“Why did Star Butterfly put in the song about losing Glossaryck and the Book of Spells? Why? Why? She was so against confessing to her parents a few episodes ago!”
So yeah, I’ve finally watched the rest of Season 2 of SVTFOE, and I dare say that this is among the common reaction in the “Face the Music” episode. Some people think it’s pretty stupid (if not really bad) move on Star’s part because she just threw her parents under the bus and now the citizens of Mewni are angry at the Royal Family. Others look on the bright side because it’s due to that song that Moon got back-up when she raid the temple. Otherwise, she would have gone there alone (thinking that only Ludo and the other half of the wand is the only threat) and be totally screwed over.
However, Star’s “Princess Song” may actually have another significance more than revealing the whole “Ludo stole the Book of Spell and Glossaryck” secret, and that significance is connected to the title. But before that, let’s ask this question: What is the difference between confessing to her parents and putting her biggest fail into a song for the whole kingdom to hear, that made Star Butterfly much more willing to do the latter?
The answer to that question is another question.
“What does Ruberiot signify?”
Ruberiot is a
songstrel. And in the Kingdom of Mewni, whose setting is on Medieval times, there are no TV and such to spread news for the whole kingdom. There may be newspaper, but we saw the state of Mewni with lots of poor people (how many are educated enough to read and be interested in Newspapers or historical books?). In this kind of setting, normal citizens can get news and stories about the achievements and events through story telling … and songs.
In other words, Ruberiot signifies the Media.
You can see that with how songstrel influences the citizens of Mewni.
They can “report” goodly about a person to the point it’s just an empty and fake flattery (aka outright bull***t).
Like the traditional songs of Princesses before and Star’s intro song
… Or tell the accidents, facts and truth to the world
Like the middle part of Star’s song where Ruberiot makes example of positive (Star’s awesomeness) and negative (Royal Family lying/omitting facts from the citizens) reporting.
… And it can even go so far as complete unwanted scandals
^Ruberiot being a complete paparazzi to Star Butterfly’s affairs.
Ruberiot, and all the other songstrel, is Mewni’s form of Media.
But here’s the thing, he’s not a simple reporter, he is also a historian.
He is not only responsible to relays news of the princess to the citizens, he is also responsible to writing history through songs. That is how important a “Princess Song” is. It’s a page in history
(and something Star totally wants to skip over)
to introduce Star Butterfly for the next generations of princesses and people of Mewni.
That is why the words “real” song for a “real” princess is quite emphasized. They want to relay a proper news that tells “facts” instead of buttering up lies about a person to the point it’s not proper news anymore. The Royal family has complete control and authority over the media and what the citizens knows. And of course, there is no normal Queen/King that would want to have bad stuff written about them. This is why all princess songs up until now had been called “hacks”.
But Star Butterfly is not your “normal” princess. She’s a “rebel” princess.
Which is why, when she heard she will have her “princess” song, her answer is a big fat NO.
Some of you may feel like Star’s Princess Song should have ended at it’s first half and not continued with the latter half which made a lot of us cringed because we knew the problems it will cause. After all, she already had the typical boring hack songs to change. It talks about her “real” self like shown in the lines of “weaving magic like a born spell caster, and wreaking havoc like a natural disaster”. It’s not that bad, right? In fact, it’s a hit. Everybody loved it. So why must she add the “secret” about Ludo stealing the book and kidnapping Glossaryck?
It’s because not putting it will destroy the whole purpose of what she wanted to achieve by changing it. She wants to ruin the image of “Ideal”. She wants to show that princesses are not “perfect”. She wants to show what a “real” princess is like. She can only do this by revealing her big royal screw up (simple ones like her rebellious acts ain’t gonna cut it because everybody knows/expects that rebellious side of her’s). Why must she do this? To remove the pressure of needing to be “perfect” from “future” generations of princesses.
And what surprised me is that not only does Star want to destroy the “perfect” image (that’s typical of Star), she was actually worrying about the future of the next generation of princesses. But this part just shows how much serious Star is from the thing she hated the most: Compromising one’s individuality.
On the other hand, we have “Ruberiot, the totally tortured artist”. Knowing what sonstrels represent in their country, we can see that what he wanted is a truer form of Media. Not complete hacks that was just there to suck up to the Royal family.
I actually really appreciate the fact that he just really wanted to do his job properly because he wanted to be better and has no ulterior motive such as ruining the Royal family image etc. (because certain media can be pretty bias and can resort to making bashing click baits to get more views). Although he played a big part in causing a riot among the citizens (I guess he’s named Ruberiot for something), he didn’t really mean it. Still though, I think he has a little bit of favorable bias towards Star Butterfly. Not because of the obvious reason of her fully helping him out to doing what he wanted with his song, but because of how he wrote the song. All the words used upon Star are favorable (if not downright good), even when he told her biggest fail, it’s not in a way of shaming her in any way. The way he narrated her is really just a cool and adventurous rebel princess full of spirit and fun. If anything, the only one he “put down” is her parents for keeping secrets and that resulted in everyone getting angry at Queen Moon. Of course, it may be just the impression Star left on him in his song and saying “bias” is just exaggeration on my part. Moving on.
Star Butterfly must have thought that the citizens would only criticize her because she’s the one at fault. She never cared about other’s “perspective” of her or “keeping an image”. This is why she was labeled as “rebel princess” in the first place. The only reason why she is scared of admitting her royal screw up is because she’s afraid of her parent’s anger. But as seen on “Crystal Clear”, she is fine telling this secret to others (though she did say to keep it a secret to the other High Commission members).
Star’s impression of princess’ songs is that they are stupid puff pieces of fake descriptions about the future queens to make them look “perfect” to everyone. Ruberiot hates the old princess’ songs because they are complete hacks and really uncreative. Put these two together and we get something interesting.
Citizens rioting against the Royal Family?
Pfft, no. It’s…
Changing the media into a freer and truer form. To put it simply, this simple wanting of the “real” thing to be recorded in songs/history of Star Butterfly, the Underestimated, future queen of Mewni had unconsciously become about …
Revolutionizing the Media.
Which pretty much fits her overall agenda because Star Butterfly is about achieving freedom. I find this interesting because we are getting a “hint” on what kind of queen Star is going to be like.
Star Butterfly is already a “rebel” princess, and what’s the next step of “rebellion”? It’s “revolution”. The adventures of Star Butterfly looks like just the story of Star’s growth but subtly, she gets involve with big entities and causes changes (subtle as they may be). I think this little adventures of her will lead to become a Legend once she became Queen, and one hell of a Queen she will be. And so I hereby add a title to Star, the Underestimated, and future Queen of Mewni…
Star, The Queen of Revolution.
She encourages freedom of speech for the citizens and the future generations. The changes she will make is something that can benefit the citizens (in the sense that they will have more freedom) and different departments like songstrels (as her regimen won’t hinder progress by bounding them on “tradition). However, this is not all sunshine and daisies because all actions has their own consequences. This step she done may benefit the media, the historians (ya know scholars always search for truth) and the future generations of princesses but it costs the Royal family greatly. We cannot deny that this disaster of a song causes trouble. Not only because it causes citizens to hate them, but if other songstrels take after Ruberiot (which is highly likely), then the Royal family will lose control of their Media and create a new entity that affects the government of Mewni and it’s citizens. As Queen Moon said, citizens just want to believe their princess/future queen as “perfect”. However, will it be really alright to let the citizens continue with ignorant bliss and has no clue on what their leaders are like? As Ruberiot said, doesn’t the citizens deserve to know their “real” future queen? There is no real “correct” answer on what Star should have done in this situation because both sides has their own consequences. If Star Butterfly manage to handle the case successfully, she may well become one of the legendary queens for creating a milestone in Mewni’s history (and she will be considering her power and potential).
Just thinking of the things she has done and going to do and her potential, I am very excited to see what is going to be her legend in the History of Mewni. No doubt it is going to be a big one, but how big will it be?
Cheloneuniverse 