Alright, with the hiatus it’s time to look back on the series and have a bit of discussion about some of the most important episodes. We thought it would only be natural to start with Serious Steven, which was not only Steven’s first outing on a real mission but was also called back to in The Test, when Pearl and Garnet designed their test chambers using traps that they knew Steven had experienced before.
The pyramid temple was quite an enigma itself. Set in the middle of a historic battlefield, it suggests no immediate purpose but proves to be quite a harrowing experience for the unwary. It proved unable to handle it when Garnet broke sequence after Steven figured out its trick, but still left an impression.
Of course, as cool a thing as a temple was, it wasn’t the big thing. It wasn’t the thing.
That’s an honor reserved for the mural at the temple entrance. We can only see three panels of it, but it’s only now that we’ve been shown enough about the series to really make some serious guesses about what we’re seeing. Just look at it:
Click for full size.
So, this is the purpose of Assigned Viewing: what do you think is going on in this mural? What is it commemorating? Do we know enough yet? How long until the next piece of information about this scene drops? Get to discussing in the Comments section!
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I’ve always been confused why the ‘black figures’ standing with Rose appear to be going through the pyramid temple….with some of them not making it. Maybe that’s why the other episode is called ‘The Test’? Not just a test for Steven but because in the past the pyramid temple WAS a ‘Test’ .
I get the feeling that the pyramid temple was used to weed out the weak from the strong. But are the ‘black figures’ humans from the past? or gems? At the moment i’m leaning towards the ‘black figures’ being early humans. The reason I think that is because in ‘The Return’, Greg mentions that in the rebellion that “gems were destroyed….and a lot of people too”. So i guess the humans fought with the rebelling gems. In Rose’s secret armory, she had a lot of ‘human looking’ weapons and armor. But it’s kind of hard to tell apart old human weapons and old gem weapons since they were both Medieval/Greek looking. Maybe gems introduced human kind to weapons.
Maybe early man was forced to test themselves in the pyramid temple(and be basically slaves to the gems. building pyramids to gods maybe inspired by gem architecture) and Rose couldn’t stand to see them suffer like that anymore. Which makes sense since I think one of the major reasons Rose and her group rebelled is because they met and learned to appreciate human kind.
My guess : It shows the Diamonds. White Diamond and Yellow Diamond are shown, but we see Blue Diamond fighting Rose Quartz. Rose Quartz served under Blue Diamond, and Rose was tasked with taking control of Earth, but decided to go against Homeworld and fight for Earth, which left Blue Diamond in charge of Earth, and taking care of Rose Quartz. Lapis was part of it, having a Blue Diamond on her outfit. She probably survived whatever corrupted the gems and made it to the Galaxy Warp before she fell to corruption. After Blue Diamond fell, the Homeworld Gems retreated, leaving Yellow Diamond in charge of Earth later on. The surviving Blue army switched their alliegence to Yellow. Yellow Diamond was afraid to attack Earth after what happened to Blue Diamond, so he/she waited until the battle was history, then had Peridot send the Red Eye to see if the Gems were still on Earth. Only few gems remember the war, being those who survived. To keep Blue Diamond from reforming, Rose bubbled her/him and to this day has it in a secret place where no one would find it. (Lion’s Mane)
So in conclusion, the mural shows the leaders of Homeworld, White, Blue and Yellow Diamonds, and shows how Rose Quartz rebelled against Blue Diamond, taking the side of the humans.
I hope that makes sense. 😛
I’m still not convinced that all the Gem rulers are Diamonds. I’m sticking with my theory of: Rose Quartz, White Moonstone, Blue Topaz, and Yellow Diamond. I just think that Yellow Diamond is the only one left. Rose rebelled and defeated Blue Topaz, and White Moonstone, at least I suspect, also defected at some point (but the Homeworld just thinks that Rose destroyed her too) and founded the Sea Spire. I think the Gem from the Pyramid Temple was White Moonstone.
If you’ll notice, the design of Peridot’s ship is mainly light green. Blue, White, and Yellow mixed together is Light Green.
Just consider that.
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It’s even better than that: on the floor of the pyramid temple and in Peridot’s ship you can see that the triangles overlap. In the pyramid temple it’s just uncolored stone, but in Peridot’s ships they’re colored in and the overlap area is, surprise surprise, green.
:O !!!
So the giant green ship is suppose to look like the fusion of those 3 powerful gems O_o !!
Wow, I didn’t notice that. I assumed it was green because it was Peridot’s ship.
BTW there’s a very interesting fan theory floating around tumblr wherein the gem at the center of the pyramid was white diamond. It’s very speculative but also quite detailed. Though we don’t have enough in-universe evidence for me to say it’s definitely or even probably true, it’s a very interesting and fun read.
What is funny is Greg said Rose was only able to save a few of her closest friends and if you look at the mural closely… There are only two gems in fron of rose in the mural. Could that be implying that the only two shewas able to save from blue diamond that day were Garnet and Pearl? Nobody else survived? Who were all the other black figures behind them then? Were they humans, gems, or both? Let me know what you guys think!
Good catch! I think you are right and that those two black figures in the front are Garnet and Pearl.
I was thinking about the temple again. The crystal gems acted like they didn’t know anything about the temple….and i doubt that the homeworld jems would make a temple showing their leader’s defeat. So I guess the humans made it? But it did seem like it was a gem powered device. Similar to lapis and how she powered the mirror. So maybe at one point in the past, the humans used corrupted gems to power devices? That seems strange though considering how scared/oblivious to magic they all act in the current time.