SU theory time

Pink Diamond was shattered, but not by rose.

there are a few theories floating around about pink diamonds supposed demise after summer of Steven, whether or not pink diamond was really shattered or even if she conspired with rose quartz and faked the whole thing. While some of these theories make solid points, none of them line up completely, leaving a lot of room for speculation. So I propose to you a different kind of theory I’ve had raking around in my brain for some time.

I get into a lot of stuff so more under the cut.

Eyeball claims to have witnessed rose shattering pink diamond,“I saw it with my own eye! I watched the leader of the Crystal Gems, Rose Quartz, shatter Pink Diamond!”

“I saw it with my own eye! I watched the leader of the Crystal Gems, Rose Quartz, shatter Pink Diamond!”

this however has a serious hole, unlike other gems weapons roses sword was made by bismuth, and we learn from bismuth herself that the sword was made for a ‘fair fight’,



“It can cut through a gem’s physical form in an instant! Destroying the body…but never the gem.”

So how is it that eyeball could have witnessed rose shattering pink diamond? We know her sword wasn’t capable of such a feat, so short of crushing pink diamonds gem with her bare hands there is no feasible way rose could have done this, yet this is what eyeball claims to remember,

“Who cares about her shield!? Her huge sword is what I remember.”

But lets talk about pearl for a moment.

In gem culture, low status gems like pearl are made and tossed aside without a second thought,

“She’s a made to order servant, just like all the other hundreds of pearls being flaunted around back on homeworld.”

“You’re just a pearl, somebody’s shiny toy!”

even more horrifying many gems of that status are taught that this is normal, even inconsequential.

“They were gonna b-break you.”

“Who cares? There’s tons of me!”

getting back to the focus of things, in the time line of the gem war as we understand it, the shattering of pink diamond happened at the end, presumably what caused the other diamonds to retreat and corrupt any of the remaining crystal gems. So we can assume that pearl had already met rose and joined the rebellion.

We also know that pearls character prior to 'Back to the Barn’ that she didn’t see her own value outside of serving rose, perhaps a predisposition from serving the diamonds, who wouldn’t have seen her as any thing more than a tool and would have treated her as much.

Rose however made her feel valuable, wanted, even needed. Whether there was some threat to pearls person from the diamonds, or simply her affection for rose that caused her to defect from her position is up in the air, but it is clear that she devoted herself to rose entirely.

“I’m going to stay, and fight for this planet. You don’t have to do this with me. Please, please understand if we lose, we could be killed, and if we win, we can never go home.”

“Why would I want to go home if your here?”

The amount of devotion to even allowed pearl to put aside her own sense self preservation for rose, as she still only saw herself as tool for rose.

“Pearl took pride in risking her destruction for your mother. She put rose quartz over everything, over logic, over consequence, even her own life”

“When you live for someone your prepared to die.”

So naturally pearl would want to protect rose from any great threat, and the greatest threat could only be the one the crystal gems where trying to take earth from, the whole reason there was a rebellion in the first place, Pink Diamond.

The idea that rose would have shattered a diamond seems very left field for all we know about her character, especially after what happened with bismuth which was prior the end of the war. If rose thought the best way to end the war was to shatter pink diamond then why did she turn down the breaking point? Even going so far as to bubble bismuth and not tell the other crystal gems what happened?

We know pearl believed in all the things rose taught, however, given pearls over ecstatic behavior towards and her safety, is it much of a leap to consider that in a fight between pink diamond and rose, that pearl would have jumped in to aid her, even compromising what rose had taught her in order to protect her?



Take pearl and garnets behavior when eyeball reveals what she believes to have happened to pink diamond. Garnet is concerned, but pearl is outright horrified, scared even. Well, you might say, she didn’t want Steven to know, she wants to keep the darker things about the gem war away from Steven. But compare this reaction to that of realizing amethyst told Steven about the nature of the kindergarten, she isn’t upset in the same sense, shes angry. Even still about telling Steven about the nature of corrupted gems, shes concerned about how Steven takes it, but she is far from upset, or scared for that matter.

The only other time we’ve seen her this way is when she’s ashamed of her own actions, particularly when it concerns rose, as shown in 'Rose’s Scabbard’

Why did eyeball claim rose was the one to shatter pink diamond? Well as I said its like likely pearl came between the two while a fight was already going on, probably admist an ongoing battle, making it difficult to tell who exactly did what. Not to mention due to the nature of homeworld society it would have been easier, perhaps even logical, to assume rose, a powerful gem warrior, was the one to deal the finishing blow, rather than a servant pearl.

Why would rose take the credit? Perhaps to protect pearl, the diamonds would have already had it out for rose since she was the leader of the rebellion, but it also may have been a stratagem to get more gems on her side who, like bismuth, believed force was the only way to win the war.

Why doesn’t garnet know? Hard to say, its possible that she does and is choosing to keep it hidden for pearls sake, or she wasn’t there at the exact moment it happened, and rose kept it a secret from her. Pearl, who while having possibly saved rose, would still have likely felt shame over shattering a gem and consequently going against everything rose believed in, and may have chosen not to tell garnet the truth.

tl;dr

Rose did not shatter Pink Diamond, Pearl did.