Steven’s mood affects reality

We’ve only seen it a handful of times so far, but one of Steven’s developing powers seems to be to (involuntarily) alter reality with his emotions.

The most obvious example of this is in Too Many Birthdays.

When Steven starts to feel too old, his physical form becomes older.

Likewise, when he feels younger, his physical form starts to become younger again.

Another fairly clear example of this is when Greg lies to Steven that his healing powers don’t work, Steven’s healing powers stop working and he can’t heal the geode.

A more subtle example of this power is in Rose’s Scabbard. When Steven is chasing after Pearl, he has to clear a relatively large jump.

At first, Steven is doing really well, moving in a smooth arc that should have put him nicely on the other side of the gap.

However, when Pearl glares at him, Steven is shocked, and begins to fall suddenly straight down. Steven would have made the jump, but his emotions spontaneously altered the physics of his jump and his trajectory.

Perhaps most impressively, we’ve also seen Steven alter things other than himself.

In Maximum Capacity, Steven is alarmed to see Amethyst in the shape of Rose, and his shock/anger disrupts the television.

Steven seems really unsure about his ability to use Gem powers, but this is at least one that he’s been using quite frequently.