You were right to leave. I always thought that you were failing this world. But, if you were happier on Earth, maybe... this world was... failing you.

pink diamond is a character i am constantly thinking about and turning over and over in my mind. i wish we got more of her. i think the depth of her character was greatly overshadowed by the popular bad faith interpretations of her character present by the end of su future.

HELLO PETRIGROF NATION 🤩🤩 Fionna and Cake finale destroyed me and made me very sad so I couldn't draw anything except silly doodles to cope pls enjoy

Was pearl always a slave to rose?

Lol no, not even a question. It's probably more productive to ask "was Pearl ever a slave to Rose?"

From the very beginning, Rose talked to Pearl, asked for her input, and encouraged her to share her feelings. The idea to spend time on Earth together and for Pink Diamond to take on the form of a rose quartz in the first place was Pearl's idea. Along with Rose and Pearl were the founding members of the Crystal Gems. Pearl and Rose would both step out of the roles that gem society forced on them and tried to create a new world together where they can be free to enjoy life as equals

Even after all this, Pearl still can't help but have doubts, that her new path is somehow "wrong," and that being independent and even thinking for herself is a bridge too far, and asks Rose to order her to stop being independent and free

And how does Rose respond?

"Please, don't ever stop."

As for the vow to keep the truth about Pink Diamond a secret, I think it's more than just than Rose not wanting Pearl to tell anyone, it's that she truly wanted to leave that part of herself behind forever. Keeping the truth a secret effectively made sure Pink Diamond, and all the parts of herself she hated, were truly "dead." It's no surprise that Pearl was willing to keep the secret, even from people like Garnet and Bismuth. But when Steven comes along and starts asking more and more questions, Pearl makes the choice to help him learn the truth, even if she can't directly tell him herself. (If she didn't want to help him or couldn't, she simply wouldn't have)

Even after Rose's death Pearl keeps fighting to protect the world that she and Rose worked so hard for. They had spent their whole lives, on the order of 6,000 years together, and Rose was the one who helped her gain freedom and to choose her own path. When Rose does give up her life (which, keep in mind, isn't something that immortal beings like gems would usually have to deal with or learn to accept) for some reason Pearl doesn't fully understand yet, it takes her time to overcome the pain of loss, and overcome it she does. Pearl isn't a slave, she's just mourning, I think she's deserved it a little

Butterfly Rebellion

ah yes, my favorite media. a grand story about the horror and tragedy of war set featuring a massive space war that was a rebellion against an oppressive colonial empire hellbent on conquest (which also experiments on its subjects), a main cast of mostly female characters, a key romance between two women, and a clone army of female super soldiers.

my favorite character in this story is a woman named rose. though not physically present in the text, her absence echoes throughout the narrative in a way that makes those closest to her do great and terrible things. she comprises one half of the key romance (of which the other half is deeply devoted to her even after she is gone). she has done some deeply awful things in her past, but that doesn't stop me excusing her shitty actions <3

wait, am i talking about steven universe or once upon a time in space?

(meme redraw lol)

quark would definitely get an abortion but odo wouldn't. just because i think odo personally would really want to be a mother if he was ever physically capable of getting pregnant

I just got through the Earthlings arc during my SU rewatch and im absolutely facinated by Jaspers character

She’s such an effective antagonist for so long because she clashes with every other character so fundamentally. She’s got this completely foreign to the show worldview that is shown to be contrary to what the rest of the show is trying to say but she still feels like a real person and when you think about her she’s just as much a product of her circumstances as anyone else. She doesn’t want to talk it out with Steven because why would she? She was literally born to fight as has been doing so since the second she was born, it’s all she’s ever known and has been drilled into her head that that’s what’s expected of her, she’s rewarded for fighting well and watches as others are punished for doing badly, either by losing or by facing consequences for failing.

And then there’s the whole “perfect solider” part of her character. She was literally born more capable and with a higher status than everyone else. But because of the way home world is structured to reward her and punish people like the off-colours, she’s been indoctrinated into thinking that the reason she came out on top had nothing to do with how she was made and everything to do with her behaviour and attitude. Peak “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” type person but because it’s a fictional story you can see what happened to make her this way. Her and amethyst are fundamentally different, they’re different quartzes, they were born in different places, they were just created differently, from the start jasper was always going to be better at some things than amethyst and amethyst would be better at others than jasper. But because of the way jasper has been “raised” for lack of a better word she doesn’t see that, she doesn’t understand that her and amethyst are simply different gems who were made different, she’s better at fighting and is picture image of what a quartz “should” be so that means it’s possible and anyone who can’t live up to that standard simply isn’t trying hard enough. And she even manages to get that into amethysts head, if jasper is capable of this then that means that amethyst must be too, even tho that’s simply not true. Through no fault of her own amethyst would have to try infinitely harder to achieve even close to where jasper is, jasper started out with a huge head start and trying to play catch up does nothing but hurt amethyst. It’s such a good analogy for so many things I think

Her main role in the story is serving as a character who simply refuses to talk it out with Steven, but again, why would she? From her perspective the entire reason her life is like this, she reason shes spent her life fighting endlessly, all the suffering shes lives through, its his fault. Rose Quartz started the war she was quite literally born to fight in. Rose Quartz also ended that same war by killing the only person jasper ever had to look up to, forced her out of the only reason she had for existing (both as in to fight the war and to serve Pink Diamond). And then heres Rose Quartz once again, saying she wants to help her? Where was she offering help when jasper when she was living to fight as much as she was fighting to live? Where was this „help“ when she shattered Pink Diamond and Jaspers entire world with her? „Help“? Help my ass shes the reason everything thats gone wrong in jaspers life went wrong in the first place

And then she gets poofed at her lowest point, gets removed from the story entirely until Future, and Future does nothing to make anything better for her! Last jasper knew the person shes been seeking revenge on her entire existence cant even be bothered to remember what she did, and then she loses herself to the Earth and corruption, the very things she prided herself on being better than.

And then suddenly shes brought back and „hey guess what! That war we created you to fight in? The one you created your entire person around? The one you lost Everything in? Yeah so it was pointless. Actually the person you idolised for the past 6000 years is the same person who you thought killed her and have been seeking vengeance on for the same amount of time. Crazy how that happens. Anyways so do you wanna come hang out with us now that we sorted that out and were chill about it?“

Can you even IMAGINE what that feels like? No wonder she runs off into the woods and becomes a hermit what else is she supposed to do! Shes got nowhere to go! Her entire life has been turned on its head and she’s expected to just move on! That’s ridiculous!

And thats just the backdrop for her appearance in Future. When she finally does appear they kill her and thats the first and only time we ever see her happy. Someone Finally speaks to her in a way she can understand and she actually dies, and uses that to find herself a purpose. If steven is powerful enough to shatter her, a feat never before seen by a gem, then sure she can serve him, anything to give her life purpose again. and then they just forget about her! Steven literally ditched her in his house! They pull the rug out from under her Once Again. but now she can be „normal“ now she can do what other people want her to do so they all assume shes „better“ now.

I think future did her so dirty the original show handles her character So Well and im not really sure how else they could have gone further with her character because people like Jasper in real life dont really change. And if she were to change and agree with steven it would feel like the show saying steven was right and jasper was wrong and she should have listened to him from the start. Shes such an interesting character to delve into because shes the antagonist yes but shes a very specific type or antagonist that doesnt appear very often and when it does its not with as much backstory, even if just implied, or delving into the thoughts behind the actions. Its so interesting to me

False Idol

live laugh love rose quartz

Absolutely in love with character deaths that are almost selfish in nature. Its kinda like, "I know this will kill me, i know this would kill me in horrifying and painful ways. But I am choosing this for myself, i am choosing to die on my own terms." Especially when said character has had little to no agency for a lot of their life, and this was like a final fuck you. Like a liberation in tragedy, a catharsis in sorrow. Your need to be free and your need to self destruct.

"we need flawed female characters" yall couldnt even handle rose quartz😭😭😭

Remembering the toxic hellscape that was 2015-2019ish SU fandom and just how much hate the show got is really insane when you rewatch the show after it's been a while. Like the show is good what the hell were any of these people talking about

anons crazy 4 this one im not sorry. like truly calling it a ZERO out of TEN arc. u must be crazy im not sorry

"We need more unhinged women scientists" y'all couldn't even handle princess bubblegum

sun wukong isn't morally grey, his flaws are just written more tact than you guys are used to in a kids show

some of yall will just pretend misogyny isn't extremely prevalent in fandom spaces like dont think I forgot about how yall treated rose quartz. dont think I forgot how yall treated squirrelflight