#the biscourse

[juan-the-gecko]

Rose Quartz: shattering is inherently wrong, it is what makes the order of Homeworld so abhorrent that they place no value on gem life...

Bismuth: ...therefore we will shatter them in the name of OUR order!

Rose Quartz: DID I FUCKING STUTTER

[opalsiren]

things rose quartz did that are worthy of criticism (not an exhaustive list):

poof and bubble one of her closest companions for suggesting to shatter homeworld elites even though she killed her diamond, lying to her friends about her whereabouts, and leaving her bubbled gem in the hands of a child

never found a cure for corruption, or attempted to find more suitable living conditions for the corrupted gems, even after thousands of years

failed to reconcile the differences between her lover(?)/closest confidante and partner, again leaving the mess for her child to clean up

left her son in the care of someone who would endanger his life multiple times

treated humans with immense condescension and disrespect, regarding them as pets and playthings until her partner had to literally demand that she talk to him ‘like a real person’

kept secrets from, deceived her loved ones

things rose quartz did that steven criticises her for:

shatter a fascist slave owning oligarch in order to protect organic life on earth because liberating her species makes her ‘just as bad’ as a literal totalitarian dictator

[juan-the-gecko]

.

[juan-the-gecko]

Ok seriously, people are still stanning for Bismuth?

“Oh but she wanted to just shatter the EVIL NAZI SLAVER OPPRESSORS uwu!”

Don’t try to sugarcoat it, because we remember what she ACTUALLY said, she said “One shot from this baby will shatter ANY GEM in the galaxy in the blink of an eye!” while grinning like Jack Nicholson just in case, then she said “HOMEWORLD GEMS won't be able to retake this planet when they're reduced to shards!”, and before that she described the Breaking Point as “the weapon that would've won the war”, so yeah even if her main targets were the Diamonds she was completely willing to shatter any gem that got in the way(her own allies and friends included), and she was gonna do it on a massive scale by mass-producing the Breaking Point, her ‘gamechanger’, for large-scale use on the battlefield.

Rose wanted to give a chance to all those gems still under the heel of Homeworld, Bismuth wanted to just kill anyone who was not already on their side.

Lapis(who was not even a combatant)? killed.

Centipeetle(who fought for Homeworld)? killed.

Those cute amusing Rubies? killed;

Those loving adorable Amethysts? killed;

Skinny and Carnelian and all of the Beta Quartzes? killed.

That funny brilliant Zircon? killed.

(Oh wait, not just killed, killed AND irreparably fragmented into horribly insane partial consciousnesses agonizing for eternity, so it manages to be even worse than mere death.)

And it’s also completely unnecessary because not only gems can be poofed and bubbled, so that they could be released and given a chance later, but it’s STATED that Rose Quartz’s healing tears were unique and that gave an overwhelming advantage to the Crystal Gems, who didn’t have to mercy kill any cracked soldier, so Bismuth’s plan was utterly needlessly cruel.

All of those Homeworld soldiers were not ‘oppressors’, they were victims of the Diamonds that didn’t know anything different, and the very point of the Crystal Gem Rebellion was to give a chance to know better, you do not liberate people from oppression by murdering them in cold blood.

And it was also counterpoductive because escalating the conflict with the Breaking Point would have resulted in Homeworld soldiers fighting back harder and making them more hostile, while should they accept to be ‘liberated’ by the very same gems that gleefully killed their sisters?

And if you want to read this as a parallel of real life struggles, let’s make it clear once and for all: this is not about being nice to your oppressors, this is not about “those limp-dicked liberals telling us don’t fight hate with hate uwu” or whatever strawman the Tumblr Discourse Warriors are raging at ATM, this is about the difference between those that are not willing to toss their own morals aside an those that are willing to engage in war crimes and atrocities in the name of an ideal, about the results of indulging in utopian “everything we do is righteous because we do it ‘for the sake of our cause(her words)’!” thinking, about the toxicity of simplistic Black/White militancy that has doomed left-wing movements time and time again.

...Oh right and she tried to kill Rose and Steven for rejecting her genocidal plans, because ‘Nobody's more "Crystal Gem" than SHE is’, just in case she wasn’t Gem Megatron enough already(down to the murder weapon on the right arm and getting stabbed by the youngling)...with the added bonus that, had she succeeded at killing Rose, the Crystal Gem Rebellion would have been doomed.

“Don’t you understand Optimus? We'd be enslaving Cybertron for the sake of our cause, to protect our allies, our friends, to free all cybertronians from the Autobot High Command's tyranny! I didn't want to fight you, but you left me no choice!”

[afriendlyirin]

“ENOUGH!” Bismuth roared. She grabbed the Breaking Point off the ground and this time Steven did step back, but she just tossed the weapon aside, into another bin. She snapped her arm out in a harsh cutting movement, and Steven saw that there were tears in her eyes now, too. “Who are you to tell me I’m wrong?! You, some Earthling who emerged yesterday, who never had to live under their rules, never had to live in fear! How dare you act like you can tell me how to feel! How dare you act like you know what they DESERVE!”

AO3 (recommended)

The climax is next chapter. Place your bets now!

[afriendlyirin]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/11 Fandom: Steven Universe (Cartoon) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Characters: Steven Universe, Bismuth (Steven Universe), Connie Maheswaran, Pearl (Steven Universe), Garnet (Steven Universe), Peridot (Steven Universe), Amethyst (Steven Universe), Blue Diamond (Steven Universe), Yellow Diamond (Steven Universe), White Diamond (Steven Universe), Rose Quartz (Steven Universe), Greg Universe, Off Colors (Steven Universe), Lars Barriga, Pink Diamond (Steven Universe), Lapis Lazuli (Steven Universe) Additional Tags: Blood and Injury, Shattering - Freeform, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Divergence - A Single Pale Rose, Rose Quartz is Rose Quartz, Rose Quartz is Not Pink Diamond, Redemption, mercy vs. justice, idealism vs. pragmatism, Cooked Dove: Meant to be Eaten, POV Third Person Limited, All Comments Welcome, btp, rbtp Summary:

The diamonds are coming, and Steven is so afraid. He doesn’t want to kill, but he doesn’t want to die. He’s always been able to save everyone, but the gulf between himself and his enemies now seems impossibly vast. To bridge this distance, what will he have to sacrifice?

(Rose Quartz is Rose Quartz AU, rewrite of Diamond Days)

So, I didn’t like Diamond Days very much. It wasn’t even a matter of its own quality or merits; it was simply completely and utterly different from everything that had come before, and in that situation, disappointment is inevitable. I’m just not interested in Rose Quartz the runaway princess the way I am in Rose Quartz the rebel leader. So: This is a Rose Quartz is Rose Quartz AU. Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond are separate people in this fic.

Though this will be a rewrite, this is not how I expected the show to have ended; this story will go in directions I am quite certain the canon would never have gone. But I do feel it is more in line with the parts of the show I enjoyed.

We begin shortly after 5x17, “Can’t Go Back”.

[sir-phineas-lost]

So, that guy I was debating with regarding Rose and the shattering of Pink Diamond had kind of a meltdown and blocked me, which is a shame because I was actually going to admit that he had several good points. It really does seem like Rose shattered Pink Diamond after her fight with Bismuth and that would mean that she was something of a hypocrite. Honestly, I feel kind of stupid since I was arguing from the premise that things happened in the opposite order which I really had no proof of.

On the other hand, the guy in question is still a total tool who thinks the order of events doesn’t matter in this case and that a person’s “freedom” should include the right to behave however the fuck they want in a war so I really don’t regret anything.

[martiangirlfromtalloniv]

the biscourse be like