Enlightenment isn't always a beautiful thing.
As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- The Lunarians for starters - inexplicable, otherworldly beings who seem to literally tear their way in through the sky, and never lose their pleasant expressions whether they're shattering and kidnapping gems or having their heads sliced off. Unsurprisingly, they've been compared frequently to Evangelion's Angels or The Watchers. They're eventually revealed to be more or less ordinary ghosts, even living a semblance of everyday human life when they return to the moon after a battle, but at the same time it almost serves to underscore the extreme cruelty of their actions. The Prince in particular doesn't bat an eyelash when describing how they've been grinding captured gems into dust.
- There's no gore when a gem is shattered, but most of the time this just makes things more disturbing; the first time Phos is cracked from the force of Adamant's shout, for instance, we're treated to the shot of them on the ground, staring straight up, eyes wide open in a cracked face. Eyes particularly feature in a lot of the shatter-induced Nightmare Fuel, actually; not only does one of Antarc's intact eyes fly out (in slow-motion in the anime) when they're shattered, but later the Prince digs out one of Phos's eyes with an arrow to replace it with a synthetic.
- Ventricosus' first appearance. Standing in front of a giant sea-snail is one thing, being digested alive by a giant sea-snail while fully aware of it is a whole other level of terror. Especially when the gems discover how they can't hurt it without their weapons or bodies starting to melt themselves.
- The Amethyst twins getting caught in a "crane" trap in the beginning of Volume 3, made worse by the fact that the spikes are actually pieces of Sapphire, a long-lost comrade. In the anime, Kanae Itō's acting takes this scene to the next level, the Amethysts still speaking in their typical mellow voices as they helplessly beg Phos to run, before letting out a bloodcurdling scream.
- Phos suffers a fair degree of Sanity Slippage throughout the story, with two incidents standing out in particular. First, while out breaking ice floes with Antarctite, they starts lamenting how weak their original arms are in comparison to their new legs; the ice floes can make sounds that resemble speech to the gems, and Phos ends up hallucinating that the ice is encouraging them to have an 'accident' to get another transplant. "But you could become strong fast." "I'll bite it off for you." "You need to change." And they almost goes along with sticking their hand into a gap between the floes! Later, when the Lunarians attack while Phos is patrolling with Cairngorm, Phos - with little to no warning - attacks Cairngorm due to confusing them with Antarc, who was shattered. "It's dangerous. You may be taken away, Antarc." And then they begin calling other gems Antarc as well. Phos's expression during all of this actually makes it look like they're having a bout of PTSD.
- The Ice Floes' scream on Episode 7 sounds like people getting tortured.
- The gold-and-platinum alloy Phos obtains has a mind of its own at first, trapping them in a cube and seemingly trying to smother them while Antarc is shattered and taken away by the Lunarians. And during the above-mentioned moment with Cairngorm, not only does Phos trap them in a replica of this cube, but the alloy ends up shattering Phos's face into some kind of...warped flower thing.
- The humanoid figure that the Lunarians suddenly drop in front of the gems - it doesn't talk and seems to have a flowering growth where its face should be. It's actually a failed clone of Adamant's creator.
- What gems look like when they are just born. Stiff, eyeless statues vaguely humanoid in shape until Sensei carves them and inserts new eyes himself into them.
- Cairngorm's deep rooted insecurities causing them to crack from the ground up. The whole scene is unnerving: after learning that their devotion to Phos may just be Ghost's inclusions controlling them, Ghost's, well, ghost, drapes over Cairngorm while they scream that they want to be free. The gem leaves marks everywhere, scratching the surface of the floor and part of the wall, and later can seen crawling by the time they calm down enough to accept Aechmea's help.
- There's an eerie sort of feeling when you look at the contents of the second art book. All of the Gems are depicted as busts, either with some sort of deformity (like the Amethysts being Conjoined Twins at the face or Lapis being smushed against the ground) or just standing up with a serene, but dead expression (i.e. Pasparascha, Yellow Diamond), each looking like they're propped up as actual jewlery. Then you get to Phos, who has a Thousand-Yard Stare and is barely balancing on pieces of their replacement materials, like the gem's about to snap. Their head is also the only one that looks like it doesn't interact with the audience at all, which is fitting, given that this is Phos' original decapitated head.
- Chapter 79: After suffering centuries of indignation after indignation, Phos finally snaps and in a display of mineral-based Body Horror, takes out their wrath on the one they perceive as the source of their misery, Adamant, all while roaring for the latter to keep on praying and end it all.
- Chapter 80: The Prince reveals that Adamant's praying will not only affect the Lunarians, but everything of human origins, including the Gems.
- Chapter 82: Phos, upon realizing that the Lunarians were keeping things from them about Sensei's praying, declares that they will turn every gem into dust until they're free. The monstrous form they take shape of as they prepare to strike is haunting, to say the least.
- Chapter 84: Phos' new form is shabbily pieced together, and the way they act is downright chilling. There's nothing Phos talks about except going to Earth and destroying the Earth Gems.
- Speaking of scary characters, Diamond is initially not interested in going back to Earth- until Phos brings up that they will bring Bort to the Moon. Dia smiles and states that they will go to Earth and destroy Bort calling them a nuisance all the while.
- Chapter 85-86: The Earth gems decide that the first day of Spring is Adamant's birthday, and throw a celebration for him. They're clearly enjoying themselves, having fun, in a state of peace. There have been no Lunarian attacks for several hundred years, ever since the original batch of Moon gems ventured to the moon for the first time. However, during the celebration, Phos and the Moon gems launch a full-on assault on the island, complete with the entire Lunarian army. Thousands of Lunarian ships (the manga states 'an unprecedented amount of sunspots') descend on the island, led by a crazed Phos whose only goal is to turn every single gem to dust.
- Chapter 87: For several hundred years, ever since venturing to the Moon, Alexandrite has worn a blindfold to prevent their hair from turning red at the sight of the Lunarians. Now that they've lived among the Lunarians for a few centuries, and determined that they're not all bad, it's now the sight of the Earth gems that will cause them to go mad. They take it off during the final attack on the island, and must be restrained by a heavy shackle around their neck held by Benito. Despite this, they still manage to shatter most of the gems living on Earth.
- Not helped by the Earth gems begging Alexandrite to stop their rampage, to spare their lives. Doesn't work.
- Chapter 88: The Prince's ultimate plan: turn Phos into something 'better' than a human that will give Adamant no choice but to pray. Based on Phos' furious stride into the Temple, that 'something' is not a good thing.
- Chapter 89: Barbata tells the story about Kumera, aka "the Lunarian Wastebin", a deep crater in the shadow of the moon, which is where the original lunarian society decided to throw their absolute worthless members while awaiting their own turn to Nirvana. Barbata also reveals what those dumped there did all day long in their despair and boredom. Killing and mutilating each other like bugs in a jar until only one remained, and then doing it all over again the next day when they all had regenerated once more, for all eternity. In the end, the Lunarians banished there ended up looking more like shoggoths than actual people once anyone actually bothered to check-up on them at last.
- Chapter 90: Phos marches towards Adamant's hiding place, crushing the shards of the Earth gems under their feet as they go. Nothing can stop them. Euclase raises the white flag and tries to negotiate? Phos slices their head off. Rutile obsessing over Pad's body? Phos sics the Lunarian archers onto them. Jade prepares to fight them? Phos doesn't hesitate and charges at them. The once lovable screw-up of the gems is now a killing machine with no love in their heart left- only a bitter anger that can only be quenched by getting to Adamant.
- Chapter 94: Jade is out of commission, though not before delivering a blow to Phos that required them to use the metal to put themselves back together. After a shattering fight against Cinnabar, the two blobs of liquid metal merge to form a sort of Phos-Cinnabar hybrid, thus completing the Seven Treasures. Even though they look more humanoid now, and less like a shattered crystal monster, Phos' appearance is all the more chilling, especially when they get sick of Adamant's excuses of why he can't pray, and order the old man to break, of his own volition. He obeys. The strongest material in the world, once leader of the Lustrous, shatters into dust at a single word from Phos.
- But not before Adamant gives Phos his eye, granting them all of his memories of humanity before it was destroyed. The image of a human city being destroyed by a meteorite is burned in Pho's vision, no matter how hard they try to stop seeing it, and the memories bring Phos to their knees.
- Chapter 95: Adamant and the Prince finally reveal what happened to Phos on the beach last chapter, and what is about to happen to them- Phos is going to become the new 'savior' to the Lunarians, transforming into a sort-of praying machine like Adamant was. The process of which will take, oh, about TEN THOUSAND YEARS. Phos has to take in all of Adamant's memories and basically become Buddha, except that Phos has no say in the matter or any chance to object. The Lunarians will get their salvation, even if it takes making one being suffer for several millennia.
- And the worse part is getting this revelation as the rest of the Gems turn into Lunarians and reunite on the moon. They now join the rest of the Lunarians in waiting for Phos to come and release them from the world, getting to live in paradise while doing so. All while Phos has to remain on Earth, suffering in agony and despair.
- We get to see one of Phos' visions near the end of the chapter, and it's quite horrifying. They see an ancient human city being obliterated by a massive meteorite.
- Chapter 97: Adamant's meeting with his mother, Professor Ayumu, has its moments, from her groteqesue cyborg appearance, to her casual dismissal of humanity's dominance in nature and how she watches the meteorites strike the earth like watching fireworks.
- Professor Ayumu's final words to Adamant are also explicitly aimed at Phos as well. Just what she could mean by this is up for debate but it's a scary moment nonetheless.Professor Ayumu: When you cross that bridge, burn it.
- Professor Ayumu's final words to Adamant are also explicitly aimed at Phos as well. Just what she could mean by this is up for debate but it's a scary moment nonetheless.
- The overall fate of the Admirabilis. These were a people who had their own culture, rulers, and history, but because of famine their whole way of life gets upended and commodified until all that's left of them is a race of mindless, miniature sea animals. The cheerful way the Lunarians explain how they're doing their best to domesticate and defang them, and the matter-of-fact way Aechmea explains how they plan to take even the last remaining sapient faction and absorb them into the Lunarians, make it clear that they were the overall victims of the narrative. The feeling is lessened slightly by the fact that they're all shown in their humanoid forms when begging Phos for oblivion, but the point still stands.
- The reveal of Kongou's "sibling" at the end of Chapter 101. An eye with several thin hands that grabs onto Phos's rock friends. Not only it is rather creepy but it's so completely out of context and sudden that it's very easy to get disturbed by it.
- In the otherwise peaceful nature of The Party At the End, Morganite's section mentions that there are gases on the moons that make pure-blooded Lunarians start to hallucinate the times before the apocalypse. The first Morganite casually admits that the hallucinations make the Lunarians very emotionally distressed as they don't like being reminded of the before times, so they have to be away from the area the Morganites are working in. The gases also affect converted Gems, but they don't have much of an effect because they didn't know what life was like on a pre-destroyed Earth.
