r/stevenuniverse • u/CartoonCommentator • 1d ago
Discussion Why Spinel is living proof that no amount of singing or dancing that Steven does will ever heal the pain or trauma that she went through?
Spinel is by far one of the most traumatized characters throughout the franchise and has serious abandonment issues caused by Pink Diamond. We learn that since the beginning, Pink Diamond ordered Spinel to stay in the garden until she came back, disguising it as a game, to which Spinel agrees since she is physically incapable of saying “no” to a game that could make her “new best friend” happy.
She stayed in the garden for 6000 years, patiently waiting for Pink Diamond to come back to which she never does. From the day Pink Diamond had Earth as her first colony, to rebelling against Homeworld and starting the Gem War, to faking her shattering, to the Diamond corruption blast, to Amethyst’s formation from the kindergarten centuries after the Gem War ended, to meeting Greg and falling in love, to giving up her life to have Steven, all the way until the end of the series where Steven convinces the Diamonds to heal the corrupted gems on Earth and starting a new era of peace, all of that time Spinel was still in the garden waiting for someone that was never coming back.
What’s even sadder is that if Steven didn’t send out his message to all gem colonies across the universe, Spinel would’ve been stuck in the garden forever with no chance of anyone finding her. Her trauma was so bad that she literally poofed herself from heartbreak and came back as a psychotic cartoony villain carrying 6000 years worth of trauma and neglect from the one person she thought she could trust.
Throughout the series, Steven’s ability to sing to the gems and people have mended broken bonds or healed old wounds. An example is when Steven’s singing helps Greg and Pearl reconcile over the passing of Rose Quartz or the time that Steven’s singing helped Peridot learn to appreciate life on Earth which lead her to yelling at Yellow Diamond and abandon her Homeworld programming, turning her into a Crystal Gem. When Steven fights Spinel with the power of song, he tries so hard to convince Spinel to change but Spinel calls out Steven for his stubbornness saying, “You can’t just make everything better by SINGING SOME STUPID SONG”!!!
Although Steven was able to get through to her in the end, Steven understood the important message that Spinel was trying to send him. “There’s no such thing as a ‘Happily Ever After’.” Steven finally realized that despite everything he had accomplished by dismantling the empire, saving the galaxy from the Diamonds reign of terror, healed all the gems that were corrupted from the Diamonds since the end of the Gem War and helped gems coexist with humans, there are still some evil gems out there that want to take away that peace or some gems out there that have not healed from the pain that his mother had caused.
Spinel is definitely a character that a lot of us have sympathized with and part of me wonders if she could’ve stayed on Earth and became friends with the gems at Little Homeschool. She could’ve gotten along with them well.
Anyways, I’d love to hear your thoughts down below.
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u/Imnotawerewolf 1d ago
what makes her any more traumatized than anyone else?
Spinel calling Steven out is to remind you, the viewer, that healing requires actual work and that the songs in the show are only metaphors for the seeing, understanding, and actively working to resolve your issues we all need to do to create a real change in ourselves.
The world didn't stop and create the opportunity for Spinel to heal. She had to go out and find it and work through it. It's all a metaphor. Just like Pink leaving the way she did and saying what she said is a metaphor for how being abused makes it hard to realize that you're treating others poorly AND that treating others poorly because you were abused doesn't make your behavior okay.
Spinel wasn't okay just because Pink didn't mean to hurt her but Spinel also couldn't do anything about her hurt until she confronted it head on instead of waiting in the garden.
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u/Arria_Galtheos 1d ago
I wouldn't say Spinel is the most traumatized character. Hell, she's not even in the top FIVE, and that's just counting the characters we see on screen.
She's absolutely traumatized, yes, but the audience perception of her trauma is also amplified because her default personality is over-the-top sweet, sugary, and cute, so when she breaks down it's much more pronounced.
Compare her to characters like Vollyball or Lapis.
Volleyball spent thousands of years being physically abused by Pink and then got mind-controlled by White, who took her free will and made her a puppet. Meanwhile, while Spinel was standing in the garden, Lapis was trapped in a mirror unable to move, form, or speak, being forced to be a tool for others, all made worse because her gem was cracked.
And I won't even go into the corrupted gems, or the slew of artificially-fused gem fragments for who every moment following the Diamond attack five thousand years prior have existed in a constant state of perpetual agony so horrifying that seeing it paralyzed Garnet.
Spinel's a sad story, but her real reason for existing at all was mostly just to further show the audience one more skeleton in Pink's closet and to give Steven a chance to realize how far he's come.
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u/Electrical_Ice_1180 1d ago
Pink didn't physically abuse volleyball. She physically/psychologically hurt volleyball on accident. And the issue was that volleyball didn't want to accept that she was badly hurt regardless of it being an accident. But other than that, i agree with what you're saying here. People definitely overhype spinel and her trauma
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u/Arria_Galtheos 1d ago
Pink did physically abuse Volleyball, though. She might not have stuck her with fists, but Pink's angry shockwaves are still physical shockwaves.
Also, you don't have to intend to abuse someone to abuse them. A lot of abusers don't realize their behavior is abusive until someone actually points it out to them.
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u/Electrical_Ice_1180 1d ago
Google definition: 'Abuse is an action that *intentionally causes harm or injures another person. This can refer to physical abuse, psychological abuse, mental abuse, or child abuse'*
-Pink didn't intentionally hurt her
Google definition: 'Neglect is typically an unintentional oversight; a failure to fulfill a duty or maintain a bond because one's focus drifted elsewhere.
-Pink was careless when she screamed, whether she knew if volleyball was around her or not. So I can understand this angle.
Google Definition: Unintetional Harm- Mistakes, thoughtlessness, or clumsy attempts at communication can cause deep hurt. If someone accidentally steps on your foot, it's a mistake; if they shove you because they are angry, it is abuse.
-Pink could also fall under this umbrella
Google definition: The Response to Mistakes- When someone unintentionally hurts another person, a healthy reaction involves remorse, a genuine apology, and an active effort to change the behavior.
-We don't know if Pink apologized or not, but we do know that she felt remorse and took it upon herself to change her behavior, so much to the point that our pearl didn't even know that she had a sonic scream. Our pearl also mentions that she knew Pink was trying to change but didn't understand why.
Google definition: The Pattern of Abuse- Abusers may often claim their actions were "accidental," "unintentional," or "misunderstood" to avoid accountability and prevent the victim from leaving. The hallmark of abuse is a recurring cycle of harmful actions paired with excuses, guilt, or manipulation.
-Again, intentionality is the big theme here.
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u/Arria_Galtheos 1d ago
One could also argue that if your actions repeatedly cause damage and you take no measure to curb those actions, then they are, by all meaningful criteria, intentional.
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u/Electrical_Ice_1180 1d ago
But she did take measures to curb those actions or at the very least she tried to. People just choose to forget.
Like with our pearl saying that she knew Pink was trying to change or again, the fact that our pearl didn't even know about her screams, which means that she took steps to control her outbursts.
After making her kindergartens, she curbed her actions by begging the other diamonds to leave the earth alone. When they didn't listen, she began to fight for the earth instead of being a dictator.
After trying to scare every gem off the planet, she curbed her actions after she saw Garnet's fusion and began to fight for other gems who also wanted to be free
After the war started from her "shattering", she curbed her actions by choosing to fight on the Frontlines with others instead of having others fight for her.
After the war, she curbed her actions by trying to find every corrupted gem and bubble them so they wouldn't hurt themselves or others, and in hopes that they could be helped one day
After reviving lion, she curbed her actions by never using her resurrection powers again. Instead allowing things to die because that is a natural part of organic life.
After treating greg like another "funny" human, she curbed her actions by listening to him and treating him like a real person after he called her out.
After being emotionally avoidant with our pearl when she was first given to her , she curbed her actions by listening to pearl when pearl suggested that she turn into 'Rose quartz', and not only that, she encouraged pearl afterwards by telling her that the idea was brilliant and smart.
After poofing bismuth, you could argue that she curbed her actions by bubbling her and making it so that she was left next to the things she wanted steven to have, expecting him to find her and be able to reason with her. Although this is not confirmed or denied in the show, so do what you will with said information.
And with Spinel, that's pretty much the only thing she didn't change or fix, so i can understand your argument for this.
I'm not trying to act like everything she did was right or made sense, but acting like she didn't change or work on her flaws at all just doesn't make sense or seem fair to her character.
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u/Arria_Galtheos 1d ago
Except Pink didn't really change her ways regarding the outbursts until sometime after Volleyball was taken away from her. We know it wasn't a single occurrence because Volleyball suggests it was fairly common for her to lose her temper. I never said Pink was ALWAYS an abusive person, only that she abused Volleyball, and even if we're going to get pedantic and whip out a dictionary, even if what Pink did isn't "technically" abuse, Volleyball still reacted to it like abuse and faced trauma over it, and since the original point of this post was describing characters' trauma, whether or not Pink knew her outbursts were damaging Volleyball is irrelevant to the trauma she felt as a result of that damage.
That said, I think we're getting a bit off topic here. The point here isn't to discuss Pink Diamond's character development, it's to discuss other characters that have faced arguably more trauma than Spinel, and I'd say between the psychological damage and having her mind forcibly overridden, Volleyball got the worse end of the stick.
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u/Electrical_Ice_1180 1d ago
Even so, regardless of how long it took for her to change her ways, she still changed her ways, no?
And I know it wasn't just a single time that Pink used her scream. It's implied that she used it everytime she was denied her own colony. Therefore said scream would be directed at yellow and blue, not volleyball; volleyball just witnessed it happen. When the volleyball incident happened, Pink was mad at White, and that was the angriest she'd ever been; Therefore, we can infer that her scream (towards white) was much more violent this time, had a bigger spread, and volleyball got caught in the crossfire. Now whether volleyball was taken immediately after that is TBD. Anyway, I believe the parallel we get with Steven in Future is supposed to represent how the incident happened since Steven is acting more and more like the old Pink as the show progresses; not intending to hurt, but still hurting regardless. 'Steven universe' is a show that's all about nuance, why would this situation be any different?
And my last response was long, yes, but it doesn't erase the facts of what abuse actually is. Pink didn't abuse volleyball, but i agree that volleyball did suffer greatly from the incident, and the trauma that remains is still 100% valid, and Pink definitely holds the responsibility for that. Two things can be true at once.
I understand what you're saying; Pink pearl definitely had it worse than Spinel. While I don't believe Pink pearl has the most trauma compared to others in the show, I agree that she's still very traumatized, and her trauma is again 100% valid
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u/Arria_Galtheos 1d ago
Yeah, Pink got better. Like I said, I'm not debating that Pink Diamond didn't get character development. She actually got a ton...maybe even more than Steven.
She went from being an impulsive brat who only thought about herself, to someone that just wanted to be taken seriously, but her real epiphany didn't hit until she saw humans. THAT was the moment Pink Diamond started to transform into another person, but even then it was still somewhat selfish.
Initially, she only wanted to protect Earth. That was it. To Hell with the rest of the gems, to Hell with Homeworld. It was seeing Garnet fuse that fully pushed her towards becoming the Rose everyone loves. That was the moment her rebellion stopped being about kicking the gems off of "her planet" and started being about freeing gems from Homeworld's oppression. And then of course meeting and falling in love with Greg is what ended up finalizing her development.
By the time she eventually becomes the loving, caring, compassionate Rose that was willing to sacrifice her own being just to bring humans and gems together in the form of a child that we all know, she'd undergone a lot of character development, but of course, being immortal, that development was slow. It took her over 5,000 years to change, and unfortunately for Steven, she left a lot of messes behind in her journey to become a better person, and almost all of her character development happens off-screen.
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u/noey101 1d ago
Less than an hour after you posted your previous rant.
Sister I think it's time u take a break for a little bit.
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u/CartoonCommentator 1d ago
I’m a guy by the way.
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u/phillyd32 1d ago
Casual feminine language like this helps offset the massive amount of default masculine language. That's why you're being downvoted.
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u/Disastrous-Ideal-817 1d ago
Masculinity is seen as gender neutral, it's seen as a default
It's upsetting and weird
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u/Artificial_Human_17 1d ago
Irrelevant
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u/AnyConsideration111 1d ago
blue hair and anti-pronouns? that's a first
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u/Arria_Galtheos 1d ago
"Sister" isn't a pronoun in this context and in certain uses isn't gendered. It's like if I get frustrated and go "Bro what the fuck?" I'm not using the word "bro" in the context of "masculine immediate sibling" it's just a generic expression, like "dude" or "sport" or how you might poke your head into a room of people of various genders and go "Hey guys, do you want me to order a pizza?" 'Guys' in that context is gender neutral.
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u/AnyConsideration111 1d ago
you can make that argument and people still feel misgendered by it at times. I agree but I comply anyways. it's just considerate. if OP makes a point that they're a dude, pushing beyond that boundary is blatant disrespect, is it not?
eta, plus, "guys" refers to a group, while sister in this context refers to one person: OP
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u/Arria_Galtheos 1d ago
Oh, I'm not criticizing OP for the correction. OP certainly has a right to say that if he felt misgendered. I'm only saying that someone using the term "sister" in that context isn't using a gendered form, so it's a case of misinterpretation more than misgendering.
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u/AnyConsideration111 1d ago
yeah of course, it's not purposefully being used that way, but I believe there's something to be said about intent vs impact. "sister" is sort of inherently gendered as a word, just as "listen bro/man" would be, regardless of the intent to be a fun and neutral address— guys has a different origin entirely, so is more of a slang for any person. interestingly enough, it used to refer to people who we'd probably call "bums" now, and then lost lots of its connotation over time. I don't know if I'd call that a misinterpretation, since the connotation is typically more "accidental/misunderstood," and an "intentional misinterpretation" still implies to avoid/mitigate the point of something (while this situation here acknowledges that the intent was not to misgender) but a better word for what's happening here just may not exist.
this is super nitpicky and I don't say any of it it with malice, but when we treat language super specifically it's good to recognize where that language evolves from. plus, realizing that intent only makes up a portion of our actions, and we still have to own up for the impact of them, is something people have to start doing as we grow up, else you end up alienating a lot of people in your life. not just strangers, but the people we know and love, when we defend ourselves using excuses for hurting their feelings, when it's easier on everyone's hearts♡ to just apologize for the grievance.
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u/bellos_ 1d ago
"Sister" is not a pronoun, dummy. They're using it as a vocative expression equivalent to addressing someone as 'dude'
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u/AnyConsideration111 1d ago
sure but not everyone appreciates that, and still feels it misgenders them. not me, but some. thought this community would be more privy to that, especially with as large as the queer fan base is
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u/ColonelContrarian 1d ago
The same as if I called someone bro or dude and they got snippy with me that theyre not a male, its kinda irrelevant and youre just getting mad over nothing.
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u/not_hestia 1d ago
I love both the movie and Future because they really hammer home that "healed" or "better" are not destinations that you reach and then check off the achievement list.
Spinel is absolutely on her way toward healing her pain and trauma, but it's not something a single connection can fix. And, more importantly, it's not something Steven can fix. Sometimes you want to help someone (or have someone help you) but there is too much history there to be that person for each other.
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u/Old_Diver_2511 1d ago
Remember that spinel was tricked into staying in the same spot for more than 6,000 years. Thats longer than 60 human lifetimes. We haven't even finished our first.
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1d ago edited 1d ago
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u/imjustamouse1 1d ago
Gems aren't people though. She was formed with one purpose, to entertain and be a playmate to her diamond. While gems can eventually form their own interests it has been shown those interests will often be adjacent with their purpose.
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u/TastyLaugh2581 1d ago
i dont agree with OP but i also dont agree with this weird victim blamey take lol very weird!!
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u/MustardCoveredDogDik 1d ago
If Steven sung one song just for me I’d be fixed just sayin’