theladymisandry:

It’s all coming together.

So lets start off with this.

This is what started the rebellion, the first act of treason from Rose Quartz, but here’s the thing, we’ve already seen the scene directly after the act of poofing pink diamond. (I specified ‘poofing’ and not ‘shattering’ for a reason, bare with me)

This is it. Right here.

If you’ve watched Rose’s Scabbard as many times as I have (so many, too many) then you know how this scene goes.

Rose: “Pearl, I’m going to stay and fight for this planet.”

This dialogue is so, so important. They’ve reached a breaking point (ha) here. Something that Rose just did has pushed them both into needing to make a choice. There’s no going back. Rose chooses to stay.

It’s important to notice her expressions here.

The first thing that strikes me is that for a few frames she’s looking away from Pearl, looking back. What exactly is she looking at? The evidence of what she’s just done? Pink Diamond’s Gem?

But it’s her eyes that really do it for me.

She looks haunted.

Then the urgency of the situation comes in through the dialogue, and here’s why I think this just happened.

Rose: “You don’t have to do this with me.”
Pearl: “But I want to!”
Rose: “I know you do. Please, please understand, if we lose we’ll be killed, and if we win, we can never go home.”

She’s done something punishable by death, so she gives Pearl the option of leaving. She still has time to give Pearl the option of leaving.

This, if nothing else is proof that Homeworld doesn’t know that Pink Diamond has been poofed yet, that the act of treason has just been committed. They are the only  gems who know what has happened, we know this because not only does Eyeball confirm that there were witnesses to Pink Diamond’s shattering but, in the beginning of “The Answer” when Pearl and Rose first attack, the Ruby guards can be heard crying out:

“Who are you?!”
“Show yourselves!”

At that point all Homeworld knew was that there was a rebellion, they didn’t know who had rebelled, who attacked Pink Diamond.

Back to Rose’s Scabbard.

If Pearl returns to Homeworld now it’ll be without consequence, she won’t be blamed because nobody knows what just happened, Pearl can lie, claim no involvement, anything. Rose knows this, tries to protect her by offering her a means of escape. (It’s obvious by her body language, her hesitation, and her resignation that she wants Pearl to stay but she would never ask that of her, but that’s another post entirely ;D )

Pearl declines, of course.

(Rose looks so relieved and happy and ajshgjakhgs)

We’ve just witnessed the start of the rebellion and the birth of the Crystal Gems.

Now this. This is where and how Pink Diamond was shattered.

The rebellion is underway, a thousand year war. The Crystal Gems are outnumbered, outgunned, and it all comes to a head in the strawberry battlefield where it seems that White Diamond has been sent in to finish them off once and for all.

This mural has always reminded me of something straight out of Sailor Moon.

And I believe the same scenario played out here. The odds were stacked against them, they were facing total defeat. So Rose, like Usagi, uses her last resort, her strongest weapon.

In this case, that’s Pink Diamond’s Gem.

And this is what happens.

She never meant to shatter her.

ding-dong-damnation:

I think I know the secret to healing the corrupted gems???

Okay in the episode garnet mentions that the gem’s MIND has been damaged, which is why steven’s powers can only partially heal them.

Now at first this episode seems a little out of place with the others we’ve had. Most of the recent episodes have been pretty lighthearted episodes focusing entirely on the residents of beach city, so suddenly having a heavy episode focusing on gem mysteries and lore seems a little weird at first, but then i realized something: a lot of the episodes focus on two things:

1.) Steven’s ability to heal and cope with emotional pain and conflict (he heals the relationship between pearl and greg, helps kifi and fryman get along again and end their war, helps kiki stand up to her sister and heal her stress, helps lars realize how he is more likeable when he is nice)

and more importantly

2.) Steven’s ability to enter the minds of others.

I think the second ability supplemented by the first is the key to healing the corrupted gems. He can enter their minds to help them work through their trauma and heal them from the inside.

We’ve already seen the beginnings of this in the series. Steven was able to enter the mind of Malachite to talk to lapis and jasper individually, but wasn’t able to do much as his powers were still developing at this point. More recently, steven was able to enter the collective mind of the cluster and bring it to peace, calming the individual shards.

It comes back to what I think rose’s plan was for steven in the first place, and what “Love like You” is actually about: steven is capable of empathy in a way rose just isn’t. In the series, rose is portrayed as very kind, caring and compassionate but she also is shown completely disregarding the feelings of others quite often. Perhaps rose knew that this empathy was the key to helping the gems finally heal, which is why she chose to give birth to steven.