Man, this episode was chilling for a bunch of reasons, but the thing that gets me the most is Jasper’s view on Rose Quartz.
Because…hell she’s right.
Rose became a sort of safe haven for the Gems who didn’t fit into their intended role somehow: fusions, runts, non-conformers, you name it. And she was appealing in part because she was the last resort for those sorts of Gems. Jasper makes it clear these Gems would otherwise be shattered under the Diamonds. Joining Rose may not have always been a free, voluntary, ideological choice; maybe, sometimes, it was pure desperation.
That leads me to this: Jasper didn’t swat away Steven’s touch because she suspected him; she swatted him off because she understood him.
She understood he was doing what Rose Quartz always does: identifying a Gem so destroyed beyond its original purpose, and then offering to help it, offering compassion and comfort and gentleness. Against the dawning realization that only shattering awaits them on Homeworld, what Gem wouldn’t reach for Rose’s hand?
And no, Rose wasn’t being compassionate strictly as a military strategy. Not at all. But that’s what Jaspersees. And from an objective standpoint, she’s not wrong. This is how Rose recruits Gems–with kindness in a hopeless situation.
At that moment, Jasper saw Rose’s hand extended to her. And knowing what she knew, that could only mean that Rose has pegged her as something irredeemable to Homeworld. She had broken down into something defective and corrupted enough to seem worthy of pity in Rose Quartz’s eyes, worthy of being swayed.
Everyone sure likes to forget that Bismuth attacked a non-combatant.
More people like to forget that Pearl did it too.
I think an important distinction to make here is that sapphire was most likely a high-ranking member of BD’s court and Pearl was probably specifically there to poof and collect her and/or ask Blue Pearl to join them.
Bismuth just sorta punched a gem she saw, as far as we know. Lapis could be lying about why she was on earth but we don’t really have much reason to believe that she would lie.
Also, another important distinction to make is that THE BISMUTH THAT WE SEE IN THE FLASHBACK IS NOT THE BISMUTH WE SEE IN THE 30 MINUTE SPECIAL.
Lapis:
I was only meant to visit for a short time, but I got caught in the middle of the war. It was awful! I tried to run but… I was picked up by a Homeworld soldier and confused for a Crystal Gem and used as a tool.
In the episode Bismuth, it is revealed to us that Bismuths are not usually weapon smiths, but construction workers/artisans. At that time (as confirmed by centipeetle) construction work was underway for the Earth colony, which was most likely where Lapis was ordered to go, probably to record for the diamonds how the colony’s construction was performing (as we know she can easily display events she’s witnessed).
The diamonds never got Lapis’s report back because when Lapis arrived on Earth (at one of the construction sites, where a lot of homeworld-aligned bismuths would have been) she was mistaken for a crystal gem, and because she was a Lapis Lazuli, she was immediately imprisoned in a mirror because (as far as we can tell) the main function of Lazulis is not to manipulate water, it is to record everything they see and display it. Her capture would have been advantageous for homeworld had she been a Crystal Gem, because she would have been able to show her captors the exact location of any bases she had been to (they likely thought she was a spy sent to record information for the CGs). The Bismuth we know was likely already aligned with the CGs at this point, as Bismuth is called “One of the original Crystal Gems” by the CGs we know, and when Bismuth speaks of Rose, it sounds like they met on peaceful terms and discussed with each other.
tl;dr: FLASHBACK BISMUTH IS NOT CG BISMUTH AND PEOPLE REALLY LIKE TO IGNORE CANON DIALOGUE JUST SO THEY CAN HATE ON A CHARACTER
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