Tuesday, February 4, 2020

The Knight Shift / Queen-Napped (Star vs the Forces of Evil Season 4 Episode 11) - 'Toon Reviews 38

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The Knight Shift


If anyone’s forgotten that Marco only came back to Mewni and later took a position as a squire just to be with Star like they used to, I wouldn’t blame them.  With so much that’s happened in the series at this point, Marco’s original intentions as well as being a squire hasn’t been discussed much.  As a result, the episode starting off with a ceremony where he along with other Mewmans and a few monsters being promoted to knighthood doesn’t feel too earned.  Don’t get me wrong, Marco has accomplished a lot of huge action services to deserve such a promotion, but a little mention of his squire status beforehand would have been welcome.  Plus, his knighthood ceremony held by Eclipsa is nicely staged and perfectly explains why he’s being promoted. 
In addition, the story brings to mind some of the other big aspects of Marco’s life which go beyond anything to do with Mewni.  After the ceremony, he’s met by a man who looks eerily similar to Mr. Candle the career counselor from Echo Creek even though he claims to be different from him.  Marco discovers that in being a knight, he must take up a full time position to serve the Mewni elite.  This meaning that he’ll have to hold his knighthood for the rest of his life, Marco feels that the best thing for him to do is resign.  It’s here where all the other parts of his life Marco has left behind for so long come to attention.  Not only does he have his education to think of, but one past episode has revealed that his family will be having a baby soon.  It’s only natural that he’d think about being there. 
At the same time, Star hears about this and is visibly distressed that she and Marco will have to part ways at some point.  The way she takes it practically suggests that even with the passing of the Blood Moon Curse, Marco is just too special to her.  Other knights, on the other hand, are more concerned of Marco getting the knight title just to throw it away.  When all the new knights are ‘captured’ for a party by Mewni’s experienced knights, once Marco reveals to them he’s resigning, at Mr. Candle’s command, they straight up attack him.  Actually, the attacks consist of tickling his foot while he’s tied to a chair which doesn’t seem threatening at all. 
Even so, their disappointment in Marco is genuine as they call out just being handled the squire position and doing away with it, making it seem like he really didn’t deserve any of it.  Marco, however does insist that he’s had plenty of knightly accomplishments, particularly all the years he spend in other dimensions.  He even gets a chance to prove this as the knights threaten to destroy a cape that Star made for him.  Following a threatening speech, he breaks from his bonds and beats up the one knight majorly, successfully retrieving the cape.  With his bravado officially proved, Marco then gives the other new knights a chance to face what he did by sending them to that very dimension.  They’re shallow enough to take the offer as well as show disdain over not getting to keep their abs and strength in their home dimension. 
The entire sequence proves to be an interesting way to show that Marco is capable as a knight despite giving it up.  Even so, it’s very nice that he’s at his happiest as he joins Star in watching the sunrise as he gives her a cape of her own.  As a result, this episode may follow up on an underdeveloped topic, but prepares the audience for events to come well.

A

Queen-Napped



With the right execution, the most despicable of story directions can be acceptable on the whole.  That’s where the appeal of this particular episode lies as it sets up a threatening situation leading to a wild chase that later on hardly even matters, and yet it all works. 
The story is that Eclipsa is discovered missing with a ransom message written on the wall of her bedroom.  It gets the attention of Star, Marco, Janna, and Pony Head and they’re left in bewilderment of who could possibly have been powerful enough to kidnap the queen of Mewni.  At least three of the four characters feel that way as Pony Head seems too eager about posting updates of Eclipsa’s disappearance as part of her show.  Given Pony Head is generally selfish, this isn’t enough to raise any questions at the moment though. 
Anyway, with the aid of the all-seeing eye spell, Star gets the impression that Eclipsa is in a fiery dimension taken by a group of demons.  Her first course of action is to inform the kingdom of this, but the Mewmans’ denseness, even with the apparent progress of acceptance, persists as they don’t care.  However, as Pony Head, promotor of the kidnapping, informs them of this, the Mewmans are suddenly invested in what happens to her.  Despite this, saving Eclipsa is all up to Star and her friends now.  With a plethora of riddles in the form of hidden messages, the search leads them to a variety of settings of different nature.  There’s the underworld, a graveyard, and even a realm of mermaids. 
As various in locales as this search is, things get suspicious from here.  Pony Head constantly points out where they should be going.  Normally this would be seen as another instance of her selfishness, but then you see the backgrounds of where Eclipsa is being held constantly changing. Eventually, after Star goes after what seems like the most likely suspect upon entering the mermaid dimension, she utilizes smart deduction.  When a riddle relates itself to a reflection, Star connects it to video cameras, just like the one Pony Head uses for her show. 
This sets into motion the reveal of the despicable part of this entire kidnapping plot.  It never existed, and Eclipsa was never in any real danger.  She was held at Pony Head’s studio with changing backgrounds, and a monster skin covering her eyes was actually a video game.  If that’s not enough, the group of demons were actually Pony Head’s sisters.  For getting her all worked up for nothing, it would be most appropriate for Star to just disown Pony Head as a friend.  However, even full-of-herself characters like Pony Head have their benefits based on what it does for Eclipsa’s reputation.  Unlike the other episode of her show, this one is given a lot of acclaim with all the Mewman audience praising Eclipsa being rescued as if she was a special guest star.  Star even understands the benefits, and while she doesn’t shake off the fact that this was a dirty false alarm, she is grateful that Eclipsa really is continuing to find love.  It still shows denseness since she needed to be a guest on a vanity show to do it though. 
With interesting ways of settling season long matters as well as fun and variety in settings and character interactions, I can call this episode solid.  Pony Head is still a pretty bad character, just saying.
A

 

The Ranking

1.      Escape from the Pie Folk

2.      Meteora’s Lesson

3.      Swim Suit

4.      Cornball!

5.      Yadda Yadda Berries

6.      Moon Remembers

7.      Queen-Napped

8.      Ghost of Butterfly Castle

9.      The Knight Shift

10.  Ransomgram

11.  Butterfly Follies

12.  Kelly’s World

13.  Surviving the Spiderbites

14.  Princess Quasar Caterpillar and the Magic Bell

15.  Down By the River

16.  Out of Business

17.  Lake House Fever

18.  The Ponyhead Show

19.  The Curse of the Blood Moon

 
 
 
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode of Janna showing Tom a good time, and yet another look at the mundane lives of the Butterfly family spells.

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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