Long time since I've spoken about anything around here. Hello everybody, how're you doing.
So, this took a bit of thinking on my end: I've done something kinda like this a few years ago when I talked about the large amount of hate this show had been getting, and me basically trying to handle it in my own way (you can see it here: SU/SUF Retrospective: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Handling the Hate) | Fandom
To be clear, I don't hate the show at all: I've been a fan of it for a long time now, and still am, and really I owe the show a lot for it being my inspiration for my artwork, not to mention it still being a good show in general to me. But even so, I can't deny that there's plenty of times that this show does kinda flop here and there. So, what I'm gonna do here is basically say some things that I think would've saved the show a bit of grief. Some of this I brought up in my "handling the hate" post but will bring up again so sorry of it sound repetitive. By the way, if you still don't like the show, that's fine, you can like or hate whatever you want.
Anyways, here we go:
1: Expand the "point-of-view" count
Whether people love it or hate it, I really can't deny that the fact they keep SO TIGHTLY to Steven's perspective has been a bit of a root problem with a number of issues the show has had in terms of character growth. Heck, many of the show's other problems (and things I bring up below) can link back to this one. The ONLY episode I can think of where it didn't focus on Steven was Jungle Moon, and even then, it was only because he was fused with Connie as Stevonnie, so I don't know if even that technically counts.
The main problem with this, to me, is that it limits the kind of interactions other characters have with eachother, and what we see of them. There's a good amount of fan favorites in here that, in the show, don't show a pretty decent level of natural growth given how people don't actually see it all that much in the actual show (or at least show the results in a kind of "character growth jumping").
Mainly, how do these characters act when Steven ISN'T around? What's the daily life like for Greg, or Connie? Or what about Lapis and Peridot while living in the barn? Heck, even some episodes showing the Diamond's POV would've been some food for thought.
Speaking of Diamonds ...
2: Don't make Pink Diamond "the hated one"
SO MANY PEOPLE, in show and IRL, don't like Pink Diamond at all now. But if you really think about it, I have to ask ... why? I've gone over the big reveal and how I don't actually hate Pink Diamond in my previous major post, but to put it simply I can completely see why Pink Diamond would do what she did, and how her development still works...
Too bad the show wrote her as if she's the worst one of the four. X/ Sure they tried a few times to show how she suffered under the other three, but still keep bringing up how much harm she did after the big reveal. Really, I think the reason she gets hated so much is because we only saw the full extent of her actions but not from the other three. Just keep to the victim card, and it would've been better instead of constantly showing how "uncaring" she was later on in the show.
I still don't hate her, but performance could've gone better.
3: DON'T redeem White Diamond
Now, I KNOW that in my "handling the hate" post, I went over why the show writers had the diamond authority be redeemed in the end, and how the Crystal Gems, in universe, really weren't able to do anything else against them other than talking them down so they can understand. ... But this did spark problems with people believing Steven forgave a bunch of dictators and mass murderers that don't deserve it.
Now, why White Diamond specifically and not Yellow, Pink, or Blue? Simple: Yellow Diamond and Blue Diamond were under just as much pressure from her as every Gem was under them. Sure we saw them being uncaring and cruel to other gems, and as some pointed out they still remained virtually unchanged without self-reflection after Pink Diamond "died", but there're three things I think people aren't noticing when it comes to White Diamond herself:
White KNEW Pink was Rose Quartz the whole time during the gem war and did NOTHING to tell Yellow and Blue about it or even stop it in general. She straight up considered the war as Pink throwing a temper tantrum X/ Heck, I'm willing to bet she knew the attack would corrupt the gems but just didn't feel like talking about it.
Note how quickly White was willing to mind-control the other two the VERY SECOND those two spoke up against her. Yellow calls her ways the worst and she just immediately mind controls them without hesitation. That's a gem who doesn't care at all, so artificial.
(and this is the biggest reason of all) NO ONE was forcing White Diamond to do any of this. Blue and Yellow were under HER, under threat and under her orders, and NOBODY was above her and pressuring her to destroy planets or wiping out species. She did it purely because she wanted to. Whether or not Blue and Yellow enjoyed doing this no longer matters since even if they hated it, they still had to do it anyway to please White. Yellow herself straight up says "White Diamond expects this from all of them".
White Diamond was just too far gone to even admit to her faults, while Yellow and Blue (albeit a bit late in the game) did admit it during the finale.
4: Have Spinel replace Steven in "Steven Universe: Future"
Seriously, you don't even have to change much of SUF's writing. just have that series being about Spinel instead of Steven, and suddenly ALL of the grievances would've made more sense.
"Steven Universe: Future"'s main plot point is how Steven is finally done with his "hero's story" but doesn't have a clue what to do next (at least that's what I see). His story's done when he really didn't want it to be yet. Now just imagine for a second hearing all of these troubles Steven goes through but with Spinel in Steven's place: a character who admits she has A LOT to work on with friendship as is. Someone who already has a lot of internal problems to work out. It could still have Steven be a major part, up to "Little Graduation" where Spinel takes the spotlight. This way Steven can be shown as a fully grown character, and the plot line doesn't have to be changed all that much, AND people can enjoy more screentime with Spinel since she's become quite a fan fave since her debut.
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And well, that's the major ones I think could do with some fixing for my favorite show. Let me know your thoughts and have a nice day ^^
