http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS4E28GoneBabyGone
Marco misplaces both Mariposa and Meteora in Hekapoo's dimension.
Tropes:
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Brunzetta only saw Star for a few hours and from her perspective centuries have passed. Despite Star's expectations, Brunzetta has forgotten her.
- Chekhov's Gun: Meteora and Mariposa mention one instance where they killed a giant swamp fly and that it was the last good meal they had that winter. At the end of the episode, it's the promise of food that ultimately convinces the two of them to come home with Star and Marco.
- Dance Battler: Wyscan the Granter's fighting style is Dual Wielding swords and moving with the grace of a ballet dancer.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Growing up alone in a dangerous environment causes Meteora/Grob and Mariposa/Bork to develop a fairly amoral worldview. They ultimately accept being turned back to infants, but the bulk of what convinces them is not to be with a family they don't remember, but for the assurance that they won't starve to death.
- Everyone Has Standards: Mariposa/Bork wants magical powers like her sister, but when she learns that Wyscan wants to eat Star, she has second thoughts on their deal.
- The Fog of Ages: Since about a century passed for Brunzetta, she doesn't remember Star.
- Food as Bribe: Meteora and Mariposa spent years scrounging for whatever passed as edible to survive in the Neverzone, so an abundance of good food is all the motivation they need to return to infancy.
- Foreign Queasine: Bork and Grob serve Star and Marco some garlic-spider stew with skin flakes. Note that it's not stew made of garlic and spiders, but stew made of garlic-spider (basically garlic cloves with spider legs). Star is disgusted, but Marco scarfs it down and feels nostalgic for his last trip to the Neverzone. Later, Marco feeds Wyscan some live garlic-spiders; while he loves garlic, the spiders make him queasy.
- Foreshadowing: Mariposa rides on Meteora's back, which she does when they're teenagers in the Neverzone.
- Guilt Complex: This situation is entirely Hekapoo's fault, and yet Marco still blames himself for it.
- Idiot Ball: Hekapoo, who takes her job deciding who gets dimensional scissors very seriously, ends up forgetting to close the first portal she made, and that's how both babies get lost.
- I Just Want to Be Badass: Despite being a Badass Normal, Mariposa/Bork wants magical powers like her sister, and tries to exchange Star to Wyscan for powers of her own. She has second thoughts when it turns out Wyscan wants to eat Star.
- Irony: In the Neverzone, Meteora grew up befriending and deeply caring about the sister of the very person she (previously) hated most.
- Is It Something You Eat?: Inverted; Mariposa remembered being told about "breakfast burritos" when she was an infant, but never knew that they were food.
- Orphan's Plot Trinket: The finger puppet Marco uses to tell Mariposa a bedtime story becomes her pendant after growing up in the Neverzone. Marco recreates the story with it to prove to her he really is her brother.
- Magic Eater: Wyscan the Granter is a white-haired humanoid that eats spells and magical beings with his Belly Mouth.
- No Infantile Amnesia: Played with; Mariposa still remembers the bedtime story Marco told her using finger puppets, but not that she ever had a life outside of the Neverzone. On the other hand, even after growing up all over again in another dimension and not even seeing him for more than a decade, Meteora still hates Marco, but she doesn't know why she hates him (not even remembering anything from when she was still Miss Heinous). She just does.
- Noodle Incident: A number of them from the girl's time in the Neverzone, like the time Mariposa kicked Meteora's butt.
- Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Mariposa and Meteora wandered into the Neverzone as infants, and are teenagers by the time Marco and Star find them. They're reverted back to infancy when they return to Earth, though they may remember their time away once they're older.
- Raise Him Right This Time: Downplayed. Teenage Meteora and Mariposa aren't evil so much as unscrupulous and self-concerned. However, Marco tries to invoke that if they come with him and Star, they'll live in better homes surrounded by their loving families, with one similarity: they get to grow up together.
- Straying Baby: Hekapoo left a portal to the Neverzone in the room Mariposa and Meteora were in. She steps out to talk to Marco, and minutes later both babies have gone through the portal.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: Bork and Grob slip something into their garlic-spider stew that makes Star and Marco pass out. It wears off as soon as the sisters decide not to sacrifice Star.
- Trailers Always Spoil: The episode's description was released two weeks before it aired, and spoiled the reveal that the baby Marco's parents were having would actually be a girl.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Had Hekapoo not come to warn Marco not to return to Mewni (which he likely wouldn't have done anyway), or at the very least had she closed the first portal she used, Meteora and Mariposa wouldn't have gotten lost. Moreover, since Marco had no idea that anything bad was happening on Mewni, Hekapoo's warning is likely what will lead Marco into the danger she was trying to keep him away from.
- Vagueness Is Coming: Hekapoo warns Marco about something terrible that's going to happen on Mewni and orders him for his safety to stay on Earth. Considering how Mina is an unstoppable menace with plans to overthrow the queen, this makes sense.
