Pink Diamond: Character Development in Reverse

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I love the take that Pink Diamond’s mindset was “nothing I do matters because I don’t matter”

I always saw Pink Diamond has a child and Rose has an adult. Has how I see it, this reveal makes sense. Pink Diamond probably was always away from the world and there for had a spoiled life. When she had Earth she had the chance to grow up. That's what I see it.

Steven needed to realize that he has been listening to his mother’s whole story in reverse. She was abused, she lashed out and hurt her pearl and abandoned Spinel, she faked her death, and she secretly imprisoned Bismuth. But she has done some good too. She created the crystal gems, accepted gems like Amethyst and Steven, created a healing fountain, accepted humans like Greg, she abandoned her old personality to become someone better. Maybe she wanted Steven to take her place because he was the only one who can make peace with gems and humans more than she ever could. I wish Steven and Pink Diamond (not a cloud form of her) could talk to each other and give Steven closure about his mother.

I remember the creators stated somewhere that Pink did not "Diamond command" Spinel: the only reason Spinel stood still and waited is because she believed in Pink so much, which made her feel all the more humiliated and heart-broken because she could have moved at any point during all those years if she had just chosen to. It's important part of Spinel's characterization that she has free will (like how Rebecca also emphasizes that Spinel chose to do her villainous acts while perfectly aware that her victims were innocent and she had no real moral justification for her own actions.) Another thing I'd like to point out is the fact that Amethyst considered Rose a mother figure according to Rebecca (they had even thought about making an episode about them, but sadly it never happened.) And Rose did not tell Amethyst about any of the Homeworld caste system and ideals because she wanted Amethyst to live completely free of it (which she could do as a rare Gem who did not have any preprogrammed information as a result of her defect.) I think the episode title "Your Mother and Mine" implies that Garnet also considered Rose like a mother figure, but for Amethyst she was like explicitly a one.

A head canon I have is that Pink Pearl wasn’t only under white’s control because Pink damaged her, but because she used that opportunity to stand up for Pink and express her own frustrations with how they treat Pink, to which White responds the way she does with anyone who says something that contradicts her perfection complex

I think the reverse character development of Rose does a really good job at humanizing her while not excusing her actions. We see the heights she was able to reach, so it hurts to see the lows she reached too. It kinda puts the audience in the same position as the characters betrayed by her.

Oh my God I just realized something I don't think I ever did before. The reason why Pearl doesn't like shape-shifting. It's because of her experience having been made to transform into Rose Quartz so that she could "shatter" Pink Diamond. She was told to take those secrets to her grave, and transformation was just a constant reminder of it. But in Future, we see she got over it and was able to play Steven Tag.

It almost feels like the Diamonds were technically born equal, but due to Pink's short stature, the others treated her like a child; which, in turn, caused Pink to act like a child. She was probably stuck in a very precarious place: an adult who never got to be one. Once she got to Earth, she finally got to be herself and explore what being an adult meant to her. And as Earth was the first place she could be herself, she became desperate to protect it and everything on it. It's almost like freeing Earth from Diamond control was a parallel to Pink ridding herself of the other Diamonds.

Whenever i think of Rose and Steven i think of the quote "Just because your mother didnt break ALL the generational curses doesnt mean she didnt break any" I know with my own mother i sometimes get upset at how she reacts or handles things but she honestly did so amazingly great especially in comparison to her own mother ...and my sister is doing even better with her own kids

You know what? I like this “Redemption in reverse”. It proves that putting people on a pedestal is wrong, unhealthy and unfair. Everyone has flaws, which makes people unique to each other. Do you know why red diamonds are the rarest of the bunch? Because they have many “impurities” or “flaws”. Same concept applies to humans.

It always came across to me, that Pink thought the other Diamonds would go to her garden and take back Spinel. She already was under the perception that no one would/could listen to her because the others had the real control, so she thought they would go and reclaim Spinel after she was gone. It doesn’t make what she did right, but I don’t think she ever would have thought that Spinel would sit in the garden and basically languish for 1000’s of years

It definitely feels like "Love Like You" was sung from Pink Diamond's perspective

I've always thought bringing lion back to life must've been an accident. just like steven and lars, she didn't know she could bring organic beings back to life, so when lion died she cried over his death and accidentally brought him back. she never did it before and never did it again after lion, because that breaks the natural cycle of life she's grown to love on earth. it's not natural to never die and I think she'd be against resurrecting organic beings. mortality and the ability to change and grow up was something she really admired in organic beings in general, especially humans.

Regarding Lapis, I think Crystal Gems just assumed that she may be corrupted too, or in a state where she's not actually self-aware. The gems were actually terrified to learn that Lapis in fact can respond to the outside world without given command, that she actually was aware of her surroundings. And as they still didn't know if Lapis wasn't some monster or not, they'd rather bubble her. Finding out a Prime Lapis Lazuli was in that mirror all along was a shocker. Pearl didn't even think that the gem inside that mirror could be that powerful.

My thought process on Rose bubbling Bismuth was that she was afraid other gems would agree with Bismuth if she told them the truth. If she told them about the Breaking Point, they might have wanted to use it, and Rose didn't want any more gems to be shattered. And sure, I think lots of gems would have backed up Rose and agreed to not using it, but she didn't know that. She didn't think people would support her over Bismuth because she thought Bismuth was incredible and knew she very well-loved by the Crystal Gems. And as you said, she was the one who painted herself as a villain. She knew the stories she told made the The Crystal Gems hate the Diamonds. She had every reason to believe they might want to take more drastic measures for the sake of their freedom.

Pink/Rose is without a doubt my favorite character in Steven Universe. I feel like she gets overly blamed for the trauma Steven goes through. None of them knew about the cluster, none of them the diamonds would come back. 90% of Steven’s trauma is from the Crystal Gems putting him through dangerous situations, while Rose said she just wanted him to be his own person and a human being. Not saying that to bash the gems, but that is literally what happened. Also, she never realized that there were flaws in her logic and relationships, because no one ever stopped her. Which isn’t her fault. You can’t get mad at someone for not knowing something. Alas, social media has destroyed the concept of nuance.

I think the best takeaway one can have from Pink Diamond is to learn from her mistakes and not put her on a pedestal. At least that's what I'd like the show to convey if it ever returns. We already got some of that when Steven said "Pink Diamond ran from you, Rose Quartz tried to fight you. Let me try to help you."

Honestly, I see myself reflected in Pink. I suffer from serious mental illness (bipolar type 2 and c-ptsd), and as a result have carried a stigma that I'm a waste of resources and overall useless because of my inability to hold a job. To my self image, I was nothing more than a broken product. Not a person. A failure from birth. Growing up, my family never quite understood my ailment and gave up on me. I was allowed to rot and fester in my room without the love and care that was desperately needed, and as a result I would lash out. In that lashing out, I did things that cannot and should not be forgiven. All that I saw was my pain, and never how it affected anyone else. Now at 29, I'm in a much better place and try earnestly to be the person I needed as a kid. Rose/ Pink, for all her flaws, tried to change. Tried to do better. But without support failed, and spiraled into her literal self destruction. Like you said, she is a cautionary tale, and one that applies to a surprising amount of people.

A pink diamond analysis video in 2024? Stars yes!