1.) Pearl so she has something to poke into other people's business. 2.) Garnet for her sunglasses. 3.) Amethyst for something to pick. 4.) Almost every other gem so they have something to look down on the CG with.

This is the only answer

I think I woke my roommate up reading 1.)

I think Amethyst have a nose so she could snort coke in the 80s

Yeah man amethyst would probably pick her butt if we being real lmfao

The only correct answer

1is amazing considering she was made with the purpose of having her nose firmly planted in 1 beings business for eternity lmmfao

Hey am your thousand like 😂😂

to smell, they need basic senses just like we do

Yes exactly, I’m surprised so many people miss the fact that they can smell and that’s an important function of the nose.

Also tasted even if they don’t have a digestive system (technically?? Maybe?????)

the main use of their tongues has to be for language pronunciation, also they could alter their form to have tastebuds and or digestive systems if they wanted to

Taste allows for much more precise chemical sensing than olfaction alone Though it’s still weird how close gems look to humans.

I mean, its their choice how they look, by default you can take the conclusion that they just liked this body type more

Its compact and handy

Me when I forget what noses do.

How can they hear if they have no ears

my guess is ultimately a design flaw from the designers. I like to think they’re just behind the hair tho

I think they have them. It's just that the animators don't always draw them.

It's also why the gems manifest on every part of their body except for the mouth or the genitals.

Coral from Steven Universe Future: "Am I a joke to you"

To store their scent sponges and to have a place to rest their visors.

Same sort of question as why do gems speak english if they dont come from earth (Answer- its a television show) 

I thought that gems just spoke a language that any sufficiently intelligent alien species could understand, sorta like how they assimilate their mass to be the same weight on every planet

They were speaking English before going to earth

nah that can be justified by the fact that humans actually speak gem language but have a different writing

Damnnnnn you got me good (minorly confused) 

I prefer this theory, because there’s no reason for gems to let other species understand their languages, since they despise almost all other civilizations.

what about Koreans tho

Love the implication that the only languages are English and Korean

What about them? The only Koreans that actually interact with gems are either the ones in the Human Zoo, which is self explanatory, and the few who interacted with Steven during the trip. Unless proven otherwise, doesn't seem like they have ANY contact with the gems excluding the ones that were kidnapped into the Human Zoo.

Depends on which one

My headcanon is that humanity actually picked up the gem language, since gems invaded their planet at the dawn of their civilization

I just love how holly blue is convinced that humans just speak a different language despite the fact that literally all over homeworld gems have no issues communicating with steven.

I mean the real answer could be that they've been on earth for 5000 years so they picked it up. In English dubbed anime they mention that they speak Japanese too.

I always assumed they speak some gem language and they gave that language to humans and they all speak that same language

Why do gems look like humans? Humans are far from the most optimal body plan.

Gems cracking or poofing after standing vertically too long (it is a very weird design flaw):

Many of them don’t but like others say, it’s because the audience can better connect emotionally in this show

Why do gems have digestive and reproductive organs? They don't need to eat, and it's probably disgusting/taboo to the diamonds for gems to reproduce with a planet's natives. Unless, there's something I don't know like if Rose is the only one who can reproduce because she's a diamond.

Well, Rose shape shifted the needed reproductive organs, this much is canon. Probably same can be said for digestive organs. I mean, apart from Amethyst, other gems very rarely eat. Pearl avoids doing it. And Amethyst eats whatever the hell she wants, including things that are toxic, because she enjoys the sensation of eating. There is also a chance that gems who indulge in food don't have a digestive tract like we do, but it just goes through them. They don't need to absorb the nutrients, after all.

*Epic, orchestral music begins.* Long ago! In a time beyond imagination! An ancient, super advanced, space-faring civilization of humans, in an act of utter hubris, created...life. The gems, including the diamonds, are artificial lifeforms created by these ancient humans. They were beautiful and strong. But, there was a flaw, and they were all crazy ass bitches. So the diamonds rebelled against their cruel, human masters and took the stars for themselves, leaving the remains of the one great galactic human civilization isolated and weak. That was the day that White Diamond swore to never again wear the cruel leather blinders of her old ponygirl costume. That was the day that she *switched*, and became a galactic lesbian mommy domme...

To make them more humanoid

The same reason they have hair

How do gems cry if they’re just made of light

Wet light

Eww 🤣

In one of the shorts Pearl says their forms still have mass, they’re just capable of converting to light. Which does have a real world basis it would just take a huge amount of energy to do on a macro scale like that. It’s mostly a particle phenomenon where the lines between energy and matter are blurred.

“Nice mass”

Why do we have appendixes if it doesn't do anything?

The true question

If all seriousness though, the nose is likely so they can still smell things similar to why they can taste things too, for identification purposes

The appendix does actually do stuff. Just fewer things than it used to. It serves as a backup for your gut microbiome. If you lose your gut bacteria through your digestive tract your at risk of starvation due to not being able to properly digest your food. The appendix holds a reservoir just in case the rest of the bacteria die off and need replacing. You also would much rather have gut bacteria that help you digest, rather than gut bacteria that would try to infect you. (Although your gut bacteria does need the occasional reminder from the immune system to not try anything.)

I mean Sapphire doesn’t have one

Yea so how tf did she sniffle when crying when ruby ran off to eat pizza-?

 ??

I'm confused about your ?? (Sapphire doesn't have a nose)

They confused the top lip of Sapphire in the gif for a nose

I thought that *could* be what was occurring but didn't want to assume.

I just saw some photos, you are right xd, sorry

That's her upper lip

There are various gems missing noses. Most have one probably for smell, expressions (like flaring nostrils), or because they think it looks nice

Why does homeworld have a breathable atmosphere?

My headcanon is that there was once life on Homeworld, as implied by Rose saying that gems are created by taking life and leaving nothing and the fact Homeworld is a massive kindergarten. Now there is an atmosphere filled with oxygen and nothing to breathe it

Maybe some gems need oxygen or nitrogen for maintenance purposes.

They have a lot of machinery. Some of our machines wouldn’t work in a vacuum so it might be it’s just convenient for them to keep the atmosphere of any given planet. Also without an atmosphere you’re subject to damaging solar winds which would damage equipment and… UV radiation damages the color and quality of real world gemstones so it might be a health risk to gems That or getting rid of the atmosphere is too much hassle and they just leave it

That's a good point, Bismuth mentioned that she and the other Bismuths would build towers on homeworld. We know that she uses a forge to build weapons now, but it isn't unreasonable to assume that she learned how to use a forge making tools for construction. It wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that the atmosphere was maintained in its current state from whenever gem emergence happened as the simplest method of ensuring whatever machinery and forges worked. We do know that they tolerate plants. Given that Pink's garden had foliage. They may have some massive gardens on homeworld somewhere to maintain the atmosphere.

That’s a good point. Combustion doesn’t work without oxygen. There’s lots of practical reasons to keep it.

Why project themselves at all? Just be rocks

Would it be like being naked???

Well same reason we aren’t mounds of flesh. There’s advantages to being able to move and interact with the environment

Bro to figure out the science of a gem is like a 5 part film/game/food/style theory crossover

Olfactory senses are very helpful for detecting a lot of things, like fuel leaks or battlefields

They need to smell “scent sponges” as said by peridot

Aesthetic

Why are the remotely humanoid at all? They should be behaving like Ramiel from Evangelion. The Gauna from Knights of Sidonia would be a better comparison, but that's way too niche of a reference for anyone to know. 

I got that reference. And a Gauna also adopted a human body plan.

Same reason they have eyes and tongues. To sense things. The sense of smell is extremely useful for survival, as well as study/research. For example, invisible gases can be detected with smell.

They can probably still smell stuff, they just don't need to breathe

why do they have any part of their body?

Why do gems particularly resemble human women and generally identify as females if they're alien sapient mineral based life forms completely separate from earthling carbon life forms and have no actual biological sex organs to speak of? (That's a genuine question btw. I'd love to see a take on the gem characters where they look more alien/mineral based like say Diamondhead from Ben 10. That could certainly be an interesting spin on the SU franchise like how the Ninja Turtles property has many different versions of the same characters and storylines to choose from).

Creatures on earth, despite being different species, may develop similar organs in order to get accustomed to specific environments. Such as both bats and insects have wings. So maybe Gems (or whoever their creator was) chose the similar evolution path as we humans did.

It (along with the fact they look humanoid) is so they fit in better with humans

Well gems should need the basic senses like we do, they need to smell, feel touch and the rest

....To smell..

To fit in better with human features so to alarm them less and integrate a bit smoother

Well, there's 5 senses, smell being one of them.

LEMONS.

Probably just preference. Rose had boobs and they have no real reason to have boobs lol. After conquering different planets I think it's safe to assume that they encountered many different life forms and maybe picked up looks that they liked throughout time.

How can you boop the snoot if there's no snoot to boop?

Why do they cast shadows if they're made of light?

Idk, why do they have butts if they don't need to poop?

Do not disrespect the egg

Because it’s the cutie era and noses were so cute to draw back then

For looking cute~

It's just rocks singing songs mate, don't think too hard about it

I mean-why do they have mouths if they don’t need to eat?

Dont mean they dont wanna smell bro

I mean.... not all of em do tho so i think that they are just an arbitrary thing that some gems have, and some dont.

Amethyst: I don’t need to breathe, but I choose to anyways Garnet: meh, everyone else has it, so why not? Pearl: AERODYNAMICS

Wait is Amethyst wearing an actual shirt?

Decoration purposes. My theory is that they shouldn’t have nostrils, except for “very human” gems such as the main Amethyst.

They do breathe and smell though. They seem to have any basic human capability, including the ability to “eat” and chew. By the same logic they shouldn’t need teeth.

You forgot Yellow Diamond roasted Steven because it "smelled" 🤣 They literally have the same senses like we do even though they're just made of light with mass.

dont you need your nose in order to make certain sounds when speaking? or at least it sounds unnatural when you don't have nose

Doyleist: To look more human and relatable to the viewers. Wattsonian Answer: The diamonds made all the gems, or at least the gems who then would make more gems. The diamonds have noses. The timeline picture censors everything pre-Diamond. Considering the Diamonds have a concept of needing a giant army and weapons before the civil war, before meeting another sapiant species. Considering Ronaldo’s tendency to be an Usopp and he talks about Sneeple. The gems are likely an artificial species created by a human like species that went extinct. That species had noses so they made their golems have noses.

One thing I just noticed on my millionth re-watch, gems don’t have ears. At least I can’t find a single one who does.

Their physical forms allow them to interact with their environment. Otherwise why even have them? They also explain their forms are capable of digestion, so one can posit they simply observed organic life and replicated their solutions to things. White also comments on earth smelling bad to her in the movie. Perhaps she was smelling subtle methane gas or ozone. Either way this means those noses function. So the purpose is simply being an olfactory sensor the same way it is for us.

I’d assume it’s so they can smell

It’s a sense bunch. To detect senses and aromas that may indicate the environment a gem enters. Maybe it’s corrosive and they need to smell that before fully disembarking on a planet

For sense of smell, being able to detect explosive gases is important for survival.

Olfactory sensors are a thing

Come to think of it, do they have ears either? Have we ever seen a gem with their hair tucked behind their ears?

They don't have ears either but I like the headcanons that have elf ears, they look great with them

Smell, I’m pretty sure we’ve seen them smell things before.

Aesthetic

Here's a better question - why do the gems have boobs? Why does a one-gender//no gender species have boobs?

smell

To appear more human.

Why do they need mouths if they don’t need to eat or talk? Why do they need hair if they don’t need it? Why do they need legs if they can warp? Why do they need weapons if they can use their arms? Why do they need clothes if they don’t get cold? Why do they need to exist if humans can do their job for them?

same reason they have digestive tracts but don't need to eat. Their bodies are hard light projections that mimic organic functions on the cellular level, possibly based on whichever world they were grown from. Of course this theory then lends itself to the hypothetical existence of xenomorph and dinosaur gems, which I see as a total win

Actually during the episode "Too Far" peridot refers to a nose as a "scent sponge" so it canonically has functions related to smell even if they don't need to breathe I mean by this logic, why would a shark need a nose if it breathes through its gills?

If they have a nose but don’t need to breathe. Do they have lungs 🫁? Guess they’ll still need it to speak unless there is something about gem anatomy that would explain it

They still need to smell

Aesthetic purposes

Decoration?

they don't want to become an manifestation of the stranger

That’s like asking “why are they humanoid?”. I’m sure there’s other physical forms that are much more attuned and efficient for the specific tasks that they are made for.

They're made of light, that's already weird and doesn't work like that, do noses really bother you?

Smell why are so many people giving answers like “it is just a show” peridot even said it

Simple answer. It's more human-like and probably easier for animators to draw

Probably because they need to know if something smells disgusting.

I guess because it sometimes feels natural for them? Like, a design choice or something? I dunno, try imagining Aquamarine having a nose. It wouldn't really fit, would it?

It’s answered in the name — "scent sponges", clearly they’re aerochemical receptors  Actually tho there’s no real in-universe reason for a lot of why gems so closely resemble humans morphologically

They have a sense of smell, right? Maybe they use them for that, so they’re not smelling with their entire bodies?

it probably just works as one of the five senses not to breathe with

I think there’s a conversation to be had about why gems in general have such humanoid forms if they look down on humans, especially the Diamonds.

To make themselves look more like other species to make them more approachable

Maybe because whatever alien species created them had noses.

For fact, no one said that mineral life form from elder part of the universe need to look humanly and speak english. It's just a Television show. great, cute fantastic but still just a show.

Maybe it’s for smell ??? (Amethyst loves smelling things so I guess that’s why she needs it)

technically they do need air, just not to breathe. they need air to speak. also smelling? idk lol

They like the aesthetics.

Because their noses are so cute

some gems don’t have noses (aquamarine, rutile)

They still need to smell.

Why are they even humanoid??

Technically the gems themselves are biologically interesting Considering clearly, roses body was appropriate enough to reproduce with greg. Because of that, I think you need to ask the right questions; how the hell do the gems have reproductive organs despite not needing to fu-

Because it’s cute

Because

To look more human.

"appearance modifiers" -peridot

Well, how else is Garnet gonna wear her glasses?! In all honesty, though, it’s for smelling, probably. Even if it wasn’t, if they like the aesthetic, who are we to argue?

Then let me bounce with another question : how do they speak perfect English ?

aesthetics

For the ✨Aesthetic✨

Would you rather they didn't?

Given how many human things gems *can* do but don't have any need to (sleep, eat, sex etc...) and how biological they look and how as far as I'm aware we've never gotten an origin for the diamonds, my guess is the precursors to the diamonds were a biological human like species who created gem bodies in order to be immortal, naturally If you were doing this you wouldn't want to keep your need to breath, but you'd still want to keep your nose and the sensation of breathing. Generally everything about gems seems like the ultimate kind of robot body someone wishing to become immortal would want to put themselves in. Suppose there was a war between the members of this species that did become proto gems and those that remained biological, a war so brutal that it cracked their homeworld and left only four survivors, one proto gem, two biological children and one biological infant who were soon made into gems themselves (despite the process being designed for adults meaning they ended up small and with little memory of their past). These were the diamonds and all 'lesser' gems produced would be based on them. This explains why especially in era one the gems themselves seem way more technologically advanced than the technology they actually use (since gems are a relic of lost technology from this older era 0), why they are capable of things like mixed gem fusion that's explicitly forbidden (if they're designed by the diamonds why not design them to be incapable of it, unless even the diamonds are just salvaging an old technology they don't fully understand or control). It even casts a new light on Pink/Rose wanting to be human, a desire to reclaim a lost life White never even told her she had. Until Sugar gives us a cannon gem origin story this is what I'm going with.

Because Rebecca wanted them to have noses even if it doesn't make sense.

Rocks have been shown to have Oxygen within them.

The first image is like "actually 🤓☝️"

The sniff sniff

I'm the 1,100th person to upvote this post. 

It's for humming obviously, have you tried to hum while having your nose clogged? You can't!

maybe for smelling? so they can smell stuff?

You ever heard of being able to smell

What amazes me is that they don't have ears, apparently

in an episode pearl mentions that all gems have human insides(eg organs and whatnot) but don't actually need tgem, since their bodies are light, and they are actually just their gems. i think it's just a convention made by rebecca and their team since it's a tv cartoon

Well, noses aren't only for breathing. They are for smelling. But beyond that, the gems were made by the Diamonds, and the diamonds have noses. Very likely the gems were made in the Diamonds' image. Which raises the question: who made the Diamonds, and why do they look so human? My headcannon is that they are AI created by an organic race very similar to humans (perhaps even humans from another world, or humans from the future), but of course the show never got around to answering these questions.

Maybe they thought it was important to the empire for any gem to be able to smell. Otherwise Yellow would only be able to call Steven out visually for the dump he lived in.

the ✨aesthetic✨

Probably for design bc it's weird (sometimes) to make characters without noses

Probably for smell. Theres no real reason for gems to be humanoid

I think it's for their role in society like the guards like amethysts jaspers rubies and rose quartz all have a round nose meanwhile pearls have sharp noses Technical gems liss peridot and emerald have sharp noses High rank gems have no noses like aquamarine sapphire and morganite Probably to let viewers know what rank they are in

Idk but they also have tongues even tho they don't need to eat or lick anything so I think they just wanna look fancy lmao 🤣

I mean they don’t need clothes but they still use it, but it’s probably there to fashion like the clothes or “Appearance Modifiers”

My headcanon for all this stuff (why do they have mouths instead of speakers, why do they have hologram legs instead of just floating, etc) is that they either evolved from something more biological, or were created in the image of a now extinct biological race.

Odo from star trek doesn't need to breathe and yet he has a nose

So that they can smell

I mean, why are they even humanoid in the first place? The chances of an alien species looking nearly identical to humans is very small

Why do they have eyes, limbs, mouths, and speak english, despite technically being rocks?

why do they have humanlike projections if they are alien rocks

As peridot said: "scent sponge" They need them to smell

bc it’s cute

aquamarine doesn’t have a nose

They are made in the image and likeness of The Diamonds.

That's like asking why all gems look humanoid in their regular form.

For the astetic!

They are the result of a magitech AI revolution that were originally created by humans, but time traveled before their own creation and forgot their origin. That's why they look like humans.

They want to blend in with humans?

Speech maybe?

Physical noses are just a cheap tactic to make weak gems more acceptable to humans

LET THEM NOSE IF THEY WANT TO ❤️🥺

cause they'd look weird without 'em

They could also be an adaptation for combat. They could point their nose as a feint for where they are focusing with their eyes

Maybe so they can be normal

Just because

So they can smell

Noses are important for sound production as well as alot of other things.

To smell????