Channel Awesome
We finally see how Steven’s Mom and Dad met. The romance is strong with this one! Check out today’s Vlog on Episode 48 of Steven Universe – Story for Steven.
Tagged with: channel awesome doug walker rob walker steven universe steven universe vlogs story for steven television
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Wait til you find out who Marty is! Hee hee. This episode is one of my faves for Greg’s song, ‘Like a Comet’ alone! And hats off to the nod to Jem and the Holograms during Greg’s song. And Amethyst’s outfit reminded me of Rainbow Bright and the Color Kids. He clothes looked a lot like Shy Violet’s outfit in the show.
Greg’s performance made me think that a Jem and the Holograms remake animated series could actually work – they could play up the whole 80s cheese thing while also, simultaneously, doing it sincerely.
Then I found out about the movie X_X
ignore the movie, read the comics. they are fabulous.
I agree. The comics are great!
Marty I think turns out to be Sour Cream’s dad or something? So far he really hasn’t done much so whatever. But I think we’ll eventually get more about him later on.
Anyways, next episode: Stuff gets real and we begin the countdown to the Season Finale!
Why did you feel the need to say that? You should only point things out on the episode they happen on.
I don’t think that’s ever been actually confirmed in a later episode. The whole “Marty is (probably) SC’s dad” thing is from this episode.
no, it’s canon. marty is sour cream’s father.
Steven has a Game Cube and Wind Waker in his room, so the show takes place after 2002 at the very least.
He also has a smartphone
i love the contrast between old Greg and Young Greg .. that first moment when the song starts always hit me
I feel like not enough people harp on this. Sure it’s an upbeat song and it’s filled with eighties cheese, but people forget that this promising young musician’s career ends in a carwash with a dead wife and an absentee son. And here he is singing his heart out to an empty audience about how strongly he belives in his dream. People often forget to note the almost shakespearean tragedy of it all.
I think that’s why I believe Greg is one of the best characters in the show. Or at least best written. It just gets even sadder when you look at everything through his perspective. He wanted to give so much to the world with his music, and asked for almost nothing, eventually having everything taken from him years later.
An important thing to know: the Gems’ ages are an illusion. They look fully grown at birth. In fact, Amethyst’s hole is the exact same size as she is in the show’s present, despite clearly looking smaller here. The question is, why? I’m guessing the Crystal Gems were going through some kind of “young” phase. Maybe they just wanted to kick back and relax after the war ended thousands of years ago? Or maybe it’s just purely aesthetic so we know the characters are supposed to be younger, like why the emotions in Inside Out are all the same gender in the mom and dad’s head while Riley’s has mixed.
And don’t worry about the romance appearing simple in this episode, as strong as it was. Prepare for an interesting perspective on human/alien love.
Amethyst is the same size as she is in all the other episodes. She and the other gems just look smaller because they are being compared to Greg instead of the much smaller Steven.
Plus Garnet’s usually the upper boundary for character height. Between a grown adult replacing the usual reference point and Rose towering over everything, everything seems much smaller.
thats the thing with gems. Basically everything is a illusion. Gems dont really recognize anything. Age,gender and what have you. They just know they exist and live as such.
My running theory is that Rose’s leadership style emphasized stasis for the group. As a result, the Gems are made to look younger to emphasize their relative lack of emotional development. Pearl was still nursing a crush thousands of years old that appeared to be going nowhere. Amethyst was comfortable appearing as a child because she had no responsibilities in the group. Rose’s leadership kept the group harmonious, but prevented them from growing. With her gone, they had to go through some radical changes in a relatively short amount of time, especially for an immortal race.
About the Episode Order:
The mix-up between sources comes from the difference between episode Production numbers (in what order they were produced) and the order in which they actually aired. Some episodes were shuffled around for various reasons.
Wikipedia lists the episodes in order of Production. Season 1 had 52 produced episodes. However, three of them (Shirt Club, Story for Steven, and Book Club) were held over and broadcast as part of season 2. This was in order to end out Season 1 with a heavily-promoted “Steven Bomb” in which CN aired a new episode every day for a week, all 5 of which were an interconnected story-wise and culminated in the big season 1 climax.
I know Doug and Rob will never actually read this, especially before they get around to watching the Steven Bomb arc starting next episode, but newcomers following along with their commentary should be aware of why there is an ordering mix-up that they mention occasionally
Oops, I got some details wrong. That’s what I get for trying to write it out via memory alone. “Story for Steven’ was part of the original Steven Bomb and wasn’t held over for the second season. Plus the other episodes title should have been “open Book” I don;t know why I always remember it as Book Club…
I don’t think they are watching the Steven bomb order if that’s what you were trying to say?
Story for Steven was not part of the original bomb, the original bomb was: Rose’s Scabbard, The Message, Political Power, Return/Jailbreak, Full Disclosure.
But nevertheless, they’re using production/”intended” order (minus Say Uncle, anyway).
I’m pretty sure Marty was a device through whom the story could have been told, it wouldn’t have made much sense if Steven didn’t already know how his parents had met. It gave an excuse for Greg to tell the story again so the audience could see. Anyway yeah he does come back. Great video as usual! x
Looking at the ‘younger’ Amethyst and the younger Grey vs the ‘older’ ones they look to be the same height + or – a tad. Just younger looking.
I don’t know why but I keep getting the vibe that Steven is not as old as he seems. I’m sure I’m wrong but I keep thinking that in some future episode we’ll find out that Steven is only 3 or 4 but because he is half Gem his aging/learning curve is all messed up.
If they liked this one I wonder what their reaction to “We Need to Talk” will be?
this was a great episode detailing some background to greg meeting the gems and falling in love with rose.
When I watched this episode on YouTube everyone had a deeper voice, copyright I guess, and I actually think Greg sounded better than the standard version.
The Gems’ age are an illusion, they have different appareances because they feel that Rose is like their mother. When Rose gave birth to Steven, the Gems took the role of Steven’s moms, which is why they changed their appareances again. Also, you missed when Amethyst says that she likes Greg’s hair. Why is it important? Because Amethyst then uses Greg’s hair style 🙂
You mentioned the song! 😀
“Yeah he’s just an old amigo from way back when… He’s dead to me.”
Story for Steven was good, although a certain season 2 episode kind of overshadows it. With the possible exception of Lion 3, this is the first time we see Rose as a normal person, instead of the mostly unseen idealized figure that everyone builds her up as. I didn’t particularly care for Marty’s as a character; he seemed way more one dimensional than we normally see out of this show. However, I do like the theory that Greg’s negative memories of Memories led him to slightly exaggerate his personality and features.
Onward to the remainder of the Steven Bomb!
Plus we do know Greg… modified other parts of the story as well.
Yeah, the thing with Amethyst’s age has always fascinated me. She is over 5000 years old when she meets Greg. But she definitely is acting and dressed like a child. And she is smaller, Pearl just picks her up. But assuming that the modern stories are about 20 years later, there must have been a sudden shift in Amethyst to jump to “teen”. I would assume Rose’s end/Stephen’s birth would be the cause. Especially since the other two change as well. And we still don’t know how many millennia old they are. But yeah, we don’t know much about how gems age. They apparently don’t age for at all until they just suddenly do.
Amethyst would definitely make a good case study of gems.
Is Steven *really* supposed to be 12? I thought 10, tops. His voice being that high (his voice actor is super talented to pull that off, IMO) plus his enjoyment of really simple things, his ignorance, his naivete, his boundless enthusiasm and energy… I dunno. I didn’t get a “middle school age” impression. Maybe just me.
Finn, Dipper, Mabel, and Gumball have conditioned me to think that the default age for cartoon characters is 12, so I assumed the same of Steven. His voice is starting to crack (double kudos to Zach Callison for being able to pull off that delivery as well), and he’s capable of reading some fairly advanced books for an elementary schooler. This might just be me, but my schools never had dances until middle school at least, and Connie mentioned her school having dances in the past, which further gives me the impression that they’re twelve. The traits you mentioned are just a part of Steven’s character, I doubt he would lose those even as a teenager.
People develop differently and their environment plays a huge part in that. Given that Steven grew up in an pretty healthy and positive environment with his loving dad and three alien warriors who’re trying their best to prepare him for life his behaviour isn’t much of a stretch.
He simply is that kind of guy who’s genuinly nice, optimistic and energetic. Plus he doesn’t go to school so that might’ve contributed to it since Steven is the kind of kid that would get beaten up for no reason all the time and that would’ve really screwed him over.
Fly like a comet!
Baby Amethyst best gem.
Pearl loves leg warmers.
Glad you made mention of the musical number at the start of the episode. The musical team got some pointers from Estelle (Garnet’s VA) about music production as the season went on, and it really shows here. Tom Scharpling isn’t the best singer on the show – though that is some stiff competition – but the self-backing vocals and production work really make for an amazing musical number. It adds an interesting detail to his backstory, in that he wasn’t a burnout, no-talent loser who just settled in Beach City. With those musical chops, he had genuine talent and at least a better than even shot as a professional musician, but he gave it all up to be with Rose.
I’m glad the Walkers are watching it in this order, since this episode suffered somewhat in my view because it aired immediately after “Love Letters”. On the other hand, a joke made early in season 2 is kind of spoiled by seeing this episode first. Still worth it.
I love this episode. There are so many good things in it. The humor is good (“… he’s dead to me”). The song is wonderful. I also love how we can see Steven in his parents. Seeing Rose in person and a younger version of Greg shows how Steven really bears a noticeable resemblance to both of them. Both of them make facial expressions that we’ve seen Steven make, and Rose’s laugh sounds just like his.
One of the theories about this episode is that Greg met Rose in the 90s actually. While the gems are dressed in very 80’s looks the theorist speculated that the reason was because the Gems weren’t making much contact with humans so they were out of touch and dressed as what they what was still “hip”
The other reason for this theory was because of of the theory that Sour Cream is Marty’s son. Sour Cream a Teenager who looks LOT like Marty (in length of face and hair at least) which would make sense as he did hook up with a lady in the episode… implying that around this time is when he was Conceived.
If the show is set some time around now based on the human technology in the show (Steven’s phone for instance) and Sour Cream is a older teen then that would mean he was probably born sometime in the 90s.
Anyways most of that is based on theories people have had. No idea how much of it is true.
Within the story Marty wasn’t pointless at all. He was used as a story telling device to explain away why Greg tells Steven the story despite him already knowing it (he mentioned that he knows it in Laser Light Canon). Actually pretty clever.
And in the bigger picture Marty has another role.
On the whole giving up your live for it: Greg back then didn’t exactly had much of a live. He was a college dropout (probably even in his late teens/early twenties) musician who toured around with a douchy manager. If you could choose between this life wich probably leads nowhere in the long run (at least not with Marty) and pursuing an relationship with a huge alien chick, the later seems much more appealing. And the episode does have a sequel so yes, they will develop it.
The massive height difference is because Gems work on the 40k Orc principle of hierarchy: the bigger you are the higher your rank is.
Steven definitly was born as a regular baby. It was confirmed in an old promo in-character interview (wich was written by the creative team thus pretty much making it canon) and Rebecca Sugar drew an baby Steven picture a while ago. And my guess is that Rose and Greg met in the late 80s, stayed together during the 90s and got Steven in the early 2000s. I think he starts of the show at 10 years old meaning that he was probably born in 2003 since the show has a sort of realtime progression. And it’s definitly taking place in modern times since he does have a smart phone with apps, Ronaldo has an modern blog, there is a Twitch like livestream service and down the line we see that a Youtube equivalent exists in the show. The reason why Steven has an oldish TV and old video game concoles might be either because the creators have a fondness for the N64 and the GameCube or because it’s the only stuff they can afford. Wich would make sense since Greg is a washed up musician in what seems like his early to mid 40s owning a carwash, none of the Gems actually work and Greg probably doesn’t even get any kind of government support since, well, how do you explain the origin of Steven to the family support people and not come off like a total nutjob.
…
Also, Pearl with leg warmers wich is just awesome 😀
The show generally has a timeless feeling to it wich makes it relatively difficult to guess the time period. Wich is a good thing though since this will make it feel relevant even decades down the line.
This episode was suppose to come later in season 2 you still didn’t finished season 1
I like the ending to HIMYM
Steven was younger http://theworldofstevenuniverse.blogspot.com.ee/2014/01/comic-greg-universe-special-01.html
There is a channel on youtube called The World of Steven Universe where you can see the cannon younger Steven Steven Universe – Extended Theme Song [HD]
Wow, you guys are just on a roll now, huh? O.O Follow up comment to come.
I too really dislike the manager as a character, he’s just such a straightforward asshole, I mean I know you don’t like him and frankly I’m not that big a fan personally too, but at least with Lars they make an attempt to give him some redeemable qualities, the manager just feels more like plot device than a character.
To be honest I wasn’t that big a fan of this episode’s plot, since I don’t really care about romance, the two things that I did however like was 1 Rose, who I think might be my favorite character of the entire show, and seeing the young crystal gems, especially kid Amethyst who’s just so freaking adorable.
Next up: We learn Gem communication is pretty shit for a space faring race.
it’s amazing how at this point the Crystal Gems had lived on this planet for 6000 years at least, yet it seems like this is the first time they ever actually tried interacting with humans. They’ve been SUPER isolated for most of their existence.
Another Steven Universe song that I like. The music in this show is really starting to grow on me now. The episode was so good that I was shocked when it was over.