The thoughts I have on Pink Diamond that no one asked for. Spoilers for the movie.
So like… Pink Diamond was a casually, thoughtlessly cruel person early on. We been knew. We knew that Pink was an Immature Immortal who took literal millennia to see humans as equals and individuals (like, literally Greg was the one who got her there) and who didn’t really… GET the power she had over other gems, like Bismuth and Garnet and Pearl. In this, she was a child. A feckless teenager who never got the chance to grow and learn and mature in a way that would enable her to have relationships that weren’t, in some way, inherently toxic.
Because she’d never had a relationship that wasn’t inherently toxic before Greg.
Greg was the first person who interacted with her as a woman, as an equal. As someone worthy of respect rather than slavish adoration or open awe, and expected respect in return. He called her out on her bullshit, told her when she was being hurtful or doing something wrong, and I think that’s very much a parallel to Steven being able to call out the Diamonds, and really all of gemkind, on their bullshit.
Before Greg and Steven, nothing about Pink/Rose, or the Crystal Gems, was healthy. It may have been more loving and happy than Homeworld, but it was still based on lies and stunted growth. Every single one of them only knew abuse, and weren’t able to recognize when people who were kinder were still being abusive.
Pink Diamond/Rose Quartz were abusive. Not intentionally. Not violently. But in that casual, thoughtless way that comes from thinking the way they were treated is normal and not realizing it wasn’t until it’s too late.
I don’t think Rose completely forgot about Spinel or just didn’t care. Much like how I don’t think the Diamonds completely forgot or didn’t care about Pink. But as is made very, very clear, they’re all deeply messed up.
Pink had been told for millennia that she was too childish, too foolish and young, to have a colony. She was for playtime, for making the other Diamonds laugh and be entertained when they were done being Real Diamonds. She was their Spinel. So when she finally got the opportunity to be a Real Diamond, she did what the other Diamonds did, because that’s who she learned from.
She left Spinel behind. Because she was a Real Diamond now, and Real Diamonds aren’t childish. They don’t want goofy kids in their moon bases. They are always professional, always perfect and regal and without fault. She was not, under any circumstances, allowed to be herself because herself simply wasn’t good enough.
What she did was cruel, but I don’t think it was intentional. I think it was part of a cycle of abuse, something more or less everyone in this story is caught up in to some extent. I don’t think she forgot about Spinel either; time is different for Gems and especially for Diamonds. I think by the time she was cognizant enough to realize what she’d done, it was too late to do anything about it and she could only hope that someone had gone to get her.
Pink is still my favorite. She did terrible things and wonderful things. She grew in ways Diamonds shouldn’t have been able to. She left a lot of pain in her wake but also a lot of love and a lot of good. She wanted to be better and she didn’t have the chance to fix every mistake she’d ever made but I genuinely think she never intended so many of them to come back and haunt Steven. She wanted Steven to live his own life and be happy and human and I think it would break her heart to see how much pain her mistakes are causing him.
It’s pretty sad that one of the people who would have benefited most from meeting Steven never got to.
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