Onion Gang (Steven Universe) – Overly Animated Podcast #249
By: Dylan Hysen
Dylan Hysen, Sam Quattro, and Justin Cummings discuss the September 15th episode of Steven Universe, “Onion Gang”.
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Dylan Hysen
Dylan is a software developer from the DC area who hosts the Overly Animated podcast discussing everything animation.
12 Comments
Well at least this could be the last Onion episode because this completes the Onion trilogy.
I am glad they address the big elephant in the room of Steven has no friends his own age. He has no friends his own age, either they are younger than him or older than him.
Though I hope they address the other elephant in the room of Steven having no close male friends unless you count Greg. Outside of his family or gems like Peridot or Lapis, Steven has no close human friends except for Connie.
But yeah I thought the Yellowtail part was hilarious. He looks great, and is great to see that Vidalia thinks enough of him to model for her.
Can’t wait for the Steven Universe Onion Roundtable discussion.
Oh god, delaney actually just suggested this. Don’t encourage.
So great points:
1. First time Onion talks
2. Steven basically VA’s the entire episode, and it’s lampshaded because Steven starts the show narrating everything that happened.
3. As a simple fairytale, it works really well. Steven thinks he’s coddling a lonely friend, turns out he discovered he’s the lonely one, turns out, he has a good friendship to rely on afterall.
4. Soup was using some basic sign language, my heart skipped a beat. I think some of the “misfit” kids were representative of selective mute, deaf, and aphasia (only being able to say a few words). It was represented pretty well!
Dylan, we both like the more plot motivated episodes (and both aren’t that big on Onion, overall), but there were some cool points there. At least those were mine! Great cast.
Oh, interesting! If they are representing various physical disabilities that would add a ton of depth to this episode.
Yes most definetly! I think it’s a pretty strong case that these handicaps were positively represented in the show. Soup makes something that looks a lot like the general sign for “Better” when Steven finally gets his/her name right. (The sign was: GOOD+ER which can also mean BEST or BETTER when done with an open palm). It could just be a coincidence, but I’ll post a link an as example. Some examples: http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/b/best.htm
Squash doesn’t sign but could have (selective) mutism, she/he’s the only one not to cheer/laugh for the entire episode but still clearly emotes all other feelings. Then again, it could just be an excuse to have Steven be the only one that talks. But literally every other character grunts to some degree during the ep. Anyway, here’s a link to look it up if you’re interested. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_mutism
Garbonzo seems to be coded for aphasia. It’s pretty apparent in that case, actually.
Either way, I think these kinds of kids with “speech disorders” would naturally flock to a kid like Onion to the point where I don’t think all these codings were by accident. But either way I’m cool, lol. Just stuff to think/talk about!
Very interesting stuff.
I thought they might be somewhere on the autistic spectrum, or representative of that at least. Disability is an interesting way to read it as well. I didn’t pick up on the sign language.
This is my first episode and I gotta say you guys are harsh. You hafta watch this ep as a kid would. The characters are slowly being developed in this town. You feel like Beach City is this small knit town where everyone knows someone. Onion. Has been a mystery since Onion Trade 1st season
Steven vocalize his inner voice and Onion understands and it seems to ring true. The “joke” with the crash and Pinto bringing Onion back to life was about Pinto feeling part of the gang. Even Steven missed that cause of what he has been through. A healer can’t heal all things.
Everyone likes to talk filler episodes but they all really tie into the big picture with the characters. Steven is always trying to find himself
Rant over but I will keep listening cause I love animated shows and have barely anyone to talk about them as a 35yr old gay otaku from Harlem NY
lol we’re definitely usually not this harsh. I just have a pet peeve about onion episodes. Thanks for checking us out though and yeah listen to some of our other stuff!
No listener feedback on this one? Or maybe it’s coming this week and I missed that info?
We lost the recording 🙁 http://overlyanimatedpodcast.tumblr.com/post/150559542504/gurukorrasami-hey-yall-ova-listeners-and-the Will be back on Thursday with a roundtable!
Yeah, I don’t dislike this one as much as you guys, but I’ll admit that’s mostly because of the metatextual stuff. I like how Onion (and his friends) represent children with various disabilities, and how that can make them unapproachable to neurotypical children like Steven, yet still inherently worthy of respect and friendship.
Also the Undertale thing. I don’t know if Soup is meant to be a reference to Frisk, but until I hear otherwise I’m going to assume they are. Aaaaaaand now I’m convinced Soup and Frisk are the same person and Undertale takes place in the same universe.
As for the rest of the episode, though, I could take it or leave it.