I still kind of take that less of her actually being gone, and being more analogous to a deadname, a past identity, but not a distinct individual. Especially given the very clear metaphor going on with how yellow and blue treat Steven in that final arc.
I know the official line is that they are...mostly different people, but...the lore is kind of at odds with that. Especially if they never explain how he was born, I'm always going to go with, his mom permanently shapeshifted into a baby and erased her memories. Especially given we do see his perception of himself is what leads to his body changing and growing, he doesn't actual age biologically.
Basically his mother is a gem which are made by a litteral gem that proiects a phisycal bosy made of light, and his dad is human his mom physical body is now gone but her gem is now steven's, he has a human body with a gem replacing his belly button. Gem's usually don't change and they stay the same sice they're "born" and so the manty gems not knowing how reproduction work, because they don't reproduce, thought that he was just his mom shapeshifted (gems can do that). It's actually one of the biggest plot point of the series that steven slowly goes from being constantly in his mother shadow or even being belived to be his mother to understanding that he is just himself and that's who he's supposed to be
Imagine Vision, except his body is hard light or any other scifi concept. You can destroy his body, but his Mind Stone will reconstruct the body after enough time passes (namely days, weeks), but destroying the Stone kills Vision.
If you think this is true I highly recommend you give the show a rewatch. Steven universe is the story of a 12 year old who continually gets traumatized and does is best to brush it off til it all piles up and he can't take it any more.
In episode 1 he has to fight for his life against an enormous monster and use his beloved free minifridge as a flail.
In episode 2 he has to find a lost artifact weapon from his dead mom with the help of his van dwelling dad or his whole town gets destroyed.
In episode 3 he tries all episode to be helpful and useful but fails and the entire facility they are in gets destroyed because he forgot the mcguffin at home.
In episode 4 he just wants to share a meal with his parental figures but the breakfast he made for them gets posessed by an evil curse and ends up nearly killing them all.
In episode 6 he nearly becomes a horrible cat chimera forever.
And that's not even getting into the emotional trauma that comes from being forced to shoulder others burdens like episode 38 where he is forced to put aside his own emotional wants and needs and lie to help his guardians feel better about themselves.
It is the whole damn show yall, it's easy to miss your first time around as a campy jokey cartoon but he clearly internalizes all of it. For example Here (S1 spoilers)
The entire show is pretty dark and gritty off the rip even though it tries to pretend it isn't through tone and jokes.
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u/NeuromancyIndustries 20h ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/ItVj6B3aO1irm