so. i’ve thought about it, and i personally don’t find the recent episodes “too dark”. i think that kind of thinking hangs a lot of the themes of the show entirely on steven, not on the rules of the world itself. i think that’s a mistake.
to me, what makes “steven universe” a hopeful show is that every character gets healing & love. not that it’s specifically steven who embodies that.
thinking otherwise - that it all hangs on steven - reads to me as believing in “great man theory”. not only putting him on this pedestal of divinely given goodness (as if his feelings & circumstances can’t push him to become a worse person), but saying he’s never allowed to fall to his lowest point. even if it was an accident. even if he regrets it. he’s supposed to be “better” than the rest, someone who would never hurt others.
essentially, building up the same mythos around him as the CGs did for rose.
the reality is, there’s nothing steven’s done that hasn’t already been well-established in the world. he’s lost control of his feelings after a long time of repression, similar to many homeworld gems. plenty of those characters have shattered others - probably including jasper herself (i say this as someone who loves her deeply. she was a soldier during the war, and we know homeworld shattered many gems during it).
you really think what he’s done is any darker than the episode where we saw the fusion experiments? it’s not. the only thing that’s changed is you can’t point to steven and say “well my baby would never do that, even on accident. he’s better than those bad people. he’s a good person. that’s all he’s allowed to be”.
i think it makes perfect sense that the show is taking steven down from his pedestal of goodness. SU has always thought such pedestals are unhealthy (just look at rose). you shouldn’t devote yourself to thinking of others as “better”, as unquestionably good, or as so evil as to never be able to better themselves.
and the latter point also includes steven. what makes “steven universe” a hopeful world is that every character gets healing & love. that includes him.
what matters isn’t that steven always does the right thing. what matters is that he’ll be given the chance to grow & heal when he doesn’t.
there is no doubt in my mind that steven will recover. maybe not “happily ever after”, but they’ll give him an ending that leaves him in a better place than he started out. he may not believe in himself right now, but his friends and family will never give up on him.
everyone around him have been at their lowest point. they’ve been cruel, vengeful, petty, self-destructive and selfish. if he accepts them, knowing that, then they’re going to love and accept him. all of him, not just the good parts.
that, i think, will give him the will to work on himself. not by once again putting himself on such a high pedestal as to be incapable of bad (thus repressing his feelings until he explodes)… but a healthy self-image, where he can express his feelings safely, care for both others and himself, and change - for the better, not just for the worse.
i want him to see himself as equal to those he helps, and thus deserving of help in return. not as a diamond who must be flawless & “make everything better”.
the message isn’t “steven is a good person who will fix the world”.
the message is “i’ve got you. you’ve got this. we’ve all got each other”.
Powerpuff Girls was actually a show about a group of small children crushing the patriarchy and no one will convince me otherwise
Anyone who tries to convince you otherwise obviously wasn’t watching the same show.
reasons why i love this show so much
I love that the most tiny feminine delicate sweetheart of the three does the traditionaly masculine chores. Kinda makes me wanna see a teen Bubbles change a tire in a pretty dress and hair bow.
honestly i think my fav part of this gifset is the fact that those last two are probably supposed to be Their Chores but only Bubbles is doing them like that is peak sibling energy, flawless execution
Yes. Always. Good lord. I never understand why people can turn this into a big serious discussion. Yes, One Punch Man would beat Thanos. He would beat Luke Skywalker, Superman, every single character from Dragon Ball Z, and every ninja from Naruto. He would beat Thor and Wolverine and the Hulk in a tag team match.
Because he plays by different rules. One Punch Man is a PARODY character. His skill set is defined by comedy, not power levels or physical strength. One Punch Man not Superman facing off against an ever-more powerful lineup of villains. He’s the Roadrunner against Wil E. Coyote’s ever more convoluted plans. Deadpool is the only other super hero type character who comes close to living in the same realm of parody, but frankly, Deadpool repeatedly getting the crap beat out of him would be funnier than Deadpool winning, so One Punch Man would win that fight too, even if he can’t actually kill Deadpool in one punch. Because parody.
If I see another Youtube video recommended to me like “Could One Punch Man beat-” really, truly, I do not care.
I saw somebody also make this point once in another great post, I’m paraphrasing from what I remember; how strong is Saitama? However strong he needs to be in order for it to be funny.
The only possible matchups that Saitama might lose are ones where:
1) it’s conceivable that, due to the rules the other character is operating on (as in, whatever rules of comedy govern the other character’s universe), he might not be able to get in one punch.
AND
2) A compelling argument could be made as to whether it would be funnier for Saitama to lose that fight.
Canon example where both came into play: he lost the fight against that one mosquito, because it was tiny, fast, and flying, and because it was hilarious. Rule #1 alone isn’t enough, because if it isn’t funny for him to lose, he’ll find a way to punch through whatever restrictions are preventing him from punching the target.
So “could One Punch Man beat Superman/Thanos/Unicron/the Death Star?” will always go to OPM.
But you could have a compelling debate over “could One Punch Man beat the Animaniacs?”
I am Silver Tongue, I am an artist. I have many characters and you can check out my art in the art tag. I occasionally practice witchcraft though I don't do anything too complicated. I am girl 2 and don't know what else to put here.
