Pearl

"♫ I will fight in the name of Rose Quartz, and everything that she believed in! ♫"

Pearl is a member of the Crystal Gems. One of Rose Quartz's closest followers and her sole confidant, Pearl is one of the last surviving Gems on Earth who joined the Crystal Gems in their rebellion against the Gem Homeworld. Pearl would afterward protect the Earth over the next several millennia alongside her friends, while later teaching Steven the ways of Gems.

Years later, Pearl is no longer suffering from issues of self-worth and finds her way, knowing she is herself. Though she is struck and her memories wiped by Spinel's Rejuvenator, she gets her memories back by remembering her independence and ability for self-actualization.

In The Neptunians (series), she is a member of The Neptunians along with Peridot and serves as their caretaker and parental figure.

Appearance
Pearl has a slender, thin build, ivory skin, sky-blue eyes, a pointed nose, and thin lips. She is quite a tall Gem; towering over Amethyst, Ruby, Sapphire, Peridot, and Steven alike. She is nearly equal in height (with hair) to Garnet's chin. Her hair has a peach color and resembles a pixie-cut in the front, while in the back, her hair leads to a point. Pearl is usually drawn without eyelashes or pupils, although they have been seen in some close-ups. Pearl's gemstone is located in the middle of her forehead and has no facets.

First-form
In "A Single Pale Rose" and "Now We're Only Falling Apart", which flashback to the time she served Pink Diamond, Pearl wears a dress resembling Pink Diamond's. The top half has puffy blue shoulders, an amber-colored top with a V neck, a diamond-shaped cutout at the bottom, and a light yellow trim along the bottom. The bottom half has a pink skirt with transparent drapes over it and pale blue ballet flats. Her hairstyle is a mix between its style during the Rebellion and its style in the 80s. This form also appears when Pearl regenerates in Steven Universe: The Movie.

1980s-90s regeneration
In "Story for Steven", "We Need to Talk", "Greg the Babysitter", and "A Single Pale Rose", episodes that flashback to around the 1980s, Pearl wore a cropped ruffle mesh capelet with a draped sleeveless and shoulderless heart-shaped aqua top, short lavender leggings, salmon pink leg warmers, and pale blue ballet flats. Her hair was also a little longer, somewhat resembling a bob.

Pre-Regeneration (debut)
From "Gem Glow" to "Steven the Sword Fighter", Pearl wore a sleeveless, sky blue top that had a yellow star, and a translucent chest and transferred into a transparent silk ballet skirt around her waist. She also wore short salmon pink-colored leggings, light-green socks, and slip-on ballet flats to match. This form was also seen in the flashback of "Three Gems and a Baby".

Post-Regeneration (previous)
From "Steven the Sword Fighter" to "Together Alone", Pearl wore an aqua blue tunic with a small yellow star on the center of her chest and a lighter satin sash ribbon around her upper waist. Her leggings are amber-colored. She also wore pink socks with pale blue slip-on ballet flats.

Current
After regenerating in "Change Your Mind", Pearl now wears a poofy, cyan blazer with a yellow star on the back over a teal-blue top, indigo leggings, and light pink slip-on ballet flats.

Personality
Pearl is a perfectionist knowledgeable on a plethora of topics that value organization. Pearl has a penchant for symmetry (going so far as to impale M.C. Bear Bear to maintain the symmetry of a pile of appliances and school supplies) and very high attention to detail. Despite her perfectionism and occasional bragging, Pearl suffers from low self-esteem. In "Friend Ship", she admits she is very dependent on others to validate her, which loops into a strong inferiority complex. According to Amethyst in "Reformed", she needs everyone's constant approval to feel secure. Without anyone to tell her what to do or to depend on her, Pearl feels lost without meaning or value. Pearl admits she often feels extremely weak and/or useless when compared to others who appear better than her, going so far as to describe herself as ineffective on her own; always in need of a leader she can follow, thinking she has very little power to affect others, partly because her low self-esteem leads her to believe she lacks the relevance to be influential. Her self-deprecating tendencies stem from the Homeworld caste values, where pearls are viewed as property rather than Gems. This has led her to take drastic actions to prove herself — though, thanks to Garnet's encouragement in "Friend Ship", she has started to take initiatives instead of letting other's words define Pearl herself. It appears Pearl has taken this to her heart, as she asserted herself against Peridot when she treated Pearl in a degrading tone. Pearl even goes as far as physically punching Peridot to show that she is an individual, not a piece of property. In the past, her low self-esteem is explained in detail by Garnet that she was willing to risk her life to protect Rose to prove her worth, which goes as far as nearly making Connie into an exact low-esteem replica of her during sword training if not for Steven's intervention.

Pearl is easily flustered and overwhelmed when confronted by the unknown or when her plans fail, which can lead to her judgment being clouded or cause her to act on impulse instead of rational thinking. Her inner turmoil over her love for Rose (and her subsequent absence) has made Pearl lash out at Steven and the Crystal Gems more than once. At times, Pearl does not realize when she is being selfish because she thinks she is always doing everything for others. Her fierce desire to feel "strong" and have more victories as a Crystal Gem even caused her to betray Garnet's trust and basic principles so they could keep forming Sardonyx. When realizing how much she hurt others, Pearl will apologize and try as hard as she can to set things right, working hard to counteract the damage she may have inflicted.

Out of all the Crystal Gems, Pearl is the most poorly adjusted to life on Earth, being unaware of human social conventions and culture, such as jokes, games, arcades, food, and birthday parties. Pearl has expressed a great desire to leave Earth in "Space Race", going so far as to risk her and Steven's lives. Pearl also has a pessimistic view of humanity, as evidenced by her statement in "Keep Beach City Weird". Though, in "Political Power", she claimed to have been around during the millennium when humans lived without any light and were aware that they used to hunt and gather. She appeared quite surprised that they did not do that anymore. In "Last One Out of Beach City", Pearl takes her turn at trying to build a normal, human social life in the hopes of impressing Steven and Amethyst, voluntarily joining them in going to a show, and drinking beverages. By the end, Pearl even approached the mysterious girl that had appeared repeatedly throughout the episode, whom Pearl seemed infatuated with.

Despite her pessimistic perspective of humans, Pearl is extremely dedicated to her cause in protecting humanity more or less out of her love, loyalty, and admiration for Rose Quartz. She does, however, find certain aspects of Earth rather amazing. Regardless of her poor understanding of human society, she can pay for the Cookie Cats Amethyst and Garnet steal in "Gem Glow", drive Greg's Van in "Ocean Gem", and repair it in "House Guest". She also watches the New Year's Eve fireworks show in "Maximum Capacity".

In "Back to the Barn", it is revealed that pearls are not created for fighting, but for following orders. However, Pearl trained to fight with Rose. Peridot also describes pearls as accessories that are meant to be put on display as status symbols and to perform menial tasks, although Pearl's appearance fits this standard.

Aside from her pessimism and perfectionism, Pearl is usually polite and reserved to others; she keeps everything set orderly and tidy. Her obsessive attention to tidiness is explained in "Back to the Barn" when it is revealed that pearls are made-to-order servants and are created to "hold stuff" for their masters.

Her body language tends to accentuate her movements like a ballerina, using the tip of her feet and keep her legs straight with often the feets crossing, her fighting style also displays several leaps and pirouettes, all further emphasized by her ballerina-like outfit.

Steven Universe: The Movie shows Pearl more laid back and confident, as when Greg says she's the boss she agrees, showing that she's accepted she's her Gem. When reformed after being hit by the rejuvenator she returns to being servile to Greg, whom she imprints on.

"Volleyball" shows how far Pearl has come. Having overcome most of her problems and almost moved completely past her relationship with Rose/Pink, Pearl shows a strong and confident attitude with a dry sarcastic sense of humor, remarking snidely how Pink Pearl still had an infatuation with Pink Diamond and scoffing at the items for Pearls in the reef. "Snow Day" shows how far she's moved past her trauma over Rose/Pink when she shapeshifts into 14-year old Steven for Steven Tag.

Powers
Pearl possesses the traits and abilities that are common among all Gems.

Throughout the series, Pearl has been shown to know 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. Furthermore, due to Pearl's lack of update in terms of current Gem technology for thousands of years, she is unfamiliar with some current Gem technology like the operating system in the Roaming Eye in which she needs Peridot to check the system for her and the Crystal Gems.

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 the 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.

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". It is implied in "Bismuth" that this ability may have been developed sometime after the title character was bubbled by Rose.
 * 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 a programming code.
 * Piloting: Pearl can fly Homeworld ships just like Peridot, Doc, and Navy. For example, Pearl piloted a Gem Warship in "Jail Break", a Roaming Eye in "Bubbled", and Pink Diamond's Ship in "Legs From Here to Homeworld".
 * Driving: Pearl is the first known Gem, before Steven, 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.
 * Photokinesis: Pearl can use her gemstone to light up dark places. Garnet, Eyeball, Doc, Peridot, and the Rutile Twins share the same ability.

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 for 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.
 * Nephelokinesis: In "Sworn to the Sword", Pearl can channel clouds in the mist, reducing visibility and able to dissipate quite a direction of her choice, being able to gather clouds surrounding the arena her to create a finicky. 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", though this may have been for dramatic effect and not her manipulating the clouds.
 * Interdimensional Storage: Pearl can store objects inside a dimension in her gemstone, including other gems and humans. This ability was shown in "Lars and the Cool Kids," "Mirror Gem," "Sworn to the Sword," and "Familiar," but it was most notably used in "A Single Pale Rose," where Pearl had Steven go inside her gem to retrieve her cell phone.

Trivia

 * Pearl doesn't like eating.
 * Pearl's fighting and dancing style is based on ballet.
 * Despite being called a spear, based on the shape of the blade and the slashing action Pearl employs in combat, Pearl's 'spear' is technically a glaive.
 * She is over 8,000 years old.
 * Her music style is piano.
 * Pearl is the strongest non-fusion gem.
 * Bismuth has a crush on her, as revealed in the canon episode "Bismuth Casual."