Steven Universe: Future

Steven Universe: Future was a limited run Cartoon Network series that, as the name implies, served as a Sequel Series to Steven Universe. It ran from December 7th 2019 to March 27th 2020. Set a few months after Steven Universe: The Movie, Future focuses on the 16 year old Steven helping the last few corrupted Gems heal and find their places in the new world while also having to deal with his own unresolved issues.

Tropes used in Steven Universe: Future include:

• An Aesop:
  • Even if it's uncomfortable, we have to change and grow. Nothing lasts forever.
  • In an episode specific one, Garnet spells out in "Together Forever" that your significant other is not a Living Emotional Crutch, rather they are your complement.
  • The finale spells it out. You can't help others if you first don't help yourself.
• Absentee Actor: As with The Movie, Susan Egan (Pink Diamond) doesn't have a speaking role.
• Abusive Parents: Greg was raised by the very strict, anti-fun, variety. Steven thinks that Greg is exaggerating but the unopened stack of letters that Greg wrote to his parents do raise a few morally ambiguous questions.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • Did Pink Pearl's eye heal?
  • Was Steven technically corrupted?
  • Has Jasper made a full Heel Face Turn?
• Ambiguously Human: As always, Onion. Aside from having no ears and not speaking English, he doesn't appear to have aged a day. Though the other citizens look like they haven't aged either, that can at least be excused by them already having been teenagers or adults in the previous show. Onion is still the same height as Steven was before the Time Skip.
• And the Adventure Continues...: How the story ends. Everyone goes their separate ways for their own Character Development, but they'll stay in touch and one day, they'll meet up again.
• Ascended Extra: For a prop at least. Given that Steven can now drive, the Dondai Supremo (the trademark friendly Type 1 Golf), features a lot more in episodes.
• The Atoner: The Diamonds but Yellow in particular. She's rebuilding all of the Gems that were part of her cluster experiments and has plans to dismantle the Cluster.
• Back for the Finale: The Cluster returns in "I Am My Monster". Jasper eventually returns in "The Future" after her sudden noticeable absences in the previous two episodes.
• Back From the Dead: Using the totality of his Diamond essence bottles and his own Broken Tears, Steven is able to bring Jasper back to life.
• Bi the Way: Sadie new partner, Shep, is non-binary, making Sadie a pansexual.
• Book Ends: As with "Gem Glow", the very first episode, "The Future" features the Cookie Cat rap.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Greg and Steven in "Mr. Universe". Greg gave Steven the potential to explore who he wanted to be but Steven is right to say that an ordinary childhood would have provided some much needed structure at this uncertain point in Steven's life.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • The Rose Quartz line is understandably miffed at Pink Diamond. Steven's own feelings towards his mom are further shattered when he learns that she, not White Diamond, was responsible for Pink Pearl's damaged eye.
  • Steven loses all his faith in and respect for Greg at the end of "Mr. Universe".
• Brutal Honesty: Garnet's safety training more or less amounts to saying how everything can kill you.
• Call Back: Like Peridot before her, Cherry Quartz thinks that a toilet plunger is a weapon.
• Calling the Old Man Out:
  • In "Mr. Universe", Steven lays into Greg for running away from a perfectly mundane life because of one song and not giving the young Steven any structure. For what it's worth, Greg is proud of Steven for doing it as he lacked the bearings to do it himself.
  • In "Homeworld Bound", Steven, possibly, highlights White Diamond's old status as the Bigger Bad and the cause of all the strife he suffered in the parent series.
• Cerebus Callback:
  • The first episode opens with Steven merrily healing Cherry Quartz. "Fragments" ends with Steven desperately trying to revive Jasper after accidentally shattering her.
  • In "Change Your Mind", White noted that she had to be better only for Steven to tell her that it was more important for her to feel better. In "Homeworld Bound", Steven is now the one rejecting feeling better in favour of being better.
• Cerebus Retcon: All those Amusing Injuries that poor Steven suffered? Well they've traumatized him to the point that he can't deal with a minor crisis without his subconscious moving to a war footing and trying to shield him from a world ending threat. Kinda deconstructs the Kid Hero archetype.
• Continuity Cavalcade: In "Growing Pains", Steven lists off all his Amusing Injuries from Season 1 before Dr. Maheswaran cuts him off, horrified that a child went through all that. She's even more horrified that that was the early days of his saga.
• Cooldown Hug: How Corrupted!Steven is ultimately brought down.
• Cringe Comedy: The entirety of episode 3. As the now freed Rose Quartz gems come to Earth.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Greg still gets in and out of his childhood home through his bedroom window.
• Depending on the Writer: Has it been one year or three since "Change Your Mind"?
• Disappointed by the Motive:
  • In the first episode, Steven is openly disgusted that Jasper's self-exile is motivated by her Still Fighting the Civil War and tells her so right to her face. Doubly so given that Jasper was corrupted thanks to her own arrogance, while all the other once corrupted Homeworld Gems; whom, as Steven points out, are all but begging for someone like Jasper to guide them in this new era; were innocent victims who still managed to move past their trauma.
  • In a rare non-villain example, Steven is incredulous that Greg's, and by extension his, whole life can be traced back to Greg being inspired to run away from home by one song.
• Distaff Counterpart: During his "Calling the Old Man Out" moment, Steven says that Greg, for running away from home and abandoning his family, was just like Pink Diamond.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: To reflect her happier state of mind, Sadie now wears her hair in a bun and has removed all the dye.
• The Fellowship Has Ended: Sadie Killer and the Suspects have broken up to pursue their own interests. Jenny is the only one of them who actually plans to stay in Beach City.
• Five-Man Band:
  • The Hero/The Smart Guy - Steven Universe
  • The Lancer - Pearl
  • The Big Leader - Garnet
  • The Comic Relief Chick - Amethyst
• Fix Fic: In-Universe, this is how Steven and Peridot cope with the Camp Pining Hearts Continuity Reboot.
• For Want of a Nail: Steven thinks that his whole sordid life can be traced back to Greg running away from home.
• Forceful Kiss: Spinel greets Steven this way after his arrival to Homeworld.
• Forgot About His Powers:
  • Though it's rather likely a case of not wanting to use their old powers, the Diamonds' old abilities, mainly White's Eye Beams, could have easily handled Corrupted!Steven.
  • Lapis likewise doesn't use her giant water avatar in the Cooldown Hug as a response to Garnet making herself giant by Yellow Diamond.
• Grand Finale: "The Future" closes the book on the story of Steven Universe.
• Heel Realization: Hurting Pink Pearl/Volleyball was what made Pink Diamond realize what she was and that she had to change.
• Hostile Terraforming: The Lapis Lazuli caste of Gems. As Steven and Lapis point out, they don't have to terraform anymore, just do whatever makes them happy. The problem? They like Hostile Terraforming.
• Identical Stranger: "Shy" Rose Quartz looks identical to the persona that Pink Diamond crafted for herself.
• It's All My Fault: After Steven becomes corrupted from all the emotional stress and from lost of control of his Diamond glow, everyone blames themselves for it and not listening. White has the most convincing argument as everything can indeed be traced back to The Chain of Harm that she started. Connie, who recently just made it to the others via Lion after evacuating all the Beach City citizens, tells them that Steven won't return to normal if they won't stop beating themselves up.
• Late Arrival Spoiler: In-Universe, everyone knew from a single glance that Bluebird Azurite was a fusion of Aquamarine and Eyeball.
• Line-of-Sight Name: Steven dubs Pink Pearl "Volleyball" after one lands near by.
• Loves the Sound of Screaming: Little Larimar. Steven and Amethyst are kind of freaked out.
• Make My Monster Grow: Yellow Diamond makes Garnet Diamond sized so she can properly comfort Steven at his current form
• Mundane Utility:
  • In episode 2, Amethyst finds new jobs for Gems on the boardwalk based on this.
  • Steven has opened up a Healing Hands clinic.
  • Yellow Diamond her her own clinic where she can modify any Gem's physical form and customize it however they want.
• Never My Fault: Steven never admits that he needs to talk to someone about his issues. Until the end after his self corruption.
• No Antagonist: Unlike last time, the threat of the Great Diamond Authority is not looming over everything. The great threat is Steven's lingering PTSD and his refusal to do anything about it.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Kerry Moonbeam is a clear expy of the late great David Bowie.
• "No. Just... No" Reaction: Greg will not be staying for dinner with the Rose Quartzes, especially the one that looks exactly like his lost love.
• Noodle Incident:
  • The Zoomans returning is not the first time that Greg had many exes show up in one place.
  • The Ruby bodyguards apparently come to Steven quite often. He asks what could be so dangerous that they require regular visits only for them to respond that it's Classified Information.
  • Nearly being killed by a force field isn't the craziest party Jenny has been to.
• Non-Malicious Monster: The Final Boss of the Steven Universe saga? Steven himself. Overwhelmed by emotional stress, he self-corrupts and becomes a Kaiju forcing everyone to give him a Cooldown Hug. Pearl even lampshades this.
• Oh Crap: Jasper just before Steven shatters her.
• Planet of Steves: Homeworld as always. Don't vote for Zircon. Vote for Zircon.
• Power Glows: Whenever Steven gets angry/frustrated, he starts glowing pink for as of yet unexplained reasons. He suspects that he's growing into his Diamond powers but no explicit answer was given.
• Race Against the Clock: Implied by Sapphire stating that if they don't return Steven to normal he'll be corrupted permanently.
• Reality Ensues:
  • Despite the Aesop of the series being to change and move forward, it's not shy in pointing out that it's hard to move on after being set in your ways for so long and that trauma comes from a place of emotion, not logic, so it's not easy to just let go of it.
  • As said under Ship Sinking below, if you and your love interest are away from each other for very long, the experiences run the risk of changing you enough that things don't work out.
  • Steven has never interacted with kids his age. He has no idea how to talk to them.
  • Some people, no matter how hard others try, will only change in small doses. By the end, Jasper is still violent and antagonistic, but she's at least decided to move into Little Homeworld, something that Steven counts as a victory, acknowledging that he's done all that he can and that the rest has to come from her.
• Redemption Rejection: Jasper. She starts to come around by the time of Homeworld Bound and ends the show better than she was when it started, but still not 100% a Heel Face Turn.
• Relationship Upgrade: By the end, Steven and Connie are, finally, boyfriend and girlfriend.
• Ship Sinking: "Little Graduation" confirms that Lars and Sadie did try to make their relationship work but the Character Development that both went through ultimately made them different people who just didn't fit anymore. Lars is going back to space and Sadie has found someone new that she intends to pursue her musical career with.
• Slice of Life: Many of the episodes. Steven is quite happy with this when it happens but is now trying to enforce it if it doesn't.
• So Proud of You: Ruby and Sapphire become visibly touched by Connie's Rousing Speech and leading them to be motivated for them to fuse back into Garnet and to form her plan as a response is this.
• Status Quo Is God: Averted. The whole point of the show is that nothing lasts forever. People come and go, new horizons open up, bands break up, shows end and get rebooted, love lives and love dies and everyone has to move forward. No matter how much Steven tries to make this an Enforced Trope.
• Stepford Smiler:
  • Pink Pearl/Volleyball. It's what's caused her cracked eye. The more she suppresses it, the larger the crack grows.
  • Steven himself over the course of the show. He found an identity in life by helping others. But now there are no others left to help and everyone's moved on with their lives, leaving him to question his own self-worth.
• Take That: Steven and Peridot's Fix Fic, see above, amounts to the two keeping about 90% of the same story as canon, introducing "Stefan" into the story, and introducing some romantic tension between Stefan and Jasmine. Within a few days of it, they lose any original ideas and just awkwardly staple their OC into the story while repeating the romantic tension.
• Taking the Bullet: Played for Laughs when Yellow Diamond pushes Blue Diamond out of the way of one her euphoric clouds. All it ends up doing is making Yellow and Spinel laugh instead of Blue.
• These Hands Have Killed: Steven utterly freaks out after accidentally shattering Jasper.
• Traumatic Haircut: To free himself from Eyeball and Aquamarine, Greg slices off his long hair. He mourns it to the point of tears.
• Unknown Rival: Pink Pearl doesn't appear to have any idea that Pearl is a Clingy Jealous Girl with regards to Pink Diamond, casually chatting with her about how fun their old Diamond was.
• Villain Team-Up: Aquamarine and Eyeball fused into Bluebird Azurite to get revenge on Steven.
• Walking the Earth: At the end, Steven leaves Beach City, possibly forever, to see the rest of the country and grow as a person.
• Wham! Line: That crack on Pink Pearl's eye. It was caused by Pink Diamond, not White.
• Wingding Eyes: Aside from his usual star shaped irises reaction, Steven's eyes become diamond shaped when he is fully tapping into his Diamond abilities. Homeworld Bound has Spinel have hearts appear in her eyes upon seeing Steven arriving in Homeworld.
• The Worf Effect: What better way to show how powerful Pink Diamond (regarded both In-Universe and out as the weakest Diamond of the four) was than to have her power shatter Jasper?
• You Have Got to Be Kidding Me!:
  • Steven is decidedly unimpressed that Greg got their family name from a song that he liked.
  • Amethyst says this verbatim as a response to the Diamonds being prone to visiting Earth whenever a major crisis is happening. White even agrees that their track record of visiting the Earth is poor.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Jasper: I bow to your strength... my Diamond.