"Are you sorry for what you've done?"
Moon and the Magical High Commission put Eclipsa on trial for her evil past with Star as a key witness.Tropes:
- And You Thought It Was a Game: Star finds out that the main function of the "Truth or Punishment" cube is to act as an arbitrator in trials, rather than a slumber party game. She isn't totally wrong, though, since "Party" is one of its many settings.
- Armor-Piercing Question:
- When it's Eclipsa's turn to ask a question, she asks the Commission about the whereabouts of her daughter. They are stunned, and their immediately response is to lie. It's only when they are punished by the Box that they admit to their actions.Eclipsa: What did you do with my daughter?
- It's implied that Star asking how the Commission's lies make them any different from the villain they say Eclipsa is is a factor in Rhombulus spilling the beans.
- When it's Eclipsa's turn to ask a question, she asks the Commission about the whereabouts of her daughter. They are stunned, and their immediately response is to lie. It's only when they are punished by the Box that they admit to their actions.
- Blush Sticker: When the box conjures an image of her monster husband, the spades on Eclipsa’s cheeks glow magenta.
- Bottle Episode: The whole episode takes place inside a courtroom at the Bureaucracy of Magic.
- The Bus Came Back: The Truth or Punishment Box returns, revealed to be a tool of the Magical High Commission. Despite the setting for "Party" (both normal and bachelorette varieties), Moon insists it is not a toy. One can only guess at how Pony Head got her hands on one (metaphorically speaking).
- Call-Back:
- The events of "Sleepover" are referred to when Star sees the Truth or Punishment Box.
- Rhombulus once again asks Eclipsa if she Eats Babies, like he did in "Stranger Danger". Hekapoo has to correct him again, saying that was Bubipsa the barbarian.
- Crush Blush: Rhombulus blushes when he admits he has a crush on Moon.
- Blink and you'll miss it, but even his snake hands blush.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Star at the end of the episode. She berates the Magic High council for lying to her family for decades, only to realize that with her ancestor Festivia being an impostor, not only does that mean that she and Eclipsa aren't related, but that her family has no legitimate claim to the throne. It also means that Star's entire life and legacy was based on lies.
- Family of Choice: 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 doesn't necessarily mean they care about you less.
- Family Relationship Switcheroo: The Mewni family line past Eclipsa's daughter Meteora are illegitimate heirs. Eclipsa's ex-husband, not wanting to raise a monster infant, traded her away for a peasant girl who would become Festiva the Fun. The Magical High Commission kept this fact secret.
- Fantastic Racism: The Magical High Commission allowed King Shastacan to trade Meteora for Festivia, a peasant baby, because they didn't want a Mewman/monster hybrid to gain the throne and magic of the royal family.
- Hypocrite: The Magical High Commission are shown to have concealed the truth about Meteora, despite expecting others to be forthright with them. Hekapoo in particular, in past conversations with both Queen Moon and Marco, admonished them for hiding information from them (the disappearance of Glossaryck and the source of the rogue inter-dimensional portals, respectively). As Star points out, they expect everyone to follow their rules, but never to be judged by them themselves. Best exemplified when they rage about being lied to about the purpose of the trial, after their centuries of deception.
- I Am Not Your Father: Eclipsa's daughter was Switched at Birth with a peasant. To Star's disappointment, this means Eclipsa isn't actually her direct ancestor* .
- Instantly Proven Wrong: Queen Moon tells Star the Box of Truth isn't for party games. The Box promptly asks everyone who their secret crush is. Turns out it has multiple settings.
- I Regret Nothing: Eclipsa's feelings about her past actions.Moon: Eclipsa, are you sorry for what you've done?
Eclipsa: No. I'm not. - Kangaroo Court: The Magical High Commission was clearly going to declare Eclipsa guilty no matter what. Even when she testifies that she doesn't eat babies, Hekapoo still marks it down as evil. 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.
- Loophole Abuse: Because Eclipsa was a past queen of Mewni, she's allowed to ask a question using the Box the same as the other Commission members. In fact, it's why she chose that method of trial to begin with.
- Luminescent Blush: Eclipsa's cheek markings glow pink when an image of her monster husband is shown.
- Mama Bear: Eclipsa is willing to let the box crush her to find the truth about her daughter, and she's furious on learning what Shastacan and the Council did.
- Morality Dial: The Box has settings for parties, interventions, bachelorette parties, and trials.
- Moral Myopia: When the Box punishes the Commission for lying about Meteora, Hekapoo claims they didn't do anything wrong.
- Not Helping Your Case: Eclipsa freely admits to her various crimes, such as writing the forbidden chapter of the book and running off with a monster, and regrets none of it. Even when she denies that she Eats Babies, she adds that she did harm a few teenagers who had it coming. It doesn't really matter, though, because the goal is to get the Commission to reveal what happened to her daughter.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Star asks the Commission how their actions and lies make them any different than the villain they say Eclipsa is.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: 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 trial out for hours. When Eclipsa recommends they skip to Trial 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 Batman Gambit via Bothering by the Book 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.
- Oh, Crap!: 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?"
- Pyrrhic Victory: Star was able to get the Magic High Commission to admit their misdeeds, but her epiphany while delivering a Reason You Suck Speech has her leaving the courtroom with the realization that her family technically isn't royalty and wondering what that means for her.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Even with the revelations, Moon points out that she and Star are still royalty and Star is still a princess. River, Star's father and Moon's husband, had been a prince of the Johansen family, so Moon is royal by marriage and Star is still royal by birth.
- Eclipsa has been found guilty of crimes against Mewni. However, with the reveal of the Commission's history of lying and abuse of power, their decision is made void, leading to a mistrial.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Due to the events of the previous episode, the entire trial became a plot cooked up by Star, Moon, and Eclipsa to put the Commission in a situation where they'd be forced to reveal what they know about Eclipsa's daughter. No longer was it a matter of whether Eclipsa is evil or not.
- The Walls Are Closing In: When the Commission members lie about not knowing about Eclipsa's daughter, the Box's punishment is to trap them within its confines and slowly shrink the size of the room they're in until they confess.
- Was It All a Lie?: Inverted; a heartbroken Star states that her legacy is a lie after realizing the following:
1) Eclipsa isn't her great-great-great-great-something-grandmother after they had spent a good portion of season three bonding. Even Eclipsa is sad to realize this.
2) Her real ancestor, Festivia, was a peasant girl and an Unwitting Pawn.
3) The Magic High Council lied to her and the Butterfly family for centuries.
4) Star and Moon aren't from the original bloodline. They are royalty by appointment. - Wham Episode: The current Butterfly family are usurpers, though unknowingly. Meteora Butterfly should have been the next queen of Mewni, but Eclipsa's ex-husband swapped her for a peasant girl who was passed off as Eclipsa's daughter. Star takes the revelation very hard.
- Wham Line: When Rhombulus couldn't take it anymore, he says this, "We got rid of your daughter! Sorry!"
- What You Are in the Dark:
- 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.
- Same goes with Star. With Eclipsa handcuffed for the trial, Star could've vaporized her if she wanted to, in order to keep her title as Princess. But Star has never been that sort of person and instead, zaps Eclipsa's handcuffs to grant the former queen her freedom at last.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Star thought Eclipsa could be the grandma she never had, and she was happy only to find that Eclipsa was never her 6th great-grandmother. Eclipsa also seems sad to learn that she and Star aren't really related as well.
