"I did my job! And as your queen, I will continue to do my job of protecting this kingdom. I will hunt down the remains of the monster army and scatter them without country or leadership."
Voiced by: Grey Griffin
Young Moon voiced by: Katie Driver
"The immortal monster
will long be haunted
by the darkest spell
of Moon the Undaunted."
Young Moon voiced by: Katie Driver
"The immortal monster
will long be haunted
by the darkest spell
of Moon the Undaunted."
Star's overbearing mother, the current queen of Mewni and the former owner of the wand.
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A-D
- Abusive Parent: Downplayed; Moon's overbearing, strict nature and insistence that Star follow her instructions in order to become a worthy queen cause no end of stress for her daughter, (to the point where Star holds a great deal of self-doubt over her destiny as future queen).
- Action Mom: Though officially retired due to her political responsibilities, Moon does show she has magic more refined than her daughter's.
- Aesop Amnesia: Several times over the course of the series, she learns that she should respect Star's opinions and feelings, yet she always forgets this, falling back into being an oppressive parent who wants Star to act the way she wants her to. She joins up with Mina and the Magic High Commission to dethrone Eclipsa in season 4, ignoring the fact that Star and Eclipsa have grown very close, and thus that Star would be nothing but disgusted at Moon's attempt at a coup.
- Affably Evil: Her hidden hatred for Eclipsa and implied desire to rule Mewni again leads to her orchestrating a coup alongside the Magic High Commission and Mina Loveberry. However, she considers herself to be the Lesser of Two Evils and calmly demands Eclipsa to give up the throne and to exile herself with her daughter and her monster husband to another dimension, to be forgotten and never to return unlike Mina who wanted to kill her and her family.
- Affectionate Nickname: River calls her "Moon Pie".
- Aggressive Categorism: She insists that monsters need to be kept separate from the rest of Mewni because they are "dangerous." However, she seems to ignore the fact that many of her allies such as the Lucitors and the High Magic Commission are essentially monsters themselves.
- Almighty Mom: It's pretty clear who is the "alpha" in this particular relationship. From the start, Queen Butterfly seems way more comfortable with the idea of packing Star off to St. O's (it is implied that she only escaped that fate because Daddy interceded) and King Butterfly has to hide his guys' nights out from her.
- Amnesiacs are Innocent: After her memories are erased by the Realm of Magic, Queen Moon becomes an excitable Womanchild without her usual stuffiness or overbearing personality.
- Anti-Villain: She's revealed to have been The Man Behind the Man to Mina in season 4. She largely did this out of a distrust for Eclipsa and a belief that, had she not been there to try to reign over Mina, Mina's rebellion would be even more violent and bloody, since Moon's own plans to re-instate her rule was supposed to rely solely on threats instead of violence. Moon had to learn the hard way that Mina's extremism would not defer to her plans.
- Antiquated Linguistics: Moon's manner of speech appears to be modelled after Victorian-Era England.
- Arch-Enemy: To Toffee, who killed her mother as she tried to negotiate peace with monsters, leading Moon to take revenge.
- Archnemesis Mom: Revealed to her daughter Star to be one of the main antagonists of the show in Season 4. Star is absolutely appalled that her mother has devolved into a horrible tyrant-wannabe.
- Ascended Extra: In Season 1 she tries to take a hands-off approach to Star, so we don't see much of her. But she becomes more active and important to the plot as the show goes on, to the point where she's arguably the Tritagonist of Season 3, then the initial Big Bad of Season 4.
- The Atoner: After Mina double-crosses her, Moon decides to try to fix the mess she caused in Season 4.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Despite giving up her wand to Star in the first episode, she is still one of the strongest magic users shown in the series thus far. "Into the Wand", reveals SHE was the one who took Toffee's finger! "Starcrushed" shows she's the only one of the Magic High Commission that's able to put up a decent fight to the resurrected and powered up Toffee, even if she's clearly outmatched.
- Batman Gambit: She and Eclipsa tricked the Magic High Commission into agreeing to a trial by box on the premise that it would be much faster and easier than digging through all of the evidence that Moon has prepared. Since two of the members are Rhombulus and Hekapoo, they agreed to the trial almost immediately. What the MHC forgot was that Eclipsa is also technically a member, so she asked them point blank what they did to her daughter.
- Beautiful All Along: Her default appearance has her look like a plain and posh old lady with her hair shaped into a heart. When she lets her hair loose, it's long and luscious and she's shown to be rather youthful and attractive.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: "Moon the Undaunted" showed that she hit it off with River in their younger years, because he was the only one who respected her and supported her decisions as a newly-minted Queen. After River gives her an apology meat for supposedly speaking out of turn in her favor, Moon tells him that she felt glad knowing someone believed in her. Likely, it's what led to their marriage.
- Behind Every Great Man: "Marco and The King" show that River, while a competent leader, needs Moon in order to be emotionally stable, and because Mewni is a matriarchy, Moon is the one who has the real power and makes the important decisions for the kingdom. When Moon is absent, River's a total mess who drives Mewni into the ground with his constantly partying.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: She spends the latter half of season four conspiring with Mina and the Magic High Commission to dethrone Eclipsa. However, Mina betrays her in the last act, forcing Moon to work with Star and Eclipsa again.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Intially secretly shared the title of Big Bad with Mina, until the latter betrays her.
- Big Good: With the Magic High Commission's difficult and unhelpful personalities, the actual work at being the force of good in the kingdom ends up befalling her through seasons one and two, specially when the MHC is out of commission during The Battle of Mewni. Subverted hard by the end of Season 4, where she is revealed to be part of a Big Bad Duumvirate with Mina Loveberry whom the MHC are working for.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: In Season 4, she seemingly doesn't have any hard feelings against Eclipsa and tries to discourage the Mewman yurt settlers to not to spread anti-Eclipsa slander, but in fact she does and they are downright hateful and petty.
- Broken Pedestal: Star is outraged that all of Season 4's problems leads back to Moon, and comes close to denouncing Moon as her mother.
- Character Development:
- As of "Raid The Cave", she's completely understanding towards Star when she reveals that she lost her spellbook. As opposed to season one, where Star was afraid that her mother would send her to St. Olga's. Plus, it's not like she can send her there anymore, because the establishment fell apart.
- In "Puddle Defender" she finds some common ground with Buff Frog despite her bias against monsters due to the fact that they are both protective of their children and willing to do anything to keep them safe.
- In "Total Eclipsa the Moon" and "Butterfly Trap", she put aside her great distrust of Eclipsa, who has supposedly committed many crimes, in order to find the truth of Meteora's whereabouts and expose the conspiracy surrounding the Butterfly family.
- Due to the stress of being a Queen at a young age, Moon had to grow up fast which led her to be uptight and serious, but after temporarily losing her memory, she became more laid-back and understanding.
- Character Tics: Moon will put one or both of her hands on her forehead when she is feeling stressed.
- A Child Shall Lead Them: A former example — Moon became the Queen of Mewni at roughly the same age as Star because Toffee killed her mother. Deconstructed as the sudden loss of her mother, and her early ascension to the throne, forced her to mature for the good of her people at the cost of her own happiness and, potentially, her familial relationship with her daughter Star. Her tragic experiences also caused monster racism to be ingrained deep into her mind, making her a target of angry, desperate monsters.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Her empathy towards Ludo due to his strained relationship with his family creates an opening for Toffee to ambush her.
- Color Motifs: Blue. Has matching light blue hair and eyes. Many of her outfits have blue in the design. Her butterfly form has a magical blue color.
- Commonality Connection: She ends up bonding with Buff Frog after recognizing that they're both parents who would do anything to protect their offspring. Heck, there's even some Five-Second Foreshadowing with the board game they're playing in that episode (namely, that the Mewman counterpart is nearly exactly the same).
- Compressed Hair: When we see Moon on Pie Island, her hair appears to have been cut as it is now in a braided crown and a bun
that would be too small for her current knee-length hair. The following episode her hair is it’s normal length in a braided ponytail. - Costume Evolution: A minor one in Season 2 - the large hair curls that covered her ears in Season 1 (in the season finale they were revealed to be fake) are gone, and she now wears a pearl headdress around her hair along with gold and magenta Diamond earrings.
- Creepy Good: Even though she is one of the good guys, her form when she dips down is a moth or butterfly-like creature with six arms, though how creepy she is depends on the viewer.
- Curtains Match the Windows: Light blue hair and eyes for the Queen.
- Cycle of Revenge: Is a direct victim of it and perpetuated it. Her mother Comet didn't believe in Fantastic Racism at all and was actively trying to end it outright, but Toffee murdered her in coldblood purely out of hatred. This in turn caused Moon to develop the very anti-monster racism her mother was fighting against, continuing the cycle her mother was trying to break.
- Deadpan Snarker: Has moments of this, especially when dealing with Star or River's antics. In "Game of Flags":Queen Moon: Star, you're never going to believe, but I just met your twin sister. (Cue Star looking terrified) She was made out of corn. I don't even remember giving birth to her. River, did I ever give birth to a corn baby?
- Also from the same episode, it's implied that it's not the first time Moon's own family has tried suggesting better suitors than River Johansen.Aunt Etheria: You know, Lord Mildrew is still single. (Moon raises an eyebrow in feigned interest) Never too late to start over, dearie.
Queen Moon: Yes, Aunt Etheria, I heard you the first hundred times.
- Also from the same episode, it's implied that it's not the first time Moon's own family has tried suggesting better suitors than River Johansen.
- Deal with the Devil:
- She made a deal with Eclipsa to learn a spell capable of killing Toffee: Eclipsa would teach her the spell and in exchange Moon would free her as soon as Toffee was dead. She manages to take advantage of the Exact Words by using the spell to cripple Toffee instead of killing him, thereby avoiding freeing Eclipsa while still dealing with the monster army.
- Despite initially refusing, Moon took up Mina's offer to restart to the Solarian program to make an army to overthrow Eclipsa. Unfortunately, the new Solarians turn out to be neither loyal to Moon nor reliant on her for power.
- Despair Event Horizon: When Star vanishes after using the whispering spell on Ludo's wand and Toffee shatters the crystal, Moon starts rambling and tries to piece the wand back together with her bare hands. Her cheek-marks even turn black.
- Didn't Think This Through: Probably one of her flaws is that she never thought of the full consequences of her actions or if she even has a back-up plan should her initial plan fail. After severing Toffee's finger with Eclipsa's nameless spell, instead of arresting Toffee and his army, she allowed them to flee; believing this would be enough to end the conflict. She underestimates how much of a threat Toffee really is when he returns with a vengeance. This comes back again when she helps Mina to overthrow Eclipsa, believing she can resolve the situation once it's over. It didn't occur to her that Mina is far beyond gone to be reasoned anymore nor that the Solarian Warriors are too dangerous to be used, which Star lampshades. It doesn't help that she apparantly overlooked the fact that the spell used to create them explicibly invokes loyalty to the former Queen Solaria, meaning that Moon was unable to reverse the effects when the Solarians rebelled.
- Disappeared Dad: Her father is implied to have either left or passed away when Moon was still very young.note This leaves Moon as the sole ruler of Mewni after Toffee kills her mother. The Magic Book of Spells reveals Moon's mother Comet and her father, Lazlo Marmalade, were divorced shortly after Moon was born. Lazlo didn't even go to Moon and River's wedding, so Lekmet and Mina Loveberry had to give her away.
- Dude Magnet: River was in love with her for a long time. Lord Mildrew had apparent feelings for her when she was a teen and Moon's aunt implies he still does. Rhombulus reveals in "Butterfly Trap" that he has a crush on her. And River has a near genocidial grudge against another king for shooting an amorous stare at her.
E-H
- Easily Forgiven: Despite being the cause of Season 4's conflict including endangering lives with her family included, Eclipsa offers Moon to play pool with her with no hard feelings and gives her advise to reconcile with Star to fix this mess whilst hiding from Mina's wrath at the Tavern at the End of the Multiverse.
- Enemy Mine: Despite her being revealed as the Man Behind the Man for the events of season 4, she is still forced to work with Star and Eclipsa after Mina goes rogue.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite her Face–Heel Turn, she still cares for Star and River. Moon most likely had the High Commission block the portals to keep Star safe on Earth.
- Even Evil Has Standards: While she has performed a Face–Heel Turn, she did not anticipate Mina attacking innocent Mewman citizens (Monsters included), kill Eclipsa and Globgor and then turn against her.
- Everyone Has Standards: Despite being one of the many people who doesn't trust Queen Eclipsa, Moon wants the truth just as much as Star, and even she is taken aback when it's revealed that Eclipsa's daughter, Meteora was completely stricken from Mewni's records.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Throughout the first half of the series, Moon's hair was styled in a stereotypical queen-like bun that showed her royalty, but also her uptight and stern nature. By season four, she has her in a more loose ponytail, symbolizing how she has mellowed out.
- Face Palm: She does this when stressed, usually from dealing with the antics of Star or River, to the point of it becoming a regular habit for her.
- Facial Markings: Queen Butterfly has diamond-shaped markings on her cheeks.
- Fallen Hero: Her more traditionalist tendencies eventually lead her to join Mina Loveberry in staging a coup.
- Fatal Flaw:
- Her devotion to her duty as Queen. Having become one at a young age and in the wake of the trumatic loss of her mother and in the middle of a war no less, it forced her to wear a Tough Leader Façade. However, she ended up Becoming the Mask to where her duty as Queen means everything else becomes second, including her family (though they do often clash). This affects her relationship with her daughter the most, at least in trying to understand her along with the implications of what happens after that. After Star becomes Queen and gives it to Eclipsa, Moon is clearly at a loss, even if she's trying to keep herself composed. While she tries to relax and ease up a little, it becomes clear that when offered the chance to take up the reigns again, she accepts it because it is all she knows. This combined with her lingering anger at Eclipsa for shooting her, means she becomes an antagonist.
- Her tendency to blame others for her own mistakes. She presents herself as a responsible and stoic authority figure that puts the needs of her people and her family first - having earned the title of "Undaunted" for it - but when things go wrong and her confidence wanes from a mistake, she is quick to blame external factors for it and "retaliate" with a vengeance. She tries to paint Eclipsa as a schemer that tricked her into using the Darkest Spell against her will (when it was her idea to get the spell in exchange for freeing her, a deal Moon tried to back-out on), blaming Eclipsa for losing in her battle against Meteora (when it was Moon's own brashness that caused that loss) and then tries to paint magic itself as the source of all of their problems (having helped destroy it when the genocidal super-soldiers she helped create over the before-mentioned loss with Meteora went rogue and started attacking innocent Mewni monsters). This may be explained by her asecension to the throne at a young age with little help and having to rule over a kingdom who's populace are... rather petulant and mercurial to say the least. While she is responsible, she has little idea how to deal with failure and her devotion to duty leads her to try and face it herself.
- Zigzagged with her devotion with her family. It is one of her strongest humanizing points and helps rein in her devotion to being a Queen. However, because this devotion is tied to her trauma of having lost her mother at a young age and combined with her worries when she become a mother, she will make impulsive decisions motviated by familial ties or sympathies that she otherwise wouldn't make. She was willing to hide Glossaryck's disappearance from the council to protect Star, even though she knew it could put all of Mewni in danger. She felt sorry for Ludo when she met his family and her attempts to help him reconcile created an opening for Toffee to ambush her. When she found out that Toffee was back for revenge she abandoned her kingdom in order to keep Star safe. Finally, she let Eclipsa out of her tower because she wanted to help her find out what happened to Meteora. However, most of these decisions (except for the Toffee one) did not actually backfire on her.
- Freudian Excuse: Both her over-protectiveness towards Star and her bias against monsters stem from Toffee killing her mother when she was a teenager, and having to take on the responsibility of being queen too early. Doubly so given her mother was actually the most pro-monster queen next to Eclipsa herself and had done nothing to warrant it. When it looks like she lost her daughter to Toffee, she nearly breaks.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Its implied that Moon is jealous that Eclipsa connects to Star so easily in spite of only knowing her for a couple of weeks.
- Hartman Hips: The Queen has a serious case of those, although it may mostly be a petticoat in her skirt. "Face the Music" shows that while her petticoat make them look quite exaggerated, she still has a disproportionately small waist and large hips.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: In the second half of Season 4, she goes full Anti-Villain in order to bring about her own vision of peace in Mewni. However, Mina's betrayal forces Moon to fight along Star and even Eclipsa.
- Heel Realization: It seems Star's "The Reason You Suck" Speech towards her while hiding and the fact the situation itself got out of hand when Mina betrays her manages to get through her head and regret what she has done.
- Hidden Depths:
- "Escape From The Pie Folk" showed that Moon is talented at baking pies. Based on her amnesic self, this was her hobby and pasttime. Makes more sense when you consider how her mother was like.
- In "Moon Remembers" she demonstrates a near virtuoso-level degree of skill on the guitar.
- High-Class Gloves: Always seen wearing a pair, even with her incognito casual outfit. They hide the corruption on her lower arms from using Eclipsa's dark magic. She trades them in for a pair that go up to her shoulders after trying to use dark magic a second time.
- The High Queen: The serene, graceful, beautiful and benevolent queen of Mewni. However, this is brutally deconstructed over time as while she tries to be this, it's taken an unhealty toll on her psyche, especially since her Mewman subjects demand of this of her, to where the relationship is more of a overwhelmed babysitter watching an entire kingdom of children. It also has led to troubles with her and her family, mainly her daughter. Then combine this with the Butterfly family's problems with monsters and it becomes clear the front has broken.
- Holy Hand Grenade: She can create a massive magical explosion as a Finishing Move while in her butterfly form, with the caveat that it immediately ends her Super Mode and leaves her physically weak.
- Honorary Aunt: By "Scent of a Hoodie", Moon has become something to this effect for Marco. The fact that she kisses him on the forehead makes it clear that she already thinks of Marco like family.
- Horrible Judge of Character: In season 4. Despite seeing Mina's madness firsthand, she still saw fit to form an alliance with the Solarian warrior, believing that she would simply stand down once Moon convinced Eclipsa to give up the throne. Star is quick to call Moon out on her misplaced trust after Mina refuses to stop her anti-monster crusade.
- Hypocrite:
- Moon is completely prejudiced against monsters and sees them as dangerous and disgusting abominations, even chastising her 8th great-grandmother Eclipsa for running off with a monster, but not only does she not have a problem speaking with Ludo's family, she completely ignores the fact that they're explicitly monsters. When Moon meets Buff Frog for the first time, she couldn't even treat him as decently as she did with Ludo's family, finding him completely disgusting despite him being a much better parent than Ludo's parents were. With Ludo's family, the worst she gives are awkward glances, but does not make any kind of acknowledgement about their monsterhood. This could be because Ludo's family once ruled over their own kingdom, making them an exception from the discrimination, as is implied with the other, non-humanoid royal families. It doesn't make it any less jarring, yet the only plausible explanation was that Moon had to speak with them out of necessity.
- In season four, Moon believes Eclipsa is untrustworthy and will only cause trouble for Mewni. She thus betrays everyone's trust and causes massive trouble for Mewni in order to depose her.
- In a similar manner, she spent most of the season annoyed by the Mewmans still expecting her to rule over them, and would reprimand them for insulting Eclipsa. Despite this, she plots with Mina and the Magic High Commission to force Eclipsa to give the throne back to her.
I-M
- Identity Amnesia: Loses all her memories while in the Magic Dimension.
- I Did What I Had to Do: She justifies allying herself with Mina and planning to depose Eclipsa to Star this way, saying that a queen has to "do what's best for her kingdom".
- Idiot Ball: In season 4. Trusting the clearly deranged Mina was one thing, but willingly creating a hundred-strong army of Solarian Warriors just like her, without thinking to adjust the spell that created them, was a really bad idea.
- Inopportune Voice Cracking: In "Battle for Mewni", her voice drops a few octaves when she tells Star that Toffee killed her mother.
- Insistent Terminology: She insists that her allies such as the Lucitors, the Pony Heads, and the Magic High Commission are not "monsters", even though they have obviously monstrous characteristics. She concedes that Prince Rich Pigeon is a monster (though we later find out he isn't), but handwaves it because "he's rich."
- It's All About Me: In Season 4, she wants to overthrow Eclipsa and become Queen of Mewni again for a petty vendetta over a mistake that she brought on herself, but blames Eclipsa nonetheless, and doesn't even consider Star's opinion on this.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While she's overbearing, strict, and can be critical, she ultimately has her kingdom, and more importantly, her daughter's safety at heart.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: At first, she seems to be okay with Eclipsa ruling Mewni, then it's revealed she was plotting against her with Mina Loveberry. Subverted however, as she wanted no one to get hurt in the process, not even Eclipsa.
- Just Friends: Unlike her love-crazy offspring, Moon wasn't looking for love above the familial and the platonic when she was a teenager, much to River's despair. She also expressed this sentiment to her friend Dirt when he tried to court her, though it was a moot point as he always intended to assassinate her.
- Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: As shown in "Face the Music" and "Starcrushed", Moon can kick some serious butt while wearing beautiful dresses.
- Kindness Button: She has a soft spot for other parents, being a mother herself. It's enough for her to bond with Buff Frog (a monster, which she despises) and Eclipsa (one of the greatest shames of her family) in "Puddle Defender" and "Total Eclipsa of the Moon".
- Knight Templar Parent: As the "Battle of Mewni" showed, Moon is willing to abandon her kingdom, the Magical High Commission, and her husband to ensure her daughter's safety.
- Lady of War: She was more dignified and acted more royally when she was Star's age, and even then she was as good in battle as her daughter. And she still is this in her adulthood.
- Laser Blade: Could emit one from her wand while it was in her possession like her ancestor Solaria. Even without her wand, she can manifest a saber out of criss-crossing beams of magic.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After attempting to use Mina to overthrow and banish Eclipsa, Moon is forced to leave Mewni herself, and is left with no throne, separated from her husband, and Star makes it clear that her actions have cost her her daughter's love and respect.
- Light 'em Up: Like her daughter, Moon has a heavy association with light. In combat she relies on lasers and conjuring weapons out of Hard Light. Her strongest spell is an omnidirectional Holy Hand Grenade that destroys everything within a large radius but knocks her out of her Super Mode in the process.
- Light Is Not Good: Downplayed by being a Bigoted Queen who came off as a jerk with light powers and pale blue hair who does not do anything evil, Until season 4 has her slip to villainy.
- Little Miss Badass: As the comic (and her mural) shows, she was this as a preteen, and she only got better with age. Though, she was relatively normal compared to her daughter, who fought monsters a lot.
- Magic Feather: Neglected to tell Star that she doesn't necessarily need the Wand to perform magic. It just makes doing so easier.
- Magic Knight: She wears ornate armor in battle and carries a pair of swords, although her first reflex is still magic.
- The Magnificent: Her title is "Moon the Undaunted", which she apparently earned from her battle with Toffee.
- Mama Bear: Do not attack Star while she is nearby. Even if you're a part of her family, if you hurt her daughter, she won't hold back.
- In "Game of Flags", after Star got dogpiled by several Johansens and her own relatives, Moon goes into her Mewberty form to blow everyone away and save her daughter.
- Unfortunately, this gets Deconstructed in "Return to Mewni" and "Puddle Defender", where Moon is so worried about Toffee killing Star. So she takes Star with her away from Earth and tries to take shelter away from the villainous lizard but at the cost of leaving her kingdom in danger of Toffee. This not only endangers the Mewmans but also sours her relationship with Star because Moon indirectly made Star “throw out her whole life just so she can give up”.
- Fortunately, this gets Reconstructed in "Toffee," when she thinks she's lost Star, Moon holds the wand directly against Toffee's chest and recites a dark spell that would have vaporized him and caused Eclipsa to be released, if she'd still had enough power to cast it.
- The Man Behind the Man: She told Rhombulus to free Globgor, empowered Mina's army, and likely got the Magic High Commission to work with the new Solarians. Though she did all of them with the intention of defusing a situation these people would make much more violent, she was still acting with the villains. She doesn't do a good job keeping them under control, either.
- Mirror Character:
- With The Reveal that she contributed to all of the problems in Season 4, the similarities between her and Toffee are more prominent. Both are reserved, stoic and intelligent individuals who take on the role as a leader for their kind (Mewmans and Septarians respectively). Both are willingly to manipulate and commit unsavory actions to fulfill a goal that they believe is just (Conspiring with Mina and the MHC to dethrone Eclipsa for Moon, Destroying all magic for Toffee). And while both are indeed motivated by what they believe is 'right', pettiness is also another motivating factor for them when they themselves are to blame for their current situation (Moon blaming Eclipsa for being the reason she was separated from her family, Toffee getting back at Moon for his severed finger out of wounded pride).
- And finally, with Eclipsa. They are both mothers who made decisions that were both selfish, but not purely of ill-intent, only for it to damage them in the long run. Eclipsa married a monster without regard to how it would affect her people, but still Married For Love, yet it led to serious backlash from them, and her being imprisoned and losing her family. Moon didn't trust Eclipsa because of what happened during the fight against Meteora in Season 3 , but she still had the right idea wanting Eclipsa and her family to be safe and wanted to prevent Mina from violently destroying Mewni. Of course, she found she was unable to get the situation under control, and Star gives her a lot of crap about it. Star herself points this out, outright saying when a queen in their family messes up, bad things will happen.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Her Super Mode gives her several arms.
- Mum Looks Like a Sister: With her hair completely loose, she's very youthful looking and could even pass as Star's older sister.
- My Beloved Smother: "Sleep Spells" reveals that Queen Butterfly sends Star daily messages reminding her to behave like the "queen-in-training" that she is. Justified. In the Battle For Mewni movie keeping Star away from Toffee not only because of how dangerous he now is, but also because the lizard was responsible for killing her mother.
- My Greatest Failure: Above everything, even allying with Mina, Moon feels her greatest failure is being a horrible mother to Star.
N-Z
- Nephewism: Ever since her mother was killed, her aunt Etheria was the closest to being a parental figure to her, and even goes as far as nagging her about her choice of husband.
- Never My Fault:
- Star accuses her of this. When she wants to crystalize Eclipsa again, she claims Eclipsa manipulates others into doing things they don't want to do, implicitly blaming Eclipsa for the dark magic tainting her arms. Star immediately counters that it was Moon who sought Eclipsa's help and knew the risks (she witnessed what dark magic did to Eclipsa's arms). She also made a deal for Eclipsa's freedom, only to try to cheat her way out of it by merely wounding Toffee instead of killing him. When Toffee winds up dead much later and the terms of the deal are met, Moon wants to go back on her word for seemingly no reason other than blind prejudice against a woman she's only spoken to once and who did nothing but help her.
- This is ultimately the reason for her motive behind restarting the Solarian warrior program and giving Mina's regicide attempt against Eclipsa the jump start it needed. She held a grudge against Eclipsa for her interference during their fight with Meteora thus forcing her into the Realm of Magic and being separated from her family. Something that could've been entirely avoided had she not acted rash during the original scenario.
- It's implied Moon put the blame on magic for her actions in the finale. Moon caused the problems in the finale by foolishly siding with Mina because of her unfair grudge against Eclipsa and her thinking she has control over the situation; that backfired, and Star is understandably angry at her mother. Moon is unsure of Star's plan to stop Mina by destroying magic but agrees to help Star destroy magic, and at the end of the episode she tells Star she freed them from the reign of magic, putting the blame for her actions on magic rather than herself.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Her attempting to attack a magically awakened adult Meteora caused Eclipsa to defend her daughter, just when Eclipsa was making some headway with talking down Meteora. This led to Meteora draining Moon's soul, the Magic Realm absorbing Moon and depositing her among the Pie Folk. It leaves Star to rule Mewni and fight off Meteora. Then when Star, River and Marco rescue Moon and restore her memories, she pretends to accept Eclipsa on the throne ...until it's revealed she was using Mina Loveberry to stage a coup, to get Eclipsa and Globgor to abdicate. This leads to Mina and the Solarian army going rogue to kill all the monsters and any other being to get in their way. It also destroys her loving relationship with Star, who disowns her and has to destroy all the magic in the universe to save the monsters, which means Star and Marco will be separated forever (or so Star thought).
- Noble Bigot: She's still seen as a benevolent ruler despite her views on monsters.
- Noodle Incident: According to Star in Star and Marco's Guide to Mastering Every Dimension, the boots that Moon wears under her usual petticoat are actually go-go boots she got from a pole-dancing class. Star doesn't say anything about why Moon was taking a pole-dancing class in the first place, only that she kept the boots from it.
- Not So Above It All:
- Moon comes off as the most serious and mature of her family, but is just prejudiced against Monsters and can show a childish side once in a while.
- As seen in "Down By The River", she can display a surprisingly comically vicious side of her that makes her a bit like her husband, River. This includes making exploding pies and a pie catapult (that she made once before back when she and River were dating).
- Offing the Offspring: The Deep Trouble comics have her preteen self trying to kill Star, mistaking her future daughter's rescue attempt for an assassination.
- Only Sane Woman: While she has her own blind spots and can get too caught up in expectations, Moon is the most sensible member of her family. She has a lot more impulse control than either her husband or her daughter, likewise as "Game of Flags" shows her extended family aren't much better. The Johansens are uncouth, rough, and violent, while the Butterflies are snobbish, regal and just as aggressive and ruthless. Best demonstrated by the fact she was the only one trying to keep peace at the family reunion.
- Parental Hypocrisy: Hinted at in "Game of Flags" when she tells Star, "I've done a lot of things you won't be doing".
- Playing Card Motifs: She has diamond-shaped markings.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: Unlike Star and Eclipsa, Moon has very old and typical ideas about monsters.
- Poor Communication Kills: Most of Moon's failures are due to not communicating with her loved ones as honestly as she should. Even Star points out in the finale that if her mother makes another mistake like she did helping Mina, she should at least tell her family so that they can figure it out.
- Power Gives You Wings: Moon's Super Mode form has a pair of large butterfly-like wings.
- Power Glows: Her winged form comes with glowing wings and a glowing halo that extends from her crown.
- The Power of Hate: How she defeated Toffee during her youth. Her tapestry even depicts her younger self fighting Toffee with pure, unadulterated fury as she maims his middle finger with a dark spell.
- Proper Lady: Moon always acts as one while performing her role as queen, being elegant and graceful and well-mannered, and tries to turn Star into one. It's often expected that every queen must behave in this manner. However, she acts less lady-like when she's off the clock, such as sometimes casually showing off her legs. During Battle for Mewni, due to the amount of stress she's under, she's willing to partake in less than dignified acts, such as laying on the floor or being trigger-happy with her emotions.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Deconstructed. Moon likes to think she's this, she wanted a less bloody deposition of Eclipsa than the violent Mina and thinks she's being reasonable when her goal is to rule over a more status-quo oriented Mewni. However, her trying to play the moderate still caused her to betray everyone's trust, and she severely misjudged how much control she had over the Solarian Warriors. Mina wouldn't have been able to pull off her revolution (at least not in the rate it happened) without her, people are dead because of her actions, and the reason for her Face–Heel Turn is more of petty resentment than she'd ever admit anyway.
- Redemption Failure: Her arc in Season 4 appears to be centered around her letting go of being Mewni's ruler and feeling the need to take everything upon herself. Ultimately, she can't shake off her royal mindset and pulls a Face–Heel Turn in order to depose Eclipsa.
- Red Right Hand: Moon has black and dark purple vein-like markings on her lower arms from casting the Darkest Spell on Toffee in her youth. They spread up almost to her armpits when she tries to cast it on him a second time in the present.
- The Resenter: Moon's motive for plotting to overthrow Eclipsa is not due to the latter's views or politics, but because Moon is jealous of either Eclipsa getting to have both her family and the crown, her close relationship with Star, or both.
- Revenge Before Reason: She wants to overthrow Eclipsa after her interference during her fight with Meteora, leading her to end up in the Realm of Magic and be separated from her family.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: After her treachery is revealed in helping Mina create a Solarian Army even though her plan was to take control of Mina so she doesn't violently harm everyone, Mina doesn't agree to Moon having convinced Eclipsa to abdicate and leave with her family peacefully, and decides Moon will die with Eclipsa. After all, Moon rejected Mina's offer once, yet changed her mind after a while, so why would Mina trust her again?
- Rules Lawyer:
- Her contract with Eclipsa specified that Eclipsa would be freed after Toffee was killed. Moon works around this by choosing to cripple Toffee instead, destroying his army's morale and scattering them around the world without freeing Eclipsa.
- Later, in an Enemy Mine scenario she and Eclipsa trick the MHC into agreeing to a trial by box where each member of the MHC would get to ask one question. What the other members of the commission didn't realize was that Eclipsa, as an ex-queen of Mewni, is also technically a member, so Eclipsa gets to turn the box on them and force them into admitting what they did to Meteora.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Despite what Star may have thought about her, Moon wasn't a "cool warrior queen", and her Glory Days were not glorious after all. Moon's experiences of losing her mother and having to face Toffee were very traumatic for her, and to make matters worse, she barely escaped another battle with Toffee alive, furthering her apprehension to continue fighting.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: Moon usually wore a standard Queen attire for the first three seasons before transitioning to a more casual dress attire while also wearing her hair down in a braid. In other words, she went from an uptight and no-nonsense Queen to a more mellow and friendly person.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Back when they were young, River was the only one to treat her casually (as opposed to everyone else treating her as either a queen, or as a mourning daughter). Presumably, this planted the seeds for their eventual matrimony. He was also the only one to respect and believe in her competence as a leader. The MHC was treating her like a child, and Lord Mildrew assumed that her going to face Toffee was a suicidal fit of grief-induced madness. River was the only one who believed she could handle the situation, and also went out after her to back her up. Also, when River gives her apology meat to make up for supposedly speaking out of turn during a war meeting, Moon just smiles and tells him how much she appreciated knowing someone had faith in her.
- Smug Snake: She thinks she can control Mina until she realizes too late how out of hand the situation has gotten.
- Staff of Authority: When she wielded the wand, it fashioned itself to look like a royal scepter, befitting her regal personality.
- Start of Darkness: Eclipsa's interference with dealing with Meteora has inspired Moon to concoct an Evil Plan to overthrow her from behind the scenes in Season 4.
- Stellar Name: Her name is Moon.
- The Stoic: Moon isn't the type to let herself get bogged by emotions. When Star asks her if she's happy, her response to that is "What difference does it make?".
- Strong Family Resemblance: Moon looked exactly like Star in her youth, save for the different hair colour and Facial Markings. When she lets her hair down in "Face The Music", she still invokes the resemblance to her daughter while still clearly looking older.
- Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: Shockingly revealed to be the hidden antagonist of Season 4 after past false reassurance she was okay with Eclipsa's rule.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Moon is usually reserved, serious, and stoic. However, she does have a warm and caring side for her family. This includes family friends, like Marco and eventually even Buff Frog.
- Super Mode: She can change into a form that is visually similar to Star's Mewberty form except that it has much larger wings and she can do it at will.
- Supreme Chef: When living with the Pie Folk, she became their baker, and her pies are considered the best in the island. Given her mother Comet was also a great cook, it's possible Moon learned from her.
- Tempting Fate: Her Song Day production was about how happy and peaceful her life was going to be only for the following years to be filled with war, exhaustion, and having Star for a daughter.
- Token Good Teammate: Of her side of the family in "Game of Flags". While she may be proper and regal, she's not as snobby or rude as her aunt, cousins, and other family members.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: She is the girly girl to Star is the tomboy. She is proper, calm, and hates mucky things while Star is unladylike, hot-blooded, and generally dosen't mind getting messy, though she is girly in her own right.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Whether it was temporarily losing her memory or no longer having the pressure of being Queen, by early Season 4 she has loosened up considerably. She's accepting of monsters now living with Mewmans and she even makes pleasant dinner conversation with Eclipsa, although she admits she still doesn't completely trust her. Unfortunately, this change in attitude ends up largely reversed.
- Tough Leader Façade: She was forced to take the role of queen at a young age due to Toffee killing her mother. The royal council and the Magic High Commission immediately begin to doubt her due to her age and try to pressure her into either going into war or signing a peace treaty with the monster army. She takes a third option by using forbidden magic to cripple Toffee and single-highhandedly disbands his army. Her ruthless methods immediately earn her the council's fear and respect. In present day, she has completely set aside her personal happiness to focus on being the queen her people need, turning her into a combination of The Spock and the Stepford Smiler. When Star asks her directly if she's happy, her response is "What difference would it make?"
- Deconstructed as it becomes clear that her dedication to it has been a bit detrimental in her relationship with her daughter (at least in understanding her) and when she was no longer Queen, she was struggling to find something new with her life. In fact, it's possible that this may part of the reason she went with Mina's plan.
- Tragic Bigot: She seems to think that almost all monsters are bad unless they prove themselves otherwise, or have some kind of status in nobility. However, this is somewhat understandable when you consider Moon's mother was killed by monster despite her attempts to make peace with them.
- True Blue Femininity: She wears an elegant blue dress and she's a calm and proper queen.
- Universally Beloved Leader: While the townsfolk gleefully mock and berate Star and River for giving Eclipsa back the throne or seemingly being an idiotic Gold Digger, respectively, they harbor no ill feelings for Moon. And many of them were hoping she retake the throne.
- Unwitting Pawn: Moon believed she had Mina on the leash the whole time, but she could not have been anymore wrong. Mina already had her own plans for overthrowing Eclipsa long before offering to have Moon in charge, and Moon believed that if she had control of Mina, she could mitigate any further violence and bloodshed from her. But, in taking up Mina's offer, all Moon succeeded in doing was making Mina more dangerous than she already was by lending her magic to create Solarian superwarriors, that she can't control them once Mina decides to double-cross Moon.
- Uptight Loves Wild: She (eventually) fell in love with and married River, who hails from a family of boisterous barbarians.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: While she was as studious and proper as she is in the present, Moon was much more sweet and tended to smile a lot more as a child. Whenever she's shown together with her deceased mother, Comet, Moon's usually depicted either as a happy toddler or as an adorable baby, showing how happier she was until Toffee killed her mother.
- Vague Age: The fact that Moon clearly has the appearance of a young, attractive woman kinda raises the question as to what age she even gave birth to Star. Her chapter in the spell book does reveal she took the throne at seventeen, so somewhere in her 30s could be a close guess.
- Wacky Parent, Serious Child: Inverted with her and her daughter Star. Star Butterfly is an adventurous and gung-ho girl who is a sharp contrast from her prim and proper mother. It's implied Star got it from her father.
- What Does She See in Him?:
- In "Game of Flags", one of Moon's relatives, Etheria, expresses disappointment in River (since he's a Johansen) by saying to Moon, "Lord Mildrew is still single" and that it's not too late for her to start again. Moon responds that she heard her the first hundred times.
- This was answered in "The Battle For Mewni"; Lord Mildrew was actually condescending towards Moon and was overly emotional, for example when Moon went to kill Toffee, he believed that she went mad with grief. River was her friend and treated her as an equal. Not only that but he was the only one who valued her as a leader and respected her choices.
- White Hair, Black Heart: Downplayed, but Moon has pale blue hair and committed a Face–Heel Turn in Season 4.
- Winged Humanoid: In "Game of Flags", to get to the top of a mountain quickly, she transforms into a humanoid butterfly with large wings and six arms.
- Women Are Wiser: She tries to be the calm voice of reason in all things, while her husband, River, is in the thick of it, usually making things worse.
- You Are a Credit to Your Race: "Starfari" implies she views Buff Frog this way since spending time with him. When Star confronts her, she reaffirms her mindset that Monsters in general are dangerous and need to be kept out, thereby thinking Buff Frog as one of a select few exceptions.
- You Killed My Mother: Toffee killed her mother, ruining a potential Mewman-Monster peace treaty in the process.
- You're Not My Mother: Moon's actions appalled her daughter so much, the latter basically disowns her as a mother when she orders her to stay away from her.
