#PearlRose

[rosenotactuallyquartz]

in relation to my last post, it’s so funny to me when people say that pearl and rose were unrequited/never in a relationship.

mitroff who did the storyboard for their fusion literally made pearlrose art. sugar & burnett confirmed they were not unrequited and…

the vas literally roleplay rosepearl for fun

i don’t know deedee as well as susan because susan egan is my favourite actress of all time and i literally grew up hearing her voice but every time i have watched anything with them, they’ve brought up pearl and rose’s relationship. and yes, they say relationship.

this is in character, guys. rose is inspired by pearl. pearl thinks rose is adorable.

this is everything i talk about when i don’t have school work to do i— *shakes you* LOOK AT THEM

Deedee Hall and Susan Egan talking (bit in character)

[rosenotactuallyquartz]

three gems & a baby

there’s this line that pearl says in three gems and a baby, a flashback that takes place less than a year after rose’s death.

greg: i never glowed when i was a kid.

pearl: we never… were kids.

this line may not seem like it would have more meaning. it’s sad on it’s own, and at the time that this episode is released, rose’s past as pink diamond also hasn’t been revealed yet.

eventually, everyone discovers pearl knew her "a few thousand years" before her colony. steven then returns to homeworld, where pink’s old room has childish coloured drawings of the other diamonds with hostile expressions. we hear white's remarks about pink & see the dark room she’d be locked in.

in change your mind, white scolds who she thinks is pink for "acting like a child." yet, pink was very much a child in a mental way, in a gem way. she was naive, playful, childish. her beliefs also conflicted with the beliefs that her abusers had. she cared for all life, including those deemed inferior, & she was recognized by the pebbles as the one gem who would say thank you. she was still learning a lot about everything, including her skills & passions & powers. the environment she knew since the beginning of her life lacked affection and care. the abuse prevented her from safely exploring & expressing who she was… and that’s besides the fact that gems in general were literally never able to be kids.

those were rose’s early years. the life she knew from the moment she first opened her eyes.

once they start their new lives on earth, rose is naturally fascinated by humans. she’s particularly in awe of the “power” growing up, & inventing who you are. having a childhood.

as a gem, this side of rose would likely be quite perplexing to pearl. rose’s death is sudden and she struggles to grasp why rose chose to have a child at the cost of her life. there are many reasons behind it (some that she refuses to even think about) but she comes to terms with one of the reasons in this episode.

we never were kids.

on earth, pearl + rose have seen colouring books & playgrounds. kids get to act like kids when they mentally are. they grow up and invent who they are on earth, which happens to be rose’s first safe environment that she could only call home long after the trauma she faced on homeworld.

in the early months, pearl alternates between many stages of grief. she knew that rose wouldn’t survive the pregnancy, confirmed by her memory in a single pale rose. sometimes pearl is in denial or she’s angry or bargaining (we see so many stages in this episode alone) but sadness appears to be her main feeling. it’s likely that pearl’s often reflecting on rose’s life. was she happy? how did she feel during this century? did she get enough love? did she have enough good memories?

of course, pearl saying “we never were kids” could very easily be about herself. since the beginning of her life, she was deeply traumatized by homeworld, too.

but pearl tends to put others first. she always prioritized the person she loved, she thought about rose before considering herself. this would be exacerbated by the recent death of rose, too.

aside from that, pearl's love for rose is deeply empathetic, involving caring for & sympathizing with aspects of rose she feels ashamed of.

“she wanted this so much. i just... don't... understand... why! everything should grow, and everything should change, and isn't it so great how it comes so naturally to humans? well, it's not natural for us!”

pearl says this line earlier in the episode, but after she says “we never were kids,” something shifts. the episode ends with everyone, including pearl, looking at steven with hopeful expressions.

she loves rose. she loves her so, so much & she’s struggling to come to terms with the fact that she will never see her again. over the next few thousands of years, she must be so afraid of forgetting the sound of her voice, her laughter.

she barely knows or understands steven, yet she already feels a natural protectiveness toward him. her feelings are complicated, but one thing is clear now: she wants to fulfill rose’s wish. after protecting & caring for rose & wanting to repair the damage caused by her abusers, she now holds that child and knows she’ll be close to him, keep him safe, ensure he never feels as rose did in her early years. he will have the childhood that rose never had, and she’ll be part of it. she wants to be. even if she’s not perfect and even if she doesn’t know much about humans yet.

“pearl is smart, and she always wants to protect me from danger!” — steven, steven the sword fighter

“all that matters is that steven is happy.” — pearl, gem glow

[yotoudunno160]

indescribable

[pearlusha]

tragic yuri at it's finest

commissions are open!!

[sunnyirry]

happy pride month to my fav girl twink 💘

reference:

[izzybluebell]

[rosaq]

rose being in love with pearl <3

[jennymas289]

;_; (Original made by Rebecca Sugar)

[alexandriaellisart]

was it over then, and is it over now?

[peridotite]

GOODD afternoon rebecca posted some young greg sketches and it includes pearl shapeshifting as him to get rose's attention.

"pearl, please... please stop, it's okay. we can do this, just don't be him."

[rosenotactuallyquartz]

when you made a mistake of saying Rose isn’t straight on tiktok and now you have 250 people proving you she didn’t love Pearl:……..

you want to know something very ironic?

susan egan, the voice of rose quartz, brings up pearl + rose’s relationship every. chance. she can get. & she describes them as having a relationship! she brought them up in the recent livestream, she sang the rose with pearl’s va on youtube. so many people who work for steven universe have stated that the love between pearl and rose is mutual. voice actors and storyboard artists have portrayed the characters as being in a relationship. rebecca sugar even confirmed that they’re not unrequited. the people who made pearlrose, essentially, either ship them or at the very least see their dynamic as being one that involves mutual feelings that go beyond platonic.

“i don’t know if i would call it unrequited!” — rebecca sugar interrupting an interviewer who describes pearl + rose as unrequited

“if it’s not, then i’ve misunderstood the whole thing!” — storyboarder raven molisee, also responsible for rose’s scabbard, when asked if the relationship between pearl + rose is romantic.

“i LOVE these two so i was absolutely ecstatic to draw this scene. i remember being really pressed to pack all of their passion and pearl’s smugness into one moment that lasts the length of a guitar solo… and their fusion that’s just an embodiment of that into one giant, shamelessly beautiful dancer!” — katie mitroff about fusion in we need to talk

rose quartz is my comfort character & even that is an understatement. she’s so much like me and she’s so meaningful, and i wish that more of the fandom could see this.

the way that her character is perceived really reflects some of the issues that we see in real life as well.

she’s amazing for understanding mental illness & trauma and that responses to pain are not always pretty. things are complicated & so are people. some people in the steven universe fandom want to oversimplify things by often making her a heartless villain. on the other hand, i feel like some rose fans act like she’s done nothing wrong or they like to downplay her issues and mental health struggles. not necessarily here, but elsewhere. some people hate the idea that rose’s decision to give up her physical form was self destructive, but it absolutely was. she’s not a villain but she is a cautionary tale. she has a big heart but she’s absolutely flawed. she never wanted to hurt anyone, but she did.

she’s amazing for body positivity in ways that go beyond simple things like appearance, but people are… so weird about it sometimes. i still remember being twelve years old & reading comments about how rose was “pretending to be fat” the whole time after the pink diamond reveal. that was… really upsetting to read! six years later, i’m trying to help folks understand that this is not the case. there’s so much more depth and detail and comfort, really, than those silly reddit jokes and fandom hostility.

… and she’s amazing for sapphic representation. she’s canonically m-spec but the fandom can be so, so weird about that. as a bisexual girl myself, it bothers me so much that we need to convince so many people that she loved pearl while pretty much everyone validates her relationship with a man. not only validates… they see it as perfect and better and i don’t usually see people talk about the many flaws of that relationship. yes, pearl + rose’s relationship was flawed too. rose has a pattern of unstable relationships! but people can be codependent and genuinely in love at the same time. they can be in bad situations but they can still be… genuinely in love. & pearl and rose’s relationship is not less valid because people perceive their relationship as… more flawed than the other relationship (mainly because lots of people don’t think about the other relationship’s issues)

the biggest misconception of pearl and rose’s relationship is that their love wasn’t real

the biggest misconception of rose and greg’s relationship is that they got married

that’s very interesting to me.

if rose isn’t seen as a straight up villain, i find that lots of the fandom puts so much importance on two things: having a relationship with a man, and being a mother. & as a girl who relates to her, i think there’s so much more to her character and i’ll stop there because i have an entire thing i wrote about rose & the fandom here! /np/nf

i’m sorry about the fandom, anon. i’d go on tiktok and defend you but i don’t have a tiktok account because of my adhd (racing thoughts + a bunch of videos about different things at once = not my favourite app). you’re absolutely right and i wish more people understood that.

[thats-how-i-like-it]

"I'm a Being from Another World and I had a lovely situationship with a woman only for Some Guy to take her away from me" vs "I'm Some Guy and I had a lovely situationship with a man only for a Being from Another World to take him away from me."

aka wlw/mlm solidarity.

[kitkatcatmeow]

angsty 2010s cartoon ships... oh i love u..... never leave

[amaryllidae]

nothing in the world belongs to me but my love mine, all mine, all mine

[pastelpinkillustrator]

Art & Origins Sketch Redraw - Happy Halloween from the Gem Coven! Must be the season of the witch... 🔮

[izzybluebell]

surprise! it was pearlrose all along