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Butterfly
Trap
Many episodes have built up the trial of Eclipsa by now. Some featured her offering genuinely good advice to help Star with her problems or just being a charming individual who doesn’t seem evil at all. Others threw in a way for her to seem like a victim of unfortunate circumstances through reveals about her daughter and how she hasn’t seen her in hundreds of years. Amidst all the frivolous plots and romance fuel, these elements have by far been the most interesting parts of Season 3, maybe even the whole series. Now the trial has come, and it really delivers as a follow-up to what’s been revealed and as an animated work by itself.
With so many good moments from Eclipsa, it’s
easy to feel for her as she faces the judges consisting of all the Magic High
Commission members keen to prove she’s evil.
Only Star is vocal enough to vouch for her, but no one takes
notice. Admirably, even with possible
serious consequences looming over her, Eclipsa remains calm and collected. That’s just one of many reasons she’s such a
lovable character, even if you’re not supposed to know whether she should be
trusted. In fact, she’s so calm about
things that she’s willing to be completely honest about any claim the Magic
High Commission throws at her.
This
leads to a unique edge to this serious trial when Moon brings out a special box
to ensure that absolutely no one lies.
The thing about this box is that it’s the same one Star and her friends
used at a sleepover making this episode stand out for making an earlier
light-hearted one relevant. Really, it’s
humorous that something used for a fun activity is key to this serious
prosecution complete with a sight gag of it needing to be set from party mode
to trial mode. However, in both cases,
the box brings an intense atmosphere as it listens for answers. This fact makes Eclipsa’s interrogations
really stand out. Still, she’s impressively cool under pressure as she admits
to things like writing the forbidden chapter in the spell book and eloping with
a monster. After all, these responses
are perfectly honest as are her reasons behind them.
Then, the trial really gets interesting
through a loophole that Eclipsa is allowed to ask the Magic High Commission a
question since she was once a Queen of Mewni.
If the one thing to cause her any sentiment means anything, it’s not
hard to guess that she asks them about what they did to her daughter. Despite them all sounding genuinely confused
by the question, the box calls them out as liars entrapping everyone inside it
with the intent of crushing them. It’s a
greatly staged scene of intensity showing some shady depths to the Magic High
Commission where they’re willing to lie even in the face of doom. Star is the one to point out their blatant
hypocrisy which is not only a great continuation of her character strengths but
also brings even more huge reveals.
The
Magic High Commission finally snaps and admits that after crystalizing Eclpisa,
they got rid of her daughter and gave the Butterfly wand to a random peasant
girl. They don’t even give a good reason
why it would be bad for a half-monster queen to take the throne. From here, the background of the show is
given a welcome refreshing change of pace with it now known that the Butterfly
regime is built on a lie and shallow prejudices. Star storming away in disgust at the end
perfectly captures this heavy toll.
Following an intense, interesting character-driven trial, this reshaping
makes this whole episode stand as one of this show’s biggest experiences.
A+
Ludo, Where
Art Thou?
Even with a big game-changing episode, the trend to
immediately follow it up with an episode on a completely unrelated topic
instead of the reveal’s emotional impact continues. True, seeing what became of Ludo after
he decided to go back into the void is something necessary to see considering the
big role he played in the season premiere.
However, looking into this right after a shocking truth about the
Butterfly family really throws the flow of events off, especially on an
emotional level. That said, does this
episode still deliver as a work by itself?
Well it’s certainly interesting, and like I said earlier, seeing what
happened to Ludo is completely necessary to follow up on certain events.
A big thing to set this apart from other Ludo
episodes is that his family life is a notable element. Before, they were only seen in one episode,
and the events there along with the events here really question who the
audience should side with. Ludo was said
to have locked his family out of their castle which wasn’t cool. However, they constantly mistreated and
disowned him. It may have been their way
of toughening him up, but it’s highly probable that they went too far, making
it no wonder that Ludo went to the lengths he did. Not to mention, in this episode, their
disdain for him is highly despicable.
It
even reaches out to their other children, such as the one child who cares for
Ludo, his taller younger brother Dennis.
The short scene of them berating Dennis for holding Ludo memorabilia and
mentioning a specific time they normally do this perfectly demonstrates the
lengths of their abuse. I’m beginning to
believe that the reason he thinks so much of Ludo is that he’s also put down by
the treatment of these parents. It’s
kind of sad that he has to keep his true loves a secret from them. This includes using dimensional scissors sent
to him by Ludo to track him down to where he’s staying. After a few attempts, Dennis gets the exact
location and goes there with the intent of bringing Ludo home.
At that point, the episode is nothing more
than short moments highlighting how much Ludo has lost his mind after his most
recent events. It’s honestly difficult
to find them weird or funny. The big
takeaway from these moments is that Ludo has dummies of certain people in his
life, particularly his parents. He acts
like a slave around these lifeless mockups of his authority figures, bringing
even more unfortunate implications of his upbringing. There’s also an air of creepiness to them
when Dennis finds, and he’s completely surrounded by a bunch of them that suddenly
appear. Is he going crazy too or are
these dummies real? It would have been a
benefit if the perspective was clearer.
Still, it’s a shining moment for Dennis as he gets the strength to fight
back against the dummies and even destroy them. Ludo sees his brother taking out his
“parents” as getting over that issue, even though he didn’t do it himself. It’s at least a fairer reason that he opts
not to go home with Dennis and instead stay where he is to deal with his many
other issues. Some of them include other
dummies of Star and Marco.
In the end,
I’m honestly completely unsure what to make of all this since we’re looking at this now when big game-changers are in
place. Still, I can’t fault the heart of
this episode when it comes to brotherly bonds and sympathies from the pains of the innocent
dealing with abuse.
B+
The Ranking
- Butterfly Trap
- Total Eclipsa the Moon
- Moon the Undaunted
- Deep Dive
- Stranger Danger
- Sweet Dreams
- Return to Mewni
- Rest in Pudding
- Night Life
- Demoncism
- Toffee
- Monster Bash
- Club Snubbed
- Puddle Defender
- Sophomore Slump
- Starfari
- Lint Catcher
- Princess Turdina
- Ludo, Where Art Thou?
- Scent of a Hoodie
- King Ludo
- Marco and the King
- Death Peck
- Book Be Gone
- The Bogbeast of Boggabah
- Stump Day
- Trial by Squire
- Lava Lake Beach
- Holiday Spellcial
- Ponymonium
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where more lengths to monster prejudices getting worse reach Buff Frog, and we learn what Marco's parents have been up to ever since he left Earth.
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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