Spoilers for all of Season 1 of Steven Universe are present below.
Many of you are likely already familiar with the Star Wars Saga’s Machete Order. It’s a famous fan-made viewing order that goes IV, V, II, III, VI, for the purpose of creating better narrative pacing whilst retaining all important plot twists. @briknerd, @astralfitz, and @katsuricata would like to introduce a joint-effort project for Steven Universe in the same vein: Flood Order. It’s a means to get a new fan into the show in the most efficient way possible.
Why?
As we got into Steven Universe ourselves, and tried to introduce it to others, a common theme presented itself: it’s really hard to get someone to sit past the first half of the first season, when it seems like nothing more than yet another Monster Of The Week show with an annoying tagalong kid. We each experienced this on our first watch-throughs, and only pressed on under the assumption that the size of its fandom meant it had to get better. It does, of course, but for a lot of people, “just sit through twenty-six episodes and you’ll understand!” has proven a hard obstruction to vault. Even the show’s creators have stated they consider Ocean Gem season one’s “true” start.
And it’s easy to see why: the introduction of Lapis, introduction of gray morality, Steven’s first true display of competence/fixing a problem he wasn’t responsible for to begin with, the expansion of the show’s setting to space, and rapid-fire development of everyone in the main cast all serve to create one hell of a mystery. It’s when the show truly begins to grow into itself. In short, if one can make it to Mirror Gem/Ocean Gem, then one is very likely to become as much a fan of the show as we are.
One problem: twenty-six eleven-minute episodes take up almost five hours. That’s a lot to ask someone to swallow.
We can do it better. We can do it in only a little over an hour and a half, the same level of commitment as asking someone to watch a movie with you.
Flood Order, Submitted For Your Approval
The first phase of Flood Order consists of just ten episodes, in the following order:
Cheeseburger Backpack
Laser Light Cannon
Bubble Buddies
Steven’s Lion
Giant Woman
Steven the Sword Fighter
Lion 2: The Movie
An Indirect Kiss
Mirror Gem
Ocean Gem
This order defers sixteen episodes, more than half of them, in a mad dash to Lapis. Its purpose, simply stated, is to get a new fan interested in Steven Universe in as little time as possible, and with causing as few impediments to enjoyment as possible.
It:
Removes most of Steven’s most insufferable moments. We all love Steven as a character now, but it’s hard not to see Steven as the least-interesting, least-relevant part of the first half of Season 1. We want to know who the gems are, why the gems are here, what the gems are fighting; we cared very, very little about the seemingly-obnoxious little kid who just messes up their plans. Constantly. In all ten episodes listed here, however, he only provides any truly grating moments in the first two.
Starts on Cheeseburger Backpack, which, despite being the third episode chronologically, is a much better introduction than Gem Glow was. It doesn’t notably feature any member of the cast except for the Crystal Gems, introduces us to their personalities and the means in which they tend to solve problems, features a fascinating and mysterious part of gem lore, and shows us some of Steven’s burgeoning skills. As a start, Gem Glow introduced us to personalities, but was little more than plodding otherwise. No part of gem lore is explored, side characters are introduced to little end, the song present is the only one in the show that feels truly out-of-place among the rest of the soundtrack, and Steven is close to his worst. Laser Light Cannon is a slower and more character-centric piece, with the introduction of Greg and reveal of Rose’s sacrifice, which works well in its intended purposes as the second episode. Bubble Buddies introduces Connie, Sadie, Lars, Onion, and Mr. Smiley to round out many of the supporting characters.
Introduces every single character and plot point necessary for Mirror Gem/Ocean Gem: Connie, Greg, Lion, the concept of fusions, the concept of gem regeneration, Steven’s healing ability, all necessary characterization, and mentions at least once every minor character that gets a speaking role. No possible point of confusion exists.
Paces the show better than in air-date order. There’s a lot of pre-Mirror Gem filler. This problem gets significantly better after Lion 3: Straight To Video, but can be painful for someone to get through on their first watch, before they really care about the characters. Every single episode in Flood Order introduces something or someone the audience is interested in. The first poofing takes place at around the one hour mark in Steven the Sword Fighter, which if it were a movie, would be roughly the right spot for the first serious dramatic death.
Removes most Idiot Ball moments. Pearl fought a thousand-year war as Rose Quartz’s “Terrifying Renegade,” and in later episodes, is demonstrated to be an incredible fighter, taking down even the three-gem monstrosity that is Sugilite. In Frybo, she is wholly-incapacitated by ketchup. Amethyst, a gem made to be a warrior, contributes almost nothing in any deferred episode despite downright awe-inspiring displays later. Garnet, the gem who can see the future, is constantly disbelieving of Steven at every turn, when she should be the first to know he’s right. All of the above: gone or minimized. All the Gems are shown at their most competent, without sacrificing their character depth.
Put simply: it serves to set up the rest of the show and turn a new viewer into a fan in as painless, quick, and intriguing a way as possible. But what do we do with the rest of the episodes, then?
Key and Teeth 