pipiipek answered:

And you’re sending this to me because why exactly? Am I really going to have to defend her for very obvious reasons? I guess so since obviously Tumblr continuously asks for complex characters, yet bitches about them whenever they get one. So let me set this straight for everyone who seems to be confused.

So let’s start by cutting to the chase before I poke holes in your argument. I’m not saying that pearls actions are okay – you’re right for saying that she’s wrong. What I am saying is that she doesn’t deserve to receive the amount of hate and dislike that she does for something she cant really help. Pearl was created by Rebecca Sugar to help people understand mental illnesses and self worth – not for people to hate. And this has flown right over everyone’s head and so far failed to get it’s point across, because ya’ll are too ignorant to see it.

Now seeing as you sent this to me, I’m going to make the assumption that you do not have and/or deal with any mental illnesses such as PTSD. and also going off of this assumption, I’m going to assume that you have no idea what PTSD can cause. So I’ll list a few examples since in order to get y’all to understand, I need to start at the basics that Tumblr always seem to over look.

PTSD Symptoms Include:

1. Re-experiencing the traumatic event.

2. Feelings of intense distress when reminded of the trauma.



Examples:

In Rose’s Scabbard when she’s running away from Lion and Steven, she shouts: “Get that thing away from me!”

In Warp Tour after they discover Peridot for the first time, she sounds very distressed and says: “I can’t do this. Not again.”

3. Irritability or outbursts of anger.

Other symptoms of PTSD that Pearl has shown:

Guilt, shame, or self-blame.

Acting out the trauma through play, stories, or drawings.



Lack of coping skills.



Fear of being separated from Parent/someone they’re close to (or in this case, the crystal gems and/or Rose).

So how exactly did Pearl develop PSTD you ask? Simple. The rebellion/gem war that Pearl talks about and has flashbacks about nearly every time that Rose is mentioned in front of her. Notice how under the causes of PSTD in the source, it says that War is one of the reasons why people develop the illness.

And to add along to it, the sudden loss of a loved one can also bring on PTSD. So if you doubt that the war effected her, you can’t say that loosing Rose didn’t. And I can hear the argument to this now. ‘9 months isnt sudden’. Um. Yeah, it actually is. To an alien that is 6,000+ years old in canon; 9 months is literally a blink of an eye and a very short span of time to loose someone that you’ve been with for well over that.

As someone who suffers from, and has been diagnosed with several mental illnesses, I can confirm that a lot of the time I don’t realize what I’m doing to other people. Now this doesn’t make people’s actions okay – but it doesn’t mean you can hate them for something they can’t control.

It would be an issue if Pearl knew what she was doing and how she was hurting people; but she doesn’t.

If you notice Pearl’s expression after Amethyst and Garnet form Sugilite in the newest episode (A Cry for Help); you can see how terrified she looks. She’s clutching her abdomen and staring wide-eyed at the tower’s being destroyed. This is because she’s realizing what she’s done and that she’s hurt Garnet when that wasn’t her true intention at all. She only wanted to be with her and feel like she was needed.

Pearl is mentally ill and she has severe self-worth issues which was also expressed in ‘Sworn to the Sword’ both when she’s teaching Connie and when she’s singing Do it for Him/Her. She needs help, and like most people, she cannot and/or will not ask for it. Her actions need to ask for her. Self worth is a big issue in today’s world, and usually is dismissed or overlooked.

And that’s why this episode’s name is ‘A Cry for Help’. It’s not a reference to Peridot who is actually trying to get help, but rather Pearl who has subsequently expressed several times now that she needs it, but won’t ask. Pearl is crying out for help.

So what was Pearl’s true intention? Simple. She wanted to feel like she was something. She wanted to feel wanted and powerful. She wanted Garnet to make her feel like Rose made her feel. And is that such a bad want? Is it so bad to want feel like you’re worth something? No. It’s not. It’s something we all crave. It’s a very human quality, and that’s why so many people hate it.

And Pearl’s self-worth issues route from where, exactly? From back on Home World. Many other people such as perdituus have already explained their Headcannon’s about what Pearl’s are back on Home World, and I’m going to piggy-back off of it.

I’m assuming that Pearl’s are cheaply made and mass produced gems. They’re probably mass produced as labor gems such as servants or maintenance gems which were most likely replaced by Peridot’s in later years after the rebellion. And that’s pretty much as low as you can get if you’re that disposable. And for Pearl to be a potentially ‘Lost Defective Pearl’ as Jasper called her, that puts her even lower than even her fellow Pearl’s.

So right out of the gate, Pearl was already told she was basically worth nothing. Pearl stated she was a few thousand years old before she started to fight beside Rose Quartz; so that tells me that she suffered with this by herself for well over 1,000 years.

This is only further supported by what Amethyst said in tonight’s episode (A Cry for Help), because she was trying to defend Pearl. Amethyst understood exactly how Pearl felt – as she has self-worth issues herself. It’s so hard for Garnet to understand and forgive her for, because Garnet does not have self-worth issues. So loves herself. She’s made of love and does not loathe herself. She loves being who she is and would do whatever she needed to do to stay fused. Whereas Pearl and Amethyst would do anything they could to not be themselves. Which is why Pearl was so obsessed with being Sardonyx, and why Amethyst got so carried away being Sugilite in ‘Coach Steven’.

Also commenting on your ‘forceful fusion’ portion. Pearl never forced anyone to fuse with her. In fact she’s rather uncomfortable being fused as Opal and Alexandrite. All of her fusions were entirely consensual. Yes, she manipulated the situation for Garnet to fuse, but she didn’t force her. She didn’t force Rose to fuse with her in ‘We Need to Talk’, either. Rose was more than happy to form Rainbow Quartz with her.

And while it isn’t Garnet’s fault that it’s how Amethyst and Pearl feel, it is her responsibility as their leader to try to understand. They’re her teammates, and she needs to understand them in order to trust and guide them. They’ll continue to be a weak and directionless team without Rose if she can’t do this for them.

And the whole thing about Pearl using Rainbow Quartz to get back at Greg has already been defended by many users; so I’m not going to go in depth on it. Basically you’re getting mad at her for being jealous – which is a sin all humans possess. That’s literally what you’re getting mad at. Yes. It was wrong. But can you honestly say that you yourself haven’t acted selfishly out of jealousy? Probably not. I have. Everyone I know has.

All you guys are hating her for is being a human character. She has mental illness’s, and she is very expressive with her emotions. And this is why people hate her. She’s too real. Too real that people can’t handle her and they’re failing to understand and ‘missing the point of the entire show’, as Ian JQ said in a Twitter post a while back.

So, Tumblr. If you can’t handle complex

and mentally ill characters, stop asking for them.