well Google your pastel color lesbian rocks, twat

i see people noting that steven is attempting to force himself into adulthood, and that's the cause of his tonal shift as a character. that's true, certainly, but you can't forget that my man is being forced into this role as much as he is forcing himself into this role

whether it's actually true or not, steven currently feels responsible for the growth of the entire gem civilization. the gems are lost and confused in the wake of the changes he brought and, being steven, he can't just step away and let them learn on their own. not just because he's now used to being overly involved and he doesn't know when to stop, but also because he recognizes the overwhelming gravity of the tragedy and suffering that happened before he came along

i mean shit, the earth was almost destroyed how many times just in the years that he himself was involved? the number of unfathomably destructive wars that happened on earth is how high? how many people and gems died before he righted the boat's course?

as a result steven sees himself as perhaps the sole bastion of keeping the gems from going back to that. of keeping the gems from literally destroying the earth. steven has a savior complex but that's because he literally was A Savior.

not to mention that steven is realizing the absolute aloneness he has in walking this path. he's a human and a gem, and while that gives him the benefit of seeing both perspectives it also means nobody will ever be able to understand his. he's 16, he has no idea how to communicate the wholeness of this situation even to himself, and just shoves himself as far into The Work so he doesn't consider the wildly unfair situation he and everyone else is in. he's even feeling that distance between himself and the crystal gems because they're acting sillier than ever in the wake of knowing that their work and trauma is more or less over. they're not the authority figures he can turn to when nobody else will step forward, they're now just the same silly directionless gems that he deals with everywhere else.