There’s a really neat character thing I always really loved from the “Steven the Swordfighter” storyboards that didn’t make it over to the episode itself. After Pearl defeats Holo-Pearl, she salutes her in a show of respect and says “You were a worthy opponent.”

the line was removed for the episode itself, but we still see her do the salute

its easy to miss without the line accompanying it though.

Its just a really interesting character detail to me. Its a show of respect for her dueling opponent, which is good practice. But its especially interesting since Holo-Pearl isn’t “real”, she’s a copy of Pearl made specifically for the fight. A tool, not a person, who doesn’t “need” to be shown respect. But then, of course, that’s what Gems are too. Inorganic tools made for specific purposes. But she’s choosing to see Holo-Pearl as a person and regard her with the respect she would show a person. Its the way Crystal Gems regard Gems as opposed to how Homeworld regards Gems

Its interesting to me, too, because its a small demonstration we see early on of Pearl’s knight ideology (which gets expanded on much later in “Sworn to the Sword”). Pearl has a “lawful” alignment, she feels most comfortable with order and structure and rules. Which is similar Homeworld being very rule oriented. But Pearl as redefined it in a way that works for her, she’s chosen to follow an ideology that’s rule-based but doesn’t ignore an individual’s agency and that has respect for other people. Its a redefinition of a system that was used to oppress her into something she actually wants. She doesn’t have to give up her need/preference for structure in order to assert that she’s free. She chooses to follow this rule structure (rather than the one enforced by Homeworld), she chooses to give her loyalty to Rose

anyway, I just think its an interesting little detail