http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/BaseBreakingCharacter/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil
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- Tom. While a lot of fans agree that he is a good character, the divide lies in whether or not one should judge him for manipulating Star. Half the fanbase points out that Tom was a terrible boyfriend to Star, with Domestic Abuse implied, and keeps trying to manipulate her. The other half points out that he's actively trying to change himself and manage his temper; in "Mr. Candle Cares", he finally got the message that forcing Star to be with him wouldn't work, and that for better or for worse Marco's looking out for Star as a friend and thus will protect her. However, he became even more of a base-breaker when he and Star got back together again in Season 3. The showrunners seemed to understand by this point that having Star date an ex abuser was a poor choice, and tried to add details of their breakup to paint Tom in a more sympathetic light. These attempts were often sloppy however, and often just made Star seem like the more toxic half of the relationship instead. Added to that, a number of fans feel he became a wasted presence as a result, considering a lot of episodes in that season have him do nothing but passively react to most situations. Season 4 has him as a more active and enjoyable character, but that mixed with the show's romance subplot had some fans lament that regardless of everything, he's been forced into the role of Shipper on Deck for his girlfriend and his best friend.
- Despite his popularity as a competent, serious and effective villain, there are a handful of people who don't like Toffee. Some believe he's too serious and out of place for a show like Star vs., and/or consider him boring. Fans on both sides tend to agree that his full potential went unrealized, however. Despite the fact that he died in the otherwise superb The Battle for Mewni arc, most of his motivations for what he did were unclear in the show itself beyond the most basic level of revenge. Not helping matters was Word of God claiming he was a morally complex character who had a valid point in viewing magic as something to be destroyed. Something not clearly expressed any time he was on-screen, only vaguely implied with a situation he was in during a flashback. At the same time, some fans were attracted to Toffee because of how mysterious he was, and feel like answering everything would lessen him. The fact that Toffee did come to have parts of his backstory explained in The Magic Book of Spells (though only by small mentions) didn't help matters, with debates refueling again over why such information never made it into the show proper; and even then, major things such as how he gained so much knowledge about magic and the Butterfly lineage, let alone any real backstory of his past, remained a mystery.
- Jackie-Lynn Thomas became one big time after she and Marco finally became an Official Couple, which earned her quite a lot of backlash from Starco shippers. Much of this does come down to that, but it also boils down to whether you find her personality compelling or boring. Season 3 made this worse, as her sole appearance that season had her break up with Marco. Fans who liked her hated that she was written out before her character could be properly fleshed out to be more than "laidback but secretly goofy skater girl", all so the Starco pairing could happen guilt-free. Meanwhile, her haters liked it for the exact same reason. And Starco still wouldn't happen until the show's penultimate episodes in the following season, as Star had rekindled her relationship with Tom by this point.
- Star herself was arguably this since the beginning, but she cemented this status starting at the end of Season 2. While she still remains very popular in the fandom and her fans love her for being a brave, plucky, determined, and energetic female protagonist, some others find her to be a bratty, selfish, annoying, and irresponsible protagonist who never learns her lessons (or forgets them almost instantly) and they find her a very bad daughter to her mother, especially in "Face the Music" and "Starcrushed". The series finale in which Star destroys magic itself, commits a multidimensional genocide to save a portion of her country from Mina's monster genocide, and only seems concerned with the fact that doing so will separate her from her boyfriend had Team "Selfish Star" double down on this stance hard, with many comparing her actions in that final episode to that of Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War.
- Interestingly enough, this went in the opposite direction in Season 3, where she's less impulsive, more reasonable, and more willing to be there for others. The base is split in three camps: those who found her annoying but find this new version to be worse because it's boring, those who were open to the change but thought it wasn't handled well, and those who think this was a natural progression of her character. And this third camp is also split, with the events of Season 4 having some view Star as having gone back to exhibiting her old character flaws.
- Her behavior towards Marco in Season 3 was another source of controversy. Some think that she was acting needlessly nasty and cruel toward him; others, on the other hand, think that she was acting reasonable, because she had been attempting to move past her crush of him and Marco burst into her life without warning, when she had reordered her priorities now that she returned to Mewni and faced Toffee.
- On that note, Marco in Season 3 also gained many detractors due to how badly he handled everything following The Battle for Mewni by not admitting to Star that he had feelings for her too when he had the chance, obsessing over Star and Mewni while ignoring everyone and everything on Earth, leading to Jackie breaking up with him, then being generally useless as Star's squire when he returned to Mewni. Some believe Marco had Took a Level in Jerkass or was constantly grabbing the Jerkass Ball,note and that his boredom with Earth came out of left field. Others believe Marco's characterization was a natural progression of the insecurities he's always displayed, and his need to prove himself was blinding him to the consequences. Many in the latter group felt that it wasn't Marco who grabbed the Jerkass Ball at all, but that the Mewni characters had a firm hold on it.note The other squires acting as if Marco didn't earn his position was pretty dubious seeing as, unlike Marco, who at least tries helping out, they were all missing in action during the fight against Ludo and Toffee.
- Janna was at first an Ensemble Dark Horse even among the show's writing staff but became one of these by Season 4. Being a shamelessly strange, laidback trickster who constantly gets away with her pranks made her fun and intriguing at first, especially when it seems there was an underlying crush on Marco. But it never really evolved beyond that and her frequent inclusion in Season 4 (by which time the story has moved away from Earth) made little to no sense, so many fans either still enjoyed her or felt she was being needlessly overexposed and that her trolling antics had gotten stale, especially to a season that was much more story driven, with no in-between.
- Queen Moon became one as Season 3 progressed, with the final episodes of Season 4 only adding fuel to the fire. Due in part to how controlling she was of Star, there are many complaints that she was a terrible queen who later comes to mis-blame Eclipsa for the problems she's faced in her life: being too blinded by prejudice against monsters, too stubborn to see how misguided it was, neglecting their problems, denying there being a problem like it's below her pay grade when Star calls her out on it, etc. On the other hand, some fans find her behavior understandable, as her Dark and Troubled Past gives her a legitimate Freudian Excuse to distrust monsters (her mother was assassinated by Toffee in the midst of signing a peace treaty), and Moon can reasonably blame Eclipsa for some of the recent struggles she's had to deal with, even if much of it was accidental or unintended on the Queen of Darkness's part.
- King River is either an annoying, Too Dumb to Live father and king with wasted potential, or a genuinely funny character with plenty of moments to shine. He got more love however as of Season 4, particularly with his efforts on rescuing Globgor at the same time Moon betrayed Eclipsa and Star, leading to some viewers to consider him much better as a parent or as a person that Moon. Although whether that makes him a good parent or not is up to debate.
- Glossaryck is this in spades. He's either a funny character who has a strangely compelling way of giving wisdom and helping others, or an annoying troll who's too unlikable due to how he almost never explains anything directly, and just expects others to follow what he says without being clear, all intentionally. His entry under Unintentionally Unsympathetic don't help out.
- Miss Heinous, aka Meteora Butterfly, is in a really weird position. During her times as Miss Heinous, she was either a compelling villain who brought up interesting points on individuality, or an annoying strawman who tried and failed to be serious. After "Monster Bash", where she finds out that she's Eclipsa's daughter Meteora, things went in a different direction. Her much more monstrous personality, both figuratively and later on literally, was either understandable given that she was the rightful heir to the throne, or she's just an overgrown child throwing a temper tantrum, and was little more than a one note bad guy. It's safe to say that there's no middle ground for her character.
- Her fate from the season 3 finale onward is also divisive. Eclipsa's spell, which was meant to kill her, turns her into a baby. The base is split into two camps. One side finds this an acceptable compromise since she'll at least be around people who care for her to help reel her in due to her mental health issues. The other side thinks she should have been punished in some way due to finding her actions too malicious to the point of finding her completely irredeemable (with some even saying that Meteora should have died instead of turn into a baby).
- Mina Loveberry is a particularly divisive character, mainly from those who find her cuckoo crazy behavior to be endearing and relatable, or annoying and in your face. Her being the main villain in season 4 is also divisive. There are those who think it's well deserved considering her backstory, or those who think she's too much of a joke to be seen as a legitimate threat, and feel someone like Toffee or Seth should've been used.
- Some were annoyed that, other than losing her magic powers, Mina was a Karma Houdini, simply walking off scot free, neither suffering banishment or even imprisonment, leaving with Manfred, despite committing a near genocide on the monsters. Other fans think it makes sense feeling her actual condition (with her losing her powers and being disowned by Solaria) makes for a Fate Worse That Death. There's also some viewers who felt that Mina was a victim of circ*mstances as much as some of the other soldiers were, so killing her was pointless.
- Rhombulus is an odd example. He was something of an Ensemble Dark Horse back in Season 2 and parts of Season 3 thanks to being the Token Good Teammate of the Magic High Commission and his heartwarming bond with Star in his debut episode, but then Season 4 made him Took a Level in Jerkass and turned him into a Hate Sink. This splitted the fanbase in three sections: Those who never cared about him and felt this change turned him into a compelling Love to Hate figure, those who loved him in previous seasons and felt this change ruined the character just for the sake of turning fan-favorite Hekapoo in the Token Good Teammate and averting the destruction of magic of killing too many sympathetic characters, and those who didn't mind the change but disliked Rhombulus anyway for finding him to be a forced Straw Character that existed to keep pushing the Anvilicious tone of the series.
- Chloe. Some like her because she means Jackie was able to move on after she and Marco broke up and for being a minor but solid example of lesbian representation or hate her for only existing to say that Jarco is without a doubt dead.
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