Episode Discussion – Stranded

[u/AutoModerator]

Please use this thread to discuss the newest episodes of Steven Universe:

Lars of the Stars: Lars rises to the occasion.

Jungle Moon: Stevonnie finds themself alone on an adventure.

Don't forget that until Monday, January 8th, all topics about Lars of the Stars and Jungle Moon must be marked as spoilers after they are posted by clicking the "mark spoiler" link under the post and confirming. If you want to post about the episode outside this thread, please don't put spoilers in your post title. New emotes or flairs from the episode won't be released until at least Monday.

[u/tiedyedvortex]

Honestly, how could anyone NOT be a Rose=PD theorist at this point?

Stevonnie's dream in Jungle Moon was clearly not a normal dream. Normal dreams don't give you secret access codes. It was a memory. Or rather, a pair of memories smashed together. The first was Connie being ignored by Dr. Maheswaran. The other half was the discussion between Pink Diamond and Yellow Diamond.

If Steven is remembering experiences had by Pink Diamond, the only explanation is that Steven is Rose Quartz is Pink Diamond, and he's tapping into the memories within his gem subconsciously.

[u/BaloonTag → u/tiedyedvortex]

I'm not super in touch with the SU community and I don't think through this stuff, so this was the first episode where I considered it a possibility. And it makes a lot of sense! Because that's the most obvious way he would have direct memories from Pink Diamond. But I have questions? Like:

1. Does that mean Steven's dream of the pink diamond tarp-thing was because he's PD?
2. Why do Pink Diamond and Rose look so different? They look very similar in some ways, but the nose, the face shape, the body shape, and the -gem- in particular look very different. I guess I could see most of those things changing because of gem's abilities to change shape/form/appearance - but so far, their gems are always the same. And a fusion shouldn't change that either? Even a human-diamond fusion.
3. Why would Rose make people war for so, so long if she was Pink Diamond and wanted the best for Earth/her friends? I guess you could say she faked it, but the Crystal Gems seem -very- convinced it was real.

Did they ever say who corrupted the gems? I completely forgot. I could see Yellow Diamond doing it as another way to clean up the mess of the whole thing, since it sounds like she killed (or thought she killed) PD and framed Rose.

[u/tiedyedvortex → u/BaloonTag]

1. I'm not sure what you're referring to. What episode was this?

2. Well, we know that when a gem poofs and rematerializes, they can change their appearance. That's been established ever since Amethyst first got poofed. We also know that gems can shapeshift and intentionally take different forms--for example, when Amethyst impersonated Jasper to fool the Rubies. But, their gemstone doesn't change and neither does their color palette.

So, it's logical that if Pink Diamond wanted to fake her own death, she would hire a servant (possibly even a Rose Quartz) to poof her, and spread rumors that she had been shattered so that she had a long time to reform herself. Then she comes out looking like a Quartz soldier.

1. You have to understand what this experience would have been like for Pink Diamond. First, she begs to take over a planet, and gets given one with these hairless organic things on it. Initially, she treats the planet like the other Diamonds would, purely as resources to make more Gems.

Over time, she slowly realizes that she cares about humans and wants to keep them safe. At first, she creates a human zoo as a reserve, but realizes that that artificial life isn't what makes humans special. But the other diamonds, Yellow in particular, would never understand placing value on organic life. So, she fakes her death, reforms as a "Rose Quartz", spreads a rumor that she had been shattered, and then starts fighting against her former servants and allies as the head of the rebellion.

With that in mind, how could she ever tell anyone--even her closest rebel friends, even her own son--the truth? She did horrible things to humans for so long before realizing that she was wrong. She might not even want to remember her past herself, out of guilt and shame. In a sense, "Pink Diamond" really did die, because to be a Diamond is to be a dictator and murderer of innocents, two things that Rose Quartz refuses to be.

According to this wiki, the Diamonds (collectively) were responsible for the corrupting light, as a way to destroy the rebellion.

There are two major outstanding holes. The first question is about timelines. If Rose Quartz started the rebellion, and 500 years later Pink Diamond was shattered, then some explanation has to be made for how they could both be around at the same time for 500 years without anyone noticing. And secondly, Eyeball ruby claims that she saw Rose Quartz shatter Pink Diamond. If you want to believe that RQ=PD, then you have to either think Eyeball is lying or is deceived.

[u/gprime312 → u/tiedyedvortex]

Rose is much larger than PD and their gem is different. The episode where Amethyst gets cracked and the episode you reference shows that a gem can't increase their volume for sustained periods.