Some Thoughts: Pink Diamond
I’ve looked over all the suggestions for what to write about, particularly from the three-parter (Beta, Earthlings, Back to the Moon). After re-watching the episodes, I find myself intrigued and wanting to process PD’s character and story. So with that, here it goes.
@ladyofthegeneral said:
And of course, your thoughts on Pink Diamond and why Rose shattered her, and maybe who she was, considering she only has one little colony. When you have time, of course!
@fleurusagi said:
So it seems that Pink Diamond has (or had) her gem on the same place Rose did (and now Steven). Any significance on that or just a coincidence?
In short, the present Homeworld functions on a very utilitarian basis. Nothing should go to waste. Not gems, not resources, not time and effort. Because Homeworld is going through a resource shortage, it’s actions are dictated by what is available and efficient. The ideal Homeworld features each gem in a particular place, doing a job, being taught and socialised by its own kind. Each stratum has its own rules, both formal and informal, culture, and expectations. From Pearls, to Quartzes, to Diamonds, no one is exempt from this system. And it is this system that insidiously, and sometimes overtly, encourages collectivist thought, putting the good of all above the good of the self.
A system like this sets limitations on everyone, even the Diamonds. As much as gems would like to believe them as god-like and perfect beings (Peridot, Message Received) or faceless members of the upper class (Bismuth, Bismuth), they are still individual gems with their own motives and their own relationship dynamic. This is something I’d like to keep in mind as the PD post goes on, because it is the foundation underlying everything that’s about to be said.
Because we are increasingly seeing the Diamonds have very individualistic reactions and feelings. Yellow Diamond in Message Received showed that beyond her role as a leader, beyond having to be the “Decider,” and beyond knowing she’s responsible for a Homeworld in crisis, she still chooses to shun Earth. She loses the objective and logical views she is known for. It was personal. There is a fallible, imperfect, tired, and frustrated person underneath all the expectations to be otherwise. So let’s apply that to PD.
1. Earth was PD’s first colony but not for the reasons we think
From the depictions of the Diamond mural, we see that each of the Diamonds have several small circles that they’re holding. And some of these circles have even smaller circles. It’s clear from the mural that these represent the colonies of the different Diamonds. Some of the planets even have rings around them, much like the rings of Saturn or Uranus. Many of the planets have satellites orbiting around them, some more than others.
Something I want to get out of the way is the idea that Pink Diamond was “given” Earth as a colony, or that she refused to gain a colony until this time. Because it doesn’t fit in with what we’ve consistently been seeing from Homeworld. What we know is that Homeworld is a conquering space race, because they cannot reap the resources of a planet without degrading life on it completely. They cannot reuse a planet; everything is drained.
That is their motivation for expansion and colonisation. Not because it’s “fun” or they feel like it. Each time they colonise, they’re using up precious resources that are exhaustible and irreparable. Even at the height of their civilisation, what seemed like the Golden Age before the war, they were still wary about a wanton use of resources. In The Answer, the first thing Blue Diamond does is to run. Not engage the rebels or fight them. And this is accepted because in gem society she is irreplaceable. The entire idea of poofing your enemies before shattering them stems from the fact that gems are a precious resource. Shattering was reserved for only the absolute worst crimes, and on this blog on multiple occasions we’ve talked about why BD chose to shatter Ruby at that moment in particular.
Even perceived enemies like Lapis were used for information rather than outright destroyed, both during and after the war. And Homeworld made sure to evacuate as many of their forces as they could before deploying the Light Bomb.
What then becomes consistent about Homeworld is that they try to be as efficient with their scarce resources as possible. Two other issues that play into PD’s first colony have a lot to do with recent episodes we saw:
First, that quartzes rank much higher than do ordinary gems, and second, that Earth was a huge battleground in which Homeworld tried everything to take back the planet.
To engage the latter point, it seems very out of character for a culture that prides itself on weighing harms and benefits to stubbornly try to take back a planet, leading to the loss of many gem lives, knowing that their chances at winning were slim to none. Going back to the events in The Answer, we see that Homeworld likes winning and being able to predict the outcome of the battle. They want to be assured victory because it just makes more sense to invest in something that guarantees returns.
Yet they fought for Earth, which means that there is something intrinsic to this planet that Homeworld deemed important enough to continue fighting for: The minerals. Earth is an environment conducive to creating quartz gems. We see it in the Kindergartens, specifically the Alpha Kindergarten. It’s tinged with pink hues. SU associates colour with characters very frequently, and this shows that the Quartzes and their Kindergartens, belonged to Pink Diamond.
This is why the characters talk about Rose, Amethyst, and Jasper, the “Quartz Gems” as belonging to PD. And we can clearly see that PD’s influence is present at times and absent in others. The Alpha Kindergarten contrasts sharply with the Beta Kindergarten.
And it seems odd, because they should all be quartz soldiers coming out of there. But Peridot explains that the Beta Kindergarten was a last ditch effort to create more soldiers as Homeworld had begun to lose the war. It’s likely that PD had already been taken out at this point in the timeline, and that the other Diamonds had to assume her duties. Much like how Peridot now claims that YD is in charge of all Homeworld’s military in Hit the Diamond, even though what’s been consistent about her character is the motif of technology.
This tells us several things. First, that PD was indeed in charge of the military on Homeworld. She would be the one managing quartz gems. In that regard, it wouldn’t be strange that she didn’t have colonies of her own. Because we’re led to believe that the battle for Earth is the first big war Gemkind had to engage in. A military commander wouldn’t really be managing a colony of civilians.
As such, Earth is an ideal colony for someone like PD, because quartzes can be made abundantly on its soil. PD would oversee their training, their growth and socialisation.
And this engages the earlier point. Why are quartzes so important that even after the technological boom on Homeworld, they would still expend precious resources to recover one Jasper?
Quartzes aren’t easy to make and the resources to make them are few and far between. Notice that in the interactions with current Homeworld soldiers, we’ve seen only a squad of Rubies. Quartzes rank highly because, similar to the argument made for BD in The Answer, they are rare and incredibly difficult to replace. That’s why Homeworld fought for Earth as hard as they did.
Earth is PD’s first colony likely because prior to Earth, there was no need for such a wide scale military effort in the past. So when the opportunity arose such that there was a planet where quartzes could just pop out of the ground like daisies, Homeworld, being the efficient civilisation it is, seized it accordingly.
2. There’s no evidence the Diamonds had an asymmetric distribution of power
