Blue Diamond

Blue Diamond is a Homeworld Gem, and an original Gem canon to Steven Universe.  She is a member of The Great Diamond Authority that rules over the Gem race. She made her debut in "The Answer".
== Appearance ==
Blue Diamond, as one of the rulers of Homeworld, is of a massive size, her height making a common pearl's pale in comparison. She has a turquoise complexion and long, off-white hair which connects at her chest. She has plump lips and a straight nose. She has black eyebrows, and three black markings on the lower portion of her eyes, which are turquoise with diamond shaped pupils. Her gemstone is located on her chest. 
She wears a long, blue, hooded cloak with long, baggy sleeves, it features a design of diagonal stripes of different shades of blue. When unhooded, it appears that her cloak is shoulderless.
== Personality ==
As shown in her debut, Blue Diamond is portrayed as a very mellow Diamond who treats high-ranking members of her court with respect. According to Holly Blue Agate, Blue Diamond has a reputation for mercy and forgiveness. This is demonstrated when she "saves" Greg from the threat of the Cluster after taking a liking to him, unaware that the Cluster is no longer active. However, as with Yellow Diamond, her true nature may be at odds with her reputation, as she sentences Ruby to shattering for accidentally fusing with Sapphire while trying to do her job.
Blue Diamond's temperament appears to have changed significantly in the 5,000 years following the death of Pink Diamond. She is currently in a state of great depression, still mourning over the shattering of her fellow diamond. She is unable to let go of the past, having become fixated on preserving Pink Diamond's legacy. This is shown in her efforts to maintain the late diamond's zoo, save Earth specimens from the Cluster's emergence, and her refusal to shatter the rose quartzes that once served under Pink Diamond. She continues to regard the Earth as Pink Diamond's colony, and, due to being unaware that the Cluster is bubbled, is visibly saddened by the fact that the planet will eventually be destroyed.
Additionally, Blue Diamond seems not to understand humans, given by how she was surprised that Greg was able to comprehend and sympathize with her pain of losing a loved one.
During the Wanted promo, she shows a vicious and vindictive attitude toward Steven by stating that she will make him face the worst punishment for what Rose did.
== Abilities ==
Blue Diamond possesses standard Gem abilities, bubbling, shapeshifting, fusion, regeneration, agelessness, and superhuman strength/durability.
* Radiated Pathokinesis: When Blue Diamond is overwhelmed with sadness, she emits a blue aura around her that induces the said emotion to anyone exposed to it. The induction is powerful enough to cause Gems exposed to the aura to cry immediately unprovoked. The ability does not seem to affect non-Gem beings, as Greg and Lars were not affected by it. The intensity of the ability may vary and is possible to resist it, as Yellow Pearl cried big teardrops while Yellow Diamond only started to tear up.
== Relationships ==
=== Sapphire ===
Sapphire was an aristocratic member of Blue Diamond's court. She was valued dearly for her ability to see into the future. She appears to talk frequently with her, by Sapphire's words. Blue Diamond went as far as to sentence Ruby to be shattered just for fusing with her, which resulted in Sapphire immediately fleeing the scene with Ruby and terminating her relationship with Blue Diamond.
=== Blue Pearl ===
Blue Diamond has her own Pearl, assumed to be her servant. Due to her brief and silent debut, not much is known about her, or her relationship with Blue Diamond.
=== Ruby ===
To Blue Diamond, Ruby is nothing more than one of the common and insignificant soldiers under her command. When Ruby accidentally fuses with Sapphire, Blue Diamond immediately decides to shatter her gemstone as a punishment, even though the unexpected fusion saved Sapphire.
=== Peridot ===
Peridot was, at first, impressed with the murals of Blue Diamond and the other Diamonds in "It Could've Been Great". However, ever since the argument with Yellow Diamond in "Message Received", she became disenamoured of the Great Diamond Authority in general.
=== Pink Diamond ===
Blue Diamond describes her past relationship with Pink Diamond as very close and still grieves for her thousands of years after Rose Quartz shattered her. In his dreams, Steven saw Pink Diamond's abandoned Palanquin where Blue Diamond knelt down and wept over her passing, which led him and Greg to seek out the location and find Blue Diamond there. Blue Diamond cares deeply about protecting Pink Diamond's legacy, causing her to take Greg to Pink Diamond's Human Zoo in space so that one more human can be saved before the Cluster destroys the Earth. Following Pink Diamond's shattering, Blue Diamond took over operations of the Zoo in an additional attempt to keep her memory alive, where she preserved all the remaining Rose Quartz gemstones in bubbles, contrary to Yellow Diamond's wishes, due to Pink Diamond's role in inventing the Gem type.
=== Yellow Diamond ===
Considering their roles as the Gem Matriarchs, Blue and Yellow Diamond treat each other with respect, considering themselves equals. However, Pink Diamond's shattering is a source of friction between them, as Yellow and Blue Diamond have been arguing for centuries over their different ways of coping with her death. Despite their differing beliefs, they still care about each other, as when Yellow nearly broke down after singing "What's the use of feeling, Blue?", Blue comforted her by placing a hand on her back.
=== Greg Universe ===
When confronted with Blue Diamond mourning by Pink Diamond's Palanquin, Greg approached her, and the two started talking. In their conversation, they were able to form a connection through their shared understanding of the loss of a loved one, with Blue Diamond and Greg missing Pink Diamond and Rose Quartz respectively. However, Blue Diamond later resolved to kidnap Greg as a last resort to honor Pink Diamond's memory and took him away in her spaceship. Blue Diamond found it surprising that a human could not only understand her pain but also relate to it.
== Trivia ==
* Blue Diamond is the first of the Diamonds to be seen on-screen in an episode of Steven Universe.
** However, Blue Diamond was not the first of the Diamonds to be revealed in Steven Universe media as a whole. Yellow Diamond was revealed in the extended theme song.
* Despite being a Diamond like Yellow Diamond, the cut of her gem does not exactly match her yellow counterpart, in contrast to other gems of the same type, who appear to share color and cut. However, since the two episodes they appear in were storyboarded by different members of the crew, their gemstones may only look different due to the differing art styles of the crew members, as they appear to be of the same design – a rhombus-shaped decahedron with a rhombus facet and four rectangular facets on the sides.
** When she appears for the second time in "Steven's Dream", Blue Diamond's gemstone now bears a closer resemblance to Yellow Diamond's.
* Blue Diamond's importance is further emphasized, as she has her own palanquin with a curtain in the front and spider legs to move it around on its own.
* Rebecca Sugar has stated that blue colored Gems are mainly diplomats.
* Rebecca stated that Blue Diamond's character design is meant to look "ghostly" to get the feeling of her mourning, and draws a lot of influence from Martha Graham's Lamentation ballet dance. Her face and hair designs are also inspired by Leiji Matsumoto's art, to make her come across as a "strange presence."
* Much like Ruby and Sapphire before "Hit the Diamond", all Blue Diamond and Yellow Diamond's main appearances have been in episodes featured in a StevenBomb.
* So far, all members of Blue Diamond's Court (not counting those originally from Pink Diamond's) have similar gemstone designs (wider at the bottom, tapering to a point on top), reminiscent of a teardrop shape.
** This could be due to the color blue being associated with water, and/or Blue's sadness over the loss of Pink Diamond.
== Cultural References ==
* Blue Diamond's appearance and her throne appear to be heavily influenced by Indian and Muslim culture. Her clothing resembles that of traditional Arab wedding dress, specifically a Henna dress.http://41.media.tumblr.com/a9abf825ebeb9e9f488bbf93c04199e6/tumblr_o0o6h32YmY1s3faqoo2_1280.png
* The frame of her throne has carved geometrical designs for windows,https://36.media.tumblr.com/64f48d2ff688bc87873963f6626fb641/tumblr_o0o6h32YmY1s3faqoo1_1280.png which are a common design in many Indian temples and houses.
** The largest blue diamond, the Hope Diamond, also originates from India.
== Gemology ==
Gemstone Information
* Diamond is the official modern birthstone for April, and it is also used as an official sixty-year anniversary gemstone.
* Diamonds are the stone of truth and victory.
** It is associated with lightning and fearlessness, and for its properties of protection.
** The diamond, in its rarity and beauty, is a symbol of purity and innocence, love, and fidelity, and embraces the strength of character, ethics, and faithfulness to oneself and others.
* Diamond is the transparent, gemstone-quality crystalline form of carbon and it is indeed one of the hardest known natural substances on Earth.
** Diamonds' hardness is the result of adamant chemical bonds between the carbon atoms.
** There is no other gemstone in the same family as diamond, although there are a variety of very similar gemstones.
** Diamond is pure carbon and is chemically the same as graphite.
* Although traditional colorless or "white diamonds" are by far the most famous colored diamonds, yellow and brown diamonds are the most commonly occurring diamonds.
** Other diamond colors include pink, red, orange, yellow, green, gray, and black.
** Specific colors will trade under specific names.
*** Brown and yellow diamonds are often referred to as "champagne" or "cognac" diamonds.
* If a diamond's impurities consist of boron and low level of nitrogen, the diamond will be a blue or gray color (Type IIb). Other blue diamonds are unrelated to boron; nickel or high concentrations of hydrogen are the likely causes of blue color in some diamonds.
* The diamond is a p-type semiconductor.
* Diamond deposits are found worldwide, the most notable being Africa, Australia, and India.
** Approximately half of the world's diamonds come from Central and Southern Africa.
** Canada has recently become a primary commercial source for fine white diamonds.
* One of the most famous diamonds, the Hope Diamond, is a blue diamond, and is one of the largest diamonds ever to be cut and faceted. It is known notoriously for supposedly being cursed, depicted to bring forth misfortune to whoever attempts to wear it.
* A notorious New Age scamming site, The Council of Love, utilises the blue diamond as a symbol of the Virgin Mary http://counciloflove.com/2015/10/universal-mother-mary-brings-forth-yet-another-gifting-session-of-her-blue-diamond/, which may have inspired Blue Diamond's aesthetic similarities to the figure.
== Gemstone ==
== References ==
Category:Gems
Category:Diamonds
Category:Canon Gems
Category:Canon Characters
Category:Homeworld Gems