A general post on the (quite obvious, did I really need to make it?) subject to be referenced in the future “episodes rewatching” ones, where I’ll talk about less iconic scenes as well.



I swear that one day I’ll stop with this borderline cringey “deep readings” of a preteen-aimed cartoon and go back to making comics.

MARCO - LOW SELF ESTEEM

Marco suffers mostly from low self esteem. We are yet to see, in the show, scenes from before Star’s arrival (barring the short ones in Freeze Day), so we can’t know if it’s a recent or deeply rooted thing, but the magical foreign student’s presence is obviously helping him.



- Star comes to Earth, Marco is so happy for his own unexpected proficiency in fighting monsters





- The defining episode is Sleep Spells, where Marco admits that he’s been counting the time Star saved him, and the other way around, looking dismayed by the disparity.

And, later, overjoyed by the chance to be the one “saving” Star this time



At the end of the episode he clearly admits that he feels inadequate, compared to Star’s (whom immediatly reassures him) awesomeness.





STAR - NEED TO BE TRUSTED

Meanwhile, Star has confidence to spare, but still needs validation, at least from the people close to her (i.e., Marco), in the form of trust.

That’s to be expected, after a whole life of being called reckless (well, she IS…)









CASE A - Blood Moon Ball

She literally says so. Sure, Marco was only concerned for her friend’s well being, but Star told him many times to trust her, and he knows that she could have handled Tom without any problem.



If we weigh in the “I need to decide things by myself to grow up” theme in as well we can understand Star’s reaction. A little bit harsh, maybe, but it’s not like she held a grudge, they immediatly made up with eachother.



CASE B - The Banagic Incident

A weird episode with a more inexperienced about Earth and more oblivious to others’ feelings Star than usual, the ending that confused us viewers so much is still proof of how much Star values Marco’s opinion, and how she feels like she needs, at least on Earth, to be trusted more.

If we reeeeally want to read too much into it we may also say something like “Star herself knows that she messed up and hearing it from Marco makes it worse blabla”, but that’s probably too much. The whole scene is probably 75% joke 25% trust issues.

Never forget Daron’s tweet on the matter.

CASE C - Storm the Castle

Again, an easy one. Star brings Marco on an adventure, adventure gets dangerous compared to the admittedly meager reward, Marco tells her (more or less) that she’s irresponsible, Star gets hurt and reacts harshly. Maybe a little bit too harshly, but that was 50% “I’m angry and I say things that I don’t really believe”, 50% “We need a quick way to create drama to make the whole episode more tense”





Star may pass for the pettier one, but it’s in her character to be so… passionate about things, both good and bad.

After all little bit of drama makes fictional relationships tastier.

And at the end of the day the important thing is that they still help eachother.







Maaaan, what’s with every show nowadays having a compelling story of personal growth. I don’t need any more reasons to be trash…

