There’s so many people out there trying to give Greg’s parents the benefit of the doubt, saying they meant the best for him, or that Greg just didn’t do a good enough job explaining to them he was unhappy. That Greg and Steven just need to talk to them, to reach out to them, and hope is a great thing.
But I knew the second I saw this shot that they didn’t love him. They didn’t answer his letters. Never. Didn’t even read them. Don’t try and tell me Greg didn’t try. Don’t tell me he didn’t reach out.
Greg didn’t just say they just discouraged music or pushed him to do sports, this isn’t a Barbara kind of miscommunication. He clearly said they forced him to do sports and music was off limits. He tried. From the looks of it, he tried many years after he left too.
Don’t try and tell me that parents that saw their kid constantly frowning or looking like they were gonna cry in their photos and did nothing about it loved their kid.
The only picture we see Greg look happy in was his school photo. Not the one they liked enough to frame. It is possible there are happy pictures around here with him and his parents we just didn’t see, but I wouldn’t place any bets on it.
The only mistake Greg made in Mr. Universe was not being more tactful with how he explained all of this to Steven.
Greg never specified the lack of love, and therefore Steven just didn’t get it. He saw all these pictures and trophies and baby items and thought, that’s love, right? He doesn’t understand or know about the parents who obsess over nick knacks, doesn’t get that these weren’t treasured memories to them, they were collectibles. Anybody who’d still keep the letters, but not open them, was clearly after the status of being parents, not the actual time with their kid. They kept in view things from a time he was obedient. But all Steven sees is the image of a pretty, normal family house, the image Greg’s parents were more obsessed with maintaining than communications with their actual kid.
They wanted him in their life at first, sure, but only back when they still thought there was hope that he’s end up just like them. Back when he would still go to the island, back when he couldn’t fight his hair getting cut, back when they thought he could be the cookie cutter clone of them that looked neat in family photos and would prevent them from having to explain to people what he did for a living or why he wasn’t going on vacation for them, yet again, using him as a part of their image, not their son.
Greg wouldn’t have called all of that junk, when he’s been shown to love collecting and having random junk, failed to emotionally connect or get nostalgic about a single item there, if there had been any love or bonding attached to any of them.
Greg is a loving, loving, forgiving man. If there had been any good memories in that house,
he wouldn’t have constantly looked miserable in it except when he was talking about when he escaped it.
Greg, unknowingly, and only trying to help, bless his heart, made a huge mistake with a single sentence.
“Trust me, your better off than I was!” OUch.
He pushed Steven away the second he made a comparison between their lives. You just can’t play the comparison game with people who were traumatized.
Was he right that Steven got to grow up with love Greg didn’t? Well, yes, but Steven doesn’t realize that. All he hears is the man who grew up in a nice, warm, not corrupted gem attacked house, with a nice, normal, not training just in case someone was on their way to murder you education, in a calm, relaxed, not born a war criminal childhood. And complaining about it!
Of course he got mad!! Even if Greg had specified he wasn’t loved, how could he dare use the word better to describe Steven’s life? Greg meant nothing bad by it, but as far as Steven was concerned, Greg was telling him he had a wonderful childhood, a wonderful future ahead of him, “just like mom” did.
Greg couldn’t have just brought up a half alien baby wanted dead in a normal community, training with the gems, unstable parents or not, was necessary for his survival. But in the heat of the moment, Steven doesn’t think of that, the way he talks in this scene, he really thinks he could’ve had that, that a normal childhood could’ve “fixed” him, and that his dad’s choice was the only thing that stopped him from having that.
And between that and the crash, that was the trigger needed for Steven to push his dad away. The guilt for yet another person he thinks he’s a danger to, and the huge feelings of jealousy he was too ashamed yet still too angry to voice over his dad getting to grow up human. Steven saw his yearbook pictures and nearly got choked up saying the words “more human” pausing with a frown he quickly gets rid of, yearning to be the human in Greg’s pictures.
So many out here are trying to take sides, either saying Greg was wrong and Steven was right, or Greg was right and Steven was wrong, but in the end both are true. Both had the right to be unhappy with what they were given, and both should have done a better job trying to understand and listen to the others plight.
While Greg should have worded things much, much more tactfully, and definitely, even if accidentally, hurt his kid with his words, he meant no more harm than any of the other people who’ve tried to cheer him up, and was right about all he said.
Yet you can’t get mad at Steven either, because as far as he’s concerned, all he learned today is that his dad had it so much easier, less terrifying, and found an identity in a way that Steven couldn’t relate to, couldn’t use.
That his dad can’t help him anymore.
Edit: I’m not saying redemption is impossible for his parents,(Steven Universe is all about second chances), I’m saying that I can’t see it happening. If you wanna be technical about it, anyone can be redeemed. But that’s the point isn’t it? Anyone can change, but they have to wantto. The only person I could see being less likely to want to change is Marty.
While possibilities are endless, the people who can not love their own child while raising them don’t tend to be the kinds of people to have a turnaround. Not saying it hasn’t happened before, just that it’s so very, very rare.
These two made it very clear they didn’t want to, that they don’t want to. It would be different If the letters were opened. For a redemption/family reunion to work with these two, they’d have to make the first step. Perhaps they’d get wind of Steven’s existence, and in a change of heart that came in old age, they’d get motivated to try getting back in touch even though they thought at this point it was too late. Perhaps we’d get a shot of opened letters falling down not neat and tidyon the dresser.
For it to work for me, Greg would have to receive a letter.
But i’m not holding my breath.
Yeah, this is good analysis. And while I don’t think the point of the episode is Greg’s parents aren’t awful and emotionally abusive, I do think a point that was made is that Greg’s own issues are something he hasn’t really confronted, and this is something that impacted Steven in a negative way.
Steven needed to know about his dad’s parents and his dad’s past much sooner, he needed to be told this at a younger age rather than have it dropped on him when he’s in the middle of a breakdown. It’s obvious the reason Greg didn’t tell him was because it was painful for him to talk about and he thought it would potentially burden Steven, but that doesn’t make it not wrong that there’s this entire part of his family Steven was cut off from without knowing why. I think that’s part of the “you’re just like mom” thing- “you kept secrets, I had to deal with the fallout of your decisions without being told why you made those decisions”.
And while it’s understandable that Greg might have been afraid and reluctant to take Steven to a doctor because of the gem stuff, it’s still NOT OKAY and extremely dangerous he didn’t. As Connie’s mom said, Steven does have a human side with needs that have to be addressed. The residents of Beach City pretty much showed they were chill with the Gems several times over- so the fact Greg hadn’t had Steven checked out by the time he was like five or so or at the very LEAST after finally meeting Dr. Maheswaran is pretty inexcusable. Greg WAS there for Steven, but he was so focused on giving him “freedom” and so scared about the Gem stuff and making sure it was addressed he did neglect his son’s human side to some degree (the fact Steven never got the option for therapy especially is CLEARLY having a really bad impact right now).Steven could have been given the choice to go to summer camps, or part time schooling, or SOMETHING that would have helped him adjust, but he wasn’t, and that is a failure on Greg’s part as a parent.
It’s not something that makes Greg a bad person, and it’s easy to see he WAS trying, but made these choices out of fear and the fact he hadn’t really processed his own family issues… but Steven has a right to be angry! And Greg clearly isn’t equipped to deal with a kid as traumatized as Steven is.
Elon Musk is under fire for ‘liking’ this highly offensive and disgusting meme. Elon Musk, who is himself on the Autism Spectrum, thought this was funny.
He’s also been known to refer to his diagnosis by the Nazi guy’s name.
I for one am extremely offended by this. If I wasn’t already off of Twitter than I’d definitely be off of there now.
I have been clinically diagnosed with autism since the age of 6, not that big of a deal – therapies, visits to neuropsychologists and the standard procedure – I never had many friends, I was never very verbal but I continued my life. As I grew older, although, I felt the need to find more people like me, I felt the need to find a Community.
I used to be ashamed to tell people I am autistic, I didn’t want anyone to know because I was afraid they would treat me differently. Now, at 19 I am ashamed to tell people I am autistic because I am afraid they will associate me with the Autistic Community on social media.
Even though I speak, communication can be extremely hard for me. Most of my days go on without me speaking a single word. I have always found profoundly difficult to maintain friendships and to feel like I belong somewhere. This has caused me great frustration over the years. I figured that maybe if I looked for other autistic people on social media things would be a bit easier and spoiler alert: they weren’t. Even when I tried my hardest to interact with them, I had the feeling they were just a small group of people who would barely let anyone new in.
Whenever I did manage to join some kind of group chat, I was always left behind because I couldn’t possibly keep up with their conversation. It was hard for me to make and keep friends and no one seemed to care about trying to include me as a person with higher support needs.
The only time I was actually noticed by the autistic community, was when I shared a slightly impopular opinion on my private social media account. Suddenly, all these people that had been ignoring me, excluding me and talking over and for me, were attacking me because of a 50-word opinion from someone who is also in their community, from someone who has absolutely no power in changing anyones views’ on autism, from someone who no one has a little bit of empathy for.
I got so much hate from my own community for having different views that no one even asked me to explain in a better way. Suddenly all of the autistic community knew who I was and they hated me because I didn’t agree 100% with them.
This is not a community. The Autism Community was never a community. You aren’t supposed to hate on someone just because they share different views on something. It is not like I was defending eugenics. All of these people got offended by one single comment of mine. Have they thought of how offended I have been for the past years while I am trying to form some kind of connection to this ‘community’ but no one will make an effort to include someone with less communication skills?
There is a reason why autistic people on social media who actually get to be heard have higher communication skills, there is a reason why everyone prefers autistic people who can speak up. I know the world prefers to hear those who look more neurotypical – I just never thought I would experience something like this in the autistic community.
I was made fun of because I said I have a harder time to communicate in groups of people. People mocked me and kept saying that I changed the DSM-5 and now the criteria of diagnosing autism is by having difficulty communicating with group chats on the internet. They told me I was invalidating experiences of autistic people who are able to communicate in group chats. But what about us, with lesser communication skills?
What about us over here, who are barely verbal? Who are non-verbal, who use different communication methods? We have been left out, our voices aren’t heard inside and outside of the autistic community. We keep being left out.
I am ashamed to be associated with this Autistic Community. I am ashamed that people will think I act like I know everything about autism, I am ashamed that people will think that as soon as they spit out something slightly different from what I believe in, I will hate on them and tell them they are being ableist.
I have never felt more disappointed, sad and alone in my entire life. I had never expected to be treated the way I was by peers who have the same condition as I do.
The Autism Community is not inclusive, it never was. You need to do better. You need to hear us with higher support needs. You need to be patient with our skills, you need to be patient if it is hard for us to communicate. We deserve to be heard, we deserve a space in this community.
EDIT: Hey guys this is me from the future. I don‘t have much experience with this website but I reblogged this post recently with a few remarks because I was very angry when I originally posted this, didn‘t proof-read and didn’t express myself very well, so I wrote a few things to it. If you would like, I‘d tell you to check it out.
Another thing to add is, I understand hating autism speak, they deserve it. But they don’t have exclusive rights to the puzzle symbol and it’s not a “hate symbol” dear god. Some people like it and mothers of autistic kids need support too, let them use the puzzle symbol but keep calling out the autism speak organization.
