Starco (Star x Marco)

Star and Marco share their first kiss in the episode titled "Booth Buddies"

## About

Starco is the romantic pairing of the characters Star Butterfly and Marco Ubaldo Diaz.

## Season 1

When Star and Marco were first introduced in “Star Comes to Earth” their relationship didn’t begin with a great start, after battling Ludo and his army they begin to form a friendship, with Marco stating that he doesn’t actually want Star to leave and the two share a hug. When Ponyhead arrives on Earth to spend time with Star before she is sent away to St Olga’s school for wayward princess’, Star states that Marco is her best friend on Earth, and competes with Marco for Star’s attention, only to realise that both Marco and herself are Star’s best friends. After Star’s attempt to help Marco in “Monster Arm” with his issue of the same name, she stays up all night to find a cure fixes Marco’s arm after the arm had gained a thirst for human bowls. In “The Other Exchange Student” Marco complements Star by saying she is his favourite exchange foreign student and Star desperately tries to save Marco and his parents from what she thinks is a threat from Gustav. In “Cheer Up Star” Marco notices that Star is upset over Oskar and he makes an attempt to make her happy by what he knows she enjoys; fighting monsters. This plan backfires however as too many monsters arrive and Marco and Star have to gear up and fight them together, for it to end with Oskar calling Star back and Star using a powerful spell. In “Quest Buy” Marco and Star disagree over the state of their bathroom; as Marco likes it neat and tidy while Star likes it messy. Due to a misunderstanding Star loses her wand’s charger they go out to Quest Buy to get a new one. This argument has been debated whether or not this act of bickering resembles an old married couple or siblings.

At the beginning of “Mewberty” Star transforms into a creature named after the title episode and begins to become infatuated with every boy she sees, which includes Marco. Hearts appear in Star’s eyes as she looks dreamily at Marco and says “Marco’s a booooy”. After failed attempts to secure Star, Star disappears into the sky and Marco begins to cry as he thinks that Star is gone. Star returns however and due to a sense of overwhelming happiness, Marco hugs her and they share a heartfelt hug. In “Sleep Spells”, Star dresses up as Marco, when Marco says to act like someone close to her and begins to cutely intimidate him, and she calls his mole “cute”. At the end of the episode, they have a moment where Star acknowledges Marco’s insecurities and tells him to not worry about how many times who saved who because they will "always have each other's backs."

In the episode “Blood Moon Ball” Marco attacks Tom by chopping off his hand when he fears that he is a monster that has come to hurt Star and he continue to have this belief when Star goes off to the Underworld, exclaiming that “guys like Tom never change”. After Marco crashes the Blood Moon Ball and dances with Star under a false pretense, he reveals himself to her, causing Star to become annoyed at him for not trusting her and Tom to become enraged that Marco took his dance. After Marco and Star go back to the Diaz household, Star tells him that she doesn’t need a hero, but a friend. At the end of the episode Star and Marco say a series of sentences at the exact same time, prompting them to share a laugh together. This would be due to the fact that according to demon lore, the Blood Moon “selects two lucky souls, binding them together for eternity in it’s hypnotic, ruby brodum” However the exact nature of the bind is unclear, whether it is romantic or simply platonic is unconfirmed.

In season 1’s finale “Storm the Castle” the episode starts off with Star and Marco on an adventure in order to acquire a sandwich, but Marco was annoyed at not wanting to die over a sandwich and argues with Star over her decision. This prompts Star to question “why they’re [we’re] even friends. After Star goes to Marco’s room to apologise she finds out that he has been kidnapped she sets out to Ludo’s castle to get him back. After encountering Toffee and listening to his demands, Star willingly gives up her wand to Toffee so she can save a kidnapped Marco. After Ludo’s castle had been blown up, Star and Marco stare at the now broken wand and share an embrace. In “My New Wand” Star activates her new wand, but the magic immediately knocks Marco as well as her wand and the book of spells into her closet. After Marco is advised by Glossaryck to find Star’s secret he finds Star’s journal and begins to read it. Not wanting Marco to read what she had written about him Star panics and finally ‘dips down’, causing the door to unlock and frees Marco.

## Season 2

During the episode “Camping Trip” River Butterfly (Star’s father) continuously calls Marco Star’s boyfriend. In “Sleepover” during a game of ‘truth or punishment’ she, Janna, Starfan, Jackie, Ponyhead and Marco all answer to their truths however on the last question, someone lied about their crush. The Cube demands to know who lied about their crush but Star explains to the Cube that she and her friends are not really lying and says “You think you know how you feel about something but then it changes” and uses the example of her original favourite colour of yellow changing to blue. She, however, does glance at Marco when she talks about her feelings change, which might be a spectilation that Star’s original feelings towards Marco have changed. At the end of the episode Star holds the assumed sationaried cube and whispers Marco’s name, implying that she does hold some romantic feelings towards him.

In “Bon Bon the Birthday Clown” Marco goes on a date with Jackie, but spends most of the night being nervous as he really likes Jackie. Noticing Marco’s behaviour Jackie admits that she should of asked him out on a date, to which Marco happily agrees and forgets about Star. Star on the other hand continually worries about Marco, saying how just because Marco has a mole suddenly Jackie has eight of them, implying a form of jealousy as well as calling him non-stop when he doesn’t reply. Star using the "all seeing eye" spell to spy on Marco whilst Jackie teaches him how to skateboard and is then seen to have a jealous expression and uses magic uncontrollably to make them fall. After Star loses her spell book and Glossaryck to Ludo, she hugs Marco and begins to cry. In “Just Friends” Star invites Marco and Jackie to a Love Sentence concert, after Star and Jackie start to bond Marco feels insecure about going with them, until they both convince him to come along. At the concert, everyone is having fun until couples start kissing, and when Jackie and Marco engage in a kiss, Star decides to let the two be. As Star leaves the concert, she fires a blast of tainted magic, destroying a billboard and hinting at jealousy.

During the episode “Face the Music” Ruberiot unable to work with Star in writing her princess ballad, spies on her and Marco for inspiration and after a heart to heart with Star he ventures out with a newfound confidence to write a better song. After revealing that the last part of his song is about Star being in love with her best friend (and his name is Marco Diaz) Star and Marco become incredibly flustered. In the season 2 finale “Starcrushed” Star and Marco have become increasing awkward around each other, Star is annoyed how she can’t even make eye contact with Marco after Ruberiot’s song and how she thinks that Marco thinks she has a crush on him. Ponyhead retorts asking that Star does have a crush on him, to which Star responds that she does “maybe once, but not anymore” and wants everything to go back to normal. After being at a party with Oskar, Star goes back to confront Marco. She explains how things have been awkward between them, and how things are no different. Star says that she doesn’t have a crush on Marco, and how she just wants to have fun with her friend.  After being confronted with the fact that Toffee is back and Moon wants Star with her on Mewni, Star confesses her feelings to Marco at the party in front of their friends before leaving.

## Season 3

In “The Battle for Mewni: Return to Mewni” Marco’s mother asks if Marco wants some ‘Captain Blanch’s Sugar Seeds’ to which Marco sadly remarks that Star loved Sugar Seeds before collapsing face-down on the counter and turning up the sad music he was listening to prior. The scene cuts to Star spying on Marco using the Spying Spell, with one of his hoodies on her exclaims that “why do you [Marco] have to be such a cute idiot”. In “The Battle for Mewni: Marco and the King” Marco goes to Mewni to deliver a box of Captain Blanche's Sugar Seeds since the cereal can’t be obtained on Mewni. In “The Battle for Mewni: Toffee” Star is thrown in jail, only to be rescued by Marco and after they are free they share a warm embrace. After Star tells Marco he looks cute in a beret, she is captured by Ludo which she then proceeds to tell him about Toffee’s influence on the wand. After Star is taken by Ludo, Marco and Moon meet and go off, only to see Star being trapped in Ludo’s body. After Toffee emerges and reveals that Star is ‘gone’, Marco punches a hole through his heart, with tears in his eyes over supposedly losing Star. After Star comes back and destroys Toffee, Marco (along with Moon and Buff Frog) embrace Star in a group hug.

During “Scent of a Hoodie”, when Star realizes that she doesn't need Marco's hoodie to still hold onto a piece of him, she returns the Hoodie to Marco, to which he puts it on. He then sniffs it, saying "Hm, kind of smells like Star," takes a brief pause, and then continues to smell the hoodie. In  “Lint Catcher” Marco surprises Star by announcing that he is going to stay on Mewni, not knowing what to do Star brings him to her parents and it is suggested that he becomes a squire, who Star decides is Sir Lavabo. Marco complains about the job he is given, not being a fan of being a squire to someone in the basement, Star tells him that she doesn’t like being told what to do, and goes about complaining about Marco’s sudden appearance on Mewni. After a battle with the lint monster, Star recreates Marco’s room from Earth and appoints him as her personal squire. In "Sweet Dreams," Star asks Marco to look after her when she sleeps so she won't morph into her Butterfly form again, and after a failed attempt of preventing a transformation, Marco then chains himself to Star. This backfires as the two are thrown into an dimensional abyss, but after talking with Eclipsa, Star realises that she must see what she is capable of, so she sends Marco away.

In "Lava Lake Beach," Tad tells Marco that he has feelings for Star, but he doesn't want to admit it, seeing other couples and being depressed due to the fact, only to stumble upon Star and Tom kissing, which causes his eyes to glisten, suggesting that he knows he missed his opportunity to be closer with Star and is deeply saddened by the fact, and recovers by bonding with Kelly at the end of the episode. During “Deep Dive” when Star had lost the signal when she entered the magic realm, Marco panicked and used magic via Star’s wand to cast the All Seeing Eye spell to find her. After he saved her they shared a warm embrace. In “Stump Day” Marco notices that Star never celebrates her birthday on the actual day, so he plans a birthday party for her, but in doing so ignores her wishes to respect the Stump and to not celebrate her birthday. In “Marco Jr.” Marco had been deformed in an effort to get a painting for his mother and as he is unable to fill out the questions himself, Star fills out all 200 questions about Marco correctly, and when he turns back to normal she is grateful that he “is beautiful again”.

In “Booth Buddies” Star wants to take photos with Marco in a photobooth, but complains that the photos they just took were different and Marco explains that they are different because it was before Star’s confession. After realising his feelings for Star are different, he says he knows what sort of photo the booth wants and initiates the kiss with Star. Star kisses him back, meaning that she has cheated on Tom. At the end of the episode Star has shown grabbing the photos, which show Marco’s cheeks glowing. In the season finale of “Divide” and “Conquer” Marco proves himself strong enough to be a leader of a patrol intent of distracting Meteora, and before they have been interrupted they shared a hug which caused the two to blush. After seeing that Marco’s soul had been sucked out by Meteora, Star cries for him and when his soul is returned she cheerfully hugs him, which Tom later joins in on.