I’m gonna add something to this that I haven’t seen anyone talk about: The circles around the Diamonds are all the planets and moons they’ve colonized under their name. The score at the time the Moon Base was created seems to be: Yellow Diamond: 8 planets (2 in her hands) and 15 moons. White Diamond: 10 planets (11 assuming the one in her hands is a planet) and 4 moons. Blue Diamond: 4 planets and 3 moons. Pink Diamond: 1 planet and 1 moon, almost definitely Earth and Earth’s moon. So assuming the amount of planets one Diamond commands is indicative of her power/authority, White Diamond is at the top of the pecking order, followed by Yellow Diamond, then Blue Diamond, and lastly Pink Diamond.
That makes sense given the symbol:
My guess is, because of the emphasis on it, the planet in White Diamond’s hands is Homeworld itself. While all the diamonds rule it, it wouldn’t surprise me if White Diamond wanted a reminder that she was the one truly at the top.
Oooh, I’ve been waiting for someone to ask, haha! The “gem covering headcanon” and its counterpart, the “gem exposing headcanon” are aspects of gem culture that I integrated into the Homeworld T Series – the former is mentioned in Trust, and both come into play in Tenacity. These are physical gestures that gems would use to convey sentiments without words.
“Gem covering” is essentially flipping someone the bird (middle finger). It’s a gesture that would be considered extremely rude and meant to convey contempt. Gems would use this gesture when they wanted to tell another gem to “fuck off”. It involves making a very obvious scene of one covering their gem. For example, a pearl would cover her forehead gem; our Ruby would hold their hand aloft and very blatantly clench their fingers over it. The idea is that these creatures habitually keep their gems, which are their true bodies, open to the world; to obviously cover it at one person is to say, “I don’t respect you, so you only get to see my hologram.”
In Tenacity, when Ruby and Sapphire are reforming Garnet in front of Pink Diamond, they fold their gem hands together and intertwine their fingers, which displays intimacy between them and, by effectively covering each other’s gems, derision for the diamond and her thoughts on fusion.
“Gem exposing” is meant as an extremely sincere method of apology. In the same way that humans bow their head to expose their neck, which is a very fragile part of our bodies, gems would make this gesture a very conspicuous subjection of the source of their life. Depending on gem placement, this could involve turning one’s head away or down, tucking hands behind one’s back, or kneeling. The idea is that the presenter is so genuine about their sorry that they would stake their life on it. If the gem being apologized to were to find the apology inauthentic, they would have every right to destroy or damage the presenter’s gem – and have a very easy shot at it.
In Tenacity, Rose prostrates herself in this way to show Garnet that she is regretful of her earlier treatment of the fusion. This is a very ancient aspect of gem culture that isn’t often employed (and very much less so by the Crystal Gems, who, after 5000+ years, have become more Earthlings than Homeworlders.)
So one of the coolest, most intriguing parts of Steven Universe to me is the concept of fusion. I am a huge frickin nerd and I will spend hours just sitting here trying to comprehend what it must be like to experience being a fusion.
For a long time though, there have been certain things that have had me stumped:
1) How could Pearl hide her intentions from Rose and Garnet during their respective fusions?
2) How could Jasper not realized Lapis was going to trap her while there were fused as Malachite?
3) Why was Alexandrite so quiet and (imo) uninteresting during fusion cuisine, despite being a fusion of so many gems?
Before, I was under the assumption that when gems were in sync during a fusion, their minds “melded” and became one. However, the above scenarios wouldn’t make sense if that were the case.
But then I realized, we’ve been blatantly told how fusion works. And during one of the most memorable episodes at that.
“I am their conversation.” What if we take this statement as literally as possible?
How about this: When gems are fused, each gem in the fusion is actually having a conversation with each other. In order to stay fused, the gems have to communicate, agree, compromise, debate and plan together. When this is done perfectly, their voices “sync up”, and the fusion’s amalgam personality arises.
At the same time, whenever gems within a fusion have a difficult time communicating, the fusion’s personality dissolves and each gem speaks separately through the fusion’s mouth.
The concept of fusion as conversation also perfectly explains how Pearl could hide information all the time during fusions, as well as how Lapis could fool Jasper while becoming Malachite. Because a fusion can only know what each gem discloses.
THIS ALSO MAKES ALEXANDRITE FRICKIN HILARIOUS. She wasn’t quiet and to herself because she lacked personality. She barely talked because Ruby, Sapphire, Amethyst, and Pearl were so awkward and had no idea what to say or do. But she had a stoic face because they all agreed they had to play it cool.
Viewing fusions as conversations just changed so much for me about this show, there’s a lot of little things I’ve noticed that I don’t want to get into cause this is already really long. Overall, it’s deepened my appreciate of the fact that fusions are metaphors for relationships. Remember what Garnet said to Stevonnie:
“You are not two people. You are not one person. You are an experience.”
Because relationships aren’t about changing, or gaining, or becoming something new. Relationships aren’t about who you are as individuals or as a group. Relationships are what is created between people. They’re the result of conversation and contribution and compromise. They are an experience.
AngelMihe 