This scene was kinda a big fucking deal because up to this point in the series prior Pearl has been depicted as nothing short of a doting and endlessly patient motherly figure to Steven. This moment was huge because it was the first time Steven and Pearl fought, Ames even pointed it out herself. Of all the three gems, Pearl was always shown to be the most invested in Steven’s safety and health. Up until this point Steven has always seen Pearl as the embarrassing mom whose only failing is that sometimes she cares too much about him.
now lets skip forward to the latest episode, after everything he’s been through from this moment in Warp Tour to when Pearl convinces Steven to enter her mind in A Pale Rose.
By now Steven has watched Pearl have a meltdown over how much his birth ruined her life like four times. He’s had it beaten into him again and again that even though Pearl does love him she’s been living in agony due to his mere existence. Now she’s revving up to give him a round five and he looks so damn uncomfortable with the whole business. He knows whats gonna go down. Pearl is going to have another huge emotional breakthrough at his expense and he just can’t really care anymore. When he sees her sobbing over Rose’s demise he only feels awkward. When he watches her breakdown in a war flashback he gets annoyed and demands she hurry her bullshit up so he can leave. But most telling I feel is when Pearl gives the phone back:
She’s here all smiley and relieved he finally knows, but look at his face.
He’s not happy. He’s not relieved. He’s not glad to know all this. He just sorta scowls and texts Pearl ‘Found it’ and thats that. I don’t think he’s smiled once in this whole fucking episode. He just looks so fucking done with everything to do with Pearl.
And thats sorta the actual thing I found tragic about this episode. I don’t give a single fuck about Pink Diamond or Rose Quartz. The thing that hurts is Steven’s perception of Pearl is officially broken beyond repair. This person who raised him and took care of him that he used to think the absolute world of now needs him to fix her once a week in whatever traumatising way she’s got planned. He’s just so disillusioned with everything she is now, and even worse its through no fault of her own. It’s just something thats slowly been leaking into their relationship for the past two seasons and now everything is flooded.
Their dynamic is fucked beyond repair now. They’ve gone from parent and child to patient and therapist. He just can’t see her the same anymore, he doesn’t have the energy to care about whatever she’s bitter about this time.
Screw Rose Quartz, the mother that Steven lost was Pearl.
May i offer a different point of view?
Steven did not lose a mother. Pearl is still there for him, for his problems. What is happening is that he is growing, and starting to be there for pearls problems as well (i know its whether he likes it or not, but the problems that affect pearl affect him too, just like a normal mother and child. I will talk more abt this later) . I am only a year older than steven and im just gonna parallel his situation to mine real quick; i am a child of divorce. When my parents divorced when i was 11, my mother and i talked about the very shallow of the situation; ‘we’re not happy together so we will divorce’ ‘alrighty i hope that will make yall happy’ ‘thanks’. Like in Rose’s Scabbard when they were on that floating rock; the situation may be complicated but the message was simple; ‘i miss Rose. She gave me purpose and validation :(’ ‘Well im here and i think ur great’ ‘thanks :D’
When they got back together when i was 13 we talked more about why they were doing what they were doing, how my mom thought it would affect us (she said she thought it was better for us and i said what is better is what makes her happy but its all her decision) and how she felt about it. My mother and i dont tell each other everything, but we’re friends. She cant just solve my problems and never let me know about hers, shes human too (like pearl - who isnt human but you get what i mean) and her problems affect me and i was old enough to understand, like steven. I couldnt have it all dumped on me at once, but she couldnt and shouldnt keep me completely ignorant of the situation; i was made aware of the situation gradually and was answered as i questioned, like Steven. My parents divorce is not my fault, but its my problem, whether i like it or not; Steven thinks the same thing. Just rewatch The Trial and you will see that its clear that he thinks the very same way.
I know Steven shouldnt be forced to deal with the consequences of his mothers problem, but he is mature and empathetic, and i believe he is a born leader like Rose was in the war; he can deal with the weight in his shoulders. We see every episode how he seeks people in need of help, even if it incoveniences him, if it adds weight.
Of course sometimes steven will get fed up with the bullshit like in this episode. I have blow up on my mother before, said she’s not a child and she has to solve her own problems and talk to dad herself, that she shouldnt need me to tell her her inability of making hard decisions is her owns fathers fault and shit. Steven has done the same in warp tour, and in Cry For Help he said ‘you need to tell garnet it was you!’ and made her deal with her own fucking bullshit. That episode prompted various discussions where some people thought Pearl was a terrible person, some thought it was all excuseable and its not her fault, and most recognized she is a flawed character with ptd who cant be fit in one single role of abused or abusive; she had her reasons but they didnt excuse what she did and she needed to deal with her mistake.
In conclusion, Steven has to deal with problems he didnt create but thats just being human. We have to deal with our parents divorce, and the baby boomer’s fucked economy, and the colonizer’s racism, and in the future our children will have to deal with the mistakes we’ll make because we are all doing what we think is best, not even Garnet can flawlessly predict what is going to happen and even if she did there probably wasnt any future where everything is perfect so they couldnt have made the decisions that would lead to that. The past problems Steven has to deal with may be uncomfortable and frustating but pearl, pd and the crystal gems did their best to minimize those problems. If they hadnt, steven would have been born in a enslaved colony or would never have been born at all. Again, he doesnt have a choice, but i believe Steven is mostly glad to deal with the consequences of a war that freed his mothers and his home. After all, to quote steven himself;
I love them so much because they’re about as sharp as a baseball and their anatomy is ridiculous to the point of them literally being classified as plankton for years because they just sort of get blown around by the ocean and look confused, but because they lay more eggs than ANY OTHER VERTEBRATE IN EXISTENCE, evolution can’t stop them
Why is no big predator coming and gnawing on them?
Their biggest defense is that they’re massive and have super tough skin, but they do get hunted by sharks or sea lions sometimes and they just sort of float there like ‘oh bother’ as it happens
Even funnier, because they eat nothing but jellyfish they’re really low in nutritional value anyway, so they basically survive by being not worth eating because they’re like a big floating rice cracker wrapped in leather.
So basically the only reason natural selection hasn’t taken care if them is because they are the most useless fish
yes, they’ve perfected uselessness to the point of being unstoppable
