I was thinking about why Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond is so hated.
The obvious answer is because of the horrible things she did.
But the other diamonds did horrible things too…worse things even.
Pink abandoned Spinel, which is wrong, but Spinel was planning to kill every living thing on Earth to spite the son of a person who was no longer even alive. Yet, no one talks about what a monster Spinel is.
So many Steven Universe characters have hurt people, but we forgive them and are happy to see them redeemed.
Then, it hit me: because Rose’s redemption arc is told to us in reverse.
The first time we see Rose is toward the end of her life when she is pregnant with Steven. We see her appreciation for life and how full of love she is for Greg and her future child. She’s willingly sacrificing herself to bring a new life into the world.
But then, we start learning who Rose used to be, all her mistakes, all the people she hurt.
The loving mother in Steven’s video becomes a distant memory.
For those of you who hate Rose, imagine her backstory unfolded a little differently for us.
We’re introduced to Pink Diamond: she’s spoiled, bratty, immature, irresponsible, and inconsiderate.
She throws temper tantrums when she doesn’t get her way.
Not exactly an endearing character, right?
But one day, her tantrum injure Pink Pearl, her best friend. From that day on, she keeps everything to herself. Now we see her dealing with a consequence of her bad behavior.
Then we see how she’s abused by the other diamonds. We start to sympathize with her.
We see her try to save Earth. We see her trying to do the right thing for once.
But it backfires horribly.
She spends the rest of her life trying to fix it, but she can’t.
She meets Greg. Here is where Rose has the most emotional growth as a character. She learns what is truly means to be a “real person.”
Finally, she grows such an appreciation for human life, that she decides to sacrifice her form to bring her son into the world.
The reason Rose is so much more controversial than other characters who have done problematic things is because her story is told in reverse, her redemption comes across as a fall from grace.
But there are plenty of characters who have a fall from grace who are still not as controversial as Rose. The reason why many people are less sympathetic to Rose is because we never see how Rose reacts to her mistakes. We never get much insight into how Rose feels about herself and the things she’s done. We get small hints:
For everyone who hates Rose, I get why. But I think we need to remember who she became instead of who she was.
