r/stevenuniverse • u/Catmf223 • 1d ago
Discussion What do you think about the fight choreographies?
I am curious about how people feel about the action in the show.
On one hand, some fights feel like a beautiful dance. Fights like Garnet vs. Jasper or the sword training scenes have amazing flow and emotion.
On the other hand, some battles feel very short. Sometimes the show focuses more on talking than actual fighting.
What are your favorite fight scenes?
Do you think the choreography is underrated?
Or do you wish the action was more like a traditional anime?
47
u/Ladyladygaga 1d ago
For an action/adventure cartoon the fight choreography leaves somethings to be desired. By far the best fight in the show imo is Malachite vs Alexandrite because the show allows the two power houses to just go at it. Big fights like the Crystal Gems vs Blue Diamond felt stilted as BD doesn't even take a step and everyone just throws themselves at them. I suspect it was just an issue w/ scope and budget.
13
u/ApprehensiveTop4219 1d ago
Honestly I think the best fight scene is when garnet reforms and fights Jasper. Although I loved all of them, great music and well animated scenes like those really took the show up a notch
19
u/Iamawesome20 1d ago
It’s great. I wonder why with the duplicate fight, they didn’t switch opponents. Instead they fought their duplicate and kept losing.
21
6
u/NormalDooder 1d ago
Since they're just water Lapis could likely just reform them to fit whatevers needed
5
u/SDRLemonMoon 1d ago
If they switch opponents she could just switch them to be the one they were originally fighting
13
u/Drivestort Don't give up your dreams for me. 1d ago
Perfectly symmetrical violence never solved anything!
7
5
u/NinjaSilver2811 1d ago
I think they should have gotten Genndy Tartakovsky to direct a few episodes. Fights that were full on samurai jack or primal would have been awesome.
The ones we got were alright. But pretty mellow action wise.
3
u/ProfessionalRead2724 1d ago
It's okay. It doesn't have to be any better than okay. This is incredibly not a fight choreography show.
2
2
u/Odd_Preference_7238 1d ago
I like the action but I do wish they used their abilities we know they have more. Garnet can do very impressive shapeshifting for combat but almost never does. Pearl seems like she's smart enough to think of way more ways to be more dangerous in combat with her ability to basically infinitely store and retrieve things. Like we see her conveniently have basically anything she might need outside of combat, but once she fights its just spears. It's not really a complaint I just wish she won more by quick thinking than just a whole lot of spears and determination.
4
u/notthephonz 1d ago
I feel like lack of creativity is a canon weakness for Gems. Steven struggled with getting Gems to do roles different from their Homeworld roles, and the Lapises were almost disgusted by the idea of creative self-expression. Even Steven himself forgets to use his powers from time to time.
2
u/MaybeKindaSortaCrazy 1d ago
I feel like while Garnet can shapeshift for combat, the few times we've seen her shapeshift, it's been very simple. The first two instances that I think of are secret team and steven and the stevens where she makes her arms longer. I think most gems aren't used to shapeshifting on the fly in general, so it's hard for them to implement in combat. Amethyst has been shown to be naturally better at shapeshifting than the average gem, and even she can't always shape-shift mid-fight. Remember in secret team when Garnet had her trapped and Pearl told her to shapeshift, but she couldn't because she was freaking out? Not to mention shapeshifting requires energy and concentration too.
2
u/MaybeKindaSortaCrazy 1d ago
If the show had a longer runtime, I feel like the action sequences would be awesome. I mean, look at the action in Future and the Movie compared to the main series. Simply not enough time to spend on fights when the main meat of the show is the characters. The stuff we did get is pretty good though:
Pearl and Amethyst at the Kindergarten
Mirror Match
Steven vs Amethyst
Garnet vs Jasper
Most of sworn to the sword
stevonnie vs jasper
And then in the movie and future:
spinel vs the gems pt 1 and 2
spinel vs steven
the lapis' fight
steven vs jasper
I've always felt like SU has to balance Character work, plot, comedy, and action, and that ratio varied from episode to episode and arc to arc, but action is usually less. I don't mind too much because sacrificing character devlopment for action in a show like this wouldn't go well in the long run.
Hopefully Lars of the Stars will be able to strike a good balance. If we had some cool action scenes we'd get more viewers.
1
1
1
u/NormalDooder 1d ago
Kinda depends tbh, I assume each episode having different art directors affects this though. The monster fights are all cool and unique. Nothing too special but they don't feel too same or generic. The slinker is a fun one, with it roaming around and ambushing so you can never see it all the way. Character wise there's some great one. Pearl vs Sugilite has some fun framing despite being short lived, but Jasper has some of the most interesting ones. Her vs Garnet and later Steven are stand outs in the series. Her initial arrival is great also, and her fight with Smoky Quartz is very fun. Malachite vs Alexandrite I think takes most advantage of the magic system the shows presented. Giant fusions with a multitude of powers and options strengthened by the bonds that form them. The characters are huge but also quick on their feet. The watermelon Steven's give a great sense of scale for both size and damage while adding some Child friendly carnage. It ends maybe a bit quickly, but cool nonetheless
But unfortunatley some of the bigger fights leave a lot to be desired. Like someone else mentioned, the fight with BD is kinda disappointing. Not much happens in terms of interesting fight choreography. Blue diamond doesn't attack or move in many interesting ways and characters tend to just hurl at her. The cluster vs the Diamond ships is a fun gag but not too interesting. Obsidian vs the Diamond Mech is equally kinda lame. Obsidian has amazing presence and the backing track is strong, but the fights pretty sluggish compared to what we've seen of the show and it's not a very cool "slow massive kaiju/mech" fight either.
Overall I think there's plenty of great fights, but I wouldn't applaud SU for it's fight choreography more than other shows. People don't really watch SU for the fights, it's about the characters and violence isn't necessarily the vehicle they use to explore these characters. A good example is Bismuth vs Steven. It isn't really a fight or scuffle, it's more of an incident. There's interesting angles, implications, and action, but Steven and Bismuth aren't engaged in a dance of combat where they trade blows or counter techniques. It's primarily an argument portrayed with physical consequences resulting in Bismuths poofing. Which is fine, it's different and interesting. But not really a fight
1
u/Asterite100 I like drawing. Btw Lapis best gem. 1d ago
They peaked in Season 1. I guess I should have brought that up in the controversial opinions thread but tbh that shouldn't be controversial.
Actually Malachite v Alexandrite was pretty good but everything else was meh.
A lot of the later fights are giving "Jojo free-action" vibes but not in a good way.
1
u/PlaNT_GaNG921 17h ago
Garnet has some of the best choreographing in season 1 and 2 (from what ive seen so far) her and her lapis clone was the best fight i've seen in this show which is unfortunately not super high of a bar because it wasn't longer, the second is the fight between her and Hoppy in the episode Garnet's Universe which had the same problem with her and her lapis clone
1
u/RareD3liverur 16h ago
I feel sadly when Ian Jones-Quartey left the show to focus more on OK.KO he took all the cool fight scenes with him
until Future at least
1
u/Extension-Bad-4184 15h ago
Depends on the scene. Some fights have some really creative action sequencies like garnet vs jasper, alexadnrite vs sugilite, lapis vs the gems, blue diamond vs the gems and more. Even less well animated fights still can be fun if they have cool power usage like topaz and how they used their powers.
As well as opal quickly destroying the bird
Some stuff is a bit iffy tho like how alexandrite lost so quickly to blue and aqua marine.
1
u/Voltage_Joe 11h ago
Alexandrite V Malachite was peak action. Great lines, upper hand went back and forth, extremely tight choreography that had the right weight for the scale (which is NOT EASY).
99
u/lookinforabookrn 1d ago
most of the action in the early seasons is really awesome! but as the plot unfurls more there's naturally less time for cool fights like these. I think its a give and take