Steven Universe

Steven Universe is the brainchild of Rebecca Sugar, one of the people who worked on the famous, highly successful Adventure Time. Coincidentally, this also makes it the first original show on Cartoon Network that was exclusively created by a woman. The series' pilot was aired on May 21, 2013 with the series itself being first aired in the United States on November 4, 2013, and is still running for what will currently be three seasons.

The show is about the titular Steven Universe, a young boy hailing from Beach City and his adventures with the heroic magical alien trio known as the Crystal Gems. Steven is half-gem himself, and inherited his powers and gemstone from his late mother and former Crystal Gems leader Rose Quartz. He hasn't gotten the hold of his powers quite yet, but he doesn't let it get him down: he's still more than happy to tag along with the Gems on their various adventures in order to help protect mankind from threats such as magical monsters and the like. Together with the calm and collected Garnet, the graceful yet neurotic Pearl, and the easy-going mischievous slacker Amethyst, the peppy and enthusiastic Steven has quite the exciting life ahead of him!


 * Absentee Actor: Despite being the main characters, each Crystal Gem is absent in several episodes: Garnet doesn't appear in Frybo, Historical Friction, Joking Victim, or Onion Friend, Amethyst isn't in Frybo, Historical Friction, Garnet's Universe, or Love Letters, and Pearl is absent from Joking Victim, Onion Friend, Garnet's Universe, and Love Letters. As a whole, the gems aren't present in either Horror Club, Open Book, Nightmare Hospital, or Sadie's Song.
 * Accidental Pun: Some of the Gem'a names accidentally suit them in more ways than intended.
 * The cantankerous and violent Sugilite's name sounds similar to the word suggilate, which means to beat someone until they're bruised.
 * Then there's
 * Acrofatic: Chubbier characters like Steven and Amethyst aren't hampered in the slightest by their hefty figures, they're able to keep up with the fitter, trimmer Garnet and Pearl without missing a beat.
 * Action Girl: Every Gem shown thus far is technically this though is a bit of a subversion without.
 * Human examples are Sadie and Connie, the former of which actually kills a Gem Monster with a spear, and the latter
 * Adorkable A lot of the show's characters are adorably quirky and silly, with standout examples being Pearl and
 * Adult Fear: Hoo boy, this show does not shy away from the more unpleasant parts that come from a little boy going on all sorts of dangerous adventures with his magical friends.
 * In Cat Fingers, Steven's shapeshifting magic goes out of control and causes his body to be enveloped by tumorous masses of cat heads that are slowly killing him, all without the Gems anywhere nearby to help, and his dad having to save him through a method that could easily kill him.
 * In Bubble Buddies, Steven and Connie end up trapped under the sea without either's guardians having any idea where they are.
 * In So Many Birthdays, Steven's powers almost cause him to age to death right in front of the Crystal Gems, all of them completely unable to do anything to save him.
 * In Steven the Sword Fighter, Steven's hounded by Pearl's violent sword instructor hologram until she snaps and goes out for his blood, all while he's alone at the Temple and
 * Space Race is one of the worst for poor Greg. Despite his objections, Pearl whisks away his son on a borderline-suicidal voyage into space and almost gets the both of them killed while he's helpless to watch. It doesn't help that even if their voyage was successful, Greg would have been long dead by the time Steven and Pearl would have returned from space. Given his body language, it's clear that Greg was on the verge of a heart attack before they came back safely.
 * Future Vision reveals that every day is full of this for Garnet in regards to Steven. Her Future Vision allows her to see all sorts of things that could potentially harm or kill Steven whenever he goes out to do something, and she's visibly hurt by the fact that she's turned the poor kid into a paranoid wreck when she fills him in about her powers.
 * In The Return, Greg allows Steven to
 * The aftermath is even worse: in the following episode Full Disclosure, Greg has a full blown panic attack upon seeing and hearing about what had happened: This episode also fills Steven with Adult Fear when he realizes that Connie's life could easily be put in danger now that he and the Gems have picked a fight with.
 * In Joy Ride,
 * While everything in Say Uncle is very much Played For Laughs, from the Gem's point of view, Uncle Grandpa was some random psycho trying to kill poor Steven.
 * And in Catch and Release, Steven is abducted from his room in the middle of the night, without either the Gems or Lion knowing. Thankfully it was
 * Aerith and Bob: Most of the people in Beach City have normal first names, there's Onion and his family, consisting of his mom Vidalia, his dad Yellowtail, and his half-brother Sour Cream, all with food-related names. This is especially amusing when you contrast them with Sour Cream's real dad, who has the incredibly normal name Marty.
 * Affectionate Gesture to the Head: The show's opening shows Garnet playfully ruffling Steven's head, something that Pearl and Amethyst both join in on in the show's second season opening.
 * Aliens Speaking English: Despite coming from a planet far away from Earth and not giving so much as a damn about integrating into Earth's culture,
 * Alternate History: Thanks to the Crystal Gem's influence, Earth's history has been changed a bit. For example, the state of Delaware is known as Delmarva, while Pennsylvania is simply called Keystone. All money is also shown to be emblazoned with an odd snake symbol, along with a gemstone in the case of dollar bills, same with the Department of Justice's seal.
 * Amazon Brigade: The Crystal Gems definitely qualify: even the lanky and noodle-thin Pearl is perfectly capable of shattering rocks with a single kick.
 * Am I Just a Toy to You?: Early on in their relationship, it was clear that Greg and Rose had the hots for one another, but due to her alien mindset, Rose's love for Greg was more of an amused, borderline-condescending type of love one would show for cute animals and the like. After being called out by Greg for this though, she started to genuinely love him as an equal as shown by.
 * Anime Hair: It's definitely present on many characters. You have Garnet's cubed afro, Alexandrite's five-pointed mane of hair, Rose Quart's enormous ringlets, 's triangular hairdo, Vidalia's perfectly onion-shaped 'do, and the Fryman family all having hair based off of french fries.
 * And I Must Scream:
 * And she
 * But the most horrifying aspect of this trope is present in the
 * Another Dimension: The Temple seems to branch off into hundreds of these, with a few of them serving as each of the Gem's rooms.
 * There's also the odd pocket dimension inside of
 * Arc Symbol: The Crystal Gems are shown to use a five-pointed star as their symbol, which is present on all of their outfits: Steven and Pearl have them on their shirts, Amethyst has them stitched onto her pants, Garnet has them on her gauntlets, Lion's mane is star-shaped, and Rose had a star symbol cut open where her Gem is. This symbol seems to represent the Gems as a whole, since
 * Meanwhile,
 * There's also a reoccurring trio of triangles that are colored yellow, white, and blue on various Gem-related places, all of which coincide with Interestingly enough, there's also a pink triangle present on one version of this design, as well as a pink diamond present on Pearl's space suit...
 * There's also a reoccurring trio of triangles that are colored yellow, white, and blue on various Gem-related places, all of which coincide with Interestingly enough, there's also a pink triangle present on one version of this design, as well as a pink diamond present on Pearl's space suit...