#being in the svtfoe fandom also connected us

[dasketcherz]

CRESSIEVERSE CREW: HOW THE STARS ALIGNED

hoo boi! Where should I even start???

Well, at first it was really just a collaboration between @gravityfying​ and @paneyneygirl​ when one day in the midst of March 2017, grav pitched this idea of “Hey, why don’t we also try a take for a starco child? Just for fun?” to paney and she was like “I don’t see why not, let’s do it!” 

They knew each other in real life, they go to the same university. So throughout those times, they communicate and meet up to share ideas and work on character designing Cressida along with the canon cast from the actual show. It took them months to design it before finalizing and publishing it online. 

That’s where I kinda enter few months later. I discovered grav when one day scrolling on instagram I saw this repost of an adorable starco family drawing of hers with a really really adorable starco child. I thought the designs were pretty good I just had to check out the original artist so I went to grav’s tumblr blog asap and oH BOI WAS I SHOOK TO FIND OUT SHE’S FILIPINO LIKE ME. I got more and more curious what stuff she had and slowly really got invested with cressieverse after checking up their visual illustrations and background descriptions. 

Since then I couldn’t stop thinking of cressieverse and even came up with headcanons of my own for the au that I thought I just have to share to the creators---that’s where I started sending grav asks of imagines and headcanons as contribution to their lovely project. I was really so happy whenever she replied saying she loved the ideas I just got encouraged to think of more! 

Then one day, I gathered all the courage to directly message her on tumblr---the conversation wasn’t so bad for a first starter and I felt so relieved and happy we actually had a pretty good talk! ‘Til that continued the following days, I sent her a lot of cressieverse fanart because I.Love.Cressieverse. 

I posted some of those stuff on my instagram to which grav found my account and she started tagging paney who also had an instagram so she could see the fanarts too. That’s where I first knew about paney and totally check her blog out eventually, got more shook to realize cressieverse was a collaboration between two fellow Filipinos my age and they’re both really good I cri man

We were still just acquaintances but we’re slowly becoming friends during that time. And we both happen to know about @nomidot​ (who admitted to us happens to knew about me at deviantArt waaay before I knew of her, it was truly a small world) since we both follow her and we thought she seems like really cool and stuff cuz g h a d her art is aesthetic af 

grav has been talking with nomi first before I could have gathered the courage to do too. But she was nice enough to have me tag along the conversation one day because we all have pretty cool ideas we thought might be good to share with each other---and it totally was! Then eventually, grav had paney tag along the group too since she must be there cuz she’s grav’s co-creator for the au.

And then from there we just started to talk and share ideas and get to know one another ‘til we felt really comfortable to have each other’s company!! We started collaborating on prompt ideas, on character designs, on story plots together and shared our art to one another, it was really enjoyable!! 

Talking with these gals everyday has been the highlight of my year, and I am so happy I met them because they gave me inspiration to pursue my dream career to be a character designer/storyboard artist in the future. Having each other, in a sense, we felt like we can be so much more because of what amazing stuff we do together and that’s why cressieverse means so much to me because if it weren’t for this project, I wouldn’t still have a sense of direction where I wanna go and I wouldn’t have met these awesome guys. 

And we’re just so happy that you guys are loving the stuff that the four of us worked hard on with passion and dedication so thank you so much!!

[seddm]

I’m glad you really got invested in amphibia too!! It definitely is something special and I’m so happy so many people connected to it so deeply!

I was wondering, what was your favorite episodes/scenes from the show?

As usual, I super suck whenever I'm asked to pick favorites.

Favorite episode, I'd say True Colors. It's an answer that's heavily dependent on a number of elements that aren't necessarily connected to the objective quality of the episode: it's when my interest for the show went from "I like this!" to "Oh... I'm feeling things I hadn't felt since the SVTFOE days"; it's when the series reached its climax of "anything is possible now, there's a world of plot and lore in front of us!"; and it's when I started lurking the fandom.

Favorite scene, definitely the space fight in The Hardest Thing. Because it's super anime and cool and has an epic rendition of No Big Deal which is already a song I loved because it was so emblematic of Anne's character arc, but also because for those 80 something seconds, there's nothing but triumphant happiness for the girls.

Who get to look super cool, together, after so many hardships and different amounts of screentime and relevance to the story.

This scene alone is, in great part, responsible for my descent into Sashannarcy shipping, from what was previously more of a generic "I hope they're always happy together" vibe.

Also, some days before the episode I joked about Marcy's Calamity Form attack being a D20 dealing increasingly higher damages with the numbers, so that's a bonus point. A seer!

This doesn't mean I don't have opinions about dozens of other scenes and episodes and that the show being over certainly altered my perception of things that happened during its run and all that, these are just the first answers that popped in my mind when asked to pick a single favorite.

[butterflyeffectiveless]

personal, oversharing, list of different fandom concepts I had in mind but that have been cancelled or never realized. I mainly write this for myself to sort out ideas

Svtfoe: an AU where Toffee took care of Star instead of Moon, and Moon was in the hiding.. dont really remember much. Also remember that in the end it was planned for Star to change course of universe to get back her chidlhood and family, but by doing so she erased her current universe.

reasons for cancelling: I assume it just ended abruptly because I got busy with other things and then deleted my blog. why cant bring the idea back: mentally not the same as I was back when I worked on that AU, and probably, maybe also because I cant remember a lot of stuff and my priorities changed. Also I dont really like that AU because im no longer can portray Toffee as nice and I feel it was too flawed as a story

Friday Night Funkin:

An AU idea where Senpai was Girlfriend’s comfort character when she was a child. And that Senpai was different from the OG unirvse version: he felt geniune connection to Girlfriend and was loyal to her and was emotionally attached to her (platonically). There was no story, it was a standalone concept for which I wanted to draw fanart. I guess the origin idea was that Gf’s parents could do magic things since they were demons, and by using their demonic powers they created a sentient entity within a videogame that was supposed to be dark and demonic like them but Senpai didnt do anything demonic he just warmed up to girlfriend and felt the emotional attachment growing because Gf spent many nights playing that same date simulator to comfort herself. Girlfriend never knew that Senpai was sentient.

reasons for cancelling: I dont know, I various things. including me feeling this idea feels hypocritic of me to make.

why cant bring the idea back: guilt- but part of me considers to make a drawing with Senpai from this au

an AU idea where Boyfriend is an edgy rock enthusiast and Girldfriend is a jpop singer. Rock people look down on anime and jpop lovers and call them cringy etc., and jpop lovers call rockers edgy and mean and its a very wide popular stereotype from both sides, which caused a lot of antagonization of each party. Despite this all Boyfriend and Girlfriend never hated each other; they fell in love and geniunely liked each other. The idea was meant to represent my experience with 2000s trends and the whole ‘cringe culture’, where everyone scoffed at those who liked cute and anime things. And also the idea that not all 2000 rock likers and edgy people are mean to jpop likers and that even while being edgy one can geniunely respect and love someone with interests that are stereotyped as “hated” by the group of people you belong to. Also part of me wanted to pay respects to the ones I used to know who loved jpop and anime idol things and who were bullied for it.

examples of drawings:

reasons for cancelling:  I don’t know. why cant bring the idea back: anything related to love is hard for me now. But am thinking that I will sometimes sketch smth from this au

SvtFOE:

A story idea dedicated to ludoffee ship. Basically an AU where Toffee was brought back to life after the events of canon and Ludo and Toffee somehow make up after everything. The ship was supposed to be more like a constructive development of the two instead of romanticising toxicity. There were meant to be ups and downs from both sides, aka Ludo still struggling to trust Toffee, Toffee still acting uncaring, Ludo still trying to get a wand and spiralling back into his abusive self. In all honesty I planned to make it as follows: First Toffee goes through character development and has to deal with his past actions, but around the times when Toffee settles down and starts to change his view on things, Ludo starts to act up and do wrong things and then it becomes more about Ludo needing to tackle his inner demons to make things better for the two of them. I even wrote a rough script in a separate document for some situations. Toffee was meant to star doubting himself and feeling like he starts lying again but not being sure about it. As Toffee starts to geniunely like Ludo, Toffee gets more sad because he starts to realize that he is the only one who sees Ludo as someone great whereas the rest of the world laughs at him, and that was supposed to upset Toffee and bug him a lot, mixed with load of guilt for having been the same way as those who look down on Ludo. 

In one of my drafts, Toffee was going to leave the castle for a bit, to go out and think over whats going on in his head, but when he tried to inform Ludo about, Ludo wasnt listening well and that led to a huge nasty misunderstanding, and the fact that Toffee was planning to travel at the time when a fight happened, made the misunderstanding worse: Ludo thought that Toffee hated him and was going to leave for good. But in reality Toffee was just going to clear his mind and not because of Ludo. And in one scene where Toffee was sitting in a train and looking out of the window he was thinking about what if he was lying about his feelings. Somewhere at the end he decided to retire and get some of his belongings in his old septarian camp-like place, and at the time Ludo was rushing in to get Toffee back and thought that Toffee is going to be a general again and is going to go into war, and they stumble upon each other. It was supposed to be a humorous part but i still havent figured out how to portray it in a funny way besides Ludo screaming something like “Im sorry ! Please dont go back to military!” and Toffee standing confused with bags in his hands and saying “What do you mean? I am retiring.” There were more sketches aka 

Toffee: Thats odd. We are still losing to the princess even though I geniunely try to help you this time.

Ludo: /gloomily/ Plot armor.

examples of drawings:

reasons for cancelling:  that is very hard to implement and draw.. ngl drawing is hard. also school and other stuff why cant bring the idea back: i suppose bc i its kind of hard to come back to love and relationships anymore.

[tacosandtomcos]

I would like to share my theory

I noticed svtfoe staff likes to use symbols and I have a few to point out.

In the 1st/2nd season intro we see Tom holding a single salmon colored flaming rose bud. Salmon roses can indicate enthusiasm, desire and excitement. Giving salmon roses to share your utmost desire to someone is a way to show them how you feel (heck I could be wrong with the color.) 

But as we see in the intro, Star rolled her eyes and ran off. Bonus! a flaming rose bud also means “impossible love” (sorry, I forgot to put my sources) So, during these seasons, it kinda explains why tomstar never happened.

Now in season 3, it’s pinwheels! Their symbolism is really quite profound representing such diverse concepts as childhood innocence, unseen energy, wish fulfillment and transformation. It’s kinda lengthy so I’ll stop from there, it’s really quite interesting since it might explain what will happen in their relationship. Feel free to interpret.

I also share your theory that the 3 of them are bonded by the blood moon. But! neither of them will end up together and will be just friends. Plot Twist!!!

Very interesting insight on minor details there.

I don’t think there’s much i can add myself on the matter myself, but it is the kinda thing that’ll make you pay more attention to detail later on.

Yeah, that theory is still one of my favorites and it’s till into play, it has yet to be busted by any means. Probably because the moon situation has really been kinda avoided for awhile, so really anything surrounding it is a possibility.

The fandom usually leaves the thing as a symbol of Star and Marco’s love and destiny to be together and that’s all it is, but to me i feel like that’s what they want you to think…..and it actually means something entirely different.

There’s alot of strange STRANGE stuff going around that thing, and questions that i would like answers to?

Why does the moon only seem to affect Marco in later episodes?

What exactly did it do to Marco to give him magic powers?

What the heck is going on here in the moon prophecy room?

Did It affect Tom at all since he inserted himself under it’s light? ((He even looks up at it, he knows he’s under the dang thing))

What in the heck is up with the Stupid Captain Painting?

What does Eclipsa know about this thing?

This Moon is a symbol of the Lucitor Kingdom, they even have it on the top of their castle? What do they know about this dang thing?

Why did the moon even show up in Bon Bon? It’s clear it wasn’t for cockblocking reasons since Star can kiss Tom and Marco is still allowed to kiss Jackie any other time. ((Actually now that i think about it did Jackie even notice the Moon turned red? Or could only Marco see it?))

Why the heck does the weird Moon Prophecy room imply Marco is represented by a sun, only for him to ultimately really have no connection to a sun symbol throughout the rest of the show?

Could you imagine how cool it would be if the theory was canon though, oh i’d LOVE to see the fandom’s reaction if that were the case. ((It would actually be a really good plot twist, since most people haven’t really considered the idea Tom may be bonded as well since the show always has implied it being a couple’s thing))

Also, rip pretty much everything that related to the idea the blood moon was making star and marco get together. Cause either you go poly if this happens, or you pretty much assume it’s not a romantic soul bond at all. XD

[seddm]

Despite how frustrating this show can be how would you rate the writing quality overall? What did it do right? What did it do wrong? What should've had more focus & what changes could've been made to make this show as close to a 10/10 as possible? I like these types of discussions. I know S4 isn't done but I'd like your thoughts on this before "Curse of The Blood Moon" breaks our hearts. I feel like subverting expectations even if it's bad is common these days & I don't trust the show after LHF.

I’m terrible at making “reviews” or commenting on how something should have gone, but I’m going to try: if I had to rate the show’s writing in a more or less objective way I’d give it a 7.5, probably.

The characters are incredibly solid, as are their arcs (with some exceptions, sadly Pony and Janna never really got any tangible amount of growth despite their screentime): the first problem most episodic series have with characters is backtracking, having characters undergo apparently important epiphanies in given episodes, just for their behavior to barely change, at least until another epiphany moment comes up, while SVTFOE for the most part (it’s not perfect obviously) never shied away from major changes of the status quo connected to major moments of growth for the characters, leading to visibly different behaviors while still keeping the same core personality (i.e. Star is still a person with a tendency to rush things and to ignore painful problems, but compared to her S2 self, her S3 and S4 version greatly toned down these problems, or managed to integrate them in a more mature personality: in Yada Yada Berries Star did rush into things without properly thinking about why someone would try to statueify Eclipsa, but she still followed a trail of leads in an ordered way). Also events never force the characters to grow when they aren’t ready, every major change is preceded by a number of episodes priming emotions and feelings for an epiphany.

The dialogues are for the most part very good, they feel natural and flow easily and never really feel like padding put there because the boarders didn’t know how to get to the segment runtime. 

Comedy is highly subjective: personally I think it improved a lot following S1 (at the time the delivery of the jokes was very hit or miss to me, and it missed more often than not while still managing to be at least endearing), and is on average good. Jokes are not as polished nor have perfect comedic timing as other shows like Gravity Falls, but it still manages to make me laugh.

Plot... that’s probably the weakest part. On paper it’s very interesting, with a lot of interconnected elements at play and a compelling lore, but the payoff often falls short of what could have been. The show shines when it exposes plots in “calmer” ways, such as Into the Wand or Butterfly Trap, but then it’s not as good when it comes to the climax, such as Toffee’s defeat or Meteora’s arc following Skooled. It’s far from being what I would describe as bad, but it’s probably the weakest part of the show, and that’s particularly noticeable in a show that has a somewhat long spanning story.

Romance. I have an incredible number of opinions about this and it’s hard to be objective or write them in an ordered way. To keep things short, I think the show is very good at handling the relationship between characters and romance, especially on account of the aforementioned “developments are never forced but happen when everyone is ready”, but especially in this last season there’s the risk of taking too long for everyone to be ready, dragging thing a bit in a more “sitcom tier” conventional usage of drama. “Teens are dumb” is a good reason for things to take some time, and the character are believably dumb, but I think that with the end of S3 they kind wrote themselves in a corner where they’d have had to immediately tackle and solve a number of love related issues at the very beginning of S4. Since that was impossible, because that’s not the show’s style and because there was plot to happen and a whole new arc for Star, who has to rule her own feelings, we got into a weird situation where things aren’t bad, nor they are properly dragging, but it doesn’t feel like the outstanding love story I considered the show to be until recently. By sidelining the characters’ self awareness about their feelings (with understandable in universe reason, sure) the overall quality of this part of the writing slide down a notch in my opinion. Or, better, it simply became more apparent that the series never really tried to diverge much from an extremely standard serialized TV love story, they just managed to distract me from that this long thanks to the excellent handling of the characters’ and their emotions - something that’s still true, and I hope I’ll be able to keep claiming this even after Curse of the Blood Moon and until the show is over. In a way this last part should put us at ease, further evidence that the show is rather standard in its approach and is not going for any kind of weird and twisted subversion, but at the same time it also fills me with dread because going “standard handling” all the way, even more than it’s currently doing, could spell the end of a huge portion of interest in the series for me, and many fans in the fandom I’m sure. Curse will probably be the do or die episode, giving us strong evidences to gauge the direction the rest of the season is going to take. Fingers crossed.

[seddm]

Daron’s Q&A at Creativa Fest

I transcribed the questions Daron answered to during a panel at the Creativa Fest 2017. Below, a summary of what she said; after that, a complete transcription. Thanks to Alfrely on YouTube for having provided the video!

Continues after the Keep Reading

RECAP

- Daron has an idea for the series' finale.

- The original plan was for Marco not to have any friends: "Star and Marco are kinda like these only children, and they connect together, and they have like this special bond", but Disney executives wanted him to have male friends as well, and they came up with Alfonzo and Ferguson. Since they didn't really know what to do with them, they have been absent from S2. They are going to "come back a little" in S3.

- Daron has no real reason for Marco being Mexican, she just wanted him to be the average angelino.

- Daron originally pitched the show, when she was still a CalArts student, to Cartoon Network (to Craig McCracken and Rob Renzetti) for a project called “The Cartoonstitute”. They didn’t want to make anything out of it, but later Renzetti introduced her to Nickelodeon,where a one minute short was created, without them wanting to tale it any further, though. She eventually pitched it to Disney, where a pilot episode was and then greenlit into a full show (the whole process took about a year).

- In Blood Moon Ball, when Marco heard a voice talking to him, seagulls sounds were supposed to play, making it immediatly obvious how the one speaking was the Sea Captain in the frame, but the sound was forgotten during the episode's mixing. What or who he is might be “a bit” relevant in the future.

- There will probably be more "Tomco moments". “I am a fan of Tomco myself” said Daron, laughing.

- Daron couldn't say if we're going to learn something about Star and Tom's past, but there will be more on them.

- According to Daron all the dimensions seen in the show are “in the same space”, as if they were always “on the same planet”, but in different dimensions [imagine it as a stack of papers, the scissors allowing to go from one to another]. But, at the end of the day, “It’s fantasy. I think we are always like trying to make it logical, but I also think that at a certain point if you overthink it nothing probably actually makes sense”.

- Daron is happy to see the fandom being so excited about shipping, but also believes that fans likes to be “upset”, and that a show has to keep things interesting, no one would watch a show that were to be just “"Star and Marco get together and they will be like so happy, the end”. She also specified that they don’t let the fandom influence their writing, and that it’s understandably impossible to make everyone happy.

- Jackie is not a mermaid, nor magical. She sees her as a typical Venice Beach girl who is into skateboards and the ocean. And Janna is not a witch.

- Daron sometimes sees a fan theory and thinks "Oh that was really good!" (in relation to the show being written so much in advance compared to what airs). She also mentions liking a theory about Moon having been an exchange student in Toffee's dimension [specifying that's not what they actually did.]

- Adam had to audition to be cast as adult Marco in Running With Scissors, since Daron initially think his voice would have been too young sounding.

- Since Star has been a thing for Daron years before the show's production began, she doesn't really feel like she's "talking to Star" when she talks to Eden -while several of the crew members do feel that way, same with Adam.

- There's some shared background to Moon and Toffee's story.

- Writing is Daron's favorite part of making an episode, and she doesn't impose her ideas, but goes with the best one, discussing it with her crew. She also feels like, while the original idea for the show is hers, it would have never become as big as it is now without all the people working on it.

- There's going to be more about Eclipsa.

- Daron has ideas for other shows, but hasn’t really had time to develop them so far, being busy on Star.

- Star is her favorite character, as she is "close to her heart".

- StarFan13 was originally a one-time gag in Brittney's Party (boarded by Ian Wasseluk), but they then liked and kept using her.

- What Star did in Storm the Castle is a "precursor" to dipping down, she was channeling magic through her.

- Daron wanted to do some kind of "cameo crossover" with Rick & Morty and Gravity Falls, placing a common object in a scene, but while they ended up doing it, she didn't manage to. Talking about the idea of an actual crossover, she “feel like it could be... maybe Gravity Falls, maybe...?”.

- While some might have saved themselves, most of Ludo's old monsters died in the explosion in Storm the Castle.

- Daron doesn't know yet what she's going to do once the series is over, she might take a break, or eventually make a new show.

- Daron wishes Disney would do SVTFOE toys, and suggest fans to bother them to do it [Disney apparently values a lot people asking for products at their stores, when it comes to choose what merchandise to make]

- While talking about the show's animation, Daron said that they "had some troubles-", but then got interrupted and didn't pick up the question again. This might be related to the " number of difficulties producing the first season" she mentioned in this interview.

- While drawing a Marco on a fan’s book, Daron accidentally gave him heart cheeks, thus making the first official (?) Marar cosplay. If you want to hear Daron almost saying “Oh shit”, click here.

- Daron sometimes gets surprised by seeing fans liking episodes or scenes that she felt like were bad. "I think people connect with different parts of the show". She chose not to say if she has least favorite episodes, as not to lessen all the hard work everyone puts into the show, but said that first season was a little rough, since they still had to figure out things.

- Mewberty, Blood Moon Ball, Storm the Castle, Into the Wand and Face the Music are (among) her favorite episodes, and she was very excited about Ludo in the Wild.

- Most of the tapestries in Into the Wand were designed by one of the storyboarders, Jushtin Lee, and then got turned into the final designs seen in the episodes by background and layout artists.

- There are going to be songs in future episodes as well.

- There are probably going to be more guest stars in S3, but that's something for Disney to announce.

- We might see Star's "mewberty form" again [related post by show’s producer Hammersley].

- Daron designed Star and Marco, but for most of the other characters she just gives rough sketches or ideas to the designers. She described Hekapoo to Becky Dreistadt, the artist who designed her, as "a kinda fiery elf thing".

- Daron is not familiar with drawing Tom, since she didn't design him. It kinda shows.

- We might get to know what Lekmet's role in the Magic High Commission was, and Daron answered to a question about him being really dead or not with "Well he's gone to ashes, so...".

- Daron wants her characters, and villains, to have a perspective, and she feels like they did that with Toffee, comparing him to a Magneto-like character, who is not wrong, but is going about things the wrong way. He has "his own perspective" about how Mewmans treat monsters.

- Daron and Cheyenne Curtis (S1 designer) drew "like 100 dresses", since the executives at Disney were very concerned about it, not wanting them to be too girly or to have puffy sleeves (but Daron managed to put them in S2).

- The livechats, which were Disney's idea, are not “totally canon”, but they had an outline.

- The Star and Marco Guide To Mastering Every Dimension was supposed to be published after the first 14 episodes in S2, and the events into it are a little bit after Bon Bon The Birthday Clown and before the episodes that aired in February.

- As seen in Crystal Clear, Eclipsa, frozen in Rhombulus’ crystals, moved her arm, and the glove remained stuck in place just like Star's socks.

- Daron can't tell where Toffee's finger ended up when Star's room disappeared from Marco's house, nor if the color coding of dimensions in Heinous' metallurgy book in St. Olga's Reform School for Wayward Princesses has a connection to the wand/magic.

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPTION

Q- Do you have a finale planned for the show? A- Yeah, I kinda got an idea.

Q- What happened to Al & Ferg A- It's funny like you know pitching a show for a network and stuff, so... and Disney is so awesome, they just let me do so many cool things in the show and they've been like so awesome, they really are trying to do amazing things in animation. But one of the things they really wanted for the first season with Marco, is that they were like "He doesn't have male friends. And we want him to have male friends 'cause we want him to be more... male, I guess? I don't know." So I didn't know... my original plan was for, you know it's like Star and Marco are kinda like these only children, and they connect together, and they have like this special bond. And I didn't really see Marco as having like friends. So I had to came up with some friends, so I created Ferguson and Alfonzo. I have to say that I didn't feel like I was getting a lot out of them. Like I really didn't know what to do with them. They are - they do come back a little in the 3rd season, I can tell you that. They are not gone forever, but honestly, I really didn't know what to do with them, they were kinda hard for me to write. But I'm glad that you like them. It was almost becoming a joke, we were like "Oh, we don't like them". They are in the comic, though.

Q- Why is Marco Mexican? A- Well so, you know, I grew up in Los Angeles, and I just wanted Marco to be your average angelino, so he's mexican, makes sense, you know? So no real reason other than that, you know. Asker: he looks a lot like you husband Daron: yeah a little bit, there's my husband, everybody look at him. I'm just embarrassing him a little bit

Q- In the Blood Moon Ball chapter there was this voice that talked to Marco, will we get to know who it was? A- Ok, that's a funny story too. So the voice is supposed to be the Sea Captain in the frame. And when we were doing the animatic. You know when we do the animatics, it's all the storyboard drawings, and they are all timed to be animated, we had the sound effect of seagulls, right? So that when you saw the picture you heard the seagulls, you'd knew that it was the sea captain. But when we did the final mix of the episode, the mix is like... we put all the final music and sounds and dialogues together, and check the levels and make sure that all- it's what you see on TV, for some reason the seagulls dropped down. We forgot, we didn't notice the seagulls were gone. And then when it was on tv there were all these people like "Who was talking to Marco? Was it the moon? Was it-" and I was like "Ah damnit we forgot the seagulls!". So it's the sea captain. Who does actually... maybe tie a little bit later. You'll see.

Q- How was it to pitch the series? A- I was kinda lucky, I went to school at CalArts in Los Angeles, and a lot of our teachers are actually coming from the studios to teach. You know so they are coming from CN, Nickelodeon, Disney... to each class, and you have the opportunity to know the teachers. And somewhere I heard that cartoon network, actually, they were taking pitches, they were taking pitches from students, from anybody. You just had to sign up, and it was called "Cartoonstitute". So I signed up for that, and I had been drawing Star for a little bit, and when I got the opportunity to pitch for Cartoonstitute I came up with a plot and some of the characters, and I actually pitched it to Craig McCracken and Rob Renzetti, which was amazing, I was like twenty. You know, Star is like ten years old, I created Star like ten years ago. My original pitch to them... and you know, CN ultimately didn't want to do the project, but I made a connection with Rob and Craig. So when I was in my fourth year at school Rob recommended me to Nickelodeon, so I brought it to Nickelodeon, they liked Star, so we did a one minute short that we produced, and they ultimately didn't want to take it any further, so... and I was like out of school, trying to find a job was very hard, it took me like a year to find a job, I was very broke, and then I brought it to Disney, eventually, and they wanted to try it! So then we made a pilot, which is a long process, right? It was very exciting just to get the pilot, and then I... I don't know how many pilots a year they do. I mean I feel like if I had to guess, maybe Disney they hear like a hundred pitches, and then they take like 10 pilots- probably less, probably more like five pilots, and then maybe they pick one to make a show. So it's very exciting to get to the pilot phase. And that took about a year, just to make the pilot, and then they tested it on kids and- you know there's a whole process for that, and in the meanwhile I was working at different studios, I was working at Warner Brothers doing a little bit of animation, I did storyboard revisions at Nickelodeon. Which is actually a really good- if anybody, like you know, wants to work in animation like at places like CN or Disney and stuff. Storyboard revision is a really good step in the door, you are basically cleaning up storyboards and stuff like that. And they were eventually like "Ok we want to make it into a show", and I was like "Aaah!", very exciting. But yeah, so... I think the thing I'm happy about with Star is that it really... I pitched a lot of other things too, but I feel like Star was close to my heart, like it was important to me, and I think that came through, you know? Like I think that if you are coming up with the ideas there has to be like a personal connection, or it's just not- or else you are just making something to sell them I guess, and it's never going to feel authentic, you know?

Q- I really love Tomco, so are we going to see more Tomco moments or episodes like Friendenemies? A- Oh, ehm- I can say... probably yes? There will some more Tomco happenings. I am a fan of Tomco myself.

Q- Will we know more about Star and Tom's past relationship in the future? A- There will be more on Star and Tom. I can say that. There will be more on them. I like Tom, Tom's fun.

Q- There's a theory about Jackie, that she's a mermaid, that she's half Mewman A- I like the theory that she's a mermaid, but... she's not a mermaid. She is, she's- I feel like she is like a Venice Beach girl, she likes skateboard, she's into the ocean... but she is not magical. Although I do like the theory, like you know she is a mermaid, and Janna is a witch, you know, it's cool... but not real.

Q- What's your favourite fan theory A- There are so many that are really cool. It's funny because you know sometimes- we are writing the show so far ahead, like right now we are writing the fourth season, since it takes so much to produce the episode, so we are like so ahead, sometimes I see fans came up with some things and I'm like "Oh, that was really good". But you know I- god, there was this whole one that people had that was like that Moon was an exchange student in Toffee's dimension, kinda like Star is to Marco. I was like "Oh that's a cool idea". We never did that, but that's a cool idea [inaudible part about her looking at theories on Reddit?] sometimes they say something and I'm like "Oh they already know, they already guessed!"  Like I know people are excited about Eclipsa, so that's cool.

Q- How is it working with Adam McArthur like in Running With Scissors A- He's great. I mean, Adam has has such- all the actors, Adam and Eden and... Ryder Strong, who is Tom, everybody, the cast is so good. Alan Tudyk is Ludo, everyone is really great. Oh my god, I got to work with Jeffrey Tambor, who is Glossaryck. It's so cool. But yeah, Adam is like he is so- what's cool about Adam is like he, you know, as opposed to like Eden, she is on, this television show she is very busy, Adam is busy too, he does lot of acting, but he makes time to really interact with all the fans and stuff. "Running With Scissors", I got a story about that. So I was gonna cast- since he sounds so young, Adam, I wanted to cast, like, a manly man to do adult Marco, I was gonna cast somebody else, 'cause I didn't know Adam could do it, but he was all like "Let's try" and he did a great voice and I was like "Ok, you're good". He was like "I had to do try outs to be myself". Sorry.

Q- When you talk to Eden Sher, since she's the voice of Star, do you ever feel like "Oh my god I'm talking to Star"? A- Well, I mean I know someone of the crew, like sometimes Eden comes around, to say hi to the crew and stuff. Or you know, we do a party for the crew and she'll be there. And other people from the crew would come up to me and be like "Oh my god she sounds just like Star". For me, I mean, we had try outs, so Star was kinda real before Eden, I guess. [inaudible] but I guess Star was a character already. So for me maybe not, does it make sense? And people tell me the same about Adam too, "Oh my gosh he is Marco". Actually Marco has a funny story, he was like at a comic convention thing, he got snubbed by a Star fan. He saw a girl in a Star costume and he was like "Can we take a picture together?" and she's like "No!" and she walked away. And I told Adam he should have called after her, you should have been like "Staaar!". You gotta be careful not to snob people at comic conventions.

Q- Some theories say that Moon and Toffee had a relationship, not necessarily romantic... A- Well you saw the scroll (tapestry?) right? You saw "Into the Wand". So yeah, there's, there's... there is a background to them

Q- In the episode Mathmagic it was revealed that there is this multiverse. We saw multiple realities of Mewni, the Earth. So I was kind of confused, does it mean that Mewni and Earth exist in like one universe. For example, you can build a, I don't know, a spaceship or something to travel from Earth to Mewni? A- Well, I was like- I always liked the idea of other dimensions, I always thought that was cool. So I guess everything is in the same space. That's why they use scissors and they kind of cut into different realities, so they can kinda go through, but they are all on the same planet, I guess. I know sometimes it feels like it's other planets- I don't know. It's supposed to be- it's all like a dimension, that you can kinda travel through with the scissors. I think it- it's fantasy. It's always like- I think we are always like trying to make it logical, but I also think that at a certain point if you overthink it nothing probably actually makes sense. I like the idea of different dimensions, that's cool. So they are all in the same space, and uh- they are connected, you know?

Q- How do you feel about the fandom making all... weird relationships and... do you feel pressured by some people going "We want Tomco, we want Moonfee, we want everything"? A- That's so funny. I mean, you know- I'm very excited that the fans can be excited for whatever they want, you know? I mean, any "-co" they like, that's great. We don't really let that affect the writing in the show. Like I don't look at that when I'm writing the show. You can never make everybody happy, there will always be people- but I also think people like to be upset, you know? If you think about what's the show, what is like- what show would it be if it were just "We're gonna have Star and Marco get together and they will be like so happy", the end. There's no show, what is that show? No one would watch that show. So you have to keep it exciting.

Q- When you are working on an episode  what part do you like the most? A- I like the writing, I guess... yeah, I like the writing and I like working with the team, like, it's amazing- you know, I've been on the show, I don't even know how long, I feel like I've been working on the show forever, I think it's been four years, I think? And some of my crew have been with me since the very beginning and I see them everyday and I really love my crew and they are really really cool, and I think the most fun part for me is- yeah, it would be, you know, the pitch of a boarder, there would be the boarders, the director, me, the writers, and we'd be going "Oh why isn't this working" or "How can we make this better", if someone has an idea it's like "Yes let's do that" and it's so cool that- like I love working collaboratively and it's amazing to see... I don't know it's just like- I came up with this one idea, you know, the idea was this big, but then it got this big this big this big, bigger and bigger, and I feel like I could have never made it this big, but then with all these great people who really care, you know, and it only gets better 'cause they care. I think the worst thing like anybody like a boss or like a show runner, I think the worst thing you could do is just go like "No this is my show, it's my idea. It's all about me, it has to be my idea, maybe you got a good idea, but let's use only my idea" cause I think it's, I mean, A) it's not fun for anybody, and B) I don't think you're going to get the best thing. My theory is always like- the best idea wins. You know if there are like three people with different ideas on how to do something I always try to go "Ok what's interesting let's do this idea", you know. So it's- it's good, I like it.

Q- Are we going to see in the season something about Eclipsa? A- Yes I think you're going to see more Eclipsa

Q- Do you have any ideas for other series? A- I do! You know, sometimes I come up with ideas, but I don't really have time to develop them ,as the show is really... consuming, you know?

Q- Who is your favorite character in the show? A- Star. Star is close to my heart (asker asks about Starfan13) I like Starfan13. You know I think who came up with Starfan13 was Ian Wasselik, he was a storyboarder during the first season. He just had her in that episode, you know with the locker? It's like "I filled my locker with pictures of you!" and I liked it, you know, so we kept using her.

Q- Did Star dip down in Storm the Castle? A- Yes. She did dip down, like a precursor to dip down, she was definitely like channeling, you know?

Q- Would you do a crossover? A- You know, I really want say I know... I know Alex Hirsch, I know Justin Royland, and I was like "I want-" 'cause they all go into dimensions, and I was like could we place an item, and they kind of did, and then I- didn't get to do it. It's just that's hard to coordinate that stuff, but... like if it were like a real crossover? I feel like it could be... maybe Gravity Falls, maybe...? (someone says "Mabel and Star would be really good friends") I think so. Yes, they are very- very positive people. (someone says "Why not Rick and Morty?") I do like Rick & Morty too, although I feel like Star and Marco would get in trouble, it'd be really bad for them to hang out with Rick and Morty.

Q- What happened to the monsters who were in the castle when it exploded [in Storm the Castle]? A- I think they might be dead. Maybe not all of them, some of them probably got out, but I think some of them are dead.

Q- What do you plan to do after the end of the series? A- After the end of Star? I don't know! I hope the series can go for a long time, you know? But you never know... So after Star I'll maybe just do another show, eventually, maybe take a break. But uh- 'cause it takes so long, you know? I've been on Star for maybe four years already, so...

Q- Is the show classic animation, or does it use puppets? A- Ok so it's like a bunch of things- we had some troubles with- oh shi- [Daron realizes that she was drawing, while signing for the fans, heart cheeks on Marco, interrupts herself and doesn't continue with the answer later]

Q-  Do you think Disney is going to make a Princess Marco action figure? A- I wish they'd do toys! Everybody should keep bothering them to do the toys... but I... yeah, princess Marco, he's- he's fun

Q- Is there any episode or character you don't like? A- Oh! I- I don't know, you know it's funny 'cause there are certain episodes you are just "Oh this is terrible" and then it goes on TV and people like it, you know? Or some people like part of it, and it makes me feel better, I think people connect with different parts of the show. First season was a little rough, you know? 'Cause you are figuring stuff, but... I mean, I could say- I don't know, I don't wanna diss any of them, 'cause everybody works hard on them you know. I can tell you some of my favorites, first season definitely I loved Blood Moon Ball, Mewberty, Storm the Castle... Into the Wand is very nice- I really loved Ludo in the Wild, I was really excited.

Q- Did you design the tapestries in Into the Wand? A- No, they were actually- so the storyboarder who did that, Jushtin (Lee), he had those in the storyboards and they were really cool, and then our painters and layout people followed up on them and made them really awesome. And uh, our characters have designers too, you know, fleshed out from the board, but Jushtin originally came up with a lot of those.

Q- How was working with Patrick Stump? A- Oh my god, that was really cool. That was one of my favorite episodes too. That was cool, that was like so... our casting- we have like a casting person it was her idea to hire Patrick, and like oh man, it was awesome, and he was so nice. And each time someone has to sing in the show- something about singing just gets to you, you know? Like when Adam sang in Friendenemies, our supervising producer Dominic Bisignano tried it.

Q- Will we get more songs in the future? A- I- yeah, I think so. Songs... well yeah, there are some songs. God, they're like so all over the show, that I'm trying to remember like where- where they are.

Q- Are they going to be more special guests in the future? A- I- probably, I can't tell you that. That's one of those things like Disney castings, you know they want like to "get the story".

Q- Are we going to see Star in her mewberty form? A- Maybeee.

Q- Will we see new villains? A- I can't give spoilers guys!

Q- Did you design all the characters on the show? A- Uh- well I designed Star and Marco, and I have the ideas, like a rough sketch. You know what's awesome? Like, running a show is like- I have like Becky Cheyenne Stephanie- I have like characters designers who are really good, so I can just do some crappy thing and give it to them and it's like "woooa" it's like amazing, and that's really fun. Like I remember that with Hekapoo, Becky designed her, and I was like "Ok she gotta be like this kinda firey elf thing" and Becky did like this whole page full of things and I was like "That one!" and that's exactly what she is. And that's very lucky for me. But like- like with Tom, for instance, I didn't design him, I think it was Cheyenne? Someone asked me to draw Tom earlier and I was like "Uuh no sorry!" 'cause I don't know him as well, you know? But Star and Marco, I designed them.

Q- What inspired you, or how did you come up with Toffee? A- So Toffee kinda came from like- you know Ludo started as a villain, right? But he was not a scary villain, he's a goofy villain, which is fun too, but I wanted somebody who is a real nemesis, some really evil foe to fight. And I've never been really like- all the characters in the show, everyone has a perspective, you know. I really don't those kind of over the top villains who are just "Hahahah I'm evil I'm going to take over the world!". You know, it's not very interesting. So I always wanted the villain to have a perspective, and definitely with Toffee, I always thought of him more like a Magneto character. You know, like he is not wrong, but he's going about things the wrong way, you know? So I think it's more interesting. 'Cause I think you guys noticed, but we hinted to it- we begin to hint to it, but, you know the Mewmans are not maybe treating the monsters the best, and that's something Star is really learning about, and Toffee of course has his own perspective about it.

Q- Did you design all of Star dresses? A- Ok so the dresses were the funniest thing. It was like, you know- there are the executives, at Disney, you know, this guy, he was very concerned about the dresses. Like me and Cheyenne, I think we drew like a hundred dresses. And I wanted her to have different dresses, but he was like "We don't want puffy sleeves, we don't want it to be too girly" and I was like "Oh my gosh we drew so many dresses". But I think the one she ended up with are cool. And in the second season I got the puffy sleeves.

Q- What's going on with Eclipsa's arm in Crystal Clear? A- I can't tell you what's up with that- I can tell you her arm it's not missing, and it just looks like that. But uh- well, I want you to know that this is not a spoiler or anything, but, like, you know how Star was trying to get her foot out of there? So Eclipsa she just got her glove kinda in there

Q- Is Lekmet really dead? A- He's kinda gone to ashes, so... I love Lekmet, he's so sweet too. And poor Rhombulus, right? They are so- they are so close

Q- Are we going to know what was Lekmet's job? A- Yeah I think so, yeah.

Q- (talking about livechats) A- They are fun like, this was Disney's idea, these livechats- we got to have a good time. I wouldn’t say they’re, like, totally canon, just because it's... we try to like, ya know, make it in—we got like the outline.

Q- (talking about the Star and Marco Guide To Mastering Every Dimension) A- The book was actually written- season 2, it was written- it was supposed to come out after the first fourteen. So it's a little bit after the first fourteen and before the ones that aired in February, you know? So it's not quite... to the ending, you know?

Q- In Running With Scissors was actually there something between Hekapoo and Marco? A- I don't know, Marco went a long time- on his own...

Q- (talking about Marco being mentally 30) A- You know he's always been an old soul, I feel like, and I think that, uh, just, he's an old soul, still. But he has his memories.

Q- At the end of the season we see Star's room disappearing from the Diaz's house. I was wondering what happened to Toffee's finger- A- I can't tell you that!

Q- In Miss Heinous' metallurgy book there were colors for the many dimensions, and Earth was color green, which was also the color of the wand. Is there a connection or- A- I can't tell you!

Q- What is Starfan13 going to do now without Star? A- I don't know-