In Regards to “Sleepover”
TL;DR Version: Honesty Isn’t Always The Best Policy
Some of the key points addressed in this episode were the idea behind telling white lies, how to approach revealing intimate or personal information with someone else, and even how dramatically a person’s emotions or perspective can change day to day or even from moment-to-moment. All of these depended on the given circumstances of a current situation, who was involved, and why.
There was ample justification to sparing Star’s feelings here in regards to the quality of her cooking. They’re at a party. There’s a time and a place to be brutally honest with someone about the quality of their handiwork or craftsmanship. Generally, there’s room to be blunt and more brutally honest when giving someone constructive critique about their work. The overall goal is helping them further hone and develop their skills as a professional craftsman. Since this was a party, though, the goal was to casually brush aside bad cooking and segue into some other fun activity. When the truth box pushed everyone to reveal their true thoughts, this scene tackled the idea of how important tact is in social settings. Star’s reactions and the horrified, disgruntled awkwardness of the group at large highlight how a small white lie covers what would be a pretty petty issue blown up into a bigger, unnecessary issue. This same idea is why you’re forced to eat Aunt Gertrude’s incredibly dry, unpalatable pot pie at Thanksgiving. She worked hard on it, eating it would make her day, and the goal of a family setting is to encourage camaraderie and bonding. If eating the pot pie contributes to that effect, you’re going to eat the pot pie.
Aside from exploring the importance of tact, there’s significant weight to Marco getting pulled into playing this ridiculous game in the first place. The biggest reason why Ponyhead instigated the game was to further poke at Marco’s crush on Jackie. She may have been motivated by the idea of giving Earth Turd a ‘friendly’ push, but the biggest driver was nosy curiosity. There’s plenty of consequences attached to the idea of Marco confessing in front of an attentive, potentially gossipy, audience. It’s putting both Marco and Jackie on the spot. It’d definitely impact how he’d make further advances towards Jackie, his current friendship with her, his current standing with Ponyhead, and even how he felt towards the group at large. At worst, Marco could have a strained friendship with Ponyhead, a blow to his self-esteem, and overall wariness in group settings overall for awhile. Marco confessing played out with fairly ideal results, but it’s worth pointing out what factors were originally at stake even without a merciless supernatural force at play here. In short, some topics are better left alone and to a person’s personal discretion as to how and when they reveal certain information about themselves if at all.
The last point touches on the idea of how fluid certain ‘truths’ can be, from someone’s crush to their favorite color. This is partly highlighted by Jackie reconsidering how confident she was in her original answer that “skater boy” was her current crush. When Marco revealed his feelings, Jackie was presented a pretty major, gamechanging piece of information. She may be entertaining the idea of Marco as a boyfriend. They just started developing a more meaningful friendship at that, so rejecting him would lead to things being pretty awkward for awhile. There’s a lot of different factors for Jackie to consider, what she wants from her relationship with Marco being chief among them. Even just looking at Jackie’s set of circumstances, it shows just how radically a person’s perspective can change given new information or opportunities. If anything, Star Vs presents desired morals and ideas with several shades of gray, including the idea of potential budding romances (I’ll expand on this point shortly).
In regards to the “truth or dare” trope, the truth box was a pretty refreshing subversion. The lead characters were painted as a fairly conscientious, levelheaded group that chewed off a bit more than they really bargained for. Rather than an unwitting couple pushed into the nearby closet by their snickering peers, the truth box takes a few notes from the extremist, malfunctioning robot that treasures black and white logic above all else. It’s a matter of the group pulling together and ‘outwitting’ the box.
Surprisingly, their overall circumstances strengthened their overall relationships and confidence in each other. While I did rag on how unfair the setting was for Marco, it’s telling that the group at large were so accepting and encouraging when they each revealed their crushes. Pretty much everyone was on board with the “do what you have to” agenda in order to escape the box’s wrath. That did soften how difficult a position Marco was placed in and how he pushed through. Overall, the openness expressed between everyone here was a fitting counterweight to the truth-telling box. If someone is going to express themself openly and honestly, it should be with a close, trusted friend or confidant. Emphasis was placed on situations where honesty isn’t the best policy as well as setting up the ideal circumstances for how, when, and with whom a person should or can be honest.
(Side Note: Just for the record, I’m a multi-shipper. Starco is my OTP for this toon, but I also ship Janna and Star as well as Marco and Jackie.)
So, the end scene features the truth telling box getting crushed by a garbage truck as it screams, “Yes! Truth. Star Butterfly has a crush on-”
Some viewers look at this as ambiguous. After seeing Jackie’s hesitation in regards to who her current crush is, it’d make sense that Star may sit in the same reluctant camp. She may have entertained the idea of making advances towards Marco a few times since “Blood Moon Ball.” She may subconsciously play compare and contrast between pursuing Marco or pursuing Oskar. Her crush on Oskar is something she’s openly, brazenly accepted. As for her feelings towards Marco, she’s still parsing over them and whether or not she wants to accept that idea and the weight attached to it. If the scene with the box revealed anything, it’s that Star currently feels more strongly towards Marco than Oskar. Probably due to how often they see each other on a daily basis, how much closer they are, and after sensing that Jackie might be interested. It’s weird, but some people become more attractive when someone else shows romantic interest in them. Regardless, her crush isn’t set in stone. It’s not cement confirmation for Starco, but it’s still significant enough to be brought up as a point of discussion.
Compare the truth box scene with the odd scene in “Blood Moon Ball” where an unseen mariner describes the blood moon as “The moon of lovers!” Then there’s the scene in “Camping Trip” where River mistakes Marco as Star’s current boyfriend. Viewers could argue that Tom saw Marco as his romantic rival for awhile, insofar as the scene where one of his minions declares “Point, Marco!” in the episode “Mr. Candle Cares.” There’s been quite a few hints dropped by now. At the very least, Starco does have potential to become canon with some of the strongest ‘evidence’ for such effects thus far in the series.
That said, though, I’m not 100% sold on the idea of Starco as endgame canon. On one note, Jackie is a solid contender for becoming Marco’s significant other in future episodes. Again, there’s strong ambiguity as to whether or not she’ll reciprocate Marco’s feelings.
As for the other note, I remember an interesting discussion I had with another fan awhile back that there could be an unexpected twist or result in regards to the endgame romance. Look at the set-up for Star Vs: It’s a comedy series with some basis in parodying magical girl anime. Look at how Star’s wand sports several design elements similar to Cardcaptor Sakura’s, how similar Mina Loveberry looks to Sailor Moon; and even how some of Star’s magic blasts or poses mirror the exaggerated poses or power bursts used in magical girl anime. The point is to poke playful fun at some of the sillier aspects of the overall presentation in an anime like Sailor Moon when Star triumphantly cries, “Rainbow Marshmallow Blast!” or some other ridiculous phrase. Why couldn’t the parody include subverting a well-known trope? Viewers expect the main guy and girl to get together. There even tend to be blatant, sappy scenes where the two stare longingly at each other. Or there’s a supernatural prophecy or destiny at play, insisting they’re going to be together. Enter the scene where the mariner announces that the blood red moon is ‘the moon of lovers.’ What if there is a later scene where a monster or some other supernatural figure insists that Star and Marco have to get together to fulfill a prophecy, but Star or Marco say no?
As a further aside, there’s already some deliberate efforts to subvert or dupe viewer expectations. Some episodes are played straight with some twists or variations on general cartoon tropes, such as “Brittney’s Party” where Star and Marco crash the local rich girl’s exclusive party. Other episodes are absolutely bizarre and surreal, leaving the viewer at a bit of a loss as to what will happen next or even what the underlying point of the episode was. Enter “Fetch!” and the anthropomorphic dog that wanted to get a lobotomy and live a simpler life. While I could try to analyze what ideas the episode was playing with, it’s better left as a weird, mind boggling jaunt. Something weird for the sake of being weird and abstract for lack of a better description. “Starstruck” sits in a similar camp with some of the more exaggerated scenes and reactions on the part of several characters towards Mina Loveberry.
In short, there’s enough room for unexpected results that it’s not unbelievable the main guy and girl could end up with someone else. Perhaps, Star gets together with the one character considered one of the most unlikely options because of the current lack of screen time, development, or even network restrictions (Janna). I’d counter the last arguments by pointing out how much Star Vs has been able to get away with so far from the dark humor in “Blood Moon Ball” to the spider tucking into an anthropomorphic bug in “Ludo in the Wild.” (As an aside, one of the Wander crew mentioned bringing up a Star Vs scene to convince Disney to let them sneak in a specific controversial scene in one of their episodes). Star is a bit of trailblazer in the same vein as Gravity Falls. There’s certain jokes writers get away with that makes viewers raise skeptic brows. If any references to politics or ideologies pop up, they tend to be subtle or one-off jokes. Look at Ford’s crack about Ronald Reagan as a mind-controlled puppet in the Gravity Falls episode “The Stanchurian Candidate” or the crack about Janna ‘fighting the patriarchy’ in the recent Star Vs episode “Sleepover.” Star Vs might be able to press a bit further than Gravity Falls in regards to featuring unconventional characters and lifestyles. Look at how crazy and eccentric the cast is as a whole, including the human characters. A gay character wouldn’t be an extreme addition.
The only reason I brought up the last point at all is to say I’m not dismissing any possibilities at this point (even ones I don’t personally ship). If anything, my goal is to set up food for thought. Bringing up the idea that emotions are an ‘ever-changing rainbow’ sets an interesting precedent when thinking about how Star Vs might handle romance.
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