I don’t think White’s problem is “her brain got broken by the Corruption beam” so much as, well…
Have you ever met someone who has a very particular idea of the way things ought to be, to the point where they basically ignore and override anything that counteracts their worldview? And they do this with people who don’t agree with their worldview, particularly people they’re responsible for and have control over, like their children or younger relatives, and they constantly interrupt and steamroll over anything their kids do that indicates they’re an individual outside of that person’s control?
White’s kind of like that. Except she’s omnipotent. And she may or may not have the power to reach inside people’s heads and remove pieces of their minds to make them perfectly obedient. And that’s absolutely terrifying.
That happy welcoming party set off some warning bells. It doesn’t seem like she’s necessarily forgiving “Pink” so much as trying to put her back under her control. She separated Steven from everyone else and then shoved him into a room.
I imagine she’s not going to be so nice when “Pink” refuses to play along, especially if she insists on being called “Steven” or trying to return to Earth. There’s a reason why Blue and Yellow are so afraid of her. They’ve seen this before.
When you describe what gems are on Steven Universe, they seem utterly alien. The “body” of a gem isn’t real object. It’s a hard-light projection emitted from the magical gemstone, which is the true core of their being.
Naturally, this raises a few questions:
Why do they move like they have bones, joints, and muscular systems?
Why does Pearl sigh or hyperventilate to relieve stress? Gems don’t breath.
Why do gems cry? Why do they have emotions at all when they are artificially created for specific purposes?
And then along comes White Diamond with the same answer to all those questions:
“You’re right. That’s stupid. Let’s not do that.”
White Diamond is everything gems should be on paper. She’s unemotional, unmoving, static. Most of her body is drawn as a background element, and her Pearl mimics this lack of movement by sliding across the floor instead of walking. She actually emits light, to the point where her gemstone is barely visible (the only time you can see even an outline of it is during the extreme closeup on her face)
I’ve been seeing a lot of speculation that the White Diamond we saw isn’t “real.” That White Diamond’s gemstone is somewhere else, and what we saw was just a projection from a remote location. Or maybe it was a recording, and that’s why she talked over Steven whenever he tried to talk, and I think all of that speculation is entirely missing the point of White Diamond’s introduction:
She really is that weird.
She really is that alien.
White Diamond is so unlike other living things that even Blue and Yellow Diamond are nervous around her. There is no “real” White Diamond hiding behind a curtain somewhere. What you see is what you get, and what you get is an unnerving, unfathomable alien entity. Older than we can comprehend. More powerful than we dare to imagine. And entirely determined to keep things as they are.
hello! spoilers for “Legs from Here to Homeworld” incoming
so the visual parallel between Evil Wedding Connie (generated by Rose’s room in the episode Open Book) and White Diamond’s Pearl have been mentioned in this post. But I think it goes quite a bit further.
(The visual parallels are seen in the missing eye, white-based color scheme, and the round hair/accessories on the sides of the head.)
We know that Pearls are physically incapable of refusing an order from their designated Diamond, both because of CG Pearl’s inability to tell Steven that Rose is Pink Diamond, and because of later word of god.
It’s also worth mentioning that there’s a bit of the art book that has this photo in it, which seems to say, “A new, sensible Pearl is custom delivered to Pink.” This, in addition to White Pearl’s outfit being so similar to Pink Diamond’s, seems to suggest that WD and PD exchanged Pearls at some point. In fact, their pearls have their gemstones in the opposite locations. And! CG Pearl was the only one of the group to actually have something to say about WD when Yellow and Blue brought her up, which was “she’s not like us.” Perhaps this was from personal experience?
Here’s another odd thing: White Pearl isn’t voice by Deedee (the usual VA for Pearls–gems of the same type generally have the same VA). Instead, she’s voiced by White Diamond’s VA, and she mimics WD’s pose as well. People have suggested that White Diamond might literally be controlling her, that her broken eye might be symbolically indicative of a lobotomy. I agree!
But why would that be the case, you ask? What could have necessitated White Pearl’s sense of self being so completely and utterly destroyed and taken over?
GLAD YOU ASKED! BECAUSE THAT’S THE POINT OF THIS POST!!
Let’s take a step back to the episode Open Book. In this episode, Connie and Steven enter Rose’s Room, where everything is made to match Steven’s will. That on its own is an interesting parallel to how Pearls act towards their Diamonds, not even thinking about things unless ordered to.
In Open Book, Connie gets replaced with Fake Connie, who Steven thinks is the real person for a while. But she refuses to make her own decisions, instead deferring to Steven for everything. Eventually, he says, “I don’t want you to just do what I want!” which sends her into some sort of contradictory logic loop. She gets confused and starts saying “I want what you want what you want want want want…”
Steven gets spooked and makes everything fake in the room disappear. Fake Connie refuses to vanish, though. When Steven asks why, she says, “You told me not to do what you wanted.” She then chases Steven around against his will, appears in the wedding outfit (as seen above), and fights against him and real Connie. (She disappears when Steven admits something to Connie, but I think this is more relevant to the episode’s moral than the symbolism I’m addressing.)
So why was Pink’s original Pearl given to White and brainwashed? Because Pink Diamond did to her what Steven did to Fake Connie!
In Now We’re Only Falling Apart, CG Pearl says “I was given to Pink Diamond just a few thousand years before she was given the Earth. I was supposed to make her happy, I just… never could.”
Then, in the flashback, Pink Diamond tries to make casual conversation, and Pearl responds robotically & respectfully. Pink frowns at this.
But she doesn’t directly try to make her stop, just looks a little upset and continues working.
So the idea is this: Pink Diamond was casual and fun with her original Pearl, but eventually went too far and made a direct order akin to “Don’t follow my orders,” which broke that Pearl’s mind and had her act traitorously. Then, perhaps at some request of PD’s that the Pearl not be shattered, WD took her and brainwashed her into being nothing but a puppet. Pink must have been upset by this whole thing, thus White’s Pearl being given to Pink to “make her happy.”
That’s what I’m thinking, anyway! Do you guys have any thoughts?
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