so many people emphasize the importance of mental health representation in fiction, & i completely agree. likewise, many feel sympathy for characters showing typical symptoms of mental illness—the ones that are often talked about openly, such as feeling nervous & sad.
but what about the characters showing more stigmatized symptoms? the behaviours that are complicated, the trauma responses that aren’t talked about often?
countless steven universe fans refer to pearl as “insane” for being self-sacrificing. but they say this without acknowledging the fact that she was carrying many distressing secrets at the time & she grew up in a society where all pearls were seen as replaceable, inferior objects.
rose is impulsive & she lies often, which many fans quickly label as “malicious,” ignoring the anxiety, self-hatred, guilt, & trauma that may have influenced her habits & behaviours.
pearl & rose had a mutually codependent relationship with a handful of other ongoing issues, & therefore some people claim that “they never loved each other.” some say rose’s unstable relationships are because she’s “incapable of love,” completely missing the fact that she was a very loving person who didn’t love herself.
pearl is called “petty” for flaunting her relationship with rose in we need to talk. but what if showing off her boldness was easier than admitting her fear of being replaced—just like being extra intimidating on the battlefield forced homeworld gems to take her seriously instead of laughing at her for being “just a pearl”? talking about her insecurities likely made pearl feel as small as she did on homeworld.
unhealed wounds don’t just hurt the person—they can hurt others & strain relationships too.
this doesn’t mean we should excuse everything pearl & rose have done or claim they’ve done nothing wrong
that’s harmful in its own way; we shouldn’t say that those actions are positive & don’t need to be worked on in any way.
at the same time, these issues don’t make them bad people, they’re just… people
they displayed all kinds of trauma responses & symptoms of mental illnesses, not just the ones that are discussed often or stereotypical or considered “acceptable.”
lots of us look back at the times when we were struggling & we regret a lot of the things we did. it’s important to recognize when we were wrong so we can grow & take accountability, but it’s also important to have self-compassion & understand that many of those regrettable actions were reflections of our pain, not our character. this is why we regret them & why growth is possible. this is why we can say that we are filled with love that we’ve always had—it’s just difficult to properly show that love when we’re not only filled with pain, but overwhelmed by it.
i have so much compassion for pearl + rose. they’re both extremely caring & strong and they have so much love for each other—that’s who they are. their pain is also very complex & they have mental health struggles. nothing is glorified, nothing is brushed aside, and their healing is nonlinear & just as complicated as everything they’ve been through. i think that’s amazing. having empathy for characters like pearl and rose can make you learn a lot about yourself.
they’re not meant to be angels or villains—they’re meant to be something much better: complicated & relatable
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