History Characters / StevenUniverseSpinel

* CurbStompBattle: Thanks to her wacky movements catching them off guard, her first fight with the Crystal Gems ends with her poofing them and wiping their memories. Once they regain their memories, they waste no time returning the favor.

* CainAndAbel: The Cain to Steven's Abel in the movie. While she isn't ''literally'' or explicitly Steven's sister or Pink's daughter, she does give off some vibes of being like a sister to Steven, due to their shared origins with Pink Diamond, who Spinel was originally made to entertain, behaving exactly like a child does during their time together in Pink's garden, not to mention Pink leaving her behind is possibly meant to parallel a case of ParentalAbandonment.

* CainAndAbel: The Cain to Steven's Abel in the movie. While she isn't ''literally'' or explicitly Steven's sister or Pink's daughter, she does give off some vibes of being like a sister to Steven, due to their shared origins with Pink Diamond, who Spinel was originally made to entertain, behaving exactly like a child does during their time together in Pink's garden, not to mention Pink leaving her behind is clearly meant to parallel a case of ParentalAbandonment.

* CainAndAbel: The Cain to Steven's Abel in the movie, due to their shared origins with Pink Diamond, who Spinel was originally made to entertain, behaving exactly like a child does during their time together in Pink's garden, not to mention Pink leaving her behind is clearly meant to parallel a case of ParentalAbandonment.

* GenkiGirl: After she is poofed by Steven and reverts to her original form, she is cheerful and chipper towards him, until she reverts back to her sinister self when she suspects that Steven will try to desert her after the Injector is deactivated. After her HeelFaceTurn, Blue, White, and Yellow Diamond agree to welcome her to their court since she reminds them so much of Pink Diamond. In ''Future'', she seems to have reverted back to this trope, acting extremely jovial and friendly around Steven.

* UncannyValley: Post-FaceHeelTurn Spinel's InkblotCartoonStyle animation looks ''incredibly'' out-of-place in the world of ''Steven Universe''. Combine that with her [[AxCrazy blatantly unhinged]] personality, and Spinel becomes one of the most unsettling characters in the franchise. She does completely lose this after both of her [[HeelFaceTurn HeelFaceTurns]] though where she returns to looking adorable and innocent.

* UncannyValley: Spinel's InkblotCartoonStyle animation looks ''incredibly'' out-of-place in the world of ''Steven Universe''. Combine that with her [[AxCrazy blatantly unhinged]] personality, and Spinel becomes one of the most unsettling characters in the franchise.

* GenkiGirl: After she is poofed by Steven and reverts to her original form, she is cheerful and chipper towards him, until she reverts back to her sinister self when she suspects that Steven will try to desert her after the Injector is deactivated. After her HeelFaceTurn, Blue, White, and Yellow Diamond agree to welcome her to their court since she reminds them so much of Pink Diamond.

* KnightOfCerebus: The film starts with Steven and the Crystal Gems celebrating two years of galactic peace... then Spinel comes along with her plan to destroy the Earth and things take a much darker turn as she quickly cements herself as one of the darkest villains in the show.

** Denial: Implied, at least. Once she recieves Steven's transmission and finds out what happened to Pink Diamond, she ''desperately runs'' towards the transmitter, as though ''she was hoping it was a joke''.

* AxCrazy: Her deranged laughter and brutal tactics against the heroes make it clear that she has more than a few screws loose. Then again, considering she spent ''6,000 years'' alone in an abandoned garden, ''of course'' she would have lost her sanity. She does thankfully lose this after her HeelFaceTurn.

* FauxAffablyEvil: She spends her introduction and the entirety of [[VillainSong "Other Friends"]] with a mocking, jovial façade over her all-consuming hatred for Pink Diamond and all the people she replaced Spinel with. Considering she used to be a NiceGirl before her StartOfDarkness, it's fitting.

* GirlWithPsychoWeapon: She uses a huge scythe as a weapon, which causes IdentityAmnesia, if it hits a gem.

* CuteBruiser: She may look adorable and harmless even in her current form, but don't let it fool you into thinking that she can't pack quite a punch.

* TheCutie: Very much so in her original innocent form. She was originally a Gem designed to make Pink Diamond happy, frequently having fun with her and making silly faces while acting clingy towards her. The way she's portrayed after losing her memories is ''absolutely adorable''. However, after Pink Diamond abandoned her, replaced her with "other friends", and made her stand in the same exact spot for 6,000 years, all of Spinel's adorableness goes down the drain and she begins her StartOfDarkness. Thankfully, it starts to return by the film's end.

* AxCrazy: Her deranged laughter and brutal tactics against the heroes make it clear that she has more than a few screws loose. Then again, considering she spent ''6,000 years'' alone in an abandoned garden, ''of course'' she would have lost her sanity.

* ThanatosGambit: Of a sort. When Steven poofed using her own scythe, she's not bothered by this since she knows that she was going to undergo a personality reset like the other Gems did and she understands the drill would't stop without her.

* SmarterThanYouLook: She's much more intelligent than her behavior suggests, as she was somehow able to obtain and operate her injector, and she devised a MemoryGambit to defeat Steven. She's also the first new Gem introduced who fully understands that Steven is absolutely NOT his mother and that his human body will likely not poof when hit. Keep in mind she'd only moved away from where Pink Diamond left her a matter of ''hours'' before coming to Earth.

* SpectacularSpinning: She can attack others just by spinning really fast and uses the said spinning a lot during her final battle with Steven.

* CurbStompCushion: Even after Steven regains his powers, she manages to hold her own quite well and even gets in a few hits in, though this is in part due to Steven just defending himself and not really fighting back.

* CuteButCacophonic: Her personality was ThePollyanna by default, and while she's fun, energetic and optimistic, she doesn't have an off-switch and tended to continue her antics at inappropriate times.

* StrongerThanTheyLook: Her RubberHoseLimbs would make one assume she's no stronger than the likes of Pearl physically, but in addition to her ConfusionFu, she's strong to destroy her Injector by slamming down onto it, something the Crystal Gems doubted they could stop in any way.

* DarkMagicalGirl: Is a cute, young-looking gem who can beat up the [[BadassCrew Crystal Gems]] in just the span of a one minute song despite not being designed to be a fighter. She also initially starts out as an antagonist who tries destroying the Earth and is revealed to have deep-seated abandonment issues from being left behind to rot in Pink Diamond's garden for 6 millenia.

->''"Who am I? WHO AM I?! What are you even saying?''\\
''I'm the loser of the game you didn't know you were playing!"''

%%* DarkMagicalGirl

* NoPronunciationGuide: "Spinel" is typically pronounced either "spin-EL" or "SPIN-ul". The character is always referred to by the former, probably because it's more feminine-sounding. Interestingly, this is closer to the word's French roots, contrast with the show using the more Anglo pronunciation of "peridot".

* FreudianTrio: Of the Gems who were close to Pink Diamond, Spinel (Id) follows her desires for {{Revenge}} and attempts to destroy Earth after having GoneMadFromTheIsolation, Crystal Gem Pearl (Superego) is TheSmartGuy of the Crystal Gems, and Pink Pearl/Volleyball (Ego) has a balanced and playful personality.

* NiceMeanAndInBetween: Of the Gems who took on the "Pink Diamond" role on Homeworld, Steven (nice) is an AllLovingHero who is kind to everyone and accepts others no matter what, Pink/Rose (in-between), despite being a BenevolentBoss who seeks to protect Earth and the Crystal Gems, can be [[InnocentlyInsensitive insensitive]] towards the feelings of others and has a tendency to make careless decisions, and Spinel (mean) is the AxCrazy BigBad who wants to destroy Earth as a result of being abandoned by Pink and having GoneMadFromTheIsolation. PlayedWith, as Steven undergoes SanitySlippage once Spinel has already made a HeelFaceTurn, and Spinel was even ''more'' innocent than Pink by the time she was abandoned by her.

* BerserkButton: When she arrives and fights the Crystal Gems, at first she just toys with them until Steven lets slip that he has no idea who she is (despite her thinking of him as Pink Diamond and, unknown to him at the time, having built her identity around being Pink Diamond's best friend), at which point [[LetsGetDangerous she pulls out a weapon and attacks in earnest]].

* AmbiguousDisorder: It's been suggested by many that Spinel has [[https://dotandline.net/steven-universe-spinel-is-borderline/ Borderline Personality Disorder]], with features of [[https://www.bridgestorecovery.com/borderline-personality-disorder/types-borderline-personality-disorder/ all the subtypes.]] Most tellingly is by her own admission at the end she has no real idea ''why'' she wants to hurt Steven as bad as she does.

* CryCute: Many times, but particularly after "Drift Away" and at the very end when she finally realizes she doesn't actually know why she's being so awful to Steven.