[SPOILERS] Steven Universe 4/04 Mindful Education [SPOILERS]

Fitting that this episode is 4/04. Heh.

Anyway, this was a brilliant episode. Lots of metaphor and imagery, though I found the butterflies an interesting choice. I'm liking that Steven is having a hard time dealing with Bismuth, Jasper, and Eyeball. These have been heavy things for him to deal with. It's wonderful to see him and Connie bonding and being there for one another, even with the tough stuff like this. It's very difficult to go through these things alone and we often have a hard time finding a support system, so this episode was very important.

The image of Rose at the end, her face, angry... I'm not sure what to make of it. Does Steven feel like his mom is angry/disappointed in him? Or does he feel like that's what his mom was really like? Maybe a combination of both?

Though tbh if we're honest, the Holo Pearls stole the show with their fusion dance

Overall, excellent episode. Very important with a very important message. Leave it to Steven Universe to be absolutely amazing

one of my fav episodes. I love it.

Wow. This is the first episode that really made me tear up and gave me goosebumps. It's so hard and frankly exhausting to think about the things you've done wrong or things you messed up. I thought Steven and Amethyst would be singing this song but I really don't care that Garnet and Stevonnie sang it. My favorite song in this show, and now another favorite episode is in the list of many that I have.

I'm glad we see Steven coming to terms with everything crazy that has happened to him, and now we have a concrete reason for the visions Stevonnie's been having. It's when the parts of the fusion aren't aligned. This happens all the time in my relationships and the only thing to do is think about it. Talk about it. Voice your fears. Feel the tears. Let your heart shake and shiver for a moment. And then let it rest.

Boulder Opal wrote:

Wow. This is the first episode that really made me tear up and gave me goosebumps. It's so hard and frankly exhausting to think about the things you've done wrong or things you messed up. I thought Steven and Amethyst would be singing this song but I really don't care that Garnet and Stevonnie sang it. My favorite song in this show, and now another favorite episode is in the list of many that I have.

I'm glad we see Steven coming to terms with everything crazy that has happened to him, and now we have a concrete reason for the visions Stevonnie's been having. It's when the parts of the fusion aren't aligned. This happens all the time in my relationships and the only thing to do is think about it. Talk about it. Voice your fears. Feel the tears. Let your heart shake and shiver for a moment. And then let it rest.

Yes, exactly! It's very important to communicate and support one another. It'll strengthen yourself, the other person, and, the relationship you have with them.

Steven voiced what most people do: they ignore their problem. But, if you ignore the problem, it won't go away. It'll just keep coming back over and over and over again.

Garnet wrote:

The image of Rose at the end, her face, angry... I'm not sure what to make of it. Does Steven feel like his mom is angry/disappointed in him? Or does he feel like that's what his mom was really like? Maybe a combination of both?

My impression was Steven thought Rose would be furious with him if she found out about Steven telling the Crystal Gems she had poofed Bismuth. Steven was afraid Rose would be angry that he was ruining her reputation as being this morally flawless hero.


I love this episode! Took a simple idea like running away from your problems and made it beautiful with animation from a guest animator and a super relaxing song. Episodes like this remind me why I fell in love with the show.


Love the butterflies which remind me of the Persona games and Stevonnie's fluterkick which reminds me of Yoshi's Story.

This episode struck a very.. fragile chord with me.

Something that I loved about this episode is all the meditation references in it. I spent some time in China learning about Buddhist teachings and practices and meditation is something that I have found to be a very useful tool against my severe anxiety disorder, and seeing all of what I learned being incorporated into Steven Universe makes me incredibly happy. Being "mindful" is one of the core teachings we learned, and when we meditated we were told to let the thoughts come, and then let them go until the only thing in your mind was your presence in the now and your breathing. It was all about not overthinking things and not letting your emotions get the better of you; being able to tell yourself "these are my thoughts and emotions, and this is me letting all of that go". It's a very hard lesson to learn but it's also very important. And seeing it so eloquently portrayed in this episode makes me happy.

Garnet and Stevonnie's song about it made me cry. The whole song talks about taking a breath to calm yourself and that to me is such an important reminder. Hell I even have a tattoo on my wrist that literally says "Just Breathe". I think I can say with certainty that I will be listening to that song a lot in the future when I need to remember to breathe.

I think the Crew choosing to portray thoughts as butterflies is VERY fitting considering how thoughts have a tendency to be fleeting, even when they hit the emotions hard.

This whole episode was just beautiful. It had such a good message to it and one that I hope resonates with people that watch it.

I just now realized something this episode did that most other shows don't do when tackling psychological trauma.  It spends one episode explaining and solving this issue instead of systematically throughout a season.  I like it.  So many other shows like to have the character's bottled up feeling be a super-important mystery.  But for a show about these two kids who answer to adults, having this therapy session of sorts to deal with all this, yeah, having it all come out in one episode feels more organic and real.  I think that's why this felt more weighty to me than shows exploring stuff like this throughout an entire season.  Feels more personal to the characters over dramatic for the audience. Kudos on another fine decision from the show staff!

Finally got to see this episode! It was really good, definitely one that will continue to make me think for a long time. It had a lot of great messages in it too, and of course seeing Stevonnie is always such a nice thing <3

My reading on the inclusion of Rose when Steven was seeing Bismuth/Jasper/Eyeball was that he felt like he had hurt his mom too. Because I mean, he has been told that his mother couldn't live while he did, so even though he had no active part in it, he is still the reason why his mother is not longer around. That's got to have a lot of difficult emotions and feelings wrapped up in such a thing. Not to mention that, on top of just that alone, Steven also has this huge legacy to live up to.

I think that the placement and the timing when we see Rose (directly after having seeing Bismuth and Jasper and Eyeball, all who Steven had a direct hand in deciding their fate) definitely implies that Steven feels bad for what he's done to Rose too.

It's a really great episode and had a lot of things going on. Seeing Connie supporting Steven really made me tear up a little bit. These tiny little kids are so precious <3 These kinds of episodes, the ones that really dig into the characters and present real life problems are definitely some of my favorite.

But omg Steven, please stop breaking my heart D: