Steven Universe Vlogs: Episode 39 – Future Vision

Steven finds out anything can kill him, but is it worth spending his whole life afraid of everything? Check out this Steven Universe Vlog, Future Vision.

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23 comments

  1. Beedrills are the worst,
    Cookie Cat is so evil!
    Garnet steers the ship.

    In regards to how quickly Steven snapped out of his anxiety phase, it’s probably at least partially a function of how he’s not normally an anxious person. This phase was brought on by extenuating circumstances. Connie is more likely the person to suffer from prolonged anxiety like this, as seen in Stevonnie’s freakout in “Alone Together”.

    I am typically not a fan of stories or characters that revolve around being able to see the future. Partially because it kills any dramatic tension before it can even form (see also: Twilight), and partially because anytime something unexpected happens, the immediate question is “Why didn’t the future sight person pick up on this?” It’s implied in later episodes that Garnet’s future vision works kind of like a search engine: instead of seeing all possible futures with perfect clarity, she can query certain events and see their potential outcomes. It’s still a very useful ability (and why she’s able to locate the Gem monsters without any kind of detection equipment), but it’s not a complete tension killer.

    • I agree it’s the best example and way to use someone who can see the future. It never feels cheap. Like in “cry for help.” She can’t see them finding peridot becouse of someone else’s actions.

    • Dune is a good example of a story where several characters have similar abilities involving see the future, but like Garnet, it’s not precise. And in Dune the fact that the characters can see the future is an important point.

      • I’ve always felt that Dune was the exact worst about seeing the future negatively impacting the quality of the story, but then again I’m pretty much the only critic of Dune out there so maybe it doesn’t matter.

    • MidnightScreeningsman2014

      I like the stories where people can see into the future and I love characters that want to see how they turn out in the future(like the time capsule episode fin SpongeBob where the krusty krab buried a time capsule for stuff for the future and SpongeBob,Patrick,andsquidward were stuck in it but whee that episode was meh this was a good episode).

      But I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who noticed the bee drill I forgot to mention that in my comment but glad you recognized it!!!!:)

    • Yea I like the fact that the future powers are not super OP. Garnet can see outcomes,but what steps are taken to get there.

    • I always liked how the character with foresight was handled in World Trigger, where they just sort-of see possibilities like “If this guy beats this guy, then it will lead to a future where this specific thing is likely to happen.” Like it only works IF people do what he tells them to do to get the best possible outcome, but if one guy completely effs up then all certainty goes out the window and they could end up with the worst possible future instead.

      Like in one fight, one guy is just like “I’m going to rush off and be a hero” and gets an awesome scene, but then he gets his butt kicked and that messes everything up and quite a few people end up disappearing and nearly dying because of just this one guy going against the plan their future-seeing character came up with.

  2. I want to know why Steven imagines wasps as Pokemon. They look just like beedrill!

    • Have you ever fought a competitive Mega Beedrill? Those things are freaking horrifying! Yeah, they’re glass cannons, but still they’re terrifying glass cannons!

  3. Next one… I’m excited! 😀

  4. “I see so many things that can hurt you. I should never have let one of them be me.”

    Future Vision, more so than any episode before it, did a great job with placing Garnet in a vulnerable position. In the earlier episodes, she can come across as aloof and emotionless, so it’s great when the show provides glimpses of her humanity (So Many Birthdays, Warp Tour).

    “Ah, no! I never considered that you would be evil!”

  5. This was a fun one and it gotten dark in the end
    It is always hard to see multiple futures if it would be only one future then it would be easier

  6. LOL, Follow up comment to come when I’ve seen this episode… probably later this week. Yeah, I get test anxiety. Just yesterday I got a 8 out of 10 due to it… -_- Also, I still don’t like being a millennial. I consider myself a Generation Z. LOL. Yeah, I got off-topic along with the V-log. 😀

    • I get test anxiety really bad, but only on advanced math tests. I’ve failed dozens of calculus test just because I couldn’t even write anything down, only to attempt it on my own later and pass.

  7. MidnightScreeningsman2014

    *cookie cat ah I thought you were good*

    Yeah I liked this episode but kids should know that stuff will be dangerous and I remember back in my old neighborhood my sister and my neighborhood would challenge me to jump off dangerous and big stuff and climb trees and stuff like that and back then I was such a wuss but now if someone told me or dared me to climb a tree I would do it. Now that you brought up hotel translyvania 2 and that camp,I loved that Dana carvey voiced the camp instructor and loved even more that the character he was voicing had the same name as him(and I loved his child molester voice xd halirious)!! .

    Yeah this was a good episode and I remember watching a preview for on the run but don’t remember the episode that much so now to watch it again!!!!

  8. The Hype train for “on the run” is leaving the station.
    Also, this episode’s name always reminded me of the 2nd ever episode of Red Dwarf “Future Echos” for some obvious reasons, and some not so obvious, such as both being excellent examples of using seeing the future for dramatic tension and not killing it.

  9. I feel like a more advanced explanation of future vision is long overdue. On paper it seems like a completely OP power, but it has been demonstrated time and again, either directly or indirectly, that there is SOME limitations to her abilities. That or Garnet is incredibly stupid, but that’s obviously not the case. She doesn’t seem to be able to see too far in the future. In fact she only seems to be able to see the direct possible consequences of a choice or event.
    Furthermore, she seems to need to be aware of the possibility of said event to begin with (i.e. she was able to see steven’s freak-out which was a ways ahead, but only as a direct result her telling him about future vision. Thus I don’t think she is able to glimpse the complete vastness of time and isolate exact paths. In addition, it doesn’t seem to be a passive ability, always working. One thing I know for certain is that she doesn’t know how to get from point A to point B.
    All told the impression I’ve always gotten is that her power works thusly: she wants to know the outcomes of an event or choice, she activates future vision and only sees all possible results, but not how to achieve any of them beyond a reasonable guess, she then selects the preferred option and does her best to get there.
    This would explain most of the problems with future vision such as: why she doesn’t simply look up any info the gems need, why she couldn’t discover pearl rebuilding the com hub (she was asking about an event that didn’t exist), why she can know the outcome of a problem but be unable to do anything about it (i.e. being unable to prevent steven’s freak out, not knowing how her fight with pearl becomes resolved, etc.). Finally it would also explain why her descriptions of the future are only chances of certain outcomes rather than exact steps: she doesn’t actually know how to acheive any of the possibilities.

  10. I don’t think that rewarding participation is a bad thing perse. Building a healthy amount of self esteem is pretty important for kids especially in these days where there is a massive pressure on them in school and in their early jobs. Getting rewarded for just taking part in something can help massively to prevent depression and self worth issues. Just make sure they feel liked even if they weren’t sucessfull. Of course it should be done in a way where they still want to accomplish things themselves so it shouldn’t be overdone.

    On the matter of these anxieties: I know that too well. I do have it sometimes with job interviews (for no reason at all I might add) and everything regarding mathematics.

    On the episode: I really liked that Garnet told Steven about her future vision because she wanted to be closer to him. That was pretty sweet. Garnet is best cube aunt.

  11. get ready for the next one….

  12. Personally this episode reminded mostly just reminded me off that one SpongeBob episode, the one where SpongeBob becomes a shut in after an accident because he’s too afraid that the rest of the world might kill him, it had disappointingly few gorillas however.

    This episode is pretty personal for me, since I have a very weird death paranoia, I’m not really afraid that I’m going to die, but every single time I make a choice I wonder if it’s going to kill me, like I miss the train and now I almost expect the next train to derail and kill me, or maybe it’s the other way around and the train I missed could have been the one to kill me, or maybe both trains would have killed me and I should have just stayed in bed.

    Next up: Steven and amethyst finally runs away from the crazy people they live with, about time really.

  13. Yay! A Garnet-centric episode. Maybe it’s the British accent but she will always be my favorite character. The second time where Steven imagines all the situations that can go wrong was really funny. The very last end has a really good pay off as well.

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