Instability and Insecurity: Garnet and Pearl in Steven Bomb 3.0

So, I finished watching this week’s episodes, and I had a lot of feelings and some (surface) analysis that I wanted to get through. It’s potentially spoilery, so be aware of that.

Tonight, we got to see a lot of development for Garnet and Pearl that I think the audience has been looking for for a very long time. They had a very emotional scene right at the end, something you can’t overlook at all. There were also a few theories that are gaining a lot more steam behind them as the episode climaxed (mainly the multi-gem theory and gem caste theory), and that’s something I’ll take into consideration with this “analysis.”

Pearl and Garnet finally get the moment of understanding they’ve needed to have this entire Steven Bomb. I’ll start by talking about Pearl’s development, and then Garnet’s. Pearl learned so much over the course of the past week that it’s hard for me not to love her even more. She fucked up big time in Cry for Help. It wasn’t uncharacteristic of her to do what she did, especially given her reasoning for it now in Friend Ship. A big issue with Pearl is that she’s unable to directly talk to Garnet about her problems, and she finally gets to do that tonight. She feels the need to work behind Garnet’s back, or thinks that just by doing something good, it’ll cancel out the bad. But that’s not how it works, and she’s finally beginning to understand that. It’s about the relationship you build with people that really matters. Pearl’s starting to learn that she has to think of other people when she acts, and that she’s not always perfect and right. If you think about the way Pearl looks at herself (I’m just a Pearl), then there’s a lot of potential for understanding. She doesn’t think she’s all that important. She needs somebody to tell her what to do. And she hasn’t had that, really, since Rose. Rose was Pearl’s rock (ha, puns), somebody she could lean on, and somebody who would tell Pearl what and what not to do. Ever since Rose died, Pearl hasn’t had anybody like that. Garnet stepped up as the de facto leader of the Crystal Gems, and so Pearl naturally began to look up to her. Owing to the fact that Garnet is literally the embodiment of a stable relationship (until Keystone Motel), it’s understandable that Pearl would want to fuse with her. But that doesn’t make it right to manipulate her and fuse without consent (in Cry for Help, Pearl essentially didn’t give Garnet a choice; it was Sardonyx or bust). Pearl realizes how much this hurt Garnet, but she’s unable to talk to her about it because Garnet is dealing with it in her own way (more on that later). It takes her literally being trapped in a box with Garnet to finally talk about her feelings, and then we get some real insight into how Pearl is looking at everything. She feels inadequate, she’s just a Pearl, and the reality of the situation is finally closing in on her (literally). Most likely, Jasper calling her “defective” is still in her head, and she thinks that she can’t do anything right. That’s got to be something tough to deal with. With what we have now and looking back at Sworn to the Sword, Pearl says, “Rose made me feel like I was everything.” That means that Rose made Pearl feel completely unlike a Pearl, because from the way Pearl and Jasper describe her, they’re apparently much lower on the gem caste than one would initially presume. With Rose, Pearl was, for once in her life, important. And after Rose dies, it’s entirely possible that Pearl feels like she is no longer important, so she feels the need to fuse with Garnet in order to feel better about herself. Pearl constantly needs reassurance that she isn’t useless, and Garnet gives that to her right at the end of this episode. That’s why they’re able to become Sardonyx again and get out of that hole. Pearl is slowly realizing that she doesn’t need to rely on anybody to be all she can be. She’s slowly working towards becoming independent, and that’s one of the big things that she’s lacked for so long.

Garnet got some very good development, and it’s a good start for her. She’s not perfect by any means, and the show is beginning to address that. Garnet is literally torn apart by how betrayed she feels by Pearl, and for a character who is the embodiment of love and a stable relationship, that has to be something that hits really hard. Ruby said it very well when she said, exasperated, “Don’t you feel used?” I’m sure Garnet definitely felt used, and she had every right to be angry. But, for analysis on why I think Garnet should have, at least for some time, swallowed her pride, please see this post. It takes time for somebody to recover from something like that, and I don’t know if Garnet was really ready to admit that she was also not faultless in the fallout between her and Pearl. But she had to do it anyway, and we see that here in Friend Ship. Garnet, again, steps into her role as the impromptu leader of the Crystal Gems by telling Pearl that she has to learn from her mistakes. I’ll say this once: Garnet is the ideal ROLE MODEL, but not the ideal LEADER. She is very good at telling people what they did wrong and how they can fix that, but she isn’t very good at empathizing with people. But, in tonight’s episode, she starts to make her way towards understanding how other people feel in different situations. That’s something that Pearl helps her realize. Pearl tells Garnet that she feels so much better, so much more confident, when she’s fused with her. Pearl looks at Garnet and sees a perfect relationship, where both sides complement the other and they turn into something magnificent. And Pearl has always wanted that. So, if she could get in on some sweet Garnet action, why wouldn’t she? It’s not that Pearl doesn’t care about Garnet, but it’s natural for somebody to be inherently self-interested. Garnet isn’t like that, though. Since Garnet comprises both Ruby and Sapphire, she is inherently looking out for both of their best interests, and because of that isn’t inherently self-interested. However, Garnet does allow herself to forego the feelings of those around her for the sake of a mission, which is something that isn’t exactly okay either. That’s something I cover in the aforementioned post. But finally, and in a very climactic and emotional moment, Garnet realizes just how much her emotional detachment from everybody except Steven affects the rest of the team. She sees how weak Pearl feels, how distraught she is after Rose’s death and what happened in Cry for Help, and she starts to make amends for it. Garnet realizes that she didn’t help the situation either, instead only making it worse by feeling angry about it (which she was totally justified about). And Garnet matures enough to let Pearl know that while she can’t forgive her for what she did, they can at least move forward from it.

I’ve seen a lot of posts that have said that this most recent Steven Bomb wasn’t very plot-heavy, and I agree. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing. This Steven Bomb was almost entirely character driven, which is something that’s very important to look at. It’s important to have these moments because they’re genuine. I felt, watching these episodes over the course of this week, that this progression in Garnet and Pearl’s relationship was very organic. It may have hurt, and I personally was very angry at both parties, but in the end, they’ve both grown as characters. Not everything is better, it’s not all fixed and it’s not all okay, but the characters have a better understanding of each other and that’s so so so important because it’s real.

Also, Peridot is perfect. DIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIE!

TL;DR, Garnet and Pearl got MAD development this week, and I’m happy about it, especially because I had a lot of concerns about Garnet’s character development this far as well as Pearl’s seeming inability to learn from what she’s doing.