Connie (Steven Universe)

Connie Maheswaran is a character from the show Steven Universe. Steven becomes her first friend and appears to have a crush on her. They are currently good friends although, they do nearly kiss in "An Indirect Kiss". She is also taking sword fighting lessons as of the the events of sworn to the sword.

## Personality

Connie is introverted, curious and intelligent. Due to her parents' lifestyle, specifically her father's job, Connie rarely stays in one place for long and has been unable to form lasting friendships, which left her frequently feeling lonely. Her parents are very strict and don't allow her to participate in common childhood activities (such as eating donuts or anything with trans fats, although she ate one in Crack the Whip). This has led her to flat-out lie about Steven's non-nuclear family, due to paranoia at how her parents may react. Despite her obedience to them, Connie is not above exploiting loopholes, such as not buying snacks at a theater and instead bringing them from Steven's home.

Connie has grown used to the strange dynamic of her friendship with Steven despite her initial uncertainty of it. For example, in "Marble Madness" when the Gems destroy one of Peridot's robonoids in front of her, she reacts passively awed and only comments that she loves hanging out at Steven's place. She can be a bit deadpan at times, such as when she jokes about cutting off Steven's hand in "Lion 2: The Movie" and in that same instance quickly understands that by poking/tickling Steven she could provoke a reaction from Rose's Secret Armory. Her hobbies appear to include tennis and reading, and she also plays the violin, as seen in "Fusion Cuisine", "Sworn to the Sword", and "Nightmare Hospital".

"Sworn to the Sword" shows a more confident and aggressive side to her personality when she learns sword fighting. Due to Pearl's negative reinforcement, she also began to display a reckless side, but this was quickly put out by Steven. The episode also highlights her strong feelings for Steven, through her dedication to becoming his knight. This boosted confidence is also shown in "Nightmare Hospital" when Connie stands up to her mother about her strict upbringing and rules, and also even revealed her involvement in magical affairs.

"Beach City Drift" emphasizes her level-headedness when she tells Steven she is "thinking mad" about Kevin, and when they de-fuse she is the one who convinces Steven that they have been obsessed with Kevin and to let go of their grudge.

"Gem Hunt" highlights Connie's confidence in how she, while respecting and obeying Pearl, pushes her to split up to hunt the gem monsters, and is the one to lead when she and Steven hunt the second monster through the forest. She is also revealed to have prepared for surviving in the wilderness by reading a book on wilderness survival. However, despite all her training and preparedness, Connie freezes during an encounter with one of the Gem monsters they were hunting. In the end, she chooses to call Pearl via Steven's walkie-talkie, which Pearl commended her for after their subsequent encounter with Jasper who they found had been hunting the Gem monsters.

"Crack the Whip" shows she is not afraid to barge into the Beach House while shouting surprise, showing how comfortable she has gotten around Steven and the other Gems, telling Garnet and Pearl to stay safe. The episode also shows a lighter side to her when she, Steven and Amethyst have fun around Beach City. Connie even eats a donut despite it going against what she told Steven in "Bubble Buddies", demonstrating her growing independence. She also confides in Steven and Amethyst about freezing during her first mission, causing Amethyst to tell her she should stop overthinking things and follow her instincts in battle. She takes Amethyst's words to heart as she fares far better when the two of them along with Steven and Lion encounter Jasper, and the two Gem Monsters from "Gem Hunt" that Jasper had tamed to take on the Crystal Gems. Together with Steven, Connie bravely confronts Jasper to prevent her from shattering Amethyst, fusing in mid-battle which allows Stevonnie to save Amethyst and force Jasper and her remaining Gem Monster to retreat. After Amethyst regenerates, Connie tells her she was right about how she should follow her instincts.

"Buddy's Book" shows both Connie's studiousness and independence in that she originally goes to the library with Steven to study and prepare for the upcoming school year, only to instantly halt her studies when Steven shows her Buddy's journal.

"Mindful Education" further highlights Connie's growth as well as the transition into higher confidence in her behavior and thoughts. A softer side to Connie's internal struggles with her emotions are shown, as the guilt from the result of her actions at school left a noticeable change in her behavior. After learning that her guilt was natural, she decides to confront her emotions by later apologizing to Jeff and make amends. After this, she is able to clear her mind and is more confident in understanding not to let her emotions negate or cloud her thoughts by keeping them in. On Connie's phone, it shows that she had taken a picture of them happy together, which is something she would have never done if not for the lesson with Garnet. She is also able to pass this knowledge onto Steven, assuring him he had to be honest about how bad his feelings were so he could move on, like she herself did.

"The New Crystal Gems" demonstrates Connie's eagerness to leap into action and adventure. She asks Steven to wait for her so she can go into space with him. The episode also shows her devotion to him as she took his request to protect Beach City to heart. This goes as far as to pretend to be him, dressing in his commonly worn attire and sleeping in his bed. The episode showcases her development with her increasing confidence and maturity. This is shown when she scolded Peridot and Lapis for their behavior which was something the shy quiet girl Steven first met would have never done. Her leadership skills are also on display when she told them to be themselves and organized their efforts to fix the damage they did. All of this is a result of her exposure with Steven and is proof of how a figure like Steven can inspire someone like Connie to express what they couldn't have done before.

## Trivia

* According to writer Matt Burnett, Connie is of Indian heritage.
	+ Both of Connie's parents are Indian-American.
	+ Connie's surname, Maheswaran, means "Lord of Universe" in Hindi and is also traditionally a Tamil surname.
* Connie is directly referred to as Steven's girlfriend in commercials in Portugal as well as numerous other European countries.
* Kat Morris created Connie's character.
* It is revealed in "Mirror Gem" that Connie plays the violin.
* Connie appears in the title sequence as the "Mr. Universe" van drives by, causing a breeze that she looks towards. She holds the book *A Wrinkle in Time* and is wearing a sky blue sundress, a pale tan sunhat and orange boots.
	+ In the second intro, she is shown wearing shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt instead of a sun dress, wielding Rose's Sword and holding an unknown book with a bookmark inside. Instead of a breeze, she looks towards the end of the road with a smile and pops out of the street and runs to the Crystal Temple. She is shown wearing the frames of her glasses until she reaches the Crystal Temple and lies in front of Rose's sword.
* She is able to write backward. This is seen in the very short amount of time it took her to write "Harpoon Gun" on the inside of the bubble in "Bubble Buddies".
* Connie is shown to play tennis in "Lion 2: The Movie", and describes it as the only thing that she remotely enjoys in her life. Later, in "Sworn to the Sword", she translates her tennis prowess into swordfighting, which becomes her new passion.
* Following the events of "An Indirect Kiss", Connie can now see normally without her glasses thanks to the healing powers in Steven's saliva. Because she wanted to avoid confrontation with her parents and optometrist about this, she took out the lenses of her glasses and wore the frames instead.
	+ Following the events of "Nightmare Hospital", she no longer wears glasses, having informed her mother that she no longer requires them. In all further episodes, she no longer carries the frames.
* In "Winter Forecast", Connie says "itadakimasu", a Japanese word said before eating. She has stated that her father travels, so Connie may know more than one language.
* In "Sworn to the Sword", Connie's outfit and fighting style were inspired by Kalaripayattu.
	+ She wields a sword resembling the Khanda, a sword typically used in the style.
	+ Her hairstyle is a braid typically worn by female Kalaripayattu practitioners.
* Connie is shown to be ambidextrous in the episode "Sworn to the Sword". When she is training, she is seen holding her sword with her right hand; when she fights Pearl with Steven, she is using her left hand.
* Despite saying her family moves around a lot, she has kept the same home for well over a year.
* In "Nightmare Hospital", it is revealed that she hates the punishment abacus, which is what her parents use to calculate the length of punishments for her.
* It is revealed in "Steven's Birthday" that Connie is 12¾ years old.
* A girl resembling Connie makes a brief appearance in the OVA *Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade*.
* In Gem Hunt, Connie carries Rose's sword on her back with the hilt over her shoulder. This is similar to many anime characters who carry giant swords the same way such as Ichigo Kurosaki from *Bleach* and Guts from *Berserk*.
* It is shown that Connie and Pearl have many traits in common such as intelligence, attention to detail and a tendency to be overly hard on themselves in the face of perceived failure.
* Connie might be a gamer, as seen in the short Video Chat. Her laptop has *Colonization V*, a spoof of the real-life video game *Civilization V*. She also has *Empires & Eras II* and *Conqueror Kings II* which are spoofs of *Age of Empires II* and *Crusader Kings II*, respectively. She also has *Grid*, a spoof of the popular gaming platform *Steam*.
* According to the 4th issue of the comic series, Connie has an aunt.