Solaria Butterfly

Solaria Butterfly, also known as Solaria the Monster Carver, is the 28th Queen of the Kingdom of Mewni^[2] and one of Star Butterfly's predecessors. A fearsome and powerful warrior and warmonger, she is first mentioned in "Into the Wand", and her history is expanded upon in Star vs. the Forces of Evil: The Magic Book of Spells.

Appearance[]

Solaria has fair cream skin, a shaved head (sometimes with an undercut hairstyle with the remainder of her red hair styled in a long, braided ponytail), light turquoise eyes, and antique brass-colored lightning bolt-shaped marks on her cheeks (peach yellow in her tapestry). She is usually depicted wearing battle armor consisting of a gray and white heart-shaped breastplate with multiple red cords, iron gray boots with heart-shaped knee pads, gray armbands decorated with red hearts, and black wristbands. In Star vs. the Forces of Evil: The Magic Book of Spells, she also wears gray armor that covers the rest of her arms, red shoulder pads, a long pale-red dress, and a gold tiara with a red diamond in the center. She is 6' 3" (1.91 m) tall.^[2]

Personality[]

Queen Solaria is depicted as being a ruthless warrior who cares nothing for the suffering of her enemies. She harbored a strong hatred toward monsters, waging war against them for years and even going as far as developing a spell to destroy all of them. One of the few things Solaria felt any warmth or kindness for was her daughter Eclipsa, but despite her appreciation for Eclipsa's intelligence, she still comes off as extremely controlling. She believes that only she knows what's best for her daughter, moving her to an attempt at Globgor's life, which made her daughter cry, and later forcing Eclipsa into a loveless marriage with King Shastacan.

Solaria also displayed some sadistic tendencies in her hatred towards monsters, writing entire pages on how to kill monsters of one species or another as horrifically and violently as possible. There were also hints of delusion and even a total lack of humanity in her writings, such as her belief that monsters were "better" off dead than alive, trying to frame her unbridled cruelty as an act of mercy.

Many years after her death, however, Solaria seems to have softened somewhat, accepting Meteora as family despite her being half-monster and displaying contempt towards Mina for her actions. Also, while initially seemingly angered by Star's decision to destroy all magic, she later helped her accomplish the endeavor.

History[]

Note: The following information is from Star vs. the Forces of Evil: The Magic Book of Spells.

Solaria inherited the Royal Magic Wand and the throne of Mewni from her mother Skywynne; her older brother Jushtin was superseded in favor of her. Soon after this, Solaria waged a years-long war campaign against Mewni's monster population. At a time when tension between Mewmans and monsters was high, monsters raided Mewman settlements outside Butterfly Castle's borders, and attempts at peaceful negotiations with the monsters (led by Solaria's council secretary Alphonse the Worthy) ended in failure. In response to this, Queen Solaria declared war on all monsters.

To combat the rising monster threat, Solaria employed a triptych of three ancient spells that transformed an army of peasants into super-powered warriors—the "Solarian Army"—including peasant girl Mina Loveberry. While the army succeeded in retaking some land from the monsters, the monsters overran the Cloud Kingdom of the Pony Heads. Together with the Pony Head resistance, Solaria and her army drove the monsters out of Pony Head territory. Sometime during her campaign against the monsters, Solaria went on a sea voyage with Alphonse the Worthy, and they bore a daughter named Eclipsa.

Over the next several years, Solaria—with the help of Alphonse, the Magic High Commission, and her older brother Jushtin—built alliances in the Cloud Kingdom and Underworld against the monsters, and they pushed the monsters as far back as the Forest of Certain Death. While the High Commission started pushing for a ceasefire with the monsters, Solaria secretly developed a spell that would annihilate all monsters, but she never perfected it before passing the wand and Book of Spells on to her daughter Eclipsa.

In the years that followed, Solaria tried to foster good and mutually beneficial relationships with the other Kingdoms of Mewni, notably the Spiderbite Kingdom, and tried to set up Eclipsa with the Spiderbites' Prince Shastacan (even though Eclipsa was already dating Globgor at the time). Solaria eventually lost her life in a nighttime monster ambush, and Eclipsa ascended to the Mewni throne—with Shastacan as her betrothed king, as imposed by Solaria's will.

In the series, Solaria is depicted in tapestry in the Butterfly Castle's "Grandma Room" in "Into the Wand", "Conquer", and "Ghost of Butterfly Castle".

In "Pizza Party", Solaria appears in flashback recruiting Mina Loveberry to be her first Solarian Warrior. In "The Tavern at the End of the Multiverse", Solaria appears as a voiceless ghost inside Glossaryck's eye. In "Cleaved", she appears as a ghost again in the Realm of Magic as Star, Moon, and Eclipsa destroy the magic. When Mina Loveberry appears before her, Solaria seems to bear contempt toward Mina's recent actions. Before disappearing with the other queens, Solaria meets Meteora and smiles at her while gently placing a hand on her cheek, implying that she accepts her half-monster granddaughter.

Powers and abilities[]

• Royal Magic Wand: As a Queen of Mewni, Solaria once wielded the royal magic wand, taking the form of an energy sword (called the Wand of Aggression) in her possession. Though she does not develop many spells during her time with the wand, she is a very capable fighter, using the wand as a physical weapon. She is also known for inventing the "Solarian Metamorphosis" ritual that turned Mina Loveberry (among others) into a one-woman army.

Sightings[]

Season 2[]

• Into the Wand (pictured)

Season 3[]

• Moon the Undaunted (mentioned)
• Conquer (pictured)

Season 4[]

• Ghost of Butterfly Castle (pictured)
• The Monster and the Queen (mentioned)
• Ready, Aim, Fire (pictured)
• The Right Way (mentioned)
• Pizza Party (flashback)
• The Tavern at the End of the Multiverse
• Cleaved

Gallery

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Trivia[]

• Solaria is voiced by Gemma Whelan, who is best known for her recurring role as Yara Greyjoy in Game of Thrones.
  • Her daughter, Eclipsa, is voiced by Esmé Bianco, who plays Ros in the same show.
• Solaria's name is derived from the Latin name Solaris, meaning "of the sun".
• Solaria's attributes in The Magic Book of Spells are:
  • Strength: 20
  • Intelligence: 13
  • Wisdom: 13
  • Cold Determination: 18
  • Constitution: 20
  • Charisma: 13
• Ironically, while Solaria hated monsters, her daughter adores them.
• Solaria's chapter has a section dedicated to how to kill certain monsters. Ironically, the monsters listed are all ones that her daughter ends up dating and explaining how to date in her own chapter.
  • At the end of each entry, she would claim that the monsters in question would be "happier" if they were dead.
• At one point in time, Solaria interrupted a meeting between a young Eclipsa and Globgor, believing Globgor was about to devour her daughter.
• Solaria often carried with her a drawing that Eclipsa drew for her as a token to get her through the war.
• She liked "Snookers" candy bars, a trait she passed down to her daughter.
• Despite taking Alphonse the Worthy as a lover (and setting up Eclipsa with Shastacan), Solaria had little respect for males, believing them to be "throne candy" at best, in that a Queen needed a King simply to keep up appearances (and to produce an heir, of course).
  • Therefore, it can be assumed that Alphonse the Worthy has never been married to Solaria herself.
• Solaria's design and wand appearance can be compared to Norse culture, specifically, Surtr of Norse mythology. Surtr was a fire jötunn destined to use his flaming sword to raze the earth during the apocalyptic event known as Ragnarok (Fate of the Gods). Solaria's wand resembled a flaming sword, had an association with fire and she devoted herself to killing every monster on Mewni.
  • Interestingly, Solaria's actions did lead to the end of the magical era. As Solaria's actions created Mina, who forced Star to destroy the source of all magic, which lead to the magical beings losing their powers/sentience and destroyed any chances of further dimensional travel. Solaria's actions also lead to the deaths of the Magic High Commission, god-like beings created from magic. Which fits Surtr's role in Ragnarok, as he's the one who razes the earth and kills the remaining gods and humans.

References[]