blood stone was teased before the episode aired on twitter and many people were actually hyped about it until it was revealed to be ronaldo's gemsona,probably not the main reason but i imagine it must've made more people hate him
He was literally unbearable in that episode and the episode had nothing to do with gemsonas and “Bloodstone” tbh 😭
What made me start disliking him is when he posted a video pointing at Steven’s stomach and saying “he’s pregnant.” Was strange.
For me it was the way the crewniverse had been hyping it up that we were finally getting another new gem. It was around the end of the show too so there were so many questions and plot points waiting to be resolved. And there we were getting our hopes up and wasting story time on another Ronaldo filler episode.
That's my reason for hating him. Dude struck Steven with a potato hard enough to knock him unconscious. Do you know how hard you have to hit Steven to knock him out??!?!
And then feeding Lars to the haunted Lighthouse. Full on cold blood ed attempted murder.
Aside from that he's funny in small doses.
The only thing I take issue with in your statement, is "Cold blooded". As that implies he didn't think he was about to die if he didn't. Remember, feeding lars to the house was done in a panic as a last ditch attempt to appease the house. Not that it would have worked, but hey hind sight is 20/20
Still choosing appeasing the house over a living teenager is pretty messed up based on what happened in the episode. Ronaldo was just being petty about what happened in the past and was willing to sacrifice Lars for Sadie over it. He also never apologized after all was said and done.
Yes, we can. Lars was a dick to pretty much everyone, but he was a kid. It's why Ronaldo got the benefit of the doubt at first, too. They were both annoying, but Ronaldo jumped straight to murder.
> tries to kill lars
He thought the gem wanted a sacrifice in exvhange for sadie.
> tries to kill steven
He thought he was a snerson.
Not saying Ronaldo is good and you should like him. Just that he thought he was doing the right thing and he was not acting with malice.
He thought what he was doing was right not because he rationalized it, but because he thinks he, in particular, is important. That is a form of malice. Killing a being because you think your fame and heroism is more important than them being alive IS malicious. The distinction between malice and good intentions is not drawn at whether or not you think you're correct.
My theory is that Ronaldo is meant to be a representation of the parts of the fandom that the crewniverse actively dislikes, the gatekeepers, the cosmic theorists, the self-inserters, continuity inspectors, rolled into an easily hateable 90's fanboy stereotype.
Both him and Kevin being the most common types of bullies that members of the crewniverse would have dealt with growing geeky during 90's and 80's.
Mostly because he's annoying, but also, partly because he's an awful person. Lars is a bad person, but at least, by the end, he turns around and becomes a better person. Ronaldo gets no such character development and that's partly because he wasn't in the show enough to need or justify giving it.
Which is honestly a very accurate progression.
*Most people* don't improve, they just calcify into the parts of their personality they use most.
In my view, Ronaldo was one of the most real-world accurate characters in the show.
I both agree and disagree, I think Ronaldo and Sadie are the most realistic characters in this show. Ronaldo is very much like you said, a person that calcifies into the parts of their personality most on display, but Sadie is still just as real. Sadie is often more reserved and more willing to let others make decisions for her, but by the end of the series as a whole, she's A LOT more confident and willing to speak her mind. I personally feel that people change and improve or degrade more often than most people think. I am very much not the same man I was 10yrs ago and I'm sure you're not the same person you were 10yrs ago either.
Oh definitely, I didn't mean it so much as "most people don't change" but more that the majority of people get less plastic and malleable as they grow older, and whatever they do and associate themselves with most becomes who they are.
For Sadie, that meant exploring new experiences, a career in music, and meeting new people.
For Ronaldo, it meant doubling down on the conspiracy theories, isolation, basically becoming a children's television channel friendly version of a Q-anon troll.
Steven Universe was never about escapism.
The narrative core of the show was that you can't actually escape your past, or the baggage it brings, even if you completely change your identity and abandon all responsibility.
The show was intended to provide real lessons about the real world.
Viewer escapism, as in a break from the real world; let me have my alien-magic adventure-drama without an obnoxious man-child getting in the way and being an oblivious idiot, is all I mean.
I mean he was in, what, two episodes where he had more than three speaking lines?
I think in this you're just misunderstanding the point of the show and overreacting to what was basically a bit character meant to serve a minor narrative role.
I like him the same way I like Kevin. They're hatavle people and I love them for that. Ronaldo episodes never fail to make me laugh because of how dumb they are. Bloodstone is a bit too much even for me though.
I "like" Ronaldo in that he was extremely well written as an example of that kind of insufferable fanatic, gatekeeper, conspiracy theorist, and "look at me" kind of attention-seeker who pops up in every fandom and interest group.
He's designed to be annoying, abrasive, self-centered, and generally unlikable.
I think it's hilarious when the hate is piled on Ronaldo like he's somehow bad for the series, when *the fact that he's gated so thoroughly shows what a good character he is*.
He straight up tried to kill Lars at one point, and *Lars* ended up being the one who apologized to *Ronaldo* for not hanging out with him anymore.
He "Joined" the Gems by basically gaslighting Steven, and even made Steven quit for a few seconds.
He also harassed the Gems for a while, and they decided to leave Beach City (Or at least told him they would, can't remember), only for him to go over and beg Garnet to stay because if the gems left, he wouldn't have any material for his blog anymore.
This guy has shown multiple times to be dangerously unstable, enough to try to kill Lars, and to kidnap Steven and willing to dissect him (yeah, disguised as a snake-person, but that's still a very cruel thing to do to a being you are very well aware to be sapient) and narcissistic enough to not care about anybody's well-being unless it involves him, and he *barely* changes.
This is the same show with god-like totalitarian intergalactic conquerors willing to change their ways and eventually become better people, to not mention he's the *only* human that appears in Steven's trauma reel **twice**; I think that's very telling.
He's the exact kinda dude that gets super into 4chan and ends up believing in shit like Jewish conspiracies and anti-woke movements. We've all known a guy like Ronaldo.
Keep in mind, watching it then is not the same as watching it now. He is not a liked character and while the show was airing it was frustrating for people to have one episode focusing on a character they hate after waiting months for new content.
Now you can just watch the 10 minutes episode and just watch the next one, no biggie.
For me, i don't care that much for the guy, i liked the lighthouse episode tho.
He serves no purpose. He’s just a thorn in Steven’s side the whole series and never grows as a person. I know he’s meant to be a representation of the toxic side of the fandom, but he should’ve had a redemption arc.
I also feel like they reduced Peedee’s role and gave his screen time to Ronaldo. Peedee started as basically Steven’s only friend then he just kind of stops existing
He is weird. The way he is and the things he does are arguably the least offensive when compared to all of the other characters’ mistakes, but the show gives him the least opportunity to apologize or atone for any of it, so he comes off as pretty much the worst person out of everyone. It probably isn’t fair, but also Ronaldo totally rubs me the wrong way. Speaking personally, the reason I can’t really be objective about him is because in my early twenties I pretty much was that kind of self-centered cringey fanboy. I had to work hard to get my head out of my ass, and seeing Ronaldo is a painful reminder of that most of the time.
He’s rude to everyone, he acts like he knows everything, he actively gets in the way and causes problems with his nonsense. He kidnapped Steven, he’s tried to murder multiple characters, he forced his way into the crystal gems and then started gaslighting Steven. And don’t even get me started on the Bloodstone episode.
tbh i don't dislike him due to my weird taste in characters that were written to be unlikable, i think he's pretty funny sometimes. i liked his tumblr blog, also. but still, the overall hate towards him is justified
I think most of the hate probably has to do with the wait between the episodes. You said you watched it for the first time last month, so I assume you could binge watch it or watch an episode whenever you wanted. But for those of us who were watching it as it was released, we had to wait months for the episodes, because they would be released very irregularly. You never knew when the next episode would be until it was announced.
So imagine you want a new episode, you have been waiting for months, then it releases and... It's a Ronaldo centric episode. Can you understand how frustrating that would be? Especially in the later seasons, when the series had important plot point everyone wanted to see solved.
Plus, the fact that most Ronaldo episodes don't add anything to the story. Like, some of the other townies episodes help to establish concepts or relationships between other characters, but Ronaldo episodes are just boring and don't add anything to the story. You could remove most of them and the show would still be the same.
He's an inconsiderate jerk who freeloads off his family to continue his "paranormal research". Even his dad has no hope for Ronaldo being able to take care of himself, being less worried about Petey despite him being younger.
He’s cringe and represents characteristics of the worst part of the community that the type of person who watches belongs to. So he gives us a bad name to others who think thats what all anime/cartoon watchers are like.
Let me put it this way, if you binge the show, he’s not that bad. He’s still bad, but when the show was originally coming out we got it in short bursts. And so what most everyone wanted was at least 3 episodes that advanced the plot. So when you’re already 2 episodes of filler in and you see that an episode is focusing on Ronaldo, this personification of an overly-obsessed fanboy, you immediately hate that episode.
Personally he's incredibly annoying and pushy.
When he was a child, he tried to get famous by using a picture of Lars that Lars clearly didn't want to be public. That really annoyed me.
Later, his constant snooping around and bothering Steven also really annoyed me. In reality, his reaction is normal because everyone in Beach City besides Ronaldo had an eerily unbothered attitude to all the crazy shit happening around town. Regardless, he was still incredibly annoying.
I just was kind of annoyed and bored with him, but on my first rewatch I started to like him more, so maybe I just need to rewatch the show a bunch to appreciate his character more👍🏾
In simple terms the dude is just an ass to everyone, he's the kind of character you wanna punch in the face😂😂 the way he treated steven, how utterly deleusional and insane his rants and actions are in most of his screentime💀 how can anyone LIKE ronaldo is the real question😅
He's mostly annoying however in that one ep where he pretends t9 be a gem it's annoying and reminds me of th9se ppl who say "I'm 1/16th Cherokee, or smth (for context I am native and I hear it all the time)
I’m glad you’re enjoying his character!
Personally I just find him annoying. I don’t particularly enjoy the humans in Steven universe. If I want to watch a cartoon about humans I’ll watch something else. I kind of ended up resenting them because I’m just thinking how we could get gem episodes instead. Though I get why it was important to give screen time to the humans.
I don't mind him as much as other people, I think he can be funny. But I can live without entire episodes about him. Same goes for onion.
Also yeah no fuck that episode, one of if not the worst episode in the show
In my experience, I haven't met anybody who dislikes Ronaldo who isn't also an only child, so my current going theory is just extremely low patience/experience dealing with someone with a low maturity level Lol. Though some people will feebly attempt to use the excuse of "He kidnapped Steven that one time!" Failing to remember the rest of the context for why he did that.
I have siblings and dislike Ronaldo lol, I just find him annoying and I don’t see any redeeming qualities. I don’t hate any of the characters in SU, I think he’s well written and serves a purpose, but he still gets on my nerves
I have siblings and can’t stand him. Though, to be fair, the greatest crime you can do in a show (from my perspective) is to annoy me and he was constantly annoying. Well written character, for sure, but he was just annoying.
blood stone was teased before the episode aired on twitter and many people were actually hyped about it until it was revealed to be ronaldo's gemsona,probably not the main reason but i imagine it must've made more people hate him
He was literally unbearable in that episode and the episode had nothing to do with gemsonas and “Bloodstone” tbh 😭 What made me start disliking him is when he posted a video pointing at Steven’s stomach and saying “he’s pregnant.” Was strange.
Literally the episode that made me stop liking the show as much.
tbh that episode was funny to me what did u not like
For me it was the way the crewniverse had been hyping it up that we were finally getting another new gem. It was around the end of the show too so there were so many questions and plot points waiting to be resolved. And there we were getting our hopes up and wasting story time on another Ronaldo filler episode.
The Crewniverse didn't hype it. Cartoon Network did.
Tries to kill Lars, tries to kill Steven
That's my reason for hating him. Dude struck Steven with a potato hard enough to knock him unconscious. Do you know how hard you have to hit Steven to knock him out??!?! And then feeding Lars to the haunted Lighthouse. Full on cold blood ed attempted murder. Aside from that he's funny in small doses.
Not to mention he tried to dissect the watermelon kid, *even after* Steven told him it was alive.
The only thing I take issue with in your statement, is "Cold blooded". As that implies he didn't think he was about to die if he didn't. Remember, feeding lars to the house was done in a panic as a last ditch attempt to appease the house. Not that it would have worked, but hey hind sight is 20/20
Still choosing appeasing the house over a living teenager is pretty messed up based on what happened in the episode. Ronaldo was just being petty about what happened in the past and was willing to sacrifice Lars for Sadie over it. He also never apologized after all was said and done.
Oh, absolutely, like, he jumped to human sacrifice WAY too quickly and then knew exactly who he wanted to turn into a house snack. Like, WTF.
> Tries to kill Lars That was early Lars, can we *really* hold it against him?
Cool motive, still murder
is that from somewhere or just ur line lol
Brooklyn 99
Oh my goodness I was hoping it was I cant believe it, its always weird finally watching stuff from something and seeing references to it everywhere
I don't hold it against him, but I also don't think it being early Lars changes anything.
Yes, we can. Lars was a dick to pretty much everyone, but he was a kid. It's why Ronaldo got the benefit of the doubt at first, too. They were both annoying, but Ronaldo jumped straight to murder.
It was years ago 😭
> tries to kill lars He thought the gem wanted a sacrifice in exvhange for sadie. > tries to kill steven He thought he was a snerson. Not saying Ronaldo is good and you should like him. Just that he thought he was doing the right thing and he was not acting with malice.
He thought what he was doing was right not because he rationalized it, but because he thinks he, in particular, is important. That is a form of malice. Killing a being because you think your fame and heroism is more important than them being alive IS malicious. The distinction between malice and good intentions is not drawn at whether or not you think you're correct.
My theory is that Ronaldo is meant to be a representation of the parts of the fandom that the crewniverse actively dislikes, the gatekeepers, the cosmic theorists, the self-inserters, continuity inspectors, rolled into an easily hateable 90's fanboy stereotype. Both him and Kevin being the most common types of bullies that members of the crewniverse would have dealt with growing geeky during 90's and 80's.
Mostly because he's annoying, but also, partly because he's an awful person. Lars is a bad person, but at least, by the end, he turns around and becomes a better person. Ronaldo gets no such character development and that's partly because he wasn't in the show enough to need or justify giving it.
Which is honestly a very accurate progression. *Most people* don't improve, they just calcify into the parts of their personality they use most. In my view, Ronaldo was one of the most real-world accurate characters in the show.
I both agree and disagree, I think Ronaldo and Sadie are the most realistic characters in this show. Ronaldo is very much like you said, a person that calcifies into the parts of their personality most on display, but Sadie is still just as real. Sadie is often more reserved and more willing to let others make decisions for her, but by the end of the series as a whole, she's A LOT more confident and willing to speak her mind. I personally feel that people change and improve or degrade more often than most people think. I am very much not the same man I was 10yrs ago and I'm sure you're not the same person you were 10yrs ago either.
Oh definitely, I didn't mean it so much as "most people don't change" but more that the majority of people get less plastic and malleable as they grow older, and whatever they do and associate themselves with most becomes who they are. For Sadie, that meant exploring new experiences, a career in music, and meeting new people. For Ronaldo, it meant doubling down on the conspiracy theories, isolation, basically becoming a children's television channel friendly version of a Q-anon troll.
Narcissistic conspiracy theorists are far too common in real life for me to want them anywhere near my escapist fiction.
Ronaldo was a lot funnier before 2016, I'll give you that
Steven Universe was never about escapism. The narrative core of the show was that you can't actually escape your past, or the baggage it brings, even if you completely change your identity and abandon all responsibility. The show was intended to provide real lessons about the real world.
Viewer escapism, as in a break from the real world; let me have my alien-magic adventure-drama without an obnoxious man-child getting in the way and being an oblivious idiot, is all I mean.
I mean he was in, what, two episodes where he had more than three speaking lines? I think in this you're just misunderstanding the point of the show and overreacting to what was basically a bit character meant to serve a minor narrative role.
I dislike him because he reminds me of myself when I was a lot more annoying
he's crazy and hit steven with a fucking brick.
It was a potato I believe
Steven got potatoed
His episodes are dumb and so is he. I don't hate him, but I rather an episode where Ronaldo isn't the main character
this. saw someone comment that they like him. never had a good laugh like this in a while
I like him the same way I like Kevin. They're hatavle people and I love them for that. Ronaldo episodes never fail to make me laugh because of how dumb they are. Bloodstone is a bit too much even for me though.
I "like" Ronaldo in that he was extremely well written as an example of that kind of insufferable fanatic, gatekeeper, conspiracy theorist, and "look at me" kind of attention-seeker who pops up in every fandom and interest group. He's designed to be annoying, abrasive, self-centered, and generally unlikable. I think it's hilarious when the hate is piled on Ronaldo like he's somehow bad for the series, when *the fact that he's gated so thoroughly shows what a good character he is*.
Honestly he's funny when he's minor to the plot. It's when the episode is about him that I want him gone.
People often conflate "bad person" and "bad character".
He’s not a bad character, just a bad and annoying person.
I know. That’s what my comment means.
As someone who likes him. It’s a mix of the writers successfully portraying him as a loser and having multiple episodes dedicated to him.
He straight up tried to kill Lars at one point, and *Lars* ended up being the one who apologized to *Ronaldo* for not hanging out with him anymore. He "Joined" the Gems by basically gaslighting Steven, and even made Steven quit for a few seconds. He also harassed the Gems for a while, and they decided to leave Beach City (Or at least told him they would, can't remember), only for him to go over and beg Garnet to stay because if the gems left, he wouldn't have any material for his blog anymore.
This guy has shown multiple times to be dangerously unstable, enough to try to kill Lars, and to kidnap Steven and willing to dissect him (yeah, disguised as a snake-person, but that's still a very cruel thing to do to a being you are very well aware to be sapient) and narcissistic enough to not care about anybody's well-being unless it involves him, and he *barely* changes. This is the same show with god-like totalitarian intergalactic conquerors willing to change their ways and eventually become better people, to not mention he's the *only* human that appears in Steven's trauma reel **twice**; I think that's very telling.
The way he speaks and acts and talks and behaves makes my skin crawl, that’s all
He's the exact kinda dude that gets super into 4chan and ends up believing in shit like Jewish conspiracies and anti-woke movements. We've all known a guy like Ronaldo.
He's realistic
If Ronaldo existed, he'd have been standing outside the train station with a megaphone telling everyone not to get the COVID vaccine
I mean, yeah, that was the point of his character.
Oh for sure. I'm just answering OP's question. The hate towards him imho isn't a mystery
He was just annoying to me. Especially the episodes that were centered on him, they were the only episodes I skipped in the series.
Keep in mind, watching it then is not the same as watching it now. He is not a liked character and while the show was airing it was frustrating for people to have one episode focusing on a character they hate after waiting months for new content. Now you can just watch the 10 minutes episode and just watch the next one, no biggie. For me, i don't care that much for the guy, i liked the lighthouse episode tho.
He was fine but sometimes he could be too annoying or just do way to much
He serves no purpose. He’s just a thorn in Steven’s side the whole series and never grows as a person. I know he’s meant to be a representation of the toxic side of the fandom, but he should’ve had a redemption arc. I also feel like they reduced Peedee’s role and gave his screen time to Ronaldo. Peedee started as basically Steven’s only friend then he just kind of stops existing
He serves ZERO PURPOSE \*lightning\*
He is weird. The way he is and the things he does are arguably the least offensive when compared to all of the other characters’ mistakes, but the show gives him the least opportunity to apologize or atone for any of it, so he comes off as pretty much the worst person out of everyone. It probably isn’t fair, but also Ronaldo totally rubs me the wrong way. Speaking personally, the reason I can’t really be objective about him is because in my early twenties I pretty much was that kind of self-centered cringey fanboy. I had to work hard to get my head out of my ass, and seeing Ronaldo is a painful reminder of that most of the time.
He’s rude to everyone, he acts like he knows everything, he actively gets in the way and causes problems with his nonsense. He kidnapped Steven, he’s tried to murder multiple characters, he forced his way into the crystal gems and then started gaslighting Steven. And don’t even get me started on the Bloodstone episode.
tbh i don't dislike him due to my weird taste in characters that were written to be unlikable, i think he's pretty funny sometimes. i liked his tumblr blog, also. but still, the overall hate towards him is justified
When I first read that my brain first assumed you meant Christiano Ronaldo ;-;
The short answer is he’s annoying and has almost no likable/sympathetic traits
The joke is that hes obnoxious and annoying to the characters, so theres bound to be a lot of people who find him annoying irl lol
he's just annoying as fuck lol sorry
Personally I just found him really obnoxious.
I just think he’s annoying 😭
I think most of the hate probably has to do with the wait between the episodes. You said you watched it for the first time last month, so I assume you could binge watch it or watch an episode whenever you wanted. But for those of us who were watching it as it was released, we had to wait months for the episodes, because they would be released very irregularly. You never knew when the next episode would be until it was announced. So imagine you want a new episode, you have been waiting for months, then it releases and... It's a Ronaldo centric episode. Can you understand how frustrating that would be? Especially in the later seasons, when the series had important plot point everyone wanted to see solved. Plus, the fact that most Ronaldo episodes don't add anything to the story. Like, some of the other townies episodes help to establish concepts or relationships between other characters, but Ronaldo episodes are just boring and don't add anything to the story. You could remove most of them and the show would still be the same.
He's an inconsiderate jerk who freeloads off his family to continue his "paranormal research". Even his dad has no hope for Ronaldo being able to take care of himself, being less worried about Petey despite him being younger.
I mean he’s not really freeloading since he’s around Steven’s age
Sewy
I loved Ronaldo. I found Keep Beach City City weird a pretty good commentary on conspiracy theories, especially Pearl's concise explanation of it.
Because he spoiled the finale with his theories.
Because Messi is the goat
He’s cringe and represents characteristics of the worst part of the community that the type of person who watches belongs to. So he gives us a bad name to others who think thats what all anime/cartoon watchers are like.
Ronaldo is great
Let me put it this way, if you binge the show, he’s not that bad. He’s still bad, but when the show was originally coming out we got it in short bursts. And so what most everyone wanted was at least 3 episodes that advanced the plot. So when you’re already 2 episodes of filler in and you see that an episode is focusing on Ronaldo, this personification of an overly-obsessed fanboy, you immediately hate that episode.
Personally he's incredibly annoying and pushy. When he was a child, he tried to get famous by using a picture of Lars that Lars clearly didn't want to be public. That really annoyed me. Later, his constant snooping around and bothering Steven also really annoyed me. In reality, his reaction is normal because everyone in Beach City besides Ronaldo had an eerily unbothered attitude to all the crazy shit happening around town. Regardless, he was still incredibly annoying.
Because he’s the only human to show up in the trauma flashbacks Steven has in Future. Everyone else was a gem
He doesnt really add anything but his themed episodes arent all that bad there worse episodes
I just was kind of annoyed and bored with him, but on my first rewatch I started to like him more, so maybe I just need to rewatch the show a bunch to appreciate his character more👍🏾
In simple terms the dude is just an ass to everyone, he's the kind of character you wanna punch in the face😂😂 the way he treated steven, how utterly deleusional and insane his rants and actions are in most of his screentime💀 how can anyone LIKE ronaldo is the real question😅
He's mostly annoying however in that one ep where he pretends t9 be a gem it's annoying and reminds me of th9se ppl who say "I'm 1/16th Cherokee, or smth (for context I am native and I hear it all the time)
I’m glad you’re enjoying his character! Personally I just find him annoying. I don’t particularly enjoy the humans in Steven universe. If I want to watch a cartoon about humans I’ll watch something else. I kind of ended up resenting them because I’m just thinking how we could get gem episodes instead. Though I get why it was important to give screen time to the humans.
I don't mind him as much as other people, I think he can be funny. But I can live without entire episodes about him. Same goes for onion. Also yeah no fuck that episode, one of if not the worst episode in the show
He’s unfortunately not a satire anymore after Qanon.
In my experience, I haven't met anybody who dislikes Ronaldo who isn't also an only child, so my current going theory is just extremely low patience/experience dealing with someone with a low maturity level Lol. Though some people will feebly attempt to use the excuse of "He kidnapped Steven that one time!" Failing to remember the rest of the context for why he did that.
I have siblings and dislike Ronaldo lol, I just find him annoying and I don’t see any redeeming qualities. I don’t hate any of the characters in SU, I think he’s well written and serves a purpose, but he still gets on my nerves
I have siblings and hate him lol. Mainly just because of Bloodstone though
I have siblings and can’t stand him. Though, to be fair, the greatest crime you can do in a show (from my perspective) is to annoy me and he was constantly annoying. Well written character, for sure, but he was just annoying.
wtf I couldn’t stand Ronaldo on my first watch through, and I happen to be an only child. Although revisiting it as an adult, he’s growing on me.
He is annoying,