Steven Universe Reviews: Season 1 (Onion Trade/Steven the Sword Fighter)

The episode begins with Steven looking for one of his G.U.Y.S, which has nothing to do with the Lady Gaga song. It stands for “guys under your supervision”, they’re a range of toys that Steven collects. He’s looking for his favorite, Ranger Guy, but he can’t find it anywhere. He tells Greg about it, thinking that Greg will be upset, but Greg doesn’t seem to mind. Steven explains that this particular toy was from “our special day at the beach last summer? You bought him for me at the end of the day. He was one of a kind. He had a miscolored hat, how could you not remember?” Greg doesn’t remember, apparently, but when he sees how upset Steven is about it, he gives him a bag of quarters so he can buy another Ranger Guy.

It turns out G.U.Y.S are bought from a toy vending machine. Steven spends all of his quarters, but he doesn’t get a single Ranger Guy. He just gets a bunch of Dave Guys, which he says is the worst one. Yeah, it’s always like that with those things. You never get the one that you want. Anyway, he then sees Onion (what is Onion exactly? He’s so weird looking??) with a Ranger Guy. Onion is sitting waiting for his dad when Steven shows up and asks him if he’d like to trade his Ranger Guy for a Dave Guy. Onion refuses and asks for more, so Steven offers him a bag full of Dave Guys, but it’s not enough for Onion. Steven goes back home, trying to figure out a way to get more G.U.Y.S to trade with Onion. Amethyst gives Steven Pearl’s Replicator Wand so that he can makes copies of more Dave Guys.

However, Onion wants the Replicator Wand instead. Steven makes the trade, and quickly regrets it when Onion starts terrorizing the city by flooding it with Dave Guys created by the Replicator Wand,

The Gems try to convince Onion to drop the wand without success, but Steven is able to jump on Onion and cause him to drop the wand. He realizes that Onion had stolen his Ranger Guy to begin with and in the end, lets him keep it because he realizes all Onion does is “sit around and wait for his dad” and that he’s stolen the toy because he was lonely and bored. Garnet destroys the Replicator Wand, which causes all of the replicated items to disappear. As the Gems walk home, Greg approaches Steven and asks him why he went through all that trouble for a toy. Steven responds that he wanted it for the memories, but then says that he now has “new memories — horrible, horrible memories”.

Right, so, Onion being lonely and bored explains why he stole Steven’s Ranger Guy. Sort of. Ish. What it doesn’t explain is why he then TERRORIZED THE CITY AND TRIED TO KILL THE GEMS

Onion is very odd and I’m not entirely sure what to do with his character, which seems to be the point. I can’t even tell if he’s supposed to be human or not. Again, what even is Onion? I have a feeling he’ll end up being really important in some later episode. Right now he’s just kind of a weird and vaguely intriguing minor character.

This episode made me feel sort of nostalgic, because I can remember collecting toys like Steven did. I also remember how it felt when those toys went missing or were stolen (someone stole a bunch of Pokemon cards from me when I was a kid and I’m still not over it). I can sort of relate to a lot of what Steven does or goes through in this episode. Losing a favorite toy, being unable to get that toy again no matter how hard you try, feeling like it wouldn’t really be the same anyway because in the end it’s not so much about the toy as about the memories associated with it. Aside from the Replicator Wand and everything that happened with it, this episode feels really… real.

One last thing, I’d like to draw your attention to this exchange between Steven and his dad:

• Steven: I…lost something. Something precious.
• Greg: *gasp* Your innocence?!

Greg wtf

Rating: 7/10

Steven and the Gems are watching a Japanese movie called “Lonely Blade IV”, which Pearl doesn’t seem to be enjoying very much. She says that the sword techniques used in the film are not real or practical, and she offers to show Steven some real sword-fighting. Turns out Steven is very excited by this offer, so they set off right away.

Pearl creates a hologram of herself that acts as a training dummy, and she begins her demonstration.

I’m posting a clip of it because, well, I like Pearl’s demonstration. I like the fluidity and gracefulness of Pearl’s fighting style, how it looks almost dance-like. I’ve noticed that a lot of characters I like tend to have fighting styles like that, I suppose I have a type. The background music is nice too, it’s very fitting.

Steven is impressed by the demonstration and asks Pearl to teach him, so she commands holo!Pearl to go to training mode. She starts showing Steven some basic moves but he quickly becomes bored and wants her to teach him some of the moves from Lonely Blade IV. Pearl angrily tells Steven that those aren’t real moves, and while she’s distracted the hologram stabs her.

Trust nobody not even yourself

Everyone is horrified as Pearl disappears, leaving only her gem behind. Steven cries that it’s his fault, but Garnet and Amethyst assure him that Pearl will be okay. Apparently, if a gem’s physical form is damaged, they can retreat into their gems to recover and will eventually reappear fully formed. That’s interesting, I suppose a gem only truly dies if their gem is damaged in some way? Also, another question: it seems very impractical to me to have a training dummy that is actually capable of killing someone. Okay wait that wasn’t actually a question. But yeah, isn’t Pearl the one always fretting about safety, at least when it comes to Steven? So why have a training dummy that is actually capable of killing someone? There, that was a question. I guess Pearl wasn’t really expecting Steven to fight the hologram and she’s probably confident enough in her skill (with good reason) that she wouldn’t expect to lose. Still, it would have been smarter to at least give it a fake sword or something so it won’t do any real damage, right?

I’m getting off track now, where was I? Right, Pearl just got stabbed and she’s reforming in her gem.

Pearl takes weeks to reform and Steven misses her terribly, so he starts hanging out with holo!Pearl (which, oddly, did not disappear along with the real Pearl). Holo!Pearl is nothing like actual Pearl, however, and when Steven loses his temper at it one day he accidentally activates holo!Pearl’s fighting, which quickly goes from “basic mode” to “advance mode”. Steven narrowly avoids being killed by holo!Pearl and eventually manages to defeat it. Soon after this, Pearl reemerges from her gem, unscathed and with a new outfit.

This is an interesting episode. I like learning more about the Gems and their powers, and it’s nice to know a little more about how that immortality thing works. It’s a also a weirdly… well, maybe not “dark” but certainly not lighthearted. I mean, Pearl is effectively dead for most of the episode and Amethyst even comments on how she’s taking an abnormally long time to reform. We even see Pearl get impaled with the sword. There’s no blood, of course, but still, I was a little surprised that they actually showed it.

Overall I liked this episode a lot, it’s an interesting insight into how gems work, holo!Pearl is both funny and creepy, and I liked seeing how important Pearl is to Steven.

You know what’s odd about this episode, though? The title of it is “Steven the Sword Fighter” but Steven never does any actual sword fighting in this episode. He never even holds a sword.

Rating: 8/10