Steven Universe Review: S5E19 - Now We're Only Falling Apart

Garnet unfuses, Sapphire takes the news about Pink Diamond pretty hard, and Pearl recollects on Pink Diamond in her formative years. I had rather mixed feelings on "Now We're Only Falling Apart," and I'm still not sure whether I liked the episode overall or not.
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[@pyrocatheter]

In regard to Pearl's fusion attempt, I think it was innocent. I think that Homeworld only saw fusion as a battle tactic with no intimate aspect at all, since like gems like the Rubies seem to be able to fuse effortlessly. Pearl didn't know it as an intimate act at the time, since heterofusion was unheard of and she hadn't gotten to know Garnet yet.

[@aiiiia9971]

Pyrocatheter Yup

[@carleflores9065]

@@ShadowInTheDoorframe Like an "oh, ok, let's find out!" moment?

[@PixelOverload]

"I feel the majority would probably *follow their Diamonds vision*." That, imo, is exactly why she _didn't_ rebel as Pink Diamond. If the Crystal Gems followed her out of a sense of obligation to their Diamond it would completely undercut the purpose of the rebellion, it would just be the same servile relationship as it's always been, she would still be perpetuating the Diamond Authority. The whole point was to encourage gems to _choose_ freedom and individuality of their own volition, not out of loyalty to their Diamond. It may be naive and simplistic, but i would say again, she _was_ young and naive, what do you expect?

[@kharijordan6426]

we have a president. im sure pink can figure out how to be pink and still have everyone be free to be who they are. pink being rose feels like it under cuts some things to. is it really a choice when the other option is be shattered? not pinks fault its like that, but wouldn't everyone be releaved to know that a diamond is fighting for change? i wonder if she asked why they must colonize. and actually not take ''for the glory of the sith empire'' as an answer.

[@roberta2828]

The_Catman I was your 100th like

[@phlpcockrell]

How could pink still be pink and have everyone be free to be who they are? For starters it's a war that she feels they'll probably lose. So there aint no "be free" yet. They have to fight. With pink as their leader it's just a bunch of gems following their diamond's orders. Plus it could just seem like pink is trying to use her gems to overthrow the other diamonds and conquer homeworld under the ruse of freedom. Plus gems are terrified of ALL the diamonds. Even following a diamond into battle, it'd be like "sure this diamond is down to fight, she's a DIAMOND. But s regular gems are just gonna get shattered. Fuck this". But a quartz soldier heading the rebellion is like a regular Amethyst heading the charge. Basically "if this quartz soldier can do it, why can't I?" It's more inspiring.

[@trevionhenderson5721]

@@phlpcockrell Even Pink was obviously afraid of the other Diamonds wrath. True she probably could've shattered them, but they psychology conditioned her since she formed. Pink might not have known that she could actually hold a candle to the other diamonds and EVEN IF SHE DID, she never wanted it to get this deep. She didn't WANT to fight that just all homeworld seems to understand

[@phlpcockrell]

@@trevionhenderson5721 well i did say GEMS are terrified of the diamonds. And Pink is a Gem. As a diamond she's more powerful and would stand a better chance than other gems. Going by jungle moon, she saw yellow and blue as mothers so obviously she wouldn't WANT to fight, she just knew she had to. And... I'm not really sure what u were chiming in about so I'm not sure how to keep this train of thought rolling

[@arose92795]

Pearl trying to fuse with rose without consent seems to stem from them just finding out this was a thing that can happen and not understanding how personal it really is. This is like a kid declaring they want to marry their teacher.

[@arose92795]

Plus I dont think there would ever be a reason for a pearl to fuse with a pearl, so our pearl may not have ever experienced fusion. On top of that, ruby said same gem fusion just makes you feel like a bigger you. It's not as intimate as fusion between different gems. (Taking this from a comment that seems to be missing now) ruby basically just smacked into saphire. Ruby didn't ask for consent. So is what ruby did, according to the analogy, wrong?

[@nathanlong1644]

That's a fantastic comparision, but considering that rose is also like a kid regarding fusion at that point, it's more like a kindergartner declaring they want to marry another kindergartner because their... I dunno--their Aunt just got married.

[@arose92795]

Nathan Long True. That's a much better comparison in my opinion.

[@Ajehy]

Nathan Long - Yeah, as a kid, I thought “marriage = really liking each other a lot”. I had no context, really (except that my parents are best friends as well as romantically together) so I asked a lot of kids to marry me.

[@astonapplin2564]

Just a reminder to people that fusion isn't a metaphor for sex, it's a metaphor for a relationship/love/the close bond shared between two people. Otherwise fusions like Smoky Quarts wouldn't make much sense. What pearl did was awkwardly try starting a relationship without knowing how to, it'd be like someone randomly running up to you and yelling "WE'RE RELATIONSHIPPING NOW!". She's not trying to have non-consensual sex

[@astonapplin2564]

Whilst we're on the subject of fusion, now that we know Steven is actually a pink diamond and not a Rose Quarts, should rainbow quarts and smoky quarts be re-named? Or can they still be called quarts since they're their own person and not a literal combination of the gems?

[@arellajardin2323]

The names of fusions are just that, names. They don’t change into a new gem, Garnet still has a Ruby and a Sapphire in her hands. They pick their names for themselves. As for Smokey Quartz. Amethysts are still classified as “quartz.” Rainbow Quartz? They’ll probably keep the name for consistency.

[@astonapplin2564]

I recon I agree with you Arella Jardin :) I think gems may have some kinda system to work out fusions since it seemed like Amethyst was calculating it, but whatever the system is, it seems pretty vague and I think the name is supposed to fit the personality of the fusion rather than a literal mixture of the gems. (Also, sorry for misspelling quartz and also for specifying “two people”, since fusions & real life bonds can be between any number of people, but ya’ll got the idea of my message ^_^)

[@carleflores9065]

hahahaha! I'm going to scream that to someone in the future I swear hahahaahahah

[@phlpcockrell]

Back when pearl tried this fusion, fusion wasn't a metaphor for anything. Garnet made it a metaphor much later, and the crew portrays it as one. Fusion was nothing intimate or special on homeworld so pearl didn't see it as intimate or special.

[@Jakeneutron]

Personally, i feel like if Pink proposed war as herself, there would’ve been just as many casualties under her. The diamonds very likely would’ve been like “oh? You wanna act up now pink? You think this is a game? *snap* now your whole colony is obliterated. You’ve lost your right for now to colonize, Yellow will be taking over the rest” Gotta recognize that Pink as in the position of basically a child with his older siblings and/or parents. You gotta be lucky enough to have elders willing to listen for any of your moves to make an impact as yourself. The diamonds probably gas lighted her when she felt anything that strayed from the norm. While I’m sure there are definitely some choices she could’ve made better on, her becoming Rose was more likely to give them headway then trying to claim a rebellion as herself. Cause the diamonds don’t care what Pink *thinks* .

[@darkheart9668]

This makes sense, the diamonds gave her the colony and they just as easily could have take it away if Pink wasn’t careful. It seems Yellow didn’t really want to give her a colony and Pink didn’t have any say in the matter if the others diamonds decided a colony was to much for Pink to handle

[@jbark678]

If they couldn't snap their fingers and stop Rose, why would they be able to do that against Pink? That being said, from Blue and Yellow's perspectives, Rose constituted a lot of unknowns (can shatter a Diamond, is clearly stronger than a normal quartz, ect.) so I can see them fighting more cautiously than they would against Pink, whose capabilities they are more aware of.

[@fairymairah]

how do they get to take over all the technology ! ? ! ? !

[@Uppy21]

Jakeneutron We also have to keep in mind too, that if she lead as PD, she wouldn't have met Greg or had Steven. I agree she probably could've done more too, but as you've said, if the Diamonds knew she was Rose, they would've just shattered everyone, destroyed earth, and locked her away somewhere. Things didn't go great, but they went as well, as they could have, considering the situation. It's been drilled in our heads that Rose wasn't perfect, kept secrets, and had to make hard choices like Steven has to. Rose wasn't perfect, not in a "she was evil" way, but she made mistakes kinda way. She wasn't an all-knowing leader, that Steven was scared he'd never live up to. So, I don't get why people keep saying how she didn't do enough -- Like, geez.

[@lisas9]

I think: Her sisters could never act against Pink just like that because the Big Diamond Authority is based on the belief that all diamonds are equal (meaning that they all are just as strong and suitable to be the leaders). If Pink would've turned against the diamonds with all of her soldiers, her sisters could only accept her decision since not doing so would've made all other gems beneath them think that Pink D was less than the others. This would lead them to think that maybe the diamonds are not equal and therefore, to think that one diamond must be better than the others, eventually leading to the end of the Big Diamond Authority.

[@Wixi-2000]

I think that if Pink did the whole rebellion as herself, Yellow and Blue would just go "Oh, stop acting like a little brat already. We get it, this planet is full of life, full of plants and people, blah, blah, blah, whatever. If you won't do what you were designed to do we will take it back" I mean, we saw that Pink used to be quite childish and throw a lot of fits, so I think Blue and Yellow would see it as her just throwing another fit. Pink knew they wouldn't take her seriously as someone they already knew, so she took on a new body, a new persona. This way, they didn't know her and she could've been taken seriously. A little too seriously, but... Still. And about the whole "Why didn't she show that she was a Diamond to the rebels?" part, she showed to them as a Rose Quartz, she promised them freedom from the Diamonds, she outright promised them freedom of will. Turning back into a Diamond would be breaking these points and showing them that she lied. Why the hell would she do that!?

[@kharijordan6426]

they can try and take it back but then she just wont let them. you know by poofing and bubbling and destroing every ship she could. maybe to the point that it cracks her gem. if she's willing to die for it i think some sort of talk would be in order. or she could code geos the hole thing and trick at the right moment. idk

[@kharijordan6426]

doom like what happen in canon? except luckily blue and yellow wanted the earth to die ironically by the hands of the shattered crystal gems. ok well she still is a diamond. what are they going to do after capturing her? dose she have a role to do as a diamond? even in loss i think that action would help get a real talk going at least.

[@Wixi-2000]

@K'hari Jordan We saw that the other Diamonds don't care and already have a strong opinion about hollowing the planet. That they want to do it. If Pink would've showed herself that she wasn't shattered to them, the other Diamonds would probably go something like "Young lady, you're in trouble" and ground her for stars know how long. At this cost, all the gems that fought on her side would have been probably shattered or threatened with it unless they obeyed. And the Earth would've been hollowed. Seriously, how can't you get it? It's pretty obvious.

[@kharijordan6426]

i don't get it it because on how much i see them crying over pink. means they won't shatter her. so if she literally fought as herself i think that they couldn't do much about it. so if they send regular gems down their i don't think they would like fighting a diamond, and if they went down there it would show in fighting amongst the diamonds. witch is bad if you want to show that the authority is unshakable. the blue and yellow would be in a loose loose situation and be forced to talk. assuming every other gem at this point knows that pink exist anyway.

[@Wixi-2000]

Sure, they wouldn't shatter her, but they could poof her and the ground her. Blue and Yellow have all the control and they would probably shatter any common gem that is thinking against them. Also, gems under Yellow's and Blue's control wouldn't really care about fighting another diamond, because we say how fixated some gems can be on following heir diamond's commands. So what goes to say that they would fear fighting Pink?

[@arellajardin2323]

One point to remember. WE know Blue and Yellow care very deeply for Pink, and would probably not have retaliated in full force against her personally. But PINK didn’t know that. Everything we’ve seen, shows she felt marginalized and not respected. Pearl says they didn’t respect her role as a Diamond and ruler of Earth. Pink herself says they “don’t care, they never have.” It’s possible that she believed if she rebelled as a Diamond, then they would have just wiped everyone out. Her and all gems under her.

[@tincano-beans2114]

Arella Jardin instead they wiped out everyone but her, a pearl, a ruby, and a saphire... what a win

[@lucasmartinez5703]

Still a win.

[@kharijordan6426]

that's not a win -_- and to be honest they wanted pink to take charge of her colony not just strait up leave it. they live forever. they can stop reproducing for 1 millennia or 1,000.

[@wisdommanari6701]

So she wasn't willing to die for her cause but others were

[@kharijordan6426]

julie it's hard to know what the diamonds want too me. first they gave pink a colony to get her to shut up , but then never let her do what she want's with it. like a parent who says they bart their kid a car, but never let them drive it and drives the car themselves all the time even tho it was for there kid. and if they really wanted earth dead they would have hollowed it out after the war. they have a tun of colonies. they know they don't need earth. but for some reason want pink to do it. so i came to the conclusion that they wanted pink to take charge. they don't give a flying flip about earths resources.

[@rinseyong5202]

5:33 about Pearl “gaining individuality” -- I personally think that scene is meant to convey the opposite. She may have been straying from the standard of what a Pearl is supposed to be like on homeworld, but she was doing it by further embracing her original purpose/programming, which was to make pink happy. Once she was able to actually do that for the first time, it became the main thing that drove her, so much so that it eventually overrode her “obedient servant” predisposition. And after Rose/Pink ENCOURAGED her to keep doing that, she just got worse. Of course, Rose probably didn't realize that this was something that was harming Pearl. All she knew was that she felt happier and more alive than she's felt in centuries.

[@variedadesonline3926]

RinSeyong i agree

[@Gojiro7]

I personally dont agree with that, during this time, Pearl was in a weird state of still being loyal to Pink Diamond but gaining kernels of individuality, hence why she tried to fuse with Pink ON A WHIM, it wasn't because pink commanded her too or doing it would make her happy, Pearl was embracing the moment like a girl who gets a surprise kiss from her first romantic partner and after it didn't work she felt torn between her purpose and who she's becoming because of what Rose is inspiring in everyone, not just herself. so Pearl has always been in a middle ground between being duty bound to her Diamond and the one she loved and being her own individual, she did gain individuality but she stayed in a comfortable place of doing things for herself by doing them for the one she cared for, its kinda like Kamina's famous speech from Gurren Lagann "Believe in the me that believes in you"

[@boo9781]

@@Gojiro7 i do not agree, pearls entire arc in the show was realizing she was still just following her diamond and didn’t do things for herself, she did them because rose was happy, same with her feelings, she felt jealous rose was moving on because she was created to make her happy and now she didn’t need her for that, she had Greg. That’s why when rose died pearl felt so lost, she was never an individual, she just did everything for her and this is told to us many times (the ‘do it for her’ song, the ‘happily ever after’ song in the movie in which she straight up says “I guess I never left her side” and in how many times she says she stayed on earth for rose) and in addition pearl was still following pinks direct rules of not speaking the truth throughout the whole show, it was only her arc was completed when she was able to be free and leave rose behind completely. She wasn’t free, she was following her programming in a different way.

[@ineedmoresleep3728]

Is it possible that since this was told through pearl, that she might’ve embellished some of the details? Pearl has a lot of trouble accepting that pink/rose wasn’t perfect

[@uncivilizedelk]

Most definitely possible.

[@somestuff7876]

Pearl: "maybe she was foolish and maybe even selfish" - wouldn't call it "a lot of trouble".

[@KalinTheZola]

Hitch Geek but saying she was maybe selfish and foolish is kind of an understatement when you really think about it. Besides, from the way Pearl was emoting both physically and verbally, I sort of took it as her really admitting this to herself for the first time ever. Sitting on it for thousands of years before being able to admit something like that about the person you love is what I would consider "A lot of trouble".

[@ineedmoresleep3728]

Hitch Geek first time in the entire series as far as I recall, that pearl describes rose as anything less than perfect. And “it’s maybe a little selfish”, after all rose put pearl through

[@somestuff7876]

Exactly why I feel like I can trust her version of a story... now. Don't forget that in recent seasons crewniverse used Garnet to reinforce the perfect image of Rose. As for "Rose did all she could" part it probably has more to do with writing issues rather than a character pov.

[@good_death_for_the_lonely]

I think the reason why pink didnt start a war as pink was bc she didn't *want* to be a diamond. She wanted to be her own gem. Like her speech in the greg babysits episode.

[@good_death_for_the_lonely]

that's also why she chose to "kill" pink diamond, bc she wanted to "kill" her past life and move on with the life she chose for herself.

[@MegaOverclocked]

Ms Moon that's all nice thematically but realistically the issue is that its extremely selfish. Alot of tragedies was brought about due to such a immature decision.

[@tincano-beans2114]

MegaOverclocked yes! This

[@pirateguykarl]

A Freedom speech coming from the person who controls your life is laughable, A Freedom speech coming from someone who is supposedly just like you is powerful. Pink couldn't have fought for Gem Freedom and then force her gems into fighting for her cause. Its hypocritical. The only gems that should and can fight in an army for their freedom, are people who are there by their own decision.

[@ColdNorth0628]

MegaOverclocked you mean war in general?

[@ganonsannoyinglittlebrothe9112]

Considering Pearl and Rose most likely never fused prior to that sure that period, I'm sure Pearl attempting to fuse with rose wasn't violating anything considering neither of them have any idea how it works

[@uncivilizedelk]

Dude... it's fusion. It's two people becoming one. It's sharing a body. That's not violating? There's a reason Vegeta was so upset when he had to do it with Goku, lol.

[@kharijordan6426]

using the bathroom would be awkward.

[@rya3190]

I think this would have been closer to two people, uh for a lack of words, experimenting. They saw (maybe heard of) two other people taking their relationship to the next level and with Rose being excited about it, Pearl got excited and jumped the gun. Personally I think fusion takes on a different full meaning, like best friends who have complete faith in eachother. In Garnet's case, Ruby and Sapphire have a hard time being apart, so this goes deeper than trust, it's love. or in Jasper and Lapis' case, Obsession. With this, I kind of believe the intention is the issue that comes up. Here she likely wanted to be closer to Rose. Vegeta is a bit of a different case...His pride is extremely high and I think this has more to do with Vegeta needing help or even using someone else's power.

[@variedadesonline3926]

Joel Acevedo i agree

[@nathanlong1644]

As other people have already pointed out, 'fusion' between two different types of gems was unheard of---Pink herself says it! ("The only thing I've heard about two different gems fusing is that it's unheard of" might have this quote slightly wrong, but I'm pretty sure I'm close) Before Garnet showed Pearl and Pink that fusion between two different Gems was even POSSIBLE, fusion was just a means of gaining strength--this is something that Ruby explains. When she fused with other Rubies, she was still her--just bigger. But we know that fusion between two different gems is completely different. They become something stronger and completely different from themselves. People taking fusion as a sexual innuendo doesn't mean that's the intention of the authors. Based on all the past fusions--all a fusion is, is a physical representation of their relationship. Anyone can fuse, so long as they WANT to be fused, or (in the case of Jasper and Lapis) can overpower the other's will AFTER the fusion has occurred (although we admittedly more information on this to solidify this as a fact, at least one more 'forced' or 'toxic' fusion). Smoky Quartz is a great way to paint this clearly. She's fun and playful, witty and kind of immature. Which is exactly how Steven and Amethyst interact.

[@kipame]

One thing people say, is that its strange that she only fought for gems after Garnet But no one seems to see that she saw gems as life taken from places, something bad, but after she saw that gems can be free too, she changed her mind

[@gabriel_cooper]

i feel like she couldn't declare war because homeworld would send a number exponentially higher of troops to end the rebellion. Maybe pink didn't want to declare war herself because she wanted to have the least amount of casualties for her own troops as possible,that way she could be in the control of the opponent of the rebellion and make so that they have the worst strategy possible while giving the rebellion as much inside information by simply pretending to be a good commander. She effectively played chest against herself and little one side win by performing horribly with the other and being amazing at the winning side. It would also generate the lest amount of noise elsewhere. Think about it,if she had declared war as PD the diamonds would have gone with full force since the beginning ,effectively ending the rebellion at the start. Doing it as rose gave her time to gather as many gems as possible to join her side before the other diamonds started helping PD.

[@kharijordan6426]

well lets see blue and yellow together has mmmmm over 60 planets and moons. pink 1 planet 1 moon. well. let me refer you to this vid. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nIi8g6Gpfpako7s

[@caswellweird]

That literally makes no sense, why would they increase their armada if it was their sister? If anything they probably would have gone easier on Pink than on the murderer that killed her.

[@cactus9277]

she had the missasumption that if she died the diamonds would just hush it under the rug. they were too hard on her and she felt like a failure. so she faked her death underestimating the animosity of their response.

[@kharijordan6426]

hyperchromatice. we need to see that they was too hard on her. i agree with elk we need more interaction scenes to see how she came to her conclusion on how blue and yellow felt about her.

[@bgf3640]

@Tackson Because it's not just some minuscule threat, Pink Diamonds rebellion would spread like wildfire and cause widespread panic across colonies inciting more rebellions. They would be forced to step in if a diamond stood against them. Sure they might not harm Pink directly, but they would have obliterated the Earth in its entirety.

[@garyr6156]

Am I the only one excited that we see Gems being “born”?

[@tincano-beans2114]

Lil bit. It explains the goofy hole they leave lol

[@emopeterparker7]

it was nice to see.

[@aiiiia9971]

PlipPlop 2468 I wanted to see that!

[@mycahturner2507]

I feel like the whole pearl and rose fusion scene wasn’t meant to be looked at as rose having the lack of consent. Pearl’s command from the other diamonds was to make Pink happy. Pearl seeing how fascinated and astatic Rose was over fusion, took it upon herself to make her happy. Also I didn’t see any real sexual implications from that moment because I don’t think the crew wanted it to come off as creepy.

[@variedadesonline3926]

Mikasa Ackerman agreed

[@jaredhall5169]

Pearl would defend most of Pink Diamond's actions, but the fact is...at the end of the day... Pink Diamond did not want to be a diamond any more. She hated her identity as a diamond and was looking for an excuse to change herself from the very beginning (remember Pearl was assigned to her because she was so unhappy). She could've rebelled openly as a diamond, but then she would never be able to escape from that identity. To gems, Earth is supposed to be an escape, where you can truly be who you want to be. Perhaps Pink could have rebelled openly as a diamond, but then she would never have been able to escape that status among other gems (it took centuries for Pearl to even get this far and Rose had to die). I guess that was her selfishness, she needed Earth to be this perfect escape for all gems, including herself.

[@uncivilizedelk]

"She could've rebelled openly as a diamond, but then she would never be able to escape from the identity she hated." Assuming the other Diamonds eventually backed off and left Earth alone, why not?

[@jaredhall5169]

+Uncivilized Elk I'm not trying to excuse Pink's actions here. Her motivations were still selfish at heart. She was tired of being a diamond and wanted a new identity. I'm not really sure how answer your question, I can only really speculate... if Earth was liberated through her influence, then gems would just turn to her guidance again, once the war was over. If she just assumed her Rose identity then, she'd have to spend the rest of her time on earth hiding and running from her comrades as they searched for their liberator? She wanted to destroy the old hierarchy of diamonds, so leading them as a diamond would have only reinforced it? I have no idea for sure...but remember Pearl was the only that knew about Rose's true identity and their relationship was never that great or balanced, it took so many years for Pearl to get where she is. Not to say that every gem would have idolized Pink to the degree that she did, but even Jasper still has traces of this and they never met. Love you videos btw!

[@neonaaat6850]

+Uncivilized Elk YEAH Goes full on war, That still 1 vs 3 and that is JUST stupid."Hey, i am new around here, let pvp 3 pros at the same times ".The only things that keep her rebellion alive are that other dimonds thinks the rebillion is a joke,and they want pink to deal with the rebllion so she could learn to be a leader of gems.

[@kharijordan6426]

dam. hmp. all this self hate. we never really see that she ever wanted to escape from that identity. this episode shows that she just never bothered to tell anyone. she has no reason for it. she just never did it. we never see her actually thinking ''i don't want to be a diamond'' it's swept under the rug like pearl all of a sudden can talk about things now. man if reading ppls cements on this show wasn't entertaining i would stop watching it completely.

[@jaredhall5169]

Hm? That's an interesting perspective I guess...but it seems pretty obvious to me that she didn't want to be a diamond. She mentions she hates the formalities of how other gems treat her, "that dumb salute" and in her first appearance on the show, she actually smashes her own reflection. If you don't see that as symbolism for self hate, I don't know what to tell you. Plus she faked her own death? Like we may not actually see her thinking ''i don't want to be a diamond'', but her actions make it obvious.

[@genesischaparro8954]

Remember that the flashbacks were told by Pearl, so it's impossible to her to provide deep introspection into Pink Diamond's mental process and motivations. Second, Earth was Pink's first colony and the first chance for her to make Gems to iniciate her own court. Her army would've needed to be fully created to stand a chance against the thousands of Gems made in all the colonies Yellow and Blue already established. Creating the army would've destroyed the Earth which would've make null her wish to preserve the native life. And even if she was contend with the lsanctuary at the Zoo and decided to sacrifice the Earth and made it a safe haven for deviant Gems, a declaration of war would've put the Zoo at jeopardy since this episode revealed that Pink was the owner at name only; Blue was the one who actually made it and maintan it, so what if Yellow decided to keep the Zoo hostage to force Pink to give up with her silly rebellion. This episode also showed that Pink didn't exactly wanted Gems to follow her every comand, seen with her reaction to Pearl saying she could imagine things if SHE order her to do so. Diamonds seems to have a passive level of control over all Gems, so she didn't want Gems to follow her orders into rebelling and that's why a common Quartz as leader was more appealing.

[@ShaudL]

Génesis Chaparro this, I don’t think he thought of this. Pink diamond literally couldn’t declare war. If she did so she would’ve had no army and/or would have to be redundant. She DID do everything as pink

[@5Detective]

TBH, I thought he didn't do a very good job analyzing this episode. He complains about not getting the info he wanted/enough info, but does a poor job analyzing the info he got. Smeh.

[@kharijordan6426]

chaparro elk wanted peal to give more info of interactions between blue,yellow, and pink to get a better understanding on how pink felt

[@rya3190]

I think Elk had a point with introspection, but this wouldn't be Pink's every thought, just what was said. I think the crewniverse has trouble holding up the "perfect" (this is subjective...don't take it to heart) ideas they come up with (not saying they are bad at their jobs, just that their ideas are usually pushed high enough for the cracks to show much easier), so I don't think they could have built up the full conversation. I personally think this was a better choice. Otherwise I agree with you. The only problem with this episode is that it should have focused more on Garnet, it did rehash old info and the biggest thing I take from it is "The opposition was originally for organic life but you (Garnet) change that to Organic life and Gem freedom."

[@nikkictu2049]

No... Pearl is rose’s confidant. It wouldn’t be crazy for her to know what she was thinking.

[@princesssparrow4530]

That fusion ha was just an impulse. I thought it was really cute because Pearl probably thought :"omg pink likes fusions? OKAY!! let's fuse right now!". She always tried to make her happy...

[@variedadesonline3926]

Musse Snoeck ikr! I thought it was precious x3

[@poppiaria]

I think a lot of her actions can be summed up in that she was very young, almost childlike. In a way She's almost exactly like steven was in season 1.

[@skyguy675]

in regard to the whole "if rose wanted to rebel why not rebel as an army" thing, we might be doing a bit of backseat problem solving. If we try to map out pink's choices with the basis that everything she does is rational, we may not get anywhere. We no Rose does not have the greatest emotional growth based on her childish actions back when we first saw her as pink and as Rose she is fascinated and oblivious and kind of lovey dovey. We could make the assumption that Rose simply didnt know what she was doing and vaguely understood wat she was trying to accomplish. maybe in her mess of emotions she felt she had to keep on the rose facade because if she didnt it might cause one big mess. I know its a vague thesis but i made it up in likrle four minutes. I just think that if we look at a problem from the outside looking in we might be defeating the purpose of having flawed and ultinatly three dimensional characters...

[@uncivilizedelk]

I get ya, but it's not like I want to find rational actions for what Pink did (I'm very well aware her actions often weren't), I just want to see a more detailed process of what she went through. Basically, I want the Kindergarten portion of this episode to be 20 seconds and Pink interacting with Blue and Yellow to be 2 minutes instead of the other way around.

[@arellajardin2323]

I kinda agree. I would have liked to have seen more of her interactions with the Diamonds. I think we get the gist of her reasoning and motivations, especially adding little snippets from previous episodes. But we might see more from Blue and Yellow’s interactions with Steven. I personally like Pink Rose, as a character and as a person. But I know that she’s not a great person. She’s not meant to be the villain, or the hero. A rash, immature, well intentioned fool in over her head and no good plan to fix it. I empathize with her, but she’s not the “good guy.” And that’s deliberate, I think they want her to be ambiguous. If nothing else, it makes for some great discussions.

[@helious5056]

Well I think that what your saying is a problem is actually the point. Pink compared to the other Dimonds is very in mature and is not as knowledgeable or as politically well versed as her sisters. So she doesn't know how to handle things as well as her sisters or as we do with the power of hinesite as observes. She is basically a teenager who found something she loves and wants to protect at any means posibel. We have to remember the pink we are seeing as not the rationale easy going loving person that we see with Greg and on the vhs tape she is young and has plenty of hardships and Lerning to do before she truly became rose quartz and perhaps by the time she realized what she did was wrong and there were better ways she was already in to deep. At lest that's my two cents on the subject and I could be completely off the mark.

[@uncivilizedelk]

That wasn't my problem, my problem was not seeing enough of Pink's interactions with the other Diamonds to better discuss Pink as a character. I want more discussion about all the things Pink was and wasn't, and I feel this episode didn't provide enough when the format (Pearl, somebody who was literally at her side through most of it) was the best to deliver such a thing.

[@kharijordan6426]

so gems are made knowing what to do and how to do it. why is pink so stupid?

[@helious5056]

K'hari Jordan she may be off color

[@bgf3640]

She's not stupid, the diamonds didn't think she was ready to have a colony. Amethyst, Pearl, Peridot, and others have all shown that gems are capable of maturing and changing overtime. Suggesting that its normal for a diamond and other gems to mature.

[@kharijordan6426]

bgf3 you know what i mean. as a gem she shouldn't haft to be taught these things. she was made to rule a colony. how does she not know how to do so. remember when pink met the amethyst and one of them said we have orders? that could show that they are born with orders like how paridot said. they know who they are and what they are supposed to do by birth. idk why pink wasn't born with what she needs to do her job.

[@skyguy675]

ehh i found the fusion joke funny I feel like just because something can be used for metaphors protaining to something else does not mean it exclusively and literally means that it is the same thing idk context changes a lot of things

[@keiromultiverse3608]

Fusion is originally just supposed to be a way for gems to become stronger. It's not about relationships, it's about gems who are assigned partners to get a little power-up. Garnet's the one who added the sentimentality to it from being fused for 5000 years. So to her and the two off colors (sorry don't remember their names,) fusion is a serious thing, but to literally everyone else it's just a casual thing, so long as you're at least acquainted.

[@nathanlong1644]

Fluorite and Rhodanite

[@omarcarrion9920]

Bro, pink diamond is basically a child.

[@bobbyjenkins9846]

Fat Snorlax just like Steven

[@kharijordan6426]

bobby goood....point.

[@fffernsw4dl539]

bobby jenkins But Steven is selfless, Pink is selfish.

[@ColdNorth0628]

Sarsteamyx meh most of every intention is subtly selfish.

[@fffernsw4dl539]

carlos conde but we can both agree that Steven is a better human/gem then Pink...

[@robbywilliamson4152]

For me, what little was shown of Pink's relationship with Yellow and Blue in "Jungle Moon" and "Can't Go Back" was enough to fill in the gaps for why she assumed they wouldn't take her seriously if she declared war as Pink Diamond. Like others have said, it also would be easier for her to convince prospective rebels that she was legitimately was fighting for their liberation if they thought she was one of them instead being part of the authority that was oppressing them.

[@karasumacha7559]

I think that pink felt she was useless as a diamond. But as someone else as rose she was more capable. I think she rejected the idea of being pink diamond.

[@adventurersitem-shop3050]

Perhaps she did not want to declare that she was a diamond because she wanted the gems to follower her because they truly believe in the cause instead of just because she is their diamond?

[@ramonorozco2670]

I think the connections to fusion and intercourse are in a weird place. If it really is a subtle metaphor for sex, you should also feel uncomfortable with the idea of Steven and Connie fusing. But Pearls issue with Garnet was that she *lied* to get her to fuse with her. Which doesn't feel too similar to this situation. But either way I still cringed at the moment too.

[@uncivilizedelk]

It has represented a lot of things throughout the series, with a relationship being the only "true" constant, but even without the sexual aspect (which they indubitably do play up right after Pearl's stunt), the weird sidelining of consent (and consent has been a major issue of focus pretty much the entire series when it comes to fusion) was still odd. This wouldn't be the worst case of the Crewniverse having something "woof-inducing" fly over their heads. pbs.twimg.com/media/DEk4dTCWsAARjq8.jpg

[@technopoptart]

not gonna lie, given what kind of person pearl is i think it's rather apt that she'd not think about asking for direct consent first. she was given two things that would encourage such reckless behavior already. the first thing was that she was directly told to make rose happy(with what seems to be no caveats as to HOW she should and should not go about it) and the second is that rose seemed to have positive(enough) feelings towards the idea of fusion as to give credence to the idea that fusion would make her happy. i can imagine that pearl would just assume that with rose being open to the idea and with it being her literal purpose to please rose that she'd assume consent is naturally given(or even think it's not needed until she's already tried). it's a problem that a lot of real teens(and sadly some adults) have. with the two of them representing youthful exploration of self and identity it's a common enough theme that rushing into something new without asking for permission is expected and even if that doesn't sit well with you there is something to be said about how we have indeed seen pearl on a few occasions make presumptions about what is and is not ok to do for the sake of self-gratification and do them without the consent of others. i mean, she decided that steven building a rocket was consent to leaving the earth and everyone on it and connie wanting to be strong was consent to teach her how to unlove herself enough to accept death. pearl has a history of this sort of behavior though... saying all that i am a little concerned that she is my favorite character on the show XD i think i need to reevaluate some things

[@bgf3640]

Well you have to consider this. Pearl and Pink had most likely never fused with anyone. And Rose was shown to be quite fascinated with fusion and the experience of doing it. So as a pearl meant to make Pink happy and provide to her needs she decided trying so would please her. Fusion hasn't been about consent to me, its been about sharing a common goal or motivation and sharing power. Pearls betrayal of Garnet was because she was simply using her to increase her own strength. Meanwhile Pearl had merely attempted to let Rose experience what she desired.

[@pigcatapult]

What Bgf3 said about Pearl's prime directive, and I think it's also a combination of Pearl at that point having never been given the consent talk, and neither of them realizing that different-gem fusion is a lot more mentally intimate than same-gem fusion (as Ruby described it in The Answer). Heck, I don't think *Pink* would have been given the consent talk at that point because she's a Diamond and gems are supposed to bend to her will anyway.

[@rosegoncalves9723]

Uncivilized Elk if relationship is the only "true" Constant in fusion, how do you explain the malachite fusion?

[@Direwolf181]

To be fair the whole 'All our problems would be solved if I faked my shattering thing is KINDA Bismith's fault... I mean she put the idea if Pink was shattered everything would be hunky-dorey in her head... neither thought of the implications of what would happen if Pink was shattered (i.e. the Diamonds go ballistic and literally attempt to obliterate all the gems on earth ) heck even Bismith kinda acknowledges that...

[@Direwolf181]

yeah but it was Bismith who put the idea in her head though. Blue might have pushed it a bit but it was Bismith who brought the idea up

[@balamugunthbalaji8110]

I feel like her rebelling for gem freedom as herself wouldn't make sense to the lower gems she was trying to recruit and save. "You are more than what you were told to be!, Free yourself from the servitude of the Diamonds, by following me, Another Diamond" To the lower gems it'd just be the same as following another diamond instead of an actual rebellion for freedom.there'd always be that power dynamic between the lower gems and her. Plus If she fought the war as a Diamond it would just be seen as A war between diamonds rather than the rebellion for gem freedom and protection of earth that it was. idk

[@sirjgn4868]

Why is the "What if she led them as a Diamond" option even considered? If she did then the gems would think she was nuts, or that she was trolling, or they might report her to the other Diamonds for her "wack ideals"

[@BubblegumGirl366]

My Thoughts is that this episode was to show the Pink/Rose didn't want there to be in differences with power or that she was above everyone. The hole reason she became Rose was to visit her Amethyst guard freely. The fact that she nearly fused with after she told her about having thoughts of her own was proof of that. She didn't want Gems to follow an diamonds orders but to free come to the reasoning that they want to be free themselves

[@AVAL2775]

The reason her interactions were so short is cause well they were short they shot her down As for the human zoo, pink used it to preserve the species in case she lost I hate how everyone is trying there damndist to make rose look like a villain when she really isn't one

[@chloemurphy3670]

Actually Pink tried to talk to the other diamonds and they made a zoo and put a handful of humans in. Pink didn't make the zoo.

[@AVAL2775]

itsmechloe 21 they made the zoo but pink was the one to man it and the one to put the humans in it And chances are she was allowed to make the zoo, but she made it herself

[@robertcook2097]

The last comment about fusion consent doesn’t exactly make sense because at the time fusing by choice was never an option for gems. Rubies fused for brute power, not for love or anything more than power. Pearl and PD at the time might still have thought of fusion as a cool ability and an untouched power gems hadn’t realized. They didn’t think of fusion as anything but power until they actually met garnet properly.

[@galaxyreach8168]

I feel like the deal with Pearl attempting to fuse was that, fusion wasn’t a metaphor for relationship at that time. It was simply something gems did with each other when they needed to get something done. So Pearl, seeing how “easy and simple” it was, attempted to do it with Rose. However, notice how it doesn’t truly start working until they have their moment, Pearl gets really vulnerable, and Rose says to not stop doing what she’s doing. I think it was a good way of showing that Fusion, was thought of to be this unimportant action, simply a tactic for making work and fighting easier... and in a moment, with Garnet, that perception was changed.

[@galaxyreach8168]

Also, notice how gems of the same kind fuse. They simply stack up (like Ruby’s, which is where I saw Pearl’s inspiration considering she JUST witnessed the Ruby’s fusing in that way) and other gems simply walk into each other or hold hands. But when it’s different types of gems it’s a bigger deal. There’s always an emotional aspect to it, where as same gems usually don’t feel anything about it.

[@drew_gon1617]

For the fusion attempt I felt it was more pearl wanting to surprise and please her diamond only to feel she stepped way outta line, but ya I see your point, Love your videos man! Can’t wait for the future!!

[@smurphy8881]

I agree. I felt that Pearl's surprise fusion was more like the act of sneaking a kiss, or a surprise make out. Sounds good and romantic in your head, but in real life it's just invasive and lacks consent. The sort of thing a niave teenager would do cause they saw some one else do something similar, like in a movie.

[@kharijordan6426]

sneaking a kiss. yaaaaaa ok when you say it like that pearl is lucky that pink swings that way or else pink would have swung a fist.

[@smurphy8881]

Exactly. The problem is more that fusion is a very flexible metaphor for a lot of things (as was its intent) and when you do that (from a story telling perspective) one will always deal with a subset of the audience who will jump to the darkest and/or most awkward interpretation of it's use or attempted use.

[@keerya4179]

What if Pink didn't wanted to declare war ? What if she had planed to stay Pink diamond after the war, making Rose disapear. But when she failed to make the other diamonds give up earth she decided that the only way was to scare them off. Giving up her initial plan of staying Pink. But since the rebelion was full of gems that hated diamonds like bismuth she feared that reaveling her identity would destroy the rebelion.

[@arellajardin2323]

I think that’s highly likely. We’re learning that Pink seemed to be making it up as she went along. No real plan. Initially, she just wanted everyone to leave so life on Earth wouldn’t die. She didn’t think of making a home for “off colors” until Garnet. And remember, they faked the shattering at the end of the war, and in that conversation, Pearl was saying it would mean giving up their status.

[@sammiboibenton]

Good vid. Maybe pearl trying to fuse with rose the first time was like two friends with one trying to break out of the friend zone by having a first kiss. She kinda just went for it and then felt awkward about it after. And then rose' s reaction was like oh crap I didn't even know you had feelings for me.

[@variedadesonline3926]

Samuel Benton agreed XD I don't understand how this scene has to be interpret in such a "negative way", what it seems is that pearl wanted to kiss her and then she repented and rose/pink told her that she was totally fine with it

[@variedadesonline3926]

Also as rose/pink seemed to be so happy/excited and curious about the subject of fusion, pearl (which had the purpose of making her happy) quickly decided to try to fuse with her

[@flameingo1]

Isn’t the point that she made mistakes though? She could’ve done better and tried a planet wide rebellion but that’s part of the mistakes she made.

[@jameshansmeyer4936]

Being a rose quartz for the rebellion actually did have one big advantage for pd. The shock value. Bd and yd wouldn’t have taken her seriously if she had tried, because they expected her to be childish. But a simple soldier class gem rebelling against her own diamond? That’s unheard of. And that idea that a quartz could sustain a rebellion and eventually shatter a diamond? Terrifying. Diamonds aren’t used to insubordination, and that can be used for an advantage

[@geroleocata]

This is the problem that has this "fusion=sex" allegory. It never made sense to me. First there are Stevonnie and Smoky Quartz that could be frame as "accidental sex". I always believed that the crewniverse tried to do something bigger than what they could handle. That's why you should try to make your allegories make sense in the literal level

[@uncivilizedelk]

I've been saying this in plenty of comments already, but the sex thing doesn't cause the problem for this example. Fusion is representative of a relationship, and some can be sexual while others not. Surprising somebody with "We're in a relationship now!" isn't even a relationship in the first place (hence why Pearl's attempt failed), it's just a creepy-ass thing to do. The sexualization (which was present) makes it worse, but the consent problem is there without it.

[@geroleocata]

Uncivilized Elk Yeah, but I always preferred equating fusion to being in synch with one another, no sex, no deeper relationship. That makes fusion less creepy and Garnet less toxic, at least for me. But there is this strange necessity to make everything an allegory or a metaphor or a statement, because "we must be woke before we write a story that makes sense"

[@kharijordan6426]

gero preach.

[@arellajardin2323]

I mean, they literally just watched the origin of “fusion is a relationship” allegory happen, and it happened because Ruby smacked into Sapphire against her will.

[@uncivilizedelk]

@Arella What the hell? Ruby pushed Sapphire out of the way despite Sapphire giving up, yes, but while they were twirling and facing/holding each other their emotions peaked and they fused. Stating they fused against Sapphire's will would be a blatant misrepresentation of what actually happened, while stating that Ruby pushed her against her will therefore there wasn't consent is a crappy sleight of hand. They fused without realizing what they were doing, but the way the moment was portrayed had clear consent established (seriously go watch the scene, I did) - after all, they were both willing it to happen otherwise it wouldn't have had happened in the first place. All the attempts at excusing and justifying Pearl's actions (which have a history may I add) that have been going on have been so fucking creepy. This latest one of trying to frame Garnet as originally having formed from a lack of consent might be the worst yet.

[@wellsousaaa]

*pink did not initiate rebellion as a diamond because it would be easier for her to fight with herself (thus making it easier for the rebels) than to fight against the other diamonds that had the strongest and most experienced armies*

[@Gojiro7]

if the "why not raise the rebellion as a diamond" thing still bothers anyone, go watch Code Geass and see how well things went for the main character leluche and how hiding his linage as the heir to the Britanian Empire was the only way to garner what little trust he did have in his true followers because after he was revealed, they made it very clear they would have never trusted the son of the very person who enslaves them and the same goes for Pink Diamond since the whole point was that rebelling as Pink would have gone ignored by the Yellow and Blue, so being a problem that they couldn't verbally shut down was why she took on the role, the episode did explain this.

[@garryanderson9513]

I dont think pearl can be faulted for attempting fusion in this episode. Fusion is one of the most intimate things a gem can do with another; and because of this it can be related so sex, one of the most intimate things two humans can do, in many ways. However as seen in the episode " the answer" up until that point fusion was considered a tool used for functionality and only when practical. Up until that point there had never been even one instance of gems fusing for anything that could even resemble pleasure. You also have to consider that pearl's primary objective was still to bring pink happiness and to an extent no matter how free she may have been it was shown that she never really stopped seeing her as a diamond. So while over the context of the entire show where weve seen fusion be a form of art with equal parts intimacy and passion and weve seen exactly what can happen when that art form is abused. From that birds eye view its easy to see pearl trying to force fusion as something bad or malicious. I believe the truth is rose saw something new and was curious about it pearl could see no reason why it shouldn't work for the two of them and thus should allow pink to feel the experience. the logic follows its a little crude and unprofessional given their status but her prime objective was to give rose happiness and rose had been seen to show the most happiness when pearl took initiative.

[@Dannyboiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii]

wouldnt that defeat the whole point of the rebellion tho? Yeah it didnt start out as a "Lets fight for OUR freedom to be who we want!" But thats how it ended no? You cant argue with the fact that a huge part of the gems who fought in the war were doing it because they wanted to grow, learn, and be an individual. If Pink Diamond were to say to her court "We are now fighting in a war because I want you to be an individual!" how many gems would go along with their fearless leader because thats what their diamond was doing? Yes they'd have more soldiers, but alot of them wouldnt be fighting for Rose Quarts, and their freedom, theyd be fighting because their diamond told them too.

[@thewoollyviking5928]

Yellow and Blue wouldn't take Pink seriously when she stated clear as day *I think this colony should not be completed because of the unique organic life that will perish because of it.* Why would they ever take her seriously if she decided to openly declare civil war? Let's get a little perspective here, the only Gems we know for a fact were made to serve Pink Diamond were the Quartzes of the Prime and Beta Kindergartens. That's it, and yet when Rose comes to scare off Blue Diamond, she is surrounded by Amethysts that serve Blue and Topazes from Yellow. We also know that Pink's Quartzes we commissioned to care for the occupants of the human zoo. So the only gems you have to your name were ordered by your fellow Diamonds to leave Earth, displaying a rather glaring power imbalance, leaving only maybe a few sparse gems, including your Pearl. Pink's colony was hers in name only.

[@aeonofdisaster]

Honestly if Pink declared a rebellion as her self would Blue and Yellow take her seriously

[@yvonneliu4861]

Eon_the_Blue _ idk bout that. I bet the diamonds just gave Earth to Pink out of annoyance rather than ability. I bet if pink were to present a rebellion against the sisters, it’ll just prove Yellow and Blue Diamond’s point that Pink isn’t ready for this type of responsibility and take it back.

[@da-vidcargill4975]

no

[@TheReaperDestiny]

i mean they give pink the earth........a begginers planet

[@kharijordan6426]

eon most likely. do to the fact that pink would shut everything down and start attacking blue and yellows subjects. sucks that pink subjects and ''roses'' rebellion was fighting for the same person.

[@kharijordan6426]

ng oh. good point. it's her's. she can do what ever she wan'ts on it ,but abandon it. so ok stop making gems but still raise your colony. don't just leave it. were was pink going to go with a bunch of newly made gems? overpopulation is still a thing right? so all she had to do was just lead her colony different. ok. dang.

[@origamilives222]

Did anyone else catch it when pearl said "[Rose/Pink] was given to me"? did pearl exist before pink? My personal theory is that Our pearl used to be White Diamonds pearl (Color, gen placement, and the statement above would support this fact) but when Pink was formed, White gave her, if she had more than one, the most gentle and level-headed pearl she had to be like some nanny.

[@aeronoks691]

Honestly I feel like sometimes your SU reviews lack the understanding of character point of view. As viewers and watchers we know a lot more than what the characters in the moment know. so of course some decisions might feel dumb or obviously bad to us, but make sense to them. Individuality came from pearl because they were doing something so new. Pearl did say that she imagined that she was a renegade pearl that met "rose" on earth. They were acting up to their new roles, and the fantasy became a little too true to them. Pink diamond did not want to rebel as herself is because of the individuality problem might get bigger if it is indeed another diamond that led a rebelion, meaning some indivisuality would be found it would still be a big problem. But t pink, just like any child, is fearful of consequences. She is fearful of what starting something this big with her name might bring in the end. She is fearful of consequences for going down to earth as shown in the episode. This isn't logical thinking, it's the character thinking. However times they think about this, Pink is still stuck in the mind of a child who fears for consequences from their parent figure because they are one. Pink thought slowly reducing the grasp on earth by poofing gems and spreading their idea they could liberate each kindergartens and spires slowly. Also, what can she do to rebel but that at that stage? the rebelion was small and insignificant. it had to grow from somewhere. Pink thought Blue and Yellow didn't care for her. sure they gave her the colony after begging for it, but they really wouldn't listen to Pink in terms of her plea and how they generally treated her for what she is. a child. She wanted to be treated as equal and that's the whole reason she got the colony, but she didn't know it was taking away the life of the planet. So she asked for it gone. But that twist of decision for Blue and Yellow was another proof that it was a childish decision, rather than a growth of understanding from Pink. Of course Pink would think they don't care for her, and probably hate her. which in turn, she logically makes the decision of "if pink is gone, because yellow and blue don't care for me, would probably stop caring for the earth, which leaves me and the rest of the crystal gems to clean up the rest of the gems that don't believe and have this colony alive and well." There's galaxy warps. Renegade Pearl can probs come from anywhere in the galaxy, and gonna be hard to track that down. They've only seen and known of the fusion of the same Gem type. And it's more of a work relationship where they just get bigger and still feel the same rather than a fusion of the different gem type which is created from relationship of love, friendship and even hatred. Quite different and the lack of knowledge from both gems make it so consent feels unnecessary. This is a lot different from Garnet's event.

[@sirjgn4868]

If she rebelled as a Diamond, they would just pick her ass off Earth, shatter all the gems who sided with her, take over, and give her a ten-thousand year time out for being a "childish brat" and she would never be able to own a colony again. Simple.

[@Steps1000]

One other thing we need to remember is that Pearl is not a Pink Diamond Court Pearl. She was given to her to fulfill a task, and shes clearly white diamond court (unlike the personal pearls of the other diamonds) She was sent there as a nanny/plaything which is a really weird position statuswise to be in i.e she seems to have general orders relating to doing whatever it takes to make Pink Diamond happy, even if that may go against things Pearls can normally do or suggest (for example, the entire survey in the first place). This is like one of the king's personal court servants taking care of a prince that they technically outrank. Its likely that she would have made herself a pink court pearl eventually but...that didn't happen before the revolution On the topic of pearl being recognized: Gems were born knowing what they were supposed to do and how to do it and seemingly very little else. None of them thought to question why some random Quartz was even asking them what they were doing (nor did they ask for any credentials when the other Amethyst gave them orders). It doesn't look like they really paid any attention to matters outside their direct purview. The perfect soldiers, etc.

[@pirateguykarl]

I feel like you don't understand something. Rose didn't have an army before she started fighting for gems. She was going to use Rose to scare all gems off the planet.. But Garnet changed everything and made Rose want to fight for Gems and their Freedom. Since she was now fighting for gems... it would make sense she would fight with an army of gems that want Freedom. If she was Pink Diamond and just forced all of the gems in her court to fight against Homeworld.... thats kinda defeating the point of Freedom isn't it?

[@diogocorrea4119]

Your final point is misguided because Pearl doesn't know what she is doing once she never fused with a different gem, or any gem for that matter. So she isn't aware of what she is doing. I think you trying to thoroughly understand strong metaphors like how pink couldn't bring up before the subject of loving organic life and her only way to do it was assuming another identity. That's what gay people had gone throught before and only now are becoming open, that's . I think that the fact that you are being overanalitical over the plot you forget that this cartoon was designed to educate kids about culture and it will do it one way or another. I understand they are not being that thorought with the plot but they are leaving gaps for us to fill, but you are taking it to the next level unnecessarily, the cartoon however makes strong points and metaphors that you are simply ignoring.

[@technopoptart]

just because she doesn't know much about how to fuse does not remove the problematic nature of not getting consent. time and again it's been made clear that consent is important and not having it(or obtaining it in sketchy ways) is harmful. she got lucky that rose was ok with it but even so she still did not ask and she still did not receive before trying it and before rose rewarded her behavior you could even see that she realized afterwards that she should have gotten it

[@diogocorrea4119]

technopoptart, her only function was to serve and please pink. I ubderstand what you are saying, everyone does, but Pearl didn't know better. If you think about it, they are two kids experimenting with sex, and you don't go judging kids the same way you treat an adult. They still need to be educated. You don't call a young boy a rapist because he acts on his impulses, why start now? You educate them on their ignorance. And Pearl is super apologetic, because of what she does, but you can see that she is only mimicking what rubies do. She has no idea of how to do it, therefore she doesn't know what she is doing. I will take a wild guess and say that was her first fusion attempt. Therefore she doesn't know how it feels, and the implications...

[@technopoptart]

actually anyone who attempts to commit(or does commit) rape is a rapist regardless of age, sure the punishments are different but the action is unchanged and i personally have no issue telling a rapist they are a rapist. that is neither here nor there though, the issue is that it is still problematic regardless of whether or not pearl knew what she was doing not whether or not she should be absolved of any negative repercussions for having done it(and clearly in the moment after the failure to fuse it is clear she realizes she did something wrong even if she does not understand /why/ it was wrong) that being said though rose did not reprimand or educate her on the problem of non-consensual decision-making and so she continues to make decisions for others without their consent(steven with his rocket, connie with her self-worth, garnet with her body and amethyst both with her appearance and so-forth). it is bad behavior that did not get properly rectified back when it would have made an impact and that has negatively affected persons she is close to throughout the series

[@diogocorrea4119]

technopoptart jesus, you are dense.

[@uncivilizedelk]

Take a look in the mirror, Diogo. Seriously. It's not very hard to comprehend that an action that literally turns 2 people into 1 should have both people consent to it, regardless of how ignorant one may be of the resulting experience.

[@DenderFriend]

You made some very good points, I hope we'll get further backstory about Pink's thought process, and I have a feeling they will; if you're caught up on the series, you can probably guess how they could very easily give further backstory on what Pink tried to do to convince the Diamonds and why they didn't listen to her about shutting down the colony. My interpretation on Pink is that she is basically the Diamond equivalent of a child/teen- her mind isn't developed enough to think of complex and rational plans, and her mind just jumped to the simplest-sounding idea. It's like when you think as a child that you can just run away from home and your parents won't care because they don't respect you- obviously if you ran away from home your parents would be quick to run out looking for you, but you're not going to realize that right away.

[@ValD98]

There's one significant advantage that Pink would have by masquerading as Rose Quartz - she would likely be informed of the tactics her fellow Diamonds have planned against Rose, giving her a tactical advantage. Also, this is less significant, but her waging a war against Homeworld as a common Quartz may have been more intimidating for the Diamonds, because that would go against their preconceived assumptions about the inferiority of other Gems, and could make them paranoid that their soldiers aren't as powerless as they think. If she staged it as PD, though, that wouldn't surprise them as much, because they already know Diamonds are more powerful. And they wouldn't be intimidated, because they're aware Pink is weaker than them, she just happens to be strong enough to handle the common Gem. That wouldn't call into question their entire ideology, as it were. Also, it's bugging me that people don't realise why she thought the other Diamonds didn't care for her - their entire ideology is based around being emotionless and objective, and thinking of every single Gem below them as disposable if they don't follow the hierarchy set in place. WE know that they're hypocrites, because they didn't have that attitude towards Pink, but there was no way she could have known that based on their actions. They continuously dismissed her and scolded her for not following her role properly, and at no point did they treat her with any sort of care. The only time we see Blue do something of the sort is when she talks about Pink's theoretical success. So, for all she knew, the only reason they showed any sort of attention towards her was because she was valuable as a Diamond, and the moment she decided to go against her role, all that would go out the window. Also, the concept of showing mercy was so alien to them, that even the relatively more compassionate Blue thought making a human zoo would be a good way of preserving life on Earth. I don't see how Pink could have known how much the others cared for her, especially since the concept of parenting is alien to Gems, evidently even to Rose, so she couldn't have recognised Blue and Yellows attitude as such. When you keep that in mind, as well as the fact that the only advantages Pink had against the other Diamonds would have been the two I mentioned, her choosing to lead the rebellion as RQ makes all the more sense. I just wish the actual would make this observation itself, rather than going off on damage control mode.

[@yowhatupmyboy2707]

With the surprise fusion with pearl, in universe it kinda does make sense because none of them knew anything about fusion and had not developed any meaningful understanding of what it was or the emotional connection needed, they did not know what it was about so there was no implications surrounding it and the issue of consent.

[@Brooklyn-pr6sr]

My favorite smaller KZbinr, keep up the great work!

[@JC-zt8lf]

I personally believe that Pink Diamond didn't found the Crystal Gems as herself was for symbolic reasons. Imagine that you're a regular old gem. And then you see Pink Diamond, an all-powerful being with the ability to sprout life from her fingertips, declare war in the name of protecting organic life from the Homeworld invasion. Even when she is breaking the mold and speaking out against the status quo. You still see her as someone above you, in your mind she is doing something you can never do because you are a regular old gem and she is a *Diamond*. Now imagine that you're a regular old gem and you see this quartz soldier defining her master and breaking the status quo. It has more inspirational value to it because instead of seeing this powerful person doing powerful things, you're seeing this regular person doing powerful things. It makes you believe that maybe you can do this too. It would make you want to join her. This could also paint this quartz as an underdog in your mind. Someone who beat the odds and fought her way to freedom no matter how many foes stood in her way. Seeing the "common man" do great things just has more of an impact than seeing someone who's already considered to be great do great things. But that's just how I see it. *EDIT*: It could have also been because she didn't want to be a Diamond anymore? Earth could have been Pink's coming of age journey. She learned more about herself and what she wanted from life. She desided left her old, bratty and entitled, life behind to become a more caring and down to earth person (pun not intended).

[@SoberGin]

I think people look too much into the "sexual" aspect of fusion. I mean yes it's definitely a part of it, but if you think about it as two awkward teens, it makes a lot more sense. I mean even ignoring slightly sexual things, young lovers do dumb things all the time because they thing that their partner would like it. I mean I could say the same thing about ruby fusing with sapphire for the first time, and she didn't even know that they would fuse.

[@neitherlink6612]

A rebellion against the other diamonds as a diamond was doomed to fail. First of all, the other diamonds have armies that were much stronger than Pink’s, let alone the combination of all three of them. Secondly, they wouldn’t have underestimated her too much, at least not to the point of thinking “a quartz winning against a diamond is absurd”, which was a big part in why the diamonds retreated after Pink’s “shattering”, Rose Quartz did something seemingly impossible and the rest of the diamonds didn’t know how or if it could happen to them. And finally, and most importantly in my opinion, Pink truly cared about her diamond allies, she just wrongly thought they didn’t care about her, so even in the truly impossible scenario in which she actually won against the other three diamonds not only against their armies, but also them in battle, she would have to shatter them. So in the end, she chose to fight against the weakest enemy with the highest possibility of winning, herself, she just never thought the other diamonds would care enough for her being to retaliate so strongly. That is, in my opinion, the only mistake she made as the leader of the rebellion, otherwise if you think about it all of the Crystal Gem army would be alive and living freely on Earth away from the tyranny of homeworld.

[@katb9445]

man I love your captions, very accurate

[@SarcasmSunshine]

Fusion isn't a 1 to 1 connection to sex. It was more like Pearl tried to steal a kiss thirty minutes after finding out what a kiss is.

[@dewaunwarren1]

To me that last critique actually make sense considering Pearl used to be completely focused on making Rose happy and Rose was saying it like she wanted it to work

[@DBArtsCreators]

On Pearl's Fusion Attempt: Elk, I think those implications were intended loud and clear, and not as a call back. Pearl has shown, through her fusion with Garnet and her fusion with Rose in Greg's flashback, that she's always had issues with both consent and the power dynamic, as well as acting before thinking when it comes to fusion. This first attempt shown in this episode simply highlights it, where even Pearl herself calls herself out on being wrong for trying to do so, only for Pink/Rose to tell/beg her not to stop thinking/acting like that towards her, which must have made the issue worse as the centuries rolled on and Pearl became more independent and comfortable with the dynamic.

[@mr.personhumanson6871]

I wonder how Pink's Rose Quartz would react if they found out that she's the reason all of them got bubbled.

[@arellajardin2323]

I dunno, seems more like Blue and Yellow’s doing. It was a rather petty revenge, taking it out on other gems. I don’t see it as Pink’s fault.

[@mr.personhumanson6871]

if it wasn't for Pink's selfishness then those Rose Quartz would not have been bubbled by the other Diamonds.

[@arellajardin2323]

So, if someone kills my coworkers, and they justify it because I did something to upset them.... it’s my fault? Other people doing horrible things can be absolved, so long as they’re really mad at someone else? Also, you’re mixing up correlation and causation. Pink’s actions inspired the other Diamond’s cruelty and vindictiveness. But none of her actions were directly responsible for them being bubbled. Again, Blue and Yellow chose to do this random act of pettiness of their own volition.

[@Decembirth]

Mr. Person Humanson - we still don't know who did it. It could have been self- bubbling.

[@nathanlong1644]

bad comparison. What Pink did is more like ... disguising herself as a member of a different race (i.e. if she was Asian and disguised herself as black or whatever as an example) and then doing something that hurt someone or ultimately made them very upset, and that person then took it out on the race she was disguised as. I mean that's literally what she did tbh, Rose Quartz are a different "race" of gems from Diamonds. As a Diamond she pretended to be a Rose Quartz, which got all the other Rose Quartz in trouble. Ultimately the blame definitely lies with whoever bubbled the Rose Quartz, because they misdirected their anger at a completely unaffiliated party.

[@blue_teacup]

Maybe Rose/PD thought if she had started the war as Pink, the other diamonds may have straight up just destroyed the earth, as sort of a punishment.

[@nightakali]

Out of all the bomb, this was the second best episode while "reunited" was the best! Love your videos.

[@variedadesonline3926]

The DY Podcast agreed

[@davechamen3275]

Pink never wanted to be looked at as a diamond by the crystal jems, but rather as an equal. Therefore she could not be PD but rather a being who is not deified.

[@Crackawiz]

dave chamen *gems

[@KalinTheZola]

I'm hoping we'll at some point get a flashback to when the Rose Quartzes were bubbled.

[@Szellah7]

Focus of the episode was on Pink Diamond becoming Rose, and Sapphire thinking Rose lied to them simply to control them. There was no need to incorporate Pink arguing with Yellow and Blue, especially knowing their answers beforehand. Episodes can't be longer, so in alternate universe maybe there was more time to focus on that. However in this one a main story in this arc is about Ruby and Sapphire wanting to strengthen their love by marriage, and to show people why gay couples fought for gay mariage. If Pink reveled her identity to any of her "new" followers it could lead them to leaving rebellion and passing that info to home world gem authorities. If Pink Diamond declared rebellion as herself, and commanded her gems to fight for her cause she would act hypocritical toward her own goal of being a individual and doing things for ur sake, granted she didn't have all that love for uniqueness beforehand, but she would still feel bad about leading to shattering of gems (and end of life) who hadn't shared her desires. Logistically speaking, Pink Diamond had one colony, and if she lunched a war when she only had one kindergarten worth of gems with no combat experience, a non-shattering gem policy, and probably a handful of weapons, she wouldn't stand a chance against full on ruthless diamond assault. I think that Sapphire says "we" and means crystal gems as a whole. If Ruby and Sapphire had only spent a little time together that means that Rose role was bigger in their relationship than we initially thought, which means that Sapphire had more right to react as she did, cause person who encouraged her to stay with Ruby since a very beginning of their relationship was a liar, and might have been doing that because of her own plans. Pearl being first time on earth can be seen as her being commanded by a Diamond to fill in the new soldiers on behalf of Pink, who couldn't go out of her moon base. Not all metaphors for fusion apply to all fusions, example being Smokey Quartz and Stevonie. Even if fusion was a metaphor for sex in this one, Pink and Pearl had already have some time to get used to each other, so it could of been a sweet moment of Pearl spontaneously going for the kiss. Otherwise, Pearl can be seen as chaste over sexual girl. It would be a good character trait for her knowing that she had most sexual interactions with love-materials in show. I agree that those random lucky moments are insanely random, but that might be the secondary theme in those twp episodes, cause "Only on earth, where anything can happen" accidents like this would happen Last bit of complain on my part, rebellion is stupid, only few revolutions do work out, most of them don't, and you never know what will work best to change people minds, sp it makes sense that early days of crystal gems were just, more or less terror attacks to ensure that diamonds know that there is a very real threat out there. Yes, yes, it was stupid to assume that they would give up only because some work has been delayed, but u can make an argument that she thought they will just abandon earth colony as it's probably only giving them losses. Also, Pink probably thought that if they see that rebellion is strong enough to kill a Diamond, that there is no use in fighting if it is any chance of shattering of them. However Yellow and Blue probably sought revenge and wanted to show their power as leaders so that incident never happens again.

[@Rynamony]

I didn't really mind the fusion thing, with Garnet the whole deal was that she lied so they would fuse, Pearl knew how important fusion was to Garnet, she knew this could hurt her, and yet she consciously betrayed her trust, but with rose it didn't felt like a big breach of consent cause, well, I'm going to use the fusion as a metaphor for sex (which isn't totally acurate but this is the best way I can think to explain how I felt abt it) but it was kind of as if Pearl heard Rose talking abt it, implying she would like to try, and then she kissed her, then realized what she did and went "Oh shit sorry" and then Rose said "nah it's fine, it's fine, I'm into it". Not that I'm saying it's ok to kiss people out of the blue, but I just don't see it as a bad enough of a deal to say "wow that's fucked up"

[@sakurachangt7237]

Declaring her rebellion under the identiy of pink diamond would entirely defeat the purpose of what the gems she was trying to liberate wanted. They wanted someone they could follow thay wasnt the diamonds, that was imperfect just like them. That they could relate to, if they followed a diamond from homeworld, it would be no different to them than staying with homeworld. Except for few differentiations. Not to mention would have most likely caught the full attention of all of the other diamonds, and they wouls have obliterated the smaller force entirely. Not waiting for white to join the battle just for the corruption song.

[@n.j.p.9322]

I think that she didn't declare war as a diamond for the same reason it would be easier to argue with your parents if they didn't know it was you.

[@CptMorganArr]

Hiding her real identity was a good call. This is what would happen if she didn't done that: Other Diamonds would take her far away from Earth (pick an excuse) and then complete the colonisation and obliterate the sheet out of Earth. They treated Pink Diamond as a child entire time and she knew that. To rebel as herself would be pointless. Also: I love how Pearl tried to instafuse with Pink. It was an impulse. I think, that Pearl at the time didn't know, how to handle with these new emotions she developed :)

[@Gradamit]

I think this ep is way more about clarification then anything else it did a lot including showing how pearl was into the idea of rose quartz and not just because she's her boss/goddess also how garnet is more important and how starting a full scale war was not her original plan also for the pearl fusion thing. because garnet was the first non standard fusion the metaphors are what fusion even means is up in the air

[@bradbradfordson9158]

I think that something to consider is that Pink might be trying to attack the status quo of their society. To get rid of the order of a diamond being in charge and the other gems organizing under them. She might not want the gems to fall into their old patterns even when she rebels. She wants something new, not the same slavery with a new coat of paint. Thats just how i felt about it tho.

[@patknack7368]

As we saw in Jungle Moon, Pink hadn't really developed leadership skills before receiving Earth as a colony, and that likely didn't change when she became the leader of a rebellion. In that sense, Pink fumbling through plans and hoping that it works makes perfect sense.

[@Nessmess001]

Thing is, pink needed a reason for the diamonds to stay OFF of earth. The only way to do so was to scare them into believing that if they went there, someone had the power to shatter them (rose quartz). She needed to create the persona of a misterious leader nobody knew much about, but was powerful enough to rally people to her cause and shatter a diamond. Rebelling as pink wouldn't have allowed her to also be rose and build her up. If she had rebelled as pink, the diamonds would've seen it as a childish tantrum, obliterated all life there and pluck her out of earth to put her in a dark tower back in homeworld.

[@tariqstarks1691]

Hello I'm first theory about the dimensions was that they have hinted abilities at any normal gem, but now after seeing them fight, there on a new level of power the only the temple fusion can stand up to just one dimension. So shape shifting can go for years. And we know that a gem can cheap a new from both rush or thought out. So when pink gets poof and comedown, she made her from is rose.

[@AlquimistEd]

Pearl did not understand the implications around that kind of fusion at that time, no other gems did.

[@pedrokatcradle]

"addressed in later episodes" yes by showing Pink's own subjugation at the hands of the Diamonds. Which we tend to forget about when talking about Pink.

[@emilymorano2923]

The persona of Rose Quartz allowed her to be underestimated by the other diamonds, if they'd known she was pink they wouldve been able to stop her much easier I think, the fact that the diamonds did underestimate Rose allowed her the time to properly build a rebellion

[@sleepy9579]

I love this channel for it's truthful criticism

[@charlottea3041]

If Pink initiated the rebelion on Homeworld as herself I think you'd be correct in assuming that the gems under Pink's command would side with her. However, they would most likely do so due to Pink being their diamond and not because they necessarily agree with her view. Rose was a common gem, or atleast they thought so, who rebelled against the authorities of a system that did not allow for the freedom of expressions of gems. Rose embodied an idea rather than an authority which resulted in the crystal gems being composed of gems who truly wanted things differently, rather than following her because she was their diamond.

[@phlpcockrell]

Rose and Pearl may have set up camp close to where blue diamond was so they could just pop in and bounce quickly. And if Ruby and Sapphire were only in the wilderness a short time, like a day or 2 after the initial fusion, it would make sense that they'd bump into rose and pearl, rather than if they'd been lost for weeks. Why would Rose and Pearl still be hanging around? And as everyone's said, the series hadn't happened yet, so the implications of fusion didn't exist yet. Fusion is just something gems do. It's not intimate or meaningful. It's possible they'd never considered that different gems could fuse. It makes sense for identical gems to be able to combine but to find out you could do it with anybody? Of course you'd try it.

[@Fayanora]

Maybe she considered it, and then decided against it? I mean, I can already see how the attempt would go: the entire might of the Gem Empire would come down on Earth for the Diamonds to try to drag their rebellious little defective diamond family member back home, and then the Earth would be given to some other diamond and completely obliterated. Whereas in canon, Homeworld considered the rebellion a nuisance and only when they lost the battle did they resort to a weapon of mass destruction. Why they left Earth alone after that, I don't know. Maybe in memory of Pink, who they thought was shattered? I can imagine Blue saying, "Let Earth be her tomb. She did so love the planet and its organic life, after all."

[@radRadiolarian]

I think a crucial detail that was kind of forgotten in the video was that Rose wasn't declaring war on the other diamonds. She was declaring war on herself. The point of the war wasn't to scare off gems anymore. It was to make it so that Pink seems as if she can't handle her colony and the Diamonds would stop the colonization. This, I believe, is alluded to in Steven's dream in the moon base, where Blue tells Pink that she shouldn't be scared of a Quartz. Blue wasn't having any of Pink's childish pretend-cowardice. However, this plan isn't without a fatal flaw. It fails to consider the possibility that if the Diamonds do give in to Pink's whining, they could just swoop in and take over the colonization themself. This would eventually lead push Rose to wage war against the other Diamonds, which kind of happened anyways after Pink was "shattered".

[@WolframiteWraith]

I disagree that Pearl found her individuality by following Pink Diamond to Earth. She always followed her master's whims to the point of sacrificing her identity entirely. She believed that she was set free but as she stated pretty succinctly in the movie she never left her master's side or her servant role which is why she couldn't cope after Pink's death.

[@panterloart9180]

Thank you! I was really dissapointed on how this episode played out, I feel like it was very rushed to try and explain the whole story in one flashback episdoe. It just made everything more confusing

[@miguelocampo9512]

If she had reveal her identity, the other diamonds would have come, over power her, and finish the colonization and let all life in earth die

[@watermelon668]

Something I think could have explained the whole Pink rebellion thing would be that she planned on getting rid of all gems on earth, then going back to regular life as pink, perhaps making visits to earth.

[@CherryTreatsArt]

On the subject of Pearl trying to fuse before asking, fusion is, two Pearl and Rose right then, a really unknown and ambiguous thing. I don't think she did or even should have, known the mental importance or experience of fusion, thus the impulsive try isn't really an indication of dubious consent. I personally thought it was a pretty wonderful way to instigate their first fusion. Letting Pearl be the one to try and not have her 'Diamond' pressuring her just by asking at all.

[@nathanlong1644]

I have a feeling we're going to learn something about white diamond or--an exciting idea--previous diamonds that rebelled (!!) that will make her motivations much clearer

[@frauleinzuckerguss1906]

I guess that Pearl just wasn't aware of how intimate of an act fusion is, since on Homeworld the (same-gem-) fusions are only done for practicality as we are told by Peridot. So maybe she saw how excited Rose was and thought "Hey if she likes this cross-fusion thing so much, maybe I should try." After all, Garnet was the first fusion just done out of love. I know that during the course of the series fusion is often a metaphor for intimate interactions but I'd like to give Pearl the benefit of the doubt by just not knowing better nor having ever been told otherwise.

[@matti.8465]

I can buy Pink Diamond moving her gem and being able to stay in a different shape for so long. She's the most powerful kind of gem after all. In fact, this makes the fact that Rose shapeshifted her insides to have Steven for nine months without losing control make sense.

[@leopardeye1654]

I think most of those questions are gonna come up in the talks Steven is going to have with his new Aunts

[@chrisfox7034]

"Hey people that I've convinced to hate the diamonds or already hate the diamonds, I'm a Diamond - but I'm totally good, trust me!"

[@wires-sl7gs]

I feel like declaring a out right rebellion as Pink would be suicide. The other diamonds never really sent that much support because they didn't consider the rebellion that much of a threat, but if Pink herself were to declare a rebellion herself, as a diamond and with the support of all of her gems, Blue, yellow, and even white, would have to take this more seriously, thus sending a lot more troops and resources. Plus Pink only has one planet, and we all know that the other diamonds own WAY more. because of that they would have hundreds, if not thousands, if not millions of more resources and troops than Pink would ever have. if Pink ever wanted more troops, she would ether have to harm the life she was trying to protect, or risk getting shot down in space by Homeword's likely vast armada that would likely be bombarding the planet. Not to mention Pink likely wouldn't be a match for just blue and yellow, not to mention white. I'm not even sure if she could take Blue or yellow when their on their own instead of with each other. Not to mention they didn't take her very seriously before, so she had to make herself look like something much more scarier than a diamond, A Diamond Shatterer

[@RPEliott]

I had the thought. I'm sure since it's been 7 months it's been reiterated a million times but I'm gonna say it anyway, since we have new info. After the whole Homeworld Arc we see more of how Pink was treated, "She'll take away your Pearl." And then her Pearl got taken away. Pink probably had that in mind. If SHE acted up, they would either take away her colony or just completely destroy it and everything and everyone on it just to punish her. People say "Well if they couldn't do that to Rose, how could they do that to Pink?" Except 2 things: 1) They DID do that to Rose, but they waited... because of reason 2. Reason 2) the entire time before Pink's shattering Blue and Yellow were telling her that the colony would be completed. They didn't want to destroy everything, and they DID shatter (or at least cracked) a lot of Rose's army again and again, but if they did anything too dramatic it would have hurt the colony. If PINK acted up, they wouldn't have cared about whether or not they hurt the colony, and after her "shattering" they proved that by, at least as Blue and Yellow believed, destroying every Gem on the planet at once.

[@al.109]

Good News Elk! Diamonds and Lemons won't be the last piece of work for Adventure Time. It's airing in July 20. While we don't know when is the finale airing, I don't think that I'll be in July, but somewhere between August to September, since the Season 10 DVD is coming out in September.

[@zanzaklaus2496]

I think that she likely kept up the Rose persona for a while into the rebellion because at the time it was just herself, Pearl, and maybe a few others who were really just trying to stir up some trouble to get Blue and Yellow to agree to letting Pink leave. It was a cowardly way for her to avoid responsibility of confronting them. But after meeting Garnet and changing her focus to be more oriented to helping gems fight for their individuality, the idea of an ordinary Quartz soldier being the leader instead of the previous status quo of diamonds was way more in line with the ideals she was fighting for in the first place. Much more inspiring than just following your diamond like you already were. Also, I think that there's clear evidence that while the gems likely worship their diamond above the others, there's a clear power ranking system in place and I doubt the other gems are oblivious to this.

[@brianbrush5107]

Leading the war as rose also gave a massive tactical advantage as she would thus know all the other sides moves against them. If she stayed pink she may have had to resort to darker means

[@DenverEight]

I’d think the rebellion had been her way of communicating the narrative of self determined destinies to her sisters. Going against them as herself would be three against one but the collective crystal gems would mean the ideas of many against three.