Boomstick: And Star Butterfly, wild child princess from another dimension
Wiz: They both struggle with their responsibilities to save the world. But when pitting against each other who's heroics will triumph?
The seventh match of Season Eight pits a pair of precocious powerhouses against each other. Hailing from animated universes and bearing alien powers, these two mighty peacekeepers from children's cartoons find themselves in an equally alien arena - a no-holds-barred fight to the death. The Princess of Mewni and the leader of Earth's Crystal Gems will bring all they have to bear, but only one will survive a death battle.
Our hosts start by introducing Steven - or rather, the Gems from which he is descended. The rulers of these Silicon Based Lifeforms, known as the Diamond Authority, would send their minions across the universe in the interest of conquest and destruction. But when their attention was turned to planet Earth, they found an opposing group of Gems, known as the Crystal Gems, defending it. The Diamond Authority responded to this challenge to their, well, authority by trying to destroy every Gem on earth with a blast of light (estimated at 845 tenajoules/sec), with only their leader, Rose Quartz, and her closest Gem allies surviving.
The Diamond attack rebuffed, Rose Quartz chose to settle down, eventually falling in love with a human by the name of Greg Universe. Per the nature of Gems, Rose had to give up her body in order for her son to be born - and in the process, gave him all the power she possessed. Her half-Gem, half-human child would come to supplicate her as Earth's mightiest defender - Steven Universe.
His desire for peace and his pacifistic ways mesh well with his inherited powers; Steven can create shields and bubble barriers to defend himself and others, as well as envelop items in bubbles to disarm opponents non-lethally. He also has shapeshifting and size-shifting abilities, the power to control his personal gravity, and the ability to combine with other Gems - or, in rare cases, other humans - to take on forms that are greater than the sum of their parts.
Being part-Gem, Steven's strength, durability, and speed are on a vastly different scale from humans - convenient, given his tendency to attract trouble despite his wishes. He has outrun Fire, Ice, Lightning, and lasers from alien devices, endured the detonation of a temple, and fought against full-blooded Gems, some of whom are capable of destroying mountains and lifting oceans. His saliva can heal wounds or instill life in non-sentient creatures, and his tears have revived dead individuals, granting them Gem-like powers in the process; he himself is possessed of accelerated healing, with fractured bones being unmade almost instantly, and he can leave his body when knocked unconscious, or possess others while asleep.
All of these qualities have served him well as he has endeavoured to protect Earth in the stead of Rose Quartz... or rather, Pink Diamond, defector of the Diamond Authority. This information was withheld from Steven for much of his life for fear of how it would affect him - sound reasoning, given what happens to Steven when he is mentally vulnerable. In his so-called "Pink State", he taps into the latent power of Pink Diamond, strengthening both his offense and defense as well as accelerating his perception of time. This emotional frailty is not without its risks, though; if traumatized - such as when he killed the Gem known as Jasper - he takes on a massive, Kaiju-esque form, possessing all of Steven's power and none of his self-control.
Though this transformation was reversed, it is still a risk that Steven may succumb to if he ever experiences another complete breakdown. Even so, his friends, family, and fellow Crystal Gems were able to bring him back from that brink, and will do their best to keep him from doing so ever again - and if Steven had his way, trauma such as that would never happen to anyone, much less him, in a world where everyone would get along peacefully.
The Crystal Gem observed, our hosts turn their attention to his opponent. Princess Star Butterfly is an adventure-seeking interdimensional exchange student - to the concern of her friend and classmate Marco. Heir to the Mewni throne and fighter of monsters, Star has inherited generations of magical knowledge and power... and absolutely none of the control needed to use them safely. Her parents decided against sending her to St. Olga's School for Wayward Princesses - and thank god for that decision - in favour of letting her learn control on Earth.
Suffice to say, Earth wasn't exactly prepared for the chaos that magic users bring with them, and even without her spellcasting, a Mewman like Star would be considered superhuman. She can endured blasts large enough to blow off the top half of Castle Mewni, fly out of danger with her deceptively diminutive wings, and manifest bubble barriers around herself and others. She has also inherited a spellbook containing the knowledge of magic used by the Mewni royal line, and has come up with a few of her own spells to boot.
Mewman magic tends to be Exactly What It Says on the Tin, and Star's spells are no different; such names as Cupcake Blast, Jellybean Hallucination Mist, and Starfish Tsunami... kind of give away what the spells do. Even her summoning spells - the consequent summoned creatures relying on the presence of magic to survive - possess rather self-explanatory names, such as the Warnicorn Stampede, which summons a stampede of unicorns for war.
Star's spells and wand give her immense power; she has blown through walls and throne rooms with ease, and her mother once warned her that it could blow up a dimension if she wasn't careful with it - a feat that one of Star's ancestors has explicitly performed in the past. Even without that precedent, one of Star's own magic spells, the Mega-Explosive Crystal Laser, is capable of blowing up planets if she's not careful with it. In more useful news, her Bunny Rabbit Blast has propelled Star fast enough to catch up with a speeding vehicle, and she has fought on par with a creature by the name of Meteora, capable of deflecting lightning.
And this was before her personal growth granted her access to the much more powerful Butterfly Form - a six-armed, broad-winged transformation that increases her power, grants her much more reliable flight, and allows her to travel between dimensions. Futhermore, she's become strong enough in time to use magic without her wand... which, as it turns out, was intended to train her in use of magic, not enable it altogether.
In time, however, Star would turn against her original endeavour of fighting monsters - for monsters, as it turns out, are not inherently evil. Eventually, she brought an end to magic itself, seeing that as the only path by which to put an end to the fighting... albeit at terrible cost. But all those experiences have shaped her, granting her metamorphosis from the naive, eager girl who was originally sent to Earth - much like the butterfly whose name she bears.
With both combatants observed, it's time to set them into the battlefield. One advertisement for Adam and Eve later, it's time for a Death Battle!
On a peaceful beach, a sand castle contest is being held, with a respectable sum of money as the prize. We look in on a massive work of sand-sculpting bearing the #1 prize ribbon... before panning over to Steven Universe, working on his own fortified sand castle, and enjoying a slice of watermelon while he does so. As he spits out the unfavourable seeds, we move to Star Butterfly as she tries - and fails - to shape the sand with her magic, culminating in a massive tower of sand collapsing on Steven and his work.
An apologetic Star tries to unmake her error, but only succeeds in flinging Steven into the air, leaving him to land at her feet. Frustrated, the Crystal Gem boy picks up Star and moves her aside, in the hopes of continuing his sand-shaping in peace; the Mewman princess hopes to cheer him up, but makes the mistake of trying to do so with a Cupcake Blast, which prompts Steven to manifest his shield.
FIGHT!
Steven defends against the blow and leaps into the air before hurling his shield down at Star, who evades and casts her magic into the sand below her. This spell is much more successful than her sand-shaping, manifesting a giant rainbow upon which she and Steven land; a barrage of hearts impacts with Steven's bubble, knocking him into a cliff face and someone else's sand castle before the barrier disperses and leave him faceplanting. Star begins firing multiple shots down towards Steven, who evades the blows - at the cost of several more sand castles - before leaping at the floating princess and forming bubbles around his fists.
He knocks Star down upon the rainbow and engages in fisticuffs, landing several solid blows and nearly knocking her off of their foothold. Star retaliates with a Starfish Tsunami that knocks Steven down to the beach... and to the vicinity of the seeds he discarded earlier, which are starting to sprout into watermelon Steven effigies. The half-Gem encourages their growth, but is interrupted by Star's approach; he quickly manifests his shield again in order to defend against the Meman's magical blasts, and once he has an opening, he hurls his defense at her again, this time with much more success.
Star is briefly left impaled in the sands, but pulls herself free and engages in transformation; Steven is briefly startled as she takes her Butterfly Form, scolding him for his rudeness. A Warnicorn Stampede is invoked, the equine summons charging towards Steven; his displeasure with the fight reaches a peak, and with a yell, he is enveloped in his Pink State as his watermelon effigies free themselves from the sand. A familiar spider in a top hat leads the unicorns in charging at their opponent, but the watermelons keep them occupied as Steven leaps into the air.
He's approached from behind by Star, who makes to blast him with her magic; but Steven invokes a much spikier bubble this time, redirecting the magic into the sands below. A solid punch throws Star to ground, followed quickly by two hexagonal shields to keep her disoriented; then a massive Beehive Barrier manifests around her and the battlefield, one which begins to condense around her, deflecting her spell in the process.
Steven makes to stem her magic before she can try again, encasing her wand in a bubble and then letting it vanish to deprive her weapon. Star is briefly struck tearful... but her summoned spider encourages her not to give up, and Star's resolve increases tenfold. Brilliant beams of light emerge from her hands, much more powerful than before; her summons and Steven's effigies are all reduced to nothing as this spell breaks through the barrier, and Steven barely has time to stare in shock and then scream horribly as he swiftly joins them.
Star is left standing alone before a shattered Gem with its inner light fading out, and amidst the flaming beach, a ribbon lands upon Star's head, which she takes as a sign of her victory.
KO!
Boomstick disagrees with the claim of Star's victory... in the sand castle competition, while Wiz turns to the reasons for her victory in the Death Battle. Steven had the physical advantage over Star, particularly in his Pink State; furthermore, being alien rather than magical in nature, the Whispering spell that Star used to destroy magic would have no effect on him. However, in a fight with a mage, the battle is not going to be decided in melee; Star's magic was more versatile, and something that Steven couldn't overcome for long. Steven's laser reaction feats outmatch Star's lightning achievements, but Star had other options; and Star's Butterfly Form was something she had trained in, whereas Steven's Pink State was achieved through emotional vulnerability - something he tried to avoid. Scaling Steven to his mother's anti-Diamond defense pales in comparison to Star's planet-destroying, if not universe-exploding, offense. And finally, Star's magic was independent of her wand, so disarming her would not limit her ability. Ultimately, the Mewni princess' versatile spellcasting overcame everything that Steven could throw at her.
Wiz: The winner is Star Butterfly.
Steven Universe vs. Star Butterfly contains examples of:
- Bait-and-Switch: Boomstick post-fight comments that he's not sure Star "won" what she thinks she did, looking like he'll segue into being in disbelief at Star winning, but in reality commenting on how he thought Steven's sandcastle was the better one.
- Bloodless Carnage: However, the slain Watermelon Stevens do leave behind watermelon juice in the place of blood. The killing blow is also a laser beam that completely atomizes Steven.
- Comically Missing the Point: Star Butterfly seems far more focused on the fact that she "won" the sandcastle competition than the fact that she just killed someone.
- Continuity Nod: This isn't the first time a fighter attempted to finish off his opponent via a Deadly Forcefield. Unlike Cable being unable to break loose from Booster's forcefield, however, Star is strong enough to break loose and ends up killing Steven in the process to take the win. This also not the first time a fighter used a Pre-Mortem One-Liner involving a goodbye that becomes the fighter's last words instead.
- Dead Hat Shot: Just in case Steven being vaporized wasn't enough to convince viewers, the camera makes sure to have a close up on Steven's shattered Gem and it going dark to confirm he's dead.
- Discontinuity Nod: When Boomstick brings up the
likely genocidal end-result of Star's erasing magic, Wiz replies "yeah, we don't talk about that" before an audibly uncomfortable Boomstick changes the topic. This is a nod to how... controversial that ending was with with fans of Star's series. - Good Versus Good: This battle pits two of the heroes against each other.
- Hero with an F in Good: Whilst Star genuinely wants to do good, she's... not the best at acting heroic due to how impulsive and scatterbrained she is. This is made particularly notable when Wiz and Boomstick discuss how her "solution" to the ongoing war between Mewmans and Monsters was to extinguish all magic, which also destroyed all magic-based life in every dimension that magic touched, possibly committing genocide on a multiversial scale. Even the fight itself largely begins because Star accidentally crushes, then blows up Steven with her magic, before finally she tries to "cheer him up" by shooting him with her Cupcake Blast, with Star continuing to escalate the violence from there.
- Inferred Holocaust: Discussed by Boomstick, as Star extinguishing all magic in her multiverse potentially means she also genocided all magic-based life.
- Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards: The hosts mention that Steven held the physical advantages in physical strength, base defense, regeneration, and speed, but Star's vast magical power and sheer versatility was capable of overcoming every single one of these, becoming a key reason in her victory.
- Stealth Pun: As pointed out by Boomstick in the results, Star could destroy a whole universe, and in the fight she does destroy a Universe, Steven. Boomstick even states the pun was intentional.
- A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: The fight starts because Star interprets Steven's frustration as grumpiness, and tries to cheer him up with a Cupcake Blast. Steven defends himself and starts retaliating. It ultimately ends with Star killing Steven to save herself from his last attack alongside taking out the Watermelon Stevens and her own remaining summons in the crossfire, which makes this a rare case in Death Battle where the fight's tragic-impulsive instigator is the winner.
- Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: Steven represents the latter thanks to possessing the natural toughness and Barrier Warrior powers strong enough to defend against the strongest beings of his universe, while Star represents the former thanks to possessing magic with incredible destructive power capable of ending planets and dimensions. The Unstoppable Force wins since Star's destructive magic potential far surpasses anything Steven could defend or survive against, rendering her own weaker defense a moot point.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Boomstick has this reaction when he learns that Star went through "Mewberty" (the Mewman equivalent of puberty) to achieve her ultimate form.
