10 Most Messed Up Steven Universe Moments
Some of these moments are more fitting for a horror movie than a kid's show.
Typically the last place you expect to find disturbing imagery or serious topics is in a brightly colored children's show. If more mature topics are covered, it tends to lean more positively to family-friendly territory.
Steven Universe is a fun adventure about half-human, half-Gem boy, Steven, and his 3 surrogate alien Gem moms (Pearl, Amethyst, and Garnet) protecting the earth and its people from destruction. Pretty straight forward.
Every episode there's a new conflict, whether a corrupted gem attacking the people of Beach City or a lesson for Steven to learn. Sometimes the lesson is about growing up and sometimes the lesson is Steven learning how to use his magical Gem powers he inherited from his mom.
But on occasion the writers seem to veer off the children's show beaten path and dive into the downright traumatizing. Even though Steven is 13 years-old at the start of the series, he's still a kid. He's still learning and, though his upbringing was unconventional, his mental maturity is still being developed. Some of the things he witnesses throughout the series would have lesser people booking an appointment with a therapist or two.
Beware spoilers for a number of episodes from the original Steven Universe series, Steven Universe: The Movie, and Steven Universe Future.
10. Cat Stephen
Since Gems don't have actual physical forms besides their gemstones, they project humanoid bodies. This means they can shape shift their forms into anything.
In the season 1 episode, "Cat Fingers," Steven attempts to shapeshift into a cat, but only succeeds in turning one of his fingers into a cat's head. He shows off his new finger to folks around Beach City. He turns all of his fingers into cat heads, but when he tries to change them back, he can't.
This sounds cute, but then the cat heads start sprouting all over Steven. First, a small cat head pops up on his forehead then his right hand completely disappears. More and more heads sprout all over his body and he's at the mercy of these fur balls. The Crystal Gems are away on a mission and Steven is all alone. He runs to his dad for help, appearing from the darkness to Greg's horror. The only way to save Steven is to send him through his dad's carwash.
The writhing blob of cat heads is paired with constant, numerous yowls, like some kind of nightmarish reimagining of Akira but with cats. As Steven says:
I'm a monster! I'm an adorable cat monster!
If the constantly shifting cat-Steven body isn't nightmare fuel enough, watching it go through the carwash as dramatic piano music pounds will leave a mark.