#markellis

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Bengiyo Queer Cinema Syllabus

For those who are not aware, I have decided to run the gauntlet of @bengiyo’s Queer Cinema Syllabus and have officially started Unit 3: Faith and Religion. The films in Unit 3 are: But I’m a Cheerleader (2000), Prayers for Bobby (2009), Latter Days (2003), Blackbird (2014), The Wise Kids (2011), Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party (2015)

Today I will be writing about

Latter Days (2003) dir. C. Jay Cox

[Run Time: 1:48 , Available: tubi, youtube premium, amazon but you have to get a free trial to something else…I tried watching it…somewhere else but they were updating the movie so I caved and went to tubi, Lang: English] 

Summary: Latter Days is a 2003 American romantic comedy-drama film about a gay relationship between a closeted Mormon missionary and his openly gay neighbor. (from wiki)

Cast: * Wes Ramsey as Christian Markelli * Steve Sandvoss as Elder Aaron Davis 

___

Content Warnings because I don't really write about those parts of the movie here: this film gets to a dark place, it includes self harm/a suicide attempt, homophobia, medical torture, and a story about being left to die by a parent. Alright, so after sufficiently crying my eyes out binging Eternal Yesterday, I decided there was enough time in the evening to knock out another film from the syllabus. Today’s film was (partially) about Mormons and Mormonism. My own personal understanding of Mormonism does not extend too far beyond The Book of Mormon: The Musical. Which gave me some impression that homosexuality is a sin, but only if acted upon. 

Which, is gonna suck for our poor dear Elder Davis, when he and three other Elders roll in to Los Angeles and in to a house across from our beloved booty shorts wearing waiter. The movie seems pretty low budget, and it’s from 2003 so there are some, what I would call cheesy camera effects happening at the beginning, but I still enjoyed the way the world seemed sped up and disorienting when Mr. Mormon lands in Los Angeles from his home in Idaho. 

I love our introduction to Christian as an unapologetically queer, slutty man and not only that, but Christian has his sex life together. He remembers who he has slept with, and when, and takes fucking notes and everything. Like, he’s truly impressive. 

gif from @bl-bam-beyond

Aaron and Christian make eye contact as every love at first sight story is wont to do, and then realize later they are neighbors. At which point a lot of decently subtle things start to happen. Aaron starts sitting outside to study his scripture in hopes of running in to Christian, Aaron and Christian talk about his mission trip, we get to see the four Elders interact, etc. and these subtler moments were aspects of this film that I deeply appreciated. 

Do not get me wrong, this film is absolutely critical of the Mormon church, (there is a scene near the end of the film where Elder Davis is getting excommunicated from the church for being a homosexual), but there are a lot of quite parts they do not say out loud around the intentional isolation that The Church of Latter Day Saints creates by sending their boys on missions trips in the first place. 

This film does not, in my opinion, explicitly discuss or state that mission trips really seem to be less to recruit new members and more to make sure their younger members don’t go running off to join the rest of society. The Elders are not allowed to see their family for two years, their families are not allowed to see them, they are not allowed to listen to music, to watch television, all the Elders in that location live together in one house, they share a room so there is no privacy, they go knocking door to door to try to spread the word only to have the doors slammed repeatedly in their face. These tactics exist to make these boys homesick, to make the outer world seem hostile, to bring the Mormon roommates closer together when the outsiders push them away. But the implication is there. 

I have to share the quote that comes with this gif: "You're gonna come in to my house and tell me God hates homosexuals?" || "And the French!"

And actually, the thing I appreciate the most about this commentary is the fact that the Elders are aware of this, and that they are allowed to be young men. I loved that one Elder was talking to Aaron about how mission trips were designed to be difficult, and that you can tell he is generally disinterested in spreading The Word. This Elder views his mission trip as the last major hoop he has to jump through before he can marry his girlfriend and “finally nail her”. Horniness fuels his motivation to get through this mission. 

These “Elders” (and I put quotes here not to strip them of their titles but to point out the irony) are nineteen or twenty years old. They are fucking gross. Their apartment is decorated like boys live there, with bean bag chairs and all, and they fart on each other, and wrestle, and bite their bedframes to try to stop themselves from jerking off. Hell, when they first move in, Christian mistakes them for a frat house. They are homophobic, and throw slurs around, but they look incredulous at the mere thought of consuming alcohol. 

The first time Aaron is faced with the potential to give in to his gay thoughts, he tells Christian he hasn’t done anything. When Christian says it doesn’t have to mean anything and Aaron says “yes it does”, he asks “my first time can just be a little fun for you?” like Aaron was fully planning on having sex with Christian. I like that Aaron, as a young man is going 0 to 100 with the physical intimacy. 

I often have difficulty with romance stories in movie formats because I have to push past how quickly two characters fall in love. Which is the case here that Christian is confessing his love for Aaron after they have interacted like…five times total. But, I appreciate the ways they show us that Christian and Aarong would be good for each other. We see them being absolute nerds, saying movie quotes to each other. I love that we know Aaron is going to break the rules and eventually give in to Christian, just based on the fact that he gives Christian his first name. Which he is not supposed to use when he’s on his mission trip.

gif from @bl-bam-beyond

I am not a religious person, so I don’t usually pay attention to whether or not a film that critics religion is going to take a hard atheistic turn or not. But I actually thought it was compassionate, kind, and in keeping with the nature of like, religion as spirituality, versus religion as control and fear tactic. I like that all these little coincidences happened, that Christian saw Aaron through his taxi cab window, that Aaron talked to and comforted Lila (Christians’ boss) when she was having a bad day and she gave him her card and told him to come to her restaurant for a free meal, that when Christian is looking for Aaron his random doodles end up being the phone number he needs to call, that Julie in stealing entries from Christian’s diary for her song allowed Aaron to hear it in the facility his parents put him in and return to LA, and that Aaron and Christian were reunited because Aaron cashed in on that free meal from Lila. 

And so too with the man Christian meets who is dying of AIDS, how he touches him and only sees snow. How he chalks that up to Christian being a blank person, shallow. The same way that Aaron has described Christian “there is nothing, nothing about you, Christian that isn’t skin deep”. And how we see Christian recoil from the touch, from the words ‘snow’ (and we will come to find out later, why that is the case).

Like these can all be coincidences, or they could be chalked up to fate, or a higher power, or whatever you want. Latter Days does not reject the idea of religion, it leaves room for a religious, higher power explanation to exist. Aaron and Aaron’s faith, the way he views the world, the importance that his values hold to him do still impact Christian. I don’t know how much he believes in God, but when Aaron calls him shallow, he takes that to heart, he really thinks about it, he realizes that what has been drawing him to Aaron is the depth, the conversations, they aren’t just gonna fuck. 

Not that I think monogamy needs to happen, or that Christian needs to have calmed down the sluttiness. Just, that in a film about religion and its intersections with sexuality, when you are going to be critical of a Church that has done very very real harm. That there is a mutual exchange here. Christian gets more depth as a result of meeting Aaron and Aaron (eventually) gets freedom as a result of meeting Christian. 

BL Side Note

I also need to say, since this syllabus is technically supposed to act as a lead up to BLs, that Latter Days has the sponge bath trope! Aaron wipes down Christian’s body with a washcloth after he faints from seeing blood. The sexual tension rises between Aaron and Christian, until they are about a fraction of a second away from kissing, and Aaron bails. 

For/By/About 

Gay Trifecta.

The director of Latter Days, C. Jay Cox is a gay man and a (former) fifth generation Mormon. 

This film did not hit me in the emotional place where I would normally say the films I rate as For The Queers go. But, this is a deeply personal film for the screen writer and Director who is gay and therefore it feels like it should be for gays. And, in addition I feel like they were enough casual references to things that don’t get full explanations that would read and be understood by a queer audience but maybe not by a straight audience. I think there are dimensional portrayals of the queer characters and they don’t succumb to stereotypes, and for those reasons I would categorize it as being for us. 

Favorite Moment 

The post-sex conversation that Aaron and Christian have, where Aaron asks if Christian has ever had the experience of being cut off from everything, and we finally get some more of Christian’s backstory. Now, like I said above, there are some understated aspects of this film that I do think are really smart. Aaron calls Christian shallow at one point, and my first thought was “oh honey, you are wrong” because of how Christian spoke to Aaron earlier on in the movie about being desperate to get away from home. Sure, Christian is generally now, emotionally reserved and has some growing to do. But, Aaron vastly underestimates the weight behind a gay man saying that he left home and never looked back. Because Aaron had a good relationship to his family (before he came out). 

If the monologue wasn’t multiple paragraphs I would probably put the whole speech as my favorite quote.  But, fundamentally what makes this scene for me is that Christian is telling Aaron this, while they are both naked in bed. Aaron has just had sex for the first time, and there is just this level of casual inclusion of nudity. I am generally an advocate for increasing the inclusion of non-sexual nudity on screen. I feel like people tend to spend a lot more causal time naked than they do sexual time naked, and I think Latter Days did a really phenomenal job of shifting between sexual nudity and casual nudity in the same setting, with the same characters, at the same time. 

When Aaron and Christian first enter the airport hotel, they are shedding their clothing with the intention of having sex. The scene is charged with sexual tension, shirts and pants are coming off as fast as they can, every movement brings them closer to the bed. But after they are done, Aaron, still naked, slides across Christian’s naked body to grab a watch off the floor, and Christian holds his leg so he won’t slide off the bed. It’s just comfortable. When Christian is talking to Aaron about his experience of being left in a snowstorm by his father, they are nude because they are being laid bare. I don’t know if I can describe it properly, but I just love that this really important conversation, where Aaron is learning that Christian understands far far better than Aaron ever could have thought about what you risk losing when you are queer, happens with literally everything out in the open. 

Favorite Quote 

“It’s early November, the same as now, and there's this storm rolling in. My dad was so determined that sissy boy was going to kill something. Snow came at us from all sides. The air, the sky, the ground they all became the same and horrible screaming white and I thought ‘we’re gonna be OK, right?” And then I saw my father’s eyes and they were that same white…and that’s when he did it.” “He did what?”  “Ran.” 

This quote comes from part of the monologue I mentioned in my Favorite Scene.

Score

8/10

Latter Days is an 8/10 for me for a few reasons, the acting was not always the best, it was clear they did not have either the time or the budget for perfection. There were stutters that read far more like actors forgetting their lines than they did like natural pauses. I also was not thrilled with the death fake out. Like, I am very much glad we did not see Aaron self-harm, and that some of the other torture he went through gets dampened a bit by dream sequence shenanigans. I figured that they were not actually going to kill Aaron off, but they do spend quite a lot of time letting the audience think he is dead, and I am not super appreciative of that.

[comedyloser]

I do not like my current idea for Alagadda so I'm rewriting it lol

Edit: this is my take on Alagadda and it’s LENGTHY

So the entirely of Alagadda thinks it's ruled by the king (and so does the king)

The Ambassador thinks they're the one ruling Alagadda, they're "controlling" the king behind the stage

The real rulers of Alagadda are the Masked Lords of Alagadda. Yes I looked up what "lords" meant. They pretend to be in a lower status that the king, they "work" for him, and thus they got that title.

Alagadda strains to be a secret from Earth, but they constantly make things that go wrong. They know very well of the foundation so sometimes they send their creations to the foundation in hopes they will protect Earth and Alagadda. As well to protect Earth from discovering Alagadda they use magic so that when executed to Earth they lose all memories of Alagadda that are replaced with fake “believable” stories. Believable for an SCP at least.

As well in case an Alagaddian were to bring Earth resources to Alagadda, they practiced to be able to break most Earth resources. Not all, so that one’s sent to the foundation had a way to be trapped. They tested thousands of Marie rials and under the pressure glass could not be brought between Alagadda and Earth so they left it be, but practiced among many others,

As well as the strength training Alagadda focused on art and music. Drama, singing, sculptures, and stories. Anything to do with creation. Sometimes even alchemy (although, this is usually when things went wrong)

So as far as the main characters (not the folk living in Alagadda but the rulers)

The Hanged King, he was just the Supreme King until deemed the Unruly King and executed (by hanging)

They erased his name from history once Ambassador took power

The Queen, Misery, who was sadly died of a “heart attack”. If she was alive, she was strong and ruthless, there would have been no way the Ambassador would’ve taken control.

They erased her name from history once Ambassador took power

Of course, the Ambassador, who slowly took control over the kingdom of Alagadda by spreading nasty rumors about the king, this way the king would be executed and so would anyone that was deemed working for him, then the Ambassador took control and unbalanced the hierarchy.

The the Four Masked Lords of Alagadda

The ones that truly ruled, they each has their own tower, but no one knew why. (Ex, Alagadda spread far and wide but somewhere in the center was the colosseum and on long paths in the four different directions was each of the towers) Each lord pretended to work for the king with a simple, yet powerful roll

Dyo Polonoi, representing Anguished, was the wearer of the Black Mask

Served as a jester, the fool to the king, sometimes seen with a mace and chain

Arceus Remelis, representing Diligent, was the wearer of the White Mask

Served as the Righteous Leader of the Knights and often used magic unlike his physical fighters

Ruberto Morilis, representing Mirthful, was the wearer of the Red Mask

He was the king’s right-hand man and a part time blacksmith, fought and served with flaming swords that burned with the passion of his heart

Isidoros Markellis, representing Odious, was the wearer of the Yellow Mask

A watchman and priest with mighty hammers and pure strength that could kill with a snap

…

All four were deemed guilty and executed not long after the king by Ambassador command

Death by Guillotine

As the story goes, as their heads fell the masks fell further, passing Alagadda down to Earth. Memories gone only to be retrieved by a stroke of luck, the chance to break the magic, yet no one knew where they went,

Their physical embodiment now the mask, which relied on a host to act, With no Alagadda magic on earth they could not take a form themself. They needed a host,

Falling to four different corners of the Earth they split paths. Diligent landed in water, caught between debris and rocks, lost to sea. Odious landed on a flat mountain side, that soon enough levels of land went up and trapped them between. Mirthful landed near active volcanos, lava gushing out causing the area too dangerous for someone to ever go find him. And Anguished was found be the Greeks, eventually ditched into Rome and found by the foundation where he was deemed SCP-035 and separated from the world where he could possibly see the others again.

Two would need to cross paths to have a chance of being strong enough to break the magic barrier Alagadda had cursed them with, but with two trapped in land in sea there was no chance for them. Meanwhile the other was kept within danger, and the other became known as it.

———————

ANYWAY in my story (the one I just started writing on Ao3 and now I have to redo the intro)

The Foundation finds Ruberto and when carrying him through the foundation they pass Dyo’s containment cell, which then sparks their Alagaddian Origins and reminds them of where they’re truly from

So during a containment break Dyo and Ruberto take 4 D-Class as hosts and escape to find their fellow lords - if you’re wondering why they took 4, 2 for them and 2 for the others

They find Isidoros in the stone and Ruberto’s PURE STRENGTH breaks open the mountain so they grab him give him the host and get out of there

Then they travel to the sea, and same thing, find Arceus get him the host and get out of there

On their escape they’re found by the foundation and brought back and each out in cells (each in four different areas of the foundation sort of how they were separated accross Earth) but they’ve all crossed paths and remember everything they need to know about Alagadda

So during the next breach they try to rip a portal to get to Alagadda but they find they’ve been connection blocked which means that the Ambassador knew they were alive this whole time (because other wise they wouldn’t have gone though the effort to block them because it’s a lengthy Magic process)

Reminder the lords are still trying to keep Alagadda a secret

But now they know they’re alive, and they got the notice of them trying to come back,

And now it’s time for war on Earth

——

Here’s the ao3 story btw :)

[i-am-deirdre]

A graphic novel called Outrunners, that I have been doing some of the coloring on. Art by Dell Barras, written by Mark Ellis, and partially colored by me! I love Clip Studio Paint!🔥 #graphicnovel #clipstudiopaint #markellis #comicbook #iamdeirdre

[gettingreadyfortour]

I’m still listening to the TAB show from 11/7/15 and yes they played Drifting that night. It was the opener. I honestly do not know what I would have done for the past 30 years without the music of @phish and @treyanastasio it’s remarkable it gets me to do most of what I do and I’m so blessed and I’m so grateful that I get to live on this earth at the same time and I get to experience it in real time and I get to live in northeast United States where they are located It’s almost as if the stars were aligned for me to be on this path.😜 Just kidding. I know they were I designed it this way we all did!

🎵Drifting by Trey Anastasio Band

🎼 by @treyanastasio @russlawton Tony Markellis

© Who Is She? Music, BMI

* I don’t own the music rights

📹 credit @cashortrade of Trey Anastasio dancing to YEM by Phish 7/8/12 at SPAC.

#treydance #moodboost #tab #treyanastasio #phish #welcometomyphishylife #reels

[superreader30]

#RichardSali #19thCentury #Slavery #19thCenturyAmerica #EricaLuttrell #APictureOfFreedom #Hinee #SlavePlantations #MizLilly #PatriciaCMcKissack #Virginia #AndrewDinner #FilmRise #Clotee #AlisonSealySmith #Freedom #MrHarms #ShadiaSimmons #MasterHenley #MarkEllis #DoloresEttienne #CatherineFitch #DearAmerica #WilliamHenley #JasonBurke #AuntTee #Scholastic https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci-2wdNP7bn2SknEBUZjvJ9WYVUU645StIyBlI0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[themovieguys]

Our buddy in The Movie Trivia Schmoedown, Kevin Smets, has a road ahead of him as he fights cancer. We were part of the big 27-hour charity stream to raise over $15K for him. The stream culminated in this trivia match and we were a part of it! Now at: TheMovieGuys.net #TheMovieGuys #movies #hollywood #cinema #comedy #flicks #cinephile #filmbuff #filmmaking #TheMovieTriviaSchmoedown #movietrivia #AdamWitt #PaulPreston #JohnRocha #MarkEllis #SmashAThon #KevinSmets #SmashCancer https://www.instagram.com/p/CHto-gHlrU8/?igshid=govdxwq6ffyo

[depechemoderussia]

16|08|1960 Happy Birthday, Mark ‘Flood’ Ellis #depechemode #depechemoderussia #depechemodehistory #депешмод #davegahan #davidgahan #дэйвгаан #martingore #мартингор #andrewfletcher #эндрюфлетчер #alanwilder #алануалдер #markellis #flood #dmhistory16august https://www.instagram.com/p/CD7Rp8PIY0i/?igshid=c24yy97h6gww

[sandmandaddy69]

Markelli

[aneurysm1984]

#HappyAnniversary 22 years #TheSmashingPumpkins #MellonCollieandtheInfiniteSadness #album #alternative #art #rock #music #90s #90smusic #90saltrock #90srock #backtothe90s #BillyCorgan #DarcyWretzky #JamesIha #JimmyChamberlin #Flood #MarkEllis #AlanMoulder #90salbum #90sCD #90sband #backtothenineties #US #CD #1995 @smashingpumpkins @jamesihaofficial @chamberdrums

[weirdletter]

The Witch's Bicycle, by Marc Potts, via Instagram.

[musichenrik]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by H⃞ E⃞ N⃞  R⃞  I⃞  K⃞ (@henrikirgens)

Finally throwing some paint at the 'H' music I did in Cornwall with the lads a couple of months back. Flute anyone? #whenthelightcomes #dubbing #tracking #newmusic #starsandtime #flute #strings #henrik #jamielawson #chealbrighton #markellis #paulwinterhart #alexdickson (at Berlin, Germany)

[bkchandraw]

¡feliz 14 de febrero! Lo seguiré diciendo: Kelly esta a nada de ser un personaje yandere... Y hasta este dia su ship me suena a cereal.

[krispyweiss]

Bassist Tony Markellis Dies

- “He was the baddest bass player I’ve ever heard,” Trey Anastasio says

Bassist Tony Markellis, longtime Trey Anastasio bandmate, has died.

Markellis died April 29. His age and cause of death were not available.

Anastasio recalled co-writing “First Tube” and “Sand” with his longtime collaborator in the Trey Anastasio Band, Ghosts of the Forest and, most recently, at the at the 2020 Beacon Jams livestreams.

“He was a truly remarkable human being,” Anastasio said on Facebook.

“He was kind and had a sweetness to his personality, and he was the baddest bass player I’ve ever heard. I loved Tony, and I always will. I’m having a hard time processing this. Tony was the heartbeat to so much of my life, and to the lives of so many others.”

Markellis played alongside David Bromberg, Paul Butterfield, the Mamas & the Papas and others over a career than spanned nearly five decades.

“Off stage and on, such an impressive guy,” Yonder Mountain String Band’s Nick Picininni tweeted.

4/30/21

[whynottobeawitch-blog]

Leitura atual para Booktaster. Trata—se de um policial meeega cativante! #lendoemingles #booktaster #markellis #princesgate (em São Paulo, Brazil) https://www.instagram.com/p/BxSL1ryAmHu/?igshid=ksxyfcgju56x

[superreader30]

#RichardSali #19thCentury #Slavery #19thCenturyAmerica #EricaLuttrell #APictureOfFreedom #Hinee #SlavePlantations #MizLilly #PatriciaCMcKissack #Virginia #AndrewDinner #FilmRise #Clotee #AlisonSealySmith #Freedom #MrHarms #ShadiaSimmons #MasterHenley #MarkEllis #DoloresEttienne #CatherineFitch #DearAmerica #WilliamHenley #JasonBurke #AuntTee #Scholastic https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci-2rpkPGC9uEo2FLk4kab3F40R561X9O5Wxr00/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[popculturebuffet]

Star Vs: Lava Lake Beach or Happy Birthday, Marco Diaz

Tomtrospective is back baby! It’s been almost two months, which is better than last time but still not great. As you can probably tell if you check this space i’ve been busy with comissions (5 dollars an episode if you were curious and had another star vs episode you wanted me to check out or any animated series really), which now includes a sizeable project, regular coverage of ducktales every monday, loud house whenever it comes around becuase nick’s scheduling is a nightmare, and because I apparently didn’t have enough going on The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. Part 2 coming before the end of the month hopefully. So this project, which sadly dosen’t get a lot of eyeballs on it, kinda just slid on back. Thankfully though I have a second before I get back to my rather sizeable and mostly self inflicted to do list, so with that in mind, let’s take a trip to the beach in the dead of winter. This is Lava Lake Beach. 

PREVIOUSLY ON STAR VS:

Yeah I skipped over Lint Catcher.. which is ironic given I just decided to cover the meteora and eclipsa centric episodes post monster bash.. but I have good reason for that. And it’s not just “This is my blog and unless i’m getting paid for it I can do what I want”. That’s a valid reason but it’s not THE reason. No it’s because Tom has a sizeable roll in the finale episodes for season 3, and thus the climax to Season 3′s arc overall, and honestly Divide and Conquer are just TOO good to simply skip over Star’s parts of them. I choose to switch to covering full episodes for this retrospective which means i’m doing it right. It means more work for me, but frankly this stuff’s too good to not to cover properly. So i’ll be mixing the meteora arc in with tom, like a finely blended cocktail, after this review and the next one.. which aired after monster party but takes place before so i’m doing it in time for christmas. 

And I WILL be covering the two episodes I skipped over eventually, I just feel the first goes into another possible arc down the line, and the other is just really terrible. Not the worst episode of the series, that would be Marco Jr, but a close second or third for sure. But I will have to summarize them to get to this point so: When last we left off Tom and Star were getting close again, but you might of noticed someone was conspciously absent. Marco went back to earth after his two weeks on Mewni, and as to what he was up to we found out LITERALLY the episode after “Demonicism”: Sophmore Slump. Marco basically spent the rest of his summer not shutting up about Mewni like an obnoxious jackass. Yeah Sophmore Slumb begins the character’s downward spiral and basically coming off like two diffrent characters: He’ll either be.. exactly what he was in the first two seasons, an awkard but well meaning voice of reason or a needy jackass pining after someone elses girlfriend and not caring about anyone else but himself and star. There.. there isn’t an inbetween. So yeah it’s just 11 minutes of Marco being insufferable, and only snapping out of it in realizing he’s neglected his girlfriend Jackie. We do get a GENUINELy great scene when she breaks up with him, realizing that while Marco’s willing to try for her.. his heart’s just not in it and his head’s.. with someone else. He’s not even malicious about it: While he wore his cape, he had a cape, under his clothes he genuinely tried to make things work and go out with her. Conciously he genuinely loves her, subconciously he has feeling sfor someone else and it’s showring. While this isn’t hte best episode it’s not a TERRIBLE one on the grounds that this one end sequence makes it work. Marco then decides to go to mewni and become a knight, and everyone sees him off in a good moment. It’s an annoying episode, but not a bad one the more I think about it.  Lint Catcher is. Basically everyone’s a jackass but Tom and Eclipsa, which really sums up the last few seasons nicely. Not basically Marco dind’t you know, call star to vet any of this, and just expects to be welcomed back. Star, rather than you know admit her feelings for marco while she’s now dating tom, more on that in a moment, tries to shove him off on whoever. And it turns out River wasn’t serious with his offer of knighthood that marco came to take him up on, despite sounding serious and just gave marco a meat blanket because again, everyone’s a jackass.. except maybe moon who tries to make it work. It’s just an aggrivating 11 minutes and unlike the above none of it’s intentoinal. But how does this relate to tom? and wait star’s dating tom? Well Tom shows up early on as Star is singing a burrito song, only for him to burst out of the bathroom and then warmly greet Marco before the guards show up. Star also later admits to Marco yup she and Tom are dating since last episode. Which i’m fine with: we don’t need to see everything and it was pretty obvious that’s where it was headed. At the time I was aggrivated because “another blockadef or starco reallY” but i’ve warmed up with time. So yeah I really didn’t need to bang my head into the door for 11 minutes and whatever hours it took to write this to tell you tom and marco have upgraded from kinda friends to best bros who want to make out with each other and Star and Tom are dating. I will probably cover both episodes eventually, but for now, I have enough to cover especially with my realizing I needded to cover the eclipsa and meteora stuff, without getting a head injury from stupdiity. As for Marco’s knight status, he can’t start there, and Star eventualy realized that awkard sexual tension or not, he’s her best friend and made him her squire. So Marco’s now on mewni, Tom and star are together. 

Let’s get at er. We open with tom summoning the flames of the dammned.. FOR MARSHMELLLOWWWWSSS. Star, Tom, Marco and Kelly are at the titular Lava Lake Beach roasting marshmellows and getting ready for the annual soulrise. Star likes the beach because it’s so spooky with Marco rightly pointing out.. insn’t that the underworld’s thing? Tom just casually shrugs it off as “Yeah i’ts pretty metal”. Which is both accurate and is part of why we’re here. This is our first, and really only, good look at the underworld. With Blood Moon Ball we just saw a bubble of it and it was entirely controlled by tom, if helping explain his control issues as he probably spent his whole life getting everything and never realizing being a possesive creep isn’t ag ood thing and people aren’t things you can own, but well.. people with their own wants and wills. When everyone around you does what you want, including your sweet well meaning parents, why would you understand someone saying no? And his parents aren’t bad people, they clearly have boundries, they just spoiled him a bit much. We’re not in Doofus Drake terriotiry where Tom’s a terrifying sociopath, he just had some very bad behaviors and when called on them by Marco, genuinely changed for the better and has been working on that since.  But this episode gives us a good reason of why the other toxic part of tom, his rage, was never reigned in. Here.. it’s just normal. One scene illustrates this well: A couple casually if rudely challenges marco to a fight when he just wants to find kelly, more on that in a minute. But when he walks away, they just say “he seemed nice. And not EVERYONE is like that.. but most of the demons seen this ep are agressive, competitive and combtiive but not without reason. 

We get a great example of this after Smores, where Marco’s fell off, tom and star are cute, and kelly licked all of hers. And after Marco realizes Tom’s outfit is just one of his hoodies but customized.. which for tom means ripping off the sleeves because that’s how he rolls and offering to do the same for marco. Also Star is in an adorable sailor outfit. what i’m saying is I like their outfits this episode and Marco has a lot of copies of that hoodie so in terms of Star’s invasions of his privacy, this is low on the list. 

Back on point, a couple challenges the group over their spot and mocks star for not having a third eye.... but the resolution is beach volleball, witht he scoring demon from “Mr Candle Cares’ making an apperance. This shows Underworld culture: their volatile, they can get overly agressive.. but their polite outside of it. It’s why Tom’s anger wasn’t really adressed: Here everyone’ds polite the rest of the time, why does it matter? But it idd because even by these standards his anger was a problem and one he’s .. genuinely dealing with. While he gets devensive of his girlfriend, notice how he jsut gets regular angry and not.. murdery angry. We see his anger wasn’t normal even by underworld standards.. but he’s genuinely trying and has changed almost complelely from the last time we visted this realm. 

This is also.. about what we get for tom this episode. Yeah while this is part of the tomtrospective for the above, and for other reasons that we’ll get to, this is a Marco episode. And a Kelly episode, so Kelly, now the food to fill the void inside has run out, I can relate, is suddenly depressed and just.. walks off mid game. And given Star and Tom aren’t the most empathetic people, they really fail to notice with Tom only noticing how it effects him. Tom has grown.. but as we’ll see after “stump Day” with his next two episodes after that, he still has room to grow. But it is nice we get signs of that episodes before it happens. Excellent work. 

So yeah I guess for those who forgot, and if so how dare, or those who never got this far int he series who Kelly is. Kelly was introduced in season 2 as a friend of star and ponyheads who, at the end of her episode, after not talking was revealed to not be a giant bush, but a bispeceled teenager who just has a lot of hammerspace when her hair is down, as her hair is massive and whose species has a symbiotic relation ship with their significant others, as her boyfriend tad was in her hair merged with her the whole time. They breifly showed up again in another episode but otherwise haven’t been all that fleshed out till this episode. 

And what brings it about.. is their breakup. And they have before only to get back together but this time it’s for real, as Marco finds out when comforting her. He genuinely offers her to talk, but we’re interuppted by her good pal JORBY!. I freaking love Jorby and every second of his screentime here is magic. Sadly he’s only used like.. twice after this. He’s a giant talking wolf guy from Kelly’s dimension, only revealed by the finale, who thinks Marco is her new fighting partner and claims to have killed their mutual aquantince greg. Kelly just responds with an amazingly annoyed and sarcastic “You didn’t kill greg” which he didn’t, and when Marco tries to explain she’s falling apart, Jorby responds with “WE ALL ARE ALL THE TIME, EXESNTIAL WARCRY!”... the amount of great minor characters this series wasted I swear. 

But Kelly can’t deal with this and runs off and Jorby.. genuinely apologizes. He didn’t realize his friend was that banged up emotionally, and only dosen’t help because his goose girlfriend needs him. Marco is fine with this though and goes to offer his help after a breif search and two Skelly’s who fall in love over having the same name. Awww. 

Kelly and Marco finally talk and Kelly sobs into his arms in a genuinely moving bit, admitting after being with Tad so long she dosen’t know who she is anymore. It’s REALLY great stuff, and really helps us feel for a character we honestly barely knew: Sure we barely saw their relationship.. but it was good... and when a relationship ends that wound dosen’t close easily> Trust me.. I know. 

Though the other issue is that Tad.. hasn’t moved out of her head. Literally, he’s still in there and won’t take a hint it’s really really over and he needs to move on. So Marco, being a gentleman.. at least for this episode, agrees to help. IT’s why I like marco when he’s acutally written well: he can be awkward and sometimes a bit too full of himself when it comes to knowing stuff, but he’s a good kid who just wants to help people and I genuinely missed that version most of this season. So marco climbs in and finds Tad munching on vega pizza and refusing to leave, clearly subscribing to the duck method of swallowing your sadness. 

Marco tells him he needs to leave, and while Tad is in denial.. Marco gets it to sink in.. that putting himself around someone unavaliable is just going to keep hurting him agains and again and not help him move on. Tad.. .ends up agreeing.. and it’s then the episode has it’s best scene.... Tad says “marco is the expert on that”. Marco of course denies this.. until Tad eventually makes him see the truth: he’s hanging around star the same way tad’s clung to kelly and will sadly continue too as while he agrees to move out.. it takes a bit for it to stick as we’ll see next time. Tad gets him to think about it: He has dimensional sciessors. Anywhere in time and space.. and where doe she want to start? With his unavaliable crush, following her to what he thought would be a couples event with her boyfriend. I mean he didn’t KNOW Tad and Kelly were broken up, so far all he knew he was the fifth wheel. No one would willingly do that for no reason. He’s so obessed with her, he wants to be around her even though it’s never going to happen.. i’ve been there WAY too many times to call and had to eventually learn to let got for their sake and mine. You can still be around them, you just have to let go of romance for everyone’s sake and move on. And Marco hasn’t because he didn’t even realize it. It’s why I tolerate “Sophmore Slump” now.. because with this episode it goes from bad writing to his subconcious scremaing at him to go be with star, and him not listening because conciously he still wants his current girlfriend.. and really he loves both, he just didn’t deal with that or move past either, so he lost both. 

Marco.. has a panic attack over it justifably and breaks down gradually, seeing all the happy couples and finally star and tom, sinking in that .. Tad was right. He’s in love with Star.. and it hurts. It hurts a LOTTTTTT. And he has NO idea how to deal with it. And as we’ll see how he tries to.. is pretty damn bad. But that’s for other episodes. Let’s get to the climax of this one. 

Kelly finds Marco, like her earlier depressed and lost, and upon realizing this, and thanking him as Tad agreed to finally move out, says “kelly’s driving” and drags him. It’s in these last moments we get to see more of kelly’s personality: we’ve seen her be ssarcastic but now we get to see her be a bit off kilter and adorable, which is her standard mode and what makes me like the character so much and wish she got treated better. But we’ll get to that later in the retrospective as it happens to perfectly zig zag into Tom’s life. Point is we see more of her and find out why she came to see the Soulrise as she and Marco prepare to watch: she and tad used to see it every year.. and even if their broken up.. she dosen’t want that taken away from her. Even if their relationsihp is over.. pieces of it can still be hers to treasure and keep from now on. This can still be hers... and in this case Marcos as marco puts his jacket over her, and Kelly cuddles him. Awwww. If you were wondering, yup I do ship Markelly and Yup how it ends is really bad and we’ll get to it and there will be blood. But for now their just two lonely souls sharing a moment, with Kelly rebuffing getting Tom and Star “They don’t need this’ which is accurate and they have each other and some alone time. Their fine. Plus they you know, didn’t notice either of them are missing so ...

Thank you Jake. Rest in Peace my good friend who shares a name. So we get a nice romantic moment as they watch a bunch of eldtirch skeletial angels with wings rise from the depths of the black and white, and it’s also marco’s birthday! “Happy Birthday Marco Diaz”. And with that we’re out. 

Final Thoughts: This is one of my faviorite Star Vs episodes, even with later bullshit, and for good reason. It frames Marco’s previous actions in a better light, has some REALLy stellar acting from Adam McArthur, and is in general just a really soulful ep that really touches on some good stuff and fleshes out Kelly from a background character to a fan faviorite and sets up a new romance for Marco that I genuinely love. IT’s one of the series best moments even if later episodes would tarnish it slightly..but on it’s own.. it’s fantstic.  Next time on tom:It’s the...

Christmas Special! Until then there’s always another rainbow and happy thanksgiving!