Gem shards. They are the shattered remains of broken Gems that still contain remnants of the original Gem's form. The shards have different abilities, such as possessing material objects. The Gem shards can be forcibly fused together to create a mutant Cluster Gem. Thank you, Steven Universe Wiki.
So these pieces of gems have their own consciousness and can seem to act out the will of its master. As Pearl explains to Steven (though he did not listen):
- Quote :
- "These shards have a powerful partial consciousness that has been harnessed by Gems throughout history in order to create semi-sentient drone soldiers with the capacity to follow basic orders. Gems once created an army of these drones, but found their obedience waned as the shards overdeveloped inside their uniforms and turned on their commanders. You see, any shard inside any sort of container could become a monster!
Which brings us to the gems smashing their own kind, sacrificing them to do their bidding as (nearly?) mindless drones. Or, tried to make them do their master's bidding but the consciousness of the former gem appears to be too strong and the shards to awry.
What do you think of this?
Personally, this show keeps demonstrating more and more that gems are expendable. Regardless of how powerful they are and how "advanced" their kind is, gems are just disposable pieces of society. It makes me feel like there are certain gems crafted just to be smashed. It's also fairly obvious that gems that are too out of order if you will are smashed and attempted force is placed on them to do their master's bidding.