| Pearl | |
|---|---|
| |
| Series | Steven Universe |
| Age | Immemorial |
| Birthday | Unknown |
| Sex | Genderless, identifies as female |
| Species | Gem |
| Height | Unknown |
| Weight | Unknown |
| Alignment | Neutral Good |
| “ | I will fight in the name of Rose Quartz, and everything that she believed in! | „ |
| ~ Pearl |
Pearl is one of the two tritagonists (alongside Amethyst) of the TV series Steven Universe. She is a member of the Crystal Gems.
Background[]
While not everything about Pearl's background is known at the moment, it has been confirmed that Pearls are a sub-species of Gem who are created to be only servants for higher-ranking Gems. The Pearl given to Rose Quartz however was a different story, as Rose pushed her to think for herself and become her own Gem. However, Pearl still stayed loyal to her "programming" and was extremely dedicated to Rose, even jumping in front of attacks for her and being forced into regeneration in her place. Eventually, Rose met a human named Greg, who Pearl took a great disliking to at first, believing he would steal Rose away from her. Rose eventually got pregnant with a human child, meaning she had to give up her existence for him, which emotionally scarred Pearl. However, despite this, she wound up becoming a strong motherly figure for Rose's son, Steven, and thanks to his help, she managed to learn more and more how to be her own person.
Powers & Abilities[]
- Gem Physiology: Pearl possesses standard Gem abilities: bubbling, shapeshifting, fusion, regeneration, agelessness, and superhuman strength/durability. 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Mentoring: According to Steven Universe: Too Cool for School comic, Pearl homeschools Steven effective enough to make him score a perfect mark in human conventional school. This is also shown in how effectively she has trained both Steven and Connie to fight.
Equipment[]
- Spear/Trident: Pearl is able to summon a pearl-tipped spear from her gemstone. She is able to fire energy projectiles from the tip of her spear, and she is skilled enough to dual-wield it. It was later upgraded by Bismuth to be a Trident.
- 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: 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 the thousands of cars, "Dave Guy"s, and other objects that Onion replicated.
Feats[]
Strength[]
- Caused a small shockwave while clashing with Holo-Pearl
- Destroyed a boulder by kicking it
- Threw a baseball hard enough to break a bat in two
- Could partially restrain Spinel.
- Pierced through Peridot's escape pod, twice.
- Simultaneously poofed two Quartzes.
- Can hold back Amethyst's whip, which can easily split a dumpster in half.
Speed[]
- Outran Lion on foot
- Can pilot the Roaming Eye through asteroids and dodge incoming asteroids from extremely close range.
- Fought against two clones of herself at once.
- Dodged a barrage of attacks with her eyes closed.
Durability[]
- In Coach Steven, she survived a beatdown from Sugilite.
- Can tank hits from Amethyst.
- Tanked hits from the building-destroying Sugilite.
- When Ronaldo punched her hand, he got hurt by it.
Skill[]
- In Sworn to the Sword, she trained Connie into an expert swordfighter in only a few days.
- Destroyed the bodies of six Gems in under a minute.
- Built a fully functional spaceship in the span of a few days.
- Managed to build a working robot in under two minutes.
- Despite being designed as a servant, is still a talented fighter and technician.
- Fought in the war between the Crystal Gems and the Homeworld Gems as Rose Quartz's most trusted partner.
- Regularly fights off giant monsters.
- Holo-Pearl, a holographic clone of Pearl that she uses to spar against, cut a tree to pieces with a balloon sword.
- Held her own against Amethyst, despite being made as a servant, while the latter was designed to be a warrior.
- Defeated Sugilite, who can easily smash through buildings.
- Built a spaceship and a giant robot out of scrap.
- Punched Peridot in the face.
Weaknesses[]
- Gem Physiology: Gem bodies are fragile, and after sustaining enough damage they will disappear, leaving their gemstones vulnerable as they are forced to regenerate. Gems cannot regenerate if their gemstones are bubbled or contained in another object.
- Gemstones: If a Gem's stones are cracked, it leads to them becoming corrupted beasts, making them less intelligent and more feral. If a Gem's stone is shattered completely, then the completely cease to exist.
- Emotional Stability: Ever since Rose's departure, Pearl has been somewhat of an emotional wreck. Certain topics about Rose or her past can trigger her into emotional outbursts. She is also seen to desire a feeling of affection (as she tricked Garnet into fusing with her in Cry for Help), and also suffers from self esteem issues, sometimes claiming that she's "just a Pearl".
Fun Facts[]
- Rebecca Sugar has stated that Pearl is a lot like herself.