Rose Quartz's Army of Misfits Theory

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The "Rose Quartz's Army of Misfits Theory", otherwise known as "Rose Quartz's Socially Misfits Rebel Army", states a possibility for how Rose Quartz arranged Gems for her cause in the Gem War, 5000 years before the birth of Steven Quartz Universe.

## Theory

From what was unveiled of the show's plot, certainly one of the most important moments in Earth history was Rose Quartz's rebellion against Homeworld and the subsequent war for the control of the planet. This was clearly exposed in *Rose's Scabbard,* when the Crystal Gems revisited the Strawberry Battlefield and briefly spoke of the war.

We can estimate that, although we only follow the two remainders of Rose's army (by Greg's account in *The Return,* "a handful of her closest friends"), there once was a great number of members to both armies. It can be attested by the number of Corrupted Gems seen throughout the series, the weapons left in the Strawberry Battlefield (*Rose's Scabbard)* and the holes in Kindergarten (*On the Run*). So, Rose once had a considerable army, from which we only observe the two (technically three, as Garnet is a fusion) combatants left. It begs the question: how was Rose able to call other Gems towards her cause?

Let's turn to what Jasper says in *The Return*:

"But this is all that's left of her army? Some lost, defective Pearl, a puny overcooked runt and *this* shameless display?"

This single line has proven itself seminal for understanding in depth each of the Crystal Gems. From this combined with what we learn in *On the Run* and *Jailbreak* we can infer that fusions, like Garnet, are not seen kindly by Homeworld Gems, that Pearl and Amethyst are pieces of a greater set of similar Gems, that both of them are products of the process that creates every of their respective kinds and that some part of the process went wrong in their cases. All those hypotheses point to each of the known Crystal Gems being looked down by Homeworld Gems. Even before the insurrection the members of what now is known as the Crystal Gems were considered pariahs in Homeworld.

Here is where Rose comes in. Although we're still uncertain of what was her purpose coming to Earth, we know that she was at least one of the leaders of her cause. It is even stated by Pearl that it was her taste for this planet's lifeforms that inspired the rebellion in the first place.

Let's turn once again to the Crystal Gems. Every interaction shown so far demonstrates how much they are unfamiliar with human's ways. For instance, in the comics, it was exposed that Pearl had never read a human book until becoming close to Connie. After spending so many years trapped in a planet, a Gem like Pearl never even tryied to familiarize with the local culture and literature? It is a clear example of her outrightly dismissing humankind, and several episodes contain commentaries that, systematically analysed, corroborate this notion. As a matter of fact, Amethyst is by far the Gem that more closely relates to human culture, perhaps due to a certain solidarity for fellow earthlings. So why a group so indifferent to Earth's inhabitants would betray their homeland in Earth's favor? Because of Rose Quartz.

Rose, whatever she used to be, was extremely charismatic, a social singularity. She was compassionate towards the weak and downtrodden, apparently an unusual stance for Homeworld. It was her affection that started the cause and that supported it, as, being kind, she managed to gain the loyalty of other Gems, specially misfits in Homeworld, Gems that, after lifetimes being hostilized, found themselves safe and love close to her. Rose, intentionally or not, took advantage of weakminded Gems to compose her army, to fight and die for her.

## Related Theories

* Gem rank/class groups theory (Confirmed)