In the fourteenth episode of the first season of Steven Universe, Steven helps Lars make friends with the cool kids. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Steven Universe.Â
Ah, the pains of trying to seem cool.
This episode is like a miniature portrait of my junior high and early high school experience, a time when I was desperate for validation and attention for a whole lot of reasons I’m not gonna go into because IT’S TOO SERIOUS. But suffice to say that in this regard, I’m perfectly fine admitting that I was a cliche for a sizable portion of my life. NO SHAME, MY FRIENDS. But I just wanted to seem cool so badly. I was an awkward overachiever, perceived to be a mama’s boy (WHICH WAS SO FAR FROM THE TRUTH), and constantly picked on by practically everyone in my life. I thought I liked cool books or music or films, but I had a lot of the same concerns Lars does in “Lars and the Cool Kids.” Any attempt to be cool felt artificial or fake.
That’s what this episode captures in stunning accuracy: trying to be cool pretty much never works. Instead, Steven’s honesty, excitement, and originality as a person is what makes him seem cool to the group of friends that Lars desperately wants to be a part of. And I imagine that’s something a great number of us can relate to, isn’t it? Really, it’s the effortlessness that people put off that makes it so frustrating. Like, some people don’t even seem to need to try and I grew up wondering, “HOW DID THEY ALL DO THAT?”
So I get Lars’s anxiety a lot in this episode. It seems like once you’re around the “cool” kids, everything you like is suspect or terrible. Every word out of your mouth is poison. Every time you try to join the conversation, it feels wrong. So why is it that Steven blends in so well with Sour Cream, Jenny, and Buck? Part of the reason is how oblivious he is to things like social hierarchies. Steven just sees everyone as a potential friend, and he greets everyone with joy and acceptance in his heart. IT’S KIND OF HARD TO HATE THAT. But since he’s oblivious, Steven just acts as his true self. And what happens when he does? Even Sour Cream admitted at one point that he was exaggerating for affect. So even these people are concerned about coolness and how they appear to others, but Lars can’t see that. He is (understandably) consumed otherwise with how he is perceived.
And jammed right in the middle of this is a story about Steven’s perception of his mother. It is so goddamn heartbreaking, and I was not ready for it. Rose Quartz isn’t dead, but a lot of this series so far totally works as a story about a kid living life without his mother. Steven never got to know her because she gave up her body so he could live. In “Lars and the Cool Kids,” evidence of her kindness and vitality is everywhere. She cared about moss that was ugly and gross. She cared about Steven. And when Lars tries to insult Rose Quartz for the magical moss, Steven snaps. Because no matter who Lars is or what he did, Rose Quartz would still care about him.
Steven is just so full of emotion and love, y’all. It’s one of my favorite things about it. So I found it satisfying to know that he helped save everyone and gave the entire group a once-in-a-lifetime experience: the chance to watch those flower blooms descend on Beach City. If that’s not the coolest thing ever, I don’t know what is.
The video for “Lars and the Cool Kids” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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