a small detail i really appreciate in su is the way that steven never refers to pink diamond as “mom”. this is pretty obvious, not really an easter egg or something revolutionary, but still a cool detail regardless. in the beginning seasons, steven strictly refers to rose as mom, in the later seasons, he still does refer to rose as mom, however, he does simply call her rose sometimes. despite this, he never calls pink his mom. it’s clear that as soon as steven found out the truth about who pink diamond was, he was not pleased nor did he try to put his usual positive twist on it. his relationship with pink is so much more different than his relationship with rose for a number of reasons. from the moment steven knew the truth, he wanted to distance himself from her, almost in denial of being her son. this proved to be especially hard when he went to homeworld where he was referred to as pink by his “fellow” diamonds, saluted as a diamond by his mother’s court, and even dressed like her. he had to present a certain way on homeworld that most definitely added to his constant identity crisis (that’s a ramble for another post tho). anyways, right after he had barely escaped his unhealthy mindset of having to live up to rose’s standards and how he was viewed by the gems, he’s immediately tossed into another toxic mindset tenfold. now, how he’s perceived by the diamonds occupies the number one space in his mind and all he can think about is how much he hates being compared to pink, but how important it is that he plays her role to please the diamonds. once again, steven chooses to be painfully selfless. even though being treated like pink causes so much emotional turmoil, he plays the part for the sake of his family and the state of the earth, something pink probably wouldn’t have the emotional maturity to do (this isn’t really a pink hatepost btw she’s a very complex character i might make a ramble on her as well) back to my original point, despite the fact that he refuses to address pink diamond as his mother, how the hell he was still willing to pretend to be her whilst keeping his patience with the stubborn diamonds is completely beyond me. so glad this man got therapy lol