USE OF CHARACTER IN STEVEN UNIVERSE
This third and final main chapter focuses on the last of what are understood in this project to be the central stylistic elements that mark this ‘golden age’ of serial animated television. Besides telling more expansive and complex stories, set in more expansive and complex worlds, these worlds are importantly inhabited by characters that are marked by a more elaborate treatment in terms of their individual dynamics and their function within the narrative.
This elaborate use of character is most clear in the final object of analysis in this project, the sci-fi fantasy animation Steven Universe which will be discussed in-depth in this chapter.
Steven Universe premiered on Cartoon Network in 2013 and ran for a total of five seasons, with the addition of a television movie and a limited-run epilogue series that concluded in 2020. Closely following the success of the network’s hit series Adventure Time, it was created by one of that series’ storyboard artists Rebecca Sugar, who left the production of Adventure Time in favor of this new project. Similar to Adventure Time, as well as to Avatar: The Last Airbender, Steven Universe tells a fantasy story (albeit with a sci-fi twist) featuring a young protagonist, and combines light-hearted cartoon episodes with a grand and developing story, as well as an expansive storyworld that is explored over the show’s length. “[T]hough ostensibly a show for children” it has been reviewed as an “equally rewarding watch for adults”
(Whitbrook). The series follows the eponymous protagonist, a young boy living in the small fictional town of Beach City, who is being mothered by three humanoid aliens with magical powers of a species called ‘Gems’. These three Gems, named Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl, along with Steven who is a half-gem and half-human hybrid, together comprise The Crystal Gems, a group that protects the Earth from and has rebelled against the Gem’s imperialist Homeworld following a war over Earth a few thousand years ago. Over the course of the series, Steven and the Gems experience adventures that involve everything from interpersonal issues with his friends in Beach City, to planet-threatening and millennia-spanning plots from across the galaxy. As such, the series increasingly combines fun and small-scaled cartoon stories with a grand and overarching story and expansive fantasy and sci-fi worldbuilding. At its core, however, is a consistent focus on personal experience and relations, as well as emotional struggles and growth amidst these events. As such, its use of character specifically has been reviewed as “[u]nlike many cartoons made for children” (Framke). With kindness, empathy and understanding as the title character’s main ‘weapons’, the series presents a myriad of characters that change substantially throughout their relationship with Steven, who all the while
is explored in-depth going through his own process of coming of age through his child and early teen years. As such, depth of character and personal development operate as some of the series’
key narrative themes and often function as central narrative elements throughout the series.
This chapter demonstrates how Steven Universe stands out from traditional serial animated television through its use of character, in terms of both its complexity and its narrative function. Additionally, I argue how these elements contribute to the series’ appeal to a dual audience. First addressing its complex use of character, a reading will illustrate how the show primarily features two different models of character treatment over its runtime. The first model of character ‘depth’ entails characters with a stable personality, that are gradually fleshed out and deepened over time. The second, referred to as character ‘change’, involves characters that experience an explicit and radical transformation in personality. This reading is based on theory on different practices of character treatment in television and film that are discussed under various terms by Rib Davis, Feuer, Mittell (Complex TV), Roberta Pearson and Porter et al.. To substantiate their functioning, the observed uses of character will be theorized as one of two conceptualizations of fictional characters, being the character as a ‘fictional person’ and as a
‘textual element’ (Eder, Phelan). Supplementing this reading, these different models of character will be shown to constitute narrative arcs on the scale of the episode, multiple episodes, or the entire series, in turn allowing for different degrees of engagement by different audiences. This component builds upon the discussion and theory of chapter one regarding narrative structure in relation to audiences in complex television (Mittell, Complex TV,
“Narrative Complexity”, “Previously On”; VanArendonk). Finally, I argue how the show challenges narrative conventions of animation and serial television by demonstrating its serial narration to often be distinctly ‘character-driven’ (Davis), rather than separating or subordinating character development to a ‘plot-driven’ serial narrative (Porter et al.).
Before starting off the proper analysis of the aforementioned aspects, an initial indication of the show’s prominence of character in the entirety can already be found in the introductory sequence that precedes each episode. Composed around an upbeat but sweet song appropriately titled “We Are the Crystal Gems”, it explicitly introduces each of the main characters through individual shots with their names in bold text. Further establishing a sense of intimacy, it is performed by the voice actors of each of these characters who sing the majority in harmony, with the exception of their own names being sung by the respective actors only.
An additional shot passing through Beach City also gives the viewer a brief impression of the rest of the town’s population that makes up the secondary cast. As such, rather than providing any notable information regarding the show’s content in terms of events (except for the fact
that the four heroes will “always save the day”), it emphasizes the central characters and aims to establish an initial sense of personality and connection with the viewer.
As mentioned above, this chapter will examine the series’ use of character over its runtime to demonstrate its complexity in this respect. This reading thus departs from the premise that, while this is not the case in all animated series or in fiction television in general, the overall narrative structure of Steven Universe allows for long-form dynamics that reach between and across episodes and even seasons. This is thus a distinctly serial narrative element, as is inherent to the show’s “balance between episodic and serial form” (Mittell, “Previously On” 78). This has been discussed at length to be a characteristic of this body of work in the first main chapter on Avatar: The Last Airbender. This element of narrative continuity between its episodes and seasons stands in contrast to an exclusively episodic form that defines the animated sitcom, for example, in which each installment contains a self-contained narrative after which it ‘resets’, as it were, to an often static status-quo, leaving little to no room for long-term processes. The serial element of this show, however, allows for continuous and ongoing dynamics within its narrative and, consequently, in its characters. Whereas the classic cartoon character of Bart Simpson, for example, has notoriously been a ten-year-old 4th grader since The Simpsons’ debut in 1989, Steven Universe’s eponymous main character matures visibly with the passing of both real- and narrative-time.
In her discussion of “Narrative Form in American Network Television”, Feuer explicitly acknowledges this potential of serial television, which she describes as “the developmental mode of the continuing serial in which both situations and characters change and grow organically” (616). In this understanding, the passing of time and natural run of events across multiple episodes thus allows for the characters in question to grow and change over this extended period. Such an understanding involves what has been previously introduced as a conception of character as a ‘fictional person’, based on Eder’s conception of as the character as ‘fictional being’ (21), and Phelan’s ‘mimetic component’ (2) of character. While not entirely identical, both understandings approach the character as a hypothetical but potentially full-fledged person, as it were, whose thoughts and motives, for example, can be known and understood in a similar way as one could with a real person. This conception of character will inform the interpretation in the current reading later on, and will be contrasted with the conception of character as a ‘textual element’ (roughly correspondent to Eder’s character as
‘artifact’ (21) and Phelan’s ‘synthetic component’ (2)). This understanding rather focuses on a character’s function within the text, as a formal feature with compositional, stylistic and aesthetic potential, for example. Porter et al., in a similar vein to Feuer’s earlier statement, argue
for the potential of characters within serial television, but rather focus on this textual element of character, as they state that “[c]haracter development and continuous storylines are the two elements that make TV unique as a narrative system” (3). Rather than allowing for the ‘people’
themselves to grow ‘organically’, this statement highlights the possibility of serial narration to gradually develop a character textually, using the continuous storyline to slowly reveal elements of a character, for example, to the reader or viewer.
This distinction will prove useful in further theorizing the two primary models of character treatment that mark Steven Universe. As stated above, the series exhibits a relatively complex configuration of character with regards to characters’ individual long-term dynamics, as it combines a model that will be referred to here as ‘character depth’, with a contrasting dynamic that will be termed ‘character change’. While specific formulations differ among theorists, these categories will be based on discussions of character in narrative fiction by Davis, Feuer, Pearson and Mittell (Complex TV). Playwright and theorist Rib Davis distinguishes, for example, between character ‘development’ and character ‘revelation’ (74 – 75). The former, which he also terms ‘character change’, is the process of characters as fictional persons going through a proper personal and emotional transformation, whereas the latter rather involves a stable personality of which different elements come to the fore depending on the context, thus rather constituting a textual process than an inherent, personal one. The current category of
‘character change’ in this case corresponds to what Davis terms ‘development’, whereas ‘depth’
here corresponds to the textual process of ‘revelation’. Also corresponding to the model of
‘change’ is Feuer’s aforementioned understanding of characters that “change and grow organically” (616) as this too implies a transformation on the level of the character as ‘fictional person’. Conversely, another account of the model of ‘depth’ can be found in Pearson’s statement that,
[i]n television, it’s more accurate to talk about character accumulation and depth than it is to talk about character development. The long-running American television drama can create highly elaborated characters of greater accumulation and depth than any contemporary medium. (55 – 56)
This “accumulation and depth” thus, rather than a change of the ‘fictional person’ itself, entails a change of its perception by the viewer who gains insight through extended textual exposition.
Lastly, Mittell (Complex TV) similarly observes a model of ‘depth’ in serial narratives, as he describes a common process “that exploits the serial form to gradually reveal aspects of a
character over time so that these facets of the character feel new to the audience, even if they are consistent and unchanging character attributes” (136). This gradual revelation of a character thus entails the same process of increasing ‘depth’ through textual means, as opposed to progress on the level of the ‘person’. He describes a similar process when discussing coming-of-age arcs in television, stating that these may entail a development “in which a character becomes more realized and fleshed out over time”, hereby “evoking the process of maturation”
as a result (137). Though Mittell uses the term ‘change’ to generally refer to both this textual process and processes of proper transformation on the level of the ‘person’, and commonly, coming-of-age arcs may also involve elements of proper ‘change’, this specific understanding thus clearly describes a process of gradual textual revelation in order to ‘evoke’ a sense of a character maturing. As will become clear, this specific configuration of coming-of-age arcs forms a productive insight for the current analysis.
Turning to the use of these two models within the series, this reading will first focus on the model of character ‘depth’, as it is exemplified most clearly by the eponymous main character and therefore constitutes the most prominent and substantial case of character treatment within the series. Constituting the series’ stable and personal center, as it were, together with the other three members of the Crystal Gems with which he forms the central cast, the character of Steven exhibits a stable personality that is gradually fleshed out and deepened over the series’ long runtime. A prominent strategy in which the character is progressively realized or expanded over the course of the series is through a narrative link of his emotions with his supernatural Gem-powers. Growing up as a half-human and half-Gem hybrid, these initially latent powers gradually reveal themselves as the series progresses. Being magically and intrinsically linked to his emotions, his initial lack of control of new powers consistently involves an emotional challenge as well, as he grapples with newly revealed elements of his personality. A prime example of this is seen in the first season’s seventh episode
“Bubble Buddies”, in which social anxiety when meeting a girl causes him to uncontrollably cast a protective bubble that traps them together, after which he must overcome his anxiety in order to save them both from suffocating within. Other notable moments of this in-depth exploration of this character that explicitly constitute coming-of-age moments, involve him deliberating his own process of aging, again reflected through his supernatural Gem-powers. In season one’s 13th episode “So Many Birthdays”, for example, a moment of existential crisis over the unavertable nature of aging causes him to transform rapidly through different life stages, almost dying of old age in the process. A final instance that is highly worth noting is the central narrative of the epilogue season Steven Universe Future. Here, the absence of any direct
threats or danger after the main series’ conclusion sends the protagonist into a downward spiral of questioning his own identity and purpose in these new circumstances. This personality crisis constitutes the season’s main conflict, giving the entirety a distinctly psychological perspective.
This, then, constitutes a season-long exploration of the protagonist’s internal state, deepening the viewer’s knowledge of the character. These various instances, and many more throughout the series, constitute a treatment of character that, while exhibiting a stable personality throughout, involve active exploration and deepening through various narrative devices. The same goes for other central characters such as the other Crystal Gem-member Garnet, for example when her origin story is revealed in-depth in frame narrative-centered episode towards the end of season two (“The Answer”). In this sense, these characters themselves do not change notably, but the viewer’s knowledge of and familiarity with the character does through a process of textual elaboration. As such, these main characters remain stable and familiar throughout the series, allowing for the development “long-term relationships” which according to Mittell is
“one of the primary ways that viewers engage with programming” (Complex TV 127).
Contrasting this model of increased character ‘depth’ through a process of textual elaboration over time, the series importantly features a model of ‘change’, in which characters themselves exhibit radical transformation in personality, values and alignment. Rather than constituting a textual phenomenon, this takes place on the level of character as ‘fictional person’, occurring regardless of its textual representation, so to speak. This is most clearly expressed through the character of Peridot, an initially adversary Gem who over the course of many episodes that span multiple seasons goes through a series of changes in values and beliefs, as well as personality. Coming to Earth on a mission for the antagonistic Homeworld, this character appears initially as a cold and calculated foe, with no compassion towards Earthly life or other things deemed inferior. As such, she is a main adversary throughout the first and part of the second season. However, after being abandoned by her superiors halfway through the second season causes her to have a personal crisis, Steven comforts her and sets into motion a gradual process of coming around, eventually leading her to betray her mission and to join the protagonists’ side. This entails a change in personal values and beliefs, as she comes to condemn Homeworld’s strict imperial and hierarchical society. It also persists in a more ongoing fashion in a development of her personal character and behavior, as she learns to translate these new values into behavioral practice. As such, her changing sides involves a gradual process of unlearning her rigid and hierarchical perspective and crude behavior towards Earth and the Crystal Gems, and gradually learning to become more open, understanding and kind. Hereby, this character illustrates the series’ more widespread use of radically changing
characters on the level of personality. Even the series’ ultimate villain, who seems to remain adamant in her hostility until the very last moment, is in the end persuaded by the protagonist to come around, after which she takes a radical turn to become an ally and a powerful force of good in the universe. Appropriately, the four-part finale of the show’s initial run is titled
“Change Your Mind” and ends with a song of the same name performed by Steven in which he punctuates his series-long mission to deal with adversaries by making them come around, and his persistent belief in the ability of people (and Gems) to change for the better. This thus involves a conception of character as a ‘fictional person’, in which the character itself goes through a personal development as if it was a real person, and that would hypothetically take place regardless of its narrative elaboration or textual representation. On a textual level, then, this moment similarly functions as an elegant summary of the symbolic message of the entire show, as it celebrates a fluid understanding of personality and identity throughout.
Furthering the analysis of this elaborate use of character to its relevance in terms of audiences and levels of engagement, this next section will consider the different observed character models and their function within the series’ narrative structure, as well as their relation to different viewing practices. This section, then, will be based primarily on the conception of character as ‘textual element’, as it regards character as a formal compositional element within the series’ narrative composition. This discussion will also build upon the discussion of narrative arcs of various scales in narratively complex television in the first main chapter, based on Mittell (Complex TV, “Narrative Complexity”, “Previously On”) and VanArendonk. To briefly recap, the case of Avatar: The Last Airbender illustrated how in these shows, episodic elements might provide more accessibility and instant enjoyment for casual viewers such as children who may watch episodes individually and out of order, whereas serial threads of a larger scale as well as other more complex narrative devices reward a more dedicated and attentive audience of adults, for example. The case of Steven Universe is especially illustrative of the potential of character to similarly constitute narrative threads of different scales that allow for different levels of engagement. Besides this, these processes of ‘depth’ and ‘change’ provide different levels of character depth or complexity that similarly require or reward different viewing practices in order to be appreciated.
Firstly, constituting distinct narrative arcs at the level of the episode are, for example, the protagonist’s moments of emotional challenge and growth that are tied to the development of his Gem-powers. The episode “Bubble Buddies” that was discussed earlier in this chapter not only provides a distinct moment contributing to character ‘depth’, but these moments of character-based conflict and resolution also often constitute a proper and self-contained
narrative arc within a single episode. As such, these elaborating episodic narratives can also be enjoyed by a casual or younger audience based on a single episode, without requiring much context or knowledge of larger narrative threads. In a way, these episode-sized developments in which an emotional conflict is overcome can even be said to constitute a moment of character
‘change’ on a micro-scale, providing a small but eventful arc of the character as ‘fictional person’ within the span of the episode. However, the full potential of the series’ use of character
‘depth’ can arguably only be enjoyed by the dedicated and invested viewer, who watches the series consecutively and keeps track of the various character’s personal profiles, often involving individual backstory, struggles and developments. Returning to the case of the protagonist Steven, the aforementioned episodic narratives function cumulatively when watching the series from front to back. These moments of textual elaboration, as discussed before, do not necessarily entail a transformation on the level of the character itself, but rather grant the viewer who has followed along and witnessed each elaborating episode an accumulating and deepening knowledge of and familiarity with this stable character. Watching the entire series thus rewards viewers with a full impression of this character’s impressive ‘depth’. In this way, the series also constitutes a series-long coming-of-age arc as described by Mittell (Complex TV), mentioned earlier in this chapter, that functions on the scale of the entire series and results in “evoking the process of maturation in which a character becomes more realized and fleshed out over time”
(127). Simultaneously, it allows for the development of “long-term relationships” of a viewer with these characters as ‘fictional persons’. In between these episodic and series-long scales, then, are for example the serial threads of character ‘change’, such as the antagonist Peridot coming around and turning from an enemy into ally over the course of multiple episodes across two seasons. In such a case, individual character dynamics explicitly form a continuous narrative threat over several consecutive episodes. These threads might persuade a casual viewer to keep watching subsequent episodes looking for narrative resolution on a foreseeable scale, while for long-time viewers, they provide more eventful and pronounced processes between the brief episodic elaboration and the more subtle series-long accumulations. As such, the series’ uses threads reliant on both the processes of character as a ‘depth’ as well as ‘change’
that require and reward engagement by audiences of various levels of commitment.
Besides providing a mid-size arc that runs continuously over multiple episodes and seasons, the process of character ‘change’ seen in the character of Peridot also aptly illustrates a final point of the current argument on the textual function of character within the series’
narrative. Namely, whereas dominant narrative conventions within serial animation and serial television in general often narratively separate character elaboration and the causal progression