On “Villains” in SU

I know I talk about it a lot on the blog, but after being prompted by the latest ask I received, about the interview in which Sugar said that there wouldn’t really be iconic villains in the show, I thought it was time to clarify my stance yet again.

The world of Steven Universe is presented in such a way that we cannot completely blame one villain for orchestrating everything that’s “wrong” with the world. There’s no character in a tall arm chair twiddling their fingers while a fluffy cat meows menacingly in their lap. And to be honest, it’s not a novel concept at all. 

Greek Tragedy played with the concept of Fate, which one could never outrun. That’s not a villain in the conventional sense at all.

Shakespeare brought us tragedies and comedies all about human nature: The Macbeths’ ambition, King Lear’s pride, the Montague’s and Capulet’s prejudice. It wasn't character versus character so much as it was characters versus themselves.

Anime have always grappled with themes like these, and I thank my early exposure to them that let me see Western media with new eyes.

Even modern cartoons tackle these themes beautifully. Gravity Falls never had one villain who orchestrated every monster and paranormal attack. Rather, it was the setting that brought out the best and worst in its characters, all of whom, at one point or another, believed they were just doing the right thing. 

Adventure Time’s most evil character, the Lich, is just a physical embodiment of the nuclear fallout from the Great Mushroom War, and his existence speaks more of the people who caused that war than of himself. Its earliest “villain,” the Ice King, was completely changed as a character in latter seasons, only because we got to see more of him, his story, and his motives. 

There are a lot of things I love about SU. The music, the characters, the pacing, the meta questions, the lore. So Steven Universe, to be very frank, is not new in this sense. But this and everything else about the show is what drives me and a lot of people to love it. 

And that has never been to say characters didn’t do hurtful and antagonistic things. We’ve seen characters have an outburst of violence, or say something hurtful, or deceive another character, or tried to indoctrinate someone else. 

But we get to see their motives. We get to see how that encounter has changed all parties. There is no hard reset every episode that renders the main premise ceteris paribus. Things change; characters change.

SU is the kind of show in which people can identify and identify with the characters. On this blog, I don't try to take that away. But something I’ve given as an answer once was that we’re also not these characters. We can identify with certain behaviours and certain aspects of their relationships, but we’re not limited by their arcs. 

Not having someone to blame every unfortunate thing on in the show comes as a reflection that a lot of harms in society are systemic and systematic, that certain institutions legitimise and perpetuate harmful behaviour and misconceptions, and that even the most innocuous beliefs are learned.

I love this show because we are face to face with these realities. Sometimes we all need something to make us question what we believe in. I am of the belief that it’s not growth to live in a bubble. So I will continue to support this show, in the spirit of how I feel it was meant to be interpreted.