Tag: Deedee Magno Hall

Why Everyone Should Watch Steven Universe – Hulu/Cartoon Network Op-Ed

There’s a reason why the people of the world believe in Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl… and Steven.

SUMMARY

Welcome to Beach City, Delmarva (yes, that’s a state here). It’s a quiet seaside town, except for all of the monster attacks. Fortunately, it has long been guarded over by the Crystal Gems, a group of sentient magical alien gemstones in human form. The team consists of leader Garnet (Estelle), wild child Amethyst (Michaela Dietz), and strategist Pearl (Deedee Magno Hall). At the beginning of the series, they are raising their future fourth teammate, Steven Universe (Zach Callison), the son of their former leader Rose Quartz (Susan Egan) and her human lover Greg Universe (Tom Scharpling). Steven starts to inherit his mother’s powers when he’s 13, leading him to want to take a more active role in the team. As his abilities grow, however, so too do the threats against humanity, ranging from the cracked gem Lapis Lazuli (Jennifer Paz) to the agents of the Crystal Gem Homeworld’s Great Diamond Authority, Peridot (Shelby Rabara) and Jasper (Kimberly Brooks), to the Diamonds themselves, Yellow Diamond (Patti LuPone), Blue Diamond (Lisa Hannigan), and White Diamond (Christine Ebersole). Fortunately, Steven’s natural empathy makes him really good at gaining allies. He also regularly interacts with his best friend Connie Maheswaran (Grace Rolek) and local donut sellers Lars and Sadie (Matthew Moy and Kate Micucci). Also, they’re later joined by former Crystal Gem Bismuth (Uzo Aduba). After the show ends, Steven deals with the threat of the mad gem Spinel (Sarah Stiles), and then an existential crisis.

The cast page is huge by the end.

END SUMMARY

When I talked about Adventure Time, I said that the show was the ultimate coming-of-age story because it represents a shift from a childish world to a more complex and, despite the setting, a more realistic adult one. Steven Universe has a similar progression, but the world it progresses towards is more of an ideal than a reality. Whereas Finn in Adventure Time sometimes averted conflict through empathy, he still often just chooses the “violent” solution, because it’s expeditious and works on people who will not listen to reason. Steven Universe, on the other hand, starts off with the gems often choosing the more direct solution of beating the crap out of monsters, but as the show progresses and Steven takes on a greater role, conflicts are increasingly resolved through a combination of endurance and empathy. No matter how resolved the enemy is, Steven can still find a way to connect with them and turn them to his side. Heck, the series finale is called “Change Your Mind.” 

And yes, it includes a song based on the title.

While the show was filled with bold choices (more on that in a minute), one of the most profound was giving Steven powers that are traditionally not associated with a male superhero. His abilities are almost exclusively related to defense (a shield and a bubble), healing, and empathy through astral projection or empathetic telepathy. While he does eventually learn how to fight, for most of the show he leaves that up to the other Crystal Gems, whose powers manifest as weapons. Moreover, when he does finally start flinging his shield or throwing punches, he still always does so with non-lethal intent. The show ends up proving him right in doing so because defeating an enemy gives Steven a chance to speak with them again as an equal, rather than an opportunity to humiliate them. When Steven talks to enemies, he’s really trying to find the source of their anger and to help them with it, something that is way outside of the typical hero role. This ultimately allows Steven to get most of his enemies onto his side, meaning that he’s turned a weakness into his strength. It’s a message that so many people should heed: Defeating an enemy will likely breed more enemies, making a friend from an enemy won’t.

Other lesson: Hugs are good.

As to the other bold choices the show made, there are a lot of them. 

First, every body type is represented in this show and, moreover, every body type is presented as attractive. The main characters are a perfect example: Pearl is extremely thin and angular, Amethyst is short and callipygian, Garnet is taller, more muscular, and has an hourglass figure. More than that, Steven and Connie frequently “fuse,” combining into a non-binary character called Stevonnie (AJ Michalka), who is considered to be beautiful by men and women alike. 

Also, Stevonnie kicks a lot of butt.

Second, this show probably pulled the greatest move in getting an LGBT relationship into the series without causing a major “moral panic” by revealing that Garnet is, in fact, a fusion of two other gems, Ruby (Charlyne Yi) and Sapphire (Erica Luttrell). Garnet’s existence is powered by the love of these two characters, meaning that Garnet literally IS a lesbian relationship (and eventually a marriage). Pearl, too, is shown being attracted not only to other female gems, but also to human women. Rose Quartz is revealed to have been bisexual and, eventually, the show had the first non-binary character played by a non-binary actor in Shep (Indya Moore) in a kids show. In short, this show has a ton of LGBTQ+ representation, breaking all sorts of barriers. 

This is way more adorable in context.

Third, the series never shied away from a lot of musical experimentation. A clever storytelling supplement is that each of the main characters has an instrument associated with their music (Pearl: Piano, Garnet: Synth Bass, Amethyst: Drums, Steven: Chiptune Tones), as do almost all of the recurring characters, but each of their themes changes and combines when they fuse. For example, when Pearl and Amethyst fuse to become Opal (Aimee Mann), Amethyst’s drums become more ordered and Pearl’s piano more experimental. Moreover, the show itself has a heavy musical influence that increases as the show goes on, growing from relatively simple tunes on the ukulele and guitar to showtunes to some ridiculously complex works by Estelle or Chance the Rapper towards the end. Steven Universe: The Movie is a flat-out musical and I loved all of the numbers. 

Also, Ted Leo and Aimee Mann are fusions. Their band is called “The Both.” I love that.

Lastly, the final story arc of this show isn’t about fighting some intergalactic war or a typical escalation of villain a la Dragonball Z or Supernatural. Instead, this show ends on an introspective journey, analyzing the hero’s role after the show ends and how a person with traumatic experiences and a self-sacrificing nature adjusts to a more normal life. Showing that may be one of the most impressive and original things in a show filled with impressive and original things.

You. Will. Cry.

Now, similar to my statement about Adventure Time, I will caution anyone wanting to give this show a try that it is a pure kids show at the beginning. In fact, I genuinely advise against watching the beginning of the series unless you have small children. If you just want to get into the show, here’s my recommendation: Skip the first half of the first season to “Mirror Gem/Ocean Gem.” Watch those two episodes, then skip to “Lion 3: Straight to Video” and go from there. I’ve just reduced the first season from 52 episodes to 21, and you will thank me for it. 

Just know that Steven has a pet pink lion that can teleport.

I loved this show, which is all the more impressive because when I watched the premiere, I assumed it was a waste of time. I can’t emphasize how much I didn’t enjoy the beginning of this series, to the point that I didn’t start watching it again until someone convinced me to give it another try a few years later. Please, give this show a try, particularly if you have kids. You may learn some things about yourself. 

If you want to check out some more by the Joker on the Sofa, check out the 100 Greatest TV Episodes of All Time, Collection of TV Episodes, Collection of Movie Reviews, or the Joker on the Sofa Reviews.

If you enjoy these, please, like, share, tell your friends, like the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/JokerOnTheSofa/), follow on Twitter @JokerOnTheSofa, and just generally give me a little bump. I’m not getting paid, but I like to get feedback.

Steven Universe Future (Episodes 10-20): The Destruction of the Hero Myth

Steven Universe decides to spend its final episodes essentially destroying the traditional hero narrative. 

SUMMARY (SPOILERS!!)

Steven Universe (Zach Callison) has succeeded in dismantling the Great Diamond Authority and has created Little Homeschool, a place where Gems can learn to adjust and integrate into humanity. He’s assisted by all of the Crystal Gems: Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, Peridot, Lapis Lazuli, and Bismuth (Estelle, Michaela Dietz, Deedee Magno Hall, Shelby Rabara, Jennifer Paz, Uzo Aduba). During the first ten episodes, we see him realize that there are a few enemies who will just hate him forever, that some gems resist the dismantling of the empire, and that his mother, prior to knowing our Pearl, had actually been physically abusive towards her former Pearl. After the class of Little Homeschool graduates, we also get hints that Steven is having trouble finding his place in the world now that he doesn’t have to defend against the Diamonds.

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I have two ships in this picture and I will never see them come in. 

In the last ten episodes, we find out how true that is. Steven doesn’t really have a clue what to do with his life now, and the lack of purpose is weighing on him. He thinks that his relationships will all fall to the wayside if they don’t have a shared goal, leading him to try and fill the void by proposing to his longtime girlfriend Connie (Grace Rolek). After she tells him that they’re too young (she handles it super well), he starts to find his powers growing out of control. He finds out that, even though his powers have given him superhuman regeneration and durability, his battle-filled childhood has created a lot of trauma. In response to finding this out, Steven starts to lose control of his powers even further which causes him to do increasingly worse things. Eventually, Steven is forced to accept that this time, he is the one that needs help.

END SUMMARY

I’ll do a Steven Universe retrospective soon about how this show went from a thing I absolutely couldn’t stand to one of the best shows I’ve ever seen, but today is mostly just going to be about Future. Steven Universe was always focused, as you would expect, on Steven, a boy hero who was trying to live up to the legacy that everyone said his mom left behind. Then, as the show went on, it was slowly revealed that his mother was not the perfect heroine that everyone thought, meaning that Steven was stuck trying to live up to an unrealistic ideal. While Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond had managed to become more heroic over time, she never made any of her numerous bad acts public, nor did she apologize for most of them (she left one person who loved her stranded in a garden for MILLENNIA). Instead, she pretended they didn’t happen, even if they caused suffering. Despite that, he held fast to his principles and ended up being a hero mostly through empathy and understanding rather than violence. 

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His mother’s temper gives her original Pearl flashbacks.

We’ve often seen the story of the child hero, but this is one of the few shows that ever actually addressed the realistic consequences of that. Steven was raised as the only human on a team of alien superheroes and constantly had insecurities about the nature of his powers. Additionally, he regularly fought monsters, evil gems, even the Diamonds themselves, often getting injured or watching his surrogate family hurt or even “poofed,” which is when a gem loses physical form. In this series, we see that there are two major impacts on his emotional development: First, he now responds to any pain as a threat to his life, a common trait of people who have been through traumatic experiences (as a cancer survivor, this is real and can be crippling at times). Second, he has a messiah complex… except that he already did the messiah part. He actually WAS the person who was destined to become the savior of the universe, but now he can’t find anything to do that fulfills him. It’s a much more accurate take on the aftermath of the hero’s journey than “they all lived happily ever after.” 

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I mean, a hero usually doesn’t ugly cry while cradling his lion.

I also like that the show doesn’t just say “this is going to suck” or “this will all work out.” Instead, at the end of the series, Steven is in therapy, he’s working on figuring out his own place in the new world, and the road may be bumpy. The only thing we know for sure is that Steven will always have his family and his friends with him, and that they’ll help him along when he needs it. That’s the best thing about this show, that it always ends up showing us that the real value is in trust and empathy, because that leads to creating friends out of enemies and friends are what we need most. 

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Most of the people in this photo tried to kill Steven at one point or another. Now, they save him.

This was a bold way to end a series, by basically undercutting the very trope that they had been playing into, but it’s exactly what I would expect from a franchise like Steven Universe. I cannot applaud it enough.

If you want to check out some more by the Joker on the Sofa, check out the 100 Greatest TV Episodes of All Time, Collection of TV Episodes, Collection of Movie Reviews, or the Joker on the Sofa Reviews.

If you enjoy these, please, like, share, tell your friends, like the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/JokerOnTheSofa/), follow on Twitter @JokerOnTheSofa, and just generally give me a little bump. I’m not getting paid, but I like to get feedback.

Mini-Review – Steven Universe Future (eps. 1-10): After Happily Ever After, There’s Just More Work (Spoiler-Free)

After five seasons and a movie, Steven Universe gives us… reality?

SUMMARY (Spoiler-Free)

Steven Universe (Zach Callison), along with the Crystal Gems Garnet (Estelle), Amethyst (Michaela Dietz), Pearl (Deedee Magno Hall), Lapis Lazuli (Jennifer Paz), Peridot (Shelby Rabara), and Bismuth (Uzo “Yes, Uzo Aduba” Aduba) finally dealt with the Great Diamond Authority (Patti LuPone, Lisa Hannigan, Christine Ebersole) and brought (relative) peace to the galaxy. In the movie two years later, the team managed to deal with Spinel (Sarah Stiles), a victim of Steven’s mother’s (Susan Egan) selfishness. They also founded an interstellar haven for gems that are now without purpose. And that’s where this series begins.

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And now almost everyone is friends.

Steven and the Gems are now trying to run “Little Homeschool,” a facility for gems to learn how to deal with not being essentially slaves or soldiers under the Diamond Authority. The running of the school is tedious and often much less satisfying than fighting evil dictators was, and problems start to arise because of it.

END SUMMARY

In a lot of ways, this might be the best thing this series ever gave us, because it reminds us that there is no end to progress, it’s just a hill you keep rolling the ball up and hoping it doesn’t roll down. The Movie tried to address this idea, and did to an extent, but the show gets a lot more of the point across. There are messages about the fact that adulthood (which is what Steven has essentially hit) consists largely of responsibilities that are not the kind of fun challenges we see on television. Sure, when you fight a giant centipede there’s a chance you die, but after the fight’s over, it’s over. When you finish teaching a class of gems how to operate a bank account, then… you need to teach the next class. Unlike a genocidal war (like the Diamonds usually waged), there is no end to helping the world develop. The show is reminding us how hard doing “good” really is, something that it always tried to do in the past with empathy. 

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Graduation is only a sign that there is another step in life. 

In addition to that very somber theme, the show deals with the reality of how trauma is usually associated with the kind of things Steven has dealt with, as well as the trauma of finding out that your parent was, in fact, not a great person. In this series, at least so far, Steven discovers that he may be inheriting some of his mother’s rage-based powers, which leads him to be afraid of expressing himself openly. We also see many of the characters fearing change, whether it be relationships ending or just evolving. 

Image result for steven universe future
We also see a very unique take on dealing with past abuse. 

The only problem so far is that they haven’t really indicated what direction the mini-series is going to go, nor how many episodes it’s going to be, but I can say that I think there’s some interesting things set-up and I really hope they pay off.

If you want to check out some more by the Joker on the Sofa, check out the 100 Greatest TV Episodes of All Time, Collection of TV Episodes, Collection of Movie Reviews, or the Joker on the Sofa Reviews.

If you enjoy these, please, like, share, tell your friends, like the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/JokerOnTheSofa/), follow on Twitter @JokerOnTheSofa, and just generally give me a little bump. I’m not getting paid, but I like to get feedback.

Steven Universe: The Movie – The Power of Growth (Spoiler-Free)

The animated show that worked to defy standard hero tropes gets a movie that… does the same thing but with more singing and awesomeness. Best of all, you could watch it with no knowledge of the series and it would still work.

SUMMARY OF THE SERIES (Spoilers for the show)

Steven Universe (Zach Callison) is the first male member of a group of formerly all-female alien superheroes named the Crystal Gems. Unlike the other members Garnet (Estelle), Amethyst (Michaela Dietz), and Pearl (Deedee Magno Hall), Steven is half-human through his father Greg Universe (Tom Scharpling) and his mother Rose Quartz (Susan Egan), formerly an alien dictator named Pink Diamond. He and his friends defended the world from the invasion of the other Diamonds (Patti Freakin’ LuPone, Lisa Hannigan, and Christine Ebersole) until finally Steven finally brokers peace through his powers of being super loving and tolerant. Yes, really, and it’s awesome.

StevenUniverseMovie - 1TVShowLogo
Also, they have beachfront property.

SUMMARY (Spoiler-Free)

It’s been 2 years since the end of the last season of the show and Steven has successfully helped dismantle the evil empire of the Diamond Authority, achieving a pretty much total happy ending. On cue, a new threat arrives in the form of Spinel (Sarah “I WAS KATE MONSTER” Stiles), a cartoonish and cruel gem whose plan is to destroy everyone, Gems and People alike. 

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Which is sad, because they were so happy.

END SUMMARY

First of all, I have to say that the show this is based on is amazing. It has one of the absolute slowest starts of any series, to the point that I actually recommend skipping the first half of season 1 (Start with “Mirror Gem”) if you want to try it, but after that it becomes so unique that it’s hard not to love it. Part of it is that the main character is a very deliberate subversion of the typical hero archetype.

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See some differences?

Steven’s primary weapon is technically a shield, but really it’s his natural compassion towards others. Almost every major ally he gains over the series is a former enemy that he wins over through discourse, understanding, and love. There’s even a joke in the movie where all of the new Crystal Gems compare how long it took them to stop trying to kill Steven. It’s so fun to watch a character win through turning enemies into friends rather than just through martial force, even though some great shows have done it in the past (Goku in Dragonball and its progeny does it all the time… while also punching people). It also has some of the most distinct characters in terms of both design and also writing, from amazing supporting characters to villains with deep and complex motivations. Much like Adventure Time before it, the key is that the show seems so simple at the beginning that you hardly realize how much they’re setting up until suddenly you’re dealing with complex situations derived from well-crafted characters rather than plot contrivance. Additionally, EVERYONE has arcs, meaning that the entire world grows with the main characters, as opposed to just being static figures from which the main character derives events or, worse, Flanderized characters that become more simple over time rather than fully-formed characters. 

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One of the best ones is the shy donut girl becoming a rock star in a horror-themed band.

This movie does have Steven going through an arc, but most of the other Gems’ arcs are essentially recapping their previous character developments. Since it’s a film and time is limited, that’s not inherently bad and it does allow for people who aren’t familiar with the show to get a good sample of what made it great. Additionally, in true Steven Universe fashion, Spinel gets an excellent character arc including an absolutely amazing backstory and resolution. There are a few seeming Dei Ex Machinae, but the fact that the film is presented as a Broadway musical kind of makes that seem appropriate, since most plays have that as part of the conclusion. 

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Surprisingly, she didn’t get really into Siouxsie and the Banshees between these shots.

The music is fantastic, with at least 3 great earworms. When you consider how many great musicians collaborated on it (Aivi & Surasshu, Chance the Rapper, Gallant, James Fauntleroy, Macie Stewart, Mike Krol, Grant Henry (Stemage), Ted Leo, Jeff Liu, Jeff Ball, and Julian “Zorsy” Sanchez, as well as Estelle and Aimee Mann), as well as how many great singers were involved, that makes sense. The animation is fantastic and done perfectly with the songs. I particularly love that Spinel is animated to be a cartoon from the 1930s, a la “Steamboat Willie.” Sarah Stiles’ voice performance makes it even more apparent that she’s designed to be goofy comic relief that’s been tortured into being a villain. This makes her fight animations extremely interesting and creative, because while most of the characters in Steven Universe are relatively humanoid and move like they’re solid and normal, she moves completely erratically and elastically, which adds to her dangerousness. It also ends up making her feel more “obsolete,” something that plays well into her backstory.

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We even get a one-man duet and it is awesome.

The main thing I love about this movie is that it condenses one of the major themes of Steven Universe within the narrative: Change. Change is the most important thing to Steven, because he not only asks others to change, he shows them that it’s possible by changing himself. It’s routinely pointed out that this is perhaps his greatest ability, because other gems cannot change. They’re born in one form with one purpose and they will stay that way forever. The Crystal Gems are notable for the fact that they have all changed, with Pearl, a born servant, becoming independent, Garnet, two different gems combined, choosing to live as a fusion through the power of love, and Amethyst, a defective gem warrior who works to adapt to a life completely different than the war she was born to fight. However, Steven, as a human adolescent, is constantly changing and growing, going from nearly powerless at the beginning of the series to an incredibly powerful force, but he only ever uses that strength to try and endure until he can show people that empathy is the real way to end conflict. He routinely forgives people for trying to hurt him in order to show others that forgiveness is even possible and can really work. He turns the other cheek when people hit him and loves them anyway, but he mostly shows them that he can be better, so they can be better too. He also chooses to empathize with those who hurt him and understand why they’re hurting too rather than choosing to judge them for their actions. Basically, he’s a half-human half-effective-deity with magic powers that encourages people to love each other rather than judge each other and to try and live your best life rather than yelling at others for what they do that you don’t approve of and I can already feel the DMs in the inbox for this sentence. The film goes ahead and takes this to the next level by having Steven acknowledge that even the changes he’s undergone to this point cannot be enough, that change needs to continue forever because we can always be better than we were yesterday, and that understanding that is his greatest strength. 

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He does still get angry, though, if pushed enough.

Overall, this was an amazing film and I recommend it for everyone with kids because it teaches you things that even a bunch of reptiles doing backflips and killing robots never could. It also has Steven essentially winning a fight with the absolutely devastating line “Only you can.” In context, it’s one of the most poignant and relevant things I’ve seen in film, so see the movie and get the context. Maybe you’ll find you’re changed by it. I’ll leave you with one of the last lines from the show:

I don’t need you to respect me, I respect me. I don’t need you to love me, I love me. But I want you to know you could know me, if you change your mind.

If you want to check out some more by the Joker on the Sofa, check out the 100 Greatest TV Episodes of All Time, Collection of TV Episodes, Collection of Movie Reviews, or the Joker on the Sofa Reviews.

If you enjoy these, please, like, share, tell your friends, like the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/JokerOnTheSofa/), follow on Twitter @JokerOnTheSofa, and just generally give me a little bump. I’m not getting paid, but I like to get feedback.