Serious Steven

"Serious Steven, ACTIVATE!"

"Serious Steven" is the 8th episode of the first season of Steven Universe, and the 8th episode overall.

Synopsis
Steven tries to prove himself to be a worthy Crystal Gem to Garnet while they navigate their way out of an ancient Gem maze.

Plot
The episode begins with Steven waking up in Funland. He then sees that all of the teacups on the ride have be thrown out of position with everyone else riding in them. The episode then surges to two weeks after the incident with Steven and the other Gems in the teleporter, Garnet mentioning that this is their first serious mission. Steven, for an unknown reason, brings his ukulele, but it floats away, causing him to go after it. Eventually, the warp pad leads to a large field full of large strawberries, causing Steven to fall out of the warp stream into a patch of strawberries, getting covered in strawberry jelly. Suddenly, Steven is attacked by a small swarm of butterflies, and Garnet says, "They're just butterflies, Steven". Steven thought they looked bigger when on his eyeballs, and Pearl thinks she is having second thoughts of having Steven with them but Garnet shushes her and says just look at him. Steven looked a bit unhappy because of Pearl saying that. While walking through the strawberry field, Pearl mentions how it used to be a battlefield for the Gems, which was probably represented by all the swords in the ground. Eventually, the Gems find a large, upside down pyramid, which is what they are looking for. Inside, there were many murals of some of the journeys of the Crystal Gems. Steven finds a strange, smaller pyramid and touches it, causing it to flip over, and causing everyone inside to gravitate towards a hole in the ceiling. Eventually, they fall into a large room with many doors. Pearl decides the group should split up, and suggests that she should stay with Steven. Amethyst then picks Steven up, saying she will go with him, but Pearl takes Steven back, saying that Amethyst and Steven are just a disaster waiting to happen. Garnet then chooses to take Steven with her while Pearl goes with Amethyst. Garnet and Steven travel through three trap rooms, with Garnet doing most of the work and Steven usually needing to be saved or carried. In the third room, which was incredibly dangerous with axes, fire, spikes, and lava, after feeling queasy, Steven has a flashback to the Fun Land trip two weeks ago, where he and the Crystal Gems go on the teacup ride. Pearl was riding with Amethyst, with Amethyst asleep while Pearl had a teapot, misunderstanding the point of the ride. Meanwhile, Steven was riding with Garnet, but Steven eventually gets sick and falls out of the ride, landing on Mr. Smiley and breaking the lever, causing the ride to speed up too fast, sending all the teacups flying with the riders inside. Mr. Smiley then angrily banned Steven from all the rides forever after Steven woke up. Back in the present, Steven wakes to realize Garnet carried him through the third room because he fell asleep. After exiting, they find themselves in the room where they started. Pearl finds them and tells Garnet that no matter which path they take, after three rooms, they always arrive back where they started. Amethyst is seen running through the doorways, trying to find an exit, but gets progressively more injured by the traps and hazards. When Pearl admits she doesn't know what's going on, Amethyst flies out in a block of ice, and as Pearl goes to free her, Steven asks Garnet what they should do. She says they'll have to keep going in as long as it takes for them to find the exit. Horrified by this, Steven has a small breakdown as he believes it's his fault he's in this situation, and when Pearl tells him not to think that way, he realizes that the temple must have been like the teacup ride. That each room they enter rotates to connect them to another room, sending them out another door in the main chamber. Garnet breaks through the floor and they all fall into a large mechanism that causes the temple's rooms to rotate. Garnet then throws Steven at the centerpiece and he removes the gem controlling it, causing the temple to explode. The Gems emerge from the rubble and compliment Steven on his ingenuity. The episode ends with Steven strumming on his ukulele, singing the Serious Song, only to be interrupted as he's attacked by a swarm of butterflies once again attracted to the berry jam coating his body.

Characters

 * Steven
 * Garnet
 * Pearl
 * Amethyst
 * Rose Quartz (pictured)
 * Mr. Smiley (flashback)
 * Yellow Diamond (pictured)
 * Blue Diamond (pictured)

Objects

 * Warp Pad
 * Steven's Ukulele
 * Obelisk

Locations

 * Beach City (flashback)
 * Beach City Funland (flashback)
 * Gem Battlefield (debut)
 * Pyramid Temple (debut)

Songs

 * "Serious Song"

Instrumental Songs

 * "Strawberry Battlefield/The Sleeping Pyramid"
 * "Heart of the Pyramid"

Trivia

 * In this episode, it's revealed Steven is banned from all the rides at Funland forever.
 * Inside the strange maze (before Steven caused it to flip over), there are murals depicting the traps that lie within the maze as well as a picture of Rose Quartz, Steven's mother, battling another Gem.

Cultural References

 * The maze's central conceit may be a reference to Zork II, which features a puzzle with exactly the same concept of a maze around a central room in which "you feel sort of disoriented" that turns out to be spinning in the same manner.
 * The layout and the music of the temple seemed to have been heavily influenced by the Legend of Zelda series.
 * Some examples include the music at the beginning of the temple, the moment when Garnet had blocked the falling spiked ceiling (which is similar to the use of the "stone umbrella" in the shadow temple in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time), and even the way the doors seal upon entering a room  and unlock when the puzzle is solved. The murals are like the ones from the opening of The Wind Waker. The symbol, referred to earlier in Trivia, is similar to the Tri-Force.

Errors

 * When Steven and Garnet are jumping on the glowing tiles in the temple, Garnet's hands are mistakenly colored black. Serious Steven Garnet's Error.png
 * When Garnet said "Steven, no!" after Steven falls off from the ride, the middle finger part of her glove wasn't colored in.
 * In one scene, Steven's ukulele strings were on his ukulele, and then on the next, they weren't there.
 * When Amethyst enters the temple's center room in an ice cube, the stars on her pants are missing.
 * When Pearl bubbles the gem, the strawberry paste on Steven's left arm disappears, but reappears again later.

Steven se pone Serio pt-br:Steven Muito Sério Serious Steven