Pearl’s Original Owner (Speculation and Scenarios)
So right now there’s a theory going around that the pearl we know, Crystal Gem Pearl is not Rose Quartz’s pearl originally, but in fact belonged to White Diamond.
The basis of this theory is that Blue Diamond’s pearl had her gem on her chest, like Blue Diamond, and White Diamond has her gem on her head, like our Pearl does. Also, Peridot considers our Pearl an ‘extra fancy’ version, which one of the Diamonds would be likely to have.
Ordinarily I would find this fairly compelling evidence for a theory, but as it is, I’m very torn, because of some evidence that might be to the contrary.
What evidence? Pearl’s intrinsic personality. At her core, Pearl is both ferociously, obsessively loyal, and doesn’t have much self-worth or value- a fact which I think cuts out a number of possible scenarios for Pearl ever having belonged to White Diamond. It’s still possible, but I think there are only a few ways it would work.
Let’s take a look at a few scenarios for Pearl and Rose coming together.
Pearl saw Rose’s rebellion, and philosophy, and defected from White Diamond of her own free will.
Rose kidnapped/liberated Pearl as an act of defiance against the Diamond Authority
White Diamond gifted her Pearl to Rose before the rebellion, either because there was some defect in Pearl, or in return for some great service done by Rose.
White Diamond decided Pearl was defective for some reason, and exiled her or slated her for destruction, and Rose rescued Pearl from it.
- White Diamond never owned Pearl, she was created for Rose and has her gem on her head for some other reason.
We’ll look at these scenarios and their likelihood in order.
***Scenario 1 is the one that I consider the absolute least likely. Pearls are made to serve, and we know that our Pearl has a very hard time disentangling herself from that role enough to be her own person. It’s so severe that Rose Quartz has to remind her to be her own person and take into account her own opinions, as we see in Rose’s Scabbard.
With that in mind, it’s very unlikely that a raw Pearl, with no coaching from someone else had the confidence or agency to look at Rose Quartz’ philosophy and decided that she should betray her Diamond, and her station, in order to serve Rose. Not only that, but it’s likely that even if Pearl DID sympathize with Rose’s rebellion when she belonged to White Diamond, she would not feel like she had anything to offer Rose in service. Remember that pearls are created as accessories and servants to look pretty. Pearl wouldn’t have any skills to put to use in a rebellion initially and probably consider herself nothing but a burden if she joined.
***Scenario 2 has two sides to it, and one of them I consider possible but unlikely, and the other I consider well, pretty nasty.
Lets look at the nasty idea first. Realistically speaking, if Pearl had served White Diamond for any length of time, she’d be very loyal to her, probably even if she was not a good mistress. The Pearl we know doesn’t care much for her own well being, so even if she’s being mistreated, she would have behaved loyally to the Diamond who owned her (much like we see Peridot behaving recently.)
That means that if Rose Quartz liberated her away from White Diamond, Pearl wouldn’t see it as anything more than being kidnapped/stolen by rebel scum. And THAT means that all of her later ferocious loyalty to Rose Quartz would have a very unpleasant taste of Stockholm Syndrome to it, even if White Diamond is evil and Rose is right.
On the flip side, if Rose Quartz stole Pearl from White Diamond right after Pearl was created and before she had a chance to form an attachment to White Diamond, then that would essentially make her Rose’s Pearl anyway. Even if she was created for White Diamond, all she would know was Rose. (This is assuming that pearls don’t come into existence programmed to serve a particular gem).
However, the way Pearl acts suggests that she spent time as an actual servant, and internalized the servant mentality. If Rose had really stolen her immediately after her creation, it would be after her rebellion, so she wouldn’t be treating her like a servant. That means that this scenario is still pretty unlikely, but technically possible.
***In Scenario 3 we have the possibility that White Diamond gifted her Pearl to Rose Quartz for some reason.
This scenario is fairly possible, because if Pearl was legitimately gifted to Rose Quartz she’d be duty-bound to serve her, and if Rose was a more pleasant mistress than White Diamond was, it’s not surprising that she’d idolize her and increase her loyalty.
This is doubly true if Rose was gifted Pearl because she was in some way considered defective or White Diamond didn’t see her as worth having. After all when Jasper comes to earth, she immediately calls Pearl “defective” as if it were obvious. Pearl would be very likely to imprint on someone who saw value in her when her original owner didn’t.
***And that brings us nicely to Scenario 4, which I consider the most likely scenario for White Diamond to have been Pearl’s original owner.
Like the scenario before it, here White Diamond has decided for some reason that Pearl is defective or unwanted, but this time she’s just going to throw her out. Whether this means just abandoning her, or outright scheduling her to be executed is unknown. But either way, Pearl would feel rejected, humiliated, and unwanted.
And then Rose swoops in, and rescues her not only from being a servant but from death or abandonment. Pearl would *definitely* see Rose as someone to admire and fight for in this scenario, probably more than any of the others. I consider this the most compelling and likely scenario if Pearl was really owned by White Diamond.
***Scenario 5 is of course that Pearl never belonged to White Diamond and was originally created for Rose Quartz. I still believe this is a pretty solid theory, even with the gem evidence. We certainly don’t know all there is to gem placement, and even if we’ve seen two out of four gems and their pearls and they happen to match, we don’t know that the placement always matches. There may also be some other reason that our Pearl has her gem on her head.
We’ll have to wait and see!
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