Lately, things have been changing. Adventure Time, Legend of Korra, Friendship is Magic and others are changing the landscape. TV animation is now capable of great characters, stories and even subtext. And that brings us to Star vs the Forces of Evil. It recently premiered on Disney, but it will be a while before we get another episode, giving us just two short stories to speculate on. So, let's start speculating.
I could talk about the creator, or how it has great animation and theme music, but others have brought that up. I want to talk about the subtext. Spoiler alert. The show is about a girl being unable to control her sexuality. That's right, I said it. I don't have a problem with this. In fact, I give the creators credit for making such a bold choice. Sure it won't dawn on the kids watching it now until they are much older. I can see them having a forehead-slapping moment.
The show starts off with the precocious voiceover of Princess Star as she receives the Royal Septer on her 14th birthday. This is followed by a smash cut of her nearly destroying the city with its uncontrolled power. This begs the question, why give her the Septer is she's not ready for it? They answer this in the voiceover, "they have to". PaleoSterno called this a flaw in the show. But we both know the creators are too smart for that. The reason they have to give her the power is because it's not really a magic wand, it's her budding adulthood.
"But Mike!" you say. "There are lots of shows about the fear of growing up and life changes. Just look at Steven Universe." Very true, but there is other evidence that points to this being about her sexuality in particular. It's not about her learning to drive or something--they would have made Star 16 instead of 14. The age they chose is a good median time for a girl to reach puberty. When she first shows that she can't handle her new power her first thought is that she will be sent to "St. Olga's School for Wayward Princesses". This is obviously either an all-girls Catholic School or an outright Convent. It's exactly the kind of place parents would send their daughter if they suspected she could not handle her newfound powers of procreation.
They don't send her their, obviously. They send her to Earth. Here she can engage is all sorts of quirky misunderstandings. They pair her up with Marco, a "Safe" boy. Yes, they use that word. Marco is just the type of boy parents can have around their daughter without fear. He's a passive B-type personality. No testosterone to be seen. I love Marco. He's a great character--a B-type personality living in a world where A-type personalities are given all the fame and fortune. He is conscious of this and doesn't want to be left out. There is so much potential for this character.
Back to Star. There is one last clue that shows the subtext. It's the wand itself. I'm not going to go into the irony of a woman's sexuality being represented by a wand. I'm just going to say that if you observe closely, you will see that the wand has the power of creation only. They say that is has destructive power in the wrong hands, but the wand only creates things. Rainbows, puppies, narwhals, monster butterflies--these are all acts of creation. It never "zaps" anything or blows it up. Granted, it creates thing that light themselves on fire, but that is still a form of creation. This is much like a girl gaining the ability to create new human life when she reaches puberty.
Is this going to be a show about a girl discovering her body during puberty? No. That's the subtext. This is a show about friendship. Star really needs a safe boy to be her friend. Marco really needs an A-type personality around to learn from. We need more shows that emphasize the value of friendship and how its not just a consolation prize for not winning romance.
Or maybe I'm wrong. Either way, it will be a while before we see more of this show.
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