History Recap / StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS3E29ButterflyTrap

** Blink and you'll miss it, but [[UpToEleven even his snake hands blush.]]

* AdultFear:
** Eclipsa is horrified when she sees her ex-husband's reaction to the innocent baby Meteora, learning that Shastacan abandoned his stepdaughter.
** Meanwhile try not to think of what Festivia's real parents thought of her being taken from them.
** Star runs away from the courtroom after realizing that she was descended from a commoner, and not royalty. Moon calls after her, realizing that her daughter is distraught and not in the most rational state of mind.

* NotSoDifferent: Star asks the Commission how their actions and lies make them any different than the villain they say Eclipsa is.

* KangarooCourt: The Magical High Commission was clearly going to declare Eclipsa guilty no matter what. Even when she testifies that she doesn't [[EatsBabies eat babies]], Hekapoo still marks it down as evil. [[RealityEnsues However, karma ends up hitting them when they're declared guilty for tampering with Mewni's history and deceiving the royal family for generations, negating Eclipsa's own guilty verdict.]]

* RealityEnsues:

** Even with the knowledge that Star is not a descendant of hers, Eclipsa still cares about Star when the poor thing runs away heartbroken. Just because someone isn't related to you by blood [[FamilyOfChoice doesn't necessarily mean they care about you less]].

* OhCrap: The Magic High Commission when they realize that Eclipsa can in fact use the punishment box to force them to answer her question... then immediately again when that question is "What did you do with my daughter?"

* YankTheDogsChain: Star thought Eclipsa could be the grandma she never had, and she was happy only to find that Eclipsa was never her 8th great-grandmother. Eclipsa also seems sad to learn that she and Star aren't really related as well.

** Rhombulus once again asks Eclipsa if she EatsBabies, like he did in "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS3E11StrangerDanger Stranger Danger]]". Hekapoo has to correct him again, saying that was ''Bubi''psa, another past Queen of Mewni.

** Even with the knowledge that Star is not a descendant of hers, Eclipsa still cares about Star when the poor thing runs away heartbroken. Just because someone isn't related to you by blood [[FamilyOfChoice doesn't mean they care about you less]].

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: It's implied that Moon suspected why Festivia replaced Meteora: that Moon and Star's ancestor was an impostor heir to the throne. She still went ahead with the trial and risked her throne's legitimacy, because to Moon, doing the right thing was more important than preserving her claim as Queen. It's also implied that she and Eclipsa talked this possibility out, which is why she wasn't as perturbed by the revelation as Star was.

** Even with the knowledge that Star is not a descendant of hers, Eclipsa still cares about Star when the poor things runs away heartbroken. Just because someone isn't related to you by blood [[FamilyOfChoice doesn't mean they care about you less]].

* MamaBear: Eclipsa is willing to let the box crush her to find the truth about her daughter, and she's furious on learning what Shastacon and the Council did.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: At the start of the trial, Moon brings in a massive pile of records recounting all of Eclipsa's activities before she was crystalized that they would all have to comb over, stretching the trail out for ''hours''. When Eclipsa recommends they skip to Trail by Box and bypass all of that, the High Commission is more than happy to comply. This is later revealed to be {{Foreshadowing}}, since Moon and Eclipsa ''wanted'' them to skip over the minutia of paperwork for an alternative in a BatmanGambit via BotheringByTheBook to reveal what really happened. If the trial was real, Moon would have gone over all of the evidence herself and picked them out before the trial even began.