“I like the way human beings play. I like playing along.”
“And you are not a Gem.”
I don’t think the Gems, particularly Rose and Pearl, have ever felt as alien to me as they did in this episode.
Whenever
we’re reminded of how different the Gem’s behavior and morals are from
humans, it’s often played for laughs, with the Gems not fitting into
everyday human culture and socially acceptable behavior, resulting in funny situations.This
entire episode, however, addresses it in a rather serious tone, and
through Greg’s eyes we, the audience, get to experience just how
alienated he is from the Gems, and how he has to struggle to try
developing his relationship with Rose into something more than just
“play mates”.Rose doesn’t do it with any intentional malice. She
likes Greg, but she likes him because she loves humans, and he’s a
particularly cute one. That’s really all there is to it at this point, and that’s what
hurts Greg. Rose’s early affection for him, and view on humans in
general, can really only be compared with a dog person saying how much
they love dogs. Rose treats Greg like a pet, affectionately but very
lightheartedly, and there’s implications that he’s not the first human she’s done this with either. Greg gets upset, Rose laughs, and is then genuinely
confused over how this is inappropriate. And it’s not because Rose is somehow incapable of having serious talks, as we know she had a very serious one with Pearl right before the war. But she has never spoken with or treated humans like they were Gems. She doesn’t mean to hurt Greg,
and in the end she does listen and try to figure things out with him.Pearl, on the other
hand, is an entirely different story. She’s extremely spiteful of Greg, and fully
intentional in showing him just how different he is from them, and how different her relationship with Rose is from his. I’ve only heard people talk about one aspect of this, that being how Pearl wants to showcase to Greg how close and romantic she and Rose can be, and that’s definitely a large part of it. But to me, it also
gave off such a strong vibe of being an act of dominance towards Greg as
a human. Pearl is sending out a clear message to Greg that the Gems are not like him. They are not human, and they most certainly are not his new band buddies that he can act so casually around. They’re an alien warrior race who live for thousands of years and have powers beyond his imagination. He is not her equal, and he is definitely not Rose’s equal, and he cannot hope to compete with them and what they have.
Can we talk about what’s up with the dynamics between Amethyst Pearl Greg and Rose? Like Amethyst being really close with Greg in the 4th of July episode and like turning into Rose briefly and like her being excited to see Greg in a story for Steven and her kind of having his hair and the star symbol on her knees now and then like the way she kind of teases Pearl but also wants her love and approval. It seems like maybe she kind of hero worshipped Rose, but maybe kind of fell for Pearl herself and didn’t like how Rose was treating her but then I don’t get her relationship with Greg?
Or like maybe she sees him (a person from earth) in a relationship with Rose and loves and kind of hero worships him because she’s had a crush or like desire for Pearl’s respect or something and because she’s also from earth and feels alienated from and different from the other gems because of this and thought she could never be with Pearl because of that and because of how she saw Rose relating to other humans, but then Rose fell in love with him and so she decided to be with him because she thought if that’s what a human/earth person who a gem could love was like then if she was like him Pearl might love her?
But then like why does she become Rose with Greg? Do you think she had a baby crush on Greg and then had a falling out with him when she realized his relationship with Rose was serious? but then like why did she sort of borrow a bunch of elements from his look and if it was because she wanted Rose then why did she turn into Rose with Greg? Was that like to taunt him?
THERE ARE SO MANY UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
Thoughts From The Peacock Angel 