Foreshadowing / Steven Universe

WARNING: This page is meant to describe events as they related to much later, very significant ones. Thus this page will have no spoiler marks at all. So, please, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

---

Garnet

The now-Late-Arrival Spoiler that Garnet is a Fusion, revealed in "Jail Break", had extensive foreshadowing.

• Garnet has two gems, one on each hand. This could have been for symmetry purposes, but the gems have different cuts — one is triangular and one is square. We get a very clear, close-up look at both of her gems in "Gem Glow" as she describes her weapon-summoning technique and they very obviously don't match. Turns out, the square one belongs to Ruby and the triangular one to Sapphire.
• During that conversation, she also agrees with both Amethyst and Pearl's clearly paradoxical advice. It turns out it wouldn't be impossible for her to use both methods at once.
• Garnet is far bigger than the other two Gems, and has an extra body part (her Third Eye), both of which are fusion traits.
• There are five gems on the temple door (one for each point of the star), and each Gem enters their room by lighting up the one corresponding to them. However, there is no gem with Garnet's colors — instead, she lights up both the blue and the bright red gems.
• Garnet has two shooting stars behind her in the first season intro.
• In the pilot, Garnet is introduced standing behind two stone formations — one blue, one red. The former has ice around it while the latter has fire.
• Garnet and Amethyst's Fusion, Sugilite, is MUCH larger than Opal (they're both giant, but Opal carries Steven under one arm like a big sack of potatoes — compare to him next to Sugilite, where he barely comes up to the top of her foot). A three-Gem fusion would be much larger than a two-Gem fusion...
• A Freeze-Frame Bonus in "Fusion Cuisine" when Alexandrite de-fuses shows the silhouettes of four gems — Pearl, Amethyst, and two small figures, each with one of Garnet's gems.
• "Garnet's Universe": When Hopper and Hoppy ask if they can meet Steven, Garnet declines, saying that he's "not ready to meet [her] secret animal friends"; i.e., He's not ready to meet Ruby and Sapphire, and by extension, learn that Garnet is a Fusion. Hoppy is also missing an eye.
• "Alone Together":
  • When Amethyst says that fusion is hard even for the Gems, Garnet says "not for me".
  • Garnet is ecstatic upon meeting Stevonnie, giving them a big speech about how they're an experience and how they should go have fun. Being a Fusion herself immediately explains why she was so supportive compared to the cautious Pearl and excited Amethyst.
  • Garnet is also shown pressing her palms, and thus her gems, together when she first sees Stevonnie.
• Amethyst once refers to Garnet as "G-squad". An odd way to refer to one person...
• When Jasper first meets the Crystal Gems in "The Return", she calls Garnet a "shameless display". We later find out that fusion between two Gems of different types is taboo on Homeworld.
• "Jail Break":
  • When Steven remembers Garnet's gems falling to the ground after he wakes up, they are bright red and blue, instead of Garnet's deep red.
  • Both Ruby and Sapphire recognize Steven immediately, and Ruby doesn't want him to look at her. We later find out that they were planning on revealing themselves to Steven as a birthday surprise, which Ruby presumably didn't want to spoil.
• For a meta example, Garnet's voiced by a celebrity, like with every other fusion in the series.

Amethyst

• Amethyst being made to be a warrior was foreshadowed way back in "Gem Glow" — she doesn't need to expend any mental effort to summon her weapon, unlike Pearl, who needs to concentrate to do it.
• One of the transformations Amethyst cycles through in "Cat Fingers" is her Purple Puma wrestler persona from "Tiger Millionaire".
• "Steven's Lion": Garnet comments that "[the Crystal Gems] kept Amethyst". We later find out that they really did — they found her in the Kindergarten and made her part of their group.
• Amethyst was always way smaller than the Big Beautiful Woman Rose Quartz and later the massive Jasper, despite them all being types of quartz. Jasper also disparages her by calling her an "overcooked runt". Peridot later reveals that Amethyst is defective — she stayed in the ground too long and should have been around Jasper's size.

Bismuth

• Bismuth's very existence was foreshadowed: her bubbled gem was visible within Lion's mane space as soon as Steven first entered it, but never discussed, leading to prolonged fan speculation about her before she was finally introduced. Fans even guessed her name, based on the very distinctive appearance of bismuth crystals.

In "Bismuth", what's Beneath the Mask of the title character is foreshadowed throughout the episode:

• Steven says he's done a terrible thing when he breaks the bubble around Bismuth's gem, having assumed he released a Corrupted Gem. He has no idea how right he is.
• When poofed Gems are released from a bubble, they manifest in the same position they were in when it happened, as though no time has passed. When Bismuth first manifests, she quickly takes a fighting stance. Given that she was fighting a war, the viewer might not think that much of it at first.
• Bismuth's gem was bubbled inside Lion's mane, that is, Rose's personal space. We know that the Crystal Gems bubble Gems that are too dangerous to set free, and Rose (then Steven) is the only person who could have known where Bismuth was, making the concept of releasing a bubbled Gem hidden by none other than the rebellion's leader a big red flag in the first place.
  • Her presence there is really the biggest red flag. If she's one more good guy and member of the True Companions, why did Rose feel the need to not only keep her bubbled, but store her away in a Pocket Dimension only accessible with her gem?
• When Pearl mentions the last they'd heard of Bismuth was Rose's claim to have lost track of her in a battle, Bismuth briefly looks very distressed and asks where Rose is. After seeing Steven has Rose's gem, she immediately asks if he knows her.
  Pearl: It's not easy to understand Rose's choices, but we have to stand behind them.
  Bismuth: [looking at her reflection in Steven's gem] Rose really is something else...
• After Bismuth learns that the Crystal Gem army was almost completely wiped out, she angrily states that she could have stopped it if she was there. With a weapon like the Breaking Point, she'd have sufficient reason to believe so.
• Bismuth talks at length about other Crystal Gems, about all the the friends that she loves and misses. She never says a single thing about wanting to protect Earth — the most she acknowledges about Earth or humanity is to call Steven a "meatball" when she assumes he's just a human.
• Upon hearing Homeworld still has their eyes on Earth, Bismuth reacts the opposite way to how the others did in "Warp Tour":
  Bismuth: Good. I thought I wouldn't get another chance to show those uppercrusts who's boss!
• While watching one of the Lonely Blade movies, Steven pleads with Lonely Blade not to use the Artifact of Doom whose power is tempting him. Bismuth questions this, saying it just makes sense to use the most powerful weapon possible.
• The thing Bismuth says she admired about Rose was her Grew Beyond Their Programming philosophy, not her compassion.
• While Amethyst dismisses the idea after Bismuth gives her a weapon upgrade, she feels that there's something suspicious about her. Specifically in how she never heard of her, even from Rose.
• Bismuth's appearance even foreshadows something is "off" about her. Her pink sash looks like an irregular star, but in truth is the shape of a military chevron. This hints that her nature is fundamentally different than that of the other Crystal Gems, as their clothing is more casual. Bismuth's style is much more "militant" than the others' more relaxed stances in life. Further, her Gem is placed in the center of her chest. Like Amethyst, the placement of her Gem signifies she is ruled by her heart. Yet her Gem turns inwards versus the outward protrusion we've seen from every other Gem, Homeworld and Crystal alike, throughout the series. The symbolism is literal and figurative: she has a hole in her heart.
• When he's sitting with Bismuth on the couch and talking, Steven lampshades the fact that every new Gem he's met has tried to kill him and that it's taken him ages to become friends with them after that… so he's awfully glad that meeting Bismuth has gone differently. There's even a Scare Chord playing during the pause while the camera shows Bismuth's alarmed reaction.

The Diamond Authority

• "Rose's Room" has, in the glitchy mock Beach City, a sky full of stars... but they're actually white, yellow, blue, and pink diamonds.
• In "Keep Beach City Weird", when Ronaldo sees the diamond on the back of a dollar bill, he remarks "I know what the diamond means... Polymorphic sentient rocks!" and "They're here to hollow out the Earth! It's part of the Great Diamond Authority!" What seemed like nonsensical raving is proven to be correct on all counts when when we learn that not only are Diamonds the Gem matriarchs, they expand Gemkind by colonizing planets to use their resources, with the end result hollowing out the planet.
• The identities of the Diamonds were first hinted at by the symbols decorating Gem structures. There having been a fourth member who met an uncertain fate during the rebellion was foreshadowed by a change from a symbol with four colored shapes (on the Sky Arena and the dropship from "Friend Ship") to a symbol with three shapes (the building from "Serious Steven" and Peridot's hand ship). As for who she was and exactly what happened to her... well, see the folder for Rose Quartz.
• Steven facilitates the reconciliation of Greg (cast in yellow light) and Pearl (shaded blue) in the song "Both of You" during "Mr. Greg", then does likewise for Yellow and Blue Diamond in "Change Your Mind".
• In the "Out of This World" arc, Pink Diamond's Human Zoo is kept up and run by Blue Diamond in Pink's memory. In "Now We're Only Falling Apart", it's revealed that Blue was actually the one who built the zoo in the first place, because she misinterpreted Pink's desire to preserve the Earth's life.
• In "Legs From Here to Homeworld", before Steven leaves for Homeworld, Bismuth gives him some advice: "You're about to enter the lions' den. Luckily, you're a lion too! You gotta roar at them in their language; you're the one that has to do it." And what causes White Diamond's composure to shake for the first time in the climactic confrontation? What puts the first cracks in her absolute conviction that she knows what's best for everything and everyone when Steven's emotional, empathic pleas fail to move her? Pink Steven, the embodiment of all the Diamond power Steven inherited from his mom, roaring.
• In "Change Your Mind", when Steven finally confronts White Diamond, she tells him "[Blue] thinks she needs you, Pink. As for me, I'm certain I don't. After all, I'm every color of the light ! But you're a part of me. The part I always have to repress..." At first, as pointed out by Amethyst, those words don't seem to make any sense. But then, it is revealed that White herself is off-color, and blushes bright pink whenever she's embarrassed. Since she has to pretend to be flawless, of course she always has to repress the pink in her spectrum! And in the end, accepting that flaw is what leads to her Heel–Face Turn, meaning that she actually does need "pink".

Jasper

Jasper's past may have only been revealed at the end of Season 3, but it's been hinted at since she first appeared.

• Jasper never calls Yellow Diamond "My Diamond", like Peridot does, despite wearing her symbol. Turns out, she still considers Pink Diamond to be her Diamond, even thousands of years later.
• Jasper, at the time of her introduction, came off as a Psycho for Hire who cared more about a personal war vendetta against Rose Quartz than her mission, despite Word of God stating Quartz soldiers to be "loyal". "Earthlings" reveals that she is undyingly loyal... to her original leader, Pink Diamond.
  • Jasper only mentions Pink Diamond at the end of "Earthlings", but in the beginning of the episode when she's talking about how all Gems are supposed to serve the Diamonds, a graphic is shown of the original Diamond Authority symbol, which has Pink Diamond in it.
• When reflected in Garnet's visor during "Stronger Than You", Jasper's uniform appears pink.
• Jasper was a big Knight of Cerebus when she arrived, able to fight evenly with Garnet (a Fusion) and survive being thrown into a reactor and then her ship crashing as the result of said reactor throw unpoofed, and is only eventually defeated by Lapis Lazuli tricking her. While for a while she was the only Homeworld Quartz with screen time (Rose and Amethyst not being normal examples of Quartz Gems), others have been talked about as if they weren't so tough (Pearl flattens a pair of them in "The Answer", and Bismuth (made to be a worker, not a fighter) talks about taking on platoons of Quartz soldiers. It turns out, Jasper is not a normal example of a Quartz either — she is the result of absolutely everything possible going right in a Gem's creation, resulting in an "Ultimate Quartz" much more powerful than the usual variety.

Pearl

The placement of Pearls on homeworld and the Hidden Depths of our Pearl in particular were there even before they were explored in depth. Of course, most of what Pearl has been hiding overlaps with the Rose Quartz category below.

• Pearl is obsessively neat and tidy, and enjoys cleaning tasks — a mindset that fits in very well with being a servant.
• Jasper calls Pearl "defective", indicating that she should not be a warrior (the context in which Jasper met her). Also, the description "some lost, defective Pearl" is the first suggestion that there are many of each type of Gem.
• Pearl's self-esteem is very, very low, and in "Friend Ship" she attributes that to being "just a Pearl". We later find out that Pearls are the lowest possible caste (besides Pebbles), so Pearl would have been trained to think of herself as the lowest of the low.
• Pearl doesn't make use of her natural gem strengths in combat (other than summoning her spear); her fighting style is based entirely on technique. Turns out, she doesn't have natural combat abilities like Amethyst and Garnet do – Pearls were never meant to be that strong.
• Pearl's former owner and role in the Pink Diamond murder mystery:
  • Pearl never shapeshifts except to summon different outfits, which is pointed out several times (i.e. during the game of 'Steven Tag'). We find out exactly what has been blocking her from shapeshifting in "A Single Pale Rose".
  • Pearl sometimes indicates that she knows more about what happened to Pink Diamond than the other Crystal Gems, but doesn't say it (for example, in "Back to the Moon", Garnet tries to reassure Steven that Rose did what she had to do, but Pearl turns away and covers her mouth). "A Single Pale Rose" shows exactly what she knew that Garnet and Amethyst didn't.
  • Pearl's gem has a slightly pink tint.
  • The Crystal Gems' Arc Symbol is a star, but pink diamonds occasionally show up connected to Pearl, like her space suit from "Space Race" and Sardonyx's shoes. The first version of Holo-Pearl seen had a diamond where Pearl's outfit at the time had a star.
  • "Back to the Barn": Peridot, upon revealing that Pearls are meant to be slaves, comments that Pearl is a "fancy" one.
  • When Steven sees Yellow Pearl, he asks if Pearl knows her. Pearl tells him that not all Pearls know each other. What Pearl doesn't do is deny that she herself knows Yellow Pearl- because she does.
  • Pearl has a Character Tic of covering her mouth, which noticeably includes whenever Pink Diamond came up. "Gemcation" showed that this was at times seemingly involuntary, as it happens when she says she wants to tell Steven something important "about the Diamonds". This is because Pink Diamond's last order to her was to never tell anyone.
  • Pearl's verse in the extended theme song starts off with, "If you could only know / What we really are," alluding to her status as a Secret-Keeper^note the promo for the season three premiere event put specific emphasis on this lyric, then follows it up with "When we arrived on Earth / From out beyond your star"- which, as stated elsewhere on the page, contradicts the narrative that Rose was a quartz gem born in a kindergarten who grew beyond her status as a warrior. Indeed, "Now We're Only Falling Apart" shows Pink Diamond and Pearl arriving on Earth's surface and falling in love with the planet's life.

Rose Quartz

The big reveal from "A Single Pale Rose", that Rose and Pink Diamond were the same person, was given with quite a bit of foreshadowing ("elaborate breadcrumb trails", as Joe Johnston calls it), to the point where this episode alone earned the series its own foreshadowing page.

• Rose's powers:
  • Rose won the Superpower Lottery to a level beyond any other standard Gem, which just didn't gel with Rose being a basic Quartz soldier. In fact, none of her powers — healing (strong enough to resurrect people and animals and to heal cracked gems, both of which are unprecedented in the setting), granting powers such as pocket dimension hair and warping capabilities to said resurrected, a shield/barrier (purely defensive, though it can be thrown), plant constructs — befit someone specifically made to be a standard soldier. Eyeball even believed that only the "villainous" Rose Quartz had the ability to heal Gems. Her only offensive weapon was made by Bismuth, not summoned, and not one of her inborn abilities fits "common soldier designed to go out and smash". The mook-making and power-granting abilities especially scream "leader".
  • Neither Rose nor Steven have been seen to use a Rolling Attack like Amethyst and Jasper, both Quartzes, have used at some point.
  • One of her most prominent powers was an impregnable shield (both her Gem weapon and bubble abilities). The most well-known trait of diamonds is how incredibly hard they are (a 10 on the Mohs scale, for reference).
  • There's the fact that the other two Diamonds have been shown to have powers that directly affect Gems (Yellow's gem destabilizer-like lightning, Blue's emotion wave, and Corruption, which is depicted as being cast directly from the three remaining Diamonds' hands) like Rose's healing powers and Steven's ability to make mental contact with Gems.
  • Rose's combat ability has consistently been shown to be very high (she manages to lay down a Curb-Stomp Battle on the three-Ruby Fusion alone), and it's implied that she's never been poofed (she retained the same outfit from the Gem War until her death). Only the "Ultimate Quartz" Jasper has been shown to get anywhere near being that tough, but Rose was supposed to be just a bog-standard Quartz.
  • On the subject of Jasper, she's stated to be "The Ultimate Quartz"... and yet, she has nowhere near the apparent abilities and strength of Rose Quartz.
• It's a recurring theme that all Gems have personality traits that are either reminiscent or the exact opposite of their gemstone's role in gemology. Diamonds symbolize innocence and integrity of moral values, which are traits that none of the Diamonds introduced had — but which fits Steven like a glove.
• Rose's appearance was always more human-like and detailed than the other Gems. Guess what other Gems tend to be shown that way? Building on that, Rose doesn't look like a standard Quartz: Her hair was styled in Regal Ringlets rather than being messy and wild, she looked more chubby than muscular, and she usually wore a Battle Ballgown instead of a uniform.
• Rose and Steven were frequently given symbolism associated with royalty, in ways more and less obvious:
  • One of the meanings of Steven's name is "crowned".
  • In "Gem Glow", shortly before Steven manages to summon his shield for the first time, Amethyst sarcastically addresses him as "Your Majesty" when he insists on trying to recreate the circumstances where his gem glowed earlier.
  • Steven's birthday outfit, seen in "So Many Birthdays" and "Steven's Birthday", is a cape and crown that makes him look like a king.
  • In "Watermelon Steven", Greg dubs Steven "Your Watermelajesty" and puts a crown made of watermelon rind on him after he wins their impromptu seed-spitting contest. At the end, after Steven gets the Watermelon Stevens to go away, Garnet compliments him by saying, "Spoken like a true king."
  • People kneeling to them like a loyal subject would do to their monarch happens more than once.
    • In "Rose's Scabbard", Pearl kneels to Rose this way when she acts out a conversation they once had a long time ago.
    • "Sworn to the Sword" has Connie do this when Pearl tells her to bow to Steven as her "liege", something she and Steven find quite funny.
    • "Lars' Head" frames Lars kneeling to Steven so he can use the hair portal to return home in this fashion as well.
• Rose was somehow able to shield Pearl and Garnet from the combined power of all three remaining Diamonds. This was because she was the fourth.
• While it's a trait shared with the actual Rose Quartz gems she made, Rose's gem has a pentagonal facet. Most of the other Quartz gems seen (apart from some Jaspers) have hexagonal facets, reflecting how Quartz crystals are six-sided in real life. Pink Diamond, meanwhile, has a gemstone with a pentagonal profile and a pentagon-shaped opening.
• Steven was implied to both be abnormally strong (being able to easily move a boulder the Off Colors were struggling to move) and tough (Amethyst noting how insane it is that he was just walking off being slammed into the ground from the sky hard enough to make a sizable crater in the ground), even by Gem standards.
• Steven (and his Fusions) has rather poofy, curly hair, which doesn't really resemble his dad's longer and straighter hair, or Rose Quartz's ringlets. But it does resemble Pink Diamond's equally fluffy hairdo.
• Both Rainbow Quartz and Sardonyx have hints to the Diamond symbol, with Sardonyx's being pink diamonds on her shoes.
• Rainbow Quartz, the Fusion between Pearl and Rose, has a rather pointed chin. Pink Diamond has a pointed chin, but "Rose" and Pearl don't. Also, with the cutout in Rainbow Quartz's outfit, the top half looks like a star and the bottom half looks like a diamond, and the bottom of her leotard is reminiscent of Pink’s outfit. Indeed, Rainbow Quartz in retrospect resembles Pink Diamond's true form much more than she does Rose.
• Accounts of Rose's birthplace were contradictory: Bismuth and Garnet explicitly said she was made on Earth, the latter saying Rose started the rebellion without even leaving it. Yet Rose spoke to Greg as if Earth was a foreign planet — saying that she didn't miss her home at all — and she told Pearl they could never "go home" if they won the war. Pearl also desperately misses being able to travel through space, which would be odd if she met Rose after coming to Earth. What seems like a continuity error was actually a hint that Rose was from space, but made (or at least let) Gems besides Pearl think she was made on Earth.
  • In "On the Run", Pearl calls Amethyst "the one good thing to come out of this mess" ("this mess" being Homeworld making Kindergartens on Earth). Considering how highly she thought of Rose, it would be weird of her not to count her as another "good thing" to come out of the Earth Kindergartens — if she was made in one.
• Bismuth created Rose's Sword to cut through a Gem's physical forms easily, but never harm the gemstone (which is why she created the Breaking Point in the first place). Steven even assumes that Rose used the Breaking Point in "The Trial"... only to be corrected that she actually used a sword, and the sword used being Rose's Sword is confirmed in Garnet's story in "Your Mother and Mine". "A Single Pale Rose" confirms that the sword performed exactly as Bismuth intended — it was able to poof a Diamond in one swipe, but her gem was left unharmed.
  • "Your Mother and Mine" also confirms that the Gem using the sword against Pink Diamond had it in their right hand, but Rose Quartz has always been portrayed with her sword in her left. Turns out the real "killer" was Pearl, who always uses her right hand unless she's Dual Wielding.
• The Out of This World arc and the reveal of the Human Zoo shows that Pink Diamond had an unusual fascination with Earth's life, much like Rose Quartz — and keeping humans in a zoo mirrors Rose's unintentionally condescending attitude towards them. (Though we later discover that, despite what Garnet thought, Pink Diamond was not actually responsible for the Zoo's creation.)
• Lion's warp power often shows pink diamonds flickering in the tunnel and when the portals close, getting progressively more obvious as the series has progressed.
• Beings who've been resurrected by Rose Quartz's power turn pink. However, the exact color scheme (pink skin/body and extremely pale pink hair) matches Pink Diamond's appearance much more than Rose's.
• Both Rose and Pink had their gems where their navel would be. Both gems were also the same shade of pink.
• A meta example: Pink Diamond's gem is a brilliant-cut diamond with the pavilion (pointy end) facing upwards. A Crewniverse t-shirt that has images of all the main characters' gemstones shows that Rose Quartz/Steven's gem has a pavilion, despite the bubbled Rose Quartzes in the Human Zoo not having pavilions.
• Another meta example: The foam keychains that gave away Pearl's look as Pink Diamond's servant also have Rose Quartz in a Homeworld uniform sporting a pink diamond — but while the Pearl keychain was labelled "Past Pearl", the Rose one was "Rose Quartz — Amethyst Soldier Version" instead of '"Past Rose Quartz". Due to Rose essentially just being a disguise back then, it makes sense that they would label it as an alternate version of Rose instead of Rose from the past, as it was just the Amethyst soldier version of Pink's Rose Quartz persona.
• Continuing the meta theme: Whenever asked a question by a fan that would have been a large hint toward or directly given away the reveal (Can Diamonds be poofed, was Rose actually a Diamond, and so on), the Crewniverse would get somewhat evasive and not answer yes or no (i.e. responding to the Diamond question with "Her name was Rose QUARTZ" instead of "No, she's a Quartz gem"). Looking back, they were using Exact Words to get around having to spoil the big twist on the Internet.
• Pearl's gem has a subtly pinkish tint to it, just as Blue and Yellow Pearl's gems are tinted the colors of their Diamonds.
• Pink Diamond's palanquin has flower-shaped ribbing, with the peepholes in particular looking like heraldic roses. Those were what people primarily thought roses looked like, until hybridization created garden roses — including the kind Rose Quartz is heavily associated with.
• The Cookie Cat jingle from "Gem Glow", which tells how the mascot is "A refugee of an interstellar war!", hints at the background of the Crystal Gems in general. However, the line "He left his family behind!" is particularly relevant to Rose/Pink — especially since Cookie Cat himself wears pink. Shortly after this episode aired, Ian Jones-Quartey even drew attention to Steven's Imagine Spot from "Future Vision" of Cookie Cat being evil. And speaking of Cookie Cat, the actual Cookie Cat ice cream sandwiches are half vanilla (which looks a good deal like Rose's skintone) and half strawberry (which is reminiscent of Pink Diamond's coloration). And he even has diamonds on his little Bindle Stick!
  • Speaking of "Gem Glow", look at the scene when Steven summons his shield for the first time◊: the shield's roundness and holographic lighting put together make it entirely look like a brilliant-cut diamond, just the way Pink's gemstone is shaped.
• Pearl and Pink/Rose being able to change their coloration like they did was something hinted at way back in "Cat Fingers", as Steven's fingers changed colors drastically when shifted. There's also the fact that Gem "clothes" can change colors when shapeshifted and/or after a regeneration.
• It may be a stretch, but after Steven's whole Time Travel Me's a Crowd thing in "Steven and the Stevens", he watches his other selves be erased by undoing the original incident... and part of his song at the end states "I learned to stay true to myself by watching myself die." Turns out it's not the first time in his lives that he's done just that...
• In "Mirror Gem", Pearl tells Steven the mirror will show him anything he wants to see regarding Gem history. Steven sees himself in the mirror and says, "I must be incredibly important to Gem culture." Considering who his mother was and who Homeworld currently thinks he is, he isn't wrong.
• "Keep Beach City Weird": The one dollar bill shown in the episode not only has a brilliant-cut diamond as one of the images on it, but it is depicted in exactly the same orientation as Pink Diamond's Gem: upside-down.
• After Ringo steals the gem in "Garnet's Universe", he turns it so the top is facing outward before he sets it in his hair, much like how Pink turned her gem sideways to masquerade as Rose Quartz.
• In Attack the Light, Pearl cautions that the Prism can only be activated by a powerful Gem. Amethyst figures that Steven won't be powerful enough to count, but it turns out he is, and thus we get the plot of the game. As a Diamond, he is (unknowingly) one of the four most powerful Gems in existence.
• Pearl's fury at being Locked Out of the Loop regarding Rose's plans way back in "Rose's Scabbard" seemed slightly histrionic and disproportionate, to the point that you would have been forgiven for thinking she was exaggerating her role as Rose's confidant... but she was telling the absolute truth. Rose really did charge her with secrets that absolutely no one else was privy to.
• In the non-canon "Say Uncle", Uncle Grandpa states that Steven should clean his gem at least twice a year. Rose quartz gems don't need cleaning at all, but diamonds do need a professional cleaning done twice yearly.
• "Haven't You Noticed (I'm a Star)" from "Sadie's Song" alludes to Pink Diamond's status, even containing a lyric foreshadowing her shattering by her palanquin as well as that the event was staged.
  I can't help it if I make a scene, stepping out of my hot pink limousine
• In "Back to the Barn", Peridot points out that not only was Pearl created to be someone's personal servant, but she is a particularly fancy example of her kind. Someone really high up in gem hierarchy owned her. Someone like, say, a Diamond.
• In "The Answer", the Crystal Gems are shown to be an Oddly Small Organization, with only Rose and Pearl attacking the Sky Arena. While at the time this was chalked up to Garnet simplifying things for Steven's sake, it's revealed in "Now We're Only Falling Apart" that the Crystal Gems weren't technically a real organization at the time, consisting only of the disguised Pink Diamond and her Pearl. Rose/Pink was inspired to start the Crystal Gems for real after witnessing the first formation of Garnet.
• "It Could've Been Great" has many hints that the Moon base belonged to Rose/Steven — which, amusingly, was what Ronaldo assumed in "Can't Go Back":
  • Pearl knows about the Moon Base, which only the Diamonds (and presumably their Pearls, who they take everywhere) had access to.
  • While in the moonbase, Pearl breaks off from the group and heads in the direction of Pink Diamond's mural.
  • When Peridot tries to activate the staircase on Pink Diamond's Moon base, she seemingly succeeds, but only at the same instant when Pearl steps on it.
  • Peridot comments that they are "walking in the footsteps of the Diamonds"... while following Steven up the stairs. Steven responds "they must really like stairs", while happily using the low gravity to leap up the staircase.
  • Peridot says she has no idea how to turn on the Moon base's controls, then they activate when Steven puts his hand on the scanner.
  • Steven immediately climbs into the control chair, which Peridot complains about.
    Peridot: That chair is only for the most elite Gems! You can't go around sitting where an elite would sit!
    Steven: Well, they aren't here now... right?
• In "Mr. Greg", one of Pearl's lines in "It's Over, Isn't It?" has her mention "reinvention". Pink Diamond and her Pearl reinvented their identities into Rose Quartz and the Crystal Gem Pearl.
• It's very subtle, and played as a joke, but when Vidalia leaves Greg alone with baby Sour Cream in "Greg the Babysitter", she warns him that if anything happens to her baby, he better hope his "space goddess" can bring people back from the dead. Two seasons later, and it turns she could actually do you one better, as she did with Lion... And years later, Steven would do it with Lars.
• In "Back to the Moon", Eyeball explains how she saw Pink Diamond's shattering. She tells this to a disguised Amethyst, who has shapeshifted into Jasper's form. Amethyst's disguise hints to the truth of what happened — Eyeball didn't see Rose back then, she saw a disguised Pearl.
• In "Bubbled", Eyeball comments that Steven's gem is pinkish-red, compared to the reddish-pink of a real Rose Quartz gemstone. While it's played off as a joke (Eyeball is outside Steven's bubble, which tints everything inside it pink), pink diamonds really do look different from rose quartzes (they're darker in color and clear instead of cloudy), and Rose Quartz's gem resembles a pink diamond more than a rose quartz, which the fandom noticed.
• The gem glow scene from "Three Gems and a Baby" goes as follows: Pink diamond-infused light pouring out of Steven's pink baby clothes, unbuttoned into a diamond shape exposing his gemstone, while the others look on in a diamond-formation on the screen with diamonds behind them.
• "Steven's Dream" (and later "Jungle Moon" and "Can't Go Back") establish Steven as having an empathic connection with the Diamonds — he dreams of Blue when she's on Earth and cries her tears, and dreams of scenes involving Pink Diamond when he sleeps in the Jungle Moon base and Earth's moon base. This connection would make absolutely no sense if Rose was just a bog-standard Quartz; it's not like Amethyst has ever had visions of the Diamonds or had their emotions affect her.
• "That Will Be All":
  • When Pearl opens the door Yellow and Blue Diamond are in, she hurriedly walks out of sight even as the others go into the room. She was likely afraid the Diamonds (or more likely their respective Pearls) would recognize her.
  • As the Crystal Gems escape the Zoo, Pearl mockingly echoes Holly Blue Agate's condescending use of the titular phrase. Then Steven punctuates it by clapping twice, which is specifically what Yellow Diamond did earlier after saying the same words.
• "Lion 4: Alternate Ending": Rose's "landfill" where she left stuff she didn't need any more has a pair of large, pink metallic objects emerging from the sand resembling part of one of the Diamonds' ships, which turn out to indeed be her personal ship.
• While the short flashback to Pink Diamond in "Gemcation" shows inconsistencies with the main story (Pink Diamond has a point-cut gem, pointy hair that stuck way up, is taller than she really was and used Gem destabilizers, which were likely not invented until after the war) and was probably just Steven's imagination, it is notable for two things: one, Pink doesn't fight with her gem weapon or unique powers; and two, Rose Quartz isn't there, despite the fact that Pearl (who stuck to Rose's side like glue for the most part), Garnet, and Bismuth are. And if she really did use Gem destabilizers, they'd have been the perfect weapons for (a) not compromising her Secret Identity by using her inborn abilities, and (b) fighting with no risk of actually doing lasting harm to any of her fellow Crystal Gems.
• Pearl has a Character Tic of covering her mouth when surprised — which she notably did whenever Pink Diamond or her death came up. "Gemcation" made it obvious that there was something going on behind there, as Pearl seems to involuntarily cover her mouth when about to tell Steven something important "about the Diamonds". The theme of what Pearl knows but can't say about Pink Diamond culminates in this episode, where Pearl just shows Steven what happened.
• "Jungle Moon":
  • In Stevonnie's dream, they assume the role of Pink Diamond in first-person, and Pink is introduced as their reflection in a panel, which she shatters.
  • In addition, Stevonnie is able to activate the throne's communication panels, which theoretically only a Diamond should have access to.
• In "Laser Light Cannon", Steven accidentally breaks a picture of Rose and Greg. In other words, Steven shatters what could be considered a previous form.
• "Your Mother and Mine":
  • The art style of Garnet's story comes from Revolutionary Girl Utena, where the story it showed was later revealed to be a lie. Turns out, the whole story of how Rose came to lead the rebellion was a lie, although the story of Rose begging Pink Diamond to spare Earth and getting rebuffed is reminiscent of how Pink Diamond tried to get her fellow Diamonds to let her give up colonizing Earth, but they wouldn't listen to her.
    • The Off-Colors all mention different stories they heard about Rose Quartz, but aside from Fluorite (who doesn't believe Rose existed), they all agree that the stories end with her and the other Crystal Gems getting killed. After Garnet tells her story to refute that, Steven asks her about his vision of Pink Diamond but Garnet quickly dismisses him, saying Pink Diamond is dead. Turns out Garnet was just as wrong about Pink's death as the Off-Colors were about Rose.
  • In the final flashback — the only flashback shown without an Art Shift — the Diamonds are unleashing their Corruption attack on the Earth. Pearl and Garnet stare confused at the sky, but Rose seems to immediately realize what's happening, and quickly pulls the others under her shield.
  • Fluorite didn't believe that Rose existed at first. She was technically right.
• In "Can't Go Back", Steven sees another of Pink Diamond's memories, and this time sees Pearl in silhouette on the Moon Base, apparently planning to attack Pink with Rose's sword. But why would that be in Pink Diamond's memory if Pink was not attacked until later, on the Earth? The answer is that Pink and Pearl were conspiring together on how to use the sword.
• In the original pilot, the characters all have a ring around their gemstones. Pearl's is a dull bronze, as the lowest in the Fantastic Caste System. The others are silver. Is Steven's silver, like fellow Quartz soldier Amethyst? No, it's gold.

White Pearl

• Upon her very first appearance, fans immediately noted that White Pearl was the only Pearl not to be voiced by Deedee Magno-Hall, being voiced instead by Christine Ebersole, White Diamond's voice actor. They attributed this, and her robotic mannerisms, to some form of Mind Rape by White Diamond. Turns out, they were right. Interestingly, though, it doesn't explain the cracks on her face.
• Fans also noted in the same episode that White Pearl's gem is located on her stomach, where Pink Diamond's gem was, taking it to mean she was actually Pink's Pearl. Correct again.
• Yellow and Blue Pearl have an Uncatty Resemblance with their diamonds (Yellow Pearl has ruffles where Yellow Diamond has shoulderpads, Blue Pearl wears a skirt and has Hidden Eyes, and both share gem placements with their Diamonds), but Crystal Gem Pearl and White Pearl do not. White Pearl's gem is on her navel and her appearance and outfit are more reminiscent of Pink Diamond than White Diamond.
• Crystal Gem Pearl has her gem on her forehead, making her the only Pearl not to match her Diamond in gem placement. It's implied that White Diamond, who also has her gem on her head, made her for Pink.
• CG Pearl's original outfit has colors from all the Diamonds — white, yellow, blue, and pink. The other Diamonds' pearls are color-coordinated to their Diamonds only. Why? Because CG Pearl isn't Pink's first Pearl. It was "White" Pearl.
• Pearl said that she was given to Pink Diamond shortly before Pink was given the Earth. Most Gems say they were made for the Diamond they serve, but Pearl was given to Pink, as in she already existed and was reassigned. Now we know what became of the original who was made for Pink, though it doesn't quite prove that our Pearl once served White before this. Also, her reboot song in the Movie is titled "system/BOOT.Pearl Final(3).Info" implying she was rejuvenated multiple times before. It's possible her memory of her days of serving as White's Pearl were just wiped.

Ronaldo

Ronaldo doesn't have many surprises about him personally, but he is Steven Universe's top purveyor of The Cloudcuckoolander Was Right.

• "Keep Beach City Weird":
  • The most famous Ronaldo prediction, of course, is that "polymorphic sentient rocks" under the command of the "great diamond authority" here to "hollow out the Earth" were behind all the events on the series. While he originally proposed it as an alternative to the Gems being behind everything, he is correct on all counts: Gems are sapient gemstones with the ability to shapeshift, they are led by Diamonds, and they originally came to Earth with the intent to colonize it, which would have the side effect of leaving it a hollow husk. On top of this, in the shot where the Gems, Steven and Peedee are leaving the lighthouse as Ronaldo shouts this, the window on the front looks exactly like the top of Steven/Rose's Gem.
  • He tries to attack the Crystal Gems with "psychic ghost powers". Now, while he doesn't have any such powers, Steven, it turns out, does.
• "Rising Tides, Crashing Skies": At one point, Ronaldo asks if the Homeworld Gems came to put Beach City citizens in a "human zoo". While he is wrong about why Peridot was there, there is in fact a human zoo and Homeworld Gems (Blue Diamond, and later Aquamarine and the Topazes) would abduct people from Beach City for it.
• At one point in "Rocknaldo", he wonders why Steven doesn't go by his gem name. While the real reason is that Gems go by You Are Number 6 when they need to differentiate themselves beyond gem type and Steven has a human name instead, it is somewhat prescient when you consider that his mother didn't go by her Gem name either.
• In "Can't Go Back", Ronaldo assumes that the Moon Base is Steven's. One episode later, it turns out that it actually is.

Other characters

• In "Cat Fingers", Steven asks how to change into a lion. A few episodes later, he meets a lion.
• Amethyst mentions the Show Within a Show Li'l Butler improved in its third season when new neighbors moved in. Lapis Lazuli and Peridot are the actual show's own new neighbors as of "Barn Mates".
• In "Cry for Help" and "Friend Ship", Peridot expresses a desire to escape Earth as soon as possible because "This planet has an expiration date"; "Catch and Release" gives some more clues as to why: "the Cluster" is a dormant Doomsday Device, and when it hatches, the Earth will explode.
• If one looks closely at Peridot's character design, you may notice her forearms and lower legs are disproportionately long compared to her upper arms and thighs. In "Catch and Release", we see why: they're Artificial Limbs that go over her much smaller real ones.
• Connie's mom doubts if Universe is Steven's real last name. It is, but as revealed in "Gem Harvest", Greg's last name was originally DeMayo until he changed it to match his stage name, Mr. Universe. Ironically, Steven thinks "DeMayo" is cooler.
  • Which, in turn, winds up foreshadowing Steven's fascination with his father's family, and, in Future, a desire to have had a normal childhood like his father had had.
• Lars' Death and Revival:
  • The rant Steven gives Lars in "Too Many Birthdays" is about having to grow up because if he doesn't, "everyone is going to grow up without you!" He ends up dying and resurrected by Steven's tears, and by Future, he's still the same age while everyone else is moving on.
  • From "Are You My Dad?" up to "Lars' Head", if you look closely at Lars' T-shirt, you'll notice that he has a skull logo on it (though it's impossible to see this until "I Am My Mom"). It's a sign of his impending brutal death on Homeworld.
  • Lars came close to death four times^note He was one of the people engulfed by moss in "Lars and the Cool Kids", he nearly choked in "Joking Victim", a corrupt Gem tried to trample him in "Island Adventure", and another almost crushed him in its jaws in "Horror Club"., more than any other human has on-screen. Even the first opening has him nearly walk into the path of Greg's van. Him actually dying at some point wasn't that farfetched.
• In “Alone Together”, Sadie blushes as hard as Lars does when they see Stevonnie for the first time, and she’s the one who gives them the donuts they’re buying from the Big Donut free of charge. “Little Graduation” reveals that Sadie has started a relationship with Shep (who is non-binary) confirming that Sadie is indeed pansexual.
• In "Say Uncle" Uncle Grandpa warns the audience, "Don't worry bro, none of this is canon. But this is!" and then literally sinks Lars' and Sadie's ship, warning viewers that the two will never actually become a couple.
  • He also, after examining Steven´s gem, tells him to get it cleaned regularly — not required for a quartz but great advice for a diamond!

Miscellaneous

• The Cookie Cat theme song from "Gem Glow" — overall an ordinary, meaningless advertising tune — has an absurd amount of foreshadowing attached to it.
  seriousflightrisk: If we can't work cookie cat into every major reveal what are we even doing as a fandom
  • The lines "a refugee of an interstellar war" and "he left his family behind" is part of the backstory of Rose Quartz and the other Crystal Gems when they separated from Homeworld.
  • Cookie Cat shows up again in "Future Vision", appearing to Steven's imaginary self. Chibi-Steven gets zapped, and declares "I never considered you might be EVIL!" Although "Warp Tour" hinted at it, only after "Marble Madness" was it clear that the Homeworld Gems don't have warm feelings toward humanity.
  • The above quote refers to a post foreshadowing the removal of Steven's gem in "Change Your Mind". After his gem is removed, Steven is split into two seperate Stevens, his normal, yellow-ish human form and a pink version of him formed from his gem. Cookie Cat is one half strawberry (pink), one half vanilla (yellow).
• The "Cookie Cat" song lyrics alone foreshadow not only to the true nature of the Crystal Gems (refugees from a interstellar war) but to the revelation of Steven and Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond.
  • "Ohh, he's a frozen treat with an all new taste" — Steven is the "whole new taste" to the original Pink Diamond; the "he" for lack of a better word, in this case.
  • "Cause he came to this planet from outer space" — Rose Quartz and the rest of the Gems came from Gemworld, in outer space.
  • "A refugee of an interstellar war" — Rose Quartz and the Gems are refugees after the war.
  • "But now he's at your local grocery store" — this turns out the be literal. Pink Diamond/Rose Quartz gave birth to and in a sense became Steven, though as established Steven is his own person. Where does he go to buy the Cookie Cat ice cream bars? At his local donut shop! (Presumably, they were in grocery stores as well, until they got discontinued).
  • And the line "He left his family behind" is also on the nose since Pink Diamond left behind her family, the Diamond Authority, back on homeworld. The context on why the family is left behind changes, however, given the series revelations. Steven also leaves his family behind in the last episode.
• "Laser Light Cannon":
  • The fact that the Red Eye doesn't quite operate like what the show establishes as the usual Monster of the Week (i.e. not leaving behind a gem to be collected) hints that there's more to it. As in, it was a probe, not a Gem monster.
  • One of the lyrics to Greg's single is "I know I'm not that tall". When we finally see Rose in "Lion 3: Straight to Video", it turns out she is a lot taller than Greg.
• In "Cheeseburger Backpack", Amethyst tries to cheer Steven up after he messed up the mission by telling him 2 out of 4 of his ideas worked, saying he got 50% as if she was describing a test score. In "The Test", we find out it actually was a test.
• In "Giant Woman", Steven sings "But if it were me, I'd really wanna be, a Giant Woman". Stevonnie's six-foot-something probably comes close, though they're not quite a woman. (Pink Diamond, on the other hand, is clearly both of those things...)
• The gem monsters have central gemstones, like the Crystal Gems do, and "Steven the Sword Fighter" shows that regular Gems and monsters both react to grevious injury by "poofing", leaving said gemstone behind. "Ocean Gem" reveals that they act so similarly because they are the same — Gem monsters were once regular gems prior to something corrupting them.
• One of the locations the Stevens go to in "Steven and the Stevens" is a desert-like landscape where nautical vehicles can be seen. This foreshadows the events of "Ocean Gem", where the ocean disappears. So the Stevens went into the future.
• "Monster Buddies":
  • Centipeetle can be seen trying to take the shape of a woman when she is first released. A few episodes later, "Ocean Gem" confirms that there were once normal humanoid Gems corrupted by something.
  • Steven manages to get out of a bubble on his own, and Pearl's reaction implies that they didn't expect that. We later find out that Gem technology doesn't affect him because he is half-human.
• "An Indirect Kiss":
  • Pearl remarks that the brambles are a mess without Rose's guidance, describing them as "directionless, pathetic, clinging things", while clinging to Garnet's arm. Later in the series when we learn more about Pearl and Rose's relationship, these seemingly off-hand comments have a darker subtext.
  • When Garnet tells Steven about Rose's healing tears, Steven wonders if he'll ever have powers like his mom. In "Off Colors", when Lars makes a Heroic Sacrifice to protect the off-color gems from the Robonoids, Steven finally sheds healing tears for his dead friend... which resurrects him with a new, pinkish body (like Lion's), and a resurrected Lars becomes the leader of the off-colored gems with a new, renewed purpose and zeal for life.
  • When talking about Rose's healing tears, Garnet describes them as coming from genuine sorrow and empathy for the suffering and loss of others. Baring that in mind, it makes perfect sense that they didn't work on Amethyst since he was more forcing them out insincerely as well as them finally working as intended for Lars since Lars' death had a much more devastating effect on him.
• The fact that the Gems are aliens is kept a secret until "Ocean Gem"; afterwards, the many references to space, such as the star-symbols and even the name "Universe" makes it seem like it should have been obvious that they weren't from Earth.
• "Secret Team" has Steven and Amethyst find Pearl holding gem shards in a bubble that Rose made. Pearl makes up an obvious lie about wanting to see how the shards react to the bubble, and never explains what she was really doing. Given future revelations about Pearl's feeling about Rose, it seems she was focusing on the bubble itself and treating it as a memento.
• In "When It Rains", Peridot, after telling Steven about the Cluster, tells him that he is their one chance at stopping it. It turns out moments later that she thinks that because his explanation of the water cycle earlier led her to believe that he knows everything about Earth and how it works. However, later on, he is the one who stops the Cluster by psychically communicating with it and befriending it and getting it to bubble itself.
• In "Dewey Wins", Mayor Dewey promises to find a replacement for Lars at the Big Donut as soon as possible. In "Letters to Lars", Dewey becomes the replacement Big Donut worker after having lost the mayoral election.
• In "Marble Madness", Peridot states that the records say that all Gems on Earth were wiped out. Later, in "Legs From Here to Homeworld", we find out that the Corrupting light from the Diamonds was intended to destroy the Crystal Gems, not Corrupt them.
• In "Can't Go Back", Lapis worries that something bad will happen when she goes back to Earth, but Steven throws in the possibility that something good will happen. Sure enough, there's the Diamonds' Heel–Face Turn and the Corrupted Gems being healed.
• Spinel, after being reset to factory settings, has a Yandere moment at the idea of Steven leaving, suggesting that there is something about the feeling of abandonment that sets her off. This makes it unsurprising when a misunderstanding leads to the battle starting all over again near the end.
• Both the episode title card and ending sequence for Future heavily hint at Steven's moving away from Beach City. They show Steven's car driving away from it (in the background of the opening and the rearview mirror of the title card), while the lyrics of "Being Human" are recognizable as a Wanderlust Song.
  • The end credits sequence itself is literally Steven's car driving away from Beach City, something that becomes obvious in the final itself when the episode runs seamlessly into the credits without missing a beat.

---