Everything You Need to Know for 'Steven Universe: The Movie', Part 2!

**Hey! Heads up! This is the second installment in a 3-part series!If you haven't read Part One, you might want to start here!**

Now that we've recounted most of the important characters from the show, we're going to focus on one character in particular: Rose Quartz.

If you watched the show as it aired, you will already know all of this... you learned about Rose as Steven did. That's how I learned the story, too: through the eyes of Steven and his adventures. But for those who don't know the story, don't worry!

We're going to go through the life of Rose Quartz from beginning to end. And in this case, that means starting at the very beginning. At the very top... The Great Diamond Authority. And at the planet that started it all: Homeworld.

The Great Diamond Authority is, essentially, the Matriarchal governing body for all of Gemkind. There are four of them: White Diamond, Yellow Diamond, Blue Diamond, and Pink Diamond.

We don't know much about their origins or how they came to power... perhaps they were created into their power, or perhaps they fought and stole for it. We may never know. But they had the power.

To maintain order, they formed plans and split the responsibilities between them. They created a social hierarchy wherein gems were sorted based on the skills they provided and assigned to the Diamond who could most use them. White, Yellow, and Blue were all given responsibilities for growing and expanding Gemkind, but Pink Diamond was considered childish and immature... so the Diamonds didn't give her much to do.

The primary goal of The Great Diamond Authority was to grow and expand the Gem Empire. When Homeworld's resources were depleted, they began voyaging to space, colonizing and destroying organic matter on other planets in order to grow and harvest more gems.

Roughly 6,000 years before we meet Steven Universe, Pink Diamond began to grow bored and begged the other Diamonds for the chance to run her own colony. None of the others had much faith in her, but she was relentless and so Pink was given Earth.

For the first couple of years, things went smoothly. Pink was assigned a staff, including her very own Pearl to help bring her happiness, and the colonization of Earth began without issue.

Pink found herself quickly bored by the idea of managing a colony and yearned for excitement and adventure.

When her Pearl advised her that the first set of Quartz soldiers would soon emerge from Earth's Prime Kindergarten, Pink made a choice. She didn't want to watch the gems emerge from afar... she wanted to be there to see it happen! Her Pearl, who's only job is to make her owner happy, obliged Pink's request.

But Pink knew that she couldn't just go to Earth. If the Diamonds found out that she was visiting a Kindergarten first-hand, they would have been furious. Instead, she needed a way to blend in.

It was Pearl's idea for Pink to shapeshift. By taking the form of a Quartz Soldier, Pink was able to hide among the newly-emerged Gems and go unnoticed as she adventured through Earth.

And it worked! For years, Pink visited Earth disguised as a Rose Quartz soldier. She spent her time on the planet exploring... discovering all of the organic life that grew and evolved there.

Over time, she began taking a more personalized form. She stopped looking like a typical Quartz soldier and began to wear a floor-length white gown with pink chiffon layers. This is key, because it shows that Pink wanted to feel comfortable and at home on Earth, even if she wasn't able to truly be herself.

We know that roughly 500 years pass by as Pink lives as Rose on Earth. Every day, she fell more and more in love with the planet and all of its inhabitants. Eventually, she decided that she couldn't continue the mission to colonize Earth.

Pink returned to Homeworld to plead with the Diamonds. She tried to convince them to let her stop the colony... to leave Earth alone. But The Great Diamond Authority ultimately only cares about expanding the empire, so Pink's requests were denied every time. So she hatched a new idea.

Returning to Earth, Pink... err, Rose... began to form an army. A rebellion. The Crystal Gems. Their goal: to stop the colonization of Earth, no matter the cost.

It's important to note how Rose managed to grow this army... and it has a lot to do with the form she chose to take.

As a Quartz, Rose's natural form should have remained militarized. Quartz gems were known for their stature and their strength; they were combat soldiers in the frontlines of battle, and their uniforms reflected that position.

By taking a feminine form, which is definitely more suited to Pink Diamond than to a Quartz soldier, Rose did more than just change her outfit. She made a statement: that being true to herself was more important than living out the role she was made to live.

And just as she wanted to live comfortably for herself, she wanted every single gem in existence to do the same. She encouraged her Pearl to live independently, instead of acting as her servant. She supported Garnet's decision to live openly as a fusion. With Rose, every gem could be herself, regardless of The Diamond Authorities' rules. It was a compelling argument, and Rose's army grew.

To keep from revealing her secret, Pink spent much of the war alternating between her identities. She would fight alongside the Rebellion one day and then return to Homeworld to keep up appearances as Pink the next day.

We don't know exactly what made Pink decide that she was done being Pink. Maybe it was the stress of living a double life. Maybe it was the overwhelming love and safety she felt on Earth. Maybe it was young, juvenile irresponsibility? But for whatever reason, Pink decided she wanted to be Rose permanently.

So she did the unthinkable.

Pink Diamond faked her own shattering!

So if you're a newbie to the show, you might not understand why that's significant. Let me back up for a minute and explain how gems can get injured/killed. There are two ways.

1. First, a gem can be poofed. When a gem's physical form becomes injured, it will retreat into its gem to heal. The body disappears and only the gem remains. This is not death; the gem will heal and take a new physical form when it is ready. The reforming process can take anywhere from a few seconds to a few weeks and is pretty normal.
2. Second, a gem can be shattered. This is death, final and inevitable. Once shattered, a gem can never be reformed. Which is why it is so significant for Pink to fake her own shattering. Back to the story...

Pink arranged a visit her colony as herself. She convinced the Diamonds the Earth Rebellion needed to be handled personally... that she could end it if she just went there herself.

(I imagine that the other Diamonds had absolutely zero faith in her achieving her goal. But they must have thought the threat was minimal, because they agreed.)

Pink and Pearl traveled to Earth via Pink's Palanquin. Their arrival was planned, so there were thousands of gems in attendance, waiting to catch a glimpse of true Gem Royalty. Remember, Pink had never been on Earth as Pink before. None of these gems knew that Pink and Rose were the same gem.

Before exiting the Palanquin, Pink and Pearl reviewed their plan. Pink gathered up a handful of dirt and pressed it hard until it formed stone... pink in color enough to match her own gem. Then she put the pieces in her mouth and swallowed.

She handed her sword to Pearl and gave her one last command: that Pearl never speak to anyone about what they had done. And then she exited her Palanquin for the very last time.

Pearl's role in this cannot be understated. Without Pearl, none of this could have happened.

After Pink stepped out of the Palanquin, Pearl shapeshifted... into Rose Quartz. She took Rose's Sword, stepped out from behind the crowd and attacked Pink Diamond!

Rose's sword poofed Pink Diamond, and Pearl-Disguised-As-Rose quickly grabbed her Diamond's gem and hid it. The shards that Pink had formed and swallowed clattered to the ground.

To the crowd, including all of the members of the Crystal Gems Rebellion and all the gems on Earth who were loyal to Homeworld, the scene was clear: Rose Quartz shattered Pink Diamond!

Pearl escaped with Rose's gem and kept it safe while Pink healed and reformed permanently into Rose Quartz, who continued to lead the Crystal Gems in a war against Homeworld. And that was the end of Pink Diamond.

... So right now, if you're keeping up on the timeline, we're still about 5,000 years before Steven Universe is born. What we know about the events between now and then are limited.

1. We know that the war with Homeworld lasted a while and eventually led to a single, calculated attack against the Crystal Gems that almost destroyed them all. White, Blue, and Yellow are believed to have launched a full evacuation of Homeworld gems from Earth before launching the attack, which corrupted every remaining gem on the planet. During the attack, Rose used her shield to save herself, Pearl, and Garnet, but they were the only Crystal Gems to survive.
2. We know that the corrupted Gems were being cultivated by The Great Diamond Authority for a planned future attack against Earth. All gathered together by Homeworld to form The Cluster in the center of the Earth's core. Their plan was to get the millions and millions of corrupted gem pieces to eventually form together into a giant being that would rip apart the Earth from the inside out.
3. We know that Amethyst emerged from her hole in the Prime Kindergarten sometime shortly after the war ended and lived there for a few hundred years before being discovered by the Crystal Gems.
4. We know that Rose and Pearl formed a romantic relationship and would often fuse together to form Rainbow Quartz. We gather from snippets of memories that the relationship may have been slightly one-sided; Pearl's absolute devotion to Rose seemed to be in conflict a lot with Rose's polyamorous, open nature.
5. We know that Rose continued to develop a deep appreciation, even infatuation, with Earth and all its creatures. This included a lot of romantic relationships with men, as Pearl has recounted that Greg was not the first man Rose loved.

For all intents and purposes, the time after the war was peaceful. The Crystal Gems kept an eye out and protected Earth from the random invader or Homeworld spy... but life was mostly quiet and peaceful. Rose, Garnet, Pearl, and Amethyst lived together and were happy.

If there's one thing we know about Pink Diamond/Rose Quartz, however, it's that she gets bored. And 5,000 years of the same old, same old is bound to do that to a person.

Enter: Greg Universe.

Rose meets Greg when he stops into town on his Rock N Roll tour... she is the only person to attend his show. They begin a deep, romantic relationship. Even Pearl, who was used to seeing Rose fall in love with men, could tell that there was something different in the bond between these two.

Pearl was jealous and petty, and fought for Rose's attention and affection. But just as Pink Diamond had grown tired of being Pink, Rose Quartz was ready to give up her form for something new yet again.

Rose wanted to create life, so she and Greg had Steven.

A lot of planning had to go into this... I mean, how do a gem and a human mate? What happens to Rose once she gives it to Steven? None of this had ever been done before, which was part of the excitement for Rose.

Rose knew that she would have to give up her physical form, forever, in order to create Steven. She made this choice even though it broke the hearts of everyone who loved her.

Don't ask me how it happened... so far we haven't learned about how Steven was born or how Rose died. But we do know one thing for sure: Rose Quartz is gone.

And that leaves us with our current iteration of Pink/Rose: Steven.

After Steven was born, he lived with Greg for a while. The Crystal Gems were learning how to exist now that Rose Quartz was gone, and frankly none of them had any idea how to raise a human baby. And Greg was a good dad... a loving, dedicated, single father who did his best to figure it out as he went.

Shortly after he was born, however, the Gems came for a visit. They brought wildly outrageous gifts (adult diapers, a razor, and a dictionary) and didn't even call Steven by name yet, still referring to him as 'Rose' or 'Lil Rose'... or sometimes 'Lil Greg.'

During that visit, Steven's gem began to glow. It was the first time since Rose had died that the gem had done anything noteworthy, and the Gems considered it a significant sign that Rose was still inside somewhere, so they kidnapped Steven.

Greg hunted them down, but ultimately the group decided that Steven was safer with the Gems... since they would be able to protect him and teach him about his gem and his powers as he grew. And to keep other people safe from him if he accidentally tried to hurt someone during a toddler rampage.

That's why, when we meet Steven, he hasn't been exposed much to the world around him. He knows some of the people in Beach City, but mostly only if they provide a service that he uses.

He knows the Frymans because they sell him bits. He knows the Pizzas because they sell him pizza. He knows Jamie the mailman because he's his mailman. Etc.

The opening of the series really introduces us to a Steven who is still a child. He's roughly 12 years old in the earliest episodes, and he's been sheltered and protected enough that his biggest problem is the fact that his favorite ice cream sandwich, Cookie Cat, has been discontinued.

But as he starts to harness the powers of his gem, he also finds himself facing a lot of unanswered questions.

Who was his mom? Why did she give up herself to make him? What was Steven's Magical Gem Destiny?

These are the themes and storylines that make up most of Seasons 1-4, honestly. We learned a lot during those seasons, but the person who did the most learning was Steven.

Eventually he realized that his mom wasn't the perfect hero so many people thought she was. He pieced together the truth behind all of Rose's lies. He even finally managed to reach a point in Pearl's mind where she could tell him the truth about Pink's shattering. He learned it all.

The only thing he still didn't understand was himself. What was Steven's purpose in all of this? Is he responsible for all of Pink's crimes? Rose's? Can he convince the Diamonds to stop attacking Earth now that he IS a Diamond?

We're going to go over all that in Part Three of this series, which should be published very soon! Follow me on Twitter @cylestnichole to be the first to know when it drops!