{"id":6005,"date":"2016-12-01T08:00:35","date_gmt":"2016-12-01T16:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6005"},"modified":"2016-11-22T14:27:44","modified_gmt":"2016-11-22T22:27:44","slug":"mark-watches-steven-universe-s01e46-open-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2016\/12\/mark-watches-steven-universe-s01e46-open-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Steven Universe’: S01E46 – Open Book"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the forty-sixth episode of the first season of\u00c2\u00a0Steven Universe<\/i>, Steven and Connie write fanfiction with disastrous results. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Steven Universe<\/i>.<\/p>\n

THIS EPISODE IS ME, IT IS MANY OF US, IT IS SO SPOT-ON AND HILARIOUS AND CREEPY AND TOUCHING AND I LOVE IT. Look, if I asked practically any of you to name a book series you were disappointed by, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it would be that difficult to come up with something. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve spoken of my disdain for how C.S. Lewis ended his\u00c2\u00a0Narnia<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0books. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve gotten in arguments with people about the ending of\u00c2\u00a0LOST<\/i>. (And I still fight that one, not because I need people to like it. Season six is a hot mess, but I am still astounding at how many people just flat out did not understand what I thought was a clear-cut description of the whole thing.) I recall the conversations over the end of\u00c2\u00a0Battlestar Galactica<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0or\u00c2\u00a0Harry Potter<\/i>, though in the latter case, Rowling just won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let that world go, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an ending that\u00c2\u00a0keeps happening<\/i>.<\/p>\n

This is what we do. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what plenty of folks do, whether they consider themselves fans or nerds or geeks. There are entire websites devoted to discussing works of art in this manner. And then there is fanfiction, the great force within fandom that does exactly what Connie and Steven do in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Open Book.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d There are so many reasons to write fanfiction, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, and it would do a disservice for me to even to\u00c2\u00a0attempt<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0to figure out what they are all. But I know that plenty of you find an allure in fanfiction because it allows fans and consumers to re-write, re-cast, and repair. We may do it for a multitude of reasons, but \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Open Book\u00e2\u20ac\u009d focuses on Connie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s desire to change the perceived \u00e2\u20ac\u0153failed\u00e2\u20ac\u009d ending of her favorite series. And I love that this episode acknowledges the idea of investment: Connie invested a great deal of time and money in a series\u00c2\u00a0specifically<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0because it subverted all the tropes of witches in fiction.<\/p>\n

So what happens when a creator does something that feels completely at odds with their own work? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like there are no examples of that in history, either. Hell, J.K. Rowling is a fantastic example, and both her Pottermore output as well as that trashfire garbage known as\u00c2\u00a0Cursed Child<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0stand as stunning demonstrations of willingness to contradict one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own work. But what does that mean for\u00c2\u00a0us<\/i>? Oh, we can get angry \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and trust me, I have yelled at many a convention over the past year about this garbage \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but what of this specific thing Connie speaks of? She invested herself in this series; is it fair to feel betrayed by it?<\/p>\n

I suppose that has to be something we determine on a case-by-case basis. I felt a loyalty to\u00c2\u00a0The X-Files<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0for many years, and when the show finally did an episode based on Latinos and their struggles with immigration, it was a racist mess. I felt betrayed there, and that comes off as something that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s less about entitlement and more about being harmed by something you consume. In Connie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s case, the ending to this series more or less comes down to taste. Connie wanted an ending reflecting the anti-authoritarian tone and nature of the series; Steven, on the other hand, loved the wedding because he valued the emotional relationship that the two main characters had. Thus, the ending served two completely different purposes for these people.<\/p>\n

DOESN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T THIS SOUND A LOT LIKE WHAT I TALK ABOUT ALL THE TIME\u00c2\u00a0no one should be surprised I loved this as much as I did<\/i>. Both of these people approached the text differently and got different things out of it. While this is a big part of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Open Book,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another layer to it: Steven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s desire. I completely fell for the trick that Connie had come out of the costume ship, not thinking that everything created in Rose\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s room is from Steven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mind. Thus, the show manages to address a separate phenomenon that comes from consuming fiction: what if you like something everyone hates?<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll give an example with a film that is so universally despised that it took me until\u00c2\u00a0two weeks ago<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0to find another human being who actually enjoys it:\u00c2\u00a0The Village<\/i>. YES, I KNOW, EVERYONE FIGURED OUT THE TWIST IN THE BEGINNING, M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN HAS MADE TONS OF TERRIBLE MOVIES. But y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all,\u00c2\u00a0Unbreakable<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0is the film everyone lauds as his best and\u00c2\u00a0you are wrong<\/i>. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S SO BAD. Okay, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a completely separate post, but my point is that I deeply understand what it feels like to have an unpopular opinion when it comes to a fictional work. Granted, Steven only deal with one person here, but you know what? He cares so much how people feel about him! He always has! So it made sense to me that subconsciously, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d want a version of Connie that\u00c2\u00a0wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0be mad at the ending that he liked. Of course, that manifests in a DEEPLY DISTURBING WAY, because this is\u00c2\u00a0Steven Universe<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0and nothing is safe.<\/p>\n

So what does it mean for Connie and Steven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s friendship now that she knows that he likes her? It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t addressed here, but perhaps she just interpreted what her alternate said differently than I did. (See what I did there???) She knows now, though. Right???<\/p>\n

Anyway, I adored this episode a lot. I STILL WANT TO READ THIS SERIES.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Open Book\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded\u00c2\u00a0here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– I am now on Patreon<\/a>! There are various levels of support, from $1 up to whatever you want! You’ll get to read a private blog, extra reviews, and other such rewards. I POST A LOT OF CUTE PHOTOS, OKAY. Think of it like a private Tumblr blog that only SPECIAL PEOPLE get to read.<\/b>
\n– I have updated my list of conventions and events for the remainder of the year and much of next year.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches have been announced here.<\/a>
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0 Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"