When you describe what gems are on Steven Universe, they seem utterly alien. The “body” of a gem isn’t a real object. It’s a hard-light projection emitted from the magical gemstone, which is the true core of their being.
Naturally, this raises a few questions:
Why do they move like they have bones, joints, and muscular systems?
Why does Pearl sigh or hyperventilate to relieve stress? Gems don’t breath.
Why do gems cry? Why do they have emotions at all when they are artificially created for specific purposes?
And then along comes White Diamond with the same answer to all those questions:
“You’re right. That’s stupid. Let’s not do that.”
White Diamond is everything gems should be on paper. She’s unemotional, unmoving, static. Most of her body is drawn as a background element, and her Pearl mimics this lack of movement by sliding across the floor instead of walking. She actually emits light, to the point where her gemstone is barely visible (the only time you can see even an outline of it is during the extreme closeup on her face)
I’ve been seeing a lot of speculation that the White Diamond we saw isn’t “real.” That White Diamond’s gemstone is somewhere else, and what we saw was just a projection from a remote location. Or maybe it was a recording, and that’s why she talked over Steven whenever he tried to speak, and I think all of that speculation is entirely missing the point of White Diamond’s introduction:
She really is that weird.
She really is that alien.
White Diamond is so unlike other living things that even Blue and Yellow Diamond are nervous around her. There is no “real” White Diamond hiding behind a curtain somewhere. What you see is what you get, and what you get is an unnerving, unfathomable alien entity. Older than we can comprehend. More powerful than we dare to imagine. And entirely determined to keep things as they are.
