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| Screenshot of character Pearl from the episode "So Many Birthdays." (Source) |
Over the last few days, the "Steven Universe" community has been in an uproar over content leaks that heavily spoil major plot points in the show. The source of these leaks is Cartoon Network UK.
As reported by iDigitalTimes, Cartoon Network UK put up two clips from unannounced episodes up on its website. These clips were around three minutes long a piece and both contained the climaxes for their individual episode. Of those climaxes, one of them spoils the conclusion to a story arc that's ranged over the last 20 or so episodes.
To give a little context, "Steven Universe" was created in 2013 by Rebecca Sugar, who had previously been a story-boarder on Pendleton Ward's "Adventure Time." Sugar was awarded the title of Forbes' "30 Under 30" in 2012 for her work on "Adventure Time", and she was then asked to pitch a show. She is the first female show creator in the history of Cartoon Network. Her show takes heavy inspiration from Japanese animation, which focuses on plot driven stories.
For a typical cartoon, posting an unreleased clip online isn't typically a problem as most tend to have self-contained episodes without much of a story. "Steven Universe," on the other hand, is plot-centric.
It probably doesn't help that the show is currently in the middle of a two month long hiatus with no future episodes announced. The hiatus follows a group of five episodes shown from January 4-8, known as a "Steven Bomb." This particular one was the fourth.
The focus on Steven Bombs is a choice made by Cartoon Network in how it airs the show. The crew of the show, who refer to themselves as the "Crewniverse," have no impact on how the show is aired. However, this style of airing episodes requires an extensive backlog of finished episodes to keep the ball rolling. According to writers Matt Burnett and Ben Levin, it takes about nine months or so to fully produce an episode, which complicates this.
With all of that in mind, the leaks that occurred on Friday were directly the fault of Cartoon Network UK, done without the consent of the Crewniverse. Along with the fans on social media, the Crewniverse were understandably upset by this. (Matt Burnett, a writer on the show, was a little more comical than most.)
Break the internet.— Burnett (@mcburnett) February 26, 2016
This leak wasn't the first that Cartoon Network has done. Back during the Steven Bomb in January, a four second clip of an episode preview played during another show on the network. This clip spoiled the return of a major character in the series, which ironically came from the same set of episodes that were leaked last week.
These leaks are most likely accidents on the part of Cartoon Network. but they paint a broader picture on how disconnected Corporate and creator can be. Hopefully there won't be another leak or the faucet will be completely dry.
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