The simplest answer is that most gems had simply never imagined the possibility at all. Passing yourself off as a different sort of gem would be just incredibly wild in gem society. Expecially a diamond posing as literally anything else. It's so far outside people's idea of how things work, what people might actually do, that most folks would just think "huh. wierd quartz". This happens all the time in real life. It's surprisingly easy to avoid notice if what you're doing is something nobody imagines somebody would actually do.

The fact she could heal gems should’ve been a massive signal that she’s pink diamond, but maybe her powers were unknown even to the other diamonds because she never got to go out and use them?

Also regarding Rose shapeshifting, I think it’s important to remember that she could hold that form for a long time because she wasn’t changing into something bigger than her baseline form. Amethyst had trouble holding her form as Jasper because Jasper is taller than her. Same with Steven when he tried to look older. Rose/Pink essentially shifted her already existing mass somewhere else, which works because Rose is considerably bulkier than Pink.

Wish they had made the real rose quartzes a slightly lighter colour in the show, real rose quartz is very pale, not like the near magenta we see in Future. Also that could have resulted in rose diamond being perceived as off colour, which could have made gems even more sympathetic to her rebellion, and could have functioned as another red herring wrt the truth of her gem

If steven ever got an X-Ray before they found out his mom was Pink Diamond everyone would have been like "WHAT?"

I'm reminded of an anecdote talking about how Superman's disguise works. You wouldn't assume a guy who just happens to look like Superman but acts nothing like you would expect Superman to act to actually be Superman, which is why he can just be Clark Kent. I think this is kind of like that. Rose acts completely different from pink diamond, or at least have people expect pink diamond to act. So their first assumption isn't "Oh that's pink diamond." it's probably more like "That rose quartz has a funny looking gem. "

As someone new to the Steven universe fandom, the term “certified kindergartener” caught me off guard, my first thought was a 5 to 6 year old holding proudly holding up a printed certificate given to them on the last day of kindergarten with their name on it.

One thing that got me confused is when she fuses, their forms glow and you are able to see their gem from all angles. Couldn't someone see the hidden part of her gem when she fused? Even if it was for a split second, shes done it multiple times and on camera! That and, when gems fuse and become one, all thoughts become shared and wouldn't even the *feeling* of being with Rose raise some questions? Like, wouldn't they know who they're fusing with or figure it out?

I understand how they could get fooled by the appearance, but Rose literally had so many powers, many more than any of the crystal gems and more than any other Quartz soldiers. She literally had the ability to heal gems, take over gems (like how Steven took over Lars) and her shield protected Pearl and Garnet and her from the Diamond Blast, a blast that corrupted every single gem on the planet.

Even Uncle grandpa technically knew Steven was a diamond. They planned this since the first episode at least.

i think they just weren't looking to far into it, and thats why the crystal gems were upset they didnt realize earlier when a gem looks at another gem's gem (try saying that 5 times fast) they are actively trying to figure out what gem it is. no one looked at rose as anything but a rose quartz

I think it was a thought at first. But how pink Diamond was told in stories throughout history probably made them turn a blind eye. Since when she was rose quartz she acted completely different. So I believe the stories told to other gems also played a role in how she fooled other gems.

when pink diamond was "shattered," wasn't she actually just poofed? she could've just reformed as rose quartz - we've seen gems change significantly when reforming before, like '90s amethyst being way smaller than current amethyst. also, how often would a homeworld gem actually see their diamond? the chain of command is so expansive that i doubt most of the population would actually have seen her.

What's even more weird, you can easily distinguish between pink diamond and rose quartz by luster: diamonds have adamantine luster, while quartzs mostly have either vitreous or waxy luster. The difference is quite noticeable.

I always thought that Yellow came close to realizing the truth during the trial, but chose to remain willfully ignorant of the possibility that Rose and Pink were one and the same. We already know her to be the type of person to bury all her feelings to escape being hurt, which is exactly how she coped with Pink's death. I think that the idea that Rose would've betrayed them in such a way would've been too painful for her at that point in the story, and that she would've much rather stuck to the narrative that Pink was just an innocent who's life was cut tragically short by a radical. It's also probably part of the reason she reacted so aggressively towards Blue Zircon's testimony later in the episode.

*[I'm kind curious of how they didn't suspect of a Pearl and a Rose Quartz walking together... hmm]*

didn't White Diamond know though? When Steven first met her specifically, she said to him "Hello, Pink~ Did you have fun with your little game~?" indicating she knew Rose Quartz was Pink Diamond, and chose to believe her entire rebellion- and Steven himself- was all nothing more than a game like Tag, or Hide and Seek. so there IS ONE GEM who knew from the start/all along.

Peridot actually coments on the irregular color of steven gen in the episode, its shaped like a quartz but its looks off

I subscribe to the headcanon that pink was off-color and overcooked, so maybe that messed with her facets and grain allowing her to pass as a quartz. That and every gem she told she was a quartz had no reason to believe she was lying to them so they would just glance at her gem say to themselves "seems about right" and move on. That and it's likely no gem other than Pearl and Spinel ever got a good look at Pink's gem as Pink Diamond and since Pearl was in on it and Spinel was... you know, there was nobody who could compare the two and voice it. As for how Yellow didn't recognize Pink, I don't think Yellow ever got a good look at the bottom half of Pink's gem because of the height difference between the two, that and Yellow isn't the most responsible parent.

Colors can look different next to other colors. Maybe her going from pink skin to more human skin affected the perception.

I think the Diamonds did know, at a minimum, White for sure knew. The problem I have is the roles Pink would have to maintain in both the Rebellion, as well as being a Diamond ruler back on homeworld, they had to consume nearly every moment of her time. People at some point had to question where she was all the time. Maybe Pearl lied on her behalf to the rebels, but on Homeworld? I'm not sure. Pink had no expectation of privacy, as we see yellow diamond almost stalk Pink while changing in a flashback with Pink Pearl. And it just so happens that right after Pink asks to end the colony on Earth, rebels who want the exact thing pop up? Not to also stroke White's ego off too much, but I think for gem wise matters, she is infinitely wise on what gem is what, as all gems are said to come from her. Also as we see, there is Gem tech that allows for the Diamonds to observe their colonies remotely in real time. You mean to tell me, that no one, not a single soul was tasked with watching Rose Quartz? I don't mean to open up another theory, but I think this is where White's original pearl went. I think similarly to how Pink Diamond had our pearl activate the tower to watch the Quartz soldiers pop out, I think White's Pearl at some point saw the truth. That Pink Diamond was Rose Quartz. And that White Diamond hid her, will we ever see a true White Pearl? Who knows I have also heard the rumor that the Diamond Blast was intentionally weakened by White Diamond, she wanted to make the Earth so ugly and full of Mutants, that Pink would just be almost dying to return, but she never did. Also, even if Pink was really shattered, we know that gems can be repaired, someone, especially White, should have the ability to repair gems, we know for a fact even Yellow does. Did no one attempt to repair the alleged gem shards that Pink created to fake the shattering? Did no one inspect them to see if they were truly diamond shards?

I think Gems just aren't very smart.

The plot hole here is mostly that she somehow NEVER got poofed. That alone is a little suspicious. I get that she’s a Diamond and all that, but don’t you think it’s kinda weird that NOBODY was suspicious about how she was never able to be poofed. I’m sure she had gotten hit or stabbed before, so why did nobody suspect anything?

it’s crazy how when before we all knew that pink diamond was rose i literally remember thinking that pink diamond actually was rose

I believe the only person to realize Steven gem was not a quartz but a diamond was Uncle Grandpa as he said it needed to be clean, but Rose Quartz don't need to be cleaned and only Diamonds. This was also stated to be a massive coincidence and the entire episode was non-canon.

blue zircon almost got the point lol

By the way, the biggest reason they aren’t all the same is actually quite realistic: Gems from ore arent ALL pure, so there is always at least a mild impurity if you aren’t too picky about the crystals.

Maybe it’s a stretch but Stevens hair is super similar to pink diamonds.

I think that the power point is a good thing to bring up because the diamonds should have heard about the rumors about Rose having healing powers and think of pink right? wouldn't they know about pinks powers, her ability to heal cracked gems?

they probably did find it weird but they brushed it off because it sounded so absurd

Homeworld loyalist Gems wouldn't ask questions...although Fluorite seems to have believed that the Rose Quartz was some kind of false flag operation. Crystal Gems might not ask questions either, or maybe some did, but all of them other than Pearl, Garnet and Rose Quartz herself were corrupted at the end of the war, and the CGs fighting for their lives during the war weren't going to question the source of Rose Quartz's powers.

never mind how it fooled the other gems, how did Steven's gem fool the scanner-bots in the off colors episode?? that's what I wanna know

I had a suspicion ever since eyeball said that my gem was more of a reddish pink than a true rose pinkish red

It's basic psychology. Tell a story and people will see the expectation you placed in their minds. Also, there's no hint in the series that Pink ever used her powers as Pink, so why would anyone connect them.

Actually a lot of people called this way before the reveal. I remember all the talk around the series inbetween steven bombs and this was like the popular theory. Like even i saw it coming and when it finally happened i was kind of annoyed that it was actually true

I mean to be fair even if you think her gem looks like pink diamonds, how can you ever seriously consider that she was in fact the long since shattered DIAMOND that homeworld has time and time again told stories about has been masquerading this whole time, that’s insane! So maybe it was partially suspended just sit to the fact that the truth seems so impossible

1. There's a very clear hierarchy of gem society where most gems never see any of the Diamond, let alone Pink Diamond, who had no colonies and was relegated to live on Homeworld before the founding of the Earth colony. Pink's whole deal is that she was lonely and isolated on Homeworld before Earth. 2. Rose never interacted with any of the Diamonds. And after Pink's supposed shattering, White was the only one who knew that Pink was still alive. But she never mentioned it to Blue or Yellow because she didn't want to call attention to what she perceived as Pink's childish and embarrassing temper tantrum. 3. A single gem displaying far greater power than the rest of their gem type was already shown with Lapis and Jasper. So a Rose Quartz being born with strange, unique powers wasn't impossible. 4. All other Rose Quartzes were bubbled by the Diamonds around the start of Pink's Rebellion. 5. Pink did not display healing powers before the Earth colony was founded. What little is known of Pink before Earth was she displayed destructive powers. During the rebellion, Healing became an infamous ability of the only unbubbled Rose Quartz.

I mean didn't white diamond know about pink's disguise ?

To me it makes sense that nobody knew because it was a long time ago and they believed Pink was dead. It would be like seeing a childhood friend that you thought passed away but didn’t, you probably wouldn’t recognize them in person even if they had distinguishable features, as well as you would think of it as a coincidence as it couldn’t possibly be your friend that you believed passed.

It's the Clark Kent effect if you ask me. Nobody would've thought Pink Diamond would lead a rebellion against the Diamonds, much less in the form of an entirely different Gem.

I feel like of anyone, Smoky Quartz should have known Steven's gem wasn't a quartz. So if she couldn't, then no one else possibly could have. I looked it up and amethyst is a type of quartz, so she should at least be able to tell that Steven's gem was fundamentally different from hers. I also read that diamonds differ from quartzes in that they should have no secondary colors, so if the diamonds looked close enough they should have noticed this, but they didn't really look close at the trial and they also weren't expecting anything weird about it so they had no reason to do so. But when they looked at it when Steven told them who he was, they knew right away.

About eyeball, I remember people saying that possibly she saw the fake rose quartz, wich was pearl pretending to be rose when she "killed" pink, so the color was lighter

How did the Diamonds not realize that the Renegade Pearl alongside Rose was Pink Diamond's pearl?

I honestly think that the Crew had more than one possible ending. The gem shifting angle can out of nowhere

Amazing video, I want to add that it appears only Uncle Grandpa figured it out (in the scene about polishing Steven’s gem)

Ok I have a theory about this: Rose Quartzes didn't exist when Pink first disguised. She made them so she could disguise herself without other gems suspecting her. I also believe these Rose Quartzes were bubbled shortly after they emerged, and that would explain why so many gems didn't spot the difference, as the Roses wouldn't have been seen by almost anyone before they were poofed. Here's my evidence: 1 - No quartzes had emerged yet when Pink first disguised as Rose: When Pink first disguised in Now We're Only Falling Apart, Pearl says "the first quartz soldiers are due to emerge soon". So no quartzes, including Rose Quartzes, had emerged yet, as the first of them were Amethysts. How could Pink disguise herself as a gem she had never seen before? Maybe she knew their appearances before they emerged, but we have no evidence supporting that. Also, Pearl keeps asking her to not draw any attention. Yes, it could be just her being protective, but it would make more sense if Pink was disguised as a quartz that doesn't exist. If Pearl had imagined specifically a Rose Quartz for the disguise, she would know Rose Quartzes are supposed to be there, and would probably be less worried about Pink. 2 - The Rose Quartzes' personalities are very similar to Pink's: we all know gems have similar personalities to their Diamond's, but we also know their personalities can be purposefully designed in a particular way, at least to some extent. For example, Pearls are made organized, Spinels are made playful, etc. We also know from the episode Rose Buds that Rose Quartzes have very similar personalities to Pink, as Pearl said "They don't just look like her, they ARE like her, she made them." Isn't it convenient that the gems that looked exactly like her disguise are also the ones that acted like her the most? Pearl and Garnet didn't react the same way to other gems made exclusively by Pink, like Spinel or Volleyball, and that could indicate that the Roses' personalities were purposefully designed to be very similar to Pink's, even if each of them highlights a different aspect of it. 3 - The Roses were poofed probably centuries before Pink was "shattered": during the trial, Zircon states that, at the time of the shattering, "Rose had been a known threat for centuries. There were no Rose Quartzes on her entourage, and none in her guard". So just as Pink/Rose became a threat, these Rose Quartzes had been relocated somewhere. It just makes sense that's when they had been poofed. It also makes sense from what one of the Roses said in Rose Buds "She made us, then bubbled us just for looking like her". By the way it is said, it looks like not a lot of time had passed between when they were emerged and when they were poofed. 4 - Pink maybe, possibly, poofed them herself, or at least agreed with/ordered it: She had a great motive, as if she poofed them shortly after they emerged no one would know her powers weren't the same as a generic Rose Quartzes'. We also know she did horrible stuff even after she knew our Pearl, like abandoning Spinel, so it's possible. The way the Rose Buds blame Pink for making them and then poofing them is also a bit weird. Unless they objectively knew who poofed them, it would just make a lot more sense to blame the other diamonds, like Yellow and Blue, as Pink was disguising as Rose to fight against them for a planet where all gems could be free. And they were probably told Rose's story to some extent as it's essential to explain why Pink is alive, why they were bubbled and are now being freed and etc. Apparently nobody knew what powers a Rose Quartz had: None of the Crystal gems questioned Pink/Rose's powers, although they would be suited for a diamond. Also, Eyeball in Bubbled says there were "rumors" that Rose could heal her allies' gems. But why rumors? Why didn't they know this for a fact about Rose Quartzes if knowing everything about Rose and spreading it to each soldier was the most sensible thing to do during a war? Homeworld had to have this information, as they know each gem's powers. If they knew Rose Quartzes could heal, the healing powers wouldn't be a rumor, and if they knew Roses couldn't, the rumors would be that Rose/Pink wasn't a Rose, but other gem with healing powers in disguise. The rumor would only make sense if no one had witnessed another Rose Quartz than Pink/Rose show their powers before, and if the one gem who knew their powers from the beggining, the one who made the Rose Quartzes, wouldn't give Homeworld the information. These two cases would make sense if Pink poofed them right after they emerged, as they wouldn't have had time to interact with any other gem, and so there would be no witnesses for their powers. I know the theory has some holes and there are a lot of maybes, but it could be possible and would make complete sense as much as it couldn't be.

honestly the powers was always more mind boggling for me than the loook of the gem

I love how they made peridot an area two gem, they put so much thought into every detail of this show and story

i like how this is in my recommended randomly now

i like to think rose presented as very mysterious and not well known except to a close inner circle

If you look at a gem like it's a face, then she did the equivalent of covering her face with hair.

YES STEVEN UNIVERSE CONTENT IN 2022

i always just assumed that a diamond's shapeshifting abilities were far superior to normal gems and even translated into their gems, that's the easiest explanation not only that, we can also assume that pink diamond is in some way related to spinels who can manipulate their body beyond what most gems can, maybe pink even learned a few tricks from her own spinel

I thought the video was just starting when it was ending lol this would be a great like 20 minute analysis video idea to dig more into

I think no gem realized it cause its such a ABSURD ideia that a diamond would change form to a inferior gem and ALSO start a war against herself. There is no difference possible in Rose's gem that could make anyone barely thought she was Pink Diamond.

I think stevens gem is more of a reddish pink because his blood is flowing through his gem

This is also why Pearl, despite being way more delicate, was so hyperpeotective of Rose. If somehow Rose poofed, everyone would see her gem wasn't a quartz, but a *diamond* .

I always kinda assumed pink made the rosé quartz soldiers to help make her disguise more believable. Once she decides to rebel she made the rosé quartz’s in her likeness and gave them her healing powers so when one rose quartz started a rebellion with healing power it wouldn’t be suspicious. Of course we don’t know what no mark rosé quartz are capable of so it’s only speculation, but feel like the excuse for them to act like on field medics would be kinda believable. Plus we know from volley ball that pink had destructive powers so the other diamonds might only have know about those powers. The other diamonds did gain new powers so they may not have known pink could heal in the first place.

I like to believe a lot of gems noticed that,especially Pink’s court,but they didn’t want to say anything because they knew it would get Pink in trouble.

And no one thought about her pearl looking mighty like pink's pearl replacement

i mean, irl you have to look quite closely/thoroughly to see what gem youre looking at, some are easier than others such as the difference between a quartz and a diamond but they never get the chance to "check" youd want to check for refraction, hardness, and clarity, but we never see them doing anything like that... In reality quartz is usually much more cloudy but i wonder if their "Lab grown" way of producing gems lacks any exteior factors that would cause it to become cloudy to begin with?

Frankly just from what Sugar said, Pink Diamond's gem stopped being "Pink Diamond" because Pink Diamond herself no longer saw herself as Pink Diamond. She wanted to be a Rose Quartz and the gem responded to that wish. And when she "died" to give birth to Steven, the gem stopped being "Pink Diamond's Gem" complete and became Steven Universe. We saw that when White Diamond forcefully took the gem out of Steven. It cycled through the Pink Diamond and Rose Quartz identity but ultimately it knew it was Steven Universe. That's why Pink Steven exists. The gem itself "shape-shifted" and that's why no one could identify it. It didn't show signs of change, but it clearly DID change.

Really great video, thank you for this insight

i think the crystal gems should have had suspicions, between her having a super high quality pearl and being more powerful and being so secretive.

If you remember, I believe its canon that Rose had to shapeshift a womb to give birth to Steven. So that's assumedly 9-ish months of an unnatural shapeshift to hold constantly.

The only reason no one figured it out sooner is because there weren't any means of checking what a gem was made of. Which....HOW that wasn't even a thing for so long is beyond me.

Cartoon Network made a video with a similar title and I saw it while searching a song from the show so it spoiled the biggest reveal for me while I was only on season 2

The reason she could hold her form for such a long time is because when she was poofed by pearl, the form she took was rose quartz, anytime a gem reforms as something other than their original form, they can hold it as long as they want I think

Well, at the very least i would've assumed that the diamonds can sense each other's presence because white diamond recognized steven as pink almost immediately

Also, they could have noticed THE Rose Quartz was off color... and that led to doubling down even more on cracking down on defects, perceiving her as one.

Eyeball said that because she saw pearl not rose

I think it can make sense why Yellow or Blue never figured it out because Pink was the only one who really *used* her abilities like messing around with them and such so the other diamonds would have no clue they would be able to rotate their gem with it because they never had the imagination or initiative Pink had to try

I'm definitely on the "They recognized her, but could not Possibly Imagine Pink would hide like that (Also she was dead) so they just brushed it off as an Amazingly Similar looking gem..." but my issue is that if they immediately recognize "Who" a gem is, they 'should' have also recognized "What" her gem was, so that would have blown her cover.

Well, they would have not expected it.

the gems do see a gemstone like we see a face, but, can you recognize someone just by looking at the top of their head in a sea of similarish looking heads? that and, so few people have met pink and interacted enough to be familiar with her gem on the same level as recognizing someones face.

No gem? White diamond would like to have a word with you

I think it's rather likely that White PROBABLY knew. One of her first statements to Steven was "As for this latest little game of yours, thank the stars its over. Did you have fun? Did you get everything of your system?" While one could construe that she didn't know and simply found out like the rest. I feel the way she addresses Steven makes it apparent she likely ALWAYS knew, and simply played along with her "Little game", especially since she of any Gem would ABSOLUTELY have known Pink's power set.

After looking at actual gemstones, yeah. They should have known she was a diamond when she was standing next to other rose quartz. The difference is night and day when they're right beside each other. Even if you have a transparent rose quartz and cut it like a diamond, it still has luster and is nowhere near as brilliant as a diamond.

I think its possible that Yellow understood that *something* was really off about Steven's gem. But the idea that Rose was Pink Diamond was never a possibility in her mind, same for every other gem. It was never even considered, and I'm sure if anything had managed to make her consider it in that moment, she would have recognized the gem.

I think part of the reason no one even considered the fact that Rose was Pink would likely be because how foreign/rare it is to even consider shape shifting and lying in Gem culture. They all originally acted more like drones playing their parts throw loyalty or fear, and we see those who diverted from this strict cast system were few and far between. Likely mostly due to them being culled from the "perfect system".

I wonder if Pink Diamond based her appearance on that one Rose Quartz who looks uncannily like her.

if you notice each of the diamonds have control over an aspect of a gem white has the consciousness, yellow has the projected form, blue controls emotions, and I think pink controlled the gem itself. we know she has the power to heal gems and make fake gem shards that look realistic enough to fake her shattering but I think the biggest clue is the corrupted gems the song that caused the corruption is supposed to completely destroy all gems on a planet yet when pink diamond doesn't participate the gems corrupt instead leaving them with an abstract form, rampaging emotions, and no consciousness if pinks specialty is the physical gem it would make sense for her to change her own gem to look more like a rose quartz

Put glasses on roses gem and no one would even notice

i mean its really obvious once you look at the structure too the quartzes generally had six sided central faces to thier gems and stephen has a pentagon

Wish they would have introduced shifting your gem instead of pulling it out of thin air

Isnt it weird that they didnt realise what happened to pinks pearl?Like they also shouldve realise that a “Rose Quartz” soldier cant make shields

Adding on to the idea that most gems never considered it, there's also the fact that as far as EVERYONE knew, Pink Diamond had been shattered. Pearl physically couldn't tell anyone else what had happened. There was physical "proof" left behind and it was pretty cut and dry as far as Homeworld was concerned. The idea that Pink Diamond could still be alive and secretly disguised herself to lead the rebellion would be the sort of crackpot theory that would get you shattered on Homeworld and definitely wouldn't be popular sentiment anywhere else. People tend to see what they're looking for, and by literally changing face and flipping her gem, Pink ensured that nobody was looking for a Diamond, they were looking for a Quartz.

I believe that Pink Diamond created Rose Quartzes in her image, specifically to act as a scapegoat as a “rebel gem army” without the whole “rogue diamond” act getting in the way.

Plenty did. There was heavy speculation from very early on. I guess it just wasn’t in your circles.

I know this is old but no they couldn't know. Rose Quartz could only be made by Pink Diamond. Its why all of them worked at the Zoo. They were her subjects. She was able to blend in because she already knew how. Its the same reason no one questioned her having a Pearl.

Woah, I've not heard about the theory about Yellow Diamond recognizing the gem at the trial. That one seemed interesting. It would have been cool if they did more with it. Maybe they would have if the season wasn't cut down.

Well, even if you look at a cleaned and polished Rose Quartz gem, it appears much grittier and smokey in comparison to a polished Pink Diamond. Diamonds are incredibly clear when cleaned up, but I guess no one thought about it? Or perhaps even a Rose Quartz can be clear enough?

I still feel like this was just a form of cheap plot writing on the spot for a twist villain. Pink Diamond was abused and abandoned and we punish her for it and treat her like a bad person while she was just trying to get away from her trauma and live a better life after changing her identity of who she really wanted to be.

My biggest thing was that when Steven or rose fused they based the fusion off quartz but I think the combined consciousness of Steven or rose and whoever they fused with would be able to tell that they were part diamond not quartz.

Her disguise still better than Superman. Though I do see the issue with this as gems can identify others by looking directly at their gems. Still I will overlook this.

The thing about Gems is that they were shown to be very stuck in their ways. Change was something they had a difficult time accepting, and even when they were allowed to do whatever they wanted, they still chose to maintain their previous roles. Yellow Diamond probably didn't question that Steven was a Rose Quartz because Pink Diamond was believed dead and Steven said he was Rose Quartz. There was no reason to believe that Pink Diamond was alive, so an unusual Rose Quartz wasn't really damning proof of anything. Also Yellow Diamond always seemed like she wanted to be the smartest gem in the room, even if she suspected Steven was actually Pink Diamond, she wouldn't have said anything, because extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. If he wasn't Pink Diamond, she would've looked really stupid, which Yellow Diamond wouldn't have wanted.

Someone must have mentioned this before but it is also likely that Eyeball saw Pearl shapeshifted as Rose

Well, when you grow up in a society that demands total obedience without questioning and the one leader who is barely seen or heard, starts a rebellion under a new name and disguise, would anyone under her before and after truly tell?

They said they identified as a quarz and nobody questioned it

eah in retrospect the fact that rose was op was the biggest clue she wasn't wha tshe siad she was