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Friendenemies
It
was surprising to see Star’s best friend Marco and her ex-boyfriend Tom get
along as well as they did in “Mr. Candle Cares.” Granted it all stemmed from Tom using Marco
to get Star back, but the conversation they had about Star had a lot of proof
that they could be good friends. Not to mention, it showed that Tom could break
from his attitude issues.
This episode
builds upon these suggestions when Tom shows up and coaxes Marco into hanging
out with him with tickets to a sold-out movie marathon. He even references the ping-pong game from
that previously-mentioned episode to back up his claim that they’ve bonded a
lot recently. Because of his desire to
see the movie, Marco goes along with Tom spends time in his demon
carriage. Since there was only one good moment between them prior, Marco is
appropriately suspicious that Tom’s acting like they’re best
friends now. Adding onto the suspicions,
when Marco questions Tom about the movies in the franchise, he hesitates at
first. Eventually, he does give a clear
answer, and from there, it feels appropriate to let suspicions down. The moments
of Tom and Marco enjoying hanging out together proves this.
In spite of the chemistry, you have to wonder
how Tom is able to be so adamant about being friends with Marco when he was rarely that way before. As it turns out, Tom is nowhere near past his anger issues.
Marco realizes they’re late for the movie and tries to leave, but Tom
stops him and goes into a demonic rage when Marco objects. All at once this moment is both in line with expectations. It's still very disappointing considering how genuine and calm Tom was while
being friends with Marco. The reveal
that a white tiger hanging out in the carriage was Tom’s life coach the whole
time has everything that’s happened to fall into place. Tom was hanging out with Marco as
part of a test to be calm around the person he hates the most. That’s
pretty despicable after how convincing their new friendship was especially when
Tom tears up the tickets Marco was so bent on getting. Because of this, it’s hard to sympathize with
Tom when he tries to reason with Marco. That said, the attempt to do so over a song
from his favorite artist is a pretty charming gesture.
The one thing that fixes their bond is Tom
reciting an incantation to bring the actor of Marco’s movie marathon back from
the dead as a zombie who gives him his autograph. It’s a bit of a mixed bag though. It's nice
that Tom went this far to win back Marco’s friendship, but also brings an
unfortunate implication that encourages materialistic bribing to fix problems.
Still, the final scene of Marco and Tom
watching the zombie actor fighting cops is a nice concluding point for them.
It shows their complicated nature where they enjoy what they watch
together but still don’t like each other.
As it stands, it’s an interesting follow-up
to their earlier civil moment, with lots of potential.
A-
Is Mystery
Previous
episodes made a point of there being a hole in the Mewni's force field, Ludo using an army of rats to
fetch him food, and Buff Frog getting a new job of investigating strange
activity. Now we have this
episode to bring these plot points together.
It features Buff Frog looking into how that hole
came to be with lots of thought into what easy access to corn means for
monsters. However,
like with his first day on the job, he lets his attachments to his kids get him
into trouble when he’s captured by a creature working with Ludo’s rats. He still continues his investigation of what
the rats do with all the corn they steal even as he’s shackled to grind it with
other monsters forced into slave labor. Right there, you get a sense of the mission's scope. It starts with looking into a simple hole and then gets heavier
with intruders forced to work against their
will for a mysterious force.
Buff
Frog eventually proves he’s effective as he escapes
grinding corn, and uses a hole in
the ceiling to see how the rats get the corn from the field. It’s during this investigation where falling
down another hole in the cornfield answers another longstanding question of
where the grinded corn goes. Buff Frog comes across another cavern filled
with cornmeal, even though this still doesn’t tell who’s in charge of this
operation. He even uses his strength and intimidation to get the creature who forced the monsters into relentless labor on his side, further impressing with his
capabilities.
He finally finds
the being behind the mystery, Ludo.
It’s interesting that Ludo has his own wand to create violent energy blasts ,and an entire
corn-stealing and harvesting work force. However, he still admits that he needs a spell book like what Star has.
Along with his wand apparently talking to
him, it’s a big mix of the expected bumbling Ludo and the
competent evil dictator he’s strived to be. It’s through this dictatorship-persona where
he tries to get Buff Frog, his original assistant, on his side by making him in
charge of the corn grinders.
This is where Buff Frog’s greatest change in morality shows itself as he
completely refuses the offer and escapes.
In the end, he leaves the chance to rekindle his old life behind for the
greater good, but is left to ponder if the decision is what’s best for his
kids. This question isn’t answered but he does come up with a big idea to get
the wand-possessed Ludo under control. The first step is to send Star a warning,
even though she already knows about Ludo.
The gentle piano music in the background perfectly captures the moment's tone. From having children, to going against slavery, to refusing to go
back to working with Ludo, Buff Frog has changed for the greater
good. It’s really quite beautiful.
That leaves us with an episode with lots of
strengths like huge plot advancements, gradual growth in stakes, and especially
clear character development from both villains and former villains.
A
The Ranking
- Ludo in the Wild
- Game of Flags
- On the Job
- Sleepover
- Is Mystery
- Mr. Candle Cares
- Wand to Wand
- Starstruck
- Girls’ Day Out
- By the Book
- Friendenemies
- Gift of the Card
- Starsitting
- Star on Wheels
- Camping Trip
- My New Wand
- Red Belt
- Star vs Echo Creek
- Fetch
- Goblin Dogs
The next Star vs the Forces of Evil review covers a Halloween episode with a being called Hungry Larry, and we get an interesting look inside Star's wand.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the second Xiaolin Showdown episode, "Like a Rock."
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.
