I’ve seen people theorize that the Diamonds are based on the Four Bodily Humours (YD=choleric, BD=Melancholic, PD=sanguine, WD=phlegmatic) While we’ve seen the Diamonds be emotional, that is how they behave in private. Which is very different than how they present themselves to Gem society. Remember how Peridot thought Yellow Diamond was the efficient, rational decider in the galaxy? And how she disdained the Crystal Gems because their decision-making was clouded by emotions (while getting pretty emotional herself)?
It’s okay for Topaz and Topaz to fuse. But it is not okay for them to form strong feeling towards each other and public talk about them because that would be “sentimental”. The Famethyst have to keep their natural fun-loving personalities under wraps when Holly Blue is around.
And most human societies also value their leaders making rational decisions, rather than letting their emotions guide them. But nobody would claim that we disdain emotions.
We have never seen a gem who could be described as ‘emotionless’, even as their public face - the closest is Lapis, who has something of a flat affect, but that’s more indicative of depression*. Even ignoring the Crystal Gems and Off Colors, who actively break Gem societal expectations, a few notable examples: Peridot is seriously histrionic. Holly Blue Agate is performatively happy in her public-facing persona. Pearls in general have an overweening smugness, when dealing with beings who rank lower than their owners.
Clinical, exacerbated by situational, I would say.
Who knows? Pink Diamond’s is likely, since Rose was part of Pink Diamond’s entourage until she rebelled.
The same way Garnet, Amethyst, Bismuth, etc got so close to her. They met, and Rose showed her she could be something other than A Pearl.
Also, it occurs to me that calling the Diamonds’ behaviour at the trial of a major traitor their ‘private’ behaviour is…really pushing the definition thereof.
Why not? It’s not like it was open to the public or being broadcast. The only witnesses were Steven (slated to be executed), Lars (human so doesn’t count), the Pearls (also don’t count), and the Zircons (poofed and presumably destroyed).
It doesn’t mean that she wasn’t using it literally … and it doesn’t mean she was. It would be a twist to our perceptions though if she was. We do not “know” she was “Rose’s Pearl.”
If Pearl wasn’t Rose’s Pearl, then yes, we have to answer some questions. We’d be missing her origin story. Heck, given that our understanding of Rose is that she would not want to own a Pearl, if Pearl was Rose’s Pearl it still begs to have the story of how that happened to be told.
Which was what motivated my speculation riff. We don’t have big questions any more about Amethyst’s or Garnet’s histories but we do about Pearl’s. Is that lack significant? Is that a hole which will be filled and when it does plays a role in providing answers to the bigger arcs of the show? Or is it just a hole?
As to emotions and gems. FWIW my take is that the yes the Diamonds in particular seem to embody characteristics including emotions, which is to say they are them in the abstract. (I don’t think the humoral mapping quite follows one to one but YD being yellow bile/choleric/fire certainly fits - quick tempered, irritable - in Greek medicine powers consumption and digestion and causes jealousy.) Their discomfort is both in dealing with them in the specific interpersonal and in dealing with emotions that are not exactly what their abstract category classifies them as and what their caste position states they should have.
Returning to what the Diamonds each embody … if PD is Sanguine then she is both hopeful and bloody. Warm and attracting. Outgoing and sociable. So while the bloody might fit with her prosecuting the war the rest of her abstract nature does not fit with her being a destroyer, a consumer of planets. That’s YD territory.
I’m still in the trying to work with BD’s obvious strong emotional connection to PD, YD’s being the embodiment of jealously and anger, and the lack of seeing WD but supposedly representing perfection (or by the humor mapping, the pure, the expulsive force getting rid of waste, associated with passivity and sentimentality). Those characteristics and maybe even dealing with aspects interpersonally that fall outside of them, seem like they should play into how the story evolves.
I had actually thought you were asking when Pearl joined the Rebellion, which he have seen. Her backstory is a different matter. I wasn’t sure if it would end up being addressed in the show, but after “Adventures in Lighstpeed Distortion”, I’m pretty sure that Pearl’s story will be a significant plot point. “Back when I served…Homeworld” is just too loaded of a statement to drop and not explore later.
I don’t think I ever said Gems were supposed to be emotionless. They aren’t robots or Vulcans. We’ve certainly seen enough Homeworld Gems get emotional, even if it is mostly negative emotions they’re displaying. Rather than saying Homeworld disdains emotions, I should have said that Homeworld disdains certain emotions, namely compassion and empathy, and Rose was engineered that she would need those emotions to use her powers.
It could be nothing, but I thought the the insistence that it had to be CG Rose Quartz because all the other Rose Quartzes were bubbled was a little too insistent.
If Season 5 is about the mystery of “Who Killed Pink Diamond?”, then views should expect mystery tropes, and the seemingly airtight alibi that ends up being not-so-airtight-after-all is a common one.
In “The Answer”, when Garnet is narrating the story, she refers to “Rose Quartz and her terrifying, renegade Pearl”, so that’s a second time Pearl is referred to as Rose’s Pearl.
Again…assuming Pearl was Rose’s Pearl is assuming that Rose is either a complete and total idiot, or she was actively trying to get Pearl killed when she told her she could return to Homeworld.
Because there’s no way Rose, if she wasn’t thick as pig shit, could possibly think that the Homeworld Gems would accept her Pearl returning to Homeworld with open arms, instead of either punishing her in her stead, or assuming she was sent by Rose to infiltrate.
‘You should go back to Homeworld’ is equivalent to ‘go die horribly’, for any Pearl that she owned.
The “her” there is not too meaningful to me, and to me does not imply the Rose-Pearl owner-property relationship. The “renegade” OTOH is more meaningful. To me the implication is consistent with Pearl’s having had served on and directly for Homeworld. Something then brought her to the point of swearing fealty (and love) for Rose.
Again, there is a story that has not been told of how Pearl went from that Homeworld service to becoming one of Roses’s (note the possessive here) most trusted and fearsome renegades. And PD’s missing Pearl’s story is something hinted at. And we’ve yet to meet either WD or the Pearl we’d assume she would own. And CG Pearl can holoproject. And we now have reason to doubt that Rose shattered PD. Do any of these fit together? Which ones are misdirection?
I always thought that the “renegade” in that phrase was linked to “terrifying”. Joining the rebellion isn’t what made Pearl a “terrifying renegade”. She’s just a Pearl, so what is she going to do but stand around and hold things? What makes Pearl a terrifying renegade is that she trained herself to be a deadly warrior who can take out Quartzes with ease.
Well, I guess Rose could have been offering a Hobson’s Choice that Pearl was too besotted to notice. Or she could have been planning an “accident” for Pearl if she gave the wrong answer. Rose was literally putting her life in Pearl’s hands there.
But what is Rose saying when she tells Pearl “You should go back to Homeworld”? Pearls don’t go anywhere unless they are with their owners. If Pearls’ owner was on Homeworld, what was Pearl doing on Earth with Rose? And if Pearl’s owner was on Earth, then why would Pearl need to go to Homeworld?
I also think you’re extrapolating a bit in regard to how Homeworld would treat a defecting Pearl. I absolutely disagree with your assertion that a defecting Pearl would be expected to bring Rose Quartz’ shards back to Homeworld or face the same fate herself. Homeworld would never condone a Pearl shattering her owner, no matter what the owner’s crimes were, as giving Pearls the idea that they can violently turn on their owner is something is not something wants to encourage.
Going to revisit what we know about the timeline of the Crystal Gems and the rebellion. I’m not going to try to pin down the dates, a) because I would have to rewatch the episodes and b) because I’m not sure if the episodes are entirely clear/accurate on dates.
Rose Quartz decides to rebel against Homeworld and Pearl joins her (“Rose’s Scabbard”). It’s unclear if they immediately take to hills and start guerilla attacks or if Rose and Pearl still pretend loyalty to Homeworld while laying the groundwork for the rebellion (setting up secret bases, recruiting, etc.)
Rose Quartz and the Crystal Gems launch small attacks and raids on Gem sites on Earth (“The Answer”). The events in the answer take place a significant amount of time after 1), as Pearl has transformed herself into a deadly swordfighter by this time. The Crystal Gems have been active for some time, perhaps even decades, but are still considered enough of a small-scale threat that Homeworld sends a “diplomatic mission” to investigate the matter.
-Sometime between 1) and 2), Pink Diamond bubbled all the other Rose Quartzes (“That Will Be All”, “The Trial”)
The Crystal Gems have their first significant victory in a major battle at the Strawberry Battlefield (“Serious Steven”). This is probably the battle that cemented the rebellion as a significant threat to the Earth Colony. Bismuth disappears during or just after this battle (“Bismuth”).
-Sometime between 2) and 3), (probably closer to 3))Lapis Lazuli is poofed by Bismuth and then is placed in the mirror (“Same Old World”)
Pink Diamond is shattered by Rose Quartz. Details subject to change (“Back to the Moon”).
The Diamond Authority decides to abandon the Earth Colony and unleash the corruption wave (“Monster Reunion”).
-Sometime between 4) and 5), The Diamond Authority secretly implants the Cluster.
“Steven Universe: Art and Origins” has been released. I picked up a copy. I’ve only skimmed it so far, but it’s quite interesting.
First, the show has such well done continuity and foreshadowing, I figured that Rebecka Sugar had the whole thing mapped out beforehand; The book makes it clear that the whole concept was in quite a bit of flux before writing began in earnest. An early draft, for example, had the gems sent by a goddess in ancient times to protect humans; in the present day they learn that the gem monsters they fight are sent by their creator because she decided to destroy humanity. Another draft had the gems disguising themselves as humans and keeping their existence secret- ultimately, it was probably less distracting to write a show where the humans are bizarrely indifferent than one where maintaining the secret is a major ongoing plot.
Well, the longest ever Steven Universe hiatus continues unabated (Thanks, Cartoon Network!), but there might be light at the end of the tunnel! CN has revealed that the next episode is titled “Dewey Wins” and will air “sometime this winter”, which is likely to be Feburary 2018 knowing CN. Preview clip is here.
Woo-hoo!! Steven Universe is finally coming back November 10!!!
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on the Cartoon Network app only…
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Press release says broadcast on the actual network “beginning in December”.
Wouldn’t want to have to interrupt the Teen Titans Go reruns…
I swear that Steven Universe is going to end up like Legend of Korra, with Nick pulling the show from broadcast and putting up the last season only on app and website.