Cleaved - (Star vs the Forces of Evil Season 4 Episode 21) - 'Toon Reviews 38

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Cleaved

All the events of this show have built up to this series finale set on destroying the magic, the force that has always been a vital way of life in this show.  As far as series finales I’ve seen go, the results, despite having a few grand moments, feels small in scale and leave mixed impressions considering this is how the show goes out. 

First of all, it feels unnatural that Star faces very little opposition to her plan of destroying magic considering that doing so will end up taking many lives.  True, some beings like Hekapoo and Glossaryck are accepting of this, but something still feels off, you might say unbelievable.  There isn’t even emphasis on emotion about this being the last time they’ll be seen, and that's saying a lot since Glossaryck's first death had an emotional reaction from Star.  There’s also one offhand suggestion of solving the problem by Star, Moon, and Eclipsa facing Mina together, but that goes completely nowhere.  Destroying magic may arguably be the best chance to depower Mina and the Solarian Warriors, but I can't help but feel disturbed over the dark implications that are basically glossed over.  

The sad part of all this is that the episode itself is clearly doing its best to make the destruction of magic a highlight to the finale.  There’s solid closure to Glossaryck’s constant love for pudding as it’s the revealed to be the only substance to keep people sane in the Realm of Magic as Star finds out upon arrival.  As she says the quietly destructive whispering spell in the immense pond of magic to destroy it, the sequence can be seen as moving if you try to wipe away the implications.  Star gets genuine support from Moon and Eclipsa who perform the spell along with her, and it’s what really moves her plan forward.  It’s also helped that they’re all supported by the spirits of the Queens of Mewni, including a few touching reunions between mothers.  Eclipsa’s reunion with Solaria is especially well done where at first Eclipsa doesn’t want to see her. However, when Solaria later shows affection towards her daughter’s half-monster daughter, that’s all Eclipsa needs to be at peace with her.  Nevertheless, anything nice about these scenes is greatly diminished when you realize that when all is said and done, these queens are all getting together to kill many innocent races.  

The unfortunate implications aren't even the only faults.  Some pretty much stare the audience right in the face.  There’s complete carelessness when it’s discovered that Tom has been stuck in the Realm of Magic all this time and that Star, Marco, and their friends never considered this.  Then there are several copouts of good ways to raise tension.  Marco gets stabbed by a unicorn, but it doesn’t mean anything.  Mina and a herd of dark unicorns try to stop Star, Moon, and Eclipsa from destroying magic, but they’re defeated instantly and the scene fails to be as grand as it could be.  Even the emotional aspect feels botched as magic is fully destroyed.  Generally, it’s easy to feel how hard it is for Star to part with Marco knowing that without magic, they can never be together.  They ultimately try to make it so they remain in the destroyed Realm of Magic for all time, though apparently the remaining magic within them is enough to send them back anyway.  With lives being lost, lifestyles being inconvenienced, and potential families being broken, despite the great staging of these emotional moments, it feels wrong to be majorly over romance.

Afterwards comes the reflection on Star’s decision to destroy magic.  For the most part, monsters and Mewmans reach a solid conclusion from Star’s decision, heading towards living a simple life together without magic.  Mina is shown to survive and gives an honest foreboding message that even if she is destroyed, her ideals will persist, although only one Mewman at the moment sides with them.  It’s still concerning that everyone just ignores her.  Is that really okay after everything that's happened?  Just like other points of this episode, it's very unnatural that Mina's dealt with next to no urgency, and she is one of the more legitimate threats.  As for Star’s other interdimensional friends who are sent back like Kelly and Tallon, it feels like she’s accepting of them being gone forever too easily.  It’s also not entirely convincing that they’d be happy going back home and never seeing her again like Pony Head says.  Also, despite how bad they ended up being, it’s very disturbing that the Magic High Commission being dead now is treated like it’s not a big deal.  The sight of the corpses of Rhombulus and Omnitraxus sells the unsettling tone wholeheartedly.  

Very slowly though, Star becoming the most concerned that she’ll never see Marco again becomes even more of an issue.  When a strange portal appears, rather than doing the logical thing and wondering what it means, Star rushes to it in the hopes of fulfilling her own love goals.  

It does feel justified when Marco sees the same thing on Earth and rushes towards it.  From a staging perspective, it’s easy to be swept in by the emotional rush and desperation of the music.  Then when they both finally reach it is one final magical occurrence.  With a white flash, both Earth and Mewni are cleaved together, making for somewhat of a suburban fantasy world of monsters, Mewmans, and humans living together.  The layout is also a huge jumble with hodgepodges of roads and machines right next to amenities of a magical kingdom.  It’s an interesting direction for sure, but there are visibly many problems people have with this sudden change in the world.  There would be a good chance to show them all learn to accept this, but there’s no time because it’s the end of the episode and by extension the series.  It’s an endearing happy ending for Star and Marco’s sake as they end things off by lovingly saying hi to each other, but with all the present issues, is this really earned?

As you can see, there’s a lot of ambition in this series finale, as well as effort to ensure it goes out on a high note, mostly through the technical aspects.  However, very little of it actually pays off.  With unfortunate implications, and so many issues that get ignored for the sake of Star and Marco getting together, it’s held back from ending the show in a 100% satisfying way.  I can see the intentions were good and there are signs of effort for the episode to try and leave a lasting moving impression, but the execution is sadly noticeably shoddy.

D+

The Ranking

1.      Cornonation

2.      The Monster and the Queen

3.      Ready Aim Fire!

4.      Gone Baby Gone

5.      Escape from the Pie Folk

6.      Meteora’s Lesson

7.      Swim Suit

8.      Cornball!

9.      Yada Yada Berries

10.  The Right Way

11.  Moon Remembers

12.  Jannanigans

13.  Beach Day

14.  Britta’s Tacos

15.  Junkin’ Janna

16.  Queen-Napped

17.  Ghost of Butterfly Castle

18.  The Knight Shift

19.  Ransomgram

20.  Mama Star

21.  Butterfly Follies

22.  Kelly’s World

23.  A Boy and His DC-700XE

24.  Surviving the Spiderbites

25.  A Spell With No Name

26.  Princess Quasar Caterpillar and the Magic Bell

27.  Down By the River

28.  Out of Business

29.  Lake House Fever

30.  Tavern at the End of the Multiverse

31.  Doop-Doop

32.  The Ponyhead Show

33. Pizza Party

34.  The Curse of the Blood Moon

35.  Cleaved 

36.  Here to Help

37.  Sad Teen Hotline

Final Thoughts

The best way to describe the final season of Star vs the Forces of Evil is that it’s very reflective of what my overall views of the show have shaped up to be.  It’s a series with a lot of ambition for something special, memorable, and a worthy modern instance of Disney magic.  Sometimes it lives up to those standards, but a lot of times, it comes close, but makes one big decision that holds it back.  With Season 4, the drawbacks seem to happen a lot more than warranted.

There is one thing though that this season is considerably strong at.  Since the show started out merely as a series of wacky interdimensional adventures, it wasn’t a quality to shake off when adopting a more dramatic approach to its story.  As a result, there were frequent moments in the previous season where episode segments had completely different subjects.  It didn’t leave time to take in the heavy effects of things like big reveals or game changing battles through suddenly shifting to something completely different.  This is hardly ever the case with Season 4 where what’s meant to focused on is consistent for several episodes in a row.  It wastes no time following up on where the third season left off, showcasing how much Mewni has changed with Eclipsa being named queen.  Amidst it all is resolution to Season 3’s loose ends.  The first two episodes fix the big issue of finding what happened to Moon, and the one after that sets up what’s to be done with her while Star helps Eclipsa rule as a good queen.  After that, there are a few varying topics in episodes such as getting the Mewmans to like Eclipsa, resolution to the prejudices of monsters, Moon forming a new kingdom while trying to lead a simple life, and more.  However, it actually doesn’t feel problematic. Every episode’s plot has a conflict that’s resolved by the end and doesn’t leave too much emotional after effects to be concerned about.  For that, it’s actually acceptable to go from topic to topic so sporadically.  

Plus, the season manages to find a way to connect everything that goes on in every episode.  There’s progress in things like Eclipsa’s reputation improving and even the majority of Mewni growing to find goodness in monsters.  This way, even if an episode is light-hearted on the whole, they all follow the same tone with just enough attention given to weighty topics.  By the time we reach the middle of the season, all lingering plot points come together for a pleasing resolution.  It comes with a pleasing coronation, a grand-scale battle to pull everything off, and another huge game changer in the acceptance of Globgor, the king of monsters.  When all this is over, the season is all set up to focus on nothing but light-hearted adventures with a brief return to Echo Creek.  By extension, it gives an excuse for a pleasing reunion with a few Earth characters who haven’t been seen in ages.  Then once instances of magic on the fritz pop up, it’s a scramble to return to Mewni for one last round of action.  It even impresses in unexpected ways by explaining how Janna suddenly appeared on Mewni a while back and making it important to the plot.  Once our heroes make it to their destination, the last episodes mostly deliver with effective drama and awesome battles.  This is perhaps where Season 4’s underlying story is at its most tonally consistent.  Put together, they’re all one huge climax resulting in some of the hugest game changers of the series.  Out of all the seasons of the show, this is the one where it’s the easiest to take in all the effects of everything big that happen through fitting focus and arrangement of episodes.  However, while you can take in what the episodes offer well, how does the story material fare by itself?

This is where the drawbacks really abound where for every great moment in Season 4, there’s always that one decision that holds it back from true greatness.  No matter how much creative world building or big battles there are, it’s not as impactful if the story isn’t at its most pleasing and the characters aren’t at their most likable.  These instances are the most apparent at keeping the show down from the big leagues.  Some story beats and characters are consistently good.  Star trying to make her changes to Mewni work is compelling. Marco’s multidimensional adventures are fun. Eclipsa and her family are absolutely charming. Even Janna works as designated comic relief.  However, it’s hard to get fully invested when it’s happening alongside unwelcome story beats and unlikeable character moments.  First there’s unbelievable scorn towards things like Eclipsa’s reign as queen and monsters allowed into the kingdom.  I know stuff like this is nothing new, and Eclipsa’s use of dangerous spells does justify some mistrust.  However, a lot has happened prior to these changes in the kingdom.  The fact that Eclipsa’s the reason everyone in Mewni has their souls back should make them at least start warming up to her and giving her a chance.  Sadly, there’s little to no change in their attitudes from Seasons 3 to 4, and that affects the credibility of the conflict.  Without good reasons for this much hostility, everything feels shallow and one-sided.  I am grateful that Mewni becomes more open to changes over time, but the way that happens still feels very mix.  On one hand, there’s a decent commentary of different societal views coming from the new generation that deserves to be heard.  For the most part though, it’s frivolous matters that sway a better opinion for things like Eclipsa’s rule.  At least the latter actually gives credibility to the likes of Pony Head. 

If that’s not enough, there are noticeably sloppily executed plot points.  The hatred of monsters is given a probable reason for being as big as it is.  The image of Globgor trapped in a crystal is enough to suggest the worst, and a claim that he ate Eclipsa’s Mewman husband enhances that belief.  However, Globgor is revealed to be a very nice being, not evil at all, and even a vegetarian, allowing it to make sense that he’s accepted.  The problem is that nothing is done with the claim of him eating the king. Did he really do it?  Was he framed?  Nothing like that is ever addressed, and what’s seen and heard of Globgor are completely different.  You have to question if he even deserves this much acceptance despite being one of the more likable characters.  In addition, while some leftover plot threads from Season 3 are fleshed out significantly like Marco getting a new baby sibling, there’s a huge one that’s brushed aside.  Ludo, whose presence was significant in the beginning, really gets the shaft.  While he comes to a healthy and appropriate conclusion of living happily with his brother Dennis, it’s sadly all done in one episode, and then little to nothing’s done with him again.  This brings the impression that Ludo was given attention for one episode out of obligation and not a natural fit for the story.  All his contributions to the first half of the series go to waste because of this, making one wonder why he was treated with such importance in the first place.  Imagine how meaningful his point of closure would have been if it was one of the bigger plot points for the season with several episodes leading to him adopting a healthier lifestyle.  It would be a more satisfying end than what the end of the season provided.

Speaking of which, the last few episodes are probably what brings the worst effect to Season 4 with the most uncalled for plot points and disturbing character moments.  It all has to do with what’s done with who was one of the strongest characters in the cast, Moon.  Staring off in the series as a standard no-nonsense prim and proper mother, she turned out to be much more complex than that.  Rather than overruling her daughter’s decisions, Moon was actually very accepting of who Star was, and only wanted to protect her out of love.  She was even capable of being tough and action oriented when necessary.  Plus, her prejudices actually had some weight to them, particularly with how a monster killed her mother.  It really seemed like the events of Season 3 were allowing Moon to overcome any emotional turmoil she was dealing with and become stronger as a result.  Season 4 gives a lot of strong impressions of this trend continuing through being friendly with Eclipsa and supporting Star helping her rule as queen despite not fully trusting her.  The latter element shows even more with Moon giving so many insistences of her not being queen anymore and wanting to live a simple yurt life with her husband.  Even when persuaded to retake the throne by Mina Loveberry, she shows awareness of the dangers of her and the class of Solarian Warriors she follows.  While she opts not to help protect Eclipsa and let her deal with Mina alone, it does show that Moon is sticking to her beliefs on the matter.  That’s a solid healthy way of dealing with this that also makes sense for her character.  Then everything we’ve been shown from Moon gets horribly retconned. 

The last stretch of the season starting with Star and her friends arriving back on Mewni starts with awesome battles and character moments.  When Moon shows up to help, all events of the season lean towards the most genuine support needed, but what she brings is anything but.  The rampage of Solarian Warriors and Mina’s rise in power are all because of Moon, making her, one of the best developed protagonists, responsible for something so despicable.  What’s worse is that she really has no good reason for doing this in the name of retaking the throne from Eclipsa.  All she has is a half-baked one that doesn’t consider her own fault in a matter, making her disturbingly ignorant to her own shortcomings as she calls out everyone else’s.  There isn’t even the slightest hint of her doing so elsewhere other than Mina saying that her will to rule is in her blood which Moon herself never really touches upon.  All her scenes prior to the last part of the season show her saying she’s not the queen anymore and being proud of how her daughter has grown.  How does starting an army of warriors she knows are dangerous connect even slightly to any of her prior moments? To be fair, Moon’s regret over her actions in the series finale is well executed and redeems her reputation slightly.  

By then though, her actions only lead to more unfortunate implications from Star doing what she feels is the best way to stop the Solarian Warriors, destroying magic.  It’s hard sitting with the fact that doing so means taking the lives of beings made of magic.  Yes, some beings are accepting of this fate, but it’s still unnatural that absolutely everyone is willing to go through with this morbid plan.  It doesn’t even offer a chance at a good redemption for the likes of the Magic High Commission other than Hekapoo.  Rhombulus at least had a few instances of humanity and goodness despite his bad actions, but now everything bad about him is what will stand out the most due to his demise.  There’s also thoughts of how inconvenienced all dimensions will be considering they’ve been dependent on magic for travel and stopping genuinely threatening enemies.  Then Earth becomes cleaved to Mewni, so what will that mean for other dimensions with beings Star and others will probably never see again?  The only way all this could be possibly acceptable is if the season built up a plan that would stop the bad guys and not take any lives.  All of these drawbacks are a result of a story decision that goes against everything great built up about Moon.  You could argue that this decision was made because Mina is hard to take seriously as a final antagonist no matter how monstrous she is.  Even at her most threatening, she’s nothing compared to Toffee or Meteora when she was Ms. Heinous.  Honestly though, the final part of the season would have been better off if it was all Mina’s doing, for compromising established likability of a character is just plain wrong.

I must point out that Moon’s characterization doesn’t deserve all the blame for Season 4 falling apart in the end.  There’s one element that’s been getting an uncalled for amount of attention for a while now in this series; romance, particularly with bringing Star and Marco together.  I’m certainly not against them getting together.  Their chemistry has been undeniable ever since the beginning, allowing that possibility to make sense in hindsight.  However, with so many instances of them finding love with other people, the show always felt like it was going for a message that a boy and girl can be really close, yet platonic.  For that, it felt somewhat off-putting of how Seasons 2 and 3 featured them both developing crushes on each other and being fine with it despite being in other relationships.  One thing making things work somewhat is having Star’s boyfriend, Tom, being aware that she and Marco kissed and acting mature about it.  Despite this, it never really feels right that neither of them could sustain relationships with other people if they kept acting infatuated with each other.  

This is where Season 4 comes in to make these matters of romance go from a nuisance to a full-on problem.  There are moments of Star continuing her relationship with Tom while Marco starts one with Kelly, both of which seem healthy and worth supporting.  Efforts are also made for Star and Marco to try and end their crushing on each other, with a whole half hour dedicated to it.  However, they still seem to perfectly enjoy being in love with each other, even as they seem to break a curse that may have incited their crushes.  As for their other relationships, shortly after the business with the supposed curse, they just end like they were nothing.  The end of Marco and Kelly as a couple is especially a sorry sight where it’s simply mentioned in passing during a completely random adventure.  There isn’t even time to deal with the after effects of the breakup, making it feel like something that was swiftly cast aside for interfering with the intended endgame couple.  As a result, the romance drama is poorly handled as well as completely pointless.  You could take the entire possibility of Marco and Kelly, as well as the curse concept out, and Star and Marco getting together would come together much more naturally.  The stuff with Star and Tom could be kept since unlike Kelly, Tom changes for the better from the drama. Oddly enough, problems still abound there with Tom breaking up with Star is frustratingly dragged out longer than necessary.

Even without the drama part of the romance, it’s still a big issue when it’s mixed in with bigger matters of the plot.  During the last stretch of episodes, it stalls the drama just as we’re about to learn what Moon did with the Solarian Warriors for no justifiable reason.  That’s nothing compared to its relation to the results of destroying magic.  In spite of all the problems this decision causes for the universe, the series finale acts like Star and Marco potentially not getting together is the worst offense.  Romance is supposed to be an end result of good winning out when all bad things are settled.  With the effects of magic’s demise in mind after the deed is done, it’s hard to get invested in love when those bigger issues are in place.  The same sentiment holds true for when Mewni and Earth become cleaved together.  There are plenty of issues for innocent beings all over as they clearly don’t adjust well to the sudden change, but none of that matters because Star and Marco are together.  I can’t be alone in finding something wrong with this setup.  The point must be made that these characters finding love is not the problem.  It truly was a long time coming ever since the start of the show.  It was simply poorly timed with what it does to other characters and how it’s viewed as the most important matter with other issues staring the audience in the face.  Never have these issues been more prominent than they are in Season 4.

When looking at the issues of the final season of Star vs the Forces of Evil it’s kind of sad to see how big they really are.  They overall put a major damper on its quality as a whole where while the results are quite good for the most part, the show hardly turns out great.  In fact, it’s significantly weak in a couple of areas, especially in the important ones regarding story and characters.  I do believe that these issues could be ironed out properly if it had more episodes to work with.  Apparently, fans seem to share this opinion as many have put together petitions for another season to be made, and they were quick to get a lot of signatures.  Personally, while I don’t think another season is necessary, I think the best thing for the show is a TV movie about Mewni and Earth properly adjusting to being suddenly cleaved. Currently though, while petitions can and have been a strong force to get more content made, it's very unlikely that we'll get that for this show any time soon.  In other words, it's debatable if any new content will really happen.

If Season 4 really is where Star vs the Forces of Evil officially comes to an end, I can at least say it’s enjoyable enough in parts.  Its problems are too big to overlook and along with the setbacks of other seasons, they keep this show from being a true top tier entry.  At least they’re not big enough to devalue the times when the creative world building and engaging story beats do really impress.  While it’s ultimately not Disney at its best, there are at least plenty times when the experience turns out magical, relatively speaking.

Worth a Look

That’s all there is to say about Star vs the Forces of Evil.  Overall, it’s undeniable that it has a lot of ambition as a magical adventure series but has a lot of things that could have used better execution.  Its drawbacks seem to build up with every season, but for all its problems, it’s easy to have enough fun with it.  Maybe the show as a whole is not one you’ll want to continually visit, but it’s not without its entertaining impacts.  So given the likely possibility that attempts to get more from this show are all for naught, feel free to experience its magic and see what you can get out of it.

For the next review set, MC Toon Reviews will be looking at the final episodes of Animaniacs. Until then:

Stay Animated Folks!