The '00s 'minimal' layout

Title of entry

aka: Why Star’s solution to Baby’s apple test is Really Fucking Important

we’re all familiar with the sparkly cloudlike pink magic star uses, and mewman magic been referred to several times by name as well as in stuff like “mewman force field” and buff frog’s line  "[toffee] knows about you, and he does not like your magic". mewman magic spells can be used for a huge array of things, probably nigh limitless provided the user is creative/skilled enough to figure out a spell for it. 

we’re also well familiar with the jagged green magic ludo begins to unlock with the cleaved wand in s2. i think pretty much everyone has just been calling it “evil” or “dark” magic or whatever, understandably so. so far, we’ve pretty much only seen it used for destruction. it makes star’s summons behave erratically, it made a hole in in the corn field force field, it’s broken up the ground in addition to having particularly strong basic beam attacks, you get it. but this magic has be very subtly shown to be capable of more than just destruction, if wielded by the right person...
they've never talked about "monster magic" specifically by name, but rather than being something nebulous like evil/bad magic, i believe the green energy is simply monster magic, and we just don’t see it used for more than destruction because ludo isn’t “using his imagination”, as glossaryk said [and also is under toffee’s control.]
so if monsters have their own magic too, why haven’t we seen any in play? simple- until now, they didn’t have a wand to channel it, or probably any recent knowledge that they even CAN use magic [if they didn’t use it in the monster/mewman war, i doubt they knew they were capable, period.] sure, going without an instrument is technically an option, but mastering magic with a wand is already hard enough, and with them getting the shitty side of the Mewman/Monster Accord after the war [mentioned in Star & Marco’s Guide to Mastering Every Dimension; unfortunately the thread where i’d gotten to read most of that got shut down really quickly so no picture proof, but as a funfact: ludo, toffee, and  rasticore are all wanted on mewni for violating it],  monsters likely didn’t have anyone that could teach them [whether that be the obvious glossaryck or simply an elder of some sort ], or probably even much of a way of finding out themselves.
now that monsters have a wand, they have a way to unleash their own kind of power.

though as my friend pointed out, that’s not to say “dark” magic doesn’t still exist

glossaryck even SAYS “this stuff is...dark”, but eclipsa is something for s3 to tackle, probably.

back on track: if all monsters needed was a wand, why didn’t toffee just take it like ludo had been trying to? why destroy/cleave it and end up leaving mewmans able to fight back with their own powerful tool?

mewman and monster magic are both incredibly powerful, as we’ve seen. but..

both of them pale in comparison to the power of magic of monster and mewman brand combined.

and it seems that toffee knew this. i don’t know specifically how, but i’d wager his being an “immortal monster” has a lot to do with it, maybe it’s like some ancient knowledge that’s long since been forgotten by everyone else.

both that beam and the tree that grew from it are a distinct mix of pink and green. the fact that star has demonstrated that she is able to wield both types simultaneously when she's focused enough is huge.
another quick derail: it seems that the wand will output whatever kind of magic a user is concentrating on more. spellcasting comes very easily to star and it’s a low-effort thing for her, while ludo constantly has to ham-fist his way into getting it to work, so if ludo and star are both using it at the same time--see: Wand to Wand--ludo’s efforts are almost always going to overpower star’s, UNLESS she gets serious [i.e. when saving marco from the enraged cloudy at the end.]
ANYWAY, this moment isn’t important for just the power it’ll grant her.

y’see, star is basically steven.

just as steven was made to be a bridge between gems and humans, i believe star butterfly is going to mediate between and unite mewmans and monsters

the seed was already planted way back in Mewnipendence Day when she began having hesitations after realizing that things were horribly, unfairly skewed in the mewmans’ favor in their history, and maybe monsters weren’t just this terrible, ugly group that’s a plague to the lands.

but what's MORE is that group of "alternative monsters" who are huge fans of her and her being a "rebel princess" who "does things her own way", perhaps in vague hopes of her being less tyrranical to them than previous mewman queens.

there’s also her alliance with buff frog, and when you look at it, the monsters aren’t really shown [to the audience] to be implicitly “evil”. they’re either employed under someone, or just trying to make end’s meet with their shitty living conditions.

baby’s remark of “i haven’t seen anything like this since queen eclipsa” is not just about the magnitude of star’s magical power. it’s about her unorthodox ability to dual-wield its types, because she, unlike any queen except eclipsa before her, has had heavy involvement with and sympathy for monsters. “monster love”, as king river gravely adds after baby’s remark, seems to be the missing key to truly kickass magic.