Why Amethyst not hating herself anymore is not out of the blue - or an Amethyst development analysis season per season

This was originally a reply to another post, but people asked me to write it as it’s own post so why not.

Amethyst’s character development has happened on screen apparently this need clarification since early season 1.

In the episode “Tiger Millionaire”, season 1 is when we are first introduced to Amethyst’s inferiority complex. We learn she doens’t feel appreciated by the gems and uses wrestling to feel better about herself.



In the end, the gems let her wrestle, recognizing how pressured Amethyst felt.

The next important episode in Amethyst’s development is “On the Run”, season 1. We learn how she was made in the Kindergarten and how she sees herself as bad because of it.

She thinks Pearl sees her as “a mistake” and the episode ends when Pearl reassures her that she think Ame’s good and the two reconcile.

This is the first step of Amethyst’s development.

Then there’s “Maximum Capacity”, season 1. This is a big one.

We learn Amethyst, and the other CGs as well, lost a supporting figure when Rose was gone, and that Amethyst isn’t exactly a person who likes to confront the past, preferring avoiding it with watching Little Butler over and over.

This culminates in Steven calling her and his father out after a tremendous outburst that explained just how much Ame misses Rose and how the other Gems fail to give her the same support she desperately needs.



Ame sees the errors in her way of dealing with all of this, and apologizes to Greg.

Now, moving on season 2.

The first important Amethyst episode is “Reformed” when we, once again, confirm Amethyst’s unwillingness on thinking about herseld, and the episodes also dives in her fear of being seen as a failure by Garnet.



Amethyst keeps poofed but chooses to reform with unbalanced forms to please Garnet, and keeps hurting herself. In the end, Garnet explains to her that she’s perfect the way she is, and Garnet wouldn’t want it any other way.

Then there’s the Sardonyx arc. It may seems an arc solely about Pearl, but it actually affects everyone in it, Amethyst included.

In “Cry for Help”, we see how Amethyst feels responsible for the Sugilite fiasco in season 1, admitting that she likes fusing with Garnet to feel stronger. When she and Steven discover Pearl was setting all up to fuse into Sardonyx again, she understand completey where Pearl is coming from, and even tries to defend her from Garnet.

Season 1!Amethyst would never act like this. This is already showing how much she grew up after she made up with Pearl and started thinking more about herself thanks to her experiences in “Reformed”, which allowed her to become empathic and recognize the struggle of someone very similar to her.

After this, we see Amethyst, all around the arc, acting as the one voice of reason, understanding both Garnet and Pearl, trying to talk to them or make them talk, even if the whole situation is an ugly mess.

In particular, in the episode “Onion Friend”, she takes a break from all of this, reconnecting with her old friend Vidalia.

Remember in season 1, when Amethyst coulnd’t deal with the past. Now she’s forced to confront it once again, seeing how Vidalia has moved on with her life. Amethyst and Vidalia talk at lenght about the past, but not only.

Amethyst opens her heart to her, confessing her insecurities and how she perceives herself. Again, remember season1!Amethyst, who never wanted to talk about her feelings? And what does Vidalia do? She comforts her.



Since Rose, Vidalia is the first time she has been reassured like this.

After the Sardonyx arc, is Peridot’s Redemption time.

Amethyst, at this point, knows that the CGs love her and has a friend outside them that she can counts on in time on need. So what could happen, to make her feel like shit again?



Being confronted with how Homeworld sees her.

In the episode “Too Far”, Peridot calls her “defective”. Amethyst learns she was supposed to be bigger, but came out small because she stayed in the ground too long.

She is utterly humiliated by this. After all the reassurance, all the growing up, here comes Peridot lighting the flame of self hatred again.

At the end of the episode, Peridot apologizes. But this is not the end of Amethyst’s insecurities towards Homeworld.

Season 2 ends and Season 3′s major arc involves Amethyst personally.

Jasper, a quartz soldier like her, comes back and the two fight each other in the episode “Crack the Whip”. In it, Jasper taunts Amethyst, insulting her for her size and even implying that Rose’s acceptance of her was out of desperation for lack of soldiers.

Amethyst is broken by this. In the next episode, “Steven vs Amethyst”, Steven’s costant growth and improvement (he too grew a lot in 3 seasons) makes her feel like she’s now the “worst Crystal Gem”. After the fight with Jasper, this only rubs salt in the wound.

At the end of the episode, Amethyst connects with Steven in “not being who you are supposed to be”. She isn’t a perfect quartz, he isn’t Rose. They are starting to be a little closer.

But this isn’t solved yet.

In “Beta”, Amethyst is still pretty angry about Jasper, and when Peridot accompanies her and Steven in the Beta Kindergarten to prove Amethyst is actually a better made quartz, this backfires when they examine Jasper’s hole and learn she’s THE perfect quartz.

This only fuels Ame’s anger more, as she identifies with all the other Beta “defects” and decides to fight Jasper in their name.

Immediately after, in “Earthlings”, she fight once again with Jasper, but no matter what she does, Jasper seems unaffected and utterly bored.

Amethyst breaks down. “She came out right, and I came out… wrong”. Steven reassures her: “You’re like me!”.

They are completely connected to each other in this moment. So they fuse.

Smoky Qartz has a great time utterly defeating Jasper, but after the fight they unfuse when Jasper shows signs of corruption.

Hearing Jasper’s last words before corruption overtakes her, Amethyst learns that The Perfect Quartz has a deep hate for herself, just like her. So, Amethyst recognizes her as a sister.

Season 3 ends.

In the last fight, Smoky seemed pretty ok with themselves, but in “Know your Fusion”, of season 4, we learn that what Ame and Steven have in common is insecurities and self-hatred. Now, after she connected with and felt accepted everyone in the CGs, Peridot and Steven included, after learning she can be whatever she wants because they love her, Amethyst still harbors ugly feelings about how Homeworld perceives her.

This brings us to the grand finale of Amethyst’s self-hating: the meeting withe the Famethyst in “That will be all”.

She finally met her kin. She probably expected the meeting to be quite ugly, but it turns out they all love her! They all cheer for her when she takes out Holly Blue. They all love eachother, perfect quartzes and defects alike. They’re all there for eachother.

Our Ame has been told again and again that, by Homeworld’s standard, she is a failure of a gem, but it seems not every Homeworld-aligned Gem has that opinion! She finally met her sisters and they accepted her and considered her one of their own. This is huge.

This is when she finally feels at peace. This is why she doesn’t need wrestling anymore. She has been reassured she matters in all axpects of her being.

She has grown up a lot. Every character has grown up a lot.

Steven Universe is a show where characters grown and change. Amethyst is no exception.