In the thirty-first episode of the first season of\u00c2\u00a0Steven Universe<\/i>, Steven is such a sweetheart. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Steven Universe<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
I know I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m getting repetitive now, but I kinda don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care. Steven just feels so deeply for\u00c2\u00a0everyone<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0around him, and I LOVE IT.<\/p>\n
Steven Tag<\/b><\/p>\n
Definitely one of the most delightfully silly gags on the whole show. LOOK AT GARNET\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S VERSION OF STEVEN! THE BEST.\u00c2\u00a0THE VERY BEST<\/i>.<\/p>\n
The Truth is Out There<\/b><\/p>\n
While this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the first time we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve heard of Ronaldo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s blog, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so pleased with this fuller exploration of it. This episode helped me realize a few things, namely that Beach City has to be an odd place to live. Weird shit happens there all the time! And yet, despite that there are four supernatural \/ paranormal-esque people living in the city, Ronaldo still manages to believe there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something\u00c2\u00a0else<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0going on. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a testament to the power of conspiracy theories that even in a place where three Crystal Gems live openly, Ronaldo can ascribe the weirdness of Beach City to\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 sneople. SNEOPLE. (It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so fun to say because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so terrible.)<\/p>\n
When Ronaldo takes Steven under his wing, it affects Steven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perception of the world. Ronaldo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a better example of it, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all confirmation bias at work. Ronaldo sees all these disparate pieces and finds ways to twist them to fit the whole, even if that requires him to look past\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, the truth. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a great scene where Ronaldo explains what the truth\u00c2\u00a0really<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0is, about how it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all about instinct and seeing what you want to see, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a great explanation of this phenomenon at work!<\/p>\n
And hell, it certainly makes Steven think about the world differently, at least until Pearl and Amethyst point out that the\u00c2\u00a0Gems<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0are responsible for every strange incident in Beach City. It reminded me of the time that I read Ayn Rand\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0The Fountainhead<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0during a particularly terrible time in my life and I became an asshole for a few weeks because I totally believed it explained my circumstances. Suffice to say, I told someone about it and got chewed out for having THE WORST OPINIONS, and now I take every opportunity I get to tell people how Ayn Rand is The Worst.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, Ronaldo does not take Steven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s explanations well. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s built his entire identity around Keep Beach City Weird, so what happens when he loses the motivation to maintain the blog? Well, initially, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a crushing depression and sense of pointlessness, but then\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well. WELL. Steven tries\u00c2\u00a0so hard<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0to cheer Ronaldo up by dressing up as a Sneople (HE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S SO ADORABLE), but it instead inspires him to go WAY TOO FAR IN THE OTHER DIRECTION. He knocks out Steven, ties him up, and\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, I have idea what Ronaldo would have done if his brother Peedee or the Crystal Gems hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t intervened.<\/p>\n
In the end, this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a story about how conspiracy theories are inherently bad. Peedee feeds his brother a new theory to obsess over so that he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have an existential crisis. But notice that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no longer hurting anyone! That was the message in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Keep Beach City Weird\u00e2\u20ac\u009d: as long as what you believe isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t harmful, then maybe we should just let people be happy.<\/p>\n
Thus, I want to know something. What conspiracy theories have you believed over the years? I grew up on\u00c2\u00a0The X-Files<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0and lived in between two active Air Force bases, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m prone to believing that aliens have visited earth and that the world governments are hiding shit from us. Plus, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen some bizarre things in the sky that I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t explain. CALL MULDER AND SCULLY.<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Keep Beach City Weird\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> In the thirty-first episode of the first season of\u00c2\u00a0Steven Universe, Steven is such a sweetheart. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Steven Universe.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[665],"tags":[666],"class_list":["post-5970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-steven-universe","tag-mark-watches-steven-universe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5970\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– I have updated my list of conventions and events for the remainder of the year and much of next year.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Check 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\u00a0Mark 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":"