Clearly I’m doing a great job with getting these out more quickly.
This episode is our first introduction to Connie, this little cutie:
Seriously, she is so adorable. And Steven has a huge crush on her, which is also pretty adorable. After a bad attempt at trying to impress her, Steven runs into the house embarrassed. The Gems realize that Steven has a crush and Pearl and Amethyst are all for setting up a playdate (Pearl says they need to find out what Connie’s favorite tea is, bless Pearl) but Garnet says Steven should just talk to Connie. Steven takes a bracelet out of the fridge (we’ll find out why later) and then goes over to where Connie is. As he approaches her, the cliffs behind her start to crumble. He jumps to rescue her and his gem activates, creating a pink bubble shield around them. Unfortunately, Steven doesn’t know how to deactivate the bubble, nor does he want to ask the Gems for help, so he and Connie try to find another way of breaking it.
After hitting the bubble with a chair and shooting a harpoon at it doesn’t work, Steven comes up with a new idea. He takes Connie to the amusement park, thinking that something there can pop the bubble.
- Steven: Yeah! Tons of horrible accidents happen here everyday! There’s gotta be something to break this bubble. We just gotta find the right ride. Yeah, the kiddy coaster! Alright, we just roll down this ramp as the carts are coming at us, and the crash will break us free!
- Connie: What happens after the bubble pops?
- Steven: We’ll be free!
Steven, NO
Right, so the two of them end up being launched into the middle of the ocean. And while trying to roll themselves back to shore, they fall into a trench created by a sea monster. Connie finally snaps at Steven that he doesn’t know what he’s doing, and that she’s probably going to die without ever having made a single friend. Aw, Connie! As Connie cries Steven pulls out the glowing bracelet from before. He says that he saw her drop it at a parade one day and that he’d been waiting for an opportunity to return it to her. He even kept it in the fridge so it would last longer. This whole scene is really cute, if you can ignore the nonsensical transition of Connie crying about dying to saying “It’s okay, I’m having fun!” Just then the bubble pops and Steven and Connie immediately swim back to shore. They’re attacked once again by the sea monster, which is attracted to the bracelet, but they manage to defeat it. When the Gems show up, Connie tells them how incredible Steven was.
So, something I find notable about this show in general but haven’t had a chance to mention yet. The animation is pretty… muted? For the backgrounds and colors in particular. I mean, if you actually look at the way the backgrounds are drawn in this show, they tend to not be very detailed.
They almost look like they’re unfinished, and even the colors tend to be sort of faded and muted, at least compared to Adventure Time, where everything about the animation was vibrant and colorful and in-your-face. I’m not saying this is a bad thing for Steven Universe, though. Quite the opposite, I find the backgrounds quite pretty, and the fact that they’re more subtle pulls your focus to the characters, who are more vibrantly animated.
Anyway, on to Bubble Buddies. Which unfortunately has a name very similar to a SpongeBob episode and that may get confusing. Connie, as mentioned earlier, is adorable, and she seems like she’ll make a good friendly foil to Steven. She’s calmer and more logical than he is, and she’s already being set up as the voice of reason when she’s with him.
Connie is cute, Steven is cute, the bracelet scene is cute, the whole episode is cute.
Rating: 7.5/10
The episode begins with Steven in Funland, the amusement park. The teacups ride has apparently had an accident, with the teacups having flown out of position with riders still in them. The episode then moves forward to two weeks later. Odd. Steven is with the Gems on a mission, apparently a very serious one. They come to their destination, an upside down pyramid, and head inside. Steven finds a strange, smaller pyramid and touches it, causing it to flip over, and causing everyone inside to gravitate towards a hole in the ceiling. They fall into a room with many doors, and Pearl suggests they split up. Pearl wants to stay with Steven, but Garnet insists on taking him with her while Pearl and Amethyst go together.
Each of the rooms has a dangerous trap in them, and it quickly becomes apparent that Steven is in over his head. Garnet does most of the work while Steven is in constant need of saving. In one room, Steven has a flashback to his time at Funland, where Steven had gotten sick on the teacup ride and fallen out, breaking the lever of the ride and thus accidentally destroying it. In the present, the Gems find themselves in the same room they started in. Pearl says that she and Amethyst have tried multiple doors, but they all end up leading back here. At this point Steven, who is obviously terrified, has a breakdown and says “You were all right about me. I wanted to do this so bad, but now I feel like I’m gonna throw up. This is just like the teacups!” While the Gems reassure him that he’s doing fine, Steven realizes that this is like the teacups ride, with all of the rooms spinning around so they always end up in the same place. Garnet breaks through the floor and they all fall into a large mechanism that causes the temple’s rooms to rotate. Garnet throws Steven at the center and he removes the gem controlling it, which causes the temple to explode. Once freed, the Gems compliment Steven on his ingenuity.
So, Steven obviously isn’t as experienced or as skilled as Pearl, Garnet or Amethyst, hence why Pearl didn’t want to take him along at all and also why Garnet spent most of this episode making sure he didn’t die. It doesn’t help that Steven is still immature and a kid. I mean, Amethyst acts pretty childish, but at least she is an adult (technically? I’m assuming?) and she’s powerful and has control over her abilities. Steven doesn’t have any of that. What he does have is ingenuity. He mind works differently from the Gems, and that’s usually what ends up saving him in past episodes as well as this one. He just needs to learn to actually use his abilities.
This episode got me thinking about Steven’s relationship with each of the Gems. They all have very different approaches in how they deal with him. Pearl is constantly anxious and worried when it comes to Steven, always wanting to protect him from everything and not really trusting him. Amethyst likes playing and having fun with Steven, but doesn’t seem to take him very seriously and can be irresponsible where he’s involved. Garnet seems to be more supportive of Steven, but she also seems very detached from… well, everything. The three of them together kind of balance each other out, but being with only one of them for too long could end up being disastrous.
This is a really enjoyable episode. The temple is an interesting place, it’s pretty exciting, and we get to see Garnet being both a total bad ass and an absolutely adorable mom to Steven.
Rating: 8.5/10
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