'Toon Reviews 15: Steven Universe Season 2 Episode 14: Historical Friction

Historical Friction

Jamie’s back in a cartoon that expands on his theatrical passions.  He’s done something with his talents by holding auditions for a play about the founding of Beach City.  Granted, Steven is the only one interested in trying out, but his ambitions are still perfectly clear and relatable to those who want to get into the arts. 

The play is written by Mayor Dewey with emphasis on the greatness of his distant relative, William Dewey.  It includes completely far-fetched events like William inexplicably becoming a giant who carries his ship to shore during a storm.  When you look back on Mayor Dewey’s previous roles of doing anything to keep his position of power, his play can basically be seen as a ploy to get Beach City to continuously vote for him.  Jamie grows to disdain the play with William being portrayed as great and nothing more.  I personally latch onto how Jamie feels.  Characters like that are not relatable or interesting enough to watch.  They need other sides, which can include flaws, to let the audience know that no one is infallible or all-powerful beings, otherwise the product won’t be worth anyone’s time…at least from my perspective. 

Now, at this point in the season, it becomes strange to focus on a play when we’re in the middle of the Crystal Gems shaken dynamic, and that we’re not dealing with anything of significant importance.  However, the aftermath ties into the story when Pearl gets involved.  She’s disappointed in her big mistake and that she isn’t like the play’s version of William Dewey who supposedly never made mistakes.  When Steven shares Jamie’s philosophy on how no one is without flaws, she gets some comfort that leads her to change the play by fixing William Dewey, and making it historically accurate.  Her being present at Beach City’s founding 200 years ago has something big to do with the changes. 

With the changes in place, we get an entertaining and interesting payoff on the night of the play.  It’s simply constructed with only Steven as William and Jamie as the remaining roles.  Instead of an ultimate good deity, Steven’s William is unsure of the journey and has a history of clumsiness making him a believable flawed character which makes the play interesting.  It’s also fun to see Jamie jump to different roles from William’s first mate to the various Crystal Gems who did most of the work in helping William found Beach City along with Mayor Dewey’s reactions to the unexpected changes as everyone else finds humor in what’s onstage.  This relatable setup is positively received as any work with flawed, multi-layered characters would usually be. 

Many characters involved get satisfying resolutions with Jamie moving forward with his acting passions through becoming community theater director, Mayor Dewey getting more support from the citizens, and Pearl feeling a little better about the mistake she made.  Her role may not have the strongest tie to the Sardonyx incident and can easily be viewed without even being aware of it, but knowing about it does make what she does here stand out more than it would otherwise.  Along with solid character moments and a great piece of advice for anyone wanting to make it in entertainment, this may not be the most important cartoon, but it’s got significant merit that makes it worth watching. 9/10

The Ranking

1. Sworn to the Sword
2. Keystone Motel
3. Chille Tid
4. Cry for Help
5. Keeping it Together
6. Full Disclosure
7. We Need to Talk
8. Reformed
9. Historical Friction
10. Joy Ride
11. Say Uncle
12. Onion Friend
13. Rising Tides, Crashing Skies
14. Love Letters

The next Steven Universe review covers the end of the Sardonyx arc when a desperate pursuit for Peridot gives Pearl the perfect opportunity to make amends with Garnet.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is a Hey Arnold review on "Sid's Revenge" and "Roller Coaster."

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'Toon Reviews 6: Steven Universe Season 1 Episode 50

Political Power

This cartoon mainly exists to build up tension to Peridot’s incoming invasion of Earth, and while it’s good on its own, it’s pretty disposable story-wise.  The conflict of the issue unfolds when one of the Crystal Gems’ attempts to prepare themselves for Peridot’s arrival knocks out all the power in Beach City.  This is a big deal for many residents because no power means they can’t run their businesses.  Clearly it’s an instance where one group of characters’ actions are ones the innocent have to suffer for, yet the Crystal Gems aren’t interested in doing anything about the issue.  At least Steven’s willing to help .  Anyway, the man affected the most by the power outage is Mayor Dewey who knows how harshly the citizens of Beach City will react to it when night falls.  I will say he comes off as a legit responsible mayor here caring for the citizens as opposed to his status being treated like a joke in all his little appearances throughout the season which is nice.  Mayor Dewey’s big stunt here is that he tells everyone that the power will be back on by the night, which he has no proof of.  He claims that all this is because he wants to make the people of Beach City feel better about the crisis and not panic, which is a major burden for the mayor.  This is actually a believable scenario.  Authoritative figures really don’t have the power to fix all problems, so while it’s wrong to lie, making people not worry is sometimes the only thing that can be done.  However, since Mayor Dewey’s lie was completely blatant, a riot is just what happens when the sun goes down and the power’s still out.  In the chaos, it’s Steven who gets the big moment as he informs everyone that they’re all strong enough to face anything together and even vouches for Mayor Dewey by explaining the reason for his lying, and his words calm down the mob.  It’s a great moment of maturity for Steven that also relates to his talent of encouraging others.  This talent is also put to good use when the cartoon ends with Steven encouraging the Crystal Gems to talk to him about Peridot, something they’ve been avoiding the whole time.  When they admit that they’re scared of the coming invasion’s uncertainty, Steven, just like with the mob, tells them that they can pull through it by working together which ends up turning the power back on.  I buy this instance from a symbolic point of view of showing that the Gems are feeling better about the invasion, but logically, I have a hard time believing that this turns the power back on.  How does simply talking about your problems and agreeing to work together fix the electrical equipment that was broken?  On the whole, the cartoon is a well-told story with good character development even if you can easily skip it and not miss anything going into the big finish. 8/10

The Ranking

1. Rose’s Scabbard
2. Ocean Gem
3. Lion 3: Straight to Video
4. Alone Together
5. Coach Steven
6. On the Run
7. Story for Steven
8. Maximum Capacity
9. Mirror Gem
10. An Indirect Kiss
11. Space Race
12. So Many Birthdays
13. Steven the Sword Fighter
14. Lion 2: The Movie
15. Bubble Buddies
16. Monster Buddies
17. Laser Light Cannon
18. Winter Forecast
19. Giant Woman
20. Lars and the Cool Kids
21. The Test
22. The Message
23. Steven’s Lion
24. Horror Club
25. Watermelon Steven
26. Gem Glow
27. Steven and the Stevens
28. Marble Madness
29. Warp Tour
30. Open Book
31. Island Adventure
32. Rose’s Room
33. Cheeseburger Backpack
34. Future Vision
35. Political Power
36. Secret Team
37. House Guest
38. Serious Steven
39. Joking Victim
40. Beach Party
41. Cat Fingers
42. Tiger Millionaire
43. Together Breakfast
44. Fusion Cuisine
45. Frybo
46. Shirt Club
47. Onion Trade
48. Arcade Mania
49. Garnet’s Universe
50. Keep Beach City Weird

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where the invasion finally occurs in "The Return."

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