Steven Universe and it's Villains

1

Katch K.·5/22/2020

S10127470 wrote: I posted a discussion on this wiki a few months back stating how I had an issue with the lack of world-building in Steven Universe....which led me to bring up another issue I have with the series and I've heard many people agree on this issue as well. That issue is none other than Steven Universe and it's villains. I'll be going over 4 major problems I have with this issue, and I'll be referring to other cartoons to prove my point.

1. The Roster-Steven Universe shares the same problem that shows like Star vs. the Forces of Evil and The Legend of Korra has (they also share another problem as well that I'll get to next)....that being the number of villains. When compared to other action shows, the villain roster of Steven Universe is surprisingly small. The show has only had eight major villains (and before any you point out I know there's the Rubies and Topaz, but I just grouped them together with Eyeball and Aquamarine since they don't count as major foes....and before you ask, I'm not counting Fusions either ). And for show that ran for almost seven years, you would expect they would have a huge array of baddies for Steven to face off....but no, they really don't. Some may argue that the monsters the Gems faced off in the early episodes would count as villains, but in all honesty, they kinda don't since they were originally corrupted Gems.

2. No Arch-Enemy-Another issue that the show shares with Star and Korra is that there isn't really much of a main antagonist. Most action shows, including the ones on Cartoon Network, usually have a villain that serves as the series' big baddie and the arch-enemy to the hero. Think about it.....Dexter has Mandark, The Powerpuff Girls have Mojo Jojo, Samurai Jack has Aku, Ben Tennyson has Vilgax, Rex Salazar has Van Kleiss, Zak Saturday has V.V. Argost, Robotboy has Dr. Kamikazi...and even with Ed, Edd n Eddy, they have the Kanker Sisters! But with Steven, almost none of the villains on the show ever really filled in the role of being his arch-enemy. Just like Star and Korra, the villains of Steven Universe usually just fill in the role as the main antagonist for a set of episodes or a season. None of them have been recurring enough to be considered Steven's greatest foe. The only ones that have been close to being main antagonists are the Diamonds....but we already know how they turned out. Also, the only character that kinda filled in the role of being Steven's nemesis was none than Jasper....but even that was a total waste. She only appeared in six....SIX EPISODES in the entire series from Season 1 to Season 3! Technically nine if you count "Chilled Tid", "Super Watermelon Island" and "Beta", but those appearances were either non-speaking roles or dreams. And after being defeated and bubbled in "Earthlings", Jasper was absent for the rest of the series until the final episode, "Change Your Mind".....and the time between those two episodes was almost three years! Even with Steven Universe Future, where she was teased as being a major antagonist in the opening, she only appears four episodes! And none of them really have her as much as a antagonist.

3. Diversity-In terms of the villains' personalities, appearences and abilites, they're quite unique. From Jasper's sturdy hulking frame, Vegata-like personality and Sonic-like ball attacks to Spinel's cartoony appearence, Harley Quinn-like persona and Monkey D. Luffy level of elasticity. While the villains are unique in their characteristics, they all have one thing in common that I have a problem with....they're all Gems. This may be a little odd to some of you, but to me, it's major I have with the show. You would expect a show that has Earth and Space play as one of its' main elements would have a rogue gallery that was little more diverse....species-wise. For those who are confused, look at Ben 10. While many of Ben's foes were aliens, several of them were also humans as well. It really fit well with the theme of show as Ben fought off evil from Earth and Space, hunch the lyrics from the theme song. Wouldn't have been interesting to see Steven face-off against foes that were not Gems, but instead humans. But I guess they didn't do this because it would've gone against the theme that the Earth is a perfect place....even though we all know that it's really not. Another cool thing that Ben 10 did was introducing various of different alien species and going over their backgrounds. That would've been cool to see Steven face-off against other aliens that weren't Gems or Gem monsters. Unfortunately, due to the show's limited perspective, we never find out if there's even any other species of aliens besides the Gems.

4. Redemption-This is the easily the biggest problem I have with this issue....and I'm pretty sure most of you can agree with this as well. I don't mind villains being redeemed, but the way Steven Universe does it kind of bothers me. The way how the villains are usually redeemed so quickly after their defeat comes off as rushed and kinda unrealistic....especially in the case of the Diamonds. The only villain whose redemption actually felt real was Peridot. Unlike the Diamonds, her road to redemption lasted for several episodes, which focused on her coming to terms with the fact that she's stuck on Earth and slowly becoming the Crystal Gems' new friend. Another issue with this problem that alot of you I'm sure can agree with is how every major villain in the entire damn show gets redeemed! Even Jasper...to a lesser extent though. The only villains that don't get redeemed are Eyeball and Aquamarine, but those two were easily the least important villains in the entire show.
According to Rebecca Sugar, there are no irredeemable villains...which I'll be honest with you guys, is kinda bullshit. Making the villains sympathetic and relatable, I'm perfectly fine with. But have every major baddie is this show turn over a new leaf, comes off as kinda preachy and once again, unrealistic.
Well I've ranted about this for long enough. I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm bashing the show, but I just wanted to get this off my chest for a long time.

These are some valid critiques, and while I don't personally agree that these are disadvantages of the show, I understand where you're coming from and acknowledge you've got some truth in your rant. I've gotta add though, curse words such as the one you used aren't allowed on the wiki, so if you don't want to get into any trouble with the staff, I suggest not using them in the future.

But, anyway, good job on the thread message, I really enjoyed it.

(Edited by Katch K.)

2

InazumAzure·5/22/2020

I wish I was a villain in Steven Universe. I can be the Lex Luthor to his Clark Kent. I don't need some sappy backstory or origins of where my robot army minions came from. I mean take a look at Jack Spicer he has a robot army coz he is rich. I'll make a deal with Emerald and Bluebird to set a joint invasion force in Beach City! I also have my own armada to unleash chaos in that town!

(Edited by InazumAzure)

1

Punkopop·5/22/2020

I agree with Katch.K that you have a lot of valid points and insights into the show, but I don’t necessarily see the lack of villains as a disadvantage. The Diamonds are the primary antagonists of the show, but not really for anything they’re actively doing in the present day. It’s more about confronting and dealing with the events of the past and how they affect the present day, as well as battling to change the rigid and small-minded mentality of the Homeworld Gems by showing them a better way. This, ultimately, is what Rebecca Sugar created the show to fight in real life. It’s also why the two characters who willfully refuse to change their way of thinking even after given every opportunity to do so, Aquamarine and Eyeball, are shown to be small, both literally and figuratively.

The show spends far less time developing its villains and far more time developing its heroes because positive growth and mental health, through confronting painful truths about themselves and others, is what Sugar wanted to focus upon.

However, that does not mean to say that I wouldn’t enjoy seeing more antagonists on the show, who are more willfully against Steven and his message. Even within the framework of the show they can still showcase the positive development of the heroes, by showing how they react to people who point blank refuse to change, and make the heroes a target for their negativity.

Good job in the well reasoned viewpoint! Definitely an interesting perspective on things. If you fancy sharing your thoughts and views on world building within SU, the Gem Culture thread I started was designed for just that!

(Edited by Punkopop)

2

Anonymius·5/23/2020

@S10127470

So, let me get this straight. You're main criticisms of the su villains are:

1. There's not enough of them.

2. there's no arch enemy.

3. they're all gems.

4. they were easily redeemed.

Sorry mate, but I don't get you criticisms, or how they are cons (except for the last point but let me come back to that one). how is the number, that there no archnemeis, and that they were all gems downsides? There was enough in my opinion (or antagonists would be more accurate, which would include the corrupte). Why does a series always need an overarching villain? As for the fact they were all gems, it seemed established that this was a conflict between earth and homeworld. Also I think the theme for earth was that it was more unique than perfect.

As for them too easily redeemed...yes, I can see where you're coming from. While watching change your mind, I was like 'really? You're this easily turned around' for Blue and Yellow. The only redemption that made sense was White, with her universe view destroyed, and now open to new ideas. although at the end, I was like, I guess we're forgiving you now for eveyrthing you've done! But as for them redeemed, you could see in the movie, they didn't truly accept Steven's views and were just doing it to please him (although they did come around in future, finding more positive uses of their powers and facing the consequences of their actions).

That said, I was kinda hoping that White would become the arch enemy (And she kinda was, being in charge of the gems, and steven would blame her for everything he went through), and I was kinda hoping that it would be revealed that she was a puppet master who was watching everything that happened in the show, but in the end it confirmed she was more greater scope than true antagonist.

And I might have liked meeting new alien antagonists after the main series ended, but at that point they wanted to wrap up the series which meant no new antagonist could be introduced aside from the film.

(Edited by Anonymius)

1

InazumAzure·10/15/2020

And this is how a real villain for SU is introduced!

Once upon a time Connie tells a story of the tale of the Good King and the Evil Wizard to the children but is interrupted by Greg telling the preparations are almost complete. We cut to the scene of Little Homeworld and everyone is decorating and preparing for a special event called the "Steven Universe Appreciation Day" where everyone is invited except "for some people" including (The Diamonds and Spinel, Lars and the Off Colors, Sadie Killer and the Suspects etc.) As this event was to show appreciation about what Steven has done in their lives and make sure that he can be happy as he can be. They sing and appreciate about the times Steven has helped them as they also gave back the love Steven has given to them in return. Everyone in his family teased this event for Steven as he is hyped to return home.

As they finished decorating Little Homeworld they now waited patiently for Steven only for a new unexpected threat came to rain the parade. An armada lead by Bluebird Azurite, Emerald and a new villain. Basically the new villain is like Jack Spicer(or an evil Dexter) with a tech and money level of Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne oh and he is the same age as Teen Steven. They came to crash the party with the intent on destroying Beach City and Little Homeworld. The Army has battleships, spacecrafts, robots, drones and Gems who don't like Era 3.

First he'll toy with the Crystal Gems and their allies so that they can have their chance to shine with their abilities, skill, combat prowess, and fusions. The villain demands Connie to video call Steven and she obliges. The villain then greets Steven and wants him to come to a "wild party" quick before he torments his loved ones as he pulls Connie's hair hurting her. This angers Steven as he makes his emergency return to his home. The villain also sends the robo minions to distract Steven while going home so desperately so that the Diamonds, Spinel, the other battle gems who fight for Steven, Lars and the Off Colors will appear and protect their hometown while making sure Steven would be the last to arrive at Beach City so that no "miracle from the sky" saving cliche would occur, all according to plan.

The "Everyone is Here" battle scene commences and the war is so chaotic that characters will have flashbacks of the gem war. This war is so extreme that Steven, Connie and Lion takes the Beach City Townies to Rose's Armory and the townies are equipped with the Weapons and Armor of the Fallen to join the fight. the villain also gave them a special chemicals via a special miasma that affects gems, humans, and revived organics, will make them fight each other especially Bismuth and Lapis. It also gave them a temporal amnesia to erase or block some "particular memories".

Steven and the villain battle face to face and as usual ask him why am he doing this to which he answers for "chaos and destruction" as it giggles him so much. He also insult and troll Steven's character, philosophy, pacifism, principles, and his loved ones. To the point he breaks the 4th wall of the shows use of talk not jutsu and nakama tomodachi friendship theme with power of love. He also knows Steven coz he has been spying on him to the point he was 10 years old til now using invisible nanotech drones.

There will be a backstabbing from the villains however. As Bluebird and Emerald plans to kill Steven once and for all, However he has a different plan for Steven and proceed to backstab them and he order the armada to attack Beach City and Little Homeworld whether be the Rebellion or the United Crystal Gems.

The pressures of this war has gotten to Steven that he has no choice but to use his Pink Diamond State to deal with this quickly. However it all goes to the point where the villain sneak attacks on Steven and uses a headband to mind wipe Steven's memories from therapy til his last possible memory of him in Everything is Fine where he turns into a monster. To make it extra painful he recorded the last clip of Everything is Fine where Steven rants and regrets for everyone at Beach City and Little Homeworld to see and watch. And the headband can also relive his painful memories, sufferings, trauma.

Once he transforms into a monster he will attack the armada with his scream, pink fire, pink projectiles in his spikes, and pink destructive breath. This is where his real plan begins. All of the destroyed armada can reform into any tech he needs and he attacks all the junk into Monster Steven. You think he gave him armor but it was more than that It's an Iron Maiden. He tortures Monster Steven with an electric red shock within him giving him excruciating pain while reliving the repeating trauma and worse things Steven has done in Future. He'll also shows the dark side of humanity for extra measure. kinda like Darkseids Agony Matrix. Then he throws the the Red Serum at his monster mouth. The United Crystal Gems will also suffer the agony matrix via the inescapable traps the same as Steven so that no one would interfere.

He'll use a breaking speech on him(too lazy to write). And he gives him a disgusting lick in his face! To which his monster form has cracks and Monster Steven explodes and destroys himself in the process. The United Crystal Gems watch in horror as Steven is now a big giant mass blob of light and a big booming voice from him is heard. As he is sick and tired of everything happening right now and being denied of his happily ever after so many times not to mention the demand for the villain to see his worst self possible. He transforms into his most powerful and unstoppable form yet! The Ultimate Emperor Dragon (think of Fusion Dragonoid or Aeroblitz from Bakugan) and he can shift modes freely with Dragon Form and Humanoid Form. The other form has references to Pink Diamond's dress but armor is a knight superhero hybrid attire with themes from Monster Steven especially the spikes and he has red or purple eyes indicating it is a nightmarish version of Steven yet. He can transform his hands into Monster Steven's head and neck to fire projectiles or Monster Steven's arm or tail. With overwhelming destructive power it overwhelms him and his hate is intensified by the chemicals within his body. He is now dubbed the "The Pink Emperor".

This Steven will go on a chaos rampaging spree doing collateral damage do everything and defeating his enemies so brutally that none can stop him. White tries to stop him but Steven grabs her gem and proceeds to overload her with pink energy while she screams in agony and got poofed then he shatters her gem, bubbled, and thrown away. Yellow and Blue tries to stop him as well but Steven does the same thing to White and they also poofed, bubbled and thrown away. This shocks everyone in fear that Steven can do that. He shatters Bluebird and scares away Emerald in fear and gave Spinel a bad nightmare of Pink Diamond assaulting her to the point it poofed her and he shatters her after At the same time. The Crystal Gems try to stop his rampage but was interrupted by the villain as he toys them with impunity. After the rampage is done. The United Crystal Gems now plan to split up to find and grab the Diamonds, Blubird and Spinel's gems to give it to Greg and take them to a safe place.

Due to the chemicals from the Red Serum overwhelming him he got drunk with power and blinded by rage and proceeds to toy his new ominous powers to destroy and remake everything laughing maniacally. The United Crystal Gems try to stop him but he overpowers them to the point of speaking his brutal honest opinion on them directly on their faces(so mature for Amethyst, high and mighty from Garnet, etc.) He also hurts specific set of people like Kevin, Ronaldo, Marty, even Connie's friends, and Shep as he tells his brutal honest opinions as them too!

The chaos of the war is too much to the point the Cluster emerges The Cluster tries to stop him but as the Cluster grabs him something happens. The Cluster and Steven retreats into the ground while glowing and they fused into a giant humanoid monster just like in the concept art once it emerges. The United Crystal Gems sans Connie tries to stop his rampage. While a Reformed Blue and Yellow immediately fixes White and Spinel Gems with success as they tell them what going on joins in to help the Gems.

Connie in extreme anger fights the villain and says WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO STEVEN?! it is revealed that his plan was to evolve Steven into an even more powerful being and seeing his true destructive potential. Even if giving him Red Serum filled special chemicals to do the trick! He also wants to see Steven in his even worst self as much as possible and commit too many sins and destructive acts it would end up ruining his life forever! Connie with extreme anger and tears fights him and berates the villain for causing such despicable act, while he insults her love for Steven and mocking her by saying "your using him to escape your boredom and loneliness" He also tells them that the only way to bring him back to his boring pacifistic self is with the Green Serum cure. To which Connie fought him covered with sweat and dirt more and more as she is determined to get that cure from him.

Every United Crystal Gem attempts to stop the Steven Cluster fusion are futile as the villain's extra forces interrupts the ordeal. Everyone is down and cannot fight and the villain defeated Connie and injured Greg. As he proceeds to torture them with the agony matrix he was interrupted by Steven who unfuses with the Cluster and the final fight begins with the villain and Steven using whatever weapons and tricks in both of their sleeves causing colatteral damage and they unleash their final attacks AS THEY DEVASTATED BEACH CITY AND LITTLE HOMEWORLD AS A RESULT! and the battle ends with Steven grabbing the villain saying any last words? As the villain himself injects a Green Serum on him. Steven is disoriented and snaps himself out with the villain saying "Are you satisfied with what you did with your world? If not then take a look at your masterpiece!"

Steven is in confusion at first until he sees everything he has ruined and the destruction he has done with the villain laughing at the chaos. Steven has a "what have I done" moment. He indeed declares himself as much worse than before as he calls himself a ruthless tyrant, a horrible monster, A GOD OF DESTRUCTION! A DEVIL TO THE UNIVERSE! The villain says and "and what's wrong with that at least you defeated your enemies, give your brutal honest opinion on his friends and family and created a beautiful masterpiece. Now everyone will never bother you anymore" and taunts him of everything he did while he is not being himself ending with "and it's all because of me you should thanks me for making you better hehehehe".

This angers Steven and proceeds to grab the villain and screams YOU! YOU DID THIS TO ME?! and the villain replies yes with no shame as he is proud of his work. Steven then screams HOW DARE YOU! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS?! The villain replies "because this is how he wants Steven Universe to be, dominant, intimidating, powerful, feared, and ruthless" Steven now screams YOU RUINED MY LIFE! and proceeds to slam the villain trapping him in a stasis like state in a Crystal Prison by his Diamond Powers while the villain laughs maniacally and smirk happily til the end.

Connie and an injured Greg tries to comfort him but to no avail puts a barrier on her and attempts to give up his life and pull the gem himself. Connie and Greg screamingly begs Steven to don't do that but it is futile. And he successfully pulls the gem out of his belly as the only way to end the war and his suffering once and for all. However a flash of light happens and Steven ends up in the Astral Plane. Pink Diamond stops him and in tears hugging Steven. Steven not cannot believe his mom stopped him and is shocked but turned into anger and throws everything at her and says "It is for the best that Steven Universe shouldn't exist in this world forever" Everyone from his friends and family came to see this tearjerking moment and screams and cries for Steven as Connie attempts to stop him but she phased through him as Steven turns transparent and is fading away. Pink Diamond cries and ask "what must I do to convince you to live again" and Steven demands to her to apologize for the sins she made. Everyone voiced their complaints to Pink Diamond as she apologizes to everyone for her sins and they forgave her.

Everyone apologizes to everyone. Steven forgave his mom and he apologizes for his chaos and losing himself. And everyone voiced their reasons on why Steven should live on and not die especially Connie. The Pink Diamond arc is finally over for good and it also concludes the Emerald and Bluebird ordeal.

This event caused a world healing area where everything is fixed and all the damage has been undone and all memories restored. Everyone hugs and loves Steven. Steven releases the villain from the crystal prison and he angrily tells the villain "What the heck was that for huh?! What's wrong with you?!" were the villain replies that he has so much fun with what he did, he doesn't mind losing as long as he made this war so epic and he never regrets what he has done. Steven tells the villain that he won't forgive him and tells him that power, destruction, violence and chaos isn't how you solve things. And proceeds to tell him what Steven Universe and Crystal Gems are all about(A 4th wall break to explain the fans indirectly this isn't how his show is all about). The villain says that his words are rubbish and garbage. And Steven says "if you can't deal with my story and if you don't like my life then go away and leave my home and never return" only for the villain to angrily say no and Steven asks "why not?!" The villain then reveals he is from 34 years in the future. Apparently he listened to the story of how Steven Universe and the Crystal Gems defeated the Anti-Steven Rebellion made by Bluebird and Emerald with the power of love, friendship, music, and pacifism to which everlasting peace was reign through this era. He was unimpressed about it coz it's garbage and not epic. Adult Steven and Connie lectures him the same way Present Steven does. But the villain is too ignorant to listen and he leaves with disgust and disappointment. Then he goes to his secret lair where after all the info and research he has done decides to go back in the past where Steven is young and mentally vulnerable with all his grand armada in his side and he visits the Rebellion from an unknown planet and makes a deal with Emerald, Bluebird, and other gems from the Anti-Steven Rebellion to set a joint invasion force on Beach City and Little Homeworld. Due to the revelation Steven can only pity him and give him a reason you suck speech and that his life is just sad.

Then portals came and Future Adult Steven with Future Adult Connie along with the Era 3 Forces from Homeworld came to visit the timeline and said he'll help fix this chaos and apprehends the villain and give him a valuable lecture. Steven feeling the guilt of his most greatest sins is unsure whether to give up his powers for a time being after what he did when he was too powerful and wants the to get the Rejuvenator and use it on himself to ease the pain only for Future Steven to reassure that it isn't his fault it's the villain who did this and that he says that he should keep his powers while focusing on being human and still being the hero named Steven Universe.

Everything is back to normal and Everyone bid their goodbyes as Future Steven and Future Connie and the Era 3 Forces leaves to their own timeline but not without the villain warning he will return, Lars and the Off Colors(now on better terms with Emerald) goes back to space, The Diamonds and Spinel return to Homeworld(with Bluebird captured) and Steven leaves once again continuing his travelling but now whenever he shows up at any state. He vows to stop him. The Crystal Gems, Greg and Connie will also support him by whenever they go near or far wherever they are. THE END.

It can start a whole new adventure for SU now with real villains and a real rogues gallery just like Ben 10 and PPG does. Who knows every villain in the future will come to change the past and undo the Era 3 utopia Steven has created. Or make new villains born from the present time (like Dr. Animo) to threaten Steven, The Crystal Gems, and Beach City. Or new alien lifeforms that threaten Homeworld and Earth.

(Edited by InazumAzure)