also, lore is so sure that pearl doesn't use her swords in actual battle and while i won't spoil the weaver (sworn to the sword, specifically, with the projections and training connie), i do feel really tempted to. like, in my head, i'm just like, "ugh, lore, you're so so so wrong."
Haha, I thought Pearl liked swords for the aesthetic too, before Sworn to the Sword! I figured she learned them after learning the ins and outs of her spear, as a bit of a hobby or something. Looks like she learned them first, tho. And I just can't get soppy and romantic over RosePearl. It super skeeves me out how Pearl relates to and reacts to Rose, prolly cause I can easily see myself going head over heels for someone and basing all my self worth on their opinion of me and just bluh. And I tend to think everything Rose does is kinda scary and suspicious, cause fuck i really want Rose to have done some skeevy shit.
@tinyhydra i always assumed, after steven the sword fighter, that of course she used them in battle. don't think i really got the concept of them as just an aesthetic thing. that's a good point. 'cause, ironically, i identify a lot with that aspect of pearl too. it's one i definitely have. which is why my soppy romantic side is like, "yes. let's entertain in a fictional context what it'd be like if that actually worked out for people! if it wasn't maladaptive." 'cause i know how hard it is for me to stop myself from feeling that way, even though it doesn't work out in real life, and i just... want it to work out somewhere. and like, the dark stuff is awesome in the abstract, something i totally can and do like, and i do find dark rose interesting and like the concept. i dunno. my feelings are complicated, basically.
While I definitely think that there has been some bad shit Rose has done in her past, there is no theory I hate more than "Steven is just Rose's eeevvviiilll plot to do [x]" besides, like, Plant Greg. We've already been shown that Rose held some shitty opinions in the past even about the people she had sworn herself to protect, I don't think that narritively we need for her to turn out to be the absolute worst, and in general I just hate the twist of "wow that person who we have always seen acting kind and loving is actually evil!" I think there are far more in character ways to give Rose some depth and darkness then making her Machiavelli McStalinpants (also yeah nice analogy on Loreweaver "I never said she was evil but I'm just gonna compare her to Stalin")
I have seen people saying that they think/thought Pearl didn't actually use swords to fight because she does like... stage swordplay? Swordplay to look good and not win IRL fights. Someone who knows more about swords please chime in. Also there's the matter of her gem weapon being a spear.
I've seen a theory that Pearls don't get/aren't taught to use a gem weapon, so when the rebellion started Pearl learned how to use a sword so she could fight and then formed/found her spear during some time of great danger and that's definitely the one I like for now.
I am not sure about the sword part (I don't have a strong opinion either way), but I have thought about the underlying theme of weapon summoning knowledge not being innate to Gems, as we saw in the first episodes with Steven's shield. Also: We haven't seen Peridot summon a weapon, have we? Imagine her learning from Steven and the Crystal Gems. I want that episode SO BADLY.
my thoughts are pretty similar on the subject of rose~ like secretly dark rose is definitely cool in the abstract but the whole "no guys but what if she was EVIL??? wouldn't that be such a twist?!?!?!?!" just rustles all of my jimmies like i hate that kind of fan theory in general anyway, but it especially bothers me in this show because steven universe is very much not about that. i honestly can't think of a message more diametrically opposed to the core of steven universe than "but what if they were evil!!" it just seems lazy to me. there's so much nuance and kindness and genuine fondness in steven universe and how can people watch that and then just ignore it in favor of the same grimdark ~evil~ twist
Honestly, even redeemed once-bad Rose is much less interesting to me than a Rose who did horrible things with clear eyes and no illusions, because, well, no such thing as a good war.
Chiming in on the dark!Rose thing, I've been kinda @_____@ on the subject because I finally watched the extended into sequence a week or two ago and duuuuude that shot with Rose behind Steven smiling with her eyes hidden is SUPER DUPER SINISTER and at odds with pretty much all the other in-show appearances she's made and would ordinarily make me go 'yep that one's very clearly going to turn out to be Bad' but??? it's a kids's show first and foremost and moreover while she's still a mysterious (and flawed) figure there's really not a lot of evidence so far that she's some master evil manipulator that, I dunno, had Steven as some sort of experiment/Thanatos Gambit or something equally malicious. I mean, I can totally buy into the 'Rose USED TO do questionable things/maybe was a Proper Homeworld Gem with all the casteism and so forth but later kicked all that to the curb with a vengeance' theory, have done since well before the extended intro popped up, and essentially I still believe that she is (mostly) what's been shown, and certainly not ~super evil~. BUT. THAT SHOT. ROSE WUT R U DOIN. >BI
I dunno about swords but she definitely uses her spear to fight. Oooh she's probably so interested in sword fighting because of Rose's sword! So like.. the way in which she was trained to fight probably had to do with how Rose wanted her to perform. If she saw Pearl as just a beautiful accessory she probably taught her showmanship and play sword fighting, but if she actually wanted her to be able to defend herself she would have taught her actual swordsmanship. Considering Pearl was able to train Connie to fight effectively + intentional Utena references in the training montage I'm guessing the showmanship was an intentional choice, but Pearl does actually know how to fight with a sword, likely because Rose taught her.
Oh, I absolutely think that Steven is Rose's final ploy on some level, I just don't think he's a malicious one. I suspect she had him partly with the hope that he could heal the things she couldn't (e.g. the corrupted gems). Obviously that's not the only thing going into her decision, but I think that's part of it.
I like the idea of her simultaneously thanatos gambiting and loving earth and its life. The fact that he's partly immune to some Homeworld technology is... very interesting. And yeah, I really like the idea that she was hoping he'd be able to bridge some of the rifts that the gems haven't been able to. That being a unique, organic, loved and loving person would help with connecting gems and humans... and healing the corrupted gems wouldn't hurt either. Centipeetle....
The book actually mentions that her motives in having Steven--at least, as far as the other CGs know--were partly a desire to experience childbirth and partly a desire to bridge the gap between humans and gems. Though I'm inclined to think it was primarily the latter, personally. I do love the idea of straight-up dark!Rose*, but what I really love is the idea of her having an extremely shady (even evil) past and having realized that she'd fucked up, and doing her very best to make up for it. I think the idea that nobody is beyond redemption is a pretty big theme in SU, and I'd love for it to turn out that she was someone who might have been thought irredeemable, an outright villain, at one point. That people can change. *I don't think I'd like it to be canon, for what it's worth. It's an idea I like, but as others have mentioned, it wouldn't really gel with the series. But goddamn is it good fic material.
Well of course she uses flashy stage swordplay, this is a cartoon. Things need to look visually interesting and do narrative work, and flashy, dance-like swordplay does both. She specifically uses swordplay that is an obvious callback to Utena, and the swordplay in that was flashy but deadly serious.
I think he might be, at worst, a repentant one? Like, I remember info going around about Rose potentially being able to have a pure human child with none of the repercussions that came from having a mixed child like Steven. With that in mind, she must have been aware that she would die and Steven would gain her skills and greater but without the drawbacks of gem culture breathing down her neck. Maybe Steven, even partially, was meant as a way of making up for a dark past and involvement with the Cluster?
Yes :D That's what I want! I want a Rose that's done some skeevy shit, to achieve a noble goal or what she thought was a noble goal at the time or whatever! I absolutely don't want her to be 'evil', I just want her to be, well. Worse than Steven? No, I want her to be someone whose methods and mistakes Steven won't repeat. Or something. I dunno, it's really early.
the way i see it, steven is rose's love letter to humanity and her way of finally, truly becoming part of it. also Amethyst is the earth's own creation to fight back and protect itself, not a defective runt i also wanna see a massive dance off megafusion where the entire town plus steven plus the Gems rise up righteous and boot the Homeworld big bad right in the cooter
the clusterfusion town-amalgam-plus-gems soundtrack should have, faintly in the BG, mayor dewey yelling GI-ANT WO-MAN through a megaphone
