Why was S4 of Steven Universe so shit?

>>92893733
Probably Becky had the idea to make S4 a "Steven season" that returned to normal with the underlying theme of Rose Quartz's moral ambiguity. Problem is that she had no real idea beyond that, so she handed the rest to her storyboarders and the rest is history.

>>92893770

I'm convinced the show as only planned for 3 seasons and then got way more popular than they expected, so they had to draw everything out. Remember how long it took them to catch Peridot when there were episodes they easily should have been able to catch her? This show likes handing characters the idiot ball as a plot point way too much for how good it is overall.

>>92893770
Was that also the season where Zuke took the show straight to hell?

>>92893839

It was the season where NOTHING FUCKING HAPPENED FOR 20 EPISODES.

>>92893733
I've got a theory on this. Originally Steven Universe was going to be 52 episode seasons. Then after season 1, Cartoon Network decided to cut the number of episodes per season in half. So instead of Season 2 being 52 episodes long, it's cut into Seasons 2 and 3, at 26 episodes a piece.

What IS Season 4 was probably initially conceived of as the first half of Season 3. What we're getting NOW is the latter half of that initial Season 3 AS Season 5.

In Season 1, most of the plot stuff was loaded towards the back half of the season. We see the same in Season 2 and 3, Season 3 had a lot more plot stuff than Season 2.

My theory here is that Season 5 will be more plot heavy.

>>92893829
The show was planned for 3 seasons, we're still on that timeline. They just split Seasons 2 and 3 in half.

>>92893879
Season 2 was fucking awesome though. Good townie episodes, good bombs, fucking Periredemption, it was honestly better than S1B on the whole.

S4 has no excuse for sucking that badly. Townie episodes aren't supposed to be that bad.

S1- mixed but good
S2- fucking great
S3- mixed but mostly good
S4- garbage
S5- great so far

How the fuck does this happen?

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Season 4 in a nutshell

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>>92894124

Rocknaldo, Onion Gang, Kindergarten Kid, Future Boy Zoltron. Those were the only episodes I'd say were truly bad. Sure at least half the rest were mediocre, but they had some good moments. Do people really hate episodes other than these ones?

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What is Zuke planning?

>>92894360

Lion 4 was a fucking tease and I thought the Zooman arc was a waste of fucking time. The constant bomb/hiatus format didn't help either.

>>92894360
The only episode I truly disliked was Onion Gang but a lot of the rest really was mostly meaningless fluff.

I'm honestly rather frustrated that we had all these townie episodes and yet we still barely know anything about humanity in Steven's world.

They keep referring to earth as a peaceful, mostly tolerant place where Gems should totally escape too so they can be themselves. So are there no dictatorships on this earth? We know it's at least slightly different so it's a possibility. It's the sort of thing I'd like to have at least been hinted at by now.

What happened in season 4 that everyone hates it? I just watch the show as a whole.

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>>92894571

I think word of god says WWII didn't happen in their universe and that halloween is not a holiday. But instead of focusing on that LET'S HAVE ANOTHER ONION EPISODE :)))))))

>>92894360
I liked Future Boy Zoltron because of sad dude.
In retrospect, Kindergarten Kid was only good for Dorito memes.
Onion Gang might've worked in some SoL anime, but not in SU.
Rocknaldo was shit,

>>92894703

FBZ would have been better if they hadn't botched the gay subtext so bad then bitched about it on twitter

>>92894634
The season had more filler and bland episodes that don't add up to the plot than any other season. The only good parts were the "Out of This World" bomb and the "Are You My Dad?" bomb.

>>92893829
Sugar's on record as saying that she wanted 5 seasons, back in season 1, when a season was 52 episodes. Going by current episode count, she'd want the show to go on to season 9, and has expressed interest in doing a movie.

I really don't know what they fuck happened with season 4, but my best guess is that it was meant to mostly develop the townies a bit more before going off into full plot territory in season 5. Thing is, they could have handled it better.

>>92894637
You're right about the WWII thing.
No holidays exist in SU, anything that we're familiar with is holiday "themed" Not the actual holiday.

I haven't been paying that much attention, but the whole show feels pretty slow, so I don't really notice.

Don't they always do this? There's a "big deal" plot near the start/end of a season and then it's wrapped up and forgotten for a long time?

It feels a lot like Adventure Time despite what creators and fans claim about it being better, where people have this mistaken impression that the show is about one thing when it's a mix of many things, and they're upset when it's one of the things they dislike instead of one of the things they do like. {and they act like fucking literary scholars about their stupid opinions on a kid's cartoon yet they can't even separate their personal feelings about it. it's fucking ridiculous. HEY, why don't you give me your personal episode ranking! I'm sure that'll enlighten us Plebeians.}

Remember when the Crewniverse said they didn't need writers because they just go straight from storyboards? S4 would like to differ.

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>>92893733
NO JASPER