Epilogue: The Connie Rant

Ah-ha!

You thought I was done. But I in fact had another point about this movie that I wanted to say that didn’t fit into the whole fiction/analysis reverse basket weaving trick I pulled. Now it’s in the epilogue, and you have to keep reading!

*evil laughter*

So, Connie.

Where the fuck was she this whole movie?

(Screeshot from Steven Universe, used under Fair Use)

CONNIE THO.

I fuckin’ loved this little bit (Screencap from Steven Universe, used under Fair Use)

So remember that whole conversation about how Steven Universe built a super realistic depiction of oppression in its worldbuilding and then turned around to argue that the dismantling of said oppression is a product of making the people at the top feel good about themselves and not empowering the people who are actually marginalized?

Remember when I talked about unintended consequences?

I want to go back to a season 4 episode of the show, and one of my favorites, Gem Harvest.

This episode is a half-hour special where Steven’s racist uncle comes to visit Greg’s barn. It’s about bringing your family together despite your differences and helping people who may start out as close-minded understand who you are through their love for you.

It’s a bit idealistic, but it’s still really good.

Anyway, there’s this one bit when all the characters are seated at a Thanksgiving dinner spoof. The racist uncle tries to connect with the other characters, but they all go around telling inside jokes to each other. The point of the scene is that the uncle felt excluded, and that the jokes were kind of a barrier for him to understand what Steven’s new family was all about.

But that’s besides the point.

In this sequence, the characters do a Thanksgiving parody of the story of Steven Universe and Pink Diamond turning against her government to protect the Earth.

I love this clip. But…

The exchange (linked above) goes like this:

Greg: Alright, we don’t wanna start another Gem war at the table. Garnet: Ooooh, don’t start it! Peridot: What if I just came to this table and started colonizing it because I’m a Homeworld Gem! Amethyst: But you can’t! This table has corn on it! And it’s beautiful and we’ll defend it! Peridot: You’re right. Now that I’ve spent time at the table, I can see the value of your corn! :3 Lapis: Why don’t you put that corn in a mirror for thousands of years, and then see how it feels about the table? (cackling uncontrollably because she is not okay) IT WOULD REALLY HATE THE TABLE Everyone except Peridot: o_0

It’s super funny and probably some of the best character writing the show has to offer.

It’s also more than a little 𝓅𝓇ℴ𝒷𝓁ℯ𝓂𝒶𝓉𝒾𝒸 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧.

This conversation presents a view of colonialism that treats the oppressed race (in this case, humans) as passive bystanders to the conflict. It asserts that decolonization isn’t the effort of native people demanding self-determination. It asserts instead that decolonization is the process in which the higher race realizes the error in its ways and condescendingly elects itself as the defenders of beings it views as passive objects.

And you can’t argue the Gems aren’t condescending. Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl are repeatedly shown to barely interact with humans at all. In the early seasons especially, Pearl for example really does not care so much for the human race.

It’s very much in line with Steven Universe’s top-down view of dismantling oppression. It argues that if the people at the top were better people, things would be better for the people at the bottom. Yet, it still agrees with the people at the top that the people at the bottom are weak and have no agency.

In fact, there’s one episode where humans, a human, rather, do try to get directly involved in the fight for Earth: Rocknaldo.

In Rocknaldo, conspiracy theorist and career neckbeard with 4chan for a brain Ronaldo decides to become a Crystal Gem. His efforts to mimic the Gems and their culture are over-the-top and disrespectful. The main takeaway from that episode is that humans can’t just up and decide to be Crystal Gems just because they think they’re woke.

When it comes to defending Beach City, the humans, the native people subject to colonization, the people who’s environment is being destroyed in the name of profit, are always on the sidelines, doing the background work or evacuating.

Lars had to die and be reborn thanks to Steven’s unhuman Gem powers before he had any kind of ability to stand toe-to-toe with the off-color Gems.

Remember how I said the way Steven Universe frames conflict makes it incapable of telling a story where marginalized people rise to reclaim their rights and place?

It applies to this too.

Alright, fine. What’s this all got to do with Connie, then?

It took me several attempts to get this screenshot just right (Screencap from Steven Universe, used under Fair Use)

Connie is the only human character in the show who has any direct involvement in the fight against Homeworld. She decides she wants to be useful for Steven, so she works on her skills with a sword until she can fight like the other Gems.

She’s the token native in this story about decolonization. As long as she’s around, the troubling lack of agency the subjects of colonization have in Steven Universe can be safely handwaved away for the most part.

In this movie, however, Connie is missing. She fucks off to space camp at the beginning of the movie. Steven recalls her when Spinel starts going off the rails, but in the end, she wasn’t even needed to fight anything.

Without the token native, Steven Universe’s handling of colonialism becomes super awful.

Imagine, if you will, a story of African decolonization that focused on the efforts of the few European thinkers and activists who resisted colonialism, while presenting the native Africans and Arabs who fought for their homes, cultures, and way of life, as simple objects that the white people were there to protect?

It would be fucked up. And it’s fucked up here, even though the concepts are now abstracted through Steven Universe’s worldbuilding.

There’s not an excuse for Connie to not be in this movie, even if there was a thing where her voice actress couldn’t do too many lines. If the theme of the film is change, Connie’s done that more than any of the characters on screen.

(Screencap from Steven Universe, used under Fair Use)

In Steven Universe: The Movie, when Spinel is abut to kill Steven, but before Steven has his powers back, Steven realizes:

“All this happily ever after stuff has made me forget the first power I ever had: the power to change!”

It should’ve been:

“All this happily ever after stuff has made me forget the first thing I ever learned: I don’t have to take everything on alone. My friends have always had my back. No matter who wants to hurt our home, we’ll all be here to protect it together!”

And then Connie should’ve busted in on Lion to save his ass again and they should’ve formed Stevonnie and they should’ve fought Spinel together.

(Screencap from Steven Universe, used under Fair Use)

Steven and Connie’s relationship is the bedrock of the show. Why even build up Stevonnie and their training if not for them to come in at such an obvious climax like this one?

We’re talking about the woman who literally brought Steven’s two halves back together in Change Your Mind.

(Screencap from Steven Universe, used under Fair Use)

Without Connie, Steven would be dead.

DEAD

Connie is super important but gets no love or recognition for this effort in this film. And because Connie is the only native in a story about decolonization, natives are super important but get no love or recognition for decolonization.

The fact that the show erases the contributions of a woman of color just to give all the credit to a white guy, like, doesn’t help either?

If I sound bitter, I’m only disappointed. I really do like this show. That’s why I expect it not to make mistakes like this. But we’re five season in and the slip-ups seem to be getting worse the more the Crewniverse seems to want to take themselves seriously.

I understand that it’s not on purpose. I trust that Rebecca Sugar really wants to tell and inclusive and progressive story. But doing the opposite by accident isn’t the same as not doing it, you know?

I understand that Rebecca Sugar is Jewish and non-binary and I understand that Steven Universe has one of the most diverse writing staffs in American animation. But for every two wins for diversity and inclusion Steven Universe brings to American children’s TV, there seems to be another instance of the Crewniverse writing like a bunch rich white assholes.