Steven Universe: What's Your Problem?
July 3, 2018 5:23 PM - Season 5, Episode 20 - Subscribe

Steven and Amethyst visit Funland, Fish Stew Pizza, and the beach.
posted by duffell (18 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
HOLY SHIT THIS WAS EPISODE WAS SO GREAT

What a well-executed Amethyst episode! I LOVE STEVEN AND AMETHYST'S FRIENDSHIP and how it's developed over the course of the show. This show, man, this fucking show.

And as always, the little touches: Steven tying the excess pizza toppings in a napkin, Onion staring directly back at the telescope, tiny Amethyst's huge gem. Fucking marvelous.
posted by duffell at 5:26 PM on July 3, 2018 [6 favorites]


I love that amethyst doesn’t let him off the hook. He keeps trying to do the usual Steven stuff and she won’t let him, because she’s right: he’s a kid. He shouldn’t be responsible for all of this.
posted by ocherdraco at 5:59 PM on July 3, 2018 [4 favorites]


'Ring Some, Lose Some' at Fun Land. Also so many quotes:

"Why would Ruby be a cowboy?"

"Get out of my head, Steven!"

"I am the ding-dong sunshine future!"
posted by traveler_ at 7:43 PM on July 3, 2018 [6 favorites]


At the end of Ruby's note, she scribbled something out and wrote "-Ruby." I have to imagine she started writing "Garnet" before scribbling it out.

I really hope we see Ruby dressed as a cowboy at some point.

Yessssss traveler_, "I AM THE DING DONG SUNSHINE FUTURE"
posted by duffell at 7:45 PM on July 3, 2018


It was a heart she scratched out. She didn't want to say "love" because she's pissed.
posted by emjaybee at 7:49 PM on July 3, 2018


I also loved this episode and share Amethyst's horror at being the most mature person. That SUCKS.
posted by emjaybee at 7:50 PM on July 3, 2018 [10 favorites]


It was a heart she scratched out. She didn't want to say "love" because she's pissed.

noooooooooo that's so much sadder

Also, curse my low resolution.
posted by duffell at 7:55 PM on July 3, 2018 [1 favorite]


Big Sis Amethyst, best Amethyst.

Is it only me or does this all feel like we're reaching the end-stage of the show? Pearl has mostly moved past her grief, Amethyst has finally accepted herself and Garnet, not having a lot of visible internal issues, is dealing with having the source of all her confidence in herself being a lie. After that's done the only one left is going to be Steven.
posted by Memo at 9:03 PM on July 3, 2018


Well and then Greg, and Peridot and Lapis, and even Jasper. And then Centipeedle (maybe Nephrite actually?) and the other corrupted gems and Yellow and Blue Diamond—and maybe White Diamond too depending on what's really up with her.

But yeah I agree I think this is the end of the "core plot", planned out from the beginning, that they would have accelerated us to if the show had been cancelled earlier. But there's plenty of angst to go around still, and a lot of unresolved or half-resolved (like the cluster) plots that could end here but I can't imagine a storyteller wanting them to.
posted by traveler_ at 9:34 PM on July 3, 2018 [3 favorites]


Rebecca Sugar has been heard saying the original plan was for a five season story arc. Here we are, approaching the end of Season 5.

However, it is very likely that the show is already in production beyond that. It's usually pretty obvious when an animation production is winding down. The Crewniverse has hired a few staffers between when this episode was made and now, so it seems likely that a Season 6 is already in production.
posted by JHarris at 10:44 PM on July 3, 2018 [2 favorites]


ahh that was so great! I teared up when she was all like "I'M NOT GOING TO FALL APART ON YOU"! I was like "YESSS THAT'S MY AMETHYST!"

I love that she approached it by just first trying to get Steven to forget all this and be a kid and play video games with her, and then when Steven gets all mature and goes looking for Ruby, she'd rather help him (and to get away from Pearl and Sapphire) because she wants to support him. And she made some really valid points about her feelings. She wasn't around for all this, she was late to the party and she doesn't have a real stake in this past that everyone is hung up about. All she can do is do her best for her friends, and right now Steven is the one that she's worried about because he's running around for everybody except himself. "Ding dong sunshine future" is exactly what she feels she needs to be right now and it speaks volumes about how far she's come.
posted by numaner at 10:44 PM on July 3, 2018 [3 favorites]


and when Steven is first telling Amethyst how he feels in Fish Stew Pizza and Amethyst is nodding along going "mm hmm" like a therapist. SO GREAT. and then both of them are like "how do YOU feel about all this". There's always been sort of an equal footing between them and it came across so wonderfully in that moment.
posted by numaner at 10:55 PM on July 3, 2018 [4 favorites]


I don't have as much to say about this episode as the prior two, but I do like that Brooding Hill has become the official name for that place.
posted by JHarris at 4:54 AM on July 4, 2018 [1 favorite]


Rebecca Sugar has been heard saying the original plan was for a five season story arc. Here we are, approaching the end of Season 5.

I've read that she said that during the first season, which was about 50 episodes. Since then, seasons have become about 25. If we're still on track for that five season arc, we might be only a bit more than half way through.
posted by Rinku at 11:04 AM on July 4, 2018 [1 favorite]


Thinking about how far Amethyst has come since being a careless, sometimes unintentionally mean, child herself is a lot. She went from thinking she's a broken reject to being the ding dong sunshine future!!!! Amy!!!!! Steven and Amethyst as siblings is amazing. Even in the original unaired pilot there's a moment where she sneaks him the macguffin when nobody is watching and winks - it's all so good! It's easy to lose track of her arc sometimes because she's also chill and fun but it's one of the best and most important in the show imo.
posted by colorblock sock at 4:13 PM on July 4, 2018 [3 favorites]


One interesting thing I see about this episode is the sequence where Amethyst is running (flying) away from Steven and he persistently catches up is similar to the Lauren Zuke's great "fight" between Steven and Amethyst in (natch) Steven Vs. Amethyst. It has that same sense of two people who care a lot for each other fighting, but more to help the other than harm them. It's a kind of sequence that works well with the two, with Steven looking visually unimposing and Amethyst able to turn into crazy things.
posted by JHarris at 10:46 PM on July 4, 2018


It took me reading a whole bunch of recaps to work out why people are saying Amethyst's actions in this episode reflect her maturity. I feel like she should have at least let Steven know at the start that she wasn't going to burden Steven, rather than leave it go on for so long to the point that it seemed like a passive-aggressive "oh no I'm ~fiiiiiine~ it's not like anyone ~caaaares~".

But also I'm a talk-it-out sorta person so I wouldn't necessarily have seen Amethyst sharing her feelings with Steven to be placing a thousand-year-old burden on him. They could commiserate as peers, like they were starting to do at the end.
posted by divabat at 5:57 PM on July 5, 2018


Bless that purple weirdo. She's the only one who really gets what it's like to be at a remove from the war. I really want to see what happened when she met the other Gems now.
posted by Jilder at 11:14 PM on July 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


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