Steven Universe: Arkham Edition - EXTRAS

Arkham Steven's Analysis [+ SU Future Rants]

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Spoilers to Canon Steven Universe and Arkham Edition. 

So, what makes Arkham Steven different from any other Steven? What makes Arkham Steven different than Diamond Spinel AU Steven, Disarmed AU Steven, Spinel House AU Steven, Crystal Spinel AU, New Home AU Steven, Rose Lives AU Steven, Mom-Swap AU Steven, Evil Steven AU, Diamond Steven AU, even Canon Steven? 

Well, let's take a dive at his origin story first. Arkham Steven was born the same way Canon Steven was born and had a similar childhood to his original counterpart, but that's as far as the similarities end. Arkham Steven took a major change of character when he decided to embrace his mother's destiny for him.

In the canon series, Steven was constantly looking up to his mother for answers, and when he got them, he wasn't satisfied and began resenting her (deny it all you want, Canon Steven resents his mother as it was heavily implied in the series many times). Arkham Steven looked up to her and even when he got the answers, he never stopped loving her. And he desperately wants to meet his mother in person, but knows that isn't possible without something magical (foreshadowing...?).

After embracing his mother's destiny, Arkham Steven decided to make himself better than he originally was by spending two years of his life training himself to achieve perfection. He trained by working his body to the limit, learning how to control his powers flawlessly, learning 15 martial arts and learning psychology from reading college books. Now, how do these things help him and what did the others think of this?

Learning the multiple martial arts is a no-brainer, since learning how to fight is kind of essential when you're in the Crystal Gems. So, we're not going to look at it much and gloss over it. Steven didn't learn how to fight from the gems, he used his allowance from his wealthy father to pay personal lessons from a retired martial arts teacher who is now a ballet teacher.

Working out might be something that isn't required, since Canon Steven was already strong and agile and he wasn't quite in shape (to put it kindly). Arkham Steven made his body fit and agile, not intending to use his powers and stamina as a crutch, which is proven to be very useful during the time he was ill from Spinel, since he was able to constantly run around and fight all night.

Steven learned how to control his powers early on with the help of the Crystal Gems and his teacher, giving him support and morale boost. But here's where some of you might be scratching your heads.

"How did Steven achieve his many powers at a younger age than his canon counterpart? Steven was 16 in the show when he gotten his powers, yet Arkham Steven got his powers at the 13 which is way younger than when Canon Steven started to use his defensive powers like his bubble and sheild."

Well the older Canon Steven got, the more emotional he got with his trauma catching up to him. It was stated that his powers are tied to his emotions and they are basically his key to using them. And then he reaches a point where he can just use them effortlessly and be completely sound.

But he needed to unlock them after severe emotional trauma/scarring. For example, after he watched Garnet and Pearl poofed, he was deeply affected by those incidents and you can definitely see it when you watch those episodes. 

It's kind of twisted that Steven needs to experience emotional trauma in order to get his powers. Bravo Steven Universe writers, you did some DC writing onto your kid's show.