Hey everyone this is Haley from Cartoon Universe
Here with another Steven Universe theory video
Based on the Summer of Steven episodes, as well as some of the older videos on this channel.
We now have better ideas about how Homeworld works and what its like.
I have mentioned before that the present Homeworld functions on a very utilitarian basis
with nothing going to waste because of the current resource shortage  it is facing
To know more about Pink Diamond its then significant to look at Homeworlds social hierarchy which is featured heavily in the show
The ideal Homeworld features each gem in a particular place,
doing a job,
being taught and socialized by its own kind
Each stratum has its own rules both formal and informal
Culture and expectations
From Pearls to Quartz to Diamonds,  no one is exempt from this system
And this is the system that Insidiously
and sometimes overly encourages collectivist thought
putting the good of all above the good of the self.
A system like this sets limitations on everyone, even the diamonds.
As much as the gems would like to believe them as "god" like and perfect beings. [Such as Peridot in "Message Received"]
Or faceless members of the upper class as Bismuth did, they are still individual gems with their own motivations.
and relationship dynamic
After all, we are increasingly seeing that the Diamonds have very individualistic reactions and feelings
Yellow diamond in "Message Received" showed that beyond her role as a leader
beyond having to be the decider and beyond knowing she is responsible for a
Homeworld in crisis, she still chooses to
shun the Earth's resources. She looses the objective and logical views she is known for.
It was personal
There is a fallible, imperfect, tired and frustrated individual under all the expectation to be otherwise
And this is something we must also apply to pink diamond
I would now like to discuss how earth was Pink Diamond's first colony for very pragmatic reasons
From the depiction of the Diamond mural we cite that each of the Diamond have several small circles that they are holding
And some of these circles have even smaller circles
These would be the colonies
And the smaller circles are the satellites of those planets
It's an explanation consistent with why pink Diamond's single colony has but one satellite.
Our moon
There's a popular idea that Pink Diamond was given earth as a colony
And that she refused to take a colony until this time
But it doesn't fit with what we consistently see from homeworld.
What we know is that Gems are a conquering space race.
Because they cannot reap the resource of a planet without degrading it's
They cannot reuse a planet
That is their motive for expansion and colonization
Not because it's fun
Or because they feel like it
Taking a planet uses up precious resources
that are exhaustible and irreparable
The Diamonds have to budget their resources well
This is why the first thing Blue Diamond does is to run when confrontation arises
It is said that she is easily more powerful than any regular gem
Yet it is accepted because in gem society she is irreplaceable
The entire idea of poofing your enemy before shattering them
says the resources are worth more alive than in shards
Even perceived enemies like Lapis were used for information
rather than outright destroyed
Both during and after the war
And homeworld made sure to evacuate as many of their forces as they could
before deploying the light bomb
What then becomes consistent about homeworld is that they try to be as efficient with those scarced resources as possible
And that leads to why Pink was given earth as a colony
Two things to not are, First
That Quartzs rank much higher than do ordinary Gems
and second, earth was a huge battle ground in which homeworld tried everything to try to take back the planet
On that last point it seems very out of character for a culture that
prides itself on weighing arms and
benefits to stubbornly try to take back
a planet leading to the loss of many gem
lives knowing that their chances at
winning were slim to none going back to
the events in the answer we see that
homeworld Likes guaranteed winning and
being able to predict the outcome of the
battle it just makes more sense to
invest in something that guarantees
returns yet they fought for Earth which
means that there is something intrinsic
to this planet that homeworld deemed
important enough to continue fighting
for the minerals earth is an environment
conductive to creating quartz gems we
see it in the kindergartens especially
the Alpha kindergarten it is tinged with
pink hues the show associates color with
characters very frequently and this
shows that the quartz is and their
kindergartens belong to pink diamond
even the beta kindergarten is orange
that's red or perhaps pink and yellow at
the least this makes sense because
yellow diamond was heading the
technology in the control room and not
the one in charge of the kindergartens
this is why the characters talk about
Rose amethyst and Jasper the quartz gems
as belonging to pink diamond she was in
charge of the military on homeworld as
such earth is an ideal colony for
someone like pink diamond because
courses can be made abundantly in its soil pink diamond would oversee
their training growth and socialization
in that regard it wouldn't be strange
that she didn't have colonies of her own
before first because we're led to
believe that the balfour earth was the
first big War gem-kind had to engage in
before this a military commander
wouldn't really be managing a colony of
civilians because each gem had its place
and pink diamonds domain would firmly be
established and this engages the earlier
point why're quartzes so important that
even after the technological boom and
resource crisis on homeworld they would
still expand precious resources to
recover one Jasper quartzes aren't easy
to make and the resources to make them
are few and far between notice that in
the interactions with current homeworld
soldiers we've seen only a squad of
rubies quartz is ranked highly because
similar to the argument made for blue
diamond in the answer they're rare and
incredibly difficult to replace
that's why homeworld fought for as hard
as they did earth is Pink's first colony
not only because there was no need for
such a wide scale military effort in the
past but also because prior to earth
they may have not been many planets
abundant in quartz minerals so when the
opportunity arose such that there's a
planet where courses could just pop out
of the ground like daisies homeworld
being the efficient civilization it is
seized it accordingly now let's talk
about pink diamonds place in the great
diamond authority because of the
position of the diamonds in the great
diamond authority logo many are led to
believe that the diamonds had an unequal
sharing of power but that seems to be a
cop-out for saying that there was only
one villain white diamond on the top of
the hierarchy what we're increasingly
seeing from a show like Steven Universe though is that
there is no one big bad meanie
terrorizing everyone else or controlling
the mechanizations that hurt others in
fact if anything it shows that the
oppressive social structures and
interaction systems based on what people
are supposed to be end up hurting the
characters much more Steven is at his
worst when he tries to be the archetypal
leader who never gets hurt and keeps all
his feelings to himself pearl can barely
focus when she's trying to be the
sacrificial archetypal Knight so it's
unlikely that white diamond is suddenly
revealed to be the wizard behind the
curtain because it undos a lot of
character development we've already seen
and cheapens the experience of
struggling within the system if it turns
out everything can be blamed on one
person the characters in the show don't
try to be evil and make life terrible
for others they do so unintentionally
by reinforcing biases by caving into
prejudice or by getting caught up in
this huge system at work that was
established way before they themselves
existed all these things factored in
because even if the hierarchy was
created by one person in the beginning
of everything it is hurtful and
precisely that is perpetuated at times
knowingly by the very people oppressed
in that system the Diamonds seemed like a
pioneering group of gems who were
largely responsible for establishing gem
civilization and its accompanying
socio-political system this lends
legitimacy to their power not because
they're a lot taller than everyone else
but because they did something useful
which again is key in homeworld Dogma
they could even find gem creation
techniques establish communication
basically raised an entire race given
that there's no way their relationship
was not personal no one else can
identify with their experiences because
at one point they were worshipped like
gods and alienated from all other gems
when it reaches this point it's very
difficult to let things like emotion or
weakness show and that's why the Diamond authority could have served as its own
support network looking at house or
yellow diamond is over earth even
hundreds of years later is a rare show
of her feelings overcoming the reason
she is known for there is something
personal about the loss she feels
because of what happened on earth and it
probably has a lot to do with pink
diamonds perceived shattering during the
war what's interesting about the diamond
authority logo is how symbolic the
diamond locations are their diamonds are
placed precisely in the same positions
as their gem placements even more
striking is that the end result is a
bigger diamond that is a show of unity
that they can be more when they work
together that message is essentially the
end goal of a caste system that gems in
their proper places can be much more
than they are individually we have every
reason to believe that the diamond
subjected themselves to the system and
this logic as well which is why we see
yellow diamond for lack of better words
emotionally constipated trying to hold
inner feelings and then just letting
loose on peridot once you could do it no
longer because in our eyes and in the
eyes of homeworld citizens
diamonds are beyond these petty concerns
like feelings even though they are not
not to say that the diamonds were
irreplaceable equals it's clear they had
their own division of labor what we can
then say is that the asymmetry lay in
their functions which could have led to
one being prioritized over another in
certain situations something to talk
about in another video and since we
bring up how human diamonds can be there
is no indication pink diamond was evil
either in the same way pink diamond
doesn't show signs of being the bullied
victim of the diamonds here's a strike
as the evil contra hero to the noble
rose quartz either the first extreme
side suggests that she wanted no part in
colonizing which we know now could not
have been possible given what we know of
homeworld the second side suggests the
complete opposite that she relished in
the destruction of organic life and so
deserved to be shattered by rose but
again that's not what the show seems to
be leading up to we're seeing a home
world with motivations with weaknesses
and fears it stands to reason that home
world's matriarch are much the same as
mentioned the diamonds have a
responsibility to their people resources
are a huge deal for a civilization that
just plain runs out of them and knowing
how versatile and resilient quartz
soldiers can be homeworld would waste no
time in investing in a gem that can do
more and last much longer than most the
battle for Earth took the Diamonds by
surprise it chosen blue diamond fell
ANSI enough to show some vulnerability
and as Sapphire for outcome of the rebel
ambush it shows when lapis a visitor
didn't expect at all to have a War break
out while she was there and the war is a
messy part of the past that the diamonds
would rather not have anyone know about
that's why peridot had shoddy and vague
details of the war when she first came
to earth and she didn't know how late in
what tension it was she didn't know how
threatening her presence was to the
crystal gems because she didn't know
they existed but she could have used
this knowledge because she was a loan
technician on a potentially hostile
planet that destroyed the red eye drones
sent by homeworld this information
asymmetry speaks more of a personal
reason than a systemic one though
prevailing ideas that the diamonds are
lying to their constituents to prevent
them from following the same path as the
crystal gems seems to take a backseat
when you realize that withholding useful
information could greatly help gem
survive such as the tactic of fusing
with different types of gems what we're
seeing then is a very hurt homeworld
trying to forget about the war it was a
shameful loss and one they would very
much like to leave behind because of how
much damage it caused well we have to
remember is that homeworld is not just a
nebulous body of planets but rather made
of individuals gems who lost teammates
loved ones and friends over a battle for
a planet they didn't get to keep it's
not an easy thing to live with
given their endless
spans the way yellow diamond has been
acting is indicative of someone lashing
out after being hurt this is the same
when we consider pink diamond things
become more reasonable when we paint the
portrait of her as a real character and
not a caricature from both what we see
in the show and the classic MO of the
crewniverse it's more than likely that
pink diamond had motivations and was a
dynamic character and she was probably
not the evil mastermind twiddling her
fingers while stroking a cat turning
around in her armchair so I want to know
what you think of this theory who was
pink diamond as a character tell us in
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