Are revolutions worth dying for if your leader is deceitful?
I am a huge Steven Universe fan, and the last Steven bomb special left myself and thousands of viewers across the world with so many questions and conflicting ideas on how this event will shape our heroes and the direction of the show moving forward. To quickly recap: ROSE QUARTZ IS PINK DIAMOND, Y’ALL. STEVEN IS A DIAMOND! And most importantly, only one of the Crystal Gems knew this to be true, because she helped fake the shattering of Pink Diamond: Pearl. This changes everything.
Rose Quartz is a not really a person; Rose Quartz was an idea. She is a projection of each’s gem’s ideal future. For Ruby and Sapphire, that future was one of love without fear of rejection. For Amethyst, she presented a world where gems are free and live at peace. For Bismuth, it was strength and ingenuity as a leader. She showed Pearl that gems could create their own purpose. Each Crystal Gem pledged their life to the idea of gem, who was just like them, that wanted more for herself and her people. She wanted to be free. She wanted to everyone to be free as she could be.
The legend of Rose Quartz is of her origin as an quartz soldier, made on Earth, who borne a rebellion and shattered a Diamond. If she, ordinary quartz soldier, could choice a destiny for herself and make it reality, why couldn’t they? Gems could be more than their intended purpose: builders, soldiers, courtisans, lesser than. How sad it is that the leader they rallied behind was the overseer of their oppression? To have a Diamond masquerade as quartz gem to escape the reality of her authority and position as Diamond would sound blasphemous had it not been true. Their savior was a fabrication. A war was fought on false pretenses. Thousand of gems died behind a lie. This gives the narrative a whole new, deeper perspective. Wow, Rose. You really got us on with this.
We got a glimpse of how Amethyst, Ruby and Sapphire will react to this news, but I want to know how Steven will feel about his mother after this. As children, we idolized our parents as superhuman beings with dictionaries for brains and hearts of gold and, for Steven, he only has heard good things about Rose. His arc over the past few seasons has been coming to terms that he is not Rose Quartz, and that who he is a boy and as a gem is enough to pure exist in this world. From his birth until now, most gems (aside from Lapis and Peridot) we encounter have at one time or another as referred to Steven as Rose. Steven’s identity is tied to his mother. The first time Rose ever appeared on screen (in “Gem Glow” in her iconic portrait), Steven gains the ability to summon and access her shield. His powers and charactistic optimism come from his mother. He embodies the essence of Rose, and I feel that it will scare him for a time moving forward.
If Steven is all of Rose’s good, does that mean that he is all of her bad? He wanted to be more like her, even considering dyeing his hair pink like hers. A phrase comes to mind when I think of Steven’s situation: “Never met your heroes; they will always disappoint you.” We place the people we admire on a high pedistal. They are perfect; they can do no wrong. But famous people are still people. Everyone has secrets and a past and things they are trying to forget, just like Rose. And although Steven will never get to meet Rose outside of her VHS tapes (Or maybe he will. Only Rebecca can gift us that) he now knows that his mother is more than her reputation. It will be up to him to be more than a shadow of Rose Quartz. She is Rose AND Pink Diamond. He is a part of Rose, and he will always be Steven.
Maybe Rose chose to have Steven to finally become one with humanity, and continue to live her dream of freedom. Maybe she did so to atone for her mistakes and perform her first unselfish act by having a child to fulfill Greg’s dream to have family of his own. Regardless, I know Steven will forgive Rose for what she did to the gems and her manipulation of Pearl because it’s in his nature. Rebecca Sugar once mentioned that Steven gets his empathy from Greg. And in that, Steven can be all that Rose was built up to be and more. He has so much potential and I cannot wait to see how this story will unfold for seasons to come. Cheers to freaking out on July 2nd, Crewniverse.
SYDSUGOI SPEAKS 