Board Thread:News and Announcements/@comment-25442014-20141002065509/@comment-4224349-20141004000313

Here are my final thoughts.

Rose is connected to Lion obviously. I am going to guess that Lion was really REALLY close to Rose, and Garnet actually knew that her and Lion were close, hence why she let him keep it.

Rose's main weapon was a sword, hence the photo above and not a shield. They were surprised when Steven first activated the shield because, well, it was his weapon!

And, with Lion being close to Rose, when Rose left her weapon was descended to Lion. Either that, or Rose is Lion which is another debateable theory.