SvtFoE Rhombulus Rewrite (Pt. 8)
I said I would be back soon, didn't I, Chimeras? I kept my promise! Mainly by writing Part 7 while still working on Parts 8-9!
Just one more post after this, and then we'll (probably) be all finished with this rewrite. Or at the very least, all the important stuff will be completed. This part is going to cover all the episodes leading up to the finale (as I think that can and should be its own post).
As per usual, @bawfulio @sagesilentfire @i-exist-somehow thank you for your support.
I don't really have anything else to say here, so without further ado, let's get into the good stuff!
Season 4 Buildup to Finale
I was going to change some of “Sad Teen Hotline” by adding subplot stuff to it, but tbh, it’s fine on its own. The main issue with it was the fact that there was no proper buildup to Tom breaking things off, so actually having that emotional setup just makes this the emotional payoff. This is one of the last few “normal” episodes before shit really hits the fan, and it’s already going to be a bit emotional, so hopefully the viewers will be prepared. I think that Star and Tom will be able to remain friends post-breakup, they’ll just need some time apart for a while.
Jannanigans
During “Jannanigans”, we have an important subplot regarding the MHC that explains why the portals aren’t working. I actually did plan to have Hekapoo and Omni work with Mina before getting a redemption arc, but that ended up not working and I got pretty stuck, so I changed things and eventually came up with something.
Rhombulus is with Mina, who is acting a bit odd, and her lines foreshadow that she plans to kidnap Meteora and that something bad is going to happen to Eclipsa. However, Rhombulus sees it as Mina just acting kind of weird like usual. Hekapoo rushes up to Rhombulus and tells him about how the portals are no longer working entirely, and they think Eclipsa is behind it. Mina has a slightly weird reaction to this, something that Rhombulus notices, but mentally dismisses. He quickly says goodbye to Mina before the MHC confronts Eclipsa (though Rhombulus is a bit more neutral and even tries to defend her a bit).
Eclipsa is holding Meteora when they go to confront her, and since it’s clearly serious, she hands Meteora off to a trio of servants. I’ve been thinking up a lot of new ideas to add even more recently, and one of them are a few Mewni gag characters since multiple people mentioned that the average Mewmans feel pretty bland). These guys have a recurring gag of Eclipsa needing to hand Meteora over to someone, and she usually hands her to these three, who think Meteora is very cute, and they fight over who gets to care for her, sometimes resulting in them forgetting to actually focus on her. That might honestly happen in “Meteora’s Lesson”, distracting them long enough for Glossaryck to take her, which could be foreshadowing for the end of this episode. Moving on.
An important little sidenote for the confrontation is that Omni will be physically in the room for this scene rather than using his crystal ball because he and Hekapoo are worried this confrontation could get physical (this is also mainly for plot stuff). It’s generally a very tense scene, and emotions are running high.
It takes a minute, but at one point, one line that either Hekapoo or Eclipsa says makes Rhombulus realize the truth: Mina is likely behind all this, or at least knew what was going to happen, and now she is planning to kidnap Meteora. He rushes to Meteora’s room, with Eclipsa following him, and finds it empty, with the window open, and he realizes that she’s been kidnapped by Mina. That’s when the castle is attacked by the Solarian warriors.
Door in the Lakes
I was originally just going to take “Mama Star” out completely, but then I created the rhyme with the door and stuff, and I realized I could definitely keep it a little bit. Here, it will be called “The Door in the Lakes”. The main plot will involve Star and co. traveling through the Realm of Magic and losing their memories, but Marco keeps getting drawn to this mysterious door that keeps appearing. He might even see Celena calling out to him again, or she starts guiding him towards the door, but he keeps getting distracted by the others.
The B-plot of the episode (or perhaps the A-plot?) cuts back to the MHC after Mina has started attacking the castle.
While I was going to have Omni and Hekapoo help Mina before switching sides, things didn’t work out. So then I had them stay out of the fight before finally joining once Rhombulus was in danger (which did work pretty well in some areas). However, that didn’t work quite as well either due to how I was organizing the order of certain events. I didn’t actually have a good point for them to step in, and had already solidified certain stuff. I had made the mistake of coming up with plot points before finding a good order to put them in, and things got messy. That was actually part of why writing this all took a few weeks. I ended up just letting them help anyway, which made things flow a lot better, so in the end, I stuck with this (even if it’s a little bit less fun and dramatic).
So here, even though Hekapoo and Omni don’t like Eclipsa and Hekapoo is less sympathetic towards monsters, Omni is shown to be more neutral towards them and doesn’t want innocent civilians to get hurt. Hekapoo, meanwhile, is mad that Mina would purposefully disrupt the portals, and wants to stop her in that regard. Thus, they are willing to fight against her.
Hekapoo tells Rhombulus to go and find Glossaryck since he might be able to help them find Star and her friends. Rhombulus starts searching the castle, and eventually, he finds Glossaryck. Rhombulus asks him if he knows where Star and co are, and Glossaryck is cryptic at first, before Rhombulus gets frustrated and lashes out, possibly even crying. Glossaryck feels bad for once, and suddenly transports Rhombulus to the Realm of Magic, where he finds Star and friends and takes them to Mewni.
Ready, Aim, Fire
The next episode, “Ready, Aim, Fire” (as I like that name) starts with Star being shaken awake by Rhombulus. She looks around to see that she and the others are all in the castle, with everyone slowly waking up. Star is a bit surprised to see Rhombulus, especially due to realizing that he probably helped them get out. She asks him how he didn’t go crazy, and he reveals that since he’s a being made of magic, he’s able to resist the effects of the madness.
Star then asks what happened and why the portals are closed, and Rhombulus quickly says that there’s not much time to explain, but the basic rundown is that Mina and a bunch of Solarian warriors are attacking the castle and trying to overthrow Eclipsa. Also, they kidnapped Meteora and nobody knows where she is. This is a lot of info to take in, but the point is that things are bad, and it’s time to battle.
They hear a rumbling from above, and Rhombulus says they need to hurry. They all rush outside to where the action is. Globgor, Hekapoo, Omni, and Eclipsa are battling the Solarians (who don’t have armor in this version) as best they can, with a lot of our focus being on Eclipsa and Globgor since the MHC will get their own cool fight scene later. E&G are very clearly pissed, fighting ruthlessly, and Eclipsa even uses some very powerful spells. Unfortunately, neither Mina nor Meteora are anywhere in sight.
Eclipsa grabs one of the Solarians and demands to know where Meteora is. The Solarian chuckles and says that she’ll find out soon, to which Eclipsa responds by blasting him, sending him flying with an “AAAAAaaaaaaaahhh!!!” Star calls out to Eclipsa, who turns around to see her and the others, and she is relieved to see them, but is forced to get back into action when another Solarian attacks.
Star, Tom, and Marco start working together to help fight off the Solarians, while Janna helps civilians evacuate into the Monster Temple. Everybody is looking rough, and a ton of monster civilians are injured because of the blades.
It seems like the Solarians are gone for the moment, but they say they’ll be back soon, and if Eclipsa doesn’t surrender, Mina will destroy everything and everyone she has ever loved. Everyone is exhausted, taking a moment to watch as the Solarians fly off, before they begin helping people get into the Monster Temple. Eclipsa continues staring in the direction in which the Solarians went, eyes distant. Globgor finally walks up behind her and puts a comforting hand on her shoulder. She looks up at him, before they sadly walk inside.
We then transition to Mina planning ominously in her hideout, with Meteora near her. She turns to look at Meteora with an ominous smile, but Meteora looks back up at her happily and reaches out to her. Mina briefly sees Solaria in Meteora’s face, or at least her smile. Mina is beginning to regret things a bit, but she is pretty stubborn, and continues on with her plan. “Soon, little baby. Soon, your grandmother’s mission will be completed.”
The Right Thing
The mother from “Down By the River”, Pepper (I gave her a new name), is put in charge of looking after Meteora while Mina and her crew prepare for battle. We see Pepper try her best to take care of Meteora, and she ends up liking the hybrid child. This causes Pepper to question if she’s doing the right thing. In this AU, this character was initially introduced in a sympathetic light, and while she was a bit more resentful towards monsters, she is clearly capable of change. Mina eventually asks her to hand the baby back since they are going to use her as a hostage. The lady reluctantly gives her back to Mina, but after Mina leaves with some of the others, the lady ends up going to Moon, who is unaware of all the crazy stuff happening behind her back. While we don’t see the conversation on screen, we do see the lady say that she has to tell Moon something important.
Moon says that she’s going to go to the Monster Temple and help. Pepper thinks for a moment, before she decides to do something. She goes outside to the middle of the village and rings the village announcement bell. All the villagers come out of their houses and crowd around her, looking at her in confusion.
An important sidenote is that not all of Moon’s villagers sided with Mina, even if some of them knew. They just had the same attitude that Moon did in the OG “Ghost of Butterfly Castle”. They aren’t all great people, but they aren’t irredeemable racists, and thought Mina was mainly planning to just take down Eclipsa, not the genocide stuff.
“My fellow villagers!” Pepper shouts as she stands up on a box, “I have an important announcement to make! As some of you may know, Mina Loveberry is planning to attack the Monster Temple and dethrone Queen Eclipsa. A lot of you turned down that offer, but never mentioned it to anyone since you felt like it wasn’t your problem. But it is. It’s everyone’s problem. I know you don’t have the best history with monsters, but the Solarians are going to end the lives of hundreds of innocent people. She’s even holding a baby hostage!” The crowd gasps. “Even if we did lose our homes, it doesn’t mean we should sit back as people lose their lives.”
“But we’re just villagers. What can we do?” one villager asks. Moon, who was about to leave, speaks up. “That may be so, but it doesn’t mean you can’t do anything. You’ve learned so much these past few months. You don’t need to fight to save lives.”
Pepper nods. “It’s about time we do the right thing. So, who’s with me?” She pumps her fist up into the air, and the crowd cheers and does the same. Pepper looks at Moon and smiles, while Moon looks back at her proudly.
We may also get a joke of River saying something like, “I’ll go pack some meat!”
Hopefully the timing and stuff for this episode will be good, since I had to shuffle things around to make stuff fit. I think it might work, though.
Attempts at Persuasion
Mina has finally come to the castle with Meteora, and Eclipsa says that they’re going to need to fight her off. Rhombulus then disagrees, saying that he’s known her for centuries, and he has a strong feeling she is capable of change, she’s just not in her right mind. He suggests that he and the rest of the MHC go out to try and persuade her or something, while everyone else stays inside to create a backup plan. Everyone hesitantly agrees to this plan, and we cut to the MHC outside, ready to confront Mina. Mina cheerfully greets the three of them, and Hekapoo and Omni are immediately hostile.
Rhombulus is clearly still pretty hurt by her betrayal, and Mina says that he’s still pretty young and naive. She also says does feel bad for tricking him, but it was necessary and for his own good, which Rhombulus disagrees with. Rhombulus genuinely does present a good argument to her regarding why she should stop, slightly getting into the themes of change and Mina’s underlying issues regarding it. Unfortunately, this ends up striking a chord in Mina, and she says that he’s too far gone, before she swings her sword down towards him. Suddenly, Rhombulus is pushed out of the way by Hekapoo, and Omnitaxus starts fighting Mina. The three of them begin to fight together while also fending off other Solarian Warriors.
We cut back to the inside of the castle, where everyone is sort of trying to come up with a plan, but are having a hard time doing so. This is the point where Moon finally arrives with all her villagers, who are here to help. The villagers start rushing around to treat people’s injuries, carry in supplies, and a few even start preparing for battle themselves.
Moon tells everyone Mina’s plan is to use Meteora as a hostage, then once Eclipsa has given up the throne, she will kill all the monsters. Moon says that they need to come up with a way to defeat Mina, and asks Star what she wants to do. Instead of deciding to destroy magic, Star wants to figure out how to undo the spells cast on Mina and the others (that’s where the Spell With No Name will come into play).
Things finally click together for Marco, and he realizes the meaning of the rhyme in his dream. He suggests they simply ask Solaria, since she’s the one who created Mina in the first place. Star says that talking to Solaria is impossible, before Marco mentions that he saw her in the Realm of Magic.
He finally talks about his dream where he talked to this Mewni woman with moon cheekmarks and a fan who told him this weird rhyme and showed him the door he found in the Realm of Magic. Star interrupts and asks if she looked like [insert description of Celena], and Marco says she did, and Star realizes he might be onto something. Marco continues describing a bit of what happened, and they start to put together a plan. They do wonder how they will navigate the Realm of Magic without losing track, before Star remembers what Rhombulus said about how he can remain sane. So they decide that Star, Marco, and perhaps some others will go to the RoM, find this door with Solaria, get the spells from her, and defeat Mina. Suddenly, they are interrupted by Rhombulus barging in to tell them that Mina is coming, before Mina suddenly tears a hole through the wall.
Mina planned to convince Moon to take back the throne, arguing that Eclipsa separated Moon from her family (you see what I did there?) and pointing out how irresponsible Eclipsa is as a queen. While the others refute this, Eclipsa does make a guilty facial expression, like she knows Mina is somewhat right. Moon says that she’s done being queen and that Mina needs to stand down, and she dips down, transforming into her butterfly form before preparing a spell and aiming at Mina, a powerful threat.
Mina finally shrugs and says that she doesn’t need Moon, since the MHC found a replacement before, so she’ll probably be able to do the same. Moon, knowing that there’s no bargaining with Mina, fires, but Mina manages to block the attack with her sword, causing it to fly off in a different direction. Moon, Hekapoo, Omnitraxous, Tom, Ponyhead, Sea Horse, Kelly, Rich Pigeon, Jorby, Talon, Quirky Guy, Janna(?), and possibly a few other characters all attack, and the final battle begins.
Rise to the Occasion
Moon tells Star to help get Eclipsa out of there and enact the plan, and while Eclipsa protests, wanting to fight to save her daughter, Globgor says that he doesn’t want to lose her too, and Mina is trying to target her, so it’s best if she hides for now. They kiss, before Eclipsa is practically dragged off by Star. Star also drags Rhombulus along with her, promising to explain everything on the way.
While heading towards the portal to the RoM, Eclipsa admits to Star that she slightly agrees with Mina, as she doesn’t feel like she is a very good queen. Star tries to comfort her, but Eclipsa shuts it down and reveals that she doesn’t even want to be queen, she just wants her family to be safe and happy. She actually was wondering if perhaps Star would like to be queen instead.
I was writing out some stuff regarding Moon during the finale, when I noticed a recurring thing I kept adding to my writing, and I realized it would be interesting if I took things a certain direction. I realized that Eclipsa really isn’t the best queen, and I kept integrating that idea into the story in a lot of ways while keeping her sympathetic.
Star is shown to be a genuinely pretty good leader in canon, or she would at least make a pretty decent queen, and spearheads a lot of stuff to make improvements. She also cares about things like Monster-Mewman equality and puts in the work to bring peace to both sides, and she understands the complexities and nuances of fixing these issues. Not only that, but she does have a slightly more modern perspective compared to Eclipsa, focusing a lot more on the kingdom rather than her own personal relationships. I did add a theme of the new generations being the key to progress, and Star represents that idea pretty well throughout Season 4.
Eclipsa points this out to her, which is why she’s making this suggestion.
Star says she doesn’t want to take that away from Eclipsa or Meteora, and Eclipsa says that that doesn’t have to be the case. Star could be the queen until Meteora comes of age, since Meteora is already doing stuff to bring people together, and since she is a hybrid, she would likely make a great queen. They agree on this idea, and hope to possibly go through with it.
Suddenly, they hear the sound of the battle coming closer. Eclipsa says to Star that before any of that (the whole Star being queen thing) can happen, they need to get Meteora back. Eclipsa is done hiding. She’s going to go and save her baby.
Star says that she’ll see her on the other side, and Eclipsa wishes her good luck. They part ways, with Eclipsa heading towards the fighting and Mina, while Star, Marco, and Rhombulus head to the portal.
We cut back to the battle, where unfortunately, Globgor, Hekapoo, and Omni are cut by Mina’s blade, incapacitating them. Hekapoo is actually pretty surprised to see that she and Omni can be injured by the Solarian Blades at all. Globgor points out to them that they aren’t that different from any other monsters. The only real difference is that the MHC has power and they were created using magic. But even then, that’s pretty surface level. Omni thinks for a moment and admits that perhaps they were wrong about a lot of things, and Hekapoo agrees. Globgor chuckles and says that if they survive this, maybe they can start working towards peace. The other two agree, before Mina tries to attack them again. Suddenly, a magical blast blows Mina’s hand away. Eclipsa is here.
Eclipsa confronts Mina, and another Solarian floats up next to Mina, holding a crying Meteora in his arms. Mina asks Eclipsa if she’s here to surrender. Eclipsa does say that she doesn’t plan to be queen anymore since Star is a pretty good queen. This pleases Mina, who is happy that she is going to get her way, but Eclipsa says that Mina isn’t going to win this. Meteora will remain the heir to the throne, and Monsters and Mewmans will live in peace together, and there’s nothing Mina can do about it. Mina is enraged, saying that none of that can happen if she “ends them.”
Eclipsa sees red, and she demands that Mina give her back her baby, before for the very first time, Eclipsa finally dips down.
Sorry if some of this is pretty messy. I made a few mistakes during my writing progress that were hard to undo, but I tried my best. The finale is going to be much better than all this stuff. It’s actually one of the first parts I wrote while working on Ending 2 and what I’ve been building up to ever since writing Part 7. I hope you enjoy it!