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TheHunterPersian @ being gay with my boyfriend for nearly 6 days @thehunterpersian.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

i need you to understand that images like this perfectly encapsulates 2016-2017 tumblr and steven universe discourse on tumblr more than anything in the world ever could

(image by an unknown artist from tumblr due to their blog being deactivated)

image originates from around 2017, during the height of the 'su critical' trend, a trend common on tumblr at the time due to various factors whether it be the show's writing, art, or the production crew.

text on the top of the image:
STEVEN'S UNIVERSE
where friendship is magic!

image proceeds to depict in a satirical yet mocking manner the following characters:
pearl: (laying on the ground crying while textbox shows her cry typing. at the time, the su critical crowd often complained about the amount of screentime she had been receiving, the fact that she was constantly crying about rose and nothing else, as well as other factors such as her treatment of steven and connies, etc)

steven: (pointing at himself in his shirt and in a diaper, with the text, "the babby is always right!". at the time, the su critical crowd took steven's belief in not wanting to kill the diamonds, the climax of the bismuth episode, as sign of the show's and writers' "liberal" politics towards fascism, especially in the aftermath of the 2016 election)

lapis: (in a plaid shirt and smoking, with the text, "y'all ever heard of arctic monkeys?". the least serious of it all)

peridot: (seen as a chibi gremlin, speaking in "uwu" talk with gratuitous japanese. one big factor the su critical crowd had was accusing writer jesse zuke of trying to make lapis x peridot a canon couple, due to fans' belief of the ship being abusive. others also complained about how peridot was being drawn shorter and shorter on the show, and how many felt she was being flanderized character-wise)

garnet and amythest: (seen in outlines with arrows pointing at them, with text questioning who they are and that they only need "1 arc". one big thing talked about by the su critical crowd was how both characters, the most poc coded characters, were "often shoved aside" for pearl, often called white coded, to take the spotlight)

@ladyemily.nebula.tv@ladyemily.nebula.tv

It’s funny knowing how much discourse Steven Universe caused and then finally watching it and basically every episode ending with a character going “ah gosh, I hurt someone’s feelings and I feel bad about it. It’s important to apologize to someone you hurt” because it’s still ultimately a kid’s show

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