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Sweet
Dreams
Back in the fourth episode, we were introduced to Star’s
special butterfly form which she took to defeat Toffee. It was certainly one of the technical and
magical highlights of the season, but it was given very little prompting apart
from being seemingly activated by Star grabbing a piece of magic. You’d think that something this big would be
explored immediately, but that’s only happening now after several episodes of
varying subjects. Nevertheless, what we
do get out of Star’s butterfly form is very interesting.
The reveal starts innocent enough with Star
having pleasant dreams of flying around with some of her favorite things like
goblin dogs. The catch is that as she
sleeps, she unknowingly experiences what she dreams about in real life. The
evidence is from goblin dog wrappers and later the big goblin dog truck in her
room. It’s here that Marco realizes that
these instances are when Star goes into her strange magical form, and Star is
understandably disturbed by this happening in her sleep. Not helping is the meaning behind all this
when Star asks her parents about this without directly mentioning it happening
to her. Moon says it’s only supposed to
activate in times of need while River says it happening unintentionally could
lead to catastrophe and the given person being locked away. The latter perspective is particularly
disturbing since it’s very unclear if River was joking or not.
Anyhow, these circumstances are all the
incentive Star needs to try and get her new magical transformation under
control without anyone knowing. She
takes extreme precaution by having Marco watch over her as she sleeps, and
having herself be chained hard to her bed.
That said, it’s no surprise that nothing is going to stand in the way of
this extreme ability. Also, it’s a good
thing that Marco has his leg attached to Star’s chains so to feel her
transforming instead of staying asleep himself.
From there, he notices Star already in her butterfly form straining at
the chains and forming a portal that leads them both into a magical void. He witnesses firsthand what Star’s been
flying through every night, and as he tries to get her to go back through the
portal, her form disappears as she wakes up.
Then just as it looks like they’re both going to be stranded in the void
forever, they’re rescued and pulled back to safety by no one other than
Eclipsa.
She and Star then have another
nice conversation made enjoyable by Eclipsa’s charm and savviness to the whole
thing. Once again, she astounds with
meaningful advice that may go against the rules, but has plenty of benefits for
Star. Venturing into the void in her new
butterfly form really is a good way to see what Star is capable of, so her
final decision to not try and stop it is worth getting behind. Then again, this is one of the better ways to
keep Eclipsa’s true morality ambiguous.
What Star is capable of might not be enough to keep her out of danger
and she could get in trouble if others find out it happens randomly. That also gives weight for Marco worrying for
Star following her decision.
Though all
this probably should have come sooner, the episode is a nice exploration of a
new magical ability leaving good ideas of what could become of it.
A
Lava Lake
Beach
One common weak point in shows is an overreliance on romance
plots. When a show has huge lore and a
major underlying story, major focus on love matters distract from truly
important details. It also adds in a lot
of unneeded drama when there’s already lots of it. This episode is one of those episodes to
introduce a possible romance. While it’s
still very nice, the problems with romance episodes of plot-related shows are
very present.
We have our heroes hanging out
in an underworld beach getting ready for a special event called a soul rise,
and Marco feels left out. It’s
understandable since one of the reasons he wanted to go back to Mewni was to be
with Star. However, not only has Tom shown
improvement, they’re now at the point of saying they’re together without
hesitation. This leaves Marco without a
chance to get this intimate with his best friend. It’s like his previous romance with Jackie Lynn Thomas ended for nothing. At the
same time, it’s hard to overlook that Marco is still with Star as her squire and has had significant
involvement in this season’s more plot-heavy aspects. It doesn’t totally make
sense to bring so much drama out of all this.
With this direction though, the episode has Marco get closer to Kelly,
an interdimensional being with a lot of hair.
However, they do bond over something they have in common. Just as Marco faced a breakup, Kelly has too,
constantly with her hairpiece of a boyfriend, Tad, in fact. She’s an emotional wreck, but not for the
reason you’d think. It’s all because she
can’t stand being a girlfriend anymore, but Tad won’t get it. It’s a decent play on expectations at least
and it’s a creative occurrence of Marco needing to actually go into Kelly’s
hair to talk to Tad and get him to leave.
However, their conversation there is pretty problematic. Tad is a sad wreck waiting to get back
together. Marco says it’s like what
happened with him when he and Jackie split, but I don’t see how that’s so. Marco knew exactly where he was going to go
when his breakup happened, and even if he didn’t get together with Star, he was
plenty content.
Speaking of which, Tad
leaves a suggestion that just like how he’s making himself miserable being around
Kelly, Marco is making himself miserable hanging around Star. It’s here where it really feels like the
episode is forgetting that Marco is doing that because he’s her squire. He may not be romantically involved with
Star, but he’s still a very loyal confidant which we’ve seen enough of so
far. It at least drops the legit
suggestion that Marco has feelings for Star, so that gives some weight to Tad’s
statement. In addition, the conversation makes a scene where
Marco walks among other interdimensional couples on the beach, most of which
being best friends, somewhat emotional.
Fortunately for him, his advice is successful in getting Tad to move
out. Plus, the last scene where he and
Kelly watch the soul rise together for the thrill of the event and not for love, signaling Marco’s birthday apparently, is
very sweet.
However, given the direction
of the episode, all of this suggests that Marco is going to start a new
relationship with Kelly. They have
potential to be a good couple, but we hardly ever see them as a couple afterwards
so there’s not much weight to them being together. If anything, Marco continues to be closer to
Star as her squire for much of the episodes to come, so what he goes through has
very little of a point to it. The episode's
nice and charming on its own, but the nature of romance plots and how little it
ties to the rest of the series really hold it back.
C
The Ranking
- Moon the Undaunted
- Stranger Danger
- Sweet Dreams
- Return to Mewni
- Rest in Pudding
- Demoncism
- Toffee
- Club Snubbed
- Puddle Defender
- Sophomore Slump
- Starfari
- Lint Catcher
- Princess Turdina
- Scent of a Hoodie
- King Ludo
- Marco and the King
- Book Be Gone
- Trial by Squire
- Lava Lake Beach
Be sure to stay tuned for the next Star vs the Forces of Evil review heavy on pigeons and Pony Heads.
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