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Moon Remembers
While some could argue it takes away what could have been a compelling recurring plot point for this season, it is nice to see Moon back with Star and the others so soon. Plus, as the episode starts, her memory starts returning naturally as Star explains to her all the ways Mewni has changed while she was gone. The feel of this occurrence is fully realized as Moon frequently brings up specific past memories and people she’s met as a way of showing her recovery.
As for how she reacts to the big changes in her home kingdom, she does appear to have some openness to them. For example, she’s shocked that she’s seeing monsters and Mewmans living together and finds it so different from usual. At the same time, she points out that different can be good. There is, however, one change that Star has not told her mom about which is that Eclipsa, while in charge, is trying to free her monster love, the king of all monsters, Globgor. While it is technically boneheaded to hide something Moon is sure to find out about later on, there is a legit understandable reason for Star’s actions. She’s keeping Globgor secret for the protection of her mom’s mind. It’s already suffered amnesia, and a big shock as notorious as Eclipsa working to free the monster king is sure to lead to bad results.
Once at the new Monster Temple where Eclipsa now reigns, Moon and Eclipsa are honestly at their most endearing together. The biggest example of this is how Eclipsa is quick to apologize for getting her sent to the Realm of Magic in the first place, proving that for all her eccentrics, she does care for others. Now, Moon has teamed up with Eclipsa before, but their socializing has never sounded so genuine. Out of it come a few charming moments such as bonding over guitar pieces although this is staged as a ploy so Star doesn’t have to tell Moon about Globgor.
As some could predict, Moon does find out about Globgor anyway, though she too is accepting of this and even humbly tells Eclipsa that her attempts to break his crystal won’t work. After all, they did come from the ever-powerful Rhombulus. With that, you’d completely believe that all is well between the two, and a following dinner is wholesome enough to further convince you.
Then Moon civilly decides that it’s time to leave with River, who seems to be in a major pout over his wife bonding with Eclipsa, by her side. Star is appropriately shocked that her mom would just leave after all this just as the audience probably would be. There is a reason for this change in behavior. Although she acted like it, Moon simply can’t bring herself to fully trust Eclipsa, so she’d rather go off to live in the woods with River who has already made plans to build a yert. Still, it’s very nice that while she doesn’t agree with Star giving the throne to Eclipsa, she does respect the decision she made as acting queen as well as her staying to help Eclipsa rule. That at least shows motherly love out of this, but it’s still a sudden shock. That said, there are bigger ones to come later on this season, though many may sit even worse than this.
For now, this is a charming character-driven episode built on a believable look at regaining lost memories, and while there’s emotion at the end, it kind of gets you to feel so grown up.
A
Swim Suit
Just
from reading the episode title, you get the impression that this episode is
going to be all about Star making her future Beach Day photo a reality. A constant running gag of Marco needing to
try on different bathing suits with a monkey stealing his own one supports this. Like with many shows with an underlying story
though, this may be what Star plans, but getting there just can’t be easy.
The real point of the episode is to show
exactly how much Star is needed to help Eclipsa rule as a decent queen of
Mewni. Out of it come better ways to
present Eclipsa as truly morally ambiguous.
In the previous season, despite everyone claiming that she was totally
evil, Eclipsa leaned much more towards good if unethical, making the argument
feel one-sided. Successfully building
the tensions, this episode features her get particularly dangerous with the
spells she cast on Rhombulous. As the
Magic High Commission member who specializes in crystallization, this is
clearly an attempt to get him to free her monster love Globgor. The results though have put him into a coma and
on the verge of getting sucked into a wormhole.
This is clearly dangerous work, although she does have genuine regret
for putting him in such a trance and is at least trying to fix everything. Star, who’s apparently much better-versed in
magic has the answer, further showing how much she’s needed at Eclipsa’s
side.
Her advice gets Rhombulous back to
normal, but as you can imagine, things are still tense between him and
Eclipsa. Star has to play the grown-up
in this situation by trying to understand both sides and getting them to reach
a compromise. Despite her efforts
though, arguing persists between Eclipsa and Rhombulous, culminating in Eclipsa
going mad with an onslaught of spells.
Normally fights like this would be unpleasing, but this one is kind of
to be expected given the establishment of Eclipsa’s bad reputation on
Mewni. Then there’s the after effects of
all of Eclipsa’s spells that go off in her rampage leading to imaginative
effects. They put Star into a
sleepwalking daze, make Tom feel nervous over his appearance, and break out a
demon in one of Rhombulous’ crystals.
Then there’s a more disturbing spell as Eclipsa swaps her mind and body
with Rhombulous’. While he’s in a major
shock over the body change, all she cares about is that she finally has the
power to free her husband. This could be
the biggest way of showing her dark side ever, but once Star is out of her
trance, she’s quick to confront Eclipsa.
While this may be right by her, Star points out that this isn’t a good
way to get Mewni to trust her at all.
Upon hearing this, Eclipsa actually understands and puts the minds and
bodies back to normal, even if it means she still won’t be able to free
Globgor. Also, for all her laid-back
attitudes, she’s showing consideration in putting more effort to get Mewni to
trust her, showcasing a growth in responsibility.
Ultimately, even if Star still has a ways to
go before her Beach Day, interesting things are done here to emphasize it. With a strong showing of moral ambiguity and
huge lengths with spells, this is an interesting way of showcasing these
challenges.
A
The Ranking
1. Escape from the Pie Folk
2. Swim Suit
3. Moon Remembers
4. Butterfly Follies
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Star joins Marco on an interdimensional trip in the 'abs-dimension', and we learn of Tom's family life at their lake house.
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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