The Good Place 2x02-2x05 http://markdoesstuff.fetchapp.com/get/55895d48

In "The Trial" Zircon says that Rose Quartz had been a threat for hundreds of years before Pink Diamond's death, and just last episode we saw Blue talking to Pink about Rose's rebellion in progress. The question is whether the assassination took place 5750 years, around the same time as Garnet's recruitment, as Garnet seems to imply in "Gemcation", or if it happened right before the corruption, 5000 years ago, the way Garnet's story possibly implies in "Your Mother And Mine".

Wait, now that I think about it, in "Gemcation" we see an image of the the Crystal Gems, including Garnet, facing off against Pink Diamond. Now it's not a literal image- Pink Diamond is huge- but still probably indicates that The Answer came first.

I believe "The Answer" and the "death" of Pink Diamond happened close to the same time- both about 5750 years ago. Maybe. In "Gemcation" Garnet is talking about Rose shattering PD and begins "It was 5750 years ago. . ." but gets cut off by Steven before she can finish, so we don't know for sure if that's when it happens, or Garnet was beginning her story at an earlier point. Which happens first is unclear so far.

In "Your Mother and Mine" Garnet says that before Pink died, she asked Blue and Yellow to come help quash the rebellion. Now, this makes no sense given what we know of Pink's motives, so I think that what actually happens is that Pink tried to use the rebellion as an excuse to "abandon" the colony to the humans and Crystal Gems, as seen in Steven's dream in "Can't Go Back", and instead Yellow and Blue decided to come help, which wasn't actually what Pink was going for. "Pink asked them to come help" is a misinterpretation of events on Garnet's part. It does sound like Blue and Yellow were on the planet before Pink was shattered, Garnet presumably wouldn't have been that wrong.

Rose was a villain when she did the things she see how doing in the final flashback in this episode, but the show is almost certainly going to attempt to convince us that by the time she met Greg (despite never having come clean and faced the consequences of her actions, despite never having even actually released Pearl from the geass or whatever she put her under) she was no longer truly a bad person. Five thousand years on Earth had redeemed her. That's the nature of this show, that's the nature of shonen anime in general and this show's primary forebearer Dragon Ball Z in particular: redemption is eventually available to everyone. Whether they can successfully sell that to their audience on that is a different matter.

The most troubling part of this is how "Pearl was absolutely devoted to the very gem she was designed to be absolutely devoted to" squares with. . . everything else about how Pearl and her backstory have been presented. As dark as this reveal is, this is way darker than even the rest of it, and I don't know how they're going to deal with this.

Bismuth must have known. She came to Rose with a new weapon and a plan to shatter the diamonds, Rose let something slip, Bismuth discovered the truth and Rose sealed her away to protect her secret. That's why she was so quick to conclude that Steven was just Rose doing the same thing again. "You can't expect me to believe you now, after you lied about everything?"

Greg might have known. His dialogue in "Steven's Dream" is ambiguous. "I think she felt like she needed to confess everything to me, but I told her, 'The past is the past. All that matters to me is who you are now.' And who she was, was an incredible, loving being." I think it's more likely that she started to confess, but he stopped her before she got it out. I'd like to think that if he knew, he'd have told Steven before now.

So we now have it clarified that Pearl, Bismuth, and Garnet all knew Rose before the assassination (or "assassination") of Pink Diamond, and that the events of "The Answer" took place while Pink Diamond was still around.

Bismuth probably went into that conversation with Rose Quartz about the Breaking Point believing that Rose Quartz had shattered Pink Diamond hundreds of years earlier. She probably found out something in that confrontation that she was referring to when she sobbed at Steven "after you LIED about EVERYTHING!" during their fight.

There's an obvious problem in Garnet's Utena-style flashback- Rose is wielding the very sword that Bismuth said was specifically made not to shatter gems- but also a more subtle one: the Rose we see shattering Pink Diamond is right-handed. Every other depiction of Rose we've seen, including in "The Answer", is left-handed.

Stevie 5x13-5x16 http://markdoesstuff.fetchapp.com/get/1616d37a

Could be siblings or otherwise related, they look like they have fairly similar complexions.

When Pearl started talking about the diamonds she clamped her hand over mouth, then seemed to try to pry it off with the other hand, implying that she was being very literal when she said that some things were impossible for her to explain and is fighting some sort of failsafe that prevents her from revealing certain information.