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Recap / Steven Universe S5E28 "Change Your Mind"

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Steven, Connie and the Gems attempt to change the way the Diamonds see Steven, other Gems, and themselves.

    Full Recap 
In the tower, Steven has a dream of Pink Diamond, locked up there and visited by Blue, who chastises her for releasing organic creatures at a ball. Shortly after he wakes up, he and Connie get a visit from Blue, who won't let them out unless Steven apologizes for making a scene at the ball by fusing. Noting how similar her entrance was to his dream, Steven gets her to realize that she had made Pink cry so many times it had become routine, and it finally dawns on her just why Pink wanted to leave Homeworld so long ago in the first place. She agrees to help Steven and Connie, and smuggles them to Pink's chambers. Steven and Connie promptly pig out on the food they brought with them, and Steven changes back into his normal clothing.

Blue takes Steven and Connie to Yellow's bubble room, where the Crystal Gems' gemstones have been placed, only to find Yellow herself waiting for them, who wants to know what Blue thinks she's doing. When Blue points out that they both hurt Pink, which is what led to her rebellion in the first place, and that Steven would be better off away from Homeworld, Yellow reacts violently, and the two Diamonds get into a fight that quickly goes outside. Eventually, Steven and Blue manage to get through to Yellow about how the way she treated Pink was wrong, leading her to start crying—without any of Blue's influence. As Steven reclaims his family's gems, Yellow and Blue agree to help Steven and Connie escape from Homeworld, hopefully before White finds out.

However, they're too late when they're accosted by White Pearl outside of Pink's leg ship, and White's torso ship lifts off and lands atop the legs, taking control. Just then, though, Blue and Yellow's arm ships unexpectedly arrive and begin attacking White's ship, to the two Diamonds' confusion as they're definitely not controlling them. After White and Pink's ships are knocked over, the arms land to disgorge Bismuth from one, and the reformed Lapis and Peridot from the other. Bismuth is pleased that she got to "uppercut an upper crust" for once, and she gives Connie the new sword she made her.

Steven gets Yellow and Blue to take control of their ships to try and force White to listen, eventually bringing everyone onto the hands of the combined Diamond mecha. However, when Yellow and Blue voice their concerns about living up to White's perfect standards and Steven asks her to help, White responds by blasting Yellow and Blue with beams from the eyes of her ship that turn the two monochrome, just like White Pearl, before bubbling them into the ship. As the poofed Crystal Gems' gemstones fall and Steven goes after them, Lapis, carrying Bismuth and Peridot on a trash can lid with Connie hanging below, fly around to try and distract the Diamond mecha.

Steven manages to catch Amethyst's gem first, and, trying to get her to reform so they can save the others, fuses with her into Smoky Quartz. The Fusion is confused initially, before congratulating Steven on discovering that he can get the others to reform via fusion. Steven and Amethyst defuse, and Amethyst tells Steven she'll be fine as she shapeshifts into an owl, telling him to go catch the others. He grabs Pearl's gem next, and fuses with her into a bombastic fusion who immediately announces himself as Rainbow 2.0. Upon noticing the plummeting gemstones of Ruby and Sapphire, Rainbow flies down on his umbrella to grab them, before landing. Steven and Pearl defuse, and Pearl is complemented by Amethyst on her new jacket before she realizes that she and Steven fused, giving him a hug. Steven then turns his attention to Garnet.

As Lapis, Bismuth, Peridot and Connie join them, Steven fuses with Garnet just in time to save everyone from being crushed as White attempts to stomp on them with the Diamond mecha. The fusion, Sunstone, reassures everyone that she has this, and begins to climb up the Diamond mecha. However, she's not big enough to do it quickly, and falls off, causing Steven and Garnet to defuse. Steven declares that an even bigger fusion is needed, and Garnet agrees, announcing that all four main Crystal Gems will have to form Obsidian.

The act of fusing knocks Connie off her feet as she, Bismuth, Peridot and Lapis have to back away, and upon forming, Obsidian roars and begins to climb the Diamond mecha. The others take to the air as well to try and distract White Diamond, but Connie falls and is caught by Obsidian. Peridot manages to slow Bismuth's fall through using her powers on her armor at the last second. Connie declares she's got the situation, raising her sword, but Obsidian forms her own weapon, combining those of her component Gems into an enormous hilt which she dips into her second mouth, filled with lava, to gain a blade. She cuts off the hands of the Diamond mecha with it, before eventually reaching the head and roaring into the eye. The Diamond mecha headbutts a pillar, which causes Obsidian to defuse, and the Crystal Gems, Steven and Connie climb in through the Diamond mecha's eye.

Inside, Steven attempts to get through to White Diamond instead, but she responds by using her Eye Beams to take over Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl, before claiming that they are now perfect by becoming extensions of her. She claims that Steven is just Pink Diamond deluding herself about being human, having created a human child to become just for the experience. But White proves herself wrong when she pulls out Steven's gem to force Pink Diamond to reappear: as everyone watches with astonishment, the gem nearly forms both Pink and Rose before settling on a pink version of Steven. Pink Steven causes the entire room to shake when he yells at White that "She's GONE!", cracking White's pedestal and sending the controlled Blue and Yellow to their knees. As Steven is reunited with his gem, becoming whole again, White has a Freak Out, claiming that he's not Steven, he has to be Pink Diamond, and that "she" is acting like a child. Steven points out that he is a child; what's her excuse?

White is mortified to realize she's not perfect, and blushes a bright pink that extends to all of her controlled Gems and the outside of her ship, and causes the formerly white room to become pink as well. The shock of her realizing that contrary to her belief, she does have a flaw causes her to collapse and release all of her puppets from her control. The now-again Pink Pearl is confused, having no idea where she is. Blue and Yellow Diamond, meanwhile, are rather appalled to discover that White is off-color. Steven tells White, who doesn't know who she really is anymore, that he can help her with that, but she has to help heal the corrupted Gems and she's going to have to get out of her own head.

Back on Earth, Sadie Killer and the Suspects are performing a concert on the beach, with a good chunk of Beach City's residents in attendance, when the combined Diamond mecha lands directly above the stage as they perform a cover of Greg Universe's "Let Me Drive My Van (into Your Heart)". Sadie is so surprised she drops her mic, and the townspeople get a surprise when Steven, Connie, all the Crystal Gems and the Diamonds emerge from the ship. Just moments later, the Sun Incinerator lands on the beach and disgorges Lars and the Off-Colors. Rhodonite only notices the Diamonds after proclaiming that she's happy to have escaped them, and resignedly states that they're "cracked". Fortunately, Steven reassures them that things are actually okay.

Sadie invites Steven on stage, where he begins to perform "We Are the Crystal Gems" as people begin to mingle, with Lars meeting Lion and getting his cape critiqued by Ronaldo. As the song continues, the healing of the corrupted Gems is shown, with the bubbles being transported to Rose's Fountain and the Gems reforming with Steven and the Diamonds in the water. When Jasper reforms, she almost attacks Steven, but a Death Glare from Yellow and an explanation from Amethyst cause her to sink into the water in embarrassment. After the healing is done, Blue, Yellow and White head back into space with their part of the Diamond mecha, Yellow using her ship to flash Steven a V-Sign as they do. The pink leg-ship is parked in a seated posture on the hillside as Steven, Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl relax on the beach, wondering about what comes next.


Tropes:

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    A-B 
  • Absurd Cutting Power:
    • Obsidian's sword cuts through the Yellow and Blue hands without any effort. Obsidian actually is one of the sharpest natural materials in existence, and is used extensively in surgical scalpels for extremely delicate procedures such as some eye surgeries. It being made from magma probably helps.
    • Connie's sword is likewise sharp enough to pierce the Diamond mech as shown when she uses it as a climbing aid.
  • An Aesop:
    • Sometimes, the only thing you need in order to create change is to realize that you can, that you want to, and that you then need to just do it.
    • You can't fix anything if you don't admit it's broken in the first place.
    • You are your own person, no matter who came before you to create you.
    • You have the power to fight for yourself against the influences that tell you you're not you.
    • Nothing and no one is perfect — expecting someone to live up to such impossibly high standards will just hurt everyone around you, including yourself. Steven even outright states, "if you just wipe away everything you see as flawed, you lose all the things that make you happy".
    • You cannot self-isolate in an attempt to self-protect; you have to leave your own head in order to grow and change.
  • All Part of the Show: The audience of the beach concert think that the Diamond ship landing above the stage is part of the concert. Sadie eventually brings Steven on stage to perform.
  • All Your Colors Combined:
    • During Obsidian's formation, the Crystal Gems' Gems can be seen glowing with all of their colors before they begin to solidify.
    • Part of White's justification for her supposed perfection is how, unlike with the other Diamonds, whose impurities prevent them from reflecting all colors back, she's composed of every color of the light. This is also a hint that she's not as perfect as she thinks she is, since truly flawless diamonds (or as close as they get in real life) are clear.
  • All Your Powers Combined: Steven fuses with Garnet, Pearl, and Amethyst to form Obsidian.
  • Always a Bigger Fish: The Crystal Gems in the past have proven no match for Homeworld's tech edge, even with Alexandrite. Obsidian, on the other hand, is so immensely strong that they shred through Yellow and Blue's ships like a hot knife through butter.
  • Ambiguous Situation: It's left to our imagination how White Diamond knows Steven thinks of himself as separate from Pink Diamond/Rose Quartz (seemingly even knowing what his "mom" is) and that he's experiencing Pink's memories in his dreams. She could have just listened in on him mentioning these things to friends. Alternately, she used the Psychic Link between Diamonds to monitor him and/or probe his memories. Maybe she even knew about Rose's true identity all along (probably from an observation orb of her own), and never told Yellow and Blue as a means to punish them for letting the Rebellion happen. It's even possible she caused some or all of his dreams in an attempt to awaken Pink within him.
  • Ambiguous Syntax:
    • Blue, Steven, and Connie arrive at Yellow's bubble room to find Yellow Diamond there. When Yellow talks, Steven mistakenly thinks she's addressing him:
      Yellow Diamond: What... are you doing?
      Steven: I'm taking back my friends!
      Yellow: [ignoring him] ...What are you doing, Blue?
    • Unfortunately, Blue and Yellow Diamond fall victim to this when Steven suggests to White Diamond that she can help the two. What Steven means is to heal their relationship with her. White Diamond simply interprets it as "making them perfect" (as shown later in the episode), and zaps them with her Diamond Power through her eyes, which turns them into her own puppets without free will.
      Steven: White, please. Why don't you let us all into your head? We could come up with a plan to help everyone. You could start by helping Yellow and Blue.
      [a beat, then White Diamond's ship's eyes charge up and fire at Yellow and Blue's gemstones]
  • Angst Nuke: Pink Steven's screaming is powerful, raw, and visceral; not only does it serve as a final reminder that Pink Diamond/Rose Quartz is truly dead, it also evokes the emotions Pink/Rose and Steven felt over being ignored, mistreated, and attacked by White Diamond, (and really all of his Gem friends) who had been in denial for so long that she would abuse anyone who challenged her perceived notions.
  • Animation Bump:
    • The Rainbow Quartz 2.0, Sunstone, and Obsidian fusions are quite nicely animated.
    • The animation when Pink Steven and Steven fuse back together, and White Diamond opening her eyes and trying to stand up afterward, is exceptionally more fluid than the rest of the show. It was guest animated by James Baxter.
  • Anti-Villain: The Diamonds are ultimately proven to be this for the entire series, as it's revealed that Blue, Yellow, and Pink have spent their entire lives following White's doctrine, doing whatever they could to live up to her nigh-unreachable standards and whatever they think is necessary for their empire, and never bringing themselves to object prior to Pink's rebellion. Simply put, they simply view themselves as the rulers of an intergalactic empire, not realizing how miserable their empire has been for eons, even themselves, until Steven gets through to them. Yellow even lampshades it after Steven stops her from destroying Blue's physical form by knocking back her lightning with his shield:
    Yellow: This is what White Diamond expects of all of us! From the thinnest flake of mica to the deepest, hardest stone, we all must make sacrifices for the sake of our perfect empire!
  • Armor-Piercing Question:
    • After she attacks him, Steven asks Blue how many times she made Pink cry. This causes Blue to actually think about the answer to that question... and she is decidedly unhappy with the answer, and finally gets why Pink preferred living on Earth over Homeworld.
    • Yellow gets her own later when Steven points out the destruction her fight with Blue caused and Blue injured on the ground in front of her, and asks if that looks perfect to her. She doesn't answer.
    • And finally White gets one, too. After seeing the Gem she ripped out of Steven reformed into another Steven instead of Pink and then fuses with him to make him whole again, she starts throwing a tantrum.
      White: No! You are Pink Diamond! That is Pink Diamond's gem! You do not look like this! You do not sound like this! You're not half-human, you're just... A-acting like a child!
      Steven: I am a child. What's your excuse?
  • Armor-Piercing Response:
    • Blue tells Steven to apologize for fusing with Connie at the Ball. Steven says no, and Blue's reaction makes it clear that Pink, despite generally being assertive and bratty, never outright said no to her before.
    • When White demands to know where Pink Diamond is, Pink Steven replies that "she's gone". When White demands again, Pink Steven repeats the answer as a howling scream, cratering the floor beneath him and shaking the up-til-now unshakable White Diamond into stunned silence.
    • When White Diamond asks why Steven is acting like a child, he replies that he is a child, and asks what White's excuse is.
  • Art Evolution: After the big confrontation, White is drawn in faraway shots like the rest of the characters, also revealing that she's actually just a head taller than Yellow and Blue.
  • The Assimilator: White Diamond is able to forcefully remove the "imperfections" from other Gems and make them one of her own puppets, as she's shown doing to Blue, Yellow, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl.
  • The Atoner: Upon realizing her bad treatment of Pink in the past, Blue Diamond seeks to make up for it by helping Steven and Connie return to Earth. Her willingness to return Ruby and Sapphire to Earth implies that she wants to make up for what she did to them in the past as well.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The mech formed by the Diamonds' combined ships is enormous. Obsidian completely dwarfs any fusion seen in the series thus far — Connie seeming to be about 1/3 the size of her thumb when Obsidian catches her — and still only comes up to the mech's ankle.
  • Awakening the Sleeping Giant:
    • Steven's refusal to stay in line causes White Diamond to finally take action after thousands of years of lethargy.
      White Diamond: Now, Starlight... this has gone on long enough.
    • Steven himself — he's got the powers of a Diamond, but has always tried his best to find a peaceful resolution to his problems. Now that his attempts to get through to the Diamonds have failed, he seems more ready to use his powers for battle — case in point, he hurls his shield at Yellow Diamond, and actually nullifies her lightning from the impact.
    • When White Diamond attempts to forcefully remove Pink Diamond's gem from Steven's stomach, she inadvertently brings Pink Steven into being: a version of Steven that is several orders of magnitude more powerful than White Diamond, but has none of his human restraint or compassion. This entity puts White on the ground in mere moments, and deflects a barrage of Eye Beams with no noticeable effort.
  • Back for the Finale: The line "If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn't have hot dogs!" finally makes a reappearance after several seasons.
  • Badass Boast:
    • Peridot gives one when using her powers to fly during the fight.
      Peridot: Set your eyes on me, Homeworld! I, Peridot, have returned, not as your servant, but as your savior! I rule the skies!
    • "We Are the Crystal Gems" that Steven sings at the end of the episode contains a friendly one:
      'Cause we believe in peace and love. We are here for fun. If you're not, then let's not fight 'cause we already won!
  • Bait-and-Switch: When Steven's gem is removed, it first seemingly takes the form of Pink Diamond, then the form of Rose Quartz, right before finally permanently taking the form of Pink Steven.
  • Bait-and-Switch Sentiment: Connie shows concern for Steven's Ocular Gushers caused by Blue Diamond's Emotion Bomb, but he points out he's not really sad. While Connie really was thinking of him, her worry was more practical — he's been locked up for hours, and crying that much could dehydrate him to a dangerous degree.
  • Beehive Barrier: In contrast to Steven's normal shields and bubbles, Pink Steven's shield is formed from shard-like rhombuses coming together to make oblong barriers the instant he is attacked.
  • Behemoth Battle:
    • Yellow and Blue end up in a fight early on in the episode after their conflicts about Pink overtakes them.
    • Obsidian vs the Diamond Mecha. While Obsidian is far smaller, they're still gigantic and have enough sheer power to hold their own.
  • Being Evil Sucks: Yellow and Blue Diamond are as miserable as anyone enforcing White's draconian rules and don't want to do so, but are so terrified of disappointing White Diamond they couldn't admit it, to her or themselves, until Steven forces them to. Blue puts it as them "suffering in silence" for ages.
  • Believing Their Own Lies: Despite an apparent knowledge of Steven's life, White Diamond still thinks he's Pink Diamond and managed to delude herself. She gets damn close to convincing Steven the same, but disproves herself by separating his gem.
  • Beware the Nice Ones:
    • After making a Heel–Face Turn, Blue Diamond is all too willing to betray White and get Steven, Connie and the Crystal Gems back to Earth, even fighting Yellow to do so.
    • Also Steven himself, who shows a quiet determination to save the other Crystal Gems — even if that means fighting Yellow and White Diamond single-handed.
  • Be Yourself:
    • Invoked when White Diamond tells Steven that she will "help you be yourself", by which she actually means "be who I assume you to be".
    • Also, the episode's aesop as pointed out by Steven:
      Steven: You know, if you just let everyone be whoever they are, maybe you could let yourself be whoever you are too.
      White: But I'm not supposed to be like this! I'm supposed to know better, I'm supposed to be better, I'm supposed to make everything better!
      Steven: You can! But first, you're gonna have to leave your own head.
  • BFS: Obsidian's weapon is a massive, fiery, rune-carved four-handed greatsword made of magma.
  • Big "NO!":
    • Connie, just before White pulls Steven's gem from his body.
    • White Diamond also lets out one after she realizes her flaw.
  • Big "SHUT UP!":
    • Blue Diamond gets so fed up with Steven that she throws an energy ball at him, screaming, "THAT'S ENOUGH!"
    • Pink Steven manages to do this to White Diamond when she demands to know where Pink Diamond is.
  • Big Sister Instinct: Amethyst pushes Steven out of the way of White Diamond's Eye Beams, Taking the Bullet instead.
  • Bitch Slap: Blue ends up instigating the fight between her and Yellow when she slaps the latter's hand away when she tries to take Steven and Connie back to the prison tower.
  • Bittersweet Ending: White Diamond is defeated and broken out of her denial about her flaws, Steven helps the Diamonds reconcile, and together they help heal all the Corrupted Gems. Lars is finally reunited with Sadie after his adventure in the stars ends. The Off-Colors finally have a place to live in without being persecuted for being different. But Pink Diamond, and her alias, Rose Quartz, is gone forever, having literally become part of Steven. The best way to deal with this is to pick up the pieces, accept it and move on.
  • Blade Brake: Connie uses her new sword to do this down the side of the Diamond Mecha.
  • Bloodless Carnage: White pries Steven's gem from his body, but while the experience is clearly painful for him, there is not a scratch on him. There isn't even a bellybutton, let alone any noticeable exit wound.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: White Diamond is obsessed with imperfections. She's "flawless" herself, and deems that everything should be perfect by removing flaws from the universe. It's impossible to reason with her... until Steven breaks through to her and shows her that even she isn't flawless. She suffers a breakdown upon realizing this.
  • Blush Sticker: The "worm monster" Gem grins and blushes pink ovals upon realizing she's no longer corrupted.
  • Book Ends:
    • Steven and the Gems sitting at the beach during night, similar to the end of the second intro.
    • There's a meta one between this and the original pilot, using the phrase "what's your excuse".
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Some of Sunstone's lines are directed toward the audience, such as the message about dealing with bullies.
  • Break Them by Talking:
    • White tells Steven that he's just a vessel that Pink created to make herself "better" than her flawed friends. Steven denies it, but White points out that he remembers things that he shouldn't be able to, from Pink and Rose's memories. Though the question comes as to how can White know that?
    • Completely unintentionally, Steven manages to do it to her: during her Villainous Breakdown, he asks "what's your excuse" for acting like a child. This causes White to realize she's flawed, which completely shatters her worldview and causes her to more or less shut down.
  • Brick Joke: At the start of the episode Connie isn't intimidated by Blue Diamond's threat to keep them in the tower because she has been grounded before. Blue's response shows she has absolutely no idea what being grounded means or entails. Later when being confronted by White Diamond, White angrily tells Blue, Yellow, and Pink/Steven to go their rooms. Blue, still not knowing anything about the concept of being grounded, innocently asks what rooms they should go to.
  • Bridal Carry: Connie carries Steven in her arms when he's too weak to walk over to his gem. She passes him into the arms of Pink Steven, who carries him as they join back together.
  • Brutal Honesty:
    • Blue tells Steven that he and Connie won't leave until they apologize for making a scene. Steven, after a pause, just says "no" because he isn't sorry for it.
    • Pink Steven screams at White that Pink Diamond is gone.
  • But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Played for Drama; Steven asks Blue how many times she's locked Pink in the tower and made her cry. Blue has done it so often it's become almost second nature and it's clear she's never even considered that question before. When she does, she finally understands why Pink ran away in the first place.

    C-E 
  • Call-Back:
    • "I am a child — what's your excuse" is Steven's armour-piercing response to White, and is also close to the comeback that Garnet got Steven to go back in time to deliver in the pilot episode. So ... did Garnet's futurevision in the pilot include this possibility in the finale?
    • "If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn't have hotdogs" from season 1 is used here to explain that by trying to make a perfect society, the Diamonds have removed everything that makes life enjoyable.
    • In "Arcade Mania", Steven wonders if their next mission is fighting "a giant... foot", and Pearl says Garnet would let them know. In this episode, Steven ends up fusing with Garnet to save everyone from being crushed under a giant foot.
    • Sunstone shouts "Bungacowa!", which is what Amethyst shouted during Steven's dream in "Chille Tid".
    • In "Bubbled", Eyeball threatens to rip out Steven's gem, causing Steven to wonder what would happen to himself if his gem were removed. This episode gives the answer.
    • Rainbow 2.0 yells "Rainbow Quartz powers, activate!" when flying to catch Ruby and Sapphire's gems, much like what Pearl said when she first attempted to fuse with Rose in "Now We're Only Falling Apart", "Fusion, activate!"
    • In "Legs From Here to Homeworld", Bismuth warns Steven that by going to see the Diamonds on Homeworld, he's essentially entering the lion's den, so to get help, he'll have to roar. Pink Steven's Angst Nuke is what knocks White Diamond off her high-horse.
  • Calling the Old Woman Out: On his mom's behalf, Steven calls out Blue and Yellow on just how much their treatment towards Pink hurt her, and makes them understand why she chose to betray them.
  • Can't Live Without You: When Steven's gem is removed, his human half starts to pale and die out and needs to reunite with his gem half to survive. His Gem half seems fine (at least, physically) but has a single-minded focus on getting back together regardless.
  • Cassandra Truth: When Blue Diamond visits Steven and Connie, they tell her they need to be let out or they will starve. Blue doesn't know what starving is, though, and still believes Steven is Pink Diamond, so she thinks it is a made up problem so she will let them out.
  • The Cavalry: Bismuth arrives with Blue and Yellow's semi-repaired ships and revealing she brought the newly reformed Peridot and Lapis with her.
  • The Cavalry Arrives Late: After they help the main Crystal Gems get into White Diamond's eye, Bismuth, Peridot, and Lapis show up to reinforce the others just after Steven settles things out with White Diamond.
  • The Chains of Commanding: Both Blue and Yellow turn out to have been repressing their own doubts and misgivings over the way Homeworld does things, both out of fear of White's reaction and to put on a brave face for their subjects.
  • Chekhov's Army: All the auxiliary Crystal Gems show up to provide Steven backup against the Diamonds.
  • Chekhov's Boomerang: Rose's fountain of healing tears. The Diamonds and Steven use it to heal all the Corrupted Gems.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • "If every porkchop were perfect, we wouldn't have hotdogs." This quote from season one is explained to Yellow Diamond that by building a perfect society, they shunned Pink Diamond out in the process. If everything really was perfect, you wouldn't have all the things that makes life worth living.
    • In "Familiar", Blue Diamond tells Steven that one of the ways that the four of them would spend quality time together was within her bath. Here, they get to do this for the first time in thousands of years at Rose’s spring, their combined powers uncorrupting all the gems in the healing tears.
  • Colossus Climb: Sunstone tries this on the Diamond mecha, but proves too small to climb up in time. The Gems then form Obsidian, who has far better luck.
  • Combining Mecha: The Diamonds' bodyships are capable of combining into one ship, as shown when White's torsoship attaches to Pink's legship. The Yellow and Blue hands are later added.
  • Continuity Cavalcade: When the corrupted Gems are cured, one can tell by the remnants of their monstrous forms that all of them are ones we've seen previously.
  • Contrived Coincidence: The Combining Mecha lands on the beach, the stage just in-between their legs, just as Sadie and the band finish their song, most of the humans on the beach thinking that it was All Part of the Show. Lars and the Off Colors land at about the same time, their first glimpse of Earth's landscape being within plain view of the Diamonds.
  • Cool Shades:
    • Peridot's visor now resembles Kamina's Cool Shades following her reformation.
    • Upon reforming, Garnet's shades now have a more star-shaped design. Specifically, the upper half of a star.
    • Sunstone has a red-colored set of shades.
  • Cool Sword:
    • Bismuth made a new sword for Connie that she can wield.
    • Obsidian's weapon is a gigantic, very ornate sword capable of effortlessly slicing through even the Diamonds' arm ships like a hot knife through butter.
  • Cover Version: Sadie Killer and the Suspects perform Greg's song "Let Me Drive My Van (into Your Heart)".
  • Crater Power: As an Establishing Character Moment for Pink Steven, his shout at White Diamond causes the floor beneath his feet to form a crater and fracture the steps to White Diamond's feet, demonstrating just how absurdly powerful he (and Steven by association) is.
  • Creepy Good: Pink Steven expresses zero emotion, facially or otherwise, until he reunites with Steven and is strong enough to stagger White Diamond with a shout and No-Sell everything she throws at him.
  • Cry Laughing: When the two Stevens reach each other, human Steven sheds tears, then laughs, causing Gem Steven to laugh, too.
  • Cue the Falling Object:
    • Steven asks Yellow Diamond, "Does this look perfect to you?", referring to the destruction she caused fighting Blue Diamond. The camera shows a miserable Blue, then a damaged column above them, at which point a piece of it falls off.
    • Peridot brags that she, Bismuth, and Lapis did a great job repairing the Diamonds' hand ships, after which the thumb of Yellow's ship falls off.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Pink Steven manages to No-Sell every attack White Diamond throws at him, even when she does it with the Gems she's controlling.
  • Dancing with Myself: When Steven's gem gets removed from his body, it reforms into Pink Steven. The two of them fuse back together by dancing and Cry Laughing.
  • Dead All Along: Though Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond has been a Posthumous Character for the entire series, several episodes have questioned if she can see through Steven, if she is literally half of Steven, if she could come back if her Gem was taken from Steven, etc. This episode point-blank states that she's "gone".
  • Deadly Dodging: As part of their distraction ploy, Peridot and Lapis fly around the Diamond ships. Lapis (and Bismuth) dodge one arm, and it crashes into the other.
  • Death by Depower: Taking Steven's gemstone out of his body doesn't just remove his powers, it tremendously weakens him, and he clearly would have died if he hadn't gotten it back quickly.
  • Death Glare: Just look at how Yellow Diamond looks at Jasper when the latter is about to attack Steven after being cured.
  • Déjà Vu: Blue tells Steven the same words she said during his dream about Pink, and Steven mutters that he has "deja blue".
  • Delayed Reaction:
    • Smoky Quartz doesn't even realize they've formed at first, and it takes them another moment or so to figure out what happened.
    • After de-fusing from Rainbow Quartz 2.0, Amethyst compliments Pearl about her new outfit, and Pearl says she's most excited about the jacket. She then remembers she and Steven fused.
    • Padparadscha, as usual. While the rest of the Off Colors notice and gaze at the Diamonds in apprehension, Padparadscha is still smiling. Seconds later, she yells in fright.
  • Didn't See That Coming:
    • Yellow was not counting on Steven being powerful enough to disable her lightning powers.
    • Steven being able to revive Amethyst and the rest of the Gems by fusing with them came as a surprise to everyone. Smokey's triumphant return comes to an abrupt halt when they try to figure out exactly what just happened, including the background music.
    • White gets immediately surprised upon seeing another Steven emerge from Pink's Gem instead. She's quite upset to discover that her "flawless" self has a flaw.
  • Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Steven calls out White Diamond for being childish, and Connie laughs at her. Not only do they get away with it, they manage to make White blush in embarrassment and realize she's not as perfect as she thought.
  • Diegetic Switch: Steven takes the stage at Sadie Killer and the Suspects' concert to perform a Triumphant Reprise of "We Are the Crystal Gems", and the song continues as the scene skips forward to the corrupted Gems being cured.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: While removing Steven's gem doesn't cause a visible injury, he's left weak to the point where he can hardly walk and his skin is noticeably pale, as if he's suffering from traumatic blood loss.
    • Blue's imprisonment of Pink/Steven and claiming it's for their own good is reminiscent of a parent attempting to convert a gay or transgender child without realizing the actual harm they are causing.
  • Don't Try This at Home: Sunstone invokes in one their Leaning on the Fourth Wall moments while attempting a Colossus Climb on the Diamond mecha.
  • Double Meaning:
    • Steven asks Blue "How many times did you make her cry?", referring to both her powers and her treatment of Pink causing her to cry.
    • When White Diamond is having her breakdown over her worldview being shaken, she says she's supposed to make everything better. Steven tells her she still can, but she'll have to leave her own head first. He means this as both metaphorically leaving her own insular viewing of the world through only her own eyes and perceptions and literally as she needs to stop sequestering herself inside her ship, which is shaped like her own head, and actually see the world around her.
  • Double-Meaning Title: More than two meanings, actually. "Change Your Mind" obviously refers to Steven trying to get the Diamonds to change their policies and help him, but it also refers to Blue, Yellow, and White reaching realizations that fundamentally change them, making them see that their actions are doing more harm than good and that they are allowed to be imperfect as long as they try and improve themselves instead of repressing themselves and everybody else. Given that she's the hardest by far to persuade, and is hit the hardest by her Heel Realization, it (along with the "Battle of Heart and Mind" title of the whole arc) could also be referencing White Diamond being the "mind" of the Diamond authority in the same way that Pink is The Heart, and the fact that the fact that Steven's real "final boss" for the whole Diamond arc is the need to change White Diamond. There also seems to be a fourth, darker meaning: When White Diamond bleached the other Diamonds and the Crystal Gems, she literally changed their minds by putting them under her direct control.
  • Dramatically Missing the Point: When Yellow and Blue voice their grievances towards the system that she had established, White reacts by using her Eye Beams and assimilating both of them. Later in the episode, she explains how this is her way of purging people's "flaws" and how she "makes things better", so it is very likely she actually did hear them and this was her way of "helping".
  • Dramatic Drop: The combined Diamond ship lands right above the stage Sadie Killer and the Suspects performed on, and when Sadie looks up and sees it, she drops her microphone in shock.
  • Easily Forgiven: Steven, Blue, and Yellow don't hold it against White despite everything she's done to them.
  • Easy Evangelism: Blue and Yellow Diamond are convinced to listen to Steven after he simply asks two Armor-Piercing Questions and they choose to side with him after a few minutes of conversation. Somewhat justified as they were apparently unhappy with being dictators.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: Steven is able to get through to White Diamond and show her that she can fulfill her own purpose of rising above flaws by accepting them for what they are. Steven brings White, Blue, and Yellow back to Earth and together they successfully heal all the Corrupted Gems, including Jasper and the Centipeetles. The Off Colors finally make it back to Earth for Lars to be reunited with Sadie.
  • Economy Cast: Across numerous sets and events, including a very public Behemoth Battle, we manage to see exactly two Gems on Homeworld (two Topazes guarding Yellow's room) besides the Diamonds and Pink Pearl.
  • Emotionally Tongue-Tied: It takes Yellow some effort in order to spit out to White that they need to talk.
    Yellow: We... (clenches fist) W-we... We need to talk!
  • Energy Weapon:
    • Blue Diamond attacks Steven by hurling a ball of energy at him.
    • This is White Diamond's way of taking control of other Gems, as evidenced by Blue and Yellow Diamond, and later, the three main Crystal Gems.
  • The Evils of Free Will: When White takes control of Yellow, Blue, Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl, she remarks that it is only then that they are flawless, the various "flaws" that she used to describe each of them merely being summaries of their personalities.
  • Exorcist Head: Puppet Pearl's head rotates 360 degrees the first time she gets back up.
  • Extra-Long Episode: This episode is forty-four minutes long (translating to an hour long on TV, including commercial breaks), compared to the usual eleven minutes and the occasional twenty-two minutes. It can be assumed that it will need to be broken into 4 parts for reruns/syndication.

    F-H 
  • Failed a Spot Check: Lars and the Off-Colors land the Sun Incinerator on the beach, all of them somehow having failed to notice that they were landing right next to not only the 50-foot-tall Diamonds, but also the 500-foot tall Combining Mecha that is the Diamonds' ship. They only notice when they step outside.
  • Fake-Out Opening: Steven seemingly wakes up alone in the tower. When Blue comes, he demands to know where Connie is. Blue seemingly dodges the question by bringing up an incident that Steven doesn't remember... but not only does he act like he does remember, he starts talking like Pink Diamond, then sees himself turning into her. Cue the realization that Steven's fallen asleep and is having another Pink Diamond memory dream... and eventually waking up for real next to a sleeping Connie.
  • Flying Broomstick: Rainbow Quartz's gem weapon is a parasol made from Pearl's spear and Steven's shield and can be ridden like this, with a rainbow following behind it like a vapor trail.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Blue's entrance in the dream flashback is nigh identical to her present one, foreshadowing the realization Steven has and which he forces her to finally realize, to her horror: that she's done this so many times before it's become routine.
    • Blue states during her appeal to Yellow that their Gems have been suffering in silence, revealing she at some point had a Heel Realization regarding the suffering of those under their reign. While during the Gem War she was clearly cruel, in the present she treats her Pearl well, spared the Earth Quartz Gems, and was enraged when Yellow attacked both Zircons during the Trial.
    • Yellow's suffering under the pressure put on her under by White was foreshadowed when she admits to "Pink" that she's colonized so many worlds and never so much as got White's acknowledgement.
    • Both Diamonds are revealed to be miserable about enforcing White's rules. At no point in the series have either shown any joy at doing so, only boredom (Yellow) and her typical misery (Blue). Even the one time it looks like they are (avenging Pink), both ultimately admit it failed to bring them any pleasure at all.
    • White Diamond is revealed to see the other Diamonds more as extensions of herself than independent beings, and implies that they may have at one point been part of her. Pink's leg ship has high heels, unlike Pink but like White, making the combined form of the four Diamonds' ships a giant White Diamond, foreshadowing this reveal.
    • It's long been mentioned that Pink/Rose managed to block a Combined Energy Attack from all three other Diamonds at the end of the war. Pink Steven can easily tank White Diamond's powers, even when she piles on all of her slaves as well with his shield, then goes one step forwards by deflecting the attack right back.
  • Freak Out:
    • Let's just say that Blue does not handle the revelation that Steven and Connie fuse frequently on Earth well at all.
    • White Diamond has a breakdown when her assumptions about Steven are disproved and then when her blushing demonstrates that she isn't as perfect as she thought.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus:
    • When Blue brings Steven and Connie into Yellow's Bubble Room, several bubbles flash on the screen before it settles on the Crystal Gems. They're filled with Gem-shard fusions.
    • While Obsidian is being formed, there's a brief shot of the Crystal Gems' Gems arranged in the shape on the Temple door.
    • When Obsidian leaps onto the Diamond mech, the gust of wind produced bowls a barely-visible Connie over in a rather comical fashion.
    • If you pause at the right moment when Steven fuses back into himself, you can faintly see that his gemstone, glowing through his shirt, is back in the same position that it's always been for him.
    • During the concert, the Off Colors mingle in the crowd, which includes Ronaldo giving an exasperated Lars some kind of rant about his cape.
    • After the corrupted Gems are healed, many of the briefly seen background characters are recognizable references to monsters the Crystal Gems previously defeated. In particular, for a few frames, there is one gem with what appears to be Mexican Day of the Dead makeup and ponytails — which is a stealthy reference to the internet-only Steven Universe pilot, and the flying electric Day of the Dead skull monster it featured.
    • As Blue, Yellow, and White's ships lift off, Yellow uses hers to form a peace sign; the thumb of the ship is still missing.
  • From Bad to Worse: When trying to talk things out with White, she first mind controls Blue and Yellow, which eventually escalates into mind controlling the main Crystal Gems as well, which escalates into White trying to break Steven with words, which escalates into White pulling out Steven's gem. Fortunately, things finally take a turn for the better after Pink Steven fuses back with the human Steven.
  • Funny Background Event:
    • When Blue and Yellow Diamond crash through the walls of the bubbled Gem room, one of the Topaz guards at the entrance is visible on the screen, looking surprised.
    • When the Crystal Gems are collecting all the bubbled corrupted Gems in the Burning Room, Peridot is dancing with a bubble in each hand and another balancing on her head as Pearl watches with a disapproving expression.
  • Fusion Dance:
    • Steven manages to restore Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl by fusing with each them while they're poofed. They all later fuse into Obsidian to battle White.
    • In a completely unforeseen kind of combination, Steven is able to recombine his separated human and Gem halves.
  • Gale-Force Sound: When Pink Steven announces that Pink Diamond is "gone", he does so in a scream forceful enough to knock even White Diamond down.
  • Gasp!: Steven's reaction to seeing Bismuth — he literally says "Gasp".
  • Giant Foot of Stomping: White uses Pink's ship to try to crush everyone, only to be stopped by Steven's and Garnet's fusion, Sunstone.
  • Giant Robot Hands Save Lives: Connie falls a good distance before Obsidian catches her, yet she is unharmed by the abrupt landing.
  • The Glomp:
    • After Steven fuses back into himself, Connie responds by running up to and hugging him.
    • Steven tackles his dad with a hug upon reuniting back on Earth, which knocks him off his feet and makes him slide about twenty feet back.
    • Bismuth tackle-hugs a reformed Biggs the moment she sees her and splashes with her in the pool.
  • Good Costume Switch: Lapis and Peridot cement their changed affiliation with new outfits, Peridot's in particular incorporating various star imagery.
  • Go to Your Room!: White Diamond commands the other Diamonds to go to their rooms through her Pearl when she finds out about their rebellion against her. Blue confusedly asks which rooms they should go to since Blue and Yellow's ships were destroyed on Earth and Pink's ship is attached to White's torso, only to get chided by Yellow not to make her angrier like a kid trying to avoid a harsher punishment.
    White Diamond: [through White Pearl] You've made a grave mistake. Go to your rooms!
    Blue Diamond: Uh... Which rooms should we go to?
    Yellow Diamond: Blue, don't make her any angrier than she already is!
  • Grand Finale: The Crystal Gems are reconciled with the Diamonds and Homeworld, the Corrupted Gems are finally healed, and Lars is back on Earth. It wasn’t confirmed as such until a month after the airing of the subsequent movie that indeed, it was the last episode of the series, with the material after that, Steven Universe: Future, being described as a separate sequel series.
  • Groin Attack: Lapis and Peridot slice up the "crotch" of Pink's ship while fighting White.
  • Ground-Shattering Landing: After destroying the bubbled Gem room wall and falling some distance, Blue and Yellow crack the ground as they land. Yellow also cracks the ground when she collapses on her knees.
  • Heel–Face Turn:
    • Blue and Yellow finally complete theirs in this episode, with Blue realizing that all her attempts to discipline Pink had just made her miserable when all she did was try to make her fellow Diamonds happy, while Yellow later realizes that by fulfilling the "perfect" society that White Diamond has built, she has driven Pink away, and realizes that she's hurting just as much as Blue for not having her around.
    • As the episode reaches its climax, White Diamond has hers after realizing her own flaws, which Steven reassures that it's okay to have flaws and accept people for their flaws in order to truly rise above them, rather than try to suppress them and basically erase them.
  • Heel Realization:
    • Blue has this reaction when Steven asks her how many times she made Pink cry and actually considering the question, finally realizing how many times she hurt her in the past quietly saying to herself that she is "doing it again". It's this that makes her finally realize why Pink left Homeworld in the first place.
    • Yellow later has this reaction when Blue and Steven make her realize that trying to enforce "perfect" standards is what drove Pink away in the first place, owing that he's finished with trying to adhere to the Diamonds' perceptions of what he ought to be as "Pink Diamond". The fact it made her attack Blue as well heavily contributes.
    • White later has this reaction when she ends up blushing PINK, which spreads to all of her controlled Gems and her headship, realizing that she has a flaw and that she isn't as perfect as she believes. Shortly afterwards, Steven reassures White that she can still rise above peoples' flaws and make everything better by accepting their flaws instead of suppressing them to the point where they might as well be erased through her control.
  • Hell Is That Noise: Pink Steven's scream of "She's GOOOOOOOOONE!" is noteworthy for the raw fury in his voice, how all other sound cuts out from it, and the eerie bestial echoes that follow. Even Human Steven and Connie are covering their ears.
  • Heroic Sacrifice:
    • Blue decides to help Steven and Connie return to Earth, despite how much "Pink"'s return means to her.
    • Blue and Yellow encourage Steven to use their arm ships to return to Earth while they keep White distracted, despite the fact that they will therefore have to face White's wrath alone.
  • He's Back!: Steven's back to wearing his trademark outfit and not trying to be Pink.
  • High School AU: The alternate promo sees the return of this scenario, with Steven's friends cheering him on as he stands on a stage, presumably for a speech or a debate.
  • History Repeats: Just like his mom before him, Steven finds himself at odds with the Diamonds. Both of them, as Pink Diamond, attempted and failed to use peaceful argument and persuasion to convince the Diamonds, and the only course left is to change their personas (into Rose Quartz and Steven respectively) and fight them. The two differences are that while Pink Diamond changed from her original identity to the assumed identity of Rose Quartz and fought them secretly, Steven shed his assumed identity as Pink Diamond and is fighting them under his real identity, as Steven, and head-on, and also that Steven is actually able to get through to all the Diamonds, something Pink Diamond was clearly not able to do.
  • Holding Hands:
    • Steven and Connie hold each other's hand as they call out Blue Diamond.
    • Blue and Yellow Diamond hold each other's hand as they try to talk to White Diamond.
  • Hold Your Hippogriffs: At the end, when Rhodonite sees the Diamonds on Earth, she says "Well, we're cracked" in much the same way a human would say "Well, we're fucked."
  • Honor Before Reason: Steven refuses to apologize for fusing with Connie, because he's not sorry for it, even though he risks getting the two of them locked up until they starve to death. Luckily, this helps make Blue Diamond realize how terrible Pink has suffered under White's rules.
  • Hope Spot:
    • Steven and Connie finally convince Yellow and Blue they need to talk to White and tell her how unhappy she is making them, believing she will care enough about them to try to change, just like Connie's parents did for her. Yellow and Blue work up the courage to speak their minds... only for White to blast them and take control of them instead.
    • Amethyst manages to stand up and taunt White Diamond after being struck by her Eye Beams, seemingly No Selling the attack, but she then immediately succumbs to the mind control afterward.
  • Hot Blade: Obsidian produces a sword blade covered in orange runes by plunging the hilt into her magma-filled mouth.
  • Humanoid Abomination: Pink Steven, and by extension possibly the "essences" of all the Diamonds, may be this. It's clear that not even White, the oldest and most powerful Diamond, understands what he is; and even though Pink Diamond was the youngest and weakest of the four, Pink Steven is able to block White's attacks, knock her off-balance (and then down) with barely any effort.
  • Humans Are Insects: White Diamond showed no reaction to Pink Diamond's supposed new form because she thinks Steven's organic body is a Meat Puppet controlled by Pink Diamond, and thus not worth acknowledging.
  • Humongous Mecha: White combines all four Diamond ships into a gigantic mecha.
  • Hypocritical Humor: White Diamond, in the middle of a huge childish tantrum, demands to know why "Pink" is defying her and "acting like a child". He responds that he is a child. "What's your excuse?"
  • Hypocrite:
    • When Blue Diamond defends Steven and Connie from Yellow, Yellow becomes enraged at Blue for daring to use her powers against her and harm a fellow Diamond. Blue points out that they both harmed Pink in the past though, and when Yellow can't respond, she simply blasts Blue with her own powers.
    • White Diamond throws a tantrum when Steven proves he is his own person and is not Pink Diamond, saying he is simply acting like a child. Steven simply says he is a child though, an excuse White doesn't have for her own behavior.

    I-M 
  • Ignored Epiphany: Blue's statements imply that both she and Yellow had noticed their society's flaws over the millennia, but, due to fear of White's wrath and desire to get some form of approval or positive reinforcement from her, kept burying it. Thanks to Steven, they're finally forced to admit it to themselves and have a proper Heel Realization.
  • "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight: Steven's confrontation with White Diamond is a dark take on this trope, with White Diamond insisting that Steven has actually been Pink Diamond all along and has just deluded himself into thinking that he is someone else.
  • Impairment Shot: When Steven's gem is pulled out, we have a Split Screen from the perspectives of the two resulting halves, one of which is black until the gem forms Pink Steven.
  • Incoming Ham: The two new Steven+ Fusions, with Pearl and Garnet respectively.
    Rainbow Quartz 2.0: [while posing dramatically with their umbrella] Well what do you know? It's Rainbow 2.0!
    Sunstone: [while pushing the Diamond Mecha's foot back up] AWWWWW YEAH! You better step off! [shoves the foot away]
  • Inelegant Blubbering: Yellow Diamond breaks down in tears as she has her Heel Realization. She is so unaccustomed to crying that she first assumes Blue is using her powers on her.
  • Instantly Proven Wrong:
    • When Peridot brags about how well they repaired the Diamond arm ships, the thumb on Yellow's falls off. She dismisses it with "Who needs thumbs?"
    • When White prepares to launch another attack at Obsidian, Connie shouts that she's got this. After Obsidian forges a BFS with all of the Crystal Gems' weapons, she then says that Obsidian's got this.
    • When the Off Colors arrive on Earth, Rhodonite says there will finally be no more Diamonds to worry about, only for them to see all of the Diamonds right in front of them as soon as they exit the ship.
  • Internal Homage: In a scene in "Serious Steven", the Crystal Gems all land gracefully after a fall but Steven just hits the ground hard. In this episode, the exact shot is recreated right before the confrontation with White Diamond, except Steven lands on his feet as well, showing just how much Steven has grown and matured.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: After an Armor-Piercing Question courtesy of Steven, Blue Diamond comes to the conclusion that "Pink Diamond" would be better off abiding by her own rules and wishes on Earth than being smothered by Homeworld's strict regime, and decides to help "her" get home despite how much she'd previously missed Pink. After a bit more effort on the part of both Steven and Blue, Yellow Diamond comes to the same conclusion.
  • Kick the Morality Pet:
    • Blue is revealed to have locked Pink in the tower and made her cry multiple times in the past, and attacks "Pink" with one of her energy orbs. Steven calls her out on it, and she realizes to her horror that she's done it so many times it'd become almost second nature. This results in her Heel Realization, as it makes her realize exactly why Pink fled Homeworld in the first place.
      Blue: We finally have you back, and you're worse than ever!
    • Yellow gets into a fight with Blue when she defies her and tries to poof her with her lightning. Steven stops her and calls her out on letting living up to White's standards make her hurt her loved ones, resulting in her Heel Realization. Blue also calls her out on partaking in the same kind of behavior towards Pink as herself.
  • Laser-Guided Karma:
    • Blue is revealed to have trapped Pink in the prison tower and made her cry multiple times. Pink, by faking her death, trapped Blue in depression and caused her to cry constantly for five thousand years.
    • White Diamond has spent eons as a Control Freak tyrant enforcing Homeworld's doctrine and killing off any imperfections so she can remain as the perfect being. When she fails to control Pink Steven, her Villainous Breakdown causes her to become imperfect and helpless.
  • Layman's Terms: When Steven explains to Yellow that Perfection Is Impossible:
    Steven: My dad says if every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn't have hot dogs.
    Yellow: And that means... what?
    Steven: It means if you try and make this empire perfect — if you just wipe away everything you see as flawed — you lose all the things that make you happy — like hot dogs.
    Blue: Or our Pink.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Sunstone directly addresses the camera with a valuable message about bullying. Since the camera is only focused on them, there are no reactions from anyone else towards their behavior.
  • Legacy Character:
    • Steven and Pearl fuse and form a different Rainbow Quartz from the one shown in "We Need to Talk". To cement this, he calls himself Rainbow 2.0.
    • By extension, Obsidian, Sunstone and Smoky Quartz are also all different characters than the fusions would have been with Rose Quartz instead of Steven.
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: Steven still tries to reason with the Diamonds, but he is more than willing to fight to make them all listen. He tosses his shield at Yellow Diamond to get her to stop shocking Blue, fuses with the Crystal Gems to become Obsidian and break into White's head, and his Pink Steven refuses to submit to White's Eye Beams.
  • Limp and Livid: Normally the Diamond ships would be controlled by multiple Diamonds operating as a unit, but with Blue and Yellow brainwashed it can be assumed White Diamond is trying to operate all four pieces of the mech by herself, resulting in the mech's movements seeming disjointed and puppet-like.
  • Literal Metaphor: Steven tells White Diamond that the first thing she needs to do in order to figure herself out is to "leave [her] own head". Again, this is both in regards to her needing to get out of her thoughts and experience the world and physically leaving the head of her ship, which is designed in her likeness.
  • Literal-Minded: When White Diamond (through White Pearl) tells Blue, Yellow, Steven and Connie to go to their rooms, Blue Diamond nervously asks what rooms they should go to.
  • Literal Split Personality: White forcibly removes Steven's gemstone, and a new Steven made of pink Hard Light forms out of it. While the temporarily fully human side of him is weakened to the point that he can barely move until they're reunited, Pink Steven barely shows any emotion (until he's happy to reunite), is shockingly powerful, and is notably less merciful than Steven.
  • Locked Out of the Fight: The auxiliary Crystal Gems — Bismuth, Peridot, and Lapis — are knocked out of the battle but not poofed when the main team goes into White's eye.
  • Luminescent Blush: White Diamond blushes pink after Steven points out she's acting like a child after her temper tantrum. Her "flaw" winds up spreading to her puppet Gems and even to her headship, who in turn blush pink as well. The blush is implied to be literally luminescent, too: the entire previously white room turned pink as well.
  • Make Me Wanna Shout:
    • Obsidian's roars carry enough force to create a visible shockwave of wind and even staggers the Diamond Mecha when they do it directly into the eye.
    • Pink Steven screaming "She's GONE!!!" creates a crater on where's he standing and cracks the inside of White Diamond's ship.
  • Mama Bear: Yellow Diamond is briefly one near the end when she non-verbally warns Jasper not to touch Steven with just a stern look.
  • Mark of Shame: When White blushes pink, Blue and Yellow are visibly disturbed by it, Yellow commenting that she is "off-color". Whether or not White is just blushing and is embarrassed by it or if the pink in her cheeks is an actual flaw in her gem, literally making her an off-color Gem (something she implies earlier) and that she simply has been hiding it all this time is up for debate.
  • Messy Hair: Upon having her Heel Realization, Blue's impeccably groomed hair becomes wild and out of place as she anguishes over what she had done. It symbolizes her Diamond persona "breaking", finally allowing her to see and admit the damage that she and the other Diamonds have inflicted onto Pink for eons.
  • Mind-Reformat Death: Even separated from Steven's body, his gemstone takes his form and is completely focused on merging back together, showing for certain that Rose/Pink no longer exists as a person and has not since Steven was born.
  • Monochrome to Color: Inverted, then straight. Anyone who's hit with White's light loses their color and become under her control. After she loses her composure and gets flustered, everyone's color returns.
  • Mouthscreen: The camera shifts focus to White's mouth just as she screams "You're just... a-acting like a child!"
  • My God, What Have I Done?:
    • Blue discovers that the Diamonds' attempts to discipline Pink are what pushed her away from them.
    • Yellow discovers that all of her attempts at fulfilling White's desire for perfection are what drove her to nearly destroy Pink and Blue, the two beings in the universe she cared most about.
  • Mythology Gag: Steven saves the day with the snappy comeback "What's your excuse?", just as he does in the pilot episode of the series.

    N-P 
  • Never Say "Die": Steven's Gem half stops being evasive toward the Diamonds as to his relation to his mother, outright saying that even if Pink Diamond isn't shattered, she is still "gone".
  • No Navel, Novel Birth: When Steven's gemstone is pulled out of him, there is no wound, but his abdomen is featureless.
  • No-Sell: Pink Steven uses his shield to effortlessly block all of White Diamond's attempts to control him, even when she's backed up by Blue and Yellow. If anything, he only looks a little annoyed at the delay it's causing as he walks toward Steven.
  • No Social Skills: White Diamond, once she's finally convinced to "leave her own head", is revealed to have zero social skills and be incredibly awkward actually interacting with things that aren't her.
  • Not Afraid to Die: Hilariously, when Rhodonite lands on Earth and finds herself facing all of the Diamonds, she goes past being afraid to just sounding disappointed.
  • Not Listening to Me, Are You?: Having literally tied her (the Diamond Authority's Combining Mecha's) hands together, Yellow, Blue and Steven are finally able to tell her how the rules she established are making everyone miserable and that they can change it for the better. Does she come out of the head and have a heart to heart with them? Does she tell them off from the comfort of her ship? No and no. Without a word, she hits Blue and Yellow with her eye beams, bleaching their bodies and assimilating them.
  • Not Me This Time:
    • When Yellow Diamond starts tearing up, she as usual tells Blue Diamond to stop using her powers. Blue Diamond points out that she isn't using them.
    • When Blue and Yellow's arm-ships appear, both Yellow and Blue assure Steven and White that they had nothing to do with it.
      Steven: Yellow! Blue! Did you have a hand in this?
      Blue Diamond: No way!
      Yellow Diamond: White, that wasn't us!
      Blue Diamond: We swear!
  • Not Quite Back to Normal:
    • When White/Pink Pearl is freed from White Diamond's influence along with the others, she regains her original color scheme, but her eye is still damaged.
    • When the Diamonds cure the corruption, the cured Gems retain some of their animal traits. Jasper, for example, retains bumps and teal spots from her monster form, and the other Jaspers like her share similar deformities that aren't cured. According to Ian Jones-Quartey, the amount of corrupted traits a Gem maintains is proportional to the amount of time they spent corrupted, which explains why Watermelon Tourmaline still looks like a pufferfish, whereas Jasper basically looks like her uncorrupted self plus some new details, and has smaller horns than the other cured Jaspers.
  • Not the Fall That Kills You…:
    • Peridot "catches" Bismuth by using her magnet powers on her armor. The show presents it as an abrupt stop mere inches off the ground, which should still have inflicted the full force hitting the ground, poofing or even shattering her (this being a much longer fall than the one that damaged Amethyst's gemstone). Potentially subverted, since Peri spent a full ten seconds trying to stop the fall, and could have decelerated Bismuth more gradually than the show lets on.
    • Obsidian catches Connie before she hits the ground, yet Connie is unharmed from the sudden stop.
  • Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The Gem War is now officially over. The Crystal Gems have made peace with the Diamond Authority. All of the corrupted gems left on Earth have been uncorrupted. The Off Colors have finally made it to Earth, with Lars and Sadie, having become different people since they had last met, reconciling. White, Blue and Yellow leave Steven and the other Gems on Earth with the leg-ship, having experienced the catharsis that their philosophy (that Perfection Is Impossible, embracing your differences is good and you should value your loved ones) and will most likely internalize it back on Homeworld, changing it for the better.
  • No, You: During the flashback at the start:
    Steven: What have you done with Connie?!
    Blue Diamond: What have I done?! What have you done!? You're the one that wanted to keep those organics from the Kyanite colony! I'm just the fool that let you.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Connie's fight against brainwashed Pearl isn't shown in detail, but we do see Pearl sitting on the floor with her spear a few feet away, with the implication that Connie disarmed and knocked Pearl down.
  • Oh, Crap!: Yellow Diamond's expression when Steven disables her Diamond lightning with one well-thrown shield suggests this.
  • One-Handed Zweihänder: Obsidian sometimes holds her sword with two hands, making it a Two-Handed Vierhander (although she always uses four hands to swing it).
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Yellow has a Heel Realization and starts crying over it, she assumes that Blue made her cry with her powers. Blue replies that she did not.
  • Opening Shout-Out: The final scenes recreate the last scenes of the title sequence, as Steven and the Gems sit at the beach at night.
  • People Puppets: When White possesses a gem, they move like a marionette.
  • Perfection Is Impossible: The lesson Steven teaches White is that everyone has flaws of some kind.
  • The Perfectionist: White Diamond is obsessed with making everything and everyone "perfect" (or at least her idea of it), and Yellow Diamond believes the same before Steven convinces them both otherwise.
  • Playing with Fire: Obsidian can engulf their sword in flames by plunging it into their upper mouth.
  • Please Wake Up:
    • As Steven is waking up from unconsciousness after having his gem forcibly removed, Connie can be heard begging for him to wake up.
    • Villainous example: White removes Steven's gem to reawaken Pink, both to make Pink Diamond submit and to get back her long-lost relative. She's utterly surprised and distraught when Pink Steven emerges instead, does not submit to her, and bluntly tells her that Pink Diamond is gone.
  • Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: Downplayed. When Steven tries breaking the ice between the Diamonds and the Off Colors, the Diamonds try to keep whatever disgusted thoughts they have to themselves, with White even giving a begrudging "hello" (even with her chin in the air). Padparadscha responds by shouting out in terror.
  • P.O.V. Cam: The scene immediately following the forcible removal of Steven's gem is shown from both Steven's points of view at once, demonstrating that they're both part of the same person.
  • Power Floats: When Pink Steven shouts so loud he creates a crater under his feet, he stays at the level of the floor instead of falling down into it.
  • Power of Love: Steven didn't even need to dance to fuse with Garnet. Just an "I love you" and a hug caused them to form Sunstone.
  • Pronoun Trouble: Blue Diamond agrees to call Steven by his actual name, but still refers to him as "she".note 
    She prefers to be called "Steven".
  • Pun: Many puns are made throughout the episode, most of which are unacknowledged.
    • When Blue Diamond uses the same lines upon entering the tower both in Steven's dream/flashback and in present day, Steven mutters, "Whoa, déjà Blue".
    • When White Diamond's torso ship flies over to the leg ship, Steven and Connie make two:
      Steven: We're busted.
      Connie: Looks like this just turned into a face-off.
    • Steven excitedly asks Yellow and Blue if they had a "hand" in the hand ships returning and fighting White. When Bismuth emerges from Yellow's ship after punching the combined torso and leg ships, she says, "I always wanted to uppercut an upper-crust!"
    • "Lend me a hand, will you, Blue?" Blue and Yellow then raise their hand ships off the ground and move to attach them to White's ship.
    • Addressing White, Yellow says that the high standards that they have to adhere to have put them all under a lot of pressure. "A Gem could crack under so much pressure."
    • Smoky Quartz exclaims, "Holy Smokes!" upon realizing that Steven and Amethyst fused to draw Amethyst out of her gem. They unfuse and Steven is thrown towards Pearl's gem. Amethyst turns into an owl and assures Steven, "Owl be fine."
    • Sunstone quips, "You better step off!" before lifting and tossing the foot of White's ship.
    • The auxiliary Crystal Gems prepare to fight the White Diamond-controlled mecha. Bismuth declares, "Let's show White Diamond we mean Bismuth!" The subtitles helpfully point out that this is a pun on "we mean business".
  • Punched Across the Room: Bismuth (in Yellow Diamond's hand ship) uppercuts the connected head and leg ships, sending it flying over buildings.
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Yellow, when Blue tells her that "Pink" wishes to be called Steven.
    Yellow Diamond: What. Are. You. Talking about!?
  • Punctuated Pounding: During White Diamond's temper tantrum, she ends up pounding the floor with her fists so hard during the more emphatic parts of her ranting that she causes Steven and Connie to bounce (and the two just laugh it off like it's some sort of carnival ride).
    White Diamond: [pounding the floor] No! You are Pink Diamond! That is Pink Diamond's gem! You do not look like this! You do not sound like this!

    R-S 
  • Race-Name Basis: When Connie tries to take the blame for ruining the ball on behalf of Steven, Blue Diamond ask "What do you know about this, human?"
  • Rage Breaking Point:
    • When "Pink" (actually Steven) tries Blue's patience one too many times, Blue ends up snapping and screaming, "That's ENOUGH!" while she blasts her fellow Diamond with an energy beam. It ends up working against her as Steven calls her out for making Pink cry many times despite claiming she loved her, causing Blue to finally realize what she had done and experience a Heel Realization.
    • When Blue starts fighting off Yellow, Yellow nearly has a full psychotic breakdown.
      Yellow Diamond: When we thought Pink was shattered, when she abandoned us, I alone was there for you, and you would use your power. Against. ME!?
    • When White pulls out Steven's diamond and it manifests as a pink form of Steven instead, she demands to know where Pink went. Pink Steven manifests all of Steven's repressed rage and sorrow at constantly bending himself over backwards to please everyone (including the Crystal Gems) and bellows, "SHE'S GOOOOOOOOONE!!!"
  • Raised as a Host: White Diamond presumes Steven was conceived not to produce a new life, but to make a body Pink Diamond would inhabit from birth. Of course, Rose would never do anything that terrible, and White proves herself completely wrong when she removes Steven's gem.
  • The Reveal:
    • We finally find out what happens if Steven is separated from his Gem: the gem forms a new Hard Light body in Steven's image. The human half is left very emaciated and weak without it, and implicitly would die if the two were kept apart long enough.
    • Also answered is a running theme over the last two seasons: is Steven really Rose/Pink in a new form? He gets his answer alongside White Diamond when she pries out his gem and it reforms not into Pink Diamond or Rose Quartz, but into a pink-hued version of himself. He's more than just Rose Quartz's Reincarnation... he is Steven Universe and always has been.
  • Ride the Rainbow: Rainbow Quartz 2.0 leaves a rainbow trail from the pointed end of their parasol when they fly with it.
  • Rule of Symbolism:
    • White Diamond gives an analysis of the personalities and perceived flaws of the other Diamonds based on how their impurities affect their spectrum of light reflected.
    • White Diamond screams at and attacks Pink Steven, "I only want you to be yourself. If you can't do that, I'll do it for you!" Notice how it's all of the Gems mind controlled by her — the main Crystal Gems and Blue and Yellow Diamond — attacking Pink Steven; it's because they all had different expectations of what he was at one point... and he no-sells all of them because they were all wrong.
  • Rule of Three: This episode contains three songs.
  • Sand In My Eyes: When Yellow Diamond starts crying, she tells Blue (apparently genuinely) to stop making her. Blue points out she is not.
  • Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: When Steven sees Bismuth emerging from Yellow's arm ship, he literally says "Gasp!"
  • Sequel Hook: There a few lingering plot threads for the movie and potential future seasons, like the future of the cured Corrupted Gems who decided to stay on Earth (especially considering the possibility of a redemption arc for Jasper), along with the Off Colors, White's hints that the other Diamonds are aspects that she split from herself, and the implications for Homeworld's society after what's changed with the Diamonds.
  • Shadow Discretion Shot: The moment where White Diamond pulls out Steven's gemstone is completely obscured by shadows.However... 
  • Shield Surf: When Steven tries to catch the falling Gems, he pulls out his shield to surf on the pipes that litter the area.
  • Shown Their Work:
    • The same atomic structure that makes real-life diamonds so hard also makes them brittle, something that Yellow outright says to White.
    • Obsidian is one of the sharpest natural substances in existence, formed from lava, so it makes sense for Obsidian to have Magma Man traits and an Absurdly Sharp Blade.
    • White is quite accurate in stating that diamonds having different colors than just being clear is the result of having impurities; something can only appear yellow when it absorbs blue, Blue wants a warm color she can't absorb, and White technically doesn't need Pink to appear white, she just has to reflect everything. The fact that she's White Diamond instead of "Clear" Diamond also hints that she's not as perfect she believes she is.
    • Lapis having a golden ribbon on her pants is actually based on true lapis lazuli stones often having a gold pyrite vein in them.
  • Skyward Scream: The first thing Obsidian does after forming.
  • Smug Super: Deconstructed with White, who genuinely believes herself to be objectively superior to all Gems, including her fellow Diamonds. However, this was a façade to hide the fact that she's actually flawed, something she's very sensitive over and will give people grief if they embarrass her in any way. This also ends up creating The Chain of Harm — White gets mad over something minor and takes it out on Yellow and Blue, Yellow and Blue unconsciously vent their frustrations on Pink, which results in Pink lashing out and further feeds into their assumptions of her being a "brat". White's extreme perfectionism also caused Pink to lose what few friends she had on Homeworld, losing her first Pink Pearl and having her replaced against Pink's will because she dared to befriend a Diamond. This led to the birth of Rose Quartz and the Crystal Gems, and Pink ultimately dying to give birth to Steven. By the time White is finally broken of her perceptions and reconciles with the remaining Diamonds, it's far too late for her to apologize to Pink for what she had done.
  • Split Screen: Occurs when White removes Steven's gem, with one side showing Steven's view and the other showing Pink Steven's perspective.
  • Stealth Pun:
    • Rainbow Quartz 2.0's line "Ah yes. Now that's two stones.....with one bird?" The two stones, of course, being Ruby and Sapphire's gemstones and the bird being a reformed Amethyst shapeshifted into an owl. Then it hit me that it could be a double pun: Amethyst is shapeshifted into an owl which is of course a kind of bird. On the other hand though, Rainbow Quartz is depicted with a British accent. Amethyst is a female presenting Gem. What is British slang for a woman? A bird!
    • Steven and Pink having bellybutton gems was at least partially inspired by bellybuttons being the physical connection between parent & child. White removes this bellybutton gem from Steven's body, a physical part of him that he'd inherited from his mother, which resulted in Steven proving he was truly his own person and being able to distance himself from Pink. White unintentionally cut the umbilical cord between Steven and Rose.
  • Stunned Silence:
    • When Steven's separated Gem forms a new body, White Diamond, the Gems she's controlling, Connie, and even Steven's human half stare in awed silence.
    • Ronaldo does nothing but gawk when he gets a good look at the Diamonds.
  • Suddenly Shouting: After Whilte removes Steven's gem, it changes into a form resembling Steven made out of pink light:
    White Diamond: What is this?! Where is Pink?
    Pink Steven: She's. gone.
    White Diamond: What did you say? Answer me!
    Pink Steven: She's GONE!!!
  • Squick: In-Universe:
    • Blue epically freaks out at the mere thought of frequent cross-Gem (well, semi-cross-species in this case) fusion:
      Steven: Blue, Connie and I fuse all the time. It's totally normal and fine.
      Blue Diamond: [very uncomfortable and squirming] Agh! In what universe could that possibly be fine?!
      Steven: This universe! The Crystal Gems fuse all the time, too. Blue, you gotta tell me where their gems are. They didn't do anything wrong!
      Blue Diamond: Ohhhh! Pink! Your time on Earth has warped your sense of right and wrong!
    • When a blushing White Diamond reaches out to them in desperation, Blue and Yellow Diamond flinch and back away from her, expressing disgust at her being "Off-Colored". Blue even looks like that she's about to vomit.

    T-Y 
  • Taking the Bullet: When White fires her Eye Beams at Steven, Amethyst pushes him out of the way to allow herself to get hit by them instead.
  • Tautological Templar: White Diamond's entire worldview turns out to be based around the idea that she is a perfect and flawless being, which means that she knows best and justifies her enforcement of a caste system that ultimately just makes everyone miserable, and even her taking control of other Gems to remove what she sees as their flaws. It's only when she realizes that she isn't perfect that Steven is able to reason with her.
  • Tears of Joy:
    • Steven starts Cry Laughing in relief when he reunites with Pink Steven. Connie also sheds some equally relieved tears on seeing them re-fuse.
    • Garnet and Pearl share some tears and a hug as they watch as all of their long-lost friends are uncorrupted.
  • Tears of Remorse: Blue and Yellow Diamond shed these after their respective Heel Realizations.
  • Tempting Fate: As Blue laments about Pink releasing a bunch of alien creatures into the ballroom, she proclaims that they could be anywhere. Sure enough, right after she says that, one appears out of her hair and right in her face, causing Blue to scream and swat it away.
  • That Woman Is Dead: When Steven's gem is separated, a construct takes the form of Pink Diamond, then Rose Quartz before settling into Steven. "Pink Steven" then knows and states with complete certainty that Rose and Pink are gone for good, and even if he has her memories, Steven is truly his own person.
  • This Cannot Be!: This is White's reaction to her own Luminescent Blush, as it shows she has a flaw after all.
  • This Is Gonna Suck:
    • This is Steven and Connie's reaction to White Diamond's ship flying onto Pink Diamond's.
    • Rhodonite's reaction to seeing the Diamonds on Earth when the Off Colors have done their damndest to escape Homeworld.
      Rhodonite: Well, we're cracked.
  • Throwing Your Shield Always Works: Steven manages to disrupt Yellow Diamond's lightning this way, much to her shock.
  • Tired of Running: The episode starts with the Crystal Gems simply trying to escape Homeworld, with Connie assuring him they'll find some other way to heal the corrupted gems. After Yellow and Blue Diamond decide to help them, and face White's wrath to buy time for them to escape back to Earth, Steven decides to settle things here and now.
    Steven: No. No, I won't go. Pink Diamond ran away from you. Rose Quartz, my mom, she started a war with you. But I don't want to run. I don't want to fight. I just want to talk. We've come so far just to get White Diamond's attention, and now we finally have it. If we can fix our family, we can fix everything!
  • Title Drop:
    Sunstone: If [White Diamond] won't listen, we'll make her listen.
    Amethyst: And how are we gonna do that?
    Sunstone: I know she's in there. We'll bust into her head and change her mind.
    Everyone: Right!
  • Title Theme Drop: Steven sings the show's theme song, "We Are the Crystal Gems", at Sadie's concert.
  • Tomato in the Mirror:
    • Subverted. White cruelly suggests to Steven that he's just a vessel for Pink Diamond, rather than being her son, and that Pink made him to get away from her problems to become even better than her "flawed" friends. Steven denies it, but begins to falter when White points out his Past-Life Memories, and Connie screams at him not to listen. When White removes Steven's gem, Pink Steven emerges instead of Pink Diamond, proving that White was wrong.
    • When White Diamond blushes, she makes the others blush and wonders why they're blushing. She reasons that they shouldn't be blushing because she's controlling them. Then she realizes if they're blushing, that can only mean she's the one blushing.
  • Totally Radical: Sunstone, the fusion of Garnet and Steven, is a parody of stereotypical "cool" cartoon characters from the '90s.
  • Tranquil Fury:
    • White Diamond — when taking to the field, her Dissonant Serenity does nothing to hide the fact that she's ready to end "Pink Diamond's" rebellion by any means necessary.
    • Even moreso is Pink Steven, who completely No-Sells White Diamond's powers while effortlessly destroying the inner sanctum.
  • Traveling at the Speed of Plot: The Off Colors make it to Earth at the exact minute the Crystal Gems and the Diamonds do.
  • Triumphant Reprise: Steven comes up with a new version of "We Are the Crystal Gems", adding a new verse that celebrates curing the corrupted Gems and winning diplomatically.
    If you're staring with your giant eyes
    You can see that there's more of us than four of us
    And each one of our new friends completes us
    We'll get together and go out for pizzas
    Cause we believe in peace and love
    We are here for fun
    If you're not then let's not fight cause
    We already won!
  • Unflinching Walk: Pink Steven when trying to return to his human half.
  • Use Your Head: When Obsidian grabs onto the head of White Diamond's ship, the latter headbutts the nearest pillar to try to get rid of them.
  • Villainous Breakdown: White becomes shocked upon seeing Pink's Gem turn into a version of Steven. After her demands for him to return Pink Diamond fail, she decides to use her Mind Control eye beams to make Pink Steven submit. When that also fails, she completely loses it and uses all her power and everyone she's controlling to blast Pink Steven into submission.
    White Diamond: DON'T YOU RAISE YOUR SHIELD AT ME! I only want you to be yourself! If you can't do that, I'll do it FOR YOU!!!
    • After Steven and Pink Steven merge back together, she starts throwing a tantrum and pounding her fists, leaving her open to Steven's Armor-Piercing Response.
  • Villainous BSoD: All three Diamonds end up having one when Steven finally manages to get through to them. However, White's is the most pronounced as she more or less shuts down after realizing she has a flaw and has zero idea what to do with herself.
  • Visual Pun:
    • Pink Steven roars that "she's GOOOOOOOOOONE!!!" after White constantly demands to know where Pink is, making deep cracks in her ship and making White swerve incredibly. Her perceived notions about things, and her worldview in general, had been shaken for the first time.
    • Pink Steven cracks the pedestal White stands on and finally knocks her off of it. He literally broke the pedestal she put herself on and knocked her off of it.
  • V-Sign:
    • Peridot flashes the sign with both hands to Steven after she and Lapis emerge from the hand ship.
    • Sunstone's lower arms cast peace signs when they first appear.
    • Yellow (via her hand ship) gives everyone the peace sign as the Diamonds leave Earth.
  • Warts and All: Discussed; Steven insists that the Crystal Gems are perfect as they are, flaws and all. White Diamond shuts him down.
  • Was It Really Worth It?: Steven's Armor-Piercing Question to Yellow Diamond is basically asking her if sacrificing everyone she ever loved was worth White's approval. Yellow realizes it isn't and breaks down crying for the first time in her life.
  • Was Too Hard on Her: Blue starts regretting how she treated Pink after being asked by Steven how many times she hurt her.
  • "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: Yellow justifies trying to poof Blue by pointing out that White would expect her to make that kind of sacrifice for the sake of the Empire. However, Steven shuts her up by pointing out that doing this just destroys everything else she loved.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: White, due to her belief in her own perfection, honestly believes that she knows better than anyone else and that things would be better if her subjects and her entire empire just did as she said.
  • Wham Episode: And how! Clocking in at 44 minutes, this is the Grand Finale of the series (not counting the movie and Steven Universe: Future), and everything changes. All of the poofed Crystal Gems get new designs, all three of the Diamonds, including White, undergo a Heel–Face Turn and cure all of the corrupted Gems, three new Fusions are shown (Rainbow Quartz 2.0, Sunstone, and Obsidian), Steven's gemstone is temporarily removed revealing that he is his own person, Lars and the Off-Colors make it to Earth, the list goes on!
  • Wham Line:
    • After Sunstone fails to climb to the top of White Diamond's ship, the main Crystal Gems decide they need to fuse.
      Garnet: Then it's decided, we have to form Obsidian.
    • White Diamond reveals that she knows Steven thinks of himself as his own person, and it's implied she does know enough about humans (or even his life in particular) to know what a "mom" is.
      White Diamond: Hahahahahaha! Your mom? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
    • The clincher after White removes Steven's gem, and keeps insisting he's Pink Diamond (said in Steven's own voice):
      Pink Steven: She's GOOOOOONE!!!!!!
  • Wham Shot:
    • Peridot and Lapis have reformed, with new outfits that cement them as Crystal Gems.
    • White pulling Steven's gem from his body.
    • When Steven looks down at his blank stomach (without a navel, no less), to hammer-in the fact that, indeed, without any story fakeouts, Steven's gem IS gone.
    • Steven's gem going through the previous forms of Pink Diamond and Rose Quartz before deciding to reform in the shape of Steven himself. Then the other half of the screen goes from black to his POV, and he turns to his other half.
  • What Is This Feeling?:
    • Yellow's Heel Realization comes when she starts to sob bitter tears and begs Blue to stop using her Emotion Bomb powers on her, only for Blue to tell her that she isn't doing that. For the first time in what might be thousands of years, her tears are her own.
    • White Diamond is unable to comprehend her own blushing.
      White Diamond: [looking around] What's happening? What is this? What's wrong with them? They're turning... pink! I don't understand... I'm in control! [feels her own face] I– [gasps] Something's wrong! With me! NO!! ...What is this...? I feel... ridiculous! [reaches out in desperation] Yellow...! Blue...!
  • Wingding Eyes: Steven has stars in his eyes as the first Gems in the fountain are healed of corruption.
  • Womanchild: White degenerates into this during her Villainous Breakdown; when Pink Steven and Steven refuse to follow White's doctrine, she's reduced to pounding the ground like a child. When she tells off Steven that he's acting like a child, he replies that he is a child, and asks what her excuse is.
  • You Keep Telling Yourself That: A part of Steven's Armor-Piercing Question to Blue Diamond is shutting down her claims to have loved Pink Diamond by making her realize all the times she abused her, and why Pink did not feel the same way and assumed Blue's love for her was only to feel better about herself.
  • You Shall Not Pass!: Defied. Yellow and Blue tell Steven to flee in their ships and they'll hold White off. Steven refuses and stays to try and resolve things in a way that's best for them too.

I don't need you to respect me, I respect me.
I don't need you to love me, I love me.
But I want you to know you could know me, if you change your miiiiiiind.
If you change your miiiiiiind.
If you change your miiiiiiind.
Change your miiiiiiind.

 
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Alternative Title(s): Steven Universe S 5 E 28 Battle Of Heart And Mind

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White Diamond

While the Diamond Authority is billed as four matriarchs working together to lead the Gem Homeworld, White Diamond is the defacto God Empress of all gemkind. Her power easily surpasses that of Blue and Yellow Diamond, let alone lesser gems. She claims to be the perfect being, with all other gems, even the other Diamonds, merely being flawed reflections of herself. She refuses to listen to others or admit that she is wrong, and the end result of her plans would be the annihilation of all other life in the universe in order to fuel the creation of more gems- more subjects for her to rule. She demands that her subjects be perfect in their actions, thoughts, and desires at all times, and destroys everything that is "off-color". The only one shown to be able to stand up to her is Steven.

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