Webcomic / Echo Creek: A Tale of Two Butterflies

"Life's too short to miss out on a sister like you"

Echo Creek: A Tale of Two Butterflies is the third Star vs. the Forces of Evil fan comic created by Tumblr user MoringMark, following Ship War AU and SVTFOE Metaverse.

Taking place roughly 14 years after the Earth and Mewni dimensions were "cleaved" in the show's finale, the comic is a continuation fic that follows sisters in all but blood, Mariposa Diaz and Meteora Butterfly, as they attempt to make the most of their summer vacation and learn secrets about the past along the way.

As this is set after the series finale of SvtFoE, all spoilers from the show will be unmarked. This series has gone into hiatus

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Echo Creek: A Tale of Two Butterflies provides examples of:

• 20 Minutes into the Future: The setting takes place about 14 years after the main series ended, and there are some obvious technological advantages, like A.I.s with the memories of the past Mewni Queens, laser guns, and a few other things, though Echo Creek itself doesn't look that much more advanced.
• Abdicate the Throne: The Old Monster Temple has become a History Museum with Eclipsa and Globgor working as tour guides.
• Absurdly Sharp Claws: Meteora's claws are apparently so sharp and tough that she needs an industrial grinder to trim them down. In a later strip, when she and Mariposa are underground, she creates gashes in what appears to be solid rock in order to generate sparks for a makeshift torch. When the girls come upon a Hedge Maze, she scoffs at using the hedge trimmers Mariposa brought and just starts using her hands.
• Advancing Wall of Doom: The dome surrounding Echo Creek is slowly shrinking over time. This presents a problem for the monster residents who physically can't leave. If something isn't done about the dome sooner or later, it will eventually crush every non human resident of the town.
• The Ageless:
  • Globgor doesn't show any signs of significant aging after 14 years.
  • Averted with Mina Loveberry who is visibly older. Although, how she is even still alive after presumably spending the last 14 years (30 minutes outisde is 60 years inside) in the Neverzone Swamp is unknown.
• Alien Blood: Seemingly the case with the Septarian leader after Meteora attacks him before it turns out to be oil from the prosthetic arm that she destroyed.
• Ambiguously Absent Parents: Rafael and Angie are nowhere to be seen, with Marco appearing to be Mariposa's legal guardian. Where they are or what happened to them hasn't been established.
• An Arm and a Leg: Meteora's attack destroys Seth's cybernetic right arm.
• Bait-and-Switch: River appears to be dead at the beginning of Chapter 4, but it's eventually shown that he simply became a wrestler whose gimmick is emerging from a coffin.
• Bank Robbery: The story opens with the girls chasing Rasticore, who's just robbed Skeeve's bank, and later the Septarians are revealed to be planning another bank robbery after that failed thanks to Marco recovering the money.
• Berserk Button: When the Septarian leader hurts Mariposa, Meteora basically tells him that she's going to kill him.
  • In one of the shorts, a mime who's new in town mocks (possibly unintentionally) a group of monsters about being trapped in the Domed Hometown and gets beaten up for it.
  • Meteora hates the "It's not criminal to be an individual" phrase so much that Marco exploits it to find her when she gets separated from him and Mariposa in a crowd.
  • Mariposa tries to invoke this to get Meteora mad enough to unlock her berserker form, but it fails.
  • The AI copy of Solaria does not like being referred to as "just" a robot.
  • When Mariposa uses a disguise that makes her look like her older brother's "Princess Marco" outfit, Meteora's subconcious hatred of 'Turdina' from when she was Heinous gets her so enraged that she bursts out of the cage she's in and reaches a similar form and size to her appearance at the end of season three.
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • Marco takes his role as Mariposa's big brother very seriously and isn't afraid to criticize her actions when necessary.
  • Meteora may not be biologically related to Mariposa, but she gets furious when she's hurt by the Septarian leader, tapping more into her monster heritage and telling him that he's going to die for hurting her.
• Big Brother Worship:
  • Downplayed; Mariposa does look up to her brother, but there are hints that she's annoyed with his overprotective nature.
  • Whether or not Star and Marco are married yet is ambiguous, but Mariposa seems to look up to Star.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Globgor rescues his daughter when she's falling to her doom in the prologue.
  • Ludo, of all beings, rescues the girls in the second chapter.
  • The Solaria AI rescues Meteora near the end of chapter 2 when the hedge maze chamber is collapsing.
• Big "WHAT?!": Upon asking her mother about who Miss Heinous is, Eclipsa hesitantly reveals it to her. This is her reaction.
• Bizarrchitecture: Not as extreme as some examples, but the lair the Septarian gang uses below the Blu-Ray store seems to be a mishmash of a monster structure similar to the Monster Temple and the basement of an Earth building that were smooshed together by the Merged Reality, given how the floor is noted to a different style than the walls and ceiling.
• Blatant Lies:
  • The Septarian leader calls himself "the Queen Killer", implying that he's told his followers that he's the one who killed Comet, despite looking and acting nothing like the deceased Toffee. It's possible he was implying that he was the one who killed Solaria.
  • At the end of chapter 2, Meteora gets Mariposa out of trouble for what happened with the Stump by claiming that it was an early birthday gift for Star, and they were taking it out so that Star could finally celebrate her birthday in peace. Marco can tell that it's an excuse but decides to let it pass so he can start planning a party for Star.
• Body Horror: Ludo has a vine seemingly growing into the back of his head.
• Booby Trap: The two teens set one up for the Septarians.
• Both Sides Have a Point: After one of the humans trapped in the maze with Ludo secretly passes Mariposa a note saying "help", Mariposa is understandably wary of him because of that, while Meteora points out that they might just be prejudiced against Ludo for his villainous past, and when Mariposa asks Meteora to meet her halfway, Meteora points out that since she's always asking her to meet her halfway, that she should also do that sometimes, which Mariposa has to admit is a good point.
• Brain Uploading: When the Magic Sanctuary was being researched after Earth and Mewni merged together, they found that the neural circuits of the previous queens had carved into the structure in the form of blueprints, allowing the creation of Artificial Intelligences based on them, which serve various jobs around town.
• Brick Joke:
  • The shop owner complains about the dummy Meteroa broke when the Septarians return.
  • Rasticore illegally parks in a handicapped parking space with his dragon-cycle, and while the girls ultimately think that it isn't enough to go on for a search warrant, Marco later reveals that they managed to get a warrant based on that.
  • Meteora claimed early on that her middle name is "danger", which Mariposa uses in her Full-Name Ultimatum when they're underground.
• Call-Back: Just like the end of "Skooled!", Meteora blows up Rasticore with a makeshift bomb reducing him to an arm. She even expresses deja vu after the explosion.
• The Cameo:
  • Justin Armberg, Hope Hadley, Pranciss Pony Head, and Beard Deer are all featured in the establishing shot of Echo Creek.
  • Principal Skeeves is now working as a banker with Brantley and Oskar as his security guards.
  • The two headed monster that worked for Ludo can be seen riding in the back of a truck in Monstertown.
  • The nerdy VHS clerk from Red Belt is now working at a Blu-Ray store.
  • Sabrina shows up as an EMT.
  • A short comic reveals that Starfan13 produces a Soap Opera that the girls watch, which is obviously based on Star and Marco.
  • One of the shorts reveals that Slime is also an EMT.
  • A short reveals that the Ransomgram monster is now working as a pizza delivery girl, using her rollerblading skills to deliver pizzas really fast. She also nearly runs over Mr. Candle.
  • Janna, now apparently making a living by conning tourists, advises Mariposa on cheering up Meteora at the start of chapter 2.
  • An Artificial Intelligence based on Solaria appears to bar the girls from entering the Park of Certain Death.
  • Ludo's brother Dennis, now a lawyer, and apparently the best in town, appears at the end of chapter 2.
• Cardboard Prison: Mariposa is able to slip out of the cage Mina had her and Meteora put in because it was designed for holding monsters, not humans, and the bars are farther apart than they should be.
• Catapult Nightmare: Near the start of chapter 2, Meteora has a nightmare where Mariposa flies Nachos into the barrier and gets killed, with Marco and Star showing up and accusing Meteora of murdering her. When Miss Heinous appears and says that with Mariposa dead, she's eliminated her greatest weakness, she jolts awake.
• Con Artist: At the start of chapter 2, Janna is pretending to be from France and conning people out of their money by doing the "find the ball under the cups" game and removing the ball on the sly. When she's found out, she does a Smoke Out and hides under the table.
• Chained Heat: One of the plants in the maze sticks Meteora and Mariposa's ankles together with a wad of sap.
• Chekhov's Gun: The rule against monsters being allowed to ride in a car with humans seemed like just another instance of Fantastic Racism at first. Then we learn there's a far better reason for the rule.
• Child Hater: The Septarian leader outright says that he doesn't like kids, and has no issues with punching Meteora.
• Continuity Nod: During the chase scene, Rasticore refers to Meteora as "Heinous" and claims that he wants nothing to do with her, referencing their past partnership in the show.
• Cool Car: Marco owns a futuristic pick-up truck.
• Cordon Bleugh Chef: At least one of the cup noodles Rasticore stole was vanilla-flavored, which is lampshaded as just weird by the Septarian himself.
• Cyborg: The Septarian leader, who is apparently Seth, has cybernetics of a similar style to Rasticore's old prostheses, gem eye and all, but to an even greater level.
• Cuteness Proximity: Meteora finds Rasticore's arm adorable, even tickling him when he gets mad.
• Dead Fic: As of March 30, 2022, MoringMark is no longer making Star vs. the Forces of Evil comics due to a lack of new ideas. It is uncertain if he will ever go back to continuing this series.
• Domed Hometown: Echo Creek is this. Notably, the dome only keeps monsters from leaving the town; humans and Mewmans can come and go as they please.
• Ear Ache: When Marco finds the aged up Mariposa in the Neverzone swamp. He grabs his currently adult sisters ear as she tried to walk by him.
• Establishing Series Moment: The very first page shows how the citizens of the Earth and Mewni dimensions have finally been able to co-exist in harmony. The last panel also gives us a shot of Mariposa and Meteora riding Nachos, in reference to Gravity Falls, highlighting their status as the main protagonists of the series.
• Evil All Along: The Stump is revealed to have caused the storm that led to the early Mewman settlers taking shelter around it as Revenge for them cutting it down, and had its plants eat the two bullies that discovered what it and Ludo were doing, and uses Ludo's body to say that it'll do the same to anyone who gets in the way of its methods of helping people.
• Face–Heel Turn: Ludo is now an altruistic hero to the humans trapped in the living underground maze. Or at least that's what he wants others to think... He does claim to have good intentions when Mariposa reveals this, though, apparently having started working with the Stump.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • Subverted. There's a rule that monsters can't ride inside of a vehicle with a human, and another that forbids them from going beyond the borders of Echo Creek. Neither was put in place because of racism. They were put in place because of the mysterious, invisible dome that physically prevents monsters from going beyond the town's borders; the signage serves as a warning that one is approaching it, and there's been incidents where the barrier's location was misjudged and some monsters got crushed.
  • The dummy that Rasticore punches to enter a secret room in the Blu-Ray store is apparently a caricature of Moon, having similar Facial Markings to the ones she had before magic was destroyed and a scowl.
  • However, Mina Loveberry is still as xenophobic and insane as ever. Chapter 3 reveals After the cleave she and the rest of the "real mewmans" (the mewmans who were still racist towards monsters) took refuge in the Neverzone swamp where she spent years training their descendants to be her fanatic warriors to take Echo Creek and kill the monsters.
• Fauxreigner: As part of her con, Janna pretends to be French, even switching out her beanie for a beret.
• Foreshadowing: At the end of chapter 1, Meteora complains when she bumps her head into the dome, despite the sign marking the edge still being several feet away. At the end of chapter 2, it turns out that the dome is actually shrinking over time.
• Full-Name Ultimatum: Mariposa gives one to Meteora to try and keep her from immediately going into the maze they find underground. It doesn't work.
• Funny Background Event: When Marco is telling Mariposa that Meteora might be doing something shady at that moment, the girl in question is sneaking around behind him, holding a bag that apparently has Rasticore's arm, only to throw it into a tree when an officer comes near her.
  • Near the end of chapter 2, Ludo briefly arguing with his brother Dennis before they makeup and hug.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Ludo when he reveals his Stump-given Green Thumb powers.
• Good Parents: Globgor is shown to be this to Meteora. While maintaining a gentle and understanding demeanor, he's able to make her reflect on her unwise decisions.
• Graceful Loser: The Stump almost wasn't this, but during its rant about how Mariposa and Meteora ruined its attempts to fulfill its self-appointed destiny it realized that they defeated it by working out their differences and working together to defeat it.
• Green Thumb: Thanks to the Stump, Ludo can now control plants.
• The Guards Mustbe Crazy: They're Oskar and Sensei Brantley, Rasticore just punched past the former and the latter seems to have been asleep through the whole bank robbery. Marco clearly doesn't have much faith in their abilities.
• Hard-Work Montage: The comic strip that features the girls setting up the traps in the Septarsis lair is done in an accelerated gif format.
• Heroic Dog: At least one of the now-grown laser puppies is now a police dog.
• History Repeats: Meteora and Mariposa's friendship is very similar to the one Star and Marco had at their age, with Meteora as the thrill-seeking princess and Mariposa as the more cautious human.
  • Just like her older brother in the episode where he first met Star, Mariposa lands on a cactus patch, in a similar position.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Meteora is painfully aware of her role in destroying magic, and how it led to the Domed Hometown situation trapping everyone of monster descent, including herself, inside Echo Creek.
• I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: The Forest of Certain Death is now the Park of Certain Death.
• In Spite of a Nail: Despite growing up and living in a very different environment compared to The Neverzone Mariposa and Meteora act and dress the same as Bork and Grobb
• Innocently Insensitive: A mime does a relatively good job at entertaining a group of monsters until he gets to the "invisible wall" act, reminding them that Echo Creek is surrounded by an actual invisible wall specifically created to keep monsters, and only monsters, locked inside. It's implied that he didn't know about this, and stated that he's new in town, but the monsters think he's mocking them and beat him up.
• Ironic Echo Cut: During the ride back to the bank, Meteora asks this question.
  Meteora: Oh, I am such a trouble maker, ain't I?
  Globgor: Nooooooooooo—
  Marco: [while talking to Mariposa] She's such a trouble maker.
• Just a Machine: Meteora refers to the Solaria Artificial Intelligence as just a robot, saying that bargaining is useless, tripping the AI's Berserk Button as a result.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Meteora has a tendency to not look before she leaps, once literally.
• Lethal Chef: The Pie King's pies are apparently quite atrocious.
• Meaningful Look: Mariposa and Meteora give each other one when they find the supplies in a side room in the Septarian lair that they then use to build their Booby Trap.
• "Metaphor" Is My Middle Name: Meteora claims that "Danger" is hers, only for Mariposa to point out that she doesn't have a middle name.
• Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: By following Rasticore after he robs the bank, Meteora and Mariposa come across what appears to be a secret society of Septarians.
• Monkey Morality Pose: When the Septarians leave past them, Meteora and Mariposa hide by ducking down next to a statue with its hands over its ears, the former covering her mouth and the latter her eyes, in order to hide.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Meteora, when she and Mariposa are underground, she is really hoping that they're going to find a giant pile of skulls, zombies, radioactive spiders, etc.
• No Infantile Amnesia: Zig-zagged. Meteora consciously remembers nothing of her previous life as Miss Heinous, but she still hates Marco Diaz, albeit she's since developed actual reasons to do so on top of her instinctual hate for him. In addition, she has a moment of deja vu when Rasticore is blown up and reduced to an arm again in Chapter 1, a short comic reveals that the "It's not criminal to be an individual" phrase is still a Berserk Button for her (to the point that Marco exploits it to find her when he and Mariposa get separated from her in a crowd) and a Catapult Nightmare in Chapter 2 that ends with Miss Heinous congratulating her for killing Mariposa. She also still hates princess Turdina on a seemingly instinctual level, as the moment she sees Mariposa wearing a purple dress that makes her identical to her cross-dressing brother, Meteroa turns back into her giant Heinous form and chases down her friend as a mindless berserker.
• "No. Just… No" Reaction: When Meteora mentions Home Alone, Mariposa has this reaction when she realizes her friend's plan.
• No-Sell: As part of the tour at the Monster Museum, Globgor pretends to be a statue of himself as he Jump Scares them. When we see it in action, none of the attendees react when he does this, a disgruntled Globgor taking over as the tour guide.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: At the end of the first chapter, Mariposa admits to knowing that Meteora was trying to guilt her into booby-trapping the lizards' lair, but went along with it anyway because Meteora had been downcast recently and she wanted to cheer her up.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Ludo is a bit annoyed that the first thing Mariposa thinks of when she hears his name is that Marco and Star used to kick his butt.
• Overnight Age-Up: When Mariposa and Meteora enter the Neverzone Swamp, they're exposed to a fog that blinds them for several seconds, and they're older when we see them again.
• Parental Hypocrisy:
  • A sibling variant; when Marco chews out Mariposa for purposefully putting herself in danger when she's just a teenager, Mariposa points out that he went on all sorts of dangerous adventures when he was her age, citing his time in Hekapoo's dimension as a specific example.
  • Meteroa invokes this after they take care of the stump. As it now means that Star can safely have her birthday without having to worry about the thing attacking them. Meteora's expression practically dares Marco to punish them for fixing the problem that "he" nearly got all his friends killed with when he was their age.
• Past-Life Memories:
  • Meteora has a moment of deja vu when Rasticore is blown up and reduced to an arm again.
  • When she sees Mariposa in a disguise that coincidentally resembles "Princess Marco", she goes berserk.
• Positive Friend Influence: Star tells Mariposa that she should try and be this for Meteora, and have Meteora try and meet her halfway.
• Punch Catch:
  • The Septarian leader tries to punch Meteora again when she's laying on the ground, the impact being hard enough to dent the floor, with it being revealed a few panels later that Meteora tapped into her monster heritage and actually managed to catch the punch.
  • Mina in a giant animated armor manages to catch Giant Meteora's fist at the start of their fight.
• Punched Across the Room:
  • When Meteora can't remember the punch sequence Rasticore used on the dummy to access the secret door, she just punches it across the room so hard it damages the wall when it hits. Amazingly, it works.
  • When the Septarian leader joins the fight, he punches Meteora in the face so hard that she goes flying several feet.
• Purely Aesthetic Glasses: Star wears glasses as part of her "mayor" outfit, but according to an out-take, she has perfect vision and just wears them so she can make intimidating glares.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • Star seems to be this; not only is she Echo Creek's mayor, but she mediates between Mariposa and Marco, and advises the former about her friendship with Meteora. She then lends the girl her old scooter to get to the concert.
  • Mariposa and Meteora are both very lucky Marco is the one in charge of the police because, overprotective big brother or not, not every chief of police would be so forgiving to two teenagers they keep finding in the middle of dangerous criminal situations.
• Restraining Bolt: The Artificial Intelligences based on the past Mewni queens, while apparently otherwise having free will, as the Solaria one says, still have override codes. When Mariposa says one, the Solaria AI agrees to answer their question about why the Park of Certain Death is really closed, though she doesn't look happy about it.
• Riches to Rags: With the cleaving and the subsequent uniting with a democratic society, all Mewman nobility from the royal family down to the knights lost all their inherited wealth and power. The former royals themselves have adjusted quite well in finding careers they excel in and enjoy. However, there was still a lot of former stuck-up nobles who did not, and would not "lower themselves" to acting like commoners. These are the ones who sided with Mina in her plan to take over Echo Creek and return things "back to normal" when they were in charge.
• Rollerblade Good: The Ransomgram monster now delivers pizza on rollerblades ridiculously fast. She doesn't even stop when dropping off the pizza Meteora ordered, and Meteora outright calls her the fastest rollerblader in Echo Creek.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Mariposa stops Meteora from killing Mina, Mina books it as soon as their attention is diverted from her.
• Seen It All: After the sheer amount of shocking revelations they've had in the past few days, nothing The Great Stump reveals to them really effects them that much.
• Sequel Series: An unofficial fan sequel that focuses on Mariposa, Meteora, and their summer vacation.
• The Sheriff: Marco is now the town sheriff of Echo Creek.
• Shout-Out:
  • The first page is identical to the opening sequence of the Gravity Falls pilot episode.
  • The Septarians have a Hello Kitty clock hanging in their lair.
  • Meteora directly references Home Alone when coming up with her plan to booby-trap the Septarian's lair.
  • Meteora keeps Rasticore's severed arm under a dead ringer for the Infinity Gauntlet, which looks especially like the Marvel Cinematic Universe version.
  • Earlier, an out-take of the Punch Catch incident has Meteora's head transform into Thanos's, and saying that Seth should have "gone for the head".
  • Mariposa exclaims "I know what we're gonna do today!" when proposing an adventure idea.
  • Meteora mentions "that old movie" The Descent while she and Mari enter a cave within a deep cavern. Which suggests everything will certainly go fine.
  • During Mina's flashback in chapter 3, we see that the "real mewmans" she took with her to the Neverzone swamp were the same Mewman Elitists (including Manfred) who harassed Star and Marco in one of MoringMark's comic strips.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: When Marco and Star have an offscreen make-out session after the latter is done intervening between the siblings, Mariposa is clearly disgusted.
• The Silent Bob: Meteora is able to understand what Rasticore's arm is trying to say without any indication of him making any noise at all, even mentioning an "angry baby voice".
• Sinister Scythe: Ludo uses one against the man-eating plants.
• Skewed Priorities: When Meteora finds out about Miss Heinous, she latches onto her poor fashion-sense before the fact that she was evil.
• Slapstick: Just like her older brother when he was younger, Mariposa has some Butt-Monkey moments, like in chapter 2, where, in the space of two updates, she not only gets thrown over a fence and ends up in a cactus patch, but then ends up falling down a tunnel, and has Meteora (who jumped in after her) land on top of her.
• Small Town Boredom: Meteora has this in regards to Echo Creek, even more so than most instances of this trope because she can't physically leave the town.
• The Smart Girl: Meteora considers Mariposa to be the "smart one" between the two of them.
• Smoke Out: Janna does this to hide from the people she conned when one of them figures it out.
• Soap Opera: In one of the shorts, Starfan13 is revealed to have made one based on Star and Marco.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Seth is alive here.
• Specific Situation Books: When Meteora asks Eclipsa about who Miss Heinous is, Eclipsa responds by furiously flipping through a book titled So Your Daughter Wants to Talk About Her Past Life for an answer.
• The Starscream: Rasticore shows shades of this as he openly questions the Septarsis leader and boasts that he should be in charge. He gets put in his place with a punch to the frill.
• Starter Villain: A fully healed Rasticore is the first villain that the girls attempt to defeat on their own.
• Strange Secret Entrance: After entering a Blu-Ray store, Rasticore punches the store's training dummy a significant number of times, which unlocks a secret passageway.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Seth realizes that Meteora is Globgor's daughter when he sees her more monstrous form in response to him injuring Mariposa.
• Super-Strength: Meteora demonstrates this when she manages to knock a dummy into a wall with a single punch.
• Superweapon Surprise: After Meteora defeats most of her army without even realizing it in a berserk rage after seeing Mariposa in an outfit similar to "Princess Turdina's", Mina pulls out a piece of the Wand in order to power one of the giant Mewman suits of armor.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • The attitudes taken towards the monsters once the worlds merged. The people of Mewni might have been hostile towards them before, but they had generations of history to deal with them. Earth humans on the other hand suddenly had the world drastically changed in a second and brought a large population of incredibly dangerous creatures with varying combinations of superhuman strength, incredible size, high-speed regeneration and other natural abilities along with it. It might be discrimination, but the people of Mewni no longer have the protection of the royalty or magic to back themselves up against the physically superior being, so it's natural that humans would be cautious of them.
  • After seeing Rasticore go into the secret room in the Blu-Ray store, Mariposa immediately suggests calling her brother. Meteora tells her that even 'if' he believes them, he would he need a search warrant to do anything, which he might not even get since all Rasticore has done is park his dragon-cycle illegally, which is a pretty weak reason to be issued a warrant.
  • The laws against monsters riding up front in cars is a perfectly reasonable rule considering the Domed Hometown situation, because if a monster was upfront, and the driver misjudged the placement of the barrier, like Meteora does at the end of the first chapter, they could easily be crushed, while this way they'd just fall off the back, which is relatively safer (and even then, it's heavily implied by a sign marking the border that there have been accidents before).
  • Mina initially planned to invade Echo Creek and slay all the monsters inside with her army of Mewman still loyal to her cause. However, she abandoned that plan because she realized that her "army" was made up entirely of Mewni's former upper-class who lost whatever power they had when the monarchy fell, rather than anybody who could actually fight. At least until she could raise their "children" into an actual army thanks to the time effects of the Neverzone Swamp.
    • Likewise, while these soldiers may have been trained in combat since birth, they still have no magic and are just regular Mewmans with armor and swords. No match for Meteora when she unleashes her massive monster form.
    • As Marco points out, due to the fact that the outside world has more technologically advanced weapons such as lasers they aren't really a threat. After finding them while on patrol he spend two years (a minute or less outside) messing with them all alone with nothing but a lazer gun and became the feared "Devil of Thunder". The only real threat was Mina's mech, which was taken down and had its power source stolen by Meteora.
• Surrounded by Idiots: The mysterious leader running the Septarsis ring doesn't think highly of his minions.
• Tempting Fate: Alfonso and Ferguson say that it's going to be their time to shine during the raid, then fall into one of Meteora and Mariposa's traps.
• There Was a Door: Seth just barges through the Blu-Ray shop door rather than open it, which the owner complains about.
• Those Two Guys:
  • Brantley and Oskar are still shown working together, now as security guards.
  • Alfonso and Ferguson are cops working under Marco.
• Thrill Seeker: Meteora considers safety to be boring and is confident enough to throw herself into the face of danger.
• Time Skip: The comic takes place roughly 14 years after the Series Finale when Mariposa and Meteora are about the same age they were in the Neverzone.
• Toilet Humor: The hiding place Ludo and the other people stuck in the maze are using is accessible via a porta-potty.
• Totem Pole Trench: Meteora and Mariposa pull this in order to avoid suspicion when they go into the Blu-Ray store.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Marco seems to hold this opinion of Meteora and Mariposa's friendship.
• Tracking Device: Marco found the girl she under the store because he had Mariposa's "gizmo" tracked.
• Tranquillizer Dart: In the Neverzone Swamp, after Mariposa and Meteora are aged up by about 14 years, they stumble onto an army and are darted. Mariposa drops almost immediately, but it takes several more to have an effect of Meteora.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Seth flees after Meteora destroys his prosthetic arm.
• Virtual Ghost: When the AI-based on her grandmother Solaria's memories tells Meteora that, despite them not knowing each other very well, those memories mean that she doesn't want to see her get hurt, Meteroa calls the AI a ghost of her.
• Weird World, Weird Food: During their visit to Monstertown, the girls buy boba tea made from the milk of a monster worm. It's actually considered to be very delicious based on Mariposa's reaction.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Ludo is working with the Stump to kidnap people, but only to try and teach them a lesson in teamwork and cooperation. While Ludo realizes that things have gone too far after seeing that the bullies who discovered the secret were eaten by the carnivorous plants, the Stump is even worse, even revealing that it caused the storm that led to the early Mewman settlers taking shelter around it, and threatening to devour anyone that gets in its way.
• We Will Meet Again: Rasticore yells this at Marco as he's escaping.
• Wham Episode:
  • The last page of chapter 1, which reveals the giant dome that keeps monsters from leaving Echo Creek, throwing the previous moments of what we thought was Fantastic Racism in a whole new light.
  • Similarly, the last page of chapter 2, which reveals that the dome is shrinking.
• Wham Shot:
  • The ending of chapter one has a panel where Meteora hits her head against the dome covering Echo Creek.
  • Meteora's nightmare ends with the surprise appearance of Miss Heinous, complete with glowing cheek marks.
  • In chapter 2, the shots of Ludo that reveal that he's got a vine growing into his skull.
  • Page 15 of chapter two ends with Mariposa noticing that one of the humans trapped in the living maze slipped her a note that reads "Help", indicating that Ludo may not be as heroic as he's presenting himself.
  • The end of chapter 2 has Meteora making daily markings of the edge of the dome, which confirms that it's shrinking.
  • When we find the first piece Mariposa and Meteora are collecting, its difficult to identify. But when the second one is found, it's this because it looks like it might be pieces of THE WAND.
• Would Hurt a Child: The Septarian leader has no issues punching Meteora hard. He then tries to outright kill her.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: The Neverzone swamp is named after the dimension with this property because spacetime and causality gets screwy in there. When the dynamic duo enters, they lose sight of each other due to the fog, and find themselves both older when they emerge, and Mina later states that 30 minutes on the outside is equivalent to 60 years or so inside, which is part of her plan to build up an army to kick the monsters out.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: When Rasticore sees exactly who is pursuing him, this is his almost verbatim reaction, as he recognizes Meteora from his time working for Ms. Heinous, though she doesn't remember him at all.

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