One of the things I really have been loving about this season, as we go deeper into the Gems’ personalities, is the striking similarities between Pearl and Amethyst defining emotional issues. At their core, they are both characters suffering from a crisis of self-confidence.
Pearl tries to pin her self-worth to her performance and service to others.
Amethyst tries to deny that she has a problem at all by acting as if she’s not affected by her emotions or the emotions of other people
They both see Garnet as someone who is stronger than both of them, who can “fix” their problems by fusing with them. But as we saw in Future Vision, even Garnet has moments of self-doubt and fear that she isn’t good enough, and she worries that she won’t be able to connect with the people who are important to her in a meaningful way.
Personally, I theorize that Garnet’s status as a fusion is the main
reason why she’s been able to cope so well (so far) with being thrust
into the de facto leadership position now that Rose is gone. Ruby and Sapphire are acting as each other’s emotional support through the fusion of their personalities, and that stability is obviously very attractive to Pearl and Amethyst (although neither of them are in a good emotional place to participate as equal partners in a relationship like the one Garnet embodies at this time).
But I have the impression that even Garnet is only barely holding it together at times (as we saw in Keeping It Together), and I think that’s why she is so furious with Pearl for manipulating the situation with the Communications Tower. She’s putting all of her mental and emotional energy into keeping the world safe, she doesn’t have much left over to work on her team mates.
It’s easy to see why Pearl, Amethyst, and even Garnet act the ways that they do, and even easy to sympathize with the pain that they must be dealing with every day.
People in pain often do things that hurt themselves and others if they don’t know how to deal with their pain in a healthy way.
I point this out because I know that a lot of people watching the show identify with both Pearl and Amethyst, and I see them feeling more hurt when others demonize these characters. A balanced approach is needed. Maybe Steven will be that balance. I know he’s trying to be…
This whole big, ugly, really awful thing that Pearl did?
This NEEDED to happen.
Let me be totally upfront about this: I ADORE Pearl. I love her six ways to Sunday. From her elegance to her easily plucked nerves, from her brilliance to her narrow-minded floundering, from her love and devotion to the people she cares about to her utterly selfish need for love and validation. The good, the awful, I love it all for a ton of different reasons. And having said that, I can say, with certainty.
Pearl fucked up.
And she severely hurt someone she cares about.
And it’s about damn time.
Until now, all of Pearl’s mistakes: her oversights, her carelessness, her narrow-vision, her obliviousness to the human condition, and her absolute selfishness (and let’s be real, Pearl could easily be the most selfish character on the show), have all been swept under the rug. They caused no lasting harm, so nobody raised a stink. Her mistakes were either corrected before anyone got hurt or, through sheer blind luck, managed to play out without causing any major damage.
No harm, no foul, the world keeps turning.
But not this time.
This time, Pearl did something that she can’t hide from, nor can she or the others ignore. She betrayed the trust of someone who called her a very dear friend.
Not only that, but she did so in such a way that it must offend that person to their very core. Garnet lives her life as a fusion. She understands fusion intimately, she respects fusion, she treasures fusion as the ultimate expression of love and companionship that two gems can experience. It’s something sacred. Something to be done with mutual consent and with the understanding of a bond between the two fused partners. Fusion is the deepest connection that two gems can have.
And Pearl lied to facilitate that. She tricked Garnet into fusing. She sullied a bond that Garnet obviously thought was both precious and beautiful.
An action like that deeply undermines all that fusion, as I understand it, is meant to be.
And Garnet is livid. More than rightfully so. She’s furious, hurt, and appalled.
And she and Pearl have to live together.
For the very first time, Pearl has to deal with the consequences of her selfishness. She has to face the ramifications of her actions and witness the harm that they can do. For once, she has to be faced with the fact that people can be seriously hurt by her insecurities and obsessions. She is not the only one affected and it has finally gone over the edge.
This will not be easily forgiven. This will never be forgotten. This could stain her relationship with Garnet for well into the next few millennia.
She’s gotta deal with this and it is well past time that she does. This is her chance to grow. To move past her inner demons and become a better person. A more complete person.
I want a cup that overflows with love Although it’s not enough to fill my heart I want a barrel full of love Although I know it’s not enough to fill my heart I want a river full of love But then I know the holes will still remain I need an ocean full of love Although I know the holes will still remain
FYI: Blue Ringed Octopi bites do not necessarily cause death. They cause paralysis with a potent neurotoxin.
If you are with someone who has been bitten, they will stop breathing; their heart will stop; they will seem dead. They are NOT dead. They are paralysed!
This is St John Ambulance First Aid procedure; 1. Start CPR right away and call an ambulance pronto. 2. Close their eyelids and cover their eyes with some cloth; they’re unable to blink, so there’s a danger their eyes will dry out and, if out in the sun, that their retinas will burn and they’ll become blind. 3. Keep going with CPR. Just keep going! 30 compressions, two breaths, to the rhymth of Bee Gees’ Stayin’ Alive. Taking turns with several people is the best way to not tire out. The patient is still alive in there, terrified and massively grateful that you’re doing their breathing for them. DO NOT STOP until paramedics arrive to take over.
These little suckers can be found basically everywhere. Everyone should know this information!
THIS COULD SAVE A LIFE
New CPR protocol says to aim for 100 compressions per minute, so do as many compete compressions as best you can.
THANKYOU theres a ton of these where I live and people I know have almost picked them up thinking they are starfish
universal pictures really dug themselves into a hole with the “minions flock to the biggest villain on the planet” thing because there’s no way to deny that minions must have worked for like, fascist italy or the mafia… but they made their bed so now they can lie in it
minions are directly responsible for every war crime and atrocity in human history
ok but it gets better (and by better i mean more horrifying)
which means the filmmakers conveniently avoided having the minions work for hitler, but in the process imply that, had they been around, they totally would have
In Jurassic world when the pterodactyl picked up and threw down the baby triceratops I saw the exact moment I’d risk my life to save a baby dinosaur and try to fight a full fucking grown pterodactyl
you know whats bs? the fact that many disorders are only diagnosed if theyre “a significant hindrance to your functioning” except, neurodivergent people are literally forced to “function” in a world made for neurotypical people, so how can you even tell what impairs our function when we’ve been forced since birth to act as though we’re functioning perfectly fine and to push ourselves to unhealthy limits to do so
I don’t know if anyone else has added this but that concept can be very dangerous not just because it denies people the medical attention they might need or desire but because it can push them to purposely stop coping in order to access it.
For me personally, I was about 12 when a therapist told me “you have eating disorder like thoughts and behaviours but I’m not going to diagnose or treat you for it because you don’t meet the other criteria”. (i.e. being a certain percentile in the underweight class).
So essentially what this woman told me was “I need to see you starve before I will provide the care you need” and my response was to do just that. I needed help and I was desperate for it. I would prove myself and my sickness to her. If it had to “get before it got better” so be it”.
I went from barely fighting to choke down every bite of food and restricting nutrition intake to not eating at all. Long story short, I lost so much weight I nearly died. This fucked up psychology philosophy almost killed me and I can’t be the only one.
#see also: “someone else’s problem are worse so I don’t deserve treatment” #see also: “it’s not THAT bad” #for fuck’s sake why does it NEED to get “that bad”? #when a bone is cracked you don’t wait for it to break #when blood pressure STARTS edging out of norm it gets treated (via hagar-972)
