Part 4 of “Can’t Go Back” & “A Single Pale Rose” Discussion – Steven Universe
By: Dylan Hysen
Dylan Hysen, Beatriz Mourad, Alex Bonilla, and special guest K-K Bracken, organizer of Beach City Con, delve into “Can’t Go Back” & “A Single Pale Rose” once again, discussing topics if Rose is a bad person and the Zoo.
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Dylan Hysen
Dylan is a software developer from the DC area who hosts the Overly Animated podcast discussing everything animation.
5 Comments
Also have you notice the similarities between the Diamonds and Steven and the crystal gems? Like how Pink diamond was basically told she had to live up to certain expectations as a diamond and the gems telling Steven all the things his mom did for the planet and inadvertently giving Steven certain expectations as the son of Rose. These expectations had led them to make rash and bad decisions that lead them making things worst and hurting people like because the gems praised Rose so much Steven felt like in order to live up to her legacy he gave himself up to homeworld to face trail causing the gem his dad and Connie to worry I mean we had the whole Connie arc and with Pink Diamond having feel that she’s not able to meet those expectations and not being able to go to the other diamonds she made a rash decision even as Rose trying live up to the rebellion high expectations she made rash and bad decisions. I figure this was an interesting parallel
I think I found something in an older episode. First though, setup:
I was thinking about what you guys where saying with “Pink should have stood up to the other Diamonds.” It struck me as an example of the Planning Falacy, where people suggesting options think about the results of success, but not about any of the results of failure. Specifically in reference to fiction, people will suggest alternatives with paths that lack conflict or complications inherent in storytelling. It seemed to me that there were two likely results of Rose Quartz confronting her sisters but failing to convince them:
(1) They don’t take her seriously. They laugh it off as naivety and tell her to get back to work.
(2) They take her seriously and shatter her as a traitor. This is what we theorized happened when we thought Yellow Diamond was the murderer.
I thought of these while listening to the recap, but it didn’t seem worth bringing up, because at the time, I agreed with K-K that Rose had avoided conflict with her sisters. Until a piece of fanart triggered a realization that made me drop everything to rewacth a recent episode.
Now, Dylan’s gonna hate this buuut: “Your Mother and Mine,” 5 minutes in, “Rose” confronts “Pink” Diamond about killing humans, but the Diamond laughs her off and tell her to get back to work.
That’s the story Rose told the Crystal Gems; I think it’s highly likely that it really happen, but Rose changed the names.
Now, it’s possible that she made it up. EXCEPT!
(1) The event marked a historically verifiable change in tactics. *Something* happened to Pink at that time.
(2) Everything we know about Pink says she was terrible at thinking ahead. Why would she both dodge the conversation and invent a plausible script?
TLDR: nearly everything in “Your Mother and Mine” really happened, but Rose changed the names when she told Garnet.
I still think yes she did a lot of things without thinking but I still can’t fully call Rose a bad person mostly she did rash things without thinking but if she was really in the rebellion for herself she had the opportunity to end it all when bismuth told her about the breaking point even if she didn’t want to shatter anyone herself she could have outfitted her army to do it or better yet she could have shatter the other diamonds herself if she wanted but she didn’t As far as we know she never wanted to shatter anyone else after she faked her death. I feel that some time after the whole war she must have felt some remorse Rose saved pearl and garnet when she didn’t have to Rose also tried to heal the gems who got corrupted when she really didn’t have to
I’m just thinking about what was Pink’s relationship with the other diamonds I can’t help but to feel there was something more to Pink wanting to be Rose and I think her relationship with the other diamonds must of played a bigger part into it since Pink is in a high status she could have used her power to stop colonizing earth but we don’t know her power level as a diamond maybe she did try to come to Blue & Yellow maybe not because she didn’t want to get involve maybe because she’s not powerful enough to do anything compared to other diamonds she is the smallest out of them and possibly the least powerful compared to the other diamonds. Also I wonder what exactly lead Pink to say Blue & Yellow wouldn’t care about her death I can’t help to think about the other diamonds dealing with Pink in Jungle moon and in Can’t go back there must be a reason why we’re being shown Pink’s interactions with them.
As for the zoo: I mean, we like to put animals in zoos, and gems saw humans like how we see animals, so Pink making a zoo of humans kinda makes sense. Her having relationships with humans now seems much more awkward though.
One thing about Pink becoming Rose: she might have decided to create Rose because if the rebellion is based around a diamond, then it’s not really a rebellion. The gems under her would be pre-programmed to follow her, which would defeat the purpose of the rebellion. That’s not to say she shouldn’t have tried harder to enact change from her position of authority, but if that failed, then becoming Rose might’ve been a good idea.