Pearl, and the Rose Bride's LOVE 

Well, with the appearance of Mega Pearl, it is clear that Pearl-Anthy parallels are clearly intended.

hell yeah good stuff. you can't see PEOPLE when you put them up on PEDESTALS. Also I had never realized JUST how self-destructive Pink had been acting until you'd pointed it out, re: saying awful things about herself to everyone, and being told by everyone that she needed to be shattered.

One parallel that I noticed regarding Pearl's physiological incapability to deny her diamonds orders was actually to Nanami (my gurl!). In episode 32, she has caught Akio and Anthy going at it, but she is unable to tell anyone, not Utena, Miki, or even Touga. She covers her mouth kinda like Pearl does. She has a similar reaction when she thought she laid that egg. Shame controls her and leaves her unable to share the truth, just like the truth within Pearl is located under layers and layers of repression. And wouldn't you know it, Pearl's pearl looks like an egg (Steven even put it under a heat lamp when she poofed that one time), a symbol that represents repression, stagnation, and untapped potential in Utena ("break the world's shell," etc).

Rose and Pearl lived by the sea, gathering salt by the moonlight. And rose loved a man who lived in the trees. Rose cried to Pearl, "Hold me tight, hold me tight!". Rose went inside his treehouse and looked at the stars through his telescope. She wanted to hold his hand, and so Rose wrote a poem, signed it and sealed it in a ricepaper envelope with a lily for a stamp. But the man stole his work; he was the editor of a prestigious astronomy journal. He wrote down all she saw and published it in his name, and so Rose grew to hate him. And then Pearl caught his eye...

I came here expecting a shallow tear down of Pink and of her relationship with Pearl. What I got was a thoughtful video that managed to cover the complexity but also the transformative/redemptive/beautiful nature of ther love. Amazing job!

That Which Is Eternal That Which Shines The Power of Miracles The Power to Revolutionize The World is such a raw fucking line

Spinel is Bard of Light uwu

God YES. I've been waiting for this since part 1, thought you dumped the project. Bless you oD Edit: You touched on pretty much everything I hoped you would except Anthy and Pearl's mirrored emotional (and often sexual) manipulation of the powerful figures they're tied to, exploiting their need to define themselves as heroes or leaders. There is a tinge of rebellion and attempt to reclaim power over their own life and relationships in the theatrics of relinquishing their control. It's made very blatant with Pearl in Rose basically rebuilding (literally) herself after Pearl's ideal of her, which you touched on, and the entire Sardonyx arc being effectively sexual coercion masked under enough bullshit that it seems the will of the "leader". Anthy I'd argue tries this (aside from Akio) with all the people she's the Bride to but Touga, and her progression as a character being the healing of her emotional honesty also has her effectively discarding that role. This also coincides in the time of the series with Utena toning down her heroic identity, and yet still not coming to grips with the fact that Anthy is an actual fucking person. I love that balcony scene so much precisely because of this, Anthy there is already really close to what she will be at the end of the series, and Utena effectively dismisses her maturity and self-reflection in the focus of her own forgiveness. Also I really like how little we know of right-before-dying Rose STILL as a character, because Pearl was so furious with the whole thing that noone can give an accurate assessment of the person she was at the end of her life, whether she changed, whether she learned. Rose in the eyes of the fandom has effectively gone from the exagerated "good" of Lion's tape and Greg's account, to an exagerated evil of tricking the entire galaxy and leaving her jester stranded on a random rock for eternity. But the void in unbiased accounts of Rose's later years/months has this extreme ambiguity that leves space for untold progression, epiphanies, slow understanding, whatever. blah blah sorry walls. Looking forward to the Witch.

Listening to this is like bathing in good ideas

"(Pink) put herself in a situation where everyone around her was saying 'destroy yourself'" -

This is so good ;0;

I feel bad for Pink Pearl, She has served Pink diamond for a unknown amount of years and just gets replaced by Spinel and Our Pearl. It's kinda sad to think of the pain from losing a friend and being replaced then being controlled for a long time, Poor Pink Pearl.

I don’t completely agree with your sentiment about that utena and anthy scene because part of what I feel anthy is trying to convey is her guilt over manipulating utena, and utena is saying “no, your not guilty because I played just as much of a role in this as you did by trying to be a prince and not seeing how much pain you were in.” Which is true. just my thoughts lol

So.....then Pink is a Prince of Heart and Steven is a Page of Heart? That seems pretty accurate to me, considering how Pink destroyed Heart and destroyed through Heart pretty much everywhere. She may not be self-loathing in the way Dirk is, but she certainly rejected her identity both in “shattering” herself and in creating Steven. Very interesting, especially when considering that my take on White Diamond is that she’s a Prince of Mind.

oh I LOVE storming the ivory tower!!! more people really need to read her stuff!

bruh you got me to watch utena and it changed me a little

I've watched Utena and is one of my fav shows ever, but still, I want to thank you about the content warning. I wish we had that back when I was younger.

Hey OD, what are your expectations from Season 6? Many people are confused about the story that they will do in that season. My guess is that in Season 6, it will deal with the aftermath of Gems living on earth since there's more of them now(a lot more). We will see things like humans seeing and accepting the gem race, probably the government getting involved and Steven raiding area 51 to free captured gems. But this is my guess, what are yours?

Ok but straight up after reading the end of the manga i immediately was like OHHHH PEARL IS ANTHY

Excellent video! I came here from one of Storming the Ivory Tower's essays on the Steven Universe movie, and I'm so interested in how you've parsed out the characters and relationships here. I'm looking forward to going through more of your videos soon.

this is a beautiful video dude. thank you for making it for us.

This makes me curious about which of the god-tier’s you think match Utena and Steven Universe characters. Great Video!

Thanks for the shout out again, oD! This is such a respectful and well illustrated dive into Pearl and Rose, and the parallels that can be drawn between it and RGU. Fantastic work as always!

Idk why I'm watching this, I never watched SU. But now, I feel like I may watch it.

Thank you so much for this video

Just what i needed

This is fantastic! I'd love to hear an addendum to this piece now that Volleyball has come out :)

Man the parallel with pearl and revolutionary girl utena is now going hard with Steven universe future Especially with pink pearl

Haha that little dirk nod made me laugh

This is so good. Rose is nowhere near as bad as Akio, though.

Anime and Manga seem highly different for Utena it seems. Might have to find the anime somewhere to see what they all changed, there is a lot so different from the Mangas. Then again: The mangas made Anthy, Dios and Akio literal beings of a different plane of existance, the later two a broken god. Also: Pearls hair resembles Utenas hair in the first two volumes coverart. It was a pale shade of orange, then a bit brighter orange before it became pink. I find that a fun fact XD

Now I've got with something that White pearl (volleyball being possessed by white diamond) has the same creepy, silent and misterious personality Anthy has

12:09 that's so true!!! Why Utena???

I don't think that Juri wanted miracles to be able to confess to Shiori. In my interpretation, she wanted to be able to feel like she could be herself in who she loved, and not let Shiori have the power over her that she did. Realizing she's worthy of love and a healthy relationship, those were feelings she wanted known deep down. Also even though you aren't counting the manga (which I hardly do as well. Not to say Saito was a bad writer for many of her choices, but rather it makes the story a lot less impactful) Pearl taking on the role of the night and a new revolutionary is parallel to Anthy at the end of the Manga taking on the role of the prince herself in the memory of Utena.

I dont think Rose would be a prince of heart i feel like a prince of mind is a lot more in line with her behavior?

The power of Dio The power to rule(sell) [THE WORLD]

I like how i expected to hear fucked up shit, but in a shallow thoughtless way and its like ye, its exactly what i got, but artistically way better since the parallels with Utena it explains itself way more literally. (And i feel reality slapped in the face 😂) Even tho i always had underlying hatred of themes presented in SU, i realised i was supposed to feel them same way as in Utena where its explained more literally. Childish, innocent manipulation screwed and contorted and changed for their own goals. The themes are really way over peoples heads who expect to watch kids show and get confused why characters act the way they do. And it just being western Utena.

“Utena Utena!”

Where's the video you reference at the beginning

i so, so wish that the story of steven universe had been paced and edited better. because i wish the story it presents was shown as well as you put it here, which it sadly just isnt in my opinion.

Is it to late to make a jojoke

SPOILERS FOR STEVEN UNIVERSE FUTURE: CG PEARL AND PINK PEARL'S FUSION IS A LIVING BREATHING REFERENCE TO RGU IM,, IM JUSTMA';FFAFUBAHUFAIOFI BABEY?/ YEAHDHAD

hi

So Pearl-Rose relationship is kind the same mechanism of Dave-Bro? Alias Rose ma girl now have 3 titles, Lalonde nerd is unstoppable

"Trauma, partly brought on by their own choices" is such a bad description of anthy jesus christ

Idk why I'm watching this, I never watched SU. But now, I feel like I may watch it.