Steven Universe and the IDIC

I stay away from websites like Tumblr.  I have a Tumblr account I don't use, but I won't even go near Tumblr for the same reason I won't go near League of Legends: the hostile "friendly community."  I will grant that a good amount of Tumblr isn't vitriol - what isn't I get the highlights of in screenshots on my Facebook and Twitter feeds and that's good enough for me.

Really?

Tumblr catches my ire in particular because of its focus on fandoms.  That can be such a negative word these days.  Fandom.  To rhyme with lavatory attendant.

I have ranted before about the dark side of fandom.  It didn't have any particular focus.  So I'll grab on something that's recently come to my attention about one of my favorite fandoms.

In a purified vein of the IDIC there is a cartoon show called Steven Universe.  Steven Universe is a member of a team of alien warriors who protect the Earth from hostile aliens of the same species.  But Steven requires that none of his teammates do so by killing.

Steven is a hugely inclusive show, with intentional normativity in its inclusiveness.  The aliens are, with one notable exception, all female.  So when they develop relationships with each other they are not human hetero relationships.

Mind you, they're not human relationships at all.

Human relationships wish they were this good.

The team who works on Steven Universe has been pretty open with sharing their work in the past (within legal constraints) because they're proud of what they do.  They should be, they make a good, compelling product.

My kids can watch a show about a goofy fat kid with magic powers but also learn about how complex interpersonal relationships and communication are.  This show is so powerful it still helps me deal with the emotions I have regarding my divorce.

I'm not crying, there's something in my eye.... oh, who am I kidding?

I cannot pontificate enough about the superiority of this show.  It's witty and deep and it will speak to your inner child and your struggling, confused adult.

Greg is doing his best, but let's be honest it's hard enough raising a kid without magic powers.

Tumblr is full of kids who want everything to be socially equal.  That's a laudable dream, it's even at the core of the IDIC and a good deal of what is actually depicted in Steven Universe.  But these kids, who have come to be known by the now pejorative term "Social Justice Warriors" take things too far.  Especially when it comes to fandom.

A storyboard artist for Steven Universe quit Twitter because of harassment from these fans.  The subject?  The fans didn't like the way the show was developing the relationships between three characters.

Peridot is a recent addition to the Crystal Gems

Fairly new to the show, Peridot has struggled to fit in with her new friends, the Crystal Gems (Steven and his family of alien warriors).  She is outgoing but awkward because Earth culture is new to her.  She made an attachment with one of the primary Crystal Gem characters in order to help her fit in.

Amethyst is the youngest Crystal Gem (besides Steven) and normally the most laid back

Amethyst, unlike the other two Crystal Gems, was able to get along with Peridot because she has a great sense of humor.  She had maybe a couple episodes where Peridot and Amethyst developed their friendship.  Mostly they were concerned with stopping a giant monster from consuming the Earth.

But there's also Lapis Lazuli

Lapis Lazuli is the catalyst for all of the problems the Crystal Gems have been facing in the show.  She has a troubled past, and is constantly brooding.  Because she wanted to leave Earth, she drew attention to the Crystal Gems from their home world (named, incredibly, Homeworld).

Lapis Lazuli couldn't return to Homeworld after preventing an evil gem from completing her mission of destroying the Crystal Gems and allowing the Earth to be destroyed.  With nowhere to go, she shacked up with Peridot.

There are paragraphs to write about Lapis Lazuli and what she means to the show, but they're not relevant to this argument.

All the metaphors for unhealthy relationships

Now, as a pretty open-minded person who doesn't try to read too much into things it seems like all three of these characters have reasonable platonic relationships with each other.  They are close, as friends are.  They all desire companionship, but all of them aren't well-enough adjusted with themselves to seek out romantic relationships.

I italicized the words "storyboard artist" earlier, so I'll get to my point and justify that now.  I'm not going to say that a storyboard artist has no creative input on the way the show goes, but her job is generally input as far as presenting the sequences in the way that best captures the story cinematically.  They don't sit around and decide who's screwing who, especially in a children's television show.

It's goddamn ridiculous that fans would target her as the focus of their anger and vitriol.  These kids are out of control.

But more importantly, Steven wouldn't approve of that kind of behavior at all.

Lauren Zuke, the artist who left Twitter, tweeted that life exists outside of Steven Universe.

Kind of crazy that she would even have to tweet that.

But if you don't believe Lauren for whatever reason then really you need to be asking yourself whether or not Steven would accept you as a Crystal Gem for behaving that way.  Yeah, we're all different.  But that doesn't mean we have to be different kinds of jerks.

The show is about hope, humanity, and love.  It's about love that transcends simple binary relationships and undermines our perception of love as a road to sexual gratification.  It's about real, honest love.

It's about Pearl's unrequited love for Rose Quartz

It's about Ruby's love for Sapphire

It's about connecting across cultural gulfs

It's about finding freedom in your love for each other...

...even though it acknowledges that most love is fleeting.

It's never about who is with whom.  If it was, we wouldn't have met

Sugilite

Opal

Sardonyx

and Alexandrite.

In fact, in every episode where the characters are concerned with who's in love with whom, someone inevitably gets hurt.  It's like the writers of the show are trying to tell us something.  Huh.

As far as Lauren Zuke is concerned, even if she does have any creative control over the relationships of the characters try celebrating her art instead of trying to direct it.

Peridot isn't ready for a real relationship with anyone anyway

Remember that, whatever your fandom, nobody likes a backseat driver.  Feedback is cool.  Hate isn't.