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Page Turner
As
Star’s trainer, Glossaryck often uses riddles or vague statements to teach her
how work her wand. Confusing as they are,
there’s a certain charm to his teachings, and he mostly knows what he’s doing.
This is the case in this episode when Star is interested in learning a forbidden spell,
and Glossaryck is hesitant to let her do it.
He then becomes the episode’s main focus when he’s called to meet with a
major group of Mewni known as the Magic High Commission.
Learning about them takes a while when
Glossaryck is told by Sean, the security guard, that magic isn’t allowed. Glossaryck has to go to the top floor on foot while being tailed by Sean to make sure he
sticks to the rule. Although the moments
of him getting up to the top floor aren’t exciting, it is interesting to see
Glossaryck constantly get messed with by Sean.
He’s putting up with vague information, like what Star puts up with from
him. Sean sends him through a magic
detector which detects lots of magical stuff on him and none on someone clearly
carrying that stuff. Then he messes with Glossaryck by acting like he forgot where he’s going. Finally, he makes the elevator stop at every floor. While this behavior takes away time to see
the Magic High Commission, Glossaryck dealing with his own difficult
person after being one himself makes these scenes bearable.
Eventually, Glossaryck snaps and uses magic
anyway to get to the top of the building, and there don't seem to be any negative
consequences.
Then we finally meet the Magic High
Commission, consisting of some creatively designed creatures. There's a goat
man, a living scull inside a sphere, a princess with a flame over her
head, and a crystal shooting creature with snakes for hands called
Rhombulus. The biggest factor to the Magic High
Commission is that Queen Moon is in charge.
It’s big new information to expand on Moon’s role. Even bigger is a mention of something setting
an interesting plot point in motion. Someone is draining magic from the
universe, the Magic High Commission is investigating it, and it means Star has
to master her wand faster.
During this
time, while frustrated with what he had to put up with, Glossaryck reveals how
Eclipsa was the only queen who let him teach his way. He also says that Eclipsa is the writer
of the spell that intrigued Star so much, making the promise of what’s to come
even vaster. As for Star’s interest in
that spell, it connects to the final point where Glossaryck reveals that he
teaches the way he does because it’s what’s right for Star. This is an endearing way to show that for all the frustration he brings, deep down he gets his pupil.
On a side note, it’s nice to see Moon understand what Glossaryck is laying
down agreeing she should be more trusting of her daughter training to become a
queen.
Although more time could’ve been
spent on the big reveal, this is still a strong starring role for Glossaryck. There's development for how he works as a mentor, and uncovering interesting facts
of Mewni’s inner workings.
A-
Naysaya
Starting
in an early part of Season 1, much of Marco’s character has been defined by his
crush on Jackie Lynn Thomas. As is the case with most crush plot threads in
shows, he’s too nervous to confess his love.
Even after he admitted his crush earlier this season, he’s still very
nervous around her. In fact, it gets to the point where he's saying uncomfortable remarks to her. As the episode goes on, Marco saying
such disturbing things while talking to Jackie seem to go beyond nervousness. He starts writing such things too.
All this awkward talk reaches its freaky
point when Marco sprouts a little growth on his neck. This growth
is the source of the inappropriate comments. Just as the growth’s existence looks like a
plot hole, the supernatural specialist of the cast, Janna, looks into it.
She deduces that it’s called a naysaya, a demon curse that appears whenever
someone’s trying to win over a lover and proceeds to reveal its victim’s
darkest secrets. It’s pretty commendable
that the episode explains why the naysaya is here, and even
adds to the background. Marco interrogates the only demon he knows
, Tom, who cursed him with it. It was all in the name of making Marco not ask out Star. The naysaya will also last last until it says all of Marco’s secrets.
All this information makes Marco’s problem a
creative highlight of the episode, and the subsequent scenes of Marco meeting its demands to keep it silent are funny. You’d think a demon growth would want Marco
to do something embarrassing or even evil against his will. It turns out to
want frivolous things like eating cereal.
As for whether or not the naysaya holds up its end of the bargain, it
does seem loyal at first. Marco and Jackie finally have a normal, civil
conversation and become more like a couple worth supporting. Then, in an ultimate jerk move, the naysaya
goes back on its promise and keeps spilling dark secrets. The only reason we have for this is that it
doesn’t know what a promise is, and I suppose that makes sense.
Marco comes clean about the cursed
growth to Jackie. While many other kids are realistically weirded out, Jackie listens to Marco and understand where he’s coming
from. What’s more, Marco beats the
naysaya to the punch by revealing all his darkest secrets on his own, leaving
the naysaya with nothing more to say. As
for Jackie, she continues to be one of the most open-minded love interests. She accepts
Marco’s secrets, and even describes one of them as deep. Marco gets a movie date set with her, and it
actually feels nice to see the naysaya come along with them as a last request.
At the end of the day, even if the secrets it
revealed were embarrassing and annoying, the naysaya was still doing what’s part of its
nature. It was mostly an innocent being with reasonable requests, so it feels
like it warrants a happy ending just as much as Marco does. On the whole, this episode is a creative
escapade with strong character moments to officially win Marco his dream crush.
A
The Ranking
- Ludo in the Wild
- Into the Wand
- Hungry Larry
- Game of Flags
- On the Job
- Sleepover
- Is Mystery
- Naysaya
- Mr. Candle Cares
- Wand to Wand
- Page Turner
- Starstruck
- Girls’ Day Out
- By the Book
- Friendenemies
- Gift of the Card
- Starsitting
- Star on Wheels
- Camping Trip
- My New Wand
- Red Belt
- Spider with a Top Hat
- Star vs Echo Creek
- Fetch
- Goblin Dogs
- Pizza Thing
The next Star vs the Forces of Evil review is on a double-length episode where Star finds it hard to accept the new Marco and Jackie pairing while awaiting Bon Bon the Birthday Clown.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews, you have to care that "You Have to Care" from OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes will be reviewed.
If you would like to check out other Star vs the Forces of Evil reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
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