Connie Maheswaran

**Connie Maheswaran** is Steven's best friend and a member of the Crystal Gems. She debuted in the episode "Bubble Buddies".

## Appearance

Connie is a young Indian girl with dark brown skin and waist-length dark brown puffy hair, a prominent nose, thick eyebrows, and is slightly taller than Steven.

She wore a pair of magenta glasses with rose-colored lenses until "An Indirect Kiss", when Steven fixed her eyesight, after which she continued to wear the empty frames. After the events of "Nightmare Hospital", she no longer wears the frames.

Connie is usually seen in a variety of different outfits and dresses. She usually wears light blue, green, and white clothing. In the first intro, she is shown wearing a white and mint green dress, peach colored boots, a sunhat, and no socks. In the second intro, she wears a white, button-down, collared tank top, gray button-up shorts, her pink glow bracelet, peach sneakers with white bottoms and laces, and white socks.

In "The New Crystal Gems", she temporarily wears Steven's outfit of a star shirt and blue jeans.

In "Kevin Party", her hair is in a bobcut hairstyle with bangs. According to Grace Rolek on the podcast, she may have changed her hair to help deal with "moving forward", and although her relationship with Steven is very important to her, she needed time to invest in her personal growth independently from having a magical best friend.

In "Lars of the Stars", her hair is shown to have regrown to at least shoulder-length. She also wears her hair up in a ponytail and keeps her bangs.

## Personality

Connie is introverted, curious, and intelligent. Due to her parents' lifestyle, specifically her father's job, Connie rarely stays in one place for long and has been unable to form lasting friendships, which left her frequently feeling lonely. Her parents are very strict and do not allow her to participate in common childhood activities (such as eating donuts or anything with trans fats, although she ate one in "Crack the Whip"). This has led her to flat-out lie about Steven's non-nuclear family, due to paranoia at how her parents may react. Despite her obedience to them, Connie is not above exploiting loopholes, such as not buying snacks at a theater and instead bringing them from Steven's home.

Connie has grown used to the strange dynamic of her friendship with Steven despite her initial uncertainty of it. For example, in "Marble Madness" when the Gems destroy one of Peridot's robonoids in front of her, she reacts passively awed and only comments that she loves hanging out at Steven's place. She can be a bit deadpan at times, such as when she jokes about cutting off Steven's hand in "Lion 2: The Movie" and in that same instance quickly understands that by poking/tickling Steven she could provoke a reaction from Rose's Secret Armory. Her hobbies appear to include tennis and reading, and she also plays the violin, as seen in "Fusion Cuisine", "Sworn to the Sword", and "Nightmare Hospital".

"Sworn to the Sword" shows a more confident and aggressive side to her personality when she learns sword fighting. Due to Pearl's negative reinforcement, she also began to display a reckless side, but this was quickly put out by Steven. The episode also highlights her strong feelings for Steven through her dedication to becoming his knight. This boost in confidence is also shown in "Nightmare Hospital", when Connie stands up to her mother about her strict upbringing and rules, and also even revealed her involvement in magical affairs.

"Beach City Drift" emphasizes her level-headedness when she tells Steven she is "thinking mad" about Kevin, and when they de-fuse, she is the one who convinces Steven that they have been obsessed with Kevin and to let go of their grudge.

"Gem Hunt" highlights Connie's confidence in how she, while respecting and obeying Pearl, pushes her to split up to hunt the Gem monsters, and is the one to lead when she and Steven hunt the second monster through the forest. She is also revealed to have prepared for surviving in the wilderness by reading a book on wilderness survival. However, despite all her training and preparedness, Connie freezes during an encounter with one of the Gem monsters they are hunting. In the end, she chooses to call Pearl via Steven's walkie-talkie, which Pearl commends her for after their subsequent encounter with Jasper who they found had been hunting the Gem monsters.

"Crack the Whip" shows she is not afraid to barge into the Beach House while shouting surprise, showing how comfortable she has gotten around Steven and the other Gems, and later telling Garnet and Pearl to stay safe. The episode also shows a lighter side to her when she, Steven, and Amethyst have fun around Beach City. Connie even eats a donut despite it going against what she told Steven in "Bubble Buddies", demonstrating her growing independence. She also confides in Steven and Amethyst about freezing during her first mission, causing Amethyst to tell her she should stop overthinking things and follow her instincts in battle. She takes Amethyst's words to heart as she fares far better when the two of them along with Steven and Lion encounter Jasper, and the two Gem monsters from "Gem Hunt" that Jasper had tamed to take on the Crystal Gems. Together with Steven, Connie bravely confronts Jasper to prevent her from shattering Amethyst, fusing in mid-battle which allows Stevonnie to save Amethyst and force Jasper and her remaining Gem monster to retreat. After Amethyst regenerates, Connie tells her she was right about how she should follow her instincts.

"Buddy's Book" shows both Connie's studiousness and independence in that she originally goes to the library with Steven to study and prepare for the upcoming school year, only to instantly halt her studies when Steven shows her Buddy's journal.

"Mindful Education" further highlights Connie's growth as well as the transition into higher confidence in her behavior and thoughts. A softer side to Connie's internal struggles with her emotions are shown, as the guilt from the result of her actions at school left a noticeable change in her behavior. After learning that her guilt was natural, she decides to confront her emotions by later apologizing to Jeff and make amends. After this, she is able to clear her mind and is more confident in understanding not to let her emotions negate or cloud her thoughts by keeping them in. On Connie's phone, it shows that she had taken a picture of them happy together, which is something she would have never done if not for the lesson with Garnet. She is also able to pass this knowledge onto Steven, assuring him he had to be honest about how bad his feelings were so he could move on, like she herself did.

"The New Crystal Gems" demonstrates Connie's eagerness to leap into action and adventure. She asks Steven to wait for her so she can go into space with him. The episode also shows her devotion to him as she took his request to protect Beach City to heart. This goes as far as to pretend to be him, dressing in his commonly worn attire and sleeping in his bed. The episode showcases her development with her increasing confidence and maturity. This is shown when she scolded Peridot and Lapis for their behavior which was something the shy quiet girl Steven first met would have never done. Her leadership skills are also on display when she told them to be themselves and organized their efforts to fix the damage they did. All of this is a result of her exposure with Steven and is proof of how a figure like Steven can inspire someone like Connie to express what they could not have done before.

"Kevin Party" shows nearly full-circle just how far Connie has grown as a person, as she sports a new, shorter haircut (which she presumably got as a coping mechanism following her fight with and estrangement from Steven over his surrender to Homeworld), and a slightly mature style of dress, and is shown laughing and talking with other party guests, the latter of which she would never have been able to do at the beginning of the series.

## Abilities

### Skillset

* **Swordsmanship**: As of "Sworn to the Sword", Connie has become skilled in the art of sword fighting with Pearl as her mentor. She was able to work in partnership with Steven and his shield. She can fight swiftly in light attacks or with power in heavy attacks. Due to being ambidextrous, she can fight with equal skill with either hand.
* **Tag-team combat**: Due to the close bond they share, Steven can coordinate his shield techniques perfectly with Connie's swordplay, such as fighting back-to-back with her to defend and attack simultaneously or catapulting Connie from his shield for a powerful lunge attack.
* **Wide Intellect**: Connie is shown to be very intelligent for her age, knowing a lot about boats, reading very hard books (she enjoys reading books such as *The Spirit Morph Saga* and also enjoys reading non-fiction for fact and to get smarter than she already is), having proficiency in tennis, violin-playing and swordfighting, having an extensive vocabulary, and even managing to find loopholes in her parents' many rules. In "Gem Hunt", she is shown to be very prepared and intelligent when it comes to surviving in the wilderness, thanks to reading a book.
	+ **Survival Skills**: Connie is shown to have very impressive survival skills, thanks to reading a book 20 times all about it. Thanks to her book, she has adopted these skills and was perfectly able to locate a spot to hide from the Gem Monsters, as well as make a very healthy, Vitamin C-rich tea out of pine needles.
* **Hand-to-Hand Combat**: In addition to her swordsmanship, in "Mindful Education", it is revealed that Connie possesses some hand-to-hand combat skills, presumably through her combat training under Pearl. Due to her training, she was able to grab a fellow student at her school by the arm and throw him to the ground, breaking his arm in the process, albeit unintentionally as he had accidentally bumped into her which caused her to attack and injure him instinctively.
* **Heightened Reflexes**: As shown in "Mindful Education", Connie's reflexes have been honed to such an extent that she reacts to a perceived threat before she knows what she is doing, as she attacked a fellow student who bumped into her without realizing it until after the fact.

### Save the Light

* **Slash**: Connie rushes towards her target and attacks them with several hits from her sword.
* **Protect**: Connie stand in front of an ally and block all damage and counter attacks.
* **Sword Storm**: Connie gives several strikes against a single enemy dealing heavy damage.

### Weaponry

**Rose's Sword**: In "Nightmare Hospital", the sword is given to Connie by Steven because she is learning how to sword-fight. After pleading with her mother to change her "No Swords" rule, and even taking Steven to follow her to work to secretly obtain the sword, she finally is able to display her swordswoman skills alongside Steven to protect her mother, herself, and Steven from the Cluster Gem patients. In "Gem Hunt", she is seen comfortably carrying the sword on her back and drawing it over her shoulder. Interestingly enough, despite the sword's size, Connie is able to wield it with little effort. It is unknown if this is due to the sword's magical properties, or if Pearl's training helped Connie achieve a level of strength fit to use it. She also uses Rose's scabbard. She has used the weapon in all subsequent appearances, pairing it with Steven and his shield in combat situations, and using it during her sparring matches with him.

### Fusions

* When fused with Steven, they take on the personality and form of Stevonnie. This is the first known fusion between a human and a Gem.

## TMNT X Pokemon

Connie is one of the many swordsmen and swordswomen of the group. She works well with Ruby Rose, Amy Rose, Blaze the Cat, and Marceline the Vampire Queen.

## Trivia

* According to writer Matt Burnett, Connie is of Indian heritage.[1]
	+ Both of Connie's parents are Indian-American.[2]
	+ Connie's surname, Maheswaran, means "Lord of Universe" in Hindi and is also traditionally a Tamil surname.[3]
* Connie is directly referred to as Steven's girlfriend in commercials in Portugal[4] as well as numerous other European countries.
* It is revealed in "Steven's Birthday" that Connie was 12¾ years old at the time.
	+ Given that Steven's birthday is in August, Connie's birthday would be somewhere in November.
* Kat Morris created Connie's character.[5]
* It is revealed in "Mirror Gem" that Connie plays the violin.
* Connie appears in the title sequence as Greg's van drives by, causing a breeze that she looks towards. She holds the book *A Wrinkle in Time* and is wearing a sky blue sundress, a pale tan sunhat, and orange boots.
	+ In the second intro, she is shown wearing shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt instead of a sun dress, wielding Rose's Sword and holding an unknown book with a bookmark inside. Instead of a breeze, she looks towards the end of the road with a smile and pops out of the street and runs to the Crystal Temple. She is shown wearing the frames of her glasses until she reaches the Crystal Temple and lies in front of Rose's Sword.
* She is able to write backward. This is seen in the very short amount of time it took her to write "Harpoon Gun" on the inside of the bubble in "Bubble Buddies".
* Connie is shown to play tennis in "Lion 2: The Movie", and describes it as the only thing that she remotely enjoys in her life. Later, in "Sworn to the Sword", she translates her tennis prowess into swordfighting, which becomes her new passion.
* Following the events of "An Indirect Kiss", Connie can now see normally without her glasses thanks to the healing powers in Steven's saliva. Because she wanted to avoid confrontation with her parents and optometrist about this, she took out the lenses of her glasses and wore the frames instead.
	+ Following the events of "Nightmare Hospital", she no longer wears glasses, having informed her mother that she no longer requires them. In all further episodes, she no longer carries the frames.
* In "Winter Forecast", Connie says "itadakimasu", a Japanese word said before eating. She has stated that her father travels, so Connie may know more than one language.
* In "Sworn to the Sword", Connie's outfit and fighting style were inspired by Kalaripayattu.
	+ She wields a sword resembling the Khanda, a sword typically used in the style.
	+ Her hairstyle is a braid typically worn by female Kalaripayattu practitioners.
* Connie is shown to be ambidextrous in the episode "Sworn to the Sword". When she is training, she is seen holding her sword with her right hand; when she fights Pearl with Steven, she is using her left hand.
* Despite saying her family moves around a lot, she has kept the same home for well over a year.
* In "Nightmare Hospital", it is revealed that she hates the punishment abacus, which is what her parents use to calculate the length of punishments for her.
* In "Gem Hunt", Connie carries Rose's Sword on her back with the hilt over her shoulder. This is similar to many anime characters who carry giant swords the same way such as Ichigo Kurosaki from *Bleach* and Guts from *Berserk*.
* It is shown that Connie and Pearl have many traits in common such as intelligence, attention to detail, and a tendency to be overly hard on themselves in the face of perceived failure.
* Connie might be a gamer, as seen in the short "Video Chat". Her laptop has *Colonization V*, a spoof of the real-life video game *Civilization V*. She also has *Empires & Eras II* and *Conqueror Kings II*, which are spoofs of *Age of Empires II* and *Crusader Kings II*, respectively. She also has *Grid*, a spoof of the popular gaming platform *Steam*.
* According to the 4th issue of the comic series, Connie has an aunt.
* According to a sketch in Steven Universe: Art & Origins, her name was originally supposed to be Priyanka, which is currently her mother's name.
* Connie is a Shaivite as seen by the surname Maheswaran (Mahesh is the Hindu God Shiva, a member of the Trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh). She is a Tamilian but her caste is unknown.
* Connie appears as a possible background cameo in the Japanese anime film *Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade.*