| “ | You brought the Centipeetle back to her ship. You brought her back to her crew. They've been waiting here for her. They didn't want to leave her behind. | „ |
| ~ Garnet after Steven reunited the Centipeetle with her crew |
The Centipeetle Mother is a corrupted gem and former antagonist in Steven Universe. She is the mother of the host of centipeetle group that raided Steven's bedroom in "Gem Glow". She returned in later episodes like "Monster Buddies" and "Monster Reunion".
Appearance
In her corrupted form, the Centipeetle's consists in giant centipede-like monster composed of dark green segments through her body, in each of them she has a pair of brown legs. She also has a kind of mandible on both her head and rear, the head is the gemstone's place which also serves as her iris on the eye, while the rear (as well the head) she uses to attack. A kind of green crystal is located on what appears to be her forehead and behind, she has white hair which is the remaining of her previous self.
In "Monster Buddies", she morphed into a small version of her monster self. The crystal on her forehead is missing, the segments through her body along with legs and mandibles in both head and rear have been reduced and her gemstone is now her eye and the center of it has a black iris.
In "Monster Reunion", after Steven used his healing spit on her, she recovered half of her old form. In this form, she got brown humanoid legs and arms, her head took a more humanoid shape with the gemstone's location being her eye. However, part of her corrupted form still remains as her mandible and rear are visible out of place. She wears a bodysuit similar to that what Pearl used in "Space Race" and "Back to the Barn" with different palette colors and what appears to be a torn-up light gray clothing.
Personality
Centipeetle's personality as a gem isn't clear at all, but she most likely was always loyal to the Diamonds. She also takes care of those whom she considers true allies, as she was truly worried when she was unable to find her teammates, furthermore she protects Steven from a seagull in the beach and later saves him from being killed by a stalactite which clearly proves she really cares about those around her.
While Steven tamed her as a pet, it's shown that she created a special bond with him, even started to eat human food such as a bag of chips. Aside from this, she shows to be playful and protective with him once healed, but is unable to speak his language because of not being fully reformed, therefore she has to make draws to directly communicate with him.
Centipeetle in her corrupted form acted wild, obsessed and completely out of control. It seemed like her only goal was to get rid of Steven and the Crystal Gems and possibly anything on her sight and preserve the place for her centipedes. However, it's presumed that Centipeetle more likely wanted to get to the warp pad of the Crystal Temple and find her crew.
History
Season 1
In "Gem Glow" the Centipeetle's centipedes invaded the Crystal Temple but were easily defeated by the Crystal Gems. Later on, the Centipeetle Mother herself appeared attacking the Crystal Temple. When the Crystal Gems were in danger, Steven decided to use his new ability eating ice cream, when it failed he electrocuted the Centipeetle giving the Crystal Gems chance enough to poof it in a giant explosion. Garnet then bubbled it to the Burning Room.
The Centipeetle Mother returns in "Monster Buddies", in this episode Steven tames the Centipeetle Mother in her smaller form (which it acquired after her bubble was accidentally popped by Steven). Steven interacts with The Centipeetle Mother until The Crystal Gems arrive. Steven explains he freed the Centipeetle when he popped her bubble, and asks Garnet if she can let him train it, Garnet and Amethyst agree while Pearl was still worried also agrees. The Centipeetle starts being friendly towards Steven and even begins to like Potato Chips from Steven. Pearl still thinks it's a bad idea but Garnet decides to give The Centipeetle Mother an opportunity helping them in the Ice Mountain to tear down the ice walls with her acid spit.
Later on, the Centipeetle Mother, Steven and The Crystal Gems arrived to the Shooting Star's Room. Garnet summoned her magic gauntlets to hold it because it was too hot to be hold by normal skins. However, The Centipeetle Mother went crazy when she saw Garnet's gauntlets and spat acid everywhere of the room. Pearl, Amethyst and Garnet fought The Centipeetle Mother believing that she turned wild again, but Steven stops the fight between them. Steven tries to convince the Centipeetle that she can be something more than a monster, remembering the good times they had before. Steven hugs the Centipeetle and it starts to calm down, however a stalactite falls from the ceiling and the Centipeetle pushes Steven to Garnet. As she riskd her own life for Steven, the hit made her retreat to her gemstone.
Steven cries at the lose of the Centipeetle, but Garnet comforts him that Rose Quartz (Steven's mother) would be so proud of him. Garnet also tells Steven that Rose once tried to heal the corrupted gems but she failed in the process, Pearl also comforts him that he can do even more than her mother could do with them. Motivated for this, Steven learns the ability to bubble gems and bubbles the Centipeetle's gem as he says "Wait for me Centipeetle, I promise I'll heal you up some day", and transports the gem back to the Temple along with the bag of Potato Chips.
In "Ocean Gem" the Centipeetle along with other gem monsters are seen in a flashback when Pearl and Amethyst speak about the corrupted gems and how they used to be like them uncorrupted.
Season 2
The Centipeetle did not appeared in any episode of the second season.
Season 3
In the episode "Monster Reunion", Steven regains his healing powers and convinces the rest of the Crystal Gems to try and help heal Centipeetle. Using his power, he manages to get Centipeetle to transform into a more humanoid appearance, but she still isn't fully healed. The Gems allow Steven to let Centipeetle stay, and afterwards Steven and Centipeetle communicate through art. Centipeetle then reveals that she was formerly a leader of a crew from Homeworld, and was commanded to go to Earth and colonize it. Unfortunately, this was around the beginning of the Rebellion. Once it had started, Centipeetle and her crew fought in the war, but Centipeetle had gotten separated from her crew and was on her own. Then Centipeetle's commander ordered that Centipeetle retreated, but she was left behind on Earth, where she would be corrupted along all the other Gems left on Earth by a flash of light initiated by The Great Diamond Authority.
Suddenly the Centipeetle starts to corrupt back again, she begs Steven to guide her to her crew, though Steven didn't understand at first, he and the Centipeetle warp to the Ancient Colony Ship which was indeed Centipeetle's spaceship. She goes into a breakdown while running in the forest as she slowly corrups back to her monster form. Although she was a centipeetle again, she had enough consciousness to recognize Steven and her crew members once entered the gem colony ship. Once reunited with them (even if they were corrupted), the Crystal Gems arrive on the colony ship, Garnet tells Steven these centipeetles are her crew and they waited for her because they didn't want to leave her behind. Steven asks if they can stay in the ship, and the Crystal Gems agreed knowing that it was their home now. As for this episode, Centipeetle is now currently living with her crew.
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Trivia
- The Centipeetle is the first Gem Monster who appears in the series and the first who Steven redeems and bubbles.
- She is also the first corrupted gem that Steven (almost) heals.
- The Centipeetle Mother before transforming back into her smaller form looks to be a Gem that was damaged and corrupted.
- This was proven in further episodes like "Ocean Gem" and "Monster Reunion".
- In Monster Reunion, she revealed that the Diamonds were the ones who caused the corruption of all gems on earth.
- It's also revealed that aside from Crystal Gems, the remaining Homeworld Gems on earth were also affected in the process.
- The gem in her mouth somewhat resembles an Emerald colored Poké-Ball from the Pokemon series.
- In her Semi-Corrupted form, she somewhat resembles Zorak from Space Ghost.
- Many fans speculated the Centipeetle Mother used to be a Gem called Malachite, but Ian Jones-Quartey confirmed that the corrupted Gem that she used to be is not Malachite.