The Steven Universe theme sang by my 4 year old niece and synced to @stevencrewniverse‘s opening. THIS WINS THE INTERNET and she has won my heart over and over and over (again).
This is the “radio” version of the pop hit “Haven’t You Noticed (I’m a Star)” sung by Olivia Olson, composed by Rebecca Sugar and with guitar work by Stemage! (We sampled Rebecca’s uke demo track, too!)
Aivi and I had a blast arranging this one, pop music is my jam so trying to nail that Max Martin/Dr. Luke earworm vibe in the production was definitely a priority.
I drew a big ol’ Steven Universe scramble, I really like how it turned out! If you come see me at Otakon I’m gonna be selling it as a print.
Steven Universe is a good show and I’m super glad kids have it! Some of the episodes are hit or miss for me ~*~AS A CRITIC~*~, but that’s every show, and when the writing is on point it’s the best cartoon airing (My favorite episodes have definitely been The Test and Keystone Motel, BUT, THERE’S A LOT OF GOOD ONES…). I hope we get more of it and more things like it down the line: longform serial storytelling with a unique world and aesthetic. OKAY, that’s all, see you later.
I’m going to be selling this print at AWA, table 1177! Here is a handy map to my location. I know a lot of people were interested so this is a chance to pick one up if you’re in the area. Hope to see you there!
Look at the size of the paper pieces, they’re all sticking pretty far out.
If there was paper in the batman comic, it would be big enough to stick up over the text.
And while gravity does exist, it probably won’t make the paper do a 90 degree turn and just lean horisontally left at the middle.
pheenixwright
Still grasping for straws, Wright?
Hypothetically, if there were a paper there, this picture would not be able to prove its presence. I’ve taken the liberty of drawing a diagram to illustrate my point. We are faced with three possibilities. It is possible that (1) the paper was simply tucked in deeper than the others.
Paper is a soft material, Wright. It’s not unreasonable for it to do a (2) 90 degree turn.
Or perhaps, (3) a paper does not exist there at all.
Either way, you cannot prove your client innocent without sufficient evidence.
Which, of course, is impossible thanks to the obtrusive words.
But the image you submited for theory 2 is contradictory.
Look at the tilt of the other papers. They clearly prove how much the paper would tilt.
And theory 3 is my point! Why would the library’s book not have this piece of paper when the other library books do?
While you still have thory 1, there is another contradiction.
The books are not in alphabetical order, this proves that the batman comic was placed there specifically for the picture!
pheenixwright
Ack.
(Perhaps I should’ve left the artistry to the forensic artist…)
Now hold it right there! It doesn’t matter which direction the paper is going because it’s impossible to prove it even exists!
Those theories are all the same! We do not have enough information to prove them. There could be an infinite amount of papers in there for all we know. I simply presented them only so that the court could better understand your baseless conjecture!
… I suppose the order of the books do seem out of the ordinary. However, therein lies not just one possibility. Clearly, those are Japanese graphic novels, also known as “manga”. And the Batman comic book is a graphic novel, too, no?
Seeing as it currently has only graphic novels in the shelf, it is possible that any other novels have simply not yet been restocked. Asserting whether or not this effect was deliberate is useless– there is no way of knowing if the photographer and the captioner are the same person, let alone their involvement in this picture.
Face it Wright, you can’t prove any of these groundless accusations!
The first 2 episodes after the 2nd Steven Bomb have had a very distintc theme: The vicissitudes of the complicated but always neccessary relationship between a mother and (in this case) their daughter with a very distinctive undertone: Both mothers are controlling and overwhelming. (I have a point, i swear)
1) First we got Dr. Maheswaran and Connie: They exemplify the relationship of a very strict, helicopter mother and their- as a result of that behaviour- shy, perfectionist and secretive child.
We saw Connie going from a minimized version of her true self on Bubble Buddies, to a very much realized, much liberated Connie in Nightmare Hospital. She always had it in her, but it took her the support of a friend her age in whom she could trust to bring all of that out. But, while she evolved, her parent’s didn’t and her mother remained too controlling. Now, Dr. Maheswaran’s intentions were noble: by “knowing her daughter” she made sure that the least amount of pain and failure possible made it into Connie’s life. She was ensuring a life of success for Connie so she had her own financial stability and mental health to rely on once mom wasn’t around anymore.
But Connie was actually crushed under her Mother’s (well, her paren’ts actually, but the relationship developed on screen was with mom) expectations. And that is the keyword here: Expectations. She had to be a good girl, play de violin, play tennis, be a diligent student, while she’s only what? 10 years old? Those are lots of responsabilities, even for a inherently responsable child.
2) The second relationship is between Sadie and Barb:
Now these two have a very interesting dynamic. You’d think Barb is a lot more relaxed than Dr. Maheswaran, in terms that she doesn’t really expects Sadie to keep a very tight activity schedule and be interested in lots of different things that will make an integral education. No, she has a diferent kind of controlling: She’s an over enthusiastic mother. She’s a sea storm, a force of nature in her daughter’s life.
She’s so proud of Sadie, just for existing. She loves her to Jupiter’s moons and sees all the wonderful of Sadie, and wants everybody to appreciate that too. In a sense, she expects Sadie to share her greatness with the world. The problem? Sadie doesn’t wanna, she can’t meet her mother’s expectations.
Barb expects Sadie to be GREAT at something. Anything. But in the process of providing her with the means to be the best at whatever she wants to do, she forgets the actual Sadie and what she can and wants to do. She sees her daughter through the eyes of love and forgets to check how Sadie is actually like.
She buys her stuffed animals and remembers fondly her ballet year (this is a sign that she still sees Sadie as a little girl instead of the teenager- young adult she is) and all her bedroom is super bright while Sadie is a more low-key person. More importantly, Sadie is the kind of person that does The Thing because they feel like it. She doesn’t expect it to become anything more than a hobbie, a means to relax and relieving stress. Barb sees it as an opportunity: Her daughter WILL BE THE BEST at something. She’s competitive and wants Sadie to find Her Thing. But the issue here is, not everybody has A Thing. Not everybody wants to excel at The Thing, and that’s ok. Barb places expectations of greatness in Sadie while still trating her like a little girl in the process of taking over her interest and colonizing it.
WHICH BRINGS ME TO: STEVEN. Or “I will fight to be everything that everybody expects me to be when I’m grown.”
My theory (which is kind of cracky but bear with me) is that nothing on this show (except for the fusion’s designs) is fortuitous. So, why focus two entire episodes of an already defined plot on mother/child relationships? I think this is a kind of foreshadowing of something bigger, The Ultimate mother/child relationship we’ve seen developing on the show since episode 1: The relationship between Steven and Rose Quartz, directly linked with the Expectations placed upon him by the Shadow of his Mother.
Now, I don’t think Steven will ever meet Rose outside the context of a memory or maybe a vision (like the one on Rose’s Fountain), or stories told by new characters yet to appear, but even without meeting her, Steven has an already complicated relationship with his mother.
First, he deals with the fact that she’s absent from his life, but not quite. He never met her, tlked to her, was held by her. He has no idea what his mom was like in the tiny details that make you state that you know a person.
But she’s always there. She lives inside him, and actually, he’s so much like her and everybody tells him so. I see a lot of Harry Potter in him. While Steven is delighted at the comparisson most of the times, he’s been feeling off because all the people who point that out is people who loved and are still grieving Rose Quartz. They still love him, but he’s only “like” her, he’s not actually “her”.
As a direct result, he’s expected to be everything she was, even if the people don’t mean to. He’s expected to be as strong as she, as powerful as she was. A lider, an strategist. The One to turn to in times of despair. But he can’t be all that, because he’s half humand and he’s NOT his mother, and he’s 10 years old. He’s not that powwerful yet. He can’t make the cut line. He can’t reach the expectations.
The identity crisis this boy must have.
So, my point is, we’ve been fed tiny samples of the vast and complicated universe of mother/child dynamics because at some point on the show there will be Steven’s turn. He will have to face his mommy issues and will have to come to terms with who she was and who He is.
Actually, he’ll have to fave everybody’s issues related to Rose’s death to make sure that hell no, he’s not Rose. He’s different, not better, nor worse. Just Steven. And he’ll do things the Steven way and people will have to realize that Rose isn’t there anymore, not like they hoped she’d be.
At some point we’ll know more things about Rose. Maybe not so good things. Maybe she has a complicated past and why not, everybody is entitled to their mistakes and doesn’t make them any less of a good person. But the image of Rose Steven has, the one in which all expectations are founded will eventually crack. By learning to see his mother as an integral and whole individual instead of the perfect idea they’ve planted on him, Steven will define his own identity and will eventually fight for whatever the heck he wants to fight, freeing himself from his very own overbearing mother in the process.
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