Thursday, 11 May 2017

Steven Universe Review: “Are You My Dad?”

Dad Quest
(This review contains spoilers!)

          One of the reasons why the town episodes in Steven Universe feel like a completely different show is that they’re often disjointed from what the Gems are doing, which is unfortunate, because the Gems are the main driving force of the plot. The townsfolk had nothing to do with Peridot’s redemption, they just barely had roles as supporting characters in Amethyst’s Season 3 ending arc, and none of them appeared in the Out of this World bomb.

          So it seems only fitting that a season absolutely suffocating in townie episodes involve them in the finale somehow. Following up from the last two episodes, Lars, Sadie and Onion have gone missing, and it seems that Jamie the mailman has joined them. Steven and Connie go on a quest to find them, only to stumble across a small blue gem who says she’s looking for her dad.

          As these things go, it turns out that the blue gem (Aquamarine) is behind all of this, employing large brutes called Topazes to fuse around the townies and hold them hostage. Connie is quickly scooped up as well, leaving Steven to take off home.

          This episode feels more or less like setup for tomorrow’s season finale, but there’s a lot of humour to it that the next episode, being much more serious, lacks. The scene where Connie and the Gems try to draw Aquamarine based on Steven’s description of her is especially hilarious (“Okay, Garnet, you just drew yourself.” “Uh, I like me.”).

          The new gems are fun, albeit a little uninspired. Topaz looks a little too close to Jasper, and Aquamarine definitely has a Lapis feel to her. Their personalities, on the other hand, make them out to be fantastic villains. I like that they contrast, with Topaz never saying a word and Aquamarine being incredibly chatty, while still both being very intimidating.

          Are You My Dad? is pretty obviously meant to as a “Part 1” of the season finale than a stand-alone episode, but I think that it works well for what it is. It does a good job at introducing the villains (although I wish we’d gotten to them earlier) and there’s a lot of funny moments. It’s a solid episode that feels like a satisfying beginning of the end to a lackluster season.

FINAL SCORE
8/10

Great

No comments:

Post a Comment