Steven Universe Future: An Ode to Adolescence

Image source: SU Wiki

Many times in the past, I’d written about Steven’s needing to take up the roles of caregiver, authority figure, and generally being an adult throughout the series. However, I’d also written about how Steven Universe Future highlighted that Steven is in the process of growing up. Both are true. This meta explores how SUF is a dovetailing from the childlike worldview Steven had in the original series, eventually coming to celebrate his adolescence, in all its ups, downs, and uncertainties.

Teenaged Ang-Steven

Image source: SU WIki

Very glaring in the SUF episodes is that upon first impression, Steven is grumpy for many of the episodes. He loses his temper more often than he did in the original series, which surprised many fans when SUF aired.

Biologically-speaking, this isn’t a big surprise. In Earth-years, Steven is at the age when his body is growing and changing. He’s 16 in SUF, the age when a lot of people go through puberty. But it’s not only that. Accompanying his growth spurt and deeper voice, he’s also still learning about and navigating the Gem aspects of his physiology. Physical and hormonal changes are enough to alter mood on their own.

More than that, though, Steven is in the age of adolescence. What adolescence means now varies depending on the source. Generally, though, it’s referred to as a period of rapid growth and development physically, cognitively, and socially. After all, between the ages of 10 and 24, it is generally expected that the youth pick up skills, find direction in life, and find ways to cope with and function in society. 

And the age range for that development is wider than just the teenaged years. For someone with Steven’s background and maturity, SUF was his time to find out where he should begin forging a vocation for himself. It might be later, especially for those who have pursued formal higher education, since they’re students until their early 20s. For others, who take on work while studying, or who don’t attend formal schooling, it might be even earlier.

Image source: SU Wiki

Steven is cranky, snappy, grumpy, because there’s a lot of pressure to figure things out. Though we are uncertain of Steven’s actual lifespan, he lives on Earth and was raised on Earth time. He feels the urgency of deciding the way a lot of young people feel pressured to choose a college program, or a particular line of work. The prevailing logic is that one gets started, and works their way up until they’re “successful,” whatever that may mean to them.

In our modern, capitalist society, this may mean earning a stable income. For more traditional communities, this may mean settling down and having a family. For some, it may mean having a fulfilling, productive vocation to pour your life into. For nearly all of us, it’s some mixture of the three. And Steven might be feeling this as well.

Crystal Kid, Grown Up Too Soon

Image source: SU Wiki

Character Analysis: On Steven in SU Future Part 1

It’s been quite a while since the last SU analysis, but let’s get right back at it. In this post, I want to talk about how Steven was introduced in Steven Universe Future (SUF). I’ll be limiting the discussion of his character to the first 10 episodes, from Little Homeschool to Prickly Pair, because I feel like episode 10 serves as a really good act break for the series. Mainly, I’ll be focusing on the jarring introduction we have to Steven who, we see, struggles with peacetime. 

If any of you remember my reaction posts where I talk about how my kid cousin reacts to watching SU, well, she’s not such a kid anymore and found 16-year old Steven uncomfortable to watch at times. 

In SUF, Steven is 16. Mentally and emotionally, that's quite a ways away from where he started in Gem Glow, when he was only 13 years old. Saying he’s also been through a lot is an understatement. And if the answering back, general fatigue, and tough cynicism, surprises you, you’ll have to consider that:

1. We’ve seen this side of Steven since the SU Movie and even in the SU series

The SU movie began with Steven wanting his happily ever after. In the aftermath of Change Your Mind, Steven was slowly rebuilding his life back on Earth. After two years, he thinks he’s finally settled down. That’s when Spinel arrived. And quite a few times, he responds to the events going on around him with cynicism, frustration, and feeling as though he’s been cheated out of his peacetime and closure. 

Source: SU Wiki

And this thinking is probably true for a lot of us. We tend to view our life in chapters and neat boxes. We try to point to just one big thing that we’re chipping away at slowly, in the hopes that after that thing is solved, we’ll finally be happy. Whether that’s money, power, or a specific attainment, it’s easier to generalise one thing as the solution to our problems.

For Steven, it was dismantling the Great Diamond Authority and freeing the colonies. The GDA and especially White Diamond served as the embodiment of what he felt was his main obstacle.

When Spinel introduces a new problem, one left behind by his mother, he’s understandably frustrated, because Steven was born into a context he couldn’t control, and over and over again it feels as though Rose’s shadow continues to cast a darkness over his life that he cannot escape.

But life doesn’t resolve itself so neatly. For as long as we remain, there will always be new challenges to face and new opportunities to take what we can from them. Even in the movie, Bismuth tells him,

Source: SU Wiki

And in SUF, he once again feels that way. Supposedly, the past was supposed to be put behind him. That’s why calling it Steven Universe Future is so brilliant. The entire series, he’s trying to look to the future, but the past cannot so simply be erased.

There are other things, like Steven imposing his will (in ways he cannot control at times) over others. The way his bubble enclosed over everyone in Little Graduation is very similar to his trapping Lars and Sadie in Island Adventure. Steven is still Steven, and sometimes, Steven overzealously thinks he knows what’s best for people and wants to help them be happy. It’s just that Steven has powers that can literally force people together.

Snow Day is reminiscent of Steven’s Birthday when Steven is afraid Connie is going to outgrow him, and he tries very hard to act his age, even pushing the limits of his shapeshifting.

The difference is that the way he’s experiencing and processing these same feelings is more complex now. He isn’t insistent that Lars and Sadie should be together because he thinks they would be. Now he just feels like he’s being left behind while everyone else’s lives and decisions are going in their own directions. It wasn’t that Lars and Sadie decided they weren’t going to work out so much as he, as their friend, felt like all of this happened without his knowing. 

Similarly, Steven isn’t afraid of being outgrown or left behind now, but he does want to be acknowledged for the age and maturity he does have and how he wants to present himself. Because at the core of it...

2. SUF is about Growing into Adulthood