Steven Universe Reviews: Season 1 (Tiger Millionaire/Steven’s Lion)

The episode begins with the Gems returning from a mission, and Pearl is yelling at Amethyst for being too childish. Garnet doesn’t yell, but she does calmly tell Amethyst that she needs to act more like a Crystal Gem. Honestly Garnet’s comment is more devastating than Pearl’s yelling, I don’t blame Amethyst for storming away. Later that night, Steven sees Amethyst sneaking out and follows her. She goes to a wrestling match (she transforms to look more like your typical wrestler and apparently calls herself “Purple Puma”) and Steven watches her win her matches with ease. Afterward Steven comes forward and asks Amethyst about her secret wrestling. She explains that she does this because in the ring she can do whatever she wants and no one can yell at her. It’s a way for her to vent and to have fun without being treated like a child. She asks Steven to keep this secret from Pearl and Garnet. Steven agrees, but he also wants to join Amethyst’s secret wrestling.

So, Steven’s persona is “Tiger Millionaire”, and basically he just acts like a rich asshole. He and Amethyst do well together, but Steven’s persona starts to get a little out of hand. He doesn’t mean for it to, he thought it was all in good fun, but one of his interactions with a fan goes a little too far. Steven immediately feels horrible and is unhappy that everyone hates him (or at least his persona), though Amethyst tells him it doesn’t matter.

Garnet and Pearl show up to Amethyst and Steven’s last match and they scold Amethyst for using her Gem powers on humans. Steven tells Garnet and Pearl (as well as the crowd) about Amethyst’s “backstory” to give them a better understanding of why Amethyst wrestles. Realizing how important it is to her, Garnet and Pearl decide to play along and let Amethyst win against them in a wrestling match. Steven is forgiven by the crowd and Amethyst, Garnet and Pearl make up and it all wraps up nicely.

I guess this episode is our first look at what will probably be a big part of Amethyst’s character development. I like how at the beginning of the episode, when Pearl and Amethyst are arguing, it’s only after Garnet makes her comment that Amethyst seems to really be effected. Pearl scolds Amethyst all the time, at this point it’s probably easy for Amethyst to ignore it or at least to see it as just Pearl being Pearl and nothing more. When Garnet, who rarely scolds her, says in her blunt, straightforward way that Amethyst needs to get her act together, it holds a lot more weight.

Pearl and Garnet do sort of have a point, Amethyst is childish and irresponsible. But at the same time, Garnet and especially Pearl often treat her like she’s an out of control child  or even a pet so I can’t help wondering how much of her behavior is Amethyst acting out against them and how much of it is actually who she is. It’s probably half and half. Either way she needs some kind of outlet, and I like that Pearl and Amethyst realize that in the end.

This is a good episode for Amethyst, and the wrestling homages are pretty amusing too.

Rating: 8/10

Steven and the Gems are walking through a desert, one with a bunch of sandstone columns that crumble and rebuild at random. The Gems leave Steven on his own to go and investigate something, and during their absence a mystical pink lion appears. Steven is frightened of it at first, but soon realizes that the lion isn’t interested in attacking him and in fact seems gentle. Steven befriends it, but when the Gems come back (with a pillow that was previously powering something known as the Desert Glass) Steven must say goodbye to it.

Later, Steven finds that the pink lion has followed him home. Steven is overjoyed and tries to play with the lion as well as show it to everyone in town, but the lion seems unwillingly to participate in any of these things. It soon becomes apparent that the lion was trying to get the Desert Glass. Hurt by this, Steven throw the Desert Glass off the balcony and onto the beach. The moment it touches the sand, sandstone columns start to appear around it. Steven ends up trapped inside it and realizes he must remove the Desert Glass from the top of the tower. The lion appears at his side to help him, as it turns out the lion was really trying to protect them from the Desert Glass all along. Once the Desert Glass is retrieved, all the sand structures crumble. Steven asks the Gems if he can keep the lion as a pet and they sort of agree? At least they don’t give a direct no. So I guess Steven has a pet now.

Hey, so, we learn something about Gems from Amethyst in this episode: they don’t need to sleep. They can sleep and Amethyst enjoys napping, but they don’t need it.

Another thing to note is that joke at the end about how Garnet and Pearl “kept Amethyst”. Like she was their pet. Just pointing that out.

Aside from those two notes, this is the first Steven Universe episode that I don’t like all that much. Not that it’s bad per se, it just wasn’t very interesting. It felt slow and there’s not a lot going on, it was easy to feel bored with it.

The ending with Steven and the lion trying to reach the Desert Glass at least was kind of fun to watch, and the scene in the pizza restaurant was kind of funny, but aside from that this episode is basically just watching Steven hang out with a pink lion. I get the feeling that this lion is going to end up being really significant in a later episode, but we’ll see.

Rating: 5/10