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.

Finally done!

Finally us!

Finally we…

Are in the future!

Happily ever after, here we are.

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,

When has it ever been easy?

Hasn’t it always been hard to be us?

When you go against the grain,

There’s always somebody around you can’t trust…



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

As a child, milestones are very easy to come by. Every birthday is celebrated or at least marked, you move up in years in school, and you have very concrete achievements because you’re acquiring skills faster than at any other point. There’s addition, then subtraction, then multiplication and division, and then do all that but with fractions. And that’s just math class.

Similarly, SU the series felt that way too. Steven faced every problem head on. He took a lot of things in stride even when it would have been completely understandable for him to be angry or frustrated or even hopeless for a while. And then the milestones he’d set for himself, like finally going on a mission, mastering his gem powers, learning about his mom, going to Homeworld, defeating the ultimate threat, all of these were checked off one by one.

As mentioned, Steven is ready to settle down and build up his life. He matured very quickly, but is was mostly other-focused. He was the Gems’ emotional support because they repressed so much of their feelings. I’ve written in old posts that it feels like he had to take care of himself when he started living with the Gems because they left him at home alone much of the time, even when the series started, and he was very considerate of them despite that. He spent a lot of time wandering around Beach City and helping people, because it was his dream to be a hero.

Now, Steven is at the age where people start to work or seriously consider what paths they’re taking in life because skills take much longer to acquire (think about the time invested in a college degree, vocational training course, or even just getting really good at one thing that makes you “marketable” and you can make a living from).

Everything he learned about combat and Gem abilities was useful when it was technically war time. But in peace time, he needed a new set of management and administration skills, and definitely a lot of new facets of emotional maturity to do with moving on and coming to terms with the past. There is an entire movement for veterans and other people who have lived apart from society because of their careers needing some form of counselling and skills training, not because they aren’t capable or emotionally mature, but because they spent a lot of time refining other skills for a different context that don’t apply as much in their new context.

And it’s the same for Steven. He’s annoyed and snappy a lot because he’s tired. He’s adjusting to his changing context and his added new responsibilities. I can vouch for always being snappy with my loved ones when I first started working too, not because it’s incredibly hard on its own, but because it’s just different from when I was a student.

It’s not to say that he’s incapable of happiness. He’s adjusting. And that sometimes means that the rest of the world has to keep up with how you now view yourself too. The inconsistency between how he sees himself and how others see him is especially glaring because he lives with aliens who are essentially immortal.

Two Earth years, to a Gem, is no time at all. Even when huge events happen in their lives, it takes them a long time to process and get over, because they have that luxury. Though we’re not sure what Steven’s lifespan is going to be like, we do know he was raised on human time, feeling the urgency that each new day brings as in So Many Birthdays.

3. Steven Has Come So Far

This brings me to my last point for this post. The Steven we see, who is very paranoid, less open to just accepting or believing in the good of every individual (like Bluebird), is not a hardened stranger. Steven still generally leans towards pacifism and seeing the good in others (think of how many attempts he had trying to connect with the Lapis Lazuli in Why So Blue and his new relationship with Jasper in Little Homeschool). But he’s learned specifically from his mistakes. That sometimes, some of the people you meet aren’t ready to change (Bluebird). Or they might have hurt you so badly that you yourself need time to heal before you can just forgive them (Rose Buds).



Steven has come so far. They all have, as the opening song reminds us. But just as there is no happily ever after where life becomes uneventful and indulgent drab, we never finish growing and changing. Steven is now trying to navigate his feelings, but also keeping in mind that he’s an adult now, or at least, that’s what’s expected of him.

Developmentally, he’s an adolescent, a time in one’s life with a lot of frustration between what is expected and the power one is actually given to achieve it. It is a time for wanting independence, which is why he doesn’t approach Greg or the Gems the moment something goes wrong. It is also a time when impulse control is not so great. And we see those outbursts too. What’s always made me a fan of the show is how there are support systems and self-awareness to acknowledge, address, and make up for any damage that might have been caused. After all, just because Steven was subjected to a lot of stress, it doesn’t mean he wants to spread it around and continue the cycle of hurt. It’s something he himself is acutely aware of avoiding. Here we are in the future.