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Ransomgram
Easily
one of the boldest moves of the series is having Marco become a buff hero in
another dimension where he ages up significantly. That said, while he’s become a stronger
fighter with age, the same can’t always be said about his maturity. Not only that, but while his adventures in
this dimension are often discussed, they’re hardly ever seen or amount to
anything important. That changes somewhat
in this episode when Star is actually invited to come along.
While she sets up rooms for them at the
monster temple, there’s a singing telegram coming from, of all monsters, one
who’s very youthful and innocent looking.
There’s a ransom note saying that citizens of one particular part of the dimension
have captured Marco’s dragoncycle, Nachos.
He can only get her back if he gives back his prized sword he dubs, El
Choppo. Not seeing that he did anything
to upset this group of interdimensional beings, Marco plans to go there, rescue
Nachos, and not give up his sword.
So
with the aid of the show’s famed interdimensional scissors, he and Star wind up
at that very dimension where he focuses on the task at hand while she fawns
over his abs. However, during the
adventure, that’s not the only thing Star fawns over. They’re joined by a fierce warrior native to
this dimension called Brunzetta, a highly enjoyable warrior with a clear past
with Marco as she brings up a plethora of adventures. There are also several instances where Star
blushes over Brunzetta’s moves and appearances, confirming her to be bisexual. Now this is nothing against the group, but
considering where Star’s love life goes and Brunzetta doesn’t have any other
big roles, there isn’t really a point to this.
It just feels like something thrown in just to say the show represented
the LGBT community. There’s even a
stronger form of representation later in the season, so there’s really no
reason to make Star bi for the sake of it.
At least her blushing around Brunzetta is cutely staged.
Anyway, the adventure to save Nachos does
specialize in the show’s talent for creative world building and also gives
interesting background of where El Choppo came from. The location mentioned in the ransom is said
to be an ice castle, but it’s been severely melted from a fire creature who has
ravaged the place. Before finding this
out, Marco is successful in saving Nachos, and only hears of the creature
through Brunzetta saying those people deserved to be attacked. Of course this isn’t true and Marco instantly
regrets his actions. They also further show
that even if he has matured, his childlike sometimes reckless mindset was
intact in this dimension as well as the main ones.
They all go back to face the fire creature
while Marco does the right thing and places El Choppo back in the stone where
he first got it. Still the inhabitants
of the dimension aren’t over Marco’s actions destroying everything. Thankfully, he makes the mature move and
decides to stay and help fix everything no matter how long it takes. It’s staged as an emotional separation between
him and Star, but it hardly means anything since we know time is much slower
here than in Mewni or Earth. Sure
enough, he’s back in just a few seconds in Mewni time as the episode ends.
Ultimately while some instances of character
building and emotion fall flat, this is still worth calling a solid
interdimensional adventure. Actually
showing Marco’s adventures here to drive the plot certainly helps.
A-
Lake House
Fever
Romance
seems to take up more of the focus every season. However, with so many other interesting world
and character building elements, this can be seen as a problem. People come to this series expecting big
magical adventures, some coming with their own forms of drama. Adding in more drama from something as
inconsequential as who will end up with who kind of takes away from what’s
really important. This happens a lot in
this final season as both Star and Marco show that they do have feelings for
each other, but still try to maintain relationships with other people. At least this episode, in Star’s case,
features maturity on the matter from someone who’s actively matured enough to
take it well.
Star is spending time with
her former ex-boyfriend, Tom, and his demon family who have rented a beach house
in the underworld. There’s an
interesting blend of Mewmans and demons making up Tom’s family. Of particular note is his gargantuan demon
mother who doesn’t speak the same English language as everyone else. Things open up with wholesome beach activities
with a fiery edge, mainly hanging ten on waves of lava. Star later plans to leave for an arranged
dinner with Marco, but she’s soon unable to go because of a major lava storm
forcing everyone into the beach house.
She and the entire family try to pass the time with small talk and
harmless board games, but Star is more concerned that Tom’s mother doesn’t seem
to want to take part in things. She
tries to properly bond with her as she distances herself to make snacks, but
that just results in awkward silence that causes mishaps Star can’t
understand.
The big kicker comes when
she brings out a family album, but later gets emotional when coming to a
section of photos with Tom and Star. At
last, Star is upfront with Tom about his mother’s strange behavior around her,
and he reveals that it’s because she’s worried that Star will break his heart
again. This time though, it’s a bigger
deal because of how he knows that she and Marco kissed and Star never told
him. That’s a major instance of Star
being called out for not being honest and upfront about a huge shakeup to a
relationship, yet Tom is still able to keep his cool.
Even so, this conversation does lead to him and Star getting caught in a lava tidal wave just as the storm gets worse. His mother is visibly scared for both of them, but then suddenly, the storm stops and both Star and Tom wind up back on shore safely. Then it’s later revealed that Tom’s mother’s tempers are known for creating massive storms, meaning that her turmoil badly effected innocent people. I get that she couldn’t help herself, but maybe that’s something that should be looked into before others suffer again. Also, even though it’s out in the open that Star isn’t fully devoted to Tom, the episode ends with her willingly ditching Marco and staying with the demon and his family. It kind of feels like they’re ignoring everything problematic about this pairing which not only makes the romance a distraction, but also weakly executed.
This doesn’t totally ruin the episode as there is still good atmosphere and character growth in handling the issues, but the weak points really show what is not the series at its best.
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode of an assassination attempt on Eclipsa, and we see how Moon and River are doing living as peasants of a yert.
Even so, this conversation does lead to him and Star getting caught in a lava tidal wave just as the storm gets worse. His mother is visibly scared for both of them, but then suddenly, the storm stops and both Star and Tom wind up back on shore safely. Then it’s later revealed that Tom’s mother’s tempers are known for creating massive storms, meaning that her turmoil badly effected innocent people. I get that she couldn’t help herself, but maybe that’s something that should be looked into before others suffer again. Also, even though it’s out in the open that Star isn’t fully devoted to Tom, the episode ends with her willingly ditching Marco and staying with the demon and his family. It kind of feels like they’re ignoring everything problematic about this pairing which not only makes the romance a distraction, but also weakly executed.
This doesn’t totally ruin the episode as there is still good atmosphere and character growth in handling the issues, but the weak points really show what is not the series at its best.
B
The Ranking
1. Escape from the Pie Folk
2. Swim Suit
3. Moon Remembers
4. Ransomgram
5. Butterfly Follies
6. Lake House Fever
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode of an assassination attempt on Eclipsa, and we see how Moon and River are doing living as peasants of a yert.
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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