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It isn't, but it's somewhat related; we don't know what sort of economy the gems have, but if it's remotely capitalistic (even and in fact especially state capitalism), there's an intrinsic need for expansion to prevent society from collapsing, and that's an issue we humans are nowhere close to resolving/sidestepping by expanding into space.
edited 16th Aug '16 5:52:10 PM by CaptainCapsase
Anyway, my point isn't "Gems don't have a right to exist" it's that "They don't have a right to destroy everything else in pursuit of their existence."
I'd apply the same thing to humanity. Part of that being self-preservation, obviously, but another part being I just don't see is us as special enough to forgo consideration for everything else on the planet.
edited 16th Aug '16 5:47:45 PM by LSBK
My point is that if Gems must, either for reasons relating to the structure of their society that they cannot/don't know how to resolve and/or as an intrinsic part of their biology continuously expand onto other inhabited worlds, one cannot really fault them for doing so, even if we ourselves are equally compelled to try and stop them; it's interstellar realpolitik.
edited 16th Aug '16 5:50:58 PM by CaptainCapsase
My question in this case would be "is eliminating all life on the planet necessary in order for them to gather the resources they need to continue living?"
I honestly don't know that the show has given us a definitive answer on that but if the answer is "no" then yes I would consider that pretty heinous.
It clearly isn't. For an immortal species taking as much as they need out of the environment and then leaving the rest alone should be simple. But Gems don't want to JUST make new Gems, they want to turn every inch of rock into thier ideal colony. "It Could Have Been Great" really proved that the Gems are purely colonial and aren't just doing stuff to survive. The issue is that Homeworld doesn't care about organic life at all.
The Crystal Caverns A bird's gotta sing.![]()
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I'm inclined to think that gems cannot coexist with organic life; in creating Steven, Rose was trying to find a way to Take a Third Option.
edited 16th Aug '16 6:01:36 PM by CaptainCapsase
Peridot even says she's come up with plans to harvest the Earth's resources without destroying all life on the planet. If she can do it, I find it hard to believe they don't have other people who could do the same. Yellow Diamond straight up said she wasn't interested. Admittedly, her vendetta against Earth likely feed heavily into that, but it's still telling.
edited 16th Aug '16 6:03:59 PM by LSBK
Peridot argued Earth had potentially unique resources (presumably due to its biosphere) that could be of use to homeworld, and thus that the biosphere might be worth preserving, presumably for reasons other than production of more gems, which isn't quite the same thing as coming up with a way to avoid having to destroy the native life of planets to sustain their society, just a reason not to destroy one particular world.
Moreover, it's also worth noting that, especially considering how rigid and hierarchical gem society is shown to be, it's entirely possible such ideas never occurred to gemkind. There's countless examples of inventions/innovations in human that could have easily come to be decades or even centuries before they did in history, if only someone had thought of it. There's also plenty of good ideas that didn't become widespread until long after their inception due to some combination of lack of interest and skepticism.
My point is basically that, dependent on the creators willingness to explore such topics, Gem society is (presumably) the way it is for a reason beyond just the callousness of the Diamonds.
edited 16th Aug '16 6:14:57 PM by CaptainCapsase
The highly expansionist, militarized nature of Gem society, where basically everyone is expected to contribute someway to this expansion, tells me that they expect to encounter resistance. I have to imagine they've encountered more advanced species than humanity who asked them "please don't destroy our planet" only for the Gems to do it anyway.
Humanity might actually been lucky in that we weren't advanced enough at that point to know the Gems were dangerous to our existence. Modern humanity would probably try to stop them and get stomped.
Peridot refers to the presence of "Stevens" as an infestation. And then tries to kill him. Which really shows how they view organic life, even if it can communicate with them.
edited 16th Aug '16 6:14:34 PM by SilentColossus
I still think evidence suggests new gems can be made using uninhabited planets—not just enough to sustain themselves, but to grow at a manageable rate—but the Diamonds have thrown away any ethics or value for biodiversity for the sake of expanding as thoroughly and quickly as possible.
edited 16th Aug '16 6:18:09 PM by thatother1dude
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Earlier the topic of spacefaring species other than the gems was broached; the extremely militaristic nature of gem society could easily be due to them facing (either imagined, inflated, or real) external threats of some sort, which very naturally leads to the kinds of ruthless power plays we see between nations on Earth throughout history.
Say, for example, that this external threat (past or present) is some sort of all consuming (organic) Horde of Alien Locusts; in such a scenario, the gems being extremely wary of organic life would be entirely rational, from their own perspective.
Population ecology suggests that when multiple species are present in a habitat which occupy the same ecological niche (Apex predator in the case of any intelligent lifeform), one will inevitably be forced out of the habitat and/or go extinct. Considering how other apex predators fare when humans colonize an environment (wiped out or pushed into the least desirable areas), it's not surprising that something similar would occur with multiple intelligent species.
edited 16th Aug '16 6:22:03 PM by CaptainCapsase
Homeworld's form of rule seems to basically be an oligarchy, with an aristocratic elite, that handles smaller decisions, and presides over lower castes.
My guess is that one reason the rebellion was able to be succeed is that the aristocratic gems who make the decisions don't tend to be particularly strong, and soldier & builder gems, are likely more numerous than them. it also seems like part of Rose's strategy was to take out aristocratic gems (why they attacked Sapphire), so that homeworld soldiers would become disorganized without their leadership.
The thing is that Gems don't fit into ecology as we know it. They are The Needless and thus only need resources to be created.
The Crystal Caverns A bird's gotta sing.

The Gems are space commies if anything.
Oh really when?