'Toon Reviews 9: Star vs the Forces of Evil Season 1 Episode 7

Lobster Claws

A good character is one who isn’t completely good or completely bad.  They should have some flaws, but enough likable qualities to make them worth getting behind because that’s what makes them relatable.  This is the idea explored in this episode where another failed attempt to get Star’s wand leads Ludo to fire one of his henchmen named Lobster Claws.  When Star and Marco find him upset about being out of a job, Marco feels sympathetic and offers to help Lobster Claws learn to be good.  We then get a montage of Lobster Claws trying to be good, but all his attempts constantly get shut down by his monstrous tendencies such as punching people, putting a cat he rescued from a tree and its owner in his mouth, and causing destruction while helping an old lady cross the street.  There’s a humorous feel to how all of Lobster Claws’ goodness attempts go wrong, but you can still buy that he’s trying, so it’s nice that Marco continuously believes in him.  At the same time, Star doesn’t seem at her best here by constantly shooting down all of Lobster Claws and Marco’s claims that Lobster Claws can be good just because he’s a monster and all monsters are bad.  That’s a major one-track mindset which never is welcome.  Just because some beings are part of a notoriously bad group doesn’t mean they’re like everyone else.  There can have depth and other sides to them people hardly see, and if Star can’t consider this, that costs her value as a protagonist.  She even convinces Lobster Claws that Marco’s just trying to make him into something he’s not and that he should be trying to hurt people, and has him stage a fake fight to get Ludo to hire him back meaning that Star is so rigid, she’d stick to the black-and-white good-hero, bad-monster way of thinking.  Now during the fake fight, we get some creativity when Lobster Claws does take Star’s wand, and it, along with him, turns dark and monstrous as a result.  Plus, Lobster Claws actually appears at war with himself as he can’t decide whether to give the wand to Ludo or Star, and his internal conflict is reflected by the wand changing its eye as he turns to different opponents.  Thankfully, this gets Star to realize that there is good inside monsters after all, so she’s saved from being completely unlikable.  Also, everything’s wrapped up nicely with Marco getting Star’s wand back and Lobster Claws getting rehired by Ludo.  The latter point may be disappointing considering what Lobster Claws went through, but at least we know that he isn’t completely bad.  Overall, this is a fine good episode brought down by an outdated one-track mindset. 8/10

Sleep Spells

This is another episode that explores how strong of a duo Star and Marco are.  Its strength is shown through how willing they are to put up with each other despite how eccentric they are, particularly with Marco willingly doing something about Star and her spells.  He realizes that Star has a habit of casting spells in her sleep which cause havoc all about his home.  His way around this involves simple psychology practices, and while it takes a while for Star to grasp how they work shown to humorous effect, Marco does find some success by uncovering a reason for Star’s habit with an ink blot test.  While the rest of the episode doesn’t further explore the reason, it does provide more value to Marco’s psychological talents.  When it seems that Star has just gone back to sleep-spelling, it’s revealed that she was defending herself from a monster called Princess Smooshy.  Her story is that she’s on the run from St. Olga’s Reform School and thinks that stealing Star’s face is her way out of it.  It’s as ridiculous as it sounds, but its threat is genuine when she makes it clear that she means what she says.  As for how this whole thing is resolved, Marco uses his psychology to great effect.  When Smooshy says she doesn’t have ears, Marco points out that this is the problem which gets Smooshy to reveal that while she actually does have ears, she only listens to her mind and doesn’t want to listen to people.  While this psychological therapy only increases Smooshy’s desire to steal Star’s face, Marco still gets his moment to shine by using force as his last resort and comes out on top while Smooshy is taken away.  To be honest, after seeing Star’s magic and wand work be the means of solving every problem for so long, it’s a nice change of pace for Marco to be the big hero with simple non-magical practices proving that this show knows how to stay fresh.  Plus, it leads to a nice ending moment to serve as closure to Marco constantly calculating how much he and Star save each other.  Star, taking on the role of a psychiatrist herself, lets Marco know that he’s great as he is and that the both of them being there for each other is what’s most important, and it’s especially great that Marco gets it just as the episode ends.  While this episode mostly exists as a standalone entry, the strength of Star and Marco’s friendship, the strong comedy, and the different than usual ways of resolving things make it a strong entry of the season. 9.5/10

The Ranking

1. Mewberty
2. Diaz Family Vacation
3. Sleep Spells
4. School Spirit
5. Party with a Pony
6. Quest Buy
7. Monster Arm
8. Cheer up Star
9. Star Comes to Earth
10. Brittney’s Party
11. Matchmaker
12. Lobster Claws
13. Pixtopia
14. The Other Exchange Student

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where we meet Star's old crush, Tom, when she attends the "Blood Moon Ball" and we also meet Ludo's new assistant, Toffee, who plots to get Star's wand by taking advantage of her new obsession of "Fortune Cookies."

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.