it’s already been two weeks since we were bombarded by the Stevenbomb, and we’re still sifting through all the loads and loads of new developments, information, clues, and hints there are to glean!

one of the scenes that’s received quite a bit of attention is the somewhat cryptic conversation Greg has with Steven about the gems’ history, particularly because of the way he feels the need to disclaim that he wasn’t there, thousands of years ago, during the conflict between the crystal gems and the Homeworld gems. and with good reason! that line does stand out as particularly shifty.

what I found most interesting about this scene, however, lies in the first gif. it’s the wording Greg uses, “…the first time they…” right before he catches himself about to say something he knows he shouldn’t and cuts himself off. granted, he goes on to tell Steven that the gems invaded and harmed the Earth thousands of years ago, which was what prompted Rose to turn against Homeworld. he could very well have been about to say, “They didn’t the first time they invaded Earth,” and that line could be as innocuous as it seems. I could be jumping at shadows here, but…

remember: Greg and Steven are talking about what Peridot will do when she arrives on Earth. Peridot’s arrival signals Homeworld gems’ return to Earth for the first time in thousands of years. that’s what this episode is titled for, “The Return.”

so with that in mind, what if Greg had been about to say, “…the first time they came back…?” after all, a great deal of gems did care about the people and life on Earth during and in the aftermath of the invasion–not just Rose Quartz, Garnet, and Pearl, but the entire crystal gem army that followed Rose into open rebellion.

even if Greg was referring to gemkind’s original invasion and colonization of Earth, that “first time” connotes that there have been other times since then. of course, he could be counting Peridot’s impending arrival as “the second time,” and if this were the only piece of evidence pointing to a second crisis the crystal gems dealt with between the First Gem War for Earth and Peridot’s mission to reactivate the Kindergarten, then this argument wouldn’t have much to stand on.

but it isn’t the only piece of evidence, so I will posit: there was a second crisis tat the crystal gems confronted at some point after the first war. as for what kind of crisis it was or when this crisis happened, that’s part of what I’ll attempt to uncover!

before we go any further, let’s use only those events we are absolutely certain happened in an order relative to one another to establish a tentative timeline.

–

“over 5000 years” pre-series:

1. shortly before the war breaks out, Rose and Pearl affirm their devotion and loyalty to one another and to their decision to fight for Earth (“Rose’s Scabbard”)

2. Rose, Pearl, Garnet, and their crystal gem comrades make their stand against–and claim victory over–Homeworld gem forces on the Strawberry Battlefield (“Rose’s Scabbard”)

3. Rose, Pearl, and Garnet find Amethyst alone at the abandoned Kindergarten; Rose takes Amethyst under her wing as a crystal gem (“On the Run”)

[When Steven asks Amethyst how long she lived in the Kindergarten, she responds…]

–

note that we cannot definitively place the abandonment of Earth’s Kindergarten or the end of the First Gem War for Earth on the timeline yet.



while Pearl confirms that the crystal gems won the historic Battle of the Strawberry Battlefield, we still don’t know if that battle decided the entire war, or if the crystal gems and Homeworld gems fought more battles until Homeworld finally withdrew its occupation forces from Earth. similarly, we also don’t know if the incident where Rose could only use her shield to save a handful of her closest friends happened during or after the Battle of the Strawberry Battlefield…or if this incident took place before Amethyst joined the crystal gems or once she was already one of them.

the only reason we can determine that the crystal gems found and took in Amethyst after the Battle of the Strawberry Battlefield is because she confirms as much when Pearl tells Steven that she, Rose, and Garnet fought there:

we can’t be certain at this point, but it does seem likely that the crystal gems found Amethyst once the Kindergarten had already been abandoned. it’s also likely that Amethyst emerged from her hole in the canyon wall after the gems running it left, especially given the fact that Amethyst talks about and points out the rocks she played on and with to Steven, but makes no mention of other gems. the fact that the position of Amethyst’s hole is so low to the ground and separated from the other gems’ holes in the canyon wall also supports the idea that she emerged much later than the other gems that were incubated there.

it’s also important to notice that Amethyst doesn’t specify who was with Rose when the two of them met. by “the others” she could have meant Garnet and Pearl, but Rose had a whole army at one point, and “the handful of her closest friends that she saved with her shield” that Greg mentions is also vague with respect to who these friends were, or how many of them she managed to save. both Amethyst’s and Greg’s comments leave room for enough ambiguity that we can’t say for sure whether other crystal gems were still around when Amethyst joined them, or whether it was before or after the incident where Rose saved her closest friends.

…so now that we have the limitations of our knowledge and the imperfections of this timeline noted, let’s move on to the main argument of this post.

near the end of “The Return,” Jasper speaks to Steven as though he were Rose:

“At the first war for this garbage planet,” she says–and just like the implications of Greg’s cut off “first time they–” comment, Jasper’s allusion to a first war for Earth implies that there was at least one other war fought over Earth.



we know because of the symbols that appear on the floors of both the Strawberry Battlefield temple-labyrinth and the hand-ship…

…that the “Diamond Authority” most likely consists of three diamond-type gems: White Diamond, Blue Diamond, and Yellow Diamond.

so let’s postulate that one of those Diamonds was overseeing the Kindergarten project and/or Homeworld’s occupation of Earth over 5000 years ago. when Rose rallied her crystal gem army into open rebellion, this Diamond led the Homeworld gems that remained loyal to the Diamond Authority to put them down. ultimately, the armies clashed at the Battle of the Strawberry Battlefield. to claim victory over Homeworld’s forces, Rose would have had to defeat the Diamond leader somehow.

which seems to be exactly what she did.

…is it a coincidence that a white gem resembling a diamond was protected within and powering a labyrinthine gauntlet on the very battlefield where Rose’s armies once stood against and claimed a historic victory over Homeworld?

so–it’s safe to assume that the leader of Homeworld’s occupation forces was White Diamond. it was White Diamond who fought the crystal gems on the Strawberry Battlefield, and it was White Diamond who was defeated by Rose Quartz and the crystal gems.

speaking of the temple, there’s a lot of lore and foreshadowing in there. and a great deal of it is conveyed through the murals on the domed entrance chamber.

let’s look at the scenes from left to right.

on the far left is White Diamond, outnumbered and surrounded by hands that seem to be grasping fruitlessly for her. notice the way she’s contained within an inverted triangle–the same shape that represents the gems on the Diamonds’ chests on the mural. was she injured and forced to retreat into her gem, perhaps? mobbed and overwhelmed by those vaguely pinkish hands. Rose Quartz’s color is pink; could the hands represent her crystal gem army? this temple is also shaped like an inverted pyramid. it could very well be that White Diamond was a powerful enough gem to create the temple to protect herself while she regenerated within…or maybe one of her followers–or one of her fellow Diamonds–found her gem and placed her in the temple to keep her safe from Rose and her army.



whether the temple was created by White Diamond or another (or other) Homeworld gem(s), it’s obviously not a crystal gem temple. Rose seems to be depicted in a positive light in the mural, but pay attention to all the black figures standing alongside her. it’s very likely that those are other crystal gems. interpretation is very subjective here though: you can either interpret the fact that Rose isn’t alone as an indication of the crystal gems’ solidarity, banding together to depose tyrants and save Earth…or you can see it as an unfair situation where the Diamonds are unfairly outnumbered, yet continue to fight back against the rebels valiantly. in this light, the temple could be a monument to Rose’s treachery, and a mausoleum mourning the loss of Earth and of White Diamond.

whichever your interpretation of the mural’s depiction of the crystal gems, you can’t deny that the black figures standing alongside Rose against Blue Diamond are also depicted falling into the temple’s traps below…

…which is a pretty clear indication that the labyrinth’s gauntlet was intended to confound and destroy crystal gems that entered the temple in search of White Diamond’s gem. true to form, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl express confusion and panic once they discover that each set of the sixteen temple rooms redirect them back to the central chamber. if the crystal gems had constructed the temple to contain White Diamond and keep her followers from freeing her, then why wouldn’t Garnet, Amethyst, or Pearl know about the way the labyrinth’s mechanism works? if the temple was already containing White Diamond, why would they venture inside to recover and bubble her gem in the first place? remember: Pearl was happily surprised when she first laid eyes on the gem battlefield and realized that it had been reclaimed by nature–that probably means that the crystal gems hadn’t revisited the gem battlefield in many, many years either.

in fact, the episode itself is titled “Serious Steven” because the gems constantly remind Steven that this mission is a serious one. since they needed a key to access the temple, it’s likely that it’s a mission they could only undertake now that they’ve located that pyramid key.

when they arrive at the Strawberry Battlefield, Pearl expresses concern about bringing Steven along on the mission; later, once they’ve been sucked into the trap, Pearl tries to keep Steven with her in the central chamber while Amethyst and Garnet go ahead and explore the temple, and shoots Amethyst down when she offers to take Steven with her because they are “a disaster waiting to happen.” it’s Pearl, so a lot of us may have perceived this cautious behavior as perfectly normal for her–but if the inverted pyramid temple really was a Homeworld gem structure protecting one of the three most powerful gems in existence/a member of the Diamond Authority that fought Rose to put down her rebellion and keep Earth a gem-controlled planet for Kindergarten parasitism…well, the crystal gems’ caution is more than justified.

the temple’s purpose was never to contain White Diamond, but to protect her. it seems like temple’s function was to keep rebel gems that meant her harm away until the day a Homeworld gem would return, access the mechanism, and free White Diamond from her healing stasis.

once Steven does just that, the White Diamond idol reacts like this:

pretty sinister in retrospect, isn’t it?

the first face makes the idol look like it’s sleeping or upset (…the track aivi and surasshu created for this temple, btw, is titled “The Sleeping Pyramid…”), but the second face that rotates to face Steven makes it look very much awake, and pleased. then the gem resonates, comes loose, and proceeds to absorb parts of the mechanism and cause the inverted pyramid to explode…which would seem to support the idea that White Diamond somehow generated part of the temple before she retreated into her gem to recover from the defeat Rose dealt her.

if you notice though, the only parts of the temple that the White Diamond gem absorbs are the pyramids that the crystal gems are clinging to…

…so with respect to the construction of the pyramid temple, it’s possible that it was a collaborative endeavor. for example: White Diamond generated the idol mechanism and/or chamber; Homeworld loyalists built a temple around it; Blue Diamond’s followers (stragglers stranded on Earth like Lapis was, maybe?) added more—including the mural or parts of the mural—before or after the crystal gems defeated her. it’s also possible that White Diamond generated the entire temple, but other Homeworld gems accessed and added the mural after the fact, hid the pyramid key, etc. we just don’t know at this point!

by the way–be sure to compare the idol to the depiction of White Diamond in the mural too. note that in the mural White Diamond’s head is shaped like a pyramid, and that her hands are cupping her gem. now turn your attention to the idol. its face is represented by a pyramid; its hands are cupping the gem embedded in the space that represents the idol’s chest.

…so we have a pretty strong case that this gem is, in fact, White Diamond…and since her temple was located in the same Strawberry Battlefield where the crystal gems made their historic stand against Homeworld, it seems like Rose encountered and defeated her in that very battle.

to address why it’s taken so many thousands of years for White Diamond to regain her physical form…we have a precedent in Lapis. when her gem was powering the mirror, she couldn’t regenerate her physical form until Steven removed her.

White Diamond’s gem was powering the temple’s central mechanism and rotating the rooms—ostensibly as a reaction to the crystal gems’ progress through the three-room gauntlets—so it’s probable that she was stuck powering that temple in perpetuity without someone to remove her gem from the idol, unable to remanifest her physical form even if she had long since finished healing. the crystal gems may have gotten lucky that they managed to bubble her gem so quickly after they freed her, because if they hadn’t, White Diamond may very well have had a chance to generate her physical form!

as for why it took White Diamond so much longer to heal than Pearl, the only other example we’ve had of a gem retreating into their gem to heal…that could be related to the extent of their injuries. Pearl was stabbed; White Diamond fought against another powerful gem with the intent to kill in the middle of the “maelstrom of destruction and death” that was the Battle of the Strawberry Battlefield. White Diamond was probably injured much more grievously than Pearl.



before we move on to analyzing the mural’s second scene, let’s take a step back and think back to the timeline.

how much time passed between the crystal gems’ hard-fought, casualty-heavy victory in the Strawberry Battlefield and the battle between Rose Quartz and Blue Diamond? did Blue Diamond arrive immediately to reinforce White Diamond’s army, or did she arrive later than that? how much later? was the Homeworld warp already inactive? if so, how did Blue Diamond and her retinue get to Earth? did the Homeworld gems that survived the Battle of the Strawberry Battlefield, like Jasper, retreat back to the Galaxy Warp after witnessing White Diamond’s defeat, or did they continue fighting the war? if the Homeworld gems did retreat, did that mark the end of the First Gem War for Earth? did other crystal gems besides Rose, Pearl, Ruby, and Sapphire survive the battle?

one thing I am prepared to say with a degree of certainty: Rose’s battle with Blue Diamond happened after Amethyst joined the crystal gems.

my basis for this is quite possibly the largest piece of evidence we’ve seen yet:

the temple, which many of us have theorized depicts the fusion of all five crystal gems we’ve met so far.

and indeed: there’s Pearl’s gem on the second face’s forehead, Sapphire’s gem on the hand of the statue where the Steven’s laundry is kept, Amethyst’s gem on the statue’s chest–with Rose’s gem concealed by the house but located directly above the temple door, on the statue’s stomach…

…and Ruby’s gem missing along with the corresponding broken arm of the statue.

now, consider this: Amethyst joined the crystal gems after the Battle of the Strawberry Battlefield, and possibly after the First Gem War for Earth had ended. the gems have stressed that fusion is serious magic they only use in deadly situations, and they trot out that discretionary prerequisite for fusion whenever Steven asks two of them to fuse, let alone when he asks all three of the gems to fuse into Alexandrite and pose as Mom Universe for the dinner with the Maheswarans. but since the statue exists, it stands to reason that this gem fusion occurred at some point in the past–because the giant fusion struck early humans as some sort of guardian deity, and they constructed the statue around the temple (…which could be an old, repurposed gem spaceship or some other structure…) to venerate her? who knows at this point–which begs the question:

what in the universe could have been so dangerous and so deadly that all five of the crystal gems fused into a single entity to face it?

…okay. now let’s analyze the second scene in the sleeping pyramid mural. because yes, I am positing that the threat that forced all five crystal gems to fuse into the giant planetary guardian was a second invasion of Earth with Blue Diamond at the helm.

there are fourteen crystal gem figures standing alongside Rose; whether or not this is an accurate count of the crystal gems that survived the First Gem War for Earth and/or the Battle of the Strawberry Battlefield is unclear, but if it had just been Rose, Amethyst, Pearl, Ruby, and Sapphire–why add more gems to the scene? even if there weren’t exactly ten additional crystal gems, there’s a good chance that there were more than just Rose, Amethyst, Pearl, Ruby, and Sapphire.



what’s really interesting are the smaller blue diamond shapes surrounding Blue Diamond and clustered directly over Rose as though they’re raining down from the sky like a barrage. perhaps one of Blue Diamond’s abilities was to manipulate diamond shards to use as projectiles. I’m especially inclined to think so given that Lapis, the only gem we’ve met with the blue diamond on her person, has a similar ability to manipulate water.

EDIT: @seelcudoom brought up the excellent observation that the diamond shapes clustered over Rose could be shooting stars instead. you may remember the shooting star as the volatile elemental the crystal gems retrieved in “Monster Buddies…”

…and as the weapon that Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl tried to use to destroy the Galaxy Warp in one of the possible futures Steven sees with Garnet’s future vision in “Winter Forecast.”

it does make a terrifying amount of sense that Homeworld forces would resort to using shooting stars either to wipe Rose Quartz and the crystal gems once and for all, or as a parting barrage as the Homeworld gems left Earth for the last time–until Peridot, Jasper, and Lapis made the journey to Earth some 5000 years later. either way, this was an astute connection, and we owe it to @seelcudoom for bringing it to my attention…!

so imagine that Blue Diamond does possess this ability, on as massive a scale as Lapis can control water, and she manipulates shards of the hardest mineral on the Mohs scale to hurtle at the crystal gems at incredibly high velocities–probably aiming right for their gems. in the mural, Rose is standing ahead of most of the crystal gems, and seems to be repelling Blue Diamond’s attacks, most likely with her shield. but if the barrages were too overwhelming, and she had to defend against both Blue Diamond’s attacks and an orbital barrage of shooting stars…then this may be the incident Greg alluded to, where Rose could only use her shield to save a handful of her closest friends. perhaps this is what gave the surviving crystal gems time to fuse, and it was then that they outlasted, repelled, or defeated Blue Diamond and her second invasion–possibly even forcing her to retreat into her gem and maybe–just maybe, even though I’m unconvinced of it myself–end up as the blue gem haunting the lighthouse in “Beach City Horror Club.” you know…the one manipulating scarecrows to attack Steven, Lars, Sadie, and Ronaldo…hurtling all kinds of objects at them…like projectiles…

unfortunately, the crystal gems that Rose couldn’t save would have had their gems irreparably shattered…



…and put in a Rose Quartz bubble in hopes that, one day, Rose could find a way to do the impossible and repair them, or that the Rose Quartz bubble would have some kind of gradual healing effect on the remains of their fallen comrades over time.

by the way:

I tried distinguishing between each color and counted nine distinct tones. if these shards did belong to shattered crystal gems, it certainly lines up with the mural. including Amethyst, Ruby, Sapphire, and Pearl, that makes thirteen crystal gems standing alongside Rose while she fought Blue Diamond.

as for the missing fourteenth crystal gem:

there’s this gem (most likely Bismuth) floating in the pocket dimension in Lion’s mane, contained within a Rose Quartz bubble. pure speculation at this point, but this could be the missing fourteenth crystal gem that was depicted in the mural but went unaccounted for in the bubble Amethyst and Pearl popped in “Secret Team.”

but back to Blue Diamond and ‘the Second Gem War for Earth…’

there’s no way to be certain yet, but part of the reason I suspect that the confrontation with Blue Diamond took place some time after the First Gem War ended has to do with Lapis’s comments about the crystal gems. namely that they seem to make more sense if Blue Diamond and the gems in her service traveled back to Earth after hearing the news of White Diamond’s defeat. Lapis “never believed in [Earth],” and it makes sense to tie in her resentment and weariness to Blue Diamond’s attempt at reconquest going horribly, horribly wrong for Homeworld–to Lapis, retaking Earth certainly wasn’t worth the cost: thousands of years imprisoned in the mirror, existing as an object and a tool.

it wouldn’t have taken Blue Diamond very long to arrive on Earth. if Blue Diamond was off-planet when news of White Diamond’s defeat reached Homeworld through the Galaxy Warp, but the crystal gems disabled the Galaxy Warp shortly thereafter, then Blue Diamond would have had to travel to Earth via conventional space travel, like Peridot and Jasper did 5000 years later. it seems to have taken Peridot and Jasper just a few weeks to reach Earth…but even when you account for the limitations of gem tech back then, the gems already had an intergalactic empire more than 5000 years ago, and probably far longer than that—their spacefaring technology couldn’t be that bad. maybe it took them a year or a few years to arrive at Earth from the nearest gem-controlled star system (which wouldn’t be that long at all for gems, who are functionally immortal), but it definitely wouldn’t have taken Blue Diamond thousands of years to reach Earth. I mean, Lapis did make it back to Homeworld—or the nearest gem-controlled planet with a warp connecting it to Homeworld, of which there could be a lot more closer to Earth than there were 5000 years prior if gemkind’s empire has expanded—by flying there in less than a year.

notice how conventional space travel time provides a window for the crystal gems to find and take in Amethyst and fits the idea that the diamond shapes over Rose in the mural depict an orbital bombardment of shooting stars.



finally, on the far right side of the mural, is Yellow Diamond, resplendent within a sun, as she remained on Homeworld and may now be acting unilaterally as the Diamond Authority. if all this speculation has merit and Rose did end up defeating both White Diamond and Blue Diamond–and their gems are, at this moment, floating in the Crystal Gem Temple’s bubble room–then Yellow Diamond may have decided to cut Homeworld’s losses and leave Earth to the crystal gems, forsaking her fellow Diamonds and surviving Homeworld loyalists like Lapis to ~5000 years on Earth. maybe Yellow Diamond even disagreed with Blue Diamond’s plan to retake Earth, which is why Jasper–a gem marked with the yellow diamond–fought in the first war for Earth but not the second. perhaps there was a more sinister reason…. whatever happened, only time will tell!

the fact remains that something must have changed for Yellow Diamond to order Peridot to reestablish a warp stream to Earth and restart its Kindergarten, and since both Peridot and Jasper are now stranded on Earth, chances are that we’ll learn more about Yellow Diamond’s motives sooner rather than latter.

however, there is evidence that Yellow Diamond was involved with Earth’s occupation—and more specifically its Kindergarten–at some point. when Peridot’s plug robonoid successfully accesses the prime Kindergarten control room in facet five, the control panel that appears is marked the yellow diamond…

…similarly to the way that both Jasper and Peridot are marked by a yellow diamond on their persons.

the Kindergarten control panel is also reminiscent of the control panel in Rose’s secret armory, which is marked by her pink rose motif, triangle, and vines.

whether this speaks to Yellow Diamond’s presence on Earth before and/or during the First Gem War, the Kindergarten being her brainchild/managed by gems in her faction, or that Yellow Diamond’s followers were responsible for the construction of Kindergarten’s infrastructure on Earth–we can’t say for sure yet. in any case, the evidence of Yellow Diamond’s involvement in Earth’s occupation more than 5000 years ago does establish a tentative connection that could help explain why gems marked as her followers would have an interest in reactivating the planet’s Kindergarten.

speaking of Peridot though–it’s really interesting to note that the Red Eye from “Laser Light Cannon,” the second episode of the series…



…was revealed to have been sent to survey the Earth by Peridot in “Marble Madness…”

…which means that Yellow Diamond’s/Homeworld’s interest in Earth had already been rekindled quite some time before Lapis made it back to Homeworld.

perhaps even more fascinating is that the Homeworld records that Peridot accessed stated the all gems had been wiped out on Earth.

that leads me to wonder if Homeworld assumed that even though Blue Diamond had been defeated (destroyed?) in her attempt to reconquer Earth, she had at least succeeded in taking the crystal gems with her, perhaps with those barrages of shooting stars.

but those records don’t mention the crystal gems either, judging by Peridot’s total lack of recognition when Pearl tells her who they are, so it’s possible…that Peridot only has access to records that withhold the real truth about what happened on Earth, either because Yellow Diamond didn’t want the news about White Diamond’s and Blue Diamond’s defeats to spread through the empire (i.e. even though Rose Quartz and her rebellion were wiped out, resistance against Homeworld is possible—they succeeded in taking two of the Diamond Authority down with them, after all, so the diamonds aren’t absolute or unbeatable), she didn’t want any and all evidence and information of the rebellion to die on Earth before she attempted to recolonize the planet and reactivate its Kindergarten, or she was completely content in allowing gemkind to believe that White Diamond and Blue Diamond had been destroyed along with all other gems on Earth so she could act unilaterally as the sole Diamond Authority. if it’s the latter, that could also account for the small size and members of Peridot’s escort—Jasper, who fought in the First Gem War and already knows the truth about what happened…and Lapis, who’d recently returned from Earth, confronted the crystal gems before she left, and contradicted the official story in the records with her survival and experiences…

if any of this…very long post…is even halfway to accurate, then it would seem like the conflict brewing between Homeworld and the crystal gems would be the third crisis of its kind that our protagonists have had to face.

[many, many thanks to autistic-bird-mom for pointing this “Marble Madness” scene out to me!]

thank you for reading…!