Steven Universe Critical

Steven Universe critical, also called Steven Universe crit or just SU crit, was a movement mainly on Tumblr starting in early 2017. This was a long fandom war with two opposing sides, and still somewhat exists in 2021 despite the show having ended. On one side there were the "SU crits," who heavily criticized Steven Universe and its crew for a number of reasons, and on the other side "SU stans," who either saw SU crit as needlessly critical, annoying, or simply wrong altogether. What is Su Critical Dated 2017 (Accessed 12/18/19) (Archived 2/6/2022) 
It began when Tumblr users started to criticize the show and then some of these criticisms were interpreted as "nitpicky" by other fandom members who were in disagreement.The Thing that Still Infuriates Me Still About... Tumblr (Accessed 12/18/19) (Archived 2/6/2022) These critics began making their own separate blogs specifically to criticize the show and its crew, and accusations would range from calling the crew racist to picking apart episodes frame by frame for animation mistakes.Su-Critical, Tumblr (Accessed 12/18/19) (Archived 2/6/2022) These blogs exploded in popularity and if one intended to they could have blocked over a hundred in a day, proving their numbers. I actually did block over 100 SU crit blogs during the peak- and I did count. I still have them blocked and the list is truly massive. (Patchlamb, 7/19/2020) 
In response parts of the fandom spoke out against these blogs, saying that they were overly negative and that they placed streams of grievances into the main fandom tags. Some in the fandom even actively argued against the criticism, finding them to be closer to personal opinion than actual infallible moral issue with the show. SU crit blogs began calling those who were against the SU crit movement "SU stans," naming them under the belief that they were ignoring the shows issues. 
Steven Universe Critical is still a large community, however it is possibly not as popular as it once was. The SU crit movement may be related to the cancel culture present on Tumblr. In 2021, Tumblr users may also identify this movement as "critical culture," which refers to audiences who have become hyper critical of the media they consume (not to be confused with critical theory or critical studies, an academic field of study).
==Arguments==
===Steven Universe Crits===
While there have always been minute criticisms of the show, its fandom, and the crew, what ultimately started the SU crit movement were posts directed at the show's colorists and story boarders, and perhaps arguably the controversy surrounding Jesse ZukeSome resources and past references, such as quotations and discussions of Jesse Zuke from 2016, may display or refer to them by their deadname.(especially considering the original SU crit arguments began as arguments directed at Lapis and Peridot). Some fans noticed that characters, especially characters like Lapis and Peridot, were drawn differently across seasons and episodes.Why do They Look Like that... Tumblr. Mar 11, 2017 (Accessed 7/19/2020) (Archived 2/6/2022)Peridot's Head, Tumblr. Mar 7, 2017 (Accessed 7/19/2020) (Archived 2/6/2022) This, to many, came across as being lazy and a sign of poor animation. Other posts criticized the saturated colors, namely Lapis and Peridot's colors, and suggested that they became more saturated as seasons went on.The Crits When People Try and Tell You Lapis... Tumblr. Mar 11, 2017 (Accessed 7/19/2020) (Archived 2/6/2022) I remember seeing tons of screenshots of the show circulating in 2017 about the color pallets and the animation differences. It got on a lot of peoples nerves because they felt like everyone was being needlessly harsh over tiny details. There was a lot of arguing over this stuff and is probably where the stans started seeing the crits as being nitpicky. (Patchlamb, 7/20/2020) A SU crit blog called Su-Critical (run by at least three underage mods) soon went on to claim that no one was actually upset about the show's color pallets and that it was a joke, however in the same post continued to call the colors ugly, jarring, and "objectively bad."Stevs Pooniverse I'm Tired Of SU Pallette... Tumblr. Feb 13, 2017 (Accessed 7/19/2020) (Archived 2/6/2022)Su-Critical was a blog started Jan 2017 and was run by three minors. Based on their blogs archives they may have been one of the more argumentative and vocal crit blogs, tending to "call out" the stans just as much as they criticized the show. (Patchlamb, 7/20/2020)
Opinions between SU crit blogs are variable, though there are still some popular opinions among them. For example, one of the popular opinions and one of the opinions that initially kicked off the SU crit movement is the idea that the show is ugly, overly saturated, and lazily animated. One post that has over 900 notes as of Jul 2020 discusses this.Wow I Just Realized Something After Looking At... Tumblr. Aug 11, 2017 (Accessed 7/19/2020) (Archived 2/6/2022) 
In 2019, a minute phenomenon in SU crit was pro-Palestinian memes that criticized the show's worldbuilding and perceived adherence to the status quo rather than the constructive change or real-world impact sought by the crew.
Another popular opinion held by most SU crits is that Rebecca Sugar (the show runner) and the crew either support fascism, are nazi apologists, or support imperialism due to giving the Diamonds backstories and later redeeming them. In modern fandom meta from the 10s and 20s, "redeeming" a character usually refers to anti-heros, who go from being evil to being good. As of Jul 2020 a post joking about this has 261 notes.Steven Universe Future Episode 1 Tumblr. Circa 2019 (Accessed 7/19/2020) (Archived 2/6/2022)
There are still many varied opinions yet, both popular and less so. These include accusations of the crew being racist (for its treatment of Bismuth, Garnet's character, and the human zoo), ableist (for its treatment of Onion), fatphobic (for changing how Steven is drawn), and many many more. One Tumblr blog called nbapprentice, which is an anti anti callout post blog run by two mods, offered their opinions on Rebecca Sugar and her husband Ian. When an anon sent nbapprentice an ask stating that they felt SU had good representation, was by a marginalized creator who simply made mistakes in her teen years, and that claiming such a marginalized creator was "gross and predatory" was an "alt right talking point," nbapprentice gave a short response refuting the anon's points. Their response was that Rebecca Sugar and her husband were pedophiles, "freaky asses," made Garnet an "Obsessive Lesbian stereotype" who followed a "slave master" and promoted rape, and that non-binary characters didn't count if they weren't human. nbapprentice's entire response is below and is another good example of the opinions held not just against the show, but its creator and staff as well.
Some other opinions, sourced from many different Tumblr blogs who have tagged posts under "su crit," are below. 
A famous Steven Universe Critical blogger who actively hate watched the show and posted her criticism directly into the SU Stan tag of Tumblr is Lily Orchid, a Youtuber who became known for a two hour long video about why she believed the show was garbage. She was mocked by SU stans for the length and content of the video.
====SU Crit and Other Shows====
Some users on Tumblr have questioned why ex-fans of Steven Universe focused so heavily on just Steven Universe, when there are several other cartoons- past and present- with equal or similar topics of criticism. For example, the criticism of Steven Universe and its crew became so wide spread that the "SU crit blog" became a popular side blog type. However, other shows, such as She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, whose crew made jokes on a podcast about their black characters and slavery, and Star vs. The Forces of Evil, which had an adult man in the body of a teen boy date a teen girl, have not received the same overarching negative response as Steven Universe. While there are indeed posts and meta essays discussing the issues of other such cartoons, the two examples given have not caused entire communities to be formed around their criticism, nor have there been hundreds of criticism blogs dedicated to them. The "spop crit" tag on Tumblr, as of Feb 2021, and sorted by most popular posts, brings up only about a dozen or so posts, with the highest note count being 630. Furthermore, "svtfoe crit" only brings up one post and one crit blog.
In one example of a Steven Universe fan pointing this discrepancy out, Tumblr user coyoxtl criticized cartoon fans for praising Avatar: The Last Air Bender's creators, who were both white men, and hired mostly other white people, while in the same breath speaking badly of Rebecca Sugar by calling her a nazi apologist. They said:
A similar comparison references the LGBTQ representation among cartoons, specifically comparing Steven Universe to other modern shows, such as The Owl House. One Tumblr user named itneedsmoregays believes the lesbian representation of Steven Universe wasn't good enough because Ruby and Sapphire were not explicitly called "girlfriends" nor "wives," while other cartoons did, despite Steven Universe having the very first lesbian wedding in a cartoon. Other users expressed disdain with how such criticism ignored Rebecca Sugar's well document struggle to get the wedding, or relationship, on Cartoon Network at all, and how such criticism seemed to pit LGBTQ show runners against one another needlessly.Eh, I don't really feel like saying "girlfriend" or "wife". Tumblr, circa Aug 2, 2021. (Accessed 8/2/2021) (Archived 2/6/2022)
In a converse example of someone comparing Steven Universe to other popular cartoons, Tumblr blogger kittyprincessofcats discussed why they felt certain writing elements of She-Ra were better than those of Steven Universe. Specifically, they spoke at length about why they found Catra to be a "redeemable" villain and why the Diamonds were not. Kittyprincessofcats started out by saying that though they were disappointed in SU and found certain episodes to be deal breakers, they had nothing against those who enjoyed SU. They said that the Diamonds had no motivation for their evil actions, had conquered millions of planets/peoples without remorse, that the Diamonds being sad over Pink's death wasn't enough to make them sympathetic, and that the Diamonds didn't actually have a redemption arc but instead that the audience were simply meant to forgive them without reason. Conversely, they said of Catra that she had only destroyed one planet, that she was sympathetic because she'd been abused by Shadow Weaver, that Catra simply being a "toxic friend" wasn't enough to make her a bad person who should go to jail, and that Catra had an "amazing redemption arc" where she loses everything then feels bad for it. Part of kittyprincessofcats's criticism of the Diamonds is below.
Conversely, when other cartoons are considered to be progressive and more accurate with their representation and portrayals, they do not receive the same unadulterated praise. For example, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts is a cartoon that is considered much more progressive than many of the cartoons before it, including Steven Universe, and thus has less criticism overall. However, while SU crits are pleased to heavily critique Steven Universe for its perceived flaws, they are less pleased to heavily praise cartoons that are considered to have better representation. For example, the previously mentioned blog, nbapprentice, who was quoted saying "for every absolute fucking pedophilic weirdo in an important position there could be a non-weirdo doing even better than their freaky ass," in reference to Rebecca Sugar, has only made one post about Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, which did not mention the show runner or any details about the show's progressive representation.Have you heard about kipo and the age of the wonderbeasts? Tumblr. Apr 1, 2020. (Accessed 2/18/2021) (Archived 2/6/2022) 
This focus on critiquing "bad" content but not praising "good" content to an equal extent is not exclusive to SU crit and the Steven Universe fandom, and has been pointed out on Tumblr regarding other issues as well. One Tumblr user named transsexuallationstudies pointed out this trend, saying that while many want to watch shows by LGBTQ+ and non-white artists, once they discover that those LGBTQ+ and non-white artists are themselves also flawed, they stop supporting them in favor of white artists who never speak on LGBTQ+ or non-white issues at all (see Race in Fandom).there’s this interesting tendency that especially young ppl have, Tumblr. Circa 2021 (Accessed 7/14/2021) (Archived 7/14/2021)
Why SU crits focus so intensely on Steven Universe but not other cartoons, even in 2021 after the show had been over for a year, is a point of topic for a lot of SU Stans (discussed in detail in the subsection below).
===Steven Universe Stans===
The other side of the Steven Universe critical fandom war are the "Steven Universe stans," an opposing group named by the SU crits themselves. While the name "stan" refers to a fan who praises something without regard to the piece's problems, more often than not it is the SU crits that SU stans find issue with, rather than finding nothing wrong with the show. SU stans that avidly ignore the show's problems are few and far between.(Accessed 12/19/19) I Hate the Term SU Stans... Tumblr. Nov 2019 (Accessed 7/19/2020) (Archived 2/22/2022) While a Tumblr search of the tag SU crit instantly pulls up an endless page of said crit, searching SU stan or anti SU crit does not actually reveal the intense praise one would assume of the title "stan." Instead, the SU stan tag is much more similar to the regular Steven Universe tag. SU stans tended to try to find the enjoyment in the show while simultaneously arguing with SU crits for their methods of criticism. Some SU stans may agree with certain SU critical opinions, but believe the surge of blogs dedicated to picking the show apart are annoying or unnecessarily negative. Other SU stans simply see the SU crit movement as nitpicking, reaching, or based off of personal squicks rather than educated critique. Yet another opinion from SU stans is that Steven Universe is not inherently as bad as crits claim it is, and that their criticism is only so harsh because the show itself is full of LGBTQ characters and minorities, and because the show runner is a bisexual Jewish woman in an interracial relationship, so see SU crit as a case of the "moving the goalpost" fallacy. Overall, the opinion SU stans all hold is that the show simply isn't as perverse or bad as the SU crits chalk it up to be.
Because these "stans" are usually against the crit movement rather than the criticism itself, one may find the handful of anti-crit blogs are actually labeled as Steven Universe positivity blogs. This is likely in reference to the original boom in SU crit blogs flooding the normal Steven Universe tags in 2017. Anti-crit users found the flood of SU crit to be nothing but negative posts about their favorite show and that they were draining, thus the creation of positivity blogs to counter act the negativity blogs began.No-Su-Crit-Here Dated March 2017 (Accessed 12/19/19) (Archived 2/8/2022)
SU stans frequently point out that SU is one of the only shows with a creator of multiple marginalized communities while other popular cartoon show runners are not. For comparison, Rebecca Sugar is a Jewish bisexual non-binary woman in an interracial relationship (though otherwise white), whose show had openly showed several LGBTQ relationships, non-white characters, and hired voice actors of several non-white ethnicities for non-villain rolls. ND Stevenson, the show runner for the Netflix reboot of She-Ra, is a white non-binary lesbian married to a woman, whose show had one gay relationship at the very end of the series, and a few implied LGBTQ relationships. Then, Daron Nefcy, the show runner for the show Star vs. the Forces of Evil, is a white woman whose show has no LGBTQ relationships and the side-kick is a POC to a rich and magical white main character. While a SU crit, based on their general opinions, would state that even people of marginalized groups such as Rebecca are not exempt from critique and can be themselves racist, homophobic, or anti-Semitic, a SU stan may look at such above information and suggest that SU crits have ulterior motives for only criticizing Rebecca heavily given that, out of all the above creators, she is the most marginalized and attempted the most representation in her show. Conversely, SU crits may point out that a large portion of the criticism towards Rebecca actually comes from those of marginalized groups, boiling a majority of SU crit down to non-white and LGBTQ ex-fans making the brunt of SU crit. Three quotes from SU stans about this specific argument are below.
Below are a number of other quotes from SU stans, some pertaining to the SU crit movement and some being counter arguments to the show's criticism.
==Resources and Meta==
===Meme and Art Response===
*No more will this acclimation of iniquity stand!!Archived Version-- parody art of the criticism surrounding character models
*Ed Edd & Eddy MemeArchived Version-- tagged as Steven Universe 
*Kids not wanting to kill anybodyArchived Version-- Comic comparing Avatar the Last Airbender with Steven Universe
*People in #su critical: Steven Universe has gotten so inconsistentArchived Version-- comparison of season 1 and newer season screenshots
*I know it’s an old meme but big moodArchived Version-- meme asking Tumblr not to "ruin" OKKO "like they did Steven Universe"
*"Pearl hates the Irish," a meme started in 2018, may have been influenced by the critical movement. A Tumblr user who asked about the joke was responded with: "It’s a joke on su critical."Why Do ppl Make Racist Pearl Memes, Tumblr. Jan 19, 2019 (Accessed 7/20/2020) (Archived 2/8/2022)
*"Steven's knife" meme may also have been influenced by SU crit
===Sample Crit Blogs===
*SuCriticalHecateArchived Version
*Su-Crit-Blog-for-NerdsArchived Version
*StevenUniverseCriticismsArchived Version
*BitteruniverseArchived Version
*The-Critical-GemsArchived Version
====Sample Counter-Blogs====
These are parody blogs or positivity blogs. Most parody blogs are themed around making fake SU crit posts as satire, where their posts are purposefully exaggerated.
*SuisNowShit-blogArchived Version
*No-Su-Crit-HereArchived Version
*Anti-Su-Pro-LogicArchived Version
*ZukePositivityArchived Version
Category:Fandom WarsCategory:Steven UniverseCategory:Scandals
==Notes and References==
===Notes===
===References===
Category:Race & FandomCategory:Discussion