I know grown ass people who say “this just the way I am” alllll the time
Recognizing your own toxic behaviour is peak adulting. You don’t stop learning once you turn 18+.
My dad is almost 70 and always says he’s still growing, changing, and learning. That’s what life is, an ongoing experience that you gotta be open for change in.
“That’s just how I am” is bullshit, you don’t like it or you see it affects the ones you love negatively, you change that shit.
when your otp has an honest talk only in dire situations, like when they’re running full tilt being carried by the wind shouting at the top of their lungs
(the movie made this flying thing so romantic, but the book version is basically ‘howl and sophie scream into the wind as it slams them back to the castle’)
Idk man, a widowed father who works full time and lives in his car so he can afford to keep his child fed while he lives with his aunts, who still makes time to see his kid every day, and who is possibly the only family member that child has who has not implicitly or explicitly wished in front of him that his mother had survived instead of him, fostering an intense survivor’s guilt in him where he feels like his loved ones blame him for the death of his mother
I just don’t see how people have ever managed to call Greg Universe a deadbeat, I mean, the one time the dude did a mildly bad thing is when he lied about being hurt so he could spend more time with Steven who he felt was drifting away from him, and even then he copped to it and apologized. His sole concern as a character in the entire show is taking care of and being there for his kid, he’s honestly one of the best dads on TV and I think it’s sad that people act like he’s a shitty father because he’s poor and spends what little available time and money he has on his son who he loves more than anything
Fucking this. Also he’s called a ‘washed up musician’ when he made a choice to abandon what could have been a good career– we see he’s got the chops– on his life as a husband and then father.
He didn’t fail. He succeeded at being what he wanted to be, which was ‘the respected partner of Rose aka an alien war general’ and ‘Steven’s dad’. He still makes music in his spare time and loves it, but his priority #1 (by choice NOT because he isn’t good for anything else) is Steven.
He was Steven’s primary caretaker until he hit the limits of what he could teach (aka gem stuff), and he gave Steven a loving, nurturing life full of physical affection, musical tutoring, family traditions and outings.
I don’t think the gems pay for Steven’s cell phone subscription. I’m pretty damn sure that Greg thought a phone with music storage capacity for his son was a better use of his cash than anything for himself. He’s content living in the van, I think – he strikes me as being pretty zen– but he does have needs.
He always puts those needs second for Steven, except the once, which was such a huge anomaly we got an entire story arc about it.
Reviewers make a lot of how Steven seems to have ‘inherited’ Rose’s kind nature– bull. Bull and shit. Yes to some extent he does have Rose in him, but to ignore how much of his nurturing and forgiving nature he LEARNED from Greg is just lazy.
Greg Universe’s lover laughed in his face when he asked her if she respected him and he stuck around and talked it out like a goddamn adult.
Greg Universe had his home wrecked because he helped the Crystal Gems fight off Lapis and never turned his distress on them.
Greg Universe got pushed off a fucking roof because a badly socialized tech support agent wanted to see if he could fly and immediately forgave her because she didn’t know any better.
Greg has never told his son to ‘man up’ or ‘butch up’ or ‘toughen up’. Greg would have stared blankly if anyone ever suggested that he was ‘babysitting’ his own child. Greg is a huge part of why Steven is who he is and he chose to be there because he never for a second questioned or shirked his responsibility as a father.
Greg Universe for dad. Like, every dad of every animated character who has a shitty or absent father. Shinji from Evangelion? Now Greg’s son. Eren from SNK? Now Greg’s son. Meg from Family Guy? Now Greg’s daughter.
Steven has Rose’s boundless curiosity about and fascination with other people, but his empathy and patience? His desire to not only observe others’ growth in whatever intriguing form it takes, but to nurture? He gets that from Greg.
The best thing you can give your kids is your time. That’s part of why I love Steven Universe, and Greg Universe especially.
IN THIS HOUSE WE LOVE AND RESPECT GREG UNIVERSE
Scene:
I’m reading some fat fantasy book set in Yet Another Faux Medieval Europe. Nothing in this story jibes with my understanding of actual medieval Europe. There’s no fantasy version of the Silk Road bringing spices and agricultural techniques and ideas from China and India and Persia. There’s been no Moorish conquest. There aren’t even Jewish merchants or bankers, stereotypical as that would be.
Everyone in this “Europe” looks the same but for minor variations of hair or eye color. They speak the same language, worship the same gods — and everyone, even the very poor people, seems inordinately concerned with the affairs of the nobility, as if there’s nothing else going on that matters. There are dragons and magic in the story, but it’s the human fantasy that I’m having trouble swallowing.
It doesn’t matter which book I’m reading. I could name you a dozen others just like it. This isn’t magical medieval Europe; it’s some white supremacist, neo-feudalist fantasy of same, and I’m so fucking sick of it that I put the book down and open my laptop and start writing. Later people read what I’ve written and remark on how angry the story is.
Gosh, I wonder why.
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