Joking Victim (Steven Universe)-Animated Critic Valentine's Special

Show-Steven Universe

Episode Title-Joking Victim

Air Date-August 28th 2014

Season 1

Episode 21

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.

If you have a romantic partner hope you're enjoying this special day with them.

As for all of you who don't have one.....

Welcome to the club, welcome to the club. 

I digress though, today I am spending time with the one I love.

Good old Steven Universe.

What......oh you thought I was talking about a girlfriend. 

Please I'm a 16 year old, socially awkward nerd who spends his time reviewing shows made for little kids on the internet.

Yeah, it's not gonna happen with me for some time.

But luckily that means I'm free on Valentine's Day to review a romance episode. 

One of the more common ships you will see in the Steven Universe fandom is Sadie and Lars. I can see why as the writers are constantly teasing it. 

Today I decided to look over an episode focusing on their relationship. So let's waste no more time and dive right into Joking Victim.

The episode starts with Amethyst offering Steven some 'special fries.' 

Now kids if any stranger offers you anything that's supposedly special, kick them and run. 

But it's Amethyst so she can be trusted. Right? So Steven takes some fries. 

Yeah, should've kicked her. 

Apparently they are covered in Fire Salt. Steven runs into the Big Donut to cool his mouth and causes a mess.

This also causes Lars to slip and fall over. 

But who cares, I mean look at all that slushie they just wasted. 

Lars says he's in pain, but they make it very obvious he's lying and manipulating Sadie. Makes you wanna punch him in the face. 

I should probably talk a bit about Sadie. In my third Quick Thoughts episode ,which was over Sadie's Song,  I mentioned how Sadie just didn't work in the spotlight. 

I still stand by that. She did not work in the spotlight in that episode but then I re-watched this one and I thought she worked really well here. You'll see why later. 

Lars takes the day off but Steven comes over to help Sadie.

Uh....Steven I think your supposed to actually rub the mess with the napkins not just leave them there. 

Seriously he comes up and plops those napkins on the ground like "Don't worry guys I got this."

Steven says he'll be happy to help Sadie out as they have provided him with tasty donuts for years and he feels he should give back to them. 

He first has to get a tour of the storage room. 

Steven finds out that they don't make the donuts there. 

Not since the incident anyway.

Well, that's dark. 

It's actually a pretty funny joke though.
So Steven has to watch a video before he can officially begin working. Have you ever been in a class room and the teacher played an extremely cheesy educational film from like the 80s.
That's kinda what this is like.

It also stars Mr. Smiley who was once a famous R&B artist. Wouldn't it cost a lot of money to get a music artist in your video. Seems like a lot of money to spend on a video that only employees of the shop would see. I don't know maybe they bribed him with a donut. 

This video does seem a lot like one of those educational videos from the 80s that tries to teach you things and does a semi good job at it but also tries to be hip and is laughably bad at it. It does a great job of recreating those types of videos. It's really funny.

It's an overly long gag but this one works as we see Sadie get more bored as the video just plays on and on and Steven is just sitting there so happy.

So after the video Steven is now hired.

Welcome to the club, Welcome to the club.

Welcome Steven, Welcome Steven, Welcome Steven.......

Anyway after some work Steven and Sadie have a talk with Steven saying they should fire Lars and replace him with Steven. 

Sadie says she doesn't want to do that. 

She admits Lars has flaws and can be rude to her at times but she also says that she always thought he was a nice guy and recounts a story. Apparently Lars really wanted a new game but was banned from the game store (man my life would end if that happened to me). Apparently ordering it online is not an option......for some reason. Hey, whatever, cartoon logic. I'm not holding anything against this episode. 

So Sadie waited in line all night to get the game for him and when she got to his house he cleaned up the room a little and they spent the entire night together playing the game. 

Oh and they may or may not of had sex so.......

I'm not kidding. They imply they had sex. And no this isn't my mind being dirty that's what they were trying to imply. 

Trust me I've stumbled upon some Rule 34 fan art of Steven Universe once and it has traumatized me *shudders* so I don't want to think about it anymore than you do.

Anyway Sadie says that Lars let her be his player 2 and after that day Sadie has always thought of him as a nice guy. 

A jerk with a heart of gold if you will. 

So Steven comes up with the great idea to go see Lars and give him something. They grab some donuts and head to Lars' house. 

Nobody answers the door so they go around back and see Lars was lying about his back injuries. 

He's hanging with the cool kids. 

And there's even a lady there. 

Ah, that awkward teen crushing phase. It's cool Lars we've all been there. 

Sadie is devastated that Lars lied to her and she runs of crying and since this is Steven Universe this is a very emotional scene. 

Sadie goes on about how this isn't the first time Lars has manipulated her and that she feels like a fool. 

I myself can personally relate to this. You meet someone who seems pretty nice at first and then they do something cruel to you. You keep hanging with them though, for whatever reason. They do something cruel again. The cycle continues over and over and over. 

It's happened to me and I'm sure it's happened to many others as well. 

I have a bit an embarrassing story to tell. If you don't care to here it then skip to the next paragraph.

It was my 6th grade year and I moved to a new school. There was this kid who I won't give the name of. He became my first friend there. I like having friends, though I am awful with talking to people so you know being put in a situation like a new school is kinda freaky. He seemed like a decent guy at first but then I saw his true colors. He was a douche to everyone, a major pervert (I mean everyone has there perverted side but his was always in full force) and he treated all of his friends like crap. Yes that includes me. I had some fun times with him but he was still just overall not very nice. It got to the point where everyone, even the teachers, thought I was being bullied by him. And I was. He didn't make me feel good he was always bringing me down. Whenever I swore not to be friends with him again he made me feel bad about leaving him and I always thought he changed but he never did. I have no idea how many times this happened. 

It's kinda embarrassing actually. All these people, my teacher and my peers, we're trying to help me out but I always kept crawling back. I was being foolish. He didn't even feel bad about anything he did. He always came up with the lamest excuses to defend his completely wrong actions. Saying we were the ones in the wrong. 

I remember clearly during those moments where he made me feel low wishing I was back at my old school with my old friends who always made me feel good. 

And that's my story. It's pretty embarrassing. I told you that so you can see why I can really relate to Sadie on a personal level here. The emotions she felt are pretty close to the ones I felt. 

I felt sad that i let myself be fooled. I felt embarrassed I was manipulated so easily. 

Let me tell you. People don't usually change that easily. If they hurt you purposefully don't give them another chance. Sure in some cases they do change but make them prove it to you before you accept them back into your life because you don't need to take that crap. You shouldn't have people stepping on you like stairs and manipulating you. Leave them and find some new friends. It may be hard if your anything like me but you'll find someone. 

Just get them out of your life. ASAP. 

Well that was a downer moment there for a brief second. Is it just me or are these post getting more serious. 

I mean in terms of the reviews the last 2 episodes of the Animated Critic talked about stuff like the beauty of life and how to handle things you don't completely understand. Pretty serious stuff. Don't worry the next one will be way more happy. Well as happy as reviewing an awful Teen Titans Go episode can be. 

So yeah Sadie is pretty devastated. Steven says he has an idea. So he runs home. 

The next day he comes in with the fire salt and says they should prank Lars with it. Sadie ask what good it would do to stoop down to his level. It's actually kinda heartwarming in a weird way to see Steven wanna get back at someone who hurt a friend of his. 

Lars then comes in completely overexagerating his 'pain.'

Just makes you wanna punch him right in his square head doesn't it. 

This insults Sadie so she proceeds to dump the entire Vat of Fire Salt on a donut.

Much to Steven's enjoyment. 

Man I love Steven's excited, cheerful expressions. Just look at those eyes man. How can you not love that face. 

Sadie gives the donut to Lars saying 'careful it's hot.' 

This leads to a funny scene where Steven tries to hold back his laughter before Lars eats the donut. 

This kinda reminds me of a scene in the Spongebob episode Fools In April. 

I'm sorry I had to. 

OK no I didn't but I did anyway.

Anyway Lars eats the donut and Steven burst out laughing. The donut causes Lars to......breath fire uncontrollably. 

That. Is. So............Awesome. 

I mean it this scene is cool. It's also pretty funny as Lars kinda deserves it. You might say that this punishment taken to far as having fire spewing out of you probably burns. But I feel it works as Lars did something to deserve it and it's shown in an extremely cartooney way. 

As a side note I'm currently listening to Burn by Ellie Goulding as I'm typing this. 

Any way they try to give him something to drink but Lars just burns the cup. 

I love this scene so much, it's just so funny. 

So Lars leaves the big donut. I kinda wonder what's going on through his mind as he has fire spewing from his mouth. 

Sadie and Steven make chase. 

Luckily its very easy to follow Lars.

Holy Crap, now Fire Meets Gasoline by Sia is playing. I'm not even joking all these fire related songs keep popping up on Pandora as I'm typing this. 

So they follow him putting out all of Lars' Fires as they go. 

Lars then proceeds to melt the biggest bowl of Ice Cream. 

OK once you see the ice-cream you can see the joke coming from a mile away. But it's still a little funny as the mayor has a funny line after it melts. 

Are you kidding now Pompeii by Bastille is playing. I know the song itself isn't directly fire related but it's called Pompeii and a volcanic eruption destroyed the city so I'm counting it. 

So anyway Steven and Sadie finally catch up to Lars. They also see Amethyst who tells Steven he's only supposed to use a little bit of the fire salt. Whoops. Amethyst still says it's hilarious though. 

Ah.......Amethyst. 

Sadie finally confronts Lars. She ask if calling her Player 2 was just his way of saying she could've been any girl and calls him out for all that other crap he's done. 

She also tells him how she always thought he was a nice guy. This doesn't make Lars feel good. He also begins choking on the donut. 

This leads to a really epic scene that apparently got censored in most foreign countries for some reason. 

Steven runs to Lars while singing the song on the video tape from earlier and does the Heimlich Maneuver on him, getting the flaming donut out. 

Sadie tells Lars she's not apologizing and Lars says he doesn't expect her to. He just wants to help. You can tell Lars feels genuinely sorry about hurting Sadie and you can tell he's developed. 

Sadie and Lars make up and the episode ends very happily. 

This episode was great. I really enjoyed it. The jokes work and so do the emotional moments. 

I may of said Sadie didn't work in the spotlight for Sadie's Song but here she really does work as I can really relate to her and empathize with her. The other characters are also great as always.

I really like this episode.

Best Part-Sadie's emotional scene after discovering Lars lied. 

Worst Part-The predictable Ice cream joke. It's still funny though. 

Overall-8.5/10

So happy Valentine's Day everybody. Hope you are enjoying it and hoped you enjoyed this special episode. 

Hmm.....it looks like I got a message.

Uh...last time I checked your supposed to send stuff like this through the mail. 

Oh who am I kidding. I'm not complaining. I love getting messages. 

I pixel you to be mine. 

Ugh, what an awful pun. Wait does this mean I have.......a secret admirer. Ohhhh!

Happy Valentine's to me. 

I Wonder what's inside. 

A nifty little game controller eraser. Sweet.

 

And a card. She thinks I'm copper and tellurium. Interesting way to express Valentine's love. 

Oh, cute. Ha that's funny. 

There's nothing else here. Weird, there's not even a name on here. 

I wish I knew who this person was. 

Dang it, guess I'll have to wait to find out. 

I appreciate the gesture nonetheless though. It really does make me happy considering all this crap currently going on.

I guess that ends today's special episode. 

Hope you've had a great Valentine's and I'll see you all later. 

Peace.

Next Animated Critic-Gorilla (Teen Titans Go)

Anime Critic will start this month as well as Evan Vs. Disney and Animated Critic the Show.