History Headscratchers / StarVsTheForcesOfEvil

** It might not even be a [[ShoddyKnockoffProduct real/properly functioning toilet]]. Also, River might not know what the true purpose for a toilet is, since Marco never told him. If River played with the toilet more, then maybe he'd [[OhCrap figure]] [[JustForPun it out...]]

* In "Girls Day Out", why didn't Star at any point just use her dimensional scissors? I mean I can get that it may not of worked when getting from the detention hall to Oskar as Ms. Skullnick is sitting on a bench right across from him and both her and Janna would've been instantly spotted, but why didn't she use them to get back once they got the spare batteries? Not only would it have been a lot faster to do that than trying to get back there on foot (or in this case, a janitor cart transformed into a giant porcupine), it also would've saved them a lot more time doing that, while also having plenty of time to spare. Plus, even though dimensional scissors so far have only been seen being used to travel to other dimensions, unless I'm mistaken, nothing in the show itself has stated that a user couldn't just use the scissors to travel from one location to another in the same dimension. So again, why didn't Star just use them?

* Why would Marco and Star have not talked at all during the couple of weeks between his going home in "Scent of a Hoodie" and deciding to live on Mewni in "Lint Catcher"? Their tearful goodbye in the former episode makes it clear that being separated was the last thing they wanted, but then they proceed to act like they ''don't'' have dimensional scissors to visit each other on a daily basis, and magic mirror phones to call each other. Even though one of the intervening episodes has Star use her mirror multiple times to call ''Janna''. The whole thing reeks of an IdiotPlot to generate artificial drama between them when they're reunited, instead of giving us more of the close friendship that's always been the core of the show.

* In "Girls Day Out", why didn't Star at any point just use her dimensional scissors? I mean I can get that it may not of worked when getting from the detention hall to Oskar as Ms. Skullnick is sitting on a bench right across from him and both her and Janna would've been instantly spotted, but why didn't she use them to get back once they got the spare batteries? Not only would it of been a lot faster to do that than trying to get back there on foot (or in this case, a janitor cart transformed into a giant porcupine), it also would've saved them a lot more time doing that, while also having plenty of time to spare. Plus, even though dimensional scissors so far have only been seen being used to travel to other dimensions, unless I'm mistaken, nothing in the show itself has stated that a user couldn't just use the scissors to travel from one location to another in the same dimension. So again, why didn't Star just use them?

* Why Eclipsa, the Queen of Darkness, was baptised with such a name? If it is a case of NomenOmen, which project had her parents for her? Counterexample: what if the name would have been Light? Light the Queen of Darkness would have been... ludicrous. Or a nonsense. And Mewni is also a MagicWorld, so that the PowerOfTheWords is real.
** Names as ''Shadow'', ''Darkness'', ''Doom'', ''Demona'', ''Catastrophe'' would have been to avoid... like astronomical names as ''Comet'' (in some historical ages), ''Void'', ''Collapsar'' (or ''BlackHole''), ''NeutronStar'', ''BlackDwarf'', ''Nova'', or ''Eclipsa''. (''[=SuperNova=]'' being probably the most dangerous). This fact needs to a new section in the WMG part.

** ** You're overthinking this. It's because she's dead. She's no longer bound by that rule.
*** Really poor writing.

** 21st century Earth has the production capacity to achieve universal housing and welfare for everyone on the planet. It has been within our grasp for ''decades,'' no magic required. Though Mewni is separated from Earth by a golden goo dimension, its cultures sprang from the same well and its current conditions display similar issues: the "magic" is hoarded by a tiny minority more concerned with using it to buttress their own security and vanity than to the public good, while those left deprived of it fight amongst themselves for the scraps and spend their time fearing the monsters that they have been told for countless generations are the actual problem.

** 21st century Earth has the production capacity to achieve universal housing and welfare for everyone on the planet. It has been within in our grasp for ''decades,'' no magic required. Though Mewni is separated from Earth by a golden goo dimension, its cultures sprang from the same well and its current conditions display similar issues: the "magic" is hoarded by a tiny minority more concerned with using it to buttress their own security and vanity than to the public good, while those left deprived of it fight amongst themselves for the scraps and spend their time fearing the monsters that they have been told for countless generations are the actual problem.

** 21st century Earth has the production capacity to achieve universal housing and welfare for everyone on the planet. It has been within in our grasp for ''decades,'' no magic required. Though Mewni is separated from Earth by a golden goo dimension its cultures sprang from the same well and its current conditions exhibit similar issues: the "magic" is hoarded by a tiny minority more concerned with their own security and vanity than promoting the public good, while those left deprived of it fight amongst themselves for scraps and spend their time fearing the monsters that they have been told for countless generations are the actual problem.

** You're overthinking this. It's because she's dead. She's no longer bound by that rule.

* In "Ghost of Butterfly Castle", Mina asks Moon to help her create new Solarian warriors to overthrow Eclipsa. Moon rejects this, saying she's no longer queen and isn't going to get involved. In "Here to Help" we find out that she went back to Mina and did ''all of the things she'd just refused to do'' in their initial meeting. Given the implication that Moon alone empowered the new Solarians, she must also have been the one to do so for Mina's pet crow Sebastian, first seen to have a Solarian form in "Junkin' Janna". But "Junkin' Janna" is only 5 episodes after "Ghost of Butterfly Castle". What the heck happened during that very brief period of time that would cause Moon to completely reverse herself with regard to Mina's plan? The events of the intervening 4 episodes don't seem to even include anything that Moon would've been ''aware of'' in the remote forest where she's living, let alone cause her to conclude that such extreme (and flat-out insane) measures were needed against Eclipsa. Whatever happened to change Moon's mind must have occurred completely off-screen, yet the show didn't even hint at what it might be. As such, the revelation that Moon was working with Mina feels like [[ShockingSwerve a twist just of the sake of having a twist]].

** One consideration here is that Earth is unique for not relying so much on Magic (and instead relying on magic and having a lot of non-literal turns of phrase); Star is never surprised by Punk Rock or Pirates, but based on the weird and eccentric places she goes, she might be surprised people would ''pretend'' to be pirates for the sake of a restaurant theme. Considering the easy access she has had in life has to making these things real (and often dangerous), it's weird for her to process what's only pretend and what is real. After all, a lot of our mundane earth technology seems like it could not be replicated on Mewni without the aid of a Wizard or magic. So it's hard for Star to figure out what is a mundane but real and what is simply magical and pretend since it used to be that a Wizard just did all of those things by spell.

*** Of course she could handled Tom-that much I don't dispute. It's the issue that, the episode prior, Marco mentions-in no uncertain terms-that he wants to matter to Star. He got over his interest in mutual protection, but those still ring true this episode. He cares, and I don't think it's reasonable to punish the guy because he wants to feel like he matters to his best friend, and potentially more than that. I think that's where the episode falls short-making Marco look bad by interfering-when he had the chance, and probably should have-doesn't solidify his importance as a character, or his importance as someone Star can trust to have her back and look after her, who-quite frankly, given her reckless nature-she needs.
*** If the show has a TrollingCreator, maybe we need to accept that Star's FatalFlaw is that she doesn't like to admit that she needs help to handle things, especially since the reason why she got sent to Earth was because she couldn't handle the magic wand on Mewni, as her parents tactfully summarized. Thus it's her BerserkButton when Marco underestimates her or treats her like a DamselInDistress, because it brings up bad memories of that first awful day with the wand. This would be in-character with her response in "The Banagic Incident," where she knocks Marco's dessert out of his hands for implying the same thing several episodes later. With that said, a few people in Star's shoes would feel insulted that their judgment wasn't being trusted because it's one of the few times that she does think through a situation, and her affection for Tom isn't the MadLove that other people have expressed for villains. Marco's only "punishment" was a mild lecture, and to then make Star nachos, which he would have done anyway if she had stayed at home.
*** Star has asked for help plenty of times. Her fatal flaw is the emotional baggage she carries around from her mother molding her into a perfect future ruler. When Marco questioned her ability to handle herself, she lashed out because it reminded her of her mother's authoritarian personality. Of course, Star may not even realize this, as she didn't even know she had mother issues until ''Dr. Marco, Ph.D.!'' pointed it out.

*** This is a good point. Another thing to note is that Marco understand reality better, while Star knows fantasy better, so she could probably handle herself relatively better than on Earth, and having Marco wouldn't be as crucial. Plus, Marco's showing up set off Tom's temper in the first place. However, it's still somewhat frustrating, because going with Tom at all seemed like a pointless risk and an indisputable mistake. Tom was clearly still struggling with anger issues, so he was essentially a somewhat literal walking time bomb. Really, it would have been best for her not to go at all. If the episode had acknowledged this better (rather than just a "maybe"), then perhaps the Aesop could have come off better. As for that "fated dance"... its nature isn't really clarified, so it's still [[ParanoiaFuel somewhat unsettling]]. It's also made frustrating because Marco has often strained himself to pull Star out of dangerous (even lethal) situations (even outside Earth), so it's not as though his fears were unwarranted either. The basic lesson "you can't control her every decision" makes sense, but it would have been nicer to have better acknowledgment of both sides (like in "School Spirit" and "Fortune Cookies"). But then, I wouldn't say this is a flat-out BrokenAesop; the general idea does still hold.

*** I would find that easier to believe if Star had found out about it from the research she did in order to bust Gustav, yet there's no mention of it, even though it would be one of the easiest ways to prove that he was lying. Also, the language books she found in his backpack even said "Scandinavian", as if it was just a single language. So, still scratching my head at that one.
*** If you look closely at Star's string theory wall, she has on there a map of the Scandinavian Peninsula, showing that she did become aware of what Scandinavia is during her research. Also, about those books that Star found; Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, the three countries that make up Scandinavia, are all '''very''' similar to each other, both culturally and linguistically (as in their languages sound really similar to each other), which is why you usually see the three get confused with each other. So like I said before, they knew pretty much what they were doing, and were simply just [[Main/RuleOfFunny playing it up for laughs]].
*** Also, even if Star would have figured out what Scandinavia is, she still is pretty much an alien from another dimension that appears to live in the USA. The USA are a collection of states that - while having their own names and stereotypes - all agree that they are something bigger - the United States of America. Even if Star would have gotten to the point where she knows that Denmark, Sweden, Norway, etc are separate states, how would she know that they aren't still "Scandinavia" and that their citizens refer to themselves as Scandinavians?

* Marko has, according to himself, "a green belt with a stripe" in karate. This means that either the monsters are so ridiculously weak that groups of them can be defeated by a 14 year old, roughly mid-level karate student, or he's much better than his rank suggests, which would in turn beg the question how Jeremy could be any better than him even with a knuckle duster.

* Not sure if it belongs here, but it certainly made me scratch my head a few times. Marco tells the Goblin-elephant-demon lady the following: "When you steal other people's faces, all you're really stealing is your future." I guess my question is, were they actually serious??? I'm well aware that you can ruin your future by fitting any number of the tropes here from JerkWithAHeartOfJerk to KidsAreCruel, but that wouldn't change the fact that your future belongs to you. That's what makes it frightening when you do ruin your future. It's bleak and all yours. It's made even more unbelievably stupid by the fact that we can't potentially be talking about an object that was stolen and in turn prompted the hero to steal it back. We're talking about what will happen to this character in her remaining lifespan. How can she steal that??? Were the writers just trying to make us laugh by spoofing scenes like this or should I be even more worried about the future of humanity? I know this is a cartoon, but even the music that plays during the scene changes to indicate that she was actually considering a HeelFaceTurn from that unbearably painful piece of dialogue. Granted it does turn out that it [[Administrivia/NotThisTrope Wasn't that trope]]...

*** Which makes things even more confusing. Why is Marco so good at karate when his instructor is a hack, and how on Earth is Jeremy a black belt?

*** a) It could be that he's new to the town and/or police department and hadn't encountered a Star-caused magical incident before.
*** b) Star hadn't caused any problems in the park or his jurisdiction so he hadn't seen any magic yet.
*** c) Considering all of the Gravity Falls cameos in the background of this episode, this could just be a further reference to Gravity Falls, in that crazy magical things go on around them all the time and yet they continue to remain blissfully (and sometimes willfully) ignorant of what's going on around them. Especially the police. If this is the case, expect him to have no idea about magic again, if he ever makes a reappearance.

*** Or perhaps more likely, Moon didn't react because the name "Toffee" doesn't mean anything to her. If that's not the name he was using decades ago when Moon defeated him, there'd be no reason for Moon to connect the lizard-monster Star fought with "the immortal monster." There's probably lots of monsters that look like lizards, and it's not as if Toffee wore a business suit back when he fought Moon.

*** That's not how biology and growing up works. Also by his story, he interacted normaly with that dimension's equivalent of people.

*** The issue with age of consent, age gap and all that is mental and emotional maturity. Marco lived and experienced 16 full years, and he remembers all that. For all intents and purposes Marco is now a full grown adult in the body of a 14 year old.

*** It was never stated his mind was affected once he got back. He retained all his memories and experiences, which is why he couldn't remember his laptop password. Just like in every body swap/age swap story, in this case, he has the mind of an adult and body of a teenager, hence, he's an adult in a teenager's body. Just like Mathew Perry was an adult in a teenager's body in the movie, 17 Again. If one wants to go the Milo Yiannopoulos route, fine, he's a ephebophile.
*** The brain isn't a metaphysical thing, it's an actual organ in your head. When Marco's body was physically reverted to 14 years old, his brain was too.
*** Again, there's no indication of that other than wishful thinking, in fact, there's evidence for the opposite. Marco looks at his room as an old, distant place, he has completely forgotten his laptop password, and comments on how the burger that, to him he didn't finish eating a long time ago, was still warm. All this even though he had been gone for 8 minutes on Earth. He still has 16 years of experiences and growth, aka the "mind" of a 30 year old. Again, the same as in every age altering fiction, falling under the same squick as all those adults who become yourger (ex. Jumanji).

*** One can live with that AuthorSavingThrow.

* Okay so in all this troper's time as a fan of animation I've never seen anyone pull a WhatTheHellHero to a T. In what dimension, Star would you think it's okay to spout how you lost the sacred Book of Spells along with Glossaryck the powerful wizard man who serves whoever possesses the book? And remember she herself said she knew about the whole song until the part with Marco came up, so she clearly knew her parents didn't want her spilling the beans. So yeah, WTH hero?

** Its not quite clear how making new spells work. Its possible they are discovered in a "scientific" way (say this and move like this and it has this effect) meaning that new spells would be "discoveries" rather than purpose made tools. If they are instead purpose mad tools, its possible that they were unintended side effects of the tools use (ex "Look at all those poor beardless men, I know what will help! *poof* Woops won't stop growing back to the drawing board.) The "torture" theory doesn't really work, considering that those are still incredibly ineffective at that purpose.

*** Star was kinda flirty with Marco (telling him he's never been cuter) after they reunited. And Marco seemed to be fine with it. Still no mention of Jackie though. And WordOfGod is that Marco didn't tell anybody before going to Mewni, so he vanished for weeks without Jackie having any idea where he was.

*** "Conquer" implies that he was just messing with them the whole time.

** Just because the world is magical doesn't mean that the names have power by themselves. Regardless, the Butterfly family seems to go with astronomical theme names. Apparently Comet was already taken without anything strange happening, and "Moon" is generally associated with darkness itself. "Light" wouldn't fit the theme naming, all the names sound like names rather than simply being random astronomical words. "Solera the Queen of Darkness" might be a bit ironic, but it sounds fine.

*** Yeah, but unlike Star, Marco actually has to go to school right? I mean won't the Diaz's get in trouble with the law if Marco doesn't show up to school? I doubt they'll buy the fact that he is off in another dimension. They could lie and say it's a legitimate foreign exchange, but Echo Creek High would have to have records or something if one of their students is in a foreign exchange program.

*** Given that the castle has been home to ''generations'' of very powerful magic users, that's not exactly outside the realm of possibility. AWizardDidIt is completely applicable here. Such a place could easily be a full-blown EldritchLocation by now.

*** Doesn't seem likely. Commision would know if it worked so and wouldn't try at all to recrystalise her rather than giving up on that because Star asked them to. Plus, [[ExactWords the contract said that Eclipsa would be freed - not that she would stay free.]]

*** Even if Star did just toss them on the ground (since she had no use for a second pair of dimensional scissors), how would Ludo know to go back to the ruins of his castle and look for them?
*** Its possible he just went to the castle to see if there was anything left, then found it then. Otherwise By the Book was where "the Wand" started talking to him, ordering him to kidnap star. Its possible it told him where his scissors where.

* Given how Glossaryk loves to hold what he does/has power for over everyone, why did he refer to Eclipsa as Moon's 9 times great grandmother in Page Turner when They aren't actually related? Did he even know about The Meteora swap? And how would the commission even managed to keep that from him?

*** Star didn't say they weren't more magical than everyone, she said they weren't any more 'royal' than anyone else.

* Here's something that doesn't make sense to me. If Glossaryck could only help magic royalty, How come he continued to be of service to Festivia? Festivia was a peasant baby born into poverty. She became queen because the High Commission got rid of Meteora and passed Festivia as Eclipsa and Shastacan's daughter. In his first appearance, Glossaryck refused to help Marco unless he give him pudding due to not being royal blood. I understand that he started working for Ludo after his book was stolen because Ludo was of royal blood, and very tainted blood on his father's side too. So why didn't he close the book on Festivia?
** Nothing says it has to be royalty. The book will open for anyone who wants to use it (but not write in it). Glossaryck goes with the book and if Festivia now has the book he'll train her as he would anyone else. Ludo was not the owner of the book, Toffee was since he was the one with the wand (the skeletal hand was his after all) and Glosarryck was aware of that.

*** It's possible they realized very after the festival that one of their own was missing and just recognized Festivia and added two and two together. After all, it seems that Mewman princesses are very public figures, they probably saw her from a young age and was just recognized, or she may have had a strong family resemblance to her real kin. And of course, being Pie Folk no one would believe them.

** They don't use currency. Fighting is their currency. Kelly even mentions that when one of her relatives purchased a yacht, he had to be taken to a hospital. Wait...

* in Conquer Glossaryck speaking normally now! why did do that talk about Globgor beck at Rest in Pudding!
** Okay, assuming I understood that properly, he wasn't speaking normally because it was anouther of his puzzles to get Star to think things out for herself. It's the same reason he pretended to die during her wand fight with Ludo, the direct method doesn't work so well with Star.

** ThirteenIsUnlucky?

* Eclipsa's entire backstory, one of the main arcs of the series' third season, revolves around her being imprisoned and demonized for leaving her Mewman husband and King in favor of her monster lover instead, and as the episode "Monster Bash" revealed, [[spoiler:giving birth to a Mewman-Monster hybrid, Meteora Butterfly, also known as Miss Heinous]]. As monsters are discriminated intensely by Mewni, she is considered a criminal and a disgrace to the Butterfly family, and was unjustly imprisoned in a magical crystal for possibly hundreds of years. However, enter the Lucitors, the ruling family of the underworld. Their kingdom is a close ally of Mewni, despite the fact that their family is composed of Queen Wrathmelior, a giant demon that bears a heavy resemblance to Eclipsa's monster husband, Dave, her Mewman husband and King, and Tom, their hybrid son and Star's current boyfriend who she had previously dumped for his anger issues. Also, in "Club Snubbed", we see that the Lucitosrs are even good friends of the Butterflies, inviting them to the annual Silver Bell Ball, and approving of and even encouraging Star and Tom's relationship. So the question is, what's their excuse? What's any different about their relationship then Eclipsa's? Is it because Wrathmelior is technically a demon? Either way, it's a huge [[DoubleStandard double-standard]] that Star of all people should have picked up on by now especially, considering her current efforts to achieve justice for Eclipsa and stop the discrimination of monsters in favor of a peaceful co-existence.

** As it turns out in "Is Another Mystery", [[spoiler:Demons are more of an exception. However, they are still held in contempt despite their alliance with the Butterfly Kingdom because they are still considered monsters]].

* How did the monsters get the jump [[spoiler:on Marco in Storm the Castle]]?! He's defeated them effortlessly before, even making fun of them. I want to know what Toffee did exactly, or if they just caught [[spoiler:Marco while he was sleeping]].

* In the ending of Storm the Castle, Star's mother doesn't approve of Star [[spoiler:destroying her wand by using the Whispering Spell]]. Apparently [[spoiler:using the spell is dangerous since the wand itself is her family's heirloom, and destroying it will have broke what has been brought down to her family for generations]]. Yet why [[spoiler:is the whispering spell the one she teaches to Star first]]?
** Because the spell itself may be completely unrelated to [[spoiler:destroying the wand]] since Star didn't made the connection until [[spoiler:Toffee told her to use it]]. The spell may have been intended as something to be used only in emergencies. Maybe [[spoiler:it is a Death Spell, and it worked on the wand precisely because it killed the power source]].
** Alternatively, the very fact that the wand could destroy the universe may mean that [[spoiler:Star's mother taught her the spell as a contingency; if the wand were ever in danger of falling into evil hands, it would be safer to destroy it.]]

** As revealed later in Season Two, Toffee lost that finger [[spoiler:to Moon Butterfly in her youth]]. Who's to say it didn't permanently damage the stub, making it so that it ''couldn't'' regenerate? Everything else would be fine, but not that appendage.

** Turns out [[spoiler: Marco's sensei isn't even a red belt.]]
*** Which makes things even more confusing. Why is Marco so good at karate when [[spoiler: his instructor is a hack]], and how on Earth is Jeremy a black belt?

* In Storm the Castle, how is it that the explosion that results from [[spoiler:star destroying her wand]] is powerful enough to destroy Ludo's Castle completely and everyone inside, except for Star and Marco, but not the egg that Ludo emerges from shortly afterward??? Prior to leaving, the chicken monster lays an egg right next to the crystal cage, everything is blasted to kingdom come, but the egg is fine. InsaneTrollLogic at it's very finest, and while i'm at it, how on earth didn't it destroy Toffee's coat and tie? That wasn't inside the cage like Star and Marco were or even next to it like the egg. How?

** It's magic, particularly wild and unfocused magic to [[spoiler:self-destruction]] - it probably made a random selection of what it affected since there was no focus. Ground zero = blast, a small bubble beyond that = not affected, and so forth in stages until one of them destroyed the castle with concussive force. Or something; her black hole spell has similar selection qualities, in that it doesn't affect 'everything' when it should.

* What was the purpose of Star's crush on Oscar? Was it a season 1 experimental test of how Star could handle a crush on [[spoiler:Marco]]? Or is it setting up a VERY complicated Love Dodecahedron?. Because it felt kind of pointless after her crush on [[spoiler:Marco]] appeared and Oscar almost disappeared completely from the show along with Star's crush on him.
** It might be an AbortedArc. Or, it could be as you said, in setting up Star doing something with Oscar to get her mind off [[spoiler: Marco.]] What's interesting to me is that she clearly was still attracted to Oscar in his latest season 2 appearance, given what happen in Girl's day, but the very next episode is Sleepover, which does the true [[spoiler: crush reveal]]. Like how Brittney or Marco's other friends haven't appeared very much, we'll just have to wait and see what the writers have planned.
** Oskar is just a guy she's physically attracted to. [[spoiler:Marco]] is the guy she's in love with.
** I was asking about the purpose of the crush. I never said the crush on [[spoiler: Marco]] was forced or anything. I wanted to know some possible reasons for why they spent 1+ seasons teasing it yet they dropped it almost immediately while leaving Oskar as a [[SatelliteLoveInterest guy who was there for Star to be crushing on]] even though that crush and flirting they had went nowhere.

** Toffee was not dead after the season one finale. He just merged himself with Star's wand and was inside of it the entire time. This was confirmed in the movie and even further demonstrated by what happens when Star [[spoiler:uses the whispering spell and blows the fragment in Ludo's hand , herself and Ludo up.]] Given that[[spoiler: Eclipsa's crystal cracked]] at the end of the special though, it's safe to assume that he's dead now.

* Sooo, we're 4 episodes into season 3. Are we just not going to address [[spoiler: what happened to Marco and Jackie's relationship after Star's confession?]]

*** "Conquer" implies that [[spoiler: he was just messing with them the whole time.]]

* Given how Glossaryk loves to hold what he does/has power for over everyone, why did he refer to Eclipsa as Moon's 9 times great grandmother in Page Turner when [[spoiler: They aren't actually related]]? Did he even know about [[spoiler: The Meteora swap?]] And how would the commission even managed to keep that from him?

** She probably just absorbed his soul like everyone else. As for what happens to him after she's defeated, eh, I got nothing. [[spoiler: Resolved in "Yada Yada Berries".]]

** Magic mutates its carrier after long esposure, giving Festivia and her descendants cheek marks. Also, it seems that anyone in Mewni can use magic with the wand at least, it's just that only the royals were allowed to.

** "Unkillable" doesn't mean "unbeatable". As shown by Rasticore, their healing factor slows down over time. It's not much of a help that you can slowly heal any injury, even lethal, if you still can end up with a broken spine that you'll need months to regenerate. And there is also the little fact that you don't need to kill or even wound someone in order to imprison them - especially if one of your allies specialises in freezing bad guys.