Peridot (Steven Universe)

"My mission. The reason why I'm on this sad rock in the first place. I was to check progress on the Cluster. Just in and out before it hatches. I wasn't supposed to get stuck here. But now it's going to emerge and nothing can stop it, and we'll all be shattered!"

- Peridot revealing her true purpose on Earth

Peridot is a Gem from the show, Steven Universe. She was a major antagonist in seasons 1 and 2 and acts as both the secondary antagonist in the Season 1 finale episodes "The Return" and "Jail Break". She was a Homeworld Gem who works under Jasper and Yellow Diamond. As of Catch and Release, she is no longer referred to as an antagonist, but an anti-hero. In Steven Bomb 4, Peridot was fully redeemed after betraying Yellow Diamond.

She is voiced by Shelby Rabara.

Appearance
Peridot has lime-green skin, and pale yellow-green hair styled into a tetrahedron shape. Her true eye color is unknown at this time, due to being tinted by her visor, but can be presumed to be some shade of green. Her mouth and tongue are blue. Her gemstone is located on her forehead and is shaped like an inverted triangle with flattened corners.

In all of her appearances to date, she wears a sleeveless green V-neck uniform. Her suit is mostly medium green, with a dark-green diamond outline around the cut-out of her neck area, meeting to form the Yellow Diamond insignia at her solar plexus, with a dark-green portion between her chest and leggings. Her leggings feature yellow diamond-shaped kneepads. She is never seen without her visor, which covers the top half of her face and tints her eyes yellow-green.

From her first appearance in "Warp Tour", Peridot wore limb enhancers, which have been disposed of as of "Catch and Release". These artificial extensions are bright green and flare out toward the wrists and ankles, which are colored a very dark green. The arm enhancers also feature artificial fingers which are not directly attached but instead levitate around where the palms would be. The leg enhancers serve to enhance her height; without them, she is only about as tall as Ruby and Sapphire and slightly taller than Steven.

After her regeneration in "Catch and Release" Peridot's design shows no change, except her limb enhancers. However, her hair is slightly more frayed at the corners, depending on how she stands.

Personality
Initially, Peridot was shown to be morose and ruthless. She is skilled with Gem technology and works for the Homeworld Gems as a technician and takes her work seriously, crushing one of her Robonoids underfoot when it was minimally damaged and useless to her in her first appearance during "Warp Tour". In "Marble Madness", she briefly interacts with Steven, questioning him about the current state of Earth before losing interest and attempting to crush him. When the Crystal Gems intervene and reveal themselves, Peridot is shocked and flustered. Peridot also seems to be a bit stubborn. This is shown when she realizes that the Crystal Gems were the ones that have been destroying her equipment, she quickly loses her temper and asks "Why do you keep destroying my things?!".

Since "Jail Break", Peridot became increasingly frantic in her attempts to contact Homeworld and stop the Crystal Gems interfering with her mission, as she realized that the Cluster will emerge and that, when it does, it will obliterate all life on Earth. In "Keeping it Together", for example, when flying away with her helicopter fingers, she smiles down and laughs hysterically, and her facial expressions are exaggerated throughout the episode. In "Cry for Help", Peridot interrupts Crying Breakfast Friends! and all other television signals with her own broadcast from the Communication Hub begging Yellow Diamond to rescue her.

In "Catch and Release", Peridot kidnaps Steven with the hope he'll be able to fix the Homeworld Warp. When he cannot, Peridot becomes hysterical and eventually breaks down with the realization she is stuck on Earth with the Cluster. Before she can elaborate, the Crystal Gems arrive and disarm, poof, and bubble her. After reforming into her natural self with no armor, Peridot is rather diminutive, and she becomes very juvenile and paranoid, assuming that harmless household items are "weapons" and that hostility drives every action from the Crystal Gems. However, once comforted by Steven, she becomes much more relaxed and cooperative, although she still refuses to cooperate with the Gems and sequesters herself in Steven's bathroom.

Peridot is very naive when it comes to Earth, especially when the information is not relevant to her mission. She was unaware of the existence of rain or thunderstorms, believed that Steven was a member of a species called "Stevens" because that's what he called himself, and in "Catch and Release", she believed Steven's bathroom to be an archaic think chamber and almost everything in the bathroom to be a weapon. Curiously, she is familiar with the scent of citrus fruit despite her general ignorance of Earth. She is also socially oblivious as she tends to offend all of the Crystal Gems at some point due to her keeping to the Homeworld social hierarchy. Despite her overall unawareness of Earth, she has said that she finds organic life fascinating and is willing to defend the planet from the Cluster and Yellow Diamond.

Peridot has been shown to be incredibly stubborn, as it takes several attempts from the Crystal Gems for Peridot to discuss even the Cluster. Often when working, Peridot insists things be done her way and despises compromising. When she does cooperate, it typically takes some persuasion from Steven. She also continues to keep her log, despite the task being a moot point, more or less for a sense of normalcy. She also is vocal and honest about her viewpoints and will bluntly state what is on her mind regardless of the audience. Her statements have put her in harms way on several occasions, whether by the Crystal Gems or her Homeworld superiors. She does take responsibility for what she says and has learned how to keep some of her more offensive opinions to herself. Her recent behavior around the Crystal Gems has shown that she has opened herself up to new ideas and beliefs.

Peridot is incredibly dedicated and somewhat possessive, occasionally to the point of obsession. She becomes visibly upset when she discovers that others have damaged her things and is emotionally attached to her mechanical foot, as it is her only remaining part of her limb enhancers. Peridot is also loyal towards people she respects, as she was driven to complete her mission and return to Homeworld despite no contact from Yellow Diamond and has been shown to cling to Steven when she is scared. However, after realizing that now she is stuck on the Earth without any form of escape, she decides to betray Homeworld and destroy the Cluster with the help of Steven and the Crystal Gems. In "Message Received", after managing to contact Yellow Diamond and pleading for the Earth to be spared, she realized her perspective of her leader has changed, and she saw her as the cruel and callous tyrant she is. Peridot then rebels against Yellow Diamond's wishes, cementing her loyalty to the Crystal Gems.

Peridot still clings to the Homeworld's social dogma. In "Back to the Barn", Peridot acts very condescendingly towards Pearl due to her position in Homeworld's caste system as a made-to-order servant. She refuses to acknowledge Pearl's skill as a technician for this reason. After a competition between self-built robots, however, Peridot concedes that she may have been wrong. In "Too Far", Peridot shows a strong aversion to fusion, similar to Jasper, referring to Garnet as a "permafusion", and in "Catch and Release" she refers to Garnet as a "filthy war machine" due to the Homeworld belief that fusion should only be used for combat. Peridot has also stated that Garnet makes her "incredibly uncomfortable". Peridot does try to appeal to Amethyst's favor, as she sees Amethyst as the closest thing to a "normal" Gem, by getting her to laugh despite Peridot being incredibly socially oblivious and unfamiliar with the concept of humor. Peridot does feel bad when she unknowingly hurts Amethyst's feelings but is confused until Steven explains it. Peridot has a difficult time apologizing for her behavior but is willing to. It is shown in "It Could've Been Great" that while she likes to follow the rules she gets slightly excited when she breaks them (e.g. sitting in an elite Gem's seat.) During her time with Steven and the Crystal Gems, she begins to realize that Homeworld's philosophy is very flawed, and she defects as a member of the Crystal Gems.

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 needs. Many of her childlike behaviors, particularly her temper and arrogance, 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. As she spends more time on Earth, Peridot has started developing a more gracious and compassionate attitude.

Peridot prioritizes logic, reason, and objectivity above emotions, while also displaying natural curiosity and a great desire to learn and understand. She is great at problem-solving as she uses her observations and experiments to make a conclusion, though her experiments are sometimes ill-conceived. Peridot feels that a practical and systematic approach is the correct way to do things while thinking the Crystal Gems are insane for relying on their emotions, particularly when they chose to relax despite imminent danger. Her logical mind tends to put Peridot at odds with the rest of the Gems and has caused her difficulty with communicating. Peridot's reasoning led her to contact Yellow Diamond in an attempt to persuade her to protect the Earth but ultimately decided to betray Homeworld. When a cause is important to her, Peridot can be just as emotionally charged as the rest of the Crystal Gems.

Season 1
Peridot first made her debut towards the end of the episode, "Warp Tour" where she was tasked with scouting the Galaxy Warp to fix the damaged warp pads, and repair Gem Kindergarten but was distracted by one of her damaged Flask Robonoid and crushed it to death without any mercy. She then sees Steven's "Crying Breakfast Friends" sticker, and fearing the site may be compromised deactivates her Robonoids and presumably retreats back to the Gem Homeworld to tell the other Homeworld gems.

Peridot recently appeared as the main antagonist in the episode "Marble Madness" where she sent multiple Plug Robonoids to Gem Kindergarten in order to activate Facet Five. As she was doing so, she discovered Steven trying to chat with her and he wanted to know what Peridot is doing sending the Robonoids to Earth, Annoyed, Peridot was about to crush Steven with her giant stone gloves but much to her surprise was foiled by Garnet of the Crystal Gems. A paranoid Peridot still confused about the Gems's existence tries to kill them but Amethyst uses her whip to toss one of her stone gloves into the projection destroying it. However as the video pans out, Peridot threatens to report the Crystal Gems's existence to the higher Gem authority.

Peridot also appeared in the half-hour special episodes "The Return" and "Jail Break" assisted by a new Homeworld gem Jasper and holds Lapis Lazuli hostage. Peridot, under Jasper's orders, attempted to kill the Crystal Gems but was stopped when Steven summoned his shield. She is later shown to be very angry when Jasper orders her to forget about the mission, saying that bring "Rose Quartz" (Steven) to a Gem known as Yellow Diamond takes priority over the mission. Peridot begrudingly returns to the bridge to pilot the ship back. Later, after Steven frees Pearl and Amethyst, the three storm the bridge and Amethyst ties up Peridot with Pearl taking control of the ship and piloting it back to Earth. After Garnet defeats Jasper and the ship begins to crash, Peridot takes an escape pod which was traveling down to an unknown location near to Beach City.

Season 2
In "Joy Ride", her current location and status is unknown, even though her escape pod was discovered crashed in a field by Steven and the Cool Kids.

In "Keeping it Together", Peridot was shown to have left the Escape Pod to experiment on the Cluster (mismatched body parts of gems that died in the war) at Kindergarten in the damaged Facet Five. She was found by the Crystal Gems and later retreats again by using her fingers as a helicopter.

She appears in "Cry for Help", attempting to try and transmit a distress message to Yellow Diamond to send someone to get her off Earth.

In "Friend Ship", she is the main antagonist. The Crystal Gems try and attempt to capture Peridot but she evades capture once again. They track her down in the Amazon rainforest of South America, unaware that she set multiple traps to kill the Crystal Gems. She was going to crush Garnet and Pearl, but the duo make amends and fuse into Sardonyx in order to escape. Peridot tries to communicate with Homeworld through a communicator, but is cornered by The Crystal Gems. Peridot then attempts to retreat once again using her helicopter fingers, but is grabbed by Steven and the others. This causes Peridot to escape, at the cost of amputating her left foot. As a result, she vows to get revenge on The Crystal Gems for the loss of her left foot as she flies off into the distance. In "Catch and Release", Peridot first appears hidden near to Steven's bed and kidnaps him. She takes him to fix the warp pad to escape from earth since Yellow Diamond and her devices can't help her, but he is no longer able to do such thing. After a little conversation, Peridot was about to reveal her true purpose of her mission until the Crystal Gems warped in. After a battle, Peridot tries to make them realize about what is happening but is finally poofed and bubbled to the Burning Room. Unaware of knowing what she really wanted to tell them, Steven released Peridot from her bubble, but this time without her Limb Enchancers.

In "When it Rains",

In "Back to the Barn",

Peridot being a traitor to her Homeworld, is (As of Message Received) a crystal gem

Peridot is seen to help deactivate The Cluster in the official "In Too Deep" promo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgoyUxo61Vg

Quotes
"A GEM?!"

- Peridot after seeing Garnet.

"Wait a minute...you're the ones that have been destroying my Plug Robonoids! Are you the reason the Homeworld Warp is down again!? Is this is your bizarre icon!? Arrggh! Why do you keep destroying my things?!"

- Peridot to The Crystal Gems.

"Now do you believe I needed an escort?"

- Peridot to Jasper.

"You Crystal Clods! Go ahead, wreck this place! See if I care! I've already gotten what I needed!"

- Peridot to the Crystal Gems.

"This is Peridot, transmitting from all frequencies from abandoned Crystal System on colony Planet Earth. To Yellow Diamond, my mission has been compromised. My escort and informant are gone, and I am now stranded. PLEASE SEND HELP!"

- Peridot's distress message to Yellow Diamond.

"You idiot!"

- Peridot to Pearl.

"Well, I'd love to stick around and watch one of your pathetic attempts to capture me, but I guess I'm just too smart for the likes of you lumpy, clumpy clods!"

- Peridot taunting the Crystal Gems.

"DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!"

- Peridot attacking the Crystal Gems.

"Freedom is mine!"

- Peridot tries to escape in the Crystal Temple.

"As if I'd negotiate with you, filthy war machine!"

- Peridot to Garnet

"Is that a weapon?"

- Peridot mistaking a comb for a weapon

"Apparently more than YOU! You... CLOD!"

- Peridot calling Yellow Diamond a clod

"Log date: 7 15 2... I can't believe I just did that! I disobeyed my orders and went against Yellow Diamond's wishes! I'm a traitorous clod! I never want to think about what I've done again! *rewinds tape recorder* "I'm a traitorous clod!" Yehahaha! *laughing* And I called Yellow Diamond a clod right to her face! *kneels down* *devastated* I called Yellow Diamond a clod... right to her face!"

- Peridot's breakdown after her betrayal

Trivia

 * Peridot is the second new Gem introduced in the series the first is Lapis Lazuli, the third is Jasper, the fourth is Ruby, and the fifth is Sapphire.
 * She has a diamond symbol on her suit as well as Lapis and Jasper. This concludes that Peridot is working with the Homeworld Gems.
 * Peridot is the birthstone of August, along with Sardonyx.
 * Her final words before her screen faded out where "I'm reporting this!" Implying that she has a supervisor. It also implies that other gems besides her, the Crystal Gems and Lapis Lazuli are still out there and she will return.
 * Peridot managed to almost reactivate Kindergarten, but was eventually foiled by the Crystal Gems.
 * In "Marble Madness", it is revealed that she sent the Red Eye on a reconnaissance mission to Earth, to see if there were other gems.
 * Lapis Lazuli, who has so far been the most powerful gem on the show, seems to be afraid of her, implying that Peridot is an extremely dangerous gem. It could also be that Lapis was referring to Jasper, Peridot's supervisor, and Peridot might have told her Steven's name. The reason why is because Peridot was easily captured by Pearl and Amethyst. However, "Keeping it Together" and "Friend Ship" both appear to contradict this, as Peridot used her fingers to electrocute the whip of Amethyst in the former, while in the latter, she fought off the crystal gems (and displayed her offensive capabilities) and lured them into an old gem airship to kill them.
 * In the episode, "Jail Break", Peridot fled off the prison ship in an escape pod that crash landed on Earth in a unknown location not so far from Beach City, while some fans thought she landed to the vicinity of the Canadian side of the Great Lakes.
 * She bears a resemblance to Pearl, especially in regards in personality; both are neurotic, easily flustered gems with a knack for a plan.
 * Peridots are hinted to be a low class type of gem on Homeworld.
 * In "Catch and Release", it is revealed that her prosthetic limbs are known as 'Limb Enhancers'.
 * Peridot shares some similarities with Cackletta from Mario series.
 * Both are green skinned, share some similar expressions and have a gem on their foreheads.
 * Both constantly taunt their enemies, even while battling them.
 * Both are always working with Magi-Tech.
 * Both get upset when their plans are foiled by their enemies or when they don't work as they wanted.
 * Peridot also shares some similarities to the DC comics villain The Riddler.
 * Both are highly intelligent.
 * Both wear green.
 * Both have a big ego, believing themselves to be far superior to anyone.
 * Both are quick to insult the hero.
 * Both act stubborn when things don't go their way.