Steven Universe’s cast isn’t just made up of alien Gems - and deliberately so, since one of the series’ hallmarks is an emphasis on how beautiful and imperfect humanity is. Some episodes shed light on little-seen locals, like “Rising Tides, Crashing Skies,” a hilarious episode narrated by conspiracy theorist Ronaldo, in the style of the webcast he produces. Image: Cartoon NetworkĮpisodes like “Restaurant Wars,” which showcases two warring Beach City food-vendor families, “Sadie’s Song,” where the town puts on a talent show, and “Fusion Cuisine,” where the Gems fuse into a single massive entity to have dinner with Connie’s parents, all bring a sense of regular Beach City life. When we know what the characters have to lose - days at the beach, carnival fun times, breakfast together - the desire to see them protect it grows stronger.
Ultimately, the more Rebecca Sugar and the Crewniverse reveal about the characters in situations where the world isn’t ending, the more the audience knows about them and then cares about them when the stakes are raised. They show a day-in-the-life view of an oddball world where “ordinary” for most people doesn’t look like ordinary for the audience. They flesh out characters and relationships. They don’t drastically alter characters or come with world-ending stakes, but they establish the show’s idea of normalcy and community. Virtually anything that focuses on the human citizens of Steven’s hometown, Beach City, instead of on his alien allies, the Crystal Gems, are added to the slush pile.īut the filler episodes give Steven Universe its soul. The list-makers consider episodes to be filler if they don’t contain big revelations, bring new powers to light, or introduce important characters. The disdain for the so-called filler episodes in Steven Universe is intense - compared to the greater storyline about a millennia-long alien war and the destruction of entire worlds, the episodes about lost kittens, or protagonist Steven Universe trying to complete a collectible-action-figure set, don’t rate particularly highly with fans.Ī brief glance at the show’s subreddit offers lists of essential installments, suggestions of which episodes to skip because they don’t drive the plot forward. In the Steven Universe fandom, episodes that don’t directly contribute to the primary overarching plot are dubbed “filler.” It’s a term lifted from anime fandom, attributed to non-essential episodes which may slow down a show’s pace.