Spoiler I feel like pearl really just wants to stay permanently fused so she can be a confident, functional person. and that won't happen, because the person she really liked a) like someone else, and b) is ded, so her options are someone who's happy in their relationship or someone she constantly fights with.
Spoiler And from the little we saw of Ruby and Sapphire, I'm pretty sure they work well together because they do acknowledge their traits. Pearl seems to want to erase hers. That's not going to work out.
Spoiler: Continues with crazy theories you know, maybe Pearl /did/ get to fuse long term with some other gem at some point, and it ended really badly. Just thinking of her telling Sugilite "you're losing yourself" in Coach Steven. It seemed like she'd seen or maybe even experienced it first hand? And with how concerned she was about whether Lapis was still in control, like she really doubted Lapis could continue doing that even though she's been shown to be insanely powerful. Maybe she was aware of just how easy it could be to lose control of a fusion? Idk, I'm probably looking at things too closely, but it is kind of interesting to think about.
Unrelated to the current discussion but I have been pleasantly surprised by the SU fandom. So far there have been some less-that-pleasant posts but a lot of people just finding it relatable and going "ouch. these poor characters" for everyone involved. Related to the current discussion: fusions are basically the human equivalent to being in an intimate relationship. So I'm guessing the same rule applies (that you have to love yourself before you can be in a healthy relationship with anyone else). If Pearl wants to start building more healthy relationships she's gotta learn how to stand on her own.
Spoiler: something kinda related I wonder if she did a similar "will take any excuse to fuse, even if she has to make one" thing with Rose and Rainbow Quartz?
Spoiler: spoilers to your spoilers We've already seen her do that with Rose. She fused with her to spite Greg, but lied/made up the reason "thought it would make the video more awesome" So I'm guessing she's done this before. However I think it's mostly been for petty stuff like that and not something actually dangerous like derailing them from finding Peridot. Also I can't imagine it's something she'd do TOO often or else I think Rose and Garnet would have caught on that it's a pattern with her.
Spoiler yeah, I was thinking about that. When the episode first came out I thought it was more spontanous, but now it's like hmmmm.
Spoiler: Pink Diamond evidence okay so the sky arena was already mentioned(and good catch with the statues even though I'm still not sure how blue and white were decided) but Pearl's space suit had a pink diamond on it, Sardonyx's shoes have pink diamonds on them, and while the sky arena has the four diamonds, the space ship only has white, yellow, and blue.
Spoiler: Ah! It's because, if you look at the sky arena from above, the pillars would map to the diamonds like that. Clockwise from Rose goes Yellow - White - Blue, so Yellow and Blue are the pillars closest to Pink and White is across from Pink! How much you wanna bet that the destroyed Pink pillar had a sword and shield?
Ah! Finally caught up! Spoiler Pearl is so fucked up, and it is awesome. On the other had, I feel like Amethyst is becoming a lot more... if not stable, sensible? Also, I'm seeing some people on Tumblr trying to demonise Garnet for being angry with Pearl, because apparently having some symptoms of autism/BPD disqualifies her from facing consequences for her actions, and Garnet's the shitty friend for reacting badly to being used because Pearl "can't help it"? I love Pearl, but come on.
Yeah I try and stay away from SU fandom stuff. They need to understand a thing about nuance and how it is a fascinating concept where a person can do a bad thing but still not be a terrible awful traitor-murderer, but also the people who get mad at that person are ALSO not entirely in the wrong.
Spoiler Agreed, Amethyst was surprisingly open in that episode, which was probably my favorite part! It's really cool to see her open up and admit vulnerability, and how she defended Pearl, that was p cool of her. She's never really appealed to me before, but I find myself liking her more and more as this season goes on. And yeah, that's about what I expected, honestly. Garnet acted out of line, I think, but with Amethyst not Pearl. She did kind of bully her into fusing, and that wasn't cool, but yeah, she's got every right to yell at Pearl a little. Pearl acted in the wrong, and they all know it. Oh, but I have been pleasantly surprised to only see one post comparing Pearl to Jasper and Peridot, so that's good! We're learning. For clarifications sake, it was a post talking about how the fandom has unilaterally decided to ignore how Jasper and Peridots fusion-related crimes in favor of calling Pearl the antichrist. After Sworn to the Sword I was drowning in posts like that.
Spoiler: Ugh comparisons I saw someone say 'Garnet was angry with Pearl because Pearl forced her to fuse, just like Peridot did with the gem shards!' Because there is only Good Fusion and Bad Fusion, and all Bad Fusions are exactly the same in badness. Also, Pearl basically held a gun to Garnet's head and FORCED her to fuse with her, that's precisely what happened, Garnet had no choice about doing it and could never have told Pearl 'No I want to not fuse with you today.' Ugh.
Yeah, as you say, Tumblr neither understands nuance, nor do they seem to want to. Extreme black/white readings of characters and situations are unfortunately the 'in' thing at the moment.
Spoiler: "forced" Garnet enjoyed her time as Sardonyx! She was smiling and happy and everything, at least after the first time. And she initiated it herself, every time. And it's not the three of them couldn't wreck the place acting individually, it just would have taken longer than Garnet wanted to spend on it. So, yeah. She definitely wasn't forced to fuse. She was kind of coerced, I think. Still, she really did enjoy being with Pearl! I wonder if she would have been up to just casually fusing if Pearl had asked her?
Spoiler i think garnet was out of line with pearl when she literally pushed her to the ground, actually. like i can get garnet being mad at pearl, sure, but... getting physical with her like that does seem to be out of line. and yeah... it really broke my heart when i saw that things just didn't really seem entirely resolved at the end of the ep and everyone was upset. i was shocked that was the end, really.
Spoiler: Casual Sardonyx I feel like - she probably would be OK with it? Or at least she'd have a good talk with Pearl about why she wanted to. But I don't think Pearl would do that - I think Pearl feels like she has to be stable and reliable. Wanting to fuse for no reason isn't something that a stable and reliable person would do (in her mind) and so she can't ask to do that.
Spoiler It's not just the way Garnet pushed her to the ground. Remember back when Sugilite first appeared, how irritated Pearl was with the idea? How she expected Sugilite to go berserk? Remember how, after the reveal in this episode, Pearl was trembling watching Sugilite? Something about that unnerved me. What did Sugilite do in the past? Because Garnet absolutely contributed to that aggressiveness, Opal had none of that.
