What #StevenBomb showed us about Rose Quartz

With Story for Steven coming up this week we figured it was finally time to reflect on what we learned about Rose Quartz during #StevenBomb. Rose’s Scabbard and The Return both gave us some good information—especially Rose’s Scabbard, as if the name wasn’t enough of a clue that it would feature the memory of Rose very prominently.

This is the second, and last, piece of lore implications from #StevenBomb.

My Pearl

Rose’s Scabbard was all about Rose Quartz’s relationship with Pearl. The two were quite close, and if Pearl wasn’t the first Gem to take Rose’s side then she was certainly the most enthusiastic convert. Her memory of her and Rose before the battle strongly implied a romantic interest from Pearl towards Rose, and while Rose seems to have been aware of that it doesn’t seem like Pearl was ever as close to Rose as she wanted to be.

That scene in particular is difficult, because it seems to imply a lot about Rose Quartz without being explicit enough to be sure. Rose seems very much aware that Pearl’s personal devotion to her is enough to maintain her loyalty; she seems uncomfortable about having used that to recruit Pearl, and gives her a chance to leave while knowing full well that she won’t. Despite that apparent discomfort, after Pearl said she’d stay Rose bolstered her resolve with a hand clasp.

We still haven’t seen enough of Rose to really be sure of much, but this points to her being very manipulative. If more examples of manipulation occur (especially any hints in Story for Steven that her romance with Greg was forced through by her) then, well, it won’t be the first clue we got that perhaps Rose did have a darker side to her.

A familiar face

Jasper said in The Return that she had fought against Rose Quartz in the war for Earth. She had never met Rose, but she would have recognized her when she saw her and was very familiar with her shield and her personal symbol (the pink equilateral triangle from her sword, banner, and shield).

Even Lapis displayed recognition of Rose Quartz in Ocean Gem: when Steven said he had healing powers, Lapis’s “wait, you have healing powers” didn’t sound like she was surprised to meet a Gem with healing powers: it sounded more like she was surprised because she only knew of one Gem with healing powers and it wasn’t Steven. When Jasper accused her of knowing that Steven was Rose Quartz, Lapis didn’t object that she had no clue: her objection was that it wasn’t relevant.

That means that Rose Quartz was at the very least well known on Earth as a rebel leader, though considering how powerful she is and what we can assume about Gem society she was probably important even before the rebellion.

A VERY important Gem

In fact, as we mentioned before it’s possible that Rose Quartz was at one point Pink Diamond. Blue, White, and Yellow Diamond seem to be represented by equilateral triangles in their color. Rose Quartz’s shield, sword, and war banner all bear the symbol of a pink equilateral triangle, and she’s certainly a very powerful Gem (in fact, it’s the power of the rose quartz gem that starts the events of Attack the Light).

Nothing is certain yet, but… Well, again, there are certain heavy implications that we should watch out for more information about later.