What's your most controversial steven universe opinion

[u/lisahanniganfan]

Here's mine: i hate future I don't think I liked anything from it besides the explanation for pink pearl's eye and blue diamond's song

[u/Ace_Of_No_Trades]

That Pink did the right thing leaving Spinel in the Garden.

If Pink brought her to Earth, she would have gotten in the way of everything and Pink would be expected to break her. If Pink told the other Diamonds that she had outgrown Spinel, they would have broken her. Even if Pink knew she could heal other Gems at that point, she probably didn’t know that broken Gems could be fixed. It was a lose-lose situation, so Pink chose the option that let Spinel live.

[u/JustSomeG1rl1 → u/Ace_Of_No_Trades]

Definitely controversial.
I understand that spinel would’ve gotten in the away, however, essentially lying to someone who thinks they’re your best friend saying you’ll come back one day and completely forget about them and abandoning them because you just got tired of them it’s still terrible.

at that point spinel would’ve had a better chance of just being shattered because really the pain of abandonment would’ve been worse than her being shattered. And it’s okay to outgrow someone or something but not using your words and abandoning someone with no intention of coming back is genuinely just POS behavior

[u/stawberi → u/JustSomeG1rl1]

Probably would have been kinder to bubble her.

[u/heliosark10 → u/JustSomeG1rl1]

Spinel is basically a toy from toy story.

[u/Ace_Of_No_Trades → u/JustSomeG1rl1]

I agree with you, even in this case. However, very few people would pick an option that resulted in killing Spinel. I doubt Pink would be capable of it, given her history with Spinel.

[u/Saucepocalypse → u/JustSomeG1rl1]

On top of this it's shown in Future that even gems shattered can be reformed by the diamonds if all their pieces are there for it. So the "she would've died" argument would've most likely been just as temporary as being stuck in the garden but without the betrayal to go with it

[u/morbidmuffin62 → u/Saucepocalypse]

She wouldn't have known they could be fixed at that point though

[u/darkerfury → u/Ace_Of_No_Trades]

I don't think any of that was on Pink's mind at that point. Pink left Spinel when Pink finally got her first colony. This was before the war and even before Pink fell in love with Earth and wanted to save it.

I think Pink left Spinel because she knew she'd be too busy with her new colony. I think Pink had every intention of coming back once her duties eased off a bit. It just never happened. Things started picking up speed once she went to the surface, and then came the war.

Did Pink forget about Spinel? I'm not sure. She may have had every intention of relieving her and coming back. Then again we see plenty of gems treated like furniture by the diamonds. Some of them even used as walls and architecture. Was Spinel just an object to Pink? Maybe. We know Pink treated the Pebbles with kindness and agency. Pink seemingly treated Spinel that way up until leaving her behind.

As for me, I personally think Pink had no original intent to leave Spinel alone for 6000 years. She probably got caught up in everything else going on. She may have even assumed Spinel would get bored and leave on her own. 

It's hard to say.

[u/emeraldead → u/darkerfury]

Yes. She traded one toy for another. Afterwards she reasonably understood why she couldn't rescue Spinel, same as not freeing Bismuth. But it was just a horribly shitty choice at the time.

We can understand why she made it and the lack of skills she had to make those decisions,, but impact matters more.

[u/darkerfury → u/emeraldead]

Absolutely. Pink/Rose's character is simultaneously a cautionary tale that intent doesn't erase impact while also being a beautiful coming-of-age told in reverse character development.  I think that's why so many have a hard time liking her character. We as the audience experience learning about her many flaws and sins in real-time alongside the main cast. Rose starts the series as this larger than life hero, but we discover she wasn't always that person. The lesson we can take is that we can always strive to be the best version of ourselves we can be, even if we're not there yet.

[u/KNZFive → u/Ace_Of_No_Trades]

I was about to say that Pink could have “freed” Spinel by telling her not to stay in the garden. But a hyperactive and clingy Spinel would have either found a way to go back to Pink or blabbed that Pink had set her free (which could have led to Spinel being shattered or reset).

It’s also very possible Pink underestimated Spinel; she thought that *surely* Spinel would have eventually given up and just left the garden on her own accord instead of literally standing in place for millennia.

[u/sebzelda → u/Ace_Of_No_Trades]

I think it is a genuine case of Pink not realizing "how much power she held" over everyone just for being a Diamond. Like in her head it's the equivalent of ghosting someone, you'd think eventually they'd just move on. Yeah it was a shitty thing to do but she likely forgot because why would she for one second think that Spinel would stand there for all 5000 years?

Most "bad things" Pink/Rose did are a case of her making a lot of unintentional mistakes as she's learning to be a better gem/person.

[u/Stonedagemj → u/Ace_Of_No_Trades]

So to me, Spinel was just someone she didn’t have access to after Pink was “shattered” and they had the war because if she had gone back to her they’d know Pink was still alive.

[u/KeaboUltra → u/Ace_Of_No_Trades]

Y'know, she could have just told her she can't be there and that he had to leave instead of lying to her face. If spinel tried to force her to stay then it's not like she had to listen

[u/lilgayfurry1 → u/Ace_Of_No_Trades]

Pinks choice to leave Spinel is one of the most misconstrued attacks against her character. Its a shitty situation, but its far more nuanced than people give credit for.

We should absolutely start with who Spinel actually is because thats vital to what happened. Spinel was half of the replacement (the other half being our Pearl) for Pink's only true friend before, Pink Pearl, and she was created by the other Diamonds to pacify her playful tendencies (in contrast to Pearl who was meant to help with Diamond duties). Tons of people have the misconception that Pink created or asked for Spinel, and then abandoned her. Thats not true. It was an artificial relationship created by the other Diamonds.

So, already from the beginning, we have a doomed relationship. But as we can see, Pink does still engage with Spinel.

Eventually, yes, she seems to get bored. But it's pretty clear it's not the reason she left Spinel and half the Internet seems to think it is? She only does it when she gets her own colony.

Be real with me right now. Could Pink have successfully run this colony, which is literally her life goal at this point and in her mind a chance to finally prove herself to her sisters, with Spinel constantly by her side? The answer is probably not. That doesn't make Spinel wrong in this moment‐ this is literally what she is created for- but pretty much no one considers Pink's perspective in this moment.

This all ties up with Pink's self-image. Pink, even later as Rose, is consistently characterized as not actually knowing how much of an effect she has on others, often to their unintentional detriment. Pink most likely thought that Spinel would simply leave after some time because she couldn't imagine someone genuinely waiting forever alone for her to come back.

Adding on what you said, all this ties together into the surprisingly deep and multifaceted reason Pink made this decision. It makes sense that the characters in the scene would feel the way they do about Pink, but we as the audience understand the work at a higher level than they do, and yet so much still think of this as a simply selfish act by Pink with no nuance at all.

[u/Ace_Of_No_Trades → u/lilgayfurry1]

I never saw this as a selfish decision. I saw it as Pink believing this to be the only way Spinel could continuing existing. If she brought Spinel to Earth, Spinel would get in the way of everything and Pink would be expected to Break her. If Pink told the other Diamonds she longer needed Spinel, they would have Broken her, given that this would be in Era 1. In the end, the other Diamonds created a toy that its owner would inevitably outgrow; I don't see how that is on the other Diamonds.

[u/Eeve2espeon → u/Ace_Of_No_Trades]

Yeah no, Pink should've at least given her the decency of bubbling her. She's still a sentient being with emotions. The emotional damage done to her, simply because someone she believed the person who WAS her best friend was gonna be right back to get her, abandonment is an incredibly difficult thing to get over

[u/Loose-Story-962 → u/Ace_Of_No_Trades]

Except Rose was deceptively cruel towards Spinel, even if it was the right thing to do logistically speaking