My views on Rose, Pearl and their relationship :D
I’m bored, so I thought, why not, let’s just make an analysis of my fav characters, yay D:
(Sorry if you aren’t interested in this, feel free to skip it. If you do like it, enjoy! ^^)
I’ve always loved tragic love stories, and both Pearl and Rose are characters that fit into that trope.
First things first, let’s go in order. When Pearl was given to Pink Diamond, Pink already had her share of bad experiences (the abuse from the diamonds and the loss of her former pearl which was, even if accidentally, her fault). We can see her change of personality from “Jungle Moon” to “Now we’re only falling appart”. While in the first one she was more childish and didn’t seem to hesitate to speak her mind freely, in the second one we can see her hesitate sometimes. She looks as if she has lost a lot of her energy. Even when she shows joy about seeing the quartzes emerge, she still acts deflated. We can also see changes in her behavior when Spinel talks to Steven about their relationship. As the scenes of their interactions keep coming, we can see how Pink seems more and more aloof. The stories we hear from the diamons in “Familiar” and “Change your mind” give a lot of context to this. All of this gives us a lot of context of Rose’s mind when Pearl gets into her life.
Pearl, on the other hand, still believes that she’s nothing more than a servant. She is confused when Pink talks to her and asks her opinion. When they both visit Earth for the first time, we can see a glimpse of their true selves.
Rebecca stated that Rose began to fall in love with Pearl’s boldness, and as we are told in “Now we’re falling appart”, Pearl loved her aswell. For further proof, Rebecca herself said that Pearl’s love for Rose “wasn’t unrequited”. When they both meet Garnet, they finally share what they feel for each other. Rose wants to fight for Garnet and Pearl. She wants all of the gems to be free. However, she’s in a tight spot. She knows the diamonds won’t listen and it’s very likely that if Pink Diamond started the rebellion, they would try to hide that from gems until they can fix the problem. After all, what would a Diamond of the Authority defying her own system imply? But repressing a low-ranking gem that stepped out of line would be something they wouldn’t hesitate to show everyone as an example. We’re told this in “Now we’re only falling appart”, when Pearl says that she would take a stand as someone they couldn’t ignore.
This is where Rose’s faults should be mentioned. She manages to gather many other gems that feel the same way as allies. However, even if they are close and trustworthy, she still can’t bring herself to tell them the truth. She hates herself and she’s afraid that they will hate her aswell. And while understandable, that only made everyone feel hurt when the truth came out. It can’t be denied that she hurt Pearl by telling her not to reveal the truth, because in the end, Pearl was unable to talk about most of her feelings with anyone. And that’s something that’s shown in “Volleyball” where Pearl literally says “I was badly hurt”
On the other hand, Pearl had her own issues. Even if she had gained some confidence, she still felt like someone inferior. Rose was the one who had helped her feel like that and that only made her see Rose in an unrealistic way. She thought Rose was perfect, when she was definitely not. She thought she couldn’t live without her and that she was above her own life. They definitely argued about this in the past, as shown in “Sworn to the sword”, where it’s implied that Rose told her to stop risking her life for her. She also seems very insecure about herself, and sees herself as easily replaceable. That’s why she is so bothered by Greg. In “Mr Greg” she mentions that there had been more humans before, but that she had never felt like that until Greg came, and she started to fear that Rose would just leave her behind. Finally, in that same episode, they come to terms and finally get to understand that she loved both of them.
Rose regarded herself as lesser than everyone, and she thought that they didn’t need her. When she films the tape with Greg, she says how happy she is that Steven’s going to have the chance to grow, and be an extraordinary being. She thinks her death is irrelevant in order for that to happen. Rebecca stated in the EoAE artbook that it was both selfless and selfish, and none of them could be denied. She said that Rose thought of herself as powerless and useless, when she was actually very powerful and relevant.
Steven is born, and Rose dies. Everyone has to deal with the loss and Pearl is the most affected by it. She doesn’t know what to do now that Rose is gone. Sometimes, she’s bitter and aloof, and refuses to acknowledge her reality. But as the series go on, she finally realises that everything she did proved how strong she really was. Even if Rose was the one who gave her the courage, she was the one who dared to defy her status and purpose. Sharing the truth with the others finally makes her see Rose as the gem she really is, and this is something that goes on from “A single pale rose” to “Volleyball”. She learns that Rose had faults, as everyone else.
So, to finish this essay, I really like the complexity this story has to offer. We’re shown two characters with a lot of development and complexity. They don’t depict a perfect relationship and that is really interesting aswell as realistic. The fact that they both had self-steem issues only made their relationship more difficult and sometimes they hurt each other even if they didn’t mean to. Even so, they truly loved each other and they made a huge impact in each other’s lives. Pearl started to feel confident in herself because of Rose, and Rose started to change because she felt inspired by Pearl. Rose made Pearl feel “like she was everything” and Pearl helped Rose keep going, even when she thought she didn’t deserve it.
Basically, to sum up, I love my gay disasters
