Tell us about the difference behind when Pearl refers to her significant other as "Rose" or "Pink." When does Pearl make the distinction between the two, and what is the reason behind why?
hc./ meta asks. -- @rosiqe.
Let it be known that this META is based on my own headcanons & interpretations; my version of Pearl is fairly canon divergent & my analysis of Pink Diamond’s fake-shattering & all that happens afterwards is strongly influenced by my personal takes. Thus I furthermore talk about some other stuff before answering your question, so... be warned. -- as always, take my ramblings with a grain of salt; I apologize for potential grammatical mistakes, please bear with me, it is late.
Without further ado; it is crucial to state that to Pearl, Rose Quartz & Pink Diamond are two completely separate entities with Pink Diamond basically being the very person Pearl shattered (read: killed) during the war. This event was pivotal to Pearl & it basically rendered any connection to Homeworld, at least in theory, null & void. It was, according to Pearl & Rose, the last step needed to conclude a war that had, so far, spanned over almost an entire century. Additionally, Pearl vehemently believed that, through ridding Rose off her burden, Rose would be able to experience the same sentiment Pearl had felt upon being declared a traitor to her kind; namely freedom.
Furthermore, it was, in her pov, a necessary act performed on her own volition; partially out of wanting to live out the very future Rose & her envisioned & something she ought to do for the woman she loved. Perhaps it was a tad naive too because both believed that by agreeing to this whole thing, they could simply leave all their issues behind & pretend the past never happened. Pink would die & Rose would be able to be her true self. -- after all, to Pearl, the person she travelled Earth & fought in the war with had always been ROSE, the very woman she fell in love with. No reluctance, no fear, no doubts would be able to change that.
Disclaimer: if we talk about freedom & Pearl’s agency, I will have to elude on the fact that Pearl & Pink Diamond did in fact talk about the shattering LONG before the events shown in “A Single Pale Rose”. They had a lengthy discussion about the matter (as usual), with Pearl stating her issues with it all; they argued back & forth but eventually came to the conclusion that there was no other way out with Rose suggesting the way the (fake) shattering would eventually go down. -- Pearl additonally suggested that they should make sure that their secret would stay a secret. Call it a safety measure, a means to minimize the risk of getting caught & figured out. Pearl gave Pink Diamond the permission to seal their secret after suggesting it in the first place based on the fear that she might get captured or worse after fleeing the scene.
( I assume it goes without saying but on this blog Pearl does NOT / NEVER / UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES refer to PINK as “My Diamond” past becoming “The Renegade”; UNLESS she is pretending to be Pink Diamond’s pearl infront of an audience (she has no choice there). She does not use titles anymore & Pink certainly did not ask her too; Pearl is an individual now, an EQUAL. In that very moment they are playing a role. Why would Pearl force herself to refer to Pink as “her diamond” when it serves no purpose other than referring to something both have long left behind? )
Back to the topic; as mentioned above, both expected to be able to JUST MOVE ON; to forget that their former life on Homeworld had ever existed. -- they were supposed to reinvent themselves fully & to achieve that they simply had to cut all cords. To Pearl, the masquerade was finally over, Pink Diamond had become nothing more than a costume that Rose now had to metaphorically burn. To Pearl, lines had been drawn long ago. Pink Diamond ergo stopped to exist.
Due to this, Future!Pearl struggles severely with the fact that other pearls & the diamonds keep referring to Rose as Pink Diamond. The very name reminds her on the part of her history she has been denying for so long; she does not want to remember or confront it because her repressed memories are painful & hard to face; as a consequence, she is yet again shaken in her beliefs, insecure & uncertain. -- while she made the conscious choice to in fact work through her agonies, she is confronted with over 8000 years of repressed baggage with the whole Rose / Pink Diamond issue now coming back to haunt her. -- which is where your question comes into play; if I remember correctly, Pearl has been shown to refer to Rose as “Pink” only once in the show. “Volleyball” aka Episode 4 of Steven Universe Future has Pearl address Rose as “Pink” during an argument with Pink Pearl. In my point of view, the reason for this is twofold:
a) Pearl is expressing her unhappiness with Rose’s secretive nature & how she has been lying to her. -- this is an example of Pearl using the name “Pink” in combination with a negative experience because despite it all, she still keeps most negative traits as far away from Rose as possible (she rectifies that shortly before Pink Pearl & her fuse). This draws a parallel to Rose Quartz using the metaphor of “Pink Diamond, the Evil Tyrant” to talk about her warped self-image & shortcomings during the war.
b) she is talking to Pink Pearl, who never met Rose & cannot (yet) relate to that name. Additionally, Pearl is trying to be empathetic here. -- mentioning Rose might trigger Pink Pearl ergo she uses a term the other knows & understands (without having to deal with another can of worms).
TLDR: Pearl will always refer to Rose as Rose & only use “Pink” whenever she tries to talk to someone that never met Rose or is sensitive towards the mention of Rose, to begin with (read: the diamonds, Pink Pearl). It will hurt her because to her the term “diamond” / “Pink Diamond” is a red flag but she will bear it for diplomacy’s sake. Occasionally, whenever she uses allegories as she often does, she will use “Pink” as a stand-in for Rose’s flaws, as BOTH had often done in the past. After all, Pearl has made a clear cut between Rose & Pink & considers them two different people, which led to her deluding herself into eagerly believing that Pink Diamond had indeed died & that Rose Quartz was all that was left in the end. Sadly, her past eventually catches up to her in Steven Universe: Future, where she is forced to confront these issues on her own
