Pearl

"Pearl" is a main protagonist in Steven Universe.

One of Rose Quartz's closest followers, Pearl is one of the last surviving Gems on Earth who rebelled against the Gem Homeworld to stop their invasion of the planet. Joining the Crystal Gems, Pearl would protect the Earth over the next several millennia alongside her friends while later teaching Rose's son, Steven, in the ways of her people.

Personality
Pearl is a perfectionist and strategist who values thought and reason. She is very intelligent, graceful, and controlled, having a wide range of knowledge on many topics from the history of Gem-kind to Rocket Science. Although she gets easily flustered when her plans fail, or when Amethyst says something she doesn't think Steven should hear, she is very caring and motherly toward Steven, to the point of occasionally being overbearing, but always well-meaning. Despite her intelligent and calm demeanor she has been known to be overwhelmed when confronted by an unknown force or an ability or situation she does not understand. She also has need to keep everything organized, she has gone as far to impale a teddy bear to maintain symmetry in a pile various appliances and school supplies.

Out of all the Crystal Gems, Pearl appears to be the most poorly adjusted to life on earth, generally being unaware of human social conventions and activities such as jokes, games, arcades, food, and birthday parties, as well as showing a great desire to leave Earth and return to space in "Space Race" (going so far as to risk her own and Steven's life in an attempt to leave Earth, only until it was clear they wouldn't make it did she agree to bail). Pearl also seems to have a generally negative view of humanity, as evidenced by her statement in "Keep Beach City Weird", "Humans just live short, boring, insignificant lives, so they make up stories to feel like they're a part of something bigger. They want to blame all the world's problems on some single enemy they can fight, instead of a complex network of interrelated forces beyond anyone's control."

Despite this, she is dedicated to her cause in protecting humanity more or less out of her love, loyalty and dedication to Rose Quartz. She does find certain aspects of Earth rather amazing as seen in "Serious Steven" where she comments on how wild strawberries made the Gem Battlefield their new home.

Appearance
Pearl has a thin, crane-like body and pale white skin with a bluish-greenish tint. Her short hair is light peach and is stylized to a point like pixie cut. She has large light blue eyes, which become spiral and hypnotic whenever she becomes over-excited and stressed like she does in "Shirt Club", and a pointy, cone-shaped nose. Pearl's gemstone is a large pearl embedded in her forehead. She is a few inches shorter than Garnet.

Abilities
All Gems have the ability to summon a weapon, shape-shift, fuse, and retreat into their gemstone to heal. Activating her gemstone, she summons a spear. She can fuse with Amethyst to create Opal, though is only willing to in dangerous situations. She can also fuse with Amethyst and Garnet to form Alexandrite.

Pearl is shown to be quite knowledgeable in human engineering, despite her naiveté towards human culture overall, as she was able to repair and upgrade Greg's destroyed van and was able to construct a spaceship out of scrap. It is possible that Pearl is the most educated of the Crystal Gems, since she seems to excel in aeronautics and aerospace engineering.

Pearl is shown to be considerably tough too, as she can take many hits before succumbing to her wounds. In "Coach Steven", she took a headbutt and a direct hit from Sugilite's mace, and could still move, given Steven's encouragement. In "On the Run", she took an explosion from Amethyst's whip directly and was fine almost immediately after, despite being briefly immobilized and scratched up. However, she had to retreat to her gem after being stabbed through the stomach in "Steven the Sword Fighter".

She is shown to be an exceptional swordswoman that moves quickly, and seems to incorporate elements of dancing into her fighting style.

Unique Abilities

 * Weapon Proficiency; Spear: By using Pearl's years of training and dedication, she is able to summon her weapon: a pearlescent spear. Pearl is very skilled in the art of spear wielding, and goes in tandem with her pattern of fighting that involves dancing, specifically ballet. She moves gracefully and swiftly throughout the battlefield and attacks with spear in hand with grace and poise. She handles herself well in melee skirmishes, able to hold up against two water clones of herself whilst wielding dual spears. While not the strongest physically or the most eclectic thinker, it is clear the Pearl possesses the most skill when it comes to combat.
 * Dual Wielding: While it has been shown only once in "Ocean Gem", Pearl is capable of wielding dual spears in battle.
 * Energy Blasts: Pearl can fire arrow-like blasts of energy from the tip of her spear. This can be done rapid-fire or charged to unleash a more powerful blast.
 * Holograms: Pearl can project holographic images from her gemstone, which she uses mainly as a visual aid when lecturing Steven. While most of the holograms seem to be intangible, some, like Holo-Pearl, are able to interact with solid matter. They typically function as distractions in battle.
 * Psammokinesis: Pearl is shown manipulating a small amount of sand to create figurines of herself and Amethyst in "Giant Woman". It is currently unknown how much sand she can control at one time.
 * Pocket Dimension: By performing a specialized dance, Pearl can summon and store objects with her gemstone.

Steven
Pearl acts as a kind, maternal figure towards Steven. She loves teaching Steven about Gem history and culture, as well as teaching him other things such as the art of sword fighting.

As opposed to Garnet's more pragmatic and Amethyst's more fun loving personalities, Pearl acts as a mentor. She always tries to speak gently to him and is usually the first to show concern when taking him on a dangerous mission. However in "Space Race", she allows her own interest in returning to space to cloud her better judgement despite trying to attain her original goal of showing Steven the cosmos.

Pearl also tends to patronize Steven and frequently underestimates his abilities thus views him more as a child than as a fellow Crystal Gem. She is surprised to find that Steven is able to summon his shield in "Gem Glow", return to normal after transforming his fingers into cats in "Cat Fingers", think of strategies to escape the obstacles, that they encounter in "Cheeseburger Backpack", as well as the pyramid maze in "Serious Steven". She ignores Steven when he brings up the idea of everyone eating breakfast together in "Together Breakfast". She also does not feel that Steven is prepared to learn about the dark side of gem history, when she tells Amethyst that Steven "isn't ready" to learn about the bad history of Gems in "On the Run". Pearl may also harbor some feelings of resentment towards Steven due to her love for Rose Quartz. Although she obviously tries to conceal this, these feelings occasionally slip through, when she is especially emotional, such as in "Rose's Scabbard".

Garnet
Like the other Gems, Pearl respects and follows Garnet's orders without question. She does, however, believe that the Gems are a team and may not exactly see Garnet as a leader, most likely because she will always see Rose Quartz as leader despite her being gone. When there are signs of danger, however, Pearl usually turns to Garnet, often hiding behind her or holding onto her arm. In "Secret Team", it is clear that she shares an unprecedented fear towards her with Amethyst, so afraid of Garnet's disapproval (as well as what she would do if she found out) that both she and Amethyst willing to put past their differences to keep the popped Gem-bubble a secret.

Amethyst
The two have a strained relationship which is likely due to their contrasting personalities. Pearl is often seen scolding Amethyst, who in return, often teases Pearl. Regardless of their differences, Pearl and Amethyst have been shown to be able to put their differences on multiple occasions in order to work together. For example, in "Secret Team", Pearl and Amethyst are forced to fight together, and complement each others' skills, even sharing appreciative smiles; in "Warp Tour", they praise and admire each others' fighting techniques; in "On the Run", the two reveal that they really do deeply care about each other, despite their differences and frequent fights.

Greg
She is on speaking terms with Greg, and has shown to be civil towards him even fixing his van after it was wrecked in "Ocean Gem". However, in "House Guest" she was anxious about him living with the Crystal Gems, whether this was do to social anxiety or resentment towards Greg has not been confirmed.

Sugilite
Pearl dislikes Sugilite due to her violent actions. Pearl almost grudgingly admits that she's jealous of Sugilite's strength (in a song), but she cuts herself off before finishing the line.

Rose Quartz
Pearl had a very close relationship with Rose, closer than any other. She believed herself to be Rose's "sole confidant" and that Rose shared all her secrets with her. Pearl became jealous and eventually devastated upon learning that this was not the case. Pearl looked up to Rose for guidance and support and often speaks very fondly of her. She has been shown to love Rose enough to stay on Earth and defend it with her instead returning to the homeworld without Rose. Like Amethyst, she grew emotional when they spoke of their relationship with Rose. She also seems to be jealous of Greg's relationship with Rose. In "Story for Steven", when Rose bragged about Greg's singing, Pearl is quick to note as soon as he is out of earshot that she can also sing, much to the amusement of the other three Crystal Gems.

Quotes
See Pearl/Quotes.

Trivia

 * In the transition from the pilot to the series, Pearl underwent the most drastic change of the three Gems. Among these changes are:
 * Removal of gold ring around her gem
 * Removal of earrings
 * Skin color changed (from blue to white)
 * Pointy nose
 * Different overall body structure
 * Drastically different outfit
 * Different hairstyle
 * Rose-pink hair color to a peach one
 * Eye color changed (black to a light blue)
 * Removal of hearts on slippers and slipper color changed (dark blue to light blue)
 * In "Together Breakfast", its revealed that Pearl owns a wide collection of swords.
 * In "So Many Birthdays", Pearl revealed that all Gems (excluding Steven) are ageless.
 * It is shown that when Pearl blushes, she blushes light blue, as revealed in "Cat Fingers".
 * The Gems' fighting style's are based off of dancing styles. Pearl's fighting/dancing style is ballet.1
 * In "Fusion Cuisine", Pearl states that she hates eating.
 * Pearl agrees to consume human food, expresses interest in eating, or admits to a preference for certain foods in Together Breakfast, Bubble Buddies, Serious Steven, and So Many Birthdays. These episodes all take place before "Steven the Sword Fighter". This could mean that Pearl used to like human food.
 * It is questionable in most of the above episodes if Pearl has any intention of actually consuming the food. For example in "Together Breakfast" Pearl simply agrees to order a pizza; not to eat it. Seeing all the trouble Steven went through for them to sit down together she might simply be agreeing to order the pizza for his sake without having any intention of partaking of said pizza.
 * In a Twitter response to a fan, Matt Burnett explained that Pearl likes the process of pie, aka baking, rather than the consumption of it.
 * Again in "Together Breakfast" Pearl seems to enjoy preparing the new breakfast meal with Steven and the other Crystal Gems which goes along with the explanation that while she dislikes eating, she does enjoy preparing food.
 * She is shown to enjoy tea, however, as shown when she brings a teapot to Funland in "Serious Steven", and when she talks about finding out Connie's favorite tea in "Bubble Buddies".
 * It's possible that Pearl finds drinking to be much less disgusting than eating, or not disgusting at all.
 * Rebecca Sugar confirmed Pearl is a lot like her.
 * In "Keep Beach City Weird", Pearl has shown a reluctance to shapeshift and is the only Crystal Gem who has not shown an ability to shapeshift outside regeneration.
 * Pearl had a replicator wand which was destroyed in "Onion Trade" by Garnet.
 * Also, Pearl owns a magic battle axe.
 * Pearl is the first Gem that's actually shown retreating into her gemstone to regenerate after sustaining serious injuries, as seen in "Steven the Sword Fighter".
 * She is also the first Gem in the series to have a gemstone on her forehead (the second being Peridot).
 * Pearl sings for the first time in the episode "Coach Steven".
 * "Joking Victim" is the first episode in which Pearl does not make an appearance, the second being "Garnet's Universe".
 * In "Steven and the Stevens", she is seen playing the violin.
 * It was shown in "Monster Buddies" that Steven keeps a framed picture of Pearl on the side of their fridge. It was later destroyed by the Centipeetle Mother.
 * In "So Many Birthdays", we see that Pearl is extremely emotional in serious situations.
 * This is seen again in An Indirect Kiss, in Rose's Scabbard, and in Say Uncle.
 * This can lead to her breaking down and acting irrationally in cases of extreme distress as shown in "Rose's Scabbard".


 * In "Space Race", it was revealed that Pearl does not like being confined to Earth and deeply wishes to revisit space, much like Lapis Lazuli. When presented with an opportunity to leave, Pearl has no qualms about leaving behind her fellow Gems (with the exception of Steven, who she wanted to "show the cosmos").
 * Unlike Lapis Lazuli, however, Pearl only shows interest in revisiting space, and harbors no desires to return home.
 * She later reveals in Rose's Scabbard that her only reason for staying on Earth originally was due to her not wanting to leave Rose's side, and the only reason why she remains is for Steven.
 * Pearl appears to have her face on several coin-types, implying she was once president, or at the very least once regarded with high standard by humanity.
 * According to Rebecca Sugar, Steven Universe is set in an alternate earth influenced by gems. This alternate-earth set up could very well allow Pearl to have been president or a former mayor of Beach City at one point.
 * If Pearl was indeed the President of the United States of America at one point, it could explain her thoughts of humans being unable to take care of themselves.
 * Pearl is the first gem who shown to be able to harness energy within their weapon for an attack in "Watermelon Steven".
 * Pearl can use ranged attacks such as the energy blast she created with her spear in "Watermelon Steven". She uses her energy blast attack for a second time against Amethyst in the episode "On the Run".
 * In "Lion 3: Straight to Video", Pearl admits that she often watches Steven sleep.
 * "Warp Tour" is the first episode Pearl and Steven have an argument.
 * Pearl can sometimes let more slip out than she means to, and end up backing herself into a corner when interrogated, as seen in "The Test", when she accidentally lets out that the Sea Spire mission was a test for Steven and makes the situation worse the more she talks.
 * It's revealed by Pearl that the Crystal Gems chose Earth over their true home.
 * It's confirmed by Steven in "Steven the Sword Fighter" that organizing messes is one of Pearl's favorite hobbies.
 * According to Pearl, she fought alongside Rose Quartz at the Strawberry Battlefield. This was before they found Amethyst.
 * In Rose's Scabbard, she states that she was privy to all of Rose's secrets as she was her closest friend and confidant. However, when this proves to be false, it causing her extreme distress.
 * In "Political Power", it's shown that the gems plan on using the Quartizine Trio as a weapon against Peridot. It is unknown if the other gems helped her, forcing Pearl to show them Rose's Secret Armory, or if she was strong enough to retrieve it herself.
 * In the episode, "The Return", Pearl is the only gem still alive that Jasper refers to by name. "Some lost, defective Pearl", this heavily implies that there may be more than one type of pearl on the Homeworld or that they have met before considering Pearl fought closely alongside Rose during the war.
 * Considering the fact that Garnet is a fusion, Pearl is the second tallest non-fused Crystal Gem, right next to Rose Quartz.
 * When Pearl pulls her weapon, her spear appears to be short, but when she swings the spear, it seems to elongate.

Gemology
Learn about the pearl gemstone here.


 * Pearls are the birthstone for those born in June, and are also used to commemorate the third and thirtieth anniversaries.
 * In gemstone mythology, pearls are often associated with virginity, beauty, modesty, purity, and happiness.
 * Whilst pearl superstitions and folklore vary greatly, pearls are widely considered to encourage good health and wealth.
 * Pearls are light pink or white gemstones, similar to the one "Pearl" has on her forehead.
 * Pearls are organic gemstones that are formed by shelled molluscs; mainly bivalved oysters and mussels.

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