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Description
There's a very old saying: "Good things come to those who wait". That saying is selective at best and bullshit at worst! Because in an age where delays, schedule changes, cancellations, hiatuses, you get the picture... my point is you can only wait for so long. How long YOU are willing to wait for something is obviously gonna be different from others; even borderline Buddha patient people like myself have to admit that Steven Universe crossed a line when it comes to this.

When I do these sorts of things, I only really cover the gaps in PREMIERES. I don't have the time or the patience to revisit old airing schedules of reruns and such. Steven Universe is a show that quite frankly? Is a goddamned embarrassment when it came to keeping to a consistent premiere schedule. We all know how this show was shuffled around, reruns aired in dead zone times lots, premieres airing right before adult swim while Teen Titans Go aired FOR THE ENTIRE FRIGGIN WEEK! EVEN if I ignored the actual issues with its production, the writing, the unbelievably janky tone and AT BEST, AT BEST questionable redemptions, I can't ignore the way this show handled airing new episodes...

I tried covering this back in 2018 when this was just a dumb stupid time filler inbetween reviews... I gave up, I lost my patience, my cool. And what was left of my dignity... I was such a different person back in those days. So what spurred me to revisit this and give it a full overlook? This won't surprise any of my longtime viewers but pokemon is something else that has been trying my patience for years, particularly how its PR is handled regarding things like revealing content to outright being entirely mute when it comes to any sort of publicity beyond tidbits; yes I lost my dignity handling that as well. I was... not patient regarding Gen 8 to say the least... I lost friends because of my behavior, but I do not regret what I said about how poorly the games were made, how badly Gamefreak handled their PR or managed content, or anything like that.

The controversy regarding the latest update to Pokemon HOME is what sparked me to revisit this show and it's absolutely piss-poor premiering. For those unawares, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet came out in November of last year. It has been 6 MONTHS since their release and we have not gotten any official news about when HOME will be updated. For those unawares, Pokemon HOME is the app that allows one to transfer their Pokémon from past games inbetween the current Gen consoles games. It's essentially a worse version of Pokemon Bank. It had MANY MANY similar problems when it first launched but they were less... transparent let's say... they never had someone lie about when things would go live... I still cannot believe that happened. But this isn't about Pokemon HOME...

Right out of the gate, after a mere 7 episodes with "Bubble Buddies" we go on a 6 week break. I can KINDA justify this one since it took place during the holiday season, still 6 weeks is a bit much... After "Steven's Lion" just 3 episodes later, we go on break for another 3 weeks. After this we have some consistency before "Onion Trade" gives us a 23 day break with ANOTHER two week break right after "Steven the Sword Fighter". "Beach Party" gives us yet ANOTHER 2 week break before "Rose's Room" gives us our largest break so far of 99 days from Mid-May to late August! We aren't even halfway through this season yet, and we've already accumulated 213 days off!

Come "Coach Steven" we actually get some welcome consistency all the way through late summer to late Fall where "Watermelon Steven" gives us a two week break. See, that's how ya do it! Immediately after though, "Lion 3: Straight to Video" gives us yet another holiday break of 5 weeks. Given the glut of episodes aired prior and the holidays? I can justify this long break. Especially with how it leaves you wanting more with Rose's tape and all. For some strange reason, "Warp Tour" and "Alone Together" were swapped when they first aired; though it doesn't affect anything. Once we get to Rose's Scabard though... things get... interesting.... especially since after "Alone Together" reruns began to vanish almost entirely.

You see, Steven Universe is one of those shows where it's true airing order is a mix of production order and an order producer Ian Jones-Quartey stated in his own list. As it aired, a few things were defintely shuffled around; "Gem Glow" essentially the series pilot was actually the third episode produced, but when aired in its production position it does give an odd sense of clarity coming after "Laser Light Cannon" and "Cheeseburger Backpack".

This is our first instance of what would be known as the "Steven Bomb" format airing 5 episodes each day for a week. We got Rose's Scabbard, The Message, Political Power, The Return/Jailbreak 2 parter and the season 2 premiere "Full Disclosure" in the interim of March 9-14. However. This Wasn't the intended order. The episodes "Open Book", "Shirt Club", " Story for Steven" and the Uncle Grandpa crossover "Say Uncle" were held over until season 2. This doesn't really affect anything severely beyond Garnet clearly having her pre-fusion look in Say Uncle and Shirt Club. Anywho, after "Full Disclosure" we only wait 6 days for "Open Book" to air and those episodes I just mentioned on a consistent schedule until the end of April.

After "Reformed" we wait 46 days for yet another Steven Bomb, where the next break is 24 days before... yet another Steven Bomb... then we wait 55 days where we do get some consistency up to Mid-October. Of note, the final episode before break "Too Far" aired 5 days before its tv date at San Diego Comic Con. So from that we wait 81 days until another Steven Bomb to close out the season where the third season premieres 125 days later.

In the short term, this weeklong format does work. But it also gives those in charge an excuse to force us to wait for longer and longer periods of time with no content to speak of; this show doesn't even really rerun and hadn't for over a year by this point thanks to its growing serialization making it harder to follow along if you didn't watch episodes as they aired. This is not a theory, this is how networks and streaming services coerce and manipulate people into the long con of waiting for more content. And those returns on investment? Were worth less and less each time, especially by this point!

After yet another Steven Bomb we wait only 8 days for "Hit the Diamond" where we then wait 46 days before the Summer of Steven, a promotional event where episodes premiered on a consistent basis from mid-July to mid-September. The mere fact that a consistent premiere schedule is promoted as a "special event" shows exactly what I mean when I say they gaslight the viewers into complacency. This shows that not only did the people in charge not respect the viewers time or intelligence, but they also didn't respect the people working on the show. An episode of Steven Universe takes 9 months to a year to complete; I'm not here to argue it's technical faults, or the writing, or the staff. But given how this show needed to be carefully handled each episode I normally would excuse somewhat of a break inbetween since episodes are not sent to be aired in batches, but as they are finished. I would excuse this; if the breaks were even REMOTELY CONSTSENT! And as you have clearly seen they aren't!

"Onion Gang" puts us on a break of 9 weeks before "Gem Harvest" where we get another 2 week break before "Three Gems and a Baby" gives us a 60 day break before another Steven Bomb. After a short burst of consistency to mid-March we go on break for 59 days for ANOTHER marathon! After 18 days we a daylong Steven Bomb... why... why would you waste 4 episodes in a single burst as a "tv movie"... because this shit show gives us our worst hiatus yet... 200 DAYS! We had to wait until mid-DECEMBER for more of this show because of this WASTE! By the by? These episodes were released on the Cartoon Network app an entire month in advance... with absolutely no advertisement, for a limited time... after this Episodes are aired two at a time each week for the remainder of December to the start of January ending at "Lars of the Stars/Jungle Moon" before we break for 94 days... this, this, this isn't ok. This sort of negligence is NEVER going to be OK! And it's worth noting this next batch of episodes was also released on the Cartoon Network app an entire 2 weeks before they started airing too... they have done this for the show in a smaller capacity but I feel they're worth noting here...

Consistency only lasts from March to early May before we break for 8 weeks. Then another Steven Bomb concluding with "Reunited" where... something infuriating happens... the episode "Legs from Here to Homeworld" premiered early at San Diego Comic Con only 12 days later, being released on the app a day later... do you know how long it took to air on tv? WELL YOURE ALL WRONG! It took 164 days from when "Reunited" aired... one week before CHRISTMAS to get back on track! Speaking of? Episodes now air one a week... hahaha... isn't that funny? They choose the endgame to air weekly... Christ... man... what else is there to say? 2 weeks after we get the grand finale to the series, a massive rush job if I've ever seen one.

Now that you've heard the story over and over again, it's time to finally meet another friend! That's right I'm going all in on this! 224 days later we get Steven Universe: The Movie. Thus began the saga of Steven Universe Future. An epilogue series chronicling Steven's life after he toppled the Diamond matriarch. Well, ok, it wouldn't begin for another 96 days... the first half is aired with consistency, but the latter... we had to wait 69 days for the final episodes... and a fun thing of note: before the pandemic threw the world into chaos, "Homeworld Bound" was supposed to get a theatrical premiere a whole week before it aired alongside the movie courtesy of Fathom Events, so they put it online to compensate... as if that really matters.

Steven Universe was one of the most tedious and anger-inducing shows to try and keep up with in my entire life. Keep in mind I lived during the peak of Nickelodeon throwing everything under the bus for SpongeBob, we at least had Nicktoons Network when that mattered to soothe the burns, not here. Because of Steven Universe being a heavily serialized show you either caught episodes as they aired, which was often at inconvenient times being near the start of Adult Swim or shuffled around as they pleased, had a DVR or not at all. Given the show came out when the digital age was really kicking into high gear it could have used a dedicated and precise online premiere schedule if they had no intention of really letting it thrive on TV. This was how The Legend of Korra ultimately got euthanized being pushed online with no news.

Steven Universe was kept on LIFE SUPPORT. Beyond the erratic and inconsistent scheduling I believe the worst thing to come out of it, that has become a horrific influence on animation and how it's distributed is the Steven Bomb format. This is a terrible way to manage content and it is no different from a service like Netflix dumping an entire season, or even an entire SHOW in a single day so they never get any actual publicity. In this rare instance, the slow burn actually was the only possible way for this show to survive.

The show spent so much time on break it quickly wore its viewers down. Shows, especially cartoons have hiatuses all the time. But Steven Universe is one of the only shows I know that did them in EXCESS. People were getting legitimately angry with how this show was handled. And they were right to. Now, when you binge Steven Universe on DVD or Max or iTunes or whatever it doesn't seem all that bad. But when you're watching the show as it was premiering you quickly see how the show itself jerked you around, leaving its viewers on plot threads it BARELY wanted to explore at all, giving us tons of unrelated episodes without even a passing glance at the real story or completely rushing the story in an unsatisfactory way.

I didn't mention this in the actual overview but this is one of the only shows I know of where filler is not used so hiatuses don't need to be taken. So much of the show is spent waffling around doing absolutely nothing in regards to the actual Crystal Gem plotline. When you leave a show on a 200 day break right after you watch a teenager die and be brought back to life, and you do nothing with that potential until late in the game, not wanting to elaborate on Lapis and Jasper fusing, or anything that has actual merit to the plot. The staff clearly wanted to do both a monster of the week type story reminiscent of Powerpuff Girls while also taking from their anime inspirations like Sailor Moon or Dragon Ball. But when ya couple that sort of tonal and writing whiplash with such poorly paced and outright self-sabotaging break times it doesn't work. The show had ample time to properly utilize its filler and did... NOTHING.

I hate saying that because even today I still love aspects of this show. But even I cannot ignore that between the planning stages of how the story was worked around, trying to work within the ever changing mindset of a gradually decaying studio, what I feel the show needed more than anything? Was a degree of honestly that things needed to take longer then they should have.

This is the exact same problem I have with Gamefreak and the Pokemon franchise as a whole. They do not have a sense of honesty but a penchant for smoke and mirrors trying to distract us from failure to keep the content flowing at a reasonable pace. Steven Universe had this in the form of attempting to misdirect its own narrative and hide in its hole until people forgot until it hit them with the big reveals. To put it another way, I do understand...

Think of it like this: you’re a chef. And you wanna experiment with everything in the kitchen you possibly can. But no dish can use every single ingredient that comes to mind. That’s silly and kinda irresponsible. For the first timers who wanna see their visions brought to life, in what may be their ONLY CHANCE to actually see their blood sweat and tears come to life? I respect the endeavors. Steven Universe isn’t perfect. But Sugar did do the best with what they had even if it meant throwing EVERYTHING at the wall to hope it all stuck. For that I have to commend their stubbornness. It’s not always bad to be stubborn and stick to what you want most. I can't say I respect every decision the show made, and I've made my stances clear; but I can't completely hate SU just because of these scheduling issues.

Description
There's a very old saying: "Good things come to those who wait". That saying is selective at best and bullshit at worst! Because in an age where delays, schedule changes, cancellations, hiatuses, you get the picture... my point is you can only wait for so long. How long YOU are willing to wait for something is obviously gonna be different from others; even borderline Buddha patient people like myself have to admit that Steven Universe crossed a line when it comes to this.

When I do these sorts of things, I only really cover the gaps in PREMIERES. I don't have the time or the patience to revisit old airing schedules of reruns and such. Steven Universe is a show that quite frankly? Is a goddamned embarrassment when it came to keeping to a consistent premiere schedule. We all know how this show was shuffled around, reruns aired in dead zone times lots, premieres airing right before adult swim while Teen Titans Go aired FOR THE ENTIRE FRIGGIN WEEK! EVEN if I ignored the actual issues with its production, the writing, the unbelievably janky tone and AT BEST, AT BEST questionable redemptions, I can't ignore the way this show handled airing new episodes...

I tried covering this back in 2018 when this was just a dumb stupid time filler inbetween reviews... I gave up, I lost my patience, my cool. And what was left of my dignity... I was such a different person back in those days. So what spurred me to revisit this and give it a full overlook? This won't surprise any of my longtime viewers but pokemon is something else that has been trying my patience for years, particularly how its PR is handled regarding things like revealing content to outright being entirely mute when it comes to any sort of publicity beyond tidbits; yes I lost my dignity handling that as well. I was... not patient regarding Gen 8 to say the least... I lost friends because of my behavior, but I do not regret what I said about how poorly the games were made, how badly Gamefreak handled their PR or managed content, or anything like that.

The controversy regarding the latest update to Pokemon HOME is what sparked me to revisit this show and it's absolutely piss-poor premiering. For those unawares, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet came out in November of last year. It has been 6 MONTHS since their release and we have not gotten any official news about when HOME will be updated. For those unawares, Pokemon HOME is the app that allows one to transfer their Pokémon from past games inbetween the current Gen consoles games. It's essentially a worse version of Pokemon Bank. It had MANY MANY similar problems when it first launched but they were less... transparent let's say... they never had someone lie about when things would go live... I still cannot believe that happened. But this isn't about Pokemon HOME...

Right out of the gate, after a mere 7 episodes with "Bubble Buddies" we go on a 6 week break. I can KINDA justify this one since it took place during the holiday season, still 6 weeks is a bit much... After "Steven's Lion" just 3 episodes later, we go on break for another 3 weeks. After this we have some consistency before "Onion Trade" gives us a 23 day break with ANOTHER two week break right after "Steven the Sword Fighter". "Beach Party" gives us yet ANOTHER 2 week break before "Rose's Room" gives us our largest break so far of 99 days from Mid-May to late August! We aren't even halfway through this season yet, and we've already accumulated 213 days off!

Come "Coach Steven" we actually get some welcome consistency all the way through late summer to late Fall where "Watermelon Steven" gives us a two week break. See, that's how ya do it! Immediately after though, "Lion 3: Straight to Video" gives us yet another holiday break of 5 weeks. Given the glut of episodes aired prior and the holidays? I can justify this long break. Especially with how it leaves you wanting more with Rose's tape and all. For some strange reason, "Warp Tour" and "Alone Together" were swapped when they first aired; though it doesn't affect anything. Once we get to Rose's Scabard though... things get... interesting.... especially since after "Alone Together" reruns began to vanish almost entirely.

You see, Steven Universe is one of those shows where it's true airing order is a mix of production order and an order producer Ian Jones-Quartey stated in his own list. As it aired, a few things were defintely shuffled around; "Gem Glow" essentially the series pilot was actually the third episode produced, but when aired in its production position it does give an odd sense of clarity coming after "Laser Light Cannon" and "Cheeseburger Backpack".

This is our first instance of what would be known as the "Steven Bomb" format airing 5 episodes each day for a week. We got Rose's Scabbard, The Message, Political Power, The Return/Jailbreak 2 parter and the season 2 premiere "Full Disclosure" in the interim of March 9-14. However. This Wasn't the intended order. The episodes "Open Book", "Shirt Club", " Story for Steven" and the Uncle Grandpa crossover "Say Uncle" were held over until season 2. This doesn't really affect anything severely beyond Garnet clearly having her pre-fusion look in Say Uncle and Shirt Club. Anywho, after "Full Disclosure" we only wait 6 days for "Open Book" to air and those episodes I just mentioned on a consistent schedule until the end of April.

After "Reformed" we wait 46 days for yet another Steven Bomb, where the next break is 24 days before... yet another Steven Bomb... then we wait 55 days where we do get some consistency up to Mid-October. Of note, the final episode before break "Too Far" aired 5 days before its tv date at San Diego Comic Con. So from that we wait 81 days until another Steven Bomb to close out the season where the third season premieres 125 days later.

In the short term, this weeklong format does work. But it also gives those in charge an excuse to force us to wait for longer and longer periods of time with no content to speak of; this show doesn't even really rerun and hadn't for over a year by this point thanks to its growing serialization making it harder to follow along if you didn't watch episodes as they aired. This is not a theory, this is how networks and streaming services coerce and manipulate people into the long con of waiting for more content. And those returns on investment? Were worth less and less each time, especially by this point!

After yet another Steven Bomb we wait only 8 days for "Hit the Diamond" where we then wait 46 days before the Summer of Steven, a promotional event where episodes premiered on a consistent basis from mid-July to mid-September. The mere fact that a consistent premiere schedule is promoted as a "special event" shows exactly what I mean when I say they gaslight the viewers into complacency. This shows that not only did the people in charge not respect the viewers time or intelligence, but they also didn't respect the people working on the show. An episode of Steven Universe takes 9 months to a year to complete; I'm not here to argue it's technical faults, or the writing, or the staff. But given how this show needed to be carefully handled each episode I normally would excuse somewhat of a break inbetween since episodes are not sent to be aired in batches, but as they are finished. I would excuse this; if the breaks were even REMOTELY CONSTSENT! And as you have clearly seen they aren't!

"Onion Gang" puts us on a break of 9 weeks before "Gem Harvest" where we get another 2 week break before "Three Gems and a Baby" gives us a 60 day break before another Steven Bomb. After a short burst of consistency to mid-March we go on break for 59 days for ANOTHER marathon! After 18 days we a daylong Steven Bomb... why... why would you waste 4 episodes in a single burst as a "tv movie"... because this shit show gives us our worst hiatus yet... 200 DAYS! We had to wait until mid-DECEMBER for more of this show because of this WASTE! By the by? These episodes were released on the Cartoon Network app an entire month in advance... with absolutely no advertisement, for a limited time... after this Episodes are aired two at a time each week for the remainder of December to the start of January ending at "Lars of the Stars/Jungle Moon" before we break for 94 days... this, this, this isn't ok. This sort of negligence is NEVER going to be OK! And it's worth noting this next batch of episodes was also released on the Cartoon Network app an entire 2 weeks before they started airing too... they have done this for the show in a smaller capacity but I feel they're worth noting here...

Consistency only lasts from March to early May before we break for 8 weeks. Then another Steven Bomb concluding with "Reunited" where... something infuriating happens... the episode "Legs from Here to Homeworld" premiered early at San Diego Comic Con only 12 days later, being released on the app a day later... do you know how long it took to air on tv? WELL YOURE ALL WRONG! It took 164 days from when "Reunited" aired... one week before CHRISTMAS to get back on track! Speaking of? Episodes now air one a week... hahaha... isn't that funny? They choose the endgame to air weekly... Christ... man... what else is there to say? 2 weeks after we get the grand finale to the series, a massive rush job if I've ever seen one.

Now that you've heard the story over and over again, it's time to finally meet another friend! That's right I'm going all in on this! 224 days later we get Steven Universe: The Movie. Thus began the saga of Steven Universe Future. An epilogue series chronicling Steven's life after he toppled the Diamond matriarch. Well, ok, it wouldn't begin for another 96 days... the first half is aired with consistency, but the latter... we had to wait 69 days for the final episodes... and a fun thing of note: before the pandemic threw the world into chaos, "Homeworld Bound" was supposed to get a theatrical premiere a whole week before it aired alongside the movie courtesy of Fathom Events, so they put it online to compensate... as if that really matters.

Steven Universe was one of the most tedious and anger-inducing shows to try and keep up with in my entire life. Keep in mind I lived during the peak of Nickelodeon throwing everything under the bus for SpongeBob, we at least had Nicktoons Network when that mattered to soothe the burns, not here. Because of Steven Universe being a heavily serialized show you either caught episodes as they aired, which was often at inconvenient times being near the start of Adult Swim or shuffled around as they pleased, had a DVR or not at all. Given the show came out when the digital age was really kicking into high gear it could have used a dedicated and precise online premiere schedule if they had no intention of really letting it thrive on TV. This was how The Legend of Korra ultimately got euthanized being pushed online with no news.

Steven Universe was kept on LIFE SUPPORT. Beyond the erratic and inconsistent scheduling I believe the worst thing to come out of it, that has become a horrific influence on animation and how it's distributed is the Steven Bomb format. This is a terrible way to manage content and it is no different from a service like Netflix dumping an entire season, or even an entire SHOW in a single day so they never get any actual publicity. In this rare instance, the slow burn actually was the only possible way for this show to survive.

The show spent so much time on break it quickly wore its viewers down. Shows, especially cartoons have hiatuses all the time. But Steven Universe is one of the only shows I know that did them in EXCESS. People were getting legitimately angry with how this show was handled. And they were right to. Now, when you binge Steven Universe on DVD or Max or iTunes or whatever it doesn't seem all that bad. But when you're watching the show as it was premiering you quickly see how the show itself jerked you around, leaving its viewers on plot threads it BARELY wanted to explore at all, giving us tons of unrelated episodes without even a passing glance at the real story or completely rushing the story in an unsatisfactory way.

I didn't mention this in the actual overview but this is one of the only shows I know of where filler is not used so hiatuses don't need to be taken. So much of the show is spent waffling around doing absolutely nothing in regards to the actual Crystal Gem plotline. When you leave a show on a 200 day break right after you watch a teenager die and be brought back to life, and you do nothing with that potential until late in the game, not wanting to elaborate on Lapis and Jasper fusing, or anything that has actual merit to the plot. The staff clearly wanted to do both a monster of the week type story reminiscent of Powerpuff Girls while also taking from their anime inspirations like Sailor Moon or Dragon Ball. But when ya couple that sort of tonal and writing whiplash with such poorly paced and outright self-sabotaging break times it doesn't work. The show had ample time to properly utilize its filler and did... NOTHING.

I hate saying that because even today I still love aspects of this show. But even I cannot ignore that between the planning stages of how the story was worked around, trying to work within the ever changing mindset of a gradually decaying studio, what I feel the show needed more than anything? Was a degree of honestly that things needed to take longer then they should have.

This is the exact same problem I have with Gamefreak and the Pokemon franchise as a whole. They do not have a sense of honesty but a penchant for smoke and mirrors trying to distract us from failure to keep the content flowing at a reasonable pace. Steven Universe had this in the form of attempting to misdirect its own narrative and hide in its hole until people forgot until it hit them with the big reveals. To put it another way, I do understand...

Think of it like this: you’re a chef. And you wanna experiment with everything in the kitchen you possibly can. But no dish can use every single ingredient that comes to mind. That’s silly and kinda irresponsible. For the first timers who wanna see their visions brought to life, in what may be their ONLY CHANCE to actually see their blood sweat and tears come to life? I respect the endeavors. Steven Universe isn’t perfect. But Sugar did do the best with what they had even if it meant throwing EVERYTHING at the wall to hope it all stuck. For that I have to commend their stubbornness. It’s not always bad to be stubborn and stick to what you want most. I can't say I respect every decision the show made, and I've made my stances clear; but I can't completely hate SU just because of these scheduling issues.