The only 44-minute episode of the series, it was directed by Joe Johnston and Kat Morris, with art direction by Liz Artinian, and written and storyboarded by Johnston, Morris, Lamar Abrams, Miki Brewster, Danny Kilgore, Hilary Florido, Ian Jones-Quartey, Christine Liu, Jeff Liu, Katie Mitroff, Paul Villeco, and series creator and executive producer Rebecca Sugar.
In "Change Your Mind", Steven must reunite with the Crystal Gems and open the eyes of the three Diamonds to the dysfunctionality of their family dynamic.
Officially promoted under the alternative title "Steven Universe: Battle of Heart and Mind", the episode premiered on Cartoon Network on January 21, 2019.
Steven and Connie (Grace Rolek) prepare to escape with the dormant gems of Garnet (Estelle), Amethyst (Michaela Dietz), and Pearl (Deedee Magno Hall), but are intercepted by White Diamond's spaceship.
Shortly thereafter, Bismuth (Uzo Aduba), Lapis Lazuli (Jennifer Paz), and Peridot (Shelby Rabara) arrive from Earth in Yellow and Blue's repaired spaceships, and attack White's ship.
After a brief battle, Yellow and Blue finally tell White about how they feel, but she responds by turning them into colorless drones acting as extensions of herself.
Steven accidentally drops Amethyst, Pearl, and Garnet's gems, but dives after them and helps them regenerate their bodies by briefly fusing with each.
The episode ends with Steven spending a peaceful evening with his friends and family; he sings the song "Change Your Mind", celebrating his newfound emotional security.
The episode was directed by supervising directors Joe Johnston and Kat Morris and art director Liz Artinian, and written and storyboarded by Johnston, Morris, Lamar Abrams, Miki Brewster, Danny Kilgore, Hilary Florido, Ian Jones-Quartey, Christine Liu, Jeff Liu, Katie Mitroff, Paul Villeco, and series creator and executive producer Rebecca Sugar.
In October 2020, Sugar said that she hoped that the episode is "relatable to a lot of LGBTQIA+ kids and teens" with those in places of authority telling you something that isn't true and thinking they are at fault, instead of it being something bigger.
[1] Sugar originally wrote the song as an expression of her own feelings while fighting with Cartoon Network for the right to include a same-sex wedding in the episode "Reunited" earlier in the season.
In a positive review published at Polygon, Eric Thurm called the episode "an impressive feat of compassion, and the narrative endpoint of 156 episodes of television", praising how the episode illustrated the evolution of Steven from being "irritating" and "a huge goofball incapable of taking anything seriously" at the beginning of the series to "a remarkably mature, emotionally intelligent person", stating "Steven Universe isn’t about Steven discarding the things that made, and still make, him childish — it’s about figuring out how to use them in more specific, salutary ways.
Club, Thurm called it "a pretty damn good and impressive episode, and a really wonderful, hectic capper to Era Two of Steven Universe.
[...] And beyond all of this plot, thematic material, and character development, "Change Your Mind" is still an animated episode of television—one with some pretty visually stunning sequences."
[13] Several media outlets analyzed the episode, in particular the treatment and characterization of White Diamond, and the climax of the episode, interpreted as a confrontation between her ideology and Steven's, as Steven's emotion-based personality, focused on empathy and open-mindedness, eventually wins her over despite her originally unshakeable positions on right and wrong and disregard for feelings.
"[10] The Post stated that despite the large battle preceding it, "it isn’t until when the Crystal Gems finally reach White Diamond (Christine Ebersole) that things truly get serious.
Following a traumatic series of events, Steven resolves his dedication to his friends, positivity in the face of danger, and most of all, accepting himself as his own person.
"[13] "Change Your Mind" marks the conclusion of the story arcs originally conceived by Rebecca Sugar when she first created the series.
Analyzing the ending of the episode, they concluded that "Steven Universe has been rightly hailed as a haven for the LGBTQ community, and others who have been demonized or ostracized by society.
The bulk of the hour (also dubbed the Battle of Heart and Mind) is devoted to Steven opening the eyes of the three other Diamond rulers of the Gem civilization to his, and his mother Pink’s, view of humanity.
How far have the Diamonds actually come in dismantling millennia of toxic mentalities, which 'Change Your Mind' only really has to represent as a one-off change of heart done in an intense moment of connection rather than the hard day-to-day work of becoming a better person.
Club stated "The nature of White’s ability, and the way her character forms around it (or vice versa), are the cause of so many small, careful moments of storytelling in 'Change Your Mind' that it feels like a daunting task to list even half of them.
And her ability is a kind of combination of Yellow’s force blasts and Blue’s empathetic field, transforming other Gems into puppet-like extensions of her own being.
And she first does this to Yellow and Blue after they express their feelings, in a scene that also confirms the Diamonds’ redemption as Steven refers to them with the formal Crystal Gems salutation, 'Guys?'
[...] The show’s position has long been that no one in its universe is fundamentally evil, and that just talking to people is often enough to get them to open up—especially for Steven, who is inhumanly kind and understanding.
[d] Peridot, on the other hand, was someone who never got to learn how to love herself because she spent most of her life being looked down on or forced to think logically to the point of self-deprivation.
heavily criticized the lack of nuance of the ending and a perceived absolute redemption of the villains, stating "Jasper was a horrific abuser.