The New Lars (Steven Universe) – Overly Animated Podcast #211
By: Dylan Hysen
Dylan Hysen, Delaney Stovall, and Michelle Anderer discuss the new episode of Steven Universe on July 21, “The New Lars”.
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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
Hey! New listener here. I just found this podcast a couple days ago and I’ve been binge-listening since then. I love it. I’m really glad I found you all.
I’m really, really surprised you liked this episode, though. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you did, but this episode has a bit of a notorious reputation and I’m shocked you didn’t discuss it.
The episode introduces a horrifying new ability for Steven — and no matter which you slice it, taking over other people’s bodies is horrifying — and the story doesn’t really take him to task for how he mistreats Lars. Lars might be a jerk, but he doesn’t deserve the embarrassment or invasion of privacy he received.
For that matter, Sadie wasn’t really taken to task for her actions back in Island Adventure either — she never apologized, and in the end it was Lars who was framed as the one in the wrong. Frankly, the show has a bad track record for giving Lars basic human respect.
Rambling a bit. Maybe you guys change your opinion later on, I don’t know. It’s not like you have to. And I’m glad you loved the episode — you’ve given me a new appreciation for it. Anyway. I was waiting for an excuse to comment, and this is as good an opportunity as any.
Hey Stuart. Welcome to OVA and thanks for listening to us! I agree the application of this new power of Steven’s in this episode if viewed outside the lens of the episode is kinda horrifying lol. Steven certainly didn’t intentionally body jump or anything but he shouldn’t have meddled in Lar’s life. The episode didn’t really have any interest in exploring that though so I don’t think it was too relevant to the initial episode discussion. It certainly didn’t color my first viewing of the ep. Definitely a potential roundtable topic for the future though: a deep dive into the potential negatives of Steven’s powers! As for the Lars respect thing, definitely not my first instinct with which to view him since he’s such a jerk to everyone up until this episode. I do like Lars and especially now but not gonna default to sympathy with him for weird things like this.
I want to see Connie and Sadie interact a little more. They are the only humans to defeat a gem in the show. They are the strongest human warriors.
I liked this ep alright. I strongly dislike Lars and dread episodes with him because he’s just so…mean. It was fun to see Lars’ life, his parents, etc. but I dunno. It’s a good character building whatever episode and I liked watching it, but it’s not in my top whatever. Dylan is weird.
ps lars was having a date with rosie palms when steven jumped into him. why must we live in the world that we do
Maybe there’s something in the air Dylan because I agree, this is one of my top episodes and one of the best written episodes of the show i think. The pacing was A+ and I love Steven so much.
I don’t think it’s top 5 but top 10/15 for sure. I was dreading this episode and instead we got this brilliant thing. I’ve watched it 3 times now. A perfect character episode is right, and Lars’ voice actor did a phenomenal job of portraying Steven as Lars. Without him this all would’ve fell apart.
Oddly enough this week has been a progression in my enjoying episodes for me.Or rewatchability at least. If I had to rank them now it would literally be in the order they’ve aired from least to most favorite which is crazy to me. I only felt the compulsion to rewatch episodes yesterday and today. I love Mr. Greg for it’s content but I didn’t enjoy the musical numbers so much so I haven’t really wanted to rewatch it. I realized that was an issue today. I’ve seen Too Short to Ride 5 times now in comparison.
I’m really excited for tomorrow. I think that might be the other episode Rebecca was excited for this week, if it wasn’t yesterday or today’s.
Definitely same page! Hype for tomorrow!
Dylan this is one of your favorite episodes, an episode with no gems, focused on the town people, it is a miracle.
Steven has done this before, remember “Super Watermelon Island”, after meeting Lars parents, I even more want him and Robbie from Gravity Falls to meet, they are so similar. I am all for Lars x Sadie, but as a side ship LarsxRobbie is a good guy on guy ship.
Onion being creeped out, you know you are doing something really messed up, if you can do that.
There were no gems in “Drop Beat Dad” unless you count Alexandrite the rock star in Steven’s fantasy.
It is a miracle. Watermelon Island is a really good point, sorry that I forgot!! This is the next iteration of him warging into the watermelon, but at that time I thought he could do that just because it was a Steven. Ah yeah Drop Beat Dad pretty gemless