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.

Pearl and Amethyst’s bad actions don’t need to be justified, but they also don’t need to be demonized. That’s not how people get better. Some studies show that love and social acceptance might be the best cure for self-destructive behavior and this is already one of the major themes of the show.

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…

More about this as the week goes on, probably…