I mean, Pearl probably wouldn’t choose to fight like a ballerina if she was starting from scratch when she learned to fight. It’s not exactly the world’s most popular method, or the most efficient. And in “together breakfast” she uses a dance to open her vault of swords. She’s always doing little things like that, using dances for this or that. She’s always dancing, right?
She is always dancing, really, in little tiny ways in everything she does. I don’t think that is just because she’s the graceful one.
Hear me out for a sec. I really think Pearl was a dancer.
I think Pearl was a dancer, originally, and probably precious little else. I think she was a pretty thing that belonged to a powerful gem, and that when she was made she was made to be a servant, a doll, delicate and graceful and thoughtless.
I think, somewhere along the line, she realized that was bullshit. I think she fell in love, first with the woman that refused to own her, and then the earth. And when war broke out, I think she had something to fight for. A reason to change.
I think she calloused those elegant hands they gave her turning a baton into a spear, practicing endlessly to sharpen the dance steps she knew already into weapons. I think she fought, at first too viciously, because she only had one person she was fighting for, and I think that somewhere she still thought of herself as a tool for her. I think she poofed herself, for the very first time, and then again, and again, and again. I think she always kept going, until it started happening less and less and then one day no one could say she was there to “look pretty” anymore. And eventually, they won.
And, eventually, Pearl lost that person she’d fought for.
But life went on, anyway, and I think Pearl had to go with it. She built a house, and did laundry, fixed cars and lead missions, and realized that she had to be someone besides Rose’s knight. I think she buried those delicate hands in wires and engines until she had learned how to create something new, and learned what tools really were,
and that people were not tools.
I think Pearl fell in love, guys.
First with the woman that refused to own her, and then the earth. But next, with a couple who loved each other in a way that defied what they’d been told back home, and with the person they were together. Even later (and even now) I think she fell (and is falling) in love with a gem who had never known the place she’d come from, and never assumed she was anything less than an equal. And despite her grief, she definitely fell in love with Steven!
But recently? I think Pearl finally fell in love with herself.
Because even though a homeworld gem was literally screaming her ‘real purpose’ in her face, she didn’t wilt this time. She just smiled, and decked the little punk right in the face, with her elegant, calloused, but far from delicate hands.
See, she might still walk like a dancer and fight like a ballerina and hell, she might even doubt herself sometimes.
So I’ve noticed that pearl tends to do this a lot with garnet, which I had thought about, but didn’t pay any mind to.
With the episode Back to the Barn, it was revealed that Pearls are mass produced “accesories” whose only purpose is to look pretty (and whatever their master may want idk).
So I’m thinking this is a leftover habit from when she did serve the purpose of a Pearl.
She’s a pearl! She’s a made-to-order servant just like the hundreds of other pearls being flaunted around back on Homeworld.
Oohhhhh boy, an episode seemingly made out of love for me personally! Time for some quick Pearl Thoughts, one of my favourite things.
So basically, continuing my Star Wars analogy from ages ago, what just happened in Oath headcanon land is
pre-Back to the Barn: Pearls are R2s
post-Back to the Barn: Pearls are 3POs
Not
gonna lie, I’m really going to miss blue-collar-y maintenance pearls
(but watch me still use that as a sort of dumping ground for repurposed pearls
who didn’t perform up to snuff for whatever reason, and also our Pearl being an
apparently “fancy one” implies there’s a gradation there as well).
Things that stood out to me in particular:
– Pearls are meant to literally belong to somebody (combines well with the made-to-order statement earlier), “made to take orders, not to give them”, and are apparently not considered (or allowed) to be independent Gems – “Where do you get off acting like your own Gem? You’re just a pearl!”
This of course brings to mind Friend Ship – bothPearl’s breakdown over being “just a pearl” and Garnet’s subsequent words to her about being her own Gem and controlling her own destiny – and the apparent effects of those events on Pearl now (culminating in her punching Peridot in the face).
– Pearls are a status symbol – Peridot describes Pearl as “an accessory” and “somebody’s shiny toy” meant to be flaunted and to “stand around and look nice and hold your stuff for you” (literally holding – or holding in their gemspace? I can completely see high-up Gems using and treating pearls as little more than expensive designer handbags) – in interesting and rather frivolous contrast with the apparent general utilitarianism we’ve so far seen of Homeworld (and Peridot’s reaction to the idea of having a pearl – and being seen with her own pearl by other Homeworld Gems – was very notable).
Peridot: So, who do you belong to, anyway? Pearl: Nobody! Peridot: Then…what are you for?
I’ll just lazily quote myself here (and re-reading that post now was really interesting!) and say that if/since(?) pearls are bought and sold and
literally owned by other Gems, I like the idea of Rose’s affectionate “my
Pearl“ being a term of endearment between the two, but also an
expression Pearl has reclaimed for herself by choosing to
dedicate herself to Rose and making it a badge of pride instead of
something used to devalue her and tear her down and make her
something lesser. “You are beneath me,” as Peridot screams.
There’s now the question of why our Pearl would be considered defective, as Jasper calls her. I’m personally very invested in this not being simply because she’s doing things that pearls “aren’t meant to” such as taking an interest in engineering and learning to fight and generally disregarding orders, but I guess this remains to be seen.
I’m super into Pink Diamond theorising, and this all fits into that very nicely, opening up the doors to all sorts of courtly politics and intrigue-flavoured stuff.
Ok this started off as just commentary and tagging under This Wonderful Art by jen-iii, but I didn’t want to risk highjacking someone else’s art post with my nattering, so I figured I’d make it it’s own post.
Yes! I really loved hearing her call Garnet that cause of what it says about Homeworld attitudes, particularly in light of Jasper’s earlier “this shameless display” from The Return.
So, in the newest episode of We Bare Bears, at the end, Charlie (a Bigfoot) puts on a “dress” and pretends to be Panda’s girlfriend in a desperate attempt to get rid of some cameramen and news reporters.
Believe or not, people are getting really pissed over the fact that Charlie was wearing a dress and was called hideous.
Ok, first of all, why the fuck would three bear brothers have a dress lying around? That’s like if a girl had a condom lying around. And don’t give me any of that sexuality bullshit. THEY’RE BEARS!
Second of all, I’m pretty sure it’s not even a dress. It’s basically the equivalent of a potato sack.
Thirdly, Charlie is literally covered in hair and has a mustache. Of course he’s going to be called hideous!
Lastly, THIS JOKE HAS BEEN DONE FOR YEARS!!!!! Fairy Godparents, Spongebob, Star Vs, among others, have done this before with no one going nuts about it!
So, in other words, stop whining about a single joke that lasts only a couple seconds in an 11-minute episode. Fucking live a little.
The first 2 episodes after the 3th Steven Bomb have had a very distintc theme: The vicissitudes of the complicated but always neccessary relationship between a mother and (in this case) their daughter with a very distinctive undertone: Both mothers are controlling and overwhelming. (I have a point, i swear)
1) First we got Dr. Maheswaran and Connie: They exemplify the relationship of a very strict, helicopter mother and their- as a result of that behaviour- shy, perfectionist and secretive child.
We saw Connie going from a minimized version of her true self on Bubble Buddies, to a very much realized, much liberated Connie in Nightmare Hospital. She always had it in her, but it took her the support of a friend her age in whom she could trust to bring all of that out. But, while she evolved, her parent’s didn’t and her mother remained too controlling. Now, Dr. Maheswaran’s intentions were noble: by “knowing her daughter” she made sure that the least amount of pain and failure possible made it into Connie’s life. She was ensuring a life of success for Connie so she had her own financial stability and mental health to rely on once mom wasn’t around anymore.
But Connie was actually crushed under her Mother’s (well, her paren’ts actually, but the relationship developed on screen was with mom) expectations. And that is the keyword here: Expectations. She had to be a good girl, play de violin, play tennis, be a diligent student, while she’s only what? 10 years old? Those are lots of responsabilities, even for a inherently responsable child.
2) The second relationship is between Sadie and Barb:
Now these two have a very interesting dynamic. You’d think Barb is a lot more relaxed than Dr. Maheswaran, in terms that she doesn’t really expects Sadie to keep a very tight activity schedule and be interested in lots of different things that will make an integral education. No, she has a diferent kind of controlling: She’s an over enthusiastic mother. She’s a sea storm, a force of nature in her daughter’s life.
She’s so proud of Sadie, just for existing. She loves her to Jupiter’s moons and sees all the wonderful of Sadie, and wants everybody to appreciate that too. In a sense, she expects Sadie to share her greatness with the world. The problem? Sadie doesn’t wanna, she can’t meet her mother’s expectations.
Barb expects Sadie to be GREAT at something. Anything. But in the process of providing her with the means to be the best at whatever she wants to do, she forgets the actual Sadie and what she can and wants to do. She sees her daughter through the eyes of love and forgets to check how Sadie is actually like.
She buys her stuffed animals and remembers fondly her ballet year (this is a sign that she still sees Sadie as a little girl instead of the teenager- young adult she is) and all her bedroom is super bright while Sadie is a more low-key person. More importantly, Sadie is the kind of person that does The Thing because they feel like it. She doesn’t expect it to become anything more than a hobbie, a means to relax and relieving stress. Barb sees it as an opportunity: Her daughter WILL BE THE BEST at something. She’s competitive and wants Sadie to find Her Thing. But the issue here is, not everybody has A Thing. Not everybody wants to excel at The Thing, and that’s ok. Barb places expectations of greatness in Sadie while still trating her like a little girl in the process of taking over her interest and colonizing it.
WHICH BRINGS ME TO: STEVEN. Or “I will fight to be everything that everybody expects me to be when I’m grown.”
My theory (which is kind of cracky but bear with me) is that nothing on this show (except for the fusion’s designs) is fortuitous. So, why focus two entire episodes of an already defined plot on mother/child relationships? I think this is a kind of foreshadowing of something bigger, The Ultimate mother/child relationship we’ve seen developing on the show since episode 1: The relationship between Steven and Rose Quartz, directly linked with the Expectations placed upon him by the Shadow of his Mother.
Now, I don’t think Steven will ever meet Rose outside the context of a memory or maybe a vision (like the one on Rose’s Fountain), or stories told by new characters yet to appear, but even without meeting her, Steven has an already complicated relationship with his mother.
First, he deals with the fact that she’s absent from his life, but not quite. He never met her, tlked to her, was held by her. He has no idea what his mom was like in the tiny details that make you state that you know a person.
But she’s always there. She lives inside him, and actually, he’s so much like her and everybody tells him so. I see a lot of Harry Potter in him. While Steven is delighted at the comparisson most of the times, he’s been feeling off because all the people who point that out is people who loved and are still grieving Rose Quartz. They still love him, but he’s only “like” her, he’s not actually “her”.
As a direct result, he’s expected to be everything she was, even if the people don’t mean to. He’s expected to be as strong as she, as powerful as she was. A lider, an strategist. The One to turn to in times of despair. But he can’t be all that, because he’s half humand and he’s NOT his mother, and he’s 10 years old. He’s not that powwerful yet. He can’t make the cut line. He can’t reach the expectations.
The identity crisis this boy must have.
So, my point is, we’ve been fed tiny samples of the vast and complicated universe of mother/child dynamics because at some point on the show there will be Steven’s turn. He will have to face his mommy issues and will have to come to terms with who she was and who He is.
Actually, he’ll have to fave everybody’s issues related to Rose’s death to make sure that hell no, he’s not Rose. He’s different, not better, nor worse. Just Steven. And he’ll do things the Steven way and people will have to realize that Rose isn’t there anymore, not like they hoped she’d be.
At some point we’ll know more things about Rose. Maybe not so good things. Maybe she has a complicated past and why not, everybody is entitled to their mistakes and doesn’t make them any less of a good person. But the image of Rose Steven has, the one in which all expectations are founded will eventually crack. By learning to see his mother as an integral and whole individual instead of the perfect idea they’ve planted on him, Steven will define his own identity and will eventually fight for whatever the heck he wants to fight, freeing himself from his very own overbearing mother in the process.
AngelMihe 