Steven Universe Season 3 / Nightmare Fuel

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Super Watermelon Island

The Watermelon Stevens have been sacrificing their own to keep Malachite calm. Thank God Steven wasn't allowed on the mission, or this episode would have been more creepy then it already was.
- It's worth mentioning that they draw a star on this particular sacrifice's torso. And that Malachite calls it Steven before eating it.
Malachite's rants about how good the wanton use of her power feels during the fight with Alexandrite. If she hadn't been stopped here, she basically would have become a kaiju wreaking destruction upon the earth for fun.

Gem Drill

The way the smaller Gem Mutants come out of the magma and attack the drill. The first one with the hand might be closest thing to a Jump Scare in the show.
You remember the page picture? The Cluster is exactly like that, but bigger, alive, and in more pain. And the Gem projection that comes out? It's a great big sea of arms, pairs of legs AND SCREAMING FACES. No wonder Steven had a panic attack...
Even if it ends well, the psychological, nigh-cosmic level horror of countless minds forced into one in the sequence inside the Cluster's mind is not to be denied.
The Cluster: "Want to... have to... need to... must... have to... need to... want to... must... FORM!!! FORM!!! FORM!!!! WANT FORM!!!!! WANT FORM!!!"
- And it soon goes like this...
The Cluster: "CAN'T STOP!!! NEED TO FORM!!!! CAN'T STOP!!! NEED TO FORM!!!!!! HELP!!!!!'' HELP!!!!!"
- Keep in mind, each and every one of those Shards was most likely a former Crystal Gem; Gems who betrayed Homeworld to protect the Earth. The fact they collectively seem to say a Little "No" when Steven informs the Cluster it will destroy the Earth when it forms explicitly shows that they can remember enough of themselves to be horrified they're about to destroy the planet they sacrificed so much for to protect and there's nothing they can do about it. Or so they think.
- Also when focused on a single mind, their collective minds are both capable of some form of telepathy and more then enough to violently overwhelm Steven even without direct contact. The amount of psychic energy they must be emitting, for anything with a natural capacity towards mind reading or anything like that, would probably be mind-meltingly destructive of the My Skull Runneth Over variety. We can only hope that isn't leaking out and affecting humanity, because otherwise... the effects could be unimaginable.
Steven's hyperventilating, sweating, and clear distress as the consciousness of the Cluster comes into contact with him is a startlingly realistic and utterly terrifying depiction of a severe panic attack, which can hit like a bat to the groin for viewers who frequently experience them, and his FACES during said panic attack are fear incarnate.
The downright disturbing music from this episode makes all the above even worse.

Same Old World

We finally learn why Lapis was in the mirror, and it's not pretty. She had simply meant to visit Earth, but was caught by surprise in the war. She was mistaken as a Crystal Gem by Homeworld and was put into the mirror to be used as a tool for information... despite the fact that, since she was not a Crystal Gem, she couldn't tell them anything they demanded of her. Then, when the war was over and the Homeworld Gems were fleeing, someone stepped on her mirror and cracked her gem. She stayed like that, trapped in the mirror, hurt and unable to communicate, for what was probably thousands of years, judging by Pearl's attire.
Lapis: There I stayed. Freedom in sight, but out of reach for ages.
- Reality Subtext makes it much worse when you consider that she was basically a victim of the same kind of thinking that got people killed during the Salem Witch Hunts, sent to Nazi death camps during WWII, and imprisoned during the Red Scare (among other things): we THINK you're the enemy, so you have no rights. The scariest part isn't just it happened to her, but that less fantastic versions of that same thing have happened to people in real life.
- It also resembles Locked (in) Syndrome, a terrifying syndrome in which the victim knows everything that's going on but is completely paralyzed. They're unable to talk, all they can do is see. Oftentimes, they're mistaken as dead and may be killed if someone can't prove they're alive.
- The Gem that poofed Lapis also looks insanely scary, being pretty tall and buff and sporting a Slasher Smile as she poofs Lapis. The fact there's a lot of evidence to believe it's the bubbled bismuth inside Lion's pocket dimension doesn't do much to lessen its scariness.
When the Homeworld Gems are fleeing, there's a bright flash of multi-colored light in the sky, presumably the event that Corrupted the remaining Gems on Earth besides the imprisoned Lapis and the main gang. The color of the ring of light around that flash? Yellow, white, and blue. And if you listen closely, you can hear the Diamond Motif, just as the flash/explosion of light occurs.

Barn Mates

When Lapis describes how it felt trying to keep Malachite underwater for so long, complete with a thousand-yard stare.
"It was an endless, crushing darkness. Wet and bleak and suffocating. Water was the tomb I lived in for those months."
Lapis casually splatting the Roaming Eye. Reminds you just how powerful a Gem like her is.
The episode closes on a scowling Ruby emerging from the crashed ship, with a gem where her left eye should be.
- And while Hit The Diamond starts with the same shot but with her looking at her left, this episode ends with her appearing to be looking at the screen.

Steven Floats

Steven imagining his own death; he imagines himself basically rotting away and his bones falling out of the sky.

Too Short to Ride

The fact that Mr. Smiley admits to never having seen a bed in 6 days means he's beyond clinically insane as it normally takes only 3 days to render someone clinically insane from sleep deprivation.
- His face makes it all so much worse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi9RF4dj9fg

Peridot's short stature is no doubt because of stunted growth from the Gem equivalent of malnourishment.

The New Lars

Once Steven forcefully wakes himself up in order to leave Lars' body, Lars has his eyes roll into the back of his head in a quite unnerving way. His irises and pupils go up, leaving just the whites of his eyes and also showing the veins. The one good thing about it is that it's thankfully brief — and even so, seeing someone's eyes roll up like that is disturbing.

Beach City Drift

Connie explaining to Greg why she dislikes Kevin, the way she's describing the events could be much more disturbing than they actually turned out, and you can practically see the gears in Greg's head grind as he imagines it.
The entire blackout sequence is this, where Stevonnie is on a road rapidly crumbling behind them while a demonic manifestation of their hate for Kevin charges out of Kevin's car straight at them.

Kiki's Pizza Delivery Service

Kiki is having a dream of being dragged down into cheese by cheesy hands and drowning every night! No wonder she's so happy Steven accidentally used his Dream Walker powers to enter her dream and save her.
When Steven and Kiki finally decide to get to her nightmare's source, they discover a monster made of cheese shaped like Jenny. The monster then begins to drown Kiki in cheese while continuing to ask her favors... and poor Kiki still refuses to say no, even when the cheese gets up to her neck.

Monster Reunion

Centipeetle relaying her story to Steven, specifically the part where she and a large group of other Homeworld Gems join the fight. She draws a large number of stick figures and then begins scribbling out Gems while making explosion-like noises.
Remember that flash of light from "Same Old World"? Turns out the Diamonds caused it, and it was the source of Gem Corruption. It Corrupted Centipeetle, her crew and possibly all the other Corrupted Gems we've seen. The only reason Lapis was spared was because she was trapped in the mirror.
The fact that the Diamonds would use whatever weapon or power that caused it in the first place. It's like willingly nuking a territory captured by the enemy - except nukes are intended to kill, which would be merciful by comparison. The Diamonds' weapon mentally damaged and Corrupted almost everyone left behind, even their own soldiers, into bestial monsters, just so they could deny the enemy the satisfaction of a straight victory. The only known survivors at this point were Rose Quartz, Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Lapis Lazuli.
- The Corruption attack is also a case of Nothing Is Scarier. It's never shown exactly what it is—it's only shown as a giant flash of light.
- The simple fact that, as it currently stands, there is no cure for this. Rose didn't leave those Gems bubbled out of apathy, as some seemed to fear; it was because even her healing powers couldn't do anything on their own.
- And add in the fact that the Corruption isn't physical in nature, but somehow mental. Imagine feeling trapped in a body that isn't yours...
Pearl: It's alright Steven. Remember, she's not cracked, she's Corrupted, and that's something different, something nearly impossible to describe.
Garnet: It's sort of like if MC Bear-Bear didn't tear the fabric of his arm, but the fabric of his mind.
- Something Greg said to Steven in Season 1 suddenly sheds light on how and why the Crystal Gems managed to survive, and just how close they came to being Corrupted.
Greg: "If it weren't for her (Rose's) shield, man, I don't know..."
Centipeetle slowly and (evidently) painfully Recorrupting. It starts when she suddenly begins retching and coughs up the acid she once produced while previously in her monster form, and this time, she's fully aware of what's happening to her. She desperately tries to get to her ship, but can't — the warp pad isn't registering her corrupted state as a valid user — and she's regressing by the minute with no way to stop it. And even when she does reach the location in question, she quickly loses her anthropomorphic body; Centipeetle grabs her head as if having a migraine and is then forcefully transformed back into the monster she used to be, even being on the ground for a few moments afterwards and making pained noises. The mere idea that you could feel yourself slipping away in such a manner is horrifying.

Alone at Sea

Lapis admitting that part of her enjoyed being Malachite, using Jasper as a target for all her anger and frustration.
This episode basically throws away any subtlety that Malachite's fusion is an allegory for an abusive relationship, which is portrayed in a chillingly realistic way. More chilling is the revelation that Jasper was not the only abusive party here: Lapis was almost or equally bad, admitting that she enjoyed being in control and harming Jasper.
On that note, the way Jasper says "It'll be different this time! I've changed! You've changed me!" and then later blames Steven for Lapis' refusal—the almost word for word parallels to the words of an abuser are downright chilling.
Jasper's resurgence is laced with pure horror. She looks like an unhinged addict as she craves to be Malachite again, and threatens to shatter Steven for thinking he made Lapis reject the idea of fusion.
The build up to Jasper returning. It feels like something out of a horror movie: first Lapis hooking something huge and powerful we never see that snaps the pole in half (implied to have been Jasper), then the boat shaking like something is hitting it from below, then the engine breaking down and stranding them as a storm hits before Jasper finally drags herself up from the ocean floor. It's just an overall terrifying atmosphere.

Greg the Babysitter

The episode's climax, as Greg learns the hard way just how little Rose understands about humans when he leaves baby Sour Cream in her care. He returns to find them both gone with no notice, and when he finally finds them, Rose has allowed Sour Cream to climb up a ferris wheel assuming he'd be fine if he fell.

Gem Hunt

Jasper poofing one of the Gem monsters with her bare hands, showing Steven the monster's gemstones in order to taunt Rose, and walking off into the blizzard. Just what does she intend to do with those?
- Just how brutal Jasper is. Particularly when she finishes it off by grabbing its gem and ripping it out.
- Simply Jasper being there while Connie and Steven were alone. This is a Gem who has only gone down to Garnet and Lapis, both serious powerhouses, and she's alone with two kids, one of whom is on their first ever mission and (as we were reminded at the start of the episode) had never been in a real fight.

Crack the Whip

Jasper shows once again that she's not fucking around with a vicious beatdown of Amethyst.
Jasper poofing Amethyst, holding her gemstone in her hand with the intent to shatter it. The way she'd done it with such brute force..... it's like she was close to shattering her.

Steven vs. Amethyst

Steven and Amethyst's fight. Granted, Steven's part-Gem, so he can take the kind of pounding that ensues in a Gem-class sparring match, but as Amethyst brings out the kind of attacks we've only seen in actual combat, one almost wonders if she's losing control and is about to seriously hurt Steven. As the fight wears on, both Amethyst and Steven start getting physically worn down, and it seems like one or both of them will end up getting a serious injury due to exhaustion.

Bismuth

Bismuth in general once she unveils the weapon. The others just want to stop Homeworld's invasion of Earth, she wants to shatter (i.e. KILL) them!
- Then when she starts going into a Sanity Slippage, we learn what happened to her: when she showed Rose "The Breaking Point", Rose, being a Martial Pacifist, turned down the idea immediately. Bismuth didn't take this well, there may have been a fight (which Bismuth heavily implies she started in rage), and Rose poofed her in the end. She hid Bismuth in Lion and lied to the Gems about her.
- Added to this: keep in mind that everything we've seen so far makes it clear that the Homeworld Gems aren't Always Chaotic Evil. They're the bad guys, sure, but ones like Peridot were simply misled, ones like Lapis were civilians caught in the crossfire, and ones like Centipeetle were just soldiers doing their job. While Bismuth's mentality is understandable, it's made clear she's gotten to the point where she can justify shattering them whole-sell 'for the greater good' and would attack Rose, her FRIEND, because of it. It's quite possible that it wasn't simply the weapon she wanted to use, but Bismuth having become so utterly consumed by hatred to that point that caused Rose to seal her away.
  - There was also a bit of Foreshadowing to this, as she barely reacted to hearing that Rose was gone, plus the way she reacted when Pearl said that Rose was "worried sick" about Bismuth.
Steven vs Bismuth. Full. Stop. Bismuth has officially gone crazy and attacks Steven, thinking he's Rose, and trying to cause a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against "her". As terrifying as the concept is alone, it only gets worse from there. This whole fight shows that not every member of the Gems have the same morals: the others are out for justice, Bismuth is out for blood. Then there's the fact that this is hands-down Steven's most intense fight: Steven doesn't have the home field advantage, he doesn't have assistance of any kind, and his opponent actually wants to kill him!
- If you pay attention to her eyes while she rants and tries to kill Steven, you can notice they grow into snake-like slits.
- She even expresses a desire for death, saying that it would have been better if Rose had shattered her.
- And it gets worse, as this marks the first time in the series that Steven has poofed a completely sentient Gem.
- The fight goes out of its way to show Steven's slipper dropping into molten lava, and the ground of the forge burned the bottom of his foot just by standing on it. Besides the bruising and (thankfully bloodless) cuts on his shirt, his finishing moment on Bismuth shows steam rising up from his bare foot, meaning that he was forced to ignore his own pain to save himself in the heat of the moment.
- As frightening as this is, just imaging it from Steven's perspective. A person you've come to trust and be good friends with takes you to their place and offers you a gift... which turns out to be a weapon they have every intent of performing genocide with. They hand it to you, expecting you to use it... and when you reject it, all the kindness they showed you is gone and they go berserk. They want you dead, and you're all alone with no one to protect you. Your only way to save yourself is to impale them through the gut. It's a Moment of Awesome for Steven, just because he didn't completely lose himself to panic.
The fact that Bismuth immediately flies into a rage and attacks Steven when he rejects the Breaking Point. No questioning why he rejected it, no trying to convince him, not even an angry Motive Rant. She just instantly flies into a screaming rage and lunges at Steven, simply because he said no. Her words imply she had the same reaction when Rose refused.
Bismuth's weapon, "The Breaking Point". It was designed by her during the Rebellion, for the specific purpose to completely shatter any Gem on the receiving end. It was very fortunate that Rose was a Martial Pacifist who didn't share Bismuth's sentiments, because if she wasn't, the Rebellion would've lasted a lot longer with fewer survivors, not only from dealing with Homeworld soldiers, but also from dealing with an entirely new army of enraged and destructive mutants created from the leftover Gem shards. And that's not even considering the idea Homeworld would escalate the war in response.
- The actual weapon itself: A pneumatic metal gauntlet with a large, sharp point at the end that can shatter stone with a thrusting impact. Compared to all the spears, whips and hammers we've seen the Gems use, it's uncannily more modern and industrial in comparison, and wouldn't look out of place on, say, Unreal Tournament or even Bloodborne as opposed to a cartoon.
- And there's the fact that if you think about it, the Breaking Point isn't actually very practical as a weapon of war. It's ridiculously short-ranged, has a long priming time, and has to hit squarely to do its job. It would really only work if the target gem had somehow been immobilized first. It's not a weapon of war, it's a weapon of terror.
Moments before showing "The Breaking Point" to Steven, Bismuth mentions that Rose specifically commissioned her to make weapons designed to poof Gems, not shatter them. Notice how she does an off-side glare and her voice gets quieter as she utters the end of that line. It seems that not only did she want Homeworld defeated, she will stop at nothing until they're all but shards in her hands. Aside from having her weapon rejected, part of the reason why she attacked Rose was because she resented that her pacifistic influence kept her from delivering the justice she thought Homeworld deserved.
Seeing Bismuth be impaled is this in and of itself, especially given that it was Steven who had to do the deed. It's literally a child having to stab someone they thought they could trust to defend themselves from being murdered. In previous fights in the series, it was either him leading a fairly standard trap or circumstance to poof a Corrupted Gem, or one of the Crystal Gems dealing the blow. Steven having to run Bismuth through is pure traumatization fuel, as Mindful Education would go to show.

Beta

Peridot keeps chatting about how disorganized, haphazard and all over the place the beta kindergarten was, and how it was far from the carefully engineered prime kindergarten where Amethyst was made, since Homeworld made it during the rebellion in a last-ditch effort to get more troops and fast. She points out several faulty holes and how no holes show the characteristics at the perfect one... then they find a huge one. Jasper's. At first, Peridot dismisses it with a "we already knew she was tall", but when she goes up to investigate closer, trying to find fault but not finding any, she is forced to admit that this was the clearest most perfect exit hole she ever saw, with Jasper's leaving it turning the whole of the inside into glass just by the heat of its friction. Repeat, the unstoppable juggernaut of a woman who has battled Rose Quartz, wrestled Lapis Lazuli for the control of Malachite with the whole ocean weighing her down, and has followed our heroes for a few episodes now, is the freak result of a place with poor resources, ran with poor organization and with little to no time. She just woke up into existence there, and did a spin dash-attack so strong to get out it melted the sandstone.
The final moments of the episode. Amethyst is talking about all the other weird holes when Peridot notices something wrong with one, that it's too dug out and the digging was recent. They then see more holes like that and follow them, coming to holes with bars across the front. Steven then nearly get clawed by a captured Gem Monster. Even Peridot is horrified at who might be doing this... cue Jasper seen in the distance.
While the Prime Kindergarten was horrifying in part because of how fragile and ordered everything seemed, the Beta Kindergarten is the opposite: due to being a rush job, it's full of deformed and twisted holes, and everything about it just feels incredibly wrong.

Earthlings

While overlooked considering everything else that happened, Jasper's monologue on what the Homeworld thinks of anyone who doesn't fit their mold is seriously creepy and brings to life some seriously disturbing comparisons to a certain real life group.
Jasper: Every Gem is made for a purpose: to serve the order of the Diamonds. Those who cannot fit inside this order must be purged!
Jasper's fusion with the Corrupted Quartz leaves her a six-legged hideous centaur beast vaguely resembling Malachite.What's worse is that she obviously forced the fusion with the other Gem. When they're separated, she tries again, ignoring the way the other Gem is struggling to get away from her. The show treats fusion as G-Rated Sex and not long after she and the other Gem are permanently separated the creature runs away from her in obvious terror.
Jasper becoming corrupted from fusing with a Corrupted Gem and slowly turning into one herself, rejecting any and all help from Steven. The Corruption is not instantaneous — we see it creeping up her arm and slowly eclipsing her more humanoid features. As she rants and raves at Steven, it suddenly takes over her face, blotting out her eyeballs in the space of a few seconds and replacing them with tumorous stalactites that resemble the horned growths that the alpine Gem monsters have. We don't know if this was unique to Jasper's Corruption because of the way she contracted it, or whether, despite the sudden, devastating flash the Centipeetle recalled, Corruption is a degenerative condition, rather than an instantaneous transformation. Which raises the horrific possibility of a planet full of abandoned Homeworld Gems, as well as Crystal Gems, watching in horror as their bodies and minds gradually slip away from them, helpless to save themselves.
Jasper's scream in her newly corrupted form; it's just so grating and distorted from her original womanly voice that it's downright unsettling—-not to mention the closeup of her destroyed eyes and jagged zigzag line of teeth.
Just before Jasper becomes a fully Corrupt Gem Monster, she yells, with her voice breaking and the shot being an extreme close-up of her face Corrupting before it takes over entirely.
Jasper: Wh-?! My Diamond! Your Diamond!! PI-I-INK DIAMO-O-O-O-OND!!!!
It was hinted at in "Monster Reunion" and "Gem Hunt" that Corruption isn't just a physical injury, but mental as well. Confirmed here as Jasper goes completely frickin' insane as part of the process.

Back to the Moon

Steven getting blown out of the airlock with the Rubies, and Sardonyx and Amethyst watching helplessly. To see someone like Steven in this situation is terrifying.
- The more horrifying part is that a Ruby (specifically Eyeball) wrenched him away from the door controls. She's so angry that she's willing to kill Steven by exposing him to outer space. Then again, Homeworld Gems don't need air to breathe, and Eyeball probably isn't bright enough to even realize she's putting Steven in danger. But it's still pretty screwed up.

Bubbled

Eyeball has all the hallmarks of a Shell-Shocked Veteran, and her violently going after Steven once he eliminates any remaining doubt in Eyeball's mind that he is Rose Quartz/has her gem makes a certain twisted sense, since from her perspective, Rose is a regicidal terrorist who got who knows how many thousands of Gems killed. However, her fantasies about presenting "Rose" to the Diamonds take a turn for the extremely creepy when Eyeball starts talking excitedly, even lustfully, about being given a Pearl as a reward. To Eyeball, it's like fantasizing about being rewarded with a status symbol like a shiny new car. To the human audience of SU, who have just spent three seasons getting attached to CG Pearl, and to Steven himself, Eyeball is fantasizing about owning a person with thoughts and feelings, who will be treated as if they don't have any agency or intellect because they're not a "real Gem", despite our Pearl having provided ample evidence to the contrary. Deliberate Values Dissonance and then some...
Eyeball's sheer relish at the prospect of killing Steven. Which she doesn't try to hide at all. There is a very noticeable change in her voice just before she pulls a knife on Steven, when she outright says she never thought she'd have a chance to kill Rose Quartz. The difference, especially compared to Garnet!Ruby's voice, is jarring.
Ruby: I never thought I'd get a chance like this. I can't believe you're all mine!
Steven's Break the Cutie moment: Having ejected the Ruby into space, he catches his breath, and just curls into the Fetal Position, seemingly accepting that he was going to die, alone. Even the background music was silent and eerie. The camera then pans out, showing the vastness of space. Seeing how small he is against the vastness of space instills a sense of hopelessness/emptiness and dread that feels awe-inspiring as it is terrifying.
- And not too long ago, he learned that his mother was supposedly a murderer of a higher-up (akin to assassins of world leaders on Earth) and this was the only thing he was aware of. Had he gone unnoticed by the Crystal Gems, this would also have been the last thing he was going to die knowing about.

Nightmare Fuel / Steven Universe Season 3

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