The Art of Steven Universe: The Movie

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There's a section in it about the network pushing the Crew to make Steven get identified as the leader of the team, and they emphasized that he is not the leader. (It's Garnet.) I love Garnet. :) N.K. Jemisin's foreword was really inspiring, and that along with some reflection from Rebecca Sugar about the importance of identity and the power of reclaiming the right to exist was some of my favorite stuff in the book. It is very hard to be left out of the stories the world is telling, and it was about time some of these very specific but also broadly relatable stories were told. I like that they dish a bit about the fan reaction to Garnet's Fusion status. They thought they were being a little too obvious to not get caught, but Ian said the fans figured it out and then got bored of the idea and decided it must be even more complicated than that. People were apparently worried that Garnet would be replaced by her component Gems in the story if she were to unfuse, but obviously since Ruby and Sapphire want to be together, that doesn't happen. Some of the newer writers get a chance to share their perspectives on coming into the show when it was already in an epilogue. They were excited to have Steven make HIS OWN mistakes instead of trying to clean up someone else's! Now, instead of doing the usual shonen anime thing and having the final battle be a big physical rumble, Steven has to make peace with himself and take an active role in coping with what all the fighting has done to him and what effect it's had on who he is (and who he wants to be). There is no sudden "I love myself!" answer, either. It's always a process.

A great quote from Lauren Zuke on the incidentally queer content of the Gems' relationships and gender: "Personally, I'm happy to not have to think, 'I'm writing a character based on my queer experiences.' That would be so hard! I'm just writing from my perspective, and I happen to be queer. I think that's what makes the show feel natural when it comes to that. It's a fine line between defining something so that people are aware it exists, which is so important, but also letting it breathe, so it's not forever contained in a box labeled 'queer media.'"

Steven Universe: End of an Era, like its predecessor Steven Universe: Art and Origins, is a collection of developmental documents, character sketches, concepts, and commentary from various creators and insiders. Whether you really like to get down into the guts of how it's produced or whether you want to hear reflections from Rebecca Sugar and other Crew members about what it was like to make the show or whether you're just here for the amazing art, this book is for you. (Personally, I'm excited about all three of those things.)

A timeline exists for the show and it encompasses TWENTY THOUSAND YEARS of Gem and human history. It was too spoilery to be in the book, but there is a LOT of lore that is laid down, and this tool mentioned in Part 4 established that this document is referenced often to make events make sense in the timeline.Steven Sugar’s development drawings of proposed Beach City locations, including It’s a Fold, Fish Stew Pizza, Big Doughnut, Beach Citywalk Fries, Kone ‘n’ Son and Tee Time. I'm so glad I was finally able to read this. I love taking a deep dive into some of my favourite media with artbooks and I knew if it was anything like the first it was going to be amazing, especially with the end of the show and the future. Some world maps provide new possible insights. Greenland in our world is Blueland in theirs. South America is called Pangea. Aqua Mexico is labeled about where Mexico is in our world. India is the Indian Islands. There's an Australia and a New Australia. A big sea in the middle of Asia is called the Tunguska Sea. Rose's Fountain is in Spain or Portugal; the Sky Spire and Strawberry Battlefield are in Norway; the Shooting Star Shrine is in the middle of the drastically different Asian continent; the Galaxy Warp is in the Tunguska Sea; the Lunar Sea Spire is off the coast of Canada; Mask Island is in the Atlantic near Beach City; the Comm Relay is in the Western United States. Music nerds like me will very much appreciate the photographed notes on music motifs--the Diamonds each have a solfège syllable and a chord (White is F#M7/Sol, Yellow is BM7/Fa, Blue is EM7/Fa, and Pink is AM7/Mi), and Steven's powers and modes are coded with instruments and styles.

Notes on a sketch say that Pearl was inspired to become bold and unashamed because Pink's questions drove her to have opinions, and it's said that Rose "fell in love" with her boldness.This section also includes design notes on Homeworld environments, the use of princess tropes to enhance the feeling that Steven is being made to be someone he's not, White Diamond's unusual "feminine" features, and again tons of art. Rebecca Sugar shares an anecdote about thinking there was a "best" way to draw that was objectively correct (influenced by some art-school stuff), and through that she arrived at the idea that Pearl was a cone, Amethyst was a sphere, and Garnet was a cube, because all of those things say something about who they are (pointedness, fluidness, stability). She evolved from that idea to a more flexibile idea of how drawing works for different artists, but that was part of what helped her nail the characters down. Steven, eventually, was fixed to having a heart-shaped face. Concept art of Rhodonite's Ruby and Pearl with their Morganite was pretty cool to get after all this time. Too bad we still don't get a peek at Fluorite's components though. Steven Universe is so deeply personal to alot of people and to the people who worked on the show and you an truly feel the passion and love that they had while making it and trying to make it the best it could be with the medium they had and it's beautiful to hear their words behind it. Originally the Diamonds were based on a quartet of themes: Love, Fear, Pride, and Sorrow. It got too complicated to keep and it was abandoned, with Pink's identification of "love" being described as "particularly outdated."