It just makes me unhappy. Rose and Apple are very different people and I enjoy Rose much more than I’ve ever enjoyed Apple.
Pink was raised in an abusive environment. They would lock her in her room for misbehavior and never treated her like an equal. White Diamond was controlling, Blue was infantilizing, and Yellow was neglectful and saw Pink as annoying. Pink’s actions were similar to those of Uncle Iroh from avatar.
Then at one point the diamonds discovered Earth. Pink saw the beauty of the Earth and became Rose Quartz to defend it. Rose asked Pearl to join her and Pearl accepted. They faked Pink Diamond’s death at the hands of Rose Quartz to try and get the diamonds to surrender. Due to the way the diamonds treated her Rose was surprised when they were saddened by her (fake) death. Rose and her allies (the crystal gems) fought for the protection of Earth and ended up victorious.
After the war Rose lived on Earth peacefully. Then she fell in love with Greg Universe and sacrificed her life to give birth to Steven. (Rose didn’t expect Home World to attack Earth because it had been thousands of years of peace. She did NOT create Steven to pawn of her problems on.) Rose thought the most beautiful thing about Earth was its ability to grow. She didn’t see this ability in herself and died so she could create a creature that could.
Apple is a selfish person. That trait is incredibly dominant and static. Apple had a mother that cared a lot about appearances. Apple’s mother wanted Apple to be perfect. She represented those with privilege. Have you seen the short “The Place Where Nothing Bad Happens.” Apple is kind of like the person in the pink dress in that short.
If you want more of me complaining about Apple I have separate post talking about why I dislike her. It’s mostly that she’s never punished and the fans don’t hold her accountable.
I like Rose because when other characters learn everything about her they’re conflicted. Rose is a morally gray character. Apple is an Anti-Villain at best. Apple was never forced into any of her choices. While she may have been manipulated, helping someone that throughout her life she was always taught was evil is stupid. And Apple is shown to be intelligent. This either means the writers just wanted Apple to help the Evil Queen for plot or she’s a pretty bad person. Rose made her decisions to protect an entire planet from a nation it had no way to face.
She’s awful. I don’t like Apple for a series of reasons. Her design is lovely and I like her voice but that’s all I really enjoy about her. By the way this is only about the show. I don’t know anything about the books but I heard they were good.
Apple represents the privileged while Raven represents the underprivileged. I get that. It’s just, she doesn’t seem to change much, if at all. The whole story it just feels like she’s just being kind and sweet for her image. She seems to love her friends but not nearly as much as she loves herself. Apple was willing to have her supposed best friend live a horrible life just so she could live a life of perfection. Apple never felt like she got less selfish to me.
Literally all Apple did was apologize and she was instantly forgiven. No one was apprehensive or upset after that. It’s one of my least favorite things when someone (fictional character or otherwise) does something awful says “I’m sorry” and is instantly forgiven. An example of where this was better handled was in Avatar: The Last Air Bender. Zuko apologized to the gaang and they didn’t forgive immediately. It took him proving that he was trustworthy and on their side for them to trust him. And even after that they still had individual episodes where they form a bond with him. And what Apple did was on a similar scale to what Zuko did. Apple freed the evil queen (basically a terrorist(which was an accident I’ll give her that)) and then aided her afterwards. The school didn’t punish her neither did the government.
They woobify her to hell and back. Yes her mom is bad. No that does not justify her actions. It’s like people believe that just because someone has trauma or family issues that they can’t be held accountable. They take away all of Apple’s agency and act like she was mind controlled into doing everything she did. Apple had free choice. While she was manipulated, she wasn’t forced. They’re just like “She’s just a sad misunderstood lesbian!” Or “Apple has a tough home life! She was just guided by what she was taught!” While the second argument is true. It doesn’t excuse her behavior in any way. An appropriate punishment would be suspension or even expulsion.
Apple seems to have trouble seeing any perspective but her own. She doesn’t seem to understand Briar issue. Apple equates her destiny (to sleep for a few days before being woken up by her true love) to Briar’s (to sleep for a hundred years before being woken up by her true love)
Apple seems to care way more about her image and winning than her friends. She injured Darling playing the sport in Dragon Games. Apple likely got this from her mother.
I don’t think Apple should date anyone until she works on herself for a while (Two or three years)