The gems are not human. That’s a thing a lot of people forget when they think about the logistics of their emotional development. They are still learning how to work with their emotions and change the beliefs that were drilled into them over thousands of years. Gems have a human side that they likely put to the side in favor of what they considered more important. Changes in their attitudes and beliefs in particular were probably few and far between because of a number of different things.

Based on what we know, gem society is very homogeneous. Gems are expected to act one way and not the other, so gems who learned not to on Earth probably ended up with plenty of issues that are included with a situation like that. There’s a combination of confusion and unconventionality around human emotions to gems. The CGs have them, but they probably never confronted them on human terms. Rose may have never picked out the faults in anything the crystal gems did personally, thinking that the flaws of CGs and humans made them beautiful. Others, like Pearl and Amethyst, may have developed opinions about themselves that were never denied and therefore persisted, like their perceptions of their own self-worth. Whatever way they avoided the topic, it still ended up with the current gems having a ton of issues they built up over the years.



Another idea about gems and humans:The CGs, both current and old, spent more time fighting for Rose than the ideals she fought for her. Pearl, based on what she has said, did it for Rose, not the humans. If someone, like Rose, is charismatic and influential enough, people will fight for them even if they don’t know what they’re fighting for. I feel like this has been heavily implied to be the case with the Gems based on what we’ve seen.

The gems are in very different stages of knowledge and comfort of the human race. Amethyst enjoys taking part in their customs. Pearl seems disgusted by them and confused while being very nihilistic. Garnet is definitely more in-tune, but still doesn’t seem used to human customs or interaction. And that’s the problem. Despite supporting the human race, they seem to avoid humans for the most part.

ANYWAY, with Steven there, they are confronted with all things human in a short amount of time. Unlike Steven, they didn’t raise Greg. They have to live with Steven every single day. Steven makes them confront problems that they wouldn’t have confronted without him there in their lives. He gives them human problems and shows them the effects of their emotions within themselves and on others. He bridges their relationships. He helps them and helps them help themselves, even if he doesn’t realize he’s doing it. He connects them to their human side. He is the bridge between races and in all senses of the word, a healer. It’s said a lot, but it really is true.