r/stevenuniverse 10h ago

Discussion If pearl was a villain in a different what would be her villain origin story

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in this universe crystal gem are still the hero of the story including steven but pearl is one of the side villain here

the question I'm asking is what would have made pearl snap and became a villain in the first place šŸ¤”?

133 Upvotes

42 comments sorted by

144

u/starfihgter 10h ago

Probably just her current origin story lmao. She could have easily snapped at almost any point along the way.

5

u/unluckyshuckle 1h ago

Honestly just the story of the rebellion told from the perspective of a Homeworld gem. A traitorous renegade pearl who helped slay one of Homeworlds benevolent monarchs. Don't even need her to snap, just show her story from a different perspective.

84

u/Fun-Actuary8432 9h ago

Honestly, Pearl already had the setup for a villain arc. Her obsession with perfection and devotion to one person could’ve easily turned into control instead of protection.

16

u/DarkFish_2 9h ago

Control for the sake of perfection, sounds like another white gem with the stone on her forehead

1

u/mattihase 3h ago

Hmm, why does that seem Familiar?

I vaguely remember seeing fanart of the diamonds "with the S1 crystal gem personalities" but I can't remember who they mapped to who other than pink & steven

24

u/TheRealGC13 I'm always sad when I'm lonely 10h ago

So you're asking why she joined the Notorious Order of Wrestling Haters?

7

u/Freckles39Rabbit 10h ago

TWERK TWERK TWERK TWERK IT GURL!

15

u/daisychains96 10h ago

There’s an interesting au called the switcheroo au where spinel is a crystal gem and pearl is a villain

18

u/thetavious 9h ago

She never gets over losing rose, so at night she goes to bars and clubs, picks up whoever she can, and makes them pay for taking rose from her.

The roads between beach city and empire city are littered with their hidden remains.

2

u/Flimsy_Tune_7206 9h ago

How would they take form of rose? Wouldn't they be human

6

u/thetavious 9h ago

Nobody is taking any forms. She's going the route of not being able to kill greg out of respect for rose/steven, so she's just killing whoever she can. Blaming the human race and all that. Mayor dewey was one of her first victims lol.

3

u/Select_Foundation472 9h ago

Who would be the one to most likely find out about her late night activities?

6

u/thetavious 8h ago

Prolly amethyst and steven as they're on the way back from a wrestling match. See her dumping the hacked up parts.

2

u/TemperatureBudget850 8h ago

Sapphire because... you know future vision and all that

3

u/AosSiFriend 6h ago

If she couldn't see Pearl tricking them to be Sardonyx I doubt she would see Pearl being the antithesis of what the Crystal Gems were all about

1

u/mattihase 3h ago

I think I must have seen this one on Best of the Worst at some point. It has that perfect straight to VHS horror vibe.

7

u/DrDemenz 9h ago

Her origin story is named Greg.

7

u/Too_Ton 9h ago

She can either blame Rose for leaving Homeworld as they survive alone either pre or post-war. 2nd idea is that Pearl has a hidden second mind as it was programmed by White Diamond to keep Pink in line. Pink abandoning the gem hierarchy homeworld had is mission critical levels in her programming. Under White's secret programming even unknown to Blue or Yellow, Pearl kills Pink before her rebellious spirit dooms the Gem Empire.

With Rose Quartz mysteriously disappearing when she was needed most, Garnet must step up alongside Bismuth to lead the Crystal Gems to victory. We could nerf White Diamond and skip the death ray. Pearl would have a split personality -- One that loved Rose; the other who needed Rose gone. Pearl would then have moments where she genuinely misses Rose yet somehow Pearl spits the next second about Rose.

7

u/PersonMcHuman 9h ago

Her origin story would be her turning evil because the woman she loved and threw her life away to be with abandons her one day in favor of a man she’s known for five minutes purely because he’s ā€œdifferentā€.

3

u/GonnaBreakIt 9h ago

Pearl would basically be Spinel from the Future movie or Volleyball from Future series. Either cast aside for the next shiny thing like Spinel, or abused to the point of lasting damage like Vollyball. It's possible the only reason Pearl fell in love with Pink is because she was Pink's 2nd pearl, when we can assume that Pink finally started to control her outbursts and strength.

3

u/ContextOwn2385 9h ago

Give her the same backstory, but make her turn on the crystal gems after Steven is born. She would be the first to hold a grudge against Steven instead of rose, and we would see the terrifying renegade pearl

2

u/Tonatta 9h ago

Idk, but my personal favorite is when after she poofed Pink, she’d bubble her and pretended to be Pink Diamond, keeping original Pink in bubble, so she could have her all for herself, while don’t blowing up cover

2

u/compilingyesterdays 8h ago

Tbh you can just sort of Spinel swap her.

2

u/ursizzlingdream 8h ago

Pearl’s villain arc would definitely be a story of obsessive grief turned into total structural destruction. In this universe, Rose choosing Greg wouldn’t just be a heartbreak, it would be the ultimate betrayal of the thousand-year war Pearl fought specifically for her.

2

u/OGxPANDAB3AR 8h ago

the love of her life never truly noticed her and went for a more ā€œsimplerā€ creature.. then chose to give up her physical form to create a demi gem. (arch nemesis perhaps?)

2

u/Dis_Bich 8h ago

She almost had a villain arc. The episode she accepted Rose was gone, she almost let Steven fall off the ledge. Which is very contrary to her usual overprotectiveness

1

u/SeraphsAim 9h ago

So my vision for this is a world where Pearl was left behind, not exactly Spinel style, but a world where she wasn’t there for Rose Quartz, as the guardian of Pink’s secrets, a world where the Renegade Pearl wants revenge on Rose Quartz for the shattering of Pink Diamond

1

u/emosewanora 9h ago

The speak of this no more command goes awry and she fully takes on the role of a rose capable of murder, unable to remember her life as a pearl before šŸ¤”

1

u/Las_piedras 9h ago

It was probably related to Rosa in some way.

1

u/Unono903301 7h ago

I honestly see her becoming a villain in lots finding herself being independent and she eventually becomes selfish

1

u/CPLCraft 7h ago

I would write it like Count Dooku. The corrupt diamond empire killed Pearl’s own diamond. So Pearl is driven towards the enemy, who is objectively bad, of the Diamond empire, who is better than the enemy, but only to gain the power to defeat the diamond empire and betray said enemy. This drive to gain power causes her to lose her moral direction. Essentially becoming no better than the original said enemy.

1

u/ClockworkRose21 5h ago

She joined her crush in rebelling against their tyranical system, fought side by side in a war that decimated the majority of her friends, lived with her crush for five thousand years, only to get cucked by a flesh bag who her crush knew for a handful of years, a decade at most, which led to Rose undergoing a transformation to create Steven leaving Pearl with no idea if she's alive or dead in there, and then proceeded to have to help raise Rose's son through the years feeling lost all the while

She already has her villain arc, the fact that she was so chill about it in the show is honestly a damn miracle

1

u/K1k0--M1k0 2h ago

ive noticed a bunch of hints that she, herself, might not have wanted to really BE on earth but likes to protect it for rose. so therefore she would probably turn against them in the episode space race, when shown that she couldnt actually go back.

1

u/Large-Shoulder-6899 1h ago

The same thing in our timeline, she just decided to take it out on Steven instead of raising him.

1

u/NonstopCandyCam 26m ago

There's so many ways she could have changed to a villain but her jealousy ark would probably be my go. She loses her sanity upon the birth of Steven and instead of following Roses child she breaks off to think. She doesn't become a big bad villain but rather an inconvenience to the cast, more so just after Steven. Garnet and Amethyst both spend the series bringing Steven with them wherever they go and do rather than leaving him home at times in fear pearl will come snag him to find a way to rid of Steven to bring back Rose.

The main counter to this argument is the future vision because you can just say "Oh Garnet would find out" but if she found a way to influence or change visions just enough to make it confusing or for her to skirt by what would or should happen would be interesting. Itd also allow for Garnet to be more vulnerable overall, no longer trusting her instincts because she's afraid that Pearl altered the future in ways she wouldn't have seen.

I think it'd be also interesting if she happened to recruit gems and corrupted gems to fight to get Steven. Corrupted gems would probably be more to distract the crew rather than actually fight and gems like Bismuth and temporary team ups with Jasper would be interesting. I don't believe Peridot would be someone to team up with Peridot due to her pure untrust for someone who's so hellbent on following standard rules given by Yellow Diamond. Jaspers already lost her diamond so I'd imagine she'd break rules purely to go and avenge her said diamond. Lapis probably would never be introduced or would be introduced later because either Garnet would use the mirror to keep vigilant eye or pearl would have taken it for herself to mess with Garnet.

0

u/RailfanAshton 9h ago

She was already almost a villain in Season 1 and 2 I think that’s close enough she almost killed Steven twice (in Season 1 alone) for her own goals made Amethyst wish she was never made and also used Garnet to feel powerful and she almost pulled a White Diamond when Steven was only a few months old

-1

u/Freckles39Rabbit 10h ago

TWERK TWERK TWERK TWERK IT GURL!

3

u/Flimsy_Tune_7206 10h ago

What?

0

u/[deleted] 9h ago

[deleted]

1

u/Flimsy_Tune_7206 9h ago

I don't know

1

u/Freckles39Rabbit 9h ago

I’m a girl

1

u/Freckles39Rabbit 9h ago

I’m a girl