Rose pretty clearly didn’t want Pearl sacrificing herself all the time, Rose’s power is a shield, there is literally no reason for Pearl to keep putting herself in danger (except for Pearl’s self-esteem and her belief that Rose is too important to be in the battle at all).

So just imagine a time when Rose gets hurt trying to reign in and protect Pearl. Imagine it’s the only time Pearl has seen her have to regenerate. Imagine Rose hoping it will help Pearl see that how she fights doesn’t help anyone, but Pearl taking it the completely opposite way and internalizing more self-hatred and believing that if she just fights harder, she can protect Rose from ever going through this again. Imagine how hard Rose works to change her mind.

Spoiler Warning- A Thought After Sworn to the Sword

Pearl initially thinks Connie is too young to train in sword fighting, but then says that she was only a few thousand years old when she started fighting for Rose (I can’t remember the exact wording).

But what gets me about that, besides it being a cute sort of joke, is that it places a few thousand years as a possible gem equivalent to Connie’s age, probably just a little older.

So imagine a barely adolescent or pre-adolescent Pearl falling so in love with Rose that she changed her whole life. And adult Pearl still has those feelings and stands by them and the choices she’s made

This ship might be the end of me.