When this fusion eventually falls apart, and Lapis gets away from Jasper, she is left dealing with complex emotions about her abuser. Lapis stays in an abusive unwanted fusion in order to protect others from an abuser. She thinks that if she can just endure Jasper's attacks, keep her away from the rest of the world, and shoulder that burden herself she can limit the harm Jasper does. Lapis uses this opportunity to chain Jasper to the bottom of the ocean, dragging herself down with her. After Jasper sees how powerful Garnet is as a fusion, Jasper forces her captive Lapis to fuse without her consent. Jasper holds Lapis hostage as part of a plan to destroy the earth. The weight of ignored consent is really hammered home.Īnother really important example of the show tackling consent is the abusive relationship demonstrated between the characters Lapis and Jasper. It's a heavy plotline spanning multiple episodes, and the pair is never quite the same again after that betrayal of trust.
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Garnet ends up at war with herself, unsure how to handle her conflicting feelings about how best to recover from the fact that someone abused their trust and consent in that way. Garnet's rational and results-focused half Sapphire wants to just pretend it never happened and get past it, while her emotional and short-term-focused side Ruby wants to be mad and angry and upset. Garnet is first angry, then just silently ignores Pearl entirely. What Steven Universe handles really well about this story about a violation of consent is how much it pays attention to the complex aftermath of Pearl's actions. The problem is, Pearl has actually been repairing the tower herself, creating an excuse to fuse with Garnet under false pretenses, because it makes her feel more powerful. A dangerous communication tower keeps being rebuilt, and the pair is larger and more able to fix the problem when fused as Sardonyx, so they fuse time and time again to keep destroying the tower. In the episode "Cry for Help," we see Garnet routinely fusing with her fellow Gem Pearl out of necessity. Fusion is intimate and not to be undertaken without proper trust. For Garnet, fusion is an act of love and support, so much so that the two gems who fuse to form her eventually get married to each other in a beautiful gay beach wedding. One of the first really impactful examples of a consent discussion in Steven Universe revolves around the character of Garnet, who is a permanent fusion of two other gems.
Sometimes it's love between friends, sometimes it's romantic love, and sometimes it's used as a child-friendly stand-in for sexual interactions, an act considered the height of trust-based intimacy between two people.
When two gems are in perfect sync, and properly aligned with each other, they are able to fuse and become a totally new being together, which is frequently used in the show as a stand-in for telling stories about various kinds of intimate relationships.
One of the most impressive topics that Steven Universe as a show regularly tackles is the concept of consent and the role it plays in interpersonal relationships, from the good to the bad.Ī little background on the show: in Steven Universe, there are a species of sentient alien rock women called gems, who are all named after various precious stones or minerals and have varying strengths and weaknesses. Following the story of a young boy with the power to protect and heal, the show frequently introduces children to complex emotional topics in easy-to-understand ways.
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When it comes to TV designed for children, Cartoon Network's Steven Universe is one of the most progressive, thoughtful, and generally important shows being made today.
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