It's no secret to young children and adults with no weekend plans that Steven Universe has become a pillar among the animation community. Everything between its art style, themes, and emotional narrative have done a great job of creating a cartoon genuinely like nothing else, and every ing episode shows some ambition to keep pushing the narrative forward.
And while fans can gush about what their favorite episode from the last few seasons is, not many give that much love or are even aware of the series' unaired pilot, "The Time Thing." In it, Steven uses the power of time travel and comebacks to save the Crystal Gems for the first time, with various familiar beats to come strewn across 7 minutes. While some details are easy to appreciate, there are a few that some hardened fans are bound to miss.
The Hourglass
The central MacGuffin of the pilot is this mysterious little orb the Gems refer to as "The Hourglass." This handy doodad is being hunted down by a bunch of Electric Skulls and apparently has unparalleled power. When Steven gets his hands on it, he finds that the hourglass allows him to travel back in time.
Unfortunately, he sets its one true purpose to helping him make comebacks. That same hourglass would appear again in the episode "Steven and the Stevens." However, instead of being used for comebacks, Steven uses it to clone himself to start his own band. Since Day 1, Steven had his priorities straight.
Incorrect Change
After getting into a huff with the Gems, Amethyst asks Steven to grab the team some donuts. While she was just trying to sneakily hand him the Hourglass, she also handed him some money for the donuts. This snack time fund had the normal change but also included a three-dollar bill.
Though this could just be a visual gag or a quick means to keep the animation team from drawing three separate bills, the three-dollar bill and other strange change do reemerge within the main series. There are certainly more fantastic things featured in the series, but the fact that a three-dollar bill is legal tenure truly separates Steven's world from our own.
Steven's Chips
Ever since the pilot, food has been a recurring element for the series. As Steven waits for the Crystal Gems to return from their latest mission, he's seen munching on a bag of chips. This same bag of chips would later reappear within the main series, and Amethyst is even seen eating them within the episode, "Cat Fingers."
It's also worth noting that, despite the literal brand being named "Chips," that this snack isn't just another generic portrayal of chips but an homage to a United States East Coast favorite, Utz's, where the drawing of the same mascot character being the dead giveaway.
Continuity Hair-or
Continuity is always going to be a hard thing for an overworked animation team. That goes doubly so for a small team just working on a pilot that might not even air. Nonetheless, "The Time Thing" went smoothly with minimal errors, though there is one that might get a few fans pulling their own hair.
When Garner fends off the giant Electric Skull, she manages to pull of one of its tentacle/hair strands. However, within the next shot that it appears, that same strand is still attached.
Steven Didn't Originally Like Lars
Fans today know that Steven and Lars Barriga go together as well as SpongeBob and Squidward. That is to say that there's is an incredibly one-sided friendship that the innocent Steven wholeheartedly enjoys but that the disillusioned Lars despises. It's an age old trope within children's cartoons.
Producers prefer if the main character is a bright and friendly face, even if every other character isn't. However, within the pilot, Steven shows a very visible distaste for Lars. When Lars makes fun of him, Steven gets upset and even frustrated when trying to make a comeback against him.
Redesign Or Regeneration?
Most pilots are seen as non-canon by their community, with "The Time Thing" being confirmed a few times to not be part of the same world. This is incredibly obvious given how different the art style looks and how vastly changed the Crystal Gems' designs are. However, blurring the lines between canon and non-canon is Pearl.
Though her design is the most changed upon the main series' debut, her original costume is seen for a short glimpse when she regenerates in "Steven the Sword Fighter." This teases that, at one point, she did have her pilot form and, in a great sense, that all of the pilot costumes could just be previous forms for the Gems.
What's Your Excuse?
Steven Universe has quite the proclivity for thematic parallels and tie backs. In "The Time Thing," the line "What's your excuse?" is used to literally save the lives of the Crystal Gems when Steven uses to travel back in time.
In the finale of the original run of Steven Universe, "Change Your Mind," Steven gets into a heated exchange with the series' final boss, White Diamond. When their argument nears its peak, Steven looks to White Diamond and says, "I am a child. What's your excuse?" Echoes are meant to get quieter the further they go, not louder.
Genndy Tartakovsky Worked On It
The pilot already has a gilded history for just being animated by Rebecca Sugar. However, there was at least one other animation legend working on the project: Genndy Tartakovsky. Genndy worked as the Time Director for Sugar's pilot and is essentially the man who helped define Cartoon Network.
He helped create and produce instant classics such as The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter's Laboratory, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Sym-Bionic Titan, and Samurai Jack. Today, he's currently working on Adult Swim's Jurassic thriller, Primal.
Amethyst Teases Her Cat Obsession
The pilot teases a few character details within its first few seconds. When Amethyst appears, she introduces herself in a forest like area, resting on tiger and puma. Amethyst is near synonymous across the series for her obsession with cats.
It was her go-to transformation when she helped Steven learn about shapeshifting, and her wrestling persona goes by Purple Puma. While the two cats from the pilot never appear again in the main series, their influence is still definitely there.
Ruby And Sapphire Are Teased
Like the leader she is, Garnet is the first one to introduce herself and the very person to introduce the series. When she does, she's shown with a very extravagant backdrop. In the pilot's first couple of seconds, Garnet has a ruby pillar on her left side surrounded by flames and a sapphire pillar in front of a waterfall to her right.
Though it would take a long time for this reference to pay off, this is clearly teasing the fact that Garnet is comprised of two different gems, the hot-headed Ruby and the calm, flowing Sapphire.