how is it that steven grew into someone so much more admirable and stronger than his mother, into much more of a genuine and true and noble leader, and much more intelligent and empathetic and mature? how is it that he’s already become something and someone much bigger than the image he was trying to live up to in the first place? he’s come so far. what an incredible kid.
Because Steven is human. Humans can grow and change! Something Rose/Pink loved and admired, but could never manage to do. She spent 5,000 years living with humans trying to learn how to change like them, but never really could. So she had Steven. Steven is capable of growing and changing and getting better, unlike her. And Steven has become the bridge needed to teach the other gems how to change, how to be human.
Steven is a gem that can change. Something wholly unique. Something no gem had ever been able to do before.
That’s why Steven is better than Rose, because he has everything Rose had, plus the humanity she didn’t! Steven is more.
Pink was also stifled by the other Diamonds, both systemically (expecting her to act like the role she was made for) and individually (treating her as lesser even though she was technically an equal). The show has demonstrated that gems can change and grow as individuals over time, but Rose had already internalized Homeworld’s rhetoric. She was able to change her entire identity, divorcing it entirely from her previous existence, but she always held onto the belief that gems–that she– could never actually change. She felt that the natural inclination to be what she was made to be would never leave her.
I feel the greatest distinction between Rose and Steven is that Steven has a support group he can be honest with, who are willing to grow and change with him. The way I see it, Pink’s situation with the other Diamonds is almost the logical conclusion for Steven’s situation if the CGs continued to treat him the way they used to. In fact, there began to be a trend of him lying and putting on an act in order to please the others in season 1 and 2 (most notably at the end of The Test) that greatly resembles what we learned about Pink in Familiar. He still falls into situations where he evades his own feeling in order to please the people he cares about.
It also helps that he has Greg. Steven is better than Pink because he’s always had a constant supporter and role model to look up to, someone who wholeheartedly fosters Steven’s individuality. Pink had no one.
