Garnet

Garnet is the fusion of Ruby and Sapphire and the current de-facto leader of the Crystal Gems. Garnet is one of the last surviving Gems on Earth who joined the Crystal Gems in the Rebellion against the Gem Homeworld, and afterwards assisted her friends in protecting the Earth over the next millennia. After Rose Quartz gave up her physical form to give birth to her son, Steven Universe, Garnet took over as the leader of the group.

Appearance
Garnet is the tallest of the remaining Crystal Gems, but the second-shortest fusion (Stevonnie stands inches shorter than Garnet). She is the most muscular gem of the group. Her right eye is a medium ruby-red, her left a medium sapphire-blue, while the center third eye is a reddish-violet, resembling the combination of blue and red. Her gemstones are embedded in her palms (with Sapphire's on her right and Ruby's on her left, which reversely correlates to her eyes colors). Garnet's hair resembles Ruby's, and her upper body part resembles Sapphire's while her legs resembles Ruby's.

As of "Jail Break", Garnet still wears the same bodysuit, but with a different color scheme and pattern. As opposed to crimson and black, her bodysuit is now more colorful. Her right half is covered in a vivid blue-violet stocking, and her left is covered in a deep orchid/eggplant stocking. Her skin tone has also changed, now cerise rather than pinkish-brown. Her weapons are now a dark reddish-cerise color. However, there is a ring of black on the outside closest to her arms, and the glowing aura that appears when summoning them is now pale magenta. Instead of a gold star on the end facing her arms, they are just plain orange. The star on her top's color also changed - instead of a pink star with a magenta outline, it is now an amaranth-colored star with a soft-pink outline. Her hair is now also no longer black, but dark-indigo and is also shorter and smaller than before. Her shades, instead of pale-orange and white, are now a soft-pink and pale-blue. Her shoulder pads are also oval-like instead of cube-like, and both are a dark orchid/eggplant color as well as her arms and gloves. This costume lacks more contrast in colors than the pre-regeneration outfit does. The two halves of her lower body are now separated straight down the middle as opposed to the left thigh before regeneration.

Personality
Though she's often the most pragmatic and straight forward of the Crystal Gems, Garnet tends to act on intuition rather than seriously analyzing a situation, as often seen throughout the show. As de facto leader, Garnet is often the peacemaker of the Crystal Gems, especially when Pearl and Amethyst start arguing. She demands utmost respect from the other Crystal Gems, and is not hesitant to berate team members should they refuse to follow an order.

Equable and mellow, Garnet is capable of remaining composed in most situations. This is displayed in the episode, "The Return", wherein Amethyst and Pearl were at a loss for words when they tried to explain to Steven why he was forbidden from fighting alongside them at the Gem Warship's landing; Garnet was the only Crystal Gem who was able to effectively get their point across and convince Steven to join Beach City's evacuation. She was able to remain strong and act practically despite the dangerous and uncertain situation.

Garnet demonstrates a fierce competitive spirit. This is best seen while she's playing volleyball in "Beach Party", "Steven Tag" in "Keep Beach City Weird" and arcade games in "Arcade Mania". Garnet also has a tendency to act in extremes, either maintaining her normally reserved nature or lashing out with extreme emotion, both of these personalities belonging to her two constituent Gems, the passionate Ruby and conservative Sapphire. Despite this, it should also be noted that Garnet can be seen with emotions neutral to these, but it is a rare occurrence.

While mostly level-headed, Garnet can still lose her cool. When Steven began rapidly aging in "So Many Birthdays", Garnet started violently shaking him, thinking, in her desperation, that violence might be the answer. Another example of this can be seen in "Fusion Cuisine" as she panics under pressure when talking to Connie's mother over the phone, leading her to claim that Steven and Connie had died while playing with swords.

The de-fusion and eventual re-fusion of Ruby and Sapphire in "The Return" and "Jail Break" appears to have had an impact on Garnet's personality; in consequent episodes she appears much more outspoken, lively and engaging. In "Jail Break", she shows great enthusiasm when reunited with Steven and in her fight with Jasper, as opposed to her reserved façade pre-regeneration. When looking at the events of "Joy Ride", she speaks the most out of the three, again contrasting with pre-regeneration Garnet. In "When It Rains", before the gems leave on a mission Garnet forms a heart with her hands and tells Steven she loves him. "Log Date 7 15 2" is the greatest example of Garnet's change as she talks to Peridot with openness, compassion and warmth, even offering to fuse with her to help them understand each other.

Garnet is also the most encouraging of the Crystal Gems, and is usually the first to give Steven the chance to try out his ideas (particularly in "Marble Madness"). She prefers to emphasize when her show of trust causes a breakthrough, such as when Greg helped in "The Message". However, when Garnet feels betrayed, such as in "Mirror Gem" or "Cry for Help", she can lash out with temper that is rarely seen. This was an additional source of tension in "Cry for Help" onwards. "Future Vision" turned things on its head, as Garnet found she had betrayed Steven's trust in her, and subsequently felt self-remorse.

Garnet clearly believes fusion to be sacred and personal, something that can be traced back to Ruby rather than Sapphire. Garnet tells Stevonnie in "Alone Together" that a fusion is considered neither one person nor two people, but rather an experience. She was open enough to answer Steven's personal questions regarding Ruby and Sapphire in "Keeping It Together". As such, any form of misuse of fusion greatly upsets Garnet and is one of the few things that breaks her otherwise calm and controlled demeanor; seeing Homeworld's experiments disturbed and frightened her so immensely that she nearly separated from the shock.

Garnet has demonstrated that she takes her position as leader seriously and has a strong moral compass. In "Cry for Help", Garnet is deeply disturbed by Pearl lying to her about Peridot rebuilding the Communication Tower so they can form Sardonyx, and for wasting time in finding Peridot. Although she has a sense of morality and takes the team's ethic seriously, Garnet's silent and stoic nature does sometimes interfere with expressing her thoughts and feelings to her teammates. This has happened multiple times, as seen with Amethyst in "Reformed" with Amethyst racing to satisfy Garnet's demands and with Pearl in "Friend Ship" while Pearl was trying to make amends with Garnet by finding Peridot; Garnet's anger rendered her inarticulate enough that she was unable to tell Pearl that being tricked into repeated fusion without a real purpose left her feeling extremely violated. Garnet tends to be very independent, and she will often go on missions by herself even if others want to join her. She can be oblivious and stubborn, as seen with Pearl's warning in "Coach Steven" and to Steven's explanation of his dream in "Chille Tid".

Abilities
Garnet possesses standard Gem abilities, bubbling, shapeshifting, fusion, regeneration, agelessness, and superhuman strength/durability Garnet apparently has a high tolerance for pain, as shown in "So Many Birthdays" when she displays no visible reaction, let alone discomfort, when Amethyst blindly swings a baseball bat at the side of her head. This is explained and justified due to the fact that she is a fusion of two Gems. While not outright invincible, it is shown that Garnet is the most physically durable of the Gems. It is shown that she endures different levels of damage almost daily, withstanding falling cars, scuffles with Jasper, and various other forms of physical force.

Skillset

 * Gauntlet Proficiency: When channeling the collective power of the universe through her gems, Garnet is able to summon a pair of crimson gauntlets. Garnet is highly proficient when using her gauntlets and is extremely skilled in hand-to-hand combat. She is able to deal massive strikes that can easily shatter the earth and deliver swift blows with lightning speed.
 * Rocket Gauntlet: Garnet takes aim with her gauntlets and shoots them as projectiles in "Watermelon Steven". In "Reformed", after Garnet launches her gauntlets, her hands are detached from her body, and her gems are moved to the stubs of her arms.
 * Weapon Size Augmentation: Garnet is able to increase the size of her gauntlets, easily quadrupling their size, and deal increased damage at the cost of reduced speed. This was hinted during Garnet's Universe, and could also suggest that Steven knew about it before its proper debut.
 * Deflection: Garnet is able to use her gauntlets as shields, as seen in "Onion Trade" to deflect a volley of Dave Guys. They are also used in Catch and Release to block Peridot's electrokinetic discharge in Amethyst's whip, although it is unknown whether Garnet simply prevented the electric current using her gauntlets or absorbed it with her electrokinesis.
 * Photokinesis: In "It Could've Been Great", Garnet can be seen using Photokinesis along with Pearl and Peridot. This might be a power that every gem is able to use.
 * Item Summoning:  Garnet has the ability to materialize different items out of her gemstone(s), similarly to Pearl. In "Serious Steven", she summoned the key to the Pyramid Temple. Who she inherited this ability from is unknown.
 * Fusion Realm: In the episode "Mindful Education", Garnet was shown to have helped Stevonnie gain a deeper connection to themself; the way this was done was apparently through a quite easily gained meditational state in which Garnet guided Stevonnie throughout. When Garnet as well as Stevonnie entered this realm Garnet apparently showed Stevonnie how to keep in touch with themself and how to gain a deeper understanding of both their sides and how to resist falling apart by being honest to themself.

Unique Abilities

 * Future Vision: Garnet can see multiple future outcomes and probabilities with her third eye, as revealed in "Future Vision". This includes extremely unlikely and ridiculous outcomes, as a considerable amount of her available visions depict Steven's (and possibly other individuals') demise at the hands of mundane tasks or objects on a regular basis. The ability does take some time to use, as she has been shown in a thinking position when activating it. During that time, someone can alter the future, as seen in "Marble Madness", when Steven ruined the plan to learn about Peridot by going up to her while Garnet was still using future vision. This power comes from Sapphire, as confirmed in Keystone Motel, although it is yet to be seen whether Sapphire's prediction abilities are more accurate than Garnet's. Her future vision seems to operate at will and with only specific details that she is looking for, as in "Cry for Help" when her future vision overlooked Pearl's actions and their consequences, Garnet only noticed that Peridot was in none of the potential futures. Garnet's future vision differs from Sapphire's in that Sapphire constantly sees only one long-term future while Garnet searches through multiple short-term futures.
 * Temporary Power Transfer: In "Winter Forecast" and "Jail Break", it is shown that she can temporarily pass on her future vision ability to others through lip contact.
 * While Garnet has only been seen using lip-to-forehead contact to transfer her power, it is unknown if this is the only method. As she has only been seen sharing her power with Steven, her affection could bias how she chooses to transfer the power.
 * Heat Resistance: Her invulnerability is most commonly displayed in her extreme resistance to heat, from when she had scalding-hot coffee splash onto her without flinching in "Future Vision" to when she left to retrieve the Earth Beetle (which required her to swim in active lava) in "Giant Woman". It has also been said that she could swim in the core of the Sun and survive. This may be because of Ruby's thermo-regulation.
 * Enhanced Calculations: Garnet mentions her ability to sense structural integrity in "Cheeseburger Backpack".
 * It is currently unknown whether this is a unique power, a separate portion of her heightened senses like her future vision, or just a simple observation.
 * Electrokinesis: Garnet can generate electricity, as seen in The Message when she used it to charge the battery of Greg's Van|Greg's van, "Catch and Release" tangling with Peridot, and "Arcade Mania" when she restarted Meat Beat Mania after Steven unplugged the game.
 * Electric Resistance: Garnet is impervious to electricity. As seen in "Future Vision" when she easily deflected a lightning bolt that was about to hit her and Steven with her gem. It, again, is seen in "Catch and Release" when she stopped Peridot's electricity from traveling down Amethyst's whip, only to send her own electricity back at her.
 * Electric Jump: In "When It Rains", Garnet uses her electrokinesis on the offensive for the second time, generating electricity and releasing it on impact with the ground, while the energy then travels to the target. This particular move is long-ranged.

Gemology
Gemstone Information


 * Garnet is the traditional birthstone for January, the zodiacal stone for Capricorn and the second anniversary stone.
 * Garnets have a Mohs hardness of 7.0-7.5 and are found in the U.S. (Arizona), South Africa, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Myanmar (Burma), Scotland, Switzerland and Tanzania.
 * Garnets are formed when high temperatures and/or pressure is a factor and geologists often use garnets as a gauge of the amount of temperature and pressure that was present during their formation.
 * Although red is the most commonly occurring color, garnet is available in a veritable plethora of colors, such as yellow, orange, peach, green, purple, blue (rare), brown and pink.
 * Garnet also rarely occurs in color-change varieties, which have a different color depending on whether they are viewed in incandescent or natural light.
 * The rarest color-change garnet appears blue in daylight, and changes to purplish-red under torch light.
 * Garnet is not a single mineral, but a group containing closely related, isomorphous minerals that form a series with each other. Most garnets have chemical formulas following the pattern of X3Y2(SiO4)3.
 * Garnet is a gem group that occurs in over twenty varieties. Of these varieties, six main types are used as gems. These are pyrope, almandine, spessartite, grossularite, andradite and uvarovite.
 * Pyrope, almandine, and spessartine form a solid solution series, which means that they can all exist together in a single crystal, collectively, they are known as pyralspite garnets. This is also the case for andradite, grossular and uvarovite, which form the ugrandite group.
 * Garnets are associated with strength, bravery, love, determination and self-confidence, all characteristics that fit in with Garnet's personality.
 * In more New Age style beliefs, garnets are known as stones that provide protection to their users from evil.
 * Few Garnets have become famous, but a few famous pieces of jewelry have garnet exclusive decoration.
 * One famous garnet is the bright green tsavorite, going by 68.82 carats.
 * Garnets are often used for industrial purposes such as water filtration, waterjet cutting, and abrasive blasting.