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There actually was a lot of debate on the cut among us staff when we decided which shape a perfect gem should have. Some of us are on the side that they're likely to be perfectly spherical (or at least approximating a sphere with many facets), while others - including me - think they have more "realistic" interesting cuts like we have here on earth. The internal crystal structure and purity probably plays a more significant role in determining the quality of the gem than the cut, but we do of course know that "better" cuts affect it as well - we just don't know what qualifies a good cut. I personally think it's got something to do with the cut "fitting" to the underlying crystal lattice. There's probably a compelling argument to be made for it also being somewhat affected by perception, too. That is, a technically perfect (in an IRL sense) brilliant cut might be suitable for a perfect gem since people perceive it as beautiful and perfect. Regarding your point about the gems shining themselves, an important distinction to make is between light and Light here (very unfortunate terminology xD). I don't think the cut is all that much about "trapping" rays of light inside the gem, they do glow after all. It's about containing the gaseous stuff inside them and the considerations for that are likely to be completely different than for the light they emit (or refract and reflect in the case of external light). So in that sense the cuts might indeed be completely different than on earth, but it doesn't have anything to do with the fact that the gems shine by themselves.