Characters / Steven Universe — Rose Quartz

Steven Universe Main Character Index
Crystal Gems (Steven Quartz Universe | Garnet | Amethyst | Pearl | Rose Quartz | Connie Maheswaran | Peridot | Lapis Lazuli) | Gem Fusions | Homeworld Gems | Diamond Authority (Yellow Diamond | Blue Diamond | Pink Diamond | White Diamond) | Yellow Diamond's Court (Jasper) | Blue Diamond's Court | Spinel | Off Colors | Gem Monsters | Little Homeworld | Humans (Greg Universe) | Other

Rose Quartz

Voiced by: Susan Egan

^{Click here for her outfit as a Quartz soldier} 

"Isn't it remarkable, Steven? This world is full of so many possibilities. Each living thing has an entirely unique experience: the sights they see, the sounds they hear, the lives they live are so complicated... and so simple! I can't wait for you to join them."

Rose Quartz was the founder and previous leader of the Crystal Gems. She found Amethyst and brought her into the core of the group. About sixteen years before the series began, she met and fell in love with Greg Universe. She became pregnant with Steven, but since the holder of the magic gem can only be one person, Rose, as Greg puts it, "gave up her physical form to bring Steven into the world". Although she could fight as well as any Gem, she was full of love and compassion for every living thing she ever encountered.

For her tropes as her former identity, see it here.

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A-B

• The Ace: Rose is always described as being exceptional at whatever she did. It's not an image she lives up to, because no one could.
• Acrofatic: Rose is easily one of the larger Gems we've seen onscreen; she canonically wears a size XXL shirt. That doesn't prevent her from being able to jump quite high and land so gracefully that she's practically floating. "Steven Floats" explains that she had the power to regulate her descent speed, hence her grace when landing. Played with on The Reveal her "Rose Quartz" form was at first a shapeshifted disguise and her true form was Pink Diamond, while certainly a large Gem as befitting her kind, is built rather proportionally. Her powers likely still played a role in how she can move so gracefully, however.
• Adipose Rex: Played With, since Rose is actually Pink Diamond in disguise. Her Diamond form is much thinner and taller, though.
• All-Loving Heroine:
  • Rose is always described and remembered as a Gem full of love towards every living being and the world they lived in. She held her fellow Gems, Greg, and Steven especially dear and the video she left for Steven highlights it, thanks to her monologue. She even comments how she looks forward to Steven's birth despite knowing full well that she'd die as a result.
  • A good example of this happens in "The Answer"; she meets the recently rebelled (and fused) Garnet, whom all previous Gems mentioned was unnatural and should be destroyed:
    Garnet: I don't... upset you?
    Rose Quartz: [happily] Who cares how I feel? How you feel is bound to be much more interesting.
  • This behavior is ultimately why she poofed and bubbled Bismuth, whose weapon, "the Breaking Point", would've led to much higher and much more permanent casualties, especially on Homeworld's side, Bismuth's Pay Evil unto Evil contrasting heavily with Rose's desire to see Homeworld's forces merely pushed back rather than destroyed outright (Bismuth also implies she attacked Rose as a result of this).
  • "A Single Pale Rose" and "Now We're Only Falling Apart" revealed that she developed this mentality as Pink Diamond when she grew to love the Earth.
• Always Someone Better: Steven reveals in "Steven vs. Amethyst" that he sometimes feels like he'll never be as great as her.
• Anime Hair: Big, poofy, and styled in tubelike ringlets.
• Anti-Hero:
  • For all her compassion, she isn't perfect. As Pink Diamond, she created the Rose Quartz alter-ego, instigated a rebellion, and faked her own assassination with the goal of ending the Gem colonization of Earth, having come to cherish Earth's organic life. However, she deceived her followers for millennia and placed a Geas on Pearl that prevented Pearl from ever revealing the truth, which caused Pearl no end of anxiety. While her intentions were noble, she caused her friends to live a lie and unwittingly brought down doom on countless Gems after her "assassination". It goes to show that not even the Diamonds' Token Good Teammate is flawless.
  • In general, Rose's idealism is tempered by a profound aversion to solving difficult moral problems, which can lead to a unintentional thoughtlessness. That Bismuth was thrown in a bubble to be ignored indefinitely is probably the biggest illustration, as is the fact she never tried to resolve Pearl's feelings for her. Plays into and goes hand in hand with being The Atoner, down below.
• Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: A possible explanation of Greg's comment that she "gave up her physical form". The home movie she left behind for Steven states that she became half of him.
• The Atoner: It's implied by Greg that she's not exactly proud of a lot of things she's done. Given she was the Diamond who began the colonization of Earth and the corruption attack was due to a mistake on her part, it's easy to see why.
• Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Her original Quartz Soldier outfit includes a crop top which shows off her gem, which is in line with her gentle, motherly personality. Her default long dress outfit goes for a Navel Window instead.
• Barrier Warrior: Pearl notes that Steven's shield and bubble were inherited from her, which would logically make her this. "The Return" implies that her defensive abilities were more valued than her strength in battle.
• Batman Grabs a Gun: It's believed she had to violate her Thou Shalt Not Kill policy and shattered Pink Diamond to save the Crystal Gems and humanity. Except she didn't. Rose Quartz was Pink Diamond, and enlisted Pearl to fake her own death at the hands of her alter ego, thinking it was the only way to make the Gem war stop.
• The Beastmaster: Was noted in Buddy Buddwick's personal journal to have lived (or at least spent time) among a pride of seven lions (three lions and four lionesses) as if they were housecats at least 200 years prior to the series. She also was the previous partner/owner of Lion, who has partnered with her son/reincarnation Steven after Rose "died".
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Rose wanted to free Earth from Homeworld and create a place where the Crystal Gems could live their lives as they wanted and humans would be safe from Homeworld, going so far as to fake shattering herself as Pink Diamond to do it. Homeworld did leave...after Corrupting every single Gem still on Earth into monsters, thus ensuring almost none of the Crystal Gems would be able to enjoy their freedom and would instead become a new threat to humans.
• Becoming the Mask:
  • Rose sees Steven as a way to become human in a way and experience humanity for herself.
  • Pink Diamond also chose to permanently become Rose after faking her own shattering.
  • Word of God is that she dearly, consciously wanted to be an All-Loving Hero capable of great empathy, but coming from a place of such power it was very hard for her to truly relate. Steven has no such issue.
• Being Good Sucks: Even though she was against killing, she had to endure warfare against Pink Diamond because in Garnet's words "The Earth belonged to Pink Diamond. Destroying her was all Rose could do... for Amethyst to be herself... for Pearl to be free... for me to be together... for [Steven] to exist." The truth turns out to be more complicated. However, trying to be good has brought Rose a fair share of pain. Word of God is that she painted the most negative image possible of Pink Diamond to her followers, and so created an environment in which all of her chosen friends kept essentially telling her to destroy herself. And she did.
• Benevolent Boss:
  • Was this to the Crystal Gems, especially compared to the Homeworld Gems. This is most clear concerning Pearl, who on Homeworld would've been treated as a pretty thing to own rather than a person, and Garnet whom Blue Diamond tried to kill half of simply for fusing into her doing her job. Even Amethyst, who would have been seen as an 'overcooked runt' and defective on Homeworld, was never treated any differently. It becomes even more heartwarming when it turns out that she's actually Pink Diamond, who previously wanted to be a Bad Boss like her fellow Diamonds.
  • As the series went on, this gets Deconstructed. While Rose did genuinely care about the Earth and the Crystal Gems, her Heel–Face Turn could not overwrite thousands of years of conditioning to believe she was superior to other gems. While Rose paid lip service to freedom and free will, she still tended to assume she knew best and made many decisions without consulting the others. In fact, seconds after she promised to "free" Pearl, Rose still chose to put Pearl under an involuntary Geas to keep her identity hidden. In addition to her identity as Pink Diamond she kept many secrets from the other Crystal Gems, particularly the existence of Lion and the fact that she bubbled Bismuth for advocating use of lethal force.
• Betty and Veronica: The "Archie" for Pearl's "Betty" (Rose's bodyguard and very first ally in the war against Homeworld) and Greg's "Veronica" (aspiring human musician).
• Beware the Nice Ones: She's a loving, kindhearted person and All-Loving Hero, but she also did lead a armed rebellion against a cosmic empire. She's also physically strong enough to smash the metal controls for a Ferris Wheel with one punch, then stop said Ferris Wheel in its tracks just by jumping in front of it and grabbing it.
• Big Beautiful Woman: She's stated to be at least eight feet tall, is considerably heavier and rounder than the rest of the Gems (her shirt size is XXL, and it's pretty snug on her), is a Universally Beloved Leader, and is gorgeous. Her animation and voice acting also allude to this; she speaks very gently and eloquently, and her animation is very subtle and fluid, with her hair shifting and bouncing with the smallest movement. Played with on The Reveal she's actually Pink Diamond, whose flashbacks show that, while certainly large and beautiful, is also quite a bit thinner and taller than her Rose Quartz disguise.
• Big Good: Her actions before and after Steven was born indicate this. Several episodes indicate that she dedicated her life towards benevolence, such as healing broken Gems, defending her newly adopted Homeworld and even bonding with a human which resulted in her giving up her own existence just so that Steven may live. But since this story is about Steven, her legacy and subtle guidance is what drives him forward. This later gets complicated as the series continues. She was a major force in saving Earth from Homeworld, but she was far from a perfect person. She did many morally questionable things and was also varying stages of immature throughout her backstory. Though she paved the way to the peaceful co-existence between Earth and Homeworld, her actions also left EVERYONE close to her with major baggage that continues to plague them in Future.
• Blood Knight: "The Answer" shows that she took a certain amount of satisfaction in combat. However, she didn't actually kill anyone and is her usual kind and loving self outside of battle.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Bismuth and Rose's argument over the Breaking Point. Bismuth argued that, since Homeworld doesn't fight fair or hold back, they shouldn't either. Rose argued that this would make them no different from the Gems they were fighting, and was against everything they stood for. Granted, it has become more complicated than that since the Diamonds are hiding plenty of secrets about the war, including from each other. It's eventually revealed that Rose didn't want to shatter the Homeworld Gems because she was one of them — Pink Diamond — and didn't want to hurt her family, or any of the Homeworld armies.
• Broken Ace: As time goes on and we get more of an insight into what Rose was like when she was alive, it becomes very clear that she was... less than perfect. While Rose did love humanity, her behavior towards them was more like seeing them as pets instead as individual beings, she seems to have handled the Greg/Pearl Love Triangle poorly (and, before Greg came along, is strongly implied to have had a long series of human lovers that she only ever toyed with), and her tendency to keep secrets (most prominently the fact that she came to blows with, poofed and bubbled fellow Crystal Gem Bismuth over a political dispute) left the remaining Gems in the dark on at least a few important issues. We soon learn why; her original identity, Pink Diamond, was a Womanchild who was doomed to remain perpetually immature. Rose pretended to be a mature, wise figure but had the mentality of a desperate, overburdened and self-loathing teenager.

C-E

• Caring Gardener: She gardens magically through the use of her Green Thumb powers, and she's the one that led the Crystal Gems and cared for them as a Team Mom.
• Cessation of Existence: Implied with Steven's "She's gone." comment. No one knows for sure whether she still exists in any afterlife, but she's certainly nowhere she's easy to reach.
• Character Development:
  • Despite her sympathy and compassion, Rose's "love" of humans is compared to thinking of them as cute pet animals, and not worthy of equal respect, though she does show a desire to respect their wishes. Her interaction with Greg taught her to see and value humans in a more respectful way. It's implied she also had this when she came to Earth and learned the value of humans and her fellow Gems, as she formerly seemed to have the same views of organics as her fellow Diamonds.
  • In a heavily ironic way, Rose Quartz eventually does become the more mature leader that White, Yellow, and Blue always wanted Pink Diamond to be. By the end of her life, she still had Pink's cheerfulness and desire to support and connect with others, but she also exuded wisdom and composure, all tied into a deep fondness for almost everything and everyone — and the maturity to face her flaws with grace and sincere attempts to improve. Though her character did start out immature and silly, and does continue to have flaws throughout her life that are never resolved, eventually Rose does mature into a style of leadership which can best be described as "motherly". (Further ironically, her actual biological child is the only one she was never able to lead and guide this way.)

• Combat Medic: Rose had healing and defensive abilities along with martial prowess apparent by her collection of weaponry.
• Consummate Liar: Steven sadly acknowledges this over the series, the more that he learns about his mother. Rose hid lots of secrets from the people she loved, including Pearl and Greg, whom she cared about deeply. She lied about poofing and bubbling Bismuth, telling the Crystal Gems she was worried Bismuth had been captured or shattered to spare their feelings about the latter's betrayal. She also lied about Pink Diamond being cruel and unwilling to spare the Earth. After he gets over the initial shock of her biggest lie — that she didn't shatter Pink Diamond but instead was Pink Diamond and faked her shattering — he admits to Amethyst that he shouldn't have been surprised because he knew Rose was a liar. She actually gets this trait from her fellow Diamonds' strict and neglectful treatment towards her, making it hard to reveal anything about herself out of fear of disappointment from her friends and family.
• Cool Sword: Her sword, which would later be used by Steven and Connie. Not only does it look cool, Bismuth considered it her finest creation. It's designed to be able to slice through any Gem's physical form in one slash, including gems with Super-Toughness like Garnet or Bismuth. However, it's specially designed to always leave their Gem unharmed.
• Covert Pervert: It's not-so-subtly implied that Rose has had multiple sexual partners in the past, makes a few innuendos both in song form and when talking to Greg in "We Need To Talk", indicating that before she became romantically involved in Greg, she had only physical relationships with her partners.
• Create Your Own Villain: In a sense. Most of the rebellion's animosity towards Pink Diamond comes from Rose's stories of her as a cruel and uncaring monarch, creating a "villain" for them to rise together against. It's a complete fabrication. Rose Quartz was Pink Diamond, and slandered her own name, fought her own army, and rallied the Crystal Gems against herself to try and change things for the better. Much of Homeworld's animosity for the Crystal Gems also stems from Rose's shattering of Pink Diamond. Though the shattering was faked.
• Cryptic Background Reference: Rose's backstory before starting the rebellion is unknown, with Bismuth stating matter-of-factly that Rose was made on Earth's soil. However, Rose's talk with Greg while they were dating seems to imply that she lived on Homeworld, as she tells him that she never misses it. This seemingly minor reference calls into question whether the origin story she gave to the majority of the Crystal Gems is true, and what her true origins even are, seeing as her relationship with Bismuth was part of a reveal that it was in Rose's character to lie. The discrepancy turns out to be foreshadowing.
• Culture Clash: She had trouble understanding the human version of relationships at first.
• Cultured Badass: Rose was more familiar with human culture than the other Gems, and had an appreciation for music. The reason she met Greg was solely because she couldn't resist hearing him play, and she excitedly whispered to the other Gems about his gimmick when he came to give her a shirt he'd promised. That said, as "We Need to Talk" has proven, she wasn't an expert on humans nor on their relationships, which became a large block in her relationship with Greg.
• Dark and Troubled Past: She led the Crystal Gems in a long and violent war, and by the end of it all, most of her followers were either dead, corrupted, or insane. Discussed in this conversation:
  Greg: I barely know you.
  Rose: That's a good thing.
  • It's expanded a bit in "Earthlings"; according to Jasper she did something to Pink Diamond. At first we don't know what, but Jasper hates her for it, even after thousands of years. We find out what in "Back to the Moon": Rose Quartz shattered Pink Diamond. And then "A Single Pale Rose" shows she actually was Pink Diamond, which really makes her life look like a mess in hindsight.
• Dark Secret: She killed Pink Diamond. Many Homeworld gems knew, and Crystal Gems that fought in the war with her, but she kept this from Amethyst, and Garnet and Pearl kept it from Steven. Actually, her real dark secret is that she was Pink Diamond herself. Pearl shapeshifted into Rose to help the real Rose fake her own death.
• Deader than Dead: The Diamonds' powers can resurrect organic lifeforms recently killed by injuries and even long-shattered gems. Rose's Mind-Reformat Death on giving birth to Steven is the only thing we know they cannot reverse at all.
• Death by Childbirth: Rose Quartz "gave up her physical form to bring Steven into the world", as Greg puts it. It turns out that she became half of Steven, since she and Steven can't both exist at the same time.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: If she can be considered truly "dead" is a somewhat philosophical question, but she's not able to directly be there for Steven regardless. It turns out to be deconstructed harshly while still played straight as the show goes on; Rose was The Ace and an All-Loving Hero and a Universally Beloved Leader... but she wasn't as perfect as the Crystal Gems made her out to be. She had flaws, her own Character Arc and her loss is far more than the window-dressing for Steven's story. Bereavement doesn't magically disappear immediately, and no inherited legacy (however awesome) can replace a dead parent.
  • Especially deconstructed in regards to Steven. She genuinely possessed all of the positive traits that those who knew her remember but that only puts more pressure on Steven to live up to her legacy and causes him to have several doubts about himself and his relation to the Gems.
  • Finally the trope is subverted as of "Steven Floats": the pressure Steven feels, and the emotional scars he sees that Rose left in both the Crystal Gems and his dad, make him unable to summon happy thoughts when thinking about her, instead having complicated thoughts.
  • Another aspect of this is when an Awful Truth about her comes to light, she's no longer there to be able to explain to Steven why she did what she did or her side of the story.
  • This gets deconstructed even more after it's revealed she was actually Pink Diamond, as there is increased focus on how Rose's actions affected those around her, and how little she actually thought about the consequences such as her forcing Pearl under an unbreakable order to keep it a secret, the effects faking her death had on the other Diamonds, her casual abandonment of Spinel, and the fact that she never really had a long term plan for any of this in regards to Steven. By the events of the Movie, Steven reveals that he actually believes she was capable of such actions.
• Defector from Decadence: Led the other Crystal Gems in splitting away from the Homeworld Gems after the Homeworld Gems planned to do something that would have hurt the Earth. Turns out she is Pink Diamond, and thus an even bigger example.
• Deliberately Non-Lethal Attack: When Bismuth forged her iconic sword, Rose specifically requested it be able to cut through a Gem's physical form while leaving their Heart Drive gemstone unharmed. While just seeming to be another facet to Rose's loving nature, this later becomes a major detail of doubt to the reveal that Rose shattered Pink Diamond, as everyone insists she used her sword to do so.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • One of Rose's biggest flaws, and one that causes problems for others long after her death: While an effective leader and strategist, most of her plans were temporary solutions at best such as bubbling Bismuth after coming to blows or making Pearl swear to never reveal her true identity even after the War had ended. As such, her actions come off as selfish, and deeply hurt those who cared about her.
  • Despite much foreshadowing and red herrings regarding Rose's apparent machinations, she repeatedly displays an inability to plan beyond the short term that consistently comes back to bite her. She faked her own shattering as Pink Diamond, thinking it would make Homeworld leave Earth alone, and instead got almost every Gem on the planet corrupted as reprisal. She abandoned Spinel in Pink's garden just to get Spinel out of her hair, not thinking of the toll the centuries of isolation would take on her. She bubbled Bismuth to bury the knowledge of the Breaking Point, hiding her away so the issue wouldn't be breached again. And immediately prior to the series, she gives up her physical form to make Steven, seeing it only as creating a child, not considering the grief she would leave her family with.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: "Back to the Moon" confirms that Rose Quartz shattered Pink Diamond. "A Single Pale Rose" confirms that she didn't. She IS Pink Diamond in disguise. She faked her own death.
• The Dreaded: It's obvious that her rebellion truly terrified Homeworld, even before she shattered Pink Diamond.
• Driven to Suicide: Between her immense self-loathing, the intentionality of her decision to have Steven, and the fact that Word of God states that Rose could've had a fully human child and survived, it's really not hard to read Rose's death this way. Of course, this being a children's show, it's never stated outright.
• Dude Magnet: "We Need to Talk", "Mr. Greg" and "Your Mother and Mine" imply that she had relationships with several other men before Greg.
• Earthy Barefoot Character: She walked around barefoot and was a Friend to All Living Things.
• Eternal Love: Rose has had multiple human lovers she outlived (and Greg, who outlived her), but through it all she and Pearl have held a mutual love since the rebellion first started six millennia ago.
• Evil All Along: Subverted. She is actually Pink Diamond, but Pink Diamond became her because she'd already had a Heel Realization and decided to save Earth and give it to the Crystal Gems and humanity.

F-G

• Fake Ultimate Hero: Played With. She was actually Pink Diamond, but at that point she genuinely did want to save Earth's organic life and give it to the Crystal Gems and humanity. So she wasn't who she said she was, but she was still heroic. Sapphire in particular does NOT take this revelation well.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Due to Rose being dead, this only shows up in medias res. While Rose was genuinely good-natured, she had troubles dealing with consequences of her actions and could only come up with short-term solutions at best. In the present, her son has to try and clean up the mess she left behind when she just disappeared to give birth to him; something even he eventually wants to call her out on.
  • Rose also wasn't good at understanding others' feelings and trusting them fully. Her Innocently Insensitive nature and tendency to hide the truth away ended up seriously hurting those close to her such as Greg, Pearl, Bismuth, and Sapphire.
  • She also had a tendency to leave difficult problems unsolved or run away from them rather than solve them, many of which had disastrous consequences.
    • As Pink Diamond, instead of rebelling openly, she faked her own death to become Rose permanently, believing that her fellow Diamonds didn't care about her, but hoping that "Rose" being powerful enough to "shatter a Diamond" would scare them away from Earth. Turns out, they did care about her, and were so enraged by her "death" that they unleashed a massive corruption wave across Earth that corrupted nearly all the remaining Crystal Gems.
    • While she loved Pearl, she didn't openly address Pearl's over-dependence on her or the nature of their relationship, apparently not noticing that Pearl was jealous of her relationship with Greg and figuring she could have them both. After Rose's death, Pearl has no idea what to do without her and still bitterly resents Greg for "taking her away".
    • When she and Bismuth fought over the issue of shattering enemy Gems, she ended up poofing Bismuth and sealing her bubbled gem away for thousands of years in a secret location, so secret that not even the remaining Crystal Gems knew what had happened to her. She would have stayed in there forever if Steven hadn't accidentally freed her, and when she is freed, she's heartbroken when she realizes that Rose sealed her away and didn't even tell her friends where she was, believing she meant nothing to Rose, who she would have given her life for.
• Flower Motifs: As befitting someone named Rose. Most evident with her Laser Light Cannon, which blooms into a flower to fire, then fires a flower-shaped beam which then blooms into the shape of Rose herself. This was passed onto Steven, as the design on his shield is the same as the rose design on the bottom of the cannon.
• Fluffy Tamer: Apparently, Rose saw beauty in everything and cared for things that most others would find gross or unattractive. In "Lars and the Cool Kids", it's revealed that she tended a garden of some nasty-looking sentient moss. In "Monster Buddies", after Steven has some success taming a centipeetle, the Gems reveal that she also attempted to tame the monsters they came across. In "Buddy's Book", we see that Rose had a pack of lions as companions in the desert some time during the founding of Beach City. By Gem Standards she also felt this way about Humans...
• Foil: To her son, Steven. Both are friendly, charismatic Quartz Gems who try to see the best in everyone, serve as an emotional support to the other Crystal Gems, have an Interspecies Romance with an insecure human, and have the same powers. However, as more secrets are revealed about Rose, it turns that unlike Steven who is a Badass Pacifist, Rose was a deconstruction of Martial Pacifist with her actions eventually bringing trouble for her son. Also, while Rose had trouble handling people's feelings and had an (initial) paternalistic attitude towards humans, Steven is surprisingly emotionally mature for his age and even when he's Innocently Insensitive, he will (mostly) know when he stepped out of line and apologize; plus, he doesn't see humans as inferior species since he did grow up with them. Additionally, Steven Cannot Tell a Lie, yet Rose has kept a lie for millennia (and even then she never intended for the truth to be known). Also, Steven has never doubted the Gems' love for him, whereas Rose, who was Pink Diamond, believed the Diamonds never cared for her at all; and on that note, Steven even forgave the other Diamonds themselves, something Rose would clearly never do.
• Foreshadowing: There's a huge number of hints towards her and Pink being the same being, like how she has so many different Gem powers, her sword seemingly shattering Pink despite being unable to shatter any Gems, Pearl being so loyal to her, implying to Greg in flashbacks she's been to Homeworld despite others saying she was born on Earth, being the only character other than Pink with a pink-colored gem, and so on.
• Former Teen Rebel: As Pink Diamond, at least in her "earlier" years.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • Her opinions on humanity before meeting Greg, while seeming somewhat condescending by human standards, are a product of her environment, who as a whole view organic life as pests to be exterminated at best. She's actually remarkably kind towards organics by Gem standards, trying to turn away an impulsive Greg who she thinks is abandoning his dreams.
  • Her fellow Diamonds gave her very little emotional attention at all and apparently ignored what she wanted when she did see them, to the point she genuinely believed they didn't give a darn about her, but also were rather forceful that she needed to act like a proper Diamond and put on a proper appearance for her subjects. Her problems with empathy and difficulty letting others see the unsavory parts of herself make a lot more sense with that in mind...
• Friend to All Living Things: Rose loved every living being and saw the beauty in all things, no matter how "gross" or undesirable others might view them.
• From Zero to Hero: As Bismuth stated, Rose was "just another Quartz soldier, made right here in the dirt". And Rose eventually became a Rebel Leader who killed Pink Diamond. Later subverted — Rose Quartz was Pink Diamond all along, and her origin story as told to everyone else was a lie, though you could say that Rose was originally just a fake identity created by Pink Diamond so she can have fun and explore the Earth, but later became... something more.
• Genki Girl: In "Now We're Only Falling Apart", she is overjoyed to see the newly formed Amethysts while disguised as one, the beauty of the newly-formed planet Earth, and is elated when she sees gem fusions, which inspires her and Pearl to unsuccessfully attempt fusion.
• Girls Like Musicians: In addition to falling in love with the musically-talented Greg Universe, one telling of her origin story shows an image of her falling in love with a dancing tribal from a very ancient civilization.
• Girly Bruiser: She wore a long, frilly white dress at all times, sported long pink hair in Regal Ringlets, lived in a room made entirely of pink clouds, and loved flowers, animals, and humans so completely as to put a Disney princess to shame. She was also the leader of a bloody rebellion against her home planet and goes into battle with a pink shield and matching pink sword, having been made to be a warrior.
• Godzilla Threshold: According to Garnet, she shattered Pink Diamond because it was the only way to free the Earth from her. When she was Pink Diamond, she tried and failed to get the other Diamonds to abandon Earth every other way she could think of, including outright telling them she didn't want to kill off life on Earth. She chose to fake her own shattering because she took Blue Diamond's words to mean that the only way that Earth could survive was if she removed herself from the equation.
• Going Native: She grew enamoured with Earth and all of its little wonders and eventually led a civil war against Homeworld for its independence.
• Gone Horribly Wrong:
  • Quartz Gems are made to be warriors for Homeworld. Rose turned against Homeworld, and appears to be the least combative Quartz ever produced: her main weapon is a defensive shield (though she had Bismuth make her a sword), she had healing tears, and hated killing in general: she would poof but never break Gems, which serves as an early clue that she didn't actually shatter Pink Diamond.
  • She's actually Pink Diamond and faked her death under the belief that the other Diamonds don't give a darn about her and if she "died", Earth would be left alone and forgotten by the Diamonds for the humans and Crystal Gems to live in peace. Unfortunately for everyone, she completely underestimated how much the others cared for her and this utterly backfired.
• Good Bad Girl: Rose Quartz is an All-Loving Hero and Friend to All Living Things, but allegedly had various human lovers over the course of her years on Earth, and acts very flirtatious towards the people she loves.
• Good Costume Switch: She used to wear a standard quartz warrior uniform when she served Pink Diamond, but when she started the rebellion, she changed into the white dress she's been wearing since. Even bigger one, as she used to be Pink Diamond and Rose Quartz as a whole actually is a Good Costume Switch for Pink Diamond.
• Good Parents: While Rose never actually got a chance to interact with Steven, she made it a point to leave a video that emphasized how much she loved him, and how she'll continue to love him after she is a part of him and no longer her own entity. By all accounts, she wanted him to live his life and enjoy it with no greater plan beyond that. As "Storm in the Room" shows, despite his doubts about her, he imagines that she would have been a good, loving parent who supported him and didn't want him to deal with her problems like he has.
• Good Powers, Bad People: Played With. Rose Quartz was well-known for her healing powers. And from the perspective of Homeworld, she was the worst criminal in Gemkind's history, a revolutionary and eco-terrorist who committed high treason and regicide. If only they knew...
• Greater-Scope Paragon: The Crystal Gems still follow her mission and became the people they are because of her influence, on top of being Steven's mother, but she's been dead for over a decade.
• Green Thumb: Rose has an affinity for plants, as demonstrated by the moss in "Lars and the Cool Kids" and the brambles that defend her fountain in "An Indirect Kiss". "Watermelon Steven" confirms that she had the power to grow and command plant life. Though in truth, this seems to just be a specific application of a broader Biomanipulation ability.

H-I

• Healing Hands: Rose's tears have immense healing potential, strong enough to even mend a cracked gem.
• The Heart: She was the emotional core of the Crystal Gems. Without her, they struggle for guidance and are usually fighting amongst each other (more like Amethyst and Pearl fight, while Garnet and Steven try to keep things together).
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Her deep sympathy and real love for every living creature is what empowered the healing properties of her tears.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Although Rose knew that she'd have to pass her gem to Steven upon his birth and sacrifice all of her physical presence, she still chose to shapeshift herself a womb so she and Greg could have him. Deconstructed; Greg and the Gems grieve Rose, while Steven regrets that he can never meet her. There's also the fact that, without her around, the Crystal Gems have no leader, and Steven nearly gets killed due to being mistaken for her, multiple times.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: While she didn't regret starting the rebellion to save Earth and leaving Homeworld behind, it is clear she feels heavily burdened by her mistakes and believes she is not deserving of love. She tries to push away potential lovers out of fear that they'll sacrifice their dreams and goals, but she's reluctantly willing to support their decisions to be with her. Whenever she realizes she's hurt someone, she's genuinely distraught by her ignorance and desperately tries to make amends and compromises but still unable to open up about herself out of fear of disappointing them further. The way she feels not good enough for Homeworld or anyone on Earth, she ultimately believes herself to have changed for the worse and makes her decision to have Steven under the false belief that her loved ones would be better off without her.
  • If the ending credits song, "Love Like You", is from her perspective (as theorized by fans), she may have held her loved ones in higher regard than herself, despite everything that she'd accomplished.
  I always thought I might be bad
  Now I'm sure that it's true
  Because I think you're so good
  And I'm nothing like you
  Look at you go, I just adore you
  I wish that I knew
  What makes you think I'm so special...
• Heroines Prefer Swords: While her shield seems to have been her actual Gem weapon that she could conjure at any time, she also wielded a rose-themed sword forged by Bismuth and considered her finest creation. It's also designed to be devastating to Gems' BODIES but not able to accidentally destroy their gem.
• Hippie Parents: The show's creator has specifically described Rose as a "hippie parent" toward Amethyst, leaving Amethyst ignorant of what Homeworld made her for, and how she differed from most Amethysts, so she wouldn't feel any kind of limitations about what she could be. Despite not being there to raise Steven, Rose had the same attitude for him, wanting him to be whatever he wanted to be. This backfired to a degree, as both are left feeling like they don't have any purpose at all.
• Humanity Is Infectious: Rose loved humans very much and wanted to be just like them, but could not quite fully grasp how emotionally complex they are. She wanted to share in human culture and even be a human herself, partly leading her to have Steven.
• Humans Are Special:
  • According to her tape in "Lion 3: Straight to Video", she held this view. Though "We Need to Talk" revealed that she had a very condescending view about humans, regarding them at maximum as pet animals in comparison to Gems, and it was her interaction with Greg what taught her to see and value humans in a more respectful way. Of course by Gem standards, viewing organic life as anything more than pests to be ignored at best is a gigantic improvement.
  • She's also amazed by, and seemingly a little envious of, how humans are able to change, grow, and find their place in the world, while Gems are Born as an Adult, made to fit predetermined roles as cogs in the Diamond Authority's machine.
• Humans Through Alien Eyes: Rose admits to Greg in "Greg the Babysitter" that it took her a long time for her to realize human adults and human infants were the same species and still doesn't have a good understanding of human infants. This is because from her viewpoint, humans have Bizarre Alien Reproduction as Gems literally don't have an infant stage. She's also completely amazed by humanity's ability to change and grow, as it's something Gems simply don't do.
• Hypocrite:
  • Rose loved humans, but according to Greg, she didn't even know how to take him seriously until he called her out for being insensitive about his desire to have a serious relationship for her. She also didn't know that babies needed a lot of care and watching, and took a long time to figure out that human adults and babies are of the same species.
  • Rose wanted the Crystal Gems to be free of Homeworld's tyranny and choose their own path, and wanted her son Steven to live for similar reasons. However, she wasn't willing to fight dirty for them herself even in the face of Homeworld's ruthlessness since it went against her All-Loving Hero beliefs, something the more pragmatic Bismuth took issue with. The unfortunate timing and circumstances of Steven's birth, combined with the reveal of Rose's more unsavory actions, caused Steven to believe she only gave birth to him so she could run away from her own mistakes through him, forever trapping him in her shadow and forcing him to face the wrath of Rose's enemies in her stead. There's also how one of her last actions as Pink Diamond involved placing an involuntary Geas on Pearl that forbade the latter from revealing her true identity, causing Pearl much psychological anguish many years later as she literally couldn't give the answers Steven sought even if she wanted to.
  • Steven later calls out a hologram version of Rose in the Room for her Double Standard with how she poofed Bismuth and hid her away for wanting to shatter Homeworld Gems, while he assumes she probably used Bismuth's Breaking Point to shatter Pink Diamond. The last point at least was a lie that Rose perpetuated; Pink Diamond faked her death to assume the Rose Quartz identity permanently, ordering Pearl to never tell anyone.
  • She encourages self-love in everyone, yet the only person she truly hates is herself because she could never forgive herself for the people she's hurt.
• I Choose to Stay: Chose to stay on Earth and defend it, despite knowing that if she did, she could never return to Homeworld, and that she would be killed if she lost.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Subverted. Rose never regretted her actions in kick-starting the rebellion, or ever confided in anyone else her failures. Everything she did, she did for the sake of the Earth, and all living things upon it. It's Steven on the other hand who needs answers and justifications when he discovers his mother killed Pink Diamond. As Garnet explained to him, she didn't always do what she thought was right for her, but right for the Earth. If she had done nothing, Amethyst, Pearl, Ruby, and Sapphire could not be free... whereas Steven and Greg along with all present-day humans, wouldn't even exist. Steven finally gets his answer in "A Single Pale Rose", where it turns out his mom was Pink Diamond all along, but her faking her death was indeed for the reasons Garnet stated.
• I Hate Past Me: She felt deeply guilty that her past naïve actions led to things like the destruction of parts of Earth and the corruption of so many Gems that just wanted to be free. She also performs a massive Historical Villain Upgrade on her old self, Pink Diamond, after the war, to the point Garnet and Amethyst attribute most of the Jerkass actions the other Diamonds hit Pink with to Pink herself.
• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Her relationship with Greg has shades of this: what really wins her heart is him putting his foot down and being willing to stand up to her on his terms. Given her past as Pink Diamond this is even more this trope: the other Diamonds would stand up to her, but weren't very good at actually showing her love despite feeling it for her, none of her other human lovers ever did what Greg did, and her subjects loved her because they were made to love her, a problem even Pearl had to some degree. In general, she genuinely loved Greg as much as she did because he both genuinely loves her and because he's willing to assert himself and put his foot down, a combination no one else in her extremely long life had ever shown her.
• Innocently Insensitive: Rose laughs at Greg's attempts to fuse with her in order to get intimate in the same way she can with Pearl, and she saying that she loves humans because they're all so funny. When Greg asks in complete seriousness if she respects him, Rose still thinks he's trying to be funny. She wasn't trying to be insulting, and in fact by her species' standards was being remarkably loving (as most Homeworld Gems view humans as pests to be exterminated at best), she just genuinely didn't realize she was being such. However, she seems to have largely outgrown this by the time she was pregnant with Steven, if her speech in "Lion 3: Straight to Video" is any indication. With that said, she disregarded how people would feel when she gave up her form to have Steven; Pearl knew and was sobbing about it in private because she didn't want to lose Rose.
• Insecure Love Interest: Back when she and Greg were dating, Rose was very unsure of their relationship and felt that the relationship wasn't a real one; Greg also felt the same way. It eventually definitely became real.
• Interspecies Romance:
  • With Greg. It's deconstructed in a surprisingly realistic fashion; despite their relatively similar appearance, they actually have to iron out some pretty big culture differences to make their relationship really work. Not to mention their biological differences meant Rose literally had to make a womb to have a child with him, and the process was ultimately fatal for Rose as her kind simply aren't made to reproduce that way.
  • Rose dated or at least had flings with numerous men on Earth before Greg, though the relationships never lasted, as hinted in "We Need to Talk" and confirmed in "Mr. Greg" by Pearl.
• Intrigued by Humanity: Rose finds humans and Earth life in general fascinating, and doesn't miss her home planet at all. The darker side of this is that she tended to think of humans collectively, so she initially failed to appreciate Greg as an individual rather than as just a human.

J-M

• Just the Way You Are: She fell for Greg because he had the free will to stand up to her when she made mistakes, communicated that she was worth loving despite her flaws, and treated her like an adult rather than like a paragon or a spoiled child as Pink. Pearl was made to love Pink, who wanted her courtesan to have free will, Garnet idolized her, and Amethyst saw Rose as a mother figure.
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Her default outfit is a white dress/gown that she wore even in battle.
• Killed Off for Real: The process of forming Steven effectively erased Rose from existence. "Change Your Mind" even shows that when Steven is separated from his gemstone, it reforms into a holographic duplicate of Steven, not Rose Quartz.
• Lady of War: She was gentle and graceful in life, and her shield, sword, and Laser Light Cannon clearly showed that she was no stranger to combat. Not accounting for the massive armory she had hidden away.
• Large and in Charge: She was the founder of the Crystal Gem faction and was at least a head taller than even Garnet. Even more so as Pink Diamond, who was taller than her Rose Quartz persona and was going to be ruler of Earth before she secretly rebelled.
• Last of Her Kind: In a sense. "That Will Be All" reveals that all other Rose Quartzes are being held in bubbles at Pink Diamond's human zoo after what she did, and if Yellow Diamond had her way, they'd all be shattered.
  • Later subverted. She isn't even a Rose Quartz at all, she's a Diamond.
• The Leader: Before her "death", Rose was the leader of the Crystal Gems.
• Leitmotif: A piano piece accompanied by strings that plays whenever anybody thinks or talks about Rose. It was incorporated into "Lion's Mane" and an acoustic version was used in "Story for Steven". An ominous Dark Reprise version is used in "Night Drive 2".
• Light Is Good: Rose wore a strapless, white dress and is the closest thing to being the Big Good. Everyone who remembers her idolizes her thoroughly, presenting as an angelic, flawless being. But, eventually, her flaws come to light, and this perception of her is held to be unhealthy.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Deconstructed. She was this to the Gems, who are just beginning to accept her death. Amethyst saw her as a mother figure and resented Greg for taking Rose away from her after they began a relationship. Pearl was deeply in love with her and appears to have the hardest time dealing with her death because of this. Her "death" led to all of them not knowing how to go on without her, especially Pearl. They constantly admit to feeling lost and deal with their emotional turmoil in unhealthy manners.
• The Lost Lenore: To both Greg and Pearl. While Greg clearly misses Rose, he handles his grief well. Pearl has a much harder time with it.
• Loves My Alter Ego: Even though many Crystal Gems, such as Garnet and presumably Bismuth, hate and fear Pink Diamond and the Diamonds in general, they adore and idolize Rose Quartz. The same is true in reverse for the Homeworld Gems, particularly Jasper.
• Loving a Shadow: Rose's singing in "We Need to Talk" implies she loved the concept of human beings, giving some red flags to Greg about the nature of their relationship. Greg also realizes he doesn't know anything about her. They both get better.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Pearl notes in "The Test" that Steven's shield is the same as hers. "The Return" reveals that the Crystal Gems pretty much survived the war thanks to her shield being the only thing able to protect them all from powerful attacks.
• Magical Barefooter: She was a very powerful Gem with several magical powers such as healing, and she went around barefoot.
• Magical Girlfriend: Was this to Greg. Vidalia even calls her this in "Greg the Babysitter".
• Magic Knight: "The Test" reveals that she wielded both her sword and her shield in addition to using healing and plant-control powers.
• Magnetic Heroine: Anyone who knew Rose always had something good to say about her, even her enemies. This is eventually subverted over time, however, with quite a few Gems; Bismuth became angry and bitter towards Rose after she refused to become a Knight Templar with her and bubbled her away without telling anyone, Jasper hated her for what she allegedly did to their sovereign Pink Diamond and of course Yellow Diamond wanted to blow up the Earth out of spite towards Rose.
• Martial Pacifist: She's an All-Loving Heroine, but that doesn't stop her from effortlessly beating up a triple-Ruby fusion with her bare hands if she decides it's necessary. Her personal sword was designed to be able to easily slice through the bodies of Gems, but never destroy their actual gem.
• Mayfly–December Romance: When Greg and Rose met he was a 22-year-old traveling musician while she was a more than 6000 years old Lady of War from a race of sapient gems. Tragically subverted as Rose died a few years later, leaving Greg to care for their son. That said, Rose had plenty of other humans lovers before that she did outlive.
• Meaningful Name: In gemstone mythology, rose quartz is associated with love and health. It is also said that giving a rose quartz to a baby will aid in its transformation from the spiritual world to its physical body. Let that sink in with everything else written on this page about her death.
• Messianic Archetype: Through the series, she's treated as a saviour-figure who brought about social change and an almost divine reverence from her followers.
• Mind-Reformat Death: A Gem's gemstone is the physical basis of their existence, and Rose's remains unaltered in Steven's body, but she has not existed as the same person since it became part of Steven. This is completely irreversible, regardless of what happens to Steven's organic half. Even the gemstone by itself is no longer Rose, it's just a fragment of Steven.
• The Minion Master: In the past Rose used her powers over plants to have them fight for her. We see some of them in Rose's garden in "An Indirect Kiss". In "Watermelon Steven", Garnet says Rose's plants "lived to fight".
• Missing Mom: By childbirth. She gave up her physical form so Steven could be born.
• Morphic Resonance: Her "Rose Quartz" form retains traits from her "Pink Diamond" form. Most obviously the pink palette and her gem in her belly, but also the shape of her bangs and the way they frame her face is identical in both forms, with her bangs dividing over the right side of her face, one curl extending around to the left side, and both bangs slightly covering her cheeks. The longer curl also branching into "smaller" curls right in the middle of her forehead. This is most obvious when looking at them side by side.
• Muggle–Mage Romance: She (a magical Gem) and Greg (a human) were a couple when she was alive.
• My God, What Have I Done?: It's not really her, but Cloud!Rose looks visibly ashamed when Steven starts calling her out for the things the real Rose did, like hiding Bismuth away.
• Mysterious Past: Very little about her past has been revealed. Back when their relationship was starting out, Greg expressed concern that he knew so little about her, and her only reply was "that's a good thing"."A Single Pale Rose" reveals her true origins: she wasn't made as a Rose Quartz; she used to be Pink Diamond.

N-Q

• Navel Window: Her dress had a star-shaped hole cut over her stomach to leave her navel-mounted gem exposed.
• Nice Girl: Rose Quartz is indicated to have had a caring and loving personality. In "An Indirect Kiss", she was said to be very sympathetic when her loved ones were hurt. She had been said to have seen beauty in everything "no matter how gross", showing that she saw value in things others dismissed.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • During the war against Homeworld, Rose shattered Pink Diamond so as to protect Earth and the Crystal Gems. In retaliation, Homeworld forces unleashed the Corruption, permanently corrupting several rebel Gems and any Homeworld Gem who failed to evacuate Earth in time. Even when it turns out that Rose and Pearl staged the murder, this trope still applies because she severely underestimated how much her siblings cared about her. She placed a geas on Pearl that prevented Pearl from revealing the truth about Pink Diamond's fake assassination, which caused Pearl a great deal of grief and nearly got Rose's son killed. It's also implied that Rose/Pink intentionally made the Beta Kindergarten defective, which condemned most of the kindergarten's flawed Gems to a life of marginalization.
  • Her decision to have Steven, well-intentioned as it was to create a child to live the life that she couldn't, had a bunch of devastating consequences, such as causing the Gems and Greg to grieve, with Pearl coming very close to removing Rose's gem from a baby Steven and probably killing him. Steven ends up growing with her legacy, the good and the bad, to the point he thinks he'll never measure up to her while being disappointed in the secrets she kept. Worst of all, it meant that with one of the two witnesses gone, the Diamonds nearly execute Steven when he turns himself in as his mother, and the only proof that Rose was innocent of the shattering was circumstantial or buried in Pearl's memories.
• No Biochemical Barriers: Averted relatively realistically. The very first time a Crystal Gem and a human successfully reproduce, the process is lethal to the Gem. Conversely, "ordinary" Gem reproduction which involves a terrestrial environment is lethal to that environment.
• Non-Humans Lack Attributes: Notable aversion; she's the only Gem drawn with cleavage. Possibly justified since her form of Rose Quartz is artificially shapeshifted and she's infatuated with humans, so she chose to have breasts.
• Nonstandard Character Design: Her character design is far more clearly human than any other Gem we've seen, rather than the slightly-abstracted character designs of other Gems. This includes eyes that are wider and narrower than anyone else's and are the only ones with a visible gleam (making them look more like an anime character's), eyebrows that are always visible, and a ton of shading/highlighting.
• Not Quite Flight: As demonstrated in "Story for Steven" and "The Answer", and outright stated in "Steven Floats", she was able to control how fast she could fall through the air, and was able to use this in conjunction with a talent for jumping good.
• Not So Above It All: "We Need to Talk" revealed that she didn't fully appreciate Greg's feelings for her, nor the real concept of human love. She loved him, but by that point wasn't in love with him.
• One-Handed Zweihänder: Her sword is about five feet long. A size comparison.◊ It works for her because she's eight feet tall.
• One-Hit Kill: Her sword was able to poof other Gems.
• Only Flesh Is Safe: Her sword is designed to slice through nearly anything and poof other Gems in one hit... but never their Gem, making it designed for non-lethality on a Gem. This is even more impressive as it's not designed to not be sharp enough to cut through a Gem, but that it simply can't cut through Gems. This is shown when it was capable of even poofing her, a Diamond, whose durability is so immense that attacks that'd shatter a normal Gem outright won't even poof them. This safety feature only applies to Gems — Stevonnie (non-fatally) sliced up an insect-like alien, and presumably works like any sword would on organic creatures, humans included (not that Rose would ever draw it on a human).
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Rose in most of the flashbacks is shown to be a Perpetual Smiler that occasionally lapsed into surprise or wistful sadness; even when attacking Blue Diamond's army, she looked happy. The Crystal Gems also tell Steven that Rose saw the beauty in everything, even stuff that seemed "gross". Steven could only imagine her angry, while hallucinating as Stevonnie. We've only seen Rose seriously angry or disgusted twice: when Yellow and Blue Diamond shut down her attempts to cancel the Earth colony peacefully, making her adopt the Rose persona as a figure of rebellion; and when she told Pearl that they had to fake "Pink Diamond"'s shattering because Blue and Yellow didn't actually care about what she wanted in either persona.
• Parents as People: She was this to Amethyst and is this to Steven after her death. Amethyst appreciated how Rose said she was fine the way she was, but later was frustrated at how she and Steven bore the brunt of the consequences for Rose's actions when neither of them were involved in the great war. What's more, Amethyst says it's not fair that Steven tries to support everyone in Rose's place when he has his own problems. Steven admits his feelings about his mother are complicated and calls out a hologram of her about why she left if she loved the Gems and him so much.
• Parental Substitute: Some of her interactions with Amethyst can be interpreted as one between a mother and daughter. Considering how she's Pink Diamond, the Gem Amethyst was made to serve, she's basically the closest equivalent in Gem terms to one Amethyst could have.
• Peerless Love Interest: A Discount Lesbians example and deconstructed as well. Pearl clearly saw Rose as her "liege" and made it her purpose in life to follow and protect her. These feelings became unhealthy during the war, however, given how Pearl would needlessly sacrifice herself for Rose during battle (something that Rose was very much against), convinced that her own life was worthless in comparison to Rose's. Her love for Rose also made Pearl blind to Rose's flaws, something that was explored in "Rose's Scabbard", where she became very unhinged after learning that Rose had kept secrets from her. Makes sense why Pearl would act like this since she's the only other Gem, other than Rose herself, to know the truth that Rose is Pink Diamond and that Our!Pearl was her assigned Pearl. It also makes sense why Pearl would grow unhealthy protection of Rose/Pink, after all, if "Rose" ever poofed, everyone, Homeworld or Crystal Gem, would instantly know the truth.
• Perpetual Smiler: The flashbacks featuring Rose show her as generally happy, or smiling even when she's wistful. Which makes it ironic that when she seriously rebelled, she looked furious.
• Pink Means Feminine: Rose Quartz was the textbook example of femininity among the Crystal Gems: she was amicable, graceful and loving. Her powers, weapons, and temples associated with her have a pink motif.
• Polyamory: Rose was in a very long-term romantic relationship with Pearl, but simultaneously took a series of human lovers, ultimately including Greg. Far from being an ideal poly relationship, it was more of on-and-off Love Triangle where Pearl resented sharing Rose with anyone else, only tolerated most of them because their love didn't go deep or last long (nor did the humans themselves, from Pearl's perspective), and outright despaired when Rose and Greg made a more meaningful connection. Greg, however, didn't seem to mind that Rose also loved Pearl, just Pearl's ensuing acrimony, and even found them forming Rainbow Quartz rather impressive.
• Poor Communication Kills: One of Rose's biggest flaws, while good at many great things, she was not good at being open with others and kept a great many secrets, up to and including her true identity as Pink Diamond. These secrets caused her a great deal of trouble, and would ultimately come to haunt Steven long after her death. Bismuth explicitly lists lacking this fault as proof he's superior to his mother.
• Posthumous Character: She functions as one regardless of whether or not one considers her dead. What we know about her is mostly from flashbacks, videotapes, and the descriptions from Greg and the Gems. As of "Change Your Mind", it's demonstrated that she truly is gone forever. Even if all that was left of Steven was his gem, it would reform as Steven, not Rose.
• Power Misidentification: Rose Quartz is known for her healing tears and control of plant life. However, she is actually Pink Diamond, and the plant life control was just a false specialization likely intended to explain and disguise her real power over life in general. The ability that brings the plants to sentience, sapience, and mobility is actually the same one that heals the injured, raises the dead, and gives the same sentience, sapience, and mobility to inanimate objects: the liquid secreted from her Gem form bestows life and the restoration of that life to all that comes in contact with it. As Rose Quartz, focusing on plants was a choice, not a limitation of her power.
• Pragmatic Hero:
  • In spite of being a Friend to All Living Things, Rose still started a war and led forces in battle against the Homeworld Gems for the sake of saving the Earth. And, when it came down to it, her anti-shattering stance had one exception: Pink Diamond, whom she destroyed to secure the fate of Earth, its creatures, and her allies or so it seems.
    Greg: She gave up everything just to stop what they started here and drive the invading Gems off of Earth.
    Steven: So she saved the world, that's good!
    Greg: No such thing as a good war, kiddo. Gems were destroyed. People, too.
  • She kept a lot of secrets from the other Crystal Gems, the biggest probably being that she was the one who poofed and bubbled Bismuth after learning about the Breaking Point (and Bismuth's words implying that Rose was attacked by the Gem in response for disagreeing with her). As some have noted, the other Gems learning about the weapon could've not only caused a schism in the ranks of the Crystal Gems but could have also caused Homeworld to retaliate even harder than they already did — which is saying something when they make their exit with a Fantastic Nuke. Turns out that isn't the biggest secret, with that being she was Pink Diamond herself, having defected from the Diamond Authority to save Earth's organic life.
• Queen Incognito: When she was co-leading as Pink Diamond, she disguised herself as one of the Amethysts with Rose Quartz's pink ringlets when visiting the colony in "Now We're Only Falling Apart". It's implied she pretended to be Rose Quartz for a while before abandoning her Diamond identity.
• Quirky Curls: Her hair is all styled in curls except for her bangs, and while the hair resembles the trope, her personality also lines up with Regal Ringlets — her calming dignity being tempered by some of the free-spirited joie de vivre that she would later pass on to Steven. Although her interactions with humans from Greg's accounts do bring light to her more quirky aspects by way of her learning curve.

R-S

• Race Fetish: Sort of, when Greg expresses his worries that being human drives a wedge between them, she tells him that she "loves humans because they're all so funny" and it seems she believed that was enough for a romantic relationship to work. After Greg stands up to her, however, she starts to realize that if a relationship is going to last there needs to be more than just fascination with the species.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Was the leader of the Crystal Gems, and extremely strong. For reference, she effortlessly takes out a triple Ruby fusion in one pace bare-handed. Makes sense once you learn that she's Pink Diamond.
• Really Gets Around: Downplayed. She apparently had several human lovers over the years prior to meeting Greg, but given her line about "playing along" with humans and how long it took her to grasp human reproduction in general it's up in the air whether there was a sexual component or not. Seeing as she did shapeshift a womb for Steven, she could have had conventional sex if she wanted. Regardless of all of that, she's lived on Earth so long, she could have had dozens of lovers without any of them living within a century of each other.
• Rebel Leader: Led a rebellion against the Gem Homeworld to save the Earth. She won.
• Regal Ringlets: Her hair is this up to eleven, consisting of long, thick pink ringlets that reach all the way down to the backs of her legs.
• The Reveal: She is central to the very biggest surprise of the series. Rose is and always was a shapeshifted Pink Diamond, who started a rebellion and later faked her own death thinking it would make Yellow and Blue Diamond to leave Earth alone. By extension, this means Pink Diamond was never shattered, but simply sacrificed her a physical form to bring Steven into the world.
• Rose-Haired Sweetie: Rose Quartz was, by far, the sweetest Gem of the group, loving everything (including ugly things) for their inner beauty. She was the emotional core of the Crystal Gems and had shimmering bubblegum pink hair to emphasize the goodness of her heart.
• Running Both Sides: Turns out she's Pink Diamond and started a rebellion against... herself. She wasn't in charge of the whole Gem Empire though, so her Diamond "allies" were still a threat.
• Satan Is Good: Where do we even begin? She's a rebel challenging the in-universe analog to God to favor freedom, self-expression and nature. With the reveal that she's Pink Diamond, the parallels get tighter since she's a "fallen" representative of "heaven", as well as a massive liar.
• The Scapegoat: Made her Rose Quartz identity one of these for the shattering of Pink Diamond.
• Self-Made Orphan: Pink Diamond was the creator of the entire Rose Quartz Gem type. Rose ultimately had to kill her. More heroic than most example, as Pink Diamond was Earth's Evil Overlord and she could only free the planet by doing so. Subverted, as Pink Diamond was Rose Quartz all along.
• Set Swords to "Stun": According to Bismuth, Rose's sword can destroy a Gem's physical body but not their actual gem.
• Shared Family Quirks: As the show goes on we learn that Rose had a lot of Steven's traits. In addition to the big ones, like their love for all things, they also share minor traits like stars in their eyes when they get emotional. "Now We're Only Falling Apart" establishes she used to laugh like Steven.
• Shapeshifter Default Form: After abandoning her Pink Diamond identity, Rose Quartz was "the form she chose" for centuries. When Pink Steven emerges, it's confirmed that when Pearl poofed Pink Diamond, she regenernated directly into the form of Rose, as it appears during Pink Steven's regeneration.
• Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: In "Now We're Only Falling Apart", Sapphire is enraged at Rose's lies, believing her to be Evil All Along with the reveal that she's Pink Diamond and that she manipulated her fellow Crystal Gems into a fake war for her own selfish purposes. Pearl and Steven, however, help Sapphire realize that the ideals Pink expressed as Rose were still genuine and that Pink/Rose was inspired by her fellow Crystal Gems instead of using them. At the end of the episode, Sapphire understands.
• Shrouded in Myth: On Homeworld, propaganda has turned her into a terrifying anti-Christ figure, to the point that some think she's an urban legend.
• Smug Super: Deconstructed. She was this in the past, but while not in a mean or dismissive way, "We Need to Talk" shows her love of humans as being less respect and more thinking they're cute animals, though in "Story for Steven" it's clear she does believe that humans should prioritize their own dreams and aspirations over playing with her. This stems from her upbringing as Pink Diamond, who as a Diamond counts as a Physical God among Gemkind and whose family (White Diamond, Blue Diamond, and Yellow Diamond) sees themselves as superior to all living beings. Greg eventually takes her to task over her Condescending Compassion towards humans — him included — and by the time she has Steven it's safe to assume she got better.
• Southpaw Advantage: In "Sworn to the Sword", Pearl's hologram shows Rose using her shield in her right hand and her sword in her left. Given that her shield is usually referred to as her primary weapon, the right hand might actually be the dominant one.
• Statuesque Stunner: She's at least 7 to 8 feet tall, towering over her lover Greg by at least 2 to 3 feet. And her true form as Pink Diamond is even taller.
• Stepford Smiler: It's revealed that Rose was genuinely cheerful and kind, but she was hiding from everyone, including Greg, that she actually used to be Pink Diamond and gave up her true form so as to free the Earth and end the war early. Then she found out that in revenge the Diamonds sent the Corruption Beam, which ended up hurting most of the Gems remaining on both sides, and she could only save Pearl and Garnet. She had to poof Bismuth after the latter attacked her with the Breaking Point because Rose didn't want to shatter the Diamonds or their soldiers, even if she had spun the story to make others view her as a killer. We also learn that as Pink Diamond she believed that the other Diamonds didn't love her and that they wouldn't miss her if she was gone, hence the faked shattering. Rose coped with her self-loathing and guilt for five thousand years by finding and bubbling the corrupted gems, taking on human lovers, and supporting plant life. During one of the few times, she's vulnerable with Greg, she admits that she finds it amazing that humans can grow and change because Gems are expected to be static.
• The Strategist: Aside from being the leader of the rebellion, she was also their first tactician. Jasper remembers the war and respects her for her strategies. Possibly subverted, since she was Pink Diamond, and basically sabotaging Homeworld's side from within. On the other hand, Pink being a Puppet Queen for Yellow's and Blue's control over the actual invasion could mean Rose actually was The Strategist against the war plans of the far more experienced Diamonds.
• Superpower Lottery: Out of all the Gems, Rose seems to have the most abilities beyond shapeshifting and summoning a weapon; she had healing tears that could completely heal pretty much any injury or disability and even resurrect the dead, Not Quite Flight, and the ability to grow sentient or sapient plants to act as her defenders. This was foreshadowing the fact she was Pink Diamond, as she had a far more versatile power set than normal.
• Super-Soldier: Quartz Gems are the warrior elite of Gem society, and Rose is no exception. She's a strong warrior, leader, tactician, and likely Combat Medic thanks to her healing tears. Except she's not a Quartz, she's a Diamond.
• Super-Strength: Easily smashes a Ferris wheel's control panel into oblivion, and later grabs the Ferris Wheel itself and brings it to a dead stop.
• Swiss-Army Tears: Rose Quartz's tears are the only thing that can repair a cracked gem (until Steven inherits this power... in his saliva). Given that the gems are basically their "soul", this was possibly her greatest power.
• Sympathetic Slave Owner: She may have been a kindly liberator of Crystal Gems and a defected Diamond who wanted to stop Homeworld's plans for Earth, but even though she was trying to encourage her Pearl's independence, Pearl was still Rose's property.

T-W

• Team Mom: She's a charismatic rebel leader who every member of her squad, considered a combination mother, leader and mentor. Sadly, she gave up her physical form to give birth to Steven before the series began, and it becomes increasingly obvious that the team is struggling to cope without her. Garnet and Pearl try to step up as replacements.
• Tempting Fate: During the tape she made for him, she outright tells Steven, "And I need you to know that every moment you love being yourself, that's me, loving you and loving being you. Because you're going to be something extraordinary. You're going to be a human being". Too bad Steven winds up having PTSD and massive self-esteem issues pertaining to his Gem experiences and being a Diamond, to the point where he comes to see himself as a Fake Ultimate Hero and becomes a literal monster.
• That Man Is Dead: Rose's shattering of Pink Diamond was not all it appeared. It was orchestrated precisely because Rose was Pink Diamond. Faking her own shattering gave Rose the chance to shed that identity forever.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Double Subverted. We see in the season three episode "Bismuth" that, while she led the rebellion against Homeworld, she never considered an option meant to kill/shatter her enemies. In fact, her sword was specially made so that it could only harm the body (VERY effectively) but never the Gem. She eventually did kill one person — Pink Diamond — when she absolutely had to. Only she didn't even kill her; Rose was Pink Diamond, and staged her death with Pearl's help. She actually didn't want anyone to be hurt, which was why she didn't want Bismuth to use the Breaking Point.
• Time Abyss: She's over 6000 years old. It turns out she's Pink Diamond, and thus likely far older than that even as the youngest Diamond.
• Time Dissonance: Sometimes, she felt that things on Earth moved too fast for her.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Greg is a pretty big guy, but he only stands eye level with Rose Quartz's chest because she's about eight feet tall. Even more so, given her true form, Pink Diamond, is much larger.
• Tough Leader Façade: Ironically for a Rebel Leader who chose to reject her own throne, Rose actually becomes this in all but title. Initially Rose's purpose was for Pink Diamond to be able to socialize with others and experience freedom from the restraints of her class, but since her decision to spearhead the Rebellion, she had to become whatever necessary for her fellow rebels to believe in her competency in leadership and maintain unity in the cause. She had a lot of personal baggage that probably would have torn the Rebellion apart if her secrets had been known and led to the doom of the Earth and the rebels, so she hid her flaws under a graceful, perfect, wise, infallible veneer in order to keep the Rebellion together. Which ironically though not uncoincidentally, reflects many traits in the façade propagated by the Diamond Authority about their own leadership.
• The Tragic Rose: Rose died shortly after achieving true emotional maturity, and the decisions she made beforehand resulted in tragic consequences for those she left behind.
• True Beauty Is on the Inside: She was a big believer in this trope. She saw the inner beauty in everything, from moss to monsters to Greg Universe.
• Two Aliases, One Character: She and Pink Diamond are the same person.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Just look at her compared to Greg! Greg was better looking when they first met, though.
• Unreliable Expositor: Rose told Garnet that she was born from the Earth, came to love humans, and pleaded with Pink Diamond to spare the Earth, and Pink Diamond cruelly refused her. Rose lied; she was from Homeworld due to being Pink Diamond, came to love Earth's organic life in general, and pleaded with Yellow and Blue Diamond to spare the Earth. When they refused, and ignored her because Pink Diamond was the smallest Diamond and her tantrums weren't worth listening to; she became Rose Quartz to make sure they couldn't ignore her.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • Not only did her actions unintentionally cause Steven to go through events that would lead to him being a Shell-Shocked Veteran, it's suggested that her allegedly shattering Pink Diamond is part of why Yellow Diamond wishes to destroy Earth out of spite (instead of the methods Peridot suggested, which would preserve the planet while serving Homeworld's needs).
  • She had hoped that her death as "Pink" would convince the Diamonds to leave Earth alone. She severely underestimated their feelings for her and they nuked the entire planet with their Corruption attack, turning all the Crystal Gems save Garnet and Pearl and all remaining Homeworld Gems into monsters, out of vengeance. As a result, Rose had to deal with the guilt of realizing that she got the freedom she wanted and almost none of her followers would ever be able to share in it.
  • She ordered Pearl to never tell anyone that she was Pink Diamond and that her death was faked, placing Pearl under a binding Geas. This causes a lot of problems when Steven thinks that his mother is a murderer and turns himself in to save his friends.
• Uptown Girl: To Pearl, who was a member of the lowest caste of servant Gems. Taken up to eleven when it's revealed Rose was actually Pink Diamond and Pearl was originally her personal servant. It seems Pearl never grew out of her servant mentality even after Pink Diamond gave up her status.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: "Greg the Babysitter" shows Rose had this reaction concerning Greg, specifically when the control box of a Ferris wheel was causing him distress.
  Leave Greg alone!
• Visual Pun: When Actual Rose Quartzes are introduced in Rose Buds, their chest is flat, contrarily to Rose who has a visible bust. This is a hint at her true nature; Real-life rose quartzes have indistinct cleavage, but Pink Diamonds have perfect cleavage in all four directions.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: As with all Gems, this is a natural ability. She shapeshifted herself a womb so Steven could be conceived. Her form that she’s maintained for thousands of years is in fact an example, since she’s really Pink Diamond, though to a lesser degree, as she used the reformation when Pink was "Shattered" to set Rose as her default form.
• Walking Spoiler: A lot of information about her in later seasons starts inching towards this for newer viewers, especially after we learn that she and Pink Diamond were one and the same.
• Warts and All: Throughout the series, it becomes more and more apparent that, while still a fundamentally heroic and well-intentioned figure in many ways, Rose Quartz was also deeply, even tragically flawed, and just as the trope description suggests, expecting her to match their idealized idea of what she's like brings more than one character to sorrow.
• Wave-Motion Gun: She possessed and could operate a Laser Light Cannon, which basically works as the name suggests. Her armory had three more Laser Light Cannons called the Quartizine Trio.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: While her motivations for what she did was incredibly pure, her general actions, and faking her death as Pink Diamond lead to a lot of pain and confusion for the people that she cared about, and threatened the universe as a whole. A gentler example then most because she's still overall a hero.
• What Does She See in Him?: Pearl certainly wonders this. She fell in love with Greg for reasons unknown. When he was holding a concert, she was the only one who showed up... and from there they hooked up. "Lars and the Cool Kids" notes that she saw the inner beauty in all things, which is probably what drew her to Greg. "Story for Steven" shows her flirting with him a bit at the concert, and his advances at the end of the episode sufficiently charmed her.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Her relationship with Greg was a little rocky at the start because of the differences between human and Gem relationships, especially since she couldn't fuse with him.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Greg called out Rose for being insensitive to what he wanted out of their relationship in "We Need to Talk". He had just risked his dignity to attempt fusing with her. As he puts it, she was an alien who doesn't understand that he's not just a toy, and that they both need to think about how to fall in love when they don't even know each other. Much later on, in "Greg the Babysitter", he asks with horror why she let baby Sour Cream climb a Ferris Wheel, especially since Rose has been on Earth for thousands of years.
  • Bismuth was furious with Rose for being a Hypocrite about not wishing to fight dirty for other Crystal Gems, when Homeworld would fight dirty. She's also hurt that Rose poofed her and hid her away, believing that Rose was ashamed of Bismuth. She tells this to Steven, who she believes in a fit of rage is Rose in disguise.
• Wingding Eyes: Steven gets his habit of getting star-shaped eye gleams when emotional from her, as shown in her response to Greg's flirting at the end of "Story for Steven", the kiss he gave her in "We Need to Talk", and the sight of baby Sour Cream in "Greg the Babysitter".

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