Channel Awesome
Is it possible? Did we come across a bad episode of Steven Universe?
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Don’t worry guys, almost no one likes this episode either!
Thankfully he gets less unlikeable, although just as cringy, later. But this is one of the last “bad” or uninteresting episodes. There’s one about Garnet I don’t really like coming soon. 35 onwards though, perfection. (Except a couple that are just enjoyable).
lol I hope you don’t mean Garnet’s Universe. That was hilarious, particularly if you’re an anime fan
I am a fan of this episode either. I think he can be fine in very small doses.
Yeah… This is kind of the slump of season 1. After Watermelon Steven it’s almost nonstop great episodes, though.
I already posted this on youtube but I’m posting it here too, for emphasis. Ronaldo sucks, every episode he’s in suffers from his occurance. He’s a neckbeard caricature played entirely straight with next to no redeeming qualities, that we’re intended to sympathize with, I cringe every time I see him, he even makes me want to like Lars because relatively Lars seems like a much better guy. At least Lars never actually attempted to hurt Steven. He is, in my opinion, the worst thing about this otherwise fantastic show.
We all hate Ronaldo it’s OK to hate him, also his conspiracies are not a dumb as they are so don’t put them off a crazy ramblings just yet.
Don’t worry Doug, perfection comes in a few episodes.
I hope you mean Lion 3: Straight to Video. Of course, Pretty much every episode, barring, like, 4 is good (or at least moves plot/world building/characterization forward) through the end of the season.
Edit to the above:
“Pretty much every episode STARTING WITH LION 3 is good, except for 3.”
There’s a think about Ronaldo – HE IS RIGHT!
At least at the end
Listen to his rant at the end:
“Polymorphic sentient rocks! They’re here to hollow out the Earth! It’s part of the Great Diamond Authority! They’ll take on any form, ”
He basically just summed-up the show’s plot, even the parts that were not revealed yet!
“Polymorphic sentient rocks!” and “They’ll take on any form,” – he basically just described the Gems
“They’re here to hollow out the Earth!” – this is actually a pretty good description of what a certain faction of Gems was attempting to do
“It’s part of the Great Diamond Authority!” – he basically just flat-out named the show’s main antagonist, a whole season before they were officially introduced
Yeah, but he’s such an asshole.
does not make him any less right
But him being right doesn’t make him any more likable. Just makes him a vehicle for the writer that could have come in any form.
actually, a crazed conspiracy theorist is the perfect vehicle for something like this, seeing how nobody believes them
A right answer with wrong reasoning doesn’t mean much; He may have been right about that point, but how many other theories did he have that were bull? For gods sake, he almost killed someone because he couldn’t tell the difference between a shitty costume and a snake person, I wouldn’t give much heed to any of his insights at that rate, even if they do happen to be right
not defending him
just saying that what he said at the end was in fact important
that was indeed funny. The creator basically spoiled alot of the show within the show.
Ah man, I hoped they’d like this one. Not a lot of people seem to though.
I admit the first time I saw it, Ronaldo freaked me out. It was only after I rewatched it did i realise Ronaldo didn’t kidnap Steven but the “Snake Person”. After that I noticed that despite his dangerous behaviour egotism, he’s actually a pretty caring guy. I find that kind of interesting.
I’m also honestly curious about how he got into the whole conspiracy stuff in the first place. I will probably get to like him less if he never get’s any development.
I also really enjoy the creepy atmosphere in this one too.
Doug and Rob might really like to skip Horror Club though…
I get their points, but I kind-of had the opposite reaction that most of the people here seem to have to this episode. Like I wouldn’t say it’s the best episode, but I liked it and thought it was pretty good conspiracy theory humor. Stuff like them building up that Ronaldo’s going to go on about the gems before blaming everything on snake people out of nowhere will probably never stop being amusing to me and we even got a bit of insight into some fairly accurate plotpoints at the end, give or take some leniency in interpretation, as well as an interesting note or two in small details. Like why IS there a gem printed on their money? Is it a joke based on satanic symbols on the dollar bill or is it actual foreshadowing since the gems have been around long enough to influence humanity if they wanted to? We don’t know and I think that plays into the joke and the potential satire of conspiracy theory nuts or people who try to theorize about the show in general with wild accusations.
But that’s just my general thoughts on this episode. I guess the big thing is that I didn’t take it super seriously, Ronaldo thought he had an alien, they proved him wrong, then to cheer him up they just gave him something new to focus on instead of his own problems. Sure, it’s not exactly a healthy existence, but some people just kind-of need something to distract them from real-world problems and I think they showed that fairly well.
What I find interesting about Rolando is that he is the only character that responds like a real person to all the weird in SU. Just look at the beach episode with the Pizzza’s. Garnet falls out of the sky and destroys a building but walks away unscathed. Amethyst shape shifts, a giant blow fish attacks, and when it pops it turns into a gem, but none of the Pizza’s act like this is weird. Every one in Beach City may act a little hesitant, but in the end they don’t question it or try to understand how or why this is happening. Rolando does, he points out that Beach City is weird.
That being said, he is still annoying as shit.
If they were going for that angle though, I think they’d have been better off having some new character move into town (or establish that the Fryman family moved there fairly recently) since the gems have been there doing what they do for longer than Beach City’s existed. To anyone who’s spent there whole life there all of that is just totally normal.
It’s kinda funny how Doug and Rob are talking about hating the same guy they liked in Steven’s Lion when he said funny lines like “STEVEN’S PREGNANT!?” “This is amazing! It’s invisible!” and totally forgot who he is.
One good line, does not a good character make.
you are being just like Ronaldo here
I’M GOING ON 36 HOURS NO SLEEP HERE MAN!
There’s only one explemation…. Snake People. Wake up, Sneople!!! The Walker Brothers have been replaced by *theeemmmm*.
I actually forgot this episode existed until today, shows how much it made an impression on me! I didn’t forget Ronaldo though, as he’s kind of hard to forget. Not sure if it’s in a good or a bad way though.
Did you, like myself, think that this was the other Ronaldo episode?
I’m quite frankly confused. Ronaldo is meant to be a butt monkey character and as that he’s perfect in every single episode he’s featured in and I think his entire behaviour is hilarious. I also highly disagree on the characters voice wich I think is really good. As a person he’s actually okay (not outstandingly kind or friendly but okay, like if he weren’t so delusional you’d have no problem hanging out with him okay) but way too caught up in his selfish desire of being important. And like EmoTheWonderGirl wrote: he’s the only character who actually responds like an actual person to the Gem stuff thats going on. He’s alot like Frank Grimes in that regard.
Dougs criticism of the episode reminds me of the MLP:FIM episode “Feeling Pinky Keen” wich was a good but had an moral not even the writers liked.
Also, since when does everything NEED to be enlightening? That’s a really weird demand to have when watching a TV show. Fiction is primarily there to entertain, everything else it can do is completly optional. And why are you constantly looking for a moral? Barely any of the episodes do have any profound morals and if they do it’s usually just repeats of previous morals.
04:44 Rob, you’re actually sort of right.
I don’t think his reaction is all that normal. He got really disinterested in all those unnatural events when they were explained as been gem related. He only got interesting in gem stuff after he got the idea of gems having sinister plans.
To me Connie is the character with the more reasonable reaction. “Magic? Awesome!” That is one of the reasons she is soo great.
“How did I never see this before? I know what the diamond means…Polymorphic sentient rocks! They’re here to hollow out the Earth! It’s part of the Great Diamond Authority!”
Yikes. If they felt this way about Keep Beach City Weird, then their reaction to Rising Tides/Crashing Skies should be a spectacle. This episode made almost no impression on me aside from the above quote. Ronaldo’s conclusion is quite funny in retrospect.
Nope, I still hate Lars more. At the beginning, when Steven was like “Help Me! Save Me!”, I was reminded of the Spy Kids commercial song where the things were like “Floop is a mad man. Help us, Save us!” Anyone know what I’m talking about? No? Just Me? Ok… Anyways, I think that the moral of the story could also be: Ignorance is Bliss which is true in most cases. 😀 I never got assigned The Great Gatsby in school but then again, I spent most of my life in the ghetto so… *virtual shrug*
Just wait until he and Lars are in the same episode together. I’m sure you’ll get a lot of fun out of that one. Lol. X)”
freakin Renaldo ruining everything. I personally dislike him more than Lars.
Yeah this is my least favorite episode of the show, though I don’t necessarily think its a bad episode just mediocre with a lot of wasted potential. I don’t even hate Ronaldo(he is one of my least like characters), its just his existence and the way he acts brings up too many questions that have only barely been touched upon and just endlessly bug me. Like, why is he the only character to react to this weird stuff going on, why is he so disinterested in the gems if he is so into weird stuff, why is almost everyone completely uninterested in the gems? If everyone just treated their existence like it was normal than it would be fine, but he sometimes does and some times does not. As the show has progressed it seems the gems have been ingrained in this earth’s history, but how much of them is common knowledge is still up in the air.
Also I can’t help but be bothered by Pearl’s quote, its a really insightful line, no denying that, it just feels weird that she tells Steven that humans are so insignificant, when he is half-human and has a human father and friends. It makes sense for her to feel that way, but to just tell Steven that to his face so nonchalantly feels wrong.
So overall this episode brought up two issues I had with the show(why most of the humans barely care about the gems and all the magic stuff going on, and Pearl’s incredibly condescending view on humans and the earth) and made them worst, and only slow over time have either of these issues been addressed and made better.
Oh I forgot that Pearl’s line came from this episode! Thanks for the reminder! I think that was the point of the quote though. That Pearl is condescending and has a superiority issue. Some people thought it was a really deep quote but it wasn’t supposed to be.
About the humans barely reacting to gem stuff, yeah sometimes that bothers me too.
Someone from Tumblr said it best about Pearl’s “insight”:
http://shipsinkandsails.tumblr.com/post/116279833609/toongal-torukun1-creepyjirachi
“It’s weird how people reblog this and just accept it as some ‘deep’ quote without even challenging it. I’m not saying this because I feel like Pearl is mocking my humanity personally but because we know for a fact the gems have very a prejudiced view of humans.
The crystal gems see humans as inferior to them and it’s displayed throughout the show. They don’t bother to learn about human technology, try to understand their lives, or even obey the laws required to live with them. Everything about humanity/human culture is either weird or beneath them, so why bother? The only personal interaction the gems even have with humans is due to Steven’s influence (either because he wants to go to a fair, a festival, play volleyball, etc). So, with that being said, why do people seem to trust Pearl’s views on human society? She’s never really bothered to learn about them in the first place, so where is this ‘profound’ information coming from?
To me, this doesn’t come off as deep. Instead, I say it shows a flaw in Pearl’s character. This whole spiel sounds like something you’d say about a group of people you don’t think highly of. ‘Why do they do the things they do? Oh, it’s obviously because they have nothing better to do with their dull, insignificant lives.'”
I don’t mind Ronaldo. Though I guess I just have a high tolerance for annoying characters I guess and I think he can be one of the more funny characters. I did forget about this episode though.
Ronaldo is by far the worst character in the show and yet he has TWO EPISODES out of 68… so far and of course his episodes are the worst.
I think you are forgetting one, Rising Tides, Crashing Skies, and it’s great.
I’m not gonna say it was gems … but it was gems.
I like Ronaldo, he reminds me of my brother. We watched a lot of “in Search of” type shows growing up.
The most significant thing about this episode was slipped in in the middle: the dollar bill. It’s the first explicit reference that all this is taking place in an alternate Earth. Think about it: the Gems have been on Earth for thousands of years. All of human history has happened with them running around in the background. Certainly since Europeans came to the Americas. So we have a dollar bill with a Diamond and the “Join Or Die” snake.
Yeah this is probably my least favorite episode too. Ronaldo is best in small dosses and out of the 3 episodes that focus on him this is the worse I think. Even the one with him and Lars in it works better if just because of Sadie and the spooky stuff.
Huh, I really liked this episode, mainly for how awful, crazy and broken he is.
Ronaldo is such a waste of potential.
In a world were magic not only exist, it’s around for soo long that it shaped the history, no one gives a fuck (except Connie). Well, here we have a character the is soo obsessed with secrets that he is actually paying attention. His theories, as stupid as they were, could be highlighting the gems influences through history, show us more about gem creatures we didn’t got the chance to see or expand on unusual gems that aren’t actually dangerous. Instead we just revisit events from previous episodes.
It’s already bad the Ronaldo is a thin undeveloped caricature, it’s even worse that his plots don contribute anything to the world building. It doesn’t matter he figured the overhaul plot at the end, he didn’t presented any clue or logical path to get to that conclusion, he just conjured the answer from his ass.
His only reason to exist is to criticize conspiracy theorists enthusiasts, but even that is annoying. How come you get soo offended with people questioning the authenticity of some official version of events but give a free pass for assholes in actual position of power to come up with bullshit conspiracy theories like Bush’s biological weapons or anything that comes from Fox News.
At least ronaldo will get better for you guys!!! *steven is my name but I guess it’s not my game* I*gulp* like this episode and dont think it’s that bad as people say it is. Hope that doesn’t make anyone upset. Glad you guys mentioned Steven tag that game is awesome and If I were a crystal gem then i’d morph into Steven and play it.
Next episode is fusion cuisine which you guys will go nuts for cause you get to see what it’s like when all 3 gems form together and the design is cool(not as cool as sardonix or sugalite but still pretty cool design).
The fact that you like this episode doesn’t bother me, and I’ll admit that I did enjoy it more on a rewatch. But the first time around…yeah, did not really care for it. I don’t think I disliked it as much as Doug, but it still didn’t do much for me. And Ronaldo was the main reason for that. I didn’t find him funny or interesting, just annoying, sad, and occasionally creepy.
On another note: I think the reason some people like Lars more (or at least dislike him less than Ronaldo) is that Lars’ character seems to give off more of a feeling that he may change and become better. With Ronaldo, it feels like he’s more of a punchline.
I wouldn’t say I hate Ronaldo. I just find him really, really annoying. He works for some little one-off gags, but I really don’t like the episodes that center around him.
I didn’t think it was that bad, there’s some great character stuff going on in the episode. Ronaldo is a perfectly observed take conspiracy theorists, his behavior is awful but makes a sort of sense. He’s shown as an actual human being with feelings and Steven, being a kind and caring character, wants to help Ronaldo and feels guilty when he seems to have accidentally “broken” somebody.
I don’t think Ronaldo even really needs to be likable, he’s not the protagonist, Steven is. The real meat of the episode, as I said is, about Steven’s compassion; the flip side of that being guilt and somewhat unwise attempts to fix people in ways that haven’t really been thought through. Arguable parallels with the gem monsters being “corrupted” gems that Rose tried to heal and Steven’s fondness for waifs and strays in general (Lapis, the centipeetle, etc.)? I’m probably reaching a bit though.
This was actually one of my favorite episodes of this season, there’s a story behind it. You see I saw this episode after I went looking for ufo’s and other weird stuff at skinwalker ranch in utah (I actually found them too but thats another story). And Renaldo really reminded me alot of some of the people I interacted with there. I was at the house of my freind who road triped with me and I was like “holy shit, this episode is about those guys we camped out with!” and we had a good laugh about that.
But honestly I had no idea most people didn’t like this until this review , to me its always been damn funny, though thats at least partly due to me being able to relate to steven in this due to my personal experiences with some Renaldo type people.
One user once said that Ronaldo is like Lumpy Space Princess from Adventure Time. He’s good in small doses but he gets annoying when he stars an episode. Don’t worry, he won’t be the main focus until early on Season 2, so, enjoy! 🙂