Star vs. the Forces of Evil Review: Club Snubbed / Stranger Danger

"Sunglasses at night. Classy."
Oh boy, two episodes that operate under the pretenses that I'm able to read into the least: the art of assumption and reading into what we're presented. Both episodes banked on leaving the audience to read into whatever subtext it gives us, and thus, the show leans on us to form some resolving conjecture. It's an interesting tactic, and an effective one for telling a gripping narrative, but the pairing of "Club Snubbed" and "Stranger Danger" serves to remind us that sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.

The means through with "Club Snubbed" went around with this general ambivalence, for instance, was its ultimate downfall. It's by no means a bad episode, but there's an annoying sense of indecisiveness on the show's part to really figure out who we're supposed to be rooting for. I'll admit that I enjoyed the idea that Star and Tom are angrily hustling one another while performing some intensely competitive ballroom dancing... but then there's the realization that Tom's not playing any games and Star's just being a jerk, but then they're both kind of jerks, and the episode reaches an impasse.

"Club Snubbed" struggled the most in trying to find any character to vest some sympathy into. Tom's hard-edged by nature when he's supposed to be vulnerable, and I get that part of his construction, but making both Tom and Star anatgonistic - up until the final dance, at least - caused a lot of imbalance, and the result is just a screaming match where we're forced to spectate without feeling towards either party.

That's why the dance irks me a bit. Don't get me wrong: it's a great scene. The show's able to play around with emotions like nobody's business, and you could argue that's a testament to the show that they were able to reverse "Club Snubbed" and its prevailing shortcomings. At the same time, though, emotional tension is practically the show's bread and butter; of course it'll be good, and of course you'll be won over. That all makes the scene feel a bit more manipulative, or at the very least, ignorant of everything else that precedes it. The episode's good fan service, but it's so sloppy that it struggles to really stick the landing, and the result feels awkward at best and contrived at worst.

Whereas "Club Snubbed" utilizes a looseness that's ultimately to its disadvantage, "Stranger Danger" functions in the opposite manner, wielding that classic Star vs. uncertainty to its advantage. All it does is pile on question after question, leaving us as an audience to judge the reality of the situation it presents. Is Eclipsa as heinous as Moon and the High Commission makes her out to be, or is she as misunderstood as Star initially perceives her?

All of this makes Eclipsa an infinitely more interesting and mysterious character. In the whole episode, she's nothing if not entirely passive, a blank canvas demanding the other characters' dueling interpretations. Even when she's off-screen - which the episode does for the most part, considering its most extended scene is Star getting a debatably-effective check-up to make sure she hasn't been infected by evilness - Eclipsa's no more of a presence than when she's on it, but an ominous mist pervades everything. She's the source of conflict without inciting any conflict at all.

I'm gonna level with all of you: I feel like I'm not smart enough to really formulate anything conclusive to take away, nor am I sleazy enough to go and steal someone else's thoughts.  I think my dissonance comes more from her being set up as sympathetic, but the audience knows there's something else going on, even without the show suggesting so, neither directly nor indirectly. That's some sinister writing wizardry. I don't think there's much better evidence than not having to understand what's happening to recognize its ingenuity to prove how amazingly constructed Star vs. can be when it so chooses.

Notes and Quotes:
-"The more you ignore someone, the more they fall deeply in love with you. That's like science, it's like scientific or something like that."
-I liked the gag of Lord and Lady Lucitor being so drastically different, but moreso than that, I liked Lord Lucitor turning out to be a comparatively affable dude named Dave.
-The dramatic sting that hits the exact same beats as Pony Head's "Oh, snap" makes for a pretty apt summary of the entirety of "Club Snubbed."
-Seems like Pony Head is our de facto Marco, but at the very least, she made for a nice foil to Star in "Club Snubbed" as she greasily tortures Prince Larry Kelpbottom into falling in love with her.
-"Have you always had this mole?" "Yes. But it doesn't make me evil... just a little self-conscious sometimes..."
-The High Commission trying to trick Star into saying she was evil via eye chart was hilarious.
-It seems the theories that Glossaryck's re-summoning have left him infantile have come true, something I failed to pick up on yesterday. I'm interested to see how the show plans on using him, considering that he's been curiously devolved from one of the show's more complex supporting characters to sheer comic relief.
-Interestingly enough, Marco's name wasn't even uttered once in either episode. I wonder how the show's going to balance the main cast out now; people have theorized that the first half of Season 3 will be more focused on Star, and the second half on Marco, but I could only see that as making an even larger mess in the two characters' complete disconnection.
-Also: regardless of romantic compatibility, can we just take a second to appreciate how great of a character Tom is? Just generally? Cool.

FINAL GRADE: B-/A. As strong as the ending may have been to leave us as an audience with a sense of longing, "Club Snubbed" struggles to lay a convincing foundation to support whatever chemistry it's trying to create, and the result feels frustratingly manufactured. On the other hand, "Stranger Danger" manages to take all of the ambiguity that "Club Snubbed" struggled to maintain and rode it to victory, opening up yet another excitingly perplexing door in the grand scheme of the show's narrative. I may not have much to say of it, but so much works that I can't really complain.

For yesterday's reviews of "Scent of a Hoodie" and "Rest in Pudding," CLICK HERE.