Marco Diaz

Marco Ubaldo Diaz is the deuteragonist of Star vs. the Forces of Evil. He is the son of Rafael Diaz and Angie Diaz, as well as Star Butterfly's best friend on Earth.
==Personality==
Marco is kind, responsible, very organized, and supportive of others. He has a reputation at his school for being the "safe kid" due to avoiding danger and being cautious, though he insists that he is a "misunderstood bad boy". He prefers keeping his possessions neatly organized. Marco is smart, gets good grades in his math and psychology classes, and figures out how to find a replacement for Star's wand charger using the metric system. Because he likes it when things go his way, he can become unstable when they don't, like when he snaps at Star for ruining his room and insanely trying to live in front of Stop & Slurp. Although he isn't used to the kind of craziness that Star brings, he admits that he would like a little danger in his life and finds fun in fighting monsters with karate.
He often struggles with self-confidence, afraid of being ridiculed by others, and can become nervous easily. "Naysaya" reveals that he has many insecurities and emotional hang-ups. He has an occasional temper and can get frustrated and/or annoyed with others, such as with Star when she intrudes upon his life, or recklessly drags him into overly dangerous situations. However, he soon makes amends with those who cause him grief, like thanking Pony Head for saving him in "Party With a Pony". He cares deeply for those he is close to, attempting to save Ferguson from being kidnapped in "School Spirit" and trying to cheer up Star whenever she is feeling upset. Marco also has an urge to occasionally protect Star and keep her safe, as depicted in "Sleep Spells" and "Blood Moon Ball".
==Appearance==
Marco is a Latino-American teenager of medium height with a slender build, tan skin, dark brown hair, brown eyes, and a mole on his right cheek. He usually wears a light gray shirt, a red hooded jacket, dark gray skinny jeans, and olive and white sneakers. In "Sleepover", he wears a turquoise vest instead of his signature red hoodie.
As a 30-year-old adult in "Running with Scissors", Marco is much taller with a muscular physique and five-o'clock shadow. He wears his typical red hoodie, which has worn and torn with age, as a cape, along with a brown unzipped biker's jacket with rolled-up sleeves, gray torn-up pants, a rope belt, black boots, and black finger-less gloves. He also has a black slash painted across his left eye, two piercings on his right ear, and a tattoo of dimensional scissors on his inner left bicep. Marco returns to his original appearance at the end of the episode.
==Relationships==
===Star Butterfly===
 Although it took Marco a while to accept Star and her magical abilities, he cherishes her company and sees her as his best friend. He thinks her skills with fighting monsters are impressive, and he likes joining her on her adventures. With Star's help and adventurous ways, Marco is learning how to be less cautious and instead make the most of his life. In turn, he makes sure that they do not get into too much trouble. If she is upset, like in "Cheer Up, Star", he does what he can to make her happy and feel better.
While Star's bubbly, helpful, and reckless personality can sometimes cause Marco a lot of trouble or irritate him, he appreciates having her around, even calling her the coolest girl he knows. He can be a little overprotective of her at times, and underestimates her ability to handle things on her own, which often infuriates her. "Sleep Spells" also shows that he sometimes feels inadequate compared to her, as he is just a normal kid, and Star is a magical princess.
Ultimately, their friendship is steadfast and unbreakable; In "Gift of the Card", when the two were facing imminent death by the gift card Star had gotten him, Marco told Star that they should hug, so whoever found their "charred skeletons" would know they were best friends.
In "Blood Moon Ball", Star and Marco briefly dance together under the light of the Blood Moon, which according to legend binds their souls together for eternity.
In "Face the Music", Marco learns that Star has a crush on him, causing constant awkwardness between them in "Starcrushed". At the encouragement of his father, Marco talks with Star about these feelings, which she initially denies, and they manage to work through the strain in their relationship and remain best friends. After Star finds out she has to return to Mewni, she confesses her feelings to Marco and runs away before he can respond, leaving their relationship uncertain.
In the "FanCo13" live chat with StarFan13, when asked about how he feels about Star, Marco admits that he still doesn't have an answer, saying that he barely had any time to process Star's confession.
===Rafael and Angie Diaz===
 Marco loves his parents, but he is sometimes annoyed by their cheery and optimistic personalities. He can also be embarrassed by his mother, such as when she said the "Ph.D" in "Doctor Marco, Ph.D" stood for "pretty handsome dude". In "Starcrushed", Marco takes his father's advice of talking with Star about their situation.
===Jackie Lynn Thomas===
 Marco has had a huge crush on Jackie since kindergarten and hopes that she will like him back in the same way someday. However, he has a hard time getting her attention without messing up or losing his cool. He is also overly nervous around her, not even picking up the courage to say "hello" to her until recently. More recently, he is starting to show some progress in getting closer to her in spite of his nervousness. In "Sleepover", Marco confesses his feelings to Jackie, but he admits he is not sure whether he likes her or the image he has of her in his head. Despite this, he is willing to admit all of his insecurities to her in order to secure a date with her in "Naysaya".
In "Bon Bon the Birthday Clown", Marco goes on his first date with Jackie, on which he gets to know her better, and the two have such a great time together that they share their first kiss. It is stated in "Just Friends" that the two are officially a couple.
In "Starcrushed", the two share some casual boyfriend-girlfriend interaction, hanging out together and feeding each other pizza nuggets. At one point, Jackie asks Marco to try and read her mind, and she rewards his guess with a kiss on the cheek.
===Alfonzo and Ferguson===
 Marco enjoys being with Alfonzo and Ferguson, calling them the coolest kids at school (although he questions this occasionally). After Ferguson becomes the mascot of the school's football team, Marco fears that the rival team, the Warriors, will kidnap him, so he does everything he can to keep his friend safe, despite Ferguson's protests. Marco cares about his two friends quite a lot, and became devastated after believing Ferguson had died due to one of Star's landmines. Marco and Alfonzo's relationship has yet to be seen in great detail, but it can be assumed that it is similar to Marco and Ferguson's.
===Pony Head===
 Upon realizing that Pony Head does not like him and threatens him for his friendship with Star, Marco is both terrified and bothered by her treatment of him. Pony Head ditches him at the Amethyst Arcade, but she eventually comes back and saves him from the guards from St. Olga's Reform School for Wayward Princesses, even though it meant she would have to go back with them. Marco greatly appreciates her saving him, and ends up on better terms with her, telling her "good luck in princess jail" before she is taken away.
Later on, he still holds unfavorable feelings towards Pony Head, but grudgingly joins Star in breaking her out of St. Olga's for her birthday. After they manage to escape, Pony Head congratulates Marco for inciting a riot amongst the other princesses, with Marco accepting the compliment. In all future encounters, the two are far more civil with each other, their initial animosity all but forgotten.
However, Pony Head's wild, reckless behavior still irritates Marco on occasion. In "Pizza Thing", Marco begrudgingly includes Pony Head in his and Star's tradition of "Friendship Thursday", but his strait-laced personality clashes with her spontaneity and partying lifestyle. But after receiving some words of wisdom from a little boy, the two manage to put aside their differences and declare a truce.
===Monster Arm===
 At first, Marco is not pleased with having his right arm turned into a monstrous tentacle, but he quickly warms up to it when he sees what good it brings him. Unfortunately, Monster Arm is a bad influence on Marco, causing him to become more aggressive and heartless. Once Marco realizes this when it urges him to kill Jeremy Birnbaum, he stops the arm from doing it and tells Star to get rid of it. Although his arm is returned back to normal, Marco is fearful that Monster Arm will return someday.
===Sensei Brantley===
 Marco shows a lot of admiration and respect for his karate instructor in "Red Belt", bowing to him when instructed and stating that he wants to someday be like him. Unfortunately, he loses respect for his sensei when it is revealed he still lives with his mother and shows no interest in getting his red belt. By the end of the episode, however, Marco's sensei regains his respect after his nonsensical teachings help them both earn their red belts.
In "All Belts are Off", Marco is upset when his sensei picks Jeremy Birnbaum to represent his dojo instead of him, but he is later pleased to learn that his sensei considers him a friend and "dojo bro".
===Jeremy Birnbaum===
 Marco despises Jeremy, complaining that the only reason Jeremy is good at karate is because his parents are rich and spoil him with the best equipment and private lessons. In "Monster Arm", he wants to beat Jeremy in a tournament and not be made fun of for losing or "wussing out". But when Monster Arm attempts to slaughter Jeremy, Marco is mortified and prevents it from happening. Outside of karate, Jeremy continues to bully Marco on a regular basis, much to Marco's frustration, as revealed in "Cheer Up, Star". Marco tends to rebuff Jeremy verbally, apparently not wanting to use force outside of karate matches. However, he did physically come after Jeremy in "The Banagic Incident" after Jeremy pushed his temper too far.
===Glossaryck===
 When Marco first meets Glossaryck in "Mewberty", they start off on less than good terms when Glossaryck mistakes him for a girl and refuses to help him. Marco dislikes Glossaryck's intentionally roundabout helping methods and overall mischief, demonstrated further in "Freeze Day", "My New Wand!", and "Star on Wheels", but Glossaryck does tolerate Marco and enjoys messing with him. When Glossaryck appears to betray Star in "Raid the Cave", Marco remarks that he'd never thought of him as much of a team player.
===Tom Lucitor===
 Marco, having heard about Tom from Star, distrusts and dislikes the demon from the second they meet, even karate-chopping his hand off in an attempt to protect Star. Unwilling to risk him hurting Star, Marco inadvertently sabotages Tom's attempt to have his soul bound with hers, earning Tom's boundless rage. In "Mr. Candle Cares", Marco and Tom manage to come to an understanding, Marco convincing Tom to let Star go. In "Friendenemies", Tom invites Marco to hang out with him. Over the course of the night, Marco bonds with Tom, mostly over their shared love of the band Love Sentence. When Marco learns that Tom was only hanging out with him to complete his anger management course, he leaves in disgust. Tom makes him a peace offering by resurrecting deceased martial artist Mackie Hand, and they watch him beat up some movie ushers together, though they end the episode stating they still do not like each other. Despite this, they have hung out semi-regularly since then, as Tom says in "Naysaya", although Marco admits in the "FanCo13" live chat that he's not sure if they've become friends.
===Janna Ordonia===
 Marco is often annoyed and weirded out by Janna's habit of teasing and flirting with him, and he greatly dislikes her constantly invading his privacy (such as when she was looking through his wallet in "Gift of the Card" or when he learned she had a hidden compartment behind his locker in "Naysaya"). But he is willing to hang out with her on occasion and generally friendly with her when she isn't messing with him.
===Hekapoo===
 In "Running with Scissors", Marco is initially very annoyed by Hekapoo's condescension toward him, impishness, and tendency to smack and burn the back of his head. After sixteen years of hunting her and her clones down, he grows more tolerant of her antics, giving her the nickname "H-Poo", and their adventure together ends on more or less friendly terms. However, she still occasionally annoys him with her teasing.
==Abilities==
*Karate: Marco is a student in the Tang Soo Do discipline of karate and, as of the eponymous episode, has a red belt. He is very capable of using karate chops, kicks, and punches to battle monsters as effectively as Star.
*Culinary prowess: Marco is good at making nachos. In "Pizza Thing", he makes a pizza with Pony Head, which doesn't turn out especially good.
*Academics: In "Match Maker", it is shown that Marco has good math skills, getting good grades (including an A in psychology) and in "Quest Buy", using the metric system to find a charger for Star's wand at Quest Buy. However, he admits in "Naysaya" that he doesn't know how to do long division.
*Swordsmanship: As of "Running with Scissors", Marco has become proficient at wielding a one-handed sword.
*Survival skills: Sixteen years of experience hunting Hekapoo has turned Marco into a hardened survivor and warrior. Upon returning to his original age on Earth, it is unknown if he has kept these skills.
==Names in other languages==
Language	Name 	Translation
Japanese	マルコ・ディアス(Maruko Diasu) 	Marco Diaz
Russian 	Марко Диэс(Marko Dies) 	Marco Diaz
==Trivia==
*In "Match Maker", Marco says that he has a dozen red hoodies, due to liking both the color red and hoodies.
*Marco's favorite color has varied depending on the episode/situation. In "Sleepover" and "Match Maker", he says his favorite color is red. However, in "Gift of the Card", he says his favorite color is plum at first and later says it's Prussian blue.
*At the start of the series, Marco has a green belt with a white stripe in the Tang Soo Do discipline. As of "Red Belt", he is promoted to red belt.
**A green belt represents "the growth of a seed that sprouts upward, becoming a plant. Like the sprout, the student is becoming something greater." A green belt is roughly middle level.
**A red belt represents "a close, hot sun. This proximity to the sun represents the student's detailed knowledge." In standard forms of martial arts, a red belt is just below black belt.
*Marco's middle name is Ubaldo, as revealed on a test paper in "Match Maker".
**Marco's initials spell "MUD".
*Marco once kissed a ninja at Karate-Kon 2012, as shown on the shirt he wears in "Cheer Up, Star".
*In "Star and the Forces of Evil", his pants are blue instead of dark gray.
*According to Marco's voice actor, Adam McArthur, Marco's favorite food is nachos, which was first demonstrated in "Party With a Pony".
*Originally, in Daron Nefcy's version of Star without magical powers, Marco was named Sol, had an obsession with Dragon Ball Z (where his karate interest came from), and was more like an enemy to Star.
*Marco's cellphone number is 555-0111, and his ringtone is "Space Unicorn" (which he claims is supposed to be ironic), as seen in "Cheer Up, Star".
*He suffers from motion sickness, as evident in "Brittney's Party", but in "The Other Exchange Student", he was fine riding to Isolation Point in his family's minivan.
*As seen in "Freeze Day", Marco has only greeted Jackie Lynn Thomas with a nod since kindergarten. At the end of the episode, he moves up to saying hello.
*In "St. Olga's High Security Reform School for Wayward Princesses", Marco claims to have seen "every prison escape movie made".
*Marco has a cat allergy, as shown in issue #4 of the Deep Trouble comic series.
*Marco's favorite karate move is the "block and claw", and his favorite spell is Rainbow Fist Punch.
*Marco's birthday is on November 28.
*In "Heinous", Marco reveals he receives a monthly royalty check for $650 for "Princess Marco" merchandise based on his likeness. This becomes a recurring gag in the season:
**Prior to that episode, in "Goblin Dogs", he pays $650 for Goblin Dog merchandise.
**In "Pizza Thing", he pays a crane operator $650 to drive him and Pony Head to Emilio's Pizza.
**In "The Bounce Lounge", he provides the $650 needed to pay off the Bounce Lounge's mortgage.
**In "Just Friends", he gets a medical bill for $650.
*In the "FanCo13" live chat, Marco admits he's felt strange ever since the events of "Blood Moon Ball".
**Also during the live chat, Marco gets upset to learn that someone nicknamed him "Mango" (namely Oskar Greason in "Starcrushed").
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Unhuman Species
Category:Non Unhuman Species Hunters
Category:Male
Category:Anti-Hero
Category:Teenagers
Category:Students
Category:Diaz Family
Category:Enemies of Awesomeadriehl
Category:Enemies of High School Dropout and College Dropout
Category:Troublemaker
Category:Human
Category:Terran Federation of United Planets
Category:Magical High Commission
Category:Unicornian Royalty of King & Queen Pony Head
Category:Martial Artist
Category:Carlos Barrios' Allies
Category:Sides Stickvlager's Allies
Category:Merline Flowerglow's Allies
Category:English-American
Category:Mexicans
Category:Citizens of Foreign Ancestry