>>115285742>Steven Universe downright stealing set pieces and concepts from separate works across POP CULTURE for the sake of unoriginalityWanna know why? Because when you hear people talk about the show the only things they discuss come from the dialogue and lore/worldbuilding, the things you don't need to fully tie into the actual events of the episodes themselves. The verbal elements are what the fans care for and are what keeps them in the show.
Ruby and Sapphire bitching out at each other with Steven crying for them to stop is an event independent of them going to a motel and eating at a diner, because the act of staying in a motel or eating in a restaurant ultimately do not factor into what the episode is actually focusing on. They could have had it occur outside the donut shop, in the barn, or on some Gem Empire spacecraft and it would've played out nearly the same.
Compare this to something like Megas XLR (I chose this example because it' relates to OP's topic of """""influences"""""). It's another show where there's a lot of dialogue, explanations, and lore/worldbuilding, but when you watch an episode of Megas the episodes are very much focused on what's visibly happening as a chain of events. In one episode the main character Coop wants a slushie, and the entirety of the episode is focused on that plot point while still throwing a secondary plot about an evil solar-powered robot fighting him. The key difference from SU is that you couldn't have Regis appear and fight Coop without telling the story about Coop getting a Mega-Slush, they're so wholly intertwined that both stories could only be told if they were together.
The funny thing in all this is that Megas lays on the pop culture references just as heavy as SU does, but people never talk shit about the show doing it because it's so honest about them, to the point that the majority of them are outright parodies to be laughed at. Just look at it.
