So, there's something I have to get off my chest about the recent Steven Universe episodes (5x17-5x24). I'm really... not pleased with the reveal and the way the following episodes handled it. I honestly feel really... "betrayed" sounds overdramatic, so let's go with "let down".

So, I theorized Rose shattered Pink Diamond long before we were told. The more we learned about Rose and Pink Diamond, the more I thought the theory they were the same person was absurd -- but the logistical details of just how implausible this scenario is are tangential here.

More than anything, the Rose-is-Pink-Diamond theory did not make sense to me thematically. Steven Universe is a story about caste rebellion: about breaking out of the boxes people make for you, and fighting for that independence against those who would try to put you back in the box. A common soldier becoming a general who struck down an untouchable queen is the perfect apotheosis of that. In the story we were told, Rose Quartz is a nobody who becomes somebody, a commoner who becomes a princess because the caste system is a lie and anyone can be what they want. I found that a very powerful, important, and relateable message. I want to believe that my life will not determined by the circumstances of my birth. I want to believe that anyone, even a nobody like me, can make a difference in the world. I want the kids watching this show to grow up believing that too. I really appreciated that Steven Universe gave me that message, and rejected the endless litany of royalty and genetics and bloodlines that so inundates our media.

But "A Single Pale Rose" flipped that on its head. Now Rose is just the age-old trope of the royal masquerading as a commoner. Now Rose did not break the caste system, she upheld it. It was never in question that diamonds could be whatever they wanted: they were the only ones who could be and that was why the gem caste system was wrong.

What message does this send to us? That sure, commoners can rise up, but we still need to rely on royalty. It ironically reinforces the legitimacy of the caste system to learn that no, none of the gems would have rebelled if someone with privilege didn't teach them how to.

And, yeah, there's now also the subtext that if Rose really had shattered Pink Diamond, that would have been wrong. God, I used to insist the SU critical crowd was totally misreading the show when they said it was teaching people that resistance was wrong, but WELP GUESS THEY WERE RIGHT ALL ALONG. I used to think the show was so brave and nuanced for saying that Rose didn't want to kill someone, but sometimes that's really the only option and you have to hold the needs of the many over your own desire for ideological purity. Now PSYCHE, everything is sunshine and rainbows forever and what's really important is that we remember genocidal tyrants have feelings too!

(God, I saw red when Blue told the people whose friends she murdered that they "couldn't understand the grief she's endured". The diamonds got the smallest taste of the way they treat other gems on a regular basis, and they act like it is the greatest injustice in all history. Yeah, they deserve sympathy, but not more than their victims.)

Just... I know I said I didn't want to get into the logistics, but like, the war apparently lasted a thousand years. If Pink's "shattering" alone was enough to end the war, she could have done that right at the start and spared all those lives. Or she could have just, I don't know, told her soldiers to stop making Kindergartens? Pink got untold numbers of gems shattered because... why? Because she didn't want to sacrifice her privilege and power as Pink Diamond until she was in too deep? That's not "selfish", that's monstrous. Yet the show just... doesn't acknowledge this at all?

But the thing that upsets me the most about this is that it means all the Rose haters are right now.

I could not stand how awful this fandom was to Rose. I hated how disgustingly, brazenly misogynistic it was, aggressively misreading every single thing she did as "proof" for their day 1 assumption that she must be evil incarnate. I thought I loved that, FOR ONCE, the fat, nice, extroverted older woman was exactly as she appeared. What a good message, I thought, to teach kids they shouldn't assume women are all lying vixens whose kindness exists only for ulterior motives! But no. The uppity fat woman is evil. Why should I have expected anything different.

I'm also bothered by what this means for Pearlrose... I was never bothered by their relationship before; it was flawed but they were believable and reasonable flaws, especially given that we know gems have trouble with empathy. But no, now Pearl is literally Rose's property and PROGRAMMED TO OBEY ROSE'S ORDERS. The fact that Rose magnanimously chose not to abuse her terrifying, absolute power over her partner does not make that power dynamic go away. That setup is incredibly disturbing and I really, really wish media would stop romanticizing it.

And I really just... do not agree with the apparent fandom consensus that Pearl "started the rebellion" now? I really don't understand how one can come to that conclusion. It looks to me that Pearl only facilitated what Rose wanted the whole time. I really liked the idea that Pearl and Rose were equal partners in forming the rebellion, that Pearl really was a renegade with her own ideas and agency. But now she was just going along with what Rose wanted the whole time.

It's just... sad. I feel like I've lost something wonderful. I loved Rose Quartz and her terrifying renegade Pearl. (Remember how "my" was supposed to be something you said to someone above you, like the diamonds, and not about ownership?) But now everything I loved about them was a lie.

This all feels like a case of subverting tropes so much you end up in a circle. Rose actually being nice and actually being a Rose Quartz was the twist, to me. It subverted longstanding narrative conceits about gender and class archetypes. By subverting the subversion, we've just gone back to "only nobles are allowed to matter" and "women are liars".

Everything after that has just been so... weird. It honestly feels like the show is parodying itself? It's just been this sudden whirlwind tour where everyone dumps their feelings on Steven and gets their entire character arcs resolved in a single episode. On the one hand I do like how cheerful it is and how it's giving us everything we want... but Steven Universe has never been that kind of show. It's a show where things frequently could not be resolved in 11 minutes with a hug and a pep talk, because it's a show that tackles heavy and real issues where the hard truth is that there is no easy solution. Like hey, remember when Lapis couldn't just get over her PTSD when it was convenient for Steven? I loved that episode for how brave it was and what a good message it sent. Now what am I supposed to think?

I just don't understand what's going on anymore. Did the writers just burn out? Was the original plan that Rose really did shatter Pink and the executives forced them to change it at the last minute, because murder is unacceptable but a child stepping over a battlefield littered with corpses is peachy keen? What even.