The Retcon that was Steven Universe: The Movie

Steven Universe is one of the most beloved cartoons of this generation. Its brilliant craftsmanship is attributed to its well thought out narrative with every step of the journey planned out at the very beginning of its conception. The little details in the background or the various one liners that were previously brushed off as being nothing more than flavour text adds to the enjoyment and rewatchability of the series. Steven Universe builds a bigger picture out of the tiny fragments it leaves along the way. Everything down to its “filler episodes” can be broken down and analysed.

The show introduces us to its multi-dimensional characters and then leads us through their various arcs over the course of the series’ 129 episode run. Supposedly, these arcs are wrapped up at the end of the series as any narrative should do. This is until the Steven Universe movie rolled around and completely destroyed the years of work and development that was put into these characters, retconning their arcs, and ruining the power and emphasis of their themes and messages.

A basic summary of the movie is as follows:

Steven is spending time relaxing after having “solved” all the issues that his mother had left for him, creating a better world and universe for humans and gems alike to live in. This is then rudely interrupted by a gem, Spinel, who was never before mentioned or alluded to in any way shape or form prior to the movie (yes, they try to rationalise this by saying that it was another one of Rose’s secrets but that's not good enough). This leads to a fight where Spinel uses a “rejuvenator” on the Crystal Gems causing them to revert to their default settings. Steven then spends the rest of the movie trying to get his friends back to how he and the audience knows them.

The idea of the movie was to essentially recap the series and remind us of the events that occurred for us to get to where we are today. This all sounds great in theory, if it weren't for the fact that nobody caught on to how poorly it was written.

The movie simply did not do the characters justice.

Pearl in the series showed implications that she was the one who pushed the idea of the rebellion to Pink Diamond. It was by her encouragement that the series begins. But when we see her become rejuvenated in the movie, she’s this robotic and perfect servant who needs the push from her master to break free.

Rejuvenated Amethyst has zero personality and instead had to learn from those in her surroundings. What made Amethyst stand out in the series was that she, unlike the others, was more fun and loose. She was unbound by rules, order or structure. If it was to be believed that she learnt those traits from copying others, then who is she a reflection of? It is even more strange when you consider the homeworld Amethysts are already shown to have those traits as a part of their coding.

However, the biggest offence this movie makes is how it treats Garnet’s storyline. Garnet’s surface level is supposed to be a representation of “true love” but as Steven Universe progresses we get this better picture of toxic codependency. From Ruby and Sapphire’s first on screen appearance, we see them being unable to be apart from each other. Ruby specifically abandoned Steven as she saw finding and reuniting with Sapphire to be of higher priority.

When the two find out that Rose Quartz was also Pink Diamond, the two split, allowing them the alone time they needed to reflect on their relationship. They realise that it wasn’t what Rose had led them to believe. It wasn’t fate, magic, or any concept of “true love”. Instead, their relationship had to be not only a choice, but also an effort to maintain it. This brought us to the episode “Reunited” where the two finalised this decision, showing their commitment to each other through marriage.

It was a powerful message and one that was more true to how life works. And then the movie came around.

In the movie, when Steven “completes” Garnet’s arc causing them to fuse for the first time since their rejuvenation, we are presented with an extremely surreal scene. It depicts two Garnets, one in Ruby’s attire and the other in Sapphire's. The two dance in sync atop a bed of clouds before fusing into the original iteration of Garnet.

I originally dismissed this scene entirely simply on the basis that it was, like the rest of the movie, bland and low stakes. But after going back to rewatch it, a lot of very obvious problems arise. No matter how you interpret the scene, it will contradict what we already know. The scene shows us that Ruby and Sapphire were always parts of Garnet and that they were destined to become one. This struck a wrong chord with me for a reason other than the obvious. This whole scene is just music and animation. This means it wasn’t an odd line they didn’t consider the implication of that they could have re-recorded in a heartbeat. Instead, it was a whole drawn out sequence that had symbolism and thought put into it. But also apparently not enough thought?

Rebecca Sugar, the creator of Steven Universe, urged fans to go rewatch the entire series so that they could appreciate all the little details and subtleties that went into it, yet also couldn’t extend that advice to the people working on the film?

The movie could have had potential if it weren’t for a variety of problems. The pacing of the film was horrible for one. I understand that they wanted the musical aspect of it to be a primary selling point but it didn’t give the characters enough time to go through their arcs. For the approximately 80 minutes of the movie, simultaneously nothing and everything happens. Since the movie was unplanned from the beginning of the series, they attempted to write a plot that not only tied in with the show but added to the preexisting storyline. I say attempted because it failed miserably. It felt like some nine year old trying to explain the show by going “this happened, and then that, and then oh that too!” and somehow turned it into a self-insert fanfiction for good measure.

As harsh as I just was, I don’t think it was a bad movie but it certainly wasn’t great either. From an enjoyment standpoint, the music is the highlight of it but that’s about it. I mean, during that time you could have watched almost half of the Future series. Speaking of which, it was a good thing that Steven Universe Future was released to tie up loose ends (and actually add something of substance to the series), otherwise the movie would have been a sour note to leave the series on.