i'd love to hear what you have to say about (crystal gem) pearl and her elements!

anonymous

Pearl’s central element would appear to be light. What I find interesting about her other abilities is that they seem to be controlling very small particles of other elements. Sand is tiny grains, and clouds are water vapor- thus, spread out, and in very small amounts over a wide area. She’s also able to interact with water by walking on its surface, though this could be a property of her room as we haven’t seen her do so outside of it, and we’ve seen other characters standing on the watery surface of Pearl’s room.

Since we see so little of the particle control, it’s difficult to really say if there’s much of a pattern or track to it, in which case, I’m going to focus on light.

Light is something ambient and passive, often seen as pervasive but seldom acting directly. Many “holy” or “light”-based powers are generally associated with the sun and thus with fire.

The interesting thing about Pearl’s relationship with her powers: she uses them both to reach outwards, and to take up space. She takes this in some ways aesthetic and inconsequential element and presses it into tangible form. Holo Pearl is actually a quite impressive feat of engineering.

Now, being inconsequential and intangible isn’t the nature of light at all. It’s how light is seen. And rather than saying something about disadvantages I think it says something about Pearl and her general modus operandi.

In some ways, Pearl wants to be noticed and recognized. She wants to be seen. Pearls are presented as ornamental slaves, but they aren’t really acknowledged or paid attention to. Comparatively, our Pearl, we see her creating projections (physically putting her thoughts out into the world), and wielding her power offensively.

Pearl’s goal is to reach outwards. Light may be treated as a passive element of many things but as far as we know, we haven’t discovered a way to move faster than the speed of light. And technically most of the ubiquitous sources of light we think of are extraterrestrial in origin; they come from space.

We hear a lot about Pearl talking about what she does for Rose, but more subtle is when we see Pearl doing things for herself. Because a lot of what we see Pearl gravitate towards on her own is a drive to make something her own. If she embraces someone else’s ideals, if she works hard enough, builds diligently enough, she will make something that is uniquely hers, and assert herself beyond what is expected of her.

Consciously or unconsciously, Pearl’s instinct is to push outwards, and her holograms are a very common expression of this. In this sense I don’t think that Pearl is necessarily deliberately revolutionary. It creates the feeling that Pearl has always been full of thoughts, full of ideas, full of light, and this has shined out of her. She has so much inside that it spills out of her gem if she relaxes her guard.

And this is something Pearl has had to fight for. And continues to have to fight for, against an insidious sense of internalized messages that she does not deserve to take up space, does not deserve to speak up, much less loudly, about the things that she loves. That she should make herself small for other people’s benefit.

Sardonyx, presented as a positive experience for Pearl, wields her powers on a much larger scale, and does so with the regalia and behavior of a magician. Sardonyx demands people look at her, she sells herself as something that’s worth being seen, experienced, and she herself is huge, wielding a larger-than-life weapon.

When Pearl is upset, she draws inwards. In Serious Steven, a sheepish Pearl actively pushed her hologram back into her forehead. But when Pearl feels happy and comfortable she reaches outwards, both physically and behaviorally.

In some ways, Pearl is simply a vulnerable person who really, really wants to feel like she matters. She wants someone to acknowledge that she’s there and important, that she isn’t forgettable or replaceable.

The other thing about Pearl’s element is the idea of finesse not force. Light can be destructive, but its most breathtaking potential is when its focused down small, refined and concentrated. Focusing light into a narrower and narrower beam.