Steven's Lion is the first episode where we see Lion, a magical pink lion Steven finds when he and the gems are on a mission in the desert. Lion will appear occasionally throughout the series from this episode on and would help reveal some of the past behind Steven's mother Rose Quartz in the episodes dedicated to him, and more of her story is revealed outside of the Lion episodes, and that really stems from this one. That shows that this episode helped set up the future of the series. Though we did get non-Lion episodes dedicated to Rose Quartz, so I can't say if we didn't have this one we wouldn't have Rose Quartz's story fully told, just would have a non-Lion Rose story if the Lion episodes didn't exist. One thing I would've liked to have seen in the series is more of the story of Lion himself. He was more used as a plot device to grow other characters' stories but his own is barely touched on. Even if he's just a lion, he is a character of the series just like everyone else.
