What would you change about Steven to make him a better protagonist?

Never got into Aang desu. Found him to be the least interesting guy. Kinda weird considering I like Steven.

Steven and Aang are similar but different in key ways. Aang is the trickster archetype and Steven is more of a regular kid.

every messianic character sucks

Well there was Eyeball, that he had to straight up throw out into space despite healing her.

And Aquamarine was a little shit to the end and proud of it. Shame she got so little screentime.

I love Aang. Just didn't like how Energy Bending let him completely gloss over his responsibility to the biggest moral choice in the show.

Fpbp goddamn it

And Bismuth, which eventually got resolved but fucked up him pretty hard emotionally in the interim period.

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Aang had more personality than just being a saint 24/7. He was good at heart but he had actual layers to him. Steven is just perfectly Gary Stu passed the first season or two.

>People never shut the fuck up about him hating Kevin
>"Saint"
The only way you came to this conclusion is looking away from the screen and plugging your ears because the show doesn't treat Steven has perfect. He has a massive martyr complex and constantly tries to pretend everything is fine which strains his relationship with his family and friends.

He got flanderized pretty hard in the later episodes, Steven used to be a weirder and more selfish kid but with a good heart. Then they turned him into a saint and a total crybaby. Also, they really fucked up his height through the show, making him too damn short.

One thing I did appreciate about Bismuth was that they didn't make her do an abrupt complete 180 on her beliefs to rejoin the group.

Steven might not have agreed with her methods, but he acknowledged that Rose had blatant ulterior motives in locking her away, not just because of her morals, and that they didn't fully make sense unless you knew her true identity.

Flanderized =/= character development. You guys really need to stop falling back on buzzwords when characters develop traits you don't like. If Steven was flanderized he'd be a fucking drooling retard because of how naive and silly he was in S1. That's how flanderization actually works.

Even then it's never 100% confirmed that Bismuth agreed with Rose besides the fact that she acknowledged that shattering a Diamond would produce worse consequences than anything the war shat out.

>People never shut the fuck up about him hating Kevin

Did they say it in the show that it was Stevenie feelings, and not Steven?

No, it means stripping away most of his character traits. He lost the quirkiness he had in season one, and now he's Doctor Phil.

Steven specifically says that he hates Kevin.

I guess making him older is a big step
honestly we need to see what the new episodes will bring us, the best change he can have is taking more mature decisions

also fucking and/or having a thing with a gem would be nice

Steven was the overt hate, Connie was the passive-aggression. Steven was intentionally written as OOC to make the point that obsession over something is for retards.

He's gone through a lot of trauma since then which is why he's more reserved but he clearly still has a sense of humor.

make him not a faggot

Not exactly to make him a better protagonist, but I’d definitely love more exploration of his abilities and to have seen him master shapeshifting before The Timeskip

Give him the kintamas of Monkey D. Luffy

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Steven doesn't exist in a vacuum. You can't simply tweak his character and fix the show. If you change him, you've basically got to change all of the characters around him to make the character dynamics work.

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I don't know why, but he looks more... dynamic?
I don't know ho to put it into words.

Blond hair, it's more energetic.

AU of Yellow Diamond and Coop when?

Especially when taking away Ozai's bending wouldn't have actually accomplished anything. Because you can't rule an empire and command an army without being able to throw fireballs, apparently.

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He looks like Dash but tan.

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And he has blond hair too! This is turning into a pattern now

The blonde pointy hair gives an illusion of lightning

Make talk no jutsu not work literally every single time. Not everyone can be swayed into totally changing their entire worldview like nothing simply by being cried at or sung to. Hell, that won't work on 99.9% of people.

>Jasper
>Aquamarine
>Eyeball

TNJ rarely works and that's counting with a fight on top of it. Not to mention there are zero examples of any antagonist being beaten by crying or singing (Jasper was beaten by Lapis so she doesn't count). Gotta remember not to confuse memes with what actually happens in the show user.

The fact of the matter is that the story would not have ended when it did if it wasn't for Zuko and Katara taking down Azula at the Agni Kai. Aang prevented a genocide, and captured the head of the empire, but none of it would have sealed the deal if it wasn't for the challenge/coup that took place in the Fire Nation itself.

I think that train has left the station.

you totally could fucking do that. Depending on how you change him, it could easily change the fate of certain characters or make him more/less proactive depending on the situation.

the answer is obvious

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Give him more boyish/masculine traits
You never see him doing anything silly anymore. Instead of being a funny kid he's a walking basedboy. I miss season 1 SU

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I honestly agree with but they did a decent job of maturing Steven up from the start of the show to the "end". Like, I don't want him to become Action Jackson but just let him punch ONE PERSON! Just one. You can't your way out of everything and hopefully, Steven learns this in the movie.

Meant to quote My fuck up.

Give him a gun

1) Have him physically age normally, and develop his powers and emotional maturity rather than regress. Stay boyish instead of becoming effeminate.

2) Teach him that ignorance isn’t innocence.

3) Understand the difference between being supportive and being an enabler.

4) Either defeat or win over the Diamonds in a way where he doesn’t lie about being Pink Diamond until the end of the finale.

I hope he lets loose in the movie.

There was also navy, who pretended to be good until she took the ship with her.

That episode with Connie, Lapis, and Peridot was such a disappointment. It was an opportunity to see these characters interact without Steven and instead of fighting a corrupted gem or something the episode just sort of goes nowhere and does nothing.

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Give him more power, super strength, super intelligence, super martial art skil,l flight , eye laser beam and an 18"Cock

>the episode just sort of goes nowhere and does nothing.
That's most SU episodes though.

That's Johnny fucking Test

Break him out of his idealistic trance and blackpill him. Show him how bad things really are, especially on our timeline.

Come on, the kid has the internet. Let's pull a Job and see if he retains his unconditional love for humankind after stepping out of his comfort zone.

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I liked how Connie called out the others for essentially being super-powered children, but yeah, I would have liked to have seen them be able to go on an actual mission together instead of just staying at home arguing for their one episode together.

fpbp

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I don't think he needs to have anything changed about him. I just think he needs to have his beliefs and ideals tested. Of course, it's too late now. If a millennia-old fascist galactic empire crumbles at his slightest utterance, how the fuck do you escalate from that?

UH, SNAKE PEOPLE OR SNEEPLE AS I LIKE TO CALL THEM

I wouldn't really change his character, I would, however, change the world surrounding the character. The whole reason why Steven is such a pussy is that the gems, his dad, his friends, and all of his adventures enabled him to be one. He has no choice but to be a pussy. And the moments where he would actually man up and show some character development are so rare. I would change his interactions between characters like Jasper, Lapis, Peridot, The Diamonds, and so on. Just so he can learn that the world is not a forgiving place and "talking it out" won't always work.

Replace him

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no, it means focusing on a key theme of the character and continuously emphasizing it until that’s all the character is anymore.

Make him actually fight to the end with a villain without talking his way out of it

>Imagine 50+ episodes of build-up like a slow burn only to have it build to nothing.
This show is just a giant blue ball.

Let him have fun again, let him be obviously attracted to Connie again instead of doing the awkward just friends thing, let him get mad at characters when they fuck up or assume the worst of someone due to their actions instead of instantly forgiving them, remove the chosen one Pink Diamond bullshit that made every plot thread in the series wrap up in the most bullshit way possible and most important of all let us see other fucking viewpoints so we don't get sick of him.

ESL's OUT

Steven should be more inclined to question the Crystal Gems about ancient secret stuff and investigate on his own when they inevitably shut him down. In fact, he should be less trustful of the CGs in general; it's true that he's known them since he was born, but he's also seen some hints at a lot of shady stuff. The show had the occasional moment where he asks a question and they give him a non-answer, or he gets frustrated with their refusal to tell him anything, but not enough; it should have been a whole character arc with him questioning who his friends and family even are as he learns more about them, until he eventually comes to appreciate them for who they really are.

That would have been a good use of his audience surrogate role in a Deepest Lore kind of show. Have him realize how important the mysteries are and care about them like the audience does.

>there are zero examples of any antagonist being beaten by crying or singing
Topaz. That's two examples right there. Although even that didn't actually accomplish much.

Gross

He needs the red jacket too.

1) Have him learn to hate people.
2) I don´t want him to become a murderer, but I do want him to be more willing to put villains in a bubble and have no regrets about it.
3) Make him less gullible.
4) Make him someone you don´t want to mess with. Honestly, he´s not intimidating in the slightest, even with being one of the strongest beings in his universe. No wonder the movie gem is going after him. Why wouldn´t she? He looks like a wimp you can steal from.

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Topaz came to that conclusion by listening to Lars and Steven's conversation. It wasnt' directed at her.

White Diamond got utterly proven wrong. It wasn't as simple "no u" like people meme about. The issue was the pacing, not the execution.

a longer neck

Stop him from using Talk no Jutsu, its too overpowered

One year older

Only genuinely good answer in the thread

How many of your problems with Steven stem from him being a pacifistic, all-loving pure-hearted soul who talks things out and is able to resolve absurd conflicts with peace and love?

I have a character like that, so seeing all of this is making me think about how I want the writing of the character to be properly executed.

For the most part they're just memed and don't remember what Steven is actually like in the show. He has had to physically fight every villain and sometimes bubbled them without changing their mind (Jasper, all the corrupted gems).

The only real problem was that it wasn't convincing enough with the diamonds because it didn't have enough time to develop.

>Let him have fun again
Done multiple times in those episodes you skip like Back to the Kinderagarten
>Let him be obviously attracted to Connie
Skipped the movie trailer and ignored the context of them being busy fighting a losing war
>Let him get mad at characters
Also confirmed for skipping episodes, he gets pissed at the CG's a lot and I don't even need to bring up Kevin here so you lot sperg about that all the time because he's "hating a white male"
>Remove the thing that makes the story work
Retard, it wasn't Pink Diamond who dismantled the colony. All the PD thing did was give him a free "please don't kill me Diamonds" card. He did it all with his own empathy and talk-fu.
>Bullshit way possible
MUH EXPLOSIONS AND LACK OF FIGHT SCENES
>Let us see other POV's
Finally, an actual point.

You're as bad for encouraging this ignorance. Fucking watch the show you dullards and stop ignoring the parts you don't agree with.

It's mostly this, as seen from posts like >Make him more BADASS!!!11!!
Fucking puke. Let him be feminine, let him be assertive, let him just be fucking Steven.

You were doing so well lately Yea Forums with actually understanding the show and appreciating what it brings and you've completely dropped the ball this week.

Personally I enjoy him and I can appreciate the theme of escapism in SU regarding Steven reaching White, to me it was a pacing thing, although I do enjoy action in shows

Give him a competent writer. Someone who could thread a narrative through even 15 minute snippets and manage an equal balance between the domestic and fantastic elements of his lives either coming into conflict or existing in surprising homeostasis.

It's not terrible that there's a pacifist ending to the conflict, it just needed building up to and a more convincing argument.

i dropped the first episode because of him

Compare him with Dipper Pines, a somewhat similar character. Copy his positive aspects of Dipper's personality to Steven, as well as Stevens own positive traits, and leave out the negative

Sounds boring without either of their flaws.

This suggestion's weird to me because they did a fantastic job with all of those things. That's what made the show good

>Dipper
Disgusting. Get that shit out of here.

give him some flaws / have his established flaws actually matter for something.

to make SU anything decent you'd have to drastically redesign the entire plot to get rid of the Pink=Rose and talk no jutsu 'conflict free tv' bullshit.

How much would Gravity Falls change if Mabel was written like Steven?

He’s not supposed to be intimidating.

A little?

Townie episodes maybe, but I was hoping that this would be a bit more than that.

So just make him Dipper? That's not really good advice. Steven should be able to stand as his own character.

Plus Dipper sucks

Give him a pansexual romantic harem consisting of his townie friends, some zoomans, and whatever kind of new oc gem will be popping up.

>J-10 x Steven
Kino

The "man up" is just making fun of him and a critic about his feminine manners are ridiculous to the point of being annoying; Steven is not like Shun and we're not like Eugine, missing the point about the character.

Is also the threat that aang could do that anyone else that acts like a dickwad.

user, after the diamonds fiasco, we all agreed that the show is shit when pulling that subject.

Also, Steven is kind of cool with Kevin now and the Kevin arc is hinted to not being over as of yet so they'll probably end up becoming fuck buddies in the next season.

No it didnt nigga. If it was written well there wouldnt be so many people complaining about it.

male him black and connie a jew?

Just let him grow up with the show, it seems like they were doing each season is a year based on the two Steven birthday episodes but they couldn't be bothered to change the characters as time went on. I honestly think if they let Steven grow up the show would have been vastly improved, they can still include the "he's stunting himself" thing at first to explain why he looks like an 8 year old at the start but as he mentally matures he grows.

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Stop fucking crying and get rid of talk no jutsu.

Remove Super Intelligence and Super Martial Arts and I’m in.

Willingness to RAPE

>I feel like people who think he needs to "man up" are missing the point
No, he does need to man up because unlike vaginas being a pussy weak male doesn't fucking work in society. I understand its propaganda thats supposed to "change the world uwu" but its fucking worthless in all regards. on top of what kind of weak bitch learns how to comport themselves through life based on a fucking cartoon

Tone it down a notch

Give him a villain that can't be beaten with love. Maybe like an evil and unfeeling robot created by a misguided individual.

he was perfect in the first episodes (including the pilot)
just let him do stupid things, embarrass himself, hurt others, be selfish, grow up, be mean or spiteful
All i ever wanted was a real character, he comes off as incredibly shelttered instead. I cant buy into him overcoming challenges let alone talking sense into others

Make him less of a blubbering pussy

Make some actual villains for him that don't give up after he does some crying/singing.

Based.

>Changing how you act is the same as changing your identity
Please leave anytime

Is that what happens in this show? That’s fucking ridiculous lol.

How you act towards people is a reflection of who you are to everybody in the world.

Defining people by their actions is what leads to a society like Homeworld where everyone has a static unchanging purpose that they must carry out until they are no longer useful to the system.
Why do you want everyone to have a set purpose that they are forced to carry out until death?

SU universe feels like its a fucking long tutorial , Steven NEVER encounter danger. FUCKING N E V E R.
>Big boss was defeated by "no u"

The movie villain likely doesn't care that Steven doesn't associate with Rose or Pink, they don't care about their identity, they care about the actions committed to against them by the individual, not who the individual chooses to present themselves as.

If you nothing but bad shit, you’re kind of a bad person. You stab a baby, you suck.

>make him less coddled and enabled
>make him less whiny
>make him less feminine and a role model for actual boys who aren't autistic (no offense to autists)
>make him develop and grow as a character from useless tag-a-long in to a leader but make it believable
>don't make him fuse with Connie, wtf is this tranny shit, and then having old college dudes hit on his fused form with both Connie and Steven are 12? It's so fucked up!
>make him less fat and have him train up and become fit, so he becomes a role model to chubby kids and shows them it's possible to change their ways.

Nobody brought up killing babies until you did.
What goes through your head where that's the first thing your mind jumps to?

Total Recall. Kuato.
>You are what you do. A man is defined by his actions, not his memory.

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>Used exclamation points
Woah, cringe is off the charts.

*Amendments
>make the other characters validate him less. The gems should treat him tough because they are aliens and don't understand human emotion, not coddle him.
>make steven earn the respect of other characters through achievement and merit
>training episodes that show Steven training and working hard to perfect his powers
>have Steven fight more. It's an action cartoon, Sailor Moon fought, Goku fought, boys and girls both like fights. Steven can still be a pacifiest. Aang and Nausica were pacifists but still kicked ass and threw down when they had to
>give steven a spine
>take away Steven's talk no jutsu
>have Steven get defeated and fail sometimes
>make steven realize lars and sadie and the other townie wierdos are crabs in a bucket toxic people holding him back
>Show steven working hard to support his dad, maybe even having a morning paper route or working in a bakery or something wholesome. This makes Steven more empathetic

precisely

How do I hang an air freshener on this? Your ideas are trash and belong in the rat shit infested place you call your mind, never let them out again.

i dont see you proposing anything better.

And? That's the message the show's been trying to say isn't true. Why shouldn't Steven practice what he preaches?

Actually, the show has been proving that, everything Steven does is stuff Rose didn’t do, he chooses to tell the truth, even Bismuth pointed out how Steven is better than Rose.

dubs of failure. my ideas are impeccable.

I’m sorry but my dubs were nothing but truth. Your ideas could only come from someone who never understood the show and doesn’t Believe In Steven.

still dont see you coming up with anything better

Somehow it's even worse

Ow the edge

Done.

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I think they needed to pick a relative age for Steven to look and act and stick with that decision. None of this "well he looks 9 because he stopped growing when he was 9 but he's actually 14. but he's lived a really sheltered life and so he might be a bit naive and weird. but the gems raised him to be-" fuck just make him act like a regular teen or pre-teen or

touche.

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make him less of a fucking faggot

You’re so fucking lame

For one thing, it would be nice if he wasn't such an emasculated crybaby.

Pic related. It's his whole personality in a nutshell.

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Make him into a loli catgirl

Hot take: There's noting wrong with Steven per se, he just needs to be challenged by circumstances he can't talk and cry his way out of. A character with certain bents and traits is fine, but the story needs to force them to deal with things outside their comfort zone. His series has always particularly been lacking in terms of giving him someone truly antagonistic on a similar or above him on power-weight scale. Nothing pushes him and he's not forced to deal with the spots his idealism blinds him to. Everyone really is a domino waiting to be knocked over with his usual methods, and that's why he constantly feels so dumb and cheap.

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>"he's stunting himself"
Why IS that a thing?
No, really. Why does this need to be a part of the show at all? Its one thing to suggest a character maybe... doesnt have enough confidence to act on what they genuinely thing is the best thing to do. Or maybe .... is just young and needs to learn.

just why. it seems so unnecessary for the story or the character or the series.

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He feels comfortable as he is right now. He’ll grow when he feels like it, which he does.

>I’m sorry but my dubs were nothing but truth. Your ideas could only come from someone who never understood the show and doesn’t Believe In Steven.

I simply cannot find it in my heart to believe in the Steven that Rebecca Sugar has presented to us. He is too coddled and spineless for me to ever believe in fully.

It's not about him doing stuff she doesn't, it's about him learning to separate her actions from her character.

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that's a cop-out and you know it. I'm not suggesting his personality change dramatically. Just that some episodes shouldnt feel like 5 year old steven and in the same episode he starts acting like a mature 15 year old

What's wrong with having him just... age like a normal kid? Its not like that stops other series from never aging the main character

He’s not normal, he’s half alien.

Pretty

Uh I have a couple ideas, one Steven needs to be louder, angrier and have access to a time machine. Two, Whenever Steven’s not on screen, all the other characters should be asking, "Where's Steven?”

I think it brought up an interesting story beat.
>Greg: Connie? If you ever need to talk to another human being about this, you can always talk to me.
>Connie: Mm.
>Greg: *holds up his hand* Human beings?
>Connie: *high-fives Greg* Human beings.
>Steven: *clutches his gem* Human beings.
Greg inadvertently called Steven an alien which stung especially after Rose's tape
>Rose: You're going to be something extraordinary. You're going to be a human being.
To Steven he's not a human, he's a weird hybrid alien that won't age an essential part to the human experience resonated by Rose. They should have leaned into this aspect more. Steven's identity issues is the only interesting part to his character.

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Really enjoyed that part, wanted to see more because I usually love those, “human or not” kinda turmoil in protagonists

>no fusion for him.
>no being able to control his age through pure feeling.
>rose isn't "GONE".
>can bleed.

If everyone in your military can control literal fire and you can’t fuck yeah they wont listen to you

Pretty sure he can bleed

He started being decent because the show realized it was almost over and it could finally have him start asking questions and going out of his way to fix things he should've been fixing ages ago.

I just don’t like his bald head.

FPBP

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You can be emotional without being a little bitch

Becouse user, nobody in real life is like this, wee as persons like to relate to our favourite characters becouse of their personalities, did you know who is the most favourite anime girl in Japan? Is Aqua from the anime Konosuba and she is a bitch, all the characters in that anime are terrible people and that is what it make it so good becouse wee adult wee do more bad things than good ones

Being cross-species gay abomination is clearly not enough uniqueness. He should add being black and disabled(physically, mentally he already is)to fill in more quotas.

write him as an actual male character instead of what feminists want men to become

more like a badly written luke skywalker

he's based on an actual human irl male, the showrunner's brother

they should have based him off someone that isn't a mentally disabled soi boy

steven sugar's done more with his life than you have, o user

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Are you trying to use a fictional characters life to shame someone who isn't fictional?
Do you have trouble distinguishing reality from fiction?

They said Steven Sugar, Revecca’s brother.

probably got everything handed to him in life for his developmental disorder

he's a professional illustrator. does backgrounds like this is sad, having to have three comments explained to you. feel better soon

be even sadder if I considered that a good backround

Seconding.

Make him skinny and a different curly hair style instead of the jew fro

Even Optimus Prime?

Make him ask questions more. The mystery element of this show is forced.

she did nothing wrong

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Such a sweetheart

Don’t doubt Coopven

The movie is a musical, steven will sing Heartstone into submission

>could have had a cool villain like "blood diamond"

Calm down, Ronaldo

I still ship Lapiven. Pretty much dead but I still hope.

Second this. He was way more fun

Emotionally, I'd keep him mostly the same, but I'd make him more willing to fight for his principles. He can win over enemies with talk, but I'd rather it not be his first resort.

I just want cooler fights desu

Steven has always been willing to fight when talking doesn't work. The only times he tries to talk someone down is when he has a reason to think it will work.

People who fall for the talk no jitsu meme will not listen to reason and will not actually watch the show

Implying black Steven would stil have a dad. But his watermelon army would be great joke. Also literal We Wuz Kangs

It's not his character archetype per se, but it being in a setting that doesn't realistically allow it.
Genocide and slavery cannot exist alongside a idealistic setting where those problems are solved totally with a 2-minute conversation.
When Twilight forgave Nightmare Moon in MLP, it was understandable because Nightmare's crimes were only implied. It wasn't 'tried to cause an apocalypse that starved all life on earth' it was 'tried to cause eternal night'. You didn't get scenes where Twilight ignored the pain of Nightmare's victims to play house. Her victims were shown, but they were only vaguely hurt/scared.
You can have a messianic unprecedented all-loving hero, but -they have to remain consistent with their setting-.

>MLK Steven
Cute