#ON THAT NOTE if u have thoughts on the song in regards to elise + her relationship w sonic i'm listening 👀👂i love rotating it in my mind

[tomaturtles]

omg tomaaaa Elise's theme was your 9th song??? :O

YES!!!!!!!! Her theme is so so beautiful both melody and lyrics wise i love it dearly 🥺🥺🥺💖💖💖 Sonic 06's OST rly is banger after banger all the songs are sooo good <333 but also. Full disclosure i already knew and loved it before getting into nge but it's that high Partially bc it's also in my kawoshin playlist 😭

I just think that. These lyrics'd fit right in in an art piece or in a fic title or something for it

[analysis-by-vaylon]

Things you might have missed during Jackie and Marco’s date in “Bon Bon the Birthday Clown.”

This updated analysis post owes some gratitude to a redditor in the comments of the original post. Thanks to /u/spartan1204 for making a connection that I missed with regard to the comparison between Marco and Rose!

Since the hiatus will soon be over, I thought it might be appropriate to take a look back at the most recent episode that aired, "Bon Bon the Birthday Clown," and see if there's any further meaning we can extract from it. After seeing some reactions to something I posted off-handedly, I figured I should probably write an analysis post about Jackie and Marco's date.

After Jackie and Marco head off for their date, the first thing they do is find a secluded bench; Marco attempts to impress Jackie with a drink. I've seen many reactions to this episode in which people seem confused about what, exactly, they're doing in this scene, so let me explain.

Marco is making something he used to drink as a kid: he's putting cereal and milk in a cup, then adding malted milk balls, and drinking the resulting mixture. It's supposed to be a sort of super-sweet milkshake, but since you're literally adding candy to something that's already quite sweet -- you'll likely find it disgusting (and rightly so). So why's this important? Well, a couple of reasons.

The drink is something only a kid could come up with and enjoy -- and Marco's dislike of it is broadly symbolic of maturation: he's no longer a little kid anymore. Specifically, however, the drink foreshadows how Marco is going to end up feeling about Jackie. If Jackie is someone that Marco has liked and wanted since he was a child, and if the drink is a metaphor for growing older -- well, I think it's likely that, just as he discovers that he's outgrown the taste of candy mixed with cereal, Marco may have outgrown Jackie as well.

Next, Jackie puts her feet in Marco's lap. Right away, that tells us two things: she's incredibly relaxed around him (and relaxed in general, of course) -- but she's also comfortable with showing intimacy to Marco in public. In other words, this is no act on her part; her feelings for Marco are genuine. I think it's interesting to note that this actually isn't the first time we see Jackie put her feet on Marco: we also saw it in "Sleepover.”

What else does Jackie like to put her feet on? Her skateboard, of course. I don't know if that pattern means anything beyond "Jackie enjoys putting her feet on things she likes" -- but I'd like to note the sparkles in that shot because they also show up when Star uses her wand.

The sparkles clearly indicate magic, but I can't decide if we're supposed to take the sudden, magical appearance of Jackie's skateboard literally or figuratively. If it's figuratively magical -- that is, this shot is a narrative elision for the sake of shortening episode length, or a poetic visual metaphor to show how activities on a date can seem "magical" -- then this shot isn't really notable. If it's literally magical, though, then I honestly have no idea of the intention behind this shot. Feel free to contact me if you have an idea; I’ll be sure to credit you.

The next notable shot in Jackie and Marco's date mimics a famous scene from the 1997 film Titanic -- even down to the dialogue. I think the homage is interesting for a number of reasons (not the least of which is that Jackie is playing Jack's role, and Marco is playing Rose's role -- kudos to Harland Dante for pointing this out). Could it be foreshadowing that their relationship is, like the RMS Titanic itself, a doomed ship? Quite possibly. (Curiously, the Titanic homage returns near the end of the episode with Marco saying to Star, "I'm not letting go!" And, unlike Rose, Marco doesn’t let go.) The entire concept of Jackie teaching Marco is interesting because of skateboarding's correspondence to dancing -- something that Marco is already familiar with -- which adds an added touch of intimacy to the scene.

The last thing that Jackie says in the episode -- off-screen, while the shot slowly tracks in on Star, visibly pained at the lack of comfort from Marco -- is, "This is the funnest dance I've ever been to." Marco responds, "Yeah, well -- I mean, yeah, we're -- we're in a graveyard, so..." The dialogue, because it links dancing with graveyards, makes me think of Día de Muertos, which has been a motif both visually and musically in "Blood Moon Ball" and "Bon Bon the Birthday Clown." The song that we hear as Marco gets ready to meet Jackie is "La Calaca Feliz," and the cassette tape is labelled "Para ¡Día de los Muertos!" I don't know precisely what the significance is of the connection between these concepts -- but there's definitely something going on there regarding the Day of the Dead. Maybe the connection will become apparent in the latter half of season two.

That's all for now. I hope this post illuminated some facet of the series for you. I'm looking forward to the rest of season two! Please feel free to send me an ask if you'd like to see analyzed in Star vs. the Forces of Evil.