#the new crystal gems

[subestu]

Round 1: Introduction

[vhsripstevenuniversescreencaps]

[yahoo201027]

Day in Fandom History: February 10…

While Steven, Pearl, Amethyst, and Garnet head out to rescue the captured Greg from Pink Diamond’s Zoo, back on Earth, Connie, Lapis, and Peridot stay behind and team up to protect Beach City from potential threats while they are away under Steven’s orders. “The New Crystal Gems” premiered on this day, 7 Years Ago.

[rosenotactuallyquartz]

i just got involved with the fandom on social media, and i’m surprised that the pearlrose “unrequited” misconception is still a thing, after all these years. i’m also surprised by how hated they are. as a ship, individually, etc.

even if sugar + burnett didn’t state that pearlrose was requited, i would know from the behavior of their friends.

in the movie, amethyst referred to rose as the “love of pearl’s life.” sapphire told pearl that she “swept rose off her feet.” pearl + rose lived together for centuries, but they also lived with garnet + amethyst. if the love was unrequited, they would have behaved very differently.

pearl herself would have behaved differently, too. she’s incredibly intelligent. many girls crush on her and she’s survived a lot, even prior to rose’s death. i could never picture a situation in which pearl lives with someone she is so clearly in love with for so many years, while that someone doesn’t feel the same way. pearl survived a war, escaped from homeworld, then raised a child & fixed the issues between her & greg during the early stages of grief. she loved and protected someone for thousands of years, and then lost her. if it was unrequited over 5,000 years ago, pearl wouldn’t be saying rose made her feel like she was “everything” and pearl probably would have taken space. rose would encourage this, because pearl’s happiness was always important to her.

their requited love and deep emotional connection that they had with no one else is evident, even without all the clear evidence in the episodes. rose wouldn’t blush and exclaim, “please don’t ever stop” as a response to pearl’s love confession if she didn’t feel the same way. she would simply say, “yes, you should imagine things on your own, but…” and they absolutely would not have nearly fused.

the flashbacks with greg are confusing and there’s information about pearlrose left out *because* this is a story told by greg to his child. of course there are missing perspectives and details left out. and also, there are thousands of years between the war flashbacks and the greg flashbacks. pearl and rose spent centuries together and we only see about ten years in total. the creators confirmation that pearlrose is requited *can* make sense.

every steven universe relationship is complicated with undesirable aspects. pearl and rose were two very traumatized individuals who went through so much together. yet they don’t seem to get much sympathy, from what i’ve seen on some platforms. one or both characters are often viewed as “toxic,” and their relationship being nonexistent and unrequited makes less sense than the opposite. are there some unhealthy aspects? of course! but i also think the unhealthy aspects of so many other relationships in the show are overlooked. just like how the beautiful parts of pearlrose are ignored. the *love* between pearlrose is ignored.

[cruucigerglobus]

the woke mob (my friends) are making me rewatch Shawn Galaxy. here’s my almost redesigned rock moms.

- garnet looks like a superhero cause she is one, also more “spiritual” gauntlets for her

- amethyst is barely changed because she is perfect. other than that she has snakebites and an eyebrow piercing somehow, as a projection of light. she’s also wearing orisises

- pearl gets a more dramatic poet look cause she is one.

none of their chosen aesthetics match at all cause in my head i exaggerate how unfamiliar they are with normal human culture. they think they’re super on trend

[pastelpinkillustrator]

Happy New Year, all the way from Australia! (And from Steven & the Gems) 🎉

[wolfnellz]

Some Steven Universe Fan Art of Lion. (Available on Live Wall Paper Engine from Steam) More on my Ko-Fi Page https://ko-fi.com/wolfnellz

[eskititgay]

haha fuck you *ponifies your gems*

[artbyblastweave]

Your description of yourself is the guy with Opinions on Steven Universe so say what you think of Peridot

Fond of her. I don't think I've got much to say about her that the more singularly fixated SU analysts haven't gotten to. I will say that she's a pretty salient example of a quote-unquote "redemption arc" that's facilitated in large part by the villain being "redeemed" never having actually caused serious, lasting, unfixable harm before switching sides, such that the story being told in practice is the story of an interpersonally unpleasant person working on themselves and learning to be less of a tar pit- jazzed up with ray guns and cartoonish doomsday devices. This is interesting taken on its own terms, but not necessarily morally interesting in the way the phrase "redemption arc" would ideally imply.

Contrast (unfavorably) with Entrapta in She-Ra, where they're clearly chasing a Peridot-adjacent energy, but the narrative treats the conflict between her and the protagonists as a similar kind of souped-up interpersonal miscommunication when no, she's in fact on the hook for very literal war crimes in a way the narrative was never really prepared to weigh seriously due to the use of a handful of Princesses as a metonym for everything meaningful SPOP is interested in trying to say, to the exclusion of more literal, non-metaphorical worldbuilding. Zuko, meanwhile, sits in a happy middle ground where he genuinely is attached to some morally heinous shit that the show is interested in weighing and unpacking, but not so deeply attached as to become synonymous with it in a way that would make his redemption come across as apologetics. (I sort of use these three as reference points when calculating how annoyed to get at the writing decisions of whatever children's cartoon I'm currently watching- this does not translate very well outside of that space methinks)

[thedruidsforest]

Some new items I'm working on for my Etsy shop! 💚 I have a craft show coming up in November that I'm SO excited for, I'm hoping to have everything listed online before the show as well.

If you're interested in any of these before they hit the shop (for a cheaper price as well), as always please message me!

Link to TheDruidsForest on Etsy

[wuzhere75]

procreate curves save me

[sevenines]

i’ve always taken rose’s “take care of them steven” as something meant to initially be sweet but is one of those statements turned sour in retrospect. rose knows that shes leaving behind the gems. yet she believes so strongly in the good of humanity and the awfulness of herself that she trusts them with steven. and he does take care of them! soothe their pains from rose’s absence and help them carry their baggage. but he’s a kid and he shouldntve had to be the caretaker for his broken family in the first place. he did what his mom couldn’t do, and it broke him.

[yahoo201027]

Day in Fandom History: February 10…

While Steven, Pearl, Amethyst, and Garnet head out to rescue the captured Greg from Pink Diamond’s Zoo, back on Earth, Connie, Lapis, and Peridot stayed behind and team up to protect Beach City from potential threats while they are away under Steven’s orders. “The New Crystal Gems” premiered on this day, 6 Years Ago.

[rosenotactuallyquartz]

an overlooked part of the “why won’t you just let me do this for you, rose,” scene.

notice the lines before she accidentally calls steven rose:

pearl: you shouldn’t be anywhere near the fight! you’re too important!

steven: i am not!

pearl: yes, you are.

steven: no!

pearl: why won’t you just let me do this for you, rose?!

rebecca sugar said this about rose in the book end of an era:

“Rose is her own worst enemy — literally, she fought herself. The way she felt about herself caused so much pain for everybody around her, especially the people who loved her and the people she wanted to love. One thing I find really interesting is that the way she idolized everyone around her was very sincere. She thought everyone around her was so much better than she was.”

this says so much about pearl, and about pearl’s relationship with rose.

she says the name rose after steven tells her that he is “not important.”

often, coming off as being very attached was pearl worrying about her and wanting to take care of her; there’s so much more depth than simply seeing her as this brilliant strong leader.

people remember that pearl knew rose as a diamond, but it’s easy to overlook the fact that she witnessed a lot of the things pink went through. she saw how blue and yellow treated her… and she also knew how white treated her. we all heard the things white diamond said about pink in change your mind. we all know how terrified pearl was when steven was left in a room alone with white for five minutes.

people remember that pearl kept a lot of rose’s secrets, but it’s easy to overlook the fact that keeping so many of her dark secrets and having such a close connection in general likely involved rose dropping facade and telling pearl about her dark thoughts when she was sad.

rose was the first gem that pearl fused with, and vice-versa, which was very special as a diamond and pearl. fusion is about trusting an individual completely. this was before they lived together for over 5,000 years.

when we watch pearl, even in the early seasons of steven universe, she is protective of steven, extremely intelligent, nurturing, and strong. a major part of her character is that she takes care of everyone around her. and this is while she’s grieving.

pearl’s love for rose was never just about devotion to a leader. she also loved rose as… a person, really.

she knew the most about rose and she loved all of her, even the parts that rose could not stand. she loved versions of rose that no one else knew about; she loved every single aspect of her.

people like to call her obsessive, heck, even white did, but their love is so often misunderstood because of their former roles in a traumatizing environment that they were both trying to escape from.

pearl’s love for rose went far beyond loyalty and admiration for a leader.

she wanted to protect rose from the war. but she wanted to protect rose from her own mind, too.

[voltage-stims]

Vivian stimboard one two three .. four five six .. seven eight nine

with transgender theme. bc. happy pride [is soooo late]

[pastelpinkillustrator]

Drawing an AU with Steven and Rose Together - Part 12 - New Years Fireworks

Happy new year, 2023! Enjoy these colour changing fireworks with the Quartz-Universe family 🌟❤

(I also made an extremely sad version of this one but I don’t know if I’m brave enough to post it)