Steven Universe Calls Out Fake Allies in “Rocknaldo”
(Episode 4.18)
Cartoon Network
A long time ago, the Steven Universe team decided to cross-breed the most annoying corners of Tumblr and Reddit, dress the resulting offspring in a flame-covered shirt and cargo shorts and call him Ronaldo Fryman. Over the course of the series, Ronaldo’s mostly been used as a meta-critique of online fandom, living his life largely on social media and spouting conspiracy theories like a fire hose. As an erstwhile Redditor, I recognize that the parts of Ronaldo that I find obnoxious are my own worst online instincts: the obsession, the detachment from reality, the breakdown of normal social interaction that can happen on the Internet. And given that the Steven Universe fandom has gotten ugly in the past, Ronaldo is a crucial grounding mechanism. That said, he’s become most notable as a Cassandra whose wild speculations about the Great Diamond Authority and a human zoo have turned out to be correct. It’s a delicious twist of irony that the show’s chief skewerer of online fanaticism has only stoked that fire.
With “Rocknaldo,” though, we see a departure from Ronaldo’s purpose to date. The only conspiracy theory to be had is destroyed at the beginning of the episode, and then Ronaldo’s off the Internet for the remainder. What transpires next is a scathing take on how not to be an ally, a hugely important topic for the queerest show on television.
“I’m a Crystal Gem, too.”
Ronaldo says this when the Crystal Gems and Steven leave him behind to go on a mission, and he says it with a mixture of loneliness, despair and confusion. He wonders why belonging can’t just consist of taping a star to his chest and wielding a katana; he puzzles over why, even among these outsiders, he does not belong. Biology certainly plays a part—obviously, he does not have a gem—but that’s far from the whole story, because Connie (as Ronaldo notes) has become a full member of the team despite being fully human. What Ronaldo fails to recognize when he says the above five words is that he’s doing this for himself, not to help or better understand Steven and his guardians. If Ronaldo can’t derive some selfish benefit of community from this, what is he even doing in the beach house? As it turns out, he’s just being a “jerk-naldo.”
We can draw a natural parallel to people who insincerely claim to be allies of any marginalized community. “Rocknaldo” was written and storyboarded by Hilary Florido and Lauren Zuke, the latter of whom is gender non-binary and among the show’s most outspoken staffers when it comes to discussing LGBTQ+ themes. This episode more than likely comes from a very personal place, informed by instances of supposed allies gathering just enough information to be superficially conversant and then getting high off their newfound “status.” The Internet abounds with pieces about how to do this the right way—check out this list directly from GLAAD, for example—but the vast majority of them don’t even mention the obvious first step: Do it because you care about the people you’re trying to help. This wouldn’t seem to need mentioning, but for some folks, donning the safety pin or joining the Women’s March or flying a rainbow flag (or taking the name “Bloodstone”) is more a masturbatory display of self-identity than an authentic expression of solidarity.
Most of the time, there’s a mixture of selfish and selfless motives in allies’ minds; all human behavior, with the rare exception of pure altruism, is imbued with some self-interest, even if that’s merely a sense of fulfillment. The key is to be aware of this mixture and ensure that the more righteous motives are always in the mental driver’s seat. Signs that this is the case include, first and foremost, shutting the hell up and allowing marginalized people to do the talking. This is Ronaldo’s most obvious failure in “Rocknaldo”—he not only fails to grasp who the Crystal Gems are and what they do, but also actively denies Steven a voice and his very Gemhood. For a real world analogue, imagine a white member of the NAACP telling black people that their own racial experience is faulty, that the white member is more a black person than the actual black person. (The 2015 Rachel Dolezal controversy wasn’t quite that extreme, but it fits the contours of this discussion.)
And Steven gets rightfully pissed! This is the second straight episode in which he’s snapped at someone, and while he’s had his fair share of indignant moments since early in the show’s run (at least since Season One’s “Mirror Gem”), his anger feels different now. It isn’t filtered by his empathy anymore, spurting forth like lava from a volcano and incinerating its targets. My best guess is that the wasteland of Steven’s spirit, something we saw quite clearly last week, is beginning to counterbalance his tendency to make peace and step into others’ shoes. Maybe hormones are playing a role as well: Harry Potter fans will remember that series’ protagonist going through a particularly explosive period in The Order of the Phoenix, in the aftermath of Voldemort’s return and Cedric Diggory’s death; Steven’s experienced similar levels of trauma of late, and he’s also 14. By episode’s end, he’s cooled down enough to give Ronaldo a stern talking-to, but I imagine we’ll be seeing Steven’s temper flare more often in the coming episodes.