History Characters / StevenUniverseDiamondAuthority

* AwesomeMcCoolname: The word "diamond" is from the ancient Greek word for "unbreakable". This derives from the fact that Diamonds are the hardest natural formation of carbon.

* AmbiguousDisorder: All four of the Diamonds appear to suffer from [[https://www.bridgestorecovery.com/borderline-personality-disorder/types-borderline-personality-disorder/ different subtypes of borderline personality disorder]], and neatly slot into the [[https://outofthefog.website/personality-disorders-1/borderline-mother-types four types of borderline parent]]. While all have self-destructive features, White and Pink are Petulant, while Yellow is Impulsive and Blue is Discouraged. As to their parenting styles, White is the controlling and narcissistic Queen, Yellow is the angry, embittered Witch, Blue is the passive-aggressive, depressed Waif, and Pink is the secretive, rebellious Hermit.

* AmbiguousDisorder: All four of the Diamonds appear to suffer from [[https://www.bridgestorecovery.com/borderline-personality-disorder/types-borderline-personality-disorder/ different subtypes of borderline personality disorder]], and neatly slot into the [[https://outofthefog.website/personality-disorders-1/borderline-mother-types four types of borderline parent]]. While all have self-destructive features, White and Pink are Petulant, while Yellow is Impulsive and Blue is Discouraged. As to their parenting styles, White is the controlling and narcissistic Queen, Yellow is the angry, embittered Witch, Blue is the passive-aggressive, depressed Waif, and Pink is the secretive, rebellious Hermit.

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:In General]]

* CoolStarship: All four Diamonds have personal starships that are Peridot's hand-like warship taken UpToEleven. Yellow and Blue's ships are shaped like gigantic arms. Pink's is shaped like a pair of legs. And White's is shaped like a torso and head (crafted in White's image, no less). [[spoiler:All four ships can combine into a single giant craft [[CombiningMecha in the shape of a complete body]].]]

* OrcusOnHisThrone: Props for them sitting around on actual thrones. [[spoiler:White takes this UpToEleven, having stayed within her ship/throne room for eons, seemingly speaking entirely through [[MouthOfSauron White Pearl]].]]

* PersonOfMassDestruction: At least when several are together, they're able to corrupt an entire planet of Gems by themselves. And if Blue and Yellow's demonstrations of power during [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E2TheTrial "The Trial"]] [[spoiler:and Rose's wide variety of abilities]] are any indication, they aren't too shabby on their own, either. [[spoiler:Taken UpToEleven in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E23Reunited "Reunited"]], where Blue and Yellow are shown in combat for the first time. Blue's EmotionBomb completely disables the Crystal Gems and almost allows her to [[CurbStompBattle curbstomp]] them without raising a finger, she casually shatters Rose's sword with one hand like snapping a toothpick, and when it comes to magical brute force she has more firepower than ''most Gem warships''. Yellow, meanwhile, effortlessly tears her way out of her crashed ship with her bare hands and is disturbingly fast for a being of her size, closing the distance between herself and Steven in less than a second and slamming him into the ground through his shield. Both also easily shrug off being hit with entire buildings and their own ships. And while Pink's powers have proven to be largely defensive, "Pink Steven" proved that Pink Diamond's powers, when fueled by anger, can destroy the surrounding environment [[MakeMeWantToShout by screaming]] and brush off the attacks of all three other Diamonds combined [[NoSell as if they were nothing]].]]

* PyrrhicVillainy: While they technically defeated Rose and almost all of the Crystal Gems with the Corrupting Light, and left behind the Cluster to destroy the planet for good later, from their point of view their victory was nowhere near worth what they got out of it. The war cost them an extremely resource-rich world; led to the bubbling of every still-living [[SuperSoldier Rose Quartz Gem]] due to Yellow Diamond's MisplacedRetribution; was apparently the trigger for Era 2 of the Gem species, with overall resources at a low; cost them huge numbers of Gems to either death, defections, or their own BadBoss tendencies when they failed to give [[WeHaveReserves their own troops enough time to evacuate the planet before launching the corruption attack]] ([[TheDogBitesBack which may still come to bite them later]]); led to Yellow Diamond and Blue Diamond sinking into rage and grief, respectively, which they still haven't recovered from; and the death of Pink Diamond. The "rebel" Crystal Gems being crushed (and without guarantee [[HistoryRepeats something similar won't happen in the future]]) is, at that point, not really much comfort.

[[caption-width-right:270:[[labelnote:Click here to see the Era 2 Sigil]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/diamond_authority_symbol_current.png[[/labelnote]]]]
[[caption-width-right:270:[[labelnote:Click here to see the Era 1 Sigil]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/diamond_authority_symbol_previous.png[[/labelnote]]]]

*** Pink Diamond can also be said to represent [[ParentalAbandonment abandonment]], especially as more details about her are revealed

** While it is impossible for Gems to have familial ties because of their BizarreAlienReproduction, the Diamonds are mother figures towards their subjects — not that they don't view them as [[WeHaveReserves expendable]] and [[OffingTheOffspring shatter]] them for the slightest sign of disloyalty.

* LaserGuidedKarma: In a huge way. [[spoiler:For emotionally abusing and neglecting Pink Diamond for eons, they ended up with a humiliating, catastrophic rebellion that significantly crippled their empire, and Pink, who was mistaken to have been murdered by the Rebellion's leader, was actually alive all those years but died for real when she gave birth to Steven a mere decade and a half before the Diamonds returned to Earth. This means that the Diamonds lost their chance for reconciliation; Pink appears to have died believing herself unwanted and unloved by her fellow Diamonds who would be better off without her, and the other Diamonds have to live with the fact that they will never be able to apologize for the harm they inflicted on her. ''VideoGame/UnleashTheLight'' reveals that [[HowTheMightyHaveFallen they have been stripped of their roles as Homeworld's leaders by Steven]].]]

** Yellow and Blue Diamond: The Mother(s), being main ones in charge of looking after the Child.

* AdultFear: On both sides of the coin.
** For Yellow and Blue, they lost a member of their "family", who by their standards was a child [[spoiler:supposedly]] murdered by [[WouldHurtAChild one of their own subjects]]. They're still mourning her death in the present day, and in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E2TheTrial "The Trial"]], both of them seem eager to see Pink's killer punished. [[MamaBear Blue in particular acts like a grieving mother seeking retribution and answers.]] [[spoiler:There's also their treatment of Pink while she was alive; despite their love for her and their good intentions, their constant dismissals and viewpoint of her as immature first led to Pink desperately trying to please them, and then ultimately rebelling, which led to her supposed death. Yellow and Blue didn't realize what they were doing to her until it was too late.]]
** [[spoiler:For Pink, she assumed that her fellow Diamonds didn't love her at all due to PoorCommunicationKills and their own actions, which (partially) led to her rebelling and ultimately "dying". It echoes the situation of many teenagers who, due to being unloved, either run away, commit suicide, or both out of the belief that their loved ones would be better off without them.]]

[[folder:Yellow Diamond]]
!!Yellow Diamond
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/reunited_yellow.png]]
->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/PattiLuPone\\\
''"I don't ''care'' about potential or resources. I ''want'' my Cluster, and I want that planet to ''die''. Just make that happen."''

The first Diamond to be mentioned and the second to make an appearance. She commands Homeworld's military and is in charge of the Cluster geo-weapon project.

''For her tropes, see her [[Characters/StevenUniverseYellowDiamond page]].''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Blue Diamond]]
!!Blue Diamond
[[quoteright:163:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blue_d_32.png]]
->'''Voiced by:''' Music/LisaHannigan\\\
''"You cannot fathom how much I've mourned, what thousands of years of grief has done to me!"''

The second Diamond mentioned and the first to appear in the series proper in Garnet's story in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS2E25TheAnswer "The Answer"]]. The leader of Homeworld's diplomatic Gems, she was at the Sky Arena during Rose's rebellion, and Sapphire used to report directly to her.

''For her tropes, see her [[Characters/StevenUniverseBlueDiamond page]].''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Pink Diamond]]
!!Pink Diamond
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pink_diamond_button.png]]
->''"I want my own ''army''! I want my own ''planet''! I deserve it! I'm just as important as ''you''!"''

The youngest Diamond and the third mentioned in the series. The third season reveals that she was the ruler of Earth when it was a Gem colony, and that Rose Quartz shattered her to liberate the Earth.

''For her tropes, see her [[Characters/StevenUniversePinkDiamond page]].''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:White Diamond]]
!!White Diamond
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/white_diamond_quidd.png]]
->'''Voiced by:''' Christine Ebersole\\\
''"Now, Starlight, this has gone on long enough."''

The last of the Diamonds to appear, and the last to be mentioned by name. She is the supreme ruler of the Gem Homeworld, and is the oldest and most powerful Diamond.

''For her tropes, see her [[Characters/StevenUniverseWhiteDiamond page]].''
[[/folder]]

* MaidenAunt: [[spoiler:Steven turns out to be the son of Pink Diamond, technically making Blue, Yellow and White his maternal aunts.]]

* MonsterProgenitor: The other Gems are seemingly an artificial race of their creation. Garnet objects to Peridot's assertion that all Gems live to serve the Diamonds, but not to saying they were all ''made'' by the Diamonds. Several diamonds are shown entering "extraction chambers", which appear like giant versions of human water features like spas and saunas, the excess post-extraction liquid contents of which bring a Pebble to life, suggesting other gems are partially made ''out of'' the Diamonds. [[spoiler:If Gem reproduction and power is translatable through liquid, this would align with Pink's healing tears despite her inorganic nature.]] They also corrupted most of the Gems left on Earth, creating the Gem monsters. [[spoiler:[[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E28ChangeYourMind "Change Your Mind"]] implies that White created the other Diamonds as a sort of LiteralSplitPersonality to expunge her perceived flaws, even referring to "Pink"/Steven as "a part of me, a part I always have to repress." If that is true, then all Gems might ultimately descend from White.]]

* MysteriousPast: The other Gems were created by the Diamonds, but ''their'' origin is a total mystery. It's been vaguely implied that Pink, Yellow, and Blue were made by White similarly to non-Diamond Gems, but if true that just makes White's origin even more mysterious. [[spoiler:White implying that the other Diamonds are somehow a kind of LiteralSplitPersonality for her, in an attempt to cleanse herself of what she perceives as flaws, just adds further questions.]] A timeline printed in ''End of an Era'' appears to have a sidebars detailing the Diamond's history, but almost ''all'' of it is redacted except for a cryptic drawing of four objects in the Diamonds' colors emerging from [[CosmicEgg an egg-like rock]] labelled "20,000 years ago."

* MysteriousPast: The other Gems were created by the Diamonds, but ''their'' origin is a total mystery. It's been vaguely implied that Pink, Yellow, and Blue were made by White similarly to non-Diamond Gems, but if true that just makes White's origin even more mysterious. [[spoiler:White implying that the other Diamonds are somehow a kind of LiteralSplitPersonality for her, in an attempt to cleanse herself of what she perceives as flaws, just adds further questions.]] A timeline printed in ''End of an Era'' appears to have a sidebars detailing the Diamond's history, but almost ''all'' of it is redacted except for a cryptic drawing of four objects in the Diamonds' colors emerging from an egg-like rock labelled "20,000 years ago."

* MysteriousPast: The other Gems were created by the Diamonds, but ''their'' origin is a total mystery. It's been vaguely implied that Pink, Yellow, and Blue were made by White similarly to non-Diamond Gems, but if true that just makes White's origin even more mysterious. [[spoiler:White implying that the other Diamonds are somehow a kind of LiteralSplitPersonality for her, in an attempt to cleanse herself of what she perceives as flaws, just adds further questions.]]

* TimeAbyss: They invaded Earth about 6,000 years ago, but they'd already built an intergalactic empire by that point and, judging by Peridot's words, are the oldest Gems in existence. In TheMovie, Yellow considers 6,000 years ''nothing'', implying the Diamonds are ''far'' older than that. A staff timeline printed in ''End of an Era'' implies they emerged 20,000 years ago, though that's not necessarily canon.

* TimeAbyss: They invaded Earth about 6,000 years ago, but they'd already built an intergalactic empire by that point and, judging by Peridot's words, are the oldest Gems in existence. In TheMovie, Yellow considers 6,000 years ''nothing'', implying the Diamonds are ''far'' older than that.

* BeautyIsBad: The Diamonds are very beautiful, but also AxeCrazy, uncaring, and ''very'' petty. They also all happen to be designed with full lips.

* FascistButInefficient: The Diamonds possess total, unquestioning, unchecked power over all of the Gems in Homeworld's Empire. Because of this, they have control over that fate of all gems within their courts, being able to inflict DisproportionateRetribution for minor offenses if they so choose (like Blue Diamond's threat to shatter Ruby for accidentally fusing with Sapphire in her act of defending her from Rose Quartz, ''the very thing she was assigned to do''). Even with a justice system in-place, including Defense and Prosecutor Zircons for the trials, the Diamonds are capable of [[KangarooCourt skipping all formalities and executing the accused regardless]][[note]]as was nearly the case in "[[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E2TheTrial The Trial]]" when Yellow Diamond attempted to do this before Blue Diamond rebuked this, and even then she only did this as a means of devising a FateWorseThanDeath[[/note]]. Because of this, there have been cases of Gems who have gone out of their way to sacrifice efficiency in order to avoid the Diamonds' wrath, Holly Blue Agate being convinced not to tell Blue Diamond that the Crystal Gems have infiltrated the Human Zoo under fear of what she might do to her for allowing it to happen in the first place. [[spoiler:It turns out Yellow and Blue are all too aware of this, but too terrified of White's wrath to speak up to her.]]

* TheChainsOfCommanding: They are shown to be just as much of victims of Homeworld's caste system as any Gem under their command. Diamonds are expected to be smarter and objectively better than any other Gem, and thus deserving of being the ruling class; therefore they are forced to act along those parameters simply because that's how Diamonds are supposed to act. Yellow Diamond seems to have the worst of it — most of her villainous actions are because, in repressing her personal feelings to better fit the mold of an ideal ruler, she's just made it so that she lashes out at anything that reminds her of them. [[spoiler:Pink Diamond hated that being a Diamond meant that she couldn't socialize with other Gems and couldn't spare her colony even when she wanted to, even ''begging'' the other Diamonds to let her spare her colony, so she created an alter ego by posing as (a) Rose Quartz who ''could'' do those things. In the end, the Diamonds are ''[[EarnYourHappyEnding happier]]'' without their status as Homeworld's leaders, if Era 3 is any indication.]]

* TheChainsOfCommanding: They are shown to be just as much of victims of Homeworld's caste system as any Gem under their command. Diamonds are expected to be smarter and objectively better than any other Gem, and thus deserving of being the ruling class; therefore they are forced to act along those parameters simply because that's how Diamonds are supposed to act. Yellow Diamond seems to have the worst of it — most of her villainous actions are because, in repressing her personal feelings to better fit the mold of an ideal ruler, she's just made it so that she lashes out at anything that reminds her of them. [[spoiler:Pink Diamond hated that being a Diamond meant that she couldn't socialize with other Gems and couldn't spare her colony even when she wanted to, even ''begging'' the other Diamonds to let her spare her colony, so she created an alter ego by posing as [a] Rose Quartz who ''could'' do those things. In the end, the Diamonds are ''[[EarnYourHappyEnding happier]]'' without their status as Homeworld's leaders, if Era 3 is any indication.]]

* TheChainsOfCommanding: They are shown to be just as much of victims of Homeworld's caste system as any Gem under their command. Diamonds are expected to be smarter and objectively better than any other Gem, and thus deserving of being the ruling class; therefore they are forced to act along those parameters simply because that's how Diamonds are supposed to act. Yellow Diamond seems to have the worst of it — most of her villainous actions are because, in repressing her personal feelings to better fit the mold of an ideal ruler, she's just made it so that she lashes out at anything that reminds her of them. [[spoiler:Pink Diamond hated that being a Diamond meant that she couldn't socialize with other Gems and couldn't spare her colony even when she wanted to, so she created Rose Quartz as an alter ego who ''could'' do those things. In the end, the Diamonds are ''[[EarnYourHappyEnding happier]]'' without their status as Homeworld's leaders, if Era 3 is any indication.]]

* TheAtoner: "Homeworld Bound" reveals that [[spoiler:after relinquishing control of the empire they've dedicated their lives to [[MustMakeAmends doing everything in their power to fix the damage they've done to other gems]]]].

* RoyallyScrewedUp: Where to begin? Blue Diamond has been neglecting her job for ''millennia'' to mourn and was willing to shatter Ruby for a minor accident. Yellow, on the other hand, appears to be a fairly rational and pragmatic leader... [[NotSoStoic until she isn't]]. The Earth and Pink Diamond are major {{Berserk Button}}s for her, and any Gem who says the wrong thing at the wrong time will bear the full brunt of her repressed rage. Pink, meanwhile, was a problem child who demanded her own colony, [[spoiler:only to try to abandon it by FakingTheDead and lying to all of her friends and allies. Which she only tried because [[PoorCommunicationKills she assumed that Blue and Yellow didn't care about her]] and totally ignored or misinterpreted her requests to stop the plans and leave Earth alone]] Last but not least is White Diamond, who is notably absent from all scenes with the authority including the murder trial of Pink's alleged murderer, and wasn't acknowledged in conversation by the other Diamonds until circumstances led to the point she was absolutely needed.

* PhysicalGod: They're unaging, gigantic, nearly indestructible, have incredible power, and were able to personally create an empire's worth of {{Servant Race}}s with incredible powers of their own. One reason why they're defeated by talking them into a HeelFaceTurn is that it's doubtful they ''can'' be defeated in battle; the Crystal Gems have only ever managed to hold them off for a moments.