Question: How strong is Amethyst?

Amethyst started the series as the least effective warrior of the Crystal Gems: far weaker than Garnet, she seemed to have a knack for using her whip to place herself or the team in danger, and little else. After Reformed she started fighting quite a bit smarter, but what is her potential for raw power?

We know that a quartz should be very strong—Jasper was at least as strong as Garnet. Amethyst is, however, an “overcooked runt”, having stayed in the ground for too long. This means it would make sense for Amethyst to be permanently weak. Reformed even seemed to show that Amethyst’s gem simply couldn’t handle generating a physical form more appropriate to a quartz, malfunctioning under the stress.

If it makes sense though, why do we wonder? Peridot gave us a lot to think about in Too Far, saying that Amethyst can do everything a normal quartz can do after seeing a display of her prowess with her whip. Depending on how it’s interpreted, one line might even have said that Amethyst could even look like a normal Amethyst if she knew what they looked like (of course it could also mean she’d know what she was missing if she had seen a normal Amethyst).

There’s also an interesting pattern in fusions: Sugilite, formed when Garnet fuses with Amethyst, is much bigger and stronger than Sardonyx, formed when Garnet fuses with Pearl. Plus, even though size isn’t everything (see Rainbow Quartz) it seems to normally be a good indicator of power, and Opal is far bigger than Garnet while Amethyst and Pearl seem roughly equivalent in mass with Ruby and Sapphire.

So it appears that when thrown into a fusion, Amethyst brings a lot more power than Pearl does despite not out-massing her by much (she may be much stockier, but she’s far shorter).

That means that despite there being a good reason for Amethyst to be as weak as she currently is, we should watch out: the show might be hinting that it’s possible for our Amethyst to become as strong as she was meant to be.