oathkeeper-of-tarth:

There’s a few misconceptions I see floating around a lot and I just wanted to try setting some stuff straight. Really long post incoming.



Let’s start with the most recent one, closely tied into the current hot Diamond-assassination topic.

1) Confusion about the rebellion/war timeline, when Pink Diamond was shattered, and when Pearl became a Terrifying Renegade.

Now, this post has been sitting in my drafts for ages, so I’ll lose the whole argument I had here about how the Beta Kindergarten being made “halfway through the war” and then Ultimate Jasper Fangirl Eyeball asking Jasper where she was when PD was shattered quite solidly pointed to PD being shattered closer to the end of the war than the start, because in the latest episodes we’ve gotten explicit confirmation several times over that Rose shattering PD did indeed happen later on.

A-a-a-and right you are to ask, My Diamond! Because at that time that Pink was shattered, Rose Quartz had been a recognized threat for several hundred years!



Zircon’s claims after this, pointing out that question that has everyone buzzing, leads me right into my next point.

And where was her pearl?



Excellent question! And I have no idea. But I do know Pearl wasn’t Pink Diamond’s pearl - at least not at the time Pink Diamond was shattered (I won’t go into speculation about who Pearl originally served here and the pros and cons of the White/Pink/Not A Diamond camps, because it’s not really relevant here). Pearl’s backstory is still a giant and much-teased question mark, yes, but what we do know is that she was the first Gem to join Rose in the rebellion, and did so right at the very start.

Of course, we have Rose’s Scabbard and that at this point iconic “over 5000 years ago” exchange:

Rose: Pearl. I’m going to stay and fight for this planet. You don’t have to do this with me. Pearl: But I want to!

Rose: I know you do. Please, please understand: if we lose, we’ll be killed, and if we win, we can never go home.

Pearl: Why would I ever want to go home, if you’re here?

Rose: My Pearl. You’re wonderful.

(Incidentally, that last line being spoken by Rose to Pearl is something confirmed by Joe Johnston in an ask here. Years ago. And I’d been wondering for so long…)

Clearly what we saw there was the very inception of the rebellion, and both of them still had the option to back out and go back to their intended lives.



In addition to this, the Guide to the Crystal Gems (which was written by Rebecca Sugar herself and definitely a solid source on canon) confirms it several times, most notably here, under Pearl’s section:

She and Mom were the original Crystal Gems.



The Answer takes place before the shattering, as well. 5750 years ago, according to Garnet, which is too long ago for Rose to have been a threat for “several hundred years”; the rebels seem to consist of Rose Quartz and Pearl only (though I suppose this can be chalked up to out-of-universe production convenience/simplification), but, more importantly, they are a seen as a nuisance at most, “a small but persistent group of rebels” thwarting progress on the promising new colony. They hardly receive the treatment of someone who committed an unthinkable, unprecedented crime. They aren’t an army embroiled in an all-out war and enough to warrant the haphazard construction of an entire Kindergarten just to stand against them (which, again, per the Jasper and Eyeball point above, very likely happened before PD was shattered).



Rose also doesn’t have her sword with her during the attack on Blue Diamond’s court, which is interesting, even if not super conclusive (if anything it gives hints about when Bismuth might have joined up). Interestingly, in the picture book of The Answer she’s at one point shown with it, though not as part of a scene in the narrative, so it may just be for effect.

(Also I just really like that bit so I’m putting it here.)



2) Rose could have had an entirely human baby



This one was actually started when the Guide to the Crystal Gems accidentally ended up on a few store shelves before it was supposed to be released, and excited folks wrote up some hot tidbits from it to share on tumblr - this particular one that spread like wildfire is pretty clearly a misread.



[full size for easier reading]

Rose Quartz was determined to bridge the gap between Gems and humanity. We are not humans, but we can create an amazingly accurate simulation of a human body with shape-shifting. This can allow us to experiment with human experience; we can make lungs and experience breathing, or a stomach and experience eating. Rose Quartz wanted to experience birth.

Amethyst, after some talk about how Gems are injected into the earth and made:



We come out just like we are, and then pretty much stay that way forever. We don’t have to bother growing up like humans do!

And Garnet continues with the point:



But Rose Quartz wanted to create a human child. One who could learn and grow, with the capacity for love that comes so naturally to human beings.

Steven is the human child, the one with the ability to grow and change and all of that stuff that Rose thought so very highly of. Rose had to give up her physical form to let Steven “use” her gem because she literally doesn’t have actual DNA/a haploid cell to pitch in with. The way Gems store all information about themselves in their gems is yet another vaguely computer-y/AI-ish thing about them.



Pearl gets a bit technical after this:

A Gem is their Gem. Our physical forms generate from our Gems. All the information that makes us who we are is sourced in the Gem itself. To give that information to a human child, Rose Quartz was able to integrate her information with the DNA of Greg Universe by dissipating her physical form to allow all of her Gem’s information to become half of Steven’s self.

This isn’t actually anything really new - Ian Jones Quartey answered an ask way back when outlining this:

Steven on the other hand was created by mixing human and gem DNA so he’s a completely new kind of being. He is the only gem to be born thru biological reproductive means (Rose shapeshifted a womb for him to be born from).



Steven has some thoughts on the matter himself.

I’d put the ‘Rose “died” due to shapeshifting strain’ thing on the debunked pile thanks to all this, as well (though honestly that particular take never made any sense to me at all) - it was no more strenuous and damaging than keeping any other set of internal organs shapeshifted, which our Gems definitely do (lungs, at the very least, they seem to keep on the regular). And, I mean, we’ve seen her very pregnant on several tapes at this point, and she was perfectly fine on all of them (and unlike lungs for eating or a stomach for a brief bout of digestion, a uterus for a fetus to develop in is hardly something one can take a brief break from in order to recharge, as we’ve seen Amethyst and Steven do). The damaging shapeshifting strain issue was related to forcing your form to be bigger than whatever is “written” in your gem info - and as we’ve seen with Amethyst in Reformed, it’s impossible to keep up a larger size even when taken as a form after regeneration.

Anyway, that’s about it. TL;DR is Pearl was the first Gem other than Rose to rebel, Pink Diamond wasn’t shattered near the start of the war but the end, Garnet joined before the shattering, it’s impossible for Gems to have children without giving up their form (and, presumably, without the child consequently being half-magical), Rose didn’t die of shapeshifting. Cheers.

