malymin

You know, it's really weird to me that "Amethyst is developmentally disabled" was never something people discussed much in regards to Steven Universe.

'Is Pearl autistic? Is Peridot autistic?' I don't mind these perspectives, but... Amethyst. Is it just because she's not nerdy? Is it just because she's visibly coded as nonwhite? Or because the disability she displays kind of defies specific labels designed for humans within our specific cultural moment, such as "autism?" All three?

Probably all three.

I mean. We're told that she was "overcooked", emerging from the Kindergarden thousands of years later than her peers, with the implication that it's why she's smaller than other Quartz gems, including other Amethysts specifically. She has gem dwarfism. She can shapeshift to the size of a regular quartz easily, but when she tried to regenerate with a permanent form that was closer to a typical quartz, the results were unstable and ended badly.

It's worth remembering that the Gems in the show are strongly implied to be digital lifeforms, sort of akin to sentient computers: the only truly physical parts of their bodies are the literal gemstones, and the humanoid shape formed around it is just a hard-light hologram of sorts. This is why both damage to the gemstone itself, and severe psychological pain, can causes changes in a Gem's physical form. One is like brain damage from physical force, or like damage to a computer's physical hardware; the other is like psychological trauma, or corruption of a computer's software. Their bodies are just extensions of their minds.

Still, I wouldn't consider Amethyst having gem-dwarfism to necessarily be a neurodivergence in and of itself, but a fantasy analog to human dwarfism: a physical disability, especially within the context of a society that does not accommodate "nonstandard" bodies. Amethyst's developmental disability being cognitive as well as physical was something made more explicit in the movie.

The thing is, this is where we get into territory that I find fascinating, but that doesn't lend itself to relatable labels - the question of what counts as a disability or neurodivergence within the context of a nonhuman character.

( Tabula Rasa )