Steven the Sword Fighter

"Steven the Sword Fighter"
Steven Universe episode

Promotional art for the episode by writer Joe Johnston
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 16
Directed by
Written by
Featured music "Dance of Swords" and "Holo Pearl" by Aivi Tran and Steven Velma
Production code 1020-013[1]
Original air date April 9, 2014[2]
Running time 11 minutes

"Steven the Sword Fighter" is the sixteenth episode of the first season of the American animated television series Steven Universe. The episode, written by Joe Johnston and Jeff Liu, sees Pearl (Deedee Magno) get injured and retreating into her gem to recover after she tries to teach Steven (Zach Callison) the art of sword-fighting using Holo Pearl, a holographic version of herself.

In the United States, the episode originally aired on Cartoon Network on April 9, 2014, the first new episode to air on the series' new Wednesday time slot. Pianist Aivi Tran and sound designer Steven Velma of the musical group Aivi & Surasshu composed one of the episode's soundtracks to resemble the "broken facsimile" nature of Holo Pearl. The episode was viewed by 1.098 million viewers, becoming the thirty-sixth most watched episode aired by the network for the week of April 7 to April 13, 2014.

Plot

While Steven (Zach Callison), Garnet (Estelle), Amethyst (Michaela Dietz) and Pearl (Deedee Magno) are watching a fictional Japanese movie titled Lonely Blade, Pearl critiques the film's sword fighting techniques and offers to show Steven how it is really done. To give him a proper demonstration, Pearl summons "Holo Pearl", a holographic version of herself to spar with. After Pearl wins the duel, she begins to show Steven the basics of sword fighting, but he wants to learn the movie's techniques. While she is distracted talking to Steven, Pearl is stabbed by the hologram and releases her physical form, leaving behind only her gem. Although Steven is distraught at first, Garnet and Amethyst assure him that Pearl has simply retreated into her gem and will return once she has fully regenerated.

Two weeks pass and Pearl is still inside her gem. Steven decides to use Holo Pearl as a replacement for the real Pearl. However, Holo Pearl only knows how to sword fight, seeing everything as a potential opponent. Garnet and Amethyst urge Steven to stop using it and wait for the real Pearl to come back. After Holo Pearl cuts down the real Pearl's favourite tree, Steven becomes infuriated and tells Holo Pearl to go away.

Later that night, Holo Pearl continues to try and challenge Steven, even though he repeatedly refuses. Eventually, Steven hits his breaking point and fights back against the hologram, accidentally activating its "advanced" mode. After an intense fight, Steven is able to destroy the hologram permanently. Garnet and Amethyst hear the commotion and come to check on Steven. While Steven is explaining what he has learned, Pearl regains her physical form, along with a new variation on her outfit.

Production

The episode was written by Joe Johnston and Jeff Liu. Ki-Yong Bae, Seon-Jae Lee and Seo Whan Kim provided animation direction, Elle Michalka served as art director, and Ian Jones-Quartey provided supervising direction. A sneak peek of the episode was shared on io9 on April 7, 2014,[3] with Johnston first announcing the episode on the series' production blog the following day,[4] shortly after the series' new Wednesday time slot was promoted on April 2.[5] In addition, several promotional pieces were published by him, Rebecca Sugar and color stylist Tiffany Ford, encouraging followers to watch.[4][6][7] A panel from the storyboard was also promoted, before various background art and animation props were released before and after its premiere;[8][9][1] the animation props indicate the episode was produced thirteenth in production order.[1]

The episode features the songs "Dance of Swords" and "Holo Pearl" by pianist Aivi Tran and sound designer Steven Velma of the musical group Aivi & Surasshu.[10][11] The latter track, an instrumental piece, was composed to resemble the "broken facsimile" nature of the Pearl clone who bears the song's title.[11] The group utilized a "glitchy" piano and "an erratic collection of sounds" for it.[11] The tracks were released onto SoundCloud on April 12 and 13, respectively.[10][11]

Cultural references

Gergo Vas from Kotaku observed various video game references during Pearl's lecture on sword fighting, including Pokémon, Final Fantasy, Gitaroo Man and Sonic the Hedgehog. In addition, he identified an homage to Revolutionary Girl Utena upon looking at GIFs of Pearl's sword-fighting scene with her hologram clone.[12] Writing for Cartoon Brew, Kendra Beltran noted that Lonely Blade imitated the style of anime, stating that "while the Universe team didn't overdo the animation on the anime, you could tell what they were going for without hearing the accents."[13]

Reception

"Steven the Sword Fighter" was the first episode to premiere outside of Monday, onto its new time slot of Wednesdays, on Cartoon Network.[5] Upon its premiere on April 9, 2014, the episode was seen by 1.098 million viewers.[2][14] It received a Nielsen household rating of 0.7, and was ranked as the thirty-sixth most watched episode aired by the network for the week of April 7 to April 13, 2014.[14]

Beltran highlighted elements of horror in the episode, noting it to come "in small spurts toward the end", while writing about the "eerie tone of the rainy night matched with the sword-wielding psychopath hologram."[13] She found it "weird" seeing Steven trying not replace Pearl immediately, regarding her as the established mother figure in the series. She concluded her review stating that while "not much for characterization," Amethyst and Garnet's acts of "sitcom comedy" were "the source of laughter this time around" for the series.[13]

Eric Thurm of The A.V. Club graded the episode an A−, calling it, "in many ways, a perfect distillation of what makes Steven Universe special."[15] He noted Steven's attempts to learn sword-fighting as a call back to the first episode, "Gem Glow", which aired alongside "Steven the Sword Fighter" upon its premiere. Finally, he contrasted Steven's childishness and refusal to completely learn lessons to Adventure Time and Regular Show, where the protagonists of each have taken steps toward maturity.[15]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Michalka, Elle; Hynes, Danny; Howard, Colin; Wang, Angie; Ford, Tiffany; Lai, Jasmin (April 11, 2014). "A selection of character, prop and effect designs from the Steven Universe episode: 'Steven the Sword Fighter'". Steven Crewniverse Behind-the-Scenes Universe. Tumblr. Archived from the original on April 20, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Steven Universe – Episode Guide for Season 1". Zap2it. Tribune Media Services. Archived from the original on June 30, 2014. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  3. ↑ Davis, Lauren (April 7, 2014). "This Week's TV: Will Captain America 2 Give Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. A Boost?". io9. Gawker Media. Archived from the original on May 9, 2014. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Johnston, Joe (April 8, 2014). "'Steven the Sword Fighter' – Storyboarded by Jeff & Joe, Wednesday, 7 p.m. on CN". Steven Crewniverse Behind-the-Scenes Universe. Tumblr. Archived from the original on April 20, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "New episodes Wednesdays at 7 p.m. starting April 9th!". Steven Crewniverse Behind-the-Scenes Universe. Tumblr. April 2, 2014. Archived from the original on April 20, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  6. ↑ Sugar, Rebecca (April 9, 2014). "Steven Universe returns this Wednesday at 7:00". Steven Crewniverse Behind-the-Scenes Universe. Tumblr. Archived from the original on April 20, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  7. ↑ Ford, Tiffany (April 9, 2014). "Here's a special color block for this week's episode of Steven Universe". Steven Crewniverse Behind-the-Scenes Universe. Tumblr. Archived from the original on April 20, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  8. ↑ "Just a few hours until a new episode of Steven Universe!". Steven Crewniverse Behind-the-Scenes Universe. Tumblr. April 9, 2014. Archived from the original on April 20, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  9. ↑ Michalka, Elle; Bosma, Sam; Sugar, Steven; Winterstein, Amanda; Lai, Jasmin; Mitroff, Katie; Gariba, Gyimah (April 12, 2014). "A selection of backgrounds from the Steven Universe episode: 'Steven the Sword Fighter'". Steven Crewniverse Behind-the-Scenes Universe. Tumblr. Archived from the original on April 20, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Tran, Aivi; Velma, Steven (April 12, 2014). "'Dance of Swords' from 'Steven the Sword Fighter'". Steven Crewniverse Behind-the-Scenes Universe. Tumblr. Archived from the original on April 20, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Tran, Aivi; Velma, Steven (April 13, 2014). "'Holo Pearl' from 'Steven the Sword Fighter'". Steven Crewniverse Behind-the-Scenes Universe. Tumblr. Archived from the original on April 20, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  12. ↑ Vas, Gergo (April 12, 2014). "That's Just Too Much Video Games For One Cartoon Episode". Kotaku. Gawker Media. Archived from the original on April 20, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Beltran, Kendra (April 11, 2014). "Steven Universe Recap: 'Steven the Sword Fighter'". Cartoon Brew. Archived from the original on April 20, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Pucci, Douglas (April 19, 2014). "Cartoon Network ratings (April 7–13, 2014)". Son of the Bronx. Blogger. Archived from the original on April 20, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Thurm, Eric (April 9, 2014). "Steven Universe: 'Steven the Sword Fighter'". The A.V. Club. Onion Inc. Archived from the original on April 20, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2014.

External links