I mean. Generally speaking empires frown upon Rebellions in the general sense. It might inspire others to follow suit.
And just conquering a place involves an expenditure of resources. And when it rebels successfully, you ain't getting those resources back.
Yellow Diamond being especially pissed at Earth makes sense if she's just not used to losing.
SO apparently the Rubies are using an Alcubierre Drive, . A black hole-powered bubble that warps space around the ship to reach ftl speed. How cool is that?
I do agree that YD wanted to crush Rose's movement utterly so it wouldn't spread, though. That's the best explanation for why they needed to leave in such a hurry, and blow everything up, because Rose's movement would have continued to attract more gems to it's cause, and undermine the Diamond's authority if they had kept their forces there.
edited 4th Jun '16 12:35:47 PM by xanderiskander
Obviously scifi writers have no sense of scale, but Gems being an anti-entropic construct provides some fascinating uses for the survival of long-term intelligence in the universe. Even if the question of where and why the Gems came about isn't discussed, and regardless of motive, there's potential for some great fanfic about far future stories.
Like, could they still exist a trillion years into the future when stars start to stop forming, or 20 trillion, when Red Dwarfs start to die? Or yet further, a quadrillion years when supermassive black holes are the remaining solid objects, tapped for proton energy and Neutron Stars are the only natural light in the universe.
Or Ten Duotrigintillion/10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000 years into the future, when there's nothing left but scattered electrons, spinning too far and fast away to reconnect? Would consciousness still yet exist? Probably not, but the scientist part of my brain has to admire these guys for sheer survival against the entropy of the universe.
edited 4th Jun '16 12:47:08 PM by darkabomination
This whole recent discussion is what I'm talking about when I say that SU feels like it's caught in between two shows. There's all of this interesting backstory behind everything from the Gems to the rebellion, to Homeworld, to Earth itself. But instead, the show is about the son of the rebellion's leader learning his powers and dealing with what are essentially the loose threads left over.
I'd love to see a show about the rebellion that happened, the motivations behind it, and occasionally some battles. But since the show is about Steven, we don't get to see any of that, barring the occasional flashback episode, because it happened thousands of years in the past.
One show I would compare it a lot to is Avatar The Last Airbender, in that someone with a lot of powers to learn suddenly has the responsibility of taking down an evil empire that thinks it wiped his kind out. That show handled pacing a lot better, in my opinion. The threat was constantly on the horizon, and there was a consistent goal to work towards, but the show still had time for a cooled down, character-focused, or even breather episode. The Character:Plot ratio felt like a good 50:50. Here, it feels like a 80:20. It has just enough of an overall plot with action and structure in it to keep it from totally feeling like the Slice of Life show it seems like it wants to be.
Just to be clear, I really like Steven's character. I'm just reminded of some writing advice I got: "Is this the most interesting period of our character's life, and if not, why aren't you showing us that?" You could technically answer "yes" if Homeworld's return does eventually happen. But for now, it feels like it isn't, with the only reason why being that it just really wants to be the kind of show it is.
Sorry about the rant. It's my only gripe with the show, but I felt like voicing it.
"The cruelest thing you can do to an artist is tell them their work is flawless when it isn't." -Ben "Yahtzee" CroshawWe almost always get the leftovers.
Because fortunately...people just didn't understand how to War...do War.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.Constant narration is required if we were to learn most anything during War times...that's simply not as good.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.When my sister first watched the show, she told me that the rebellion reminded her of the First Wizarding War They were both cataclysmic events that shaped the events currently happening, and built up for a second war (seems like with SU) that ended up happening in the course of the story, but was only ever talked about, never shown.
edited 4th Jun '16 1:52:38 PM by Cailleach
Here's my issue though. It wasn't just Rose and Pearl. Ungodly amounts of other gems literally died for this cause. Humans Are Special is cool and all, but human civilization hadn't even started yet. Humans were literally pretty good monkeys.
And they like something, sure, but they risked their lives for Earth. Pearl included. I'd like to think it was selflessness, but not on that sort of scale. You don't see any wars started over the destruction of the environment. Humans Are Special is cool and all, but war and devastation on such a large scale would seem almost stupid if that was the justification.
I could see Rose genuinely caring, and I could see all the gems appreciating the vast diversity of life on Earth (though the way the Kindergarten is presented suggests that there are a lot more planets suitable for devastation a la Earth), I don't see the war really starting over that. I'm on the side of "ideological conflict" more than "Earth is just that special".
And it also puts YD in a weird light, because she is really surprisingly reasonable. She even gives Peridot a chance to return back to Homeworld, and even then only sends a fleet out to ask Peridot where Jasper is. The only topic she was unusually irrational and bitter towards was the subject of Earth. She doesn't seem like the type to hold serious grudges without a really good reason.
x4 I can definitely see that comparison. But this leads into the second half of my "stuck between two shows" argument.
I can appreciate the Great Offscreen War as a trope. But I've mostly seen it used as a way of giving the actions onscreen context. Sure, it sounds like the rebellion does that for this show, but how much do we really know?
(For the following, please read them in the voice used in this video
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Were the Crystal Gems the rebellion itself or just its leaders? How did the Monster Gems get corrupted? Was it some kind of weird PTSD? What happened to Pink Diamond? Did Pink Diamond lead the rebellion, or did she just support it? Was Rose Quartz her second-in-command? Why were Pearl, Garnet and Rose the only non-corrupted Gems after the war? Why does Jasper say she fought Rose in "the first war"? How many wars were there? Why did that Jasper only fight in the first one? What kinds of tactics did Rose use to earn Jasper's respect? Why was Sugilite voiced by Nicki Minaj? If the Cluster was going to destroy the planet, why did they have plans to colonize it? Who was leading the Gem army trying to stop the rebellion? Why was Rose such a selfish bitch and only cared about saving the one planet? Were there no other planets in the universe between Homeworld's galaxy and ours that had life on them? Why were Rose and Pearl referred to as "the rebels" in The Answer instead of "the rebel leaders"? Were they the only two members of the rebellion at the time? Why does Pearl have such a lady boner for Rose? Why was Blue Diamond overseeing the Earth's colonization, but Yellow Diamond was the one who sent some people to check on the planet? Why was someone sent to check on the planet 5000 years after it was abandoned? Do the planets have to have life for the gems to colonize it? Why couldn't they just mine the shit out of Mars? What was that bright flash after Homeworld abandoned the planet? Was it some kind of last-resort superweapon, or did a star coincidentally go supernova? Where does White Diamond fit into all of this? How did the Gems master intergalactic travel before inventing the gun?
edited 4th Jun '16 3:45:41 PM by BlueBlaze64
"The cruelest thing you can do to an artist is tell them their work is flawless when it isn't." -Ben "Yahtzee" CroshawI get the sense that while Yellow Diamond is usually very logically oriented and level-headed, she doesn't respond very well to her authority being questioned. When Homeworld was defeated in the Rebellion, that had to sting her. It's not the type of thing she'd forget.
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I'm sure most of that is going to be answered in the show eventually. There's still three seasons left.
edited 4th Jun '16 3:43:59 PM by Collen
Gave them our reactions, our explosions, all that was ours For graphs of passion and charts of stars...Answer 1 out of ???
Sugilite was voiced by [Insert Singer Name] because that's how big she is.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.

Also Pearl adopting human concepts such as knighthood. The CG care about humans, but have issues with respecting or acknowledging individuality.
edited 4th Jun '16 11:46:32 AM by SilentColossus