I just realized how Rose died.
I’ve only been in the fandom for a few months now but I just realized how Rose Quartz died. See the show and the fandom always talk about how she gave up her physical form to be half of Steven. And I think a lot of people get confused by what she meant.
Like I’ve seen a lot of fanart, metas, theories, etc. which suggest that Rose actually physically gave up her physical form so that she could transform into part of Steven and keep him alive. In other words, Steven is her reincarnation. (Well, he’s half her reincarnation and half of Greg’s DNA.)
Which never made sense to me but then again I’m new to the show, so I’ve just sort of gone along with it.
But now I’m here to present you all with a simpler (and ironically, darker) theory.
Steven isn’t a reincarnation of Rose. Steven is just Rose’s child. Which is still impressive and groundbreaking since he’s the first human-gem hybrid. But he’s not a human-gem reincarnation. He’s just their child. All of his powers are inherited from his gem DNA, not from being a reincarnation. I’m going to go so far as to say that even his gem was a product of DNA and not a symbol of the fact that he’s Rose 2.0.
“Ah, but marauders4evr, the show and Rebecca Sugar are always talking about how Rose gave up her physical form to-”
According to Rebecca Sugar, “Rose shapeshifted a womb for him to be born from.”
Pretty impressive Gem magic.
According to Amethyst in Steven’s Birthday, “Steven, you can’t just keep stretching forever. If you hold it too long, you could really hurt yourself.”
It appears that if a gem shapeshifts for a prolonged period of time, they’ll have severe consequences. And we see this even further when Steven does…
Now for some odd reason, that turns Steven back into a baby, but that’s not what I’m getting at. I’m getting at the fact that Steven’s body took an extreme physical toll after just a few hours of shapeshifting. Because, as Amethyst said, prolonged exposure to shapeshifting can cause someone to “really hurt themselves”.
Rose Quartz shapeshifted for nine whole months. And that’s not even counting the stretching she did to push Steven out.
When Rebecca Sugar and the show talk about how Rose Quartz gave up her physical form to give birth to Steven, they literally mean that Rose Quartz stretched herself out for such a prolonged period of time that her body (ie: her physical form) eventually faced the consequences and withered away into nothingness.
Steven’s Birthday wasn’t just a filler episode. It was the key to showing us the process by which his mother died.
