Talk:Season 5/@comment-3518576-20170727171941

Honestly, I think Rose Quartz was the one that shattered Pink Diamond. Rose Quartz has been shown to be holding onto some emotional baggage regarding her dark past, and she had confided in the Crystal Gems that she committed this atrocity. If she wasn't responsible, then there would be no reason for characters to be acting the way they have, and overall it would just come off as a cheap twist for the sake of subversive storytelling.

BUT. Even if Rose Quartz was the one that dealt the killing blow, that doesn't mean she was the mastermind behind the plan.

It's very likely that Rose Quartz was merely a pawn in some other Gem's greater plan. Perhaps White Diamond considered Pink Diamond to have outlived her usefulness, and so ordered Rose Quartz to assassinate Pink Diamond. It's unlikely that Rose Quartz would have willingly agreed to murder her own diamond, which is why I suspect that White used her supreme authority to force Rose into compliance; if she declined, then White could simply have her executed.

White may have also manipulated Pink's Agates, Sapphires, and Pearl into abandoning their posts so that Rose could do the job. The question is whether they were merely deceived into looking the other way, or if they were similarly threatened, or if they were politically corrupt and willing to assist in regicide for personal gain.

Of course, once Rose finished her role, White immediately ordered her to be captured and shattered anyway, since she would only be a liability if she remained alive. When Rose managed to escape pursuit, she realized that adhering to the role assigned her caste only resulted in suffering, which is why she established the Crystal Gem rebellion, so that no Gem would ever be forced to suffer the same circumstances.

And as I'm writing this, it occurs to me that maybe the reason the Crewniverse has hinted at Aquamarine being an important character, is because she's going to be manipulated into killing her own Diamond, and Steven has to break Aqua out of White's tyrannical grasp before history repeats itself.