Why I think Star vs. The Forces of Evil ending is not a bad thing
(Warning: Spoilers for SVTFOE)
So... uh, yeah, before you go on a witch hunt („who are you even to say that?!“, „stfo hater!“) let me tell you something: I think it would be not a bad thing to end Star vs. The Forces of Evil after season 4 because I love the show. To be fair, I haven’t even completed season 2 so far (everybody who knows me a bit better knows I had a very busy schedule when I got hyped on the show, but I am catching up on it as soon as possible!), but there are still some thoughts I would like to share.
In the past years, there have been a lot of very good shows I held dear from my childhood, that got ruined by being dragged on and on and on and ON AND ON… you get my point. Namely, these shows are Spongebob Squarepants and Fairly Odd Parents – shows which I still love for their early seasons and still LOVE to exchange quotes with my boyfriend. And that is exactly the fate I would like to spare SVTFOE, since it is such a good show with a lot of creativity behind it. So were the shows I named before, but then… something went wrong. Very wrong. Did the creative well run dry? Did the writers just decide to throw their hands up and say ‚screw it, it’s only for kids‘?! Who knows. But I can see certain dangers lurking for SVTFOE if the same thing would happen to the show.
Starfish Squarepants: Obnoxification and flanderization of characters
Oh Star. Who doesn’t love her? The magical princess from another dimension who rocks her Narwhal Blast and Warnicorn Stampedes. She is like a rubber ball on sugar rush that has been hit by a lightning bolt of awesomeness, yet… she has a lot of character development and character depth going on. She is clearly maturing over the seasons (as far as I can tell), which is the essence of a good character, in my opinion.
However, her concept, as awesome as it is, could easily fall in the trope of „Obnoxious, dense characters high on sugar“ with nothing but that being her main trait. Shows that go on way past their primetime tend to flanderize their characters and especially optimistic, happy characters tend to get this treatment and become these obnoxious guys who get completely oblivious to others‘ struggles. You know to whom this happened?
Yeah, this little yellow guy. Spongebob. He used to be that optimistic, sometimes obnoxious but always happy little guy who still cares deeply about others. Maybe his voice threw adults off (my parents hated him), but he still was a genuinely good guy who could find joy in anything, be it working at a fast food place or just playing with a box! But from what I’ve seen and heard about the later seasons, he becomes obnoxious, oblivious and sometimes downright malicious. This is not the Spongebob I love and care about; it is some kind of weird misunderstanding of what made this character so likeable and successful in the first place.
As I said, shows that drag on forever, tend to flanderize their characters down to being two-dimensional cardbord cutouts from what they used to be. Especially characters with a lot of energy and a little naiveness to them. Another example would be Cosmo from Fairly Odd Parents, who just became dumber and dumber and dumber as the show went on. And I honestly think Star deserves better than that. Hell, all of the characters deserve better than that. Imagine, if the show writers would basically take Marco, remove everything he is going for and just let him be that nagging safety guy who hates fun. Or take Tom, throw his character development in the sewer and just let him be that angry demonic ex-boyfriend who always throws a fit. Because that’s exactly what happened to other characters before them. All of the development and the chemistry gets thrown out of the window in order to make the characters easier to swallow or just do it for a cheap dumb joke.
Mewninatural: Plot Machine
I think every creator knows what it is like if the creative well runs dry on something. Hell, I have quite some novel corpses rotting on my computer because of exactly that. Maybe I will pick up the ideas again at some point and finish it, who knows? The only difference between me and the writers of an ongoing show is, in a professional environment there is pressure. A lot of it. They have to constantly come up with new ideas to keep the audience invested.
In the first season of SVTFOE, I found it a little hard to find a red string at first – I guess that is first season struggle, every show suffers from it, even freaking Avatar: The Last Airbender (GOD I love that show). But as I kept watching and got invested in fan stuff, I saw a clear red string in the plots – and they were good. The Toffee stuff? Hooo boy, yes! Eclipsa and Meteora? Seriously hyped for that stuff! Can’t wait to actually get there! However, there is always one question nagging in my mind: What‘s next?
After having defeated the immortal monster that can’t be broken, defeating Meteora and giving Eclipsa what she truly deserves, what’s next for the duo? Did Star actually lose her magic? What will be now? And what would be three seasons ahead? – You get what I mean. At some point, it will get hard to come up with new stuff to keep the audience watching. I know a friend of mine, who tends to say Supernatural suffers from the same problem currently (I haven’t watched the show past Season 1 so far, so… enough with that stuff). In fact, I think a lot of shows do. They tend to solve the problem by bringing up Evil Super Villain To Be Defeated With Rainbow Blast #501, or bringing up OMG This New Character Is So Cute And Perfectly Perfect You MUST Love Her!
Yep, looking at you, Chloe.
Honestly, I would love to come up with some more reasons, but for now, this has to be it, since it is by now 2 am in the morning in my country. All I am trying to say is: Let Star vs. The Forces of Evil go with dignity. Will I be sad? Absolutely! Will I hope the fandom still sticks together afterwards? Definetly. Is it the worst thing that could have happened to the show? No.
Because the worst fate that a good show could ever face, is it being dragged on for so long that it’s rotten corpse resembles nothing of the original.
Those are my words for tonight. See you soon.
