The Ideal: How Rose Quartz Defines and Redefines an Idealistic Character
Imagine finishing a set of music, one heard throughout the cosmos, to find no one was listening. Except this time, there was a gorgeous woman, taller than the stage, her angelic face surrounded by waves of pink curls. This is how Greg and Rose Quartz first met.
Rose Quartz, the former leader of the Crystal Gems and Steven’s mother, is no longer in her physical form during the current time period of the show. Until the episode “Lion 3: Straight to Video” the audience really only had a photo and stories of Rose to go by. It wasn’t until “Story for Steven” that the audience gets a glimpse into the beautiful leader. Rose is created to be an ideal woman through the stories and depictions of her greatness. However, she is also seen as flawed in that her compassion to humans led her to love Greg and give birth to Steven.
The images and stories of Rose Quartz have created her to be an ideal beauty. She is a giant, “mysterious, pink lady” as her future husband Greg describes. Her loveliness and beauty was described as Petrarch describes his idealistic woman Laura. For the longest time, Rose’s image was all we knew.
The image, one that could be compared to countless depictions of The Virgin Mary, assisted her idealistic image. The photo is prominent and always watching over the gang inside their home. Other symbols of Rose Quartz carry similar depictions of her, especially her statue within her garden. As Steven crawls up to her lap to pretend to be held by her, is similar to the Virgin Mary’s face in Michelangelo’s Pieta. These images are some of the first glimpses viewers see of Rose, quickly adding up to her expectations of being an ideal woman.
With Rose being an idealistic woman, her character is viewed in different ways. Amethyst envied Rose for always stealing her playmate, Greg, away from her. Pearl was in love with Rose, and felt she was the only one who could be trusted by Rose. She was even “respected” by the enemy Jasper for “[her war] tactics.” During the war on the Gem Homeworld, Rose led the Crystal Gems against their own kind in an epic battle. This battle was one that she and her team won, sending the Homeworld gems away for many years. Rose’s greatness was one that none of the other Gems could achieve. Rose was so ideal, she was unachievable, hence why there is such a gap without her.
All of Rose’s legacy creates her into an idealistic woman. This puts immense pressure onto Steven. As Steven carries her gemstone, he is expected to be able to use her powers and weapons as well as she could. It’s a continuous balance of growth and struggle for him as he learns to use his gem, but also show he is not Rose Quartz, but his own person. If Rose hadn’t been created to be such an idealistic leader, some of the pressures on him might be lessened.
However, Rose also gave up her physical form to give birth to Steven. Although Rose Quartz is illustrated and described to be idealistic, her compassion can give way to another perspective. Rose did, after all, love Greg Universe: A human, community college drop out who tried to become his one-man band now turned car wash owner. Greg is everything but the ideal. Even with everything stacked against Greg, Rose still fell deeply in love with him through her infatuation for humans. She adored and loved him so much that she would give up her existence to have a human baby.
Steven Universe, the silly boy who can barely get his gem to activate when he wants it to, does not seem like a perfect match for her either. Even the Crystal Gems are described as “overcooked” or “defective” by Jasper, meaning they too are flawed. Yet, Rose’s compassion has no bounds when it comes to loving her friends and family. Flawed or not, this ideal woman fights for Earth (for Greg) with her rag-tag team and, soon after, gives birth to Steven.
Rose Quartz was a beautiful woman. “You’re everything I want,” Greg said to Rose, giving up his music career to be with her. Rose was a valiant fighter, respected by her enemies, and cherished by her friends. Although Steven has inherited his gemstone from her, he is not Rose Quartz. He is his own person, just as she was. Even if she left a tough legacy to follow for Steven, he has begun showing that he too is powerful in his own ways. He is the connecting power for the Crystal Gems, just as Rose was when she was leader. Rose Quartz was an idealistic beauty that still had some curiously human moments.