Change Your Mind (Steven Universe Season 5 Episode 28) - 'Toon Reviews 29

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This set of Steven Universe reviews is finally coming to an end with a huge bang.  Here is a near hour-long event set to bring a culmination to elements brought up not just in this season, but settling many things lingering through the series up to now.  Like with “Reunited” the analysis of this work is going to break with the norm to give every key moment a proper dissection.  Along with appropriate video clips of moments, there will also be screenshots to properly showcase how grand-scale, exciting, and endearing every part of it is.  With where it places the series, such a huge detailed look is easily warranted here.  So to close off this set and catch us up with where we currently are with this series, this is:

 

 

Change Your Mind

 

 

Act 1:

Like many of the best works of the series, this one consists of one great moment after another, each one serving a purpose for the main story.  This is apparent right at the start with a continuation of Season 5’s trend of creative dream sequences to showcase the history of Pink Diamond with Steven in her place.  Like all the others it’s creatively staged with a mysterious atmosphere.

First Steven finds himself alone in the tower he and Connie were imprisoned in, and becomes worried when she’s not there.

Then Blue Diamond enters to scold him for something he didn’t even do.  This is where the intriguing air of mystery makes itself known where it’s unknown as to what’s being talked about and the audience is still shaken by the trouble that’s already happened.  It also helps that it’s one big showing of Blue showing intense strictness to Pink despite her undeniable love for her shown in her many appearances.

It’s only when Steven suddenly turns into Pink Diamond, as in her actual full form and not just her clothes, when the dream starts making sense.  It’s a flashback of a time when Pink would actually be given this overly harsh punishment of being locked away for ages and being forced to cry over all her disapproved actions.  This is not unlike how Steven is being treated now, and it further shows when the dream comes with a frightening depiction of his current predicament.  He’s surrounded by mobs of Gems, the Diamonds are appalled, and his close Crystal Gems are instantly poofed into just their gemstones.

 

Then to top it all is a brilliant way of depicting Steven’s identity crisis as he rapidly changes into three forms while performing the same action.  First his own form, then his mother’s disguise form of Rose Quartz, and then of her true form of Pink Diamond.  It gets the idea across of how Steven is often unsure of whether or not he should live up to his mom’s legacy and even what she was really like.  This results in three different identities for him to follow, but he’s constantly unable to make that choice.

Once it’s revealed that all this was just a dream and Steven’s back with Connie, the things picked up there make for interesting new depths to character dynamics.  With Blue Diamond coming in to scold Steven while referring to him as Pink the same way as she did in the dream, everything comes full circle.  That said, unlike Pink who gave into the anger and apologized for her actions, Steven boldly admits he’s not sorry and sees nothing wrong with fusing at the ball. 

 

Still playing to the fact that Blue Diamond can be strict and controlling, she responds by working her powers on Steven, forcing him to cry, her own way of making Gems suffer. 

Through it all though, it’s astounding that Steven stands strong with his beliefs despite the tears he’s shedding.  He also plays to the love Blue has for Pink by saying that unlike the family love the Crystal Gems have given him, what she’s providing is not normal.  Following that is a poignant question that changes everything.

 

How many times did you lock her in here?

How many times did you make her cry?

Daring to ask this question in the face of an authoritative dictator is very demonstrative of how smart and calculating Steven is to take on this situation.  With this moment playing out just like the dream, as well as the fact that he still cries when Blue is near to this day, that's solid evidence to figure out that this behavior has happened a lot.  The Diamonds have abused Pink for so long without realizing it until Steven points it out instead of accepting it like his mother did.

 

Now Blue Diamond’s been the most overt with her adoration of Pink out of the entire Diamond Authority. Realizing that she’s been hurting Pink as much as other beings on Earth allegedly have brings a most beauteous performance of guilt and shame.  Every line of her lament over her actions feel genuine and from the heart, from the brilliant vocal performance to the facial animation of her tearful sorrow.  Basically, Blue Diamond becoming moved to realize her faults in her relationship with Pink feel true to her character and add legitimacy to her deciding to help Steven out.  Some could argue that it happens too fast and isn’t in line with how real life abusers realize they’ve been abusing if they’re not aware of it to begin with.  I can’t say anything about the latter point since I’m no expert on the subject, but overall, I say this revelation works well as it is.  How developed Blue’s soft, emotional, and loving side is makes it believable that she’d be put in turmoil over the very idea of her hurting someone she loves.  The emotional impact despite the short length is also as strong as ever, making the execution even more believable.

Now Blue isn’t the only one to be emotionally moved to help Steven in his cause.  As they go to retrieve the poofed Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl bubbled in one of Yellow Diamond’s chambers, Yellow has a compelling change of heart too. 

As a Diamond well known for being threatening, strict, and authoritative, she’s appropriately menacing not just for Steven getting out of the tower, but Blue allowing him out.  Considering her tendencies to destroy innocent Gems on a whim, it’s very fascinating that she’s willing to fight so violently against someone she’s so close to like Blue.  All Blue does is slap Yellow when she tries to stop Steven and Connie from getting to the Crystal Gems’ bubble, but Yellow responds by tackling her out of the chamber.

Then when Blue reads further into Yellow’s character that she’s suffering on the inside from following the strict rules of the Diamond Authority, we get Yellow at her most emotional.  With even her comrade going against the customs, she dares to use her electrocution powers to poof her. 

It doesn’t happen immediately since Diamonds actually are far more durable than average Gems, but while doing so though, Yellow becomes visibly distraught. It’s like she’s acting out of necessity, but has a heart and relatable feelings.  Small visual moments in past cartoons have shown her to have a close relationship with Blue, so she's fittingly saddened over needing to poof her. 

Steven intervenes so she’s unable to go all the way, and brings on an intriguing practice to change Yellow for the better.  She protests that she has to do these actions to ensure that everything is perfect, which is in line with what White Diamond expects.  In addition to adding depth to all the practices of terror being a result of intimidation from a higher-up, this brings attention to matters legitimate enough to get Yellow’s attention.  She says she’s striving for perfection, but it’s hard to find it in a destroyed area, Blue’s form almost destroyed, and Pink abandoning them for ages.  By the way, all of this is a very inventive way to bring one of the show’s most famous mantras from the early days “if every pork chop were perfect we wouldn’t have hotdogs” full circle. 

Being told of and seeing all the things she loves almost destroyed is enough to bring the high and mighty Yellow Diamond to tears.  There’s even a dialog to flat out say that these feelings are her own and not a result of Blue working her powers on her.  Like with Blue’s change of heart, Yellow’s may be fast, but it works well from how everything leading up to it is true to her character, and the execution of the emotional weight.

Things are still quite intense despite both Blue and Yellow Diamond now being moved to genuinely help Steven leave for his freer life of Earth. 

For one thing, if the beloved Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl getting poofed all at once wasn’t scary, there’s also the fact that they don’t reform even when let out of their bubble.  Apparently, Yellow Diamond’s powers are strong enough to knock out Gems when they get poofed, so that makes their regenerations take ‘a good while.’ While later scenes give a decent suggestion, it’s still not exactly clear how long it would take to reform under these circumstances.  Steven needing to carry the gemstones his Gem family for a significant duration as a result adds to the urgency greatly. 

However, getting to his leg ship to escape back to Earth for the time is challenging when White Diamond’s Pearl shows up to prevent that, acting creepy as ever.  Then the designs of the Diamonds’ ships start making sense as Pink’s leg ship and White’s head ship go together to form part of a robotic figure.  This is indeed a perfect way to build up to an action heavy second act.

Act 2:

The start of the construction of a huge robot made of the Diamonds’ ships is only the first step of showing the extent of White’s threat over Gem-kind, including the other Diamonds.  Like any great action scene though, it only builds from here.

Blue and Yellow’s previously destroyed arm ships suddenly appear for a surprise punching attack on the head ship.  In addition to this awesome blow, this moment stands out for the enhancements this battle has just received.

Now it’s not surprising that Bismuth appears since Steven specifically asked her for help, but it’s still great to see her come help after being so adamant of not going to Homeworld.  The true standout characters for this scene though are Lapis Lazuli and Peridot, sporting radically different forms that fully reflect how their time on Earth has changed them.  Lapis’ new outfit is appropriately significantly different through finally moving on from her past trauma and even showing a willingness to fight. I mean she really got a good feel of it in “Reunited.”  Peridot’s main change is a good number of stars at various points on her body, referencing a question about where she’d put it a while back and symbolizing her ambitions as a Crystal Gem.

In spite of the interesting symbolism of these new designs, the true focus is on exactly what it should be.  White Diamond’s control of the ships still makes her menace over the other Gems’ misconduct known. 

Even with this, Steven dares to work his typical strategy of talking White out of attacking.  His reasons behind this are reasonable and all him since Pink Diamond running away and Rose Quartz waging a war with the Diamonds only brought more suffering.  It’s also enhanced by a direct reference to Connie’s relationship with her parents being mended through talking about how all their rules made her feel.  When Yellow and Blue try talking, White is appropriately unmoved so to still keep her as a threat.

The moment they dare to say that their roles and customs are wrong, White unleashes her cruelest attack.  Shooting a beam at their gems from the eyes of her head ship, she strips Yellow and Blue of their color and free will, taking them inside as punishment.  This explains a lot about how they’ve been planet conquerors for thousands of years.  It was all to avoid fates like this.  Now that they’ve stopped being loyal after years of devotion, this is what they get as consequence.

During the scramble to escape comes another legit method of building up the drama fueled by family love.

After trying so hard to hold onto the precious gemstones of his closest Gem family, Steven drops them and has to propel himself down to catch them to keep them from breaking.  It’s here where his intense concerns forge a new ingenious method to retrieve fallen Gems. 

While past moments have suggested that fusion is a practice with specific steps to follow, this moment serves to remind that it’s not about the right moves or strategy.  The thing that makes fusions come to be is a genuine relationship between two or more beings.

This is shown when Steven manages to grab hold of Amethyst’s gem, begging her to reform.  Through doing so, the light within both beings is able to combine and create their fusion of Smoky Quartz.  She doesn’t do much apart from realize that Steven got Amethyst to reform by fusing with her, but she already has plenty of awesome past moments.

While on the subject, the new forms of the main Crystal Gems are worth discussing especially through how they reflect how their experiences with Steven have changed them.  With Amethyst, instead of covering her gemstone like her other forms did, she’s allowing it to be shown.  That’s a big visual indication that despite being small and unlike others of her kind, she’s become of accepting of who she is.  The new addition of torn jeans adds to her complacency with Earth to show pride in the planet being where she came from.

Then comes the very first result of Steven fusing with Pearl creating Rainbow Quartz 2.0.  This is a very extravagant fusion with male characteristics as opposed to the usual female ones.  Break from the norms aside, it’s just fun to watch this fusion perform daring feats with such a light-hearted and jolly demeanor.  The addition of a flying parasol that emits a rainbow trail is a great touch as Rainbow Quartz 2.0 uses it to catch Garnet’s gems before hitting the ground.

There’s also something to be said of Pearl’s new form which completely dismisses any ties to a Pearl’s status as a servant.  It also shows even more Earth customs with attributes of a common mother, and even a jacket which shows off her status as a rebel from the norm.  The star on the back also shows that her past is still a part of her, but she’s come a long way with putting it behind her.  You just can’t help but be impressed by how much character growth there is to show from these new creative forms.

As the Diamond ship robot closes in, Steven’s fusion with Garnet is given great build up.

He’s all set to show his love for her with all his allies standing back to watch this grand event…

…the fusion starts taking form…

…and they all get crushed.

Act 3:

The surprise attack turns out to be an effective fake-out moment, for after the foot of the leg ship comes down, Steven and Garnet’s fusion becomes known.

Sporting enough strength to push the robot aside and plenty of messages found in after school specials, this fusion’s name is Sunstone.  Her practices may be cheesy, but they work given that the atmosphere of everyone impressed with her strength and blunt statements about what’s happening is for when she’s present.

That said, it is kind of disappointing that her weapons are mere suction cups, even if they are necessary means to get up to White Diamond’s head ship.  They still don’t work though.

The failed attempt brings on the appearance Garnet’s new form which isn’t as reflective of changes in character as the other ones.  However, her appearance has never been so overt about how she’s a fusion and proud of it with Ruby reds and Sapphire blues all over, so that’s something.

For this time though, it’s a major necessity to bring out the biggest fusion possible. With the main Crystal Gems, including Steven, together, they create just that with all the other allies around to witness the awesome formation.

That fusion’s name is Obsidian, who happens to be name of the Gem whose statue is built into the Crystal Gem temple.  For that, the series comes even more full circle with a fusion integral to one of the main settings finally seen in their full form.  They’re still very small compared to the Diamond ship robot, but Obsidian is willing to fight any way. 

Their trek up to White Diamond’s head ship also provides Connie, Peridot, Lapis, and Bismuth something substantial to do by distracting the robot to keep its hands off Obsidian.  Their practices prove effective and allow for a solid use of their talents.  With Peridot and Lapis providing air power, Connie with a new sword and Bismuth with her weapon hands provide offensive blows to the ship.  There’s also a good use of powers at play as Peridot’s metal controlling saves Bismuth from a nasty fall, or at least a non-fatal one.  Although only Connie remains to follow Obsidian into White’s head ship while the others are knocked aside, their contribution is still apparent.  Even so, it shows that they still have a long way to go before making truly big accomplishments as Crystal Gems.

As for Obsidian’s own power, even if help is needed to keep them safe as they get up the ships, they’re still capable of making their own progress.  I mean, their Gem weapon is easily the most powerful of all the ones introduced.  It’s a fire sword that cuts straight through the thickest of Diamond ships.  Needless to say, it’s all too believable that this is the fusion to reach the Diamond to end all Diamonds.

Speaking of which, after all that action, Steven is finally set to do what came with a lot of trouble, by getting into White’s head ship to sway her into helping him.  However, it’s here when things are at their most intense, further adding difficulty to this mission.  Although White Diamond’s persona was slightly revealed back in “Legs From Here to Homeworld” this is where we really get to know what she possesses.  They unfold as all she does is give big empty smiles, stand in a t-pose, and speak in a condescending tone. Her powers don’t just take over minds, they also turn Gems into her own mindless puppets who speak in her voice and imitate her every action.  This would mean that ‘her’ Pearl has been a victim of her abusive power this entire time.  Her drive is that she sees herself as perfect, and the only way to truly spread perfection is to strip away individuality so everyone is literally exactly like her.  Just the slightest flaw is enough to push her to act. 

White is also eerily accurate to the flaws of others just from looking from them.  As she demotes Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl to more of her puppets, she points out Amethyst’s insecurities, Garnet’s dependencies on being together, and Pearl’s obsession.  These are all things they’ve needed to fight through for the entire series, though Steven insists that they’re still great likable characters despite their flaws, which is the truth. 

Still stuck in her perfectionist views, White dares to mess with Steven’s claims.  Insisting that he’s actually Pink Diamond, White feels that Steven is only defending flaws to make him feel stronger.  Given all the times that Pink was punished for going against the Diamond norms, that’s enough to justify White’s claim that Pink is the most flawed Diamond of all.  She also dissects her background by deducing a demeaning reason for becoming Rose Quartz to hide her true form, and that’s what Pink’s done in giving birth to Steven.  He tries to insist that he’s his own being, but White sees fault in that too, pointing out how Steven’s been unearthing Pink’s memories.  The fact that this has been happening so frequently is enough to make White’s points seem legitimate and the possibility that Steven really is just his mother reincarnated believable.

With Steven’s identity crisis allowing him to slightly give into White’s claims, she’s in the clear to be at her most menacing.

Grabbing Steven in her clutches with no one, including Connie who suddenly shows up, able to help, White Diamond pulls off what’s perhaps the darkest built up event of the series.

 

 

She reaches for Steven’s gem, and pulls it right out with appropriately tense staging and music accompanying the disturbing menace.

Act 4:

Out of this tragic sight, we impressively get one of the most reassuring messages the show has turned out.

 

It starts with an ingenious way of depicting two halves of Steven after White Diamond pulled out his gem.  There’s a split screen of the points of view of both his human half and Gem half.  The human half, taking up the right side of the screen, is severely weakened and can only see Connie holding onto him and his gem forming into its own being.  The pink Gem half is represented as a white light taking up the left side of the screen before seeing everyone shocked at the true form.  It’s not of Pink Diamond, or even her fabricated form of Rose Quartz, but a pink version of Steven himself.  Even with the legitimate possibilities to Pink being inside Steven all along, Steven really was just himself.

White Diamond, however, can’t fathom this outcome going against her claims and slowly loses her collectiveness.  Yes, it’s been said that she’s been angry before, but even when she was said to feel that outside the ships, she was able to keep her blank smile and pose.  This here is genuine anger over not getting Pink Diamond like she expected.  All the while, Pink Steven has none of that, with a simple statement that Pink Diamond is gone being loud enough to shake the room and form a crater.  That statement is quite insightful as if this part of Steven was waiting for so long to tell everyone, including Steven himself, this to alleviate all pressures of him living up to someone.

With this point made clear, both halves of Steven set out to get back together.  It goes without saying that the human half of Steven literally can’t live without his Gem half.  Painstaking detail on his body shows that it’s practically his life support.  The process is enhanced by plenty of ways to up the tension.

With Pink Steven going too slow and human Steven too close to death to even move, the emotional overtones of the scene are impossible to ignore.  Just from watching Connie straining herself to carry her friend to Pink Steven is full of strife and turmoil over impending tragedy.  In fact, Connie pushing herself to keep her best friend alive is easily the best moment to advocate for her point that she and Steven are better off doing big missions like this together.  It’s just the pure devotion that she’s clearly capable of showing and is hardly replicated by anyone else.

That’s really what’s needed as White continues to lose her cool and unleashes violent powers just to prove that Pink Steven is really Pink Diamond.

Even so, Pink Steven proves to be powerful enough to allow what needs to be done to happen, being quick enough to unleash his own shield from White’s attacks.

The culmination of the sequence of both halves of Steven meeting and embracing each other is the best way to cap off what is easily the most intense sequence of this special.  Much of that comes from the moral symbolism of learning to love yourself to ensure a healthy life style.  We have our influences, but they mean nothing if you don’t appreciate what you yourself have to offer, even if you’re not perfect.

As a bonus, the two halves finally getting back together is animated so smoothly by one of today’s greatest animators, James Baxter, who's most famous for these great animated scenes: 

 

 

If that’s not enough to show the power of the emotions and inspiration of the scene, I don’t know what is.

With it established that Steven really is his own being and not another version of a Diamond, his following actions brilliantly showcase coming to grips with his true self.  As White Diamond breaks down over being wrong, he responds with a comeback line about what her excuse is for acting this way.  By the way, this is yet another way to bring the show full circle, since that’s the same line he used to resolve the conflict in the series pitch pilot. 

For here, it brings about a most intriguing occurrence within White Diamond.  To fully showcase that she’s really not perfect after all, she ends up blushing out of embarrassment of Steven’s comeback line.  In addition to breaking the main Crystal Gems, Blue and Yellow Diamond, and the original Pink Pearl out of their trance, it says a lot about the entire background of this show.  Had Pink Diamond not decide to leave for Earth and eventually conceive a total anomaly like Steven, White Diamond most likely would not have realized fault in her perfect perception. 

It’s been often stated that there’s no one like Steven, and this concept comes to a full head with what’s done with White.  Seeing herself throw a fit and blush at an embarrassing remark dampers what she thought of herself, bringing her to her knees and “shaking like a piece of chalk.”  For that, she’s in the clear for Steven to reshape her into a being who accepts Gems for who they are instead of pushing to make them perfect.  It may be unnaturally fast for a redemption after such vile deeds, but this was over an objective fact that can’t be argued instead of a point that people can choose to agree with.  Like with all the other redemptions in this special, thanks to how the characters are portrayed, this one works, quick pace and all.

 

After all this action and drama, the story is all set up for a moving return home with many elements in place for a truly grand finish.  Steven, the Crystal Gems, and the Diamonds all arrive at the ever wholesome Beach City where everyone’s gathered for one of the biggest changes between its citizens.  The return is well-staged too with Sadie and her band performing and the full Diamond ship robot landing as their song ends.  All the humans do is take part in the show and welcome Steven home which shows that they really don’t have big active roles in the Gem activity.  However, this moment does show how influenced they are by all of just about every big event Steven and the Gems have taken part in.

This idea really stands out as Lars and the Off Colors finally return to Earth shortly after Steven and the others.  Him and Sadie congratulating each other for where they’ve ended up in life at their most civil brings healthy progress from how their relationship was at the start of the series.  Adding to the endearment is how their development came about because of the Gem events that have occurred, especially the abductions at the end of Season 4.  In fact, they bring the biggest showing of how influential and beneficial Steven and the Gems have been to all of Beach City, which is often taken for granted.

Topping this is the long-awaited resolution to the Diamonds’ damage to Earth.  Set to Steven’s awesome rock cover of the series’ theme song performed at the concert is a montage of the corrupted Gems finally getting healed. 

 

Keeping the Diamonds’ fluid extractions shown to bring life in mind, all four of them get a place to spread them to the corrupted Gems in the oasis Pink used to heal Gems as Rose.  The result is the probably the most rewarding bubble bath put to media as each bubbled Gem pops into who they used to be.

 

This moment has been a long time coming, and the staging really delivers on the rewarding factor.  The interesting humanoid forms of the Gems offer solid world building.  The happy reactions of the Crystal Gems over the former Gems restored to their true selves is highly endearing.  The song still playing in the background enhances the wholesomeness of such a long-awaited return to form for these innocent Gems.  However, the fact that they still have monstrous characteristics even adds realism to the affair to show that the signs of what they’ve been through remain even after healing.  It’s just satisfying enough that they can think and function properly now.

If I had to pick one healed corrupted Gem who really stands out, it would be Jasper.  It’s well-known that her drive has been to destroy Rose Quartz, and she’s all set to do that when she’s uncorrupted.  Just from a few short scenes her confusion over her being on good terms with the other Diamonds is very apparent.  Even when Amethyst comes to see her, Jasper’s still unsure of what to do with herself.  Given that her drive to fight, Rose shattering Pink Diamond, is known to be built on a lie, I can imagine an engaging story arc of self-discovery for her in the future…

Anyway, with so much that’s happened and what has been accomplished, there’s a healthy outcome for Steven going forward. 

He stays on Earth with the family and friends he’s always been better off with.  Though through making peace with the Diamonds, he’s guaranteed the safety of the planet as well as new beginnings for the former corrupted Gems.

For that, there’s no better feeling of peace than just taking in the atmosphere of a night on the beach with everyone.  Out of it is a simple yet effective piece to close out the whole special.  It’s a way of showing how he’s grown to love and be proud of who he is no matter what anyone says, and all he wants from others is to just know that.  It’s fitting for the character, can reach out to all audience members including the series creator when sharing her views with network higher-ups, and it’s simply beautiful.  So many things in the show have come full circle with this special, and this song is the best and most moving way to seal the deal of the power it’s possessed.

“Change Your Mind” brings a grand end to an era for Steven Universe.  With exciting action, genuine emotion, care put into many featured characters, ties to some of the series’ earliest moments and endearing messages, it’s an exquisite work.  Even if some can argue about how fast things happen, their execution makes the immense care put into the whole thing undeniable.  You can’t go wrong with a story that has so many great moments put together and ends with you really feeling good about yourself, as everyone really should.

A++

Overall Ranking

1.      Change Your Mind

2.      Reunited

3.      A Single Pale Rose

4.      I Am My Mom

5.      Storm in the Room

6.      Mindful Education

7.      The Trial

8.      Jungle Moon

9.      That Will Be All

10.  Together Alone

11.  Off Colors

12.  Steven’s Dream

13.  Familiar

14.  Stuck Together

15.  Last One Out of Beach City

16.  Are You My Dad?

17.  The Question

18.  Pool Hopping

19.  Can’t Go Back

20.  Now We’re Only Falling Apart

21.  Legs From Here to Homeworld

22.  Lars’ Head

23.  The Zoo

24.  Made of Honor

25.  The Good Lars

26.  What’s Your Problem?

27.  Letters to Lars

28.  Lars of the Stars

29.  Gem Heist

30.  Gem Harvest

31.  Three Gems and a Baby

32.  Your Mother and Mine

33.  Raising the Barn

34.  Sadie Killer

35.  Adventures in Light Distortion

36.  Back to the Kindergarten

37.  Buddy’s Book

38.  Know Your Fusion

39.  The New Crystal Gems

40.  Escapism

41.  The Big Show

42.  Gemcation

43.  Lion 4: Alternate Ending

44.  Doug Out

45.  Kindergarten Kid

46.  Room for Ruby

47.  Kevin Party

48.  Dewey Wins

49.  Future Boy Zoltron

50.  Tiger Philanthropist

51.  Rocknaldo

52.  Onion Gang

 

 

Final Thoughts

 

Despite being a huge break from this blog’s usual review style, it feels really appropriate that I reviewed Seasons 4 & 5 of Steven Universe together.  The main ideas of both seasons have a surprisingly good connection through character arcs, aspects of world building, and themes.  The start of the fifth season directly tying to the events of the end of the fourth season and expanding to the rest of it certainly helps.  These factors are especially impressive when you consider just how tonally different both seasons are.

Season 4, for the most part, is one of the least substantial seasons of the series. That’s a tad disappointing considering three prior grand-scale seasons big on world building and character development.  It’s true that those seasons had a fair share of simple slice of life stories, but they were able to balance themselves out with what was most important.  In Season 4, the balance isn’t very realized with the simpler cartoons outnumbering the ones of significant importance, which doesn’t put the show at its most interesting.  This is easy to tell at the start with a major fluctuation in tone which somewhat breaks the standards of how season openers showcase what came before in both occurrences and tone. Despite heavy emotional effects of things like finding out Rose Quartz supposedly shattered a Diamond and Steven hurting other Gems, we don’t start off by looking into them.  The end of the third season is immediately followed by the start of the fourth which focuses on the comedic antics of trying to capture a corrupted Gem.  The light-heartedness continues with stories of a talk show starring fusions and a cute look at a journal of a human observing Gem occurrences throughout the world.  It’s not until the fourth cartoon “Mindful Education” where a proper follow-up to the tone of the previous season’s heavy events occurs to relatable and beautiful effect.  This is a good way to see what Season 4 mainly has in store for the audience.  It doesn’t seem to be any hurry to answer big lingering questions or develop the underlying plot.  The vast majority is just Steven living his life in his home town and doing leisurely activities with very little emphasis on his Gem life.  The topics also vary a lot where at one point it’s funny escapades, then it’s a wholesome family gathering, and sometimes Steven is with only humans or only his Gem family.  There are just little to no common themes. 

When looking for a reason for this though, I look back on something like the first season.  Being the season to introduce everything and everyone, the cartoons there were also seemingly random, but still turn out welcoming with specific lore bits and character moments.  With that in mind, I see the works of Season 4 as kind of the same thing.  Even if they cover random topics and are mostly light-hearted, many of them actually provide meaningful character development and subtle foreshadowing for future events.  Even if two of the season’s first are light-hearted, they still follow up on Season 3 events by taking care of the corrupted Gems in the Beta Kindergarten and developing Smoky Quartz.  Pearl takes a major step in moving on from her unrequited love in the great “Last One Out of Beach City.”  There’s development to how there’s really no one like Steven in the flashback of “Three Gems and a Baby.”  Relationships are also given new layers of endearment that come into play later on.  Peridot and Lapis, despite not getting in on much action, do get significant involvement in some activities significant to the team.  They take part in the dinner in “Gem Harvest” and run the carwash while the main Crystal Gems are away.  These can be seen as them getting closer to the main Crystal Gems as a family prior to helping in fights against the Diamonds and Homeworld.  Plus, in addition to building up the significance of a palanquin, “Buddy’s Book” also gives insight into how humans view the Crystal Gems’ influence on the entire world.  That’s kind of key when you think of how closer humans and Gems become and how many humans’ lives improve because of them in the following season. 

Instances like this are what keep the cartoons of the fourth season intriguing despite most of them not being up to the high standards.  As a matter of fact, there are really only three cartoons that do nothing to further anything important, and most of them aren’t that great on their own either.  “Future Boy Zoltron” develops a side character without major importance and introduces one who never shows up again.  “Onion Gang” falls into the same trap, but is far worse for being somewhat unsettling and overdramatic for the majority.  “Rocknaldo” is mostly just Ronaldo being an annoying house guest, but thankfully isn’t without redeeming qualities, especially when the narrative rightfully calls him out.  The fact that Season 4 has a significant number of cartoons that go nowhere in terms of major development still makes its overly light-hearted nature more of a concern than normal.  At best these cartoons can subtly foreshadow things like Steven’s resurrection powers or Blue Diamond’s relationship to Pink Diamond, but that quality isn’t overt enough to matter.  It’s just a good thing that there’s still enough to take from most of them, and that even the weakest works are at the very least good material on their own.

It’s not like Season 4 doesn’t offer any significant world building or character development at all either.  It does its part to flesh out the world and its underlying story to high quality effect with a fair share of story arcs.  While one starts off sudden with Steven crying when Blue Diamond appears on Earth, it works as a reminder of his questions of his mother coming up as he’s living life.  Then it raises in stakes when Steven’s journey to a palanquin he sees in a dream leads to his dad getting captured by Blue Diamond to be placed in a human zoo.  Along the way are a fair share of creative highlights to the quest to get Greg back.  There’s imaginative imagery of how different gravities on the ship taking the group through space end up effecting the Crystal Gems’ bodies which are made of light.  They explore a human zoo filled with Homeworld ideologies the rebellious Crystal Gems have to abide by in order to pull off a successful heist.  The actual zoo showcases a dark theme of how minds and free will can be warped by captivity.  Above all, the entire arc gives humanity to the Diamonds.  Blue and Yellow offer relatable approaches to dealing with the supposed loss of Pink.  Blue is a total emotional wreck spending a really long time mourning Pink instead of doing her job, and Yellow doesn’t show enough grief hinting at an unhealthily bottling of emotions.  They work off each other very well and more importantly offer engaging characterizations to the villains.  Their goal to destroy Earth isn’t solely out of just being evil; there’s a legit believable reason for their actions that even the best people can fall under.  Still, the series remembers that they’re villains so not to make them too sympathetic as they keep the captive humans in captivity and arrange a plan to abduct more humans. 

This leads into this season’s other big arc which puts the pieces together in intriguing ways.  First, the stakes are risen with a light-hearted escapade with a Ruby ends up costing the Crystal Gems their obtained ship.  Then, there are cartoons dedicated to certain Beach City residents who end up abducted, with one about Lars really standing out given how he’s later developed.  Finally, the finale to the season makes for great confrontations with Homeworld Gems. They have many innocent humans in their clutches, and our heroes are left without a way to catch them should they leave Earth with the humans. It’s all capped off with Steven leaning away from the notion of being true to himself and letting himself be captured as the nefarious Rose Quartz.  The staging of the moment and being true to the featured characters’ ways stand out as a true wonder, almost like a reward for the audience putting up with much frivolity.  They’re easily the most passionate, creative, and in-depth parts of the season.  Even so, this aspect of Season 4 isn’t without fault in execution.  Some plot points, like the loss of the team spaceship, resort to being a result of dumbing down characters to be easily fooled by the Ruby.  There’s also an entire cartoon of Steven sensing there’s a deeper meaning in the message in the tape his mother left him. In the end the message is that she just wants him to be an average human.  Not only is that anticlimactic, but it’s also ignored since he still considers himself to be him mom not long after.  Once again though, it’s just great that this season still leaves a strong positive impact, problematic as it can be on the whole.

The great elements of Season 4 don’t just apply to that very season.  The very end of it is directly followed up on in Season 5, and unlike the season before it, just about every piece of it works its way into one big whole.  Many of its arcs feature one exciting moment after another that get their points across perfectly and fit well with each other despite their differences.  Just as the season begins with the first arc, you can tell this is the case.  We got Steven and Lars genuinely bonding while stuck on a spaceship. There’s an intense trial with the Diamonds. Some of Homeworld’s most extreme practices with the Off Colors hiding are shown.  Lars finally shows a backbone to protect others despite ultimately sacrificing his life.  Steven bringing him back to life gives insight to the nature of the secret wormhole and Lion.  Right away, you can sense the passion gone into the storytelling featuring big surprises, meaningful emotions, and lots of character. 

This continues to be the case as the rest of the season build towards the biggest game changer in the show’s history.  Some cartoons drop pieces to play a role in that reveal such as Pearl’s relationship with Homeworld being unknown, and her literally being unable to explain it.  Others lead into characters’ big reactions like Garnet having a recount of Rose Quartz’ backstory full of fallacies, and noticeable issues with her future vision.  Bigger signs of build-up are several creatively staged dreams of Steven either in the position of Pink Diamond in certain instances, or flat out observing her.  Even the smaller moments of the season are very engaging and play a role in leading to the true substance.  Rather than brush off the abductions at the end of Season 4, Beach City does not forget it, and makes an initiative to be better prepared for the next big Gem event.  The result are several positive changes in the people’s lives that also enhance their appeal.  The town gets a more responsible mayor, Nanefua, while the former mayor, Dewey, admits he was never right for the job and settles for something simpler.  Speaking of which, through relatable contemplation with her miserable donut shop job, Sadie gets a positive life change by starting a band with the Cool Kids.  The fact that they reach great success from established interests make for an impressive change in life considering the simple beginnings of all these characters.  I actually consider it a direction just as huge and meaningful as Lars becoming a space captain.  Through getting the town better prepared for danger and forging healthier and more successful career paths, it’s remarkable that they all happen because of the Crystal Gems’ adventures.  It kind of makes for a lot of endearment in how valuable they really are to all their lives.  Often it’s been a good point that the Gem and human scenes were two completely different shows, but now is where they feel truly connected.

While every moment in Season 5, big or small, has a lot of greatness to it, there is one part of it that’s noticeably problematic and much less endearing.  Just after the season’s first Homeworld arc, several cartoons follow a much less vital arc of Steven and Connie having a falling out over Steven’s sacrifice during the abduction.  It’s not that it doesn’t make sense to happen nor is it out of character for Steven to be saddened by it, but there are still significant issues with it.  For one thing, the execution makes it seem like it knows it’s delaying development to the underlying plot and that it’s not as interesting or important.  “Gemcation” especially showcases this by bringing up opportunities to develop Homeworld and the Diamonds only to not follow through with them because of the falling out.  It’s a good thing that later events further explain certain occurrences, and make it so that cutoffs of stories weren’t such an issue.  Also, the conflict isn’t even portrayed all that well.  While Connie does have her reasons to be upset over Steven breaking his promise of facing everything together, Steven also has reasons to surrender himself when all seemed lost.  However, while Steven understands Connie’s feelings shortly after being called out, it’s never indicated that Connie sees his point.  It makes their falling out feel one-sided which is always a flaw and disappointing considering their relationship.  It’s also a little uncomfortable that it lasts as long as it did, not just six entire cartoons, but several weeks in-universe.  Connie may have reasons to only feel like talking to Steven in person, but leaving him in the dark feels way too extreme and Steven rightfully feels like she’s abandoning him.  Surely she could have thought of some way to let him know she still cares.  Fortunately, their reconciling is very adorable, and the conflict being one-sided, while still an issue, does become more acceptable.  Connie takes part in all future space adventures and her working together with Steven is a key part to their success.  She would have come off as arrogant and dense if she wasn’t so productive, but she ultimately proves her worth.  Heck, Steven would have been dead if Connie wasn't there to carry his body to his Gem self after White Diamond pulled his gem out.  Basically, flawed as the fallout arc is, it too plays a role in adding to the season’s grand reveal.

As to exactly what the grand reveal is, it’s one that dares to change everything we thought was known about the show.  When circumstances get Steven to question to really question the logic behind his mother shattering Pink Diamond, the result is a grand way to make sense of everything.  There’s world-building regarding the inner workings of a Gems’ character with each layer of Pearl getting more emotional.  At the end, there’s an amazingly staged moment of Rose having a moment with Pearl leading to her showing her true form of Pink Diamond.  Her reveal is one of the most smoothly built up moments the series has ever turned out, easily allowing the audience to feel the emotions of the scene and reevaluating everything.  The aftermath shows believable reactions from those who were close to ‘Rose’ with Garnet unfusing, Amethyst being done with her, and Bismuth being welcomed back.  Time is also given to show that for getting many innocent Gems killed or corrupted, Pink was still likable, and her wont to protect Earth was still genuine.  In fact, she herself was influenced by the likes of Pearl and Garnet, which is fitting considering that they are two of the Gems we actually follow throughout the series. 

The impact of the real Pink Diamond doesn’t stop there, and is followed up by the biggest events of the series, “Reunited” and “Change Your Mind.”  Those specials are so grand that it was basically a given for me to analyze them with longer reviews and more screenshots.  With “Reunited,” a wholesome ground-breaking wedding scene is nicely balanced out with exciting action as we smoothly transition to Blue and Yellow Diamond finally invading Earth.  There are results of keeping the Cluster under control in a bubble, expansions on the Diamonds’ powers, and every character contributing to the fight.  It’s an exciting way to bring on Steven finding a way to let the Diamonds know that their beloved Pink wasn’t actually shattered, setting them up to finally fix the damage to Earth.  Then after a few cartoons of establishing that goal, learning of the mysterious White Diamond, and first impressions going wrong, “Change Your Mind” comes.  It takes everything known about Pink’s past and concludes that all her actions were out of being abused and unaccepted as her own kind.  When Steven lets that be known, the goal is set up to get him home and settle the Diamonds’ thoughts of conquest and perfection once and for all.  Along the way, it’s enhanced by exciting action, new fusions, dark moments with the possibility of Steven losing his gem coming to pass, and an inspiring message of loving oneself.  All the while, the ways the Diamonds officially side with Steven are interesting through making sense for their characters and playing to the idea of perfection.  Blue and Yellow easily become understanding of Steven’s words as his dealing with them plays to their character flaws that have been on full display in all their appearances.  All it takes to get to them is flat-out say they’ve been hurting Pink, or making them see the damage they’re causing to what they love.  As for White, her takedown has much more to it.  She spends a long time going on about how perfect she is and how her image is the only one for others to follow. Then she slowly sees her fault when bringing back Pink by ripping out Steven’s gem fails leading her to break down and become embarrassed when Steven tells her off.  He basically gives her an identity crisis that allows her to be reshaped into an open and accepting of all kinds of Gems as they are.  The whole thing culminating with the long awaited healing of the corrupted Gems and a wholesome family gathering is the perfect way to top everything off.  For featuring these two huge events, Season 5 greatly stands out from the rest of the series and is indeed a great way of bringing closure to long running plot threads.

That said, there are still major ways for the show to continue with quite a few things begging significant questions.  Now that the Diamonds are accepting of Pink, will they give up conquering and colonizing planets altogether?  If so, will this new mentality last considering that the old one has lasted for eons, and what will Steven do if it doesn’t?  What will become of the former corrupted Gems now that they’re healed?  Jasper especially has a major identity crisis with it revealed that her drive to fight was built on a lie.  This can also apply to the Off Colors now that they’re living on Earth.  It’s unclear where they’ll live and what they’ll do.  For that matter, will Lars be able to adapt back to his old life in Beach City and will he ever go on any more space missions?  The biggest question to me is how other elite Homeworld Gems will react to the truth about Pink Diamond and if they’ll easily go along with the other Diamonds’ change of mind.  These past two seasons have brought about many intriguing Gem characters relishing in their authority.  Some like Holly Blue Agate and Aquamarine delight in their enjoyment of being in charge, the latter especially standing out for coming out of such a cute figure.  Others like the Zircons have an entertaining banter through trying to one-up each other in court cases.  Then you have Emerald who’s a fun take on your average temperamental space adventure villains whom Lars and the Off Colors encounter.  The thing is, they’re all so entertaining that it’s unfortunate that they only appear for one role and never show up again.  I can’t be too upset at this since it’s better if characters are present for a bigger purpose other than pleasing fans.  However, they all seem too good to be introduced once and never appear again.  With all the changes in Homeworld’s society though lies the possibility of these Gems not taking it too kindly and wanting to stay in charge and continue colonizing planets. That would be a perfect reason for them to return and maybe be forces Steven can’t get through to with nonaggression.  However, if you've seen the trailers for the upcoming film Steven Universe: The Movie, you can probably get some very good answers to a lot of these questions.  Even at that, there is a lot of opportunity and potential that can be realized with these newly introduced Gems, and that can even reach out to established Gems given the circumstances. 

By established Gems, I mean the likes of Peridot and Lapis.  I was accepting of them being kept at the barn instead of living with the main Crystal Gems, but I always would have preferred the latter path.  Through living in the barn, it’s disappointing that we not only don’t see a lot of them, but they also don’t take part in any big events.  They may be novice Crystal Gems, but some participation with the main members of the team would still be fitting.  This makes the overly light-hearted tone of Season 4 even more of an issue.  Season 5 at least sets them up to do bigger things later on though they still don’t have much significance.  Lapis at least has a compelling arc where she comes to terms with her real feelings on Earth.  She leaves out of fear of a Diamond invasion, but is unable to fly far away from Earth because of how much she’s grown to enjoy being around others, including the Crystal Gems.  Then when situations look dire in “Reunited,” she arrives with a grand display of her water powers, welcoming herself as an official team player, something she never really did before.  By the time she reforms in “Change Your Mind” her will to fight is stronger than ever, which is fitting after she faced the fears holding her back.  As for Peridot, while it’s nice that she’s always been willing to fight for Earth, she’s hardly seen doing anything as important.  Even in battles, her blows prove to be mostly ineffective.  In fact, she hardly does anything of substance apart from comic relief, which is legitimately funny.  Her contributions have merit such as distracting the Diamond Ship robot from stopping Obsidian from climbing up it, but given that she’s a team player, she could be doing more.  In fact, even with her development in Season 5, Lapis could be doing more than what she does too, especially with her new fighting spirit.  Since the barn is now destroyed and they’re apparently living with the main Crystal Gems, future seasons do offer them potential to develop as more productive team members.  With the truth of their leader out and Steven coming to full terms with his identity, the main Crystal Gems can offer the novice members much needed guidance.  Now these speculations for the future are just that, and it’s debatable if they’ll actually happen, and shows that I just want more to be done with such a diversely personified cast.  The possibilities are still very persistent from the aforementioned movie trailers, and hints at least one more season coming afterwards despite no official word from Cartoon Network.  Even with this, I like to judge the quality of things as they are instead of how I want them to go.  For what we have, it’s still an amazing animated work and a grand way to end one era of the show and go onto another one.

When it comes to the two most recent seasons of Steven Universe, it really shows how they take their time to get to the highlights.  Even so, the light-hearted stuff still has plenty of development, and good spirits to keep you invested before getting to the best parts.  Once that happens, the show really delivers with great staging, emotional stakes, and satisfying closure.  All the same, it’s just as great that this isn’t the end of the series, though I am now in the same position as most fans wondering when it will return with new content.  Nevertheless, whether it returns with big emotional space epics or even simple daily life at a beach town, there’s sure to always be reasons to consider this show a Gem.

 

Highly Recommended

 

 

 

Thank you all for reading. Now the overall review schedule of this blog is about to change significantly, but it will be revealed following this coming Labor Day weekend as I review the last of Animaniacs Vol 3. Until then:

 

Stay Animated Folks!