"Rose Is Pink Diamondâ Foreshadowing in Hindsight
Some of the breadcrumbs left along the wayâŠ
- We never saw Pearl shapeshift in the series until this flashback. It was always curious because in Cat Fingers she admitted she could, but said, âJust because you can shapeshift, doesnât mean you should.â In the Pearl-within-a-Pearl level of her war memories, she was regretfully saying how she never should have done it (which we learn was in reference to the âshatteringâ), and itâs likely she was put off shapeshifting completely by her participation in a ruse that led to the Diamondsâ attack and the decimation of her friends.
- Pearl was angry and hurt when the link between Lion and Rose came out in Roseâs Scabbard. Garnet points out that Rose kept secrets from them all, but Pearl protests, âBut not from me, I was the one she told everything!â and ânone of you had what we had!â Because she was Pinkâs â Roseâs Pearl, her most trusted servant friend.
- In that same episode, Rose tells Pearl, âif we win, we can never go home.â But contradictorily, Bismuth told Steven that Rose was made on Earth âright here in the dirt.â Earth should have been her home.
- âPink Diamondâs insidious human zooâ could have been a horrifying place where humans were kept in cages, but it was made to be a paradise for them, despite the fact that it was a cage that was founded with kidnapped human victims. When the other Diamonds insisted Pink go through with the plans for Earth (which were seen in It Could Have Been Great) that would have wiped out all humans, she preserved some because she loved them. And we saw that Rose still had that same kind of misguided view of humans in her early relationship with Greg, retaining the vestiges of her Diamond superiority complex.
- There was a lot of evidence that Pearl and Rose were exceptional gems, rather than a standard Pearl servant and Rose Quartz soldier. Peridot noted in Back to the Barn that Pearl âlooks like a fancy one,â which explains her extensive holographic projections and programs, tremendous intelligence, and possibly even her storage abilities (which were displayed as early as Mirror Gem, but never demonstrated by another gem). Meanwhile, Roseâs shield had the unbelievable capability of shielding them from damage from the Diamonds. Her power to heal gems was also unprecedented, and we know of its status as legendary among gems from Stevenâs unfortunate adventure with Eyeball in Bubbled when his healing convinced her of his (gemâs) identity.
- In Lion 4: Alternate Ending, much of Roseâs junk, including the tape for âNora,â was stored at a location that appeared to be the wreckage of Pink Diamondâs ship. (Legs? Fingers? Who knows.)
- Blue Diamond insisted Pink was shattered with a sword, but we knew from Bismuth, âIt can cut through a Gemâs physical form in an instant! Destroying the body, but never the Gem.â There was always a hole in that story, though it seemed to frame Diamond involvement as the missing piece.
- Pinkâs gem was off-design from the two Diamonds we already knew. The unique shape was clearly designed for the dramatic reveal, though her different gem shape and small stature led many to believe she was a defect (and thus, had been eliminated by White and/or Yellow her due to her weakness).
- It was glossed over in Gemcation because Steven was too upset over Connie to care about what Pearl was saying, but it was obvious even then that something more than reluctance barred her from speaking based on how her hands instantly covered her mouth and prevented it. The behavior goes all the way back to Back to the Moon, though the behavior initially read as horror about what had been revealed to Steven (since Pearl always wanted to shield him from the truth about the pastâŠand now we know why).
- Steven had visions of Pink Diamondâs memories in Jungle Moon. It wasnât his first time connecting to another gem telepathically â he found Lapis in a dream while she was part of Malachite, and saw through Blue Diamond eyes and cried her tears from the other side of the planet when she came to Earth â but it was the only time he experienced a vision from the past from the point of view of a gem that was shattered.
- The art style of Garnetâs tale of the war varied in such a way as to make it obvious which parts she had been witness to and which parts she had been told. She âknewâ the story of Rose Quartz exploring the Earth, starting the rebellion, and shattering Pink Diamond, but unlike the full-colored part of the story where Rose protected her and Pearl from the Diamondsâs attack, the shadow parts were second-hand tales.
Feel free to add more! I really love how the truth has been woven through the entire series, subtly at first and building up to the dramatic reveal we experienced.