Peridot (Steven Universe)

Peridot is a recurring antagonist turned supporting character in Steven Universe. She's a former Homeworld Gem Technician who worked under Yellow Diamond but due to her recent actions in Message Recieved, she's been branded a traitor and is now a member of the Crystal Gems.

Summary
Peridot first appeared in warp tour repairing the warp pad and checking the results of it, she was seen crushing one of her robonoids with a pure look of scorn on her face. She later retreated when she found a crying breakfast friends sticker and took it with her.

Appearance
Peridot has lime-green skin, and pale greenish-yellow 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 gem is located on her forehead, and is shaped like an inverted triangle with rounded edges.

In all of her appearances to date, she wears a sleeveless green V-neck bodysuit. Her suit is mostly medium green, with a dark-green diamond outline around the cut-out of her neck area, meeting together to form the Yellow Diamond emblem 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 arm bracers and boots until "Catch and Release", which revealed them to be Limb Enhancers. These artificial extensions are bright green and flare out toward the wrists and ankles, which are colored 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.

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 damaged in her first apperance 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 Gemsintervene and reveal themselves, Peridot is shocked and flustered. 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?!".

Peridot is very naïve when it comes to Earth, especially when the information is not important to the mission, She was completely unaware of the existence of rain or thunderstorms, she believed that Steven was a member of a species called "Stevens" because that's what he called himself, and in in "Friend Ship" she referrs to Steven's fingers as "touch stumps".

Since "Jail Break" Peridot has become increasingly frantic in her attempts to contact homeworld and stop the Crystal Gems interferring with her plans. 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 theCommunication Hub begging Yellow Diamond for help.

In "Friend Ship", Peridot smugly taunts the Crystal Gems after trapping them in an ancient Gem vessel, believing herself to always be one step ahead, even repeatedly yelling at them to die with no qualms with repeatedly attempting to destroy them with the various traps on board.

In "Catch and Release", Peridot kidnaps Steven with the hope he'll be able to fix the Homeworld warp. When he can't, she becomes hysterical and eventually breaks down with the realization she's 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 and losing her armor, she becomes very juvenile and paranoid, assuming that harmless household items are "weapons" and that every action from the Crystal Gems is driven by hostility. However, once comforted by Steven, she becomes much more relaxed and cooperative, although she refuses to cooperate with the Gems and sequesters herself in Steven's bathroom.

In "When It Rains", Peridot continues to obstinately refuse to share her knowledge of the Cluster with the Gems, although she does allow Steven to use the bathroom freely. When a thunderstorm strikes, Peridot assumes it is the Cluster hatching and panics, but after Steven explains the water cycle to Peridot, she reluctantly agrees to go outside, and afterwards thanks Steven for teaching her and agrees to tell him more about the Cluster; but with the caveat he must allow to return to the Kindergarten to retrieve her records, and after an encounter with Cluster Gems and subsequent rescue by the Crystal Gems, Peridot finally agrees to work with them.

Abilities
While Peridot presumably possesses standard Gem abilities and traits, most of Peridot's observed "abilities" stem from her Limb Enhancers.

However, even with her limb enhancers, Peridot has difficulty just lifting Steven and pieces of the a Warp Pad normally, and in "When It Rains", she failed to remove a panel from a Facet Five wall, which Steven removed with relative ease. Despite lacking the super-human strength common to Gems, she does possess the same levels extreme durability - in "Keeping it Together" she is able to easily shrug off having a heavy piece of Kindergarten machinery come crashing down on her without "poofing".

Peridot is extremely proficient with Gem technology. She has enough experience to pilot a Gem Warship and in "Jail Break", Peridot is seen briefly interfacing with her ships controls, setting a course to the Gem Homeworld.

Peridot has a variety of evasion tactics, such as her "finger copter" and wall-walking displayed in "Keeping it Together". She is also surprisingly nimble, able to avoid most attacks during her confrontation with the Gems in "Friend Ship". However, Peridot has little to no skills in hand-to-hand combat, and has been reliant on her Limb Enhancers for self defense.

She has some construction skills, as she managed to rebuild the Communication Hub to a usable state and was seen trying to fix a Warp Pad.

Additional Tools

 * Gem Destabilizer: In "Jail Break", Peridot wields a Gem Destabilizer, an extremely potent, but non-lethal, tool used to subdue enemy Gems.
 * Robonoids: Peridot can control different types of spherical robots, known as Robonoids. There are three types of known Robonoids: Flask, Plug, andHand. They can perform multiple functions, such as fixing a Warp Pad and activating Kindergarten.
 * EMP device: In "Warp Tour", Peridot placed a device on the Galaxy WarpPad before she left Earth. About three seconds after being placed, the device explodes, disabling all of her Robonoids. The device seems to be highly advanced, as Pearl's pulse bomb in "Political Power" (which appears to be made from human technology) was unable to disable even a single Robonoid.
 * Limb Enhancers: Mechanical body extensions Peridot has worn since her debut until she is caught by the Crystal Gems in "Catch and Release".
 * Anatomical Seperation: Peridot can separate sections of her limb enhancers by touching a lime-colored button at the zone she wants to remove.
 * Blaster: Peridot can transform her fingers of her right arm into a blaster which can charge and fire an electrified energy ball which explodes on impact. Charging it for a second produces a shot powerful enough to blast through the ceiling of the Ancient Gem Colony Ship. Charging it for several seconds produces a large shot which can knock down a thick stone pillar, and has enough recoil to knock Peridot onto her back.
 * Holographic Interface: Peridot can project a holographic touchscreen from the fingers of her right hand, in which she can control and connect to different forms of Gem technology.
 * Tractor Beam: Peridot can produce a light-green tractor beam from her left hand to move objects/people.
 * Wall-Scaling: Peridot can freely run up vertical walls without falling.
 * Helicopter Fingers: Peridot can expand the fingers of either hand and spin them rapidly enough to fly.
 * Electric Surge: Peridot can shoot an electric current from her limb enhancers.
 * Photokinesis: In It Could've Been Great Peridot is shown using her gem to project light, like a flashlight. It is the first natural Gem ability she has been shown using.

Trivia

 * Peridot's gem is located in the same place as Pearl's.
 * Jasper is her escort and Lapis Lazuli her informant.
 * After Lapis Lazuli, Peridot was the second Homeworld Gem to appear on the show.
 * Peridot appears to be a newer model of gem produced by the Homeworld, as evidenced by her reliance on technology, apparent lack of a gem weapon, the Crystal Gems failing to recognize her, and her general naivete.
 * Peridot has a diamond on her uniform, similar to Lapis Lazuli, and Jasper.
 * Her final words before her screen faded out in "Marble Madness" were, "I'm reporting this!", implying she has a supervisor.
 * In "The Message", Lapis Lazuli confirmed Peridot's threat when she warned the Crystal Gems that Peridot was leading a number of other Gems to Earth.
 * In "Jail Break", Peridot was forced to flee the exploding Gem Warship in an Escape Pod, which was later revealed in "Joy Ride" to have crash-landed only a few miles outside of Beach City.
 * In response to the implication that Peridot is a "main antagonist", Matt Burnett stated, "Pretty quick to judge poor Peridot... I wouldn't call her an antagonist just yet, and def. not the 'main' one".[1]
 * Peridot has blushed for the first time on-screen in "Catch and Release".
 * She also smiles and laughs for the first time in "Keeping it Together".
 * In "Cry for Help", a Peridot-shaped cactus can be seen near the Communication Hub.
 * Peridot and Yellow Diamond are the only two gems that have never been shown to fuse with another Gem.
 * Peridot is the third Gem shown to fly,  as seen in "Keeping it Together".
 * The first is Amethyst, in "Lion 2: The Movie"
 * The second is Lapis Lazuli, in "Ocean Gem"
 * And the fourth is Sapphire, who levitates in "Keystone Motel"
 * Her helicopter fingers ability was conceived by Raven Molisee.[2]
 * Peridot is the second Gem to be poofed, bubbled, and freed. She is also the first non-corrupted Gem and the first Homeworld Gem that this has happened to.
 * The first Gem this happened to was the Centipeetle Mother. Coincidentally, both were bubbled by Garnet and freed by Steven.
 * She's also the second Homeworld Gem who has been shown regenerating, the first being Lapis Lazuli in "Mirror Gem"
 * Peridot's visor appears to be a part of her body as, unlike Garnet, she regenerated with it and had no need to re-summon.
 * It could also be a skin parking, as in Catch and Release, there are several moments where her eyes protrude out of it.
 * Peridot tends to assume that unfamiliar objects (such as those in Steven's bathroom) are weapons, as seen in "Catch and Release".
 * As seen on the Keep Beach City Weird blog, Ronaldo believes Peridot to be an eco-terrorist and a highly advanced android programmed to free animals from zoos.
 * Peridot is the second Gem to be seen giving a message through a television, in "Cry for Help".
 * The first is Lapis Lazuli, in "The Message".
 * Her escape pod shares her ability of having tractor beams, as shown in "Cry for Help", where Pearl uses the escape pod to lift the Communication Hub pillars in order to repair it.
 * Peridot seems unusually fascinated with her reflection in Steven's bathroom mirror.
 * Peridot's current body is most likely her first regeneration, given that she did not go through any other forms while regenerating.
 * Peridot has a habit of talking to herself when she is alone.
 * Peridot hates being called cute.
 * Peridot admitted that she used Steven's toothbrush in "When It Rains".