'Toon Reviews 9: Star vs the Forces of Evil Season 1 Episode 13 + Final Thoughts

Storm the Castle

For the last episode of this season, we get a grand adventure that brings together everything great about this show.  We start off with a strong display of Star and Marco’s appealing friendship.  They may get into a disagreement when Star unwisely puts getting a sandwich from a monster over common safety, but they never let their tensions separate them for long with Star even realizing how out of line she was.  However, that’s when the episode starts building in greatness when Star finds that Marco’s been kidnapped and she has to sacrifice her wand to get him back.  Along the way, she teams up with Ludo who was kicked out, and his henchman who was kicked out first on Mewnipendence Day, Buff Frog, who inform her of how Toffee has taken over.  We get some amusing banter from each member of the trio such as Ludo not even hiding that he’s just using everyone to get his castle back, Buff Frog seeing himself as a father to the tadpoles Ludo sent him, and Star just wanting to go in to attack Toffee to save Marco despite Buff Frog’s attempts to restrain her.  This helps make the adventure enjoyable with these personalities working off each other.  As for Toffee, this episode has him at his most menacing as he keeps Marco locked in a clear box, lets him go to fight him only to reveal that he’s immune to Marco’s simple karate moves, and really drives a hard bargain when getting Star’s wand.  When she rushes into fight, while her wand is effective at first, it takes a while for it to break Marco’s box.  Even when it does break, it rebuilds itself stronger than before and Toffee has it close in on Marco.  With no other option, we’re led to the episode’s display of another strong element of this show, character development.  Star proceeds to give Toffee her wand, except he really wants her to destroy it.  This is followed by a highly emotional scene where Star whispers to the wand and it slowly loses all its power and Star has to watch every part of its destruction.  Really, the loss of anything you’re attached to can take a sad toll on you, and we had a whole season to see how attached Star was to her wand, so her sadness is easy to buy.  This move ends up being for the best since not only is Marco set free, but it also destroys Ludo’s castle as well as Toffee (for the moment anyway), and Star even gets an upgraded wand out of her move.  Plus, even when Star’s parents finally find out about her recklessness with the wand after Marco’s parents break from their standard happy loving parent personas and responsibly inform them, they’re instead glad that she’s safe and don’t punish her.  Still, even with the good that came from this emotional adventure, there’s an air of suspense for the future with Star needing to learn how to use her new wand especially since it doesn’t have all its star power and half of it is left at the scene of destruction, leaving a more bittersweet ending opening up possibilities for more character-building adventures in the future.  For all its adventure, good humor, genuine emotion, and great potential for what’s to come, this is, on the whole, an amazing end to this season. 10/10

The Ranking

1. Storm the Castle
2. St. Olga’s Reform School for Wayward Princesses
3. Blood Moon Ball
4. Mewberty
5. Mewnipendence Day
6. Diaz Family Vacation
7. Marco Grows a Beard
8. Fortune Cookies
9. Sleep Spells
10. School Spirit
11. Party with a Pony
12. Interdimensional Field Trip
13. Freeze Day
14. Quest Buy
15. Monster Arm
16. Cheer up Star
17. Star Comes to Earth
18. Brittney’s Party
19. Matchmaker
20. The Banagic Incident
21. Lobster Claws
22. Pixtopia
23. Royal Pain
24. The Other Exchange Student

Final Thoughts

While I was never unfamiliar with Star vs. the Forces of Evil, I’ve never pushed myself to watch it religiously.  After viewing the entire first season, I’m going to start doing that since this show really is further proof that not only is Disney the leading force of animated feature films, but also a huge provider of some of today’s best animated TV shows.  With a creative and fun premise, likable characters, and the evil threat starting on a small scale but increasing in menace to the end, it has the makings of a greatly appealing series.

On the surface though, it could be very easy for the show to go overboard with its high amounts of energy.  Several moments have characters messing around looking for fun that it can turn out overbearing.  You get something creative out of it almost every time courtesy of Star and her wand and the many dimensions she takes her friends to as well as interdimensional characters which is a plus, but something is needed to allow the audience to properly take everything in.  Thankfully, there is an element that allows that, and that is heart.  It’s mostly shown through the main character and how she goes about her life with the people she meets.  Although Star is highly reckless and just wants to happily rush in and blast monsters, she never ceases to show that she’s a caring interdimensional being.  Even from the start of the season, she shows some legitimate effort to show that she cares for and respects the wishes of the people taking her in.  As reckless as she can be with her magic usually through not understanding how things work on Earth, it’s easy to see her clear intentions to help and also get a good laugh at how literal-minded she is.  Plus, Star also works well as a character when she has someone like Marco to work off of.  He’s at his best whenever he gives Star helpful advice on how Earth works as well as words to live by to get over her flaws such as knowing that the monsters she fights have feelings too, or to give a warning before doing something crazy, or that she doesn’t need magic all the time which prove effective with Star becoming more mature and thoughtful as the season goes on.  Likewise, Star also helps bring out the best in Marco mainly by allowing the well-known safe kid to show off his karate moves, making him a surprisingly big help in the heat of battle, and on a smaller scale, helping him make significant progress of getting closer to his crush throughout the season.  Basically, the heart of this show, mostly from Star and Marco’s friendship at the center, is a beneficial element it couldn’t work without.  Sure, it may not always work when we focus on uninteresting one-note characters like Marco’s friends or crush characters like Marco’s Jackie or Star’s Oskar, and when we don’t get an impression that a character truly learned something, but since it works on the majority, the heart truly is a valuable asset.

Regarding the titular forces of evil, the way it’s presented is somewhat interesting.  Frequently in the early episodes, they would amount to Star and Marco getting randomly attacked by Ludo and his army who simply want Star’s wand for power’s sake, ultimately serving as a comedic part of our heroes’ fun-filled adventures.  Honestly, Ludo’s role in the show seems pretty routine at first.  He and his army pop in, he complains that his army isn’t complying, Star and Marco beat them back with some cool moves, and then he escapes in a huff.  They’re still fun, but don’t feel much different from each other.  As the season goes on, even if the main plots continue to focus on Star and her friends getting up to comedic, the opposing forces still find a way to increase in threat.  This is mostly due to the inclusion of Toffee who starts adding more intellectual tactics to Ludo’s crazed wand-obtaining attempts, his stoic businessman-like appearance selling how vastly different his villainous ways are from Ludo’s.  With each appearance, Toffee proves to be more of a threat starting with proving how close Ludo can get to the wand, then making a monster fear replacement leading to just that, then kicking Ludo out of his own castle, and finally threatening to crush Marco unless Star destroys the wand even if it does end up destroying him (for now).  Even when they’re part of comedic slice-of-life episodes, moments of this kind of threatening evil are effectively woven in and never feel out of place. They even make for some emotional moments such as Buff Frog getting fired by Ludo and later pitied by Star who’s always prided herself on fighting monsters, Ludo losing everything, and especially Star giving up her wand for the greater good.  In a way, past instances like Star seemingly disappearing forever when going through mewberty and the drama faced when she and Marco set out to save Princess Pony Head from St. Olga’s reform school kind of foreshadow how heavy and foreboding the tone would become.  In the end, when Star’s wand is upgraded but with the other half of its star power lying out in the open, that’s further proof that the threat of evil will just continue to grow, and while fun times will still exist for Star, it’s also time for her to think seriously about matters.  Given how well this show can balance out its fun moments and serious moments, most of the time anyway, what we see in this first season certainly builds a lot of promise for the seasons to follow.  That’s just a major plus to Disney storytelling after all.

Even though it falls a bit short of the top 10 leagues of animated series for being too hyper at times, the debut season of Star vs. the Forces of Evil presents the show as a fun, creative romp with great heart, lovable well-developed characters at the lead, and genuinely growing threats amidst the seemingly light-hearted adventures.  It’s a show worth checking out wherever you can view Disney animated TV series, and one that entices me to be more aware of what shows they put out.

Highly Recommended

That's it for Season 1 of Star vs. the Forces of Evil.  Next time, as we enter the month of December, we'll be getting into the spirit by looking into all 19 of the Christmas specials from Rankin/Bass.  Until then:

Stay Animated Folks!

'Toon Reviews 9: Star vs the Forces of Evil Season 1 Episode 12

Interdimensional Field Trip

When you take Star’s powers and the common school event of field trips, you can bet that you’ll get a memorable and creative experience out of that.  In the case of this episode, we also get some decent character building as well.  The field trip starts out with a large chorus of complaints when the kids of Star’s class dread taking a field trip to the boring paper clip factory.  As Ms. Skullnick, being more of a downer than ever before, counteracts this by stating that life is boring, Star is led to prove her wrong by taking charge of the class.  As the leader, Star changes the field trip location to an extraordinary dimension, which is never given a name, filled with creative spots like magic portals that put kids on a horse’s body, stingrays to surf on, and upside-down buildings kids can walk on.  Now, it is easy to predict that a reckless character like Star will realize that being in charge is a lot harder than it looks especially when the kids feel the need to do dangerous stunts which Star has to prevent.  Granted, there’s a lot of humor and enjoyment from the dangerous stunts they attempt to pull, but this plot convention has been around long enough to let you know how everything will play out.  However, a subplot involving Ms. Skullnick helps make the cartoon stand out as something all its own.  We know that she was turned into a troll and there’s no way of turning her back to normal, but in this other dimension, she learns about positives that come from being a troll such as living longer and having extra strength.  This gets her to feel more positive about her permanent troll state, and she gets a grand shining moment through fixing the mess Star’s leadership caused.  It’s her newly-discovered troll strength that helps her save her class from a creature said to be the universe’s deadliest that may not seem threatening at first being made of thread.  In an ironic turn of events, she ultimately uses the boring old paper clip that started this whole plot to take the creature down.  So, Star learns the expected lesson of the importance of discipline and rules, but what Ms. Skullnick learns about herself is really worth a mention.  On another note, little moments throughout the episode show some nice progression of Marco’s relationship with Jackie as he has many scenes of texting her cute cat pictures, then after helping to save her and the class, they’re both sharing a seat on the bus with Star’s support helping make it happen.  Basically, predictable as it may be at times, in addition to being fun and creative, this episode strengthens itself on character development. 9/10

Marco Grows a Beard

With a title like this, you might not think that this episode would have a lot to offer, but in execution, there’s a decent amount of character development and game changing elements.  The central plot is Marco wanting to grow a beard to impress Jackie, but it’s Star who becomes the focus character where she gets one of the most beneficial lessons she could learn.  We’ve known since the beginning that Star values her wand a lot, and it was involved in almost everything she’s done.  This episode exaggerates her using her wand for everything a bit, but when you think about it, Marco’s claim about her habit makes sense given her attachment.  She uses her wand to help Marco’s beard grow faster, but that’s where the habit further shows how problematic it is when the beard grows so fast that it covers the house.  However, this sets up a challenge for Star when her wand gets lost in the beard, and she has to rely on non-magical means to shave the beard off.  Of course, it’s hard for Star to get confident enough to fix everything at first, but through her own dream, she recognizes how strong and capable of adventure she was before she got her wand.  Star basically figures out she can solve the problem without magic by herself, really showing how mature and self-aware she’s become.  So, she puts on a great display of ingenuity as she gets through the beard, finds Marco, and even takes out Ludo and his monsters all with normal means of brute force, sheers, and her own laser-shooting puppies.  For stepping out of her comfort zone, this is easily Star at her most respectable.  As for game-changing elements, it all has to do with Ludo’s role here.  As he and his army look for Star’s wand in the beard, he bullies and orders the monsters to brave the beard when they’re hesitant to do so.  Yet, when he has the perfect chance to grab the wand, he lets memories of a tickle monster get to him, and is thrown into a laughing fit by the beard leaving Star to grab the wand and beat everyone, making Ludo look like a huge hypocrite.  In fact, his hypocrisy is later called out by Toffee who was shown to be more respectful to the army.  He ultimately convinces them that he’s the better leader and tosses Ludo out.  Up until now, Ludo, while enjoyable for his comedic high temper when attempting to get Star’s wand, was rather one-dimensional for wanting to get it solely for power.  Being kicked out of his domain and army brings a lot of potential for development from him.  With everything stated here, this is easily a great example of how so much can come from a simple story if you have the right execution. 9.5/10

The Ranking

1. St. Olga’s Reform School for Wayward Princesses
2. Blood Moon Ball
3. Mewberty
4. Mewnipendence Day
5. Diaz Family Vacation
6. Marco Grows a Beard
7. Fortune Cookies
8. Sleep Spells
9. School Spirit
10. Party with a Pony
11. Interdimensional Field Trip
12. Freeze Day
13. Quest Buy
14. Monster Arm
15. Cheer up Star
16. Star Comes to Earth
17. Brittney’s Party
18. Matchmaker
19. The Banagic Incident
20. Lobster Claws
21. Pixtopia
22. Royal Pain
23. The Other Exchange Student

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the epic season finale, "Storm the Castle."

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.

'Toon Reviews 9: Star vs the Forces of Evil Season 1 Episode 11

Mewnipendence Day

Although we’ve seen glimpses of Mewni, we’ve never really learned much about it.  This episode is where we get some insight on its history when Star invites some of her class for a celebration of the anniversary of the founding of her home dimension called Mewnipendence Day.  The backstory itself is fairly basic that can be applied to the founding of any country.  Settlers came and made their home, monsters attacked, the settlers beat the monsters with the help of magic from their queen, and then Mewni thrived into the big kingdom it is today.  That’s all there is to what this day is celebrating without anything to stand out from your average basic retelling of historic events.  However, it does lead to an honestly masterful bit of storytelling that reveals itself as the Mewnipendence Day customs unfold.  Star has everyone, who have no knowledge of Mewni and are mostly here for the feast, do a re-enactment of the monster massacre that allowed Mewni to get the freedom it has with some posing as the fighters and others posing as the monsters.  Marco believes that the fighters have an unfair advantage against the monsters who aren’t given any weapons.  Through very minimal dialog, Star is led to look over pages she frequently overlooks from a Mewnipendence Day history book she has.  That combined with her watching the battle reenactment slowly gets her to realize that monsters have feelings too, something she’s more than set up to learn given her need to fight monsters.  This part of the episode gets stronger with the subplot of Ludo and Toffee getting closer to getting Star’s wand.  Because of Toffee, Ludo sets up an ingenious way of spying on Star with a floating eyeball putting his henchmen out of a job.  One monster who’s been shown to be the closest to Ludo, Buff Frog, sets out to prove that he and the others deserve to keep their job by trying to steal Star’s wand himself.  When he somehow can’t use a special device of Toffee’s to retrieve it and is forced to retreat, Star has a good chance to blast him like she always does.  Instead, she lets Buff Frog go free, and it’s a defining moment for Star really realizing the humanity of monsters.  It’s as if she’s growing into a more mature and considerate person.  This even continues to the end when after a harsh scene of Buff Frog's biggest fear confirmed with Ludo kicking him out, Star offers him food during the Mewnipendence Day feast, making the conclusion satisfying for all.  Many characters involved get up to many strong moments of character development, enjoyment, and sympathy making this another strong entry for this season. 9.5/10

The Banagic Incident

 

After two fairly serious and heavy episodes, this episode once again focuses on the hijinks Star gets up to due to her misunderstandings of Earth’s customs.  Several instances show that Star is literal-minded of how Earth works, and that usually makes for some of her most enjoyable moments.  In fact, any time someone takes what someone says literally results in hilarity, and this episode has a lot of that on display.  It all begins when Star, determined to avoid boredom, finds an ad for a product called the Banagic wand.  Already, her literal-minded nature kicks in when she reads that the wand is seen on TV and goes to one to learn all about it.  The commercial for the wand that plays is filled with hilarity potential with Star buying into the marketing stunts on how it brings everyone together with friendship magic and that supplies are limited. Star declares that she must get it before it’s too late, even though all the wand does is make banana ice cream.  Admittedly, since we as an audience know that the Banagic wand really isn’t anything special, it can get concerning when Star doesn’t listen to what Marco has to say about it or that he needs to get to karate class.  Still, it’s easy to get wrapped up in all the fun that unfolds as Star sets off on her own to find the wand at “a better store.”  As a result, we get even more hilarious moments like mistaking strange looking people as monsters, assuming people who casually use the term “better store” is the place where to find the wand and acting like workers at a pirate-themed restaurant are real pirates which make them chase her.  This whole part of the episode is just non-stop fun and excitement especially since it happens because of a hilarious misunderstanding.  It also has a decent payoff when Star reciting the banagic wand commercial to get the restaurant workers chasing her on her side, showing that maybe there was more to the commercial than one might think.  There’s also a lot of time spent on Marco’s karate class where he struggles to cross a floor of hot coal while being taunted by Jeremy Birnbaum.  It’s certainly enjoyable as well, and what Marco goes through has a solid payoff when he lets his frustration at Jeremy out by chasing him which gets him to cross the hot floor, but this subplot feels like padding to elongate the story since Star’s story wasn’t long enough.  Even with that, it’s still well told as is what Star gets up to, even if her part probably should’ve come sooner in the season given her character growth at this point.  We’re overall left with a solid segment of laughs. 8/10

The Ranking

1. St. Olga’s Reform School for Wayward Princesses
2. Blood Moon Ball
3. Mewberty
4. Mewnipendence Day
5. Diaz Family Vacation
6. Fortune Cookies
7. Sleep Spells
8. School Spirit
9. Party with a Pony
10. Freeze Day
11. Quest Buy
12. Monster Arm
13. Cheer up Star
14. Star Comes to Earth
15. Brittney’s Party
16. Matchmaker
17. The Banagic Incident
18. Lobster Claws
19. Pixtopia
20. Royal Pain
21. The Other Exchange Student

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Star fights boredom once again when she takes her class on an "Interdimensional Field Trip" and further learns that she's powerful even without her wand when "Marco Grows a Beard."

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.

'Toon Review 9: Star vs the Forces of Evil Season 1 Episode 10

St. Olga’s Reform School for Wayward Princesses

St. Olga’s Reform School has been built up as a place no one would want to end up in for several instances this season.  Now we’re finally seeing it, and what the episode consists of really delivers.  Everything unfolds when Star calls her friend who was sent to the reform school, Princess Pony Head, for her birthday, and notices how close she is to losing her individuality.  Feeling sorry that her friend has to suffer like this, Star and Marco decide to give Pony Head the best birthday gift they can by busting her out.  The whole episode is an exciting jailbreak plot with many things to make it a season highlight.  Some of them include the many designs of the characters, not just of the unruly and rebellious princesses whose appearances clash with the traditional princess look the school pushes for, but also Star and Marco’s disguises, particularly Marco wearing a dress.  The biggest aspect of the school is how it works.  The headmistress, Ms. Heinous, and her robot guards are strictly against princesses who doesn’t comply with the traditional princesses standards, so they proceed to put them in never-ending classes on etiquette, singing with animals, and dressing nice to strip them of their individuality.  Really, this is one of the cruelest things anyone could be put through.  Even if some traits can cause problems for others, they should be given better control, not stripped entirely.  It prevents people from being who they really are which is never a good thing.  With this dark setup in place, Star and Marco go through their jailbreak their own way.  Star is overwhelmed with fear of the place and what it does, but pushes on with great devotion to her friend.  Marco is the strongest and most confident of the duo, knowledgable on jailbreak movies and even helps the school’s wayward princesses rebel with the memorable chant, “It’s not criminal to be an individual!”  Even then, it’s clear that some princesses like Pony Head have some individuality in them.  You see, Pony Head has slowly lost the fun and wild traits that defined her the more she stayed at the school, much to Star’s distress.  There are some times when she reflects her true self, but they’re not strong enough for her to snap out of what was forced on her.  Fortunately, she pulls through when Marco needs rescuing from solitary conformant where he’s forced to watch slides of proper behavior and helps Star rescue Marco.  This scene is then capped off with a grand finale of all the princess breaking down the gates as well as a tower preventing the use of interdimensional scissors making the school’s entrance a wild party area which is really rewarding for Pony Head and everyone stripped of their true selves.  Still, Pony Head makes the noble decision to stay at the school so what happened to her doesn’t happen to anyone else, yet is grateful for Star and Marco getting her back to normal, leaving her in a mature, yet wayward state.  We also end with some tension with Ms. Heinous finding out that one of the rebel princesses is from Earth, showing that this isn’t the last we’ll see of this school.  The buildup to the reform school really paid off here with a dark environment, huge stakes, and some of the absolute best moments from the characters involved. 10/10

The Ranking

1. St. Olga’s Reform School for Wayward Princesses
2. Blood Moon Ball
3. Mewberty
4. Diaz Family Vacation
5. Fortune Cookies
6. Sleep Spells
7. School Spirit
8. Party with a Pony
9. Freeze Day
10. Quest Buy
11. Monster Arm
12. Cheer up Star
13. Star Comes to Earth
14. Brittney’s Party
15. Matchmaker
16. Lobster Claws
17. Pixtopia
18. Royal Pain
19. The Other Exchange

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Star realizes that monsters have feelings too on "Mewnipendence  Day" and her literal-mindedness is put to hilarious effect during "The Banagic Incident."

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.

'Toon Reviews 9: Star vs the Forces of Evil Season 1 Episode 9

Freeze Day

The main plot is yet another instance of fun and hijinks from Star’s magic, but it’s still a ton of fun with great moments from the characters involved.  Star’s wand spell here is freezing time which is cast when Marco panics about being late for school.  It’s not because of needing to be in time for class or to keep up a perfect attendance record.  It’s all about being there for something as simple as nodding at his crush, Jackie Lynn Thomas, who apparently passes by his locker at a specific time every day.  Even if what Marco wants to do is a relatively minor concern, it’s still great that Star reserves her spells to help him.  At the same time, she also allows Marco to take advantage of time being frozen as they spend a lot of time messing around with everything immobilized.  Personally, I wouldn’t call this too reckless because when it’s revealed that Star can’t unfreeze time, it’s made clear that this would’ve happened regardless of her and Marco’s lollygagging.  You see, they have to travel to a dimension called the Plains of Time to fix time, and they learn the reason time hasn’t gotten unfrozen is because Father Time was knocked off his wheel when the spell was cast and didn’t get back on it.  Now, Father Time himself is a pretty enjoyable character for finding pleasures in simple things like mud which is believable considering all the time he spends running on that wheel to keep time going.  Of course, he’d jump at the chance for a break from it even if time needs to keep going.  So, Star and Marco chase Father Time through the plains which provides the bulk of the episode’s creativity particularly with clocks that alter their ages.  It’s only when they track Father Time in a part of the plains that record all of the universe’s history which houses a one-eyed creature that shows the lives of anyone it looks at.  It’s a truly creative addition to the dimension and makes for cute looks at Star and Marco’s childhoods.  As for Father Time, Star and Marco see firsthand that he really hasn’t done anything besides running on the wheel, so they set something up for him to see everything while doing his job.  This is a more interesting and considerate direction for the story to take than the easy route of convincing Father Time that boredom from his job is something he has to deal with.  The adventure also proves beneficial for Marco when they get back with time working properly.  He not only nods at Jackie, like he’s done for years as shown by the creature, but even talks to her.  It’s just a simple “hi” but it really is a good first step in the progress of his relationship with her.  Ultimately, I can say that this spell-hijinks episode is made good by the character development woven into the mix. 9/10

Royal Pain

After seeing how Star and her father, King River, are more in common than they may seem in “Diaz Family Vacation,” an episode of them spending time together would be a pleasing one to look forward to.  Well, in this episode, he comes to stay with his daughter after getting kicked out of the castle in Mewni, and his presence becomes annoying to not just Star, but the audience as well.  At first, their interactions are pleasing with River approving of Star’s recklessness with her wand.  The two share a lot of nice scenes of exploring what Earth has to offer and putting their own spin on them such as throwing random things into the toilet as they watch the water go down and using their own powerful clubs while playing miniature golf.  However, as time goes on, River becomes too destructive for everyone around him, and Star’s growing annoyance is easy to see.  She may be reckless too, but even earlier in the season she’s had some restraint.  What her dad’s doing is going too far.  It just gets worse when he acts like a slob late into the night when Star isn’t even remotely up for messing around, and the next day, he throws a wild party with all his interdimensional friends without any notice to his daughter's feelings.  As frustrating as it is to see Star have to put up with this unruly behavior, she never seems to take the hint that the way her dad’s acting is similar to how she sometimes acts around Marco, especially since he’s constantly suffering in this episode by getting his socks wet.  Fortunately, Star goes on to see Marco’s point of view when she takes care of an uninvited party guest, a living sun called Helios, who harasses everyone at the party in his own way complete with a spell that nicely connects to Marco’s wet socks problem.  Plus, River realizes how inconsiderate and reckless he’s been too which is the best payoff to his grating antics we could get.  Ultimately, they both learn to give others a heads-up before acting, and that does wonders not just for Star and her father’s bond, but also for Star and Marco’s bond.  This episode can get tiresome with how much emphasis is on the recklessness of the central characters, but the payoff makes everything worth it. 8/10

The Ranking

1. Blood Moon Ball
2. Mewberty
3. Diaz Family Vacation
4. Fortune Cookies
5. Sleep Spells
6. School Spirit
7. Party with a Pony
8. Freeze Day
9. Quest Buy
10. Monster Arm
11. Cheer up Star
12. Star Comes to Earth
13. Brittney’s Party
14. Matchmaker
15. Lobster Claws
16. Pixtopia
17. Royal Pain
18. The Other Exchange Student

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where, after so many mentions and scared reactions from certain characters, we finally pay a visit to "St. Olga's Reform School for Wayward Princesses."

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.