WMG / Steven Universe — The Crystal Gems

Guesses relating to Steven and the rest of the Crystal Gems go here.

Rose Quartz

Rose Quartz had Steven so he could eventually uplift humanity

Think about, how could a mere handful of Gems completely stop a entire army of Homeworld Gems. They best they can possibly do is delay the inevitable defeat. Rose Quartz knew that the Homeworld Gems would be back and thought of ways to prepare for it. Now the Crystal Gems could not simply increase their numbers for obviously reasons. The only solution available was to give humans the means to fight back. She couldn't give them technology because she feared that they'd probably just use it against each other. So instead she got the idea of making them more like Gems. Steven was meant to be the beginning of a newer race of humanity.

• There is an obvious flaw in this plan, that there are still only five intact and loyal Gems to make Stevens, but maybe someday corrupted Gems or even shards might work. Did she think she would get to a point where these human hybrids no longer needed Gems to reproduce? Who knows, given that Gems are ageless, they can take their sweet time to test every step of a theory.
  • Never said that more Gems would need to have their own Half-Gem, Half-Human Hybrid children, after all if they did they'd likely end up like Rose Quartz leaving their children along and untrained. Steve ;however, might be able to do this so long as his descendants either don't need to have a gem or can gain their own without the apparent death of their Gem baring parent, after all his children would be less Gem and more human in a genetic sense them.
• I don't if her plan is exactly as you say, I agree that Rose probably did have some very big, very specific secret plans for Steven that the other Crystal Gems don't even know about. Though it does seem really likely that although her love for Greg and for humanity had some bearing on her decision to have/become Steven, she also had some other secret, very big plan for him. After all, just look at this screencap from the extended season 2 opener. Between the way her eyes are hidden/framed in shadow, and her maniacal smile that looks like she's about to break into a mad-scientist laugh, her posing here seems less "loving", and more like what you would expect from a mad scientist showing off her new superweapon. It's a surprising choice of pose, for what it's being used for (as backdrop while steven sings the line "I will fight to be everything that everybody wants me to be when I'm grown"), and it has to mean something. I'm not sure what, but I think she must have had something really crazy planned for him from the beginning.

Jossed. Rose wanted Steven to live as a human.

Rose Quartz's powers are accessed through The Power of Love

Rose seemed to be all about love and family. Steven got his shield when he was with the Gems, who promised him no matter what, they would be there for him, and Rose's cannon's secret activation code was Greg's catchphrase. Her powers, more than likely, come from love, love from others, or feeling love.

• Seconded. Steven's activation in "Gem Glow" was because he felt happy and loved by the Gems having gone to the trouble of buying him all the remaining Cookie Cats. And in "Bubble Buddies", the shield pops into effect when he dives to save his crush from being, well, crushed.
• If this were all true, wouldn't Steven's powers have activated before? That can't have been the first time he's ever felt loved. And since those episodes, his gem has reacted to other emotional states, such as wanting to be alone ("Rose's Room").
  • It's still true. Steven probably feels loved all the time, but extremely strong feelings of love still manifest the most intense displays of his powers. "Rose's Room" was pretty much a use of his power based around I love you guys but I really don't wanna be around you right now. He began bubbling successfully when he became fond of, and wanted to help the Centipeetle, like his mother, who has been repeatedly described as loving all living things. He discovered his healing spit via "An Indirect Kiss" with Connie. He manifested a much more powerful version of his shield when his family and friends were endangered by Lapis Lazuli in "Ocean Gem". He discovered his plant powers after fooling around with watermelon seeds and bonding with his father. He was able to fuse successfully for the first time due to dancing with his Love Interest Connie in "Alone Together".
  • Steven's gem powers didn't start manifesting until he hit around ten or eleven, so even though he felt love before, it didn't cause his gem to activate. As the series goes on, his powers are becoming easier for him to use at will, but they still require some amount of love to work.

When Rose Quartz Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence, she became a Plot Hole.

What Rose meant by "Take care of them, Steven."

The fact that Rose says this right after she says "You're going to be a human being" could be meant to mislead us into thinking she was telling Steven to take care of other human beings, but she was actually telling him to take care of the Gems.

• It could easily be both considering it was Rose Quartz saying it.

Rose Quartz was a maternal figure for Amethyst.

From what we know about Rose, it's likely that she was the one who reached out to Amethyst after finding her. Amethyst is the youngest and often behaves like a kid or a teenager, so there's a good chance that Rose behaved as a parent figure to her. When Rose left, Pearl may have attempted to fill in.

• Isn't this practically stated as fact?
  • Not when this theory was made.

Dying was part of Rose Quartz's plan.

And not just as a means to create Steven. Rose Quartz loved humans, and all organic lifeforms. She wanted to experience life the way a human being would. And what's one thing that all humans experience? Death. She had already been alive for many thousands of years. With the possible exception of a few bristlecone pines, she'd already lived longer than anything from Earth. Plus she probably felt some remorse over having to fight a war against her own people. She was ready to go.

Rose Quartz's death and creation of Steven was a deliberate attempt to get the other Crystal Gems to end their dependence on her and interact more with humans

This is a combination of the "Steven as a Wild Card" and the above "Dying was part of Rose Quartz's plan" Wild Mass Guesses. Rose was a brilliant strategist and an empathetic individual. After meeting and falling in love with Greg, she came to the realization that the Crystal Gems were fighting so many monster battles that they had forgotten the reason for the war in the first place. She had become a Mary Sue for the Gems and had formed a mini Utopiawhere Garnet was just an action hero instead of the good leader she -could- be, Pearl never had to face any trauma she may have gotten from the war/her abandonment of Homeworld and Amethyst was still in an advanced state of toddler interaction after nearly six thousand years, all because they had Rose to defer to and use as an emotional crutch. This meant that they had never gotten out into the world and interacted with the sentient life form they were supposed to protect, -or- confronted the very real possibility that the Homeworld Gems might return and deal with their now-pitiful resistance. By allowing herself to be reborn as Steven, her weapons would remain accessible and the Gems would grow as individuals and be able to relate more to humans, possibly even preparing them for the interstellar conflict to come.

Rose Quartz's death and creation of Steven was because she feared she wasn't truly a good person.

As we can see in "We Need To Talk," Rose appears to have a Lack of Empathy as well as insecurities centered around it. Between this, gem culture in general, and her probable position as former gem royalty, she may have come to the conclusion that she would never truly be able to understand humans - and thus, never truly be able to properly serve as their protector - unless she were a totally different person. Hence, reincarnating herself as Steven, to see humanity from a more human point of view and develop a "natural" goodness instead of one that felt false.

• Note the lyrics of the ending theme, mostly the phrase "I could do just about anything, I could even learn how to love like you."

Rose was gem royalty. Or was otherwise VERY influential in gem society.

In Watermelon Steven, Garnet said that Steven spoke like a true king. Keep in mind that Garnet isn't one to deliver flippant or sarcastic lines, or at least not well (see her not amused "You got me" in Garnet's Universe, or "Oh no, they are dead." with Connie's mother). Also, keep in mind that all of the evidence points to Rose spearheading a rebellion in defense of Earth. Even for how charismatic Rose was, for her to have an army rallied behind her points to her already being a trusted leader. As such, she might have been gem royalty.

• That may explain Pearl's extreme devotion and admiration of Rose. Maybe she was even a sort of Vassal to Rose.
  • "The Answer" and "Message Received" both give some credence to this. Yellow Diamond clearly has a pearl working for her, and Blue Diamond appears to have one near her in her appearance as well; however, unlike Yellow Diamond's, she doesn't speak, so we can't be sure. This, along with Peridot's description of pearls on Homeworld, means that all the Diamonds may have a pearl servant. Also, Pearl is called 'fancy' by Peridot, with the implication she's not an average pearl; looking at the pearls of Yellow and Blue Diamond, they also look quite fancy and high-class. At the very least, it supports the argument that Rose is/was one of the Diamonds.
• The colour of the rhombus Gems wear on their uniform seems to represent their leader. Jasper and Peridot had yellow ones, probably for Yellow Diamond. But Pearl had a pink one on her old space suit.◊ This might suggest that Rose might have been one of the top leadership among the Gems.
  • Tagging along on this guess: Each point of the five-pointed star represents one of the Crystal Gems. Each corner/angle representing one gem might not be something the Crystal Gems thought up themselves, but a holdover from Homeworld society. We know Yellow Diamond exists, and we have evidence suggesting that White Diamond and Blue Diamond also exist. Add in Rose Quartz, and you get four leaders, corresponding with the four-cornered rhombus.
• Additional evidence: Rose's gem color is less similar to a rose quartz and more that of a pink diamond. Then again, that might just be a case of Artistic License – Geology.
  • If Rose really was a former Diamond, then Rose Quartz was probably a name/title she adopted after forsaking her old life/rank, taking on a more "humble" moniker. Given how status-conscious the Homeworld Gems seems to be, and how they regard humans and Earth as being beneath them, going from Pink Diamond (a rare and valued gem) to Rose Quartz (a very common gem) may have been an intentional snub, directed at the Homeworld and the oppressive regime she was now fighting against.
    • The reverse could also be the case. Maybe Rose Quartz is her true name, but Diamond is just a title like President or King. It would also better explain why everybody, including her enemy Jasper, refer to her as Rose Quartz: she was defying Homeworld, so from Homeworld's perspective she didn't deserve to have such a prestigious name.
• Another hint towards pink diamond is the ancient battleground◊ in Sworn to the Sword. Its symbol is similar to the one on the ship in Jailbreak, except for with the pink in it as well. We know yellow, blue and white are the other diamonds from Serious Steven.
• A possible, minor clue are the two Gem starships we've seen. The first is the Gem Warship, which has yellow energy fields and yellow highlights everywhere, and is crewed by Yellow Diamond's underlings. The other ship, the ancient colony ship, has similar features- but they're pink. Pink, pink, pink. Maybe each Diamond has their own private fleet?
• Rose Quartz was Pink Diamond, so Confirmed, kinda.

Rose Quartz created and/or oversaw the Kindergartens.

Amethyst is crystalized quartz. Jasper is another form of quartz, and speculated to be another Kindergarten-born Gem. Centipeedle, who Was Once A Gem and shares the same sort of shaggy mane as Amethyst and Jasper, could be Vermarine/Prasiolite, yet another form of quartz. If all of this is true, it could be hinting that Rose Quartz is directly connected to the Kindergartens!

Perhaps she was the one who came up with the concept as a way of expanding Gemkind, or was simply the latest in a line of overseers. Whatever the case, she was responsible for them, but came to regret it. Earth became the turning point when she decided that she couldn't in good conscience allow the Kindergartens to keep operating, knowing that they'd drain the planet dry.

In this light, Rose saving Amethyst and her rivalry with Jasper take on entirely new facets. So does Pearl's discomfort upon realizing Amethyst took Steven to the quarry and demanding to know what she told him — afraid that he learned something about his mother that he isn't ready for?

• Jossed. Rose was born on Earth.
  • Unjossed and confirmed Rose was Pink Diamond.

The bubbled object Lion's mane was Rose's greatest secret

The object bubbled in the lion appears to be a Bismuth crystal. We know that non-gem objects can be bubbled, since Steven bubbled chips for the Centipeetle, so this isn't groundbreaking in and of itself, but it is odd that a non-gem crystal should be kept hidden away somewhere the other crystal gems didn't know about, accessible only to Rose Quartz and later Steven. The question is: What is it? It's pretty certainly not just a rock, given the show and its prominent location. Is the bubbled crystal a gem-like creature? Is it a weapon? Is it the reason the rebels call themselves the "Crystal" Gems? Is it all three!?

Whatever it is, I'm betting it's the reason the lion was created. Everything else the lion does/has is important, but not so much that the other Crystal Gems couldn't be trusted with it, but this is unprecedented, unexplained, and clearly a Chekov's Gun.

• I imagine it wasn't her greatest secret, but it's still a big one, considering that it was Bismuth, her old friend that she had to poof.

Rose chose to have Steven to help protect the Crystal Gems and Earth

Rose was obviously aware of the fact that having Steven meant the end of her physical existence, and Greg isn't someone who would demand kids even if it killed his wife, he would have been happy all his life to have a childless marriage with Rose, so it seems that Rose must have been the one to push for having Steven, but why?

Jasper mentioned that Rose was renowned for her strategic mind. Rose knew that if hostile Gems were to ever come to Earth again, the Crystal Gems would be at a huge disadvantage, being stuck on a technologically primitive planet with only four (technically five) Gems to defend it. The only hope to win against a possible return of the Homeworld Gems was for there to be a wild card. Something that the Homeworld Gems could never plan for.

The Crystal Gems would have been utterly screwed if not for Steven being able to resist the Gem Destabilizer technology. Something he could only do due to his half-human biology. Steven's very existence throws a huge monkey wrench into tech that was built to combat pure Gems.

Aside from being a very benevolent person who wanted to have Steven for the sake of it, she also had him as a final gift to her beloved Crystal Gems and the planet she loved. A way to tip the odds in case the hostile Gems ever threatened Earth again.

• Given her belief in things others considered flawed, ugly or weak, I wouldn't put it beyond Rose to believe that a Human/Gem hybrid could potentially be a lot more powerful than any pure gem. Rose might not have a lot of Gems left but she still has plenty of humans, and Steven is the key to unlocking their powers.

Bubbling was originally just Rose Quartz’s ability that she later gave minor forms of to the other Crystal Gems

At first it looks like bubbling is an ability that all Gems possess, but notice how Steven, and Rose by extension, are able to create bubbles large enough to contain several people, Lion, and a van within them, but the largest bubbles we’ve seen the other Crystal Gems create have only been slightly larger than Steven. If they could make larger bubbles for defense, I would think they would have done so at least once by now, so at the very least it seems that their bubbling abilities are a minor form of Rose’s and Steven’s. Also note that we never see any of Homeworld Gems use the bubbling ability (although I do realize that this could also just be because they’ve so far had no need to bubble anything).

As for how Rose gave the other Crystal Gems this ability, I’m still not entirely sure on, but we do know that at least some abilities can be temporarily transferred to other individuals. Case in point: Garnet's future sight. Rose would mostly likely though had to do something different from just kissing them on the forehead to permanently transfer her bubbling ability to others.

• Jossed. Bubbled gems are seen at the human zoo. And not just any gems - all of the remaining Rose Quartz gems. Additionally, Peridot is able to bubble, and it doesn't seem Steven "gave" her this ability. It seems to be innate.
  • Double jossed; Prosecuting Zircon, a Homeworld Gem that has most likely never met Rose Quartz, casually bubbled Lars' head in "The Trial".

Rose Quartz was the one who discovered Earth, became horrified when the Diamonds wanted to destroy it which is why she dedicated her life to protect it.

It's implied she has a Dark and Troubled Past given her conversation with Greg. She discovered Earth why scouting new planets for the Empire and regretted it when Homeworld wanted to turn it into a colony.

• Rose was apparently born on Earth, so, Jossed.
  • Still jossed, but not for the above reason. She didn't find Earth; the other Diamonds gave it to her.

Rose Quartz was the last of her kind

There used to be other Rose Quartzes, but they were all wiped out. The extinction of the other Rose Quartzes has something to do with her rebelling.

• Semi-confirmed. The other Rose Quartz gems are all bubbled, with Yellow Diamond wanting them to be destroyed because of the Rebellion and Blue Diamond protecting them because they were Pink Diamond's.

Rose is not Pink Diamond.

Rose was a member of Pink Diamond's court and received her full support for her revolt. With each of the Diamonds contributing a specific personality type, Yellow is Melancholic and Blue is Choleric for example, Pink Diamond was either Phlegmatic or slightly less likely Sanguine either of which would have made her unusually empathetic toward the life of earth. By supporting Rose and funneling her a steady stream of any misfit gems who might have a disagreement with the way Homeworld was run Pink Diamond hoped to lead a proxy war against the other diamonds ultimately bringing about a more peaceful and caring empire. But as a result she was discovered and either cast out or destroyed.

• Semi-confirmed. Rose was not Pink Diamond, but Pink Diamond was just as bad as her fellow Diamonds as well as the ruler of the Earth colony.
  • And fully-Jossed.

Rose was defective

Rose is the right size, but her built is different. She has narrow shoulder unlike Jasper and the Quartz gems seen in the answer. She is also chubby like Amethyst rather than muscular. She is still an elite fighter, but she also doesn't fight like the ones we've seen. When she fights she either fights bare-handed or with a physical sword. Her true power is a shield and healing tears which is a bit odd for a fighter.

• Although her feminine clothing and hair mask it, she's actually not that different from the broad-shouldered and muscular standard for Quartzes like Jasper. Maybe a little narrower than Jasper, but then again they do have some degree of leeway as to the default form form they take (Jasper, being Jasper, probably gave herself over-exaggerated shoulders even by Quartz standards in fitting with her extreme "macho tough-guy" self-image). Also, like Jasper having a helmet-hammer and Amethyst having a whip, different kinds of Quartzes probably naturally have different abilities, though healing powers are still rather strange, and a shield so invincible that even an advanced starship's main cannon can't penetrate seems a bit too powerful even for a Super-Soldier quartz. She may be unique or unusual (not sure whether there are other Rose Quartzes with her same abilities), and some have hypothesized that she's not a real quartz but actually Pink Diamond disguised as a quartz, but in any case I don't think "defective" is the right term.

Rose saw some of herself in Lion.

Lion's reluctance to follow orders made him a good match with a rebel gem.

Rose's rebellion's greatest asset was their freedom from the Fantastic Caste System

Look at Pearl and Garnet: Pearls are nobodies, Sapphires are just advisers and nobles, and Rubies are just expendable foot soldiers. The Crystal Gem Pearl was a skilled and deadly warrior and Garnet is extremely powerful and dangerous. On the home world, Amethyst would be a 'overcooked runt' and likely looked down on, but is treated as no less of a person than anyone else.

On Homeworld, you're what you're "made for", in Rose's rebellion, you're anything you want to be. Which made Rose's rebellion leagues more versatile and unpredictable than Homeworld could ever hope to be.

Rose was once Pink Diamond.

She resembled a centaur-like being. Feared by all gems, common and noble. Some would argue she was the ruler of them. Yet she fell in love in Earth and it biological diversity. Yet she felt the weight of her responsibilities to Gem-kind. This love and oaths torn her up inside, fractured her very being. Half of her became Rose Quartz... the other, Lion.

• Jossed. Rose Quartz shattered Pink Diamond.
• Un-jossed... though the centaur thing is way off.

Rose Quartz, if she's not Pink Diamond, is The Last of Her Kind or A Kind of One

Note that Rose Quartz is universally referred to as Rose Quartz, even by the home world, while Pearl, Garnet, and the others have been referred to by Homeworld Gems as 'a' and some description of them, most notably by Jasper. This leads to two possibilities: A) Rose Quartz is just so notable that she's warranted being referred to as JUST Rose Quartz, or B) she's the only Rose Quartz in existence. Peridot seems very ignorant about Rose Quartz and her abilities, as she had zero idea how Steven's healing powers actually worked and just considers him 'a Quartz' rather than listing specifics about his particular type of Quartz, despite having knowledge of most other types of Gem, which supports the latter interpretation. Either for one reason or another she's the only Rose Quartz that exists, or there WERE more, but there aren't anymore (possibly all of them were wiped out for her rebellion). Regardless, her type of Quartz is very different than the other Quartz Gems we've seen with completely different powers, so it's likely they're not run-of-the-mill Quartz.

• Sort of confirmed, sort of Jossed. There are other Rose Quartz gems, but they were all bubbled after the Rebellion. Rose being Pink Diamond is Jossed.
• There are other Rose Quartz gems. The Crystal Gem Rose Quartz was never actually one of them.

Rose initially "captured" Pearl as a necessary strategic asset for her rebellion.

Highly disciplined, organized, combat capable, and beautiful; rather than a glamor model (Blue Pearl) or a secretary (Yellow Pearl), Pearl was designed to serve as an aide de camp or bodyguard. Convincing Pearl to turn on Pink Diamond had to be one of Rose's early objectives, since it would be difficult to work around someone so diligent, focused and loyal.

• Jossed; Rose had Pearl from the beginning.

Rose Quartz was a nutcase from start to finish, if only by Homeworld standards.

Contrary to the rather serene, heavenly and idyllic depictions of her so commonly seen she was a bit of a loon with a bright and toothy smile, active sense of humour and, most importantly, a deep fascination with humans and organic life, so much so that she can grow it with her magic. This isn't so outrageous to humans... but imagine a person with the same mindset about, say, monkeys.

This person... they've always been a bit strange, very unprofessional and much too forward and blaise about concerning topics. And one day they up and decide that they're going to kick a bunch of other people off a whole planet just because "oh, I don't want the monkeys and all the plants to get hurt" despite the bountiful value lying dormant and ripe inside the planet that these witless locals don't even know about. Whatever, we'll just ignore her, she'll get over it. And then she doesn't. She refuses to get over this so intently that she starts KILLING PEOPLE to drive everyone away from her precious pet project, and goes on a smear campaign against her own society to brew and ignite a civil war... over one planet covered in touchy-feely plants and animals.

Rose has Pink Diamond's powers...but she's not the original Pink Diamond.

Pink Diamond was originally separate from Rose who was indeed a Quartz, but either by stealing it or maybe even being given it, Rose obtained her power. This is why she's shown weilding a pink diamond in the mural, she was using Pink Diamond's power which wasn't originally hers. How this happened is unclear, maybe all the Diamonds are capable of losing their power or giving it to another Gem, maybe Rose 'copied' data from Pink Diamond's Gem onto her own as she was able to make a hybrid like Steven.

• That could explain why she's so powerful she could stop whatever the Diamonds did to corrupt the rest of the Gems on Earth with just her shield. No regular Gem, not even a Quartz, should be able to do that. Someone with the powers of a DIAMOND, on the other hand....
• Well, you're half-right.

Rose Quartz's well known form isn't her true one, but it's not a disguise.

Rather when she cut ties with the Homeworld, she chose to take on a form more in line with her NEW home. Note how Rose is the most human-like Gem we've seen, and the only Gem who doesn't lack certain attributes, even compared to every other Gem who clearly doesn't have them even when that part of their chest is exposed. Whether she's a Quartz or a Diamond (either of which is possible at this point, though Diamond may fit this theory a bit better as changing her name as well would mean she discarded everything from Homeworld she could to take on a new identity), she assumed a more human-like form than is standard as a way of declaring Earth her new home.

• Confirmed. Rose Quartz was originally Pink Diamond, but disguised herself as Rose Quartz and after her fake shattering(see "A Single Pale Rose") she took the Rose Quartz form as her default form.

Rose Quartz was one of a kind in some way.

Eyeball talking about Rose's healing powers in "Bubbled" implies that Rose was the only Gem ever that had healing powers. This may be due to either Rose being gifted with these powers as an experiment of sorts, or being the only Rose Quartz to exist ever. Possibly she was a pet project of Pink Diamond. Either way, it may very well be that Homeworld stopped making Gems like her due to her starting a rebellion being a pretty bad precedent.

• Rose being the only Rose Quartz is now Jossed. Though, when she was around, she was the only unbubbled Rose Quartz.
• Confirmed. What made Rose Quartz of the Crystal Gems unique among the other Rose Quartz gems is the fact that she wasn't an actual Rose Quartz.

Rose used to look like Jasper.

Rose and Jasper are both quartzes, and quartzes are bred to be warriors on Homeworld. But when Rose decided to rebel against Homeworld, she purposefully chose a more humanoid appearance either through poofing or shape-shifting. You'll notice she's the only gem that has a natural-looking skin tone. To further punctuate her rebellion, she chose a form the opposite of a quartz warrior in every way. Rose and Jasper are the same height, but where Jasper is buff and broad-shouldered, Rose is soft, round, and voluptuous. Jasper's hair is wild, while Rose's is immaculately curled. These features are purely superficial though, as despite the shape, Rose in no way lost her skill or ferocity as a warrior.

• It doesn't seem like Gems are able to change their coloration via shapeshifting, so this part seems unlikely. Additionally, though Rose's figure is somewhat obscured by her dress, her build is actually not significantly different from Jasper's. Additionally, other Quartz gems have now been seen with ringlets similar to Rose's.
• Jossed. She looked like, and was, Pink Diamond instead.

Rose Quartz was a prototype.

She was Pink Diamond's idea: combine the power of a quartz soldier with purely defensive and support powers. Every other quartz we've seen so far has purely offensive powers so Rose was designed to give Pink Diamond an edge. That's why Rose is always referred to as simply 'Rose Quartz' and not 'a Rose Quartz' like every other gem. She was never massed produced because the emotions needed to trigger her defensive powers also led her to value the Earth and start the rebellion.

• While Rose Quartz might be a prototype, she is not the only Rose Quartz.
  • But she is the only Pink Diamond.

Rose Quartz has the ability to manipulate memories.

There's obviously more to her than the writers let on (for now), but remember that everytime she shows up, she's in a flashback, a story told by another character. The musical composers aivi & surasshu, when listing all the characters' motival instruments, the guitar is placed after Rose with "remembered" in parentheses. This could suggest that she's placed in a much more benevolent, ethereal light when she's remembered. Who knows what she might have really been like? What is her real motival instrument? Something to think about.

Rose Quartz was suicidal.

She couldn't cope with what she had done during the rebellion—hurting so many Gems, shattering her Diamond, and getting almost all of her friends captured, shattered, or corrupted. (And that's not even getting into whether she knew about the fate all other Roses were doomed to because of her.) When she was given the opportunity to "become" Steven, she saw it not only as a way to experience being a human and bring a new, unique being into the world, but also as a way to "escape."

Rose Quartz gems were built to work at the human zoo.

Maybe Pink Diamond created a new, more pacifistic Quartz gem to run the zoo - a more fragile gem might get poofed by a human, but a regular soldier might accidentally hurt them. It would explain why Rose Quartz' powers were mostly defense-based and her main weapon was a shield (to make it easier to subdue humans without harming them), her ability to grow plant life when Homeworld has no need for Earth's natural ecosystem (to help grow and maintain the zoo's environment), why she's so much more human-like than the rest of the gems (to avoid scaring the humans she would come in contact with at the zoo), and why all the bubbled Rose Quartz gems were at the zoo instead of on Homeworld. Working at the zoo might have also helped spark Rose's love for humanity and have encouraged her to be more caring and nurturing than Homeworld society.

Our Rose Quartz was first of her kind

And this is why she was so overpowered.

Pink Diamond tried to create new type of Gem that didn't follow typical for their class purpose: A Quartz that wasn't a soldier, but more of a protector/caretaker. She tried to make such a Gem as perfect for the job as possible, giving this Gem such unique and powerful abilities, like healing and resurrection. In creating Rose, she succeeded.

There was one tiny problem, however: the creation of even one Gem like this required a lot of resources, possibly comparable with the creation of a Diamond. As such, the mass produced Roses were made with significantly weaker abilities compared to the first, as to not bleed out the resources of the entire empire for one type.

• Rose has never been made out to be especially powerful, Bismuth even suggests she's ordinary.
• She is extremely powerful for a regular Quartz. Her healing powers implied to be unique. She could create life and resurrect the dead. And being viewed as "ordinary gem" would be important for Rose's cause, that dosen't mean that she actually was ordinary.
• Jossed. Rose Quartz is overpowered, but that's because she's actually Pink Diamond.

Rose Quartz may not have been Pink Diamond, but she does have her powers.

Aside from maybe some Fusions, Rose has the most powers shown out of every Gem seen so far; even Jasper, the so called "Ultimate Quartz", doesn't even come close to her in terms of abilities. If this is true, it also explains why the Diamonds are so convinced that Rose is the one that shattered Pink Diamond; Rose has the powers of Pink Diamond. Pink Diamond was shattered. Ergo, Rose shattered Pink Diamond and somehow stole her powers.

• While Rose does have several powers so do the other gems. Rose's established powers are healing, floating and animating plants, that's three powers. So far Sapphire has the same number (ice, flying, future vision) and Pearl has more (lasers, holograms, controlling sand and controlling clouds). There's also the fact that some gems have powers they never knew they had (both Pearl and Peridot had to push themselves well outside their comfort zone to discover their powers) so ultimately Rose is useful but not Diamond level powerful.
• Rose's healing power was unique. She also have resurrection and bodyswap/mind control abilities. She is overpowered for a regular Quartz.
  • Rose's healing is unique to her type, and unique to her because the rest of the Rose Quartzes were bubbled when she rebelled. Rose Quartzes seem to have sacrificed their special offensive abilities for defensive abilities.

• Rose Quartz is Pink Diamond.

A Single Pale Rose Theory.

Rose didn't exactly lie so much as She changed from being a disguise to taking over while the original persona, Pink Diamond, became the disguise. Sure in the physical sense Rose Quartz was always Pink Diamond but as we saw with Pearl gem psychology is vastly different from Human psychology. It seems reasonable to believe that after a long enough time pretending the Rose Quartz version of her mind began to overtake the Pink Diamond version until eventually Pink Diamond become the fraud while Rose became more real. This would mean that while certain facts were intentionally hidden it isn't like Rose didn't actually exist and was merely Pink Diamond playing pretend, she chose to change herself into something new and different because her feelings had changed while her status wouldn't allow her to do anything but what she now longed to avoid. All the fallout was an unexpected consequence caused by her own lack of knowledge about the full capabilities of the Diamonds and overall naivety.

There were other Crystal Gems who knew Rose Quartz's true identity.

• There must have been Gems among Pink Diamond's court who shared her love for the Earth and its creatures, but loved their Diamond too much to turn against her. In such a case, it would only make sense for Pink to reveal what she was truly doing to these Gems, in order to recruit them to the Crystal Gems.

Rose Quartz was a Dead Person Impersonation.

• It could be possible that the original leader of the Crystal Gems was a real Rose Quartz who really got shattered. Pink Diamond could of witnessed this and realizes how wrong colonizing Earth was and took her identity and became the new leader of the Crystal Gems.
  • The part of her Heel Realization is Jossed, at least. Pink Diamond's Heel Realization was when she realized that Earth's biosphere won't survive the colonization, and her decision to found the Crystal Gems (or to join them if the Crystal Gems already existed) was inspired by Yellow and Blue Diamond refusing to allow her to abandon Earth.

Rose Quartz invented cotton candy.

• Or at the very least, she directly inspired the first human to create the treat.

The case for Rose Quartz being still alive somewhere in Steven's Gem

Apologies if this is written elsewhere. There is a distinct possibility that Rose is not as dead as people think. Steven actually meeting Rose would certainly be an appropriate series finale. Here is possible evidence:

• The first and most important is "Rose's Room". The tiny whale obviously talks in Rose's voice, which Steven would have no knowledge of. Also, the video game Steven plays ends with the main character reuniting with his long lost-father. Given this show's tendency to turn one-off lines into Foreshadowing...
• In "Storm in the Room" there is some ambiguity as to whether the fake Rose is merely a construct of Steven's mind. She doesn't act like the fake Connie from "Open Book", not to mention how she brings up the videotape.
• "A Single Pale Rose" shows multiple Peals inside Pearl's Gem. Is this a Pearl thing, or a Gem thing? Because if this is the latter...
• Then there's the fake Connie in "Open Book". At the end of the episode, the fake Connie holds Steven down and demands he tell the truth to the real Connie. During this segment she suddenly changes her outfit, wearing a white wedding dress that she had on briefly while Steven was brainstorming. There's a reason for her to have this outfit beyond Ship Tease - Steven was lying about a fictional wedding - but because of "A Single Pale Rose" and "Now We're All Falling Apart" there's another possibility. Who else wears a white dress, with a history of lying, and who probably wouldn't want her son to make the same mistakes she did?

Rose started out as a disguise for Pink, but became a Split Personality that Pink can interact and share control over her body.

Given that Split Personalities are usually caused by abusive backgrounds, it may be that Pink developed Rose as a coping mechanism from her fellow Diamonds' abuse towards her. Rose first awakened as a Helpless Good Side when she had Pink Pearl taken away after damaging the Pearl's eye and witnessed White reprogram her into an Empty Shell. Furthermore, Rose is made to suppress Pink's destructive powers and her gemstone reflects the table side, which befits her secretive nature and compassion. When Pink decided to "die" in order to save Earth, she allowed Rose's personality take over her permanently after reforming and Rose honors her legacy as a better identity in her body.

• Considering that Rose's powers are suppressed because of her being a Helpless Good Side, it is possible that Rose isn't the only personality sharing Pink's body. The other being an unknown Superpowered Evil Side containing Pink's memories, trauma, and negative feelings. She reflects the culet side of her gemstone and is unable to keep her feelings secret, unleashing destructive powers like Pink Steven. This personality also didn't want to be awakened, so Rose had to keep her dormant by taking over Pink's identity.

Rose Quartz is gone forever; Pink Diamond isn't.

This is combining the Rose is alive theory and Rose is a split personality theory. Steven can access Pink Diamond's memories but he can't apparently access Rose Quartz information. Gems are computer programs and artificial intelligence. Maybe the Rose "software" was integrated into Steven (ie: that's me loving you) while the Pink Diamond "software" is archived separately.

• If Pink's software were somehow transferred out of Steven, the "new" Pink wouldn't have memory of the Rebellion or anything that followed. However she would be the "real" Pink Diamond.
  • Maybe Yellow saw this as a possibility.

• So this would be a version of Pink who:
  • Recently abandoned Spinel
  • Recently received the Earth colony.
  • Received a replacement Pearl (ours). Their relationship would be playful but "traditional" (my Diamond).
  • Visited Earth and saw it's beauty. No respect for Humanity or knowledge of Greg.
  • Used Rose Quartz disguise to interact with gems and humans without going rogue.
  • I could, however, imagine some patchy dreamlike memories of her time as Rose and Steven. Like Steven's memories of her.

• She would be traumatized when she "woke up" to see what "she" did. I don't see her staying on Earth or returning to Homeworld.

Rose Quartz's soul is gone. However, Rose Quartz's memory is not.

As in Sailor Moon and Supergirl, Rose Quartz was ever the dutiful mother, and just before Steven was born, she uploaded a copy of her mind into the OS of her Room. This is why the Tiny Floating Whale has her voice, why room-Connie becomes driven to teach Steven a lesson, and why room-Rose acts like real Rose: She is all that's left of her.

Garnet

Garnet is a distant relative of Samus Aran

• Only because it is cool to imagine so.
  • this image says so.

Garnet likes fusing into Sugilite just as much as Amethyst does.

In the episode "Coach Steven", Garnet says that what they needed to take down the pillars was Sugilite. But thinking about it, was she really necessary? The gems could have simply bought a bunch of explosives, or shapeshift into cannons and cannon balls, and they could have demolished the pillars just as well. So the two most probable explanations for her decision of using Sugilite would be: A - She wanted to destroy them as fast as possible (unlikely, since they clearly weren't in a hurry and Garnet isn't the impatient type) or B - She just thought that was the perfect opportunity to fuse into Sugilite again without having the risk of hurting other people as a result.When Sugilite was formed, the first thing she said was "I forgot how great it feels to be me!". Since gem fusions are a result of two or more gems synchronizing their thoughts and feelings towards the same goal, it's possible that Sugilite said that because both Garnet and Amethyst feel the same way about being Sugilite. When they fused into Sugilite, they shared not one, but two goals in common: Destroy the pillars and also experience being Sugilite once more. And why wouldn't they want to feel that again? Not only is Sugilite extremely powerful, but her personality is also a perfect combination of Amethyst's fun-loving and reckless attitude with Garnet's proud and stable nature. Maybe the opportunity that Garnet saw to fulfill that repressed desire clouded her reasoning when she was thinking about a way of solving the problem in question, leaving her to come to the conclusion that the best way to destroy the pillars was using Sugilite.This also explains why Sugilite is able to maintain her form for so long, and why she reacts so negatively to the idea of splitting up. Garnet and Amethyst fuse with each other so well and have such a great time doing it, they see no reason to ever go back to their normal selves again.

• The fact that the two since up relatively well when the they share a goal means that Sugilite's more complete personality has a much greater chance of taking over. Sugilite becomes more and more extreme as time goes on because the parts of Garnet and Amethyst that sync up re-enforce each other until whatever differing opinions remain are forgotten and Sugilite consumes them completely.

Garnet had poor eye sight back then

Judging by the painting in "So Many Birthdays"◊, look at Garnet's glasses here, it doesn't matter if sunglasses weren't invented yet, those types of glasses, that looks serious, it may not only cover her eyes but it may help her see better. I guess Garnet spent the next several hundred years with poor vision until sunglasses were invented, either Garnet has contacts and sunglasses or Rose healed her eyes.

• Ruby makes an out-of-place comment about not being able to "see" in "Jailbreak". This could either be a product of her not being adjusted to being a solo Gem after being fused as Garnet for so long, or of actually poor/sensitive vision.
  • Ruby was trying to use Sapphire's Future Vision, not having adjusted to being on her own for the first time in, presumably, thousands of years.

Garnet and Jasper are old rivals who knew each other long prior to Jasper's first appearance on the show.

When they meet in "The Return", Jasper called Garnet a "shameless display", indicating even before she broke Garnet with the destabilizer, she already knew that Garnet is a fusion (something which she has derision for). Also, it seems unlikely that Garnet would go to the trouble to improvise an entire taunting/"I am better than you" song; and break the destabilizer after taking it from Jasper rather than using it against her so they could have a "real" fight; unless Garnet had an existing rivalry with Jasper and wanted to royally show her up.

• Probably Jossed.

Garnet is coping with Rose's passing and understands her beliefs the best.

And it's because she's a fusion. Pearl held incredible respect and adoration for Rose, and Amethyst is implied to have seen her as a maternal figure, and as such, they are devastated by her loss, with Amethyst being unable to relate or confide to her teammates because of her Kindergarten background, and Pearl having chose Rose over the wonders of space and now has neither. Garnet, while still saddened by the loss of a friend and comrade, is not as emotionally devastated as the other two because she's never alone and is able to draw incredible emotional strength from her bond. At the same time, Garnet has a greater understanding of the all encompassing love Rose felt and the relationship she had with Greg because she is Sapphire and Ruby's love given form, while Amethyst is too emotionally underdeveloped to really understand her mother-figure's outlook, and Pearl seems attached to Rose on a personal level rather than an ideological one, since her actions are almost totally divorced from Rose's beliefs, feeling scorn for the things Rose saw beauty in and attempting to abandon the planet Rose swore to protect.

Garnet in general tunes out a lot of her future sight for her own sanity

Think about how many problems could have been avoided if Garnet knew they were coming with her future vision. I thinking she more or less tunes it out unless she particularly needs to assess risk. Perhaps that why they like being fused, Sapphire might be the kind of person who would just sit their for hours contemplating all the time lines, while Ruby preferred to take action future consequences be damned.

• It could also be that Garnet's future-vision is actually Sapphire's power - which would further tie into the notion that Sapphire's "weapon" is the visor/glasses from an above theory. Their fusion into Garnet could also serve to help mellow out their control over that power.

Garnet's future vision allows her to see Steven's potential power.

Hence why she believes in him much more than the other Gems do.

Garnet helped Greg get closer to Rose knowing full well the eventual result being Rose's death

Garnet knew that if Rose and Greg became romantically involved it would result in the birth of a hybrid that would effectively kill Rose but she done so because in her future sight she saw the only significant chance for the world and the other gems to even live was if a hybrid was formed.

The last time Garnet got "poofed" before the series, her right leg was cut or ripped off.

When she regenerated after getting split in half, her new outfit had a color scheme split down the middle. Her first outfit had the right leg in a different color.

Garnet's view on fusion is unique among Gemkind (and, technically, wrong).

• Fusion really was developed solely as a way for weak gems to get stronger, as Jasper said. Garnet's view of it an expression of trust and love is an inaccurate one which stems from her (their, whatever) personal experience—a belief that few if any others share.
  • Alternatively, Garnet's view was accurate and was the original intention—thousands of years ago. There was a cultural shift (to militarism?) and by Ruby and Sapphire's time, the truth behind fusion was forgotten.
  • Jossed: Fusing is fine; fusing with a gem type that doesn't match yours is taboo.
    • Not exactly. Fusing with a different type of gem is taboo in all circumstances, but even fusing with the same type of gem is still seen as merely a way to make weak gems stronger for combat purposes.
  • Although the jury is still out as to what, if anything, fusion was originally supposed to be for at the dawn of gemkind, it does seem like a lot of what Garnet says about fusion is less about her having "absolutely true" knowledge of the matter, and more that it's simply her own personal philosophy that she's developed about it over the millennia.
    
    Also, it does seem that her way of thinking about it is fairly unique: not only does she disagree with the Homeworld notion of fusion being strictly a combat tactic and abominable when involving different gem types, but her views also seem different, if more subtly, from that of the other Crystal Gems.
    
    Notably, she seems to be the only gem anywhere (possibly excluding the relationship Rose ultimately had with Greg, though even that's not clear) to have a concept of monogamy. She rebuffs Jamie's affections on the basis that "three's a crowd". Also, even though she seems to enjoy it, her attitude toward fusions of 3 or more (Sugilite, Sardonyx, etc.) is similar to Homeworld's attitude towards fusion in general: she won't do it except for practical reasons when there's a problem that can only be solved with the power of the combined form, or in one case for educational purposes to try to teach Peridot about fusion. She seems to see mass fusion as inappropriate without a good reason. Amethyst and Pearl, by contrast, are eager to fuse with Garnet and have no reservations about it.
    
    "The Answer" shows Rose was fascinated with and affirming of Garnet from the moment she saw her, but probably viewed Garnet and her teachings on fusion's relationship to love through the lens of her own general love towards everything.
    
    Notably, Rose saw no problem with fusing with Pearl into Rainbow Quartz right in front of Greg while she was also in a relationship with him. This shows that she never really viewed fusion as relating to a committed, exclusive relationship. And back when there were more than just a handful of Crystal Gems, one would imagine that Rose's views on the subject would set the tone for how Crystal Gems in general viewed fusion.
    • Notably, in "Keystone Motel", when arguing with Sapphire about how to respond to Pearl tricking them/Garnet into fusing with her, Ruby seems to acknowledge the uniqueness of their attitude to fusion:
      Sapphire: You're choosing to take it personally.
      Ruby: It's fusion, Sapphire! What could be more personal to us than fusion!? [emphasis added]

Garnet led to the creation of Gem Destabilizers.

After Garnet was formed, the Diamonds (or at least just Blue Diamond) probably decided it was necessary to create something to forcefully unfuse any gems fusing from outside of their caste to prevent any more events like Garnet from ever happening again. Hence, destabilizers were created.

Garnet is physically unable to ask questions.

It's implied that Pink Diamond telling Pearl to "never speak of [her faked death] again" and crossing her hands over her mouth actually made Pearl physically unable to talk about it. The only time Garnet ever asks questions is when she meets Rose in "The Answer", to which Rose tells her "no more questions" while doing a similar gesture. Now Garnet never asks anything. If she wants to know something, she'll phrase it as a demand (i.e. "Tell us what you saw." instead of "What did you see?").

• Apparently jossed, Word of God stating that Pink Diamond could only compel Gems this way if they were created for her. Ruby and Sapphire were Blue Diamond's and therefore wouldn't have been affected.
• There's also this bit of dialogue in "Know Your Fusion", where Pearl asks Garnet "[Steven and Amethyst] are acting very suspicious. Should we ask them what's going on?", and Garnet replies that "[she] can't".

Ruby and Sapphire

Ruby and Sapphire's Gem Weapons

It was established with, E.G, Opal's Bow, that the gem weapon of a fusion is itself a fusion of the parts' weapons. While Opal had to get them out separately and combine them, Garnet's comes out instantly, probably because of the high quality of her fusion and her long, extensive experience fighting in fused form. What could the components be? If you look closely at her gauntlets, you notice that they have crystalline spikes on the knuckles to make them better for punching. So my theory is that Sapphire's gem weapon is just a simple protective gauntlet without any offensive features, a defensive item rather than a weapon, like Rose's/Steven's shield. And then Ruby's weapon is some sort of spiky "brass knuckles" type weapon, good for punching but without any defensive applications. And that's why when they combine it ends up as a Power Fist with balanced offense and defense for both punching and blocking.

• Or, maybe Ruby can summon both gauntlets as her weapon, and Sapphire's weapon is Garnet's visor. In Jail Break, when she summons a new visor, she uses the hand with Sapphire's gem on it. Sapphire has been shown to be not as violent as Ruby, so a gauntlet wouldn't be a good weapon for her. Its also possible that this is why Jasper considers Sapphire a "weak gem". The visor could be for eye protection, enhancing her future vision, or just to keep the hair out of her eyes. This isn't fused with the gauntlets because they wouldn't serve a purpose fused.
  • Or, maybe they fuse into her goggles shown at the beginning of "Giant Women", and she doesn't fuse them often because they don't really help that much in battle.
• It's also possible that (just like Lapis doesn't seem to have a gem weapon beyond her control over water), Sapphire's future vision qualifies as her unique ability to the point where she doesn't need or have a gem weapon. It's possible that this is a common trait of all blue gems, since all the ones we've seen so far have had a really powerful ability and no weapon.
• Ruby is confirmed to summon gauntlets as her weapon.

Sapphire's weapon is missiles, which combine with Ruby's gauntlets into the Rocket Punch version Garnet has.

If this is true... Garnet's left side fights with fire and armored hands, while her right side fights with ice and missiles. A nod to Omegamon, maybe?

Ruby and Sapphire used to be physically stronger individuals with high status on Homeworld.

Rubies and sapphires are among the most precious gemstones, with 9 Mohs hardness. It wouldn't make sense for Ruby and Sapphire to really be "weak gems."

They may have lost some of their power in the war, and/or willfully gave it up in favor of fusion.

• Not necessarily. Gem power might not be based on Mohs hardness, given that lapis lazuli is only 5.5 and she's one of the most powerful gems we've seen so far.
  • Plus, amethyst, rose quartz, and jasper all have roughly the same level of hardness.
• Confirmed, but separately: Ruby was a physically strong gem and Sapphire had high status.
  • Not really confirmed at all, Rubies were the lowest-ranking of the soldier-type gems, and Ruby was never bigger or stronger (unless you count the 3-Ruby fusion she used to form) than she is now.
• "The Answer" seems to joss this for them being physically stronger (they were both child-sized back then with no indication they were ever anything else), and for Ruby in general (Rubies are common soldiers of no importance), but it's confirmed that Sapphire was rare, precious, and high-status.

Ruby and Sapphire individually actually aren't that weak.

When they split up in keystone motel Ruby out right evaporated the water in a manner of minutes while Sapphire had the room iced over almost completely. Individually, they might actually be quite strong gems despite their sizes. Heck, Garnet might actually be weaker in some aspects since we never see elemental fire or ice abilities used as her, they might outright cancel each other out when fused.

• Considering Rubies are confirmed to be bodyguard specialists, not too implausible.
• It's likely that Ruby and Sapphires elemental abilities fused to create electricity, since Garnet has electric powers, which we've yet to see Ruby or Sapphire demonstrate.

Greg met Ruby and Sapphire when they lost Rose.

In "Keystone Motel", Greg immediately recognizes Ruby and Sapphire. His reaction is to immediately groan and ask where the other one is when seeing Sapphire on the bed. Garnet remains Garnet as long as there is Ruby and Sapphire stay in harmony. As seen "Keeping it Together" great enough emotional shock can make them defuse. As the first person to accept and encourage them as Garnet, the loss of Rose must have hit them hard. Ruby probably spent her time being angry at Greg for being why Rose is gone. Sapphire was probably already seeing visions of Steven and while sad for the loss of Rose, had more optimistic view of the situation.

Ruby and Sapphire, and thus Garnet, are Love Freaks.

Because they have such a strong and long lasting relationship, Ruby and Sapphire admire the concept of love more than anything, which they directly relate with fusion. This is why Garnet goes into full Squee Mode when Steven and Connie became Stevonnie, as to Garnet this would be like if the two announced they were going steady. Garnet loves all forms of love actually, which is why she's squeeing even harder when Steven and Amethyst successfully fuse into Smoky Quartz.

After "The Question", Ruby and Sapphire will not be Garnet as often in future episodes...

• ...because Ruby has come to realize that while she and Sapphire will always love each other and will always be there for each other, that doesn't mean they both have to be glued to each others hips 24/7 as Garnet. The reality is that she and Sapphire clearly have their own desires and interests, even after they reunite as Garnet in the future. As such, it would make sense that Ruby (and probably Sapphire) will want to try to experiment and see the world as themselves. To forge their own unique relationships with others outside of Garnet and the other Crystal Gems, thus not only making their eventual return to Garnet much more fulfilling and deepen their relationship, but also flesh them out as individuals.

Sapphire can see normally, but assuming the WMG that Garnet's visor comes from her, she has Eye Beams that sometimes go off by accident.

When her visor isn't summoned, she grows her hair down for safety. She already has no legs, making her blind too would be entering amputee fetish territory.

• What the hell made you think she had no legs? You can clearly see her walking.
  • You can also clearly see under her skirt. It's flat. She's a gastropod.
  • She has legs. Word of God said so.
  • Sapphire definitely has legs as shown in "Hit The Diamond".

When Ruby reforms she'll have western elements in her costume

Maybe a star positioned like a sheriff's badge, chaps, and a vest.

Amethyst

Amethyst has gender dysphoria

Leaving the "gems are genderless/sexless" thing out the window, Amethyst uses their Purple Puma identity as a way to calm it down. They wish they could permanently take up that identity, but knows that the Crystal Gems only accepts it when they need Puma's physical strength.

• She definitely has a degree of dysphoria (we can see it in the episode where she has trouble choosing a new form after regenerating), but it doesn't seem related to gender, and probably stems more from her body being smaller than it was supposed to be on account of being "overcooked" and her own sense that people are judging her based on this. (Note that Purple Puma is also, well, huge.)

Amethyst was made by the machines from leftover material/energy.

She says she lived in the Kindergarten alone for a while, suggesting that the Homeworld Gems didn't know she was there. Her hole is also close to the ground, while all of the other holes were higher up on the cliffs. The machines must have made one last Gem when they weren't supervised.

• Jossed. Amethyst was planted at the same time as the rest of the Amethysts.

Amethyst shapeshifts constantly because she doesn't like herself.

It's already established she's unhappy with herself, and she shapeshifts far more often than the other Gems.

Amethyst is mostly done with her young-preteen phase

Soon we'll be seeing emo or goth Amethyst; her new clothes are decidedly more black and grey than her last two major regenerations.

Amethyst's whip can be combined with a sword to make a chainsaw.

Because it has spikes. If solid weapons like Rose's sword can't combine, then a Sixth Ranger will have a sword as a summoned weapon.

Fusion nullifies Amethyst's defect

Given that the combined size of Amethyst and Pearl is not that much bigger than Ruby and Sapphire (with Amethyst being only slightly bigger than Ruby, and Pearl being much taller but skinny as a rail), it seems odd that Opal is so much bigger than Garnet. Similarly, though huge, Sardonyx is still much smaller and weaker than Sugilite.

One theory to explain this is that whatever is wrong with Amethyst's gem that prevents her from sustaining a form taller than four feet on her own, it has no effect on the size of the fusions she can form. In other words, if she were a "normal" Amethyst capable of sustaining a hulking eight foot tall body on her own like "normal" Quartzes usually can, Opal and Sugilite still wouldn't be any bigger than they already are, because our "defective" Amethyst still functions as a full-sized Amethyst for fusion purposes.

• More evidence for this is that Peridot directly states that Amethyst is just as powerful as a normal Quartz, despite the small size of her base form.

Amethyst's current form is based in large part on young Greg

Though their relationship is complicated, she definitely used to be quite chummy with Greg. In "Story for Steven", we see that Amethyst used to look quite different than she does now, with shorter hair and more childlike features, and Greg, before he went bald on top, had huge hair that looked rather similar to Amethyst's current hair (And notably, she sincerely commented that she "really liked" his hair in their first encounter). His pants in that episode even had a rip in one leg that was very similar to the one she had in her form prior to "Reformed". Also she's the one who's always getting poofed and getting to redesign her form. So, maybe at some point she (consciously or not) adopted features from Greg, either out of genuine desire to be more like him, or out of some twisted hope that looking more like Greg would make Rose pay more attention to her, or maybe even a little of both. And then it just sorta stuck.

Amethyst just went with her gut when she named Smoky Quartz.

• She didn't actually know what a Rose Quartz plus an Amethyst equals—she just said the name that felt right and said the equation based on the understanding that their fusion components were a Rose Quartz and an Amethyst. The Fusion type Smoky Quartz actually comes from a Pink Diamond plus an Amethyst, and an actual Rose Quartz plus an Amethyst would make a different Fusion.

Amethyst's very first outfit ...

Was a Pink Diamond uniform. After all, that's what her intended purpose was; to serve as one of Pink's soldiers.

Amethist is corrupted but in a singular way.

The corruption beam had to cross some layers of rock and hitted Amethist while she was in a slow state of formation. That must afected her with a low disruption effect compared to the other corrupted gems and gave her the "hability" to shapeshift easily and constantly.

Pearl

Pearl was just as crucial to the rebellion as Rose, though she never realized it.

Though Rose's leadership ability and charisma obviously were the primary face of the rebellion, Pearl had as much to do with it as Rose. A Pearl being her own gem, becoming more than the Fantastic Caste System of Homeworld mandated, was likely an enormous factor in driving recruitment and momentum for the rebellion. It seems unlikely that so many Gems would join the rebellion solely for the sake of helping one Insignificant Blue Planet. Following Rose just because of her charisma explains some of it, but the idea of being more than the role you were prescribed, being able to break out of the box Homeworld put you in, and to be whatever you wanted; now that is the kind of of ideal that many would flock to. It would be Pearl, not Rose, who would be the symbol of that ideal. However, Pearl, blinded by devotion and hobbled by her inferiority complex, likely never realized just how incredibly important she was.

Pearl wanted to permanently fuse with Rose Quartz, the same way Sapphire and Ruby are fused as Garnet.

Pearl seems to have been just as dedicated to Rose above anyone else as Ruby is to Sapphire, and like Ruby cared nothing for her own well-being when it came to protecting her. Rose didn't feel the same way, so Pearl started considering herself Rose's "knight" as a method of coping and assuring her importance to her.

When Pearl and Steven aren't in battle, they're at home watching Grojband.

Just read this post.

Pearl used to be less uptight in personality.

Amethyst comments that Pearl is "no fun anymore", suggesting that Pearl might've been a different person in the past. In fact, perhaps Rose's death and the subsequent need to look after Steven caused her to become more cautious and conservative.

• Digging a little deeper when it comes to her relationship with Amethyst specifically, maybe she used to be more of a Cool Big Sis to Amethyst before all of the gems disappeared, and she now has a need to look after Amethyst as well as Steven since, let's face it, Amethyst is hardly the most responsible of the lot. It's just that Amethyst, unlike Steven, doesn't appreciate it as much because she misses when Pearl was more laid back.
  • Perhaps when Pearl was a Cool Big Sis to Amethyst, Rose Quartz was the motherly one to both of them?
• Maybe Pearl's unruly behavior in "Space Race" was a short relapse into her old personality.

Pearl will magically turn for a short period of time into an evil gem called Black Pearl.

Which is a real variety of pearl.

• This would have some serious Unfortunate Implications, even if it's just an Evil Costume Switch.

Pearl is heading for a mental breakdown.

As the show has gone Pearl has become much easier to set off and reacts far more maniacally when she is set off. The reasons for this could be as follows:

• The loss of Rose Quartz is shown to have affected Pearl the most of the Gems and during "An Indirect Kiss" she shows some exasperation that Steven wasn't able to use Rose's healing tears. It could be that Steven's inability to match up with Rose has caused Pearl no small amount of frustration.
• Amethyst's shenanigans are shown to visibly agitate Pearl and the events of "An Indirect Kiss" have Pearl visibly panicking. Pearl could feel that Amethyst's antics could lead to catastrophe and the lack of any visible maturity from going through these events is weighing on Pearl's mind.
• Garnet's refusal to actually reel in Amethyst and and simply maintain enough of a status quo to continue defending the world might bother Pearl because Garnet is the leader and she considers Garnet to be a bastion of sanity among the hijinks that Amethyst and Steven cause.
• The episode "Space Race" provides another reason in Pearl wanting to leave Earth so she can travel among the stars again. She seems to be the Gem that misses this the most and the sheer lengths that she went to in order to see other planets again shows that this is definitely weighing on her quite heavily.
• She seemed to have a breakdown in "Rose's Scabbard".
• And another during "Sworn to the Sword". It also shed some major light on her feelings toward Rose, explaining these breakdowns more thoroughly.
• She basically falls apart completely in "Cry for Help" and the aftermath, albeit not in the usual way.

In "Steven the Sword Fighter", Pearl regenerated slowly because the hologram was still active.

It was taking up her energy, hence why she took longer to heal and why she reformed once the hologram was destroyed.

Pearl faked her age to get into driver's ed

Pearl can drive, right? She was driving Greg's van. This could mean that she has a driver's licence! First off, gems are ageless, and you need to be 16 to get your driver's licence. So Pearl was the only student in driving school that is not human. So her driver's licence probably has an age on it even though she's ageless.

• Assuming that normal laws apply to Gems, or that Pearl cares enough to follow them.
  • Seems unlikely that she cares at all enough to be bothered with getting a driver's license, given that, in addition to fixing Greg's van and commenting on its simplistic nature, Pearl attempted to build and pilot a spaceship from scrap metal - and seemed confident enough in her driving skills to attempt it in the first place.
• Jossed. Pearl doesn't have a license.

Pearl has autism

The social world makes her feel uncomfortable, eating gives her sensory issues, things she's not used to result in a tremendous amount of stress, and the fact Pearl is great engineer and mechanic (even the most brilliant people have autism).

• On that note, Garnet might also have autism. She seems unable to interact and socialize with anyone other than Steven.
• Steven could very well also have autism himself.
  • Pretty sure not everyone has autism. Maybe they're just, y'know, aliens whose minds don't work exactly like humans'.
  • Where does it say that?
• A case could be made for Steven though. From what was seen in Garnet's Universe and Lion 3: Straight to Video, Steven seems to be suffering from autism.
  • Steven is not autistic. He is just a kid who does not have the same social and cultural markers due to being raised by a single father, never sent to school, and three moms who aren't human.
• Maybe not autism per se, but Pearl's personality seems like it's probably highly unusual in some respects, even by Gem standards (hard to say for certain though, since we've seen so few of them and of the ones we've seen, Amethyst isn't even originally from the mainstream gem culture on the homeworld). But she's flat confirmed to at least be stereotypically obsessive-compulsive.

Pearl will have a Face–Heel Turn.

Pearl has been shown to have the lowest view of humanity among the Crystal Gems, Rebecca Sugar told a poster on her tumblr ''You should be.'' in response to that poster being worried about Pearl, her hologram and spacesuit both have the diamond markings that Lapis and Peridot wear, Space Race showed she is so desperate to leave Earth that she went on an incapable rocket ship along with Steven, and lastly in Warp Tour after Peridot leaves, Pearl 'I can't do this! Not again!'', burying her face in her hands afterwards. It's clear that the CG's have cut themselves off from gem society, likely after an armed conflict. With so much on her plate, would it be surprising if Pearl cuts her ties with the CG's and aligns herself with a group of enemy gems so that she'll finally be to return home?

• Considering the Undying Loyalty Pearl showed in "Rose's Scabbard," this is highly unlikely.
  • Unlikely, but not impossible. Though she is too loyal to Rose's memory to join the bad guys full time, she's already shown a tendency to make very stupid decisions when under stress. If the bad guys were very clever I could see Pearl being convinced to betray humanity, if not Steven himself. And things would get even more muddy if they tempt her with some way to bring Rose back...
    • No way she would have a face heel turn. Pearl is quite dedicated to the cause (as she's the one who proudly announces they are the Crystal Gems to Peridot) and she's loyal to her friends and to Steven. Steven also is Rose so no she would not betray them to get Rose back. She might miss space (not really the Homeworld but exploring space itself) but there is no way she'd drop everything Rose worked for just to get back there and go with enemy Gems. That is just, not something Pearl would do.
  • I wouldn't consider it too unlikely. While Pearl has become fond of Steven (albeit with mixed feelings due to his mother), she's the Crystal Gem with the least attachment to Earth, humans, or human emotions; Pearl's consistently baffled by Rose and Greg's relationship, and her own relationship with Rose may have been more one-sided than she believes. As seen in Rose's Scabbard, Pearl didn't mind never seeing Homeworld again because Rose would be on Earth; it wouldn't be far-fetched to say that, while she may or may not have strong feelings about Earth and humans, Pearl sided against Homeworld because Rose was against Homeworld. Had Rose stayed loyal to Gem culture, Pearl would almost certainly have done so. Playing on Pearl's near-obsession with Rose Quartz, and/or revealing that there was even more that Rose never told Pearl, may well lead to a (temporary) Face–Heel Turn.

Pearl was assigned to Rose as her pilot (and possibly her travel assistant).

Pearl has been shown to be able to build a spaceship from scratch, repair an escape pod, pilot three separate flying vehicles, and interface with gem computers. This combined with her devotion to Rose Quartz, and the growing evidence for her being some kind of servant, makes this theory a feasible origin for Pearl. On top of that, in Space Race, Pearl is shown to have a dedicated pilot outfit with a Pink Diamond insignia...

Pearl resents Steven the most for being born.

"Rose's Scabbard" sheds a little more light on Pearl's feelings about Rose Quartz "death"; while she obviously loves Steven, she still can't help but be angry at him for taking Rose away. Her face when she doesn't attempt to help Steven when he falls further proves that. She comments that he sometimes "looks and sounds just like Rose,"; she sees Rose in him and is trying recreate her in him, which explains her strict and overbearing attitude when teaching Steven to become a proper Crystal Gem.

Pearl was not as important to Rose as she believes she was

Not from an emotional standpoint, mind you (Rose doesn't seem like the sort who would display false affection for someone), but a strategic one. Everything we heard about their relationship comes from Pearl's perspective, and in the same episode we saw this view as being certifiably flawed as well as the fact that Pearl is capable of missing some obvious things. While Rose most certainly put more then average trust in Pearl, Pearl was not her end all be all confidante, which I believe is a conclusion reached by Pearl herself in her own mind, as a result of her idolization of Rose. I suspect both that Garnet has some special Rose secrets of her own, and that Rose had other Pearl level confidants during the rebellion (probably to ensure the fight could keep going if the rebellion took heavy losses) that are in present day either dead or corrupted.

• This seems extremely likely. When you're infatuated with someone, it's easy to over-estimate your importance to them: While I agree that Rose considered Pearl a close friend and confidant, it's unlikely (given what we've seen) that she was Rose's only close friend and confidant. Additionally, while all the Crystal Gems respect Rose, Pearl's unabashed adoration would have made it difficult for her to view Rose critically: Good leaders need people to call them on missteps/bring up opposing viewpoints, and even if Pearl disagreed with Rose, she'd never do anything but assume Rose knew best.

Pearl is not the only one of her kind, but is unique.

So my theory here is this: At Homeworld, there were specific types of Gems that were supposed to guard/serve: Pearls. They were loyal soldiers/guards/servants and it was almost in their programming to protect and serve the Homeworld. Until Pearl herself came along. Some time before or during the war, Pearl met Rose Quartz and befriended her/fell in love with her. Either Pearl followed Rose Quartz to Earth as a bodyguard, or she was there to fight on the Homeworld Gems' side during the war, but eventually decided to stick with Rose.

Reasons for my theory:

• The way that Jasper refers to her as "some lost, defective Pearl" in "The Return." "Lost" referring to how Pearl abandoned the Homeworld to stay on Earth, and "defective" because she went against her "programming". Also note that she the way that she says it ("some" almost like "a", and addressing her by name/status) makes it seem that there are other Pearls.
• It explains why Pearl is so desperate to go home, and why she adores talking about it so much. As much as Pearl loves Steven and loved Rose Quartz, she always loved the Homeworld because that's what she was made to do. It's why she gushes and daydreams of it, and it's why she's so knowledgeable about Gem history.
• Pearl is not like the other Gems, because her Gem is an organic mineral.
• Her weapon, a spear, seems like a basic weapon that would be used in wars.
• It could be why she's such a Blood Knight when describing the war between the Gems.
• She's also quite the strategist, someone you'd find in an army.
• Maybe Pearls are used as servants by Leader Gems: they are programmed to be loyal to a certain person or attach over time with them. This would explain the strong feelings she has for Rose Quartz and the deep confidence she had with her. Also, she looks like she feels betrayed or deceived regarding Rose's confidence on her.
• In "Sworn to the Sword", Pearl's song is clearly applying more to her than at Connie. At one point, she says, "Deep down, you know you weren't made for fighting."

Just an idea. Any thoughts?

• I've always at the back of my mind had a theory that Pearl is not designed for combat but like Peridot more a support unit, in this case a teacher, historian and scholar. Pearl's physical weakness therefore comes from the fact that she was never meant to be a warrior, but in order to fight alongside Rose taught herself combat in defiance of her given role.
  • Or Peridot is sort of an "upgrade" on a Pearl? Pearls are weaker, and are "owned" by the lower classes. Peridots are more advanced and can synch with the modern Gem technology. Also, there is a possibility that Peridots replaced Pearls, making them obsolete.
  • Hey, what if Rose taught Pearl herself? Given that Rose's weapon was a sword and Pearl is an excellent swordfighter...
  • This might be why Pearl has the most refined combat style out of all the gems seen so far, learning multiple combat styles and even learning ballet to improve her balance. Unlike the others she can't just rely on her natural abilities.
• In a song while she was teaching Connie, she does say "Deep down you know you aren't built for fighting". As she was mostly singing her own feelings in the song...
• It would explain Pearl's idolization of Rose, as well as her high-strung disposition, her high expectations (especially for Garnet, the new de-facto leader), and Amethyst's remark that Pearl used to be 'more fun,' plus Pearl being "defective": Pearls aren't supposed to outlive the one they serve, but this Pearl did, and she wasn't equipped to do so. When Rose was around to be her lynchpin, she could take things more easily, but the uncertainty of being independent did a number on her.
• It's possible that Pearls are second-class citizens of a sort: The Homeworld Gems are big on strength and disdain "weakness," and Pearl is not the most physically-capable or obviously combat-ready. This may be because pearls are easily-damaged compared to most other gems, or because they're organic instead of "true" gems; their organic nature may have something to do with why there are multiple Pearls, with Pearls being grown or cultivated similarly to oyster-farms instead of like the more resource-heavy "proper" Gems, which require Kindergartens or extremely costly/slow/rare natural reproduction. Part of her hero-worship is because Rose treated her as an equal and friend instead of looking down on her for being "weak" or "disposable."
• What if Pearl's projection to Connie was the very first time Pearl ever fought, and it was the moment she abandoned her mistress for Rose? We see Pearl running with a sword in hand, looking panicked. She sees Rose about to fight a huge Gem, and rushed to her defense. I wonder if the same scene will be played again when we finally see how Rose and Pearl formed the Crystal Gems.

• Pearls have been confirmed to be a servant race on Homeworld, little more than a glorified handbag in most cases.

Pearl actually can't shapeshift.

We've never gotten to see her shapeshift into anything, and she always declines when others ask (even Garnet could at least shapeshift into Steven to play Steven Tag). It might even be a part of what makes her "defective" as a pearl.

• In Secret Team she asked Amethyst to shapeshift her way out of the situation, instead of just doing it herself. Then when Amethyst told her to do it, she automatically said she couldn't.
• Pearl loves to teach Steven things, so I doubt she would have hesitated if Steven wanted to learn.
• She says that they should only shapeshift if it's absolutely necessary, but even Garnet has done it for fun on occasion. This could suggest that this is just a personal belief that she projects to stop the others from prodding her about it.
• In every other aspect, Pearl is proud to excel and show off how great she is at doing things. Could this be compensating for a lack of ability?
• Could be also tied to her gem; Pearls are not created like the other gems and are instead formed by organic oysters, and are rarely (if ever) actually carved up. All pearls generally retain their round shape, while Amethysts and Garnets can be cut into a wide variety of shapes for insets. Her lack of shapeshifting could be a reference to this.
• Alternatively, Pearl is able to shapeshift, but can't hold it for long due to her OCD.
• Given that Pearls are custom made and Peridot can't shapeshift, it doesn't seem unlikely that Pearls are designed to not have this power.
• Very, very Jossed. "A Single Pale Rose" confirms Pearl can shapeshift, and may give a reason why she might not want to do so casually.

Pearl is attempting/will attempt an odd form of Wife Husbandry/Replacement Goldfish.

Pearl's feelings for Rose Quartz, platonic or romantic, are obvious, and she's said that she often sees Rose in Steven. Gems seem to function as a kind of CPU, containing not just the "life force" but also the "soul." Steven has his mother's Gem, and it's possible that Rose's consciousness is still there, with Pearl remarking that she half-hopes as much (Rose's Scabbard) and asking Steven if he has any of his mother's memories.Pearl's hope is that Rose Quartz is in her Gem, and that after Steven's mastered his Gem Powers, Rose's consciousness will resurface or merge with Steven's. Fusions being known, the idea wouldn't be foreign to Pearl, who might see it as the best option: Not only would she have Rose back, but she'd still have Steven around! It doesn't matter that Steven's (probably) male and Rose was a female-coded genderless Gem, because as part of a genderless/monogender species, it wouldn't be an issue for Pearl; nor would the age-gap matter, because Steven would presumably have matured by then (and has age-shifting abilities) and Gems have a different view of Time since they live so long. This would explain why Pearl always encourages Steven do what Pearl thinks Rose would have done, as well as why she pushes him to develop the abilities Rose was known for (ex. healing tears) and why she gets so upset when it look like Steven's attention is being focused elsewhere (ex. Sugilite): It's like having Rose ignore her.

• This would explain why she wants Steven to rely on her the most ("I want to be your rock, and when I talk, it lights a fire in you") since she believes Rose considered her her sole confidant and emotional support and wants Steven to see her in the same way. It would also be a great boost of confidence: Imagine the son of your former crush, who you used to look up to and admire, doing the same towards you. It's kinda like Rose admiring her for once.

Pearl has been obsessively practicing her singing ever since Greg came into the picture.

When Pearl says "she can sing too" all the other gems just kind of laughed at the thought like Pearl was somehow bad at it, and yet the one time she did have a song it wasn't that bad. My theory is ever since Greg seduced Rose partially by his musical talents, Pearl been obsessively practicing singing perhaps to try to win Rose over (though these days she does it more out of habit)

• Alternatively, they're laughing about how obvious Pearl's crush on Rose is.

Pearl is a reformed monster.

She's just been too ashamed to talk about it.

• Important follow-up question: If this is true, what sets her aside from the incurable monsters that the Crystal Gems normally fight?
  • Maybe there's a maximum amount of time you can spend as a monster before you can't come back from it, or maybe the Crystal Gems bubble monster-Gems in hopes of curing them, which they would know is possible if it had been done for Pearl. It might have happened during the war, in which case Rose might have been able to talk Pearl back to sanity or use her healing magic on Pearl's Gem; Rose is gone, so they can't heal other Gems in the same way, which might be why Pearl was so set on Steven developing Rose's healing magic. Alternately, if becoming a monster is due to emotional stress, Pearl might have become one out of despair when Rose died: Only her extremely strong bond to Rose (and possibly to Garnet and Amethyst) allowed her to regain control, but the event led to her anxiety and obsession with things being "correct." That might have been what Amethyst meant when she said Pearl used to be more fun: Pearl became more straitlaced and exacting in response to losing control.
• Jossed now that we know how Gems are corrupted.

Pearl's real name is Baroque Pearl., and she faced a lot of discrimination from her own kind.

• There were other Pearls in the Homeworld. Like the Pearl we know, they were obsessed with neatness and perfection. They took immense pride in their perfect roundness. So Baroque Pearl, with her oval-shaped, irregular gem, was considered an embarrassment to them - defective, as Jasper put it. As much as she tried to be accepted by them, to the point of becoming even more of a perfectionist and more elitist about being a Pearl (and a Gem), they would always bully or ignore her. Eventually she snapped out of it and rebelled against them with Rose, but she has many issues that have remained to this day.

Pearl is defective.

But not in the way everyone thinks. There's nothing wrong with her Gem or herself as a whole. She's defective in that she has defected from Homeworld. She gave up everything she had there to fight alongside Rose. Now, with Rose gone, she hasn't a clue where to go or what to do. She's just "some lost, defective Pearl." * Pearls form rather organically from bivalves instead of underground.

• Look at how long it took for her to regenerate.

Pearl's "defect" causes her to regenerate slowly.

Because seriously, two weeks? Amethyst takes a couple of minutes and Ruby and Sapphire needed less time than it took Steven to regain consciousness, but it takes Pearl two weeks? Something isn't right there.

• Unlikely. The other gems act like it's normal for her, and "Reformed" shows that it takes time to create a stable form. (Note that Amethyst took much longer when she was actually putting effort into the design.) As The Perfectionist, Pearl probably just took a long time to design her form the way she wanted it. (It's hypothesized that this is also why she never transforms.) Of course, that perfectionism could itself be the defect...
  • They weren't alarmed that it took two weeks for Pearl to regenerate, so it isn't a new issue. That doesn't mean that it's normal for Gems. Amethyst taking four hours was long enough for Pearl to start to worry, so time needed for a proper form is less than that.
  • Claiming that Pearl would spend two weeks because of perfectionism is pretty damn out of character. Keep in mind, if an emergency crops up while she's in her gem, she's not going to be able to help. Heck, why didn't she try a quick regeneration so that she could show Steven that she was okay? It's not like she changed her body, and she can change her outfit outside of her gem.
    • Reforming too quickly can result in an unstable, and possibly weaker, fusion.

Pearl's spear is NOT her Gem weapon

Pearl is seen only using a common sword in her flashback of the war in "Sworn to the Sword" and there's multiple hints that she might "not be built for fighting"; in "Rose's Scabbard", the Gems are seen taking weapons from the battlefield that belonged to deceased Gems. Most likely, Rose give Pearl the spear, a weapon more "like her" in order to distance herself from Pearl (as it was implied Pearl took on swordfighting because of Rose having a sword) and the spear used to belong to another Gem.

• Pearl's spear fades away when she stops using it, like other gem conjured weapons. In contrast, non-conjured weapons and objects stick around regardless of whether they're in use.
• She probably couldn't summon her spear because she "wasn't built for fighting". It was deep down in her but had not learnt yet since she never required it before this and was quite young.

Pearl used a sword during the rebellion because she couldn't summon her spear yet.

Since Pearl was considered "defective" on the Gem Homeworld, she may have lacked the confidence to summon her weapon, or even been told she didn't have one. Rose Quartz's loving influence gradually rebuilt her self-esteem, eventually allowing her to discover her spear.

Pearl with eventually find a food she doesn't mind digesting.

It will symbolize her moving past some of her Noble Bigot traits, and the beginning of her truly enjoying life on Earth.

Pearl is an Artificial Gem

No, not like Amethyst. I mean as in the gem equivalent of an android. Often robotic in personality, unable to comprehend emotions despite showing them, and her desires to want to fuse to be like the other gems seem to point in the direction of her not like being the other gems. Add in the fact she's (ironically) based on an organic gem and being called "defective" and it seems to be more apparent. Bonus points if she had acted more robotic until meeting Rose, hence her adoration of and devotion to her. Incidentally, Peridot may either also be an android or a gem cyborg.

• Not sure what it means for this but Pearls are confirmed in canon to be a made-to-order Slave Race, meant to stand around and look pretty, occasionally filling other tasks at the whims of their owners.

Alternatively to the theory above ...

Pearl is an Artificial Gem, but not a robot or cyborg - rather, she's an inverse cyborg: a silicon brain attached to an organic body. Pearls, after all, are layers of an organic substance (oyster spit, or nacre) wrapped around a single grain of sand. The process for gem-Pearls might be similar.And now I get dark for a bit - by "similar", I don't mean that gems don't apply organic parts to whatever things become Pearls. I mean that gems take already-existing organic parts and implant the proto-Pearls (Silicon Dioxides?) into organic beings from planets they've conquered.Tying into this theory is how Pearl says she's built to work together and needs someone to take orders, implying that Pearls are at least a servant class, if not a slave class. Additionally, Pearl's disgust with human bodily functions could be so strong because she's trapped in a body that used to have them.

Pearl took up swordfighting because of her admiration for Rose.

Pearl will be tempted to betray or abandon the Crystal Gems, and may actually do so.

• Not a fun theory, but think about it. Pearl has been shown several times to have a general dislike/squeamishness toward humans, at times even a callous disregard for them, such as the "short, boring lives" line. And in "Space Race" it is clear that she hates being confined to Earth and unable to explore the stars. So why did she rebel and side with Earth? Well, based on the events of "Rose's Scabbard" it seems to have all been for Rose's sake: "Everything I ever did, I did for her. Now she's gone... but I'm still here." On top of this, while Pearl is deeply attached to Steven there seems to be a quiet rift between her and Amethyst/Garnet. We've seen her break down and panic numerous times over the prospect of going through this with the Homeworld gems again, and with the loss of Rose she is neurotic and feels cut adrift. Rather than being forced to choose between the Crystal Gems and her Homeworld she may Take a Third Option and bail with Steven, or if offered assurance of his safety may side with the Homeworld in an attempt to end the conflict faster.
  • If this happened, she could easily be talked out of it (probably by Steven) by pointing out that this would be a posthumous betrayal of Rose.
  • Sort of hinted at in Space Race. Note the space suit she wears. It has a Diamond Symbol on it rather than the Star symbol used by the Crystal Gems. The Diamond is associated with Homeworld Gems.
  • It's a pink diamond though, which raises even more questions.

Pearl had some involvement in the fusion experiments.

In "Secret Team" after getting caught examining some bubbled gem shards she seemed to be panicking a little too much, even for her.

• Surely the Crewniverse would know better than to justify cries of Ron the Death Eater.

Our Pearl used to belong to White Diamond, not Rose.

Look at Blue Diamond's Pearl. She's blue and has her gem on her chest, like her superior. Considering Pearls are custom made, this design was most likely intentional. And then we have Rose and our Pearl. Rose has a pink palette and a gem on her belly. Our Pearl has a gem on her forehead and a white/pale palette (her hair is lightish orange, not pink.) In her basic form, Pearl has little to no pink on her. Assuming she was made for Rose, she would have had the same gem placement and color scheme, like with Blue Pearl and Blue Diamond.

• It could be possible that Pearl's "defect" alters her character in a way that doesn't really align her with anyone. She's got the most varied palette out of all the gems; a bit of all the diamonds (pink, white, blue, yellow). Pearl's something of a Renaissance gem too, displaying traits that would probably be associated with different diamonds (she fights, she crafts, she's logically minded, but also really emotive). It's likely this has to do with her irregularly shaped gem. Homeworld probably found this dangerous because of chances for Conflicting Loyalty, and if she belonged to every court, Pearl would have the ability to think freely between the axes of each ones' values: she'd be hard to control, and therefore super dangerous.
• More evidence for this: a mural of what is presumably White Diamond shows she has her gem on her forehead, just like Pearl. Yellow Diamond, Blue Diamond, Yellow Pearl, and Blue Pearl, all have their gems on their chest, showing an apparent correspondence in gem placement between Pearls and their masters. Combined with Pearl's pale white color, it seems likely that our Pearl was made for White Diamond. The only thing is, Pearl has never mentioned it. So if this is true, then A) Pearl has amnesia, B) her time under White Diamond is so horrible she doesn't want to speak of it or even think about it, or C) despite being made for her, she never actually ended up in the direct service of White Diamond.
• Possible evidence. Each Pearl that has been seen serving a Diamond has a piece of clothing that is transparent. Shoulder pads in Yellow's case and a skirt in Blue's. Our Pearl used to have a transparent shawl, then miniskirt in her past regenerations.
• In Adventures in Light Distortion, when discussing Pink Diamond's human zoo, Pearl mentions having served Homeworld. There is a noticeable pause before she says, "Homeworld", as if she was about to say something else. If White Diamond rules over Homeworld directly, then serving her might be seen as synonymous with serving the Homeworld itself.
• While she did belong to spoiler:Pink Diamond, AKA Rose, she does say that she was "given" to Pink Diamond, rather than created for her, as it's implied for Pearls. Furthermore, White Diamond's Pearl has her gem placement in the same place as Pink Diamond. This means that at one point, White and Pink Diamond might've switched Pearls.
• Looking more and more likely. It's been confirmed that White's Pearl used to belong to Pink, until the two of them got too close. This explains the discrepancy in White Pearl's gem placement, and suggests that the same could very well be true of our Pearl.

Pearl is "defective" in the sense that she came out different from other Pearls, and Rose took her under her wing.

Pearl isn't just "defective" because she became a fighter. The other two Pearls we see have circular gemstones while our Pearl has an oval-shaped one. She was made for a certain Gem, possibly White Diamond, but was never given to her master because she didn't turn out properly. Pearl was either assigned to some kind of lowly work, or maybe planned to be destroyed, but Rose, seeing the value in all life, prevented that from happening and took her in. Dialogue indicates that Pearl knew Rose for quite a while before the rebellion started.

• Jossed, as Pearl was given to Pink Diamond, AKA Rose, and White Diamond's Pearl has a similarly oval-shaped gem.

Pearl had some sort of relationship with William Dewey

Some of her dialogue in "Historical Friction" hinted at this. It may have partly shaped her somewhat cynical/disrespectful view of humans, and especially how she treats his descendant, Bill Dewey. On a related note, her portrayal of him when she rewrote Jamie's play may have been somewhat biased towards over-emphasizing how much of a loser he was.

Pearl originally belonged to Rose, and was also the first Gem to be recruited by her as a Crystal Gem

Although Rose insisted on respecting her as a person rather than treating her as property, this only inspired Pearl to be even more loyal to her than she was already predisposed to be. When Rose decided to start a rebel faction to stop the Gem Colony from ruining the Earth, it was only natural for her first recruit to be the Gem that always follows her around anyway. Though she eventually led a substantial army by the height of the war (presumably many of the corrupted gem monsters are former Crystal Gems), a flashback showed that in the early days of the rebellion when Garnet (seemingly the second recruit) joined, the Crystal Gems consisted entirely of Rose and Pearl. It makes sense that her two oldest friends would be her closest lieutenants that she keeps nearby at all times, and therefore would end up being the only ones she could protect with her shield from whatever corrupted the rest of the Gems on Earth at the end of the war.

This goes somewhat hand in hand with the idea that Rose Quartz is an alias for Pink Diamond, since Pearl's old pilot outfit has a pink diamond insignia on it.

• A related possibility is that Rose Quartz is not Pink Diamond, but this Pearl originally did belong to Pink Diamond, who was also originally the liege of Rose.
• Given that we now know Diamonds are not the only Gems with enough status to own a Pearl, it seems possible that Rose was Pearl's original owner. If this was the case, the Pink Diamond insignia still makes sense as we know concretely that Rose Quartz was a member of Pink Diamond's court (and was not Pink Diamond herself).
• Confirmed, in spite of the above point; she belonged to Pink Diamond, who was Rose.

Pearl was trying to teach Connie to live and die for Steven because that's what Pearls are supposed to do

Pearls have been established as made-to-order servants. They only live for their master. While Pearls seem to be mostly used as accessories, it isn't a stretch to think their master could command one to take up sword combat. Through the whole episode Pearl seems to forget Connie isn't a Gem and does not have the same abilities (primarily regeneration) and spends the whole time projecting her feelings and desires onto Connie. It could be because this mindset is all Pearl has ever known.

Pearl chooses a multicolored appearance to reflect her freedom, and lack of an owner.

The vast majority of non-fusion Gems we've seen so far have a limited color palette, usually just a few shades of one color. From what we've seen, it appears that Pearls have appearances that reflect who their owners are, with Yellow Diamond's Pearl wearing yellow, Blue Diamond's Pearl wearing blue, and so on. With the Crystal Gem Pearl priding herself on not having an owner, it would make sense for her to reform with lots of different colors.

Pearl was in love with Pink Diamond before Rose Quartz.

Pink Diamond didn't feel the same way about her. Also, for some reason she almost had Pearl shattered, but Rose shattered Pink Diamond to save her.

• Heh, this is true and false at the same time?

Rose and Pearl fused into Rainbow Quartz and shattered Pink Diamond in that form.

This is why Pearl had that reaction to what happened: she was fused with Rose when it happened and experienced every emotion herself, Rose, and the fused identity of Rainbow Quartz felt from that. As for why they were fused when it happened, perhaps Rose wasn't strong enough to destroy Pink Diamond on her own, perhaps she needed Pearl's influence to actually do it due to her pacifistic nature (IE, Rainbow Quartz has less compulsion against killing due to Pearl being more fierce in battle).

As for why the Homeworld views Rose alone as Pink Diamond's killer? Pearl, in their eyes, doesn't qualify as a person. She's viewed more as a weapon Rose used than a person. So Rainbow Quartz was seen more as 'Rose with a sword or gun' than 'Rose and Pearl merged into one'.

• Nope, and not even possible.

Pearl originally belong to Pink Diamond, and betrayed her to help Rose defeat and shatter her.

Pearl's flight suit has a pink diamond on it, and she contributes pink diamond imagery to a number of fusions (notably Sardonyx, who we know didn't get that imagery from Ruby or Sapphire, both of whom were under Blue Diamond.) Additionally, she has a very intense reaction to having Pink Diamond's shattering described in "Back to the Moon."

• Half-right.

In "Space Race", Pearl planned to betray the Crystal Gems.

Space Race is a weird episode for Pearl, she mentions missing Space, but as later episodes prove, Homeworld wasn't exactly kind to her gem-type. Notice, she wears her diamond-based flight suit, and takes Steven with her, without telling Garnet and Amethyst. Is it possible she had considered taking Steven to Homeworld and turning him over to the diamonds in an effort to regain her status? Given what we've seen of the diamonds my guess is no, and wearing a Pink Diamond flight suit when the Diamonds are trying to suppress knowledge of Pink Diamond, might be enough to get shattered immediately. Note: Because Steven convinced her to turn around I am not in any way saying Pearl is a mole, or untrustworthy, just a lapse in judgment (which she has been known to have).

Pearl's pearl is an oval instead of a circle because of her Gem weapon.

The other two Pearls both have perfectly round gems, but Pearl's is a bit oblong. She says it herself, she wasn't built for fighting, so why would she be designed with with one? That's why she's such a skilled fencer: she didn't always have that spear. Either Rose modified her gem, or Bismuth made the spear for her at some point.

Pearl doesn't shapeshift as an expression of her freedom.

On Homeworld, Pearls are probably expected to change their appearance to suit the whims of their owners. Our Pearl's owner may have been especially big on asking her to shapeshift all the time. Pearl doesn't shapeshift because she wants to stay in the form that she chose for herself.

Crystal Gem Pearl was Pink Diamond's Pearl.

In "Adventures In Light Distortion", when Pearl was talking about Pink Diamond's human zoo, she said "Back when I served... Homeworld." That catch before she said Homeworld implied she kept the identity of her old owner secret. Plus, in "The Trial", it was mentioned that Pink Diamond's Pearl wasn't with her when she was shattered. Therefore, one could conclude that Pearl used to belong to Pink Diamond, and that she joined Rose Quartz's rebellion before Pink Diamond was shattered.

• Confirmed, though it was not mentioned (and in fact was not accurate) that Pearl wasn't around when Pink was "shattered".

Pearl has mental blocks.

When she says that some things are impossible for her to explain, she means it literally — there are blocks which prevent her from explaining them. For example, maybe she knows exactly WHAT happened to Pink Diamond and who is responsible, but she's unable to tell anyone else.

• Kinda confirmed? It's because Pink Diamond told her not to tell. Sooo... more like the next one.

Pearl is psychologically conditioned to not talk about certain things

Either Rose or one of the Diamonds psychologically conditioned Pearl to not talk about certain things, such as Pink Diamond's death. The reason she puts her hand over her mouth whenever the topics come up is not because she is horrified about it, but because of the conditioning forcing her to not speak about it.

• Confirmed.

Pearl was made for White Diamond, but was given to Pink.

Because she was "defective". Her gem is slightly oblong instead of perfectly spherical, she has too many colors for a pure-white Diamond, and she's capable of manifesting a weapon. Not good enough for the highest of the Diamonds, but good enough to be a hand-me-down.

Pearl's spear is not a Gem weapon.

• When Steven goes inside Pearl's pearl, he encounters a Pearl organizing an entire collection of spears. This implies that the spears Pearl pulls out are not conjured Gem weapons, but real physical spears she stores in her pearl just like so many other things.
  • They were probably all forged by Bismuth, just like she forged a sword for Rose (who can only conjure shields, not actual weapons). Bismuth probably also similarly armed a large proportion of the Crystal Gem forces.
• We've seen a number of cases suggesting that non-combat Gems don't have conjured weapons. Lapis Lazuli doesn't appear to have a Gem weapon, and neither do Sapphire or Bismuth. Peridot never summons a Gem weapon, and neither do the Zircons. And there is no reason that a Pearl would need a Gem weapon, given that all they're supposed to do is stand around and look pretty.

Pearl used swords in the early stages of the rebellion...

Because she hadn't yet learned to manifest a Gem weapon. After all, in Homeworld society Pearls aren't intended to be warriors.

White Diamond and Pink Diamond traded Pearls

When White took away and mind-controlled the original Pink Pearl for getting too close to her Diamond, she gave Pink Diamond her own (ostensibly more obedient and less likely to violate decorum) pearl as a replacement, and this is who became the Crystal Gem Pearl. Having had to work for White Diamond while fully conscious ^note it may have been for the best that Pink Pearl spent her time under White as a mindless meatpuppet rather than have to consciously interact with her insane master, so that she didn't have to live with the memory of that after she finally woke up was probably what made her so neurotic. Even with Pink Diamond's attempts (albeit probably a bit less overtly than with the previous Pearl, to avoid a repeat incident) to nurture her into a healthy mindset, the obsessions with perfectionism that White previously drilled into her still predominate.

Pearl was already rejuvenated once before The Movie.

The song she sings after she regenerates is called "system/boot.pearl final(3).info". That number 3 in the title indicates this is the third version of her. She probably wasn't originally made for Pink Diamond (perhaps, as speculated above, she was originally White's), but when White Diamond took Pink Diamond's original Pearl from her, our Pearl got rejuvenated so that, when she regenerates, she'd be in eternal service of Pink Diamond.

Steven, Part 1

Steven IS Rose Quartz

Steven is literally Rose Quartz reincarnated. Eventually, he'll gain access to her full memories.

• Jossed. She's GONE.

Steven is not half gem and half human

He is actually a full representation of both species. This is most notably due to him "being his own mother". There are some limitations due to his human body (mortality and current lack of maturity) but that doesn't mean Rose's gem is weaker. In fact, Steven's progeny will be the first of many naturally occurring organic gem beings.

• Note the gem flowers and gem insects associated with Rose Quartz. Steven is Rose's last "experiment".
  • Jossed for the insects, but possibly true for the Gem flowers
• If Steven is a full gem then:
  • Steven's direct offspring will be "half gem".
  • Stevonnie is not half-gem, but peak (maybe enhanced) human and full gem. Stevonnie is a fusion, but not gem fusion. A "false" gem fusion.
  • Smoky Quartz (and any full gem fusion) is fully gem, but half human. A "true" gem fusion.
• Steven's humanity in this context represents carbon. Stevonie is still half-gem due to the omnipresence and versatility of carbon in organic matter, while Smoky Quartz was dyed black because of carbon.

Steven will become the most powerful of the Crystal Gems

If Gems can't reproduce without dying, there isn't really all that much point to it at all; unless each generation of Gem is stronger than the last one, like the Marvel Symbiotes. Think about it; Steven's shield has shown itself (twice so far) to be both a throwing weapon and a impenetrable bubble: while no secondary forms have been shown for Pearl, Amethyst or Garnet's weapons. To reproduce, is to create a more powerful Gem who can handle a situation that the previous Gem could not, like how Doomsday of DC evolves with each new death. Of course, that means that Rose Quartz knew of something too powerful.

• Alternatively, Gems' powers are limited by their minds, which in turn is governed by their personality traits. Think about it, Garnet is completely useless against anything not solvable with brute force, Amethyst seems incapable of learning any better and Pearl is the least troublesome, but does have trouble not being over cautious. Then there is Steven, who is learning to do things that are first nature for the other Gems, as far as we know, the Gems never even tried to use their weapons in different ways, but certainly can do so when they do a Gem fusion; meaning that Steven's true power will be imagination and being able to think outside the box.
• Attack the Light seems to support the idea. While none of the Crystal Gems—including Steven himself—view him as all that powerful to begin with, he does manage to accidentally activate an ancient weapon immediately on contact, right after it's specifically stated that only a powerful Gem could operate it.

Steven's Gem weapon's true form is a suit of armor.

The first episode showed us a spiral-patterned shield with ricochet options for offensive attacks. "Bubble Buddies" gave us an entire expansive forcefield capable of deflecting any blunt force. A natural progression would lead eventually to a full suit of Crystal Armor, an apex of defense for Steven's body, with a lance or sword included for defending others.

Steven is The Chosen One.

This would explain the show's tagline "Believe in Steven."

• Connie seems to think so.

Steven's "True Weapon" will have a cat theme

Much like his mother's flower motif. His shield and barrier bubble were incomplete and/or unfocused versions of his real gem weapon, which will have a cat motif.

• Cookie Cat, Cat Fingers, Tiger Millionaire and his Lion are all foreshadowing this.

Steven will use his powers to age himself into an adult and legally buy alcohol.

Or go see an R-rated movie. Because what kid wouldn't at least think about it, let alone try it?

If Steven dies of old age, he will become 100% gem.

Humans can die of old age, but Crystal Gems don't. If Steven dies of old age and not accidental causes, his human half will die but his gem half will live.

• Come to think of it, even if he does die of accidental causes, what's enough to kill a human wouldn't necessarily be lethal for a gem. Like getting decapitated. Or starving. Or suffocating in warpspace.
• Could also work the other way around. Unlike the other Gems, who's entire being is their gem, if Steven's gem cracked, he could probably survive through his human form (although it would probably be damaged from whatever incident broke his gem). So, even though he would lose his immortality/being ageless, he would still be able to live his life as a human. He couldn't be any worse off than Greg, right? Also, if he becomes 100% gem, he could transform into his human form and be The Ageless like the other crystal gems. Whatever happens to him, his mixed status means he gets to live longer.
• It's shown that Steven's physical age is linked to his emotional state. He seems to grow passively, but if he got a bit more control, he could remain at any chosen age indefinitely, meaning he's only as mortal as he wants to be.
• The second half is somewhat confirmed in Jailbreak. The Gem-Destabilizer instantly destroyed Garnet's projection and fizzles out any Gems trying to touch it, but Steven is only somewhat affected. Given his reaction (acting like he's being mildly electrocuted) it implies that it destabilized his gem half, but his human organics were kept together enough to keep him functioning. It's unknown if this had any lasting effect on him though, so he might not be able to completely survive his gem's destruction, but he would not fall apart like Amethyst did if his gem were ever cracked.

If Steven dies, Rose Quartz will come back.

She's not really dead since a Gem can't die except by their gem being destroyed. She simply cannot manifest her physical form while she's embedded in Steven's navel.

• Some Fridge Horror here. When Rose regenerates, she'll immediately know its because Steven died, which will devastate her. If Steven dies outside of natural causes (based on what type of hybrid he is, he may not even age), it most likely means the other Gems failed to protect him. How will they be able to face Rose and themselves after that? Or, just to push it even further, it might even mean the Gems died attempting to save Steven and Rose regenerates to find her beloved son and closest friends dead around her.

• An alternative thought: if Steven dies but his Gem is not destroyed, Rose will come out until Steven regenerates from his gem. However, Rose likely will have changed in some way. Maybe she'll be a childish version of herself or something, or not have powers since she's just a placeholder.

• Another alternative thought: Every time Steven entered Rose's Room, it seemed to have some kind of intelligence. What if that intelligence was not the room itself, but brought to it by Steven? What if that intelligence is Rose taking an opportunity to manifest from within the gem to interact with her son? It would explain the Armor Piercing Questions that happened during the episodes focusing on that room.

Steven is considered by the Gems to be a Replacement Goldfish for Rose Quartz, and this will begin to show more and more, in more ways than just as the successor to her powers and role.

EVERYTHING that ever happened in the entire series, whether canon or non-canon, is just Steven's imagination.

This theory suggests that Steven is an ordinary young boy who lost his mother, Rose, in a terrible accident that left the poor kid traumatized for the rest of his life. His father Greg, grief-stricken by his wife's untimely death, fell deep into the dark abyss of alcoholism. In his drunken stupors, Greg would often say nonsensical catchphrases to Steven, such as "If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn't have hotdogs!". Eventually, Greg lost his job and had to work at a car wash to make ends meet for his son. Steven, in order cope with everything that was happening around him, began writing and drawing stories revolving around him going on magic adventures with the "Crystal Gems". In reality, the Gems are based off of women in Steven's life: Pearl is based on Steven's motherly aunt, who often takes care Steven while Greg is at work. She loves Steven as her own, but does not approve of his fictional adventures. Amethyst is based on Steven's neighbor, who often comes over to hang out with him. She actually enjoys reading about Steven's escapades with the Crystal Gems and even makes suggestions for new stories. Finally, Garnet is based on a teacher or counselor at Steven's school. She encourages Steven to write his stories, believing it will help him through the losses in his life.

• This theory just erases everything fantastic in fiction series and acts like even fictitious stories can't have anything other than the mundane happen.
• This theory is not the first of its kind nor will it be the last.
• This theory does end more happily than the others, since it shows that Steven isn't completely broken. Although it's more likely that Pearl, Amethyst and Garnet all live in the same place (roommates or sisters).
  • Well, it depends really. In Steven's twisted reality, the 'temple portal' could be his front door. Representing when they go home.
• In this theory, what kind of horrible traumatizing event caused his imaginary stories to take such a dark turn in "The Return/Jail Break"? What do Peridot and Jasper represent?
  • It doesn't necessarily happened that way. Steven could just be a kid with a very wide imagination (really, he didn't go to school, be had lots of time) and probably wasn't even there when her mother died. The stories where a way he cope with her loss and how he understood the world around him? It could be that without him being traumatized. What I personally think about Jasper and Lapis sidestories here is that, Steven was playing with an old phone his aunt, Pearl, gave him, that "didn't worked for years.. That's how he knew Lapis, a girl in a abusive relationship (with his dad, mom or boyfriend, that's up to you) His family took the situation later and helped her. Steven just get to know her later, that's why Lapis temperament changed. Jasper was just another older kid who used to bully him, Peridot her sidekick. That's the reason he left school? Maybe, but in the end Garnet, counselor or teacher who knew him, "beats her". He gets to know Peridot after, and, in his story and real life, discovers is adorkable. Malachite? Steven's coping with his mind by how Lapis relationship was (Using again the old "villian" Jasper. It works like a villian of the week thing maybe) And she ending it. Well, at least it's something I thought..
  • Given what's been revealed since:
    • Steve's aunt is an incestuous lesbian.
    • Garnet was raised by two midget women who occasionally visit.
    • Andy is a conservative paternal uncle who tried taking custody of Steven.

There's at least one character redesign planned for Steven.

Like Finn, he's voiced by a real kid and Rebecca Sugar stated in an NPR interview that she plans for Steven to grow into his superherodom. Unlike Finn, whose original character design makes a passable teenager within his show's overall aesthetic, Steven is unmistakably a little kid.

• Is it just me or is Steven's voice starting to sound slightly older? Possibly starting with the episode "House Guest"?
• I'm not hearing anything.
  • Poster of the "Steven's voice" bullet: Oh...in later episodes, I'm not really hearing it either. Maybe I was mistaken.
    • I think this is just Steven's voice actor gradually filling into his role over time.
• The previews for "Steven's Birthday" show him having clearly grown, being taller than Connie and wearing a shirt that's too short on him. There's also a shot of his legs from behind, too long for his jeans, and everyone being surprised.
  • Subverted when the episode actually aired. He was shapeshifting to look older, but was unable to sustain it and went back to looking and sounding like an 8-year-old.

Some of the content Steven used in his story in "Garnet's Universe" was actually stuff Steven saw in the past

The picture pulled out several times, maybe her and Steven posed for a picture at Funland and he saw her stuff it in her clothes (bra? if gems wear them). He might have accidentally saw her in that outfit, training in her room then Garnet, embarrassed notices he's there and tries to shoo him out. And Steven tries to incorporate those experiences in his story.

Steven's attempt at shapeshifting has such a disastrous result because he's part human.

The ability to shape-shift just doesn't work well because of his genetics. Maybe the cats were produced by his Crystal Gem genes and his human, or normally more dominant half, wasn't able to control them because the two parts of his parentage can't seem to work in harmony (at least not yet.)

Steven will have strange new powers not seen in other Gems.

His powers seem to be activated by emotion, and since he's half-human, he might have emotions different than what full Gems have. As such, he might have different powers no other Gem has.

• Sort of confirmed, unless Steven's dream powers aren't unique. It doesn't seem linked to his emotions, though.

Steven has some sort of internal healing power that works on its own.

This healing power is special, in that it helped him tame the corrupted Centipeetle, and it enabled Lapis to communicate with him through the mirror.

• Confirmed. His healing power comes from him having Pink Diamond's gem, who was extremely powerful due to being a Diamond.

The series ends with Steven curing all the monsters.

Think about it. He promises the Centipeetle that he'll heal her once he's got a better hold of his powers. Plus, his mother, when he was born, told the Gems to "believe in Steven". Seeing as the long-term goal of the Crystal Gems (or at least his mother) is to heal all the corrupt gems, maybe that's what she was referring to?

• Confirmed. With the help of the other three Diamonds, Steven heals all the corrupted gems on Earth in the Series Fauxnale that is "Change Your Mind".

The original Steven and all his temporal clones were brought back to life

In the climax of "Steven and the Stevens", original!Steven smashes the time orb. This causes original!Steven and all of his temporal clones to melt into sand. Afterwards, the scene cuts to new-timeline!Steven and the Gems playing at the Beach City Concert. Perhaps before the scene cut, the Gems used their magic know-how to convert the sand back into Stevens, and send each of the Stevens into their own timeline. Thus, the original Steven that we followed from the beginning of the show to this episode is still alive and did not suffer the tragic fate of committing suicide in-front of his younger self.

Steven literally has a magical destiny

He was born out of love and Rose Quartz really wanted to have him with Greg, but also she was thoughtful of prejudice against humankind by Gems (and consequently, the Crystal Gems against other Gems). She knew herself even with her compassion that she would not be able to change things, but a half-human half-Gem would be able to understand both sides and also inherit her kindness and wish to change things to make peace. Steven has already been shown to be the mediator of fights several times: between teammates, between the Crystal Gems and humans, Crystal Gems and the corrupted Gems... it's like his heart was meant to reach out to others and mend relations even in highly tense moments, and it wouldn't be too surprising if as a finale it's through him that a war would stop, maybe through an attempted Heroic Sacrifice as the one mutual friend between both sides (though it seems highly unlikely a show would kill its protagonist, so it'd be a Disney Death that causes realizations and many tears).

If Steven dies...

His physical form will be shed and his gem form will take over, nothing physically noticeable would change from this, other than a temporary tearjerker moment when everyone thinks he died, but afterwards he will gain more attributes akin to the other Gems like not needing to breathe.

Steven's parallels to Cookie Cat and the Cookie Cat theme song

A popular fan theory is that Cookie Cat is a metaphor for Steven and/or the other Crystal Gems, and it's been a benchmark for predicting what the Crystal Gems stand for so far, so I thought that I'd post the song lyric by lyric and see how well it pans out.

• He's a frozen treat with an all new taste,
  • Steven is the first Half-Human Hybrid of a Gem, and Word of God confirms that he's the first male gem of a One-Gender Race.
• 'Cause he came to this planet from outer space!
  • Gems are aliens.
• A refugee of an interstellar war,
  • The Reveals in Warp Tour and On the Run. That is all. Feel free to post below when the writing gets even less blatant about this.
• But now he’s at your local grocery store.
  • Steven relates to humanity because half the time he lives just like any other kid. You know, without actually going to school or having a job.
• Cookie cat, he’s a pet for your tummy.
  • Steven’s gem resides within his belly button.
• Cookie Cat, he’s super-duper yummy.
  • His personality is sweet. Further analysis may be required.
• Cookie Cat, HE LEFT HIS FAMILY BEHIND.
  • Each Crystal Gem is missing something for the greater good. Steven never knew his mother. Pearl [[abandoned the wonders of outer space to live on Earth forever.]] Amethyst was a Tyke Bomb raised in a Kindergarten on Earth, but abandoned her original life’s purpose when she met Rose and the gang. Garnet... is a bit on the reserved side and isn’t the type to share her (probably awesome) Tragic Backstory, but the rest holds up.
    • And now there's [[spoiler:Steven giving himself up to Homeworld in "I Am My Mom".
• COOKIE CAAAAAAAAAT! Now available at Gurgen’s off Route 109!/Now available... nowhere.
  • Guys, we might have a dead Steven on hands. More on this after the season finale.
    • Unless Steven dies in a freak t-shirt printing accident, he's safe until Season 2 at least.

Steven will find some broken Gems on the strawberry battlefield...

...and heal them with his abilities, like he did with Lapis Lazuli, to help them regenerate and add members to the Crystal Gems. If the Homeworld sends more Gems to Earth, they'll be looking for another war and the current Crystal Gems wouldn't be a match for them, not with only the four of them.

The Crystal Gems will need help fighting Homeworld Gems and Steven will get the corrupted gems to help

Although this is definitely similar to the above WMG, the difference is that Steven will get the corrupted/bubbled gems to help him. Weather he heals them or not doesn't seem to really matter as we saw that Steven was able to tame the Centipeetle.

• hopefully either in humanoid form or this brings their humanoid form back

The main reason the Crystal Gems failed to help Steven learn fusion at the beginning of "Alone Together" was because they were trying to incorporate their own dance styles into him.

Their physical forms are built in ways that make those dance styles suitable for them; Steven isn't. Once he was free to develop his own style while dancing with Connie, he fused with no issue.

There is some form of Rose's consciousness inside Steven that has some influence on him

I think there is really some part of Rose that can see through Steven's eyes. While she can't really take over Steven's body or even really do like a soul to soul talk like Yugi and Yami Yugi for example she can push Steven's mind into certain directions at times. In Giant Woman when Steven heard that Pearl and Amethysts because of a rift in their relationship couldn't really fuse anymore she pushed Steven mind to obsess over seeing them fuse hoping he would help mend their relationship to the point they could fuse in a more dire situation. In Secret Team she tried to push Steven to try to keep the team going hoping to use it as form of teamwork exercise between the two. It was somewhat ineffectual but seeing as Steven is a young child her options to of help team relations is kind of limited anyways.

Perhaps in a future episode Rose Quartz will be able to speak to Steven Directly if only for a moment, or perhaps the crystal gems finds out and it could cause a massive argument, where Pearl wants to bring Rose back into control while Garnet doesn't want Steven to "die" bring her back (Amethyst really could go either way in such a conflict)

• It's possible Steven's outburst in the climax of "Maximum Capacity" was an example of Rose speaking through Steven directly. The part at the end where he rants about how full the storage unit is was just Steven gaining control again, without realizing he was being influenced in any way, and continuing to chastise them on what he thought his inexplicable outburst was about.

Steven can breathe in space, just not water.

• As an alternate theory, Steven can't quite breathe in either but requires less air than a normal human. Evidence in "Ocean Gem" is that while Lapis tries to drown Steven and Connie, the latter loses her breath sooner. Steven is shown not to suffocate either at the top of Lapis's tower or in the void outside the warp stream in "Warp Tour", but he spent relatively little time in either location; they may have had just a tiny bit of breathable air that could sustain Steven—but not a full human—for a certain limited time. Lion's pocket dimension, on the other hand, has no breathable air, which is why he suffocates the moment he enters unless he holds his breath first.
  • Alternatively, it has to do with how his lungs work. If he's under water, he's fine without breathing air, but his human instincts kick in and he tries to inhale, damaging his lungs and causing issues. If he's in space, he's fine, since even though there's no air there's also nothing to suffocate on.

TV privileges back or not, Steven's not just gonna stop being a bookworm now.

Sure, he's gonna start watching TV again now that he's allowed to, but that reading bug's already bitten down on him.

Steven, by some quirk of being half human, will be able to heal corrupted Gems.

His powers are unpredictable, and he can already do a few things that no other Gems can.

In relation to the "Steven is gay" guess in the Jossed section above, Steven is actually bi.

And thanks to being raised by genderless space rocks that only look female and a laid-back and open-minded dad, monosexuality (meaning either straight or gay) as a concept is alien to him.

Continuing the theme, Steven is genderfluid.

Being the half-human offspring of a non-binary non-human, he's not closely tied to any sex or gender, and will eventually realize that about themself as they get older.Adding to this Garnet saw that coming and told Rose and Greg. Lion 4 Alternate Ending. Garnet can't see whether Steven will be a boy or a girl. She can't be certain of a future that can change but Rose was already pregnant when she made the video and your biological sex is pretty much decided by then. Plus the speech Greg gives at the end sounds like he's trying to subtly tell Steven I don't want you to be Nora unless you are, but if you are know your mom and I already accepted you.

Steven would've developed the need for glasses himself if it weren't for his own healing spit in his mouth.

Sure, his healing powers are gone now, but the repair had already been done before it ever got to the point he'd notice there even was anything to repair.

Steven in some capacity wants to turn back into Rose

I'll admit the only thing I have that directly could link to that was a part of his Giant woman song "But if it were me, I'd really want to be a giant woman" Which is what Greg referred to Rose as. But Steven does kind of have some survival guilt about more or less killing Rose by being born, and thinks the other gems resent him for taking Rose. Perhaps that desire is what made Stevfoni more feminine in appearance.

Steven will temporarily have Rose's hair when discovering a new power.

Everyone expects this, there's plenty of fanart, might as well write it down here. Bonus points if he has a speech about being Rose, but also himself, but destined to replace her, but also choosing what's right, and sees no contradiction in those terms.

Steven WILL be the next Gem to regenerate, but he will NOT become Rose Quartz. He will simply regain her memories.

There are plenty of theorys that Steven will become Rose again if he was to regenerate, but that doesn't seem likely. When he does get damaged enough to retreat into his gem it will be against a powerful enemy.The Crystal Gems will think him dead for good and have a last stand moment, and just as they are about to loss Steven's gem rises up. It will briefly be in the shape of Rose, then Steven, then a slightly different Steven shall appear. He will have Rose's memories and know that the only Gem that can defeat an enemy such as they are facing is a fusion between his Gem and either Garnet or Amethyst, and fuse with one of them for the first time.

• Word of God says that Steven can't be poofed, which means he's not going to be regenerating any time soon.

Steven will help each member of the Crystal Gems accept Rose's passing via fusing with them one by one, with Pearl being the last and most difficult.

Related to the above, after his first fusion with a Gem he will truly be able to understand how they feel about Rose's passing and know what to say (prehapes in a way such as Rose's final goodbye through Steven), and because of the fusion the Gem who fused with him will truly understand how much of Rose is really in Steven. Each Gem will finally move past their sorrow and accept Rose's death, focusing instead on protecting Earth and Steven. Pearl will be the last and will need the most help 'saying goodbye'.

Steven will sing an extended version of the credits theme in the final episode

CUZ WHY NOT

In Fusion Steven acts as a fusion substitute for Rose

For example if Steven fused with Pearl they would get Rainbow Quartz. Just some part of me things why bother bringing up this fusion if you never going to use it again. That could also be why Stevonnie is more visibly female, it basically what would happen if Rose could fuse with humans and she did fuse with Connie.

• Pretty much Jossed. Pearl and Steven's fusion, Rainbow Quartz 2.0, looks and acts much differently than the original Rainbow Quartz, and notably appears to be male.

Steven will eventually gain healing tears when something really tragic happens during the fight with the homeworld.

I thinking the reason his tears couldn't do so before was more or less because you need to be in a certain mindset to use healing...Rose healing probably comes from her tears since most of the time she was healing was when somebody fallen in the war. Maybe when they were pressuring Steven to learn the healing tears it just screwed him up, maybe Rose could have theoretically use spit but being in a war where friends and allies were dying tears were more readily available and she just got used to using it that way. As shown in the episode where Greg faked an injury their is something mental that can screw it up.

• Mostly confirmed. Steven resurrects Lars with his tears when he dies on Homeworld, however it's implied that Steven's tears can only resurrect, with his spit working the same way as Rose's tears. Maybe Rose had resurrecting spit?

Steven's first death/regeneration will be through freezing.

• Word of God indicates that Steven can't be poofed or regenerate.

Steven will meet Rose

Eventually Steven will be gravely injured, and he'll need to retreat into his gem to heal. That's where he'll meet Rose, inside a subconscious area like with Naruto and his parents.

• Word of God said Steven can't "poof" into his Gem, rather he would be Killed Off for Real.

Steven like his father has a Fetish for Big/Tall girls.

He seemed really in to the gems forming 'Giant Women'

Steven is a fusion of Rose and Greg.

This is the reason why Rose can't exist as long as Steven exists and why he appears as the combination of traits of Rose and Greg, his human father contributing his genetic material as his half of the fusion form. This is also why he can fuse with Connie.

Steven contains parts of all the Crystal Gems.

When you see them all pre-Steven, every one of them is in a different form. Rose asked them all to help her create Steven, so they all poofed, added a bit of themselves to the mix, and reformed. More than looking after him for Rose's sake, they're looking after him as their own son.

Steven's human half is a clone of Greg, and he is the first successful human/gem fusion.

This is kind of a crazy thing to put too much thought into, but...

Gems are not biologically alive in the usual animal sense, being minerals, and probably don't normally have DNA. Although gem's Hard Light bodies are capable of having internal organs of some complexity, fully functioning reproductive organs complete with the genetic material/egg cells required for fertility are probably beyond the limit; Gem projections are probably not precise enough to make accurate DNA molecules, and even if Rose could generate human DNA, it would be artificial and not really representative of her genetic (gemetic?) makeup.

So it seems unlikely that he was conceived in the normal way. Probably the best she could do was take a cell from Greg a la Dolly the sheep, then shapeshift a womb for the clone to gestate in.

But her womb was still not like a regular human womb, it was shaped so Steven would form around her Gemstone, and there was no umbilical cord, meaning his "blood" supply actually had to be generated at least partially out of hard light (though she still may have had to eat to supply him with nutrients) and the normal embryonic/fetal development probably went differently such that his body contains a fair amount of hard light and is dependent on it (he would probably disintegrate into a nonliving mush, slowly and agonizingly if his gem were ripped out).

However, this also gives him the ability to fuse, and so when his 9 months were up, Rose was able to merge her body with Steven's. And she probably did so without even having to (or even having the option to) give birth to him normally, since he has her gem embedded into him where the umbilical cord would normally go.

This theory is pretty weird, but then again it only makes sense that some supremely weird stuff has to happen to successfully produce a Half-Human Hybrid offspring where the non-human parent is a self-aware living mineral.

Steven's super strength, like his other powers (healing spit, shield, etc.), is dependent on his emotions

Because most of the time Steven seems as weak and clumsy as he, being a chubby little boy, looks like he should be. It's only occasionally that he suddenly exhibits abilities far beyond what he looks like he should be capable of, and when he does there's usually some strong emotions associated with it.

For example, in "The Return" when he pounded his fist on the dashboard and accidentally broke through it and triggered the air bag, he was freaked out with concern over what might happen if Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl faced the hand ship without him.

In "Joy Ride", when he picked up Jenny like she weighed almost nothing to move her away from the escape pod, he was concerned for her safety.

All the way back in "Bubble Buddies", when he displayed enhanced speed and agility while tricking the sand worm into tying itself in a knot, he was trying to protect Connie.

So far, every time I can think of where he exhibited superhuman physical ability, it was associated with him feeling concerned for someone else.

Steven's ability to communicate through dreams is a power that all Rose Quartzes have... But they never knew they had it.

Gems are capable of sleep, but they don't need to do it and most would probably consider it a waste of time. Because of this, there was never the opportunity to discover that a Rose Quartz can communicate telepathically while sleeping.

Rose created Steven to be a living superweapon.

Rose was experimenting with Gem-Earth hybridization in various creatures (the crystal blossoms in particular) and eventually came to the conclusion that Gem kind is based too heavily on structure. Since all Gems are organized and created according to purpose, there's only so much a Gem can do to defy their inherent nature and their true forms, their actual gemstones, are limited likewise to their own structures the way any gemstone is. Steven, as we've already seen, is immune to Homeworld's disruption and force-field technology. Rose was a loving and wonderful person, but she was also a warrior who studied plant biology and would have realized how proper breeding yields better offspring.

Steven's healing spit only works on things he has emotionally bonded with.

This is why he has only been able to heal Connie, Greg, and even Lapis thanks to the short time they spent together, but not the Geode, which he had never even met before he was asked to heal it, and the Homeworld Warp, which he did not do much with other than apply a sticker onto.

• It's been indicated that Steven's healing powers are linked to his confidence, and he only recently regained his ability to use them.

Steven will be able to heal the corrupted gems because he can do something Rose didn't need to

Steven sleeps. And we've seen that he can tap into the subconscious of humans and gems alike when he does (though as he's using his powers, he's not getting any actual rest when he's doing it). Pearl mentions that the corrupted gems were damaged both physically and mentally, and while healing spit worked with Centipeetle in terms of healing physical damage, the mental damage is still there, and Rose couldn't fix that. Steven can get inside the mind of a person and like with Kiki help them from within too. That is why we've had so much focus on Steven's dreams lately.

Rose sacrificed herself to make Steven half-gem, in part, because she was trying to find a way for gems to reproduce without consuming planets in the process.

The underlying reason why Earth was attacked was because the Gems can't reproduce without consuming planets. Steven was Rose's attempt to solve that problem. Consider:

• We know from Peridot that the homeworld is experiencing a resource crisis that is making it harder to create new gems; Rose would likely have foreseen that crisis (if it wasn't already building up back in her day, causing the attack on earth in the first place.)
• While gems don't age, they're not eternal; they can eventually become so damaged that they can no longer be repaired, even by Rose's power.
• This means that without continuously consuming more worlds to produce more gems, the Gem race is doomed to slow but inevitable extinction; and Rose would understand that she'd have to solve this problem to prevent more worlds from suffering the fate Earth nearly did.
• Her efforts to find a way to repair damaged gems were (in part, in addition to her desire to help fallen companions) aimed at solving one side of this problem by eliminating the gradual loss of gems to irreparable damage that requires a steady source of replacements.
• Steven is an attempt to solve it from the other end, in the hope that a half-biological Gem can reproduce in a way that produces more gems without destroying the ecosphere. In other words, she was hoping that any biological children Steven has would also be part-Gem, creating a way for new Gems to be born without devouring planets.
  • (Word of God is that if she'd wanted to, she could have given birth to Steven as a pureblooded human without sacrificing her body; but that she wanted him to combine the two races.)
• Naturally, she was also in love with Greg; her love for him is part of what convinced her that this plan was viable, since up until she really talked to him (as seen in "We Need to Talk") she thought of humans, and organics in general, as lesser beings, if ones worth protecting, and wouldn't have considered the possibility of a human-gem hybrid as a viable future for her race. Her love for Greg convinced her that being human was not a bad thing and that humans weren't necessarily a lesser race, and that her half-gem, half-human child could therefore offer her race a future that she could not offer herself.
  • If putting all this weight on her child seems too harsh of her, remember that by deciding to make Steven a Gem, she was ensuring that he would grow up without a mother. (If Steven had the choice, do you think he would have wanted his mother to sacrifice herself to make him into a gem?) We've clearly seen that she loved him, his father, and the other gems; the only thing that could have convinced her to sacrifice herself was something of overwhelming importance to all of them - in other words, she sacrificed herself in the hope of giving all of them a better future by solving the underlying problem that endangered earth (and countless other worlds, as well as her own race) in the first place.

If Steven suffers a mortal injury, Rose can temporarily "take over", projecting her body over his to protect him and heal him.

A lot of the wording regarding Rose has been extremely specific; she's never described as "dead", just "gone", and she tells him they can't both exist at once. We also know that Steven can't regenerate the way gems can. All of this (especially given Rose's size) leaves room for her to project her body over his. Presumably this is dangerous and only works when he's near death (hence the reason it's never come up before), as a last-ditch chance to save his life.

Continuing to learn the truth about the gem war will cause a small age up in Steven.

Rose sacrificed herself to form Steven at least in part as restitution for the lives her rebellion cost.

It was the only way to pay for her sins while still being able to protect the earth.

Steven is either asexual or doesn't know that sex exists.

With the former, you'd think that that a fourteen-year-old boy would have at least some passive sexual urges unless they don't experience sexual attraction at all. With the latter, the only women he's frequently around are the Gems, who have No Biological Sex or purpose for human sexual intercourse, and both his father and Connie's parents seem like the kind of protective parents who are frightened by the thought of their children being sexually active, so there's no way he's pick it up from Connie, his only female peer.

• Dude, this is a kid's show. I know it isn't unheard of for kid shows to have sexual themes or use thinly-veiled metaphors to show a character is maturing sexually (Finn in Adventure Time, for example), but that doesn't mean a character on a children's program has to do things like that or else they must be canonically asexual... I mean, what kind of logic is that?
• While he is 14 years old, he doesn't age like pure humans. He still looks and acts like an 8 years old and boys that age usually are not interested in sex. Also his conversation with Peridot in Log Date 7 15 2 implies that he and Greg already had The Talk.

Steven can only Fuse with Earthlings.

This is the reason why he was able to Fuse with Connie and Amethyst (since she was made on Earth), but hasn't Fused with Garnet or Pearl. He is also able to Fuse with other human beings and Gems made on Earth.

Steven, Part 2

Steven is mildly claustrophobic.

While inside the Gem Drill during its namesake episode, Steven remarked on how dark and cramped it was, and looked like he was just managing to keep himself from freaking out. The phobia is mild enough that he can keep his composure, but it's still there.

Instant Fusion is one of Steven's powers.

He doesn't need to do a Fusion Dance when he fuses with Amethyst, and the goofy monkey-dance he and Connie do before forming Stevonnie seems mostly for show. Steven doesn't need to go through an elaborate process to sync up emotionally with another; he's so empathetic to everyone that he can just do it.

Nora wasn't just an alternate name for Steven.

Both of the tapes were identical to each other...save for the "You'll be Human" speech for Nora. While it seems like the point of the episode was meant to be "You're human. That's special enough" it just doesn't feel right. Why would Rose make the exact same video for both, but omit that part on Steven's...Steven who has a gem. Also...why would they be so far apart from each other. If it was a gender coin flip, would they not be together?

My theory...when Rose said she would become half of Steven, she meant it from as much of her as him. Half of her became half of Steven. The other half went to Nora. And I think Nora...is the Mystery Girl. Similar build, pink hair, or a penchant for it at least, and of course, Pearl's immediate attraction.

Steven will go Laughing Mad at some point

Steven will learn something about the Crystal Gems that will make him snap. It could be something relatively minor, but it will be the last straw for Steven. The Crystal Gems have been hiding things from him his whole life, but now he can finally see it.

• Maybe he will in the episode "Now We're Only Falling Apart"?
• Alternatively, he will at the beginning of "What's Your Problem?", leading into an emotional breakdown that prompts Amethyst to basically go, "Dude, you seriously need a break to cool off," and initiates the plot.

Someone important to Steven will be Killed Off for Real

Someone (probably a human) will be killed because of Steven. He won't be able to be bought back; he won't be reincarnated. Steven will have to deal with his death for the rest of his life.

Steven is not half-Gem. He's a human with Rose Quartz attached recording how he thinks.

In flashbacks of Rose with Greg, what impressed her most about humanity? Their ability to exist without a programmed purpose. Not the War, not Homeworld. Rose got a human egg from someone, probably a fertility clinic, and used Greg's sperm and attached herself to the zygote so Steven could grow as the most important thing, a human being. She had to Her plan is to record how humans exist without Purpose; so she can give that feature to other Gems. Steven having Gem powers was a side-effect that she didn't intend. The plan was he live a human life for 70 or so years, then die a normal human death and she'd come back with the information.

• This doesn't mean she didn't love Greg or felt motherly for Steven.

The claim that Steven cannot poof could ultimately be retconned.

Other things the writers have stated in online platforms have been contradicted already, and it's not out of the realm of possibility that—should Steven be wounded severely enough—his gem would perform mass-to-energy conversion on his organic body as it seems to do when he fuses with people. Only the act of physically removing his gem would leave him Killed Off for Real, as it would separate his gem and human halves and leave the former unable to save the latter.

• Seemingly Jossed. It is shown that his Gem actually can be separated from his human body, though his human body is apparently still dependent enough on the Gem that losing it makes him very ill, and it's implied that he would die if not reunited fairly quickly. The relationship shown between his biological and Gem halves makes it seem very unlikely that his body could "poof" like a regular gem body. Though it is still possible that the gem could still give him a strong enough Healing Factor (possibly even holding him together with a partial hard-light body until his flesh regenerates) to still be almost as Nigh-Invulnerable as the other gems. Though if this is how it works, then we'll probably never see it, as regardless of his survival, an incident that forced this into play would still probably have to be too gruesome to maintain a TV-PG rating.

The claim that Steven cannot poof could ultimately be retconned.

Other things the writers have stated in online platforms have been contradicted already, and it's not out of the realm of possibility that—should Steven be wounded severely enough—his gem would perform mass-to-energy conversion on his organic body as it seems to do when he fuses with people. Only the act of physically removing his gem would leave him Killed Off for Real, as it would separate his gem and human halves and leave the former unable to save the latter.

• Seemingly Jossed as of season 5's end, though it's still not entirely clear. It is shown that his Gem actually can be separated from his human body, though his human body is apparently still dependent enough on the Gem that losing it makes him very ill, and it's implied that he would die if not reunited fairly quickly. The relationship shown between his biological and Gem halves makes it seem very unlikely that his body could "poof" like a regular gem body. Though it is still possible that the gem could still give him a strong enough Healing Factor (possibly even holding him together with a temporary partial hard-light body until his flesh regenerates) to still be almost as Nigh-Invulnerable as the other gems. Though if this is how it works, then we'll probably never see it, as regardless of his survival, an incident that forced this into play would still probably be too gruesome to maintain a TV-PG rating.

Post "Change Your Mind", Steven's gem will be in Pink Diamond's original position.

Pink Steven is Pink Diamond, and considers both "Rose Quartz" and "Pink Diamond" to be Dead Names.

Title. It's the lightest possible interpretation of the scenes between Steven's gem being ripped out and his reunification - and Gems tend to not be perma-dead.

• While probably still not true, this possibility is backed up by the fact that even if Rose was still alive in there, she would probably want to be as uncooperative as possible with White's attempt to remove her from Steven. Taking on Steven's form, imitating his voice, and not speaking except to vehemently deny that Pink Diamond still exists, are all quite in-character for something she'd do in that situation. If she had awareness of her surrounds before regenerating, she could have conceived of it as a gambit to emotionally shock White, which throws her off-balance enough that she fails to prevent Pink from reuniting with Steven before his body collapses. Not to mention generally breaking White's resolve to enforce her will without listening to anyone else, achieving the best possible outcome overall. It even serves a third purpose of reassuring Steven that he has his own identity outside of her. It's kind of manipulative and dishonest, but in a well-intentioned way that's quite in-character with Rose Quartz.

Steven is an expert at Rhythm Heaven (or the in-universe equivalent) games.

He's expressed himself both as a gamer and as a musical prodigy, so music and rhythm based games like those should be fairly easy for him.

Peridot

Peridot's personality hasn't changed since coming to Earth, it's just been allowed to show.

Many people have commented on how Peridot changed a lot from the robotic, dispassionate Gem we saw in her first appearance, vs. her neurotic, spastic self by the time she pulls her Heel–Face Turn. I think it's likely not that her personality was changed by coming to Earth, but her true self was allowed to emerge. If we look at her during her time with the Crystal Gems, all of her actions and personality traits would likely be things that would be frowned upon in a low-ranking engineer.

• First, curiosity. Peridot is always seeking to learn and record new information. It's not likely that curiosity would be seen as a virtue on Homeworld. For example, that same curiosity lead her to try to understand Garnet's fusion relationship, even though Homeworld would tell her it's wrong, end of story. She says herself that before, there was only following orders, doing her job. When do you think Homeworld allowed her to just study something she was interested in, like bugs, goofy underwear, cheesy teen dramas, or jokes?
• Second, cleverness. Peridot has shown that she can be very creative and resourceful. She demonstrates this in how well she evades the Crystal Gems for so long. She clearly enjoys the robot contest, picks up music very quickly by analyzing scales, and has shown the ability to think outside the box. However, when she clearly displays this resourcefulness to Yellow Diamond by managing to contact her despite hostile action (I don't think for a second YD was fooled by Peridot's excuse that it was an accident) and presenting a well thought out proposal on how to utilize Earth most efficiently, Yellow Diamond shuts her down on two levels, first, that she simply wants the planet dead out of spite, reason and logic be damned, second, and most importantly, how dare a puny Peridot try to think for herself? Shut up, get on to your next assignment, do what you're told.
• Lastly, I think Peridot is desperately lonely. Characters having hidden anxieties and fears that they cover up is a recurring theme in SU, and I think Peridot's is loneliness. She clearly wants to please the Crystal Gems and get them to like her, despite ostensibly only being in an alliance of convenience. It's clear Peridot has never had a real friend in her life. Maybe she suppressed it before by focusing on the mission, but I think it was always there. This casts her actions in Log Date in a darker light. Peridot watching a romance drama for days on end and then making elaborate relationship charts? Awkwardly pestering Garnet about fusion and then bumbling about on stilts when trying it herself? Hilarious, right? Not unless you consider exactly why she might be so obsessed with those things; it represents something she's never had, a real connection with others. However, making friends is not likely high on Homeworld's priority list for technicians, which explains her stunted social skills. The most social interaction she probably gets is indifferent commands from superiors such as Yellow Diamond, or bullying from the likes of Jasper. Incidentally, I want to see more Peridot/Connie interaction for this reason.
• All in all, we see someone who is very clever, curious, creative, and extroverted, if awkward. Those kind of personality traits don't develop in a few short weeks. However, Homeworld has no use for things like that in a mere technician. So she shut up, did what she was told, did her job, and didn't think about anything else because she had never known anything else, until she got to Earth and all those things were nurtured and encouraged by Steven and the Crystal Gems.

Peridot's sleepy eyes

Look at Peridot's eyes, they have bags under them and they look droopy at times, gems don't need sleep so there's not a real explanation behind Peridot's sleepy eyes. But however Amethyst looked physically tired in "Lion 3: Direct to Video", she looked like she hadn't slept in days. As we know, Amethyst loves to sleep so we get her sleepy face but Peridot. Maybe she loves to sleep like Amethyst but can't because she has to repair warp pads and stuff through out the Galaxy. Or creating repair bots is too tiring for her or she's physically fighting stress of her everyday job, tiring her out.

Peridot was created in a Kindergarten and is younger than Amethyst.

Despite to seem to be a very smart Gem, there are instance of she being a little...off. For what it looks in 'Marble Madness', she wasn't even sure which species was the superior one on Earth, did not recognize neither Garnet, Amethyst nor Pearl, and she wasn't even sure what the 'Crsytal gems' are.

• She could well be a younger Gem, but the fact that she didn't know much about Earth or the Crystal Gems only means that she's working from out-of-date information: Earth has been cut off from the Gems' warp network for thousands of years, and it's likely that the members of Rose Quartz's rebellion were assumed to be dead or otherwise lost.
• If she was created in the Kindergarten, it's unlikely that she'd be younger than Amethyst. When Amethyst came out of her hole, she was alone, implying that other Gems in the area had left previously. (the "overcooked runt" line also suggests she was in longer than normal)
  • Kindergartens appear to be the standard method of Gem reproduction. She's just not from the one on Earth.
• This seems pretty much confirmed, unless there is some other way than Kindergartens we don't know about to make new gems. She mentioned that she wasn't around for the creation of the Cluster and only knows about it from reports she read, so she's definitely younger than Amethyst.
  • The part about her being a young gem is definitely confirmed as of "Too Short to Ride". While we don't know the exact timeframe when Amethyst and Peridot were created, the fact that Peridot is a very young gem (young enough for her creation to have been impacted by recent resource shortages in the homeworld) is a major plot point. On the other hand, it's not really clear what this guess means by "created in a Kindergarten"; we don't know if other gem-creation methods exist, but if they do it's almost certain that Peridot was created using them, given it was a modified process to create lesser gems.

Peridot has spent most of her life locked up and experimented on.

She acts very childlike because even if she's not that young, she's been isolated and traumatized for so long. She never learned compassion. She thinks nothing of the terrifying fusion experiments because to her, it's all completely normal, she's probably seen worse! And since there may be something janked with her physical form from all the experiments, she's the beta tester for her cyborg parts, which is why she doesn't completely understand how to use them and all their functions.

Camp Pining Hearts. ALL OF IT.

With The No Home Boys in "On the Run" and Crying Breakfast Friends in too many episodes to count, it’s safe to say that Steven Universe uses Shows Within Their Show for Foreshadowing. So, let’s watch "Log Date 7-15-2" until our eye shrivel up and spoil the crap out of ourselves.

• Paulette
  • Blue diamond insignia? Teardrop pattern on her scarf? Carrying a liquid-based condiment? Perpetually sad? It’s Lapis Lazuli.
  • Now that we've met Blue Diamond, it seems just as likely if not more likely to be her.
• Percy
  • Yellow emblem, a triangle dog tag, blonde Shounen Hair, and fierce loyalty to his “color.” It’s Peridot.
  • May actually be Yellow Diamond.
• Pierre is not shown onscreen, but he’s athletic, wins a “three-legged race” (possibly the character represents is talented at fusion, or maybe makes powerful fusions), and would make a Battle Couple with Percy to the point where they would “destroy the camp.”
  • It's Garnet.
  • It's Jasper.
  • It's Amethyst.
• Peridot's Love Chart (She has several, but only two are shown.)
  • A post here assumes that the first chart represents the fusions with different Gems, albiet it’s incomplete.
• The leak during Steven’s Birthday Week and parallels.
  • Percy/Paulette is an Official Couple in Camp Pining Hearts, but Lapis obviously distains Peridot. Also, Percy/Pierre is a Fan-Preferred Couple according to Peridot, so this whole soap might be a Take That, Audience! concerning Lapis/Peridot, which has existed since Peridot’s first appearance.
• Lauren Zuke’s tweet about Peridot’s shipping rant slowed down. A half-decent transcript can be read here. Further analysis is required.
  • Apparently, Percy “would’ve won [some sort of] race if he weren’t busy drooling over Paulette,” probably meaning that Peridot will struggle with the friction between herself and Lapis.
  • In another scene, Percy dives into “the bottom of the lake to get paulette’s friendship bracelet.” This goes into ‘future episodes and plots’ territory, but Peridot will probably go on an underwater mission for Lapis Lazuli’s sake. Why Lapis couldn’t do this herself is baffling.
    • Maybe the mission will be to get Lapis Lazuli back from Malachite?
• Alternatively, this might not be foreshadowing shipping at all, but could instead be foreshadowing that the Diamonds, or at least Blue and Yellow Diamond, are currently engaged in a power struggle, hence why there is a "color war" going on in the show with there being a blue team and a yellow team.
• Worth noting that the same foreshadowing writers had Garnet state, in so many words, that she is Percy and Pierre.

Peridot knows or has a general idea of what The Cluster will look like when it takes its physical form.

In "Back to the Barn" when she is demonstrating how The Cluster will devastate the Earth, she asks Steven "What is that?" to which he replies, "It's The Cluster." She sighs and responds, "It does NOT look like that." This implies she's seen a Gem geo-weapon before or has at least seen a picture from a report.

Peridot will be the reason the Crystal Gems will actually be able to fight back when the Home World returns.

Peridot might be weak physically...but she knows more about modern Gem technology than any of the Crystal Gems, and in fact IS the maintainer and technician of it.

Given they still likely have access to the remains of the Gem warship that was destroyed, Peridot could likely give their firepower a serious upgrade.

On top of that, what's one thing a technician would NEED to know? Where the ship she's piloting is vulnerable.

Yellow Diamond may have made a grave mistake underestimating "the puny thoughts of a Peridot".

Peridot will eventually fuse with one of the Crystal Gems, most likely Garnet as Peridot would be curious about the "perma-fusion"

Their fusion will create Tourmaline.

Peridot's new powers made her go From Nobody to Nightmare as far as Homeworld is concerned.

Peridot is a mechanic and technician, meaning she knows where any Homeworld device's point of failure would be. She just got freaking magnetic powers, and Homeworld is shown to still use metal heavily, including in their Gem Destablizers. If used right, Peridot just became devastating to machines, and Homeworld's tech is one of their trump cards. Plus, imagine how Homeworld Peridots like her will react to finding out they DO have powers despite what their leaders said...

If Peridot gets new Limb Enhancers or retrieves her old ones...

She'll modify them heavily, both due to her new individuality and creativity, and to take advantage of her newly discovered powers, making her far outclass a Homeworld Peridot with the same layout.

Peridot is so going to die. Considering she's a Crystal Gem now, I'm sure this WMG entry should make sense being put here.

• Anyway, they just made the version two intro not too long ago, and Peridot is not in it. The extended intro has Peridot with the other Homeworld Gems in their cameo, though it's a bit outdated now and wasn't supposed to spoil too much of what's happening. Unless they add Peri into the intro or make another new one, then I'm sure she will be used as a sacrifice to show how much darker the series will turn.
  • Unless Peri turns heel and rejoins the Yellow Diamond World Order, but that'll be lame.

Peridot will regenerate

When the Gems battle Yellow Diamond, Peridot's body will get destroyed. When she regenerates, her body will have a star on it to symbolize her turn to the Crystal Gems being complete.

• There's supposedly word from Sugar◊ that Peridot and Lapis would reform as Crystal Gems if they were poofed, but that it was unlikely to happen since they were safe in the barn. Looking back at Kindergarten Kid, in which Peridot goes through several Amusing Injuries that should expectedly poof her (which Steven even Lampshades), it's possible that the crew decided to save her poofing for a more climatic moment.
  • Confirmed in that she does indeed get poofed in a more climactic moment. Specifically in the opening of the battle with Yellow Diamond.

If Peridot poofs, it will be by something stabbing her in the chest.

Right where her Diamond symbol is, to be specific. Why? Because it would symbolize her learning that Yellow Diamond wasn't who Peridot thought she was.

• Jossed, the first time she gets poofed after joining the Crystal Gems is when she gets blasted by Yellow Diamond's electricity attack, although it's still possible she'll get stabbed in a future poofing. Although her getting poofed IS relevant to Yellow Diamond.

Peridot will never get a new star outfit.

Instead, she'll continue to wear the Yellow Diamond insignia, as both a direct insult to her former Diamond and a reminder to herself of how much she's changed.

Alternatively, Peridot will have both stars and diamonds in her outfit.

Her chest diamond would turn into a star, but her knee diamonds would stay the same, signalizing that while her alignment is with the Crystal Gems now, she still has feelings for Homeworld.

Peridot will get her limb enhancers back, but she won't like them anymore.

• At first she'll be excited, but putting them on will remind her of her service to Yellow Diamond and inflict Sense Loss Sadness on her when she can't physically touch anything, and they might interfere with her powers as well. Then she'll either get rid of them or take them apart for useful technology.

Peridot will become a leader of the Crystal Gems at some point, but will not wear a star.

While Peridot is nowhere near ready yet, Peridot's redemption arc more or less follows the official Crystal Gem propaganda about Rose. And claimed she was the leader. Peridot is shown when firing on full cylinders to have a good tactical brain and decently strategic even when not. Spoilers for A Single Pale Rose. The real foreshadowing for this is when 'Rose' asked Peridot to sit on her throne. Like Pink she tried to save the Earth. Is shown to have a mix of thoughtlessness and compassion. This means, of course, that Peridot's diamonds will change colour to Pink when she finally poofs.

Peridot and Bismuth will eventually perform a Fastball Special

Bismuth is a metal, Peridot has metallokinesis, it would just be so awesome!

• Confirmed, but Bismuth is the one to throw Peridot, not the other way around.

Bismuth will create a weapon for Peridot to wield

It would make her more effective in combat, at least. And given Peridot's powers, something metal and throwable makes sense, like a boomerang or chakram. Certainly would make more sense than throwing her tablet at people.

Lion

The lion was a familiar or friend to Rose Quartz.

When she died, the lion wandered alone for a while until it ran into Steven and the Gems. Knowing they must be connected with Rose Quartz, it felt the need to follow them and protect them from the Desert Glass.

Lion is Rose Quartz

• Somehow, even though part of her became Steven, she was reincarnated to become Lion. It explains it's color and the fact that it has strange Gem-like powers and is overly attached to Steven.
  • To adjust this theory slightly, since Steven has the ability to move his consciousness around into creatures of his own making (see the Watermelon Stevens), it stands to reason that Rose decided to permanently move her consciousness to Lion (who was resurrected by Rose, if what happened to Lars is anything to go by) to make way for Steven.

Lion is a member of a domesticated species used by Gems to help in their missions.

With most of the Gems presumably gone, there was no one left to help maintain the species, but some feral ones did survive, like Lion. Lion appears to have had some natural drive to destroy the dangerous Desert Glass, but is also very good with people, even somewhat annoying kids who poke and prod him. In addition, his domestication would explain why he seemed to feel a desire to protect Steven. It's also possible that Lion is very old (after all, the Gems are a functionally immortal race, so they'd probably want any pets or working animals to at least be long-lived) and had a Gem owner many decades ago. The owner died, but Lion continued to travel the world doing the job he was bred and raised to do. He decided to stay with the Crystal Gems out of his natural affinity for the race.

• Maybe his owner was Rose Quartz, who had to leave him behind at some point prior to her joining the Crystal Gems. Lion could sense Rose's gem in Steven, hence why he was so gentle.

The lion is a manifestation of magic that appeared when Steven was born.

He's obviously connected to Rose somehow, but if he was her pet, it's weird that the other Gems wouldn't know. When a Gem has a child, part of their magic breaks off and forms an animal guide. The Crystal Gems don't know about this because Steven is the first Gem child.

• Unlikely, given that Lion is strongly implied if not stated to have existed before Steven was born.

Lion is one of Rose's plant creatures.

In Watermelon Steven, it's revealed that Rose had the ability to turn plants into sentient creatures. Lion's mane and coloration look similar to the moss flowers from Lars and the Cool Kids. Maybe she brought one of them to life to watch over Steven before she died.

• Would seem to be Jossed with the revelation that after being brought back to life by Steven, Lars’s hair connects to Lion’s pocket dimension, implying Rose did the same thing for a lion.

Lion is basically the lion equivalent to Steven.

Gems are vastly different than humans in many variety of ways. Would it be that odd if one fell in love with a "King of Beasts"?

Lion is related to the magic moss seen in "Lars and the Cool Kids"

I don't mean this literally of course, what I mean is that the magic moss was simply the precursor to Lion. Rose simply found a way to create a magical lion by studying the moss or at the very least some other magical plant.

Lion used to belong to Pink Diamond.

Rose took him because Pink Diamond died or she was mistreating him.

• Weeeelllll... yes and no.

Lion isn't an alien. He's from Earth and was there when Rose Quartz first arrived.

He's just as old as her, if not older. Lion is actually the very first true lion in all of existence, with all lions in the world being his descendants. He has powers and is pink because that's the true form of a lion, which just got diluted over the years. Lion is the anomaly that actually first brought Gemkind to Earth, but they kept it a secret. Rose kept him secret too.

Lion was once Greg's cat

This theory came from a YouTube comment. When Greg's cat died, Rose cried her healing tears on him and he was revived as Lion. This would explain why the rest of the Crystal Gems didn't know about Lion: he probably lived with Greg initially. Lion is drawn to Steven and wants to protect him because Steven has Rose's gem and Lion is loyal to the Gem that brought him back from the dead. Evidence includes all of the cat supplies in Greg's storage unit. The flaw in this theory is how Lion got away from Greg and wound up in the desert.

Lion is a corrupted Gem.

But a successfully-rehabilitated one. Rose did have the ability to heal a corrupted gem through her hybridization experiments, but it cost the gem its full sapience and made him (her?) into a more utilitarian animal than a Gem; sort of like an idealized pack mule.

• Seems to be Jossed.

Lion was spawned off of Rose, similar to how Gem Monsters create miniature versions of themselves.

Several of the different Gem monsters seen so far have had the ability to create miniature versions of themselves for combat. This would suggest that the ability might be innate to certain types of Gems. Lion was created through this method for Steven.

Lion was the first organic/Gem creature hybrid.

While not a true Gem, he was created through similar methods of creating Gem lifeforms, while also being organic. Rose created him to see if Gem/organic hybrid life was possible.

• Jossed, as seen in "Lars' Head" it's implied Lion was once a normal lion that Rose brought back to life with her tears.

Lion grants wishes

Every single time Steven says "I wish..." or something like it, Lion is right there, and immediately takes him to something that addresses the wish. It happened most recently in "Lars' Head" and it has happened in each Lion episode. Lion specifically tries to grant Steven's wishes, and if he ever realises this, he will be able to make much better use of Lion.

Lion was killed by the Desert Glass

With Steven bringing Lars Back from the Dead, turning him pink and granting him a portal ability with his tears, it can be said that Rose Quartz also did the same with Lion, though the question remains of how Lion died. Back in Lion's debut episode, Lion was pretty adamant on getting the Desert Glass away from Steven and the Crystal Gems, and said gem was found in the same desert where Lion was located. What if Lion was killed by the Desert Glass, maybe crushed to death by its pillars and suffocated by sand? Rose then found his dead body and was devastated at finding her pet lion dead, especially if Lion was the last member of his pride left. Maybe Lion saw Rose fighting the Desert Glass and tried to defend her, only to die in the process, leading to Rose crying over him and accidentally reviving him with her Swiss-Army Tears. Lion going against the Desert Glass might've been him avenging his death in addition to protecting Steven.

Lapis Lazuli

Lapis Lazuli is related to Pearl.

Basically like sisters or something, Lapis has the same face and hairstyle as Pearl, they both are slim and have blue eyes, they also have beach related powers (Lapis controls the ocean and Pearl can control sand) also not to mention pearls come from oysters. I won't be surprised if they are related.

• Personally I always thought Peridot would have some relation to Pearl (the only two Gems so far with their gems in the same area).

Pearl and Lapis Lazuli will fuse to form Aquamarine

When Lapis Lazuli reappears, there's going to have to be an accounting since she's the resident Anti-Villain Knight of Cerebus. Pearl is the one who was responsible for the Mirror and undoubtedly has some form of guilt over imprisoning a functioning Gem for so long, especially since she's the one Crystal Gem most empathetic to Lapis's being trapped on Earth. She is also the scholar of the Gems, and she would be able to pass on her knowledge about Rose and the purposes of the Crystal Gems to Lapis in the conversation of a fusion if a reconciliation is attempted. Aquamarines are associated with courage, communication and peaceful passage through the sea, and they also would make a striking visual representation of a fusion, especially one based on the largest cut aquamarine in the world.◊

• Well, it would take an ocean to end Pearl's thirst...
  • Jossed. Aquamarine is a standard Gem type, not a Fusion.
    • Not jossed! Rebecca Sugar confirmed that there are single Gem versions of Fusions and vice versa, meaning that Aquamarine could in fact be Pearl and Lapis' Fusion.
    • And singular Gem Aquamarine does indeed have very Lapis-esque water wings, so that's one point in favor of Lapis being a Fusion component for an Aquamarine Fusion.

Lapis didn't fly straight from Earth to Homeworld.

Considering what an incredibly long flight that would be, even at super speed, maybe she just flew to the nearest Gem-controlled planet with a functioning Galaxy Warp and warped the rest of the way.

• Perhaps she only flew to the moon. If some part of the moon base had a galaxy warp it would explain how gems keep interacting with Earth so quickly without apparent concern for light speed barriers.
• If the moon base did have a Galaxy Warp, then the Crystal Gems would have just used that instead of making Lion exhaust himself. While all of them except maybe Pearl may not have known of it, she wouldn't have just let Lion over-exert himself just to keep it a secret.

Lapis and the Sea Spire are connected somehow.

The Sea Spire's themes feature a melancholy piano far more similar to Lapis's than Pearl's- and while Pearl expresses considerable concern over the Sea Spire, she doesn't seem to have too much of a personal connection to it or they would have repaired it beforehand. "Water Damage" also features the same sort of discordant, ominous sounds that Lapis's more energetic, angry themes do- compare "Water Damage" and "I Am Lapis Lazuli". A few other thoughts:

• The Red Eye from Laser Light Cannon was early foreshadowing of Peridot, as she is later revealed to be the one that sent it. This means that it's entirely possible other seemingly unrelated early-series enemies/locations were actually foreshadowing of later enemies. Lapis herself creates a huge, vertical tower out of the ocean, similar to the layout of the Spire.
• Pearl describes the Sea Spire as a sanctuary for Gems on earth- it could have retained this function during the war as a safe-house. Compared to this, Lapis doesn't seem to have been an active fighter either for or against Rose's army- she doesn't have either Rose's symbol or the star, combined with claiming she never believed in earth means she probably wasn't a Crystal Gem and speaking of them like she isn't one furthers it; but on the flipside, she also expected the Crystal Gems to at least try and help her, which she wouldn't expect of an enemy. If the Spire was in fact a wartime sanctuary, it's very probable that's where Lapis spent at least part of her time on Earth.
• The Spire seems to have been badly damaged at the past, even before decaying over time- the Crystal Gems were going to repair it before they saw the new damage- it could have been attacked at one point during the war, which would make it a very likely scenario for where Lapis' gem was cracked.
• Visually, Lapis's tower and the Sea Spire have many things in common- Steven spends time on the top of both, with loving attention given to the starry sky overhead- he interacts with something at the top of the tower integral to the entire thing, and both towers collapse from underneath him in a downpour of water (but both times he's ultimately unharmed).

• The Sea Spire was likely under Blue Diamond's ownership, and Lapis is likely to have been a part of her court. The Sea Spire receives no mention or appearance in Lapis's flashback in "Same Old World", suggesting that Lapis may not have a major relation to it besides the relation to Blue Diamond.

Lapis will eventually be a Sixth Ranger of the Crystal Gems.

She'll be freed from Malachite, but because of her actions towards Jasper and withholding information from Homeworld, she'll be labeled as a traitor. So, Lapis will probably stay on Earth. However, since she also "never believed in this place" and is likely still pissed off at the Crystal Gems for never freeing her, she won't really want to completely join them. At the same time, Lapis will probably not want to leave Steven, so she'll pop over to visit him every now and then and partake in missions that require her power.

• Seemingly confirmed. "Same Old World" has her decide she wants to stay despite being stuck on the same planet as the CG, and with "Barn Mates" and "Hit the Diamond", Peridot, both people who she is understandably upset with. Lapis ends up helping protect Peridot in "Barn Mates" and also helping the CG in "Hit the Diamond" against Homeworld, and presumably also staying behind in "Steven Floats", possibly meaning that she'll help out every once and a while, albeit for Steven's sake initially.
• Confirmed in "Reunited" when she decides to officially join the Crystal Gems, saying "I couldn't stay away. If they're gonna punish me like a Crystal Gem, I might as well be one, right? You got room for...one more?"

Lapis is not losing herself, at least not unintentionally

Lapis' tone when she says "We're Malachite now!" actually doesn't sound like a woman who is slowly losing her identity; she sounds more like someone who has resigned herself to her fate. Afterward, Malachite's scream sounds remarkably like she's telling Steven to "GO!" as if demanding that he leave and stop interfering. This might mean that Lapis is intentionally allowing herself to be lost in the fusion so that she can keep Jasper contained.

This would make sense, too, as Lapis likely knows that in order to do so she will have to keep the fusion stable and that can't happen unless they are both restrained.

Lapis Lazulis in general are interplanetary scouts.

Lapis can fly with her water wings, and the fact that she made it to homeworld (which is in ANOTHER GALAXY) in a mere few months means that she can WELL outclip lightspeed just on her own (Or, even if you follow the above WMG that she flew to another planet to use a Warp, she still would have had to REALLY book it, still making Lapis Lazulis pretty fast even if they can make interplanetary runs in that time. Remember, kiddos, space is freaking BIG.) This means that her and, presumably, her entire Gem caste can quickly make long distance journeys on their own, ideal for scouts. Hydrokinesis also means that if she reached a completely or mostly ocean-covered planet, she could explore deep below the sea. She had a high position within Blue Diamond's court because a Gem designed to seek out new worlds and decide whether they would make good colonies or not would obviously have a lot of responsibility.

• Possibly Jossed. There's a line during the visit to Pink Diamond's Zoo that mentions that a Lapis was for "terraforming". Considering Lapis mentioned she was only sent to Earth for a short while, this could make some sense as the rebellion would've disrupted the regular plans we saw they had for reforming Earth. Especially given what we already know about Lapis's power over water.

Lapis was a spy for Blue Diamond.

In her own words, "I was only supposed to visit for a short time." Supposed to be on Earth for what, exactly? This is why she handles alien language and concepts so much more quickly than the others; she's made to understand them. She knew what "flirting" was in "Hit the Diamond" and instantly adapted from "What's a dad" to "I'm awful, I hurt your dad!" in "Alone at Sea." She said she put the Rubies "in a time out". She's using idioms and metaphors that we don't see Steven make first. "Meep morps" was sarcasm that Peridot took literally, and Lapis didn't have the heart to correct her.This could be why Bismuth poofed her, and why Homeworld forces didn't recognize her. (She may have been spying on the other Diamond courts as well.)

Lapis has visions similar to Sapphire's...

...But instead of seeing the future, she can see the past.

Someone resembling Lapis can be seen at Blue Diamond's court, meaning she was most likely a part of it; She could have acted as an adviser, like Sapphire, but rather than predicting the future she would be able to replay past events she had witnessed. This would also explain how the mirror worked.

• "Same Old World" seems to support this. She covers the Galaxy Warp in water to turn it into a mirror to depict her memories.
• The figure in Blue Diamond's court wasn't Lapis; it was a Pearl assigned to Blue Diamond (similar to Yellow Pearl and Yellow Diamond.) She looks very similar to Lapis (since Lapis had a somewhat Pearl-ish character design to begin with), but in one of the close-ups while Sapphire is talking to Blue Diamond, you can unmistakably see the pearl in the chest of the character in question. In order for that to be Lapis, Lapis would have had to have changed her gem type somehow. Additionally, in a later episode, Lapis' own description of how she got stuck on earth has her as a bystander, definitely not as a member of Blue Diamond's court.
  • This was the figure in question, not the Pearl standing right outside of Blue Diamond's palanquin.

If Lapis is touching the water she's controlling, she has better control over it.

It's the only reason I can think of for why her hands were in water mitten things, but Jasper's hands were just in shackles.

Lapis and Peridot will Fuse into Zircon

Not only will it be a wonderful development for a character who's unsure about fusion and another character whose last fusion went badly, but zircons are commonly used as a replacement for Diamonds. Ironic, isn't it?

• Jossed. In "The Trial", it's revealed Zircons are a completely different type of Gem, who are used as lawyers of sorts.
  • Not jossed! It's been confirmed that single versions of Fusion Gems exist and vice versa, meaning that Lapis and Peridot's Fusion being a type of Zircon is still a possibility.

Lapis will be forced to fight a Diamond in the future

And before she begins her hopeless battle, she'll say, "You can shatter my gem, but you won't take my freedom anymore."

• Confirmed, but she doesn't say that line.

Lapis will be captured again.

By leaving the relative safety of Earth in "Raising the Barn" after hearing of Steven's encounter with the Diamonds, Lapis has made herself exposed. She is now alone and with almost no water to defend herself with. If any Homeworld Gems find her, capturing her would be all too easy. After being captured, she would realize that she was captured because she left impulsively without thinking of the consequences.

• Jossed. She made it back to Earth safely and got a Big Damn Heroes moment. She's been poofed, but since Blue and Yellow Diamond have backed down thanks to Steven, she'll most likely regenerate with a star on her outfit, and remain on Earth.

Lapis is a 'perfect' cut gem, like Jasper and Spinel.

This would explain how Lapis is so overwhelmingly powerful - even if you account for the lack of water on most gem planets, she's still capable of unassisted flight and faster-than-light travel. This would also explain why she was a member of Blue Diamond's court - she's considered a supreme example of her kind. Even accounting for the rarity of water on other planets (which explains why she doesn't think of herself as powerful), she's still outrageously strong at what she does, being the only non-fused gem we've seen capable of landing a decent blow on Blue Diamond.

Lapis Lazuli gems are exceptionally rare and expensive to produce, like Sapphires.

A possibly-simpler explaination for how powerful she is; we know Lapis Lazuli gems are for terraforming. Given that Lapis can move an entire ocean on her own, it seems likely that you only need one per planet, and the gems haven't conquered that many planets; similarly, the cost to create that power must be extremely high, preventing mass-production (even if there was a reason to mass-produce them, which there isn't.) Further evidence for this is that Blue Diamond seems to recognize Lapis - she calls her "Lapis Lazuli" as if it's a name (in sharp contrast to Yellow Diamond's non-reaction to Peridot on all their encounters), and seems to take her betrayal personally, which implies that Lapis was unique/important enough, and her disappearance significant enough, to still be memorable six thousand years later.

• Actually, Blue Diamond said a Lapis Lazuli. The rest of this WMG still seems plausible however.

Fusions

Unlike Gem Fusions, Human Fusions (like Stevonnie) are subject to the law of conservation of mass.

Stevonnie's mass is probably exactly equal to Steven's mass plus Connie's mass, and as they grow older, Stevonnie will get larger.

There's something about Stevonnie

As with other fusions, Stevonnie too exhibits an anomaly. Namely, they are a hermaphrodite.

• Stevonnie confirmed intersex in their own Dove short.

Stevonnie has enhanced versions of all of Steven's powers.

This is part of the basic rules for fusions (in that they're supposed to be more than the sum of their parts). More importantly, though, even though one of Stevonnie's components is human, Steven's powers all operate based on emotions, especially love and a desire to protect people he loves. Usually, Steven is only able to use his healing abilities or shield on behalf of people or things he cares about; but as Stevonnie, Steven and Connie's love for each other allows them to use those abilities more freely, since they'd be protecting each other whenever they summon the shield. (Of course, Stevonnie also combines their swordfighting ability, grants them general physical enhancements by making them bigger and more physically mature, and covers for their inability to regenerate the way most gems can by allowing them to split instead of dying when they take an otherwise lethal blow.)

Peridot's Fusions will be devastating.

Peridot's 'metal powers' are impressive and powerful in itself, she still has some trouble mastering but she has been sown to slowly get better. However, think of what would happen if her powers got enhanced by Fusion:

• Magnetism plus Amethyst's sheer strength? They could tear anything with metal in it to shreds with ease.

• Garnet? Magnetism plus electricity is in and of itself dangerous (like combining them to form an Electromagnet), but if Garnet's gauntlets can be manipulated by it, imagine the possibilities.

• Pearl? Her hammerspace is filled with metal swords that Pearl has expert knowledge of. Being able to magnetically manipulate them would take multi-wielding to the extreme!

• Lapis? We've seen what Lapis' hydrokinesis can do to a Homeworld ship. Now combine that with magnetism to manipulate the metal composing it.

The appearance of the Fusions is a visual metaphor for how well the characters get along.

Garnet is the most normal-looking fusion seen so far, and also the pair that is clearly the most stable and in love. Stevonnie is similar. On the other hand Malachite is the most monstrous looking of the two-gem fusions, and is a straightforward metaphor for an abusive or unstable relationship. Opal and Sugilite look mostly normal, as their members get along fairly well despite their differences, but have two sets of arms, indicating that the two are very good friends but not necessarily more. Rainbow Quartz is seemingly the most normal after Garnet, and has only two arms, suggesting that Pearl and Rose Quartz were very close. On the other hand, unlike Garnet's third eye Rainbow Quartz has two independent pairs of eyes similar to Malachite. Each one looks at Greg differently which suggests a major mismatch in mindset between Pearl and Rose Quartz, and hints that Pearl's love for Rose may be one-sided, or that despite the two's current closeness there is a fundamental incompatibility between them under the surface. Alexandrite is the strangest looking fusion of them all, since it's harder to maintain a relationship when three people are involved, and the conflicts between each individual pair without a mediator between the three accumulates. We can expect their yet unrevealed fusion to either look similar than Opal or Sugilite, or since the two get along rather well it may be even more normal looking than that.

Opal is the safest gem fusion.

In Coach Steven, we see Garnet and Amethyst's fusion Sugilite. After spending about a day in their fused form, Sugilite is completely out of control and the fusion is only ended by force. Pearl even implies that the longer they stay in their fused form, the more they will lose themselves. Compared to Pearl and Amethyst, Garnet and Amethyst have more in common (only respectively, though) and so it's easier for them to merge and hold the fusion. By contrast, complete opposites Pearl and Amethyst are able to separate much more easily, and therefore they're less likely to risk getting "stuck". Their contrasting personalities aren't the best for short-term fusions, but when it comes to safely fusing it's probably a blessing.

• Well, it seems like the safest Gem fusion is actually Garnet herself.

The reason that Sugilite is so unstable is because Garnet let Amethyst's personality overtake hers during their Fusion Dance

See here.

Sugilite does share some of Garnet's personality - namely, her patience with Steven.

In "Coach Steven", we see Sugilite mostly as a violent, vicious fusion, but note that it's always directed towards Pearl. She doesn't seem to have any problems at all with Steven, and her interaction with him is actually very Garnet-like. Garnet has shown herself to be the most trusting of any of the Gems towards Steven, and will usually take his suggestions on board and take what he says seriously. When Sugilite shows Steven her weapon, she doesn't immediately start showing off with it (as Amethyst would likely do) but instead asks Steven which pillar he wants her to destroy first. He picks one out, and she instantly swings for it. While a lot of Garnet's personality does seem to be drowned out by Amethyst's in Sugilite, that one aspect of her seems to be all Garnet.

The Statue outside the Crystal Gem's home is the gem fusion of Pearl, Garnet, Amethyst and Rose Quartz.

It has 4 pairs of arms, a mask-like face over another (like Alexandrite) and it has Rose Quartz' hair.

• Confirmed.

At some point Steven will either fuse with Lion or the latter will become some sort of power armor for Steven.

A sword has came out of Lion's forehead, he holds an extra dimensional space in his mane, Steven has already Fused with a human, and Dogcopter (pretty much only mentioned in Lion episodes) might be some sort of foreshadowing by have a normal-looking animal have machine-like functions. Right now, everything seems possible.

• And Steven will become GaoGaiGar, The King of Braves!
• Word of God has stated this would be technically possible but unlikely to actually happen.

Unseen Crystal Gem fusion predictions.

Amethyst and Steven: Combines their shared impulsively fun-loving nature. Likely merges Amethyst's Wild Child nature with Steven's Friend to All Living Things one to create a more Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! one. Their whip and shield could make some kind of long-range weapon that's kind of like a yo-yo.

• Barring the Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! bit, this is pretty much what Smoky Quartz is. They even have a yoyo.

The Gem on the far left of the ceiling mural (shown here) is the fusion of Garnet and Pearl.

She has a figure and hairstyle mostly in line with Garnet's, and she appears to be wearing a mask which could be a representation of Garnet's visor. Yet there's also something inexplicably Pearl-like about her, mostly in the angular shapes of her body and hair and in the way she holds herself. Maybe it's nothing (it's certainly not much to go on, admittedly) but there's still the chance that it could be something.

• Jossed. Garnet and Pearl's fusion is Sardonyx, who unlike the mural Gem has four arms.

Stevonnie has some sort of passive attraction ability

Every single person aside from the Crystal Gems seemed immediately smitten/in awe of Stevonnie. Perhaps this intense attraction wasn't just because a) Stevonnie looks awesome and b) Beach City is so small, but because they're actually some sort of Charm Person. Evidence of this can be seen in the Bishie Sparkles that surround Stevonnie in the Big Donuts, which were actually indicating magic. This would be a natural evolution from the fact that Steven's powers seem related to love and emotions.

Stevonnie was only possible because Steven is half human.

Pearl did say a Fusion with a human wasn't possible, she just neglected to remember that Steven is half human.

• Yeah, but even to the viewer it was unprecedented. Prior to Stevonnie, it was assumed that both parties needed to have a Gem.

Steven will eventually save the day by fusing with every human member of Beach City into Beach Steven.

Steven can fuse with humans he's close to, Garnet pointed out that almost everyone in Beach City likes and trusts Steven, fusion can involve more than two entities, Homeworld anti-Gem technology doesn't work on humans, therefore the ultimate solution will be a gigantic Steven made up of every single city resident.

• All you wanna do, is see them turn into, a Giant Steven?
  • A giant Steven!

Stevonnie isn't actually unprecedented.

Because the first fusion between a gem and a human is Steven himself. Based on what we know about fusion so far, it is stronger when the two components are mentally in sync, and the fused form is strengthened by the components having a strong bond of love. Steven's ability to manifest his gem powers seem to fluctuate based on his emotional state, and he's at his best when he's feeling confident and comfortable being himself. Rose states in "Lion 3: Straight to Video" that she's the part of Steven that loves himself, loves being him. I guess that would make the other component of Steven...some theoretical fully-human baby Steven. It would also neatly tie in Steven's uncertainty over how to feel about his mom. Does raise the question of why Rose made the choice to be subsumed by an unorthodox gem fusion rather than give birth to "standard" human child, unless that wouldn't have been possible somehow.

• Rose's choice could have been due to her wanting to experience a human life for herself, just to see what it would be like. It might also explain why her memories would've been suppressed in the fusion - it adds legitimacy to the human experience, and maybe she'd remember everything if the fusion were to be split apart. Perhaps being the part that loves himself, loves being him, could mean she was excited to become human for however long Steven lives.

Rose's decision to fuse with her baby might also have something to do with her being a skilled tactician - obtaining an organic body would probably make one more resistant to weapons intended for use against Gems, and humans are sapient creatures similar in form to the default forms gems take...

"Fusion Cuisine" was the first time Alexandrite was formed.

The outside of the temple resembles a fusion between Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Rose Quartz, so the four of them probably used to fuse. Since losing Rose Quartz, they had never worked up the nerve to try fusing like that without her until Steven begged them to.

If Garnet fused with Rose or Steven, their weapon would be a pair of targes.

Small shields with spikes designed for punching motions. Bonus points if they interlock into a larger shield.

• Garnet fuses with Steven in "Change Your Mind", forming Sunstone, whose weapons look like gloves with suction cups.

The Steven + Garnet fusion (Rhodochrosite?), and later Steven + Sugilite (Galaxite?), will have a chest face with pointy shades.

Because extra arms and eyes have been done to death, and who doesn't like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann references?

• Rhodochrosite being the fusion of Garnet and Steven/Rose Quartz actually makes alot of sense considering the mythology of the gemstone. According to this website, rhodochrosite is said to bring love and balance and improve eyesight among many other things.
• Jossed for Steven and Garnet, as their fusion, Sunstone, instead has a head that looks like a cartoony sun, with rounded shades.

Steven and Peridot will fuse at some point.

A Fusion is established as a form of trust and a physical manifestation of a bond between two or more people, therefore its not far off that Steven and Peridot would be able to fuse due developing the ability to fuse. It won't be as natural as Stevonnie but neither is Opal, or any of the other fusions so it will take some effort.

Future appearances of Sugilite will be more stable, and safer.

Amethyst has been working with her issues, and acknowledges that she likes fusing with Garnet to feel powerful. This seems to explain why Sugilite goes out of control. Since she now acknowledges the issue, it would be easier to keep Sugilite safe in the future.

• When Sugilite appears in "Cry For Help", she doesn't lose control, though that was because of what happened in the episode.
• It seems that now, whenever massive strength is needed, the Crystal Gems form Alexandrite rather than Sugilite. Probably Alexandrite is more stable because Ruby's and Amethyst's hot-headedness is balanced out by Sapphire's and Pearl's cool.

The reason Sugilite is so unstable is because Amethyst was putting herself down.

Amethyst has show multiple times, and multiple reasons, she has a poor sense of self worth, such as for her origin or comparing herself to others. Sugilite is so unstable because Amethyst's lack of self worth makes it very easy for the fusion personality to take over. Pearl might have some problems, but she's still got pride in herself to a degree, so Sardonyx lacks this problem. Opal lacks it because Pearl and Amethyst prefer being apart to being fused, countering Amethyst's problems. If Amethyst ever fully conquered her self worth issues, Sugilite would become as controllable as any other fusion.

The giant fusion who rescued William Dewey was formed by Rose Quartz and Garnet.

First of all, the fusion only has four arms; with Garnet as the exception (counting as one Gem for the purpose of fusion, due to her stability), all known fusions of Gems have a pair of arms for each component Gem. This means that Dewey's rescuer was formed by a limit of two Gems, or one Gem and Garnet. Second, the fusion was large enough to lift a ship; the only fusions we've seen large enough to do that so far are Sugilite and Alexandrite (who is eliminated by the first point). While it's possible Sugilite carried the ship, her destructive nature and difficulty defusing in her first appearance does not generate high hopes for dragging survivors ashore gently or unscathed. However, Rose is the largest Gem in the group by far (meaning a fusion between her and Garnet or Amethyst would likely also be giant) - on top of her All-Loving Hero tendencies making her the driving force in any rescue - and Garnet's strength would definitely be a boon to fighting a sea monster and moving the ship. Just because she wasn't represented in the script doesn't mean she wasn't there (Jamie already had a lot of characters to go through, and probably wanted to avoid making Steven uncomfortable or offended by portraying his mom), and the other Gems would probably fight harder to convince the humans not to stay unless Rose gave her blessing.

• Jossed. Word of God confirms it was Rose's version of Obsidian.

When all four of the Crystal Gems fuse to defeat Yellow Diamond, their fusion will be named after another variety of diamond

The only thing strong enough to cut a diamond is another diamond.

• Jossed. All four form Obsidian.

The Temple Fusion has a Diamond name or equal to it.

Alexandrite is the largest fusion we've seen so far, and is a very rare gemstone, so it makes sense the temple fusion would be even rarer. The Temple Fusion is depicted with enough reverence to dictate that she's important, similar to how the Diamonds often got temples or depictions devoted to them. She is either a named after a Diamond, or a stone of equal standing.

• Jossed. It's Obsidian.

Every fusion with Rose Quartz/Steven is "[X] Quartz"

We already know Rose + Pearl results in Rainbow Quartz, and Steven + Amethyst results in Smoky Quartz. (Presumably, Steven + Pearl would be Rainbow Quartz II, and Rose + Amethyst was a previous incarnation of Smoky Quartz.) If the trend continues:

• Steven + Jasper = Carnelian
  • Jossed. Carnelians emerge from Kindergartens.
    • Carnelians coming from Kindergartens doesn't mean the gem can't be a Fusion, too.
    • Yes it does. Fusions and singular gems do not overlap. Every gem we've seen has been able to spot a fusion on sight, even when their gems aren't visible. And when a new fusion forms they, and the others, have no idea what it's capable of, which they would if they weren't something entirely new.
    • Ahem.
• Steven + Garnet = Tiger's Eye
  • Jossed. It's Sunstone.
• Steven + Peridot = Vermarine or Aventurine
• Steven + Lapis Lazuli = Dumortierite (which is ironically sometimes used as imitation Lapis Lazuli)

Pearl and Peridot's fusion will have Super-Intelligence.

Pearl and Peridot are both the smartest members of the team in terms of brains, so it'd make sense that their fusion would be incredibly intelligent.

A Steven and Garnet Fusion would be, following the pattern already set, "Steven amplified".

Sugilite is generally considered to be "Amethyst amplified" and Sardonyx "Pearl amplified", because Garnet Fusing is Ruby and Sapphire's perfectly stable blend having a third personality added. Ergo, from a personality standpoint, her Fusion with Steven would be basically Steven with Garnet's confidence and power, like the others.

• Sunstone is definitely Steven's positivity, pacifism, and protectiveness dialed up to eleven. To the point they're practically an after-school special!

When Steven and Garnet eventually do fuse for the first time (or at the very least do in front of Pearl and Amethyst)...

Amethyst will ask, "Are you gonna smash stuff with your giant [their fusion weapon]?" When Pearl gives her a look for it, she'll respond, "What? Steven's not here to ask it, so..."

• Jossed. The situation is a bit too serious for that.

Steven's empathy powers are amplified when he fuses with Connie, like how Sapphire can see multiple futures when fused with Ruby.

And that's how Stevonnie was able to have that flashback dream in Jungle Moon despite never having met the Gem they were seeing the memories of.

• While Connie amplifying Steven's empathy powers could still be true, that's not how they saw Pink Diamond's memories. It's because they have her gem.

A fusion of Steven and Pearl will wield a Parasol of Pain

Each fusion's weapons use a mix of their fusee's weapons. Sugilite's flail is a mix of Garnet's gauntlets and Amethyst's whip, Sardonyx's hammer is a mix of the gauntlets as the head and Pearl's spear as the handle, et cetera. Smoky Quartz's yoyo uses Amethyst's whip as the string and Steven's shield as the head. Steven and Pearl's fusion will wield an umbrella or parasol weapon, as that's the closest thing I can think of that incorporates a rod and a disk shaped objects.

• Confirmed; Rainbow 2.0 is essentially "What if Mary Poppins was a guy?", complete with umbrella.

A fusion of Yellow and Blue Diamond will be Green Diamond.

Not just because yellow and blue is green, but green diamonds do exist and are apparently considered exceptionally rare and valuable. In the show, Yellow and Blue Diamond will possibly fuse into Green Diamond in order to stand up to White Diamond or a fusion of all four Crystal Gems, depending on whether or not Yellow and Blue pull a Heel–Face Turn.

Peridot and Lapis' fusion will be called Turquoise.

After all, what colour do you get if you combine blue and green?

"A Very Special Episode" will debut a fusion of Steven, Pearl and Garnet

The synopsis reveals that Steven is in a bind because Rainbow 2.0 and Sunstone are both scheduled to be in different places on the same day. Combine this classic comedy plot with fusion, and the debut of a new fusion seems inevitable.

Steg represents Steven and Greg's mutual Hero Worship.

Steven idolizes his dad as the coolest rock star in the world. Greg admires the hero his son has become. Steg is such a Hunk because he is the idealized image of both men in one, the hero and rock star father and son see each other as personified.

The Crystal Gems As A Whole/Other Crystal Gem Theories, Part 1

After a few seasons, another child Gem will come along.

She will be born from another Gem who also had to give up her physical form to have her. Unlike Steven, she didn't have anyone else to take care of her who could help her with her powers. (she is either Happily Adopted, in an orphanage, or going through foster homes) This has led to a lot of problems for her. When the Gems find out about her, they take her in so they can teach her how to control her powers. This means Steven gets some new responsibilities to deal with.

Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl almost never interacted with humans until Steven was born.

Rose Quartz, seeing the beauty in everything, was eager to go out and interact with humans, and eventually fell in love with Greg. It was only after Steven was born that the other Gems started to learn more about humans. Prior to that, they likely wouldn't have had any need to talk to humans, but dealing with a half-human kid and a human father, they didn't have a choice. Consider, the Gems didn't seem to understand the concept of jokes and didn't really understand traditional birthday party activities. They aren't too familiar with video games until Steven insists on treating them to the arcade, and as Pearl's comment on the teacup ride suggests, they probably didn't know much about amusement parks.

• While it's not explicitly stated, this is very heavily implied in "Story For Steven"; they had a big Do Not Enter fence around the temple, and the house they have around its entrance now didn't exist - it was just a big chamber with the teleport pad and the door to their rooms. Everything points to them avoiding interactions with the outside world.
• On the other hand, in both that episode and later ones, Pearl indicates that Rose had had romances with humans in the past, so they couldn't have been totally isolated. (These romances, of course, could have been hundreds of years apart, so they wouldn't necessarily have given the gems any understanding of the modern world.)
• Jossed for Amethyst. She regularly hanged out with Vidalia before Steven was born.

The Crystal Gems collect gems to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands.

If taken by a person with malicious intent and/or who doesn't know what they're doing, a lot of the gems we've seen could be very dangerous.

The reason why the Crystal Gems love Steven is because they're honoring Rose Quartz's last dying wish.

• Rose Quartz asked them to "believe in Steven". Eventually with a little patience the gems grew fond of him.
  • It might have began like that, but they've obviously grown to care for Steven as a little brother/son figure in and of himself.

Rose chose to have Steven as a way of saving the Gem race.

It's implied that Gems once existed on Earth in large numbers. The fact that only a few seem to be left would suggest that this functionally immortal race doesn't normally reproduce. With only a few Gems left, it may not take much more time for the race to die out. Steven, as a half-human and possibly as a male, might be able to reproduce without having to give up his own physical form, and potentially produce more Gems as a result.

• The Kindergarten was only a stop-gap made by Homeworld, and would not have slowed the decay for long while using up Earth too quickly. Rose believed their was a more efficient way.

At some point, the Crystal Gems will go out and either try to find more Gems, or get new ones.

Maybe do some kind of magic that would allow them to bring old Gems back to life. These actions might be spurred by a big threat that the Crystal Gems can't handle on their own.

• Only if they knew Gems were on their side...

The Temple is alive.

That's why it has a heart.

• another piece of evidence; Rose was the leader of the Crystal Gems. Her room in the Temple is special. While other Crystal Gems seemed to just pick the area of the Temple they like the best, Rose's room is a strange, holodeck-like place. If the temple is a living Gem-related being(maybe an older Gem Ship?) then it could be guessed that Rose's Room is in the head and its holodeck-like nature is the Temple's thought space.

It does have a some manner of intelligence, even if it is somewhat rudimentary. This is demonstrated in Open Book when it becomes conflicted at trying to do what Steven wants, even getting him to stop hiding his opinion from Connie. Another example is when displays some capacity for learning in "Catch and Release" when Steven demands to have REAL access to the basement rather than some simulation. Instead of getting confused again like in the original Rose's Room, it complies.

The Crystal Gems are personifications of different emotional states.

Not only that, their weapons loosely reflect what they are.

• Garnet is Awareness. Her gauntlets reflect this in that they are best suited to close range, hand to hand combat that requires high awareness of one's immediate surroundings.
• Amethyst is Mischief, which is reflected in her whip through its potential to trip up and otherwise immobilize enemies.
• Pearl is Discipline and her spear shows this in how it takes lots of training to use it effectively.
• Rose Quartz was Hope, and her light cannon represents this through its sturdiness.
• Steven is childlike innocence and, with time, will mature to become hope like his mother before him. His shield represents a means to protect that innocence.
  • No dice so far

All Crystal Gems will follow the path Rose Quartz took if they are to marry and have a child.

• That's one way to avoid having to get The Other Darrin

The True reason the crystal gems don't like Greg Universe.

• Okay feel free to reply to this but, whenever they refer to Rose Quartz they have nothing praise and make her out to be The Ace of the crystal gem race. Now whenever Greg Universe's name is brought up they show slight disdain for him bordering malice and for anyone who has been watching the show Rose Quartz "died" giving birth to Steven. So with that said I believe the real reason the Gems don't like Greg is because they think if Rose never met him she might still be alive and helping the gems with their mission.
  • The Gems don't hate Steven because he is the only thing they have left of Rose Quartz and because he's a crystal gem as well.
  • The Gems distaste for Greg may have been around before losing Rose. Gems are implied to be very long lived and Greg is just an average human. Under normal circumstances he would have died long before Rose did and it's possible she and the Gems were aware of that. They may have seen the relationship as something that could only hurt Rose in the long run.
    • I didn't see their feelings toward Greg as hate as much as i take it to mean he's not exactly a figure who inspires admiration.
    • To say nothing of the fact that Greg isn't very fond of the Gems and their "magical stuff". It's impossible to say if this is something new due to Rose's demise or if it is an old sentiment, but is very possible that him and the Gems never really sat to talk things out and, now that their direct link is gone they have nothing but awkwardness towards each other.
    • Through the flashback episodes, we've now seen that Amethyst and Garnet got along with Greg very well before Rose's passing. Pearl less so.
  • This is so obvious it seems like it can hardly even be called a "guess". Pearl in particular has an entire musical number about the conflicting feelings she has about it in "Mr. Greg", though she eventually apologizes to him and says it's not his fault; and in "Maximum Capacity", Amethyst snaps at Greg over it, saying that she used to have someone who understood her, until they started hanging out with him. The only gem who hasn't indicated some degree of blaming him for Rose's discorporation is Garnet, who has better control over her emotions than the other two - it's likely she would have felt it at one point, but would have been able to manage it better.

The reason the monsters are attacking Beach City is because the Crystal Gems are there.

Or more likely, the base left there by Rose Quartz. This much seems obvious, but whether it's a revenge thing, or they are looking for something, remains to be seen.

• I sense a season finale plot point!
• In the case of Centipeetle, semi-confirmed. However, it wasn't the base or temple she was after. She was trying to get to the Warp Pad.

Pearl's roll call is a Freudian Slip

The phrase as they say it is.

Pearl: And Pearl...
Steven: And Steven!

Which, while it could mean that Pearl just screwed up, it actually means she has not yet recognized or accepted Steven as a member of the team. While she acts kind towards him, she just can't see him as a member of the group. It could also mean that, compared to his mother, Steven is a poor replacement.

• Although, in the pilot it's Steven who sings it (and apparently comes up with it), and he sings "and Pearl, and Steven" too.
  • It's probably just there to fit the meter.
    • It wouldn't even rhyme if they ended with "and Pearl."
    • What if it's Steven's Freudian slip. He sees himself not as a Crystal Gem like the others but as an outsider. Sure he gets along great with the group but that doesnt mean he feels part of it. Steven may even see himself as a poor replacement for his mother. All of this is compounded by the fact that he cant activate his gem yet. Feelings of isolation and inadequacy like that could really wreck someone up.
    • They're also a normal part of growing up, and probably won't do any lasting damage.
  • Cookie Cat is more of a Freudian Slip than anything if there is one "He left his family behind!"
• Interestingly, this doesn't happen at all in several other languages. In many foreign versions she says, roughly, "Pearl and..." followed by Steven chiming in.

(Japanese) "Pearl soshite... boku, Steven!"

Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl all live in celibacy.

For practical reasons. They can't risk getting pregnant, or they have to give up their physical forms (see the theory above). And none of them are ready to do that yet.

• I doubt the Gems would want to have sex with human males anyway. If Gems even have sexual feelings, they would probably have sex with each other, not human men.
  • We don't really even know enough about the Gems' biology to assume that they have genitalia, let alone are even able to experience sexuality at all, or even understand what it is from a biological perspective. They certainly understand what love is, or at least how they experience it, given Pearl's clear and insistent romantic feelings toward Rose, but whether that culminated into a sexual attraction on any level is not really possible to know. Probably the only person in the series who could shed any light onto this whatsoever would be Greg, and given the nature of the show, it seems unlikely. Steven's conception could very well have been entirely sexless, but we will probably never know.
  • Word of God says Gems do not have reproductive organs. But Rose used her shapeshifting powers to create a womb to carry Steven.

One of the Crystal Gems will get corrupted at some point.

And turn into a monster. Since Steven's powers are activated by emotion, he will end up healing the corrupted Gem.

• Does what happened to Amethyst count?
  • Amethyst had her gem cracked; corruption is something else entirely.

Rose is the only Gem who could make multiple weapons.

It's already been suggested/shown that each Gem has some different powers from each other. Garnet is the only one who can swim in lava and the only one we've seen produce electricity, Pearl is the only one we've seen create holograms and projections, Lapis seems to be the only one that can control water and Steven and Rose could heal. Rose has multiple weapons, something we haven't seen with any of the other Gems. It's possible that having these extra weapons was one of her unique powers.

• Rose's sword appears twice within Lion, so it may be safe to assume that it was her original weapon. Her unique power, at least the one we know about, is confirmed to have been controlling plants.
  • I'm pretty sure Rose wasn't the only one with multiple weapons as Pearl was also shown to have a collection of swords in her room as opposed to just owning a staff, so it's most likely a matter of preference. Garnet and Amethyst are shown using only their main weapons (the gauntlets and whip, respectively) as neither have the desire or patience to learn to use anything else.
    • Garnet and Amethyst do take home some weapons from the battlefield, intending to use them later, though that hasn't happened yet.
  • The personal weapons that the Gems can manifest vanish into thin air when they stop paying attention. Steven's shield was shown to do that in the first episode, but Rose's sword, and it's scabbard, are always around. The sword isn't Rose's personal Gem weapon, but one of the external weapons like in her arsenal or Pearl's collection.
    • Most likely, as well, is that they were made by Bismuth, instead of being summoned weapons. Especially regarding Rose's sword.

In a future episode, the Crystal Gems will have a chance to return to Homeworld.

When Lapis flies off to the home planet, the Crystal Gems ask what it means for them. In "Space Race", Pearl expresses a desire to return to the homeworld someday. The line about what Lapis leaving means for them is foreshadowing. The Gems on Homeworld might not know about the situation on Earth. After all, "Space Race" reveals that the Galaxy Warp pads have been inactive for thousands of years. They have lose contact with the homeworld.

• They may not want to return, since it seems they destroyed the Galaxy Warp themselves.
• It's likely they did so to prevent Homeworld Gems from invading Earth - they only did so after discovering Peridot's drones trying to repair it.
• More recent episodes make it clear that their inability to return to Homeworld is because they're rebels who would be executed immediately, not because of any travel-related issues. (After all, they technically had a chance to return to Homeworld in "Jail Break", if you count returning as prisoners.) It's still possible they might someday be able to return if the political situation changes drastically, but Pearl's desire seems to have mostly been a wistful dream that she knows to be impossible.

The Crystal Gems As A Whole/Other Crystal Gem Theories, Part 2

The Crystal Gems did realize Steven was missing during the course of "Island Adventure".

The only reason they didn't come looking for him there was because Sadie completely covered the warp pad, which probably masked it from the network.

• Steven was most probably grounded when he came back home. At least by time-abiding Greg.

Somewhere in the timeline, Rose asked Garnet what would happen if a Gem tried to have a kid with a human.

And Garnet, with her future vision, had to tell Rose that there was a very real possibility of having to sacrifice her physical form.

Rose created Lion to act as a guide and protector for Steven.

If something happened to Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl, there would have to be someone to protect and guide Steven, which is exactly what Lion does. Why Rose never told the Crystal Gems is more of a mystery, though. Maybe she just didn't get the chance, creating Lion soon before her death.

Bowing before a Fusion Dance is a Crystal Gem custom.

Pearl and Amethyst, then later Amethyst and Garnet, bowed before their dances to form Opal and Sugalite, respectively. Malachite's the only gem fusion not formed from Crystal Gems; and while the fact that no bowing occurred there may be attributed to Jasper's brutish nature, it's also quite possible that it's because it's a Crystal Gem thing.

• Which gets better the more you think of it: Crystal Gems fusions were most likely between different types of gems (as opposite to the Homeworld Rubies, per example) and a small shared bow between them could be a compliance signal. A "we're doing this" signal. In the middle of a battlefield, one figures the Gems needed more than just stare at each other to communicate they wanted to fuse. Maybe it just stuck after that.

Rose was the only one was understood Amethyst's emotions about her origins, hence why it seems that Amethyst was much more attached to her than she is to the other Gems.

Pearl and even Garnet sometimes make comments that are insensitive to Amethyst, given what we've seen about her origins and how she feels about them. Amethyst often behaves a bit like an angsty teenager, feeling that no one understands her. She also seems to have been hit hard by Rose's death in a way that Pearl and Garnet weren't. If she felt like Rose was the only one who understood her and cared about her feelings, it would explain her being so upset.

• Even if it wasn't actually true, Amethyst could very well believe this to be true herself.

Crystal Gem monster form predictions.

If the Crystal Gems we know and love ever become corrupted, their monster forms would be...

• Amethyst's might be cat-like, since she's had some cat motifs. She already has the cat mouth, she disguised herself as the Purple Puma, and has shapeshifted into a cat multiple times.
• Pearl might be a dragon, or another creature from Japanese myth. She has a slender design and is often associated with Japanese motifs.
• Pearl could be a sea monster. Again, she's slender, and she's associated with water to an extent.

Pearl and Amethyst haven't gotten along since Rose's death.

In "Giant Woman", Pearl says "This is why we can't form Opal anymore!", suggesting that they used to do it frequently but then stopped because they couldn't get along well enough. Something likely happened that triggered fighting between them, and that was Rose's death. It's been implied that Rose was a mother figure to Amethyst. Amethyst, who often acts a bit like a teenager, and has complicated emotions, needed that mother figure. When Rose left, Pearl tried to step up as that mother figure, but couldn't match up for Amethyst. With the two focusing on taking care of Steven, as well as Amethyst and Pearl finally talking about the former's origins, they might start to get along more.

The Reason the Crystal Gems looked younger in Greg story of how he met Rose is..

Before Steven was born Amethyst liked to take the form of a kid maybe because of personal preference, maybe because the other gems were more tolerant of her mischievous nature when she took the form as a kid. Pearl was kind of a big sister to Amethyst back then so she looked younger to better relate with her. When Rose died and they had to take care of Steven, Pearl more or less insisted that she and Amethyst had to take an older form so Steven would see them as authority figures or something along those lines...

The Crystal Gems regularly change their "age" appearance based on how they feel.

Hence why they look younger in Greg's story, but still look like adults in the picture from "So Many Birthdays". And in "On the Run", Amethyst's hole was the same size as her adult form. Steven demonstrated this in that same episode, but Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl can control it better than he can. Prior to the current time on the show, things might've been pretty peaceful, so the three were willing to take younger forms because that's how they felt. When Steven was born, the responsibility made them feel older, so they took older forms.

• The Gems don't actually seem to be any shorter than they are in the present, it's just that Rose is a lot taller by comparison. Personality-wise they've definitely matured, but that's probably a combination of being responsible for Steven (which seems to be a recent turn of events, given how at the beginning of the series they still barely knew how to look after him) and their grief at the loss of Rose.
• "Reformed" confirms Gems can change their default form, but their size/mass seems to be set in stone.

Before Greg, there was another human who fell in love with Rose.

When Greg shows up at the temple to play music, Rose is quick and forward to tell him that human lives are so short and he shouldn't give his up to be with her. Really seems like there was some personal experience with that...

• Confirmed. Rose had multiple human lovers before meeting Greg.

The gems spent time in stasis.

The gems have been around for a long time. So from time to time they want into suspended animation retreating into their gems or something and sleeping.

Crystal Gems' character development

• The Crystal Gems (sans Steven) have shown a rather Smug Super/Noble Bigot attitude towards humans, especially Pearl. As the series continue, they all begin to see their own limits and weaknesses that humans don't have. Something bad might happen that ensures a major Break the Haughty moment for them and have them realize that their constant prejudice attitudes led to the possible bad moment.

Pearl and Garnet changed appearances when they regenerated were based partly on how they were "poofed" and partly on how they want Steven to see them.

• Pearl got "poofed" by being stabbed in the abdomen, and she regenerated with that area covered by a sash. Additionally, the transparent parts of her outfit became filled in, possibly because she thought she ought to be more modest around Steven.
  • Except Pearl's sash doesn't cover the area where she was stabbed, which was higher up.
• Garnet got split in half by the Gem Disruptor, and her new outfit's color scheme is split in half below the chest. Additionally, her new appearance, with an overall purple color scheme that is more red on one side and more blue on the other, is more representative of the Fusion between Ruby and Sapphire. She was originally saving that as a surprise for Steven, but now that he knows she figures she might as well show it.

Inter-Gem fusion was crucial to the victory of the Crystal Gems.

Many of the weapons we see on the battlefield appear to be too large for normal Gems, even Quartz Gems. The reason Rose got excited to see Garnet was because this kind of fusion represented new possibilities. Inter-Gem fusion allowed for a relatively small army to beat the Homeworld forces.

Lapis is going to join the Crystal Gems soon, and Peridot will stay.

Since the show got a new intro relatively recently, it's unlikely that we'll see a new one for a while. Meaning that either Peridot will leave, or... we're going to see new Crystal Gems. A leaked promo shows that Lapis will return, and she's shown hanging out at the barn with Peridot and Steven.

• Sort of confirmed. Peridot does stay, and Lapis is an ally, but she is not a Crystal Gem as of yet. Peridot, on the other hand, is quite firmly a member now.
• As of "Reunited", Lapis is a Crystal Gem, though it took a lot to get there.

Fusion between different Gems was crucial to the success of the rebellion.

When fighting for Earth, the Crystal Gems were going up against a bigger army with more and better resources. So how did they win? Fusion between different Gems. Homeworld was opposed to it, but the Crystal Gems were willing to take advantage. Since fusion can produce extremely powerful Gems, and allow weak Gems to become strong, skillful fighters, it gave the Crystal Gems a big advantage.

The Crystal Gems As A Whole/Other Crystal Gem Theories, Part 3

There's no actual difference between Garnet's and Sapphire's versions of future vision

The actual nature of the power is that the user is able to see possible versions of the future based on their own possible courses of action, as best demonstrated in Winter Forecast where Garnet briefly shared the power with Steven. The reason Garnet sees it this way, while Sapphire sees only one future that she considers fate, is that Sapphire is so passive that she can't imagine herself actually doing anything to affect the future. Since she can't imagine herself taking action, she can't see more than one possibility. This habit was reinforced when she got into the idea of seeing that one possibility as "fate".

• Confirmed by Word of God. Sapphire's future vision sees the future, while Garnet's sees all possibilities.

Gems have arrived to Earth in Middle Age

We know that about five and a half thousand years ago, Gems have arrived on Earth and started colonizing it. During that colonization, the resources of the planet were severely depleted, and a small group of Gems have raised a rebellion, that has, in the end overthrown the Gems regime.The series seem, at first glance, to take place in modern times and has a comparable level of technology. However, the continents look slightly different from ours, and there is no mention of almost anything directly connecting the world of the series with our world (the only exception seems to be Kansas state that replace Hollywood). The currency is different, the name of the state is made-up and no historical figures or countries ever mentioned that would correspond to something we know.There are also curious timeline inconsistencies that Crystal Gems mention, if we were to think that those 5.5 thousand years should be counted from 2012 A.D. For example, the culture of knighthood (which would appear at least 4.5. thousand years after the rebellion) mentioned by Pearl in Sworn to the Sword like something she picked up from humans during the war. She also mentions the hunting and gathering societies, that would not have existed by 3500 A.D. since Neolithic revolution happened more than 12 000 years ago.So Gemkind have arrived to Earth in Middle Age (that when Pearl learn about knighthood). Due to exhaustion of planet's resources and the following rebellion, humanity has lost millennia of advancement and for some times return to hunting and gathering (that when Pearl see that). Therefore the events of the series happen not in year 2012, but approximately in year 6500 A.D, when people have recovered from those events and regained the modern level of technology.

• This is a good explanation for why the gem war happened nearly 6000 years before the "present time" and yet Pearl also picked up the concept of a knight from humans during or before the war. It may be that the Crystal Gems, after completely rejecting Homeworld culture, used a lot of concepts borrowed from medieval human culture to craft their new ways of thinking. Garnet, as a cross-gem fusion, was considered abominable by homeworld standards, and by Homeworld's understanding of fusion, her desire to remain fused all the time was inexplicable. While struggling to come up with a new self-concept for what the heck she even was, she may have borrowed the concept of a marriage from medieval humans to try and understand what she is. This may be why she is monogamous (rejecting Jamie's amorous advances on the basis that "three's a crowd", and not wanting to further fuse into Sugilite, Sardonyx, Alexandrite, etc. without a really good practical reason) even though no other gems seem to have any concept of such a thing. (Rose had no issue fusing with Pearl in front of Greg, seeing no contradiction between her relationship with Pearl and her relationship with Greg.)

It's not Crystal Gems, it's Crystal-Gems

Okay! This is a long one and it builds on some other theories.

• Part 1: So, recently, we saw a being with a gem that matched the shape of the bubbled object inside lion's mane. The fandom has dubbed this character/object Bismuth, due to it's resemblance to the element bismuth in it's crystal state. Now, bismuth isn't a gem, but it can occur in a crystal form.
• Part 2: Gem Homeworld is highly militarized, and has been for a long time. You don't just build up a military, you build up a military to fight an enemy. I postulate that the Gem Homeworld is locked in a Forever War with some other alien race.
• Part 3: Back to Bismuth. Bismuth the element isn't thought of as a gemstone, but it is thought of as a crystal. What if Bismuth the character isn't a gem at all, but a Crystal, from an entire race of Crystals, beings that are projections from an object like the Gems, but based off metallic elements and non-gemstone crystals. And these Crystals are locked in an eternal war with Gem Homeworld.
• Part 4: This war between Gems and Crystals has been going on for millenia with no end in sight, but what if Roses rebellion began as an action against the war. As an alliance between Gems AND Crystals that opposed both governments and the war.

An alliance of Crystals and Gems.

The Crystal-Gems.

The Crystal Gems won the war because they used fusions between different gem-types as a forbidden technique.

When Sapphire and Ruby merge for the first time, everyone present reacts as if it's an unheard of and unthinkable abomination for two gems of different types to merge; yet as we see, such fusions are significantly more powerful than ones between a single type. Unlike everyone else, Rose reacts with curiosity; aside from showing her basic decency (in that she cares about Sapphire, Ruby, and Garnet as a person), this might also reflect a willingness to experiment with it. Previously it was something nobody did, but after that point, the Crystal Gems started using other cross-gem fusions, giving them a significant advantage. This would additionally explain why Jasper was willing to fuse with Lapis as an emergency measure - as a survivor of that war, she'd seen first-hand how effective it was, and as a Blood Knight she was willing to do anything to win.

Most or all of the Crystal Gems will have their motivations to fight tested at some point.

Going over the list of reasons they give for fighting for earth in the expanded intro theme, most of them are either a little worrying, or are noticeably conditional. Obviously they have other reasons to fight for Earth, but it's telling that the theme focuses on these in particular, which are often among their weaker reasons, or ones that hint at an underlying need for Character Development:

• Garnet sings that "I will fight for the place where I'm free! / To live together and exist as me!" It's unlikely that the Homeworld would change their view on fusions any time soon, but not impossible.
• Pearl sings that "I will fight in the name of Rose Quartz! / And everything that she believed in!" Pearl's inability to escape from Rose's shadow and move on is a major aspect of her character, which means that if that's her main reason for fighting, she's likely to have to struggle with it at some point.
• Amethyst sings that "I will fight for the world I was made in! / The Earth is everything I've ever known!" Which, taken from the other direction, means she's fighting for Earth because she hasn't really seen any alternative, and underlines her core inexperience compared to the other gems; unlike Garnet or Pearl (who made the hard decision to give up another life in order to fight for Earth), Amethyst has never really had or considered any alternatives.
• Steven, perhaps most noticeably, sings that "I will fight to be everything that everybody wants me to be when I'm grown!" This is maybe the most alarming one (especially since, with Steven being an All-Loving Hero, you'd expect something else); Steven will eventually need to find a better reason to fight for earth than just "everyone expects it of me."

Also, that's the order they appear in in the song; notice that it goes from the older gems with relatively well-reasoned and solid rationales (Garnet wouldn't even be allowed to exist on her homeworld; Pearl is fighting for the memory of the most important person in her life) to increasingly shaky ones (Amethyst having never known anything else; Steven doing it because it's expected of him.)

Thanks to their weapons Mid-Season Upgrade....

It's safe to say that their Fusion Dance weapons will also now be different. Guesses below:

• Sardonyx's hammer can turn into a battle ax due to the blades on Garnet's knuckles.
• Opal's bow can have bladed arms due to the additional blades on Pearl's spear, allowing it to be used as a melee weapon in addition to a long-ranged weapon.
• Sugilite flail's becomes a spiked wrecking ball (wrecking flail?), due to Garnet's knuckle dusters and Amethyst's spike balls.
• The non-string part of Smoky Quartz's yoyo will have spikes thanks to Amethyst's spike balls.

Rose kept the Breaking Point just in case she needed it

Steven destroyed the Breaking Point easily. Why didn't Rose just do that? Because she thought she might need to use it in the future.

• We don't know that Steven actually destroyed it, just that he threw it into the lava. If Bismuth ever gets out, she may retrieve it.

One of the Crystal Gems is going to get shattered.

Just putting this out there now, the show has shown its not one to shy away from showing hard consequences for actions and going a lot darker than you'd expect for a cute gem and rainbow show. In the future episode, one of the Crystal Gems is going to get shattered and be Killed Off for Real. My guess is it is going to be either Ruby or Sapphire, by way of Garnet blocking an attack meant to shatter Steven with her gauntlet. This way the show will be able to show coping with the loss of a loved one, through the eyes (or eye if Sapphire is the survivor) of the one left behind.

• Losing a Crystal Gem could also cause the Gems to become divided, and might even lead to Bismuth's return.

Bismuth is going to recover, escape and form a splinter faction that seizes power while the Crystal Gems are away.

Having given up on Rose's principles she will form a nation using her fellow escapees and enslave the humans of Beach City.

• Jossed. Steven frees her and she becomes friendly with the Crystal Gems again.

The flashbacks in Your Mother and Mine are a lie.

Or, at the very least, large parts of them are untrue or glorified. The only 100% true part is when Rose shields Garnet and Pearl from the Diamond’s attack, which is the only flashback in color.

• In Rose's Scabbard, Rose says "If we win, we can never go home." yet the flashbacks say she was made on Earth. Why would she consider another planet (presumably Homeworld) "home" if Earth was the planet she was created on and she loved Earth so much?
• The first Kindergarten was planted 6000 years before the series. The Answer took place approximately 250 years later. It is hinted Gems take hundreds of years to incubate and emerge. Did Rose truly have time to form, emerge, learn to love Earth, rebel, and find Pearl in that time?
• It's been repeatedly pointed out that Rose's sword cannot cut gems, yet Rose’s sword is shown slashing through and shattering Pink Diamond.
• The flashbacks are styled in a way similar to the fairy tale from Revolutionary Girl Utena. This wouldn't be the first time the show referenced that anime.

The inconsistencies are hints that the story Garnet told is either untrue and basically Crystal Gem Propaganda and/or is only true as far as she knows. If the latter is the case, only Pearl knows the real tale. Rose likely told Garnet and the other Crystal Gems this version of her past to make herself seem more relatable as a fellow Gem from Earth.

• Confirmed in that the story wasn't true. But Garnet appears to have believed it, so it wasn't a lie per se...

Buddy Buddwick was one of Rose's human lovers.

Rose tells Greg she's loved other humans before, and Pearl also mentions this, in the song "It's Over, Isn't It?" The ending of "Buddy's Book" shows that Buddy and Rose met, and that she was something of an inspiration to him. Its possible they became closer later on. As a result, Pearl wrote a scene in her theater version of the founding of Beach City where Buddy gets killed by a kraken-like gem monster, revealing her jealousy of him. Jamie kept the scene in, thinking it was historically accurate, but added another where Buddy is shown to survive, since he was aware about his adventures later in life.

Despite how hopeless all previous attempts at directly fighting them were, Obsidian could have easily defeated any of the diamonds in open combat.

She separated when the ship-bot headbutted her into a wall, and not reformed in time to challenge White. She was removed as an option when most of them were mind-controlled, leaving Steven's attempts to reason with her as the only remaining option. But if the circumstances were different... She's at least as tall as White Diamond, and can use Pink Diamond/Rose's shield, which is seemingly the only thing capable of blocking Yellow's insta-poof lightning and White's mind control rays. Abilities that otherwise make them impossible to challenge. Abilities that they're so used to relying on, that they probably don't have much combat experience outside of that. Not to mention Obsidian's sword could probably poof even them in a single stroke, though using it might be risky if it requires her to give up the shield.

The four main Crystal Gems are the opposites of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Specifically, the Pestilence-Famine-War-Death combination. Pearl is a Neat Freak - the opposite of Pestilence. Amethyst is a Big Eater - the opposite of Famine. Garnet, as she points out in her "I Am" Song, is "made of love" - the opposite of War. And finally, Rose Quartz (and her son Steven) is the protector of life on Earth, with matching powers - the opposite of Death.

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