Steven Universe: Rebecca Sugar Explains the Movie's Most Heartbreaking Scene

There are a number of emotional scenes in Steven Universe, and so it should come as no surprise that Steven Universe: The Movie should also features several within its 90-minutes runtime. One of these is particularly heartbreaking, and reveals a previously unknown aspect of the franchise's canonical history and lore.

WARNING: Some spoilers for Steven Universe: The Movie follow.

In the movie, it's revealed that Pink Diamond actually learned that she'd be getting a colony of her own (Earth) while on a special world created just for her -- and her companion, Spinel. Spinel basically lived to serve and please Pink, constantly trying to make her laugh and smile. When Pink got her own colony, however, she left, and she basically tricked Spinel into spending 6,000 years standing in one place in order to get rid of her.

It's an incredibly dark, devastating scene to watch, and we got the chance to ask creator Rebecca Sugar about it when we interviewed them prior to the release of the film.

ComicBook.com: Why did Pink leave Spinel by herself? 6,000 years is a long time to just forget someone when, as Spinel notes, Pearl was brought with.

Rebecca Sugar: Right. Well, the thing about Spinel is that she's a little overwhelming. She can be pretty grating. I think Pink also, she wanted to feel like she was moving forward. This Gem was given to her to placate her in a certain way, and she was ready to move on. She wasn't really thinking about how that would affect other people because she tends to not think about that. That's a bit of a recurring theme for her. I think there's a quality to Spinel that's also about our young audience having grown up, and all the kids that have grown out of the show and left it behind, and how silly it can feel to be here working so hard to make this cartoon when there are people who will just leave. Pink, she grew out of her. It doesn't excuse what she did. It absolutely doesn't because it was very cruel, but she can be very cruel.

Speaking to those viewers that have grown up though, someday they'll love again.

Yeah. Well, that's true. I'm sure that they have gone off to like other things, other shows, maybe less cartoony shows, right, as they've gotten a little older. But we'll be here doing our thing always, find a new audience.

*****

What did you think of the pivotal reveal in the movie? How do you feel about Spinel knowing all that? Let us know in the comments, or hit me up directly on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk all things animation! You can also check out our full review of the film, which we gave 5 out of 5, right here.

Steven Universe: The Movie premiered earlier this week on Cartoon Network. The official soundtrack and digital version of the movie are available wherever such things are sold, and the soundtrack specifically is available to stream on a number of platforms. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the film right here.