Pearl (Steven Universe)

Pearl has a slender build, an ivory complexion, light cyan 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 is a light peach color (though on some occasions, it is light pink) and resembles a pixie-cut in the front, while in the back, her hair leads to a point. Like most Gems, 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.

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 teal blue sleeves, 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 80' s.

In "Story for Steven", "We Need to Talk", "Greg the Babysitter", and "A Single Pale Rose", which all flashback to around the 1980s, along with Lapis Lazuli's flashback in "Same Old World" Pearl wore a transparent yellow shawl with a draped sleeveless and shoulder less 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.

From "Gem Glow" to "Steven the Sword Fighter", Pearl wore a sleeveless,dull cyan-blue top that had a yellow star, and a translucent bust and transferred into a transparent ruffled yellowish-green mini-skirt . She also wore short salmon pink leggings, light green socks, and pale blue slip-on ballet flats to match. This form was also seen in the flashback of "Three Gems and a Baby".

From "Steven the Sword Fighter" to "Together Alone", Pearl wore a halter dull teal tunic with a yellow star on the center of her chest and a cyan satin sash ribbon around her upper waist. Her leggings were amber-colored. She also wore pink socks, and her slip-on ballet flats were colored a slightly lighter blue than before.

After regenerating in "Change Your Mind", Pearl now wears a poofy, cropped, short-sleeved light turquoise blazer with a pink inner lining and a yellow star on the back over a strapless teal top, cadet blue leggings (appearing as capri jeans), and light pink slip-on ballet flats.

Pearl is a perfectionist who is 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 Mystery Girl that had appeared repeatedly throughout the episode, whom Pearl seemed infatuated with.

Despite her poor image of humanity, Pearl has come to show admiration for them as demonstrated in "Three Gems and a Baby" where she admires and envies the ability of humans to adapt to changes, something that she comments that It is not normal for her or other gems, this is also demonstrated with Connie, being moved by her conviction to the point of tears in "Sworn to the Sword" and whom she considers an "Excellent Student" to the point of letting her help on missions. related to gems and even give him a vote of confidence in "Gem Hunt" and agree to separate from her and Steven to occupy more ground during the mission.

Although 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. Pearl tends to keep her legs straight, though she often crosses her feet. 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.

Pearl possesses standard Gem abilities: bubbling, shapeshifting, fusion, regeneration, agelessness, gravity shifting, weapon-Summoning, photokinesis, gem storage, 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.

When fused with Amethyst, they form Opal. When fused with Rose Quartz, they form Rainbow Quartz. When fused with Ruby and Sapphire, they form Sardonyx. When fused with Ruby, Sapphire, and Amethyst, they form Alexandrite. When fused with Ruby, Sapphire, Amethyst, and Rose Quartz, they form Obsidian. When fused with Steven, they form the hybrid fusion Rainbow Quartz 2.0. When fused with Ruby, Sapphire, Amethyst, and Steven, they form the hybrid fusion Obsidian. When fused with Pink Pearl, they form Mega Pearl.