While SpongeBob SquarePants has become one of Nickelodeon's most popular(and long-running)shows and been running on for a quarter century now, and while the show was famous for SpongeBob and it's quirky,memorable undersea colorful cast of creatures and I do love and admire and relate to some of these characters so much(such as SpongeBob,Patrick,Squidward,Mr.Krabs,Plankton,Sandy,and others),but I feel that one character that was part of the main undersea crew of SpongeBob,who was overlooked and underappreciated was Pearl,Mr. Krabs teenaged daughter of a whale.
While fans do find her annoying at times,I feel while I do like Pearl,is that back in the show's earlier seasons,is that while Pearl can be a emotional and spoiled teenage girl who despite her overdramatic emotional breakdowns and despite having a actual reason to get mad or be upset at her father for his cheapness and being embarrassing to her at times,in spite of being spoiled,she was mostly friendly and kind and she does love her father in spite of his embarrasments to her and cares and gets along with her friends(including SpongeBob,Patrick,Mrs.Puff,Sandy,and others). and I appreciate for Krabs as much of a cheapskate he is,I love how Krabs does his best to make his daughter happy even if he messes up a lot. Also,I don't find Pearl's constant emotional breakdowns annoying,but I kind find them hilarious and over-the-top funny.
But I feel while Seasons 6-8 may be the worst era of the show and one of the complaints is that the characters got flanderized in these seasons,such as SpongeBob being obliviously happy and often dumb at times,Patrick becoming a complete smart-aleck imbocile who tends to cause a lot of trouble to SpongeBob due to his stupidity and takes advantage of him at times,Squidward,Plankton,and Mrs.Puff being turned into bigger butt monkeys than usual,and Mr.Krabs being turned into being more of a mean-spirited,abusive,obnoxious,insensitive,selfish,uncaring,insane,despicable,law-breaking,and even more greedier cheapskate boss than he was ever before at times in Seasons 1-5, but I feel before SpongeBob and co. got their flanderizations in Seasons 6 later on,I feel Pearl had the worst flanderization out of any SpongeBob character and that happened right after the first movie.
While I do praise Seasons 4-5 for doing a lot of changes and updates to the show's writing after the original SpongeBob movie,such as making Science a part of Sandy's character,giving more depth to the characters more,putting the characters in more fantastical and even more hilarious nautical situations(such as SpongeBob gaining his fear of Krabby Patties after overworking 43 days at the Krusty Krab thanks to Krabs,Patrick becoming smart after gaining a different head,which strains his relationship with SpongeBob,Patrick writing a song that everyone hates,Mr.Krabs turning his restaurant into a 5-star hotel,SpongeBob and Patrick going on a Dungeons and Dragons-esque quest after landing in a medieval world,etc). I feel like the writers wanted to flesh out and improve Pearl's character,but instead of improving her charactera and flesh her out,the writers' decided to bring out the worst of the her character way more than before at times and they decided to turn her into a even more bossy,bratty,spoiled,mean-spirited,entitled,demanding,whiny,and short-tempered teenager than she was before and exaggerated her constant outbursts and bratty tendencies up to full 11 here,making her unlikable and intolerable to the point that fans can't stand her. She even acts way more overbearing and bossier towards Krabs by forcing her to do something good to her without being cheap,While Krabs had his despicable moments at times(such as abusing and enslaving jellyfish in a factory,charging his employees for ridicious things,stealing things from people,making and overworking his employees 24 hours a day for 43 days straight,tried to even way more worse and more cheaper than Krabs,tried to swindle a bunch of kids with a playground out of the junk,etc),Pearl is just way more worser,annoying,bossy,demanding,mean-spirited,and rude than him and her demands and constant controlling attitude towards him are just unlikable and unpleasant. Also, her voice has become much more grating and obnoxious than usual,and even in Season 6-8,she is kinda mean to SpongeBob and finds him annoying for no reason,despite getting along and being friendly towards him in the earlier seasons(which is pointless since other characters such as Squidward,Mrs.Puff,Kevin,Plankton,Barnacle Boy,and Bubble Bass had their own legitimate,understandable reasons to dislike SpongeBob in the first place,but Pearl has no reason to treat SpongeBob like dirt outside of finding him annoying for no reason(which is kinda Squidward’s role,not Pearl’s)).
While I do find Seasons 4-5 decent since it wasn't as bad as Seasons 6-9a and Seasons 6-9a was terrible,Here are ways I how I would fix Pearl(Seasons 6-8) from SpongeBob SquarePants:
-Keep her constant over-the-top emotional outbursts/crying outbursts,the ground shaking whenever she walks or runs on the scene,spoiled,but kind and friendly attitude,hilarious moments,have her moments of getting mad and upset at Krabs,but don't take it to an extent here,give her a legit reason to be mad at her father whenever he embarrasses her or does something cheap to upset her,but don't make her rude,domineering,and bossy at him.
-Fix her scene from Selling Out:Have her notice Krabs in the doorway and annoyingly ask what he is doing in her room,while she is talking on the phone with a friend and tells him is there something that he needs to do,then after Krabs walks in the room,offering to wanting to spend time with her. I would not have Pearl kick Krabs out of the house,instead,have her tell her father if he wants to spend time with her,then why does he does something better like find other friends to spend time with her,get a job,and a hobby cause she has her own other plans to spend time with her own friends and go to the mall,then Pearl tells Krabs to get out of her room and just do what she says,then Krabs walks out of her room and closes the door on him. I won't make her angry,just mildly angry and annoyed.
-Remove her from Grandpappy the Pirate,cause her appearance from the episode was pointless,out-of-nowwhere,and had no purpose/reason, it was just her banging on the boat,angrily yelling at Krabs to come down,and when Krabs comes down,she just laughs and asks what's with his pirate costume,before being told to go home and pushed out of the scene.
-Make Whale of A Birthday the same,but with a few changes:
-Keep Pearl mad at Mr. Krabs for giving her the worst 15 birthday parties,forgetting about her birthday is today,telling him to not be cheap,her famous "IT'S MY 16TH BIRTHDAY!!!!" scene,and not screw up her party,but make her reasonably spoiled and and less bossy,overbearing,and rude towards Krabs.
-After her 16th birthday is ruined thanks to her father's miserly ways,not make Pearl devasted and hurt,have Pearl tearfully and angrily give Krabs a huge Reason-You-Suck speech: for not doing the things to please her and question on will he ever stop being cheap for once in his life,making Krabs feel guilty even more and regret his cost-cutting choices he's done that ruined this party and making her hurt and upset.
-Fix One Coarse Meal with a better plotline:
Instead of Krabs torturing Plankton with his fear of whales and driving him to suicide,have Mr.Krabs hire his daughter to watch her father's business,while he goes on a vacation trip to relax or otherwise she won't be able to get her allowance. While Pearl is in charge of the Krusty Krab, Plankton tries to arrive to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula,but he is terrified and scared off by once he sees Pearl. But Pearl would never constantly harrass or eat Plankton,cause she wouldn't never hurt a fly or harm anyone. Then Karen would step in and help Plankton get over his fears of whales,so he can get pass Pearl and get the formula upon understanding his fear of whales and how they ate his ancestors,with Karen strapping Plankton in and we get a montage of Plankton watching whales and even meeting and interacting with whales in a meet-in-greet,then finally Plankton conquers his fear and comfronts Pearl at the Krusty Krabs and battles her in a showdown with a giant robotic whale that scares her back and face off each other,along with Pearl taking down Plankton and showing she has fighting skills since her father,Mr.Krabs used to be in the navy,then Plankton is defeated and Krabs returns and praises Pearl for running the restaurant and gives her a allowance(a $1 dollar bill much to her dissapointment).
-Give her a good reason to resent and get mad at Krabs for his cheapness and miserly ways without being annoying,mean,rude,bossy,and overbearing.
-In "Best Frienenemies",After telling her dad to get off of her,tell him to get his own kelpshake and quit acting like a baby.
-Give her a couple of Season 5 episodes dedicated to her,one bonding with Sandy and the other with her father,Mr.Krabs and his employees going on a adventure.
-Give her more moments of SpongeBob and her getting along.
-Don't make her voice grating and annoying too much.
-Fix "The Slumber Party" by at the beginning of the episode by having Krabs give her the trust privilege to have a slumber party of her own without him involved due to his cheap nature,then instead of using SpongeBob to spy on her and her friends at the party(along with removing the Girly TeenGirl scene,which was mean-spirited and pointless)and having him ruin it later on,have him,Squidward,and SpongeBob disguise themselves as girls(similar to the "Catscratch" episode of the same name,with the cats disguising themselves as girls to crash the slumber party to get a taste of their root beer) to attend Pearl's party to check up on her and they seem to start having a fun time getting along with Pearl and her friends,under their cover is blown when SpongeBob's wig falls off and Pearl is mad at Krabs and his workers for sneaking into their party and crashing it. Then Krabs confesses to Pearl that he and his employees did that because he wanted to check on Pearl and her party,make her happy,and entertain her,since he didn't want her to and her friends to hire their boyfriends to vandalize his house because of a movie he saw with SpongeBob earlier, then Pearl,rather than being angry and forcing her to charge him,forgives him and admits even if her father can be cheap and embarassing,he does love her father no matter what and he and his employees had a fun time at the party,even if she and her friends we're annoyed by Squidward's constant horrible makeovers and constant clarinet playing,they gave him a makeover as payback(similar to the ending of the Hey Arnold! episode,"Helga's Masquerade").
-Fix Tunnel of Glove by having her act not so hostile and mean towards SpongeBob at first,when she and her friends encounter SpongeBob and Patrick at Glove World,rather than acting unpleasant towards him,have her ask SpongeBob and Patrick on what they're doing here in Glove World and she didn't want her friends to see them,cause she doesn’t want them to embarrass her in front of her friends. When her friends make fun of her by thinking she's SpongeBob's girlfriend,have her defend SpongeBob by telling them that he is not his girlfriend and that he is a good friend,even if he can be a little embarrasing and helped her escape. Also,have them work together as a team when they are trapped in the Tunnel of Glove. She will not be rude and mean towards SpongeBob,just annoyed,mildly angry, and embarassed by him and his pink friend.
-Make "Barnacle Face" better by having Pearl only embarrassed and upset,but not act bratty and demanding and accept SpongeBob's help in removing her barnacles off her face(along with removing the plot of Krabs making soap out of Krabby Patty grease,that made Pearl's barnacles worser than before). Don't make her upset and angry towards SpongeBob,but have SpongeBob use a special face cream that removes her barnacles after a few hilarious attempts to get them off like a spatula or soap to remove them,making Pearl grateful for SpongeBob for removing her barnacles,kisses him,and goes off to the school dance.
-Fix "Mr. Krabs Takes A Vacation" by not having Pearl act so mean towards her father,Mr.Krabs and SpongeBob and have her mildly annoyed and upset at Krabs for taking SpongeBob on their trip with them. Have her bored and dissapointed,not completely furious during the drive and when they past landmarks that Pearl wants to go to,but Krabs refuses. But when they go to the Mint,have the Teenage Boy Museum not demolished and have Krabs let her go there,with SpongeBob giving her a allowance and she runs inside the museum,while Krabs and SpongeBob go to the place where money is made. Then after SpongeBob and Krabs are rewarded with two dollar bills with their facts on them,in which Krabs takes for himself. Pearl arrives with the new shoes she's bought at the soveneirs store at the museum,but Krabs is too distracted by the two bills he's took,much to Pearl's annoyance.
And That's All My Ideas on Fixing Pearl's Character in Seasons 4-8 of SpongeBob. I know Pearl isn’t a perfect character and has been part of the show ever since it’s beginning,but she didn’t deserve to have her character done dirty by the writers after the first movie and flanderized into a unlikable brat in Seasons 4-8,she really deserved better and not derailed and ruined as a character.