Peridot

Voiced by: Shelby Rabara

"I think you're all insane! But I guess I am too...
Anyone would be if they were stuck on Earth with you."

^{Click here for her first outfit}

^{Click here for her with her limb enhancers}

"I won't do it! I can tell you with certainty that there are things on this planet worth protecting!"

A former Homeworld technician of Yellow Diamond's court and the Crystal Gems' main recurring arch-nemesis for the first two seasons, Peridot Facet-2F5L Cut-5XG was sent from Homeworld to check on the progress of the Cluster, but her mission was thwarted by the Crystal Gems and she was left stranded on Earth. With nowhere else to go, she decided to help the Crystal Gems destroy the Cluster and, after a series of humbling experiences, she slowly became fond of the Gems and curious about Earth. After failing to convince her superior to spare Earth, Peridot completely defected from Homeworld to become a full-fledged Crystal Gem in "Message Received".

She has a self-demonstrating page, you clods!

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AcCENT upon the Wrong SylLABle: Has a tendency to do this, especially when she's angry, flustered, or in the process of losing her mind.
Aggressive Categorism: Initially displays a reductionist attitude towards the Crystal Gems en masse. Garnet is a freak and a "filthy war machine" because she's a permafusion, Pearl is a brainless ornament who can't compete on Peridot's level in terms of technical skill (even though we've seen Pearl build a fully functioning battle robot in about thirty seconds, and a working spaceship in a couple of days), and she "jokingly" calls Steven an "abomination" to his face because he's a human-Gem hybrid. Amethyst gets the benefit of being "the only real Gem" in the Crystal Gems, who gets tagged as "defective" by Peridot because of her size but still, by Peridot's lights, should be the Crystal Gems' leader... because she's a Quartz Gem.
Alien Arts Are Appreciated: She becomes obsessed with the Show Within a Show Camp Pining Hearts, to the point of writing a 1,001 page essay detailing why the character she dislikes is the worst thing to happen to the show. In 24 hours. For a single episode.
Allegiance Affirmation: After serving as the show's first recurring threat, she's eventually captured by the Crystal Gems, but Steven senses that she's afraid of something and sets her free. His kindness toward her gradually makes her soften her anti-Earth views, and she agrees to help the Gems stop the Cluster, a superweapon implanted by the Great Diamond Authority to shatter the Earth. Unfortunately, the Gems discover that Peridot is trying to contact Yellow Diamond, her superior—and one of the Homeworld leaders they've been rebelling against for centuries—and suspect the worse. When Peridot does contact Yellow, though, she refuses to give the Crystal Gems up and tries to persuade the Diamond to give up on the plan to destroy Earth. When Yellow stubbornly refuses, Peridot furiously declares her new allegiance:
Peridot: I can tell you with certainty that there are things on this planet worth protecting!
Yellow Diamond: What do you know about the Earth?
Peridot: APPARENTLY MORE THAN YOU, YOU CLOD!
Ambiguous Robots: Her free-floating fingers, the capacity to use them as a touchpad and an arm-cannon, as well as her ability to separate body parts with no apparent harm left many of the fandom to suspect she is some form of Cyborg. "Catch and Release" shows that her arms and legs are actually just prosthetics called "limb enhancers", beneath which she is as normal as any other Gem, and is actually physically weaker than every other Gem we've seen.
Angrish: Being constantly exasperated and having the tensile strength of a wet noodle, Peridot can and often makes weird... noises.
Animal Motifs: Seems to have a bit of a cat motif going on. Besides her Cute Little Fangs and a cate-like smile (on the rare occasions she smiles at all), in "Catch and Release" she runs on all fours when trying to escape Steven's room (she runs like this again in "Hit the Diamond"), and her Wimp Fight with Steven looks like something a kitten would do. Plus, whether intentional or not, she'll sometimes make noises that sound like -nya (the Japanese sound effect for a cat's meow) and even hissed at Steven when she was angry in "Log Date 7 15 2". Amusingly, in "Too Far", Peridot makes the mistake of telling Garnet she was uncomfortable with her constant fusing and gets tied to a fence post on a leash, much like a misbehaving cat.invoked
Anime Hair: That's not some awkward, strangely-shaped gem head Peridot's got there, that's her hair. Although Peridot pretended it wasn't to try (and fail) to get past the height requirement for a rollercoaster.invoked
Antagonist Abilities: Her abilities include operating machines like robots and death traps from a remote location, piloting a nearly invulnerable warship, bringing a laser to a sword fight, and various means to facilitate escaping. Naturally, the beginning of her Heel–Face Turn Enemy Mine with the Crystal Gems coincides with her losing all of those.
An Arm and a Leg: She sacrifices her foot after Steven and the Crystal Gems latch onto it to keep her from getting away in "Friend Ship". Steven ends up giving the foot back in "Catch and Release".
Arm Cannon: She can shape the fingers of her limb enhancers into a fairly powerful blaster.
Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In "Catch and Release", after Steven freed her from her bubble, she starts to repeatedly slap him on the face, Steven asks her why she's acting like this, to which she furiously responds: "You smashed me into a limbless clod, you trapped me in your bubble dungeon, AND you called me...CUTE!"
Artificial Limbs: Hinted at in "Friend Ship", when she detaches one of her feet in order to escape the Crystal Gems. "Catch and Release" reveals that they're called "limb enhancers", and without them she's about as tall as Steven.
The Atoner: Because of her treatment towards Lapis during the latter's time as a prisoner of her ship, Peridot goes to great lengths to try and apologize.
Audience Surrogate: Has shades of this, such as wondering aloud "Where am I gonna to put the star?" after joining the Crystal Gems, or her obsession with analyzing the character dynamics of Camp Pining Hearts.
Badass Bookworm: Beat Pearl in a robot fight in a mech suit built in a couple of hours using tools she's unfamiliar with (she held the power drill upside down, for example) out of junk in the barn owned by Greg.
Bad Liar: As shown when she tried to distract the Crystal Gems by saying that there's apparently another planet for them to betray beside them, and when prompted to lie said that she does NOT steal Steven's clothes when he's not looking, it's safe to say that she isn't the best liar.
Bag of Spilling: When she was fighting the Crystal Gems, her limb enhancers were shown to be quite handy and made her a formidable and resourceful foe, able to use them for combat, escape, and for interacting and manipulating Gem tech. When Peridot was poofed, Amethyst got rid of them, and Peridot was only left with her form (all the knowledge she had accrued during her time on Earth was stored in her limb enhancers). Over time, however, she ended up learning about Earth technology and how it can be used to supplant what she lost with her limb enhancers, and even if she has trouble from time to time, she's a lot more capable without them than she used to be.
Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: By the events of the movie, she's the Brains to Lapis' Beauty and Bismuth's Brawn.
Became Their Own Antithesis: Her time on Earth transforms her from a cold, calculating force who couldn't care less about Earth or its inhabitants into a hilariously absurd Large Ham who chooses to protect Earth and fight against Yellow Diamond.
Rebecca Sugar: There’s a principle that the psychiatrist Carl Jung introduced that I find really interesting — this idea of “enantiodromia”, that a superabundance of a force will inevitably produce its opposite. I think of that with Peridot. It’s her obsession with rules and regulations, her belief that things can be one way and one way only, and her unquestioning obedience toward Yellow Diamond that eventually rockets her into becoming a rebel and anarchist when she realizes Yellow Diamond is capable of being wrong. How can you believe in what makes sense when what makes sense doesn’t make sense anymore? She's excited by the infinite potential of everything, and fascinated by her own capacity to care, because those things had been a total blind spot for her.
Because You Were Nice to Me:
- Steven is the only one she will allow into the bathroom with her and the only one she trusts (initially) with information about the Cluster. She eventually even takes his advice and decides to cooperate with the Crystal Gems.
- Part of the reason she started to like Amethyst so much more than the others is that, aside from Steven, she was the only one willing to hang out and joke with her.
- When she finally contacts Yellow Diamond and has a perfect chance to rat out the Crystal Gems, she covers up and takes the heat instead. She even tries to Take a Third Option and attempts to convince Yellow Diamond to destroy the Cluster.
Beleaguered Bureaucrat: Seems to be one of these under Jasper, if her muttering that Steven overhears is any indication.
Bell-Bottom-Limbed Bots: Initially, she has arms and legs that flare out from the knees and elbows like bell-bottoms and flared sleeves. When she joins up with the Crystal Gems in season two, it's revealed that these parts of her limbs are actually removable robotic extensions and not actually part of her real body, which is much smaller and has normal humanoid hands and fingers.
Berserk Button:
- She loses her cool when she realizes the Crystal Gems are responsible for destroying the droids she's been sending, angrily asking why they've been destroying her stuff.
- She hates being called "cute". When Steven sees her for the first time without her limb enhancers, he affectionately remarks that she's like an "angry slice of pie". Peridot is annoyed.
- Pettiness. She values logic and reason over emotional drive, which is why she believed Yellow Diamond would be open to the idea of sparing the Earth for the sake of its resources. But Yellow Diamond makes it clear that she wants the Earth destroyed to get back at Rose Quartz for starting the rebellion. It's what leads her to call Yellow Diamond a "clod" and defect from Homeworld.
- She also hates being called short, as she throws a temper tantrum when Mr. Smiley says she needs some growing, likely because it's a reminder of the fact that she was made intentionally inferior in comparison to older-era Gems.
Beware the Silly Ones:
- A rather chilling example. While being a rather goofy, not really intimidating villain, she was completely unfazed by the fusion experiments, talking dispassionately about it and taking notes before she was interrupted.
- After her redemption, she becomes extremely dorky... but turns out to have enough punch behind her metal manipulation powers to impale Jasper through the chest with a piece of scrap when properly motivated.
Bigger Stick: Peridot seems very reliant on her robots and other technology for fighting. Once Steven breaks her Gem-disruption device, Amethyst and Pearl beat her instantly. Though she improves in subsequent episodes, she focuses more on escaping from them rather than directly engaging them. "Catch and Release" shows that her limbs are actually prosthetics, beneath which she's just a weak Gem who is reduced to slapping Steven, not realizing it's just an annoyance.
Big, Thin, Short Trio: Among the Crystal Gems, she forms one with Lapis and Bismuth. The three serve as the reinforcements for Steven during the Diamond Days event, and she lets Connie join them in the sky by flying around on a trash can lid.
Blessed with Suck: She is super durable, capable of taking cartoonish amounts of abuse before poofing. This is, however, completely useless, since she doesn't have any natural offensive abilities, and isn't immune to pain.
Blood Knight: One of the very few examples of one not naturally good at fighting. Peridot is shown, even without her limb enhancers, to be extremely quick to attack and insert herself in a fight no matter the caliber of her opponent. When in the Beta Kindergarden, and Steven and Amethyst were fighting Jasper, not only did Peridot show no fear of Jasper, who is a natural Axe-Crazy blood knight herself, but it was Peridot who landed the poofing blow after Jasper became corrupted.
Body Motifs: Besides Peridot's gem location being significant as with other Gems — like Pearl, hers is on her forehead to represent logic and intelligence — she also has a hand motif about her representing her status as an engineer. Her various Robonoid have Floating Limbs almost identical to her fingers, she operated the Kindergarten remotely with giant floating hands, and her ship is a giant hand.
Boisterous Weakling: Though initially very cowardly, Peridot's ego has caused her to vastly overestimate how much her metal powers and training with the Crystal Gems have improved her combat abilities. She seriously attempts to hurt Blue Diamond by pelting her with soda cans (not even particularly fast moving one), and thinks Yellow Diamond would fear her after being mocked over a video call.
Brains and Brawn: The brains to Jasper's brawn as the robotic technician who operates the ship and keeps tabs on the Kindergarten.
Bratty Half-Pint: In a way. Prone to temper tantrums? Check. Haughty attitude? Check. Small in size? Triple check.
Breakout Character: Introduced initially as a semi-regular villain, she's since become a regular character. Notably, in Future, Shelby Rabara went from being credited as "other voices" to "featured voices" (the latter of which only included Steven, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl's voice actors for the original series).
Break the Haughty: Peridot is introduced with a sense of disdain toward life on Earth, and her experience since landing there has been full of humiliation and failure.
Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: A same-gender example. Peridot provides emotional comfort and friendship to the aloof, untrusting Lapis.
- However, it's later deconstructed in "Raising the Barn", where it's revealed that Peridot puts in a lot of effort in making Lapis happy, including bending over backwards figuratively and literally for her, while Lapis does very little to return the favor for Peridot, who later reveals in "Back to the Kindergarten" that despite her enthusiastic demeanor she constantly deals with her own sadness on a daily basis.
Brought Down to Normal: She's significantly weaker after she loses her Artificial Limbs in "Catch and Release". Most Gems depicted so far have superhuman strength. Peridot was overpowered by Steven with little effort, and she is nowhere near as strong as a full Gem. "Too Short to Ride" explains that Homeworld, as a result of lacking resources, deliberately engineers Era 2 Gems to be weaker and instead augments them with technology. She also gains a power in the same episode: ferrokinesis.
But I Read a Book About It: Gets all her information about Earth from old Gem records, without which she had no knowledge of Earth phenomena, like rain.
Butt-Monkey: Peridot's luck is hilariously poor, and everything she does she finds as aggravating to her as possible even before the Crystal Gems are involved.

Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Calls her and Lapis' art "meepmorps", or "morps" for short, and finds the human word "art" ridiculous.
Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Invokes this with the Crystal Gems in "Catch and Release", since she has knowledge of the Cluster that she can't give them in the bubble.
Cassandra Truth: At first, Steven is the only member of the Crystal Gems who thinks there's anything to her warning about the Cluster. Garnet even dismisses her remarks as "the desperate lies of a Gem who's been caught". Averted later, as Steven manages to convince the Crystal Gems that it's better to let Peridot to live in their bathroom in hopes of getting information from her than to bubble her, and the Crystal Gems actually listen to him and can be heard in the background seriously discussing the potential implications of the Cluster at the end of the episode.
Cassette Craze: Peridot receives a tape recorder in "Log Date 7 15 2", which she uses constantly in subsequent episodes until it's destroyed.
Catchphrase Insult: She seems fond of "clod" as an insult. Occasionally switched for "crystal clods". Phased out of her after her Character Development.
Character Blog: Peridot has a Twitter account, and during "Too Short to Ride", she sent a series of tweets while the episode aired on the West Coast.
Character Catchphrase: Thanks to Steven and her literal mind, she almost always shows gratitude by saying "Wow, Thanks."
Character Development:
- She's slowly, but steadily learning what she thought about Earth, the Crystal Gems, and everything she thought she knew isn't quite right. Her development has gotten to the point where, when she gets in touch with Yellow Diamond in "Message Received", she doesn't rat out the Crystal Gems, instead taking the heat for her failures. She also argues that they should spare the Earth and its inhabitants (though her arguments are more logical than emotional), and when Yellow Diamond refuses to listen, Peridot loudly calls her a clod.
- Her stance on fusion and Garnet in particular has also notably slackened since she first broached the topic; initially she saw it as a pragmatic show of force and couldn't understand why Garnet chose to stay constantly fused, referring to her as a "filthy war machine" because that's what she was in Peridot's eyes. As the series progressed after her exile to Earth and truce with the Crystal Gems, Peridot seems to be more curious about Garnet's nature than openly hostile. It comes to a head in "Log Date 7 15 2", when Garnet offers to fuse with her to help Peridot understand it better and Peridot takes her up on the offer. While she did wind up getting cold feet, Peridot did say that the experience helped her understand Garnet better and they seem to be on much better terms.
- She starts out extremely selfish and with a distinct Lack of Empathy, apparently caring about nothing but herself and her mission. This decreases as she spends more time with the Crystal Gems. By "Barn Mates", she's willing to leave the barn that she had claimed as her own dwelling place on Earth because it's the only gesture of apology Lapis is willing to accept, without even a trace of complaint. And in the Immediate Sequel "Hit the Diamond", she willingly tries to sacrifice herself to a group of Homeworld Rubies to protect the Crystal Gems and Steven. Granted, it turns out they were only looking for her to get info on the whereabouts of Jasper, but the point still stands. On the day "Alone at Sea" came out, her official Twitter released posts implying she was worried about Lapis, and in "Beta" she shows clear concern for Lapis' mental state when Jasper is brought up (more so then Lapis needs).
- She's initially driven largely by logic, reason, and her orders, but the more time she spends on Earth the more she acts based on emotion (though she continues to prize logic and reason above all else). She later gets into singing, fandoms, social media, humor, alien plushies, and finally begins dabbling in trash art with Lapis.
- Early on she can't understand why Amethyst would "waste" energy on shapeshifting for fun, but once she develops ferrokinesis, the ONLY thing she does with it is to play around.
- Compare Peridot in "Raising the Barn" to her earlier Barn Episodes. While still known for her character quirks, her mentality has made a complete 180, and fully embraces the Earth as her home, and that's more important than even her "Barnmate" Lapis. She even gives Pumpkin a little kiss on the head.
Character Tic: Peridot will often bring her knees up to her chest and curl into a ball when feeling upset. She even does this while flying in midair.
Clingy Costume: Like other gems, her clothes are part of her projected form. In a strange twist, since Peridot actually can't shapeshift except when replacing her body entirely, and her clothing is "melded to [her] body", it's implied she cannot change out of her clothes (at least without damaging them). If she wants to wear something else, she has to wear it on top of her regular clothes. This actually makes normal clothing a novelty to Peridot, as she's seen enjoying wearing boxer shorts and accidentally implies she stole some of Steven's clothes for herself.
Clothes Make the Superman: All of her powers come from her "limb enhancers", which are best described as robot gloves and boots. Without them, she has no Gem powers apart from the ability to regenerate and is no stronger than her size and stature would suggest. In "Too Short to Ride", Peridot states that, due to dwindling resources on Homeworld, Era 2 Peridots like she lack powers such as shapeshifting and weapons. However, by the end of the episode, Peridot discovers she has ferrokinetic abilities.
- Perhaps because of this Peridot enjoys wearing clothes for fun, something unusual amongst Gems.
Cloudcuckoolander: She slowly becomes one over the course of the series. Justified, though, due to her lack of knowledge about life on Earth.
Color Motif: Her green motif is associated with aliens, specifically the stereotypical gray or green big-headed alien. She starts out with no empathy toward humans, seeing everything in a logical way according to Homeworld, and gets more curious about the machinations of Earth as she spends more time on her planet.
Combat Pragmatist: She knows that she can't beat the Crystal Gems in a fair fight, so she uses traps and the like to try and take them out without directly engaging them.
Comically Missing the Point: After renouncing her allegiance to Homeworld and basically telling Yellow Diamond to screw herself, she just falls to the ground in fetal position and calmly hands the communicator to Pearl while explaining that it's likely about to explode. Cue the Crystal Gems hot-potatoing it back and forth before Garnet punches it up into the stratosphere while Peridot just lies there. Also, one of her biggest concerns after officially joining up with the Crystal Gems and painting a gigantic target on all of their backs is whether or not she's going to have put a star on her outfit, and where it will even go.
The Comically Serious: At first. She first assumes that "Steven" is the name of a species that replaced humans, and still thinks the sticker she saw at the Galaxy Warp is an official symbol of some kind. As she starts to lose it from isolation, this trait diminishes, such that by "Friend Ship" she spends the entire episode laughing like a maniac and gleefully tormenting the Crystal Gems. This trait swings around to full prominence in "When It Rains", where she delivers a serious, calculating monologue about trusting Steven after he... explains the water cycle to her.
Commuting on a Bus: Peridot was heavily in the spotlight for the latter half of season two. When the other Crystal Gems go back to the temple early in season three, Peridot stays at the barn. This leaves her out of most episodes, but close enough by to visit or be visited periodically.
Constantly Curious: A major personality trait of hers is a constant desire to learn new things, including understanding the world and the motivation of the people around her. This trait has caused her to act uncharacteristically nice and grateful toward people who take the time to explain things to her.
Cool Shades:
- Wears these in "The New Crystal Gems" to emulate Garnet.
- When she regenerates into her Crystal Gem outfit, her visor has turned into Kamina-esque shades.
Costume Evolution: Like most of the other Gems, Peridot only permanently changes her outfit when regenerating her Hard Light physical form after being poofed; however, she (and Lapis Lazuli) go the longest period of time on the show without doing so. When she finally does in the season 5 finale, she ditches her v-neck shirt for one which reaches to the base of her throat, along with going from simple coloring on her toes to colored full boots and replacing her face-fitting visor to a wider, sharp-angled one reminiscent of Garnet's. She also changes the yellow diamond insignias on her shirt and the knees of her pants to stars, signifying that she finally considers herself a full Crystal Gem.
Cowardly Lion: She gradually overcomes her Dirty Coward attitude as she gets closer to the Crystal Gems, to the point where, despite being afraid of Yellow Diamond, she still stands her ground, arguing with and even insulting Yellow Diamond when she refused to listen. Ironically, after she gains her metal powers, he confidence ends up swinging to the opposite extreme.
Crazy-Prepared: As a (primarily) non-action girl, she is absolutely prepared to evade capture and/or escape if she ever needs to. Her only purely offensive ability is an Arm Cannon, while everything else she has is meant to deter pursuers. Considering she was once overpowered by Steven, this makes sense.
Crew of One: Her gigantic hand-spaceship appeared to be controlled entirely by her alone.
Culture Clash: When she forms a truce with the Crystal Gems to stop the Cluster, there's a lot of tension since she expects things to work like they do on Homeworld. She's chagrined that Pearl is an independent Gem instead of being someone's servant, she doesn't approve of Garnet being a fusion, and can't understand why Amethyst, a Quartz Gem, isn't the leader. She gradually learns to work around it.
Curiosity Causes Conversion: According to Word of God, a big part of her Heel–Face Turn was because feeling compassion for the first time piqued her curiosity for it, as it'd been a blind spot to her before. This also applies to her curiosity about everything on Earth.
- To expand on that, the first redeeming feature of Peridot's that we see is her endless curiosity, starting with the everyday objects in Steven's bathroom ("Is that a weapon?") before expanding to the life and phenomena on Earth itself. The reason behind her attempts to contact Yellow Diamond is to actually preserve the Earth, and Yellow's rejection of the plan in the name of petty destruction is what ultimately makes Peridot renounce Homeworld. What's more, she discovers what she's really capable of, including her metal-controlling powers. By the present, her defining fascination and love of Earth and its inhabitants — even human culture, which even sympathetic Gems tend to dismiss — has become reminiscent of Rose herself.
  Peridot: There's so much life, living here. That's what I'm doing, living here! I've been learning new things about myself all the time! Like how I can make metal do my bidding... the point being, Earth can set you free.
Cute Little Fangs: She has dull but distinguishable canines, much like Amethyst.
Cuteness Proximity: Induces this reaction in Steven when he sees her without her limb enhancers. Being as small as a child and wearing what appear to be footie pajamas probably doesn't help much.
Steven: Oh my gosh, you're so... CUTE! Aww, you're like an angry little slice of pie!
Cyborg: As mentioned under Artificial Limbs, her arms and legs seem to be mechanical. "Catch and Release" shows that they're actually just prosthetics that go over her regular limbs, without which she's just a normal Gem.

D-F

Deadpan Snarker: When she starts out working with the Crystal Gems near the end of Season 2, she is frequently prone to making snide comments about the other Gems while working along with them.
Defector from Decadence: Yellow Diamond being hellbent on destroying the Earth over a grudge is what finally made Peridot switch sides for good.
Defrosting Ice Queen: She starts to warm up to Steven over the course of "Catch and Release" and "When It Rains". By the midpoint of the latter episode, she's willing to work with Steven. Warming up to the Crystal Gems is much, much harder, though.
Demoted to Comic Relief: After her main redemption arc, Peridot is designated almost entirely to occasional comedic relief based appearances.
Demoted to Dragon: When she was introduced, she was the main antagonist carrying out Homeworld's goals... but then she shows up with Jasper, who's higher ranked than her, a better fighter, and a far more personal threat. She reclaims her position after Jasper is taken out by Lapis Lazuli, until her Heel–Face Turn.
Despair Event Horizon: Seems to start crossing over into it in "Catch and Release", after her last attempt to escape Earth fails, and again after losing her Artificial Limbs upon regeneration, though Steven seems to pull her back from the brink a bit.
Determinator: Peridot doesn't give up if she thinks something is possible... but this is tempered by a tendency to starkly define what's actually "possible", and great difficulty in thinking outside the box.
Deuteragonist: She receives a lot of focus and development between Seasons 2 and 3, going from an antagonist to a flawed but sincere ally to the Gems.
Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: In "Message Received", she calls her superior, Yellow Diamond, a clod.
Die for Our Ship. In-Universe, she really hates Paulette from the Show Within a Show Camp Pining Hearts, to the point of writing a 1000+ page report on why Paulette is the worst character, implicitly because Paulette is the actual Love Interest for half of Peridot's preferred couple.
Dirty Coward: She initially showed no mercy to the Crystal Gems, but ended asking their help to save her own life even when it meant committing treason. Eventually, through Character Development, Peridot becomes more of a Cowardly Lion.
Discard and Draw: Shortly before helping the heroes, she loses her limb enhancers (and all the technological enhancements they have). Then in "Too Short to Ride" Peridot reveals that without her tech enhancements, she's powerless... until she finds she can move metal with her mind.
Discount Lesbians: Or rather, Discount Aroace. Her revulsion at the prospect of engaging in fusion is meant to be representative of asexuality and aromanticism, without actually bringing relationships and romance into the mix.
Dissonant Serenity: Occasionally, Peridot will have a huge smile on her face and enthusiasm in her voice, both which will go against what she states to actually be feeling at that time.
Does Not Know Her Own Strength: Of a sort. Peridot likely hasn't made physical contact with anything but her "limb enhancers" in her whole life, and so has no idea what she's physically capable of (as it turns out, not very much). Amusingly, she seems taken aback that smacking Steven in the face would hurt.
Steven: OWW! That hurt.
Peridot: [utterly nonplussed] ...It did?
- "Too Short to Ride" reveals she has an ability she didn't know about: ferrokinesis.
Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Calling Yellow Diamond a "clod". The first time, Yellow simply detonated the communication device they were using, not to mention the fact Peridot can never return to Homeworld. The second time she tried to do so, Yellow simply destabilized her with one electric blast.
The Dreaded: In Season 1, her presence was greatly feared by the Crystal Gems, especially once she discovered their existence and was coming to Earth. Of course, it quickly becomes clear that the reason for this dread is what Peridot represents — Homeworld — as opposed to Peridot herself, who ends up personally being anything but dread-inducing.
Dub Name Change: Averted. Peridot is among the few gems who the Latin American dub doesn't change her name to the faithfully correct translation, peridoto. She shares this with Garnet.
Easily Detachable Robot Parts: When the Crystal Gems form a human(oid) chain to stop her from escaping, all they succeed in doing is causing her to hit a switch on her leg to detach her foot. Later, all her robotics come off, revealing Peridot to be the size of Steven when using her real legs.
Emotions vs. Stoicism: A big part of her arc is learning that doing what feels right instead of what is logical is not a bad thing.
Enemy Mine: "When It Rains" reveals the nature of the Cluster and what it means for the Earth. Since she can't get off-world, she resorts to helping the Crystal Gems stop it from emerging, despite Homeworld being the reason for its existence. Ultimately becomes more of a genuine friendship.
Establishing Character Moment:
- Within a minute of appearing, she crushes a damaged Robonoid hugging on her leg with a look of pure scorn on her face.
- Gets a second one in "Catch and Release" once her limb enhancers are done away with: she's short, easily startled, egotistical, but endlessly curious about the world around her. This remains her basic characterization from here on out.
Everyone Has Standards: Peridot thinks very highly of Yellow Diamond, but after she dismisses Peridot's replacement plan for the Earth, she renounces Yellow Diamond.
Evil Counterpart: Initially one to Pearl, and a good chunk of their battle in "Back to the Barn" drives this home. Both are genius, brilliant Gems considered inferior by Homeworld — Pearl for being a Pearl, Peridot for being a tiny Era 2 Gem. However Pearl is a kindly, motherly figure and hardly evil, while Peridot spent a long, long time being cruel. Their powers are opposite as well — Pearl could take Peridot easily in a straight fight without Peridot's tech backing her up. However, Peridot's Character Development makes her grow out of this.
Evil Genius: She's entrusted to oversee the destruction of Earth with a new super weapon that can wipe out other worlds. She loses the evil part after her Heel–Face Turn.
Evil Is Hammy:
- When she laughs. "Friend Ship" takes this up with her basically going full-on "80s Cartoon Villain crossed with Christopher Walken in The Country Bears".
- Even more during "Back to the Barn", when she and Pearl compete using giant robots.
  Peridot: [unveiling her mecha] Hah! Pathetic! Now, behold my vision of ultimate power! (Evil Laugh)
- Arguably her hammiest moment yet comes when she defeats Pearl's mecha in a fight.
  Peridot: Victory is mine! Now I'm the one in charge! Praise me! PRAISE ME!
Evil Is Petty: Peridot harbors great animosity toward the Crystal Gems that eventually turns into murderous rage. But it's not because they're Homeworld's enemies, but for breaking some of her equipment and getting in her way.
- That being said, her supposed pettiness is really more due to the Crystal Gems not doing things in a logical and ordered fashion, which drives her up the wall. "Message Received" shows that pettiness that doesn't have a logical backing to it is a serious Berserk Button for her, to the point that she called Yellow Diamond a clod because she'd rather let the Earth be destroyed by the Cluster to satiate her own wounded pride at being beaten by Rose Quartz rather than do the logical and pragmatic thing and simply use the planet's resources while leaving it intact.
Expy: Of Zim, of all things. Rebecca Sugar is a proclaimed fan of the show.
Extra-ore-dinary: "Too Short to Ride" reveals that, despite lacking normal Gem abilities such as shapeshifting and weapon creation, Peridot has ferrokinetic abilities that she didn't know about.
Fantastic Racist:
- Apparently views humans (and "Stevens") as an "infestation". The latter starts to fade after Steven lets her out and calms her down a bit.
- She looks down on Pearl for being a pearl, which she thinks aren't useful for very important much more than standing around and looking pretty (and on Homeworld, that's all they're intended to do). After seeing what Pearl can do, and that no one else will back her assumptions up, Peridot begrudgingly admits Pearl's competence.
- While less severe than her treatment of Pearl, she also has a condescending attitude towards fusions, at least when used outside of battle or other functional applications. She refers to Garnet as a "filthy war machine" and insists that she unfuse before working because being around her as she is makes her uncomfortable.
- While trying to be "funny" and earn Amethyst's approval, Peridot says some truly awful things about Garnet, Pearl... and Steven. Why is Amethyst spared Peridot's cruel remarks? Well, despite being "defective" because of her height, she's still a Kindergarten Quartz Gem, with all the associated power and capabilities. According to Peridot, this makes her the "only real Gem" out of the Crystal Gems... and the one who should be leading them.
Fantastic Slurs: Frequently uses earth/dirt/stone-based slurs to insult the Crystal Gems. The most frequent one is "clod"^note, but she also calls them "dirtbombs" and Steven a "pebble". Also, she once called Garnet a "filthy war machine" for being a fusion.
Fear of Thunder: Thunder scares her because she mistakes it for the Cluster hatching. This stops once she finds out what it actually is.
Fire-Forged Friends: With the Crystal Gems. Initially antagonistic towards each other over time, thanks to the interactions she shares with the Crystal Gems creating the Drill necessary to burrow into the Cluster, Peridot grows to bond and care about the Gems despite herself. Their relationship takes a massive hit when Peridot insults Rose, and indirectly, them by saying that her Rebellion was ultimately pointless because the Earth is in danger anyway, regardless of and because of Rose's efforts. However, she proves in "Message Received" that her interactions with them have changed her worldview, and when Yellow Diamond refuses to spare the Earth over a petty grudge, she calls her a clod and renounces her loyalty to Homeworld. Thus, she repairs her relationship with the Crystal Gems and becomes their newest member.
First Time Feeling: It's implied in the series and confirmed by Word of God that compassion and empathy were things she'd never felt until she came to Earth, and her curiosity about them was a driving force of her Heel–Face Turn.
Fish out of Water: Since she's an alien, Peridot has little to no information about the Earth or life on it. She assumes nearly everything is a weapon, and that a bathroom is some kind of think chamber. There are shades of Fish out of Temporal Water in there as well, as Peridot's lack familiarity is because she hails from an ultra-advanced world, so earthly objects appear antediluvian to her. She's also a Fish out of Water socially, considering that Pearl (a made-to-order servant/ornament for higher-class Gems on Homeworld) is seen as an equal amongst the Crystal Gems and both she and Amethyst (who as a Quartz Gem would be a leader/soldier on Homeworld) follow Garnet, a perma-Fusion (which is seen as weird as fusion is seen as something only done during combat and to a lesser extent practical work).
Flight: She can fly by spinning her floating fingers like a helicopter rotor. After she loses those, she discovers that, with her metal powers, she can turn a trashcan lid into a personal hoverboard.
Floating Limbs: The fingers on her Artificial Limbs float around her hand and can come off entirely for various purposes.
Foil:
- To Jasper. Jasper was The Brute to Peridot's Evil Genius. Their methods as villains were diametric opposites and their eventual fates were likewise opposite: Peridot ends up going native and slowly grows to love living on Earth. Jasper's hatred meanwhile leads her to choose corruption instead.
- To Amethyst. The exact same action — naming their identification code — has the complete opposite meaning for these characters. For Peridot, it’s a sudden sharp reminder that to Homeworld, she isn’t special; she’s one of thousands or millions of Peridots, and her individuality is meaningless. Her time with the Crystal Gems has made her feel unique and welcome, but that won’t last if she goes back to her home planet. She’s not just Peridot, she’s a Peridot. For Amethyst, it’s an exciting revelation that she has a place, an identity, in this world and family that she never had the chance to know. Even as a member of the Crystal Gems she’s always felt like an outcast and a misfit, but know she knows EXACTLY where she came from. She’s not just Amethyst, she’s this Amethyst.
"Freaky Friday" Flip: Upon learning about Steven's power to take control of others, Peridot tweets she'd use it to make Paulette leave Camp Pining Hearts forever. However, Peridot quickly dismisses the idea due to not wanting Paulette to take control of her body in return.invoked
Freudian Excuse: What we've seen of Homeworld puts Peridot's Fantastic Racism and callous indifference to the Cluster experiments in a disturbing new light, since stepping out of line is apparently harshly punished in Gem society, and fusion is seen as something only to be done during battle and only among Gems of the same type. Individual worth and respect for the dead are almost non-existent among the high-ranking Gems, and the lower Gems are either brainwashed or cowed into accepting this.
Freudian Trio: Of the Crystal Temps, she is the overly logical Superego to Connie's rational and mature Ego and Lapis's emotional Id.
Friendless Background: In "Too Far", Peridot is desperate for Amethyst's attention but unknowingly hurt her feelings while joking around. It definitely gives the impression that Peridot is not used to having actual friends.
- Further hinted at in "Gem Drill", where she mentions that having the Crystal Gems makes her feel better about not being able to return to Homeworld and that she doesn't have much in the way of good memories of it.
Full-Contact Magic: She seems to rely heavily on movements for her metalbending powers.

G-I

Gadgeteer Genius: Is a highly skilled engineer, capable of building a high-tech robot using outdated junk in a barn while having little, if any real knowledge of human tools (including holding an electric drill upside down). Comments by Peridot imply this and being a technician is her and all Peridots' lot in Gemworld's Hive Caste System. She also later converts a thousands of years old Injector into a functioning cannon in at most a couple of hours without any tools seen.
Giant Hands of Doom: A recurring theme with her. She uses a set of these in "Marble Madness", and uses one as a spaceship.
Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Or in her case, stuffed aliens.
Godzilla Threshold: In "Catch and Release", she's so desperate to get off Earth that she kidnaps Steven from his room in the hopes that his spit can fix the Galaxy Warp, and she even tries to use her information on the Cluster to bargain with the Crystal Gems.
Goggles Do Nothing: See those yellowish safety goggles she wears in her first physical form? Those don't do anything at all. In fact, Peridot actually wears real safety goggles over them when performing real experiments.
Gone Horribly Right: She was conditioned by her superiors to be dictated by logic and reason. So she eventually comes to the conclusion that letting the Cluster destroy Earth would be illogical.
Good Costume Switch: It took a while after joining the Crystal Gems officially, but after reforming from being poofed in "Reunited", her appearance in "Change Your Mind" has the Crystal Gem star symbol and some new Cool Shades.
Good Feels Good: She has difficulty apologizing after hurting Amethyst's feelings, but feels much better emotionally after doing so.
Steven: How do you feel?
Peridot:...Big.
Green and Mean: Is a green Gem, and doesn't care who she has to hurt to complete her assignments. She loses this trait as she spends time with the Crystal Gems.
Green-Eyed Monster: Becomes a bit jealous of Steven and Amethyst in "Too Short to Ride" because they can shapeshift while she cannot.
Harmless Villain: Without her "limb enhancers" or access to death traps, her most dangerous attack is a slap, and as seen in "Too Far", she can be restrained with a "child leash" tied to a fence post.
Hartman Hips: Is drawn with these in "Message Received" and "Kindergarten Kid". They help make her look female but still fairly androgynous.
Hates Being Called Cute: In "Catch and Release", one of the things she takes offence about after being released from her bubble is that Steven said she was cute when he saw her without her limb enhancers.
Hazy-Feel Turn: Eventually she teams up with the Crystal Gems so they can stop the Cluster together; however, it's not because Peridot has suddenly had a change of heart and come to regret her previous actions, but simply because when the Cluster hatches, everyone on Earth will be screwed, and since Peridot can't get off planet, she's simply decided to save her own skin by helping the Crystal Gems stop it. Then she completely burns her bridges back to Homeworld, basically leaving them as her only allies.
The Heavy: She is set up as the Arc Villainess of the first season, having sent numerous robots to Earth (the Red Eye and her Robonoids), though she is ultimately revealed to be a mere technician who brings backup when things get really hairy. The second season focuses on her as well, since the Gems know she's on Earth and can track her down.
Heel–Face Turn: Reveals she's done this during "Message Received" when she argues with Yellow Diamond that Earth and its life deserve to be spared destruction.
Heroic BSoD: Peridot falls into a deep depression when Lapis leaves the Earth and takes the barn with her into space.
Hey, You!: Peridot usually addresses her enemies by insults instead of names, and speaks impersonally about those she's on neutral terms with. This makes it very noticeable when she finally calls Steven by his name, rather than calling him the Steven.
Hidden Depths: Though she doesn't initially understand the point of music or singing, it turns out Peridot has perfect pitch, since she easily identifies the notes Steven plays while noodling around on his ukelele. He encourages her to write a song and she does so that same evening.
Home Sweet Home: As revealed in "Kindergarten Kid", bubbled items when sent away return to where the sender considers "home". The Beta Kindergarten Gem monster Peridot poofed and bubbled was sent to the barn she lives in with Lapis, showing she considers the barn home.
How Do I Shot Web?:
- Seems to have a rocky relationship with some of her limb enhancers' abilities: the first time she uses her helicopter fingers, she stares at her hand in surprise, and her first use of her Arm Cannon tosses her off her feet and glance between it and the damage it did, apparently surprised that it worked.
- As an Era 2 Peridot, she's deliberately made to be less powerful than earlier model Gems, meaning that she can't do a number of things that other Gems can, such as shapeshift or seemingly produce a weapon. She has, however, begun to figure out her metal-manipulating powers.
Hypocrite:
- Refers to humans as an "infestation" in a place where her people once used the Earth to grow Gems like a space virus.
- She's angry at the Crystal Gems for destroying her robots, yet the very first thing she does in her debut is stomping on one just because it was damaged and promptly shutting down and abandoning the rest before fleeing when she realizes that the portal site "might have been compromised".
- Makes quips about the Crystal Gems betraying Homeworld, even though she was willing to betray Homeworld to save her own life.
- Peridot initially insists that the Crystal Gems follow Homeworld's Hive Caste System, which dictates that Individuality Is Illegal aside from a select elite, while praise for her individual accomplishments is something she covets.
- Prizes logic and rationality very highly, yet most of her decisions on Earth prior to her Heel–Face Turn are motivated by a mixture of terror, revenge and spite (not counting direct orders).
- Calling Amethyst "defective" for not being as big or powerful as a Quartz is supposed to be rings different when we learn that Peridot herself is a smaller, less powerful version of her Gem; the only real difference is such Peridots were deliberately made this way. The blow is softened somewhat in that Peridot was being more unintentionally insensitive than insulting; and she herself is aware of and subtly insecure about the nature of her generation.
I Just Want to Be Special: As an Era 2 Peridot, she was was made without any special powers so she was given her limb enhancers to compensate. Coupled with her very low status on the Homeworld totem pole, this gives her a need to be seen as special and the best which is partly what made her initial relationship with the Crystal Gems so strained.
Innocent Bigot: Peridot treats Pearl very condescendingly in "Back to the Barn" because Pearls are a made-to-order Servant Race on Homeworld, but (unlike most of her mannerisms) there is no malice behind it. Then her pride is wounded at the idea of treating Pearl as an equal, and the bigotry turns antagonistic. These exchanges show that while Peridot did rebel against the Diamonds' authority for the sake of saving Earth, she's still unlearning many bigoted Homeworld values.
Innocently Insensitive: A reoccurring problem for Peridot is that she often has trouble grasping when she says or does something that can be considered offensive or rude due to a combination of No Social Skills and Homeworld beliefs.
- She accidentally hurts Amethyst's feelings by taking her new-found sense of humor too far and can't grasp why she's angry when Steven tells her she was being "mean".
- She asks Garnet to unfuse because her perma-fused state makes Peridot "uncomfortable", and is then left confused when her actions gets her a time out.
- And, perhaps most infamously, she shows excitement for Homeworld's original plans to harvest Earth, ignoring the fact that such a plan would have killed every organic life form on the planet. When the Crystal Gems point this out to her, she then says that Rose's rebellion was ultimately pointless, since it led to the creation of the Cluster which almost gets her crushed for her troubles.
- While likely rushed due to time constraints, another example occurs at the end of "Same Old World" when she nonchalantly greets Lapis, the very Gem she interrogated and dragged back to Earth after having been trapped in a mirror for thousands of years, without even so much as offering an apology. And when she does try to apologize in "Barn Mates", things don't go much better.
Inopportune Voice Cracking: She's quite prone to this, due to her size and the ways she can yell.
Instant Expert: After once hearing Steven sing "do re mi fa sol la ti do", she instantly associates the words with their notes, recognizes the chords he's playing on his ukelele ^note and even sings harmony with him after he tells her the names of the pitches she should sing. She comes up with her own lyrics within hours. This from a character with zero musical background, and who seemed not to have even been familiar with the concept of music.
Instant Flight: Just Add Spinning!: Can use the fingers on her limb enhancers like helicopter rotors.
Insufferable Genius: In spite of her obnoxious behavior, Peridot is a skilled and intelligent engineer.
Ironic Name: Peridot is often associated with good luck, peace and success. However, Peridot seems to have bad luck, failure and violence with the Crystal Gems. Becomes less ironic after she defects and finally sees some peace after dealing with the Cluster and befriending Lapis.
Irony:
- Despite her idolization of the Diamonds and terror when she insults Yellow Diamond, she was unknowingly insulting a Diamond every time she insulted Steven.
- Her demeaning Pearl and treating her like a servant but being herself intimidated and cowed by Yellow Pearl (due to being Yellow Diamond's Pearl) is rather ironic in hindsight, as Pearl is Pink Diamond's Pearl and thus the same rank as Yellow Pearl.
It's All About Me: Peridot is extremely self-absorbed, which leads her to continually underestimate the Gems. Even after defecting to aid the Crystal Gems, she thinks mainly of her own needs. Many of her childlike behaviors, particularly her temper, stem from her over-inflated ego. This is not to say Peridot is incapable of putting others above herself; she is just not used to having others who are willing to do the same for her. The same behavior extends to her admitting something personal or that she had been wrong about something.

J-L

Jerkass: She's childish, apathetic towards others, and has a habit of taunting her enemies with wacky faces and degrading insults such as "clod" or "infestation". However, as her time and interactions with the Crystal Gems and Steven have increased, she has slowly (emphasis on slowly) been acting less jerkish.
Jerkass Has a Point: Peridot is bratty, callous, and insensitive... but she makes a few good points once in a while.
- In "Back to the Barn", Pearl insists she doesn't belong to anyone, but Peridot's comments do call attention to how Pearl's selfless dedication toward Rose could arguably be described as slavish.
- In "It Could've Been Great", while Peridot was in the wrong for disrespecting Rose in front of the Crystal Gems, she was technically right that the rebellion only inspired the creation of the Cluster and merely delayed Earth's destruction.
- In "Log Date 7 15 2", Peridot wondered if all biological creatures on Earth can fly and tried to see if Greg could... by pushing him from a roof. When Garnet scolds her for her actions, Peridot accurately replies that she really didn't know.
- In "Gem Drill", when she and Steven are using the titular drill to get to the center of the Earth to try and save the world, they're attacked by some of the monstrous fusion mutants. Steven starts to empathize with them and says that they don't deserve to be treated like this... but Peridot accurately points out that there's nothing they can do.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Eventually proves she's this in "Message Received", where her growing friendships with the Crystal Gems causes her to plead with Yellow Diamond to spare the local populace of Earth from being destroyed, proposing an alternative plan that would allow Gems and humans to coexist. When she is turned down, she promptly cements her loyalty to the Crystal Gems over Yellow Diamond by calling her a Clod and joining the Gems. She loses most of her Jerkass qualities in Future.
Juggling Loaded Guns: Does this with the rejuvenator in the movie, though luckily, Bismuth grabs it before she hits herself in the face with it.
Kick the Dog:
- Remorselessly crushes a damaged Robonoid (one of the spherical repair-bots) that just fixed the Homeworld warp pad underneath her foot after it somewhat pleadingly gripped her leg, providing a stark contrast to the usual general characterization of the show, even Lapis.
- She tries to kill Steven in her next appearance, for no other reason than he happened to be there. He gave no indication that he intended to interfere, and she didn't even know he was a Gem.
- She refers to Steven as a "hybrid abomination" right in front of him, even though it was him who freed her and shows her the most kindness of the Crystal Gems.
- She and Lapis perform a dual one in "The New Crystal Gems" by telling Connie (who has various self esteem issues) that she will probably let Steven down after he asked her to defend Beach City.
Killed Mid-Sentence: Garnet poofs her in the middle of a sentence in "Catch and Release", and when she regenerates, she finishes the sentence as if no time had passed.
Kindness Button: Steven is able to win her over by simply treating her with respect by accepting her scientific knowledge without a doubt. This action increases her slowly growing trust towards the hero.
The Klutz: While she's usually pretty good at handling objects that she isn't actively trying to destroy, she has trouble moving at speed and often runs on her hands and feet like an animal/small child; in "Hit the Diamond" she manages to trip over twice in quite a short distance, eventually deciding to run on all fours because running on two feet proved impossible.
Knight of Cerebus: While it's not as apparent as Jasper or Yellow Diamond, her appearance shows the audience that Homeworld Gems are a much more serious and persistent threat than Lapis was.
Lack of Empathy:
- She crushes a Robonoid for being broken without any remorse.
- In "Marble Madness", she refers to "Stevens" (and by extension humans, who she believes "Stevens" to have supplanted) as an infestation.
- This seems to even extend to other Gems, or at least one she considers her enemy, given how nonchalantly she discussed the Fused Gem experiments. She also laughs at corrupted Gems, stunned that such twisted creatures were once Gem warriors.
- Averted after she undergoes Character Development. While she still has trouble expressing it, she does seem to genuinely care about others and mainly has trouble because she has the social skills of a towel rack.
Large Ham: Her Character Development may have removed the "evil" from the Evil Is Hammy part of her personality, but she has more than kept the ham part.
Last-Name Basis: Initially calls Lapis Lazuli "Lazuli" while everyone else calls her "Lapis". She's switched to Lapis by "Beta", showing how much closer they'd grown.
Laughably Evil: Peridot has her moments of comic relief, but was thoroughly merciless when working on her mission for Homeworld. She slowly becomes more and more humorous as the mission falls apart around her, to the point where she spends a few episodes in Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain territory.
Laughing Mad: When fleeing the Crystal Gems in "Keeping It Together". Apparently being stuck on Earth is getting to her. Gets at its worst in "Log Date 7 15 2", after the weight of her insulting her leader and becoming a traitor hits her and she briefly cracks, jumping wildly between neurotic babbling and hysterical laughter.
Leader Wannabe:
- Hilariously, an offhand joke reveals that Peridot thought of herself as the leader of the Crystal Gems. As you'd expect, Pearl has a natural response to that comment.
- Her social media account, both In-Universe and official Twitter account, has her described as the leader of the Crystal Gems.
Leitmotif: "Peridot", a clinical- and artificial-sounding piece befitting her methodical nature. As of "Catch and Release", it's been remastered into a lighter, almost chiptune-esque piece befitting her new look and heightened Not So Stoic and nerdy traits.
Life-or-Limb Decision: In "Friend Ship", she cuts her foot off to escape the Crystal Gems after Steven grabs her by it. It actually wasn't her real foot, though she's still upset at having to sacrifice it.
Literal-Minded: Peridot tends to take things told to her literally, thus making common phrases a confusing affair for her. Such as when given her tablet and told she could post her thoughts on a social media site in "up to 140 characters", she comments that's a lot of people, and later tweets asking where these people are. And on her Twitter account, she mentions getting an unexpected pizza delivered to the barn. After finding out what money is and informing the delivery person of her lack of funds, they mention it's on the house. Peridot then tweets that it's not on the house, it's in her hands.
Little Green Men:
- Her coloration, short stature, scientific mind, and extraterrestrial origin can be seen a reference to the classic idea of the Little Green Men. The iconic "alien head" symbol is a minor motif for Peridot, appearing on her tape recorder and a pair of boxers she puts on.
- In "Too Short to Ride", Steven and Amethyst take her to Funland, where she sees a large stuffed alien at one of the games and instantly falls in love with it. This desire for it is what kickstarts the main plot of Peridot trying to unlock her Gem powers after Amethyst uses her shapeshifting to score in the game, and the episode ends with her using her newly-discovered ferrokinesis to win it.
Living Emotional Crutch: Deconstructed. She is this to Lapis, as Peridot makes it her job to keep the ocean Gem happy no matter what happens. But this arrangement means Peridot's own feelings have gone ignored, Lapis' issues haven't actually been addressed, and when they finally have a major disagreement they lack any ability to communicate about it.
Locked in the Bathroom: "Catch and Release" ends with her holding up in Steven's bathroom, refusing to come out until a thunderstorm forces her to do so early in the next episode.
Locked Out of the Loop:
- When she first encounters the Crystal Gems in "Marble Madness", she seemed to have no idea who they were, implying that she only learned the details of the Gem War afterwards. She might still only know a small part of what happened on Earth, as she mentions reading through several hundred years of the Gems' archives to find out all she could about her assignment, but the closest she comes to acknowledging the existence of the rebellion is "When it became clear that Earth was no longer a viable colony–".
- She has no idea about what Lapis and Jasper have been up to at any point between the end of "Jail Break" and the beginning of "Super Watermelon Island".

M-O

Made of Indestructium: In "The Kindergarten Kid", she suffers a number of Amusing Injuries and gets crushed by several heavy objects, including a number of very large rocks, yet her gemstone never breaks or even cracks. For comparison, Eyeball's gem almost shattered in "Bubbled" after she was hit once in the face by a relatively small asteroid.
Magitek: Peridot relies on both utilizing her intellectual talent for technology and engineering along with the semi-magical powers provided to all Gems.
The Man Behind the Man: The Red Eye was a probe that she sent to Earth.
Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Acts as one towards Lapis Lazuli, causing some Ship Tease between the two.
Master of the Mixed Message: Switching sides has not done a favor to Peridot's sanity. Trying to get a consistent understanding of Peridot's mindset is a messy, confusing, affair as she expects everyone to know what she wants when even she doesn't know that. She is a contrarian, lost on an alien world with a shattered mindset of right and wrong. She isn't even satisfied when others do exactly what she tells them to do.
Peridot: Are you ready to drill down into the planet, to depths never before reached by your species, to stop the Cluster and save your world?
Steven: I don't know!
Peridot: Don't say that! Say "We'll do this together and it's gonna be great!"
Steven: We're gonna do this together and it's gonna be great!
Peridot: LIAR!
Meaningful Name:
- It was once believed that dreaming about peridot was a sign of coming danger... exactly what Peridot signals when she's the first Homeworld Gem on Earth since the war. Even later on, she's the one who reveals the Cluster is scheduled to destroy the Earth.
- She is rather alien in mannerisms and appearance compared to the Crystal Gems, and even by her fellow Homeworld Gems Jasper and Lapis Lazuli. Real peridots can be found in meteorites, and are surprisingly common on Mars, thus making them alien to Earth.
- Her Sanity Slippage while stranded on Earth for a long time may also allude to peridot gems being chemically unstable on Earth's surface.
- Peridot is also a gem believed to be beneficial to interpersonal relationships, being able to ease stress, rage, and jealousy. So, it is fitting that in "Friend Ship", her actions unintentionally end up mending and strengthening the bonds between the feuding Pearl and Garnet, as well as being able to mend her own mangled relationship with the Crystal Gems from "It Could've Been Great" by pleading with Yellow Diamond to spare the Earth and eventually renouncing her allegiance to Homeworld in "Message Received".
- The peridot gemstone being a symbol of success became a lot less ironic after "Gem Drill", where it was a modification she'd insisted on including that kept the mission from failing.
- Peridotite, which she points out being made of in "Gem Drill", has enhanced magnetic properties compared to other rocks because of its iron and magnesium content.
- In "Kindergarten Kid", Peridot displays incredible physical durability, not poofing once despite the abuse she goes through, and says that "Us Peridots are tougher than we look" when Steven lampshades it. Peridot can have a hardness of up to 7 on the Mohs hardness scale, as tough as quartz.
Mental Picture Projector: Is able to create a holographic tablet by forming a border with four of her fingers on her limb enhancers, using the remaining finger as a stylus.
Moral Myopia: She doesn't care at all that all life on the planet would've been destroyed had the Rebellion not defeated the Homeworld forces, or that the only reason it's in trouble now is the Homeworld's doing. Her only concern is for all the Gems that could have been born on the colony, as well as the expansion of their empire. She's slowly getting better in that regard through interactions with the Crystal Gems, to the point she argues with Yellow Diamond that there are things on Earth worth protecting.
Peridot: Steven, I'm sorry I couldn't save you or the billions of other lifeforms who matter far, far less to me.
Ms. Exposition: Peridot has provided a treasure trove of new information, from confirmation of fan theories (i.e. the Great Diamond Authority) to explaining the relevance of Jasper's exposition from Season 1 and finally establishing Homeworld Politics. In fact, rewatching Season 1 provides a lot of hints as to things that will become more relevant later on in the series (such as the existence of the Kindergarten and the Cluster).
Mundane Utility: The first thing Peridot does with her newfound ferrokinesis is to cheat at the ring toss to win a giant alien plush, and Steven also rattles off other mundane uses.
My God, What Have I Done?: A rare positive example: Peridot asks herself this question when she can't believe she called Yellow Diamond a clod.
The Napoleon: She's not very tall and is initially very hyperactive and aggressive.
Nerdy Nasalness: Peridot speaks in a nasal voice, befitting her decidedly awkward social nature and fascination with earthly things.
Nice Mean And In Between: Of the Crystal Temps, she is the "In-Between" to Connie's "Nice" and Lapis's "Mean" — she's not as friendly or sensitive as Connie, but is more sociable than the aloof Lapis.
Nightmare Fetishist: In "It Could've Been Great", Peridot is awestruck by the Diamond Authority's plan for Earth, which angers and horrifies the Crystal Gems. Full colonization would have covered Earth's surface with Gem structures and riddled the planet with chasms, transforming it into a disfigured, lifeless husk.
Peridot: 89 kindergardens, 67 spires, a galaxy warp in each facet, efficient use of all available materials. What were you thinking, shutting this operation down? It could've been great!
Non-Action Guy: When she learns that the Crystal Gems are alive, she brings Jasper along to deal with them. When she's confronted by Steven, Pearl, and Amethyst, she is subdued almost immediately after Steven blocks her gem disruptor. Though she does better in "Keeping It Together", showing she does have some combat capability as well as unique traveling skills, she still isn't a match for the Crystal Gems, and flees as soon as she can rather than engage them actively. However, by "Friend Ship" she's perfectly willing to fight them directly if necessary and even devises a deathtrap that very nearly succeeds. "Catch and Release" shows that all of these abilities stem from her Artificial Limbs. Without them, she's not even a match for Steven when he's not using any of his Gem powers. "Too Short to Ride" reveals that due to resource shortages on Homeworld she was intentionally made to be a non-action guy, lacking traditional Gem powers like Super-Strength, shapeshifting, and weapon generation.
No Social Skills:
- Peridot's completely unable to understand why Amethyst is mad at her in "Too Far", among other things in that episode, with the implication being that she has little practice.
- She shouts that Garnet is "filthy" because of her permafused nature, then — mere days later — is bemused by Garnet's anger when Peridot asks her to unfuse. Peridot doesn't understand that politely worded requests can still be offensive, or why Garnet would connect such a request to her earlier insult. (The viewer can see that Garnet is angry because Peridot is still acting on her oppressive beliefs — just in a different way.)
- In "It Could've Been Great", she gushes over the Diamond Authority's plan to ravage Earth, oblivious as to why this angers the Crystal Gems.
- She has absolutely no idea how to apologise and make it seem sincere to Lapis in "Barn Mates", even though she is genuinely sorry.
Not Helping Your Case: One of the major manifestations of Peridot's No Social Skills, especially highlighted in "It Could've Been Great" with her saying that the rebellion only delayed the Earth's destruction, and "Message Received" with her plan to argue with Yellow Diamond for sparing the Earth, is that she has a tendency to make legitimate points in a way that doesn't make the listener very receptive or leads to them misinterpreting it. In "Barn Mates", this ends up being half the reason she has difficulty making friends with Lapis, seeing as how she doesn't get that invoking logical reasons they're no longer enemies are not apologies.
Not Me This Time: In "Cry For Help", she repaired the gem communication hub to send a distress signal, which was caught on Steven's TV. The next couple of times the Crystal Gems receive the signal again, they assume Peridot somehow repaired the hub, but Steven and Amethyst find out it was actually Pearl, who did it so she could fuse with Garnet.
Not Quite Flight:
- During the events of "Beach City Drift", Peridot gets to the roof of the barn by riding a trash can lid.
- She's much more capable with the technique in "Change Your Mind", even being capable of levitating herself and Connie with a trash can lid (with Connie hanging from the bottom) with relative ease.
Not Worth Killing: When the Rubies arrive in "Hit the Diamond", Peridot believes they were sent to capture or kill her. It turns out they were sent to retrieve Jasper, and dismiss Peridot as a failure. Either Homeworld (and Yellow Diamond in particular) no longer see her as worth trying to kill after the initial attempt to blow her up, or the Rubies are too dumb to realize that Yellow Diamond might want Peridot brought back for punishment in addition to finding Jasper.
Obliviously Evil: Her sense of morality is initially limited to "What would make the Gem Empire greater?", and she's confused that anyone would have any priority higher than that. She's a definite product of her environment and capable of changing... even if it's an incredibly slow pace.
- Even after her Heel–Face Turn, she still shows signs of this, in particular her relationship with Lapis. It's no longer needed or productive to remain enemies, and she feels genuinely apologetic for her callous treatment of Lapis, so what gives?
Odd Couple: With Lapis, after they got along more after becoming Roomates (well, Barnmates technically).
Odd Friendship: With both Steven and Amethyst. Peridot prizes logic and rationality; Steven and Amethyst are both very much in touch with their emotions.
Open Mouth, Insert Foot:
- In "It Could've Been Great", she manages to do this on the Homeworld Moon Base by gushing over how awesome the planned Earth Gem colony would've been had the rebellion failed. Note that this would've completely hollowed the interior of the planet and made it completely inhospitable to life as we know it. When the Crystal Gems became understandably upset, she then proceeded to badmouth Rose by mentioning that the Cluster wouldn't have been seeded on Earth were it not for the success of the rebellion. Garnet nearly beats her then and there for that last one.
- During her confrontation with Yellow Diamond in "Message Received", Peridot impulsively calls her boss a clod when she continually insists on not destroying Earth with The Cluster. The result of this action ends up making her a traitor to Homeworld and forces her to become an official Crystal Gem.

P-S

The Paranoiac: She knows so little about Earth that she wonders if pretty much everything is a weapon. She also rightfully fears for her life by being trapped on Earth, because the Cluster she was sent to check on is going to destroy the whole planet.
Perpetual Frowner: She has a distinctive M-shaped frown almost constantly. She loses this trait as she befriends the Crystal Gems and begins understanding her own emotions better.
Pet the Dog:
- In "When It Rains", she claims responsibility for Steven and her being in the Kindergarten to the Crystal Gems, telling them "He was only following orders".
- In "Back to the Barn", she acknowledges and compliments Pearl on her technical and engineering capabilities.
- In "Too Far", she leaps into danger to save Amethyst from the runaway drill head and apologizes to Amethyst for unknowingly hurting her feelings while they were in the Kindergarten.
- In "Message Received", despite having the opportunity to rat out the Crystal Gems to Yellow Diamond for keeping her stranded on Earth, she takes the heat and tries to convince her monarch to terminate the Cluster in order to save her friends' lives as well as the people of Earth.
Plucky Comic Relief: After her first impression as a sinister, chilling villainous character, in subsequent appearances she gets progressively goofier, many of her antics being played for laughs. By the time of her Heel–Face Turn she's easily the most cartoony and comical of the Gems, and most of the episodes featuring her tend to have her in a comic relief role. (Unless she's the main focus of that particular episode, in which case she'll still be mainly played for laughs but get some really emotional parts too.)
Politically Incorrect Hero: Even after joining up with the Gems, she still has her Fantastic Racism streak. Steven's trying to help her diminish this trait.
Poor Communication Kills: Was pretty blatant and adamant that she still wanted to make contact with Yellow Diamond even after bonding with the Crystal Gems. The Gems took this to mean that Peridot wanted to ask for reinforcements to help destroy the Earth. Peridot actually wanted to ask Yellow Diamond to spare the planet, as she trusts her superior to listen to logic and reasoning. This trope is actually one of Peridot's biggest character flaws, and one of the main reasons for her post-truce conflicts with the Crystal Gems; even when she's trying to be nice, she is extremely bad at explaining herself in ways that others can understand.
Post-Peak Oil: She laments she doesn't resemble the first generations of Peridots. Homeworld is running out of resources and cannot make gems like they used to. This is somewhat subverted, while half true, without limb enhancers she outwardly lacks strength, little Peri makes up for it with her untold psychic powers.
Power Incontinence: "Beta" and "Earthlings" shows that she has trouble using her Extra Oredinary powers reliably, but as the show goes further along, she gets more of a handle on it.
Promotion to Opening Titles: She's prominently featured in the opening title as of Steven Universe: Future.
Psychopathic Womanchild: Peridot is one of the youngest full Gems known, but still much older than any human. You wouldn't guess that from the way she interrupts battle with childish insults and complaints about the Crystal Gems breaking her stuff. She even parrots an Eyelid Pull Taunt from Steven once.
Punch-Clock Villain:
- Peridot has no qualms about destroying the Earth or attacking the Crystal Gems, but doesn't relish it either, seeing it more like a bothersome task. She just wants to do her job and leave, not deal with the situation she ended up in.
  "'Go to Earth,' they said. 'It'll be easy,' they said."
- She shows a more malicious side of this trope after getting stuck on Earth. It's obvious that she is taking the Crystal Gems repeatedly keeping her from doing her job and going home very personally. However, this is because she knows that the Cluster is due to hatch soon, and she does not want to be anywhere near Earth when that happens.
Race-Name Basis: Her full designation is Peridot Facet-2F5L Cut-5XG; but due to being the only Peridot currently residing on Earth, she's become accustomed to simply being called "Peridot".
Redemption Demotion: Her Heel–Face Turn began with her losing her powers with her enhancements. In fact, it's part of the reason she was able to make friends with Steven in the first place. Played with, since it's more of a Discard and Draw.
Redemption Equals Affliction: Loses her powered limb enhancers, and almost half her height, in the leadup to her Heel–Face Turn.
Redemption in the Rain: Literally, she decides to actively work with Steven after he brings her out into the rain; and she "feels" nature for the first time.
Redemption Promotion: While she lost her enhancements with her Heel–Face Turn, she only discovers her unique, useful power after joining the Gems, and given the catalyst and the fact none of her kind figured that out before means she probably wouldn't have. This ferrokinesis has been getting stronger as she's trained with it, to the point of likely being even stronger than her old limb enhancers, given she's able to tug of war with one of Lapis' water arms.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Becomes the Red Oni for Lapis Lazuli's Blue Oni as the two live together inside a barn. Hyperactive and very immaturely open-minded, she shines out the drought of brooding behavior that Lapis culminates after sealing Jasper for several months.
Reformed, but Not Tamed: Even as a Crystal Gems, Peridot maintains pretty heavy assumptions about other Gems. When Amethyst is sore about losing to Jasper, Peridot's idea to cheer her up is to insult Jasper based on the circumstances of her birth. Peridot can also still be tremendously callous toward those she doesn't consider her friends, finding Corrupt Gems worthy of mockery and derision until Steven convinces her otherwise.
Reformed, but Rejected: Even after her Heel–Face Turn and her attempts to make amends with Lapis Lazuli in "Barn Mates", Peridot still gets rejected by the latter. They manage to strike up a friendship offscreen, and are on much better terms in "Beta".
Resistance Is Futile: Paraphrased with more annoyance than the usual cold malevolence.
"I'm doing this one way or another, you're just making it really difficult!"
Rewind, Replay, Repeat: In "Log Date 7 15 2", she repeatedly rewinds to the section of her log where she calls herself a "traitorous clod".
Robot Girl: Peridot is distinctly robotic initially, in contrast to other Gems who are organic (or at least elemental). She wears artificial "limb enhancers" over her forearms and calves that give her access to a broad range of tech-based abilities, ranging from forming a touchscreen and stylus out of her fingers to the Tractor Beam concealed in her "palm", and wears a clear green visor over her face. Even her voice sounds robotic at first, but it gets less so when she gets riled up. She starts showing a more emotive side after "Jail Break" (well, frustration and arrogance initially), and becomes noticeably more feeling while working with the Crystal Gems.
Robot Hair: Peridot's hair is pyramid shaped, producing a diamond-shaped silhouette from most angles. It's so rigidly geometric that it's often mistaken for a Cool Helmet, but locks of hair are visible near her chin and she runs her fingers through it in frustration in "Catch and Release". By "When It Rains", it's started to fray at the points, possibly symbolizing her Heel–Face Turn.
Running on All Fours: Once her limb enhancers are removed, she does this occasionally, usually when too scared to remain stable on her legs alone.
Sanity Slippage:
- If the way she was Laughing Mad as she escaped in "Keeping It Together" is any indication, her constant failures as well as being stranded on Earth are starting to take a toll. She actually fears for her life, because the Cluster is going to destroy the planet if it hatches.
- Ironically, while her mental state levels out a bit after she agrees to work with the Crystal Gems to stop the Cluster, this is the point where she starts considering herself to be going insane, because things like working with the Crystal Gems should be unthinkable for her.
- She goes through an even more spectacular breakdown in the first few seconds of "Log Date 7 15 2", swinging from serious, to terror, to self-loathing, to Laughing Mad, to My God, What Have I Done?, to a gamut of other emotions after calling Yellow Diamond a clod.
- Lapis leaving the Earth and bringing the barn with her into space takes a massive hit to Peridot's mental well-being.
Science Hero: After her Heel–Face Turn, Peridot joins up with the Crystal Gems. However, since she's not great with her one superpower, she relies heavily on her brain power.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Her basic reaction to danger, even after she Took a Level in Badass, is to evacuate as quickly as possible. Which makes sense, as in Homeworld's Hive Caste System, Peridots are engineers/technicians, not warriors, so she wasn't trained in combat.
Security Blanket: Not only is she practically defenseless without her limb enhancers, she's a lot more timid in general, implying that they give her more confidence. When Steven returns the foot she sacrificed to get away in "Friend Ship" near the end of "Catch and Release", she clings to it for the rest of the episode and jerks it away when Steven asks if she doesn't want it. She later shows similar attachment to a tape recorder and tablet Steven gives her.
Seriously Scruffy: Her hair begins to look less and less like a perfect triangle the longer she stays on Earth. Most of the time, her hair is either a perfect triangle, or a triangle with corners that fold in on itself.
Servant Race: Like Pearls, Peridots seem to be created to serve a specific role (namely, technicians and engineers), like how the former were created to be made-to-order servants for other Gems, and that they're barely higher on the Homeworld hierarchy. Further hinted at in "Hit the Diamond", where it's revealed that despite arguing with, openly disobeying, and calling her leader a "clod", Homeworld has no interest in searching her out for termination/capture, only for information in regards to the location of the much higher-ranking Jasper.
Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: She tends to do this when describing items. A screwdriver is a "leverage optimizer", something out of her reach is "outside her radius", a nose is a "scent sponge", an eye is a "vision sphere", fingers are "touch stumps", feet are "gravity connectors", and a butt is a butt.
Shock and Awe: She can manipulate electricity. When Amethyst bound her with her whip, she sent feedback down the whip and nearly shocked Amethyst. She tries it again in "Catch and Release", but Garnet grabs the whip with her gauntlets to block the charge then sends her own right back. She loses this ability in the same episode after Amethyst dumps her limb enhancers in the ocean. Ironically, she was originally terrified of thunderstorms.
Sickly Green Glow: Another recurring theme of hers. Whenever she appears, she's often bathed in a sickly greenish light emanating from her technology. Her spaceship glowed enough to turn all of Beach City a pale yellow-green. Her escape pod, meanwhile, was discovered when Steven and the Cool Kids saw it glowing on the horizon.
Sigil Spam: In the movie, her new robonoids all have replicas of her Cool Shades.
Signature Laugh: "Nyeh heh heh heh heh!"
Sixth Ranger: After insulting Yellow Diamond, she has no other choice but to become an official Crystal Gem.
Skewed Priorities:
- She is deeply terrified of the Cluster, and knows she will die if it emerges. This does not stop her from repeatedly antagonizing the only people who are helping her to stop it, and demanding that they waste (more) time on a pointless contest that has already delayed their Cluster-destroying project by a day.
- When she lays out the attributes of a fully completed, operational Gem colony, she has no idea why the Crystal Gems are so opposed to such a thing. After all, it would mean the creation of thousands, if not millions of Gems and efficiently provide resources for the expansion of the Gem Empire, and all it would cost is the complete and total destruction of the Earth's natural ecosystem and all life in it!
Small Name, Big Ego: Despite knowingly being a small cog in a very rigid caste based system, Peridot managed to grow an extremely inflated opinion of herself. While initially it was an obvious villainous trait, in an interesting turn one of the positive effects of being stuck on Earth and then joining the Crystal Gems seems to be that it allows her ego to run free in an open environment: it caused some bristling at first, but the Gems are tolerant and understanding of her self-aggrandizing as long as she doesn't antagonize anyone, whereas everyone we ever see her interact with from Homeworld is belittling and dismissive towards her and her opinions, hinting that her Small Name, Big Ego attitude is a defense mechanism to hide her insecurities, particularly being such a small cog and one made intentionally weaker than "Era 1" Peridots at that. It also takes an unusually positive turn when she spends a few episodes convinced she's considered a notorious criminal on Homeworld for mouthing off to Yellow Diamond, only to discover a lowly Peridot isn't worth any trouble to Homeworld no matter what, with their efforts instead focused retrieving Jasper.
The Smart Guy: Initially filled this role as the most knowledgeable about the Cluster and due to her role as a Gadgeteer Genius alongside Pearl. Later she fills this role via her Gadgeteer Genius status alone.
Smug Snake: She's clever enough to lure the Gems into a death trap, but she botches it by indulging in Evil Gloating and relying on ancient tech that she doesn't really know how to work.
The Snark Knight: At the end of "Too Far", she rants over that everyone and everything on Earth is annoying and makes no sense to her... right before she chastises herself over failing her mission, and made the coward's choice of banding with the enemy, followed by an apology to Amethyst stating that she (Peridot) is the real defective.
Spanner in the Works: Had she not come to Earth and met Steven, she would have never revealed the Cluster to the Crystal Gems and no one would have known that Earth was going to be destroyed.
Squishy Wizard: She's not much of a fighter, but she has a lot of tricks up her sleeve to help her get out of combat. Subverted on the defensive end, as Peridots turn out to be much harder to poof than other Gems.
Starter Villain: She was the first directly antagonistic Gem (Lapis Lazuli being a passive villain who just wanted to go home, and gem monsters being mindless), and was initially made out to be cold-hearted and almost robotic, the exemplar of what Homeworld meant for Earth, and the Crystal Gems smash the Galaxy Warp just so she won't come back. And then she appears alongside Jasper, who effortlessly dethrones her from being the largest threat, and becomes increasingly ineffectual as she is stranded on Earth, and her greatest talent turns out to be getting out of dodge before the Crystal Gems can catch her. She avoids the normal fate of starter villains by having a Heel–Face Turn and getting a Redemption Promotion to important secondary character.
Still Wearing the Old Colors: Peridot became a Crystal Gem at the end of Season 2, and still has Yellow Diamond's insignia until "Change Your Mind". Possibly justified, as Peridot has confessed an inability to shapeshift, and hasn't had to reform herself since her defection. She mentions having to change her appearance in "Log Date 7 15 2" during her Freak Out, though:
Peridot: So am I gonna have to wear a star? Where am I going to put the star?!
- In "Change Your Mind", after reforming, she now bears the Crystal Gem star proudly.
The Straight Man: To Steven's cheerful disposition.
Steven: Hi, I'm Steven.
Peridot: [narrows eyes and goes back to speak into recorder] There seems to be an infestation of "Stevens" in the Kindergarten.
Steven: Aw, I'm not so bad once you get to know me.
Stranded Invader: Peridot is left stranded on Earth after her ship is destroyed by the Crystal Gems, and while she makes several unsuccessful attempts to escape, she eventually settles down and ecides to stay on Earth.
Sunglasses at Night: Peridot's first form has a green-shaded visor that she never took off. They look practically melded to her face and Peridot can't shapeshift without reforming, so it's possible she couldn't take them off. Her second form has Triangular Shades she also wears constantly, though she can and does take them off once in "In Dreams".
Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: Unlike Pearl, Peridot is exactly as weak as you'd expect for an artificial lifeform not meant for combat, and her durability makes sense for a technician who's job involves working around potentially dangerous equipment and machinery. Except then she finds out she can control metal, a power she was never designed to have.
Super-Toughness: As "Kindergarten Kid" reveals, even if (Era-2) Peridots aren't strong or fast like some Gems, they're still very hard to poof. Garnet must have squeezed her really hard in "Catch and Release".
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Invoked in "The New Crystal Gems". In an attempt to protect Beach City while the Crystal Gems are away, she, Lapis, Pumpkin, and Connie decide to mimic them. In this team, Peridot becomes the "new" Garnet complete with Cool Shades.

T-Y

Take a Third Option: Tries to do this by convincing Yellow Diamond the Earth's ecosystem has the potential to be more valuable than the Cluster and they don't need to harm the native population. It doesn't work, but she tried.
Taking the Heat: Takes all blame for her ship's destruction to protect the Crystal Gems.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Is engaging in this with the Crystal Gems minus Steven, whom she is becoming fond of. Over time, however, her interactions with the rest of the Gems become a lot more friendly, and she eventually renounces her loyalty to Yellow Diamond after she refuses to listen to the benefits of using the resources of Earth without destroying the local populace, and joins the Crystal Gems soon afterwards.
The Thing That Would Not Leave: Lapis sees Peridot as one of these in "Barn Mates" due to Steven having said that Lapis could live in the barn that Peridot had already set up in. Peridot, determined not to become this in her efforts to make up with Lapis, opts to leave the barn entirely before the Roaming Eye sends her screaming back to the barn.
Thinking Out Loud: Frequently found speaking into some kind of recording device, talking about what she's doing or her current objective. While it gives things away — the Crystal Gems first learn her name from hearing her address one of said reports, and it's acted twice as Foreshadowing, as she mentions both the Kindergarten and the Fused Gem experiments before we know what either of them are — she also doesn't waste any time with As You Know, making it fairly ambiguous what exactly she's up to. In Season 2, it's beginning to look like her talking to herself is just a coping mechanism to deal with her isolation on Earth.
Tiny Tyrannical Girl: By far one of the most vicious Gems seen in the series, and also one of the smallest without her limb enhancers. It helps that she's even more immature than Amethyst could ever dream of being. She seems to be losing this trait as she spends time with Steven and the Crystal Gems.
Token Evil Teammate: Her nonchalantly cruel actions were what made her a clear villain in the beginning, but as of "When It Rains", her team-up with the Crystal Gems to stop the Cluster made her this for a time. Subverted later on when after insulting Yellow Diamond, she joins them for real.
Took a Level in Badass:
- After getting stuck on Earth, she starts to get more combat savvy when facing the Crystal Gems. Compare her appearance in "Jail Break", when she was subdued easily once Steven grabbed her destablizer, to "Friend Ship", where she's actively fighting them and even lures them into a deathtrap. This lasts up until she loses her limb enhancers.
- She takes another two or three levels in "Message Received" when she calls Yellow Diamond a clod to her face and joins the Crystal Gems as a direct result.
- Takes an extra impressive level in "Earthlings". She flat out tells Jasper that she's joined the Crystal Gems, taunts her, and keeps trying to use her still-shaky ferrokinesis to attack her. Jasper ignores her and her efforts are played for laughs... and then Jasper becomes infected by The Corruption and attacks Steven. Guess who puts a three-foot metal spike through Jasper's chest and poofs her?
- In "The New Crystal Gems", she has improved her metal powers to the point she can pick up an entire car with them.
- She takes yet another one in "Reunited" when she manages to do her part in helping the Crystal Gems beat Blue Diamond. Not only that, but when Yellow Diamond joins the fight, she's the only Gem that isn't intimidated by her. Even running up and calling her a clod to her face again. This time, without showing an ounce of fear afterwards.
- In "Change Your Mind", she shows up with Bismuth and Lapis Lazuli with her powers more significantly improved, such that she saves Bismuth, and like before doesn't show any fear at the idea of fighting a Diamond. This time being White Diamond — who was shown to be The Dreaded to other Gems including the Diamonds, and who she had surely been aware of.
Took a Level in Kindness: Has come to respect Steven and treats him as an equal and partner. And, though likely not totally shedding her Fantastic Racism, is willing to at least be respectful toward Pearl and her skills as a technician and engineer, willing to work with her as an equal instead of acting as her superior. Also, despite her initially logical reasoning behind sparing Earth, her furious protest that there are things worth defending on Earth rings of a more emotional investment in, if not the planet, then in the Crystal Gems and their devotion to it.
To the Batpole!: Shouts something like this in "Beta"... despite it being completely unnecessary.
Tractor Beam: She can generate one from the left palm of her limb enhancers.
Triangle Shades: She trades out her visor for a pair of pointed yellow sunglasses when she reforms at some point between "Legs From Here to Homeworld" and "Change Your Mind". Unlike her visor, they actually come off.
Tsundere: While Peridot is starting to warm to the Crystal Gems, she still has a long way to go; she recognizes that she needs to at least understand them in order to efficiently work to stop the Cluster, but whenever she gets exasperated she's prone of childish tantrums. It seems to be result of having No Social Skills and expecting the other Gems to see things with cold logic like she does, but she is learning to be more empathetic, and that not everyone is going to see things the way she does, even if she has no idea why.
Un-Evil Laugh: It sounds like "nyeh heh heh heh heh!" and makes her sound dorky rather than evil.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Downplayed but still present; Steven's list of the other humans that he knew (Lars, Sadie, Connie, My Dad, The Mailman, and Onion) made its way to the Diamonds through her report of the incident, thus prioritizing their capture by Aquamarine and Topaz and indirectly resulting in Steven turning himself in in the guise of Rose to get them to let his friends go.
Useless Without Cell Phones:
- She seems completely lost without her limb enhancers and the software that comes with it, completely confused as to what "rain" and "thunder" were.
- Until she discovers her ferrokinetic abilities, she lacked any real combat capabilities due to being made without standard Gem abilities like shapeshifting or weapon manifestation, and believed herself to be defined by her technology.
Vague Age: Her comments in "When It Rains" indicate that she's one of the youngest Gems seen in the show, having not been around for the war (Amethyst emerged soon afterwards) and ignorant of the identities of the Crystal Gems until she met them. She wasn't part of the Cluster experiments, having just read up on the past few hundred years of records on it. Given Gems are The Ageless, this would place her anywhere from a few thousand years old to just a few hundred, possibly less. Lapis does say to Connie "[Peridot and I] are thousands of years older than you," though it's not clear if this is an assumption on her part. The timeline in End of an Era lists Peridot as emerging three thousand years ago.
Villain Decay: Her first appearance painted her as a cold, calculating, semi-robotic Gem who'd stomp out defective units with no remorse. Compare that to the frenetic green munchkin that can barely beat Steven in a slapfight.
Villain: Exit, Stage Left:
- Gets into an escape pod and lands on Earth. Steven finds her escape pod in a field near Beach City in "Joy Ride", though she's long gone by then.
- She tries this twice in "Keeping It Together". Though her attempt to get away via a Wall Run up the Kindergarten's wall fails, her using her fingers as helicopter rotors is more effective.
- "Friend Ship" starts off with her escaping the Gems because Pearl was a bit too enthusiastic in trying to capture her. She still manages to get away at the end of the episode, but has to sacrifice a foot since Steven grabbed onto her foot and tried to drag her down.
- "Catch and Release" has her do this twice: once when trying to leave via portal and the other when she tries to use the toilet.
Villainous Breakdown: Her entire presence in the series seems to be one of these since she got to Earth, with her sanity gradually degrading and her anger growing more and more with each appearance. By the time "Friend Ship" occurs, the once robotic Gem is prone to setting death traps for the Crystal Gems and breaking out in peals of deranged laughter. In "Catch and Release", she's seriously obsessed with getting off Earth at any cost, because the Cluster that she was sent to check up on is something seriously bad. Doomsday Device level of bad.
Vocal Evolution: Her voice starts off fairly normal-sounding before gradually becoming more nasal and high-strung after she loses her limb enhancers.
Walking Spoiler: In a similar vein to Lapis Lazuli. Her appearance from the Gem Homeworld is extremely distressing for the Crystal Gems, to the point that Garnet smashes the warp pad she left from. Then her Enemy Mine brings with it another set of huge spoilers. Her official Heel–Face Turn then gives her another set of spoilers.
Wall Run: Runs straight up the Kindergarten wall in an attempt to get away from the Crystal Gems.
"Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: She seems really fixated on pleasing whoever she views as above her (sans Jasper). She is obsessed with pleasing Yellow Diamond to the point of worshiping her like a god, claiming that she is fully loyal to "her Diamond". She also behaves similar towards Amethyst, who — from all Gems on Earth — would have the highest rank as a Quartz by Homeworld standards, including trying to please her whenever possible. Once she insults Yellow Diamond and thus gets the Death Glare from her beloved master, she starts having a disturbing Heroic BSoD.
What Is This Feeling?: She is very confused when she begins to develop empathy, which she simply describes as making her feel "smaller" when she's hurt someone, and feel "big" when she apologizes and said apology is recognized. According to Rebecca Sugar, part of Peridot's character arc is becoming fascinated by her ability to care, as that had been a blind spot to her before.
When All You Have Is a Hammer…:
- On the one hand, she's practically defined by a strong pragmatic streak, but she's terrible at thinking outside the box on her own, and this limits her to solutions that are based solely on known facts.
- Ever since she unlocked metal control powers, she's been trying to apply them to every task she faces.
When She Smiles: The few smiles she's made that aren't based on spite are extremely cute.
Wimp Fight: Without her arm enhancers in "Catch and Release", her fighting style is shown to be ineffectual slapping, nose flicks, and poorly thrown, easily avoided punches that leave her flat on her face.
Womanchild: Her character development has at least removed the psychopathic part, if not the womanchild part, of Psychopathic Womanchild. Despite being at least a thousand years old, she constantly acts like a Bratty Half-Pint despite her attempts to be taken seriously, though the Crystal Gems (Steven and Amethyst in particular) take it in stride.
Would Hurt a Child: Has no problem with trying to smash Steven to a pulp. In her defense, it must be noted that she doesn't know what a child is.
Yaoi Fangirl: After watching a single episode of Camp Pining Hearts on repeat for three days, her OTP is Percy x Pierre and she's completed charts and graphs on the subject. However, rather than picking the two for romantic compatibility (she barely even seems to understand the concept of romance at this point), she chose them because they're the strongest campers and thus would make the strongest pairing.
Steven: You got all this from one episode?
Peridot: It's subtext, Steven.
You Are Number 6: When she contacts Yellow Diamond, she is required to identify herself by more than just her Gem Type, answering with her "Facet" and "Cut" (Facet 2F5L, Cut 5XG). While an efficient and practical way of differentiating what must be a very large number of otherwise perfectly identical Gems of the same type, it is lacking in the personality that just a Gem type implies.
You Can't Go Home Again: After openly disobeying, arguing with, and calling Yellow Diamond a "clod", Peridot has lost any chance of making it back to Homeworld alive. She instead joins the Crystal Gems.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Her drones, which appear to have some independent mental capacity comparable to an animal, are expendable. She crushes a broken one beneath her foot with what seems to be a look of scorn on her face, and when one of Steven's Crying Breakfast Friends stickers spooks her, she punctuates her exit with a blast that seems to deactivate the rest of the drones and leaves them behind. When she sends more and learns the Crystal Gems have been destroying them, she treats it as them destroying her property rather than caring about them as individuals.
- Ends up on the receiving end of this as of "Message Received" after arguing with, openly disobeying, and calling Yellow Diamond a clod. Though as seen in "Hit the Diamond", even though she's outlived her usefulness, she is still not considered worth the effort of killing/capturing.

Characters / Steven Universe — Peridot

Peridot

Voiced by: Shelby Rabara

Video Example(s):

Peridot calls Yellow a "clod."

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Peridot calls Yellow a "clod."

Characters / Steven Universe — Peridot

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Peridot

Voiced by: Shelby Rabara

Video Example(s):

Peridot calls Yellow a "clod."

Previous

Index

Next

Peridot calls Yellow a "clod."