Rose's Scabbard

"Rose's Scabbard" is the forty-fifth (45th) episode of the first season of American animated television series Steven Universe, which premiered on March 9, 2015 on Cartoon Network. It was written and storyboarded by Paul Villeco, Raven M. Molisee, and Rebecca Sugar. The episode was viewed by 1.216 million viewers.

This episode is about Pearl coming to the realization that Rose Quartz, the love of her life, kept secrets even from her. This shatters her previous belief that she was Rose's sole confidant, and she runs away in grief over the loss of Rose.

Plot

The episode begins with the Crystal Gems returning to the Strawberry Battlefield, where they begin to gather some of the discarded weapons. Garnet (Estelle) quickly claims a massive war axe, much to the delight of Steven (Zach Callison), though Pearl (Deedee Magno Hall) suggests he finds something that better suits his size. Lion, distracted by a butterfly, wanders off. Pearl tells Steven to do a better job of training Lion, which Steven attempts to demonstrate by repeatedly calling his pet's name. When Lion finally comes back up, he is carrying a pink scabbard in his mouth. Pearl, recognizing the scabbard as having been the resting place of a sword belonging Rose Quartz, forces the scabbard out from Lion's jaws and shoos Lion away. Steven asks about his mother being in the battle that occurred here, and Pearl explains that, 5,000 years ago, Rose led a battle against the Homeworld Gems on this very spot, with Pearl as her second in command.

Warping home to the temple, while Garnet and Amethyst (Michaela Dietz) take their new weapons into their rooms, Pearl offers to take Steven to a special place that only she and Rose knew about, where she is certain the sword that goes with the scabbard must be. During the course of the journey together, Pearl explains to Steven that she was the only one Rose shared her secrets with. Finally, Pearl brings Steven to the same cave Lion brought Steven and Connie to in the episode "Lion 2: The Movie". When Steven states he was here previously with Lion, Pearl becomes flabbergasted and refuses to believe it until Steven mans the control console. He activates the storage and presents the items within the artillery to surprised Pearl (who corrects the name of each). Now annoyed, Pearl asks Steven to find Rose's sword. When Steven asks what it looks like, Pearl displays a hologram of it and describes it. Seeing it, Steven says he knows where it is, shocking Pearl.

Back in the temple, Steven emerges from Lion's pocket dimension, now wielding his mother's sword. The Gems are astonished at this revelation, and Steven gladly shows them more, explaining that he has begun storing items in Lion as well. Pearl refuses to accept any of it, however; as Rose never told her anything about Lion or his pocket dimension, and Rose supposedly told her everything. Garnet and Steven tries to defuse the situation, but Steven shows that Rose was only keeping a secret from Pearl to protect her, but Pearl exclaims that Steven would not know since he's never met Rose.

She takes the sword and runs away to the Strawberry Battlefield. Steven, feeling bad, asks Garnet if Pearl is okay, but she doesn't answer. Amethyst, annoyed and upset with Pearl's possessiveness over and grief for Rose, is glad to see her go. Steven asks Lion if he knows where Pearl has went after Lion gives a responding roar, Steven takes that as a yes and rides Lion through his roar wormhole to the Strawberry battlefield. Garnet sadly wishes Steven good luck after he leaves.

There he finds a distraught Pearl who immediately tries to get away, ignoring Steven and his explanations of Rose's secrets. She exclaims to Steven that she does not want Lion near her. Pearl jumps on the precariously positioned floating land islands very high in the air. Steven leaves Lion behind and follows Pearl. He comes dangerously close to plummeting to the ground far below, pleading for Pearl to see reason. Pearl reaches the last island and refuses to listen Steven until he makes the dangerous last leap, which he falls short. As he begins to fall Pearl looks back crying out his name but does nothing to help him. Steven luckily grabs hold of the roots at the bottom of the island and climbs up where he sees a depressed and ashamed Pearl.

She asks Steven if he remembers being Rose Quartz, if he remembered being in that exact spot in Rose's body over 5,000 years ago. Pearl then plays a hologram of the conversation between her and Rose before the battle where Pearl pledged her loyalty after Rose gave her the option to back out. Pearl recites the conversation verbatim, ending the hologram while squeezing her hand. Pearl had told Rose she didn't want to go back home if Rose wasn't there with her, emphasizing Pearl's deep emotional bond with Rose and why she felt so hurt and betrayed by Rose's secrets. Pearl wonders aloud what Rose would think of her now, to which Steven replies saying he thinks she's pretty great, causing her to tear up. Afterward is a music montage, in which Pearl returns Rose's sword to Steven, who places it back in Lion's mane, then Steven does parlor tricks with the dimension to cheer up Pearl, then he pulls his mother's war-flag from Lion's mane which brings Pearl around. Pearl re-enacts the battle, and Steven pulls out a can of cola to drink while watching. The episode ends with Pearl and Steven riding home on Lion, with Pearl holding the flag.

Production

Episodes of Steven Universe are written and storyboarded by a single team. "Rose's Scabbard" was written and storyboarded by Raven M. Molisee, Paul Villeco, and Rebecca Sugar.

Broadcast and reception

"Rose's Scabbard" premiered on March 9, 2015 on Cartoon Network. Its initial American broadcast was viewed by approximately 1.216 million viewers. This was the first episode of the first StevenBomb - an event where an episode (sometimes two) is shown every weeknight for a week. This episode received less views than most episodes of Steven Universe due to the fact this was the Monday episode of the show's first ever StevenBomb event. On top of the drastic change in scheduling, this event only started being advertised five days before it started.

This episode received critical acclaim from most of the fandom and critics for its handling of very heavy topics.

References

As of this edit, this article uses content from "Rose's Scabbard", which is licensed in a way that permits reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, but not under the GFDL. All relevant terms must be followed.