Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service (Steven Universe) – Overly Animated Podcast #216
By: Dylan Hysen
Dylan Hysen and Sam Quattro discuss the July 25 episode of Steven Universe, “Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service”.
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Dylan Hysen
Dylan is a software developer from the DC area who hosts the Overly Animated podcast discussing everything animation.
8 Comments
Well I always thought the mom episodes “Onion Friend” “Nightmare Hospital”, “Sadie Song” they were leading to something bigger Rose related especially “Nightmare Hospital”, the ending when Steven looked at the sword, that had some plot implication.
I think the beach city residents who have encountered Steven’s powers are going to be involved in the finale to some extent. But that’s my running theory. I’m just hopeful in that regard but no hard proof on that.
I also believe that we’re going to get something big happening where Steven has to confront something that’s larger scheme relevant that has to do with respecting personal boundaries, taking back control after trauma happens, and asserting yourself in the face of people you love. It might even have to do with Rose (and Bismuth? hm). I’m much more confident about this theory and would be shocked and kind of disappointed if they didn’t go that route. We’ve gotten too many episodes close together that have very similar morals, it really stuck out to me after this episode. And I think at this point it’s very purposeful and they’re going to have Steven applying the things he’s learning from personal and second hand experience with the humans, and his mediator skills, to something big and alien. I feel like that’s the natural progression of the show as it stands. The reason Steven is different is because he’s half human and all that so ultimately he has to use his human half to defeat evil blah blah and all that jazz.
BUT even if none of that happens (doubtful) , I’ve mostly enjoyed these episodes. I don’t think even in the absence of what I’m theorizing that any of these episodes were inconsequential. Except maybe Drop Beat Dad. Even if I don’t like the presentation of some of these elements, Steven’s powers are important. And they won’t introduce any of these powers without him using them later on missions. I’d rather they introduce the concepts now in a situation that’s not dire. Because that would be much more frustrating to me personally.
The adventure time comparisons were very apt though. I find Steven to be a much stronger character than Finn, so I think honestly that with a little tweaking they could have ALL these boardie episodes be fun and feel important, not just some of them, and further justify Steven being the grounding factor. Restaurant Wars and the New Lars being proof of that in recent memory. The crew just needs to figure out what’s working and what isn’t and work with what is, like you said. Because while I don’t agree that there’s been inconsequential episodes, I do think that some of them have felt inconsequential and the presentation is the real problem here.
Definitely hope the beach city residents relevant in the finale. Would make sense and maybe somewhat justify this. The morals of consent and control coming to a head is a really good point and I also do think they’re going somewhere with this, probably involving Rose. I do think there’s a possibility these are just very SU-type themes and we happen to have gotten them a bunch in a row, but it would make sense to have these morals, Steven’s powers, and Rose, all be leading to something big.
My general assumption is one of the overall goals in these slice of life episodes is getting people reinvested in the Boardies as people prior to the season finale. Which makes me nervous for Beach City.
This is really interesting and yeah they might want to get us re-invested in the Beach City residents before destroying the place.
I told you, you would be thankful this is a bomb format with these episodes, if this was week by week, you would lose your mind on all these slice of life episodes.
I do think this is forshadowing to perhaps Steven going inside Jasper’s mind and we find out about her past, her fears, etc.
One thing that does bother me, is perhaps Jasper will return in the near future and we have done very little to Lapis, instead of these town folks episodes, how about episodes with Lapis bonds and becomes friends with each of the Crystal Gems. Right now we still at a point when the only person Lapis cares about is Steven, and that is driving me crazy that they haven’t gone past that. I thought they got rid of Jasper, so we could focus on Lapis.
But I do like your Rose theory, I hope and expect that Steven will communicate with Rose at some point, it has to happen.
Yeah I’m worried if we do a Lapis and Jasper episode soon that we haven’t built up Lapis on her own yet. It’ll be tricky for them to pull off.
Yo Steve,
I think that’s a good point, in that we can rush through the slice of life episodes and be tantalized with week extended plot-relevant episodes. 😛
Yeah, I would love to see more of Lapis and how she ticks myself. I think she’s so ambiguous that it’s easy to add stuff to her character. I also think her VA is really talented and just needs time to shine on her own before more bad stuff happens to her and she has to react to it.
Hm… Rose theory? Hope not. That’s such a hail mary through. Think about it like this. If Rose suddely stepped in to deliever crucial information now–it would remove maybe the greatest mystery in the show; if it were to happen at the end as a way to solve some great dilemma, it would be a contrived conflict solution (a near literal deus ex blahblahblah). The endgame for me is Steven encountering ANOTHER rose quartz–not THE Rose quartz.