The rebellion against Homeworld began with Rose Quartz and Pearl. Two rebel gems with one purpose: Save the Earth. Sure, they were later joined by other gems, including Garnet, but as we saw in 'The Answer', Rose and Pearl did a pretty good job of defending the Earth on their own. As Greg hinted in 'The Return', there were a lot of Homeworld gems who fought for Earth, and in 'When It Rains', Peridot revealed that the cluster was made of thousands of gems - most of them probably rebels. And the cluster gems in 'Keeping It Together' were definitely Crystal Gems, as Garnet revealed. So did Rose really win the war, or was she lulled into a false sense of victory by Homeworld?
She was given a choice and/or possibly tricked.
But before I get into this, let’s talk about this little guy
“These were Crystal Gems, shattered into pieces; they were buried together…”
“This is punishment for the Rebellion!”
Riddle me this, if Rose won the war, how did Homeworld get their hands on all those Gem shards if Rose’s side won? Why were the Crystal Gems “punished” if they saved Earth? Why is there 50 billion ton monster waiting to form inside the Earth? It’s because Rose didn’t win.
The Cluster is made of millions of Gem shards like Peridot said. If so, why would Homeworld use their soldiers to create such a monstrosity? They must have had prisoners worth executing for, as like Garnet said, punishment. Those incarcerated Crystal Gems had no choice but to get shattered. I mean, without some sort of fight of course, but still, shattered. But that doesn’t explain how they got the other thousands of Gems to create those millions of gem shards. Cheeto Puff said she was there for the First War and possibly every subsequent battle until the war ended. Rose’s army had to have been massive to go against an entire planet and its colonies. But after the war, where did they go? That question has been bothering me since the first time the war was mentioned in the show. I’ve always wondered as to why, since Rose supposedly won the rebellion, the other Crystal Gems left Earth if they were protecting it. I don’t see many possibilities as to why they would leave a place they fought so hard to protect. All those gems shattered, strewn across the ground as if somebody carelessly thrown them down; those fallen soldiers were shattered in vain, because Rose didn’t win.
“I want my cluster, and I want that planet to die…”
The war was never over. It hasn’t been over for the past 5,000 years. Homeworld only wanted to have Rose think she won. I highly doubt Rose knew about the Cluster. If she did, or heard even the slightest amount of information about it, she would have stopped it. A weapon that large, a weapon that destructive–Homeworld got tired of the war and left Earth for the Cluster to grow so they can obliterate the planet and Rose while she’s ignorant of the danger under her feet. Homeworld never forgot about the Earth. Why else would they even check on it if they lost? It’d just be a constant reminder of their failure.
“In the end, your mother could only save a handful of her friends. If it weren’t for her shield, man, I don’t know…”
There is still one more elephant in the room: Where did the other Crystal Gems go? Hell, I’m not even too sure where they are, and I highly doubt they’re all corrupted, because some Homeworld Gems have to be too if my corruption theory is correct. But here are a couple possibilities as to why they’re gone:
- They went back to Homeworld thinking they’ll be safe, but are dead now
- Most of them are in the Cluster
- Most of them are corrupted
- They left Earth to other places
- Most of them died in the war
I don’t know. It’s just bugging me. We don’t have enough information on the war to make a clear decision about the other CGs.
Tl;DR: Rose didn’t win the war because Homeworld tricked her and was going to obliterate her with the Cluster.
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