<p>I just beat Attack the Light last week, and I've been mulling some things over. There was another thread that brought up similar ideas, but it doesn't seem to have gotten very far, so this will be my attempt at it. </p><p>Now, to get the elephant out of the room first- Attack the Light is considered "second level canon", i.e. its own continuity, whereas the show is first level canon. That being said, at present, nothing in ATL's story directly contradicts anything in the show as yet (we can point to gameplay elements as doing so, e.g. Garnet poofing in battle and them immediately re-fusing without Ruby and Sapphire regenerating, but these are less concrete to deal with and will of necessity be ambiguous, so it seems reasonable to ignore these factors unless given reason otherwise), which means that inserting ATL's story into the show's overarching narrative wouldn't necessarily be impossible to do. Besides, the game's story is said to take place after "Fusion Cuisine", which means every event prior to that point would have also technically occurred in ATL's chronology, and by extension, the Light Prism logically existed beforehand as well in the show, off-screen. Bottom line: until something comes along to make ATL and the show irreconcilable, it makes sense to act as if they're all part of one continuity. </p><p>Now, with that out of the way, Gems are essentially holograms, but have mass and are semi-solid. The White Light and its offshoots are more or less the same, being equally tangible, and yet lack gemstones. Now, the other thread addressing this topic suggested that the Light Prism might in fact be or be similar to a gemstone for the Lights, citing the offspring of the Centipeedle Mother (which are solid, but lack gems of their own). This, however, doesn't seem entirely likely to me- the Prism was removed from the White Light's body and was in Steven's possession until the final battle, and we know a Gem's physical form can't be maintained if it's connection to its gem is severed. (If nothing else, Garnet was shown to tear out the gemstone of one of the Cluster Gems, with its body poofing immediately thereafter.) </p><p>Another idea thrown around is that the Light Prism creates projections similar to Holo-Pearl. However, this also seems unlikely, as Holo-Pearls and similar projections are shown to be rather fragile, while the Lights are highly durable; and these projections lack any minds of their own, at best having pre-programmed behaviors, while the Lights possess a fair degree of intelligence, even to the point of being able to have coherent conversations and (at the end) make their own decisions. </p><p>But then, it occurred to me- what if it's not the Prism that's similar to gemstones, but the other way around? What if the Light Prism is actually a (for want of a better term) ancestor of Gemkind? Instead of the source of the sentient holograms existing separately from them, it's instead incorporated directly into their bodies, providing an advantage in keeping them stable. The Diamonds could perhaps have been the first ones to undergo this metamorphosis (explaining Peridot's assertion that they're the Gem matriarchs), and then from there expanded the process, while also turning on and enslaving their own kind. </p><p>TL;DR- The Prism and Lights are "proto-Gems", and evolved or metamorphosed into the ones we know now. </p><p>There's virtually no evidence for this, I'll admit, but I thought it merited bringing up. Any other ideas? </p>