' "retro" outfits, it can be strongly inferred the episode takes place in the 1980's.
 * The Crystal Gems' outfits don't have stars at the time of this flashback, but Garnet's gauntlets still have stars on them and Rose has a star-shaped cut-out in her dress.
 * Greg's younger self looks like the fusion Stevonnie.
 * This is the first time Garnet blushes.
 * Greg sang his fourth and fifth songs in this episode, Comet and Destiny.
 * 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.
 * I'm Just a Comet and Destiny are the 1st and 2nd songs chronologically.
 * Stacks of pink shirts with stars on them are seen on the souvenir table while Greg first talked to Rose. They appear again in Greg's van in a large box of the pink shirts. They were most likely originally intended to be given away at Greg's next concert, but were all given to Steven to wear instead, hence why Steven's closet is full of them.
 * It is also to be noted that Greg's shirt bears a star, which has been the symbol of the Crystal Gems.
 * The Crystal Gems, excluding Rose, were much more cautious around humans in this episode of 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 - possibly 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.)
 * Amethyst is shown to have short hair in the flashback, and the second time she meets Greg Universe she says "Ohhh, I really like your hair!". This may be related to why her later hairstyle is similar to Greg's previous style.
 * 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 and Beach Citywalk Fries did.
 * In this episode, The Crystal Temple has only two missing arms, when it usually has three.
 * It can be presumed that due to the Rebellion against Homeworld that humans are very aware of the existence of magic and the Crystal Gems, as Greg does not appear to be fazed in any way by the Warp and Amethyst's shapeshifting.

Cultural References

 * Marty is portrayed by guest voice actor Jon Wurster. Outside of Steven Universe, Tom Scharpling, the voice of Greg Universe, and Wurster are a comedy duo who are the main feature of Scharpling's radio show, The Best Show (formerly broadcast on WFMU). Marty falls somewhat in line with the many seedy/creepy characters that Wurster has portrayed on The Best Show.
 * Marty calling Greg "Star Child" may be a reference to the persona of KISS' guitarist and singer Paul Stanley.
 * It is also a possible reference to David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust" persona; Bowie similarly to Greg wrote a lot of outer space-themed songs with one being called "Starman".

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.
 * Greg plays the same short song in the beginning of the episode like The Message.
 * 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.
 * The manner in which Greg stops his van in order to throw Marty out, as well as the location (near the Beach City limit sign), is identical to when Steven forces Greg to stop the van in "The Return".
 * The manner in which Greg drives his van back to the beach, as well as the location, is identical to the way he does in the opening sequence in every episode.

Errors

 * There is a sign that says "Vote Buck Dewey For Mayor" while it should say "Vote Bill Dewey For Mayor".
 * Although, it's possible that Buck Dewey is also the name of Bill Dewey's father, considering how far in the past this is.
 * When Marty is talking to Greg, we can see Marty's face overlapping Greg's hair for a split second.
 * When Greg is talking to Amethyst when she was an Owl, her gem is briefly of the same cut as Rose's gemstone (a pentagon facet). 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 her mouth overlaps a curl of her hair.


 * When Rose prevents Greg from being thrown off the Crystal Gems property, Amethyst's skin color changes to sky blue.


 * When Amethyst was flying, her feet disappear.
 * When Greg jumps on the warp pad near the end of the episode, there is a frame where his right foot disappears.

Transcript
View the episode's transcript here.

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