steven universe spoilers

Pearl most likely never broke her programming. the phrasing of “so, for my last order to you as a diamond, please, let’s never speak of this again. no one can know” that she’s taken this long to break, and even then, through successively buried memories, and even then not really if you count the loophole that if Steven is Pink, she hasn’t told anyone knew.

She’s still obeying her diamond’s orders, she’s never really rebelled against anyone. It even makes sense for a Pearl’s orders to include putting her diamond above anyone else, even homeworld, and rebelling against homeworld only on her diamond’s orders isn’t rebelling against anything. the worst part is that people were meant to relate with Pearl, but now with this new revelation it’s like she never actually had any character development at all. even Peridot rebelled against her diamond and meant it, and she’s been on the show for half the time.

i remember saying about a year or two ago something like, “I really wish it’s revealed that it was Pearl who started the rebellion first before Rose joins in, because I really hate the trope of a perfect servant who never thinks of freedom on her own until someone tells her about it. esp bc Pearl would have been in the best position to figure out the diamonds themselves aren’t perfect"

and as flawed as Pearl/Rose was, it was relateable (lesbians relate to pining for someone unavailable, who knew). Rose was the one who helped free her from a life of servitude, but no, plot twist, that’s now the relationship between a slave and her owner that she’s fallen in love with.

i know the show is going to going to go further with developing this, but at this point it’s really hard to see anything other than how they turned the rebellion itself into a royal’s pet vanity project, and turned a main character from a rebel and war hero into a servant who was only ever doing what she’s told,, and hasn’t disobeyed a single order from her diamond until now.