Why are some people so unwilling to accept PD/RQ’s death? Also what’s in the chest?
It’s been a couple of weeks since CYM aired, and a couple of weeks since we got confirmation that Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond is never coming back, she’s gone, straight from the mouth of Joe Johnson himself. Despite this however, there are a few of us who just refuse to believe it. Why is this? I can’t answer for everyone, I can only answer for myself, so here we go.
1. The concept of death for Gems has always been ambiguous to say the least. In the episode So Many Birthdays, Pearl says that Gems can die, but not from food poisoning. Later in the episode as Steven rapidly ages and quickly arrives at Death’s door, Pearl says that old age doesn’t kill a Gem, but that Steven is half-human.
In Steven the Sword Fighter we are introduced to the concept of a Gem’s physical form being poofed and even then that’s more of the equivalent of going into a coma for a while. Better still, it’s more like just staying in bed for a while to recuperate.
The closest we’ve ever seen regarding Gem death has been that of shattering. Gem Drill confirmed that this is a situation of a fate worse than death. The Cluster is comprised of millions, perhaps billions of shards all seeking the pieces of themselves, all seeking to be whole again, all seeking to form again.
It’s not until Change Your Mind that a new concept of Gem death comes into the picture, and so far it looks like the only two people who are aware of it are Steven and White Diamond. Yellow, Blue, The two Pearls, Amethyst, and Garnet were all under mind control so it’s safe to assume that neither of them know that Rose is truly “gone”. But with everything we and they have learned, why should they so easily accept that she’s gone? This leads me to point number 2.
2. One of the Crewniverse members (Joe Johnson) said that Rose Quartz is gone and that when Steven dies, she’s not coming back. This raises a few questions however. In the past the Crewniverse (Ian Jones) had said that Rose Quartz is named Rose Quartz in regards to a question of whether or not RQ was actually a Quartz or not. We now know that this was done to throw people off the trail. Needless to say however, the Crewniverse are also notorious for adding simple things to the episodes that turn out to have major foreshadowing.
While I hate not trusting a member of the Crewniverse there’s a large part of me that’s going, “uh huh...sure.”
3. Rose Quartz deciding to give up her entire existence seems really out of character. Look, I know I have a theory stating that PD then RQ was suicidal and maybe she was, but if she wasn’t? Then something about her willingly deciding to give up her existence to bring a new life into the world seems far fetched. After all, according to Rebecca Sugar, Pink Diamond represents the id, and the id is all about base pleasure. It wants what feels good. It wants to be happy. It is for all intents and purposes rather childish.
There have been many posts calling PD/RQ out as a childish brat and due to her role as the id, this is not so far fetched.
Ergo, we have a situation of did Rose know whether or not she would cease to exist by having Steven? Again, according to Joe Johnson, she knew she would disappear.
Which again for a character that’s supposed to represent the id, this sudden rate of maturity is really out of character. It would be one thing if Rose decided, “hey I think I want to be a human boy!” but for her to just go, “Greg, I want a child. I know I’ll never see him or her, and I know that in order to give this child life I’ll have to give up my existence. I know I’ll disappear and that I will never return, and I know that I will never know my child nor will I gain any benefit from having this child. I also know that by doing this it’s going to hurt everyone despite bringing so much joy! But I really want to do this Greg!”
Yeah...right...sorry, but as much as I love Rose, I don’t buy that for one second. This leads me to my final point.
4. We still don’t know what’s inside of that damn chest in Lion’s mane. Steven tried opening it in Lion 4: Alternate Ending but the key didn’t fit. Whatever is in the chest is something that’s going to be very important. What could be inside of this chest?
In Lion’s mane are where Rose kept her most precious items. The t-shirt Greg gave her, the sword that Bismuth made for her, Bismuth in a bubble, the battle flag, the VHS tape to Steven, the framed picture of her and Greg, and the chest.
We know that Rose had a secret armory, as well as a dump. Therefore we can conclude that the item(s) in the chest are something very important. We can conclude that it’s something so important that she probably didn’t want even Steven to discover it.
What could it be?
Given that the Gems have many similarities with computers I actually would not be a damned bit surprised if what was in the chest amounted to essentially a backup file. That’s right, in the chest is a back up copy of PD/RQ herself and should Steven die, or even a time long after that, it’ll be up to one of the Gems (I’m banking on Pearl) to essentially resurrect her.
Some might say this cheapens Rose’s death, but I personally don’t see it that way?
