Star gathers her friends together to celebrate Mewnipendence Day, the day when the first settlers of Mewni defeated the monsters infesting the land. She divides the guests into human and monster teams, giving the humans armor and weapons but leaving the monsters to fend for themselves. Marco brings up how unfair this seems, using Star's educational pop-up book as an example. Meanwhile, Toffee shows off a mini-portal they can use to teleport Star's wand directly to Ludo. Buff Frog, not trusting Toffee, volunteers to go to Earth himself. However, the portal doesn't work when Buff Frog tries to use it, causing Ludo to fire him. Star leaves food out for him after seeing him depressed sitting in a tree.
Tropes:
- Alternative Calendar: Mewni apparently has one, as Star identifies the eponymous day as "the 37th of Grobnock."
- Armor-Piercing Question: Marco puts a bit of a damper on Star's enthusiasm for the reenactment by asking if the battle seems a little unfair. This causes her to view her kingdom's history in a new light.
- Atop a Mountain of Corpses: Star's invitation depicted her standing on a pile of skulls.
- Batman Gambit: Toffee counted on Buff Frog being the only one brave enough to volunteer for the mission, allowing him to get rid of the only one of Ludo's minions who didn't trust him.
- Black Comedy: When Ferguson is crushed by a giant mace.note "Do something! He's writhing in pain! ...Oh, never mind, he stopped."
- Broken Pedestal: Implied. After reading through the pop-up book and realizing that the version of history she's learned is more than a little glorified, Star seems to understand that her race may not be proud warriors, but rather abusive bullies.
- Comically Missing the Point: Of the Black Comedy variety. When Marco points out that something is off with the story of the massacre presented by the book, Star agrees, and promptly nerfs the monster side even more.
- Continuity Nod: Alfonzo mentions that he got divorced, explaining why he's on Earth and not in Pixtopia.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The original battle for Mewni is implied to be this, and the reenactment definitely is, with the Mewman players being given giant suits of armor and weapons, and the monster players having to fight with nothing but their bare hands.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: A nation built off of conquest and violence whitewashes its history, glorifying the conquerors as heroes, and demonizing the conquered peoples, and making them out as monsters that deserve to be destroyed.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Ludo, Buff Frog and Toffee all agree that spying on Star in the bathroom is going too far.
- Fantastic Racism: There's something gruesome about Star assuming that the unarmed monsters being massacred by magically armed soldiers would be mitigated by their claws.
- Fictional Holiday: The eponymous Mewnipendence Day, which is celebrated by having people dress as monsters and knights to reenact the Monster Massacre. A floating eyeball watches this to remind the monsters of their loss. There's also some corn eating.
- Heel Realization: Star develops some empathy for the monsters once she sees her friends in their shoes, allowing Buff Frog to escape and later leaving him a plate of buttered corn.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: Star, to her horror, realizes that the settlers of Mewni were not defenders against evil, but massacred a group of a monsters and stole their land.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Star gets two:
- First, when Alfonzo gets thrown into the air by the Warnicorn, Star gasps so hard she drops the Wand.
- Second, when Buff Frog (who she thinks is Ferguson) gets thrown several yards back by the same Warnicorn, looking like he's been hurt.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Star chooses not to shoot a fleeing monster because of her realization of how one sided the Mewmans' war with the monsters has been.
- Pet the Dog: Star sees Buff Frog huddled outside during the Mewnipendence Day dinner, so she leaves a plate of buttered corn on the windowsill for him.
- Running Gag: Ferguson (and Buff Frog), getting crushed or almost getting crushed by the same giant mace.
- Sarcasm-Blind: One of Ludo's monsters.Toffee: Princess Butterfly is reenacting our favorite holiday, The Great Monster Massacre.
Horned Bear: That is my least favorite holiday. - Shout-Out: The book that Star reads the story of Mewnipendence Day from looks like one of the classic Little Golden Books.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: At the end of the episode, Star sees Buff Frog alone and sad in a tree and leaves a plate of corn by the window, clearly intending it to be a gift to him.
- Typecasting: In-Universe. Star makes Miss Skullnick play a monster because she is one.
- Wham Episode: Star comes to realize that the holiday in question is a case of Written by the Winners as it gets pointed out to her that Mewmans were far better armed than the monsters that had already been living there before being forced out. Meanwhile, Toffee gets Buff Frog, who is suspicious of his intentions, fired by setting him up to fail.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: This episode reveals that the founders of Mewni invaded the monsters' home and slaughtered them. This makes you see Ludo and his minions in a whole new light.
- Written by the Winners: Star's pop-up book makes clear how much more powerful the Mewmans were compared to the monsters, and that the monsters were already living in Mewni before they showed up.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Star revokes the monster team of any weapons, assuming their claws will be enough. During the battle reenactment (after Marco sheds some light on how unfair it is), Star is shocked to see how wrong she was about the monsters having the higher ground. Unarmed opponents, even ones with claws, don't stand a chance against someone who is armed to the teeth with weapons and armor.
