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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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