#su147

“Oh, very well.  You can bring your Pearl, of course, and your...”

“...pet...”

I guess it’s time to talk about the elephant in the room and ask the obvious question: Why didn’t Rose live with Pearl forever? I think there are a couple of different ways to answer that.

First of all, I don’t think that Rose ever stopped loving Pearl. I’ve always said that Pearl got it (partially) wrong in Mr. Greg. Rose didn’t choose Greg instead of Pearl. She chose Steven instead of both of them. Whatever relationship Greg had with Rose, it ended on the day Steven was born, just like Pearl’s did.

The better question is why did Rose keep having human affairs while also seeing Pearl, and one could write a whole essay about that: Rose was brash and impulsive and wanted to experience everything the earth had to offer. If seeking out those experiences hurt Pearl, Rose was too blinded by her own enthusiasm to see it.

If I had to narrow it down to just one reason though, I think that there was one thing Pearl could never give her: a partner who treated Rose like she was a normal person. As much as Rose clearly admired Pearl, and as much as they loved each other, Pearl always saw herself as subservient to Rose. When they had the opportunity to reinvent themselves as Rose Quartz and the Renegade Pearl, Pearl’s identity for herself was that of Rose’s knight: her weapon to be thrown at their enemies.

This is exactly what Pink was trying to run away from, even before she openly rebelled.

Rose wanted a lot of things: she wanted to save the earth, to save the crystal gems, to experience strange new things, but the one personal thing she wanted for herself was to be a normal person, and I think it’s entirely possible that Greg was the first person in history who treated her that way. 

The gems of Homeworld saw Pink Diamond as a godlike figure. The Crystal Gems saw Rose as a savior. The people of earth probably saw her as a combination of the two.

Greg stood on a box and DEMANDED that Rose talk to him like a real person, and that was the first time she treated their relationship with any sort of gravity.

Amethyst: If you told me Rose invented cotton candy I’d believe it.

What Steven should have done:

1. Woke up Peridot

2. Fuse with Peridot

3. Explore the moon as a fusion tall enough to actually see and probably not needing to breathe quite so much, while bringing along the only other person besides yourself that Lapis might actually want to see right now

What Steven did:

“What is...ffff...uuuunnnn...?”

“You’re...messing with us.  Right?  It’s hard to tell with you guys.”

"No..."