Steven Universe Podcast: Steven Selects Episode 1 Recap

The Steven Universe Podcast: Steven Selects episode 1, hosted by McKenzie Atwood, covers the episode “Jailbreak.”

It’s the first of an eight-part series of spotlights on fan favorite episodes. The guests are Matt Burnett, Ben Levin, Jeff Liu, Joe Johnston, and Rebecca Sugar. The official description:

“Steven Universe writers Ben Levin and Matt Burnett give an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at this fan favorite, and pivotal episode that revealed Garnet is a fusion! They share what went into the writing to capture the emotion of the moment, what had to be cut at the last minute to make the story work, which came first - the Garnet fusion reveal or the Peridot arc, and what they thought about the fan reaction when the episode finally aired. Plus, storyboard artists Jeff Liu and Joe Johnston answer your questions. And creator Rebecca Sugar makes a surprise appearance to weigh in on ‘Jailbreak.’”

Outline:

First, Matt and Ben come on.

They described the process of writing the first season finale, comparing it to the mid-season finale of “Mirror Gem/Ocean Gem.” They had to set up earlier episodes to make sure they have the payoff in “The Return/Jailbreak.” Peridot’s arc was important to make sure it feels rewarding when Peridot shows up, and Jasper’s arrival was a big deal too.

This was also the Cluster and Yellow Diamond’s first mention, but the writers Matt and Ben were already writing stuff about the Cluster for future episodes, so they were able to work that into earlier episodes.

Matt and Ben had written this before anything had aired, and “Jailbreak” was this huge turning point for audience participation, media coverage, and growing the fan base.

McKenzie discusses how Garnet’s Fusion reveal was the big deal with the episode, but pointed out Matt and Ben went right to the Peridot arc as an important aspect. She wanted to know whether the Peridot arc or the Garnet reveal was up first in the planning stages, but they explain that they were never really two separate stories. It’s all been intertwined intentionally, organically.

Obviously Garnet was always planned to be a Fusion, but they did have alternate ideas of how it would be revealed! They had one early idea about Steven finding her components hanging out in the Temple, with this thought that Garnet didn’t have a room there–it would be separate rooms for Ruby and for Sapphire. Initially they even thought about one of them being injured and needing fusion to be together all the time and help the injured one, but that was very early concepts. The idea of them being in love was established super early.

McKenzie said speculation was high and one being injured was actually a fan theory. But Matt and Ben said their relationship was enough. They think it’s hilarious when there are fan theories that mirror their development of the stories sometimes.

McKenzie asked if they’d seen the payoff of fans discussing Garnet being a Fusion, and they said they totally watched reaction videos and loved seeing a fan fall out of his chair. McKenzie said the “Steven Reacts” video was based on that fan video. (I’m assuming they’re talking about Fuzzy.)

They point out some of the places where Garnet’s fusion status was hinted at and wondered whether fans would know right away what they were leading to when Steven wakes up in a jail cell and meets Ruby. They it the audience is really savvy, and they are sometimes surprised that the reveals can be so satisfying even though some people are having doubts about whether they are REALLY revealing something. They are not sure sometimes what will be a surprise or what audiences will guess ahead of time. They were so glad “Jailbreak” had the payoff it did.

McKenzie says Joe Johnston talked about changes from the outline for the episode, and wanted Matt and Ben to discuss those in more detail. They talk about the importance of the song to the episode, how it’s a centerpiece, so they stripped out Steven and Ruby running around to find Sapphire to cut to the plot faster. (It used to have more plot involved in finding her.) The emotional core was more important, Ruby’s distress without Sapphire.

Initially also Peridot fell with the ship too, and they didn’t have to have a separate confrontation with Peridot because they changed it to have her use an escape pod instead so they could just deal with Jasper crawling out of the wreckage and becoming a threat again. They said that decision made the episode cleaner.

Then came Jeff Liu and Joe Johnston’s part of the show, taking Q&A.

Question:

How do they make sure the audience understands the continuity without repeating the background in every episode?

Answer:

Sometimes they do recap some things, but usually they just trust the audience to keep up. They like to insert non-plot stuff too, and then some with stories that aren’t about “exciting Gem stuff” but still have small bits that contribute. Each episode also has its own arc. They can be enjoyed individually.

Question:

Do storyboarders get to choose which characters and arcs they work on?

Answer:

No, generally. Everyone kind of got what was thrown at them, and they later noticed some board artists had better connections with the characters. Lamar always got the Onion episodes, for instance. Their strengths are played to. Jeff and Joe got a lot of action-storyboarding episodes.

Question:

There was a scene cut from “Jailbreak,” what was it?

Answer:

Just some parts and pieces between Ruby and Steven trying to find Sapphire at the beginning. Rebecca was actually upset that he was okay with tossing them because she liked the drawings a lot. He stays unattached to the boards in the early stages so he can let stuff go for the benefit of the episode.

Rebecca arrived here. McKenzie asks her to talk about the cut scene too.

Rebecca says it was mostly Ruby/Steven stuff running around in the ship, some more frustrated exchanges between them, and Joe didn’t care that his stuff was getting chopped up even though Rebecca liked its “subtle acting” that had been figured out. She was impressed that he was okay with that though. They retooled it in a small way and it was important to getting it tight for an episode being the right length.

Next week’s episode will address “Storm in the Room.”

#jailbreak