It does about the same as Uncle Grandpa apparently; Clarence, Adventure Time, and Regular Show get a lot more viewers.
Steven Universe
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Whenever I hear people talk about it, it's as a 'hidden gem' or some equivalent. I remember avclub wanted to start up a review series for the show and went over a couple episodes, but it failed to bring in the readership necessary to justify it.
Checking the viewership according to Wiki, the first season's highs only reach as far as the baseline of Adventure Time's first season, and the lows reach more than half a mil lower.
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New episode tonight! I don't have a Nielson box so I can't affect ratings, but I'm hoping this show does well and we can actually see all the 100+ episodes of the show someday.
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Wow. Sugar really wasn't subtle with the subtext this episode. Feel bad for Sadie. She should be more than just Lars' player 2.
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Think this will be the last time I'll post on this thread for awhile. Gotta let dead threads lie.
But today's episode was also great. Steven's a Dandy guy.
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I like how unhinged Steven got at the drop of a dime in this one.
Tho I'm really wondering what all these artifacts the Gems are collecting/destroying are for.
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I keep watching it. And I keep wanting to really get into the show. The production and quality is all there, I can see it and feel it… just something hasn't quite been clicking with me. (I like the Lion) Just sort of been waiting for it to have its "Ice King is Simon Petrikov" moment... which isn't fair since Adventure time took three seasons to get to that. AT's first season wasn't nearly as well thought out or as good.
Just... something hasn't been clicking.
But I think the two most recent episodes might have been the clincher. Player 2 and timetravelling stephen. Both really sharp fun episodes with some good character stuff. I liked it!
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I keep watching it. And I keep wanting to really get into the show. The production and quality is all there, I can see it and feel it… just something hasn't quite been clicking with me. (I like the Lion) Just sort of been waiting for it to have its "Ice King is Simon Petrikov" moment... which isn't fair since Adventure time took three seasons to get to that. AT's first season wasn't nearly as well thought out or as good.
Just... something hasn't been clicking.
But I think the two most recent episodes might have been the clincher. Player 2 and timetravelling stephen. Both really sharp fun episodes with some good character stuff. I liked it!
Sadie became a character in that episode, and the acting was so genuine. I didn't care a lot about the Steven and the Stevenes. Mostly because it borrowed ALOT of elements from the pilot episode, granted different plot all around but felt like backtracking in comparison.
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I… never saw the pilot episode.
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Sadie became a character in that episode, and the acting was so genuine. I didn't care a lot about the Steven and the Stevenes. Mostly because it borrowed ALOT of elements from the pilot episode, granted different plot all around but felt like backtracking in comparison.
But the only similarity between the episodes was the magic bauble and even then only in appearance and I guess having some time-travel related ability.
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Snap, people are replying now. Okay, this is the last one I guess.
Steven and the Stevens did feel like it took the time traveling device from the pilot (and not episode 1, the pilot with the different character designs) and then rewrote the plot around the time travel in a different direction.
Steven Universe is hardly the first show to take their beta pilot and rework ideas from it into the actual show, and I felt there was plenty in the episode that was different enough from the pilot for it to not just feel like a rehash.
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They are different, I just think the Pilot did the time traveling plot device better.
In the Pilot, the device is a relic they found at the Crystal Palace which the Gems brought back for safe keeping. Amethyst secretly gives Steven the relic. The device hones in on Steven and can now only be used to make better comebacks to insults. Because of Steven using the device some Crystal Skull creatures were able to find the Gems. The Crystal Skull creature demolishes the Gems, but Steven is able to use the comeback ability to go back to the beginning of the battle (in this version, you just "wake up" in your previous self, knowing what you know) and is able to turn the tide of the battle. Afterwards he accidentally responds to a insult from the beginning and stops all of the episode form happening, immediately breaking the hourglass device in frustration.
Versus.
In Steven and the Stevens the relic is picked up by Steven in the Crystal Palace and is used to make clones of himself to make a boyband, and he fights with himself.
While the time traveling plot device isn't new to cartoons, I feel like the Pilot's use of the device feels a little bit more fresh. Maybe just a ancient powerful device is now just a way to redo-jokes cracks me up.
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Well, Steven and the Stevens was much less an episode on time travel and more one about clones. All of the central problems are related to Steven duplicating himself.
Also the show's drop from the half hour pilot to quarter hour episodes cuts away some of the narrative potential. The two episodes don't really merit any special comparison.
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The last couple episodes of this show have been among the series best and I think mark more of a drive towards building continuity. I'm really excited to see the direction the second season will take, but the first still isn't over.
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favorite eps so far are Too Many Birthdays and the one where Pearl gets impaled (and giant woman) because they had a bit more of an emotional punch i think
its getting there though! glad season 1 is so enjoyable. i remember being completely turned of of AT for like 2 years because of it's season 1
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Yeah, Too Many Birthdays and Giant Woman are up there for my favorite, but these batch of episodes since the show returned have been consistently strong.
It's nice Cartoon Network is showing the final two episodes of season 1 in a half hour special next week, though I dunno if the two actually are meant to be directly connected.
As for the last episode, Connie was pretty adorable all throughout. Also wonder if the whole flashback was subtlety influenced by Steven's perceptions and not just the final scene, so the other Gems acted in a very slightly exaggerated way because that's how Steven sees them.
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I dunno, I kinda like Garnet as needing to be violent every once in a while, there's been a couple of hints about it.
Tho Pearl freaking the hell out did seem a bit more exaggerated than normal… -
I think Garnet is actually violent too, but it might have been slightly exaggerated. Just like how Pearl is a worrier normally, but here it seemed a bit more than the norm.
More than that though, I think the exaggerations were more about the gem's expectations of Steven fulfilling Rose's role. The last scene was very on the point, but overall I felt the team put more emphasis on Steven having Rose's powers or seeming more disappointed and less encouraging to Steven when he couldn't use his abilities in the episode.
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Did anyone see that finale? Because holy shit that was great.
There it is, the moment we've been waiting for: Stephen starting to understand and accept his responsibilities. Steven Universe the show and character are both maturing into real gems.
Time to rewatch the season to get in mind all of the gems we've seen them bubble.
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Yeah, that was a great season finale.
No super crazy shocks or twists, tho it does add a layer or two to whats been going on all along, and an interesting tease for the future, and some really good character moments..
I assume we'll be seeing Lapis again. And of course, the possibilities she suggests.
Lion is still my favorite.
…though if WIkipedia is to be believed, we won't be waiting very long for season 2. Since the next episode is supposed to air on October 2? That'd be... next week.
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God. This really is my favorite of the newer cartoons. The style, the characters, the music and even the mysterious underlying plot that vaugely shows in this seemingly broken up world.
Finale was super good tho. Probably the best two party I've seen in a while. I really like that song that played during the clone fight. It sounds like a remix/extention of Desert Glass, which is one of my favorite songs in the show btw.
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Given the pseudo-summer break and the large episode order, I'm fine if the show keeps dishing out episodes right away.
It's interesting to see if the Crystal Gems did anything morally gray. It's also cool that the creators seem to not really explaining things since the Crystal Gems think Steven is too long to really be in the know about this kind of stuff, and Steven's young and carefree enough to not care.
As much as I'm intrigued with the expanded universe, I feel like I would miss young innocent Steven if the show doesn't come back to that. I don't want Steven as a character to stagnate or anything, but I really like the charm season 1 had. Though I shouldn't be worried given I think the "finale" surprisingly and thankfully did manage to keep that charm despite the darker mood.
Soundtrack's still my favorite part of the show, followed by the adorable atmosphere the show gets, followed by the likable cast.
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I like the Finale for the most part it did raise the stakes and brought more answer to the tablet but like the tv show Lost brought more questions than answers. One of the beautiful things about this show is that it believes its audience is smart enough to stay with it without it directly things to us. It causally reveals in dialogue and habit-stances information, and we're allowed to catch it on our own. (Example, Amethyst's shape shifting before it was explained to Steven, makes it feel more reel and natural) Its helped create this great world, which is awesome and I love it… but this episodes way of doing it was frustrating and annoying.
While I whole heartily love the finale it had a lot of great moments, but its probably the weakest episodes to come from the show in terms of story and plot devices. The entire episode could've easily been avoided if the Gems just sat down and explain the situation to Steven and company, or better yet during the road trip... If the Gems explained to Steven (and us) what exactly happen a lot of the conflict would've been avoided. You might say, we need conflict for the story, that's true! But if the set up forced like this, then the conflict isn't well pieced together and do its fundamental flawed to begin with. Its just the characters be vague for the sake of keeping the conflict going and keeping the audience in the dark for a bigger revealed is a weak weak trope.
Same goes for Lapis, if she explain her side at any point, which is what I thought was going to happen; I was really excited for Steven to go visit her, because I was like "Sweet, he's gonna talk to her and he's gonna learn that the Gems aren't perfect and something shitty happened." And then... nothing. The writers made her be as vague as possible. The actual conflict had no real resolution and I felt a little unsatisfied.
I know that its setting up for something bigger, and we can't have everything revealed. But the way it was withholding the information in such a calculated way was a huge turn off for me.
And while have my critiquing pants on, I think if they would've revealed Steven's weapon in this episode it would've have a much bigger impact than in the second episode. I always been on the stance that figuring out Steven's weapon should've been a season-long mystery and would've been fun to speculate.
With all that sad, I really did enjoy the episode. It had some really great moments and I am excited to see what's coming.
So Lapis made it sound like there's a distinction between her and the other Gems. I wanna believe that Lapis (based on her referring to the others as "Cystal Gems", water powers, and title name) is a Ocean Gem a somehwat sub-race of Gems, and is distinguishable different that the Cyrstal Gems. I'm calling it an Ocean Gem because that's what the episode title is and her powers over the ocean.
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But we would have still had to have the bubble episode with Connie. At that point "shield" should be pretty obvious.
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Not to mention the payoff of him managing to use his ability on the spot wouldn't have meant anything if we hadn't seen it earlier. Pulling a shield out of nowhere, rather than be an "oh shit, he's doing it now!" moment wouldn't have been the case, we just would have asked "What just happened?" and needed a moment to figure it out.
Seeing him struggle with it specifically made it rewarding when it happened (and we DID see him trying to do it along the way.) . Hiding it until now wouldn't have made it better. And yeah, the episode with Connie happened. (Not to mention, they're revealing OTHER things instead, like how to activate it, and his other powers, Lion, bubbling, and obviously his history with the people around town and the Gem's history and abilities which we're getting slowly. We're eventually going to see Stephen fuse with the girls most likely, for instance. Though not till we see Pearl and Garnet probably.)
Interesting that you feel the oppoiste on that compared to the other thing. "I want more info now" versus "They gave too much info too early."
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Another thing I've found interesting is the townfolks' either ambivalence or downright ignorance regarding the Gems and what they do. Everyone knows Steven, but the Gems are basically strangers, even though they've clearly saved the city (world?) numerous times.
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I sort of wonder if the island this show takes place in is the only one on Earth with living human beings.
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i really like the finale!! i think they would have done great with maybe like 10 more minutes just to kind of even things out. still great tho!!!
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I sort of wonder if the island this show takes place in is the only one on Earth with living human beings.
Where are the tourist coming from the summer?
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Where are the tourist coming from the summer?
Maybe there aren't even tourists :ninja: And the mayor is disillusioned into thinking more people would come visit them.
Kidding, but yeah. No idea.
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Not to mention the payoff of him managing to use his ability on the spot wouldn't have meant anything if we hadn't seen it earlier. Pulling a shield out of nowhere, rather than be an "oh shit, he's doing it now!" moment wouldn't have been the case, we just would have asked "What just happened?" and needed a moment to figure it out.
Seeing him struggle with it specifically made it rewarding when it happened (and we DID see him trying to do it along the way.) . Hiding it until now wouldn't have made it better. And yeah, the episode with Connie happened. (Not to mention, they're revealing OTHER things instead, like how to activate it, and his other powers, Lion, bubbling, and obviously his history with the people around town and the Gem's history and abilities which we're getting slowly. We're eventually going to see Stephen fuse with the girls most likely, for instance. Though not till we see Pearl and Garnet probably.)
Interesting that you feel the oppoiste on that compared to the other thing. "I want more info now" versus "They gave too much info too early."
I guess in retrospect, if they did reveal it in Ocean Gem it would've been horibble cliche'.
"You have a shield?!"
"How did he summon it…"
"It must be... the power of LOVE! Steven summoned his Gem weapon through his love of his friends and family!"How it was done, we figured out on our own that its summoned from his love of Cookie cakes- I mean love in general.
The episode with Connie, are we referring to the Bubble Buddies episode or Loin 2: the Movies? He uses the bubble shield, but that wouldn't make me go, OH SHIT He has shields! I would just assume it was the same bubble ability as the others have used.
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The bubble is an extension of shield. Or rather it falls under "defend" as an ability.
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I think that's a stretch. Considering the same type of bubble has been used by the other Gems.
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Maybe there aren't even tourists :ninja: And the mayor is disillusioned into thinking more people would come visit them.
Kidding, but yeah. No idea.
steven was in a coma the whole time and also all the artists who made the show were high the whole time THE END
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The last couple of episodes help reaffirm why Garnet is the best character. Every character on the show is good, but you can't beat her classic lines like "All comedy is derived from fear."
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Yeah, I initially thought "wacky fun" Amethyst would be my favorite, but Garnet has easily and completely taken that spot.
Also need more Lion.
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Steven Universe aired tonight after coming back from holiday break (the last episode was a really sweet episode that focused on Steven's mother).
Tonight's episode teased some big stuff about the back story of the gems, but personally, I was much more into Steven trying to prove to the other gems he was right while sleep deprived. That's something that I can very much relate to.
Anyways, it looks like Steven reaching the point where he's able to hold his own stance again the gems. Maybe he'll be curious enough to start asking the Gems some more questions about their home world.
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thank you thank you Hiroy, this show is amazing.
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This is now the second time our core Gem team has reacted with fear and extreme caution at the thought of other Gems being around. I'm really wondering if our group is some kind of splintered team. Were the Original Gems not benevolent protectors like our core is? Or are they and have gotten so …mechanical in the way they go about protecting that they've forgotten their "humanity"? All very interesting.
The Keyframe art in this episode was really cool too.
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My feeling is that the Gem people didn't have the best intentions for earth. My favorite theory has to do with the Keep Beach City Weird blog that the show's creators maintain, role playing as Ronaldo. Someone on another forum suggested that maybe that broken clock is right this time of day.
yotomoe asked: I think you've got something with this whole, Diamond conspiracy! Have you discerned the reason why they want to hollow out the earth? My theory is they’re aliens who want to hollow out the planet to make it LIGHTER so they can steal it! Once they reduce the volume of Earth sufficiently, they’ll use some sort of gravity tractor beam technology to move it out of the Solar System and into the orbit of their home planet - where we will surely become slaves to their sentient rock whims.
The slaves part is a little much, but the idea of planet stealing could be on the money. I'm thinking like that Invader Zim episode, they could be using planets to fuel their dying sun or something similar that makes them both victim and enemy.
I'm really itching for them to dig into the Crystal Gems' past, though, since the tensions between them and the rest of their race are pretty huge. It must have taken something big to put them in opposition to their own kind, especially when they seem to have lingering attachments (especially Pearl).
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Still haven't watched the latest episode yet. I got Captain Usopp started on the show a couple weeks ago, and been rewatching it with her, and we're almost caught up. But since there's now ben a new episode, I kinda want to watch it for the first time with her. (we did the same thing with Korra and that was nice.) We'll be at that point soon enough. Up to episode 30 I think?
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Seems likely that they're criminals; the main question is whether that happened before they came to Earth or after.
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The criminal theory I could see with say Amethyst, and potentially Garnet. But with Rose and Pearl it doesn't feel right. But anythings free game.
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I could see Rose being a criminal if their schism was caused by relation to earth and the humans (most likely). Hell, she could have been the reason if that was the case. As for Pearl, whatever happened, she was probably dragged along and became a fugitive by association. She's definitely the most likely to have been a loyalist, but against a sufficiently tyrannical regime, just being near a criminal makes you one, too.
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This episode has a real tonal shift compared to most episodes in the series. Like the vibes you'd usually see in a Gianax finale episode. Not sure what to make of it just yet. There's still many questions that needs answering atm before I could even make a theory.
thank you thank you Hiroy, this show is amazing.
Knew you'd like it.
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After Space Race, I can definitely see Pearl as willingly joining up with a bunch of criminals if it meant she got to explore the universe. Rose is the big question mark but we don't really know what the situation with the original group was or what her role would have been. We can't even be sure how many Gems there were originally; in the episode where the three of them created the unstable fusion, Garnet appeared to almost split into two beings before snapping back to herself.
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Pear said something " not again " it's seem they've done things against their will .
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Aren't the gem's they've been bubbling and storing from defeated monsters really just corrupted Crystal Gems? I recall getting that impression from the Season Finale.
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Aaaand I'm caught up.
Maaan this show is progressing just like Bravest Warriors, creating so many questions and giving no answers.
But I still love it. Does it air one episode weekly? Or two?
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I finally started watching this show and if I hadn't already accepted Rebecca Sugar as my lord and savior, I do now.
I just watched the Giant Woman episode and that was probably one of the best things I've seen in a while.
Oh, and Garnet is totes my homegirl. I guess it's not a coincidence I was born in January.
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Aaaand I'm caught up.
Maaan this show is progressing just like Bravest Warriors, creating so many questions and giving no answers.
But I still love it. Does it air one episode weekly? Or two?
(Hohoh~ Good compare. I love BW! Mainly for its really convoluted narrative that's told in a mix of seriousness and nonsense.)
As for the question. There's sometimes a period of new episodes, then a weird pause for some months. Not exactly sure how the schedule for cartoons work, but maybe someone can explain it better.