The Steven Universe Timeline Explained

Untold years in the past, Gem culture as fans would know it came into being. Details are thin, but it seems likely that White Diamond, despot of Homeworld and the vast Gem empire, emerged first from the cosmic abyss. Soon after, Yellow Diamond, Blue Diamond, and Pink Diamond came into being, and the Great Diamond Authority was born.

This epoch would come to be known as Era 1. The four Diamonds might have squabbled, Pink, as the youngest, being particularly prone to fits of temper, but they were an intact foursome and their rule was as steady as it would ever be. Colonization was the order of the day, those planets brought under Gem control conquered, dismantled, and stripped of their resources to create ever more Gems. Norms became codified: Cross-Gem fusions were established as abominations, "off-color" Gems were seen as useless blights on society, and a rigid caste system developed according to White Diamond's self-serving vision of "perfection." Every Gem knew their purpose, which Diamond they served, and exactly where in the hierarchy they belonged — and that deviating from any of this meant being shattered, the Gem equivalent of death. Thousands of years passed this way, filled with Pearls who never knew anything but servility, Rubies who only ever guarded those seen as more precious, and Amethysts whose entire lives were spent building for the sake of the Diamonds and their empire.

Having created her Rose Quartz persona on a whim, Pink Diamond decided to take her seriously: Enter Rose Quartz, rebel leader of the Crystal Gems. Here was someone the Diamonds couldn't ignore, fomenting a revolution among Gemkind that grew ever larger and more tenacious. Blue Diamond's attempts to quell the uprisings failed, one campaign in particular resulting in Ruby and Sapphire meeting, becoming Garnet, and joining the Crystal Gems.

Rebellion became outright war. Bismuth, a Gem with building prowess, forged everything from Rose's legendary sword to the Breaking Point, a weapon capable of shattering a Diamond — a creation that so disturbed Pink Diamond, she dissolved Bismuth's form and contained her gem in a bubble, later secreted within Lion's extra-dimensional mane. Lapis Lazuli, trapped on a battlefield, was similarly "poofed," her gem fixed to a mirror by Homeworld Gems thinking her to be a rebellion member. Pink Diamond repeatedly returned to the Diamonds, begging them to let the Earth go, citing Rose Quartz and her terrifying army. She was rebuffed every time, scolded for being fickle, and told to do her duty, even if that only meant smiling and waving. But this was not the Pink Diamond of old, content to juggle and joke. Every battle-filled year of the war eroded the child she had been — and brought the formidable Rose Quartz into sharper focus.

Five hundred years after the last Gem emerged from Earth's Prime Kindergarten, an Amethyst burst from its craggy walls. She was Amethyst Facet-5 Cut-8XM, unique for a whole host of reasons: She was the last known Gem to be made on Earth, far shorter than an Amethyst was meant to be, and, as she discovered upon clambering out of her hole, totally alone. There were no other Amethysts present as there were meant to be, ready to show her the ropes of being a burly foot soldier in the Diamonds' army. There were no other Gems around at all, in fact. For an unknown number of years, Amethyst roamed the Prime Kindergarten alone, an immortal child with no one but the boulders to talk to.

Eventually, the Crystal Gems — then consisting only of Rose Quartz, Pearl, and Garnet — discovered her. She was immediately brought into their fold, and thousands of years passed in which the foursome was inseparable. Amethyst grew to love her new family, yet remained a child, more comfortable with imitation and hyperactivity than anything else. True maturity would come only with Rose Quartz's passing and Steven's birth.

The Crystal Gems' lives continued peacefully — until the arrival of someone new altered their paths forever. His name was Greg Universe, and he was a community college dropout, traveling the US alongside his sleazy manager, trying to get a music career off the ground. Diamonds, to him, were rocks on rings and outer space mattered most as the subject of awesome album covers. He was as human as human could be, and in short order, Rose Quartz was infatuated.

She'd fallen for humans before, but Greg was different. He forced her to confront the fact that she had never stopped seeing humans as adorable pets, exposed her to band t-shirts and hot dogs, and spent long, lazy days on the beach, enjoying the Earth Rose had saved thousands of years prior. Greg would claim, years later, that he never understood what such a "magical lady" saw in a "plain old dope" like him — but therein lies what made him so special to Rose. He was utterly ordinary in human terms, and thus absolutely extraordinary to a Gem. Greg changed before Rose's very eyes: He gave up touring, took a job at the car wash, and helped his friends raise their children. Mundanities to him, but to Rose, they were an intimate look at the sort of life she'd gone to war to protect. She was enthralled, in love, and eventually, contemplating something absolutely unprecedented: becoming a human herself.

Steven grew up like most kids, despite his immortal shapeshifting guardians. When the first episode saw him manifesting his mother's magical shield, it was a shocking event and the beginning of the end of the life he'd known.

Thus proceeded the events of Steven Universe, the series. Thousands of small meetings, battles, and reconciliations make up the story that unfolded across five seasons, from Lapis' journey to freedom and friendship to Connie's mastery of the sword. But at the center of it all was Steven: The oblivious boy with a favorite ice cream sandwich, the reluctant inheritor of his mother's misdeeds, and finally, the intergalactic leader who tore down Homeworld oppression by treating everyone, from the lowliest pebble to the mightiest Diamond, with compassion. Rose might have ended the colonization of Earth, but she was still a Gem — it took someone entirely new to break Homeworld's grip entirely. Innovative thinking and ironclad empathy were the answer, in the end, from a Beach City kid who'd never even heard of Pink Diamond, Homeworld, or Kindergartens. By the time Steven brought the Diamonds to earth and used their powers to heal the corrupted Gems, he'd freed Bismuth from her bubble, discovered the truth of Rose Quartz's origins, and taught the Cluster to coexist harmoniously. Not bad for a kid who started out singing the Cookie Cat theme song — nor for a young man determined to leave the universe better than he found it.

Life on Earth continued, the Gems that now called it home adjusting, little by little, to their extraordinary new circumstances. Little Homeworld, built beside Beach City, grew, including Little Homeschool, a place for Gems to learn how to explore their own possibilities in the wide-open world of Era 3. Not all conformed easily — Jasper, for example, refused to give up the war she was born to fight, no matter how ardently Steven worked to convince her. But change happened, little by little, in the world Steven had transformed.

But Steven himself wasn't doing so well. His Beach City friends were growing up at the rapid pace of humanity, looking toward new horizons far beyond his reach. Odd new powers began to manifest, in which he glowed bright pink, demonstrated enormous strength, and manifested huge barriers. He might have healed the universe, but as Steven discovered, he was still a teenager, unsure of what to do with the rest of his (possibly very long) life. He might have accepted that there was no such thing as happily ever after, but that doesn't mean he was ready to face change in every aspect of his life — including himself. If anyone was up to the challenge, however, it was him — especially with his loved ones behind him and the courage of conviction he'd tempered within himself, over the course of an intergalactic war he'd single-handedly ended with love.