As of late, Steven has been coming in to a whole host of powers: healing spit, dream-walking, body snatching, super strength, plant control, feather falling, and so on. Almost all of these make Steven a very real threat to gems and humans alike, but Steven has one power in particular that hasn’t been discussed much in the show. One power that could make him a threat to all of homeworld, and goes a long way in explaining why Rose was able to raise a whole army against the Diamonds

You see, Steven isn’t just able to heal the gem monsters, he has the ability to create them!

Before I get to explain this, let’s address something important. In the recent episode Monster Reunion, we learned the story of how Centipeetle came to earth, and the terrible burst of light and song that caused every gem on earth to become corrupted at once.

Obviously this wasn’t some inherently magical song. Magic in Steven Universe is much closer to sufficiently advanced technology, even if we can’t scientifically describe every power in play. No this was explicitly a power used by the three Diamonds, not some magic song and not some magic bomb. It’s why Centipeetle drew the three Diamonds (more on why she drew them black in another post), and why the burst shown yellow, blue and white in Same Old World. This is the kind of power the Diamonds wield, and anyone with the same power would qualify as a Destroyer of Worlds

Major clairification: I am NOT saying Steven is a Diamond! He’s a Quartz, this has never been up for debate!

Let’s rewind a bit and talk about Steven and Rose’s shield. Back in Ocean Gem, we learned that when struck, Steve’s shield emits a warbling metallic whine of a sound which managed to cause Lapis Lazuli’s water clones to shudder and collapse into into puddles.

This wasn’t an isolated incident. In Sworn To The Sword the same thing happens to one of Pearl’s training holograms, which glitched out and then shattered when he blocked it’s parry

This glitching effect should be fresh in your mind right now, since just yesterday in Monster Reunion, we saw Centipeetle’s body glitch the exact same way as she began to revert into her monster form.

Gem bodies are still just holograms. The only difference between Holo-Pearl’s physical form and that any real gem is that her body is designed to be fragile, and break rather than try to maintain her shape.

Worse yet, Steven’s powers seem to be entirely semantic in nature. In addition to being able to heal gems with his spit, he can heal humans, gem technology, and even a damaged stuffed animal

Obviously Steven’s disruption power is much weaker than that of the diamonds is, but it works on the same mechanic, and has the same extent of semantics as his healing. Lapis’s water clones weren’t made of holo-water like her wings. We saw her make them out of ocean water.

If that isn’t enough for you, listen to the reason why Garnet, Amethsyt, Pearl and Rose survived the the attack

Greg: No such thing as a good war, kiddo. Gems were destroyed, people too… In the end, your mother could only save a handful of her closest friends. If it weren’t for her shield, man, I don’t know.



Rose’s shield neutralized the effect: the same power is in play here, and it can potentially be reversed as well, and here’s the most amazing thing: Steven doesn’t need his shield to use it

In the infamous episode Maximum Capacity after seeing Amethyst shapeshift into his dead mother to torment his dad, Steven yells “STOP” at the top of his lungs, immediately afterwards the tv broke out into static. This wasn’t the end of the tape or anything, we saw the show still playing in the instant before the tape was scrambled by Steven’s powers. More evidence that this disruption ability can affect anything you could physically disrupt. The only variable here is power.

To wipe out all gems on earth, all three Diamonds were needed, presumably fused together, to commit such an act of unbridled destruction. For Steven to utilize his power on the same scale, either to corrupt or to heal, the odds are against him, but he’s not going to do it alone. After all, there’s no shortage of powerful gems on earth, and he only needs to fuse with them to wield their strength.

Fusions

Brutes

Witches

Unliving weapons

And a beast whose voice can tear holes in space itself!