In Defense of Rose Quartz

In Steven Universe, one of the more interesting characters to emerge out this show is the matriarch of the Crystal Gems, Rose Quartz; mother to our own master of puns, Steven Universe.

Family resemblance, I guess

Despite only actually being seen in two episodes and a twist cameo in Lion 3: Direct to Video, she has been constantly present in the story and remaining very influential to all of the crystal gems, being considered a courageous, loving, beautiful gem that cared for all life. Though in the past few week, with a second Stevenbomb, an extended opening sequence at SDCC, and a third Stevenbomb dropping this tomorrow, fans have become more and more suspicious of Rose; questioning if she is truly the Gem we've been led to believe. Which is rightfully something that should be questioned considering how important the character is, considering the show is about Steven following in her footsteps.

Though in order to come to a conclusion about this, lets examine why people are so suspicious in the first place. One of the few flaws is that Rose has continually exhibited in her appearances is that she is incredibly disconnected with humanity, with Rose viewing humans as mere play things. Saying things like "I would really like to play with you." "I like the way human beings play, I like playing along", and "I love humans! They're all so funny!" Despite devoting herself to protecting humanity, she seems to think very little of them in the time that we see her. She even admits to Greg, the future father of her child, that she has loved so many humans in the past,to the point where Pearl considers people like Greg as "just a phase."

Next we need to consider the next biggest element of Rose Quartz, her secrecy. To quote "Square Mom" Garnet, "Rose kept many secrets, even from [the Crystal Gems]." Throughout the show we have seen many things that were secret, including a vault that only Pearl knew about,

and perhaps Rose's biggest secret, Lion; where a large field where all of Rose's most precious belonging are magically contained in his pink furry mane.

All of this secrecy coming from Rose makes it easy to wonder how many more secrets does she have, and how does Steven play into this? This has made many theorized that while Rose has very good intentions, she utilizes manipulation of those who care about her to reach her goals of protecting the earth. And Steven, being her ace in the hole as a secret weapon to defeat her home world. With some even going so far as to equating Rose to a cult leader bent on destroying home world under the false expectation that they are protecting earth.

Though before we continue accusing Rose of being the evil mastermind that many are painting her as, we need to ask ourselves: who are the Crystal Gems really fighting against? What do we really know about Home world?

Based on what has been given to us,we can concede that the Gem home world is a powerful civilization which reaches across many Gem controlled planets throughout the Universe. In order to  maintain their control, they conquer planets to create breeding grounds for new gems called "Kindergartens," where large machines inject gems into the planet and suck the life out of the planet to create more gems.

What we can also safely assume is that Home World has a very strict authority between gems, and has created a very strict society that doesn't tolerate imperfection; with their ideas of imperfection including weaker gems, anything hurt or broken, and fusion. Exemplified by Garnet reason to fight with Rose:

Metaphors for gay marriage aside, This is  also evident when Jasper, who perhaps is displays Home World militaristic philosophies the most, regards fusion as "just a cheap tactic to make weak Gems stronger." What the Crystal Gems consider an act of love is being punished by Home World. They hate fusion so much that they made these as punishments for the rebellion:

Based one what little we do know about Home World, is it so hard to assume that those in charge of Home World have any good intentions when it comes to taking over the world. So while it can be argued, with some merit, that Rose has the capacity to be manipulative and apathetic.

I mean, one of her and Steven's powers is being able to create
plant soldiers willing to die for him/her without thought...

Though when you consider the malicious intents of Home World, sucking the life out of planets in order to perpetuate their strict social system, it makes any potential problems with Rose seem minor in comparison. Problems that become even smaller when we consider the character progression Rose went through in the time between meeting Greg and giving up her physical form to create Steven.

In order to find the rose that we've been led to believe, we need to look no further than the first time we heard Rose's voice in the video she left for Steven,

"Isn't it remarkable, Steven? This world is full of so many possibilities. Each living thing has an entirely unique experience. The sights they see, the sounds they hear. The lives they live are so complicated... a-and so simple. I can't wait for you to join them. Steven, we can't both exist. I'm going to become half of you. And I need you to know that every moment you love being yourself, that's me, loving you and loving being you. Because you're going to be something extraordinary. You're going to be a human being."

Its a stark contrast from the dismissive "humans are so funny" sentiments of Rose in earlier. Rose has gone from the simplistic outlook to humanity, to seeing each and every human life as a complicated story that they have complete control over. It seems that despite wanting to fight for earth, Rose still retained some of the anti-individualistic philosophies of Home World, where she still regards humanity as somewhat lesser than gems. Though it seems that over the course of her relationship with Greg, she seems to have developed into the loving person that the Gems remember her as.

So in the end, I still believe that as flawed as Rose is , she still represents the force of good that she has come to represent. And until they reveal anything to say other wise, ill still believe it. No matter how creepy she looked in the Extended opening.

Seriously, Rose? You're making Jared Leto's Joker look less menacing.