when i was 5 years old my best friend was a boy named kyle who didn’t know how to knock on doors so he made dinosaur noises outside my window to wake me up in the summer until i demonstrated how to ball his fists and slam them against my doors. we collected caterpillars in my trailer park and built them houses while we traded pokemon cards. he wasn’t the only one. there was ben, and mitch, and noah—but kyle’s the only one who hurt me, because when he tried to kiss me and i asked him why, he told me “because you’re a girl and i’m a boy, shouldn’t we like each other?”
i missed him so much and i wondered why he couldn’t just be my friend like he always was
in the first grade there was rich and joseph and i got sent to detention with them almost every day with a smile on my face. we built block towers and sang to my teacher’s lion king soundtracks when she’d turn the lights off during lunch time. one day they got in a fist fight over me at recess, and i wondered why they felt they needed to share my
friendship, like it was something they owned.
in the second grade zach and i played yu gi oh under our desks during
free time and i got moved for talking to him constantly. everyone in
the class would tease him and i for talking, asking when we were going
to date already, asking him if he’d kissed me, and he stopped being my
friend.
when i was 11 i met a chubby boy with the name of a colour who wore
puffy vests and unwashed t-shirts, with greasy hair and bright blue eyes
and a smile that hid hurt behind it. people didn’t like him because he
was silly, but i liked him, because i was also silly. he became my
friend the day he bought me 5 giant roses and asked me to be his
girlfriend, and i politely declined but promised him i’d be his best
friend because i’d always wanted a best guy friend that stuck around.
we burnt our feet on the concrete during the summer and walked home
with the sunset silhouetting us. he talked often about how he loved me,
but never blamed me for being me, even though he refused to move on.
that boy dyed his hair jet black and sat on the end of my bed playing
songs to me on guitar, and all that pent up rage from before didn’t show
until the first time he slapped me across the face and called me a dumb
cunt.
in the 7th grade there was a boy named ryan who sat next to me on the
bus and talked to me about manga. he’d ask me personal invasive
questions but i didn’t mind because it was attention and i liked
attention. i was dating another guitarist with curly brown hair, one
who was much more kind-tempered than the other, and ryan mentioned how
much of an asshole he was every day. i wondered, why, why does he think
the love of my life is an asshole? but whenever i asked him, he just
told me, “girls only date assholes. there’s no room for nice guys like
me.”
i wondered, if he was so nice, why did he say such mean things?
he never stopped with me, taking me to movies, hanging out with me,
you know. being friendly. i thought we were friends. but then, how
many times had i thought that before?
how many times had i bonded with a boy, thought they got me, only for them to ask me if i wanted to make out?
how come when i told ryan i was coming out as a lesbian, he stopped
being my friend, and said “damnit, the one girl i really want to pound
into a mattress, and she’s only interested in chicks!”
there was a boy my junior year who stayed up all night with me until
the sun rose, talking about life, past loves, hopes, dreams. beneath a
million twinkling stars spanning forever, he brushed long brown hair out
of his eyes and listened to me talk about the history that made me.
then he asked me if i’d ever consider dating a guy, and complained
about how he’d never get laid.
when i told him no a couple hundred times, he found new girls to listen to.
i would sit on the couch and play zelda with dakota, and he’d talk
about all my favourite games with me. he was the closest thing to
support i had, and the letters and poems he wrote me were always so kind
and friendly. but he’d put his arms around me on the couch, and no
matter how many times i told him i was uncomfortable, he’d still come
over every day and do it.
“don’t you know how it feels to love someone and not have them love
you back? don’t you know what it feels like to be friendzoned?”
when i meet guys who talk about the friendzone, who talk about the
girls who don’t give “nice guys” like them i chance, i always want to
just say
when i was 10 years old i met a girl whose brown hair fell across her
shoulders and whos eyes sparkled when the sunlight hit them, whose
voice was like velvet and whose scent was like mountain smoke, who made
me dizzier than a fly climbing a sugar hill. and i’m 18 years old, and i
still love her, and she knows, and she doesn’t love me.
but my first thoughts upon hearing her rejection were not “what a
bitch,” were not “she just wants a douchebag and not a nice girl like
me!” were not “im going to keep pushing her until she dates me,”
they were
“she is the best friend i have ever had, and i am the best she’s ever had, and i would hate to take that away from her.”
so before you play the victim, mr. Nice Guy, before you angrily throw
your fedora on the ground and blame the girl you claim to adore so
much:
put yourself in the shoes of a girl who thought she made a wonderful
friend, only to find out that he just wanted her for sex. that he just
wanted her for a relationship. a girl who was just an object to win, a
prize. a girl who’s trust you’ve just shattered.
maybe she friendzoned you. but you girlfriendzoned her, first.
We have one of these and my favorite thing to do is to toss it on the kids as they run by. It expands as they are running and takes them down instantly. Not entirely safe, but so much fun.
It’s also worth pointing out that when Steven slapped Garnet, it was basically him slapping both Ruby and Sapphire. I’d always questioned why she got SO PISSED right here. Granted, I mean Steven slaps her but I thought it was weird that Garnet, usually so calm even when she IS hurt, reacts so strongly here. Thanks to the episode showing that she is a fusion, I finally think I understand. Naturally, the reason we see the extreme rise in aggression in Garnet so suddenly is because of Ruby and Sapphire’s anger at seeing one another get attacked by someone they trusted. Which is exactly why Pearl says ‘He didn’t know what he was doing.’
If that make any sense.
the world is once again in balance. i can sleep in peace
as an autistic adult who is incapable of functioning in ‘the real world’ or w/e im going to fucking kill you i am literally going to kill you
hes literally just poor? hes just a guy without a home or much money (fucks sake he works at a car wash) and he actively involves himself in his childs life and cares so much about steven and like… constantly works to include herand do things with her and be a part of her life… and protect her? he tells pearl off all the time? he has a panic attack when steven talks about almost dying? hes always bending over backwards for his kid? this is all shit most Good parents do?
im not one for defending men but like??? hes literally just a Poor man? apparently not being middle class and able to financially cope is an “inability to function as a parent”. like. steven has food and clothes. the gems dont work. that money is almost certainly coming from greg and going to the gems for steven. steven lives with the gems more than likely because greg cant afford to rent a house and bc of stevens training. like fuckin hell its so refreshing to see a character whos Poor, a parent whos poor, and they still make it work ijust
Greg Universe is an amazing character.
I openly cry in almost every episode he’s in because oh my GOD. The writers of this show are FANTASTIC when it comes to Greg Universe.
We’ve had the archetype of deadbeat dad in so many shows. Or the bumbling dad. The completely distant stupid father. Greg is NONE of those things, and it’s fantastic.
Greg never went very far in his life. He wanted to be a musician, a rock star. He has great technical knowledge. He knows his way around concert equipment. He’s a decent musician, and a fantastic artist. He had the skills but he never achieved his dreams. But he DID make one very important fan….
Rose Quartz, an immensely strong and respected Gem who betrayed her people and her homeworld to protect Earth as she had fallen in love with the fleeting but fascinating creatures of this planet, looked at Greg Universe and fell in love. Saw someone so pure and good despite his shortcomings that she gave up her life to create a son for Greg.
Some would argue that he wasn’t worth that. Certainly the Crystal Gems don’t seem to think Greg was worth Rose’s sacrifice, despite their love for Steven. But Greg is SO important and SO well written, and it’s SO fucking tragic.
He’s poor. He lives in a van and in a storage unit. He works at a car wash. He hoards everything he owns because he has no permanent place. His wife, or at least the love of his life, is gone. His son is part alien and Greg, as we know now, is privy to the violent past of the Gems and now his son is a part of all that. Steven’s other caretakers are distant from Greg, if not occasionally condescending or cruel to him (Amethyst and Pearl have not been the nicest to him).
The show has every opportunity to make Greg Universe a distant or bumbling failure of a person. Another manchild dad to throw on the pile. But it doesn’t and I’m so glad that that’s the case.
Greg is there for Steven. Greg (save for when Steven healed his leg) is always building Steven up. He supports Steven in any way that he can. He makes it known how much Steven means to him. He gives Steven insight to aspects of Rose that even the Crystal Gems weren’t aware of. He taught Steven how to sing, how to play music. Steven doesn’t see Greg as a failure, Steven IDOLIZES his father. He has the same love for his father that Rose had for Greg, seeing what about him was amazing when no one else could.
Greg involves himself with Steven and Connie’s friendship. Greg steps in to put his foot down the Gems when he needs to, even if they don’t respect him. He even helps them from time to time. At no point is he ever incapable of being a good parent to Steven. Sure, he’s not FINANCIALLY aiding Steven, but outside of money Greg is involved in Steven’s life in a very positive way.
And nothing is more prominent in Greg’s character than the tragedy that was losing Rose Quartz. From his introductory episode where it was HIS saying about Hot Dogs that activated the light cannon (and his tearful single line of “….Rose”), it’s been a constant in Steven Universe that Greg is still suffering a deep loss in his life. From the video tape that the two left Steven, to the torture that Amethyst put him through with tormenting him through her shapeshifting, it’s evident that Greg loved Rose Quartz like no other. It’s beautiful, it’s sweet, but GOD is it tragic.
Greg Universe is an incredible character and I’m so very very happy that he exists.
bruh imagine if Cinderella was an amputee and she accidentally dropped her whole prosthetic leg trying to get away from the prince and instead of just cutting of their heels and toes her stepsisters cut of their entire leg but end up cutting off the wrong one
My headcanon for what all four crystal gems look like fused, based off the temple. She has a giant sword and shield/ax combo thingy. I personally think the gem they form would be Diamond! I hope one day we actually get to see it!
Make sure that Steven Universe is safe for children. Make sure that children can find art of their favorite characters. Make sure that Steven Universe remains a show for children.
Make sure that little kids and especially little girls have the chance to fall in love with magical gemstone warriors and play crystal gems with their friends. Make sure that adult Steven Universe fans uplift and respect young Steven Universe fans. Don’t let Steven Universe become unsafe for children.
