| “ |
Text me when you get to that bed and breakfast. Don't breakfast without me. |
” | —Connie confessing her love to Steven in "The Future". | ||
Connie Maheswaran is a major character in the Steven Universe franchise.
Steven becomes her first friend in "Bubble Buddies" and appears to have a crush on her. They are currently dating, although they do nearly kiss in "An Indirect Kiss". She is also taking sword fighting lessons as of the events of "Sworn to the Sword". As of "Rocknaldo", she is officially a member of the Crystal Gems. As of "The Future", they finally become boyfriend and girlfriend.
Appearance[]
Connie is a young Indian-American[1] girl of dark brown skin and slim figure, slightly taller than Steven. She has a prominent nose, black eyes with thick eyebrows, and black puffy hair. From her debut to "Dewey Wins", Connie's hair was waist-length. At some point following her fallout with Steven in the aforementioned episode and prior to their reconciliation in "Kevin Party", she cut or had someone cut her hair down to a chin-length bob and add bangs. Following the two-year time-skip between "Change Your Mind" and "Steven Universe: The Movie", her hair has since regrown to shoulder-length while retaining her bangs.
Connie wore a pair of magenta glasses with rose-colored lenses until Steven's healing saliva fixed her eyesight in "An Indirect Kiss". She continued to wear the empty frames until the events of "Nightmare Hospital", she no longer carrying them afterward.
Connie is usually seen in a variety of different outfits and dresses, including light blue, green, and white clothing: In the first intro, she wears a white-mint green dress, a sunhat, and peach-colored boots with no socks. In the second intro, she wears a white, button-down, collared tank top, gray button-up shorts, her pink glow bracelet, and peach sneakers with white bottoms, laces, and socks. Since "Kevin Party", Connie has started wearing a more stylish and slightly mature style of dress.
During training, Connie often wears a purple fighting outfit with a red bandana around her waist. She is barefoot and her arms are covered of white gauze. On missions involving outer space travels, Connie usually wears her father's pale brown jacket, which has fur inside and a patch on the left sleeve. In "The New Crystal Gems", Connie temporarily wears Steven's outfit of a star shirt and blue jeans.
In "Steven Universe: The Movie" while attending Space Camp, she wears a dark blue flight suit with a flag symbol on it.
Personality[]
If Connie were a gem, I think she would be a gem that is teal...she has the diplomatic skills of blue gem, but she also is able to take action...she would be a gem that would be between blue and green.
| ~ Rebecca Sugar |
Connie is a curious girl who is attentive to detail, preparing herself for future events such as the upcoming school year or a mission in the wilderness, but can get distracted if she finds something more interesting like reading Buddy Buddwick's journal or spending time with friendly company. Her hobbies include reading, violin playing, and formerly tennis playing. Connie is usually level-headed but sensible, convincing Steven about his obsession to certain topics and let them go such in "Beach City Drift", but she feels guilty to the point of notably changing her behavior, including hitting an innocent student in "Mindful Education". Learning that some things are natural, Connie decides to confront her emotions by making amends, clearing her mind and understanding not to let her emotions cloud her thoughts by keeping them in. She passes this knowledge onto Steven, assuring him he had to be honest about how bad his feelings were so he could move on.
Connie has grown used to the strange dynamic of her friendship with Steven despite her initial uncertainty of it, reacting passively awed and only comments that she loves hanging out at his place when the Gems destroy one of Peridot's robonoids in front of her in "Marble Madness". She also can be a bit deadpan at times, joking about cutting off Steven's hand and in that same instance quickly understands that by poking/tickling Steven she could provoke a reaction from Rose's Secret Armory in "Lion 2: The Movie". "The New Crystal Gems" demonstrates Connie's eagerness to leap into action and adventure, asking Steven to wait for her so she can go into space with him, though this fails as he and the Gems had to leave immediately or risk losing track of Blue Diamond and his father forever. "Dewey Wins" displays an emotionally vulnerable side and a sense of integrity for Connie, who, while genuinely happy to have Steven back safely, is also deeply hurt by his choice to give himself up to Homeworld, leaving her and everyone else worried over his fate while also breaking his promise to her that they would always be a team. She becomes upset when he tries to downplay the situation and disregards her feelings (possibly to avoid facing his own and the harsh reality of the situation for the time being) and decided to take some time away from him so the two could process their respective feelings about the incident alone, remaining silent towards him for several weeks until they eventually reconciled in "Kevin Party".
Originally shy and introverted, Connie rarely stays in one place for long due to her parents' lifestyle and thus has been unable to form lasting friendships, which left her frequently feeling lonely. Her parents are very strict and don't allow her to participate in common childhood activities, such as eating donuts or anything with trans fats and organize her daily activities. By this time, tennis was the only thing that she remotely enjoys in her life. This attitude has led her to flat-out lie about Steven's non-nuclear family, due to paranoia at how her parents may react. Despite her obedience to her parents, she isn't above exploiting loopholes, such as not buying snacks at a theater and instead bringing them from Steven's home. She also will eat what sweets when they aren't present in "Crack the Whip". Connie's friendship with Steven eventually gives her more confidence, eventually standing up to her mother about her strict upbringing and rules in "Nightmare Hospital", even revealing her involvement in magical affairs. She isn't afraid to barge into the Beach House while shouting "Surprise!" and have around Beach City with Amethyst and Steven, showing how comfortable she has gotten around the Gems. "Kevin Party" shows nearly full-circle just how far Connie has grown as a person, laughing and talking with other party guests, something she would never have been able to do at the beginning of the series. Her more carefree attitude and comfort towards Steven when he feels he had made everyone miserable by abiding by Homeworld's conformities and traditions to impress White Diamond in "Together Alone" caused her to convince him to dance much to his reservation, an inverse of their usual personalities and actions in the episode "Alone Together", which leads to them accidentally fusing into Stevonnie and unintentionally causing an uproar that winds up ruining the ball. This continues in "Escapism" when she consoles a despondent Steven over their consequent imprisonment and the Crystal Gems' poofing and inadvertently inspires him to use his psychic abilities to call for help on Earth.
"New Crystal Gems" shows Connie's leadership skills when she told Peridot and Lapis to be themselves and organized their efforts to fix the damage they did. "Reunited" she has grown as both a fighter and an emotional supporter, leaping into action and tries to attack Blue Diamond with Lion to free them when Steven and the rest of the Crystal Gems are incapacitated by Blue Diamond's pathokinesis attack, only continuing to fight alongside them even her sword was broken. "Change Your Mind" brings out virtually all aspects of her personality, as she helps Steven convince Blue and Yellow to ease up on their stifling rules and traditions so they would try to convince White Diamond to do the same.
"Sworn to the Sword" shows a more confident and aggressive side to Connie's personality when she learns sword fighting. Due to Pearl's negative reinforcement, she began to display a reckless side, but this was quickly put out by Steven. It highlights her strong feelings for beloved ones through her dedication to becoming a knight for Steven. "Gem Hunt]" continues to shown her confidence and dedication to the Crystal Gems in how she pushes her to split up to hunt the Gem monsters and is the one to lead when she and Steven hunt the second monster through the forest, while respecting and obeying Pearl. Despite all her training and preparedness, Connie froze during an encounter with one of the Gem monsters they are hunting, choosing to call Pearl via Steven's walkie-talkie in the end. She later confides in Steven and Amethyst about freezing during her first mission in the next episode, causing Amethyst to tell her she should stop overthinking things and follow her instincts in battle, just adapting to win. She takes Amethyst's words to heart as she fares far better when the two of them along with Steven and Lion encounter Jasper and her two Gem monsters, bravely confronting her and prevent her from shattering Amethyst as Stevonnie. After Amethyst regenerates, she tells her she was right about how she should follow her instincts.
Powers and Skills[]
Natural Abilities[]
- Strength: For a girl of her size and age Connie possessed a surprising amount of strength. Being able to lift and effectively wield Rose's sword, and carrying Steven when he was in a weakened state after having his gem removed.
Skillset[]
Swordsmanship: As of "Sworn to the Sword", after learning from Pearl, Connie has become skilled in the art of sword fighting. She can swiftly alternate between overwhelming with light attacks or overpowering with heavy attacks. She can rapidly land several hits, as well as counter or block the ones from her opponents. Due to being ambidextrous, she can fight with equal skill with either hand. She has become skilled is enough to temporarily hold her own against Gems like Topaz.
- Tag-team combat: Due to the close bond they share, Connie can coordinate her swordplay perfectly with Steven's shield techniques, such as fighting back-to-back to being defended and attack simultaneously or being catapulted from his shield for a powerful lunge attack.
Genius-level Intelligence: Connie is shown to be very intelligent for her age, possessing knowing about boats from observation and reading complicated books, of the both fiction and non-fiction genres, which translates into her extensive vocabulary. She is able to write backwards, as seen in the short amount of time it took her to write "Harpoon Gun" on the inside of a bubble. Her analytical skills have helped her find loopholes in the rules her parents make, notice and remember important details, and make perfectly timed questions in regards to the strange situations that the gems find themselves in. Steven Universe Future shows that Connie's intelligence and studying payed off as she will soon be going to cram school entering college early.
- Survival Skills: Having prepared herself from a book about it 20 times, Connie has very impressive survival abilities in the wilderness. She has adopted these skills, in "Gem Hunt", she was perfectly able to locate a spot to hide from the Gem Monsters or make a healthy Vitamin C-rich tea out of pine needles.
Leadership: After growing out of her insecurities, Connie was shown to be an effective leader, able to pull multiple individuals together in order to accomplish something. Her leadership skills are first demonstrated in "New Crystal Gems" where she is able to convince Peridot and Lapis to be themselves and organize their efforts to repair the damage they caused. "Change Your Mind" also brings out this aspect of her personality, as she is able to help Steven convince Blue and Yellow to ease up on their stifling rules and traditions so then try to convince White Diamond to do the same. The final three episodes of Future show how much Connie's leadership abilities have developed. In "Everything's Fine", she shows her expressing concern for him after he dodges her questions about his condition and cuts off contact since the events at the hospital, visiting his home and trying to help Steven's family in an intervention for him. While she is shocked by some of Steven's revelations (him not telling the Gems about going to the hospital, shattering Jasper, and nearly doing the same to White Diamond) and eventual meltdown and transformation into a Gem Kaiju, she nonetheless remains determined to help him. In "I Am My Monster", Connie officially takes charge of the situation after everyone else breaks down and blames themselves for Steven's transformation, citing that while it very well may be at least partly their fault, now is the time for them to pull together and help Steven just as he has always helped them, instead of moping about and feeling sorry for themselves for failing to before.
Hand-to-Hand Combat: In addition to her swordsmanship, Connie is capable of utilizing hand-to-hand combat, presumably through the training she received from Pearl. In "Mindful Education", she is seen grabbing a fellow student by the arm and throwing him to the ground, managing to break his arm in the process.
- Heightened Reflexes: Connie's reflexes have been honed to such an extent that she reacts to a perceived threat before she knows what she is doing, attacking a fellow student who bumped into her without realizing it until after the act.
Musical Talent: At the insistence of her mother, Connie practices playing the violin on a daily basis. She is skilled enough in it to play the instrument and sing at the same time, as demonstrated in "Mirror Gem."
Tennis Proficiency: Connie is shown to play tennis in "Lion 2: The Movie", which later translates her prowess into sword fighting.
Lion Riding: Connie has shown skills in fighting while riding on Lion's back. She is actually more prone to riding Lion in combat than Steven is. After Blue Diamond shatters Rose's Sword in "Reunited", Connie is able to quickly adapt by directing Lion to attacking with his claws and magical roar.
Save The Light[]
- Slash: Connie rushes towards her target and attacks them with several hits from her sword.
- Protect: Connie stands in front of an ally and blocks all damage and counter-attacks.
- Sword Storm: Connie gives several strikes against a single enemy dealing heavy damage.
Weapons[]
- Rose's Sword (formerly): Forged by Bismuth, Rose's sword capable of destroy the physical form of any Gem, but was unable to shatter the gemstone itself. Its design allowed it to both cut and thrust in an efficient manner. She could also use Rose's scabbard. In "Nightmare Hospital", Connie recieves the sword and scabbard from Steven to learn how to sword-fight. Connie used the weapon in all of her combat situations and sparring matches prior to its destruction. Despite its immense size, she appears to have no difficulty carrying the sword on her back and drawing it over her shoulder. This is either due to magical properties within the sword itself or Connie's natural strength.
- Connie's Sword: As of "Change Your Mind", Bismuth forged a new sword specifically to be wielded by Connie. The sword had the design of a golden pommel, a purple hilt, a gold star emblem at the blade's base, an aqua chappe and a crystalline pink blade. The weapon itself possessed enough strength to cause visible damage to the Diamond Mech.
Stevonnie[]
When fused with Steven, Connie took on the personality and form of Stevonnie alongside him. When in this form, Connie gains new abilities that she did not previously have.
Sword & Shield: As a duo, Stevonnie is able to wield Rose's sword proficiently when used in conjunction with their shield to fight both offensively and defensively.
Swordsmanship: Inherited from Connie, Stevonnie is skilled in the art of sword-fighting. Like Connie, Stevonnie is shown to be ambidextrous as in "Mindful Education".
Driving: In "Beach City Drift", Stevonnie was able to drive Greg's new car, the Dondai Supremo, with remarkable skill despite having no practice or experience in such a thing before the race. They also able to pilot Lars' ship, the Star Skipper, due to it resembling a car.
Empathic Telepathy: Inherited from Steven, Stevonnie has an empathic connection to other lifeforms and can communicate with both Gems and humans through their dreams.
Speed of Descent Regulation: Stevonnie shows the ability to control the speed of their descent depending on their emotional state. While fighting Jasper, Stevonnie remained in the air long enough to throw their shield at Jasper and prepare themself to use Rose's sword. They gain better control over this ability during their fusion training in "Mindful Education".
- Flutter Kick: Stevonnie can lower themself down slowly by moving their legs rapidly forward and backward.
Shield Summoning: Due to possessing gemstone of Rose Quartz/Steven, Stevonnie can summon Rose's shield. The shield combined with their enhanced strength as a fusion, allows them to withstand against heavy attacks and absorb potential knock-back. Stevonnie can also use the shield as an offensive weapon by throwing it.
- Duel-wielding: Like Steven, Stevonnie can summon two shields at the same time.
Weakness[]
Connie's largest weakness as a whole appears to be her own insecurity. Connie is shown to be insecure about her place in Steven's supposed magical destiny, feeling that she has no true place in it and not understanding why he would want someone like her in his life despite how mundane she is. This is clearly demonstrated in "Sworn to the Sword" when the Pearl is easily able to project her own feelings of insecurity onto Connie, teaching to not care about herself in order to protect the "more important" Steven, thus worsening her already low self-esteem. Though she is eventually able to grow out of this, intially it causes severe problems for her.
Relationships[]
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Gallery
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Trivia[]
- According to writer Matt Burnett, Connie is of Indian heritage.[1]
- Both of Connie's parents are Indian-American.[2]
- Connie's surname, Maheswaran, means "Lord of Universe" in Hindi and is also traditionally a Tamil surname.[3]
- Connie (or at least her family) is Shaivite as seen by the surname Maheswaran (Mahesh is the Hindu God Shiva, a member of the Trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh). Though her caste is unknown, it is possible she might be Tamilian.
- Connie is directly referred to as Steven's girlfriend in commercials in Portugal[4] as well as numerous other European countries.
- Kat Morris created Connie's character.[5]
- It is revealed in "Mirror Gem" that Connie plays the violin.
- Connie appears in the title sequence as the "Mr. Universe" van drives by, causing a breeze that she looks towards. She holds the book A Wrinkle in Time and is wearing a sky blue sundress, a pale tan sunhat and orange boots.
- In the second intro, she is shown wearing shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt instead of a sun dress during the first season, wielding Rose's Sword and holding an unknown book with a bookmark inside. Instead of a breeze, she looks towards the end of the road with a smile and pops out of the street and runs to the Crystal Temple. She is shown wearing the frames of her glasses until she reaches the Crystal Temple and lies in front of Rose's Sword.
- She is able to write backward. This is seen in the very short amount of time it took her to write "Harpoon Gun" on the inside of the bubble in "Bubble Buddies".
- Connie is shown to play tennis in "Lion 2: The Movie", and describes it as the only thing that she remotely enjoys in her life. Later, in "Sworn to the Sword", she translates her tennis prowess into swordfighting, which becomes her new passion.
- Following the events of "An Indirect Kiss", Connie can now see normally without her glasses thanks to the healing powers in Steven's saliva. Because she wanted to avoid confrontation with her parents and optometrist about this, she took out the lenses of her glasses and wore the frames instead.
- Following the events of "Nightmare Hospital", she no longer wears glasses, having informed her mother that she no longer requires them. In all of the further episodes, she no longer carries them.
- In "Winter Forecast", Connie says "itadakimasu", a Japanese word said before eating. She has stated that her father travels, so Connie may know more than one language.
- In "Sworn to the Sword", Connie's outfit and fighting style were inspired by Kalaripayattu.
- She wields a sword resembling the Khanda, a sword typically used in the style.
- Her hairstyle is a braid typically worn by female Kalaripayattu practitioners.
- Connie is shown to be ambidextrous in the episode "Sworn to the Sword". When she is training, she is seen holding her sword with her right hand; when she fights Pearl with Steven, she is using her left hand.
- Despite saying her family moves around a lot, she has kept the same home for well over a year.
- By the time of Steven Universe Future, she has had the same home for over three years.
- In "Nightmare Hospital", it is revealed that she hates the punishment abacus, which is what her parents use to calculate the length of punishments for her.
- It is revealed in "Steven's Birthday" that Connie is 12¾ years old.
- Connie's birthday is likely somewhere in the month of November, given that Steven's birthday is in the month of August.
- A girl resembling Connie makes a brief appearance in the OVA titled Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade.[6]
- In "Gem Hunt", Connie carries Rose's sword on her back with the hilt over her shoulder. This is similar to many anime characters who carry giant swords the same way such as Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach and Guts from Berserk.
- It is shown that Connie and Pearl have many traits in common such as intelligence, attention to detail and a tendency to be overly hard on themselves in the face of perceived failure.
- Connie might be a gamer, as seen in the short "Video Chat". Her laptop has Colonization V, a spoof of the real-life video game Civilization V. She also has Empires & Eras II and Conqueror Kings II which are spoofs of Age of Empires II and Crusader Kings II, respectively. She also has Grid, a spoof of the popular gaming platform Steam.
- According to the 4th issue of the comic series, Connie has an aunt.
- Connie's new hairstyle that she dons ever since "Kevin Party" and up to "The Future" makes her resemble Kimberly Hart from the 2017 Power Rangers movie.
- According to Rebecca Sugar, if Connie were a Gem, her gem type would be Teal, as she possesses the diplomatic skills of blue Gems, but she also is able to take action, so she would be a Gem that would be a mixture of the colors green and blue.
- She is the first and only known member of the Crystal Gems to be a complete human.
- She and Lion are the only members who are not at least partially a Gem (though Lion inherited his powers from a Gem).