Steven Universe

Spoiler: 

[..I figured this was the case but didn't want to believe it..

Rose is a fucking hypocrite. Rose shattered a freaking Diamond. I don't care how pure her intentions were, she obviously had a reason. And Bismuth had a pretty noble reason as well (she was still somewhat insane, but her reasoning to protect her allies from being killed was alright), and Rose bubbled her? And then she didn't even tell her friends about it. Heck, she kept the fact she shattered a Diamond a secret.

I know sometimes people keep secrets for the good of others, but "I killed somebody" is a horrible secret. Almost as bad as "I put your best friend in a coma and then kept her body hidden for a few thousand year."

These are some pretty intense secrets, good intentions or not..]

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Originally Posted by Brine

Also, this is probably the darkest children's show ever at this point, and that sickens me.

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Over the Garden Wall and Scooby Doo Mystery Inc are as dark if not darker IMO, as well as Zim.

Whereas we /do/ have mature themes in SU such as the wars and the being made for a purpose and killing gems and everything, Zim was #edgyonpurpose which got it canceled, with stuff that's just messed up for the sake of being messed up. SDMI on the other hand was super dark because of the themes-- it took Scooby Doo and added a structural plot about

the end of the world, and with actual murder and death and destruction rather than everything's wacky now and also apocalypse Wierdmageddon. Fred was kidnapped as a baby by the Mayor who pretended o be his father, and in Season 2 his real parents return and then turn against him, willing to do LITERALLY ANYTHING to get the Planispheric disc pieces, including getting plastic surgery to look like Fred and an Older Daphne to perform an ELABORATE RUSE. The villains straight up shoot a character off screen, enslave the entire town to dig for this door thing, genetically mutate these cows to be actual destructive monsters, run a company that's basically Monsanto turned up to 11, and more shit.

IMO Steven Universe doesn't compare because even though the themes are dark it's still got a lot of light to it with the fillers and our wacky fun characters and life lessons, whereas these other shows were dark until the very ends (except Zim which always was dark)

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Originally Posted by Sans

Over the Garden Wall and Scooby Doo Mystery Inc are as dark if not darker IMO, as well as Zim.

Whereas we /do/ have mature themes in SU such as the wars and the being made for a purpose and killing gems and everything, Zim was #edgyonpurpose which got it canceled, with stuff that's just messed up for the sake of being messed up. SDMI on the other hand was super dark because of the themes-- it took Scooby Doo and added a structural plot about

the end of the world, and with actual murder and death and destruction rather than everything's wacky now and also apocalypse Wierdmageddon. Fred was kidnapped as a baby by the Mayor who pretended o be his father, and in Season 2 his real parents return and then turn against him, willing to do LITERALLY ANYTHING to get the Planispheric disc pieces, including getting plastic surgery to look like Fred and an Older Daphne to perform an ELABORATE RUSE. The villains straight up shoot a character off screen, enslave the entire town to dig for this door thing, genetically mutate these cows to be actual destructive monsters, run a company that's basically Monsanto turned up to 11, and more shit.

IMO Steven Universe doesn't compare because even though the themes are dark it's still got a lot of light to it with the fillers and our wacky fun characters and life lessons, whereas these other shows were dark until the very ends (except Zim which always was dark)

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I mean, I don't know. Scooby-Doo was never really one to delve into PTSD, or genocide, or practically sewing together near-corpses, or ritual sacrifice. XD

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Originally Posted by Peridot

I mean, I don't know. Scooby-Doo was never really one to delve into PTSD, or genocide, or practically sewing together near-corpses, or ritual sacrifice. XD

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Exactly. With SDMI, they barely hid any of the darkness, which made it very dark, but enjoyably dark, as it actually felt scary, and in fact it actually reminded me of Zombie Island and Witch's Ghost, but dark but enjoyable experiences, especially Zombie Island.

Steven Universe is different. It not only has darkness in it, but it feels like once a bit of darkness seeps out again, it has to impale you with that darkness. Not only that, but it deals with heavier topics than SDMI did. SDMI's darkest episode, imo, was the one based on Saw, considering they did make it feel like the characters were about to die. With Steven Universe, it's not just death they tackle. It's stuff like rape, race, depression, and even deformation. Not usually subjects that would be tackled in any primetime show, much less one aimed at children. At least with even something like Adventure Time, yes there's darkness in the show, but it's not built up throughout the season, bursting at the end. It's mostly just spread out evenly, but especially unlike SU, it doesn't seem to have emotional whiplash, as big events have a very lasting impression, sometimes throughout the following season. With SU, the only times I can ever think of that happening were after the end of season 1, when the forced fusions started showing up, and the whole Malachite situation. Almost all the time, the problems usually only go for a few episodes before they're swept under the rug.

On the episode itself:

Spoiler: 

[This may sound crazy, but I actually kinda understand why Rose shattered Pink Diamond. To me, it seems that while most Gems could be shown the values of Earth, the Diamonds are the only ones that can't. That they're just too stubborn to think that Earth would be worth anything other than being used for the Cluster. Rose may have tried to show Pink Diamond the value of understanding Earth and not destroying it, but I have a feeling Pink Diamond didn't care, and the only choice Rose had was to shatter Pink Diamond. The reason she would hide it from Steven (As shown in Bubbled, that the others knew about it), was to preserve his innocence, hoping the others would be able to reveal the truth to Steven when he would be ready for it. In fact, it kinda reminds me of the end of Wander over Yonder

Spoiler: 

[Wander tries to befriend Dominator after her ship blows up and after she tried to destroy the only planet left in the galaxy. She refused harshly.]

Yeah, Wander didn't kill the villain, but WoY barely dealt in anything dark, and never had something akin to a huge war. Considering Rose probably had no other option, she had to do the one thing she never wanted to do.]

I recorded this today. Might upload it to Youtube later, I'm fairly happy with it.

Spoilers for Mr. Greg.

EDIT: On YT now,






also i still think SDMI is darker because it's not sugarcoated behind a wall of metaphors

Oh my god this show just keeps getting gayer and gayer and I fucking love it.

I can't look up at any posts but I started watching it. I got to episode 40 I think.