#let marco go through magic puberty

[spottoydog]

In the episode Deep Dive we not only get to see Marco wield Star’s wand (successfully) but we also see something that has yet to happen before to anyone who isn’t mewman or a part of the Butterfly family: the appearance of cheek marks/emblems.

So what does this mean? Does Marco have a secret heritage connected with the Butterflies? Highly doubtful-- since that plot thread is currently tied around another character and I don’t think the writes would retread the same idea of “secret Butterfly,” especially since the other main lead is already a Butterfly royal (and love interest, I don’t think Nefcy/Disney is going to pull a Game of Thrones.)

However, the subjects of heritage and inheritance are some of the main overarching themes of Svtfoe, so the possibly of Marco being tied to something bigger than he is as the “human lead” is more likely than we may think. Already there are two things that come to mind that hint to Marco being destined for greater things that have yet to come into fruition. One being the surprisingly ever looming presence of the Blood Moon, that so far has only been noticed (though never directly acknowledged) by Marco, even long after the Blood Moon’s last official showing (every 667 years.) The other is the still as yet to be explained foreshadowing in the floor carvings of St. Olga’s that suggest to tie together with both Star and Marco: A crescent moon encircling the sun and locking a star between its horns.

In all honesty that could be the ultimate significance of Marco’s moon cheeks, the representation of his and Star’s bond. Marco’s motivation to finally use the wand at the end of Deep Dive was to reestablish the “lost connection” he had with Star when she entered the realm of Magic and is what inevitably snaps her back to reality.

Maybe that’s not the whole story, but it is currently the most complete one we have so far…

Crescent moons are a tricky thing to pin any solid one-to-one symbolic meaning to in this show, since we see them in many places already: King River’s scepter, Star’s pajamas, and in multiple occasions we see crescent moons tied to Eclipsa. Eclipsa’s chapter even has her cheek emblem superimposed on a crescent/eclipse symbol, and considering the effect reading the chapter had on Marco, that may come into play again now that the chapter’s author is an active player in the story (she’s already called Marco “adorable,” but hey that’s been an established fact sine episode one.)

Classically a crescent has been visual shorthand for the moon across cultures and time and its symbolic use has been tied to a multitude of ideas. Ideas such as emotions and the unconscious, maternal and nurturing instincts, nature and the spiritual, and the list could go on. To go through every possible correlation and make an objective statement on how it could or could not relate to Marco would be tedious and lead to a lot of moot points.  

However, there is one aspect of the moon present both in myth and popular culture that I will be elaborating on: The moon as a catalyst for transformation.

Let’s go back to season one, and revisit one of the most foreshadow heavy glimpses into Marco’s subconscious (and a heavy Blood Moon presence) the nightmare he had at the beginning of the episode Red Belt.

Marco emerges from a glowing green fissure, similar to the one created by the cleaved wand, candle in hand and in nothing but his sleepwear. He then notices a rather feral looking Star chewing on an obi (that could be his current green belt or red one he’s searching for, since everything in this shot looks green.) After letting out a high pitched screech, Star runs into a tunnel beneath broken lockers on all fours with the sash still in her mouth. Obviously put off by this odd behavior Marco questionably says Stars name, unsure of what the heck he just saw, but then he turns and notices a solitary locker and panics at not being able to remember his lock combo. After fiddling with it the combination lock begins to shake violently and burst apart on its own, the door swinging open to a cascade of mewberty heart petals that conceal a padded inside and a violet tinged Marco dressed in a suit and tie, hands folded. 

The obvious connotations of seeing himself like a corpse in a casket are comically subverted by Marco’s vocal distress of seeing himself in a suit. Cutting back to the locker/coffin we see the figure in the suit replaced by Mr. Candle who asks him, “What are your plans for the future, Mr.Diaz?”

There it is, the big question of Marco’s season 3 arc and why he came left Earth for Mewni: to discover his future. Marco’s search for his red belt in his dream could be interpreted as an allegory for his search for his identity/development and growth as a person. The red belt is what his heart was fixed on obtaining in the episode and signified the next step of advancement in martial arts, which has always been a core part of Marco’s character and how he’s been able to keep up with Star in fighting evil monsters (Buff Frog has called him “Karate Boy” and a lot of Marco centric episodes in the first two seasons focus this aspect of his.) But by the end of the dream the red belt gets swept up by the Blood Moon, just like all his friends and classmates who have “moved on with their lives,” and Marco is left bare once more.

Marco’s karate while helpful in the first two seasons, on its own is not going to be of use against enemies like Toffee, Miss Heinous/Meteora, or Mina Loveberry. Nor was his normal “safe kid” reason and caution able to bring back Star from the magic dimension. Marco is going to have to use magic again in the future, and I have reason to believe it’s going to drastically change him.

So let’s talk about…mewberty.

Specifically why dream Marco was buried underneath mewberty petals in the locker. Now you could interpret it as Marco’s subconscious being afraid of getting smothered to death by Star’s uh…webbing, which can be symbolically read as him being afraid of getting caught up in and hurt by Star’s confusing teenage emotions. The fact that Star is depicted a feral mess absconding with an important symbol of his identity at the beginning of the dream and as guilty looking party when he failed to obtain red belt at the end of it, Marco’s subconscious seems pretty messed up over Star either way (and that was before he knew Star had a crush on him and realized his own feelings for her.) But Marco’s possibly buried feelings of resentment towards Star aside, while the locker in the dream is presented as a coffin, in the context of the episode Mewberty it has also been thematically used as a cocoon. Remember that Star went through her own transformation in a locker, a thematically appropriate vessel for a teenager’s magical monster puberty. Before Deep Dive and Battle for Mewni I thought that the locker in the dream meant that Marco was going to be transformed by the corrupted half of the cleaved wand and Toffee’s influence (thinking back to the end of Strom the Castle) and that Marco was going to loose agency of his future development. But now that the wand has been reformed and Marco has used the wand of his own volition resulting in a temporary pair of cheek marks, I think it’s even more plausible that Marco’s decisions…

To go to Mewni (for Star)

To use magic (for Star)

…are going to eventually culminate into Marco’s ultimate identity, resulting in the Marco we know to “die” and a new Marco to emerge. Not to mention Marco already went through normal human puberty in ‘Running With Scissors’, off-screen yes but still we’ve already seen what adult Marco looks like. (Side note: being a macho adult and going on adventures with Heckapoo are also things Marco gave up for Star, twice.) The next logical step has to be seeing what freaky magical monster puberty does to Marco, right?

And speaking of monsters, let’s talk next about… Monster Arm.

I think a lot of us agree that this thing is going to come back, and since Marco had just recently used dark magic, that just might be what agitates its reappearance for the second half of season three. I don’t however think it’s going to come back the same way it did the first time as a parasitic appendage, or else Star can just zap it back to normal. Will it try playing the same tricks on Marco again? Maybe… It did try and prey on Marco’s pride and desires to get him to trust it the first time around, but now Marco’s priorities have shifted almost entirely from season one. Marco doesn’t want to beat Jeremy, get Jackie’s affection, or be known as a “misunderstood bad boy” by his classmates. Now he wants to make sure Star is safe and support her as a friend and squire. So I see this possible return going a number of ways: monster arm could point out Marco’s inability to protect Star from Toffee level treats, it could point out how Marco keeps putting Star first, giving so much and getting little in return, it could even bring up Star’s confession and the emotional tailspin that Marco has been burring under “squire duties.” (Gee, can you imagine the irony if monster virus called Star a “bad influence’ for Marco?)

My hope is that if Marco’s monster virus does return it will not remain as parasitic entity trying to undermine Marco, but will reflect more of its last proclamation of being “a part of you now,” that Marco will have to accept and make peace with…and give Marco a sweet full body monster transformation power!

“So what are you saying Spot? That Marco going to go through some sort of Monster version of Mewberty, just because is cheeks glowed crescent moons that one time he used magic? That’s crazy talk, crazy talk!”

Now here me out…I’m about to come full circle with this post. The next phrase you will read in this essay I spent way too much time on will explain everything:

Werewolf Martial-Artist.

“Spot what does Marco’s Halloween costume have to do with this?”

I don’t know reader, what other visual media has spiky haired hand to hand fighters that transform into hulking monsters under the light of the full moon?

It’s a DBZ reference! You know, that thing Marco’s original character pitch was a super-fan of and rival to Star’s Sailor Moon obsession. And if Star dressing up as Ludo end up as foreshadowing to her brief possession of his body at the end of battle for Mewni, then by golly so can Marco’s costume be foreshadowing as well!

[incorrectstarcoquotes]

Incorrect Starco Quotes Guy’s Quick Recaps (S1)

This thing @seddm​ did looked like fun so I thought I would give it my own go. Renamed it just in case it’s more than one sentence. 

Star Comes To Earth - A magical princess is sent away by her parents so she doesn’t break all of their nice things and meet a fourteen year old version of me that people like a lot more. And I start a bunch of blog posts about how they’re compliments, not opposites.

Party With a Pony - Jenny Slate reprises her role from Parks and Recreation to piss off Marco, and soon, the entire audience! We also had to introduce those dimensional scissors ASAP even though we won’t use them until several episodes later.

Matchmaker - Star thinks playing wingman is easier than the American public school system. Seems legit.

School Spirit - Star brings Texas high school football spirit to California.

Monster Arm - Star and Marco both mess up and learn that talking about being bullied is better than getting revenge. Janna makes the first “I’ve seen enough hentai to know where this is going” joke. And the fandom NEVER SHUTS THE FUCK UP about the return of a minor character in an okay episode.

The Other Exchange Student - Rob Paulsen plays two (three?) characters and Star gets jealous that she’s not Marco’s number one exchange student.

Cheer Up Star - An unnecessary framing device is the best way to let you know that Marco cares about Star’s feelings.

Quest Buy - A trip to a interdimensional department store is the best way to show Star and Marco’s teamwork in a fun episode.

Diaz Family Vacation - Dude, Marco’s parents totally had sex in that cave.

Brittney’s Party - Star crashes a party and Marco learns that Jackie looks great in tight jeans.

Mewberty - Star going through puberty breaks Marco’s heart for a second, but not in the way you think.

Pixtopia - Daron Nefcy shows the world why she didn’t want to put Alfonso and Ferguson in the show and what “mandated by the network” means.

Lobster Claws - The show slowly starts to tell us what the main theme might be and all it took was several fires.

Sleep Spells - Turns out Marco keeps track of who saves who and Star keeps track of Marco’s everything (if you know what I mean. nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more).

Blood Moon Ball - Tom does something wrong and fans on tumblr spend five years trying to convince me that he didn’t, and even if he did, it’s okay. Marco learns a lesson about respect in one evening that most men never learn.

Fortune Cookies - A lunch date leads to the introduction of the main villain.

Freeze Day - Jim Gaffigan teaches Marco to throw his hat over the wall. All it took was for Star to freeze all of time for all of existence to get Marco to throw his hat over the wall and commit to doing something.

Royal Pain - Star learns that being a bunch of fun all the time isn’t a bunch of fun all the time, and I start to think that maybe once upon a time River and Moon were the beta Star and Marco.

St. Olga Reform School For Wayward Princesses - Marco undermines Star’s greatest fears to save Ponyhead of all people.

Mewnipendence Day - Marco tries giving Star a way out of celebrating her kingdom’s problematic history.

The Banagic Incident - The fans lose their shit over Star getting upset at this one thing. I’m serious. That’s what happened. I was there.

Interdimensional Field Trip - Skullnick gains confidence and learns about body positivity and the show does absolutely nothing with it.

Marco Grows a Beard - Star learns one of the most important lessons of the show, “Screw magic, I’m just gonna kick your ass!”

Storm the Castle - a deeply traumatic experience is the best way to learn how much Star and Marco mean to each other. Wait, no it isn’t! Surprise!

[warnicornwriter-blog]

{Prom on the Stairway.} Starco

I used to write short drabbles for another fandom a few years back. I’m rusty now, so please do excuse me while I get my writers voice back!

Prom. An AU Where they both live on earth and none of them have magical powers. 

Prom.

Star was sitting there on the stairways of the high school. Dressed up in a blue dress, her hair pinned back into a pretty bun with two curls dangling flawlessly down beside her ears. 17 years. 17 years of age and she never got the courage to tell her best friend her feelings for him in fear of it ruining their best friendship.

She sat there on the stairway now, wiping tears out of her eyes. A girl went up to Marco at prom and kissed him.

 In her opinion, that girl that had the courage to go and kiss him out of absolutely nowhere looked far more beautiful then she could have ever looked. They were probably dancing the night away now. They were probably going to be a thing. She wasn’t going to stand in the way of that. Not of his happiness, not at all. The stairway was her best way to be.

“Is this stairstep taken?” A familiar voice called in front of her. Marco looking handsome as ever in his black tux and puberty knocking him straight in the face in the last few years. Star laughed though her tears. “No, it’s not.” He stepped up a few steps before sitting right beside her. “Star… You’re my best friend. You know you can tell me anything.” Smiling through her tears, she replied. “Of course I know that.”

She wished she had her hair down on this occasion and not in a pretty bun, just so she could hide her tears. “Please tell me why you’re crying…” The moment his hand touched hers she snapped hers away.

Each time they touched hands she felt electricity running through her. She felt her heart thud and a thousand words she wish she could say but couldn’t do. Tonight, if he touched her hand again she would confess. 

17 years of living, 10 years of being best friends. And then there would be her messing everything up. And he touched her hand once again. The words came out all at once and eye contact was not met by her. “I’m in love with you okay! But I didn’t want to have our best friendship fall apart just because of stupid feelings and so… All these years I've been quiet about it.” Burring her head into hands, she hoped that he would be gone the moment she looked up. That he would stop being her best friend, and then she could deal with the pain following it.

There was silence surrounding them. Even though there was noise just down the hallway of the prom, the silence between them was the loudest thing they had ever heard.

It was Marco that broke it. “I feel the same way about you Star…” Slowly but surely her eyes made the contact she was trying to avoid. “I mean, it’s really funny. You’ve just told me that you didn’t want to say anything all these years in fear of ruining our best friendship. And I felt the same way.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

Star was the first one to move sideways on the step and grab his hand. Looking into her eyes, “beauty” wasn’t a strong enough word for the way she looked. Mind you, beauty never had been a strong enough word for her in his own eyes. Slowly but surely they both leaned in before her warm lips clashed onto his own.

Marco felt her warmth overcome him like the burning sun that shone on a bright spring day. Star felt the passion melt her heart in the same way an ice cream melts on a warm summer day. Both of them felt like this was right. None of them knew who was the first to let go of the kiss, but none of them wanted it to end in the first place. They said it at the same time.

“Would you like to be my girlfriend?” “Would you like to be my boyfriend?” “Yes.” “Yes.”

They left prom and walked through the high school garden. hand in hand under the starlit sky. Nothing felt more right.

[jenniferdiazisatransgirl]

Bon Bon the Birthday Clown Evidence

THESE POSTS ARE AIMED TO DEBUNK CIS MARCO EVIDENCE AND SHOW THAT THEY DO NOT DISPROVE THE TRANS MARCO THEORY.

1. “Marco wears a cologne that translates to “Smell of Man��.“

This strikes me as overcompensating. Back when I was young I used to wear Lynx (or Axe as it is known in America and in mainland Europe) deodorant all the time to prove I was manly. It could just mean Marco is insecure about their masculinity but it strikes me as an overcompensation as opposed to proof Marco is cis male. I did notice that interestingly enough Marco passed over putting on the deodorant with the hella huge muscles on. Perhaps Marco is simply wearing cologne to the dance cos it is a special occasion but at the same time maybe they feel more feminine (assuming they are trans) putting on cologne as opposed deodorant so recently switched over. Hmmmm, I actually know of an episode I could look at to test that theory.

2. "Marco is simply a teenage boy insecure about their appearance which is why they cover the mirror while they shower and their body afterwards.”

Possible, but it doesn’t prove Marco isn’t trans. Plus let’s assume Marco is cis, if I were a cis guy insecure about my body I imagine wanting to look at myself to look for signs of improvement. I mean sure probably make Marco feel worse about themselves but if they are cis and it is basic insecurities related to be slow going through puberty, in time that issue will rectify itself. Flip side though, if Marco doesn’t want to go through that male puberty, I can and know I would want to hide my body in that scenario.

I could be wrong about this though, I’m speaking from my own perspective. Just to say on the flip side though, when I started on estrogen, despite still hating my body at the time I finally started looking as I wanted to spot the changes.

3. “Marco was answering for Jackie regarding the corsage.”

Well that would be kinda rude and doesn’t really strike me as the sort of thing Marco would do. Again this is me self-projecting a little but when I first started acknowledging myself (in my head at least) as female, my brain got very gender confused with day to day conversation. I’d accidentally mishear things when gender was within the sentence and sometimes felt what I was hearing was a jab at or at least directed at me cos my brain was struggling to process keeping one gender identity hidden while expressing a totally different one to the public. Don’t really know if this made any sense but Marco’s reaction in this scene seemed very like ones I made early on in my acknowledgment that I might be trans.

I really hope this paragraph made sense.

4. Just cos I know it has been said “Disney won’t have Marco date a girl if they are also going to be trans.”

So I am tempted to agree with this statement, due to the level of controversy it will cause I am guessing Marco will either be GB or T. However this is what I am guessing.

Regardless though, Marco is right now presenting as male and therefore to keep portraying the straight person Marco will for the time being at least be dating girls assuming the plan is to have them come out as trans eventually. And when that time comes around there are many a ways to reasonably explain Marco’s change of attraction to guys. And this is all assuming Disney wades into controversy as opposed to diving in at the deep end. Who knows, as unlikely as it maybe the House of Mouse may surprise us. Granted it was only background characters but the number of same-sex kisses in “Just Friends” struck me as more than I was expecting.

5. “Marco and Jackie doing the "Titanic” scene with Marco as the girl and Jackie as the guy was just a gag.“

Okay, not sure if this argument has ever been made but just to cover all bases, maybe. And maybe it is just a hint at Jarco’s future as a ship. In fact I think that is the most popular argument for this scene. Why didn’t I use that? Okay, I am guessing that argument is pretty much the nail on the head though.

6. "Glossaryck calling Marco "m'lady” was clearly a gag as he also called Ludo “m'lady”.“

Okay, so I now have a theory here. So perhaps this is just a running gag which if it is I kinda dislike. However the book is meant for magical princesses. Glossaryck makes this clear in Mewberty. What if when the book is open those two times Glossaryck senses the book if in another person’s possession and that is just like his go to greeting? He goes straight into it without really paying attention. Just a theory. Also if this were the case, when Marco says "I’m not a m'lady”, Marco says it quite defensively, Ludo just says it nonchalantly. Also Glossaryck gives Marco a good look up and down before saying, “You could have fooled me.” Now I know some people may view this as offensive, but without Marco really being confirmed trans canonically and the fact we don’t fully know the extent of Glossaryck’s powers yet, I am reserving judgement.

7. “Marco wears a suit in this episode.”

I wore a suit to my Prom. It was fun occasion and I had a laugh with my mates, we joked about how we looked like we were in the Mafia and we took a group photo that looked like it was from an office sitcom.

Also in comparison to the earlier “stuck in life” dream, Prom and any school dance (this being a generic school dance I am guessing) is just a snap shot of your life, in comparison to the being buried in a suit which is effectively immortalising Marco as male. The two scenarios are quite different.

I don’t really remember Marco being referred to by male pronouns in this ep. Let me know if I missed it or any other evidence.

Enjoy!

[thesunglassesgamer]

The Talk, (Pt 4)

Part four of my current project. I’ve wanted to use the Future Kids AU after it came out, but I’d already started the story. I had debated between using it here or starting a new story with it, but that new story would’ve been too close to the current story. So, the future kids get dumped into this story in the fourth chapter. Whoops. Reviews, comments, and suggestions are welcome. Enjoy.

Marco stood, alone, in the forest of certain doom. He had been attempting to find Buff Frog to persuade him to help raid Ludo's hideout. At the very least, he was expecting Buff frog to give him some info on the where the hideout was. So far, however, Marco had yet to find Buff Frog. He'd met several different plants and animals that had tried to make him their supper, but no Buff Frog. Frustrated, he sat down on a rock and moped.

"How can I find Ludo's place without Buff Frog's help?" He muttered bitterly. "I've got no leads or anything. I can't go back and ask Star, obviously, but I don't know what the hell I'm supposed to do." He silently cursed himself for running off so abruptly. The smart and rational plan of action would have been to contact Buff Frog ahead of time and set up a plan with him. But Marco hadn't been thinking, and had just wanted to fix the problem as soon as possible. He usually wasn't one to run off without a plan, but it seemed like everyone was acting oddly that day. That didn't excuse him for being an idiot, though. It just explained why.

Marco sat on the rock, mulling over ways to find Ludo, when a large explosion of light and sound erupted fifteen feet behind him. He scrambled around, shocked. He ended up falling on his butt with his body facing the source of the din. A girl, riding a massive cog led by goat-sheep had come through a massive portal. She sat up straight, headstrong, and willful, ready to take on the world. When she saw Marco laying on the ground in front of her, she winced. Teenage awkwardness and guilt were added to her features. She quickly got off her giant cog and offered Marco a hand.

"Sorry, my bad," the girl said. Marco didn't take her hand. He just stared up at her. She was wearing a dark green dress that ended at her knees, pink stockings that went up through the dress, and boots that covered most of her legs. Her eyes were blue, her long hair brown, and her skin a fair tone of white. Overall, she looked like a nice fourteen-year-old. But there was something that caught Marco's eyes. On both of the girls cheeks were two, little, pink fleur-di-lis's. They looked remarkably like the signs of a Mewman Royal family member. She, in turn, looked a lot like his friend Star, except for the hair. And he hadn't seen the girl at the Royal Family get-together the month before.

"Uh, hello?" The girl asked, clearly weirded out by Marco's behavior.

Marco blinked rapidly, then shook his head. Distracted, he responded, "Sorry, I just- Your cheeks."

The girl inhaled deeply and blushed. "Oh shit! I mean, crap! Fsdfsdsdf…" She put her mouth over her hands and looked like she had done something horrible.

Marco's eyebrows rose. He'd met several strange creatures on his outings with Star. No matter how many trips he went on, however, no weird event ever prepared him for the next. "Who are you?" He interrogated, growing more suspicious then confused.

The girl closed her eyes. When she opened them, she looked composed and orderly. Almost queen-like. "Forgive me, d- sir. My name is Elizabeth Diaz Butterfly. I'm your daughter from the future, and I have terrible news."

Marco looked at the girl blankly, then amusedly. "Sounds like a ploy to get me killed," Marco said frankly.

The girls eyes opened wide, insulted. "Wha- What the hell? I'm not-"

Another large light show with spectacular sounds came out of the forest. Both Marco and Elizabeth looked up to see another teenager approaching them. He was dressed in cast-off clothes that looked mostly like a collection of old rags. His hair was brown, his cheeks covered in freckles and scars, his skin the same color as Elizabeth's, and his eyes- His eyes reminded Marco of Jackie.

"Oh, great," Marco muttered to himself. "Another one."

The boy nodded. "Sorry that I'm late, father. Time travel can be difficult to master."

Marco rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Of course you are," he replied dryly.

"Who the hell are you?" Elizabeth demanded, clear disgust on her face.

The boy looked equally as disgusted with her. "I'm Jam, the son of-" He was rudely interrupted by Marco, who'd given up on trying to take the world around him seriously.

"Wait, let me guess, you're the son of Jackie and myself, is that it?"

Jam blinked. "I, uh, yeah. Yes I am."

The girl narrowed her eyes at Jam while Marco simply nodded as though everything made perfect sense. "So you're the error in the timeline that Glossaryck was talking about," she stated, venom in her tone.

"Quite the contrary, Elizabeth," Jam replied, cool hatred on the tip of his tongue. "You are the mistake that needs to be fixed."

Elizabeth's eyes flared in outrage and she took out her wand. It was very similar to Star's wand, but Elizabeth's wand was complete and at full power. She aimed it at her counterpart, who'd already taken out his own weapon: a plasma rifle with the words "no magic" plastered on the side. Before any mayhem could happen, however, Marco put himself between the two of them.

"Hey hey hey," he said quickly, hoping to get their attention before they started shooting. "Let's be reasonable here. No one needs to die." He frowned for a second, then amended himself. "Yet."

"Get out of the way," the two teenagers responded. They responded at the same time, disturbing Marco and pissing off the other two.

Marco got out his pair of dimensional scissors and put them next to his pelvis. "If you two don't back down, I'll make sure neither of you exist!"

Both of his supposed kids went rigid.

"You wouldn't dare!" Jam said, incredulous.

"Dad, you can't!" Elizabeth complained.

Marco gave them both very hard looks. "You two are my kids from the future, huh? Prove it."

Both Jam and Elizabeth looked stunned. Jam finally said, "Well, when I turned twelve and puberty hit, you told me about how you had done your first-"

"That's enough, you pass," Marco interjected, blushing. He breathed in and out, then looked to Elizabeth knowingly. She gave him a silly smile.

"Glossaryck told me about when Star's wand got malfunctioned. You got hit by his book so hard it tore the clothes off of you."

Marco sighed, realizing that he had not been blessed with the troubles of nasty monsters or ludo's henchmen. The two teenagers were telling the truth. He had kids. From two different timelines.

He gave a wry smile. "Well, on the upside, you two prove something that I didn't think would happen."

They both looked at him, confused. "What?"

"I never thought I'd ever get laid."

Silence. Silence reigned for a solid ten seconds. The tension that had been rising since Elizabeth had revealed herself had been growing up to that point. And Marco had broken it with a stupid self-deprecating joke.

Jam giggled. Elizabeth snorted. "Wow, dad," they said in unison. "I knew mom said you were a dork, but-" They caught themselves and stared at each other.

"Yeah, creepy," Marco agreed. Now that they weren't trying to kill each other and he'd had time to look at them, he could believe that they were his kids. The brown hair was the biggest giveaway, but they both had his strong jaw and feminine body (although Jam had gotten more masculine, Marco noted dryly). The idea that they were actually his kids was starting to sink in. Panic overwhelmed his thoughts.

"HOLY SHIT! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING HERE? HOW ARE YOU FROM DIFFERENT TIMELINES? WHY ARE YOU HERE? DID SOMETHING BAD HAPPEN? WHERE ARE FUTURE ME AND FUTURE EVERYONE ELSE? ARE THEY DEAD? DO I DIE EARLY ON? WHAT-"

Jam smacked him upside the head with the back of his hand, shutting Marco up. He backed up a bit, reeling mostly in surprise. His hand instantly went up to his face. "Ow," he whined.

Elizabeth looked at Jam with mock horror. "Really, Jam? Was that necessary?"

Jam shrugged. "You had the same dad as me. We don't have time for him to ramble on about what might go wrong or be wrong."

Elizabeth waved her hand around, dismissing Jam's argument. "Not that, I meant how you bitch-slapped him. You should have just done a normal slap, like this."

She then proceeded to slap Marco across the face with the palm of her hand. Marco was no less prepared for the second hit than he was the first. "Ow, ow, stop it!"

They both gave him wide grins. "I don't know about Elizabeth," Jam explained. "But I don't usually get a chance to smack you across the face."

"No, no, Jam, believe you me, I've had just as few chances."

Marco scowled at the two. "Well, as long as you aren't trying to kill each other…"

"Only because you'd doom us both," Elizabeth explained.

"Otherwise, we'd be trying our hardest," Jam finished.

"Wh-" Marco stopped himself. He thought over his situation. Then he nodded. "You know what? I don't care why you're here. Not right now I don't. Because it doesn't matter."

His children looked inquisitively at him. "How can it not matter right now?" Jam asked, scoffing.

"Because right now we aren't going to worry about it," Marco replied. His eyes had turned sinister with a wild plan in his brain. "I need both of you to help me. Glossaryck and the book have been stolen. I need to find Ludo and get it back. And," he included before they could interrupt, "that is an order from your father."

Elizabeth scowled. "You can't tell us what to do, you aren't even really our father yet!"

"And I might never be if you can't help me," Marco replied. His tone was smug and rich but his face showed sober fear. "I'd probably die without you two. So help me. Please. You two can discuss your problem later, but for now I just need help."

Jam and Elizabeth shared a short, silent discussion on the matter, then looked to their father. They nodded.

Someone asked for me to give my thoughts on the story and stuff so I'm going to do that now.

I'll be honest, I only had the first chapter in mind when I started. It was tempting to just keep it was a one-shot, but cliffhangers are bullshit. I'm updating every Sunday, if it hasn't been obvious. I wanted to make a story that didn't just end with Jackie being shallow or Marco randomly admitting his love. When I finally have everyone get back together, the idea is to have the reasons for what happens feel real. Please give as much constructive criticism as you can, and I hope you have enjoyed this mess so far!

[hopelessromanticcinema-blog]

Call Me by Your Name (2017)

A delicate flashback of a vintage northern Italy landscape and the thrilling beauty of the discovery of first love. 5/5 stars.

Luca Guadagnino has indeed demonstrated again his talent of a good director by letting the audience experience the unconditional sentiment, which represents the relationship of the two protagonists in this romantic suspense love story taken from the novel of the same name written by André Aciman and screen-played by James Ivory.

In the summer of 1983, in the Italian countryside of the city of Crema, the Perlman family is ready to spend holidays in their very spacious luxurious historic villa. Their seventeen-year-old son Elio (Timothée Chalamet) practices piano and composes music, his mother (Amira Casar) devotes herself to gardening and his father (Michael Stuhlbarg) helps one of his students to write his final doctorate thesis.

At the beginning the days seem to pass by very quietly between the heat and the idleness, but the young Elio is still unaware that the arrival of the twenty-year-old student Oliver (Armie Hammer) will deeply not only change his summer, but also his life. Immediately, Oliver seems to be a little bit cocky but gentle at the same time with Elio, who instead shows a vague hostility towards Oliver which then turns out to be a strong feeling of attraction. Among bike rides, river baths and sexual encounters with a girlfriend, Elio thinks about Oliver until he finally finds the courage to confess his love.

What is very surprising about this movie is the ability of the director to divert attention from the fact that the story is about two homosexual men: he has been able to avoid stereotypes that nowadays the majority of LGBT films fell into. Instead he has been able to deeply focus on Elio’s discovery of puberty and sexuality, regardless of the fact that Oliver is a man. The real magic stays in living what Elio is experiencing for the very first time, the intensity with which these feelings and eroticism grow inside him.

Although there is a lot more behind it, Call Me by Your Name (2017) is further distinguished because it actually allows the viewer to travel through all the different scenarios in the movie by perceiving the detailed elegance of the surroundings. This movie has a wonderful impact for those who, like me, adore to be aesthetically pleased by beautiful stunning images; this resembles the incredible ability of the Thai director of photography Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, who has been able to give a unique and powerful vibe to the use of light and colours. This movie has been cured in any detail, from the high-quality and super realistic sound of the nature taking place in many shots, to the selection and composition of music, the costumes and especially to the transformation of the time period they had to the make in the city for those few scenes of Oliver and Elio riding bikes around there.

Call Me by Your Name (2017) also represents for Guadagnino the final chapter of the ideal trilogy of “desire”, as he defines it, composed also by I Am Love (2009) and A Bigger Splash (2015) in which the characters and the dynamics are likewise pretty much similar. The excellent outcome obtained with this film is the clear result of a very well planned and organized collaboration between the members of the crew; in fact, the movie has received several nominations and prizes. James Ivory won the Oscar and a BAFTA Film Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, at the AFI Awards USA it was declared Movie of the Year (2018) and it also got three other Oscar nominations for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Timothée Chalamet), Best Motion Picture of the Year (Peter Spears; Luca Guadagnino; Emilie Georges; Marco Morabito), and Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song, “Mistery of Love” by Sufjan Stevens).

Another good point to pay attention to is the production; the investment for the realization of the movie was around $3.5 million and at the box office the profit has exceeded $40 million, which is a very impressive number considered the “low” starting budget.

Call Me by Your Name (2017) has also played a relevant important starting point for the bright young actor Timothée Chalamet, like a stepping stone for his career. That innocent and smart expression, that charming gleeful attitude attributes him a powerful sex appeal that, above all, the female audience venerates. Due to his talent he has been hired by Wes Anderson in his upcoming movie The French Dispach (2019) and he also got the attention of the legendary Woody Allen who gave him a main role in his next romantic comedy A Rainy Day in New York (2019).

In conclusion, apart from the worldwide eulogy and the clear unheard success, this film leaves to those who watch it a sense of nostalgia and a sweet aftertaste, which reminds us how sad and beautiful it is at times to let go the memory of past things, especially the first love and to see them more beautiful than what they actually were.

[spottoydog]

ladynoirisback replied to your post “In the episode Deep Dive we not only get to see Marco wield Star’s...”

No the cheek marks are there because of their relation to magic

That’s quite true, and I’m not saying that it is not the reason why they appeared. 

But the fact that we’ve never seen a non-mewman or someone who’s not a Butterfly grow cheek emblems while using magic before stands out as unique. 

Ludo didn’t get cheek marks when he used the wand, and just saying “well he’s a monster” doesn’t seem fair to me when Marco is “just a human” too.

I don’t think they would give Marco cheek marks just because he used magic one time since they are such a prominent feature unique to Mewni and mewman royalty.

So the purpose of my post was to speculate that the appearance of those marks means that magic is going to affect Marco and his growth as a person in a big way.