Well, I mean, Sapphire states outright that two of her guards and herself would be poofed before the rebels are captured. That's not accidental - I assume in the 'bad' timeline, Rose and Pearl wouldn't have time to finish the job or get away before being taken down.
I dunno, 'assassinate' is probably a pretty strong word given that Sapphire predicted that she'd be poofed (and later re-form back on Homeworld), not broken/killed. 'Incapacitated', maybe? I mean, it's not impossible that unless they were killed/captured as Sapphire predicted to Blue Diamond, Rose and Pearl would have tried to truly break her, but given the Gems huge collection of bubbled gems, I personally doubt that'd she'd be any worse than poofed/captured.
Yeah, I do wonder if they intended to break her after poofing her (as a way to keep her from seeing their actions at ALL in the future), or just capture her. I'd lean towards capture, but we don't know if that'd be a lot harder than breaking her. Probably not?
Spoiler: Theory So Peridot wears those cans when she attempts to fuse with Garnet, and much earlier in her capture she uses the boot limb enhancement as a sort of comfort object. Gems who can't fulfill their function are Bad right, and maybe she's been taught that she can't do anything without those limb enhancers (even though that's obviously not true) and maybe part of her self growth will be when she eventually fuses with garnet (this needs to happen) it will happen cause she's confident enough to do it without the boots. Also: separate theory but remember Yellow Diamond asks which Peridot Peridot is- are they all identical like Rubies are all identical? And perhaps unconsciously Peri has become to think of herself as an individual instead of as one of many Peridots? Idk. Also blue pearl/yellow pearl secretly running things.
I FIGURED OUT WHAT ABOUT THIS POST IS BOTHERING ME well, there's several things, really first and foremost: I don't think that was a taunt. coming from Garnet? no. she meant what she was saying, and the way she said it was perfectly respectful of Peridot's feelings, and there really wasn't any other way of phrasing it. but anyway. "she spins her around, and something happens with their hands." says the post. you wanna know what I observed? slightly prior to the 'something happens with their hands', Peri says "no no no!" in what I read as...kinda panicked. then the hand thing happens, Peri stumbles away, and says she can't do it. here's how I read that: "no no no!" > Garnet recognizes she is saying no > Garnet lets go at the same time Peridot does > Peridot stumbles away and says she can't do it > Garnet accepts this, because Peridot has now said no twice and is clearly not ready for this. Garnet did a good thing in letting go, because she was recognizing Peridot was saying no. and then Peridot pulled away at the same time Garnet let go, and we go from there.
Spoiler I think this is definitely what has happened. Because she introduced herself to Yellow Diamond as just "Peridot." I bet you anything that when we first met her she would have rattled off type-cut-facet without even thinking, but the Gems are petty much the only people she's interacted with in the past month or two and they never bothered with that, so she subconsciously got used to thinking of herself as just Peridot. You could see the moment when she realized that oh yeah, she isn't instantly recognizable to everyone just from that name, there are a ton of her.
so i just saw this: http://tooneyd.tumblr.com/post/136909869893/the-true-power-of-yellow-diamond-neck-fuh-days and now i'm imagining YD's neck getting longer and longer every time she's called a clod, like how undertale's lesser dog responds to petting