The Future
The previous cartoon may have been the climax, but the actual end of this epilogue and the Steven Universe franchise is the real way forward from what Steven’s been through. The results are the best way the show could go out, saying good-bye to the staple elements that have been at the heart of everything, the likable characters and their relationships.
It’s been months since Steven’s initial meltdown, and after getting the stress out of his system, he’s progressively improving his mental state with various practices. He’s not fully recovered, but what he’s setting himself up to do puts him in the right direction. There’s physical exercise every morning to manage all inner stress, mentions that he’s seeing a therapist to talk about matters, and biggest of all, he’s moving out to see the country. The latter is especially huge with Steven leaving behind what’s been his home for all his life. At the same time, there was solid build-up to this decision with how many of Steven’s friends have moved on and discovered new paths, and his dad further encouraging the choice. It’s a good way for Steven to find his own new purpose and at times frequently catch up with friends.
Despite all the promise, Steven still has the challenge of telling the Crystal Gems about his choice, especially with everyone else knowing about it. Approaching the subject has some nice touches, mainly Steven starting it with homemade Cookie Cats. Even nicer is how Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl perform the treats song, really bringing the end of the franchise full circle to the cartoon that started it all. The line of leaving family behind though steers Steven to admitting he’s moving out and may never come back, and the main Crystal Gems seem to take this well.
This is contrasting to say the least with other farewells. Steven has one last moment with the supporting Crystal Gems, Bismuth, Peridot, and Lapis, and these fan-favorite characters are given huge sendoffs. How they’re sent into an emotional wreck from Steven leaving as well as his parting gifts for them is demonstrative of how honored they are to have grown as they did because of him. Even Jasper seems upset that he’s leaving which she shows in her own forceful way. All Steven has to remember her by is how she’s brought herself to attend Little Homeschool like he wanted.
All the same, Steven still has concerns that his close family, the main Crystal Gems, don’t seem as torn that he’s leaving. There’s even a meaningful conversation with Greg, who’s given the ultimate gift, Steven’s entire beach house. It covers how even though it seems odd for Steven to want the Gems to be saddened by his leaving, he’s allowed to be honest with his true emotions. Plus, it shows that something was learned from his previous show of trauma with Steven being vocal of how he feels instead of bottling it up like he did.
This is why, when he’s about to
leave and the main Crystal Gems still seem ok with him leaving, Steven takes
time to approach the issue before setting off, which is commendable. It shows that he’s actually reading into what
doesn’t make too much sense, and that grants him the truth of matters. Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl were actually
devastated about Steven leaving, but were holding their feelings back so not to
stop him. Now with their feelings
exposed, Steven’s final parting from his closest family can go out with all the
emotion necessary. It’s an endearing
showcase of how even after everything that’s happened, they’re still a loving
family, and will be there for each other whenever needed. May that be true for everyone leaving to make
their mark in the world. For one last
symbolic measure, the final moments close this series perfectly as Steven drives
away from his past work complete for Gem and human-kind, and forward to the
future.
Now
on its own, this cartoon is rather simple and doesn’t feel too grand in terms
of sending things off. However, teamed
with everything else in the epilogue series, especially the previous few
cartoons, it’s the most fitting closure one can ask for. Steven’s ultimate decision after dealing with
others moving on and uncertainty of what to do for himself has relatable
benefits, and can even prove as inspiring for many watching. All the heart and emotion gone into how long
it takes to say good-bye to his meaningful past aids in making these actions
feel big even if they don’t seem that way.
Watching this cartoon right after what came before it may be the best
way for it to seem impactful, but it still does its job well in sending our main protagonist
down the right path.
A+
The Ranking
1. I Am My Monster / The Future
2. Growing Pains
3. Volleyball
4. Fragments
5. Homeworld Bound
6. Bismuth Casual
7. Little Graduation
8. Mr. Universe
9. Little Homeschool
10. Prickly Pair
11. In Dreams
12. Together Forever
13. Bluebird
14. Why So Blue?
15. Snow Day
16. Everything’s Fine
17. Rose Buds
18. Guidance
19. A Very Special Episode
Final Thoughts
I
started these reviews with a statement on how working with animated characters
can get personal to the production crew, and how the characters can feel like
real people. That’s the main impression
to take from Steven Universe Future in
how it works as a natural continuation of everything from the original series.
Going
into this epilogue, there’s promise for unexplored, or in some cases
underexplored, elements from beforehand.
Truthfully there’s plenty of that with nearly all of its content. We get to know some of the uncorrupted Gems,
learn what’s become of unredeemed antagonists, see new paths for some of the
Beach City residents, explore how Steven’s influence has shaped Homeworld and the Diamonds for the better, and even more.
It’s not just side elements that get pleasing development. Those especially closer to Steven are given
answers to where they came from as well as proper closure to their arcs I
personally never knew I wanted.
Developments include Greg’s family life, and the supporting Crystal
Gems, Bismuth, Peridot, and Lapis, all getting cartoons that convincingly
cement their growth. All these subjects
are examples of the epilogue really taking advantage of its existence in
relationship to the franchise. They
ultimately make the entire series more fleshed out, feeling like necessary
continuations instead of here for popularity’s sake. However, these subjects are basically
backdrops to the heart of the epilogue which turns out to be the most effective
continuation of the original series.
The
past series was one big story about a multitude of characters dealing with all
sorts of heavy issues with Steven experiencing them all, even if it wasn’t
always about him. Now this epilogue is a
story all about him and the realistic effects of needing to save the entire
universe has on him. Steven’s story
explores how his past glories don’t necessarily leave him in a high place of
grandeur, but in fact face him with several hardships. His overall decent is felt with every passing
cartoon. He starts out as his usual
self, ready to help anyone, confident that he has all the answers, especially
now that he knows he’s meant to be himself.
However, as an encounter with Jasper suggests, he’s the only one who
needs help, and the rest of Steven’s experiences seem like proof of that. In
this new age, Steven begins to lose his helpful touch, is still being reminded
of bad things his mother did, feels unneeded as his friends move on to bigger
paths in life, and is under the impression that the Gems he’s closest to, the
main Crystal Gems, are holding him back when he’s trying to show how mature
he’s gotten. For good measure, these issues keep a strong narrative focus
throughout the epilogue. Every cartoon
features at least one of Steven’s issues at the forefront. This is even true for standalone
light-hearted stories where being two fusions at once has him overwork himself,
and a story mostly about Lapis shows him lose his helpful touch. Plus,
with his Gem powers, the turmoil he feels of these issues become more
aggressive than it would in the average person. It’s visualized by a
frightening pink glow and ensuing destruction whenever he gets mad.
Even
how mad and stressed he gets over these issues is given a deep explore. Steven’s glows, destruction, and eventual
swelling place him in the hospital which features an intellectual diagnosis of
exactly what he’s dealing with. Like his
constant desires to be needed, how he reacts to these feelings is also a result
of trauma from how much he’s had to protect Earth from the aftermath of the Gem
War. This allows the series to really
stand out from the norm where instead of writing every big life-threatening
adventure as par for the course, real repercussions are shown. Steven experiencing trauma at a young age is
stated to not be normal, and has kept him from living a healthy human
life.
Although
the roots of his problems are put out in the open, Steven’s initial pink
outbursts are only the beginning as the last quarter of the epilogue brings the
worst offenses. We see the initially
good moral Steven shatter a Gem, nearly undo all the good progress he’s brought
to the galaxy by shattering a Diamond, and later try to justify it all. The final straw comes when his bad
experiences all but convince him that he’s nothing more than a fraud of what
past events he’s built up to be. This
results in an all-out climax where his bad self-harming thoughts transform him
into a monster with the risk of him staying one as long as he holds these
thoughts. Fortunately, the memories of
how he was there for everyone stay with his family and close friends, and their
appreciation for all his efforts is what ultimately saves him.
It’s
after this when characters truly begin to feel like real people as the epilogue
ends with Steven leaving his old life behind, ready to see the world in his own
human experience. A simple showing of
his struggles to part with his loved ones and never seeing the exact details of
his travels is practically demonstrative of care for one’s animated creation. Ending everything just with Steven driving
away from his old home is the equivalent of letting someone truly be free to be
their own person in real life. There
doesn’t need to be anything more to the franchise depicting exactly what Steven
finds on his travels. All we need to
know is that he’s searching for his ideal place, and above all, on his way to
move forward from his past and come to a better place physically and
mentally. How well things go is entirely
up to him, and everyone, including the people making the show, are set up to
leave him to it. Now would it be great
to see where Steven ultimately ends up in a future series? Yes, but leaving the
progress of his journey up to him is honestly more preferable. In addition, with the promising sounds of his
plan in relation to everything he’s been through, that’s enough to hope for the
best. Not to mention, you can’t fault
the highly emotional sendoff he has from everyone when the epilogue officially
comes to an end. If you ask me, the
ultimate resolution is among the best ways of making this animated work feel
not just like fiction, but also genuine reality.
So
this epilogue seems to live up its promise of looking into elements that didn’t
get much closure or development prior and has a great central story. As far as drawbacks are concerned, they
aren’t too big, but they are reasonably noticeable. It doesn’t have much to do with the main
story, but rather everything around it.
For all the questions the epilogue answered, the true drawbacks are what
it didn’t answer, making it not really live up to its fullest potential. There are a few lore-related elements that
aren’t even slightly touched upon like what was in the chest in Lion’s mane or
who made the Diamonds. However, a bigger
example covers certain characters that made very memorable impressions before,
but don’t get any follow-ups or further development in the epilogue. I mean, Emerald had a memorable role during
Lars’ first space captain days, but we don’t see her at all in the
epilogue. Kevin was constantly a
harassing jerk in past Stevonnie appearances, though his latest appearance suggested depth to his behavior, but that’s never followed up on. The Off Colors, Lars’ Gem crew, are a
memorable bunch of characters, but aside from graduating in “Little
Graduation,” they do nothing and don’t even get any lines here. Plus, any Beach City resident who isn’t Lars,
Sadie, or the Cool Kids adds support to the claims that they really did add
nothing to the original series’ bigger picture.
At best, they visualize the change in the dynamics between humans and
Gems, both of which are frequently seen living side by side, so that’s
something.
Then there are some missed opportunities with some of the antagonists. The intro to the epilogue features a group shot of everyone posing a conflict throughout the series, a pretty clever way of setting up things to come. The material they star in by themselves isn’t the problem. The problem is that most of them only get one appearance, and that’s it. They show up for a memorable appearance, and don’t add anything to the bigger story aside from subtle developments to Steven’s mental descent. One example is a fusion between two unredeemed antagonists, Aquamarine and Eyeball the Ruby, called Bluebird Azurite. They’re delightfully charming in their guise and threatening when necessary, and it’s all great charismatic character-driven encounters. However, they leave saying that they’ll be out there hating Steven and hint that they’ll return, but they never do. This just makes any threat they had now and in the past feel like a total joke.
There’s also a pair of Lapis Lazulis who don’t have to terraform planets anymore, but do because they enjoy it. Although our Lapis gets through to them, they just end up feeling like tools to showcase her character development. This conflict also ends up feeling resolved too easily as one Lapis sides with Steven in the end, and there’s no ulterior motive. That said, it would really be nice to know what became of the other Lapis.
As you can see, the issue with the antagonists is that they show up once with the promise of being a big threat, and aren’t part of the bigger picture in the end. This even applies to antagonists not in that one intro shot like Holly Blue Agate who longs to be authoritative again, but that goes nowhere. I guess this is to keep the focus on Steven and his personal emotional problems, so world-building isn’t a huge priority. That’s respectable but still disappointing.
There are, fortunately
some antagonists that leave bigger impacts.
Jasper shows up at the start of the epilogue, has future roles that
further Steven’s personal arc, and she even gets closure through attending
Little Homeschool in the end. She holds
onto her old aggressive ways, but still ends up showing progress as a
character. Even the likes of Cactus Steven, who only shows up in one cartoon, works as an example of Steven’s
issues through repeating his inner thoughts.
When the issues get worse later on, a variation of his plant powers
appears in a similar form of that cactus.
In the end, the biggest drawback of the epilogue is that you have to
wish that it did more when it comes to exploring certain topics. Thankfully, through managing to keep focus on
the most important story elements all throughout and the topics it does manage
to explore, the results are positive as usual.
Steven Universe Future is nothing short of a worthy addition
to the Steven Universe franchise. What it adds to the series are logical steps
that cover deep topics, things introduced before are given good expansion, and
the characters involved are at their most believable. Not only does it help send one of the most influential
animated shows off in style, but it’s overall inspiring with showing the
benefits of taking “just a little time/ just a little something else instead…”
Highly Recommended
With the completion of this look at the Steven Universe epilogue, this blog has officially covered all of the series. Throughout its run, it deserves praise and recognition for all it has accomplished with themes, world-building, character-building, and emotion. With every new thing added to its run, it’s only managed to enhance its staying power instead of overstaying its welcome. Is it perfect? No, but any gripe to be had with it can be overlooked for the strengths of all its positives, practically making everything work. I understand the universal sadness of it ending after all these years, but it’s good to know that no matter what, it will always be around to continuously revisit. Like Steven getting inspired to drive off to a life all his own, everything his adventures brought are sure to do the same for anyone watching. The stories of him and those in his life are not just a gem; they’re a landmark.
As for what MC Toon Reviews has in store next, there's more to OK K.O. Seasons 2 and 3 for sure, but that's not all. In addition, you'll also get looks at the first seasons of two of the newest TV animation marvels from Disney, The Owl House and Amphibia, both back to back. Yes, there's solid review material coming your way, but until then:
Stay Animated Folks!
