He works hard at the car wash so he can provide for Steven and The Crystal Gems (which might also explain why he lives in his van)
Greg is a great dad who always looks out for Steven and overall is very sweet and his life hasn’t been easy and everyone should be nice to him
I think what I love most about Greg is that none of his life is set up as a joke.
Think about it - how many TV dads have you seen with Greg’s problems, or problems like them? He’s half a Homer Simpson or a Matt Foley. Balding, overweight, washed up musician, runs a car wash, lives in a van. In any other show, those would be the gags about Greg - haha, he’s bald, he’s broke, he’s going nowhere, haha - jokes made at him, not by him. He’d be sidelined as an incompetent, overweight dunce. He’d be comedy relief, not a father figure.
Steven Universe’s writing shines because it doesn’t frame or treat Greg that way. Instead he’s a genuinely great person, chipper and musical. He’s a huge part of his son’s story - supporting Steven even in his own awful living situation, doing everything he can to help the cause, despite being an average joe with no super powers. He’ll crack a self-deprecating line about his poverty or his hairline every now and again, but those are jokes coming from him, fully aware and accepting of how he must appear to the world. Greg’s not dumb, he’s not unaware, and he’s not selfish. He’s not an alcoholic, he’s not a deadbeat. He’s just a big, happy 1980s kid, who’s been through a lot.
He loved his wife. And he loves his son. And he’ll do whatever he can to chip in and help save the world, even if he has to do it from the back of a dirty old fuckin’ van. Would that we could all have dads - be dads - as amazing as Greg.
My grandmother is a bitter old crab with nothing good to say about anything, but she does have a few good stories. She confronted the woman my grandfather had been cheating on her with - this other woman had no idea he was married, and was righteously angry.
The two of them schemed together. My grandfather’s mistress drove her convertible to the construction site where he was working. As he approached the car, she said, “Why didn’t you tell me you were married?”
“Married?! I’m not married!” he said.
My grandmother sat up in the back seat, where she’d been lying down, and said, “You won’t be for much longer.”
