| “ |
Bye! |
” | —Pearl saying goodbye to Steven as he leaves Beach City in "The Future" as well as the last spoken line in the franchise. | ||
Pearl is one of the two tritagonists (alongside Amethyst) of Cartoon Network's Steven Universe franchise.
She is one of the Crystal Gems, a group of extraterrestrial humanoids devoted to protecting the Earth. As of "Together Alone", she is poofed by Yellow Diamond along with Amethyst and Garnet, but she is eventually regenerated in the Season 5 half-hour finale special, "Change Your Mind" along with Amethyst and Garnet.
She was voiced by Deedee Magno Hall.
Bio[]
A perfectionist and intellectual strategist, Pearl is the genius of the Crystal Gems. She tends to find logic in certain situations and gets anxious when things don't go as planned. She intends to keep things orderly, and can overprotective of Steven. She can be very fierce when anything threatens Steven. She also is a little nervous, has some trouble speaking emotionally when others are upset, and is a little bitter that her strengths are not ones Steven considers admirable.
Abilities[]
| “ |
I am a Gem of many talents. A dedication to fact is just one of them. |
” | —Pearl in "Historical Friction" | ||
Pearl possesses traits and abilities that are common among all Gems.
Throughout the series, Pearl has been shown to have intelligence in multiple aspects of technology, from fixing Greg's Van, making a semi-functioning spacecraft out of leftover machine parts, creating a functional robot to battle Peridot, to fixing Peridot's Escape Pod and even reverse-engineering it to track Peridot's Warp Pad movements. In "Back to the Barn", it is implied that Pearl's engineering skills are mostly self-taught much to Peridot's astonishment. Her engineering and constructing abilities rival Peridot's considering the tie between them in the robots challenge. Despite this talent, she cannot craft or upgrade weaponry and has to rely on Bismuth for that task.
While Pearl is lithe and quite graceful, she has a surprising resilience to injury. In "Coach Steven", she took a headbutt from Sugilite and could still move, given Steven's encouragement. In "On the Run", she took an explosion from Amethyst's whip directly and recovered almost immediately after being briefly immobilized and scratched.
In "Historical Friction", she mentions that one of her talents is a dedication to fact. She has shown this skill in the past while displaying examples using her holograms. Her immortality and attention to detail have allowed her to recall historical events as they truly happened, such as the beginning of the Crystal Gems' rebellion and the founding of Beach City.
Fusions[]
- When fused with Amethyst, they form Opal.
- When fused with Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond, they form Rainbow Quartz.
- When fused with Ruby and Sapphire (or Garnet), they form Sardonyx.
- When fused with Ruby, Sapphire (or Garnet), and Amethyst, they form Alexandrite.
- When fused with Steven, they form Rainbow Quartz 2.0.
- When fused with Ruby, Sapphire (or Garnet), Amethyst and Steven they form Obsidian.
Skillset[]
- Spear Proficiency: Through her many years of training, Pearl can 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 formal (Ballet) dancing. She moves gracefully and swiftly, attacking with grace and poise. She stays calm and collected during melee battles, duels, and skirmishes. Pearl also has great skill in throwing her spear. This was proven in "Giant Woman", and "Beach Party". As of "Bismuth", Pearl's spear has been upgraded to be able to turn into a trident.
- Dual Wielding: Pearl is capable of wielding dual spears in battle, implying she is ambidextrous.
- Energy Projection: Pearl can fire arrow-like blasts of energy from the tip of her spear. This can be done as rapid-fire or charged to unleash a more powerful blast. In Attack the Light, this ability is named "Fireball".
- Swordsmanship: Pearl possesses expert knowledge and skill with a sword. For one on one dueling, Pearl's preferred weapon is a straight-bladed saber. Pearl's parries are tight and minimalist; her offense is a pattern that is specific to the environment. This pattern consists of lunges, thrusts, and horizontal slashes.
- Engineering: On multiple occasions, Pearl has demonstrated a high level of skill in mechanical engineering, ranging from reverse-engineering Flask Robonoids to constructing a combat-ready robot on short notice. She also constructed a rocket in an attempt to leave Earth, proving herself able to compete with an "expert" mechanic such as Peridot.
- Gem-tech Interfacing: While not to the extent of Peridot, she is first shown in "Jail Break" and later shown in "Friend Ship", to be able to interface and control Gem technology such as the Gem Warship and, to a greater extent, Peridot's escape pod. When she interfaces with Gem-tech, her eyes become overlapped with what looks like programming code.
- Piloting: Pearl has been shown to be able to fly Homeworld ships just like Peridot, Doc, and Navy. For example, Pearl piloted a Gem Warship in "Jail Break" and a Roaming Eye in "Bubbled".
- Driving: Pearl is the only known Gem to be able to drive a car, as she has driven Greg's Van before. In "Last One Out of Beach City", she is shown to be an extremely skilled racer.
- Water-Walking: Pearl can walk on water, an ability she shares with Opal, Lion, and Lapis Lazuli.
- Photokinesis: Pearl can use her gemstone to light up dark places. Garnet, Eyeball, Doc, and Peridot share the same ability.
- Enhanced Jump: Pearl jumps in the air for a long period of time to battle Sugilite in "Coach Steven". She shares this ability with the other Crystal Gems, though not to the extent that Steven can.
- Item Summon: Pearl can materialize different items out of her gemstone. The three items summoned so far were police tape in "Lars and the Cool Kids", the Mirror in "Mirror Gem" and bandages in "Sworn to the Sword".
- Mentoring: according to the Steven Universe: Too Cool for School comic, Pearl homeschools Steven effective enough to make him score perfect mark in human conventional school.
Unique Abilities[]
- Holographic Projection: 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, can interact with solid matter. Furthermore, the holograms can function without Pearl's presence up to two weeks, implying that her holograms can live independently. In "Chille Tid", it is shown Pearl's dreams are projected as holograms as she sleeps.
- Self-Duplication: Aside from Holo-Pearls, which is projected through her gemstone, Pearl can also replicate herself several times into hologram-esque clones of herself, as seen in "Beach Party".
- Psammokinesis: Pearl is shown manipulating a small amount of sand to create figurines in "Giant Woman". It is currently unknown how much sand she can control at one time. This ability has only been shown once so far. Like her water-walking, it seems to be related thematically to her gemstone.
- Nephelokinesis: In "Sworn to the Sword", Pearl can channel clouds in the direction of her choice, being able to gather clouds surrounding the arena around her to create a fine mist, reducing visibility and able to dissipate quickly. However, it is not known if she can do this in other locations. Additionally, in "Mr. Greg", Pearl forms overhead clouds into depictions of herself, Rose, and Greg during the song "It's Over Isn't It". It is possible that both this power and her psammokinesis are just manifestations of weak telekinetic abilities.
Additional Tools[]
- Swords: Pearl possesses a vast collection of swords consisting of cutlasses, Persian Talwars, and sabers which she stores within the central fountain in her room.
- Pearl's preferred sword when teaching sword fighting lessons is a standard adult training saber, as seen when training Connie and Steven.
- Battleaxe (mentioned only): In "Onion Trade", Pearl demands Amethyst to reveal the location of her battleaxe.
- Replicator Wand (formerly): Pearl has a wand capable of creating identical copies of any physical object. However, Garnet destroys it in "Onion Trade" because she did not want to individually destroy/poof the thousands of Dave G.U.Y.S., cars, and other objects that Onion made.
Relationships[]
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Gallery
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Trivia[]
In the transition from the pilot to the series, Pearl underwent the most drastic change of the three Gems, to the point where she is almost unrecognizable to seasoned viewers seeing the pilot for the first time. Among these changes are:
- Removal of gold ring around her gemstone.
- Removal of earrings (and visible ears altogether).
- Skin color changed (from blue to white).
- Pointier nose.
- Rounder face.
- Slimmer, more cartoonish build.
- Drastically different outfit.
- Different hairstyle, covering ears and pointing backwards instead of forwards.
- Rose-pink hair color to light peach.
- Eye color changed (black to a light blue).
- Removal of hearts on slippers and slipper color changed (dark blue to light blue).
- Higher-pitched voice.
- Different personality (in the pilot, she enjoyed and readily joined Amethyst in heckling Steven).
- In "Back to the Barn" It is confirmed that there are multiple pearls on Homeworld. It is also confirmed that the pearl gemstones on Homeworld are considered inferior and as Peridot put it, "Made-to-order servants."
- In "Together Breakfast", it is revealed that Pearl owns a wide collection of swords.
- The Gems' fighting styles are based on dancing styles. Pearl's fighting/dancing style is ballet.[3]
- In "Fusion Cuisine", Pearl states that she hates eating. She has stated that the digestive process is what disgusts her the most.
- 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.
- 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.
- However, she is shown to enjoy tea, 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".
- In "Keep Beach City Weird", Pearl shows a reluctance to shapeshifting, and she is the only Crystal Gem who has not shown an ability to shapeshift outside regeneration.
- However, in "Beach Party", "Space Race", and "Back to the Barn" she is able to shapeshift her outfit.
- Pearl's weaponry includes a replicator wand, which is destroyed in "Onion Trade" by Garnet, and currently owns a collection of swords and a battle axe.
- Pearl's ability to store things in her gemstone may be unique for pearls since Peridot did say in "Back to the Barn" that pearls hold "stuff" for the leader assigned to them, more likely for easier accessibility.
- However, Garnet is able to summon the Pyramid Temple Key in "Serious Steven", which may indicate that, though Pearls were made to hold items, all Gems are capable of doing so.
- In "Steven and the Stevens", she is seen playing the violin.
- It is seen in "Monster Buddies" that Steven keeps a framed picture of Pearl on the side of their fridge. It is later destroyed by the Centipeetle Mother. In "When It Rains", it is revealed that it replaced by a new picture of her in her post-regeneration outfit.
- Pearl appears to have her face on several coin-types.[5]
- Pearl is the first Gem shown to be able to harness energy within their weapon for an attack in "Watermelon Steven".
- In "Lion 3: Straight to Video", Pearl admits that she often watches Steven sleep.
- Though stating during the same episode that Steven no longer wishes her to watch him sleep, she is observed intently watching him sleep when he wakes up from his first dream during "Chille Tid".
- It is confirmed by Steven in "Steven the Sword Fighter" that organizing messes is one of Pearl's favorite hobbies.
- It is revealed in "Reformed" that Pearl was always bothered by Amethyst's crooked shoulder strap.
- Pearl is ambidextrous, shown in "Ocean Gem" where she is able to wield two spears at the same time.
- Rebecca Sugar stated in an interview that the Crystal Gem Steven knows the least about at this point is Pearl.[6]
- In "Sworn to the Sword", Pearl says she was only a few thousand years old when she began fighting alongside Rose Quartz.
- It was on Earth that Pearl learned of sword fighting.
- In a flashback, it appears that Pearl engaged a Gem (similar to Jasper) multiple times for Rose Quartz.
- Pearl's gem represents a cabochon, a gem that has not been faceted but has been polished.
- All of Pearl's fusions have been dubbed Giant Woman or something similar by Steven with the exception of Rainbow Quartz.
- In most, if not all of her fusions, Pearl seems to be dominant with more features being attributed to her than her fusing partner.
- Pearl's reason for protecting Earth is to carry on Rose's fight.
- Her lines from the extended opening are "I will fight in the name of Rose Quartz! And everything that she believed in!"
- Pearl finds life jackets very lame, puny, and unnecessary, as shown in "Chille Tid" as they are used to prevent drowning which opposes to pearls being formed underwater.
- Her dancing is similar to how Princess Tutu dances from Princess Tutu.
- Rebecca Sugar has stated Pearl represents the group-dependency stage in the human emotional development spectrum.
- When asked what songs would be on the Crystal Gems' playlists, Rebecca Sugar listed Sunmi's "24 Hours" and William Bolcom's "Graceful Ghost Rag".
- In "Back To The Barn", it is stated that pearls are used as servants on Homeworld who can be "owned".
- In "Too Far", Peridot has stated that Pearl is prone to spontaneously singing and crying.
- This is a tongue in cheek reference to how many characters cry and sing on Steven Universe.
- Aside from Steven, Pearl is the most prone to crying and singing.
- During the early days of the Rebellion, Garnet considered Pearl "terrifying".
- In "Message Received", when Pearl is asked by Steven who Yellow Diamond's Pearl is, she is offended and states that not all pearls know each other.
- Pearl replaces her usual star symbol with a pink diamond on her space suit, as seen in "Space Race" and "Back to the Barn".
- Unlike other pearls, Pearl's gem is oval shaped,[9] big and on the forehead, while Yellow and Blue Pearl's gems are smaller, round and on the chest. Jasper also refers to pearl as "lost and defective". However, 'defective' might be in reference to her defection to the rebellion, rather than a physical defect.
- According to Aivee Tran and Surasshu, "Pearl's piano is often written in minor, with blocked chords and gentle jazz influences", as well as an expanded palette of "harp and some pads."[10]
- It should be noted that, to date, all fusions involving Pearl are in some way multi-colored, thus named after multi-colored gemstones.
- Opal - Color play via diffraction.
- Rainbow Quartz - Metal coating.
- Sardonyx - Multi-colored bands of various colors.
- Alexandrite - Color change due to exposure to different forms of light.
- In "Know Your Fusion", an illustration of Pearl is seen on a "test your strength" device. On this device, Pearl is the weakest one shown, being weaker than Stevonnie, Garnet, Opal and Sugilite.
- She is the character that has sung most of all in the series.
- In "Last One Out of Beach City", Pearl admits that she does not have a license or legal citizenship in the country, fully aware of the absurdity of registering for either, having lived before such systems where installed and being unable to confess she is from space.
- Pearl's clothes in "Last One Out of Beach City" resemble Lauren Zuke's Bad Pearl drawing.
- It has been hinted at in several episodes that Pearl used to belong to Pink Diamond, like:
- In Space Race, her space suit bore the insignia of Pink Diamond.
- In Bubbled, Garnet mentioned one of the reasons for Rose Quartz shattering Pink Diamond was so Pearl could be free.
- Pearl is voiced by Deedee Magno Hall.
- As of the series' final episode, "The Future", Pearl is the last character to speak in the entire Steven Universe franchise.