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The Right
Way
This
entire episode is basically a continuation of Eclipsa’s battle with the
Solarian Warrior from last time, only with the current Queen of Mewni getting a
few reinforcements. Just when the
warrior is about to break through her shield, Star and a whole ensemble of
B-characters like Pony Head, Kelly, and so forth, come to her aid. This group of characters joining Star aren’t
exactly the most interesting to begin with and hardly deserve the title of
‘best warriors in Mewni.’ Nevertheless,
just seeing reinforcements together under the leadership of someone known to be
so devoted to causes like Star does give a lot of potential.
Along the way, there's interesting insight on the
situation during the group’s talks with Eclipsa. Apparently, Star has some knowledge on the
background of Solarian Warriors, knowing they haven’t been around for hundreds
of years. For that, everyone comes to
the reasonable conclusion that the one attacking is the sole surviving Solarian
Warrior, Mina. Then when Eclipsa retreats
to tend to Globgor and protect Meteora, there’s insight on the wounds from the
warrior’s sword. They have a deadly consequence as they spread through their
victims and it isn’t even shown but you know they must be really bad. It’s the very thing expected to come from a
queen like Solaria, a crazed woman bent on eradicating monsters, who just
happens to be Eclipsa’s mother.
All this
background is certainly far more intriguing than what ultimately becomes of
Star’s crew. They don’t seem to follow
orders well, not even making an attempt to listen to Star by splitting up when
she says they must stay together. Such
disobedience is the very thing that gets the crew struck by the Solarian
Warrior’s sword, infected by the deadly wound.
In other words, Star’s crew is easily taken out long before they can
prove to carry their own in the heat of battle.
Even if their appearance does turn out to be a waste of efforts, there’s
great support to Star coming from a very surprising place. Pony Head, who’s known for being selfish, and
even here is only taking part in the battle for her show, gives genuine
encouragement to Star. Her claims that
Star is filled with heart while the enemy is filled with hate feels like it’s
coming from a place of caring. For that,
it makes Star summoning kaiju battle armor made from her Rainbow Fist Punches bring on a creatively awesome fight scene.
As for Eclipsa, she gets great help from another unlikely place,
Janna. Her mindset on action movies
inspires her to utilize a cart filled with dynamite to use against the Solarian
Warrior, giving a good reason for an explosion.
However, both big forces don’t bring it down. This brings on the battle’s climax as Eclipsa
releases the previously seen Spell With No Name, later referred to as an
Annihilation Spell. That’s the only
thing to stop the warrior in spite of obliterating everything around it.
You think the battle’s come to a grand end
especially as Marco shows up and Star rushes to hug him shortly after the
Warrior’s beaten. However, the episode
ends with the reveal that Mina was not the Warrior they beat, and innumerable Solarian Warriors
are on their way now. In the end, in
spite of a few minor disappointments, this is an exciting episode of a great
battle that builds upon itself with one standout moment after another.
A
Here to Help
What
starts off as a solid conclusion to the climactic battle of Season 4 soon turns
to a major disappointment in storytelling.
For that, this episode is an ultimate mix in events where it starts off
strong, but is then marred by directions that devalue characters with unsettling and unwarranted reveals. It's also these decisions that really cause the final season to really fall apart from hereon.
After beating one Solarian Warrior who wasn’t even Mina, Star, Eclipsa,
and Marco are forced to retreat to inside the monster temple. Mina has arrived in a similar huge suit of
armor and is far from alone with hundreds of followers joining her. All seems hopeless until Moon and River
show up, claiming that they’re here to help.
This seems like a solid continuation of their arc. They started off adjusting to a simple life
not giving Eclipsa their full trust. Now
that times are desperate, they’re willing to put their feelings aside and most likely help for the greater good. If nothing else, it’s a strong sign that
they’re supportive of what their daughter is setting out to form for the
kingdom. River especially stands out
after getting a good understanding of Globgor.
He makes it his mission to protect him while he’s still suffering from
the Solarian Warrior’s wound, all in a humorous getup of a bear skin.
Moon feels like a valuable player too. She joins in on a group discussion to beat
the Warriors consisting of monsters and Mewmans side by side and even gives
Eclipsa sound advice. While she wants fight
right away, Moon says the first thing to do is get everyone who was wounded to
safety in a place where they can be treated.
Eclipsa sees the benefits and goes along with that, grateful for this
decision. Even if she did need help
figuring that out, Eclipsa does have her own promise as a leader too. Once everyone is safe, she plans on using the
annihilation spell again to a better extent, and only on Mina to beat all
warriors without causing much harm.
It’s
at this point where the episode really goes downhill, setting into motion the sharp drop in quality right as the series is near its end. Moon opens the
monster temple gate, firmly telling Eclipsa she should surrender. It becomes really disturbing that Moon would
suggest something so drastic after everything that’s happened and everything
she’s witnessed. However, rather than
looking into this major unsettling circumstance, the focus suddenly shifts to Star and Marco. At first there’s a solid reflection on
matters as Star regrets getting her friends wounded while Marco offers the
best emotional support she can get. This
then leads to Star telling Marco that she’s aware of what he said about loving
her when they were in the Realm of Magic.
While Marco brings up the point that he was intoxicated at that time, he
confirms that he’s felt this way ever since they first met. This conversation then leads to their
first kiss and them officially becoming a couple. I want to say this is nice, but the whole talk of Marco getting feelings for Star when he first met her is very hard to believe. For the longest time, his love for other people has felt completely genuine and his explicit feelings for Star clearly didn't show until later. To me though, that's not the biggest problem. That one has a bigger tie to the main story. With a big battle going on and
Moon wanting Eclipsa to surrender, romance is not the thing to be focusing
on, yet the episode stages it as more important.
Once the main plot is in the focus again, the episode becomes more upsetting than ever. Just after this, Star learns that Mina isn’t responsible for this
invasion. It was all a plan of Moon and
Mina’s actually working for her. In just
a few seconds, all the development and maturity of Moon is simply compromised. As was stated in an earlier episode, if she
thinks that it’s a good idea to hurt people like this, she’s the bad guy. Plus after accepting that she's not queen anymore so many times and acting genuinely supportive of Star, it doesn’t make any
sense that Moon would do this. The
ramifications of this direction will be further discussed in the next review,
but for now, the effects of betrayal and unsettling reveals make this episode
hard to sit with.
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. Doop-Doop
31. The Ponyhead Show
32. The Curse of the Blood Moon
33. Here to Help
34. Sad Teen Hotline
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the penultimate episode of the series with even more disturbing implications and failed attempts to justify Moon's actions, and while hiding out in a tavern at the end of the multi-verse, Star comes up with a messed up way of handling the Solarian Warriors.
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.
Moon essentially became a villain at this point. Even when they try humanizing her, she seems more heartless than need be.
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