#ton lucitor

[picturejasper20]

A few days ago i rewatched some Star vs The Force of Evil episodes and i forgot how much i enjoyed Tom Lucitor as character.

The thing with Tom is that he starts as a huge jerk, still trying to be controlling and manipulative towards Star after months they broke up. He doesn't care much about he makes her feel and he is very antagonistic towards Marco for being best friends with Star.

But, unlike other characters from his type, he knows that he has issues and he is trying to work through them from what it is shown in his introduction episode. He has been trying to go many days with exploding in anger, a huge problem of his.

He, of course, messes up terribly and it is later revealed he didn't have good intentions since the Blood Moon has enchanted powers that makes those who dance under its light to fall in love with each other.

For a while he doesn't show up until Season 2 episode ¨Mr. Candle Cares¨. In this occasion he kidnaps Marco and wants to get rid of him, seeing him as an obstacle between him and Star after Marco lies to Mr.Candle that he has kissed Star.

In Tom's place, Marco clarifies to Tom that he was trying to provoke him and he is only friends with Star. He calls out Tom for lying to Star to trick her, making Tom feel bad for doing that. While the two are playing a ping-pong ¨death match¨ (that Marco keeps losing) the two talk about their relationship with Star and how she usually does what she wants. Tom points out that he likes that from Star and Marco tells him that it doesn't matter what does- Star won't be his girlfriend unless she wants to, leading to Tom to reconsider things. Tom takes Marco back to his home on Earth and he apologizes to Star for tricking her. He admits to her that he was wrong about how he saw things and tells Star that he is sorry for not considering what she wanted. Star accepts his apology and he leaves some minutes after.

From there and on, Tom stops chasing after Star and changes his main goal to work on himself. In ¨Friendenemies¨ he tries to spend some hours with Marco to see how much he can deal with his anger issues.

During the episode it is shown that he can be nice and chill when he isn't constanly getting angry. He gets along with Marco and the two have fun together. Near the end of the episode, he realizes that he had fun with Marco and apologizes for lying to him about his plan, making Marco's movie star come back to life. After that episode the two start to hang out, becoming friends, based their dialogue in the episode ¨Naysaya¨.

In general, Tom is potrayed as someone who wants to nice but struggles a lot in doing so. He talks in multiple issues about how he tons of personal issues that are part of who he is, his own peronality. He is aware of these problems he has and wants to be better, not always understanding how. In one episode he explains that these anger issues seem to come from something he got from his own father.

Tom's family environment is worth of analysing as well. While his parents are shown to be caring and he has a healthy relationship with them, they indirectly may teach bad habits to their son. In ¨Club Snubbed¨ Tom's father gets into a fight with River, Star's father. In "Lake House Fever" the family has an unseen ugly argument while playing a simple game, the table getting broken and on fire when Star comes back to check on them. His mother is capable of changing the weather when her own temper gets really bad too.

Based on these things, it can be said that Tom's issues are something that is both a product of his own personality and his family environment unintentionally encouraging his bad behaviour. At some point he realized that these things were a problem that were pushing other people away from him and he had to work on them to be better.

In the episode "Demoncism" he tries getting of his ¨personal demons¨, thinking this would ¨fix¨ the issues he has even it could change his whole personality. Near the end he chooses to do this his own way, seeing the process is too painful and could take him too many years to finish it.

As the series progresses, Tom changes in quite a lot of ways. He grows to be nicer and more understanding, letting his friendler side show a lot more often. He even gets back with Star around Season 3 and befriends Marco, someone who he saw as his enemy.

The problem is, as other recurrent characters of this show, he was reduced to be part of the romance drama that Star and Marco had. His main role in later seasons turning into ¨Star's boyfriend¨ instead of the development he was showing in Season 2 and the start of Season 3.

We don't get to see him being a prince of the Underworld and the duties that comes with the role aside from ¨Club Snubbed¨. The fact that his family runs the underworld is a very interesting concept to explore, yet the series never bothers with doing much with it.

His relationships with his parents doesn't get exploration neither, and when it does, it has to be related to the romance drama and not how Tom feels about them or how they act as parents towards him. Tom himself is half human-half demon/monster, yet this doesn't seem to have an impact on the way he interacts with different sides of his family nor how he views himself. In "Is Another Mystery" Tom has an scene about him being half-demon but the series didn't do proper follow up to that part of him after that.

In spite of this, his character development stayed with him. He was surprisingly very forgiving and understanding with Marco for kissing Star in ¨Booth Buddies¨ and he remained as Star's boyfriend for while before breaking up near the end of the series. When breaking up with Star, at first he say that he feel like they couldn't stay as friends but after talking things out, he decides that isn't necessary and he can still be friends with Star.

In all he has a good character growth, specially in the first 2-3 seasons. And even after he becomes less important , he still has great moments that show that he is still trying to be better. He is one of those characters that doesn't get worse and grows to be better over the course of the seasons. A pity that he was reduced to be part of the shipping drama instead of being able to develop better as his own character outside of it and the series didn't explore sides of him that were interesting.

[endy-x]

ArtFight Recap (1)

Recap 2 / Recap 3 I thought I'd go and post my attacks from artfight that I did, I had a ton of fun this year, I'm going to post them in batches because there is a lot and I do not have the energy to make an individual post for all of them

If you want me to remove you from this list, or add or remove any links in any way just message me and I will!

Im going to put a keep reading here because there is a lot of stuff here so I dont want to block your feed if you're not interested

My first attack Fanale Nightshone was for Kanato4 Very cute character design and was very fun to draw

My second attack was Aster for YellowSubmariine- Very cool design and I'm Really proud of how it turned out

My Third attack was Preston For @shinibobo A really cool looking character who I had a great time drawing and I am very proud of

My fourth attack was Beck For WolfRocket [ Twitter wolventooth and Instagram wolventooth] Very Fun character, and all the refrences were great

My Fifth attack was ✩ Dear Ochi ✩ for Dearochi [Twitter dearochii] Very cool looking character and I'm very proud of the details for this one

My sixth attack was Phoebe (☆☆) for @yesimlithiyum This character design really caught my attention and was very fun to draw

My Seventh attack was Olivia "Ollie" Beck ⚜ for laundrymachin_inc [Instagram laundrymachin.inc] This character design stuck out to me so I had to draw it

My eigth attack was Vir ❤️ for @skystrikeflame I saw this super friendly looking dragon who I couldnt just not draw

My ninth attack was Keres for Any1999 [Instagram Any1999] I loved the multiple arms, I reckon if I drew them again I could draw them even better but for now I'm happy with it

My tenth attack was Gabriel Lucitor for @kottcakes-but-jazzy [Instagram kottcakes]This was a really fun character to draw and looks really cool especially in the original style!

My eleventh attack was Amiera for Holojing [Instagram Holo_jing] I really liked the art style and this was a super cool looking character

My twelfth attack was Kymeros (BG3)❤️ for @skystrikeflame After getting a revenge I drew another character for them, they are a great artist, definately check them out

My thirteenth attack was Akoi for @sleepy161 This character was especially fun to draw because of the side profile and the giant hair

My fourteenth attack was Max for Alex_Lucci [Twitter @AlexLucci2] I loved the outline style for this character and the colours were really cool

My fifteenth character was Lucky for Labo_coco Very fun to draw and very cute

My sixteenth character was Dorothy Ebbetis [Scifi AU] for KingSybbyl [Twitter KingSybbylDraws] Such a beautiful character design and I'm very proud of how she turned out

My Seventeenth character was Noh by MsTweets [Twitter MsTweetums] I love her art style and character designs and Noh was extremely fun to draw

My eighteenth character was Cringe for @sweetnsour-stuff Very fun to draw and I dont see many characters which are just a whole bird, very cool character, very fun to draw

My nineteenth character was Aurel (Vampire) for Rakuuu Such a pretty vampire

Attack 20 was Thena for @pensirru Super cute character and very colourful, great to draw

Attack 21 was Naruki / Rook for @raioknight I love how he looks and he was a joy to draw

Attack 22 was Anneliese Skyla for tinyhorsefan I loved her design and had to draw her

Attack 23 was Dukes for ravenkroftt [Twitter ravenkroftt Instagram ravenkroftt.art] Was super fun to draw, super fluffy too :D

Attack 24 was fable the sheep for corbbeoedn [Twitter punytoon] I loved this character design and it really inspired me with the claws

Attack 25 was Jonah for DuckorApe [Instagram truck_stop_tiger] not sure why its so much bigger than the others lol but the reference was very cute and he was fun to draw

Attack 26 was Rivet for aloette_art [Instagram aloexcv] Not sure what about the design inspired me but the character is really pretty and I'm very happy with my drawing

Attack 27 was calliope for kaybay Very cute character design and very fun to draw

Attack 28 was Iggy for POLA_RIS [Twitter @POLARIS_GL] A very cool looking character and very fun to draw

Attack 29 was Azael for Abiador [Instagram Abi_ador] Super cool design, very fun to draw

Attack 30 was Cole for @theyellowbridg3 I loved the monochromatic vibe and the sunglasses are really cool

[therandomninjakitty]

I ship all of it

[sham-sia]

Tomco week, día 2: AU favorito

Tom sabía que su padre tenía motivos ocultos para enviarlo a la Tierra. Lo sabía de la misma forma que sabía que ese plan incluía alguna clase de beneficio para él, a costa de la ausencia de Tom. No es que le importase demasiado, claro: sería una época libre de él, de sus constantes miradas reprobatorias y de escuchar Love Sentence escondido en su carruaje...

Bueno, quizás lo último no.

La escuela humana era luminosa, más de lo que esperaba. Sabía que no estaban bajo tierra, como en el Inframundo, pero así y todo, había mucha luz. Y había luces artificiales, como en su mundo. Tenían reproductores de música, y vestimenta similar. No parecía ser tan terrible.

Tampoco se sorprendieron demasiado ante sus cuernos, su tercer ojo, su piel lila, su ropa o su pelo rosa. Y el primero que hizo un comentario sobre su pelo reculó cuando Tom le mostró los dientes, gruñendo. Eso se sintió bien.

El director no tuvo problemas en aceptarlo, en especial cuando le pusieron un cofre de oro sobre el escritorio, y le dijo que iría a vivir con una familia de un estudiante de la escuela, uno conocido porque sabía mucho sobre seguridad. Y practicaba karate. Raro.

En el camino hacia la oficina (recordaba de a pedazos desordenados), había visto una chica rubia saltando con una patineta. Pero llevaba casco, el pelo corto, y mechones de colores. No era ella. Tampoco la chica que lo miró fijo, de pelo negro y corto y sonrisa algo rara, y que empezó a seguirlo como si no fuese nada raro. Ella no estaba allí, eso lo sabía, pero no podía relajarse.

Marco Díaz resultó ser un muchacho común, tan común que casi revoleó los ojos, los tres, al verlo. Vio el momento en que le entró en el cerebro que ese fenómeno con tres ojos iba a vivir con él. Apretó los dientes, listo para responder con...

-No sé de dónde vienes pero luces genial- fue lo primero que dijo Marco, y Tom se quedó con al boca a medio abrir, y la respuesta muriendo en la lengua.

-¿Qué?- preguntó, cuando dejó de balbucear.

-Luces como uno de esos espíritus de la lucha en esa película de Mackie Hand. ¿La has visto?

-Er... no- no era reverencia, no era miedo, no era disgusto y no era agresión. Debía de ser interés.

-Es esa en donde aparece por primera vez el concilio de los...

-No voy a darte nada- lo cortó el demonio, frunciendo el ceño.

-¿Eh?- Marco tenía los brazos levantados, como intentando formar algo en el aire, y lo miró, sin entender.

-No voy a darte nada.

-Pues bueno- el humano se encogió de hombros -Te preparamos una habitación, y mis padres quieren preguntarte cosas y que cortes la torta. Ah, y espero te gusten los nachos.

Tom estaba más confundido que antes. No había sucedido ese cambio ante la negativa directa, y no era esta la técnica de “le haré cambiar de opinión” que había visto en otras ocasiones.

-¿Qué son los nachos?- preguntó, porque el humano había terminado de hablar y le extendía una mano, como esperando que se la estrechase.

-Oh, espera, ¿nunca los has probado?

-No- sintió que empezaba a enojarse -Si no, no preguntaría.

-Pues entra y pruébalos- se encogió de hombros, y miró hacia atrás, a su carruaje -¿Tu caballo necesita agua? ¿No se quema?

Tom no le contestó y entró a la casa, con un remolino de confusión dándole vueltas adentro.

-¡Bienvenido!

Se giró, con las manos listas para el ataque, y vio a una pareja de humanos tirando confeti sobre una torta, con un cartel que decía “Bienvenido a la Tierra, Tom”, y sonrisas en la cara. Sonrisas sinceras. Tom bajó las manos, sintiéndose más confundido que antes, pero comenzando a sospechar que no iban a atacarlo.

-Oh, ¿estás tenso, querido?- preguntó la mujer, acercándose despacio y con una mirada amable. No estaba acostumbrado a eso -¿Estás cansado, o hambriento?

-Si quieres saber algo, puedes preguntarnos- el hombre parecía un guerrero, pero lucía feliz ante él -Sé que puede ser algo difícil el llegar a una nueva cultura como esta.

-Y esos son los nachos- dijo Marco, señalando un bol con triángulos de masa y tazones con salsa -Por si tienes hambre. Y hay un par de cosas más si prefieres otra cosa.

Recordaba todo de a pedazos, en desorden.

Luego de redecorar su habitación, y de devolver su carruaje al Inframundo, cuando empezó a comprender que no, que no le iban a pedir cosas, ni encajaban con la gente que le buscaba por el prestigio, o para burlarse, sintió que algo de peso se levantaba de sus hombros. Era una familia rara, sí, pero parecía... amigable.

Y Marco estaba muy entusiasmado con él.

Cuando se le escapó que le gustaba Love Sentence, Tom pensó que era una broma cruel. Pero luego Marco le mostró sus remeras, sus pósters y sus CD, y Tom dijo que no los conocía, pero si Marco quería, podía hacer el esfuerzo para acompañarlo a un concierto del grupo. Cuando nadie lo veía, sonrió despacio, casi como cuando llovía, de forma... natural. No era algo comprado a las apuradas, o armado a último momento: eran cosas usadas, que tenían su lugar allí.

Tom pensó que, después de todo, este mundo en general y ese humano en particular, quizás no eran tan malos después de todo.

[fierytempxr-blog]

;;yo yo yoooo !!

im a garbage fire who doesn’t know how to make cool lookin’ promos but uh — if you’d be interested in interacting with a LITERATE tom lucitor from svtfoe, please please LIKE or REBLOG this.

thanks so much, talk to y’all soon !

[jess-the-vampire]

Tom has like a ton of rabbits in my au, the entire lucitor-diaz family is a bunch of animal lovers

[giygas-bandicoot]

I have a ton of Eblis Costume Ideas and Tom Lucitor was the most recent one

Posted using PostyBirb

[popculturebuffet]

Darkwing Duck Reviews Halloween Special: Fungus Amongus and Ghoul of My Dream

Happy Halloween! Halloween Havoc races to the finish with another Darkwing Double Feature! Love is kinda crazy with a spooky girl like Morgana, and in this case “kinda crazy” means a board of ghouls stealing pizza, sentient mushrooms, grumpy spiders, student lone debt, and a gremlin who somehow sees himself as a valid romantic option. It’s a Darkwing Duck Halloween under the cut.+

We’ve made it! While I got less Halloween reviews done than I would’ve liked, I’m still happy with the ones done and there’s still two more to get in the pocket before the day’s up. So with Halloween today it seemed fitting to talk about the Justice Ducks resident sorcerer and Darkwing’s Girlfriend, Morgana Macawber. Morgana was the only one of the four to stick around as a recurring character out of the four Justice Ducks: Gizmoduck would show up once more after the four parter, and sadly Neptunia and Stegamutt just seemed to vanish but the crew clearly liked Morg a lot and her relationship with Darkwing, so she stuck around for the rest of the series, and is even the focus of the final episode “Malice’s Restaurant”, as well as a sizeable part of the comics. And it’s easy to see why as Kathie Sourcie had great chemistry with Jim Cummings and Morgana’s very presence, being a sorceress raised by the munsters and living in a creepy mansion, allowed for diffrent stories than what Darkwing usually dealt with. While magic didn’t feel like it contrasted with the world, as Darkwing’s world feels like your standard superhero fantasy kitchen sink where anything is possible, most of his foes were either super villains or the kinds of super spies you’d find in a comic book. So fighting ghoouls, goblins, and Satan himself, yes that’s an episode that actually happened, no it’s sadly not on Disney plus, and yes I will be covering it eventually, was a nice out of genre experience and a nice way to put our daring duck of mystery out of his element.

She brought something diffrent to the table, both forcing Darkwing to grapple with letting someone into his life, and with having something to focus on other than Gosalyn or crime. So I wanted to see how this plays out, so expect me to cover all her episodes and not just the Satan one or the Valentine’s Day one, though like my Tom Lucitor retrospective, expect this one to also take some time. So with that all set up, Halloween is the perfect time to begin our journey with her first two episodes.. and Morgana’s Villian Career. Yeah while she only had about 9 episodes to her name, 2 of them are as a Catwoman or Black Cat style antagonist, someone whose likeable and who are hero is attracted to, but is on the wrong side of the law.

She eventually came around, but it’s still an intresting way to start things and an intresting dilema for our hero I wish stuck around for just a smidge longer. These aren’t bad episodes with Ghoul of My Dreams being a pretty good one. If I had to guess though the reason the dynamic fizzled out.. is they simply didn’t have a lot of ideas of how to use her as a bad guy. Part of the reason i’m covering these two episodes together is that they follow basically the same plot beat, the only differences being Darkwing meets Morgana in the first one and they know each other in the second, and that the evil entity who ends up turning against her she works with is different for both. The third act is also entirely unique to each episode, so it feels less like them lazily repeating themselves on an episode and more like they genuinely realized they didn’t have a ton of ideas for Morgana as a villain and thus had her reform with the Justice Ducks two parter. And I can’t blame them: fan would get annoyed if basically every Morgana plot played out the same, and this way she could know Drake’s secret identity, and thus allow the stories to use Gosalyn, though I do wish she’d shown up in one of the villian ones just to see how that played out. But still her time as a Villian is there, and is even a plot point in the valentine’s episode, so let’s see how it played out and see what I think.

Fungus Amongus

The plot here is fairly simple: there’s been a rash of mysterious thefts in St. Canard, and Darkwing is stumped.. until Launchpad asks if they can go for pizza, because he’s hungry and Darkwing is the terrible kind of boss that doesn’t’t care about meal breaks. It makes our hungry hero realize that each of the thefts are connected to PIzza Toppings, and after thwarting the bats and spiders stealing some anchovies, figures there’s only two left: Green Peppers and Mushrooms, and so he decides it’s time to split up gang and while Launchpad guards the peppers, Darkwing goes to visit the head of the mushrom company, who naturally turns out to be Morgana. The two end up taken with one another, to the board’s annoyance as Darkwing is onto them and could stop their whole evil plan and they want to just murder his ass and be done with it. But Morgana proves seduction’s a bit more useful as she sweetalks our hero into leaving, and points out given he’s also a creature of the night in a sense, she plans to turn him.. or kill him if she has to. More on that in our next episode. The facade dosen’t last long as Darkwing goes to help launchpad at the pepper place, and ends up finding out oh no the hot lady he met five minutes ago is bad! While the board plans to feed Launchpad to mutant mushrooms, while Morgana seemingly turns Darkwing into her mindless slave.. but really just played the board and switched sides, not wanting to hurt the guy she just met because he’s cute, they defeat the mushrooms and the board who turn into mushrooms in the light because....

The day is saved though we do get the one standout bit of the episode. Darkwing despite his attraction to her, wants to turn her in, while Morgana simply teleports her house away. And thus the dance begins. As for the episode... as you can tell by how brief I was... for one i’m not doing my usual died in wool recapping for these two to get them out on time. And i’m also not because this one.. is pretty thin. The mutant mushroom and boards’d esigns are cool and Morgana is intresting.. but having seen Ghoul of my Dreams first.. it’s just not as fun, funny or good on the Morgana Darkwing dynamic. Morgana just decides because she wants to ride that dick she’ll be good for a moment, and throw away her hard worked scheme, and the board is turned into mushrooms because.. well see the lex luger pic above. It’s not a TERRIBLE episode, just not a terribly intresting one. It has good elements, but they just don’t come together well and the pizza scheme isn’t as funny as the episode thinks it is. I can kinda see why this one was buried deeper into the series and Ghoul of My Dreams is where they put focus. I just don’t have a lot to say about this one, it’s just bland and uninteresting. It’s kind of why I just sorta plopped it next to Ghoul, I needed to review it for completion’s sake, but lord if I can think of a lot to say about it that isn’t tied into the next one. So since I can’t...

Ghoul of my Dreams:

Now this is better. The basic plot is still simple but allows for a lot more intresting set pieces: It’s a slow night in St. Canard, to Darkwing’s natural annoyance, until a bunch of fire fighters start sleepwalking and throwing gold to some spiders and bats. Something is afoot and since the bats belong to Morgana, Darkwing goes to investigate her. Granted we just MET eek and squeak, but it’s easy enough to assume Morgana struck again off screen and some time has passed. And i’ts honestly what makes this episode more interesting: now it’s more of a cat and mouse game, with Morgana using their chemistry against him, but still being genuinely drawn to him and not wanting to hurt him. It’s better than “I met you five minutes ago might as well throw away my money for you”.  Instead Morg truly likes Drake, but wants to keep doing crimes to, in easily the best joke of the entire series “Finally pay off my student loans”.. which makes her already not really a bad guy. I may not haves em but I know people who do. Those loan people do not play around. It’s investing and Sourcie and Cumming’s chemstiry really makes it pop. Sourcie really is what makes the character, giving her energy, sedcutivness when called for and a really sympathetic quality that makes her face turn, sudden as it is, believable. It’s why I really like the character. And I get why some don’t: Her romance with darkwing is sudden,  her face turn is even more sudden, and she gets in the way of Drakepad shippers. The first two are valid criticisms, while the last one is understandable.. depending on motive. If your just bummed this relationship you don’t like is forced into the show and gets in the way of the one you actually enjoy.. trust me...

BEEN THERE. And far far worse.. I didn’t start up an entire retrospective on the guy who DIDN’T get the girl here for nothing. But if you say “oh well it’s homophobic or you hate gays” if you don’t ship drakepad, which I have actually heard for both this ship and delpad.. kindly go fuck yourself and stay away from my posts. It’s NOT homophobic to ship a character who is CANOCIALLY into women, with a woman. Launchpad had a girl of the week or two in ducktales, Drake’s attraction to morgana is canon and he also had some ship tease with Neptunia. They both like women.. but there’s nothing saying they DON’T like men, don’t want to date men, or aren’t attracted to them.

Been waiting to reference Schitt’s Creek at some point here now i’ve started watching it. It’s biphobic to say this sort of harmful shit, and it doesn’t’t help there are plenty of gay people who genuinely believe bi and pan aren’t sexualities and harm their own community by doing so. Saying this kind of shit just fuels their fire and bi people like me and pan people like my firend have a hard enough time with straight people being dicks about this. You should know and be better. Don’t bring that shit into this fandom. We’ve already ridden incest out on a rail we don’t need this. I already put up with enough bullshit being a loud house fan and having to deal with ACTUAL homophobic ships like Sam/Lincoln, aka setting up a character you don’t know to be anything but gay, versus her girlfriend whose canocially been shown to be bi if preferring women, whose the proment and well like love interest of a woman, and pair her with her younger brother to clearly troll people. Now that’s a homophobic ship and that you shoudl be angry about, not “oh no the person who likes women in canon.. LIKES A WOMAN IN FANON”. It’s part of what made shiping delpad hard at times because people got really dumb about it to the point someone drew some very horrible fanart just to clog up the tag. Knock. it off.

And if your curious for my actual thoughts on Drakepad: in the classic series.. i’m not a fan, but I get it, and I do think they could work... it’s just. that Drake treats Launchpad really bad, including throwing him out of the house for a year without telling him why over something that really wasn’t his fault, not feeding him, not treating him as an equal after a while. This would have to change for them to work but I could see it happening, as the comics and one of the peisodes make a point that Drake can be a pretty shitty partner to Morgana too.

And just to show i’m equal opprtunity, despite shipping Delpad in the past, i’ve moved on to Penpad and Drakepad , ironcially enough, i’m not as big a fan anymore. LIke the above, Della just dosen’t respect launchpad as a human being. She was willing to keep the Halloween thing up JUST to scare children, looks down on him, and whie is his friend, is not all that close. I could see them happening, and do still think it’d be cute, it’d just take a ton of work and there are better ships for both. And yes I do ship Drakepad in the reboot, but there the two aren’t employer and employee, but equals who genuinely love and respect one another, listen to one another, and value each other. In the Reboot they have genuine chemistry and I could see them together, while in the original Launchpad and Morgana both really deserve better.

Now that’s settled, we get a fun scene of the two primping for each other. then flirting a bit, though Morgana, in AWFUL looking black lipstick wins with the move above and has her spider web launchpad, who hates morgana.. which is one part common sense given how darkwing gets around her and one part ho yay. But yeah this is pretty much Launchpad for both these episodes.

And darkwing dick is calling the shots so fair enough. But Morgana is once again nto wokring alone and is working with a creepy, well designed gremlin, named Nodoff... eh i’ve heard worse, whose giving her sleeping dust to knock out her targets and hits on her constnatly. Naturally he plans to betray her as soon as he can, and is likely only tolerating her because he wants to hit that.  There dynamic boils down to this.

There’s also tons of fun dream sequences including one at the top with darkwing being confronted by his enitre Rogue’s gallery before seeing morgana, NOdoff using baseball on Morg’s next target and some great ones at the climax. It’s part of hwy I like this episode better: While someone using dreams for stuff has been done a lot, it’s given a creative spin here as instead of killing them, Morgana’s simply using them to steal. Good stuff.

Darkwing foils their first attempt, though gets blamed for it because St. Canard is about as grateful as New York when it comes to superheroes. Morgana knocks darkwing out with some dust via Eeka and Squeak and admits Nodoff is working for her, though fobids him to harm Darkwing. This.. dosen’t last and we get another great setpiece, of sarkwing on a high dive. Thankfully, Launchpad finds him, and they find Morgana, who gives off the student loans comment. But in the struggle to stop her, Darkwing accidently puts her and the city to sleep.. and Nodoff is now super powerful and imprisons morgana. Darkwing i s back at her house, wondering what to do, but the bats give him a clue.. by flying him thorugh the door to fight Nodoff. It goes about as well as you’d expect with him freeing Morgana.. then trying to murder them both. Darkwing however pulls an Elm Streett 3 and says to think happy thoughts and take control of the dream.. which ends up at Darkwing’s Wedding to Morgana to his horror..... remind me whose the hero again. The woman who, while doing crimes is trying to pay off unfair debts, or the guy who finds the idea of commitment horrifying.  

Anyways we get some more great bits, I brush over them so I don’t ahve to talk about them conantly, including darkwing getting a cake on him, before Darkwing turns the tables by finding the hourglass full of the dust.. and in a clever finale, loading it into his gun and firing it on nodoff. This puts him to sleep.. which puts him in the real world, while Launchpad uses a giant alarm clock to wake everyone. They throw NOdoff back into the dream world.. for some reason.. and the episode ends iwth morgana kissing darkwing and the episode possibly having been all a dream.

This one, while I was again breif, is a classic, with a much more interesting dynamic. Instead of a morgana who goes from willing to kill we get one whose conflicted over things, who clearly wants to be a crook but may like darkwing more than that, as evidenced when he talks her out of taking Nodoff’s offer of riches. It’s good stuff and the gags are back to the show’s usual top notch level. It’s a creative, fun episode that really helps Morgana come into her own and I look forward to more of her. Overall i’d recommend skipping fungus amongus, but DEFINTELY check out ghoul of my dreams, as it’s throughly fantastic. I’ll be back in a bit for one last Halloween review and as always you can find my backlog on my blog. i recently covered Tiff of the Titans and there’s regular ducktales coverage every monday. Until then make sure to vote, wear a mask and check your house for gary busey till we meet again! Play us out Gerard Way!

[ngame989]

“Soul” - TGG SVTFOE Fanfic Collection Ch. 9

Writing: @ngame989​​

Art: @toxicpsychox​​

Editing: @ubercelloczar​​​, @toxicpsychox​​, @seddm​​

Alternate fic links - FFnet, AO3

Summary: It's that time of the year for another Soulrise, and Tom throws Marco the birthday bash of a lifetime to celebrate, but Marco realizes that underneath all the joy and celebration Tom has a storm of emotions brewing inside. When Star gets dragged into some mysterious mission on the surface, it's up to Marco to realize just what's been bothering his demon friend.

Comic Page

Masterpost

And we're back with another chapter! Things are ramping up a bit, and we have plans for probably the next dozen chapters in the works already with a few special events in the mix. Thanks for sticking around, and stay tuned for more. Hope you enjoy!

“A little to the left.” Tom hovered above the door and moved a massive cloud of dark blue balloons slightly over in the wrong direction, glancing up at her to check. “My left, honey.” He nodded and shifted them back. A little more, a little more, and… “There. Nice work, Tommypoo,” Wrathmelior affectionately growled in her native tongue while reaching down to rustle her smiling son’s hair. When Tom suggested throwing a party for a friend she hadn’t met yet, the same boy who had been the subject of quite a few mother-son heart-to-hearts in years past, some old concerns had bubbled up in the back of her mind. But she couldn’t bear saying no for long, and it wasn’t long until she was more than happy to volunteer the Lucitor lake house for the occasion.  

Tom’s enigmatic friend Janna popped her head out the front door with a sly grin that would put many of the devils Wrathmelior personally knew to shame. “Yo Tommypoo, can I get a hand at the snack table?”

All three of his eyes popped open and cast intense glares back and forth between Janna and Wrathmelior. “You even taught her that?” he groaned incredulously at the latter.

Wrathmelior smiled apologetically. “Sorry, sweetie. She’s quite persuasive.” Janna had been spending enough time in the Underworld that Wrathmelior had given her a few crash courses in conversational demonic, enough to get by on her own when she tagged along with whatever Tom was doing in the kingdom. Though she was still difficult to figure out, they got along swimmingly. So many humans seemed either too scared or concerningly excited about the lava, wings, and horns they might encounter down below, and Janna’s cool enthusiasm was refreshingly welcome.

“Guilty as charged.” Janna pointed finger guns at Tom as he walked through the door and they disappeared into the house.

Wrathmelior went into the more appropriately sized entrance into the kitchen, where by the time she arrived Tom and Janna were putting out plates and napkins. Her husband was there as well and had apparently been receiving a cooking lesson from Star for some time now, judging by the lecture she was giving him. “-can’t do this too early or the chips will get totally mushy and gross. Crunchy chips, molten cheese, crisp pico -  all required elements for any Marco-approved nachos.” Star instructed before bending down to grab a tray full of chips out of the oven, setting it down on the counter next to the other supplies. “If you pour juuuuuust right, the cheese will get all in between the chips so you get a little with every bite.” Dave solemnly followed her work as the jumbo bowl was filled with a quantity of triangle chips, yellow goop, and vegetables that gave even the full-sized demon pause. “Voilà! Star’s Super Spectacular Nachos!” Everyone grabbed a sample chip, and just as she said, a little bit of everything seemed to work its way through the dish.

“Mmmmph,” Dave grunted. “These are good. Star, can you teach the castle staff how to make this marvelous thing?”

“Honestly, I’m not that good at it, Marco and I have just been cooking a ton lately. Campus food is both really expensive and really crummy.” Star stuck her tongue out in disgust. While the others, Wrathmelior included, tried and failed to stop eating, Star wandered through the living room and looked around at all the decorations and party games that had been set up, her grin only growing wider as she did.

Tom leaned against the stairs with his hands in the pockets of his teal shorts, smirked as he coolly observed the room. “We are preeeeetty good party planners, aren’t we?”

“Aww yeah we are!” Star skipped over and bumped shoulders with Tom. “But honestly this was mostly you. Marco’s gonna love it.”

“You think?” Tom’s cocky demeanor fell away to the earnestness underneath. “Ah, it was nothing. I mean, sure, we’ve got a private beachfront property, the most state of the art ping-pong tables in the world, a live Love Sentence cover band… I mean, who wouldn’t do this for their friend’s 17th birthday?”

Janna slurped the stretchy cheese off her last chip before chiming in from the kitchen. “You’ve been spending, like, every waking moment on it, dude. Feels like we haven’t even hung out in weeks, buuuut it is pretty cool. Remind me to call you when I’m in the mood to throw a grave rave.” He flashed a casual toothy smirk, but there was an extra glint in his eyes that caught Wrathmelior’s attention. Janna sauntered into the living room to join the others. “So what’s the special occasion, Tom?”

Whatever that look had meant, it was quickly replaced with sheer confusion. “Uh, Marco’s birthday? Did you get bit by a Hippocampotamus or something? Those things are nasty.”

The Earth girl rolled her eyes. “I mean why all the fuss? This is basically the one human teenage birthday that isn’t extra special.”

“Whatever. Just wanted to throw an ultra awesome party for one of my best friends because he’s a super cool guy.” He quickly averted his gaze, eyes drifting around the room until they stopped on the elegant family grandfather clock. “Probably about that time, ready for me to send you back?” he asked, glancing sideways at Star.

“Oooooone sec.” Star ruffled her hands through her hair, brushed sand out of her light blue blouse, and stuffed her sunhat and sunglasses into her purse. “Sand would blow my cover.” Pillars of fire erupted in the wide open area of the living room as Tom’s eyes glowed, and the familiar carriage he’d built himself once upon a time quickly spawned from the ground. “See you in a few!” Star climbed into the seat; one sizzling rush of air later and she was gone. The irony of Star using the vehicle Tom had delicately crafted once upon a time in the service of wooing her to pick up her human boyfriend wasn’t lost on Wrathmelior, but there was no point to harboring any negativity if Tom was happy with it.

Out of the corner of her eye, Wrathmelior saw a smug Janna sneaking up behind Tom. He lightly shrieked when she slapped him on the back. “Good job, Lucitor. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go set up the traditional Diaz prank. I’m pulling out all the stops this year.” When she opened her jacket, his eyes widened at the various weapons, gadgets, skulls, and animals hiding within. One of them stuck its furry head out. “I became the alpha possum just a few weeks ago. Scooter here can smell red hoodies through walls, isn’t that right?” She scratched the creature’s head before closing the olive jacket back up. “So, you want in?”

“Nah,” he scoffed, waving his hands dismissively. “You go ahead, do your thing. Wouldn’t want to get in the way of the master.”

“You flatter me. Suit yourself, see ya,” Janna shrugged and slinked off elsewhere in the cabin, leaving just the Lucitor family behind. Tom milled about the cabin making minute adjustments to the decorations and furniture, seemingly to kill time more than anything. What had him so worked up? There was no time for Wrathmelior to ponder this question, though, as a loud swoosh from the outside signalled the arrival of the carriage before she could even collect her thoughts.

Tom perked up and bolted out the door while Wrathmelior took the larger exit out the side. Just as the carriage doors opened, Tom snapped his fingers and summoned a black cloth, blinding the boy within whom she presumed to be Marco. “What the heck, man?” Marco curiously started the famous sword-hand dance, but Tom floated over and past him to peek into the chassis.

“Wait, where’s Star?”

“Moon needed her for a little bit, she said she’d be ready pretty soon but said I should go ahead. Can you get this thing off me?”

“Right, right, sorry,” he stuttered while fumbling with the knot until it came undone. “Anyway, welcome to the Lucitor family lake house!”

“Surprise!” The Lucitors spoke in unison, although Wrathmelior knew she wouldn’t be understood. “Happy birthday!”

His eyes widened in wonder at the massive quantity of balloons and the big sign that greeted him. “Wooooah, you guys, you didn’t have to!”

Tom put his arm around Marco’s shoulder and began walking him towards the door. “Don’t worry about it. Oh, Marco, meet my mom and dad, Queen and King Lucitor of the Underworld.”

“My pleasure, young man,” Dave warmly stated as he stepped forward to shake Marco’s hand.

“Nice to meet you,” Wrathmelior growled out with Dave translating.

Marco waved up at her, possessing the same unflinching assuredness that she’d noticed in Janna. “Tom’s told me a lot about you, thanks for having me. Just one question. Is there-”

“Ping-pong?” They said in unison, both their faces breaking into wide smiles before they’d even finished the word.

“If the brand-new Dropshot 720 DX model with real-time trajectory tracking and RGB paddles counts, sure.”

Marco excitedly grabbed Tom by the shoulders, shaking him back and forth. “With optional holographic crowd simulator?”

“Duh. Marco, please, I’m not an amateur.”

“What are we waiting for? The ping ain’t gonna pong itself.”

“We’ve got snacks and music and all sorts of other things, too. Ha, now I feel kinda silly, putting all this together and being the only one here when you show up. I totally understand if you want to go with Star instead, I’d never try to get in the way of, you know, the whole thing you two have.”

The human boy crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow in response. “Tom, you’re one of my best friends and you’re throwing me a ping-pong birthday party. If you think I don’t want to kick your butt until we’ve broken every last ping-pong ball in the kingdom, you’ve got another thing coming, buddy.” Both glanced down when his stomach loudly rumbled. “...but maybe, um, we start with the snacks.”

Wrathmelior cooed at the exchange as Tom wrapped an arm around Marco’s shoulder and led him into the house. So much had changed in the past few years, both above and below ground. Even if her own home and kingdom had been affected to the same degree as those of the surface-dwellers though, none of it would compare in Wrathmelior’s eyes to what she’d seen out of her son. With the ample time she’d had to reflect since the state of the world settled down, she might even say that he’d been the more mature one between them. The last time she’d played doting demon mom over her son’s relationships had gone… regrettably, to say the least, and it had hurt like heaven when he broke the news of what had happened. Could anyone blame her for wanting things to work out with the girl he’d spent years chasing? Most shocking of all was that he hadn’t even talked to her about it beforehand. Before she could even realize it, he’d grown into a capable young Prince of the Underworld solving his problems all on his own.

“Surprise, Diaz!” The moment of solemn reflection was interrupted by Janna’s voice from inside the house followed by a series of crashes and girlish shrieks. “Go, Scooter, go!” As the chaos unfolded, she could hear Tom simultaneously laughing to the point of breathlessness and blasting fire to defend Marco.

While she still couldn’t help but worry that something seemed off with Tom today - a feeling compounded by how little experience she had not being the first one to know what might be going wrong in his life - it was surprisingly easy to push aside. With the friendships he had, she felt at ease knowing he could handle it.

***

“Lava snakes up above you, Tom!” Marco launched up into the sky with a flurry of sword strikes to stun the enemies while Tom floated over to cover. Tom’s mage dropped icicles from the ceiling to pin the first of the bosses to the ground for Marco to execute. “Thanks.”

Meanwhile, Janna’s character dropped a smokebomb and used the cover to sneak up and eliminate the ranged attackers with his shotgun. “These stupid alien crabs won’t stop spawning,” she growled.

“It’s fine, keep on them. Obsidian lizard to your right, Marco!”

One of Tom’s gifts to Marco had been Threat of Wet 2, the hit sequel to the original action game Threat of Wet. He initially hadn’t been sure if it would be his sort of game but it only took a few minutes of endless heart-pumping mob-slaughtering multiplayer action to be hooked. Even if he was having fun, he wasn’t great at it, judging by the amount of nervous sweat he had to wipe off his brow in a rare free moment between dodging deadly lasers and spikeballs. He used an uppercut to alley-oop the lizard into Tom’s laser blast before dashing and slashing through it for the kill.

“Little help?!?” Janna shouted, tossing a stun grenade at the ravenous pack of creepy jesters clawing at her and rolling under a fallen pillar to regroup with the team. The horde got distracted and chased after one of their mini fighter drones, giving the group a moment of respite.

“Last ones, I think,” Marco said with a grimace. “Not sure what the best move is here, they’ll obliterate me.”

Janna snapped a finger and pointed at Tom. “You think we can pull off Tamalebolge here?”  Marco had no clue what she was talking about, but Tom’s mouth slowly widened into an eager grin as he apparently understood what she was trying to say. They nodded with conviction and turned back to the game.

“Set the smokescreens, I’ll get in position. Marco, just follow me.” He went along with it and hunkered his swordsman down between two clouds of smoke blocking their vision while Janna laid out more in a straight line with gaps in between. Janna maneuvered her character towards the spooky clowns and shot a single pellet at them to get their attention. Once they began charging over, Tom started unloading every spell he had while moving backwards in and out of smoke patches.

The clowns kept moving forward, but seemed to be stuttering in a way that prevented them from ever successfully landing a hit. In a moment of confusion while Marco tried to process it, he got bodyslammed into the ground and instantly killed. “You’re dead… that was embarrassing,” the game’s message on his corner of the massive screen in Tom’s media room taunted. What the heck were they up to, and why was it working?

“Almost… almost… no!” Tom’s thumb slipped on the controller and Marco could literally see the fire in his eyes at the mistake. At the last second Janna rolled under the legs of their enemies and stunned them just as they were about to slam, finishing them off and displaying a message to proceed to the next level. Their characters sauntered over to the exit and halted for a moment while Tom and Janna proudly hi-fived in celebration… and in the half-second they’d looked away, a thin blip of flame from a single floating wraith pierced through both, killing them instantly. “OH, COME ON!” Yep, this game certainly was unforgiving.

Janna busted out laughing and patted Tom on the shoulder. “Dude, take it easy, that was sick. You were right, this was pretty fun.”

“Told you.”

“I’m afraid to ask, but what the heck is Tamalebolge?”

“There’s this place called Tamalebolge on the outskirts of the Underworld, we stopped there for lunch one day after Mom sent me to give a big box of eyeballs to the mayor there. Dunno why a town needed 10000 preserved eyeballs, but whatever.”

On the other side of the couch, Janna scoffed resentfully. “Lucky town.”

“Anyway, they had this tamale that was a bunch of layers that got spicier as you bit in, and it hurts because each time you hit one layer you let your guard down for the next so you get that burning feeling a bunch of times in a row. In one of our trips to the Librarinth we got cornered by some Decimatals and had the idea to put up a bunch of walls of fire, since they could-”

“Could never adapt to the fire because it wasn’t steady,” Marco finished with a hint of awe as the pieces clicked into place. “Dang, that’s really smart.”

“Thank you, thank you,” Janna exclaimed in a monotone, not even looking up from her phone. “Alright, Marco, what did Star say she was doing exactly? She hasn’t even asked for any pictures yet.”

Marco raised an eyebrow. “Well, Moon said she needed to borrow Star for a bit, but that was a few hours ago so…” Suddenly the weirdness of Janna’s last statement - well, compared to the baseline he expected from her - struck him. “Wait, pictures?”

“Yeah, dude,” she coolly responded, leaning over Tom and showing him an album with… how many pictures of him was that exactly? 500? 1000? He looked away before any more could load to just stare in complete indignant shock at his friend. “Anytime we hang out without her, Star asks me to, like, take pictures of you and send them to her. You haven’t noticed by now? Damn, I’m just that good.” She smirked and twirled her phone around, blowing on it like a smoking gun before holstering it in her pocket.

Tom folded his arms and leaned forward to stare Janna down. “Really? Star asks you to do this?”

“Yes. Well, I started it first. And sent a new shot every few minutes for weeks. And now she’s so used to it that me not doing it makes her think we all got eaten by weresharks, so whenever I stop she always asks what’s wrong. So yeah, basically she asks for them.”

From Marco’s position reclined into one end of the sofa, Tom had to twist himself around to shoot Marco an incredulous look and nudge his attention towards Janna as if to beam “Are you really gonna just let that slide?“ directly into his brain. “Whatever, I’m used to it. The most surprising thing is that you actually, y’know, send them to Star."

Janna finally devoted her undivided attention on Marco for a few seconds, assessing him with her cold and enigmatic expression before sighing. “I already had them and Star’s madly in love with you for some reason so why not? What, Diaz, I’m not allowed to do nice things for my friends now?” Leave it to Janna to make being kind of normal and thoughtful still creepy and weird.

“You know what, I’m just gonna message her,” Marco said, walking out of the room to clear his head and pulling out his phone to check in on Star. She could certainly handle herself, especially with Moon there, but he was still curious what could be making her miss a lot of the celebration that she herself had helped set up. After he’d sent the first, he hastily added on a second asking if she needed him for anything. OK, so maybe a little worried. It surprisingly only took a second before his phone dinged with a response.

“Mina’s back. Long story, not what you think, we’re fine here 👍. Kinda crazy tho. 😵 Will tell you later. 😈 acting a bit strange, stay and try to see why? 🤔 Also have fun, it’s your party!!!!🎊🥳🎉🎈 Hopefully will be done soon, would never miss 👻rise with you 💕💞💏 Love you 😘🥰😻”

Mina? Every bone in his body wanted to leap into action, but Star knew her better than probably anyone; if she said there wasn’t a problem, he’d trust that. The fact that something was up with Tom, on the other hand, demanded attention. Was there something strange going on? It hadn’t occurred to him, but now that the idea had been planted in his head, Tom wasn’t the first person he’d have expected to go through all this trouble. He was a great and thoughtful guy, sure, but weeks of detail-oriented planning seemed... a bit out of place for him. Like Star said, though, he should still just enjoy the day and there’d be plenty of time to try and sleuth out whatever Star thought was going on.

“Hey, man,” Tom said as he poked his head around the corner. “We’re going surfing, wanna come with?”

“Sure Tom, just one tiny problem: the water here is lava-”

Tom only smiled wider in response. “Come on, you’ll see.” The two headed outside where Wrathmelior and Dave were sunba- uh, stalactitebathing, he supposed? Marco wasn’t sure what the point was underground but, hey, maybe it was a demon thing. Janna, too, had already made her way outside and stripped down to an outfit more suitable for a lava beach. She appeared to be rubbing some sort of neon red goop all over herself, which stupefied him so much that he barely noticed she was wearing a pair of hot pink shorts. What kind of bizarro world had he entered?

When she finally noticed him, he quickly averted his gaze to avoid any suspicion. “Yo, Diaz, liking the view?” Too late. She put a cap on the bottle of goo and nodded in the direction of the lake. What was she up to? As Marco warily followed, he saw Tom swimming around in the lava unfettered. All of a sudden, Janna started running with intent towards the lake.

“JANNA, NO!” Marco surged forward to try and stop her but she had a headstart and was surprisingly fast on her feet. When she kicked off the sand to hurl herself into the lava, Marco’s eyes instinctively squeezed shut and let out a whimper despite knowing somewhere in the back of his mind that she had to have some sort of plan.

When Marco opened his eyes, Janna was completely unharmed and lazily treading lava. She ducked under to sneak up on the lazily backstroking Tom, rising up to grab him by the horns and dunk him. He flailed for a minute before bobbing back up and taking a big gulp of air.

“Janna, what the here?!? Not cool...” he paddled to shore and shook the excess molten rock from his ears before standing with Marco, careful to keep his distance since he still had some residual slag on him. “Can you believe that?”

There was no other way Marco saw fit to respond to that than look of pure incredulity. “Yes? Always? So, anyway, how is she not dead right now?”

“Full cocktail of fire and heat resistance. Mostly Earth sunscreen with some demon incantations courtesy of my parents. Seeps in and affects your hair and innards and even any tight clothing for perfect safety. There’s enough for you too, if you want.”

As if today couldn’t get any crazier, disbelief morphed into fight or flight instinct as he tried to keep himself calm. “...so I’m just supposed to rub something Janna is giving me all over my body… and- and then jump into lava? Are you insane? What if it makes my tongue sentient, turns my legs into pudding, o-o-or worse? Oh my gosh, i-it’s gonna kill me-” Well, so much for calm, the sole bit of his mind hanging on to rationality offered.

“Woah, man, easy. Deep breaths. Just offering.” Tom gently patted his back until his breath steadied. He sighed and looked away. “For the record, Janna is a pretty good friend, you know. I’ve actually liked doing all the princely political crap when she’s here, and- and she does help. A lot, actually. I get that she likes messing with you, and honestly dude, it is pretty funny sometimes. If you don’t want to risk it, I totally respect that, but…” Marco followed his gaze out towards the lake where Janna was trying to befriend a wandering hellbat. “She really does care, in her own way.” There was an emotional conviction there that impacted Marco on a level he wasn’t prepared for, and even after a lifetime of wariness around Janna he found himself trusting more in Tom’s vote of confidence in the here and now… plus lava surfing did sound pretty awesome. Was this what Star had meant about his behavior today? He made a mental note before turning his focus back to the present dilemma. In all his time as an interdimensional adventurer he’d piloted dragoncycles, trained in combat with the sharpest swords he’d ever seen, and flipped a horse made of pure magic while floating on the back of one of his best friends. Why not go for this?

“Alright, let’s do this,” Marco said, marching over to the towel that had been laid out on the sand and cautiously picking up the bottle at arm’s length as though it was a radiation hazard, which he couldn’t even be sure it wasn’t.

The bottle floated up out of his hands on a puff of smoke guided by Tom’s magic. “Heads up, though, the souls of the damned mixed in there can bleach pretty badly, so maybe don’t wear anything you care about. Janna ruined my perfectly good ‘cold as ice’ shirt testing it,” Tom pouted. Marco stripped off his hoodie and goblin dog t-shirt, finding them far too valuable to damage.

I didn’t care about these swim trunks that much anyway, he internally grumbled while he snatched the bottle from Tom and gingerly applied it to his skin. After giving the first gentle dab on his arm a minute to verify he didn’t turn into a pig-goat, he reluctantly spread it around the rest of his body. He was surprised to find that it soaked in even easier than regular sunscreen despite its incredibly visible color. The even more daunting step was trusting it to protect his skin from literal lava. Tom held up a small flame in his hand. Marco instinctively recoiled but allowed Tom to bring it closer as a test, and sure enough even once it came in direct contact with his skin he felt nothing beyond a weird air current and a gentle warmth with no damage left behind. The only step left was taking the plunge. Now or never, Diaz, he chanted as he walked towards the edge of the sand.

“Aww, does Marco need floaties?” Janna goaded, having moved back into wading level to witness Marco’s entry. One toe went forward, very delicately. Almost, almooooooost… and it was in! It probably took about 10 minutes for Marco to fully immerse himself in the boiling liquid, mostly by choice, although its viscosity made the prospect of freely swimming around seem tiring regardless of magical protection.

Tom’s parents had approached the shore during that time and applauded Marco’s efforts. Wrathmelior made some deep rumbling sounds that caused Tom and Janna to both snicker. Tom noticed Marco’s frown and waved reassuringly. “She just said you’re moving slower than the lava itself, but don’t worry dude, you’re only the second human who’s even tried this. You’re doing great!” Tom motioned towards his parents before taking a running leap into the lake and paddling over to Marco, patting his back and inviting Marco to hop on. “Remember that move we practiced? The Screeching Bat?”

“Uh-huh?”

“Think we can use it here?” he asked, pointing to the beginnings of a massive wave forming in the distance.

Despite all his reservations about every step thus far, one thing he knew he could always trust was his and Tom’s teamwork. They’d had each others’ backs even when their friendship should have been shattered to pieces by guilt and heartache, and it had only improved from there. Deep breath, Diaz. “Let’s do this,” he confidently declared, climbing onto Tom’s lower back and bracing his legs under Tom’s arms while he assumed his usual four-limbed propulsion flight position. “Wait, where’s Janna?”

As the rippling sea started to form a recognizable wave, the pair saw a creature emerge to ride the peak with Janna on its back. “I’m QUEEEEN OF THE UNDERWORLD!” she screamed as the three-headed sea-turtle-esque animal carried her along.

Wrathmelior waved her giant camera in the air and made another comment that instantly left Tom with face a few shades redder than normal as he turned away. Being new to the whole “dipping skin in lava” experience, Marco’s focus was too scattered to trust his own judgment on whether or not Tom’s reaction was just a trick of the heat. He didn’t have time to dwell on it further before Tom jostled under him. “Whatever. C’mon, Marco, let’s just do this thing. Keep steady and don’t push down too hard, the heat doesn’t bother me but it’s still not fun having my face skid on molten rock at highway speeds.” Marco nodded and Tom lifted them off of the surface before flying over to the waves, picking up speed as they went.

They lost track of time as they did loop-de-loops and pushed their moves to the limits, swimming over and under and through the most insane ocean waves Marco had ever seen. At one point, as Janna rode closer to the ground, Tom followed the curve of a wave until he was upside-down under the crest of the wave as it crashed down behind them. Marco let go of Tom’s neck and felt his heart pounding as he straightened out, letting his body dip down in their signature trick that earned this flight pattern its name. Come to think of it, this was the first time they’d even made use of any of the awesome combat patterns they’d spent weeks naming and practicing in the last year, but they’d had enough fun goofing off in the sky that it was its own reward. When the largest wave yet approached, Tom veered straight for it and carved a hole in it with a fire blast at the last second. Marco tucked himself closely onto Tom’s back as they blasted through, and he was so high on adrenaline that he couldn’t help but sit straight up and holler in victory right afterwards.

As it approached an hour since they’d set out onto the lake, they all headed back at Tom’s suggestion that the potion’s effect wouldn’t last. They were greeted with another assortment of snacks and drinks from Tom’s parents, giving their swim trunks some time to… whatever the lava equivalent of “dry” was... in the comfort of the living room. Janna grabbed a glowing green glass bottle and took a huge swig. Marco’s wary gaze on its contents must have lasted a bit long because Janna took notice. “Chill, this is just Underworld cow’s milk. Tastes the same as ours.” If anything, that freaked him out more, but he’d had enough of these moments throughout the day that he could just put up with it at this point. As Tom approached with some sort of large bug shells on a plate - thank heavens the Underworld imported Earth snacks now - Janna silently looked him up and down a few times. “So, Lucitor, I didn’t know you had those moves. If I knew you could float upside-down so easily…” she trailed off with implications Marco didn’t feel like trying to unpack. Tom could only babble incoherently in response until he sprinted off deeper into the house. “Ooooor not,” Janna grumbled before sinking into the couch and taking a swig.

“Is everything OK with Tom?” Marco hesitantly asked.

“Beats me. Lately we’re just on mission after mission with no time to stop and catch our breath or even get a bite to eat in-between. Can’t believe one lousy year has already made him such a workaholic. Even Star only got like this when she thought, like, the entire kingdom would collapse or something.” She grabbed her phone as it buzzed, frowning at the screen. Suddenly, she took a photo of Marco and tapped her screen a bunch of times, standing up as she shoved it back in the back pocket of her shorts.

“What was that?”

“That was Star, she apparently needs me to bring a few of my more… let’s just say noxious potion blends, in case of some kind of emergency. But first she wanted to make sure the lava surfing didn’t damage your abs.” She faked a gag response and rolled her eyes. “And she also said, and I quote, ‘Tell Marco he doesn’t need to come because he should reeeeeally take care of the thing, and that I’m suuuuuper sorry for skipping out on you, and that we’re aaaaaalmooooost done here, and then we can cuddle up for the Soulrise.’ Normally I’d pry about ‘the thing’ but I’m too nauseous right now. Also, an ‘I love you’ filled with hearts until the character limit, so that settles it: me reading that is the next five years of birthday presents, minimum, for both of you. You’re welcome.” She punctuated with a snap of her fingers and a rumble grew louder until a chasm opened up in the ground and Tom’s carriage rolled up the side.

“Since when could you-”

Janna winked and hopped in the carriage door as it vanished in a column of flame, leaving only Marco behind. He had hundreds of questions and concerns about Star’s situation, but between her continued insistence on staying behind and what Janna had just said, his certainty was growing that something fishy was afoot with Tom. Where might his friend go if something was troubling him? This could take an hour, no, all day to crack the case, but Marco was ready to sleuth harder than ever to solve this mystery.

One guess and thirty seconds later, Marco found Tom sitting on the couch in another one of the lounge spaces in the lake house, manipulating two paddles to play ping-pong against each other. Leaning against the wall, Marco observed as the simulated crowd went wild in stark opposition to Tom’s joyless expression that alternated between the match and his own lap, never once noticing his friend to his side. After a few more minutes of this, the announcer enthusiastically cheered for the victor of the round.

When the system rebooted, Marco made his move. “Playing without me?”

Tom glanced up from the table. “Wuh? Oh, hey.”

“Wanna play?”

“Well, obviously I would, but, um, I just… gotta…”

“What’s wrong, Tom?”

“Wrong? Me? Nothing’s wrong, Marco! Why would anything be wrong?” A puff of smoke shot out of his nostrils and clearly forced grin on the last word.

“C’mon, man. We both know something’s up. You’ve been acting all strange today.”

He threw his hands up with a defeated scowl creasing his eyes and face. “OK, fine, you got me. I stubbed my toe on the beach earlier and it really stings-”

“Tom.” Neither budged as they stared each other down. So it’s gonna be like that, huh? If he cloaked himself in bravado, then Marco just needed to find a way to open up that shell and draw the inner turmoil out. “You, me, first one to 6. If I win, you talk.”

Tom crossed his arms suspiciously. “Dude, you’ve literally never beaten me.”

“Yeah, well, then it should be easy for you. Whaddya say?”

“What do I get when I win?”

Marco gestured at the table humility. “I will officially give up any hopes of ever beating you and you’ll forever be known as King Pong.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll play. You’re going down.”

“Game on.”

"Let's see, ‘enter nickname’... Tom the Bomb? Seriously, man? I-"

Marco was interrupted by the fake stadium’s booming audio as the commentators began. "Welcome everyone to the championship bout where we will determine who is the true king of the ping."

“Hey, that’s my joke,” Marco whined pointlessly, drowned out by a second female announcing voice that continued without pause.

“On the away team, we have the human, the underdog to win it all this year, Marco Diaaaaaaaz! He’s got wicked topspin sure to send heads spinning and he’s hungry for the title. Never count out the man in red! Now on the home team, you know him, you love him, it’s the man with a plan to slice and dice you to pieces, it’s Prince of the Underworld Tom Lucitoooooooooor!”

Marco pointed incredulously at… well, everything happening around them. “Seriously, dude, are you sure this is even a computer?” Tom shrugged nonchalantly in response.

“We have a lot we could say up here about this long-awaited grudge match, isn’t that right, Janet?”

“That we could, Derek, but I’m sure all the lovely AI fans here don’t want all this AI blabber. They want some good old-fashioned ping-pong. Now let’s watch while Tom readies up the serve…” Tom deeply inhaled and exhaled a few times, then got into position on his end of the table. He crouched over slightly with the ball in one hand and paddle in the other, then tossed it up into the air and smashed it with the paddle. Marco jumped backwards to avoid the searing speed of the projectile that was aimed at him with a disdain reminiscent of the first time they’d ever played the game. If he’s gonna amp up his game with demon powers, I’ll just need to be better.

“Wow, what a scorcher right down the diagonal! I sure wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of that, it’d fry my processor to a crisp!” Marco didn’t find a chance to start a volley on the second point, nor did his possession of the serve change the outcome in the slightest. When Tom got the ball back, he didn’t even use his paddle as his powers drove the ball directly sideways after the initial impact in Marco’s court. Marco called a timeout and turned away from the table in thought, stumped for solutions. This game was his idea, after all... The AI announcers irritated Marco with their constant humiliation of his skills, but one sarcastic jab struck an unexpected chord: “If he wants to beat Tom, maybe he shouldn’t be playing ping-pong.” He’d gotten nowhere trying to break through with blunt questioning and was doing a worse job trying to get past his confidence at the sport. But if there was a deep insecurity underneath that facade of confidence, maybe he needed to work on building that up instead.

Turning back to the table, he placed his paddle flat on the table for a moment. “Look, Tom, I get it. I can’t beat you at this game. I-I just didn’t want my best friend acting so bummed at a party he threw, OK? If winning here would cheer you up a bit, it’s match point. I won’t stop you. And- and maybe I’m not even the one to deal with this, since I know you usually talk to your mom about this sort of thing, but-”

“Marco, I-” He paused, started again, stopped, and stuttered his way through another half-dozen attempts at a sentence before falling silent and gazing at the floor. “Look, I’m not upset, everything’s fine,” he angrily said through gritted teeth. Tom grabbed the paddle and gracelessly swatted at the ball. Marco flinched and shut his eyes, ready to hear the announcers celebrate the clean sweep… but nothing. “Huh?” he wondered aloud before seeing a ball way off to his left. Had Tom just flubbed the serve? Tom tried once more, much less methodical in his swing. Marco swatted it back over the net and in Tom’s haste to return he spiked it directly onto his own court.

“...and in a shocking turn of events, it’s now 5-1, Lucitor! Now is Marco’s chance to turn it around!”

The three eyes in front of him glowed at the edges in anger, but the expression within wasn’t one Marco feared was directed at him. Marco centered himself and performed a straightforward serve to the edge of Tom’s court, and Tom managed to return it for the first genuine volley of the match, but a steep drop shot gave Marco his second point of the match. Tom grunted in frustration as Marco set up for the next serve, and he immediately lashed out with demon telekinesis but put too much power into it and sent the ball flying with an animalistic growl that betrayed more pain than fury, as if he was squaring off against himself and not Marco.

Tom flopped four serves in a row, leaving the game tied at 5-5. “Whatever it is, Tom, we can talk about it. You’re worrying me a bit, dude.” Tom didn’t even bother to return Marco’s next serve, putting the game at match point, win by 2.

“Just off my game. I told you, nothing’s wrong, there’s not anything I need to talk about right now,” his voice trembled. “I can do this.” Marco raised an eyebrow in a challenge to Tom, then served the ball in the exact opposite direction of the table. Bluff called. Tom hesitated a split second before sending his paddle soaring through the air around Marco’s head to make contact with the ball and fruitlessly swat it to the ground, giving Marco the point as the crowd went wild with cheers and boos at the performance. But Tom ignored all of that to toss himself onto the couch and buried his head in his hands, and Marco immediately dropped next to him.

“Dude, just talk to me,” Marco offered sympathetically.

“I don’t know how much longer I can deal with this.”

“With what?”

With his face buried in a pillow, Marco didn’t catch anything more than “a-a” in response.

“What was that?”

“Janna,” he forced out as though the word caused physical grief.

He had been a bit weird around her specifically, but somehow Marco hadn’t come into this conversation quite expecting it. “Um, OK. Well, I get that… she gets on my nerves too, and since you’re spending so much time with her I totally get- oh.”

Tom sighed.

“Ooooooooh.” It was all Marco could say as his mind raced to process the new developments.

“Yeah.”

“I didn’t think you-”

“Neither did I, but here we are.” Marco placed an arm around Tom’s shoulders to try and comfort him, and Tom merely returned a lopsided smile, opting to sit in silence while Marco wracked his brain for an idea of how best to respond. “When I…” Tom hesitantly spoke up but immediately faltered, taking a moment to regroup mentally. “My whole thing with Star went for, like, two years, and looking back I kind of feel like I was an idiot every second of it. Every time I got caught up in that dumb crush it just messed things up more. Like, remember that big monster party she threw? I was too hung up on dancing to even worry about what my friends needed.”

“Look, Tom, we all did lots of dumb stuff back then-”

The half-demon sunk into the couch, shrugging Marco’s arm off of him and staring up at the ceiling. “Yeah, sure, but at least you and Star were only completely clueless about how much you guys love each other, and even that was at least a little bit my bad too! A year after Star and I broke up the first time, she came back to Mewni as this confident and charismatic person, and I didn’t even know how to do anything besides flounder around doing nothing when she wasn’t around. Ever since I put all that stuff behind me, it’s- things have been going great!” Tom paused for a second after his voice cracked sharply. “Janna’s clever, she’s actually really thoughtful sometimes, she’s the funniest person I know, and she helped me realize I actually kind of like doing all the stuff that a prince is probably supposed to be doing. And here I am, the buffoon with a crush yet again.”

Marco had a few differences of opinion on the details, to put it lightly, but the sentiment struck a chord. “It’s- it’s never easy. I mean, there was a part of me that felt like I couldn’t even be regular friends with Star anymore for a while ‘cause it just kinda sucked to keep getting reminded of those feelings.”

“Really? Never would have thought.”

“Yeah, well, me too. But that did get better after, well, the booth…”

“So I just have to find a photo goblin and kiss her then, got it.”

“Not my point, Tom,” he retorted with a light punch in the arm, both of them smirking; it was still a sensitive topic, but this seemed to be helping Tom shake off the worst of his anxieties at the very least. “You’re being too hard on yourself, man. Literal hours after we met, you tried to kill me for dancing with a girl you weren’t even dating, then you saved me from a rampaging monster who then proceeded to get turned into a baby.”

“Has that ever stopped being kinda messed up?” Tom quickly interjected.

“Not really, no. But even if all that stuff you said is true, which it isn’t, anyone would still be lucky to have a friend like you. If you think you’re not a good enough friend for Janna or whatever, you’re wrong, and if you think you might screw something up, maybe you will but that doesn’t mean you should just give up those feelings. Take that from me.”

With a giant huff of air, Tom ran a hand through his hair, body language still displaying loads of tension even if he was being more open about his problems. “I’m not- I don’t want to just walk away entirely, but… When I went on that trip by myself right before Earth and Mewni merged, when I was just chilling on a hill in some dimension out there looking up at a thousand stars disappearing behind the horizon, I finally realized that what I wanted most was to find someone I could share that sort of moment with, even if it’s not romantic. Someone I could just sit next to without saying a word and still feel like we were doing something special.”

“Yeah…” Even though Marco had a great respect for his friend, it never ceased to amaze him how potently reflective and sensitive he could be, especially for someone who’d once been every human’s worst stereotype of a rage-filled demon monster. The words made him think of Star, who he could spend every single day with doing absolutely nothing and never get bored. Who was always there to lift him out of his lowest times, celebrate his best, and everything in between. Who would always be his very best friend, so long as they both shall live. Tom deserved every bit of happiness that Marco had discovered came with that kind of relationship, and if he could find it with Janna then Marco would be behind him all the way. “These things can take time, it did for me and Star.”

“No offense dude, but did it? You were best friends, like, seventeen hours tops after you met, and I bet even when things were at their worst you knew it, too. I like Janna, a lot, but I don’t know if that’s the sort of thing we have in the first place. And if I’m not sure of that, then I might be risking a friendship for something I’m not even sure would be good for me.” All three of Tom’s eyes sparkled their plea as he finally turned to fully face Marco, who returned the favor. “What do I do?”

“...really, Tom, I’m not sure.” Jackie, and Kelly, and the Curse… he’d had a lot of doubt in what he wanted most, for sure, but Tom was right about one thing: even if he hadn’t realized it, that unshakeable certainty in Star’s friendship somewhere in the core of his being had gotten him through whatever life threw at him. Without that, he shuddered at the thought of what might have been. “If you think saying something is a bad idea right now, then don’t. Just promise me one thing, OK?”

“Mhmm?”

“If and when you do feel confident that saying something to her is what you want to do, don’t wait, OK? If she really is your best friend, don’t hide it from her. That’ll only hurt you both, and that is 100% Marco Diaz first hand advice.”

Tom pulled Marco into a tight hug, clapping him on the back a few times for emphasis. “Thanks.”

When they broke apart, Marco kept a hand extended to Tom’s shoulder. “You can always join me and Star for sunset-watching, too, if you want. They might not be the same as one thousand at once, but Earthni’s are pretty amazing.”

“Might take you up on that. Feeling a lot better already, to be honest. Don’t feel like I need to avoid being around Janna anymore.”

“I’m glad.” Marco felt his phone buzz and check

“Awwww, isn’t that heartwarming, folks? It just warms my neural net. With that healthy of an approach to love, I don’t think there’s a wrong play Tom could make here. He’s got a good spin on the ball to angle that shot exactly where he needs it to go. What do you think, Janet?”

“Right you are, Derek, this is a truly remarkable sight seeing these two guys talk about their feelings. Usually we see young players put all their focus into fast smashes without buckling down on the fundamentals and getting a good, clean drive. If he can just find someone to lob, I think he’ll be alright. What do you say, all you people watching out there?”

“JANTOM! STARCO! JANTOM! STARCO!” The crowd chanted in unison, some even holding up signs. Were those doodles of their faces?

Notice of the loud noise startled the boys. Had they been watching the whole time? “What the-” they both exclaimed in utter shock as they jumped up and struck defensive poses.

One spectator ran up to the edge of the holographic projection with a pair of fake horns. “I LOVE YOU TOM PLEASE MARRY MEeeeeeeeeeuuuuu...” Marco yelped as the control console exploded from one of Tom’s fire blasts, causing the shrieking voice to trail off into a deep robotic crackle. Both breathed heavily as their eyes, wide with fear, flickered all around the ping pong setup in search of any other hidden dangers. When his heart had stopped racing enough for him to feel any external sensations again, Marco felt a vibration in his pocket and pulled out his phone.

“Oh, hey, Star’s ready for the Soulrise, which is in… forty minutes? Holy crap.”

“Sorry you spent so much of today dealing with my stuff.”

“Hey, anytime. I’ve always got your back.”

“C’mon, at least let me feel bad about this.” The pair each put an arm around the other’s shoulders and grinned at the warmth of friendship. Well, and the warmth of the flaming wreckage in front of them.

“I’ll get the carriage for them, but first, um, can you help me with one more thing?”

“You thinking what I’m thinking?”

“That we should throw this thing into the lava ocean?”

“You read my mind.”

***

How long had it been since she’d last seen a Soulrise? Despite her lifespan as a demon, she had never understood the fuss. Last year Relicor had discovered that the merging of dimensions had shifted the surface geography enough to make the Soulrise visible from their lake house, and it was only the sheer convenience that kept her here. As the winged skeletons danced above the lake, Wrathmelior could certainly admit it was a charming display, but was it really that different than anything else one could find in the Underworld if they only looked around them? Still, it was nice to spend an evening on the sands of their own private beach with her husband and a pretty display of spirits. But where was Tom?

“Hey, Lady and Lord Lucitor, thanks for everything today.” She looked down at the sound of Marco’s voice and saw him escorting a half-asleep Star with mud caked onto her skirt.

“Why yes, Roy, I- zzzzzz - would like all fifty flavors of goblin dog, thankszzzzz,” Star mumbled as she drifted in and out of sleep. Her eyes slowly blinked open and stared at the boy’s face. “Oh hi, Mr. Pillowzzzzzz…” She was visibly drooling into Marco’s hoodie as she clutched his torso tightly.

Dave stood up and went around Wrathmelior’s legs to see what was going on. “What happened to her?”

“Had a really long day dealing with an old enemy, I think. Didn’t get too many details before she fell asleep on me. Can you send us home, if it’s not too much trouble?”

“No, you’re adorablezzzz… wait, home?” Blonde hair whipped around her face as she jolted awake with a mortified expression. “Ugh, Marco, nooooo, it’s your birthday and I said I’d be heeeere and I can totally stay…” She trailed off into a massive yawn and firmly pinched her cheeks. “...awake.” She hung her head shamefully, turning away from him but leaving his arm hooked around her waist that was keeping her upright.

Marco smiled and spun her around to face him. “Hey, don’t worry about it. You should rest, don’t force yourself to do this.”

“Nighty tightyzzzzzz...” Star hooked her arms around his neck and drifted off to a deeper sleep.

“I can summon the carriage, but I’m afraid I don’t know where you live,” Wrathmelior grumbled with her husband translating. Now that she had a glimpse, she could understand a bit better what Tom had meant when he said those two had something special.

“Oh, right, duh. Um, the Monster Temple then? We can stay there tonight.” He put an arm behind Star’s knees and lifted her up, using her unconscious grip on his neck for leverage.

Wrathmelior nodded and began to tap into her well of demon magic to yank Tom’s carriage from its usual den deep in their home when Dave spoke up, catching her attention. “Did you want to say goodbye to Tom, too? I don’t know where he ran off to.”

Something above her caught Marco’s eye, causing him to beam at the sight. “Nah, it’s fine, I’ll just call him tomorrow.” Wrathmelior craned her head to look behind her; Tom and Janna were sitting together on the roof, not saying a word. Even from a bit of a distance, it was plain to see that Janna was completely enraptured by the whirling vortex of shrieking ghouls while Tom was spending just as much time taking in her reaction as he was the event itself. If neither had noticed the commotion on the ground now, nothing in all the dimensions would do the trick.

“It’s just a Soulrise,” Wrath muttered, communicating through Dave.

After entering the carriage, Marco cast one long look at his friends. “Yeah, but they’ve earned this one.”

[dappercritter]

Star vs. the Forces of Evil for the ask meme!

(Based on this meme.)

The first character I first fell in love with: Marco Diaz. Although Star was a pretty fun protagonist from the get-go, Marco impressed me in the first episode with both his plucky attitude and intensely responsible, protective nature. He had everything to be a great friend to Star and, by extent, a deuteragonist. He knew karate and basic psychology, he could help Star with both her personal problems and on her exciting adventures, but he also had his own story to navigate with and without Star. He had his own family, a friend group, a crush, a rival, and a fighting style he trained in—all of which were a joy to watch him interact with! (Well, maybe not his other friends.) What’s more, I have tons of things in common with him; namely, his desire to be seen as cool in spite of his intensely safe nature, said intensely safe and responsible nature, body image issues, being awkward around my crushes, and so on.

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Toffee (of Septarsis). I mean, as a lover of cool villains, reptiles, and bespoke fashion, I liked Toffee the minute I laid eyes on him—as many of us did—but I never expected to be as attached to him as I ended up being. Besides being the most competent, menacing villain in the show, Toffee’s character was a mystery that both added to his allure and opened up the possibilities to a more significant backstory that we sadly never got to see. All we ever knew is that he had a passionate hatred of magic and the Butterfly family, a single-minded determination to destroy them, and a plan which almost succeeded perfectly. What we don’t know is whether or not he was a tragic anti-villain who wanted to free monsters from the terror of magic but whose motivation became clouded by vengeance, or if he was just a petty warmonger who only made things personal when he was humiliated. Either way, it’s Toffee’s combined sense of mystery, menace, and sophistication that kept him a permanent personal favourite of mine.

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: Glossaryck, but that might be a bit of a stretch. Mostly because I don’t know how many people liked him to begin with. Most people like to think of him as a weird deadbeat dad who did the bare minimum to take care of the universe, the MHC/his kids, and his students, the queens of Mewni until he finally gave up. As you can guess, that’s exactly what I think of him. But there are people who think his antics are funny and who sympathize with his weariness—not surprising given who he’s had to work with—but his inconsistent characterization throughout the series, and just his general uncooperative teaching style, I just can’t find it in me to like the little blue man.

The character I love that everyone else hates: Janna Ordonia. Don’t get me wrong, I know she does some sketchy stuff like harassing Marco in some shockingly intrusive and insensitive ways. But in spite of that, I like Janna for her troublemaking antics, her love of the weird, and especially her friendship with Star. She felt like a good friend for Star, Marco, Jackie, and Tom because her fondness for the strange and getting into trouble put together with her nonchalant attitude and street smarts, made her a good bridge between the two different worlds of the show (i.e. Earth and the larger multiverse).

The character I used to love but don’t any longer: Hekapoo. I’ll be honest with you guys: I was fascinated with Hekapoo since she first showed up onscreen, and after we got to know her in Running with Scissors, I… I had a crush on her. There, I said it. She was my type, alright? Sassy, adventurous, mischievous, but also ferocious and duty-bound. Everything I could want in a woman! But then we found out that she’s actually kind of a creeper, and she’s a self-righteous corrupt official who supported conspiracy, kidnapping, and genocide and didn’t apologize or try to make amends for it until the last possible moment. And even then she only did it of what appeared to be feelings of obligation to Marco and Moon, nor did she seem to be sorry about all the stuff she did. She vanished from existence with the rest of the MHC along with (most of) all their other magical problems, and frankly, I think that’s how I like it.

The character I would totally smooch: Well, uh, if that Septarian girl in the hat from Meteora’s Lesson is still around, I’d like to get to know her. Maybe take her out for a nice dinner. Go for long walks in the woods. Then wrap it all up with a nice smooch. I mean, if she’s interested of course.

The character I’d want to be like: Tom Lucitor. At first, I didn’t like Tom that much. I just assumed he was going to be a petty rival for Star’s affections that Marco would have to fight. But once we got to know him better and he began his journey of character development, I empathized with him to the point where I saw myself in his struggle to overcome his anger and grow as a person. I may not have made some of the terrible decisions he made early on, but I can be volatile myself, and I am always trying to change for the better as a person. I feel that Tom’s attempt to improve his anger management skills, make amends with the people he hurt, manage failed romantic relationships with maturity, and be a better friend and boyfriend in general make him a decent role model in my eyes.

The character I’d slap: Pony Head. This accursed disembodied unicorn head hasn’t done anything good since maybe Season 1. I used to tolerate her as an intentionally bad parody of valley girl friend archetypes, but after “Bam Ui Pati,” I lost all patience with her. Pony Head, I got two words for you: Shut up. Shut up, shut up, shut up. Shut up! SHUT! UP! SHUT UP!!!

A pairing that I love: Jantom. Starco used to be my main but since that drained me of all my lifeforce and slapped me in the face, my enthusiasm for these two dorks has diminished—significantly, at that. Jantom (or at least the concept of it) on the other hand, was a breath of fresh air. I believe these two feel like they have an even greater right to be together than Starco. I mean, think about it: Janna likes occult stuff, Tom is the prince of the Underworld. Tom likes troublemakers, Janna is all about trouble. And even if Tom is a bit more mature than Janna, we know Janna is capable of selflessness and compassion (one of the few good things we saw from Cleaved), and I like to think that Tom might share some of the life lessons he learned from his journey to maturity with her. …When they weren’t taking turns bugging Marco, of course.

A pairing that I despise: Marclipsa. NO. Hard no. Marco is just a teenager. Eclipsa is a married adult woman. I don’t care how funny you think the whole “Marco’s a harem protagonist” joke is, that is just gross.

[whenimgoodandready]

Every ship has their episode. Starco with “Blood Moon Ball”, Jarco with “Bon Bon the Birthday Clown”, Ostar with “Cheer Up, Star”, Tomstar with “Club Snubbed”, Tomco with “Friendenemies”, Janstar with “Girl’s Day Out”, Marcapoo with “Running with Scissors” and Kellco with “Kelly’s World”, but we’re missing a ship here, a ship that needs a proper episode to sail on, the right kind of plot to steer and with a good plot to enjoy the ride, that ship is Jantom! Finally! An episode worthy of debunking the trope for “Ships That Pass In The Night” (pulls the boat horn) All aboard!:

*Junkin’ Janna-PrinceThomas Lucitor, the demon boyfriend of Star and heir to the throne of the Underworld is hanging out for the first time in forever with Janna Ordonia, the nightmare fetishist and amateur hypnotist of Echo Creek! The reason being that Star is out on an important meeting with Eclipsa with the MHC and Janna has asked Tom to hang out. Just the two of ‘em, no Star, no Marco, no Pony Head, no Kelly, no nothing! Just Jantom! Sweet!

Minus tagging along on adventures with Star, Marco and the gang, Janna has been “boot sledding” in a giant suit of armor boot in a junkyard while she’s been on Mewni. Janna could’ve called over Marco, or Kelly or even Pony Head to join her, but she chose Tom, why? You’ll know soon enough. Meanwhile, Star and Eclipsa are waiting impatiently for the MHC to arrive so they can have the meeting already. Uh, it’s an emergency! So why the f*** aren’t they there!? Are they being passive-aggressive with them!? They continue to wait while trying not to food poison themselves from Sean’s donuts (after what happened in “Yada Yada Berries”, I could see why Eclipsa would be wary of eating things from others).

Over to Jantom again, Tom was enjoying himself (after getting off his compact to text with Star. Thank you Janna!), but then a crow starts flying over, wait a crow!? Uh oh! Except for Janna, it’s a pest cuz it keeps stealing her boot (and possibly other parts of the giant suit of armor she must’ve used before) and wants Tom to shot it. You know, I’m sure Janna could’ve taken care of that bird herself by makeshifting a sling shot to throw a rock at it or using her hypnosis to put it to sleep, but nooooooooooooooooooo she wanted Tom to use his demon powers to shoot it instead! He refuses as it’s just a harmless bird and is disappointed that it’s the only reason she called him to hang out (besides, he went through character development). “We all have a purpose, Tom”. Well what’s your purpose Janna? Huh!? Did Daron read my reviews and pointed that out to me on why I kept saying what’s Janna’s purpose? 🤔.

Janna gets upset with Tom over it and throws his compact in the boot when he tries to rat her out to Star. The crow takes the boot, wow! Strange crow! Is this how Mewman crows are? But Janna won’t let him have (and Tom won’t “let him have it” either) and clings onto the boot as he flies away with it. The crow then drops the boot and Janna, but Tom swoops in and Superman rescues her. Okay, yeah, that’s a little Jantom tease for the fans, I get it, I get it. There was no moment as Janna points out their prioritizes for the getting their stuff and so they follow the bird. Back with Star, the MHC finally get their a**es in and Star gets into a fight with Rhombulus when he tells her to put away her compact which she refuses (what happened to their friendship back in ��Crystal Clear”? Oh wait! I remember now, “Swim Suit” happened (hisses through grind teeth)). They tell Eclipsa that there’s a dark magic force in the Monster Temple they’re sensing and they automatically assume it’s her doing it and want her to stop...............that’s it!? That’s what the “emergency” meeting was for!? Pointing out the obvious! HELLO! Mewni to MHC! Eclipsa always uses dark magic. What’s next!? There’s a hybrid in the house!? Oh wait, THAT’S METEORA! Ugh! How aggravating! Glossaryck, just fire them already, will ya!

Jantom follow the crow to the ruins of Butterfly Castle where again Janna tries to get Tom to just shoot the damn bird already, but he still refuses, so Janna just goes to get the job done herself, but the crow suddenly turns into a huge hammer beaked fiend! Hold up! That crow is magic!? WTF!? This freaks out even Janna! Tom swoops in again and sacrifices his compact and saves Janna (awesome moment there). He finally shoots the f***ing bird, but it only leaves a scar on its eye, so they just do what’s logical.RUN! In the end, Star was glad Tom actually now “has a life”. I knew damn well that was Mina’s crow now she’s up to something and I think that’ll be in “Cornonation” too. Don! Don! Don!

No sparks between the two in this ep, but at least they still worked together and had some fun. I think I now know what Janna’s purpose is now...............................she’s there to make Starco happen! Think about it! In “Out of Business” she made a second “Baby Marco with wheels for hands” for her, in “Curse of the Blood Moon”, she had used hypnosis to get Marco to stop eating nachos to have a fit body for Star and now she’s trying to get Tom to realize he can be happy without Star! Honestly, I read a fan mention it and I think it’s subtly said. Janna seems “Anti-Tomstar” from what I saw, but that’s either cuz Tom wasn’t listening to her on the whole “No Star” rule or she’s not big on fluffy romance. She kept telling Tom to get a life! And she’s right! He needs to get a life! Ever since we first saw him in the show, he’s main character trait was “Get Star back!” and when he got her back, he was “Star minded”! Guy has no other priorities, but Star this and Star that, Star, STAR, STAR! F***ING ENOUGH ALREADY! I’m not saying Tomstar should end (even if it might be foreshadowed), I’m just so glad Janna’s the only one with balls in the show to slap some sense in Tom! (maybe even physically do it too please) I actually like her more now cuz of that! Okay, maybe I’m being too harsh, I mean, Tom said he doesn’t have any friends from “Friendenemies” and cuz he had anger issues, but now that he has some friends like Marco and Janna and learned to control his demons, it still isn’t enough for him to get him to shut up about Star :P. And I guess he did do some things without Star before like get rid of his anger issues (“Demoncism”) and playing video games (“Naysayer”), but it just didn’t seem like it was enough, you know? Janna’s doin’ just fine on her own and doesn’t rely on someone to seek validation and Tom needs to learn that! She’s got friends in Jackie, Marco, Star and she has tons of hobbies so she’ll never be bored. She don’t need no significant other and if she does, least she has life! With the MCH, I don’t know how deep they have those poles up their a**es, but they need to start showing their new queen some respect and not wasting her time with nonsense with the obvious and going through a meeting to explain that. I’m sure it was probably cuz of what happened in “Swim Suit” with Rhombulus and that Eclipsa’s Pro-Monster. For the unknown dark magic force, they said the dark magic wasn’t from Glossaryck or Star, Eclipsa and Meteora, but they still assume they’re aware and behind it. Is it Mina? But she’s in Butterfly Castle! Speak of the devil, I’m tots positive she’ll be in the “Cornonation” ep cuz like I said in the last review, it’s half hour, so we’ll get plenty of action shots from her in her giant knight armor trying to annihilate Eclipsa. Wonder how she’ll be defeated? Mina I mean, not Eclipsa! Lol! Will she be redeemed? Killed off? Taken that steroid spell off her? Who knows?

[tacosandtomcos]

Spoiler Review for The Book Of Spells! pt 1

So how this is going to work is i’m going to list fun little facts about each queen and list a brief view of each section. buckle up, it’s gonna be a LONG post!

And since it got so big, this is gonna be a bit of a parter.

So we’re just doing the first three queens here.

The intro is basically glossaryck treating you like the next queen in his glossaryck way, he explains how he was born, and that he created the high commission to be contact points between the queens and realm of magic.

apparently he was literally made to serve the queens, from the moment he was born he was called to help them.

Also his hair is white because of silkworm slime, which can kill you...

also there was a high commission member we haven’t see before: Reynaldo the bald plate, but we’ll get back to him later.

Skywhynne

Fun Facts:

She didn’t believe in the stump

There were 27 queens before skywynne, so this rule has been going on for a LONG time.

middle name was lavender

they seem to say the first queen had a wand summoned to her because of her magic? But then again, that might just be a tale...

her mom was so eager to give up the throne, skywynne became queen at 17, and now her mom lives in a volcano. :p She literally sucks, she thought a book of fashion was more important to save then the book of spells. (Her name was lyric and she had a broom-wand).

The freaking lucitors pulled down half of mewni’s people into the underworld a century ago.

Her mom brought dragons to her wand ceremony, which destroyed everything. The castle was made of wood, some from the stump, so guess how that went? And the old book was destroyed because of it ( That’s the excuse for why we don’t see those 27 other queens). Skywynne started this new book and the castle we know today was being built.

Her mom made her pick fashion for her people to wear, skywynne literally just flipped and picked something random without a care in the world.

Had a make-up wand ceremony with just her parents.....on top of the destroyed castle.

her wand crystal is the clock’s face, and the ringing can be heard by certain creatures.

I think her mom was trying to set her up with Dip Kelpbottom but she just spent a ton of time using magic to kick them out. When she realized time was repeating herself and this was why, it’s what triggered her time powers. She used this to trick everyone into thinking they were building the castle in a day, which was actually 5 YEARS.

She really hated her mom pushing dudes on her, used it to fuel her magic XD

Made food with magic, it literally rained from the sky.It got to a point where it felt like the people of mewni only liked her for making them food to her. . Eventually she stopped doing so which lead to corn. Which scattered more monsters from their homes and made room for crops so her people could feed themselves and the population doubled.

Deleted gravity once.

Invented star’s lasso spell, warnicorn stampeade, and of course the time spell she ended up using.

Opened pandora’s box.

Raised the dead from the underworld for fun. Apparently zombies don’t eat brains but clown zombies do.

Only guy she liked was Sir Gem-Robin, failed to talk to him for four years when he got a gf. Which leads to -

Blew up a dimension using the spell star used to destroy toffee to take out her anger. (Apparently mewni is earth, just you know..another dimension of it). This was how she first dipper down, being pissed at her crush.

when the population doubled they took away more and more monster territory for them to live in, also teaching her people to fight.

She built a school whose title is clearly based off professor Xavier’s school from the X-Men.

After sir gem-robin got divorced, they got together. Also they eloped in a rock dimension surrounded by worms she saved from the dimension she destroyed.

She thought the fire killed gloss by he just spent all those years in the new book eating or on a trip. He has pet bugs living in the book. Skywynne is fond of bugs tho. Jushtin was two by this point and solaria was not even a twinkle in her eye yet, gloss was surprised she had a boy.

Skywynne saw great potential in jushtin, and let him hold her wand at times, thought he’d be a mighty magic wielder and a mighty ruler like her.

Gloss turned rhombulus’s hands into snakes to teach him a lesson....that snakes for hands sucked.

All in all, skywynne was alright, she is rather relatable if you’re one of those people who hate it when your parents pressure you into dating people or get annoyed at people who feel like they use you. She also was the queen that did start a new system and era for mewni.  There’s not a ton to say though she got herself into ALOT of crazy messes on accident.

Jushtin

Jushtin has a new title, he’s no longer “The boy-queen” he’s now known as “The uncalculated”. Not sure what this change was for but it’s not the only change in this book.

Apparently jushtin’s wand is alive.

He likes boy-bands, soda, was friends with a prince called Sazmo, had a crush on his math tutor, oh and we see what may be a spiderbite ancestor in here based on well....the bites. He had a crew which consisted of this spiderbite and his best friend, but also some weird mole man prince and an old man?

Jushtin speaks like he’s some weird gangsta, he has a crew but he spells this like “Tha cru”.  He used “Tha” , “Mah”, “Ma”and “Cur” a lot. And this applies to ALOT of other words he also misspelled because i think he thought it make him sound cool. (He put “Luv u mom” in his intro chapter.).

Wanted to make mewni a destination and put it on the map.

HE USES THE TERM “LIT” OMG.

Jushtin cares about cool cars that make him and his crew cool.

Made a spell to give horses wings? And make your chariot comfy? The punchline is, he literally does the same movement on all his spells.

Him being a math expert is no joke, despite his weird lingo he actually went through the effort to consider the math needed for the horses to lift the carriage.

His mom left him a note letting him know he left the book in a place filled with horse poop. Gloss was scarred for life. His mom wasn’t happy with him and wanted him to take better care of it.

His mom woke him in the middle of the night to let him know he was going to be having a sister and she was gonna take the wand and book. Y’know, considering they live in a matriarchy. Jushtin words this in a way that implies his mom was really sad about this, but she actually was SUPER happy about it. Jushtin pretended she was “Masking the pain” by jumping up and down and being excited.

Jushtin’s chapter was “Understandably since he was queen for like. a year”, short. I’m actually a bit sad we can’t see more but then again his lingo is so ridiculous i got no idea with him. It’s actually really funny for him to speak this way and sound like he’s trying to be a cool gang member, while also speaking math like a genuis. Weird mix.

Jushtin is arguably the most innocent queen in this book, he had no affect on the monsters and though he was very irresponsible i feel bad for him since it’s clear he REALLY wanted to be a ruler.

i actually feel slightly bad also cause it kinda seems like his mom had solaria simply because she lost faith in her son to literally do anything. But then again i dunno how serious he took being ruler based on his short chapter.

Solaria

She speaks like you’d think she’d speak, like a warrior.

Has the same millhorse her mom had so i guess these three shared the same horse.

Solaria made an INDEX on her chapter to see all of her entries. Her chapter could be it’s own book.

Saw monsters this way, why respect them when they don’t respect us? Queens need to expand their reach regardless what the monsters think. She also thought they were jealous and wanted their power.

She thought the past queens let the monsters get away with too much, decided to take this into her own hands. She wanted the monsters right under her thumb and wiped away from the land.

Alphonse the worthy and her tried peace, but war was inevitable when monsters attacked some of their bases. Alphonse was the secretary of the monster peace council.

She met with her council, Alphonse and hekapoo being involved, and they declared war. (Some of these members may be past royals of other kingdoms).

Solaria was losing until she decided they needed a new kind of warrior to drive the monsters back. She found some old spells from the old book  and from old tomes and came up with a solution. She wanted to create a superpowered magical army. (Basically she wanted to make super-soldiers).

Had peasants volunteer for the experimentation of these spells as she learned to weave them together to make her army. These soldiers were called Solarians.

Mina was the first to volunteer to be one. She is endowed with a weapon as powerful as solaria’s wand and it’s terminal to monsters. She became solaria’s most trusted solarian and her age seems to be result of this experimentation. (Not sure about her mind tho?)

Solaria was already allied with the ponyheads by this point, not so much the lucitors yet.

The solarians were successful in driving the monsters back. and they celebrated by burning the dead monsters on a pyre. (This book gets dark).

Soalrias had literally no interest in having a king, so it was just her and eclipsa.

Eclispa ran off to meet a young globgor and solaria thought he kidnapped her (Best way to meet your future in-law). Eclispa hid alot in the caslte and she begged her mom to talk to him but well..solaria of course thinks he’s a slobbering monster who will hurt her. Solara thought she snuck out to find her, but it’s clear she snuck out to see him. She also thinks eclipsa’s sad reaction is because she almost died...and not because she missed globgor and that he might’ve almost died.

Solaria gushes about eclipsa ALOT, about how smart she is and precious she is.

this chick literally has a page on how to kill monsters. The funny thing about his page is these SAME monsters are from eclipsa’s monster dating page, but here they are depicted WAY more evily then eclipsa’s chapter, which probably drew them more accurately. She also thinks they are happier dead, and would advice killing a frog man by cutting him in pieces. (She has no idea how to handle the lizard men properly cause eclipsa figures that out after she’s dead)

She sarcastically “Thanks” rhombulus for crystalizing her mewmans on accident. And provides a way to avoid dealing with that.

Though she was already friends with the ponyheads, she, alphonse, jushtin, and hekapoo worked together to make an alliance with the lucitors and ponyheads to help them in the war. This was successful and was the start of the lucitor-butterfly-ponyhead alliance. This helped them draw the monsters into the woods.

She had NO respect for the monsters, and would not ceasefire for them, she literally wanted to murder them all. She was going to make her wand a super weapon. 

Monsters fights lessened and her talents became less needed. She couldn't get her wand to become a super weapon and she felt like a failure.

She and gloss did not get along, she hated that he was apolitical and suspects he disliked her refusal to ceasefire on the monsters and kept the war going. Solaria thought the monsters would never stop till they took over and made them their slaves.

She kept a drawing eclipsa did at age 7 for her through the whole war as a token.

After her failure on that spell she decided eclipsa should now have the book.

So yeah, solaria has alot on the monster-mewman conflict and has a bunch of lore to think about. We know know why mina is so powerful, though not why she’s crazy. Though i wonder what happened to the other solarians?

And yes, she’s vicious about the monsters during a time of war. And this chapter has a lot of very dark implications and thoughts.

She does very much love eclipsa though, and adored her with all her heart. She seemed to love all her family an awful lot, never spoke bad about any of them.

Alphonse is important, because he’s actually the captain on star’s wall. I’m not kidding, he’s the SAME GUY.

and keep this in mind cause i’m gonna get back to that in-

PART 2!!

Yeah this post is getting so long we’re gonna have to split this review in a bunch of different sections.

But be patient with me, it’ll be worthwhile as we move onto eclipsa.

[hana-bby]

A pic of baby lillith! Tom is super sentimental and thinks the world of his kids. Because of this there’s a ton of paintings and pictures of baby lillith and Cain in the lucitor kingdom. Click for better quality ✌️ 

[stassendesigns]

In Makanshokus au who do you think would take the throne of mewni? I know I can’t straight up ask since they won’t respond but I wanna chat

Mmmm well anon, I think that Lilith would be the next one to be Queen, even after Bella’s true identity will be found out.

Lilith is the first and only child of the union of Tom and Star, the royal couple of Mewni. Tom and Star got together (with a push from the MHC) in order to solidify the union between two kingdoms as well as to help the monster/mewman racism (?) , as well as marrying two royals together instead of Star marrying a commoner (as if I remember correctly in Makanshoku’s AU, Marco’s status as a commoner (non-royal) is a worse variable for a next gen child to have instead of a next gen with monster/demon genetics). But Lilith is the child of the union between two kingdoms, and therefore as to not upset or violate the treaty between the Lucitors (monsters/demons) and the Butterflys (Mewmans) the legitimate child would sit on the throne, not someone who is technically illegitimate/a bastard (Bella). Although, people with anti monster/demon propaganda would probably rally behind Bella cause racism might be worse than classism?

Take for example in the A Song Of Ice And Fire series, Robert’s next in line was Joffery as he was the oldest trueborn (legal) male. Robert had a ton of children older than Joffery (Mya, Gendry and Bella to name a few) but Joffery was the next in line, bypassing is older “half” siblings as he was legitimate. This is put in place as to honour the union between the two houses and I think this would also apply to Bella’s situation (and if I remember correctly, Star and Marco weren’t married before, but even if they were, my original point/comparison still stands)

Then again, it is an Alternative Universe created by Makanshoku, and honestly anything goes, they can put Bella in Mewni and Lilith in the Underworld, Lilith in Mewni and Bella just stays by her side, anything goes because it is their AU. Heck, its possible that neither Lilith or Bella end up on the throne

[autisticheadcanons]

I believe Star Butterfly and Tom Lucitor from Star VS The Forces of Evil are both autistic. Star is very energetic and stims by doing spells & echolalia. She's very hyperempathetic, but hyposensitive. Tom makes tons of planning and routines. He must finish his plans and make sure everything goes correctly. He tries to think of everything that could happen, but when something outside of what he thought of happens, he gets very angry. Unfortunately his best stim is destroying things & making fire.

[sillyanddefeated]

Yay! This is one of the drawings I’ve been working on more recently! And it’s a fanchild character between Star Butterfly and Tom Lucitor!!!

Now before you say anything, I know there’s like a ton of fanchild characters out for this couple already, but I really wanted to take a crack at it myself because I thought it’d be fun, you know? I also really ship StarTom.

Her name is Nova Lucitor Butterfly. I was really torn between the name Nova, Galaxia, and Astraya, but ended up sticking with Nova. If I have the time, and keep up my motivation, I might even draw a tapestry version of her, complete with a little poem!! So excited lol I’m thinking her titles, which goes with her tapestry might be Nova the Obscure, but I’m still thinking about that.

I might have to redesign her though, considering the goat legs and whatever. I added the goat legs after finding out that Tom’s mom, Wrathmelior, has hooves as feet, but I was looking back earlier today and she has hooves, but not he fur or the second bend that makes a goats legs. So I’m gonna have to go take care of that, but I was so close to finishing this piece that I just decided to post this.

With the finale for SVTFOE having let out already, I’m also hoping to get more fan art done for this series. It really deserves it. Thanks for looking! Expect more art.

- G.R.V.