On September 15th, 2016 a new episode of the infamous show "Steven Universe" came out called Onion Gang. Onion Gang starts with Steven and Onion playing a game called "Onion Tales." This game is about Steven narrating whatever Onion does. In the evening, Yellow Tail had come home from a recent sea trip, which is Onion's cue to leave. As Onion leaves, Steven ends the scene saying; "Epilogue: Things get a little lonely for Onion, not knowing any other kids his age. But luckily, he has his friend Steven, who will kindly donate some time to a youth in need."
The next scene we see is of Onion, arriving at Steven's door for what it seems like another game of Onion Tales. Not in Onion's mind, though. Onion took Steven in the deeper woods, where he was surrounded by random peeps in masks. Steven, of course, scared out of his mind falls to the ground. The miscreants take off their masks, showing a diverse show of faces. The group is actually Onion's friends, filled with numerous characters with names that sound like a dish that your mom would make for dinner. Garbanzo, his little sister Pinto, Squash — who has a weird obsession with actual Squash when we see them packing their suitcase with the weird vegetables — Soup, with a stylish pot hat, and of course, Onion. The weird thing is, Garbanzo is the only one who talks throughout the whole gang, and he had, of course, taken a page from The Pokémon handbook, only saying his name.
The next couple of scenes were about Steven's adventures with Onion, and well, his gang, and we could see it freaked Steven out a bit. The group had their own derby car, riding around through it. Their first action being a cute little roleplay as they act as if Garbanzo had gotten into a car crash, his younger sister Pinto bringing him back to life. This was probably the first red flag for Steven, him taking it extremely seriously. Afterwards, the few dressed up in a large trench coat, pretending to be an adult. (Steven showing off his coolio float powers when he jumped on Onion's head to become the face of their very tall adult.) The dressed up gang run into Suitcase Sam, pretend to flash him, and took a photo of his reaction. They seem to do this a lot, since they have multiple pictures of different peoples' reactions, including Garnet, who just did a thumbs up since her Future Vision probably gave her a clue what was coming (Go, Garnet!).
Their final game was a bug race, their choices coming out of Soup's fashion statement of a hat.
Steven ended up winning the bug race with his bug, and apparently, the winner of the bug race gets the prize of being pounded on a wooden stump by their racer. Steven, being the good-hearted boy we know and love, couldn't kill the poor thing, and ran off. During Steven's time alone, he had realized that it was him who was lonely, not Onion. It was Onion sparing some 'time for a youth in need' Like he saw it. When Onion came the next day to bring Steven back to the woods, Steven didn't want to go, seeing himself as a charity case in Onion's eyes. He told Onion to leave, and as Onion left, he left the bug that Steven used to race. He ran to go find Onion, ad found him in the woods. He saw all of Onion's friends packing up, and realized that they could only stay for the summer months, and it was beginning to become autumn. Onion was hurt, and Steven made sure that Onion knew, he always had the memories of him and his friends 'til next summer. He also made sure they knew that he also had Steven, too. The story ends with Onion hugging Steven for his kind words
Review:
This episode of Steven Universe was absolutely adorable, and brought us more into the depth of the show. Even from how normal it had looked. Now, before you shout at me saying that this is just another filler, allow me to explain.
1. More About Steven
It had showed us a lot more things about Steven as a person. The whole show was about little Steven Universe, this adorable, little boy that no one could ever see as anything other than cute, adorable, and good. Or, the synonyms of those words. Not that that's a bad thing. I love Steven Universe, I love his attitude, I love his life, and I love him in total. Although, in this episode, we saw another side of Steven I had never expected. His judgement, and his view of others in a bad way. Such as the way Steven Universe acts towards Onion. He always is a little off when he's with Onion, as if he's watching himself near the boy. He indirectly called Onion creepy and was frequently freaked out by Onion's friends' games. Even in "Onion Friend" Steven was always a bit off about Onion. Now, this isn't bad! This is good! It makes me feel like Steven is even more relatable, making me happy. People are judgmental. If they see someone that wears something different, acts different, large or small, a part of their mind will judge them. So, this makes Steven much more relatable than he already is. Instead of me thinking:" I wish I was just like Steven." I can also be like; "I'm so happy I can relate to someone like Steven Universe". Also, it showed how Steven barely has any other friends his age aside from Petey and Connie.
2. Insight Into Onion
Normally, every time Onion is in an episode, we see him as a little troublemaker wreaking havoc. In "Onion Gang," we see a side of Onion we've never seen before. A softer side. When first introduced to the Kitchen Pantry gang of Squash, Soup, Pinto and Garbanzo, Onion had acted so warmed up to them. The first scene we see of all of them together is Onion gathering them around him. The friendship is more than bonding over how mute they are, aside from Garbanzo. It's more than the Pregnant Mother Meet Up of how they all discussed they're favorite ingredients and decided to name their children this. This is the friendship of a lifetime. In a show like this, you could feel the bond that they all have together, their relationship. In this, we see Onion as a person, not some little alien who wrecks everything.
3. Is This A Filler?
No, I don't think this is a filler. The whole point of when the kids had to move off until next summer, they're obviously coming back. Also, this episode had showed us a lot about Steven. How Steven barely has any friends his age, which might come back as a problem in later episodes. Like, in the episode of "Steven Floats," I definitely thought that was a filler. That is, until Steven continuously used this power again and again. Even in this recent episode, he used his floating powers to fly on Onion's head to become the top of the trench coat man. There are a lot of episodes of Steven that are, and are not fillers. This is one episode that I do not think is a filler.
Fun Facts:
1. Soup is loosely based off of Undertale's Frisk, since this episode was released on Undertale's birthday
2. As Onion was running off with Steven to the woods the scene with Yellowtail and Vidalia were re-doing the scene from Titanic, where Jack painted Rose, but with the gender roles reversed.
