Why is the Steven Universe fandom so disliked?
The Fandom you’re referring to is infamous for being very aggressive and overly sensitive on many social networking sites.
Because of this, they are very much disliked. A great example of this can be seen in regards to art-focused websites like Deviantart and the occasional Tumblr.
Some fans of SU are very sensitive to certain themes and often don’t like it if something goes against their view. (i.e. Rose Quartz being drawn ‘too skinny’ is a great example.) Some also are rude enough to occasionally attack the SU crew when the show takes an unexpected twist.
The cause for this toxic Fandom is mostly two-fold.
We live in a very emotionally charged and aggressive day and age. Everything someone can say or do is a target for ridicule by others. We all know that.
Unfortunately, many of the people (mostly referring to young adults) are drawn to this show because they’re very passionate about the themes it covers. When left unchecked, this passion often results in the ‘Toxic Fandom’ you’ve heard about.
Other fans may be emotionally unstable or overly aggressive. Often, you’ll find people who can’t process opposing opinions or take criticism on board.
Why is the Steven Universe fandom so disliked?
The Steven Universe fandom has faced criticism due to repeated intolerance, aggressive behaviour, and over-sensitivity to specific themes.
Some issues include The Rose Quarts Body Type Controversy in which a minor was harassed, the Fandom’s activity on social networking sites, and huge fluctuations in toxicity and degeneration within the community.
The Rose Quartz Controversy A.K.A Zamii070’s Harassment Controversy
The most infamous incident of Steven Universe harassing an artist is the Zamii070 harassment campaign. This artist drew the protagonist’s mother, Rose Quartz, with a slimmer body type than had aired on the show.
Since the gems are merely light projections, they choose their body type while hibernating within them. Steven Universe is renowned for its inclusivity and representation. So some fans took offence to this altered depiction of the previously hefty Rose Quartz as they believed it deviated from the show’s core values.
The X factor of this incident is the Cartoonishly SJW Villainy that occurred. It would make a passable satire if this hadn’t resulted in a suicide attempt. Here are some examples:
These people then spread out to harass her over all her art. Even art of My Little Pony characters.
This unrelenting hatred resulted in the artist being hospitalized in a suicide attempt. The craziest part was that the Rose Quartz she drew was less skinny than some of the forms the Rose Quartz later takes up in the show:
Why is the Steven Universe fandom so disliked?
Another crazy element of this story is the harassment was so bad it ended up drawing empathy out of 4Chan. It inspired a counter-protest art blog where 4Chan people recoloured characters and resized them with maximum provocation in mind, toying with the rage of mindless toxic fandoms for sport.
Aggressive Behaviours on Deviantart and Tumblr
The Steven Universe fandom has a notoriety for being cruel, aggressive, and overly sensitive across social media. It concentrates densest on art-focused platforms.
Some fans are like Sett, waiting at the alter for an artist’s heart to be weighed against the feather of social justice and devoured if found wanting. The previous Rose Quartz scandal somewhat evidences this, but it’s been far from the only one.
Moreover, a few have gone so far as to target the show’s creators when the plot takes an unexpected turn. R/AskReddit asked, “What’s the most toxic fandom?” Steven Universe quickly climbed to the top 5 behind Politics and Rick And Morty.
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Why is the Steven Universe fandom so disliked?
Part of the Plot: Fusion, Pedophilia, and Abusive Relationships
When I first started watching Steven Universe, I had a few moments where I said, “This would be harder than porn to explain”.
A mechanic of the alien races called ‘Fusion’ allows the aliens to come together to form bigger aliens. Fusion is a metaphor for a relationship. However, it comes across as extremely sexual or sensual and very uncomfortable.
I’m pretty sure the first fusion of the show involved Amethyst tossing herself into Garnet’s implied snatch.
Fusion is used well in some places as a metaphor, but it really falls down in other places. For example, fusion is easily read as a sub-in for a sexual relationship.
Why is the Steven Universe fandom so disliked?
In one episode, a character becomes addicted to being fused to another, so they deceive the other character into fusing with them repeatedly. Is this not an allegory for rape through deception…? Well, I hope not because it is easily forgiven if it is.
Then there is the literal rape metaphor known as The Cluster, which is so traumatizing for one character to behold that they break down and become angry for days.
In some places, it works; in others, you are left asking, “What are they trying to say here?” and then there’s Steven fusing with his father to form this weird gyrating rockstar:
We Forgive the Space Fascists
Another thing people hate about the show is its casual forgiveness of its overarching villain, the space British, who have been colonizing the galaxy, genociding as they please, subjugating the queer and disabled, but it’s okay, guys; they promise to be nicer.
You give me a queer-coded show with three giant step-on-me fascist mommies, and then you give me this:
In some ways, a fate crueller than death, but damn, can’t we have beheaded at least one of these guys? Like, there’s a literal white supremacist fascist genocidal maniac right there fawning over you.
It’s important to recognize that Steven Universe attracts a crowd of mostly young, very left-leaning people, and those two characteristics can be downright caustic in terms of intolerance. That said, any large fandom will have toxicity. Dr Who, Star Trek, Sherlock, and Supernatural have all had their share of growing pains.
Why is the Steven Universe fandom so disliked?
The main difference is that most don’t have the sensationalism of nearly driving a minor to suicide to boost their legendary toxicity. Such coverage inevitably draws in more people who like causing that pain, and it’s simply advertising.
That said, the community has calmed down since the show’s end and the burning trash fire that was Steven Universe Future (Which draws the same reaction from me as Shyamalan’s Avatar Movie).
The most toxic elements may have aged out of the Fandom and are currently harassing a white high-schooler for wearing a kimono.
Unfortunately, the chaos and lack of coverage regarding Fandom’s recovery have led to a lingering reputation for toxicity.
This reputation perpetuates fear and negative assumptions about the Steven Universe fandom despite significantly improving the situation.
The one thing this poisonous Fandom can’t take from us is the pure joy of Peridot pushing Greg off a roof.
Is Steven Universe good?
Edit: I finished the series, don’t bother. The number of unfinished plot points, underdeveloped characters, and times they treated mental health badly have made the ending to this show nearly unwatchable.
It’s still an interesting world; if you love worldbuilding, watch! It is still my favourite part. Other than that, I don’t like what they did. The movie didn’t sit right with me (besides Spinel, who was amazing). Jasper, Peridot, and Lapis never got the attention, arcs, or writing they deserved, and Steven Universe Future was… interesting.
It kept getting worse & worse. They also ruined Jasper, 0/10. So please, watch to get a better handle on the world, but it isn’t worth it.
Despite many people who love or hate the show, I’d say Steven Universe is a genuinely good show. Underlying agendas aside, the show has an excellent plot, well-developed characters, and pleasant animation.
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Why is the Steven Universe fandom so disliked?
Much effort has been put into the show, and it shows through character interactions and overarching plotlines. Most of the hatred you’ve seen towards you is because of:
- The fanbase. Some genuinely terrible people follow this show. Please, please be careful when interacting. You will meet casual fans and more intense but nontoxic fans, but you will more than likely meet many people who believe that watching this show makes them better than you and know about every LGBT issue ever. They even drove a girl to attempt suicide, but she survived. If you watch it, separate yourself from them.
- LGBT themes. This show features a lot of those themes. Most of the aliens are feminine and use female pronouns, and there are even some canon relationships between them, but if I said more, I’d spoil it for you. Just remember that Rebecca doesn’t skirt over the presentation of gay relationships.
The show’s good. Watch it for yourself and evaluate it. Don’t let homophobes or cringy SJWs stop you from enjoying this show. It didn’t stop me, and it shouldn’t stop you.
You can watch it on Hulu, iTunes, Amazon Prime, and Vudu; some episodes are free on Cartoon Network. You can also find some episodes on Vimeo and more sketchy websites, but just be careful.
To wrap things up, people don’t like the show because of the people who watch it or the LGBT themes it has, not because it’s a bad show. Give it a go.
Why are the Gems from Steven Universe female?
Gems aren’t male or female; they happen to present in a feminine manner. Until Rose, none of them ever reproduced like a living being, either.
However, they present females in the show because the concept of the original Crystal Gems was based on different aspects of how Rebecca Sugar saw herself as a sister to her younger brother, Stephen.
After that, it carried on to all other gems because why not? Media needs a more varied cast of female characters to prove they can avoid falling into a narrow set of tropes to be believable or likable.
Why is the Steven Universe fandom so cancerous?
Two reasons.
- The Lgbt and SJWs ruin it by taking the whole “gender, race and sexuality” thing too far. They attack anyone who makes inaccurate fan art, has a problem with the show related to the three things I mentioned, and, on rare occasions, attack the actual crew who made the show. (similar to a book that Stephen King wrote)
- The fans take it way too far. It’s cool to buy merch, play games, read comics and make art about SU. But if someone mentioned one small problem with the show, they attacked them and called them out for something they did in the past. There’s a 2-hour video about what’s wrong with SU, so many fans got upset and attacked the person.
I like the show for the story, characters, looks and the message it said. Some people take it way too far.
Why is the Steven Universe fandom so disliked?
Why is “Steven Universe” so amazing?
Some of the reasons I like Steven Universe include the following:
- Great lore
- Great music
- Cute animation
- The empathetic boy character is not portray as weak
- Relatable characters
- Canon lesbian couples
- A topic like consent is obvious without pounding kids over the head with it like they’re stupid
- Overall, you can tell they put a lot of effort into making the show, which makes me happy.
Is Steven Universe a boy?
No – he identifies as a boy, but he is technically some alien gem matriarch mutant human hybrid.
Technically, he is a diamond that has been gummed up in some human batter. On the two occasions Steven has had his diamond removed or put out of commission, he has rapidly started to suffer from ill health that, had it continued, would most likely have led to his death.
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He is a gem fused with a human being since that human being’s conception. How Greg and Rose managed to do the dirty and make Steven happen is both obvious and mysterious at the same time and most likely will NEVER be explored in what is a kid’s cartoon.
Why is the Steven Universe fandom so disliked?
What if Steven was shattered in Steven Universe?
Steven can’t be shattered.
This was known in a few episodes in Steven Universe and the Movie. This only happens because Steven is the only human with a gem, half Rose-Quartz.
If he got beat up by a gem, being shattered by the logic of gems would mean death.
Why is Steven Universe popular?
I can’t speak for others, but I’ll explain why I like the show.
To give some perspective, I’d like to state that I am a 36-year-old conservative straight man with two kids (the eldest of whom is seven and who got me into the show) and that I’m usually someone who hates stuff like gender politics in creative media.
I am a big animation fan, but I grew up on stuff like ’80s and ’90s Japanese anime.
That being said, I’m a big fan of Steven Universe for several reasons.
1. The gender politics isn’t stuffed down your throat, which usually happens with creative media. What usually happens is the creatives of some new show or film will make a creative decision to make a character unique and scream those details down the viewer’s brain stem.
Steven Universe doesn’t do that at all. It’s all just normal for Steven, and he approaches it all with a child’s simplicity since, at the start of the show, he is a child. It’s all normal for him; thus, we are forced to review it through his eyes as normal and deal with our perspectives on his normality.
Why is the Steven Universe fandom so disliked?
Which is nice and how stuff like gender politics should be approached when dealing with someone like myself. The show talks with me, not at me, which is something I very much respect.
2. Tight format – the show is simple. Simple doesn’t necessarily mean bad, though, but it does convey a LOT of information and character development in a very short time.
One 10-minute show will convey Pearl’s PTSD, Amethyst’s inferiority complex, or an emotional message from a dead mother to her son. It’s simple writing but done very well in a very short time frame. As a creative myself (I worked in print and TV advertising as a scout), I can respect that. Simple is hard to do in creative media.
3. It’s character-driven. So many TV shows or films these days are spectacle-driven. The hero (usually a hero) is designed with little or no development to allow the viewer to BE the character somewhat – they are purposefully made bland to try and draw the viewer into the character and, thus, into the spectacle. Z
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They wear the character like a pair of Y-fronts. But spectacle only works once or twice on the viewer. Once the spectacle is gone, the viewer is left somewhat empty. Steven Universe doesn’t do spectacle (much). Characters deliberately drive it.
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They do odd stuff for necessary reasons, and they grow and experience by overcoming their faults and shortcomings. They can be petty, annoying, or lazy. Which makes it far more interesting or surprising when characters act or don’t act in a certain way. Peridot is a perfect example of this.
4. The characters love each other and show it – that’s nice to see in a kid’s cartoon. So many kids’ stuff is so flighty or action-intensive that you have no idea why the Autobots would be a team or why the Power Rangers like each other.
With Steven Universe, it’s crystal clear. They are a family with all that that entails. Love is a big theme in the show, which everyone can understand.
5. It’s relatable. All of the themes that the Space Gem Warrior Terrorists from a distant universe deal with are easy for kids to understand and deal with. Pearl deals with loss, Amethyst with being the runt of the litter, Garnet with stress and Steven with living up to a huge standard.
Kids understand the theme of, for example, not being able to do something that comes easily to others, even if that thing is generating a magic shield out of their belly button. Simple, relatable themes that everyone understands.
Why is the Steven Universe fandom so disliked?
6. It deals with conflict in the most mature way I’ve ever seen in any creative medium. He deals with every single problem that Steven has by communicating effectively. That’s Steven’s superpower. He talks to his opponents until they realise they are a giant arsehole and stop.
My favourite example is Spinel in the movie, who literally punches herself out and then breaks down and cries. If they show Steven Universe when he’s 25, he will be a magical psychiatrist.
7. The characters are realistic. Yes, they may be made of light ninjas and fight weird monsters, but they talk and deal with situations quite realistically. Part of it is the trio aspect so that Garnet is the collected one, Pearl the high-strung one and Amethyst the laid-back one, with Steven providing the heart.
Greg is also well-developed and realistic – everyone knows a Greg type – hell, my uncle was a Greg type, and I named my second born after him (although his name wasn’t Greg).
My personal favourite, though, is Connie – she doesn’t take any shit and kicks arse, which is quite novel and fresh, especially since she’s the love interest (not stated, but, come on, it’s pretty obvious).
8. I like the sci-fi. It’s an interesting take with great visuals (Lapis’ Water Space Elevator was impressive, and I love the Space ships). Especially to someone like me who does see LGBT stuff like it’s stuff from Mars.
As a conservative Catholic man, I’m not someone who is ever going to be intimate with stuff like transgender politics or gay rights.
Please note that I’m not knocking it, and I certainly don’t know enough to talk or critique it in any way, but it’s just something that’s not me.
It’s like asking a fish what it thinks about air – so the way the politics are portrayed (Space Aliens) is enough to get me to appreciate it on a level that I can relate and understand in terms I’m comfortable with – I grew up reading stuff like X-Men comics and 2000AD.
It has an everyman approach, which I like. And like I stated in 1, it’s not stuffed down my throat so that I can enjoy the show on its merits.
9. The movie was a musical. Usually, I hate musicals. I hate them with the passion of a thousand suns. I would claw my eyes out and then watch one. If you wanted to drive me mad, locking me in a cell with Annie on repeat would do so in about a day.
Especially modern musicals, I had to watch The Greatest Showman the other day and thought it a load of shite. And yet, I couldn’t hate the Steven Universe movie, which did its music very well.
It told the series in the first song, introduced the villain, gave the hero the problem, did a number for each of the trio and then a pre-confrontation song in the style of a Bollywood, the fight song and then a resolve song that tied up all the numbers and finished with a Burlesque Revue.
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Why is the Steven Universe fandom so disliked?
It was all done with the same style and charm the rest of the series had. It’s something that people should notice because the songs weren’t particularly great or memorable, but they were relevant and on point, and they advanced the story properly and in good order.
They worked. Plus, they have drum and bass and house beats, which I grew up with, so I can relate to them. Funnily enough, my eldest brother, a DJ, has used samples of Steven Universe in his sets.
So, the thing to take away from this long answer is that Steven Universe is something that I should, by all metrics, despise.
I have nothing in common whatsoever with any spectrum of the LGBT rainbow. Yet, I like Steven Universe because my love of good writing, interesting characters, and fun plots that go somewhere that I want to see trumps my complete lack of interest in gender fluidity, sexual politics and all that jazz.
Rebecca Sugar is a very talented cartoonist, and I liked Adventure Time and can see similar character designs and influences. So she’s definitely on my list of creatives I’ll look out for.
And yes, I know that she’s gender fluid or non-binary or whatever the fuck term is floating about these days. But that doesn’t matter because she’s a cartoonist and a damn good one at that.
Why is the Steven Universe fandom so disliked?
Conclusion: Why is the Steven Universe fandom so disliked?
I think it’s because a huge portion of the fans are incredibly toxic. Some of them are Social Justice Warriors and LGBT worshipers who take things way too far.
Some of them start shipping wars and argue over which pairing/fusion is the best, and they seem to forget that all the Gems, except for a select few, are both asexual and aromantic. Some people ship Steven with some of the Gems when his actual love interest in the show is Connie.
Some of the fans obsess over the characters too much, write fake bad reviews of the real-life Keystone Motel, harass white cosplayers for cosplaying characters of colour, care a lot more about their feelings than the facts, exalt some of the songs (especially “Stronger Than You”), draw porn and fetish art, and harass Susan Egan because she voiced Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond (who is a pretty topical character in the show).
And then there was that one incident where one artist got death threats for allegedly drawing Rose too skinny. Not to mention, they cannot handle criticism and will rage whenever someone criticizes them.
In short, when it comes to fandoms like the one Steven Universe has, you’ve got to be careful, as many people in the fandom can be huge jerks. That’s why I prefer to stay out of all the drama happening in my fandoms.
Why is the Steven Universe fandom so disliked?