January 30th, 2017 - /r/stevenuniverse: Today the show officially resumes with a new arc; it's a great one full of lore and such

#/r/stevenuniverse

81,776 early birds for 4 years!

This subreddit is full of spoilers for the whole series, so if you care about those and you're considering watching the show, it might be best to hold off on looking around or subscribing until you've caught up.

Legal places to watch can be found on the sidebar: Google Play, Hulu, Amazon, the Cartoon Network website, iTunes and YouTube. If these links don't work where you live, try searching your own country's version of these sites.

For those not in the know, Steven Universe is a show about three Gems (a race of sentient gemstones with magical abilities) raising a kid named Steven, the first and only half-human half-Gem, who has a gemstone in his bellybutton inherited from his dead mother. The show follows Steven as he grows up, dealing with the ordinary problems kids have to deal with -- you know, things like developing magical abilities, having his life threatened repeatedly, attempted genocide. The usual.

We were most likely trending last month because of the recent Stevenbomb 5: five episodes released online all in one go a few weeks ago. It's a short story arc, almost a mini-movie, and full to the brim with all sorts of worldbuilding and plot. If you don't mind heavy spoilers (and believe me, this is a show where spoilers matter), you could try watching that; the episodes in question are Steven's Dream, Adventures in Light Distortion, Gem Heist, The Zoo and That Will Be All. A lot of what those five episodes feature is obvious from context, so you won't be too lost.

But if you want to watch the show "properly", start from the first episode Gem Glow, and watch up until at least the 26th, Ocean Gem. That should be enough for you to judge whether you like where it's going. The episodes are only 11 minutes long, so 26 episodes isn't much of a time investment. However, if that's still too much for you, try Flood Order to get there in only 10 episodes -- around the length of a movie.

Long story short: Steven Universe builds from a fairly slow beginning into something amazing, with its complex, relatable characters driving its plot and a hell of a lot of worldbuilding. Not to mention the gorgeous songs! It handles mature themes with ease -- a lot better than you'd expect from a kids' show, and a lot better than a lot of adult shows. You may not like it at the beginning, and a fair few fans didn't. But trust me: stick with it. You'll likely find that it's worth it.

Written by a special guest writer.