More “Can’t Go Back” & “A Single Pale Rose” Discussion – Steven Universe
By: Dylan Hysen
Dylan Hysen, Justin Cummings, Hayley Nabuurs, & Alex Bonilla dive more into the recent huge episodes of Steven Universe “Can’t Go Back” & “A Single Pale Rose”, discussing topics such as the timeline of events in the rebellion, is Rose a bad person, & White Diamond theories.
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Dylan Hysen
Dylan is a software developer from the DC area who hosts the Overly Animated podcast discussing everything animation.
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A lot of people have been speculating that with Lapis leaving into Space once again, she will eventually run into Lars and the Off Colors. Perhaps its not Steven words that bring her back, but someone in a way can relate to her. Lars and Lapis both have loved ones they miss on Earth, and they both run from their problems, and (Lars before Wanted) both are too afraid to fight back.
Unrelated to my last comment; you guys heard that hot new Pearl theory? Or should I call it the hot New Pearl theory…
The idea is that our Pearl was a replacement for Pink’s original, designed by the older Diamonds to keep their sister on task/in line. That’s why her gem is on her forehead and her colors reference all four Diamonds. The cited evidence is a partially obscured note from the artbook, featuring the visible text “new, custom-made.”
Obvious question is what happened to the original. My angsty theory, borrowing from the classic rebellious royalling story, is that Pink Pearl was shattered as a punishment for Pink Diamond’s early failures on Earth. But maybe she’s just been banished, as sometimes happens to the beloved tutor/handmaid in those classic.
I can’t fully call Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond a bad person but I do think that she is a product of a combination bad parenting and being naive. I imagine that Blue, Yellow, and White Diamond told Pink ever since her creation that she is important that she is above every gem she grew up being entitled knowing that she deserved a colony of her own but the when she asked for her own then Yellow telling her No basically telling her she’s not ready or good enough to have one.
Also conversation that Blue had with Pink in Can’t go back Blue seemed so cold to Pink when she was asking for help. I think in Pink’s mind she feels oppressed in the diamond authority she’s all ready the youngest out of all of them and from what we seen so far Blue and Yellow weren’t the best to Pink they basically raised a spoiled entitled child and then she grew as a entitled teen. Now with the gem rebellion I think she tried to do a good thing but her intentions we’re misguided In her mind she based the gems oppression on her own experiences now her version of being oppressed as a person of privilege compared to the other gems this is where her being naive comes in she didn’t think about how the rebellion would effect the other gems all she cared about was freedom I do think she thought she was doing a good thing but she did it in the worst way possible.
I do believe she did bad things and how she handle the gem rebellion was wrong but I can’t fully call her a bad person because I feel what she did was a response to on how Blue & Yellow treated her and after being on earth and her gems she wanted them to be free but she based it on her experiences with Blue & Yellow I believe Blue & Yellow are as just as much to blame for what happened to Pink it’s not an excuse for what she did. However I believe after the war Rose did try to be good person she tried to reverse the corruption she saved Pearl and Garnet from the corruption and when she met Greg I think she did eventually became a good person I do believe she did care for everyone in the end she loved Steven I don’t think she meant for all this stuff happening to Steven now to happen
I’m gonna quote one of my tumblr posts:
People accusing Rose of “fleeing responsibility” with the faked shattering need to realize that they’re uncritically parroting Blue Diamond.
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If you listen to what Blue is saying and think it through, you’ll notice that what Blue reprimands her for is “failure to genocide or crush dissidence.” Pink Diamond seems to have been attempting to wield her Authority to save the Earth, but was dismissed by Blue and Yellow. Also note that the Crystal Gem rebellion was on at this point, and Blue states that Pink had been “making excuses” (read: protesting genocide) before the Crystal Gems rebelled.
It’s quite reasonable to believe that Pink’s diplomatic methods were flawed, but she definitely made attempts, and only decided to fake her death after those attempts failed.
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Unrelated to that, but relevant to the podcast, people should remember that the gem hierarchy is *literally* casteism, and analogously classism, but only ever metaphorically racism. This is going to be tough for Americans (Canadians, Australians, Mexicans, etc) since we don’t have castes, and our classes are tied up in race.
My big problem with the “White Diamond is a fusion of the other three” theory is that a much cooler gem for their fusion would be Bort, a type of diamond that’s stronger than usual because of its impurities making it harder to crack. (Which I only know about thanks to an anime called Houseki no Kuni/Land of the Lustrous)