Pearl Krabs is a teenage sperm whale and Mr. Krabs' daughter. She wants to fit in with her fish peers, but finds this impossible to do because of the large size inherent to her species. She will inherit the Krusty Krab from her father when she grows older, but is still in high school and does not yet have a job at the family business. Pearl's favorite activities are working at the Bikini Bottom Mall, using her father's credit card to buy anything that is in style, and listening to pop music.
Pearl was the second main character that Stephen Hillenburg created for the show. He was inspired to design her while working as a supervisor for whale watches at the Ocean Institute. Hillenburg often received letters that asked why Pearl is a whale while her father is a crab. The answer is simple: Hillenburg wanted each member of the main cast to be a different animal.
The in-universe difference in species between Pearl and Mr. Krabs has never been addressed in an episode, but the official trivia book states that Pearl takes after her unseen mother, who was also a whale. Stephen Hillenburg was strongly against revealing the identity of Pearl's mom and kept it a secret throughout the show.
Appearance[]
Pearl was one of the first five characters Stephen Hillenburg created for SpongeBob. Her conceptualization is rooted in Hillenburg's tenure as a teacher at the Orange County Marine Institute in Dana Point, California. Screenwriter Allan Neuwirth describes the Marine Institute as Hillenburg's "first stop on the road to SpongeBob SquarePants," as it inspired the development of many of the series' characters; Hillenburg's decision to include a whale character was influenced by his regular supervision of whale watches, and a cetacean skeleton exhibit at the institute. Hillenburg's original sketch of Pearl in the show bible included flukes and pigtails, which were dropped from her final design. Mr. Krabs and Pearl had matching yellow and orange clothes initially, but they were given individualized colors before the production of the pilot episode.
Hillenburg made Pearl a different species from her father because he wanted each member of the main cast to be a different type of animal. When he was first developing the characters, Hillenburg wanted Pearl and Mr. Krabs to travel around town in a caravan boat with a whale-sized teardrop trailer connected to it; while this element did make it into the series, it was only used sparsely in season one. The decision to have Mr. Krabs and Pearl live in an anchor was made after production of the first season had begun. The original map of the show's setting, which Hillenburg showed Nickelodeon executives as part of his pitch to the network in 1997, did not include an anchor house, and instead labeled the Krusty Krab as both characters' residence.
Hillenburg originally planned for Pearl and Mr. Krabs to be mostly separate characters, with specific episodes dedicated to each character individually. This happened in several early episodes, such as "The Chaperone," but the writers found it more natural to include Mr. Krabs in Pearl-centric stories. Hillenburg considered this the biggest difference between the series and how he originally envisioned it. Animation historian Jerry Beck has stated that Pearl's breakout role was in "Bossy Boots," which he considers the episode that best established her as one of the series' stars.
Personality[]
Just like real sperm whales, which have the biggest brain size of any extant species on Earth, Pearl's brain is the largest out of all the Bikini Bottom residents. She is skilled in math, which is why Mr. Krabs would like it if she became a bookkeeper for his restaurant. However, she is still young and has not matured yet, so she spends most of her time and money at the mall.
Pearl is happy, naive, well-meaning, and high-spirited. She wants nothing more than to fit in with the other residents of Bikini Bottom, but this is impossible to do because she is literally the biggest teenage girl in the ocean. She is very friendly and trusting to her peers at the Bikini Bottom High School, despite how they usually are not the same way with her.
Pearl is a huge fan of Mecha Baleen (parody of DC Comics' Cyborg) and The Adventures of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, but does not want any of her classmates at Bikini Bottom High School to know about her interests. She wishes she could spend her teenage years with good friends and become popular, but her peers are all too shallow to accept her for who she is. A running gag is that Pearl will have a fully diverse group of friends whenever she is seen hanging out with her classmates. They are very unloyal friends and usually laugh at Pearl, make fun of her, or abandon her. For some reasons, Pearl will even refer to another student as one of her best friends, only for that friend to completely absent from the show after that episode. Aside from the main characters, the only friends Pearl has that have never betrayed her are the mermaids.
Aside from being skilled in math, Pearl's talents include cheerleading, playing the saxophone, and playing the piano. She often keeps a pair of red or pink cheerleading pom-poms with her. Being a whale, she shakes the ground whenever she tries to perform a cheerleading act and endangers whoever is in the same building as her. However, she does never seem to notice this and Mr. Krabs thinks she is very talented.
Pearl is normally upbeat, unlike her father, who can be crabby at times. Episodes such as "Mid-Life Crustacean" contrast Pearl's attitude with Mr. Krabs' bitterness due to his old age. In the episode, Pearl makes him a big breakfast of bran products and feeds him his daily pill. She does this all while smiling incessantly, but Mr. Krabs is unplesant the whole time, saying "I hate the pill!" and then asking Pearl if he’s out of touch.
Ironically, Pearl's favorite food is salad, despite how sperm whales are the largest toothed predator currently on Earth. She also likes tea and Krabby Patties. SpongeBob's Book of Excuses reveals that she usually has Kelpo cereal for breakfast. "Best Frenemies" reveals that Pearl once enjoyed Kelp Shakes, the addictive drinks served by the Kelpshake restaurant chain. This distressed Mr. Krabs greatly when he found out, since Kelpshake was a competing restaurant. "One Coarse Meal" reveals that Pearl does not eat plankton. This makes sense because toothed whales do not eat plankton; baleen whales do.
Since Pearl is a whale and mammals have lungs, she needs air to breathe. It is revealed in "Bubble Troubles" that she holds air in her nose in order to breathe when underwater. In order to get air to her lungs, she regularly goes to the water's surface and breaches. It is revealed in "Bossy Boots" that Mr. Krabs taught her how to breach, although he is a crab and should be unable to.
Pearl's favorite place to visit is the Bikini Bottom Mall. She is the opposite of her father when it comes to spending; Mr. Krabs wants to save every penny he earns and is very cheap, but Pearl loves to spend big amounts of cash on superfluous things. She was the one who introduced the mermaids from the Bikini Bottom Triangle to the mall. Pearl convinced them to join her on a shopping spree by describing the mall as "the most awesome place to get the best, super-coolish, glittershly fabulous new stuff you want!"
Pearl's favorite TV show is Mega Watts Dance, which broadcasts a weekly dancing contest similar to Dancing with the Stars. The host of the program is Tom Sturgeon, one of Mr. Krabs' old friends. Pearl has some knowledge of dance crazes such as "The Whack" and "The Sponge."
Several episodes reveal that Pearl may have dreams of becoming a famous movie star. "Culture Shock" reveals that Mr. Krabs wants Pearl to become a star, and Pearl partially fulfills this dream in "Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy VI: The Motion Picture." However, her role in Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy's movie is far from glamorous; she plays the Invisible Boatmobile and her lines are all car noises. However, she comes to think that it is a great role after Mr. Krabs tells her that "Mermaid Man wouldn't be anywhere without you." In the comic Dye-ing for the Part, SpongeBob helps Pearl win a TV commercial audition.
Despite Pearl's huge brain and mathematical knowledge, she is still a kid, and can be childish at times. The fairy tales she heard as a child have impacted how she views life. As shown in "Married to Money," this has caused Pearl to have trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality. In the episode, she considers that getting a stepmother would turn her life into the fairy tale Cinderella. She says to her father, "I have seen stepmoms in movies, Dad. She'll make me sweep up the cinders, and then she won't let me go to the ball! And then I'll never meet my Prince Charming!"
Pearl can get overdramatic and very emotional at times. A running gag is that whenever Pearl is upset, she will cry literal rivers of tears. This often results in flooding the Krusty Krab or whatever building she is in; as a matter of fact, the Krabs house has drain plugs built into the floors so the rooms can be emptied after Pearl cries or spouts water from the blowhole on her head. Whenever Mr. Krabs hears Pearl crying, he often says "Thar she blows!" or "Batten down the hatches!" as a warning to take cover from Pearl's crying. One of Nickelodeon's character descriptions for Pearl says: "When her famously frugal father Mr. Krabs gets the credit card bills, he's usually hopping mad. But Pearl knows how to play him like a cheap fiddle—after all, she does have the bigger brain. She just turns on the water works and melts his krusty old heart."
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