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Lars of the
Stars
With friendships mended and changes to Beach City’s status
quo in place, it’s great to know that this cartoon finally looks back on some
of this season’s biggest lingering subplots.
That said, a couple of things do feel kind of sudden. Steven apparently has a care package for Lars
made by his parents though we never see how he got it. Also, he has Lion back now so he can easily
get to Lars, but the Crystal Gems are just allowing him to go even after he
gave himself up to Homeworld. How are
they suddenly ok with this? These
questions linger on, but they end up small and minor
compared to the direction the cartoon takes.
As Steven and Connie travel to Lars through Lion’s mane on their first
space adventure ever, a big surprise on where Lars has ended up is in store for
them. When they reach Lars, instead of a
dark cave on Homeworld, he and the Off Colors are manning a space ship called
the Sun Incinerator. It’s a solid
continuation of the courage and bravery Lars showed when saving this group of
misfit Gems from shattering, sacrificing his life in the process. He’s far more confident than ever as he leads
his crew on dangerous missions and stopping at nothing to get them to the
safety of Earth. The cartoon also has a
lot of fun with how crazy of a setup this is.
Every character is introduced with a title card with their name, role,
and description of their abilities and personalities. Then there’s their nemesis who’s on their
tail after they took her ship, Emerald.
She’s a Gem with a threatening design, yet she’s practically hilarious
with her explosive tempers and protection over her precious ship. It says a lot that rather than intimidated by
her, Lars and the Off Colors are brave enough to just laugh at her threats and
carry on. It’s too bad that keeping to
Steven’s perspective means how they got here is told through exposition, but it
does fit the message the cartoon goes for.
For all of Lars’ changes in character, there’s realistically still room
for growth. As he thinks of his life
back home, he learns that Sadie has joined a band with the Cool Kids, a group
he’s always dreamed of befriending, and is very happy because of this. This is enough to get him to blow up over her
being so happy without him and feels like she’s trying to get back at him for
his bad treatment of her. It takes a
stern conversation from Steven and Connie to get him to move past this
mindset. Just as they were impressed
with suddenly seeing how much he’s changed into a captain, it was just as unexpected
for Lars to learn that Sadie’s in a band.
They weren’t under impressions that Lars was trying to hurt anyone, so
neither should he. Sealing the deal is a
big source of proof to why Steven and Connie really do work better together in
big missions. To further show that Sadie
would never intentionally hurt Lars, they showcase a reason for relating to genuine
‘friendship’ as they fuse into Stevonnie in front of Lars. This even benefits Lars when Emerald returns,
fires at the Sun Incinerator, he orders the shields to be lowered, but Emerald
misses her ship on purpose. He knew this
would be the case because of how much she values her ship. As for the space mission, Stevonnie brings it
to an exciting end as they man Lars’ personal ship to take out Emerald at
last. However, the cartoon ending with
them getting shot down and hurtling towards a distant planet sets up the
tension for the next one.
A few details
may be left out, but this is still a strong return to lore with creative
directions and impressive character growth.
A
Season 4 Ranking
1. I Am My Mom
2. Storm in the Room
3. Mindful Education
4. That Will Be All
5. Steven’s Dream
6. Last One Out of Beach City
7. Are You My Dad?
8. The Zoo
9. The Good Lars
10. Gem Heist
11. Gem Harvest
12. Three Gems and a Baby
13. Adventures in Light Distortion
14. Buddy’s Book
15. Know Your Fusion
16. The New Crystal Gems
17. Lion 4: Alternate Ending
18. Doug Out
19. Kindergarten Kid
20. Room for Ruby
21. Future Boy Zoltron
22. Tiger Philanthropist
23. Rocknaldo
24. Onion Gang
Season 5 Ranking
1. The Trial
2. Off Colors
3. Stuck Together
4. Lars’ Head
5. Lars of the Stars
6. Raising the Barn
7. Sadie Killer
8. Back to the Kindergarten
9. Gemcation
10. Kevin Party
11. Dewey Wins
The next Steven Universe review is an atmospheric experience that's all about Stevonnie trying to survive on a wild jungle moon and also get dreams of the real Pink Diamond.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is Episode 61 of Animaniacs.
If you would like to check out other Steven Universe reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
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