Star vs the Forces of Evil: The Ballad of Earth-Mewni

Episode 23: Reverse Rebuild

It was almost finally here: in just one more day, the long-anticipated "Mewman-Human-Monster Integrated Playground Build" would begin. For Star & the Butterflies, there was a lot riding on this. It was one of the most significant mandates imposed by the Earthni shadow council: Mewmans, Monsters, and Humans working together to build something that all three could enjoy together. If it went well, the future of Earthni looked incredibly promising. If it didn't, it was up in the air.

And so, one day before the build was set to commence, Marco Diaz found himself sitting in the office of Cassandra Cher. Following the revelation that Marco was intending to have a statue of Star built in her honor, Star suggested to"She him that he sit down with Cassandra to hash out his lingering issues between them.

"This design is lovely..." Cassandra remarked, looking over the blueprints on Marco's phone of the statue he had been contemplating having commissioned.

"Nothing but the best for my...princess..." Marco replied rather nervously, barely able to look Cassandra in the eye.

"How did she react when she found out about this?"

"She, uh...wasn't totally thrilled." He shuffled his feet & twiddled his thumbs.

"Did that surprise you?"

After a moment of silence, he shook his head. "No, not at all." Outside the room Star was waiting in the lobby, overhearing their talk while holding a bouquet of flowers in hand, a bouquet she was going to give to him as soon as he was done as a sign of affection. She was silently pulling for him to air out his grievances so he could get past this & feel better. "She always loves how I don't see her as the princess and how I only saw the "real" Star Butterfly when we spent time together. But that's not true...I always saw the princess in her. I just hid it well because I didn't want to disappoint her."

It was always a big sticking point with Star; when she was on Earth for the first time, she only wanted to be seen as Star Butterfly: magic wielder. Not Star Butterfly: magical princess. Because Marco did it so easily, she was able to easily gravitate to him. But as time passed - especially once Star had to return to Mewni full time - that started to change. Not helping was that he was beginning to fall for her romantically. It only complicated matters. But he continued to put on a front of only seeing her as a regular person and not a magical princess worthy of special treatment. But by the time Star's fists smashed through her mirror & nearly killed her, that front was gone. It was a constant, never-ending struggle internally to stop that interpretation; Star was still the same Star that she was before, even if she was more fragile now. But he couldn't help it. Now he was dedicated to putting her on an imaginary pedestal & giving her the accolades that a princess & queen deserved. If he could only stop himself from feeling this way, things would be astronomically better.

"I always felt like she got jibbed out of what she rightfully earned."

"You mean her reprieve from the political game?"

He shook his head and looked at Cassandra straight on. "...No...the throne." His answer came as a surprise to Cassandra, but not to Star. "Yeah I know she's always said she didn't think she had what it takes to be queen, she didn't want to be queen...but dammit she still deserved it! She worked her butt off to prove herself, and for what?!"

"You...want her to receive the adulation...without putting in any of the work."

"Well, she already put in so much work and got literally nothing for her efforts. Don't you think she deserves more?"

"I think the better question is...why are you so focused on how much she "deserves?" Why do you believe she should be the only one to relish in her success?"